City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening everyone. How are we doing? We excited? It is 6:30 sharp and I'm excited because well for a lot of reasons as most of you know this is a long time coming and we can't wait for tonight. Um tonight we have uh we have my favorite elected official in the family which is my dad Larry Smith. He serves on the Sanio Water Agency and he's going to lead us in prayer tonight. So, please welcome him up front and stand as we uh we start this meeting off with prayer. Mr. Mayor, you do

got Mr. Mayor. Yeah, one job. Uh Mr. Mayor, you do know how to pack them in, but this is a glorious day and uh very proud of this moment for Canyon Lake, for yourself, your council, uh friends, and people I admire. So, uh let's uh bring the Lord into this thing and he can honor. Lord, what a momentous day for the city of Canyon Lake that we can be here and recognize the fact that this community has embraced their law enforcement. In fact, they're going to have their personal law enforcement that they can nurture and cultivate and be just a part of the community. My prayer is this evening that as the new chief is sworn in, his recruiting goes with your divine hand over it and the best officers and Riverside County want to come to Canyon Lake and serve these people. What a great evening, Lord. We look forward to your blessings over this community and over the mayor and his council. And I my prayer is in the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen.

Amen. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Well done. With that, we're going to start off or now we're going to have the flag salute. And Kennedy and Reagan, will you please come up here and lead us in the pledge of allegiance? Come over here. Do you guys know how you get to go? There's the flag. All right, you guys lead us in in the pledge. Okay.

Um, please put your hand right please put your right hand over your heart. Ready? Begin. I pledge algiance 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. Good job.

And tonight, Kennedy, we get to pull your tooth. So, that is happening. So to my kids were super excited about being able to do this and we had to rehearse, you know, because when you're in grade school, you start off by saying, "Please stand, right?" Well, everyone's going to be standing, so they're a little nervous in there. So, good job, girls. Way to go. Madame Clerk, can we please uh call this meeting to order and uh u do a roll call vote? I mean, roll call. Mayor Poten Castillo here. Council member Stber here. Council member Terry here. Council member Wely here. Mayor Smith here. or you have a quorum. Close session report. You got anything for us, Mr. City Attorney? No reportable action.

All right, we're going to go right into ceremonial matters. This is an exciting night. Um before we kick off though, we have the opportunity by our mayor prom and council member Stever to introduce the essay scholarship winner, which we're excited to present. So, take it away. Good morning. Good morning. Good evening, Canyon Lake.

I'm so excited. I don't even know. Um, I would like to call up Cararissa Ranchetti. HI. SO, Cararissa is our city essay scholarship program winner for 2026. You are a class of 2026 senior at Canon. Yes. And um what we have every year is an essay that highlights how special Canyon Lake is and how it impacts the individual senior. In her essay, Cararissa reflected on how the Canyon Lake community has shaped her future through compassion, volunteerism, leadership, and strong sense of connection that makes our city so unique. She wrote about the importance of giving back, helping others, and the lasting impact that community support can have on a person's life. Chissa is outstanding student with a 4.3 GPA, a member of the engineering academy and national honor society and a dedicated varsity athlete and volunteer. Her teachers describe her as resilient, hardworking, and someone who leads both by example inside and outside the classroom. So on behalf of the entire city council and the community and all of these attendees, we want to congratulate you and wish you the very best in the future. Can you do you mind telling everyone what your plans are?

Um so my plans are to attend Cal Poly Pomona and study manufacturing engineering. Um, I will be cheering there and in the future I hope to become a mechanical engineer or work for like a crime analysis type job. Um, so that are my plans. I hope that they reflect on the community. It's amazing. And when you want to come back and be a crime analyst, you can come back to Painted Lake TV, right? Um, we have a gift for you. We have a check for you. And we're so very proud of you. Congratulations. Do you want does are your parents here? Do they want to come up and get a picture? Yeah.

Still and and I'd love to make one comment, too. After reviewing all the essays, it was actually really incredible. All the support letters that we did see from your teachers. So, it's the most I've seen. I've done this now two years. And just seeing even the teachers get involved and provide letters on your behalf. That was awesome. So, congratulations and good luck. You guys want to get Yeah, mom's important.

All right, we'll take a few. Three, two, one. Congratulations. All right. All right. Now we get to do the student of the year. Is Linda here? Did she make it? Not yet. You want to hold off? Let's wait for a little bit. If I see her, I'll let you go.

Let's do that then. Okay, we'll do that. All right. Now we get to go into the presentation and the swearing in of Jim Rails. We can give a round him applause for sure. Tonight's a big night for Canyon. This is this is the portion where we we all get to say nice things about Jim and what he's doing. And wow, our uniform is looking phen that's the first time we've seen him. So Jim, you got to you you got to sit tight for a minute cuz we have things we want to say about you. All right. I got I got this I got this 18page bio I have to read real quick and everyone up here wants to say things about you. So please please bear with us. Um tonight I would like to take a moment to recognize and introduce of course our chief police Jim Rails. Chief Rails brings nearly three decades of law enforcement experience to the city of Canyon Lake. 29 and a half years of dedication service to the Riverside County Sheriff's Office. He began his career back in 1996, which is crazy because you're only 40 years old, and rose through the ranks serving as a corrections deputy, deputy sheriff, investigator, sergeant, lieutenant, and ultimately captain, aka our chief of police for here in Canyon Lake. He retired in September in 2025, and within what one day you came to work for the city of Canyon Lake. Beyond his professional accomplishment, Chief Reels is devoted family man. He and his wife Christy will celebrate 35 years of marriage this June. Wow.

Wow. Together they have raised three daughters and are proud are proud grandparents to three grandchildren as well. Most importantly for our community, Chief Reels has been serving the citizens of Canyon Lake since 2020. During the time, he developed a strong understanding of our community and residents and the priorities of this city. He has played a critical role in helping establish Canyon Lakes Municipal Police Department and in shaping its professionalism full-ervice law enforcement agency designed specifically to meet the needs of this community. It's absolutely incredible what we have here because Chief Reels, as most of you know as residents, he's one of the guys that constantly had to deal with issues in Lake Elsenor, in Paris, he even worked in Marina Valley and other areas. And when you heard about our crime, it was a different type of crime. I think most of us here in the community can relate. It's golf cart. It's different stuff, right? And when we came to him with issues and complaints, he treated it just as serious as dealing with a stabbing in the city of Lake Elsenor or Paris. And then I think that's what's really separates you from others is that there was a lot of rumors going on outside of this community that Canyon Lake is a primadana community that, you know, we don't have real crime, that we don't have real issues. But your leadership, Rails, has always been topnotch. Number one, treat every incident just as it's as big of a deal as anywhere else. And I know for me that was eye opening on on what you did. But I know the city manager has some stories and he wants to be able to reflect a little bit before we do the swearing. And like I said, you got to sit tight. This is all about this man. So, thank you very much, mayor. Um, this is this is a big deal for everyone. Um, I said this before when uh we announced who the police chief was going to be. For me, it's it's the biggest thing I've done in my career, and it probably will be the biggest thing I get to do. And the fact that I get to do

that in partnership with Jim Rails is such a pleasure. Um, I I've said this many times. Um, he was the chief long before he was the chief. Um, I I spun my little web as I uh enticed him uh into this. And um we're so lucky, not only because Jim is who he is, but because of the background, the relationship he has with our amazing uh Riverside Sheriff's Department, uh we're so fortunate to have somebody that is going to take that baton and uh take it from his own brothers and sisters that he spent a nearly 30 years with. that that's it's so amazing that it all worked out the way it did and it's so Canyon Lake. It's so amazing that it worked out this way, but it kind of is what you expect here. And we're very very fortunate that this is the caliber of individual that we got. I heard from so many individuals and the social media warriors, right? Who are we going to get? We're never going to get somebody of top caliber. And uh one, you know, you're never going to get anybody like Jim Rails. You're right.

So, we got Jim Rails. So, uh Chief, as as uh the city manager, I I I thank you tremendously for the work that you've put in. Um the council has heard this several times. Uh it it wore me out in the beginning because we had to do so many of these steps to meet the state's requirements. And when When Jim started, it really was a a complete load off for me to say, "You got it." And every time I'd start getting involved, you need me to I got it. I got it. I got it. Uh we're we're very fortunate. And and for his loving wife, thank you so much for uh what you've put up with for uh at least in September. Um I don't know how many times I'd talk to him and he'd say, "Oh yeah, I got to come in Friday. I just have to come back Saturday for just a little bit. Um his dedication is is unmatched and we're appreciative for both of you. Thank you, mayor.

We we won't let the city attorney speak because it'll cost us too much money. Um but I I do want the members of the community to know that our city attorney also works for the city of Hett and without that relationship, we would probably not be here today because we have an agreement with them to do dispatch. And it's been unbelievable to see that thing come through. And I just got done speaking with the mayor, Linda Krupa, thanking her for this opportunity that we get to do this tonight. Um, and it's full circle. So, I just want to say thank you, Mr. City Attorney, because I know how much you helped um, bring that home for us, and it's a pretty incredible thing. Please don't bill us. Thank you, Mayor. Okay, Council Member Wely.

Yeah, it's just amazing how pleased I am. It was it was Jim Reels that came on board because we already had a relationship with him and and when you hear about hiring in the process, you're always like, "Life is a box. the chocolates. What are you going to get out of the box? And uh when it came across as Jim Rails was just I was good. I was totally good. And the hardest problem I've had with Jim over the last couple months is I keep looking for him to wear the uniform. And I keep going, where's the uniform? Where's the uniform? And finally, he took me aside and said, I I don't really wear the uniform till he till I get sworn in. So today's the day I think we've all been waiting for. And thank you for walking through us with all this. So appreciate it.

Love that. Council member Terry. icing on the cake. Um, could not have found a more perfect fit for our community and and your knowledge of our community, your your relationships with this council as well as our residents. Um, if you're going to start a police department, you're the perfect guy to do it for this community. And I think in the weeks and months and years to come, our community is truly going to appreciate your style, your abilities, your tool set, and um you've just made Canyon Lake even more desirable uh than it was previously. But most of all, my experience with you is you're a good man.

Welcome aboard, Mayor Portim. So, there's a lot to be said for the known versus the unknown. We are so lucky that this is just going to be the most seamless of transitions. The thing I remember about working with you and when I knew you were special was when we participated in the golf cart town hall and I saw how you were so um so responsive and receptive to the citizens and their desires, but you also were ethical and fair in your obligations as the chief law enforcement officer of our city. I am so proud as I go around to different police departments in my day job to talk about Canyon Lake Police Department. And the reason that I am proud is because I know that we're in such good hands and the staff that you are going to lead are going to reflect our values. And I am very, very grateful and very, very happy. Thank you,

Council Member Steer. I've had to change your name three times in my phone since we've known each other. It went from Lieutenant Rails to Captain Rails and now Chief Rails. And uh I'm truly excited to see you take on this role and see where our fire or our police department will be in the next 5 10 years cuz it it wouldn't get there if it's not going to be for your support and truly appreciate it. And I promise I won't use my first sticker to put on the firetruck. Um, but honored to be here with my colleagues tonight as well and to see this uh ceremony for you. So, congratulations, Chief. You ready?

Before you do, if I could, mayor, because once uh once that happens and he's sworn in, uh we we may lose him to his family for a little bit. Uh there's a a gift that I uh I have for everybody in those that the yellow envelope that you have. And if I could, uh, Chief Latendrris, you've got number one. Uh, Chief Rails, you have number two. Uh, if you if you could open those up. Um, I had a challenge coin made. And so, uh, if everybody would open them and see them, it says do not open. It it now is voided. You can open it.

On one side of that challenge coin, it says uh, Canyon Lake Fire Department established 2022. the other side. Canyon Lake uh police department established 2026. Wow.

The significance of the numbers. I made sure that uh Jeff Latendras, our fire chief, got the number one. He was our first chief. And so number two goes to Chief Rails and then my bosses after that. And it went in order of of seniority and time so that I could defend that if it comes up in my review. Um, so I I really wanted to make a uh take an opportunity to do that. I did order some extras, we can talk later at uh uh if there's anything we'd want to do uh to be able to get some of those to the community or an option that they have, maybe we donate it to to something that gives them that option. But I really wanted that to to be seen before uh we lose him to his family.

This is first class, Mr. City Manager. 100%. Absolutely first class. Since you reminded me that we're going to lose the chief after we officially swear him in, we also have one more um thing that we would like to do. Christy, we got you some flowers. Um I know for myself uh I could not do what I do without my wife and many of us up here who have our spouses and I I know what can only imagine what you have to go through just being that voice of reason to this man. And um there's no way that he can do what he does without you. It's absolutely impossible. And I do believe that um you're you're the reason why he is who he is. And um I got some flowers for you. I'm going to give them to you um after we swear him in. And we just want to say thank you for sharing your husband with us. It means the world to us because he's that kind of man.

And and we all have our hats, so we can uh we can do that, too. Chief, you want to introduce who's going to be swearing you in tonight? This is Deputy Chief Andyah. You ready? Was the former uh here. Yeah. I took over. It's perfect. And we've known each other for years.

The hat is perfect. I feel like I want a video from over here. CAN I go ahead and raise your right hand? I state your name. I James Rails. Do solemnly swear Do solemnly swear that I will support and defend that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States the Constitution of the United States

and the Constitution of the State of California and the Constitution of the State of California against all enemies foreign and domestic against all enemies foreign and domestic that I will bear true faith and allegiance that I will bear true faith and al allegiance to the Constitution of the United States to the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of California and to the Constitution of the State of California. That I take this obligation freely That I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion or purpose of evasion and that I will that I will well and faithfully well and faithfully discharge the duties discharge the duties which I'm about to enter upon which I'm about to enter.

So help me God.

WOO. Thank you everyone. Please have a seat. I won't take too much time because I know we have a long meeting. But, uh, first of all, um, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tim, all the council members, I appreciate the vote of confidence, the things you said. Now, I've got to live up to all that. But, um, you've been awesome the entire time, brought me in. Um, um, just the way you have supported me and helped me through this venture has been awesome. Um, you seem never worried about what I was doing or or what I was, you know, putting together. you always asked, but um never seemed too worried about it. I appreciate that. Uh thank you for the vote of confidence, city manager. I appreciate everything you've done. Um seeking me out before I was even retiring about three months before when we was sitting in um Assistant Sheriff Don Sharp's office and I'm helping you out with some things and um and then he he brought it to your attention that hey, you need to find somebody good for for the police chief that we can work with. So just just fitting it. It worked. It worked out. So trying to get used to the blues. It's a little different. I'm used to tan and green for 30 years. So supposed to be swimming. So um

she to city employees. You've been awesome. You brought me in. I mean you we were family right from the beginning. You've been awesome. Everybody's helped me out along the way. Jeff Latender uh fire chief. Thank you so much. you've helped me um through the weeds on on on some stuff. So, I really appreciate it. Um just entire staff's been amazing. Um to my partners out there, uh Police Chief Gutierrez from uh Meny Police Department, thank you for coming out. Council member, um thank you very much. Um Captain Castillo, thank you so much for for everything. you've you've helped me out through some things and I'm bouncing some employees off you that I thought about bringing over and we went back and forth on it. So, I really I really appreciate that help. Um same thing with um sheriff's department been awesome all the way through this entire thing. Um Captain Boyd, you've been you've been awesome helping me through this and uh sending me over staff and sergeants to help uh sit on the oral board for hiring. So, they've been a big part of the hiring process. Uh you've been awesome. I don't know where Dave's at. Lieutenant Clark. Hey, back there. Uh, thank you for being a friend and for for just helping me. I've I've called the station many times asking for things. Hey, I need to I need to order this. Can you send me this? And and he would send it right over and be very helpful. So, everybody has been awesome. Um, to my family, I took up the whole two front rows here. Uh, my daughters, son-in-law, um, sister, brother-in-law, niece, and nephew. Got the three gamabies over there.

I love it. Three the three towheads. Um I love you guys so much. Um you're the reason I do this honestly. Um you've been very supportive. Um I know after 30 years I was supposed to retire and and spend time with all of you. And after I got pulled in, my bad.

I knew I wasn't going to totally retire. I was looking around for different jobs. But um this has worked out perfect. It's 15 minutes away. Um I'm still able to stay busy because that's the way I am. I can't I can't just stop doing stuff. Hi baby. I'm getting waved too. Um citizens of Canyon Lake. Um thank you for all your support. Um everybody has been so positive. Got a few keyboard warriors that that post things, but um I just ignore that. Uh most of it's just concerns about, you know, is this going to be a good product? you're coming from, you know, years with uh the premier law enforcement agency in the state. Um but you got to remember I come from that agency and I'm not going to put out a product that's less than what you had.

Yeah.

Okay. Um I'm going to work work closely with them with resources. Many police department, we're working closely. EMTT, Muretta, um all the surrounding agencies, we all work together. So um we'll have those resources when we need them. We're putting together a great department that you're going to be very proud of. uh all brand new top-of-the-line equipment uh for the officers. Um we're not we're not we're spending money to to do it right. So we want to make sure we do it right for the first time. Um you're going to see some contracts today during the meeting where we're going 10 years out. Uh we're setting this thing up for 10 years to control costs and um so that we're good for those 10 years. That's that's the plan. Uh we have great staff coming on board. They're all in the background process right now. Um I brought over as my number two as a captain. Um he was retired uh lieutenant from the sheriff's department. We started together on day one. So him and I are very close. Uh a lot of lot of SWAT experience and a lot of experience with the sheriff's department almost over 28 years. So and then I've got a lot more experience coming from all over Southern California from San Diego Police Department, Gardina Police Department all the way to BLE. So everybody is not retired. I know that's been some of the comments. Everybody's going to be broke down 55 like me, but

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45 now that I have daughters in their 30s, but but you you've been awesome throughout this whole process. Uh thank you for all your support. Um right now we've got vehicles coming in. They've already started coming in in the next couple of weeks. Um we're getting those finished to be built out. Most of them are done. U putting radios in. We've got staff coming on board. July 5th is the is the day that we have staff coming on. It's going to take about three to four weeks to get them trained up. U we'll have a big kickoff in July and then um early August is is go date. So I will let uh Deputy Chief Aaliyah know what date that's going to be and then we'll we'll figure out the switch over. So uh we're just kind of waiting on some dispatch um making sure dispatch is ready with him at police department, that type of thing because when we do it, we want to do it right. We don't want to we don't want to fail. So it's going to be early August is the plan. So, no, thank you for coming out tonight. I really appreciate it. And uh you know, I love this community. Definitely. Otherwise, I wouldn't have taken this position. I would have stayed retired. But um when uh city manager came to me and and said, "Hey, would you like to be the police chief?" I thought it was the same retirement system as I had. So, I obviously I couldn't leave. I you can't you can't go work for another agency when you when you retire from PERS, but it worked out perfect. So now I'm able to come over um signed a 5-year contract. So we're going to get this thing up and running in August. And I think you're going to be very very pleased with the outcome. Okay. Thank you. And and Chief, we're we're not we're not done yet, Chief. Before we we go to a little break, we have a few representation from different offices here um that I didn't know about until about five minutes ago. So bear with me. Karen Spiegel, I think Rebecca, representatives here. Um, Kelly Sarto, I think we have representative here as well. So would you all like to come and give them give chief a presentation? Would you like to say a few words or

would you just like to join us for the photo? Giving you an out speech real quick. Mic is hot. It is on here. Okay. Okay.

Well, hello. Um, I'm really excited for you guys. We have It's weird to call you chief instead of captain. Um, even as a before I was in part of where I'm at now, you were always so welcoming and engaging with the community in everything. Um, and when I came into the position, you were very welcoming and you helped me on anything that we needed. So, you know, I'm really excited. I know how much you care about the people and your leadership is amazing. So we we're sad to see you leave Elsenor. Thank goodness goodness we got boyed after you. Scared when we left and sorry I love him. He was great. It was a good It was a great transition. But you know when you retired I asked you what are you going to do? And you said I don't know. I can't stop moving. I'm looking at different way different things. And so like a month later you were here and I was like yes yes. So congratulations. I'm super excited and we're really proud of you. Oh, yeah.

Hello, Cat. Wait, Chief. Chief. Oh my god. I see. That's what I was about to say. It was like,

I'm so used to it. And seeing you around the community just as much as I run around the community, uh, acknowledging a lot of the kids and folks out here living. And the fact that you bring such a safe space to many many many people and your career here within the community is something that the senator and somebody like myself who is protected by somebody like you is just an absolute blessing and thank you so much for committing another long portion of your career here. So congratulations and thank you So, we're going to we're going to break for about five minutes and we're going to get everyone's going to get a chance to get some photos hopefully with the chief. And you know, I just want to chief clearly stated, you know, his family's here and that's the first two rows that you see there. And I don't know about you all, but that's totally Canyon Lake. We are so family oriented here. And I know most of you probably won't ever see this again in your lifetime, but you had a department that this man left and retired from, swore him in. And usually there's I want to call it bad blood, but you know, there's that taste in people's mouth that occurs when you leave an agency. And this is the exact opposite. Our sheriff has embraced us and so has the department. And it's because of now Chief Rails. And I think that's so cool because it's totally family driven. and I know that this would not be possible um without you and the dedication and that family environment that you bring to law enforcement and now that you've brought it here home to Canyon Lake. So, I'm proud to be part of this. I'm proud of you, Chief. And tonight's your night and um I'm excited cuz I hear I think you guys are going out to dinner. So, we're going to get you out of here after we take some photos. So, we're going to take a 5minute recess, everyone. Thank you so much.

Perfect. All right, we're going to Madame Clerk, don't hate me, but I'm just going to completely mess with this agenda. We're going to take up the consent calendar right now so I can get my good friend Alex out of here with CRNR. Is there uh any public comments on the consent calendar? None on consent calendar items. Do we have uh any members of the council that would like to pull a consent calendar item? Seeing none, I do need a motion and a second to adopt as is. Motion. Second. Can I get a roll call, please? Mayor Prom Castillo. I. Council member Steber. Council member Terry. I. Council member Wely. Hi. Mayor Smith. I.

Motion passes. Alex, have a great night. Thank you for joining us. Appreciate you. All right, let's get back to the normaly of this meeting presentations. Let's start off with actually Madame Clerk, you did print out Darcy Burke's update. She was unable to join us, so please bear with me as I read this in. All right. I'm sorry I'm unable to join you this evening. I'm on a client related film shoot where I am providing subject matter exercise to the Sanwaqen Authority. I know my credentials have come up in question recently. I would be happy to discuss my qualifications with anyone that has questions. My phone number, email address, and other contact information is readily available. Sadly, we had two employees pass away unexpectedly at the agency. Um Dr. Sudira Moila, which I completely butchered, principal engineer passed away. His work was instrumental with Leoa and improving the overall health of Lake Eleanor. He was the director for over four decades at the agency. Unbelievable. And in the same weekend, man, this is terrible. We lost another employee, Amanda Cell, who joined the district HR's team just a few months ago. And Amanda came um to us from the Eastern Municipal Water District. She leaves behind a daughter and her parents. So, we need to be praying for both these family members. She's so blessed to have known both of them and the hard work that they've given um and the dedication. She said also um when it she was unable to join uh anyone that was unable to join at the splash pad. They had over 1,600 customers show up. Incredible. Uh the bid for Canyon Lake water treatment plant upgrade and expansion project is on the street bids are due at the end of June. They have finished the updates to the urban water management plan. A copy is available um online that she can give to you. It's on the website. And lastly, the Colorado River negotiation with the upper basin states have gone nowhere.

Metropolitan, California, Arizona, and Nevada are coming up with a plan to meet the bureau um and come up with a plan that'll work. And the last item is is please join her and council member Mark Terry for coffee at the country club next Wednesday, May 20th at 7:30. If you're listening to this, Darcy, I'm so sorry about the lost at your agency. Uh my prayers are with both their families and thank you for providing us an update even though you are away. All right, with that we're going to turn it over to our Canyon Lake Property Owners Association Vice President, Jeff Bill. Good evening, Jeff. Thank you for joining us this evening.

Thanks for letting me. Um just so you know, I am no longer the POA vice president. As of when? As of this morning. Congratulations. And uh thank you. So while I am still a director, uh Laney Cooney is the new vice president, Bill Van Vleet is the president. Um Carrie Jarvis, who joins us here, is the secretary, and Bill Medbed is the treasurer. Nice. And so we've um we had our election by acclamation this morning because we had two openings and two candidates.

However, we still need people to vote. We still have four ballot measures. three related to um all of Canyon Lake, one of them for the estates. So, we need to get people to vote. Right now, the last number I had was 931 votes. We need approximately uh 1,200 votes. So, we need a couple hundred more. So, hopefully people will get out and do their duty and vote. And if you don't vote, don't complain. I mean, I hate to say it, but that's how it works. So, moving on from that, not a lot happening as far as the uh regulatory construction, all that stuff, but we have a lot of events coming. So, I don't know if you guys heard um there's a thing called Fiesta Days coming up.

Oh, yeah.

So, that's going to take place on May 23rd, and that is celebrating over 45 years of this tradition. And this year, the theme is 250 years of America. The event's going to kick off with a parade at 9:00 a.m. Then it's going to continue at the lodge, Holiday Harbor, and Sierra Park. And there will be shuttles running from 10 to 4 between the major locations. Following that, another exciting surprise is Countryfest. That's going to be Holiday Harbor. And for those of you that like country music, it's going to be Brian White, Dana Carter, David Cook, and Colin Ray. All national artists. They're going to be here. It's going to be a great time. It's going to be a holiday harbor. This is our second annual and we're hoping to do this every year. And then in the same vein, at the end of the month, we have the Canyon Lake Fine Arts Guild has a Leonard Skinner tribute band called Skard Reloaded. Now, I don't know about you guys, but I'm a Skinner fan. So, if you can make it, do it. Tickets are still available. And unless you guys have something else, that is all we have for this month. Any questions, comments, insults?

Insults. Director Bill, when's the last day to vote? Um, for the PA, we're hoping people get in on Friday. If we don't get enough people to vote on Friday, it will be extended out until the 29th. Thank you. Thanks.

Thank you for the update and congratulations on the promotion, I would call it. Just want to make this quick announcement um before we move on to our president of the Canyon Lake Chamber of Commerce, Johnny. Um if you would like to speak in tonight's meeting, you have two opportunities. We have um comment cards with our clerk that you can fill out on any items not pertaining on the agenda. And then also, if you would like to speak on a specific item tonight, please fill out your comment cards uh right now. even if you think you want to speak but you maybe don't want to um later on in the evening you can always let the clerk know that you would like to pass. So with that Johnny you're up.

You guys have been busy.

All right. Uh Mayor Smith, Mayor Pro Tim Castillo, council members, city staff, I have three topics before I hand it over to doctor of of events. Um uh first one is uh the uh the website's going to be under construction again. Uh we're changing the calendar of events. We're going to have two calendars. Uh one is going to be the calendar of events. The second is going to be a calendar filled with local um business groups uh throughout the valley. So from Tmacula all the way to Paris. Um there is no one hub that hosts all those like trusted business partners, BNI, LATIP where people can go on because it's not all happening here. It's happening all over it which I think is going to drive traffic back to us uh and businesses.

Um another key point is the chamber chase. Um this has really taken on of a life of its own. When I get texts at 11 12:00 in the evening that the clue's too hard, that's a problem. So um that's why I released the current one that was found right away. Uh but the chamber chase was built to drive traffic to local businesses. Um encourages residents to explore local businesses. One of the comments that was on recently uh right before I came to this uh meeting was I didn't know there was a tattoo shop on that side of the lake, which is really good. It it means that people are engaged and they're out visiting businesses that they would never visit. Uh which is going to promote and drive business to them and also drive traffic. So, we're excited about the Chamber Chase. The this week's winner was Megan Cortez. She was very, very happy that she found that flyer and uh you'll see that on the post and we're going to be handing the prize off to her and we'll take another picture and post that as well. And then lastly, uh the Chamber Advantage. Uh more and more people are engaged in that and they're starting to post their own um coupons, discounts, um promotions that they're running, uh which is really good. some of them were having trouble posting it. So, uh that's becoming a life of its own and we're proud of that. We're very proud to be able to drive traffic um to each other uh but also outside because we just don't all of our members aren't just in the Kenyon Lake area. So, we're very proud of that. And with that said, uh Mr. Events.

Okay. Hi, good evening. Um I'm Rick Tobin, the vice president and director of events. And I want to first announce that Nahara Law is our business of the month. Steve Nahara and and Sai they they've helped the chamber quite a bit. They were also our grand marshall for the pray of frights and I want to talk about some of the upcoming events. Um let's see. So next Thursday we're starting business coaching for the chamber. We think we're the only chamber in the region offering it. Both Johnny and I grew up uh following a lot of these gurus. Dale Dale Carnegie, Tony Robbins, Zig Zig Ziggler. Nice

Augandino. So, we're going to teach people how to sell, how to market. I write a lot of licensing courses, so I teach agents how to do it. So, um he's going to bring in his one of his gurus to help out. So, that's next Thursday in the Magnolia room downstairs on um June 21st. And then on You need your glasses.

Yeah, sorry. I need my glasses. Okay. Okay. So then we have Friday, May 22nd, a Monarch Tac 2 ribbon cutting event, 5:30 to 7:00. Then Wednesday, May 27th here at Red Hawk. Uh again, Wednesday, May 27th, ribbon cutting there, 5:30 to 7:00, Tony Schwarzman and his team. Tony gave a great presentation at our round table breakfast last Thursday. And then um we have June 11th sports stop uh after hours mixer. June 20th again our biggest event we're doing with the Canyon Lake Yach Club. Land cruis are taking charter buses from out here to Shoreline Yach Club in Long Beach. That'll be all dates. Ticket prices are only $50. That includes a bus ride, mimosas, coffee, gourmet food. I just filled up my gas tank last week. $102. It's normally half a tank to go from here to Long Beach. So for less than driving there yourself, you can go on a fancy bus and get food and so forth. So um and lastly and the sweetest event of them all, ribbon cut event at Jenny Sugar Shack Friday, June 26. So we hope to see you there. So thank you for your time.

Thank you. Any questions? Awesome job, guys. Any questions? Good. Thank you. Appreciate you. Thank you for being here. All right. Now we get to move on to our nonprofit spotlight. Council member Terry, this one is yours. Take it away. Good evening, everyone. Um, it is a pleasure for me to introduce two people that I know we all know for for as long as I've lived here.

Yeah. you guys have uh been a big part of Canyon Lake and um I'm so proud of you once I I found out about this organization and it is my pleasure to introduce to you Options for Autism and if you could please come up uh Mike and Robin Zing.

Thank you. Well, what an exciting night to be here with everybody. Um, I'm sorry that a lot had to leave because I would love to share what we're all about. Um, I feel bad with having my back turned. Is everyone okay with that? Is this okay? Okay. Um,

it's her best side. Well, anyways, thank you a ton for having us to share um the on the screen it talks about that we started this nonprofit in 2022. Uh the reason we started it is we found out our grandson had autism. Um, that's quite alarming when you find out a family member or loved one or anyone has autism and you don't know what to do and we didn't. So, we researched and researched and found out a lot of information and we were introduced to the stem cell institute in Panama. So, we all did a lot of research for that. And this is our little grandson up in the the screen when he was on the airplane to go to Panama. Cells are um taken from the umbilical cord for um donated um umbilical cords after the babies are born. So, um it's an amazing doctor, Riordan. He's an American doctor. uh he actually has his institute in Texas, but unfortunately because of laws and things there, the dosage that's needed for these children with autism isn't legal yet here. It's so exciting. We just had a meeting that we're going to maybe be a part of helping get it legal because we get to share the amazing results of what's happened. So just an example, our grandson there um he could not speak, no no speaking, not potty trained, um fits outrages, just the normal things that you deal with with autism. But um day three of the stem cell injections, Tyler

said to me, "I love you too, Grandma." Wow. First words ever. First words ever. So I mean it was amazing. I mean, the most incredible thing a grandma can hear. Um, I felt bad for his mom and dad. Of course, that was coming next. Yeah, it was great. Um, but what's funny is from that point on, he didn't speak for another 4 months. So, it does take the stem cells a little bit of time in their bodies to connect with everything. And the way I look at it, the right and left brain aren't connecting as well. And it takes those stem cells and they connect. And once they connect, it's a miracle. Wow.

If you look in the corner of that picture, you'll see Tyler. He's receiving honoral student of the month and in normal classes. Yeah. Oh, yeah. He was in, you know, the classes that you have to go to to to be different, you know, to learn different things. But he was put into regular classes. He now is in mainstream. He is

totally functionable. totally functionable and he just got the Christian character award in the school which is overall I mean that's with being great with the kids great with you know the Bible everything so very proud grandma but so that started when we were in Panama we were there and witness all these families that had sold their homes mortgaged their homes sold cars it's about

you're in the pool with one group we had to give them money so they would have money while they were there. They used all their money to get there. So, it was kind of cool. They had they couldn't leave the facility, but it's a five-star hotel, so it's not a bad facility. Sorry. Go ahead. Yeah, but it's $18,000 is the typical um charge for the stem cells and that does include the stay at the hotel and the institute is right in that hotel. But anyway, so when we were there, we said, you know what? When we retire, which we did real estate for 35 years here um thanks to all of you.

I know. Thank you. But um and we loved it. But we said we'll we'll start a foundation so that we can get as many children to Panama as we can because there's so many that don't know about it or can't afford it. So we retired and about a year after we retired, I had I was woke up. I woke up in the middle of the night and God reminded me of that promise we had made in that pool that day and we started the foundation that next day. So, we said, "Boop, it's time." And it's been amazing. If you go to the next screen, uh the first child, Leila, that we actually sponsored as a foundation. Um Mike actually met. Do you wanna

I went over to pick up our grandson at school over here in Elsenor and there was a little girl very disruptive at the gate and I said to the teacher is the parents around and she said yeah she's over there as she was coming up she was uh her mom Amanda was probably about 28 or so um maybe a little older anyway I said does your daughter have autism and she said duh and and she was 9 years old they like to get them earlier if they can up to 12. They will go more, but they like them 12 and pre. So, we I said to her, "Uh, have you heard of stem cells?" She said, "Well, yeah, but it's way too expensive." And I said, "If somebody would pay, would you take her?" Normally, it takes two months to get somebody uh their paperwork and everything to get them there. Robin and Amanda worked together. I had her on the plane with us two weeks later. She got the injections. Uh I'm just going to go a year because within a spoke her first words there at we were there. We went

get wet. She saw the pool. Those were her first words. Second injection. And then u but now uh pretty much writes her own name interaction with her family talks all of it. Now I'm going to I know we only have a certain amount of time but how many kids have we helped now? 12. 12.

None of them with any negative repercussions. We did found a group or they found us in uh Newport. They wanted us to start using their stem cells and stuff. Uh we checked it out. We took one lady um and I told her, I said, "I wouldn't do this with my grandchildren. We've been there. We know what Panama does." She went ahead there because she couldn't. It wasn't about the money. She just could not go to Panama. So, she took her son. First injection, pretty good. Real good actually. second injection kind of went the other direction and she now says she wish she'd have went to Panama. So all I the reason I want to share that loud to all of you guys, if you hear anybody doing it, be careful where you're doing it at.

The stem cells, it's a huge difference of how they're made and what stem cells are used and the quality is really neat to make sure. But um Leila didn't even know she had a brother and sister. And when she got back from Panama, she actually would sit on the couch and watch TV with them. And so for the families, it's not just the children we get to help. It's Sorry, let me say that. Amanda said, "Thank you for what you're doing." For my daughter, I said, "It's not your daughter's life who I'm going to help here if they helped her."

So, I just I'll go one more. See, little Michael's story. Um, this family so cute. They found out their son had autism and I get a phone call and they said, "Is this options for autism?" And I said, "Yes, it is." And he said, "Where are you located?" And I said, "Well, we're in Canyon Lake." He said, "Oh my gosh, on what street?" And I said, "Big Range." And he said, "We are too." He said, "I prayed and I looked up in the internet and yours was the first thing that popped up and he said, "I can't believe you're here in Canyon Lake." So within two months we had him in Panama and he's doing fabulous

and they actually live five doors from us and they said they they didn't know where to turn. They didn't know what to do. And so it's really sharing this with other people cuz so many people haven't even heard of it or you know are scared about it or they've heard weird stories. So that's what our foundation tries to do is just give information, educate, and then if they need financial assistance, we've been able to do some fundraisers. If you go to the next uh screen, um oh, go to the next one. Sorry.

This one, the fire department was amazing. Um showing up at station two over here. Dana put on our pancake breakfast. Right here did a pancake. put it on and they showed up and were very very successful and um it was amazing. It's just so neat to see the community be involved and support, you know, what all of us are trying to do out here. But um

let me I need one more minute. She doesn't go here, but I sort of do. While we were there, we got the injections, but my our parents got the injections and my mom comes back. She was we were losing her a little bit. She was having Alzheimer's or something. And so she comes back and the doctor, the nurse comes in and said, "Doctor wants to see you." Never a good sign at her age. The doctor comes in and says, "Mark, what did you do?" And she says, "Why do you ask?" He said, "Your brain is better than it was two years ago." We saw a five-year drop back. And we she's now 94. She's not uh she's starting to lose it again, but we had a good five years that we weren't seeing. So if you know somebody that has those kind of problems, reach out to us also. Yeah, overall stem cells are wonderful that we've found out. But um we have four children currently waiting for stem cells and so we're frantically doing fundraisers. So can you go back to that screen? There we go. Um awesome for any donations. You know, obviously we love that as a foundation, but becoming a volunteer is really important to us because we have a lot of committees and we need volunteers on those committees because without that, we can't keep spreading the word. And it's just so important that we let as many people know so we can get as many kids there.

Thank you for letting us be. Thank you so much. You guys are awesome. Great testimony. And oh, one more thing. I have I have some cards if anybody has any children or family members or anything that might need our help. You guys are incredible. Thank you. God bless you guys. Wow, that was good. That was that was every every time. Every time. Um public comments. Mayor, we have three this evening. Our first speaker is

Thank you for joining us this evening. Good evening. Thank you for having me. Good evening. My name is Ron Paraf. I'm the director of secondary education in Lake Elsenor Unified School District. And I'm very excited to be here this evening to talk to you a little bit about what we're doing. Uh we're putting together what's called a portrait of a graduate. And that's in essence a pretty clear descriptor of what we want our students to know and be able to do by the time they leave our system. So, um, the purpose, uh, behind our portrait initiative is a community driven effort to define the knowledge and skills and dispositions we want every LEUSD student to possess when they leave our system. Over the past several months, we've engaged students, families, community, business members, uh, in meaningful conversations about the future of education and workforce readiness. Through surveys, focus groups, design team collaboration, we're identifying the competencies that matter the most uh for student success not only in high school but college, career, and beyond. This work goes beyond academics. It's about ensuring our students are adaptable thinkers, effective communicators, collaborators, problem solvers, and engaged citizens who are prepared to thrive in an everanging world. The portrait of graduate will help align our instructional programs, our career technical education pathways, our student opportunities and support systems around a shared vision for student success. We want this portrait to truly reflect the values and aspirations of the entire LUSD community and that's why your voice matters. We strongly encourage all students, families, staff, and community members to take a few minutes to complete the online survey. It's found on our website. Your feedback will directly shape the future direction of our district and help us ensure that every student graduates ready for their next chapter. Thank you for partnering with

us and continuing to be build a future that's focused on not only educational success but personal success. Awesome job. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for being here tonight. Next speaker, Madam Clerk,

Renee Griffith. Good evening, mayor and council members. At the March 14th meeting, the council approved the minutes for March 11th and March 17th meeting. I've reviewed the meeting minutes against the publicly available recordings, and I submitted a formal written complaint to the city clerk and city manager identifying multiple material inaccuracies and omissions. First, the March 11th minutes state that Mayor Smith provided a presentation on the Crescent Garden Cemetery proposal. However, the recording showed that Mayor Smith introduced Director Darcy Burke, who then spoke for roughly 29 minutes and answered questions from full council and city manager. The approved minutes reduce her lengthy presentation to a test of a test and testimony to a single sentence while attributing the presentation of to the mayor. Second, on March 11th, during deliberations on the urgency ordinance, Mayor Smith read aloud a text message from absent council member Welty from his personal cell phone. The approved minutes state only that the mayor noted council member Welty support. There is no mention that the support was communicated through a private text message that was read during deliberations. That omission is notable because the way the communication occurred is central to understanding the public discussion and any potential Brown Act implications. The video clearly reflects that the statement was not simply a general acknowledgement of support, but the reading of a direct text message from an absent council member during deliberations. Third, on March at the March 17th meeting during public comments, I stated on the record that Mayor Smith had read the text message from council member Wely during March 11th meeting. I specifically asked the coun the city attorney whether doing so constituted a Brown Act violation. I also referenced the staff report for the evening that request um and requested for the record be accurately reflect that the text message had been read aloud rather than describing it merely

as written correspondence. Despite that discussion occurring publicly and on camera, the approved minutes contained no reference to the text message, no mention of my request to correct and the record, and no accurate summary of the city attorney's response. 4th at the on March 18th, I submitted a public records request seeking the text message Mayor Smith read aloud during the March 11th meeting along with other communications from the council members. When I finally received the messages on April 21st, they did not include the text message that Mayor Smith read aloud during the public meetings. I am requesting tonight that the council amend both sets of minutes to the official record so the official record accurately reflects what occurred and that the city published the text message I requested on March 18th. Accurate minutes and compliance with the Public Records Act are not discretionary. They're legal obligations. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. Tim Omera. Good evening, Tim. I must say you uh you look quite dapper, my friend. You you we don't get to see a a suit on you very often. No, you don't. It's usually construction. Not too shabby there, bud. Well, thank you very much. Uh I have some documents for you. Could I share those with you? Absolutely. You can pass the clerk. Mayor, mayor promp city council, city staff. Thank you. I'll wait till I get back to the microphone.

Yep. I'll pass it. I'll pass it down. I got it. So, as many of you know me, my name is Tim Omero. I've lived in Canyon Lake for about 5 years now. I enjoy the city. I raised a son here and it's a beautiful place. I'm also the Canyon Lake Fire Captain. I've been with the organization for 4 years. I love my job. It is a fantastic place to work and I'm the vice president of the Canyon Lake Firefighters Association. Today, I'm coming to you though as a citizen and I'm proposing a citizen initiative to help support public safety. In doing so, I propose a 1% sales tax to be used for dedicated funding for public safety. As we've seen tonight, public safety is very important to the city of Canyon Lake as we've seen swearing in of Chief Rails and how important it is for individuals to be sworn on that badge. It means a lot to all of us that have to do that. All the firefighters, all the police officers that are going to be here do risk their lives and they put themselves in the way of danger. We need to acknowledge that, respect it, and hopefully embrace it and make this place better. Looking at a sales tax increase, we're looking at potentially a million dollars coming in from the community from only sales tax. That being said, with 11,000 residents, that's approximately $90 a year per resident. At this time, we will need a,000 signatures to get this measure on the ballot this upcoming November. I am here to share with you that the Canyon Lake Firefires Association will be walking around knocking on doors and asking individuals to sign this measure for us so we can get on the ballot and get more

information out to the public. We should have a website up soon that people can come see as well as they if they follow the Canyon Lake Fire Association Instagram or Facebook, you'll see the flyer that I just handed out to the city council. That's a quick read on the flyer of what's going on. The entire measure will be on the website for everyone. In addition to this measure, the 1% sales tax, there is also the fire protection tax, the existing UUT, and the EMS subscription fee. We would like to take all those entities and put them into a dedicated fund for public safety only to be used for public safety which includes fire law and EMS.

Do you have any questions for me? City council wish we could talk. Nice job. Thank you very much. Thank you so much. I do have some extra these flyers. I will leave them over here for individuals if they want to pick up and read from themselves and they can contact me directly if they want to to find more information. And we will we will be going out with blue blinders looking for signatures of registered voters within Canyon Lake. Nice. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Madam Clerk, does that conclude the public comment portion on non-aggenda items? It does, mayor.

All right. I'm going to throw another uh twister at you. I do apologize. We did not pull any consent calendar items, so we can move right along. I'm going to bump us to business item number no I'm going to bump us to business item number 11. This is the consideration of adoption of the fiscal year 2026 2027 budget and related action. Mr. City manager I believe this is yours to take away.

It is indeed Mayor Mayor Prom Council. Thank you. Last uh council meeting we presented the preliminary budget to you. Uh as we went through the budget council had no changes. So what you see here is a reflection of that budget with one uh recommendation that we are making from staff. As we stated on here, we we've got uh inundated with uh numerous uh public records act requests. Uh what we're asking to do is basically take that $19,000 is what our revenues over expenditures was. um in in the private world is often called the surplus. For us, it's the additional revenues over the expenditures. We're asking to utilize that to take it down to zero because we do have a very high demand of uh these public records act requests that we have no there's there's no choice but to satisfy them. So, when they come in, we have an obligation to do it. Uh there's numerous uh aspects to that as we went into detail in this the staff report. Uh one of those is uh they they've reached uh many of them what would we would call non-rine. Uh non-rine means that is of such a complexity that it involves numerous individuals uh including the city attorney. Um the city attorney while quite charitable uh he and his firm do not work for free. And so as we've reached that point and we've kind of uh surpassed what would be considered the retainer because they are non-rine. And on our side, we have numerous employees that are not uh salaried. Um I do understand for salaried personnel, we're going to get paid whether we're staring at the wall all day or working all day. So uh that is not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about the individuals that serve the residents of

Canyon Lake who are responding to these. Often times it is uh um finance personnel who are pulling invoices or maybe going into the specific details of of each item. Uh we've got a lot of things going on that council has given us in terms of goals, expectations that I have for the individual uh areas of function. And so we've pushed some of that work off uh sometimes coming asking for overtime on Fridays, things like that. So all we're looking to do is is compensate for that. And um in the event that it it continues at the pace that we're seeing right now, we would be coming at midyear asking for an additional adjustment, but we we feel like this is enough to get us through this process. Um the city attorney can certainly chime in on uh the applicable portion to the city attorney's office, but that's where we are with the the budget and the budget request.

Mr. City attorney.

Uh yes. So, uh you know, under the California Constitution and state law, the city has an obligation to respond to public record act requests within a reasonable time frame. Uh the city has had a long history of getting receiving public record act requests. Most of those are routine in nature. I was asked today, what's your definition of a of a routine request versus a non-rine request? There there's no strict legal definition. Um but I would categorize a routine request as one that is narrow in scope, reasonably identifies the records that it's looking for, and can be responded to in a short amount of time by a single staff member who goes and pulls the files. Um this city h over the last year uh has received a significant uptick um in complex uh public records act requests uh that are often times although it is maybe one request. It actually is asking for uh multiple categories of records even dozens of categories of records. um some of which require legal review on whether the city uh whether the records being requested are exempt from disclosure. Uh sometimes it requires legal review of the requests of the responsive documents themselves for privileged or confidential material. Um and so you know because we have that legal obligation uh to respond to those uh and because they they often time are requiring uh legal analysis the city's legal utilization has gone up significantly. Um we we are budgeted for approximately 37 hours per month of legal services. That was uh the deal that this council uh struck many many years ago in order to get a control on its on its legal costs. Um the utilization just in the last uh the first three months of this year uh on a month-by-month basis have almost doubled that. Uh I've honored the retainer. We've been eating those costs here at

the firm. Um but it's not sustainable long term. uh you you get to you get to a point where the effective hourly rate that we're able to charge is lower than the salary of the attorneys who are reviewing the records, which means I'm losing money working for the city. I love working for the city. Um so, you know, I I think that it's simply it's it's a budget issue. um if you know this city is going to continue to receive these complex and numerous requests um it it has a legal obligation to allocate funds necessary to respond to them. Um you know I I'll say this since this budget item was posted just this week alone we've received six new complex public records act requests.

Wow. So it didn't stop. It's speeding up. Yeah. Um and so uh I think that that's that's all I have data. I'm happy to answer any questions you may have though. I have one mayor. Yeah, absolutely. Uh being uh the P's constitutional act, u any other suggestions you might be able to provide to the public on other means that the city allows to gain information or certain requests?

Um I don't know if the city manager wants to take this. I I can only speak from experience. In the past, uh the city did have another individual um who also got into a season of asking for a lot of complicated uh and and complex requests um and eventually um the finance and planning committee met. Yeah.

Uh discussed what this was costing the city uh not just in terms of money but in terms of time for staff. Uh that individual was a former council member and actually was like, "Oh my gosh, I didn't realize this was going on." Uh that individual actually started contacting the city clerk uh before sending the request in. Uh the city has an obligation under state law to assist someone with making an effective request,

right? Um, and so you maybe the city clerk or city manager could talk about it, but my understanding was, uh, that individual started contacting the city clerk beforehand and saying, "Look, this is what I'm looking for. How what should I ask for?" And that really assisted moving from these broad fishing expedition style requests to, like I said, those focused requests where it can get handled in a few minutes. That that's been my experience. Perfect. So could we make a recommendation that if one does not want to go down the P route, reach out to city manager and he can navigate through those requests from there.

You you can certainly make that request and I think building a bridge here would be better than burning it down. Um that being said, the city doesn't have any control over whether someone makes requests and how they make their requests, right? So this is entirely within the control of a third party. Our obligation is to respond as required by law.

Well, you you bring up a good point, council member Siver, and you know, the system is is is unfair, too. I mean the P public records act in itself is very difficult because someone will request something and then we have to provide it and then that usually what I've seen especially in municipality is is it triggers 18 more questions because that person doesn't know what the information is that they're receiving and that's where it gets very difficult and I think the story that the city attorney shared um with that particular uh individual our clerk was able to sit down with with them and go through that process and they're like, "Oh, well, no wonder I'm not getting the information I wanted quicker because you don't know what I'm asking." Right? And and that's where I think the system is flawed and it's very difficult because we are under a, you know, as a municipality, you know, there can't be this type of communication that we're even having here on it. So, you know, I think definitely building a bridge as opposed to burning it down as the city attorney so elegantly stated is, I think, so important, especially in this matter because um you know, we get audited pretty darn regularly and uh you know, it's pretty easy to find out anything related to the city financially or or especially now that I believe we're live now on the portal if I'm not mistaken through Next Request where you can you can go use that system and and it actually helps track the information that you're looking for and helps pinpoint some of these things. So, I want to commend the city um you know for making it more accessible for that regards too. But also, I think this entire council believes in the importance of transparency. I don't think any one of us um are trying to exact in fact exact opposite. We're trying to find more money to make sure that we're facilitating the requests that we are receiving and we're also double downing in the sense that we're making it easier to obtain information which I think is great. I had a gentleman tonight tell me that it's crazy to see where the city's at compared to where it used to be and

we're streamlining things which I just want to commend staff on that. And um I I I feel bad that you know we're having to go through this but it's an educational I think on both sides not just on us as policy makers but also on those requesting information too because I do believe the system is kind of skewed. We can't charge for it. You know a lot of people are asking well why doesn't the city just charge for it? The only thing that we can actually charge for is if we went to a print system and we actually printed off each single request, which would be thousands and thousands of pages, which would be, you know, creating, you know, bundles of paperwork and having to lay all that out. Um, we can charge for flash drives and we can implement all that. But I think the responsible thing that was done by this staff so far has been to put it all out there, put it all online so you can access anything that we have for our records. you know, it's at a place of pure transparency when the clerk's like, "Please just come to my same computer and look at everything." Right? I mean, that's what we're trying to do here. So, I just want to say thank you for doing that, turning on that porter portal in the last 24 hours and making that happen. And hopefully that'll alleviate some of the, you know, issues that we're having. So, but I think that's a good point, Council.

Yeah. And thank you, city attorney and city manager for the recommendation for the public. Appreciate it. Any other comments for my colleagues? Do we have any public comments, by the way? We have one public comment. Renee Griffith. Do you want to hear that before your comments? Yes. Let's hear the public comment now. Thank you, Madam Clerk.

There we go. Good evening again. Uh, let me say up front, as all of you already know, and I posted on Facebook, so hopefully everyone else knows, the 27 public records requests printed in the agenda are all mine. I file requests for one reason. When the city makes public statements that an event will drive business to the town center merchants that too many beauty salons threatens a city's ability to fund essential services, residents have the right to verify those statements against the records. When I file a request, I'm simply asking, does the city story match what's in the documents? What I am here to question is the 87 hours of city attorney time build against my 27 request. I went back through those requests. Roughly 85% asked for financial records, P&Ls, invoices, contracts, audits, loan documents, for example, the cost of the pumpkin bash. And how did the city measure its stated goal of driving business to the town center? These are not exotic requests. These are line items. Again, invoices, contracts, audit reports, the kind of records that should be able to produce without 87 hours of attorney review. I want to be fair. The other 15% of my requests do involve uh the city attorney's input and legit and legitimate legitimately required. My request for the text messages, especially one I never received between council members on personal devices generally involve legal analysis, but that 15% cannot account for 87 hours. I also want the record to be clear on the volume. The city has received roughly 242 public record requests across 24, 25, and through April 30th, 2026. Over 28 months, that's nine requests per month. Only 27 are on the agenda, all mine. The other 215 are not. My request

specifically average one per month over nearly 2 and a half years. That is a manageable pace. It does not on its face justify expanded legal services. So my question to the council, has a city manager provided you with an itemized city attorney billing request by request, task by task showing how 87 hours were spent on these requests on just my request, not a summary, not a total and itemized bill. Because a financial records request are being routed through legal review when they should go through finance. That is a spending decision. this council or the city manager has made. Either way, it deserves an answer before the budget is adopted. My goal in every request I filed is full transparency. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Mark Terry. We should really be celebrating the hard work of our staff. and the great work that they have done preparing this budget. This was not an easy task. Um, last week I had the opportunity to go met with Cheryl and after that I went and met with some of our employees and they are an awardwinning group. Last year's budget, correct? Could you could you remind me of that reward award? Excuse me. It is the GFOA Distinguished Budget Award and it was our first uh first time winning the award.

How difficult is it to um be awarded that?

Um it's a very complex process uh that you must follow strictly. Uh not obviously not all cities win it. um those that put the effort into the transparency and meeting the GFOA requirements uh for the most part do. Um it is it is certainly not easy. Uh I am beyond proud of the city staff for the efforts that they put in. uh and and especially for uh Brianna Helmsley who who really did the the the yman's work to get all of that into the format that it needed to be to uh shepherd all of the individuals that she needed to to get it where it needed to be. It is absolutely a big deal and something that I'm extremely proud of.

Correct me if I'm wrong. When you first entered had our staff pursue this. It was your expectation to familiarize them with this. Correct. That's correct. Not necessarily expecting that they would be awarded.

I I believe strongly in in setting the target, defining success. And so I I told them it is a huge uphill battle to go from not having this to having it. You're going to learn a lot through this process. I'm excited for what you're going to learn, but I'm not going to set an expectation that you're going to win it in the first year because it is very, very difficult. And um as you've heard me say, they love to hit dingers. Yes.

And in the first year, they won the award uh which I rewarded them by uh helping them understand they've now set higher expectations for themselves. And so now I expect it every year. We Canyon Lake have an incredible staff. My words are never going to suffice their abilities and their importance to to you as a resident. We watched our chief be sworn in today. None of that happens without our staff. Now imagine preparing a budget. For those who know, budget season is chaos, controlled chaos, put together by some of the brightest individuals I've ever had the honor of meeting. As I'm going through, I I visited three offices. And in each one of the offices, did you provide the the grease boards in each office?

Uh that that I'll I'll give to uh our city clerk, Cheryl Garcia, over there.

Well, I'll tell you what, I asked questions because these are 3 feet by 5t. There must have been no less than 75 handwritten to-do list in each one of those offices. And I started to ask like what is this? And that's what we got to get done this week. A credit to our staff that during budget season with all of this work that needs to get completed for our residents and still we're answering all these requests. You can talk about money. I get that. But really what we're doing and what what I fear and what is that we're taking them away from doing what they do best. If there is an opportunity to come in and speak with you personally or to speak with our clerk personally, I think we need to make every effort to see if we can transfer this to one-on-one communications because it's my understanding this is one individual. Correct.

Those represent one individual. That is correct. And there goes our um our budget. You know, I said at the beginning of this just how difficult I I think you would agree a very difficult budget season. Correct. Absolutely. It was for me personally it was one of the hardest just because all the costs have gone up but our revenues have not gone up much. And so, um, I I I mean, it was no secret we the budget we started out with was $600,000 in the negative, and we had to go through and figure out how to solve that.

That's incredible. Unfortunately, we got to do what we have to do. Um, but I would encourage our residents to be conscious of the fact that our staff is tremendous. I could not be more proud of them and how hard they work. And if there's anything that we can do in a show of respect for that staff, I'm all for moving in that direction. I appreciate your your willingness to to take this what you did with John Zites. I know that's, you know, not necessarily easy, but um I really do appreciate the fact that you were willing and I take it. Have you made this offer? Uh, as a matter of fact, um, um, council member, uh, specifically with with this individual, um, I I met with this individual back in July of last year with with one of the council members specifically for this to say, hey, a lot of times there's a request that you may be um, you may not have the the in-depth knowledge of what you're going to get. So, you make a very wide uh, very ownorous request. And so what I was looking to do was to kind of build that bridge. And I had offered email me, call me, whatever you need. I'll talk you through so we can get to where you're going because from from the city's perspective, we have absolutely nothing to hide. And I I I want you to get to where you're going, but if you and I can work together to make it so that it is not this massive city attorney involved uh um multiple staff involved process and I can kind of

work with you to deduce that you're you're really looking for this one thing. Great. Here it is. We don't need to go through it. I don't need anybody's permission to release a public document. Here you go. So you don't even have to go through that process. Here's the the document. Unfortunately, that that was not that didn't happen. So um that offer absolutely remains. It it's still whether it is this individual requesttor or anybody else be happy to meet with anybody if there's something you're looking for, if there's an investigation you have going, whatever it is, we're in. I've spent numerous days talking to individuals that had in-depth questions. Uh I I had somebody almost almost two years ago. I was at an event. I just sat over to the side and we spoke for two hours because he really wanted to know some items in our budget. Well, I had just done the first budget since I got here. I knew it in depth backwards and forward. He shook my hand. He was somebody who was very angry with the city. shook my hand and said, "I learn more from this than I have from anything else." I want to do that every single time. That's that's what we're here for. Nobody, whether it's me or any member of of the city staff or the city attorney, wants to not give you what you're looking for. We're paid to give you what you're looking for. We just want to be able to sometimes help educate you on maybe a path to get where you're going without having to to put all of that effort on a bunch of individuals that that choose to be here, but really are are many of them holding probably two to three jobs in their one job. That's what happens when you're in a small city.

Mayor Bim,

thank you. You know, when we or at least when I joined council in 2018, we had a giant structural deficit and one of our first items or action items was assessing the city attorney contract. And I was personally invested, right? Because I could I could read those invoices, no problem, and I just saw the spending. Um, we were able to dial that down because we were understanding that our priorities were not paying for attorney's fees. No offense, Stephen, but it was for paying for the things that the community really wants. And we just had a citizen come and talk about a citizen's initiative because those are things that are important to the committee or the community. And I've seen the events that we were on the events committee for gutted in the last budget because we need to pay for things that are like public safety. Um we don't reneg on contracts. If if we get attorney services, we are going to pay for them.

No pay bills. Um so it's not optional. Um, I think to talk about a budget and maybe in a budget adjustment, not only are we going to pay for the bill, but then now we're going to maybe go talk to our contract finance person, which will create more work on that end, right? With it, which is another vendor bill. Um, I send public records act requests in my job on on the regular. I would ask anyone who is going to be doing that that instead of using chat GBT for 3 seconds and then creating hours of work, make sure you are tailoring it to the city of Canyon Lake,

right? Not just a a blanket thing that may fly in Meny or Lake Senor or some other county, but specific to Canyon Lake and specific to information here. um because that would save staff an inordinate amount of time and energy. So that's just a personal request. Tailor it. Don't use chat GBT. Any other comments from my colleagues? I'll make a couple comments.

Just a comment about our city. We're we're we're not a huge city. You come to city hall, it's not a 10-story building. uh the city manager is not on the the 10th floor and you don't have to work your way through 10 floors to get to the city manager. Chances are if you're coming in the in the gate in the door, you're probably two levels away from the city manager and the staff will try to help you at each level. But if they feel it's necessary, generally they won't have any problem handing handing you on up to the next level because their time's valuable. And if the city manager can address your issues quickly, that's much better than you getting what we'd call from a large city a feeling of being ran around. And so that's a a great thing for us. We have a small city and our staff wears numbers of hats and we're very proud of them. And there's a there's a question about, you know, the way we spend our money. Well, uh, most of you didn't go through the budget line by line and look at the nickels and see what we did with our money. Uh, what we're doing with our money, but I just want to go over kind of what we've done with our money over the last couple years. We have opened a police department. We have opened a fire station. We've we have purchased a fire station. We put on a staff in both of the police department and the fire station. We've been working with the Chamber of Commerce on on events. We've been working on economic development in the in the town center. We have built the cooling center next door so that if the air conditioning goes out, people can come here. We've done this road project out on the street. We've we've collected money for the road project. We got grants. We got basically grants for this this area here we remodeled. Um and we also consolidate the city down to one level. That's the history of our city spending money. And if anyone wants to go down the list and kind of said we wasted money on anything we did, um I dare you to find another city that could have done that well with the small amount of money that we had. And I just think that that's where we're going to go in the future. So you say, how do you judge somebody? You judge them by their

past behavior. And I got to give it to Aaron and the staff. Great job. That's

You know, I'll uh No more public comments, Madam Clerk, on this item. This is it. Um, you know, tonight is it's clear as day that it's a historical night. I'm so proud of the hard work that has been done, not just because we watched our chief get sworn in. Um, but, you know, tonight we're also going to pass our budget. And, um, you know, this is this is it. You know, I use the I use this analogy a few times now that, you know, this is this is a a leaky pipe or whatever you want to look at. this is a problem that we're dealing with and you guys are being reactive and you're giving us the information so we know what we have to deal with it firsthand and we're trying to find solutions and this is being transparent. This is us having the conversation um wanting to be as open as we possibly can and I just want to thank my colleagues for for for being willing to allow the staff to move forward. I hope uh we haven't passed it yet, but I think this is a great way um you know to keep on doing what we're doing and I just want to encourage staff to keep doing the hard work that you're doing. provide the informations to our residents as they ask it because it is important. I know for me, um, transparency is the number one thing that we have at city hall to keep the trust of the people. And Dale, I got to hand it to you. I had no clue you were going to do that. When you went through that list, I cannot believe I I forget how much we have done in the last five to six years with the smallest budget in the entire region, in the entire Southwest Riverside County region. the stuff that you had just mentioned. You guys know we serve on regional boards. I have council members come up to me all the time begging us, "How did you do it? How did we start a fire department?" Because right now we just got nailed with an 18% from Calire. How did you do it? Because the sheriff's department just announced that they're doing an 8.8% increase to all contract cities throughout the county. So Dale, thank you for the reminder of the hard work that has been done, not by you or I, but the staff. And that's what's important tonight. And I want to thank all the department heads for putting this budget

together. Um, and madame clerk, I'm gonna I'm gonna be the one that makes the motion tonight. I'm going to seek a second for us to pass this budget and to get it through. I second. Can we get a roll call vote, please? Can I clarify the for the record, Mr. Mayor, does this include the requested $19,000? $19,000. Absolutely. Okay, we have a Thank you for the clarification. Mayor Prom Castillo, I. Council member Steber, I. Council member Terry, I member Welty. I, Mayor Smith, I.

Motion passes. Thank you everyone. Hey, congratulations staff. I know how hard you worked on this. Another balanced budget. Good job, guys. That's huge. All right, we're going to go back in order, Madame Clerk. Um, we're going to go right into our uh public hearing. This is item number nine, consideration of a resolution adopting a fee schedule for law enforcement services. Public hearing is now open. It is exactly 8:19. Presentation is going to be by our city manager, Aaron Brown.

Thank you very much for uh entertaining the city manager instead of the quite knowledgeable police chief. Uh the police chief, as you know, was just sworn in and uh ever the servant that he is, he planned to stay here with us while his family went and celebrated him uh at dinner without him. And so I told him, um, as much as I said I'm so happy to have passed the baton on to him, I grabbed it one more time to be able to cover this. Uh, as a city, uh, just like any other government organization, for us to be able to charge fees for reimbursement of our expenses, they must be adopted by the city uh, and specifically by the city council. In in this scenario, uh, we're not doing an immediate study. The county has already done this study for us. We're adopting the same rates the county has. As right now, the sheriff uh contract still exists. We will keep that in place until a later date when we can do our uh citywide study and include those in there. So, everything that you see is the rates that have already been adopted by the uh sheriff and thus by the county. and we're just asking that the city council will adopt those same rates and fees as we uh seek reimbursement for these items. I'm certainly available for any questions you may have.

Council, everyone good? Any public testimonies on this one? Mayor, we have none. This is going to make it easy moving forward. Um the public hearing is now closed. 8:21. Any additional questions for my colleagues before I seek a motion in a second on this item. This is resolution 2026-21. If there are none, can I please get a motion? Motion. Looking for a second. Second. Thank you. You have your motion and second, madame clerk. Roll call. Mayor Prom Castillo. Hi. Council member Steber. Hi. Council member Terry. Hi. Council member Welty. Hi. Mayor Smith. I. Motion passes.

Awesome. Moving on. This is public hearing item number 10. Adoption of a resolution establishing a technology user fee of 8% applied to applicable fee based services based on the technology user fee study prepared by WAN financial services. Let's see here. We are going to public hearing is now open A22. The presentation is also going to be oh no developer by a community developer. Is that correct?

It it is going to be by the community development man manager uh Ruby Manzano. But I'm worried you're not going to get enough of my voice today. So, uh, I'll start it out by kind of setting the the tone on this. Uh, this, um, adoption of the resolution for establishing a technology user fee. Uh, we do have our, uh, contractor here that did the study, but I wanted to be able to to help uh, everybody understand why cities do this, specifically, what the user fee is, and what it does. uh when you're dealing with uh planning, permitting that individual process, there's a lot of technology that goes into that and into most of the city processes. When you look solely at those individuals using those that process, you've got a subset of your general fund or a subset of the individuals within the city that are then spreading that cost over the entire city. And so the reason you seek almost like a reimbursement on a user uh fee like this is so that you can try to compensate the city back for the technology that's used for the convenience of those individual customers using that process. Uh unfortunately for us as we're a small city as we talked about for us to get a full reimbursement for all of those expenses we would need to be at 28%. Nobody's at 28%. Uh you look at the city of Riverside who has millions and millions of dollars in development every year. It's economies of scale for them. An 8% on the the $10 million they may do in development uh in in a quarter is really not that big of a deal to them, but it covers all of their costs. For us, the small amount we do, we would have to be at 28%. And so what we're looking for is 8% to help offset some of those costs, but also not to be in a

point where it is overly burdensome and also where it's not comparable to any other cities. So um I'll be able to hand it over to our community development manager and she has our contractor on site if there are any questions. Thank you very much for entertaining that. Mayor, do we have any questions from the council on this item? Do you have anything to say that he didn't already cover?

No, but no, I will. Um, so I just kind of wanted to get a little bit more in depth on what these technology fee study um technology use or fee study is about. And so as the council is aware, the city does rely on a wide range of technology systems. Um and these systems help support our day-to-day um operations and it also provides our services to the public. And just to get down into some of the uh technology systems that these uh that this fee is attached to, this includes our permitting software, financial systems, records management, website services, public safety platforms, hardware replacement, and our citywide IT support services. And so to to evaluate these costs and identify appropriate cost recovery options, the city retained will done financial services as the city manager mentioned. And so the study identified approximately $183,874 in annual technology costs attributable to citybased city services. Based on the city's average annual fee revenues, full cost recovery would require approximately at a 28% search charge on applicable fees. Rather than pursuing the full cost recovery, um staff is recommending a more moderate 8% technology user fee to help offset those um those costs. And so for the police department, there was a separate evaluation that had to be done. and it was not included in the citywide. So for the police department, because police operations are primarily funded through the general fund rather than feebased services as a result of those costs were excluded from the citywide technology user fee calculation. Instead, staff proposed, I'm sorry, staff proposed applying an 8%

technology overhead fee to applicable police fee services as an efficient method to recover police related technology cost. And so, staff is recommends that the city council approve and adopt resolution number 2026-22 establishing a technology user fee for applicable feebased services. And as the city manager mentioned, we do have a representative here from Wilden Financial Services if council does have any additional questions related to this item. Council, any questions? Mr. Mayor, I just have one question. Uh, if the fees passed tonight, when does the fee start?

This would be for the new budget year, so would be for July 1st. Thank you, sir. Do we have any uh public testimony on this, Mayor? We do not. Awesome. And we're going to close the public hearing at 8:27. Any last questions from the council before I seek a motion? No. I do need a motion on this item. I'll make a motion. I'll second. All right. And madam clerk, this is for resolution 2026-22 establishing a technology user fee of 8%. For the record. Mayor Prom Castillo. Hi. Council member Sber. Hi. Council member Terry. Hi. Council member Wely. Hi. I motion passes.

All right, moving on. Our last item of the evening completely out of order and I apologize, Madam Clerk. We are on number 12. This is the consideration of remote participation in technology distribution policy pursuit to Senate Bill 707. You're a popular man. Mr. Brown, you're up. I see a lot of fingerpointing over here. Uh just got sent to the city attorney. That usually means the clerk's afraid of what I'm about to say, mayor. So fair enough. Um, I believe the city attorney may be able to do this update.

Absolutely. Um, so we we didn't do a a full presentation on SB77 here in Cany Lake. So, just to give a little bit of background on it, um, SB77 is the legislaturator's attempt at modernizing the Brown Act. Uh, when when I started my career uh, in municipal government, uh, it never even occurred to me that a city council meeting would be streamed online. people would zoom in. Uh those sorts of things. Uh co changed that for a lot of communities. Uh and a lot of uh communities saw benefit. You know, uh speaker earlier mentioned reviewing the videos of city council meetings. That's a new thing uh in in local government. Uh this city's been doing it for several years now. Um but the the legislature saw the benefits uh of this increased municipal participation. Um and so uh they have required uh cities develop the ability to have uh two-way audiovisisual participation in meetings and they've also required uh that the city adopt a technology disruption policy uh which addresses how the city uh will conduct its meetings if for some reason that two-way audiovisisual uh connection uh uh doesn't function correctly or is disrupted. Uh so the policy in front of you and I'll say it very simply. I I want to appreciate the work uh of your city clerk. I I had a template policy and your clerk said, "Okay, but what about this?" And so her idea got incorporated into my new template policy. Uh and so I I really appreciate that. Um but the short version is that if for some reason our two-way audiovisisual streaming technology goes down, uh the city has to take good faith efforts to attempt to restore it and the meeting cannot continue uh until either the service is restored or 1 hour has gone by. It's not working and the council has to make an affirmative decision to continue the meeting.

Actually, as an attorney, you didn't come up with that on your own. What's that? No, no, no. Uh I'll I'll tell you if you want me to tell you the the thing that the city clerk pointed out uh was we had the definition of disruption was that uh essentially that the streaming the two-way audio visual communication wasn't working for technological reasons. Got it. And she pointed out well sometimes someone just doesn't know how to use their phone.

That's not really the city's responsibility, is it? And I I said you're right. It's not. Uh and so we we added some clarifying language within the policy that it's only technology disruption if it's something within the control of the city or or our vendors. Uh user error is outside the scope of the policy as a city manager might say. Uh so we're required to have this on the books before July 1st, 2026. Uh there are a whole bunch of other requirements that came through SB77. Fortunately, several of which are not applicable uh to this jurisdiction uh based on on our size and demographic data. Yep. Uh but if for some reason we do reach the point where those are triggered, we'll certainly let the council know and we'll implement those as well.

Yeah, 707's been beatated in our brains regionally because it's the new thing now. So yeah, any uh public comments on this item? Mayor, we have none. Council member Steer,

just want to ask verify one question. So the Senate bill uh 707, this is for all agencies in California or is it just municipalities? Uh so it it is generally applicable to public entities that are that are governed by the Brown Act. Uh there are specific sections in SB77 that are applicable to cities. So one of these is the two-way audiovisisual communication requirement. Uh so that is that is applicable to cities. It is applicable to cities with populations that exceed certain thresholds or even smaller cities like ours. if you're a smaller city in a county that has a certain population, right? So, we are in one of the most populous counties uh in the state of California. Uh and so even though we're a small city, we're still obligated to participate uh in these two-way audiovisisual uh uh requirements.

Thank you for the answer. Yeah, I comment. Absolutely. Uh I'm a resident of the city. I'm sitting at home and I want to I want to attend this meeting and I want to be able to comment. What's the software we're using? What are what's the plan for that? Our plan will be to use Zoom. We'll have everything on the agenda. Everything will be both uh uh on the on our website and on the agenda, but Zoom will be the tool of use. Thank you. I think uh most members know how to use Zoom or at least have heard of Zoom. And it's if you the the Zoom link will be on the agenda will be on our website. So if they just click on the link, it should take them to the Zoom meeting. Correct.

Through our website. Through the city site. Okay. Mayor, to add to that, just clarify, uh, even though we're dark in July, so our August meeting, no more YouTube live. It will be Zoom by then. No, it'll be both. It'll be YouTube live and Zoom. The Zoom is only for the individuals that want to be able to participate. Perfect. Thank you. Good questions. Um, okay. With that, since there's no more questions, I need a motion on this item. I'll make it since I've heard so much about it. I'll second it. Can we get a roll call? Mayor Podm Castillo. I. Council member Steber I. Council member Terry I. Council member Wely I. Mayor Smith I.

Motion passes. City manager. Do you have any comments?

I do. I want to thank the council for uh for approving this budget. Um as as the council alluded to, it is it's an uphill battle every time. It's a lot of work. Um, I specifically want to thank every single one of the staff members of the city because to have a budget this tight is entirely because of them. It is entirely because they're willing to take on more than one duty. We we don't have the luxury of a job in a city like this. And and if I can keep it under three, that's pretty exciting. So, um I I really wanted to say thank you to the council uh because your affirmative vote vote on this budget means a lot to us because it gives us the opportunity to continue to serve the city in a both efficient and effective way. Thank you.

Well done. All right. There's a couple things on the agenda, council. Um unfortunately, we're unable to do um our student of the year, so we're going to try to do that next council meeting. Um we also skipped over city council comments and reports. If the council's okay with it, we'll just extend that out to next month, too. And we'll call it a night if everyone's good with that. Good. All right. I'm going to adjourn this meeting. We are going to uh reconvene June 10th, 2026. And it is 8:35. Thank you everyone. Appreciate you.