City Council - Regular Meeting

Are we ready? Yes, we're ready. Thank you. okay welcome everyone to a regular session i'm sorry regular meeting of the holster city council june 1st 2026 meeting is called to order at 6 30. um let's see dr resendez you want to lead us in the pledge allegiance Okay, thank you for that. City Clerk, can you do roll call, please?

Council Member Fishe. Dr. Resendez.

Present.

Council Member Morales. Vice Mayor DeAnda. Here. Mayor Stevens.

Here.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, so quick check-in with our city manager.

Do we have anything to report on closed session from last week?

Yes, we do, Madam Mayor. Item 11.2 regarding the offer to purchase the right-of-way known as, forgive me, escaping me, Nash Road, that was a unanimous vote to accept the offer given by the school district. Then item 11.3, regarding the provision of water services to the Valenzuela community, it was also a unanimous vote to continue and do so. Thank you.

Okay, thank you. Okay, so we're gonna move on to special orders of the day. So today it's my pleasure to recognize Parks and Rec's week. Tonight I'm pleased to recognize Parks and Rec and the positive difference that they make in our community. Parks and Recreation enriches our lives by creating spaces where families gather, children play, neighbors connect, and residents of all ages can stay active and engaged. They provide opportunities for recreation, learning, wellness, and personal growth while helping to build a stronger sense of community. Our parks, trails, programs, and community events create lasting memories, promote healthy lifestyles, celebrate our community's diversity, and provide welcoming spaces where everyone can feel connected and included. They also help preserve our natural spaces and contribute to the quality of life that make Hollister such a special place to live. The theme, and this is in quotes, parks make life better, exclamation point, reflects the tremendous value that parks and recreation bring to our residents every day, from youth sports and enrichment programs to senior activities. community celebrations and opportunities to enjoy the outdoors. Therefore, I'm proud to proclaim July 2026 as Parks Make Life Better Month in the City of Hollister and encourage all residents to explore, enjoy, and celebrate the parks, programs, and recreational opportunities available throughout our community. So do we have anybody from Parks here that is ready to take the proclamation?

Mayor, on behalf of my colleague Charles Wallen, Director of Parks and Rec, I'd like to receive that proclamation.

okay and then i just want to say a special shout out to charles and all of his staff for all the work because i think this proclamation does it um it doesn't give justice to all the work that that department does and all the staff do they're they're responsible for taking care of many of our um our plants and our trees that are that are throughout our city and um they they just really helped to make collister a better place so i just want to give them a big shout out so i'm going to take this over to you jeff thank you

Thank you.

Okay, so let's move on to public input. We are at the time in our agenda where audience members, both virtually and in person, can speak on any item that is not on the agenda but within the subject matter jurisdiction of the council. Speaker cards are available in the lobby and are to be completed and give it to the city clerk before speaking. When the city clerk calls your name, please come to the podium, state your name and city for the record and speak to the council. If you're joining us by Zoom, please click at the bottom of your screen and raise your hand. Join us by Zoom on your cell phone. Press the asterisk and the nine. Each speaker will be limited to three minutes with the maximum of 30 minutes per subject. Please note that state law prohibits the city council from discussing or taking action on any item not on the agenda. City Clerk, do we have any comments?

Yes, Mayor. Bo Leland followed by Maxwell Neff.

uh good evening council members mayor dr rezendez congratulations on your enormous accomplishment my name is beau leland i'm a 19-year veteran of the hollister police department i'm currently a sergeant assigned to patrol i was recently elected the president of the hollister police officers association and our association if you don't know represents approximately 43 members of the city staff we represent the officers and the sergeants of the police department also code enforcement staff animal control staff and our professional staff like our records and evidence. All of our members are deeply committed to the safety and security of the residents and visitors alike. And just like you, we work every day towards furthering this community. Our members work day in, day out in all manner of weather at all hours of day and night and in the most dangerous situations to keep us all safe. My reason for being here simply is to introduce myself and tell you the priorities of the HPOA moving forward. We look forward to engaging in a meaningful dialogue with each of you and developing a partnership with this council and the city manager to advance the objectives of the city. We want to let you know that we plan on using our voice as an association to advocate for the things that we think would make this community better, safer, happier and healthier. We plan on working in lockstep with our brothers and sisters at SEIU. and our friends at the Hollister Firefighters Association to ensure that the residents of this town understand the impact of the decisions by the council and the city manager. We are facing a staffing crisis. We struggle to fill vacancies caused by mandatory training, injuries, vacations, and sick calls every single day. Some of our officers have been forced to work a year's worth of overtime in the first five months of this year just to maintain our minimum staffing. We are tired. We sometimes are forced to work short staff just to try and prevent burnout amongst our officers. And we face a competitive job market. We're losing officers and employees to better paying agencies right up the road. And some of our most experienced officers are now looking to leave. We're on the verge of a mass exodus and hiring new officers to replace experienced veterans that have community and institutional knowledge. It may seem like a cost savings on paper. New officers are less expensive. But in the end, the cost of continuously training new officers to replace those who leave will overshadow any savings that you expect to accomplish. Each officer we need to replace will take over a year and it costs hundreds of thousands of dollars in total training costs. And in the meantime, we continue to work short and we continue to fill those vacancies. I would like you to take this seriously. Without a safe and secure city, none of the priorities that you put forth and none of the goals that you want to accomplish can be achieved. Make no mistake, we are your allies. We are on your side and we believe that what you guys want for this city is best. But you must understand the effects of the budget decisions that you're going to be making this month. And I would highly urge you to prioritize public safety funding and do whatever is necessary in limiting reserves to maintain funding across all of your departments and divisions. Help us stop the exodus of great police officers and people from the ranks of Hollister City employees. Hey, perfect timing.

Thank you very much. Appreciate the comments.

Other speakers? Maxwell Neff.

Hello, it's me again. So I want to talk, I suppose, because it's Parks and Recreation Month, about anti-growth. I understand that this is an issue that has defined all your campaigns, both in getting elected here and I presume in your re-election. I think that the anti-growth... concept is a little bit of a sleight of hand between two divergent groups, between those who are anti-sprawl and anti-development. I understand that anti-development is essentially short-sighted. Children have to grow up to live somewhere and you need a house to do that. But I think the anti sprawl is very sensible growing into areas that were previously culturally designated previously conserved for other purposes. I believe that the anti sprawl movement is more sensible in what they try to do. I believe that action towards that end is reasonable. I think that pursuing something similar to an urban growth limit, I believe the term is, or a green belt, would do much to help support the redevelopment within the city to produce higher density housing, which would provide more revenue in the long run through more residents in a smaller area. without bumping into the issue of urban sprawl, which has created issues for Houston, for Chicago, for Los Angeles, for San Jose. And I just wanted to tell that to you to have it in your mind.

Thank you, Mr. Neff. Other speakers? There are no more speakers. Okay. Thank you for those comments. We appreciate it. So we're going to move on to the consent agenda. Do any members of the council have any brief questions or comments on any items on the consent agenda?

Let's see.

Okay, not seen any.

I'd like to just, I'd just like to hear from Jeff. I just like hearing what Jeff talks. It's always so exciting. Just a little bit more about that application. Can we pull 7-3 and just hear a little bit about what's going on with the bid for acceptance of a grant for an airport layout plan and that survey that's going on? Just a little bit of information on that.

Do you want to just ask a question about it or do you actually want to pull the item?

I would just like to hear a little bit more about it.

Okay. So do you want to pull the item or do you want to ask a quick question about it? Yeah, let's pull it. Okay. Okay. So we're going to pull that item. Any quick brief questions or comments on any other items on the consent agenda? Okay. So I'm going to go to public comment on any consent agenda items.

No public comment.

Okay, thank you for that. Okay, so I'm going to bring it back for any other last minute discussion. Can I ask for a motion for all those items except for the item that was pulled?

Move to adopt.

Second, please.

I'll second.

All those in favor. Aye. Any opposed? Okay, so those are all approved. So we will go ahead and hear item. Let me see. Make sure I get the right number. 7.3. Is that right? 7.3. Right.

Okay. Brief staff report. Mayor. And members of the council members of the public Jeff pressure the airport director so before you tonight, we actually have to have a grant funded. Grant applications for projects, one that you're talking about here asking questions on this is for. About every 10 years typically for a GA airport or if an airport has significant changes to kind of the. Layout of of the airport in terms of runway ends. They've been making realignment projects and safety improvements, but your airport layout plan is a very technical document, which. With F. A. You have to have things rendered on the Alp before you can. Construct them. So this is an opportunity for us to do such things as very positive forward. Um, we want to get the. Project site plan for the new culture air attack base for the Cal fire. That's over on the West side that's the plan is for them to move over and begin construction on that project. Um, as well, we'll be vetting, um, potential locations to, um. put locations that would serve as a vertiport for the advanced air mobility and uncrewed aerial system users that might need a place to fly in and land and then to take off from. So again, this is an opportunity and we've had at least two of the runway ends have had significant realignment removing pavement and putting in a new connection to the runway threshold. So again, this is quite exciting. And the funding for this is not your typical airport improvement program. It's actually the bipartisan law money. So that was the Biden administration did the bipartisan infrastructure law. money. So airports got assigned so much over like a four year period. So it's taken advantage of a little different extra pot of money. And so we kind of get a two for one year here where we get to apply for two grants. With that, I'll just state that the previous airport layout plan with a narrative update was 2018, and our master plan for the airport was completed in 2004. So eventually we'd like to get a grant and do a full update. master plan, but in between these master plan updates, the airport layout plan with a narrative update and then the AGIS survey that actually recomputes the runway thresholds in the safety areas, et cetera. So it's really involved in the technicalities and it's something that is required of FAA. So.

Okay, great. Thank you for that report. Appreciate it. Any questions from the council?

So, Jeff, how big is the airport now? And do we have room to grow more businesses than you were telling us about before and through the fence activity and such?

Well... Related to this and the airport layout plan update will identify the adjacent business park property as potential for through the fence activity, because the airport currently is configured at 303 acres. And most of that area is very close into your runway safety areas and taxiway safety areas. So there's not a tremendous amount of available property beyond what we have committed kind of pre-planned to CAL FIRE for development. So that's why we want to look to maximize the adjacent business park properties.

Okay. Okay. Okay. Go ahead, Dr. Arsenault.

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you for pulling it. Sorry. Is it Vice Mayor? Council Member Boucher. Okay. So it says here that the matching grant on behalf of the city is... $1,000, but it could be up to $22,000 of Caltrans does not fully participate. So how are we looking with Caltrans participating or not? And why would they not participate? I'm just curious.

Well, for two things. One is that it has to exist on the existing project list that's on file with Caltrans. We update that list every couple of years. But it's my understanding that with the bill program that they may not match those because they're having trouble keeping up with the airport improvement program, which you see the other grant applications of bigger. Grant application, so the point being is that the. The state has limited match funding, so they are definitely committed to matching on the.

um funded projects but the bill projects will just have to apply and see if it's available but in terms of it being identified as a project by Caltrans it is it does meet that requirement I believe it does okay okay all right thank you okay any other questions okay oh go ahead Councilmember Morales

I know in the past, we've had budget requests from our assembly member and Congresswoman Loughran. We had white papers for the budget allocation. Did we submit anything this year for the airport?

No, we did not, Madam Councilmember, and the reason for that was our unfortunate situation of not having financial documents that are up to date and therefore having questionable eligibility when it comes to federal and state funds.

Thank you. Well, and then, in addition to that, so I'll just, like, add to that, because I've had a couple of meetings with Representative Lofgren and some of the, some of these projects from her, from her perspective, and the application process were put on hold because of some of the, the actions at the federal administration level. So we weren't given the opportunity to submit applications as well. So that was, in fact, probably the main reason, because that was way back from last year. We were starting to get rumblings about that. And so she said that she wouldn't be accepting applications if they weren't already kind of pending. And the ones that were pending were generally being put on hold. Yeah. yeah. From the assembly, we did not get that same exact information, but but my understanding is that there are some budget issues up there as well, and so some of those things were being like reconsidered and the I think city managers report about some of us not meeting the eligibility might have been more about the state process than the federal process.

Go ahead.

Thank you. And thank you for pointing that out. That's actually a really good catch, and I agree with her. I don't think it's wise for us to go after state funds, federal funds, until we are ensured that we are even-steven with our books. But we don't ever want to leave money on the table either. So if there is an opportunity for us to get money, sorry, this sounds like it's a good opportunity, $1,000 investment, potentially more, a little bit more. But we really need to prioritize getting our books straightened out before we have to backtrack and pay all that and just embarrass the city and our colleagues at the state federal level as well. So good catch. Thank you.

Well, and I also just want to point out that submitting the application and getting the approval does not bind us, and correct me if I'm wrong, to accept money if later we realize that whatever the requirements are, that we're not able to meet those. But at this stage, it's about submitting the application and then getting the grant money and then figuring that part out, especially around the Caltrans question. So is that right?

No, the resolutions that you have tonight that's for consideration is for application and acceptance for FAA grant and then specifically application for and acceptance of a state matching grant if it's available.

And Jeff, is that even without having the information about Caltrans part of it?

Well, with Caltrans, again, we know what the application process is, and they'll tell us if it's eligible and available or not.

Okay, so we won't know that until after we've accepted it.

Yeah, so the difference tonight on that particular grant is we would have a match grant of about $1,000, $1,200 if they... If they do participate, if they don't, it's up to 22,000. We, in the requested budget, I put in 22,000 for the match. So we'll save money if we get it.

Okay.

Okay. Go ahead, Dr. Rosenthal.

Thank you, Mayor. And we do have legal on the line. Maybe she could just weigh in. Ms. Thompson, to City Manager Ana Cortez's point, is this something we should even be pursuing right now? Or is this an oversight by staff that could potentially hurt us based on what the City Manager stated?

I believe what the City Manager was saying was that there are certain grants that she knows that shouldn't be applied for because the audits aren't complete. This I do not believe is one of them.

Okay, just double checking. Thank you so much.

And this one is a very strategic project. The commitment to get the updated that reflects the new Ulster air attack base. It's kind of a commitment we've made to Cal fire to meet their. Planning horizon, so for some of the projects that we have, it is a rather strategic piece and it was at the request of the.

we meet annually with them and they prioritize these projects that we've agreed to apply for this year so if i could add a little more context to this um whenever we have the opportunity to discuss some of our shortcomings with potential funders we give them the opportunity to say oh thanks but no thanks and in some cases they come back and say go ahead and apply And so this is one of those situations. But the Valenzuela project is another situation. We actually had to clear this with the Department of Revenue before we would go forward. And so because we want to be upfront about the fact that we have some challenges and that we don't want to embarrass anybody. We don't want, for example, a congressperson or a senator to go out for us. And then a year into it, oops, you don't have audits. You have to give the money back. It would be extremely embarrassing. So we double, triple check. And when the funder says, go ahead and proceed, then we do that.

Okay. Okay, great.

Okay.

Let me, I'm checking with Citigroup. Do we have to go to public comment on this one since it was pulled or? Okay. Okay. So let's go to public comment. we have no speakers for this item okay so we're coming back to the dice okay so uh last minute discussion questions um or call for a motion i move to approve a second please All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay, so that one passes. So we'll move on from the consent items and go to our public hearing. So this public hearing is 8.1 conditional use permit for the determination of public convenience or necessity for the issuance of type 21 off sale general alcoholic beverage Control license at the grocery outlet located at 550 Trespinos Road. Can we get a staff report, please?

Yes. So Marin, members of the council, members of the public. So the planning department is normally led by Again, Charles Wall, Parks and Recreation Director. I'm in for covering for his feed while he's out of the office this week. And so tonight we have a PowerPoint slide here presentation. And Brandon here is our associate planner, and he's going to walk you through the presentation. And then I'll have some little bit of information to add at the end. Thank you.

Thanks, Chuck. Council members, uh, the project before you is conditional use permit 2025, 3, um, as well as a finding of public convenience, uh, or necessity for the offsite sale of alcoholic beverages at the grocery outlet. Oops, everyone knows that the grocery outlet is located at 553 road. I'm sure we've all been there. So, Grocery Outlet is located in the General Commercial Zoning District. The General Commercial Zoning Districts serve grocery stores and large chain retailers like Grocery Outlet. Grocery Outlet operates between the hours of 7 a.m., 10 p.m., seven days a week. They employ 35 employees, 12 which are on-site at all times. The employees are trained in ABC's rules for alcoholic beverage sales, and the clerks are trained in point-of-sale age identification and have signed ABC's clerk's affidavit for the handling and sale alcoholic beverages. So Grocery Outlet currently has a Type 20 license. The Type 20 license authorizes them to sell beer and wine. They're looking to, they're seeking approval of a Type 21 license, which would authorize the sale of beer, wine, and distilled spirits. They would basically be foregoing their Type 20 in place of a Type 21 license. ABC has found that there's an over concentrated number of licenses in the census tract where virtually outlet is located. And because of that over concentration, they require the applicant to apply and receive approval from the city of Hollister. ABC needs to see approval of the conditional use permit, and they need approval of the PCN public convenience or necessity. Grocery Outlet, they won't be doing any new construction inside. They're simply replacing the wine displays with their distilled spirits. That'll be in shelving and then aisle pallets, things like that. This is the site plan for Grocery Outlet. The blue corner is where their alcoholic beverages are displayed. So as a requirement of our municipal code, conditional use permits requesting the sale of alcoholic beverages have to be approved by police department. The PD has reviewed this project. They found that additional cameras need to be installed prior to approval of this. The applicant has revised their site plan and has identified where new cameras will be placed. They'll have cameras focused on the alcoholic beverage section of the store, as well as facing the store frontage and the parking lot. The revised their plan, PD reviewed the plan and found this to be satisfactory. We've also included these requirements in their conditions in the resolution. Um, planning finds that both, uh, that the proposed use, uh, is, uh, uh, confirms with, uh, both the requirements of the general commercial zoning district. Um, as well as the general plan. Uh, as it brings, uh, you know, diverse, uh, goods and services to, uh, to residents in the area. Um. So before you, you've got a couple of options. Number 1, you can adopt a resolution approving conditional use permit 2025 dash 3, uh, with the finance and conditions, uh, outlined in the, uh, resolution. Um, you can also adopt a resolution making the finding and determination that a public convenience. Uh, or necessity, the PCN, uh, would be served by the issuance of the type 21 license. You can deny the project, or you can continue the hearing. and direct staff to provide additional information or clarification. Planning does recommend that you select options one and two, approving the conditional use permit and the PCN. Thank you.

Okay, thank you for that. Staff report and I'll go ahead.

I have a couple of points to add this. Um, so so the, um, planning permission reviewed this at a meeting on April, 23, 2026, and they passed 2 resolutions pertaining to this item, both recommending that they move forward. So. Um, that's that's an important part. So they are recommending city council approval of the conditional conditional use permit to sell alcoholic beverages. And they specifically adopted resolution 2026 dash 11 recommending city council. Um. Dave Kuntz, approve the determination that public convenience or necessity would be served by the issuance of a type 21 off sale general ABC license for grocery outlet located at 550. Dave Kuntz, road now. This is not additional liquor sales. This was already in the existing ABC license. So this is an issue of they're simply changing the type to expand the offering within the store. You have a good business. We see statistically in the police memo that there's not an associated increase of crime reports in that area. They were neutral in their recommendation, but the applicant has met the requirement to add additional cameras at the request. This has gone through DRC review with all of your various departments in the city. So at this point, I see no reason why we wouldn't want to move forward and support one of our good businesses here in town.

Thank you. Okay, great. Thank you for that. Okay, do you have any questions? I see your hand, Dr. Resendez. Go ahead.

Thank you, Mayor. I 100% agree with you on everything that you said, but I am a little bit concerned about how they're going to... I'm worried about the smash and grabs, Chief. So I think that some of the businesses do have them like an encase closure. So I'm just wondering how they're going to store the liquor. Have they provided you any details about that?

Um, I don't believe it's going to be enclosed. Uh, the applicant is, uh, is on zoom and they can't answer.

Oh, wonderful. I mean, I really think that if we can have it in an enclosed structure with the little key and you have to go get an, uh, an employee to go open it for you, uh, Because the kids do go around and they still booze. I've seen them do it and I've dealt with it in education as well. So I really think, again, we love Grocery Outlet. We want to support them in making more money and contributing more to our tax revenue. But I am concerned about that. So can they just explain to us what that looks like and if there's an option to make sure that's behind like a closed structure?

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

And you said we have the applicant.

Yeah, I spoke with that earlier. They said they were going to be What's the name? Steve.

Steve.

Hi, good evening. Can you guys hear me? Okay.

Yeah, yes.

Oh, terrific. Hey, well, good evening. My name is Steve Rawlings. I am a consultant for grocery outlet stores. I assist them with licenses and permits to sell alcohol in all of their stores here in the state of California. And As was presented by your staff, I do want to officially, for the record, obviously concur with staff's recommendation, and we do agree to all of the draft conditions of approval there. I'll make a couple of short comments and also address the storage of it. The alcohol that we're asking to bring on is some distilled spirits. It's not expanding the display area that we already have. We are simply going to take no more than three of the existing shelving units that have wine in them now and replace them with distilled spirits. We have not seen a lot of smash and grab type of James Forrest, Norcal PTACC, he, his, his, his, his, his, Our plan right now is to go ahead and display them out on the open shelves, just like we do with the wine. However, being a very responsible retailer, and if there becomes a situation in which we're starting to see that type of activity, we won't hesitate to take measures to prevent people from leaving the store without paying for product. Shoplifting, aka shrinkage, is a huge issue among all retailers. You can be a high-end clothing store. You can be a grocery store. Everybody is always concerned about that. This particular store has not had tremendous shrinkage levels, which we're very, very happy about. And we watch this section very carefully. If you noticed on the floor plan, the alcohol section, between the alcohol section and the front door are all the cashier stations. And that is by design so that our cashiers always have eyes on what's going on in the alcohol section. And then somebody would actually have to walk by the cashiers in order to exit the store. There is a door located over there, but that is actually an alarm door. So if somebody did leave there, it alerts everybody to the activity there. But honestly, we haven't had that big of an issue at this particular location. And we would just ask that the council give us some consideration that, hey, if there does become a problem later on, we'll certainly take measures to prevent it. And installing a locking cabinet is certainly one of those measures that we would do. So with that, I'm open to any other particular questions. The other thing I wanted to kind of mention was that This license, as was mentioned earlier, is replacing the type 20 license. The type 20 license will likely be moved out of this store into another grocery outlet store located someplace else in the state. So we like to kind of keep our hands on it, but It probably will never be activated again at this particular location. So it's not like there's an additional license being added to the particular census track. So with that, thank you very much for your consideration. I'm available for any questions.

Thank you. Thank you. Okay.

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Steve, for that answer. But I'm still going to make the recommendation that we have it in an enclosed structure. If we can include that in the language, hopefully my colleagues will entertain me in that. Because if it's preventable, then good, right? We're not going to place the workers who are residents. um in harm's way to have to chase people down we don't want uh further incidences with the pd as well um and i know that we do have that in the community so unless the police department disagrees with me i'm going to make the recommendation that we have an enclosed structure as part of the is it the tentative agreement conditional use thank you and i hope that my colleagues would join me in that as well other questions or comments

I think while I appreciate Dr. Resendez's comments, the grocery store currently operates with, as we saw in the pictures, if you want to pull that back up, they're already operating without the enclosed sections. So are you, just so that I'm clear, are you asking for all of the alcohol to be enclosed?

The liquor.

Okay.

liquor, not beer and wine, but liquor. Just like at Safeway.

Okay.

There's others.

Okay, yeah, and I'm not sure that it's needed either. I honestly don't. If I'm thinking about, like, in general, the liquor stores in town, I don't think that we require that from them. Do we? Do we?

No, Mayor. But from my experience working as an educator, they go to Lucky's quite often, and the kids grab liquor, they grab all these other things, and then they just walk out the door. And the staff has to let them walk. I don't know if the chief wants to speak to what the laws are about that, what they've changed, but we see kids just walk right out of there with liquor. I don't know if it's happening here. I haven't heard about it over here, but that's the one thing that concerns me is just, again, they go to the grocery store, they're acting like they're shopping, and they walk out with liquor, and the staff just has to let them go out. I don't know if it's changed.

So, Madam Mayor, members of the council, what I can tell you is a conversation that I did have with the general manager at Safeway, because they're extremely strict about alcohol after hours. And so, for example, they do not allow self cashiering or alcohol after hours. You have to go through an actual person exactly for that reason. So I think the stores put in place measures that they consider appropriate, given their own experience. I mean, we can investigate if this is something that requires an additional step for all applicants, for anybody that has an alcohol license, we can do that.

Thank you. Steve, can you just answer this question? Do you have grocery outlets that have liquor in an enclosed structure?

Yes, I can. I am aware that there are some locations that do that.

Okay. Any other questions or comments? Okay. Public comment on this one.

There are no public comments for this. Okay.

Okay, so bring it back up. Go ahead, Jeff.

Did we open the public?

Oh, sorry. Thank you open the public hearing. And then I'll ask, are there any public comment? Okay. Now I'll close the public hearing. Thanks for that. I always forget the difference. Okay, so I'm going to bring it back. What is the pleasure of the council?

I'll move to adopt and I'll ask my colleagues to entertain the enclosed structure for the liquor as the terms of a conditional use permit.

Okay. Do we have a second on that motion?

I mean, I'll second.

Okay, let's do a roll call vote on this one.

Council Member Pichet?

Aye.

Dr. Resendez?

Aye.

Council Member Morales?

No.

Vice Mayor DeAnda?

No.

Mayor Stephens?

No.

Motion dies.

Okay, so I'm going to bring it back for an alternate motion. Does anybody want to make an alternate motion? So I will make the motion to follow recommendations for alternative one and two on the recommendation from staff. I second. Okay, we do a roll call vote on that.

Council Member Pichet.

Aye.

Dr. Hi, council member Morales. Yes. Vice mayor. Yes. Mayor Stevens. Yes. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you for that. I appreciate. Thank you guys. Okay, we're going to move on to council business 9.1 resolution, authorizing the city manager to execute a 7th amendment to the operations and. maintenance agreement with Veolia Water West Operating Services Incorporated. Can we get a staff report, please?

Madam Mayor, members of the council, as you know, Veolia is a very important partner in how we manage our sewer system, in how we process dark water. And so it is a relationship that has had its challenges, especially this year. It requires a great deal of investments, which we have been very aggressive about making sure that those are in place. And this agreement reflects our trust in that difficult times are behind us and the future is bright. And so our public works director will give you more specifics about the contract, but I simply wanted to emphasize that we trust that we have a better partnership now, that we put in place systems that would avoid in the future to have the types of violations that we have had in the past, and that we're testing the grounds if, in fact, the positive and all the optimistic view that we have of the future were actually being placed through an extension. for one year of this contract and see where we are a few months from now. Mr. Hernandez.

She kind of took my thunder, but good evening, Mayor and Council. So what this amendment seven to the contract would do specifically is we are currently in place to extend the contract for up to a four year term. This would break it out into four individual one year terms. So as our city manager alluded to, we've witnessed some concerns and some areas of failure at the plant, especially within the last, it's about a year now since last June or so. So the city and the Veolia team has been really proactive in our time here, the beginning of December, January time started kind of turning around. So this is a kind of a vote of confidence We are working collaboratively. We do hold weekly meetings with the Veolia staff. So that being said, we have a game plan to continue to address the plant needs for the future. And so this approach is really critical because it maintains operational stability. It provides annual opportunities to evaluate the performance moving forward, and it preserves flexibility on operational decisions. So we can always terminate the contract if we see Veolia is kind of lacking in their efforts. And more importantly, this supports uninterrupted efforts while we continue to improve the plant. With that being said, as we look ahead to this coming year, the city is pursuing the potential to consult for an RFP. So what this would do is this would open it up to other vendors that provide similar services to Veolia. So as we enter into this upcoming contract, It provides us a term where we feel comfortable we can issue an RFP and get a competitive approach to getting. It could be Veolia that we decide to go with, but potentially we could expand our network and bring somebody else on board to help us with that. Again, while we identified the areas that are required for improvement, we've built a much stronger, proactive working relationship with Veolia. And this amendment gives us the stability to make those improvements while preserving flexibility for the future. So that being said, we recommend approval of the Seventh Amendment.

Okay, great. Thank you for that staff report, Mr. Hernandez. Any questions or comments? Go ahead, Duff, you're next.

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. So have you spoke to the applicant about this?

Yes, we have.

And they're agreeable to it?

They've already actually signed their portion of it.

Got it. Is there going to be any other unintended consequences as far as price increase, cost of service, because we're going year to year?

Correct. Is there? No, no. It's just the CPI, the normal CPI.

Okay. Sounds good. Thank you.

Other questions, comments? Go ahead, Council Member Morales.

So I, what have you in, what have you placed in the contract that's different that assures Council and our community about contract compliance and accountability?

The contract will remain as it stands. The difference is that staff has taken, in my opinion, and I think the city manager can back me on this one, but we are proactively managing the contract. So we are going week to week with the Veolia staff and we create an enormous amount of oversight to the contract.

So, Madam Mayor, members of the council, one of the key differences is in what we have stated to the Water Board that we will be doing to better manage this contract. As you know, the city received a visit by the Water Board back in December. There was a long letter of all the violations that the Water Board found. They asked us to submit a response in writing. Which we did, and in that response we made very specific. We outline very specific steps that the city is taking as far as reviewing reports as far as we having periodic chickens as far as ensuring that the maintenance master plan is being implemented. To a certain degree, basically doing what normal project management should have been doing all along, but we have not. So we have told our regulator that we are doing these things. Truth be told, that's probably more powerful than anything in a contract because our permit is at the hands of the state. If we fail to comply with any of those commitments, our permit is in danger.

Okay, thank you. Other questions?

Yeah, I'm wondering if we can get a report back on that action, the work plan, where we are in terms of those deliverables. Because I think... While, you know, saying you're going to have weekly check-ins with the vendor doesn't really state that you're keeping track of deliverables and holding them accountable for actions. And I think definitely over the course of the several years, we should have never been in this position in the first place. Okay, now that we are. We can't just say we're having weekly meetings with the vendor. I like to see that work plan that where are we with these things that we were going to say for the state because because there is so much at stake. And we need transparency and trust to follow with actions and looking to see how close are we in terms of those deliverables. I think absent that I, I don't know, it's going to be it's.

There is so much at stake. Indeed. So, you know, we do have reports that we submit to the state, but the reality is that those reports had been a little bit too vague in some of the actions, which is how we ended up where we are. So we will be happy to provide you not only with work plans for the Viola plant, which is one of our utilities, but in fact, a lot of our other programming that we have in the city, especially now as we go into a new fiscal year, that would be very, very challenging. It's going to be imperative for all departments, not just the sewer plant, but all departments to be guided by very specific performance measures. And moving forward, good or bad, we're going to have to measure people's performance according to those outcomes. We are beyond process. Process is nice, but it's outcomes that we're after, especially when money is so tight. And this is one fund where money actually is not a problem. We don't want it to become a problem. And we want to make sure that this situation with all the violations is not happening again. And the contractor, as much as the city, we are to blame for the situation. So we've learned our lesson. And I'm sure that the state of California has not responded yet. I'm sure that the response will be not a happy one. and that we will be under a microscope. And it's similar to what HCD has done as far as our housing element. I'm sure that they'll have very specific actions that they want us to take, and we'll do just that.

Okay. Okay, thanks. Any other questions? Okay. Let's go to public comment on this. Any public comments on this item?

No public comment, ma'am.

Okay. Okay, so we'll bring it back for further discussions or questions or for a motion. move to adopt mayor stevens um can i get a second second all those in favor all right any opposed okay so motion passes thank you for that um so we'll move on to uh let me make sure that i'm at the right spot um committee assignments so this is where uh those of us on the council can make any reports on oh wait a minute did i skip over one item yeah we are i'm in the right one right yeah yeah okay sorry so we i'm sorry i'm on the wrong i'm reading this at wrong sorry i did lose my spot i was like this doesn't make sense so we're going to be uh moving on to item 10.1.1 selection of alternate council member for um the rally ad hoc um quick staff report

Council members, Madam Mayor, members of the public, we wanted to provide the opportunity for the Council to select an alternate member to serve in the Othaw Committee for the rally. That was a need because of schedules for the summer. As it turns out, my understanding is the need may not exist. Nevertheless, I think it's a good idea to have yet another member. And please, let me encourage all members of the council to take an active role in planning the rally. We have a number of things that need to get done. I will personally update each of you on some fortunate developments regarding staff. And at this point, I don't want to do it in public because it is a medical situation. And so we need all the hands that we can get to prepare for this wonderful event that is coming down the pipeline. So right now, what we're asking is basically to please name an alternate in case an alternate is needed. Currently, we have both the mayor and Dr. Resendez being the active members of the ad hoc committee. And we have about five more meetings, four more meetings before the day ends.

Okay, great. Thanks for that. Go ahead, Dr. Resendez.

Thank you, Mayor. I know that Council Member Poche has met with the bikers very actively, not only this year, but last year. He's attended the rally as well. So I would ask that you consider placing him as the alternate for the ad hoc committee.

Okay, great. Yeah, I would support that as well.

I'm sorry, if I could just interject to make sure that I understand this item. So an ad hoc committee by law is less than a majority of the city council. And so when you add a third person, even as an alternate, you're bringing in a third person who's privy to those ad hoc discussions. And so my fear is that by having an alternate who is incorporated into the rally discussions outside of a city council meeting, you'll inadvertently be creating a Brown Act meeting. OK.

Okay. Okay. Then I think we're going to have to just bypass this.

It felt good for just a moment.

Having said that, it does not preclude anybody from helping out. Right. On the day or yes.

As ad hoc. Yeah. Mayor, since we have it on the agenda, should we just go ahead and withdraw the item? Yeah.

Yeah, that would be good.

I'll move to withdraw 10.11, I think it is.

Okay. I will second that. Okay. So all in favor?

Aye.

Okay. So let's move on to council reports. So this is a time for you to report on any activities outside of the dais. Go ahead, Dr. Resendez.

Thank you, Mayor. I just want to say today is June 1st. I was very happy to come up to City Hall and to see the LGBT plus rainbow flag flying from our flagpole. We adopted a resolution. I don't remember how long ago, but just so that the public knows and my colleagues know that the city of Hollister every year will fly the LGBT plus rainbow flag, according to that policy, from June 1st to the last day of June, which is June 30th. I just want to tell everybody happy Pride, Hollister, California. I know that my colleagues sitting up here are very supportive of the community. And then we want everybody to know that Hollister is a welcoming, loving, supportive town for all of the residents here. So I just want to wish everybody a very happy Pride Month. Thank you.

Thank you for that. Vice Mayor, anything to report? Nothing to report. On the side, Council Member Morales.

Yes, well said, Dr. Rosandes. Integrated waste management, we are going to see an increase in fees. So the committee will be talking about one year or multi-year to come back. We'll keep you updated. We did. place our city manager. Thank you so much for going to that as part of the negotiations. So I feel very confident in her abilities to do that. So we'll keep everybody informed in terms of the increase in rates. I say this because I think with increases in energy, water, Now garbage a resident increases in the cost of living like gas. Our residents are going to be feeling the impact. And so I just want to be mindful if there's an opportunity to redirect. Some of those increases to looking at other. Removing other costs associated with that, that we should look at that very carefully so that we don't. increase these. I'm talking about waste management at this point, not anything else. Three cities will be having our day event, September the 16th. So I'll keep you updated as to that. That's when we look at the reports and we did have Heather, the person who's been supporting the committee for several years, is leaving. So I'm hoping that we can send her just a thank you. Thank you so much for everything that you've done, let her, just recognizing her for her work. I did also make a request for such tickets for young people that are getting scholarships. And I know that I wanted to just amend a previous request that I had on contracts. I asked for the contracts for the delegation of authority for that to come back quarterly. But instead of that, if we can have that come back monthly, this is just for community transparency, just so that there's transparency and trust with our communities as it relates to contracts. Appreciate that. Thank you.

Okay, thanks for those reports.

Council Member Bichet, any reports?

Yes, ma'am. So on Friday the 29th, I was happy to attend with Jeff Krisharu and Leah Calderon in Marina, California, a tour of the Joby Aviation Center. airplane factory and assembly plant. And I'd like to report that all the great things that we heard from Jeff recently in that last presentation, a lot of great things happening at our airport. Myself, I would always bring up the popular science that we've been hearing about since the 1960s, like flying cars are coming. Um, they, it's real, it's literally real be where we toured the facility and they're, um, literally making carbon fiber, ultra light, super strong, uh, Fuselages, the aircraft, the electronic vertical takeoff and land aircraft use six powerful motors that, you know, in the unlikely event that one of the motors was rendered inoperable during flight, the other five could take over. And what do they call that when they move the rotors and they can modify the rotors to... take over that power that's lost by the one I forget what they call that it's kind of like auto gyration yeah Okay. Well, the other ones can take over and they can get more lift out of the other five. I was really impressed with the amount of thought. I mean, you wouldn't be surprised that they're overthinking this, but the redundancy involved in all of the systems. They had two battery banks that if one was out, the other one could take over. Yeah. And it was impressive. Just charging the aircraft has this wheel that literally plugs it in, and it has two ins, two outs to charge the two separate battery banks. And to keep the motor assembly cool, instead of adding weight to the aircraft, it's on the ground support. And it cools it off while it's recharging. And you might think, well, how long does it take to recharge an aircraft for a 20-minute flight while it's cooling on the ground? Well, in about the time it takes to onboard and reboard the average airplane, they can basically repower up these aircrafts and literally get them ready for another 20-minute flight. So they're talking about air taxis right now. So Joby is going to be the air taxi, and then they will also have a manufacturing arm that will manufacture it for other, you know, to – increase the air taxi reach around the world. So is there anything you think I missed on that? I just kind of gave a quick overview. Go ahead. What's that? The flights are going to be about 20 minutes. So just think about like Long Island to LaGuardia. That would normally would take like 90 minutes ground transportation during rush hour traffic in the New York area. It's going to be less than a 20 minute flight by vertical takeoff and land aircraft.

For council members, I could add just a little bit there. So. So, in all electric based on the size of the batteries, the current engineering technology that's going into the batteries, they're talking about the average flight being about 20 minutes so that they have maintained proper reserves. And that also keeps the battery life in the premium cycle. So, because if you extend too far, you go to. Drain it too far, now you recharge it, it reduces the lifespan. That being said, they are investigating hybrid motor systems that will extend the range of these same aircraft. So, matter of fact, Joby pointed out to us, Councilmember Pache might remember, was that they have explored a hydrogen power plant that would spin a turbine and But on the day we were there, they actually said they're now moving on their own charging concept, which would be operated off of jet fuel. So that's interesting. And then. know when you talk about economic development and opportunity for our constituents um the opportunity to partake in these kind of rides going northbound so that you don't have to drive you gain tremendous you gain tremendous time in your life we love that So the exciting part there was, you know, 2028, they think that they will start being able to offer pilot program of flight between the Monterey Bay region, Hollister, and the Bay Area. Yeah. I'm a little bit skeptical on that piece, but that's what we are working for as a region. And then the opportunity exists to bring the high school and Gavilan College together and start working on workforce programs that we can start getting our kids trained in the area of drone unmanned aerial systems. There's a lot of discipline there. that are very good paying jobs. The presentation at the end of the tour by the DART organization was that they've now propped up a workforce program at the Watsonville Airport where students from... Auro Valley School District are going there. They're learning to build an RV 12 aircraft. They are learning to do drone operations part 107 licensing. And so again, we want to get San Benito County participating in our partners are the high school. and galvin so we need to bring those partners together and really advocate that they take advantage of this opportunity and there's tremendous workforce development opportunity there and then final point jovi said right now they have a research and development product development where they're making their parts and then they're assembling their parts and then they have slight activities there So they have several 100,000 square feet of hanger space that they're currently leasing. That being said. They said they, they have an average of 650 employees there on a daily basis. And they are almost ready to complete the construction and open up a brand new 250,000 square foot. Production facility. If that production facility goes online, the estimate is somewhere between another. 800 to 1200 jobs to to step that. So, as we ramp up, this is huge opportunity for for individuals. And as I shared with. Council member crochet as we were walking away from this. We here in Hollister, our opportunity. I would think our immediate opportunity is to approach WISC and be ready to support and be competitive to support them in developing a production facility here. They've been our long-term tenant and committed to their growth here, albeit that Boeing owes them. So Boeing happens to be one of the world's best aircraft manufacturers. We're hopeful that they'll be, WISC will be looking to put something close to their operation in the Bay Area, and so hopefully it'll be a new versus using it.

Yes, so Jeff, I mean, I think last time you reported on a lot of this, so thanks for that summary, but I do think that moving forward, I think having an agenda item where we can dive into this, is this was a committee report, and so having more so that we can let the public know, so we can invite, maybe invite some of the, high school and gap students to be here and just have a presentation that goes especially in depth on the economic development okay really quick because this is committee reports there's more than one high school here there's two other high schools that are brick and mortar and several um at home schooled high school so i'd like for us to reach out to everybody high school and college students. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, thanks for that report from both of you guys. I mean, it's real exciting stuff. And I think you missed that last, you weren't here at the last council meeting. He gave a really in-depth report about this and we're like super excited and we're all wigging out on some of the technology, but we're looking forward to some of the opportunities that this is gonna bring to Hollister and San Miguel County in general. Yeah, thanks for that. okay any other reports for me okay um i just have two quick reports uh first of all just really real uh uh real quick i was it was my uh like sincere honor to be able to attend the uh mecha club at the san diego high school dementia club graduation on friday was really fun to participate in that and to honor some of the um the officers from that club as they move on to bigger and better things and many Most of them off to college. I was really, really excited and lots of lots of community support at that event. So that was really fun. And we gave out certificates from the council during that ceremony. So that was really exciting. And there was a lot of gratitude from the kids for that. And then the other thing I want to report out is we had tourism advisory last week, and tourism continues to discuss things related to signage and wayfinding is the, I guess, the more accurate term. And so we are exploring ideas both design ideas, some ideas for tapping into grants or sponsorships to be able to pay for some of the signages that highlight some of the big tourist places in the county. So the Mission, the Pinnacles, downtown Hollister, the trails, et cetera, et cetera. Some of those, the wineries, so we're looking at that and i will have more to report on that but we will be having a large public open workshop event coming up in the next two to three months so that we can get input from the community we had the sabrina arts council represented there and they gave us their thoughts about design and for grants and those sorts of things. So they're partnering with the county and both cities in the county, San Juan Bautista and Hollister on moving forward with some of that. I think not only will that add some real cool artwork to our roads, but also important directional signs as well as just exposure, especially from like the big highway at 101, 25 and 156 and 152.

so more to come on that and that's my uh my report on that i i think we're at the end of that so we're moving then on to city manager report madame mayor members of the council members of the public so i wanted to begin the budget conversation by focusing on two um wonderful enterprise funds both the sewer and airport these are funds that are in the black yes meaning that we have more revenues than we have expenditures, and that is good news. I cannot emphasize enough how wonderful it is to have not one, but actually two funds that are healthy, that are doing well, and that are therefore able to be of assistance to other funds and also to invest in themselves. Clearly, the airport is I think quickly becoming everybody's favorite child and for obvious reasons. That is where the future lies. That's where the technology is. That is where we are reminded that we are part of the Silicon Valley. We are not an outlier. We are part of the valley and everything that comes with that, all the good stuff and some of the not so good stuff. And those are funds that have been well managed. So I do want to emphasize how important it is to recognize the fact that we have both the public works director and the airport director who have managed these funds well so that we are in the black. Next week, we begin our budget conversations. We have scheduled meetings on the 8th, 15th, and the 22nd. So we are very busy in the month of June for the Mondays. Please save the date on the 29th in case that's needed. the conversations will be difficult, which is why I wanted to start with the good news, which is sewer and airport are good to go. They're good funds. Next week, we will begin the conversations as to where things are, not only for this current fiscal year, but for the future. It is very easy to just look at one year and figure out how to get through one year. Biennials are great because it forces you to look at two years. But the reality is, given where we are, given where our finances are, we have to look at the next 10 years. It will take us probably that long to get out of the hole in which we're in. And it's going to take a lot of discipline, not just in this year. This year will be hard, but the future is going to be equally hard because we have to be very, very disciplined in our expenses and very, very conservative in our revenues. So more to come. I will be reaching out to each of you during this week so we can start. I would like to give you a one week Pre preview of what's to come. So, as I finalize the information, we'll bring that to you. We have a meeting schedule with staff next Monday in which I will discuss some of the challenges that we have. There's been plenty of rumors and so it's an opportunity to provide some facts. and go from there. I can tell you that this morning I had a small discussion and those members of staff were able to give me some feedback that I do think it's important and that we have to recognize not only the bad news that we currently have, but also the good news, because it could be much worse. I mean, we could be in a situation that is just simply not attainable. There's no way out. We have a way out. It is very painful. And then when that step is taken, there are more that need to be taken. And so there's going to be the need to ensure that the folks understand that this is the time to roll up sleeves. This is the time to really shine. A lot will be expected. and that we are in very uncertain times. Nobody expected us to be in a war. Nobody expected the levels of inflation that we currently have. Nobody expected to be paying $6.69 for gas, and diesel is even worse. So there are a lot of things that are not under our control. Unfortunately, it is a bit of a perfect storm, but here we are, and we will endure. So that's the message that we definitely want to send out. A colleague was sharing some information with me about how other jurisdictions are handling the information. We are not alone. We are not the only ones who have these problems. And we will be sending out a mailer out to the community so they also understand that these are very difficult times and that everything that happens at a global level does impact the local communities and especially when things affect oil there are some real consequences in everyday folks like ourselves so with that said that's my report okay great thank you for that okay with with nothing else then we're going to move to adjourn so we will adjourn uh tonight's meeting thank you everybody