City Council - Regular Meeting

Not that bad. I'm going to go hang out with Kyle and I know they've got a mini split in there. I said, you may need to open your door, open the door and push their air out.

All right, good evening and happy Taco Tuesday for this regular meeting of August 4th. So for this closed session, I'd like to call it to order at 5.01. Can I get a roll call, please? Council Member Lara?

Here. Council Member Lara?

Sorry, here.

Council Member Fenn?

Here.

Council Member Martinez? Here. Mayor Pro Tem White? Here. Mayor Voigt? Here.

All right. Do we have any public comments for our closed session?

I have no written requests. Simone, do we have any callers on the line?

We have no callers at this time. All right. Mr. Pinkney, can we please get a readout for the items for discussion?

Yes, the council meet in closed session. Item B1 is conference with legal counsel regarding existing litigation. That's the Illiputafi versus City of Beaumont case. The case number is listed in the agenda. Item B2, conference with legal counsel regarding existing litigation. And that's City of Beaumont versus Simon Lee Arts. Case number is listed in the agenda. Item B3 is conference with legal counsel regarding potential initiation of litigation involving one potential case.

Okay, thank you. And we will adjourn to closed session at 5.02.

Sorry about that, Mayor.

All right. Good evening, everybody. Happy Tuesday. I will call this regular session of the City Council meeting to order at 6 o'clock p.m. Can I please get a roll call?

Council Member Laura? Here. Council Member Finn? Here. Council Member Martinez? Here. Mayor Pro Tem White? Here. Mayor Voigt? Here.

And Mr. Peeney, can we get a report out on closed session, please?

Yes. The council met in closed session. Item B1 was conference with legal counsel regarding existing litigation. And that matter is Illa-Pitafe versus City of Beaumont. And that is Riverside County Superior Court case number CVR 12105069. There was reportable action taken. There was a motion to dismiss the city state court action cross complaint. That motion was made by Councilmember Lara, the second was by Councilmember Fenn, and the vote was the Mayor in favor of the motion, Mayor Pro Tem White in favor of the motion, Councilmember Lara in favor of the motion, Councilmember Martinez in favor of the motion, and Councilmember Fenn in favor of the motion. Item B2 was conference with legal counsel regarding existing litigation, and that involved the case of Beaumont versus Simon Lee Arts, and there was no reportable action taken on that item. Item B3 was conference with legal counsel regarding potential initiation of litigation involving one potential case. There was no reportable action taken on that item. And that concludes the report out.

All right. Thank you. And if you would please join me in an invocation by Walt Harrison and then followed by the Pledge of Allegiance.

Lord, we just want to thank you for all your blessings, how you've had your hand on this city over the years and even now. And Lord, we're asking for your anointing tonight. on all the discussions of all the subjects, all the needs that, Lord, you give discernment to the council and those speaking, those that are going to be speaking, give them the ability to speak clearly and in a way that people could understand what their issues are or the needs and give them all wisdom, discernment, understanding, and everything else that is needed here for tonight. In Jesus' name, amen.

and please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. Ready, begin. All right, that moves us to our public comment period for items that are not on the agenda. Any one person may address the city council on any matter not on this agenda. If you wish to speak, please fill out a public comment form provided at the back of the room and give it to the city clerk. There's a three minute time limit on public comments and there will be no sharing or passing of time to another person. State law prohibits the city council from discussing or taking actions brought up by your comments. Do we have any public comment today?

Yes, ma'am. I do have a in-person request. Romero Cabrera.

Romero Cabrera, 1523 East 8th Street in Beaumont. There has been construction of a sidewalk and cross for the kids that are in the school, Sundance School on 8th Street between Allegheny and Xenia. I want to thank the city council. Mayor Pro Tem White came to visit me a couple of years ago when I filed a petition on the spokesman for the 13 properties on 8th Street. And our concern was for the children that live in the apartments on Sycamore Tree Apartments in Tuscany and, of course, now the new veterans' apartments, the children. And they cross the street, and everybody's going 100 miles an hour. They don't care in the morning. And I appreciate the funding from the city. The construction has been going very well. I want to speak highly of the crew, the working crew that has been doing that. That's in-house. That's not a contractor. And I like the goings-on from the day they started. The day after school let out, the city showed up. And it was a beautiful sight. I worked all my life. I'm retired from Edison. Councilman Lara knows me personally. Good crew, always talking, safety, eye protection, ear protection, always communicating, working, no fooling around, okay? It's a good thing. Sometimes you gotta contract stuff out, yeah. I want to thank the city council for the funding because I know behind the scenes, you know, it's about money. And thank you very much. It's an ongoing project. School starts next week. And, you know, it was, we blitzed it. I want to say thank you very much for everything that you've done for the city.

And thank you, Mr. Cabrera. Thank you. Thank you.

Simone, do we have any callers on the line?

We have no callers at this time.

All right, great. That will take us on to our consent calendar. Are there any items to be pulled for discussion?

Mayor? If I could, I'd like to pull item G14.

Anybody else? All right, and are there any public comments for anything on the consent calendar?

I have no written requests. Simone, do we have any callers on the line? We have no callers at this time.

Mayor, seeing none, I'll make a motion to approve items G1 through G13. I'll second that.

Okay, and can I get a roll call, please?

Councilmember Laura? Yes. Councilmember Fenn? Yes. Councilmember Martinez? Yes. Mayor Pro Tem White? Yes. Mayor Voigt?

Yes. And that will take us to item G14. Councilmember Laura? I mean, excuse me, Councilmember Fenn?

Yes, thank you, Mayor. I just wanted to point out, and maybe we can get Chief come on up if you could. I'd appreciate it. This council has been highest priority is public safety and any time that we have an opportunity to give the tools to our police department to better do their job, I think it's well worth a couple extra minutes to review that so the public better understands what we're doing. And so, Chief, if you could just take a minute or so and just explain. You know, as we have on record versus it just being a consent calendar of what this software agreement and what benefits it'll bring to the city.

Absolutely. And thank you for this opportunity. I'm actually very excited about the Peregrine AI software. What it does is it ingests all our different databases. Right now, the police department has about 12 different databases we search through. uh we have some of our our historical legacy uh report management system and and dispatch systems a couple years ago we went to a new cad rms system that houses the new data so those are two large databases we have to search there's other various state and county platforms that our officers our dispatchers our investigators have to access to be able to pull information I've talked to our detectives, they spend about four hours every day accessing every single database. Our police officers, one to two hours every day, and our dispatchers average five to six hours a day pulling information from various databases. So what Peregrine does is it ingests everything and provides immediate access to all the data without having to log into all the different systems. We did a test run with Peregrine during a presentation just two weeks ago, and they've only ingested part of our information, but we created fake calls like a shoplifter at Stater Brothers identified as a tall white male, drove away in a blue car with a light split with a six on it. Within three seconds, it identified three people that we've had contact with who were over 5'10", white male, contacted in blue cars in the past, with a number six on the plate. And of those three, it highlighted one specific because he's been arrested at that store before for shoplifting. I mean, in a matter of seconds, we really identify a suspect in that fake haul. This program will also provide crime analytics. So we won't need to be asking for a crime analytics position in the future. This technology will do it. It's one of our goals is just provide more resources with less personnel and leverage technology. So this is really just us being able to perform better with less personnel. And it's also going to be the platform and the base of when we go live with our DFR program, that we can start working towards a live crime center or a live information center. Because now, the person flying the drone is going to have access to all that data in a matter of seconds compared to what would have been 10, 15 minutes, if not longer, for each individual search. this is a platform I've been super excited about. I know I've presented to you before during the budget presentation, but it's just something I'm really excited for, and thank you for the opportunity for letting me share.

All right, I appreciate that, Chief, and if we didn't have any other comments, I'd make a motion to approve item G14.

Any other comments from Council?

I'll second that.

All right, can I get a roll call, please? Council Member Laura?

Yes.

Council Member Finn?

Yes.

Council Member Martinez? Yes. Mayor Pro Tem White?

Yes.

Mayor Voigt? Yes. And thank you, Chief, for that presentation.

All right, that will take us on. I don't believe we have a youth council report, although hopefully soon we will start those back up again.

Hopefully soon, but not today.

All right, and then to public hearings. We'll start with item I-1, a public hearing to adopt a mitigated negative declaration for the Beaumont Master Drainage Plan Line 2 Stage 1 project, also known as CIP 2019-019, in compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act, CEQA. Mr. Vestal.

Thank you, Mayor. As you mentioned, this is the master drainage plan in DP, line two, stage one project. It's approximately 5,000 linear feet, almost a mile. It starts at Berkshire Channel near First Street, then runs up Pennsylvania through the future grade set there to Sixth Street and then over to Chestnut. It proposes to install a 102-inch RCP through the Pennsylvania corridor. It does reduce in size further upstream. However, just for a comparison, a car could drive through a 102-inch RCP. So this is a major project for the city. It does have a nexus to Pennsylvania GRADCEP, which we'll hear a little bit later this evening, which is why I'm providing a little graphic just to make you aware of the location and the magnitude of this project. And then lastly, the recommended action is to adopt the initial study and mitigated negative declaration. There were no significant impacts after the MMRP is applied. It was circulated for a 30-day review. No comments were received. The second action is to adopt the mitigation monitoring and reporting program, MMRP. Both of those are in the staff report. This concludes my presentation. Staff is available for comments or questions.

OK, thank you. I will open this public hearing at 613. Do we have any public comments for this item?

I have no written requests. Simone, do we have any callers on the line?

We have no callers at this time. All right. Seeing none, then I will close the public hearing at 6.13 p.m. and open it up for council discussion. Any other council discussion? Then I will entertain a motion.

Mayor, I'll make a motion. I move to adopt a mitigated negative declaration and mitigation monitoring and reporting program for Beaumont Master Drainage Plan Line 2, Stage 1 project.

I'll second.

Can I get a roll call, please? Council Member Laura? Yes. Council Member Finn?

Yes.

Council Member Martinez?

Yes.

Mayor Pro Tem White?

Yes.

Mayor Voigt? Yes.

All right. First public hearing down. Now on to I-2, consideration of the Beaumont 2026 Sustainability Plan public hearing continuance. Mr. Boatman?

Thank you, Mayor. Staff has been working with the consultant on finalizing the climate action plan, which is a requirement of our general plan. The plan actually is in its final form now, and we're preparing the staff report. And we're recommending this item be continued as such to the mean of September 1st, 2026. Okay.

Do we have any public hearing? Excuse me. Let me open the public hearing. It's 15. And do we have any public comments regarding it?

I have no written requests. Simone, do we have any callers on the line?

We have no callers at this time. OK. And then I will close the public hearing for the continuation. Does it need to be closed? Or do we continue?

You can do it either way. And you probably will reopen it on September 1 when we come back.

OK. So we'll close this public hearing at 6.15 then. And then I will ask for a motion for the continuance.

Mayor, I move to continue the public hearing item regarding Beaumont 2026 Sustainability Plan to the 2015 Climate Action Plan from tonight's agenda to a public hearing item of the regularly scheduled meeting of September 1st, 2026.

I'll second.

Can I get a roll call, please? Councilmember Lara? Yes. Councilmember Fenn? Yes. Councilmember Martinez? Yes. Mayor Pro Tem White? Yes. Mayor Voigt?

Yes. That takes us on to item I3 in a similar fashion, a public hearing to adopt a mitigated negative declaration for the Beaumont Transit Yard Project, capital improvement project number T25-01 in compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act and National Environment Policy Act. CEQA and NEPA. Mr. Vestal.

Yes, thank you, Mayor. Similar to the last item, staff is requesting the continuation of the public hearing to August 18, 2026, which is the next meeting.

All right. I'll open that public hearing at 616, and do we have any public comments?

I have no written requests. Simone, do we have any callers on the line?

We have no callers at this time. Okay, we'll close this public hearing at 6.17 and open it up for council discussion or a motion for the continuance.

Mayor, I'll move that we continue the scheduled public hearing to August 18, 2026.

I'll second.

Can I get a roll call? Councilmember Laura?

Yes.

Councilmember Finn?

Yes.

Councilmember Martinez? Yes. Mayor Pro Tem White? Yes. Mayor Voigt?

Yes. All right. Now to the meat of the meeting and down to our action items. Item J1, award a business attraction and expansion program grant. Application ED20... 26, maybe that's supposed to be 2025, dash 0017, Toscano's Pizza and Pasta. And we will get a staff report by Mr. Kahle.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. Thank you for the opportunity to give you a presentation on this item tonight. So we've gotten quite a few of these recently, these expansion loan programs. So this one is for Toscano's Pizza and Pasta, located here at a prominent location in our downtown. So we're very excited that they are willing to make a significant investment. And so this one, will be tied specifically to an expansion that they will be doing on the north side of the building. It's going to be a patio cover over on that side. Creates additional seating and outdoor space for them to conduct their business. With that, they will be eliminating some parking spaces. And naturally, parking is a concern in our downtown. So, under the current zoning requirements, the existing mixed-use development requires 33 parking spaces, while approximately 58 parking spaces are currently provided on-site at the location. With the proposed 1,000 square foot expansion, the parking requirement would increase to 37 spaces. Even after accounting for the reduction in parking spaces caused by the expansion itself, the site would still provide 49 parking spaces, exceeding the city's minimum requirements by 12 spaces. So there will be ample parking for the entire site and the restaurant, including the expansion. Yeah, and ultimately, staff believes this project will strengthen an important downtown corridor, and we're happy to partner with Toscano's on this project.

All right, great. Thank you. Do we have any public comment for this item?

I have no written requests. Simone, do we have any callers on the line?

We have no callers at this time. Okay, so seeing no public comments, I will open up council discussion and I'll lead us off. So thank you once again to the economic development team for continuing to reach out to businesses that can utilize this program. I am so excited to see some outdoor seating area options because we really don't have that within the city. And for essentially nine months out of the year, we have beautiful weather that we can take advantage of this. I think we have two options or three options now in the city for outdoor dining, four options maybe, and I'm very excited for this project to move forward. So thank you for investing in the city and in your business as well. Anybody else have any discussion? Okay, with that, I will move to approve the award of a forgivable loan under the Downtown Business Attraction and Expansion Program for the application ED025-0017 in the amount of $50,000 and find that the forgivable loan services a valid public purpose by promoting economic development, encouraging private investment, supporting business attraction and expansion, and creating and retaining employment opportunities and activating commercial spaces.

I'll second.

And can I get a roll call?

Council Member Loro? Yes. Council Member Finn?

Yes.

Council Member Martinez? Yes. Mayor Prochem White? Yes.

Mayor Voigt? Yes. And I think we have a check presentation to present to the gentleman in the back and a picture opportunity.

Congratulations. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Hey, thanks for the investment.

You're going to put misters? Yes, we're going to have misters. We'll have the shades roll down, too. Thank you very much. Great. Good one, buddy.

He's paying for his sidewalk this Friday.

Thanks.

Always exciting to see that money going to good use. Okay, moving on to Pennsylvania grade separation funding strategy. We will have a discussion regarding the funding strategy for Pennsylvania grade separation project, including the trade corridor and TCEPT with additional grant opportunities. I'm not supposed to read this part, but here I am reading it. And ongoing efforts to advance the city's number one strategic plan, priority towards construction. And Mr. Vestal, it must be your night.

It is.

All right.

Yeah. Thank you once again, Mayor. We have several members from RCTC in the audience. Later in the presentation, I will introduce them, and they will have the opportunity to present as well. So the intent of this item is to have a discussion regarding funding strategy for Pennsylvania Avenue grade separation project, including the TCEP, which is the Trade Corridor Enhancement Program, additional funding funding strategies, current project progress, and ongoing efforts to advance the city's number one strategic plan priority project. JUST A BRIEF PROJECT PURPOSE. THE PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE GRADE SEPARATION PROJECT IS THE CITY'S LARGEST AND MOST COMPLEX TRANSPORTATION INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECT TO DATE AND REMAINS THE NUMBER ONE PRIORITY IDENTIFIED IN THE CITY STRATEGIC PLAN. THE PURPOSE OF THIS PROJECT IS TO ELIMINATE THE EXISTING AT GRADE CROSSING. with the Union Pacific Railroad and Pennsylvania Avenue by constructing a grade separated crossing similar to Highland Springs. Doing so will improve public safety and reduce potential conflicts between vehicles, pedestrians, trains, and emergency responders. In addition to improving safety, the project will reduce traffic congestion caused by train activity. enhance regional mobility, and support the continued growth of Beaumont and the surrounding region. The project has been in development since 2017 and represents a significant investment by the city and the regional, state, and federal funding partners. A detailed timeline is provided in attachment A. So the Trade Corridor Enhancement Program, referred to as TCEP, is a competitive grant program administered by the California Transportation Commission, CTC. The funds project, excuse me, CTC funds projects to improve freight movement, rail safety, goods movement, and overall efficiency of California's transportation system. The city was successful in obtaining 33.5 million TCEP funding for the Potrero Interchange Phase II project, which is currently in construction. The Pennsylvania Avenue grade CEP project received a 49.4 million TCEP award through the 2024 funding cycle. Under the 2024 TCEP guidelines, the project must allocate construction funds by June of 2027. This includes a one-year extension that RCTC and the city was successful in obtaining. To meet this deadline, The project must achieve a ready-to-list, also known as RTL, status. RTL is the point at which a project has completed the necessary environment, design, right-of-way, utilities permitting, and other funding requirements, and is substantially ready to be advertised for construction. If the project is unable to achieve RTL by the allocation deadline per the adopted guidelines, the CTC will deprogram the funding. Such an outcome could negatively affect the city's standing in future competitive funding cycles and potentially result in greater scrutiny of project readiness. The next TCEP cycle is It is anticipated that the call for projects will occur this month and the project nominations will occur in November of this year. RCTC and staff has had numerous meetings with Caltrans in preparation for tonight's discussion and to prepare a funding strategy. Caltrans is completed, Caltrans is currently completing their list of partner projects but has expressed support for this project by allowing the city to submit the project tomorrow for consideration should the council move forward with the recommended action. To date, the city has secured approximately 91.8 million from local, regional, state, and federal funding sources. This reflects a strong partnership and investment committed to advancing this project. The 91.8 million includes the current 49.4 TCEP funding. However, as part of this funding strategy, staff is recommending withdrawing the project from the 2024 TCEP cycle four which is the 2024, and reapplying to the 2026 TCEP cycle 5. The ability to reapply to cycle 5 TCEP grant allows the city to request more funding and provides additional time to meet the critical deadlines. Both will be discussed later in this presentation. Just a brief point about the funding strategy. The city continues to pursue an aggressive and diversified funding strategy by sinking multiple federal, state, and regional funding opportunities. The city has applied to three competitive federal grant programs identified by the asterisks in the table to help close the remaining construction funding gap for the project. Those are the Railroad Crossing Elimination, also known as RCE, the Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvement, CRISI program, and the Infrastructure for Rebuilding America, also known as INFRA program. The funding need is estimated to be approximately 110 million. It's important not to be stuck on that number, but just understand the magnitude. Without the current TCEP grant, the proposed funding option shows shown represents several opportunities to close that gap. It is important to know that the funding strategy is fluid and the City may have to pivot during this course. The City will continue to work with RCTC and identify other funding opportunities. Since resuming the project development in July of 2022, the Pennsylvania Avenue grade set project has continued to make significant progress towards final design. In December, 2025, the Riverside County Transportation Commission, RCTC, formally partnered with the city to support project delivery. RCTC brings extensive experience, technical expertise, and resources in delivering large-scale transportation infrastructure and strengthens the city's ability to successfully advance this complex project, especially when the project scope continues to change. At this time, I'd like to invite Aaron Hake, the Executive Director of Riverside County Transportation Commission to provide an update on the project status, some of the project's challenges. Erin is supported by RCTC staff, Eric Galloway, project delivery director, and Jillian Guisado, planning and program director.

Thank you, Robert. Good evening, Mayor Voigt, honorable members of the city council, Aaron Haake, executive director of RCTC. Thank you for inviting us here tonight. Thank you for your leadership on transportation infrastructure and your partnership with RCTC on this project and as well as on Potrero, which as Robert noted is under construction today. I'm joined by Jillian and Eric, as mentioned, to answer any questions at the end of this presentation. The city has been steadfast in its commitment to advance these major infrastructure projects and upon... Can we get the PowerPoint back up, please? To advance this project, approached the commission last year upon receiving this grant, and we wasted no time in getting to work. What I'd like to do is start with what we have accomplished. So environmental is complete. That was our first order of business when RCTC took over this project, working with Caltrans. The environmental document was completed on time under a very, very strict deadline by the CTC. In fact, before I go any further, I do want to emphasize that much of what's being presented to you tonight is being driven by the fact that this TCEP grant comes with unmovable deadlines. The extensions that the CTC provides offers on their deadlines have been exhausted to accommodate this project. And so what we're trying to do is present to you the full picture of facts on the project and what what decisions the council faces with regards to this funding piece. So anyway, the first step was completed with environmental. We received the project from the city at about 30% design, and we immediately proceeded with advancing the design. We're at about 65% design today. That resulted in the new cost estimate that revealed the funding gap that Robert just spoke about. We are hoping to get to a further stage of design, 95% within a couple of months. We're almost there. But we still need to get to 100%. We started right-of-way acquisition process. So that involves making appraisals, approaching property owners, and also approaching utilities. There are utility relocations needed on this project. Which leads me into my first slide on the challenges that we're facing. There we go. So the city has trusted RCTC to give Our best efforts, our expertise, as Robert mentioned, based on our experience in delivering these heavy civil infrastructure projects throughout the county, and it's our duty to be transparent and also realistic with our assessment of the challenges that a project like this faces. What we identified so far are utility conflicts and Caltrans access concerns. This project in lowering the road at Pennsylvania Avenue and the ramps, the Caltrans ramps, will cut off access to Caltrans property This is an issue that needs to be resolved and probably cannot be resolved quickly. We had to face a quick decision on what to do with the Edison lines that run along the Pennsylvania Avenue corridor. Recently, we've reached agreement with Edison on how to do that, but there's still more work that needs to be done on exactly how that's going to occur in undergrounding those lines. Of course, we have to coordinate with the Union Pacific Railroad. And while we've had positive conversations with Union Pacific, and the city did as well before we took over the project, we have to get to what's called a construction and maintenance agreement. Union Pacific only begins this process on a construction and maintenance agreement when we have completed 100% design. We have asked for an exception to this for some early expedited review, but Union Pacific maintains its position that they will only begin this process after we have finished 100% design. Union Pacific has been commenting and working with us on the design thus far, so we've not had a challenge there, but their comments can be extensive and the process takes time. And we don't know what those final comments will be. We don't know what the timeline will be to complete that construction and maintenance agreement. We, of course, will do our best efforts to do that. But that is a risk to the project schedule.

Next slide, please.

As Robert presented to you earlier, there is the city's master drainage plan line two project that is in the same location as the grade separation. This project is necessary for the grade separation. Without it, flooding will occur there. It will be a safety hazard. So it is essential that this project that the city is working on move forward and be completed before we do the grade separation. We have entertained the concept of somehow combining the projects or coordinating them in such a way so that they're not sequential. But whatever way these two projects are approached, they're both highly complicated projects. The graphic that Robert shows shows the intensity, the scale of that drainage project. Any delay or complication or funding concern with that other project will have a direct impact on the schedule and potentially the cost of the grade separation project. Finally, cost increases and funding deadlines. As I mentioned, when we took over the grade separation project, the cost estimate was lower than it is today. By refining the design and getting further along, this is commonly what happens in a transportation project. As you get closer to final design, you get a better idea of what the quantities are, what the issues are. You are closer to the date when you will be procuring the project and therefore know what the market is for the construction. Excuse me, I need to cough. So your cost estimate has increased. Thank you. So you have a funding gap that needs to be resolved in time to make this RTL deadline, as well as all these other challenges that I've laid out between utilities, Caltrans Access, Union Pacific Coordination, and the city's storm drain project. Now there is a chance that all of these issues can be resolved by June of 2027, and we can have ready to list by then. There is a chance. We have been working hard since we've accepted this project. To get that done, that's been our mission from day one, is to stay on schedule. And our partners at Caltrans have committed to that as well, and the city, of course. The risk that we see here is that any one of these issues, any one of them that has a slip or another cost increase, if the city is not able to identify the funding gap in time, could cause this project to go past that June 2027 ready-to-list date. And there is no recourse. The California Transportation Commission really means it when they say they offer one one-year extension on these funds. And if you don't meet it, they deprogram you. So what we see here, we're being, again, proactive, transparent with the city, is a real risk that any of these issues, through no fault of anybody, could cause this funding to lapse and put the project in greater jeopardy.

So next slide, please.

Our posture at RCTC is to keep moving forward, full speed ahead. We want to stay on schedule with completing design. We want to continue our coordination with railroad, the Caltrans, the utilities, property owners. We want to get the right-of-way acquisition process going. That's the other thing I do need to mention. Dealing with multiple property owners, as you know, it's complicated. Any one of them could have an issue that we need to negotiate or we need to get through the process. We will continue doing all of that in the meantime. But as of right now, we see a lot of risk tied to the funding deadline that is with this TCEP grant that the city was so successful in getting. And I do want to state That we I believe the CTC got it right when they awarded this city that amount of money for this project It is a high ranking high priority grade crossing not just in Beaumont But in Riverside County and in California the data speaks for itself in terms of the volumes of train here the volumes of traffic the safety concerns There's no question about the merit of the project and I'm also not surprised that Caltrans decided to identify this project as one of their partner projects Caltrans has a process where they look at all of the projects that are being proposed at the CTC and all the requests for funding, and they choose. They go through a process of their own to choose which one is Caltrans going to say, yes, we want to partner with that applicant and sort of put their name behind it. So I'm very pleased that Caltrans did that. I'm pleased that they're entertaining doing that again for the city. And pending your decision tonight, we have a pathway to get there. Before I turn it back over to Robert, I do want to say that no decision that you make tonight carries no risk. Every decision carries risk. And what we're presenting to you are the multiple risks we see on one side of the equation and then another risk on the other side of the equation, but one that we think gives the city, puts the city in the best possible position to deliver this project. And again, in the meantime, we'll keep moving. I want to turn it back over to Robert.

Aaron, before you turn it back over to Robert, can you just comment to, I think you and I had a conversation on other regional projects of this similarity and how this isn't dissimilar.

Yes. So thank you for reminding me, Chris. So throughout the county and even the region, grade separations are among the most complicated type of project you can deliver. They necessarily involve a railroad, which is a private entity. It necessarily involves usually utility relocations. You're either building a bridge over complicated infrastructure or you're tunneling, you're boring under a live railroad. You're having to build them new tracks. You're having to coordinate with this active railroad and build a bridge under something that can't be shut down. Grade separations in this county have encountered significant cost increases and delays in recent years. Also, they've had state funding commitments and deadlines tied to them. So if there is a silver lining here, and I think there is, there are a few, but one of them is that we are learning from the experience of others and trying to get ahead and be proactive with the challenges that we believe that this project will face just because of the nature of what it is.

All right, thank you. Similar to RCTC, the city work continues. Council held a public hearing for the environmental document associated with the MDP Line 2. This project is tied to the grade separation, not only in the environmental permitting, but in the design and construction, as Aaron had mentioned. Staff continues to work with our Riverside County Flood Control and RCTC to ensure the projects are coordinated in finishing the design, funding, and construction. Applying for cycle five of the TCEP grant would allow the MDP line two to be constructed potentially ahead of pin grade SEP and slightly reduce the complexity of this project. As previously discussed, the scope of this project has significantly changed since its inception and plans progress through interaction with outside agencies like UPRR and Caltrans. The additional scope that has been added presents challenges in meeting the required deadline of the TCEP grant. These challenges include several elements that Erin briefly discussed. but all of which are required and necessary to achieve the RTL status. Rather than proceeding with the high risk of not being able to successfully obligate within the required timeframe, staff recommends voluntarily withdrawing the project from the current TCEP cycle and reapplying to the 2026 TCEP cycle, cycle five. This approach allows additional time to advance this project, resolve outstanding coordination issues, and strengthen the project readiness. The recommended action is not a decision to delay, suspend, or reduce the city's commitment to Pennsylvania Avenue grade set project. The city and RCTC will continue advancing this project while actively pursuing additional funding opportunities. This concludes the presentation. Staff and RCTC are available for comments and discussion.

All right. Thank you. And thank you both for your presentation. Do we have any public comment regarding this item?

I have no written requests. Simone, do we have any callers on the line?

We have no callers at this time. All right. And with that, I will open it up for council discussion. Mayor Pro Tem White?

Thank you. Thank you for being here, Erin. A couple of questions. One I asked you before, and I'd just like you to respond so everyone can hear. What did we do wrong? Why are we at this point financially that we're not ready to list in time? And if you could respond to that.

Yeah. So I don't think the city did anything wrong. I think the city was appropriately aggressive in pursuing funding. The facts here are that the city pursued this funding at 30% design when only certain things were known. And as you naturally progress into into the process, you discover more. We discovered the utility issues. We discovered that we were going to need to coordinate with this storm drain project. So if you're looking to, what do we do next time? What I would do next time is I would apply in a funding cycle closer to when you are ready to go to construction when more of the unknowns are known.

Okay, and I'm glad you bring that up because I want to be clear that we want to continue to be aggressive. Yes. And we don't want to be in a position like this. I don't know if you mentioned the fact that if we don't meet the June deadline, or let's say we do meet it. Let's say everything falls in place and we need it, but we don't have the additional funding, we lose it. Yes. Is it possible that... If we continue to move forward and try and get that additional funding and not withdraw at this point, that people who are looking at us for funding are going to say, well, you don't even have, you may lose this in May or June. You don't even have the money that you need to complete it.

You know, it's tough because if the decision was to stay the course and try to meet the deadline, you know, what we would advise the city to be representing is that we're ready to go. Right. Otherwise, you would be sending a signal to everybody that, you know, there really is a problem and there really is a risk. And a granting agency is going to want to see that you've got everything all wrapped up.

Okay. And I think you... You had mentioned, you know, I'll hold that for the next one. That's all I have right now.

Okay. Council Member Fenn.

Yes, thank you, Mayor. Robert, could you pull up the slide that has the grant opportunities that we're applying for? And first question on that is the TSEP grant, is that every two years to apply for that?

Yes.

Okay. And then I see that on there that we've got two of them at $55 million. My question is, is it a one or the other on those in terms of if one was granted? Is it an automatic no on any of the other ones, or can we still apply for all each individually? And if all were granted in excess, we would only use the amount that was granted to cover the cost of building, correct?

Yeah. So, one, it is unlikely that all three... were successful in all three. But I do believe that they will not award all three if one or the other is successful. Jillian from RCTC happens to be an expert and maybe can elaborate on that if she would.

I don't think any elaboration is needed. You're right, Robert. Because they all go through USDOT, at least the The two $55 million pursuits for Chrissy and RCE, excuse me, Chrissy and Infra, and then the RCE is also administered ultimately through USDOT. They would choose one.

It's the same organization. Yeah. Okay. All right. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, Mayor.

Council Member Lara.

Thank you, Mayor. The problems that we're running into is because the scope of the project changed. We were at 30% planned completion and now we're at 65%. Do you feel that we are, or are you, are we comfortable enough with the scope as it is to know that we are, we understand the complete scope now with any of the changes that any of the other agencies make? I know when you're dealing with other agencies, it's...

Right.

You know, things change, obviously. But are we at a point now where we're comfortable enough with the scope to say, OK, we don't anticipate any additional changes or are we still kind of 65 percent is not where we want to be?

I'm not comfortable saying to you, the council, that we've uncovered all of the issues yet. this is an onion. And as we keep going, we may find another layer of the onion. And that is also what's driving our recommendation to the city and their recommendation to the council, is that if one more thing happens, the money is in jeopardy. And the sooner you make the decision, the better. So while I feel more confident today than we did a couple of months ago, I can't say that everything's been settled.

And so with that in mind, applying for a grant, being upfront and truthful with TCEP and saying, you know what, we're not going to make the deadline. We're concerned, right? I think that shows... I think it's better for us, even though it's harder for us to make that kind of a decision. But the other thing I don't want to do is, because I think if we give it up now, then we can apply for cycle five, right? Rather than dragging this out and missing the application date for cycle five and then getting kicked back to, and then maybe not having... positive view when we go back to apply maybe in cycle six, right? So, but the concern that I had is if we come back, obviously it's an onion and let's just say we apply for cycle five and that onion makes our eyes water again. And now we're, so I don't want to, I'm afraid to apply for cycle five and then not make that deadline. Does that make sense? Yeah.

May I, I hear you and I, I empathize with that concern. Let me offer a thought on how to manage if that happens. So the TCEP application cycle opens in just a couple of weeks when the CTC meets in San Diego. Applications will be due in November. So if the city starts now, We're gonna keep working on design, and as the schedule showed on the presentation, we hope to be at 100% design by January, very close to November. We should know more by the time the application goes in. And then there's also the opportunity, if something terrible gets discovered, which I hope doesn't, I don't wanna put that into the atmosphere, but if that were to happen, the CTC isn't gonna make a funding recommendation, the staff isn't gonna make a recommendation until June of 2027. And the commission will make the decision in the same month. So there would be time for the city to withdraw an application if necessary. But between now and November, we have the opportunity to learn more and modify.

So it's fair to say, and this is my last comment, it's fair to say that because we are being so aggressive with the design, by the time the application is heard, we should be on pretty solid ground with the scope of the project and what may or may not occur, right?

Correct. And by then we will also have had more Conversations with property owners, we'll know more about the right-of-way progress, and we should have a plan with Edison and any other utilities.

Things will be a little bit more clear by that time. Okay, thank you so much, and I appreciate you being here. Thank you. That's all I have, Mayor.

Great. Thank you for those comments. Council Member Martinez?

Thank you, Mayor. Mr. Haig, so by doing the recommended action of withdrawing, we don't create this negative connotation out there like, oh, they're reapplying, even if we have to go to another extension and so forth. One thing is separate from the other. Would you agree on that?

I would agree. I think, if anything, you're building trust with the granting agency that often encounters applicants who will... represent that they can get it done and then when they don't get it done beg for an option that doesn't exist and I'd like to offer the example of the city of Los Angeles which had a 100 million dollar active transportation grant with the CTC that the CTC just revoked and the city of Los Angeles could not get an extension beyond what the CTC had allowed. They mean it. And my experience is that if you are forthright, if you work with their staff, and if you show a commitment to delivery, they're going to want to help you succeed. And that's the approach that we're taking in our interaction with the CTC in advising the city.

And I appreciate it because I do see, in my opinion, that there's a greater likelihood that we're going to miss that RTL and lose that funding. So why not do what makes sense and withdraw and then go forward with the reapplication? And thank you for giving us that advice on how maybe to go future and match closer to when we're ready. However, I do want to say that If we do reapply, well, we will reapply, but what I'm saying is that I see it as being closer to RTL by that June, even if it takes us to December and so forth, it's still closer to avoid the increase in construction costs anyway. And if things come up, we have to deal with that. But I think it's the most prudent thing for us to do. Because I look at it, we do have two challenges. We have the construction issues and finding these things that are pushing the deadlines, but we've got the funding gap. And we know the funding gap that exists now is not going down. So that's a minimum funding gap that we have. So we need to start looking now at that as we're going on and pushing for time, and then coming up with a plan B if that gap increases based on what we find. And then we even have time for doomsday scenario in case we can't get funding, then where are we going to go from here? But the time is there, and I think staff would appreciate that, and I think it's our diligence to be able to do what we need to do. It's a tough call. It really is. It feels like you're put in a position where you have no other choice, you know, because you get damned either way. but at some point you really have to look at it from the best interest of the city, and this is the better of the two evils, and I think we're doing the right thing. And like you said, I appreciate those comments on the way, because I value your expertise, and thank you for letting us know how they think from the other side. So thank you for that. Thank you, Mayor.

Yes. Mayor, I just have an additional comment. So if Council directs staff to apply for the 2026 TCEP, working with RCTC, we can program the funds to be in the second year of that cycle. So instead of the June of 2027, we can receive the funds in June of 2028, giving us just that extra time to develop the plans.

Thank you. Council Member White?

And if we did get approved for 2027, but we chose not to take it in the second year, what is our deadline as far as that goes? Julian? Be June of 28?

I'm sorry, can you repeat your question?

Yeah, if we receive a grant from the 2027, from the next TSEP application.

Okay.

When, and we don't do what he had suggested, which is ask for it in the second year, what is our deadline to then be ready to list?

There are two options, but the option has to be selected when you're preparing your grant application, so by the November deadline. It's either in fiscal year, so state fiscal year, July 2027 through June 2027, 2028 is the first option, or July 2028 to June 2029. So my expert opinion would be to indicate an RTL date of, say, July 2028, so that's in the second programming year, as we call it, That gives you all the way until June 2029 to find the funding that's needed to resolve any issues that pop up or that are still outstanding. If even that can't be made, you would have the 12-month extension option to get you all the way to June 2030. I know that sounds hideous, but that's like the nuclear option, right? But it would be a possibility. And there's also the option, because so many projects ask for extensions in their first year, if the project was just going smashingly and achieved RTL in advance of July 2028, we could go to CTC, ask for an advance allocation. They check with Caltrans to make sure there's budget. There would be because so many extensions are requested. And then we could allocate early and get the project out the door. So lots of options there. There's a little bit of strategy, you know, we want to look at. Personally, I think that's the route that I would recommend.

And one more question for you, Aaron. Other than the funding gap we already knew we had and the additional funding gap we're going to have when we withdraw on this, if we withdraw on this, Do we have the funds to continue to move forward as we would have? Whatever decision we make, we're not slowing down or stopping? Yes.

Yes. So the funding table that Robert identified, you already have a significant amount of your own funds, federal funds in hand to continue the work of project development. Yes. OK. Thank you.

All right, thank you. And thank you for answering that question because you answered mine. What happens if we are done early and are we able to try and pull at that point?

Yep.

All right, well, I thank you for the robust conversation and I really thank you guys for all the work that you've done to weigh options, get creative and be transparent. I think sometimes when you sit up here, And we're helping to make these decisions. Humility comes into play at times and I think that this is a moment of humility where we recognize that we too are human and we can't always make the right decisions and we can't expect that from staff either and that we really are doing this in the best interest of the community to ensure that we receive these funds in the future. And once again, I think all of the staff and everybody else for all the work that they've done to find options I know that you guys were really scratching your heads going to the drawing tables and seeing how you could Pencil this out and that was evident here today So thank you guys for the hard work and for the willingness to wave the white flag at a certain point and say hey I think we need to be realistic Because as we heard from LA that if you aren't realistic you may lose it and I think that that would be more of a detriment to our credibility

Then to say hey, we were a little too aggressive and we tried a little too early So with that if there's no further discussion, I will go ahead count on their pro tem wait I Just wanted to piggyback on what the mayor said is a lot of these decisions like the one tonight our decisions that you know impact the city significantly But we really don't have a choice You know, we're at a position, and this happens a lot, and I think people don't understand that often we have to make these decisions, and we're not doing it because any other reason, then there's no other choice. I mean, I really think this is the best way to go. Thank you.

It's definitely a complex project that is requiring a lot of facets that we have to navigate. And sometimes you can't anticipate it all up front.

If you allow me just to put a bow on it, too. I just want to reemphasize that, you know, as Robert mentioned and Aaron mentioned, this is your number one priority. This is still our number one priority. I've seen regional transportation projects before like this, and they're very complex. They take a very long time. But I'm very optimistic that with the additional time, we're going to figure the rest of this out and put the rest of these pieces together. It gives us an opportunity to pursue these grants. There's a possibility we may receive more TCEP funding than we originally received. And I'm optimistic that we're going to be able to deliver this project in a timely manner still.

Great. Thank you for that. I think we all know that prices have increased over the last couple of years as well, even just in our everyday life. And Council Member Lara, did you?

Yeah. If there are no further discussions, I'm ready to make a motion.

Go for it.

Okay, in an effort for this council to be more forthright, as Erin said, I move to authorize the city manager to withdraw the Pennsylvania Grade Separation Project from the 2024 Trade Corridor Enhancement Program, known as TCEP, and reapply for the 2026 TCEP cycle.

I'll second. Can I get a roll call, please? Council Member Laura? Yes. Council Member Finn? Yes. Council Member Martinez? Yes. Mayor Pro Tem White?

Yes.

Mayor Voigt?

Yes. All right, and that takes us to our 2026 through 2030 economic development strategic plan. Something a little lighter. All right, and Mr. Pulser?

Just one correction, 2026 to 2031 strategic plan. Oh, sorry, 31. WANT TO GIVE US THE FULL FIVE YEARS. YES. THANK YOU, MAYOR AND COUNCIL. AS YOU KNOW, THIS HAS BEEN A REALLY SIGNIFICANT PROJECT. WE'VE BEEN WORKING ON IT FOR A LITTLE OVER A YEAR AND VERY PLEASED TO BRING THIS TO YOU TONIGHT. LAURA JAMES, OUR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT MANAGER, HAS BEEN THE PRINCIPAL PROJECT MANAGER OF THIS EFFORT AND HAS HAD DAY-TO-DAY CONTACT WITH OUR CONSULTANTS. SO SHE WILL GIVE YOU A QUICK OVERVIEW AND THEN WE'LL HAVE THE CONSULTANTS DIVE IN AND GIVE A MORE DETAILED OVERVIEW OF THE PLAN ITSELF.

Thank you, Kirk. Good evening, Mary Voigt and members of the City Council. It is my pleasure to present to you tonight the 2026 to 2031 Economic Development Strategic Plan. A little bit of background for you. Back on July 2, 2019, the City Council approved Beaumont's first ever Economic Development Strategic Plan. Since the adoption of that plan in 2019, Beaumont has experienced substantial population growth from about 50,000 people at that time to almost 61,000 people now, so a significant jump. There's been new commercial and industrial investment, rapidly changing market conditions, and evolving community priorities based in part on that rapid population growth. We also experienced the COVID-19 pandemic, which changed things quite a bit on the economic development front. We've had demographic shifts, changes in consumer behavior, and emerging development opportunities and renewed interest in Beaumont and this region generally. We're also facing significantly increased regional competition for projects. Jumping forward just a bit, on September 2, 2025, City Council approved a professional services agreement with TIP Strategies to prepare an update to that 2019 Economic Development Strategic Plan. TIP Strategies was selected through a competitive process that included review of seven different proposals by an internal staff evaluation team and then a supplemental evaluation team composed of three members of the Economic Development Committee. TIP was rated as the most qualified firm based on its experience with fast-growing communities, its approach to inclusive community engagement, its use of interactive data tools, and its strong emphasis on actual implementation of the plan. The planning process combined both quantitative, economic, and demographic analysis with extensive stakeholder and community engagement. How we accomplished that, to encourage broad participation, the city promoted public engagement opportunities through multiple channels, including direct email outreach to every HOA association in Beaumont, We used the city's social media accounts. We used the city website, the city's community calendar. We displayed flyers here at City Hall, and the Beaumont Chamber of Commerce was kind enough to display flyers for us as well. Beaumont Chamber included outreach opportunities in their weekly email distribution, and we conducted direct in-person outreach and invitations to stakeholders in the community. A steering committee that represented business, education, workforce development, real estate, government, nonprofit, and community interests also met at key milestones throughout the planning process. The proposed composition of that steering committee was reviewed and endorsed by the Economic Development Committee on November 12, 2025. I'm happy to say, by the way, that we have members of both our steering committee and Economic Development Committee sitting here in the audience tonight in support of this. Staff also provided regular updates to the Economic Development Committee throughout the planning process. So the resulting 2026 to 2031 Economic Development Strategic Plan is grounded in four guiding principles. Those are sustainability, equity, accountability, and livability. And it's organized around six strategic initiatives. But so you don't have to hear them all twice, I am going to stop my staff report there, and I'm going to introduce Jeff Marcel and Elizabeth Scott, who we've been working very closely with for the past almost year on this project. And they're going to give a little bit better of an overview of what the process was and what the plan looks like and the implementation looks like going forward.

With that, that's all yours.

Thank you, Laura. Well, good evening, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, Council Members. It's good to see you all again. I'm Jeff Marcel. I'm a senior partner with TIP Strategies. I'm joined by Elizabeth Scott, who's a senior consultant with our team. We're so excited to have an opportunity to spend some time with you this evening. Today is the culmination of a tremendous amount of work done by folks all across Beaumont. So in many ways, today's a celebration, and we're excited to share with you the plan. So this is what we want to cover today. First I'll give you just a quick introduction to some of the folks who've been a part of the process. I'll cover a little bit about the planning process and then Elizabeth is going to walk you through the plan and of course we will make sure to respond to any questions that you have. So just by way of introduction, you heard a little bit about us. We're a nationally recognized economic development and workforce development strategic planning firm. Our company has been in business for over 30 years now. We've worked in over 425 communities around the country. And all we do is economic analysis for communities and helping them think through plans and strategies to grow and maintain a vibrant, healthy economy. And I will tell you, it has been an absolute honor to have an opportunity to work with the team here at the City of Beaumont. And I want to recognize and thank the steering committee that has been with us every step of the way through this plan. I think you know these folks really well. They're a great representation of the public sector, the private sector, nonprofit sector, and workforce development sector. They met with us on a reoccurring basis. This plan really was co-created with our steering committee, so it is their plan. I just cannot thank them enough. And as Laura said, many of them are represented here today. So I just want to, if we could give them just a quick round of applause. So let's talk a little bit about the planning process. So the goal for this plan has always been about putting together an action-oriented five-year plan for the city to think through what can the economic development team do to grow the economy here in the city of Beaumont. This is our planning schedule. I won't go into all of these tasks, but as you can see, it's been a 10-month timeline, so it's been a very comprehensive plan. And we have been on time and on budget and on task throughout the entire time. So feel very good about that. Oftentimes we get asked the question, Where do the strategies and the plans come from? And these are the three areas. And I'll mention these because you'll see these borne out in the rest of the presentation. We care a lot about what the community leaders tell us. And we spend a lot of time listening and learning from people. We also spend a lot of time looking at the data. The data is absolutely a critical cornerstone of the strategic planning process. And we also lean on our expertise. It's part of the reason why you've engaged us. We've been doing this kind of work all over the country. And we brought that to bear on the plan as well. So Laura shared a little bit about the stakeholder engagement work that was done. I just wanted to highlight this. You know, we've had several community workshops that were done as a part of this effort. We've done a whole series of roundtables and interviews. We've once again met with our steering committee multiple times. We've had over 75 folks engaged with the strategic planning process throughout the life of this effort. And of course, we did a large scale survey as well.

Can we ask you to just slide a little closer to the mic?

Oh, of course.

Thank you.

And we also, you heard me reference earlier about some of the data that we put together. We've actually built a custom data tool in Tableau where we've looked at with dozens and dozens of data sets, where we've looked at economic and demographic data, population information, employment data, industry data, commuting patterns, workforce data, real estate data. So we tried to look at as many data points as we could to inform the planning process. So all of those efforts, the quantitative and the qualitative, came together for us to develop our strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats analysis. There's a ton here, and I'm not going to go through it in great detail, but I will tell you it took us five months to get to this point in the plan. This is really the backbone of this strategic plan, and it's what makes it unique to Beaumont. It is informed by all of the information that we gathered. It's the backbone of the strategic plan. So every recommendation, every strategy, every action is tied back to this SWOT analysis. I will mention one strength, and I'm going to ask Elizabeth to share a little bit more, but one of the major economic strengths in Beaumont is location. Location, location, location. It's absolutely critical, and it's important for residential attraction and development. It's important for retail attraction and development. In some ways, it's even more important for commercial and logistics development. And so you have a strategic advantage there. And we thought a lot about the logistics industry as a part of this effort. I have to praise the city for the investments that have been made, the attractions of the logistics industry that has been made as well, to help grow your tax base, to be able to provide services to the community and programs to the community. So that's been a big, big strength that we have looked at. With that, I'm going to actually turn it to Elizabeth to walk you through some of the other strategies.

Thanks, Jeff. So moving on to our plan overview, Laura already provided an introduction into the guiding principles as well as the six strategic initiatives. The guiding principles are really important because these are evidence and appear in every single one of the strategies and actions in the plan. Strategic initiatives, you can think of these as the big buckets where the strategies go. The way that the actual strategic plan document is set up is about explaining the what, the why, and the how. What the initiative is, why it's important for the community, and we do that by talking about the outcomes, how we got there with the serving findings. Competitive position is tying it to the SWOT analysis. We know that there has been a plethora of planning work that has already been done in Beaumont and Riverside County and we wanted to make sure that this plan leveraged all of those different plans. So where there was alignment with existing plans, the city plan, we documented that in the document as well. There are also supportive data figures for each initiative as well as a toolkit that may contain best practices or other resources around implementation. So we have this format for each of the six initiative areas. So initiative one, business retention and expansion. This is all about your existing business base. And I'm not going to go through every single one of these, but I will highlight number 1.1 and that is business visits. Having the team be on the ground, meeting with your existing businesses on a regular basis. The other items in here help support and augment that business retention and expansion work. Initiative two is centered around the target industries that are within Beaumont. So this includes distribution and logistics, advanced manufacturing, specialty healthcare, focusing in on entrepreneurship. We know that the biggest job creators come from existing businesses, come from businesses that are created here. as well as opportunities for tech development. Initiative number three, strengthening retail corridors. A lot of the actions and initiatives in this initiative center around the Beaumont downtown revitalization plan. So looking at that, also focusing in on niche and national retailers and restaurants, helping increase that vibrancy. diversify the tech space, and really build Beaumont's authenticity. Initiative number four, activating strategic land and sites. And this aligns with all of these initiatives generally build upon each other. But number four really ties back into initiative number two, thinking about the target industries. So making sure that there is the land ready to attract and the infrastructure ready to attract that next distribution logistics center or the specialty health care facility. It also thinks about potential strategies around land banking, how the city could better utilize some of the land it has to help cultivate downtown and create that authenticity redevelopment mixed use for downtown as well. Initiative number five, enhancing quality of place. So this is building tourism, events, outdoor recreation, places of gathering, thinking about multi-generational opportunities. We know that Beaumont has populations of both retirees and young people. So where can they all converge and how can this be a place that all Beaumont residents thrive? And the last initiative, promote and position Beaumont, so highlighting the existing businesses that are here, highlighting economic development work, explaining what is economic development, that it is building a tax base, diversifying a tax base, helping to create a high quality of life, talent attraction, bringing in more high skilled workforce, and really communicating Beaumont's story and value proposition. Jeff, anything else you want to add to the initiatives overviews?

No, you know, I just would say thinking about some of the things that have been discussed tonight, right? The infrastructure investments to open up opportunities south of I-10, absolutely instrumental and an important thing that's going to take place over the next five years. When we think about supporting small business, the award that you gave earlier this evening to Descano, right? That's a perfect example of the kinds of things that we want to see tracked and measured throughout the five-year plan.

So the last slide that I'm going to focus on is the implementation matrix. So in addition to the strategic plan that focuses a little bit more high level on that what, why, and how, we have a very detailed action plan that the staff will use to help track implementation. This includes action level, tactical level details on how to accomplish those higher level strategies. It identifies supporting partners. We often say that economic development is a team sport. And while this plan was primarily written for the city team, we know that there are a plethora of other partners in Riverside County, locally here in Beaumont, across the region that are willing and able to support implementation. There is a suggested timeframe for action for cadence of the strategies. As much as we would love everything to be implemented immediately, we know that there are things in here that have that longer term vision. So setting the region up to be able to act on those things that are further out. You only have a sample excerpt here. There are a couple more columns that continue on. that also have the opportunity to align with metrics, additional resources required, notes if there's anything the additional wanted. This is really meant to be an evergreen document. So while the overall plan is static, has that higher level guiding principles, those higher level strategies, this is meant to be dynamic. The team can add additional details, they can kind of geek out on adding as much as they want to help support implementation.

The only other thing I would add is we had a fantastic conversation earlier with the economic development team, and I don't want to speak for them, but they're very excited about moving ahead and starting to tackle some of these actions. And we were clear, and this is true of all of the clients that we work with, we always feel we're a part of Beaumont now. And we will stay connected to the team and respond to any questions that they have and we actually love that when Clients that we've had for work for many years have circled back and say yeah, yeah Remember we had a great conversation about that strategy. What do you think about we're running into this circumstance? So we always make sure to maintain that relationship or excited about the future and the opportunities as they carry forward and and frankly I'll tell you it's in our own best interest for you all to be successful because that's why we've been in business for 31 years so With that, we can stop there. Happy to answer any questions that you might have.

Great. Thank you, and thank you for that robust presentation. We'll open it up first to any public comments.

I have no written requests. Simone, do we have any callers on the line? We have no callers at this time.

All right, very good. I just want to start off by saying a huge thank you to you guys. It has been an absolute pleasure to work with you guys throughout this process. And a huge shout out to the team and all of our steering committee and the economic development committee. They've been very invested. They've been responsive. and really thought through this whole process. And for somebody who loves a checklist and likes to see progress, it's always nice to see marching orders and to be able to have a guiding document that helps us really work towards things. Another thing that, as I was reading through the plan again and just reviewing it, is these are things that are attainable. And I think that that's big. Sometimes you'll get, you know, marching orders that aren't attainable, right, and are too lofty or... just not reachable and that is one thing that I want to point out here is that I definitely think that the steps and the actions that have been suggested are doable they're something that can be done within the the staff matrix that we have currently and they're inclusive it brings in the community it also sends us to the community as we are a part of the community and I think that that's really something that I took home after reading through the plan and just a huge thank you Thank you to the efforts that went to it to this project. Mayor Pro Temway?

Yeah, I too would like to thank you for the report that you did tonight. As you know, throughout the process I had some concerns and I think you addressed them for me tonight. So I do appreciate that. Thank you. Thank you.

And Council Member Martinez.

Yeah, thank you, Mayor. I just want to say I appreciate everything you've done here. It's a good report. This is what we've been looking for, something that we can identify where our areas of weakness are and where we can improve. But not only did you take the input and analyze, but now we have an implementation matrix. which takes us to that next step. So now our team can collaborate and figure out, okay, what's our next step and how we're going to go and prioritize and so forth. So it finally put us on a roadmap. You know, I often said I really don't know how we got where we are because we were kind of old. all over the place in the beginning, but we had great staff and they were guiding us and now that we have the professional piece of this to put it all together for us and the professional economic team that we have here on staff, I really feel confident that we can push this forward and improve our city. So thank you so much for that. Thank you.

One thing I also want to highlight is your conversation about diversifying the tax base. And I think sometimes that's lost on people because we don't really think about it, right? We just think, oh, our property taxes pay for everything. But in reality, that's not sustainable. And that isn't going to allow us to continue. And so finding ways that we can diversify the city helps to maintain our sustainability. And I really think that that's a key component of your document as well. With that, I will move to adopt the 2026 through 2031 economic development strategic plan as presented today.

I'll second.

And can we get a roll call?

Councilmember Laura?

Yes.

Councilmember Finn?

Yes.

Councilmember Martinez?

Yes.

Mayor Pro Tem White?

Yes.

Mayor Voigt? Yes. And thank you again for your work.

Mayor, can I make one last comment? Yes. I want to thank, really, A lot of people in the city, staff-wise, touched this. It wasn't just economic development.

So I want to thank Public Works and Planning and Community Services, Julie and PIO.

They all have supported and played a role in helping shaping this. And Chris for diving into it, because not like he didn't have a hundred other things to do, but he took the time right when he got here to dive into it and asked a few key questions and helped shape the final product, too. So it's been very much a group effort.

Well, and I would just add, and now that it's unanimous, I also would add the team at your economic development team is outstanding. We get a chance to work with professionals around the country. Unfortunately, not everybody can say that. Your team is top flight. And so it's been an absolute pleasure to work with them. So thank you all.

Great. And thank you for this celebration today.

Thank you.

All right. We will take us to J4, consideration of a second amendment to the Placeworks Inc. Professional Services Agreement. Mr. Bowman.

Thank you, Mayor and Council. In October of last year, the City Council adopted a resolution directing staff to initiate annexation proceedings in coordination with the Riverside Local Agency Formation Commission, also known as LAFCO. for approximately 78 acres adjoining Cherry Valley Boulevard east of the I-10 freeway, better known as the Golden Triangle. This action before you is a step that's needed to move forward with our annexation application with LAFCO. This is a contract to complete environmental services for the annexation. Prior to submitting an annexation application, the city is required to consider both a general plan amendment and a pre-zone action, as well as adopt environmental. So that's an action that we'll need to go to planning commission once PlaceWorks completes the environmental review, and then a recommendation will be made to city council. City council will TAKING ACTION ON THAT AND ASSUMING APPROVAL IT WILL GO TO LAFCO FOR ACTUAL HEARINGS. STAFF ANTICIPATES THIS PROCESS TAKING APPROXIMATELY FOUR TO SIX MONTHS. PLACE WORKS IS AN ON CALL ENVIRONMENTAL FIRM THE CITY HAS ALREADY RETAINED AS PART OF OUR PREPARATION FOR THIS REPORT. We obtained quotes from all of our on-call agencies that we've had in place, and Placeworks was selected as the highest-ranking RFP. With that, I'd be happy to answer any questions you might have.

All right, great.

I will ask if we have any public comment. I have no written requests. Simone, do we have any callers on the line?

We have no callers at this time. All right, and with that, I'll open up to council discussion. Mayor Pro Tem?

I move to approve a second amendment to the Professional Services Agreement with Pikes Works Incorporated, increasing the contract by $106,000 for additional environmental planning services.

I'll second.

And we'll get a roll call, please. Council Member Lara?

Yes.

Council Member Finn?

Yes.

Council Member Martinez? Yes. Mayor Pro Tem White? Yes. Mayor Voigt?

Yes. All right, that takes us on to our reports. Do we have any legislative updates? I don't believe so today, okay. City attorney report, that's okay. Nothing for this evening, city manager?

Yes, I do. And I'm sorry. I had to pull out my laptop again because I got ahead of myself. So I want to announce some upcoming events first off. So on August 5th, we have Good Morning Beaumont Breakfast RCTC presentation. On August 18th, Business Builder Series, How to Use AI for Business. On September 15th, we have another Business Builder Series. And that topic is to be determined. In September 19th, we have the Lucha Libre Hispanic Heritage and I'm going to kill this, sorry. Michelada Celebration. I got that. September 22nd, Senior Health Fair. And September 23rd, the Small Business Development Center's Business Startup. Also, several updates. On the topic of upcoming events, the Pasadena Business Hub is rising with great momentum with several partnered events. The business hub continues to grow as an entrepreneurial resource for the region with increasing interest from businesses. businesses, entrepreneurs, and community partners, and we're excited about the positive impact it's having on our local economy. Also, last week, we concluded Beaumont Nights, our summer market night series, by hosting a special national night out, which featured the popular Touch a Truck experience. We had multiple agencies participate, including Beaumont PD, Riverside County Sheriff, Highway Patrol, Tribal Police, the Library District, as well as as the Water District and the city departments, such as Public Works, Wastewater, Parks, Recreation, and Transit. Our regional elected officials were also in attendance, such as Fifth District Supervisor Gutierrez, and representatives from Congressman Ruiz's office, as well as representatives of our city council. Our summer events brought together hundreds of families each week and created meaningful opportunities for our community to connect. I want to thank our staff for their outstanding efforts all summer long. Also, as previously noted, and I just want to give also a recognition to this really impressive effort, phase one of the 8th Street sidewalk project near Sundance Elementary is completed. The new four-way stop, crosswalk, and accessible curb ramps were finished just in time for the first day back to school, which is this Thursday, August 6th. Phase two sidewalk improvements from Sundance Elementary to Xenia Avenue are commencing in the next few weeks and should be completed by November. I visited several times, and our crews are just very impressive. They do outstanding work. They take pride in their work. It's art, and I've been very impressed with them. I'm also pleased to report that the improvements at the sports park are now substantially complete, Staff is coordinating a final closeout list and will be planning a ribbon-cutting ceremony in the near future so the community can celebrate with us. And finally, at the Oak Valley Village, construction continues to move forward. Vertical framing is anticipated to begin in September, marking another significant milestone for this major development that will bring Target, Sprouts, Shake Shack, Cava, and KinderCare and others to the area and to the community. That concludes my report.

So wonderful to hear all of that that has been going on in the city. It's been a great summer here in the city and truly has been amazing from the Fourth of July Festival to our Beaumont Nights to the sidewalk implementations and many, many more that you guys have continued to impress. Throughout this year. So thank you for all of that hard work. All right, we will go on to future agenda items I do have a future agenda item that I would like to request and that's if we could explore options for a temporary skate park While ours is currently down And maybe bring something back we've seen a lot of buzz on social media about the skate park and the skate community that we have here and I think that that would provide kind of a little bit of a Service and a buffer so if we could explore alternate options, I thought maybe we could carve it out But I'm not sure that construction will allow that so we can look for alternate options. I would appreciate that. Thank you Anybody else have future agenda items? All right seeing none we'll move on to council reports I Mr. Lara, would you like to start us off?

Well, thank you, Mayor. I appreciate that. I would really like to thank staff for their efforts on the Touch a Truck. It was a great event, well attended. They would like to know what the attendance was on that. It wore out my three grandkids, so excellent job on that. WRCOG just attended their meeting yesterday. They released their annual report. It was received in file. It should be posted to our website, the website, hopefully by the end of the week. And that's all I have, Mayor. Thank you.

Great, great. We will move on over here to Council Member Fenn. Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor. On the 27th, I attended our Finance and Audit Committee meeting where we reviewed our fourth quarter cash and investment report and the fourth quarter budget to actuals. Those were our consent calendar items G12 and 13 for tonight. But we also had an introduction from Chandler and Asset Management, which is the new city, the city's new investment advisor. So that's all I have.

Great. Thank you. And Council Member Martinez.

Thank you, Mayor. I didn't make it to RCA yesterday, nor could my alternate, but I did have them send me a summary, and it was a pretty short meeting going over a lot of their status reports and legislative updates, so nothing major from that.

All right, great. And Mayor Pro Tem White.

First of all, I wanted to say thank you to Doug and your team, as well as the other departments that put together the Beaumont Knights, the touch a truck was, I think, the biggest attendance, but everything was, I think you guys really stepped it up this year versus last year, and I can't wait for next year. So thank you.

All right, and I will continue to say thank you for the shade that is out there, the shade structure for Beaumont Nights. I found so many more people sitting there and watching the concerts this year, and it truly became a place for community and congregation and that was the goal of Beaumont Knights and I cannot tell you how many businesses I have attended in our downtown area that said during this slow season in the summer when everybody leaves to go out of town that Thursday nights sustain them so a huge shout out to all of the effort that goes on for that because it is impactful not just from the community perspective but also from our businesses as well and And then lastly, I would like, I'm very sad that Mayor Pro Tem White didn't mention what a great first pitch I threw out.

I didn't see it. I was still in the parking lot.

I forgot about that. No wonder you did a bit today. Thank you. Right over the plate, maybe not a strike, you know, shoulder level, but it still made it into a glove. So thank you to Julie and the team for having a fun night for us at the Storm event, and it was a great honor to be out there representing Beaumont on Beaumont Night. And with that, we will conclude for this evening at 7.35.