City Council - Regular Meeting

And will be done by pastor Tim Silva from High Desert Church. And council member Lee, will you please lead us in the pledge of allegiance?

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you so much for this day. And Lord, even in the rain and the wind, Lord, we still praise you, God, for another day. We know that they are a blessing and they're provided by you, and we thank you for that. Lord, we thank you that we get to live in a free country where we can gather together such as this place here, Lord, and pray that you would just be in our conversation today. Pray for the council, Lord, as they have tentative ears, Lord, that they would listen, Lord, and I pray that you would just be with their wisdom as well. God, we love you so much. We give you this day in your name. Amen.

Thank you.

Please join me in the pledge. Place your right hand over your heart. Ready? Begin. I pledge

allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you.

Can we have a roll call, please? Mayor Bennington? Here. Mayor Perlten Poland? Here. Council Member Greg? Here. Council Member Lee?

Here.

Council Member Achilla?

Here.

Thank you. There are no we didn't have closed session, so we will not have any closed session reporting. We do have an announcement, a certificate of recognition presented to Hesperia High School student Mariangel Rubio Aguilar, who is the first Hesperia High School student to earn a scholarship at Princeton University. If counsel can join me down at the podium, please. Wow.

What an honor. What an honor. So exciting. Tonight, the city council is proud to recognize an extraordinary achievement by one of Hesperia's own. Senior Mariangel Rubio Aguilar has made history as the first student from Hesperia High School to be accepted to Princeton University, where she has earned a full ride academic scholarship to the Ivy League institution.

Mariangel plans to major in neuroscience during her time at Hesperia High School. She founded the school's medical club, giving fellow students the opportunity to learn basic medical skills such as taking vital signs. She also independently secured a medical fellowship shadowing nurses and doctors to gain firsthand experience and insight into how hospitals operate. MariAngel, we congratulate you and we wish you continued success as you take this incredible next step. Your hard work has opened doors and Hesperia will be here cheering you on. What an honor. Congratulations.

Oh my gosh.

We'll have you run our trauma hospital when we get it up here. But there's a certificate, and we're so very proud of you, and we wish you the best of luck. Thank you. I bet, yeah, mom's proud, Yeah, that's awesome. Thank you for coming out tonight and good luck to you.

Moving on to general public comment. Individuals wishing to speak during general public comment or on a particular numbered item are requested to submit a speaker slip to the city clerk with the agenda item noted. Speaker slips should be turned in prior to public comment portion of the joint agenda before an agenda item is discussed. Comments will be limited to three minutes for general public comments, consent calendar items and new business items. Comments are limited to five minutes for public hearing items.

In compliance with the Brown Act, the City Council may not discuss or take action on non agenda items or engage in question and answer sessions with the public. The City Council may ask brief questions for clarification, provide a reference to staff or other resources for factual information, and direct staff to add an item to a subsequent meeting. We have our first general comment. Mr. Chuck Wolfe, please.

Thank you folks for letting me speak here for just a moment. I wanted to let you know about the my understanding is a proposed sales tax that's going be happening here in the city of Asperia. I'd like to have a I think I'm doing this right public information request or public records request when that meeting is going to be, when we're going to be discussing it here. And on that sales tax, we need to know about what their status is, what their progress has been on it, and specifically, what are we trying to get the money for? Okay?

And that's about it. That's all I need to know. Oh, yeah. Yeah, there were supposed to be five bids. Is there any way we can get information on those five bids before we chose this last gentleman to do the groundwork for the sales tax proposal? So is there any way we can get that information? Who the five bids were and why we chose this gentleman? That's all. Do I need to use up my three minutes? No. Wait. You don't have to use up three

You're welcome to.

I really don't want to. I got other things to do. But thanks a lot for letting me talk.

Hesperian News and Politics.

Hi, me again. First of all, I know we all disagree and stuff, but I will start by saying I am thankful you guys held this meeting today despite the weather. This is something important, obviously. And, you know, I told my mom this morning, if they called off the meeting tonight because of the weather, I wouldn't blame them because it's nasty out there. I'm having some trouble with this, so there we go. What I brought you here today is a list from a lot of my viewers today on my news page. I made a list of all the roads that need to be addressed because of their damage, because they're unsafe, all kinds of reasons, and I wanted to include it. Let me show it to everyone. It's pretty long. And it's it's probably gonna get longer because I know these storms love to get all kinda nasty.

There you are. I'm gonna leave this here for you guys so you can look at it. I know there's a good chance it might go in the trash, but, you know, may as well just be here because I feel like this is, as someone who's lived here almost my entire life, this is something that should have been addressed a long time ago and I would like to be hopeful that you guys could maybe take a stand and stand up for this. So also I wanted to talk about the animal shelter. Has there been any update on that? I know you guys also had an audit a few years ago. Did you guys ever do anything of that audit? Anything get improved? Also, are we doing another audit of it? Because obviously, we still keep having issues within the animal shelter, but it doesn't get addressed during these meetings.

So hopefully, we can start getting on top of that pretty soon. With that being said, I hope everyone stays safe in this weather, and I hope you guys have a great night. Thank you, and have a great day.

Joe Byron, Hesperia Piano, listens.

Thank you, mayor and city council for being here tonight. I represent my wife's company, the Asperia Piano Lessons. And part of her curricula is live performances and we use city venues for that. Percy Bacher Center sometimes we use outdoor venues as well. And we're told that these venues are closed and having a difficult time determining what the status is going to be in terms of their opening and why all the venues seem to be closed when we're told that there was storm damage to the Bakker Center only. So just wanted the clarification and as much information as we could get because we need to make plans for the business.

Thank you. Rachel, do we have any information regarding that?

No, I'm sorry. I don't have any information on Hisperia Recreation and Park District facilities, whether they are open or closed.

Rachel, can I highlight on that? Does the city actually have any venues within our network outside of Civic Plaza Park, which is an outdoor setting?

No. The city does not have any community facilities for use. Those facilities belong to the Asperia Recreation and Park District, which is a separate governmental agency.

Got it. So I should try what can I do? Can you give me some advice?

Can we have staff give them the information to the

Parks District, please? Certainly. I'll have a staff member meet you in the back to give you some information about the Park District. Kelly. Kelly, our staff member here, will meet you in the back of the room, and she can give you information about the Hispereal Recreation and Park District, and how you can contact them.

Great. Thank you very, very much.

Thank you. Brenda Dahl, please.

Good evening, everyone. Thanks for letting me have the opportunity to talk. I noticed that the basin on Maple And Muscatow has yet to be dredged, and I would like to know why. We've had a couple of weeks of decent weather, but yet the mud is still above the fence line. And, what is the city doing to take measures to make sure that the runoff does not go on to Maple and Muscatil or even Maple at all anymore?

And, is the city making any arrangements to have the aqueduct overflow diverted to where it is being drained into city sewer and not onto a road that does not have any drainage? And also, miss Lee, I would like to let you know that I do not appreciate these insensitive comments that you made the last couple of meetings that were geared towards me. I also want to let you know that I did not drive yesterday into rainwater, And I want to remind you that on Christmas Eve, I did not drive into the flood. The flood drove into me. Thank you.

Power to the High Desert. Elijah Munoz, please.

Good evening. I just came by today to voice my opinion and worry for possible ice coming to the High Desert, worry for my family, my friends, and myself because as we've all seen, they are not just going after people that are undocumented. They are also going after people that have lived here their entire lives, like myself. And, yeah, I just would like to see that I don't have to worry about that sort of thing in my hometown where I've lived my entire life. Yeah.

Alright. Thank you.

Robert Davy, please.

Evening, mayor and council. I wasn't gonna do a public comment, but this young lady felt something important enough to come and tell us. And did any of us understand it? No. Because it's in Spanish, I assume. So, I mean, you might have, Chris, but I think that can we look into, furnishing an interpreter or translator? If someone I know on your, site, someone's disabled that says let you know so many hours beforehand. How about if we had somebody say, I'm gonna need a translator at the meeting? It just seems sad that she'd come and do her spiel, and the majority of us aren't gonna understand what she said. I think that she had something important enough we should all be able to know what she said.

So I just wanna say that. Do

we have any additional public comment cards? No more speaker cards. Thank you. Moving on to joint consent calendar. Do I have a motion to move the joint consent calendar?

Madam Mayor, I'd like to motion to approve the joint consent calendar minus items number four and seven. I think those are the only ones that we have public comment on.

Correct. Okay. Do I have a second? I have a first by council member Greg, a second by council member Achooik. Can we have a vote, please?

The consent calendar minus items four and seven past five zero. Thank you. Mr. Davy, you have a public comment for Item four?

Yes, I have some concerns on number four. First, I'd like to know, is it an on call time and materials contract for G and M Automotive with the vendor bills plus labor plus parts with a not to exceed limit? Or is it just a fixed contract? Because that makes a huge difference on who's liable for these extra expenses. Or is it just our fleet condition, poor maintenance forecasting?

I understand unforeseen repairs are going to happen, especially with heavy duty vehicles, but my concern isn't so much the vendors, the underlying fleet strategy. The staff report notes that some of these vehicles have limited remaining value, yet we're investing significant repair dollars to keep them operational. I'd just like to understand whether we have a proactive replacement schedule in place or if we're entering into a cycle of increasing repair costs due to deferred capital investment. In the long term, strategic replacement may be more cost effective than repeated emergency funding adjustments. So I believe this is the second time I don't remember the first time they were just getting the original contract or if it was asking for more money, but they've been here before last year.

So that's all. I just wanted to make sure that we're looking at this. It seems like we're throwing $75,000 or it was more than that. We're throwing a lot of money at some very dilapidated, it sounds like, vehicles. And then there's the other side of that coin.

I'm all for, and if you've heard me talk before, know I'm all for keeping everything in house. I wish we were digging out the Maple Basin in house and not third party, sending it out to bid. So if the way I was reading that this proposal is that the residents would have suffered if we didn't fix these machines. Well, why didn't we send it out to third party? We're sending a lot of stuff out to third party. Yes. Like I said, that's not long term. I'm against that. But short term, if we're going to go spend money, why don't we put that money in a good vehicle instead of throwing good money on bad equipment? So it's my opinion.

We have a comment for item seven two.

Thank you for not making me walk all the way back.

You're welcome.

I want to say, first of all, thank you for bringing forward the contract of Paws Mission supplemental mobile spayneuter services. Approving funding for spayneuter is significant and long overdue and a step in the right direction. Up until now, we are essentially at zero, and you can't scale from zero, but you can from 75,000. So we finally have something to build on that matters. Low cost spay and neuter for owned pets will absolutely help reduce the accidental litters, reduce shelter intake and reduce strain on staff and resources.

Prevention is always more cost effective than reaction. And alongside, though, is when we're doing this spay and neuter, please don't require or allow these pets to come inside with for a shelter stay. It needs to be, you know, neuter them, spay them, and let them go. They shouldn't be required to come in the shelter beforehand like we've had some discussions before or have to stay there after the fact. As this program develops, I'd encourage the council to consider the next step, that's incorporating TNR, Trap, Neuter, Return for community cats.

TNR is not about increasing cats, it's about stabilizing existing colonies. When cats are sterilized, vaccinated and returned, populations gradually decline. Complaints decrease, shelter intake decreases, long term costs decrease, and many cities pair low cost pet sterilization programs with targeted TNR funding because together, they create a comprehensive prevention strategy. So tonight, action is progress. I appreciate that progress, but my hope is that we build upon that.

You're talking to somebody who, again, you know I feed feral cats. The population is down a little bit, and I don't know why, but was any given night 12 cats? They go through about twelve, fifteen cans of food a night. And another concern came up. I was at church Sunday.

I can't verify it's Hesperia, so I can't go off too much. But this gentleman, his wife, was told by an animal control officer, I have a feeling it was Victorville, not Hesperia, but I don't want this ever to happen in Hesperia that it's illegal to feed feral cats. If it's illegal to feed feed feral cats, then come and arrest me every night of the week, so I'm not ever gonna stop ever. And that should not be a policy. I hope that Hesperia it was just one animal control officer wherever it was in the High Desert, his opinion, and not going off of city law because that's that's not the way to go. You don't starve them out. That's not proper. Okay. Thank you.

Do we have any council comments?

Adam Mayor, for item number four, I think we have a staff report. Just a quick overview on on some of these expenditures would be probably helpful to our residents here.

Okay. So we did have to repair some dilapidated vehicles, which I do have to admit are aged and run their life cycle. But we did have we do have a plan in place to replace three of these vehicles with an approved swap loader truck that was approved in the twenty fourtwenty five budget, but it had to get carried over to the twenty fivetwenty six budget due to a lack of chassis that were California compliance with the vendor. So when this truck gets delivered in March, it will replace three of these vehicles that are on this list, which is two dump trucks and an asphalt patch truck.

So just a quick clarifying question to this. We paid money to repair these vehicles already, and now we're going to put them out of service in March?

Well, we paid to keep them repaired through the year so we can provide service to our residents through the July 1 until we've got notification from the vendor that they were done with the build with PB Loader in Northern California. And then once we were notified of that, we stopped making repairs on these older vehicles.

Do they have the potential to continue on?

No, they don't. We've done everything we can for the patch truck. The patch truck has parts that have been discontinued. And we've actually gone and got parts off of older trucks to help keep that patch truck running so we can keep water patches and patching streets with our paving crew. But we've done everything we can to keep the trucks running so we can provide a service emergency and regular day to day service to the point where we got notified by the vendor. And then at that time, we were made the decision if they were to go back in for repairs, we would not be making repairs on them any further.

Well, it's good that we have some new vehicles coming within the fleet, so that's definitely helpful.

We do the swap loader version is the versatile truck where we can switch the beds out on the back so we can eliminate a trucks lot that we have to keep maintenance up on, including DOT inspection, ninety day inspections and some filter cleaning with the DEF filters on them, the older trucks.

That was the four vehicles were heavy duty. What about the other three that were tied to this?

Other two was a code enforcement van that transport the work release around in. It does see some off road use that we do have to maintain it a little more than regular vehicles, tires, shocks, stuff like that. And then the other one is an older vehicle that supports our operators out in the field. It holds the fuel cell in the back and it also gives supplies for greasing the equipment and other things like that.

Thank you, sir.

So I do have a question. So you're taking this one vehicle we're getting in March and replacing three with it?

Yes.

Okay.

Yes. So I don't know if remember back in 2023, 'twenty four, we actually bought a swap loader unit. And that took place of two other units that we had because we're able to swap the beds on and off, and we can use it for multiple uses for multiple reasons depending what the workload is for the day.

Perfect. Yes. That will help with costs, I think.

Yes, it will.

Perfect. Thank you.

I have a first by Councilmember Greg. Can I get a second, please, for Items four and seven? Can we have a vote? Motion passes five-zero.

Thank you.

Thank you. Moving on to new business item nine consideration of the 2026 legislative platform and funding priorities. Tammy, thank you.

Good evening, honorable mayor and city council members. The item before you this evening is the city's 2026 legislative platform. The city manager's office is responsible for maintaining this document and is updated annually to reflect the city's changing interest. The legislative platform is built with core principles that include preserving local control, maintaining local responsibility, promoting economic development, supporting funding opportunities, and collaborating with regional partners. The platform lists the city's funding priorities along with the state and federal legislative policy statements.

The policy statements are used to provide staff and city council guidance when responding to legislative matters that may impact the city of Hesperia and its residents. This year's platform identifies critical projects that would immediately benefit the circulation or improve drainage within the city and can provide a significant impact to residents and economic development. These critical projects include citywide pavement restoration program, Catawba Road Basin, water service line improvements, the North South Corridor improvements, Main Street widening and aqueduct bridge construction and traffic signals at Escondido and Sultana Street and 7th Avenue and Sequoia Street. Cedar Street improvements, Temecula Avenue Basin, Ranchero Corridor Project Phase four and the I-fifteen Corridor Water Project. I would like to add before I go into the essential projects that last year's appropriations request to Congressman Obernelty's office was for the Ranchero Corridor Phase four project.

I'm pleased to announce that staff was recently informed that all appropriations bills have been signed into law and that includes $2,000,000 for the Ranchero Road Corridor Phase four project. The platform also lists essential projects that, while important, will take time to see to fruition. Essential projects include Escondido Bridge, the A04 Corridor Flood Protection Program, Mesa Area Septic to Sewer, I Avenue Widening, Sultana Street and Muscatl Street improvements, and the Bear Valley Road Rehabilitation and Widening Project. It is staff's recommendation that the City Council adopt the legislative platform consisting of legislative policy statements and funding priorities. I would also like to add that there was recent discussion regarding AB fourteen twenty one.

And please note that staff did confirm that AB fourteen twenty one only requires that the Road Usage Charge Technical Advisory Committee, which is housed under the California Transportation Commission, to examine the potential for a mileage based revenue system as an alternative to the gas tax. The bill mandates preparing and submitting research and recommendations on road user charges or mileage based fees to the legislature by 2027, requiring collaboration with state agencies and stakeholders for comprehensive analysis. That concludes my presentation. I'm available for any questions that council may have.

Do we have any council questions? Thank you. Great report. I have a motion by Council Member Ochoa, a second by Mayor Potem Poland. Can we have a vote, please?

Motion passes five zero. Thank you. Thank you Tammy. Moving on to council committee reports and comments. Council member Greg would you get us started please?

Right. I don't I didn't have any committees in the last two weeks. The DVWRA is coming up on Thursday, though, so I'll have be happy to report back on that.

I

would like to see the list that was provided of the rows from our our residents, so I'd be happy to I'll get it after the meeting. I can't engage in a back and forth. But after the meeting, I I'd really like to get that list down and and make sure that those are at least prioritized within our You

can give it to the city clerk.

Whatever works best. Now

we have completed our public comment. Continue, council member Greg, please. Thank you.

Right. I

would like to have an update on where we're at with the bid process for the Maple project being dredged out and anything like that. I know it's kinda difficult especially considering we just had even more rain. But by us not dredging that out in the meantime, did that cause any additional damage that could have been averted over this last storm and what could happen within tonight? I mean, it's raining now. So I'm just curious if we had anybody look at that to actually say whether or not it was gonna be impactful or not just for the future of that dredging project.

So other than that, I don't have anything else. Folks, slow down. Get to where you're going safely. The weather's not ideal.

Thank you.

Thank you. Council Member Ochoa, please.

Yeah. We attended over the weekend a really awesome ribbon cutting. Yeah. Well, not over the weekend. It was right after our council meeting of the month, wasn't it?

It was great. And just being in the community, I wanted to address the comments made, by the Spanish speaker who left, but I will still address them. In English, I understand the optics and the responsibility that I have as a Mexican American, first Mexican American to sit on this council. I am with my people. I have my own views.

They are my views. They are my political views. This is not a political space. Everyone is welcome to come here and say what they want to say. That's the point of public comment.

I may not agree with what is said, but and it's ugly, and it's just as hard as it is to hear it on social media or how it's clipped. It's just as hard to hear it here. And my father crossed the Rio Grande illegally, and here I am. And I know that that's a story of many people in this country. I know people are afraid, but we will endure.

I believe in justice, and I will always stand between injustice and the right side of history. I know I sit here with decent people, and we all have differences of opinion on policies. But we need to be able to have conversations and not arguments. We need to be able to have discourse and not pointing fingers. Only love can conquer hate. Thank

you.

Councilmember Lee, please.

I attended the ribbon cutting for the honor boxing club as well. That was really wonderful. I did have to cut that short for a family emergency. I attended the VVTA interview with the CEO, myself, and Liz Bissera. We made a recommendation to the Board of Directors of EVTA, and we all came to the conclusion that Rod Goldman will be stepping into the CEO spot as of July 1 when Nancy Goff retires from BBTA.

I attended VMI on February 4, and the BBTA bus radio is this Saturday. I have never been to that, so I'm gonna head out to that. I don't think it's open to the public, though. I think it's just staff of VVTA. I do wanna congratulate our MPT, Josh Pullen, for being appointed to the Public Safety Policy Committee at League of California City, so congratulations for that.

That's very wonderful. I also want to give out a huge congratulations to Mary Angel Rubio Aguilar for her scholarship to Princeton. That is such an honor, even for our city. Go Scorpions to have somebody from our city getting a full ride to Princeton. That's really wonderful. Thank you to the folks in the back. I appreciate you each and every day for all you do. I know you guys are busy. I hear you rolling quickly out of the station. So thank you, and thank you to staff. And I think that's all I have.

Thank you. Mayor Pro Tempohen.

Thank you, Mayor. I had SBCTA Board of Directors and General Policy Committee. The Mayor attended the Metro Valley meeting for me. That was all I had for meetings. As what Cameron said, please slow down with the wind and the rain coming up. And then, obviously, in the early mornings, there's likely to be ice. So slow down, slow your commute, and try to stay out of harm's way. With that, I hope you all had a fantastic Valentine's Day.

Thank you. I attended the VMI chamber update via Zoom, the ribbon cutting for the honor boxing club, and that was great. What a great organization. I'm hoping to get them exposed. They're building kids building kids, confidence, teaching them respect.

It was a family owned business, and if I didn't get teary eyed during the presentations, I would be lying. It was great, and they're just so excited to be here. And we are so blessed to have them in our city. I have the MDA QMD meeting coming up on Monday. I did take a tour of the Rancho Bridge project, and, wow, it's gone. They're moving fast. It's really it's a great project. And then also Rock Springs Road project. It's amazing that but we're moving. We're moving to move traffic, so exciting to be part of that.

I would like to thank staff again for putting the agenda together, keeping us informed. We appreciate. Thank you to our police and fire staff. I know you guys are keeping busy out there. And Rachel, thank you to Jessica and Jillian and Caitlin for keeping us informed and keeping me on track for the agenda. I appreciate your input. And then folks, slow down. Like council member Greg says, every single meeting that we have worked together on this council, slow down. I don't know. The weather changes by the minute, it seems, but the roads are going to be icy.

We are expecting some snow, so please slow down. And if you can, stay at home, stay off of our roadways. And then, also, today is my daughter Ashley's 30 birthday, so happy birthday to Ashley. And that's all I have. And do we have any city council or city attorney comments?

To address council member Greg's inquiry about the Maple Basin, the rehab of the basin was awarded last week. And so that construction schedule, don't have in front of me, but that work will begin shortly. There was no additional damage due to the recent rains. There's K Rail there placed at the site to help direct water flow in the meantime. With this recent rain, we had one street closure due to standing water, but no major damage has been done.

We know we're still experiencing quite a bit of rain, but it's slow enough that it is not wildly impactful today. Regarding paving projects that are planned in the city, the city council has awarded a contract for the paving of 7th Avenue and Jacaranda. That work will happen when the weather improves later this spring and early summer. To be awarded this year is improvements to Maple, that would be South Of Main Street from Ranchero to Main. A project that is still being developed is a smaller project for improvements on Maple on the North Side Of Main, and that's closer to Mariposa.

That project probably will not be bid out until the end of the calendar year. We will have a report on future street improvement projects at an upcoming council meeting in June, which we do annually. But our staff is available in the city manager's office or in engineering to answer specific questions regarding when projects are scheduled. And that concludes my report.

Thank you. No further comments. We will adjourn the meeting at 07:16. Thank you for attending, and please be safe out there.