City Council - Regular Meeting

17 seems like Tuesday. Uh, welcome to the regular meeting of the city of Kellamea City Council. I'm going to start call the meeting to order at 6:00 p. p.m. And Darlene, if you could please do the roll call. Council member Kundiff here. Council member Garcia here. Council member Manley here. Mayor Pro Tim Cervantes here. Mayor Molina

here. And for the record, let us show that city manager Kobo's here. City Attorney Flower, City Clerk Gertis, Finance Director Reed, Planning Director Lucia, Public Works Director Shakir, City Engineer Thornton, Fire Deputy Chief Chief Shaw, and Sheriff Captain Northrup. And if I'd like to ask um fire deputy chief shaw if he'd lead us in the pledge tonight to the flag of the United States of America to the republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you chief. Okay, this brings us to communications from the public and I have two here. Uh, Donna, would you like to step up? Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Oh my goodness. Um, I'm Donna Johnson. I live in the California. I'm sure you recognize me by now. Uh, I just have a statement to make. It's um I'm speaking on behalf of many senior residents in Calamea and beyond uh who are deeply troubled by recent uh public statements made by Mayor Molina and Deputy City Manager Darling Gertis. Mayor Molina during the last city council meeting on October 3rd stated that the mobile home parks needed special attention because the seniors do not lock their cars in their driveways. This statement was recorded for the public's viewing, inviting any wouldbe thieves to come into the mobile home parks for readily uh accessible vehicles, thus putting we seniors directly in harm's way. This statement undermines our dignity and was disparaging, demeaning, and untru. The following verbiage came from Darling Gertis, deputy city manager, city clerk, written administrator with city manager uh Will Cobalt as the moderator. This was also recorded for the public. These are quotes recorded. The residents need to understand too that they do live on somebody else's property and they enjoy the amenities on those uh in those parks that they live in. and you know when they move in they know that they they're sitting on somebody else's property. So they just need to understand I think the

important thing is to understand that you know he's running a business. It's his business. you live on that property. And so, um, there are going to be some things that probably you're going to have to help with or take care of because those amenities are there for them and they enjoy them. Let's put it that way. You know, a pool, a clubhouse, um, you know, a place to go play cards, a place to meet uh, with their neighbors. Um so you know there is a sense of um responsibility on the park resident as well as um when it comes to those amenities. Okay. So this is darling Gertis's biased opinion which demean disparages and harm senior self uh esteem and giving park owners and managers more leverage and confidence. Her words were not true. They are not true. Here are the rules and regulations. We sign a lease agreement. If we break one of these rules, we have broken our lease. Okay, I know these rules by heart. And we have c 17 cameras in the park that monitor us. The uh managers drive around on cart with cameras and they um monitor us. If we try to use the clubhouse, that is monitored also uh with audio and video. If you inadvertently make a mistake, they bring pictures to you and show you uh what mistake that you made. So, I want to ask you, how many of you could live like this? How many of you are willing to live like this 247?

Thank you, Donna. Heather Kurthers. I could compound on that all day, but I won't. I'm speaking tonight because the city of Calamaza has developed a pattern of conduct that undermines transparency, public trust, and fair competition, and needs to be addressed immediately. First, the city's claim it cannot hire employees but can hire thirdparty contractor. That is legally false. Under California Government Code 36506, this council has full authority to hire and supervise employees. Under 34856, the city manager has authority to hire staff. And 37103 makes contracting optional, not a replacement for hiring like this fourleaf thing you're trying to do. So, when Will says we just can't hire people, that's not a legal restriction. It's a choice. A choice that avoids accountability and shifts taxpayer money to outside consultants who are not answerable to the public. Second, the city has repeatedly blocked qualified biders, refused to open competitive bids, and steered work to preferred contractors. That is the textbook definition of contract steering. And when a public agency interferes with open bidding, rejects qualified low biders without justification or narrows competition to favor selected vendors. It raises serious concerns of bid rigging, malfeasants, and violation of competitive contracting requirements. Competitive bidding exists to protect p taxpayers. When you bypass it, you are not protecting the public. You are costing the public money. Third, the handling of the Bank of America building acquisition is a clear failure of transparency. For more than two years, the city's engaged in closed- dooror efforts to acquire that property without proper public disclosure, justification, or open session discussion. While government code 54956.8 allows close session negotiation of price and terms, it does not allow secrecy regarding the existence or purpose of a major acquisition. The

Brown Acts intent in 54950 is clear that people do not yield their sovereignty to the agencies which serve them. When you combine these three patterns, false statements about hiring authorities steering contracts away from open competition and concealing the BFA property acquisition result as a city government that is no longer functioning. transparently or in the public interest. The citizens of this city request a full public disclosure of all actions, communications, negotiations, and financial analysis related to the Bank of America property. A complete review of all bidding and contracting p practices, including rejected qualified biders, and instances where competitive bidding was bypassed without lawful justification. a halt to any further contracting or property acquisition until you all have addressed these issues openly and lawfully. Let me be clear. I am filing formal complaints with the California Attorney General's Office, the Riverside County District Attorney's Public Integrity Unit, the Fair Political Practices Commission, the California State Auditor, and the Riverside County Civil Grand Jury. Each of these bodies has jurisdiction over unlawful contracting practices, Brown Act violations, conflict of interest, and misuse of public funds, which you all continue to do. It is dumbfounding. Calama residents deserve honesty, transparency, and lawful governance, not excuses, secrecy, and handpicked contractors. You all are scandalous.

Thank you for your comments. Okay, I know we don't have Madam Mayor. Yes, I'd just like to interrupt for one minute. Okay, there was just a couple things that were said that were just factually inaccurate. So, I love when the public comes and speaks. We welcome that. But factually, we have not been in contract or looking to purchase a building at the BFA for two years. That's false. Whenever we bring in contracts, there is a fair practice that's followed by the the city, city manager, everyone else. So, it's just blatantly false. Thank you for your

mayor. I want to speak in behalf of our city. Thank you so much for that information. You know, however, I'm not going to allow anybody to talk negative negatively about our city, our directors, and anybody here within our staff and including our city manager. I know we have um disagreements, but it's it's very wrong where when you're bringing up false accusations, and I will not allow that here within our city council. Um our city has been very transparent. Uh financing numbers as well. They've been very transparent. I look at every single thing and they're very transparent as well too. I always follow up our city manager and our city manager well is always transparent with accurate information and I will let well speak in behalf of that uh because it is not okay um for anybody to be speaking negatively even including our council members and her colleagues. Thank you, Edgar. I just I just wanted to say we're not obligated to to respond because it's not it's it's not agendaized, but I just want to clarify my statement from the last council meeting as um when I first came to the city, I was on citizen patrol. That was my way of getting to know the boundaries of the city. And when I did that job, I had that job for a couple of years. Several there were several instances where people were getting burglarized because they didn't they had faith in other people and they'd leave their cars unlocked and they'd suffer losses either people entering their homes or car their cars being stolen. So my comments were merely as a reminder to be cognizant of those opportunities of other people and just to be safe even on your own property or in in the case of mobile parks um another owner's property. But still it's your property that needs to be protected. That was my comment. So just wanted to correct that statement. Thank you. Okay. With uh without any

further comment, we'll move to approval of the agenda con consent calendar and waiver of full reading of ordinances. This is also an opportunity if any council persons want to remove anything from the consent consent consent calendar before we vote on it. And if not, I'll take a motion for approval. I'll move to approve the agenda consent calendar and a waiver of full reading of ordinances. Thank you. Second. Thank you. All in favor? I.

5 0. Thank you. That takes us to our Calama Chamber of Commerce report. Mr. I should say Lion Tony Phillips. Well, thank you council for uh allowing me to speak tonight to share with you on what's happening with the Calama Chamber of Commerce. Uh as you're aware, uh the Christmas parade and uh Christmas village, the logistics planning is ongoing. We are currently we currently have uh 17 groups signed up as part to participate. That was as of Friday. Um, Friday afternoon I spent or Friday morning I spent on the phone calling uh several of the previous participants and then uh Saturday emailed every participant that has been in the parade in the past with uh additional information. Um, so phone calls were made uh to past participants and over the weekend emails were sent. And as a reminder, uh it is scheduled for December 6th in the evening. We hope not to be rained out. That's only happened one time. Uh but after this weekend's rain, it was quite a good weekend. We need the rain. Yes, we won't say we won't. Um the chamber is currently without any administrative staff. Uh interviews for new employees are underway and we hope to fill the position soon. Uh the chambers board of directors uh meet tomorrow morning at 8:30 at the chamber office and uh plans are taking place with our events committee for the 2026 installation dinner January 29th. All of you put that on your calendar. Um at the Plantation on the Lakes

community room and more information will be provided in the next few weeks. Um, membership continues to grow, although I do not have the numbers for this month. Uh, I was unable to get that off the computer. So, as you can see, these m comments were written by Tony and not provided by an administrative staff. You did very well. Thank any questions about what's going on with the chamber or what's coming up?

Thank you for the information. All right. Thanks, guys. And uh we'll keep up the podcast. It's uh they've been great. It's fun to follow what's going on with the city. Thank you. Take care. Have a good evening.

Thank you. Okay, that brings us to item number 10. It's a public hearing. Ordinance number 418 for zone text amendment 25-02 PN ZTA25-02 an amendment to Calam Municipal Code section 18.130.070 to add inloo fee payment as an alternative means of compliance to satisfy the city's inclusionary housing ordinance and establishment of an inloo fee amount. Kelly Lucia will present tonight. Welcome.

Thank you. Good evening, mayor, members of the council, members of the public that are here with us tonight. So, item number 10 is a public hearing for uh consideration of an inclusionary housing in Luffy. We have an ordinance um number 418 for consideration this evening. Okay. So, for a little bit of background, um this ordinance was preceded by ordinance number 304, which was adopted May 2nd of 2011. That ordinance established uh uh Calam Municipal Code section 18.130 for inclusionary housing. So, I just like to note that this is an existing municipal code provision that we have. Uh this section was enacted as a condition of HCD's approval of our fourth cycle general plan housing element. So uh the council may recall that we recently received certification of our sixth cycle. This was our fourth cycle from 2006 to 2014. And within that um housing element cycle, the city stated that it would adopt an inclusionary housing ordinance um with the goal of meeting a percentage of our uh low to moderate income household allocation. Um a temporary suspension of ordinance number 304 was put into place um on May 21st of 2012 and that went for about 5 years until January of 2017 due to a quote unquote distressed real estate market. So it was put into place 2011 and then it was um kind of swiftly suspended for 5 years until 2017. So what this existing municipal code provision does is that it requires at least 5% of the total lots or units in a residential development to be offered for sale as inclusionary units restricted to um owner occupancy by low-income households. So, the municipal

code defines a lower inome household as one that earns 80% of the area median income or AMI. Um, according to the California Department of Housing and Community Development, the 2025 median income for a household of four in Riverside County is about $100,000. Um, and as such, the municipal code defines a lower income household in 2025 as one that earns about $83,000 for a family of four. So, I like to provide that information because it might not be the income that you would expect um to be a definition of in within our municipal code for a lower-income household, but in 2025 with inflation and so forth, um a low quote unquote lower income household does make its way all the way up to about $83,000 a year in income. Okay. So, our inclusionary housing requirement um applies only to certain housing projects, not to every single one. It applies to a subdivision that results in the creation of 20 or more residential lots or units. Um, so that is a project consisting of 20 or more for sale dwelling units, whether that be in a multif family development or single family homes. And it also applies to the conversion of 20 or more rental units to condominium ownership. So basically if a developer comes along they have a project with 20 or more for sale units 5% of those have to be inclusionary at a level of 80% of the AMI. Okay. And development agreements um governing Summerwind Ranch and the Mesa Verde specific plans uh separately establish inclusionary housing requirements within each project boundary. So, um, that's just to say that to the extent that we have development agreements on file for our large specific plan areas, we handle inclusionary housing a little bit differently for those. Okay. So, how do we comply? So, you've got a project, there's 20 units, um, you have an inclusionary housing ordinance. Um, you know, how does a developer

comply? So, the, uh, default method of compliance is to construct the required inclusionary units within the project boundary. So within that uh subdivision or other qualifying housing project, they would actually construct their 5% of affordable units within the project. Um state law requires that we have at least one um other method of compliance and um we're so nice we have two existing. So there's three ways that folks can comply with the ordinance. either construct the required housing onsite, they can also request it offsite, so somewhere else in the city, not within their project boundary, or three, they can dedicate land elsewhere in the city. Um, and there is a um calculation that has to occur whereby they determine that the value of land is roughly equivalent to cost to construct those numbers of units on site. So, um, a lot to be said there, but again, the three current ways that developments can comply is construction on site, construction off-site, or dedication of land. Um, through the um, the various years with lots of our projects, we have been approached by the development community that's really interested in having a fourth method of compliance, and that's through payment of an inloo fee. Um and so that's what is before you this evening. So ordinance 418 um would modify the municipal code to add another method of compliance and that would be um to elect by right to pay an enloo fee as described within this municipal code section. So the reason why I have that um portion by right highlighted is because the developers don't have to enter into a development agreement or pay some sort of additional fee. they can just say, you know, hey, I'm obligated to provide affordable housing. I'd like to pay the inloo fee and they can do so by right. So, I thought that was an important point um to note for

the council's consideration. Um, another um kind of highlighted section I wanted to show the council is that uh the amount of the inloo fee shall be calculated in a manner established by resolution by adoption of the city council. So, your packet this evening does have a draft resolution with a proposed fee amount, which we'll cover in just a moment. Um, another important portion of this um, municipal code revision would be that the inloo feed payment shall be paid concurrently with payment for a building permit for a market rate unit. So, essentially, if somebody was coming in, I'll use a a 20 unit subdivision as an example, and they say, "I don't want to construct on-site or off-site or dedicate land. I just want to pay a fee." when they'd come in for each and every building permit for those 20 units, each building permit would have an assessment for an inloo fee associated with it and it's based on the square footage of the market rate unit. Um and finally here on this slide um the housing um would be required to be at a rate that's affordable for 80% of the area median income which we discussed. So essentially um the units um would need to be provided and constructed for folks that don't exceed that um that AMI limit that we discussed. Okay. Final addition touched on this a moment ago. So an inclusionary housing plan should include the total square footage of the proposed finished residential living area and it would exclude garages. So again, when a developer comes in to pull a building permit on a market rate unit, they would have to provide the total square footage for the finished uh living residential area, we would exclude garages considering a garage, not a finished living area, and that would be how the um inclusionary housing and fee would be assessed. Okay. So there was a fee study that was done that's provided in your packet this

evening. Um we have a um representative from placework here um that will be available for um any questions you may have towards the end of the presentation. Um but the result of the uh fee study was that uh the fee is recommended to be $3.40 per square foot of again that finished residential floor area. So, as an example here towards the bottom of the slide, a typical uh roughly 2400 square foot home, the total fee would be about $8,100. So, for each market rate unit, the city would be bringing in about $8,100 as an inlue fee. And for that example project of 20 units, it would generate about $165,000 for the city to contribute to the construction of affordable housing. Um, and so I'm not sure that I clearly touched on that, so I'll go back just a moment. Um and so once we um accept a fee, it kind of begs the question, well, what do you do with it? So the city would have a dedicated fund where we would collect the fees and it would be um a um it would be a fund that would grow over time and then the city would partner with an affordable housing developer. So rather than having each and every development try to produce um 5% within their project boundary, we could um again partner with an affordable housing developer who could then do a project elsewhere in the city. Um and the city would be contributing local funds. It wouldn't be coming out of general fund dollars. So it wouldn't be direct tax dollars that would be contributing to that um affordable housing project, but it would be in loo fees paid over time by the development community that would grow um into a larger amount as time went on. Okay. So this item was heard by the planning commission on October 13th of this year, just a few weeks ago. The planning commission um after hearing all public testimony um did adopt a a planning commission resolution

recommending that the city council approve the ordinance 418 and adopt a resolution establishing an inlue fee. With that, we do have a recommendation that you wave full reading of the ordinance um and adopt a resolution establishing that fee. before you consider that recommendation. Myself, um Steve Gunnels, the chief economist from Placework who prepared the fee report is here. Um Steven Flower, city attorney, and of course, Will, city manager are all available for your questions. That concludes my report. Thank you.

Thank you for that clear explanation, Kelly. Um do we have any public testimony for tonight's hearing? Okay. Um so, Steve, did you want to speak? Steve Perry to speak. Would you like to come up to speak? I'm not sure that he has prepared remarks, but he does have um is available to answer any questions you may have. Thank you. Yeah, I'm here if you have any questions. Um this was nice to work on because you already had the inclusionary ordinance. All we had to do was the fee.

Thank you. So, I'll open up to well actually um I'll close the public testimony and um close the public hearing and open it up for council discussion. Would anyone like to go ahead John? Got a question, but I think Matt, you can go first.

Okay. Thank you, Madam Mayor. I just had a a couple questions as far as the the use use of the fee. Um, so once that that's built up in this this fund, could you explain maybe the process a little bit better as far as um who can understand who can apply for, but is there some discretion as far as uh who's going to approve it? Um, what project that's going to be for and like time restraints attached to having to use that that fund.

Um, so the ordinance is not written with any time constraints. I'm not um aware of any time constraints related to the money. I think um in theory we could collect the money um for a set period, you know, for an indefinite period of time. Um regarding discretion on a project, so I my gut reaction I want to say yes. Um however, it would be subject to state law um regarding affordable housing projects. As the council is very well aware, there's um a large amount of um housing related legislation that comes out every legislative cycle and it seems like over time um it seems to chip away little by little at local discretion related to not only housing projects but um specifically affordable housing projects. So to the extent that state law doesn't preempt our ability to be able to bring a project like that to council, um yes, we staff would definitely bring a project um of that nature um for your review and approval again unless state law preempted us from doing so.

And would these uh developers would they have to essentially apply for for those funds or how would they like request that?

Yes. And that actually has happened in the past. We've been approached by affordable housing developers that say, "We're really interested in Calam Mesa. We do a lot of work in the area and we sure love to do a project with you guys. However, we need um some additional local funds to be able to make a project pencil." And um at this point in time, we've had to say uh thanks but no thanks. We don't have any local funds available. And of course, the council hasn't um created any sort of um fund um outside the uh contact affordable housing inl fe. So, um, so yes, they'd have to approach us and I guess essentially it would be a little bit of a first come, first serve. Um, if we only had one affordable housing developer that approached us, we would discuss with them, talk about the project, and to the extent that we could try to, um, of course apply our development standards. Again, I'm really kind of acutely aware of um state preeemption for for certain aspects of affordable housing, but to the extent that we could apply our zoning code, we would work with them very closely to make sure that we could apply standards that were important to Calama. I imagine at that point we'd probably um you know, reach out to council on some sort of an ad hoc basis as well potentially um to discuss you know certain design aspects. Um but in the event that there was more than one developer that approach affordable housing developer that approached us, two or three said, "Hey, we heard Calam Mesa has this in Luffy and we're really interested." We'd probably have to take another look at how we would select a partner um at that point, but we haven't um that hasn't happened yet. So, we would um kind of cross that bridge when we got there.

All right. Thank you. Good questions. Ed, did you want to speak?

I got a few. I Uh Will was able to answer for you through email, but um one of my questions was if we can actually increase the 34 uh the $345 to $6 just to kind of um be ready for forecasting in the future if anything changes. Uh I know one of the things I asked was like for technology and um and flock cameras, but based on on that, we cannot utilize the funds for those kind of things. But is there any anything else that we can actually utilize those funds for like um um kind of planning for development fees to install technology and flock systems around there to support our uh first responders? And another thing too like uh are we able to designate those areas for uh like for seniors for the low-income communities? And my other question was is um are we able to put like a shopping center in this in the first floor more of an active uh community just to kind of um bring in that uh more revenue more resources within our seating within our community. So any any residents that are living within that um within that residence are able just to go down uh downstairs and do their shopping like a market even some restaurants and some dinins and some coffee shops. Um what can we do as a city and as a team for our community to bring those things to light? I know I've been to a few uh different cities in out of state as well too and I see that a lot uh what the cities are doing. They're putting those shopping centers there and they they're having the residents living on on the second floor and up. Is that something that we can, you know, um talk to the developers to bring that to our city? And

yeah, so I'll take um I think I heard three main questions there, so I'll take them one at a time. So, regarding the fee amount, um the recommended fee amount of $3.40 40 cents per square foot is based on a gap analysis um conducted again by um Steve here behind me at Place Works and it is analysis of the gap needed um for affordable housing developers. It very commonly will leverage low-income housing tax credits and traditional bank financing and when they um put together their capital stack, there's typically a a a gap in that amount and so they they come to the city looking for those local funds. Um the way that this ordinance is written and the purpose of the funds u would not be for technology upgrades or other public safety provisions. It would be meant to support um planning, design, construction, maybe right-of-way acquis not rightway acquisition but um um site acquisition for affordable housing. It would all be related to um the construction and delivery of an affordable housing project. So, um, unfortunately, it wouldn't be appropriate to use those funds for flock or other, um, other public safety purposes.

Uh, can I add on that? The the fee itself um and and this is background information. One of the reasons that a fee like this has become more and more prevalent is because um, typically affordable housing had additional revenue sources. So for example, redevelopment agencies. So when redevelopment agencies existed and they got tax increment, 20% of that revenue had to be set aside for affordable housing. So cities would use that as kind of their leverage with other um forms of you know tax credits and um federal grants like HUD grants, things like that. Um so it's it's taking that this money kind of replaces what would have been available through RDAs. That's just a little bit of background on that. some of it. Yeah,

because it was a sign for some cities that was a very significant um revenue source. As a matter of fact, I think sometimes they had a hard time spending them because they had so much coming in. So, so just to to put a point a fine point on that, I wouldn't recommend um increasing the fee for public safety purposes, but of course at the council's discretion, there's opportunity every budget cycle and so forth um to allocate funding for those purposes. And we are planning to also um look at this annually for inflation adjustments as well.

And then to answer the second portion of your question, um certainly the projects that come forward could be senior affordable housing projects. I I would like to note that they wouldn't be limited to senior affordable housing. Um but again, it kind of depends on who we are approached by in terms of affordable housing developers. Some of them specialize in senior housing. Some of them specialize in um family developments or even some are um geared towards disabled or veterans. So there there are um a number of um I'll say pots of money federally, statewide and and otherwise that sometimes we might have a developer that comes forward looking for a specialized kind of population to utilize their units. Um this money would not again be um earmarked. I'll I'll use that term for lack of a better term. It wouldn't be earmarked towards senior, but there's certainly nothing um within the ordinance that would preclude a senior housing project. Um and finally, I guess I have a similar or the same answer for kind of a mixeduse um project, which was your the final component of your question. Um our code does have some allowances for mixeduse um development. It's within our mixeduse area, some of our commercial areas. Um, so to the extent that an affordable housing developer had a landowning partner that um or had just straight uh fee title purchased a piece of property that was zoned strictly residential. Unfortunately, in that circumstance, there wouldn't be an opportunity to explore um a mixeduse project because the zoning function would still be in place. Um however, if they were to be interested in a piece of property that had mixed use or commercial zoning, we could certainly ask. Um, again, I think or I know that a lot of these folks that come in and want to develop affordable housing, they specialize in that. I haven't seen um a lot of projects where um a specialized housing developer partners with a

commercial, you know, development to to create a mixeduse project. I just haven't personally seen that. But that's not to say that it couldn't happen. And we could certainly if it was um the council's direction, we could try to explore that um when and if this ordinance is passed and when as funds accumulate and if an affordable housing developer approaches us, we can say, "Hey, are you interested in maybe looking at a mixeduse project?" That's something that we can explore. Thank you. Any other comments? Thank you, Steve. I did have some questions, Mayor. Okay, go ahead.

Yeah, thank you. So, let's see. Um, the Enlue fee. So, I take it and I think I gathered from Will's comments too that there's precedents for this that other cities are are have this fourth option and they're doing it well, right? And so, maybe you can give us some ideas about for policy directions on how exactly those policies look. So, if I'm understanding this correctly, the in in lie of building low-income housing, the developer pays this fee and it goes into a fund and that fund sits there and it grows until it gets to some critical mass or amount of money or developer approaches us and then we can do a project. Right.

Correct. And so, um, have you seen other cities that that whole sort of cycle run its course in other cities through the policy? Have have are you aware of that? And

yes, quite a few actually. Um I guess one that sticks out to me is the city of Riverside has one kind of down in downtown. Um it's sticks out a little bit like a sore thumb based on their color palette. I probably wouldn't have selected that color palette, but it's like a a combination of reds, blacks, and grays. So you kind of see it. It's very stark. Um but some cities in the area that have um in Luffy's are Redlands and Highland. um and the city of Riverside, I believe they have one. So, there is precedence for having an inloo fee and there are cities in our region um that implement them. Um I'm not intimately familiar with the all of the policy direction that occurred, you know, to um take in the fee and what happened with selection of of a partner. That's actually a really good question and something we hadn't thought much about. Um but again I I imagine it would be first come first serve unless until we had multiple and then we would think about it again. Um but yes there there is definitely precedent for having an inluffy for cities in our region.

So there is going to be a second reading of this right and so maybe before the second reading if we could a little bit more about some of those yeah absolutely situations other cities policies and I'd like to take a look at that. Um does this money also count toward meeting our state obligations? So, as long as it's sitting in the account, does it count toward that or not until it's built? No. So, another item that was on your agenda on consent this evening was our annual progress report.

Um, and so every year we have to let the state office of planning research and um state housing department of community development. We have to check in with them regarding um our residential building permits that we issue. They don't care about commercial. They don't care about industrial institutional. They want to know how many residential units have you received applications for, entitled, issued building permits for, and issued certificates of occupancy for. So, they they check in with us at every kind of critical um milestone in residential development. Um, and it's been really dismal, I'll just say, for the last um several years. Um, I have some notes here. So, from 2014 to 2017, we didn't issue a single residential building permit. not not one. Um then JP Ranch, Singleton Heights, and Summerwind all kind of came online concurrently and we had really high building permit data um during the next following year. So we issued um 86 units in 2018, 286 units in 2019, 342 permits in 2020, and then after 2020 it started dipping right back down. So, we issued 94 units in 2021, 16 units in 2022. 2023, we only issued 12 residential building permits, and every single one of them were ADUs. So, I thought that was interesting. We didn't issue a single single family home, apartment, duplex, nothing. All ADUs in 2023. And then in 2024, we issued only four four building permits. Three of those were ADUs and one was a single family home. Um, so unfortunately having the inloo fee on, you know, on the books and even having money in the coffers, it doesn't give us credit with the state. What they care about is actual residential construction. What we can do is say that

we've complied with a policy uh that was built into our fourth cycle housing element which was that we would have an inloo fee, excuse me, an affordable housing um program in the city which we do have. Um and now this inloo fee in theory again we'll be able to accumulate funds and actually get those units constructed. So um so that is one negative of this enlue fee policy right is we're not getting credit with the state toward our our numbers right correct until they get built which could be who knows how long right there's no timeline

I mean there there is some there is some uh recognition that there is a market this is market driven right and in general um residential building permits are down I mean it's it's not just here it's probably it's a little more pronounced here but it's down everywhere And that's more of a reflection of the market in general, not necessarily our market specifically. Um, but again, to Kelly's point, you know, it really where it really comes down to, and one of the things we've been worried about with the housing element cycles is that by the time the next cycle rolls around, how much are they going to look at this kind of thing critically? But again, we're not going to be we're not going to be alone, right? Um and so it's just going to be a matter of how um the state views that in in future housing element cycles. So these these reports it doesn't help us get credit for those but having the program in place and it we're you know basically the city has to try to do what it can do to to try to encourage it right but you short of actually constructing units itself because we're not developers um that's the kind of things they look for. So

it it gives us credibility with HCD. If we're if we're if we're we're doing the things that we said we would do and we can do even if the units aren't produced at the end of the day, it is going to be market driven. Um this gives us another another tool to use down the road when there's enough funds generated. Um if we were sitting on a stack of funds and not using them, I think we'd lose some credibility. Fact of the matter is

our housing element says we were going to do this, here we are doing it. That gives us credibility, right? especially if if a you know affordable housing builders were coming to us and we had that money and then we were doing nothing and then they go hey wait a minute you you have this money but you're not actually using it it's disingenuous right but as long as we're collecting it and then when the projects or the right projects come along and we're using them they will they will certainly look kindly upon that can I follow up with that one mayor so If I'm understanding right, um let's say like the multi-use complex, right? Like like the retail and then the um um the residence ups if we move forward with it, then if somebody else comes in, we just want to do low income with no retail, then we can just wait until that retail comes in to move forward with the project. Is that if I'm understanding that correctly? Well, if if you it's just a matter of of what develop what type of development you know works with who is approaching you and the right type of product, right? So, for example, you may want to do u mixed use along Cal Mesa Boulevard, right? There's some empty parcels there. Um and so your your near transport you're your near major transportation, there would be opportunity maybe for public transportation to be developed there with that kind of use. that could be um potential for that. Um but again, because you're building the commercial developments on the on the ground floor and then building the residential units above them, you'd probably have to do them in concurrence, right? And usually you'd have two developers come together to partner on a project like that because um you know, commercial development usually specialized in commercial. It's a very different specialization. So you would have to have them kind of collaborate on that. But the nice thing about it is by having a funding source, especially if it gets

to a significant amount of money, we probably could have more influence over that process. And you know, you know, the city could, for example, go out and purchase land for that purpose with that with those funds and then go do an RFP for potential developers to partner and build and bid on that. So that that is a way that we could get involved. As a matter of fact, during the RDA days, that's kind of how they, you know, how it was done. You know, the cities did get into the development game. And so you that is a possibility down the road if those funds accumulate um significantly, especially if you have one of like, you know, either the future phases of Summerwind or Mesa Verde if they elect to go in this direction, you know, you're getting in tens of millions of dollars by the time those projects are complete. I mean again that's over a 15 20 year period but you could get a significant amount of money that could then really be used to to do those kind of things. So hopefully that answers your question. No,

it definitely does. If if I could just touch um just in the last two years I've had I've worked on three of these three three three affordable housing projects and each one seems to be its um own unique thing um because of where it's located its size who the developer is and like Kelly said there's they all come with a different stack of capital input some of its credits some of its private lenders and there's always that one last piece that the public agency whe whether it's the land or if it's just a a construction loan, something like that. It's every single one is development free credits. You can do diff credits as well,

all sorts. And they're all kind of unique in how all the pieces fit together and who the developer is and what their expertise is like Will says. So, you know, we won't know until down the road there's enough funds that makes it uh sufficient for us to meaningfully contribute to a project and then how much we contribute um will control how much, you know, we get to say about the final product. Yeah, I definitely like their approach just because it's multi-use, able to designate in and it's open to everyone to go in and go out for shopping and stuff instead of just like isolating a low-income community in one corner or between residential areas because now you're just isolating um that area compared to more of what what will was saying to just open it to everyone and people are just coming in and out. It's just more being more transparent, more more for the community and more for the residents as well too to kind of uh uh interact with the community itself, especially with the city. That's like my vision of what I see in the perfect world. But of course, there's a lot that goes with behind it as well too. But yeah, I definitely want to see that to come. if you have any recommendations in the future like in the next ordinance to bring that along and see how that will look within our city and um some great ideas from from both the attorney and our city manager and then of course leadership.

Thank you. Any other comments? Okay. So, uh, with no other discussion, um, I, um, call for the vote on on the recommendation of city. Well, I'll make a motion that we wave, uh, full reading and introduce ordinance number 418, a title only ordinance to the city of Calamea, approving zone text amendment 25-02, adding in Lou fee payment as an alternative means of compliance to satisfy the city's inclusionary housing ordinance. And number two, adopt uh CC resolution 2025-55 establishing an inclusionary housing in Lou fee amount. Thank you. I'll second that. Second. I second it. All in favor?

I I 50. Thank you very much.

Okay, that brings us to our business item tonight. Number 11, notice of completion for construction of contract for County Line Road Transportation Quarter improvements project. Good evening, council. So, um I do have kind of a long presentation tonight, so hang in there with me, please. Um this is a notice of completion for our contractor that was working on County Line Road. Taking the opportunity to kind of do a little bit of history on the project, benefit of the council as well as the public who have lived through long construction progress along County Line Road. Tonight we have the pleasure of uh Landon Kern from the city of Ukipa here to help uh answer questions and is going to give you an update. Um I don't know if you've noticed but there was some paving going on before the rains came. He's going to give us an update on that work and when it would be uh when it be completed. So with that um have a presentation right with that. Um. Uhoh. Doesn't quite look right, but uh what happened there? All right. Well, we'll make do. Um so, I think prior to 2018, we were well aware that there was a need for improving County Line Road. Hadn't been approved in many, many years. the two cities partnered to pursue a grant funding opportunity. Grant funding opportunity was um the state's local partnership program that we fit in to the criteria related to the grant

program. Two cities got together. We prepared an application. In that application, we included match for um funds that were required to complete design and preconstruction services and work. And we asked for some construction funding to build the project. It's a key component as you'll see from when we were awarded the grant to when we actually started using the grant was a significant period of time. But I wanted to explain that's because we asked for the funds for construction. We were only one of two Riverside County projects that got selected for funding and we were notified in 2019 that we were selected for funding. cities. Um then once we were notified that we were going to get funding began design of two different projects. Cal Calam's project was the combined intersections where we shared intersections with the city of Ukipa. Then Fifth Street is 100% in Ukipa. Ukipa contracted with a different consulting firm to prepare the design for that project. At that time, we started what I refer to as utility coordination. So for the roundabouts, just kind of picture them. The corners would be pulled back to make the roundabout work. On the p predominantly on the northwest corner, there was always a power pole at each intersection. So we had to coordinate with Southern California Edison to say, "Hey, move that pole back so we could fit in the roadway improvements." In addition, there were a lot of fire hydrants, water services, and other utilities that needed to be coordinated and moved out of the way of construction of the street improvements. So, as you

can see by the calendar that I presented to you, in 2019, we started that work. We also started pursuing rightway acquisition. We had 20 parcels that were impacted by the project. I think about half of them were in Ukipa, half of them were in Calama. Turned out that two of them we could not work around and preserve the property. So they became full takes. One was in Yuka, one was in Calama. The other was just partial takes where we just encroached a little bit into the front yards of properties. We acquired that route of way to be in order to be able to build the project. 2020 came back to council with an agreement between the two cities to collaborate on construction and the costs associated with construction. We'll say that a use the word lion share of costs were related to or were Ukipa's costs because of the fifth street intersection being 100% in Ukipa. So it wasn't a 50/50 split. There was a greater percentage in Ukipa. I didn't touch on 2021. In 2021 we did a rightaway certification and we then executed an LPP agreement with the state. purpose of doing that. We were delayed in doing that because we weren't ready for construction. Um the clock starts as soon as we entered into this agreement. We had one year from when we entered into this agreement to begin construction or actually get a contractor under contract to to do construction. Otherwise, we would lose the funding. And that's an important point as to maybe some criticism that the public has um indicated toward the cities. Sure why that isn't coming through properly but um that said 2021 we continued working with

Edison um on the joint intersections. Calamoa was working on those and UKIP was doing the coordination for Fifth Street. So, here's a key component. South Mesa Water Company, the coordination with South Mesa was ongoing up to this time in 2021. Um, this South Mesa came to the city when we were having a coordination meeting with what they thought was good news, which wasn't necessarily good news for us. Reason was they received a $10 million grant from the state of California to replace all of their water facilities along County Land Road in the same reach we were doing a roadway improvement project. So that is good news. They were going to come in and replace those. But the problem was we were already on a path to start construction. We went out and built those street improvements and then they came in and tore up the entire street to build waterline improvements. I don't think that will be well received by the public. The first thought was, well, why don't we let them go first and let them build the water line and we will wait. But we couldn't because our grant funding would have then disappeared. So, we worked out with South Mace at this time with an agreement. We said, "Okay, we will go out, do curbs, sidewalks, get everything ready, and then do some base paving." Our contractor would then leave. you would take over the site and build water system improvements. When your water system improvements and trench patch was completed, we would then come back, finish the street, and do overlays and and u other improvements related to finishing off the project. That was our idea. That didn't quite fit together the way it was originally planned. And I'll kind of explain why. In 2022, um, we did enter into an agreement with roadway. We bid the project and we entered into an agreement. We had to

prior to March of 22, otherwise we would lose the funding. So, as I showed in the previous slide, we had one year. This is just prior to the one year. We waited as long as we could before we entertained a contract. roadway started their work in April and the roadway or the pole relocations were not quite finished when they started work at the various intersections. They basically started at Bryant and worked their way to the west. There were still poles and other things that our contractor had to work around which created some inefficiencies and contract change order claims. as as shown on the slide, Fifth Street was scheduled was not completed by the time in June of 2022. It was scheduled for completion in May of 2023. So, I think what happened, and Landon can clarify if I get this wrong, is what I think happened was there was a development project that came in on the northwest corner of Fifth and County Line that needed power service. So their plans of how to rearrange and relocate poles changed because there was a new demand on the system. Final step, final note that I'm making in 2022 is we had an MOA we brought to council in July of 2022. And in that MOA, it showed that South Mesa was going to start their work in October of that year. 2023 runway partially opened the fifth street roundabout and they demobilized at that point. Reason they demobilized was they didn't have any other work to do. So we asked them to demobilize to allow Edison to complete its work and South Mesa Water Company to complete their work.

So, I think I noted in May of 23, that's when Edison was going to start their work in 2022. They actually didn't start the work until December of 2023. In 2024, um Edison does complete the facilities work at Fifth Street in March. South Mesa then began its construction in May. So I may note they were supposed to start their work about a year earlier in October, maybe a half a year earlier, but they were delayed because they had a grant and getting the grant authorized took was was delayed working with the state. South Mesa's contractor started on the west end near County Line Lane and County Line Road, started laying their pipe to the east. They finished their work through um third third street by December. Excuse me. Does that say October? I think it's October. We then had roadway immediately that same month remobilized to finish the work at the fifth street and third street roundabouts. Work was completed in December of 2024. At that point we had a decision to make about what work was included in roadway scope. So again they were responsible to completely cap the road stripe finish everything. But we did we made a decision the two cities did to not have them do that work for two reasons. One, South Mesa was not done with their waterline work and they were still within the site so it would prevented our contractor from officially moving

forward. Number two was we had to pay increased costs due to delays for pavement overlay. We compared those unit costs to unit costs that the city of Ukipa had with its annual paving program and found that the unit cost that UKIPA had under contract was cheaper to have them do the paving the final paving rather than our contract. So we ended the um contract with roadway at that time. Between that time and now, we were negotiating contract change orders. So, I'm down to finally down to the last bullet point, which is UKIPA's work that did start this month in November. I'm going to ask Landon if he doesn't mind stepping up and giving you kind of an update on that.

Thank you, Mike. And, uh, good evening, council and staff. It's been a uh many years of of hard work on this very complex project. A project of this nature with the size and the scope is is always a challenge and you introduce many many different utilities and their own individual budgets and and schedules and uh um we've really appreciated the the coordination with the city of Calamia on this project. And as Mike introduced, um, with our annual pavement management program and the timing of the South Mesa Water Company work really wrapping up, we were able to weave, um, this scope into our annual pavement management program, went out to bid. Uh, the low bidder was Madich. And so we've been um, fortunate to see them completing a lot of that work in the last several weeks. Um, they started up at Bryant, working their way down towards Fifth. Um, and the weather created some additional delays here in the last week or so. Uh I'm excited to announce though that we are anticipating the first week of December as things kind of dry up. We'll be finishing the final stretch which will be from the Fifth Street roundabout right here close to Calama Boulevard on the south side. That'll be the final phase of of our uh paving to kind of clean up and and finish the paving um in this area. Um the north side of the street will be completed at a later date with the Calama Creek storm drain project um that's that's coming up. Um and then the final phase with our contract work, um we'll be coming in with Mattage. You may notice there's some temporary markings on the ground with some tabs. Um that's that phase where we look and make sure the striping is matching up with the final plans. And so we're anticipating the second week of December um for the striping and some of the signage um that accompanies that striping um to be um put in place uh in its permanent condition there. With some of the weather delays, we're hearing that that may be advanced. we may see that happen sooner, which would be great. I think we've all been very excited to to see that take place. So, I'll step away for a moment. I'll let Mike finish the

update on a on a very uh complex and interesting project, and I'll certainly be here with any questions you may have that I can answer from our side.

Thank you, Landon. So, I'm just going to go through just a couple of quick slides and explain what the key key points of the delays were. And I think I've already kind of explained with Edison and South Mesa what caused those delays. Um, but I just have a few more to bring to your attention. One is right-ofway. and council's very familiar with the fact that we did run into a ride ofway challenge at the southwest corner of Third and County Line Road. I just wanted to explain how we got into the dilemma a little bit. It was a project that was going to develop. They're going to tear down the existing store and build a new one. So, we had conditioned the project to dedicate the rightway we needed for the capital project. Fortunately, they withdrew their application after we were ready to bid the project. So, they did not dedicate the rightway. And then we had a very difficult time getting a hold of anybody who had authority to even discuss rightway acquisition with this. So, as council's aware, we had some close session discussions. I guess I'm not allowed to talk about that, but we had some discussions about rightway acquisition with 7-Eleven. And then we were able to get the rightway we needed to finish the roundabout at Third Street, but no additional right ofway to do curb sidewalk ramps and driveways. Um, we talked about Edison, we talked about South Mesa. I just wanted to touch on Department of Water Resources. For those who don't know, they have an inland feeder that traverses along Bryant Street and crosses County Line Road. The um feeder delivers water to the Bowmont area. There were uh pertinances uh was part of their pipeline located at that intersection. We had to get a permit to do that. That permit was very difficult to get and it did delay some of the

construction at Bryant. Um just another point, the um private property improvements, things like fences, landscaping, driveways, and those things, we had to work with each and every individual property owner on both sides of County Line Road to make sure they were satisfied with the replacement improvements that were being constructed. We had prior to construction was an edge of pavement that was closer to the center line, right? closer to the center line than when we built the curb, gutter, and sidewalk. Did encroach did not encroach beyond the public rideway, but did impact private improvements, the kinds I was describing. We also had some trouble with existing utilities along the corridor. County Line Road is probably well over 100 years, and a lot of utilities are in County Line Road that we just didn't know about, one, but two, the utilities that were there were old and worn out. So when you go in and you provide heavy equipment on the surface of a water line that is of age, it it's it's sprung a number of leaks and the subgrade soil when it gets wet in Calama is very difficult to compact. In fact, almost impossible without additional work. Mean by that is once it's saturated, the contractor no matter how many times he rolls over it cannot make compaction. So that said, he had to come in and add dry out the material and add some additives to help him be able to achieve compaction. Those are reasons that we experienced delays. We did add a little bit of scope changes toward the end of the project. Um we found that there was a gap between the fifth street project that Ukipa was doing and the and the rest of the project. Um the Calamea was taking the lead on. So we did add some scope change there that was uh created

delays and cost and added costs. Finally, demobilization which we've already talked about. So increased costs, what are they? Well, they are administrative costs with the contractor. He he our project was on his books two and a half years longer than he was anticipating. Construction inefficiencies. When poles are in the way, they cannot move forward with construction as they plan, which may created inefficiencies. Subgrade remediation, that's this the saturated soil I just mentioned. Labor and material costs have gone up as time marches on. So that incre added increased costs. And the scope changes just to highlight what those were. It was base paving and some temporary striping cost reductions. So when we get to the numbers, you're going to see that we overall we actually came in at a lower cost. Cost reductions were related to we moved the final paving from this project to the UKIPA project as as Landon and I described. They will finish the striping and signage out there which was mounts that came back to the city. We did have some decorative fencing around the roundabouts that we decided to delete at this stage. And we did not have to relocate as many water system impertinances as we originally planned because Ukipa was coming in or South Mesa was coming in and building a uh their water system and replacing some of those so we didn't have to relocate them. So here are the numbers. Original contract amount is 8.2 million. Council at that time authorized an $800,000 construction contingency for a total authorized amount of just slightly over $9 million.

Contract work. And I got to explain this contract work turned out to be about $6.9 million of what we paid him for contract work. We also had $1.2 million in change orders. The reason some of the contract work went down besides what I described those items I described in the previous slide was also because some of the unit prices for contract work changed. So those were paid as a change order rather than as the as part of the original contract amounts. So adding everything up, we are just slightly under the original contract amount of around807 million and the remaining contract amount would be about $934,000. So all that said, that was the history of our project of I guess that's seven years rolled up into about 10 15 minutes. So tonight, what we are asking council to do is allow us to file a notice of completion for roadway to end our contractual relationship with them. If they no leans filed against the project, all their subs got paid and all that, there's 35 days for them to file. If nothing is filed within that 35 days, we will release the contract retention and that will end our relationship with Roadway. That said, we're up to questions and responses and uh Landon said he would step up and help me with questions and responses.

Who'd like to start? I'll go. Uh first off, I'd like to commend you both and your and our cities, our city and the city of Ukipa. I mean, this was a big project. So many moving parts. And although it didn't run smoothly and perfectly, you guys, uh, we were able to get it to to completion, which is fantastic. So, great job on that. Um, I also got a lot of great feedback from neighbors and such over the giant speed bump, which really wasn't a speed bump on uh on Bryant, right? Seeing that gone and and the paving, which it was a dual purpose.

Yeah, it was a dual purpose, but uh but, you know, it was kind of nice to see. Um, as far as the center of each roundabout, have you guys collaborated yet or come up with any kind of idea on what we're going to do collectively between the two cities on that? So, we we haven't gotten to the point where we sit down and talk about what next steps are. Um, but we do plan on landscaping. One of the criterias for roundabouts is you want a visual uh you want it to be whatever we put in there high enough so you can't see straight through the roundabout. needs to be some kind of that blocks headlights from the other side so that when a driver is approaching a roundabout, they know, hey, I got to follow this rather than thinking dark night where it's raining kind of like this evening. You don't want to think, hey, I just drive straight through. So, we do need to add those facilities.

Okay. But that's something you guys are going to work on at some point.

Yes. Yeah. And uh as a point of reference, our two roundabouts we've completed in the recent past in Yukypa, we have improved those with some hardscaping. I know I think the original contract that went out, the first bid had some landscaping plans with them. So I think it's a great opportunity to to get our heads together and look at those again, see um how we can bring those back out to bit. As far as the fifth street, like Mike mentioned earlier, that particular roundabout is entirely within the city of Ekipa. So, we'll be taking the lead on that design for those improvements. We're working through some of the electrical and the lighting for that now. We going out to bid with that in the near future probably. Um, but we'll definitely coordinate closely with the Cal Mesa staff on the landscaping up up and down there.

Outstanding. Yeah, that's that's all I had. So, let me just add one thing to Landon's answer was as he said, we did bid the project twice. When we received the first bids, the bid came in at $13 million. It was way out of our budget. we couldn't build the project at that. So, as Landon's describing, we did some value engineering on the project and one of the things that we sacrificed was the landscaping, but as Landon said, all those plans were done and ready to use, but we did have to remove from the contract because we couldn't afford it at the time. They're not going to be as fancy as Avenue E.

fancier. Done. Thank you guys for the the detailed presentation. I appreciate all your hard work on it, but I do not have any uh questions for you guys. So, that's all I have. Thank you. I'll save mine for last. Jeff,

also another congratulations on a job well done. It it uh took a bit, but it was worth waiting for. I know I've already driven on it and many residents have already commented from both cities how how uh how they've uh been looking forward to this for a long time, you know. So, so thank you for that. I did have one question. I know we had some trouble uh maybe a year back with some flooding up on Bryant and we just had some recent rains, a chance to to test the the finished product and so how did it hold up? Did it work as it was supposed to the engineering and and any issues there?

Yeah, great point. I'll let you Well, the the world's largest speed hump as we spoke about earlier. Um, with that being gone, with our pavement project that came through, we did take real um, caution and care to make sure that the grades were as as designed and um, we did see it. In fact, Mike showed me a video before the meeting um, this evening and and I got to see some of that happening live over the course of the weekend. Um, it it was able to get all the water into the storm drain catch basins that were constructed with this project. I don't think we had any water get around that corner like we saw in the past. And so I think that the new paving is really getting the water where it needs to go into those storm drain um infrastructure that was built with this project.

So a couple things when that flooding occurred was one of the catch bases wasn't built yet. The other one was the lip of the gutter was sitting the pavement was sitting well below the lip of the gutter. So the water was just traveling in the paved area couldn't get into the gutter and then into the inlet. So all that water back bypassed those two inlets and ended up flooding those properties. um to get an email from that resident just before the rains and said, "How confident are you?" Yeah.

What did you say? Trop tropical storm Hillary was a really significant rain event that we all experienced and statewide we we saw a lot of issues with that and that that was a part of one of the challenges that maybe wasn't highlighted and there's so many um with a project like this but that was um we saw similar rainfall come over the weekend and that the project was able to handle it well. Excellent. Happy to hear that. Thank you. That concludes my comment. Ed,

yes. Uh I want to say th this is a good example of a great partnership between two cities and two great leaders that you know at the end of the day this um this project has been completed and is almost going to be at the end and it's a good example for other of other cities to kind of follow that example that when two cities are working together you know even though the the forecast was there was some challenges in there But the project is almost at the end of completion and I know our our community both Chikipa and Khalimesa are looking forward for this u to be completely completed. U one of my other questions was um on Fifth Street I commuted Fifth Street on Chukipa to go to uh to go to daycare in that way. Um um there's a strip right past right passing the runabout. There's that little small uh uh street between that community that um it's not it's not completely striped. I think it faded out. Are you guys waiting for it to be restriped once you guys do the turnaround

on the north side of on the on the Jakipa side? I'm taking advantage because I've been trying to email but I'm going to take advantage right now that you're here. Yeah, of course. So are you are you thinking are you speaking about as you leave the roundabout heading north? Yeah. Towards Chukipa. I think he's saying there's a street that's like exiting Kalamesa and you're doing your roundabout on Fifth Street going to and then now you're entering Chukipa. There's a strip right there. Uh it's like the u the lines are completely gone. Okay.

And then the lines and then the lines once you pass before you go into the little uh hill it the lines are back. It's just are you guys waiting for it to be restriped uh once you guys are working on the turnarounds? Yeah. The So, the limits of the striping for a contract with Madage will be primarily limited to the roundabouts themselves. If you're are you are you closer I'm having trouble visualizing closer to is it closer to when you drop into the canyon or So, you guys last year did a uh you did in your pavement management you did that little area where it goes into the canyon, right? It stops at H, right?

H. So, I think you're talking about the area between fifth and H. Is that correct? Cuz I think that's where the the pavement is still older. So, you're talking about like the the center striping, correct? Yes. Right. Right after you pass a turnaround. Yeah. On that area in that street. Gotcha. Yeah, I know where you're talking about now. So, I don't believe that's on our annual striping program right now, but I will make a note to add that. um as I I need to check to see where that segment falls with payment rehab as well so we don't stripe it and then rehab it. So we'll definitely take a look at that and I can provide an update to staff on the anticipated timing for that. Okay, sounds I don't believe it's planned to be striped with this phase coming up with Madage, but we can certainly give you an update on that.

Okay. Yeah, the only reason why I brought is it's completely gone. You can't even see it. Um and then my last question is um um by forecasting of course the rain and everything um that we're seeing on the forecast um when would that whole area be completed so our community can know oh we're it's going to be complete by the end of December or beginning of next year?

Yeah, end of the second week of December. Um our paving should be completed. that will omit, however, some portions that will be paved later after the storm drain project's completed that kind of leaves from the Fifth Street roundabout area and then along the north side of County Road between Fifth Street and Cal Mesa Boulevard. So, that segment will likely have some areas that will need more repair that will be done with the Stormdream project. So, we're going to keep working closely with staff here, make sure that we don't miss any of those areas and we can get to them as soon as possible. Um, so second week of December before Christmas, we should have all the short of or more weather delays, we should be able to have all the paving done and the striping as well.

So, so let me just add two things. One is Sanonio Pass Water Agency is out building a water line. Is are they gonna finish their work before CAP? I didn't think they were.

No, they will be continuing their work into the new year. However, they're areas that they've let us know where they'll need to access that old pipeline that they're rehabilitating to serve as a gravity line for the recharge project down here closer to fourth. Um we don't anticipate too many impacts to the pavement. They're doing what they can to try to reduce that and trying and doing what they can not to impact the striping as well. However, if there are impacts, they will be as a part of their permit. They have most of it's in Ukipa. I think there's some of it in Calama. They'll be required to do those repairs um if if they do cut into the new pavement or impact the striping. So, they will be conditioned to to repair that. Okay.

Then just the second point on the storm drain project that Landon brought up. Um, we are in final review with Riverside County Flood Control. So, we think we'll be bidding that project early next year. Thank you guys. Hi. I only had one comment. I love the roundabouts. It I know it was a learning experience for most people, but I think it really does save time. It's been not as painful as most people expected it to be. My only question is um when will we have our street signs back at those intersections? cuz I know most of us who live here, you know, you're sitting there like, "Okay, which street am I on again?" Because with the roundabout, it makes it very similar. Do we have an idea about that?

Uh, yes. We're actually working with Cal Mesa staff on that. Um, with the roadway contract and then our pavement contract, we've been trying to time all of the striping and the signage to go up all at the same time. Um, the street signs, um, we're going to go ahead and work directly with staff and make sure those get ordered and and as soon as they arrive, we'll we'll get those in place. I know Fifth Street does have them. With the size and kind of the design of that one, they look a little bit different. The ones at the other intersections will be your more traditional sign. So, I think there's six Calamsa standard ones for the Cal Mesa side and we've got six on the other half. So, we're we're working on that with with the public work staff here at Cal Mesa.

We appreciate the collaboration. Thank you for getting it done for public safety reasons and just um ability to get through the city. Thank you so much. Okay. So, I'll open it up for any further comments. Otherwise, would follow recommendation for tonight this action item. I'll move to adopt staff's recommendation if that's sufficient. Thank you. Second. Second. All in favor? I I I

Edgar died. I didn't hear you. Okay, so we're good. That's 5. Thank you so much. Great work. Okay, that brings us now to our fin uh final item um before city manager comments and that's mayor and council member reporting of county regional meetings and conferences. And Edgar, we'll start with you. Thank you, mayor. Um I actually attended um my first uh community report for the action community action. Um, one of the presenters was actually the uh the grid um alternatives uh which grid continues to expand clean energy access completing 4,000 at no cost solar installations for um incomequalified homeowners. Most of them are seniors. Uh these projects have created major savings for families to reduce emissions equivalent to removing 44 uh,000 cars from the road. Uh, in Riverside County alone, the grid has installed 1,300 plus systems, generating over uh 39 million in long-term savings. They also offer job training programs for adults and youth, helping local residents um gain skills in the growing solar industry. That actually catched my eye because they're actually doing um uh trainings for youth and for anybody. Uh they actually walk out with uh with credits and a certification as well with that training. uh with the community uh action partnership with CAP. Uh CAP is moving forward under the leadership of a um acting ex executive uh director. Her name is Emma. Uh keeping services stable during federal funding challenges just like everybody else is going through right now. GAP continues to support families through utility assistance uh weatherization cooling warming centers and the VA tax program. Um over 14,000 residents used cooling warming centers and cap assisted 11,000 plus households with utility bills as well. By law updates, um any new leadership roles

were approved to straighten um governance and supported the community representation. So that was my report from the committee that I attended. Thank you. Okay. I have a question. Is that the is that what you mentioned at the last council meeting? Is that a county project or or program? Yeah, it's actually our uh you might be aware uh you might be familiar with it. It's the community action partnership with the Riverside County. Um it it's I'm actually one of the representatives for the the district 5. Okay. Thank you, Jake. I did not have I did not attend any county or regional meetings and so that concludes my report. Thank you. But I see we got reports summary. That's right. That's right. I should have mentioned that you there is a report. You're off the hook.

Recap. There we go. Cuz I'm off the hook, too. Okay, John. I did not attend any regional meetings. And that will also conclude my report. Eric,

thank you, Madam Mayor. Uh, as far as regional meetings, I had none that I attended other than to say um on the 5th attended the town hall with Senator Achob. You were there as well. And why I bring that up is um she made it a point uh to convey to us that were in attendance that any bills or any legislation that's going to be coming um up primarily for our citizens um her office, she's asking for people, you know, to reach out and and please convey to the office, you know, your concerns um or position on some of these things. Um so that was one of the strong points I just wanted to reiterate to our public. um she's working very hard for us um you know doing the best she can up there and it was a it was a very informative u meeting uh on the 10th along with you attended the Cal's event in Palm Springs. Um not really a whole lot to report other than there's a new president now um who is the council woman from banning Colleen Wallace. Um so stay tuned I suppose for any additional on that. And then lastly, uh, today I attended, uh, at the sheriff's ad hoc, uh, committee meeting, which John and I are, uh, part of that. And, um, not really a whole lot to report from that. Just, uh, there's there's more to come. Um, we're looking for some additional, uh, information, um, that we can be be able to present to council at at a different time. So, uh, that concludes my reports. And one last thought is just to say to staff again, thank you um for all their hard work. Um and unfortunately, you know, it sometimes goes unnoticed, but I think we do a good job of of recognizing them, but they work tirelessly to do good work for us. So, I just wanted to publicly thank them. So, that concludes my report.

Thank you. Mine was sure to um I I don't know what our election reporting percentage was. Do you have any idea? I don't, but we can look that up on the ch the county's

busy. Yeah, it was good to see on the floor. Um um I attend in Bowman. I attended the second street ribbon cutting. Second Street is um um right behind if you know where the shopping center off Highland Kohl's and and Home Depot. Second Street is that street that runs between those businesses and opening up that um that road which is going to help at Pennsylvania Avenue with a grade separation in the next couple of years that opens up traffic and gives people alternatives ways alternative ways to get in and out of the two cities. So I attended that and represented our city. Um attended the the uh town hall meeting with the senator. It was wonderful and also the the division meeting. Uh Veterans Day was was a nice event. Um our our um Lions put out flags on Ukip and Calame Mesa. We're always looking to improve that program. It's very uh patriotic to see the flags on the boulevard. Um we also had an ad hoc meeting Councilman Jeff and I attended on on Mesaverie and so that's information that'll be coming to the public's when it's appropriate. I didn't attend my RCTC meeting, but we I provided a summary so you have that information which is I think a great idea with these agencies, but you know to it's a lot to report sometimes. It's a great piece of material to read when you have your opportunity. So, um I just I would like to comment on Eric's comments as well. Staff really works works well. We have not a lot of people that work here, but we do the most with I think we do better than than than most cities do. So, I'd like to also thank the staff. We're coming up to the holidays. They really shine when it comes to the holidays and so we're looking forward to that and bring it forward to our community to share with the the happy holiday seasons. So, with that, I'll turn it over to our city manager for his comments and reports.

Thank you, Madame Mayor. Um, last Thursday, I attended the Sanggonio Pass Municipal Advisory Council meeting. the municip the county has these municipal advisory councils throughout the county and un that represent unincorporated areas. They're appointed by the area supervisor and what their their role is is to basically uh provide recommendations for the supervisor on um projects that affect their area. So um they asked me to just come and give an annual report on some of the projects that we have going on in the city that impact their area. It's primarily uh Cherry Valley and the Banning Bench, the unincorporated areas there. Um so uh they were very uh appreciative of that. Um there was some there was a project that uh did draw some eye from the the crowd that was there. Um but I was very impressed with how they handled themselves. Um as a matter of fact, I complimented him for that when I gave my report because um you know, a lot of times we do see um the the public interaction sometimes gets a little bit degraded. Um but it was very you know they were very firm in their stance but they were very respectful um and it was very much appreciated. Um the tree lighting is this Friday um for from 5:00 to 7:00 will be right here at city hall. So we are hopeful that everyone can attend. Um it's a little bit early. Um it's you know but with the holiday season coming up and with all the the business that happens with that you know me um Tony mentioned the the the Christmas parades. So, with all of that type of activity, we decided to move it up a little bit this year. We talked about doing it that way last year, and I think after, you know, after having it so close to the the the parade, we decided it's probably better to bring it forward. Um, and people are starting to put their lights up on their houses anyway. So, it seems like that's getting earlier and earlier every year. Um, finally, I do I I debated whether back and forth whether I wanted to do

this. Um, just I I do want to take a moment um to respond to some of the public comments uh made earlier. I take my integrity and the integrity of the city very seriously. The accusations made tonight are not only inaccurate, but they came as a complete surprise to me. I genuinely don't have any idea where some of these claims were even referred to. But what I do know is that we operate with integrity and transparency. we follow the law. We're proud of the work that we do on behalf of this of this community. I also want to thank um the entire council for their continued support. Um and to our staff. Um I see your commitment every single day and I want you to know that I have your back just as much as you have mine. With that, I'll complete my comments. Thank you.

Yeah, I I I me I forgot to mention this. um our city um our the p all the past cities you know we have all we all have the same problems um good things and bad things we have all the traffic um a a lot of growth and a lot of dealing with all that that comes with that the the construction and what have you but our city works very well with all the cities in the past we um have regular meetings where we meet the mayor and and and representatives from the the cities from banning all the way out here I know we we we we have an election next year and we put it off and we've had some staff changes at the other in some of the cities and so we've changed that but I just wanted to assure the our our residents that we work very well with the other cities to better our our ability to meet our needs and and it goes with you Kypa as well. We we really do work hard to to uh work together and um share the goods and share the bads when we have to. But I would just like to say I'd like to thank staff for for um their part in in working with other staff because that's what it takes for us to succeed here in in this in Riverside County and I think we do very well being right off the I 10. So I just wanted to add that. I'm I'm sorry to to to extend my comments, but so that'll conclude tonight's meeting. Uh we have close session items. Um and after that we'll be um re meeting back here on December 1st. But if you'd like to read the public notice

before Before you do that, I'm sorry. Sorry, Stephen. Um December 1st. Um is our next meeting. And I'd like to point out that is a very special day. It will be our 35th birthday. We were incorporated on December 1st, 1990. So it's pretty cool having our council meeting on on exactly our to 35 years of the day. Will you have champagne? I'm just kidding. Bring some bourbon. We're ready. Okay. I don't want to build it up too much, but are we ready? We're ready for you.

All right. Uh the council will now go into close session to discuss the three items listed on the agenda for close sessions. Uh the first item is conference with labor negotiators. Uh the city negotiator is the city manager. The employee group the employee group is all city employees incl excluding the city manager. Uh the second item and the second and third items are related. Uh both are existing litigation. Uh the first matter is city of Calama versus Ev Everest reinsurance uh company. The second item is Everest reinsurance company versus the city of Calam Mesa. Um, and that is it. Madame Mayor, thank you very much. Have a good evening, everyone. Drive safely. Good night.

Oh. Um, and just to point out, um, uh, on items B and C, both of those, um, uh, litigation items, Council, Council Member Garcia does have a conflict and has informed us that he will not be participating in those discussions. He will be recusing himself. Thank you. Oh, and just to clarify, the nature of the conflict is we take our integrity seriously. Um uh the nature of the conflict is he owns real estate within uh 500 ft of the improvements that would be funded by the matters under the funds under dispute in the litigation.