City Council - Regular Meeting

Ready to go. We'll call this meeting to order at 5:35 p.m. Uh, announcement. Close session. Do roll call real fast. We can jump in. Council member Breman, Council Member Nanishi, Council Member Craig Hensley, Mayor Promotei here, Mayor YZ

C2. Okay. And now we'll uh adjourn into close session regarding item C2A, public employment pursuant to government code 54957B, city manager recruitment update. Item C2B, public employment and appointment pursuant to government code 54957B, the city attorney recruitment and interim city attorney appointment. And item C2C, conference with legal council anticipated litigation pursuant to government code 54956.9D21 case. Is there any public comment? No public comment to close session. Council's journey to close session at 5:36.

Madame City attorney, can you please announce the close session? Oh, sorry. Uh, council returning from close session at 7:01 p.m. Senator, can you please report on close session?

Yes. Thanks, Mr. Mayor. Council had convened in closed session regarding item C2A, public employment. The city manager recruitment update pursuant to government code 54957B. Public employment and appointment pursuant to government code 54957B. The city attorney recruitment and interim city attorney appointment. An item C2C, conference with legal counsel, one matter on anticipated litigation pursuant to government code 54956.9D2 and there is no reportable action at this time.

Thank you so much. So now we're going to move to the invocation call for civil responsibility and I would like to call major person of Salvation Army. Shall we pray together? Gracious God, source of wisdom and the common good, we pause tonight with gratitude for this city, for our neighbors, and for the honor and responsibility entrusted to our elected officials as they serve our community. As President Lincoln reminded our nation, may we renew our commitment that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth. Grant to our elected representatives, to staff, and to every resident listening, clarity to understand what is before us, patience to hear one another fully, courage to pursue what is right, and humility to seek solutions that strengthen the whole community. build unity among us, not uniformity, but a shared resolve to treat one another with dignity, to work across differences, and to pursue the good of Loi together. Bless the conversations in this room with respect and calm, and let the decisions be made be marked with honesty, fairness, and compassion, especially for those who feel unheard, overlooked, or burdened. We ask your protection over those who serve, especially members of our armed forces in harm's way tonight. Surround them with safety, steady their hearts and minds, and bring them home in peace. Comfort their families, sustain them in the waiting, and uphold them with hope. Guide us tonight toward what builds trust, promotes peace, and reflects the best of who we can be together. We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Thank you so much. Now we'll do the flag salute. United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. This is a regular meeting for March 18, 2026 convening at 7:04 p.m. City Clerk, can you please do roll call? Council member Breman here. Council member Nishi here. Council member Craig Hensley here. Mayor Prom Hoy here. Mayor Yopez here. Thank you.

Um I understand we have two presentations. One for the honoring Judith staff uh head staff in uh the sister cities um check. So first we'll do the arts commission proclamation. So since I started started being the mayor, I wanted all my immersion to be about the people, not just me talking all the time. So I invite people they know, the people that we honor to read them for them because it's more meaningful to the recipient. So that's why I'm I'm here to this is this city hall is yours. So it's not about me, it's about you. And so that's why I think I understand that we have a longer version than this one, the one that you guys originally had.

Thank you.

All right. Good evening. So whereas the city of Loi recognizes that arts and culture are essential to a vibrant, inclusive, and thriving community, enriching quality of life, fostering creativity, and strengthening community connections. Women have played a vital and enduring role in advancing the arts and loi through leadership, advocacy, education, and service. Often working behind the scenes to ensure access to meaningful cultural experiences for residents of all ages. Whereas the Lodi Arts Commission actually annually honors women in the arts to recognize individuals who have demonstrated sustained commitment to the advancement, accessibility, and preservation of the arts and within the LOI community. Whereas Judith Hollstead has demonstrated exceptional dedication to the arts in Lodi through more than a decade of leadership with the Lodai Community Concert Association, including 11 years as president of the board of directors, helping guide an organization with roots dating back to 1946. Through her leadership, the Lodai Community Concert Association has continued its mission of providing highquality, affordable, and diverse musical performances at Hudson Street Square, enriching Lodai's cultural landscape with offerings spanning classical, Broadway, folk, country, and other musical traditions. And

whereas Judith Hallstead has championed arts education and youth engagement by supporting annual student concert programs that bring live musical performances to approximately 800 fourth, fifth, and sixth grade students from LOI schools as well as supporting performing arts scholarships. for graduating high school seniors pursuing higher education in the arts. Her commitment to community partnership building has strengthened connections between the arts and local service organizations, schools, historical institutions, and community groups, ensuring the arts remain accessible, relevant, and resilient even during periods of significant challenge such as the CO 19 pandemic and Whereas in addition to her arts leadership, Judith H. Hallstead has devoted 35 years to educating students within the LOI Unified School District and continues to serve the broader community through historical preservation and civic engagement efforts. Now therefore, be it resolved that Rabon Yapz, mayor of city of Loi, on behalf of the city council, does hereby recognize and honor Judith Hollstead as the 2026 women in the arts honore, celebrating her outstanding leadership, service, and lasting contributions to the cultural life of the Lodai community. The city of Lodi extends its sincere appreciation to the Lodai Arts Commission for its continued dedication to uplifting women whose work ensures the arts remain a cornerstone of community identity and belonging. Congratulations, Judy. Go on up.

Good evening. I am Judy Holstead, president of LOI Community Concert Association. I thank the LOI Arts Commission honoring women in the arts during this Women's History Month. And I can only accept this proclamation if the members if members of my board of directors are here with me. We also have men on our board and they're out there and we really appreciate them also, but this is honoring the women and I'm greatly appreciative of all of them. I'm not usually a person um into numbers, but I want to just very quickly give you some numbers that I think are somewhat impressive. Community concert associations began across the country in 1927. Founded in 1946, Loi Community Concert Association is now and entering its 80th anniversary, which means with five concerts a year, we will soon have provided 400 affordable, wonderful music presentations to people in the Lodi area. We have a board of directors of 18 people. Their combined years of community service add up to about 325 years. Last Thursday evening, 500 five I'm sorry, this is now making me a little nervous. Last Thursday evening, 55 Bear Creek High School musicians, uh, jazz and symphonic bands performed beautifully with our saxoponist guest

star Rob Verie. And the next morning he performed again for about 750 LOI Elementary students 19 years ago. You like my numbers so far? Good numbers, aren't they? 19 years ago, Bob Johnson, who was mayor at that time, gave a proclamation for the Loi Community Concert Association, which I found in our archives. That's for the association. Now, here we are in 2026. Shanticlair, a 13 member men's ac cappella choir, performed here in 1986 before they became world famous. My last number I'm going to give you is two. That's for May 2nd. May 2nd, Shantlair is coming again. Different singers, of course. That was a long time ago. It's going to be an absolutely fabulous concert. We want you all to join us and enjoy the music. And I hope in 20 more years we'll still be LOI Community Concert Association bringing music to the community. I really want to thank the LOI Arts Commission, my board of directors, the women and the men, my family Joel and Adrien who are here, my sisters, Mary Jane East and Susan Bruntton, the Lodai City Council. I really really appreciate your time and continue supporting the arts in Loi whether it's visual, musical, plays, speech

support the arts for the youth in Loi because the the mission one of our missions is instilling it in in young children and we're trying to do that. you do it, too. Bring them to a concert. Thank you so much. I appreciate your time listening to me and I appreciate all of these people. Thank you.

Oh. Oh, thank you. We should take a picture.

Yes. Look at this. Council

member Nakish, did you want to say a few words about Loi Sister City? Last year we had some surplus. So they gave each of our city council members $20,000 to give to a nonprofit. And my my portion about $15,000 went to the sister city committee for their work at the Lai Park. I gave $5,000 I didn't the city gave $5,000 to the Boys and Girls Club. The Boys and Girls Club has been an institution and we've supported all throughout the many years. So, thank you so much for Sister City. Uh, they're here.

Yes. Mr. Hingold, would you and your team like to come up here?

Will you say a few words? Yeah, I'm uh I'm Bill Hankle with president of the Loi sister city committee and uh the city has a lot of commissions and committees. We are uh a member of the city indirectly being a uh the representative for the city of Loi with Kofu Japan and Loi Italy and uh we are building a peace park. The Bodai Lake Peace Park on the north side of the lake. Uh, and it's going to it's essentially going to be a Japanese uh garden motif. And um I uh really was approached uh by uh Councilman Nakanishi and Councilwoman Lisa Craig about this because we we needed money to uh uh complete the project. We're spending a considerable amount of money and it's just a a joint effort with the parks and recreation department and uh and tree loi and uh if possible we could use the the youth commission uh uh youths and uh it just gives me I'm just thrilled and the and the committee is that we were able to uh secure this grant to assist in the construction of that park and uh the city of uh the mayor of Kofu Japan is aware of this project and is uh has asked to be updated as we progress. So um Councilman Nakanishi, thank you so much and city council thank you so much and uh I guess mayor

All right. One, two, three. the consent calendar. Yes, mayor. We have on consent calendar tonight, we have items C1 to C5. Um, there are no changes to the consent calendar. So, we submit it for your for council's review and approval. And I'll just make a note that if Mr. Sodto is here, we will be swearing him in after the vote.

Okay. All right. Before I'm going to call uh two uh council members, they have questions before we do that. So, I'm going to first start with uh Councilwoman Craig. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um just uhformational on C3 and C4 if I might.

I can go ahead and uh promote C4. Okay. on C3 if I might. Yes. Just u ask Mr. Nathan um the repair services which building and are we really looking at something where we may need down the road to look at some roof replacements on on some of the properties because I know that's thing always where we repair repair and then it gets to the point like you know we had to do with um Hutchin Street and that is replace it. So, can you kind of give me an update on that?

Yeah, so this this contract is really the repair side. Um, it's on call as needed. It's multi-year, so we never know how much we're going to use each year. Uh, we probably average 20,000ish, but sometimes it's closer to 60, right? Um, sometimes less, but just depends on, you know, which which roofs leak during the winter. So, um, we do we do keep a separate inspection of all our roofs around the city. We do try and build those into our facilities request each year in the budget. Um last year it didn't it didn't make it through. So the the high priority ones we're also going to request this year uh being this building and the police station.

Okay. So was so this was just in general to add it wasn't any specific building that we were looking for. Correct. We do have some work we know needs to be done at the um at the parking garage. Okay. Above Wow. And then that's waiting on this amendment and or this amendment and then the rest will just be available, you know, through the remainder of the contract. So we might anticipate seeing it in this upcoming budget. Uh some CIP requests for for larger buildings. Yeah. All right. Thank you. Thank you so much. Um

C4 lighting back up. I'm curious. I know we've had some previous like theft issues there. for activity. Yeah. So, this um this this contract they did have some vandalism that was kind of not necessarily like related to the project, but we had the same type of contractor available on site at the time. So, um some some vandalism was done to the electrical boxes that our contractor was still on site and available. So, we did add that to this contract to to repair that and get those in working order. Um I assume like copper metal Um, yeah. Yeah, mostly.

How do we prevent that going forward? Is there a plan in place? Uh, I mean, I'll defer to to Steve, our he's with our parks department. He can kind of chime in on that a little more.

Mayor, Council Member, Steve Ray, I'm your park superintendent. uh we um added some security features onto the switch gear components that we have on site that basically house the breakers and and those items. So the cabinets are secure, we're in good shape, and we also made some modifications to the pullbox lids um using security bolts so not a random socket can be used to remove the lids. So um we're up and running. Um the Bobs are out there nightly um with practice and next Monday is opening day for the Bobs so they'll be ready to go.

So I I wanted to follow up on that because I think it's this was a lot of money we had to piece together and some people gave up money for their improvements to make this all happen. So one of the things I want to say is we should be celebrating this

and you know I I think that our PIO can do a great job. you can get out there, take pictures of opening night, and we need to celebrate this and get this out to the community because it was it was an issue with the Bobs obviously, but it was an issue of public safety as well. And and I think we've all come together to make this happen. So, really appreciate that we have the opportunity, even on consent, to approve the improvement. Um, but let's celebrate it because it's a it's a great win. It's a huge win. Um, especially for the youth out there. The lighting is unbelievable. I know. I can see just in the pictures. So, it's terrific.

Come on out. Get a get a hot dog and a soda at the concession stand taking a game. Steve, thanks to you um and your team for making this happen. So, public works and us work well together. Great. We appreciate it very much. Thank you. Thank you so much. Um, will any member of the public would like to pull an item of consent? Seeing none, I will entertain a motion. I'll make the motion.

Second. Let me pass this at this time. If Mr. Sto is here, you can join me up at the front. Thank you, Mr. Sto, for uh wanting to do this. It requires a lot of uh work I know and but but you love this community and thank you for doing this and we hope to see good work. Thank you. All right. So now we're going to move to uh non-aggenda um public from non-aggenda items.

Yes, mayor. I do have a few comment cards and um members of the audience that have already um indicated to me that they will provide public comment. So, I'll just go through the cards. First, I have Armando Valerio.

Good evening, Mayor Yep, and Promi, and council members. My name is Armando Valerio. I'm a Delta College trustee. I represent district 5. I came here before you guys before to kind of explain my district and such. Uh this time I just want to give you a budget snapshot of our measure K because I'm not sure if you're a breast of what's currently happening, but we we've broken it down into two phases. Our first phase, we're going to have MountainHouse on there, public safety center here, Evok in Loime, an energy efficient project that we're going to have at Delta College, and also a technology project as well. In our phase two, we're going to do the North County Learning Center and Health Services, Mantika Wet Labs, police building replacement, roof replacements, and Danner renovations. And that takes us to about $492 million. The total bond was $598 million. So we're holding back about a hundred million because we don't know the cost estimates on these. We estimated but we don't know going forward what's going to be like. So I'm here to ask Loi if you would like to meet with our president and executive board to discuss possibilities for here in Loi. Uh we've been in uh active dialogue with uh Reynolds Ranch, but we want to look at other possibilities and with Evok as well. We appreciate the collaboration with you guys and I want to say on behalf of the board that we're committed to Loi. I know in the past there's been some discussions and there's been some strong feelings about what occurred and what didn't occur, but we have the money. We're willing to do north North County and we're willing and committed to do that. And me especially since I have district five which goes into Calaveris County. Calver County is a straight shot here to Loi compared to going to Stockton. So we are committed. We want to be good community partners. We want to collaborate. We want make this thing successful to make LOI shine even more and for us to have representation in North County. Thank you very much.

I want to ask a question. Yeah. Can we ask a question to the trustee? Mr. Valerio, we're waiting till you sat down. Yeah.

Yes.

Well, I was going to make a request. I don't know if this would requit. So, Loi Mountainhouse, we went to San Andreas last time. We're going to be going to Mantika next or Tracy, excuse me, the next month. So, yes, we're more than willing and happy to do that. If I may make two suggestions. Number one, we should connect them to Louise. Number two is we do have a 2 by two committee uh that is meant for LOIUSD. We could expand it to include Delta College um under that understanding we could expand that scope and keep the same committee and again be able to help Delta College hopefully come into LOI. So that those would be my suggestions. I think that very good suggestions and that was my question how we can uh continue the dialogue but I think the the joint committee will solve the problem.

I would suggest perhaps the president and executive staff prior to to kind of flesh out some things that so we don't waste time spinning our wheels and going back and forth so we can have some real agenda items to speak to and move it forward. Thank you so much.

Oh, thank you. Appreciate it. The next comment The next comment card I have is from Olivia Miller. Hi, city council. Um, okay. Okay. Hi, my name is Olivia and I work in downtown Loi. I'm here representing workers who are being ticketed while simply trying to do their jobs working downtown. Right now, employees working long shifts like in restaurants and salons, just to give a couple examples, are being forced to constantly move their cars or risk getting ticketed. There are not enough realistic parking options for us downtown employees. We are being asked to support the city through taxes and tickets while not being provided with adequate infrastructure to work without being penalized. It's unfair. I'm currently gathering signatures from other workers facing the same issue which is not isolated. I also wanted to address a few concerns I've heard back. Um first the parking garage near Loi Stadium is often suggested but that's not a realistic or safe solution. Many of us get off late at night and are expected to walk long distances alone. That's a safety concern. That's not an inconvenience. Second, I've heard that some parking is privately owned and the city can't control it. But regardless of ownership, workers are still being ticketed in public areas without being given proper alternatives. We are still being impacted and we still deserve representation and a solution. Third, the current permit system itself is flawed. In many areas, the signage says permit parking or three-hour parking. So, workers are being asked to pay for a permit that doesn't actually guarantee them a spot. It's essentially shared with public parking. That makes the permit feel redundant and unfair. I'm asking for two things. a temporary

pause on ticketing for downtown while this is being addressed and a permit parking system that actually reflects the number of workers and the reality of shifts. This is about fairness and supporting the workforce that keeps downtown running. I hope bringing this to attention can help us all work together toward a solution. I look forward to being president at future meetings to come and show my commitment to this issue. And like I said, I hope to come here instead of complaining to come with um ideas and be someone to help out this situation. I love LOA and I want to make it a better place for everyone. So, thank you very much. Thank you for your comment,

Mr. Mayor. So, one of the things I would say and you can sit down. It's okay. Um, two two things I say about this one. Um, we down we do have a downtown specific plan. There are some opportunities via that plan to address parking issues. Um, I do think that this is where I come back to mayor. you understand my point about the importance of the committees. U Mr. Sodto was brought on tonight. Um this is an issue I think you should take to the LOI improvement committee. What I look for is discussions at those committee levels to bubble up with solutions or ideas or action items that council can consider. So that is where I think you have the opportunity to start a discussion um because it it is something that um is of concern. I've heard it from other business owners. We've been through this parking issue how many times. Um but we we need to figure out in in what way we can accommodate businesses downtown, the employees downtown in a way that meets their needs, but importantly the customers needs to. So

thank you. No, I just say take it to the LI improvement committee and hopefully we'll hear back. Yes. your city clerk and also two members not to put them on the spot are here today so they can raise their hand. Yeah, they're right.

All right. So, I will move on to the next comic card I have is from Elon Ringham. My apologies if I mispronounce Hi, mayor, council members. My name is Ellen Bingham. Um, not only am I a resident of LOI, but I'm excited to take the opportunity tonight to introduce myself as your new local government affairs rep for PG&E. So, I look forward to continuing that partnership uh locally in my which happens to be my hometown as well. Um, looking forward to being a resource to you and your staff. Um, my contact information is with your city clerk. So, if you haven't heard from me already, uh, I'm sure you will soon. you have any questions I can stay but I can also thank you for your comment.

The next comment card I have is from Katha Fister. Good evening, city council. My name is Kather Fister. I'm a resident here in Loi. I um had a dream to open up a mobile coffee trailer here in the city of Loi. And I've done that, but unfortunately the city of Loi only allows so many vendor permits to be able to go out and I was told by the license department here to come to the council and request that those permits be raised. There is only able to be 34 mobile carts out a year and I've been on the list for a year and a half and still have not gone out. I've had to pay, you know, for my state certification, my county certification, the health department, uh commissary. So, a lot of money has come out of my pocket and I'm still not able to legally sell on the streets of Loi. I have to go out to Woodbridge to sell or to Lockford to sell. So, I'm just asking that um the vendor permits be raised or at least looked at. There are several several um taco trucks out there, but nothing within the coffee or industry or anything like that except for brick and mortar. So, I'm just requesting that that be looked at. And actually, I have a comment for you actually. So, this was with James and that was his last date. We had a meeting about this about this issue because somebody else brought it up there and we were looking into bringing this to council to have a discussion about how

to raise the from that 47 to 51 and creating categories of maybe we have too many taco trucks, maybe we need different C categories so there's more inclusive to everybody. So that will come up in a future meeting and um can you give your contact information to our city clerk so we can let you know when we have the meeting and I will let you tell you that the that conversation. Thank you very much. Thank you so much. Mr. D.

Good evening, mayor. My name is Steve Dut. I'm the current president of Tree Loi and I want to uh formally invite you, your fellow council members, your city staff, and the public to the upcoming annual Arbor Day event. This year's event will be held, and I believe you have a flyer hopefully in front of you soon. The event this year will be held at Legion Park. The address is 835 South Hutchkins. That's at Hutchkins and Vine Street. The purpose of this year's event, Loi Electric asked you all to remove 32 trees at the park due to power outages, safety concerns that Loi Electric had and the residents of Loi had. So, you granted the removal of those 32 trees. Tree Loi has been asked to help reforest the park. This will be phase one of reforestation of Legion Park. This event will include setup starting at 7 a.m. The public program, and I understand the mayor has promised to be in attendance, and hopefully other council members can join in on that. public program starts at 9:00 am. We hope to wrap that up about 9 or 10:30 with planting starting at 10:30 and hopefully a hot dog barbecue lunch for everyone to enjoy around 12:30. So, please join us if you may. So, also mayor, if I can just take one more minute since I'm here, I'm also want to thank you and the residents of Lodi for supporting the LOI electrics shade tree program. Speaking of numbers, just very quickly, we just completed our fifth cycle for the residents of Loi and Shri Loi is very proud to announce that in those five cycles, five years, we have visited over a thousand addresses and

given over 3,200 trees away under the Shade Tree program supported by LOA Electric. So, I want to thank Melissa and Tim and their staff for that and your support also. Thank you. Thanks so much. and we're looking forward to be there. Mayor, that was all the comment cards I have, but you're welcome to open it up to the audience if anyone wants to. Yeah, we'll open it to the audience if anyone wants to comment on non-aggenda items right now. Yes.

Hi, Mayor. Hi, council. Uh, I am Gutierrez. I live at Riverpoint Community. Uh the reason I am here is a construction project has just started or begun within our facility. Um and there was just a failure of outreach to communicate on the HOA association owned property and what that would look like. Um, last week a mailer or a flyer was sent on our doorsteps to anticipate the construction and the duration, but we requested a meeting for this week Tuesday, not anticipating any construction to begin to have a conversation about what restoration looks like, what impacts look like, noise, work hours, things of that nature. Unfortunately, when we showed up for the meeting, they'd already broken ground. So, we were unaware of that. Um, so we've had some communication and back and forth, but what we would like as the community because we have to restore and maintain out of our pocket for that community at least a say in what that restoration is going to look like ultimately. So, I'm hopeful that somebody, our representative, I believe that's you, Lisa, in that region.

So, it's the storm water phase 5 project and currently it is on River Point property. You do have a utility easement that allows you to do this work. We just wanted to be part of the conversation prior to construction just to address our concerns from all of our residents within the community. Can you tell us where River Point uh is? We are off of Turner and Sacramento Street uh just kind of kitty corner of the gas station there. Uh yeah, we are a gated community of 40 homes.

Perfect. Thank you. Yes. and discuss what the responsibilities would be. Back to his point on maintaining it, I think that their desire is to be part of understanding what the restoration work is. So, um I'd appreciate it if that conversation could happen. Yeah, that's not a problem. Yeah. After this meeting or should I uh just give me your contact information. Perfect. Or you can shoot me an email too also and write a card. Yeah, that would be great. Thank you very much. Yes, sir. Storm water drainage. We're preparing on that plot. Why are we doing it?

So, this is part of the state requirement that all of our um storm water that goes to the river uh captures trash. Anything bigger than a cigarette. And so, this is the fifth phase project that we've done um for our outfalls that go to the river. Yeah. Why are we doing it before? Uh we we've we've got about uh 12 different locations that drain into the river and so this is one of them. So this is a fifth phase of that project where we're kind of doing one outfall per year. Are you are you changing it or advising it or uh so basically it's like a big manhole that gets dropped on the existing line that captures the trash and then um our streets department, our storm water department, they go and pull it out periodically so it doesn't end up in the river.

Thank you. Uh, may I? So, this unit it's not intrusive in the sense that um it's a big real estate. It's within a 12 by 12 region, but you do have heavy equipment that's traveling on that. So, there's some scarring that's actually occurred now. Um, I work in the trades. I've been in the industry for about 30 plus years. So, this is where I was a little bit concerned. We've got some photos. We have reached out to the field teams and had these discussions. But one of the major concerns we had is why on our property and why not on Turner Road, right? Why are we Because what it also leads to down the road that's not expressed yet is they're going the city will need access annually to go out and siphon out on our property. We have a regulated gate where there isn't a number that you could punch. There has to be some scheduling and coordination, right? And that could be forgotten. If it's not, my concern is what does it mean? storage as far as what's falling into that unit, what does it mean for any gases or what have you, right? It just leads to other issues. So, we just want to be able to be part of that conversation and understand all of that.

Mathan, storm water chain changing the storm water caused some problems, doesn't it? Yeah, I mean, it's it's a regulatory thing. It's a requirement from the state. Um, we had to put it uh downstream of all the catch basins that are in in that tributary area, and some of those are within the gated community. So, that's why it couldn't be on Turner. That's why I had to be I will say that is still not capturing all the PIs that are within the community that can be discussed too. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. That's all I have. Okay, seeing no more public comments, we'll move to council comments.

Just one comment. Um, could you come up for a minute? I want to talk about the LI city employees association. So, yeah, I got this right. Okay. Um, I just wanted to point out I have the privilege of uh on behalf of the mayor um being at the LCA meeting and I just wanted to put out there about uh the poor individuals because you know we don't get to hear and the public doesn't get to hear about those employees who get quarterly recognized right it's kind of internal thing and I think people need to hear about that so I just wanted to thank you all for that recognition event um and I'm just going to state who those individuals are for the public so that they understand that uh the city manager actually quarterly identifies through input from uh city employees, the employees of the quarter, and then they pick the employee of the year. So, I just want to put out there because people don't hear about it. Public doesn't hear about the work of those employees. So, Becky Hill is a police record supervisor in the police department. Justin Delgado is a key account specialist with Loi Electric Utility. Laura Gonzalez is a utility billing specialist in finance. And then Tyson Mhurst is a senior programmer an in the information technology department. Those four individuals amongst others, but those four individuals were recognized and uh as it turned out, Tyson was the employee of the year. So, I do want to thank the LCA for that opportunity to get those individuals recognized and I appreciate that the mayor allowed me to speak on his behalf in recognition of those individuals. So, thank you for the work

the LCA and thank you for those employees recognition. Mayor, if I may also make some comments and I attended with uh Councilwoman Craig and I will also add that our city manager uh currently and our past interim city manager James Lindseay um both said some amazing things. These are gentlemen who have been in other cities and have decades and decades of experience. They know their trade and what they said at the dinner is they've never seen anything like this. They've never seen what Loi has as far as LCA goes and this dinner where you have hundreds of employees breaking bread together and again having that communion and camaraderie and and everything else. And I completely agree. Loi is a family as far as uh a lot of the employees go and it should be because I remember uh you know not too long ago two three years ago we had a gentleman in public works get hit by a car and die right um and it's not just first responders that put their lives on the line and uh yes first responders probably do put the most on the line yes but the entire city to a certain extent provides lifeaving services. It's it's all of us together. So, thank you to all the employees and yes, I do believe here in Loi we are special um and grateful for you. So, thank you for your service.

Thank you so much. Um now we will move to

I do have one more item if that's all right. I just want to see if anyone had any other comments on LCA. Um, so I have heard a few rumors, uh, and I notified our city manager, police chief I was going to bring this out was, um, and I had had a few community leaders come up to me, including one past mayor, which I won't name. Um, but it's about, uh, certain members from other communities, some with criminal history coming into LOI through, you know, rehab programs, everything else. Um, I do not know whether that is true or untrue. Uh what I can tell you as a council member um I have requested for our city to look into it. Um and I have educated myself on the legality of quite a few things relating to this. And anytime anyone's on probation, they're supposed to let that city know, okay? They're supposed to let our police department know. Um and so if a city for instance is having a rehab program and people with criminal histories are moving into that city um Loi is supposed to be notified. Okay. And what I can tell you is I'm not for gang members moving in LOI, let alone if our LOID is not being contacted. Again, I don't know if any rumors uh related to this are true. Um what I can promise you is I believe our city's on top of it and if something is going on, we'll we'll fight against it. So, thank you.

So, I'm gonna I wasn't aware of that, so thank you for bringing that up. Um, I'm going to ask our city attorney about like that. Like, so you're saying that they're moving and they need to notify the city. That's what you have been. Correct. So, if if they are on probation and they do move into a city, they're supposed to be notifying the police department. They're supposed to have notified their probation officers uh if they have a gang affiliation or um if there was a sex offender status, that sort of thing. They're supposed to notifi notify probation of their residents. Probation does communicate with the police department, but it's all directly through probation.

Thank you. So, we will now move to the public hearings. Mayor, we have uh two public hearings tonight and I will start us off with um F1 public hearing to consider a motion to approve the 2025 housing element annual progress report and to direct staff to transmit the report to the California Department of Housing and Community Development and the Governor's Office of Planning and Research. And I will turn it over to Deputy Director of Community Development Cynthia Marsh for this presentation.

Yes. Good evening, Mayor and Council. I have a PowerPoint. Give it a moment to pull up. There it goes. So, this item before you is an annual report that uh is required by state law. Um we are in the second year of our annual progress report for the sixth cycle housing ament. As a reminder, uh, council adopted the housing element approximately two years ago and it was certified by the state of California. U, these are updated about every eight years. So, we've been doing housing elements for about 50 years at this point. Um, they're becoming more and more stringent, these reporting requirements. Uh, but as I mentioned, it's required by state law. Um, so this is our annual report which is required to be um, presented to city council before being submitted to the state by April 1st of each year. So the housing element uh annual progress report um looks at program implementation which were included in the adopted housing element. Uh they want to know updates on our general progress progress on those housing element programs. Uh but again uh this is an eight-year housing element. So um generally some of those programs will help happen a little bit quicker than others. Um so it's just kind of where we're at. Have we started it? What's our progress? Uh the report also looks at the prior year for 2025 on our regional housing needs allocation process and then also our efforts to remove housing constraints. Uh as I mentioned 2025 is the second year of the annual report for the six cycle housing ament and um it must be presented to city council. So uh the arena which is the regional housing needs allocation or arena for short um is assigned to the city through the housing element if you recall and um the state um provides numbers to each local uh cog or council of governments.

Uh we are part of Sama King Council of Governments and our assigned Reena was 300 3,99 units um for the 8th uh 8 years 2023 through 2031 approximately. So the arena doesn't require the city to construct uh any um units any housing units. Um all it merely does is require the city to um lay the groundwork and zoning and have the zoning capacity for those number of units. uh to satisfy the arena. Um all of the arenas uh in the state are um pretty high. There's no possible way we will ever develop this number of units, but uh thus uh anyhow we are required to report on our progress towards them uh each year. Um those categories that we report on include uh income levels which are assigned by uh HCD or the department of housing community development at the state of California. each year. Um as a base um we look at uh four four people um would be considered uh uh in the moderate income base is what we use uh four persons. So uh a moderate uh income person would need to make less than 100 uh $25,000 uh approximately for a family of four to be considered moderate income. Anything over that would be considered above moderate income. Uh and again uh on the very low income end would be uh for a family of four base salary of approximately $52,000. So they would need to make less than $52,000. So oftentimes when you hear about um uh affordable housing projects I I think a lot of times affordable is really a misnomer because a family of four uh in the moderate affordable level would be less than $125,000 uh income per year. So what is our um status for 2025? Uh on the left you can see that the um city

process substantially less planning entitlements for housing units in 2025. uh the prior year. Uh these are applications for example for spark site plan architecture review committee um perhaps for multif family units uh tenative maps uh which could include uh large plan developments or they might be uh SB9 or Senate bill lot splits uh so in 2025 um we uh only approved um uh two Senate Bill 9 lot splits and one was for a single family home the other was for a duplex uh a substantial decrease clearly from 371 units in 2024. Um so uh entitlements are more of a prediction of what's coming down the pipeline. And then on the right side you can see uh building permits that were issued. So these are not building permits that were applied for. These were actually uh issued. So they might have been applied for in the prior year. Uh but the report only requires us to uh substantiate units that were uh building permits that were issued for units. So, uh, compared to 2024, we had a 63% drop in, uh, residential building permits, uh, to 2025. So, 180 building permits were issued in 2024. Uh, and then in 25 that was down to 66, uh, building permits issued. Uh, again, uh, we do have some entitlements that are kind of rolling forward in the pipeline for a couple of apartment projects. Uh the lakehouse departments and 12 west departments did apply for building permits, but we don't report on those in 2025. We're only reporting on issued. So those are in the cycle right now. They're being reviewed and they will likely be issued sometime soon in 2026. So again, we'll have a jump next year in uh when we do the report for 2026. Here's a screenshot of the report um a page of the report. And this is usually um the one that's most referred to as

table B. Um where we track our progress towards Reena. Um you can see that 3,99 unit uh number um towards the left. And then highlighted in green with the arrow is our 2025 units um that um received permits issued. Um of those 12 were accessory dwelling units and 54 were single family homes. So we generally categorize uh accessory dwelling units or ADUs uh as uh in the moderate uh income category. Um otherwise we had no other permits issued for um uh low, extremely low, very low or low income. Uh again we anticipate um some additional permits kind of coming online in the next year or two. Um those would include affordable units for the Saleless Park housing project which was previously approved in the last year or two. I believe they are preparing to apply for their tax credits uh in the next uh week or two here. So um you'll see these actually increase uh next year. Here you can see uh just some of the highlights of those uh programs I mentioned. There are um several dozen programs that are included in the housing element. Uh many of these programs are required by state law and they were approved in the housing element that you adopted in 2024. Uh just as a summary, uh we did go through last year in 2025 a reszone of about 600 parcels and uh in including uh uh addition of zoning capacity for about 3,000 additional units. Um those were uh all incorporated with the housing element inventory into the city's GIS uh system, which you can access online on loi.gov. Uh again, we're making progress uh towards adoption of the downtown specific plan uh which will support infill and mixeduse development in the downtown. Uh we've also been processing and continue to process phased code amendments. Uh we have processed the

first three phases of those. um just doing some cleanup and uh alignment with the housing element and we continue to work with our consultant on uh drafting those uh and bringing them to uh planning commission and city council uh in uh incremental uh doses so that we don't bring you hundreds of pages at once. Uh we we're kind of chipping them off uh as fast as we can go. Uh we also um as I mentioned permitted uh 12 ADUs in 2025. Uh we uh a couple of years ago um received a a reap grant to uh apply for uh and and we received free pre-approved ADU plans which we do offer at the counter and um we also have a guide book that's being updated because ADU law changes so rapidly. the uh guide book that we had received and also um we'll be coming forward with more code amendments um because uh state law changes every year and by the time we had the draft ready and ready to go um forward for adoption the law had already changed so we're now having to make changes uh again. Um so we're uh trying to keep up with those. Uh we also uh continue uh uh partnering and funding uh Sanwaqen uh and Sanwaqen County affordable housing support through um the housing authority. Uh we did work on the SIS park um project um as I mentioned that will be coming down the pipeline and we are continuing to administer our uh CDBG funds. Additional programs uh as you're aware um development of the access center is in full swing. Uh we are also, as you're aware, working on the Main Street uh transitional housing project and those are anticipated to be um online by 2026. So we will be reporting updates to those on the 2026 um annual progress report. Uh we do continue to uh work with uh proactive code enforcement uh achieving 98% voluntary compliance uh including uh graffiti abatement and uh continued CDBG

funding of neighborhood improvements and uh community engagement through the LOI improvement committee. Uh we again are uh as I mentioned working on the downtown specific plan. There's a program related to transit oriented development and encouraging infill development. So, um you'll see some code amendments related to those. Um also tied to the downtown specific plan. Uh then, uh we um adopted an environmental justice element along with the housing element in 2024 25. Uh and there's a analysis to impediments of fair housing choice um which was prepared um by our neighborhood services division again which uh Jennifer Ryan which administers our CDBG funds. Uh and then continued uh programs for energy conservation and uh as you know Loi Electric um issues utility rebates and um we also enforce title 24 energy standards through uh building permit uh administration. So that concludes my report. I'm available if you have any questions. Uh I do have uh if you need to zoom in on the report, there's one page that every year gets really tiny. Uh, so you can zoom in on the PDF, but if you have a hard copy of it, I have the, uh, Excel spreadsheet available if you want me to zoom in on it. Um, it gets kind of convoluted on the spreadsheet, which we don't really have control over how it appears. Thank you very much.

Thanks so much. I'm going to move to council comments. Just a follow on question. Um, the I'm looking at this. So, uh, so first off, you said go back to slide because I've got 371 units. Did I see that number on an earlier? Oh, those were entitlements from last year. From 371 units, which was in 2024. So, was were those completed or were those permitted? Those were entitlements applied for. So, that would be site plan. titled that. Yeah.

All right. So now what we're looking at on that one sheet was 12 moderate non-deed restricted and 54 above moderate for the current year. So those are completed, they're constructed or those issued permit issued. So permit issued. Uh yeah, we report mainly uh almost all the charts um autofill with permit issued. Um, we also report to the state um, certificates of occupancy that have been completed. Okay. Because that was the other number I was kind of looking for because the permits are good for two years for completion or how many years for new construction? For new construction, um, I'm not sure off the top of my head when they expire. Um,

I'm just wondering if they're under construction. We anticipate them being completed. They've been entitled. The permit's been issued. Yes, generally. Yes. Okay. All right. So, so that's kind of where we are. I can we're always going to be far off arena numbers, but um I I think it's interesting that we really are looking at that substantial decrease from 2024. So um just a perception um the projects are basically uh west side of town. I assume

there are two um the these have been generally um new construction um in the gateways um west side newer development. There have been a handful um as you've seen the construction around Reynolds Ranch um that Cahanian has been working on. Um and then the those that are in the pipeline that I'm aware of are the two large um uh multif family projects 12 West and um Lakehouse, which you're aware of. Those have been kind of both uh gone through the entitlement process over the last few years. And um those will be coming online uh or permits will be issued for those in 2026. They won't be online, but they'll be in the system. Uh, also I want I did uh skipped over the sunset uh housing project um because it was not technically heard by Spark until 2026. It did not make it to this annual report. It'll be on next year's annual annual report for 2026.

Thanks so much. Any more comments? Is the cost of property considered? They would have to uh have applied for um entitlements or an annexation application. They have yet to submit uh anything formally. the reason for that. They have been just asked a couple of questions uh and are performing due diligence is my understanding, but they have not uh submitted any applications. We've asked them a couple of questions. Uh they've been asking us questions. We've answered them and they have not um replied or gotten back to us.

Any more comments? So, I have uh two like two comments. One is can we see a chart like of the last 20 years of the permits entirements to see how it has fluctuated throughout the years.

The annual reports that are submitted to HCD um are reported um each year. I I don't know if they go back 20 years. That's pretty far. I don't know if we tracked them back then. Um that was before my time. I do know that the permit system was changed over at some time uh and that some permit data was lost um probably during that time period. Um but we could pull like the last um APRs for the fifth cycle housing ament. Um those are online. HCD um hcd.gov um publishes all of those for every jurisdiction in California. So, anyone can go to HCD's website, search for the city of LOI, and any annual report that's been submitted to HCD is publicly available right on their website.

Okay. But, can you send it to me to by email or go and find the data and send it to me, please? Sure. Yeah. Yeah. It's just a it's just a link to the All right. Thank you. And um so, I have a comment for Mr. City Manager because we had had a couple conversations about that. We don't see here annexation of land. Like for example, uh, Mayor Proen was talking a little bit and I have said about the website and I want to bring an item later that we talk about what is some of the vehicles that we can use or brainstorm how we can bring others are areas of the city to the spheres of influence and yeah, you want to share something? Yeah.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So, just real quickly point of clarification on the first request. Are you looking for the data from the um the annual housing element report or are you looking just specifically for simple construction permits? Simple construction. Yeah. And everything can involve everything. Okay. So you just need data that shows the trend of how many issued over the past however far back we have. Yeah. How we file here? Yes, that's correct.

As far as the annexation request, that's certainly something that um I I intend to talk to you about as part of um perhaps probably a revisit, a brief revisitation of your strategic plan as it relates to the budget process because in order to you know explore the annexation um element a little bit further. We do need to get some direction from council. We do need to you know talk about the need to allocate resources to that. Unfortunately, the annexation process is a pretty involved one that requires variety of different resources. And so, um, we'll just need to have that conversation about how you want us to prioritize that going forward, but we'll certainly come back to you with that conversation.

Um, any more council comments? Uh, Dr. Mcnish? No. Oh, I move for vote. Uh, I need to first open the public hearing. Yeah. So, I will open the public hearing. at 8:11 p.m. City crew, do we have any public comments? Okay, then I will invite the public if you would like to speak on this item. Seeing none, I will close the public hearing at 8:11. Um, any any final council comments? I'll make the motion.

Second. All right, I'm going to pass this. Okay, F2 is the our second public hearing of the night and it's to consider resolution adopting pre-approved Proposition 218 consumer price index base annual adjustment to rates for solid waste collection. and I'll turn it over to our public works team to take this presentation. Thank you. Good evening, uh, mayor, council members. Um, like Olivia just mentioned, we are here tonight to conduct a public hearing to consider setting pre-approved annual adjustment to rates for solid waste collection. Just a quick overview of tonight's slides. First, a review of the contractual rate adjustment language contained in the agreement with Waste Management. Followed by a review of the rate adjustment factor, the North County landfill gate fee component, the average residential monthly rate change, and a comparison of local rates, and the recommended action for tonight. And as stated in section 10B and 10D of the current contract with Waste Management, solid waste rates are to be adjusted annually on April 1st of each year. The contract allows for rates to be adjusted by 80% of the annual change in the consumer price index, plus an adjustment for extraordinary increases such as landfill fees, fuel and energy costs, and changes in applicable laws.

And here's the CPI rate adjustment factor for the rate adjustment. Um the annual change in the CPI um from 2024 to 2025 was 7.588 points or 2.178%. Um 80 80% of this change at 1.742% which is the first rate adjustment factor being requested by Waste Management tonight. The second factor of the rate adjustment request is the north county landfill gate fee which will be unusual for 2026 this year is actually a decrease in the gate fee. Uh the price per ton went down from 4976 to 4064 a ton. a decrease of 18.33% but in the calculations the percent effect on the requested rate increase is a decrease of 1.558%. So the total requested rate increase being requested is84% which would be 80% of the CPI less the decrease in gate fees. And you'll see here on the screen the three top examples of our most common cart rates. Um the most common residential size of course is a 35gallon cart serviced once a week. Um and that is increasing to 39.44 an increase of 8 cents per month. On this next slide is just a quick comparison of surrounding cities and the rates charged for their collection service. um which for Loi the lowest volume cart is comparable to those of the surrounding cities. And again, it's hard to do a apples to apples comparison on cities. Not everybody offers the same base cart rate. Um as you'll see, Mantik and Tracy do not even offer a comparable 35gallon size cart as we note in this

slide, but we are comparable when comparing the 35gallon. And tonight's recommended action is to adopt a resolution setting pre-approved Proposition 218 consumer price index based annual adjustment to rates for solid waste collection. And before we entertain comments, we do have um representative from waste management and staff to answer. But I just wanted to formally introduce Beatric Delgado. If you've been into city hall before, she was previously our senior admin clerk, so you've probably gotten some great customer service from her. But in October, she was promoted to our vacant analyst position. So, she will be your new point contact for all things solid waste and recycling. Um, her contact information is on the screen for your reference, but I just wanted to formally get her in front of you guys tonight and introduce her. With that, we can answer any questions.

Thank you so much. Council comments. Question. Uh, this is residential only. Um, commercial. No, it's it's residential and commercial. It's residential and commercial. Okay. So, it's the same rate structure. All right. Thank you. Seeing no more council comments, then I'm going to open the public hearing at 7 at 8:17 p.m. SL, do we have any public comments? Okay. Seeing no comments, then I will entertain a motion. Mr. Mayor, can you close the

Oh, yes. Sorry. So, I will close a public hearing at 8:17 p.m. Now that motion

has to be done.

Okay. And it passes. So, now we're going to move to our regular calendar.

The first three items regular calendar are um from human uh resources. So I will read off um G1 uh which is to adopt a resolution approving the memorandum of understanding between the city of LOI and the LOI professional firefighters for the period of January 1, 2026 through December 31, 2028. And I will turn it over to Christina.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. Um item G1 Professional firefighters for the period of January 2026 through December 31, 2028. City of Loai and LPF bargaining team have been working together over the last five months to come to an agreement on the terms and conditions of the new MOU. In addition to meeting with the bargaining unit, the city representatives have been meeting with city council since November where the terms have been previously discussed. A few highlights to the new MMU include a three-year term January 1, 2026 through December 31, 2028. A one-time 3% off salary schedule payment of base salary for all LPF classifications to be paid as soon as administratively possible. 3% cost of living increase effective January 4th, 2027. a 3% cost of living increase effective January 4, 2028. Effective December 22nd, 2020, sorry, 2025, the city shall pay up to 90% of the medical premium by enrollment category for the lowest cost HMO plan available in the zip code 95240. Um, this is effective pay in which January 126 falls. Um, a reduction of the CalPER oh sorry, a reduction of the CalPERS employee cost sharing contribution by 3% effective July 6, 2026. Increase the bilingual incentive to $200 per month. increase longevity pay effective December 22nd, 2025 to be paid on a per

pay period basis at the following rates 10 years at 2.5% and 20 years of service at 5%. And then someou cleanup and incorporating side letters into theou. So staff recommends that council approve theou between the city and the LPF and I am available to answer any questions. Thank you so much. Any council comments? Seeing none, we will open it to public comments. No cards. Okay. So um we entertain a motion second. That was pretty quick, Mikey, I gotta say.

And it passes. So, next item.

Next item um is also human resources. It's to adopt a resolution approving the memorandum of understanding between city of Loi and ASME general services for the period of January 1, 2026 through December 31, 2020. Okay. So for the ASME maintenance and operators uhou a few highlights um of theou include once again a three-year term January 1 2026 through December 31 2028 a one-time 3% off salary schedule payment of base salary oh sorry that's the wrong page my apologies and I have a typo on my script So one item is for um so G2 is for general services and then G3 is for M. G2 is for general So for general services, the it's the highlights include the three-year term, same period of time, January 1, 2026 through December 31st, 2028. The one-time 3% off salary schedule payment of base salary for all general services classifications to be paid as soon as administratively possible. And effective January 5th, 2026, the city shall implement the January 1, 2026 compensation study providing equity

increases for classifications deemed below market over two years. Classifications determined to be over market pursuant to the January 1, 2026 compensation study shall be Y rated and will will not receive an equity increase. um a 3% cost of living increase effective January 4th, 2027 and January 3rd, 2028 will be provided or Y-rated employees will receive a combination of a cost of living increase and off salary schedule payment not to exceed 3%. Effective December 22nd, 2025, the city shall pay up to 90% of the medical premium by enrollment category for the lowest cost HMO plan available in the 95 in the zip code 95240. Um, increase bilingual incentive to $200 per month and notary public incentive to $80 per month. both to be effective the first first pay period following council approval. Employees in the classifications of permit technician, senior permit technician, community improvement officer one two, senior community improvement officer are eligible for the following incentives. Residential building inspector certificate $40 per month. Commercial building inspector certificate $60 per month. Commercial plans examiner $60 per month. Residential plans examiner $40 per month. Employees in the classification of building inspector one two are eligible for the following incentives. Commercial building inspector incentive $60 per

month. Residential plans examiner certificate $40 per month. Commercial plans examiner certificate $60 per month. Employees in the classification of senior building inspector are eligible for the following incentives. Commercial plans examiner certificate $60 per month. Theou also includes adding longevity pay effective December 21, 2026 to be paid on a per pay period basis at the following rates. 10 10 years of service will provide a 2 and a half% um increase. 20 years of service provide a 5% increase. Also included is an increase to the annual maximum dental benefit from 12 $1,250 to $1,500 for each family member enrolled in the dental plan per calendar year. Orthodontia benefits increase up to a lifetime cap of $1,500 per person covered under the plan. And this will be done as soon as administratively possible. We will also eliminate the CalPERS cost sharing contribution effective J July 6, 2026 and do some generalou cleanup.

Those are all the highlights for this. Thank you so much. Any council comments? I like if you're listening to this, you're saying, "How come we're voting this so quickly? We spent hours on this." This is not the first time we're hearing this. close session we discussed this time. Thank you. Thank you so much for the comment. Um public comments cards. Okay, I would Oh, actually, yes, I have a card, but it's not for this item. It's for the next item. Okay, perfect. I would turn a motion.

Second. All right. And then the last item for human resources item G3 is to adopt a resolution approving the memorandum of understanding between the city of Loi and the ASME maintenance and operations or M for the period of January 1, 2026 through December 31, 2028. Highlights to the MOU include once again a three-year term, a onetime 3% off salary schedule payment of base salary for all M classifications to be paid as soon as administratively possible. Effective January 5th, 2026, the city shall implement the January 1, 2026 compensation study for by providing equity increases for classifications deemed below market over a 2-year period. Class classifications determined to be over market pursuant to the January 1, 2026 comp study shall be Y-rated and will not receive an equity increase. 3% cost of living living increase effective January 4th, 2027 and January 3rd, 2028 or Yrated employees will receive a combination of a cola and off salary schedule payment not to exceed 3%. Effective December 22nd, 2025, the city shall pay up to 90% of the medical premium by enrollment category for the

lowest cost HMO plan available in the zip code 95240, an increase to bilingual incentive to $200 per month, and an increase education incentive pay to $50 per month up to a combined maximum of $250 per month. An increase in the annual maximum dental benefit from 12 $1,250 to $1,500 for each family member enrolled in the dental plan per calendar year. Orthodontia benefits will increase up to a lifetime cap of $1,500 per each per person covered under the plan done at this will be done as soon as administratively possible. and elimination of the Kalpers cost sharing contribution effective July 6, 2026 and generalou cleanup. Those are all the highlights.

Thank you so much. Uh council comments. Seeing none, now we're going to go to public comments. Yes, Mr. Miller.

Hello, Mayor Eupz, city council. Um, my name is Jeremiah Miller. I'm the business agent and union representative uh for the ASME members here in the city of Loi um in the general services and maintenance and operators bargaining units. Um, as we know, our bargaining units are complex. We have lots of various positions in them. It's not as straightforward when we implement a comp study or something like that as some other bargaining units. Um but we would like to show appreciation for the work that was done between the city of Loi and the ASME bargaining team during this last round of contract negotiations. Also the process uh although the process was a bit different than we were used to, we feel that we were able to work together towards contracts that made sense and will hopefully move us forward in our efforts to recruit and retain the best employees. Um I would also like to show appreciation to the abs bargaining team um who put in a lot of work on their own time but were very dedicated to the process and working towards a fair contract. Um several of them are here tonight for our general services contract. Um uh we have Carrie Chadwick, we have Tanya Hansford, we have Karina Delbar Delbarba, excuse me, and uh Yanette Gomez. For our maintenance and operators team, it was Thomas Rodriguez, Thomas Gabriel, um George Agnu, Luis Gomez, and James Prrenty. It took their time, dedication, and insight to get us here tonight. Um, city council, we ask me, Local 146, look forward to continuing to meet and build relationships with all of you. Uh, thank you for your time and taking action on these items. We appreciate it.

Thank you so much for that comment. I will entertain a motion. I'll make the motion.

All right, I pass this next item and council. Um, item G4 is uh is an electric utility item. It's the fiscal year 2025 2026 electric utility quarterly financial update report and I will turn it over to assistant director of electric.

Good evening mayor and council. Uh this item typically resides on the consent calendar for you folks. Um it made it to regular calendar this time around. You have the complete packet um report in your packet. I'm going to touch on some high points and then um if we want to go through any individual slides, I'm I'm happy to answer any questions you might have. I also want to add um these quarterly reports, our budget manager is now providing quarterly financial update reports on all city funds. Some of this is a bit repetitive from what you've seen before, but the electric utility has some unique reporting requirements uh as it pertains to reporting out to council for uh risk oversight committee activities. So, in addition to the financial piece of this, we'll talk a little bit about what the Rock has been up to and provide you a few highlights just on the utility overall. So, with that, um we'll Oh, thank you, Olivia. We'll Look at our summary slide here. With a budget of about hund00 million, both our revenue and expenses are tracking where they should be at about 55% halfway through the year. So remember, this report is covering the period of July uh through December 2025. Cash reserves are at about 43.5 million. That represents about 147% of the council approved reserve target. Um want to remind council Our reserves are at a level um that some folks would ask why so high why are you not at 100%. So we do not bond finance most of our capital efforts. Those are on a pay as you go basis. So those reserves are used to fund capital maintenance and ongoing projects. In addition, this time of year about halfway through the year tends to be where our reserve levels um are showing

at the highest. It's where we receive the most amount of revenue throughout the year. So, um, when we look at that 147% of target, what we're projecting toward the end of the year, uh, is closer to about 125% of target. And also, we'll talk about this in a little bit. Um, as you know, the 230 KV project is progressing along. We're hoping to have the green light on that project here in the next few months. Um that project will come with a price tag of about $70 million. So looking ahead uh at the next five years, we are projecting a CPI level uh rate increase of about 3% in 2030 to continue to meet those reserve targets. Um I have skipped through a few slides. Um, so again, our latest uh rate adjustment, if you recall, was back in fiscal year 2425 at about 2%. In terms of energy sales, we are on track at about 52% of sales, 56% of revenue. Um, the takeaway here, we always like to remind council um that Load Electric remains more than competitive when it comes to PG&E. rates are about 40 to 50% lower than PG&E on average. That number varies depending on the customer class that you're looking at. So before I shift to talk a little bit about some of the risk oversight committee activities and some of the general highlights of the utility, I I'm happy to answer any questions on the financial metrics.

Thank you for your comment. I will open it to council if I may. Good. A question. This is for fiscal year $100 million business, right? Correct. So I has a $100 million electric utility business. Thank you. I did hear one piece of information I did want to confirm on. You mentioned 3% raise in 2030, but no raises until then.

Correct. So, as as council's aware, we have our monthly energy cost adjustment. So, that um allows for for fluctuations in both energy sales and power supply costs. So, what that also allows for is um base rate increases that we don't have to implement um every couple of years like most utilities. So, again, we're not looking from a base rate increase standpoint, we're not looking at anything right now until about 2030. Great. And do we expect to be somewhere near the bottom of the state for electricity prices by then?

We do. I as we continue we we prepare a rate comparison with the help of CMUA every year. Um we continue to move farther to the left in terms of um lowest rates for residential, commercial, and industrial rate classes. Industrial specifically, we tend to rank um in the top five. So we we don't anticipate that changing. Um and we don't anticipate that changing in comparison to PG either. Right. And so you have SMUD. What does SMUD charge currently?

So SMUD um they we're we're catching up. So we're pretty close. Um when you look at our average system rate, including the ECA of about 21 cents, they have been implementing uh multi-year rate adjustments. I know because I'm a SMUD customer and I see that on my bill. Um so they they've been implementing increases twice a year for the past few years. So they're they're catching up. Great. All right. Well, not great for you, but not great for me. Great for Loi.

Um, as many know, I mean, this is one of the greatest things about uh Loi in the sense of bringing businesses, cheapest electricity prices in the area. Um, and then the last item you mentioned 70 million for the 230 KV is that, but that's not Loadvice portion, is it? So 70 million right now is the estimate for a number of components to the 230 KV project. That is low portion. It is. Okay.

So, um but it also includes not just the 230 KB project which upgrades our intertype with PG& for transmission for import capacity. That also includes the buildout of our 60KB distribution system um to import that additional capacity in to serve some of that future annexation, future growth in addition to uh construction of three new substations throughout the city. So that $70 million price tag um is is a more comprehensive project.

Great. Thank you very much. And I had a few residents that needed your phone number again. So I'll just shoot that on over staff joke. Thank you. That's all my questions for now. Um, just miss Price to follow up on the 147% and a little more clarification on that. And maybe I'm skipping ahead, but I might as well ask it now. Um, so on page four of 13, it talks about the actual reserves versus target. And it always seems like we're fairly high with the exception of 23 24 when we were at about 131%. And then our fiveyear financial forecast kind of shows us around that number that you referenced um 129 to 2930 132%. So are you saying that when 230 KB line goes in that extra percentage over 100 is something that we can pull on to use for those capital improvements. And so that's why it's a good thing that we're at that number because we won't have to for a bond looking for the full 70 million but we can maybe you know have this offset.

Exactly. Um that's exactly correct. So um our reserves we we have been waiting for this day for many years as everyone knows the 230 KB project um has been talked about long before I got here 13 years ago. So having those reserves allows us to essentially use what we have on hand. There will be deposits that will need to be made on some of those longer lead time items associated with the 230 project. So, we will be able to use some of those reserves for those preliminary costs because, of course, as everyone knows from a personal borrowing standpoint, it's cheaper to use what you have in the bank than to go out and finance um in the market. So, it will allow us to use what we have on hand and reduce what we eventually borrow. So, we are working um with the financial adviser right now on a strategy in terms of short-term borrowing, long-term borrowing. We also have a call on our 2018 um bonds that will come up that we'll have an opportunity to refinance and possibly roll some additional costs into that as well in the future.

All right. Thank

any more comments? See none, we'll move to public comments. So actually if I can just wrap up really quick on on the portion of the risk oversight committee activities. Um again as part of the energy risk management plan we have an obligation to report to council uh the activities that are discussed at the risk oversight committee. Unfortunately some of those discussions are general because a lot of the information we talk about is confidential and can't be disclosed in a public forum. Um I do just want to highlight a couple of things. We've closed some of our open positions with market purchases from 2025 through 2027. Um we spoke with the Rock about a one-time allocation that we received from the state of lowcarbon fuel standard funds. That was about $800,000. We talked about that at midyear budget. Um those are unused credits for cities and utilities that are not participating in the lowcarbon fuel standard program. So those funds will get used um to implement the EV uh charging infrastructure master plan moving forward. We continue to discuss the repower of the CT2 or what we commonly refer to as the STIG facility which is the facility located uh adjacent to the LOI Energy Center owned and operated by NCPA. And then just really quick a couple of highlights for the utility for the first half of the fiscal year. We talked about the 230 KV project. Um we are awaiting the issuance of what's called a certificate of public convenience and necessity. That is essentially the green light from the CPU for this project to move forward. That is expected by the latter half of this year. Uh we completed our second CPU audit uh since I have been here in my time. Minor findings talking about things um high voltage signs missing off of poles. party notifications to telecom providers. All of those outstanding issues have been addressed. We also

launched our DIY commercial lighting program that council recently approved. Uh that was launched in both the Central Avenue and Cherokee corridors. We continue to work with our economic development director to identify other locations to roll that program out. And then finally, near and dear to my heart, uh we successfully completed financial reviews with both S&P and Moody's rating agencies where we walked away uh maintaining our existing ratings and we continue to have a stable outlook with both of those agencies, which will be important when we go out to the market um with any bond financing for those projects we talked about. Thank you so much.

Uh mayor, I don't have any comment cards for this item. Okay. Uh this is just an information item. So we don't need to do any formal motion or anything. So we just move to the next item then. So then item G5 is to provide direction to staff on the improvement deferral agreement at 1230 South Central Avenue which is LOI Academy. And I will turn it over to deputy dire in public works director um John Nathan for this presentation. All right, good evening. Um, I'm going to go through a quick presentation just to give some background information and some visuals on what we're talking about and then we'll open it up for discussion. So, first, um, section or chapter 1544 of the Lai Municipal Code kind of covers what we're going to be talking about here and its off-site frontage improvements and, uh, dedications. I'm going to read the couple of main sections. Uh 154410 says states that the purpose of this chapter is to set forth requirements for the installation of non-existent or inadequate non-conforming public off-site improvements and the dedication of the public rideway easements as a condition a condition to the issuance of the building permit or development approval in order to protect and improve the public safety, convenience, and general welfare. And then it also defines off-site improvements. Um means all publicly owned facilities that are or will be located in the public rideway, which typically include but are not limited to curbs, gutters, sidewalks, street paving, storm drains, water manes, sewer lines, fire hydrants,

electrical facilities, street lights, and landscaping. All right. So, with that background, uh I did want to mention too that and we'll kind of get into this a little more later if need be, but um right now we have a little over 50 active improvement deferrals within the city. Um just separate agreements on different properties. So talking uh specifically about 1230 South Central or LOI Academy, uh in 1986, they entered into the deferral agreement with the city and they deferred the curb, gutter, sidewalk, and landscape frontage improvements along Cherokee Lane and Popler Street. These were required with a building uh permit that was submitted back then. We had a similar section that required the same things back then. Um, in that deferral agreement, it put a deadline on those improvements of December 31st, 2000 or whenever the adjacent property developed, whichever came first. Fast forward to 1996, uh, they entered into amendment number one. This was caused because the city was doing what we called the central city revitalization project and it included two parts. One was downtown and one was along Cherokee. So that project incorporated their Cherokee lane improvements uh and and also they were assessed the cost of that. So uh with that the the city executed amendment number one and that also extended the popular street dead u frontage improvements out to December 31st of 2010. Uh those improvements were actually not completed by that deadline. But fast forward to 2016, um they had to do a gymnasium repair project that was estimated to be $700,000. And because of that, the city uh executed amendment number two that that did extend those popular street deadline out to December 31st of this year, giving it a 40-year life.

Fast forward again, 2024, they submitted a building permit um that exceeded our limit at the time, which we just increased earlier. And so that kind of restarted the discussion with staff and with the school about um what we thought would would be needed now and and what other improvements they, you know, around their other frontage would needed to be done as a condition of that. Um and so that permit actually never was issued. So those discussions kind of halted and in the meantime council did increase that threshold from roughly 75,000 to 150,000 that would trigger those off-site improvements and so that that building permit uh uh would no longer be applicable to the frontage improvement portions. So then that still brings us to the impending deadline for the popular street improvements that are part of the amendment number two of the deferral agreement. The property owner desires for the city to share in the cost of the deferral the deferred improvements. This was memorialized in a letter to Mayor Pez on February 10th and they had estimated those the cost of the curb gutter and sidewalk to be 30 $355,000 and then the sidewalk only portion to be between 45,000 and 62,500. And they had they had gotten three quotes for the sidewalk portion after the fact and provided that information to us. Uh just to get a visual of what we're talking about, uh you'll see on the aerial to the right, that red and yellow in the upper right, that's the frontage we're talking about. And kind of in the street view, you could see that the sidewalk would be detached behind the trees. Wouldn't require any of those to be removed. And then the curb and gutter would be that yellow. Currently, there is no sidewalk and there is the the curb is a asphalt curb that's u in relatively good shape. it probably doesn't drain great but also doesn't create huge

puddles. So staff's recommendation is to uphold the letter municipal code requirement that the property owners responsible for the installation of their frontage improvements um if desired uh allow additional time to complete all or a portion of those remaining frontage improvements. Um, specifically staff recommends to require this the sidewalk to be completed uh per the current agreement which is the end of this year and allow the curb and gutter requirement to be extended further uh with an additional amendment. So with that background open it up for questions discussions. Thank you so much for the presentation. Um, I'm going to invite the chairman of the board for the Lord Academy and actually have proposals that are not that staff recommendations, right? So, we're here for that, but I will let him talk first.

Thank you, Sean. Um, I'm Fred Bunch and uh I've been on the board of Bod Academy for 40 years plus and I chaired it for seven years including last year uh last year in uh just for a background uh my mother graduated from Lai Academy. My my brother and I graduated from Loi Academy. My kids graduated from Odai Academy and uh my grandkids, my granddaughter will graduate 100 years from the time her her great-g grandandmother graduated from Motor Academy. So, we have a little bit of history uh there. Um and uh thank you Sean for the summation. Um, and Jim Lindsay was out with us, uh, and Aaron was out with us and and the mayor's been out there, I think, three times, uh, to look at the property. Um, when I came when I came as chairman of the board, I wanted to get some things off the table. So I came to the city uh in December of 24 and uh I have had contact six inquiries from the city in regards to the deferment of the um the u uh the not the sidewalk but the curbs and gutters. Um if you if you go out there and look at the property first of all it's never been engineered in that regards. U the city put in the asphalt curbs and uh which are still working fine. And that's that we had two s two of the engineers from the city come out. The food first engineer said he wouldn't do anything and the second engineer said he would leave it alone. The second engineer said well maybe we should do something. Um we are a small school. We have limited finances and that's been um one of the reasons there's been some deferments

over the years. Um, so, um, uh, I think that, uh, there's no question the sidewalk needs to be done and and should be done soon. U, uh, we've, I was hoping to get that done last summer, but, um, I have, uh, apologies from the city. Uh, I have I have a notebook full of stuff. If anybody wants to read it, there's they're certainly welcome, too. Um but uh and then we talked with the mayor about the firmament of the curbs and gutters uh because that's at some point popular street has to be really looked at because it's been set it's been repaired. It's got a lot of checkers in it. It's it's just a mess and and and probably some drainage issues that probably should have been addressed when it was uh the apartments were developed across the street. Um, so u it's uh it's something that uh uh I'm not here to oppose. I'm here to to ask for deferment of the of the curb and and gutters and uh and and ask if the city's um I saw all the stuff in the paper about getting rid of the uh trip hazards and things on the that went into the paper whether it came from the city council or came from the from the press. probably more from the press than anybody. But uh anyway, um we could if we share that cost of the sidewalk or if we need to do the sidewalk in the original uh addendums, uh the city was uh uh going to do the engineering at no cost to the school and and the the later addendums somehow that item got deleted out. So, uh, anyway, I'm here to ask the city to look at

deferring um the curbs and gutters. Um, we have trees there and and if you look at Popular Street, it it veers in. It's not as wide uh on the east side as it is on the on the where the school is. So, um there's there's a lot of moving parts there that I think need some real study at some point. The other the other issue you should be aware of is we are looking possible um uh putting in some commercial property or some lease aspects of the of the east part of the property which has been has been vacant other than we have a track out there that's not used very often and a few other things and uh if that were to occur and obviously there's a lot of moving parts there if that were to occur that would kick in the the improvements that that we're talking about as far as the uh the curb and gutter. So, uh, I'm asking that, uh, that the city council, uh, discuss this and and give us some direction and give us some paperwork so we know where to go. Um, and since we've been delayed for over a year, that maybe we should defer. I I would hope we could do the sidewalk u this year. Uh but we need we need at least the engineers to come out and give us some kind of a of a sketch as what they what they want as far as where it connects into the existing sidewalks so that we can we can solidify bids for that that that now we have I think good guesstimates but there's they're based on whether how much engineering is involved. So I appreciate meeting with you and I appreciate your time and and I appreciate the gentleman that came out. Uh it's a good group of people and uh we had some really good solid discussions. So thank you.

Can you wait there for a better first I want to thank you for all the commitment that you put to the school. It's an asset and like we said we expanded the city to the school. The school was there before we we were here even the city. So it's just a matter of being good neighbors. And would you be okay with a that you guys pay for the sidewalk and we take from your books the improvements to the gutters forever until Are you okay with a kind of solution?

I I I speaking for myself. Yes. And I think that would be wonderful. And I'm sure I'm sure that we can we can make that happen with our our board. We we deal with the board which um is fun at times, but uh we uh I'm sure that I'm sure that is a workable proposition. Okay. it just for your history since you brought it up. The school was established in 1908 was a dairy out in the middle of nowhere

uh with uh with boarding school and uh and then that changed in in ' 68 when it became a day school and uh so some of the other things that were triggering this like the gymnasium was because we had a tree fall on the gymnasium and we had to redo the gymnasium lost some of our trusses that needed to be repaired etc etc. So those are kind of a little bit more of the history.

Okay. But then I have a a question. I know maybe this is a question for uh Sean. Are you aware of like when we said that we were going to do the engineering cost? Like do you have an email or something? Probably was Charlie probably, right? It's in the It's in the U It's in the addendum um uh of 110196. Okay. Okay. It says, "Design services for curb, gutter, and sidewalk installation will be provided by the city at no cost to the owner." I quote.

Okay. All right. Good. So, I'm going to now open it to council comments. Um if I might Mr. Nathan just uh kind of talking through this first off 50 deferments we have that many deferment agreements in place and are any of them as long as this 40-year deferment on the academy? We do have some that are older. Yeah, we have some from the 70s

and we have some from you know last year. challenging me that we do these 10-year deferment deferment. I mean, I understand the basis for it at times. We want to help the property owner, you know, but at the same time, if this would, you know, understand the cost 10 years later for this stuff goes up exponentially. I mean, exponentially. So, that's somewhat concerning to me. Maybe we need to take a look at some of those. Some of the older ones, too, aren't necessarily cost. they're in an area that doesn't have any sidewalk and so it's weird to put one require one so we allow them to defer it. That's I know for sure one from like the mid60s is that way.

Um so that's that's those really old ones tend to be along those lines.

So I guess having gone through this process as a property owner and understanding that when you have the new development or you're doing substantial improvement or in this instance $150,000 our new limit that it it does sound to me like there may be potential development down the road on this site. Um, obviously if it was substantial, if it was new construction, whoever is doing that development is going to have to deal with putting in the uh curbs and gutters. And I mean, this the sidewalk, for example, is not all concrete all the way, you know? I mean this would be the 40 whatever the length is for this

a little over 600 feet right now right and so it's going to be engineered to the level that the city would find thank you um acceptable you know yeah we have a city standard for it

yeah so it exists standard exists for it and um I really don't think the engineering cost is a substantial amount so even though it may have been an earlier it wasn't in or an earlier extension in the agreement. It wasn't in a later one. And I think for purposes of understanding the responsibility the city has for what is in essence a sidewalk put in by a private I think those two need to go together. You know, you need to have your engineering design done by the by and then that engineering design drives the actual construction. And if you're going to pay for the construction, then you know put in the additional for the engineering design because you know that it is part of your responsibility as the property owner that's putting that in and and I'm speaking to the academy in that regard. So my feeling is that I I really you know what's the extension you know 10 years 5 years one year it's an arbitrary extension and I almost wonder if we're at a point where it's like agree on the sidewalk and then let nature take its And if the property gets redeveloped then boom you know whoever is doing the redevelopment of it be it the academy or be it a private sector uh entity must complete that run. I mean that just seems to me like otherwise what is the arbitrary nature of extending it till when um till till the development takes place. I mean that's that's a possibility and then that somebody uh completes the work as per the agreement but um I you know my attitude is go forth do the sidewalk that's great city defers you having to complete the sidewalk or the gutter um but I'm kind of like what are we saying

10 years for another deferment I mean I I think maybe I can add some light so the summer when Charlie was still here, um there was an email that I read that and this is before the academy was going to do the sidewalk that they were just going to just let it go because after 40 years even in the law that says that even we couldn't like that we're going to sab obviously but we couldn't even do that because you guys will have an argument well you have to defer this for 40 years then you guys don't need this anyway so what is the term that I'm looking for Katie

I'm not aware of that statement Okay. So, sorry. We will go back to that. But, but anyway, so we were we have deferred this for so long for 40 years. So, we're going to do another 10 years, another 50 years. I think we're at the point that we just need to either they do the improvement, we let go of the other stuff or they don't do the sidewalk and we let go of that. Just I think we're at that point at this point. Uh, someone asked me to see that place when James Lindsay was here, right? And I I wish Charlie was here because Charlie's been here 25 years and I didn't speak to Charlie differently. But James said, "Look at all 1986 19 and James Lindsay, the acting city manager said, you know, chart is saying just just let it go. Be fair." And the more I think about it, right, I that's how it should be. I went there myself. All right. Cherokee and Garfield, right? That road over there, it's a dirt. It's a dirt spot and uh it's about 12 M 12T this way and one block that's a lot and is ground and I start thinking to myself Charlie and I we sit on a sustainability ground water and we say you know what what the cat been doing but we not putting in then there the water that been coming in have been putting groundwater you know what we're doing right now we're thinking of trying to get elevate the groundwater by putting water into the land fact one of the thinking uh our groundwater is decreasing and if it's going to decrease the California said you got to get some water someplace else. the idea is buying farmland so we could water and I said to myself that that land's been there for a long time

it's been helping us groundwater uh and I said why the idea putting uh putting a sidewalk and I say to the loi why do you want to put a sidewalk there for because I'll tell you the reason there's a fence 20 olive trees right it's dirt road you put a road there it's a convert people go around there and I said to myself, you know what, that's a good place for homeless. You got a fence, then you have a clean sidewalk and so I so so when I take a look at that, I think maybe not doing anything for sidewalk and we don't need that uh um storm water for what purpose it's going to be there, right? And there's there's a detriment to have to have have a storm water and I'm giving this information to the person who's going to be in the district one. Last year Charlie and I and the water department had complaints of new homes. You know what was happening? The drainage it was so the uh the drainage was so bad that the water was running up the the steps of the home and they were frantic because they they bought new homes, right? And and the common thing is who you know who they who they blame for that the city. Why didn't they why did the state let this happen? Charlie took care of that, right? He's done something. It's going to have the thing. What I'm saying is if you don't have to have drainage at all, do don't do it. That's all these reasons tells me that we should do nothing at all. When the time comes to develop it, at that time developer could put that material in. So we don't really need it. It's not helping us at all. It's going to deter from the water standpoint. We could have bare ground as than cement and we don't have to right now. It's not I can see why they deferred it. It was

not needed. Did it help the city or the propert so I support what you say if I think we can ask later when we finish uh counter comments as the academy what what is what they would like again now that they heard all their discussion. If I may, yes, thank you for your point. I would love to hear the academyy's point of view when it comes to if they actually want the sidewalk. I would assume they do, but Dr. Nakania brings up a few good points. Um, on another note, uh, I am Dutch. I'm Portuguese on my mother's side. My grandfather milked cows on the old Dutch Pride Dairy, which is now Lincoln Center. I don't know how I didn't know you used to have a you had a dairy there. So um

yeah um but on any case I I was also uh at Century Christian School when it was open in elementary and so I went to a Christian school when I was young private school. Um and I I always try to be fair in in all that I do whether it's for Christian school, public school, everything else. Uh and under these very special circumstances of this uh school, I do believe that um I would consider this I think somebody said it before where the city grew to you. Okay. You guys have been here for over a hundred years and I do believe that allows you quite a bit of leeway when it comes to the city and improvements uh especially on the street. So, um, do I think that I'm amicable to the city paying for the sidewalk? I absolutely am. Um, and I don't think that the gutter situation is a is a major issue with the city foregoing on that. I do think again because there was some past agreement, it would be nice if you did pitch in, yes, as a school. Um, but I also think that the city can can help with that engineering as well, especially if it was in a past agreement. So, I think been said here I completely agree with and would love to hear your feedback if you think that sidewalk is indeed preferred. Thank you for your for your time. Any more council comments? So now we will go back to uh Fred.

So now that you heard the discussion, what will be your preferred outcome? Yeah, that one over can you come to the podium? Sorry. I I think this the the sidewalk should be put in whether we do it jointly or or we do it or or however that happens. U curbon gutter I think can be delayed indefinitely until I I'm actually I'm actually looking right now at at some possibilities for uh that property being utilized on a long-term lease. I don't think the school uh I don't think the school constituents would be open to the sale of the property, but I think uh if we had the right tenants in the right situation that we could do a long-term lease and it's uh it has a lot of traffic there, there's on 99 there's 81,000 cars go by a day. So there's there's a lot of possibilities there which we looked at I've looked at four times now and got shot down three out of four and but uh I think that's a real real possibility now just for the longevity of the school if we can get some income off of the property. So um you know I I'm just here to see if we can get it resolved. My goal is, and I heard you guys talking about roofs and other things that we've had to deal

with, and my goal is the same as the city council, is to get a lot of things off the table that we can do it. And uh and I think this is one that certainly it's been on the table way too long and we need to get the sidewalk in there one way or the other. So, I'm open to whatever the council comes up with. Uh and I appreciate your time. Thank you so much. Okay. So, um Yeah,

I mean, you know, this is a part of town and an area where when I look at the curb cut, it's obviously originally set up. I don't know when we look at Cherokee improvements if that ADA, you know, um curving would meet today's ADA requirements, but nonetheless, it's existing condition. And I think about accessibility. I mean, you know, an elderly person walking along that area, whether they trip over a stump, whether, you know, it's just not accessible. Um, and I think that that's why it's important that the sidewalk at least be completed in that area and the sidewalk component of it be done to the engineering standards that are set up and established by the city. Um, so again, I just really advocate that we allow the sidewalk to be done and you're still in a lease situation. Whoever leases it going to have to make the improvements. Doesn't matter if it's an ownership issue or a lease issue. So, um, I would support allowing and supporting you to complete the design, engineering design and installation of the sidewalk. let the rest of it go until such time as there may be a lease situation and not yet another extension. So that that's kind of my

you're suggesting with city engineering support. Well, I I don't know because I don't know the engineering cost. I mean, Mr. Nathan, you know, do you have an idea of what I would normally go to my engineer and say, you know, city standards, you do this, engineer it for me, take it to the city, um, and get this approved. Yeah. So just big picture, the amount of engineering that's necessary for the sidewalk is is very little, next to none. Um even a contractor could come in for the sidewalk portion. Yeah. With basically just a sketch. Um we we could meet out with them and kind of show them how we would accept it connected. So he could draw it up like that. But they don't need elevations or anything like that for this.

Want the city to have the liability for it when in essence it's going to be an improvement that you're you're putting in and your contractor's going to put in. thousand maybe for engineering. I I don't know if that Yeah, if that we wouldn't require a stamp, get it all done, get the sidewalk in and let's not bother with yet another agreement and another extension that's going to take staff time and we're going to have to be back here again. So, that's that's kind of my I I have no argument with you. Okay.

I know better. And I don't know, city attorney, is it just do we terminate the the agreement with that in place or I don't even know what the documentation necessarily. We we could terminate earlier or the staff's recommendation is to keep the sidewalk improvements in place, require those to be drafted and then do an extension on the others and and you could keep that pending or terminate altogether after completion of sidewalk. I mean, I would go for termination after after they satisfy and complete the sidewalk. Thank you. I I I agree.

Well, I I don't I you know, there there is a point that um the councilman makes. The fact is is there's got to be a commitment to get the sidewalk completed in that doable. Uh I think it is, but I thought it was going to be doable last summer. So, but uh I will make every effort to do that. Um but if you read the addendum, it also says if it's not done, you guys are coming after us. So, uh but I like all you guys. I'm not worried about that actually. That's the portion that the city attorney is referencing that we still have those rights that remain.

Yeah. So, so that is what I would say is that um you can come back with the termination with a specific talk to your contractor, figure out the design, get a schedule, and I would think that by December 2026, which is what the termination is on this that you could get that completed. Um, as long as the city is moving forward and working with you, I don't think that should be an issue. Mr. Nathan, do you think that's not a problem at all? Okay. And then would we just If that if that is what's approved, we just bring it back to amend the agreement to remove the curb and gutter. Would that take a council action?

We could or we could do an acceptance of that portion and a termination. There you go. But that's that's what I'm Do we need to make a formal motion? Okay. But before I need to go to public comments and then we will go back to the motion. Okay. So, city clerk, do we have any public comments? Okay. Would anybody would like to speak on this item? Seeing none, now we go to the motion.

So, I would move that the understanding of council is that the Lodai Academy will complete the sidewalk improvement including designing um the engineering design um and that that project shall be completed by the end of the year 2026. and that we are terminating the requirement to have a curve and gutter uh installed as well. I guess it would be terminating the existing agreement the remainder of the existing agreement. Is that clear enough? The remaining obligation. Yeah.

Quick question. How about portion of the city helping out a little bit? I I don't know. new engineering. The engineering is only a couple thousand dollars, but it's a liability issue and I don't want the city to assume liability for something, the design side, if the execution side isn't done correctly. So, I would rather get that to the point it's an additional thousand dollar or two. So, I I think the whole city No, no, the whole kitten kaboodleoodle goes to the private property owner to design it and then install it and city will make best efforts to work with the engineer to get make sure it's meeting city.

I'll second.

Okay. And it passes. So now we will move to our final item. Yes. And the final item is mine. And I actually have quite a few comment cards. So I am going to try and just really highlight um the PowerPoint, certain parts of the PowerPoint as it was already part of the staff report. Um but G6 is to receive a status report on the nonprofit fund program applications and allocations approved to date. So, mayor and council, um, just a little bit of background on the nonprofit fund program. So, on June 4th, 2025, as part of fiscal year 2526, uh, the city council voted to to allocate um $100,000 to the city council budget. Um, and these funds were evenly distributed between all five U districts represented by all five council members um to support nonprofits that benefit the Lai community. And then a month later, the city council adopted uh resolution 2025-120 which established the policy which outlined um the process and guidelines procedures for the submission of proposal letters. and basically the process by which those allocations are approved, reviewed,

approved and then um any reporting requirements. So, and the these are numbers uh that I've added to the PowerPoint as it was being drafted. There's been proposals that have been received since. So, these are not quite final numbers, but they are um they are pretty close. Uh so, the city clerk's office received and reviewed a total of 15 proposal letters. Um 12 12 of them were found in compliance with the policy and were forwarded forwarded to the city council for consideration. Uh some of them were sent directly either to the city council um but were forwarded to me or I received them and forwarded to the council. Um, one applicant was notified that the proposal was missing information. Um, and didn't receive a response. Uh, one was found not in compliance with the policy and one was withdrawn. These are some of the nonprofits that had submitted uh proposal letters uh funding requests and these are the amounts that they requested. Uh total funding requested was $198,710. The allocations by the city council, these are allocations that came to council. voted on um and we are we've either processed uh the the checks or um we're in the process of so for district one Loi sister city committee and the boys and girls club uh for district two community partnership for families of Sanwaqen and love Loi district three no allocations to date but we've re I've started receiving applications um that

I've been working with council member Bregman District 4 is community partnership for families of San and District 5 TLE Alliance and the wrestling booster club of Tok High and so far there's been an allocation of $53,000 out of the$100,000. So this is just a recap of what is remaining for this fiscal year which ends June 30th, 2026. And then um part of the policy is the required reporting from the nonprofits on the activities uh that were in their proposals. Um because we've just been working on this um as a new program not quite there at the reporting point yet. Um, but in within the next couple months, we'll come back and provide provide those reports to. So, some of some of the items that I've noticed and some that I have had discussions with council on. Um, out of them came two recommendations for 2026 2027 and um for future years if they are successful. One of them is hosting a workshop um and it's to provide an opportunity for all nonprofits to attend in person um learn more about the program and ask any questions, provide any recommendations um and so on and so forth. and then creating a web page because I think there what tends to happen is there's a

submission of a proposal letter. Uh I review it, I send it to council, council members review it. Um maybe not quite ready to make an allocation and it kind of just sits. And so the point of the web page is to provide the nonprofits that do partic in this program to kind of follow along and to see um in real time what is happening with their application, where it is, what's happening with it. Um and then if they have any additional questions, they can reach back out to me. But it's just because I'm one person and I'm managing the program and there's, as you saw, there's so many nonprofits within the community that are um looking towards this program. I don't to make it a secret about what you know where where it is in the process u but at the same time just kind of managing that with the staff availability and um and resources. So it would just provide a snapshot to not only the nonprofit uh entities but also residents, council, staff, whoever has a question. And with that, I am happy to answer any questions or highlight anything that I haven't covered. Um but I will just pull this up and uh have quite bit of com So,

okay. So, do you guys mind if we go to the public comments first? Yeah. Okay. All right. So, the first comment card I have is from Kristen Bistle.

Good evening. Um, my name is Kristen Bert Whistle. I'm president CEO of uh United Way of Sanwa King County. And uh I know we're going to have some amazing stories here very very shortly. So I want to keep my comments brief. I want to thank the city council and mayor for again 10 months ago coming up with this conceptual idea. Most of the nonprofits here in Loi and across Sanwin King County make most of their funds in support of uh certainly uh business operations through donations, grants and city and county contracts. So having this unrestricted funding has been fantastic. Um it shows me the dedication and the alignment between the city council and its nonprofits. You really get it. You really are understanding again what the need is. I can't think within this community. And so again, I also want to recognize the fact that you have set up a system of support from a policy uh perspective, from an application distribution. And city clerk, I have to thank you. Can I

She has done an amazing job of really kind of uh making sure that we're tracking the recommendations that you have put forth uh in terms of looking at 26 and 27 if a continuence of this program continues uh to support the nonprofits around workshops, websites, I think it's an excellent idea here in Loi through United Way. And if I could self-promote, we are going to be hundred years old this year. So, we're very excited about celebrating uh in partnership with Loi, the nonprofit leadership uh alliance. Uh we would like to continue to work very very closely again with many of the nonprofits that that are in the room today. uh we meet every single month and have been doing so for the last again close to two years where to your point earlier uh council member Craig uh you talked about the importance and value of connectivity and coming together and when you come together in support of each other um and try to utilize I think funding as needed it makes for a tremendous difference in a in a given community and with the goals of these again nonprofits that are here again today. So, I just want to thank you very much for the recommendations. Thank you for operationalizing these funds. Um, $100,000 may not sound like a lot when we talk about the budgetary um elements again here within the city, but it makes a difference. And so I'm very excited to continue to partner uh again as CEO of United Way, with the city council, with the nonprofit leadership alliance here in Loi to make sure that again come June, four or five months down the road when we have a full year cycle of funding and it all it is all hopefully spent down that we can come back and give you actual evidence of how those uh dollars were actively used to support the residents of Loi. So thank you very much for everything. We really greatly appreciate your support. Janelle Wilkinson.

Good evening, council members and mayor. It's an honor to be here with you this evening and to represent Lowell Senior Center as one of the 15 nonprofit agencies who were able to submit the proposal back in August. Um my main role at Lowell is to fundra to bring in essential dollars to make the programs exist out in the community for our seniors. And I was so excited to have the opportunity to submit our proposal to you all to review. Um our budget for our Meals on Wheels program is 6,000. Um, it's an essential program for homebound seniors who receive a hot nutritious meal five days a week. It's not only a hot nutritious meal, but it's a wellness check that is essential to that senior. Um, I'm happy to share that we provided over we did 20,860 meals last year. That's a suggested contribution to that senior of $4. Um, when I submitted the proposal, we were receiving $2.74 back for each meal. And I'm sad to say today it's $2.7. So, there's definitely a need to get the nutritious meal out into the community and we couldn't be able to do it without funding and our generous community that we live in. Um, Lel does receive CDBG grant money, but as I mentioned, our uh budget is $216,000 just for the Meals on Wheels program alone. So, I just want to say how essential this funding is to the nonprofits and how much we value living in a community that cares about everyone in the city of Loi. Um, I admire Kristen for bringing us nonprofits together. I was one of the first nonprofits to partner in our alliance meetings monthly. I attend as many as I can. As many of you know who have been to Lowell, we're a very busy nonprofit. I jokingly say to staff and those who visit us, uh it's never the same day twice and it's never a dull moment. So,

uh we're on our toes. I don't think I've sat so long as I did in the chair tonight to get to thank you all. Um I just want to appreciate all that you do and to our community and we couldn't do it without collaborating together. So, thank you. The next comment card I have is from Lindsay Nus.

Hi everyone, Lindsay Nus. I'm part of the nonprofit leadership alliance and I am the deputy director of community partnership for families. Um, first I want to extend a huge thank you to council member Lisa Craig and Mayor Ramonia Pez for their support of our CPF works program at our LEAI family resource center. Their investment combined with federal matching funds effectively doubles the impact of that money. Uh, it allows us to provide workforce training, employment services, and support that helps residents build skills, secure jobs, and achieve long-term stability. Support from our city council is critical to nonprofits. It not only demonstrates trust and partnership, but it also helps us leverage additional resources and it directly strengthens the community by supporting families and residents who rely on those programs. Uh we encourage all council members to ensure that remaining nonprofit funds are distributed to other organizations that are doing important work in our community, especially during these times. Thank you for your leadership and for your ongoing support. And I look forward to hearing some of the stories of how those dollars are well spent in our community.

Janet Vargas.

Good evening, Mayor and City Council members. My name is Janet Vargas. Um I'm with Community Partnership for Families. Um, tonight I want to I want to thank you for the funding that we received for towards our CPF works program. Because of your support, we are able to provide real hands-on assistance that helps individuals not only find employment um build long-term stability for themselves and their families. Um, every day we see individuals walk um walk through our doors facing challenges. U many are motivated and ready to work but but just the need they but they they just need extra support to get there. CPF works um helps uh bridge those gaps um whether it's sorry um covering transportation connecting them to training programs or guiding them step by step. Um we are able to turn those barriers into opportunities. Today, I didn't want for you to just hear from me. Um, but I want for you to hear directly from those individuals whose lives have been impacted by these programs. Um, we brought to you um Joshua Alvarez and Crystal Joy. Um, and they were going they're going to be sharing their stories. And I also just wanted to share that today we had our um job and resource fair event um in partnership with Worknet and we saw 203 um job seekers. So that was a great success for being our first um job and resource um fair. So thank you,

Mr. Alvarez.

Okay, good evening. Um my name is Josh Alvarez. Uh nice to meet you, Major City Council. Um I'm here today to share my experience um with community partnership for families employment and training uh program also known as CPF works. Uh before joining the program I struggled with the transportation uh which made difficult to attend training or actively look for work. Even with those challenges uh I was able to stay motivated and focused uh in improving my situation. Uh through throughout CPF works I was able to complete a paid forklift training in Meka Meka out of school. Uh I attend all 70 days of training uh without excuse uh because CPF work supported me a lot with me uh education and the transportation uh my career family navigator um helped me a lot actually uh she couldn't come to today unfortunately uh coordinate everything and make sure I got there safely and back home. uh after completing my training uh my CPN referred me uh with worknet also uh I could continue moving forward because of my transportation barriers and finding employment has not been easy uh but through worknet I'm not in process of starting an uh on job training though uh opportunity uh here in LA um truly uh I would not have uh this opportunity the support of CFN who guided me every step of the way and help me to connect with these resources. Uh my goal is to become stable and stay consistent as I look toward a better

future. Uh I would also like to thank uh the city council for uh supporting this amazing pro program. It has truly made a difference in my life and thank you for all the people uh you gave that support also and we needed most at that time. I mean thank you all and thanks for your time. Joy. Hello, council mayor. My name is Crystal Joy. Um, I wanted to share my story a little bit with you. Uh, 2020 I'm a in a strong addiction and had CPS, lost my kids. So, I wanted to come here and share my story about having these resources for the communities for circumstances like me being a single mother struggling with addiction. Um, I went through multiple rehab places, transitional housings that were allowed me to prosper and grow. Um, I was going to school at Delta full-time, working two part-time jobs. When I came to Community Partnerships for Family and, um, I got me a strong support team. I didn't know how to utilize words. I didn't know what a resume was. I didn't know how to put them together. I didn't know what a cover letter was. And they sat down with me. I was uh going to school full-time to be a substance abuse counselor. And my internship was coming up. Janet and Lord sat there with me. I applied 187 applications. I put out. I got 186 nos. They kept working with me. They taught me that what was impossible was possible.

I went for the last call I got at 187 and uh they provided for me my interview clothing shoes which gave me my confidence. I was dressed for success in that moment. I went in and I secured the job. I got hired on full-time Monday to Friday 8 to 5 with the weekends off. I'm a full-time substance use counselor and now I'm able to give back to the community as well. Men, women struggling with addiction. They provided clothes for me five days of outfits, shoes. They re uh reimbursed me for all my travel time, which allowed me to get to those places by having gas being reversed in my mileage. And um now that when I'm working with my own clients, I have a place that I can refer them to in the community. So when they're ready to go back into the workfield, they have the same opportunity that I have. So I wanted to thank you guys for your donations there and I wanted to say thank you for being a part of not only my journey and goals but my success and thank you.

That's all the comment cards I have. Madam clerk, if I might say I believe that's sufficient for a report. uh you know the dollar amounts. Lindsay and Janet, you have to come in with that and demonstrate your match. But that's the kind of reporting I'm interested in hearing back on these programs. So, um I'm glad Mayor we made that award. CPF is doing the right thing with the money and it's meeting our strategic goal of ensuring that the income level of our residents is climbing as an economic development goal. So, thank you for for providing that information.

I just want to make a quick comment because I don't like to take credit for things that I don't do, but um this was Lisa uh Lisa's like project which now I see the vision and uh thank you for bringing that to council last year. It was last year. Last year. Yeah.

Any more council comments? Seeing none. Um, this is just information. All right. So, okay. I think we're done. So, seeing no more action on the agenda, we'll join the meeting at 8:40 p.m. Yeah. That's 9:40.