City Council / Lincoln Redevelopment Successor Agency / Lincoln Public Financing Authority - Regular Meeting

call the uh special meeting that's not a special meeting but a closed session of the city council for september 22nd 2026 hope would you do the honors please and there is councilman reedy

Yes, thank you, Mayor. Just to clarify, this is a regular meeting. So good evening and welcome to the City of Lincoln's regular meeting of the City Council. Tonight's meeting will be televised and available on Cable Channel 18, YouTube, and Zoom. Those wishing to address City Council will be called upon at the appropriate time. For those participating through Zoom that wish to provide public comment, please use the raise your hand feature or press star nine if you are calling in.

Thank you very much. Shall we call the roll, please? I'll call the meeting to order.

Thank you. Council Member Andreatta. Present. Council Member Reedy. Council Member Brown. Mayor Pro Tem Eklund. Mayor Pearl.

Here. Thank you very much. Okay. We have three items on the closed session tonight, a conference of legal counsel, existing litigation, the gathering in conference of legal counsel, anticipated litigation, two potential cases and another existing litigation case name of Dickman. Are there any public comments, Madam Clerk?

I do not have any cards. There is no one in the audience, but I do have one participating through zoom.

Okay. Thank you.

If you would like to provide a public comment, please use the raise your hand feature. And the hand has not been raised, so no public comments through Zoom.

I'm sorry, did you say that someone's not?

No public comments.

Okay, very good. Okay, thank you very much. In that case, we're closing public comment, and we will adjourn to the closed session. Thank you very much. We'll be back at 5 o'clock. Good evening, everyone. We're going to call the meeting to order today. City council meeting for September 22nd. Hope, would you start us off, please?

Thank you. Good evening and welcome to the City of Lincoln's regular meeting of the City Council. Tonight's meeting will be televised and available on Cable Channel 18, YouTube, and Zoom. Those wishing to address City Council will be called upon at the appropriate time. Those who submitted a speaker card will be called first, followed by those in the audience, and finally those attending through Zoom. For those participating through Zoom that wish to provide public comment, please use the raise your hand feature or press star 9 if you are calling in. This evening's invocation will be given by Pastor Sarah Brubeck from Grace Life Church. Once the invocation has concluded, Mayor Pearl will call the meeting to order.

Will you join me in prayer as we bow our heads in reverence to the creator of the heavens and the earth? Heavenly Father, we lift up our council meeting this evening before you. We thank you for each one who sits in authority. May they have the wisdom and judgment of Solomon and the discretion and prudence of Esther. May Lincoln be a city on a hill and a testimony of your goodness. We ask this and pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

Thank you very much. Thank you, Sarah. All right. Very good. And actually, we're back in session now at this point. What would you call the roll, please?

Council Member Andreatta. Present. Council Member Reedy. Present. Council Member Brown.

Here.

Mayor Pro Tem Eklund. Here. Mayor Pearl.

Here. Okay. Pledge of Allegiance. Brother Ed Hsu, if you would lead us in the pledge, please. Thank you very much. Okay, report from closed session. Madam Attorney.

Thank you, Mayor. For closed session, direction has been provided to staff on items 1A through 1C.

Thank you very much. Agenda modifications, counsel, any of my colleagues? Okay, staff. Nope. Okay, thank you very much. Okay, presentations. Proclamation 10A, recognizing the week of September 28th through October 4th as a Frontal Temporal Degeneration Awareness Week. And we have a, do we have a presentation? Or are we going to just, we're just going to make the presentation. And if you would step forward, please. Terry, thank you. Okay. So we do have a proclamation for you. And if we're going to start off with the reading of it from my colleague. Yes, you have the first one. Awesome, good.

Whereas the Association of Frontotemporal Degeneration, AFTD, reports that frontotemporal degeneration is a terminal and incurable neurodegenerative disease affecting the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain, causing impairments to speech, personality, behavior, and motor skills. And...

Whereas FTD can affect people as young as 21, with many individuals diagnosed between the ages of 45 and 64, making it one of the most common forms of dementia among people under 60. And.

Whereas FTD is difficult to diagnose and often takes an average of 3.6 years from the beginning of symptoms to receive an accurate diagnosis.

and whereas FTD has a profound impact on individuals, families, caregivers, and communities with significant emotional, social, and financial costs, and whereas greater awareness, education, research, and support are needed to improve the lives of those affected by FTD and their families, and Whereas the city of Lincoln recognizes the importance of raising awareness of FTD and supporting individuals and families living with this devastating disease and

You want me to stand there?

Okay, information item and disclosures. Anyone, any of my colleagues have any conflicts to report? Any informational items to share? I've got one, of course, for Saturday night. We had a very successful subsequent event out at the airport. We did have the commemorative Air Force's B-17 here for a week. Thank you very much, Kevin. And it turns out, they were here for a week. They gave guided tours on the ground. And then they flew, I think, 16 flights all together, which was a national record for them for a three-day event. So they were overjoyed. We had so many kids out there. If you were out there during the day, just watch the kids come out. It was just fabulous to watch them. It was a great experience. On Saturday night, we had a wonderful barbecue dinner hosted by our good friends, Phil Woodman at Hops and Hogs, and everyone had a great time. We had about 120 people out there, and so that was really cool, really cool. On to next year.

Well, I missed that because on Saturday, I was in 12 Bridges at the 12 Bridges Rib Cook-Off that Tyler Campbell and his crew out there put together every year, and they host this amazing event, and they have bands, and they have... like 16 or 20 participants this year. It was quite a bit. And all the money raised goes to, it started out going to the youth football program for 12 Bridges when the high school first started, but they've expanded. They give money to youth sports and also other nonprofits. I know they're giving this year to Teen Challenge, which is out on Stardust Lane. They've been in Lincoln for many years and they were out there volunteering. And so it was a lot of fun hanging out and helping people eat ribs and you know it was a tough job it's a tough job but someone's got to do it so um and and our chief uh we were just talking he was one of the judges this year and like couldn't even finish everything because there were so many to eat but it was a great event they do a good job and it benefits the community it's not just for how many people they have all together um i don't know how many do you think there was thousands of people i heard

I heard 8,000, something like that. Yes, they have quite a few.

They come from all over. And then this Saturday is the Taste of Lincoln for the chamber, which is one of the number one events. Absolutely.

So if you're in the audience or on Zoom, if you want a ticket to the showcase, get them right now because it always sells out. Always sells out. We have our cheering squad down there. Thank you, Kevin. Okay, very good. Any other informational items? All right, very good. In that case, public comment?

Mr. Mayor, I do have two speaker cards that were submitted. First one is from Stan Nader and Ed Su.

And while Stan is coming up, I'll say all speakers' time will be limited to three minutes unless extended by the mayor. All comments or questions should be addressed to the mayor. And in most cases, the city council is prohibited from discussing or taking action on any item not appearing on the posted agenda. but may engage in brief discussion, provide direction to city staff, or schedule items for future meetings. Stan, come forward, please. Thank you.

Mr. Mayor and Council, my name is Stan Nader, and I live in the 12 Bridges area. I recognize you will be addressing the current 40% open space policy in more detail in future meetings, but I did watch the videos of your workshop on April 20th and the city manager's presentation at the planning commission meeting on May 20th. I wanted to share some thoughts after watching those videos. At the workshop, the discussion revolved around possible amendments to the city, the city might consider to the current policy, which states that each development shall include as an exchange for not paying the mitigation fee for habitat preservation and inclusion of a 40% open space requirement according to implementation 3.0 in section 7.3 table 7-1 of the open space conservation element of the 2008 general plan. City staff is of the opinion that conditions have evolved that would call for the city council to consider changes to the current open space policy. It is important to remember why This policy was included in the 2008 general plan. The city of Lincoln was established as an agricultural and rural community, and the committee that put the general plan together desired to maintain the rural feel of the city by providing open spaces throughout the city. It is notable to recognize that Lincoln is the only city in California that has this requirement. Many families have moved to Lincoln because of the open space and trail systems that are within the city. Because cities are becoming more dense with very small yard spaces, having active open spaces like parks are very important. So all families have a place to go to participate in physical and sports activities as a relief from being in confined spaces. It is important to preserve environmentally sensitive wetlands and habitat areas. Another goal was to manage growth. The plan aim was to balance the city's quote, working class identity with new, quote, attainable housing. At the conclusion of the city staff's presentation, I will continue next week, next meeting.

Thank you. Very good. Thank you, Stan.

Ed Sewell?

I just want to say thank you so very much. I have immense gratitude for everyone here in the room that has supported this project at the Lincoln Airport. All of you have played a part in this. This isn't just my success, this is your success. And when you go out to the airport, you should look at what's happening out there. We have our younger generation out there. They're flying around. They're getting their pilot's license. We're actually stoking their dreams. Back at 59, you're stoking my dream, my dream to build out an airport, my dream to fly or to see sentimental journeys, that B-17 that just flew in. I was out there every day. I brought my mother out there that's 86 years old and she remembered 26 years ago at Oakland on Easter Sunday and she watched her two sons, my brother and myself, take flight in that bomber 26 years ago and it brought back memories for her. It brought back memories for other folks too that maybe their fathers or grandfathers had flown during the war and that Some of them came home, and unfortunately, a lot of them didn't come home. But those ties, this is what you guys are doing. You guys are behind this airport, which is really, it's not a diamond in the rough. It is a diamond. And we're just polishing it. It takes energy, though. And it's not only me. And the reason why I'm standing up is to let everybody here know that this is bigger than myself. And thank you for saying yes. I'm working on my tan. I've been out there every day. And we're laying down 12 million pounds of asphalt. We're on day number three. We have two more days. And it's exciting. It really is. There's a lot more to come. After this is done, we're actually working on renditions for a much larger FBO-type building on Flightline. And yes, we need a restaurant out there. We need a place for folks that families can come out there with their kids and take a look at what's happening in our city. It's going to become a destination. And this is something for everybody to be proud of. So thank you.

Ed, thank you. You took the leap of faith and you backed it up by creating what's going out there at this point. I think that's the jump start that the airport needed. It needed someone to actually put the shovel in the ground and turn it over. And that's what you did. So, thank you.

Well, I will say one more thing, too. I am your raving fan. I am your raving fan. And I have nothing but good to say about everybody here. So thank you.

Thank you. Oh, and Ed, when is the grand opening?

We're looking at the 10th and that is Labor Day weekend though. So isn't it 10th of October? Wait, wait, OK, all right. What day is it today? 22nd, OK, good. What's happening on the 10th of October?

Indigenous People's Day is coming up, right? Indigenous People's Day?

Whatever it is, it's going to be our day, Ed. OK, OK, all right. As long as we, the 10th it is, so it is written, so it'll be. OK.

It'll be there whenever you tell us. It is World Mental Health Day. I think there's a lot of parlays into that. If that's the day of reckoning, that means that I'll be living at the airport setting up for the next two or three weeks. So thank you.

Thanks, Ed.

Okay, thank you. Is there anyone in the audience that would like to provide public comment? If so, please approach the podium. Seeing no one. Byron, please approach the podium.

You need a taller hat Byron.

Byron Chapman, 12 Bridges area, council members, mayor, city staff. Really didn't have a comment to make until the gentleman here before me. The issue about a restaurant at an airport. A very quick story about that. Airport out in between Vallejo and Napa. And it was Jonesy's Steakhouse. And I got my license out there. I flew for 20 years out there. And the draw out there was Jonesy's Steakhouse. People would fly in from Tahoe. They'd come up from San Francisco, L.A. It was amazing meeting all the people that came in. I'm working on my pilot's license. Where are you from? Whatever. Coming over, staying, family, whatever. I don't know. I just came to have dinner. Okay. Okay. that was the draw. And from there, it just continued to build and build. So any rendition that has to do with anybody enjoying themselves, you don't necessarily have to have a plane or even fly. But to come out, there were just so many people that were there on a regular basis. So any of those kind of draws whatsoever turns into places like you can't imagine. So that's one of the major tickets. So I just wanted to share that. Thank you.

Thank you, Byron. And it's also up in Auburn Airport. They have wings and over half of their customers are not pilots. They're just members of the community. It's just a lot of fun. Absolutely. Thank you very much for that, Byron.

Okay. I do see one hand raised on Zoom. I'll go ahead and unmute Fran Nevis.

Well, hi, everybody. I really like the idea about the airport and the cafe at the airport. I used to go to that cafe.

When it was open and groups of us would go out there.

In fact, so many of us went out there, they didn't have enough plates for us. They'd have to service in shifts, wash the plates to give us something else that we could eat on. Any of you remember that? Anyway, I just loved hearing what Ed had to say about the airport. And I love the fact that you've proclaimed the frontal lobe degeneration. Actually, with Terry, I've known her for about eight years. She's so wonderful. She has that fundraiser every year, but she's always available to anybody who wants to talk about it or ask questions about it. She's just so knowledgeable. I don't know if she's still there or not. Okay. Hi, Terry. Anyway, I just wanted to say that. Also, I didn't get to say this last time because I got cut off, and I still had time, but I got cut off. But, you know, September is a really important month. You know, it was California's birthday was September 9th, Admission Day, and we used to celebrate that. And we want to remember that. You know, it's really important. And then, of course, we had – you know, Patriot's Day and Mexico celebrated its Independence Day from Spain, you know, and then we had Constitution Day and Nevada City had a huge parade. People dress up and they wear labels so you know who they are. You know, they all through history. It's just fascinating. So I just wanted to share, you know, remind everybody how important September is to us. And thank you all for being there. And I'm sure you've all driven up 193 and Oak Tree Lane and see all the progress up there. It's really great. So thank you all. I know you can't see me. You're just looking at somebody talking in the sky out here. But it's nice to see you smiling, Whitney. Yeah. It's nice to see all of you really doing so much for the city. Thank you all. God bless you all.

Thank you, Fran. And I see Vin who's smiling also.

Oh, yeah, Vin, I forgot. You know, I gave Sean the credit for those stop signs, but I guess it was you all along. Thank you so much. I meant to do that.

Vin, take the win.

Yeah. Thanks, Richard, for reminding me. Thank you.

We didn't cut her off again, did we? Oh, my God. All right, very good. Anyone else on Zoom?

I see no other hands raised.

Okay, thank you very much. In that case, we'll close public comment. I'll move on to the next item, consent calendar. We have six items on the agenda. Would any of my colleagues like to pull any of them for discussion? Okay, Madam Clerk, do we have any speaker cards on any items?

No, we do not.

Okay, anyone on Zoom?

No, hands raised on Zoom.

Okay, thank you very much. Any comment before we vote on accepting it as a block? Okay, in that case, I'll accept a motion.

Move approval of consent agenda.

Thank you. Second. Thank you. Seconded. Thank you very much. All in favor, say aye. Aye. All opposed, no. 5-0. Thank you very much. OK. There are no public hearings. General business. 15A, adopt a resolution authorizing the city manager to execute an agreement with West Coast Netting for protective netting and McBean Stadium. And who's going to be presenting this? Mr. Medill, thank you, sir.

Good evening, Mayor, Council, and members of the public. Matthew Medill, Public Works Director, presenting this item tonight. Tonight we're talking about increasing the height of the outfield netting at McBean Stadium. You can see an aerial photo of the stadium there. We're going to be recommending tonight that we authorize an agreement to sign a contract with West Coast Netting not to exceed 125,000, authorize a contingency of 25,000, create the CIP for the McBean Stadium safety netting, approve a procurement finding to allow us to sole source this contract, and approve the budget augmentation agreement. As this project was not originally budget budgeted in the biennium budget so. As you can recall, I believe, a few meetings ago, there was a nice young lady that brought in a grocery bag full of baseballs that she'd collected in her backyard. She had reached out to us, I think, a month or two prior with a video of a ball hitting the back of her house and next to her dog. And, you know, we immediately started thinking of what kind of solutions we could provide to this resident to increase the safety for her residents. So right now, the netting out there is about 30 feet tall, and this is in right field. So the netting is about 380 feet from home plate so these athletes are clearing that 30 foot net and it's able to make it across the street behind the home and then into into one of the neighbors, if not a few of the neighbors backyards. So you know, we have concerns, this is a safety concern so immediately started looking at. opportunities, we also did some preliminary trajectories to see you know what made sense, we met with the vendor. And Scott Boynton actually personally went out to speak with all the residents. He met with three. They all supported increasing the net height. We just wanted to make sure since they're gonna be seeing it from their backyard that they'd support it. And the consensus was they would support it. So the objective here is to increase the net such that we increase the safety of those residents and prevent more of the balls from entering their backyard. Here's a graphic of the proposed netting configuration. We're actually proposing to remove the existing poles that are out there. There are thirty foot poles cut those off at the base to save expense. Leave those Footings in the ground and poor new footings. These are 30 inch diameter nine feet all or nine foot deep footings 50 foot tall 16 inch poles basically spanning from right field to center field. For the procurement exemption, we have a municipal code that allows this. When the repair of existing equipment can be more efficient, performed by a particular company, and this company's done all the other netting at the facility and has been awarded through competitive process in the past. And they also put in this 30 foot tall fence and we wanted to get this done expediently just to increase the safety and use a vendor that we've had success within the past. So the funding breakdown we did have funds available that we had identified which would have least impact to the. The approved and budgeted projects, and this is slurry seal and parking lots. We felt that this project would have a lower impact than some of the other approved CIPs. And this is one of the projects that's lower on the engineering's priority list as far as project delivery. So they haven't actually started this project. We had a list of potential parking lots where we do improvements, but we haven't identified the exact scope on which ones we're gonna use. So we felt that, If we need to source money, this would be a good place to source the funds. We've identified and asked for an augmentation of 150,000. Of course, we don't need to use any more than is necessary. So the remaining funds could stay within that fund. Again, the recommendations authorized city manager to sign the contract, as you can see in the packet you probably noticed. That the proposal is 110,000 Scott and I actually had a meeting today and discussed with the contractor some of the particulars I hadn't personally been out there, so I wanted to make sure we had enough. And we talked about the scope and feel that it is the appropriate scope, so I don't anticipate having a contract sign that's more than 110,000. But I still wouldn't request that the remaining 40,000 in case we run into unforeseen conditions in the field with those deep footings like if we had to pump any groundwater anything like that, but um. We feel comfortable moving forward with the hundred and $10,000 contract, and I would ask that you approve these four requests and the resolution.

Okay, any questions for my colleagues. Okay, hope, do we have any speaker cards on this.

Speaker cards on this if there's anyone in the audience that would like to provide public comment, please approach the podium. Seeing none, I'll go over to Zoom. If there's anyone on Zoom that would like to provide public comment, please raise your hand. I see no hands raised.

OK, thank you. Bring it back for comments. The only comment I would make is I really appreciate the outreach that you and Scott did out there to make sure that we first do no harm, as they say. And it sounds like all the bases were covered. Well, that's a metaphor, isn't it? But hit that one out of the park. I got it. Okay. So I got to stop. I got to stop. Okay. Anyone else before I continue?

No, it sounds like it was a home run. So good.

Okay. I won't continue with the dad jokes. What I will say, I appreciate staff really jumping on this quickly. I mean, in government terms, it's been very fast since she first came. Because even though it was not an expense, we were anticipating that Public safety is really important and the ballpark is great. Everybody loves the Potters and the other teams that play there. But when we see an issue like that, that needs to be handled, I appreciate the way that staff handled it very well and took direction and ran with it. So thank you very much. And that'll be nice. I mean, I think that that's our job, right? And when the resident and other neighbors see that we take their safety seriously, that's a good thing.

You couldn't help yourself because they ran. You said they ran with it.

Oh, but I wasn't trying to make a joke. I was. Oh, you did on accident. I did on accident.

Okay.

Funny, funny, funny.

Thank you, Matt. I should have asked anyone else. Okay. Very good. Okay. I'll bring it back. Okay. I'll accept a motion. I move approval.

Thank you. Second.

Second. Okay. All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Opposed? No. Very good. Five, zero. Thank you very much, Matt. Very good. What's the timing on it?

I'll have to report back on that. I'm not sure of the timing. Okay. Perfect. Thank you. Okay.

15B, adopt a resolution approving the city manager to execute an agreement with White Brenner Legal Counsel and presented by City Manager Sean Scully.

Thank you, Mayor, and good evening. The City Council retained White-Brenner LLP on March 24th. Oh, Nubia has left the room, for the record. On March 24th, 2026, to provide interim city attorney services while we evaluated, the council rather, evaluated long-term legal service needs. Based on the firm services during the interim period, the city council did give direction to negotiate a simple city attorney services contract, thereby removing the interim role. The agreement that you have in your packet this evening is essentially the same agreement that existed for the interim city attorney services with three important differences, which I'll detail in a moment. More broadly, the firm's responsibilities would be all of the same responsibilities that we come to expect from in-house counsel, simply provided by a firm. Provide legal advice and consultation as requested to the city, city council and city staff. attendance at city council meetings when necessary, coordination, management of any outside council, preparation and review of all documents that we develop here, advice and consultation related to sale of property and acquisition, guidance related to all of the acts that the city is required to follow under law, including the Brown Act, the Political Reform Act, the Public Records Act, Prop 218, and a variety of others. In addition, they will represent the city in legal and regulatory actions, including management of authorized litigation through final disposition as provided in the agreement. Um, in your staff report, the, uh, um, rates per hour are, uh, detailed, um, in, in broad strokes, uh, again, the same as a prior agreement, $250 an hour for general counsel services, which is the primary legal resource we use. Special counsel legal services are billed at $350 an hour. That would be things like complex water, uh, litigation, um, uh, very, very detailed kind of subject matter expertise type work, which is more rare of a need for us. And then under reimbursable legal services, those are billed at 475 an hour, and those are our pass-through charges that we charge for their legal review for outside private parties that are requesting the city's action on some matter, whether it be planning or anything else. The rates are adjusted at January 1st of each calendar year in accordance with CPI increases from the preceding period and a technology fee of two and a half percent is assessed subject to periodic review and potential increase. the city the agreement may be terminated by the city or firm upon 30 days advance written notice except to set forth in the municipal code which is which has a provision that was adopted in 2018 where the city attorney or the firm representing the city cannot be terminated for a period of 90 days without cause after an election which is kind of aligns with a with a law that exists on a statewide level for city managers. They call it a cooling off period during that period of time if you have a large change on a council that provides an opportunity for overlap. The three sections that are different than the last agreement that I'm going to point out here because it was raised a couple times during Agenda preps was the 90 day clause, which again is a municipal code requirement. It could be changed by the city council if you so choose at some point, we would have to go through that process. The second was the technology fee of two and a half percent. The generalized feedback received is that it may be that language in the agreement could be edited so that if there's ever an increase in that potential fee, it's a meet and confer option with the city council. So they for whatever reason, let's say that the cost of the technology used by the city attorney's office to serve us increases significantly due to AI or some other new technology, that they would have to come back and seek that authorization from city council. And finally, there's some language in there regarding appellate authority for the city attorney where they would have additional essentially management authority to file appeals upon direction of city council. And that may be also something that the council would like to discuss. Aside from those three items, it's essentially the exact same agreement. And from a staff perspective, I will tell you, and I'm happy to let any department heads jump in if they like. We've been generally very pleased with the legal services we've received during the last six months or so. And I've appreciated working with Doug and his firm. And I'm happy to answer any questions.

Thank you. Comments or questions for my colleagues first? Anyone? Okay. Okay. Okay. Hope? Do you have any speaker cards?

We do. I have one speaker card, Stan Nader.

Mr. Mayor and council, in 5.10b in the agreement for services lays out city council's responsibility for oversight and consultation. In 5.4, it states when there is a need for outside council, the city manager would be approving that action. I would suggest that you add the words with city council consent. the city attorney does work at the pleasure of the city council in my experience serving on the city council the three-way relationship between the city council the city manager and city staff and the city attorney can get complicated as the city council's main interaction with the city attorney is that close an open council meeting And occasional emails or phone calls. Whereas when the city attorney is working at city hall, there can be multiple interactions a day with the city manager or city staff. This can cause a greater relationship to develop between the city manager and city staff. and the city attorney than with the city council. It is important for you to be watchful and mindful that this could happen and to address it when appropriate. Thank you. Thank you, Stan.

Any other speaker cards?

I have no additional speaker cards.

Okay.

If there's anyone in the audience that would like to provide public comment, please approach the podium. Seeing none, we'll go over to Zoom. If there's anyone on Zoom that would like to provide public comment, please raise your hand. I see no hands raised.

Okay, I'll bring it back to my colleagues. Anyone have any comments?

Just a question. Comment. I'll have to look at the wording on that, but I don't remember, since you've been here, I don't remember a time where we've hired outside counsel without you coming to counsel first.

Well... So there are plenty of examples of that that don't raise to city council levels. Yeah, there are like the legal issues that you deal with and typically you direct or concur with whoever we choose to use to represent us on those various matters. I will tell you that there's a variety of attorneys that we use on an interim kind of inconsistent basis that provide niche services that we've had long relationships. For example, um, uh, our bond counsel, Brian for bath. He has been working for the city for a really long time. And, um, when we need him, we call him for those services. Cause it's not something that Doug does or personnel, uh, things. So in some cases we'll have very unique police department or fire department related personnel issues. And you'd need to go to a specialist that usually our insurance carrier will help us cover, um, I think Mr. Nader's comments are fair in the sense that if we were going to undertake some significant effort with another firm that wasn't White Brenner, we would absolutely have to come to you. But it would be for two reasons. One is to get your concurrence that that's the right direction to go. But more importantly, for budgetary reasons. My authority only goes up to a certain amount. And in the legal world, it's not very much money.

Right. And I think that's what I was thinking. Like the bond council thing, that's kind of like an ongoing, you know, financial thing that you don't need to get our approval for that. Or that's something that we've given you. Or like you said, personnel, we don't need to be brought in on that unless it rises to the level of we're going to have some kind of problem. Right. So I was just going back through my memory, like any large litigation or any problem you've always come to us. And I think that's, that's wise. Yeah.

And it is a little, he's correct in one thing that is a little bit different, not having in-house counsel. So when our previous city attorney was here, she sort of had the responsibility of going out and getting those attorneys to help with those things. And that was sort of her purview to essentially pick the people she was most comfortable representing us. White Brenner is a little bit different in the sense that, where we would have outsourced a lot of different issues. One of the advantages of having a firm is that that is less necessary because White Runner has a number of subject matter expertise inside the firm that makes it kind of unnecessary. So I won't say that it never is happening, but to the extent there's any significant legal needs, you're going to see it anyway because we'll need budgetary authority.

Thank you.

Any other comments or questions?

I've been very impressed with white runner and their legal counsel has been. So great and I feel extremely safe and their level of service is top notch. So it exceeded my expectations so far, and I have very high expectations just in general. It's just something. But I really appreciate everything that they've done. They jumped in and got to work, and it just felt very seamless. And I feel very comfortable. I trust our city manager and the system that we have. It makes sense. You know, we're we're not set up and it's not really appropriate for us to know every single you know minutiae of what he's dealing with as far as you know um uh like hr and there's so many things that are going on in a day-to-day basis that um i don't i don't think it's appropriate or um would it be uh efficient or or uh Yeah, for us to be involved in every single legal decision and counsel, but I know that this isn't a new

Thank you. Cities of our size, there's no solid rule one way or the other. Some in-house councils work very well, and other times you get outside counsel to come in. It depends on the circumstances, where the cities are, the complexity of the city, and I think more than anything else, the competence of the attorney firm that you hired. And everything, I second that. Everything that I've seen with White Brenner is first rate. And the nice thing that I like about them is that they have a very deep bench. And so, you know, they can, they have specialties. And then we also have the two primary attorneys that really know us and know how we operate and our thought processes. And so they're here to guide us. So, yeah, I'm in favor of it. John or Ben?

Yeah, I was gonna say something similar to that, where all the work that we had previous council do, although inclusive with White-Brenner just seems that, you know, that it's like you said, the depth of the bench is, it feels like you're paying for, right, for the price of one. Perfect, thanks.

John. Yeah, I'll echo my colleagues comments on the services being rendered. I have no complaints has been excellent. And I think one of the key things on 5.4 that Mr. Nader represented is there's a backstop to the city manager's approval that's in other parts of the language. And I think those things working together provide a bit more protection than this contract alone. So I also feel comfortable there. The three things that you brought up in terms of the contract, I do think I do have some concerns with the way that they're drafted. I understand the 90 days, and I think since it's not state law and it's our municipal code, then the contract shouldn't say 90 days, it should say follow our municipal code. So if for some reason we decide that we don't want the 90 days, then we don't have to amend the contract, we just amend the municipal code if we feel like that. So that would be the first suggestion I would make. The second on the technology fee, It was fixed in the interim contract and it is not fixed now. I think it should remain fixed. And if there's a substantial reason why that fee, which gets taxed, tacked onto all of their billings, the way the contract is currently drafted is they can give us notice and change that fee. And then our recourse is take it or provide notice. And I think I'd rather see that provision be it's 2.5. And if there's a reason for them to change that fee that they come to us and say, Hey, Here's how things are changing. We think it needs to be three, and here's why. Or they're integrating some new technology into the delivery of service that will actually reduce billings, and so there's a reason for it. I certainly want to make sure that they're treated fairly, but I don't want the city to be subject to 2.5% of all billables, that changing without... you know, our consultation first. I'd rather see that stay fixed. The third thing about the appellate is, I don't know what the right language is here. The way it appears to be currently drafted is there's some efficiency that they need to act on our behalf that it's trying to protect, which I understand. I just want to make sure that that language encompasses that that expedited action is explicitly something that we kind of signed off on as a council where it was where council was involved in the initial action in the first place. So that appellate language is there so that if there's short timelines for them to file appeal on our behalf in certain matters, they don't have to get us all together in a special meeting, which I think makes total logical sense. I just want to make sure that there's some way of massaging that language. I don't know how we do this since they're going to be talking to themselves about the contract, but Um, adding some language in there, whereby that it's, it's very clear that that is the course that the city council intended was to go all the way versus we didn't intend to do that. So those are the three things I'd like to see us incorporate in, but all in all, um, I've been very pleased with the service and, um, these are mostly technical changes that I think protect the city a little bit.

John. Yeah, so there's really two ways we do this. The first would be that easiest, I think, for efficiency sake would be if the council wanted to appoint two members to work with me to work out that language and and then subsequently you can approve it. know to form generally tonight and then have the motion be with these future three technical changes made and just so we're sure the council is you trust your two members happy um we can work on those the two of the edits are very simple to do the third one we'd want to talk through a little bit about what makes sense um that would be one way to approve or alternatively i could go back to the city attorney and the time period between now and next council meeting and iron out some language that you could look at in two weeks. So either way works.

Could we just have John and vice mayor be the two people from the council to work?

I'll make it a really quick time commitment, like 30 minutes.

As long as you want.

Okay, good. All right, so do we need a motion at this point, or we just go?

We want to basically approve to form appointing myself and Whitney to approve the final language pursuant to these three areas.

Yep, and then once that's completed, give me direction to execute.

I move that. Okay. Second.

Okay, all in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. 5-0. Thank you very much. Good compromise. Okay. Very good. City Manager reports.

You know, Mayor, I just don't have much to share tonight. We had a big week last week. We said goodbye to Chief Alves and hello to Chief Eaton.

Welcome to your first meeting, Chief.

It was a really nice week, a lot of feelings, and now we're sort of focused on filling some seats that have been vacated by either retirements or attrition. I'm not ready to announce details yet, but I am comfortable sharing that we've reached a tentative agreement for a new finance director. who we hope will begin here in about mid-October. So as soon as I have some ink on her employment agreement, I'm happy to share the details of that person. I think the city council and community are really going to enjoy working with her. She's going to bring a ton of experience and this world and very exciting hire for us. And one other little thing, just because it's nice, even though she's not here this evening, Jen Brown, our CITO has just the other day, she and I got to an agreement and has signed a five-year extension to her contract. So she'll be sticking around for the foreseeable future, which is great because she does great work. You bet.

Absolutely. Okay. Very good. Thank you. Council initiated a business.

I have one thing. So we've talked about this several times, and I was just talking to Matt Badil. I had another resident from Sun City reach out about fixing the large cracks on their street. But the problem is, and Matt and I were just talking, is that they're everywhere, right? And it was a defect from when it was built of no fault to the city. But now that it's 25 years later, I said, can we go back and make them fix it? Which I don't see that being a feasible thing. But Matt is talking about the plan and what we might be able to do moving forward. And so my question is, and I'm sure it's come up at Coffee with the Mayor before, but I'm thinking maybe we do like a community, like a meeting, a community outreach, to explain to them why those cracks are happening, how we're gonna tackle it, what it's gonna take, how long it might take, all the options. So that way everyone, and then you can record it and then they can be sent out. That way everybody kind of understands that it's not just that the city's not getting to their street. I don't know. It's a problem and they're very concerned up there, which I don't blame them, but it's not something, it's not like a normal street repair, right? When it was built, they just did use the wrong materials, and so now we have to fix it. But I'm just thinking some kind of communication, widespread communication in some cities so everybody understands what's happening. Question or thoughts?

Sean, what do you think about that?

Okay, that's fine.

I have a few ideas.

Yeah, right, okay.

That's fine. Like an informational...

of like a digital pamphlet that's informational and like a pictograph kind of something that's very visual that we could pump out to the hoa it doesn't have to be an in-person meeting idea yeah i just thinking about some way to communicate with the residents up there that we hear you we understand we know it's a problem here's why it's a problem and this is what we're trying to do about it

Yeah, you know what, maybe next meeting we can bring back, you know, some concepts for you to thumbs up.

Yeah. Whitney, anything? Okay. Sean, do you want to talk a little bit, just an overview of the state of the city that's coming up?

Yes. Sorry. I was trying not to bury your lead. We have a date. Mark your calendars. 10 a.m. October 20th. That is a Tuesday afternoon. if you happen to attend coffee with the mayor, don't come that day, instead come to state of the city. We are, we, we have a new concept and every new mayor can decide if they like it or not. But we were thinking that since we're now in a district format here, it might be kind of fun to do each time a new mayor takes the seat to do their presentation in their district somewhere. And so we're going to hold this one at the sun city ballroom, which is a, you know, Mayor Pearl gets the best location because it's the best meeting space I think we have in Lincoln. Could hold a lot of people. So we're going to have it that day. The chamber is going to arrange for some food for folks that like to attend in the morning. And then we're working up a presentation of the work we've done this year and initiatives moving forward and should be excellent. So if Vice Mayor Eklund ascends to the throne, we'll do something in her district and so on and so forth thereafter. But we thought it would be nice to not always have people feel like they need to come down here to hear what's going on. We can be mobile and should be.

Great idea.

Good.

John, anything? Ben?

Okay.

Very good. Okay. Committee reports. We'll start off with Holly. Okay.

I don't have any. I skipped SACOG to go to chief's retirement ceremony. There was a vote, but I'll report on it next time. So I make sure I have all the details. But basically Placer County had very big success in this round of funding for projects. They're still going to get their projects. None of them were Lincoln, but Placer County had four or five or six of them. And then the Sacramento entities decided they didn't like the rules that they set once they didn't get in this round and they pushed back. And so it was a thing, but I'll report more in detail on that later, but that's all I have for now. Thank you, Whitney.

Yeah, we had economic development and both on Wednesday the 9th. And in economic development, I think we just kind of went over and touched base with our pending projects. We got an update and a really great presentation about the new Clay Art Center that is going to start being built the old carnegie library and uh that's very very exciting so if anybody wants to watch or learn more about that that's in um that was recorded at our economic development meeting in the agenda minutes And there's a website for the Clay Arts Center, thelincolnclayartscenter.com. And for LAFCO, nothing really exciting there. I think we were just kind of touching base as well. And then we had airport last week. I'll let you... talk about that. And we had our chamber board meeting and Holly discussed that we're going to be having our big annual Taste of Lincoln this weekend. And I will be there greeting everybody. and doing the honorable wristbands, I believe. Try not to get anybody's arm here. Say hello, it's a really, really fun event. It's bigger than you would expect, just like all of our events. The Chamber does an amazing job and Public Works and Partnership and all the vendors, it's so much fun.

Yeah, and it's always well attended.

Yes, yes.

As I said, if you want to get tickets, get them out and get now because it's this Saturday night. Yep, very good. Okay, the airport, we had a number of things going on. What's going on with the Capital Improvement Program, KT Aero, our new airport management firm will be starting to come on board. They'll take official residents first of the year. We'll be working with our current staff in transition over the next couple of months, so it's going to be nice and seamless, and we're looking forward to that. Finish up those projects out there. The only one I had, Pioneer Community Energy, we are going from the current 11 communities right now, cities and counties, we're going to 27. And that's going to be basically doubling the size. So it's going from a quarter billion dollars to a lot of money over the next two years. So they had a new boardroom over there. And it was interesting when that right now we had 11 seats in the small boardroom. Now we have 27 seats. We'll see how that operate, how that goes. That's going to be a challenge, I think, from a governance standpoint. But as a operation, it's very good for us because we'll be able to get better pricing on electric sourcing, and so that's going to help out on our pricing. We did that, and then also we talked about how to integrate them into the new community. So that was Pioneer. More to come on that. John?

Oh, sorry, Mayor PCWA. You and I had that last week as well. Go ahead. Okay, I have all my dates. We talked about the Ophir Treatment Plant was finalized, the RFP, and so was the fixed price. It came in a little bit under... what they had originally worried that it was going to be. And Sean, do you remember what the groundbreaking date was for that? It's next month, right?

Is it the 10th? No. Matt, do you remember what it is?

October 15th at 10 a.m. It was a race to see which one of us could get that message first.

I won.

Yeah, the 10th, 15th at 10 a.m. If anybody wants to attend, it's at 10681 Ophir Road in Newcastle.

Big deal.

Yeah, absolutely. Big, big deal for us. Okay, very good. John? Economic development, when you covered LISWOA, we confirm the hiring of our new GM will start October 25th.

Excellent.

Excellent.

Ben? Well, because few of us are going to leave cities over the next couple of days, I will not be able to tomorrow. So I'll have an update for that. And the flood board, of course, just doesn't have anything going on. And so they don't meet.

Okay.

Easy solution to that one. Okay.

Anything else with the good of the order? Yes.

One last thing, Mayor. The city attorney asked me to, on behalf of Doug Anubia, thank you very much for wanting to keep them around. And she can say more if she'd like. But, you know, thank you. Yes.

No, I am very grateful. thankful and grateful for the welcome that we've received. And we love working with your staff and with the council. So on behalf of Doug and myself and the entire firm, we are very happy that we're going to be able to continue working with you.

Thank you, Dubia. No brainer. Okay, you bet. Okay, thank you very much. We're adjourned.