City Council - Regular Meeting

Thank you. Our invocation will be done by Pastor Laney McKee from the Church of Jesus Christ, Latter-day Saints. And Councilmember Lee, will you please lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance?

Our Father in heaven, we're grateful to bow our heads before thee at the beginning of this Hesperia City Council meeting. Father, we are grateful for this opportunity that we have to meet and discuss the needs and affairs of the Hesperia City. We ask thee for thy guiding influence that the decisions and discussions that will be made this evening will be done according to thy will, that it will be for the betterment of all citizens of Hesperia. Father you ask a blessing to be upon those all those who are participating in today's evening tonight's evening That thy spirit will we be with them and and provide peace and comfort father we're grateful to live in this great nation to have the freedoms that we enjoy. We ask a blessing to be upon our servicemen and first responders. We're grateful for them, for their sacrifice and their dedication to country and selfless service. And these things we say in the name of thy son, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Can we have a roll call, please?

Mayor Bennington?

Here.

Mayor Pelton-Poland?

Here.

Council Member Gregg?

Here.

Council Member Lee? Here. Council Member Cella?

Here.

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

Yes, Madam Mayor. Item 4 is being pulled from the agenda and will be brought back to a future agenda. And then there's also a green change to Item 16, the operating budget.

Okay, thank you. Moving on to closed session, I'm sorry, are there any reports from closed session?

No reportable actions.

Thank you. Moving on to general public comments, we will start with voicemail number one, please.

John Munson, and I'm representing the Sierra Club. Our San Gregorio chapter covers Hesperia and other Victor Valley communities. I recognize that you have a signed non-binding agreement with Fenner Gap, which was established by Cadiz Inc., to provide you with water. Given that you still have decisions to make, I thought you might appreciate an update on how Cadiz is doing. It has been a very challenging last two years for them, and things are not going particularly well. In late April, the prestigious Zacks Investment Research Firm changed its rating of Cadiz stock to a strong sell, their worst possible rating. Zacks gives Cadiz a value score of F, a growth score of F, and a momentum score of D. It says it has entered the probable bankruptcy zones. In early April op-ed, in early April op-ed, the chairman of the Chambawavee Indian Tribe and the Fort Mojave Indian Tribe Published a scathing editorial opposing the Cadiz water mining project, declaring that the scheme would quote irreparably harm our people, our way of life and our traditions. These tribes are located on the traditional territory that covers the Cadiz project. The Cadiz losing streak goes back to December 2024 when the California State Lands Commission voted unanimously 3-0 to reject Cadiz's request for a pipeline lease. Commission chair and state controller Malia Cohen cited the company's financial instability, mounting debt, and lack of transparency. Her words were direct. Quote, we have no assurance that the project, which appears to be the only potential revenue source for this company, will ever come to fruition. And so I'm not willing to gamble with a taxpayer's money. Close quote. Given the many regulatory and financial hurdles facing Cadiz, there is no reason to believe that their mythical northern pipeline will ever carry anything but hot air. In late 19, excuse me, late 2025, the Arizona Water Infrastructure Finance Authority rejected a proposal from Cadiz to import water from California to Arizona, citing concerns over the project's reliability and sustainability. Cadiz had represented its project as being shovel-ready. Arizona didn't think it was. SB 307 was signed into law in 2019. It is clear the water can be taken from a desert aquifer in the southern Mojave unless the state lands commission in concert with the Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Department of Water Resources finds that the extraction will not harm natural and cultural resources. It has to prove that its project is harmless. There's no possibility it can do that. Cadiz has recently boasted about being invited to apply for a $194 million loan interest loan from the Water Infrastructure Finance Act. That would all be well and good, but they need to meet several criteria in order to actually receive the money. They need to prove they're operational, which means they have to pass the SB 303.

Thank you, and I neglected to have Jessica read the Brown Act, if you could please for me. I apologize to the audience.

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

Thank you.

Moving back to public comment, Mr. Andrew Coleman, please.

Good evening. Mayor, member of the council, my name is Andrew Coleman and I'm the business agent with Teamsters Local 1932. I'm here this evening on behalf of the members of Teamsters Local 1932 who proudly serve this city and the community every day. I would like to address the ongoing bargaining process and proposals being made on behalf of members of Teamsters Local 1932. It is important to recognize that many of the items being proposed during negotiations are not new, unusual, or unreasonable benefits. In many cases, they are provisions that the city has already chosen to provide to nonrepresented employees. Members of Teamsters Local 1932 are not seeking special treatment. They are seeking fair and equitable treatment. When the city extends certain compensations, healthcare, leave, or workplace benefits to non-represented employees while resisting similar provisions from members of Teamsters Local 1932, it creates disparity among employees who are all working towards the same goal of serving our community. These differences can negatively affect morale, create perceptions of inequity, and make it more difficult to recruit and retain qualified employees. The City's actions demonstrate that it has already determined these benefits and workplace practices are valuable and appropriate for its workforce. The question before us is why members of Teamsters Local 1932 should be treated differently when the requested benefits and protections that the City has already deemed reasonable for other employees. Good faith bargaining should include a serious evaluation of whether members of Teamsters Local 1932 are being afforded opportunities and benefits that are consistent with those provided elsewhere within the organization. Seeking alignment with existing city practices is a reasonable objective and should not be viewed as extraordinary request. I respectfully urge the council to provide the necessary bargaining authority and discretion and direction to pursue equitable outcomes that promote consistency across the workforce. Members of Teamsters Local 1932 deserve the same consideration and respect that the city has already extended to nonrepresented employees. A commitment to fairness, consistency, and equity strengthens employees' trust, improves morale, and demonstrates that all employees are valued regardless of their classification or bargaining status. Members of Teamsters Local 1932 are not asking for more than what others receive. They are asking for the same fairness and consideration the city has already determined is appropriate for non-represented employees. Thank you for your time and consideration. And direction to your bargaining staff. Thank you.

Thank you. Robert Davey, please.

Good evening, Council. As you know, again, I'm running for District 4 this year. A lot of things that are important to me and on my agenda are roads, public safety, animal shelter, quality of life, and lack of medical facilities. I want to talk about a couple of those today. The animal shelter... Romina, I've talked to her a few times, she's doing a good job, she just needs some more support. We have a tragic situation going on over there right now with the cats, you're probably aware, and there's a virus going through there, and so I would plead with you guys to direct any support or resources you can towards this. As you know, I lost, and with my neighbor, we lost a lot of cats a couple years, three years ago to that Panleukopenia virus. So it's a dangerous virus. It lasts way longer than COVID. It lasts on a surface about a year. Hard to get rid of, I understand that, but we need some help over there. Rhodes, thank you for doing Maple. I don't understand the process. your uh... workout cutting out the corners as our first process and had a chance to talk to cassandra about it where we can have the corners so widely as a so the people are doing the burnouts could go on two wheels now uh... i've been pleading with you guys for years to let's fix topaz and maine the most dangerous intersection of his period my opinion as narrow And any of you are welcome to come out and let's look at it. I'll show you. When you make the turn from Main Street onto Topaz, you cannot make that turn almost without hitting the cars lining up for a left turn. Not that I use Topaz a lot coming from the north side, You want to delay to let the red light runners go through, which are now semis. Now, if you get hit by a semi coming through a red light, you're done. You are dead. And semis are going through those red lights on Main Street consistently. I've sat there and watched it. So you delay a couple seconds to come through Topaz, come through Main Street, rather, onto Topaz. The cars start turning in front of you because there's no left turn light. I was promised a left turn light on Topaz over two years ago. I know they said that they don't know who it was. It was whoever was in charge of lights who said he came from the water department. He says, I have the finances. We're going to get him on Topaz, 11th, and Cottonwood. These are important issues. We need left turn lights there. You ever been on Topaz and watched the amount of left turns? They're lined up trying to make the turn. Then if you have a trailer coming onto Topaz from Main Street, you're in trouble because you can't make that turn. A semi waiting there has to wait until all the cars clear on the left lane to wait to turn left. Difficult. So we need public safety. We need more police, obviously. We need more money. But it's all encompassing. We need more 911 response. When I called for my wife, 911, I got put on hold. That's unacceptable. We need to address some of these issues. Thank you.

Angelio.

Good afternoon. I thank you for giving me the opportunity to come in and speak. This was in regards to the enforcement we had a while back. I believe it was called Operation Consequences. I'd like to really thank the officers for that. It really scared a lot of people and kept them in the house for a little bit. And then recently, for the past long weekend we had, we also had them patrolling for the OHV. They did a fantastic job in our neighborhood. We kind of felt bad for a certain incident they encountered with a very angry parent, but the officers were professional, they showed restraint, I guess it got bad enough that the OHV officers had to call additional support because those family members were very irate. But a lot of people in the neighborhood had noticed that there was a group running stop signs the whole day. And what happens in that situation, the person gets hurt or hurt someone else, and who do they blame? You guys or the police for not doing the job? They did their job, they did it professionally, and again, they showed restraint. So I'd like to really thank you guys and the police department for putting that together. And another thing we've noticed, they have been a lot in our neighborhood, which we really need, but I guess, I mean, the word spreads. So once they leave, everyone is not on their best behavior. So another issue I would like to address is there are states, but surprisingly in Orange County, they have been using the Parent Accountability Act. in where the child or the teenager is not behaving or obeying the laws, well now it's the parent on the hook. I think we need that up here, not only for that group, but also we need to do something about the shoplifting. Last Friday, we were at the local Walgreens in line paying for our stuff, and the cashier noticed that there was a gentleman that came in, filled up his shopping cart, and calmly walked out. And the manager came out and noticed that, hey, I seen that guy come in, did he come and pay for it? Obviously not. My wife and I second that. But his exact words were, we can't do nothing about it. That needs to change. That needs to change.

Thank you. Thank you. Dottie Roundtree, please.

Good evening, Mayor and members of the City Council. Thank you for this opportunity to speak with you tonight. I'd like to introduce to you an organization that's very near and dear to my heart, JustServe. JustServe is a simple but powerful tool that connects people who want to do good and volunteer with organizations that need help. At its core, Just Serve is about strengthening communities, and it's already making a difference right here in Hesperia. We currently have dozens of local service opportunities listed from organizations serving in our community, helping them connect with willing volunteers. Coming up this July 14th, Hesperia will have an America 250 Just Serve food truck deliver 40,000 pounds of shelf-stable food to the High Desert Second Chance Food Bank. In every city, there are non-profits, schools, churches, and civic groups doing important work, feeding families, mentoring youth, supporting seniors, and improving neighborhoods. At the same time, there are many residents that want to help but don't always know where to start. JustServe bridges that gap. Through a free and easy platform, organizations can post volunteer needs and residents can quickly find opportunities that match their interests, schedules, and skills. There are no costs to the city, to non-profits, or to the volunteers. What makes JustServe especially impactful is what happens when a city embraces it. When a city becomes a JustServe city, it sends a clear message that service matters here, that we are a community that shows up for one another. There are already hundreds of cities across the country, including Los Angeles and Westminster, that have seen meaningful benefits from this partnership. Cities that have partnered with JustServe often experience increased voluntary engagement, stronger collaboration among organizations, and greater visibility for the good work already happening locally. It doesn't replace what it's doing, it amplifies it. Becoming a just serve city is simple. It begins with Hesperia issuing a proclamation of service and that's it. From there, the city is recognized as a just serve city and presented with a just serve city award. Tonight, I'd like to invite Hesperia not only to continue using just serve as a resource for volunteerism, but to take the next step and become a just serve city. The result is a stronger, more connected community. A city where needs are met faster, where organizations feel supported, and where residents experience a deeper sense of belonging and purpose. We would love to partner with you in this effort. Together we can make it easier for every person in this community to find a way to serve, and in doing so, build a culture of connection, compassion, and action. Thank you for your time, and I'll be happy to answer any questions that you have.

Thank you. Do we have Ms. Roundtree's contact information? Okay, thank you. Thank you very much. Ken Adderson, please.

Good evening council members and city staff. First I'd like to thank Dottie for coming and helping me with introducing the Just Serve program. We are really excited that we were a part of helping to pinpoint Hesperia's Second Chance Food Bank. Of course, they serve here in Hesperia and also other high deserts. They call them the food bank for all food banks. So a full truckload of products given to them. I sent an invitation to city staff, and I would love to have representation there when we do that donation. It was 100 years ago, July of 1926, that the Mormon Tabernacle Choir first sang at the Hollywood Bowl to an audience of over 15,000 in its audience. In commemoration of this historic milestone, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Choir and Orchestra will be returning to the Hollywood Bowl on June 24th and 25th. This centennial anniversary, Songs of Hope is a benefit concert. So this humanitarian effort where every dollar of Hollywood Bowl tickets sold goes directly to global charities like CARE, Helen Keller International, and Hunger Projects, with the church also donating a matching 100% of all ticket revenues to support women and children worldwide. The Hesperia congregations of the church has rented a giant 25-foot outdoor screen and professional sound system so that we can host our own outdoor watch party of the Tabernacle Choir Songs of Hope on Friday, June 26th. It starts at 6 p.m. with a light dinner, and then we will honor some of our local volunteers who bring hope to the city. with certificates of appreciation given to members of the Hesperia Citizens on Patrol. At 7 o'clock, we will rebroadcast the Tabernacle Choir concert at the Hollywood Bowl, with guest performances from major artists Donny Osmond, David Foster, Katrina McFree, Stephanie Block, Sebastian Arcielis, and the Bonner family. The watch party will be in the parking lot of our Maple Chapel at 10862 Maple Avenue, just one mile north of the high school. Be prepared because it's outdoor. Bring your own camping chairs, maybe some waters and snacks. Come meet your neighbors, honor our local volunteers, and enjoy a beautiful night of music under the stars. Friday, June 26th, 6 p.m., outdoor watch party with the Tabernacle Choir, Songs of Hope concert at the Hollywood Bowl. Thank you.

Gina, please.

Sorry, I forgot to put my last name. Good evening, how are you guys? Anyway, I'm here actually on positive terms today. I just wanted to say thank you for the city and the shelter for their transparency. Apparently, the community, we have a lot of stray cats and kittens and all that, and people are bringing in sick animals. And I went there today and there were signs saying, please see a staff member. If you have a sick animal, please talk to somebody here. And it was posted on social media, a big old thing to explain. And I think that's very awesome. It's about time there's a little bit of transparency. That's great. I do feel that the staff there, and especially Romina Gonzalez, who is running the show there, outside of whoever controls it at City Hall. It's doing a phenomenal job in doing her best, and I would hope that the city manager and Melinda Sayer would continue to support her. Another thing, the TNR program, the Spay and Neuter program, I know there was a mention of the PAW mission, coming up here for the residents? Any word on that, or did I misunderstand it? I don't know, I mean, I haven't seen anything posted, and a lot of people in the community are looking for spay and neuter for their animals, especially the cat people. You know, it's costly, but a lot of people do pay out of pocket, you know, because they want to contribute and, you know, get things under control too. But I just wanted to say thank you for the transparency and just giving a heads up to the community on social media that if you have a sick animal, you know, go and talk to a staff member and then take it from there. But... Just thank you again. It's a little step and it's awesome. So hopefully there will be more in the future and we can get the shelter back to betterness because it still needs help, but that's a plus. And if somebody could please check into the spay and neuter with the PAW mission, that would be awesome too. Thank you. Thank you.

Do we have any additional comment cards?

No more comment cards.

Thank you. Moving on to our joint consent calendar, pulling item four. Do I have a motion to move the consent? I have a motion by Council Member Ochoa. Do I have a second? Council Member Lee, can we have a vote please?

Motion passes 5-0.

Thank you. Moving on to our public hearing item. Item 13.

Good evening, Mayor and members of the Council. Tonight we are presenting the Hesperia Water District's 2025 Urban Water Management Plan. This plan is required by the state of California every five years and serves as a long-range planning document that evaluates our current and future water demands, water supplies, conservation efforts, and water shortage contingency planning. I am joined this evening by Greg Young with Sanjero, who assisted the district with preparation of the plan and will be providing an overview of its key components and findings. Following the presentation, staff will be requesting that the City Council adopt Resolution 2026-07, accepting the District's 2025 Urban Water Management Plan.

Thank you, Jeremy. Good evening, members of the council. Appreciate the opportunity to be here. My name is Greg Young, one of the principals at Zan Harrow. I would also like to give a big shout out to staff within our organization, especially Adriel Ramirez, who is also available listening remotely, who helped prepare a lot of this plan. We're going to walk through some presentation material. I am happy to take questions in the middle if you want and discuss any of it at the end, however you want to handle the conversation. So let's walk through some slides. First off, this document is actually part of a regional urban water management plan. This is the first effort for all of the retail water suppliers in the Mojave region to prepare one joint plan along with Mojave Water Agency acting as a wholesale agency. So the document you will be adopting is inclusive of all of the other nine retail entities that are triggered, plus you as a retail entity triggered by state code to prepare this plan, plus Mojave Water Agency, all combined into one document. And we'll explain more of that as we go through this. So we're gonna touch on some general requirements, the urban supplier, service area information. You can see the list of things we'll go through over here. So first, what are the requirements of an urban plan? This is a state requirement every five years for you to evaluate near-term, mid-term, and long-term water supply and demand conditions to help you assess your situation and your readiness to be able to serve your customers now and into the future. The law requires you to look 20 years ahead. We do these plans for 25 years. That gives a good coverage for the gap between the next five year cycle. There's a discussion about service area, supply characterization, population and demand projections, and most importantly, assessment of reliability. So this is, again, all spelled out in the California Water Code, and we are following those requirements of the code. This ultimately must be submitted to the Department of Water Resources by July 1st. So the Regional Urban Water Management Plan, as I noted, this is a first of doing this. It includes all of these entities together. So for those who may not be fully aware, the other retailers include the City of Adelanto, City of Victorville, Joshua Basin Water District, High Desert Water District, Phelan, Pinion Hills, Community Service District, Golden State out in Barstow, Liberty in Apple Valley, and finally two county districts that all meet the qualifications to prepare an urban water management plan. That would be County 64J and County District 70. The intent of bringing all this together in a regional is provided financial savings to all the retail providers and also gives a common characterization of the conditions of water supply in the region, especially since this is one large, generally large shared aquifer. Is my sound coming through all right? It seems like it's cutting out on my end, but I'm not sure. So we're good? All right. Thank you. So the structure of this document, the entirety of the document is 702 pages. So Mojave Water Agency itself next week will be adopting a 702 page document. It is laid out in this manner. You are adopting chapters one through six and your specific retail chapter, which is chapter 11 and your associated appendices. And we'll touch on that a bit more here. This is the structure of it. So chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 are regional in nature. So they essentially are a roll-up of everything that's happening within the entire boundary of the Mojave Water Agency service area. That is the defined region. chapter six is mojave's discussion about its state water projects supplies and other activities and its infrastructure and essentially covering all of the other small water purveyors and rural uses and industrial and agricultural uses throughout the rest of the region that are not within a retail urban purveyors area then there's several required appendices that go with this so that's why it becomes a very large document this is the first regional plan in the state of california that includes both wholesale and retail parties the others are primarily retail combined together they might have a shared source but they are a bunch of retail agencies so this is the first It's pretty impressive that this has been put together and everybody got together to do this. So a lot of kudos to your water supply staff and folks, Cassandra and Jeremy, and all their hard work on this. So a couple of key things you are defined as a water supplier. You have a permit with the state water resource control board saying you can deliver water. That is your California public water system number on the left. Those are your number of connections as of 2025 that's residential and non-residential connections. Uh, and that is the volume of water you supplied 13,481 acre feet in 2025. People talk about, well, what is an acre foot? Imagine a, probably the best way is you have maybe four houses would use an acre foot of water every year if you were just serving housing. So some service area information. What's really important here is a projection forward, and especially in population. The upper part of the Mojave region, Hesperia, Victorville, Atalanta area, and Apple Valley on the east side of the river are going to see tremendous growth. And in the regional scale, there's probably about 200,000 people expected to be added into this region by 2060. There's a lot of drivers as to when and how that might happen. Hesperia is one of the areas that is taking a lot of that growth. And you see your current population is about 120,000 people and you're expected to get another 30,000 people in the next 20 to 30 years. those representations of population will need water. And so that is all part of what we're looking at here. Is the water available? Can you serve it? Are you reliably able to serve it so you can feel confident being able to help your community grow in both residence and jobs? So your supply characterization, you have a primary source of water is groundwater. Your groundwater is met with two things, nature and supplemented from imported water that Mojave Water Agency brings into the area. Nature in this part of the region is governed by an adjudicated settlement called the Mojave Basin Area Adjudication. That gives you a defined amount of water of that native water. It's called your free pumping allowance, and that is being represented as about 10,700 acre feet a year available to you from the native. If you recall, we had a little over 13,000 acre feet of water you used and delivered this last year. So that difference is made up by water that's been put into the ground through importation from Mojave Water Agency. So that combination of groundwater is a managed groundwater source. It's managed both the part of nature and part imported water from Mojave. So your free pumping, your natural water is about 10,700 acre feet. That number can change based on how the water master acts, but for all intents and purposes, in discussions with the water master, this 50% free pumping allowance is an appropriate representation into the future of what should be available. It's kind of been slowly getting down there, and it's looking to stabilize around that point. So the supply characterization, one of the things that we have to do is look at what water, how much water you're gonna need to produce to meet demand over the next five years. That's a requirement that the state puts forward. And so that water supply, again, is your free pumping allowance, your water acquisitions, which are really that state water project that you're pumping out of the ground that's been put there. And part of that might come from the R3 project, which you are familiar with and get some water from. Part of it comes from your recycled supplies, which are expected to get larger. In fact, I saw on your agenda you have a potential To approve a contract or actually it was on consent I think so you approved a contract for continued wastewater and recycled water master plan So there's an anticipation to grow your little under 400 acre feet of delivery of recycled water right now To as much as 3,000 acre feet in the next 20 to 25 years so that folds into this number excuse me also and And so we see here this production number of up to a little over 14,000. That's about 1,000 acre feet more in the next five years to meet the growth that's projected into the next five years. This is a requirement is to look forward for five years. One of the other requirements is to look all the way out to 2045. We take it to 2050. And you can see in this representation, it actually looks out to 2055. That's the far bottom right hand corner of 16,000 acre feet. So approximately 3,000 acre feet more delivery than you have than you're doing right now. You will be needing in the future. If your free pumping allowance is about the same, then that's additional water you will be acquiring through operations of replacement water, which is water that's been imported and brought in by Mojave Water Agency. So looking to current and projected water use, the projections are informed by your current customer use, regulatory conditions, land use projections, and the growth of population. So we talked about adding people. We look at what your current people use. You have to report to the state every year what you're doing and how much you're using. we can use that to say today's population will continue to use the same amount but tomorrow's population those new houses are driven by new regulation that new regulation is further driving down per capita use or the use per in each house by new fixtures plumbing codes a variety of factors and the state is going to hold you tighter and tighter to what they call an urban water use objective You currently have been meeting that objective. You've been reporting on that objective by January 1 of each of the last three years. It's a new requirement. And you are projected to continue to meet that requirement. But that essentially will drive down your current per capita use so that your current per capita use and your future per capita use will create an average that will be probably around 95 gallons per capita per day. That includes... Taking advantage of everything that's, not advantage, but adding in everything that's non-residential. So a house plus all the non-residential, the commercial, the industrial, the parks and everything gets spread across your population. That's where that number comes from. Your current use is a little over 100 gallons per capita per day. The future projection is in the 70s. You merge those two together, you're going to be in the 90s. Okay. So one of the requirements, again, is to look forward for the next several years for whether your supply is available to meet your demand. Well, because you pump what you need to pump to meet your customers, your demand is your supply. There is no definable surplus. There is, from Mojave's standpoint, they have stored water, which we'll look at in a slide in a minute. So there is water available. If these move faster, demand gets higher, all of that. So the fact that we're putting zeros there doesn't mean you don't have a surplus. There is water available. It's all about how much you use out of the groundwater, whether you exceed your free pumping, by what percent, and how much replacement water you may need to acquire. The water is all there. So the regional picture looks really good, which is the main point of all of this regional urban plan is we can talk about the regional scale of looking reliable into the foreseeable future. The state also requires you to look at a normal year and a dry year out to 2050. And here you see those two representations, but they look exactly the same. In other parts of the state, a dry year might see a demand go up because there's less rain that's used for irrigating outdoor landscapes. You're in the high desert. One, there's not a lot of outdoor landscaping. Two, there's not a lot of rain that's used traditionally to meet that landscaping. If you're in Northern California or somewhere where there's a lot of rain and a lot of lawns, not having rain increases demand. We didn't need to do that here. So we can represent your single dry year and your normal year as the same demand. And again, your supply absolutely matches your demand because you're not going to pump more, so you don't really have a surplus. For comparison, this is a very similar table for the region. notice the numbers get a lot larger i'm going to jump back you see your numbers demand in 14 000 here we see a demand of 121 000 going up to 126 000 in normal years and in dry years you see supply in the upper table 162 to 165 000 and that generates surplus that surplus associates with available state water project water to import to the region that's now decisions and policies that mojave water agency undertakes to see how they bring that in to pre-store water that's a variety of conversations that mojave will also want to continue with you soon as part of a master plan effort that i'm happy to talk with you about if you haven't heard much about the mojave water agency's master plan 2027 it's more of a regional directional master plan as opposed to a traditional infrastructure type master plan. So again, happy to answer that. What's important is look at the single dry year. In that condition, the supply is a lot smaller. Why? Because there's significantly less water predicted to be available from the Delta to bring in in that year. So what happens? We're short. Well, what does that take care of? How do we handle that shortage? There's about 200,000 acre feet of stored groundwater, pre-stored groundwater in this basin. And so that is used to help beat those shortfalls. Again, we end up with a situation of zero deficiencies. That's by design over time within the region to help stabilize everybody in this region. And it's really a matter of how we manage what the water master determines is native water and how Mojave Water Agency imports water to balance out the needs and the wants of all of the retailers and the other users and customers within the entirety of the Mojave region. couple more slides and then we'll be done here long term reliability you're also required by the state to look at five multi year drought. Again, following the same theme you're not going to pump more than your demand is that bottom right hand corner your demand is up to 16,000 acre feet you're going to pump 16,000 acre feet. 10,000 of that will be free pumping the rest will be imported water essentially replacement water. If that goes faster and higher by more growth or slower, those will be the numbers. The state also requires you to readopt or consider to readopt your water shortage contingency plan. You prepared one and adopted it in 2020. And it requires you to set up several stages of conservation and other consideration. Since you are a groundwater dependent retailer, The shortage conditions are a lot different than if you were alive on a stream and diverting on a stream where the hydrology or a snowpack or a stored water supply may significantly affect your ability to have water in a given year. So you've developed this water shortage contingency plan. You have not needed to update it from the last one that you adopted. It is included as one of the appendices in this adoption that is before you later today. There are actions in this to talk about how you're going to do public outreach, how are you going to do messaging, any restrictions to non-essential water use, which are basically standard. Don't wash down driveways and things like that with an open hose. Those kind of restrictions are mandated by the state. They're in your plan. And then there's increased enforcement measures if necessary they aren't going to be necessary again unless Things got really really weird and we had 20 years of no imported water Then we might have some issues, but that's not really projected in any way shape or form And it would be quite the anomaly to ever happen. I um all right so major findings the mojave basin adjudication informs your management mojave water agency determined that there are sufficient supplies for the region and your projected demands are growing with added population However, that's a little slower than projected before. The population isn't moving as fast, and the demands have slowed down. So your demand is actually a little bit less than it has been, which is good. You've added people, but you've stabilized demand. That means per capita has gone down a little bit more. It will continue. There are reliable water supplies available, and that just, again, requires your active management across the year with your free pumping allowance, your replacement water, and the costs associated with those activities. So importantly, you have the water service reliability that is important for your customers in your region throughout the planning horizon out through 2050. So now we can open it to any specific questions or other discussion items.

At this time, I would like to open the public hearing at 718. Do we have any public comment cards regarding this item?

No speaker cards.

Thank you. I will close the public hearing at 718 and 27 seconds and open it up to council questions, please.

Any comments by the council?

Great presentation. That was very interesting. Thank you very much. Appreciate that.

Thank you.

Do I have a motion? I have a motion by Council Member Ochoa, a second by Mayor Potem Polan. Can we have a vote, please? The item passes 5-0. Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Moving on to item 14, new business. Amend the fiscal year 25-26 capital improvement program budget.

Good evening Madam Mayor and Council Members. I'm Tina Souza with the Engineering Division and I'm here this evening to present to you item 14, the Ranchero Road corridor widening project budget amendment. Just a quick overview, I'll be discussing the project status, issues and analysis, budget amendment, and staff recommendation. Currently, South Kern to east of Via Antiqua is under construction with estimated completion the end of December 2026. This includes some of the major components such as bridge removal, which is complete, bridge reconstruction, waterline relocations, roadway reconstruction and widening, installation of a storm drain, and construction of a detention basin. The new construction contract was awarded June 17th, 2025, and during preparation of the fiscal year, 2025-26 capital improvement program budget, staff had some unknowns to face and so there was no clear path for the outcome of the bridge at the time. There were permits that required updating, various plans had to be prepared by the contractor and submitted. Once those submittals were received, they had to be reviewed by the city and other outside agencies. there was no real clear timeline for when construction could begin. So construction actually began with the demolition at the end of January 2026, so there was a six month period of very limited progress on the project. Those budget calculations during preparation of the capital improvement program budget were based on historical project progress and part of those funds were budgeted in the current fiscal year with the remaining funds being budgeted in next fiscal year. And essentially we need some of those funds that were budgeted in next fiscal year moved to this current fiscal year. The progress on the project is far exceeding our expectations currently. The contractor is moving very quickly. They're doing a phenomenal job out there. They're going to reach some major milestones by the end of this current fiscal year that were not anticipated. The demolition, as I previously stated, is complete. The excavation is mostly complete at this point. The bridge support system is near completion, and girder delivery and installation is also anticipated to be done by the end of the fiscal year. So these are phenomenal milestones that have been met. Further, we have to reconcile the grant expenditures to meet grant timeliness. And with the current status of the project, it requires a budget amendment to continue construction through the end of this current fiscal year. Here you'll see a table of the details for the budget amendment request. You'll note that several of those account numbers are actually grant account numbers related to the reconciliation for the grant expenditures with the remaining requests coming from DIF 2018 streets account. The total budget amendment request is $8,424,239. Staff is recommending that the City Council adopt resolution number 2026-21, amending the fiscal year 2025-26 capital improvement budget by appropriating $6,663,865 in Fund 306, which is DIF 2018 streets, as I just previously mentioned. $680,780 in Fund 504, which is the SB1 LPP grant, and $1,079,594 in Fund 504 SB1 formula funds, which is the other SB1 grant. All for the Ranchero Road Corridor Winding Project. This concludes my presentation. I'd be happy to answer any questions.

Council Member Gregg, please.

All right. So I just want to maybe simplify this and make sure that I'm tracking with what you guys are saying here. This isn't an additional expenditure that we weren't expecting. This is because we're ahead of schedule. So essentially next year's budget will calculate this in as well versus spending it for next year. We're spending it now.

Yes, that is correct. Okay.

Thank you.

Council Member Gregg. That is awesome. I drive by that bridge a lot and see the progress and they've done more in six months than we had in three years four years so kudos to you guys um it's an exciting project it's exciting to watch it progress well from the ground up literally so congratulations um great presentation i'm really excited that it's moving so fast it's going to open up ranchero probably maybe before the school year begins, August maybe, but okay, maybe I'm hoping, but if you drive by it or go by it, it's just amazing how quickly this project is moving forward, so appreciate the presentation. Did you have something to say? Go ahead, please.

I just want to say thank you I know this has really been a difficult project to move forward with and I am very pleased with the new contractor and the work they're doing and how much work our city staff has done on this project and I want to say thank you because I know it's not been easy and I appreciate it. So thank you very much.

Thank you. Do we have a motion? A motion by Council Member Lee, a second by Mayor Pro Tem Pullen. Can we have a vote please? The item passes 5-0. Moving on to item 15.

You get me one more time.

Yay.

So I'm also here to present item 15, construction management services agreement amendment for the Ranchero Road Corridor Widening Project. Again, a quick overview. I'll be discussing the background, project status, issues and analysis, fiscal impact, and staff recommendation. Just a little bit of background information. In May 2021, the City Council did approve a professional services agreement with Angenious Engineering Services to provide construction management and day-by-day activities for the Ranchero Road Corridor Winding Project. In July 2024, the council did approve an amendment to that PSA in addition to an extension. So currently the total PSA amount is $10,469,733. Included in these construction management services, which are quite extensive for a project this complex, are inspections, including specialty inspections, geotechnical and engineering and material testing, surveying and staking, utility coordination, environmental permit compliance, labor and grant compliance, assisting with public outreach, assisting with requests for information, helping the city review change order requests, and also assisting in any claims and litigation that may arise. They also do the administration and documentation for the day-to-day activities on the project. And when it comes time, they will assist with project closeout, which is currently based on the December completion estimated for June 2027. We do have to do all the closeout with the grant funds and so forth. It's quite an extensive process. I already discussed the current status of the project with the prior presentation, so I'll just go ahead and skip over that slide. So overall, the project has been extended due to unforeseen circumstances, and the current duration has gone from 24 months now to 72 months, which is quite a difference. And the Aqueduct Crossing requires extensive monitoring and coordination. This involves, in part, the Department of Water Resources, regulatory agencies for the environmental permits, and also coordination to meet all the grant requirements. The bridge requires specific specialized inspection and precise expertise for construction. Some of those specifically are materials testing and surveying and staking, just to name a couple. However, continued construction project services are necessary to successfully complete the project. Funding was originally included in the fiscal year 2025-26 Capital Improvement Program budget. In addition to the item that I presented previously, the city will bear costs at a ratio of 58.9% and San Bernardino County Transportation Authority, also known as SBCTA, will be responsible for the public share of eligible costs at a ratio of 41.5%. So the table below is just the estimated breakdown. Of course, this would be based on future actual costs and eligible expenditures, but this gives you an idea that the city's portion would be roughly 1.7 million, with SBCTA's portion being roughly 1.2 million. At this time, staff is recommending that the City Council approve an amendment to the existing Professional Services Agreement with Ingenious Engineering Services for the extension of construction management services for the Ranchero Road corridor widening project phase three. This will be a not to exceed total amount of $13,373,954. So the increase is $2,640,201 plus a 10% contingency. Also in the recommendation, we're requesting an extension of the PSA and the authorization for city manager to execute the amendment and any other necessary documents related thereto. That concludes my presentation. I would be happy to answer any questions.

Thank you. Council Member Gregg, please.

Okay, so unlike the last item, this is a cost plus that I talked about whenever we discussed what are the added costs of this Ranchero Bridge. Do we have a total number of additional expenditures now because this is the second amendment that we've done for this project along with the multiple amendments that we've done with just the bridge alone? I mean, how much above the original estimate are we now for a total including this new amendment?

Unfortunately, I don't have that readily available, but I can certainly provide that later to you.

Do we have an estimate then? Because I want to say that it's at least $8 million more than what the original estimate was.

I wanted to clarify, are you inquiring about the total project cost or just the bridge component?

The bridge component to where we had to send it back out to bid.

Okay, so if we're referring to just the bridge component, please don't quote me on this because this is just a rough estimate based on my historical knowledge, but with the construction plus the construction management, I would say it's roughly 7.5 million.

above what we were projecting to spend on this project?

Originally, yes.

Originally, okay.

Above what was anticipated in 2021. 100% got you with that, and I won't hold you to that.

I'll dig back in, but I just want people to understand is that we just did an amendment in 2024 for this, and now two years later, now they're back at the table for an additional $2 million. Where does it end? It would be unwise for me to say anything staff give us a you know a positive response here and say that this is it no more coming back to the table for additional funds but you know i can't i won't do that to you guys but for my colleagues here again where does this end two million dollars over two years or seven and a half million roughly for the expenditures that we should that we didn't anticipate for so

So how many years have we waited from the original bid that we got? We're talking...

Yeah, originally awarded in 2021. So we're coming up on six.

Right. So think inflation, whatever we're doing. I know what you're saying.

My thing is, whenever you get something and you enter into a contract, you honor the contract. But look, it's not the contractor. It's not our staff's fault. This is purely the state's fault. I believe 100 percent, because if they had not. been defunct in their duties or responsibilities with the Department of Water, this project would have been done in a timely manner. But now we're spending taxpayer money well above what we projected to spend, and that's taking away from so many other projects throughout the city that we really should look to the state later on to try to recuperate these funds. I just want to kind of drive that home more to my colleagues than anything that we should take this up with the state This is their fault. This isn't anything that staff did, we did, our contractors did. So that's all I'll add to this.

Great presentation, and I get it. This has been a project that's had a black cloud over it since almost day one, and I agree with Councilmember Gregg as Department of Water Resources was no help at all on this project.

I feel like it's Groundhog Day with this project. Sorry, I just had to go there.

So we have a first by Councilmember Choa. Can I get a second, please? Council Member Lee, can we have a vote please? This item passes 4-1, thank you. Great presentation, appreciate that. Moving on to item 16. I would like to ask staff if we could please pull the fire district portion of the budget as Mayor Pro Tem Pullen would like to recuse himself just on the fire district portion.

I'd like to note a possible conflict of interest due to my employment with Samuel County Fire Protection District and my position there in approving the budget for Hesperia Fire Protection District.

Okay.

Okay.

Good evening Madam Mayor and City Council Members. I am Keith Chong, the Deputy Finance Director, and I will be presenting the fiscal year 26-27 operating budget. And before I get started, I just want to point out that the green sheet for city resolution 2026-9, it contained a mathematical error under section 2B, where the list of the individual amounts that were shown for each fund was correct, but the total was not, so the correction was made. So I'll keep my presentation brief as much of the details were previously discussed during the two budget workshops last month. So I'll just provide a high level overview. So here we have the comparison of the 25-26 budget and the 26-27 proposed budget with the total resources and expenditures. The 25-26 budget total revenue including reserves of $158.4 million is compared to the 26-27 budget of $154 million, which is a decrease of about $4.4 million. The largest factor is due to the American rescue plan act or arpa revenue in fiscal year 2526 from the completion of various water and sewer projects and I have a slide later in the presentation that will provide further detail on the revenue.

Keith sorry to interrupt you. Can we just talk about the The fire portion because Josh is able he's sure yes, and then we'll vote on the fire the four of us and then bring Mayor Pro Tem back out Okay That's kind of a unique situation

I'll cover the fire real quick. The fire budget. of 1.8 million is the outstanding CalPERS liability. So that's basically the budget presentation. It's passed on from CalPERS, we put it in the budget, and that's the expenditure budget for the fire district.

And it doesn't change year over year until it's paid off, correct?

Correct, correct. It's a standing, it has about seven years left. It's the unfunded liability that's passed through from CalPERS.

To me, it's kind of odd that he would have to recuse himself from it because it's pension liability that he has no real oversight on if it's just a pass-through. But better safe than sorry on that. So with that, I'll make the motion to approve the fire district budget so we can get Josh back in here.

We have a first by Councilmember Gregg. I have a second by Councilmember Czajk. We have a vote for just the fire portion of the budget, please. This item passes 4-0. Thank you, appreciate that. We'll bring Mayor Pro Tem back out and move on.

with your presentation. Thank you. I'll start over for the sake of Josh.

Thank you.

Okay.

All right. So I will Start from the beginning. So again, good evening, Madam Mayor and Council Members. I'm the Deputy Finance Director. I'll be presenting the operating budget. Again, I'll keep it short. As much of it was covered last month, but just a high-level overview. So we're looking at comparing the 25-26 budget to the 26-27 budget. When you're looking at revenue and resources, you have $158.4 million in revenue 25-26 compared to the $154 million in 26-27 proposed budget, you have a decrease of 4.4 million. That's largely due to the American Rescue Plan Act or ARPA revenue that was received in 25-26 for various water and sewer projects. For expenditures year over year, you can see a decrease in the 25-26 budget of $138.6 million to the $134 million for the 26-27 budget, a decrease of $4.6 million, which is largely due to decrease in non-operating expenditures. So overall, the total resources did decrease by $4.4 million, but expenditures also decreased accordingly. So looking at the 26-27 budget in the pie chart, the operating budget of 102.1 million, which was the focus of the two budget workshops in May, makes up 76% of the total expenditures, while the capital improvement project or CIP budget of 31.9 million makes up the remaining 24%. So just as a reminder, tonight's presentation, the staff report and the resolution for council's consideration is to adopt the 2627 operating portion of the budget. The CIP budget will be presented at the June 16th council meeting. A few key highlights for tonight's operating budget is that the water operating fund is balanced. And as discussed during the two budget workshops in budget workshops one and two for the general fund where increases in the liability insurance coverage costs, as well as increase in the police contract contributed to a $528,000 budget shortfall. and the sewer operating fund of $2 million. Budgeted reserves were needed to be utilized for the differences where revenues were unable to cover expenditures. However, with the planned use of reserves, the budget is still presented with the general fund, the water operating fund, and the sewer fund, all of the cash above the council reserve policy of two months cash to cover ongoing operating expenditures. So here we have an overview of revenue that shows the general fund is expected to increase 2.1 million to 57.1 million over the 2526 budget. The increase is driven by one time money received from new residential, commercial and industrial projects. Increases in sales and use tax driven by higher fuel prices and increase in vehicle license fees. Development revenue is anticipated to increase 6% from gas tax and measure I revenue from higher fuel prices, as well as grants or reimbursements from ongoing street CIP projects. The Water District is expected to see a 7% decrease compared to the prior year budget, mainly due to the use of ARPA funds from capital projects being completed in fiscal year 25-26. The bar chart here shows expenditures, so the breakout expenditures for the different types of areas. A couple areas to point out is the general fund budget is increasing $5.3 million, which is primarily driven by increases in the law enforcement Schedule A contract of $3.4 million to maintain current level of service, and increases in liability insurance costs that affected both the city and the San Bernardino County's police contract. The water district expenditures with a total of 36.4 million is a 16% decrease, which is largely due to equipment purchases, capital improvement projects, and ARPA projects, as previously mentioned, all expected to be completed in fiscal year 2526. So before concluding tonight's presentation, I wanted to take a moment to highlight that just like in previous years, the city's budget is available online through our OpenGov website and our financial transparency portal. So I'm going to click on the link here. There we go. All right, so here you can see the fiscal year 26-27 proposed budget online. And again, this is where you can see our different sections of our budget, including our budget and brief, our financial policies, revenues, expenditures, and our various CIP projects. It's all there. Also, the Hesperia Transparency Portal found on the city's website is available for public use. The link takes you to the 26-27 budget where it has various reports that you can click on and you can drill down into to get more information. You can click on pre-made reports or you can even build your custom reports. So with that, it concludes tonight's budget presentation and I'm available for questions.

Thank you. Do we have any questions from council? Any comments?

So as much as I miss Casey giving these presentations, I just want to say that you've really taken this role in stride and outstanding job. I don't think I could ask, I don't think we could ask for any more out of our finance department than transparent, complete accountability of these fundings and even whenever we have shortfalls, we actually have solutions to it from the finance department. So great job, good work.

Thank you.

Great job, great presentation.

And if Madam Mayor, if I may take a moment, I just wanted to acknowledge that the budget is really a team effort. Not only does it take leadership from council and the city manager, but it takes a lot of effort from the finance department. And I just would like to take a moment, because I have a few members of the finance team here tonight. I just want to acknowledge all of their hard work that goes into this.

Well, stand up. Let us see you. Great job. Great job. I have a first by Council Member Ochoa. Do I have a second? Mayor Pro Tem. Pullen, can I have a vote, please? And the motion passes 5-0. Thank you so much. Thank you. Moving on to council committee reports and comments. Can you start us off please, Council Member Ochoa?

Thank you. I don't have much to report. It was a very calm week for me as far as city business go. I was out in the community a lot on my personal time talking to our citizens and our neighbors. And I just want to say, I think that we're heading in a really positive direction as a body. I think a lot of the things that we're doing are really well received. And that was joyful. It lets me know that we're doing the right thing together. I want to close tonight's ceremony in honor of Gabriel Anthony Munoz, 68 years old. He passed away on April 15th. He was a veteran, private first class, and served in the U.S. Army. Thank you.

Thank you. Council Member Lee, please.

I didn't have a lot going on either. On May 23rd, I did attend the ribbon cutting at the San Bernardino County Fair with Council Member Ochoa. That was a nice event. I do want to give a little update on our Amazon facility out there. It looks like they are done with changing the traffic patterns on Phelan Road and the landscape looks beautiful and just I am curious to know when the traffic signal will be operational at Caliente and we can get back to that later. And it looks like we're having the live stream blood drive. Is that gonna still be held at the library parking lot? Okay, that's gonna be on June 12th. So please, if you are able to donate blood, June 12th, the library parking lot, that is the live stream blood drive. I do want to give a huge shout out to our Public Works Department for cleaning all the bus shelters. As a board member on VBTA, that means a lot. So thank you very much for keeping those nice and clean. I do appreciate you all. I do want to say thank you for the kind words from Manuel Anguelo. It was really nice to have a member of the public come out and have such kind words for our board. Sheriff's Department and all of their hard work. So I appreciate that. And Dottie Roundtree and Ken Anderson, I appreciate all your help and I'm looking forward to talking to you to get some information on what you both talked about. And so hopefully we can talk after the meeting. And I wanna thank staff for all the hard work you guys put into to supply us with this agenda that is filled with information I know you guys all work hard and a willingness to answer all my questions when I text you guys. So thank you all very much for that. And I think the last thing I've got is, and thank you to city staff and our folks in the back. I appreciate that. My little quote, I don't know who it's from, but it's, You either quit or keep going. They both hurt, but choose wisely. That's all I got.

Thank you. Council Member Gregg, please.

All right. Thank you. First off, I hope everyone had a great Memorial Day weekend and really got to reflect on the meaning of Memorial Day. I hope everybody was safe. Kind of segue into folks, slow down, get to where you're going safely. Stop giving our folks in the back such a difficult job that's already difficult. I attended VVWRA, just like what we're going through here. It's budget time over there, and we're starting to see some shortfalls and comings, and how do we project that into the future for our entire region? So we're working on that. I'm kind of excited to see how things can pan out over there. Again, finance had a big part of what we're doing at BVWRA, so I can't really thank finance enough. And I know that our finance department, out of all the other agencies for BVWRA, in that sense, it probably provides the most definitive and adequate information to that entire group, so thank you for that. Other than that, that's all I have.

Thank you. Mayor Pro Tem Pullen, please.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. I also had a quiet two weeks. Didn't have any committee meetings. I did attend Hesbury High School's graduation. That was pretty fascinating to see how many kids were graduating with multiple college degrees coming out of there. I was a little bit surprised that they had, I think, 45 valedictorians. I didn't know they had that many valedictorians. But anyways, great job to all those kids. With that, today's my son's 20th birthday, so happy birthday to him. I think he's just at home hanging out, cooking his mom dinner, so that's a good thing. So I have to applaud him on that, and that's all I got.

Thank you. On May 21st, I attended the San Bernardino County Police Officers Memorial and what an amazing ceremony. I wept the whole entire time. It was such a beautiful ceremony and it's one that I plan on attending every year. It was just very well It was really well presented. The rideless horse, that horse was huge and beautiful. It was just awesome. The bagpipes get me every single time. They paid amazing grace in caps, but kudos to the sheriffs for putting that on. It was wonderful. Tomorrow I have VMI, tri-agency, and Thursday I'm going to attend seniors with inquiring minds from 12.30 to 1.30. And I am a senior, so I wish me some luck right there. June 8th, I have an MDAQMD meeting, and then a Thursday of the Metro Study Division. I have to say I'm getting a little annoyed with the fireworks already. They're huge. They're just huge. I... I'm very nervous because we haven't had much rain and there's a lot of dryness in the high desert. So I really wish people would abide by not having or lighting off the fireworks. There's been many fires lately. It seems like every day there's a fire in Mojave Valley and down the hill. So just... Let's stop doing the fireworks. Let's take the pressure that's already on our law enforcement, both police and fire. Slow down Council Member Greg. We've had many horrible traffic collisions lately. Just slow down. Take an extra 10 minutes to get your destination safely. I would like to congratulate all our 2026 graduates, high school, colleges, the adult school. What an honor we've had. It's been really cool seeing all the balloons and the posters up congratulating their graduates. And I'm asking everybody to be safe. I did attend today the Valley Communications Center ribbon-cutting. It's our new 911 dispatch center for police, fire, and the county OES is in that building. It's an amazing building. It's crazy amazing. So the technology, that was just really a great event. They're not open yet. But we're getting closer, so we're giving our dispatchers state of the art building to serve our community members. With that, I would just like to say always try to be a little kinder every day. Kindness is easy and it is free. And I would like to close the meeting. Do we have any city attorney or city manager? then thank you very much. I would like to close the meeting for Caleb's 20th birthday and then also Gabriel Anthony Munoz. So with that, we will adjourn the meeting at 7.57. Thank you.