City Council - Regular Meeting

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 1, 2, 3. recording in progress No, I don't. I started earlier. You know what? Yeah, it looks like it's you can bet that it's very great. I just feel like I'm going to see if she said she can also assess if she didn't want to be in the city.

I'd order the City of Seaside City Council Success Agency to the Redevelopment Agency regular meeting on 440 Harle Court Council Chambers Thursday, September 17th, 2026, 5 p.m. I know our clerk has an announcement.

May I like to announce that we did have a disruption with our zoom this evening. We have updated the link and for those trying to join the new number is 83380305675. And we are currently up and running. You want to say that 1 more time? The new Zoom link has been updated to 833-8030-5675, and you can find it on our city's website and log in through the link on the website.

Okay, thank you. I'll go to roll call.

Council and agency member Miller?

Here.

Council and agency member Burks?

Here.

Council and agency member Garcia-Arizuela?

Here.

uh council or including the council and agency uh chair vice chair uh pacheco and council and agency chair uh oglesby here for the record we have a quorum thank you so much we'll go to um

Item number four, which is the invocation and pledge of allegiance.

I'll ask Councilmember Garcia to hold the time. After a moment of silence. Congratulations to the one of the United States.

Go to item number 5 is reveal the agenda city manager or city attorney. Do we have any adjustments to the agenda?

Yes, mayor staff requests the removal of closed session item 14 a.

Okay, nothing.

Nothing from the city attorney. Okay.

And next we'll go to out of a number 6, which is public comment members of the public received to address the city council matters on the may do so for up to 3 minutes. This is also the time to comment on presentation items to ask for the benefit of the record that you state your name public comment is open.

Members of the public in the chamber, please approach the podium members of the public on zoom. Maybe use the raise your hand feature or dial star 9. if you're on a telephone.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor and members of the City Council. My name is George Lang. I appreciate the opportunity to speak with you about our efforts to reopen the Kiwanis Club Seaside. Our efforts are really a result of comments made by city leaders at the 4th of July celebration here in Seaside about the desire to have a Kiwanis Club here back in Seaside. This is an international service organization dedicated to improving the lives of children in strengthening communities. The Kiwanis Club is first and foremost a local organization. The people who live and work in Seaside will decide what the club becomes, which needs it will address, and where its members will invest their time, talent, and resources. We believe the Kiwanis Club can be an important community partner for the City of Seaside and for our local schools. Our goals include providing scholarships for graduating seniors, supporting community events such as the annual Martin Luther King parade, which we've done for years before we disbanded. promoting early childhood literacy, developing young leaders through programs such as reopening the Key Club at Seaside High School. We also hope to strengthen connections with Cal State Monterey Bay with a Circle K for college students and several possible programs for elementary and middle school students. But this isn't about bringing an outside program into Seaside and telling the community what it needs. It's about bringing people together who already care about Seaside and giving them another way to serve. To get started, we need at least 15 people who will come forward and make a difference. Business owners, educators, civic leaders, retirees, young professionals, and other community Mayan residents. We are currently inviting people to a Kiwanis meet and greet at Round Table Pizza on Fremont Boulevard to learn more with no obligation to join. It will be on Wednesday, September 23rd at 530 p.m. So if you want to grab a slice and a cold one, come and join us. We'll take care of it tonight. I simply ask for the council's encouragement, endorsement and help in spreading the word. We would be proud to have a Kiwanis club that carries the name Seaside and works alongside our city and our schools and our businesses and our residents for many years to come. Thank you for your time and thank you for everything you do for the Seaside community.

Rue of Hebron, this seaside resident. I'm here. I forgot to bring my bell, so I'm going to do this. This is my alarm bell. It's my alarm bell to you. Data centers. Marina just had a 45-day auditorium moratorium on data centers. Please consider what your staff is currently authorized to do when an application comes in for a data center. know how much they use between four and five million gallons of water every single day in evaporation that's huge we don't have that kind of water so if an application comes in don't just have a backwards view and say oh a city staff member approved it and now we're too late take a look at what you know your staff is doing Take a look what's happening, review data centers, review the facts, and please make sure it doesn't happen in Seaside. That's my view, but at least make sure that you have input from the residents of Seaside when you are considering ever a data center, which I hope will not happen. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Hello, Mayor and City Council members. My name is Mike Buffo, and I'm here to announce myself as the Executive Director and CEO of AMP Media. We're your technicians behind the room responsible for the delay in today's meeting. So very embarrassing first day on the job at Seaside. We've been serving this city for over 10 years and many of the other cities here on the peninsula. AMP is going through a transition right now. What I've been learning is that we've lacked real leadership for quite a while, and we've been doing one thing really well, which is just our government contracts. And it has not been sustainable. It hasn't been for many of the public access stations across the country as cords get cut and funding dwindles. So I'm helping AMP become more of a fee-for-service company. And so we want to livestream our current events, our cultural festivals, conventions, and all kinds of opportunities that regular or annual events can do for us. One thing that we're working on is a sports network for MPUSD. And we're in a pilot series right now. And we're broadcasting a seaside football game on the 23rd of October. And we did one last week for Monterey. And we have one coming up for Marina High School. And we hope that'll become a bigger program for students to learn broadcasting. And that'll serve our education model. My name is Mike, and my company is House of 8 Media, and I've been operating on the peninsula for about 10 years now. So I'm bringing in a lot of my clients from there to help AMP with this new transition. And so don't be a stranger. I'd love to develop relationships with all of you and continue to serve this city for what we do and for many years to come. OK? Thanks a lot. Bye-bye.

Thank you for your comments. Members of the public in the Chamber, please approach the podium. Members of the public on Zoom, you may use the raise your hand feature or dial star nine. Natalie, you may now unmute and make your public comment.

good evening city council mayor and city attorney i'm calling tonight to raise a concern about the conduct of council member alex miller who is currently running for mayor on sunday bobby maxwell attempted to place one of alex miller's campaign signs on my fence i had explicitly told him that i do not give permission for the sign to be placed there a few hours later council member miller sent a young girl to my door while he waited on the sidewalk he told me that he wanted to apologize for the attempt to put the campaign sign on my fence I accepted his apology, but I was very clear that I did not want the campaign sign on my fence. Despite that conversation and my clearly stated wishes, I returned home yesterday during my lunch break and found that Alex Miller's campaign sign had been placed on my fence anyways. My concern is not simply about a campaign sign. It is about respecting the rights and wishes of residents. I clearly communicated that I did not want this sign on my property, and that request was disregarded. I believe every resident deserves to have their property and clearly stated wishes respected. regardless of their political views or whether they support a particular candidate. I'm asking the city council and city attorney to take this concern seriously and to clarify what rights residents have when campaign materials are placed on their private property without their permission. Thank you for allowing me to make this public comment.

Thank you for your comments. Members of the public in the chamber, please approach the podium. Members of the public on Zoom, you may use the raise your hand feature, dial star nine. Carla Lobo, you may now unmute and make your public comment.

Thank you. Alex Miller is not the only one that's having these issues. There's other candidates in this race that are also putting their signs in people's yards. If you go on Facebook or Nextdoor, you'll see the conversations that are happening, not only in CSED, but in other locations. But my comment tonight is about data centers. A few weeks ago, I participated in a California ISO's Large Loads Initiative stakeholder meeting. This is a statewide discussion happening right now about the enormous new electrical demands being created by data centers and other large load developments. During that meeting, I specifically asked KSO why communities cannot receive this information at more locally meaningful level by county, transmission planning area or even substations so residents can understand how much large load growth is being planned near them and what infrastructure will have to be built to support it. I also raised another important question. Can the public distinguish between infrastructure upgrades needed because our communities are naturally growing and upgrades being triggered or accelerated by these enormous new private loads? That distinction matters because somebody ultimately pays for infrastructure. This isn't something happening somewhere far away from us. There is significant large load and transmission planning actively occurring throughout California. And these conversations are coming to Salinas, including infrastructure affecting our region. So I'm asking Seaside to get ahead of this issue. If the city receives inquiries regarding data centers or other exceptionally high energy developments, that information should come before this community early. not after negotiations or plannings have already advanced and we shouldn't look at all only at electricity we need to understand water consumption water waste emergency services transmission infrastructure environmental impacts and most importantly who pays for the infrastructure necessary to support these projects economic development can bring opportunities but the community deserves enough information to evaluate the costs and benefits for itself i attended the chaos meeting because I wanted to understand what was coming I'm asking our city to do the same monitor these developments now establish clear transparency standards and make sure seaside residents are part of the conversation from the beginning not the end I yield the rest of my time thank you for your comments Lucy a you may unmute and make your public comment

Good evening. My name is Lucy Ahrens and I'm here to comment echoing the concerns that have been made by previous speakers about data centers. If there is something that we can do and need to do preemptively to plan or to try to keep these enormous facilities out of our city, I would just ask that we move ahead

of whatever is being planned and not be caught unawares thank you i yield the rest of my time thank you for your comments members of the public in the chamber please approach the podium members of the public on zoom you may use the raise your hand feature dial star nine mayor at this time i'm not seeing any other members of the public wishing to make public comments

Smith, just the public comment is close. So no one else here. No one else comes close. Councilmember Miller.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, just because my name was called out in the public comment. I want to apologize to anybody that I offended or that my staff made a mistake. That was not our intention. And we sincerely apologize. And we'll make sure it does not happen again. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Thank you. Oh let's see manager city attorney there any questions issues or concerns you can speak to just.

Yeah, the CDC said staff understands the gravity of discussions that are happening around this country right now regarding data centers and at this time there's no current discussions happening regarding data center development city seaside and we'll continue to actively monitor that thank you.

Is there anything.

Yes, thank you Mr. Mayor. With respect to the commenter asking about the placement of signs in contravention of an owner's wishes, generally California law makes it a misdemeanor to place, maintain or cause a sign to be placed or maintained on private property without the prior consent of the owner, tenant or other lawful occupant. A sign that's been placed in violation of that law may also constitute a public nuisance. Property owners who believe a sign was placed without permission should photograph the sign, its location, remove it from their property if appropriate, and contact the responsible campaign, city code enforcement staff, and or local law enforcement if the conduct is repeated or cannot be resolved. That is a general statement of what should happen. It is not a commentary on Mr. Miller or any other Particular person or campaign that is pending right now. That's just a general statement. Thank you.

Let's go to number 7, public agency communications. Seeing no one, we'll go to item number 7A, Seaside. City news broadcasts and comments from city manager. Mr. City Manager.

Let's play the news.

Not hearing the volume on this.

Um, Mr mayor, I think at this time, we'll go ahead and dispose of the city news for this evening. We will post it on the website for everybody and make sure to send the link out for the next newsletter. I do want to add 1 item that did not get into the city news currently is working on the surf busway and rapid transit project over at the border of city of seaside and sand city. Just want to announce September 20th at 7 PM through September 24th at 6 AM. The section apply Avenue between California Avenue and Del Monte will be fully closed. So we'll be posting that on our website. MST has a lot of information out there. There will be detours signed. And so we just want the general public to understand that you'll get a short duration closure for that section of land. Thank you, Mayor.

Okay, thank you. And that information will also be on the website?

Correct.

Okay, thank you. Let's go to item number 8A, presentations. Received a presentation from the Housing Resource Center of Monterey County.

uh mr city manager yeah i'd like to uh jonathan ahmadi the board of directors catherine stiller the executive director uh will be making a presentation

All right. Good evening, Mr. Mayor, members of the City Council and staff. My name is Jonathan Amati. I serve on the board of the Housing Resource Center. I'm the chair of our Community Outreach and Engagement Committee. I also serve on the board of the Monterey Peninsula Airport District. Thank you all so much for the opportunity to present to you tonight on the work that HRC is doing in the community. Before I get into the presentation, I would like to give our interim executive director, Catherine, an opportunity to introduce herself. I will say some of you, I'm sure, knew Alexa and we are sad to see her go, but we are very excited for what Catherine brings to the organization.

Thank you Jonathan and I'll be very brief because I know you're tight for time but thank you so much for giving the Housing Resource Centre the opportunity tonight to talk about what our work involves and to learn a little bit more. I've brought some information sheets, I've brought some mugs and pens and all the good stuff but what we're trying to do and you'll learn more about from Jonathan's presentation is to really help local people who are either facing the prospect of homelessness or also are finding themselves in a housing insecure situation and so Jonathan's going to talk a little bit more about what we do and start with the wonderful slide of one of our folks who was in the you know got our help and who drew this picture. There's a meaning to the picture, and Jonathan will talk a little bit about that. But thank you so much for the opportunity to talk about the work that we do. And here's the picture just here. Thank you, Jonathan.

Thank you, Catherine. So HRC's mission, as you can see there, is to provide a continuum of housing resources for homeless prevention and affordable housing opportunities. But what does that mean? Essentially, we work with clients who, as Catherine mentioned, are either recently homeless or on the verge of losing their housing. And as many of you who have been working to combat homelessness know, Once somebody has been homeless for a long period of time, it becomes very, very difficult to get them housed again. And so we see our mission as critical in fighting homelessness and trying to support those people who are recently unhoused or on the verge of becoming unhoused. And, you know, Catherine mentioned this this picture with all of our clients. We do client interviews and There was a family that we were working with, and we asked one of the children, what does housing mean to you? And this was a young child. They're not able to articulate stability and safety and what it means, but instead they drew this picture. And on the right, you can see what it feels like to them to be in stable housing, and on the left, the worry and the anger and the fear that that child experienced, you know, due to no fault of their own. And so these are the people that we work to help as part of our mission. Dan, if you don't mind going to the next slide, I don't know why the clicker's not working. All right. So what do we do? In terms of the specifics of how we help people, we will pay evictions and outstanding debt collections. We'll support our clients by paying their application fees, prorated rent, first month's rent, security deposits. We will conduct a CARS assessment for our clients, which I'll get to in just a second. We work based on referrals for services provided by other organizations. So all of our clients come referred to us and we support clients getting their HSVP voucher applications. Dan, I'm just gonna have you go next slide. I'm gonna put this down. So I mentioned cars, right? In order for us to support our clients, we are mandated to work with what's called a coordinated entry system. Essentially for clients, how they used to get in line was it was a first come first serve basis. Whoever was waiting for housing the longest was the next one up in the list to get housed when an opportunity came open to them. Through CARS, we do an assessment which is a Coordinated Assessment and Referral System. That's what the acronym stands for. And essentially, we're able to work with our clients to evaluate them based on the need in order to determine priority for our clients. So the clients with the most need who are most vulnerable are the ones who jump to the front of the line to receive housing. And so we work with our clients to make sure that we can do the CARS assessment for them to get them into the program and get them into the queue for housing. There are four main programs that we work for or work with. Essentially, HRC applies for grants through each of these different programs, and then we take the funding from those grants to administer the programs on behalf of these different agencies based on who is referring the clients to us. So the four different programs are the Housing Support Program. The clients come to us from CalWORKs. The Family Stabilization Program. Again, CalWORKs refers those clients to us. And this is mainly those who are already unhoused or in need of additional resources. there's hope housing which is for those who are formerly incarcerated helping to get them into housing and then bringing families home which is where we get clients referred to us through the cps social workers so all of the clients that we work with come to us from one of those programs and the majority of the funding that we get is grant dollars from each of those four programs next slide please So we have two primary roles that interact with the clients for HRC. We have case managers and housing specialists. We do intakes with both the case managers and the housing specialists when we first work with a client. We're trying to understand what is the type of housing that would be appropriate for these clients? What are their specific needs? How much financial resources do they have? Because HRC, we're more of a bridge program. We help them to get back onto their feet, but we build a plan with them where they're able to become financially sustainable on their own to be able to meet their rent. We help with the beginning and we slowly pull back some of the resources until they're able to pay their rent entirely on their own. Next slide, Dan. So once we get a client into a housing situation, the housing specialist is removed from the case, but we don't just abandon the client. Our case manager will continue to work with those clients, sometimes up to a year. where you know situations arise maybe there's a change in employment or a family situation and so we'll continue to support those clients until we get them to a point where they're able to pay with their full rent on their own and they exhibit no foreseeable hardship at which point hrc will close the case at that point so it's not just get them into housing hands off walk away we work with them to make sure that they're able to stay housed We do have some statistics for you to be aware of. So in Monterey County as a whole, this was for the year of 2025, we worked with 299 households. And in those 299 households, we're able to house 1,041 individuals. Of those individuals, 618 were children. So more than half of the individuals that we house through our program were children. We have some statistics here for Seaside as well. We had 65 individuals served in Seaside. When we work with the clients, oftentimes they want to stay where they were housed previously. And so we'll try to work with them to find housing opportunities in the place where they live, in the community where they live. so 65 of our individuals served were in seaside in 2025 that's about six a little bit over six percent of the the total individuals that we serve for the year and when you look at seaside's population compared to the county as a whole seaside's population is about a little bit over seven percent so it's it's pretty close in terms of uh a direct relationship correlation between where we're serving versus the percentage of people in the county. Housing instability affects everyone everywhere. It's not just the peninsula. It's not just Salinas. It's not unincorporated property in Monterey. It's everywhere. So this is happening here as well. I just want to highlight again that these statistics demonstrate that many of the households that we served are made up of single mothers with two or more children. So that's really who we're helping with these different programs. We have a landlord gold standard program that we invite landlords to participate in. Essentially, we have incentives and uh gift cards for landlords who participate in the program who come to us they they let us know when they have housing that's available and whether or not we have a client that would be appropriate for those um units part of the the program is incentives for the landlords part of it is in the situations where maybe a client had some minor damages to a unit we will help to to make good on those damages up to two thousand dollars and What's great about our landlord program is that once landlords start working with our clients, they're actually the ones who are coming to us when they're having units opening up and saying, hey, I've got a new unit. Do you have a client for this unit? Because they know that there's going to be stability with hrc backing up those clients for for at least a year and they want to be a part of doing something good so we've got this gold standard program it kind of gets them in the door but once they're in the door they love to participate and and work with hrc There are lots of different partnership opportunities for how the City of Seaside and the public can get engaged and support HRC. Part of what we're doing is just helping to spread the word. We want more landlords to be aware of the work that we're doing so that we can increase the amount of opportunities that we have to house people. So co-hosting outreach events, we would love to partner with you on that. um we all of that grant funding that we that i showed from those different programs that has to go directly to those programs and to housing but our clients have other financial hardships as well we support them with auto repairs groceries medical expenses those dollars the funding for that comes out of private donations to hrc and so if there are people who want to learn more, they can go to our website. And if they like what they see, they can make individual contributions to our organization. I am the chair of our community engagement committee. And if we are looking for people from within the community to become committee advisors so that they can help us to be aware of opportunities where we may be able to partner with folks and that they can also help us to spread the word about what HRC is doing. and we're always on the hunt for landlords so if you know landlords that you think would be appropriate please refer landlords to us and we have a fundraising event coming up our hops for housing it'll be at alvarado brewery on december 4th so we'll make sure to send the flyer to um mr mcdannell so that he can share that with all of you and we would love for for you all to participate as well I think, yeah, that's the last slide. We've got our contact information here in case you wanted to either reach out to our programs operations assistant, our program manager, and we have Catherine's contact information there as well. We're happy to take any questions that you may have, and I'll invite Catherine up to help me answer any questions.

Thank you. Thank you for that great presentation. Are there any questions? Council Member Garcia is on.

Thank you for the presentation. I want to go back to your referral system. You said this is a referral system. I'm not misquoting you here. Is it only for referrals or is there an opportunity for walk-ins?

Yeah, so because all of our grant funding comes from HSP and those other programs, we have to work with people who are already within the cal work system or cps system in order to be able to provide them services now oftentimes though there are clients who do walk in who aren't a part of those and do qualify to be within those programs and so we have connections our caseworkers have connections with all those other organizations and so we'll make those connections to say look we can't help you today but talk to this person become and get enrolled in the program in CalWORKs or whatever it is, and then we can work with them to get them housing.

And the other thing is that we know other organizations who are working locally as well. example someone contacted us today that we were not part of the CalWORKs system but we were able to give them information and also show them other places that they could maybe get help from so every day we're contacted either by phone or email or people do ring the bell and we always you know try and help where we can but currently our funding is coming directly through that CalWORKs and so it's really CalWORKs referrals the majority of our clients come from and the majority of our clients as Jonathan said are female of which I find really interesting being three and a half weeks into the role is looking at the gendered aspect of housing and housing instability okay and then thank you for that and then out of your um 1041 individuals that you serve is that

I'm assuming those were successful placements, how many were overall in 2025?

I'm asking, I will come back to you on that one because I do think it's important that we see the people that we couldn't help as well as the numbers that we do help. So I'll be able to come back to you.

It's amazing that you served 1,041 individuals, 299 households. That's a big number. But I also want to see the bigger picture, right?

There are a lot that we aren't able to place in housing. And if we had more connections with more landlords and had access to more places where we could place our clients, then we could help more people.

Great. And your gold standard program, how many people are participating in that? Landlords?

I'll come back to you on that one. I don't have the statistics.

Okay. And then when we're talking about leveraging funds for other indirect housing expenses, undocumented family assistance, I think it's a really great program. I love to hear it. How do you see that factoring into the community? Do they have to also be part of the CalWORKs system or would this be independent? I'm assuming this would have to be independent.

So all of the clients that we support are through CalWORKs. you know we have pretty limited access to funds outside of the the grant monies that that we get and so unfortunately right now all of those dollars are reserved for those additional expenses for people who are who are clients that we're working with gotcha but you plan to expand to help undocumented families or or reading this am i understanding this So the goal of HRC and the goal of the board, I think I can speak for the board, is that we are looking to... change the business model, so to speak, so that not so much of our funding is dependent and directly coming from grants, and that we have a much more significant revenue source from private donors, in which case we would be able to use those funds to help clients that are outside of those um programs and those referrals right now we don't have the funding to do so but um that's that's part of the goal and part of why we brought catherine on is to change the model of um how leveraged we are versus grants and and private donations great so you see so you are that's the goal thank you um and then what is the the um

Spanish outreach that you're doing to constituencies? What's the support that you're providing there?

Yeah, the majority of our families that we are serving, we have everything in bilingual, and we also have had situations where it isn't just Spanish, it's other dialects, and those families have also been served as well.

Oh, lovely.

Dialects as well.

I believe it was Misteko that was, and we were able to get support through translation for that particular language.

Who are you getting support from?

It was through a group in Salinas that we're able to offer that support, and we're doing that for other parts of the community too.

That's great. Thank you for that. And those were mostly all my questions that I had. I think this is a great report, great work that you all are doing. It's very impressive. And thank you for also highlighting how many individuals were served in Seaside. I think it's great to see that, but it's also... It's not great to see that, but there's a housing need, but it's great to see that services are being provided and addressing that and that we have partners like you helping us address that. So, thank you for what you're doing. Thank you. Uh, Jonathan for for your work and we appreciate each and every 1 of you.

Anyone else.

Thank you for the report as far as. Do you have data on how many stably maintain housing after they've been with you? I know you said that you continued far beyond you giving them the funding. Just curious if there's data on how many actually get to remain or do they fall back into the system?

I can get that for you. I don't have it off the top of my head, but we do have those statistics about how many families are... how many families are stable within the programme. Clearly, there are some individuals who go in and out of different programmes, but the stories and the case studies we've got, in fact, one of our own board members actually went through the programme. It's a shame we couldn't get her here tonight to be with us. uh she can talk very personally about her experience and what we're seeing more and more of is it's working families it's people whose uh income is not meeting the the rent and so people get into situations and they find themselves in these situations where a little bit of support and help can really make the difference and as you saw the statistic of 618 children Our programme is predominantly children that we're supporting, which I find an interesting data point, but also one which we need to do more of. So we are trying to make sure that we can support more families and help more children.

I guess for me, I'm not surprised single women and I'm curious, are there also supports or resources for them? Because I'm sure with the rising rates of domestic violence, that's probably a connection to that. Children, I work with them, so I see these kiddos day in and day out. So just curious, are you guys also able to bring those additional resources in or are they just focused on themselves?

some of the people that are referred to in terms of rapid rehousing, as I say, I've been in the role for three and a half weeks, so if I don't have everything, I do apologise and I will get that information to you. But my understanding is in the rapid rehousing, when we get a client referred and it's a rapid rehousing situation, of course, there are different situations to that, including the issues around domestic violence too.

Thank you, because I know that's what's just going to perpetuate the cycle.

Yeah. And again, when there are people who come to HRC looking for help, if they're not already part of one of those programs, we have really great relationships with caseworkers and case managers from those other programs to connect them with the services that truly they need.

Yeah, thank you.

Of course.

Council Member Garcia-Zolan.

Thank you Council Member Birx for bringing that up because that just sparked something in me. When it comes to youth, are we also providing mental health resources to the youth throughout the process? Because we know that unstable housing directly impacts the development of the child.

I also think that there's a lot more work we can do with youth, transitional youth coming out of the foster system. We don't have funding for that, but there are things that we are really ambitious about and trying to make sure that folks find stable housing. And the work that we're doing, as Jonathan said, about landlords, that really is important because if we don't have those relationships, we can't house people. And so we're trying to work with our landlords and have those relationships which have worked and be successful.

well and i'm going to leave you all a little um to give you more information if that's okay with the assistant city manager too so you've got that thank you so much uh thank you for just the presentation and highlighting the need in our community and the service that your program uh is making and the difference you're making in our community so thank you for your leadership thank you for your time tonight thank you I had a 8 be received a presentation from everyone's harvest on the 2025 26 million social service grant programs see manager.

I would like to represent from everyone harvest come now.

Good evening council members, my name is has to Parker and I'm the executive director of everyone's harvest. I should just. Okay. You can you can proceed. I can do it. Okay, great. Just this one. so i wanted to give this report on the community social services grant that you were so generous to honor us with and this is where we implemented this grant was at the seaside farmers market which we operate on thursdays from three to seven at laguna grande park and just to give you a background on the the um Farmers Market, we provide fresh produce, artisanal food from local small businesses, live performances, free community booth spaces, and a weekly community gathering space. And then also the other services that the market provides are the following. And this is how we implemented the grant was through this first program, which is called Market Match. And I'll explain it in a minute. And then also we provide fresh RX produce prescriptions for people with diet sensitive conditions, edible education, which is cooking demonstrations at the market and also food navigation, which is helping people find out about where they can find fresh, affordable, healthy food throughout the county, not just at the farmers market. We also provide one of the only places that takes WIC and senior farmers market nutrition program coupons. They're actually their little electronic cards. We also provide free community booth space for any nonprofits or community groups that want to inform the public about their programming. And then we also, for a while we had a grant that provided these produce, free produce boxes for individuals in the community. And unfortunately that grant was, it was a federal grant that was since it was eliminated at the, in the spring of 2026. So just, we're not sure what the future of that is, but we were, I'll give you an update on that at the end. So the city of Seaside, the grant was implemented to and the goal was to enhance public health and through by helping people who have low incomes to increase their consumption of produce and then are healthy produce and then also improving their food security through that method. And so what we did, we addressed these goals by increasing their spending power for those people who use CalFresh benefits or EBT, or you might know them as food stamps. So anyone who's eligible for these SNAP or food stamp benefits called CalFresh here in California, they received a 60% discount at the Seaside Farmer's Market, meaning that they would get extra benefits money, if they brought their card and used up to $30 a day, we would give them $45 extra. And normally the program only gives $15 extra. And that's through the market match program, which is a statewide program. We are the only implementers of that program in the county. So our markets can do market match. And so then we were able to just augment the ability of people to buy more by using their CalFresh benefits. So they took out $30, they get $45 extra per day at the market. So they're getting $75 to spend on fruits and vegetables and also on eligible EBT or CalFresh eligible food. And so the $30 extra was coming from the grant. And we really wanted to see if we could increase the use of CalFresh at the farmer's market. And so the people were using it more to buy fresh affordable fruits and vegetables because market match only allows people to use the extra money to buy produce they can't buy extra um they can't buy say junk food or hot food they can they can only buy produce and so then we another thing that we did through the program through the grant was to advertise market match and we did it at the table so we had the staff we're constantly reminding people if they have there's a lot of people don't know that if they have cal fresh benefits they have a cal fresh card they don't know they can use it at the market and that they can more than double the value of that card at the market there's another program that is a complementary program at some supermarkets in the area called double up food bucks so you might be familiar with that but the this is the only program that works at farmers markets So we provided that information. We also provided signage. We had the food navigation events at different community events throughout the city, city events, and then also at the schools. We did a lot about reaching the schools. And then we did weekly social media posts. And then we also surveyed market match participants. So we anonymously surveyed people to find out how people heard about the market. And what was interesting is that We found out that most people found out about it through the info table. So just going to the market and finding out, oh, I actually can use my CalFresh card. I had no idea. Also through the local clinics, which I'm happy to hear that our outreach to the clinics has gotten the word out. WIC as well, or Women, Infants, and Children's Program. So they come and they have a table at our market. And then also through the food navigators at the different community events. So that was the second most popular way that people found out about the program. The third was just word of mouth. I mean, word of mouth is the kind of it's just this solid. It's always worked. So that's and then what was curious to me was our social media was not gaining traction like that wasn't a way that people were finding out about market match. And so we're not really sure about, is it just that people don't look on social media for that kind of information? We're not really sure. And then we also, the way we measured our impact of the program was we measured the use of CalFresh benefits over the period of the grant, which is from October 2025 to June 2026. And then we compared it to the time period before. We have ways that we can keep track of all those data. And also market match users were anonymously surveyed before, so at the beginning of the period, and then at the end of the period of the grant. And they were surveyed for how much is their daily fruit intake, how much is their daily vegetable intake, and then also their food security. So this is all self-reported. And there's two questions that we use for food security, which is basically, do you experience it? It's a two-question questionnaire that's used at a lot of different venues, also at clinics. And so we use those as measures of a sense of food insecurity. So the first objective of the grant was to see, okay, did we increase the number of customers using CalFresh benefits at the markets? And then did they actually buy more produce? So the outcome we found, the first outcome was we had a 39% increase in the number of transactions of CalFresh, people using CalFresh at the market during that time period of the grant. So So almost a 40% increase in activity using CalFresh. And then we also want to know how many people are repeats come back. And we were hoping for a 15% increase in that number. And we didn't quite get to that measure. We got only to about 11% increase in people coming back and using it multiple times. And we think part of the reason is a caveat in that USDA made us change the way we were keeping track of CalFresh purchases in the middle of this. So we had to change our way of identifying and making sure it was completely anonymous. And so we might have lost a few data points in that when we had to make that change. And then a third objective was to, OK, did we really increase the amount of produce that was purchased? Because the way it works is they buy items off their card, and then they get it doubled, and they get tokens to use at the market. So they can use those tokens at any time. and what it showed is actually they were using the tokens at the farmers booths and at the vendors booths so there was a 63 increase in the dollar amount that was purchased at the different um farmers market booths and then um and this is all you know cow fresh eligible items so baked goods hummus yogurt eggs and also all of the um the produce that they can buy And there was 180% increase in the dollar amount of market match. That's a given because, you know, we were also giving them more to spend. So we did see that increase. They weren't just pocketing it. They were actually using it, you know, pocketing it for a later date. No, they were actually... using at the time. And then there was a 117% increase in the combined amount. So it was a huge increase in both CalFresh use and market match. So the extra tokens that they get at the market to buy produce. Our fourth objective was to see, okay, did they actually consume more or did they report that they consumed more? And so what we found from the surveys is that people reported based on the difference between the beginning of the grant period and the end. So there was a 0.29 cups difference. So that doesn't sound like a lot. So it's about a quarter cup more in daily produce intake or daily vegetable intake. but that if you look at um there's um national um studies the meta studies of of like how much of a difference a quarter cup is and that's considered a significant difference in in terms of you know if you take the average of a group of people and and on average they're in they're consuming about a quarter cup more that's considered a very significant difference in their consumption. We didn't get as much of a difference in fruit, which is interesting because often fruit is the one thing that people want to buy more when they have more to spend. But there was only 1.4 cups, so it wasn't quite a quarter cup, and it was marginally significant difference. And then our fifth objective was to see, look, OK, are they feeling more food secure or less food insecure, the people who are using CalFresh? And actually, we did not get the response we expected. People are still feeling more food insecure at the end of the period that we were running this program. And I think that there's some, you know, extenuating circumstances you might all be aware of. But I just want to just to conclude, we had a greater number of customers using CalFresh benefits at the markets. We also had a greater amount of money spent using these benefits. We also had a greater average daily vegetable intake, but we still had that that families still feel that they are not food secure. And at the end of the grant period, so I you know, I think that this is often we have to take into account the general climate. I mean, people food is costing more and people I mean, the people that I see at the market, they're not feeling as as food secure as, as they might have felt a year ago or two years ago, especially also because CalFresh benefits are going down as well. We had another objective that wasn't explicit in the grant, but we wanted to look at how confident do people feel preparing fruits and vegetables. So we have these cooking demonstrations at the market, and we survey people after the cooking demonstrations. And this is... It's really just to show, okay, wow, they do actually feel comfortable. People say they feel more comfortable preparing fresh fruits and vegetables after attending these cooking demonstrations. 99% of people said that, so it's pretty good. Anyway, it's an indication that people are getting something out of the cooking demos. Then what's next? We do have some upcoming projects. We realize that We are dealing with a climate where food is costing more, people are feeling less food secure. We have an expansion of our fresher X produce prescription program, which is for anyone who has Medi-Cal benefits, they can use those to get produce from our market. So if they have a diet sensitive condition, say they have diabetes or prediabetes or hypertension, And they have Medi-Cal. They can apply through Medi-Cal and they get free fruits and vegetables for 12 weeks. And then we increase that. We can often give them an extension if we get an extension with the insurance through Medi-Cal. So that's one program that is expanding. And then those people, as they come to the market, we teach them about CalFresh and MarketMatch and that they can use that at the market once their prescription is done. There's also a couple of encouraging news coming from California state budget. So after a lot of... lobbying on our part, we were able to make sure that there was 15 million that was saved in the California state budget for Market Match, because that is a state run program. I can't say that I personally lobby, but it was a whole group of people who are throughout the state trying to make sure that this program doesn't go away. So that's that's been protected by the California state budget in the coming year. And then also the farms together program, which I mentioned, was eliminated by the federal grant that we had to the USDA. California has come through and said, hey, we will put up 15 million to keep that program going. So I don't know how that is going to. impact us locally because it again is a statewide program but it's just something that is it's encouraging that we may have the ability to use uh some of those funds as well in the future I also have a another Grant it's embargoed right now but it is it would it will allow me to increase the amount of fresher X produce prescriptions that we're giving to people at the market And I just want to thank you for this partnership. I feel like it's been a wonderful, fruitful partnership for the last three years now as we've grown the market. And it really has given people a sense of community at the market. I hope you've been able to come visit. I see some of you at the market. It's wonderful. And I would like if you want to take if you have any questions for me. And here's my contact information if you ever want to get back to me about any issues.

Thank you. Are there any questions? Council Member Garcia is on.

Thank you so much for the presentation. It's always great to be out there. And one of my favorite, I think, events with the farmers market is the Day of the Dead event that you all have hosted. It's really, really well thought out event, but just a great way to keep community members together. My question was going to be regarding the produce boxes, and I'm glad that you mentioned that the state is providing additional funding. but throughout the time period in which it was provided at the farmer's market, did we see an increase in constituents also using SNAP benefits to buy fresh produce? Was it complimentary or was it just produce box and not really spending at the farmer's market?

It was actually complimentary. And I would see this myself in terms of people will come, they would look at what's in the box and they'd say, okay, I'm going to go get extra. I'm going to get what's not in the box. I'm going to go to the farmer. So that was really nice to see. And people also, that's how they, when I mentioned that people would, found out about cal fresh at the info table that was from them coming up to get their box and us telling them do you know if you have a cal fresh card and you're showing that to me you can use that and then they started so that's when we got the so we got a 63 increase in in um activity with cal fresh during that grant period but before that we had also been it was about a 23 increase in the period before that so there was From the time that we started, and we had such low market match engagement at the beginning of when we first opened the market, and it was kind of the lowest amongst our markets, and now it's one of the highest. And I thank both the presence of the boxes to get people in who wouldn't normally come. The one caveat I would say is that it didn't really help with hot food sales. I don't think a lot of people... would buy hot food because they couldn't use their ebt benefits to buy hot food so it wasn't as much of an incentive so that's something we need to figure out is bringing in more you know really making it more um uh of an event for people to come and have their dinner and and stay um so that's why we're trying to bring in entertainment i know which is great um and i do know that those produce boxes were a heavy resource when the federal government

wasn't paying out SNAP benefits to constituents. I remember being on there on site, and you all were doing great work assisting constituents that weren't receiving their SNAP benefits. Staying on the topic of SNAP, are you all, during the summertime, I know California is a participant of a program called Sun Bucks, which provides $120 in food benefits to each student during the summertime. Are families able to use Sunbucks at the farmer's market? Yes.

And they also get the match. So just yesterday, the other day when I was... And I don't know what the cutoff is in terms of the date. And I don't know if anyone knows that. I need to get that information because sometimes they... I noticed that just this week, somebody was able to use it and it was fine. So sometimes they say, oh, you have to use it by a certain date. But those sunbucks, we encourage that. I mean, we had some signage at the beginning of the summer. Maybe we can do that again to remind people because families generally know when they come up, we remind them they can use their sunbucks and they get the same match with the sunbucks.

Was there any partnerships with the school districts or outreach to the school districts? And did you see an increase in usage of sunbucks this year compared to other years?

I'd have to go and look at, I'm not sure we were able to parse out that data separately. Yeah, that's a good question though, to see if the fact that we were so much more active in the schools, did that translate to more sandbox use or not? But I can see if there's a way for us to, we would have to do it. We have to be very careful about keeping anyone's data. So maybe just like ticking off, okay, how many sandbox cards did we see this week? Yeah.

time period and did you at any given point Can you correlate whether or not the responses of high or severe food insecurity or that fear of high food insecurity, if it increased when the new SNAP benefit requirements took effect, which was June 1st, which are the new work requirements. And I think there was a three month grace period that just ended on September 1st.

do you do you did you see a higher i think this fear in the constituency yeah i mean the problem is so we ended this grant end of june so we we surveyed people in june so it was people were still being able we because of our county having that grace period people were still in that period where they were able to get snap benefits but in general it's just been for the last couple of years, just as people are not getting as much on their cards. So I have to go back and see if I could separate out certain dates when people responded, but we could do the survey again. We will do the survey again and see if we're getting even more. I'm hoping that we don't get more sense of food insecurity, but yeah, we have the dates of when everybody was surveyed. And so I could compare it to in September or after September.

Yeah, that would be great if you could. But again, thank you for the great work you're doing. I mean, I know we've been discussing about food insecurity on this dais for a while and the great work that you all are doing and how we can support. I guess I do have one final question. Do you see an increase? Have representatives from county social services been at the farmers market and have they been helping or providing information on how to register for SNAP benefits?

We aren't allowed to. So we always encourage the Department of Social Services. I don't know how much they've been tabling. We trained every single one of... We went to like five days of trainings and trained every single person who talks to people at the Department of Social Services to let them know. Make sure that people, when you're signing them up, they know that they can use their CalFresh benefits at the market. And I'm hoping that that will... get people um coming and but also yeah they do they do table on occasion uh but they're not there that yeah but that's a good idea to just keep um reminding them they can table awesome thank you so much yeah thank you uh just just one question um

First of all, thank you for what you do. The music there, the kids' activities, the outreach as far as different types of programs, being in the cooking class, are all very helpful in trying to get people there. My indirect concern is that there's a lot of, as you would say, hot food vendors there, but there's to me, minimal fresh fruits and vegetables compared to other farmers' markets. So there's not a large diversity of, I don't think, of opportunities to purchase or use the coupons or et cetera. Is there a way or are you doing anything to try to get more vendors there? I know it's kind of, is depending on the amount of people that show up, the vendors show up, and I know there's like a catch-22 there, and I don't have an answer, but are there anything you're trying to do to increase the amount of vendors there so people have more choices that they can use the equipment for, so maybe they're healthier because there's more choices of food?

That is a good question. We've been trying to get some vendors. The market manager has been working very hard. He's been really trying to work on getting some vendors to sell more Asian projects because we don't really have any. We have some at the marina market. We don't really have them here. I don't know if that would be a popular item because it would complement A lot of the problem is we have a lot of farmers in the area that grow the same row crops, the same, you know, like, oh, I have carrots, I have beets. Well, they also and we don't want to create too much competition. So we're really trying to find farmers who produce different items that would attract people as opposed to just, OK, I can buy beets from this one or I can buy beets from this farmer. So, yeah. I'm going to go back to the farm market managers and say, look, can we get another? We got a mushroom vendor in there. He's relatively new. And then we have a couple of organic vendors. And then we have a couple of conventional vendors. But yeah, we're really trying to get that sweet spot of making sure that we're not having too much produce that we don't have enough people buying it. And we want to make sure the vendors make enough. So the farm, the boxes really helped us kind of subsidize them because we were buying from them. But we still need people to, yeah, we need to kind of have that, have more people buy so that they'll be encouraged to keep coming. But we will look into maybe we can get another couple of vendors that are selling different things, give a little more variety.

Yeah, what else?

Yeah, thank you for the presentation and I appreciate the sandbox. I do know those expire like 120 under 22 days after the cards loaded. Not even when it's actually. Opened up by the family, so that can be an issue. Are you open to having schools reach out to maybe you coming to schools and presenting? Because I know. the struggle with social media posts and flyers is at all schools we're trying to get an increase in parent engagement but i know i do like a monthly principal coffee um all the seaside schools are community schools so they have coordinators trying to reach out to partnerships to bring them in um so sometimes like you said it's more word of mouth and so if you're able to get into a principal coffee where you have 30 parents now those 30 parents are going to share and spread the words i don't know if you have the ability or capacity to have someone comfortable

Oh, that would be great. I mean, as it is, we're kind of working individually with different teachers. And so I will, I mean, if you want to send me an email and I'll connect you with the person who has the outreach.

Translated, so that's like removing that barrier. But I think that would be something great to have someone come and explain, you know, the market match to our families versus just a flyer, right? Or just a social media post.

yeah and we're also trying to do um we're working on a collaboration with mlk to do a cooking cooking demonstration so we have to work yeah yeah thank you yeah thank you i just want to say that um you know that was the whole object of this collaboration from the get-go is try to bring back the farmers market to the city of seaside and i think we've been doing well

Mayor Pro Tem is always promoting it and and but it's like like he said before the chicken and the egg we need residents to come down there and shop and spend some of their money and then you have more vendors coming you know chasing that money that's just that's just the way it works but one thing we've been trying to do for the last two years is increase our resident participation in CalFresh and that match program. You see that. You see the 63 percent increase and you see the amount of increase in the market match. But then what was it? The significant amount of how much more vegetables and fruits are going home. I know the 0.14 in fruits was almost, you can't measure that really, but almost a cup of vegetables that are going into that house. uh that we can actually uh what is it uh calculate is important and that's one of the things we wanted to keep track of and so i thought that was very important because that's what we want we want our residents to be able to if they need to to come down there and access uh cow fresh fruits and vegetables uh using that system And so I thought that was an excellent report. And I thought it was right on about what we've been trying to do is increase fresh fruits and vegetables into the lives of people that find it hard to do. So thank you so much.

OK, thank you.

Next, we'll go on to item number 8C, receive a presentation from Greater Victory Temple Church on the 2025-26 Community Social Service Grant Program, City Manager.

I believe our presenter tonight is Amanda Kennedy, Director of Educational Initiatives for Greater Victory Temple.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor, council members. Yes, my name is Amanda Kennedy. I am an assistant principal with Monterey Peninsula Unified School District, as well as serving as director of the education initiatives for Greater Victory Temple. I just want to thank you all for the opportunity to share how the community social services grants supported our afternoon community support program. This will be about the 25-26 school year. So our program serves students from Martin Luther King School of the Arts here in Seaside and we provide a safe and caring place after school with literacy support, enrichment meals and snacks, positive adult relationships, and opportunities to learn beyond the classroom. And tonight I will highlight who we served, what students experienced, how the grant funds were used, and then the difference that the city support made for our students and families. So one of the clearest measures of impact was the growth in the number of students that we served. In our second quarter report to the city, we noted that we served 25 students and our staff provided approximately 583 service hours. By the third quarter, enrollment had grown to 30 students with approximately 672 staff hours. And by the fourth quarter, we had served approximately 40 students. And across those three reporting periods, our staff contributed about 1,615 service hours. Just want to note that the fourth quarter service hours totals may seem lower, but that's because the reporting period was shorter. The school year ended on June 5th. For us, these numbers represent more than just enrollment. They represent seaside children and seaside children who had a safe place to go after school and families who were able to rely on additional support for their children. Our program is intentionally broader than just homework help. So our students receive literacy and academic support. But after a full school day, children also need food. So we do feed them. They need caring adults. They need creative opportunities, hands-on experiences, and time to build positive relationships. The grant reports that I submitted describe our program as a safe, supportive environment where students can learn, grow and connect. And the pictures on this slide show that balance that I just mentioned in action. Students are learning together, they're sharing meals and snacks, they're creating art and taking part in experiences outside the program site. One example was our trip to the Monterey Zoo where students experience science and nature in a different setting. Experiences like these help make learning meaningful while also building community among the students. The Community Social Services grant allowed us to direct resources toward the areas that most directly affected students. So within our reports, they show that $6,480.47 in quarter two grant activity, about $7,200 in quarter three activity, and about $1,500 in quarter four. And I'm presenting those quarterly figures as they were reported. The funds supported several important needs. So again, we were able to provide literacy support and tutoring. We provided specialized literacy training for our staff. We purchased snacks and food for students, as well as arts and craft supplies. The grant also helped cover admission and transportation for the Monterey Zoo field trip, and also transportation costs and lunch for a visit to Dennis the Menace Park. Our reports also identified how we had a monthly guest artist instruction, which included some in-kind support. Those art experiences gave students another structured way to learn, create and express themselves. Overall, the spending reflects our priorities, which is consistent staffing, literacy support, food, staff development and meaningful enrichment. And the grant did more than help us pay individual expenses. It changed our ability to provide more consistent access for families. So at the beginning of the school year, we had limited funding before we applied for this grant. And limited funding meant that we could only operate Monday through Thursday. In our second quarter report, we explained that three students had actually left our program because their families needed after school service five days a week. After receiving the grant, we were able to restore tutoring services on Fridays and provide support Monday through Friday. That was important because consistency does matter to working families. A program is most useful when families can depend on it on the days they need it. And as enrollment grew, meals and staffing remained priorities, and by the fourth quarter, we had served approximately 40 students. City support helped us move from the limited schedule toward a more reliable five-day option for our Seaside families. Enrichment, again, is another important part of the grant's impact. Throughout the year, students participated in monthly art lessons with our guest artists. These lessons gave students a structured opportunity to practice new skills, explore creativity, express themselves and experience success in a positive setting. The photos show the students engaged in that process and proud of what they created. Students benefit from having different ways to participate and demonstrate their strengths. We also use grant support for that Monterey Zoo trip, which connected students with science and nature through a shared educational experience. Together, these experiences strengthened relationships. It expanded students' experiences and complemented the literacy and academic support, which is at the core of our program. As I close, I want to leave you with three main takeaways. So first, the Community Social Services grant expanded access. It helped us move from a four-day schedule to a Monday through Friday tutoring and support schedule. Secondly, the grant strengthened the core services our students needed most, which was that literacy staffing, staff training, meals and snacks, and a safe, structured environment. And third, the grant helped broaden students' experiences through arts, hands-on learning, and educational outings. Moving forward, our goal is to maintain the consistent five-day support, to continue prioritizing literacy and meals, and strengthen community partnerships so that we can provide additional educational and enrichment experiences. We are truly grateful to the City of Seaside for investing in local children and families through the Community Social Services Grant, which I know is now the Youth Opportunities Grant, and your support helped us serve more students and provide a stronger, more consistent after-school experience. Again, thank you for your support and the opportunity to share our work.

Thank you for that presentation. Any questions? Mayor Patel.

Thank you for the report. Just three simple questions, I think. Where are the hours of operation?

So we pick up the students when they get out of school. So they get out of school at 2.25 on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and they get out of school at 12.50 on Wednesday, and we stay open until 6 p.m.

Okay. And then where do the students, what schools do the prominent number of students come from?

Martin Luther King Jr. School of the Arts, and we have a few students that come from ISM.

And just lastly, since you've started the program and some of the educational component, do you see the students' grades improving? Is there any kind of before and after, you know, went from a 2.1 to a 2.7 or 3.9, whatever it be? Yes.

Yes, so we do a qualitative interviewing with the parents at the end of the scholastic year to learn like, you know, how has your child improved academically over the year? We certainly do not take credit for it, but as the old adage says, it takes a village to raise a child. So we're happy to continue to support the growth and learning for the students. Overall, the parents report that academic growth has improved.

Thank you so very much.

Thank you.

You want to come to them and I feel thank you for the presentation.

You mentioned specialized literacy training for staff. Can you elaborate a little bit on that?

Yes. When I say specialized, I'm really connecting it to the curriculums that we use in Monterey Peninsula Unified School District. Being that I work for the school district, I have a little inside access and a lot of training. What I do is I take my training that I get from the job and I train the staff members on how to give some intervention supports,

if students are struggling or some advanced skills if students are performing above grade level awesome and in addition to the great work that you all are doing um is there any other support services that are provided to the families that are participating in this program um such as let's say behavioral, if a child is misbehaving in school, like is there an improvement plan? Are we working with them to really get the grades up, but also work on the self-esteem or if you see where I'm going with this?

What we've had to do is work in partnership with the families on what we see in our program. So, you know, if a student shows up with an emotional dysregulation or something like that, then we work with the families to see if it's okay to connect with teachers and get ideas, learn about behavior charts, things like that. We don't have a behavior specialist or mental health therapist or anything like that on staff, but it is a community partnership type of program. So we work with the teachers when we can. We work with the families when we can to support the whole child.

Great. And then I think the mayor sort of alluded to this, right? The development of the child, I think he spoke through it through the academic lens, but I wanted to know if there is, and you kind of touched on it, right? It builds confidence with the child, but do you see a clear distinction from when they first enter the program to when the program ends?

Yes, definitely. Okay. Yes.

And what have you seen?

so we've seen students who you know were some of those that we were concerned about behavior and and emotions that were not regulated to these are the kids that are true leaders and they've come back to us year after year and they're the best helpers and things like that so um and that's one benefit of also our program it's been around for a while we have students that keep coming back families parents that keep bringing their children back because they've seen how well it's benefited the kids.

That's amazing. And just to see this continue to grow from 25 to 40, I think that's a huge success, but also a testament to the great work that you all are doing. I've had the privilege of visiting the site before and seeing the children in action. And it's a system. It is a very structured system. And I just want to thank you for all that you're doing.

My pleasure. Thank you. Anyone else?

Yes, not a question just want to say, thank you. And for the really clear presentation, I think, to me, this is exactly what I want to see the dollars going towards is this well rounded city public school system community working together. So, I appreciate all the efforts and I know all the stuff going on for years. She's not even sharing how amazing she is to be able to put this her efforts, not just for the district for the community. So, thank you. Thank you.

Yeah, I want to just congratulate you too. That was the whole object of supporting this program. We have a vast need for after school programs. And so when we talk about one question, I did want to make sure you put on the record is I don't think you charge a fee to these families.

You're right. That is very important. I should have said that this is free to the families. Yes.

And I want to see, that's what I wanted to put the point on, right? Because after school programs are very limited in the county and we know we have a need in the city and that's what the council is trying to do, fill that need. But not every program doesn't charge. I can say that a little differently, right?

Most programs charge.

So when you talk about, it's a program where what, you know, 40 kids, 50 kids, 15 kids, two kids can go after school and get something to eat with a you know, surrounded by safe adults, adults with a loving mind, loving hand, and get something to eat and help with the homework, but it doesn't cost the family. And so that's what the council is trying to do. And so I didn't want that to go unnoticed about why we support this type of programming, because in a sense, those kids would probably be at home alone or just hanging out outside with other kids, not doing homework and maybe not even having a warm meal to eat. So it's a great program to have because I know when you mentioned about some of the kids I come from ISM, but I know other programs charge so much, right? And it's very expensive for kids to get into those programs. And so at least we have another program that's free for some of our kids to go to. So that was the object of supporting this program. And you have the information and the, what is it? The data to prove. Yes. Yes. Thank you so much.

Thank you.

And let's go on to the next presentation. Received presentation from Friends of Seaside Parks Association on the 2025-26 Community Social Service Grant Program. Mr. City Manager.

FOSPO is here to do a presentation.

Hi, my name is Jeannie Reese and I'm here with Friends of Seaside Parks. And our mission is to foster a sense of community unity and civic pride by volunteering together to improve city parks and neighborhoods. And I know a lot of you know the work that we do, but this is just a little bit of a highlight of some of our recent accomplishments and practices. So we create pollinator habitats with California native plants. And you can see this is winter of 2023 and spring of 2026. And you can see a lot of work goes into bring those pollinator habitats to the place they are. And we use California native plants because they take very little water. They support healthy ecosystems. And we expect the plants that we put into the parks to work really hard. They're not just a decorative piece of greenery. They're there to provide an environment that is going to help food production and to make our environment a healthier place. And one of the things that we're proudest of is the fact that we get volunteers every week, every single Saturday, they show up. And we have an average of 25 volunteers, sometimes some more, sometimes less, but that volunteer count stays up there. And it's an amazing thing. People are giving their Saturday mornings to help in their community. And some of the things that we do, obviously plant plants and weed and water and sheep mulch, you know, put cardboard down and to put wood chips on top of it so that we cut down on the amount of weeds that we've got and to retain moisture. One of the things that we've done that's a little bit more sophisticated in the last couple of years is create soil sponges which means that we are digging in the ground to provide a trench and put in organic materials and compost and that allows the new plants that come in this environment where the roots grow deep and it needs less water and they are much healthier plants and we do whatever we can to make sure that the water that comes into the park stays with the gardens instead of running down the street so we try to be very water wise about that Here's a really good example of what good soil preparation is done. Just less than nine months ago, we planted in Lincoln Cunningham Park, and you can see how quickly the pollinators have grown there because of our careful soil preparation. So looking at what the community social services grant did for us is what we wanted to do was have an outreach program because you can tell by the last few slides that the work that we do is sometimes very physically demanding. We need to make sure that we have more and more volunteers that can help us do that work. The spending was divided in the following areas. We had a partial funding for a Grizzly Corps fellow. We reached out to local schools and agencies, and we purchased bulletin boards for the parks. And then we hosted three outreach events. The Grizzly Corps fellow who helped us was Sally Norman. She's over there on the left-hand side of the screen. And she worked with a green... She did a lot of different things. But one of the things that she did that was so helpful was to work with a green cadre on special projects. And these are young people who need work experience. And she was really great about sharing the... um the the fospa story so to speak making sure that they understood the importance of what they were doing and introduced them to the different parks that fospa services she was great with the practical needs that we had she designed flyers and banners she coordinated outreach events for us she created an instagram account and she made presentations at csumb on our behalf here are some of the flyers that she put together and The quote from Christine, it kind of emphasizes how Sally would help people understand how some of the mundane things that we do really make a big, more profound difference in our communities. Through Sally's outreach, we were able to connect with the Environmental Science Department at CSUMB, and we were able to get service learners. And what's really cool is some of the service learners who have already completed their service learning hours have come back to us. And that's a really cool thing. And we already have ones for this next year. They showed up last week at Lincoln Cunningham, and they're over in the left-hand corner down at the bottom. Similarly, we reached out to Seaside High School, Monterey Peninsula College, Big Sur Land Trust, Seaside Rising. Specifically, we reached out to Seaside High School and then through word of mouth, those other organizations joined us. And it's really wonderful to see young people from different organizations come to see what we're about. with grant funds we purchased bulletin boards and we've got we purchased five bulletin boards and we had one made uh by a um an eagle scout and they're going to be really a wonderful tool for us because they inform our neighbors of work days but they also help tell our story too and Let neighbors know, you know, what's happening in the parks. You know, what are we doing? So we're really grateful for funds for that. We also sponsored three outreach events. The one that we had in January called Rock in the Park was celebrating the fact that we had a climbing rock donated to us from Ross Recreation. You can see that over on the left-hand side. We kind of wanted to, you know, celebrate that. And so we had a gathering of people It was a small gathering, but a joyous one. We had a barbecue, and there was radio-controlled cars around there that were fun for the kids. And it was a nice gathering. That's at Capra Park. Um, the next event that we had was called a park circuit challenge, and that was at four parks. And that was pretty cool. It started at Durant and it went to Farallones Park and then Capra, and then it ended at Beta. And the idea was that participants would go from one park to another and they would be challenged. Um, they were asked to do like one specific thing. And once they did that challenge, they got a stamp. You know, it could be a challenge like climb the climbing rock or, um, stand in front of that new mural and have your picture taken. So we tried to integrate fun with educational kinds of opportunities. Once they got to beta, they could take their passport and get a raffle ticket. So we had raffles and we also had snacks and games and things like that. One of the cool things about having the grant funds was that we could purchase items that are going to help us in the future, not just for the events that we had over the last couple of months. For example, we got a pop-up tent and we got... We had one of those cutouts made that people can put their faces through. And we had Monterey High School students do the backdrop painting for that. And then the local Monterey Adult School coordinator helped us by actually making that. We got feather flags. We passed out seed packets. We had cloth frisbees. And it's a little hard to recognize, but over in the left-hand corner, You can see a before picture of what the park, in this case Beta Park, looked like in a certain section. And so we have these yard signs made so that you could see what it looked like before and then what it looks like now. And the transformations that have been brought about have been amazing. You can see the two pollinator gardens on the right and the left side. And then the city were the ones obviously that made a new cement pad that made the whole area look pretty awesome. Our last outreach event was Art Blooms and Beats, and we kind of felt like, okay, yay, we've done it. We had over 100 people there. We had live music. We had food for everyone, and it was a wonderful event. feeling of of joy and synergy that kind of was exactly what we were trying to accomplish um a lot of neighbors came um people from different you know different areas in the monterey peninsula came we had uh different art events uh one of the things you know we always try to um include a little bit of educational material there. So we had people painting pollinators and flowers on the tree stumps that are on one of the pathways at Highland Otis Park. And so it was kind of a joyous time, I felt, because there were a lot of people who were really anxious to get involved. And I loved the fact that it was people of all ages that were included in that and different generations helped each other with that. So I, you know, we felt really great about that. One of the things that quantitatively told us that what we were doing, the grant did make a difference, was that we had our audience members for our Mailchimp increase. So from June to December of 2025, we went from 347 contacts to 370 contacts. Whereas in the period of the grant, we gained 44 contacts. So we had a 10.8% increase in our audience. And anecdotally, I see more people coming into the parks from different places. I think one of the lessons that we learned that was the most valuable is that that we need communications of all different kinds you know some of the things that we've done in the past still they still work you know the signs in the park do you help people know when we're going to gather big banners in front of an event helps. That's a wonderful thing. Live music at events helps. People love that. And we've learned to be a little bit more savvy about just asking people, how did you hear about us? What brought you here today? So I think that we're a lot more understanding of the ways that we can reach out in small and big ways. So plans for the future is that we're definitely going to be building on the things that we've learned. We hope that we'll do maybe not three events next year, but maybe one really great event. We are going to get the help and support of two Grizzly Fellows this next year. So we're looking forward to that. And we're also going to get three Climate Action Fellows. All of this is through the Resource Conservation District of Monterey County. And that help is going to be invaluable to us for outreach and just for the physical demands of what we do. We, because of all of that extra help, we plan on expanding our pollinator habitats. We're hoping to add a total of 100,000 square feet in pollinator habitats this year. We're gonna be adding garden sheds to several more parks so that we can be a little bit more independent and we don't have to rely so much on public works to supply us with tools. We're going to hopefully add interpretive signage, more bulletin boards to the parks. The fellows that we have now are going to be creating a multimedia presentation and that's going to include interviews with park stewards and we're looking forward to that because I think that hearing our story from the people who are kind of like on the ground who are there in the parks is going to be great and we've been approached by somebody who is a filmmaker who is looking at the idea of a possible documentary because our story is unique i mean we get 25 people every week show me other places that get those kinds of volunteers consistently week after week after week it's a in a pretty amazing accomplishment And we are hoping to launch a new program for young people called Empowering Seaside Youth with Outdoor Environmental Education and Opportunities. This would mean that the fellows that are helping with us would provide environmental education, and they would be using FOSPA as kind of a model look at what community engagement can look like. The climate crisis is huge. It's daunting. How can we possibly do anything? And FOSPA provides a small but meaningful way that people can do something. And so we hope that we can use the FOSPA story to show young people that they can make a difference. So we thank you very much for the opportunity to have this outreach program for Friends of Seaside Park. It's been very meaningful to us, and we feel like we've been able to reach so many more people. And it just is kind of, we have kind of a feeling that it's just getting the ball rolling right now. So we're very hopeful as we continue on to another year. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you for that well done presentation. Are there any questions? Council Member Garcia-Zola, then Mayor Pro Temp.

Thank you for the presentation. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I do have just a couple of follow-ups, one of them being the Climate Action Fellows. I'm really intrigued as to what that looks like and how you see it being implemented.

The Climate Action Fellows, OK, this comes through the Resource Conservation District. I do not have specifics on that particular program, but I do know through the very hard work of Laura Murphy, who works with that entity, she has been able to connect. And we are going to have three new very qualified young young people who are going to help us. So I do not know how that particular piece transpired so that we have that resource.

The reason I ask is I was wondering if our climate action plan would be taken into consideration or would they help implement?

Well, I'm so glad you asked because the program that we are hoping to launch that we're hoping to take that extra help of those five fellows and connect them with different schools and help them again to understand how fospa is just one model so we're going to be using those fellows very directly they're going to be doing the education and then we're hoping to get mentors from on the high school level to augment that and to show them how they can um how they can bring their environmental understanding to the younger children

That's awesome. And then the program for the young folks, which is the Empowering Seaside Youth with Outdoor Environmental Education and Opportunities. Do you have an age range for who would be participating? Would it start at elementary school, middle school, high school?

Right. Well, the mentors would be coming from high school. And I kind of assume that the middle school children would be most appropriate. But I think that we're hoping to have activities for all age ranges, depending on what those are. And we've applied for a grant for the Youth Opportunities Program. So we'll see if that goes through and we can make that happen.

Awesome. And then your Grizzly Corps fellows, do they receive a stipend?

Yes, they are paid through the Resource Conservation District. And FOSPA helped to fund that fellow, Sally Norman, this year.

And then how long was the, you might've mentioned how long they were with you, the fellows. Is it just one?

She was here from about October until she, as a matter of fact, she would be here today, but her agreement ended at the end of August or else she would be here representing us too.

Yeah, no, this is amazing. And thank you again for what you're doing. Someone said it earlier, it takes a village. And I think we're clearly seeing it, you know, not only FOSFA, but, the great work that you all are doing to all our parks you know in addition to what we can do in our city but the real work is being conducted by by all of you and helping maintain those parks thank you safe and secure for our constituents and then just this is just minor for the bulletin boards um how has that been received by constituents has it made a a difference do you

I think that as we move forward to include more instructive material, I think it will be a lot more informative. But just the other day, I happened to be with somebody in the park, and they said, oh, when are you meeting again? And I said, well, let's take a look. So it has been helpful, and I think it will continue to be as we add more educational material.

That's amazing. Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Thank you. First of all, thank you for what you do in the parks. The involvement of park improvements over the past 10 years has been dramatic. I think the parks in Seaside being pocket parks throughout have changed the lives, I believe, of a lot of young people as far as the parks are now usable in most part versus not usable in some times. So thank you for that. I believe they're kind of like a diamond in seaside that needs to be shined up a little more to more. It gets more uses. Kids stay out the streets. They're in the community parks like they were back in the day. And everybody creates a sense of community, a sense of neighborhood, a sense of pride in each area. So just for what that's worth. Let's talk briefly about the Grizzly

core program which age group of people are involved with that when did that program first start in the parks and maybe yeah let's just go with that let's keep it simple it was in 2023 that we got our first grizzly core fellow and both sally norman who was with us this year and the person from the last time was from uc berkeley they're highly qualified for example sally norman graduated with uh conservation i believe is her major you know they they they're they have a vast amount of knowledge and um they have contributed so much to to us and then since the grant the grant is evolving um youth involvement is paramount as far as

You know, for the next generation, because a lot of volunteers are seniors or people still wanting to be involved, but the next generation is going to continue the roadmap to success. I know you said, I mentioned your Monterey High End. I believe you had Stevenson there at one of the parks. How are you doing as far as getting people involved in schools? Are you, and I saw some pictures last week of another group that was there. How are we getting kids involved? Are you being successful in that mission?

I think that is a place where we could grow even more. But just a couple of weeks ago, our chair Diane Nielsen was at MLK school for a presentation. And I know that they are very anxious for us to They're hoping for us to come actually to their campus. We were very successful with Seaside High School. They had a gardening group and their teacher and some of their students came to several of our work days and even individual students came on their own. So I think that that is something that we could continue to nurture.

I know you're not going to be able to give me a magic number, but through the eyes of yourself and Diana and a few other people, with the improvement in the parks and the landscaping and the rock or the activities, do you see, because I know someone's in the park, it seems like every day in a program we're working on, you know, Flowers or whatever. Do you see an increase in numbers of parents and families and kids in the parks in relation to the improvement of the parks?

I know exactly what you're saying, and I can offer the example of Lincoln Cunningham Park. not only does the greenery really compliment the park and look incredible, but the inclusion of the playground at Lincoln Cunningham Park has brought families so that that park is now, especially on weekends, it's full. It's got two groups in the basketball court and a couple of families in the playground, which is just really heartwarming to see because the park was basically barren for so many years. So it's really heartwarming to see that.

So we agree that the better the parks appear and have activities, the more people come to the parks. Is that a fair comment?

From my opinion, yes.

I think that's good. Thank you so very much.

Thank you for the presentation. I really appreciate it. I've only been able to go to a couple, but they've always been learning experiences welcoming community. I appreciate seeing the diversity of the volunteers has grown and even the efforts you guys have put in to remove language barriers. I know you're reaching out to everybody's communities within our own city. But I think beyond building community, I study shows, like, being outdoors and being in community really support mental health. And so there's a beautiful trickle effect that's going on in our city. I'm still continuing this weekend and schools will be starting their Saturday school academies, which is a way to, like. Recover absences, but a lot of our schools are walking distances to some of these parks. And so I would love to to figure out how we could do, like, a walking filter, but get the kiddos out there. It would help the teacher. It would help the kids and for them to see beyond their little classroom or their little. Garden on campus how they can make, like you said, a meaningful. efforts to do something about the environment and how overwhelming it seems. But I think this is great. So thank you for your efforts and thank you to everybody in FOSPA. I appreciate it.

Thank you.

Yeah. Thank you. I'll just chime in for a few minutes. It's wonderful. I mean, for me, you know, the council tends to go out there. I think I'm out there at least 40 out of the 52 Saturdays every year. But when you went to Lincoln Cunningham and the transformation in these parks, it started with FOSPA. Eight, nine, ten years ago, it started with FOSPA and a small group of people. And for the public, I think, you know, when we're talking about the parks here, and I think you're in 50%, close to 50% of our parks, and you guys are doing the work every day, especially on Saturdays to revitalize those parks. I know the Grizzly Corps Fellow Program is a great program and has paid dividends for that one person with their outreach and their ability to reach more people. The little bit of grant money that we have given you, you guys have multiplied that to the extreme. And so I just want to acknowledge that it's not, you know, it's a lot of money, but for what you do, you guys get a lot out of that money every day. And I think some of it is free pulling and me doing some wood chips. Yes. That's what we need people to do and come on out. But if it wasn't that village, it wasn't that gathering place, then people would not want to come out and support it. So you guys make that happen.

Thank you.

And you said something about other communities. I thought we talked about this a couple years ago. I don't think there is anything like FOSPA in this region. We know it's not in the county, but in this region, it's nothing like FOSPA. So we appreciate that. I do want to have a special shout out to my good friend and leader when I go out there and tells me what to do is Christine. Wait, Christine. And Laura's out there. I call them two out because I guess Laura may have left. But they're not only in the parks. You know, maybe 40 minutes before everybody else get there and they're definitely there when when I leave at 12 and and things that nature, but then we see them in other places. Throughout the week, and I know I seen them at the what is that that school, the adult school, right? They revitalize that corner at the adult schools and that's just the 1 I see because I drive by there often, but they're there throughout the week and possible members throughout the week also. So I just don't want to. to to leave it as said you guys just out there for two hours it's really more than that in those parks and so that that's my my comments about that because i think one thing i wasn't really supportive of was this grant for foster because i don't think you guys should be limited to this grant i think it should be something in the budget And those were my comments at that period. And that was probably my same comments as we applied this youth service grants again, because you guys save us money. And my last comment is every dime you get goes right into the park. Right. Except for the I guess for the Grizzly Corps Fellowship payment, we had to pay them. But everything that you get, you buy, you buy the retaining walls, you know, you buy the plants, you buy some fences, you bought the shed. So every dollar that we grant you or give you out the budget, it goes right back in the park. So you guys are just doing the work and we appreciate what you're doing.

Thank you.

Thank you so much. All right, let's Let's go to item number nine, which is consent agenda. 9A, approved minutes from September 3rd, 2026. B, approved proclamation recognized in October 2026 as National Disability Employment Awareness Month in the city of Seaside. 9C, approve a proclamation recognizing the month of October, 2026 as National Breast Cancer Awareness Month in the City of Seaside. D, approve a proclamation recognizing October 4th through the 10th, 2026 as Fire Prevention Week in the City of Seaside. E, approve a Mayor's Youth Fund contribution request of $3,000 from Monterey Condor Club to assist with the costs associated with their soccer programs. F, approve a Mayor's Youth Fund contribution request of $3,000 from Seaside Police Activity League to assist with the costs associated with expenses related to their sports program. G, approve a fee waiver request from Narcotics Anonymous for the use of Laguna Grande Hall and Kitchen for a woman's brunch on April 10th, 2027 in amount of $562.50. H, approve a fee waiver request from the Seaside High School for costs associated with their annual homecoming parade on October 23rd, 2026 in amount of $1,112.00. I approve a fee waiver request from Sher and Jim Prison Ministry for the use of Laguna Grande Hall and Kitchen for the 8th Annual Music Festival on October 2nd, 2026 and October 3rd, 2026 in the amount of $3,000. eight hundred ninety four dollars uh jay approved a tax recommendation to deny the permit parking at 12 80 fremont k adopted resolution authorizes city manager to execute an opinion agreement an option agreement for the ev charging services site license at parking lot one for the purpose of installing operating direct current fast charging infrastructure L, adopt a resolution authorizing the City Manager to execute an agreement with Monterey Peninsula Unified School District for staffing at the Afterschool Recreation Programming at the Dual Language Academy of the Monterey Peninsula during the 2026-27 school year. M, adopt a resolution authorizing the closure of Broadway Avenue from Alhambra to Care Bear Street for the Seaside stars fifth annual unveiling event on saturday october 10th 2026 in doctor resolution authorizing the closure of yosemite street between broadway avenue and manasino street on october 3rd 2026 for seaside fire department annual community public education open house uh oh adopt a resolution approving specifications for the tree maintenance or call contract awarding construction contracts to the three lowest responsive Responsible bidders, West Coast Alvarez Inc., Topi Tree Service Inc., Davey Tree Expert Company, and authorizing an annual not to exceed funding limit of $100,000. P, adopt a resolution authorizing City Manager to execute a municipal advisory agreement with NHA Advisors LLC for municipal advisory services with not to exceed amount of $31,500. Q, adopt a resolution authorizing city manager to execute an environmental service cooperative agreement with the Department of the Army for PFAS soil testing at Campustown Phase 1B and Nurses Barracks. That concludes the reading of the consent agenda. Is there any items that anyone wants to remove off the consent agenda? Yes, sir.

I want to pull item A.

and then pull item 9f only because i need to just k and 9m yeah okay okay and f okay that's fine so anyone else anyone from the public want to pull an item out the consent agenda i have someone on zoom mayor once again carla lobo you may unmute and make a request for the consent agenda

Thank you. My apologies. I'm not sure what Mr. Pacheco asked for, but I'm asking for letter K as in kite. And if that's already been asked, then you can disregard that. But it's letter K. Thank you for that.

Mayor, I'm not seeing anyone else on Zoom wishing to call an item from the agenda.

okay just a moment okay understanding that uh k and f are no longer on the consent agenda what is the will of the council no proof second they're probably moved to second i will open up the public comment public comments open on the consent agenda members of the public in the chamber please approach the podium members of public on zoom you may use raise your hand feature dial star nine

Mayor, I'm not seeing any members of the public wishing to make a public comment.

Okay, thank you so much. Public comments close. Councilmember Garcia is on the question.

Thank you. Just a quick question on item C, which is what we're going to be discussing for Breast Cancer Awareness Month in the CDC. Is there a possibility to just light up City Hall in pink?

I don't think they heard you about what color.

Yeah, to light up City Hall in pink in honor of breast cancer awareness.

Yes, we're going to add up city hall. Okay, perfect. Thank you.

Okay, on the question. Okay, all those in favor. Use the right side of voting, which is I may have the same, right? extensions here nuns eyes have a motion carry let's go to item number f nine f approve a mayor you fund contribution request of three thousand dollars from the seaside police activity leads to assist with the costs associated with the expense related to their sports program i'm here for tim yeah i just have to recuse myself because i'm on the board that's the only reason why i like forward well hold on okay Just to be clear, after you recuse, you don't have nothing to say, right? So I didn't hear what he said. He's mumbling, right? Okay. All right. So let's open it up to public comment. Any public comment on item number F?

Members of the public in the chamber, please approach the podium. Members public on Zoom, you may use the raise your hand feature to all star nine. Part of the Lobo, you may unmute and make your public comment.

Thank you. I just want, I just have a clarifying question with regards to this being a police activity league. It's its own organization, but how much, budgetary allocation does the police department allocate to the specific program? I'd like to know that just because I'd like to understand if we're duplicating funding here because it is a police activity league and there's a collaboration between the department and the recreation center or the recreation department, how much is allocated from those two entities?

I yield the rest of my time.

Any more public comment?

No, man, no members wishing to make up a comment.

I thank you so much.

Is there anyone can answer that question about. Yes, okay. Public comment has been closed.

Good evening, honorable mayor, members of city council. I'm Dan Mewis, assistant city manager, and there is no budget from the police department for the police activities league. The recreation department does allocate staffing for a lot of the activities that go on, but there is no dedicated funding specifically for police activities league.

Okay. Thank you so much. Bringing it back to the diocese, what is the will of the council?

Motion to approve item 9F.

Second.

So we'll probably move to the second on the question. All those in favor use the rock sign voting, which is aye. Aye. Nays have the same right. Abstentions? Hearing none, motion carried. We couldn't wait. Well, we couldn't wait. Thank you for coming back, Mayor Portillo. Let's go to item number K, 9K. Adopt a resolution authorizing city manager to execute an option agreement for EV charging services site license at parking lot one on the proposal for the proposed installation and operating a direct current fast charging infrastructure. We'll go to public comment. Public comment is open.

Members of the public in the Chamber, please approach the podium. Members of the public on Zoom, use the raise your hand feature or dial star 9. Carla Lobo, you may unmute and make a public comment.

Thank you. I have several questions before Council approves this option agreement for the EV charging project. First, I want clarity regarding the environmental and infrastructure impacts. The staff report states that this qualifies for a category exception under CEQA because the physical alterations are considered minor. But we are talking about a minimum of four direct current fast charging operating at this location. What is the anticipated electrical demand of these chargers? Has the city or citizen energy completed a utility capacity analysis and will any transformers, electrical equipment, trenching or other utility upgrades be necessary? And if upgrades are required, what impacts will those improvements have on the surrounding area? Second, the physical impact section says that The option agreement itself has no impact on the general fund. But if Citizen Energy receives the grant, what financial obligation, if any, does the city ultimately have? Is there a local match, in-kind contribution, infrastructure costs, maintenance obligation, or other city expenses associated with the project? I would like that stated clearly for the public. Finally, I have questions about the future lease. The agreement says the site lease would be negotiated later and could include a fixed annual fee, a share of gross EV charging revenue, or a combination of both. If council is granting an exclusive option on public property today, why aren't the fundamental financial terms being discussed now? What minimum revenue or profit sharing terms will protect the city's interest? Will council have an opportunity to publicly review and approve that lease before it becomes binding? EV infrastructure can certainly provide a public benefit, but when public property is involved, we should understand the environmental impact, financial obligations, and potential public return before committing ourselves further. I yield the rest of my time.

Thank you for your comments. Members of the public in the chamber, please approach the podium members of public on zoom. They may use the raise your hand feature dial star 9. Mayor, I'm not seeing any other members of the public wishing to make public comment.

I see no 1 here. No, 1 else public comments close.

I'm approaching you had the real simple questions. if we approve the recommendation and the grant is approved will the contract have profit sharing element where you gain some revenue that's the first one you want to just give him the question so he can and the other one is the land was purchased i believe for mixed-use housing or economic development uh if we approve the grant uh and receive the grant will they impact the future opportunities for development long term that's yeah those two and then

yes thank you for those questions first if if the uh grant is approved the city will have included in this uh option agreement is language that allows us to negotiate a profit sharing or revenue for the city as a part of this project secondly if a developer or the city has an opportunity to work with a developer to construct commercial or residential uh property on the residential structures on this property we do not anticipate that these four uh units will hinder any development the developer will likely incorporate those into the project or relocate those at its expense in the deal

Thank you.

And for the benefit of the caller with a public comment, this is an option agreement. And so this allows the company to proceed with the grant application. If that grant application is successful, the city will then begin negotiation on a site lease that will address a lot of the questions that the caller had, and that will be brought back to the City Council for consideration.

So you're saying this is this is not a done deal just to authorize them to try to go get a grant correct?

If the grant is not successful, this is this. We do not proceed with the lease.

Right. So those concerns go away. If they get the grant, then just by definition, we have to work through those questions that was posed earlier.

Correct. Our engineering team will work through those questions in cooperation with the company, and we'll answer all those in the public process.

Okay. All right. All right. what is the will of the council motion to approve second then probably moved in second on the question all those in favor use the rec sign of voting which is aye aye nays have the same right abstentions hearing none's eyes have the motion carried let's go to item number uh 10a adopt a resolution uh Let's take a break. I just got to note that we have been gone for a while, so we want staff to be able to take their break before we get into the next one or two items. All right, we'll stand and recess for the sound of the gavel and feast.

Thank you so much.

for the Community Development Block Grant Program for fiscal year 2025 and 26. Mr. City Manager.

Yeah, this item will be presented by Harun Nori on Zoom, our Administrative Analyst too.

Thank you so much, Mr. City Manager. Good evening, honorable mayor, council members, staff, and members of the public. My name is Harun Nori, Administrative Analyst II with the Community Development Department. I'm here tonight to present the fiscal year 2025-2026 Consolidated Annual Performance and Evaluation Report, also known as CAPER, for the Community Development Block Grant Program. Next slide, please. For anyone who may not be familiar with the caper, it's essentially the city's year end report for the Community Development Block Grant program. The report is required by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, or HUD, and is due each year by September 30th. The caper provides a summary of CDBG funding and expenditures during the program year. identifies the residents and populations that benefited from those funds, and reports the city's progress towards meeting the goals established in the city's five-year consolidated plan, as well as the annual action plan. This CAPER was made available for the required 15-day public review and comment period prior to tonight's public hearing. As of this hearing, the city staff has not received any public comments. This slide provides a high-level overview of the program year. During fiscal year 25-26, the city had $466,548 in CDBG resources available and expended $424,371, benefiting approximately 6,200 Seaside residents. These funds supported primarily three areas which that I'll briefly cover in the next few slides. The first category is public service activities. During the program year, the city provided $61,140 in CDBG funding to six local nonprofit organizations. These organizations provided a range of services, including youth programs, senior services, legal assistance, to seniors, fair housing services, and services for individuals experiencing homelessness. All six organizations fully expended their CDBG awards and collectively these programs assisted 634 Seaside residents during the program year. This next category is the neighborhood facility improvements. The city provided $50,000 to the Boys and Girls Club of Monterey County for parking lot improvements at the Seaside Clubhouse. That project was completed and benefited approximately 700 Seaside residents. The city also had allocated $40,000 for facility improvements at the Community Human Services Casa de Nochebuena facility. However, that project was canceled and no CDBG funds were expended on that project. The $40,000 from this canceled project has already been reprogrammed into the current fiscal year projects and activities. Next slide, please. The city also made a significant investment in improving accessibility through its ADA curb ramp project. The city approximately $238,000 in CDBG funds were expended to install 24 ADA compliant curb ramps throughout the city. The improvements help remove accessibility barriers within the public right of way and are estimated to benefit approximately 4900 seaside residents. This represented the city's largest CDBG funded activity undertaken during the program year. Next slide, please. The final category is CDBG planning and administration. The city extended $75,384 for administration of the CDBG program. During the year, staff ensure compliance with HUD requirements. managed program expenditures in IDIS reporting, and prepared and administered CDBG grants and activities. Staff also administered the City's fiscal year 2026-2028 Notice of Funding Availability and Request for Applications process. as well as completed comprehensive monitoring for fiscal years 24-25 and 25-26 for all completed CDBG activities and projects. Importantly, the city achieved 100% low and moderate income benefit for its CDBG activities during the program year. Next slide, please. Tonight, staff is requesting that City Council adopt a resolution to approve the fiscal year 2025-2026 CAPER for the CDBG program and authorize the city manager or designee to submit the CAPER to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. And before concluding, I would like to thank our CDBG partners in city departments for their work in implementing these programs and projects, as well as the City Council for its continued support of the CDBG program. And with that, I'll conclude my presentation, and I'm happy to answer any questions. Thank you.

Thank you so much for that presentation. Are there any questions? Taking it out to the public, public comment is now open.

Members of the public in the chamber, you may approach the podium. And members of the public on Zoom, you may use the raise your hand feature or dial star 9. Mayor, at this time I'm not seeing anyone wishing to make public comment.

Seeing no one here, no one, public comment is closed. Bringing it back to the dais, what is the will of the council?

I'll make a motion to approve. Second.

Mr. Papi moved and seconded on the question. Yeah, I think the, you know, definitely I support the grant and what we've been able to do with the money over this period and what we look to do with the money in the future. So money well spent. I want to thank the city manager and his team for focusing some of the money on our roads and things like that and assisting with other nonprofits. All those in favor of Rick's side of voting, which is aye. Aye. Nays have the same right. Abstentions? Hearing none. Ayes have it. Motion carried unanimously.

Thank you.

Yes, I went to the public comment. Is that in the record?

It is in the record.

Yes. Thank you so much. Let's go on to item number 10B. This will be Can I read? This will be an appeal for the Planning Commission approval of architectural review application number AR2026-002 and minor use permit number MUP2026-001 for a second story addition to existing one story single family dwelling, including a 337 square foot deck above a relocated A lot line 391 square foot garage and a 234 square foot balcony located in a single family residential zone district. RS-8 at 1828 Yosemite Street APN 012-621-034. Uh, this is the time and place for a public hearing on the appeal of the planning commission's decision regarding 1828 Yosemite street. I hereby open up the public hearing. Uh, before we proceed, does any council member have a disqualifying financial interest in this matter, including ownership of real property within 500 feet of the subject site? If so, please state that for the record and step away from the dies during this item.

Mr. Mayor, yes, I do not have a financial PB, Jorge Boone & interest in this and I do not live within 500 feet, but before the Council considers this appeal. PB, Jorge Boone & I do want to disclose for the record that on September 24 at three o'clock I met with Erica sovereign the appellant applicant in this matter regarding the appeal. PB, Jorge Boone & Of 1828 Yosemite street we discussed the situation, I also received a call from Peter accio this morning. I did not receive any documents or evidence outside the public record, and I have not formed a final opinion on the appeal. I received a follow-up email with attachments documents from Ms. Sabin, but I did not open the attachments in the email. My decision will be based solely on the testimony and evidence presented at this hearing, and I am disclosing this so that all parties have a full opportunity to respond to my disclosure. Thank you.

Thank you so much for that. Anyone else before I make my comments? I have been informed that I live within 500 feet of this property and so I will recuse myself and I will turn it over to the Mayor Pro Tem.

just uh just from my opinion remember we are one community one neighborhood we should treat each other respect we have to live with one another or next to one another so please um respond to that professionally and with good listening ears. Before we go to you, let me ask one more ex parte disclosure. Does any council members have an ex parte communication disclosed regarding this appeal?

Yeah, so before the council considers this appeal, I want to disclose for the record that on August 31st, I didn't meet with miss Erica, the appellant in this matter regarding 1828 70. she shared shared her concerns about the project. I have not formed a final opinion. On the appeal, my decision will be based solely on the testimony and the evidence presented at this hearing and I'm disclosing this. So all parties have a full opportunity to respond.

thank you is there anybody else yes sir because i am legally required to read this before the council considers the appeal i want to disclose for the record that i met miss erica on august 19th in this matter regarding the appeal of 1828 yosemite street we discussed a brief neutral discussion and i did not receive any documents or evidence outside of the public record and i have not Formed a final opinion on the appeal. My decision will be based solely on the testimony and evidence presented at this hearing and then disclosing this. So all parties have a full opportunity to respond.

Thank you before we go on, I need to. State the process here or the procedure 1st, we. We're here from the city staff and then the applicants and no more than 10 minutes. Then the appellate, no more than 10 minutes. Then public comment, no more than three minutes per speaker. We will then have a short rebuttal by appellate, no more than five minutes. And then by the applicant, no more than five minutes. And then finally, the public hearing. And then it will go to, as I recall, to the Council for Questions and Liberations. let's see so at this time do the city manager staff report this item will be presented by beth rocha our senior planner

Thank you. The goal with this presentation is to familiarize you with the neighborhood, with the process that happened at the Planning Commission level, certain dates in which things were heard and received in terms of the appeal, to step you through the design that was submitted, and to review both the request included in the appeal as well as staff's responses to those requests. We'll start by heading into the neighborhood on the project parcel, which is 1828 Yosemite. It's a 7,200 square foot parcel, which is common for this area of seaside. There's an existing approximately 1,200 square foot single-family residence with a 465 square foot detached garage and as stated in the intro in the RS-8 zone. Zooming in a little bit closer, this property is a little bit unusual in terms of this block. Also throughout the city, I haven't come across the situation before where two separate properties have a shared wall with attached garages. So the image on the left is from google maps and then the aerial which you can also see showing the overlap of the roof as well as kind of an exometric view of those homes from like a street viewer bird's eye view Moving on to neighborhood characteristics, this is a topography map with the lime green lines going through all those parcels that you see essentially this area of the city in which indicated with the purple line is an increase in elevation, so you're gaining height. as you go up Yerba Buena towards the top of the cul-de-sac. And then the red line indicates the decrease in the elevation, which does cut across the site. So like all the other homes on this block, you start at a lower elevation and you have a change of anywhere from 12 to 16 feet in elevation gain on your site. So you're working within the topography of the land. um the blue boxes represent on this block face the existing two-story homes on the block so the three at the top we'll look at at a street view image the current project you'll see the proposed elevations the green boxes indicate more recent projects that were approved for second story additions, both of which I had the pleasure of working with the applicant and the designers on taking them through the architectural review process and are new to the neighborhood. So this marks a change in the neighborhood, whereas before everything on the west side of Yosemite was single story, except as noted things on the right side, a mix of two and single story. Here's the image showing those three homes that have been there for a while and unchanged for a while. What is interesting to note about these originally built as two-story homes is that the livable space is above the garage area versus in the parcels we're looking at for both 1828 and 1820, which is the site of the appellant, which is just south to the subject property, is that the garages are... detached from the primary residence. And you'll see that more clearly in the image shown now with the home even further to the south with that red detached garage. It becomes a bit more blurred by the vegetation showing in those other pictures for 1820 and then after that 1828. um we'll look at what has happened with the public hearing process now so this project I believe was submitted in February of 2026 went through a handful of revisions and code Corrections got it to the point of it being deemed complete to move on forward to the Planning Commission hearing the first one happened on June 24th and the Planning Commission made a unanimous decision to continue the project based on public comment that was received as well as their own discussion. And we'll get into those details as we get to that expanded item. we were able to do a relatively quick turnaround on that and had the revisions considered on july 8th where the planning commission approved it three to one the two in that vote indicates two commissioners that were not present at that meeting where they approved both the architectural review and the minor use permit and we'll move on to then us receiving an appeal within the required time frame on july 14th by miss erica saban owner of the property at 1820 yosemite jumping into a little bit more details on the june 24th hearing i'm going to take you through aspects of the project and point out what required what discretionary permits as well as some other details So this was the proposed site plan the first time around. You'll see that it changes come the July 8th hearing. What we're looking at with the Green outline on the site plan for the two areas, one towards the rear of the home on the right of the image and one towards the front of the home on the left is the areas of first story additions that were proposed at approximately 178 square feet and 211 square feet in total, bringing the first floor area to 1571 square feet. what's circled in red and to note is that the addition that was proposed off of the first floor would in effect attach the primary residence to the garage and the garage at this point of the project proposal was still attached to the garage at 1820. so you have a garage attached to the garage on the subject property side of 1828 which is now attached to the home We'll get into some of the comments regarding the complications that were said to be caused by that. The minor use permit is something that comes up often with second story additions, especially when a home was developed at a time when maybe the regulations for setbacks off of your side property line were different or off of your rear property line were different. In this case, the current side setback is five feet. Circled on the image, both on the north and south elevation, you'll see four foot seven and three eights and four foot seven, which through the minor use permit, you can request approval to continue that nonconforming setback up. So your second story sits directly above your first and you don't have to bump in inches or sometimes feet for your second story addition. So the minor use permit for this stage of the proposal covered both the four feet and because of the attachment of the garage, of the garage being a zero lot line development garage, we also included that under the minor use permit. Quickly, first story, which has not yet been reviewed or approved yet, is a proposed ADU on the essentially a little bit less than half of the first floor with the main residence being on the north side, not including any bedrooms, but just essentially living space. ADU on the right, which is a single story. And then moving up to the proposed second story of about 1,400 square feet, which would have this at about a 2,300 square foot residence and four bedrooms, a proposed balcony accessed off of both the bedroom and then a deck accessed off of the living room, the deck being out front and proposed above the, at this point, the attached garages. One thing to note about this project is it was completely compliant in terms of all of our development regulations outside of the MUP and the discretionary need for both architectural review and minor use permits. Talking about things like height, allowable square footage, lot coverage, things of that nature. Looking at the elevations, this is where you can more clearly see a depiction of what they're proposing for the second floor, as well as the addition to the garage to bring that up to the second floor level where you could enter out onto a rooftop deck. the vertical line on the right around the area where you see the eight foot seven inch deck setback represents the distance from the property line to where the outer edge of that deck would be in respect to what's adjacent to 1820 or miss saban's property so in this case this was still with the zero lot line development attached garage and the deck being compliant with its location beyond compliant five feet would be the minimum it's at eight foot seven The north elevation, again, just showing the deck from all orientations as well as the garage and changes to it. And then the south elevation as would be seen and adjacent to 1820 Yosemite. The east elevation, this is essentially the backyard, a little nondescript because of the angles that the homes were built at. You do see some of the garage and deck depicted in that image. And this was architectural rendering provided. There weren't any comments or suggestions from the Planning Commission on those materials that were chosen or selected. Essentially, they thought it was a nice project. so regarding the decision to continue this project after the planning commission received the staff report on june 24th you'll see a lot of what was included in the appellant's app statement package noted on the pages on the bottom of this it And I'm not trying to simplify it, but if we distill it down to what the major issues were, is that there were numerous issues and complications associated with attaching a primary residence to a garage, which then in turn is still attached to a garage on another property. I'm sure they'll go into more details on it, but things like insurance costs were mentioned, as well as just the ability of one property owner to modify a shared structure and complications associated with that, both a financial basis, but also probably more civil legal basis. It was stated that separating the garage structures was preferred, and it was also stated and discussed that a privacy screen along the southern portion of the deck adjacent to the appellant's property would be preferred, as well as not allowing for certain elements like a sound system or TVs or barbecues. Moving forward on to the continued hearing, which was on July 8th, The applicant returned with changes to their plans. They detached the garage and proposed a compliant five foot side setback. They also reduced the size of the garage from approximately 430 square feet down to 391, but they did increase the size of the deck by about 65 square feet from 271 to approximately 337 square feet.

This is the revised site plan.

You'll note all those similar elements we discussed before. The MUP numbers circled in blue with the four foot seven and three eights and the four foot seven. Circled in red shows the now compliant garage setback of five feet. And then that's kind of the most simple change that took place, but it was also pretty substantial in terms of the comments that were then made during this meeting and the complications that were said to arise from that in terms of property rights and access and your ability to do construction on a site and what that implies. Second story just included this to show that they increased access to the first deck off of both the bedroom and living room and then the deck with the dimensions of what was increased in size that's above the now proposed detached separated garage. The west elevation, again, that same eight foot seven distance is maintained from the property line to the outside edge of the deck. But now you see a distance between that dash line because now the garage is observing a five foot side setback. The north elevation remained unchanged for the most part. The south elevation again from adjacent to 1820 Yosemite. And the architectural rendering was modified. You can notice it a little bit differently in terms of where that deck meets that window on the second story. After hearing this item, the Planning Commission, as stated earlier, voted 3-1 with two absences of members to approve both the architectural review and the minor use permit. Then July 14th, the appeal was filed. And the appeal statement package included a lot of information that was both publicly available from all the agendas and the public comments that were submitted. Almost every piece of documentation that happened that would be available through a public records request act was compiled by the appellate and put together for this. There were specifically eight requests that they're asking for us to include as conditions of approval on the project. I do have those slide by slide. For the first one, I will read what's in the staff report directly. And if there's direction to abbreviate that a bit to not have to read all eight of the expanded descriptions in the staff report, let me know. But we'll start with the first one. which is require the garage separation to be a condition of the permit approval. Up there for your viewing is just a couple of bullet points that were directly taken from the longer explanation in the staff report. But essentially, this is already required in the proposed documents since the approved project plans to pick the garage serving 1828 Yosemite Street as separated from the adjacent garage at 1820 Yosemite Street. The approved discretionary plans establish the configuration of the project that must be reflected in subsequent building permit plans. Accordingly, any building permit plans must be consistent with the approved project, including the approved separation of garages. I can further simplify this one by saying we're not going to have a specific condition of approval for every aspect of the project that was compliant with the code. We won't have one for height. We won't have one for the rear or front setback. It's not typical that we would include something like this on that item. Moving on to number two, require a formal separation agreement. Private agreement between adjoining property owners concerning the separation, maintenance, access, or other private interests associated with shared garage structure is generally a private civil matter and is not a requirement of the city's zoning ordinance for the approved project. The city's discretionary land use review does not determine the respective property rights or obligations of the adjoining property owners. any such agreement would be a private civil matter between the affected property owners unless it is discovered that compliance with the city's regulations is impossible without such an agreement shall i continue doing the same format for number three perfect Three requires structural engineering analysis of the garage separation prior to final approval of the project. Staff response is that the structural design and engineering requirements associated with the construction of the new garage and separation of the existing garage structure will be reviewed as part of the city's building permit process. a condition of approval has been added to indicate that the property line survey and engineer stamp plans will be required the building division will review the construction documents for compliance with applicable provisions of the california building code and other applicable building and safety regulations the discretionary land use approval does not replace or supersede the city's separate building permit and inspection requirements moving on to number four require the garage separation to be done consistent with structural engineering reports and the building code requirements for a party wall including removal of the existing connected wall and reconstruction of the replacement wall so my the appellant's garage remains enclosed and stable post construction The staff response is the manner in which the existing garage connection is removed and the replacement walls designed and constructed is a building and structural matter. The building division will review the construction documents submitted with the building permit application for compliance with the California Building Code and any applicable engineering requirements. A condition of approval has been added to indicate that both a property survey and engineer stamped plans will be required. Construction will also be subject to required inspections. Building permit approval and final inspection will require compliance with applicable building and safety regulations. Request five require that the owner of 1828 be responsible for all costs of removing the existing connected garage wall and constructing the replacement wall. So my the appellants garage remains enclosed and stable post construction. Staff response is that allocation of construction costs between neighboring property owners is a civil matter and is outside the scope of the city's land use authority. The city's review is limited to determining compliance with applicable zoning, building regulations, and to verify the contractor's insurance policy prior to the issuance of a building permit. The city will verify that the work described in the plans provided will not result in any non-compliant structures, including the remaining portion of the shared garage. Request six. Require that the owner assures he covers the cost of any damage to my garage during construction. He referring to the project applicant, my garage referring to Miss Erica Saban's garage on her property at 1820 Yosemite. staff responses is that the potential liability for construction related damages is governed by applicable civil law and is outside the city's authority through the discretionary permit process such matters are not appropriately addressed through conditions of approval request seven require the large 337 square foot deck be scaled back to match the existing balconies that fit the design of the elevated rail decks in the vicinity staff response is that the zoning code does not establish a maximum area for an uncovered residential deck of this type the proposed deck was evaluated as part of the architectural review application including its relationship to the existing dwelling and surrounding developments Staff determined that the project complies with the applicable development standards and the Planning Commission approved the architectural review application after considering the project's design and compatibility with the surrounding neighborhood. And the final request submitted in the appellant's statement is number eight. Regardless of the size of the deck, if a deck is approved and it violates my, Erica Sabin's privacy, require the owner to construct, sorry, the owner of 1828 Yosemite to construct a six foot tall privacy screen along the southern boundary of the deck to protect my privacy. staff response is that the planning commission did not impose a private privacy screen requirement as part of its approval the zoning code does not otherwise require six foot privacy screen for the proposed deck based solely on its location or configuration and with that staff does have a recommendation that the council adopt the resolution upholding the planning commission's approval of those discretionary applications

Thank you so much. Okay, so now we're going to go to the applicant's response. Applicant responds and defends the approval as such. And they have up to 10 minutes. The applicant has any comments from the applicant? Thank you, sir. And you have up to 10 minutes to share your thoughts. Okay.

all right uh thank you uh for uh helping us with this matter um city council uh good evening and um yes uh thanks uh for the thorough um overview of the project um yeah so i think maybe uh you know just to to summarize some of the basic um uh basically the basic history of the project um uh like miss rocha uh uh explained at first we came uh to the um the architectural review board um and the planning commission with uh the proposal uh the proposed design with the garages uh still attached and um We were of the understanding that since that condition was existing, non-conforming, but existing, the policy, the code states, the zoning code states that that can continue in that state. however it uh in the planning commission meeting it did seem the the decision was made to recommend the separation of those two garages And so the owners of 1828, the Maciel family, agreed to kind of take that additional step to spend that additional money and the additional complications of separating those two garages. There is a detailed look at the foundation where those two garages meet, and it's assumed that the the two garages meet at the property line there's a fence line as well so from our point of view at this point it doesn't seem too complicated to separate that garage to add that additional five feet of separation to conform with the setback um just as an additional a measure and a gesture of good faith to uh miss saban uh that um that that those two garages are separated um shouldn't be too complicated i think we can manage that keep keep that common wall in place that footing can be can remain there we'll just cut cut our existing garage back the full five feet and um the two garages will be separated and that's the um the proposal that was uh approved by the planning commission and um as explained uh it meets the the zoning code as you know as as proposed I do have some some good news. I think just yesterday or today, even both parties had a chance to talk this through. They discussed, OK, what you know, how can we make this kind of streamline this process, make it resolve, basically resolve and sort of clear the air. These two parties, they want to live next to each other for the foreseeable future, raise their kids and just have a peaceful, happy coexistence there as neighbors. um and so they did they did talk and came to some agreements um i'm not sure if this is the uh you know the point that's really at issue um as miss rocha explained a lot of these agreements are more like a civil matter uh not really a building code matter or a zoning code matter but um since this is a sensitive you know a sensitive issue and we do want to certainly respect miss saban's concerns we have sent a proposal to to her just to confirm that we were we're going to separate those two garages uh we're going to leave that that wall that's in play we're going to leave that in place and the footing so that can remain um we will mr maciel will cover the cost of covering that wall with um with exterior siding waterproofing uh per the building code um and um yeah we can do all of that from from our uh from the maceo property there's no need as far as i can tell to enter uh enter miss sabian's property so we can do all that from our our side of the the property line and Ms. Sabin yeah we also offered Ms. Sabin can come during for example the building inspection process to kind of take a look at the the work that's been done you know there'll be some some rough framing perhaps there'll be you know exterior siding waterproofing that those phases will be inspected by by the city building inspector Ms. Sabin is welcome to attend those inspections and see that the work has been done according to building code and plans. um yeah there's a common footing there holding up those two walls that attach the two garage garages and we don't need to touch that as you know as far as we can tell at this point that can remain in place um and by separating the mesial garage from the sabin's garage There will be less weight on that footing, so it'll improve the structural conditions of that common wall and that footing that is there. And then there's the roof, Ms. Sabin's roof then, you know, I guess at that point it no longer becomes a shared kind of, you know, kind of intertwined roof. At that point it will be Ms. Sabin's roof and, you know, Mr. Maciel and the Maciel family has offered to patch that up and you know, sort of at the property line and make sure that that roof is finished and flashed in a kind of a suitable manner. And yeah, so I think, you know, based on the requests that have been made know we have we have looked at you know kind of just in summary maybe we have taken into account Ms. Sabin's concerns we went ahead and you know agreed to the separation of the garages we don't think it's going to be a structural issue or any damage is going to take place and we we can rely on you know the the planning city of seaside planning department who approved the project uh we can rely on the the planning commission and their architectural review board who have approved the process we can rely on the the building permit uh process that that we're in the in the process of right now um And we can rely on the sort of the building inspection process. I've been an architect here in this area for over 20 years, and it's not easy to get these permits. There's a lot of restrictions, a lot of code involved. um so yeah so we you know we want to want to trust that process and we are really grateful to the city of seaside for for uh reviewing our pros helping us through this process and and giving us this this approval uh so um You know, I just want to share that good news as well that the two parties have talked and there is a that's that's sort of a private civil agreement in the works. And, um, I think I think they can very close to working that out. Um, but I think that's it.

Okay. Thank you, sir. So very much. And we have the presentation. And again, there's a 10 minute window.

Okay, thank you.

Great. And just on the train. Perfect. Good evening, Mayor Pro Tem, members of the council. My name is Heidi Quinn. I'm an attorney at Nolan, Hammerly, Etienne, and Haas, and I'm here for the appellant, Erica Sabin, who owns and lives at 1820 Yosemite Street, immediately south of the project. I submitted a letter to the council earlier this week, and I know it's a long night and there's a lot of information, so I'm just going to touch the key points. It is important to emphasize that the hearing tonight is de novo. It's helpful to look at what the planning commission decided or different iterations of the project, but it's coming to you for your independent review. So the burden is actually on the applicant to show that every finding can be made under the code. It's not on the appellant to prove that the planning commission was wrong. So I want to make that clear. And this is important because I don't think those findings can be made on the record as it stands. I also want to be clear that Ms. Sabin, she supports the neighbor's right to the remodel. She's not here to stop it, but the approval as currently drafted cannot be lawfully made, though it can be fixed with some of the conditions that we're proposing. The project cannot be built without cutting into a garage that the two neighbors share the plans that were in the packet and presented to the planning commission didn't show this diagram the plans didn't show miss saban's garage they didn't show any engineering plans as to how the separation could be made without detriment to her property and importantly there is no signed agreement between the parties i appreciate the architect's statement that the parties are working on agreement i want to be clear that there was a bullet point that was forwarded to my client around one o'clock today so it's not an agreement it's a very bare bones I think it's important because it shows that perhaps the applicant would be amenable to some of these conditions, but there's not a signed agreement and the timing of that proposal hours before the hearing confirms why these conditions are needed. We can't just defer and say, oh, it's a civil matter. We're talking about the demolition of Ms. Sabin's property. So I'll address the core issue first. I don't see my timer. Okay. All right. So this is not two separate garages on a lot line. It's one interdependent structure that was built in 1968. They share a concrete stem wall, a party wall. There's an intertwined roof. I know the architect has said it shouldn't be complicated. It should be simple to separate it. But we don't know that because we don't have any engineering plans. The applicant didn't even provide a land survey. So we don't know exactly where the setbacks may be. So the point remains that this project has to cut away from the applicant's garage. If we defer this until the building permit phase, that's too late. That's discretionary approval. There'll be no input from the Sabin. And so there's no ability for the council now to say, hey, this demolition is safe because you're deferring that safety and finding of non-detriment to the building department. So I think also this proposal that Ms. Sabin received at 1 o'clock, it underscores the gap between the parties. It doesn't close it. It doesn't say anything about how the shared wall and roof are going to be separated without compromising her structure. It doesn't say who bears the cost, who's responsible for the damage, or what the final finished condition of her garage will be. So there's no protections for Ms. Sabin. the wall is shared it requires an agreement from the both parties and Ms. Sabin is agreeable to come into terms but her property needs to be protected I'd like to turn to some of the items in the staff report and I do appreciate the thorough job in the presentation Just to say that the separation is already required because you've drawn a separate garage on a map, it's not enough. It's a line on a plan. It's not a method. It's not showing the council how this shared wall can be divided. Ms. Sabin's not asking the council to referee a private civil matter. We're just asking the council to impose conditions so this can lawfully be separated. The report says it's a private civil matter. But again, this is something these are conditions that the council can impose. And this last minute proposal just makes that point. If this were privately resolved, it would there would be a signed agreement before you. There is not one. And the city shouldn't imagine that some type of private deal will materialize. It should condition that approval. So protections are actually in place. A finding that the project is not detrimental to a neighbor can't be supported when the work cannot legally be done without her consent and when you don't have the structural analysis as to how this can be accomplished. Turning quickly to the deck size, it's too big and out of character. When this came up at the June 24th Planning Commission, the applicant didn't reduce the deck size. He expanded it from 271 to 337. It's out of scale with the small balconies that are typical of the block. And just because the seaside municipal code doesn't set a maximum size doesn't mean that it can be approved. This is architectural review is discretionary. It's a judgment. It's not a number. So the lack of a size cap in the code doesn't mean that it's consistent with a general plan. The deck also presents a privacy and noise intrusion. The resolution mischaracterizes the deck as having only peripheral views of the front areas. And then the staff materials show that that's not correct. And they made a note, be prepared that someone from the public will challenge. Well, Ms. Sabin does challenge that there's not a direct line. It's elevated 13 feet and set back only 15 feet and has a direct line of sight right into her living spaces. I also want to talk about the CEQA exemptions. They don't fit this project, class one, the 15301 setbacks that fails where you have unusual circumstances and it creates a reasonable possibility of a significant effect. Well, 1968 garages that are fused and run across the property line are not the normal, ordinary residential additions. Similarly, with the common sense exception that's relied on for the architectural review, that only applies where it can be seen with certainty. There is no possibility of a significant effect. Again, we have the structural interdependence. We don't have any structural analysis. We don't even know how these are going to be separated. So I don't think that exemption applies. So the applicant... saying that it should be pretty simple or not complicated, where is the survey that shows how this can be done? Where's the land survey that even shows where the setbacks can be calculated? So without information such as the engineering and the land survey and the record, then the council's not able to find that there's no detriment to this property. I know we've already gone through the eight conditions. We set them forth in our letter as well. So I won't belabor them, but I've already addressed why I think it's not purely a civil matter and that we're contemplating the exact issue that staff said, you know, you can't comply with our code, then the city does get involved. And that's exactly what's happening here. how much time do i have okay so i'm going to um talk really fast and miss aban has some slides to show you and she'll add to the presentation and then in the rebuttal we can address additional issues okay how to use this thing so hopefully i don't waste all my time on this um

make one yeah so i just want to show with pictures and make sure that the physicality of the site is taken into consideration so when we talk about the fact that you know what mr maciel has offered and i want to say more about that but i'll wait till the next round because i don't want to waste all the time here it is appreciated what he delivered but it isn't complete if you look at what's going on here How is this even going any farther than, hey, well, wait a minute, there's no way to do this. It's impossible. You can't demolish this without touching my garage. And my garage has not even been mentioned in anything as far as any kind of an approval. So you go here and you look at, oh, hey, this is where the garage is touched. There's a sheathing that connects the two. Mine's the red one. His is the gray one. Again, what does that look like after you cut it? What kind of a roof am I getting? I have no understanding of anything that's going to happen. And a building department isn't going to decide what that looks like for me. It's too late by then. It's too late. This is a picture of looking at the garages from the back part of the property going down the fence. You can see that the overlap continues and how complicated it looks from here. It's hard to accept that it doesn't seem to be such a problem. I just don't know. Nobody knows. We don't have the information. That is why the condition is being asked to have the separation agreement is so that as Mr. Maciel has provided and understands, there's a lot more to this than just demolishing a garage that's attached to mine. This is the engineer's drawing of the stem wall. The assumption is the property line runs down the middle. And I don't know if they've opened up the wall. I have no idea what it looks like. Don't know what it looks like after that side of the structure is gone. Have no idea if it's a stub, if it holds anything up. Don't know. Okay. Okay. I'll finish up in the rebuttal.

Thank you so very much. Let's open it up to public comment for three minutes each. So public comment is now the time if you wanna speak about your concerns, anybody in the audience, you got three minutes to say words of wisdom. There's one young lady coming up now.

Good evening, my name is Michelle, and I'm here to explain what this project means to me and my father and the impact that it has had on our family. Our family has invested a significant amount of time and energy and money into this project, and we have made every effort to follow the proper process. Unfortunately, the appeal and the continued delays have created significant financial stress, personal uncertainty for us. We also understand that being homeowners means being good neighbors. We understand that our neighbor has concerns and we have contributed in trying to find a reasonable solution. In fact, just this morning, like Thomas was stating, my father Peter spoke directly to our neighbor. She requested a separation agreement regarding the garages. My father immediately contacted the architect, Thomas, and he prepared the agreement and sent it right over to them. We are currently waiting for her response as she had to wait for her attorney to get back to her. We sincerely hope that she accepts the proposed agreement and we're honestly willing to update that agreement because we want to resolve this issue. We do not want ongoing conflict with our neighbor and we want to address her concerns while still being able to move forward with our home and our future. Our actions today demonstrate that we are listening and willing to work towards a solution. We have no intention of creating a nuisance or being negatively affecting anyone's property or quality of life. We simply want the opportunity to live in our home and enjoy our home. We are not asking for special treatment. We are asking for a fair opportunity to move forward while following the applicable requirements and continuing to work in good faith. We want to be good neighbors and I respectfully ask the console to consider the efforts our family has made and the hardships and the delays we have that have costs for home. We're simply asking for the opportunity to move forward with it. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Members of the public in the chamber, please approach the podium members of public on zoom. You may use the raise your hand feature or dial star 9.

Hi, my name is Kathy Matthews. I'm the property owner at 1817 Yosemite across the street from 1820. There's two issues that are really going on right now. One of them is the garage separation, which I'm not going to speak to that because that's Ms. Sabin's issue to talk about. My issue is with the proposed deck. that they are proposing on this property i have been at all the planning commission meetings the last planning commission where they approved the plans the chairman of the planning commission said that he could not deny this pro this this project because it passed state and local code That was it. He did not talk about the general plan. He did not talk about fitting into the neighborhood. He is building a house that is much bigger than the houses around, but that's fine. And he's got balconies on the front of the house on both stories. It's the unnamed size, because it's changed twice, 247 feet to 330-some feet deck over the garage that looms over the sidewalk. there's nothing like that in our neighborhood and we don't want anything like that there's nothing about occupancy requirements there's the conditions that you know no loud music or barbecues um he mr macy l says he wants this to protect his views Property directly across the street from him just build up. His views are mostly gone now. That's a hazard in our neighborhood right now. We have great views, but if someone builds in front of you, there goes your view. There's nothing we can do to stop it, but. and it says that the resolution says the deck only has peripheral views of the neighboring properties that is not true it has views that look straight down into other properties and like i said the deck also ignores the general plan which calls for new development to be compatible in scale with and to provide adequate transitions to adjacent residential properties just because the setbacks technically work it does not mean it fits the general plan the applicant has never proven compatibility as he should do thank you thank you for your comments yes young lady hi

My name is Celeste Githins and I live at 1685 San Pablo Avenue and I'm just on the corner one house down from Erica's and I'm here to support her today. She, in my opinion, is asking for reasonable conditions regarding the removal of the wall that's shared by their two garages and I respect her asks for protection of her property and privacy and I support the conditioning

or conditioning the permit as requested in erica's appeal and respectfully request that the council do so thank you thank you thank you for your comments members of the public in the chamber please approach the podium members of public on zoom maybe use the raise your hand feature dial star nine for the lobo you may now unmute and make your public comment

Thank you. I'm speaking in support of the revision project while also recognizing the concerns raised tonight regarding the shared garage. The neighboring property owner absolutely deserves assurance that separating these structures will not leave her garage damaged, exposed, or structurally compromised. But I also think we need to recognize that the applicant has substantially changed this project in response to those concerns. The garage will now be separated. The new garage moved to the required five foot setback and it was reduced from approximately 430 to 391 square feet. I understand the attorney's concerns that the land survey and engineering stamp plans have not been yet has not yet been completed. Those are currently required during the building permit process. If council believes additional language is necessary to ensure the shared wall and roof are separated safely and the neighboring structure remains protected, that can be clearly addressed through enforceable conditions. But I do have a question regarding appeal requests five and six. Is the applicant being asked to pay only for work and damage directly caused by separating these structures or to pay for improvements to the neighboring to the neighboring garage beyond what is necessary for the separation that distinction should be clear i also recognize the unresolved concerns regarding the large deck privacy and noise but compromise does not mean every request condition must be accepted significant modifications have already been made in response to the concerns raised i support the revision project while ensuring enforceable protections are in place so both property owners are protected and just for some context i do have a property in the vicinity of that area i yield the rest of my time thank you for your comments is there any other public comment members of the public in the chamber please approach the podium members of public on zoom use the raise your hand feature dial star nine

Mayor ProTan, I'm not seeing anyone else wishing to make public comment.

Thank you. This is the time for rebuttal. Appellant rebuttal is five minutes, no more than five minutes. So the appellant's rebuttal.

That's me. Okay. Let's go back to the pictures, if you don't mind. So I'm going to slow down for just one second. I am appreciative of the list of things that I was given at 1.07 p.m. today. I am appreciative. I do think it does show that now we're finally connecting. But I do want to also say, on 6.30, I got a text that said we were going to have a separation agreement. That never came. Two months have passed, I get it today at 1.07. It's pretty tough for me to let go of the fact that everybody's saying, we're going to have this happen and we're going to have the city do that. And to answer the question on the caller, I'm not asking for anything special. I just want to know what my garage is going to look like when this is all done. I just want to know what this is going to look like. I have no idea. No one is telling me. No one's telling me how to make the structure sound, how the cost is. Even Peter doesn't know, my neighbor, what it's going to cost. Nobody even knows that. So how are we making decisions to go do something without all the information beforehand, which a separation agreement would provide? This is the intrusion. This is my living room on the second floor. I'm at the couch sitting down, taking a picture. That's the deck rail. The reason the little people are up there is because people stand above the rail. And that is what I'm going to see. At nighttime, I'm going to be a fishbowl. That's just the way it's going to be. that happens i did ask for a screen and i did reserve the idea that hey that could pass can i have a screen it was offered to me and then retracted at the last planning commission meeting by the comments of the um owner of 1828 the rail decks you've seen that picture the large deck next door to peter is low and inside it's big but it isn't as high as that one and it doesn't look down on anybody If it does, it was already there when Peter bought his property, by the way. And that is an important comment because had I known Peter was going to do this, I would not have built my house this way. We have been neighbors for two years. He's known for a year that he was going to do this. I would have loved to participate at that time. And I could have changed the plan I did because I built while he was there. We bought our houses two months apart. That would have been nice to know. But we are where we are. We are where we are, and I think that's wrong because of what Beth said, and it's probably not closer based on the plans, but that just does show where it looms over the street, and you can see how it can look directly into my property. I do want to make this, this is like a neighbor's fence, but more complicated, right? You both need your fence done. We need to work together on it, but it needs to be conditioned.

thank you the applicant has five minutes if as needed more or less um yeah would it be possible to go to the uh the the engineering drawings of the combined roofs uh i think it was on page 100 of the appeal or it was just recently up on the screen. Yeah, there's a lot. Yeah. Well, on the page 100 of the appeal, No, but yeah, maybe while you know if I would try to move it forward. OK, well, so I think in senior planner Beth Rocha's presentation you could see that. not only miss saban's property is two stories the the project across the street is two stories all three of the neighboring properties to the north are uh are two stories as well um So I think it is clear that two stories are allowed in this neighborhood. And so I think our project certainly does fit the character of the neighborhood. We're surrounded by two stories, so why wouldn't Mr. Maciel be allowed to avail of that? i think there was a lot of commentary about we don't know how to separate the garages what will happen you know there is the building uh permit process where we're gonna detail that and uh with uh engineered drawings uh and and a property boundary survey um so you know we we could go through the drawing uh you know um the engineered uh sketch that was presented the footing and the wall can stay in place there's there was language presented to you that we're cutting into miss saban's garage we're demolishing quote unquote demolishing the savings garage uh that does not have to happen that wall can stay in place and we can simply cut our our side of that wall away and leave that in place. There is, from the photographs, you can see that there is some patching of the roof that will be required. There is some exterior siding that will be required, but this is not rocket science. It's not too complicated. um yes and uh i just do encourage us to to rely and trust the building permit process here in the city of seaside we have uh great uh professionals helping us through and inspecting our plans we have the structural engineering process uh with our you know the the presented uh plans will be certified stamped and certified by a licensed uh structural engineer uh so i do want uh to encourage us to kind of trust these these processes that are that are in place that's all thank you thank you sir

Okay, before we close the hearing, I want to think that Rocha and the planning commission for the work on this.

So, at this time, we're going to close the hearing.

Seeing no further speakers, I hereby close the meeting. No, new evidence should be accepted from the parties. Or public after this point, so at this time. uh council council questions council may ask follow-up questions of staff not new testimony from the parties and then deliberate as appropriate so are there any questions from the council mr miller councilman melanie thank you mr uh mr mayor pro tem uh can we go to on our staff report our staff slides can we go to slide eight

What was the eighth bullet point of the eight bullet points? There's my question, I might go to the city attorney, but in regards to like some sort of privacy screen that was proposed and then it sounds like it was taken out. Is that something that the city can require as a condition?

uh any condition can be added by the council i would like to clarify that a privacy screen wasn't included in any proposal that the planning commission saw that was something that was shared between the applicant and the property owner at 1820 that they had verbally agreed to that happening and um in relationship to their the both sides seem like very reasonable people and

reasonableness to resolve this are you aware of the parties discussing something today i'm not aware and in the past are you do we typically get known we typically know when parties are discussing these issues besides outside the planning commission we typically don't know i do believe some of the public comments submitted did detail conversations that were had And so if the City Council set conditions, then we could be set. I guess what are the options of the City Council? I know it's in the staff report, but just verbally, the options for us, we can send it back to the Planning Commission or approve with conditions or disapprove. Those are the options?

The decision is yours tonight. And if you want to add a condition, that can be added. I do have a draft condition on a hidden slide for one of the items, should that be brought up. hidden slide yeah I have a variety of hidden slides in the presentation just in case the question was asked that I did not cover in my initial presentation well that's cool yeah I didn't know we had hidden slides but I like that okay that was all my questions thank you thank you

Yeah, I was wondering about what we put within our jurisdiction at the privacy screening and I know they said it's not rocket science, but whether it's my home or my campus, as soon as you open something, you never know what's behind that. And so I understand the need for, like, having a very clear separation agreement. So just curious is that within our jurisdiction to. For us to know, like, okay, there's a set agreement. Both parties are okay with it. And before we just let it go and hope for the best. I don't know if it's city attorney.

City attorney, please assist attorney.

I would caution about trying to impose a formal separation agreement as a condition of approval. I think you can condition it to say that the applicant has the legal right to do what he's proposing to do. If it's a separation agreement, then he provides that. If it's a judicial decision, he provides that. If it's something else, he provides that. The, the city interest is to ensure that he has legal right to do what he said he's going to do. On the building on building plans and permits. Does that answer your question?

Yeah, I guess I just don't want to be like, okay, good luck, but like, what can we do to make sure. Because it does sound like Alex Miller said, right that they're both in agreement there. She seemed very happy that there was finally after multiple months, something coming back. but I could understand if you're waiting for two months and then it happens this afternoon, right?

Well, my suggestion would be that the condition is that the applicant show the legal right to modify the garage structure and just leave it at that period, not mandate whatever solution. It's show me I have the legal right to do what I'm telling you I am going to do.

And would that include all the items he listed or that he shared that were going to be done?

Well, I don't know because I haven't seen all of the items that were presented to counsel and to Ms. Sabin or between the parties. But presumably that agreement, if they accept it and execute it, that would be the legal document that he would then subsequently submit to the building department to establish his legal right to do what

he's saying he's wants to do thank you just a bunch of questions thank you so very much to um councilman burke's suggestion or the city attorney we have no knowledge of the so-called agreements, it's just a discussion point. So it's just kind of something up here before any documents. So we really have no say into the agreements. Is that fair or not? Or help me out on that one.

correct city attorney yeah that's correct you don't we're not negate the city is not negotiating the preparation agreement that is between the parties that is consistent with with what uh planner rocha has said to us it's their civil matter okay and our condition is really just to say you have the legal right to to go show me you have the legal right to do it and then

the eight points as such what i counted if i'm right three of those points have been have been the the planning commission has suggested and has been agreed to and has been approved one being the separation and there was two other ones um the uh the um engineering analysis was kind of

in there directly or indirectly and there was another one does that sound possible that there's two or three of those that have basically been dealt with already of their concerns uh i would have to look through it again to verify the quantity but i would say that um some of the requests are being satisfied by conditions of approval that staff added to the resolution for tonight that were not reviewed by the planning commission of the separation

of the house and the work on the applicants, I believe, house, Ms. Sabins, if there was damage on that work, is that a civil case between them versus a city responsibility?

I would defer to the city attorney, but I also have an answer regarding the process and what the building department is requiring. The building official, Jose Jacobo, is also here.

Mr. City Attorney?

Yes, thank you for that question. Yes. If there were damage that occurred during the construction process, or the demolition process, that would be a, it would either be a. Preliminarily addressed in that separation agreement, or if it's not, and it's silent, that would be a civil matter between the parties as to how that goes. And normally contractors are. Are holding insurance policies, just like the city has that. I mean, I can't guarantee that's going to happen in this case, but that's a very common. Thing that happens in construction projects.

Okay, thank you. And we've discussed this already, but I'll say it again just to clarify for my benefit. The separation, the garage separation as per per the report. is it correct to say that the project cannot move forward without the separation the garage separation is that correct if a proposal came through on the building permit level that did not show the garage as approved at the discretionary level by the planning commission meaning the detached version then we could not proceed with that okay and then the structurally near engineer analysis of the garage separation Is that directly or indirectly part of the conditions? Is that correct?

That was an added condition of approval for tonight's resolution.

Okay. The Mississippi attorney, has the city council ever required a privacy law?

They thank you for that question. I'm going to translate just a little bit. The city council has considered other projects where privacy concerns were raised and we did impose conditions of approval to try to address the privacy in that particular case. It did not involve. putting a wall on a deck to protect the privacy involved, putting in frosted windows in order to protect the privacy of the neighbor. So the question is, can we condition this project? And I'm going to Councilmember Miller's suggestion and yours as well. Can you condition this to include a privacy screen on the deck? Yes, you could. And that would be a very relatively minor modification to the proposed conditions of approval.

And this is probably not fair. You said you had some underlining displays. Is any of those concerning the slides? Any of that related to the privacy?

I did draft a condition of approval for that. Should you want to see it? We can give direction. Sure. Dan, that is slide 47.

I think there was three concerns of that. And I think that would be great to see some verbiage as such.

And just to note, this was very similar to the condition on the last time an appeal of architectural review came to the council on the frosted window on the second story in terms of how that approval would move forward. 47 should be the last one. I'll read that aloud. It states a privacy screen slash wall shall be permanently affixed to the garage rooftop deck along the south boundary slash adjacent to 1820 Yosemite. The materials and designs shall be subject to the approval of the Community Development Department prior to installation.

Thank you so much for being prepared and forthright and bringing it forward. I think that's helpful. Is there any last chance, any other council members questions? Mr. Miller?

Thank you. Can we see the hidden slide on the wall and on the size of the neck? Is there one?

The size of the deck was clearly depicted and I don't have a slide of a wall.

I don't want to use the wrong term, but where the garages commit. Do you have a... I believe the... Do you have a vote for that?

No, I don't. As stated by the city attorney, that would be covered under the separation agreement, but we do have the condition of approval and our response to the request for... Number five comes to mind in addition to number three. Number three is what the condition of approval was added for, which is a property line survey and engineer stamped plans for all the work proposed at the building permit stage. And then number five is that the city will verify the work described in the plans provided will not result in any non-compliant structures, meaning the garage on 1820 as well, including the remaining portion of the shared garage.

And just to add on to that councilmember Miller on packet page 661, which is also page 100 of the appeal there. There's a depiction of the common wall and the two garages. I don't know if you wanted to see that picture, but that picture is in your packet at page 661.

Okay.

Any other questions? Okay. Thank you.

Thank you. Okay.

Um, so now it's time to bring it back to the council for any thoughts and suggestions. My, my only I have a couple of little thoughts and then we'll make some down the road is. One, I appreciate any time somebody, a resident, tries to improve the community through enhancing their home. I think that's commendable, appreciated, and it has happened in other areas. And I think it makes, not this neighborhood, but other neighborhoods, because it's a very nice neighborhood. I drove by it yesterday, I believe. encourages people to improve their housing. And I think that's a very positive thing. I think the city has done some really good things with the Planning Commission making some changes. The significant one that I'm concerned about and that I believe in is the separation wall for the visuals that we saw and just for, I believe, a common sense approach to help create a little give and take, a little appreciation, because as the young lady mentioned, you wanna be lifelong family, community, neighbors for the rest of your lives and their children's lives and your children's lives. And I think the more cooperative we can be together and a little give and take, I think that would be a step forward. So I'm very much in favor of adding the addition of the verbiage for the separation wall. That is my most, privacy wall, I'm sorry. That's my most thing. And the other, I think a lot of the other conditions and the work I would expect that's going to be done between them and things can't move forward without permits. I think that's my biggest concern is that privacy wall as such. I'd have to agree with you in imposing that.

What would be the requirement? Can we call it a requirement? Privacy screen requirement? We can? Yeah.

That would be a condition of approval.

Gotcha. Okay. So I agree with Councilmember Pacheco. I think privacy aspect of it is the most important part on both parties. I would assume that both want to have privacy in their home. So I think it works for both. Therefore, Adding that as a requirement is imperative for this. My personal problem.

Yes, so city attorney, what was the language you were using in reference to the separation agreement?

Yes, I think within it, I think a potential conditional approval that say something that legal documentation of the legal rights to modify the shared garage structure shall be provided to the building department.

Yeah.

So I would like that and the privacy.

Right. And then you have the condition that Planner Rocha put up on the screen for the line, the specific language that would be added for those two conditions.

OK, I would agree to.

OK, and we need a motion.

Yeah, I think if there's no other comments on the dice, we would like to have a motion and make sure you include the. The A and B of modification and the privacy, well, it could.

Okay, so I motion to approve the recommendation with the addition of the privacy screening language and the separation agreement. That's I wanted the language for me to the attorney that I would suggest using the legal documentation, legal documentation of this.

Yeah, just use legal documentation as described by the city.

Yeah. So that's fine. For the recommendation with those 2 additions to it.

2nd. And the city attorney, is that the correct way where it goes into motion to reference the specific findings and supporting the decision? Is that motion proper and can move it forward?

Yes. Your findings actually are included in the underlying resolution. I don't believe there are any additional findings that would need to be made with the addition of the two new conditions that you have suggested that you want to add for tonight.

Okay. So I believe there's a motion and a second. All in favor, say aye.

Aye.

All opposed? Seeing none, it's 4-0 with the recommendations and the modifications to the policy. I think that covers all the bases associated with this item. Is that correct, Ms. City Attorney?

Yes, your motion carries, and the appeal is partially granted, partially denied, I guess, in the grander scheme of things. You've made your decision on the de novo record.

And just in closing, I know the council and the community can continue that positive direction of working together to move your neighborhood in a positive direction. And thank you for your positive attitudes and hopefully getting stuff done and enhancing the community. So thank you very much.

If I can add my two cents to that. Yes, sir. I want to echo Mayor Potem's sentiments. I think it's very important. And thank you for all for being here. But I think this adds a safeguard role to better protect both of you to ensure that it's not just by word, but it's by paper and ensuring that everyone is following the process as it should be. So thank you for the investments and thank you for caring about the character of the community.

Thank you so very much. That item is complete. Please get the mayor. Yes. We're taking a brief pause for the. A brief cause for the, um, for the, uh. The mayor's return and moving this, uh. Next item of forward so just be patient and he will return very quickly. On and he's back.

hey.

yeah. It was.

okay thank you so much uh we'll go to uh adam tennessee an ordinance to admit chapter 17.40 of the seaside municipal code to allow electric let's just display signs for the place or places of worship and public or private meeting facilities on local streets this action is not subject to california environmental quality act Pursuant to section 15061D3 of the SQL guidelines, this is the first reading. There will be a roll call vote. Mr. City Manager.

Yes, thank you, Mayor. This item is presented by Andrew Myrick, the city's current housing and planning manager.

All right. Thank you very much, Mayor, City Manager, Council. Can we get the... There we go. Okay. So my presentation is going to be a little bit different from the last time we were here. Just because I'm going to provide a bit more background information regarding what our ordinance currently allows just to provide a little bit more clarity as to the scope of this ordinance change. So, signs are regulated by Seaside Municipal Code Chapter 17.40, includes standards for signs in residential zones by non-residential uses. So, most commonly, that includes churches. In a residential zone, the most common non-residential use is a church. Zoning ordinance does not generally apply to governmental agencies such as federal, state, city, county, or public school districts. So we're really talking about private facilities here. And historically, electronic message display signs have been prohibited. And just to be clear, when we're talking about electronic message display signs, we're really talking about changeable copy signs on a screen. If you look here, this is Section 1740.050. And it says right here under prohibited signs, all signs not expressly allowed by this chapter shall be prohibited. Examples of prohibited signs include the following. And then you get to subsection B, which is it prohibits animated signs, including electronic message display signs and variable intensity blinking or flashing signs or signs that emit a varying intensity of light or color, except time and temperature displays. which are not considered signs and electronic message display signs for places of worship and public and private meeting facilities. So just to kind of drive the point home on this, these signs, electronic message display signs are always prohibited in the city of Seaside. The only exception to that is the time and temperature displays and for other complicated reasons gas station pricing and message signs at a public or private meeting facility or place of worship they are not allowed in any other situation because they have this blanket prohibition in the code It says, other types of signs, including illuminated signs and non-electronic changeable copy signs are not covered by this prohibition. So you'll sometimes or many times see in front of churches, it'll be an illuminated background and there'll be little slots where you can put manual letters. Those are not electronic. so those are not covered by this prohibition those types of signs are currently allowed because there is no prohibition on them they're treated like any other type of sign um Not too concerned with the definition there up top, but the meeting facility, public or private, what does that mean? It's a facility for public or private meetings, including community centers, religious assembly facilities, such as churches, mosques, synagogues, etc. Civic and private auditoriums, grand halls, union halls, meeting halls or clubs, and other membership organizations, etc. So really what we're talking about doesn't have to be religious in nature. It just has to be a use similar to that type. so that's some of the background from our ordinance in 2017 city council passed an amendment to the municipal code to allow electronic message display signs at public and private meeting facilities so when i read that section before it didn't used to have that last part i'll go back to it very quickly where it says at the end and electronic message display signs for places of worship and public and private meeting facilities before 2017 it said time temperature displays which are not considered signs period in 2017 the code was amended to allow them at these facilities however they were only allowed on arterial collector or larger streets they were explicitly prohibited on local streets so what's a local street and i apologize that there's no legend on this because by cutting out the legend i was able to make the map much bigger on the screen and more legible but essentially um these thick purple lines are collector streets the yellow the green the blue are even larger ones these little ones right here in between the fat purple lines that are a similar color those are the local streets so you can see we do have a lot of local streets they're mostly in residential areas although some of them are in commercial spaces So as far as what our zoning ordinance currently says about electronic message display signs, they are not allowed to impact traffic visibility or signage. They must be located at least 50 feet from a residence. They cannot have any animations other than fade dissolve effects. So they're not supposed to swoosh out or slide off or do anything like that. Just fade in, dissolve. no audio messages minimum message hold time of 30 seconds so it's not supposed to be flashing sliding by we have you know little fireworks going off on the screen it's frozen images held for 30 second time periods they're not allowed to be illuminated from 9 p.m to 6 a.m each day The illumination must be directed downwards and the signs must automatically dim from dusk to dawn. They have to have a rheostat sensor on them so that when the light hits a certain level, the signs automatically dim. That is our existing ordinance. And that applies to public private meeting facilities on arterial or larger collector or larger streets. And because they are not a lot, these signs are not allowed any place else. As far as how big are they allowed to be right now today, they are allowed to be up to eight feet by right, up to 14 feet high with a minor use permit. One sign is allowed per parcel, maximum cabinet depth of 24 inches. That's basically the thickness of the sign. They're allowed 40 square feet per side. However, that includes the structure that the screen is put in. The screen itself cannot be larger than 24 square feet per side. So that is where we are today. Those signs are allowed at public and private meeting facilities only on collector streets and larger. So here's the request is that we've received an inquiry from the community regarding a potential change to the ordinance. And so the desire from this particular church, which is located on a local street and does not have any frontage on any other street type. would be to take this existing sign and replace it with a screen. Uh, the reason that they provided, and they were here at the last meeting, they're not available to come to this meeting, unfortunately. Um, but the, um, the rationale was because they had go out, do it manually. It's a lot of work. If the weather is rainy or cold, you're doing it in the weather versus an electronic screen can simply be changed with a few strokes of a keyboard. So to provide some history, staff originally brought this to the Planning Commission, this was May 13th, to discuss whether these kinds of signs should be allowed on local streets. Planning Commission voted to recommend the signs be allowed provided that the signs would generally require a minor use permit, which is a discretionary permit, which includes public notification within 300 feet and notice in the paper. except for if you have an existing sign like the one that we saw before an existing internally illuminated sign then they could replace it in the exact location and dimensions that would be allowed by right as long as the sign was already there as of july 1st of 2026. so if someone came and put a new sign in and then tried to swap it out they would still need a minor use permit for that This then came to the city council on June 4th. There was extensive public comment received by the council regarding this item. Most of the concerns are addressed in the existing and proposed ordinance. However, there were a few areas where council had some questions that staff could not answer. And so this was referred back to the planning commission to discuss the appropriate size of the signs, the allowable colors for the signs, and what are the appropriate hours of operations for the signs. so this item went back to the planning commission on july 22nd we had a conversation on those items however the planning commission brought up additional information and so the planning commission voted to continue the item and requested information on two additional items which were what were the locations of properties that would be impacted by the ordinance in other words where would this actually apply And could staff provide information on various technologies that can be used to create these kinds of signs? And so I'm now going to go through a lot of these. when this was brought back to planning commission on august 26th planning commission voted to recommend that the ordinance be approved with some additional modifications i will continue generally using the term electronic message display sign however the ordinance that you have in front of you changes the name to electronic changeable copy sign It would modify one of the tables to improve readability. It would prohibit the signs on one-way streets and alleys. It would clarify that if a sign is flashing because it's malfunctioning, that is still a violation. And it would adjust the hours of operation on local streets so that instead of being on from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m., they could be on from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. So regarding sign size, as I mentioned before, currently the signs can be up to eight feet tall, 14 feet with a minor use permit. This ordinance would change that to on local streets so that it could be no more than six feet in height. And then the size that they could be for the screen would be reduced to 18 square feet per side instead of 24 square feet. So really on arterial collector streets, et cetera, they would remain as is, but on a local street, they could only be six feet high maximum, and they could not be larger than 18 square feet as opposed to 24 square feet in other parts of the city. As far as sign color. So did some research, use AI to try to, find as many studies as possible, looking to see if it really made a difference as far as what color is being used. We did look at other jurisdictions. I was only able to find one jurisdiction in the country that actually regulates the color, and that was a city in Texas requires the signs to be amber on a black background. There are a few jurisdictions that require the signs to be essentially monochromatic, one color on a black background or vice versa. As far as whether there's a particular color it should be limited to, I was not able to find any studies that directly addressed the concerns that have been brought up. In other words, if you're in a residential neighborhood, are certain colors more disruptive to quality of life than others? I did not find any studies on that. I did find studies that were done by Caltrans regarding different colors, but they were looking at readability for traffic control purposes, and they found that green signs were the most readable, red signs were the least readable, but readability is not a concern that the public has brought up, and so the information wasn't really that helpful. Anecdotally, I know that If I go to Home Depot and I'm looking at the different temperature bulbs, they'll say that the daylight type, you know, temperatures or, you know, more will make people more alert versus soft white. But I couldn't find any scientifically based evidence that said that that actually has that impact. So the ordinance itself does not have any language in it regarding particular colors or limiting the number of colors or any specific colors. and so yeah and that's i've just kind of covered all that hours of operation as i mentioned changing this so that it would be from um 8 p.m they would have to be turned off at 8 p.m and cannot be turned back on until 7 a.m and we looked at other cities they have varying hours some have the 7 a.m start time some start at 6 some go until 10 p.m it just varies Also look at, you know, a dusk to dawn criteria. It just becomes very challenging in the winter because the sun sets so early. As far as technologies, so the signs can really be divided into three categories of technologies. And one of those is LED signs, which is you have an LED backlight through colored pixels. And the pixels change the color as it passes through and it creates an image. It's just like a LED or LCD television set. That's one concept. Another is there's other illuminated types of signs, like OLED, each of the pixels has its own light source. Or you could do bulbs, like you see the traffic message signs where they have a field of bulbs and you light up the bulb so that it forms a message. And you can increase the concentration of bulbs to get more refined messages. And then you have mechanical type signs, which are the flip type signs that you see. You might see a sign that it flips and changes the message based on that. I should note those mechanical type signs are not electronic message display signs. And therefore, those are not subject to this ordinance. Those are allowed currently. So from staff's perspective, all of these technologies could have potential applications in different situations. It's a performance-based ordinance, not a technology-based ordinance. And so as long as it can meet the criteria specified in the ordinance, it shouldn't make a big difference which technology is used. And so there is no language in this ordinance that restricts the technology. As far as locations go, again, this only applies to public and private meeting facilities. So there are 19 known locations of public private meeting facilities that have at least one frontage on a local street. Of those, seven of them have frontages only on local streets. The rest of them are located on the corner of an arterial collector or a larger street where you'll have, say you've got a church on Broadway and you've got your major thoroughfare right here and then you have a little local street on the side. um so in order to keep the signs off of the local streets when possible the ordinance has been revised so that in that scenario they cannot put the sign on the local street it has to go on the larger street which generally speaking is what they would probably want to do anyways because it would be more visible at that location And this is a map that shows the location of the seven public-private meeting facilities that do not have frontages on any street except local streets. And so you've got over here, you've got Bethel Baptist, and then you have the mosque that's just on the opposite corner. And then you have the Salvation Army, which isn't just a public-private meeting facility, it does have a chapel. And then you've got the Grace Church up here on Waring. There's a Mandala Hindu temple down here on Waring. And then you have Lighthouse and Ocean View right here. I would note that of these churches, only two of them have existing signs that could actually be swapped out without a minor use permit. And that would be Ocean View and Lighthouse. So just these two. So just to kind of summarize, here's what the proposed ordinance would do, is it would allow public and private meeting facilities to place electronic message display signs on local streets, in most cases, subject to a minor use permit. The signs would have to be turned off from, I apologize for the typo, from 8 p.m. to 7 a.m. Sorry, that says six. would reduce the allowable size in a residential zone to 18 square feet and limit the height to six feet it also clarifies methods for measuring distance from signs to be from the sign to the nearest point of the building for the 50 feet here's what it would not do is it does not change the regulations for any other type of sign so You know, one point is that illuminated signs are already allowed in residential districts. They cannot be changeable. Copy illuminated signs. important they cannot be excuse me electronic changeable copy illuminated signs but right now a church has the legal right as a permitted use to put an illuminated sign in that sign does not have to be any certain distance from a residence it does not have any maximum uh light output versus these changeable copy signs have a maximum light output of 0.3 foot candles um and it um would be subject to standard height limits. And it could be left on at any hour. There is no time limitation for when those signs can be. So right now, these signs are actually much more restricted and would have less illumination, particularly at night when they have to be turned off, than what is currently allowed by right. And there is no change to existing illuminated signs. It also does not change the regulations for signs at a public private meeting facility on any type of road other than a local street. So if it's on an arterial, a collector, a thoroughfare, No change. They're allowed to do exactly what they were allowed to do before. No less, no more. Yeah, exactly. Does not change regulations relating to illumination for any other type of sign. It does not allow for any other use to install an electronic display message sign. So you can't do it at retail, can't do it at theaters, can't do it at a gym, only for public-private meeting facilities, regardless of the zone. And even in a commercial district, this is the only use that is allowed to put up these kinds of signs. And as I already mentioned, has no effect on signs, not located on a local street. And so staff recommends that the council introduced the proposed ordinance for adoption at its next meeting and happy to answer any questions you might have.

Thank you so much. Any questions?

First of all, Thank you so very much for your hard work on this issue and the planning commission, because I went to the last one and it was just on this one issue, you spent two hours discussing the pros and cons, but would it be fair to say that the commission and yourself worked very diligently in trying to find a win-win situation a compromise situation so the residents potential concerns and the church concerns would find a nice happy or the best possible meeting point as far as cooperative effort would you think that to be a fair statement yes um it's it's been a long process this is the fifth hearing we've had on this item but

i would also acknowledge that i think that the ordinance as it exists today is much improved from the one that was originally brought forward i think that having the public come forward and express their concerns um really allowed us to kind of focus and you know really just refine what is being permitted and then

maybe prior to this discussion at some point, maybe a year ago, maybe six months, maybe four months ago, you recommended reducing the science from what they were. Is that a correct statement?

believe the original version coming to council had the 18 square feet in it and since that time it's been reduced or is it still the it's still 18 square feet but um we've also made it clearer as far as that the height has to be less i think that the original version allowed up to eight feet in a local street but now it's capped at six and then you said there's

Potential, and if the church or whoever wants to pay for it. There's only 7 allowable in. Inside seaside as such what happens if. Pacific landing creates a church, they would have to come to the planning commission and. Start off a fresh a fresh approach or is it. Take you back off this.

I would have to look at the Campustown specific plan to see if that would even be allowed and whether it would require a use permit in that particular area. Campustown is a very unique space.

And then the, and you may not know this one, I just wrote it down as you were speaking. I haven't heard, Victory Temple has a building electric sign has there been any significant or any no any criticisms of that sign to your knowledge

Well, we did recently receive a complaint from a member of the public that the signs were being changed more often than every 30 seconds. So code enforcement went out, confirmed that was the case, spoke to the church, and the timing was changed. Code enforcement verified that the timing was now 30 second changes. So we did get a complaint, but it was addressed and resolved.

and but it was not regarding it could have been staff a person's using you know changing the whatever the coordinates as such but you have not received any complaint regarding the lighting of a sign as such it was just the on and off again it was just the frequency of the change in text yeah and then um you mentioned um in your report, and I'm sure it took a lot of research, if it's pink or blue or green, it has no negative or positive impact. It's just, it's a color. It has no, no research except for Texas was found to be, they're the only ones out of God knows how many signs throughout the United States there is that color doesn't seem to make a whole lot of difference.

Yeah, I mean, and I couldn't find anything. I can't say for certainty that it doesn't exist because, but I would also point out that the signs would be turned off from 8pm to 7am every day. So for the most part, except in the winter, it's only going to be on during daylight hours with those hours.

And the again the 8 p.m to 7 p.m or 7 a.m to 8 p.m was a understanding and appreciation and trying to bring the community together as a place to compromise not a compromise but a mutually benefit for both groups or the community as a whole is that a fair yeah that i think that's where the planning commission was trying to go with that So find that balance as such. Correct. Yes. I think, yeah, I think that's it. Thank you so much. And thank you for all your work that you've done for the city and all the great reports and the information. And my badgering you constantly during council meetings and pre-council meetings to provide information. I appreciate that.

Of course. Anyone else? We'll go open up for public comment. Public comment is open.

Members of the public in the chamber, please approach the podium. Members of the public on Zoom, you may use the raise your hand feature or dial star nine.

Good evening, City Council. We're so tired. The compromises... To me, mean nothing because this is an intense difference between a light behind the signs that are there now as compared to an unbelievably unnatural intensity of light. And these are going to be 50 feet away sometimes from a residence who has to deal with this all day long. It's totally out of character. It's intrusive. It's distressing. If it were next to me, I don't know if I could continue to live there. Because when you look outside, you're looking at colors that really don't exist in nature. They're very disturbing colors. Neighborhood character. This is what we were talking about with the other, I'm so tired. What do you call it? The home. Yeah. The neighborhood character is going to be suffering from this If you approve this, the neighborhood will be suffering for that. Residentially zoned neighborhoods deserve protection as residential neighborhoods, not from commercial type advertising, as in something like digital electronic signage. It greatly impacts the neighborhood character. Neighbors driving on these and neighbors driving on these streets. The harsh glare. the moving, the intensity of the colors is in opposition to our natural setting. This can have a negative impact on homeowners when selling their homes and buyers when making their home buying decisions. It definitely devalues a home value if you're next to an electronic sign. The ordinance amendment is not specific enough 30-second movement, it's not enforceable. Every sign that we looked at was not adhering to those time limits. And 30 seconds isn't very long. So you're seeing this change every 30 seconds. You live in that neighborhood, you're seeing this movement every 30 seconds. Six feet tall, it impacts the viewing capability of oncoming cars. It needs more discussion on how to mitigate the negative impacts. Misinformation. Staff indicated it would only affect four churches. I don't know if that's what staff said tonight, but there are many churches in this city. Which, am I done? Shucks. Well, you got my message. Thank you.

oh wow you you guys work hard good evening mayor and council i'm back again and i want to talk really really fast because i want to talk about a lot of stuff all together so you talk about you've talked about everything but technology and that's what we're here about the cove lighting you have in the ceiling is very specific you don't see any breakage in it, it's completely around. The color of that, that is all from the recessed cans you have and the way they arch on the wall. That is all very specific designs, and it's called technology. And it comes from a 100-year illuminating engineering society. So you have never talked about the technology, what I called when I first came here, the guts of the systems. so i didn't talk about that a lot because it's you know kind of engineering white white paperwork but here is the illuminating engineering society and the ansi report on electronic signage extremely specific in terms of size foot candle color etc etc etc extremely engineered specifically, mathematically, technology driven, all lighting in the international world. Every country you go to has a very specific technology of the lighting. Here is from the state of California, the California Energy Commission under Title 24. I didn't talk about that before because I was hoping that something would kind of bubble up to the surface. you have a tremendous amount of work and specifications which generally comes from the owner which is you you're going to basically be develop the specifications of what you want to produce with these electronic signs which are new to you here and you're admitting that this is a new technology Caltrans is not the technology of lighting. It's the Illuminating Engineering Society, the lighting designers group. And the different types of technology are what you're including in the guts of this system. uh there's to talk about no restriction on technology is a mistake i think you all have some photos and the old saying pictures spend a lot take a lot of work however that is and i hope you have these so this is a sign that this uh pastor signed the ordinance a long time ago this was i think the first one you can see it you can read it and his this is the nameplate data. It's full, it's included, it's clear. Anyone wants to know anything about this, any of your code people, you can come to this side of this sign and read it. Here is another sign that exists in Seaside that is not readable. People pay a lot of money for this technology. And then you see the kind of nameplate data on here. You can't even read it and there's no information on here.

Thank you for your comment.

Can I go on? OK. Well, you've got the message. But you've got to take care of the technology. And I wrote you messages. I hope you read them.

Thank you so much.

And don't get a mishmash, which is a technical term. I'm done. Thank you. But we're not all done.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor, City Council, City Attorney, City Manager. My name is Davine Myers. I am a commissioner on the Neighborhood Improvement Commission. And I think you probably know, and it hasn't been mentioned, but a majority of the Neighborhood Improvement Commission did vote not to extend the ordinance to local residential streets. We presented a letter to the Planning Commission, and I hope you all had a chance to see that. And I will speak as a private citizen now. I would like to start with the definition of the Pandora's box. It is a process that generates many complicated problems as a result of unwise interference into something. That's something in this case is locating electronic signs in front of neighborhood homes. Most residents of Seaside are not even aware that they could open their front door and find an electronic sign 50 feet away staring them in the face. I wouldn't like to see that in my house, out my front door. Then when this happens, then what happens, we've opened a Pandora's box. It starts with four churches. or three, and then to the rest of the churches and on to public or private meeting spaces within neighborhoods. Then come the many complaints and possible lawsuits to follow. A lawsuit can be filed claiming common law nuisance grounds or light trespass that disturbs a neighbor's enjoyment of their property. Once that box is open, many more can follow, destroying the character of Seaside's neighborhoods. Do we really want to open that Pandora's box? I hope not. I urge you to reject any electronic signs in residential neighborhoods and leave the ordinance as is. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Good evening. It is getting late, and I think you are getting lots of messages. Rolf Herbrandus, Seaside resident. I think here electronic science really don't belong in Seaside, period. That's what I think. They don't belong in Seaside, electronic science. We are a city that never had electronic science, and now all of a sudden a new age comes in, and here we're bringing in electronic science. You could put a moratorium out and say, look, we are grandfathering in those that were approved under the past ordinance, but we're not going to approve anymore. That's it. Done. No more. That could be one choice. Or you could say, you know what, let's think about it some more and table it for discussion next time and get some input from residents regarding the area of where those churches are going to have electronic signs and pull them. I know, so ask your staff. Okay, that would be number two. Number three could be, okay we're going to decide on electronic signs but not the residential areas okay that include excludes four churches or seven or whatever and leaves the others in place not really fair is it so then you could say then in that case how about if we include everybody but then let's make sure that any sign from now on has these specifications you know seven to eight okay that's pretty good that's doing data hours make sure that the sign is not lit very bright make sure that the sign doesn't have fireworks on it as i saw one sign i won't name it but there was a sign that had fireworks on it for a while which i think is not according to code And so then you'd have to put in code enforcement and make sure that the code, the signs are really going to match code enforcement. You could make the signs smaller and say, okay, grandfather in the large signs, but make all the next signs smaller. Okay. Electronic and smaller. So you have a whole bunch of options. I hope you consider the options and come to some kind of consensus on any of these options. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Good evening, Mayor and City Manager, Madam Attorney, City Council. My name is Ken Fitcher. I live on Hillby Avenue, which is the boulevard of churches in our town. In 47 days, there's going to be an election, which means in 48 days, this council is going to be different. I think you guys should postpone this decision, quite simply.

Thank you for your comments. Michael, you may now unmute and make your public comment.

Alright, hello City Council. My name is Michael. I live by Contra Costa and Seaside. Essentially. I just like to say that I'm actually with caution of basically electronic signs being proved since. It's already the case with a business actually use uses them changing kind of signs would be the case. that they do affect more so every day and every night, more so quality of sleep and everything. From what I saw, I believe one of the things was that it was allowed to be at least 50 feet away from residents. Now, I would say that where I live, it's actually several hundred feet away, and it still actually still affects me. This is to do with an example of it being that The light shining from the business actually goes and comes all the way to one of the bedroom windows, essentially. And then indirectly, one of the lights during the night essentially reflects off of the ACME building and actually comes inside the house that way as well. Well, actually now that I'm saying about the night is actually that this business actually does. I might as well say it basically a deja blue does essentially have that that changing sign on beyond 9 PM as it currently currently is. From where it is, it's very well late into night. I would say like 11 PM 12. Basically I would say. think even like just all night really so um i would say that that um i would like to request a city to properly enforce that and and let me see yeah again um as uh one other person said about like the pandora's box side of it and we're like it's already to the sense that i'm already having issues with it Sometimes during the night and sometimes during the intensity of the light that comes from the sign. It's a bit of like a. Sometimes it's light pollution and we're like OK, a little bit like pollution, but sometimes it's actually like a full on like. No, you can actually there months to see the light. There's also this case in where they. During the weekends they actually have. More so in the back of the building, like lights illuminated, that's more so those lights very much so have the intensity of like a flashlight or more or less, if not, it's not really an exaggeration to say the intensity of like the light in the room that you guys are on right now. That they actually have the light basically shining on like the apartment complex that's right across from behind the building as well.

All right, thank you. Thank you for your comments. Carlo Lobo, you may unmute and make your public comment.

Before I begin, I want to take the opportunity to thank Mr. Myrick for the hard work, time, and service he has provided throughout his career with the CSET. Your commitment and your contributions to our community are greatly appreciated. I appreciate the information provided tonight. Several initial questions have been answered, but I still have a few. Can you disclose which church or facility originally approached the city with the inquiry that initiated this ordinance change? Second, how many facilities currently have electric message signs on local streets that are not compliant with the existing ordinance? Third, if there are currently noncompliant signs, what happens after this ordinance is adopted? Do they automatically become compliant or must they obtain a permit and the new requirements? And finally, what will ongoing enforcement look like, particularly regarding hours, brightness, and other operating restrictions? I also want to be careful about something. I don't want our institutions of faith to feel targeted here. Much of tonight's discussion and the examples presented involved churches. And this ordinance itself originated from what I believe an inquiry by a church. But please correct me if I'm wrong. I'm not suggesting that targeting is the city's intent, but I do think we should be mindful of how this policy and its enforcement may disproportionately affect faith institutions. That's another reason I want clarity about who is currently out of compliance, how many new rules will be applied, and whether enforcement will be consistent across all qualifying facilities. I yield the rest of my time.

Thank you for your comments. Members of the public in the chamber, please approach the podium. Members of the public on Zoom, you may use the raise your hand feature, dial star nine. LJ, you may now unmute and make your public comment.

Good evening, Council. In 2010, the iPhone was introduced, and look where we are now. Technology has transformed nearly every part of our lives, how we communicate, how we work, how we learn, how we shop, and how businesses and organizations serve their communities. Technology is not going backwards. It is the wave of the future, and that is why I believe we need to be thoughtful when considering rules that could limit churches, businesses, nonprofits, and other organizations from utilizing new technology. Innovation often moves faster than regulation, and when something new enters our community, our first response should not automatically be, how do we stop it? It should be, how do we make it work responsibly? Of course, innovation cannot come at the expense of public safety, our neighborhoods, or the environment, and those making things matter. But protecting what makes our community special and embracing technological advancement do not have to be mutually exclusive. We should be able to establish reasonable standards, appropriate locations, operating requirements, safety measures, environmental protections, and accountability without simply closing the door on emergent technology. Because the technology we question today may become the technology we depend on tomorrow, let's think about how dramatically our world has changed in just the last 15 years and imagine what the next 15 will bring. Our churches, local businesses, nonprofits, residents, and young people deserve the opportunity to participate in that future rather than being regulated out of it before we fully understand its possibilities. We live in one of the most innovative regions in the world while also being surrounded by extraordinary natural beauty. We should not have to choose between technology and the jungle. Our challenge is to protect both. So rather than building walls between innovation and our community, let's build reasonable guardrails. Let's bring people to the table, address the legitimate concerns, and find solution. Because progress doesn't have to replace value, what we value. The future is coming either way, and our responsibility is to make sure we're prepared to coexist with it, protecting our community, protecting our environment, and still leaving the door open for innovation.

we should not have to choose between technology and the jungle our challenge is to protect both thank you thank you for your comments members of the public in the chamber please approach the podium members of the public on zoom you may use the raise your hand feature or dial star nine mayor i'm not seeing anyone else wishing to make public comment at this time

Thank you so much. No one else here. No one else. Public comments closed, bringing it back to the dies. It was some questions to manager and Andy. Did you want to answer those questions? Let me answer this. Thank you.

Yeah, there were just a 2 questions, which is who is the requesting entity that was lighthouse gospel church on Hamilton? And are there any existing signs like this on local streets? And the answer is no. At least not, I mean, a public school might have one, but that's that's a different thing. So, you know, there's no non compliant ones. There's no. Grandfathering in because they haven't been any put in.

Okay, thank you. Any comments or questions?

I think the speaker was correct. The goal is to find solutions. The Planning Commission and staff spent at least 10 to 20 hours working on finding solutions. And I think they did a very good job. And you also got to remember, A COMMISSION ALSO BROUGHT FORWARD AN ELECTRIC SIGN AS A PROPOSAL FOR INFORMATION THAT WE SAID NO TO. NOT NECESSARILY FOR THAT REASON, JUST WE SAID NO. YOU ALSO NEED TO REMEMBER THAT THE SCHOOL DISTRICT IN SEASIDE HAS ELECTRIC SIGNS. WITHOUT OUR PERMISSION. THERE IS ELECTRIC SIGNS IN NUMEROUS SCHOOLS THROUGHOUT SEASIDE. any question uh you also know they've met five times and those that are in the area the neighbors have not spoke up other than the group the respected group that spoke up tonight but they're not directly in in the area of those churches um I think you also have to understand that the commission, I believe in their wisdom, chose 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. because they wanted to do it during, for the most part, daylight hours. And I think if the federal government approves the law as such, it'll be that way year-round. So it won't get dark until 8. uh i think you also have to understand or i i have to understand let's put it on me is that we do ai and that has criticisms and it's technology to advance opportunities and information we do cameras to promote safety in our neighborhoods and people have concern that but technology if used wisely can benefit the overall community. And I think this, there are signs already out through Seaside already done without complaints to include the schools. There's signs at a church that has not received any complaint that's on a main strip of Seaside without complaints. I think sometimes We just can't say no to say no, we have to say no. We have to compromise and find the best solution for all of us, for the community as a whole and see the good and the bad. And we as a city, not necessarily as a council, constantly try to find ways to promote information and is a constant source of of effort, be it through the Hakars, be it through the Big shows that we have, we try to find tweaks and things that we do to provide information to the community in countless ways and use all our resources and beyond, be it lighted signs, bus signs, this sign, any way we can to provide information. And what the churches or a public facility conference center as such does is trying to provide information. And that's the goal. And the goal was to bring it back, to find compromise. 10 to 20 hours were spent on this. The public was aware at least five times. And I don't know this to be a fact, and I should have asked it, but it's possible that notices were sent to the neighborhood, at least of that one church. And I don't know that to be a fact, but that's what done in other situations. And again, no concerns from that neighborhood, no concerns from the neighborhoods that live by that church. And this is a way to provide information. And we're doing it throughout the city now without complaints. And not to pick on schools, but we're doing, I can think of at least three schools that were doing it in the neighborhood. That's probably five, but I'll say three to be safe. And they didn't ask our blessing. They just did it. So what's good for the goose is good for the gander, maybe. But I think we need to be equitable, fair. But we also need, and Mike will say this, we need to compromise. It can't just be no. And the staff and the commission compromised on trying to find the best win-win situation. So that's just my thoughts.

anyone else have any thoughts comments I thought you know for me that that is what we asked we sent it back to the Planning Commission just for that to go out and listen more to the community listen to the concerns that community members shared with us and and I agree with the Mayor Pro Tem about you know we started adding up you know 20 plus hours or so of review by city staff and the Planning Commission to talk about this thing through has to be taken into consideration. And I think it was a speaker earlier, he may have left right now, but he talked about the compromise and talked about some of these things. And staff indicated that this is tightening up the regulation. Well, I guess I do have a question for you. I thought you talked about that right now, if you just have a regular sign with light bulbs, right, or whatever they are, incandescent, it doesn't make a difference, that they could be more powerful than these LEDs.

That's correct.

And we couldn't say nothing about it.

That is correct. It's a buy-write-use.

They can stay on all night.

Correct. There's nothing in the ordinance that has any hours of operation.

Just listen to me. But that's what I want to also highlight and put on because I think this is a way of tightening up the regulations, so to speak, the ordinance, because going forward, you're saying if any of these churches or other facilities wanted to use or update their signs, They would go by this ordinance.

Correct.

You know, let's just change in the future. Let's change the future. But this ties it up because it's a smaller sign. Right. Does that make sense? I mean, it goes from 16 square feet to eight, I believe. It goes down, right?

The maximum height is less than it would be allowed on a larger road.

It may be up to 8 feet tall by right and up to 14 feet tall with the minor use permit. Message boards could be up to 18 square feet per side on local streets. But this You're not recommending local streets, so I'll stay away from that. But my point is, aren't you making the signs smaller?

By square feet, the signs would be smaller on local streets than they would be allowed to be. Yes.

And that's what I want to get to. Yes. So you're tightening up. You're making it more restricted.

Yes.

Okay, so. by elimination right light power you're restricting it from light bulbs because we don't have no control over they just use light bulbs right okay uh color i guess we really didn't get into color too much right not significantly yeah i mean i talked about it but yeah because you couldn't find anything that said blue is better than yellow i mean not for caltrain i'm just talking about four right this type of side uh and then time on a regular sign could be all night And when it was here before, it was from, was it 9 p.m. to 6 a.m.?

To 6 a.m. is when it was off.

Yeah. It goes off earlier.

It goes off earlier and comes on later. Yes.

That's what it comes on later. And so what I'm getting to is more restricted. Yes. Okay. And then we talked about the signs. Yeah, that's all I wanted just to highlight. I can understand what the thoughts out there, but also we have to balance the rights of these organizations and these people with these facilities and where you have to come back for another permit if you wanted to do it on a one-way local.

If it's one way, it would not be allowed at all. At all? Yeah. And you would have to come back for a minor use permit in almost every situation.

Because sometimes it may not fit. It may not work.

Right. In most cases, the only possibility of not getting a minor use permit is if it's an existing illuminated sign and they keep it the same size or smaller in the same location.

And I understand what this is. I know I go around to a couple facilities or particularly churches. I think quite a few of them have houses across the street from them.

Yes.

Right. So with electronic sign, with the same type of LED sign already.

Correct. Yes. Absolutely.

So in a sense, we're being fair.

Yeah, okay.

You can look at it.

Yeah, I see that.

So, thank you so much. We have a question.

Thank you. Would it be possible to include something that are limiting LED signs? Because there's nothing currently in the ordinance that limits the number of LED signs.

They're capped at one per property.

Per property, but not how many we can have in the neighborhood.

there is no total cap that becomes that's very difficult to enforce because um you either have to have it just be a first come first serve and then someone puts up a sign so now the other person can't do it or you have to come up with some sort of allocation system having caps on the number of of anything You could do something where you have to have a minimum distance that is more manageable. But again, you end up in this first come first serve and you're telling people you can't put up a sign because this other person did. And most of these are going to be on arterial streets, right? Where they already are. several churches on Broadway. If you go up Broadway, Upper Broadway, there's several churches that have already put up these signs. And as has been brought up a couple of times, we haven't received any complaints on those signs other than the timing that they were changing the messaging too often. And there are houses directly across the street from those signs and hasn't really been an issue.

Okay, thank you. I guess my last question right now, this could be reviewed, right? If you have, if the city seen there was issues, it could be reviewed, right?

The ordinance? Yeah. It can always be brought back again, yes.

Just want you to put it on the record.

Okay.

I mean, you know, because it's like, you know, the thing is,

it can be changed if it's not working right correct right okay anyone just my only last thought is the more i think about it and envisioning the schools in the area there are six schools in seaside that all have illuminating signs without any concerns and they're providing information to the students and to the parents that's what and without and fairly i'm not criticizing it without approval from the school district the churches or the facility is providing information to the community But maybe we're going to say, I'm not saying we are going to say, but potentially we could say, well, the school district can do it or the other people can do it, but the city can't do it to support our own community. It doesn't seem to me a fair balance. If the school district or Johnny does it and it's approved and it's good, then why can't, and it works without complaints. then it seems like it's a fair and equal approach to making and to providing more information. And that's the goal is to provide more information. And there's not a problem with the school district. There's not a problem with Victory Temple. There shouldn't be a problem with this. We've tightened up the The loose areas, we corrected the language to make it more uniform. You changed the hours. You found out the colors don't matter, really, based on your history and research. I just think it's a simple approach to success by treating everybody fairly. That provides information.

Any motion to approve? It's been probably moved. Is there a 2nd? I'll 2nd probably move to 2nd. This is a roll call.

Council on agency member Miller.

Yeah.

Council on agency member perks.

I.

Council on agency member Garcia, Arizona. All right. Mayor and vice chair. Mayor and chair.

the record your motion passes four to one and thank you so let's go on to uh uh we need a motion to extend the meeting past 10 30. take a motion to extend the meeting uh it's been properly moved and second on the question anybody wants to object to us uh continue the meeting public comment is open

There was a public in the chamber physical podium members of public on zoom. He's a raise your hand feature dial star 9. Mayor, I'm not seeing any members of the public wishing to make public comment, but thank you so much.

Let's take a roll call.

Council and agency member Miller. Council and agency member. Council and agency member, Garcero-Zella? Mayor Pro Tem and Vice Chair Pacheco? Mayor and Chair Oglesby? Mayor, the motion passes three to one and one absent.

Uh, let's go on to our number. We'll try to pick up the pace a little bit here. Um, we'll go to item number 11, a receiver presentation on the San Pablo pedestrian bridge type selection report and pull the concept design for the project. And, uh. I'll make my comments after you see magic. Um, let's see magic.

Yeah, thank you. This is exciting to be presented by Thomas Corman, the city's public works director and city engineer.

Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, members of the Council. Yes, I'm Thomas Korman, Public Works Director, City Engineer. So this evening, I will be presenting the report on the San Pablo Ridge, the type selection report, and asking for a recommendation, an approval on a selection type. There we go. Okay, I won't go into the background too deep. We've talked about this, unless you would like me to go more in depth, but the structural assessment was done in 2022. At that point, that was inspired by, as you recall, an NIC project to do some painting and some decorative finishes to the project. At that time, there was a closure of the bridge because there was an inspection that was found to be deficient in many of the structural members there. At that time, Whitson Engineers was employed to investigate replacing the bridge. At that time also, there was some questions about the foundation. So it took a little bit of time to explore that. We've got that report back now. And what I'll be doing is just covering a little bit to give you a little bit of background on the abutments. So that Memo and type selection report along with that investigation was delivered to us in June 2026 and the existing foundations were found to be deficient. So how that was done, just a little bit of background, is it was a little bit of exploratory work, but using soil samples, using those old drawings compared to what a new foundation for a bridge would be designed. So that's how that was compared without doing too much destructive work to the existing bridge. As you can see here, the engineers, our structural engineers, considered three options. Could we reuse the existing abutments? That answer came back, no. Could we retrofit the existing abutments? It's possible. I'll dive into that just a little bit deeper. And then the third option was, should we just create new foundations? When comparing the cost and looking at the uncertainty of the existing foundations, it was determined that it would be easier to build and more cost-effective new foundations. What we're presenting to you tonight is basically leaving the existing foundations in sight, extending the bridge, building new abutments so that we don't have to excavate or modify those. If we were to try to modify the existing abutments and the foundation, we could, for lack of a better word, get into more problems. because we're trying to beef those up. So the recommendation is just to extend the bridge beyond the existing span and build new abutments there. So we have a couple of structural options for our bridge to look at. In the report that's been presented along with the memo, the first one is called the Connector Model, as you can see there. The second one is called the Keystone Model. uh the connector model is a lower price um it gives a little bit more utility clearance for overhead utilities uh the keystone model it's a distinctive arch as you can see there as we put now the prices the the cost that you see there is is just for the structure uh so so 218 900 uh 245 000 for the keystone i'll break that down that's without any decorative finishes without any painting without anything so that's just a purchase of a bridge from a prefab bridge there's several different coating options that we'll be looking at uh the first one is that base weathering steel so if i just go back and take a look at those that's shown in green just for distinction of the the visualization here but that bridge would be in that color, the weathering steel. So that's what that base cost is that you see for each of those types. If we selected, if the council decides to go with a galvanized steel, like an unpainted metal finish, it'll look like that center right there. In addition, an additive cost to make it more decorative, we could have a painted finish. That would be two coats of a coastal finish that would basically galvanize, paint it because we're in a salt environment, coastal environment, give it extra protection for weatherization. So in this next slide, what we're trying to do is just break down the cost for you. And I will, by can, those match up with the cost that you saw two slides ago. And then what we have is some additive cost here. So depending on the selection type of the connector or the keystone, we can paint it. we can use the galvanized or we can use the combination of the galvanized plus the painted. So the way this lines up is if you take the 218,900 and say you just want to paint that, it'd be $64,000 extra. If you had like a galvanized, that'd be additional 74,200. The galvanized plus the painted is the 114,900 that you see on that cost there. so what we've done here is if you take this 218 900 and add the 114 900 you get to the 330 800 so that's the total cost if it depending on the so what we're going to do is just walk through this this is when we took this back to our engineering office and we looked at all the different options. We think the most cost effective way to go is to with the connector model, go with a galvanized and painted. We're looking for long term maintenance issues. The savings that we would get from that, I'll show you in the next slide, but that's what we would use for any type of additional enhancements and that would come back to the council so we're not making a decision on that this evening okay so aesthetically uh this is just an ai generated image uh this is what something what it could look like okay so this would be a fabricated metal art basically using like a stainless steel that's painted it would be the bridge would be designed to actually support that extra weight for uh the what's known as a dead load or a wind load up against that and we could use some of that savings to also incorporate led lights there is already electricity up to where the existing bridge is okay so the project funding as we have right now uh the bridge replacement for the funding is 1.476 million that's what we have so 1 million 476 000. um 88 trail improvements leading up to the bridge will cost an additional 1.5 to 2 million okay uh the resources that we have that we have secured funding uh the cip allocation that you've already allocated the 640 000 we have a community project funding that's from congressman pametta's office that's a hundred eight hundred and fifty thousand and state budget funding from senator layard's office for five hundred and fifty thousand So when you add all those up, we'll get to this in the next slide here, but basically we have enough to move forward with the bridge replacement, okay? So what I want to go over just lastly here is our project schedule. What we're asking, what I'm bringing to you today is to move forward, to make a decision on the selection type. That's today. will then enter into design phase as I mentioned in that exploratory effort to look at the amendments we already have some of that design basically already done so that's why we can probably finish most of the design plans specifications and estimate that's the PS&E 65% by the end of the year, basically by January 2027. So that's very promising. Because we have some federal funding, we have to go through the NEPA process. So that's the National Environmental Policy Act. on the federal level that's a little bit more lengthy so it could take worst case scenario 11 months so we we have that 65 we start the environmental process environmental review takes about 11 months we then complete that design by january 2028 And we can go into bidding and a contract award March, 2028. June, 2028 being construction. And the construction schedule, roughly 9 months, it's a prefabricated bridge and it comes in sections. We would demo the existing bridge and then the apartments would be built prior to that. And it would be set on that. The pathway and park improvements that 1.5 to 2Million that would come later if we do secure extra funding through TAMC through our grant that we have submitted on depending on funding. then we can add that as an extra extra phase so that would be ada compliance basically up to the bridge okay so lastly i'll close with this is that our recommendation uh what engineering staff is recommending you go with the connector type bridge superstructure that's that and i can go back and look at that so we can look at that slide with the galvanized steel and two coats of the coastal paint not selecting a color uh just the paint and so any aesthetics will come back to council uh and uh aesthetically you know that will be under review and that will be a a separate item and that concludes my presentation thank you so much well done for them are any questions

Do we have any, no questions? Okay, all right. Council Member Garcia is on.

My questions are just pretty quick, and I understand the project schedule and the process and everything that needs to go. But when we're talking about aesthetic design options and potential cost savings that could go to the aesthetic design options, I don't think it would ultimately end up costing what we are projecting here. How confident are you that it will if it gets extended to 28?

We do have a high level of confidence. So the funding that we've already secured amounts to 2,040,000. So what we're estimating right now for the bridge replacement, the cost of the connector type bridge, with demolition and construction at one point, basically roughly 1.4 million. We'll have some savings in there. So that's why we're shooting for that and that we can do additional design and then for the future phases. So we can use that savings basically of that and apply that for the aesthetics. So I think we feel pretty confident with that, that there won't be too much crisis escalation. I think that's what you're asking.

yes we also have to take into consideration that you know oil is going up shipping might be an issue we have

some situations going on in the middle east so i i do project it to to get a little bit more pricier i just want to make sure that we we have we have seven percent cost escalation in our budget estimates so far we believe we have sufficient uh grant funding to proceed with the superstructure itself and any additional funds that we will have left out of that can go to the ada trail extension

For the bridge, but not for the decorative and all that other fun stuff, or including that as well.

We believe we'll have funds to address the aesthetics at the end of this project, but we'll know more in the next 30 days when we get to 65% design. I'm sorry, not 30 days, but by the end of this year. Okay. So this is the best guess we have right now with the cost estimate. As we move forward into design further, we'll get more firm on that cost estimate moving forward.

Okay. I'm for keeping it a little bit more conservative in design. I think just that's my two cents.

Yeah, when you talk about it, you said yes, right? I mean, you know, this is what you guys do. This is the estimation.

This is the cost estimate at this point in time as we move forward in design and get 65% by the end of the year that cost estimate will firm up.

I'm there.

If we recommended the keystone.

The one with, to me, had more character and more money. It would stay within budget. It's the keystone level, too, because I think there's about a $100,000 difference in ballpark.

Both stay within current budget. And again, we were recommending the connector version that is cheaper because of the anticipated cost escalations and other things we're trying to make sure we have a budget for at this time. No, I heard that.

OK, yeah.

Yeah, if you could bring that up, I think the one that you had seaside on your. Yeah, and that that to me that that that. That looks with the curve. It doesn't look like the Keystone. And so yeah, I know, right? So I thought it was me for a few minutes, right? And so. Are we saying we're recommending the keystone so now that design doesn't work because?

This is just an AI rendering of what metal architecture could look like on the side of the bridge. But we are recommending the connector version, which is the more flat model.

And I was calling it a keystone. I should be saying connector. OK. But that rendition is, you know, you're selling that as the end product. So, it would be something similar to that, you know, the waves. Correct.

Yes.

I understand. Okay.

We will come back before council to any, before any aesthetics are chosen.

Yeah, but you show the pretty aesthetics.

That actually is the AI rendering that's shown is the connector model. It's just from a different angle. You can see it doesn't have the upper arch that the keystone has. So if you go back to the AI rendering, there's no upper arch that goes up.

OK, so that still is this.

It is.

OK, just to connect the right. See, right now it does have an arch though, right?

There's a finer arch on the connector, but it's more defined than the keystone.

Okay, okay. No, it's just so people understand that is the keystone. So, no, I keep calling it the wrong one, because I broke out of the keystone because I was favoring the keystone. But, so... No, for me, you know, this is what we've been waiting on. It's a long time, so it's not very complicated, but it is very substantial what we're doing. And so for me, I think if staff is recommending the connector, you should go for the connector. The one question I did have, and I guess this is down the line, we talk about painting the bridge, and do we need to decide that now or that's later?

No, no, it's just so now that's fine.

But my question went to if it's painted, then that means every so often it has to be painted again. So I would like to know whenever it comes back, I'd like to know that as opposed to just to steal, letting it rust and not rust.

Sorry, Mayor, part of our recommendation is the galvanized into coat paint option.

not just letting it be non-payment right okay okay because he had three different options yes okay all right that was all my question is okay it should be painted and how often would it have to be but you can give me those answers uh yeah that's that's all i had did we uh go out to the public anybody else public comment is open members of the public in the chamber please approach the podium members of public on zoom use raise your hand feature dial star nine

Hi, I'm Jeannie Reese and I live close to the bridge and also I'm a Lincoln Cunningham steward and I really like the Keystone model. I understand that it's more expensive, but this is something that's going to last for decades. And I like the way that it mirrors the the topography it mirrors the sand dunes that are around it i know it's more expensive i know price are rising but this is going to be here for a long time and i think if it's aesthetically pleasing we should consider it because aesthetics really do matter Just really quickly, when my husband and I decided to move to Seaside, we decided to move to Seaside because the downtown was being redone. And we said, oh, you know what? This city is investing in itself. You know what I mean? And so that was part of our decision is that you know hey this this is a good place to live and i think if the design is better for the overall look which this bridge is a focal point in this neighborhood i think we should spend the extra money thank you thank you for your comments carlo you may unmute and make your public comment

Thank you. I agree with the Keystone option. And I have a couple of questions. Can staff reconcile the different cost figures and clarify what the current all in estimate cost is to complete the entire project? Second, tonight we heard that approximately 2.4 million is funding. in funding has been identified with an ATP grant still to be determined based on the current project estimate, what is the remaining funding gap? And importantly, if funding for the pathway and park improvements remains outstanding can the bridge replacement still move forward on the schedule presented tonight or are those improvements necessary before the bridge can reopen does that mean So I appreciate that we now have a timeline showing construction beginning in July with approximately nine months of construction. Does that mean 2029 anticipated reopening or could funding or the related improvements push that date further out? Finally, what is the projected life cycle maintenance costs of the galvanized and painted bridge? And is that feature maintenance being incorporated into the city's capital planning? This bridge has already been closed for nearly four years. I think the community deserves clarity on the remaining funding gap because that's important. The true final cost and most importantly, what could affect this bridge actually reopening to the public and if the maintenance for this bridge has upgraded into the city's capital plan. I yield the rest of my.

Thank you for your comments. Members of the public in the Chamber, please approach the podium. Members of the public on Zoom, use the raise your hand feature, dial star 9. Mayor, I'm not seeing anyone else wishing to make a public comment.

Thank you. Seeing no one here, no one else, public comment is closed. Mr. City Manager and Thomas, if there's any questions you guys can answer at this time.

Yeah, total available funding at this point is approximately $2 million. $550 of that is in AB 113, which is the state budget pending the governor's approval. That's the funding we received from State Senator Laird and his assistants, the total project is approximately 3M dollars. This would be 1.5M for the superstructure replacement and approximately 1.5M for trail tie ins. And so essentially the city has enough. to fund the superstructure replacement. What we're trying to do is maximize the construction dollars so that we can work out from the bridge to tie in the trail projects. And so in advance of that, we have also applied for an ATP grant to fund the remainder of the project. So we're hopeful to hear back on that in December. But as of now, the city staff has presented two options, Connector and Keystone. We believe that we could support the budget for either one. That's why we brought both options to council. Staff was just recommending that connected this time to save some of the additional for the exterior aesthetics, but certainly we can make whatever bridge council selects work in the existing budget.

Thank you. There's nothing.

One more question was regarding project schedule. In there, we showed construction in 2028. That is because we included an 11-month NEPA process. If we can expedite that NEPA process, we will start construction much sooner than that. Thank you.

All right. What is the will of the council?

Here's a minute. Just my thoughts. this is a one-time shot yeah uh this is gonna last i'll make a 100 years uh or or thereabouts uh you you want to make a motion to speak on a second i'm i'm gonna i would make a motion to go against what you're recommending uh it's not it's not yeah they said either yeah i would like to go with i'll make a motion to support the uh keystone uh let's keystone i i believe that's uh as i'll speak on the second there is a second is there a second i i'll move the second just on the second thank you mayor this is a one-time shot that this is a neighborhood park we've here constantly this is a landmark uh bridge this is something that residents have been looking forward to i'm just i was i would have been like to see the the um the decorative seahorse on the keystone as well so we can look at the a and b but uh I just think that Keystone provides more character. It brings it to a first class, brings it first class rather than looking for the dime when we can afford both. I think we should go the way that represents this city in a first class way and i think the keystone brings more character uh to the project which represents to a large part many neighborhoods so that's why i'm favor of the what i believe a higher class first class a different look a unifying look, a matching to the neighborhood look. It just does a whole lot of things for me. And this city deserves to be first class. So that's my perspective.

Council Member Garcia is on.

Thank you, Mayor. I think both designs are good. Keystone obviously has one of the arches, but ultimately the AI rendering would go to both projects either way. So I think the design in and of itself still looks the same. Just for me personally, I would much rather be a little bit conservative on this project because I can already foresee it getting a little bit more expensive. And then I just wouldn't want to come back later on for adding money to a project. So I'm kind of playing it safe here because I know what the renderings look like. And although I do like a keystone, there is really not much of difference other than the arch. And to me, The design is the same, but the numbers, it's just worrying me a little bit, I think, right now. And with these funds, it's like one-time shot. You only get one-time shot funding for this. So it's how we get it right, or where do we get the money from it later on?

You want to go?

Yeah, I appreciate the keystone. I'm just concerned with us going through with a project and then not being able to get completed. And that would be much more of a heartbreak for me. And I think the community for it to just sit there and be pending because of increase in funds or whatever it ends up coming out. So I would go with the recommendation from the city manager.

For me, I think the city deserves the keystone design. I think my calculation is about $27,000 difference. The city manager said it's well within the budget for that. Of course, no matter what it is, it will go up as inflation goes up, if that's the case. But there's another grant out there, and there's money within the city that we spend a lot of things on. Because I think what the commenter said was, this is the last time for us. Next time this bridge needs to be remodeled, it'll be a long way down the road. The lesser of the two, when staff is comfortable, the hurdle is not that hard. And I think the difference is, am I right, City Manager, it's $27,000?

With the galvanized domain options, it's about $75,000. But again, at this point in time, we do have enough budget to select either one of these options. I think what we'll have to worry about further down the line in design is how far we can extend the project outside the bridge. So we may have to cut back on the trail components or go after additional grants. Like we said, we already have a grant in for ATP to try to address that. We'll know back in December. But if we're not successful, we could be in a position where we get the new bridge in, And we're then coming back and trying to do the tie-ins. That makes sense. We'll have the main tie-ins, but not the ADA down to the street and some of the other things that we really need to do ultimately for this bridge. Thank you.

So that's more of sacrificing the concept or the design of the bridge to do more the ADA trails associated with that. And then, but there are grants out there for that, or the city can pay for that. I just, you know, the concept of the bridge is the bridge. You put that in there and that stays for, I think this one is going on 66 years, right? And we know it's been closed for the last four-ish, but that's roughly about 60 years that it lasted. And this one should do just as much as that. You know, I'd rather not cut it short because, And right now, you're not, and I'm not saying you're supposed to, but right now, we don't know what you're talking about when you're talking about not going as far out with the ADA approaches and all of that, how far the trails go out from the bridge.

Correct. We'll have to, we'll be doing that in design after tonight's meeting.

OK, well, I mean, that's what we have to do.

Just a point, and I could be wrong and I apologize if I'm wrong, but I heard the other two, the Councilman Burgess, Councilman Arizola, they like the. The I heard, I think I heard the keystone that they're concerned, honestly, with the the cost associated And what I'm suggesting, and I think the mayor is suggesting, and I apologize if I'm wrong there too, is you got one bite at the apple for 66 years. Because we are a first class city, because we are a first class city, because we are a first class in the parks that we did associated with that, maybe we shouldn't downplay a a bridge that we all like as a primary one and that's my thought let's if this is like if there's four of you that agree or three of you agree that the keystone is the better look let's do the better look because that represents the entire community and that's something that's gonna That's going to be your landmark as far as decisions in that neighborhood way after you're gone. And let's do it first class, you know, the first time. But that's what I heard. And I apologize if I'm wrong.

That's right. Now, that's a good point. That's a good point. And I was going to say this before, but, you know, when it was said that respectfully, we have one bite. No, we have more than one bite. Yeah. We have NIC money and we have our slice of NIC money for the foreseeable future, right? And so if that's not neighborhood improvement, I don't know what is. No, I'm serious. If you wanted me to tell you where the money's at, I'd tell you where the money's at. So I don't want anybody leaving here thinking that somehow this is not a doable thing because we have our little share coming in. And I think if it's needed, then the council can make that determination going forward if it's needed. But to leave the keystone in the rubble Leader Keystone, Leader Rubble, I don't think is befitting the city. Notwithstanding the... the caution and what makes sense about the cost of it. But I try to just add in there, it's money available that we control. And that decision is coming up in what, six months in June, right? And so we just had to make that determination so that the city manager can be comfortable that the keystone is well within a budget if we dump a certain amount of our NIC funds in there. Again, like I said, that's a neighborhood approved program as I would look at it. Those are my thoughts. You know, that's all I have. It sounds much as convincing as I could be at 10 after 11. You know, guys don't want me to take two more minutes, so go ahead. And I thought so I could call for the question and then we'll end up where we end up.

Motion already seconded.

Well, we'll just we'll call for the the question on the question are those in favor and and signify it by saying aye aye aye uh those say no i have to sign right abstentions hearing none motion carries all right now i was just in comment on the city manager to make it happen Yes, sir. Oh, I'm sorry. There you go. There you go. Come on down, Annie. I'm sorry that somehow I let you leave when I let you leave. And I was about to do it again. But I want to thank the excellent city manager because when when i mentioned to him i forgot to thank you before you left he said hey let me go get him so you know i'm saying he didn't have to say that he could just say hey forget it i think he's gone but he did that i want you to know he's a stand-up person and really support you Uh, yeah, I just want to say, you know, I told you yesterday at the collaborative and then I asked him today, this is your last day. So we won't be in a meeting. So I want to say, not his last day, but in the meeting. Almost. oh yeah right now i just wanted to say you know thank you you know in a professional manner we appreciate all the work you did for us and do for us and and you got here you took the reins and you got us way down the road over the last couple years you know people talk about hey ain't nothing going on but a lot of things are going on because of you and economic development and all the projects that you had to rewrite some of these ordinances for and some of those things were tonight but all along the way all those places are open those businesses are open uh people fences are done water heater things are done all the things that you worked on in your area and sometimes you're doing it by yourself sometimes we had a consultant come in there and sometimes you know you're still doing it by yourself but i just wanted to say from my vantage point we appreciate everything you've done for us

and we wish you godspeed and we know you're going to do well at your new spot but i wanted to make sure that i told you that in a public setting because i appreciate everything you've done for us thank you very much it's been a real pleasure working here i really appreciate all the opportunities that i've been able to get and um it's uh it's it's a great community you've got a great team here um uh A bit sad to go, but I know you guys are going to be just fine.

So, yeah, and we know that, but, you know, you know, it's best. And so we're happy for you and we are a great community. And I'm just saying you're part of that. So when you leave somewhere else and good things are going to see. So you can say, hey, I. I did some of those things. You know? Okay, because you did. All right. Thank you. Anyone else? All right. Thank you so much.

Okay, there you go. Real quick. Thank you, Andy, for always being just blunt and straight up with me. I thoroughly enjoyed our conversations throughout the years and just how sincere you were. how smart and knowledgeable you were of the issues. So I really want to thank you for just allowing me to learn from you and for just being a great asset to the city of Seaside. You will be missed. I am happy for you, but at the same time, I'm not happy. But at the same time, I am. So best of luck on the next endeavor and just know Seaside is always here for you.

Thank you.

Anyone else when I there's lots of things that I've already said. But you found a way to say yes, and that's. You found a way sometimes I've seen you do it to, but the system when you're expected say yes, and to bring a fresh perspective. That helps the resident. versus making it easier for staff which your goal was seemingly in many ways was put the resident first and looking for solutions rather than ignoring problems and you've always been helpful to me and i appreciate it

I want to thank you because you're always well organized and prepared. Your presentations are always like a learning experience for me and helping me truly understand whatever it is you're bringing up forward. And so I appreciate you and I appreciate your time and thank you for all that you've done for our city.

Thank you.

Yes, thank you so much. Thank you for your professionalism and we wish you well. Anything we can ever do for you, just let us know. It's been a pleasure. You telling us how to run the city better. No, you know, but I mean, I know what my lane is, right? And so we thank you for doing your work in your lane, Andy.

Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Appreciate it. Thank you.

I will move on to council members request number 12. I think that's council members request, right? Anybody? I had a, you got, okay. I'll defer to you, sir.

No, I just have a council member request regarding if we can have a follow-up discussion on where we're at with the wage theft ordinance. Wage theft ordinance that I requested a while back. I just wanted to hear back from it.

Okay. Anyone else? I wanted to put on the agenda for two weeks from now to get my 90 seconds, right? The reconsideration of our PLA adoption. All right. You got that? the reconsideration of our PLA adoption, and then review the city's TAMC, I don't know the exact, I got to get the exact name, city manager, but review the city's TAMC Highway 68 grant support. You know which one I'm talking about? Okay. And then I wanted, I... I'm also concerned about the data centers. I don't think want to pop up but my understanding is I want to I want to ask the council to think about some type of urgency ordinance for that just so we can get our heads around that. Okay, so those you got my things.

Okay.

All right, so item number 13, city attorney, city manager, city council, and mayor's comments. Madam city attorney.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of the council, members of the public. Since our last meeting, I had the pleasure of attending my very first Monterey Bay FC game, which was during the Hispanic Heritage game at the beginning of September. And what a jewel. Monterey Bay FC is truly a jewel for Seaside. The club brings visitors. When I was there, there were all sorts of people there. Economic activity to our community, it creates memorable experiences. for families and young people and gives the region a team that we can really rally around. And it was really evident the energy, the pride, the sense of community in the stadium was reflected in the whole stadium. And it's what makes Seaside special, the people from different backgrounds coming together to celebrate sport, culture, family, and local identity. It was a fabulous and great event, and I'm thankful to be able to have attended that. I had the opportunity to attend the FOSPA Park cleanup at Highland Otis Park and the 9-11 ceremony that was put on by the Seaside Fire Department, Seaside Police Department with Speaker Leon Panetta. It was memorable and we will never forget 9-11. That concludes my comments.

Thank you so much, Mr. City Manager.

It was also able to attend the Hispanic Heritage Night at Monterey Bay FC, the Monterey County Pops, the Seaside County Sanitation District. And then this week, I'm able to attend the Monterey Bay Defense Alliance meeting, MPUSD collaborative monthly meeting, Sea Jobs. We had a Car Week debrief with area city managers and police chiefs. I don't believe our police chief is here, but he did get a lot of recognition for his efforts this year on social media and regionally for Car Week. Seaside Housing Collaborative. And then last night we had the Community Safety Advisors Committee and the Broadway Complete Streets Open House. And then today we also had the third quarter meeting for the auto stakeholders, the auto mall stakeholders, which was the most well-attended meeting with that today. So it was great. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Council Member Birx.

Between traveling for work and fighting a cold, I have nothing to report.

Thank you so much. Council member Garcia is over.

I attended the Hispanic Heritage Month celebration at the, I was going to say the UI Stadium. What's it called? The Cardinal Stadium. alongside the mayor i had i got the privilege of uh reading the proclamation in spanish which i think was the first time that we had done that in in i think ever so because for for hispanic heritage month so constituents were very excited it was great to be there out in community uh i also took to the 911 ceremony it was a powerful event thank you uh fire chief blacha and if Police chief was here to say thank you as well. We also had the presence of our former fire chief, Mary Gutierrez, who was also in attendance alongside MPC students. It was great to see them also participating and being part of this ceremony, which Chief Blaha did make a good point. I think that class hadn't been born yet. when 9 11 happened so it was a great reminder of the oath of service that these men are taking and are continuing that service that uh those that lost their lives at 9 11. um Yes, it was a powerful ceremony. I also attended the Seaside High School Hispanic Heritage Day yesterday at Seaside High School. It was great to see all the students from around Latin America get together and just celebrate one another. And it was really powerful to just talk to the students, see their dances, and also just be there in community with the teachers and the administrators. I was there alongside with superintendent pk different bog and i know i'm missing something that i was that i did but i i can't remember right now but that's all i could remember thank you um mayor pro temp thank you um i attended the monterey salinas transit meeting

The SURF project is 60% done, as mentioned earlier. Streets will be closed effective September 20th, I believe, for 72 hours. And you'll see it on the website in a variety of other ways. I had the honor of providing the welcome remarks at the 9-11. taking care of the city and business. It was great to see the Marina Fire Department there, as well as the cadets. And again, obviously, that provides a lot of charisma and is always well-spoken. 10, the fossil park clean up, I think at the Lincoln. The park is going to become a gym, especially when you add that beautiful bridge. I think it's going to enhance that whole area as far and also the neighborhood parkways are going to be done very soon. Senior dance today was very, very well done. Great food. The fire department was there and. In huge numbers and it went well. attended the seaside artist artist artist tour lots of good artists in seaside i think there was seven six to eight venues that you had opportunity to visit houses and and meet the residents up close and personal but their art was first class and it's been going on for approximately 20 years attended the probably not the Broadway road enhancement update. It was very well attended, probably 30 to 40 people there. There was a lot of concern about the roundabouts. I mean, it was the most I've seen it and I've been in about four of those of concern that the staff did such a really good job. By the end of the meeting, It was calm. They understood the safety factors. It may not have agreed still, but they better were able to, um, figure it out. They understand the improvements of what was trying to be accomplished. So it went from, um, challenging to say the least to, okay, we can make this work if we, if we play together and make nice and understand and work together for a better, for a better roadway for safety. And so it was a really interesting dynamic.

And I think I'll leave it at that.

Yes.

Before I forget council member and I were at the Mexican consulate, um, alongside, uh, county board, Santa Santa Clara kind of board supervisors, um, to celebrate the Mexico's independence, but also to strengthen and, um, that relationship with Mexican consulate and our neighbors up north, which was a great celebration. Uh, we were joined by. The general consul will be coming and joining us at Oaxaca by the sea. So it was great for both of us to be representing the city of Seaside and the community from Mexico here in Seaside in Santa there.

Take that down. I would just say, no, I'm just, you know, people would think we're on that subject. Before I forget, because that reminded me, so thank you for that. But I just wanted to be clear about thinking again, Congressman Panetta and Senator Laird for their work and their commitments to the city of Seaside and, you know, bringing home the bacon. i was just talking to someone earlier you know you can't do it all the time but you know uh i do like bacon so i appreciate them uh bringing home the bacon and i love i look forward for more bacon for seaside in the future but thank them for their hard work uh attended the mayor's association meeting earlier uh this um between here and the last meeting i guess We talked about attending the Monterey Bay Football Club's soccer match and it was the theme and honor of the night was Hispanic Heritage Night celebrating the month. I had a great time and it was really a nice treat to be on the pitch as they say with the council member Garcia-Zola and Me saying the proclamation in English, him doing it in Spanish. I think it was a real treat for both of us. So I want to thank him for that. attended the monterey pops uh patriotic music festival uh at city hall city manager was there and i think the mayor pretend was there and it was a great we look forward to doing that every year mr city manager it's a great opportunity to bring that topic music to all of our residents and i'm so proud that we have that in the city of seaside attended the seaside raiders opening games i know uh council member burks was there um but uh to see those young kids continue to to play a sport that they appreciate and uh due to a lot of help from uh assistant city manager uh dan muric by putting that in place of the ability to rent that space and for the city council for supplementing some of those costs so we thank you for that I attended the Pastor Fred Anderson going home ceremony, had the honor and the pleasure of speaking at his going home ceremony. He was an incredible person, a human being, very well traveled. very knowledgeable and had all kinds of different jobs, careers, and occupations. And no matter where he went, the story was the same about he really cared about people. People said they'd never heard him upset, never heard him cuss. You know he's just one of those human beings that you would want to know and get to know, because he would pour into you, no matter what's going on, so. tenant the rail committee meeting. uh still talking about how do we get one more real uh car down here during the olympics uh we we think that that may not be a possibility but uh we're gonna continue to work on that uh they appointed me to another ad hoc committee with um about five of us that we're gonna communicate with uh uh what is it Uh, the county of what is it the county of Santa Cruz county about how do we make sure we work closer together on the rail going through. Santa Cruz county coming down to Selena's. King city and on to San Luis Obispo. So that's a work in progress. Like the Mayor Pro Tem attended the Seaside Artists Tour. I think we had all six, seven, twelve, I think it was about at least eight different homes and some of them had three artists there, some of them had five artists in their home. So we want to appreciate the people that open up their homes to the artists. We want to continue to grow that and the organizers think we are growing it. They also have some artists at the Odomar. So city manager, we appreciate people opening up the Odomar and being part of that. Attended the Seaside Housing Collaborative meeting. We're making progress at the collaborative about how do we assist and try to play our role and create more affordable housing, workforce housing. And so that meeting was very insightful. We believe we are moving towards some type of agreement, some type of request to the council in support of the collaborative mission. I gave a welcome at the 3CE retreat. I think it was a couple days ago. It was Thursday. I think it might have been Tuesday. But I look forward to that. I think I need to check. We need to check. When do we take our position over in there? I want someone to answer that for me when you get a chance. It's been a couple years since we rotate, and I think our city's turn is coming up at the next meeting. Junction. And so yeah, and so but it was a great meeting. Remember, I don't know if you guys remember and I know the mayor pretend was here. We started with Santa Cruz County came to Monterey and the city of seaside one of the first to to join in as a city. I think when they had. I think we'd like city number seven. they got 40 cities now in five counties so it's growing and to be something exciting for the city manager to get his one more thing for him to get his mind wrapped around uh as we take our seat uh coming up on the um community choice power um collaborative or whatever whatever it's called uh annual uh attended the annual old what is it hollywood dance old hollywood dance today at the odomar it was great the food was great it seems like all the participants the senior older adults really appreciate that and they tell me that the lemonade was on point so i appreciate that well one one one container was cold the other ones a little warm but they taste they taste perfect though tastes perfect uh i did not attend the uh 9 11 uh uh here but i do want to thank uh the chief for that and putting that together and having an excellent speaker i felt so bad when i heard that he was there but i know he shared some wisdom every time Secretary Panetta speak, he shares wisdom. But I was attended to another duty on behalf of the city as an alternate Coastal Commissioner up in Eureka as a three day trip. I want to thank Speaker Rivas for appointing me to that. and it's impactful for the city because even though we don't have a lot of beachfront, we do have some beachfront, we do have some coastline, we are covered underneath the Coast Commission, and we do have a thousand acre Fort Ord State Beach that we want to be able to shape as we go forward. And so again, I want to thank the speaker for that. I want to also say thank the Mayor Pro Tem as it relates to the surf bus almost complete underneath his leadership over at MST. We have that. And even though people don't think it actually affects us because it terminates over there at Sand City's what is that retail area? I forgot what that thing is called over there. But you can imagine either most of the riders are going to come from Sand City or they're going to come from the City of Seaside. And so I want to thank the Mayor Partente because those options will be there for the residents of Seaside to be able to use the surf bus to go back and forth to work or get some other needs between here and Marina. I think that is it. So that's all I have. All right, so we will move on to the next phase, which is closed session. I would ask the city attorney to read us in a closed session.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of the council, members of the public. Item 14A was removed from closed session, so the council will not be considering anything on that item. They will have a conference with legal counsel pursuant to government code section 54956.9 on one matter of existing litigation. The case name is Landwatch et al. versus the City of Seaside. Case number is Monterey County Superior Court 24CV002483. There is also a 6th District Court of Appeal case number. However, it's currently unassigned. They will also have a conference with legal counsel pursuant to government code section 54956.9D2. Tonight, they will only be considering one matter of potential litigation, and that item is concerning publicly available correspondence regarding the enforcement of the city's temporary sign regulations and a written notice of intent to seek federal injunctive relief. And I'm going to make this statement even though Councilmember Miller appears to have left the meeting. because the matter does involve his campaign signage and presents a potential financial interest councilmember Miller will not be participating in the discussion of the potential litigation and will not attend the closed session or that item or for that matter the other closed session item as he appears to have left the meeting any reportable action during closed session will be announced as required by law that concludes my read-in

Well, we'll open up for public comment. Public comment is open on our closed session items.

Members of the public in the chamber, please approach the podium. Members of the public on Zoom, please raise your hand feature or dial star nine. Mayor, I'm not seeing anyone wishing to make public comment.

Thank you so much. Seeing no one, hearing no one, public comment is closed on our closed session items. We will move into closed session. We have a couple comments to make in closing the meeting and the honor. May I approach him?

This is very, very, very, thank you so very much. Yes.

Andy Bray was a dad lettering director and I think that I was . And then you can go to our city football, numerous championships. He coached the university.

He coached baseball, of course. So he was just a mentor to Calvin Smith. And Seaside was, by personal meaning, for striving to improve their fields.

He was on the ground works of where the work is now.

And the field had been had And baseball field is going to be happening. They had to start somewhere with some policy discussions about cross the board equity.

And he was a guy that pushed it then. He was a champion. He was a leader. He was an ender. And I know numerous times he was coached. He was very, very good. He married and followed your work in the city for about 25 years. It was a different day and a different time, and there was no technology at that time.

She was the young lady. She had to come into the office. She couldn't do it on the daily water. She had to come to the office and did any kind of work. And she was a frontline staff that had to deal with all the challenges when it comes to bills and paying people bills and following up the bills she needed to have to make.

uh she dealt with it appropriately fairly equitably and she was a really sweet lady that accomplished much for the city she said during her challenging time thank you sir very much hi anyone else yes oh okay yeah go ahead

Though I didn't work with either one directly, anyone that's working with the public, working with our youth, I know have a big heart and I send my condolences to the family.

Anyone else? Yeah, thank you. You know, when you look at them, just two lovely people. Service to committee. I didn't know him as long as the mayor knew them, but I do know that they are good people. They were good people, loved their family, really worked with inside the city of Seaside to better the city of Seaside, whether it was at the school district, whether it was at the city. And a lot of those times, I guess, you know, we got a little feeling of being public servants and what, you know, city workers do or administrators or workers in the school district is public facing. It's always trying to make sure you serve the residents of your community. And I know that they love their family and the family love them and they will be missed. within the lives of their loved ones and friends. And of course, the city of Seaside will miss them. And we just, you know, pray to God that the family is comforted the best it can be. And we know that the two individuals are with their Lord, their God, and they are safely home. So I would move into closed session with that. We're, enough of us up here. City, well, coming out of recess, we'll ask the city attorney to, coming out of closed session, I asked the city attorney to read us out of closed session and report on any actionable items or reportable items or actions.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of the council, members of the public. Council did have a conference with legal counsel on one matter of existing litigation. They received a briefing. There's nothing to report. They also had a conference with legal counsel on one matter of potential litigation. They gave direction to legal counsel, and there is nothing to report at this time. That concludes my reading.

Thank you so much. We're at item number 15, which is adjournment. Our next regular meeting is October 1st, 2026, 5 p.m. here. There will be no further business on this agenda. This meeting is closed.