City Council - Regular Meeting

Recording in progress.

All right, I'll call to order the regular meeting of the Live Oak City Council for September 2nd, 2026. Roll call, please.

Council Member Wooten.

Here.

Council Member Santana. Here. Council Member Hernandez. Here. Vice Mayor Palma. Here. Mayor Chaptoline.

Here. Please join us for the pledge and invocation.

Salute pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag

of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Dear Lord, we're so thankful for the awesome opportunity we have here to serve our city, Lord, and we just pray you'd be with us to help us make good decisions. Lord, we thank you for the beautiful weather and the beautiful clouds and all the blessings we have here and our community of Live Oak with all the farming and all the things of nature that you've created, Lord. We thank you for that, and in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

All right. Is there any corrections or changes to the agenda? No corrections. All right. So with that, we'll move on to public comment. Any person wishing to address the City Council on general jurisdictional matters or consent calendar items may do so at this time. If you're commenting on an agenda item, your comments will be heard at the time that item is scheduled for discussion. Is there any public comment?

We do have one public comment card, Rick Dice.

Good evening, Council. It is a beautiful day and it's a lovely city we live in. I like to think of myself as a positive person. It seems like every time I get up here to speak, I'm talking about problems and situations which I think are less than ideal. There was a big report that came out with LAFCO. The report came out June 18th. It was a municipal services review. They're supposed to be done every five years. This one hadn't been done since 2012. I went to a meeting. It's 102 pages and a lot of information in there. It's nice that it's all been brought together. What disturbs me is the fact that, Mr. Mayor, you're on that committee. And I've looked at all the meetings. I've looked at the videos. You haven't made one mention of that report. And it's a huge report. And it outlines some good things about Live Oak, but also some major problems. And my feeling is that, so there are problems, but I think they need to be talked about, need to be discussed. People have a right to know if things are not so good in Live Oak. And I'm pretty disappointed in the fact that this hasn't been brought up. Back in January, we talked about this in February, the CAF report came out. And this report was referenced quite a bit by the company that did the municipal services review. A lot of good information in there. And it shows the trends because it goes back ten years. In this case it went back five years. It shows the financial trends are not good. And of course the big discovery that I stumbled across back then was the fact that over a two-year period our fair city has gone through, blown through, spent 47% of our reserves. That's not happening everywhere. Again, wasn't brought up, wasn't talked about. It's really not a very transparent way to do government. This might seem like a small matter, but if you go to the city's website for finance, they have several columns. One of them is the payables, which are reported every two weeks. There hasn't been a payable posting since,

June of 2025. What's up with that?

You know? Those are very helpful to look at. It shows the cost and sometimes it shows, you know, costs that seem to be a little outrageous. So there again, we're not looking at a lot of transparency here. I hope we can improve on that. And I would hope that you'll bring up the municipal services review because it's a very thorough report and it's independent. And I think there's a lot of food for thought there. Thank you for your time.

No further comments. All right.

Well, with that, I'd just like to provide a response to that factual response. So there is, I agree, there's quite a bit of info in there. The city did post, if I'm not mistaken, that announcement, right, Ben? I thought I saw something bringing attention to the report and putting it out there for the public.

Yeah, I've definitely mentioned it, I think, in my city manager report. There's definitely been communication across the council. LAFCO is a public meeting. It's been brought up. And there's definitely been budget hearing meetings that address those items that are talked in. They're specifically related to the water and sewer funds and where the city's at. And it talks about some of the things that have been happening over the last year that have been positive. I don't know exactly how you word it, but it's been discussed. The MSR has been complete, and those items are being addressed, and it's been specifically talked through our different budget processes.

I think it's important. MSR, it's not some big, ugly report that the council is ignoring or not putting out there. Again, those topics, the trends, all those things, those things have been being looked at by the council and trying to be addressed for years when it comes to the rates, the water rates, sewer rates. These aren't big surprises. another part of that report just for everyone too and I know this was discussed as far as reducing the sphere of influence to bring it really closer to our city limits and there's you know good things about that when it when it reflects for safety services and those types of things so again the Those are important. The city looks at as important, and it's nothing we're shying away from. But thank you for those comments and bringing that up. If there's no other public comment, we'll move on to our consent calendar. Are there any items anybody wishes to pull or discuss? Seeing none, I'll go ahead and move to approve the consent calendar.

Second.

Council Member Whitman? Yes. Council Member Santana?

I would like to pull business item four.

Yeah, we're on the consent. Yeah, we're on the consent calendar.

It's just the minutes?

Yeah.

Is what I have on my agenda.

Yeah.

Yes.

Council Member Hernandez? Yes. Vice Mayor Palma? Yes. Mayor Chappellini?

Yes.

Motion carries.

All right. Moving on to business item two, annual AB 1600 development impact fees and fund report. And we'll turn that over to our finance director, Ethan Gutierrez.

Mayor, council, thank you for having me. We're going to be discussing AB 1600, development impact fees. So the purpose of this item, by state law, the city is required annually to specifically account for and determine a continuing need for AB 1600 funds. These are development impact fees that are collected for a specified purpose in relation to development. So kind of a little bit of background. Per California's Mitigation Fee Act, this is again an annual review requirement where we kind of go over and identify the fees collected, the expenditures that are made, and the remaining balances available, including balances remaining after five years. So the city of Live Oak, we've got eight different development impact funds. So parks and recreation, police, fire, roads, flood control. These are the various ones that we have. They are restricted funding. So they are held into their own fund balance to where there has to be a specified new development of why we're spending this money. So these are funds that we cannot use for day-to-day operations. So if a vehicle breaks down or we need to buy paper for something, we can't use these funds for that. This is a specified, very restricted funding. So just another little background. So these are the rates that are set currently in our fee schedule. These were recently reduced back in October of 2025 to help spur economic development. But this is kind of what it looks like. And it's based off of land use. So when we have a single family home, which is a residential per unit, we're collecting about $5,800. And this is how then it's divvied up across those various funds. And it kind of goes so on and so forth with the different land use categories. Just some prior examples of what we use these funds for. So Fund 30, Parks and Rec, in 23-24, we built the new dog park. Fund 34, police, we use this a lot for our police vehicles. Same thing with fire, with the new fire engine. We're using it to help augment or subsidize for the loan for the fire engine that we're paying. The fire engine is about $120,000 a year for the next 10 years. So we made our first payment in 2526. We'll have another one in 2627 and eight more years after that. And then fund 36 our roads and signals. We use this for the Pennington road pod project back in 2021. So these are the fund balances of the various funds that I was just discussing, the eight development impact fee funds that we hold. So Parks and Recreation, $591,000. Community Center, $389,000. Public Works. So when we kind of look at this on the screen, I do want to make sure that we're all understanding these are fund balances. As I discussed in prior meetings during budget, February meeting, the May meeting, the city's at a pivotal point with our cash balance. So while we have a lot of money stowed away in these funds and we'd love to use them, but the situation that the city is in is we are very low on cash for operations itself, not just to spend these funds that we have for what they're meant for. So again, part of the AB 1600 annual report, we're meant to provide you funds that are held, funds that we received and we're holding longer than five years. So obviously, you can see with the prior, these are the amounts that we're holding as a total. But when it comes to funds that we received more than five years ago, this is the funds that we're holding on to. So basically the gist of this also is to adopt findings that funds held longer than five years are needed for future projects. Are there any questions?

All right. Any questions from council?

Yes.

Okay.

Thank you. So you mentioned that Fund 30 was used for the dog park. How much was that?

I'd have to look. But if I had to venture and guess, I think about $30,000. But I can get an exact number for you.

Because it was my understanding COVID money was used for the dog park.

It could have been multiple funds helping assist with that project, but I did notice that the new dog park did assist the funds within that parks and rec impact fee fund.

Could you email me the amount that was actually used from parks and recs and then if any COVID money was used? Absolutely. Thank you. And then I have one more question. It looks like there's a $368,463.76 for Fund 33, General Government. Can you elaborate on that fund?

Yeah, so that's used for the general government purposes. So basically, from my understanding, the buildings that we work in, so like City Hall, so any improvements that we need to make, that's what I've seen in the past. It hasn't been used for quite some time, so the examples that I was putting I wanted to put relevant ones that have been recent that folks can remember, but I can go back in time and kind of give you a history of what we spend those funds on to give you a clearer picture if you'd like. Sure. Okay.

Anything else? Thank you. Vice Mayor?

Hey, Ethan. I'm also interested in how much of AB 1600 funds went to the dog park. If I remember it was closer to 65,000, but that would be great to refresh our memory. Of course. In regards to fund 30, so can you explain again, so there's almost $600,000, but we can't tap into that. Is that correct?

It has to be, if you want to go ahead and take it.

Definitely, Ethan, please add to this. So that's the amount that's supposed to be in there. But we could loan for operations. And so the cash balance, so if it's supposed to be $600,000 in the bank, if you add all this up and it says $2 million, but I only have $1 million in the bank, that's what really is going on. It's being loaned. And it's tracked with interest for different things. So when we go to use that balance, it has that amount allocated to it. But it doesn't mean I actually have the cash in the bank. And so that's the real, I don't know if I'm articulating this quite right. So it's restricted. It has to be loaned. It has to have an interest rate. It has to be tracked individually. You can only use it for growth inducing, you know, it's for impacts associated with growth. But the balance for the parks, for the government, that's what it's supposed to be. But in reality, the cash, because our cash goes up and down in how we're borrowing, isn't there.

Yeah, so when we have our general fund operating on a deficit, water operating on a deficit, our sewer operating on a deficit, so when we say cash, hey, yeah, we've got, well, these fund balances, these are sitting here and it looks really pretty, but in actuality, our other funds are hurting our ability to operate on liquid cash, basically, is what I'm trying to get at.

All right, so we're leveraging these funds to operate on a day-to-day basis. So do you know what the actual cash value is for anything? Or is it basically zero or?

Well, so I can check for these. I mean, these guys are probably, this is what the cash is sitting at for them, right? But we have negative cash in general fund, negative cash in water. There is some funds in sewer. So August 31, we got our bank statement. And out of all of our bank with SOFI that we have, our Golden Pacific Bank, and the money that we have over at LAFE, the city currently has $3.6 million. So that $3.6 million is spread across here, here, here, And then our negatives with general fund, water fund, if there's any other special revenue funds that are holding a cash balance, that's what makes up our total, that 3.6 that we're currently holding on to. So as far as the balances that these guys have, they're clean as far as being separate legally, but true cash balance for the whole city of all operations across all funds, we have about 3.6 million. Okay.

Thank you for clarifying.

Yeah.

For the chair, can we get back to the dog park? Is it $30,000 or $65,000?

I would need to look. Yeah, I didn't look at that specifically. So I can get back to you on that and how much we spent. As far as how much we spent with impact fees, if there was any COVID money or ARPA funds that we used, I could definitely get you something.

And so there was $591,328.81, right? Was there any other projects used out of Parks and Rec or just the dog park?

As of recent, that was the most recent for 23-24. Again, I can go back further. I can give you a history of since inception if you'd like.

Louise?

If I could jump in real quick. I want to say back in 2023 that we budgeted 65, but if I remember correctly, it was either $57,000 or $59,000 that we spent on the dog park.

Thank you.

Which was AB 1600 funds?

Correct.

All right. Council Member Wharton? No, I'm good. Thanks. Council Member Hernandez?

Questions for me? Thank you.

I don't have any other questions. This is pretty much a recurring item, so I'm familiar with the process. Is there any public comment?

No public comment.

All right. Well, I'll bring it back to council for any other discussion or to entertain a motion.

I'll make a motion to accept the annual report on development impact fees and adopt the findings that funds held longer than five years are needed for future projects.

I'll second that.

Council Member Woten?

Yes.

Council Member Santana? Yes. Council Member Hernandez? Yes. Vice Mayor Palma? Yes. Mayor Chappellin?

Yes.

Motion carries.

All right. Moving on to business item three, authorizing the acceptance and execution of Proposition 64 grant, Live Oak Pool Rehab. And I will turn that over to our city manager.

All right. So good evening, council members. And so this is a great item. Honestly, it's really this is a positive for the community. And it's really I want to give a shout out to staff. This was brought to our attention, I think, in one of our February meetings about a possible grant opportunity. They jumped on it. And within a couple of weeks, we had an application in. And so with the help of Luis's team and Ethan's team, we were successful. And so I'll dive into it a little bit. There's been some talk about it, but it's official in the agreement. And so what I have before you is related to the Prop 64. There we go. So the item before you is to basically consider accepting the grant and executing the agreement moving forward with the terms of the agreement for a million dollar grant to rehab and fund programs and support staff over the next five years for the city pool. 2016, California voters approved Proposition 64. This is a controversial item. It has to do with cannabis. But with that, they put an excise tax, a tax on the cell. And so that tax is supposed to be used in communities to establish to help with public safety, health, youth programs, and community projects. And so that's what we tapped into for the application. That's great. And so 2025, there was different cohorts. So this is the fourth release of the funds. What's made it different this time is that we qualified based on our size. And so even though there's been some technicality about the cannabis use aligning with state law in our county, in our region, in our city, with us being under 10,000 population, we qualified. So on March 26, we applied. 84 applicants, 71 received funding. The funding that we put in for was to rehabilitate the pool. So if anybody's, you know, we've definitely had discussions over the years and before me about the state of the pool. It needs to be resurfaced. It needs to happen every so often. And we're way past that due date. And so it's really in a state of extreme need about just where Fiberglass is chipping off. It's becoming an issue that the pool needs to be resurfaced besides some of the issues with the slides and other stuff. And so we were talking about allocating $250,000 just for the resurfacing project. And so this is huge where, as part of the project, we have about $600,000 for the pool rehab. And so we're hoping it's going to have to be prevailing wage and bid. But we're going to try to include as much as we can for that amount of money. So possibly getting the shade structure up, redoing the slides, resurfacing the pool, and then approximately another $400,000 almost in staffing and professional services over the next five years to help. And so it's a huge win. Here's just a shot of the pool. I don't know. It's hard to see on the size, but you can really start to see the cracking and the surface peeling off and the water getting behind it along the edges if you've been out there lately. We could just skip to the end. So really, the fiscal impact is it's $1 million positive. But in order to facilitate the grant, it is in a reimbursement where the money has to be budgeted. We spend it, then we get reimbursed. But ultimately, it's $1 million positive for the general fund budget for costs that we were planning on spending. So with that, my recommendation is to adopt AMB as presented. And I'm happy to answer any questions.

All right, any questions for Ben?

Yes, please. Can we go back? I didn't write down. So when you applied, one of the things I caught is you put down police. Is that what I saw up there? Go back a little more. Maybe one more. Maybe one more. Or did you, you said when you applied, you applied for certain things, correct? For the grant.

Yeah, I mean, we'd be happy to detail the specifics. I don't know if, besides the pool rehab, we could also talk about the programs, because as part of that, there are some healthy anti-cannabis requirements. But it's all internal staff, I understand.

Yeah, so basically the gist of the project is about, as Ben mentioned, $600,000 for the pool rehab. Right.

My question is, when we applied, what did we tell them we wanted to use the money for? Was police included in that application?

partially, but it's not for police services. It has to be with enforcement for this Prop 64 as far as cannabis use. So the intent of this or our angle that we took with this application is not only for pool rehab, but with our lifeguards. They're considered transitional aged youth. So we're impressionable. We can hire them for jobs. We could teach them. So the police side of it was merely to help with education on the impacts of cannabis.

But the police aren't going to get any of this money. We're not allocating. When we vote on this, we're not voting to allocate any of the money for police. What were the other things that you put on the application?

Let me pull something real quick. So again, a big portion of this is just the rehab for the pool, so the fixed asset for the pool, and the rest of it for salaries and benefits. So again, some of it minor, minor for police, and it's just to help with education for the kids, the transitional age youth lifeguards, but also code enforcement as well. We have some parks and rec workers as far as assisting with signage, putting things up, walking around. So it's kind of with this grant, when we applied for it, they requested that you have priority points. So priority points meaning 70% of it needs to be for enforcement. Obviously within our grant documentation we had about 39%. So we weren't up there in priority. So I was happy but surprised that we received funding for this. And again, this is given to our reduced services with police that's forthcoming. But we did belabor on that as far as this is a need. The pool is a landmark. And it's basically a healthy alternative for youth on all aspects.

So, so far I have police and pool and parks and recs, salary and benefits. What else, Ben, did you mention? Pool rehab.

Pool rehab is a huge, huge portion of this.

Right, but there was like four things that you mentioned. Can we go back to the beginning and start all over slowly, please? Is that the very beginning? That's the beginning.

That's the beginning. So I think you're saying...

Right here. Where funds are to be used, a cannabis tax was established where funds are used to help fund public safety, health, youth programs, and community projects. So we're leaving public safety completely out of this money.

No, some of it's going towards police. But again, it has to be enforcement due to Prop 64, cannabis.

Right.

It can't be them patrolling around the city. It has to be within that area.

Right. And do you think we have any cannabis use here in the city?

I think we had a need to help our pool.

This is priorities, right? Public safety, I think, is...

probably a priority within the city right so just to be clear the grant has been applied for and it's been applied for based on a scope for the pool and salary and benefits to implement the programs and so what's so and basically based on that scope if we accept the money that's what we're to deliver to get the money back did you put on the application police

It's a partnership, right?

It's a partnership with the education as part of the scope, yes. But at this point in time, it hasn't been fine-tuned to exactly determine how we're going to meet that scope and that education component.

Well, I don't agree with that. You put on the application for police, public safety, and you want to put $1 million just for the pool, and we're saying we're going to cut our public safety. That isn't right. But I'd like a copy of that application, please.

It's in your agenda with a full package.

Vice Mayor? Yeah.

First and foremost, I'd like to thank staff for working hard and getting a grant. When's the last time the city even received a grant or was even competitive for one? So a little bit of gratitude for our staff that got denied and then went back and argued and got approved. So thank you to Ethan and the rest of the crew for doing that, because this may have been the last year of the pool. And that would hurt our youth and anybody else who grew up here like myself who used to enjoy going to the pool. So thank you for working hard. I don't have any questions, but just some gratitude for our staff that is working hard. And I mean, you were very transparent on how the grant was working, what we applied for. Thank you, and I'm glad that the money is going towards the youth of this city. So that's all I have to say.

To the chair, does the mayor's wife work for the pool? That's a question.

She sure does.

Thank you.

I belong with many members of our community.

And all the money is going to the pool, right? None to public safety, correct? I don't know.

It's irrelevant.

It's not irrelevant. Public safety is for the community or residents. It's not just for recreation.

I'm just very excited that we didn't lose the pool. I was afraid there for a while, the way things were and the way the maintenance was going to be. And it just looked like an impossible situation. And I'm so excited that we turned this impossible situation around to something that could still benefit our youth and our community, which we want to grow our youth. We want to keep them busy. And I think that it's so amazing for this Prop 64 To go towards this. It's just so great. It's so amazing. I love it. Thank you.

I have nothing negative to say. I think this is a great thing for our community. It's been needed and talked about for many, many years. And Luis did his best to try to sort things out with limited budgets and things that he had going on while still trying to keep it running. Because I know that was something that weighed on his whole department. They talked about it a lot. So I thank you guys for doing this. I think this is great. You know, we've all been asking for grants anywhere we can find them. So anything that we can do to help our city out and the fact that it's offsetting costs for staff that we would have incurred costs for, I think that's huge. So the fact that we're able to use it for that as well is great. So really appreciative. So thank you.

I'll bring it back to the vice mayor. Did you have a follow up?

Yeah, you know, I went to the I forget the name of the event, but Luis might remember it's the ice cream night or something at the pool where that park was filled with kids and parents having a good time. Stuff like that would be eliminated if the pool wasn't being resurfaced and in a safe condition for everyone. In addition to the Miss Kelly does the water aerobics, I believe, in the evenings. And I see that's pretty popular when I drive by. Just because you don't use it or see it, it's very well utilized. And sometimes we forget just because you don't go yourself. So there's so many uses to that. And then I do want to know the last time the city did receive a grant. It'd be great for the public to know that we finally got one and put ourselves in position to receive one. So just to appreciate what we do get because it's so competitive to get one.

CHRISTIE WOODARD- To the chair, so just so I understand this, the money we're getting is just $1 million just for the pool. It's not what's up there on the screen.

That's not accurate. I'll go ahead and I have some comments as well. I've never shied away from my wife is a part-time seasonal employee. No, it's not. I have the floor and I can comment on the things you bring up. I was talking.

I was talking. So I'm trying to understand this. So we applied for a grant. That's great. How we applied, we used the WARDING PUBLIC SAFETY. MY NEXT QUESTION IS, A MILLION DOLLAR GRANT, THAT'S GREAT. ARE WE ALLOWED AS A CITY COUNCIL TO TAKE SOME OF THAT MONEY AND APPLY IT TO PUBLIC SAFETY, WHICH IS NEEDED APPARENTLY? A MILLION DOLLAR GRANT, THAT'S GREAT. BUT WHAT I'M SEEING HERE IS HOW WE APPLIED FOR THAT GRANT. AND WE SAID PUBLIC SAFETY OR POLICE, BUT WE'RE NOT GIVING ANY TO THE POLICE. Can we?

That's not accurate. And I'll answer your question.

Well, I'm talking to Ben. Can we? Since he applied for the application, I'm not in disagreement with all the rest of the council that the million dollar grant is great. How many months is the pool open in the city?

Which question do you want me to ask, Councilwoman?

Can we use any of that money since you put public safety or police down on your application for public safety and police?

The money received has to be within the scope of the grant, which is to rehab the pool and to fund programs at the pool. However, it does offset directly general fund impact dollars that would be OTHERWISE USED. SO ANY OF THOSE FUNDS THAT GO TO PAY FOR EXISTING STAFF TO RUN THE POOL ARE NOW FREE TO UTILIZE PER COUNCIL'S DISCRETION, WHICH COULD BE USED FOR PUBLIC SAFETY.

THANK YOU.

YEAH. AND SO I'LL FOLLOW UP, BECAUSE I MET WITH THE, WHAT IS IT? DO YOU HAVE THAT ACRONYM? BCSC rep to go over all this. And to answer your question, no, you can't just take these Zollers and put it towards safety. I'm not saying that.

I'm not saying that at all.

You just asked that question. And I have the floor and I'll answer your question.

Why do we put public safety or police on there

we're not applying for that because it's within the scope of the grant part of that scope to meet their scope is the educational it's it's not a patrol type grant it's not to augment patrols and and give staff in the community it is for the youth programs and how they how they support the programs and they can also support infrastructure so that that is what this grant is all about it's it's not to give $1 million to augment patrol. I'm not saying that. You're putting words in my mouth.

I said, can some of the money. Can some of the money. What I'm saying is public safety. I'm not just saying pools up there.

And that is through the educational and the programming that has been submitted in the grant and that the Bureau has approved. And it's for educational purposes. It's not for a patrol. And we are required to provide that. And there will be audits and everything else to ensure that what's listed there It's spent. They track it very carefully. So Council Member Hernandez.

Thank you. For example, would it be something like, hey, we educate people at the pool for a drug-free, cannabis-free night, right? Staffing could come. Police officers could be present. They would just educate the people there. That would satisfy that requirement, correct?

Right. And that's what Ben was speaking to. That scope, there's something dedicated to there. They will submit what that what those events are going to be, what that public outreach is going to be, what that information is going to be. And it will be determined, approved by the Prop 64 folks, and will be implemented.

Right. Then we wouldn't have to come out of our funding for police. For example, it would come out of this funding here.

Exactly. Perfect. And again, I just want to, again, back to the positive things for staff. This was something that we did find out we were were potentially available to us. Staff got right on it, got out there, and really tailored this. I mean, all these things are part of it. You have to put together a package that meets all their requirements, and it's not easy. I appreciate everything staff did to get out there and make it happen. This was one of the items just for the public. Really, in our final budget talks, it was done. This was coming off the list. The pool was going to be shut down next summer until down the road when we had enough funds or a grant came available. So this is exactly what we talked about. Staff made it happen. And again, we also, during the budget process, cut any discretionary spending down within the parks programs. So this was another one that the parks programming side of this was going to go because this one, the fees, it doesn't pencil out. There's always money that has to come from a general fund to offset that. And it's not only one year, but I think from the estimates we saw, we can roll it over into additional years to cover those operating costs. So across the board now, our parks programs will be self-sufficient. And we're not going to lose the infrastructure of the pool, and we're also not going to lose those programs that, as everybody knows around here, for summertime for our youth, Really, it's the only program that's going on at that time. When kids are out of school, it's a hub for the youth to hang out over there. That's why this ranked so high, because all those things were factored in. That is the gathering spot or one of the main ones. And it's an opportunity to really provide some positive things for our community.

And with the surrounding places having to increase their costs, we were the most affordable anywhere in the local areas. Good job.

So with that, do we have any public comment?

Rick Dice?

Don't fall off your chairs. I want to offer kudos to the staff, too. These grants are not easy to get. I mean, you just don't stick your hand in a big cookie jar and pull out the money, do you? They're highly competitive. It requires a lot of work. So, yeah, this is a big deal for the city. So congratulations to the staff. Thanks, Rick. Thanks.

No further comments.

All right, with that, I'll bring it back to council for any additional discussion or a motion.

I'll make a motion to approve. Excuse me, adopt a resolution approving the acceptance and execution of the Prop 64 grant and authorizing the city manager to execute all documents to administer and implement the grant in accordance with terms and conditions established with the California Board of State Community Corrections, including any amendments. And two, authorize the finance director to make supplemental appropriation to amend the fiscal 26-27 budget to be able to expand and receive funding for the Prop 64 grant in the amount of $1 million, including any other necessary actions to allocate the funding for use in accordance with state guidelines.

I'll second that.

Council Member Wooten? Yes. Council Member Santana? Yes. Council Member Hernandez? Yes. Vice Mayor Palma? Yes. Mayor Chappellin? Yes. Motion carries.

All right, moving on to business item four, stormwater analysis, professional services agreement. And I'll turn it once again over to our city manager.

Yes, thank you. I'd like to reference. City Engineer Jeff Rabo is here to help answer any of the details. I guess just on a high level, what we have before us is specific to stormwater, professional services, to do some design work. And so this is kind of a case to spend money to make money, I guess I would say. And so there's some critical issues We're all in our utilities specifically stormwater sewer collections and water distribution and so the You have to know when you go to develop, I can't remember the name of the subdivision at the moment, but so North Luther Road, Northwest Live Oak. There's been, there's maps, there's paper maps on file with a condition that says, hey, design and construct a stormwater pipe to facilitate or design and construct the sewer pipe to facilitate those homes. It's real generic. It gets through the entitlement process. It's a condition of approval that they have to do that. But when they start to get into the weeds and they start doing the performer to find out if it pencils out or not, they need to know what the exact size is, what the design criteria, and what that means. Because does it mean they have to build a new lift station? Does it mean they have to build a 48-inch pipe? Does it mean they need to build a five-acre or a two-acre? And that affects the lot line. That affects the parcels. It affects the performer. And does the project pencil out? And so what's going on here is that That hasn't been done in quite a long time. And so we have developers asking these questions, and I don't have an answer to that. Because we need to have the model updated. We need to have this design criteria match what the current design criteria is. And then we could move forward with that. Jeff's been getting beat up constantly trying to get those answers and work through general plans and some of our technical memos as things. And so one of the most likely I'll come back in the future for the wastewater is probably the next item. But for this, what it's really doing is there's two tasks. The first task is just to get our model updated because the engineers can't take our data and then design what they need to if our model isn't right. And so Wes Yost did a lot of the previous technical work and some of our general plan work, if I get it right. Or not our general plan, but our... master plan, our master plan for the stormwater system. And so they have our old model. And that's why I'm coming to you with a sole source. With the previous work that they've done and their familiarity with the city, I need them to basically pay for that task one to get the model right. and then authorize me to be basically in charge of task two, which is the work for that specific development. But as part of that, there's going to be fee credits because that was part of the work that developer was charged. So we're going to work out basically some sort of fee credit term as far as what their offsetting cost is for items specific to them. And so really, so what's in front of you is to authorize me for that $29,000 amount. to work with West Yost and work through updating our model and then be able to come up with a way to, you know, You don't want to forecast too far in the future. You have these documents that are 40 years away from now that aren't going to happen or 20. It's really what's the near-term needs. We're talking about maybe the likely next four developments or those areas, so we kind of know what is in the pipeline that we need to prepare for and how many more connections can we have at a certain lift station before additional work needs to happen. Happy to answer any questions. And Jeff could definitely detail and explain it better than I.

All right, any questions for Ben?

Yeah, Ben, thank you for that update. So this is to upgrade to get our model updated. Can you elaborate on that? What's the benefit to us right now when we're short of money to do this?

So residential developers that we've told need to build to accommodate those houses, they do not know what size pipe they need to build. And so if they don't know what size pipe to build, they can't move forward with construction. And so there's, and so it's, I don't know how to explain it. You need to have, the city needs to be able to provide the criteria that they know what they need to build to so they can pencil out their costs.

And so this model- How did they build before? How did they build the developments before?

There was a master plan update, I think, 2010, 2019, 2011. But things change. And so different ponds, the soccer complex is a big deal that came in that's different from the 2011 master plan update. And that affects the design criteria that's needed for ponds or for certain types of pipes.

But this is for development in the future, right?

Correct, and I'm proposing to use development impact fee funding for that.

OK, thank you. Vice Mayor?

Yeah, so from my time on Planning Commission, I know this is a big issue, especially concerning Orchard View 1. But so I was going back on my emails, and I know there's been a lot of turnover, so it's hard to keep up with Kevin Valente and Scott Rolls, but I believe the master

you can correct me jeremy the master um drainage study was updated in 2021. there was technical memorandum with different items but it doesn't have certain areas and so i don't know jeff if you could have anything to add to that the 21 we kind of we definitely wanted to utilize whatever we do have but we don't have enough yeah there's just gaps yeah yeah the uh so the master plan you know was uh established based on that growth trajectory we were on in

2006 through 2008 or so. And that's how the planning progressed. It included a lot of areas that were mapped at the time that have fallen through. Development failed on those. So the planning was kind of on a fast-paced trajectory that rescinded rapidly. The master plan now currently kind of doesn't count for some of the other areas that are now coming back in. And as Ben suggested, the soccer park got developed into the basin to kind of fulfill a lot of the detention basin need in the city. So one of the questions that developers are asking a lot at the moment is, Do we need to provide independent storage on our properties if the soccer basin handles the current capacity needs? And part of us to represent the city would say, yes, we want you guys to develop all of your own need. But then that also comes at a cost to the city because the city is going to inherit storm drain detention systems, basins, things like that that require maintenance and perpetuity. So we would rather not accept those if we do have a way to accommodate the storage need. Today in the basin and that's kind of the biggest connection we have at the moment is just that link So the the study that we're needing at the moment is a model to update primarily what our capacity is with the new basin the soccer park basin and and how that fulfills our need for today and kind of the near future. It won't last forever, but this this study is just to kind of fill a small gap in the near future so we can answer people who are asking questions for development needs. The the 2021 update was just a technical guidance memo update specific to the. specific to a partial analysis of the soccer park basin as it impacted the KB Homes phase five portion. It didn't include the Orchard View, which is up on Luther north of Garden Glen, or the parcels that fall in between Garden Glen and the proposed Orchard View. It also didn't include an impact for that strip to the east side of Doree Road south of Pennington that's long narrow strip there it didn't include that portion silver oaks subdivision there silver oaks would fall into the soccer complex but it was never included in the original model as part of the soccer as a feed into the soccer park so in 21 there was only one subdivision in the soccer complex but left everything out of Well, the update only was to evaluate that one because it was the need at the time. So this one is to try to incorporate a little bit more so we have more answers for a little bit further down the road, whereas that one kind of fell short of getting us enough answers because... Just costs, not enough money to keep the, to push it forward a little further.

And so are these developers, property owners, are they paying fees already? Have they submitted plans, fees that essentially the $29,000 being put up is money that's being paid by them? Or have they not put money down yet?

So there's been conversations that they're going to be on the hook for task two. And so we would be, because part of the condition of approval to help design, they're required to design that in order to figure that out. But we want to control the study, right? So I want the authorization to have the $29,000. The study's ran through us. They pay for their task to item. There might be discussions on the timing for it, where, hey, I want at least half now. Because part of it might be impact fee eligible, where when they go to build the homes, some of that could be offset for their fees that they owe for impact fees. But we want some skin in the game that we're moving forward with this. Ultimately, the city needs to do task one, because they can't do task two if we don't have our model update. And that really holds up any other developer that needs to do it. But task two is definitely the developer is on the hook for that portion. And then we're going to work with them on how we time it to make it feasible.

Thank you. I know this has been long overdue, because these conversations have been going on since five, six years. it makes it easier to accept if they have some skin in the game. So then we know that we're getting money from them to pay for this. And ultimately, it helps us down the line. So no more questions for me. Thank you.

Yeah, just a quick one for me. As far as the, I mean, you have it in the report. It's coming out of the impact fees. So those are dedicated impact fees. It's not hitting the general fund.

Correct.

Right, OK.

I mean, back to the previous conversation, am I concerned about cash? Absolutely. But it's coming out of that fund type, and it's at a level. We didn't accept the full amount, up to $50,000 to do the full city. We're trying to be cost conscious as we're working through this.

Trying to be mindful to get out ahead enough to incentivize these folks to come in and do some development. Great. All right. Thank you. Council Member Walton? I have no questions.

Council Member Hernandez? No questions. Thank you. Okay.

Any public comment?

No public comment.

All right. With that, I'll bring it back to the council for any other discussion.

To the chair, one quick question. So on my agenda, it says where sufficient funds are available. What does that mean? If it's coming out of a certain fund, why does it say where sufficient funds are available?

Because it's saying sufficient funds are available.

It's saying where sufficient funds are available.

Then the storm drain connection fees fund where sufficient funds are available. Meaning that's where they are. Yeah.

Okay, I'll make a motion to authorize the city manager to approve a standard professional services agreement with West Yost for city stormwater analysis in the amount of $29,000 with the finding that is in the best interest of the city. And two, authorize the finance director to make a supplemental budget appropriation of $29,000 within the storm drain connection fee fund where sufficient funds are available for professional services through the remainder of the fiscal year.

I'll second that.

Council Member Wohan? Yes. Council Member Santana? Yes. Council Member Hernandez? Yes. Vice Mayor Palma? Yes. Mayor Chappellini? Yes. Motion carries.

We move on to item five, nuisance ordinance update. And I'll just turn that over to our city manager. If I understand it correctly, it's just waive the second reading, correct?

Correct. And so we introduced it. And with this process, it's the adoption. And we have the option to waive the second reading. So we don't read it every word by word. But it's definitely, we have a short presentation on it.

OK, great. I'll turn it over to our economic development director.

All right, good evening, mayor and members of city council. So tonight we have our nuisance ordinance adoption. So as briefly was mentioned in our last city council meeting, so the new ordinance consolidates the existing chapter 8.24 and title 14 into one code with new administrative penalties, the appeal process, defined nuisance definitions, and a more direct enforcement authority. And so I had shown these pictures at the last meeting, so I'll just kind of go through it. But here are some examples of nuisance that we have throughout the city. So you can see with some deteriorated buildings, We also have personal properties in the front yard. And again, these are before and after pictures that are successful to doing. So you can see the mattresses have been cleaned up. Their front yard looks a lot better. And then the last picture here, again, it's a before and after of a vacant building with land, weeds, vegetables, and so that's also been cleaned up. So a summary of changes. So again tonight, we are entirely repealing Title 14. So it will no longer exist. The way the code is currently written is there's two different sections, but they both kind of talk to each other, but then they don't at the same time. So what we're trying to do is just one cohesive code, which will be the new 8.24. And so a couple of the changes. So we have the primary hearing body for an appeal is now either the city manager, a three-member hearing examiner panel, or a city council. It also introduces a formal notice to correct, leading to a notice of violation and penalty order to an appeal and appeal process. So it really outlines the whole process for the community so they know what the process is with our new code. It establishes administrative penalties, it adds definitions, there's a specific section for weeds, vegetation, rubbish, and then lastly it's a more detailed system for recovering abatement costs and admin penalties. And per discussion from our last meeting, we were discussing garbage containers. So we did update our Section 8.24-100I, garbage containers, stating that they must be placed 15 feet from the back of the curb and just to prohibit placement in front of a residence or a business. So just make sure it's not in front of the building itself. So our recommendation tonight is to waive the second reading and adopt the ordinance to repeal and replace Live Oak Municipal Code, Title 8, Chapter 8.24, Nuisance Abatement Code, and repeal Title 14, Neighborhood and Community Preservation Program. And I'm happy to answer any questions.

All right. Thank you. Is there any questions?

Thank you for the pictures and update. The building that you showed that was cleaned up in the pictures, is that the old church right there that's now for sale, a house for sale that was bought?

Yes. So they did pull the building permit, and they have returned it back to a residence now, and it should be finaled here soon for a final inspection and listed for sale shortly.

Thank you.

Vice Mayor? No questions. Council Member Wharton?

No, I have no questions. Thank you.

Good job. Thank you for the presentation again and all the work that went into this. I don't have any other questions. Is there any public comment?

No public comment.

All right. We'll bring it back to the council for any further discussion or motion. I'll go ahead and move this one to waive the second reading of the ordinance and to adopt ordinance to repeal and replace Live Oak Municipal Code Title 8, Chapter 8.24, Nuisance Abatement Code, and repeal Title 14, Neighborhood and Community Preservation Program.

I'll second.

Council Member Woten? Yes. Council Member Santana? Yes. Council Member Hernandez? Yes. Vice Mayor Palma? Yes. Mayor Chappellini? Yes. Motion carries.

All right. Moving on to updates. Any updates from our city attorney?

No updates.

All right. City Manager?

Yeah, a few. A few that come to mind. There's a lot going on. Just a quick update. The fire truck, Fire Engine 5, broke down last week, last Friday afternoon. And so we're getting the repair. We're working through that. Chief Epperson, Battalion Chief Epperson reached out and said basically fuel line starter, actuator, and a turbo. And so it was about a $10,000 repair and some coordination with the towing and getting it there. So they're big trucks. They're expensive trucks. And unfortunately, you know, 2019, you start to see a little bit of maintenance on it. But it should be up and going very soon and back in. He also mentioned that the – We had an engine, I believe engine six was deployed to one of the Cal OES fires in Monterey, the Cal Fire fires and so it is back now. It's back, everything is working well and we hope to, we will receive a reimbursement with some overhead costs back for that. So that was a good thing for the community and for the city. Um, sharing plan. So, um, so with Sutter County, with the countywide revenue measure, um, there's been some talk online, there's been interest. What's the, what's the plan and what's the sharing. Um, and so that is planned as far as, um, officially, as far as the amount for, um, in coordination with the county as part of the 1% for the City of Live Oak and for the City of Yuba City, and how we share that with Sutter County, where that is anticipated to go to Sutter County's September 8th meeting. And so it's being finalized, in my understanding, with the attorney. in the agenda for basically next week's meeting with expectations that we would then turn around and bring it to our meeting probably the next on the 16th. And so then we could formalize that plan to share. 93Q on Friday, they've asked for the county CAO, myself, and Yuba City City Manager to be online on Friday to talk about budgets and the status of things and with this Measure G citywide effort. So I'll be on the radio with that. We have a Planning Commission meeting set for September 15. So that's going to be the ARCO and Sonic. We've been talking about this a little while, but we're getting closer and closer. So the use permit for the ARCO gas station and the drive-through for the Sonic with the Buffalo Wild Wings is being set. And mailers will be going out for the 9-15 meeting. We expect McDonald's will go soon thereafter, hopefully in October. And we heard that McDonald's is ready to submit the building plans. So it seems like that team is still continuing to move from full force moving forward. And so we worked with Caltrans to kind of finalize some traffic comments this last week. And then we're hoping that's full speed ahead. Live Oak Fall Festival. And so there's definitely, you know, that's a big deal for this community. It's recently made some social media. Staff is advertising that the event has been scheduled for a Thursday evening. It's not typical from the full Saturday with the parade. I definitely understand there's been some comments, for sure. And really, it comes down to resources. And it comes down to support from resources with the city's budgets and the staffing, to resources with public safety being at critical levels, to resources for the local nonprofits that need ongoing help. Can there always be an effort to communicate earlier for help? Definitely so. And so we could strive to do that. I know Luis and his team, we'll hear the comments. We want the best. best that we can for the community and make it an event that we can make it. And so I'm hoping that we get the message out that we're definitely open to support and making it bigger and better next year. And so but they're definitely coordinating. So it's not just straight vendors. They're trying to recognize the Little League and trying to do some community stuff at the event. And it's a different time with sports, 500 plus people in soccer, youth sports. And it's a different world than maybe in the past and how people are. And so they're trying to accommodate that. So I'd be happy to answer any questions.

All right. Any questions for Ben? Yes, please.

Yeah, go ahead. So Ben, yeah, I've been getting contacted about the fall festival and the tradition that's been going on in the city for many years. So the city cannot take that on and do that. We have the small town holiday celebration, right, that we take on that cost and we do the work and set that up and manage that, right?

So the city, in partnership with a committee, they've been meeting for the last few months. And this is where they've landed on an evening event. Can the city do something else? If the council desires that, we could direct staff to do that. But it is, again, it's late for a large event. It takes time to plan. It takes time to advertise. And how do you? How do you how do you get to be something that's successful for the community? It's it's tough that this if you wanted a full day Saturday and it be successful. It's it's pretty late. But yes, there is a Christmas Function the small town Christmas event is also scheduled which is really similar to the Fall Festival as far as what they have except for the decorations and then the parade does that cost the city money to have a parade yes it does it costs staff time and so public works parks maintenance and everybody is on overtime all day you know we for the law enforcement services we pay for law enforcement to be there and then extra you know depending on the fire personnel that's available to be there so there's there's there's in-kind costs that we've absorbed and then I, you know, there's probably what I've, my understanding is that we have $20,000 for community promotions that is across, um, the city for, um, the entire year. So banners for the little league, um, you know, the, the small town Christmas event when we need to buy supplies, that's where that 20,000 come. We use that fund that's been programmed for $20,000 to do that for the live Oak fall festival. Historically, the last couple of years where we've been the lead, It's changed hands over the years with the last two years, the city being more of in the lead on the committee, that it's about $5,000 to $7,000 a year in miscellaneous supplies. And it's been difficult. I'm sure Louise could add to it to see as As community organizations, the schools, it's hard to get them to participate due to other conflicts. And I don't want to undermine everybody's effort, but it's getting harder and harder to have car shows with the number of cars to show up. It's harder and harder to have the number. the school football team to show up and participate in a flow and it's harder to have you know and so you need that energy and you need to do it you know big events that are key community events if we want it to be a key community event we really need to talk we need to program it for and one of my recommendation is in one of our priority goal settings you know for the budget next year because The downtown strolls in Yuba City, they're typically $35,000 to $50,000. The Peach Festival, it's close to $100,000 what they spend on that. But there is some benefit economic development and benefit to the community that's valuable. And so at this time, we do not have any specific money budgeted. Historically, we've been using about $5,000 to $7,000 out of that community promotions line item to help with the event.

So how much does a small town holiday event cost?

Roughly around $3,000 to get us going.

That's including insurance. But that's not including your staff, overtime, anything like that. That's just stuff we're purchasing to get the event going.

Because I know you put a lot of work into the decorations and all that stuff. So I'm just wondering, since the community see it.

So we have $20,000, just like Ben said. Actually, this year is 21. But we have, I'll read it off, we have the Food Truck Festival in April, the Clean Up Day, that's another expense, Stay Cool at the Pool, Ice Cream Movie Night, the Live Up Festival, Pumpkin Paint Night. A new one that we did last year is Wine and Paint Night. That's to raise money for scholarships for the youth. We used to do a turkey shoot. This year, we're going to change it up and do a canned food drive, a small town holiday celebration, and then Santa on a Fire Engine. So we got $21,000 for all those events. And so $5,000 to $7,000 out of those $21,000 I use for the Live Oak Festival.

So we work for the people and the voters and the residents of this city. So they voice their opinion and what matters to them. So if they want the Fall Festival, as a council, I think we need to, not saying this year, it's really short notice to find this out. But I think as a council, we need to listen to the voices of our residents and the people If this is something that's been a tradition for 50 years, it's very important for the city to carry that on, in my opinion. And numerous residents have voiced their opinion about they're very upset about losing that. So I think that's something next year we could bring to council and look at, and Parks and Rec.

If I could add, I grew up in Live Oak. I attended when I was little. It's something that has had a peak in the early 2000s, and then it slowly started dying down. We want the best for the community. I want the best for the community. So when we see comments on Facebook, we get targeted sometimes. And that's totally fine. We really want the best for our community. We want to do what we can, but the resources this year that we have, we're limited. We've known this, the whole city council staff. We've talked about it in our goal setting meeting. We talked about it in February and March over at the Boy Scout building. That's just reality. We don't have funding. We don't have help. We went from 30 employees this year. We're like at 20. And we're looking for support. Anybody that wants to volunteer and help out, We are more than welcome to take you on. Help us out. We're all for it.

Yeah, just to be clear, this is an inquiry for the residents that are voicing their opinion about the situation. And so I'm a voice for the people. I was elected to do that. So I'm not going to let this council meeting go by without asking, inquiring how much it would cost the city. Could we do it? Can we try it? Can we maintain it? I'm not saying this year. So just to make that clear. So that's it. Thank you.

CHRIS RODGERS. Questions?

You know, nothing, I don't have any questions, but just to add on, you know, like Luis talked about the peak of the Peach Festival, and I remember back how much support there was with the community back then. I remember my dad being on the chamber in town, and they ran the whole thing. You don't see that many volunteers anymore, so I agree with what you say, but the first thing I wanted to tell the residents is we need people to step up and support and get together with our nonprofits in town that not too many people who even attend the meetings or support them either so the first thing is is we got to put out there that we need support and let the community know and the community's got to answer you know so put it back on the residents to because this is this is an awesome event it's sad to see is disappointing that we're not going to have it to where it was you know so that's all i have to say about that to the chair so i know louise is younger but i have four generations of a family here asking me about it so it

They've taken, you know, we have grandparents that take their grandchildren to it. Granted, it might not be as popular as it used to be, but it's been tradition for decades. And maybe we can mix it in and have food trucks there or something to where it's more popular to certain people. But I think it's something we definitely need to talk about and try to make it happen and not just, you know, not talk about it. Thank you.

All right. Council Member Wooden, any comments or updates?

Updates. I had a regional housing authority meeting today, and I was very excited. I got to celebrate with a young lady who graduated their program. And she totally changed her life. Has a job now. She's got four kids. And I think she, did she graduate with $16,000? Yeah, somewhere around there. $16,000. now and she's been putting into that as she's gone along and so she's got a real good start on on a career and just a real positive outcome from the from the work that the regional housing authority does so that was a pretty exciting to witness and i know there was a lot of other positive things from the meeting i don't know if you want to share them about just the

Yeah, I'll jump in. Yeah, go ahead.

Go ahead. Yeah, I mean, the other things were just financially, things are going well. So we had a finance update. They, similar to what we did here with the retirement, not escrow account, but the trust fund, they established that years ago. And so they're actually able to start withdrawing or drafting from that to pay that off. And so that's huge for that organization to just draw down and get rid of that debt when it comes to the retirement and pensions. And so just a lot of good updates. New, you know, they're looking at some other potential projects and other things on the horizon. And so, yeah, just the stories are always great. I mean, Council Member Walton touched on it, but, you know, it's interesting. Those folks, that's an option through that program when people come into it. They need to decide and elect when they go in. And it's always nice to see the ones that have the foresight and commit to it and then see the program through because There's so many opportunities. I think her initial goal was actually just to get an associate's degree. She continued on and is about to receive her bachelor's degree. She now has a permanent job with the county. And then that money, she's leaving the program really starting a new life with their family. And that was one of two today. The other one wasn't able to attend, but we did recognize them as well. It's great to hear those throughout the year.

I did have a comment about the Peach Festival. I've been here for, well, since 1990. And It has always been, it was always a big event. And I think I agree with Luis, it kind of peaked. We always had a lot of enthusiasm from the community and kids and the parades where we threw out candy and just a lot of cool things. And it just seemed like in the last few years, we didn't have a lot of participation. We didn't have a lot of things for kids to do. We didn't have as much participation from the community members like the churches and some of the high school groups and stuff. It was just like nobody really had enthusiasm for it. So I would love to see that be reignited because we do miss the chamber. It's just a lot of things that shifted. And I don't really like to see it just be a food truck event. I would rather it be that all the churches got together and they all had their food things, or even individual people. I know Delilah and, oh gosh, what's his name? He works for, they have their ribs at the, who is it? Rick, yeah, Rick, Rick and Delilah. You know, people like that that have got their own little business going and they do, you know, that's the kind of stuff I'd like to see. I don't really like to see all the food trucks come there, you know, and it seems like those food trucks just invade our community because that's not... That's not our community. The food trucks aren't our community. So as soon as we started phasing in food trucks, I think we started losing some of the personal, like, well, who wants to go out there and compete against a food truck? if you're going to sell your hot dogs or whatever. So I think there's a lot of things that could happen, but I'm just making an observation of what I've seen. I know as far as doing the pizza sales, our pizza sales drop so much every year. And I only could attribute that to the food trucks. But anyway, I'll sign out.

Council Member Hernandez?

I have nothing. Thank you.

Yeah, I'll just touch on that one quickly. I appreciate all the comments. And for the community, again, I appreciate what staff has done. It was mentioned in the budget talks, and staff came together to try to do the best they could with the small budget and try to consolidate it into one event. At the same time, I hear the comments and comments I really hope we can work together to bring that back, possibly bring the parade back next year. But again, pieces of this year after year have gone away. It was a real partnership between the Chamber, the Lions Club, even the— the other Live Oak Community Foundation, Kiwanis, the churches you met. There were so many people chipping in to this, and just kind of year after year, they just started dropping out little by little. There's improvement that can be made on the... you know, reaching out and getting that info out there, and we're committed to doing that. And really, same thing, I would like to see this come back to more of a real community event. And, you know, with that hopefully we can make those improvements for next year. Otherwise, just committees and meetings. I had two of the SACOG meetings, one for the board, other for the subcommittee I serve on as part of that service. So things are going well. As I mentioned before, this speaks to staff as well. I know I brought it up last time. The grant tonight, all these, there's been a huge shift with our staff. And again, I just want to recognize the staff for those. We have one that's in the queue to be awarded on the 19th, I believe. Little over $1 million to rehab Larkin from city limit to the south all the way to the north. So that's a decent sized pavement resurfacing project there. We have others in the queue. The other application, if I'm correct, is the sidewalk gap will be coming up. We'll be submitting that. Or we just did submit it.

So we submitted it for initial review. We got good feedback from SACOG, and I will be coming to city council to authorize our submittal at the next meeting. And so you'll see that sort of officially be submitted, I believe, prior to the 18th. And so that's... I can't remember what the number, but it was a million plus, and that would fix the sidewalk gaps from the middle school down past to the KV section where we have some of those gaps. And so good feedback from SACOG on that. And, yeah, I can't – it really is – Becoming a player again with the region. Jaspreet's been instrumental. She was down there yesterday participating in the regional housing needs assessment, working with staff. And they recognize, hey, Live Oak's at the table. And so it's nice to see that. And the squeaky wheel gets the grease.

Yeah. No. And I really do appreciate that. There's so many resources down there that just unfortunately, until we've had this shift in the last couple of years, it just wasn't being taken advantage of. You know, I know, you know, Ben and Ethan dug in. There's been grants that were out there, but things that were awarded funding that was awarded. that between the different leadership and the turnover that fell through the cracks, that they've been able to go back and reclaim. And so you'll see those coming forward as well. And so it's huge. So thank you all for that.

CHRISTIE WOODARD- For the chair? So I just want to say something. something about the parade. I've been at the parade every year and it's packed. So both sides of Broadway is packed with kids, grandparents, parents, where the whole community comes out, it seems like. They come out of their houses, they come out of their apartments, businesses. And you might not see everyone on Broadway, but the route that the fire truck takes and The cars in the parade, they go through a lot of parts of the city and the streets and people are out there in their chairs or they're just standing there with their kids or grandkids just watching the parade. So it does have quite a bit of people that come to the parade. So I don't want to really make it sound like we don't really have a turnout because I've been in the parade and there's a good turnout and the whole city seems to come out. Maybe as far as the fall festival, maybe there isn't enough advertising to get vendors in there and to get people in there. And people have to know about it. But it is a tradition in our city, and I don't want to see it go away. So thank you.

CHRIS RODGERS, Yeah, absolutely. Other than that, I think that was about all the other items I had. We already touched on the Housing Authority meeting, Flood Control Board next week, so I'll have an update on that, but that's about it. We'll go ahead and adjourn the meeting at 7.30 p.m.