City Council - Regular Meeting

Welcome to the Lancaster City Council meeting.

May I have your attention, please? Welcome to the Lancaster City Council meeting. The city council encourages public participation at its meetings. However, the right of the public to address the council must be balanced with the need to ensure that public participation does not interfere with the orderly course of public business. The city council follows the city's code of conduct and ethics and Robert's rules of order in the conduct of its meetings, and we respectfully request that all are reminded to abide by the following rules. As stated on the agenda for this meeting, any person who would like to address the city is requested to complete a speaker card for the city clerk. Please be sure to identify the agenda item you would like to discuss on your speaker card. Speaker cards must be filled out and submitted prior to the agenda item being called. You will be given an opportunity to address the council at the time the agenda item is discussed. Individual speakers are limited to 3 minutes unless a different time limit is announced. Speakers must cease speaking immediately when their time has ended. Public comment on agenda items must relate to the subject matter of that item. Public comment on non-aggendaized items is limited to subjects within the jurisdiction of the council. Please keep in mind that state law prohibits the council from acting on items that are not on the agenda. The public's right to address the council does not include the right to engage in a dialogue with individual council members or staff. Please remain respectful of the forum and refrain from uttering, writing, or displaying profane or threatening statements towards the council, any member thereof, staff, or any other person. Any person engaging in conduct

that disrupts the meeting is subject to being removed from the council meeting. If you disrupt the meeting, you will receive one warning. If you continue to disrupt the meeting, you will be escorted out of the meeting or the meeting will be recessed. Upon reconvening, if disruptions continue, the meeting room will be cleared in accordance with the provisions of the Brown Act. We ask that you now silence your cell phones as the meeting is about to begin. Thank you for your participation. City Council member, agency director, authority members who Leslie present. Molly present. Man, present. Vice Mayor, Vice Chairman Christ, present. Mayor Chairman Paris here.

We have a quorum. Thank you. Uh I love the voice. The voice is much better uh for that. But I think what we should probably is let's do it let's play it after the presentations because it kind of you know it slows things down right so that's just just a thought all right uh tonight the inv this afternoon the invocation is Ethan Ethan I don't know how to say your last name it's like perfume birthing

from Grace Chapel city council thank you for having me don't worry about the last name I still don't know how to pronounce it. Uh but uh ju just a a brief scripture to read before we pray. John 18 verse 36. Jesus answered, "My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from this world." Then Pilate said to him, "So you are a king?" And Jesus answered, "You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born, and for this purpose I have come into the world to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice." Let us pray. Father, we pray that we would listen to your voice today. God, we thank you for the council, for our governors, for uh Lord, law enforcement, everything that you have appointed under your authority. But Lord, most of all, we thank you for your heavenly kingdom, the perfect kingdom, the eternal kingdom. And God, I pray that uh as decisions are made today, that that spiritual kingdom would break through, Lord. that it would bring wisdom, discernment, right justice, Lord, and grace upon this city. Lord, you are a good God. You hear what we ask of you. And Lord, you want relationship with us. Father, thank you for your perfect King, the Lord Jesus Christ, the promise he has to save our eternal soul for all who believe in him. And God, I pray that he would be present today in this meeting. In his name we pray. Amen.

Thank you. Thank you. America stands nationy for all. Thank you.

Did you see what that barber did to me? What' I do? What do you think? Should I get a new barber? [laughter] I vote yes. Okay. Presentations, police.

Good afternoon, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and Council. Today is a fun presentation. So, we're going to have a a brief video that summarizes all of our accomplishments in 2020 25. Too many numbers there. 2025. Uh but before we get to that, I just wanted to first by start by thanking this council. Um specifically the mayor. When I was installed as city manager about a year and a half ago, we were challenged. You challenge this whole team to come up with a new way of tracking city progress and and making sure that we were accomplishing the goals that we needed to accomplish as a city to make this city a better place for all of us, all of our residents, everybody who interacts with Lancaster. So, we came up with the strategic goals plan that we've been using and monitoring. Happy to report that last year in 2025, we scored a little over 90%. So, of all the short-term goals we said we were going to accomplish, we got an A. Um, want to thank this team, it was really this executive team, some of the staff that are here, and the staffs throughout the city that made that happen. So, let's give them a round of applause. And we truly did accomplish some really big things last year. City manager's office, we implemented the leadership academy and we started building the staff up. We saw that at the last meeting. Our parks department, public art, you see it all over town now. You're going to see more of that again this year, but last year was amazing at what they accomplished there. The events top-notch once again culminated with magical. How many people do we have there? I think over 12 13,000 this year again. So awesome events. Um public works, we opened AV Alta Stadium. We had a successful soccer season. We started the Love Your City cleanup events and we'll talk about that a little bit later, but there's another one coming up

this Saturday. Community development. They automated code enforcement. It's now all done through AI through use of cameras and we can issue virt you know citations remotely just with uh camera technology. She Patty also had to rebuild the whole team. I think you've got more new people on the team than you've ever had in the new team. So hats off to you Patty. And then um our administrative services department. We installed a new payroll system which we're working through that now. And last year we probably have more new hires than we've had in the last 10 years. And they were able to onboard those people, get them up to speed. So we're really doing a lot of things here. We're accomplishing a lot of goals. Hats off to the team for their hard work. And we have a brief video uh to to show last year. defying the laws of gravity passing by 200°. They call me out of you.

I'm having such a good time. I'm having a

w I'm out of control ready to reload at the speed of stopping. Good time. Good time. through 200. I'm having a fun

Walk this way. Walk this way. This way. Walk this way. [music] Walk this way. This way. Heat. Heat.

Thank So, happy new year, council. Happy new year, Lancaster. And I'll just leave you with we're not done yet. Good presentation. Don't go anywhere. So, what's the next step in regards to the leadership academy? I think everybody agreed that was a great We are actually working on what will be cohort two right now. I think uh applications are going to be released to staff in the next week or two. And then we are starting that program. When's the first month of it? April. Yeah, April will begin cohort two. And where are we in developing one for the community?

Uh we're looking at doing uh like a citizens academy for the community right now as we speak and actually we'll talk about that tomorrow in a meeting we have together. Okay. Great. Great. So it's worth pursuing. Am I correct? Absolutely. Okay. Good. Thank you. We're going to adjourn or not adjourn. What do you call it? I think we were going to go ahead and to go through all of the rest of the agenda, then go to close session, then do NB1. That's right. That you couldn't expect me to hold that for more than 10 minutes. That's what I'm here for.

Okay. All right. Moving on to the consent calendar. I have to recuse myself on CC14. So, let's take that off. Uh me and council member Molly and man have to recuse ourselves on CC-15. Uh but council member Molly is the rule of necessity person. Is that correct?

Yes. So, uh you council member man and council member Molly each have a conflict with regard to CC-15. However, under the rule of necessity, Raj drew, excuse me, Council Member Molly drew the short straw and he will participate despite his conflict per the provisions of the Political Reform Act. Okay. So, Raj, don't screw it up. Okay. Uh motion to approve the consent calendar pulling CC-14 and CC-15. Hey, I was on a roll. Second that.

I know. That's why I broke in there. a second. Let's vote. And it passes unanimously. So, if you two leave, we'll do CC15 and then uh Ken can come back. We'll do CC. Fine. Are those medical? Yeah. So tell us tell us about the matter glasses before we go. This is Cynthia Hernandez, right?

Hello. I'm Cynthia Hernandez, criminal justice commissioner. Hello friend. Nice to see you. Um, yes, these are the meta glasses. They're the display meta glasses. So I'm currently recording you all right now. You can see the little light beeping. It also works as translation and caption and it continues to um teach us and as we teach it, we can speak to it and it can tell me what it sees and it just learns from us and it um supports of course the AI initiative that you've been really advocating in our schools because I'm also Antel Valley High School board trustee and I know that you've urged us as well to continue that initiative and and we do so and it's controlled by my hand the movements on my finger along with this band stop the recording now the light goes off and I could actually even send the photo via text right now to my ear thank you for letting me talk about my meta glasses [laughter]

are they are they uncomfortable No, I'm totally nerdy now. And when it gets bored, I could just play music. Wow. Okay. Thank you. Thank you.

I need a motion to second for CC-15. I move to approve CC-15. I second that. I have a motion and second. Let's vote.

Passes with three yes votes. Raj, will you go get Ken? Yes.

You have to stay there for one more. I need a motion and a second for CC-14. I'll second that motion. I'll make the motion to approve CC 14. And council member man will second it. And you second it [clears throat] and I'll second it. I thought you made the motion. Okay, we have a motion and a second. Let's vote. And that one passes with four yes votes. Rush.

I thought you were trying. NB1. We're skipping NB1. We'll come back to it after close session. Okay.

Okay. NB2, any speaker cards? I want to hear the staff report anyway. Uh, Mayor Paris and council members uh MB2 before you is an ordinance to repeal sections 10.04.035 and 10.04.040 040 of the municipal code uh pursuant to requirements of uh Assembly Bill 436 which amended provisions of the vehicle code to delete the statutory authority upon which uh the codes we're seeking to we are proposing to repeal was based. Um this made it uh the code pertained to uh vehicular cruising and require and the uh amendments to state law require us to repeal uh the provisions over municipal code to remain in compliance with state law. So we are simply uh taking the steps necessary to conform to what our legislators in Sacramento have deemed appropriate.

This is for the cruising. This is cruising. You didn't get the memo. I didn't get the memo. Okay. What what I'm proposing is that we allow cruising to come back to the boulevard. Okay.

Uh many of us in this Well, maybe not many of us, but certainly me and Fran, we remember when they used to go cruising on the boulevard. Uh and it was vibrant. It was it was fun. People met their spouses there. It it was a good thing. And then what always happens is a few jerks broke some windows and next thing you know there there's no more cruising since we have to amend the statute anyway or the ordinance anyway. My thought is let's let them come back and see how it works. Uh make it very clear to everybody. I mean I mean the younger people of this community ought to recognize by now that I don't hesitate to drop a hammer if it's necessary but until it's necessary and hopefully it will never be necessary. Let's see how vibrant we can make the boulevard on, you know, whatever night they choose. It'll probably be organic in the way it develops. But I want it very clear if we have to do an emergency meeting to shut it down, we will. I hope that doesn't happen. I hope that this just is another form of activity we can bring to the young people of this city. Uh that I think they'll appreciate, but let's give it a shot and see. Okay.

Okay. But it's up to you guys. I'm all for it. Ken tells me about that all the time. Nice [cough] [clears throat] to see him there. It would be interesting because there was a distinct car culture back when cruising was pro prominent or prevalent. So it'd be interesting to see what happens today because obviously the 60s and 70s were where it really emerged from. So it' be interesting to see

1900 or 1800 I think that was 19. You were like I think you did that quite often because you're like what two years behind me? Something like that. That's right. You are only two years younger. But I'm still younger. That's a fact that will never go away. I guess that's accurate. Well, maybe not. I mean, if one of us dies first, I would no longer continue to age. But I wouldn't care that. [laughter] Just Never mind. I got off in my nerd. Sorry. Okay, great.

So, do we need to approve NB2 if we're going to approve cruising? So, this is an introduction of uh MB2 uh we need to do regardless of whether we want to encourage cruising. that would be more of a um uh political or staff-based uh encouragement effort and and program. But right now, we do need to amend our ordinance to conform with state law. Okay. Okay. Motion to approve NB2. I'll second that. Let's vote.

It's unanimous. You know, as as I've been as I go into my 19th year, it occurs to me how much of the things we used to be able to do that we slowly have shaved away because of that 1% of the population, you know, and I think maybe it's time we bring those things back with an understanding that as a community, we just don't tolerate people screwing it because we see what happens with it, you know, we we see how quickly we lose a quality of life that we shouldn't be losing for what it's worth. Okay. Uh wow already. That was quick. Council reports.

Uh we need to do public comment. Oh, that's right. We need to do public comment and then we'll do NB1. Oh, public comment, then uh close session, then NB1. Okay.

This is the time to address the city council agency authority on non-agendized matters. Speaker cards may be found on the back table of the council chambers. If you have completed one, please ensure you have given it to us to us so you may be recognized. Individual speakers are limited to three minutes each. Please keep in mind state law prohibits council from acting on items that are not on the agenda and your matter may be referred to the city manager. Thank you. I have a question before. Why are we skipping council reports? We can do council reports before we go to close session. Just Well, I went to council reports. You told me no. We got Oh, my apologies. Um, you know, we're in our 70s here. Would you quit confusing us?

We can do council reports now. I I apologize. I thought we were uh skipping to the very end and we were not. Thank you. I'll kick us off with council reports. So, I had the opportunity along with our city manager and a few other staff members to attend the most recent Los Angeles cohort graduation. Phenomenal program. I know nobody sitting up here is a stranger to the program. Uh it was a joy to be a part of it, to be able to to celebrate uh the graduation. And we have a short video to play.

It's fantastic. We work so hard to get them ready and to find the employers that want them. And we've been very fortunate. We have great kids, great employers, and the matches are getting easier and easier. It's the most satisfying work I've done in my life. And I'm grateful every day for the opportunity. You never know unless you try. You never know unless you try. I didn't know how to do a lot of things at Dayton, but I got a job with PCC as a level one painter and I'm ready to get to work. Don't be scared of the trades. There's a lot a lot of money to be made in the trades. Um, I love seeing women in the trades. I love seeing men in the trades.

Trust me, coming from a person like me, I grew up I I used to get in fights, getting expelled. I was in a lot of situations as a kid. I always misled. I had anger problems. Since I joined this, it helped me control a lot of things, help me become a better person. Join it. Just take that step. And once you take that step, walk through it. You going to be great. Everybody who comes here, almost everybody has never touched a car besides, you know, been in it to drive around. Nobody has done anything work with tools. They really take it step by step and teach you everything that you need to know. It's just like Lost Angel says, hard work pays off. And it's just like Josh just said, you never know until you try. It can change the entire course of your life.

You know, I' I've seen a lot of programs and that one is has to be the top at the very top of the the list of programs that actually make a huge difference in people's lives. And I just can't believe how well it's uh administered. Every one of those kids go to work at plant 42 if they want to. Did you know that building an airplane is very similar to building a car? They just fly.

That uh pretty cool. I thought that that's something that deserves our support every single day. Okay. And now it's my turn. Magical Boulevard. Lancaster, I am so excited to welcome you back to my favorite city event of every single year. It's a magical Boulevard Lancaster event.

I I see great things happening. This particular event is always a wonderful event. I mean, everybody gets engaged and everybody becomes part of the city. That uh that's important to me. Every year it's all about family and kids and of course food and everything, but look at how many kids are here. It's so beautiful.

But this year, I think the staff really kicked it out, hit it out of the park. Um, they added some new elements and really made it an amazing event for our community. Councilman Ken Man and I along with our family members got to start our morning at the Lancaster Cemetery where we got to lay wreaths with the rest of our nation for wreaths across America and to to top it off with lighting the Christmas tree. It truly has just been such a blessed day. I I just wish everybody a merry Christmas. I hope that they are are as fulfilled and happy as I am.

Well, just merry Christmas to everyone. Happy holidays and let's have a great 2026. Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas. You see those great kids?

It was a great Okay, Raj is next. Raj.

Yes. So month of December is always like a lot of give gives way and food and toys and stuff. So 7-Eleven guy he the owner he's really generous every year he bring like about five six hundred people he feed them give a food away jackets all kind of good stuff. So he does such a good job. So we have a video about that. Hey, hey, hey. Thank you, Marvin. I got nothing. No. Uh, we're going to show a recap of the AV toy grocery giveaway. Uh, before we

start it, just like to remind everybody this is an event that schools, churches, unions, uh, everybody goes to. It's, uh, it's an event that brings everybody together. We served a little over 2,200 people. Uh, it was a great It's put on by both cities. Um, but it's a very, very good event. So, play the video, please.

It's grown from 300 people to over 2,000. So, it's it's not only the bikes make a difference, but the community sees that this is where it's a onetop uh place to shop. You get your toys, you get your food, you get your turkeys, you get everything. We not only have unions here, we have churches here. We have schools here. We have paraclete here. We have the college here. We have, you know, staff from a lot of different places. All the elected officials are here. This is a place where everybody congregates. They can see everybody's participating. They can see it. They get the toy of their choice. Uh special kids get the bikes, they get everything. Our sheriffs are passing them out. The police department is helping them with uh traffic. It's just it's a very organized event. And It's it's because of the city of Lancaster, city of Palmdale have got together and they're really making this work.

You know, I when I was driving here earlier, I asked the people in the front, what time you did you guys get here? And they they've been in line since 5:30 in the morning. This food is and this toys and everything. It's very important for them. It's a blessing. Everybody here really should be able to have a great Christmas dinner this year. And then we got the weather cooperating again and uh this just turned out to be a spectacular event.

I think everyone here has the same feeling that we are blessed as individuals and as a community so that we could share those blessings with others. So [music] to see those needs be there and to be able to meet them is just an incredible feeling. If you can and if you you will and you'll join us, be a light. spread the joy, spread the spirit of the holiday season. We all made a pack at our Christmas tree lighting ceremony um as a council here in city of Lancaster and that's to collaborate, to work together, [music] to truly understand one another and just celebrate joy. Where did you get that hat? Oh my, I was festive.

Okay, so what's the plan now? Do I do the speaker cards or do we Yes, we should do the speaker cards and then we'll go to close session and then MB1. Okay, Jose Alvarez. How are you? How are you?

I'm great, thank you. Um, good afternoon, city council, mayor, Lancaster residents. Um, my name is Jose de Alvarez. I have been a resident of Lancaster for 24 years and um you know always think um I was invited to this meeting by uh mayor bishop um Henry Hearns a long time ago but uh because of my work I just couldn't. So here I am. Um like everybody was saying and I think you all know this boulevard has a lot of potential and uh but people is afraid to go out like my family is afraid to go out because of the shootings and uh what's happening you know in the city um bringing up like drugs you know prostitution now on the streets um violence all over. So, um I have a bunch of ideas on how to uh um bring uh people like families to, you know, to have fun on the boulevard and perhaps uh if we can get um um investors to do something. I have been on 42 states because of my work. So, I've seen what people likes and I know um building like a complex somewhere where people is going to come and enjoy them themselves and family. I think is going to be something good for the city as well as filming. I work for the movie studio. So, um um we have a lot of empty lots all over. Why not building a um stages, sound stages, something that will bring people to film in Lancaster to keep our jobs local, you know? Um I was um well, there's a lot of things about um security outside. So, I'll get to that on other meetings if I could um to bring a safety. I own a security company in Los Angeles, but since I live here, so I was wondering if maybe I can just do business with the city or locally with, you know, people

down here. But, uh it's all about bringing safety to the city, not just to, you know, to just some residents. And um you know also why wait till uh Christmas to do something nice on the boulevard or maybe just those events that we have once a year. Uh you know wait not like do something with like every month once a month something that will bring people to Lancaster. I have some of those ideas. So, um hopefully I can make a um a meeting with the council, the mayor, somebody that can hear my ideas and maybe we can take it from there. Um thank you for listening to me and have a nice day.

Thank you. Where's ah there you are. you know, he raises good points, but I I realize there's really not a vehicle for people in the community to come and and present their ideas and have, you know, meaningful discussions about it. I don't know how to fix that or how to do that, but I know somebody who does. Uh, so let's put that on the to-do list. Okay,

we definitely will. And if I could mention, we have our parks master plan that's underway. So we have a survey that's going to be going out in the next few weeks. And we also have a community engagement. So that's a perfect opportunity for the community to to provide us the input of things they would like to see not only on the boulevard but in their parks and facilities and programs throughout the city. So that is a mechanism that will is in place and we'll be rolling out in the next couple weeks. We'll explore other alternatives as well. Thank you. Thank you for talking to us about that. Um, Fran, how have you been?

So, what do you think about cruising the boulevard on Friday night?

I think it's great. I think there's been a lot of progress here since the years that I've been living here. Uh and I also wanted to bring about you know they're speaking about the area plan here for Lancaster but I'm also on the committee for the area plan for the LA county for all the county for the next uh from the 25th to the 28th. We're going to uh and I'm representing Lancaster. I represent you everywhere I go. Everywhere I go. And uh and that's my main purpose. I feel in my life right now. God has given me a lot of graces and I'm so happy to be able to do this for all of you because uh it's I know it and people say, "Oh, well, how about you, friend? Do you get anything out of it?" I says, "Yeah, I do, but that's not for me only. I'm doing it for everybody and especially the seniors and the disabled and the people that can't get around and people that just don't know how to communicate or can't, you know, because it's a big it's a big city and a lot of different people. But I just wanted to wish everybody a beautiful and pleasant and happy and blessed new year. I wanted to bring up the oh the area plan. By the way, if I may, we are going to have a meeting uh the county is going to be coming to the Lancaster Senior Center uh on the 15th, which is two days from 1:30 to 3. We are going to be telling the public what the area plan is and how they can get involved. And this is a time where the individuals that live in Lancaster or anywhere else, they can give their input no matter if it's good, bad, or indifferent. So that we as the county, as the the legislative end of the of the

spectrum, you might say, have an idea of what you want because if you don't tell us, we we don't know what you want, we can't do anything about it. We try and I I mean I say we like if I'm a big contro here, but I'm I'm just a little pee on the bottom of the P. But anyway, thank you very much. God bless you all and hallelujah. Thank you, friend. Okay. So, we should we go ahead and finish everything but new business item one?

Yes, please. All right. City manager, you're on.

Yes. I have a few updates. So, this weekend is going to be a busy weekend. I'd like to invite everybody to come out on Sunday, January 18th over at the ELPAC from 400 pm to 8:00 PM. It's our Justice Sunday performance. So that is the annual performance that is done uh by local high school students to celebrate Martin Luther King Day. If you have not had the opportunity to come, it's a wonderful event. Um I know I mark my calendar every year and I look forward to it and I will be there again on Sunday. Um the day before that on Saturday, we are doing our MLK Day of Service. So, this is another one of our Love Your City Cleanup events. It'll be at Desert Vineyard Church at 8:00 a.m. Um if you haven't signed up to volunteer, please do so now. Uh I I I'll summarize a few of the stats from the first two cleanup events. We had about a thousand volunteers and staff come out between the two events. We've cleaned up close to 90 tons of waste. We've hit about 15 different locations to clean up graffiti. And we've impacted over a thousand residences that we've gone and picked up trash and helped clean the yard up and and in the different neighborhoods that we've hit. This Saturday, we plan to do another 870 residents. We're going to do some block wall painting. We're painting a community mural. We're going out and cleaning up a couple of fields. We're going to go engage some of the homeless encampments and see if we can get them the services they need. So, it's going to be a big event. I think we're anticipating over a thousand volunteers. So, and we'd love to have more. So, if you haven't signed up, please come sign up for that event.

Thank you. I'm curious, why are there homeless encampments? I thought we were knocking them down as soon as they went up. We're definitely addressing them, sir, but uh it def it does take a while to get individuals placed and and get them to accept the services we need to get them off the streets. So, it's a continuous uh battle, but uh we are making advances. I can tell you that. All right. Thank you. What else we have?

I believe that is it other than uh close session and NB1. So at this time before we do that, so are the drones launching now? Yes, sir. Uh we have our three uh DFR drones as first responders uh up. They've deployed different incidents including some uh incidents uh involving the sheriff's department and we're still working with the sheriff's department to get a a good understanding on uh complete use of that system. Are they launching when they hear a gunshot?

Uh they're they're not deploying as of yet when they hear a gunshot. Uh we still have a few more personnel we need to hire uh which are pilots, but we're we're working towards that now. So, you need pilots on them? Yes, sir. You need you do need pilots once they're up overhead and there's still laws that require you to monitor to have a human monitoring. Uh, they deploy to the location. They can do that automatically, but then a pilot has to take over. Okay. Yes, sir. The other thing I wanted to ask you, do we know if there's any offtheshelf AI uh agents that could do homeless counts using our drones?

Uh, you know what? Let me get with the assistant chief and do some research on that. Get back to you. Uh it's an interesting thought, so we'll take a look at it. I mean, if we could have up to date, you know, to the day what our homeless counts are within reasonable margins, uh it may be beneficial. Yes, sir. Continuous count. Yeah. Right. Absolutely. You got it. We'll look into it, sir.

All right. Thank you. Okay. Now, Allison At this time, the city council will adjourn to close session to discuss close session agenda items 1 through 22 is stated on the agenda. And for the public's knowledge, upon returning from close session, we'll take up agenda item NB1. Thank you.

We're back in session. City attorney. In close session, the city council took up agenda items close session one one case and two two cases and gave direction to staff and legal counsel. No reportable action. Thank you. Moving back to NB one. Yes. Give me just a second. Are you doing the presentation on that?

I am. Give me a moment. There we go. Mayor Paris and council members. Uh before you for consideration today uh is MB1 a resolution submitting a measure to the voters to amend section 2011 of the Lancaster city charter. Uh as proposed, the resolution would place on the ballot for the April 14th, 2026 election uh a revision to section 2011 of the charter to authorize the city council to enact an ordinance to one increase the number of council members from four to five and add the office of vice mayor and transition from at large to district-based elections for the five council members, which would result in a council of five council members. members plus a mayor and a vice mayor. Uh the uh reasoning is uh in consideration of the requirements of the California Voting Rights Act um and has been discussed at two public meetings uh held uh in recent months and I'm here to answer any questions that you may have.

So a vote yes means we want to put it on the ballot. Correct. A vote no means you do not want to put it on the ballot and the text of the revisions is in uh contained within the attachment to the resolution for your information. Thank you. Thank you. Any discussion? We good? Let's vote. Oh, we did have one. public comment. We have one person submitted a a card for NB1,

David Paul. Mr. Mayor and Vice Mayor and Councel, good evening. I'm glad to be here. You know, just listening to the reading again. And the thing that is good about this, I guess, is that it'll go to the voters. So, unless it doesn't get on the agenda uh ballot, then it won't. But I have been going back and forth and in the new reading just now it seemed like we're going to have five council members, a vice mayor and a mayor and I thought we were adding one council person and a vice mayor. So that that's where I'm confused because you know with the um manager council system you guys are really just one of five votes. So are you saying that we'll put a mayor slot in there or what? because that that's what I don't understand and I I I guess it'll unfold over time and the fact that it goes to an election or part of the election

can I mean yeah

yeah I'm fine go ahead sir the the charter stays pretty much the same as it is now it's there'll be seven people sitting up here instead of the vice mayor will not be appointed by the mayor but will rather be uh voted for at large by the people. Um that's really basically the only difference, right? Council members will be at five. There'll be five council members plus a vice mayor plus a mayor. The mayor and the vice mayor will be at large. So they'll be elected by the entire city whether the councils will be elected by their district and their district only.

No. Okay. Well, well, thank you. But the thing I'm really trying to just get to the bottom of is how does the fact that we start as a manager council soft mayor system work with this new arrangement? Same. Nothing changes other than the number of people voting. Okay. Well, let it work and I appreciate your time and I believe a little bit confused, but I'm sure I'll understand in time. Thank you for your time.

All right. Is that all the speakers? You know, I was one of the lead attorneys on the Palmdale case which brought this uh horror show to the state and we've now had 10 years to look at it, see what happens. Tell me one city that went to district to doing better. Tell me one school district that's doing better. Tell me one of anything that is doing better because they went to districts. My experience has been it was probably this the worst thing I ever did. And let's face it, sometimes I've done some things I shouldn't be proud of, but this one I am absolutely not proud of. And you have we have school districts in our own community that can't get people to run at all. Not at all. So what do you think that does to the quality of the people who do run, you know, or who who do sign up for the seat? The it is it is I would just hate to see it come to Lancaster. We have seen what it does to other cities. And you know, when I took on the Palmdale case, I I thought their leadership left something to be desired. But now they they're leaderless because they have to rotate the mayor. You know, they're leaderless. You you come in with a very short period of time to serve. Nobody listens to you. The city is now run by the city manager. It uh and that's what happens. I uh you know, we put All of us have put a major portion of our life into this city. I don't want to see it fall apart because of of something like this. I think we fight. We fight. We fight. We

fight because we are right. We know we're right. The whole world knows we're right because the evidence is irrefutable. Well, I'm going to vote no. But, you know, let's vote. Oh, we got a mo. Need a motion. Okay. How do we make a motion? One of you can choose to move to approve or one or move to disapprove uh the recommended action which is to approve resolution 26-04. I'll move to disapprove the resolution NB1. I'll second.

Okay. So that means a yes vote would not place this on the ballot because the motion is to disapprove. Yeah, we are voting. If you vote yes, it's to put it in the round file. If you vote no, it to let's run with it. What? No. If you vote no, then we if we want to approve the resolution, we'd need a new vote because we will have never voted to approve the resolution. Okay. Right now we're there's been a motion and my second. I think it's the first time I've ever seconded the motion in 20 years, which would give you some indication of how detrimental I think. What? Your penance. Allison, just to clarify, yes means file. Yeah. No means

what? Take no action. A the motion is to disapprove the resolution. That's correct. So, if you vote yes, you are disapproving the resolution and you are not uh seeking to place it on the ballot. If you vote no, then we would potentially have another motion later, but we're not there yet. Okay. So, yes means no. Yes means no. No means yes. Only in this context. Yes.

With regards to NB1. [laughter] I'm ready to vote. I don't know about you. I already voted.

Okay. So, the motion to disapprove the resolution has passed unanimously, which means the item will not appear on the ballot. Well, that was fun, guys. Uh, so that's it. Yes, we have now completed the agenda. It would be appropriate to adjourn. Okay. The next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, January 27, 2026 at 1:30 p.m. This meeting is adjourned. And Carol, I'm coming home.