City Council - Regular Meeting

Recording in progress.

Good afternoon. We'll call the meeting to order and the clerk would call the roll.

Good evening. Council Member Janda.

Present.

Council Member Gallardo.

Present.

Council Member Broadway. Here. Mayor Bass absent. Vice Mayor Holden.

Here.

Thank you.

NEXT, WE WILL MOVE TO PUBLIC COMMENT ON CLOSED SESSION. WE HAVE TWO CLOSED SESSION ITEMS. NUMBER ONE, PURSUANT TO GOVERNMENT CODE SECTION 54957.6, CONFERENCE WITH LABOR NEGOTIATORS, AGENCY REPRESENTATIVE CITY MANAGER ALI ZIMMERMAN, ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES DIRECTOR TAMIKA USHER AND JACK HUGHES, EMPLOYEE ORGANIZATION CITY OF ROCKLAND PUBLIC SERVICE EMPLOYEES REPRESENTED BY AFSCME COUNCIL 57. And closed session item two, pursuant to government code section 54956.9D4, conference with legal counsel, anticipated litigation, initiation of litigation, one potential case. I don't see anybody in the audience for a comment. Are we? Okay. All right. So with that, we will move to closed session. Thank you. Good evening. The council's come out of closed session with nothing to report. And we'll reconvene now our general session of our council meeting. And we'll begin with a roll call.

Good evening. Council Member Janda.

Present.

Council Member Gallardo. Here. Council Member Broadway. Here. Mayor Bass absent. Vice Mayor Holden.

Here. Thank you. Thank you. We'll start with the Pledge of Allegiance. with liberty and justice for all.

Okay.

Our next item is agenda review. Does any member of the council have any changes to the agenda?

Okay.

Great.

All right.

Our next item then is citizens addressing the city council. This is an opportunity for any member of the public to address the city council on an item that is not on the agenda. Please keep in mind the council can't take action or Response substantively to anything that might be said at this time madam clerk. Do we have any cards? Vice mayor Holden I do not have any comment cards for general public comment Would anybody like to make a comment who has not pulled a comment card all right we will move on then to item the next item which is reports from City Council and the city manager and We'll start to my left. Council Member Broadway.

No report today, Mr. Vice Mayor.

Council Member Gallardo.

There we go. Thank you. A couple things. On the 15th was the Placer County Mosquito Vector and Control District Board meeting. Most of the conversation was around there is a new map and a new notification system so that when treatment is happening, that they're able to get that information out to the public so they'll be aware of the areas. A couple interesting things on our, as probably most people know, the rice fields are where the majority of our mosquito action happens. The rice fields are significantly down this year from about 9915 acres down to about 6000 acres planted this year. I'm not certain why, but that has definitely made an improved impact on overall mosquito activity but our invasive mosquito activity is it was early this year and it is significantly high numbers so they are monitoring the positive birds that they they find and we'll be working a lot on messaging in particular out by west park and there is a water treatment plant and they actually had an incident there's also a water park near that area and it just so happens that they had flooded the treatment plant who had done some flooding without great communication, so as they were opening the water park, there was a lot of mosquito activity, and so they have worked around that to correct that so that doesn't happen again. On the 17th, I had the opportunity to go out to Beale Air Force Base for the Change of Command ceremony, and again, besides it's just a tremendous opportunity to thank our folks that are out there serving our country, there is just a huge percentage of our Beale employees that live and work in Rockland and in Roseville and Lincoln in particular. So it was always nice to be out there and support that group. On the 18th, SACOG had their board meeting. It was at the Placerville and El Dorado County was our quarterly visit to go out to different areas. Again, the big focus on the conversation on the agenda is the cycle seven of our arena numbers. July 15th, we should, they'll be prepping for what our numbers may possibly be and we will have those numbers by September 15th. It's interesting. You then can accept or challenge the numbers, but it's not accepting or challenging how they came up with those numbers. It's literally the math calculations that you're challenging. And then just a reminder one of the things Is the two new categories that are they're adding to us so an extremely low? Level which would be fifteen to thirty percent of the average of the ami income for our area and then a acutely low which would be zero to fifteen percent of the ami and So one of the questions that I brought up is our last point in time count was ten which is fabulous, 10 unhoused individuals. And certainly we want to address that. But are you going to give me a number for my acutely low that's more than I have that falls in there? And it was interesting because one of the places that we toured up in Placerville, very nice new place, they said they were having some challenges filling it in particular. And it's a 30% to 70% average income. because especially when you get to a three-bedroom level and the rent there, people are making more than that 70% level when they have a family that size is one of the challenges. So that was kind of an interesting thought. One- and two-bedrooms, I think, are pretty easy to fill, but that was a challenge. So, again, we'll be watching it closely. I will be missing out on State of the City on Friday because I will be attending with SACOG. We're going with a contingent of 22 folks from Sutter, Yuba, Loomis, Sacramento County, Auburn, West Sac, Roseville, Placer County, Folsom, Winters, Rancho Cordova, Wheatland, Woodland, Sacramento, and Davis. We'll be touring the Twin Cities in Minnesota for their transit system conversation. So my apologies for missing on Friday, but I will be doing a technical tour in Minneapolis and I think that would last just on yesterday I had an opportunity to participate in the speaker series for Springfield our Springfield community they had asked last year and just finally got a date and I very smartly brought along my expert because they wanted information about growing up in Rockland so I brought my husband Dan the former history teacher to talk a little bit about that and Just give a small update for the citizens there of what's happening. It was very well received, and they're a great team. That's all I have.

Thank you. Council Member Janda.

Sure, thank you. I did attend a Pioneer Board meeting last week. We talked about a couple things. Something I don't believe I've reported on before, it's a bit complex, but the bottom line is it saves our ratepayers a lot of money. There's a financing structure that Pioneer, as a quasi-government agency, can take advantage of. tax-exempt bonds. So they're issued through sort of a network, and this has been done in the power industry for decades, so it's not new. But what it does is it allows Pioneer to issue bonds on a certain amount of our power that we've already contracted to purchase over 20, 30 years. We have long-term power purchase agreements. And through this structure, we could take a portion of that, issue bonds, and realize a percentage of savings as a result of that. So we did a small amount a couple years ago that resulted in about a $2 million a year savings on the cost of that energy project. Just this last couple weeks ago, we issued a $1.2 billion bond that was actually purchased by Alphabet and got a press worldwide. It's the first prepaid bond that was attracted by a major technology company. And part of the structure, we're able to realize a $23 million savings IN THIS FIRST, THIS COMING FISCAL YEAR, WHICH STARTS JULY 1ST, AS I REPORTED EARLIER, DUE TO THE PCIA, AND I'M GETTING A LITTLE BIT IN THE WEED, SORRY, FOLKS, PIONEER'S BUDGET WAS STRUCTURALLY ABOUT $28 MILLION IN THE RED, SO WE'D HAVE TO TAP OUR RESERVES. DUE TO THIS, WE'RE DOWN TO ABOUT 5 MILLION THAT WE'LL HAVE TO TAP IN RESERVES FOR THIS NEXT YEAR, PROJECTED. SO THAT'S A SIGNIFICANT BENEFIT. And then ongoing for the next 20 years, we'll see about a $10 million savings on the cost of that part of the energy that is wrapped up in this bond structure. So overall, it was good news. And then I did attend the Stevens groundbreaking, but I'll let our vice mayor or city manager comment on that. Great.

Thank you, Council Member Janda. A few things I'll try to run through here. Western Placer Waste Management Authority, we had a meeting earlier this month and we approved new agreements with the operator of the materials recovery facility to work out some issues with them. APPROVED A NEW AGREEMENT WITH A NEW OPERATOR THAT WILL RUN A POWER PLANT ON THE SITE AND GENERATE ABOUT $1.5 MILLION PER YEAR IN ROYALTIES FOR THE AUTHORITY BY TAKING GAS OUT OF THE LANDFILL AND SELLING THE GAS. SO CURRENTLY WE'RE GETTING ABOUT 300,000, SO TO UP THAT TO 1.5 MILLION IS GREAT. I also attended the Placer Economic Development Commission meeting earlier this month, and one of our focuses for the year is to do visits to businesses to retain them here in the county, but also to help them expand if they have expansion plans. And I visited, as part of that, the United Natural Foods SITE IN ROCKLAND WHICH IS A 500,000 SQUARE FOOT WAREHOUSE THAT DESPITE IT BEING 500,000 SQUARE FEET GOES UNNOTICED BY A LOT OF RESIDENTS ON SUNSET. THAT INCLUDES A 50,000 SQUARE FOOT FREEZER AND A 50,000 SQUARE FOOT REFRIGERATOR. And they ship all over California and Nevada their foods. But a great longtime company. It's been here over 20 years. And we appreciate them and what they do in terms of giving back to the community. Also just mentioned, as the Council Member Janda mentioned, attended the groundbreaking for the Stephen, which is a 180-unit affordable housing complex being built across THE STREET FROM SIERRA COLLEGE. THAT'S TWO GROUNDBREAKINGS IN TWO MONTHS FOR AFFORDABLE HOUSING, AND WE'VE GOT A TOTAL OF 296 UNITS THAT ARE UNDER CONSTRUCTION TODAY FOR AFFORDABLE HOUSING THAT HOPEFULLY WILL BE READY TO OPEN BY THE END OF NEXT YEAR, BOTH PROJECTS. SO THAT'S EXCITING, AND WE HAVE MORE TO COME ON THAT AS WELL. AND ALSO WAS ABLE TO STOP BY THE JUNETEENTH EVENT AT JOHNSON SPRINGVIEW OVER THE WEEKEND and the Rockland History Museum, which has some special 250th anniversary displays going on. The last thing I'll mention is I did a California League of Cities event in Citrus Heights where we talked about the redevelopment of Sunrise Mall, a 100-acre property, and owned by five different property owners. So kind of a big challenge to move that in one direction at one time. They've got some interesting stuff going on over there. My big surprise was I thought the whole mall was closed down, but JCPenney is operating there and a handful of other stores that somehow find a way to stay open when there's almost nobody there, it seems. Thankfully, we don't have a 100-acre redevelopment project going on here in Rockland. City Manager Zimmerman.

Thank you, Vice Mayor. A couple of updates. Just a reminder that this Thursday, June 25th, 8 a.m., at Sierra College, the Rockland Chamber of Commerce is hosting the State of the City. Keynote speaker will be Mayor Dave Bass, and it should be a great event. Hopefully we'll see a lot of you there. The Celebrate America event is coming up this weekend, and I wanted to just mention specifically because there are fireworks both nights, both Friday, June 26th and Saturday, June 27th, we will have fireworks in town. So for those of you for whom your pets or your loved ones have difficulty with the fireworks, you have been warned, and it's a great event, but there are definitely going to be some loud booms those two nights. I ALSO WANTED TO MENTION THAT WE ARE OPENING UP NOMINATIONS FOR THE WALL OF RECOGNITION ON JUNE 29TH, AND THAT NOMINATION PERIOD WILL BE OPEN THROUGH AUGUST 2ND. THE FORMS ARE ON THE CITY'S WEBSITE AT ROCKLAND.CA.US. I'M MENTIONING THAT NOW BECAUSE TODAY IS OUR LAST REGULARLY SCHEDULED COUNCIL MEETING UNTIL AUGUST 11TH, AND SO UNLESS WE HAVE SOME URGENT CITY BUSINESS, WE WON'T BE MEETING REGULARLY IN THE CHAMBERS UNTIL AUGUST 11TH. The time frame for those nominations is in between, and so I wanted to make sure to share that here and make sure that information gets out. And that completes our report.

Okay. Thank you very much. And the weather for Celebrate America is supposed to be incredible, so that will be excellent. Our next item is our consent calendar. All items under the consent calendar are considered and acted on by one motion. Does any member of the council want to pull any of those items? No?

No.

Any member of the public want to pull any of those items? All right. Seeing none, I'd entertain a motion on the consent calendar.

Mr. Vice Mayor, I'll move approval of consent calendar items C1 through C17. All second.

Okay. Motion made by Council Member Broadway, seconded by Council Member Janda. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion passes unanimously. Our next item is Oaths of Office for Incoming Board, Commission, and Committee Members.

I can please invite our commissioners to be appointed and reappointed to the lectern, please. Thank you.

While the clerk is getting ready, just want to thank all of you for stepping forward and being willing to serve in our various boards and commissions. We appreciate your volunteering and service to the community.

I, please state your name. Do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of California against all enemies, foreign and domestic, that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of the United States and to the Constitution of the State of California, that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion, and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties upon which I am about to enter. Thank you very much and congratulations.

OK, the next item is a proclamation declaring the month of July as Parks and Recreation Month. And for that, I will come around and present this to Parks and Recreation Director Veronica Tracy. We are all about parks here in Rockland. And I'd just like to read from the proclamation, whereas parks and recreation are an integral part of communities throughout this country, including Rockland, whereas parks and recreation promote health and wellness, improving the physical and mental health of people who live near parks. Parks and recreation encourage physical activities by providing space for popular sports, hiking trails, swimming pools, and many other activities designated to promote active lifestyles. And whereas parks and recreation support human development and endless learning opportunities that foster social, intellectual, physical, and emotional growth in people of all ages and abilities. And whereas parks and recreation increase a community's economic prosperity through increased property values, expansion of local tax base, increased tourism, the attraction and retention of businesses and crime reduction, and whereas our parks and natural recreation areas ensure the ecological beauty of our community and provide a place for children and adults to connect with nature and recreate outdoors, whereas the City of Rockland recognizes the benefits derived from parks and recreation resources. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the City Council of the City of Rockland does hereby recognize July as Parks and Recreation Month in the city of Rockland. So we're giving you ample warning to celebrate all July long. So just parks, the amount of effort that the city has put in to make quality parks and thoughtfully locate them throughout our community so that people don't have to go too far. TO GET TO A PARK IS REALLY A TESTAMENT TO THE VISION OF A LOT OF PEOPLE WHO USED TO SIT UP HERE A LONG TIME AGO AND PARKS AND RECREATION COMMISSIONERS WHO SERVED OVER THE YEARS. WE HAVE, FORGIVE ME IF I'M MISSING SOMEBODY, AT LEAST THREE OF OUR PARKS AND REC COMMISSIONERS HERE TONIGHT INCLUDING CHRISTINE ANDERSON WHO, HOW MANY YEARS CHRISTIE? 39 years on our parks and rec commission so Really some extraordinary time and effort has gone into making our park system. What it is today, so

Yes, all the claps for Parks and Rec Month. Thank you, Mayor and Council. Happy Parks and Recreation Month. I'd like to invite our Parks and Recreation Commissioners, Neil Bullock, our Chair, Nancy Hartwell, as well as Christine Anderson, and our staff who are here tonight, our Recreation Coordinator Team, and Jeremy Gillen, our Manager, up while I speak, please, to the lectern. So this month is not just about celebrating the many ways that Parks and Recreation enhances our quality of life. Whether it be through access to open space, health and wellness opportunities, and even increased property values, it's also time to recognize the dedicated professionals who make it all possible. These are the individuals who work behind the scenes while the rest of us play. Our commissioners do lots of hard work planning and thinking thoughtfully about the next steps for our department. And tonight, I'd like to recognize our recreation coordinator team, Monica Nitz, Tristan Gibson, and Onelli Olivas-Perez. These individuals are the driving force behind so much of what our community enjoys. They plan events we all love. They organize the classes our children attend and ensure our facilities are ready for everything from birthday parties to major community gatherings. Thank you to each of you. And everyone who supports Parks and Rockland, happy Parks and Rec Month. Thank you.

We seem quite quiet tonight.

All right. Our next item is public hearing one, special assessments for delinquent refuse collection fees. And come on. Staff presentation on this.

Good evening, honorable mayor and council members. I'm Angela Doyle, senior accountant in the Administrative Services Department. In 2009, the city entered into a franchise agreement with Recology Auburn Placer. Per that agreement, the city works with Recology to help with the collection of trash collection bills that are more than 180 days delinquent. When refuse collection fees are not paid, the city has the right under state law to impose a special assessment on the property through the county property tax bills. Recology Auburn Placer manages the service and the billing, The city is assisting Recology to be able to collect these delinquent accounts through the property tax bills. On May 26, 2026, council accepted a report identifying delinquent accounts and set a public hearing for today, June 23rd, 2026 to consider placing special assessments on the 2026-27 property tax bills. On June 2nd, 2026, certified letters were mailed to the owners of record. Notice was also posted online in front of City Hall and in the Placer Herald newspaper. You've received a blue sheet tonight related to this item with updated delinquency information. 349 of the delinquent accounts have been removed due to recent payments. You have a resolution before you tonight to authorize the imposition of special assessments against these parcels that have delinquent charges. The resolution also includes wording required by the county in order to collect on the 2026-27 property taxes. Staff recommends approval of the resolution. As a note, the general manager of Recology is in attendance tonight for any questions about Recology's billing process, but I'd be happy to discuss any other questions you have about this item and conduct the hearing.

Okay, all right. At this time, I will open the public hearing and I'll ask for questions by council members. Any questions?

No questions.

Okay, no questions. At this time, then, I'll open up for anyone who would like to make a comment from the public. Madam Clerk.

Vice Mayor Halden, we do have a couple comment cards. The first speaker is Ms. Panthea Rodd.

Good evening. Thanks for coming out tonight.

Good evening. Thank you, Mr. Mayor and City Council. My name is Panthea Rod. I live in the state of Illinois, but I have a property in the city of Rockland. The tenant resides there. Early in June, as she mentioned, I received a letter for the first time that City of Rockland trying to help Recology to collect the fees. And I realized there's a balance due on my name. And when I called Customer Service of Recology, I was notified that I've been charged every year for three years for the penalties and interest cumulative about 20% without notifying me. I did not know that my tenants are not paying the garbage fees and I have never been notified on this matter by Recology and the city of Rockland. However, I was charged under property tax. And I definitely... I don't think it's been fair for me to pay all those extra fees and charges without being known about this matter because I always pay my property taxes. I always receive my property tax mails and pay on time. So I have two matters. I would like to ask to waive those interest and penalty fees that I have been charged for, and I would like the process to be corrected that always owner be notified because tenants come and leave, and then I don't have access to anything to collect any unpaid charges.

Okay.

All right. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Any questions?

I mean, I do at some point, maybe.

Well, thank you for coming. I hopefully didn't have to travel just for this. How many years have you owned? It's just one property, one building?

Yeah, one property.

How many years have you owned it?

I owned this property since 2008. 2008.

But you never had any late fees previous to the last three years?

Yes.

Did your address change in the last few years? No. That's the same. What does the tenant lease say in regards to who's responsible for the garbage?

So the lease specifies the tenant are responsible for all the utilities except sewage.

Okay, except sewer. So including water?

Including water, garbage, and electricity.

Okay, thank you. I'm just curious now, what's the tenant's explanation for not paying the bill?

Well, I actually talked with the current tenant, and they did not know they have to go and turn the account to their own name. And they're following up with Recology to turn to their name. This is the response from the current tenant. With the other tenant, I don't have any access to them like what they paid.

Okay. So the current tenant, how long have they not been paying the bill?

So the current tenant have been living in this house since mid-2024. Okay. So it's...

So they haven't been paying the bill for two years?

Yes, that's correct.

And when it comes in the mail, do they just ignore it?

So the problem is the account under some name they don't recognize. And what I recognize is they just throw it away, somebody else's name. Okay.

They don't open them. Exactly. That's what I thought. Okay. All right. but they roll their can out every week.

Exactly.

And they think it's somebody's magic of paying the bill.

That is correct, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, okay, all right. Yes, thank you very much. Thank you.

The next public comment is from Anoush Hazegh Azam.

Good evening. Hi, thanks for coming out. Mayor, I've been residing in Rockland 35 years. I'm Panthea's brother and I help manage the rental property here for her since I live close by. The current tenant is an elderly lady and she probably must have neglected or forgotten to switch the garbage bill, the Recology bill to her name, and because Recology was sending the bills to that address with the previous tenants' names that never canceled, the homeowner, the actual owner that resides in Illinois, never ever delivered any communications from Recology, nor from THE CITY OF ROCKLAND UNTIL JUNE 1st LETTER THAT WAS MAILED OUT. kind of dumbfounded when we contacted the tenant. Of course, she's elderly, so I talked to her daughter. They said they're going to follow up with Recology. They apologize, and they're going to take care of it. They're going to pay for it. But the late fees, the assessed penalties and interest that has been collected and charged for the last three years, and we didn't even know until we looked at the fine print and the property tax bill, the penalties, we printed it and brought it with us. We noticed the extra fees that has been paid without Recology ever doing due diligence of sending a bill to the address on record of the property owner. There was no prior communication. It was just like it felt like an uppercut with all these three years of fees that have been paid without any proper communication from the biller. And then until we found out about this just now. So I just wanted to clarify And to give you guys a big picture, the elderly lady is also surprised.

So somebody is going to pay all the fees. Forget about the interest in late fees. But the rest of it is going to be taken care of.

Well, they have already been taken care of. Recology has been able to collect the fees through the tax bill for the last three years. She's already made a payment, and I think once we figure out the communications, the tenants will eventually cover their costs, but I don't think they will probably refuse paying late fees or penalties. And I think Recology should waive all those fees. that have been charged for the past three years. And again, for whatever that was going to go on this year's property tax bill, it needs to be corrected.

Okay. So, but are you saying for the last couple property tax bills, there were fees on those that have already been paid?

Yes. Okay. We have it printed, and it's the address of the property. You got your account. Your office can pull those up as well, but we have it here with us. Okay. And there are fees and penalties that have been paid by the homeowner for the last three years without knowledge of what they are. She actually contacted last year. the county assessor's office and asked why it was a huge increase in the amount. And they said, well, your property values went up and we increased it. And she didn't pay attention to the little fine print that says penalties or delinquent fees, thinking that property taxes go up, right? But it was quite a bit higher than normal. We just now today found out what those fees were for the last three years that have been paying. Okay.

All right.

Now, I noticed that there was a manager from Recology and approached us, and I think she's going to go next and address this. I guess they're correcting their ways of trying to contact the owner of the property rather than going through the back door and trying to collect taxes and fees. I just thought that needs to be addressed here.

All right. Any other questions from the council? Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you very much. Do you want to make any comments?

I do know we have a representative from Recology here. So if you have any questions about their process, I think it would be appropriate to ask them to, I think it's Katie. Is Katie here? Oh, there she is. Hi. So she's available if you do have questions about the process. All right.

VICE MAYOR AND COUNCIL MEMBERS. OUR PROCESS RIGHT NOW IS TO NOTIFY CUSTOMERS, THE ACCOUNT HOLDERS WHO IS AT THE ADDRESS WITH A DELINQUENT AND THEN THAT IT'S GOING IN, THE PROPERTY IS GOING TO BE LEANED. IT'S NOT SOMETHING WE'VE SENT TO THE PROPERTY OWNERS IN THE PAST. HOWEVER, MOVING FORWARD NOW THAT I'VE SPOKEN TO THIS CUSTOMER, we will be sending property owners information about the garbage account being delinquent. So whenever we send out a delinquent account to someone who's not paying a bill, the property manager is going to get a letter as well saying the garbage service is past due and delinquent and will be subject to lien in the future without giving any information, account information, just so the property owner is aware. My recommendation is property owners put the garbage in and keep it in their name just to get so this doesn't happen again. I KNOW WITH THIS COUNT IN PARTICULAR THAT THE PREVIOUS TENANT DIDN'T CALL IN AND STOP AND THE NEW TENANT DIDN'T CALL IN TO START. SO THERE WAS OVERLAP WHERE THINGS JUST GOT CONFUSING AND KEPT GOING. THE MAIL WAS GETTING SENT TO THE PREVIOUS TENANT AND THE NEW TENANT WAS IT'S NOT FOR ME. SO THAT'S WHAT HAPPENED ON THIS LAST ONE. BUT HOPEFULLY THE COMMUNICATION TO PROPERTY OWNERS IN THE FUTURE WILL CIRCUMVENT SOME OF THIS.

Katie, thank you for being here. I appreciate it. And Sue, are you saying for this property, are you saying your process for all properties that you will be changing that for notification relative to the property owner?

Yes. So that's for all properties? For all property owners. If the property owner is not the tenant of the residence, it will be under the property owner, just so we don't have this.

And that's for? NOTIFICATION OF DELINQUENCY.

IT'LL START WITH DELINQUENCY AS SOON AS THE ACCOUNT GOES DELINQUENT WE'LL SEND OUT ALONG WITH, BECAUSE WE SEND A DELINQUENT TO THE CUSTOMER, WE'LL ADD THE PROPERTY OWNER TO THAT WITH A SPECIFIC LETTER ABOUT WHAT'S GOING ON WITH THE DELINQUENT AND AS IT PROGRESSES WE'LL SEND ANOTHER ONE AS WE SEND OUT TO CUSTOMERS.

THANK YOU. JUST ONE OTHER QUESTION, MR. VICE MAYOR, FOR STAFF. SO THE PROCESS RELATIVE TO SUBMITTING THIS TO THE COUNTY. FOR IT TO BE APPLIED TO THE TAX BILL. IS THERE ANY PROCESS OF NOTIFICATION TO PROPERTY OWNERS AT THAT TIME WHEN THAT'S SUBMITTED THAT IT IS ACTUALLY OR WHAT IS THE PROCESS RELATIVE TO OUR APPROVAL TODAY FOR NOTIFICATION TO PROPERTY OWNERS THAT IT WILL BE APPLIED TO THEIR TAX BILL?

So as soon as I get approval to set the hearing, so back in May, I came to council and asked for permission to set the hearing. So once I get permission to set the hearing, then I get the delinquency list from Recology. I go to the county website and I pull all the property owners for all the accounts and then I mail certified letters to everyone. So I think June 1st or 2nd, I sent out certified letters to everyone that was delinquent at that point.

Okay. And do we do that? That's been our annual process. Yes. Do we have a way to verify? We have a property owner who's saying she hasn't received notification in three years, yet we're sending a certified letter. So do we have a means for identifying that that certified letter was received?

Oh, yeah. I keep all the certified letter receipts. So, yeah, I can go back three years and I'll touch base with that customer and go back and pull my certified receipts.

And the reason I'm asking these questions is I want you to be aware that there is a process that we are following in an attempt, understanding that we have property owners and renters, but we don't want surprises. I don't want it on my tax bill either, but that was the clarification I was looking for. So if we could explore that as well, appreciate Recology's work to ensure that that notification is occurring because you do have that. JOINT RESPONSIBILITY THAT'S THERE, BECAUSE ULTIMATELY THAT PROPERTY OWNER IS GOING TO PAY IF THEIR RENTER, REGARDLESS OF WHAT THEIR AGREEMENT IS, DOESN'T PAY. AND THEN IF WE CAN JUST CHECK ON THOSE CERTIFICATIONS AND THEN IF THERE'S A GAP THERE, MAYBE LOOK AT THAT. BUT I'D LIKE TO KNOW, TOO, DO WE SHOW THAT THOSE WERE RECEIVED? THAT'S IMPORTANT INFORMATION AS WELL.

NEW SPEAKER YES, I'LL FOLLOW UP WITH THAT. I'LL GET THAT PROPERTY OWNER'S INFORMATION AND PULL THE CERTIFIED RECEIPTS OKAY.

PERFECT. THANK YOU.

JUST SIMILARLY, I GUESS A LITTLE BIT OF CONCERN I HAVE IS THE EXPENSE TO DO THIS. BECAUSE WE DO NOTIFY EVERY YEAR. SO CERTAINLY BEFORE IT WENT ON A TAX BILL THERE WOULD HAVE BEEN A LETTER SENT TO THE PROPERTY OWNER FROM THE CITY SAYING WE JUST APPROVED THIS AT OUR COUNCIL MEETING AND IT'S GONE THROUGH. SO THERE WOULD HAVE BEEN A NOTIFICATION. BUT WHEN YOU SAID NOW THAT YOU'LL NOTIFY BOTH Because obviously if I own a property and I have renters, it's my responsibility to make sure the renters have converted those utilities in their name. When are you going to send like every month? The bill comes every other month, I think, for ecology. How frequently are you going to send double billings then or notifications?

I don't have the answer to that, but I do know it's not a ton, a ton, because not everyone who's getting a delinquent letter is a tenant.

Right.

Or if they are getting it, they're paying it. So it has to be delinquent with the property owner. And how many did you say were going to lien process? Was it 350? At this point, I've got 512, I believe. And not all of those are tenants. A lot of those are just homeowners. So I can look into the numbers on what that would be and when we would send it out and kind of get like what that would cost.

But you would be doing it for more than just obviously. So that's why I guess my concern. I don't want everyone to have to pay our costs to go up because you now have duplicate work that you're doing to notify people who will get notified every year by a certified. And there's costs involved in that for us to do that as well.

Yes. That's something I can look at if we want to do delinquent or if we just want to do it when it goes to, you know, maybe more than delinquent. Like it's subject to lien at this point. We could do a letter at that point before we actually go into the lien process. We lien in mandatory service areas. So Brockland is mandatory service. Placer is not. So while there is going to be a cost, I don't think it's going to be a very large cost to get the letters out.

So you're not talking about, hey, somebody's 30 days late, I'm sending it to both of them. You're talking about maybe once a year before it gets to this process.

Maybe once or twice a year before it gets to, you know, maybe it's been delinquent for six months and then we send a property owner a letter. Thank you.

Council Member Genda?

Yes. So you mentioned we're a mandatory service owner. Typically, if you don't pay your bill, you don't get the service. Maybe that's something we might want to look at. Do we have to allow that?

It's typically a health and safety issue about making sure that solid waste and trash is picked up. We could certainly look into it.

We would notice after a couple months of trash isn't being picked up.

It's similar to other services provided. If it's voluntary, people don't Do it.

Right.

Yeah.

Yeah, I can see that. Angela, what period does this cover? Is this calendar year 25? Or is it some tax year period?

So these are the ones that are 180 days delinquent as of June. So they have to not have been paying up through December of 2025. And this is going to go on next year's property tax bill. So I'm going to submit it to, after it gets approved, I submit it to the county in July. And then the county mails out your property tax bills, um, usually beginning of September. So the 26, 27 property tax bill.

Okay. Okay. Um, So these basically go through December.

Okay. Great. So I guess I'll ask the unasked question here, which is if there was a notification problem for the property owner who stepped forward tonight, would that be the kind of thing that you guys would waive the penalties?

Could you ask that again? Sorry.

So if there was a notification problem to the property owner, is that an instance where you would waive the penalty fees that they've paid?

It was something I would discuss, you know, internally with the team and how much it is and what it's looking like. And very, you know, very good chance I would if it was, you know, if we dropped the ball on our end, but we were notifying the person we had on file for service. And that's what we were required to do is to notify the account holder, which is what we were doing.

At this point, and this might be, Is the account current that this woman has? Do you know anything about this account at this point?

I know a little bit. I got into it this morning with what was actually happening with it because I was confused about what was going on because the letters were going out, but nobody was reading them. And I heard the tenant was saying they never got any information about the account not being paid. Then I found out it's going to the previous tenant, so they're not opening that mail. And then also they didn't know they needed to call in to start service, garbage service. So the new tenant didn't call in to start service and it just created a gap in information. Okay.

Okay. All right. Let me just ask the question. If we take the action that's before us tonight, does that obligate the individual who testified to get stuck with all these fees or does that not do that?

I think once it's passed, then if it's on the list, then yeah, it would go. I thought she said she'd paid it and that she was going to work it out with a tenant, but. Oh, okay. Okay.

Yeah, have her come up. Okay.

Okay. If you want to step forward again, ma'am.

If you could just restate that, please.

Yes. So I just noticed after talking with the customer service that I was being charged for the penalties of not paying the garbage collection through my property tax, and I didn't notice that was one of the items like very – briefly explaining what it is.

It's not clear. So in your last couple property tax bills, you've already paid it all?

I paid it all, but looks like for this current year, there's something accumulating about $750. Okay. And...

I mean, we pay our property tax bills in December and April. So you paid those bills? Yes. Okay. Whatever was on them, you paid it. Yes. So now we're talking about the next bill to come and... Has somebody paid the garbage fees at this point, all the garbage fees, or no?

For this remaining balance of $750 for current year 2026, I just notified, and it was a minimum payment of $126 for this matter that I paid it because I didn't want to hold on to it until we resolve it. And so out of this remaining balance, $750, I paid $126, so it's going to be $630 left unpaid.

Vice Mayor, because she paid today, she's actually not a part of this hearing? She's not a part. Correct. So I'm not quite sure that there's anything that the City Council can do.

Property is not on here, and they can work it out I just wanted to confirm.

She's not on this hearing there.

This is definitely No because she is no longer a part of the hearing okay. Thank you. I feel like we turned into the people's court here All right anyone further like to make any comments I ALL RIGHT. AT THIS TIME I WILL CLOSE THE PUBLIC HEARING AND ASK FOR ANY FURTHER DISCUSSION FROM THE COUNCIL.

JUST A COMMENT, MR. VICE MAYOR. I WANT TO THANK RECOLOGY FOR BEING HERE IN THEIR ONGOING EFFORT TO WORK WITH RESIDENTS WHEN THESE ISSUES COME UP. I KNOW IN MY TIME ON COUNCIL WE'VE HAD THESE TYPE OF SITUATIONS ARISE. I WANT TO THANK YOU. I UNDERSTAND IT CAN BE A FRUSTRATING SITUATION. We'll spend some time to look at what may have occurred, but we do work hard to try to ensure even our property owners. We appreciate the fact that, and you live here, right? So glad you're here. And Sue, we appreciate what you do and appreciate you sharing this with us because we can find gaps that may be there to help us address it. And again, Katie, thank you for your help with that.

Thank you. Any other comments? Okay. At this time, I'll ASK FOR A MOTION.

MR. MAYOR, I'LL MOVE TO ADOPT A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF ROCKLAND IMPOSING A SPECIAL ASSESSMENT AGAINST CERTAIN PURSELS FOR DELINQUENT REFUSE COLLECTION FEES AND REQUESTING THE PLACER COUNTY OR REQUESTING PLACER COUNTY, SORRY, TO ATTACH THE CHARGES ON THE 2026-2027 TAX ROLL.

I'LL SECOND.

OKAY. A MOTION MADE BY COUNCIL.

And include the items in the blue memo that was received prior to our meeting today.

All right. Thank you. Motion made by Council Member Broadway, seconded by Council Member Gallardo. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? All right. Hearing none, the motion passes. Our next item is Public Hearing 2. It's special assessments for delinquent We debatement charges, and I will open the public hearing and ask for a staff presentation.

Good evening again, honorable mayor and council members. Once again, I'm Angela Doyle, senior accountant in the administrative services department. Each year, the city notifies owners of vacant lots that they must maintain their property in order to minimize fire risk. If the parcels are not properly abated by the landowners, the city has the right under state law to abate the parcels and seek reimbursement of these costs from the owner. On April 8th, 2025, council approved resolution 2025-62, which identified parcels requiring abatement. The public hearing was held April 22nd, 2025, which ordered the nuisance to be abated by June 1st, 2025 on those identified parcels. After June 1st of 2025, the city arranged for a contractor to perform the abatement on the properties that had not yet been abated and to bill the city for the costs. The city then billed the property owners for the costs and sent late notices. On May 26, 2026, council received a report identifying the landowners who have not reimbursed the city for the costs of abatement and set the public hearing for tonight to include the delinquent charges on the 2026-27 property tax bills. So here we are about a year later since the work has been done. You've also received another blue sheet memo for tonight. We had one account that paid in the last few days that got removed. You also have a resolution tonight in front of you to authorize the imposition of special assessments against the parcels that have delinquent charges. The resolution also includes wording required by the county to collect on the 2026-27 property taxes. Staff recommends approval of the resolution. At this time, I'd be happy to answer any questions you have, and then we can conduct the hearing.

Okay. Any questions from council at this point? Okay. All right. I'll invite anyone. Madam Clerk, do we have any cards for this one?

No comment cards on public hearing two.

Okay. Thank you. If any member of the public would like to make a comment on this item, now would be the time to step forward. SEEING NONE, I WILL CLOSE THE PUBLIC HEARING AND ASK FOR ANY FURTHER DISCUSSION OF THE COUNCIL. SEEING NONE, IF SOMEONE WOULD LIKE TO MAKE A MOTION.

MR. VICE MAYOR, I WILL MOVE TO ADOPT A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF ROCKLAND, IMPOSING SPECIAL ASSESSMENTS AGAINST CERTAIN PARCELS FOR DELINQUENT WEED ABATEMENT CHARGES AND REQUESTING PLACER COUNTY TO ATTACH THE CHARGES ON THE 2026-2027 TAX ROLL AND INCLUDE THE ITEMS IDENTIFIED IN TODAY'S BLUE MEMO. NEW SPEAKER I'LL SECOND.

NEW SPEAKER MOTION MADE BY COUNCILMEMBER BROADWAY SECONDED BY COUNCILMEMBER GAJALO. ALL THOSE IN FAVOR SAY AYE. NEW SPEAKER AYE. NEW SPEAKER OPPOSED? MOTION PASSES UNANIMOUSLY. OUR NEXT ITEM IS PUBLIC HEARING 3, SOLID WASTE RATE INCREASE. I'LL OPEN THE PUBLIC HEARING. I ask for Mr. Nertker to give us a report on this one.

Good evening, Vice Mayor and Council Members. Tonight's public hearing is to allow an opportunity for property owners and customers serviced by Recology Auburn Placer to appear and protest the proposed increase of fees. The maximum yearly increase per our franchise agreement is 4%. PER SPECIFIC FORMULA IN THAT FRANCHISE AGREEMENT, THE PROPOSED RATE INCREASE IS 3%. HOWEVER, IT SHOULD BE NOTED THAT THE AVERAGE INCREASE TO OUR RESIDENTIAL CUSTOMERS IS ABOUT 1.54% OR 50 CENTS. ONE PROTEST LETTER HAS BEEN RECEIVED SINCE THE TIME OF PUBLICATION AND IS INCLUDED IN THE AGENDA PACKET. STAFF FROM RECOLLEGY AND MYSELF ARE AVAILABLE FOR QUESTIONS IF NEEDED, AND STAFF RECOMMENDS Once comments from the public are received, that City Council take appropriate steps regarding the resolution before you. Thank you.

Okay.

All right.

Thank you. Any questions from the council? No questions. I have one question I wanted to ask. Katie, could you come forward? I don't know if I should have waited for that. Should I have waited that? Okay. All right. So I know, how long have you been general manager now?

November.

November. Okay. How's it going?

Good.

Okay.

Just curious, you know, what challenges you might be facing right now in serving Rockland?

Some internal challenges. I've found just some technology that I need to put into the trucks to help with efficiencies. is a big one for me. We don't have a lot of vision in the field when it comes to routing, and so that's a huge one on my plate that I'm taking care of right now is to get a lot of vision in the field to make sure service is extremely reliable. We know where the trucks are at all the times. We know what's getting picked up, who's been serviced. If they haven't been there, we'll know. So that's something I've come up against efficiency-wise. But other than that, I don't have... TOO MUCH CONCERN.

THANK YOU. AT THIS TIME I'LL ASK ANY MEMBER OF THE PUBLIC WHO WOULD LIKE TO MAKE A COMMENT ON THIS ITEM.

WE DO HAVE ONE COMMENT CARD FROM MR. AKAI.

GOOD EVENING.

Good evening. Thanks for coming out tonight. Thank you.

Thank you. I moved to Rockland about five and a half years ago. I'm a widower. I live alone. And about two, two and a half years ago, I called Recology to see if there is a... like you have the full can. Then I thought if there's a half can option, even though I cook a lot, I entertain a couple of times a week, that even doesn't fill in two weeks, doesn't fill the full. So they said the city of Rockland, doesn't allow or only allows one size can, just one size fits all. So is that the case? If so, why is that?

I'll ask our director of public works to speak to this.

Yeah, good evening. So right now we have a franchise agreement with them that has the one toter. We're in the process of negotiating with them to allow a smaller size toter at a reduced rate. But that's something that we've been in negotiations for, and we're trying to package that together along with other services that we provide as far as street sweeping, dead animal pickup. And so it's part of that discussion. So it's right now a resident, if they need a smaller toter because of an accommodation, let's say someone has a bad back or they have an issue, we can get a smaller toter, but it's for the same rate. but we're trying to work on a negotiated lower rate because we still have the truck costs, the route schedule, but the material, like you said, is different. So it's something that we're working on right now.

Yeah, I mean, it doesn't, for round number purposes, if I pay $100 for the full size, it doesn't have to be $50 for the half size because there's a cost of operating and all that, so it could be $60 or $70. I can appreciate that. But I think that even brings additional revenue, I think, to Recology because there are a lot of houses. One of my neighbors uses two cans, two full-size cans. So there are households that can use a size and a half. Yeah. Or one that I know that takes three. So you're totally right. Yeah. So, I mean, that could be a benefit. But... So I just wanted to say my piece and thank you for listening.

And I don't want to comment on your age, but I hope you are aware that people 62 and older get a discount rate on their garbage pickup. So if you're not aware of that, talk to somebody on the staff.

I'm way above 62. Okay.

Well, then you're entitled to a discount. So how do I do that? Why don't you? Yeah. We'll get you taken care of that. Okay, now or later?

Okay.

Great. Thank you. Okay. All right. Any other members of the public have a comment? Okay. I will close the public hearing and bring it back to the council.

MR. MAYOR, MR. VICE MAYOR, I LOVE YOU IN THAT CHAIR.

I'M GOING TO MAKE A COMMENT. I DID WANT TO JUST POINT OUT FOR PEOPLE, SO THERE'S TWO COMPONENTS TO OUR RATES. ONE IS THE COST OF DISPOSING OF THE GARBAGE OVER AT THE LANDFILL. The other is ecologies, labor, transportation, everything else that they do. So I'm on the board that oversees the dump, and I report on it almost every meeting. But the good news this year was we didn't increase the cost of disposing of waste at the dump. So the increase that we've got overall as a result is a little smaller than it has been, definitely smaller than it has been in past years, so. It's one of the big things I'm committed to to try to make sure that we're not increasing those rates over there.

I have a comment as well then, Mr. Vice Mayor. Okay.

I'm sorry. I thought you were making a motion. No, no, you're good.

And I just wanted to say that we are fortunate. We have contractual agreements with Recology to provide the service because it is a mandatory service. But they are afforded with the opportunity to annually increase their rates up to 4%. They have historically not done so. It's been significantly below that, and even this year at the 3%. So while we're seeing a lot of increases in costs for other things that have been significantly large, Recology has done their best to keep the costs low as possible. And so a 3% is certainly something, you know, we appreciate the fact that they OPERATE EFFICIENTLY TO KEEP OUR RATES LOW. AND THEN WHEN YOU DO A COMPARISON ACROSS THE REGION, WE ALSO ARE THE BENEFICIARIES OF LOWER COSTS FOR OUR SERVICE. SO AGAIN, APPRECIATIVE OF THAT. AND SO THANK YOU, RECOLOGY, FOR CONTINUING TO DO YOUR BEST TO KEEP OUR RATES AS LOW AS POSSIBLE.

NEW SPEAKER All right. ANY OTHER COMMENTS? OKAY. GREAT. ALL RIGHT. I'LL BRING IT BACK FOR THE MOTION.

MR. VICE MAYOR, I'LL MOVE TO ADOPT A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF ROCKLAND AMENDING SOLID WASTE COLLECTION SERVICE RATES WITHIN THE INCORPORATED LIMITS OF THE CITY OF ROCKLAND AND RESCINDING RESOLUTION NUMBER 2025-152. NEW SPEAKER I'LL SECOND.

NEW SPEAKER MOTION BY COUNCILMEMBER BROADWAY SECONDED BY COUNCILMEMBER JANDA. ALL THOSE IN FAVOR SAY AYE. NEW SPEAKER AYE. NEW SPEAKER OPPOSED? THE MOTION PASSES UNANIMOUSLY. Okay, we'll move now on to discussion items. Item D1, report on city personnel vacancies from Administrative Services Manager Megan Bushy. Megan, good to see you.

Good evening. VICE MAYOR AND COUNCIL MEMBERS. I'M MEGAN BUSHEY, ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICE MANAGER IN ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES. SO I'M PRESENTING ON AB2561. THE PURPOSE OF AB2561 IS TO ADDRESS LOCAL GOVERNMENT JOB VACANCIES IMPACTING PUBLIC SERVICE DELIVERY. THIS WAS CODIFIED AS GOVERNMENT CODE 3502.3 AND THIS WAS EFFECTIVE JANUARY 1, 2025. SO LAST YEAR, THIS WAS THE FIRST YEAR THAT WE HAD TO DO THIS PRESENTATION. So second time doing it, and it will continue forward. So the things that are required for this presentation are one, that it needs to be at an annual public presentation at a council meeting. The second piece is that employee organizations are given the opportunity to present and notified of the vacancy rate. And we have done that. We did notify the unions of the turnover rates for the year 2025 and offered that they can present at this meeting as well. And then there is additional reporting triggered if we have high vacancy rates in the reporting year. So for a 20% or higher vacancy rate, we would let that organization know as well. And if they want, we can present additional information. I will note that employees on any approved leave of absence remain employed by the city and are not included in turnover statistics. So the turnover Data includes only employees who have separated from city employment. So for, as of December 31st, 2025, we had 284.5 FTEs. The different departments included administrative services, city attorney's office, city clerks, city managers, community development, fire, parks and rec, police, and public works. The vacancy information, this is for calendar year 2025. So the first column represents the different labor organizations. That second column is the vacancy rate, the percentage for the calendar year of 2025. And then the far column is the current vacancies to date. So for calendar year 25, the firefighters had an 8.8% vacancy rate. Police Officers Association was 11.5. Public Safety Managers was zero. Public Services Employees, which is our Ask Me group, was 26.3. And then our Management Confidential and Unrepresented was 9.4%. So as I mentioned, if an bargaining unit is above the 20% threshold, we offer if they would like us to report some additional information. The AFSCME group did request that we report that. So this additional slide is covering those additional factors. So the total number of vacancies for calendar year 2025 were 29. The total number of applicants were 1,000. 95 and the average number of days to fill positions was 74 days So the vacancy rate Includes, you know promotions retirements resignations. So there's very raised various reasons for the changes The recruitment process so this just overview of how the recruits recruitment process works so a department would submit a requisition to HR and Once HR receives that requisition, then we would discuss the news with the department to develop the recruitment plan and open the recruitment. Once that recruitment is opened, we would handle, or sorry, I should say, HR would handle advertising, screening applicants, and facilitating the exam processes. Once an eligibility list is established, we would move through the exams and the hiring interview, and once a candidate is selected, then they are issued a conditional offer. After that conditional offer is received, they would go through whatever background and pre-employment processes are entailed for that position. So that may be the live scan, a medical screening, or any other background processes. Once they have cleared those processes, they are issued their official offer and a start date. So our 2025 recruitment statistics, we had 62 recruitments, 2,881 applicants. Of those 2,881 applicants, 988 met the minimum qualifications. And then the number of vacancies filled was 90. So the note here is that the difference between those number of recruitments and the number of vacancies could reflect instances where we launched one recruitment, but we had multiple positions open. All right, so like many public agencies we continue to encounter different recruitment challenges We try to find different ways to resolve these and improve our process these difficulties Sometimes we have to repost a vacancy if we don't get any qualified applicants We may have to invest more resources and advertising and things and so we look for different creative strategies to attract more qualified candidates and Some applicants are unfamiliar with the public sector employment process. And so the city has implemented strategies to help candidates understand the process. And we've identified opportunities to further streamline the hiring process. Some of the streamlined hiring process initiatives we've taken is including additional language in candidate correspondence. So when we reach out to them in each step of the process, more clarifying language to help them understand the next step in the process and what to expect maybe timelines, those kind of things that they may not be familiar with. And then also a thought that we have to continue to improve is to implement a frequently asked questions resource just to make it clear for candidates that are applying. So a resource guide that they could utilize to answer any questions they may have or frequent questions we see or receive. An improved recruitment planning document to streamline the process internally. So when we create our initial plan with a department of timelines and what kind of exams they would like and those sort of details, this was expanded to include maybe more specific information on the front end, like who they would like to have on a panel, maybe dates that would work, timeline, just so we can get that outlined on the front end, just to speed up the process. Another consideration is actually considering creating maybe a timeline for candidates, so those that are unfamiliar with what to expect and the different timelines, like when they can expect an interview, when they need to schedule their medical, those sort of things. Those things are communicated along the way, but having some kind of resource that could help them understand that process better. The fire background and medical has been condensed to run concurrently just to create a shorter time to hire. So instead of doing one and then the other, kind of combining that. The internal life scan process we have, we have tried to improve that as well. So we work with our police department to have candidates go to our PD to get live scanned, and we've blocked off time now to where we always have a designated appointment for our internal candidates. That way there's less delays with them getting live scanned. And then we've implemented onboard through NeoGov. It's a platform that we currently use for the recruitments. The recruitments are on NeoGov, and that's how we manage them. The onboard piece is actually getting that hired and selected candidate onboarded into the city with their new hire paperwork and different requirements before they start employment and as they're onboarding as a new employee. And then continued solutions we've identified going forward is updating our job specs to confirm that they still meet the requirements and things that we need and that they are in line with what the city needs to provide the service that we need. And if there's any adjustments we could make to improve that, whether it's adjusting the minimum qualifications or things if we're seeing trends and not getting enough applicants for certain positions and things. And then we'd like to continue supporting workplace flexibility and looking at continued opportunities to retain employees by focusing on wellness and other employee benefits. That was all my slides. The last thing I was going to note is that as part of this, we reached out to the bargaining units to ask if anyone wants to speak. So I'd like to turn it over to the bargaining units to present if they are here and want to, but I can take questions before we do that or after.

And Vice Mayor, I also just wanted to clarify for the record, there looks like there's a weird gap in the fire group between an 8.8% vacancy rate for calendar year 25, but then eight current vacancies. That's reflective of the positions that we are also in the net new positions we're hiring under the Safer Grant. So those positions now exist on our books, but we have not filled them all. As Megan mentioned, sometimes it's very cumbersome with the onboarding process for those. So we have vacancies in that that are created on the net new. So there are some vacancies currently, but the aid is reflective of the Safer as well.

And just a question on that. All these vacancy rates are for what time period?

calendar year 25 so January 1st through December The slide that Megan put up that had the current vacancy rate Which is also reflected in the staff report, but then said I said the vacancy rate for calendar year 25 but then said current vacancies that Those are not the same.

Okay. All right. Okay. Any – I want to just quickly, if the council has any questions of staff.

Just one time to clear that up. So when you mentioned fire, so what we're looking at, 8.8 is what last year's 2025 ACUS rate was. The eights that we have opening includes the nine new positions we're adding.

Correct.

Thank you.

All right. Great. Okay. If anybody would like to – come forward then.

Yeah. So at this time, if anybody from the bargaining units.

Good evening. Good to see you.

Good evening. Honorable Vice Mayor, members of City Council, City Manager, and fellow Rockland residents, thank you for the opportunity for me to speak today on behalf of the dedicated firefighters of Rockland Fire Department, represented by Local 522. I'm a proud firefighter and union leader who has served the community for over 14 years now. Our firefighters stand ready every day, 24-7, to protect the 76,000 plus residents of Rockland. But we are reaching a critical breaking point that demands immediate action on additional staffing to maintain services that our citizens deserve. Rockland is not the same city it was 20 years ago. Our population has surged 52% since 2004, from approximately 50,000 to over 76,000 residents today. with another 3,500 new residents planned for the East Rockland alone in the coming years. Call volume has skyrocketed 40% in the last decade, reaching over 6,400 calls in 2025. Yet, our operational staffing remains stuck at just 36 career firefighters across three stations, the same core capacity we had when the city was much smaller and over 20 years ago. This mismatch is no longer sustainable if our shared goal is to maintain services. For the first time in Rockland's history, we're seeing firefighters leave for other agencies. Recruitment has become increasingly difficult despite our best efforts. We operate with virtually no redundancies. When someone is out, either due to an injury or illness, training or vacation, it triggers mandatory overtime and callbacks that place enormous strain on our members and their families. Our firefighters are experiencing rising line of duty injuries and the physical and mental toll of chronic understaffing is real. Over the past five years, we've experienced an unusual amount of vacancies. In 2025, we filled over 800 regular overtime requests. On top of those requests, the firefighters were forced to fill nearly 200 more mandatory overtime positions. This simply should not happen. Steps should be made to prevent this from ever happening again. This year, we're extremely happy that the city applied for and was awarded a safer grant to hire nine additional firefighters needed to staff a desperately needed fourth company in our city. However, we are greatly concerned that the city will not be able to fill the nine open vacancies and keep up with retirements and firefighter resignations. This year's recruitment continues to fall short of filling the nine new positions. We applaud the city actually for keeping our hiring standards and maintaining our firefighters paramedic requirements. Our department is struggling to compete with neighboring fire departments. We're not seeing the number of qualified applicants like we've had in the past. We sorely need leadership to provide an innovative and aggressive plan to recruit qualified candidates. In Rockland, retention has never been an issue until recently. Recently, a few fighters have left to work for neighboring departments. We hope that this is an outlier and not a trend. Only time will tell. If we receive additional staffing, this will deliver measurable benefits. It will reduce our response times. There will be better NFPA compliance. less mandatory overtime, improved firefighter retention and recruitment, and stronger mutual aid support to neighboring agencies. Most importantly, it will protect lives and property as the city continues to grow towards its projected build-out. We strongly encourage the city to fill the nine safer grant positions before the end of this year. This will enable us to put an engine company in service, which is sorely needed. Very recently, we've had fires that an additional engine company would have greatly helped mitigate those incidents. I thank you for your time and continued partnership. We are happy to answer any questions and stand ready to work with you on solutions. You know, together we can ensure Rockton's fire services match the excellence and growth of our city.

Thank you. Any questions from the council?

I have a question for staff, but we'll ask that after all the presentations.

Any questions? All right. Thank you. Thank you. All right. ANY OTHER BARGAINING UNITS THAT ARE PLANNING TO COME SPEAK? NO.

NEW SPEAKER FIRE WAS THE ONLY ONE THAT CONFIRMED THEY WERE SPEAKING.

NEW SPEAKER ANY MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC WHO WOULD LIKE TO COMMENT ON THIS ITEM? SEEING NONE I'LL BRING IT BACK TO THE COUNCIL FOR ANY FURTHER DISCUSSION. Council Member Broadway.

Mr. Vice Mayor, just a question for staff. So Captain Wade brought up some concerns relative to staffing, which I certainly understand, and I know these have been ongoing conversations, because when you look at our numbers, we were eight and a half last year, and we're currently at eight. Now, the positive to being at eight is the fact that we have nine positions that we're adding to help us staff when we are standing up the fourth station, which means we've filled one of those, but we still have eight to fill. And so can you provide us with some insight on where we're at with that process, how we're moving forward to secure the filling of those positions? And I know that, again, Captain Wade mentioned some of the challenges, and I know it's ongoing conversations I've had with both chiefs over the years. It's just becoming increasingly challenging to hire, and it doesn't help, but it serves our community better that we have a – preference towards firemen paramedics. So can you kind of give us some insight there?

Thank you, Council Member Broadway. I can speak to a little bit of it. Correct. Our calendar year 2025 vacancy rate at 8.8%. That's about three, a turnover of three. We did for the first time in at least my five-year history lose a lateral to a neighboring city and I think maybe one to Cal Fire. We typically, that isn't that common. It doesn't happen to us very often and we hope that potentially with the implementation not only of the enhanced medical benefits that the city negotiated with the bargaining unit last year. It'll help to take our total compensation up to something that creates a more attractive recruitment package, as well as we'll keep and retain people because of our retiree medical program, which isn't necessarily, it's a benefit that not all agencies have. I need to make sure I clarify. So we added nine new positions. We also did have a few retirements. And so we have hired a few under the SAFR. So I think we've hired at least two, if not four, but we also had some other naturally created vacancies. So the eight is a combination of the remaining safer hires and also our ongoing 36. So we now have a total of 45 firefighter positions, firefighter paramedics, fire engineers, and captains. And we're recruiting continuously, which is something that we haven't done in the past. So a couple of things that we've done is we now have an open and continuous recruitment. We did a robust hiring over the holidays, which is typically not the greatest time, but it did bear out a number of candidates who are going through the background process. And then with the concurrent consolidation of the medical and the other background pieces, that helps to reduce the time. But it typically takes time. three to five months to bring on a firefighter or a police officer because of the extensive background investigations and the length of the testing. Last year, the city council also authorized an overfill authority for the city manager. When we know we have recruitments or vacancies that are upcoming, we now are able to start recruitments earlier and potentially bring on candidates earlier rather than waiting until that position is separated to start the process. That will hopefully as well help to alleviate some of the challenges that are created when you have vacancies. But one of the things that we really are working to enhance, and I can't go into details of it because all of it's based on personnel and medical issues, but we had a number of employees on industrial medical leave, and that creates a vacancy that the person is still being paid, they're still employed by the city, and we don't have the capacity in our financing to overhire for those people who are employed by the city and still valued members of our team but are not able to work. And so that... with any number of natural vacancies when people are trying to take vacation, to have sick leave, it does create and exacerbate the overtime issue. But we're working towards, as we said, continuing to retain those new employees streamline our recruitment process and then with the continuous recruitment and the overfill Authority Hopefully that will help and then the last thing that you mentioned was that we are we prefer to hire paramedics And we do have the ability to hire EMTs But right now we are proud to say that we have the paramedic on every shift if not a minimum one if not more but that does then minimize the pool and often puts us in a position where we may not hire someone who is a qualified and experienced paramedic, but we have to hire them in a fire recruit position and put them through an academy. That then creates, it fills a space within the department in terms of authorized positions, but that person is going through a longer extensive training. And so the vacancy felt by the floor staff can be longer than anticipated. So those are some of the things we've been working on and a little bit of a clarification about those existing vacancies.

Thank you. And the safer grant, what was the start date for us receiving the funding?

I believe it was March. And it's on a reimbursement basis.

From my perspective, sooner is always better, but I also know we have some amazing members of our team in the back there from our Rockland Firefighting team, and they want us to bring in the best, so we need to also bring in the best, because when they go into an incident, regardless of what type it happens to be, they want to know the person behind them is the best. And so do we.

Absolutely. And that's the goal.

Ensuring we continue to move that forward. And also, we do have an end date on that grant. So just ensuring that we're doing everything possible to bring on those team members as quickly as we can.

Yes, it's the highest priority.

Any other comments? Thank you. I appreciate it very much. I think everybody knows how important our police and fire and our public safety teams are to us. I love and I brag on it constantly that if you're in Rockland that you do get a paramedic that can do advanced life saving. I also recognize that it's harder to get a paramedic, but I think it's really an important piece for us to continue. I think If you're that person that's having a cardiac incident, you're really happy that you have a full-fledged paramedic that's able to be there. And I really do appreciate we have the grant. It was there to open the other. Things have changed so much. It used to be you had 100 applicants for an opening, and I know every jurisdiction's had that challenge, but I really do appreciate that we are hiring those firefighters, those nine firefighters, Now so that we aren't waiting until we have the building there But and I know you've heard it but I think a lot of it is the communication to make sure that they that Everyone on both sides that we are all actively doing everything we can to get the word out there Certainly our benefit change needed to happen and I'm really pleased to see that's out there so that we're very competitive but I just want to make sure that our team is working with our firefighter teams and our police teams and to make sure if there's any suggestions, we're doing everything we can to recruit the best.

Thank you. And thank you to Captain Wade and for other firefighters showing up tonight. Really appreciate it. I know I've been having discussions with the city manager and with the department, as well as probably all of you, And we all have the same goal. We all want to protect our public safety Employees all of our employees actually with with with You know as little as stress as possible on on their jobs, you know whether it's working overtime or or whatnot and We we all have the same goal to protect our employees to protect our citizens and I know with the team that we have in place my colleagues up here city manager Our firefighters, we're all very, work well together, open lines of communication, and it's an ongoing process, and we've got to continue to work on it and see what we can do to resolve this as quick as possible. I know nothing happens overnight, but the focus here tonight, as well as ongoing discussions, we'll certainly continue to work through that.

Thank you. I would just echo what my colleagues have said and For us sitting up here, the importance of us properly staffing our police and fire, what drives a question that will be put to voters this fall that we're all supportive of to ensure that we have the resources that we need. TO MAINTAIN THE KIND OF SERVICES THAT OUR RESIDENTS EXPECT. SO EVERYBODY WILL HEAR MORE ABOUT THAT IN THE MONTHS COMING FORWARD.

JUST FOLLOWING UP, READING THE PAPER, I'M READING ABOUT SOME OF OUR LOCAL JURISDICTIONS THAT ARE BROWNING OUT STATIONS AND HAVING SOME FINANCIAL CHALLENGES WITH LAYOFFS. ARE WE FEELING THAT WE'RE GETTING ANY RECRUITS FROM THAT?

Tamika Usher, Director of Administrative Services. One of these days I'm going to get new microphones for us all, I swear. Good evening. Tamika Usher, Director of Administrative Services. We have seen some applicants from other geographic areas, other fire systems. At this point, we don't have the data to say specifically. A couple of the cities that we know have been browning out. that they've come directly from those cities, but we have included some specific outreach and have talked about in a couple of those cities that we are aware that are certainly commutable, placing advertisements in those geographic locations to try to access that talent as they have a need to look elsewhere. So it's on the list of all possibilities are open and available in how might we solve the challenge of a decrease in the number of applicants in fire service that are applying and the need of the vacancies that we have to fill, not only for the safer positions, but as we expect some future retirements here this year.

And I'm sure you are, but are you working with our local, with 522 to say, because they represent obviously other groups, They know they've got cities that are cutting back. We're adding. How do we make sure that they get that word out as well?

I can't say tonight that the staff has specifically reached out to 522. We've worked very closely with the chief and deputy fire chiefs, but that's something that we're absolutely open to do to see if we can cast a wider net. Thank you. You're welcome.

Vice Mayor, I wanted to clarify that this is a receiving file. No action is necessary.

Yeah, I figured. Okay. All right. We'll move on now to Item D2, City Manager's Employment Agreement. I'm going to just read a summary of this agreement pursuant to Government Code Section 54953D3, the key terms of the First Amendment to the Employment Agreement are effective the first full pay period of January 2026, the city manager's annual salary shall be increased by 5% to $287,705. Effective the first full pay period in January 2026, the city manager's cell car allowance shall be increased by $250 per month to $750 per month. If the city manager is terminated without cause, severance will be extended by three months for a total of nine months. ALL OTHER TERMS AND CONDITIONS IN THE EMPLOYMENT AGREEMENT INCLUDING COST OF LIVING ADJUSTMENTS AS PROVIDED TO MANAGEMENT EMPLOYEES REMAIN IN EFFECT. ANY QUESTIONS FOR MEMBERS OF THE COUNCIL? OKAY. AT THIS TIME I'LL OPEN FOR ANY COMMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC. OKAY. NO. ALL RIGHT. AND I'LL CLOSE THE PUBLIC COMMENT PERIOD AND BRING IT BACK TO THE COUNCIL. Any discussion or a motion?

Mr. Vice Mayor, I'll move to adopt a resolution of the City Council of the City of Rockland approving the First Amendment to the City Manager Employment Agreement and authorizing the Mayor to execute the amendment. I'll second.

Okay. Motion made by Council Member Broadway, seconded by Council Member Janda. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? ITEM PASSES UNANIMOUSLY WITH ONE COUNCILMEMBER ABSENT. THE NEXT ITEM IS ITEM D3, THE CITY ATTORNEY EMPLOYMENT AGREEMENT, THIRD AMENDMENT. PURSUANT TO GOVERNMENT CODE SECTION 54953D3, THE KEY TERMS OF THE REPOSED THIRD AMENDMENT TO THE CITY ATTORNEY EMPLOYMENT AGREEMENT ARE EXTENSION OF THE AGREEMENT'S TERM BY TWO YEARS THROUGH FEBRUARY 4TH, 2030. The annual base salary effective February 7, 2026 is $256,879, which reflects a 5% increase from the base salary of $244,647. All other terms and conditions in the employment agreement as previously amended, including cost of living adjustments as provided to management employees, remain in effect. Any questions from members of the council?

No questions.

Okay. ANY MEMBER OF THE PUBLIC LIKE TO MAKE A COMMENT ON THIS ITEM? ALL RIGHT. HEARING NONE, WE'LL CLOSE THAT COMMENT PERIOD AND ASK FOR ANY FURTHER DISCUSSION OR A MOTION.

MR. VICE MAYOR, I'LL MOVE TO ADOPT A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF ROCKLAND APPROVING THE THIRD AMENDMENT TO THE EMPLOYMENT AGREEMENT WITH THE CITY ATTORNEY AND AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR TO EXECUTE THE AMENDMENT.

Okay, motion made by Council Member Broadway, seconded by Council Member Janda. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? All right, motion passes unanimously with one Council Member absent. The next item is item D4, our salary schedule updates. And I would ask for staff presentation from Tamika Usher.

Good evening again. Tamika Usher, Director of Administrative Services. So this item accomplishes two things. One, currently the city has nine salary schedules. And with approval of this item, we will consolidate down seven salary schedules into one salary schedule for all regular classifications throughout the city with the goal of an ongoing effort to improve compensation administration, transparency, and efficiency in how we manage our compensation system. The result of this action and approval would be the consolidation of one salary schedule from seven individual schedules to one, leaving the city with a total of three salary schedules, one that represents all the regular classifications within the city, one for our temporary employee salary schedule, and one for our employees who are currently on a Y-rated salary Per CalPERS, we're required to have a salary schedule for those in Y-rated situations. So that is the goal of the consolidation of the salary schedule. The second component of this item is seeking to increase salary ranges by 2% for the following groups. That would be the Police Officers Association, the Public Safety Manager Group, and the Fire Union Group. This action of this 2% wage increase was previously approved in 2025 by your council when we approved their ratification of their MOU. And then lastly, it would also include an increase of a 2% wage increase for those employees in the management confidential and unrepresented groups as well. The only other group that is appearing on the consolidated salary schedule would be the Ask Me group. Their salaries would remain unchanged as we're actively negotiating with that group. So pursuant to Government Code Section 54953D3, all department directors and management staff are proposed to receive a 2% cost of living adjustment increase to their current respective salaries. Happy to answer any questions.

Okay. Any questions from the council So it seems like to me this It's kind of like we took all these tables, and we've made it one big table everything is the same But it's all in one big table now correct, okay, all right Okay, all right any questions or any comments excuse me from members of the public on this item

Good evening. My name is Zach Lewis. I'm a board member for the Rockland POA. Thank you, Vice Mayor and City Council members for your continued support for our public safety professionals and the city's consistent compliance with Measure C. We appreciate the work the staff is conducting the annual surveys implementing the required adjustments, including recent February increase for dispatch supervisors, which helps maintain competitive compensation aligned with our neighboring agencies. As we look ahead through the remainder of our current MOU, we have identified a reoccurring time challenge. Measure C adjustments occur in February where our negotiated across-the-board increases take effect in July. This creates a cycle where dispatch supervisors can fall behind again within months, leading to repeated adjustments every six months. We respectfully ask the council if they would consider directing staff to meet with the Rockland POA to explore updated language or implementation of options that would provide a more stable, consistent alignment with the life of the contract. We are committed to working collaboratively on solutions that both serve the city and our members. Thank you for your consideration.

Thank you. Thank you. Any questions?

Okay. Just for staff.

Councilman Broadway.

Yeah. Yes, thank you. So what Zach is mentioning is that conflict between the requirement for Measure C, which in November, December analysis is done to determine where personnel are on a comparative basis, that that's what we're required to do, and that there's language in the existing MOU, is my understanding, that states that, If there's a negotiated increase and you receive an adjustment because of measure C, those cannot occur within the same year.

Correct. And for the public and those who are not familiar, Measure C was adopted or approved by the voters of Rockland in the 80s. It's a very long time that requires that four of the positions within the police bargaining unit are measured against their peers on an annual basis. And if we are below median of the average of those groups, then an equity adjustment is made Since in the time that I've been here, we have always been above median. This year, for the first time, or at least in 2025, at the Public Safety Dispatch Manager's classification, we fell behind by 2.64%, so pursuant to Measure C. an adjustment was made at that time to that classification. The current memorandum of understanding has language in it that has been carried forward in multiple successive MOUs over the past decade at least that is very specifically says you get one or the other. It does not and then it gives really specific examples about how you get one or the other So there's no two bones about it at some point the city and the labor unit Negotiated and agreed that you get one or the other but what what sergeant Lewis was discussing was the fact that if the the feeling that if the Cola the 2% Across the board adjustment is not afforded to the dispatchers at this time. It's very likely when we do the measure see RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS AGAIN, WE'LL FIND THAT THOSE SPECIFIC FACTORS FELL BEHIND, AND SO IT JUST CREATES THIS REVOLVING CYCLE. WE ARE OPEN TO HAVING A CONVERSATION WITH THE LABOR UNION AT ANY TIME IF THEY WANTED TO BRING IT TO OUR ATTENTION. THE COUNCIL CAN DIRECT IT, BUT THAT'S SOMETHING THAT COULD HAPPEN AT ANY TIME. THEY CAN REACH OUT TO EITHER TAMIKA AND ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES. WE MEET ON A QUARTERLY BASIS. WE CAN BRING IT UP AT THAT TIME. WE CAN BEGIN THOSE CONVERSATIONS.

The Measure C piece was really on a market competitiveness approach, just to look at the market, ensure we were there, where the negotiated agreements tend to fall in line with inflationary type adjustments when those are negotiated. So essentially, they tend to address different purposes, but for some reason that was negotiated.

Yeah, and our assumption based on the timing and based on when prior MOUs were effective, it appears that Rockland used to have MOUs that were effective in January, and so it makes more sense that you would be discussing these adjustments that might double on top of each other at the same time. WHEREAS WHEN YOU MOVE TO JULY, WHERE WE'VE BEEN AT LEAST FOR THE LAST SEVEN OR EIGHT YEARS, THEY'VE BEEN EFFECTIVE IN JULY, IT DOES CREATE A LITTLE BIT OF THIS GAP THAT'S THERE. BUT AS I'VE MENTIONED, THIS IS THE FIRST TIME WE'VE HAD TO ADJUST UNDER MEASURE C SINCE I'VE BEEN HERE, SO WE'VE NEVER THEN HAD TO IMPLEMENT THE OTHER PIECE OF THE MOU.

OKAY. WELL, DEPENDING UPON THE SENSE FROM MY FELLOW COUNCILMEMBERS, I REALLY WOULD LIKE STAFF TO LOOK AT HOW WE CAN address this in looking at really should these be able to occur concurrently within the same year because we have things that are occurring at two different periods of time when justified by the salary survey results, economic conditions, and the negotiated increases.

We're open to when the union wants to bring that up, we're absolutely ready to have that conversation.

Any other comments? All right. Okay. With that, I'll ask for a motion.

All right. Mr. Vice Mayor, I will move to adopt a resolution of the City Council of the City of Rockland adopting the consolidated salary schedule, including revised salary ranges for the Rockland Police Officers Association, Rockland Police Officers Association Public Safety Managers, Rockland Firefighters Union Local 522, and management confidential and unrepresented employees. I'll second.

Okay. Motion made by Council Member Broadway, seconded by Council Member Chanda. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion passes unanimously with one Council Member absent. All right. With that, we have almost concluded our agenda. Any future agenda items for anyone, any members of the council? Okay. All right. We are going to now return to closed session. Thank you all for joining us tonight. The council has returned from closed session with nothing to report. And with that, we are adjourned.