City Council - Regular Meeting

Test 121212. You can hear me now? Yep.

All right. We have two different times on our clocks. Anyway, I would like to call this meeting to order. If you could please rise for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

Dear God of peace, we invite you to preside over our meeting. When we have different opinions, give us the unity of spirit. Help us to patiently listen to each other and share our points of view. Help us to work as a unified team in combining ideas for a great outcome for our community, always putting San Marcos in the center. May we have a spirit of camaraderie in this room and work together on our shared mission, serving the citizens of San Marcos. Amen. Okay. Could we please have a roll call?

Mister Skullock?

Council member LeBlanc?

Present.

Council member Musgrove? Here. Council member, Nunez?

Present.

Deputy mayor Sanella? Here. And mayor Jones?

Here. Okay. We have several, proclamations and presentations. The first one is, council member Moskov, do would you like to do the smile award from up here or down there? And we'll just wait for you to

That's good. I'll go down and we'll we'll call call everybody. Everybody back.

Okay. Perfect. Alright. So we will remain seated and you go ahead and talk about our amazing otteries this evening.

Amber, would you come forward so I can embarrass you? Right over here. It's not like a roast, but it's close enough. So we started the SMILE award. It's been probably three and a half, four years.

And SMILE is an acronym for the San Marcos Inspiration Leadership and Excellence Award. And each council member is designated a month, and we do it every other month to identify somebody in our community who inspires, engenders leadership and excellence in a lot of different aspects. And we have, we have a couple of previous awardees in the in the room tonight, and it's really easy to look at the upper level, the C Suite, if you will, and say, there's a great leader right there. Let's acknowledge them. But what we tend to forget are those people that actually do all of the heavy lifting.

And sometimes, you know, they get a thank you, they get recognized, but not to the level that they should. So tonight, we're going to recognize Amber Trevrouet, a good friend of ours. So I'm gonna read the the proclamation or my notes, and then we'll hand you the proclamation and give you a chance to speak. So it is an honor to recognize Amber as a recipient of the Smile Award for her long standing commitment to civic engagement, community service and the well-being of the San Marcos community. Amber grew up in North County and has proudly called San Marcos home for the past fifteen years.

Throughout her personal and professional life, she has demonstrated a deep and consistent dedication to serving others and strengthening our region. Early in her career, Amber was actively involved in civic engagement and community organizing, including volunteer work with the North County League of Women Voters and other community based organizations. From March 2009 through January 2015, she served as a court appointed special advocate helping children from San Marcos to San Bernardino who were in the foster care system navigate the court process and complex custody and care plans. Her advocacy gave voice and support to some of the most vulnerable members of our communities. Amber has also made a lasting impact throughout her involvement with the California State University San Marcos and as a graduate of Leadership North County in 2011, she went on to helping strengthen community relationships and cultivate local leadership.

She served for ten years on the President's Community Council for Cal State San Marcos and enrolled in the university's Master of Public Health program, leading to her health advocacy work at Scripps Health. Amber recently completed a term as a Board member of the North San Diego Economic Development Council and more recently, as a newly appointed member of the San Marcos Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors. Amber and Scripps Health have been longtime chamber members and supporters of workforce initiatives in our region. Today, Amber also serves on the board of Lifeline Community Services, an organization that is a vital resource for families in San Marcos and across the county. In her professional role, Amber serves as Assistant Vice President of Government Relations and Community Benefits for Scripps Health.

She leads Scripps community benefit efforts, oversees government relations, strategy and works with civic, business and community organizations throughout the San Diego region and also leading community engagement for Scripps Health's proposed new hospital campus in San Marcos, very good for us and very good for them. Amber exemplifies what it means to serve with compassion, integrity and dedication. Her work has touched education, health care, child advocacy, economic development and neighborhood engagement, all while making San Marcos a stronger, more connected community. For her leadership and service, we are proud to recognize Amber as a Smile Award recipient. Please join me in congratulating Amber on this well deserved honor.

You. Microphone is yours.

My goodness. I feel strange having my my back to all of you. I, just want to express my deep, deep gratitude, not only for this. It's, you know, quite the surprise and and something I I would have never expected. And at the same time, there are so many people in our community that give back every single day to make this place as special as it is, and I'm eternally grateful to be a part of this.

I'm I'm eternally grateful to be able to raise my son with my husband and have him be in the, you know, San Marcos Unified School District and the the wonderful programming that's going on there. We're we're very, very blessed, and truly the quality of life that all of you have created for us and the opportunities, you know, that Scripps has given me to live out our values here in the community that I live in is just nothing short of of special and extraordinary because of all of you and and what you do every day. So thank you. Really appreciate that. Very

briefly, I'll read the inscription. With a smile award, Sam Marcos' inspiration, leadership, and excellence, recognizing her dedication to government relations, community engagement and public service. Through Amber's leadership at Scripps Health, she educates elected officials and represents the organization with regional business, civic and community based organization. Her public affairs experience and leadership reflect a strong commitment to collaboration, partnership, and a meaningful impact on the community, and the certificate is issued by the city and signed by the mayor and the council members. Very nice and framed, suitable for framing. And why don't we have your family come down and join us?

We oftentimes talk about the spirit of service that we have here, that special something that all of our community really comes together and helps one another. And Amber does really exemplify that. And bringing her husband and her son up too because when there is service to the community, including just all of us too, it's our families too. So we really appreciate the sacrifice that really the families give too. Guess, exactly, the two of them.

Anyway, next up we have one of our professors here from CSU San Marcos did something kind of cool. We're going to invite you down, Kimberly. We're actually going to give her a certificate of recognition for her remarkable achievement in being selected as a contestant on Jeopardy. Yes. And for representing California State University San Marcos with excellence. Your dedication, perseverance, and commitment to lifelong learning inspire our community. And we, the city council of the city of San Marcos, would like to honor you and hear a little bit about your experience if you don't mind. How fun is that? Welcome.

I mean, it was Oh, wow. I mean, it's obviously a lifetime dream to be on Jeopardy and I kind of can't believe I They told When I got there, Ken Jennings came out and gave us all a really a really wonderful pep talk, but he said that apparently, it is eight times easier to get into Harvard than it is to get onto Jeopardy. They have like about a half a percentage acceptance rate for Jeopardy, which I did not know. And I kind of took the online quiz on a whim and got invited on. And as if if anyone's Jeopardy fans in the audience, you will know I'm one of the many people who lost to the great Jamie Ding, who went on quite a streak.

But that's okay. Everybody was really amazing. I had a really fun time. It was really fun to represent San Marcos. You know, I live and work here. I don't know if anyone else from San Marcos has ever been on the show, but I saw some chatter in, like, local Facebook groups that people were excited that a San Marcos resident was on the show. So it was really it was very, very cool to represent the community on there.

Oh, well, thank you and congratulations.

Thank you. You're welcome. Give me this. Thank you. If you wanted to Come on down. Okay.

We'll have you. Awesome. Thank you. We are huge Jeopardy fans and I was like, she can take down Jamie. Jamie, I mean,

you're so good. I know. Beating on that buzzer. Man, it's crazy. Darn. But congrats. Yeah.

Thank you. Just

saying how cool is that? Okay. On to economic development week. We actually have here today, Rick Gregaidis from our Chamber of Commerce. Woo hoo.

Always working hard for our community, also a San Marcos resident which we love that. You work here, you live here and you're building, our businesses here. So anyway, I'll give you this but I'm gonna read it. Economic development is vital, a vital component of our, prosperity and quality of life here in San Marcos and communities across the nation and around the world. Economic development professionals bridge public and private sectors connecting residents, business leaders, elected officials, industry experts, and educators to support job creation, infrastructure development, and inclusive economic opportunity.

The city of San Marcos is committed to fostering a thriving business climate that supports innovation, entrepreneurship, workforce development, and strategic investment driven by industries such as advanced manufacturing, education, healthcare of course, and technology and bolstered by strong partnerships with institutions like CSU San Marcos and Palomar College. And, the Chamber of Commerce serves as an essential partner in economic development and businesses fostering entrepreneurship and strengthening the connections that help local economies and communities thrive. Economic Development Week celebrated more May provides an opportunity to recognize the significant contributions of economic development professionals and organizations to the continued growth, resilience and vitality of our San Marcos community. Therefore, we proclaim, the city council does, the May as economic development week and encourage all of our, residents, businesses and community stakeholders to recognize and support the essential role that economic development plays in shaping a vibrant, inclusive and prosperous future for all. And as you probably hear me say all the time, make sure you keep it local and spend your money here in San Marcos because we appreciate it, it keeps our businesses going.

So if you have anything else to say, Rick? Thank you.

Thanks, Mayor. And thanks for I appreciate being able to represent everybody who works so hard in economic development in our city. And it's through amazing partnerships, Mayor, City Council members, city staff, all the partners that we have in San Marcos, that's what makes it happen. So it's obviously, we're all a little biased. I mean, we do it so well in San Marcos, and it's because of all our partners.

So appreciate the recognition for Economic Development Week. I do want to say just real quick just because I think still a lot of people don't necessarily know what chambers do. And just three initiatives that I'm really excited about that we've just initiated in the last couple of years. Our leadership development program, which teaches leadership skills, emotional intelligence, building trust, key tools that our participants take back to the workplace. Our Workforce Development Committee focuses on one industry each year.

Last year was health care. This year, it's manufacturing. We want to be the conduit between all the our educational institutions in San Marcos and be able to enter chamber or enter our businesses in San Marcos to help find out where those hiring gaps. And then this year, we've partnered with Escondido on a Latino business group that is just getting started now because we want to be a resource for Latino owned businesses in San Marcos. And again, that's just kicking off now. We had our CSUSM leader senior experience team focus on that. In fact, I'm going to see their trade show after this. So again, thanks very much. And I do want to say I've never been in the same room as a Jeopardy contestant. Think it's extremely cool. Thank

you.

It is cool. You have to admit it. Okay. And then probably one of the most important parts of our city that no one even talks about is public works. It seems kind of boring, but they're the ones that keep our city looking so beautiful and clean.

So we appreciate everything they do. And the best thing about, I think, what they're doing this year is they're saving us lots of money. We just found out about this recently. They're actually crushing it in the money savings, so we love that too. Doing all that they do, yeah, all of that.

Street striping, we love when our city does the street striping, not our contractors, they never do a great job. Anyway, so we have Tim coming down and then I think oh, I didn't even know you guys were here, so really I'm glad I said all the nice things that I said. But I'm not kidding. Our team is like the best, like the absolute best. They're saving money for us every day and I'm just going to brag on you for a minute if you don't mind. So what did they recently do? We had a $750,000 expenditure, brand new Street Striper. What did they do? They got really innovative. They thought, why can't we just is it like rehab or

Essentially, yeah.

Put some tread on a new engine, right? So they went out and they contacted the manufacturer. How can we use this again and not have that big expenditure this year? $60,000 later, they saved us $690,000 That's how government should work. And we could not be more proud of them.

So I'm going to read this boring thing, but I have to tell you guys, seriously, crushing it and saving the money. And I can tell you people like me, I could not be more proud of each one of you and everything that you do. And by the way, they're pretty excited they don't have to go out in the middle of the night anymore when we have a flood at the creek because we did that big project and we're happy that they don't have to do it. But when street lights go out and all that, they have to go out in the middle of the night. So we appreciate everything they do.

Anyway, so it's National Public Works Week, which is May. And public works professionals focus on infrastructure, facilities and services that are vital of importance to and sustainable to our resilient communities and to public health. Our high quality of life and well-being of the people of San Marcos. Whereas these infrastructures, facilities and services cannot be provided without the dedicated efforts of our public works professionals who are employees at all levels of government, who are responsible for rebuilding, improving and protecting our city's transportation network, public parks and buildings and other structures and of course, saving us money which we appreciate. It is in the public interest for our residents, civic leaders and children of San Marcos to gain knowledge and to maintain an ongoing interest in understanding of the importance of our public works department and all of their programs.

And the year marks, the year 2026 marks the sixty sixth annual National Public Works Week. And we, the city council of the city of San Marcos, do hereby designate the week of May. So if you see them driving around, make sure you wave. I always try to. I always think if they don't recognize me, they're going, why is that person waving at me? Well, it's because I'm grateful for everything they do, and I know you are too. So anyway, go ahead and give them a wave. Hi. How are you doing? Thank you for all you do kind of thing.

Anyway, May 17 through the twenty third as National Public Works Week, we urge all of our citizens to join us in celebrating all that they do for us every single day and all of the sacrifice, you know, going out in the middle of the night. I know they get paid for it, but it still is a sacrifice on their part. So anyway, Tim, if you'd like to say a few words, I'll give this to you.

Sure. Well,

thank Yes, you of course.

Yeah. I just wanna say thank you. I brought a few friends with me. Yes. And on behalf of these gentlemen and all the public works department, thank you to you and the council for your continued support of our operations. I couldn't be more proud of their professionalism, their dedication, and we're extremely blessed to be a part of this organization and to serve the residents of the city. And so thank you again.

Oh, yes. And I I almost forgot. If you look at the pictures, cleaning up the city so we don't have graffiti too. It's a big job. Anyway, thank you guys so very much.

Squeeze a little bit.

Think they are

just Don't be shy. Don't shy.

It's alright. We won't lie. I promise. All right, one last proclamation and then we're going to have a presentation. Does everyone know what month it is?

Bike to work. So actually, it's bike anywhere now, I guess we're calling it, bike anywhere day. Anyway, we have here Rachel from SanDag. Come on down. We have the month of May is National Bike Month and May 21 is Bike Anywhere Day.

Yes, you'll see me even on a bicycle that day. There are nearly 1,800 miles of bikeways in the San Diego region, making the San Diego region one of the best places to explore local communities and go by bike to the beach, park, school, work, or a local restaurant. And biking is an emission free and healthy transportation alternative for short car trips that reduces traffic congestion. SANDAG is organizing Bike Anywhere Day on 05/21/2026. Get your helmets guys and get on your bike.

And don't drive there, you gotta in your you gotta go on your bike. There will be three pit stops here in San Marcos and I think Rachel's gonna go through those. But we encourage our students, families, commuters, and bike enthusiasts and all people new to biking to replace a car trip with a bike trip and pledge to go by bike to an official pit stop, and they're all over the county by the way. I think there is a map on on yes. She'll get to that a little bit later.

Anyway, the go by bike, stops are going to be from 06:30 to 09:30 on May 21 and the city council of the city of San Marcos does hereby commend and recognize May 2025 as bike to month or as bike month and May 21 as bike anywhere day and encourages everyone to go by bike that day. That is next Thursday. And Rachel, I think you have I wanna present this to you and then she has a presentation so the council will go sit down since we wanna take care of council member LeBlang and the rest of us. So anyway, thank

you so much. I'll give you that. Thank you. And Sandy.

Thank you. Thank you so

much. Alright. And then you just come around. All right, Rachel. Take it away.

Thank you. Good evening, mayor, council members and residents of San Marcos. My name is Rachel and I'm here on behalf of SANDAG. And I'm going to share a little bit of information about Bike Anywhere Day and how San Marcos residents can get involved. Bike Anywhere Day is SANDAG's annual celebration of biking across the entire San Diego region. The idea is simple. On May 21, we're inviting everyone to ride their bike, to work, to school, to a coffee shop, wherever your day takes you. The event runs from 06:30 to 09:30 in the morning and will have over 100 pit stops across the region to greet riders along their way. At every pit stop, participants can pick up a free Sandag t shirt. It's bright and soft.

We have bike maps and snacks as well while supplies last. Registration is free and easy at sandag.org/bikeday. And we encourage anyone over the age of 18 to register because everyone who registers will be automatically entered in a chance to win one of five e bikes courtesy of RidePanda. So there's good odds out there. San Marcos has three pit stops this year, which is a great showing for the city.

Riders can stop at the City of San MarcosSan Marcos Library that's in partnership with Trek San Marcos or they can go to CSU San Marcos or at Hunter Industries in partnership with Wrench House Cyclery. And as you heard the mayor say, she'll be out riding, so you might get lucky and see her. We also have a partner toolkit for anyone who would like to help spread the word. Sandag has tried to make it easy. Our toolkit is available at sandag.org/bikedaytoolkit and it includes ready to use newspaper copy, social media graphics and captions, a printable flyer and a PowerPoint slide.

If anyone in the city wants to promote this through your own channels next week, everything is ready to plug and play. And I already saw flyers and a poster in the building next door. So thank you to the city staff who helped us spread the word. Beyond the one day event, SANDAG offers free bike classes year round. For adults, that includes bike commuting 101 And 202, an e bike safety course and a bike friendly driver class, which is great for residents who may not ride but want to share the road safely.

For younger riders, we offer bike rodeos, walk, ride and roll, and biking together. These programs help make cycling more accessible and safer for everyone in our community. And the city also partners with the Sheriff's Office and the San Diego County Bicycle Coalition to promote a Ride Ride program. Information is available online through the Resident Services page. We've also recently updated our online interactive regional bike map, which is available on our website.

It shows nearly 1,900 miles of existing bikeways across the region broken down by class from multiuse paths to separated bikeways as well as facilities that are coming soon, and we have over five bikeways in construction right now across the region. For residents who want to commute by bike but aren't sure about where to park their bikes, we've got you covered. We have over six seventy five secondure bike parking spaces at 72 transit stops and park and ride lots around the county and they're available for a one time deposit of $25 Right here in San Marcos, are lockers at the Civic Center, Cal State San Marcos Station and at the Palomar College Station. So to close, Bike Anywhere Day is right around the corner. It's a week from Thursday and there's still time to register and plan your ride.

The website is sandag.org/bikeday or you can email us, bikedaysandag dot org, and follow us on social media at sandagregion. I'm happy to answer any questions the Council may have and thank you for the opportunity to present tonight.

Thank you, Rachel. And I definitely would love to have you do another we're doing our pop up events at all of our schools, but we would love for you and Sandag to have another event for an e bike safety class because we still have kids unfortunately. We just had an accident this week, but we're having, still accidents, parents, not making sure that their kids are following the rules of the road. And in San Marcos, we did adopt the state law so that kids 12 are not allowed to own a bike or ride a bike. And we still though have, you know, the kids with their helmets that are not buckled on safely and all of that.

So definitely appreciate any further efforts that SanDev could provide to do those. So we look forward to next week and hopefully people will be following the rules and making sure that our residents in cars that are driving around are also cognizant of their surroundings and that there are cyclists all over our roads. Any other questions or discussion? Yes.

I'll just echo what the mayor just said. The accident that we had this week with was two kids on one bike and neither had helmets. And so there's definitely an opportunity to spread that awareness and hopefully get the parents more engaged. And so anything that SanDag can do to help us in San Marcos and the rest of North County, we'd certainly appreciate it. So thank you.

All right. Thank you. Thanks, Thank you for your time.

Okay, moving on to the consent calendar. Are there any items that any council members wish to pull? Seeing none, do I have a motion to approve? I'll

move. Second.

Okay, motion to approve and a second. All in favor? Aye. Any nos? Okay, hearing none, motion passes. We are going to move on to public comments. And I saw that we have a couple of speakers. First is going to be Jane and Bob Tetzlaff, followed by Marlene Walder, and then Alondra Alvarez. Welcome.

Hello, council members, mayor.

You for,

hearing us. Sorry. You, speak into the yeah. Sorry. Yeah. There you go. There you go.

Well, thank you for letting us speak tonight. We appreciate that and we love what you guys do for us in our city. Thank you. We live on Poppy Road. Right behind our house is a trail. If you go far enough along there, you can get up to Discovery Lake. Discovery Lake has a little river coming out of it that goes right along that trail right behind our house. Unfortunately, there's a lot of brush back there. A lot of it is dead. And we're going through one insurance company after another.

They keep canceling us saying that we're in too much of a fire zone. And so now we were we just got our third carrier in as many years starting this year. But, we're worried we're gonna lose them too. So, we need whatever help you can offer us to have people come and clear the brush. Now, I did talk to

The dead brush.

Yeah. I I asked if it was okay if I cleared it. And one of the guys that's in charge, forgot his name, said I can't. He won't let me touch the dead brush even if it's dead. So, need your help.

My wife, do you have something No, to that's basically it. We've been here since 2010, and actually I lived in, I've been in North County basically almost my whole life, and was in another part of San Marcos back before, but there's also a huge eucalyptus tree, and I know eucalyptus trees have a reputation of it just worries us. It it it we don't yeah, if we think about it too much, we don't feel safe when those Santa Ana winds come, but thanks for any help with fresh management or a policy or what can be done. I don't know. I know it's huge.

Okay. So this is not an agenda item, but what we're going to do is have

just you wanted to say something.

Yeah. No. I just wanna let you know, we will have city staff reach out to you because we are a class one fire agency. We run into this rather often as a matter of fact because we are in, you know, of San Diego County is a high severity wildfire area. But we can definitely help contact the information or give the information to insurance companies. And then also we are always looking at the brush management and doing whatever we can. Some places are sensitive habitat, that would be correct information that you can't just go in and clear brush, but we will be in touch with you. How about that? Perfect. We're just hoping for the dead brush.

Did you submit the email a couple days ago? Was that

Yes. Okay.

Last Friday.

And so to the mayor's point, I just wanna say that our city manager and our team are already looking into this. We just haven't had a chance to respond to you on it, but they are they are on top of it. Yeah. Will definitely We'll have an answer for you soon.

Thank you Thank so

you being involved. Okay, next up is Marlene Walder followed by Alondra Alvarez and then it will be Flower Alvarez Lopez. Welcome.

Thank you, mayor, deputy mayor, and council members, and everyone else. Back whoop. Can't do that. Back before COVID, I brought this ugly sign in and I didn't realize how bad it was. But I brought it in twice now and the only thing on this list that has even been, I'll read it anyway, that hasn't that has been accomplished but it was the handicapped bathroom and it's still really not truly accessible because they locked the one gate that a handicapped person can get into that area and it's been locked on and off for different reasons.

But that's the only thing since before COVID that has been done on this and we get a letter from the new management stating all the great things they've done. The only problem is they're regular maintenance type items. One of the things on here was that they should clean the clubhouse. When COVID was over, it took a year to get someone to come and clean the clubhouse. You couldn't see through the windows.

They were that dirty. My comment now was or given to me was, well, we're gonna be replacing the windows. We don't need to clean them until they get replaced. That's in the coming year. You know, they mop the floors in the clubhouse, but if you come in about two hours after they finish mopping and take a white paper towel, I don't think they're changing the water when they mop, and they mop now because I complain constantly once a week.

The clubhouse is being used for bingo, food bank, other activities, parties, and they don't clean up, they don't clean the bathroom except once a week. They do empty the trash cans, I think twice a week maybe, but it's once a week also. Things trees, they're making a big deal that oh, we're going to trim the trees now twice a year instead of once every other year or once a year. They're asking for a rent increase above the price that is example, mine should be around $24, it's going to be $36 or $38 even though it's a set thing. I don't think they deserve it.

I don't think they even deserve anything. The infrastructure, electric, sewer, and gas, this has been a complaint way before COVID. We had three weeks while I've lived there during the hottest heat wave we've had here. And thank you.

Thank you. Thank you, Marlene. Can we have Sylvia reach out and just talk to her about health concerns? Okay, thank you. Okay, next up is Alondra Alvarez followed by Flower Alvarez Lopez.

Good evening, mayor Jones and city council members. For the record, my name is Alondra Alvarez, and I'm a community educator with Universidad Popular, and I'm here to provide some of our on the record updates. So first, I wanted to share with you all a recap of how our May Day resource fair went. So on Friday, May 1, we hosted a May Day celebration at Universidad Popular, and we celebrated this internationally recognized day by commemorating labor movements and advocating workers' rights by hosting over 15 tables of countywide resources. So we had health care professionals, the registrar of voters, Cal OSHA, the office of labor standards and enforcement, and many more.

We had music and tacos and an opportunity drawing, and it gathered nearly two thirty community members from San Marcos. So it's a great turnout, a great day, and we look forward to doing it again next year. The second update that I want to give you all is regarding the CalKids program. So we continue to support outreach for CalKids and help families claim college saving funds set aside for their children. It is so important that families check the eligibility to claim these scholarships.

Recently, our outreach team went to Madison Middle School open house, and there was a parent there who was hesitant at first to check her children's eligibility. She wasn't aware of what the program was. After our team explained the program, she took the moments to check, and both of her children ended up qualifying for the highest scholarship available, which just really emphasizes how important it is to continue doing the outreach into the community. And if you'd like to know more about this or gather more information and outreach materials about Cal Kids, we would be more than happy to provide those and support your offices in being able to share this opportunity with constituents across San Marcos. So thank you. Those are all the updates that I have. Thank you for your time. Have a good evening.

Thank you. And thanks for the update on the Cal Kids. That's really important and I'm glad you're doing that outreach. And sorry, missed the May Day. I was at San Diego. I would have much rather been there. But anyway, thanks for your efforts, really appreciate it. And Flora Alvarez Lopez, welcome.

Hello. Hello, everyone. For the record, my name is Flora Alvarez Lopez and I serve as the co director for Universidad Popular based here in North County, San Diego, which many of you are already familiar with. First, Felizia de las Madres weekend. I hope you all had a beautiful Mother's Day weekend celebrating the wonderful women and mothers or maternal figures in your life.

I had the privilege of spending this weekend celebrating my grandma. She turned 82 on Mother's Day, which was very special for our family. Would like to thank Alondra for providing our organizational on the record updates. I had the opportunity to attend the thirteenth Annual North County Economic Summit at Cal State San Marcos last Thursday, May 7. And I found the event both extremely informative and also very reaffirming.

The data presented by the keynote speaker clearly illustrated the critical role that immigration plays in our economy and also the well the social well-being of us here in San Diego, California and nation as a whole. The keynote speaker highlighted several important data points that I hope that we can continue to discuss as a city but also a community moving forward. Also on May 7 we had the chance to celebrate a group of 23 special moms and treated them to a wonderful breakfast at Terry Campus or Terry Campus of Life Cafe here in San Marcos. We love having Terry here in the community and we were really happy to take a group of 23 moms that have been volunteering with us for many, many years and really sustain the work that we do. So I just wanted to provide those updates.

I want to thank you all for your time and have a good evening. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Okay, moving on to reports. SANDEC, we had our Board of Directors meeting last week. We had several different things that we did approve. One of the, we actually had our draft budget, I'm sorry, program budget, not our draft budget, our regular budget.

It shows that we're doing kind of okay, we're still investing in projects that helping our communities. And then we also and also our discussion about what we're planning on doing investing in programs like micro transit, things like that. And then we also had one project that we are making sure that we're following there was some discussion back and forth of whether we were moving money from one bucket to another bucket and then back to another bucket. And so we decided to have our internal controls department look at it, thanks to our city manager. I'm so proud that you run the help me out here.

The I guess the committee to interview our internal controls person, which is basically our person that goes in and sees if our processes are doing well, if we can improve on them, which is finally happening at Sandex, so it's pretty exciting. But then also our independent auditor is also going to be looking at it to make sure that we're following all of the rules because we want more transparency at SANDAG, which is finally happening. And then anyway, so that's going to come back to us if there are any issues. Well, actually we will be able to make a change if that's possible, but they were needing another 300, I think it was $325,000 from the early action bike program to build a bike lane in San Diego. So if you understand how SANDAG works and the TransNet funds, specifically those funds, there are some that are programmed toward highways, some toward local roads and streets and then also some that are specifically for bike lanes.

So it's specifically bike lane money, so it does have to be used on bike lanes. Anyway, so our next meeting is coming up in two weeks from this coming Friday, so that's May 22. And that's pretty much all that happened, not a super long meeting, but we are actually improving our processes which is good. Then moving on to League of California cities and

Council Member LeBlanc.

Council Member LeBlanc. Sorry, not to say it like that, but I'm always irritated with the state and all of their ridiculous laws. But go ahead and This tell us all the great one Is are you working okay?

I don't

know. Is this working?

Yes. It is? Okay. We can't tell from up here for Okay. Some

All right. So this was actually a fun one. Oh. Yes. So we actually had a panel presentation that was Oh, there go.

There we go.

Yeah. Yeah. That's better.

This was a fun one. We had a panel presentation that was sponsored by Genentech anniversary of life sciences and biotech in San Diego, and it was moderated by Congressman Scott Peters. And it was a great celebration of all the amazing things we have going on in San Diego. We have over 400 biotech firms, and we support over 71,000 jobs in biotech in San Diego County. So that's really impressive.

And we are a draw to the biotech sector because we have a lower cost of living than the other hubs, San Francisco and Boston. We have a we have great colleges, great research institutes to draw from, and obviously, we have a great quality of life, so that helps as well. It's also a more concentrated hub of biotech here. In San Francisco, in the Bay Area, for example, all the companies are very spread out, so it's not as collaborative. So we're actually a leader in early stage development here.

We are the number one city in biotech innovation in San Diego. So those are really impressive statistics. So one of the things we focused on though was what can we do as cities to help grow this industry. And the biggest thing is to make sure that we're providing the opportunities for young people to become engineers, health care workers, scientists. And Genentech actually partnered with MiraCosta College in Oceanside to create a bachelor's degree program in biomanufacturing so that they can really support the workforce in biotech.

And another big thing that they said that we can do as cities is make sure that we're hitting our middle income levels for housing because that's the starting salary for most of these jobs. So obviously, we're doing a great job in San Marcos Center housing, but they just did say to continue with that. And we just need a lot of housing to help support their workforce. So those were just some of the things we talked about. It was a long discussion, but very focused on what we can do as a city.

I did want to

just say one thing. So when you said we're doing a great job on our housing in the city, I don't know if you all recently saw, but it's not just the most housing, it's actually the housing in the different categories. So I'm glad you mentioned in that middle income area because out of all of the cities in the county, we're I think the only ones that are meeting the different income levels. So it's very low, low, moderate and then above moderate. So it's those four different categories that San Marcos is doing very well.

And I think our the only one that we're not actually meeting yet or close to meeting is our very low, which is always a struggle because we used to have redevelopment that helped supplement and pay for building that housing, which we don't build ourselves. It's all private development. But anyway, we're doing pretty good in all of the different categories, which is good because yeah, we're getting people educated here and then they're able to find housing so they can stay here because, you know, they have roots here, which is good, getting jobs too.

Absolutely. And I don't know if council member Nunez would like to add anything to that. She's our division president, so she could add on if there's anything that I left off. We talked about a lot of things. So

We did. It was

it was really It really was.

Just wanna say I thought it was a great panel, and, I thought congressman Peters did an excellent job moderating and really centering the discussion on how important it is and how valuable a company like Genentech is to the region, and especially since they're headquartered in Ocean Side, and they really think that it's ideal for them to be in, especially in North County. So, want to highlight that, and we heard great comments, a great response to the panel and the timely discussion.

So I did want to mention that we also had a similar panel sponsored by Genentech at the North County Economic Development Summit last week as well. That was focused very much on the economy and just how everything's doing in the region and how life sciences feeds into that. And this was a great contrast to that to add some extra value and also just it was more city focused on what can policymakers do in this field to help it grow, as opposed to how does this type of biotechnology and life sciences support our regional economy. So it was a great add on to that.

I completely agree.

And I'll say it again, North County is the upside of San Diego. And, you know, with great, businesses like Genentech.

No bias. Alright.

North County Transit District Report, Deputy Mayor Sanella.

Yes. We meet on the twenty first in Oceanside at our offices.

Okay. Council Member LeBlang, also North County Dispatch.

We meet in weeks.

Two weeks. Okay. Clean Energy Alliance, Council Member Nunez.

Thank you, mayor. We had our last meeting at the April, 04/30/2026. We had a packed agenda. A lot happening in that space. So I'll start it by highlighting, that the board approved a memorandum of understanding within SINA Wastewater Authority to begin a preliminary exploration of potential local biogas to energy generation project.

So Encina's wastewater treatment operations produce biogas and a planned expansion of the facility's treatment process is expected to generate surplus biogas beyond what is needed for Encina's internal operations. So the MOU establishes a collaborative framework for evaluating the project's technical design, interconnection requirements, and financial feasibility with a goal of delivering nearly four megawatts of locally generated renewable electricity to CA customers. So CA will lead efforts on interconnection and grid analysis, ground funding, strategy and public outreach while LENCINA will oversee preliminary engineering, environmental review and procurement planning. Staff anticipate that a detailed project design and implementation could begin as early as January 2029 with CA potentially serving as the power purchaser for electricity generated by the project under a future power purchase agreement. This is one of these projects that has been contemplated for some time, it'll be sort of a test pilot for CEA.

So we're interested to see what results that yields for our CEA customers. I want to highlight some of the updates that we that we received. If you recall on 01/29/2026, the board approved a temporary rate relief credit designed to achieve rate parity between CA's clean impact power product and San Diego Gas and Electric's bundled customers mitigating the impacts of the power, charge and difference adjustment rates that went into effect on 01/01/2026. So if you remember, CA created a structure to create some relief for, some of our customers and, we did get an update. So, so far, we do have one commercial entity in San Marcos that has taken advantage of the rate relief program and we have two thirteen residential customers that have taken advantage.

So, I do want to remind our residents that that is an option that's available for those that are experiencing difficulty in paying their energy bills. And they can contact CEA. The information is on our website or they can reach out to me or CEA staff to help with that process. And along with that, CEA has been active in making sure that residents are informed about the options that they have available. So, they do have a webinar that's scheduled to take place on 05/21/2026 will be via Zoom.

And this is an educational, webinar. One is scheduled to, take place in English and then followed by one in Spanish. And, we do have that information on the Clean Energy Alliance website and, we so we will be promoting that. I also wanna remind everybody that CEA is celebrating its five year anniversary, so the celebration is scheduled to take place on 05/28/2026. We'll have our board meeting, our regular board meeting that will start at two and then the celebration will follow after that. And where will that be located? And the celebration.

Oh, sorry. It's okay.

I wanna make sure not to give the wrong location for the celebration.

It's only when you're in a rush to look for something that that that you can't find it. If you want us to go to the business visit and pop back while you look that up, do you want us to do that?

Yeah. You know what, I have it right here.

Oh, okay.

Thank you for offering that. Yeah. So we're gonna be we're scheduled for to start at 5PM and this is going to be taking place at the Agua Hedonda Lagoon Foundation and that's 1580 Cannon Road in Carlsbad. And so keep in mind that we'll have a regularly scheduled board board meeting. We'll wrap that up and then we'll head over to the location. So we're scheduled to start at 5PM.

Great. Thank you, council member.

Thank you,

mayor. Okay. Moving on to city council business visits. We had Corte Fino right there, barbershop. It's owned and operated by a local husband and wife duo, Chris and Maria Rodriguez. And it was built with passion, craftsmanship and a strong commitment to the community. Their space brings a clean modern feel while staying rooted in the welcoming hometown energy that makes San Marco so special. The shop is fully staffed with nine barber chairs allowing them to serve a high volume of clients while maintaining personalized service. And there we are, council member, I'm sorry, Deputy Mayor. I did it again, darn it.

I'm not gonna call you Mayor yet, even though you're running. Deputy Mayor Sunella, do you wanna add anything to that? And I thought we had a little video that we made.

Did make it work?

I don't know, maybe not. Is it working?

Is grand that finale?

Is it the grand finale? You know, we try to have a little bit of fun with our businesses because, know, they are, you know, they're the heart of our community and I love that this husband and wife started this this barbershop.

We didn't get proof the video though.

I know. Didn't proof it. So hopefully, we don't look ridiculous, but, you know, we had fun doing it. I guess it's about the fun factor at the end of the day.

We were actually laughing really hard about that. We thought it

was pretty funny. Do you have more comments, Yes. Debbie I'll just add

a couple of things. Cortofino is it's in the Aldi's shopping center on the corner of San Marcos Boulevard and Rancho Santa Fe. So it's kind of near the high school area. And the young lady that was in some of the photos and the video, that is Maria. And so she's one of the owners with her husband, Chris.

And in addition to doing all of the barbershop, your typical barbershop type of services, they seem like they really want to be an active contributor to our community, too. They're already engaging with the Boys and Girls Club for their Flapjacks event, and they want to be one of the barbers that provides free haircuts for kids right before school starts. And so it sounds like they're going to be a great community partner with everyone, and their shop is just absolutely beautiful. As you can see there in the photos, it's modern, it's very clean and sleek and I think it's going to be a great newcomer to our business community.

Yes, and the giving back to the community part is really cool. They're also talking about doing some discounted events for our senior citizens. So a lot of really, really good work and good heart for the community. So excited to see what they do. They've been open again, I can't remember if it says in here anywhere, but I feel like it's been like maybe

Maybe a month.

Has it been four or five weeks, I was thinking maybe, maybe, yeah, somewhere around there. Not very long, but they really are now up to full capacity as far as their workforce and everything. So anyway, it's exciting to watch them grow. Okay. Council commentary.

I do have one thing. So I actually have been getting a few people asking about this, but I had someone reach out to me about something that is a property that's on library and what's going on with it. They were told that it was going to be affordable housing 100% and it was already done deal. I said, well, that's not at all what's happening. So I provided them some information.

And I did want everyone to kind of pay attention to what's going on with SB 79. SB79 is a state law that has been out there and approved already by the even signed by the governor unfortunately. It's a high density bill that would allow around our four sprinter stops in the city, higher density, regardless of what our zoning is. And so we are currently, Sandag is actually in charge of putting together the maps. The mapping will be done, I'm told by the June, possibly the first week, but probably likely the June.

And just to give you an idea what could actually potentially be on that site, it's I forget, it's like maybe 13 acres or something like that. That they could actually build up to 935 units on one piece of property like that. So the state laws are extremely awful. We need to figure out how to fight back, get back local control. But I just want to bring this up because there are a lot of people out there saying, oh, the cities don't have to follow state density bonus.

We do. Unfortunately, we are trying to figure out how to get around it all day every day. I would say it's probably something that we talk about a lot here in our city. But it is very damaging what the state is doing to our communities. I know I talk about it all the time.

All the smart things that they're doing up there in Sacramento to take away, I say that with a proper amount of sarcasm, to take away our local authority. It's very disastrous. And anyway, when we get the maps back, we will have this as an agenda item so that we can make you fully aware of what's going on at the state level and what they're doing to our local communities and how we can start putting people in the legislature in my opinion is really going to be the only way to get back local control. Unless of course, we get something on the ballot and in maybe 2028 to bring all land use back to local municipalities, which is really important. Anyway, I'm really passionate about this, but I'm just so sick of the misinformation.

It is a silly season of campaigns and all of that, but I just wanted to bring this up because it really is misinformation that's out there right now. The city is not trying to put in something like that. We're trying to stop something. On that particular piece of property, the developer does want a rezone, but it's not what they could actually do without any input from us. So they are trying to do the right thing in my opinion. So anyway, that will be coming forward at some point in time. Anyway, that's it. Any other commentary? Okay. Council member LeBlanc.

I just wanted to mention that our junior ranger day is this, Saturday put on by Parks and Rec, and that's at Jack's Pond from two to six. It's a great event for the younger kiddos. And also happy birthday week to our mayor.

Aw. Thanks, I think. I'm glad you did bring that up because it did remind me of one other thing that I forgot to mention, and that is this weekend is graduation from CSU San Marcos. So Friday and Saturday, make sure you avoid the area. It will be pretty dicey over there. I get one day of my birthday of having all of that. That's how I remembered anyway. So definitely avoid CSU San Marcos area unless you have to go over there on both Friday and Saturday. They will have signs up. I don't know off the top of my head the graduation times.

I think it's all day long both days. So anyway, just wanted to bring that up to everyone. And with that, this meeting is adjourned.

I'm sorry.