City Council - Regular Meeting

It's exactly 6:30. Madame clerk, uh would you all mind stand with me as I lead us in prayer tonight? Is that okay? We do things differently in Canyon Lake. Dear heavenly father, thank you so much for an incredible evening here in Canyon Lake. Lord, please be with our men and women that are overseas, Lord, protecting um our country, Lord. Be with all the families that are impacted by what's going on overseas. And we are so grateful to live in the country we do, Lord. And we're so blessed to live in the city that we do. Let us have a good evening tonight with good discussion, making good decisions for our community and in your name. Amen. Amen. Harry, would you please lead us in the pledge? Would you do that? Lead us in pledge if you don't mind.

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. Thank you for doing that, Harry. Roll call. Madame clerk pro here. Council member Steber here. Council member Terry here. Council member Welty is absent. Mayor Smith here. Mayor, you have a quorum. Awesome. Close session report. Mr. City attorney. Uh, thank you, Mayor. For the item listed as number one on close session, we have no reportable action. However, I would note that the city council did vote to add one potential claim to close session and the report out on that was settlement direction was given by consensus. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. City Attorney. Moving on to ceremonial matters. Council member Steber, you get to present the student of the month.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh tonight, we honor Heaven Hewitt, a senior at Tesco Canyon High School as January student of the month. Heaven now serves as the student body president after holding multiple major student leadership roles throughout her high throughout high school. Her excellence has earned her top honors, including a statewide leadership award. She is also a four-year varsity cheer cheerleader and CIF champion and has helped launched her school's girls flag football team. Beyond athletics and academics, Heaven has completed two firefighter training programs. One with the Los Angeles County Fire Department's Girls Fire Camp and the week-long camp cinder hosted by Cal Fire. She has also dedicated herself to serving her community. Heaven represents leadership, achievement, and service at the highest level. So, please join me in congratulating her. And Heaven, if you can please come up. Do you have a microphone? Congratul Hello hello hello. There we go. Congratulations. Uh I requested this will be the first. I would like you to tell our public a little bit more about yourself than what I just went over. And this is your award.

Thank you. My name is Heaven Huitt. I am a senior at Tomesco Canyon High School. I love to be involved on campus and in my community. I love hanging out with friends, spending time outdoors. Um, I'm also involved in NHS. I'm a two-year varsity flag football athlete and yeah, nice. Love that. Good job. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, I Oh, before you leave, I invite my council to come up. We'd love to take a photo. And I believe your mother uh walked in with you if she can join us as well. You can stand right here in the middle. Where is your favorite place to eat?

Anywhere with food. I wonder where mom's going to take you tonight. Anywhere with food.

Congratulations. Favorite restaurant. I'm gonna go by here real quick. All right, skip. Thank you, Mr. Council Member Ste. Appreciate that. All right, moving on. We have Oh, we have the This is one of my favorites, the rank of Eagle Scout. I think Council Member Terry is eager to be able to present this certificate in recognition. Logan Stewart, come on up.

Let's give him a round of applause. I know what you're thinking. Anybody familiar with the Boy Scouts? Raise your hand if you are. Any Eagle Scouts here? Oh, I'm an Eagle Scout, but I have yet to see a sash. Nice. Well done. I'm embarrassed for myself. I thought I had it going on. Look at you. Now, here's an interesting stat. Do you know how many merit badges there actually are? 142.

How many don't you have? 15. Wow. Council member Terry, how many don't you have?

About as many as he has. There there was a bare limit and I think I made it to that point. But it is an honor. And the great thing about being an Eagle Scout, you're not an Eagle Scout for today. You're not an Eagle Scout for the month of December or this year. You are an Eagle Scout for the rest of your life. And you join hundreds of thousands of very accomplished people in this world who have that badge. And once again, give it up for him. Good job. So you became a Eagle Scout in December of this year, correct? And you are with what troop? Troop 2011.

2011. And where's 2011 out of Wdemar?

Wdemar. Our neighbors in Wdemar. Why don't you tell us a little bit in order in that final stage of you becoming an Eagle Scout, you have to do what is considered an Eagle project, correct? And what did you do? I build a recycling station at the Kenny Lake Community Church that helps collect bottles and cans to help Mission Mexico build houses for homeless people. Tell us a little bit about Mission Mexico. Have you gone there? No. You're just synonym recyclables and cash. That's good. And the project not only encourages environmental responsibility, but also helps support the construction of homes for families in need. How did you come up with that idea?

Um, as a preschooler, I went to the Clay Lake Community Church and it's such a beautiful place and what they do is very helpful for people in need. So, I thought I would step in and help them out. So, what what you're in high school now? Middle school. So, you did it before you got to high school. And you have all the way up till you're 18 to become an Eagle Scout, right? And your age is 14.

Wow. We we could do Eagle Scout presentations for the next 20 years and you are not going to see this. This is an incredible accomplishment to do it at 14. That means you just went after it. And on behalf of this entire city council, on behalf of all of the residents here in Canyon Lake, we are so proud of you. What are you going to do in the future? What's your your What do you want to do when you um have more merit badges? Um go camping cuz I love to do that. You're going to make a living out of going camping? Yeah.

Oh, yeah. I love that. Council member, I have a Marine Corps recruiter that would be happy to help with camping. And also, we we promote you to E2, too, starting out as an Eagle Scout. So, if he needs some help in four years, I know a I know a person. You like eating crayons? It's a prerequisite. You got to eat crayons. It is my honor to present you this recognition. Logan Stewart, one of the most accomplished Eagle Scouts I have ever met in my life. Congratulations.

Great job. That's incredible. Did you have to buy a different sash? They don't have to get extended. Look at that.

Great job, Logan.

Is your mom and dad here? Why don't you come on up? Take a picture with the mom. She's gonna take your favorite place tonight. I want to know what's your goal to complete. How long do you think you'll complete the remaining 15?

Proud mama. Yeah, our mayor pro Tim is trying to hold back tears. This one might do it for you, though. I get to introduce the Canyon Lake Quilters, and they're here to present a quilt of valor to Harry Larson, who led us in the pledge. So, can I have the quilters come up, please? Give them a round of applause. Uh, let's Yeah. Thank you. You're good. Go ahead, Dave.

So, hi everybody. Uh, I'm here today with several of the Canyon Lake quilters. We want to honor veterans in Canyon Lake. And today I would like to honor Harold Larson. Harold was born in Detroit, Michigan on May 24th, 1927. If you just did your arithmetic, you realize he's about to turn 99. You look like you're 50. Yeah. Well done.

Was raised in Detroit and Lincoln Park, Michigan, and attended Lutheran grade schools in Lincoln Park and high school in Detroit. Living during that time was very hard. Depression and prohibition. So his father easy sure

his father didn't work very much because jobs were hard to find and meals were almost the same every day. During prohibition prohibition his father ran booze from Canada to Detroit. Harry's younger years, he worked as a grocery store in the grocery store for 30 cents an hour. Also, he worked at a cemetery shoveling dirt into graves after placement of the body. And his father also worked in the cemetery. He started high school but quit and went into the Marine Corps in 1945. He serving in the Pacific, China, Korea, and Japan. Majority of US duty was in the Marine Corps at schools in Quantico, Virginia and Camp Pendleton. He met his wife in California prior to going to Korea in 1952. He moved to California in 1955 and married her upon his return. Harry has two sons, two grandchildren, and six great grandchildren. Harry went back to school in 1955. He graduated from high school and with veterans benefits from junior college and three years of college and military school. He had a job in Southern California Edison and retired in 1992. Most of that time spent in Sanopre. He came to Canyon Lake in 2014 from San Clementi after his wife's passing. They were married for 56 years. Wow.

Here in Canyon Lake, he served on the finance committee, fiesta days, veterans day committee, greens committees, and men's golf club. He also has served as a board member and president and now president emeritus of clams. It is with great pleasure that we present Harry with this patriotic quilt. Thank you. Which way you want me there? Wow, it's beautiful.

We always like to warp that wrap him in our warm stitches. Love that. Oh, that's so good. Congratulations.

Thank you very much, Kathy. Uh, this quilt will go on on and on. I will give it to one of my sons and it will carry forward to that time. I'm not going to use it. It'll be put in a box in a frame just like the American flag and it'll go on and on it.

So, I might use it. But the thing is, and joining me tonight, uh, there's one thing in there people ask me. You went to the Marine Corps in 1945. You didn't graduate from high school to 1955. That's 10 years. I graduated from high school my son's birthday. B birthday. So that's something different. Nobody can say that. I don't think unusual. And I'm proud to have my son, my daughter, my greatg grandanddaughter, and my granddaughter, some friends here tonight to help me enjoy this moment of I think success. I've been trying for a long time to get the quilt, but I finally got one. Thank God, Lord.

Incredible. Yeah. Yeah. Let's do it. That's awesome.

Well, while I'm here, I'd like to uh tell you about one thing, and several of the board members of the council members are here, the Canyon Lake Association of Men, the finest, the club in the city. We give out probably $15,000 a year in gifts to our community and people that support our people within our community. So, we're looking for members all the time. Join us. We're we're the oldest club starting in 1970. So, come on all you guys. We need members to support in the clan. Thank you. You don't need to take a picture. I love that.

Let's get a couple over there. Sorry, ladies.

Thank you. How are you going to beat or not? Maybe when we uh launch our police department. Maybe that's about it. The which one? I'm going to let you speak. Can we give a round of applause to our quilters here in Canyon Lake? Incredible job. I'm still fighting 99.

Absolutely love it. All right. Now, we got to get into kind of the boring stuff. We apologize, but now we got to get to business a little bit. So, we're going to do a little bit of the city council committee reports. Um, this is where your council members get a chance to talk a little bit about some of the things that they've done, um, and what they've attended to over the last month. So, I'm going to kick it off with, uh, Council Member Ste, if you don't mind.

Yeah, mine will be, uh, brief tonight. Yes. Um, first, uh, the we've had student of the month, uh, and we're coming close to our final uh, student of the month. Um, so it's just been incredible and and the stories are just more amazing uh every month when I attend those. Uh, coming up next week, we have our articulation with LUSD that Mayor Pro Tam and I will be attending. And I also have a few policy committees as well with the state. So looking forward to that. And um, spring break's right around the corner, so I know kids are are getting excited. So, uh, looking forward to seeing, uh, whatever mine's going to do for the week. But, uh, yeah, that's kind of about it this week.

Love it. Council member Terry, are you good?

I am good. Good evening. How is everyone? um had the opportunity to attend um one of my favorite meetings um every month which uh director Darcy Burke is our host of along with our mayor Jeremy Smith um the uh what's it called uh conversation at the country club and um I would like to plug that um very proud of our community um who has been utilizing that time uh to have the opportunity to speak with our mayor. It is the first Wednesday of every month and it's at 7:30 a.m. at the Canyon Lake Country Club and uh it's extremely informative. If you want information about not only what we did here tonight, but you want information on the latest greatest issues that are affecting you, I think I I recognize many of the faces that are here that also go to that. I would encourage you since we have this audience um that you take the time to attend that meeting. It uh it really is insightful and I'm I'm very proud to uh very proud of Darcy Burke, Director Burke, I'm very proud of you, Mr. Mayor. You do a terrific job and it is extremely informative. I would talk a little bit about our meeting at WRCOG. Unfortunately, it was a close session meeting, so I'm going to keep that um close session private. um had the opportunity to shoot a video with our mayor um at the Canyon Cowboy.

That's right. And um I'll tell you one of the things that uh I also like what we're doing as a council is the business spotlight. And um it was very insightful what we did at um um fitness 33 which is just if you have not gone to uh the old gym which is now the new gym what a transformation and I'm very proud of the owner and um I think it is a great addition um to the city of Canyon Lake. Uh also you highlighted uh B am I taking your storm? You're doing good. My my notes are getting crossed off so keep going.

I apologize. Oh go. But uh I'm very Yes, I am very excited about the business spotlight and uh let's let's give the mayor a big round of applause for uh bringing these businesses to uh thanks to the attention of our community. And that's all I got. Mayor Pim.

So I was going to talk about the business spotlight, too. Um I got lucky enough to be selected by Mayor Smith to go to Sips Bar today and we had a lot of fun. I am still full from the cookie and Vietnamese coffee that I had which were phenomenal. If you haven't been to Sips Bar, it's in Studio K. I highly suggest you go. What nice people, man. We are so lucky and blessed to have them in Canyon Lake. And what a great place for kids to go because my kids were playing Jenga. They were hanging out doing tic-tac-toe. It's nice to have something in the town center that kids can ride their bikes to. There's a bike rack over there and so I highly encourage you to go over there if you haven't gone yet. Um, I want to say congratulations to Terry Jarvis because I understand that you are our new POA director. So congratulations. Thank you for coming tonight. And um, yes uh, as council member Steber mentioned, we are excited about LA USD articulation meeting coming up. And that's it from me.

Nice. All right. Um, a lot is going on in Canyon Lake and again congratulations um on your win. Big campaign, right? Lots of signs everywhere, a lot of hard work. I mean, and and and congratulations to our our president, Bill Vanvelite, as well. I think his leadership is needed. And um I'm excited to see uh both Laney and Jeff Bill here tonight, too. For me, it's it means so much to have the POA uh EVMWD and of course the city working together on everything we do. and it's been so refreshing. Um, and I want to give a shout out to Laney and Jeffville for coming to Coffee at the Country Club because they're part of those issues and conversations and it's pretty cool that you can go to one place and hear about everything that's happening in the community and ask many questions as you want and we have the opportunity to be as transparent as possible. Um, lot going on. I serve on a few regional boards. Um, I'm not going to bore you with some of the details, but most of us are might not be aware of um, Measure A, which is a tax that we pay into for the county. It's what builds the toll roads 91. It's any any construction that you see happening on the 15. Uh this is a billion dollar tax that goes into RCTC. Um we're going to be taking this item up because it sunsets in 2037. So the commission has decided not to ask the residents for more money, but just to get rid of the sunset. So that's going to be some conversation that you're going to see come into your mailbox. Um, since we are in an election cycle, as some of you probably have seen on the national news and here locally in Riverside County as well, um, it's going to be June 2nd or third is the election day. So, you're going to start seeing a lot of rhetoric come out there when it comes to some of the things that are happening. Um, I'm excited because you heard a little bit about Council Member Terry talk about our business spotlight. Um, we got gas prices up. We got businesses wondering what's going on. So, at least from a city standpoint, we're trying to highlight our businesses and go to them doortodoor and say, "Hey, how can we help you?" So, I really want to give the round of applause to Maddie. And Maddie is right over here with the

pink cup. And the reason why when Mark Terry started talking about the business spotlight and she closed her arms like this cuz she knows that we're getting a lot of requests from businesses to do these videos. But we think it's very important that we highlight these amazing businesses that we have in Canyon Lake. It is so cool that we live in a community where you can literally hop in a golf cart and almost facilitate all the needs that you need here in Canyon Lake. I think that's awesome, right? So, we're going to do our best um to highlight those businesses so you, the residents, know what's happening in your community. Um so, again, this is a shout out to our business owners. The only qualification you need is a business license. So, please have one before you reach out to me asking to do a video. Um cuz we will look, we will find, and we will see, and then we will ask you to apply. So, just just heads up on that. Um, with that said, that's that's my updates and I just want to thank each of you uh for attending this council meeting tonight. There's a lot of good things going on in the community and I'm so proud of my colleagues because every single one of us is accessible and I think that's what's really important about government to make sure that we're trying to be as accessible as we can. So, with that, we're going to hear some more good stuff, and I'm going to let um our director, uh, Darcy Burke, who is currently the vice chair of EVMWD. Um, I think she is doing an incredible job. I love working with this woman. She educates me so much on water. Um, which is saying a lot because my dad also serves on a water board. So, you trump him any day of the week. So, don't let him know I say that even though he's probably watching this meeting. Take it away, Darcy.

Thank you. You just got to hit it really hard. budget cuts, so we had to get the cheapest mics out there. Mic or phone. Thank you. It's the city manager's fault. He picked these microphones. They were bought at pick and save. I'm going to try and keep it short because I know you're not all here to hear about golden muscles. Um, big

and I actually really enjoy working with your dad and he's been um a sponge, no pun intended, about learning about water because it's not easy. So, there's a couple things I want to highlight. First, I want to thank Maddie. Um, in my private business, I run a business consulting firm, and we did an event for women on Friday, a day in her shoes with city council woman from Mya, Lorie Stone, and Maddie jumped right in there with both feet, both shoes, and volunteered both the setup day and the day of the event. And we really appreciate you. We thank you for coming and you added a lot to the event. So, thank you very much. We had about 400 women there for Wow. on your day off, too, Maddie.

So, thank you, Maddie. It was wonderful. So, thank you, city manager Brown, for letting her participate. We we appreciate that. Um, I've been spending a lot of time at Metropolitan because they're talking about their budget and rates and um it's a moving target. So, I'm not going to give you that bad news yet because they haven't voted. So, I don't want to to ruin the evening. I do want to talk about golden muscles, though. You're familiar with quaga muscles and you probably heard of zebra muscles. Golden muscles are actually the cousin of quagas and they're larger. And I've seen some things on Facebook. Oh, the the water district only cares about it because it's going to hurt them. It's going to hurt you. If you think getting muscles off a boat or your dock or your seaw wall is easy and it doesn't impact those types of infrastructure, you need to think again. They're an invasive species and they are typically brought through on your boats. So, if you go to a water body now anywhere on the Delta in Northern California, um pretty much anywhere in this United States, and you come through and you think, "Oh, my boat's too big. I don't need to have it inspected. I'm just going to go through." And then you empty your boat and that goes into the storm water, which goes into the lake, and then we have golden muscles. Not okay. The state legislature is actually putting a bill together to mandate how we inspect boats. So, it's not just going to be like I got a guy and he's got he's going to look. We are going to have protocols now because these invasive species are getting to be more common and they are impacting things like you cannot put water in the ground in LA County because of these. So, groundwater recharge is impacted which actually impacts farmers up in the central valley as well in certain places. So, it's becoming a bigger and bigger problem. So, please, please be accommodating when security stops you and wants to look at your boat, no matter what size your boat is.

And do not dump your water anywhere from your boat into the gutter, which goes into the storm drain, which goes into the lake. So, the only person you're hurting is yourselves. Um, also want to point out that I saw um something about my favorite topic, chickens, again on Facebook, that you can uh participate in learning to hatch baby chicks. Take those chicks home and then bring the chicks back to said chicken farm. Please make sure you bring those chickens back to said chicken farm because chickens are not allowed in the city of Tanny Lake.

Really? unless they are served uh fricacy broiled that that type of thing and and it's getting to be a bigger problem soon to be chief. So um and that is actually a violation of the safe drinking water act which is a federal violation and with it comes a very hefty fine. So

but chief I got good news. There is a smoker at the fire station that you can go ahead and just gently place those chickens in there. Well, barbecue competitions always sounds good to me. Absolutely. I also want to thank um Council Member Terry and Council Member Welt is not here. They are participating in our foster water leadership program, which is a multi-week process and getting educated and understanding a little bit more about our infrastructure, what we do, and I know it takes time out of your busy schedule. So, thank you for signing up and participating. Um, I'm going to kind of leave it at that because I know we're going to have other topics later, but I'm happy to take any questions. Any questions? Um, if you all want to get underneath Darcy's skin, I sent her a picture yesterday of a barbecue over the water and I said we're going to start installing these all over the lake and she about lost her mind. So, I just Sorry, Darcy. I have to.

A lot of people do that. Um, just to remind you, I know your boats come with barbecues and propane on your boat. That is also against the Safe Drinking Water Act. Also highly illegal. And the state water resources control board fine for that is $2,500 per incident which would be per day. Um and if you don't pay it or there's a third time, um I don't know what color the attire is in federal prison, perhaps the chief can tell us. Um but they're not messing around. And when you're on high alert, as we kind of are now, um I would tell you to make good decisions and and just be smart about it. But but thank you for bringing up as we're going into barbecue season, we do not barbecue on our boats on the lake.

One other item if you don't mind commenting on um I know that your agency was out doing some water testing or sampling

sampling of with drains. I know that there's a you know can you talk a little bit about that and what's happening with that because we have a lot of runoff right now. Um well, probably not right this moment because it's a little dry. But when rain comes and it runs off, there's certain parts of the lake that have higher um what we call a first flush. So I'm going to say higher levels of toxicity. Not that it's toxic, but more contaminants. And so as regular protocol, they do go out there and they draw samples. And I think um the mayor had a great idea that maybe we should alert those those um coes where we do that sampling more often. Um, I think as we get out of our construction mode more and we can do better community engagement, which I can tell you from a strategic standpoint from the board is our number one priority, is not community outreach. I can send you postcards all day, but community engagement, these are some of the things we want to talk about and why we do that. Um, I also want to bring up something I brought at the property owners meeting is that when you call me and you tell me there are suds coming out of the storm drain into the lake and I'm going to ask where do you live and then you realize that it's your favorite auto dealer or detailer that's causing those suds and now you don't want to talk to me and you want to hang up. There is no auto detailing either. So those toxins run into the lake. Those specific type of toxins in soap feed algae. So when you're not happy about the algae, whether it's golden or blue, or I could go on with the litany of colors, we're causing a lot of our own problems. So, and it's not about especially with golden algae. Please don't bring up the nanobubblers again. That's only going to make it worse. Blue green algae is a completely different type of treatment. But we need to be careful about what you put in there. what you put in is what is going to stay there. And it's no, it's not like it's a big deal. It's a very big deal. And it's

always like, well, it's not it's it's just this. It's just my little bit. But your little bit may also bring with it dog poop and other treasures that it found along the way as I went into the storm drain. But my favorite was literally bubbles from soap. And then they realized it was their favorite auto detailer, so they didn't want to tell me where they lived. Yeah. So, please don't do that. Please don't do that. And I know you're going to be speaking on business item number six, which is the Crescent Garden Cemetery. So, thank you for being here for that. Appreciate that.

My pleasure. And I know also that the chief has some good news about a potential grant that we are working on together and I'm really grateful for that and for Metropolitan Water District of Southern California for making that possible. But, um, I won't steal his thunder completely. Love it. So, but I also want to just point out it's another example of good partnership between our agencies. Absolutely. So, thank you. Thank you. Let's give her a round of applause, please, because she's awesome. Way to go, Darcy. All right. Now, the man with two first names. Sorry, Jeff. Jeff Bill. He's the vice president of the Canyon Lake Property Owners Association. He's going to give us an update. We have a microphone that actually works for you because you complain every time you come that ours is too short. I don't know why,

but we fixed it. You can still hunch over if you would like to hunch over. Mayor, Mayor Pro Tim, council, staff, appreciate you letting us be here tonight. It's been a busy month with the POA. After a few months of budget review by the finance committee and the POA staff, we have raised our assessment at half the rate of inflation. In the past, we've had to play catch catchup, but I think the mic got turned off. That's fine. I sound better that way. How about now?

Perfect. Start. Start over. No. So, yeah, we've been working on the budget and a lot of people are upset because dues have to go up and everything, but we've kept the dues at less than half the rate of inflation this year. Our finance committee has just worked steadily for the last couple of months. Um, our group led by V Bill Vanble Vleet who started working on this three years ago to get us to this point. So, yeah, we're 1.4% where when we look at the CPI, we're at 2.9%. When we look at inflation, we're at 3%. So, we came out ahead this year. So, I wanted to uh publicly thank our finance committee for everything that they've done. Um, getting back to business, the operations group is installing a backup generator at the country club. They're also updating the motorcycle parking area at the Eastgate, and they're getting ready to wrap up the new footings at the equestrian center. So, now for the fun stuff. upcoming events. Our yacht club is giving a class on how to operate your boat, get your boat ready for the season, go over some of the safety boers test, and I would encourage anyone here who's not comfortable with getting out on the water on a boat to attend that. And you can actually reach out to uh Rob Mora after this meeting or during the meeting. It might be more interesting. Commodore

and um he's the commodor of the yach club and he is going to be giving instruction on how not to drown in your boat and how to remove those barbecues before Darcy catches you. So, another event coming up. Um we have the cars and coffee on this Saturday. We have the um Sorry guys, got to turn the page. I'm not a professional speaker. Hold on a second. I'm getting there. There it is. Sorry, I'm bored today. The Mermaids of Canyon Lake Lucky Sirens Casino Night. Nice.

So, if you have money you want to throw away, um, you know, or gamble, whatever you want to call it, it is on March 14th, 5:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. at the senior center in the card room. Tickets are $60. They're available at the mermaidsof canyonlake.org. It's a good fundraiser. There's a catered buffet and bottomless beverages. And then the big event coming up is the Vegas McGra Tim McGrath tribute guild concert on March 21st. Um he was here before. He's back by popular demand. Um everybody really enjoyed it. And then I'm going to bring this one up even though it's more related to you guys. Donuts and dialogue with Karen Spiegel. She's going to be at the senior center Monday, April 6th, 9:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. And she will be here to answer questions, give information um related to the office on aging, offer resources to our seniors, and would be a great time to uh meet with her. And that's about all I have for tonight. Any questions, comments, or insults?

Any questions for insults? All right. Any questions for Jeff? Bill, I'm good. Hey, appreciate you. Thank you. Awesome job, Jeff. All right, we have our president of the Canyon Lake Chamber of Commerce. I think Johnny's here. Is he here? Yes. How you doing, Johnny? How are you? I apologize again publicly for crashing your breakfast this week or last week.

Son, all right. Um, good evening, uh, Mayor Smith, Mayor Pro Tim Castillo, council members, and city staff. Uh, I have three short items. I want to talk about and then I'll hand it over to uh the boss Rick Tobin. Talk about events. Um one we have a um we created a new seal uh last month and then now we're creating a new logo and sorry I was going to have this uh for each of you but this is the old existing logo. We updated it a little bit. Um the now new logo is uh going to be uh the Kenya Lake Chamber of Commerce. um talked to a digital creator and one of the main uh items I wanted was a forward- facing lighthouse and didn't realize until I dug in a little bit more, but if it's left or right, it means something different versus if it's uh forward facing. Forward- facing uh means and signifies strong and confident, balanced and trustworthy and beacon for everyone. And that was important to us as we designed that because the long rich history of the chamber but also the city. And the last um item, the beacon for everyone leads me into my second item. Uh the Kenyon Lake Chamber of Commerce is has a new initiative and we're going to be launching a uh initiative called the Kenyon Lake Chamber Advantage. It's a dedicated page created on the website to support this program. And what this program is is it'll function as a businessto business directory and referral hub. I've been to 15 16 different sites of different chambers that have similar initiatives. None of them are working. None of them are functioning. There's no referral passing. There's no memberships uh being uh produced through that to that initiative. And our goal is this page to become a place where members can easily find and connect with other chamber businesses. as we like to say in the chamber, if you're looking for a business or somebody to work on

something for you, check the chamber uh uh advantage page um and find it there before looking elsewhere or looking outside the community. So, it's important to us and I think it works perfectly with the city spotlight. So, looking forward uh to that. Um, lastly, uh, last Thursday, March 5th, I told my wife I had a a a dinner date with four wonderful women. And that went over well before Yeah. before I I had to clear that up for a moment and then I was released from the house and that was a meeting with our new ad hoc committee.

Nice. And those four uh wonderful women are are now on the committee and they consist of Ria Riley which is the chair, Jeannie Odell, and you know how good of a salesperson if I am that got her out of retirement. So important uh Debbie Gon and uh the world famous Maline Maddie Gonzalez is on that committee. So wow, we're excited. We're excited. I'm uh absolutely ecstatic uh to be working with those uh those women and looking forward to their guidance and support as we move the chamber forward. So looking forward to that and I want to thank them publicly for stepping up to the plate to help us with that. So excited

Rick. All right. All right. Good evening. I'm Rick Tobin. I'm the vice president director of events. Uh first off, I wanted to announce and congratulate Cole Banker Associated Brokers Realy as a Chambers's business uh of the month for March. They've supported our chamber and the community for many many years and we will soon you're going to be interviewing them I think soon and they'll be shared online.

And I just want to talk about some of the events we have coming up including tomorrow evening Canyon Cowboy. It's going to be a joint ribbon cutting and after hours mixer uh 5:30 to 7. So we hope to see you there. And then the following Thursday over there at uh Studio K, which is the three in one three in one businesses. Studio K Sips Bar which is in the house and the body shop. Yep, there she is. There you guys are. Can Yeah, you guys are all there. Yeah. Came back. All right. Yes.

Okay. So that's going to be next Thursday 5:30 to 7. I need to put my glasses on. It sucks getting old. Okay, we're Johnny and I worked hard with our team to the next one is going to be the trichamber speed networking event at Pepes on Monday, April 13th. Why this is unique is we got Lake Chamber, Meny Chamber, and Canyon Lake Chamber. So that's going to be 5:30 to 7 on Monday um April 13th. Then on April 21st, we have our Taco Tuesday golf mixer. We started that last year. So over at the the golf club, we have Pat Kimble, the head pro, and I think Theo is one of his main assistants. We'll be um helping teach everyone. We have all 15 tea boxes. We have a lot of sponsor booth set up, you know, under the the solar roof. We're going to have a putting contest and obviously it's taco Tuesday. We're going to bring the tacos out. We'll have margaritas. So, that's coming up. Um, and then we're working on something that's very unique for Chambers that's going to start on May 21st and that's business coaching. So, we're going to teach we have a we're bringing a lot of experienced people to teach people how to sell, how to market, how to, you know, how to network. So, that's going to be on May 21st at the Magnolia Room. And lastly, our biggest event we're working on with the help of the Canyon Lake Yach Club, Commodore Rob, is a land cruise. We're going to have one or two buses leaving from the parking lot here on Saturday, June 20th to go to Shoreline Yach Club in Long Beach. We're going to have a lot of sponsor booths, speakers, uh tasty food, uh lots of mimosas, boat rides, and so that's going to be an all day event. We're still finalizing the details. We try to make our events very affordable for the community, but that's going to

be coming up so Saturday, June 20th. And that's it. So, thank you for your time. Rick, Johnny, you guys are awesome. Can we give them a round of applause? Do we do we have any questions for the chamber? I just have one comment. Uh, so I'm so excited that you're going to start joining us at the student of the month and I was able to get our Canyon Lake Chamber going to be joining the the city recognizing the students every month. So, that's uh awesome. So, thank you for joining me on that. It's It's cool to see some of the reactions of the folks behind you because I think people forget just how much work goes into making these things happen and you guys are kicking butt. So, kudos to y'all. Appreciate you. Thank you for the city support.

Yes, of course. All right, Council Member Mark Terry, we're going to do a non What is this? We have nonprofit organization. Are you ready? This nonprofit spotlight. This is your thing. It is. It's a great thing. Do you need an energy drink? I do not need an energy drink. All right, bring it. I want to see it.

I wake up energy. Um, it is it is uh obviously a council favorite. It's an opportunity for us to highlight a nonprofit within our region. Um I think uh we started this what last January of 2025 and it is amazing the work that these nonprofits do and how much of an asset they are not only to our local community but uh to the Riverside County region. And tonight it is my pleasure to introduce Milvet. How many people have heard of Milvet? Of course you have. Um, and they're a nonprofit organization. They are dedicated to supporting deployed troops, veterans, and their families. Milvet is celebrating their 10th year of service. Let's give it up for that.

And and Milvet is renowned. So to to have that name recognition and that reputation that they have, 10 years sounds like a long time, but when you're in the midst of your involvement in an organization, 10 years will go just like that. And it is my honor in welcoming founder and CEO Raven Hilden here to share more about their important work. Let's give her a big round of applause. Thank you, Raven.

Thank you. All right. Um, good evening, honorable mayor and city council staff and all you informed residents. Um, it's a pleasure to be here this evening to share a little bit about what Milvet does. Um, I think I have five minutes, so I am going to do my best, but I will uh kind of highlight some of our programs, our upcoming events, and then where to get more information. So, Milvet is a 501c3 nonprofit. We're dedicated to supporting our active duty military veterans and their families. Uh we support um through veteran support services resources honoring our fallen milvet Jr. active duty military support military care packages holidays for heroes and advocacy. So on the support side we have a storefront in Marietta on Antelope and Scott Road. It is open weekly for walk-ins with a pantry with food items, household items, diapers, infant uh supplies. And then we have access to a a veteran service officer twice a month where they can help with um filing for disability benefits, education benefits, um survivor support, all kinds of different things. have a flag where we uh last November honored 73 of our local service members who are no longer with us uh with their families at the field of honor. We have a Milvet Jr. program where uh it's for children of ages about 5 to 11 and they meet monthly for some fun events. A lot of them are military

families. They may have a spouse or a a parent who is deployed overseas. So, it kind of gets them involved with other military children. Um, this month in March, they will be going to the Marchfield Air Museum. Uh, and then they do all kinds of fun stuff throughout the year. And it's really a great way to connect our military families. Uh, active duty support. So, we are we partner with a lot of the bases, especially March. So, we're out there for um holiday support. Each year we're on a C17 with a bunch of toys for our families. We bring Santa. Last year we had the Grinch and Mrs. Claus and it's just it's so much fun. Uh we'll be out there for uh an Easter celebration next month with Easter eggs and the Easter Bunny. So it's just uh it's a lot of fun bringing some extra joy to our our active duty folks. And then uh monthly military care packages. So, a lot of folks know us mostly for that um only because it's uh such a great way for everybody really to get involved and support our active duty military members. So, we support about 200 addresses every month with care packages. Um and what makes them special is they're very personalized for our service members. So for example, a female on a ship might have slightly different needs than um somebody maybe deployed in a tent somewhere in a different region of the world. Um and these are deployments um can last anywhere from you know a few months to 3 years. And what makes the program all so special is uh each person that is signed up then they get a care package every month until they return home from deployment. So, it's um it's not just a one-time thing, which is amazing as well, but it's an ongoing reminder that the community supports them um is

thinking about them and hasn't forgotten them. So, the items are great. We send cookies, candy, you name it. Uh hygiene supplies, letters from um school groups and youth in the community. Uh and then basically anybody's invited to help pack those. So, some of the packings are super big. Um, and we, like I said, we do it every month. So, when they're at our storefront, they fill up pretty quick. Uh, once a year we do one at the Storm Stadium. That's about 300 people. Um, we also have the Sorry, I'm a little nervous and I'm trying to go fast. Um, we also have the players at the Storm Stadium that, um, sign autographs and get involved. So, it's a lot of fun. And there's just a couple pictures, but we also get a lot of letters back from our deployed troops. So on our website, milvet.org testimonials, we have just a list of all um the letters we've gotten back over the last 10 years. And then Battle of the Cities. So we partner with local cities, too. Last year um in October, we partnered with Tmacula and the city of Marietta for a contest to see who could collect the most items for our care packages. and it was super close, but uh Marietta won with over 17,000 items connected uh collected, which is super cool. We want to do it again this year and we want to get Canyon Lake involved. So, I will keep you all posted. And then, um holidays for heroes. So, in addition to our our active duty service members, we also support children of our military families here in Riverside County. And what we do is we collect their wish list. So, it's personalized and the community helps shop for those kids and then we have a big event where we bring all of our families together. So, we had about 900 people last year. Um, and they're super fun. So, if you

see in the far left corner, we've got Santa skydiving. That was two years ago over at Paris Skydive. Uh, this last year we had princesses, we had the Grinch, all kinds of fun characters and a full-size wrestling arena. Um, so we had some some fun little wrestlers and extra entertainment for uh our families. It's just it's it's a great time. And then there's a few of our awards over the years. Um, and I put up that up there because we have an incredible team that is extremely dedicated to what we do. We have about 25 core team members. Um, and then many, many more volunteers that assist. And with that, we're all volunteers. I'm a volunteer as well. Um, I've been doing this for 10 years. I I love it. It is my life's purpose um to be able to give back to those that serve our country. Um, and be able to do it with the amazing people that make it happen. And upcoming events. So, um, the April one there is already full because that's at our office. We still have room in May if you want to come and join us. And then the flyer on the right is the Storm Stadium one that's in June this year. definitely have lots of room there. It's a lot of fun. And then in the middle is our Milvet Honors, our annual gala. Um that is always a great time and that helps us do what we do. So the shipping for those boxes gets super expensive, especially when we're doing, you know, over 200 a month and with current events, we're sending a lot, you know, just more and more packages. Um so that'll be at Marchfield Air Museum May 16th. Please join us. It's open to everybody. You do not need to be military. We are looking for more sponsors. Uh we just had CRNR and Edison sign up. Um we're going to have speeches by Senator Searto um and the TmAcula mayor. So uh that's definitely open to

Canyon Lake as well. We'd love to see you there. And let's see. And there's a lot of other flyers on our website, milv.org. If you scroll down on the homepage, we have about 13 events coming up. Um we'd love to see you there. I am super accessible. You can email me, call me at that number. Um, and we'd we'd love to see Canyon Lake join us. Thank you.

Did you say 17,000? 17,000. That's the number. I think you can beat it. I think uh we'll wait a minute. Hold on. Population 118,000 people. We can try. We can we can rock and roll. It's a big one. Turkey challenge. Turkey challenge. That's all over here. Can this be a per capita challenge? Then we would do it. I knew we would do it. If it's per capita. Thank you very much, Raven. One more time. Let's give her a round of applause and the great work that they do. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Thank you for that. You said you were nervous, but I would hate to see what it looks like when you're confident because you killed it. Good job. All right, madam clerk, public comments. Mayor, we have one public comment tonight. Ron Wilbur. Ron, you're up. Told you I wasn't going to speak tonight. Well, mayor and uh city councilman the city staff here and is on

there. Can you hear me now?

All right. Anyway, it's it's a delight to be here tonight to address an issue that is very near to my heart. U my wife and I moved here 10 years ago. We live on the lake in East Lake and we've enjoyed the lake so much over the last 10 years traveling on it in our pontoon boat, enjoying the recreation, just seeing the people that have so much fun. Our grandkids are playing on their lily pads. It's just a wonderful place to live and such an an amazing thing to have this lake here. That's what really got me involved and that's what I want to talk to you about tonight. I actually was at the uh coffee with the mayor when Mark Terry was the mayor and director Burke and they were talking about an issue that sounded very interesting but I have to admit I was a little bit skeptical because they were talking about a proposed development up in the Metobrook area that could have some impact on our lake. Now, I I lived in Canyon Lake now for 10 years. I've heard a lot of people complain about a lot of things. So, I have a natural skepticism, but I decided that because of the stature of these two people, I would do a little investigation. I did. I started to look at research and the more research that I gathered from around the world, the more I realized that what they were talking about is there is an impending potential challenge to the integrity of our lake. And it's incumbent on us as citizens of this community to step up and stand for and against this potential problem. So, I'm happy to tell you that today and actually uh director Burke kind of gathered several of us and said you need to get involved with this. You need to take a

role in it. So, I'm happy to tell you that as of yesterday, uh Save Our Lakes Incorporated has been approved by the state of California. We are in the process of becoming a nonprofit and we are actively working to protect the integrity of our lake against the development. Several people I'm sure are going to speak about this so I'm not going to go into detail but I will tell you we are serious. We have the best of intentions of protecting the integrity of our lake and I have a great feeling that we will prevail. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Madam clerk, is that it?

Um, little housekeeping. Um, because of the format at which we have to govern in, which is the Brown Act, uh, just to let you all know we have a couple items on the agenda and most of you are probably here to talk about those item, which is the moratorum discussion and then also um the cemetery discussion. So, this council unfortunately can't go back and forth with the audience. But if you would like to talk about those items, please come up to the clerks. She'll give you a little comment card and then you can do exactly what was just done and you get three minutes to speak on it and the city attorney will kick me under the table as I try to talk to you legally without talking to you. So, with that, we're going to move on um to our consent calendar items. Do we have any items that the council would like to pull?

U mayor, I'd like to pull number three for comment. All right. Number three. Anyone else? Going once, going twice. All right, we are going to move the consent calendar except for item three. I do need a motion on this. I move. We got a motion from council member Terry. We got a second from our mayor proim. Madam clerk, roll call vote. Mayor Proim Castillo. I. Council member Sieber. Council member Terry. I. Smith. I. Motion.

Thank you so much. The floor is yours. Council member Steber. Item number three. Um, in discussion with city manager, I've kindly asked him just kind of give a little background on when this started. I I know our community has seen the progress that has been made on Railroad Canyon and done a terrific job. Uh, some might be a little shocked on why these amendments are getting close to the original contract price. So, I kindly asked if uh city manager might be able to chime in when we initially started this in 2017, but also give a little background on the the uh CALR grant increasement as well.

Absolutely. Thank you, Mayor uh Mayor Prom and uh specifically council member Stever for this question and for giving me an opportunity to uh be able to prepare for the for this. uh uh what I was what I found I I don't know the initial date of when the discussion began. Uh it could be anywhere from 2017 to 2019, but what I was able to find is the um the LRSP or the local roadway safety plan uh was commissioned in 2021. Uh that that was completed and adopted completed in three of 22. So, uh, March of 22 and then adopted in April of 22. And that has kind of the the bulk of the plan of here's everything you need. Uh, that then, uh, kind of takes you to the next step. The next step is to go, uh, to have design and go through that process. So, your design really goes back to that that 422 area. Could be could be May, but in in that area. And then uh what has happened since then is you've you've had changes in every aspect of this. So you've had changes in uh really three different city managers, right? So you had uh the one in 22, one later and and then me now. you've had uh change in the different scope uh the prices uh the the scope increased uh for a myriad of reasons but the important ones really are uh the grant was originally for about 1.2 2 1.3 million. And when we got our bids much later in 25, nearly 3 years later, the bid came back with uh a a a low bid that was not u uh not the

bid that ended up uh one that we uh accepted. We went to the next bid. That bid was significantly higher. So now you trigger your engineering team because we're a small city. We don't have a a city engineer. We contract for this. So now you trigger your team to say, "Okay, we're going to go back to CALR now that this amount is higher and see what they can get." And so they had to go through the process of trying to get more. They were able to get that from $1.3 million to $2 million. And so frankly, we we pay for that. We now have additional work for them. Also over that time the scope increased of what needed to happen. You unfortunately and and uh I know you know this well with with your day job as they say uh your 2022 rates are not going to get anything done in 2026. So you've got that and then there's an additional item that we added and that is the uh the barriers you see right in front of the the concrete. So it is not a requirement. It's not a um um CALR requirement to have those. They're called crash attenuators in front of the concrete, but it is uh highly likely that a vehicle at a high rate of speed running directly into that concrete uh the survival rate is is very low. When you put those crash attenuators in, you mitigate some of that. Obviously, you you're there's no guarantee of of that, but the idea of this HIPP project is it's highway safety improvement. And so, we found we found an area where we could increase that safety. And so, it made sense to move forward with that. So, you've got all of those changes throughout that process that end up in these change orders that are needed. Uh

um I think I'm covering each area that you were looking for. If there's anything else, council. Uh, no, no. Much appreciated and and hopefully our consultant firm uh doesn't stop at the 2 million mark. Hopefully they they keep searching if there does come availability before the project. But no, I appreciate going over that item just a little more in depth on on kind of why we're seeing that increase. Uh starting to catch up on those two amendments. Absolutely. Thank you, sir. What's the hit on the general fund? It's a Z general fund. So, this is uh uh paid for by other funds and grants.

That's what I want to make very clear is that this is a zero hit on the general fund. And for a small city like Canyon Lake with only less than 13,000 residents here, for us to get a sniff at any type of grants has been very difficult. So, it's actually kudos to staff to find money to make these improvements. Um serving on RCTC, which is Riverside County Transportation Council, we look at projects all over the county. We start a project, we start bidding it back 10, 12, 15 years ago. that same project is hundreds of millions of dollars more than it is today. So, I think that this is status quo completely normal and the staff, you guys are doing an incredible job keeping up with it. And look, the residents asked us to do something. We had the opportunity to get grant money and we're doing all we can to make Railroad Canyon, which I think is one of the most dangerous roads in the area, not just cuz it's ours, um to try to make it safer. Um and that's what we're trying to do here. So,

and mayor, with your blessing and with the city attorneys, I could also answer a couple of questions. directly related to the 8IP project that have come up. Um there will be lighting that question has been asked. Uh that's what you see as that kind of as the concrete folds in gets a little thicker. That is lighting. That is part of what was identified in this uh LRSP that uh it needed both lighting and the median in the way. uh you will see uh unfortunately a kind of stop in construction and then a resume again because we as it happens we ended up with some items that are backordered. Uh American Asphalt has been amazing. U they're looking at it like you know kind of kind of a a no issue. We'll stop when we get to that point when the parts come in. We'll resume so we don't have to go back and renegotiate work days and all that. uh they've been an amazing partner throughout this whole process, but I want to make sure everybody knows they're currently painting uh as you've seen. They'll come back, do the landscaping and the lighting, but unfortunately uh with the lighting there is some uh uh backordered items and we're expecting June, could be sooner. I'm sure you've all seen the same thing where they tell you it's going to be a long time and then two weeks later they go, "Hey, they they showed up." Yeah, that's what we're hoping for, but not anticipating. So, I did want to add those additional details. Thank you, Mr. City Manager. Council member Siver, you want to make the motion on this one?

I absolutely will. I need a second. Second. Roll call, please. Mayor Pro Tim Gustillo. I. Council member Siver. Hi. Council member Terry. I. Smith. I. Motion passes. Thank you. That passes the consent calendar.

All right. We have a public hearing item. This is number five. This is the second reading and adoption of ordinance number 271. An ordinance of the city council of the city of Canyon Lake, California. an amendment to the Canyon Lake Municipal Code Chapter 420. Way to go, Mr. City Attorney. Commercial cannabis business section. With that, um, I'm going to open the public hearing. I finally got a laugh there at 7:38. And it is the presentation by our city attorney, Mr. 420. Thank Thank you, mayor. Um, it was mostly so that we could remember the code sections easily off the top of our heads. Um you you attorneys,

this is the second reading and adoption of this ordinance. So this has already come before the city council. This is simply a conforming change to the city's cannabis regulations. Uh the city council will recall that uh the city council originally authorized uh the cannabis uses within the C1 zone. Uh the city council then subsequently adopted a town center specific plan which redesated the town center to a mixeduse zone. So, we want to make sure that we keep our zoning regulations consistent with each other because you let these things go, they pile up and and then uh it's chaos. Uh so, it's a small change. Uh it's not increasing the areas that are allowed. It's not increasing the number of permits. It's simply conforming the rules uh to the new town center specific plan. Thank you, mayor.

You are very welcome. Any questions for our city attorney? Any public testimonies, madame clerk? Mayor, we have none. Perfect. Public hearing is now closed. 7:39. Any questions, additional questions from our my colleagues? If not, I do need a motion on this item. I move. I'll second. Perfect. Roll call vote, please. Madam clerk. Castillo. I. Council member Steber. I. Council member Terry. I. Smith. I. Motion passes.

Perfect. Moving on. Business item number six. This is a discussion and direction regarding the proposed Crescent Garden Cemetery project in the Metobrook area of the county of Riverside. The presentation of this is going to be our director Darcy Burke. She is an expert. She's not speaking on behalf of the agency of course, but she is speaking on behalf of her experience in water. And if those of you are here and you would like to speak on the item and have yet to fill out a public comment card or if you would like to do so during her awesome comments on this item, please feel free to do so.

So yeah, I want to be very clear. I'm not speaking on behalf of Elsenor Valley Municipal Water District. As a public water agency, they have very specific protocols they have to follow as it relates to providing service for water or wastewater, recycled water to our customers. Um but I am going to speak about water quality and the impacts or potential impacts to public health. Um the applicant has read and responded to many of the letters that were provided on the first round of applications they did for this particular project. And to uh kind of refresh those that may not know, this particular project was proposed to be a natural or direct burial cemetery, which means there would be no barrier between the body and the dirt. This particular project is one mile outside of the gates of Can about I'd say northeast. I actually have a map on my phone. Um, and if you look at the drainage scars through Canyon Lake, it drains right into Canyon Lake. So, Canyon Lake is at the bottom of the watershed. When our lake fills, it then flows over to Lake Elsenor. Um, before the Railroad Canyon Dam was constructed, it flowed right into Lake Elsenor, and that's what kept Lake Elsenor full of water. A direct burial practice has no barrier for contamination and there is a litany of things that happen when the body decomposes. None of those things you would want in one your drinking water, nor would you want your family swimming in. So, um, myself and a number of other water quality experts that are in my sphere of influence submitted letters to that effect. the applicant within three months responded and that's what I want to speak to tonight what what their response were to those items. So um there were six areas really of

deficiency that I still found and what they have submitted. So they submitted a mitigation um non-deck. So basically they're saying okay we've we've addressed everything that you said there was a problem and we're all good to go. One of the things that they have said is they are going to provide concrete liners for their burial. Um I want to just be very specific that the reason they had approached natural or direct earth burial was of their religious practice. Their proposal is that there would be a plastic liner as well as a bag around the corpse before they place them into the uh dirt. But now that dirt is a concrete liner. There is no specifications to the type of concrete liner. What happens when the concrete liner fails? What happens in a seismic event? So, or a flood event. So, that particular area has been known to flood. So, if the liner were to fail and open or crack, the remains would float to the top and those remains would come down the watershed and into the lake. There is no mitigation or response plan included in their uh application. They have addressed a number of clean water act issues or storm water. They talk about their construction permit. They talk about storm water. They do not once address the safe drinking water act at all. So in this in clean water which is kind of a oxymoron just so you know sewage is regulated by clean water act you mitigate

the risk in drinking water you eliminate the risk. So they have failed to do that. They have um not addressed source water protection. They have not addressed pathogen transport which would be a decaying body when the uh if the vault were to fail or over time when it dissolves. They have not addressed nutrient loading. And why is that important? That's the whole thing we talk about when we talk about the lake Elsenor Sanenta watershed authority or lea we talk about nutrient loading total maximum daily load in the lake that leads to algae and all those things they have been silent on that they said we don't have any impact anytime you have runoff into the wershed you have impact and you have nutrient loading they do not once address the fact that although they acknowledge that Canyon Lake is a drinking water reservoir and they acknowledge there is recreation, they do nothing to mitigate the risk to those participating in recreational activities in the lake should any of those risks be present. So, I guess you're just supposed to swim in it. Um, as it relates to wastewater, um, I know many of you enjoyed the traffic disruption on the 74 for the last few months.

Still going.

It is on eastern side. We finished six months early. All of that sewer line is there for development. This particular project says we'll have a separate septic tank for our wastewater. There is no mitigation. What happens if that fails? We are spending $120 million in Lake Elsenor to take out septic systems. Why would we want them to put a septic system in there? They also talk about a significant amount of fill that they're bringing to to lift up this space. Um fill meaning dirt that they're going to bring in from other areas and and put in this area. And nowhere do they talk about testing the fill and that is for chemical testing panel my favorite POS and POA which is everywhere. Um third party verification so not I don't want them to test it. want somebody else to test it. And what are they going to do when they reject it? Uh, and I didn't mention it, but I I will in my letter. Microlastics, which we will soon have to regulate. And nowhere is that there. Um, and they have no way of documenting where that fill is coming from. So, there's no chain of command for that source. Uh, they also have operational chemicals on property, paint, um, gas, other other types of oh are we are we well we're back um other types of hazardous that you would have on any type of maintenance facility and they have no mitigation plan for those they have no spill monitoring they have no watershed specific handling protocols um and then the nutrients they also have um they say they have zero nutrient contribution and because of the fill they say that the drainage

You might want to hold on the top here. You want me higher? Okay, I'll go higher. It was They were buy one get one free. So, such a deal, darling. Right.

Don't you love when you have to get lowest bid? um they have no um framework of how they're going to manage the total maximum loads that will go in from the wershed. They rely on distance as a protection of pathogens. Distance in drinking water is not a defensible um stance. That that's not how you how it works. So they've really not addressed any of the claims. Um, it's the the potential significant impacts to drinking water, groundwater, which I really haven't even covered. I really just addressed source water as it relates to surface water and recreation, uh, public health as it relates to recreational exposure and then the wershed with nutrient loading. I also want to point out that I have had the argument from some other electeds that well, whatever goes in there, you guys can take out. and I can. It just costs a lot of money. But that's the drinking water side. But that also means that we are allowing somebody else to purposefully pollute our reservoir so all of you can pay for the treatment to take that out, which is not allowed under title 22, California water regulations or the safe drinking water act. They have not addressed any of those in here. So from my analysis of what they have submitted, it's deficient and they should have to at at the minimum be required to do a complete environmental impact report, which they have not done.

I'm going to do it a little bit differently because we have a city manager and a city attorney that actually want to ask you some cool questions, I would hope. And they're going to play nice. They're going to play very nice, right, gentlemen? I can play however they want to play cuz Darcy did have a Red Bull. Yeah. So, I I'll let the city attorney go first, but I I will say uh uh that we're we're we're speaking to resident Darcy Burke, who also happens to be a water expert, president of Watermark. Correct.

Um in the Marine Corps, we'd say she's no private schmuckatelli. Um so, uh while it's it's not somebody that is representing that agency, it is somebody who is an expert. Yep. And uh you said some things that for two individuals that do a lot of this for a living, it it perked, but um he's way smarter than I am. So I'm going to let him go first and then maybe have none. Right ahead. So uh so I I was listening to your comments and I I did have a couple of questions. Are they planning on having any water uh or monitoring wells? No. In between the cemetery and and the res No monitoring plan of any kind whatsoever in any of this project.

Okay. That's surface water and um because it's it's actually like bedrock there, there would be no monitoring well there for groundwater. Um but there's no surface water monitoring either for storm water. Okay. Uh the second question was um assuming that the water district or some other entity engaged in monitoring of of its own and you did detect elevated levels of E.coli ecoli or nitrates coming from the from the the cemetery. Do they have a corrective action plan that they're proposing? They do not. Okay. Um E.coli. Yep. Yeah. I I didn't want to get get too much into the the biological

any viral pathogens. How we can we let's put it that way. Any viral pathogens there is e giardia, cryptosperidian, ecoli, none of it. There's no monitoring or corrective or mitigated plan. Understood. Do you know if they have analyzed um whether their current site plan meets the requirements of the health and safety code? It's section uh 116980 uh which prohibits placing it. I I don't want to disrespect the burial of human beings, but it says animal carcasses, which would include human beings, uh from being within a certain distance of a a water drinking reservoir. You know, if they've analyzed that? um they say they've mitigated against it and there is no mitigation against that so we're on the same page.

Uh and then the last one and I I sorry for asking the annoying technical questions. Um do you know if the the county is analyzing uh whether a large scale scale natural burial site would be considered a discharge under the Porter Cologne Act? They they had a traffic engineer analyze this Mr. Attorney. So um they have not. However, I will tell you that because they decided they're going to do a vault, they this county has deemed it oh, they've complied with what you've asked. The water district is doing their own analysis and then there are a number of independent water experts that are going to address exactly what you just said. I

I was just wondering if there was any plan on the county's end to involve the regional water board in analyzing the potential discharge from the cemetery. There should be. Okay, th those are my questions, mayor. Thank you. That's why we had you start. Good job. Um, council members, do you have any questions for Darcy or any conversation on the item? Council member Steer, if if I am allowed to ask. Uh, Director Burke, appreciate uh your comments there. You can call me Darcy for this one. Darcy, sorry. Um, you didn't just make a comment. Uh, and I'm curious about because I do understand the lake is the water district's juris juris Yeah. jurisdiction jurisdiction.

Uh when does the water agency plan on having that water quality their internal one they're putting together complete? Would it be prior? So they don't have a water quality plan. What they are doing is the water district from my understanding is having a meeting with the applicant and they are reviewing the the documents they submitted. They will identify the deficiencies similar to what I did and submit them based on what they read. Appreciate your comment. Thank you. Mayor Pim, mic's on. Got anything? I'm terrified by the things Darcy tells us. I know. That's why. Okay. Council member Terry,

first of all, Darcy Bert, we are so fortunate that you live in the city of Canyon Lake.

Thank you. Um and uh earlier this other person spoke of engagement. Um I think on behalf of all of our residents, your engagement with us. I'm not quite certain where we would be or what we would be doing at this point if it had not been for one of our residents, Darcy Burke. So once again, thank you for that. You have brought up a list of areas that as Mayor Pro Tim said are are quite scary. Just to hear it from a layman's standpoint, th those are those are terrifying for somebody who has lived here for 25 years on a body of water, a reservoir, a lake that I truly love. I personally if there was a 0.005% of any of this occurring I would be a no and based off of what you have said I I would definitely think that we are there if not further along in the percentages of something occurring that would be horrible to a drinking reservoir. Um the area that is proposed here is very close to two seismic faults. Is that correct?

Correct. Could you explain a little bit about why that is important and correct me if I'm wrong um tied in to that could also be groundwater. Correct. Correct.

And if you don't mind. So, let's start a little bit with geology 101. Groundwater is not um stationary. It moves, it flows, it changes. If you've ever heard of a gas station having like an an MTBE contamination, they follow the plume of that. It's because it moves along the groundwater and if it has any influence on other aquifers or surface water, it may came up. It water is very dynamic. So it moves. When you have an earthquake, a seismic event, the levels of geology, especially in this area, they can shift. So when they shift, the water can move between the rocks, right? Water will go to the least um obstructive place it can go. Right? If if you ever had the pleasure of a slab leak, I had four of them last year. Um it's going to find the path of least resistance, right? And that's the same thing here. great example.

Thank you. So, the path of least resistance and it's the same type of thing and then it'll continue to follow along. So, it'll pick up whatever it goes along. Um, I talked earlier about golden muscles and how LA County has stopped groundwater recharge because they don't want that type of invasive species in its groundwater. Now, whether they could actually survive there, I don't know, but they're not taking any chances. same type of thing that can percolate down should the groundwater table rise because contaminants do move too and when the water meets those contaminants it's going to mix. So it'll go up to the surface and it'll go down into the groundwater and then it's just a matter of where where it moves and and when.

Uh the other clean fill is how it's listed. Yeah, that's how it's listed. Clean fill. Um, there is nothing that I read that has any oversight on what clean fill is. No. Or or how it's tested or monitored or verified. That in itself, no cemetery, but we bring in that much fill into an area that close to our reservoir. Would that in itself be a concern?

It is. It is a concern. I mean, each one of these by itself is a grave concern. At what point do you No pun intended.

At at what point At what point can we expect questioning towards them? I'm not and I I apologize. I feel that to this point they have been able to submit documents, submit what they think are their findings, their mitigation or no need to mitigate

and it seems to have gone uncontested to this point. Can you give our residents a look into the future and how maybe some of their findings and what they're trying to propose is going to eventually be contested? Sure. So, I'm going to actually just give my little disclaimer that this is purely conjecture for the attorney in the room. Um, however, go to the bathroom. Um, let's start back when they purchased the property and started this plan. Um, no red flags, right? just a cemetery. Nobody was worried about it. Nobody was paying attention. I found out about it at a dinner. Yeah.

I happened to sit next to the real estate agent who sold this piece of property and had it on his phone and he said, "Oh, what do you think about that new cemetery going out the north gate, right?" And I don't believe in coincidences. I believe in divine intervention.

And so I came back to the water district and said, "Somebody want to talk to me about this?" and we'd had turnover since that time had it happened. And so they had to dig some things out. So what I think is going to happen, purely conjecture, is this is political. I hate to say that because my entire career I have defended and worked toward water quality and public health. Anytime we talk about the lake, I you can pull anything out. I talk about public health and water quality. Same thing at Metropolitan, same at the EPA, public health and water quality that this is no different. Um I think they thought this was because of where it's located in Metobrook that this community would just not pay attention and it would go away. Canyon Lakers are not going away. So it really is about pressure. I believe the planning commission will consider this on April 1st at 9:00 am and they will listen to the testimony which also needs to be in written form by the way and they will either approve it or deny it and either way it's going to be appealed at some point and go to our board of supervisors. There's a few board of supervisors up for reelection. One of them ours donuts and what was it at the senior center? Mhm.

I think that's where the pressure is going to be because if we don't let our county supervisors know that this is unacceptable in any way, shape, or form, it's not about a mitigating the risk. It's eliminating. And the only way to eliminate this risk is to move it somewhere else. Not in this watershed, not near this reservoir, not in this lake, not for our families, not here. Can I ask a question on that? What just like fully dumb it down for me. What is the absolute danger to Kenya leakers?

So, there are a number of viruses that happen when a body decomposes. There are a number of um germs, for a lack of a better bacteria that could cause grave public harm or risk. Your kids would get sick if they swam in water where this is living and thriving. So, you can't see it. You can't taste it. It You can smell it sometimes, but this would pollute the lake. And I can't tell you what the environmental impact is right now. I can tell you what the public health impact is. You could get very sick. And depending on which of those things it is, I can't tell you you would not have long-term consequences. Respiratory, GI, whatever. So, let's just take the two that we know are generally in the lake anyway. Giardia and cryptoperidian, we treat those at the water treatment plant when it's on. We have um additional treatment we do to ensure that that's not in your drinking water. That would take that two those two types of viral contaminants that are there randomly. They would be there probably all the time because the amount of runoff and the continuous um toxicity that's now introduced to the lake is not something you'd want to swim in. I can't also say that the the Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board wouldn't close it. Also can't tell you that the state water board, Department

of Drinking Water would say no more body contact. Can't tell you that either. So to summarize, the living seem to be a little bit more important than those who have passed on. That would be my priority. Just like I will tell you that the human species are also a species and that they need to be considered when we look at environmental impacts which typically in California they are not. It's a good point. Madam clerk, is there any public comments on the item? Mayor, we have one speaker, Terry Jarvis. Darcy, don't go anywhere if you don't mind, but we're going to let we're going to let Terry speak. And Mr. Mayor, after he speaks, I got a couple more questions.

Absolutely. Mr. Jarvis, thank you for joining us. I unfortunately do have to start a three-minute clock, so don't be mad at me when you hear a beeper and I interrupt you. Okay,

I'll I'll do my best to get through it. Uh, Mayor Smith, Mayor Pro Tim Castillo, city staff, council members, and guests. Um, first of all, I think a public thank you is in order, Mayor Smith, Director Burke. Thank you so much for your tireless efforts and commitment in meeting with key elected officials to voice opposition to the proposed cemetery development. And also, thank you to the council members for the city of Canyon Lake taking a stand on opposing the cemetery development. I wish our neighboring council had done the same thing in Lake Elsenor. to the residents of Canyon Lake. I don't know how else to say this, but this proposed development must be stopped. We have the law on our side. Uh, Director Burke mentioned the Federal Safe Drinking Water Act. It requires source water protection and allows communities to oppose projects that threaten drinking water safety. It also requires states to assess the potential of drinking water being susceptible to contamination, including land uses within Watersheds. It allows communities to petition for regulatory intervention when new projects threaten water supplies. Since the proposed cemetery project location is in a sensitive watershed area, these laws need to be followed in this case. States across the nation have followed the lead of the safe drinking water act and have developed their own regulatory statutes to protect drinking water sources and ensure public health. In California, that is California Title 22, which requires water suppliers to identify cemeteries as potential contamination sources and environmental surveys. And that is done to design to protect public health by safeguarding our source water from actual and potential contamination sources. As Darcy has mentioned, there are several potential chemical and micro bile contaminants that are known to be released from cemeteries into local groundwater. So the regulations from

California uh from California title 20182 need to be adhered to. The proposed cemetery is recognized as a significant hazard to drinking water and recreation activities. As mentioned, the cemetery will be a natural buried cemetery and environmental studies have shown that fluids from naturally buried decomposing bodies can travel several miles through the soil. The proposed cemetery locations on a site in the hills above the Santa River. Gravity will carry the contaminants and toxins via the soil and enter the soil surface water that flows into the Santa River. From there, this contaminated water will flow into Canyon Lake, flow over into the Railroad Canyon Dam spillway and then flow into Lake Elsenor. These toxins will cause both Canyon Lake and Lake Elsenor to become unusable for recreational activities. As Director Burke has noted, there are acute health risks associated with the known contaminants and toxins that will be present in the water. So, there will be no body contact allowed in either of these lakes. Property values will plummet since no longer will potential homeowners be attracted to Canyon Lake since our most important recreational amenity will be unusable.

I'm sorry. Good job. That's your POA board member elect right there. Good job. Thank you. I appreciate that. Um, you know, the purpose of this item, uh, this council made a stance, what was it, four or five months ago, Mr. City Manager?

Uh, it was, and I do have an item for you, mayor, if, uh, if it's okay. So, uh, one of the things that I wanted to bring up, and then there there is some direction you could possibly provide the council. uh when you're talking about the the M&D or mitigated NEGD deck or mitigated negative declaration, it it is a document that is basically saying don't worry, I've covered all of this. You don't need to worry about an EIR. And the reason you don't need to worry about an ER is because they're extensive, they're uh in-depth, they're third party, they're expensive, and they're untimely, meaning it's it's not coming next week. So, um, a city attorney could cor correct me here. I will try to navigate this properly, but I believe that the you you could go one further. You did the resolution saying we we are not in support of this. I believe you could uh do a resolution that would say uh we're in absolute support of moving to an IR and the planning commission has that authority. Um, am I am I close to this, uh, Stephen, to where I'm navigating it properly? If

if if the council wanted to direct staff to prepare a request for the preparation of an EIR, we could prepare that correspondence and have it submitted for the mayor's signature or staff signature.

Uh, you know, I I think that um certainly a lot of questions have been asked tonight. Uh, I've I've been reviewing the MMD, the mitigated negative declaration as we've been here. Um, and you know, an EIR doesn't mean the project's over, but it means you're going to do a dive into these significant questions that the community has raised and get answers and potentially have mitigation uh, imposed. So, things like the the monitoring well that we talked about. Uh, and so if if the council did want to give us that direction to prepare that correspondence, usually I'm on the receiving end of those letters. Agreed.

Uh, so it it might be an interesting diversion to write one. Um, you might have to use SHA GBT on that. Oh, I I think we we'd upgrade to Gemini Pro for this, of course. Uh but no, I I I do think that if if that was something the council wanted to do to at least encourage the planning commission to do a little bit more study on this before making a decision, uh we could certainly prepare that.

I think an AI is a good call. I mean, that was that's a smart move, Mr. City Manager. Um if my colleagues don't have any objection, I think that's a no-brainer. Adds more teeth. Um I I truly believe that Darcy, as you and I have discussed, this item most likely will get continued on April 1st, which what we want. We want more work to be done on it. And the purpose of this item on tonight's agenda is not just because this council boldly stood up and and opposed the project immediately, but it's also to let the residents be aware that this is going to planning commission on April 1st. A lot of folks didn't understand the timing on this and it needs to go to the planning before it can go to the board of supervisors. So, um, it's important that we get folks there at the county on April 1st at 9:00 am to do exactly what we just saw here tonight and that's speak on this item and and and be normal about how this impacts us. You know, this is an issue when it comes to water quality. This is an issue when it comes to folks swimming. I guarantee you the applicant had no idea when he bought this piece of property that it was next to a drinking reservoir lake. I can almost guarantee you that. I'm not a betting woman, but I would bet you the same thing. And and I ended my comments with the same thing. He needs to do a complete environmental impact report.

Period. It's just that simple. Council member Steber. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Love to add in uh to city attorney's comment regarding the resolution. Uh I'm curious if the water agency who holds the jurisdiction over the lake, has there been any discussions of a resolution from their side focusing on this? Go ahead. I'm so glad you asked. Um, by law, we can't. Yeah.

Um, if you we have the water, we have to provide water for you. It's not a matter of we don't like you, we don't like the project. We have to give you a number of things that you have to do in order to get that water, which is you have to meet all the deficiencies. Um, and that's part of the process, but we don't really quote unquote have a project until the county says the project is deemed done. So, as we do this process, we're informing the county. We're informing the applicant, but we do not send a letter saying, "Nope, we resolve that we're not going to support this." Because as a as a water purveyor, by law, we have to serve you. If we have the water available, we have to. So, that that's the difference. However, the litany of things that you may have to go through to do that, and every developer has to, you have to build a tank, you have to build a pump station, you have to build a lift station. um you get to put a sewer line in. All those things are typical for development. And we do those because new growth pays for new growth and um repair, replacement, that type of thing. Existing customers pay for that. But if we have the water and we know we can provide you for at least 20, 25 years, we have to serve you. But you have to do the things we ask you to do in order to have that service connection met. So um they're going through the document. They will prepare uh their response to what the deficiencies are. I will tell you their first glimpse match looked a lot like mine

and then uh you know council member on our side uh as a public agency in close proximity to the project that the the county actually solicits our input um as as an agency. So, it wouldn't be inappropriate for this council on behalf of the city to send in uh a request for further study and information on on the issue.

Thank you. And my mistake, Mayor, I forgot that it was April 1st that was the date. So, it would not be a resolution we bring back. This would be if the council gives direction, a letter that will be written by the city attorney, signed by the mayor, and sent immediately. And the last thing I would say, not to not to trigger any old wounds, but the city of Canyon Lake does have a long history of keeping track of development in close proximity to its borders and requesting environmental study when appropriate.

Do when Audi Murphy was being developed, uh, has this city, uh, requested any of the research on the, uh, Indian burials along the watershed that's coming into our east side? So I don't have any knowledge about specific requests for Indian barrels. That is a mandatory element uh of every environmental review. Uh and the uh project uh applicants in the public the lead agency are required to do notice to nearby tribes under state law. Um the the project that that I had in my mind when I was talking about this was uh a proposed fresh and easy uh that someone once proposed on outside the north gate and we know what happened to that business. So you know those those qu you know asking questions about what's going on on your borders is completely rational.

Thank you and thank you Darcy for the information and the research. I'm all in on the EIR. I think that's a great idea. How do you want it? You you need a motion. You need consensus here, madam clerk? Motion is to direct staff to prepare a request for an I for the mayor signature and submit it to the county planning commission in advance of the April 1 hearing. Absolutely. Get a motion. That'd be great. I'll make the motion in red ink. Yep. Done. Bold. And to say not April Fool's because the meeting's on April 1st. Um can we get a roll call? We have a second. Uh yes. Second from our mayor prom. Mayor Proim Castillo. I. Council member Steber. I, Council Member Terry, I, Mayor Smith, 100%. I motion pass. Mayor, could I make one comment on the

No, you're done. None of them. I checked the box. You've already burial.

You're done. Keep going. You're good. uh the the Indian burial comment because I think that's a very big uh uh big deal because it it comes up in a lot and and I wanted you to know uh council member um every project I've been a part of throughout my career uh when there is an opposition of any kind um it is almost always a um unfortunately a card that is played that is oh that's that is a tribal burial ground and So, um I I don't want anybody hanging their hat on that. Uh as as the city attorney said, it goes through a mandatory process because I've heard that as well. They're never going to be able to do it because it's tribal burial. Uh that that process goes through every time. And there are frequently people that will say, "Oh, I saw uh the last one I had was an old um uh telephone pole that they said was a a burial." I'm I'm letting the the words out that everybody would know in that area, but they said that's what it was. Turned out to be literally an old telephone pole. So, that is very common to say this is what it is. But I would put no hope or expectation in in that being what stops this.

Go ahead. Two things. One, I only reviewed this document from my expertise, which was water quality and public health. So if there are any other deficiencies as it relates to tribal involvement, I I had have no say. Second thing is the um planning commission is April 1st at 9:00 a.m. I believe, which will mean there will be no coffee at the country club. that Wednesday, which is April 1st. So, um, at least I won't be there. We'll pivot. We'll pivot. So, we will pivot. Should we all go to that instead of Absolutely. Go to the the CAC, which is the county building. Um, I just want to give one more shout out. What is the official website again? Save Our Lakes. Save our lakes.

Thank you. Save our lakes.net. Please head over there, check out more information. We have some incredible men here that have been part of it and gals. Um, I just want to say thank you to the bottom of my heart to have residents step up like this and just get the information out and there's no funding here. Um, so it's been incredible to see just the organization and the willingness that you all have put uh towards this effort. So um, thank you very much. Thank you. All right, that's um that's item six. Madame Clerk, we're on business item seven. Do we have any public comments before I get this one going? We do not.

I'm going to bump it. We're going to go ahead and do item eight first, which is our moratorum discussion. Before we get into it, I'm going to take a three minute potty break for all those folks that are waiting for this item if you don't mind. And then we will come back. We'll journ in four or five minutes and everyone's happy because I did that and we will talk about a mortorium when we get back. Thank you. Maybe Claire should know.

Find your seats. We're going to get started. Okay. I told them to make a request. Speak. Hey. Yeah. No problem. Hi. I signed We signed your ball tonight. I'm just sitting there dancing because I'll call it. Well, that's when I go when I asked her. I was like, I'm an old public hearing. You hang everything else. Like I would hand it over to her and be like tapping. Yeah. All right, everyone. We're going to get started. No, I'm good. I got Is it from our light? Cuz I don't want it then. No. We're all going to die. Didn't you just hear?

All right. We're going to get started, everyone. If you don't mind, we're going to we're going to continue on with Real quick, we're going to continue on with business item number eight.

There we go. All right. This is the introduction of urgency ordinance number 272, an urgency ordinance of the city council of the city of Cany Lake, California, pursuit to the California government code section 65858. This is a 45day moratorum on establishments or expansions of beauty establishments within the city of Canyon Lake. This is direct the city clerk to place an extension on the moratorium on the agenda for the next regular city council meeting which will be next month. Mr. City attorney, we're going to let you kick us off on this.

Thank Thank you, Mayor. Uh so what we have in front of us is a 45day moratorum. Uh just to be clear what a mortorium is, a moratorum is a immediate but temporary prohibition on the establishment or expansion of certain uses. Uh so here uh we've proposed a definition of you know beauty establishment which covers um hair salons as well as barber shops, eyelash studios, uh makeup uh studios and other similar personal care establishments. Uh the concern that the uh city staff has identified is you know city of Canyon Lake we always say is unique and sometimes that uniqueness is amazing and sometimes that uniqueness is a challenge. Uh the challenge we face here is we have very limited commercial space available.

Correct. Um and so commercial activity generates uh revenue for providing essential public services and having a diversity of services available in the town center also ensures long-term economic vitality uh and ensures that our residents have close by access uh to the to those types of services. And when you have an overconentration of one particular use, uh it it can really challenge those two uh critical public safety issues that we've identified. So what you have in front of you is a a standard moratorium. Um to be clear, the language of the ordinance that you have in front of you limits both the establishment of a new as well as the expansion of existing. So that may be a policy question that the council

wants wants to discuss. you know, these uses are are, you know, pretty unique. Normally, you're you see moratoriums on uh things like gas stations. So, you know, expanding a gas station is a pretty difficult thing, but when you're talking about a a hair salon, in theory, that definition could include just adding a new chair. Right. Right. And so, that may be something that you that the council wants to discuss. Uh 45 days is the maximum amount of time that you can pass the initial moratorium. Uh so you would have if you this is passed today you would want it to be on your next agenda for an extension of up to 10 months 15 days combined that's one year. Okay.

Uh this is not a permanent uh solution uh to the issue. Uh the purpose of the moratorum is to allow the city staff and council to come up with permanent regulations. Right. Uh so I can tell you in other similar circumstances uh that could include numerical caps on the type of a business. It could include uh use buffers so you can't establish this use within so many feet of another already established use to ensure you have spacing. It can include other regulations. When it comes to some of these uses they are regulated by the state already. So there may be areas that has already been occupied by state regulation that the city wouldn't be authorized to regulate. Uh so we would analyze those. But what I'd recommend is first off discussing whether this is something that the council wants to pass, whether any changes you need to make and then also having additional discussion on what is the permanent at least what is the what is the general direction of a permanent uh ordinance that you would look for us to address this issue. Uh happy to answer any questions. It does require four affirmative votes uh to pass. I know that we have one council member missing. still need four affirmative votes.

Oh, he knows he's sick in bed texting me. So, I'll be reading his comments. He feels better. Oh, that concludes my staff report. Mayor, perfect. Um, you know, I'm going to actually, Madam Mayor Pertim, if you don't mind kind of kicking us off on this item.

Sure. So the way this question for discussion and study came about was when we had our goal session and it was brought to my attention by members of business members of the community in Cany Lake and as you've seen we have gone around um you know mayor Terry I think when he was mayor went to every single business in Cany Lake and introduced himself and said what can I do for you and now we are doing the business spotlight in order to highlight the current businesses that we here have here, the people who are, you know, getting business licenses and asking for citizen and chamber support to help them thrive, right? And you heard from the city attorney, one of our biggest concerns is sales tax revenue because we don't have

a big box store, right? We don't have a Costco. We don't and we're never going to get a Costco, right? Um, and before we go to the citizens of Canyon Lake one day potentially with a tax measure saying, "Hey, we need tax revenue," we need to be able to explore any other method in order to get that sales tax. And most of the time that's through retail, right?

And I own a a service business here. So I am absolutely understanding of the fact that I'm not necessarily contributing the way that potentially a restaurant is or the market or the gas station etc. So what ended up happening was a couple of businesses came to me and said hey it seems oversaturated potentially with wellness potentially with um beauty salons. And I as a resident, not just a council member, but as a resident want to make sure that we're supporting the people who are already here, not necessarily people who may want to come one day, right?

Cuz who are those people? We don't know them yet, right? Um so the feedback that I've seen online when this moratorum was proposed was quote, "It's about time. This should have happened three years ago. Yes, we need this and I'm a salon owner, etc., etc." So my question to the council is, can we please study this to see if this is in the best interests of not only the citizens of Canyon Lake because it goes towards sales tax revenue, but for the people that are here already working, already supporting their families with these types of businesses. Can we support them instead of maybe adding more to the mix?

Right. And I I I second that sentiment. I think looking into this because I too received the same type of conversations and several business owners reached out to me to kind of pick my brain on what I thought of the item and for me um I never want government to get in the way of our existing businesses and a conversation took place um with a few people on this idea of if they have a certain amount of chairs with inside their establishment. The example would be if they have 10 and now one of their gals leaves and now they only have nine that that now they only have nine and they can't fill that 10. I know for me and I can only speak for myself. I would never ever want to say you cannot grow within your own establishment. I think as a business owner it's your goal to create the best product you possibly can and that means growing internally if you can. I think our bigger conversation that we're having is looking at brick and mortar. Heaven forbid if you know, Pepe, Sports Offs, whatever brick and mortar that we have here went out of business and we would not want another beauty salon to go. And that's the rhetoric that I got back from the community members. The analogy that that I've been using in my head is is Coldwell Banker at Century 21. Who are we to say that they only get to have 80 agents at Cowell Banker? No way. If if people want to sign up and hang their license with that brokerage, I think that's great. Along with our hair salons, too. I know we have quite a few of them who've been here 15, 20, 30 years and have done very well for themselves and if they want to grow within their own operation. I don't want to be the guy that limits that. So that was my only concern when this was brought forward is the conversations that I was getting from business owners was that we were going to limit them and that we were going to decrease what they already have if if one of their folks left. And that was my biggest concern. Um, so I would advocate very strongly that we protect our status quo. We protect our businesses, we protect our brickandmortar folks as of right now, and we allow them to do what they're

currently doing. And if they have business licenses internally with some of their gals or guys that are cutting hair, if they leave, they can easily refill them or grow as long as it's within their establishment. So for me, that's a very strong talking point. Council member S, you have anything to add?

Yeah, Mr. Mayor. Uh, first Mayor Proam and Mr. Mayor, I appreciate your comments and I I completely agree with you. Um, seeing these establishment that trust our town center as a place of business and not only they they believe in us that they could be successful, we're even believing in them being successful. Uh, Mayor Prom makes a great point on, you know, a form of a study. um and don't know what that all incorporates, but love to see in that study, you know, direction for city manager. Um really to do an area study with neighboring agencies and jurisdictions to kind of align on a fee schedule. Uh we're here to uh grow revenue, but also want to see success and keep it cost neutral for what staff has to do to put into this. So, um, you know, in the study we're dive into and don't know what that really is, uh, would love to see that form of, uh, is the market right for Canyon Lake compared to what some of our jurisdiction agencies are. So, um, I don't want to limit business. I want to see successful businesses coming to Canyon Lake. And, uh, you know, every year people get older and more people want to create new businesses. And I've always been an entrepreneur and seeing entrepreneurs come and that's one thing I don't want is is to limit to who's the next that could come up here but at the same time pro protect uh and preserve our businesses that have been here for a while. Council member Terry, Mr. City Manager, how many actual owners of property do we have in the town center?

I cannot tell you the actual owners. I can tell you the owners with business licenses and No, no, no, no, no. Um, okay. Oh, I thought you mean owners of all of the actual owners of buildings within the town center. I believe we're we're one of them. Yes, I believe we're down to 26 now. 26 26 owners owners of of buildings within the town center,

right? A developer's nightmare. Um, council member Wely and I have served on the economic development committee for the last two years. One of our biggest sticklers has been the fact that there are 26 property owners in the town center. Um, it makes it very difficult because I could also point at other areas of retail, retail space that would be ideal for a company or a business that could benefit um, our residents, but yet at the end of the day, one of these 26 owners didn't want that. instead took a company that maybe has 10 employees that are going to just that's all they do. And you know the the issues that we're having in the town center in my opinion are widespread. Has this in industry saturated the town center? Absolutely. for the amount of people that we have living here. Um, per capita, we are much higher than neighboring cities. As a matter of fact, I would argue I I would even say that I know of other cities that have have have done this similar thing. they've limited the number of an industry um uh just because either a it's a public safety, it's a nuisance um or um it's getting in the way of a master plan. Do I fault the business owner

who who comes here with a great idea, leases a building, then in turn rents either a suite or a a let's just call it a chair or a station. I mean, gosh darn it, I wish I'd have come up. I wish I'd have known of that because it is it's a it's a great business. It's a great business idea. Um, I do wish that our property owners, and I put this as almost my fault, and I say this because I could have gone to a doughnut shop. Could be anything. And something that our residents really, really want. So, I could be out there cultivating these types of businesses. And then as a property comes available, I then start to say, "Hey, I spoke to this company. I spoke to this company. Uh, this would be a perfect square footage for this particular company." I haven't done that. I need to um I also hold myself at fault on the economic development committee because I haven't built relationships with these 26 owners. Do I fault the business if they can get one building and then another building and then another building? I I can't really fault them for that. Seems like we're punishing them for that. As much as I disagree with 26 property owners who just say, "Hey, whoever comes here first, whoever can pay for the lease, you're in." They're the ones that have skin in the game. They're the ones that bought the

building. Should be expected that they be able to lease that building as quickly as possible. I always looked at the town center as a place to gather. That's where I want us to be. You know, I want us to get to the point where Mayor Smith says to his wife and his girls, "Hey, let's go to the town center." That's not happening right now. We have a country club. We have a lodge. and and that's what we prefer because why? That's a place to gather. How many of our council members have been to a downtown and you you can go get something to eat, you go get something to drink, and then you get to walk the shops. That's where I eventually would love to see our town center. I would like to see a variety of businesses that our residents can uh lack of a better word, what am I trying to say here? Can can utilize, enjoy to increase their quality of life. I think that town center can be that increase in quality life. If I have a problem here and and I I want to ask questions about 45 days and what we hope to accomplish in that 45 days. And oh, by the way, I'll be fully transparent. I probably was the guy who said, "What can we do about all these beauty salons?" And then I started to really think about,

do I want to get involved? I I want them to change. I would like to see our 26 property owners have a larger, you know, think outside the box and I but but that's not what they do. They're not developers. A developer would never have allowed our town center to be composed of the businesses. If you had a single developer, he would have came in and said, "No way." You'd had uh you know most most of these uh um you know centers are are much smaller. Um but you you have you have one beauty salon, various restaurants, clothing retail, things that encourage the resident to browse and to spend time and to create those minutes and those hours within the town center. As much as I do believe that we are saturated, I'm having a difficult time telling someone how to do business. And I'm truly hoping that in this 45 days because we are missing a council member tonight. This needs four votes to move forward, does it not?

Yes. and without knowing how other people are voting, I I don't want to get in the way of it, but I I want to make sure that we don't overreach as a council. This the market needs to correct itself. We've all heard that. So through competition right now uh how many what's it called? Um I can't get this word uh esthetician. Is that right? How do you how do you pronounce that? Someone help me.

Estesthetician. Um just a year ago, maybe two years ago, we had less than five. It's my understanding we have 20, maybe 22 now. And if you're in that market, what you're having to do is, oh god, here's another one. I've got to lower my rate. Here's another one. I got to lower my rate. The market should be able to work itself out. The market should say, "The competition is too great. This is no longer a viable business." And I think for the many of the the the people that do rent the chair, who do rent the um the the the suite, it it's got to be difficult on them. If you own the if you own the entire building, it is a great business model. But if you're the person who is in that chair, what are we doing? I I know exactly what your thought is and I agree with that. protecting them, giving them the best opportunity to be successful. I'm just not sold that we are the ones to do it.

Let me give you a little bit of feedback that I received from my landlord. When I went to apply to have my office space, there's another law firm in the building, different type of law. He went to that lawyer and said, "Can we have another lawyer here?" And because we have different practice areas, he let me in. But I can appreciate that from her perspective and also from my perspective. And this is not about stifling capitalism or competition because I think all of us in Canyon Lake believe in that.

This is about making sure that we are listening to the people who live here and the people who are already doing business here. And a concern that they have is that at some point this entire town center is going to be one big solo salon and we are not going to have any other businesses and then the residents are going to pay taxes to compensate for our lack of master planning which is our job. Yep. as as most of the residents know, Mayor Protown, by the way, uh, Council Member Terry, I've had the opportunity to sit here and and listen to you speak, and you have, no pun intended, an amazing haircut tonight. So,

thank you. You've done a very good job. You picked you picked an incredible Actually, I would like to thank Lewis, our barber. There you go. Who is here in Canyon Lake? um as as the residents don't know or they might um we don't have a planning commission here correct

in the city of Canyon Lake. So a lot of these decisions are done on the planning commission level and for us we have to double down as council members because we really have to interact and engage with the residents. Planning commissions are appointed. They're not elected officials. They're appointed positions. So they get the opportunity to have the buffer when projects come forward to them because they're not electeds and it's a different relationship with residents. We have to have that relationships with our residents which is why when this item was brought forward, social media does what it does and people go to their keyboard warriors. And I was surprised to see the overwhelmingly response and the positive on this item. The only concern that was brought forward was the actual business owners themselves. And when they've contacted me, and I don't know how many of you had the chance to speak with them, but how many do we currently have in Canyon Lake, Mr. City Manager?

Licensed, we have uh 25 individual brick and mortars and 47 suite or booth rentals. So, I would say over half I've had conversations with and the only concern that was brought forward to me was what I talked about earlier, which is limiting them on either replacing what they already have or expanding internally. So, you know, we do a lot of things up here, cool things like start a fire department or a police department, and we get nailed by the public. This is one of those items that I'm shocked more people didn't come out in the opposition that you're bringing tonight. And so for me, that's why this conversation is a no-brainer as long as we're protecting our status quo of businesses. And speaking to those different business fronts, they shared with me the story of what's going on. And that is we have extremely cheap rent in the town center. And that's why we're getting inundated with what we are dealing with tonight because it's it's just not matching not even this community. When you look at this community median income, it's not even close to what our surrounding areas are. But also when you look at what the cost is to rent even in Sun City, um which is a cheaper area around us, Canyon Lake Town Center continues to be extremely low, which is why we're getting all these outsiders coming in doing business into our community. And this is exactly why so many residents have reached out to me and my wife, please leave her alone. She's off limits, but you guys do it anyways. To complain about we need diversity in our town center. And unfortunately, since we do not have a planning commission here, we have to make those tough decisions oursel. And I know for a fact that our mayor, Pro Tim, has indicated multiple times the importance of tax revenue. And we do not have a Trader Joe's knocking on our door or my favorite place,

In-N-Out, unfortunately. Um, wish Snyder would, but we don't. So, we have to be very creative and I'm not going to get this council to allow me to put in a drag strip in Canyon Lake. So, we have to continue to find ways to allow different businesses to come in and to bring revenue. And for me, I think this is kind of a no-brainer at this point. Um, I do believe that there's still a level of research as the mayor prom indicated, but it's a 45day moratorum. As the city attorney clearly stated, this is the first step to looking at what we can do. And if we go through this process, this is going to be revisited in less than a year anyways. So we're really going to have the information that I think we need when it comes to the research side that you both indicated. Um going down this pathway and seeing but for me the moratorium would be very simple. It would just be no more brick and mortar. So for instance the example that I gave earlier is if one of our brick and mortar heaven forbid canyon cowboy went out of business and a new salon super cuts whatever decides to apply that moratorium would keep that person out from being able to do that. And I think that's what the intent of this moratorum was from the very beginning on why it was brought forward. That simple. Protects our Canyon Lakers, protects our existing businesses, does not meddle in what is currently going on in their establishments. Um I think it's a win-win. That's just my opinion. I'm only one.

Did Did uh Council Member Welty give you Yes, I do have his feedback.

Feedback because he's been texting me. He's sick. So, um, council member Wely had some words that he wanted to to state and that was his support of this moratorum, but he wants the residents and us to know um he wants to make it very clear that we do not get into habit to your point of doing this right when it comes into other businesses as well. But he clearly sees especially after what took place on social media with some of the comments that he was receiving him and his wife um that he is in support of this. So I think that's why the mortorium is there. It gives us an opportunity to look at this um down the road as well. So yeah,

Mr. Mayor, if I can make a comment and in respect to council member Welty, as you have stated, we are the planning commission. We are the council body. Um, I think it would be in all of our best interest if this was tabled till next council meeting so he could be here to vote with us.

Um, what what what what should we expect in the next 45 days on behalf of staff? Uh so obviously your city manager and staff uh can do research. Uh you know I think the level of commitment I don't want to speak for him. It's going to depend on the level priority the council assigns to it. Right. um if on the legal side if you were and and I've had councils do and I've had council members uh in in other jurisdictions uh who have sat in the exact same position you are council member who who say look this is an issue but I'm I'm worried about going into the market and starting to regulate um and usually what we get is direction to come back with discussion options at the next meeting So you can look at potential solutions when you're also looking at how long to extend the mortorium. So I gave you the maximum length of time you can extend it. You don't have to extend it that long. Um but you know I I did want to just you know also let you know that when we were doing our research on this you you mentioned a single developer. If a single developer owned this town center, there's no way that they would approve 20 beauty establishments.

Never. And I think a lot of the the discussion was on competition amongst the beauty establishments, but that is not why a developer would limit it. A developer would limit the number of beauty establishments because it's actually harmful to the other uses in the town center.

Yes. because you need a mix of uses within the town center to drive traffic because someone comes to your law firm and they see a restaurant and they go to get lunch after their appointment. Um, and you have, you know, you see people in, I would say, more diverse town centers or or shopping developments and they go and they go to three or four different places, right? Um, and so, you know, it's not just the other beauty establishments. So, I think we can also come back with some research. And maybe one of the things that we could do, I'm volunteering the city manager for things. Sorry. When I say we, it will be returned, sir.

I know he does it all the time, so it's fair. Um, but one of the things you can maybe do is talk to the other businesses um and and and ask them for some of their their feedback. Um, you know, I think generally speaking, the the free market is the worst solution except for all the other ones we've tried, right? Is is what they say. Um, and so occasionally we have to regulate. We have regulations on all sorts of other uses. Liquor stores, for example, we limit the number of cannabis stores. Um, I don't think anyone I don't think anyone would would recommend that we say

fill up the town center with cannabis stores because they're paying rent. Um, and so, you know, just I try really hard in the city attorney not to advocate for anything, right? Um, but I just wanted to give you the information uh that we located in the research we've done and also just the experience in dealing uh with well functioning commercial centers. I think we can get a lot of that work done so that you can have a robust discussion at your next meeting about what the potential solutions could be.

Uh and with our next meeting being in midappril, that's sooner than the 45 days. So technically then this would go back to council and open session in the May council meeting. No. So So what it's an urgency. So what you're going to have on your next agenda the extension, right? Because you need to extend it before the expiration and whether you extend or not's I mean obviously it's sort of presupposing you approve it tonight, right? But assuming you approved it tonight, the extension would be another uh decision that you would get to make. Is that at a regular scheduled or can it be a special either one

meeting? Okay. So you could in 45 days if you wanted the entire 45 days have a special meeting. Um but you know typically what what I've seen is we do the 45 days at the next meeting within a month we come forward with discussion points on here's the research here are the potential solutions extend the moratorum until we can bring that ordinance forward and it can be put into effect whatever it is regulations caps limits whatever um and you know that way you're not talking about an indefinite mortorium but you're talking about addressing it uh quickly uh but also not simply allowing the the issue to continue. Madam clerk, do we have any public comments?

Can I ask one more question, please? One of the comments that I saw on the article that made it to social media related to this topic was um suggestions that like, hey, can we be like orange that town center, which is a mix of everything, right? And then the feedback after that was a bagel shop, a sandwich shop, all the things that people want to see here. And you've made a really good point, uh, Council Member Terry, about why aren't we going out and finding some of those businesses when our residents are suggesting what they want to see here.

And maybe some of the things that we could be doing in that 45 days is doing just that. Who's interested? Who wants to become a part of our amazing city and our community? Um, maybe that's some of the research that we could also be doing is how can how can we take the resident suggestions and and make that a a real possibility? Like we now have a sign which we're talking about. Can we be advertising come to Canyon Lake, come to the business? I mean, we have the chamber who is now so involved. We have opportunities for amazing partnerships. that's what we could be doing in

I I agree. We're we're in a really good spot. We're in a better spot than we've been in the three years that that I've been on council. And um just to be clear, this has been the strangest argument I have ever made because I am entirely agreeing with everything that you're saying. I'm just having this little bit of an issue in dictating um what a business can or cannot where where not

they can do. Uh Council Member Stever um as well as Mayor Smith, you bring up a great point. We are at this point we are kind of the planning commission and I I would entirely agree with that. Madam Clerk, public comments. We have three public comments. Let's do it. Gus Lei. Thank you, Gus, for being here. Thank you for having me. You get three minutes. Don't be mad at me if I have to stop you. Good evening, mayor, council member. We got to get you, guys. Okay. But it's good news. The timer hasn't stop started yet. So, go.

Good even Good evening, mayor and city council and staff. My name is Gus Licky and together with my wife Amy, we have been operating a business in the town center for approximately 16 years. Uh, two of those businesses are Sugar Dolls Clothing Boutique, which you guys all know, and then Wild Blush Salon Suites. Um, I serve as the president on the Canyon Lake Merchants Association, representing the businesses and the property owners here in the town center. Over those years, we have invested significant capital and effort into building our business while fully complying with the city of Canyon Lakes zoning and regulations and approvals. Our salon suite business has now been operating for approximately 7 years. We currently have dozens of suites filled with independent beauty professionals, each running their own small business and serving the Kenyon Lake community. We have worked hard to create an environment that supports independent professionals and contributes to the local economy. We want to we want to make it very clear that we are not expanding and we are not opening new locations. Just want to let you guys know that our goal is to simply continue operating the business that has already been established and to fill the suites through normal turnover. That is a normal part of our uh business model. As president of the Town Center Merchants Association, I also represent many of other businesses in the town center. We all want a healthy mix of businesses and a thriving town center just like you guys, too.

Sorry, I'm a little nervous.

You're good. Our our concern tonight is making sure that any moratorum or future zoning changes do not unintentionally harm businesses that have been operating in good faith for years under the city's existing regulations. Our business was built in reliance on those regulations. The salon suites also support dozens of independent women small business owners and a policy affecting our operation directly affects many of our local professionals and their families and services in Canyon Lake. My main question right now is most important question to a lot of the people here. For clarification on the record, if an existing suite with our already permitted salon suites or salons business becomes vacant through normal turnover, will we be allowed to place that other another licensed beauty professional into that same existing suite without that being treated as a new prohibited beauty business under the moratorum? Also, if any suite owner or salon wants to relocate within the town center, would that be allowed as well? That's the questions I have. And also, we've owned Sugar Dolls for 16 years here in the town center. It is really hard to survive as a clothing store when you have a bunch of competition, you know, like T-Mu and everything else. But I know those are my three minutes.

Thank you. I appreciate you guys. Yep. We'll do our best to answer those without answering those. Yeah. Madam clerk, next uh public comment. Donna Richie. Donna, the floor is yours. Thank you.

Uh, good evening, Mayor. Council is on. Is it on me? Okay. Um, I'm really sick tonight. I'm gonna try to get through this, but if not, Darcy has agreed to step in and finish reading if I start joking. Um, as a 13-year resident of Canyon Lake, I would like to applaud the council for considering a moratorum on additional hair salons in the town center. Over the years, I have heard countless comments from residents who feel that we have plenty of salons and beauty services and that what the community really wants is a greater variety of businesses and services in the town center. People want places where they can shop and dine and visit for different needs all in one area. I believe this is in the best interest of both the residents and the beauty establishments that are already operating in the town center. Limiting additional salons will help to prevent oversaturation. It's kind of already oversaturated, but further oversaturation and reduce competition, allowing the existing businesses a better opportunity to thrive. Another important point is the personal care services such as haircuts do not generate sales tax or revenue for the city. Encouraging a wider variety of businesses in the town center could help bring in establishments that contribute sales tax, which ultimately benefit the city and the community as a whole. I also want to mention that the recent decision by the Town Center Merchants Association to implement a $1,000 parking lot fee for events in the town center will likely reduce the number of events held there. In fact, at least two large events that were planned for this year have been cancelled because of this new rental fee. As we've seen, events in the town center bring in a significant amount of foot traffic and help support

the businesses there. With fewer events drawing visitors, it becomes even more important to have a diverse mix of businesses in the center to help maintain and attract steady foot traffic for those establishments. The town center is an important gathering place for Canyon Lake and thoughtful decisions like the moratorum will help ensure it continues to grow in a way that reflects the needs and desires of the residents. Thank you for your time. Last speaker, Camry,

is it Camry? Hi Camry, thank you for joining us. The floor is yours. If they can get you a microphone that works.

Hi, I'm Camry. I own um Halen Salon. I've been blessed to be able to grow my salon to a salon through um Amy and her business model. Um I just have a few points. Uh the beauty industry supports local jobs, small business owners, and the overall economic health of the community. Targeting this industry alone could be viewed as discriminatory in my opinion. If the city believes a broader evaluation of business growth is needed, I feel like it should apply equally to all industries in this isolating one sector. I re um respectfully asked the city to reconsider the proposal and ensure fair treatment for all businesses. I think this is a direct attack on the beauty industry when we all know there's multiple businesses in this town center that are trying to grow and I feel like it should be a broader tact issue versus just us. And then also I have a question. Um, if I wanted to grow my salon and I'm still already established here, but I wanted a bigger building, is that something that I'm not going to be able to do? Because that's part of growing and I think that's an opportunity I've always had here.

Thank you. All right. Any other comments from my colleagues? Mr. Mr. Mayor, I got one towards uh city attorney. Um if moratorum was passed or if it wasn't tonight, we could still provide direction to city manager to start this study and this topic could come back again in future council meetings. If it wasn't passed, so your authority to give direction to the city manager to study things is independent of whether you pass the mortorium or not. Okay. I think that answers your question. That answers it.

Mr. City Manager, in regards to a salon, let's say for make the math easy, they have 10 chairs or they have 10 suites. Um, one or the other, the same. You hopefully understand where I'm coming from. and one of those suites decides, "Hey, I'm I'm no longer going to stay here. I'm I'm going to leave." So now they have nine filled stations or suites. Um under this ordinance, would they be allowed to replace that missing suite?

The city attorney will will answer that. But before he answers, I will say regardless as to what it says right now, the intent of council should be if it's going to move forward with any type of ordinance, it is one in which you all agree that this is the way that that ordinance will look. So it may have no bearing on how it is written as of right now. Correct. Got it.

Right. cuz you know we we've talked about the Brown Act rules uh that uh are imposed on the council and your ability to have dialogue. Uh one of the Brown Act rules that's imposed on me is I'm not allowed to meet with them all and magically come up with an ordinance that fits everything they wanted to do. So we take our best shot uh and then we we can amend it um at the meeting. you know, based on the feedback and the concerns that that I've heard, um I I would recommend that if the council did want to adopt the moratorium tonight, that that include direction to amend the moratorium uh to clarify that the expansion is based on the permitted square footage of the existing facilities. So, we're not going in and counting chairs. We're not going in and counting subtenants. Uh we're simply looking at the size of the business as it exists. Now, uh, you may also, based on the feedback that I've heard, um, allow an existing business that's existing to transfer within the town center and be able to,

as long as they're actually moving, uh, to continue their business. Uh, cuz that that is a good point. Uh, not all businesses are capable of moving as readily as one of these might be. Exactly. Uh, and so that might be something that the council wants to give uh direction to us to amend the ordinance to address that issue as well. Um, can I make a comment? I think the intent, at least from my perspective, is if you are a Canyon Lake business owner, you have a Canyon Lake business. We don't want to mess with you. You're grandfathered in. this really doesn't apply to you because what we're trying to do is talk about future planning, right? So,

so then you you could simply direct us to uh have the moratorum only address the establishment of new businesses and you could just leave expansion and intensification out. We could strike all those references. It would dramatically simplify the next 45 days. Well, I mean, when I brought this forward at the goal session, that was my intent. And and we love everyone here, want you to stay here,

but we we want to make sure that the future of Canyon Lake is bright. And if I could comment on that also, mayor, uh it's also the the reason getting a business license is so important because if council were to adopt something like this and you've been in this town center for 10 years and you've never attained a business license and it comes down that you did not, when you have an ordinance in place like this, you cannot do business because you chose not to legally do business within the city. And by say legally, I mean obtain your business license. So it is why these business licenses are so important. And I would love to see a a mad dash because the numbers I have before me do not match the numbers in front of my eyes when I walk outside. So I don't know that these numbers are accurate. But I don't want anybody, regardless of what council decides to do, I don't want anybody being in a position where they now have to fight for their survival because they didn't know a business license was a thing. That's my point. I think Madame Mayor Prom, you you nailed on the head. This is, you know, to to give some relief to our business owners um in the community. I think the mortorium is just that simple. It's any new businesses that come in under that category. That's it. That's it. It's not even looking at existing businesses or if they decide to to move to a location to a different site. It's none of that. It's it's as of right now status quo looking at new ones, new new folks that are coming from outside in. It protects our current businesses. It allows our current businesses to expand and do what they're currently doing as long as it's in the right place. So, I I have I've had too many conversations with people. I'm a man of my word. I am going to make the motion that we move the item under that jurisdiction. I have to tonight because I I've asked too many people too many people have asked of me to do so. Um, I've always been very transparent

with what I do and and I'm a man of my word and if I say I'm going to do something, I'm going to do it. So, tonight for me, um, I know that, you know, we have to have a four fifth. So, it's going to ask all of my colleagues to support this endeavor, but it would be very simple that we move forward with the 45day moratorum under the jurisdiction and clear as day that it's just any new businesses under that category of beauty salons. If I might add something to maybe address Councilman Stubbber's concern, I think the reason a moratorum is important is it's going to be very hard to study if we don't have a moratorum in place because tomorrow we could have a mad dash to rent out those spaces

because of this meeting. because of this meeting and if we're trying to see what moving forward looks like, we need to at least have kind of a placeholder and a like a measuring stick for that purpose. And if I could comment on that as well, the city attorney and I are fortunate and that uh we don't have the pressure the council does of of making these decisions, but there are things that I'd want you to consider in the event that you decided not to do it based on what you're saying right now and you wanted to come back to next meeting. you do run the uh uh the unintended consequence of raising the value for about a month of these individual suites for uh almost the antithesis of what you're trying to stop. So your decisions are heavy today as to whether or not to do it. But but I would say that again if you're not going to do it absolutely don't do it. If you are going to do it, but your plan is to wait a month, you're going to have some severe unintended consequences of waiting for that.

Yep. That reiterates my motion. And can I make one more comment? Please do. Um, what about transfer of ownership of these existing businesses? Well, let's say one's been successful. Uh, they want to sell, be a new owner, new business license. Does that prohibit them from buying that estab that existing establishment, but it will be a new business license or are we kind of looking more at this at as the quantity per the exact address that is already established? My feeling on that is this is not like a ABC alcohol license that you transfer.

Yeah. it's not a legacy transfer because you know you're selling off um you know a new business just because it's status quo that's that's that business. So again I think it's that's why thank you for making um the point you made earlier. It's very clear it's just it's new business in general. I don't care the story behind it. It's just new business. And if um you know, we have a few uh beauty salons that have multiple chairs inside. Uh if one of those chairs decided to leave and rent out their own space and add a couple more chairs, are we would we limit those additional chairs to be added

with inside that brick and mortar? Absolutely not. Thank you. There's a motion on the floor. Second. So, mayor, do I understand your motion to be to adopt the moratorum uh but amend it to remove the restrictions on the uh expansion or intensification of currently existing correct businesses. Correct.

Okay, we can we can do that. So, we'll we'll make those changes and we'll get you a signature ready copy tomorrow if this passes. city attorney, I would need direction on how we handle those individuals that do not have a business license. Is there some type of opportunity they would have a 90day um ability to get right um almost invoked my grandmother and said get right with the Lord. Um get right with the city. Uh

I can address um how the current language of the moratorum would deal with those. Um businesses that have all required approvals and permits necessary to authorize their operation are exempt from the ordinance as it's written. If you have a business that does not have any permit that is needed to lawfully operate in the city of Canyon Lake as currently written, it is not exempt from the moratorum. So that is the answer as written. If the council would like to change what the effect would be um then you can certainly uh give that direction. Now if I could I don't know if I can request this but perhaps amend it to a 90day to give those individuals an opportunity. Uh we would hope that they have business licenses, but uh you're talking about somebody's entire livelihood here who um this is their opportunity to to resolve that. I have a a question that I know the answer to, but I think maybe the public needs to know the answer to. If you are operating a business without a business license, what are the penalties for that? Uh so it starts with a friendly letter informing them of the legal requirements to operate in the city of Canyon Lake. It's followed up with a less friendly notice of violation. Uh it then escalates to fines, but ultimately if you did have a business that was willfully not complying with the uh business license requirement, the city could seek to shut them down. So it is a requirement to operate in the city of Canyon Lake. Uh if the council wanted to add, you know, in addition to the amendment regarding existing and expansion, if the council wanted to make it clear that as long as you had all the

other permits you needed except for a business license, so long as you come and get one, you'll be covered by the exemption. The council could certainly give that direction. That would be easy to add. Uh again, that you know, we're not looking to yeah,

forfeit someone's livelihood with this kind of thing. And we could verify. We could make sure they come in and bring it. This is not somebody that, oh no, I was thinking about it. They go get a new license and say, "I've been here for 3 years." We would have staff verify, okay, you had everything else in order. Clearly, you've got you've got rent you've been paying in the town center. You've got other licenses. You just forgot about your business license for I I've seen it happen, council member. So that's where I I I like a small window to make sure and after that window they have no no argument whatsoever.

City attorney, I appreciate that uh process breakdown and I was unfamiliar myself. So thank you, but I would like to know is there an exact timeline? How long do we send that letter? What's our waiting period to the next action and so on? And I would presume we're not just talking beauty locations. We're talking all forms of business that is being held in this city.

So business license enforcement is an ongoing operation of the city. Um I'm not aware of so there are no mandatory enforcement time frames that we have. It's generally going to be uh at the discretion of the enforcing officer um and based on their availability with all the other issues that they have before them. Um, but I I can tell you Canyon Lakers and and the businesses that we deal with, it it's not intentional and willful for the most part. I think we had one

who who, you know, we had one. Um, everyone else, it's like, "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry. I'll be down to city hall tomorrow to to get it taken care of." And they usually do. So, you know, it it's uh it's the kind of thing that I think if we have that that issue, we can address it with them. We also do not have business license inspectors as some of the larger cities would have that operate kind of like code enforcement. How we enforce it is one either somebody tells us or there's some type of incident where you go in and say, "Oh, wait. Do do you have your business license?" And and that's the vast majority of how we do it. It's unfortunately far more reactive than proactive because we don't have that capability.

Madam Clerk, we have a public comment. Mayor, we have one additional public comment. Yep. Let's hear it. Amber,

thank you for letting me squeeze in at the last minute. Um, there's a couple comments. I uh my name is Amber. I actually managed Wild Blush Suites uh for Amy and Gus there. Uh when new businesses come in there, oftent times they're brand new. They're it's a 99% women that are coming in there. They're brand new to owning a business, to starting a business. We help them and directing them all the proper documentation they need like a Canyon Lake business license. We make sure they have everything that they need to in order to get their their business off the ground. Um, when talking about if a a hair salon, a chair or a suite, when if somebody were to leave and another person to come in, the business model of a the salon suites are a little bit different and where they each have their own business license. It's not just a a chair turning over, right?

They do need to get a business license and we make sure of that. So, um, and in and stopping the ability of new beauty salons to get a, um, Canyon Lake business license, it would be preventing them in filling that suite. So, I'm not sure how that would be able to get around, I guess, or for them to be able to continue using the same business model that they've had that they designed the business to be. So, because of the Brown, I can't talk to you, but I can talk to him. Okay? So enjoy this conversation. Um, Mr. City Attorney, u, so, uh, when when we were talking about the amendments that the council was proposing, already had that concern addressed. Yep.

We're looking at the physical dimensions of the existing building. So, brick and mortar like like we said, if you have a chair that's vacated, someone comes in, that will be allowed to happen. If you have a suite that's already existing that's using this they come and someone leaves someone comes in that will not be prohibited by this.

The conversation I think is is it's only related to brick and mortar and that's a new establishment a new storefront location that is completely brand new to the town center. It has nothing to do to impact the example that one of our speakers gave of someone filling uh and getting a business license. It does not take away um our individual hair stylists from obtaining a business license or getting in the industry and starting um with one of the salons that we have here in the community. Um I could never be a part of that personally, but it's um it's the concept of of purely looking at just brick and mortar,

but yes, and you know, so it's without getting too far into the weeds of land use law, uh we're talking about regulating the land use. Mhm. uh of the structures. We are not talking about the business regulatory side. So, we will make sure that it is written in a way that if you have a tenant leave or subtenant leave one of the suites, a new one could come in, go get a business license, they're not going to be turned away. And if that's the council's direction,

that that 100% is the direction that when I made my motion. And if I can go even further on what your motion was, your motion was not only to be able to turn that back over, but if that existing salon had 10 and wanted to go to 12 within that building, they could continue to to grow. They just can't grow outside of the building 100%.

And like our mayor prom said too, if that existing business finds a better spot in the town center, they can they can move accordingly. It's not a new business. it's it's a better opportunity for them to grow within the boundaries of the business that they've created. So that that's very important that we identify that because that was brought up tonight too in discussion. So Mr. Mayor though, but if if that tenant decided that chair, I'll make it easier that way decided to go get into a new building with their existing business and they want to grow now 10 chairs. Are you saying we will add nine more additional business license? No, because it's within that existing business that their license even exists to begin with. The analogy the best to help you council member Stebert understand it. It's it's like I said earlier with Cobalt Banker Century 21. These are agents who hang their license. We have barbers right now um hair stylists who work underneath a business. That's why the number of businesses that the city manager has identified, it's not it's not an actual business. They're they're independent contractors within a brick and mortar.

But I do believe some of those do have their own business licenses as well. They all do. So if now they wanted to go and not be a tenant to one of these, I don't want to use a name directly, but one of the main salons here and have their own salon under their existing business license. We are prohibiting from them to expand and be successful. We're prohibiting them from obtaining a new location um of expanding an entire new business. Yes. Because they're already within their jurisdiction that they chose to to work under and it would remain that way.

But mayor, so I understand they could also transfer. So, you're saying like I know too. I know uh Dirty Blonde and Wild Blush. And so, if one uh you wanted to leave Wild Blush and go to to uh Dirty Blondes, there's nothing that would prevent you that you'd still be able to have your business license and carry it over. The question I have for direction, and I think it's right along the line of uh council member Steber, is if uh uh salon A has 10 chairs today and there are 10 business licenses in there, would we allow them to expand to 12 chairs in their brick and mortar or would they be stuck at that 10? understanding if somebody left in that 10, they can absolutely fill them back up, but would you allow the chairs to expand also within

10 to 12 is is the conversation and and I would say absolutely if their brick and mortar can sustain that additional space um then obviously they're doing a good job recruiting and and they're growing their business. the entire moratorum was set out to the community to seek additional businesses that for our space that's all it was it was right now when a new space becomes available it's immediately um a beauty salon for the most part that's not always the case but that's what's been trending and that's what's been happening and when this was brought forth to the community everyone as the mayor prom stated there was more comments than not um asking us to do something to try to get new businesses here different business is here. She's still up there. I feel bad. I should ask her to sit down. Um, so we do have a motion. And

I think what what council member Steber is saying is if you have salon A and you have salon B and there's people who work in salon A, instead of just going over to salon B, they may want to create salon C and then now have 20 people working for them. That is where we are drawing the line, right? I I understand it completely. So, uh and I'm the one who has to write it. Um if but obviously you all have to vote for it. So, um if there's any clarification or questions or hypotheticals that the council wants to

it'll be brought back to run around uh we'll do it. I mean, keep in mind this is coming back at your next meeting. Coming back. this this isn't done. So and I and and for me the important of my motion and I believe the mayor pro Tim second on my motion is to give clarity to our business owners too. So this isn't lingering and this is a what if like you said Mr. city uh manager that the concept of it just lingering out there like wait a minute now this is out there what are they going to do what are they going to do in six months? I want to be very transparent and honest on the intent of why this was even brought forward. So for me that's why it's it's a simple motion. Um, so again, I have a motion in a second. Can we do roll call vote? Mayor Poten Castillo. Hi. Council member Stabber.

H. Can I comment or do I have to say end of the motion? Unfortunately, you got a vote, my friend. Uh, I'm going to say no. Council member Terry, I. No need to succeed. It dies.

All right. I vote for the record. Clearly, I made the motion. That would be interesting to vote no on my own motion, but thank you, Madame Clerk. Moving on, we are going to business item number seven. This is the consideration of acceptance of the grant-f funded fire department water training trailer and the second adoption resolution number 2026-13 approving the reimbursement agreement with the Elsenor Valley Municipal Water District. Chief Latendress, this is your item.

Thank you. Good evening, Mr. Mayor, Mayor Pro Tim, city council, city staff, remaining members of the public. Uh Jeff Lender, your fire chief, and I'm here to present uh a good item, a fun item where we are going to accept a grant that's valued at about $120,000 from the Elsenor Municipal Water District. And I do want to point out we do have a member of EVMW staff here tonight. Um Sylvia Ornalis is here. So if you have any questions that I'm not able to provide clarity on, please feel free to uh ask her any questions as well. So last year the fire department was approached by EVMWD about a potential grant opportunity that could provide us with a trailer that is mobile and we could pump from and we would pump our water back into it. So it recirculates or reclaims the water so we're not wasting water. The Metropolitan Water District throughout Southern California has been offering these trailers to numerous fire departments. They have funding for about 25 of them. Some of the cities that currently have them. Riverside County, the only city is Riverside City, City of Fullerton, Oceanside, Santa Monica, Lagona Beach, Monrovia, Torrance, and San Bernardine. list of cities, most of those agencies are midsize to large fire departments. We are going to be the largest fire department that receives one of these trailers. And that was actually one of the intentions of the grant was to support smaller agencies with some of the funding that was available. As I previously stated, the cost of the unit is approximately $120,000. The cost is going to be paid for completely by uh the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California and the

Western Water District and they're going to essentially fund EVMWD and EVMWD is going to be doing some of the reimbursement on it. It's a little complicated at that part, but for the fire department purposes, all we have to be responsible for is for the maintenance and repairs of the trailer. We do about 3,000 hours of fire department training every year. Some of that training is in emergency medical. Some of that is in rope operations, ladders, uh, incident command, and so forth. But a good portion of that 3,000 hours of training we do every year is in fire ground tactics, flowing water, put the wet stuff on the red stuff. And so just one example um last year we did an engineers test and we tested three candidates and in that one day we estimated that we flowed about 50,000 gallons of water from a hydrant. We don't put it into the lake. We flow it into arable arable areas that hopefully it goes back into the the groundwater system. But it's a lot of water. And if you go back to the previous slide and think of all those agencies doing the exact same thing, how much water is wasted every year for good purpose for fire department training? But if there was a solution to try to keep that water intact, we could save one of California's most valuable resources. So the tank or the trailers look like this. They uh will be painted to match our color scheme. They'll have our logo on it, our city logo. It will also have EVMWD, the uh Metropolitan Water District's logo on it. Uh our only responsibility as part of this grant is to report back to EVMWB the estimate of the number of gallons of water that we saved by flowing it and recycling it. I do have this little quick video if I can get this to play.

How do I There. Oh, it's sideways. But you can kind of get the point that it it flows right back into the trailer that we're pumping it out of. So that's a,000 gallons of water a minute there that's coming out of that trailer and flowing back into the trailer. Some of the advantages of this, we can trailer it to our mutual aid and automatic aid partners. We can do joint training and we can save water while we're do it and improve our operations. We don't have a fire hydrant at the fire station. So now, if you've seen us, we go to the church a lot because it's a big parking lot area and they've got hydrants on site and so we do a lot of our fireflow training there. Well, that's at the very end of the city. It's on the border of Meny. By being able to train at the fire station, we're going to be more centrally located and that can even reduce our response times. it can enhance our trainings by repetition and getting our engineers more opportunity of working with the the pumps and the equipment. So, we really think it's a it's a great enhancement to the fire department. It's 100% free of charge. Um, and I do I I hope that uh you'll approve this. It's our recommendation that you accept the grant-f funded fire department water training tower. two, that you adopt resolution 2026-13 approving the reimbursement agreement for the Elsener Valley Municipal Water District on a form approved by the city attorney and three, authorize the city manager to execute all documents necessary to effectuate this transaction. So, that concludes my report. Again, we want to thank EVMWD and they are here if you have any questions for us. Thank you.

Awesome. Do we have any public comments on this item? We do have Sylvia Ornales in the audience if we have any questions for her. And she's with EVMWD, right? Correct. Thank you for joining us. Council, do we have any question? No questions. That's how good of an item this is. I bet you're upset. You stayed here all night to hang out with us. Questions for Is she going to do a public comment first? She's not a public comment. She's part of a public agency. So, she's here to ask answer any questions you have on EVMWD issues. Yeah. Uh I just have one question. Thank you, Chief Lutendraas, for uh that presentation. I just want to know, do you already have your plan in place on how you're going to provide gather the data and provide it to uh EVMWD?

Yeah, there's a flow meter on the uh the actual hydrant, so we'll be able to see how much we're coming out and putting back in. And so, we have to report that. I believe it's quarterly to EVMWD. And that is needed for them to also get their reimbursements from the water districts. Thank you. Any other questions? Easy peasy. Um, thank you. Yes, thank you.

I'd just like to say thank you. We really value our partnership with the city and the uh and the um uh Canyon Lake Fire. Um, and I just want to give some brief comments just to say how this came about. Um, about two years ago, we received grant funding for SoCal Gas to do a direct installation program and uh that was available to all of our customers. And so really what that did is that kind of excluded Canon Lake residents because they are primarily on electricity, not gas. And so we were really challenged to how can we bring a benefit to this city. Um so that way the residents can benefit just like all of our other customers. And so um we saw this pump de demonstration. Metropolitan saw the value and the water savings and they offered grant funding. And so we talked with the chief and we really uh pursued this uh this grant and we are just really grateful for that partnership and um we will continue to look for any any ways for grant opportunities in the future that we can help out the city and I really appreciate your time today.

Thank you so much. Appreciate that. Um can I get a motion on the item? I'll second it. And this is for 2026-13 approving the reimbursement agreement with Elsenor Valley Municipal Water District. Madame clerk and you have a motion and a second. Can I get a roll call vote? Mayor Potim Castillo. Hi. Council member Sieber. Hi. Council member Terry. Hi. Mayor Smith. Hi. Motion passes. Thank you. Number nine. Now this is discussion and direction regarding potential amendments to the special events ordinance. City manager, you're up.

Absolutely. Mayor, mayor prom council. Thank you very much. Uh with the help of the community development manager, uh we will try to make this as speedy a process as possible due to the late night. Uh the uh events uh uh special events ordinance that we have in place now. Uh we wanted to bring this as a discussion item to get direction to bring you changes for the next meeting. Uh staff has some uh recommendations as you see in the staff report. uh to to summarize those. We're really looking to try to to uh refine this. Instead of a 1 a 1 b 2 3 4, we're just looking for 1 2 3 4. Uh eliminating one of the smaller ones. Uh that would be uh typically individuals at home having uh could be anything from a Bible study, birthday party, that kind of thing. uh fixing what was a minor loophole in the uh uh 300 uh 300 plus item uh and raising uh I'm forgetting from 100 to what what was the number

100 plus thank you so um really this is an opportunity either for council to say yes we agree with the staff recommendation this is a way to make it a little more efficient easier to understand or to provide direction on things that you may want changed instead. If you would take the staff recommendation, we'll be bringing you a modification to the ordinance in the next meeting that matches that that recommendation. Mr. City Manager, you got to do one better. You got to explain your story on what happened.

Uh thank you, mayor, for for putting it out there for me. Yep. I had an individual who uh invited us uh my family to a birthday party uh to which I w of course wanted to go. It is their it was their one-year-old's uh birthday party uh but being the responsible city manager that I am. I asked if it was permitted and the answer was no. I'm not getting my one-year-old's birthday party permitted. And so I declined to go uh because I did not want to go to an event that uh was unpermitted by the city's rules. Um no matter how ridiculous an individual may feel those rules were. So that was really the the the catalyst for me to be able to bring this talk through it with the community development manager uh and and the uh former contract planner and the city attorney. And that's that's what brought us here.

Yeah, it's a good story. It got my eye for sure. Thank you, Mayor. Any comments on this, council? Pretty easy, straightforward. I'll set a motion.

Um, Mr. City attorney, feel free to slap me down on this one, but um the discussion item before us, number nine, is very vague in the staff report, very much so. Um, so I'm going to use that opportunity to speak on special events. um if my uh colleagues to the side of me who serve on our special events committee for the city um are opposed to this idea or not tonight we just learned something uh at least for me new that in order to do an event at the town center it cost $1,000 to do so which means the city would have to pay $1,000 if we wanted to do pumpkin patch or even um our fire department if they the fire association would want to do that too. Is that a concern if if we allowed our city manager to speak to the merchants and say that the city would have issues conducting events because of that fee and having additional tax dollars be used for that fee in the in the merchants?

I'm okay with city manager trying to discuss and negotiate any type of deal. Uh I think on our major event we have up there, our budget is large enough that $1,000 isn't going to kill the the event. Uh but I definitely would love to to hear what the uh in the future what the merchant association comes back with on you know those costs are reducing. You know I know they're torn in different areas of what types of different events and stuff. Uh you look at the chamber of commerce putting on the um I always go blank on this uh the frights parade of frights and that's been a staple in this community ever since my kid was six and uh uh you know I hope that doesn't jeopardize it. So yes absolutely um or if if they're not budging you know I would love for my colleague and I to come up with solutions where some of these events can go. I've seen a few of our clubs in the community have to either reduce or stop events due to uh some of those incure costs. So, uh we've we've been a community of communities. We've all met each other through events. And yes, I agree. I'm starting to see events dwindle down little by little and anything city manager can do and maybe not just even for the merchants association, PA, things like that. Uh, I I'm I'm all here to help fight and champion for you on on getting those reduced costs.

What do you think, Mayor Jim?

Um, obviously I think we have to support especially nonprofits that want to work in our community. I mean, we already are waving business license fees. We're we're reducing or waving special event fees. we're offering this area. Um, but I mean, we're we're constantly also trying to figure out how to operate with no tax revenue, with no UUT revenue, with public safety. That's the most important for everything. So, I don't know. trying to wrap my head around how we're going to move forward when we are having hard time in the town center.

Yeah, we're having a very hard time. Mayor, Mayor Prom, will you give an example of uh the city waving business license fees? Sure. Our special event permits and business license fees for nonprofits are waved. So, for example, the Clear Foundation is a nonprofit. It's centered in Canyon Lake. The Clear Foundation's business license fee is waved because we are 501c3 that is recognized by the IRS in the state of California. Yep. Thank you.

Um what do you think, Mr. City Manager? I'm just having a hard time because it's very frustrating. Um because we I think this council and I'm going to give more of the credit to our our mayor pro Tim because when she got on this council she's like hey look we're going to double down on events to get our the city involved with the community. And so one of the first things that we did well we've done a lot of things but we've brought some big events to the town center. Like we're a we're a big partner. Mhm.

Um, we bring not hundreds but thousands of people to the town center. And I don't know, Mr. City Manager, if there's an opportunity there, and I'm not trying to be negative, but I am going to advocate for my taxpayers as much as I possibly can. And when we do these things, we do this for the community. and um maybe there's a conversation there with the merchants where we can get waved or maybe there's an opportunity where they can open up the conversation based upon the type of event. And I understand the direction on on why they did it knowing more now. Um it's because they're they're protecting the businesses and they were concerned. But when we look at special events like this item, um I think we need to be more aggressive with we are a big player when it comes to providing a big event for the community and and we should get a little help when it comes to that too because the taxpayers are ultimately paying for it. Um council member Se made a point about we have a bigger budget for certain items. I don't look at it that way. I look at it as these are taxpayer dollars, right? This is it's our job to be stewards of that money and fight hard to make sure we're not overspending because maybe of a simple conversation that we can have at the merchants board to say look we are bringing an event that's going to bring people from Miny Lakes if it blocks the business after hours they're going to be able to look and see that business exists which they never have before. I mean we were on Krog advertising and we got people from all over to come to the town center and they had no idea that we had 46 beauty salons. Now they do. So, I think

well maybe 47 tomorrow. Maybe 47 tomorrow. But I think this is one of those conversations that we need to keep having whether it's with the committee um or yourself if if my colleagues have any objection on it, which I know that council member Steer even said, we do need to be more proactive in in finding those ways. So, I would just advocate now that we've learned that tonight about this new fee that our residents are going to be opposed upon if they want to try to have an event in the town center. And I think of the fire association because I know they do their event. Um, I think of Parade of Frights. I think of these other big events, Pumpkin Patch. Um, so anyways, just food for thought on that. And and if I could comment, mayor, um, the reason I'm on the Merchants Association board now is so that the council has that voice.

Yeah. And so, um, there's a lot of things I would say about the Merchants Association. Uh, it is it's a very old organization that's uh, acting as if it was created yesterday. Uh when I got on the board, I provided a copy of bylaws that you could actually read. Uh we are just adjusting to operating the way that we are supposed to operate. Uh I did lobby pretty hard. I I I don't like the idea of uh of charging for something that is meant simply to bring people to the organization.

Yep. Uh so uh I recuse myself from that because I said I'm not voting. Clearly I'm biased. Of course I want the answer to be no. Uh but uh life is life is about chess and not checkers. And uh we do have a meeting coming up with the merchants uh uh board. Not not just with the board but the actual merchants association meeting. And my intention is to bring that to the voters of the merchants association and see what they want because what we have right now is the board making a decision that um may or may not be the intent of the merchants association. And some of those individuals and the merchants have made it clear to me that they benefit from these events.

Yep. And I if those individuals outnumber the individuals that don't want events here, then it'll be very clear uh and and who comes out to vote and what they do. It's the only method to really properly say, look, I don't agree and I only have one vote on a board of five, but there is a a methodology much like uh cities operate. There's a methodology to say what do you think? And so that is my intent. Good. I appreciate that. Um that's uh I mean you got direction on this item, so thanks for letting me do some exploratory stuff there, Mr. City Attorney.

Do we uh we do we have a motion on this one yet? I think Josh made it originally. I need a second. I'll second it. Can we do a roll call because we do have no public comments. Correct. Mayor Potimus. To make sure I understand, the motion is to step staff recommendation and bring it back as recommended. Absolutely. Prom Castillo. Hi. Council member Ste. Hi. Council member Terry. Mayor Smith. I. Motion passes.

Thank you everyone. Last item. This one's good. I like this one a lot. Uh discussion and direction regarding a proposed amendment to the monument sign advertising policy for new business promotion advertisement. This is a good way to end the meeting. Mr. City Manager. Uh yes, mayor, mayor, and council. I am hoping to set a record here uh on this item. What we're requesting is to amend the current policy so that any business that is a new business in the city of Canyon Lake may advertise on the digital portion of the board for 60 days for free. I love it. Do we have any public comments? We do not. Do we have any city council member comments? Is there a sunset date on that or until we bring it back up in the future? uh there would not be a sunset

and it's only for new businesses. Correct. They get on one time shot and that's after the monument gets uh refurbished because currently we are not charging any of our existing advertises nor is the city and any contracts with those advertises at this time. Correct. That's correct. For the digital portion of the board. Just the digital. That's correct. Um any other comments? I'll make the motion as long as you take into consideration Mayor Pro Tim's suggestion on welcome to Canyon Lake. come to Canyon Lake and do business. If we do an ad up there, Maddie, that's your wheelhouse. So that way we can encourage businesses to and maybe that one lasts a little longer than the other. We'll have a lot to do and especially when that new board comes in and

you want to look at it. I mean, we we could we could broadcast this meeting on that new board. That's that's how high definition. I think it's such a good idea that you brought that up. Um I'll make the motion. I just need a second. Second. Uh can I get no public comments? Can I get a a roll call on this? Mayor Potim Castillo. Hi. Council member Siver. Hi. Council member Terry. Hi. Mayor Smith. I pass.

City manager comments. Good to go. Um, announcement. So, hold on. I want to make sure we got the date right. Our next city council meeting is going to be Oh, you got it right. April 14th, which is a Tuesday, um, not a Wednesday. So, April 14th. And, uh, I'm going to adjourn the meeting at 9:56. Madam clerk, thank you.