City Council - Regular Meeting

To two thousand twenty six five p.m. meeting city hall chambers will come to order. Thank you. Roll call please.

Council and agency member Miller here. Council and agency member Berks here. Council and agency member Garcia Arizona here. Mayor Pro Tem and vice chair Pacheco. Mayor and chair Oglesby here. You do have a quorum.

Thank you so much. Number three which is invocation and pledge of allegiance. We'll do a moment of silence and I will ask the Mayor to pretend to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance, if you would, please.

Pledge of Allegiance.

Thank you. Now we'll go to item number four is agenda review. Mr. DeMando, any changes to the agenda?

Yes, thank you, Mayor. Staff requests removal of closed session items 12A and 12B from tonight's agenda.

Okay, thank you so much. That's all we had on closed session, I believe. Is that correct, Madam City Attorney?

Yes, thank you. Okay.

So I will accept and take public comment on our closed session items during this general public comment right now coming up. But item number five, which is public comment, members of the public were seen to address City Hall and then matters underneath our jurisdiction may do so for up to three minutes. This is the time to also comment on our closed session items that will not be discussed tonight and on presentation items. We ask that you hold your comments on items that are on the agenda until the item is called. It is beneficial if you state your name. Public comment is open.

Members of the public in the chamber, please approach the podium. Members of the public on Zoom, please use the raise your hand feature or dial star 9 if you're calling from a phone.

Good evening, City Council and Mayor. First of all, I want to say, in a city that has approximately 30 plus churches, I would ask that some of the pastors possibly come down and do an invocation for these meetings. We used to do that all the time for every meeting, and for the last couple of years, It's gone by the wayside. So I would put a call out there to all the pastors or anybody that wants to come out and do an invocation for us. It would be greatly appreciated. I'm also asking the city to be more mindful of the wording used in the agenda items. The description should be written in a way that the general public can easily understand using clear and straightforward language rather than vague or technical wording. residents should be able to read an agenda and immediately understand what the council will be discussing or voting on agenda titles and descriptions should accurately reflect the subject matter without minimizing obscuring or skirting around the issue transparency begins with clear communication and the public deserves agendas that are honest understandable and informative And this city council has always said that they're very transparent. So words say a lot.

Members of the public in the chamber, please approach the podium. Members of the public on Zoom, please use the raise your hand feature or dial star nine if you're calling from a phone.

Yeah, my name is Larry Rodriguez, and I live at 1301 Military Seaside. And in the last two months, I've had two cars come through my fence, cars running stop sign at Military and Rocha Buena, another one that spun out another car right at that intersection. And I'm just trying to see if there's anything that could be done, maybe having another stop sign maybe put on Noche Buena and military, because there's cars that are flying up Noche Buena all the time and nobody's stopping. And two months ago, I had a truck ended up five feet from my house in my front yard. a month later another car got spun up and went through my fence again and i just fixed it for the second time but uh i see a lot of other close calls all you know and we've lived there for 50 years and over the years nothing like this has ever had has happened so i'm just trying to you know, see if something could be done, maybe another stop sign, make it a four way stop or something that can be addressed or with that issue, because it's pretty, you know, there's a lot of I know the high school kids that walk up through there during the day, and nobody's gotten, you know, hit or it could happen. But I just wanted to let everybody know where what's kind of going on said, but something could be done. So And that's all I got to say right now anyway. So that's it.

We heard you. Thank you so much.

OK. Good evening, City Council, citizens of Seaside. I'm Peter Kaiser, a longtime resident. As there was just a moment of silence, I would respectfully like to ask a prayer. We adore you, Lord. We worship you. We thank you for your sacrifice on the cross that we may be forgiven as we surrender to you and become obedient to your will, follow the Bible and the original intent of the Constitution. Please forgive us for our sins and help us to do right by you and not miss the mark. Thank you for your loving kindness, your control of all things in the long run, and allowing us to be looking forward to heaven as we receive your forgiveness. And also we ask that anyone who's considering running for office, especially in the city of Seaside, that they should be considering representing the churches and many Christians who are in this city, that they should be considering following the Bible and have Christian character and a good Christian worldview. They should be against the abortion clinic. which we have lost many children in the city of Seaside, just two blocks from this building as we speak. And we also want abortion to become unthinkable in this city and in this state. We also want the Congress, call your Congress person, Panetta, to put the ban back on funding Planned Parenthood. It was taken off on the 4th of July. They often get $800 billion a year of tax money to kill young children. and we also um we want to make sure that um just like this lovely lady named chloe she was influenced unduly by some doctors to have a transgender surgery as a teenager and her parents were threatened that if she wasn't allowed to switch and be transgender she may commit suicide. But what was actually happening is some people who had the surgeries were committing suicide, but they didn't share that information. So we want to take away this misnomer, this misnamed sanctuary city for transgender and transgender care. And some the cast report in England even has denounced that type of care. And Let's see. And we want to make sure that these suicides from people who have had this surgery needs to stop. And in Jesus' holy name, amen.

good evening council mayor everybody in the audience my name is linda cunningham i'm a member of the homeless commission but i'm here as a private citizen and i just have to say what a fabulously quiet fourth of july we had i thought it was fabulous i'm not sure why anybody else maybe i missed when people talked about it it was great in my neighborhood my mailman lives down here he said it was great in his neighborhood up the hill is great so much better all the work seaside's put into this fabulous i i mean we should have a celebration to celebrate how great i believe seaside did with fireworks i can't wait to hear the chief's report i've seen lots of great things happening at seaside i mean wasn't blues on the bay just i mean and the park just beautiful this weekend i mean we have perfect weather um my only thing is two things can we spray wash the paths, especially right in front of the stage to get the goose poop off. It just is extra obvious there. And I did read that geese apparently do not like grape Kool-Aid. So I don't know if we can get some mountains of grape Kool-Aid from Costco and spray some grape Kool-Aid down. whatever it takes to make them decide not to eat that grass. And I think it's just a little loud. I went clinky arts. I just literally had to leave. It was so loud. I could hear it over at Ace Hardware. I'm not saying turn it down half, but it could be a couple notches quieter. I think it's just a little too loud. And then I just would like to say I am grateful that the people at Planned Parenthood have saved thousands of peoples of lives. thousands these people you know i think some people should mind their own business get out of other people's health care whatever happened to minding your own business i have the freedom to be what i should have the freedom to believe what i want to believe and not have to believe what you believe let us all enjoy the variety is the spice of life god loves variety there's not one of anything There's not even like one type of Adam. That's how much God loves variety. Gave us all of this. Let's just let people be who they are and focus on your own life. I mean, this place saves people's lives. And if you really think You know, if you're really against abortion, why aren't you handing out condoms and talking to men and counseling them and telling them to stop having sex with women and children that are not their wives? And at any time in their life, if they're not making a baby, you can't have sex because that's the real agenda. And so, yes, of course. any kind of abortion sad many people lose a baby my family has lost babies that they didn't want to lose but there were problems in these pregnancies and the babies couldn't live i i just don't understand this i wish we didn't have to hear it every two weeks again planned parenthood saves lives and i'm and i think anybody should be able to run for office yes you should have good morals i think you should have good values but i don't think we have to judge it by one religions you know dictates and i hope i'm grateful that seaside's an open city and we're welcoming to everybody and again congratulations on fourth of july members of the public in the chamber please approach the podium members of the public on zoom please use the raise your hand feature or dial star 9 if you're calling from a phone

Mayor, no other members of the public have come forward to make public comment.

Thank you so much. Seeing no one else, public comment is closed. Mr. City Manager and City Attorney, are there any questions or issues that you can speak to at this time?

Yes, so staff, public works staff will look at the concerns at military from a traffic standpoint. We will also look at pressure washing parts of the park and preparation of our events to make sure that that is on the up and up and then also for agenda titles. If citizens have concerns on. the agenda titles, we encourage them to reach out to us in real time so we can try to address those while making sure that those titles are transparent and balance the legal requirements of the ordinance or the resolution that has to be put into that agenda title. That's it for this time.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I would echo the comments of the city manager. Our agenda titles are clear and we review them regularly for compliance with the Brown Act.

All right, thank you. All right, next we'll go to Public Agency Communications. Have any public agencies here? We will have the 6A Seaside news broadcast comments from the city manager.

Let's play the news.

hello seaside welcome to seaside city news for july 16 2026. here's what's happening in our community the city of seaside is accepting applications for the fy 2026-2027 youth opportunity grant program Eligible organizations may apply for funding to support programs serving seaside youth age 24 and younger. Applications are due by 5 p.m. on August 7, 2026. Learn more on the City of Seaside website. The Padre Trails. Camera and Photography Club presents Photography Begins with Seeing at the Walter Lee Avery Gallery. photographic print exhibition is on display through september 4th 2026 monday through friday from 8 am to 5 pm meet the artists at a reception friday july 17th from 6 to 7 30 pm this sunday july 19th enjoy live music from zydeco flames and lost survivors at seaside's 39th annual sunday blues in the park the free performance runs from 1 to 4 30 pm at laguna grande park Join the city of Seaside on Saturday, July 18th at 12 noon for a ribbon cutting celebration at Lincoln Cunningham Park. Celebrate the new pedestrian pathways and play area for ages five to 12. The event is open to the public and snacks will be provided. Hi, Seaside.

I'm animal control specialist Alex Chelgren with the Seaside Police Department. I'm inviting you to join us for National Night Out on Tuesday, August 4th, from 4 to 7 p.m. on the City Hall lawn, 440 Harcourt Avenue. National Night Out is an opportunity for our community to come together, meet local officers, connect with neighbors, and learn more about our public safety resources here in Seaside. This year, we're excited to introduce Touch a Truck, where kids and families can explore emergency, construction, utility, and service vehicles up close. You'll have a chance to meet the drivers, the operators, learn about the vehicles, and enjoy a hands-on experience with the trucks that help serve our community every day. We'll also have fun activities, community resources, and family-friendly entertainment throughout the evening. Bring your family, invite your neighbors, and join us as we continue building a safer, stronger, and more connected Seaside. We look forward to seeing you Tuesday, August 4th from 4 to 7 p.m. at Seaside City Hall.

The City of Seaside Older Adults program will host a community flea market on Saturday, August 8, 2026, from 930 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Oldemeyer Center, located at 986 Hillby Avenue. Shoppers can browse clothing, kitchenware, books, toys, home decor, and more. Vendor spaces are available for $10 for people under age 60, with one space allowed per person. To apply, visit the Old Meyer Center. For more information, call 831-899-6809. Beginning Sunday, July 19, construction will continue along Playa Avenue at California Avenue in Sand City. For approximately three weeks, the eastbound right turn lane, the shopping center exit lane, and the south sidewalk will be closed. Please follow posted detours, use the north sidewalk, and allow extra travel time. MST is now inviting riders and community members to share feedback about accessibility, safety, amenities, and other bus stop conditions. Public input will help MST prioritize future bus stop improvements. The online survey is open through August 2, 2026. For more information on city events, programs, traffic updates, and community announcements, visit the City of Seaside website and follow us on social media. Thank you for watching.

I just want to echo the Seaside City News to encourage the public to join us Saturday at noon at Lincoln Cunningham Park to celebrate the improvements that have been occurring there. And then also to echo public comment, I want to say a huge shout out to both the police and fire for their fireworks deterrent activities over the July 4th weekend. We also want to say thank you to the public who saw something, said something, used our text messaging systems and contacted us.

uh to to really uh try to be effective in fireworks prevention thank you uh thank you we're going next to item number seven which is uh consent agenda 7a approve environmental service cooperative agreement report covering activities from april through june 2026 B, adopt a resolution authorizing the city manager to execute a contract with Carmel Fire Protection Associates for fire prevention, plan review, and alarm system inspection services for an amount not to exceed $50,000. C, adopt a resolution for designation of voting delegates and alternate for the League of California Cities annual conference and expo being held September 23rd through the 25th, 2026 in Anaheim, California. D. Adopt a resolution renewing the professional service agreement with HDL companies for utility tax users tax administration service. E. Adopt a resolution authorizing the city manager to amend the professional service agreement with Kimberlin Horn and Associates Inc. for a developer's project. management and plan review services for the campus town project in an amount not to exceed 230 000 by adding a not to exceed 65 000 to the agreement bringing a total amount to 295 000 to be reimbursed by the developer f adopted resolution authorizing the same manager executed cannabis dispensary development and operating agreement transfer with 60 seaside llc originally issued to higher level of care llc for the dispensary located at one four four zero canyon del rey boulevard G, approve the Traffic Advisory Committee's recommendation for the installation of a traffic calming measures along Trinity Avenue. That concludes the reading of the consent agenda. Is there anyone on the dais want to pull the item off the consent agenda? C. Okay, item C has been pulled. Is there anyone from the public would like to pull the item off the consent agenda? item f box drop you want to put f yeah that's the one you want yeah Diane Nielsen you can indicate that all right you good yeah we'll pull that off go ahead on anybody on Diane Nielsen

Thank you. I'm looking for the item. It's the transfer of the cannabis. The word.

Yeah.

SF.

Okay. Thank you.

Okay. All right. Anyone else? Okay. Bringing it back to the diocese. What is the Will of Council? approaching to approve the consent agenda second then properly moved in second uh is there any public comment on the consent agenda good evening this is uh in regards to item g the traffic calming measures along trinity avenue um

I'd like to thank the attack for the recommendation of the traffic calming measures. Trinity Avenue was the only neighborhood to actually apply for this nine-step process for speed humps and stuff like that. We were the only neighborhood in the 25-26 fiscal year. We received a large neighborhood support for this project with more than 90 percent of the residents that surround Trinity Park signing the petitions. Some of the homes that we weren't able to get signatures from, they were either vacant, not home, or there was one with a language barrier. I'm sure most of you are familiar with Trinity Park. This park is used often. School-aged children, adults walk around the park for exercise. It's actually the only park in Seaside that's surrounded on all four sides of the street. And it looks like a racetrack or a track you might find at a high school or a college stadium. One-way traffic. uh around the park and very wide 40 feet from court uh curb to curb so needless to say we have um it's pretty unique because of that and we've get we get uh cars that tend to speed some use this actually as a racetrack and i'm just here to to uh make sure or hope that you guys do approve this. Not only are we hoping for speed speed humps that go from curb to curb as Chief Borges suggested, so we don't end up with the cars kind of skirting them like they do on downhill be. I think the removable ones that go from curb to curb would be the best design. Also, we were talking about with the tack, striping that would visually narrow the street so you don't have this 40 foot street where cars have actually passed each other going, you know, if one's going slower, some cars pass each other both on the left and right. We talked about keeping the parallel parking the way it is. So essentially, you'd have four stripes, one for cars, and then the others to make the street look narrower. The recommendation before the city council represents an opportunity to make meaningful improvements that will benefit residents, visitors, and everyone enjoys the park. The purpose of this is not to show an inconvenience to motorists rather than they're designed to encourage safe driving and behavior in an area where the community expects vehicles to operate with greater caution. Well, thank you.

Thank you.

Members of the public in the chamber, please approach the podium. Members of the public on Zoom, please use the raise your hand feature or dial star nine if you're calling from a phone.

Good evening. Jacqueline Cadigan. I'm addressing item G on the consent agenda this evening. My family has lived on Trinity Avenue since the mid-60s. During that time, the traffic has steadily increased. Given that Trinity Park is the only park in the city to be completely surrounded by roadway, it is imperative that, as recommended by the Traffic Advisory Committee, traffic calming measures, namely speed humps and striping, be instituted to slow vehicle speeds. The homes surrounding Trinity Park already deal with drivers, including semi trucks, who routinely drive the wrong way on our one-way street. It's concerning that we also have to deal with excessively speeding vehicles on a regular basis. Many vehicles treat the oval-shaped park as a racetrack, unfortunately, and like my husband said, approximately 90% of the residents surrounding Trinity signed the petition for traffic calming, signaling how important this issue is to the residents. We've been made aware that there are funds in the budget to cover these traffic calming measures, and I implore you to approve such measures. as there are nearly 20 children under the age of 18 that reside directly across from Trinity Park. And that's not to mention the children that frequent the park just to play. Their lives, as well as the visitors who walk around the park, including those with special needs, as routinely happens, are worth the effort to install traffic calming. If the city chooses not to approve such measures, please know that if God forbid someone gets injured or killed, then the city will have exhibited willful negligence and could open itself up to legal action. So please help us keep our neighborhoods safe. Thank you for your time and thoughtful consideration.

Members of the public in the chamber, please approach the podium. Members of the public on Zoom, please use the raise your hand feature or dial star nine if you're calling from a phone. Man, no other members of the public have come forward to make public comment.

Thank you so much. Seeing no one here, no one else. Public comments closed. City manager, any concerns that you heard you want to talk about?

Nothing to add. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Has been properly moved and seconded. All those in favor use the record sign of aye. Aye. Ladies have the same right. Abstentions? Hearing none, ayes have a motion carried. let's go to item number seven c uh adopt a resolution for a designating of voting delegates and alternates for the league of california cities annual conference and expo being held september 2000 september 23rd to the 25th 2026 in anaheim california uh city manager who's giving us

I think we have a presentation for this item. This is to submit the delegation for the annual legal conference, which shows the Mayor Ian Oglesby as the voting delegate with an alternate as Councilmember Garcia-Rozolla. Staff made these suggestions based on the Legislative Ad-Hoc Committee that is in place. Be happy to answer any questions.

Thank you. Councilmember Miller, you pulled this? Yeah, thank you, Mr. Mayor. That did answer one of my questions of who made this decision. I had a couple of questions for the clerk, if she's available. And I read the staff report. The staff report appears that there's one vote and then two alternates, right? Yes. So three people can be appointed, basically?

They act for a minimum of one alternate to be appointed.

But two can be appointed? Yes. And how many councilmembers have registered for the conference? Do you remember?

I did not do the registration, but I believe so far it's four council members have registered, have been registered.

So four council members on this dais are registered and three people could be included, but we just included the ad hoc committee, the two members. Yes. That was all my questions. Thank you.

I think you guys went a little fast. Come on back now. He said we included 2 members, the ad hoc committee. The ad hoc committee is not the 2 delegates.

No, that was the rationale for being recommendation from staff. That's not a requirement. That's the recommendation from staff. And if council wants to appoint a 3rd delegate, they have the ability to do that with the cities.

My understanding, well, just being clear, the Ad Hoc Committee is not the two delegates. The Ad Hoc Committee for the gender review is not really a committee. So I don't know where that came from. Where's the Ad Hoc Committee?

The legislative Ad Hoc Committee for our legislative platform.

Okay.

All right.

Which ties into Cal City's advocacy.

Yeah. Okay. Thank you so much. Any other questions or comments? We'll take it out to public comment.

Members of the public in the chamber, please approach the podium. Members of the public on Zoom, please use the raise your hand feature or dial star nine if you're calling from a phone. May I know members of the public have come forward to make public comment.

Thank you so much. I'm bringing it back to the diocese. What is the will of the council? Are there any more questions or comments?

Yes, go ahead. My other question was, do we have historical record on who the two delegates were for prior years, if the last year or the prior year before that? Is that readily available?

I'm sure we do. I don't believe we have that on cue at the moment.

Okay. It's okay if it's difficult to achieve that. Is she doing?

Are you look OK?

While she's doing that, is there any concerns? I mean, do you want to tell us what's going on? Well, I just think that we should add another person on there since there's 4 people going. So I 4 council members going. So, I would hope that maybe the city will consider having 3 council members 1, voting, delegate the mayor and 2 alternates to council members. I plan to attend and maybe council member perks is attending. So I would, I would nominate council member perks for the 2nd, the 2nd position.

um okay i heard that did you have anything just just after the question and i just want to make a motion to approve the approve the uh consent agenda item as is with the with the one in one i don't want to get into because obviously with that, but I think they're staying to move forward. Could you just talk? I just want to make, just move the item forward for a motion to make to approve the recommendation.

Yeah, there's no second for that at this time. Mr. Mayor, could you, well, she's,

The previous delegates for the 2024 annual conference was Mayor Oglesby and Councilmember Garcia-Arizuela. The same delegates that we have for this year.

25? 2025? It was 24.

I don't believe we sent anyone 25.

So the last time we sent a delegate was 2024?

2024 was the last resolution that we adopted for. We did not do a resolution in 25, and so we did not have delegates. We had attendees, but we did not have delegates. And then 2024 was when we sent Mayor Oglesby and Councilmember Garcia-Arizuela, and they were the voting delegates for that annual conference.

Thank you so much. Just one question then. Yeah.

Let Council Member Miller.

Oh, I'm sorry.

I motioned, but go ahead.

Okay. Maybe you can explain and probably Mayor Warren is probably the only one that could answer. What is the purpose of having an additional one? Do we get extra stars by our name or extra cookie or what's the benefit of having two versus one? Yeah. If there is a benefit.

The benefit is if the first two don't show up, then you get to vote. That's the only thing. That's probably why we never got into naming three. Well, one primary and two occupancy. so uh councilman miller do you want to be named alternate is that is that what you're uh well i'm okay with councilwoman burks as well um well she she's no one talked about her you you brought it up is do you want to be named as an alternate i i would serve as an alternate yes okay all right we have room for another alternate um anybody want to make the motion to include uh councilmember miller as the uh second alternate

Move to approve.

Thank you so much. As we probably moved in second, go out to public comment, public comment zone.

Members of the public in the chamber, please approach the podium. Members of the public on Zoom, please use the raise your hand feature or dial star nine if you're calling from a phone. Mayor, no members of the public have come forward to make public comment.

Thank you so much. Seeing no one here, no one public comments closed. I'm bringing it back to the dais. All those in favor, use the record sign of voting, which is aye. Aye. Nays have the same right. Abstentions? Hearing none, ayes have it. Motion carried. We'll go to item number 8F, adopt a resolution authorizing the city manager to execute a cannabis dispensary development and operating agreement transfer with Ziggy. Stizzy, Seaside LLC originally issued to higher level of care LLC for the dispensary located at 1440 Canyon Del Rey Boulevard. Mr. City Manager.

Yes, thank you, Mayor. This item was presented by Andrew Myrick, our Housing and Planning Manager.

Thank you mayor, city manager. I don't have a PowerPoint for this item. However, this is a transfer agreement. The city originally approved dispensary at 1440 Canyon Delray in 2018. it was called higher level of care. It did close. However, it was acquired out of receivership by a company called LLC. um and so the municipal code um there is an opportunity to transfer ownership of an existing dispensary with city council approval and so STISI has submitted an application to transfer the existing development and operating agreement with a few modifications over to itself so it can operate and also the representative of the business is available online if you have any questions directly for them

Thank you. Are there any questions? Council Member Carcero-Zola.

You said few modifications for the public. What does that mean?

So, the 1 of the changes is the original agreement included community benefits in the amount of 15,000 dollars to 6 specific nonprofits. The 1 of the changes is there would still be 15,000 dollars and 2 nonprofits located in the city of seaside, but there would be more flexibility as to which 6 nonprofits. Those were. Another change is that originally the agreement allowed the city to conduct audits of the business. This would instead put it on the business to provide an end. Demonstrating how they've complied with all the provisions of the agreement. And a third significant change is the original agreement had language saying that they had to comply with the wage standards specified within that agreement. However, the original agreement did not include any wage standards. It referenced an exhibit that wasn't there. So wage standards have been added to this agreement to set floors for how much the employees can make.

Great. And then just, again, for the public, these transfers are allowed. This would be an additional license that we're granting. This is just a transfer, correct?

Correct. This is not a new license. This is a transfer of an existing. Perfect. Thank you.

Anyone else? Mayor Prichard? I think it's fine, personally. You mentioned $15,000. that they're going to be donating to six groups. Are we ensuring that the other five or six dispensaries are following that same guidelines?

We have the ability to audit them to see if they are, but we have not done so.

So we have no idea. We do not know.

No, we don't.

Yeah, no, I'm just looking at, I think it's fine. I'm just concerned with consistency with the other ones, that's all.

Well, we definitely can put that on the agenda to check into. And you said like, We don't check or we have no clue. You say it just like, we're not sure. We just haven't checked.

We just haven't checked. That doesn't mean they're not doing it. Doesn't mean we're not doing it.

Okay. I just, you know, I don't want to paint them as if we're not checking, we'll just say we don't check. Councilmember Burks, I thought you wanted to say something.

I was just going to share. I agree. I think this is a great, it's not an increase. It's just a transfer. So I'm okay with this as well.

Anyone else? Yeah, Councilmember.

To Councilmember Pacheco's point, when it does come back, if it does come back, can we just review that the other agreements out there also have that wage standard? Or was it just missing for this specific business?

I would have to go back and check. Every business has its own agreement. Okay. I would have to see what was done in those agreements that were done in 2018.

But yeah, and anyone at the end of the meeting, they can add that to a request to bring it back. The overall concept of checking on these things. So thank you for that. I do have a. You know, it's pretty straightforward, you know. I think you improve the permit and agreement itself with those things that you changed into it. It can always be improved. And then. Okay, that's all I wanna say. I think it's a better contract going forward. Thank you. Public comment is open.

Members of the public in the chamber, please approach the podium. Members of the public on Zoom, please use the raise your hand feature or dial star nine if you're calling from a phone.

Just a question when your staff said that they changed, did they change the nonprofits and who picked those nonprofits? I thought that the city had designated some nonprofits that these funds were supposed to be going to. And if that has changed, then who selected this company's nonprofits? And I think that needs to be made aware to the public too, which nonprofits are getting the monies from these dispensaries. And also I would like it to come back on the agenda that we check all the dispensaries and make sure that they are um double checking making sure that they are paying this 15 000 or 10 000 or whatever it is that they agreed to um and also about the thing about not doing audits um I think the city should be doing audits and not just taking a report from somebody because anybody can write whatever they want on a piece of paper And we need to make sure that they're being audited and making sure that what they are submitting to us isn't accurate. Thank you.

Members of the public in the chamber, please approach the podium. Members of the public on Zoom, please use the raise your hand feature or dial star nine if you're calling from a phone.

Good evening, Peter Kaiser. I want to thank the city council for instead of going up to nine clinics, they went from six down to three. And the part of the process is that some of them have gone bankrupt or out of business. So we have, I believe, less than six in the city now, maybe five. And I think that's going in the right direction. But we want to go down to two or three, please. And So thank you for moving away from six. I kind of disagree of just transferring the title from one to another because that's not reducing the number of clinics in Seaside. I know that was written into the ordinance, but I think the City Council should have the authority to drop that number down to three and not be stuck with it if they keep transferring these back and forth. Also, a little more information. I called up one of the shops a while ago for marijuana dispensaries, and I said, what's the strength of your marijuana you're selling, the leaf? And they said about 30%. And how about the liquid? 90%. THC, I believe it was. And marijuana used to be, 20 or 30 years ago, 2% THC. so when you have these shops selling this material that's one-third strength instead of two percent and you have young people in their 20s and so forth maybe they're still going to college and hopefully none of our important people who are in in fire and law enforcement or if the military uses this they can get uh court-martialed and out of the military if they have a hot urine for uh certain drugs so we're actually making money on the sale of what's considered a habit-forming drug and if you look at alex burleson he has a book on this warning parents of the dangers of marijuana and his wife looked at a new york mental hospital as a psychologist and he asked her these are people in the in a federal in a state prison for uh anger and violence and she said how many of these inmates use a significant amount of marijuana and she said all of them all of them and she was counseling them in this prison hospital. So you have to be careful. If you look at Colorado where they first legalized, some of their statistics went up for emergency room related incidents duis and uh it didn't go well for colorado so it would be even better if we reduced the strength of the material they are selling not having it 30 but back down to two percent and this has been mentioned before and this is considered a dangerous drug and some people aren't being good citizens because they're duis thank you

Diane Nielsen, you now have the floor to make a public comment.

Thank you very much. Good evening City Council. I'm kind of surprised to hear that follow-up isn't being done for the required donations. My question is, did you expect the entity that was getting the donations to follow up, or is the city staff supposed to be following up on those kind of stipulations? I would think that would be the case. audits i think are important a yearly report is not sufficient in in my opinion also uh regarding the wage standards is there information about what the wage standard is and how does that compare to the wage standard of the other dispensaries what might they be doing differently i'm sure they're not going to do exactly the same thing that higher level has been doing um in their shop So I would like to know if the city council knows what may appear or be different signage operation inside the way things look, that sort of thing. I think it's really important. A transfer is not just, you know, a blank sheet where they can do anything they want. And I think those three things I mentioned are important for our community and the wellbeing of all the rest of us who may or may not visit the shop. And it is right across from a major hotel that we have. So thank you. That's my input.

Thank you for your comments. The public in the chamber, please approach the podium. Members of the public on zoom, please use the raise your hand feature or dial star nine. If you're calling from a phone. And all the members of the public have come forward to make public comment.

Thank you. Seeing no one else, public comment is closed. There was some questions there you or the city manager may want to speak to. Questions and concerns?

Sure, so, um, as far as the nonprofits, the original 6 nonprofits. In the current agreement, which project goes club care, seaside from the health center salvation, army, the campus, your quarter, seaside, uh, post activities, league and the sun street centers. So. as far as the new agreement it would be flexible so we could do the same six non-profits or they could select six different non-profits the only factor is they must be located within the city of seaside and do a non-profit um there was a question about operations and signage that is all conditioned in the in the agreement um none of that is changing from the previous we've got ordinances related to signage and whatnot um and um the the other i guess thing that came up was about the audits um which i said um we we can do that it's It's just mainly been a staffing issue and just getting around and prioritizing it. But we can look at what's going on with the other dispensaries if desired.

The other dispensaries are not on the agenda. And I thought you guys recommend that someone else does the audit. And we just need to know why you recommend it. It's not a question about whether you can. You guys recommended that they do a report instead of the audit. So tell the council why you recommend doing the report instead of the audit. I mean, the citizens ask a question, but you have to tell the council why you recommended what you recommended.

Because what it does is it allows the city to have a contractual obligation placed upon the business to provide the information in a form that we have specified as it stands. We can go in and ask for the information. There's no real criteria for how it has to be presented. And so you have to work with the business in order to get information that you're requesting and it's not. we do have some abilities it's just a more complicated thing than if we tell them we want you to provide us to this information in this format at this level of detail and under the contract they have to provide that that is a much simpler thing takes a lot less staff time than going in and having them Kind of provide it in whatever form, so the language is designed to get simpler and to place the obligation on them instead of requiring us to go and initiate the conversation.

Okay, then it was a question about picking the nonprofits. We don't pick the nonprofits.

No, they, we would review the nonprofits and ensure that they meet the criteria of being located in the city of seaside, but they would choose which nonprofits they did.

State manager, did you want to add anything before?

No, not this time.

Anybody had any questions? Council Member Miller didn't the mayor pretend. Sorry, Council Member Garcia is all that didn't count.

Thank you. The documents that we're requesting from. The dispensary who fills it out? Would it be the company or would it be like a certified CPA?

It would be the company and with whoever they chose to fill it out. And then we would possibly ask for background information. We have not set up the form yet, but the form would include the information as well as what supporting documentation would need to be included with that. But we have not created that document yet.

It might be worthwhile, and this is just me throwing it out there, that in that form, there is a requirement that who is able to fill out that form. That's just a thought that I have out there, whether it's a CPA or someone that can basically certify that everything in that document is accurate.

That was it. Okay. I'm going to try to phrase this correctly. One store on the South did a mural as part of their conditional $15,000 worth of work. This store would have that same opportunity. Is that fair question?

They could do a mural. It wouldn't count as a donation to a nonprofit.

Right. I get that. But it would be acceptable based on past history.

They could put a mural on the building if they wanted.

Okay. Thank you.

Anyone else? I would just say about who can verify the numbers. I think it's important to have the owner sign the document. uh they they should know what the numbers are for their own business but you know it's going to be verified in some form or fashion and as opposed to some type of cpu i'm just saying the owner is the contract signer so hold that person responsible for the information they're giving us that makes sense so um if that could be added city manager okay what is the will of the council motion to approve item seven f second as i probably moved in second uh on the question now all those in favor use red sign voting which is i i may have a swing right abstentions here now as eyes have it motion carry let's move on to item number eight public hearing a a adopt the resolution public a adopt the urgency ordinance repealing in part of the ordinance number two zero three four clarifying amending and revising the title two personnel administration of the seaside municipal code the proposed action is not subject to california environmental quality act pursuant to section 15061 v3 uh this vote will require a four-fifth roll call vote mr city manager yes thank you mayor council um

Okay, thank you. There are two distinct actions before the city council this evening regarding the council compensation. However, for the benefit of the council and the public, I'll present the content that is applicable to both and then return with specific recommendation items for each individual item. Then city staff and special counsel, Brian Pirick, partner at Burke, Williams, and Sorenson, who's attending via Zoom, will be available for any questions. The first item is item 8A is the urgency ordinance to immediately return the council compensation to $400 per month while leaving the mayor's $300 automobile stipend unchanged. This ordinance will return the city of Seaside to compliance with California state law. item b is a regular ordinance proposing future compensation of 1180 per month that amount would not begin until after the november 3rd 2026 election when one or more council members are sworn into office accordingly item 8a corrects the present condition while item 8b addresses compensation moving forward Ordinance number 2034 was adopted on May 1, 2025. It increased monthly compensation for the mayor and city council members from $400 a month to $2,400 and also established a separate $300 automobile stipend for the mayor. The increased compensation was subsequently paid from June 2025 through June 2026, a period of 13 months. Before ordinance number 2034, the last adjustment occurred in 1986 through ordinance number 703, which established compensation at the $400 a month amount. That lengthy period without adjustment was relevant to the calculation, but the method used in ordinance number 2034 was not consistent with the governing statute. There were two legal issues in the ordinance, the amount and the timing. The first issue concerns how the compensation increase was calculated. Ordinance number 2034 treated 5% annual allowance in government code section 36516 as though it compounded each year. That approach produced a $2,000 increase above the existing $400 amount for a total monthly compensation of $2,400 a month. However, applicable California Attorney General guidance implied that the statutory 5% calculation is not compounded. Each eligible year is calculated from the existing $400 base amount. As a result, the $2,400 amount was not supported by permissible statutory calculations. Under the non-compounded method, 5% of the existing $400 monthly compensation equals $20 for each eligible calendar year. The essential point for item 8A is that the lawful calculation is a simple annual increment, not a compounded calculation, and therefore does not support the compensation amount of $2,400 a month. The correct interest calculation performed in 2025 would have resulted in a maximum allowable total compensation of $1,160. There are no issues, no legal issues identified with a separate $300 automobile stipend allocated to the mayor through the ordinance, and the urgency ordinance does not alter that stipend. As such, the second issue is the effective timing of the compensation increase. Ordinance number 2034 provided that the increase will become effective 30 days after adoption or on May 31st, 2025. Government code section 36516.5, however, requires that increased compensation begin only after one or more council members are sworn into office and an election held after the adoption of said ordinance. The next municipal election is November 3rd, 2026. Therefore, even a properly calculated increase could not have commenced in 2025. From June 2025 through June 2026, each council member and the mayor received an additional $2,000 per month for 13 months. Based on that calculation, the gross overpayment is $26,000 per individual. Staff recommends retaining an independent certified public accountant or other qualified professional to verify the amounts and recommend an appropriate repayment process. That independent review should address the consistency, documentation, payroll, and tax considerations, and any reasonable repayment administration. The goal is to make the city whole through fair, uniform, and professionally supported process rather than attempting to establish detailed repayment terms during tonight's discussions on these ordinances. Item 8B is a separate prospective ordinance, which does not change the need for the immediate corrective action under item 8A. Government Code Section 36516 provides two potentially applicable approaches to setting the council compensation. One permits an increase equal to 5% for each eligible calendar year, as mentioned earlier, since the operative date of the last adjustment calculated without compounding interest. The statute also provides an alternative population-based amount for cities with populations of 35,000 or less, as amended by Senate Bill 329, which would be capped at $950. The proposed ordinance, the next ordinance, uses the non-compounded 5% method and remains subject to statutory requirement that the payment only begin after the next election and swearing in of one or more city council members. Beyond the statutory authority, the ordinance reaffirms the policy reasons noted during 2025's approval for the adjustment. The recitals included in that ordinance recognize that the city and the responsibility of its elected officials have increased in complexity since the compensation was last adjusted in 1986. Council service requires substantial time for meetings, preparation, community engagement, regional participation, and constituent responsibilities. reasonable compensation can reduce financial barriers to public service and make it more feasible for individuals with careers families and other personal obligations to serve and that rationale is consistent with a legislative intent reflected in government code section 36516 while the city council retains discretion to determine the appropriate amount within those statutory limits That amount proposed calculation begins with a 5% of the existing $400 monthly amount, which equals $20 per eligible year. Using 39 years calculated to 2026, the increase is $780. Added to the existing $400 a month brings a total to $1180 per month. If approved, this amount would not take effect immediately, but it would be paid after the November 3rd, 2026 election when one or more council members is sworn into office. Now I will conclude with staff recommendations specifically for item 8A. Staff recommends two motions for item 8A. First, find that the urgency ordinance reducing council compensation to $400 per month is not a project for purposes of CEQA under section 15378 and is also exempt under the common sense exemption in section 15061 . Second is to adopt the urgency ordinance, repealing in part ordinance number 2034 and restoring the monthly council compensation to $400 effective immediately. The mayor's separate $300 automobile stipend would remain unchanged. This action promptly corrects the current compensation amount and returns the city of Seaside to compliance with California law regarding this issue. As a reminder, approval of the proposed urgency ordinance requires a four-fifths affirmative vote. staff and the special counsel are available for any questions.

Thank you. Did you have anything else you wanted to add?

Not at this time.

Okay, thank you so much. Any questions? Any questions? Okay, we will open it up for public comment.

Members of the public in the chamber, please approach the podium. Members of the public on Zoom, please use the raise your hand feature or dial star nine if you're calling from a phone.

Before I get started, I'm going to say this is not personal. Good evening, mayor and council members. I'm here because I believe the city of Seaside deserves competent, accurate, and well-researched legal advice from its city attorney. The handling of the city council compensation issue, a mistake involving a council member's salary should have never occurred. Matters involving public funds and elected officials require careful legal analysis before advice is being given. When legal advice is incorrect, it creates confusion, undermines public confidence, and can expose the city to unnecessary liability. These are significant matters affecting our community, and they deserve thorough legal research and clear understanding of the applicable law. When important legal opinions appear to be issued without sufficient analysis, it raises serious questions about whether the city is receiving the level of legal representation the taxpayers expect and deserve. The city attorney serves one of the most important roles in the community government. The position is not simply about attending meetings and answering questions. It's about providing objective, well-researched legal advice that enables the city council to make informed decisions while protecting the city's legal and financial interests. Every professional can make mistakes. My concern is not that an occasional error occurs. It is when multiple significant issues lead residents to question whether the legal advice is being provided meets the standard that our city deserves. if the overpayment resulted from an error in the legal advice provided by the city attorney why are the council members being asked to repay the funds while there appears to be no accountability for the advice that led them to to this mistake shouldn't there also be a discussion about the responsibility of the city attorney's office additionally if the city hires a certified public accountant to calculate or administer the repayment process who will bear that cost why should the taxpayers be expected to pay for professional services made necessary by an error that they did not cause has the city considered whether those costs can be can cost can be shared or should be recovered from another source We're talking about $130,000 approximately. And I'm just curious of what hiring a CPA or as that states in the agenda, another professional to do the repayment process, what's that gonna cost us in addition to what we're trying to get the $130,000?

members of the public in the chamber please approach the podium members of the public on zoom please use the raise your hand feature or dial star 9 if you're calling from a phone good evening mr mayor and members of the council mayor pro tem annalisa mitchell seaside

resident it is my hope that we would come to a re excuse me a resolve with this but i was in this chamber um when we talked about uh these raises and i thought that so i may be wrong so i know that the mayor is going to have the city manager Do the follow up I thought there was an independent person that done this and the city attorney was asked, could you receive a 5% raise? Because maybe it's different. In parts of America, because where I work at, I actually just experienced something like this and actually it rest partly also with the. human resource and risk management if you have that team but not to throw blame at anybody we better together how are we going to fix this if we need to have some barbecues out there on that lawn to pay back the debt for these council members that graciously give to this community every day let's just come up with a solution and not beat each other up beside each other's head because we are better together and you guys have done a fantastic job thus far you don't need to have who shot john and attacking one another come on there's so much at stake people are developing uh in other areas things are happening all over the world and we don't want to get lost left behind because we caught up in the technicality come on let's come up with a solution and i'm willing to help throw a barbecue if that's what it takes to help pay back the debt thank you members of the public in the chamber please approach the podium members of the public on zoom please use the raise your hand feature or dial star 9 if you're calling from a phone

Good evening, Mayor, City Council, members of the community, Bobby Maxwell. I want to piggyback on the last two speakers. And I do know that this Council with a clear conscience voted to approve this raise back when it was presented. A number of years ago, and I do also know that there are a few of them that donate a good portion of that raise to nonprofits in the community and. I'm really appalled at the thought that they may be on the hook to pay back this money that they received with a clear conscience and with advice, legal advice, that it was an okay thing to do. I mean, I know that for many years, the people that sit on this dais love this city and do it not for the money, But because they love the city, because for a lot of years, it was hardly anything and even even with the raise, it's not, it's not very much for all the work that you all do for the community. But that's all I have. Thank you.

Diane Nielsen, you now have the floor to make your public comment.

My first reaction to this was, wow, how many mistakes can be made in one action? How is it possible? I'm just not understanding. Nobody knew that this was incorrect. And when you started getting the money, when the calculations were made and who was the staff that figured this out? Did they consult with anybody? I mean, it sounds like we're operating in a vacuum. I'm sure a lot of other city councils have gotten these raises. Did they make the same mistake? Do you not talk to your other constituents out there? I just feel like the rug has been pulled out from under us citizens for such an egregious error. It's not so much that I don't think you should get more money. It's how could it be so erroneous in so many ways? That is what I really want to know. I mean, what happened? As far as paying it back, well, us people in the United States, usually the IRS makes us pay back money they have overpaid us. Medicare makes us pay back money they have overpaid us. Did anybody not question the amount going so high from whatever it was, $400 up to, $2,400. Did nobody ask any of their constituents or peers about that themselves? I really feel bad that this happened, and I really feel shaky about our city council. Not that you're not honest, but who's paying attention? Please do this in a way, make this happen in a way, the fixes that will bring back some confidence in that process. And, you know, another item I spoke about, same thing. There was no accountability for certain things. I just, I'm feeling disappointed. I hope you come up with a good solution. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments. Danny Bakewell, you now have the floor to make your public comment.

Hello, Mr. Mayor, City Council, and residents of the City of Seaside. This is Danny Bakewell, Jr., resident of the City of Seaside and a developer and does a lot of business in this city, as most of you know. I just want to encourage the City Council. Seaside is really moving forward at a tremendous pace. As someone who has been involved and worked with this city for over 20 years, um the direction that this city council has taken the city along with the city manager and the city attorney have done an incredible job at moving this city forward and i don't want to see us lose the momentum i understand this was a mistake i think it was a mistake that was um i've heard people talk about trying to that blame goes to one person blame goes across I've never heard of an attorney who does the calculations. I think that obviously is done out of HR. I'm sure other people and city council was involved. So I think there is enough blame to go around, but it can be fixed. I think it can be fixed. We've also looked at the fact that And I've heard on numerous occasions, the city's running a deficit. Maybe at this time, actually, the positive is that it helps address our deficit. It's $130,000 less money that the city will be spending going forward for some time. So I just encourage the city council to do what's right. I feel for everybody in terms of having to pay this money back. You took it. You earned it. um or at least you thought you were earning it and you guys all put in a tremendous amount of time energy effort uh to do your jobs and we appreciate it and thank you i have great confidence in the city council and city staff and i just encourage you guys to figure out the best way to fix it uh if lisa mitchell is having a barbecue i will be there buying barbecue lunches or whatever we do to address this issue but at the end of the day We need to stay together. We need to lock arms with each other and not divide ourselves and just resolve this and move forward, move the city forward in the best way possible. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments. Carla Lobo, you now have the floor to make your public comment.

Thank you. I'm paying attention. I'm always paying attention. But I'm not here to gloat. I'm actually here to call out the hypocrisy of those that feel so disappointed about what we're seeing here tonight. I mean, people make mistakes, but to put it on one person, the city attorney, the person that gives us our legal right to like proceed in ways that we may not be able to maneuver and avenues. I find it ironic because this is the same person that was able to get water and have that new seagrove open. And now we're ready to just throw them under the bus because a mistake was made. Which I kind of find ironic also because... I understood that it was the compound that triggered the mistake, not an actual decision that was made by the city attorney that then trickled a domino effect. But correct me if I'm wrong. Second, I like the idea of us coming up with alternative solutions on how to get this money back it's unfortunate that we have to pay it back so if we are hiring an outside agency if that's going to be an rfp like any other contract that we put out there are we going to add specifics to that contract to perhaps look at avenues where um strategic avenues to utilize what we have now to maybe get these funds back. I find it very hard to understand the logic of having the council members pay this money back when they were making decisions based on the staff that we, you know, hire to make these decisions to go out and get the counseling or the the individuals that may have put this together, the professionals, to then put it on the council members and it's their fault and they weren't paying attention. I think everybody did their due diligence with the amount of staff that we have and the capacity that we have. to be able to put eyes on everything. And I think we need to remember that because we just had a budget review that let us know that everybody's operating at a deficit and it's not just our bank account. So I'm with, you know, making sure that we're earning this money back in whatever avenues that is available to us. If we got to have barbecues, let's go ahead and do that. But to say that, oh, we're disappointed is just really far fetched.

Thank you for your comments. Members of the public in the chamber, please approach the podium. Members of the public on Zoom, please use the raise your hand feature or dial star nine if you're calling from a phone.

Good evening, Mayor, City Council. One of the greatest measures of leadership is not whether mistakes happen, they will. The true measure is how we respond when they do. The recent payroll error involving City Council compensation has understandably raised questions. Transparency matters, accountability matters, and I appreciate that this issue has been brought before the public and corrected. the council members will repay the overpayment meaning this mistake does not create a lasting financial burden on the city's budget or the taxpayers what concerns me more than the mistake itself is the growing division surrounding it i've watched members of our community publicly call for the city attorney to be fired I've seen individuals trying to assign blame before anyone has been identified where the clerical error occurred. The reality is that no one has publicly stated who was responsible for missing this mistake. And until those facts are known, we should resist the urge to make one person the target of public outrage. Mistakes happen in every organization, public agencies, private companies, hospitals, schools, and businesses. What defines an organization is not perfection, but integrity. When an error is discovered, you acknowledge it, you correct it, you learn from it, and you put safeguards in place so it's less likely to happen again. That is what accountability looks like. This is not a case of fraud. It was not theft. There's been no allegation of someone intentionally enriching themselves or hiding information from the public. It appears to have been a clerical error that should have been caught sooner. That deserves review and improved processes, but not a public campaign to destroy someone's reputation. as a community we should expect transparency but we should also expect fairness personally attacking city employees speaking to the press to shame staff or encouraging the public to demand someone's termination before the full picture is known does not strengthen seaside it weakens trust it damages morale and creates fear within the very workforce we rely on every day to serve our residents Seaside has always been a resilient city. We have faced challenges before and we have come through them by working together, not by turning on one another. Real leadership requires restraint. It requires humility. It requires remembering that behind every title is a human being who has dedicated their time and talents to serving their community. let's use this moment not to divide team seaside but to strengthen it let's improve our internal processes support accountability and protect the dedicated professionals who work every day to move our city forward because generations from now no one will remember this mistake but remember how we responded it did we choose outrage did we choose integrity i hope we choose to remember as the city that believes in accountability without condemnation transparency without hostility and leadership without personal attacks Let's move forward together. One team, one community, one seaside.

Can't add anything to that, but I concur.

James, you now have the floor to make your public comment.

Hi, can you hear me?

Yes, we can.

I thank you. I'm actually calling up from Solano County up in the Bay Area and I caught wind of this instance. Our group just kind of holds public members accountable for their actions. So I guess with that I just kind of want to. Point out some points of. concern that we have or i have as a resident of just of california um first of all reading the article in the the herald i was kind of disappointed that the council members were unwilling to take accountability for it and passing off the blame on staff yeah they made a mistake but You guys are put in office to hold people accountable, double check people's work, essentially checks and balances. So I'm very disappointed that no one's taking the blame on this. With that being said, going forward, my two cents, I think you guys need to look at how you're going to repay this. A couple things you have to look at is how long uh a potential council member is actually gonna be in office the repayment terms are gonna be out before they have to repay it all uh you have interest to worry about as well which is uh pretty significant as well it sounds like um my other concern is if the council's not going to be held accountable for the interest and also there's legal fees that you guys had to all sudden pursue which is an extra cost on city members if you guys can pass it on to taxpayers someone needs to be held accountable uh whether it comes out of the law firm's uh pay or contract or somehow the staff I don't think come up with it, but it should not be passed on to the residents who work hard for this. This is a frustration that we as residents see a lot of times getting passed off to us. Now the Council is finally being held accountable because they're not being held accountable. They're concerned because it hits their pocketbooks. Well, a lot of you guys decision hurts our pocketbooks over and over and over again, so. With that being said, I hope you guys do the right thing. For those of you who want to know more about our group, we're up in Solano County. We're on Facebook, Solano Watchmen. We just try to keep as transparent as possible without attacking people, but we want to be respected as residents. Good luck with your decisions tonight, and I'll be listening in.

Thank you for your comments. Pastor Ronald Britt, you now have the floor to make your public comment.

Thank you, Madam City Clerk, to our mayor and to each council member, to our city attorney, to our city manager. I'm a team player. Although a mistake has happened, we're better together. Whatever I can do to help each council member pay this back. Let's be barbecue fundraiser. We're going to do it. We're family. We stick together. We're stronger and we're better together. So hold your hands up high. We're going to be creative. We're going to find a way to make it easy on everyone. We got the best city attorney, best city manager, and second to none city council. And I love each and every one of you. And I'm here praying for you. Hold your hands up. We'll get through this together. Bless you.

Thank you for your comments. Chris K., you now have the floor to make your public comment.

Yes, can you hear me?

Yes, we can.

Yes, I'm here to speak on this comment because I'm concerned about, I'm concerned that I'm sorry, there's an echo. I'm concerned that the City Council voted to give themselves a raise rather than letting the voters or the residents of the city. I think it would have been a better look if they had let the voters vote for the raise. And I'm wondering how much the outside attorney cost the city and i'm wondering if the city council plans to pay interest and i'm wondering if they plan to pay for the outside council uh and the residents of seaside should know that it's not just the repayment of the raises but if this has been caught then This would have gone on in perpetuity. This was not supposed to be compounded, and the compounding of the raisins would have gone on in perpetuity. And all of this during a time when there's a deficit. Those are all of my comments.

Thank you for your comments. Luke Coletti, you now have the floor to make your public comment.

Hi, I've been listening to some of the public comments, and I understand that mistakes happen. But what's so remarkable here in the situation with Seaside is that the two laws that were violated, and there were two, it wasn't just the compounding. It was also when the effective date of the increase should have happened. This is all very well-recognized municipal law. This is not some, you know, obscure law that requires a lot of work to try to understand the minutia. It's well-recognized law, and the city attorney, quite frankly, should have known better. You can say that's attack. You can say that's blaming someone. But quite frankly, it wasn't a clerical error. It was a legal error. And it's just remarkable that a mistake like this was made. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments. Members of the public in the chamber, please approach the podium. Members of the public on Zoom, please use the raise your hand feature or dial star nine if you're calling from a phone. Mayor, I know that members of the public have come forward to make public comment.

Thank you so much. Seeing no one else here, no one else, public comment is closed. Mr. City Manager, any issues, concerns, or questions that you or the city attorney want to speak to at this time?

Yeah, there was a lot to unpack there. There were a couple questions on the amount for the procurement of an independent CPA. That will be well within the city manager's purchasing authority moving forward. And again, staff is recommending the independent review from a CPA or qualified professional who will address calculation of repayments, payroll and tax implications, and recommend an appropriate repayment process to the city council. There was a lot of, yes?

We talked about before, but speak to why that's important to have the independent CPA.

Yeah, we would naturally not want our own employees calculating the correction of an error on behalf of their employers, the city council. So again, if we are correcting this transparently and appropriately, we would do our legal review through a third party, which we've done. And then also the CPA professional assistance to make sure that the correct totals and the proper channels are followed for repayment.

that was it i don't want to interrupt you oh okay yeah i just wanted him to expound on on you know a couple said why we can't do it in-house probably could but if if that was off by 10 cent it would be said it's a reason why it's off by 10 cent. And so we want to make sure that as this process is concluded, that the public understands that transparency is the mandate. We all know that. We all appreciate that. And then we'll take the next couple of steps after that. any questions on uh this yes sir let's go we'll go to council member miller then council member garcia thank you mr mayor is this the appropriate time for a a and b or because the presentation was both yeah yeah we can we can talk about both of them okay but we're going to have two separate votes because one is four fifths and the other one is just a majority

Understood. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, for explaining that. And in regards to the 950, I just wanted to be clear. So the city council, maybe this is to the manager, the city council has two options if they want to raise their salary. One is by 5%, not compounded, and the other is by a Senate bill or an assembly bill that was passed in the legislature that allows certain cities to have a certain amount. Is that correct?

Correct. There's a cap of $950 for cities under 35,000 in population, or they can do the simple calculation of interest for 5% a year from 1986 until the year that we were at.

So the 950. Uh, the 950 is do we have the number for the next number that if you're above 35,000 is our population. In this current census, is that totally up to date? Because I heard it from the registrar from our city clerk meetings go that we have 2000 new. Uh, registered voters, I know that doesn't apply to necessarily the population, but is our population are we sure the exact number of our population. i would refer to our outside council who's available on zoom however my assumption is that that's based on the last adopted census which is around 32 000 i believe 32 000 so there's no way that since the last because the last census was in 2020 right correct thank you so is there a possibility that in the last six years the city has has increased by and we're more than 35 000

There is that possibility, but I would ask our outside counsel to weigh in on if the 2020 census is the guiding document, regardless of the population has grown since adoption of the census.

Thank you, Mr. Mr. manager. Is that possible to receive that information from our consultant online?

Or is it a consultant? This is Brian period. Did you want me to speak to that? Please. OK. The research I did indicated that from the US Census Bureau that the estimated city's population as of July 2025 is 31,636.

Okay, so we're far away from 35,000. I have a feeling because we made this clerical error with the 5%, I almost think that we should follow the state. Is that an assembly bill or a Senate bill, sir?

Well, it's a state law, and the state law was the result of a Senate bill. 359. And what that did was increase the dollar amounts to those that are specified for the $750 a month for 35,000 or less. And the Senate Bill 359 carried over the 5% formula that had existed previously in 36516. So your choices then are, you could set a flat amount of 750, or you could use the 5% per year non-compounded. There's also a third option, which is to adjust compensation for inflation since January 1 of 2024 with a maximum not to exceed 10%, which would be a relatively smaller number.

Okay. I'm a little more confused now because I thought you said 750, but I heard from our city, I heard from the presentation it was 950.

Yeah, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I misspoke. It's 950.

Okay, so for 950, and is this something that other most communities have taken to a vote? Or is this something that typically councils just adopt? Do you have any insight into that?

Well, most of the cities that I've seen, it's the city council that makes the decision. However, the city of Pacific Grove recently had the vote that was taken by the voters that was following a referendum. The council had adopted an ordinance and there was a referendum that was submitted and the council then presented the matter to the voters in June and the voters turned down the increase.

Thank you for that. And to our city of C clerk, um, I wanted to ask, um, is it, I'm not suggesting to do this. I'm just trying to gain all the facts. What is the last day that this council can play something on the November ballot? And to the attorney, while we're waiting for that on Zoom, you mentioned Pacific Grove had a referendum. Can a city place this as a question on the ballot without the referendum part?

Yes.

And is that an advisory vote or would that amend the code vote? Or we could do it either way.

I'm sorry, I got some background noise, Ryan. But the answer is it could be either an advisory or an action to adopt the ordinance.

Thank you for that clarification.

The last day to file a local measure would be August 7.

August 7. Thank you very much for that information. So I am in favor of one of a few things, and that is not using the 5%. Because when we use the 5%, I think that has shown to be confusing and has shown to be We made a mistake with that, and that's why I think we should revert to the state law that the city attorney mentioned of $950 for a city of our size if the council so chose. I also am in favor of asking the voters. I'm not sure how the council feels about that, but I want to leave that on the table since we have until August 7th, and we're already going to be on the ballot likely for mayor and council. is that so the cost I think is cheaper when we're already on the ballot from my experience with the 24 election. So those are all my thoughts, Mr. Mayor. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Okay. Any other questions or comments?

May I put to the city clerk? Councilman Miller suggested the idea of the August 7 date or you said and he suggested that could be a consideration but based on city council process of getting things on the agenda you would have to at the first meeting in August it would have to it would go to get on the agenda then it couldn't get on the agenda until the second meeting in august which is after august 7th is that unless there was an emergency meeting but following normal following the normal procedure it would be after the after the fact that could be considered is that a fair statement

Yes, all actions regarding putting anything on the ballot would have to be done at the August 6th meeting, and that includes amending the resolution, consolidating the election, and the agreement with the county that we've already submitted.

I know what you said, but I want to be really careful. The way the process works is... as currently at the next meeting anybody that wants to bring it would have to get on the agenda tonight to get on the next agenda for discussion and then it would have to go on the third meeting the second meeting in August for a discussion which therefore is too late in the simplest of terms yes according to your current process for placing items on the agenda that would be the timeline And then maybe through the mayor or city manager, I think you said the 5% on top of the 950, whatever the amount is, that was the correct amount that we could have done. We couldn't have done it actually, but that's the recommendation based on state laws, that 5% addition, is that correct?

In 2025, the correct calculation when this ordinance was approved would have been 1160 as the cap. If it is approved at the cap moving forward in 2026, it would be 1180. Okay.

And why are there $20 more?

Because another year of 5%.

Okay. And that would be legal with all the lawyers and hierarchy in the system, right?

Correct. I've discussed that with outside counsel. Right.

no i i totally get yeah the record who we're getting this advice from right okay and uh we'll save any comments for later but i just wanted to clarify those two points if if we do act it's according to our many legal heads on part of this thank you

Anyone else? Council Member Garcianizola.

Thank you. And that was my same question that I had, Council Member Pacheco, about if we had enough time to meet the ballot deadline. But if it was to be a ballot question or something like that, would then all of this just be null and voided?

we would still recommend approval of the urgency ordinance to retain compliance with state law, bringing immediately council salaries back to $400 per month.

Okay. And I understand all that, but a lot of that is not on the agenda, right? So we had to do what we're here tonight, and if you guys want to do something, you know, but we had to be clear about what we're doing. All right, I'm not saying don't do it. I'm just just saying. All of the stuff. Anyone else. For me, it's just, you know. You sure? Are you going to speak on the question? I'll speak on the question. Everybody can speak on the question. Just for me, you know, I think we always, I ain't going to speak for nobody but myself. At this juncture, as the mayor, sometimes I do speak for the council and the city, and I'm the only one authorized to speak for the council and the city as a whole. Let's be clear about that. State manager and public information officer right there. What I just want to say, I think for me, I think You know, you hear the information that you heard, and so it was shocking information, but it was just information, right? I didn't cry about it. I didn't weep about it, right? My mind went to, okay, something went wrong. How do you correct it? Period, point blank. That's why I stopped that. Got with the city manager and the council designed a plan, which was how do we make sure this thing moves forward correctly. We got an independent attorney that said, this is how you correct it. You stop paying yourself what you're supposed to be paying yourself with that emergency ordinance. If you want to continue to pay at the level you thought you were paying yourself, then you adopt another ordinance. And because you shouldn't have got that money, we had to figure out a way to get that money back. And the law says you pretty much have to pay it back. someone said hey if you're at an office building or have an employee or something uh maybe the company does pick it up but for elected officials i don't know if that's a possibility of the city foregoing that and and that's why we take the responsibility that we have So no one, I would say for everybody, none of us is saying, whoa, it's us, feel bad for us. That's not what we're saying. We're saying, how do we stop it from continuing to be wrong? How do we put processes in place that it doesn't happen again? And so whether it was an easy mistake, an item mistake, or something that just happened, that's not the concern right now. when your where your ship is taking on water you don't ask how to hold getting there you go and fix the hole and that's the process we're taking care of tonight so i appreciate everything the community said uh they're um everybody could be concerned so no one's saying don't be concerned no one's saying is don't share your opinion but the transparency is right here This is the transparency part, which is this is what happened because of some people that don't know the mistake was made. So we're not trying to hide anything. We're not trying to go around something. And part of that is. You know, we're going to have to make after the city manager has another independent person look and see exactly what we owe. So, like you said, it's not somebody would definitely say, well, how do we know they're calculating everything correctly? Because they work for you. again the council is saying no it may take a couple more dollars to spend to make sure the city is made whole one way or the other so i just want to do my part which is pass these ordinance uh stop um the overpayment which he already technically stopped um a while ago anyway uh and correct it stop it correct it make arrangements to to repay it and and and move forward right we got other stuff that we need to do we need we don't need to be acting as though uh this is the last thing we're going to do we don't need to be acting like this is the most important thing we're going to get done and i'm standing here uh taking on my responsibility which is telling the public if there's amount to be paid back then i'm gonna pay my amount back The rest of it is the rest of it. No one is going around saying, from my point of view, about staff. That is not the discussion here today. And I don't believe we should be pointing fingers at anybody until we understand the wider picture. So those are my comments. It was just, you know, some people said it was a mistake that shouldn't have been made. But last time I checked, that's why they call mistakes. Think about it. That's why I call mistakes. It shouldn't happen, but but life happens. And so that's what I that's my two cents. So what does the council want to do? All right.

Going back to what does counsel? I'll make a motion to approve the recommendation.

Now, in a second, which is what is that a day? Yeah. Okay, I 2nd, it has been probably moved to 2nd on the question. Everybody has a right to speak. Anybody want to speak? Yeah. Go ahead.

Thank you. I just want to thank the city manager and all those who were involved in making sure that we're back on track and to steer this ship in the right direction. I think, you know. No, 1 ever wants to hear that. We got it wrong. I think that's the bottom line. but on for me personally what i want to let the community members know that i do take personal accountability right because at the end of the day i did vote for a resolution i should have been more attentive to detail and i put that's on me so i definitely do want to apologize to the constituency but i also want to highlight how transparent this process has been just like we did transparency listening sessions and when we discussed the potential raise in public we are now doing the correction in public And I want the constituency to know that that is my commitment to continue figuring out a solution to this I AM GOING TO PAY. I HAVE ALL INTENTIONS TO PAY. AND I'M GOING TO CONTINUE MAKING SURE THAT TRANSPARENCY IS OF UPMOST IMPORTANCE FOR THIS COMMUNITY AND TO NOT DERAIL FROM THE PROGRESS THAT WE AS A CITY HAVE BEEN DOING AND WILL CONTINUE TO DO. AND I JUST WANT TO SAY THANK YOU TO ALL THOSE WHO WERE INVOLVED IN MAKING SURE THAT WE ARE GETTING BACK ON TRACK. AND THANK YOU, CITY MANAGER, FOR SUCH AN EXCELLENT PRESENTATION.

I'm not as good as you all for the first thought in my mind was woe is me. To be honest with you, because anybody takes a $20,000 hit that you were not expecting. I do not walk on water. So I did say, well, how am I going to deal with this? And then after my second thought was, well, okay, now this is it. How do we move forward? Because that's the ultimate goal is to moving forward. I also think that we're here as a team you know we win that we win discussions we lose discussions bottom line whatever that discussion vote is bad or good you you go with that discussion from therefore the decision has been made you support that decision and life continues i think that's the way and i want to clarify just for mostly me and i think i would knowing our council I know I spoke to 20 to 30 people about this issue going into this thing. I know I heard the residents I spoke up. And I literally spoke to 20 or 30 because my voice was in the minority. And all the residents I spoke to said, yes, you guys deserve this. And that night, It was the same thing. You guys deserve this. And after the vote was made, that was a decision that was made. I really appreciate the seaside residents. People were being seaside residents that spoke up tonight and how you spoke so clearly to your point. I think that's very commendable. The need to move forward is essential and vital to all of us. We can't get lost in a goulash that this may create to some of us and bringing us back. There's enough people throwing rocks at us as we are a city without throwing rocks at each other. So I think other steps will be done in the future. We need to get more information, whatever that information is, and we will deal with it professionally. But however this happens, however this council believes, we're here together making the best decisions for this city in all we do. And whatever we decide, we decide and we go with what the decision is made. We are a team, and that's where we should play and we should work towards. and the goal is to make us better and stronger and in a unified way no matter if we disagree or agree because sooner or later decisions made let's move forward so now the time is let's move forward let's let's make a difference in what we're trying to achieve rather than what we did in the past bad or good thank you mayor

Anyone else?

Yeah, thank you city manager for being so quick to respond. This was part of a public hearing in the past. So I know that we all are a team and we worked as a team and this exactly why I'm here to continue to support seaside because we are better together and stronger. And so I know whether it's good or bad, if we're working together, we're going to continue to show resilience. and there is way more going on that we have in a positive direction that I think we should be focusing on. I can only speak for myself, female, menopause, whatever, super emotional at times, but I know what I need to do, and I'm here to not only continue the work, but I will do whatever I need to do to make sure that this gets paid for. I've had bigger things in life. that I've gone through and I can be resilient and we're going to get this handled and together. So thank you everyone who is part of this and for being quick to respond and for the comments this evening.

Anyone else on this item? We have one more. Do you guys have another chance to find your thoughts? I just have on this part is I definitely want to appreciate that the city manager and his team HR and the city attorney. I think it was when within 72 hours of them understanding that that this this may have been a mistake. They they had a process. ready to to clarify the issue and to understand it better so he was Johnny on the spot uh and uh we're here now and so this first item is just to uh stop that that first ordinance right okay so let's take a vote it'd be a roll call vote council and agency member Miller all right

Council and agency member Burks.

Aye.

Council and agency member Garcia-Arizuela. Aye. Mayor Potem and Vice Chair Pacheco. Yes. Mayor and Chair Olsby.

Aye.

Your motion passes unanimously.

Okay. All right. Let's go to item, what is that, 8B? Introduction of Ordinance and Mending Municipal Code Section 2.0.490, increasing the compensation of the mayor and city council members. The proposed action is not subject to the California Environmental Quality Act pursuant to section 15061B3 and provide direction to the city manager. This is the first reading and it'll be a roll call vote. I'm thinking through some stuff and I'll get to that in a second, but I think it creates a lot of concerns. All right, Mr. City Manager.

Yes, thank you, Mayor. Item 8B, again, is a regular ordinance that would increase the compensation of the mayor and city council members by $780 plus the $400 for a total of $1180 a month to commence after the November 3rd, 2026 election when one or more council members is sworn into office. I did present information on this on the last item, so I will move forward. Just as a reminder that the government code section 36516 allows for compensation increase in the amount of equal 5% per calendar year from the operative date of the last adjustment of the salary when in effect that the ordinance is enacted or the option for the alternative, which is for population of communities and populations under 35,000 capped at $950 per month based on Senate Bill 329. This ordinance includes recitals again that the city has grown in complexity and also that this ordinance is intended to allow public servants to bounce careers, personal obligations and increase diverse participation, local government, which were the same reasons that were identified by the city council in the 3. public meetings that we had regarding this item last year and also consistent with the legislative intent of government code section 36516 it includes five percent increase in monthly compensation again since 1986 for a total of 1180 per month from 1986 to 2026 The recommendations for this item are as follows to find have a motion by the proposed ordinance to increase the compensation of the mayor and city council members is not a project purposes a sequel by 15378 and is also exempt from sequel based on section 15061 B3. Also includes a motion to introduce the ordinance proposed to increase compensation of the mayor and city council members, which we just discussed. Also includes a motion directing the city manager to retain an independent certified public accountant or other qualified professional to recommend a repayment method for the overpayment compensation for the 13 month period from June 2025 to June 2026. and authorizing that city manager to contact the Fair Political Practices Commission with any questions that I may have regarding the repayment methods, and then, of course, to take any other actions as recommended by and directed by the city council. With that, I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have.

Thank you. Any questions? Council Member Miller.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And to the manager, I asked you earlier about how much the certified public accountant would be city manager has authorization for and if it would be over it would come back to the council correct is that still the same answer correct so have we have in mind who you might hire for this not yet we're gathering i'm working with outside counsel to potentially identify some some assistance and i wanted to ask from the last one did we have an amount um that we have already paid legal counsel to review this i don't have that amount at this time okay

i'm just i'm just worried because we're accumulating a lot of fees for this and should also add that the fy 2627 budget includes 170 000 for this salary with the last ordinance we will have almost 75 000 in savings from item a a to cover expenses that may be related to the correction of the sign okay so are we definitely going to use that then for this We're not going to use the full amount, but that there is budget funds that are available now with the correction ordinance of item 8A to use to correct this item.

Okay, thank you. And to the council, I would urge the council to consider either going to the 950, which the state law uh specifically says for a city of our size or the five percent we kind of messed up the five percent so i'm thinking why don't we stick with the state law and wait until the state decides again since we're a general law city the city decides again that we can raise it then the council in that time can raise it to what the state law says so i'm i'm personally in favor of course um you know i i'm amendable to the five percent but i'm in favor of the 950 uh in which a city of our size the state has outlined how much a city of our size can get and they're saying a city with this amount can get 950 i'm in favor of that or i'm in favor also of taking this to the vote in november ballot to ask the voters what they wish for us thank you thank you mr mayor that's all my comments

Mayor Putnam, just to repeat a question I already asked. The 1180 legal counsel, professional legal counsel, and the state law that we might have or should have done it that way the first time was the 1180. That was it, right?

Correct. Last year in 2025, if the ordinance was approved, that cap was 1160, adding another year for 2026. Since adoption of that ordinance, it would be 1180, and that has been verified and confirmed by our independent legal counsel.

So 1180 is legal, possible, and there is no chance

all the legal counsels that we can get that that dollar amount is correct that amount reflects the simple uh calculation of interest as per the attorney general's opinion right and i just wanted to make sure that can we go for that okay that's all no i didn't want to just because we didn't do a good job of stating who that attorney was and their background say man either he could state it or you could state it just not we just didn't go out and just find any attorney

yeah so brian peric is a partner at burke williams and sorenson and they have written several articles for the cal uh cal cities regarding this uh the council compensation uh statutes that went into place the last few years and then just one last question this non-partisan legal attorney represents his own perspective not not of the city council's wishes Correct. He was instructed to assist us to identify the issues, what was permissible under legal statutes, and to do an independent evaluation of those recommendations.

And maybe just to give a voice to the name. Can we ask, and I know you're correct, but I think sometimes the personal perspective hearing someone out of the duck's mouth might be a way, so we all hear the same things from that bipartisan, whatever it is, perspective. Can we have his last words on that, just to make sure everybody's in the same,

hey just such absolutely if we can ask dominic to pull him up on the screen and that's just to make sure that we don't want to anyway okay i can answer your questions um the uh staff report that you've seen the ordinances that were drafted i worked with the city manager to draft all that i carefully reviewed the applicable law the government code sections, the attorney general opinions, and my conclusions are those that are reflected in the materials that you've reviewed here, including the two ordinances, the urgency ordinance you just passed to return your salary to $400 a month, i also did the calculation with respect to the five percent uh to reach the 1180 when you added it to the 400. so that's the analysis i did i was instructed to do that on an independent basis and i worked with the city manager to do the do that calculation and the information that's been provided to you at this meeting is true and correct thank you sir

Uh, anyone else council member? Yeah, thank you. I'm not doubting the 5%. I understand from the attorney on the zoom that we can raise it. 5%. I'm just concerned that the last time we tried to use the 5%, we didn't do it. Right? and to alleviate any error and i'm not saying there's going to be an error but to exercise an abundance of caution that's why i'm saying i suggest 950 which is what the state law states for a city of our size that's just my argument that out of abundance of caution we stick to what the state law says in that aspect not the five percent

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Okay. Just one more question because I want to get from the horse's mouth as such. From the abundance of proof, as the councilman mentioned, we are following the abundance of proof by going with 1180 as far as state nature, state law, whatever it be.

Did you want to hear from me again on that? Yes, sir. Yeah, certainly. It's the government code section is 36516, and it does expressly provide for the 5% formula. The Attorney General, as I noted, as was noted in the staff report, has given the opinion that the 5% cannot be compounded. So the math, as you've seen, it is 39 years from 1986 until 2026. We haven't reached November yet of 2026, so it's 39 years. You multiply it by 20, and that's $780. You add it to the current amount of the compensation, you come up to $1,180, and that is the formula that is in Section 36516.

Thank you.

I just wanted to get validation council member known famous mayor and to the attorney. Did you review the last time the council raised the salary?

I did not, well, I was retained in June of this year. So I wasn't, I didn't review, in 1985, I didn't review the ordinance, but I did review what was done in 1985. I read the staff reports, I read the ordinances and based upon my review is how I concluded that there were the two mistakes. One was the compounding of the 5%. The other was to start the payments, before the November 3, 1986 election and then the swearing in after that. So it was a timing issue and it was an amount issue.

And so in 1986, 1985, 1986, you reviewed when the city council raised the rates from back then, and you're confident that that is the last time that the city council raised the rates because this could come back and say, oh, this was not a correct formula. That's why I stick to the 950. But if you've reviewed it, then we have to take your word for it. So thank you.

Well, let me say this about that. I was told that it was 1986 was the last increase. That was what was presented to you in 19, in 2025. And I've seen that ordinance and I am not aware of any ordinances by the city from 1986 till 2025 that changed the compensation. So that's what I've been told.

So in 1986, you reviewed those documents from the 1986 city council hearing.

I reviewed the ordinance.

You reviewed the ordinance that was passed then and the city council increased that.

Yeah, I wasn't quite sure if they had increased it to $400 or they were setting it at $400. It doesn't really matter. The point is that in 1986 was the last council action with regard to the setting of the compensation, and it was set at $400. So that's our benchmark. So you count from 1986 to the present.

Thank you so much. And just to alleviate any confusion and to alleviate any more possible errors, I encourage the City Council to adopt $950 as outlined in the state law. Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else? Yeah, or any more comments here? Go ahead.

I'm just going to make a motion to approve the recommendation.

Well, let me just... No, I appreciate you. No, Brian, I just want to give you an opportunity, because I still don't think it has been done properly, for you to give us your background and your expertise to weigh in on these compensation issues. I want the public to understand that this may be your area of specialty or whatever the case may be. I want you to speak to why we should be comfortable taking your advice on this.

I'll be glad to respond to that, Mayor. Yes. I've practiced public law for my entire career, which is in excess of 50 years. I've been a city attorney for several cities in my career. I have, for previous cities, reviewed and analyzed the provisions of Government Code Section 36516. Our firm, as the city manager mentioned, published a newsletter that was sent out with regard to SB 329. So this is an area that I'm very familiar with.

Okay, I just wanted to be on the record. You know, the city manager did an excellent job finding you, Brian, and we appreciate your work and what you bring to the table. The matter of what Tim said earlier about You know, when we did the other increased compensation that the public really appreciated that I know everyone did not. But the majority of people did say, we think it's OK for you guys to have that level. All we're doing now is saying that calculation was wrong. I don't think we go back and say, well, we don't deserve that. But that could be someone else's comment. So I'm OK with the $11.80, and then I just support the $11.80. For those that may want to understand, the difference between $11.80 and the $9.50 is $230 divided by 12 is $19.16 a month.

That's a month, Mayor.

Yeah, that's right. That's a month. $19.60 extra a month.

No, the difference per month is $11.80 less.

Okay, $11.80. Right. But the difference between $11.80 a month and $9.50 a month is $2.30. Yes. thank you divided by 12 19.16 and so with council now i'm done i'm done brian so with council member miller suggests we should just do the 950 and other people disagree that i'm just saying we're talking about 19 and 16 cents No, go ahead and correct me. Go ahead and correct me.

Okay. So the 1180 a month is the 5% formula. The 950 a month is the flat rate. The difference between those two amounts per month is $230. You wouldn't then divide that by 12.

$230 a month? Yes. Okay. There you go. There you go. All right. I stand corrected. But we want to put the facts on the table. So Mayor Pro Tem, what did you want to say? I just wanted to make a motion to approve the recommendation.

Yeah.

Okay, it's been properly moved.

I second.

We have properly moved and second on the question.

I'm a second. is why I'm thinking it's 950. It's just about the totality of the circumstances with the 5%. And that's why I think we should go to the 950 because it's clear cut, right in the code, city size, 35,000 or less, 950. I think that's simple and easy to understand. And that's why I'm supporting the 950. no matter what the difference is between the 950 and the five percent even if it's one dollar i'm still thinking that is better for us to just adopt what the code says without the fight and not the fight even though the code does say the five percent i still think this council should adopt a total amount of 950 dollars thank you mr mayor thank you i i'll just anybody else before i just sit just wait just briefly yeah um

You know, we're here as a team to go as a team. Most of you know that I do not support the first go around in this, though I listen to you all, which is my old school mentality. This I support. This, I think, is the right way to go. We've had experts. And I assume we're probably more than a handful of experts weighing on this. It seems all legal. Seems all fair. It seems right. And it seems like the best interest for this council. But it's also right for the councils to be that they know what they're walking into. And it's more about the councils that are ahead of us that they should get you know, a fair and reasonable amount. Uh, cause I, I, I can't speak for all of you, but I know we all invest five to $700 of our own monies and different things that we do and, and don't do that. We choose to do. Uh, so I, I think it's, uh, it's fair. It's reasonable, not only for this council, but for future councils that will be representing this community as leaders. And just to, uh, their work is merited and worthy and it's fair. And we're just searching for fair and equitable. That's all. Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Your Honor. I'll close it. I'll just say quickly that excellent comments. Sometimes we forget about one of the original reasons or the main reasons. How do we get more people to apply for these positions? And for whatever reasons, councils from 1986 to 2025 never felt the need, never was strong enough to do it for 39 years. That was 38 years at that time. And so I don't think we're farfetched from, you know, and people can throw stone balls at us, but between 1986 and 2025, we were never able to do it. And we have to ask ourselves, why did that happen? Okay, it's a roll call vote. Yeah, we can make sure we're legal. Public comment is open. Public comment is open.

Members of the public in the chamber, please approach the podium. Members of the public on Zoom, please use the raise your hand feature or dial star nine if you're calling from a phone.

So this is not about getting rich, it's about making a commitment to your community, a commitment that extends far beyond the hours of a council meeting. Many people see city council members on Thursday nights in the council chambers. They don't see the countless hours spent throughout the week. They don't see the seven-day work weeks, the community events, the ribbon cuttings, neighborhood meetings, regional board appointments, the legislative advocacy, or the conversations with businesses considering investing in CSI. those responsibilities don't end when the meeting adjourns the decisions made by this council have helped shape the future of our city we see that in developments like the seagrove campus town project the enclave victory temples housing development continued effort to attract new businesses create new jobs and expand economic opportunities These projects don't happen by accident. They require leadership, vision, collaboration, and thousands of hours of work that most residents never see. Reasonable compensation recognizes that level of commitment also helps ensure that serving on the City Council remains possible for people from different backgrounds, not just those who can afford to volunteer substantial amounts of time without adequate compensation. Strong local government benefits when talented, hardworking people are able to serve. Council members' salaries should never be viewed as a reward. It is investment in effective governance, thoughtful decision-making, and long-term success of a community. As Seaside continues to grow, the expectations placed upon its elected leaders continue to grow as well. The responsibilities today are far greater than they were years ago, and our compensation should reflect that reality. If we want leaders who are accessible, prepared, engaged, and willing to dedicate countless hours to building a stronger Seaside, then we must value their time and their service. Because investing in good leadership is ultimately investment in our neighborhoods, businesses, our families, generations that will one day call Seaside home. I'm not in favor of taking this to a vote. We do not need to spend more money putting this on the ballot. There is already a law in place that provides this raise, so we don't need to waste money on a ballot measure. Supporting fair compensation isn't just about today's council. It is about ensuring that tomorrow's leaders have the opportunity to continue moving Team Seaside forward. Thank you.

Good evening. I was here June of last year when you guys voted to accept this and I kept hearing it's a stipend, it's a raise, whatever it is, it's a salary, it's a raise, stipend. I agreed with your vote. $400, I wouldn't sit up there for $400. So to that, I'm going to say too, whatever you guys decide on, whether it be the 5% or the 950, you guys deserve it. And I'm just sorry that you're all having to come up with a resolution of how we're gonna pay back the $26,000 plus per individual. I'm really sorry that each one of you have to pay that out of your pocket. And I wish we were a city that had an overabundance of money, but obviously we're not. But I'm all in favor if you've got this council or the future councils getting the increase in whatever you want to call it, salary, stipend, money, whatever. But I wanted you also to look at the repayment. I know all of you paid taxes on that money as income. So that needs to be looked at as well, because that came out of your pockets as well. So I hope that with the repayment, procedures that are going to happen in the in the future that you look at that also not just the interest of that money but also the taxes that you each one of you paid out of your own pocket Diane Nielsen you now have the floor to make a public comment I'm sorry I meant to take my hand down but while I have you

microphone once again is cutting out i know we've had that problem before so it's it it cuts out on certain people and you can hear half of their sentences thank you

Linda Cunningham, Homeless Commission, speaking as a person. Again, I concur with the ladies who spoke before me. Everybody deserves fair compensation. It's unfortunate. I work in huge corporations. You have no idea how many millions and millions and millions and millions and millions of dollars, whoopsie doodle, we made a mistake, didn't read the first page, like literally did not read the first page and then spent millions. And then it was like, oops, I was on page one. So, believe me, it's not just governments that make mistakes. Corporations, mistakes happen. It was great to hear the city manager's team not only reported that there was an issue, they had a solution. Come on, that's the gold standard. report it right away, not only have your solution, and again, everybody does deserve to be fairly compensated. It's a very hard job. I see all over town, you cannot go through Seaside and tell me you don't see how much better Seaside is. It's everywhere. Everywhere you go, there's stuff happening. It's getting better. I see it. If people don't see it, you know go to your eye doctor it's happening everywhere and it's really a lot has to do with the city council and and the whole team seaside i love team seaside let's get some team seaside t-shirts thank you

good evening again i just want to say thank you for the conversation thank you for the transparency thank you for moving towards a solution i ditto everything that has previously been said and as we look to in the coming weeks to purchase school supplies for from students, the one thing that all of us will see that there's pencils in the packs and all of the pencils have erasers. So when we make a mistake, come up with a solution and fix it. So we are better together. You guys rock. You deserve everything you got and everything that you should get, you still deserve it because you guys are everywhere. So you represent CSI well. Thank you for representing the best of who we are as a city. Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Poteen, City Manager, and Council. My name is Rosalind Green, MPC Trustee for our area, Seaside and Sand City, and I will be on the election ballot for this coming election, 2026. If you'd like to see me continue with the great work I've been doing, please cast your vote. That said, although I do serve community college, I am not a mathematician, but I have been sitting with my phone and my calculator just going along with the conversation and the things that I've been hearing. And I know When community seen this information go out in the Monterey Herald, it was shocking. People were gasping. The numbers seem to be tremendous. But doing the math and in my mind, thinking that the way some of the repair would be to amend what we voted in and then do some subtraction in what you could have would have should have been receiving and then possibly maybe not receiving anything for the last five months of the year and then look at those numbers which um at any rate whether it's 950 or 1180 would um put you well maybe closer to the 1180 you under um under 5k of what needs to be paid back And I do believe from all of the speakers that I've heard today in suggesting possible ways to assist in compensating that overpay. i think a barbecue is going to take care of that like in no time and we have um but labor day coming up so we can do like a three-day push i'm being a little comical but i i just want um to applaud you all um because i know in the the seat that i serve in um we don't receive any compensation um for the work that i do and it is a lot of work so i i applaud you um i do think that you deserved you know every bit of what and what you were getting because in my head i was like wow do i do i switch boards or it's just kidding um but um definitely we want to let you know that we appreciate your advancement and there's no monetary value on what you do for our city thank you

James, you now have the floor to make a public comment.

I can hear me.

Yes, we can.

Thanks for having me again. This is James up with the Solano Watchman up in Solano County. Great to hear some of the conversations, some good ideas, good suggestions. I do want to remember, remind the public, though, at its core, public service is about care, not control. And public servants are the people who show up every day to serve, which is highly appreciated. But it's not for recognition or profit, but because they believe society is worth showing up for. Our country is founded on public service. There was no compensation. It was a belief for society. That's where I'm disappointed with this whole process, which is why I'm calling in from up north. I do want to also point out, I'm disappointed that a city manager is footing the bill, which means the taxpayers are paying for the attorney fees. Very disappointing. I agree with the council member that is pushing for the 950. I think that's the way it should be done. Keep it simple. uh my other concern that was not addressed was the repayment if one of the um council members up for election doesn't win their re-election are they just off the hook how's it go forward i hope the taxpayers aren't liable for that if that council member does not win and lastly the council should be double checking staff work not blindly following it this is why you got in trouble Our city members where we live are constantly double-checking work and the council is numerous times inconsistently wrong. You guys need to change your manners, start researching, go past staff recommendations, because that's gonna get you in trouble again, trust me. Good luck with everybody, thank you.

Thank you for your comments. Chris Kay, you now have the floor to make your public comment.

Yes, can you hear me?

Yes, we can.

thank you yes i'm glad to see that there are people who are able to come in and voice their opinions um about what they think should be done but just want to remind city council that they represent all of the residents of seaside and not everybody can make it in so um for that reason i think it should go to a vote um and i also um appreciate the council member who thinks that it should be $950 and that it should go to a vote to the voters. And the council members voted for a 500% raise. I think we need to remember that. Maybe it should be more than $400, but a 500% raise from 400 to 2,400 seems a little outlandish to me. There's It could be reasonable to increase, but, um, you know, we have to consider what is reasonable when we increase, uh, we have a lot of streets and disrepair. And if we remember our street report says that they're going to be even worse in five years. So let's, let's put things in perspective and let's put it to a vote for the voters to decide. And, um, thank you for your time.

Thank you for your comments. Carla Lobo, you now have the floor to make your public comment.

Thank you. James and Chris, did i hear that they're from the bay area coming in here about how we do business in seaside please somebody correct me if i'm wrong but um we wasn't going this hard when we got sued from um petrovich for almost half a mil and we ended up paying like a meal or close to a meal nobody was up in roars about then but we're up in roars about 130 okay i'm just just putting in perspective because we talking about putting in perspective right um and who's paying attention so i just feel like we're dragging this on a little too far for 130. we lost over half a mil just put it in perspective i yield the rest of my thank you for your comments members of the public in the chamber please approach the podium members of the public on zoom please use the raise your hand feature or dial star 9 if you're calling from a phone

There are no other members of the public have come forward to make public comment.

Thank you so much. You know why I'm saying no one else public comment is close. I'm assuming there was any questions, issues or concerns in there.

No, nothing additional to add to that. Thank you.

Anybody else had any comments or last comment?

Yes. comment is that I'm not going to be supporting the 1180. I've explained why I think we should be at 950 or be taking it to both one or the other. So for those reasons, I am not supporting this motion. Thank you.

I think I just want to correct two things are out there. We did settle with Mr. Petrovich, but we did not lose. And then someone did say The citizens shouldn't be paying for the outside attorney. The taxpayer should be paying for the outside. Who pays for that? If it's not the city. You want us to pay to correct our own selves. I'm just saying, right, you know, let's not keep the mistake happen. And someone said, take an eraser out and erase it, move on, admit what happened, be transparent about it. And I think during the first comment, I think we were clear about whether you're elected or not elected, you're responsible to pay that back. So that's not the concern. And then it was a good question about, we do think there is some tax implications about that that's on us. We're impacted a couple of different ways other than just the original monies. I want to appreciate the council for being strong and doing what we're doing. Roll call vote.

Council and agency member Miller?

No.

Council and agency member Birx? Aye. Council and agency member Garcia-Arizuela?

Aye.

Mayor Pro Tem and Vice Chair Pacheco?

Yes.

Mayor and Chair Oglesby? Aye. Your motion passes four to one.

Thank you so much. Well, yeah, I think what I clock a right up there. So okay, it's time for I keep waiting for the week. 7 30 o'clock a moving two hours. Uh, but it's about center. We'll take our 7 30 recess right now.

surviving right now.

Are we

Coming out of recess, we'll go to item number C, 8C, Introduction of Ordinance and Many Seaside Municipal Code Chapter 13.12, Cross-Connection Control Program. The proposed action is not subject to California Environmental Quality Act CEQA, pursuant to Section 15061B3. This is the first reading and will be a roll call vote. Mr. City Manager.

Yes, thank you, Mayor. This item will be presented by Thomas Corman, the City's Public Works Director.

Thank you. Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, members of the Council. Yes, I'm Thomas Corman, Public Works Director, City Engineer for the City of Seaside. So this evening, I'll be introducing an ordinance amending the Seaside Municipal Code Chapter 1312 Cross-Connection Control Program. Just a brief background here. So the State Water Resources Control Board adopted a cross-control policy handbook on July 1, 2024. The aim of this, the policy handbook, is to protect public health by establishing standards to ensure the drinking water standards. so what this is really subject to is is a backflow prevention when water goes into a system prevents it from going backwards um so they adopted this policy handbook um and it's now required to be adopted to our municipal code so what this does is it repeals and replaces the cross and coal connection and backflow prevention formerly found entitled 17. so familiar but first hearing of the ordinance revision um just a summary of the bullet points the ordinate change shall be posted in a newspaper general circulation at least five days prior to the meeting at which the ordinance is to be adopted ordinance approves two required readings so this is the first and then shall become effective 30 days after adoption and the ordinance requires a roll call vote so This is the proposed ordinance change. So I will read these. The red is that's crossed out and then the highlighted bold is the new. So these regulations are adopted in pursuant to and striking out the State of California Code of Regulations Title 2017, which I referred to. the state water resources control board cross-connection control policy ccph latest edition and incorporating all updates and amendments defined in california's health and safety code section 116 275 h ordinance 752 exhibit a 1988. In addition, there's changes in 13.12.0.9. So this just refers to the type of protection required. Again, what struck out in red is replaced as defined by the Cross-Connection Code Policy Handbook. That's the CCPH right there. And then again, it refers to a prior table that was entitled 17, now replaced by the CCPH, the Cross-Control Protection Handbook. Lastly, in 13.12.110, Backflow Protection Device Installation, again striking out the reference to Title 2017 and replacing that with CCPH, the Cross-Control Connection Policy Handbook. so the recommendation is that staff recommends uh modifying the language in section 1312 with the seaside municipal code and re replaces reference references to title 17 with the adoption and new references to the ccph by the state water resources control ward that concludes my presentation thank you thank you so much for that presentation are there any questions

Councilmember Miller.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Roman. Is this something that a lot of the jurisdictions are having to amend their codes to update the language?

It is, yes.

We're pretty common with other jurisdictions that

That's correct, because this was adopted July 1st of 2024. so we're a little bit slow. We were not aware of it until we just have a standard visit by the board. And this was 1 of the things that was brought up and we're amending that and getting current.

Understood and then is there a future potential that it will be changed again? Or is this kind of the standard from now on?

until this it is the standard for now yes and until the state water resources control board adapts adopts that in the lane which we said the latest version so we'll be current moving forward with that understood thank you so much thank you mr mayor uh thank you uh any other questions we'll take it out to public comment

Members of the public in the chamber, please approach the podium. Members of the public on Zoom, please use the raise your hand feature or dial star nine if you're calling from a phone. Mayor, no members of the public have come forward to make public comment.

Thank you so much. Seeing no one here, no one else. Public comment is closed. Bringing it back to the dais. What is the will of the Council? Move approval. Second. It's been properly moved and seconded. You got the second? Council Member Miller? And so it'll be a roll call vote. There's no questions.

Council and Agency Member Miller? Aye. Council and agency member Burks. Aye. Council and agency member Garcia-Arizuela. Aye. Mayor Pro Tem and Vice Chair Pacheco. Mayor and Chair Oglesby.

Aye.

Your motion passes unanimously.

Thank you. We'll go to business item number nine, A, approve the Seaside Library mural. Mr. Seelanger.

Yeah, this item presented by Keon Higgins, a city's recreation superintendent.

Good afternoon, City Council, members of the public. My name is Keon Higgins, Records Superintendent. I'm presenting item 9A, approving the Seaside Library mural. A bit of background, in May 2026, an RFP was released to the public requesting design and installation of a mural on a staircase at the Seaside Public Library located at 550 Harcourt Avenue, right across the way from City Hall. And the second time we're bringing this back to the Council, at july 2nd city council meeting staff was directed uh to add additional artwork to the design of the uh of the staircase and add additional book titles on the columns which you can see there on the left and right hand side so this is the original rendering by the artist known as beis pedro gonzalez garcia who is an international muralist has done work in australia spain italy and canada and hopefully soon here. So here you'll see here on the bookcases, we wanted to remove or increase the books from four on the left and the right to six to make it a total of 12. And then you'll see on the left and right hand side, it's just bare concrete. So we wanted to cover that up too. So here's updated rendering. So you'll see on the book title, so just kind of just generic, this room and share what tells are going to be selected. And we also receive a recommendation on the top. If you can kind of tell where the book is, where the light poles are, it kind of looks like a page like for books. And so you'll see on the designs on the left and right side of the stairs, more design covering that and an inside of the staircase as well. And here's another up close view. This is, of course, a rendering of what it will look like. So that'll be the design. And then the book titles. So there'll be six on the left and right hand side. 12 books will be added in total. These other six that are recommended by staff and the library. The first is Racial Beachhead by Carol McKibben. She also has another book titled Images of America by herself, who's a local historian. And the rest of them are chosen by the library. Joyful Noise by Paul Fleischman. Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz. Grandfather's Journey by Alan Say. and big by bashi harrison and the remaining six will be selected by the city council So the impact has increased from $11,500 to $15,000. This is due to design changes and travel costs. There was discussion of trying to get the muralists to complete this project maybe at the end of July, but due to prior commitments and projects, it's gonna push to the beginning of December. And that'll work well with the schedule and gives the staff plenty of time to work through, work these challenges and just making sure we're all, everything, our ducks in a row. and of course this project is funded by the nic allocation of the tot which is approved by uh city council during the 25-26 budget sessions and the recommendation tonight is to approve the seaside library mural design and take any questions uh thank you any questions this time okay thank you we'll take it out to the public public comment is open

members of the public in the chamber please approach the podium members of the public on zoom please use the raise your hand feature or dial star nine if you're calling from a phone good evening from being somebody that's become a little bit not good at my eyesight that looked really busy i wonder how that's going to be for people that

are their eyesight is impaired walking up those steps what you know it seems like they they roll into each other and i didn't see there's any clear definition of where the steps are just looking at the picture not having seen it but um i don't know if that was taken into consideration because we do have a lot of people that don't see clearly. And I'm just, it just, it's a beautiful artwork, but it just looked like a little bit too busy. And with those bright colors and stuff, how's that's going to impact somebody that's hard of seeing.

Members of the public in the chamber, please approach the podium. Members of the public on Zoom, please use the raise your hand feature or dial star nine if you're calling from a phone.

the canningham homeless commission meetings um commission me member speaking as a private citizen a mirror looks beautiful i this a good point is something i hadn't thought of about is it too busy with people with site issues but i do have to say Just looking at it, it's beautiful. And the way the sides are covered with that beautiful blue sky, it looks so much. So the finish is nice. The book's on top. Hopefully there's a cover on the outside. And it was really nice that the muralist took our suggestions and was able to incorporate that. And it's just going to be beautiful. Thank you.

Last speech of the night. I hope you guys are happy.

So first, I want to thank everyone who contributed to this beautiful mural. Public art does have the power to tell our story and celebrate our identity and create a lasting impression for everyone who walks through our library doors. But I do have one simple request. Let's replace the tree with the seahorse, our city's official mascot. When I see the tree, my mind immediately goes to the lone cypress, an iconic symbol of another community. But when people see a seahorse, they think of seaside. That's the image we should be sharing with our residents, our children, and every visitor who comes here. The seahorse is more than a mascot. It represents our deep connection to the Monterey Bay and the incredible marine environment that surrounds us. It also symbolizes resilience, strength, and adaptability, qualities that define seaside. Like the seahorse, our city has weather change, embrace new opportunities, and continue to grow stronger together. And just as importantly, Seaside is one of the most culturally diverse communities on the Central Coast. People from many backgrounds and cultures and generations have built the city into the welcoming place it is today. And our mural should reflect that unique identity and remind every child who walks into this library that this is their community and their story. This isn't about changing the entire mural, it's about making one meaningful adjustment that ensures this artwork unmistakably represents Seaside. And sometimes the smallest change creates the strongest sense of place. Now that this is pushed back to December, we do have time to ask the artists to make a small change. When people look at this mural years from now, I hope they don't think of another city. i hope they immediately recognize the spirit of seaside our beautiful bay the resilient people our rich diversity and our proud seahorse thank you members of the public in the chamber please approach the podium members of the public on zoom please use the raise your hand feature or dial star 9 if you're calling from a phone

Mayor, no other members of the public have come forward to make public comment.

Thank you. Seeing no one else, public comment is closed. Bring them back to the desk. Any discussion? Yeah, there's a couple of comments. Yeah, go ahead.

It said that the remaining six were going to be chosen by council. Are we doing that today?

No, we have time. It should be done quickly. Has someone communicated with you? The presentation said it. I don't know what I'm saying. This is the first time you heard about it?

that we were choosing?

Yeah. Yeah. Because I asked for them to be communicated that they had a choice to choose one weeks ago. So surprising that you guys...

I did get an email asking me what my opinion was. I just didn't know if everyone had received that. So I waited.

Yeah. And of course, I didn't call them. But yeah, we're... Not tonight. Okay. You can pick your choice.

And send it to the appropriate person?

Send it to Mr. Keon.

Gotcha.

So anybody have anything else? Can we sort of picture back up there again? I think somebody can correct me, whoever knows the mural. But my understanding is the top of the steps are not painted. And that would help the perception of stepping, coming up and coming down. Remember we talked about that last time the top was not painted?

Correct. So you can see on this, the metal toe, that will not be painted. That's right. Yeah.

So you can see that and you can get your depth perception. Correct. And of course it was about making sure we weren't wearing out the top anyway. Correct. Okay. I thought that was a good comment. We had another picture about the, can you go back to the whole stuff? I had to share the same concern. I'm not necessarily bothered with the trees, but I did say, you know, where was the seahorse? You know, it didn't go nowhere last time we talked about it, but I just want to be clear. That was just my comments last time. So go ahead. I'm just making comments. May I pretend? First.

In this, I think it's fine with me. It's all good.

Okay. All right. So when do you want each council member to give you their suggestion?

I think we could say, I don't know, the end of August. I think it's... We have some time, we have a lot of time, but do they need to wait?

Do you guys need to wait to end August within the next 2 weeks? We can do that and I'm sure they'll give it to you in the next couple of days. We wanted to go ahead and put this thing to bed and get the artist and then I'll see you my my 2 later. Yes, go ahead.

Yeah. So, if we don't remove the tree, is there a possibility to add a seahorse somewhere?

I can certainly ask. It depends, you know, what he might say. I want to increase the budgets. It is, yeah, I can see what he says. If I were to ask him and say, hey, I want to place a seahorse or replace it somewhere on the mural, is there... Okay, I think I can see you go. All right.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Correct. Okay.

So... Because I'm fine with how it is, but I do think that, like you mentioned, like the communities mentioned, the seahorses are simple, so it could be there somewhere.

Yeah, I mean, if that was at CSUMB, if that was Monterey, then yeah, we could see the honor, right? And like I said last time, I know we just, you know, we're communicating to him through the internet and stuff. So we just, you know, the commission just gave him an idea and he came up with, hey, you guys are on Monterey Bay. So I'm not taking nothing away from that. Right. But we do see a couple fish in there. but we don't see this emblem of the city, right? That's what we need to ma'am, that's what we need to, no. Right, no, I think we already fought the seagull and we lost out. So, hold on, hold on peoples. So, I mean, if no one else has a heartburn, I think it is room to put a seahorse in the water. That is a good point. If this is going to last for time, we don't have our own emblem in there. So does anybody have a big heartburn with that? Yeah, if you could just find a couple little seahorses moving along as a family. Okay, so what is the will of the council? Move approval? It's been probably moved and seconded. On the question, all those in favor use the record signing voting, which is aye. Aye. Aye. Nays have the same right. Abstentions? Hearing none. Ayes have it. Motion carried. Let's go to item number 9B. adaptive resolution authorizing the submission of a local authority recommendations to the california governor's office of business and economic development for the opportunity zones 2.0 designation of the census tract 06053014108 and 06053014000 mr city manager

Yes, thank you Mayor, Council. Opportunity zones are intended to encourage long-term private investment in designated census tracts. Private investors may receive federal tax benefits when eligible capital gains are invested through qualified and opportunity funds and the federal requirements that are associated with those opportunity funds are met. For communities, designations can make housing, mixed-use, hospitality, and commercial projects more competitive when developers and investors are assembling the private financing packages to do those projects. The designation is best used in additional financing and investment. A recruitment tool does not guarantee that an investment or project will occur in a designated census tract. Designation does not provide a direct grant from the city. It does not require the city to provide any additional funding. There are no fee reduction subsidies or other financial assistance associated with Opportunity Zones themselves. It does not change the zoning. It does not approve a project. It does not create entitlement or predetermine an outcome from a city council on a project. It doesn't impose a new tax or a new assessment. Any future development remains subject to the same applicable city and state requirements, environmental reviews and process. only census tracts that are included on the federal eligibility list may be in recommended both tracks before the city council tonight are eligible for that consideration GO-Biz the the governor's department of economic development is accepting local authority recommendation forms through 11 59 pm on July 20th which is why this item is before the council this evening After local recommendations are submitted, the state will provide a review and a public comment process. The governor may nominate only up to 25% of eligible census tracts in the state, and then final determinations are made by the US Treasury. So accordingly, city council authorization allows the city to advocate for the tracts, but neither the city nor the state alone controls the process. Census tract 06053014108 includes the areas associated with our future main gate mixed use development projects, Campus Town Phase 1A, and the Grand Hyatt Seaside Hotel and Resort. These are significant long-term redevelopment opportunities, as we know, connected to former reuse of Fort Ord. Designation could strengthen the city's ability to attract private capital investment for all of those projects and additional projects within the designated census tract. the tract also aligns with the city's broader objectives for job creation work workforce opportunities and tourism the recommendation applies to eligible census tract as a whole and does not obviously again provide any specific project approvals or designations The second census tract, 06053014000, lies both within the City of Seaside and the City of Sand City. Within Seaside, it includes our commercial areas along Del Monte Boulevard, as well as our West Broadway Urban Village area, which is identified in the city's general plan. These areas present opportunities for commercial reinvestment and mixed-use corridor revitalization, all of the things we discussed earlier. An opportunity to zone designation, again, could provide another opportunity for investors to evaluate projects specifically within this area. There are private investment benefits, as said earlier, at a high level. The program is designed to provide three potential federal tax benefits for qualifying investments. Those are defer, reduce, and potentially eliminate federal tax obligations on investments. An example, if a $10 million eligible gain invested through a qualified opportunity fund could result in $9 million of the original gain being taxable after five years, subject to the federal rules and investors' compliance. If that investment then later grows to $16 million and all the requirements were satisfied, the $6 million of new appreciation could potentially be excluded from federal capital gains after an applicable 10-year holding period. And then those potential benefits can improve, obviously, the long-term economic value and investment opportunities for those projects, especially if we're talking large-scale projects, $50 to $100 million, 10% of federal tax benefits means a lot for investors on the projects. With that, I'd like to recommend the adoption of a resolution authorizing the submission of the local authority recommendations to the California governor's office of business and economic development for opportunity 2.0 designation for census tract 06053014104108 and 06053014000 and to authorize staff to submit these by the deadline on Monday to the state. Be happy to answer any questions.

Thank you for that presentation. Any questions? Any questions? Let's open up to public comment. Public comment is open.

Members of the public in the chamber, please approach the podium. Members of the public on Zoom, please use the raise your hand feature or dial star 9 if you're calling from a phone.

Cunningham as a private citizen. Oh, this is fabulous. I hope to see everybody vote for this because this sounds like it's all upside. Thank you.

Members of the public in the chamber, please approach the podium. Members of the public on Zoom, please use the raise your hand feature or dial star nine if you're calling from a phone. Mayor, no other members of the public have come forward to make public comment.

Thank you so much. Seeing no one else, hearing no one else, public comment is closed. Bringing it back to the dais. What is the will of the body?

Motion to approve 9B. Second.

So I'm proud to move and second. I own the question. Are there any questions? Of course, I got a couple of comments 1 thing to see manager for bringing us forward. This is something that is out there that he didn't necessarily have to do. It's extra work. It's a time constraint. Him and his staff is trying to make this happen overnight, but it is a lot of potential upside. And this is how you create economic development for your community. So I would appreciate him for. not just thinking one way, but actually attacking the problems different ways. All those in favor use the regular sign of voting, which is aye.

Aye.

Nays have the same right. Abstentions? Hearing none, ayes have it. Motion carried unanimously. 9C, adopt a resolution in support of modification of State Water Board Order WR2009-0060 and 2016-0016 to lift the moratorium on new water meter service connections uh mr city manager yes thank you mayor this item presented by our city attorney sherry damon

Thank you Mr. Mayor, members of the Council, members of the public. There's a background here that I will just go over really quickly. In 1995, the State Water Resources Control Board issued Order 9510, which limited CalAM, ordered CalAM to reduce illegal diversions off the Carmel River. In 2009, There was order 2009-0060, which ordered Calium not to make any new water connections for new or intensified water uses. Those orders were modified subsequently in 2016 and 2019. Those orders collectively are generally referred to cease and desist order. That moratorium on water connections has frustrated the city's West Broadway downtown redevelopment, implementation of RHNA housing obligations, affordable and workforce housing productions, economic development priorities. The city has been forced to create very costly workarounds, including a namely water storage program on the golf course to try to generate enough water to allow activities to happen within this city of Seaside. There are about 33,000 customers which are affected by these moratorium orders. And the cost to our projects, the increased costs to the city's projects are at least 1.5 million per project. um to just to try to work around in 2025 the water management district submitted an application to modify the state water resource control board orders and in 2026 the state water board issued a notice of hearing next slide please So what are the basis for that? Well, the conditions have changed. There's reduced usage, so Calium has significantly reduced its pumping off the Carmel River, and in the last four years, it has not exceeded the authorized diversions from the Carmel River. There's a new water supply in town. The Pure Water project came online initially in 2021, and the expansion project has subsequently come online, increases the number of injections of water in the seaside basin and finally there's no current violations and no current or foreseeable threatened violations of the existing orders next slide So the proposed resolution before you put Seaside on record in support of modifying Condition 2 of the Water Resources Board 2009-006, which would modify the restrictions to allow new connections to be made. It supports retention and application of key reporting requirements and a clear imposition of trigger conditions if future conditions warrant. and it aligns with the city's November 1st, 2025 letter that we already submitted to the State Water Board supporting the Water Management District's application. It's not a CEQA project. There's no environmental review that's required at this stage. Next slide, please. For the benefit of the public, the State Water Resources Control Board is a public hearing and its timeline is the written testimony is due on August 19th, 2026. Rebuttal testimony would be due on September 18th, 2026. The public hearing is now scheduled for November 5th, 2026 and closing briefs are November 10, 2026. Those dates are a little different than what were included in the staff report, and that's because the State Water Board updated that information just recently. If the public is interested in obtaining updated information, they should go to the waterboards.ca.gov forward slash water rights forward slash water issues projects forward slash california underscore american underscore water company to get the latest information um and written testimony can be submitted to cal dash am project at waterboards.ca.gov or by mail at the address that's in the notice and the notice is attached to the staff report And with that, the recommendation next slide is to support the Monterey Peninsula water management application to modify the state water board orders and to authorize the city manager to submit the resolution and support. And this action supports the strategic priorities for the city of enhanced infrastructure and abundant water supply, vibrant local economy, and a diverse and inclusive community. That concludes my presentation.

Thank you so much for that well done presentation. Are there any questions or comments?

uh santa yes uh councilman miller thank you mr mayor um i just uh i read the the packet i was just wondering who the who the drafter of that of our proposed language is was that drafter the manager or was that drafted the attorney through mayor uh yes uh thank you for that uh question councilmember miller uh that was a combined effort of both the city manager and the city attorney And was anybody else involved in the drafting of that or just you two?

We were involved in the drafting of the information.

Thank you. That was all my questions.

Thank you. We will take it out to public. Public comment is open.

Members of the public in the chamber, please approach the podium. Members of the public on Zoom, please use the raise your hand feature or dial star nine if you're calling from a phone. Mayor, no members of the public have come forward to make public comment.

Thank you so much. Seeing no one else here, no one else, public comment is closed. Bringing it back to the DAS, what is the will of the body? Move to approve. As we probably moved in second. Are there any questions? I do want to make a couple. Yeah, okay. Yeah, go ahead. Yeah, of course.

Council Member Garcia is on. Yeah, I just want to thank staff for bringing this item forward. It's very important and I think, you know, water has been such a contentious issue throughout the region for a very long time and i think we're finally moving in the right direction at the state level to to really give the peninsula what is theirs and and and really move our communities forward i know for a long time we've been stalled and the excuse of well you know there's no water can can finally move in the right direction of the outcome we'll see how it goes but i think

if every city on the on the peninsula steps up to the plate like we are right now it definitely does make a difference up there at the state water resource so thank you uh thank you uh anyone else yeah i want to i want to thank uh staff the emergency attorney for working together to put this together and send this letter uh you know to but just our argument about that this region not just the city because it impacts more than just the city of seaside impacts this peninsula uh everybody's on cal am it impacts and that's been since 1995 this is the closest we have ever come to them modifying this order and we think we have a good chair i mean a good chance of modifying it i want to thank senator layard and everyone else that has been sending letters of support on behalf of the rate payers and people that use water in support of the district's application. As the current chair of the Water Management District, I want to thank the city for sending this letter. This puts us in the best position again that we have been in since 1995 to get some more water able out of the ground and out of Cal-Am And I think it will impact our downtown's ability to grow once this order is modified. And then hopefully one day it can be totally lifted. But this is the closest we've been since 1995. So I want to thank the city of Seaside. All right, all those in favor use the red sign to vote, which is aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Anees have the same right. i thought we went out to the public and nobody wanted to step forward uh thank you for that uh ladies have a same right abstentions hearing eyes have a motion carry unanimously let's go to council member number 10 council members request new council members request uh yeah thank you uh just a simple report

status record on wages and donations for dispensaries, which we referred to earlier today. Thank you.

Anyone else? Can I add to that? Just review the whole Monty, because there may be one or two other things in those agreements. The wages in there and contracts and then There may be some other stuff we may want to talk about. Okay. Yeah, yeah, go ahead.

This is just informational for Council, but I'd like to see if we can have a report in preparation for Car Week and what that looks like. I know we had one last time, but if anything's changed or what needs to be done, like the communications aspect part of it, like if we can have that. I know last time that we were here, we had just a brief overview of the events, but I'd like to see the communication plan.

Well, I was supposed to come back anyway, so I think he has that scheduled anyway. Okay. But sooner than after the event. Okay. Anyone else? Yes.

Maybe it's more of a question for city manager. Will the fee study return to us so that we can because we pretty much weren't able to approve any of it.

Yes, staff is working through that right now to get it on a future agenda for the city council.

Thank you.

Okay, city attorney, city manager, city council and mayor's comments and reports on committee assignments.

madam city attorney thank you mr mayor members of the council members of the public since our last meeting i had the honor of serving in the kitchen at this afternoon senior luncheon it was hot in that kitchen but i think a good time was had by all i also was very fortunate to attend a wonderful blues in the park on sunday it was beautiful afternoon with great music. And I also had the opportunity to enjoy the Oman festival where I got to enjoy some Japanese culture. And in particular, I appreciated the ikebana and the fan and tell dance demonstrations. And that concludes my comments.

Thank you, Mr. City Manager.

Yeah, thank you, Mayor and Council. On July 4th, I obviously got to attend the Red, White, and Blues and be a part of the time capsule experience. On the 5th and 6th, we hosted World Cup games at the Old Meyer Center, which is great. The outcomes weren't great for the teams that most people were there rooting for each night, but it was nice to see the community come together around that event. On the 6th, we had a monthly meeting with MPUSD to talk collaborative partnerships with the school district. On the 7th, we held the Neighborhood Improvement Commission meeting, attended that. On the 12th, we had Blues in the Park and then the Oban Festival. On the 13th, we had the Laguna Grande Park JPA meeting here, as well as the Monterey Bay Defense Association meeting that morning. On the 14th, I was able to attend the Association of Defense Communities the Defense Communities Federal Outreach Advisory Committee, which I am now a part of. I am now on the Federal Outreach Advisory Committee for the Associated Defense Committee, so I appreciate the opportunity to be a part of that and supporting the military mission here in Seaside and the Peninsula. And then on the 15th, last night, we had the Community Safety Advisory Committee meeting, and the Community Safety Advisory Committee is excited to be a part of reviewing the applications for the Youth Opportunity Grant Program. That's all at this time.

Thank you, Council Member Miller. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And I, too, as well, attended the Red, White and Blues Festival. And I want to shout out to the chief of police for the live stream, sir. I thought that was really cool that we showed and highlighted what our police are doing that evening. And I look forward to I even think I saw maybe we're going to do some other live action in the city of Seaside post. And I am really looking forward to that. I think that bridges the gap between our citizens and the police. So I commend you on your fireworks effort into the fire chief. In my neighborhood, the fireworks were reduced this year. And so I think we had a really successful 4th of July. And so I really commend you both for your excellent work on that. And I was lucky to as well go to the Oban Festival with my colleagues and the first Blues in the Park, which is a great opportunity to go out for community. and enjoy a nice summer day here in the city of Seaside. And also I was able to go to the MBFC game last Saturday. And if you haven't been to an MBFC game, wow, it is an amazing experience. The field is fantastic and I encourage everybody and all the residents and all the residents in the region to attend an MBFC game and support the local Seaside team. I had my CHS meeting today. We assigned Dr. Betty Lusk to the position of chair and Jeff Barron from the City of Carmel as the Vice Chair. It was an interesting meeting. It got heated and a little passionate, but it was a good meeting. And my AMBAG meeting for this month was canceled. They take a summer recess, so I'll appear back in AMBAG for August. That's all my reports. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Thank you. We'll go to Council Member Brooks.

Since our last meeting, I was able to be a part of the Monterey 4th of July parade. I too was here for the red, white and blue and the capsule participation. I was able to join the soccer watch parties for the two different teams we supported. um i also was part of obon and serving tea to our community um and blues in the park was beautiful weather beautiful music today we had our older adults lunch and i was fortunate to be there with our firefighters um and so shout out to our fire department and police for just keeping us safe um on the big holidays and every day and then my amp board meeting was rescheduled so it's coming up this week uh councilmember garcia

Thank you. I also attended July 4th Red, White, and Blue Festival. I just want to thank recreation staff for the hard work that they put into that. I know it was our nation's 250th anniversary and we really tried to capture moments with our videographer on site getting community testimonials and then just celebrating our nation as a whole. The time capsule, I think, was a highlight of the event for many constituents that enjoyed seeing 50 years of memories. And I heard there were some interesting artifacts in that time capsule. So it was just a great event, well put together, and I'm looking forward to seeing what the new time capsule will look like. So just want to thank staff for that. Also police and fire for being out there in the community. I know it was uh interesting uh fourth of july holiday i did see the live stream and i saw a car tip over that was the most interesting thing i've seen um but thank you for being there and thank you for fire to for responding to i know there was a dumpster fire as well so i i know that's something we Thank you. I also attended the Mexico soccer game, which I think was was fun filled. There was a lot of community members. I want to say, like, what, 70, 80 people came out in attendance and support. And again, thank you to the recreation staff. They knocked out of the park with that, making it very community oriented. And I think 1 of the reasons why we were hosting these events was because. throughout the state even in the bay area a lot of these watch parties were not family oriented and didn't have safe spaces where community members could go with their children so that is something that we did hear a lot was i can bring my children here feel safe and thank you for creating a safe community space where we can enjoy the game at home and i know there was um a comment out there made by a little little little one that mentioned that he wasn't able to watch that at home so he thanked the city for the hard work that was put into this for making it a grateful experience for him and i know world cup is something that we can talk about for for many many years uh also the usa game that was a great event as well with my colleagues and i attended the second addition of Entrepreneur Fair on the 11th of July. Great community members hosted a little get together gathering with all women entrepreneurs. So I was able to provide some opening remarks and highlight the successes of their business and the importance of them starting their business in CSI. So that was a great event to be at. And I have my region meeting coming up and my water and water meeting coming up. So I should have a report out by the next meeting.

Thank you, Mayor Rotina.

Thank you. I attended the Monterey Salinas Transit meeting. Staff reported the SERV project continues to be on time and financially on budget. There was a report from the state lobbyists that funding for transportation remains a struggle in the state after the state approved budget. Further lobbying will continue for funds for transportation. Tended the Fosbo Park cleanup at Kappa Park. Residents continue to make significant impact on parks and the neighborhoods. I attended the Laguna Grande Regional Park District. The board received many reports to the status of the program. A dateline of activities to move forward will be presented in October, moving the overall project for park improvements with some momentum. I attended the July 4th event as well. There was a wide range of activities for the diversity of the community that it's a little positive when you see kids and adults and everybody having something to do. I also drove around seaside like i normally do from nine to ten in the evening and it was just much much quieter in the areas that normally you couldn't drive through the streets uh so much success to the police and fire department also i wanted to point out the and i i think tremendous a different huge difference maker i thought was the pr leading up to it and the dot program as far as where the crime was being committed where I just think that was a deterrent. And I also look forward to hearing about the fall of the collection of fines, because I think in the long term that we have a continual negative downturn of illegal fireworks. I also attended the Sunday Blues this past Sunday. I think it was a strong kickoff to the five weeks of Musical Goods, and it's always interesting to see the resident participation that comes from Seaside to Big Sur to San Jose and beyond. They all come to the event because of the history. Other music and that's chance Beth Perlis is a writer for the Herald Center in our article that it brings together family and friends that haven't seen each other for years for them to reconnect. And I think that's a good thing if the city is used, I can help provide. And it helps with our economic development too, because those people go out to Chili's or wherever. And I think it's a win win for everybody. Thank you.

Thank you. Yeah, I think we started off with the red, white, and blues event. And so I think staff were putting that all together. The time capsule was exciting. You had to read some of those old documents, and it's a couple of documents that would never be able to be seen again. it was a great experience i think we find out things that you want to put in a time capsule and things you don't want to put in time capsules one of them is liquids right yeah especially yeah well what kind of bill was that anyway a ham yeah i don't know why with no oe or slits or something right but uh you know we learned from that and i say that as a prelude to i know the city manager and and the council will be involved with what's going to be put in the next time capsule So think about that. But this is a great event for the kids and grandkids and our next generation to show them what people did 50 years ago and what we want to survive as our legacy. So I want to thank city manager, city clerk, and staff, and rec staff, Dan Mules for programming. uh particularly all we've done celebrating the 250 years of america uh with the lights on city hall and just all the festivities you guys put together uh in coordination with the nation that's what i want to highlight of madam city clerk we appreciate because they wanted us to coordinate all that and the city did a good job of participating We attended a town hall. There was a discussion on the high cost of healthcare access to Monterey County. You know, the people brought the receipts that healthcare is one of the highest cost healthcare systems in the nation, let alone California. And they brought the receipts to prove it. And so I want to thank the organizers, which was Health Access California. And then the attendees were the California Federation of Teachers, local union here. Steve McDougal represented his group, Unite here. Cesar Lora was there. um and people representing the speaker was here uh uh dominic thurston representing the speaker was there uh the building trades uh monterey council member uh garcia uh gino garcia was there superintendent of schools elect burns was there mpusd superintendent different buff was there and just all of us being there and thanks especially thanks to california office of health care uh affordability uh board members uh ian lewis there the board is really trying to keep or make health care affordable and check uh the unaffordability of it so we appreciate them finally having a meeting outside of sacramento That's how expensive our health care is that the first stop, first meeting that they had outside of Sacramento was down here in Monterey County. And so we appreciate them doing that. Ten and a couple of park cleanups, FOSPA cleanup, still doing a great job. I think we moved at least about a ton and a half of wood chips. uh weed pulling for doing a great job uh to the seaside county sanitation district uh meeting uh we presented as a city uh presentation plan to uh sand city council member jerry blackwater he wasn't there uh but on his behalf of mayor carbone received it i just wanted to wish him and his family well and i say that we appreciate him and all what he's done for decades in sand city and being a great friend of the city of seaside so we wish and uh pray for that family I met with the chair and vice chairs of the Community Safety Advisory Commission, me and the city manager, just to talk about updates and what's going on, their actions and any concerns they may have. Attended older adults, Country Western Dance today, earlier today, I want to thank the Rec Department, the Fire Department for being there and making time to serve. The food was delicious. Mr. City Manager was delicious. by the seniors that had music and had dancing. I attended a couple watch parties like was mentioned before. I do think and I did appreciate all the little kids running around there, and I'm glad someone mentioned that. If it wasn't for that, they may not have been able to watch that game. Do we plan on doing that for any other? I know the finals is Sunday. I don't know what the No problem. Ain't no problem. It's just a question. They canceled my rail policy committee underneath TAMC, so I wasn't able to do that. I attended the 77 Obon Festival. It was a great festival, once again, celebrating the ancestors and remembering them for what they did for us to put us here at this time. I attended the Blues in Park first series. Well done. Everybody enjoyed the music. Weather was great, and so we look forward to the next Sunday. I do want to do that special shout out for the police and fire. I know the police are leading the way, but thanks for a noticeable reduction in illegal fireworks a lot of people have been telling us they noticed the difference and that's what makes a lot of difference now if you're next door to it like me you know still somebody that's very close to i don't know that person is that i don't want to point fingers but seems like no yeah let's just say yeah never mind all right but if you're close to you it still impacts you so we know it's still work to be done uh and and so I think that's it. I didn't have a chance, but I do want to end with this. I didn't have a chance, but I want to congratulate Mr. Mel Mason on his 30 years plus mentoring clinical therapists. and more as a community leader and a social activist in the city of seaside uh anna county and the whole central coast earlier today they had a special ceremony dedicated ceremony at the village project where they donate i mean dedicated his office or his office or the conference room like i said i wasn't able to make that meeting but they donated that space dedicated that space to him and his well-deserved uh honor Hopefully that means he's getting a little bit more breaks and being able to retire for the third time maybe. But it's well deserved and I want to thank Mr. Mel Mason for doing that within this community. That concludes my comments or membership comments. Let's go on to item number 12, which is closed session. The city attorney has already said that those two items will be pulled and they don't need to be discussed. But I will open up this meeting for any public comment on the pulled closed session items that people didn't have a chance to speak to when we talked about it this morning. And then you can read again and we're not going to open it up. But something must stay for that. So I'm going to open up public comment.

Members of the public in the chamber, please approach the podium members of the public on zoom. Please use the raise your hand feature or dial star nine if you're calling from a phone. Mayor, no members of the public have come forward to make public comment.

On our closed session items? On the closed session. Okay.

Now, Senator, do you want to make the statement? Yes, thank you so much, Mr. Mayor, members of the council, members of the public. As discussed earlier this evening, there is no need for either item 12A or 12B under closed session, so there will be no closed session this evening. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Now we go to item number 13. Item 13 is adjournment. Our next regular scheduled meeting is 5 o'clock August 6th, 2026 here in City Hall Council Chambers. There being no further business, this meeting is adjourned.