City Council - Regular Meeting

I'd like to reconvene the June 2nd, 2026 council meeting to order and let the record reflect that all council members are present with the exception of council member Tetimer. We'll move on to public session. At this time, city council will convene to consider public matters. If you wish to speak, please fill out a blue speaker card and provide it to the city clerk. If you wish to submit any written materials, please provide it to the city clerk. They will be distributed to the council. As required by state law, when speaking on an item listed on the agenda, limit your comments to the subject of that item. If you wish to speak on a subject not listed on the agenda, you may speak under public comment portion of the meeting. Finally, please address your comments to the city council. Staff will not respond to any questions from residents, only from the city council. We'll now move on to the invocation. Invocation tonight will be provided by Pastor Vanessa Howard.

Thank you so much again for the opportunity to be here with all of you. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we come before you this evening with gratitude just for the opportunities to gather together, to participate in the work of our community. And Lord, we thank you for the great city of Lake Forest. Lord for our families, for the businesses, the sheriff's department and first responders and the neighbors who make it such a special place to live and to serve. And above all in this election day, we are reminded of both the privilege and the responsibility of American citizenship. We're grateful for the opportunity to make our voices heard and to participate in the shaping and the future of our communities. As the results unfold, Lord, help us to approach one another with respect, with humility, and a shared commitment to the common good. We pray for the mayor, our city council members, and city staff. Lord, grant them wisdom. Grant them integrity and discernment as they consider the matters that are before them this evening. Lord, may their decisions serve the best interests of all who call Lake Forest home. Bless the work being done here tonight, Lord. continue to watch over our city, our country, our state, and Lord may God bless the USA and Jesus mighty name. Amen.

Thank you. We'll move on to the pledge of allegiance. The pledge of allegiance to the flag where our country will be led by girl scout troop 3620.

Face the flag. Ready, begin. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. You may be seated.

Good job. Come on.

All right, that brings us to our closed session report. Mr. City Attorney, are there any reportable items on closed session?

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. There is no reportable action tonight.

Okay, so closed session public comment. Madam City Clerk, have we received any requests to speak during closed session public comment?

None at this time, Mayor.

Thank you. And we'll move on to public comment. If you would like to make a comment, please fill out a blue speaker card and give it to the City Clerk and your name will be called. Comments are limited to three minutes. The council and staff will not respond to questions or comments during the public period. If you leave your contact information, staff may contact you to address issues raised during your comment. When you're called to speak, please come to the podium. You have three minutes and we end when the green light is on. The green light will remain on for two minutes. When the green light changes from green to yellow, speakers will have one minute left to conclude their comments. When the light changes from yellow to red, your time is completely concluded and please return to your seat. A timer is not displayed on the screen. Madam City Clerk, have we received any requests to speak?

We have, Mayor, and our first public commenter is Sherry Weldon.

Good evening, mayor, city members, council members and city staff. My name is Sherry Weldon and I'm a clinical massage therapist. I'd first like to thank the city for addressing concerns regarding illegal activity operating under the guise of massage therapy. I understand the need to protect residents and maintain professional standards. We all share that goal. However, I respectfully ask the council to recognize that all, not all massage related businesses are the same. There is a significant difference between personal care services and clinical massage businesses. Non-clinical massage is generally provided for relaxation and stress reduction in spas, salons, hotels and resorts. While these services have value, they are not typically focused on treating specific physical conditions or achieving documented therapeutic results. Clinical massage is outcome-based care. It is directed towards helping individuals manage pain, recover from injuries, improve mobility, reduce post-surgical swelling, or support the healthcare goals of our clients. MDs, OBGYNs, and chiropractors often prescribe clinical massage therapy to assist with their patient's care. As a California Massage Therapy Council member, and certified practitioner and 30 year veteran in the massage industry. I have met the educational professional standards established by the state of California. In addition I have pursued advanced training continuing education and a current national board recognized massage therapist and national board continuing education provider. My concern is that the current code does not adequately distinguish between businesses operating as personal care services and those operating as clinical massage practices. I'm not asking for less regulation. I'm asking for Lake Forest to step up and become the first city to recognize these distinctions and support clinical massage practices as healthcare businesses. You would be aligning Lake Forest with CEMTAC, C-A-M-T-C, who recently passed very important state law recognizes their certificate holders such as myself as health care providers. I respectfully request that the city consider creating a separate designation permit category or operational standard for qualified health care professionals like myself who meet higher education ethical and professional standards recognized by the CEMTAC and the National Board certification in therapeutic massage and body work.

Thank you for your comments.

Our next public commenter is Brian McMillan. Brian McMillan.

I was busy congratulating somebody who has the guts to come up here speak for themselves. A massage business, this is a massage also, is not a threat to public welfare because the people who go there don't lower property values. It's not a threat because a comic book store is within a football's length away. Did you know, Mayor, The primary demographic for comic book stores is heavily in the 25 to 44-year demographic age range. This is not children at comic book stores. It's not a threat to public welfare because a public park is 200 feet away. We heard that a five-year-old child still needs to be watched in a public park because a massage business is within 200 feet away. I think a person who doesn't watch a five-year-old in a public park is guilty of child endangerment. It's not a threat to public safety because police activity at a massage business with one room is no higher than any other business. I mean, this is crazy. We prayed for wisdom from the councilman earlier tonight. This doesn't sound like wisdom. This sounds stupid. It's not a threat for health and safety because a code enforcement officer wants to believe it is. They can't make this stuff up as they go. They have to follow the law. It's not a threat because a staff attorney thinks it is. It's not a threat because members of the city council believe it is. It's not a threat because a planning commissioner thinks that it is. A business with a sauna is not a threat to public health or safety. The mayor has been trying to wipe out an entire industry in the city because he feels like all these crimes have been committed. He wants to exterminate the livelihoods and the dreams of hundreds of people at any cost. I'll tell you what's a real threat to public safety and welfare in the city of Lake Forest, evil city officials. Like it or not, this obsession to annihilate a completely legitimate industry based on nothing but fear and ignorance will be all of your legacies. This is what you're going to take with you for your public service. Please, please stop slandering this industry. Please. Let them be. Let them follow their dreams. Let them start their businesses. Let them earn a living. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Our next public commenter is Andrea Alexander.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. Thank you for allowing me to speak tonight. I have a concern, and it has to do with pushing against deadlines with our contracts. It happened with Orange County Animal Care. It happened last year. That wasn't quite the same, but anyway. The Orange County Animal Care Contract was up for renewal, and it was pushed against a deadline and rushed to get a consultant out there to do a collection of data, I guess. And it was based on two different, the decision that you made was based on cost, but the costs were based on two different ways of finding that cost. Mission Viejo based their cost on per capita, which is they take their costs, deduct donations, and then allocate by city per capita. What's the balance? Orange County bases their cost on service, which I can attest to is not good. I've had an experience just recently with Orange County and it wasn't good. So, and I know you've had other people here complaining about them too. So I just want to make sure that our staff and our council brings forward contract renewals or new contracts with enough time to do a more thorough examination and get an apples to apples comparison and not having these pushed up against a deadline where we're forced to go with something else. And the fact that one of these council members blamed Mission Viejo because they submitted a proposal and it wasn't in a timely manner, You didn't ask for the proposal. So it's not their fault. Anyway, I'm very disappointed in the outcome of that and the way it was done. But thank you very much.

Thank you for your comments.

And our last public commenter is Bob Holtzclaw.

Hello, Bob Holtzclaw, resident of Lake Forest. I just wanted to let you know your residents cleaned up the mattress that was on the bus stop because nobody would do it. And I think they're pretty tired. And actually, I heard they were going to start cleaning up a lot of the neighborhood area there around Rouse, not getting any help from the city. It looks dumpy and has got voice always wants to said that it's the gateway to the city. And when you drive in that way and you look at that, it's it's a complete mess. So anyhow, the residents over there just had it and they picked up the mattress and threw it away and it's gone. One other thing. Months ago, we had a kind of a a protest against ice in Lake Forest, and we had several hundred high school kids and junior high school kids protesting, and some of them actually went up on the top of the Stater Brothers, well, not Stater Brothers, but the gas station on Tribuco and El Toro Road on a 15-foot stand there, waving flags and whatever. Who'd be responsible for that Let's say someone fell off and broke his neck. Would it be the school district? Would it be the city for not having police protection in there and guiding these kids? You know, a matter of fact, I never heard anything that the city council sent a letter over to the school district and said, hey, what's going on? Why are you sending kids out to protest the United States? So things like that, I just wondered, you know, if you have any answers to that, I sure appreciate it. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

That's it, Mayor.

Thank you. We'll move on to the consent calendar. All matters listed under the City Council consent calendars are considered routine and will be enacted by one vote. There will be no separate discussion of these items unless members of the council or staff request specific items to be removed from the consent calendars for separate action. Have there been any requests to remove an item from the consent calendars?

No requests from staff or council members, but we do have public comment on item number six. Okay.

Should we move the balance?

Yep, I'll move the balance. Okay, hello, mayor.

Hold on one second.

We have not called public comment on that just yet.

That's okay. Mayor Pro Tem made a motion for the balance and Council Member you second it.

Thank you so much. We'll start the vote now. And the motion passes 4-0 with Council Member Tettemer absent.

Okay, thank you.

and we will start with item number six and that is the independence day parade road closures and related activities on july 4 2026 and our public commenter is becky keene sorry about that don't hear all that clearly in here um hello mayor pequino council members um i'm up here a little informally because i am in

a 4th of July race shirt. I wanted to thank you for your support with the road closure, the trash cans, the porta potties, and all of that for the 4th of July 5K and 1K kids race that they tack on before the parade starts. For those who don't know and those who like to sleep in may not notice, but the 4th of July race has been a part of the Lake Forest festivities since 1995. This is the 32nd year. Council Member Voigt, I remember a lot of years you being there for a warm-up speech at that hour and to start the sounding horn, thank you. I was on the Core Race Committee from 1995 through 2015, long after my own kids had graduated from El Toro High because it's Lake Forest, it's not just El Toro High. The family rule was you either volunteer or you run, or when my kids started their own businesses, they became sponsors. Ours isn't the only family with grown kids that come back every year to join in. I'd see race registration names from, you know, the high school 10, 20 years before. And they come back and they can see how Lake Forest has grown, but also how it's kept its character and continues to be a great place to live. There's been occasional pushback over the years. Some of the people are worried that this is a school thing, but I really think it is a Lake Forest thing. What I've seen, it's a great booster for Lake Forest. Even the slower years, there are probably 1,000 people out there. I think we had 1,200 runners one year. Usually it's about 800, depends on economy, price of gas, things like that. And so you've got 800 to 1,200 runners, including walkers. You have people in in 15 minutes. You have people in in an hour and 15 minutes. You've also got all the volunteers. You get the high school students out there helping clean things up and set things up. You get the supporters. You get all of the vendors and pop-ups. And they're providing a big party atmosphere. So it's quite the happy crowd despite the early hour. And I think it's a real important part of the Lake Forest tradition and part of who we are as Lake Forest. So thank you for your continued support of it.

Thank you for your comments. That's it, Mayor. OK, thank you. I'll take a motion.

Move by number six, second by.

OK, let's vote.

That motion passes 4-0 with Council Member Tettemer absent.

Thank you. We'll move on to discussion action items. Madam City Clerk, please read the title of item number eight.

The title of item number eight is the amendment to the classification plan and compensation schedule for fiscal year 25-26. Thank you.

Madam City Manager, please introduce this item.

Thank you, Mayor. Tonight we're going to have a presentation by me on our classification plan and compensation schedule. So to give you a little background, our classification plan shows all of our job classifications. It shows all of our salary grades and all of our salary ranges. It also shows the number of authorized positions that we are allowed to hire here at the city. And we make revisions to that plan based on changing circumstances, emerging issues, or new service demands. So the plan before you tonight reflects 97 job classes and 81 full-time employees. There is no recommendation to change any of the salary ranges in our classification plan. So speaking of changing circumstances, our current assistant city manager has announced his retirement. So he will be leaving us at the end of this calendar year. The assistant city manager is a very important position. He oversees the day-to-day operations of the city. He is a problem solver and he has a lot of institutional knowledge that he's picked up over his 16 years here at the city. And so to avoid any kind of disruption to our city operations, we're proposing adding a second assistant city manager for a short period to allow overlap, to allow knowledge transfer and so forth. So you will see in your draft classification plan that there is a number two next to the assistant city manager. So we're proposing adding a second one. And then once we hire, we have a chance for some training. Mr. Neves will retire and then we would eliminate that second position. And that's what it says in this change management slide. Finding an assistant city manager and especially an experienced assistant city manager, it's quite competitive. So we are in a competitive job market. So we do anticipate hiring an executive recruiter to help us do that and to run the entire hiring process for us. So in conclusion, tonight your proposed classification plan includes the addition of one full-time assistant city manager and no changes to our salary ranges. So staff's recommendation is that you approve the resolution that would effectuate this draft classification plan. This concludes my report. Myself and Keith are available for any questions.

Okay, before we go to my colleagues, Madam City Clerk, are there any requests to speak on this item? There are none, Mayor. Thank you. Colleagues?

Mayor? Miss City Manager, I'm going to object to this because no one person is going to fill the place of Keith Neves. I just made that statement. You need two, so you might as well put one, two. That's my further comment, thank you. Thank you. Anybody else?

Alrighty, I'll entertain a motion.

Motion to move.

I'll second. Let's vote.

And that motion passes 4-0 with Councilmember Tettemer absent.

Okay, we'll move on to item number nine. Madam City Clerk, please read the title of item number nine.

Item number nine is the fiscal year 2026 to 27 budget appropriation.

Thank you. Madam City Manager, please introduce this item.

Thank you, Mayor. To go over our budget this year, we have our Director of Finance slash City Treasurer, Kevin Chagrath.

All right. Thank you, City Manager Rose. Good evening, Mr. Mayor and members of the City Council. The city's two-year budget adopted last June authorized the first fiscal year, which will end later this month on June 30th. A mid-cycle budget review provides an opportunity to consider proposed changes for the upcoming fiscal year. I've organized the proposed changes to the revenue and cost estimates by the city's general fund, all other funds, and the capital improvement plan. General fund revenue estimates are proposed to decrease by $100,000 and total revenue would be approximately 70.5 million. The changes are relatively minor across the affected revenue types. This slide summarizes the general fund revenue estimates with 81% received from taxes and the balance received from non-tax revenue sources. Property taxes continue to be the city's largest revenue source, followed by sales and use taxes and transient occupancy taxes, highlighting the stability of the city's revenue structure. General fund cost estimates are proposed to decrease by approximately $400,000 to 65.8 million. While several program areas have increases tied to operational needs, the largest adjustment is in public safety, resulting in a net decrease citywide. This slide summarizes general fund cost estimates with nearly 75% committed to public safety, infrastructure maintenance services, and management and support. Public safety continues to represent the city's largest cost center with 39% of the total general fund budget of $65.8 million. The legislative program area includes an increase for lobbying and advocacy opportunities. The management and support program area includes adjustments for additions for lobbying and advocacy opportunities, risk management insurance premium increases, additions for executive recruitment activities, increases in computer hardware for the building counter, and an increase in unfunded pension contribution. The city's pension plan is 98.9% funded with CalPERS. The public safety program includes an increase in animal regulation costs, offset by a decrease in law enforcement contract. The contract for the upcoming Fiscal year was approved at the most recent city council meeting held on May 21st. During that meeting, a comprehensive overview of the agreement was provided. Existing service levels remain consistent, and one patrol deputy and vehicle were added to the contract for next year. While one additional patrol deputy has been added to the contract and is reflected in this budget, personnel negotiations remain ongoing at the county level. Staff will return following the conclusion of those negotiations, if needed, to recommend any corresponding adjustments to the budget and to the law enforcement services agreement. The planning, engineering, and building and safety program area includes adjustments for reductions for encroachment activities and increases in emergency evacuation planning efforts, local hazard mitigation plan implementation, and open space element and update. The culture, leisure, and recreation program area includes adjustments for additional security costs in our parks and increases in special event costs. The community vitality and engagement program area includes a reduction in donations to the pet adoption center that will no longer continue. In addition, reprogramming of SEEP economic funds that were budgeted in the current fiscal year and were already allocated. And an increase in economic development activities for ICSC funding attendance. In summary, for the general fund, revenues are proposed at 70.5 million, while cost estimates are proposed at approximately 65.8 million. Overall, the proposed budget continues to reflect the city's strong financial position. and operational stability while maintaining fully funded reserves. This slide summarizes proposed updates to other fund revenue estimates, including increases in general fund CIP, revised gas tax allocations, and adjustments to developer-related funding sources. Changes in other fund cost estimates are relatively limited and reflect updated estimates across grant-related programs. The CIP plan includes 14 projects totaling $14.8 million. The general fund CIP includes revised cost estimates of $478,000 for two new proposed projects. The first project is the traffic signal and circulation improvements and would implement traffic signal monitoring, operations, and circulation improvements along key corridors, providing access to the upcoming developments, activities in the marketplace between Pertola Parkway and Town Center Drive. The second project is the Civic Center IT server room HVAC installation project, and it would isolate the IT server room with a standalone HVAC system, That is backed by the city's emergency generator should the HVAC system for their entire building shut down. The recommended action this evening is the adoption of the resolution as an attachment to the report, amending the 2025-2027 operating and capital improvement plan, and amending appropriations for fiscal year 2026-27. The proposed adjustments to the adopted budget are summarized on the slide. And that concludes my presentation, and I'm available for any questions you may have.

Thank you, Kevin. Before we go on to my colleagues, Madam City Clerk, are there any requests to speak on this item?

There is one public commenter on this, and that is Marcel Louis XIV. Okay.

Marcel Louis XIV, 28 years, Foothill Ranch. Good evening, everybody. I just wanted to talk briefly on the HVAC proposal that's coming up. And it's not too bad of a criticism. But you are talking about putting a new HVAC system in. Yet, when I did the research, the design status basically said that that room should have a dedicated HVAC system. It should have dedicated power. The design company P2S, this is what they should have put in according to the contract. So now you're saying that according to what you've wrote. I don't want to go over it in detail because I've given you write outs of the thing so you can read it yourselves. But basically the description of the project is talking about that you don't have dedicated HVAC systems right now. So either the engineering company never put it in the first place, which was required according to your requirements. Or the person writing the description of the project misunderstood what they were talking about, because the description basically says, you don't have dedicated HVA system, you don't have dedicated power, and now you've got to put them in. So which is it? It's either one or the other. You either did put it in the design, or you missed it, and now it's being put in. you know i'm just looking for clarification on this stuff and it's just i don't want to open up the seat to criticism but if you're writing things that are different from what is proposed and what is supposed to be engineered it just doesn't look good for the city so that's basically my comment it's not a complaint it's just asking for clarification on this stuff the write-out that i gave each of the other council members goes into a little bit more detail about what i'm talking about and hopefully it'll be a little bit more understanding i've taken the sections directly from the attachment, and you've got attachment, which should be attachment six, but you have it listed as attachment five. So even in your own documents, you're, you know, misrepresenting what you're trying to talk about. You've got attachment five as being the HVAC, and then you say it's actually attachment six. So anyway, that's all I have to say. It's not a complaint. It's just clarification. That's all. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Mr. Mayor, you're doing a great job. Keep it up. Thank you so much.

Thank you, and thank you for your comments. That's it, Mayor. Okay, thank you. Colleagues?

do you go ahead scott kevin great report obviously we like to see that kind of report but um i didn't see the um tot is tot um it was on there i didn't i didn't see i'm sorry i missed that so um they were going kind of fast i was trying to go through all that how's tot is it surpassed where we were in covid yeah the tot thank you for your question the tot has rebounded from covid that was helped by the

opening of the additional hotels. I believe that the estimate is solid in the budget and therefore there were no adjustments proposed. That's why it wasn't highlighted in the presentation. Sorry, I missed it.

Thank you, Kevin, for the report. And just for those folks that are watching, fast overview of all these figures. And I don't want it to go unsaid how well the fiscal conservative nature of our city is. And under Kevin's leadership and his team, just to kind of let you know that You look at the other cities, even in Orange County and around the Southland that are struggling right now, that are underwater, that are facing budget deficits. And it's something that we should applaud and we should appreciate and not just gloss over this nice report that you provided. We have the audit committee, what we meet as well to go through in detail. We all get a staff report that drills down into this information in great detail to kind of help support that. But I just wanted to make sure I communicated that This city is very well run from a financial standpoint, and it gives us great leverage in terms of making the spend for things and amenities that are appropriate in response to our community members that are communicating that to us. So I just wanted to make sure I passed on the kudos for the great work that we're doing from a fiscally responsible standpoint. So thank you, Kevin.

Thank you.

Yeah. Thanks, Kevin. Um, and I know I've reported out on this before, but, uh, Lake out of the 482 cities in California, Lake forest is fifth in the state. When it comes to fiscal responsibility, we have a grade of 95 on our, for our fiscal responsibility. So it's great. And, uh, you know, Kevin, great job, but, uh, I also have to commend somebody who's going to stay past this year, Deborah. And for all, Keith was our, he was our treasurer for a while too, so Keith, you did a great job too. So that's your legacy. You got us over 95, and Kevin, you kept it going, so thank you. Anybody else? No?

Okay, I'll move the staff recommendation.

Second. All right, let's vote. Thanks, Kevin.

I just need one more vote. Thank you. And that motion passes 4-0 with Councilmember Tettemer absent.

Okay, Madam City Clerk, can you please read the title to item number 10?

Yes, the title of item number 10 is the California Constitution Article 13B, Appropriations Limit.

Thank you. Madam City Manager, please introduce this item.

Thank you, Mayor. Just a quick overview of this item. We are required every year when we do pass our budget to also adopt a resolution that approves our appropriations limit. And so the staff report goes in great detail as to how we generate that. We calculate what our appropriations limit is, also known as the GAM limit. And so we are recommending that you adopt a resolution that would approve our appropriations limit for this fiscal year, and that limit would be approximately $187 million. Okay.

Madam City Clerk, are there any requests to speak on this item?

There are none, Mayor.

Colleagues?

I'll take a... I'll move the staff recommendation. I'll second that motion. All right, let's vote.

And the motion passes 4-0 with Council Member Tettemer absent.

Okay, so we're gonna move on to item number 11, however.

Mr. Mayor, we'd like to request that we pull item 11 and place it on a future agenda. This was something that Council Tettemer specifically requested, so I'd like to postpone it to when he can participate in the discussion.

So done. So we're going to postpone item number 11 to a subsequent meeting, which will bring us to the city manager's report.

I have nothing further this evening. Thank you.

So council comments. Council member Voigt. Nothing further. Thank you. Council member Yu. Nothing further. Mayor Pro Tem.

Got something. So we had the Memorial Day celebration last Monday and a number of us attended that and it was one of those patriotic events every year that you have an opportunity to reflect and honor those people who have sacrificed ultimately for the freedoms that we enjoy. And we had a wonderful motivational speaker, his time in the service and what that meant to him and probably close to a couple hundred people that attended. the service. Another great opportunity there at the El Toro Memorial Park for us to honor those in our community and those that have been around for years for our freedom. Also attended the Best and Bravest annual event. This is for the Orange County Fire Authority. There were probably 500 to 1,000 people in the room at the Irvine Marriott. This is to recognize and uh give awards to those people in the fire service that have done extraordinary things and it was a lot of clapping so your hands were tired at the end of the evening but it was again another wonderful event to recognize our first responders and showing video clips of some of the the rescues and the especially the recent situation in garden grove and how they really did an incredible job and talked about how people were saying well your option is a small explosion or a large explosion and they just said nope That's not gonna happen. And they utilized 1,250 gallons, I believe they mentioned, of some coolant to make sure that the temperature didn't get to a point where it was gonna be a hazard. So I know a lot of times we take for granted our Orange County Fire Authority, our Orange County Sheriff Department, our first responders, and this is an opportunity just to recognize them. So that was a great honor for us to be there too. We actually had a full table representing the city as a sponsor. And then last week, we also had the audit committee. So myself and Council Member Tettemer, as again, I mentioned, we get together with our staff, we look at the finances, we have oversight in terms of different initiatives that we wanna do, and just again, to say, to reflect the mayor's comments there about how well we are doing financially is really a credit to the greatness of our city. So nothing further, Mayor.

Okay, thank you. So I too attended the Memorial Day event. I attended the Coastline Endocrinology Ribbon Cutting, the Best and the Bravest event. And yesterday I volunteered for the Association of Orange County Deputy Sheriffs Golf Tournament for their Memorial Officer Fund. And... Now we're gonna talk about this day in history. Actually, before we do that, I do want to ask consensus on an item. I want to bring up council compensation at a future council meeting.

Okay, I'll support that.

I'll support that. Mayor, if I could get consensus on an item. This is our 250th year anniversary. I too was at the Memorial Day, and the best and bravest, but this year is the 250th anniversary, and many of the cities are preparing proclamations. Okay, I just would like to bring that forth, so thank you.

Yeah, thank you. Yeah, so I did forward that proclamation, I think, to somebody on city staff to look over, so. So anyway, we're going to talk about this day in history back in May 21st, 1776. As we continue our journey toward America's 250th birthday this 4th of July, we turn to another pivotal moment in the nation's history. By early June 1776, the colonies were moving closer than ever to independence. Leaders from across America were beginning to chart a path toward a new nation. On June 7th, Virginia delegate Richard Henry Lee introduced a resolution before the Continental Congress declaring that the colonies are and out of right to be free and independent states. For the first time, independence was formally proposed before Congress, bringing the colonies one step closer to creating a new nation. Mayor Pro Tem, what happened next?

Thank you, Mayor. And for all of the high school students doing their historical reports, we're glad that you're listening in and taking note of this opportunity for us just to present where our country started and how it came to be. So while Congress was considering Lee's resolution, leaders also began preparing for what an independent nation might look like. So on June 11th, Congress appointed a committee to draft a document explaining why the colonies were seeking independence. The committee included Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert Livingston. Their task was to explain the principles and ideals that would unite the colonies and define a new nation. So over the following weeks, the committee worked on what would become one of the most important documents in American history, the Declaration of Independence. Back to you, Mayor.

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem. By June of 1776, the colonies were doing more than imagining independence. They were beginning to build it. What started as a growing movement had become a shared vision for a new nation founded on liberty, self-government, and opportunity. As we prepare to celebrate America's 250th birthday this 4th of July, we can look back with pride on the people whose ideas and determination helped shape the United States we know today. Next time we'll explore final steps that led to the adoption of the Declaration of Independence and the birth of our nation. Thank you. And with that, I'll adjourn.