City Council - Regular Meeting

Seaside City Council and the Success Agency to the Redevelopment Agency. Special meeting here at Horror Court Tuesday, May 26, 2026, 5 p.m. This is a special meeting. Roll call, please.

Council and agency member Miller.

Here.

Council and agency member Burks. Here. Council and agency member Garcia-Arizuela. Here.

Mayor Pro Tem and Vice Chair Pacheco, Mayor and Chair Oglesby.

Here.

You do have a quorum.

Thank you. I would ask Council Member Burks to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance. Thank you. Next, we'll go to item number four, which is public comment. Members of the public listening to address the City Council on the matters underneath the jurisdiction of the City Council may do so for up to three minutes during public comment. We ask that you hold your comments on items that are on the presentation or on the agenda until the item is called. For the benefit of the public, it is beneficial to state your name. Public comment is open.

Members of the public in the Chamber, please approach the podium. Members of the public on Zoom, please use the raise your hand feature or dial star nine if you're calling from a phone. Don Mathis Park, you now have the floor to make your public comment.

Good afternoon, Mayor, Council members and city staff. My name is Dawn Mathis-Park and I'm the Vice President of Marketing and Community Relations for C. Monterey. I wanted to just briefly share a few updates with Council from C. Monterey. First, this last weekend, we enjoyed a wonderful community celebration at the Monterey Regional Airport to commemorate the launch of the new nonstop Chicago service. This flight is an exciting opportunity for us to expand visitation from farther away and larger markets, bringing visitors here who stay longer, do more and spend more, all contributing to the economic vitality of our community. Also, Sea Monterey has launched a regional event development task force focused on attracting and developing new events for the region. And we look forward to Seaside participating in those conversations and opportunities. And lastly, we will once again be serving as a communications hub during Car Week this year, helping to coordinate messaging and visitor information across the region. And we look forward to working closely with city staff to promote a successful Car Week for Seaside. That concludes my brief public comments this evening. Thank you so much.

Thank you for your comments members of the public in the chamber please approach the podium members of the public on zoom please use the raise your hand feature or dial star 9 if you're calling from a phone. We are no members of the public have come forward to make public comment.

Thank you public comments close. And that's we go to inside of number 55 a adopted resolution calling for the holding of a general municipal election to be held on Tuesday, November 3rd, 2026, requesting the county of Monterey elections department to conduct the elections and requesting consolidation of the elections. Mr city manager.

Yes, thank you. Mayor Council. This item will be presented by Dominique Davis, our city clerk.

All right.

Good evening, Mayor, members of the City Council, members of the public. Tonight, I'm presenting this item 5A, which is a resolution calling for the holding of Seaside's general municipal election on Tuesday, November 3rd, 2026. This resolution also requests that the Monterey County Elections Department conduct the election on behalf of the city and the city's election be consolidated with the statewide general election. This is very procedural but an important step and it's one of the formal action that allows the city to place its elective offices on the November ballot and ensures that the election is administered in coordination with the Monterey County elections. So council action is required because the city cannot simply appear on the ballot automatically. Under the California Elections Code and Seaside Municipal Code, the city council must officially call the election, identify the offices that will appear on the ballot, and request the election services from the county. The city of Seaside conducts its municipal elections every other November in conjunction with the statewide general election. Consolidating the statewide election allows the city to benefit from a larger election infrastructure already being administered by the county. It supports voter convenience because voters receive one consolidated ballot rather than separate election materials. It promotes administrative efficiency, avoids duplication of election operation, and helps ensure consistency in how the election is conducted. For context, the city's district map and boundary materials are also maintained as a part of the county's election materials, and those documents support the accurate administration of the election. So while the item may seem routine, it is one of those foundational governance steps that keeps the democratic process moving cleanly and legally. So for the November 3rd general municipal election, the offices on the ballot will be one mayor seat and two city council seats. The mayor seat is for a four year term and the two city council seats are also for four year terms. This action does not select candidates, determine outcomes or campaign for any individual, it simply places the offices before the voters and opens the pathway for the candidate nomination and filing process to occur in accordance with state law and the county election procedures. So tonight's action will be about access to the ballot and election administration, not electioneering, not candidate preference, and not policy advocacy. So the election administrative workflow. Tonight, the council is being asked to call the election and authorize the resolution. Following the council's action, the city clerk's office will coordinate the election documents with the Monterey County elections, which includes publishing the election notice in a newspaper of general circulation and on our website by June 29th. The resolution includes the election services agreement, the statement of election facts, boundary maps, and other required filings. The county has identified July 1 as the deadline for the statement of election facts, notice of election, and the boundary materials. The candidate filing period is anticipated to begin on July 13th and run through August 7th. And during this period, eligible candidates may obtain and file nomination papers and related candidate forms through the city clerk's office. Election day will be Tuesday, November 3rd. And after the election, the Monterey County elections department will conduct the official canvas and provide the certified results back to the city. The city council will then receive and declare the election results at a future meeting as required by law. So the city's role begins with calling the election and facilitating the candidate filing. The county's role is to conduct the election, issue and process ballots, administer vote centers, and election workers complete the canvas and certify the results. So the resolution includes several key provisions that are required by the county and by election law. On the election operation size, the Monterey County Elections Department will prepare the ballot information and the voter guide materials, issue and process ballots, secure the vote centers, coordinate election workers, conduct the election, complete the canvas, and provide the certification of the election results. The resolution also includes a few policy decisions. Um, that are made that must be made in advance. One that the candidate word limit candidate statement word limit is 200 words. And this is consistent with the election materials that are prepared for the election cycle. The resolution provides that the candidates are responsible for the cost of the candidate statements that are sent to voters. And this means that the city does not absorb the cost of the op optional candidate statements in the voter guide. The resolution also addresses tie votes. In the event of a tie vote, the winner would be determined by law pursuant to Elections Code 15651A. This is a lawful method available to the city and is included in the county's requested resolution checklist. So by lot just means by random selection process conducted publicly and according to legal requirements, only if two or more candidates receive an equal and highest number of votes for the same office. It is not something that happens often, but the city must identify the tie breaking method before the election. The fiscal impact is based on the county's estimated cost range for the November 3 election. As of May 15, the city of Seaside has 15,249 registered voters. The county has estimated the cost at approximately $6 to $10 per registered voters. So based on that estimate, the projected cost range is approximately $91,494 on the low end and $152,490 on the high end. The city will be invoiced by the Monterey County elections for the actual cost of election services after the election has concluded. The election services agreement provides that the city will make payment within 30 days of receiving the invoice from the county. And this item supports the city's strategic priority of effective accessible governance by ensuring a legally compliant, transparent and accessible election process for the seaside voters. So the recommendation before the city council this evening is to adopt the resolution calling the November 3rd general municipal election. specifically again the resolution does these four things first it formally calls the election second it declares that the offices to be elected are one mayor and two city council members third it requests that the monterey county elections conduct the services for the city and fourth it requests consolidation with the statewide general election which is the standard and most efficient election model for the city The resolution also directs the city clerk serving as the city's election official to complete all required election actions and submit the necessary documents to the county. That is the conclusion of my presentation, and I'm happy to take any questions.

Thank you so much on that very thorough presentation. Any Councilmember Alexis Garcia-Arizuela and then Councilmember Miller.

Thank you for the presentation. When you say an election can cost anywhere from $91,000 to 100x amount, what constitutes a low-end election and a high-end election?

the cost is based on the printing costs mostly for the ballots for the voter guides and all the materials that the county produces in connection with the election so depending on where those costs fall will determine the final cost to the city and then you said we have to finalize or have a solution should there be a tie before the election yes what method is that or do we come back and choose that later on no the resolution um that's before you tonight recommends to um resolve a tie vote by lot okay just wanted to confirm that and then what's the difference in voters do we have an increase in voters this year yes at our last election we're about up about 2 000 more voters than we were at the last election okay 2 000 yes okay that's good um That was May 15th was that number.

Are we going to have updated numbers based on the primary in a couple weeks?

We will. We'll have more updated numbers until the last day to register to vote for the general election, which is in October. Perfect.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Can we go back to that slide with the timeline? Here, so the filing period is the 13th to the 7th, July 13th to the 7th, but is there some code if a person doesn't, there's an extension if a person doesn't refile an incumbent, is that right?

If the incumbent doesn't file for any office, then there's an extension of five days.

Oh, any office. So in our situation, when we have two at-large seats that are up, what if one person does and one person doesn't? Then is it still extended? Yes. Both of them? Just that one seat. Just that one seat. So is it like when we talk about the elections, we see like seat one and seat two, or how is that identified?

By the name of the incumbent that would be going out of office at that time. I see.

So it's denoted by the council member's last name. Correct. I see. Okay. That was all my questions. Thank you.

Any other questions? I thought I heard. Just to be clear, I think Councilmember Miller said something that was two open seats. Is there two open seats?

There's two open seats on the City Council. Okay. And one seat from here.

No, I just want to make sure. Okay. All right. Let's take it out to the public.

Members of the public in the chamber, please approach the podium. Members of the public on Zoom, please use the raise your hand feature or dial star 9 if you're calling from a phone. Mayor, no members of the public have come forward to make public comment.

Okay. Thank you. Um, here are no ones, you know, on public comments close. Uh, what is the well of the council will look for? Well, as we probably moved and seconded that we adopt, uh, Staff recommendation for item 5A, adopt a resolution calling for the holding of a general municipal election to be held on Tuesday, November 3rd, 2026. Requesting the county Monterey Elections Department to conduct the elections and requesting consolidation of the election. On the question, I did have one question. Right now, we don't know when the, right now the filing day closes when? You say August 6th? august 7th august 7th and and when someone or you get an indication by the closing day that an incumbent has not filed then you will extend it by five days right that's what i'm just saying people maybe think they know the answer to that but that answer is not even a question until someone doesn't file on that day i'm just keeping so people keep track of what's going on and not not thinking people are trying to bamboozle somebody but it's not you can't speak as though you know until it's official correct okay all right yeah go ahead good and when we say five days is it five business days or five regular days five calendar days calendar days okay so any other uh questions okay um all those use the regular sign of voting uh which is i i uh nays have the same right abstentions eyes have a motion carry unanimously let's go to item number 5b receive a presentation on the draft fiscal year 2026 2027 operating budget capital improvement program fee schedule position control list salary schedule and reserve amounts and provide directions to staff as to any changes to be made prior to adoption Mr. City Manager.

Yeah, thank you, Mayor and council members. Tonight, we'll begin a review of the proposed operating capital budget for fiscal year 2026-2027. Before the finance director walks through the detailed numbers, I want to provide a broader management perspective for this budget presentation and the policy decisions that will be for the council during these workshops. This is best described in a city manager's perspective as a stabilization recovery budget. It is presented during a period of fiscal transition where recurring revenues are no longer increasing with a pace sufficient enough to absorb the rising costs for infrastructure and organizational costs. The proposed budget protects essential municipal services, preserves necessary workforce capacity, and continues targeted community investments. It also acknowledges clearly that the structural balance has not yet been restored. our objective during these budget workshops is not to only review expenditures but is to align the council priorities service expectations with available resources while establishing a disciplined path toward forward recovery can you click it for me thank you you know last year we discussed slowing next slide please Last year, we discussed slowing economic conditions and the need for expenditure restraint. This year, those pressures are more directly reflected in the city's operating position. During prior years, the city benefited from one-time revenues and unusually strong post-COVID economic activity, including federal ARPA funding, land sale proceeds, grant resources, and elevated sales tax performance. Those resources helped advance important investments and build the fund balance, but they were not permanent new operating revenues. Today, recurring growth has flattened while inflationary pressures, operating costs, personnel costs, benefits, and pension obligations continue to increase. Seaside also remains particularly sensitive to the changes in sales tax, specifically automobile-related economic activity. at the same time several major development opportunities remain important to the future fiscal outlook however but the timing of those revenues are somewhat outside the direct control of the city seaside for that reason the recommended approach is proactive realism disciplined restraint and long-term recovery most should we should be optimistic about seaside's opportunities but conservative conservative in how we manage those current operations next slide This slide presents the core general fund picture that should be guiding our discussions. The proposed budget includes approximately $51.3 million in operating revenues and approximately $52.9 million in operating expenditures, producing an operating deficit of roughly $1.5 million. In addition, the budget supports approximately $819,000 in general fund capital investment and approximately $2.4 million in street maintenance and repair activity. The budget also continues 22 frozen positions as a major expenditure control measure. Even with those controls, the proposed budget projects reserves at approximately 88% of the city's policy target. The finance director will provide a detailed schedules and reconciliation of these amounts. My emphasis here is on the management meeting behind those numbers. This budget uses reserve capacity as a limited bridge to maintain essential services while preserving the organization's ability to deliver council priorities while we implement our recovery actions. Reserve use is not being recommended as a permanent operating strategy. It should be viewed as a capacity for additional discretionary commitments and should not be viewed as a capacity for additional discretionary commitments. Next slide, please. The city's fund balance position should be viewed in context. General fund balance grew significantly during a period of Seaside received one-time resources and benefited from unusually strong sales tax activity. That financial strength allowed the city to respond to local service needs, make community investments, and support organizational priorities. As those temporary revenue conditions ended and recurring operating costs continued to increase, the City began relying more heavily on the accumulated fund balance for those ongoing services, infrastructure needs, and certain operational commitments. The FY26-27 budget begins the necessary transition away from reliance on this temporary financial strength and towards a more sustainable recurring structure. The proposed reserve strategy is deliberate to protect essential services, preserve workforce capacity, and limit additional discretionary commitments while recovery actions are advanced. With reserves projected at approximately 88% of the policy targets, we retain meaningful resources, but our flexibility is narrowing. This should reinforce the need for discipline in every new spending decision. Next slide. One of the most important management considerations in the proposed budget is service continuity and workforce capacity. 22 positions remain frozen as a significant cost control measure, and the city is operating with active staffing levels approximately equivalent to fiscal year 2021 and 22. At the same time, our operational responsibilities have not returned to those 2021 levels. The city is advancing major capital projects, managing complex development initiatives, administering grants, responding to regulatory demands, and continuing to meet the day-to-day service expectations of the community. The proposed budget therefore prioritizes preservation of the current field workforce. Existing employees are delivering core services and moving council priorities forward with constrained capacity. We'll continue to pursue efficiencies, improve processes and technology enhancements, and stronger cost recovery where we can and as appropriate. However, I cannot responsibly recommend further workforce reductions as a simple budget saving measure. Any deeper reductions must be accompanied by transparent council discussions regarding service level impacts, slower project delivery, operational risk, and change expectations for the community. Next slide. Fiscal discipline does not mean the city stops making progress. Seaside continues to advance important and community initiatives, including the Broadway Complete Streets project, the citywide curb ramps, Laguna Grande Recreation Trail, the San Pablo pedestrian bridge and pavement rehabilitation. These improvements are being advanced largely through grants, restricted revenues and partnerships, which allow us to protect limited general fund operating capacity. At the same time, fiscal recovery requires more than just capital investment. It requires strategic planning, targeted technology and process improvements, and a disciplined focus on organizational efficiency and financial reporting. Revenue diversification is broader than just any one major development project. The Seaside Grand Hyatt Hotel and Resort, Campus Town, Main Gate, and West Broadway represent meaningful opportunities to expand tourism, commercial activity, housing, and future recurring revenues. But we must also strengthen existing business activity, address sales tax leakage, and carefully evaluate additional recurring revenue opportunities. Most importantly, this budget does not assume new revenue before it's realized or formally approved. We need to manage current operations conservatively while actively pursuing projects, efficiencies, and additional revenue strategies necessary for long-term recovery. Next slide. As we move into the more detailed workshop discussion, I would ask Council view the budget through several policy lenses. First, does the budget appropriately protect core services and the current workforce capacity needed to deliver them? Second, is the proposed limited use of reserves acceptable as a bridge while recovery actions are implemented? And third, how should the City address recurring pressures in street operations and prioritize general fund supported capital commitments? This budget also proposes a stronger accountability framework. Beginning October 26, quarterly fiscal updates would provide Council with information on operating performance, reserve projections, revenue trends, economic development milestones, and any recommended corrective actions. Those updates will allow Council and staff to respond proactively rather than waiting for the next annual budget cycle. proposed budget is fiscally honest and operationally responsible. It recognizes the seriousness of our current position while preserving the capacity necessary to serve the community and pursue long-term economic recovery. With that framing, I will now turn the presentation over to our finance director for a more detailed budget summary.

Thank you. Dominique, do you want me to take control? And while we set up the presentation, I just want to verify that my microphone is working okay. At this distance. Closer. Okay, thank you. thank you um good evening honorable mayor members of the council and members of the public thank you for joining us for this fiscal year 2026-27 budget study session uh tonight i'll begin with an overview of the proposed budget the city's overall fiscal outlook and then we'll move before we move forward we'll go into the individual department presentations over the next two meeting days This year's budget really reflects more than a standard annual budget process. It represents a period of fiscal transition and organizational adaption as temporary revenue growth moderates while operating costs continue to increase. The proposed budget focuses on preserving core services, maintaining organizational capacity and advancing long-term economic development strategies while also taking deliberate steps toward a long-term fiscal sustainable path. I'll begin with a brief review of recent fiscal policies and also just one brief proposed update. because several of our fiscal policies continue to shape the development of the proposed budget. First is the streets funding policy. The city commits 30% of realized general fund surplus towards pavement rehabilitation and street related expenditures. Historically, this policy primarily supported capital improvements, but over time portions have increasingly supported ongoing operations. staff continues evaluating long-term solutions that create more sustainability and predictability in funding sources second is a pension funding policy under which 20 percent of realized year-end surplus after reserve requirements are met is contributed to the city's section 115 pension trust this strategy helps address future pension liabilities and stabilizes long-term costs and lastly staff proposes updating the property tax accrual policy to recognize property taxes received within 60 days of year end and this is simply just to improve consistency with government accounting standards now looking first at the city-wide budget across all funds The total fund balance has declined approximately 80.4 million in fiscal year 24-25 to a projected 69 million in fiscal year 25-26 and is proposed at approximately 56.5 million in 2026-27. For fiscal year 26-27, revenues total approximately $72.3 million, expenditures at $81.6 million, resulting in a decrease of approximately $9.3 million. The decrease primarily reflects planned investments, including $5.6 million in capital project expenditures for parks, government buildings, transportation, and stormwater. $819,000 in new general and also $819,000 in new general fund appropriations towards CIP, $1.3 million in fora bond expenditures, $3.2 million in sanitation district capital projects, and $2.8 million in street operations. These expenditures reflect intentional use of the available resources to maintain infrastructure and continue community investment. looking at revenues across all funds. Revenue is projected to increase approximately 4.6 million or 7% over the prior year projections. Most major revenue categories remain relatively stable with the largest increase occurring within grant activity. Key anticipated grant funding includes approximately 9.9 million for the Broadway Avenue Complete Streets project, an additional 4 million in support for that project from the RSTP funding, $1.8 million in Prop 47 funding supporting community-based mental health and substance abuse services. These investments allow the city to continue advancing important community projects while reducing pressure on unrestricted general fund resources. And keep in mind, most of the city's grants are reimbursement based, meaning we recognize the revenue as eligible project costs are incurred. So while we expect approximately 9.9 million from the ATP grant for the Broadway Avenue Complete Streets project overall, the work and reimbursements will most likely occur over multiple years. At the all funds level, expenditures are expected to increase by approximately 3.6 million or 5%. The largest increase continues to be personnel costs, which are projected to rise by approximately 3.5 million. And this increase is largely driven by assumptions for the fiscal impact of anticipated benefits in the current ongoing labor negotiations, as well as existing measurable increases in pension costs and medical benefit costs. Medical benefit costs are expected to increase by 12% or $864,000 to $5.6 million. And I just want to note a clarification in the budget that said the costs increased by $4.4 million, but they increased $864,000 to still a significant amount of $5.6 million. pension costs are projected to reach 8.6 million across all funds due to the city's increase in CalPERS unfunded accrued liabilities The city's long-term pension obligations remain a significant financial challenge with annual general fund pension costs expected to grow as much as 9.6 million, which is 70% of general fund expenditures by 2032. To help manage immediate pressure, the city has frozen 22 vacant positions in fiscal year 2026-27 and expansion from two positions frozen in the prior year. To help manage these costs, the proposed budget has 22 frozen vacant positions. Excuse me, I am repeating myself there. But we are reflecting ongoing efforts to preserve fiscal stability while maintaining essential services. The services and supplies category at the all funds level is projected to increase by 9% or 1.9 million in fiscal year 26-27. A large portion of this increase is tied to non-general fund activities, so mostly 2 million from the roll forward of the behavioral health continuum of care and services Prop 47 grant, which supports expanded community-based programs. also the 8.8 million capital improvement program on the all funds level consists for projects that are rolling forward that began in previous years overall capital project funded project funding is projected to increase decrease though by 21 compared to fiscal year 25 26. And this reflects completion of several major transportation, bond funded, stormwater, and general capital improvement projects that were active in fiscal year 25-26. However, certain infrastructure investments continue, including increased sanitation-related capital expenditures funded through dedicated non-general fund sources. And as I will note later, when we look closer at the general fund, new general fund support for capital improvements has been substantially reduced from previous years and is approximately 819,000 as the city continues limiting discretionary use of the general fund resources. So on this next slide is the same table I had for all funds. So if you bring your attention to the top of the slide, which shows the fund balance trend for three years. The fiscal year 24-25, the actual fund balance was $36.7 million, projected for 25-26 is $31.9 million, and proposed for 26-27 is $27.2 million. proposed 2627 general fund budget includes 51.3 million in operating revenues and 52.8 million in operating expenditures which includes operating some operating transfers and results in an operating deficit of approximately 1.5 million On the non-operating side with a capital budget, we don't have a specific revenue for the capital budget that fits within our operating revenue, but we do have fund balance. So we're using $819,000 of unassigned fund balance to support $819,000 of new capital expenditures and proposing $2.4 million for street maintenance and repairs. So if you put it all together in summary, because there's a lot on this slide, we're forecasting $51.3 million in revenue. We're using $3.2 million of unassigned fund balance to fund capital expenditures and support street maintenance and operations with our operating expenditures of 52.8 million. That's a total proposed expenditure amount of 56.1 million. so the impact of this operating deficit deficit means that the proposed use of fund balance uh uh will cause the unassigned fund balance to have a shortfall of about 1.9 million and this will be brought back on a later slide uh during this uh introduction and overview of the budget Again, you can, looking at general fund revenues on the next slide, you can see the three-year trend at the top of the slide. Actual revenue growth in fiscal year 24-25 reached 56.2 million, and this included a one-time revenue of 6 million for the sale of Campus TEM. Projected for fiscal year 25-26 is 48.9 million in revenue, and forecast for fiscal year 26-27 is 51.3 million. This chart shows a three-year comparison of our top five revenue sources, which is property tax, sales and use tax, transaction tax, transient occupancy tax, and utility user tax. Property tax revenues for 26-27 are projected to increase approximately 2% or 290,000, increasing from about 12.7 million to 13 million. although mortgage interest rates seem to have stabilized at a higher level limited housing inventory has continued supporting higher property values contributing to increased assessed valuations and property tax growth new development activity including projects such as the seagrove apartment development which completed in early 2025 and the enclave development continues contributing to the city's long-term property tax base Sales and use tax began to show a projected decline in the current fiscal year, fiscal year 25-26, and estimates from our sales tax consultant indicate that this trend may reverse, but only modestly in 26-27, with sales and use tax mostly expected to grow only 1%. While inflationary pricing can support sales tax growth in certain sectors, slower overall consumer activity and broader economic uncertainty are expected to limit significant growth in this revenue category in 26-27. And furthermore, reports from our sales tax consultant also indicate a continued lag in the category of auto sales, which is the city's largest sales tax revenue category. Transaction tax, similarly, is basically expected, which, excuse me, it's the same as sales and use tax, but it's our local 1% add-on tax, and it's expected to decline 1% in fiscal year 26-27. For fiscal year 26-27, transient occupancy tax revenues are projected to increase approximately 8%, reaching about 4.9 million compared to 4.5 million projected for fiscal year 25-26. And that increase reflects continued strength in regional tourism activity and lodging demand, in addition to improved tax collections for the short-term rental portion of the 12% transient occupancy tax. utility user tax is expected to increase nine percent due to increasing utility rates and in the past we have seen these utility user tax revenue growth exceeding the rate of inflation now looking at general fund expenditures The trend at the top begins with the actual expenditures without considering our normal operating transfers that we include in the operating budget. So the amounts for 24-25 are at $51.7 million. Projected expenditures for fiscal year 25-26 at $46.8 million and forecast for 26-27 is $50.1 million. This chart is a three-year comparison of the top three expenditure categories, which are personnel services, services and supplies, and internal service charges. Overall, not including transfers, we're proposing an increase of 5.7 million, or 13%. This increase comes after staff started with a fiscal year 2526 budget adjusted for expenditures for only known cost increases such as inflation for utilities. And the city manager made an additional 569,000 in cuts for items that could be considered discretionary. In order to balance the budget though, department-wide the city would need to cut expenditures a further 3%. Personnel services are projected to increase approximately 7% or 2.5 million in 26-27, primarily due to rising pension obligations, increasing healthcare costs, and contractual compensation adjustments. Personnel costs continue to represent the city's largest operating expenditure category at approximately 74% of general fund expenditures. And to help manage these costs, the city has continued implementing expenditure reduction strategies over multiple years. In 23-24, reducing services and supplies by 6%, freezing six positions. The following year, reducing services and supplies by 8%, freezing 11 positions. The next year, a 10% reduction in services and supplies and 20 frozen positions, which brings us to fiscal year 26-27 with 22 positions frozen. The proposed staffing level returns the organization to approximately the fiscal year 21-22 levels, while departments continue implementing operational efficiencies and technology improvements intended to help maintain service levels. The services and supplies category are expected to increase by 15% or $1.4 million in fiscal year 26-27. And this increase is primarily attributed to rising costs and services such as city utilities, including water and gas and electric expenses where there's limited flexibility for cost reduction. However, overall efforts to control costs have led all departments to evaluate and reduce discretionary spending where possible. Internal service charges here increased 441,000 or 19%. The rates of our internal service costs are set to cover the costs provided and maintain initially a 25% fund balance as a reserve. In fiscal year 26-27, these reserves were realigned to stay within a target range of 15% of annual expenditures. And normal cost increases are still occurring in these internal service funds. The vehicle and equipment maintenance fund faces rising fuel and repair costs. The IT fund continues to see growing expenses for software used citywide. And the insurance fund is experiencing an average 20% increase in premiums for liabilities and workers' compensation coverage. I don't have the transfers out listed on this slide, although they're noted at the end of this budget overview. But I will note that the transfers out are going to consist of the stormwater fund expenditures, which do not have any other funding source other than the general fund. so that is about a million dollars being transferred from the general fund to stormwater fund and then there's 571 000 transferred to the affordable housing fund again that's that's 50 of the city's transient occupancy tax collected from short-term rentals and established for ordinance And we have the Coutinho Park debt service, which is $373,000, which is transferred out from the general fund. And in addition to that, the proposed use of fund balance then will include $819,000 proposed for CIP projects and $2.4 million proposed for street operations and maintenance. um i didn't go over the department variances at this time because we're going to go over each department as we move through the budget study session the following section presents the city's long-term financial forecast which includes five years of historical results updated fiscal year 2526 projections and five years of forward-looking estimates the forecast is intended to provide a high-level view of the financial trend and identify factors that may influence future budgets Revenue and expenditure projections are based on historical trends, consultant input, and known cost assumptions. And certain future costs are more predictable, such as pension obligations, which are currently projected to increase approximately 14% annually over the next four years due to CalPERS assumptions and growth in unfunded liabilities. forecasts the forecast also reflects the city's transition from a period supported by temporary revenue sources to a more sustainable long-term financial structure as was uh mentioned in the city manager's introduction there was a significant benefit in fiscal year 21-22 through 22-23 from approximately a $9 million one-time ARPA funding and elevated sales tax activity that strengthened the fund balance. And those conditions have now normalized and recurring expenditures have continued to grow faster than recurring revenues. So this updated 2627 forecast incorporates the projected results for 2526, budget amendments, current reserve funding levels, and updated general fund support assumptions for street operations. The forecast reinforces the need to maintain expenditure discipline, improve operational efficiencies, and continue pursuing long-term revenue strategies. And the operating so just a brief overview of the operating outlook it's personal costs again that remains the city's largest expenditure and continues to be a major factor in in affecting the long term financial sustainability. As expenditure growth continues to outpace revenue growth, operating deficits are projected over the near term. These conditions create an ongoing challenge in replenishing reserves and sustaining current levels of capital investment, street operations, and other long-term funding priorities. So strategies used in prior years, such as deferring capital projects and reducing transfers, are becoming less effective as long-term solutions. Moving forward, maintaining fiscal stability will require a balanced approach that combines expenditure management, operational efficiencies and long-term revenue growth. Staff will continue to monitor financial performance through fiscal year 26-27 and provide quarterly updates to the city council beginning in October 2026. And as far as the development outlook goes, economic development remains the important long-term strategy for strengthening the city's financial position. and diversifying revenue sources. Major projects include the Grand Hyatt Seaside Hotel and Resort, Campustown Main Gate mixed-use development, and West Broadway Urban Village are all expected to contribute to future revenue growth through property tax, sales tax, transient occupancy tax, and just broader economic activity. While our long-term analysis indicates these projects are expected to generate a positive fiscal impact, it's really the near-term implementation and infrastructure costs that can continue to contribute to our current financial pressures. So the overall outlook, this updated long-term forecast continues to reflect key challenges. Expenditure growth is occurring at a faster pace than recurring revenue growth. the focus moving forward is not simply balancing a single budget year but strengthening the city's long-term financial sustainability this slide highlights one of the city's key again financial challenges and strengthening the long-term financial sustainability where we have our we're experiencing situation where our investments are not matched by ongoing revenue sources and as temporary funding is normalized expenditure growth is continued while recurring revenue growth has slowed so the table at the bottom indicates that the general fund balance is projected to decrease by approximately 4.7 million and that's due to a 1.5 million operating deficit And continued use of fund balance for capital projects, which brings the unassigned fund balance to a negative amount of $305,000. And then ongoing support for street maintenance and operations, which is now bringing the unassigned fund balance to $1.9 million. And overall, several reserve levels are funded at 88%. This proposed budget results in a negative unassigned fund balance of 1.9 million. And this slide also just shows the breakdown of other fund balance components that are already committed, restricted, or reserved for specific purposes, including emergency reserves, capital reserves, the pension obligation, and other existing commitments. So staff will present potential strategies in the budget study session and again combine that with continued quarterly updates to the City Council beginning in October 2026. These are the strategies listed on the slide proposed for strengthening the fund balance. They're largely the same as they were presented when the city faced a negative unassigned fund balance in the development of the 2526 budget with one additional six strategy included at the end. So the first strategy, which was simply reducing discretionary spending, the strategy focuses on continuing efforts already underway to manage operating costs and identify additional opportunities for expenditures and reductions. already uh as indicated by the trend in reduce increasing reductions in services and supplies from six percent to ten percent from 23 24 to 25 26 and also freezing positions from six to currently proposed at 22 uh the city is starting to really face um a challenge in continuing to reduce discretionary spending for the development of the 26-27 budget again staff began with the prior year's adopted budget and only adjusted for inflationary and mandatory mandatory cost increases in utilities required contracts and equipment costs departments continued efforts to limit discretionary spending And while the city manager's office also completed their own additional review and reduced the budget further by $569,000 and also is identifying and tracking any other expenditures that could have potential for deferral. While departments have reduced many discretionary items over several years, the strategy does, however, allow an opportunity as we move through the budget study session to identify any additional non-essential expenditures that could be delayed or eliminated to strengthen the fund balance. The second strategy is to defer or re-scope general fund funded capital projects. The strategy focuses on preserving the unrestricted resources by delaying select capital projects that are funded by general fund resources. The proposed budget includes a new appropriation proposed at $819,000 for general fund supported capital projects. uh and deferring the projects may not necessarily eliminate them but delay implementation in order to reduce immediate pressure on available fund balance sources and staff recognize recognizes the importance of continuing investments in infrastructure and facilities that the current environment may require prior prioritization The Public Works Director will provide additional information regarding projects that may be deferred or active projects that could possibly be rescoped to limit the costs in the second day of the study session tomorrow with a Public Works presentation. The third strategy is to reduce general fund transfers to street operations. So just to recap, street operations and maintenance generally includes staff time, street sweeping, some debt service for equipment, and maintenance on the lights, citywide lights. This is also really a temporary solution. The city's long-term forecast has now been modified to clearly highlight the increasing level of general fund support required to sustain street operations. Since fiscal year 2425, staff has intentionally integrated the street operations into the long-term financial plan to better illustrate the ongoing impact of these costs and improve visibility into the future funding needs. and staff has also worked in the past year to stabilize street operation expenditures through cost containment measures efficiencies evaluation of alternative alternative service delivery methods and performing more rehabilitation work in-house for fusible and as a result of the efforts Reducing the proposed general fund transfer, which is currently proposed at 2.4 million by 850,000 may be feasible in the near term without significantly changing the current operating deficit in the streets fund. So the next strategy would be, again, this was a strategy that was brought to the council in the development of the fiscal year 25-26 budget, which is to release funds from the section 115 pension trust. The city established this trust as a long-term strategy to address pension liabilities, reduce future financial pressures through investment growth and long-term cost stabilization. Potential savings could total up to $5.2 million, which could provide meaningful short-term relief to the general fund. However, using these funds today would reduce future investment earnings and would weaken the city's long-term pension funding strategy. This option really only provides immediate flexibility, but could involve balancing near-term financial needs against long-term financial objectives. finally strategy five uh is again a strategy that was prevented in prior years which is workforce realignment and service sustainability which considers adjustments and potential labor-related cost measures as a possible expenditure reduction option however staff does not view this as a desirable approach currently with 22 vacant positions frozen this represents approximately staffing levels 12% below our optimal operating level. And we've already also on the back of implementing multiple years of expenditure reductions, it's been difficult to have these staffing constraints additional workforce reductions or potential labor concessions could generate short term savings. But staff believes opportunities are increasingly limited and connect could negatively affect service delivery, organizational capacity, employee retention, and potentially public safety functions. So again, staff recommends pursuing these more operational efficiencies and expenditure management strategies and long-term revenue solutions before considering actions that could impact employees or service levels. And the goal just remains maintaining service sustainability and preserving cities' ability to continue meeting community needs. And the sixth strategy, which is a new strategy, really focuses on financial resilience through ongoing strategic action. The strategy focuses on fiscal sustainability through ongoing monitoring, operational improvements, and revenue enhancement measures. While individual expenditure reductions can provide short-term relief, long-term financial stability will require a much broader approach. And that will need to combine operational efficiencies, improved cost recovery and fee collections, grant opportunities, economic development efforts, and continued expansion of recurring revenue sources. staff is also committing to a more proactive monitoring approach and will begin providing quarterly financial updates to the city council beginning in october 26 and these updates will allow staff and council to monitor progress evaluate changing conditions and make timely adjustments when they're very much necessary at this time The objective is to create an ongoing process for strengthening fund balance and improving the long term financial position rather than relying solely on one time corrective actions. So as part of the proposed budget, I'll just bring forward a few administrative and policy items that are part of the financial framework. Proposed appropriations limit is 50.9 million, which places the city approximately 6.9 million below the appropriations limit. Staff is also proposing an annual fee schedule adjusted based on a 3.3% consumer price index increase. which is the regular adjustment permitted under the city ordinance staff will return in july on july 2nd at the regular city council meeting with a comprehensive update to the master fee schedule based on a few study that's been completed over the past year to better align fees with costs of providing services um no updates are proposed to the city's investment policy at this time and the overall the city recognizes that these actions considered during this 26-27 budget process may improve the near-term outlook but may not independently restore a positive operating position and continued progress will likely require a proactive year-long effort focused on revenue growth, operational efficiency, and expenditure management. The city staff remains committed to maintaining essential public services, strengthening the long-term fiscal sustainability, advancing strategic development projects, improving organizational efficiency, and maintaining accountability through measurable action and regular reporting. We'll return to these strategies for further discussion and seek council direction at the conclusion of tomorrow's study session. And with that, this concludes the budget summary presentation and I'm available to answer any questions at this time before we transition to the individual department presentations.

thank you so much are there any questions at this time uh let's start at this end um council member miller and then council member arizola and then uh no pretend thank you on the 115 plan can we go over that slide the option there's option three strategy three four excuse me this is our account now has 5.2 million How much does that earn typically over a year?

There's a few different factors that contribute to that. I'll have to look at that and I can report that back to you at tomorrow's study session. But that 5.3 million did account for the projected impact of the 20% pension funding policy. So while it earns a return, It also has a cash inflow. So we'd have to just control for that cash inflow to really understand what the investment return is.

Money comes out. And so are those invested in the market, that plan?

They are invested in a trust that has a investment policy that is designed to earn a higher rate than if they were invested in CalPERS.

I see. So it's invested on the regular market.

It's invested in a special fund. So I'm actually, I'm not sure if you could clarify what you mean by regular market.

Well, I mean, like, is it traded on the regular stock exchange? I mean, are these in mutual funds and bonds or are these in special index funds?

There is a specific fund with an investment focus, and I can also look into that and report that back to you tomorrow.

And I think I heard several times over the presentation, you said that our sales tax revenue is down and economic growth is one of our strategies to stabilize our budget. And so we have a slide on the sales tax. Can we go back to that slide?

This includes our general fund revenue and shows oftentimes I speak about sales tax more generally to include sales and use tax, as well as transaction tax, which combined are almost 50% of the city's general fund revenue base. But here, they're separate on two different bullet points there, where one is projected to increase 1% and the other category, which is almost equally going to decline by 1%. And that characterizes the trend in sales and use tax and transaction tax since 23-24.

understood because when i when i was listening to the presentation i heard multiple times that a strategy that the city needs to implement to to stabilize our budget is to have economic have economic growth is that

that's correct and that would be targeting this trend in sales and use tax and try to improve that while there would be with consultants who helped us develop the long-term financial plan there are some key development projects that would increase that significantly and more quickly for instance the seaside Grand Hyatt Resort and Hotel was projected to increase sales and use tax and transaction tax by $1 million annually. But we can also support the growth throughout the city and target other areas such as our downtown West Broadway urban village area.

Right. It's something that we've been having to do that for many years now and we haven't done too much there. Thank you very much for the presentation.

Thank you. Just pulling on the TOT thread, what is our current TOT percentage?

12%.

Where are we on the scale amongst other municipalities on the peninsula?

I am familiar with the City of Marina, which I believe is at 14%, or proposing 14%, and the City of Monterey, which is at 10%. And just to add a little color onto that, it's important to consider that maybe some cities would be able to manage a lower TOT rate if their base tourism is much higher. was increasing tot considered or was that an option during throughout this budget process um so i think part of the um uh quarterly reporting commitment from staff will be to crystallize those into clear proposals and uh implement time implementation timelines if we feel that they're feasible okay

so going back to my first question we're somewhere in the middle with our tot percentage that's correct and we have capacity to increase it should we choose to it would have to be a voter approved measure okay and then my question was on strategy number six i heard a lot about economic development, proactive executive leadership, accountability, and cross-department collaboration. What are we talking about when we're saying those types of phrases in the plan?

I think what we initially started to discuss internally was just getting different ideas from the different directors who I guess just to make sure that if any individual idea is feasible or could be proposed, that it doesn't take away or undermine a different but equally successful proposal. An example could be, you know, so two initiatives that happened in 2425 were We sold a portion of Campus Town for $6 million. So we saw that $56.2 million in fiscal year 24-25 here in our operating revenue. During the same year, it was partially offset by the timing of acquiring several hundred acre feet of water from the municipal water system. So that is an asset, but it did reduce that fund balance that we had available from the campus town sale to immediately put into other development initiatives, such as the demolition of buildings for phase two on Campus Town. So there, I think, are a lot of ideas that I've heard from other directors, and I think it's important to have a coordinated effort to maximize the impact of all those great ideas.

Could I add to that, just briefly?

anytime you want to jump in and ask these questions you jump in some questions

Thank you. In addition to strategic action, obviously staff is going to have to look at additional revenue-generating opportunities, and so vet those opportunities and bring those recommendations to city council for further discussion and consideration. That could be anything from TOT increase, sales tax increase, whatever those revenue opportunities are, we'll bring those fully vetted to the city council throughout those quarterly updates. In addition to the large-scale economic development, projects we've talked about, a lot of our focus is also going to be securing existing sales tax dollars that are leaving our community through leakage. And so we have the leakage reports, and we have to take those through a five-year action plan, an economic development action plan that's currently in draft form that's getting ready to go see jobs for review and discussion. I know Laura Collada is going to talk about that briefly during the department review. It's more than just the transparency and corollary updates. We'd be bringing specific actions back to the city council for consideration.

And I appreciate that. Just before I make another point, we're going to receive a report on leakage? Correct. Okay. How confident are we that strategy six will be successful? Like, shouldn't we already be doing that? That's where I'm trying to get at. Like, I don't think it should be a strategy in and of itself.

Yeah, we've started some preliminary research on those additional revenue generating methods, but we certainly, you know, timing is also critical for elections and ballots. And so we've looked at those schedules and those are stuff that we need to bring back to the city council for further discussion.

Thank you.

thank you mayor i guess look my way well i'll just remind i want you to do everything you want to do i'll remind the council we have a full two days worth of hearing the budget presentation so trying to figure out the answers now before we even know what else is going on um puts the staff and the city manager at a disadvantage so please continue uh this uh goes both to the city manager and to the finance director uh based on the

monumental book here we have here and first of all thank you for your uh time energy and putting this together in your presentation uh and your discussion this morning uh was also very helpful so just going back from the beginning of the report mr city manager i guess or the finance director sounds like we have 22 frozen positions of what you said um a 52 million dollar budget based on all we know that the the this is not going to end anytime soon according to the financial uh report for the upcoming years um is that a correct statement that we may have this process for the next couple years as far as getting out of this hole and filling some of those positions correct it's reasonable that many of the vacancies will remain frozen until the city restores that structural balance or identifies additional sustainable revenue and then constantly i guess i hear maybe all of us um that 75 or 4 of the budget is staff i'm guessing and i'll ask this question in a little bit two to eight percent may be consultants uh and then you're trying to improve city services but a major chunk of your budget, maybe 84, 80%, 79%, whatever it may be, you still got to provide services. How do you do that or try to get better at that when staff percentage is so high?

Yeah, I think that's twofold. Again, with the frozen positions that we've identified, staffing is back to the 2020-2021 levels. And so we've reduced staff considerably in order to present this budget. And of course, when we remove additional expenditures, projects, consultants, services, a higher percentage of the general fund is going to be remaining for personnel. We've cut as much expenditures in other categories as we can, which thereby increases the percentage of the general fund budget that's towards personnel.

And then I think you're looking at creative ways to solving this, and I don't want to get into that, but there was a lot of words on there that maybe the general public don't grab. Is there any any specific things from like hard meat and potato kind of things that the average resident can grasp on to hold on and say this is what we're going to do and i'm not talking 100 000 day i'm talking one or two three things that people can touch and feel rather than a lot of words that you may understand but may not be graspable at this time if that makes sense let me let me jump in there

And I appreciate the questions, but he can't answer how he's going to do that until you guys share the whole budget and you say, has he cut enough in each department? Do you want him to do this? Do you want him to do that? And so I think it's hard for him to say his answers to solving this issue before you weighed in and all of the majority weigh in about, is he on the right track with the complete budget? You're asking him to solve the issues in the budget before the rest of us has said what we think should happen. And so if he solved it to your completion, how does he solve it to our completion?

I was kind of thinking more of, I'm making this up, increasing the TOT tax. investing more monies and finding easier way for small business to invest in seaside so they can get started. Something that that's the kind of, you know, I'm not saying those are answers. I'm saying those are, but I'm fine with moving on. You mentioned the two frozen positions. What are they?

we froze oh sorry uh the administrative assistant in the city clerk's office the as a the communication specialist position has recently been filled and we'll assume some of those duties uh but we also froze the economic development director position and that was also aligned with um opening up the recreation director position thank you um what

percentage of the budget is consultants?

A very small amount. I'm looking at the number here. We have budgeted for 26-27 about $880,000 in consultant services. That's better than last year because last year it was higher, as I recall. modest change uh so the changes uh department-wide there was an increase in the city manager's office for consultant services for the economic development initiatives um 50 000 in the city attorney's office for cons um uh areas related to the fort or development and there were us that was kind of balanced by also declines in community development and um the engineering department kind of a wash

I do want to add, though, that consultants, there are a lot of needs that the city of Seaside has that cannot be filled directly by staff, specialized services.

What percentage of the budget is this internal services? I count 20%, but I'm sure I'm wrong. Or 18, 19, was I come up there, but I'm probably wrong based on that.

I can report that back to you tomorrow.

And then on page 66, I think it says that 2% growth in property tax are a growth factor. Is that considering houses to be sold hopefully by January of next year, February of next year for CampusTown?

No, and I think the answer is that would go against the The direction we're trying to avoid, which is budgeting our expenditures, planning on the hopeful completion of a project. We would rather use the projections, which is actually provided by a third party consultant, which is more aligned with the direction of our currently assessed values.

So trying to find the silver lining here, and that's not included. if we are blessed and fortunate where houses are sold, that will go to the good side for us.

Yes.

Okay. And this is on page 72. And I think you're going to talk about this later, but in the recreation area, the 63% it says mostly in internal fees. And I see a lot of those internal fees It appears to me, I think it was 800,000 growth from the previous year. Can you talk a little bit about that? And it seems hurtful to impact a lot of the individual departments positively and negatively, depending on the department.

That's a great question. And it's important to address that before we get into the department presentations, because that includes so internal services, one of which is our insurance fund, which gets charged out to the various departments. And the insurance fund did have a noticeable increase. So that's one part of it. But the other increase comes from indirect costs, which is also called central services as a line item in the budget. We did reach out to our consultant who performed our fee study to also perform our indirect cost plan. So this is a modeled cost that's performed by a third party consultant. And it did result in larger variances in some of the budgets. So primarily the departments that were primarily impacted by this includes the recreation department and the community development department. We saw a large increase in the indirect costs charged to their department. The reason for the recreation department is because the new methodology accounted for square or put a greater weight on square footage and the recreation department has the largest square footage for its operations. i'm i'm just throwing this out as i recall the city council's uh internal fees jumped up to us i think 600 000 for the yeah from the city council and that's what yeah oh excuse me so that was a third party so that is the a third department that was impacted and that's the other side so you have various departments who are the administrative overhead and they receive um sort of a reimbursement So a good example is the city clerk's office where the city clerk is performing staff report duties and monitoring the council meetings on behalf of all the departments who are reimbursing that administrative overhead costs. uh well one thing that changed in this report is that boards and commissions used to be included in the city clerk's uh budget but now it's included in the city council so now the city council is seeing the reimbursement for the administrative overhead costs of committees the city clerk's budget looks very pretty comparatively from what these are my last question this is so on page 73

the report says overall, and it relates to recreation, I believe, it does relate to recreation, says overall these changes, which is tied into the 63%, highlight both ongoing investments in personnel and expanded services to support community services. And it sounds to me, and I hope I'm not sure I'm right, is that it sounds like they're adding programs and dollars to the budget without the budget being approved. Am I misreading that?

Yes, we'll detail the Recreation Department in tomorrow's study session. But just from what I know from reviewing the budget documents, there are the only program increases that are significant from the Recreation Department are grant funded. That's a Prop 47 grant. But in addition to that, we did move the senior activity program

into the general fund which was previously funded by a trust but that's now been uh drawn down so in a nutshell i think i heard good good news here from for me personally the recreation department is not just spending money because they have a great idea for the sake of having a great idea and providing that service they have to go through the budget schedule as appropriate correct yes okay i think that's all my questions um

I don't have very many questions. City Manager responded to a lot of them. I think really looking at the TOT is going to be something I'd like to see, but actually hearing from the different departments so that I can just make better decisions and hear some of the suggestions and strategies before. So thank you both.

Thank you. Going on, Mr. City Manager?

That'd be great.

Okay.

Want to do a break?

I don't know, Mr. Perkins. You've got the gavel. The mayor said 6.30? He wanted a break at 6.30. Okay, we're going to take a break at 6.30 for 10 minutes. That's what she said.

I'm just going by what the lady said.

mayor and the city council it's important to explain both why this budget includes uh includes and why the net totals may appear initially counterintuitive this department includes not only direct expenses associated with the mayor and the city council but this also includes the expenditures of our city commissions most notably this includes the allocations associated with the neighborhood improvement commission and council directed use of transient occupancy tax revenues within defined percentages by resolution and while this is in the city council's budget the staff liaison is under the city manager city manager's office and so assistant city manager dan mewis will be presenting the nic recommendations at the next item or the next department section with a proposed budget services implies services supplies in this fund or in this budget increase approximately 623 000 projected into the current year to approximately 100 uh one 0.03 million for fiscal year 2026-2027 which is an increase of roughly 410 000. that increase primarily reflects higher anticipated tot supported allocations for the neighborhood improvement commission and council directed neighborhood park and community improvement projects the current year projection also requires some context these allocations are often transferred from the department budget as seen here into the capital improvement program once a specific project is approved and implemented For example, during the current fiscal year, approximately $250,000 was reallocated from the City Council's budget to Lincoln Cunningham Park playground equipment in the Capital Improvements Fund. As those projects move into implementation, the expenditures may no longer remain visible within this departmental operating projection. At the same time, the net budget for the legislative body does not increase. It actually decreases from approximately 613,000 projected in the current fiscal year to approximately 305,000 proposed in the next fiscal year, a reduction of approximately 308,000. That reduction occurs because the budget includes a substantially larger negative internal services and central support charges allocation, increasing an offset of approximately 212,000 in the current projection year to an offset of approximately 878,000 in the proposed budget. Finance is prepared to explain that allocation methodology and the reason for that increased offset in greater detail if necessary. The important takeaway is that this budget provides greater capacity for council and commission-directed community investments supported by projected TOT revenues, while the net departmental expenditure budget decreases after application of the central support allocation offset. just a little bit about the slide that recognizes the upcoming budget is built upon the work already advanced under council direction during the past year the council's continued positioning for seaside as a long-term economic opportunity the city advanced the main gate mixed-use development through an exclusive exclusive negotiating agreement continued coordination on campus town and supported progress associated with the grand hyatt seaside hotel and resort These are not simply development initiative projects. These are long-term opportunities to strengthen our housing, visitor activity, commercial investment, and future recurring revenues. The Council also continued supporting housing and various initiatives, including the 1620 Broadway Density Bonus Agreement requiring 21 affordable housing units alongside with various community investments in parks and neighborhood improvement. looking forward the proposed budget continues to align with four broad policy priorities housing and infrastructure equity economic development revenue diversification public safety and community wellness and transparent responsible governance with that i'd be happy to answer any questions on specifically on the legislative budget our council member miller we have a consultant i didn't for affairs in sacramento right origo

We have a legislative consultant.

Correct. We do. Legislative advocacy consultant. Yes. JEA and associates.

JEA. That's not included on this slide. That's on another slide, right?

Is that included in this department, Jessie?

Yes.

Yes. It's included in this budget.

Can we go back to that? That's under the services and supplies. Services and supplies. Correct. Services and supplies. Did their price go up at all, or is that why we're at a million proposed?

No, I believe that contract stayed the existing amount. It's the same.

We're projected at $104,000 for the state lobbyists for 25-26, and consistent with our budget strategy this year, we kept that the same for fiscal year 26-27. So $140,000. $104,000. $104,000.

They also go to Washington, or is that just Sacramento?

I'm not sure.

Sacramento, but they do attend legislative visits in Washington, D.C. as well.

In your opinion, are we getting good benefit from that?

I believe we are. We just recently received $150,000 for the sample of a pedestrian bridge. We have moved on another legislative ask for this year, and we hope to have additional in the future.

Because if you go to the next slide, that was my question. It says mayor and council secured the $150,000, but really it was more through the help of the consultant or...

Well, I think it was again with the Legislative Advocacy Committee that represents currently by Mayor Oglesby and Councilmember Garcia-Azola sit on the Legislative Advocacy Committee. And then, of course, working with staff to develop the projects and information that's necessary for our legislative advocacy lobbyists to go assist us with funding. Understood.

Thank you. anyone else uh just two simple questions uh or one quick comment it'd be great to see that uh advocacy person come twice a year maybe okay um we're on the budget okay and then the five hundred thousand dollars in services and uh supplies uh it's gone up by five hundred thousand dollars i know you mentioned part of can you why such a significant

Yeah, so estimates are approximately another 150,000. I'm misquote that, but there is an increase in the estimated for next year, which results in more expenditures that the commission can recommend and council can approve. So, part of that's included. But also, if you took a look at the number here for 2026. the 622 000 would be at least another 250 000 more except for the fact that we transferred the funds out of that into the capital improvement project when the council reallocated that funding towards uh lincoln cunningham park okay so so pretty much considering those two elements it'd be pretty close to being about the same correct visually it looks like a more significant jump than it is that's that's all my questions

Two clarifying statements. I would like just to stay on the budget because a lot of us would like to implement policy or talk about changes we want city manager to make. But then for the ones that don't say anything, are they being put at a disadvantage? And that's the first thing. Second one is the consultant is paid, but I don't think anybody up here would say the consultant did that work or is getting the money on their own. I think that's what you guys are doing by supporting the consultant and directing it. I do, the city manager did tell me about we have some public comments that want to be made. Normally what we do, we don't have public comment in between these issues, these department reports. We can either take them before the department reports or before we get into the budget analysis or the budget presentation itself, or we wait to the end. But I do want to respect the people that is here, but what we can do is have public comment after every department's presentation. uh so i do i will open it up for a public comment now for those that want to comment on whatever they want to comment um as it relates to what we're doing and then i will have a public comment at the end um before we um it's not really closed before we adjourn for the evening and then i will open up with a public comment tomorrow and maybe one in the middle and then one at the end so public comment is open

members of the public.

Okay, they want you got they want the podium isn't back in the corner over there. So all the comments open, you can just step back to the podium and behind you in the corner.

No. Hi, my name is Jeannie Reese and I'm with the Friends of Seaside Parks and I'm also a steward at Havana Solis Park and I understand that you're going to be talking about the possibility of walkways in Havana Solis Park being redone and I wanted to highly recommend that you go forward with that because I'm there at least once a week and the walkways are uneven, they're broken, they are in such deplorable shape that people have fallen there and i've seen people fall i've um i've tripped a few times myself and it's really a shame because there's so many beautiful features in the park and i just uh hope that this measure can go forward so that the neighbors in the area can take advantage of what a lovely park this could become thank you

Hold on. So I was talking to Mayor Pro Tem and I want to make sure we get this right. I don't need to waste the time. Are we talking about the NIC next? Can you guys wait till we're done with that? That way you can hear what he's trying to do. I guess I got in front of what he was doing. We'll come back to public comment. Okay. Public comment is suspended. Public comment is closed. We'll open it back up after the city manager.

Yeah, let's go to the city manager's budget.

Which has the NIC in it?

Great. Moving into the city manager's budget, this department includes both the city manager's office and information technology. Staffing remains flat from the current year to the proposed budget with three full-time employees in the city manager's office and three full-time employees in information technology. The total proposed budget increases from approximately 1.06 million in current fiscal year projected expenditures to approximately 1.27 million in fiscal year 2026-2027, or an increase of approximately 215,000. The largest change is in services and supplies, which increases from approximately 439,000 to approximately 680,000. The primary drivers are increased consultant capacity in the city manager's office for strategic planning and branding assistance, higher community relations funding, training and membership costs, and increased technology-related costs, particularly computer supplies and software needs within IT, and upgrading building planning and permitting software for enhanced customer service and processing. The internal services and central support allocation becomes slightly more negative, moving from approximately 1.1 million to 1.14 million. That offset reduces the impact of the expenditure increases. The main takeaway is that this is not a staffing growth budget. The increase is primarily tied to strategic consultant capacity, organizational support, community engagement, and technology needs that support citywide operations and council priorities. The city manager's office is responsible for implementing the Council policy and direction, coordinating departmental activities, advancing strategic initiatives, and supporting transparent and efficient services across the organization. Fiscal year 25-26 included meaningful progress on several initiatives that correspond closely with City Council's successes as well, including Campus Town, which moved into the active implementation phase. Key infrastructure improvements were completed in support of the Grand Hyatt Seaside Hotel and Resort, and the City introduced an exclusive negotiating agreement with KB Bakewell Seaside Venture II for the main gate mixed-use development opportunity. These projects are significant because they support more than physical development. They represent future opportunities for housing, commercial investment, tourism activity, job creation, and recurring revenue growth. The city's manager's office also continues to strengthen external partnerships and pursuing resources that support council priorities. This included collaboration with MPUSD, CSUMB, and the implementation of a community partnership agreement with Monterey Bay FC, and then ongoing state federal advocacy efforts related to infrastructure, water supply, housing, and community investment, which ultimately assisted in securing $850,000 for the San Pablo pedestrian bridge project. In fiscal year 2026-27, the office will continue to focus on accountability, transparency, and measurable outcomes. Major projects include advancing the strategic plan, strengthening the fiscal and project reporting, supporting a sustainable water supply, continuing regional and legislative advocacy, expanding workforce development partnerships, and moving our projects that were referenced earlier through their next critical stages. These priorities reflect the city council's policy direction are essential to the city City's long-term economic recovery strategy. The Neighborhood Improvement Commission is included in the City Manager's Department as far as staff liaison is concerned and provides important recommendations regarding neighborhood improvements through Seaside. Assistant City Manager Dan Mielus serves as the staff liaison to the Commission and is best positioned to walk the Council through the next steps.

Good evening, honorable mayor, members of city council. I'm Dan Mewis, the assistant city manager. And as the city manager stated, I am the liaison for the Neighborhood Improvement Commission. And so currently, it is a seven-member commission. We do have one vacancy at the moment, and we are recruiting any available applicants for this commission. So one thing that I want to highlight on this slide and as we get into the presentation is that When we initially started working through our TOT recommendations, we were given some numbers from the finance department based off the 2526 actual TOT numbers. And so the numbers that we got there were roughly $296,000. The numbers that you see here on the screen Right here shows the actual projected numbers, which are 399,000 dollars. So there's a 100,000 dollars that hasn't been accounted for and this is new. Within the last couple, like a week that we just found out these numbers. So when we present the recommendations, we're going to have that that number there. So just a couple of the yearly ongoing projects that the NIC works through is they have their House of the Month Awards, their biannual community cleanups, the Holiday Lights Contest, which is in collaboration with the Parks and Rec Commission, and then their biggest project and their work plan is the TOT funding recommendations. So after numerous meetings, public meetings through the NIC commission, regular nights, we had a retreat that was held in January and we solicited requests from multiple commissions and city or other city nonprofits and community-based organizations. We had a list, a project list that was over 50 ideas. that we went through. So after the review process, the multiple meetings and the vetting, this is the list that was finally recommended by the commission. So you can see on the left is the project ideas, then we got the total costs and the quantity, and then the right was the recommending body. So if we just start from the top and work our way down, we got the solar power bench from the homeless commission for $8,000. We have seaside stars, QR codes, plaques and signs. So this was through the Art and History Commission is primarily to have more of a walking monument down Broadway where individuals could have a QR code and scan it and it will take you to a landing page where you could read more about those individuals that's their stars on Broadway. We have the Catino Park basketball court seal and stripe. So this was through the next couple are from Public Works. So that was for $20,000. The basketball court does need a little extra attention over there. We have pet waste stations throughout the city. These would be in our parks, but we've also identified some other locations throughout the city where these dog waste stations are needed. So we have six of those. The South Del Monte landscaping medians, In the last fiscal year, the Commission recommended doing the medians on Canyon Del Rey in between Embassy Suites and Reggie Jackson's Car Shop. And so you'll notice that those ones have been completed as well as the one on Del Monte in between the Auto Body Shop and Starbucks. So they want to move farther down Del Monte across from The holiday in and in and out. So we want to continue that work on on updating the medians. So we got 10,000 there. We got 22,000 for the seaside gateway sign and fence. So this would be renovating the currency side sign on counting Delray. We've heard numerous over the last year and a half or so that we want to do the redo the landscaping. By the, the nice seaside sign, and this would also include instructing, constructing a fence. It will kind of shield. The auto parts store, if you will be about a 4 foot high fence, but it would also double as a community board that we, the city could use for posting banners and things like that highlighting activities and events throughout our city. I know a lot of the departments tend to put banners on posts already in that area. So this would just give us kind of that framework to have that there. We have the Trinity Park entry improvements. So if you've been near Trinity Park, there's a really nice entryway that's like a stone path. It's got a stone bench, but a lot of the stone and the brick work that there is kind of failing. So this would kind of bring that entry into light and renovate that. Then we got a couple asks from the Environmental Commission for the Herman's Goals awareness signs. We do know that our lovely Herman's Goals that are an endangered species have found a home on Broadway. And a lot of those businesses there really do, they already put signs out in their businesses and their windows to kind of educate the public. but we the environmental commission we really want to put a little bit more teeth to that and make sure that people that come down broadway understand that you know that this is their home now and this is where they come to to nest and then they go away um but we really need to make sure that we are you know kind of staying within the the guidelines of of having those birds those endangered birds in our community. In addition, they would like to start a Greenhouse of the Month program, very similar to the House of the Month program that the NIC runs, but these would focus more on homes that are sustainable, maybe wouldn't switch to solar. It could have multiple solar vehicles with charging stations or a variety of sustainable methods within their home. So the Environmental Commission would have a vetting process and kind of go through the same ideal that the NIC does with their House of the Month program. So they would like $2,500 to get that program off and going. we have a recommendation from fosfa to add boulders to parks they found that the boulders are a nice aesthetic um way to kind of just show that make the parks you know look and feel uh nice and so those costs of the boulders for a medium-sized boulder that's a 100 to 250 pounds is about 400 each so when we're looking at that we figure we can get about 10 of those for five thousand dollars which was recommended um we have the pathway improvements at havana solis so we do know that the pathways at havana solis the asphalt has deteriorated really beyond repair after talking with the public works department they do feel that a hundred thousand dollars is feasible to do this work in-house If you recall the last budget, the Public Works Department did request a variety of new pieces of equipment to do in-house paving. So this work could be done internally with the new equipment that the Public Works Department has. And some of that, they were able to determine that $100,000 would be enough to give it a nice new asphalt coat and make it safe and walkable through Havana Solis Park. We have the annual tree giveaway program by the Parks and Rec Commission. So $5,000 was a decrease from last year. We have found that we've given out 100 trees this year and the $5,000 has been sufficient enough to cover that cost. Then they moved to a new kind of annual allocation. For the last couple of years, we were allocating a certain dollar amount for benches to go in different parks. Benches, utility boxes, and then mural. So you notice we've kind of done those three every year for the last few years. So they would like to have an annual allocation for benches for three. So each bench costs around five grand. So we're talking three benches they can do this year. And then those benches would... would be determined by the Public Works Department and areas of need. If so, some of our benches need to replace, that could be replacing that. Or if there's an area that we feel that a new bench would go on, for example, like the ones on General Gym, they would look at that and figure out what those places would be. We're getting close to having all of our utility boxes that the city owns wrapped. So this, we should be finalizing that if this gets approved, and then it will be working with PG&E and the other service providers in the city to get easements so that we can look at wrapping more boxes, whether they be the transformers or other types of utilities that aren't under the city's control. So that's something to look forward for the future, but this right here would get us to the rest of our utility boxes that we have within the city. And then the main request was for an annual allocation of $15,000 for a mural. We have heard a couple of council meetings ago about the request for the mural at Caltrans. That was presented for... to the nic and then the nic wanted to um add an extra five thousand dollars to make the request twenty thousand dollars for a mural in the caltrans right away i will say that this is the one project that hasn't been fully vetted yet we don't necessarily know what the full cost would be for murals on the caltrans right away we do understand that it is a larger project And in order to get approval, we need to have everything in place to submit in advance. Just because we have an idea without knowing the scope of the project, we can't submit that to Caltrans. We have to have basically everything lined up between the artist, the design, and go through all of their process, which could be a lengthy process, but we are still looking into more of those details. And just for a pure cost, analysis on on what we've seen um the three murals inside oldemeyer center are all been fifteen thousand dollars so we're talking that's a ten by eight rectangle um in the building on a wall inside and then the fire station mural which is longer was about 25 grand so that one was a longer mural i think it's 25 feet but it's no more than eight feet tall but that is also not in the public right away so there would be some challenges we have to look in with that. We got welcome banners so they want to have 10 welcome banners just basically that would be on the the entry points to Seaside where we currently have banners up now. They just want to have some more things out there just welcoming people to our community so when you drive off the freeway or where you come off fremont boulevard that you you know you're in seaside and you have that welcome feel just to show that the tourists and visitors to our city they get that that nice friendly vibe when you enter seaside they would like to allocate uh twenty five hundred dollars to uh more raised flower beds at havana solis and capra parks um While the food gardens that we have that are in the ground are great, they have been victims to some of the gophers and ground squirrels that are under the ground. So having those raised beds would definitely help kind of curb that and will give them an opportunity to have more fruits and vegetables and food to be grown in an area that potentially may not have that risk of being eaten by pests. um then they would like they they want six banners for that would be added and removed um for their dumpster cleanup days basically when they have the dumpsters they would like a nice banner on there that kind of highlights what items are accepted what is not accepted so that way it would be in english and in spanish that way if the residents come they kind of have a clear idea of what can go in um what's not to go in and if they have questions on items that can't go in there they know who to call them where where to ask for that information for example like hazard household waste we don't accept paint and things like that but if we have the number to call the those individuals that bring paint down there can call greenways and say hey how do i get this i'm taken care of so they want to make sure that they have all that available to the public especially if they have an unmanned dumpster that when people come, when they leave at 11 o'clock or when it's full, it's there until green waste comes and picks it up. And sometimes green waste doesn't come until like five o'clock. So at least there's some, guard rail if you will people to see what can and what cannot go in those downstairs and then finally um they want to upgrade the triangle landscaping uh the median at san pablo and baker and i got a photo i want to show you on the next slide um but that that's thirty thousand dollars um for that so as i mentioned before the estimated amount that we had was two hundred and ninety six thousand four hundred and forty three dollars and seventy three cents so they were able to allocate all of that funding with the caveat that the actual number we have is closer to $390,000. So I just want to show a couple of photos, kind of like the CIP type projects that were in this list. So you got the top left. The top left is, this is the entry gateway at Trinity. You can kind of see that like the stones are failing. They kind of tried to patch it with some asphalt. So we wanna make sure we can bring this back to what it looked like when it was first built. We have the medians here on the top right, South Del Monte, you can see it's just old dead grass and weeds in there. So we wanna spruce that up. the one here on the left. So this is the triangle median that is at San Pablo and Baker. So this was actually part of our ADA curb ramp project. So these curb ramps have already been on the process of getting done. So really this would have this nice, we want to kind of bring this back and have this neighborhood look really nice. And we felt that this was a true neighborhood improvement project on making this, sprucing this up would really tile this area in together. And then on the far right here, on the bottom right, we have the conceptual for what a fence would look like. And then we would be updating all the foliage and surrounding area here at the seaside area. cdr um gateway and with that i'd be happy to answer any questions in regards to the nice and i see recommended projects uh thank you so much are there any questions uh mayor just to clarify you mentioned there's a the nic recommends a certain dollar amount the city council

recommend approves a certain amount on top of that. And then did you say there's another $100,000 on top of that?

So in here, I'll take this one down, if you don't mind. So the FY26-27 TOT revenue estimate is approximately $1.1 million, and that's up from $891,000 in last budget year. So therefore, the percentages that both the City Council and the NIC are allocating for those resolutions goes up. So for the NIC for this fiscal year, it's $393,000 would be that percentage, and the City Council percentage would be $171,000.

just so the nic recommended to their max to fill that so when i when we started this process this number down here the 296 that's what i what we were going off of was the max because we didn't have the updated projections yet right i got that so

just clarify for me if you could because i thought there was i thought you meant it was a hundred thousand dollars that hasn't been there's a hundred thousand dollars that the nic wasn't aware that they had extra opportunity because the projections for next next fiscal year were not updated yet so that would go back to the nic or would it come back to the council to add to their allocations

Per resolution, it would go to the NIC for recommendation for the extra 100,000.

And they would have to do that extremely soon then?

Correct.

Okay. And then the... i think the greenhouse of the month the greenhouse award on there my concern just because i'm trying to stay with my own philosophy on this why isn't that money allocated in their budget as the nic allocates it in their budget as far as their house of the month

It's a good question. I think the environmental commission just got up and running and they wanted to be a part of this process on recommending projects to the, and that was. That was 1 of their projects that they came up with, I think, as they start to get a feel on. Getting back to operating a commission that potentially that probably would be in there and I think that this is more of a starting place for them.

And then just, I know we mentioned the solar power thing. These are areas of my concern. We did not approve that last year. Has anything changed why the same council would approve it this year? Because there might be the same concerns. Is that a fair question, I guess?

I think the main change this year is we identified the location that we would like for the, they identified the location they would like for the project would be right out here. by the benches at the bottom of the stairs. So this solar power bench would be the pilot bench that would primarily be used probably for staff or those individuals that are here in this campus. And it would be heavily monitored. So there would be a way to kind of gauge the use.

Would it be turned off in the evening time? And wouldn't staff have access to their office with the plug in their phones? wouldn't be turned off in the evening time but i can say that i see staff out there having lunch on that bench pretty frequently okay um and basically my last question to sell this program i think it's a real valuable thing without these funds all these projects listed and all the projects in the past that have been done and they're new and they're fresh could not have been done. Is that a fair statement?

That's correct.

Okay. that's it on my do we have city manager questions here now too or not or just the nic no no no this is his his presentation so if you got questions you can ask yeah just the only question i have for the city managers page is just one um in this budget as such and this goes directly to the city manager now you um We are recommending a full-time assistant city manager to ensure better quality control improvement in the administration services and all things associated with leadership to improve the operations of the city. Is that a fair statement?

In this budget, we are recommending filling the parks director position, which will allow for more internal capacity of this current assistant city manager.

Okay, so same thing. Okay, perfect. Thank you.

Anyone else? Yes.

My question would be for Trinity Park entry improvements. I'm assuming that entry would need to have some sort of ADA rehabilitation, correct?

No, because we already have ADA compliance at the other end of the park that that suffices for this section. So we wouldn't have to add the ADA compliant piece to this one. That is my understanding after working with the public works director. Okay. Thank you.

Anyone else? Yes.

Councilman works regarding the utility boxes. I know when we 1st approve them, some of the concerns were that they might get, like, tagged up or they wouldn't be maintained. How's that going?

So far, so good. I have not heard of any of the boxes being tagged. And every time I drive by them, they look great. And so if that happens, we'll be notified. But it's my understanding, too, that the seal that they put on it, if it does get tagged, then it's easier to clean it off.

Great. And then regarding the banners, the welcome banners, what would the life expectancy of those banners be?

They're 10 to 15 years if you have them out all the time.

Thank you.

Yes, of course. Thank you for bringing up utility boxes. That was my other question. You mentioned PG&E, probably stepping into figuring out how we can clean that area up. Would PG&E front some money or would that come from us? And if it does come from up, who maintains it?

I think that would be the conversation that we haven't gotten into yet as we're not quite there yet, but as we start to develop those partnerships and relationships with PG&E, we can figure out what that would look like. Okay.

Thank you for letting me know that those conversations haven't fully formulated. My next question was going to be regarding Triangle Meeting at Baker Street. Do we have an idea of what that might look like?

initially you know we're there's no water there at that location so we're looking at drought tolerant um um vegetation if you will there could potentially be a bench and then even uh maybe one of you know an area for a pet waste station because we already know that a lot of people in those apartment complexes walk their their pets in that area and we have we have been told that there is an issue there yeah

then see our gateway improvements the only thing that worries me about that it might be safety would that impact um view for from the driver's perspective or has that been taken into consideration right now with the wound if you drive down there that seems to be

more of a parking lot and so what it would do is kind of shield that view when you're driving in there so you're not seeing cars that that are in between repairs at the repair shop so we're trying to kind of enhance the view when you drive into seaside and and we're not going to tell the business owner that they can't park there but we want to try and and elevate that up a little bit have traffic concerns been an issue that's what that was i don't think i don't think there's any traffic concerns or issues there thank you

Anyone else? Just pulling on it, have the traffic engineers look to see if there's a concern.

This was proposed by? Just yes or no. Yes.

Okay. I don't doubt what you're saying. It's just I wanted to answer. So if they looked at it, they looked at it. Then I think you just said putting a bench somewhere. Where was that at?

At the triangle median.

In the median, we want to put it.

So there's already a walking, there's a.

Okay. No, I got it. That's all. I just want to picture that. Okay. Okay. So now I want to get this back to my questions is we're going to see this again as a council. Is that correct city manager? I guess you have the schedule on that.

I believe last year we discussed and prioritized the NIC projects recommendations during the budget workshop.

When do you expect us to do that? When would you like for us to do that? I guess between here and close of business tomorrow.

Correct.

Okay. And so I'm just, you know, for the public and for the councils, we're going to go through this again. And I just, okay. And then I wasn't really clear about the extra $100,000. I understand it went from 290 to 399. I got that. But if it's an extra 100, did the percentages breakdown not change? How did the city and the citizens get all of their 15%? If we just found an extra $100,000.

There's more than 100,000. So it's 393 total for the NIC and 171 total for the city council portion. So both of the percentages increased because the revenue projections for the quarter came back in much better than expected.

Right. okay so yeah so our numbers was not shown so it wasn't a concern about giving the wrong numbers there does that make sense yes okay so that's what excuse me okay thank you so much we'll open up for uh public comment public comments

Hello. I think you're going to know what I'm going to say, but I was wondering if I could show you some photos of Havana Solis Park. Is that possible?

OK, yeah, you give them to the clerk and then they will make copies for us between here tonight and tomorrow.

OK, thank you. So again, my name is Jeannie Reese and I'm a member of Friends of Seaside Parks. The park closest to me is Havana Solis Park, where I'm a steward. And I wanted to thank the NIC for proposing an improvement in this park. The park has several pollinator habitats, a food garden, has a lovely new picnic area. The pathways, however, are not lovely. The original pavement is uneven, broken, cracked, and worn down in some places. to the sandy dirt underneath. As a steward of the park, I am there about once a week and I have seen people fall on the walkways. I've tripped myself. I've watched neighbors with strollers struggle to navigate the paths. What saddens me a lot is the fact that I've got elderly neighbors that don't go into the park because they cannot use it. They do not feel safe to manage the pathways. Originally, with the concept plans created for Lincoln Cunningham and Havana Solis, there had been plans to continue the concrete path that had been in Lincoln Cunningham. Those paths are wonderful. They're really amazing. But, you know, Havana Solis does not need anything fancy. We just need safe pathways. I heartily recommend the city council move forward with a recommendation from the NIC to replace the walkways in Havana Solis Park. Thank you.

Hi, I'm Katherine Crockett. I'm also a member of Friends of Seaside Park, and I'm a park steward at Havana Solis Park. I've witnessed and have been part of the park's transformation from an immense sandlot to a thriving neighborhood gathering place for the past four or five years. The pollinator garden, the community food garden, and improvements to the picnic plaza have revitalized the park and have made it a well-used space for the community to enjoy. Like Jeannie says, the previous speaker, the one issue is with the pathways. They've been eroded by the rain and have created an unsafe situation for pedestrians. FOSPA volunteers have created berms and swales on either side of the pathway on the east end, and that prevents further erosion. So, you know, the same thing could be done to, you know, if we get some new asphalt paving there, that would mitigate further erosion from the new areas. So this is all to say that seeing these significant improvements, thanks to the efforts of FOSPA, Seaside Public Works, and a legion of volunteers, um this park is is ready to move on to the next phase and if the neighborhood improvement commission can find the 100 in funding needed to repair the pathways it would be a safer and more inviting space for all the community thanks members of the public in the chamber please approach the podium members of the public on zoom please use the raise your hand feature or dial star 9 if you're calling from a phone

Hello. Ray Reardon from NIC Commission. I'm the chair this year. And I just wanted to tell you, let you know that how much time and effort all of us put into this. It's just not the NIC, it's the other commissioners. They put a lot of effort in what they want and what they look at. I've seen them out there looking at their projects, what they do. We do the same thing. We just don't grab it out of the dirt and say, oh, this is what we want to do. We put a lot of effort in it, and we listen to people. I listen to my neighbors. And I'll give you a good example. It's the benches up on General Jim. People love it. I didn't know people would sit up there you know, but they just l we get a good crowd of pe want from the young to th also listen to our city c you know, like the parks w you know, the rides and al just a great thing for al really makes seaside spark Begging you to approve it and let us go forward and make things happen. And thank you for the extra 100K. We'll make that happen too, okay?

Hi, my name is Lacey Rock. I just have a quick question for that extra 100K that was Newly acquired does that have to be spent this fiscal year or can it be saved in and used in future years where they might have a larger expense.

Sean Wagner, you now have the floor to make your public comment.

Hi, thank you. Yeah, my name is Sean Wagner. I'm a seaside resident, local biologist. I want to voice my support for the Hearman's Goal signage. I think it's a great idea to augment signage on Broadway with the breeding populations on the roofs up there. um as you all may know that hereburn skulls are a species that has concentrated breeding on one island in the gulf of mexico and then their only other breeding location is in the u.s here in seaside it's a iconic species in the bird conservation biology world It's a pretty unique kind of put Seaside on the map in a way in that world. So any additions to their conservation protection of our human schools, I think is great. And I'm all for especially if Broadway gets busier over time with, you know, folks going to other brother or, you know, visiting from out of town and not knowing about human schools and how special they are and how unique they are. I think it's a real good thing to have extra protection and extra signage for our special species. So that's all I have. Thank you much.

Thank you for your comments.

All right. Can I go? Yep. Hi, folks. Thank you for putting this all together. I know it's a ton of work. My name is Stephanie Spross. I am one of the commissioners on the NIC. And we have put a ton of work into this and the last few meetings, this is all we've talked about. But as a resident of Seaside, I really want to plug the triangle median improvement i pass that every day as a main you know san pablo is a main thoroughfare and it's not pretty and i really think this improvement would be good for just the residents it's a really high density area with apartments and multi-family homes and right now it's just a dirt triangle um and i think even just native landscaping that's drought tolerant uh pet waste station because there are so many animals in that area um that it just has kind of turned into this forgotten zone um would really benefit the community and give something to like be proud of of that area um it also benefits the local businesses like hana gardens down there the dollar dollar store dollar mart um it gets a lot of foot traffic on that part of san pablo and it would just be something prideful for our city so i would really um strongly ask that you consider supporting that project um along with the others because they all just really bring pride and beautify the city of Seaside for everyone who lives here and travels, commutes for work through our town. So thank you.

Members of the public in the chamber, please approach the podium. Members of the public on Zoom, please use the raise your hand feature or dial star nine if you're calling from a phone. Diane Nielsen, you now have the floor to make your public comment.

Thank you. Good evening City Council. My name is Diane Nielsen and I am on the board of the FOSPA Friends of Seaside Parks Association. I first want to thank the Neighborhood Improvement Commission for their partnership with other commissions and taking uh recommendations and then presenting them to you the city council and i appreciate the city council for respecting and listening to their recommendations fospa has exposure constantly to the nine parks that that we we steward and since they have boots on the ground so often, they know the needs of the parks and what would be good for our parks. And in lieu of the master plan, which who knows when that will ever be done, but having safe pathways, having the big boulders as landscape features, Having the raised garden beds. All of those things really matter to all the volunteers and the FOSPA board to improve our neighborhoods in our neighborhood parks and to really brings the community together to get to know each other. form relationships, and just take pride in their community. And so I just wanted to say that and thank all the board's commissions and volunteers and city council. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments. Members of the public in the Chamber, please approach the podium. Members of the public on Zoom, please use the raise your hand feature or dial star 9 if you're calling from a phone. Tiffany Meyer, you now have the floor to make your public comment. Thank you.

uh i uh this is tiffany meyer i'm the vice chair of the neighborhood improvement commission and i would also like to thank um all the commissions for uh taking our requests to submit their ideas and projects seriously we um we really valued their input um miss meyer are you still there i'm sorry can you hear me yes we can hear you now oh did you hear anything i said we heard the first part okay well i would just encourage the um the seaside city council to um to uh uh give weight to all the comments made, to give weight to the projects that we have put forward for approval. Because as Commissioner Spross said, we have worked on these for a long time. made it it's very important to us uh we take a lot of pride in our city and improving our city and i hope that the city council will recognize that and um and support uh what we are trying the changes we are trying to do throughout our city uh in this small little area that we have um we're all volunteers and um and um And we volunteer for a reason because we love our community and we want to see those changes happen. So thank you for your time. And I hope that again, you will support our recommendations. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments. Members of the public in the chamber, please approach the podium. Members of the public on Zoom, please use the raise your hand feature or dial star nine if you're calling from a phone. May I know the members of the public have come forward to make public comment.

Thank you so much. Hearing no one else, seeing no one else, public comment is closed. Mr. Demand, were there any issues or questions or concerns you would like to speak to at this time?

Yeah, there was a question from one of the commenters about rolling the additional $100,000 forward into a larger project for next year. And this is just a clarification question to the finance director. The resolution for the NIC includes, if it's not used in that fiscal year, it goes back into the general fund. Am I correct on that?

I don't think that I'm not sure how the city ordinance addresses that, but the budgeting policy is that when funds are appropriated, it only rolls forward to the next fiscal year if there's a contract or service already engaged.

yeah so so one of the recommendations one of the options council may consider regarding the again the updated um tot revenue estimate and how that impacts the nic recommendation uh would be to uh get further recommendation from the nic on the remainder of that amount and then return to council with that recommendation but i would ask when the end next nic meeting is Next Tuesday. That would allow that discussion to happen, and then technically they could bring the NIC recommendations back along with the budget approval on June 18th. Is that correct? That's correct. That could be an option that gets us a little down the road and gets them more input on the remainder of the funds.

I'll just take a few more minutes with this because I guess the next time we see it, they're going to ask us to go down the list and support. So what is the thinking of the council? I know you had a couple more comments you want to make. Just a couple questions.

I'm correct in assuming because I wanted to thank the NIC for all the hard work for the past six months. But the question would be, there were programs that they for lack of a better word removed that from their initial list so they might be easy to go back and re-invest in those possibly is that a fair statement yes and then on your list of projects um we're just saying the art commission uh yeah okay it does pinpoint twenty thousand dollars for the caltrans entryway for lack of a better way and that's good or not but whatever that is you mentioned you pointed out the fact and i don't get the number but the mural at the fire station and the mural at uh the older meyer center and the mural at wherever is in that 20 to 25 15 to 25 000 range as i recall and then do you have any ballpark for lack of a better word thought process on how much it if they did one of those columns or whatever they are would they cover a four by four feet eight by eight do you have any sense of with all the extra costs related to maybe closing the street or whatever it be mike However, I know that's not fair, but just to get a sense, it would be same amount of property or same amount or any thought?

If we were strictly going on size, and if I take the one at Oldenmire Center, we have two in Oldenmire Center that are the same size, and those were $15,000 each. Those were painted indoors with the ability to come and go as they please with no other restrictions. so for ex for and then the fire station was twenty five thousand dollars it's on a wall that's on a sidewalk which was easy easier to be accessible for the the artist to come and go when they when they can we're talking about something that would be in the right of way that would require significant coordination potential lane closures the um rental or requirement of scaffolding to get up high enough to be able to do the entire bent if you will so it would really determine how how much we want to put into this and you know when when it was presented it was a larger project you know we're talking i think 16 bents if you go front and back um And the process for Caltrans, so if the goal would be to do as much as we could, we would need, I would say, significant more money to be able to do that. Because the process for Caltrans is every time we would go in there, we would have to have that plan of here's what the mural looks like. Here's the amount that we're allocating. And we need to have every detail outlined before we even submit the application for them to approve it.

Again, you may not, I think it's important. So if you only have $20,000 recommended, would you submit the plan for, I think you said 16 columns or 16, whatever, would you submit just the one and every time you can do another one, you have to go back?

Yes, every time we would have to go back and go through that same process. Which the timeline is still...

undetermined on how long that would take we we do not believe 20 000 is sufficient to do one of the bents no that's currently projected that's what i was trying to figure out how yeah okay that helps and then maybe through the mayor do you want recommendations from the uh council on there tonight or would you rather wait to uh um yeah or rather wait till tomorrow night's meaning to bring those forward

think the council would be better served if we had the full list of what um well if we're getting into my so seeing that let me go through city manager if you're saying you want to give this and i see another opportunity to firm up their list with this extra money um but that's not until next tuesday how do we how do we How are we going to weigh in on that?

Thank you, Mayor. I think the budget amounts as included in this proposed budget are set. They're based on TOT estimates, and we feel comfortable about those estimates now. Unfortunately, those are relatively new estimates that weren't factored into the NIC's recommendations. So I feel like we do have the time to let NIC go back at the next meeting and reassess their allocation with the updated TOT amount. and also ask council to do the same thing with the 15 estimate that that council may have to bring back all of those recommendations for the june 18th month meaning which would coincide with the adoption of the budget just one more question if you don't mind because i didn't quite understand it so on the city council recommendations a hundred thousand dollars plus um

Do you want, as the mayor, or you want those suggestions tonight, Tuesday night, or on the 18th?

I would recommend so we could proceed through the other budgets that those were also brought back to city staff in conjunction with the recommendations on June 18th.

So hold off on our city council budget.

I would recommend that. But again, the city council has the ability to allocate all of this funding, has the approval ability. The NIC specifically per that policy has the ability to recommend up to $393,000 in TOT funds for projects. And the city council at their percentage has $171,000 outside of that for the resolution.

But then one last question. I think I got it. But so we were going to approve or deny these tomorrow night.

But now you're saying the wait till the 18th council can proceed with the current recommendation and approve or not. But I'm recommending we wait till the 18th and we get a reaffirmed recommendation for their entire portion rates.

Thank you.

I just had a couple of quick, quick questions, I guess. You know, I agree with, I'll say more, I guess, on the 18th, but we definitely appreciate the hard work from the NIC, and we appreciate these recommendations, and we appreciate the projects that they push forward, particularly the ones coming from other commissions. And so, but talking about the mirror, I just want to be clear, because I thought the process here, city manager, when it reached here, these recommendations would be fully vetted and we would know the cost and i'm not sure why we're getting one that we don't know the cost uh and i know that the process that we have to go through with a partnership with uh caltrans cannot be done before the adoption of the budget which is 32 days or so from now of july 1st and so i'm just wondering how did it get to this dais and it seems to me it's you know a little bit disconcerting that we're just not clear what what the boards and the commissions about what's going on because there's no way we could work out all the difficulties get an artist which you have to have get a concept which you have to go up there and get approved and then they have to sign a document to go forward and so I don't want to leave the public as though somehow this one is is viable before we have to adopt a budget and so we could talk more about that on the 18th about about that but I want to give the the NIC the ability to maybe reallocate those Fundings if that's what they want to do because like the finance officer said if it's not allocated if a contract is not signed then it reverts to um definitely the control of the city council uh and so we want the nic to allocate as much as they can and then the council will you know approve some projects not approve others uh that's the normal process so let's go on to the next one what is the next item is that city clerk city clerk is up next public affairs

So next we're going to review the city clerk's budget. I'll provide an overview of the budget summary before I turn it over to our city clerk and assistant to the city manager, Dominique Davis. So for fiscal year 26-27, the the city clerk department includes two full-time employees reflecting the freezing of one administrative assistant this adjustment was made following the recent filling of the communications and public engagement coordinator position which is expected to absorb portions of those responsibilities and approve improve operational efficiency expenditures for 2627 for this department include approximately 379 000 in personnel services and $353,000 in services and supplies. With other administrative departments, central service charges are shown as a negative amount because administrative costs are allocated out to other departments. Total costs allocated out are approximately $665,000, an increase from $226,000 in the previous year, primarily owing to a new methodology. in estimating indirect costs. At first glance, the city clerk's budget does appear to increase by $439,000. But again, like I said, that's attributed to the revised administrative overhead allocation methodology and doesn't represent a comparable reduction in operating expenditures so after adjusting for that impact and we look at underlying expenditures there was an increase of approximately 107 000 so some items increased and some items offset that increase so the primary drivers for the increase There were slightly higher personnel costs, similar across departments related to pension and medical increases, but the main driver was approximately $150,000 in additional election-related expenditures in the service and supplies category. These increases are partially offset by about 40,000 in reductions in contracted marketing services as a recently filled communications and public engagement coordinator position is expected to reduce reliance on that outside support. um so at the bottom line here after accounting for departmental revenues and cost allocations net expenditures totaled 67 000 and the city clerk's office does receive limited department revenues through fees and fines with the remaining costs supported by the general fund tax revenue so with that i'll turn it over to our city clerk

Thank you so much. Good evening again, Mayor, City Council, members of the public. So just to review for City Clerk and Public Affairs, during the fiscal year of 2526, the office advanced several important priorities. We continued moving the city's website modernization forward, strengthen the legislative advocacy and briefing coordination. strengthened and we also expanded our public affairs content and our city council communication support and supported boards, commissions, committees and the volunteer recognition efforts as well. We improved internally agenda noticing records and municipal code workflows and onboarded the communication specialist position to begin building greater capacity around citywide communications. Those accomplishments are important because they are not simply administrative tasks. They are part of the city's public trust infrastructure. Every agenda, notice, record, election filing, public records request, website update, and community message contributes to how residents experience their local government. So looking ahead to fiscal year 26-27, our goals are focused on structure, modernization, compliance, and engagement. First, we plan to launch a more structured citywide communications pipeline. This will help departments better coordinate information before it reaches the public, allowing us to anticipate communication needs around major projects, events, service impacts, and council actions. Second, we will expand civic education and digital engagement efforts. This means helping residents better understand how local government works, how decisions are made, and how they can participate meaningfully. Third, we'll continue our digital records modernization and transparency improvements. This remains a critical priority as we work to make records easier to find, preserve, and access. And then fourth, we will strengthen our public records response coordination through next requests. This is especially important as public records requests continue to require cross departmental collaboration, clear timelines and consistent documentation. Fifth, we'll support the 2026 general municipal election administration. This will include coordination with Monterey County elections, candidate filing, required notices, campaign filing support, and public facing election information. And finally, we will continue enhancing council commission and community facing communication so that the city's work is not only done well, but understood well. So in practical terms, the budget helps to maintain the systems and the services that support transparency, legal compliance, legislative operations, and public engagement. It supports the behind the scenes work that keeps council meetings moving, records preserve, residents informed, and the city's public facing communication aligned. And as we move into next fiscal year, the focus is not just to do more, but to do more strategically with better systems, clear workflows, stronger coordination and a more intentional approach to public information. And this is this concludes my presentation of city clerk and public affairs. I'm happy to take any questions.

Thank you so much. Any questions? Council Member Miller. Thank you. Thank you.

uh if we can go one slide back there's we had one position don't didn't we just recently acquire or promote or have a position for um in your office yes we froze the administrative assistant position so that we could open the communication specialist position and that position was filled yes is that person yes it's ashley oh okay very good that was my questions thank you absolutely

Just tying into that question, how is the staff going to improve where they're at as far as the internet, the social media aspect, the website? How do you see that being enhanced so we can reach out to more residents?

So currently, as Ashley has just joined our team, The 27th of April, the 27th of April, she's been conducting an audit on the back end of our website and our social media platforms, looking at the engagement and the effectiveness of our communications through the channels that we currently use, looking at past trends and identifying strategies that will allow us to continue to improve on the stats that we already have currently right now. So that is a complete look at our website, our social media, not just the platforms that we use, but what information we actually put out there. So enhancing the content of the information that we're putting out to the public as well.

And I assume that the recreation, I'll use the police departments and fire actually, they'll still be doing their own promotional activities as they are now.

Yes, but in coordination. And so that's one of the things that we are working on internally is making sure that the communication pipeline for what is posted on our police and fire or recreation pages are consistent so that no matter what page residents are interacting with they still can get the same information um despite their preferences for who they follow okay thank you councilman garcia thank you my question is more directly more directed towards the finance director you mentioned

the reduced need for contract services when it comes to marketing. Are you talking about VOLAR, our production service?

Well, that may actually be a better question for the city clerk, but in the city clerk's budget, there's a variety of subcontracted services. it does include um language interpretation services uh services i think for zoom for the council meeting and also marketing services from volair and i believe the reductions were cited to come from the volair subcontracted services for marketing what is the reduction in that the reduction wasn't um only was in the reduced amount that

of a partial contract that the council had already approved. So we just duplicated the reduced amount, the reduced and more focused contract that we already are currently having now.

And I'm assuming our communication specialists would help fill that gap in the reduction of the contract?

Yes.

Yes, she would. Okay. Thank you.

Yeah, I have concerns with that. I like to look at that and understand that a little bit more. So any other questions? Okay, thank you. Thank you so much. Please continue.

Next, we have the city's attorney's budget. Thank you. And again, I'll just Oh, thank you. I'm just going to give a brief overview of the budget summary for the city attorney's office. The budget includes the city attorney's office as well as the ESCA division and activities associated within the LRA slash FORA program, which utilizes a dedicated fund balance. So this department includes four full-time employees consisting of two positions within the city attorney's office and two positions supporting the ESCA program, which reports directly to the city attorney. Fiscal year 26-27 departmental expenditures include $958,000 for personnel services and $714,000 for services and supplies. And as other administrative departments, central service charges are reflected as a negative amount because legal services are provided citywide and associated costs are allocated to or otherwise included as expenditures in other departments. So at first glance, the city attorney budget appears to decrease by about 521,000. However, this change is primarily related to the revised administrative overhead allocation methodology doesn't represent a reduction in underlying operating costs. So after adjusting for that, Underlining expenditures increased about $242,000 and these drivers were among the same reasons for increases in other departments, which were higher personnel costs associated with rising pension and medical benefit costs. There was an additional $50,000 in additional consultant and legal support services, including work related to ESCA and the former Fort Ord. Increased services and supplies costs within the ESCO program also reflected normal cost increases related to the program activity. And the remainder of the increases were for limited legal services expenditures related to the LRA. uh on the revenue side the city attorney's office generally uh doesn't have a direct ongoing operating revenue source except for occasional legal reimbursements however the budget does include approximately 628 000 in grant revenue associated with the esco program and along with any anticipated reimbursement of certain legal fees So the net remaining departmental costs approximately 35,000 are supported by general fund tax revenue. Oh, and I should note there was a technical reporting issue in the draft budget document that omitted that ESCO related grant revenue and a corrected revised budget will be presented on June 18. That all turned it over to city attorney Damon to highlight key initiatives and priorities for the city attorney's office.

Thank you, Finance Director Riley, through the mayor and to the city council and to the members of the public. The city attorney's office provides both advisory and litigation services is essential to the city's day to day operations and long term success. Our mission is to deliver excellent solution oriented ethical legal counsel and strong representation to the city council, the city officers and the staff. The office also oversees, as outlined by Director Riley, two key program areas, the ESCA team, which monitors and educates jurisdictions on the safe reuse of the former Fort Ord lands and the city's local redevelopment authority responsibilities, which support and track the remaining transfer of properties from the Army to local communities primarily. In carrying out our mission, the office reviews and advises on ordinances and resolutions, evaluates a wide range of legal documents, manages and coordinates outside counsel, and supports city council-directed initiatives. As reflected in this year's budget, there are increases in the consultants and outside counsel costs across the city attorney's office as well as the ESCA and LRA programs. They are driven primarily by the growing complexity and volume of legal matters, including litigation, regulatory compliance and major development and infrastructure projects. Much of this work requires specialized legal and technical expertise, and that's what accounts for the increases in our consultancy budgets. um through the esco which is primarily funded by an army contract the city continues to play a key regional role in environmental cleanup in an and ensuring the safe reuse of former four-doored lands those increased consultant costs in that area are largely tied to the federally required environmental review technical analysis and coordination with state and federal agencies similarly the lra related work requires specialized support to navigate the property transfers and regulatory frameworks associated with those transfers. The strategic use of outside counsel in the city attorney's office remains a cost-effective approach for handling highly specialized or resource-intensive matters, allowing the city to maintain a lean in-house team while ensuring expert representation when needed. Over the past fiscal year, the office has been actively engaged in major city initiatives, including providing regulatory guidance for phase two of the campus town development and highly involved in the main gate RFP and agreements associated with awarding KB Bakewell the main gate project these efforts reflect both our role as legal advisors and strategic partners in advancing the city priorities our office also has directly collected over forty thousand dollars in fireworks citation fees and fines which are not reflected in the city attorney's budget but are included in the general plan of the general uh revenue uh part of the budget looking ahead to fiscal year 26-27 the office will continue to focus on several key areas providing vigorous legal defense and code enforcement enhancing staff training on emerging legal issues maintaining high quality and timely legal counsel across all departments and supporting major city projects and increasing community engagement to promote transparency and public trust Through this work, the city attorney's office remains committed to proactive legal stewardship and to supporting the city's strategic priorities, including effective governance, economic vitality, infrastructure development, and overall community well-being. And that concludes my presentation.

Thank you. Any questions?

Just one. Mayor Patel. Just one. It shows $150,000 increase in services and supplies. Can you just simply explain why?

Yes, there's approximately $50,000 to the city attorney's budget, which is an increase in consultant fees that are being used to support some of our strategic initiatives in the Fort Ord area. And then in the LRA budget, there's an increase in services and consultant services related to property transfers and negotiations with the Army. And likewise, in the ESCA department, that's where the other chunk of the increase in consultant fees comes from. So most of those increase is related to consultant fees.

Did we get some of that back in those two programs?

Yes. So we get approximately...

I didn't hear that. I'm sorry. I thought... My question was, do you get some of those funds back of the $150,000 because it's the ESCA program?

Yes. So approximately $70,000 of the increased amount is returned to the city through the reimbursement of the Army grant with the ESCA grant. That's the proportion.

Great. Thank you. Anyone else? Okay. Thank you. Please continue.

Okay, next we have the Human Resources and Risk Management Department. And so at the top of the summary table, the department includes three full time positions. The proposed 2627 budget continues to freeze both the risk management position as well as the assistant human resources director position. For 2627 departmental expenditures include approximately 661,000 in personnel services, Services and supplies at 3.9 million and central service allocations approximately 928,000 allocated out to other departments. As a reminder, the human resources budget also includes the insurance fund, which contributes significantly to the services and supplies category. after accounting for departmental allocations net expenditures total approximately 3.9 million supported through a combination of internal service revenue charges to departments and general fund tax revenue overall the human resources department is projected to increase approximately 20 percent or 591 000 compared to 25 26. so the majority of this increase is driven by rising rising general liability and workers compensate workers compensation insurance costs and it's important to note though many of the other members that are within the city's same insurance pool ex experienced annual premium increases of approximately 30 percent where the city of seaside experienced a comparative lower increase of 20 percent and also uh partially offsetting these increases the city has continued successful recruitment efforts and was able to reduce the recruitment budget for fiscal year 26-27 and with that i'll turn it over to human resources director risk manager and risk manager samantha

Thank you, Jesse. Good evening, Mayor, Council, staff, and members of the public. We'll begin with the Human Resources Department. Risk management is a cornerstone of our municipal operations dedicated to safeguarding the city's most valuable assets, its people, its reputation, and its resources. We serve as a strategic hub, expertly managing everything from talent acquisition and labor relations to workers' compensation and comprehensive risk protection. Beyond compliance and administration, we are the architects of a workplace culture rooted in equity and safety. We strive to foster an environment where diversity is celebrated, fairness is the standard, and every employee is empowered to thrive in a service to our community. To maintain this high level of accomplishments of fiscal year in 2027, I believe Jesse covered some of them, our strategic recruitment efforts have resulted in a remarkably stable workforce out of 163 approved full-time positions. The city currently maintains a 93% staffing capacity with only five vacancies currently. This 3% vacancy rate stands as a significant accomplishment, trending well below the California public sector average, where many municipal agencies continue to face the vacancy rates exceeding 10% to 15%. For the risk management, division continues to deliver exceptional value. Sorry. to the city's bottom line. Excuse me. We contributed to a total cost savings of $609,189 this fiscal year, bringing our two-year savings total to an impressive $1.5 million. And furthermore, the city remains among a select group of members, as Jesse mentioned, to receive a reduction liability cost due to our consistently favorable loss experience.

Allergies. Thank you.

Excuse me, sorry.

Okay, so looking ahead to fiscal year 2026-2027, While the upcoming fiscal year presents budgetary constraints, the department remains proactive and committed to innovative workforce solutions. Our outside-the-box approach includes the strategic underfilling of positions, allowing us to recruit at entry-level tiers to build a sustainable and productive workforce from the ground up. By focusing on training development and succession planning, We will continue to maximize service delivery and employee engagement, ensuring the city remains a resilient and high-performing organization despite fiscal challenges. Thank you. Any questions? Thank you. Sorry.

Thank you. Are there any questions at this point?

Do you have or plan to have Any programs like for employee morale? I use the Christmas program as an example, or employee of the court, or coffee with the mayor, whatever it be. Are you, any thoughts to any morale building things for personnel?

We have been doing little projects because, again, our financial restraints. We've waited for employees, those that get to City Hall early. We've given them gift cards. We've appreciated public works when they were doing all the upgrading and parks and maintenance and cleaning. We also finance, recognize them. So we recognize small departments in small ways to keep morale up as best as we can.

Thank you.

Thank you so much. Please continue.

Next, we have the finance department. And we'll start just with an overview of the budget. At the top of the summary table, our department has six full-time positions, including the continuing freezing of one financial analyst position. Fiscal year 26-27 department expenditures include $1.3 million in personnel services, $462,000 in services and supplies, and $1.5 in capital outlay and debt. uh departmental revenues are reflected on the following slide here so we can see the numbers and the there it includes several funding sources managed that are just managed through the finance department fees, fines and reimbursements at about 1.3 million, special revenue funds of approximately 50,000, debt service funds of 47,000 and enterprise funds, which includes the golf course fund at approximately 334,000. Overall, the finance department budget is projected to decrease six percent or about one hundred and six thousand compared to the prior year. And the reason for that is that the personnel cost increases for the finance department were more modest than many of the other departments because eligible staff costs can be supported through other funding sources, helping offset some of the citywide increases related to pensions and medical benefits. Services and supplies remained relatively stable compared to the prior year and continue to support several recurring professional and regulatory functions. Just a little more detail on those contracted services. annually our department utilizes approximately 75 000 in audit related services which covers the actual financial audit services statistical and actuarial reporting and support for implementation of new accounting standards and regulatory requirements And so outside of that, we have our consultant services budget, which usually on an annual basis supports the administration of utility user tax, sales tax, property tax, business license tax programs, along with other various state reporting requirements. so during the fiscal year 2526 the department had two special projects that included the city-wide fee study which is just starting to finalize now and it also included a the beginning of an evaluation of our internal fee collection procedures So for fiscal year 26-27, the consultant budget due to the wind down of one of those special projects was reduced by about $30,000, although we are including and maintaining $40,000 for special projects that will include municipal advisory services. At the all funds level, overall expenditures declined due to the improved reimbursement of administrative costs allocated to the finance department. And additional funds within the finance department included the golf course, enterprise funds, successor agency funds, and debt service funds. There were some minor increases also within the successor agency budget as we included additional consultant support related to reporting requirements for that special revenue. With that, I'll just provide some brief highlights on our 2526 accomplishments and 2627 goals. we provided a broad range of services to support residents other city departments and the city council and we've served the community serving the community remains a top priority and includes the administration of the utility billing services for the city's 792 municipal water customers department also provides critical internal support assisting departments with procurement of services and equipment and supplies processing and documenting vendor payments as well in addition we oversee the financial management functions including budgeting accounting payroll debt management financial reporting auditing and administration of the city funds Above all, we're committed to ensuring fiscal resources are managed responsibly and in accordance with established policies and procedures to support timely, accurate and informed decision making. So the finance department had a successful year. Our accomplishments included implementation of a gatsby 101 accounting standard related to compensated absences we received an unmodified opinion of the fiscal year 2425 financial statement audit we initiated the citywide feed study and are in the process of completing that financial services were further enhanced through automated accounts receivable collections and expanded online payment options available on the city's website We also received the Government Finance Officers Association Certificate of Achievement and Excellence in our financial reporting for the 23-24 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report and the GFOA Distinguished Budget Presentation for the fiscal year 24-25. So our goals for the fiscal year 26-27 include continuing to pursue the GFOA budget and ACFER awards, expanding our online fee payment capabilities, improving the payment process efficiency for both customers as well as the staff, and engaging with a municipal advisor to assist with implementing potential revenue generating strategies and overall strengthening procedures for fiscal year budget monitoring. With that, I'll take any questions.

Thank you so much. Any questions? yeah thank you so much excellent report and just you know continue to keep receiving those certificates showing that you are keeping track of every dime that we have and so i know the community appreciates that because not only a clean audit but these certificates mean that we're accounting for our money uh using the best standards and the practices uh please continue thank you uh next we'll review the economic development department's budget

and i'll get started with the summary of the budget here on this next slide for fiscal year 26-27 the department includes one full-time position reporting directly now to the city manager the economic development director position remains frozen in this proposed budget uh department expenditures for fiscal year 26 27 include 189 000 for personnel services um 208 000 for services and supplies and 208 000 in internal service charges reflecting administrative support services that were provided by the other administrative departments Developmental revenues are actually shown on the bottom of the table here and include approximately $4,000 in fees, fines, and reimbursements. There are currently no special revenues budgeted, so there's been a pause in grant activity in the Economic Development Department, and so the remaining $602,000 is supported by general fund tax revenues. overall the department budget is expected to decrease by about 24 percent or 201 000 compared to fiscal year 2526 and the decrease is driven in personnel savings associated with the freezing of the economic developer director position with economic development functions currently supported through staff reporting directly to the city manager so service and supplies um outside of all these administrative changes uh were modestly higher at about 16 000 to support ongoing economic development activities and initiatives and with that i'll turn it over to administrative analyst laura coletta good evening mayor council um i'm here to present um economic development

and here we have the um commission on jobs opportunities and businesses in seaside also known as sea jobs they have five members and sea jobs is positioned to deliver a productive and forward-looking year with a clear set of initiatives um designed to strengthen the city's economic landscaping landscape um in the next fiscal year they're prepared to um provide recommendations and review an economic development action plan and prepare recommendations to guide strategic growth as well. They are also moving forward with the Business of the Month program that highlights outstanding local enterprises along with Monterey Bay FC's partnership. And they are also going to be doing outreach to the business community just to expand those services and provide a more structured engagement, helping the Commission better understand emerging needs of our businesses. And just to go over some of our fiscal year 2025 and 2026 accomplishments. This year, the department assisted with including entering that with into an exclusive negotiating agreement for the main gate mixed use development, advancing coordination for campus town, establishing a community partnership with Monterey Bay FC, launching the seaside at your fingertips, data analytics program, reestablishing the CJOPS Commission, recruiting new businesses along Broadway and Fremont corridors, engaging a consulting firm for retail and commercial advisory services, and continuing collaboration with the developer of the Grand Hyatt Resort. Staff also continued direct outreach with our small businesses through one-on-one sessions, stakeholder engagement, and information-sharing efforts to support our local businesses. Looking forward to fiscal year 2027, our goals include increased collaboration with CJOBS and regional partners, completion and early implementation of a five-year economic development action plan, continued support for Main Gate, Campus Town, Grand Hyatt, and other catalytic development opportunities, targeted tenant recruitment for vacant commercial spaces, and ongoing small business retention and expansion efforts. I just wanted to highlight this next slide, which is the flyer that we're using for the Seaside at Your Fingertips program. with this software and placer ai we're able to receive leakage reports so using that information in collaboration with um our retail consultant retail strategies we're able to get that information all packed together and show national retailers um that we do have a need for their services in our community. Looking at the screen now, that's one of the deliverables that our consultant provided for us. It provides data that our national retailers are looking for. And just to end it here, I just wanted to showcase some of our wins in our community this year. The Ribbon Cutting Ceremonies for America's Tires, Lily Koi Boba, Underground Forest, and of course, our two Business of the Month awardees, AMG Cyclery and the Creperie Cafe, which were both featured at our Monterey Bay FC Halftime Shows. And with that, I'll open it up to any questions.

Thank you so much.

Are there any questions? Council member Miller? Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I think my question is going to the city manager. I mean, at the beginning of the presentation or the beginning of the day, we talked about economic development, how important it is. And now we're talking about the development position, the director position is going to be frozen. So, I mean, we're stressing how important it is that we're going to be increasing our sales tax and our economic development is so important. But this is not, for me, it didn't demonstrate that in the presentation.

I appreciate that comment. In development of this budget and looking at the economic development projects ahead of us, they are going to require significant investment from the city manager, assistant city manager, city attorney, and other staff members in support of administrative analysts to Laura Kolata. uh with that and in addition to replacing the economic development position that's probably a process that probably takes six to eight months in the next fiscal year so looking at our tight development budget challenges it made sense for the city management to propose um propose adding back the parks and rec director position to allow more capacity for this city manager to operate in the economic development space alongside the city manager and staff

okay so it sounds like then you do have um just because this maybe this position is frozen for the remainder of the year you're thinking that our assistant city manager might pick up on some of those those um big ass absolutely okay and i know earlier we talked about our you know consultants our consultants are low it i mean we are using some consultants right retail strategies

yes retail strategies is also augmenting staff on that national recruitment and retention efforts so yes correct is that is the retail strategies amount listed on the first slide it's in it's currently in the budget at the it's a it was a three-year contract that we approved in the amount of fifty thousand dollars each year

that's on the consultant it would be yes not on this particular item correct okay and so they're focusing more city-wide is that my understanding that right correct and so are we going to focus on economic development in certain areas of the city or

Correct. Yes. One of the things that's also included in this budget, which will be discussed with seed jobs and then also part of the five-year economic development action plan that's, again, in draft form, is a membership into the California Main Street Association, which targets a lot of the small businesses and specifically a lot of development in West Broadway and on through the corridor.

understood because it's it's just troublesome for me when we say well we have no money for a development position for this department we don't have any money but one of the reasons why we don't have any money because we want this department to do well so that this department can raise money in taxes and and our city can do overall so it's kind of like the cart and the horse which do we you know but i i really think we focus on economic development in this city so that we have the ability to our sales tax revenue increases and we're able to fund the things we want to do in the city thank you

I'm sorry, two questions. My memory tells me that in July or August, September, in that window of time, you're going to come back with a report detailing a plan for the future economic development so that way we know we're going. And part of that plan, I assume, is going to include the retail strategy groups and information that you gathered. Is that a correct statement?

That is correct.

Okay. And my second, and you gave a great report, and thank you. My other question, I guess, is what I've heard, talking to some businesses, that Seaside newsletter, business newsletter, that's going to continue because I heard some positive things that provides a information network to those businesses as well as when we had a little lexus and i councilman alexis and i had a little downtown meeting the numbers doubled i guess in attendance partly because of of that awareness to stuff that happens in the community. Is that a fair statement to say that there'll be more continuation of the business meetings?

I think in business meetings as in more business newsletters. So the newsletter, we've actually taken a pause on that and we've rolled that into the general community newsletter. So we'll have more economic development items in the community's newsletter, which we believe will get a broader reach.

Okay, great. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other questions?

Okay. Thank you. Please continue.

okay so next we'll review the community development department budget which includes the community development housing and planning functions as well as the cdbg program while the organizational chart reflects a future structure where building would be incorporated within the community development building service community development building services is currently presented separately for this budget cycle For fiscal year 26-27, the department maintains seven full-time positions, which is unchanged from fiscal year 25-26, The housing program manager position continues to remain frozen with existing staff continuing to absorb those responsibilities within the affordable housing program. Department expenditures for 26-27 include 1.3 million in personnel services, 780,000, in services and supplies 318 000 in capital outlay and 631 000 in internal service charges the department also is one of the departments that received an increase in allocated administrative costs associated with the revised overhead allocation methodology and a portion of this increase reflects updated office space and cost of allocation assumptions within the housing division capital expenditures remain uh remain included in the budget to support ongoing maintenance and repair of the city affordable housing properties the department also administered administers the community development block grant where in 2627 expenditures are expected to decrease by about 71 000 due to lower anticipated program activity and staff time allocations on the bottom of the table shows revenues we have fees fines and reimbursements at 64 900 000 in special revenue and the remaining expenditures are funded by 2 million in general fund tax revenue general fund portion specifically uh is for the community development and planning divisions and outside of the change in the administrative cost allocation the overall department budget had a more modest uh general fund increase of approximately only a hundred thousand dollars And similar to the Finance Department and the City Manager's Department, we were able to shift eligible personnel costs to other funding sources, including the Affordable Housing Fund. And also the Community Development Department had a reduced consultant budget. With that, I'll turn it over to Andy Mygritt.

Thank you very much. Council, City, can I get the clicker? Thank you very much. Okay. Wrong one. So Community Development Department oversees two commissions. The first is the Environmental Commission. The Environmental Commission investigates and advocates for sound environmental policy and action in the areas of air quality, water quality, energy and waste management, flora and fauna protection, and community planning. Probably its most significant role is that it provides feedback and guidance for staff in the implementation of the Climate Action and Adaptation Plan. Staff liaison is Beth Rocha. It doesn't typically spend very much. We did have some materials that we purchased recently for the Earth Day event, but other than that, it easily stays within its budget of $3,500. Its work plan, it supports implementation of the Climate Action Adaptation Plan, also engages in planning and infrastructure projects, protects natural habitats, tries to directly connect the work of the Environmental Commission to people, and integrates sustainability into existing events. The other commission that's overseen by the Community Development Department is the Planning Commission. It's the primary decision-making authority for certain development applications and advises the City Council on various land use policy matters. Also has taken over the responsibility of what was formerly covered by the Board of Architectural Review. essentially in a nutshell it approves permits that come before it also provides recommendations to the city council and on rare occasions can serve as an appellant body for zoning administrator decisions if someone appeals something that staff does it can be appealed to the planning commission that hasn't happened in the nearly four years i've been here but it's part of their responsibilities So like Jesse said, there's three essential separate divisions within community development, the planning division, the housing division, and CDBG community development block grant. So the planning division, by and large, the main thing they do is to promptly and efficiently process applications for use permits, architectural reviews, and other land use permits. Most for the ministerial ones, we typically get about 85% of those done in less than 10 days. The discretionary ones can take a little bit longer, but still we had about 36 of those last year and they were done within a couple of months on average. Similar timeframes to what we saw the year before. The Housing Division prepares and implements policies to support development of housing in the City of Seaside and oversees City-owned housing inventory. The City does have a few rental units that it manages and owns. The Community Development Block Grant Program is managed by the Department and we also oversee the City's short-term rental program. So just a few accomplishments that we did last year. Like I said, we did 150 ministerial and 36 discretionary projects in the planning division. And the planning division also began implementation of the climate action adaptation plan with five initiatives. In the last six months, the city has allocated, the city received a grant for $630,000 for a rental assistance program. We launched that in November six months ago. Since then, we've allocated actually as of today, that number is $575,000 of that $630,000. The council will probably be receiving a report in the upcoming timeframe once we finish that up. um but we have gotten to the point where we have stopped taking applications and we are just getting the documentation for the last few applicants and we should be able to get all of that allocated probably by the end of this fiscal year Another activity that CDBG did was we prepared an annual action plan. Council took action on that just a few weeks ago. And also with the short-term rental program, staff became aware that some of the hosted short-term rentals where the operator claims residency were not in fact occupied by those residents. And so we revoked those permits and went through an appeal process before a hearing officer. And in all cases, staff was able to gain compliance on those. And those licenses were in fact revoked. so for fiscal year 26-27 some of the goals and budgets for next year we obviously for planning a big thing keep reviewing permit applications as they come in we are hoping to complete the zoning ordinance update this upcoming year that will bring our zoning ordinance into compliance with our general plan we're going to continue implementation of our climate action and adaptation plan i mentioned we had five initiatives for the prior year we're going to try to get that up to 10. and then identify and pursue affordable housing opportunities our housing staff is taking is has been getting training both in property management as well as in grant writing and so we're hoping to work on that and also expand our partnership with the seaside housing collaborative to really kind of get some of these things up and running. Also support development of the Campus Town project. We are expecting to start getting a lot more permit applications coming in shortly and getting those done quickly. And also continue our review of the short-term rental program. So there you go. That's our presentation.

Thank you. Any questions? Just a couple.

On the chart, these are all related to short-term rentals. We are getting significant dollars to improve affordable housing as well as community improvements. But in the past years, we weren't A lot of people are getting away with stuff, not paying their fees or not following the law. Have we changed firms that were doing a better job as far as monitoring people, paying the right fees to follow them through with joining the system, et cetera?

So the two largest websites that people advertise these on are Airbnb and Vrbo. And we have agreements with both of those firms where when people book it, book the rooms, then they have to pay the TOT taxes up front at that point. So the only way that someone can avoid not collecting those TOT rates is if they're going through Craigslist or word of mouth or something like that. in which case they are supposed to come in and self-report. How well that's happening, I'm not sure. But the vast majority of those rentals are coming through those websites and they do collect those for us.

And you think we're doing a better job from previous years?

Yes, I think that we are.

And then you mentioned that we revoked three, I think you said on that. Do they have to pay us past money's due?

yes so in one of those cases we um uh we made an agreement where they agreed to pay uh fifteen thousand dollars in penalties um in the other two we went to the hearing and the hearing officer awarded the city um one of them it was included penalties because our ordinance states that um we can charge administrative penalties of $2,500 per day or fifth forfeiture of all rents received, whichever is greater. And so in one of those cases, the administrative penalties awarded were a little bit in excess of $200,000. And for the other one, it was a little bit in excess of $100,000. Now, we have not collected on that yet. That is something that will be the next step in that process. Failure to comply with the city's short-term rental ordinance can carry significant financial penalties.

But we most likely will receive the $300,000 sometime next year.

I would have to defer to the city attorney on that one.

I'm just thinking positively. Every penny matters. And then do we receive very many complaints from other residents associated with the Airbnb?

Yes, from time to time we do. I just got one today actually about a unit being rented as a a short-term rental with no permit so now that we have a new building official who just started today i will be talking with him about what code enforcement can be doing because we can't revoke a license for a um if there is no license and also maybe looking at some ordinance modifications so that we can expand and to maybe be able to more aggressively pursue some of these non-permitted.

So do we get complaints? Let me try a different way. And that's great information related to parties and their house or breaking down the next door neighbor's fence or those kinds of things that after two or three violations, they go away. But do we get very many complaints in general from that? Once a month, not at all?

We do get complaints. I don't have numbers. minimal would you say i'm moderate it's not a daily thing but um it and some complaints are as minor as the the hot tub motor is too loud and some of them are significant uh there's 15 people having a party on this house it varies but it's okay but it's not significant at least

It we feel good question all the time on that as far as you know there's one every other hour or numerous that impacts quality of life and last time we received report there was like three during the year or four or five was so small.

It's likely the volume than other communities experience there's nothing abnormal about the the complaints that are received by the cities. I would agree with that statement.

uh yes and then we'll go to city attorney to help answer that question so thank you fines are are we maxed out on the increase of fines or have we thought about increasing fines probably we are not maxed out and i have not given any thought to increasing the fines okay thank you i'm city attorney

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of the Council, members of the public. So short-term rental fines, this is the first time that we've had administrative hearing decisions resulting in approximately $300,000-plus in administrative fines. Um, there are several ways that we can enforce those fines. One is to have them recognized by the court and enforce them as a judgment. One is to attach a lien to property. So the exact we have not implemented that because the appeal period is just now expiring from the first decisions of those fine fines. So there has to be a lapse in time. Thank you.

yes thank you i think that's a ripe conversation city manager to put on the agenda sometime down the road about uh this issue uh and i'm glad uh um not that you were going to do it but i'm glad to see imagine jumped in when when the question was surrounded are these uh uh airbnbs uh legal or illegal uh are they uh significant uh quality of life issues if you live next door to them they're significant and so i know you guys are doing all you can but it does sound like there's some room there uh somewhere Well, and my question is, I think you said on the two top sites, we monitor that. And then you I won't even name the site. But you said is one side that that we don't seem to check. And to me, that seems like we're telling people as long as you do it on that side, just go for it. So I would ask the city manager to look at how we can monitor as much as possible because those that are not a license not only they're getting away with the tot but they're i'm there i won't say they don't care about the neighbors right but um we don't know about them and then the community thinks we're letting them do something that we don't even know about so i i think the city manager heard that thank you so much for that it's a lot of work going on in those uh areas please continue

Okay, we have one last budget scheduled for the study session today to review, and that's the Building and Code Enforcement budget. At the top, we show the number of full-time positions that remains at six, It continues to freeze one administrative assistant and one building inspector position for fiscal year 26-27. Projected personnel costs are increasing consistent with the increase in medical costs and pension costs we've seen department-wide at 1.1 million. Services and supplies are budgeted at 344,000 and capital outlay and debt are budgeted at 28,000. Internal service charges are 353,000. personnel services increased uh 247 000 with the recruitment of the chief building official position which was offset in a reduction in subcontracted services that were previously used while that position was vacant and similar to other departments there was a larger administrative overhead allocation to the building department which yes was consistent with some other departments Revenues for building and code enforcement include $985,000 projected for fees, fines, and reimbursements, and the remaining expenditures are supported by general tax revenue in the amount of $812,000. And I'm going to ask the assistant city manager, Dan Mewis, to present both accomplishments and goals.

Good evening again. Uh, so just a quick overview, um, the building department oversees the adherence to all applicable building codes and regulations of all residential commercial structures within the city. And then the code enforcement department, their division is responsible for responding and beating code violations, unabated violations and can that pose serious threats to public safety. So over the last year, the building department issued 986 permits and conducted 3,425 field inspections while code enforcement opened 618 new cases with 591 of them being successfully closed. So one of the biggest priorities will be filling vacancies making sure that staff are fully trained and then advancing the technology improvements to enhance efficiency and customer service within the department as mr myrick stated we finally hired our chief building official He started today, actually. So that was a recruitment that we have been recruiting for for over a year. And we've been supplementing it with our consultant, Mr. Albert Salvador, who will still stay on and help the new building official kind of understand the department and understand all the projects that we have come to place. However, we did have a vacancy that just recently happened with our building inspector. So one of the first priorities of the new chief building official will be to hire a new building inspector. So we will be filling that gap with some consultants over the next, until that time is come. So with that said, I'd be happy to answer any questions as I can for the building department.

Thank you so much. Questions?

Back a few years, they had a code enforcement person to work on weekends. Once he Saturday or every other Saturday or something, because a lot of the buildings. Did people did stuff on weekends that were not necessarily.

uh legal for like a better term is that still ongoing or is that kind of going away until you feel positions so we it hasn't happened in a while so right now as we get the new chief building official on board we have started um opening up the conversations with the current code enforcement so let them know that there will be a revolving cycle to come back to have some saturday um shifts so we'll be working with the news team to kind of re re-energize that and get that going again

Anyone else? Thank you. Yeah, I shared those concerns. You know, I went too long. I went much too long. not checking after 5 p.m., not checking on the weekends. I mean, we know people are impacted by that. We know the neighbors are impacted. I get a couple people very often saying that they know people are illegally building a fence, they're building this, they're building that. And then, you know, we know a couple people this year where they went to go sell their house And then when we had to tell them you had to take all this stuff down, they couldn't sell the house, they couldn't move, and it made it difficult because, first of all, it's not our fault someone did something illegal. But I do think funding should be, because I want to stay on the budget, funding should be somewhere for those positions to be checking on stuff when people don't believe we're checking on stuff. So please continue.

Well, that was the last department that we scheduled for this study session. Tomorrow, we scheduled the review of the police department budget, fire department, public works, and the CIP schedule, and the recreation department.

Yeah, let me check with the council, see what they want to do. You guys had enough. I want to just close with a couple comments. Or you want to do one more? The police is next. So this is a natural place to stop. But I want to just make sure you guys could you turn up turn?

Thank you for public work.

I'm sorry.

Personally, if we can get one more in, because I think public works and recreation might be longer and that way it makes tomorrow shorter. And I think police at least is very straightforward and maybe real quick and it can be done. But that's just my thought. I'm open to either or.

Okay. Anyone else? i i i don't feel the same i i think that this is a nice place to stop i mean our police budget is one of our most important budgets and uh there's very few people here tonight and i think that people are might be expecting to hear the police budget tomorrow so i would i my vote is to adjourn adjourn yeah anyone else i prefer to adjourn just to have fresh eyes okay

I would just say what no one knew where we were going to stop at. So the people that are here are the people that are here. And then we'll start anew tomorrow. City Manager, do you have any closing comments as it relates to anything you want to make sure we cover tonight and or focus on tomorrow?

No, I think departments did a great job and I appreciate the finance again for the hard work it takes to get here.

Thank you.

Okay. Thank you so much. Great job, finance director, leading us through that. I will go to public comment, open up public comment.

Members of the public in the chamber, please approach the podium. Members of the public on Zoom, please use the raise your hand feature or dial star nine if you're calling from a phone. Mayor, no members of the public have come forward to make public comment.

All right, thank you.

So, you want to say something like, you want to say something just wanted to add that I will be sending out an email to both and I see in city council regarding the what transpired this evening and then the actual amounts so that everyone could be prepared for the June 18th meeting. Thank you.

Yeah, I was thinking about that too is if we come. On what day is that June 19th, June 18th, 18th, if we come on June 18th, and then there's things that we reject. That money flows to the council. And so I want to make sure that they are able to put as much as they want into that document. And so I think the mayor of Portemps said they always had a few extra left over. So provide that list too, because it may be some of their suggestions that may not make it through. and then i asked the city manager to come up with a natural uh break tomorrow in between the whole thing so i can that'll be the public comment i'll start off with public comment and then a natural break in work will be the public comment i'm not saying that'll be the break time we'll have a little bit more break times too but that way the public comment is already pre-planned by the city manager And then we'll have public comment at the end. And tomorrow, at the end, do you want us to make decisions? Or we just go home and come back on the 18th and take them off?

We'll take whatever input you have based on tomorrow evening. Any input that comes after that, we'll try to discuss internally. But we're looking for recommendations on the budget for us to adopt on the 18th.

Okay, well, just make sure you firm that up. If you want us to have a decision, we'll make a decision. And and the majority will determine those decisions. I may have pretend me just going to just quick.

The past years that I can recall most of the decisions or recommendations are made tomorrow night, so that way you have plenty of time to tweak whatever the recommendations are for the 18, so that way we can be done. If we wait to tweak, then you have to have another meeting.

Correct. If there are significant recommendations in the budget, we need to hear those tomorrow night if possible.

Yeah, that's my point. So that way you can tweak it and bring it back to a full vote yes or no on whatever you want to vote yes or no on.

Correct.

I mean on the whole budget, not just particular items. I'm sorry.

good comments anyone else with great comments okay uh we're meeting here tomorrow tomorrow the 27th at 5 p.m uh there'll be no further items on the agenda uh this meeting is uh adjourned