City Council - Regular Meeting

You all here?

Good evening. I apologize for our tardiness. We will start our September 15th City Council meeting at 6.33. We'll have our invocation performed by Elder Jax Johnson from Grace Christian Community Church. And Council Member Ochoa, you lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance.

and every one of you. It says one nation under God. And scripture says, for God so loved the world, meaning everybody. And y'all represent everybody. So I just thank you. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, in the name of Jesus, we come before you humbly, Lord. We ask that your direction. that you lead and guide each and every one that's here, the mayor, the council members, Lord, and all those in authority, the police, the fire department, Lord, let your protection touch each and every one of them, Lord, and the people in the city of Hesperia. Bless them, Lord, as only you can, for we come to worship, we come to do your business. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Close the flag and repeat after me.

Can we have a roll call please?

Mayor Bennington? Here. Mayor Pro Tem Pullen?

Here.

Council Member Gregg?

Here.

Council Member Lee?

Here.

Council Member Ochoa?

Here.

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

Yes, Madam Mayor. There is one revision this evening. The neighborhood pride enhancement honoree is currently stuck in traffic, so we will need to invite them back to be recognized at a future meeting.

Okay, that's unfortunate. Thank you so much. Are there any closed session reports, please?

Thank you, Madam Mayor and council members. We did discuss one item of potential litigation as listed on the closed session agenda, but no reportable action was taken.

Thank you. And just for the record, the presentation of recognition would have been to resident Emmanuel Morales. So we're sorry that he couldn't be here with us, but hopefully he'll be at our next council meeting. Moving on to general public comments. Jill, would you mind, please?

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

Thank you. Do we have any virtual public comments?

Refresh this.

No, we do not. Thank you. Moving on to public comments, I have Al Vogler.

Good evening, Council. I'm Al Vogler. During the Hesperia City Council meeting of, I believe, August 18th, 2026, a lady made public comments about the condition of the road near her house. The mayor then invited the lady to the lobby area to discuss the matter with a city staffer. When I spoke about the dangerous traffic conditions on Rock Springs Road near Glendale, having raised the issue approximately six times during the past two years, no such invitation to the lobby to speak with staff was made. No staff have ever discussed the issue and a public records request resulted in no information. Mayor Bennington, why is the dangerous traffic on Rock Springs Road being ignored, but a pothole issue receives attention from the mayor and staff? What political issues underlie where road improvements are made? As far as I know, no one has died on 7th Street where taxpayer money was spent for pavement overlay just prior to an election. People have died on Rock Springs Road, and once an errant driver was suspended on cables midair in his vehicle at the Glendale and Rock Springs Road location. You have encouraged the expenditure of city funds on buying real estate, but not road safety. You have encouraged deficit spending on the Hesperia Golf Course, but not road safety. If Erin Braun is elected in your place, will she also ignore the Rock Springs Road travesty? A gross reprioritization of city expenditures need to be made. Item eight on the agenda this evening references adjustments to city fees. Beside the consumer price index, are the fee adjustments due in part to the city scrambling to find new monetary sources? We were not able to access the fee study or data on Hesperia's website. Thank you.

Larry Nava, please.

Good evening. I'd like to read you a message that I got from Nana Nana, or Mini-Me, as I call her, Hispanic News and Politics. This gentleman keeps trying to call out Chris Ochoa's record without explaining why he was granted executive clemency and the real reasons, excuse me, of the real reasons pertaining to his incarceration. I didn't share in detail compared to my other posts, that's because she takes them down, regarding this very intensive case. I don't want to post anything in detail and risk public putting family members and victims in this case through a traumatic episode. Nowhere in the court file is it mentioned Your sister. The allegations should make that. They were being abused. I got the entire. Case file. Not only that. But she claims that an executive. Clemency is a pardon. Nor can I find the pardon. Clemency is when you requested prior to your parole hearing. Is my mic on? Yes, it is. Where you simply just petition the court, or not the court, but the governor's office, and they just, like Obama, stamp granted. You write up your narrative. They read it. Some staff read it. Alex never read it. The governor never read it. They simply gave you the pardon. You go before the parole board. Your time had expired, 10 years service. You copped out to a plea agreement. They dismiss all four, murder, conspiracy to murder, and those other three charges, and you copped to a lower plea and served 10 years. In your pardon, which is prepared by staff, She claims that they did an investigation to find that they did something wrong or misconvicted you. No, they didn't. You had a hearing, a maiden hearing or whatever it's called, to go to your attorney. That was thrown out. Tilly, try to get put in a home for crazy people. I read the report. You guys have been doing drugs since you guys were 14 years of old. meth, marijuana, alcohol, so forth and so on, again. And before Mrs. Bennington hits that button, you need to resign. I'm gonna come every single council meeting until you resign. Wait until the stories come out in the newspaper.

Your time is up, thank you. Do we have any additional public comment cards? No, we don't, Madam Mayor. 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 Choa, a second by Mayor Pro Tem Pullen. Can we have a vote, please? The item passes 5-0. Moving on to item seven, community development block grant consolidated annual performance and evaluation report. Welcome, Julie. Thank you.

So good evening, Mayor and Council. Mayor, as you noted, Julie from LDM is going to be presenting to CAPER. So without further ado, I'll let her do her presentation.

Good evening, Madam Mayor and Councilmembers. I will be providing a presentation for the public hearing item for the 2526 CAPER. We'll go ahead and start with a little bit of overview. The Community Development Block Grant Program is administered by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and provides annual grants on a formula basis to cities to carry out eligible housing, community, and economic development activities. HUD requires the city to prepare the caper describing the progress the city is making toward the goals established in the 2526 action plan. The caper must be submitted to HUD on or before September 28th, 2026 to comply with HUD regulations. In accordance with the citizen participation plan, the 2526 caper was available for review and comment on the city's website, and hard copies were placed in the Economic Development Division, the City Clerk's Office, and the Hesperia Public Library for the 15-day review period. We wanna look at a little bit of accomplishments and the CDBG funding and how that was allocated. During the 25-26 program year, the city received $946,179 in CDBG funds to be awarded to activities that meet the city's five-year consolidated plan strategic plan goals. And as you can see with the pie chart here, that 87% of the CDBG funding for that year, last program year, went to the street improvement projects. 10% to administration and 3% to fair housing. Some of the accomplishments, the city completed the 2324 Oakwood Street Improvement Project, the 2425 Live Oak Street Improvement Project, commenced design and engineering for the 2526 Street Improvement Project, funded 10 public service agencies, and funded fair housing and landlord tenant mediation services. Recommended action. It is recommended that the city council conduct a public hearing and upon accepting public testimony, approve the 2526 caper, authorize the city manager or designee to submit the caper to HUD along with any public testimony and changes thereto as directed by the city council. There is no direct fiscal impact for this item. Next steps would be to obtain city council approval and then to submit the final approved and adopted caper to HUD on or before September 28th, 2026. Thank you.

Thank you. At this time, I will open up the public hearing at 647. Do we have any online public hearing comments? Do we have any public comment cards regarding this item? No, we do not. Thank you. Then I will close the public hearing at 6.47 and 42 seconds. Do we have any council comments regarding this? Thank you. I have a motion by Council Member Gregg, a second by Council Member Ochoa. Can we have a vote, please? Thank you, the item passes 5-0.

Thank you.

Thank you. Moving on to item eight, the user fee study update. Welcome, Keith.

All right, thank you, Madam Mayor and city council members. I'm here tonight to present the annual citywide user fee update. So I'll start with a brief background. On December 19th, 2023, city council approved and adopted the user fee study model and fee schedule that was the result of a consultant working with city staff to conduct a full comprehensive analysis of the city's cost to provide services of an array model that would show what the full cost is to provide services to our customers that requested it or were the beneficiary of those services. At the September 17th, 2024 council meeting, city council approved the revised user fee study model and fee schedule that corrected an error in the consultant's rate model to allow the city to capture that true fully burdened cost of city staff time. This time last year, city council approved an update to the user fee model and fee schedule to reflect recent increases in the consumer price index or CPI. And this update tonight is before city council for consideration as it's part of the 2024 strategic plan in which the council identified their top 11 priorities. One of those top priorities under financial health is to conduct a regular assessment of the approved city fee schedule to ensure that the city's related costs are being recovered. So tonight's user fee study update complies with that strategic plan priority. So tonight's user fee update is really about three areas. The first and primary area is to reflect the most recent changes in the CPI for 2026 that have impacted the cost that the city incurs to provide those services. The other two areas are pass-through type fees in which the city initially collects those fees and turns around and remits those fees to other agencies. These updates are related to the sewer connection fees within Appendix A and the addition of Appendix D for fees related to mobile home parks and special occupancy parks from the state, which I will cover in upcoming slides. With the fee updates, city staff analyzed and updated the rate model to reflect the recent CPI changes to capture the full cost in today's dollars. for the fees that the council has elected to do so. The result of that analysis identified 198 fees recommended to be increased. There are 28 fees recommended to be added due to those mobile home park fees. Zero fee decreases and 317 fees were recommended to remain unchanged. So this table shows the average fee increase by department or fee category from highest to lowest. The highest average percentage increases are in the areas of planning, building and safety and engineering, as those departments and categories include fees that are the most labor intensive. The lowest categories increasing are in the areas of public safety or police and animal control, which are at 0% or no recommended fee increase. And the no increase to animal control is based upon council's previous direction. So how does this CPI update impact business licenses and building fees? For business licenses, there are two tables for both license types and their increases. Business licenses are made up of three parts. First is the annual fee, which is the base fee and cost to operate the program. Second is the administrative fee, which are the costs associated for staff to actually process each one of those business licenses. And third is the state fee, which is regulated and remitted to the state. The proposed increases for both new licenses and license renewals only increases the administrative fee portion. And again, that's to reflect the increase in city staff costs incurred to process each license. The annual fee remains unchanged, which is a 56% or about a $65 subsidy, and no change to the state fee. So the total increase for a new license would be $8 or about a 2.9% increase with an overall subsidy of that fee of 18%. And for a license renewal, increase would be $4 or about 2.4% with the city continuing to subsidize that fee by about 25%. So for the impacts for the building fees, we use the example of a 2,000 square foot residential home. The table shows the current fees, the proposed fees, and the increases. Of these building fees, the largest recommended increase is plan review fees, which is recommended to increase by $42 for the first 1,000 square feet only. There's a 21 cent per square foot fee for plans that go over that base of 1,000 square feet. That's not gonna change. Plumbing fees, plumbing inspection fees are recommended to increase $37 for the first thousand square feet only. And the administrative and automation fees are recommended to increase by about $12 and $8 respectively. So in total, building fees on a 2,000 square foot home would increase by $99 or about 2%. So as previously mentioned, besides the updates to the user fee model itself, there are two other areas of updates to the fee schedule. The first is an update to Appendix A to reflect the Victor Valley Wastewater Reclamation Authority, or VVWAs, board approved sewer connection fees to include those approved annual rate changes. These sewer connection fees are pass-through fees where the city initially collects the money from the developments, new developments being added to the sewer system. But the city does not keep that money, it remits it to VVWA. However, since the city is the agency that initially collects that money, Appendix A is being updated for transparency purposes to reflect those approved rates. The second fee schedule update is for mobile home park and special occupancy park fees. The state's mobile home park maintenance inspection program ensures that those parks comply with the state health and safety requirements. The city serves as the local enforcement agency for permit administration, inspections, investigating complaints, and code enforcement. The mobile home park fees are established by California code. So the city itself does not establish modify or retain those main fees. And aside from a state set administrative fee that the state allows the cities to keep, that's intended to recoup the city staff time to process and remit those fees to the state. The city simply acts as a pass through agency. So, In addition to these fees, they're intended to, the addition of these fees are intended to improve transparency of the fee schedule and identify the applicable regulatory fees that are initially collected by the city. As discussed during the 26-27 budget workshops in May and approved by the city council at the June 2nd meeting, the general fund budget was adopted with a $476,000 deficit. And at the July 21st city council meeting, a seven year general fund budget projection was provided as part of the consideration of a potential sales tax ballot measure. This projection included revenue estimates with CPI increases that are shown at the top half of the slide. If the amendments to the citywide fee schedule to reflect those changes in CPI are implemented, those seven-year general fund budget projections would anticipate increased deficits reflected at the bottom half of the slide with a change in the deficit increasing in future years. Should the City Council elect to approve tonight's adjustment to the citywide user fee schedule with the CPI changes, an effective date of December 1st is recommended to provide sufficient notice of the fee changes. And to provide advance notice, staff will return around the same time next year to present the annual CPI adjustment for your consideration. And again, these user fee updates were presented as part of the council's five-year strategic plan and one of the top 11 priorities for financial health to regularly assess the approved fees to ensure the city's costs are being recovered. That concludes tonight's presentation and I'm available for questions.

Thank you. At this time, I'll open the public hearing at 6.57. Do we have any online public hearing notices?

There are none this evening.

Do we have any public speaker cards?

No speakers, Madam Mayor.

Thank you. Then I will close the public hearing at 6.57 and 48 seconds. Do we have any council comments?

I just have one. The timeline that you were saying, Are you saying December of this year that they will be effective?

Correct. December 1st, 2026. Okay.

Thank you. That's it.

Thank you.

Council member Greg, please.

Great presentation. I do have to bring up a couple of issues that I have is that I do see the, the increase to business licenses. Do we have a approximate number of businesses that are operating in the city without a business license? Yes.

I do not have that information with me right now, but again, that is something that all businesses are supposed to comply with.

Supposed to and actually do we have a report on how many people, how many businesses have been cited for not having a business license?

I don't have that information at my disposal.

So that's one of my biggest concerns. I understand that there is a recuperation cost tied to a business license. However, I know that there's businesses operating within the city without business licenses. This seems like another burden to place on the backs of people that are doing the right thing to kind of offset for those that aren't doing the right thing. So before I would approve or look to approve a business license increase, I'd like to see the brick and mortar businesses and things like that that are actually operating within the guidelines of the city already that we kind of assist and take that seriously by going after those that aren't doing the right thing, that don't have the business licenses. In addition to this, Pam, is it correct to say that we can't charge more than what is projected there?

That's correct. You can charge up to the fully burdened rate. There's currently a subsidy. You can go above and beyond the amount of the subsidy up to the fully burdened rate. You can't charge more than the service actually costs.

Okay. So in this instance, I looked at the police DUI tow release that's set at $400. We couldn't increase that to $500,000? I mean, if people had their cars towed in part because of a DUI to have that release, why couldn't we slap another burden on them, especially these days with how many people are driving under the influence within our city?

So as it pertains to these actual user fees where people are requesting for the city to provide a service, as Pam stated, we are not allowed to go over our cost that the city incurs to provide that service. Separately, there's fees related to essentially like punitive or penalty damages that are outside of that.

So that's included in all this. Wouldn't that be a good time to actually look at that? Because there is no full cost analysis or subsidy cost for DUI tow. So can we add that into there now as a punitive measure if it's included in this packet?

So with the study, when we had the consultant, it was a time study for each fee in here. So each fee listed was looking at the staff time going into the fee. Anything above and beyond that would get into the realm of fines outside of this fee schedule.

So we can bring this portion back then. I'm just curious if the consultant looked into this because it's included in this.

So that's separate with the fine and bail schedule. This here is just city fee cost. So the time study is looking, it's two different schedules.

So on that other note then, we have adult entertainment and massage parlors where there's a subsidy of 58%. But the suggested fee is less than what it actually costs to process those. Can we adjust that to no subsidy for that? Would this be an appropriate time for that?

Do you have a, so that we can reference it in the schedule page?

My page numbers are all kind of inked together. It doesn't show the page number, but it is in.

So if, without seeing this page, if it's identified as if there's a subsidy there, a council could elect, we just couldn't go above what the 100% would be for that fee.

Allotted number of vehicles that people can store on their property Yes, there isn't a lot of number but I don't have that information handy I

As council member Greg.

I believe so.

Massage facility office. It is page 44. Great catch. Okay, it is after, under business licenses. I'll count my pages. One, two, three. It would be the fourth page. The fourth page, 44. Hand this to Cameron. There you go.

Okay.

Okay, so yes, identifying those fees, the fully burdened costs would be 477. So yes, the council could, if they elected to do so, choose to have a 0% subsidy on those fees.

Okay, so background to that, is there any reason why we have subsidized that and why that's not on the list of fees to increase?

I don't have that information in front of me. These are the fees that we have been previously adopted by council and just adjusted for that CPI increase. Unfortunately, I don't have the original justification for why there was a subsidy in the first place.

It's in here somewhere. I see it and wrote it down. So those are just a couple of the concerns that I would have with just kind of adopting this as it reads and as it sits. But if we're able to make those modifications now, then I would be amicable to see those changes. If not, then I would request that we maybe bring those items back and only approve them except for those items.

Just so I understand, so item under business license, you're looking at item 1415, remove the subsidy and go 100% on those two? Yeah, correct.

Just as a reminder, there is a current subsidy of both the new licenses and renewals. It's built into that administrative portion that we have elected not to factor into the increase. So as the slide pointed out, there is a current subsidy of new licenses of 18% and renewals at 25%. So you would want to eliminate Any of the proposed increases and increases?

Can you increase the subsidy on those? I mean, how can you have a subsidy for adult entertainment business and a massage parlor, but you don't have even close to the same amount of subsidy for business licenses? And I just beg this question, is that part of the reason as to why we don't have as many businesses opting to get their business license within the city versus those that don't? kind of a double-edged sword to me.

The one area of caution I would give is the business license is in the top five revenues for the general fund. So any further subsidies in the business license itself, that $4 charge for the new or $8 charge for the old, I do want to point out, would impact the potential deficit that we see on this slide. So I do want to point that out.

100%, and I completely understand that. So let me ask this. What does paying for a business license get a business? Just the okay to operate in a business, operate your business within the city? Or is there some sort of expectation that we would be enforcing those rules to maintain that competitiveness between somebody that's doing the right thing versus people that are not? I guess that's for my colleagues to kind of marinate on.

Do we have any additional council comments?

I'll make the motion that we approve this, amending those items of keeping the business license fee where it's at, getting rid of the subsidy for the adult entertainment and the massage parlor, and that we bring back the fee study for the public safety police and look at increasing those to the full extent that we're allowed to.

Do I have a second on that motion? I have a first by Councilmember Craig, a second by Mayor Pro Tem Pullen. Can I have a vote, please? Excuse me. And the item passes 5-0. Thank you very much. Appreciate the presentation. Keep up the good work.

Great presentation, Keith.

Moving on to new business. Consideration of resolution number 2016-05.

I'd like to make a motion to remove this from the calendar at this time just to bring back at a later time in the future TBD just to get more research on it personally. So one second the motion.

Before that motion, because we do have public comments on this. Oh, we do? Oh, we do? Yes.

I withdraw the motion pending public comment.

You've been pulling it. Okay. Thank you. For now. Do we have any online public comments? No, we don't. Thank you. Moving on to Al Vogler, please.

Good evening again, Council. I'm Al Vogler. Item number nine on the agenda this evening is to consider rescinding resolution number 216-05, which expressed the city's desire to oppose the relocation of refugees, primarily Syrians, which the FBI stated would not be fully vetted. I wonder why Councilmember Ochoa wants to rescind the item. Why remove the desire of the City Council to protect its citizens from potential increased levels of violence and expense? Is this the first step to define Hesperia as a sanctuary city? Is it preliminary to the outcome of the elections in November 2026 to pave the way for a growth swing in political fortunes to receive hundreds, perhaps thousands of additional residents, which may require massive financial support for housing, medical, and educational needs to further turn Hesperia into a welfare city? The cities of Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Portland, and Seattle all have grave problems with crime, violence, and drugs, and certainly Hesperia does not want to take a step in that direction. Does it, Mr. Ochoa? Considering the potential expense to taxpayers and families in the recent attempt to raise Hesperia sales tax, it seems clear that the socialization of many new residents would be a financial burden to taxpayers who have clearly expressed their desire for no more taxes. Mr. Ochoa, you voted in favor of raising the sales tax. Will you also vote to rescind the protections of resolution number 2016-05? I am encouraging the Hesbury City Council to not rescind resolution number 2016-05. Do not become revisionist and rewrite history. Thank you.

Violet Gomez, please.

Hi, my name is Violet. I've been a resident of the High Desert for about 16 years, and I've worked as a social worker for about that. So I'm very familiar with a lot of the issues our particular area and Hesperia are dealing with. What I would like to know is what is Chris's intention of wanting to rescind or change this? What is the rationale? Because what I'm seeing right now is We don't have the infrastructure to handle many more people. We don't have the hospitals. We don't have the medical care. We don't even take care of our own people here. So how is this even a discussion right now? Another thing, we don't maintain the roads. Our park and rec is a disaster. And this option... It's basically saying we should include more people that we can't take care of. Let me see. I'm sorry. This is my first time. It just doesn't seem feasible as well as the fact that many of our people up here are going to work down the hill because we don't have the jobs. We don't have the housing. Nothing is working right now in Hesperia. So I would love Chris to have a conversation with you civilly. I'm open to hear you and see what your rationale is for this. Because if we were like LA, if we were able to handle that, I would be okay with some of that. Going back to what Al said, which is kind of my last concern, but it is a valid regarding the safety and protection of American citizens. If we were like LA, sure, let's go ahead and include that. But we're not like LA. We are so far from LA, Orange County, all of it. So I really would like to know the rationale for that. Now, it does say that this is gonna be federally funded, but again, my concern is, even if that's all true, they're gonna be accessing our hospitals. They're gonna be accessing our school systems. They're gonna be accessing all the things that we are already struggling with. So I would love to know from either of you guys, but particularly you, Chris, what is your rationale for even bringing this up now? I'm willing to listen.

No, during a public comment, we're not allowed to engage. Well, I would love to talk more about that at another time.

So yeah, so if we could figure that out, I think that'd be great, but that's my main concern. So thank you.

Thank you. We have any additional public comments regarding this item?

No further comments, Madam Mayor.

Thank you. Since it's been removed, there is no vote. So moving on to council committee reports and comments. Council Member Lee, can you start us off, please? Yes.

I just want to make everybody aware that the apartments, the crossings on C Street have, they have a new, I'm trying to find my, message I got. They have a new parking restriction over there. You get two, you get a two car garage, well at least this person has a two car garage, three bedroom, two bath. She has four adults living there, so she gets one parking pass. So everybody else has to go out to the street. They have a tow, they had two days notice for this. They have a tow company that is coming from down the hill charging $650 to tow each vehicle out of there with two days notice. I just want to make sure that everybody is aware of what's happening over there because I think that, I mean the parking lot is empty and the streets are full again and parking on the street, I'm not a big fan of that. Anyway, I'm going to move on. Hope everybody had a great Labor Day and a peaceful Patriots Day. Our Hesperia Days parade is Saturday, so please come out and celebrate Hesperia Days with us. Plan accordingly for the road closures, please. There will be many during the parade. I do want to thank staff and law enforcement and first responders. I know our staff works very hard on these agendas and I appreciate that, thank you. I do want to say happy anniversary to my wonderful husband. He is so supportive of me and I want to thank you for loving me and treating me with the respect and love for all these years. It has been a fun and wild ride so far. So I want to thank you for everything you do for our family. And I really appreciate you supporting me in my role here on the city council. And last but not least, my quote, life does not have to be perfect to be wonderful. And that is by Annette Funicello. Thank you.

Thank you. Council Member Choa.

Thank you, Mayor. I was able to attend the 9-11 event at BBC United. We stand 25th Memorial Anniversary Ceremony. It was a very moving and touching experience. I was glad to be there. It was interesting that many of the people who were there serving in the class of future firefighters weren't born when 9-11 happened. I think that's the first time I've ever experienced that. I was at 40 years old. Never quite thought of myself as old until I was at a college ceremony watching people who were a lot younger than me and very talented, too. I mean, the marching was beautiful. The ceremony was beautiful. I was glad to have experienced that. That's pretty much all I have to report on. I'll pass it on.

Thank you. Council member Greg. Greg, please. Thank you, Madam Mayor.

First off, folks, slow down. Get to where you're going safely. Hesperi Days is a great time of the year for all of us. With the road closures, it does get a little hectic. Be patient. Plan accordingly. Our folks in the back are doing what they can with what we're able to give them, and big kudos to them in the back, and thank you for your hard work and commitment to our community. Thank you. I do have VVWRA on the 17th, so I look forward to doing that event over there. I think we're getting really close to the JPA finalization, so that's always good news. Hesperia Days on September 19th. Remember that day, great parade, great events down at the lake. And on top of what's going down at the lake, there is also the High Desert Rodeo happening at the San Bernardino County Fairgrounds, September 19th, 6 p.m., September 20th at 5 p.m. So for those that want to attend that, get out there and show your support for our tradition and for our community. I would like to... And Ms. City Manager, this could be just a memo to us. A report on how many citations have been issued for businesses that are not operating with a business license for our city. I think that that will give us a good indication for the next time these fees come back to us or if it's something to revisit sooner than that, it's a good opportunity to at least have some of that information in front of us. Other than that, that I guess one last thing. Sorry. So on Chris's item, item number nine, to bring back at a future, should that have been a vote on that? Should it have been a motion or if we're just pulling it?

I think there was a consensus to pull it. So it's been noted as a consensus for unanimous vote of the council because it was requested initially by Ochoa. Okay.

All right. That's all I have. Thank you.

Thank you. Mayor Pro Tem Poland, please.

Thank you, Mayor. Had SBCTA Board of Directors meeting, fairly non-eventful, nothing that impacts our city there. Let's see, I also attended some 9-11 events last week. They were nice. I agree with Chris. The folks in the back will probably tell you that the sheriffs and the fire are getting younger and younger and younger. So it's kind of interesting. But nonetheless, they're doing a good job. Good job to the staff. Thank you for everything you do. And then on top of the rodeo, I will say that the sheriff's rodeo is the following weekend. So it's always a fun event. So if you want to attend that in Glen Helen. So that's it.

thank you i had no meetings or committees to attend i have mdqmd on september 28th monday we start our monday municipal mile it starts on mondays and it's at five o'clock so get your sneakers ready for laps around civic center park equals a mile thank you staff for hosting this. Hopefully it cools down a little bit. Hesperia Days has been mentioned. Come join the fun. September 19th, I enjoyed the rainstorm over the holiday weekend. It rained all day at the Bennington House. We got an inch of rain. We didn't have a flooded street, Cassie, so good job. But with that being said, if we could start, we're supposed to have a large amount of rain this fall. So if we could start posting where residents can pick up sandbags, reposting where they can get sandbags and sand to prepare for the storm. I would like to thank Public Works, Code Enforcement, Animal, and Our Police and Fire. I know you guys are busy. I hear the sirens and I follow the Watch Duty app. There's a lot of fires going on. Rachel, thank you to you and your staff. I would really appreciate all you do in preparing us for our city council meetings. And I would like to say a quote that I got on a sticker from Dutch Brothers. It says, throw kindness around like you would confetti. And I have nothing further. Do we have any city manager or city attorney comments? With that being said, thank you everyone for attending our meeting. Appreciate your presence. And we will adjourn the meeting at 7.24 and 54 seconds.