City Council - Regular Meeting

Thank you.

Good evening, everyone. Welcome to this Fairfield City Council meeting, which I am calling to order right now. Roll call, Madam Clerk, please.

Yes. Council Member Carr?

Here.

Council Member Panduro? Here. Council Member Sandhu?

Here.

Council Member Tonneson?

Here.

Council Member Williams? Here. And Acting Mayor Bertani? Here. Thank you.

Thank you. The invocation this evening will be provided by Pastor David Cobb of the Love Community Church. Thank you, Pastor Cobb.

Thank you very much to this council, to our officials, and to our citizens. Let us pray. Lord, we lift up our city and our city officials to you. We ask that you would bless them and guide them, bless their households and grant them peace. And speak to them, Lord, in a conspicuous voice that is clear and distinct. Take hold of your shield and buckler and protect them on every side. We summon the heavenly angels of the city. Bless all the departments that serve this city, police, fire, schools, hospitals, and the like. Lord, we need resources, financial to be specific. Send them in from the four corners of the earth. Look upon our families, the elderly, homeless, young adults, teens, children, and even incarcerated. Protect them also. Now as we meet, I pray that your presence, which brings peace, would permeate this place as we reason together. Since we are all the seed of this county, bless Solano County in like fashion.

Pray this prayer, Lord, by the authority of your dear son, In Jesus' name, amen.

Amen. Thank you. Councilmember Sandu, would you please lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance? Absolutely.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you. And now we turn to council reports. Council Member Williams, would you please start us off? Yes.

I'm dedicating my city council report to the core rental process that ended last week. After the process was over, I saw a lot of misinformation and concerns and questions online. And so I wanted to make a few points. The core rental motion was pulled by me. It was not due to corruption, collusion, California Forever, or a Brown Act violation. Earlier last year, there was a newspaper article that questioned where a former mayor And what that causes in the community, when I would go out into the community, I was being talked to by her neighbors and people in the community that said, yeah, she lives right down the street from me and not in the city limits of Fairfield. So what I wanted to do was call the Quora Rento. I did not want to do it during the Vista Ridge process. I just didn't want to intermix that confusion along with, you know, learning about Vista Ridge and just moving that along. I just didn't want to intermix it. So as soon as that Vista Ridge was over, I did call the Quora Rento. I did it right here. In fact, The only one that can call a core rental is one of us. That's the only way it could be done. You all can't do a public comment and call a core rental on us. Unfortunately, the way it's set up, we have to do it. We have to do it. And I thought it was important, mostly because of the national temperature, high temperature. Now, with the President, I just felt like we, there's so much disruption, there's so many lies, and to me it felt right that we be held accountable for just the basic rules, that we be 18, registered to vote, Thank you. and living within our city boundaries. Just those three basics. To be honest, when I called the Core Rental, Scott will tell you that I almost fell out. Like, I literally wanted to slide behind the dais because I felt compelled to do it, but I was so nervous. The truth is, I'm pretty shy. And so I didn't, but I was compelled to do it. I just wanted... us to be held to a higher standard. So I did that, and in fact, not only did I not violate any Brown Act or talk to any of my colleagues, I didn't even know if I would get a second. I did get a second, and it was Mayor Katmoy that seconded me, but it was not my colleagues. I didn't know how that was going to go. In fact, I really thought that that that weekend Cat would move back into the city of Fairfield. I thought it would just be over really fast and we would have that next meeting and by this new year it would be all over. That's what I thought. That's not what happened. We had a few closed sessions. I never wanted them to be closed. We had those few closed sessions. I can't talk about what happened in closed sessions, but I will say that they were hours long and they gave me a lot of pause. I'll only speak to myself. Gave me a lot of pause, which ended up where we asked for more information and we capped it at $25,000. Last Tuesday was the big day. It didn't happen because the mayor resigned hours before. So she didn't come before us. She didn't come before you in closed session. I'm sorry, in open session. She just quit. So that is the story from end to end. I wanted you all to know it because, again, I'm hearing these strange buzzwords out there. And I wanted to set the record straight. So with that, thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Tonneson.

Yes, thank you. I'll hold my comments for tonight. It looks like we're going to have a lot of speakers, so thank you.

Thank you. Council Member Carr.

Yeah, just real quick. Thank you, Madam Vice Mayor. The City of Fairfield Homeless Service Division is hosting its next Homeless Roundtable on Wednesday, July 22nd, 2026 in Willow Hall. It's right over here at the Community Center. It's from 10 to 1. If you would like an invitation, please email Samantha Burrows at sburrows at fairfield.ca.gov and she'll have a sandwich for you.

Thank you. Councilwoman, I'm sorry. My apologies.

And also, just real quick, the Dumpling House downtown has finally opened. I was able to try some of their dumplings, and they were fantastic. If you guys head down that way, I'm sure you'll be satisfied. It's where the old Starbucks used to be, right on the corner. So if you could stop in there, that would be great. Thank you.

Thank you. Councilwoman Panduro.

Thank you, Vice Mayor. Hi, everyone. Good evening. I just have one quick thing. So as many of you are aware, we have a sister city in Japan, Narasaki. And we have been their sister city for 55 years. But for the last 40 years, we have done a student exchange. So they send students here, and then we send students over there. And so last night, I had the honor to pin the five students that were chosen to go to represent and be ambassadors of our city. And I got to pin them, and there was no oath, but they each promised to have a lot of fun and learn a lot, which was great to hear. And they got to practice their intro in Japanese, very impressive young students. And they will be immersed in daily life. They will be staying with host families, attending local schools, and visiting cultural and historical sites on their two weeks away. They do depart on the 25th, and so we wish them safe travels, and we look forward to their return and getting to hear all that they learned and did over in our sister city of Narasaki. Thank you.

Thank you. Council Member Sandu.

Yeah, thank you, Madam Vice Mayor. Good evening, everybody. Myself and a few of my colleagues a couple of weeks ago had the pleasure of attending the dinner that honored former supervisor Jim Sparing, former mayor of Sassoon, for his decades of service to our community. And it was a great event that the local Boy Scouts chapter hosted. It was truly a special event as well because one of the keynotes given was by former council member Rick Beccaro, who was given this award a previous year. So that was quite a special treat. And then this past weekend, just wanted to take a moment to highlight the amazing work our Parks and Rec team do, because we held a beautiful event in Talinas Neighborhood Park, where a local author named Tracy read a children's book called Oysters by the, no, Post Office Bay. Post Office Bay at Talinas Park, and that was a wonderful event. And there will be another one coming up soon, and we will get you that information. And then finally, If you didn't have a chance, Backroad Vines held their annual Art on the Vine event. I believe it was their 28th event that the Fairfield Vacaville Arts Association hosts. And they had a wonderful live band. Two of the band members, actually, I went to high school with, which was pretty cool. And they had some amazing artists displaying art, paintings, sculptures, you name it. And that was a great event to attend. And I went two days, which was fun. And the wine was pretty good, too. Thank you, Madam Vice Mayor. Thank you.

And I'll just report on a few reminders that on this coming Friday, June 19th, the Clergy Action Network is going to be hosting a Juneteenth Festival. It will be this Friday from 4 to 7 on the county lawn. We have a great lineup of speakers and live performances. So food trucks, family fun. So please join us on Friday, June 19, for the Juneteenth Festival right here in Fairfield. And then on Saturday, the 27th of this month, I will be holding my fifth town hall meeting, the public table, This time it will be at Bethel Community Church, which is located at 600 East Tabor. And these meetings are literally your meetings. It's where we don't have a time limit on comments or even an agenda. It's just to meet, to speak to each other, and really to solve problems and talk about things that are happening in the community that you want to talk about. So please join us for that. Saturday, June 27th, 10 a.m. to noon at Bethel Community Church on East Tabor. Mr. City Manager, your report, please.

Yeah, a couple of quick items. Tonight under consent calendar, there's two items, P3 and P7. Staff would request that you pull those from consent to get a quick verbal presentation from staff. So when consent comes up, if we could just pull P3 and P7 for council consideration separate than the remainder of the consent calendar. And then I wanted to give an update. It's been a couple weeks on our process as it relates to what I know some folks are here for related to the incident at Fairfield High with Maurice Williams. So we have initiated the internal investigation. I'm sorry, the investigation that's being done by an outside firm. The firm name is Chaplin and Hill. and they have already begun interviewing witnesses in that case. Their overall timeline estimate in their investigation is around 90 days. From there, then, it'll be about one to two months where that will go to the citizen audit committee that I spoke about previously. The citizen audit committee is comprised of Nikila Walker-Gibson from Tri-City NAACP, Pastor Sam Morris from Bay North Church, Jonathan Richardson, who was previously an FSUSD trustee, as well as a member of Solano County Probation. Will McGarvey, who's president of Solano Pride. Amy Fabe, who's with Phil Am and Chinese American Association. Andrea Garcia, who is with Toro University and a past president of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. And then we'll be seeking one THAT WILL BE THE AUDIT COMMITTEE. ONCE THAT INVESTIGATIVE REPORT IS ONCE THAT INVESTIGATIVE REPORT IS ONCE THAT INVESTIGATIVE REPORT IS COMPLETED, THEN IT'S SHARED WITH COMPLETED, THEN IT'S SHARED WITH COMPLETED, THEN IT'S SHARED WITH THE AUDIT COMMITTEE. THE AUDIT COMMITTEE. THE AUDIT COMMITTEE. THAT TYPICALLY TAKES ANYWHERE THAT TYPICALLY TAKES ANYWHERE THAT TYPICALLY TAKES ANYWHERE FROM ONE TO TWO MONTHS FOR THEM TO FROM ONE TO TWO MONTHS FOR THEM TO FROM ONE TO TWO MONTHS FOR THEM TO REVIEW, ASK QUESTIONS, SORT OF REVIEW, ASK QUESTIONS, SORT OF REVIEW, ASK QUESTIONS, SORT OF ASK QUESTIONS, SORT OF ASK QUESTIONS, SORT OF understand um you know what's in that investigation um and then if there is any disciplinary actions to come from that then under our mou and labor rights for public employees there's a skelly process so overall worst case scenario we're looking at about a six month process for this investigation certainly we hope that we could be earlier than that Some of that depends really on the pace at which Chaplain and Hill does their investigation and then how much time the audit committee spends with it. SO I JUST WANTED TO SHARE THAT UPDATE ON WHAT THAT OVERALL INVESTIGATIVE PROCESS LOOKS LIKE. SEPARATELY, WE'VE BEEN WORKING WITH A GROUP OF COMMUNITY LEADERS, FSUSD LEADERSHIP AND SOLANO COUNTY OFFICE OF EDUCATION. I WANT TO GIVE A SPECIAL THANKS TO DR. PARR, SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS. some grant resources, and that's allowed us to engage with the Center for Applied Research Solutions. That's an organization that specializes in helping communities recover from harm incidences, and so we're working to put together a process to engage community in a broad-based discussion surrounding recovery and renewal. AFTER NOT JUST THE FAIRFIELD HIGH INCIDENT, BUT ALSO THE SIMYETO INCIDENT, BOTH TRAUMATIC. AND THEN ONCE WE HAVE THAT FRAMEWORK BUILT, WE'LL BE REACHING OUT AND STARTING TO BUILD COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT TO BUILD A COLLECTIVE UNDERSTANDING OF THE SYSTEMS THAT LEAD TO THESE SITUATIONS AND IDENTIFY WAYS IN WHICH WE AS A COMMUNITY, CITY AS AN ORGANIZATION, SCHOOL DISTRICT AS AN ORGANIZATION, can all work together to improve those systems and so our hope is that we'll be building something that is evidence-based and trauma-informed and creating protocols and ensure that they have long-term sustainability to fix any of those systemic challenges that we see coming out of that process so we've been meeting just about weekly we're glad to have the Center for Applied Research Solutions on board. They specialize in doing this type of work and helping communities with these types of situations. And that concludes my report.

Thank you. Mr. City Attorney, your report.

Thank you, Madam Vice Mayor. Just a reminder, I know that it looks like there are people who may speak at public comment regarding the issue involving the juvenile. As I did at the previous meeting, I know that the family of the juvenile has hired the firm of John Burris to represent them. The city has received a letter from that firm indicating that the family is represented. Under rules of professional conduct governing the ethics of lawyers under Rule 4.2, an attorney cannot have communication directly or indirectly with a represented party. So out of respect for the due process rights of the family, if the family members do come and speak, I'd ask that they identify themselves, and then I will absent myself from the chambers to allow them to speak freely. It is not meant as disrespect, but Rule 4.2 is very clear that I am not to communicate directly or indirectly with a represented party. So I just wanted to put the counsel and the family on notice. If you could just let me know. Thank you.

Thank you. Madam Clerk, your report.

Thank you. I just wanted to thank the Vine Church. They just adopted a street. They held a cleanup this past weekend and had about 40 or 45 members. And then next, I just wanted to let everyone know the process to pull papers to run for council seats for districts 1, 3, and 5. And the mayor's seat, it opens on July 13th. so um the deputy city clerk esther beavers and i will be meeting with candidates and we already have july 13th the first day full we have six or seven candidates coming in that day And we call it to pull papers, but basically we go over all the rules and regulations, the forms, and each candidate will get a handbook. So if anyone else wants an appointment, please call as soon as possible. We do have openings on July 14th and the 15th. And that's it. Thank you. Thank you. And now we turn to presentations, Madam Clerk. Thank you. Our first presentation, proclamation declaring Juneteenth National Independence Day, presented by Acting Mayor Pam Bertani. To the Fairfield Clergy Action Network subcommittee members, and I'll list all the members. We have Elsie Naylor, Joan Miller, Juanita Martin, Karen Freeman, Sam Morris, Ryan Sample, and David Cobb.

And if any of you are here, would you please come down? I have a proclamation for you. I'm LC. You can stay up here, LC. Not so fast, sir. Juneteenth National Independence Day, June 19, 2026. Whereas Juneteenth, also known as Emancipation Day, Freedom Day, Jubilee Day, and Black Independence Day, is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States of America. Whereas on June 19, 1865, Union Major General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas to proclaim the end of the Civil War and the insidious institution of slavery. Thousands of enslaved people in Texas, among the last to learn of their liberation, were finally free. This was more than two years after President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. Whereas this momentous day not only marked the actualization of freedom for over 250,000 enslaved people, but also stands as a powerful reminder of the resilience, strength, and immeasurable cultural contributions of black Americans in the face of centuries of adversity. And whereas Juneteenth was officially recognized as a federal holiday on June 17th, 2021, when President Joseph R. Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act into law, establishing the first new federal holiday since Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 1983. Whereas under the 2026 theme, our heritage, our hope, continuing the journey of equity, we honor the legacy of our ancestors by celebrating their triumphs and renewing our shared ongoing commitment to dismantle systematic barriers and ensure true justice and equality for all. Therefore, the City Council of the City of Fairfield hereby proclaims June 19th, 2026 as Juneteenth National Independence Day in Fairfield, and we urge all residents to educate themselves about the historic significance of this day and to embrace our city's rich ethnic cultural diversity this proclamation is going to the members of the Fairfield clergy action network or Fairfield can subcommittee who expertly and and really diligently planned the event that we're going to have on the county lawn this Juneteenth on Friday June 19th so thank you Pastor Naylor, L.C. Naylor, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. And to everyone else on the subcommittee that I have a proclamation for here. Would you like to say a few words?

Sure you do.

Sure you do.

I don't know what to say, but I'm grateful and thankful for this proclamation. And I just want to urge those who are here to come out on Friday to help us celebrate. And, you know, like they say, the more the merrier. But, you know, like the Vice Mayor said, we will have food trucks and cellars and have speakers, and we're going to have a children's activity area. So hopefully we can accommodate everyone that comes out. Thank you.

I believe I see Pastor Sam Morris out in the lobby out there. Would you like to come and receive your... Would somebody get Pastor Morris in the door, please? Thank you. Pastor Sam Morris, Bay North Church, thank you for all of your help with planning our Juneteenth celebration. This is your proclamation, and I know you want to say a few words. Not at all. Yes, you do.

Yes, you do. Go ahead.

I just want to say very quickly, I think that this is a wonderful opportunity for us to galvanize a sense of security about what we really should be about today. I think when we think about the struggles that we've had as African-Americans in this country, I think it speaks volumes. Not only to be able to celebrate our heritage, but be able to come together as one family. It doesn't matter what your background is. We're all, when you cut, bleed the same color. And so I think today, as we realize the awesome challenge that it takes to make a proclamation and dedicate it to the fabric and the work and the effort that African Americans have made, not only to this country, but to this city right here. This is why I fight hard not only to advocate for justice, but injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere. And this should stand as a tribute not only to our legacy, but to where we're going in the future. So thank you to our vice mayor, to our city council, and to all who labor here in our city. Thank you.

Yeah, we can do it.

And our next presentation is Proclamation Declaring Appreciation of the Fairfield Host Lions Club, presented by Councilmember Scott Tonneson to Fairfield Lions Club President Rick Ryder. And then later, Nancy Meadows will present a check to the City of Fairfield.

Good evening, everybody. I'd like to acknowledge my dad, who's in the audience. I'm in my mid-60s, and when I was five years old, I did my first Easter egg hunt that was put on by the host line. So that's, if I do my math right, that's about 20 years ago. So here's a proclamation I'd like to read. appreciation of the fairfield host lions club june 16 2026 whereas in 1925 the fairfield host lions led a community-wide effort to raise funds for the construction of iconic downtown arch as an expression of civic pride and whereas in celebration of the 250th and America's 250th anniversary and the 100th anniversary of the Fairfield Arch, the Fairfield Host Lions Club has demonstrated its longstanding commitment to civic pride by helping to raise more than $100,000 to support the restoration of the Fairfield Arch and other vital community projects during this year of our national Sin in Quinn Centennial. Semi Centennial. Thank you, David. Whereas the Fairfield Host Lions through a dedicated partnership with the city of Fairfield, local business owners, philanthropists. Organizations and community members has worked together to brighten the downtown skyline with the brilliant new illumination of the arch. Whereas the exemplary efforts of the Fairfield Host Lions Club highlight the impact and importance of volunteer organizations and their vital role in transforming the city into a true community. And whereas Lions faithfully serve the needs of local communities and people around the world each day, guided by their enduring core belief in service to others. Whereas in 1917, Lions Club International has built a long and distinguished legacy of service best known for its effort to prevent blindness, while also supporting a wide range of community initiatives, including environmental stewardship, hunger relief, and assistance to seniors and individuals with disabilities. Now, therefore, the City Council of the City of Fairfield do hereby recognize and commend the Fairfield Host Lions Club for its outstanding service to the community and for its successful fundraising efforts to support the restoration of the Fairfield Arch, helping ensure that its light continues to shine brightly for generations to come. Thank you all.

You can grab the mic if you need to.

Good evening Vice Mayor Bertani, Council Members and City Manager David. My name is Nancy Meadows and I'm a Fairfield Host Lions member for 37 years and I wanted to personally thank David for reaching out to me about this restoration project. This is a project that the Fairfield Lions Club that charter our club chartered in 1924. So it was the first project for our club members to raise the money and design it and have the arch put up. Back then it was $1,000. So but that was one annual salary for individuals. So to kind of tell you where we're at now. So the Fairfield House Lions installed this in 1925. And back then it was Highway 40 on Texas Street. The founding father's vision in mind, I accepted this challenge and the project to raise $100,000 goal that David set on us. Yes. So for the restoration of this iconic landmark. So today it cost $100,000 to do that. Thank you to our generous corporate donors, Jelly Belly Ferrara Company, Medic Ambulance, Vizik Fairfield, Joe and Sunny Basra, the AMPM ARCO, Herm Rollins Sr., the Paul Heyer family, Bev Box, and the Hindu Sikh community members got together and raised. But also many of our local community members donated from $5 and up. So thank you very much. We could not have done this challenge without everybody's help. But as a proud 37 year member of this club, I am honored to present the city of Fairfield $100,000 check for the arch restoration on behalf of the Lions Club and our members are here so. But so anyway, this goes to the city of Fairfield for $100,000. And just to let you know, because this money was raised locally, anything over and above that came in will go back to this community. Our first purpose is to give back to our community. So it will go back to other community project for the youth and the seniors.

Thank you.

PUT THE PODIUM DOWN.

IN ONE, TWO, THREE. AND ONE MORE.

All right. We now turn to public comments. Madam Clerk.

Public comments. Persons wishing to address the City Council on subjects not on the agenda but within the jurisdiction of the Council may do so at this time. The Council cannot discuss or take action on matters not on the agenda for this meeting, but Council members may briefly respond to statements made or questions raised by the public, ask for clarification from staff, refer the matter to staff, request staff to report back to the Council at a subsequent meeting, or place the matter on a future agenda. you're online to speak on an agenda item please use the raise your hand feature or press star 9 on your phone speakers are limited to up to 3 minutes per item as determined by the mayor thank you and our first speaker is EJ Johnson

Good evening, Mayor and Council. I'm EJ Johnson with the Downtown Theatre Foundation, and I wanted to provide a quick update on what's happening at the Downtown Theatre. This weekend, we are pleased to welcome On the Fringe Theatre Company's production of The Importance of Being Earnest. with performances beginning Thursday and continuing throughout the weekend. Next Friday, we host a tribute concert celebrating the music of Sade, bringing another exciting evening of live entertainment to downtown Fairfield. And on Thursday, June 25th, the Downtown Theater will partner with Truro University, California to host a screening of Fentanyl High, followed by a youth panel discussion. The event will include a community resource fair, Nalaxone education, and opportunities for family and youth to connect with local organizations focused on prevention, awareness, and support. We are proud to provide space not only for the arts and entertainment, but also for important community conversations like this one. And always, thank you to the city, our volunteers, resident art organizations, patrons, community partners, for helping keep downtown theater a vibrant community gathering place in the heart of Fairfield. Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Next speaker is Gail Birdsong, to be followed by Kim Diocampo.

Hello, council, and thank you for allowing me to speak. My name is Gail Birdsong, and I'm a resident. Well, I'm not a resident of Fairfield, but I have three grandkids that go to Fairfield High School. It was their first year. They were freshmen, all three of them. So needless to say, how this school year ended was very concerning for our family. And now we're left to be on the fence on where do we send them next year. And I'm pretty sure I'm not the only parent or grandparent that has that concern. So first of all, I just want to say justice for Maurice Williams, Jamario Baker, and Maya Hamilton. And I want to say that, you know, get rid of the myth that because we protest that we are against the council, the police department, just because we protest against police brutality and wanting everyone to be treated fairly and wanting our police department to operate as it should. So I just want to get that out there because I respect police officers. I have police officers in my family. I also have correctional officers in my family. And I used to work for the police department and the courts. So I've always been on the right side of the law or tried to be. So I just want to get that out there. So I just want to say that For one, I think it's concerning that the investigation for Maurice Williams will take six months. There was a similar incident that happened in North Carolina, Shelby, North Carolina, to be exact. Pretty much same incident. It took their investigation three days. I don't know how long it takes to question people who were on the scene. I mean, most of the public have already questioned their children and know pretty much what happened. So I just don't understand why the investigation would take so long. And so that's a concern. And also the other concern is who is the suspect in the Jamario Baker shooting? So far, all I have heard is the description being a black male juvenile. Now, no description, no name. We all want this murderer caught and put under the jail, all of us. But the description of a black male juvenile not only describes my grandson, my nephews, and thousands of other young men in this community. You have 30 seconds. I always try to give the police department the benefit of the doubt. I am concerned that now all summer, all youth, black male youth, will be harassed and detained for no other reason than their skin color. The same thing that happened back in the Jim Crow days, and I'm sure most of us don't want to go back there. So, you know, I'll have more to say later because it sounds like you're about to cut me off, but I'm a concerned citizen and I just really, really wish you would take everyone's protest not as against you, but as people who are concerned. And if that was my grandson being beat to the ground, you know, I would want all these people to be behind me too. So, thank you for letting me speak.

Next is Kim Diocampo to be followed by Ryan Massano.

Good evening, Fairfield City Council. My name is Kim Diocampo, and I am the relative of Ronel Foster, an unarmed citizen of Vallejo killed by Vallejo VPD officer Ryan McMahon, which you later, your police office department decided to hire. I wanted to say to those in the room who continue to apologize and justify police brutality, those who turn a blind eye to injustice so you can keep your comfy political seats, you continue to push the band-aid narratives of it's only a few bad apples. Well, if good cops won't hold bad cops accountable, then what does that make them? Diversity in policing doesn't make us any safer. We've known that for years. Officer Camacho is brown, female, and gay. So she checks all the boxes. Given her history, who exactly is she making feel safe? Don't create the narrative that policing can't be racing just because you have BIPOC cops. The criminalization of black people is so deeply embedded in our society. It includes black children as our kids continue to be adultified in order to justify harm against them. This officer needs to be removed from the police force. She is a harm to this community. Thank you.

Next is Ryan Massano, excuse me, to be followed by Rowena Branch.

Good evening. Do we have two or three minutes?

You have three minutes. OK.

So for those who realize there's two sides to every story, I have my own website, which is called masanonews.com. Our media distorts the truth very good, and they've been doing it for over a century. First, I understand police overreach because I've been arrested seven times in the last five years, all unconstitutional and all dismissed. The same media that distorts one story will hide another story. So this unfair sensationalization of certain events while the minimization of other events is something that fools many who are naive and gullible to what's really going on. So I think there's a number of issues. There definitely was excessive force. That's fact. I mean, anyone can recognize that. But there's a number of issues that are involved. It's not just black and white, just that one instance. What we also have is we have a problem in the modern day with a youth which does not have the same respect for authority that youth 50 to 60 years ago had. That has to be addressed as well. Second, we also have a problem with the police officers who are generally fair, but there are many who do exceed on a regular basis their constitutional authority, and that simply cannot be tolerated by any city in this country. But the biggest issue is the media. That's the biggest issue. And I would recommend everybody get off of social media because they have the power to create a riot in a matter of 72 hours, all by sensationalizing a little bit of information, one little 30-second video, lacking the context, and we can have mass outrage over that. And that is something that we should not permit ourselves to be a party to, because the problem is this. Everyone in this room, we all have a brain. We are all able to think critically. When we get information, I could examine this side, this side, and come to my own conclusion. What the media does is the media tell live vision, And if I name the group who owns television, then I'm called an anti-Semite. But what the media does is they are able to silence viewpoints they don't like and to sensationalize viewpoints they do like. This is what happens on a regular basis. And this is why every single comment section online.

You have 30 seconds, sir.

Thank you. Every single comment section online has millions of bots running wild, spreading a narrative that is opposed to the interests of America and which is designed to spread chaos and discord between the races. Real eyes, real eyes, real lies.

Thank you. Next is Rowena Branch to be followed by Michael Jefferson.

Hello. Thank you for the opportunity to speak here today. My name is Rowena Branch. I was born and raised in Fairfield, and I moved back here two years ago to live in my childhood home. I'm here today to make two requests to the council based on my disappointment in the declining pride in the city of Fairfield. I'm here to address the condition of several neglected properties in our community. Overgrown vegetation, accumulated debris, and poorly maintained homes have created potential fire hazards, especially during the dry season. And these dilapidated homes have created dangerous scenarios to the children in our neighborhoods. I respectfully ask that you refer to this packet, which I'm going to give to you when I'm done, which captures one of the properties that I'm referencing. For 20 years, The community, the Fairfield community has come to the council. They've approached the code violation team, the police, the firefighters. I even emailed Councilman Paduro and the former mayor of Fairfield, Catherine Moy, and I have received no response. 20 years of neglect have created a very, very dangerous situation in our community. This is the house that I'm talking about at 1019 Mockingbird Lane. Both Fairfield police as well as firefighters have come out. There is a dilapidated roof, multiple beehives interior and exterior to the home, excessive foliage right in the front and backyard, absolute fire hazard. There are dead animals in the backyard and inside the home. So I'd like to share some pictures with you very quickly. This is the overgrowth in the backyard. It is climbing over the house. This is an extreme fire hazard. It is now excessively reaching the neighbor's properties as well, which includes my property as well. Another picture here that I'm sharing with you is the front yard. As you can see, the roof has holes in it. It's about to cave in. There are multiple beehives. There are bees that are attached to the window. Once that roof collapses, the children in our neighborhood will be in danger with all the beehives. Now, you may be thinking that this is just simply cosmetic, but this is not cosmetic. This has a direct relation to the pride of the city of Fairfield residents, as well as a danger to the community, specifically with the fire hazards. You have 30 seconds, Miss. SO THE ONE THING THAT I WOULD LIKE TO ASK IS THAT THE COUNCIL REALLY CONSIDER HOW THEY'RE GOING TO MANAGE THESE HIGH-RISK PROPERTIES. THE LAST THING THAT I WOULD LIKE TO ASK IS THAT THE COUNCIL CONSIDERED ENCOURAGING THE CITY OF FAIRFIELD LIBRARIES TO HAVE, EXCUSE ME, AFTER-SCHOOL PROGRAMS THAT ARE FOCUSED ON ACADEMIC DEVELOPMENT. MY SON HAS REACHED OUT TO VOLUNTEER WITH THE CITY OF FAIRFIELD PUBLIC LIBRARIES TO PROPOSE DIFFERENT PLANS AND HAVE BEEN DENIED. THE CITY OF VACAVILLE WELCOMED HIM AND HE'S NOW VOLUNTEERING THERE. Because I'm a Fairfield resident. I want to see my son invested in my direct community So I would like to kindly ask that you consider Urging the public libraries to offer those programs and I'm very much willing to help and as a volunteer Thank you very much. Thank you. I'm going to leave Thank you next is Michael Jefferson to be followed by Lacey and

good evening council so as always just bear with me i have a bad back it might cause some little balancing problems but i'm fine Anyway, so I highly recommend keeping Pam Bertani as interim mayor until November. I believe it's for the best interest of democracy that it remains this way. Because if we allow an appointment of another candidate to come in immediately, not only do the people not know who they are, they don't know really their position, it could be anybody. It could be somebody that could be for California Forever, and that's the greatest issue. By then, the coup by another name would be complete. California Forever would then have its corporate oligarchy dictating politics in the city of Fairfield. I'm sure they're probably going to have an MOU as quickly as possible just to get their system going. That would be preferable to their own interests. And this is what I'm really advocating against, is this corporate oligarchy takeover. Because you guys could be fooled by the numbers and the GDP, it's the best thing in the world, when it's really a corporate oligarchy takeover. There's more to a society than GDP going up. There's families, there's people, there's... There's going to be thousands impacted negatively by California forever. This isn't economic reality. This isn't conjecture. This isn't conspiracy. It is 100% fact. And this is what's going to be an issue. We don't know who could be nominated, who could be appointed. And for the sake of democracy, for the sake of information, I highly encourage Pam Bertani to remain as interim mayor until November. So it's easy to be fooled by the numbers, by promise of jobs, a shorter commute, the unions unfortunately fell for it, but they're a massive data center city that they're trying to build. This is a massive data center city. And you may say, well, this is not what they're promising. The thing is, They could easily litigate that out in court, and they have. Many places across the nation where these technological terrors have popped up, they have rug pulled completely the city councils, the board of supervisors, commissioners, whoever. They've stated, oh, we'll build some housing along with it. There's going to be jobs. It's going to be great. And it turns out, No, there's no jobs. They just build data centers, and that's about it. And so this is going to be litigated out in court for three to five years. That's what they're projecting in their conversations. And it's going to be true because they're going to litigate that out. They're going to say, oh, well, you guys let us construct here. We're property owners in Solano County now. Well, we already fulfilled our residential goals. commitments by building in Sassoon City. And so they're going to say, oh, well, hey, we could just build whatever we want out there. They're going to use land use laws. They have one of the most impressive law firms on their side. And so my call to you guys right now is be very careful of who you deal with with California Forever. Understand this until you get legally binding confirmation of what they will do, which would be in the DA, but they're going to litigate it in court. But I suggest highly that Pam Bertani remain as interim mayor until November to give the people the right to vote. Thank you.

Yes.

And Madam Mayor, or Madam Vice Mayor? Yes, sir. Just as a point of order, I recommend that the council move and consider Mr. Jefferson's comments under Agenda Item Q4 when the council will be taking up discussion of filling the vacant mayor's position and that you let the crowd know that anybody else wishing to talk about the vacant mayor's position hold their comments until Item Q4 is called.

Okay. So it shall be done. Next public comment. Come on down.

My name is Leigh. I've lived in Fairfield for my entire life. My K-12 education was solely in FSUSD schools. I even returned to FSUSD as a substitute teacher. In all education preparation courses I've taken, the underlying priority, no matter the specific topic, was to ensure that students feel safe in schools. What the students and staff at Fairfield High witnessed on May 20th and what we've all witnessed through the videos circulating in the media and on our phones is the antithesis of how our youth should be treated. Maurice Williams was not afforded safety in his own school. Officer Bianca Camacho Brown went into Fairfield High School with no intent to deescalate. She was there to terrorize and brutalize. There is nothing at all to warrant a police officer repeatedly punching a 16-year-old boy in the head. There is nothing at all to warrant pulling a child's hair, let alone a child that was already handcuffed. By administratively reassigning Camacho Brown, sorry. You send three messages. The first to the people of Fairfield, that we should fear police department at all times. The second, that our children cannot view our schools as a safe place that protects them and keeps them safe. The third, to the rest of the police department, that they can brutalize anybody they would like, children included, and stay on the department to be rewarded for their violence. Fairfield is the sixth most diverse city in the entire country. And it's clear that we have a violent and racially motivated police force that sees the community that we live in and takes action to placate and terrorize black and brown communities. To be clear, this administrative reassignment is not a victory for the community. And even that wouldn't have happened if this tragic incident had not gone viral. I can't even imagine the kind of atrocities that this police department and this board have overlooked that weren't on camera. Shame on all of you. The people of Fairfield, your constituents, the people who fund your livelihoods, demand that Officer Camacho Brown be fired and decertified immediately. Justice for Maurice.

Thank you.

Next speaker is Jose, to be followed by Carl Vinson.

Hello.

I've been a resident of Fairfield, well, Sassoon specifically now, for close to about nine years. I served four years in the Marine Corps, honorably, and after my discharge, I moved back home. In that time, in the Marines, I was trained as an infantryman. I got out honorably, did the whole thing. Many of those same people who I served in the infantry with would later go on to become police officers. And I know from personal experience, the training that we received, that the behavior demonstrated by Officer Camacho Brown was not at all appropriate. There has never been a situation where we were simulating warfare, where we have felt the need to take someone by the hair and then beat them into the ground. There is no instance where this is appropriate to do to a grown man, let alone a child. The fact that you are all running defense for this individual speaks volumes, not only to the character of the people defending them, but anyone who believes that this is even acceptable. I yield my time.

Thank you.

Carl Vinson to be followed by Elaine Gaca.

Good evening, City Council. My name is Carl Vincent. I'm a resident of Fairfield. And I'm also a community leader, activist, and advocate of Organized General as well. I've been a resident of Fairfield since 2012. And I've always been a community champion, either with controversy or whatever the case may be. And quickly I became community, a partnership with Fairfield Post Department. And I have a great relationship, brotherhood relationship, with Chief Dan Marshall. But I'm kind of, I'm sort of perplexed, right? Because on the other hand, I advocate for the Post Department. On the other hand, I advocate for youth, protection, and youth advocacy, right? And I'm not going to allow one police officer to dictate the whole police department, right? Which means is that I'm here on behalf of Maurice Williams, justice for Maurice Williams, and I'm in support of Bianca Brown being fired and decertified from the police department. I do think there needs to be some type of strategy, a protocol set in place when you hire another officer from another law enforcement agency. Because what happens is that you don't want this whole situation to happen over and over and over again. And I am a huge stickler on people being the man of their word and making sure that police officers are protecting our community. And for me, I'm a graduate of Fairfield Police Department Citizens Academy. And I'm kind of torn about what has happened. But I'm not going to let that dictate my faith in community policing. What I will say is that we ought to bring it together. And I'm here for the community. And I'm here on behalf of Maurice Williams family. And I just want some closure. They want accountability. That's all. So I know there's a third investigation going on. I get it. But in the meanwhile, we need to make sure that we do right by the family. And I can't speak on Jamario Baker because I think that's on Q4, right? okay all right so you have 30 seconds yes so blessed condolences go to Jamari Baker the sad case about this is how come the parents have to put up a GoFundMe for something happened on school grounds that you would think that should be a fundraiser between City Council and Fairfield Unified School District And I don't see that happening. And that's heartbreaking to me, man, because that could be my son, y'all's son, their son. And that's not right. So please make it right. And like I said, I may not be here in presence, but I'm going to be here in spirit. And God bless you all. And God bless the community of Fairfield. And may God bless the family of Mary Williams. And may God bless the family of Jamaica Baker. Thank you for allowing me to speak.

Thank you.

Next is Elaine Gotka. And then to be followed by Brother Raymond Kortemansh.

Hi. So it's been about six weeks since the city announced the rebates for the LLMD in Rolling Hills and throughout Fairfield. And we haven't had any updates on when the refunds will begin. I checked in about a week and a half ago, and they said they were still waiting for direction. So I was curious if there's a time frame. I don't know if you can answer now, or at least maybe update the residents on when they can start expecting the checks to start. Because I get a lot of questions as I communicate with the Rolling Hills community. Is that something you can address now or later?

Mr. City Manager, do we have an update there on the timing of the checks?

Yeah, and I believe we have in the newsletter either coming this week, which should be tomorrow, From the weekly, yeah, so there should be something in the newsletter tomorrow updating on that.

Will it include what the orders that they're going to start coming, like there were automatic checks and then there were folks that submitted claims and all that? Okay, thank you.

Thank you. Brother Raymond to be followed by Robert Myers.

Mayor and city council and community members, city staff, thank you so much for the opportunity to have a public comment. The downtown theater, thank you for promoting. We have an event June 25th. My role with Touro University is a community youth outreach advocate. And just recently started, we posted this a couple times here, just bringing some awareness around substances. I know just a little while back I attended Broken by Violence at Liberty and also the Moment of Blessing at the Fairfield High, my alumni. And so the question that's been circulating in my mind is that, what is it that I can do? What is it, where is my role and responsibility in this great city? And so my encouragement, tragically, You know, September 1st, 2008, we lost our son, Matt Garcia, and at the Liberty, we hosted that viewing. And so it was ironic that I was there with this broken by violence community leaders and in this space of uncertainty. And again, I wrestled with myself, what is it that I can do? What is it that we can do with our new norm? And the reality is that Matt was murdered by an individual high on drugs, pointed a gun in his direction, and that single bullet took his life. And I plead right now with the perpetrator of Jamario Baker, I plead right now with you to Turn yourself in. Wherever you're at, let's begin this healing process of what this community needs. What happened that day does not define who we are or what our destiny is, but we do have to take responsibility. You know, again, I'm wrestling with this question, what can I, I have to work harder. That's my commitment to this great city and to you as leaders and you as community members. There's no right or wrong way to do this. It's about perpetual change. And we got to be that change. I need to lock hands with you despite who you are, where you come from, what your belief is, or what you don't believe. You know, I'm a brother, Raymond. Brother Raymond, I love you. I'm a brother to humanity. You, we are all brothers, as the brother said earlier. We all believe the same. You know, nothing, what defines us is what we decide to do today. And again, you know, I just came up here to promote and encourage this Fenton High documentary so we can be educated and equipped.

You have 20 seconds, sir.

And so again, Mayor Bertani and Council, I appreciate the opportunity to get a little excited here and encourage you all to, you know, be decided. Work harder. Let's make a difference.

Thank you.

Next is Robert, looks like Myers. Okay, and then to be followed by Joseph Joyce.

Hello there, city council. My name is Robert Myers and I am a student of, sorry, student of Fairfield High. I'm here to say that my classmate getting beat up was not necessary. I am on the autism spectrum and sometimes I have a meltdown. Sometimes this makes people around me feel uncomfortable or afraid even though no one's in danger. If someone were to call the police and this officer or someone like her had responded and put their hands on me like the way they did with Maurice Williams, additional trauma to my head could kill me. No one. adult or child should be treated this way. No, this officer poses as a threat, not just to the children in this community, but to everybody here. So I ask you, please, fire this officer and take her badge away. We should not have to live in fear in our own community. Thank you for your time, Calvin.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen. Ladies and gentlemen. everybody in this building and everybody who's online has the right to be heard okay so we want to just respectfully a lot allow everyone to express their concerns opinions and do that respectfully for each of our speakers madam clerk do we have any more speaker cards

Yes, several. OK. Next is Joseph Joyce to be followed by Nakila Walker-Gibson.

Nakila Walker-Gibson? Is it on some? But are they on the agenda? Oh, OK. Q2 and 4?

Oh, OK. I'll just mark that then. OK, thank you.

Oh, yes. Yeah. Sorry. Femal Stevenson?

Ramel, sorry.

Hello. Oh, bye.

We good? We're good.

All right. So last time I encouraged a former mayor to do some soul searching. And today I'm taking my own medicine and standing before this council, myself sound and as composed as I can be. My nephew was beaten by police. That is not abstract to me. That is not a statistic to me.

That is my family. There are a lot of different ways to combat issues like this.

Some of it is strong and assertive and at times uncomfortable to hear. Some of it is more palatable and easier to sit with. But I want one thing understood clearly tonight. We are only doing what has worked toward the uplift of black voices and the issues connected to those same black voices. Every approach we take, gentle or sharp, is in the service of that. We want justice. And let me tell you exactly what justice looks like to us. It looks like systemic change with the FFPD, change that protects kids. It looks like law enforcement having clear written do nots when it comes to the handling of children. Not guidelines, not suggestions, clear lines that cannot be crossed. It looks like a public announcement from the FFPD that a wrong happened, not a deflection, not a we regret the incident and acceptance that this was wrong. We call for a child safety and appropriate force policy that prohibits adults acting under authority, including law enforcement, from striking minors in high-risk areas of the body known to carry risks of death or serious injury unless there is a clear, immediate, life-threatening danger or weapon present. We ask for the immediate firing and decertification of Officer Bianca Camacho in response to the incident involving Maurice Williams and the excessive force used against the child. We believe children deserve protection, not harm, from the very systems entrusted with their safety. If the immediate firing and decertification of Officer Bianca Camacho cannot occur due to current policy, procedural barriers, or political limitations, then we demand the immediate creation and implementation of policy that makes such accountability possible moving forward. That's important. Our ancestors fought hard for us to be standing here in this room, saying these words to the council. We will continue their legacy. We are not asking for something new. We are asking this department and the city to finally catch up to what we have always known to be right.

You have 20 seconds, sir.

Frantz Fanon once said, when we revolt, it's not for a particular culture. We revolt simply because for many reasons, we can no longer breathe. Thank you.

I'll take this 30 seconds.

The next card I have says Williams family. OK. Thank you. Hi.

My name is Ruthie Fisher. The other day.

Can you bring the mic a little closer? Sure. There you go.

The other day, I stood with the grandmother of Jamario Baker. As you can see, I am Maurice Williams' grandmother. It could have been me on the other side of her holding me up instead of me holding her up. If Officer Brown would have punched my grandson one more time, I believe we would be sitting up there holding each other up, looking at two deaths, not one. So I'm asking y'all, As a grandmother, please do something with her. Fire her, decertify her, because this has to stop. Because I cannot lose a grandchild. Maurice, well, he's my grandchild, but all the other young people, young men, young women, those are my grandchildren too. I cried just as hard as the grandmother did, because that could have been me. So I'm standing here for justice for Maurice Williams. Thank you.

Next is Sequoia Williams.

My name is Sequoia Williams. I'm Maurice's stepmom.

I just want Bianca to be fired. That's it, decertified. That's all I ask for.

Thank you. And we have Ramesha Stevenson.

And I don't really like for the cop to be fired, the head chief. I don't like that. I think Brad should do what he does and get it right. That's him. I don't want him to get fired. None of that. I've seen some news. I don't like that. Just Bianca. And just do what's right. Do what's right. Anything else?

Thank you.

Next is Barry Accius.

Accius, sorry.

I apologize.

Council, Vice Mayor, community. I'm disappointed to hear that it's going to take longer to investigate what I think so many of us know was done. Excessive force was used. This young man, Maurice Williams, was brutalized by the hands of Bianca Camacho Brown. And I don't think that it should take this long to process, investigate, and fire a rogue police officer who has not once brutalized an individual, but twice that we know of when we talk about Maya Hamilton, that she dragged by the hair the same way she did Maurice Williams. We're at a crossroads. As the pressure that amounts on your city took down your colleague, pushed her over the edge. So who's next? In a moment where we now see Mario Baker get gunned down, where we see more law enforcement here in this city council meeting than was at the graduation. That, to me, and for all community, we need to be paying attention to that. Because when we talk about prevention, right then and there, that young man's murder could have been prevented if signals didn't cross, if there were at least two patrol cars, one officer that would have avoided the tragic passing of this young man with the killer still on the loose. So as many have called some of us outsiders, Provoking these people here and the city council and other community members. We're just exposing the truth and this reality of what black people in America face day in, day out. Brown people in America face day in and day out. The contradiction. where one officer was able on May 20th, 2026, brutalize a teenager, there was no officers to save a young man June 3rd, 2026. The contradiction is real.

You have 30 seconds, sir.

How are we able to see officers brutalize but not protect? And how are we now saying to the community after we've been here, this is our third time, requesting, demanding the firing and the decertification of Bianca Camacho Brown. She is not going to get better. She is a cancer that is terminal. The blood will be on your hands if you allow her to move on these streets or anyone else's streets. Fire, decertify, Bianca Camacho Brown. Justice for who?

Marie!

Justice for who?

Marie!

Justice for who?

Marie! Thank you. Justice for who? Marie!

Justice for who? Marie! For who? Camacho! For who?

Camacho!

For who? Camacho!

Sir, excuse me. For who? Camacho! For who? Your time is up, sir. For who?

Next speaker is Ricky Lassiter, to be followed by Ryan Langley.

Hello, graduated Fairfield High 2011, but clearly Fairfield PD does not know their laws and codes. So let me move the mic down closer to you. Thank you.

Hello, I'm Ricky Lassiter. I graduated Fairfield High 2011.

And the time I've been in Fairfield High, I never experienced any of this type of BS that Camacho Brown was doing to a child. But let me reread y'all Fairfield PD's laws and codes that they're not following. An officer who punches a minor after they are restrained on school grounds violates several California criminal statutes and peace officer use of force standard regarding excessive force. California Penal Code 149, assault by a public officer. What makes it a felony for a public officer to assault or beat any person under color of authority without lawfulnessity. Once a minor is restrained and secure, they are no longer an active threat. Fuck the fucking screwdriver that was in the backpack that was nowhere on his back. Or a pocket. Was it a screwdriver? Y'all can answer, my bad. California Penal Code 273D, child abuse, punishes anyone who willfully inflects unjustifiable physical pain or a traumatic injury upon a child. Child abuse. Penal Code, let me repeat it again, 273D. California post use of force guidelines, the state's commission on peace officer standards and training mandates that officers must report and intervene and no officer intervened and was more than one. An excessive force incidents using strikes on a non resisting individual violates the standardized statewide training directives. Fairfield California Police Department did not go by any of these laws, regulations or follow them. That's exactly why Maurice Williams needs justice and Camacho Brown badge needs to be removed H needs to be fired and going out of here. My question is, how is there so many police officers on a school ground, regular school hours, but not during a graduation? There was another school on Fairfield High School grounds, right? There was not one police officer there. So why is there five, ten of them during regular school hours? There's no peace at these damn schools. Our kids are not safe. And that's all I got to say. Thank you. Thank you. This is for Marines.

next is ryan to be followed by um looks like marliott thank you hi my name is ryan langless i grew up here in fairfield sorry i get emotional about this because i understand everybody here i hear everybody i'm here because i'm a coach i'm here because uh The Matt Garcia Foundation means a lot to me because Matt was one of my best friends. And we didn't fight when he was killed. We didn't fight. We came together. So we came together. And Brother Ray and I have been talking recently. I don't longer live in Fairfield. I no longer have a business here. My grandfather had a business here on North Texas Street for 35 years. And we left. Because after Matt was gone, nobody helped. Nobody helped business. Nobody helped kids. I lived on Minnesota Street my whole life. Went to Fairview Elementary. I didn't care what color my friends were. I had parents at home that were on dope. Didn't care. What I had was a park. I had Alan Witt Park. I had Matt Garcia. I had Thomas Pope, Chris Ingle. I can name off a bunch of people that I grew up with. And I could reach out to any of my friends, didn't matter what color they were. And when I needed help, it was these kids that we cared about. That's what we need to recognize is we're not here to think about adult egos. We're here to think about kids. This is our future. When I drive into Fairfield, I take the exit. I come down Texas Street, and what do I see? I see drug dealers on the corners. I see people at Target taking a shit in the driveway. I have to huddle my kids to take them to Target. But you know what, the whole reason why I'm here is I'm a baseball coach, and I'm here to provide for the youth. And I played baseball at Allenwood Park. And Allenwood Park saved my life. I used to run away from home from what I was dealing with. Nobody understands what all these kids deal with at home. And we have a proposal. We were at Allenwood Park. I brought my team down there to the fields I grew up playing on. You have 20 seconds, sir. And it's a disaster. It's a disaster. And I want to propose my organization with Matt Garcia, Youth Foundation, and USSSA Baseball from the state of California. We want to redo the four fields at Allenwood Park. We want a place for these kids to feel safe in the community. We want a place for kids that feel like when they want to run away, they have a safe place to go. They have coaches they can look up to. It doesn't matter what color they are. I have friends. It doesn't matter what color they are. We are all here. We are all here together. We have to stop looking at egos as adults. We have to look at kids and protect them and build places to protect them.

Your time is up, sir.

I'm sorry.

Go ahead and finish your sentence.

We had practice yesterday at the fields, and there's more homeless people there than there are children playing. I want it to be the other way around. I want more children than people selling drugs and dumping bodies behind a dumpster over there at Island Way Park. That's what I want. Thank you. Thank you.

Next is Marliot. Is that, am I saying it right? Oh, Marley? Oh, okay.

Can you move the microphone closer to you, please? Thank you.

Yes. I am Marley. I want to start off with, he's a child. And he was beaten by a pig. Nothing other than a pig. She does not belong here. There's good cops, but in my eyes, she makes the good cops look bad for following her with the badge. She is all wrong. He's 15, still has three years of school to go through, let alone his whole life of being afraid of the freaking police. It is all wrong. I don't trust the police. Who else does?

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next is Kaylin Kelly to be followed by Lisa Davis.

Good evening, council members.

My name's Kalen Kelly, and I am the director of the Youth Tobacco Advocacy and Policy Project. Everybody needs protection. But when we talk about some of the most vulnerable, of course, our youth come to mind. One of the things that the city has yet to do is open a discussion for a tobacco retail license. A tobacco retail license is something that holds Fairfield's tobacco retailers accountable. It makes sure that they cannot sell flavored tobacco, but most importantly, it makes sure that they cannot sell to youth. See, they're more than just guns and other things getting into the hands of our youth. They're also illegal tobacco products. This city received over half a million dollars in a California Department of Justice grant that is yet to be used. Now, we've met with some of you council members and those of you who we have met with, we greatly appreciate your support. However, there needs to be a formal discussion about why it is that our youth are still able to vape flavored tobacco products. Many of these products go unnoticed by parents, by school faculty and staff because they're disguised in these clandestine forms to look like USB drives, to look like erasers, to look like pencils. And I just learned something that even boggles my mind. There are over 4,000 different flavored tobacco products available in the United States. So when you think about being overwhelmed think about being a 15 year old child with four thousand wrong choices to make. Our youth need our support. I'm going to ask again. Can we please formally open the discussion to hold retailers accountable with a tobacco retail license? This is still a beautiful city. As long as we protect the vulnerable and we prioritize the health of our youth. Thank you.

Thank you.

And Madam Vice Mayor. Yes. I know that the council can't respond to that. to any statements but I can report that pursuant to the grant that this gentleman mentioned, your code enforcement team has been working with the city attorney's office to start crafting draft ordinances as well as active enforcement and that's ongoing and I won't speak for code enforcement but I know they're probably gonna bring something to you in the not too distant future.

Thank you. Next is Lisa Davis to be followed by Alessandra Pereira.

my name is Lisa Davis I am I am a member of Solano County resident I live in Vallejo I am very familiar I very familiar with families who have been victims of police violence. I helped organize with some families. I just want to state out some statistics. Oscar Grant was killed in 2009. Mario Romero was killed in 2012. Angel Ramos was killed in January of 2017. The police officer who killed him killed Ronell Foster, murdered in 2018. Willie McCoy was murdered in 2019. The person that killed him also was part of the people, some of the people that killed him were also involved in killing the previous people that I mentioned. Sean Monterosa was killed in 2020. The person who shot and killed Mario Romero was transferred to Fairfield, involved in the killing of William Hines, seriously injuring Jamie Rush, cleared. of badge bending by the Fairfield police. If you want unbiased reporting, that story was broken by Open Vallejo. Sean Kenny, who was also a Fairfield police officer, shot five people, three fatally. He retired in 2019, and he now trains and consults police officers. He killed Anton Barrett in 2012, Mario Romero in 2012, and Jeremiah Moore in 2012. It's not what you say, it's what you do. Transparency and accountability matters. It's not what you say, it's what you do. Y'all pass around police officers worse than the Catholic Church passes around pedophile priests. And we are tired of it because we've been watching this for a long time. I just came onto the scene in 2009, but we know this has been happening well, well before that.

You have 20 seconds, ma'am.

So it's not what you say, it's what you do. You cannot untrain racism. You cannot untrain it out of them. They're biased and they're racist. That's the system. That's the system. That's why we now have a pedophile president, because a lack of accountability and a lack of transparency. And we know it, and we're tired of it. We see it. You can't talk your way out of it. It's not what you say. It's what you do. Thank you. Thank you.

Next is Alessandra Pereira.

Hello, my name is Alessandra Pereira, and I'm a student at Fairfield High.

Can you step a little closer to the mic? Oh, I'm sorry. There you go.

Thank you. My name is Alessandra Pereira, and I'm a student at Fairfield High. I'm beyond disgusted with our leader's law enforcement and school. Maurice doesn't know me, but I've known him since middle school. Most of our teachers and students don't really know him, but we know what he... What he... Where? Um, we know what he got from the police. The black, uh, Sonic, I'm sorry.

You're doing just fine.

Solano community still chooses to stand up to the lack of accountability and abuse that he has suffered. You guys have yet to say anything but lies. This is disgusting that you have yet to fire her and put her on paid leave. What Ms. Lisa said is true. It's not what you say, it's what you do. And you guys have done nothing that has said anything to him. This teenager is only 16. He's going into his junior year. He's older than me and he's forever going to be scarred by this incident. Thank you.

Thank you.

Also, I would like justice for Maurice Williams, and I hope that you guys will do something and show something.

Thank you. I do not have any more speaker cards. I do notice there's two hands raised online.

OK. Tina W., you have three minutes.

Could you repeat your name, please? Good evening. My name is Tina Warblin.

Thank you. Go ahead. Good evening. I have just three quick points. The first one is I highly recommend that city council meetings during public comment alternate between in-person and those of us that are joining via Zoom. Maybe two back and forth would be helpful because your Zoom audience is just as important as the in-person. My second comment is it is clear from listening to the city council and the pulse of the city of Fairfield that we need an additional forum so that people can share their perspectives and their viewpoints beyond a three-minute constraint. I think it's very helpful. That is why the pulse in this meeting is so high. So I highly recommend we have some additional forums for the city. And I also want to say, and I don't know if this is the right area on your consent calendar before, I would like that pulled from consent so that we can have discussion with the city council as well as the public comment. And then lastly, I think it is, highly unacceptable to have such a long investigative time that this really should be expedited and that the city manager should work with the consultants to see how they can expedite this and not wait so long. It is, in my opinion, for something like this, completely unacceptable. Thank you, interim mayor and city council and to the citizens of Fairfield.

Thank you. Thank you. Hey Jake, the next person online.

Sarah, you have 3 minutes.

Hi yes, I have students that go to Fairfield High and there's been bullying. Throughout the years, my oldest 20 she was bullied from kindergarten till she graduated. the bullying needs to stop for one and two they don't do nothing they need we need to fix the bullying part and we need to protect our kids from other kids bullying them and the police brutality period throughout the city of fairfield i've seen personally police handle homeless and throw them in back of police cars, throw them down on the ground. I understand if they're violent, but if they're not violent, they need to sit there and approach things differently.

And that's all I got to say.

Thank you.

Are there any more speakers online?

Jake, anyone else online? No. Okay, thank you. okay thank you we'll now turn to the joint meeting of the city council and the housing authority the holding of a joint meeting of the city council and housing authority entitles the council members to receive additional compensation of 35 for attending this joint meeting um joint public hearing city council and housing authority l1 resolutions 2026-114 THROUGH 2026-118 AND HOUSING AUTHORITY RESOLUTION 2026-03, MID-CYCLE UPDATE FOR FISCAL YEAR 2025-26 AND 2026-27. JOINT PUBLIC HEARING FOR THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF FAIRFIELD AND HOUSING AUTHORITY ADOPTING RESOLUTIONS 2026-114 THROUGH 2026-118 Housing Authority Resolution 2026-03, approving the mid-cycle update to the fiscal year 2025 to 26 and 2026 to 27 budget and financial plan. And our presenter is John Furtado, Director of Finance.

Good evening, Acting Mayor, members of the Council. We met two weeks ago to go over a study session on budget. Today we are at the step of actually adopting the mid-cycle budget. So the overview that I'm going to be giving you today, we're going to go over the 26 and 27 operating budget, a little bit of the long-term forecast, a few highlights. I'll touch upon the other funds and then a few of our capital budget highlights. And then as we talked last time, the fire relief model that we'll bring back at the end. So just to kick off, a reminder, the process of developing this budget was not done overnight. It's been four years that we've been working on this. back in 2022 we identified a 20 million dollar structural deficit that means recurring year after year so when we identified that the city manager set up an internal task force we we looked at uh how we could internalize our budget we were asked to hold the line no more increases in operating budgets and explore new revenues as we brought in the 23 24 budget to council we had already targeted a five percent cut to budgets while we were witnessing 7% to 8% inflation. We managed to get a 3.77% structural cut across the board, except for our fire department that had no room to cut. We also increased, went to the voters and got our business license and TOT increased, and that cut our deficit by 50% from $20 million to $10 million. following that process in 2025 as we were developing the 26 and 27 budget at the council retreat we reviewed what further cuts would look like what needs were were there and council looked at all those options and felt those cuts would really hurt the community and decided that maybe we should explore a sales tax or others measure and and then here we are in 2026 we went through a tough nine month long labor negotiations we partnered with our labor partners five of the six unions to agree to no colas considering the situation of the city in exchange for cash payments So with that said, a citywide budget for 2027, this is all funds across the board. Our revenues are 376 million, 39% of that is the general fund, around 29% is our water funds. On the expenses side, 160 to the general fund and 406 in total expenses. Now, when you see expenses are higher than revenues, that's not really the way to look at it because we have capital projects that take that we squirrel away money for years and then spend at one time. So it's not a deficit per se in total citywide budget. Just looking back at citywide equivalent positions. We are at 598 today. In 2022, we were at 613. And to give you context, before the 2009 recession, we were above 650. We've grown a lot, but our staffing has actually reduced. And as you see, our biggest department is public works. Not all of it is funded by the general fund. The police and fire are, and we've got around 175, 25 sworn police officers. So we went over this in the study session, so I won't talk a lot about it. The known impacts that we have baked into the budget is the increase in CalPERS, unfunded costs, general liability workers' comp, and our energy conservation project. The other impact that we have baked into the budget was the Tacker case ruling, and that's going to cost us $2.6 million. We are going to get that from our reserves. Other adjustments that we presented and council accepted last time were the operational increases for the departments. That's around 930,000, a few personal adjustments. Those were all cost neutral. property tax i wanted to bring up this slide specifically to show that the since 2022 in 2021 what number we had we actually dropped in 2022 that was when the county started initiating their new system and everything got messed up. So we didn't see any growth there and then suddenly we saw that huge 6 million growth in 2025. So that was getting back taxes from the prior years. So with looking at our general fund revenues, again, 50% of our general fund comes from stable sources. 50% is very subjective to the economy, right? Like when you see our sales tax measure P, that itself is 40%. So if the economy does well, those hold. If the economy does not do as well, we stand to be more volatile in our revenues. So looking at how the revenues have panned out, we're seeing property taxes projected to increase by around 4.1% in totality. Sales tax and Measure P taxes are still lagging behind, less than 1% and 2% out there. So that brings a total revenues increase to just 0.5% or 0.5%. And then when we look at our expenses, how do we spend our money? 61% of that goes to public safety. Public works comes in second. And then for public safety, 39% is to police and 22% to fire. On the other side of looking at how we spend that citywide, 70% of what we spend is on people. 14% is on contracts and repairs, maintenance, and other stuff, as well as funding our fleet, which is in the others category there. So going down onto the expenses, and this slide would look slightly different from what you have in your packet because we had to make a correction. In effect, you see we had no COLAs, yet our staffing cost has gone up by 3.1%. The reason behind that is the increase in the CalPERS costs, the medical costs, Kaiser and other rates have gone up by 19, 20%. as well as funding to the workers' comp and general liability. So looking at 3.4% increase in expenses versus 0.5%, you see the growth that I'm showing in revenue is 0.5, while the growth in expenses is 3.4. And this is a problem that every California city is facing. You build your revenues at a slower pace than you're building your expenses. So that brings you that gap. so we've got a 12 million deficit thankfully we've got a 56 million reserve that we'll be using we have a general fund policy to retain a 20 percent general fund reserve that will stay intact at the end of 2027 if but not in 2028. And then looking at our long-term forecast, back in 2022, when we first met Council at the retreat, we were projecting that line that goes deeply down as the original budget. We would run out of money next year. But we took all these measures, increased our business license, austerity measures that we took. We are now looking at extending ourselves right up to 2031 without new funding. And then our forecast, just a reminder that the risks, the biggest risks we see to this forecast are the AB 1383 that is now in the legislature that would restore some of the PEPRA safety to be like classic that can add five to eight million a year to our expenses. General liability, we've seen Cases come left and right, payouts, high payouts. That's increased our contributions by tenfold over the last six years. Workers' comp, a lot of injuries, and then we are always dependent on how CalPERS performs, and we haven't seen a recession yet. Then just quickly touching upon our other funds, we talked a little bit about this. On our transit side, we are not doing great after having lost the Soul Trans routes. It is grant funded, but at the same time, we need to maintain a 20% fare box ratio, but we are at 2% or 3%. So this is something that we would need to have further discussions with council in a separate session. But at the same time, the department is also looking at different options that are in your packet and we talked about last time. On the golf courses, the golf courses are projected to perform as expected. We don't have a lot of surplus funds because whatever we are receiving in surplus is being used towards some of the minor improvements so the major improvements cannot be done because we don't have enough surplus there both in paradise valley is the same thing in fact in paradise valley to do some of the capital needs that we have we'll be dipping a little bit into the reserve and these are some of the capital improvement projects that we talked about last time so i won't go over all of them again On our water fund, again, we are currently not in compliance because we went for four years without a rate increase. However, we did approve a rate increase in January of this year that is 8% every year. So as those kick in, you will see that we come into compliance by 2029. then a little bit of new material here are capital projects the 2027 portion of the capital project funding is 51.5 million almost 50 percent of that is towards our water funds and a big portion towards streets and then these this is uh showing the funding sources where that money is coming from And then some of the projects that will come online this year, the North Texas Recreation Facility, this one's $6.6 million in grant funding, I think around $13 million or so in total project costs, and it's well on its way to be completed by September of 2026. Also a carpe yard electrification. This was also funded by grants. It is well underway. It's expected to be completed in August. PG&E is doing a lot of work on this one as well. A West Texas Complete Streets project is also expected to be completed in a few months. So these are some of the big projects that are coming into the CIP. And the two other big ones are fire stations, 36 and 39. You see the renderings here that were originally created as they were in design. And here's the progress on how they look right now. We expect to have these back online in December. And any questions before we get into a discussion on anything presented so far on the budget?

Council Member Williams. Thank you. I do have a few questions. One is related to the structural deficit. We were at $11 million, and I know there's some adjustments, so we went up another million in structural budget, and I just want to make sure I understand how we got there.

Yes, so some of the pressures that we saw last time when we met, we increased $930,000. So we were at 11 million last year, and then we just added 930. That was for the shelter and PG&E bills that went above that we talked about last time. And I have a slide on that list. Oops. Yeah, this was the list that we talked about last time, 930,000 for some of the expenses that could not be absorbed by departments.

Thank you. I believe the community needed to see this and see that difference because we have a lot of material out stating the 11 million. So I just wanted to make sure the community saw a pathway to how that increased. So I also want to ask about the transit slide. I was just at the STA board meeting where Soltran spoke and they were, I believe they said they've seen an increase to ridership. They believe because of gas prices and other cost increases to just regular residents. Are we seeing that same level of ridership pickup that could impact this budget?

We are seeing a slight increase but the matter of fact is that transit or micro transit on its own without the salt trans routes that we had even in the past in the good times never reached the fare box on its own. It was because it was bundled with everything else that it was meeting that threshold.

Do we see a pathway at all to, when I look at the transit budget, could we change that around by increasing ridership? Can we change that at all to, thank you, Sanjay.

The ridership is actually a problem everywhere. Even if we increase the ridership, or even if the ridership increases, I mean, it's not under our control, still meeting the requirement, the recovery rate 20%, is a monumental task. Without the federal funding, we cannot sustain. So what we are looking at right now is to various options, how can we reduce our own operational cost? And that's what we're trying to talk to different other agencies in nearby cities and as well as STA, how we can actually together do something about it, you know. Whether the maintenance can be done together, whether the possibility of two agencies go together, some of those things. We are still talking about it and nothing has been really substantial actually for me to bring it to the council here.

Well, I appreciate that you all are thinking out of the box. If we're not going to be able to recover, it seems like we do need to do something creative. And it makes me feel bad. I love transportation. But if we're not utilizing it, the maintenance costs, I don't see how we get past it. So thank you for thinking innovatively about it. I DID HAVE ONE LAST QUESTION, AND IT IS SURROUNDED, IT WAS THE SLIDE WHERE I BELIEVE IT WAS CALLED BUDGET ADJUSTMENTS AND LEGISLATIVE WAS ONE OF THAT. YEP, THAT IS THE ONE. RISK. IS ONE OF OUR RISK FACTORS A CHANGE IN STATE BUDGET? AND HOW IS STATE BUDGET, IF SO, HOW IS STATE BUDGET CONNECTED TO OUR CITY BUDGET?

So primarily what I'm looking here is at the general fund, but when the state budget changes, yeah, we do have risks to grant funding. We do have risks to some of the housing programs. Again, those would then be decisions that would the council still want to fund those or you just don't do that, whatever the grant funds. So those are policy decisions that we would probably take when we lose some of those fundings.

Okay, but we'll, I know we have someone that advocates for us. So they would give us heads up as to what we're anticipating, what we're expecting. And they're, of course, on the Hill advocating for us in the Capitol. Okay, thank you.

Any other questions?

Okay.

So last time when we met, we presented a relief model for fire staffing. I know the fire chief has got someone here to speak on that, so I'll let them take that.

Good evening, council. My name is Todd Matthews, deputy fire chief. So tonight what's before you is a proposal to change operationally how we function currently as the fire department. We use overtime every day to augment daily staffing. So we have 21 assigned every day at the firehouses. Sometimes we have a couple, we could have up to three to four off on vacation. And currently right now we have six IODs and one vacancy. So the proposal in front of you today or tonight is to hire nine additional firefighters. That would be three per shift. This is not to increase minimum staffing, but to stop our reliance on overtime for every night, for every day. So currently we do about four and a half overtimes per day over the last couple years. So that would, overtime wouldn't be eliminated, but we'd be able to smooth that out over time. The biggest benefit we see is this, is health and wellness to our firefighters. They currently work two days on, four days off. That four days off they go home, ultimately that is rest and relaxation for them to get them ready to come back to work and do their next two shifts. But we're constantly asking them to work three days on, three days off, four days on, two days off, and even worst case scenario is a five day if they want to do that. So the goal ultimately is to get them back to a 48-96 schedule, get them to appreciate why, get them to remember why they got this job. One of the biggest things is the days off. And we're preventing that by having all these IODs and the vacancies that take a long time for us to fill. It takes us up to six months to fill one vacancy. So this will give us a cushion every day to have three extra firefighters on duty. So the health and wellness is the biggest thing. The family work-life balance. When you're asking these firefighters to work these, you know, extra 700 hours, 1000 hours extra every year, you're starting to miss birthdays, you're starting to miss Christmas, Thanksgiving, you know, special family events, and you're having to adjust your schedule. So this gives them back a normal work-life balance. We would also hope to see over time a reduction in IODs and our injuries. We have seen significant number of injuries over the last five years, up to 12,000 hours, I think a couple years ago. So we would like to try to reduce that. That is going to take time. It's not going to happen tomorrow. And hiring these extra nine firefighters won't happen tomorrow either. I don't think we'll see them until 2027. The other big benefit, we'll be able to participate in the state California mutual aid system a little bit. With that, we'll be able to send out strike teams. And this is an agreement between labor and union, or between labor and management when we send out engine companies. But we can also participate in those and help where everybody needs help and also ask for it when we need it. So tonight, we're not asking to increase minimum staffing. We're just asking to reduce our reliance on overtime. It is every day that these firefighters are working. And we do want them to be able to enjoy their days off and go home. And with that, I think if we have a better rested fire department and staff members, I think we'll serve the community better. I think what we do right now is an amazing job. And I think you'll do it better with rested staff. So if there's any questions. Council Member Tonneson.

So chief, can you estimate what percentage might be laterals?

We would have no idea we could. We'd have to redo a recruitment right now. We have four people on a current list, so we'd have to do a recruitment and then we would. I don't know if we would. I know Rich could speak on this, but I think ultimately we would. We can look for some laterals to speed up that process.

Mostly it's people coming in out of.

Yeah, we'll have to put in their own fire Academy will be mostly hiring people off the streets paramedics that were currently on the ambulance. Hopefully we can recruit people from other departments so and we're still 100% paramedic 100%.

Thank you chief.

Councilmember Sandu.

Good evening chief. Thank you for your presentation. Could you tell me how long is our reserve force at the PD? I mean at fire?

I THINK WE CURRENTLY HAVE MAYBE I THINK WE CURRENTLY HAVE MAYBE AROUND JUST A HANDFUL RIGHT AROUND JUST A HANDFUL RIGHT AROUND JUST A HANDFUL RIGHT NOW. NOW. NOW.

I COULD NOT SPEAK TO THE EXACT I COULD NOT SPEAK TO THE EXACT I COULD NOT SPEAK TO THE EXACT NUMBER. NUMBER. NUMBER. DOUBLE DIGIT. DOUBLE DIGIT. DOUBLE DIGIT. SINGLE DIGITS. SINGLE DIGITS. SINGLE DIGITS.

IN THE EVENT THEY WANTED TO IN THE EVENT THEY WANTED TO IN THE EVENT THEY WANTED TO APPLY FOR THESE OPEN POSITIONS, APPLY FOR THESE OPEN POSITIONS, APPLY FOR THESE OPEN POSITIONS, ARE THEY GIVEN PRIORITY OR WAIT ARE THEY G So would you, what are your thoughts on doing that?

What's your, I guess your guys' perspective on doing that?

Well, I think if we let them go through the process and then we can evaluate them, and we already know them from coming from inside, so I think we have a better perspective if we want to work with somebody we already know versus somebody from the outside that we don't. So I do think there is, I'm not going to say it, but I think there is some favoritism at times, you know, so ungraded favoritism.

If that was changed administratively, would that be done via council or done internally through maybe city HR and the fire department?

That would be HR and the fire department. All right.

Thank you.

Any other questions, colleagues?

Okay.

Council Member Pandora.

Thank you. I just had a question around, so these are going to be relief staffers, and so where would they be housed? And I know last time we had the conversation, there seemed to be some conversation around, like, not pushback, really, but just maybe hesitancy to maybe come on because you wouldn't really have a set station. Can you speak to that? Maybe if there's going to be a challenge in hiring folks because of that, or...

So when they come on, they will be the first year. So they'll go on shift. They'll be on shift like every other firefighter. The first year they will have to have a consistent home or a consistent captain for evaluations. So the first six months they will be evaluated by a consistent officer every day. Then they'll switch to another station with another officer. At that point in time, that is something I think we need to sit down with labor and talk through, but there will be what we call a suitcase model. Somebody that needs to float around. You may be calling at 7 o'clock in the morning to see where you have to go. So where's that vacancy for the day? What sick leave or what vacation spot are you? Are you feeling so that's something we would have to work through internally, but they would be assigned to shift every day so.

OK, no other questions. Okay, thank you. Thank you.

Okay, so we are almost at the finish line here. The GAN limit is one of the last items we have to look at. It's a requirement by the state that we pass a GAN limit every year. Our GAN limit is at 36%. As you see there, it's 129% So we still have $229 million in room for additional debt or anything else if it's needed to be raised. Most cities are in the upper 70s, so that's a good sign. And with that said, we've got a few resolutions to approve today, as well as the vehicle purchase resolution. And that concludes my presentation, if there are no other questions.

Thank you.

Any other questions at this time? Okay, it doesn't look like any. All right. Thank you.

Do you need to take public comment?

I need to open the public hearing. The public hearing is now open. Do we have any public speakers on this item?

I don't have any speaker cards. Did anyone wish to speak?

Are there any speakers online for this item? There are no hands raised online. Okay. I will now close the public hearing and entertain a motion to approve the resolutions.

And Madam Vice Mayor, just to clarify, you can either pass them in one motion or you can pass each one individually. You don't have to pass certain ones. But the resolutions on the table are, as the City Council, you're considering resolutions 2026 Dash 114115116117 and 118 and then as the housing authority you are passing H a 2026 dash 03 and like I said it can be passed by one motion just saying what I said.

Is there a motion I'll make a motion to pass with the one motion. Okay. All those in favor? Aye. All right. That motion carries unanimously. Thank you. We now turn to the joint meeting of the City Council and the Paradise Valley Maintenance and Monitoring District.

item n1 resolution pvmmd 2026-02 approving fiscal year 2026 to 2027 pvmmd budget and assessments approving the fiscal year 2026 to 2027 budget and ordering the levy and collection of the fiscal year 2026 to 2027 assessments for the paradise valley maintenance and monitoring district And our presenter is Chris Lewis, senior management analyst.

Good evening, chair and members of the board. No PowerPoint presentation for you tonight, just a short verbal presentation. Before you is a resolution to approve the 26-27 budget and assessments for the Paradise Valley Maintenance and Monitoring District. This district was formed in 2010 to finance the prevention and management of geologic hazards in the Paradise Valley area. The 2627 assessments are proposed at the same rates levied in 2526 and are below the maximum allowable assessment rate for this district. The proposed budget includes costs for just regular operations, maintenance and administrative costs with no special projects planned for the upcoming fiscal year. And on May 26th, the Board adopted Resolution PBMMD 2026-01 to grant preliminary approval of the 2627 budget and assessments. And the final step in the annual process and staff's recommended action for you tonight is to conduct a public hearing and adopt the resolutions. Thank you.

Thank you. Any questions? Seeing none, I will now open the public hearing. And I do have one speaker card, Theodore Peck.

Thank you.

can you hear me can you can you hear me yes okay good evening on may 26 i stated some budget items of concern primarily why overages in either the reserve balance or the target reserve balance is not being credited back in the 20 for fiscal year 26 27. for the past few years public works has come up with reasons or methods to prevent any excess monies to be credited to the budget to reduce the residents' assessment fees. First, they created a line item, which they called the target fund balance, which increases the CPI every year. So the nearly $300,000 actual reserve fund excess wouldn't be used to lower the assessment fee. For fiscal year 26-27, they're estimating the reserve balance out five years now without applying historical interest earned And adding the CPI to the target balance fund, this creates the image that the target fund balance will be in a negative. This is inappropriate calculation. If future years need to be increased either through the actual reserve or the target fund balances, squirreling away unspent collected assessment fees is not the mechanism to be used. The appropriate method to increase the reserve either one is by the slope mitigation factor which is not being applied. Vice Mayor Bertani was the only person to ask any questions last time. After my discussion was completed, it took you only 15 seconds to bring the motion and vote on it. Other than Pam Bertani, not one person asked any questions and you certainly do not provide any reason for the basis of your vote i believe it was april 7th council members sandu stated concerns on how the actions or lack of actions of past council people have affected today's city council and the city to the tune of $2.6 million in litigation costs related to the LLMD issues. Those past council members didn't listen to the residents on that issue many years ago. And you are again doing the same thing to the GAD residents. Thank you.

Did anyone else wish to speak?

No hands raised online. OK. I will now close the public hearing and entertain a motion to approve the resolution.

Vice Mayor? I'm sorry, yes. Just a point of not clarification, but just in general. We do a lot of homework before these votes are made. A lot of the questions that arise or don't arise Some of us spend hours, and I'll speak for myself, I spend hours and hours going through agendas. So a lot of the things that maybe I don't speak on, it's because I've already gotten with Chris, or I've gotten with David, or I've gotten. So just know that I am certainly doing my homework on these items, and I'm confident in staff's position on this one, and I will make that motion.

There is a motion.

Second.

Okay. All in favor?

Aye.

And I'm going to remain a no on this one because I really do believe that we need to look at this excess reserve balance. These residents have asked for a long time now that not the reserve balance, the excess over the target balance, be credited back to these residents, to the GAD. So for that reason, I am going to remain a no on this one. Okay, we're done. Thank you very much. I will now reconvene the City Council meeting. Now turning to the consent calendar.

Okay, consent calendar. All matters listed on the consent calendar are to be approved with one motion unless a member of the City Council or the public requests that separate action be taken on a specific item. And there's three different items that are to be pulled. The first one is P3.

And Madam Vice Mayor, you want to take the pulled items first? Yes, sir. Okay, I'll be presenting on P3 and P4.

I'll just read the title. P3 Resolution 2026-119, Internet Service and Telephonic Service Disruption Policy, Adopting the Internet Service and Telephonic Service Disruption Policy for City Council Meetings. And our presenter will be City Attorney David Lim.

Madam Vice Mayor, members of the Council, good evening. David Lim, City Attorney. First, I want to apologize for having put this on the consent calendar. The City Clerk accidentally put it on the consent calendar because I forgot to mention to them that this is something that needs to be presented at an open meeting and can't be passed by consent. I also want to thank Council Member Panduro for catching it and reminding us that. So apologies to the City Clerk and to Mr. Way for that oversight into the Council. So before you today is resolution 2026-119, an internet service and telephonic service disruption policy. This is a policy mandated by SB 707, which are amendments to the Brown Act. Specifically, this policy handles mandated state policies for internet service and telephonic service disruption. The good news is that the city of Fairfield already uses telephonic internet Zoom meetings. So we've been doing it for years as long as I've been here. The only biggest change is how to handle when there's a disruption. And it's kind of a mixed blessing that you all got to see a disruption in the policy about a month ago when our sound system hardware failed. and had to be replaced, and we lost the internet connection during that meeting. And you'll all recall that after we were unable to bring the system back up due to nobody's fault, but it was just a hardware failure, it just burned out, the city council had to adjourn the meeting for the night and continue it. So the main, the biggest change to the policy now is that if there is a outage to our internet provider and we lose Zoom and telephonic meeting ability, then the city clerk, city manager, or city attorney will immediately notify the presider. And the council must immediately recess for up to one hour to allow staff to try to restore connectivity. If they're able to restore connectivity within that one hour period, great. You can resume the meeting. So that's awesome. If service can't be restored, then this is the fun part. The city can continue the meeting if they make two findings which are outlined in your agenda. That good faith restoration efforts were made and the public interest in proceeding the meeting outweighs the temporary loss of remote proceedings. So you can see how that would have been helpful to us a month ago. We could have continued the meeting but we didn't have the policy in place yet so that is the biggest change to what the city of fairfield already has to its policy so i'm recommending approval of resolution 2026-119 i'm also going to apologize to let you know that to meet the july 1st deadline for enacting this policy i'm recommending you enact it today and because I'm a paranoid attorney I'm also going to recommend to staff and I think the city manager agrees we're going to put this also on the agenda for the first meeting in July as new business I'm going to literally come up and say this is what you passed hopefully if you pass it this is what you passed at the last meeting I suggest we just do it again just to be clear that it's not on consent calendar with that I'll entertain any questions that the council has any questions seeing none

is there any public comment on this item I don't have any cards okay then I will entertain a motion to I'm sorry no okay you're gonna please go ahead I'll make the motion to approve second all right all in favor aye thank you

And then item P4, Tina W. That was online. She asked for that to be pulled, I believe. Should I read it? OK. Resolutions 2026-120 and 2026-121, general election in Solano County, providing service to canvas returns of the election. Resolution 2026-120. calling and providing for a general municipal election to be held in the city of Fairfield on Tuesday, November 3rd, 2026, to elect certain city officers and to request the Solano County Board of Supervisors to consolidate the general municipal election with the statewide election on that date. and resolutions 2026-121 requesting the solano county board of supervisors to permit the county registrar voters to render services in connection with the general municipal election to be held in the city of fairfield on tuesday november 3rd 2026 and authorizing the solano county board of supervisors to canvas the returns of the election determining the charges for candidate statements and authorize the city clerk to publish the notice of election

and good evening madam vice mayor members of the city council david lim your city attorney before you tonight in agenda item p4 are resolutions 2026-120 and 2026-121 these are ministerial resolutions that are done every general election not to be confused with other items that are coming up later on the agenda related to items that may special items that may be placed on the ballot every four years or every two years when there is a general election for city council members or the mayor, as in this case, we need to pass a resolution calling for such general election and to request assistance from the Solano County Board of Supervisors to consolidate our general municipal election with a statewide election on that date. As I said, 2026-120 does that. It's ministerial. It's required in the elections code, so we're asking you to pass that resolution so that the city clerk can then forward our request to the Board of Supervisors, who will then consolidate our election with the statewide general election on November 3rd. Resolution 2026-121 is also ministerial in that that is a request for the Solano County Board of Supervisors to permit the county registrars or voters to render services for the municipal election, basically to canvass the election, to collect the ballots, count the ballots, and we will reimburse the county per code because Ms. Reese has indicated she does not want to count all the ballots herself. So we're going to ask the registrar voters to help us on that. So those are the two resolutions that we're asking you to pass tonight, and I'll take any questions.

Any questions? Seeing none, do we have any public speakers on this item?

I don't have any speaker cards. Did anyone wish to speak on this item?

There's a hand up? Okay, is there a hand up?

There is one hand raised on line, Jake. Is it regarding P4?

I believe so.

Is it Tina? Yes. Okay. Go ahead, Tina. Thank you.

Good evening again. This is Tina Werblin. I would just like some discussions regarding Section 7 in case there is a tie, and that tie is decided by lot. And I was unsure if that's happened previous, but I think that warrants some additional public comment from not only from the public as well as the Council. It seems like there should be a better way to determine the win if if there is a tie. And also in Section Oh gosh, I think it was Section 2. That they could with this resolution that there's additional ballot measures that may be included and So I think because of those two points, I'm publicly not in favor of this resolution. Thank you for letting me speak.

Thank you.

Mr. City Attorney.

Yes, thank you. So addressing Ms. Warblin's questions and concerns in turn, Section 7 of Resolution 2026-120, she's referring to the fact that in the event of a tie vote, if the registrar voters determines that there is a tie in the votes, then You basically pick the winner by pulling a lot, flipping a coin, something like that. That's under the elections code. I know it sounds crazy, but that's what's in the elections code. So there's really no wiggle room for it. I've actually seen it happen, I think, once. But there's really no way to change it. We are not a charter city. We're a general law city. So we're bound by the California elections code. So if there's a tie, yes, Ms. Warbling is correct. She may also be correct that there might be a better way to do it. arm wrestling, karaoke singing, I don't know. But this is what the California Elections Code mandates for a general law city, so there's really no wiggle room for this council on section seven. Section two, what was your question on two? Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah, she is addressing section two allows the Council by separate resolutions to ask the Board of Supervisors or the registrar voters to add other special ballot measures to be submitted by the voters at the general municipal election. This is again ministerial. The City Council has the ability to call for special ballot elections, and in fact I think on two agenda items coming up you will be asked to opine on whether you want to do that. This merely maintains the flexibility of this city council to add additional items to the ballot. If you didn't pass section two or struck it, you would be locked into only calling the election for the three council seats and the mayoral seat. So it is city attorney's recommendation and staff recommendation that you allow yourself that flexibility to call additional items on the election if you so choose. But you're not bound to do it just giving yourself the option. So I'll take any other questions you have on those two items.

Any other questions? OK. Seeing none, I will entertain a motion to approve this item. Second? All in favor? Aye. All right. That passes unanimously. And then item P7, I believe?

Yes, P7, Resolution 2026-124, 2025 Urban Water Management Plan Update Adoption. Adoption of the 2025 City of Fairfield Urban Water Management Plan. And our presenter is our Assistant Public Works Director, Utilities, Michael Heather.

Good evening, Madam Vice Mayor and Fairfield City Council members. As a matter of routine, we are at a place where we're conducting our normal process for adopting the Urban Water Management Plan. However, I asked to pull this item to provide a minor clarification before requesting your approval to adopt the city's urban water management plan. Last week, we received a comment letter from the Solano Irrigation District summarizing their analysis, their concerns, rather, on the potential threat to Solano project water supplies. Specifically, the threat they are referring to is centered around the implementation of the Bay Delta plan, which isn't new information. Over the past year and a half, we, which includes my counterparts at the Solano County Water Agency and other urban water suppliers, have sent comment letters and spoken at numerous water board public hearings. While we think adoption of the Bay Delta plan or its alternative in the Healthy Rivers and Landscapes program is unlikely to occur in the next five years, we would like to acknowledge receipt of their letter and also insert additional language into our water supply section of our urban water management plan. During the next urban water management plan update, which occurs every five years, we will consider more in-depth analysis on the implementation of the Bay Delta plan or its alternative in the Healthy Rivers and Landscapes program. I'll conclude by asking you to approve our urban water management plan with incorporated comments before submitting our plan to the state. And with that, I'll answer any questions.

Thank you. Any questions? Seeing none, do we have any public speakers on this item?

I do not. Did anyone wish to speak on item P7? No?

OK. I'll entertain a motion to approve this item. All in favor? Aye. Motion carries unanimously. Thank you. Thank you. And now I will entertain a motion to approve the remainder of the consent calendar.

So moved. Second.

All in favor? Aye. Motion carries unanimously. And we now turn to new business.

yes item q1 discussion of consideration for a resolution to place a ballot measure for an appointed city clerk discussion of whether to consider scheduling for the july 7 2026 city council meeting a resolution to place a ballot measure changing the office of the city clerk to an appointed position on the ballot for the November 3rd, 2026 general municipal election. And our presenter is Farbode Perusman, Assistant City Manager and Human Resources Director.

Good evening, Vice Mayor, members of the City Council. As the city attorney said earlier, we have a couple items that we are asking you to put on the ballot. This is one of them. Just a reminder, this is a discussion item at this point. We will bring back the resolution and ordinance at the July 7th meeting. We do have a draft of the ordinance and the resolution for your review. Obviously, we'll make any changes that we discuss tonight. BUT MAINLY THE REQUEST IS TO ADOPT THE RESOLUTION THE FUTURE JULY 7TH MEETING TO CHANGE THE CURRENT CITY CLERK POSITION FROM ELECTED POSITION TO APPOINTED POSITION. Reasons for the recommendation are as follows. The growing complexity of the city itself, it's obviously growing, but also we are a full service city. We provide police, fire, and we also have a water treatment plant. So we have a population of about 120,000 people. It's a large enough city with the complexities that we feel a specialized expertise is needed in the area of city clerk and management of records. The current city clerk, which I will allow her to speak for herself, announced recently that she will not be seeking re-election in 2028. And we have also done some research and have found that the vast majority of cities in California actually are appointed city clerks and not elected. And I'll get into some more details in a second. And as part of the council's priority on organizational excellence and using best practices, that's the recommendation of staff to explore that in the November election. MAJOR AREAS OF RESPONSIBILITY FOR A CITY CLERK ARE ELECTION LAWS, THE BROWN ACT, PUBLIC RECORDS ACT, AND RECORDS MANAGEMENT, BUT THESE ARE JUST THE MAJOR BUCKETS THAT CITY CLERK IS RESPONSIBLE FOR. Since 2014, there have been a lot of changes in multiple laws that the city courts usually help a jurisdiction comply with. Election laws, public record laws, the Public Reform Act, and the Brown Act. This is my own research, and so I found about 20 some odd different changes in the law. As far as our comparable cities, we compare ourselves to about 13 other jurisdictions per Resolution 2000-156 of the City Council where we look at both from a recruitment and retention perspective, compensation philosophy, but also the size of the jurisdictions and the level of services they provide to their populations and within that universe there are ten jurisdictions that have elected appointed city clerk positions and only three that have elected city clerks so that essentially means that seventy percent of seventy seven percent sorry of our comparable cities are have appointed clerks as opposed to elected clerks Advantages of appointment mainly really revolve around compliance and compliance with all the laws that I mentioned earlier and put up on the slides. The California, sorry, the City Clerks Association of California provides certification and continuing education opportunities to be able to help city clerks, professional city clerks, comply with all the different changes in the law. As you know, every year we get new changes on new laws on the books. It will also help with continuity. As mentioned, Ms. Reese is not going to seek reelection in 2028. So we will have a new city clerk and the city clerk Under the general law model that we currently have, they don't have to have any expertise in that area necessarily. And Ms. Reese can tell a more detailed story, but I believe the reason she was appointed in 2014 was because the last person quit after the first year, I believe, of their elected tenure. So it does help with continuity as well. So as far as this potential implementation for this position, obviously it depends on the discussion tonight and then the vote in the July 7th meeting. But if the voters pass that measure and after 2028, that's when we would be looking to fill this position in an appointed procedure as opposed to an elected procedure. So the planning for that position is underway currently. And with that, I am available for any questions you may have on this item.

Thank you.

Do we have any public speakers on this item? I don't have any speaker cards. Did anyone wish to speak about this?

No. OK, so bring it back to the City Council for discussion. Yes, Sir.

The position would be one of the requirements would they would have to be a current employee. Is that correct? I'm sorry, a current current city employee.

No, no, no, no, they don't have meaning occur in a city employee right now. They don't have to be a current Fairfield City employee. Anyone can apply. It will be just like in any other open position that we recruit for. Thank you.

Any other questions? I would just like to make one comment that the other reason this is important is I ran unopposed all three times. So in 2028, I'm not running. So what would they do in the event no one runs? It could cost the city a lot of money for a special election. So since 80% of the cities in California do have an election, appointed clerk. It's kind of the old school way of doing it, having an elected clerk, so I'm hoping that this will pass. I was appointed in 2014. Like Farbode said, The prior city clerk, she was elected to a four-year term, and after one year, for personal reasons, she had to resign. So because I was a part-time employee here, the city manager at the time asked if I'd be interested in... Applying and I applied and two others the other two applicants did not have any clerical experience whatsoever so And also at the time I needed medical You know health benefits because I was part-time so I didn't I was paying quite a bit for those benefits so that's kind of how it all came to be and And then in 2016, 2020, and 2024, I was elected. But again, ran unopposed, so it was very easy to win.

Thank you for that perspective. Do I have a public speaker who wants to speak? Can you just come to the mic, grab a card, fill it out, or we can do that for you? I can write your name down, sir.

Oh, okay. Go ahead and speak.

Yeah, so what I was curious about I LOOK UP HERE AND SOMEWHERE ALONG THE LINE I WAS ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL, I SUPPOSE. BUT WE DIVIDED CITIES INTO DISTRICTS. AND YOU GUYS EACH COME FROM A PARTICULAR DISTRICT. I USE THE TERM GUYS LOOSELY. I'M REFERRING TO ALL OF YOU. DIVIDE AND CONQUER IS THE TERM THAT COMES TO MIND. AND NEPOTISM, FRIENDSHIP, FAMILIAL TIES. When you appoint somebody versus electing someone, then you take things away from us the citizens, or from you guys the citizens. So when you divide and conquer by creating districts, then you can isolate. You can change boundaries. You can deviate from what's the norm. So I'm just curious if everyone, I'd like you guys to take that into consideration, but I'm also curious what someone else behind me or you folks might think about people that are appointed versus elected by the people that are making a choice. So we're just losing more and more, in my opinion, all the time of our OUR PUBLIC VOICE SO I FELT THE NECESSITY TO GET UP HERE AND SAY SOMETHING ABOUT IT THANK YOU THANK YOU ANY OTHER SPEAKERS ON THIS ITEM COUNCIL DIRECTION COUNCIL MEMBER PENDERO

Thank you. I just had a question with regards if it's if it is an appointment. Would the process be similar to our other appointments like with Commission or is that still to be discussed to regards to how that process would work?

THAT'S STILL TO BE DISCUSSED. THERE'S ESSENTIALLY TWO OPTIONS FOR YOU. ONE IS COUNCIL CAN CREATE A PROCESS FOR THAT TYPE OF APPOINTMENT. OR MOST COMMONLY, YOU KNOW, AGAIN, IN LOOKING AT THE RESEARCH, AND I DON'T HAVE THE NUMBER SPECIFICALLY, TYPICALLY IT'S POSITION WITHIN THE CITY UNDER EVERY OTHER, YOU KNOW, LIKE A DEPARTMENT HEADER OR DIVISION MANAGER WHERE IT'S UNDER THE PURVIEW OF THE CITY MANAGER IN ORDER TO HIRE COMPETENT AND QUALIFIED CANDIDATES FOR THAT POSITION.

So just to follow up on that it wouldn't be like an Oakland open application process where or would it be that an open application process where anybody in the city can apply and and then it will come to you Mister city manager for consideration.

YEAH, SO SIMILAR TO A PROCESS THAT WE DO FOR ANY OF THE SENIOR LEADERSHIP IN THE ORGANIZATION RIGHT NOW, WE'LL TYPICALLY HIRE A RECRUITER AND DO AN OPEN RECRUITMENT. THAT ALWAYS DEPENDS. MAYBE THERE'S A NUMBER TWO IN A DEPARTMENT THAT IS PRIMED AND READY TO GO, BUT MOST COMMONLY WE OPEN A FULL OPEN AND COMPETITIVE RECRUITMENT AND THEN WE TAKE APPLICATIONS AND THEN WE INTERVIEW THE MOST QUALIFIED CANDIDATES AND THEN SELECT THE BEST CANDIDATE AND APPOINT THEM TO THAT POSITION.

thank you just one more would that person join the senior senior leadership team

TO BE DETERMINED AT THIS POINT IN TIME. AS FARBO MENTIONED, WE'VE KIND OF WORKED ON THIS A LITTLE BIT, BUT DON'T WANT TO SPEND TOO MUCH TIME SPINNING OUR WHEELS ON WHAT THAT LOOKS LIKE FOR TWO REASONS. FOR ONE, COUNCIL HAS GOT TO DECIDE AT THE NEXT MEETING IF YOU EVEN WANT TO PUT THIS ON THE BALLOT. TWO, WE HAVE TO SEE THEN IF IT WAS GOING TO PASS WITH THE VOTERS. AND THEN THREE, IT'S STILL A COUPLE OF YEARS BEFORE MISS REECE'S TERM WOULD BE UP.

Any further guidance from the City Council? Council Member Williams.

Thank you.

I really appreciated the slide where you showed us the long list of similar cities that are doing this appointment process, but was there any calls made to those cities to see any hiccups that have happened. For example, the one that I think of sitting right next to our city clerk is she is super, super organized. Things are highlighted. Sometimes it's very fast paced. She's managing timing. She's managing screens. She's taking votes. So on face, you might look qualified. And it could get a little hot up here too. So she's managing all of that and she's taking note of who's making motions, who's seconded. It's just a lot of moving pieces that may on that side it might look really super simple and I just don't think it is sitting right next to her. So I guess my question, back to my original just thought, is how do we, A, make sure that someone is really qualified? How is it working in other cities, that long list? Do we have a sense if it's working or not and how we can get in front of that?

SO I WOULD OFFER YOU TWO THINGS. SO I WOULD OFFER YOU TWO THINGS. NUMBER ONE, HOW WOULD WE ENSURE NUMBER ONE, HOW WOULD WE ENSURE THAT IT'S QUALIFIED? THAT IT'S QUALIFIED? WELL, WE WOULD HAVE TO HAVE A JOB WELL, WE WOULD HAVE TO HAVE A JOB DESCRIPTION. DESCRIPTION. RIGHT NOW, IF YOU LOOK AT ANY RIGHT NOW, IF YOU LOOK AT ANY POSITION WITHIN THE CITY OF FAIRFIELD, POSITION WITHIN THE CITY OF FAIRFIELD, THERE'S A DETAILED JOB DESCRIPTION THERE'S A DETAILED JOB DESCRIPTION THAT HAS MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS, THAT HAS MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS, EXPERIENCE NECESSARY, AND I THINK EXPERIENCE NECESSARY, AND I THINK THAT'S PART for voters saying is that under the elected model the reason most cities have gone away from it is because anybody can apply and run and if there's no opposition right because there's been limited interest in the position from a elected perspective then it's much more highly likely that you're going to get somebody that has no experience and may not be qualified for the position but as an elected office under general city state law, which gives you this option to also go to an appointed model, then essentially the city is stuck with them. And there have been instances throughout California where that has led to pretty big problems for organizations. So under the appointed model, if we hire somebody that then is YOU KNOW, PROVES TO NOT BE QUALIFIED, THEN THEY'RE SUBJECT TO TERMINATION AND YOU RERECRUIT AND YOU HIRE SOMEONE NEW THAT'S GOING TO MEET THE NEEDS OF THE POSITION. THE SECOND IS, AND THIS IS MORE ANECDOTAL, ADMITTEDLY, BUT IT GOES SORT OF BACK IN MY CAREER BACKGROUND. IN 2013 AND 2014, I WAS ACTUALLY, I MOONLIT A LITTLE BIT, AND I WITH THE CITY CLERKS ASSOCIATION OF CALIFORNIA TO DO THEIR OF CITY CLERKS ASSOCIATION OF CALIFORNIA TO DO THEIR OF CITY CLERKS ASSOCIATION OF CALIFORNIA TO DO THEIR STATEWIDE REORGANIZATION AND STATEWIDE REORGANIZATION AND STATEWIDE REORGANIZATION AND STRATEGIC PLAN. STRATEGIC PLAN. STRATEGIC PLAN. AND SO ONE OF THE THINGS THAT I AND SO ONE OF THE THINGS THAT I AND SO ONE OF THE THINGS THAT I LEARNED IN TALKING WITH, GOSH, LEARNED IN TALKING WITH, GOSH, LEARNED IN TALKING WITH, GOSH, PROBABLY 100 CITY CLERKS FROM ALL PROBABLY 100 CITY CLERKS FROM ALL PROBABLY 100 CITY CLERKS FROM ALL THROUGHOUT THE STATE WAS EXACTLY AS FARBO MENTIONED, THIS IS INCREASINGLY BECOMING A MUCH MORE LEGALLY COMPLEX POSITION. AND I'VE SEEN SOME CLERKS THAT ARE SOME OF THE SHINING PILLARS OF THE PROFESSION NOW that are coming to these positions with law degrees because it's just increasingly more and more complex. And a major big portion of this is records, the historical records. And as we've learned recently, particularly in some of our litigation cases, the city's long-term records, you go back 20, 30 years, we're not necessarily up to the level that we now need in terms of trying to defend ourselves in lawsuits. As that gets more complex, as those requirements continue to get more complex, in fact, Farbode showed 20 different laws. Meanwhile, the city attorney just talked to you about one more right before that that is now on the books. So it's simply getting more complex, and that's why 80% of the cities have gone to an appointed clerk because increasingly of that complexity, they're going the opposite way. They're not going the other way.

And Madam Vice Mayor, if I may, I know the city attorney usually doesn't give an opinion on a policy matter, but I feel the need to speak because I think Miss Reese is such a wonderful city clerk, but she's very humble. So I think, you know, her humility is doing a disservice in this case because she doesn't really she's not one to talk about how good she is. and the city fairfield has been very very fortunate to have her as a city clerk an elected city clerk for the number of years she has i've known her now for five years you don't get the level of professionalism you will get with miss reece through an elected city clerk and that's just being honest and i understand mr harris's general concerns about oh we're losing something by not through an election but to add to what mr gasaway said I teach ethics courses at the California City Clerks Association annually, and they have two meetings, one in the spring, one in the winter. They have a beginner new clerk track and a returning veteran clerk track, and almost all the city clerks that I know go to at least one a year, either for the refresher veterans course or when they're starting out to the new course. It's a three-day course. of all day training, basically from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. They network with fellow clerks. And that's just the professionalism you get. The thing to understand that Ms. Reese is not telling you because she's so modest is what you see here at the meeting is about 10% of what she deals with. The city clerk is also responsible for maintaining all the legal records of the city. So anytime an ordinance is passed, every time a resolution is passed, they have to stamp it. They have to get your signature, Madam Mayor. They have to make sure it's filed correctly. They have to make sure that it's kept. In perpetuity forever, so that 30, 40, 100 years from now, if we need to look up what we did in 2026, it'll be found. It'll be stored properly. She acts as the city's notary. She is the city's elections official to make sure the elections are conducted properly. They handle Public Records Act requests. They just do so much that, again, is 90% that, you know, what you see here is the tip of the iceberg, and underneath is a whole slew of things. I would say after the city manager, actually, I wouldn't say after city, I would say the city manager, city attorney, and city clerk are the triangle of the keystone that holds the city together and in a ministerial position. The last thing that I'll mention, I can't remember if it was on the slide, is the problem with having an elected city clerk is that harken back to like the horse and buggy days when there was distrust of the capital of Sacramento where you wanted to have one of your own in your town acting as city clerk to make sure that there was no funny business with you know Sacramento or some other city taking away your water rights your grazing rights well now it is a highly technical position um and if you are limited to an elected city clerk you have to draw somebody who lives in fairfield and that's hard that's like asking your city attorney to be in the city there's just not enough you know people with the expertise there you might get lucky and you did get lucky by finding someone who lives in fairfield who can be your city clerk but there's no guarantee that you're going to find somebody if you maintain an elected position so again um i'm just going to sing miss reese's praise because she's not going to do it but Yeah, you're really lucky. We've been really lucky to have her for as long as we had. And I don't know that you're going to catch lightning in a bottle again in 2028.

Thank you for that perspective, Mr. City Attorney. Any other guidance? And we're all singing your praises, and you already know that. You're very welcome. It's very much deserved. Is that enough guidance for you, sir?

I believe so. Yep.

Okay. Thank you.

Thank you.

I just put a cough drop in, but the next item is Q2, discussion of consideration for a resolution to place a ballot measure for amending sales tax. Discussion of whether to consider scheduling for the July 7th, 2026 city council meeting, a resolution to place a ballot measure, extending and increasing the city sales tax by 1% on the ballot at the November 3rd, 2026 general municipal election. And again, our presenter is Farbod Perusman, our assistant city manager.

Good evening again. I'm back. So as Mr. Furtado earlier did his presentation regarding our budget and the last few fiscal years, the structural deficit we've been experiencing, different measures we've taken to be able to reduce that structural budget. FOR THE RECORD, I NEED TO CORRECT THAT $11 MILLION STRUCTURAL BUDGET, AS COUNCILMAN WILLIAMS CORRECTLY POINTED OUT, NOW IT IS $12 MILLION BECAUSE ABOUT $930,000 WERE ADDED TO IT FOR EQUIPMENT PURCHASES, ET CETERA. So why update Measure P? Measure P is unique in the funding that it provides and the oversight that funding experiences given the good work that specific residents of the city do. As Furtado mentioned, we did ask the city council regarding the types of measures we could take to be able to close that budget. As mentioned before, we did increase the TOT tax and we did increase the business license tax to try to address some of those revenue losses. And finally, when we presented the actual draconian cuts that we would have to make to the budget to be able to close that $12 million gap. the potential consideration for an update to Measure P was presented as an option. So tonight, again for discussion, I'm here to present to you some information about that potential and if we get the direction from you tonight, we'll come back July 7th for an actual vote. Again, I did attach both the resolution and ordinance drafts to the agenda report for your consideration and to talk about any potential changes you would want to make to them. As you saw in the budget presentation, there are different cost pressures that we're feeling from PERS costs and medical costs to liability, both general liability and workers' comp insurance, and general costs of doing business, purchasing equipment, cost of electricity, et cetera, et cetera. And that chart is on the left that does a percentage increases. And so for example, our liability is increased almost 150% and since 2020. So we do have some serious expenses, expense drivers that we need to address. One other example is Justin Street Maintenance. For our road funding, we currently spend about $9 million a year to try to keep our PCI at 64. In order to maintain that average of 64, we would need to spend $18 million. The state average PCI is 65. A little bit of history, but history and transparency because transparency has been really a part and parcel of Measure P since its inception and adoption in 2012 rather. Back then the city was facing serious and dire financial pressure and the city folks and actually residents went to the voters to adopt a specific sales tax for the city. And the voters had back then the confidence in city staff to be able to address the concerns as far as quality of life goes, public safety goes, and they did pass that sales tax, that local sales tax. Again, in 2016, they reaffirmed that commitment and extended that tax through 2033. And from the beginning, the Measure P Oversight Committee has been extremely important, I believe, in the confidence that the voters have in the city of Fairfield on how this money is being spent. I'll talk more about that in a little bit. But mainly it needs to be mentioned that those good folks preside over the money we spend on road maintenance from Measure P, the money we spend for both fire and police, homelessness response, and parks and recreation, both parks and programming. So it helps to keep response times low, keep fire stations open, help road maintenance, and keep parks and recreation functioning. As part of the 2025 Measure P expenditures, you can see that the vast majority of that money is spent on the police department and the fire department, but with good support both for public works and for parks and recreation. So the update that you're considering is adding 1% Adding 1% to the current Measure P sales tax, which is 1% right now, so it would be for a total of 2%. Eliminating the current sunset, and just as a general piece of information, we estimate the annual revenue to be $24 million. So as part of this consideration, the city council decided to commission a survey, actually two surveys, from our voters to see what they think about what's important to them in the city, what are they satisfied with, what are they dissatisfied with, and if they would support such a measure. I've attached the survey results to the agenda report, so I'm just going to do a quick overview and give you some highlights. We did two rounds of surveys, one in November, December time in 2025, and then again in April and May time. But the majority, well, actually all the different categories that voters care most about remain the same. They care about public safety and 911 response. They care about homelessness response, streets, sidewalks and crosswalks, managing city finance and keeping taxes low. They also are generally satisfied with the quality of life. I do want to mention that in the graph the quality of life is around 50% and actually improved from the 2025 survey to 2026. However that's only for individuals that rated the quality of life as good. There were another 30 out of some percentage of people that rated this quality of life as fair. So over 80% of folks in the city do believe that the quality of life in Fairfield is fair or good. I just wanted to point that out because I thought it was important. But again, high satisfaction with our fire department and services, police department, Parks and Recreation. As far as supporting the measure, it increased from the November 2025 survey to the 2026 survey, in our estimation, significantly. And I'll talk more about that. In a second. I wanted to also talk about the reasons that voters felt that they would support this measure. Specifically, the number one reason was that the funds will stay in Fairfield. So this is a local sales tax. So the money will only be spent on Fairfield programming. The state does not have any access to this money. independent oversight and honest and you might say okay well it was high on the voters list not to have taxes to have low taxes so how does how does this sort of jive with their support and in my opinion, is because of the independent oversight. It is because of the good work that members of that committee do. It's because of the good work that our finance team does with the audits that are performed each year so that there is transparency in how those monies are spent. And I think that explains why there is support for it and also preventing service reductions which I believe that residents appreciate as we talked about all the different services that they enjoy. So as far as next steps for this item go, so again, with your direction, we would bring back the resolution ordinance on July 7th meeting, ask for your consideration. The ballot, if you did vote on it, the ballot would be placed by August 7th, meaning that we have to talk to the county by August 7th to be able to place this ballot measure on the November 3rd. Election, if the voters pass this measure update, the measure update, then the sales tax actually would go into effect in April of 2027. So it's not an immediate increase in the local sales tax. And with that, I am more than happy to answer any questions you may have.

Thank you.

Do we have any public speakers on this item? I do have one, Nikila Walker-Gibson. Q2? Oh, OK. I thought you wanted Q2 and Q4. Sorry.

OK. Madam Vice Mayor, I think we need to let her know she can speak on both. She doesn't, you don't have to choose to choose which one you want to speak on. You can talk on Q2 and Q4.

Did any, okay, thank you. Did anyone else wish to speak on this matter?

Anyone wishing to speak on this item needs to do so now.

Right, and I don't see any hands raised online. Okay.

Alright, Council Council discussion or guidance or direction or? Council member Sandu.

Thumbs up OK. Yeah, ultimately in your packet or the draft documents. We just wanted one final check in with you before this is brought back to you on July 7th, which is essentially going to be the last opportunity then to take the formal vote to place it on the November ballot. all all throughout here in the last, you know half a year to a year as We've gone through the engagement process you know, it's essentially it's council's been considering this and You have been considering this and we've been giving you information. We've been giving you feedback We've been gathering information and gathering feedback from the community as far boat showed there seems to be support in the community and so at this point in time If you want us to bring back the draft documentation that you have right now, then we're happy to do that on July 7th. And that would be the time in which you would take a formal vote to place it on the November ballot. Or if there's any final changes that anybody saw or wants to request or more information, we just want to be prepared to have that for you on the 7th.

Okay. So that's the direction you're seeking? Yeah, I'm in favor. Okay. Looks like everybody is in favor.

Perfect. We will bring this back on the 7th. Thank you.

Perfect. Thank you.

On to item Q3. Yes, item Q3, presentation and discussion about school resource officers, presented by Fairfield Police Department for the use of school resource officers at schools in Fairfield, requested by Councilmember Santu. And our presenter is our Chief of Police, Dan Marshall.

THERE WE GO. THANKS, FAR BOWED. THERE WE GO. THANKS, FAR BOWED. THERE WE GO. THANKS, FAR BOWED. MAYOR, COUNCIL, AND COMMUNITY.

MAYOR, COUNCIL, AND COMMUNITY. MAYOR, COUNCIL, AND COMMUNITY. I'M CHIEF OF POLICE DAN MARSHALL. I'M CHIEF OF POLICE DAN MARSHALL. I'M CHIEF OF POLICE DAN MARSHALL. I'M HERE TO TALK ABOUT THE I'M HERE TO TALK ABOUT THE I'M HERE TO TALK ABOUT THE SCHOOL RESOURCE OFFICER PROGRAM. SCHOOL RESOURCE OFFICER PROGRAM. SCHOOL RESOURCE OFFICER PROGRAM. I WILL PROBABLY REFER IT TO I WILL PROBABLY REFER IT TO I WILL PROBABLY REFER IT TO SRO GOING FORWARD AS THAT'S A SRO GOING FORWARD AS THAT um i so we have had a long-standing school resource officer program in the city of fairfield i've been here for over 27 years and i think it was probably been here at least 35 years we've had a Every year we renew a memorandum of understanding between the Fairfield-Sassoon Unified School District and the Travis Unified School District. In that memorandum, it kind of talks, I think you guys have a copy, but it talks to providing safety for schools and that's an education code mandate that the schools have to provide safe schools for their students. And with the MOU, with the Fairfield Sassoon Unified, it covers four school resource officers, one at Fairfield High School, one at Armio High School, one at Rodriguez High School, and one at Grange. We used to have an additional one at the Public Safety Academy due to budget constraints two years ago when we had to make some cuts and freeze some positions. That was one of the positions that we moved out and we had put a community service officer in there and they now serve as a cadet training officer for the Public Safety Academy and she does an amazing job. uh travis unified school district there is an sro at vanden high school who also covers golden west and center high school and just the rodriguez high school sro also covers um green valley sorry um middle school so um Generally, in our contract, and this has increased over the years, we now have a salary portion that is covered by the school district. They cover 50% of the salary of the SROs and the CSOs, and that is the same in both contracts. As far as things like events held outside of the regular school day, such as football games, basketball games, heavily attended events, this year we had a first where we had to have some at a baseball game, some extra security between Fairfield and Armio High School due to a fight at one of the preceding games. that is covered through overtime and that is an agreement again with the school districts and that's part of the actual mou srvos generally provide campus safety and mentorship while also addressing criminal activities both on and off campus a lot of people don't realize is that school districts are responsible for the kids until they get home And so that oftentimes takes our SROs when school gets out to circulate the areas around the campuses as they're walking home to provide safety. So one of the big questions I get is, do SROs have additional training? SROs do attend a 40-hour specialized training. It covers penal code, government code, education code. It also covers relationship building with juveniles. Obviously, dealing with juveniles is a lot different than adults. Also, crisis intervention techniques. And that's certified through the California Peace Officer Standards and Training. Additionally, we've started having our SROs, as we can, attend an annual conference hosted by the National Association of School Resource Officers. That's best practices across the nation. It includes, again, effective strategies and policing and student support. Three years ago, one of our school resource officers, now Sergeant Bender, was actually recognized as the National School Resource Officer of the Year for work he was doing at Grange Middle School. So it's pretty phenomenal. Officers also, they're all police officers, the Fairfield Police Department, so they are required to attend quarterly training through the Fairfield Police Department, also all post-mandated perishable skills training, which is every two years. All of the SROs have attended a 32- or 40-hour crisis intervention training, which provides de-escalation, mental health training, and critical crisis response. In 24 and 25, the Solano County Grand Jury did an investigation on school resource program, a school resource officer program across the whole county. Obviously, Fairfield City Unified and Travis Unified were included in that. And the report came out July 1st, 2025. They gave five recommendations and overall were very positive about the SRO program across the county. So of those five recommendations, the first one was to increase SRO staffing levels to ensure adequate coverage for absences. We are a full-service police department. We have officers that have collateral assignments. Some of them are on SWAT, some of them are on mobile field force, could be the technical support team or crisis negotiations team. And so sometimes they have mandated training that calls them away from the schools and then there's also life things that come up or if we have a SWAT search warrant a lot of them get called away. And so in the past, sometimes those would just get left as blank slates at the schools. Sergeant Pena, who is supervisor of our SRO program, he's done a phenomenal job this year of ensuring that we have coverage. Generally, it's former SROs or future SROs, someone that wants to be an SRO. And just for them wanting to be an SRO, this is a good experience for them. in order to become an SRO they have to submit a memorandum requesting to do the job and then we work with the school district and collaborate and have one of the principals or two there's been times where we had to fill two spots so we'll have principals sitting on the oral board panels so they help select their next SRO for the school The next recommendation was to adjust the SRO schedule to a 5-8 shift schedule structure. As much as that would be amazing, we can't do that. That's an MOU issue with the Fairfield Police Officers Association, and they don't have that schedule in there. So it's agreed upon by the school district and the Police Officers Association and the city that it will be a 4-10 shift. And again, we try to get some backfill. Assign SROs to all middle schools. Historically in Fairfield, back when Sullivan was a middle school and not a regular school now, we used to have one SRO cover both Grange and Sullivan. Green Valley was quite small back then. and wasn't really an issue now we do have the one sro abandoned again covering golden west and we have the other sro at rodriguez covering for green valley so as much as we'd love to have more sros we have staffing shortage right now and that's not going to happen in the near future for sure enhance all call accessibility for elementary schools this year again hats off to sergeant pina he's really encouraged the school resource officers who have that training and dealing with kids to go to the elementary schools they handle 310 calls at elementary schools this year besides what they normally deal with in the high schools in junior high the next thing was implement roving assignments again we just don't have the staffing as it was we had to reduce one police officer and put a cso over at public safety academy and that obviously took away a little bit of coverage from fairfield high school they would obviously go over there so they're very close to each other And then the last thing is the diversion program. We no longer have a diversion program. The Solano County Probation runs diversion. We were kind of working against each other almost at one point, so we sent all of our cases over to Solano County Probation so they can deal with the diversion itself and continue to run their program. The next one is expand joint training opportunities between SROs and school staff. Again, they've done an amazing job this year. Ray Hamilton, who's at Army Hill High School, he did gang awareness training. We had some gang issues at Army Hill at the beginning of the school year. He was teaching teachers and staff on what to look for for gang signs and gang awareness. That will be going out to additional staff across the school district this year. We did a human trafficking signs at Grange with SRO Andre Lawrence. That was successful. We already had one teacher that saw some signs and mentioned them to Andre. And so that's a good situation. With that, he will also be going around to the whole districts or both districts to talk about those things. We're planning with Amir Diaz next year to train monitors at the schools. talking about looking at safety options, different situations that are coming up, de-escalation and such. And then two of our SROs regularly teach anti-bullying classes at the elementary schools. So we're trying to do a lot of training with the school district and I'll talk a little bit about a lot of collaboration. And then lastly, social media, they made a recommendation to counter misinformation. We work currently with our PIOs, officers that we have, and our social media team who works with the school district's PIOs to address information. We try to stay on top of it as fast as we can. Obviously with the social media abilities now, it's super hard to even play catch up at this point, and it goes viral so fast. So it makes it very challenging. So what are they doing on campus? Mediations, interventions, and positive contacts. They had over 3,400 of those this year. We started a dashboard and keeping track of some of the things that they're doing on campus. And so those are some of the numbers. One I want to draw attention to is investigations. There's 1,604. But if you look right below, it's criminal bookings, which is only 37, and criminal citations, which is 289. So that's about 325 for less than 10% of the contacts that our SROs are having result in some type of criminal behavior or action. And so that's important to just mention. And obviously, we are concerned about school safety. One of the programs they started this year as well, was checking doors. Doors should be locked so that people, active killers situation, they can't get in. We've also had issues where parents have come on campus trying to look for kids to fight, believe it or not. And so we want to make sure those classrooms are secured. So our officers are checking those doors and they found 4,449 doors unsecured. this year so it's something that it's improving with the school districts and we're grateful that it is but it's something we're going to continue to stay on um and then lastly just collaboration efforts with the police department and and the school districts as a whole the school sros attend quarterly collaborative meetings with travis and fairfield unified district staff administrative staff and they also meet with the school principals and they give trainings they give some updates on their schools and things that are happening um sergeant pina routinely collaborates with solano county probation to ensure that cases are being followed up on or if there's anything we need to do in addition and lieutenant roland who manages that unit and our homeless intervention team in traffic he also is a representative in local county-wide meetings with other organizations that have school resource officer programs The SROs collaborate with mental health staff. Solano County Office of Education started a couple years ago a mobile crisis program in the schools. It's been phenomenal. It takes away the ability for us to have to do 5150 evals when kids are in crisis. I don't disagree with a lot of people. They shouldn't be dealing with cops. They should be dealing with mental health professionals. and so that is what has happened now with that program and i know dr parr is a big fan of that program wants to continue that program i just attended an event not too long ago where she spoke to that and we wholeheartedly support that Some other things that they are doing is sometimes in the community we have events near schools where maybe a suspect runs and we need to do a lockout. There's different terms. I'll just try to keep it as simple as possible. But keeping people from inside the school is called a lockout. And so he'll liaison with the school that we have the lockout out to ensure that when we lift it, they're aware because there has been challenges in the past where miscommunications have occurred. He's a direct liaison now. We learned after the first shooting at Fairfield High School earlier in the school year that there is a ring down problem with the phone lines to put it on lockdown. And so we worked with them through that to ensure that it will keep ringing down to other teachers rooms until we can get ahold of an actual person. to ensure that we can get a lockdown on campus. So overall, they're involved in a lot on and off campus. They also serve with the PAL program. They monthly rotate and spend time with the kids. They do feasts with the finest. They're out doing a lot. They're mentoring a lot of kids. um as a former sro myself for fairfield high school i believe this comes full circle i have one of my former students actually in the crowd here and he's a teacher at fairfield high school i met recently with the school teachers and i think three of the current teachers at fairfield high were students when i was an sro fairfield high school i think there's a ton of value in this program i think there's a lot of value and continue in this. And there's been a lot of concern of what happens if we don't have SROs. We will have more patrol responses, general patrol responses to the high schools and to the grade schools and the junior high schools. What does that mean? That means that generally our rule is we have at least two officers respond to all incidents. SROs are the rare exception because they build those relationships with the kids and most of the time. we can break things up very quickly with school staff and the sro and get people separated when they're fighting and just deal with issues in a different manner if we send in patrol we handle like a normal call and they don't have that experience and they're dealing with the students all the time so it does change it a little bit And so again, I highly recommend that we maintain our SRO program. I know we've already signed one memorandum of understanding for next year with Travis Unified School District. And we're kind of waiting on Fairfield right now because of everything that's been happening. But I believe they're in support as a whole. And any questions?

Thank you, Chief. Excellent report. Any questions for the Chief? Okay, just colleagues. No. Okay. Okay. Council member Sandu.

Thank you, Madam Vice Mayor. Thank you, Chief. For example, I want to take Travis Unified School District. You stated between Vanden Tech and Golden West, they have one SRO typically. Is that correct? Correct. In your opinion, is one adequate?

um that's a good question i mean i would always like to have more police officers just in general the i'll just go with what the grand jury said that we need one in every junior high school if we were to keep up with what they're doing or what the city of vacaville does then we would add two more sros to the program but right now just staffing and budget don't allow for it

School safety.

Yes.

Is that the responsibility of the city of Fairfield?

It's the responsibility of the school district, but we work in collaboration and partnership. And overall, it becomes down to the police department because we're the ones that are going to get called if something does happen on campus.

Since we split cost 50-50, do we split responsibility 50-50?

I think that's a legal question for this guy right here.

Short answer is maybe. If there's an incident on campus, we're not going to immediately, as your attorney, say, oh, the city will handle all responsibility. Usually in a contract with the school district, there's an indemnification clause saying that if anything happens and the city is sued, that the school district is going to indemnify us, meaning in plain English, you're going to help us cover the defense costs.

The school district would cover our costs? Yes. Is that in practice how it works as well?

Yeah. I mean, indemnification clauses are fairly standard legal mechanisms in any contract between parties, so it's not exclusive to this situation any time you enter into a contract. And, you know, most people, when you enter into a contract, you're going to say, if something happens and we're working together, I'm not going to be the only one holding the bag. So, yeah.

But to go back, Chief, you stated school safety is the school district's responsibility, period. Correct.

By education, Kevin.

My concern and the reason I've been thinking a lot about this is I get the feeling at times that school districts do not do more because they partner with cities. For example, they provide transportation. At least for Travis, we don't provide their transportation. In other districts, the city does or the city does not. But there are aspects of school district operations in which they do fund other things. And my concern overall is the practice that we have had for many, many years in which the police department does a little bit, but the school district itself does not go above and beyond. And I just do not like that because it puts us in a position that we can't do more. And it gives them the ability to state, well, the city can't do more. And I'm not comfortable with that because it ends up leading to this minimum viable policing method of safety. And that's what I wanted to talk about this. So I'm not sure where that's going to go, but just thinking out loud here. So I do appreciate the presentation.

No, just to add to that really quick, and they do take advice. We will do things like for Vanden High School, there were some security issues with the fence, and they went and fixed all that based on our recommendations. Armio High School, where the main office was, they were having some issues with parents just walking right through. Our officers gave some recommendations, and they went and took care of that to stop that as well. it is definitely a partnership and obviously we get toward the money and all that that obviously varies but we work really well with the school district thank you any other questions colleagues

council member Williams yes I did have a question but I can wait if you wanted to bring it to the audience before okay okay good enough do we have any public speakers on this item I don't have any speaker cards did anyone we have one standing up I can write your name down ma'am Dana D Dean oh sorry thank you

um... good evening i didn't intend to speak however what i just heard caused me to stand up here in front of you it is true that i am a trustee on the solano county board of education and have been for thirteen years prior to that i was on the benicia unified school board for five years I may have misheard because the sound in the background is sometimes a little unclear, but I want to make sure it's understood that every school district does everything they can. And any suggestion or thought that the school districts could do better or more or contribute more to cooperative circumstances is misplaced. In the circumstances that we find ourselves today, and you may have noticed I've been coming a lot since the very, very tragic circumstances we've seen over the past few weeks, there's no place for claiming that one entity or or another isn't doing what they should do we should all do absolutely everything we can and i'm very very i'm here speaking as a an individual but i do have to say i'm very very proud of the work that the county office of education does particularly under the direction of dr parr who is outstanding in terms of mental health services. And we are working very hard to participate in the efforts to bring greater mental health services and funding to circumstances where a child feels compelled to act and also for the folks who are impacted by those children who do act. So we want to support an effort to save folks from doing something they shouldn't do, and then also to help folks who are victims recover from those traumas. So I'll end with that. Please, let's all stay together. Let's not throw stones at each agency, and I appreciate the time to speak to you tonight. Thank you.

Thank you.

Council Member Williams, you had a comment? I do. I had two comments, actually. One is that, Chief Marshall, we all meet, I think, every other month. The city of Fairfield, various departments, FSUSD, SCO, I believe is there, Desalino College, all there, and various departments. And so we meet and we talk very high level about a lot of different areas that touch our youth. Parks and Rec is there as well. But it's an amazing collaborative group. You mentioned that your SROs meet with principals and there are also a high level dashboard, what's going on, what each school is experiencing. Is that the collaborative, what is the collaborative effort beside, I mean, what does that look like? So I'm assuming in my head there's a dashboard review, but I'm also hoping that there is getting ahead of trends. So if we're seeing a lot of bullying, if we're seeing a lot of fights in one school versus another, and identifying what support systems need to come in from even maybe the outside. I know there's mentorship organizations and apprenticeships. What do these collaborative efforts look like and how is the red flag called when our youth, when we're seeing an uptick in anything and how we can get in front of it.

Yeah, so the communication with us in the school district is non-stop. And I say that literally sometimes at 10 p.m., 11 p.m., if we find out there's something like a threat of a school shooting the next day, we have administrators that have the phone numbers to Lieutenant Rowland and Sergeant Pena, and they're communicating those things immediately. In those collaborative meetings, they are discussing the things you're talking about, like what are the trends, what's happening, what's happening on this campus versus this campus so they can all be caught up and be aware of things that are happening. it's it's hard to describe but the school district all the principals are constantly communicating our SROs are communicating we also do weekly briefings with our SROs to talk about that amongst themselves and so there's a ton of communication and collaboration to ensure that things don't happen but sometimes things still do happen right and so But that is a part of what you're just asking, is those exact things are occurring. And then our city one is more the city, police department, fire, everybody. That is more high level. But the weeds is what they all get into to make sure that the campus is safe.

Thank you. I have one final question. So over the last few City Council meetings, there are quite a few young people that have come before us, parents come before us, and they are worried about school safety. They're concerned and when I listen to it, I remember a time where I was pretty nerdy with thick glasses, corny looking and being afraid, feeling bullied and feeling afraid to go to school. How do our students, and maybe this is more of a question for FUSD, but how do parents and youth, how are they able to communicate this fear? And what do we do collaborative to hear these concerns, really take them in, understand them, and get in front of those so people feel safe?

Yeah, and I think what David brought up at the beginning of the meeting, the collaborative effort right now between some of the pastors in the community, SCOE or Sloan County Office of Education, the school district, and the police department, that is where we're going to try to hit now the recovery side and develop some strategies for that in the future. We do have text-to-tip programs where we get a lot of texts via students who, if they feel like they're not safe or there's something happening on campus or they're concerned, they can let the SROs know anonymously on things like that. They can always talk to the staff on campus. The staff know the SROs, the monitors that are on campus. They're mingling with the kids on a regular basis. The monitors can also talk to the SRO if we have those kind of issues happening. And so I think overall the communication exists. I think part of the problem right now is a healing process that we're addressing, right? With Fairfield High School there's been two critical incidents between the young man being arrested and then the graduate who was obviously shot and killed tragically. We have a lot of healing going on on that campus and I think that is the piece where Solano County Office of Education coming in and bringing in this team that hopefully we can start building even some more communication in the future on how do we work through those processes when before anything ever gets to that point right how do we develop that strategy how do we also provide a safer campus and more accountability for students because there are also a lot of students that fear things that are happening on campus and we're not hearing from them unnecessarily here but that is also something i've heard from many students pastors in the community who talk about some of the the people that go to their their churches that go to different schools And that's also a problem. And we have to do better on both sides of accountability and how do we also fix the healing process of what's been happening right now.

Thank you. Anything else, colleagues?

council member sandu thank you madam vice mayor uh good evening chief okay over the past say decade or maybe two decades um in your from what you recall how often have school districts regularly augmented the campus safety number of personnel through outside support

So I was a SRO in 2007-8 and we had campus monitors back then. So I think it's something that they've always had and that is an assistance to the SROs. Campus monitors are super valuable for us. They also build relationships with the kids, and they can also stop kids from doing what they're doing. But then when the officers need help, I relied many a times on campus monitor or the principal or vice principal to come out and assist. So people are making effort. There's teachers that assist too. Passing periods when there's a lot of movement on the campus, a lot of times teachers will step outside their classroom just to have eyes on. So they are augmenting a lot.

And it helps prevent things from prevent things from occurring over Thank you Thank you any other questions or comments and there are no hands raised online madam clerk no Okay have one online we have one hand online It went from zero to one just like that.

I'm Jake. Could you bring that person online? I

Anna, you have three minutes.

Thank you.

Can you hear me?

Yes. Yes.

I would like to, I'm from Fairfield Senior Defense School District Governing Board, Trustee Area 6. I'm speaking as an individual. I would like to thank Chief Marshall for his thorough presentation. I am quite concerned with the hubris with which Council Member Sandu insinuated that THAT THE SCHOOL DISTRICTS AREN'T DOING ENOUGH. THERE IS ENOUGH VITRIOL IN OUR COMMUNITY. THERE'S A LOT OF BLAME GOING AROUND. THERE'S A LOT OF MISINFORMATION GOING AROUND. AND I WOULD ENCOURAGE COUNCIL MEMBER SANDU, WHO IS ALSO ON A SCHOOL BOARD, TO BE VERY MEASURED IN THE WAY HE throws around accusations. When there are investigations that are ongoing, any remark that sounds like it's accusatory, like we heard a few weeks ago from our former mayor, gets blasted all over media and escalates the situation. And we need to deescalate and rely on the process that Council Member Sandhu knows very well about. Sir, you are a former student of mine. I taught you argumentation and debate. I taught you logic. I taught you how to make an argument. This was not an argument. So I'd like to thank you all very much. I was not going to make a comment, but that was uncalled for, and that was beneath your position, sir. Thank you.

Thank you. OK, anyone else before we move on? Yes, sir.

Thank you.

I didn't see any accusations. I saw an inquiry from Mr. Sandu. Having spent about four or five years in the insurance industry, I saw your inquiry as whether or not you might be able to ascertain how to protect the assets of the community, how to protect the assets of the school district, how to protect the assets of law enforcement, and how to protect the assets of the city. So I am, I guess, rebutting or defending you to that phone call. I think there might be, you can insure against any loss. So if the school district, the school board, the police department, the city of Fairfield, Mr. Lim is an attorney, so he might know of a vehicle or a venue. But any loss can be insured against. even death or injury umbrella liability so something that you folks might want to inquire about and that would defend at least monetary loss it's not going to replace anything or anyone thank you thank you anyone else okay thank you chief marshall yes sir

Mayor, can I just make a point of clarity for public comment earlier? We have never employed or do we employ Sean Kinney from Vallejo Police Department or Ryan McMahon from Vallejo Police Department. We do have an employee that has a similar name. She is not a male police officer and she works in our administrative. So I just want to make that clear because that keeps coming around. And we do not have either one of those employees, nor have we ever.

Thank you for the point of clarification. And for the presentation. Okay, item Q4. Madam Clerk?

Item Q4, discussion, excuse me, discussion, consideration, and possible appointment to fill vacant mayor's position pursuant to California government code section 34902. And our presenter is David Lim, city attorney.

Okay, honorable vice mayor, members of the city council. I don't think I've ever presented three times on items, so this is historical. Before you tonight is something I think probably a lot of people have been waiting for. This is discussion, consideration, and possible appointment to fill the vacant mayor's position pursuant to California government code section 34902. I presented the council with my agenda report in advance of tonight's meeting, as we normally do. I hope the council will indulge me, unless you don't want to indulge me, but I'm going to go first through sort of a summary of where the city of Fairfield sits with their mayor's position as a general law city, because it may not be completely apparent to some folks in the audience, and I think it'll help guide your conversations and also guide public comments that people want to make. So as the council is aware and the community is aware, last Tuesday, June 9th, Mayor Moy resigned her position on the city council, effective Tuesday, June 9th. The city of Fairfield is a general law city, which means that we are governed by the California government code We do not have our own charter So all the power derived from the city of Fairfield derives from the government code and the attendant elections code and any other state law a general law city has two options and for their mayor's position and i would say the majority of general law cities in the state of california have what's called a rotating mayor system meaning if you have five or seven council members then every year from those five or seven council members they select someone to serve as mayor for a year and then they serve as someone to serve as vice mayor for a year and then it rotates And it's mainly ministerial and ceremonial, meaning the mayor presides over the meetings, they sign resolutions, and they're called the mayor. But they have no more power than any of the other four to six council members. And that's called the rotating mayor system. The government code does allow, however, for what's called an elected mayor position, meaning you have individual council members in your districts and then you have one person who is also a member of the city council but is elected directly by the voters. and that is what fairfield has and in order to do that fairfield had to go to the voters in the past and the voters approved a directly elected mayor now the directly elected mayor under the government code is just one of seven council members with no more authority or power than the other six but they stay mayor. So they continue to preside over meetings, they sign all the documents, and they are called mayor. And that is the position that Mayor Moy had, that Mayor Price had. They were directly elected mayors, and that was done through a vote of the citizens to have a directly elected mayor. So the position we have now is we have a directly elected mayor, they are elected every four years, and then you have six council members who represent the six districts of the city. When Mayor Moy retired, there is a very specific provision of the government code that governs this council on your duties. It's not a, you may do this, it's you shall do this, you have to do it. Let me read it to you, and I know the council is aware of it, but I think it'll be helpful to everyone in the room, and again, for your deliberations. Under government code section 34902, it says, In the case of a vacancy in the office of the mayor for any reason, the council shall fill the vacancy by appointment. And the operative word there is shall, meaning you have to do it. But it doesn't really mean you have to do it because we'll keep reading. It goes on to say, if the council fails to fill it within 60 days, it shall call an election to fill the vacancy to be held on the next established election date to be held not less than 114 days thereafter. A person appointed or elected to fill a vacancy shall hold office for the unexpired term of the former incumbent. So basically what this means in plain English is you as the council have 60 days from the date that Mayor Moy resigned. So she resigned on June 9th. The 60th day is August 9th. You have until August 9th to appoint someone to fill the vacancy left by Mayor Moy. However, If you don't do it, then all that means is that you then have to call an election at the next established election date to fill the vacancy. However, and here's where it gets even more confusing, that doesn't apply because as you just did in Resolution 2026-120 about 40 minutes ago, The Mayor Moy's seat was up for election in November, meaning her four-year term was up. She was going to have to run for re-election, and anybody who qualified could run against her. So this part that if you don't pick somebody within 60 days, you have to call for an election at the next established election, you've already done. and it doesn't matter so the point is what we're here for today is basically one thing and one thing only although it's still way more complicated than that you have 60 days from last week so as of today you have 53 days to fill this vacancy If you don't fill the vacancy, then it's just that seat is gonna sit empty and on November 3rd, whoever decides to run for mayor will win an election of the people and that person will become the mayor. Now, a couple things to clarify because we have an acting mayor sitting here in Vice Mayor Bertani, Acting Mayor Bertani. The code says that when you have a directly elected mayor, then the council appoints a vice mayor. They call it a mayor pro tem, but nobody uses that term anymore. But in the code, you'll see it's called mayor pro tem. So the council, if you all recall, when Mayor Moy was elected mayor, appointed Council Member Bertani to be the vice mayor. The point that people need to understand is that The vice mayor acts as the mayor in the absence of the mayor. But the vice mayor under the directly elected mayor system does not become the mayor. Let me say that again because it's kind of like a brain teaser. Vice Mayor Bertani was appointed by this council to act as the vice mayor in the absence of the mayor. But we had a directly elected mayor. So when the mayor resigned, Vice Mayor Bertani is the acting mayor, but she's still a council member for her district. She does not automatically become the appointed mayor to fill the vacancy. The government code says that the council has to fill that seat in any way that they see fit, and we're gonna get to that in a minute. So if the council does nothing, up until November, then Vice Mayor Bertani will continue to act as acting mayor unless the council wants to appoint another vice mayor to act as acting mayor. But she does not automatically become the mayor. And that is quite frankly confusing because I spend my career as a lawyer reading the government code and I had to go look it up. So it's not intuitive. So what are the options for you members of the city council tonight? I'll read again what you are required to do. The council shall fill the vacancy by appointment. I outlined three options for this council, but I want to be very clear as your city attorney, you are not bound by my three options. I gave you three options based on my experience, based on what I've seen other cities do, but there is very little guidance from the courts or the law on how you are to fill this position. And I'll use an outrageous example. As the legislative body, as the leadership of this city, it is up to you to decide how you want to fill that seat. And the courts are going to grant you great deference on how you want to fill it. And this is the extreme example. I don't want people to run out and say, oh my gosh, the city attorney told them you could do this. You could literally take a handful of names on scraps of paper, throw them in the air, and say whichever one lands closest to this Kleenex box is going to be the mayor. Now, do not put that on social media, because I'm not saying you should do that. My point is that this council has great discretion in how they want to proceed. So I'm here to guide you tonight. Whatever ideas you come up with, I'll tell you whether it works or not. But quite frankly, unless you violate some constitutional right to violate a person's due process or base it on some impermissible thing like race, religion, or gender, you're going to be fine. Having said that, I want to share with you the three options based on my experience that I want to share with you. And I'll go through it, and it's in my agenda report. Option one is to appoint a person to fill the vacant mayor seat via an application process. And under that option, what you would do is you would say, we're going to open an application process. And under my recommendation, I would say it's a week and a half or a one week process. You would instruct the city clerk as the elections official to issue an application and basically what I've seen other cities do is they basically use the candidates form when somebody decides they want to run for office. They just fill it out and they would submit it to the city clerk. And then in a week, She would gather all of that. She would verify whether a person is qualified to serve as mayor. And then we would bring it back to you on July 7th, our next council meeting for you to all consider those applications in an open public meeting and then make a decision or not. The reason why I recommend this is under the government code, in order to serve as mayor, you have to have three things. You have to be 18 or over, you have to be a registered voter with the county, and you have to reside in the city. If you pick someone today, most people today, other than the six of you who are already vetted because you're council members so we know that you meet all three requirements, THERE WOULD BE NO WAY FOR THE CITY CLERK SITTING HERE TONIGHT, LET'S SAY YOU PICK, NO OFFENSE, MA'AM, IF YOU PICK THIS NICE LADY HERE, WE DON'T KNOW IF SHE'S 18 OR OVER, WE DON'T KNOW IF SHE'S REGISTERED TO VOTE, AND WE DON'T KNOW IF SHE RESIDES IN THE CITY. THERE'S NO WAY FOR MS. REESE TO JUST STAND THERE AND LOOK AT HER AND BE LIKE, OKAY, LOOKS GOOD TO ME. So an application process would allow the city clerk to fulfill her functions as the election official to vet applicants and say, OK, they're qualified, they're qualified, they're not, just on those three criteria. That's option one. But again, I must stress, you are not required to do that. Option two is you can appoint a person to fill the vacant mayor's seat tonight. That is your prerogative. I know a question that people often ask in this process is, you know, what's the timing? Can we just appoint someone tonight? Yes. The short answer is yes. If you decide as a majority of the body, and again, you only need a majority. You don't need a super majority. So if a majority of you agree tonight that you want to appoint somebody, you can do that. And I must stress again, it can be anybody. long as they meet the three criteria that's the kind of pros and cons right um you can appoint everybody but i think miss reese and we talked beforehand so i'm not speaking for her she said well if they appoint somebody just out of this audience or someone we've never heard of i can't swear them in because i don't know i have to verify them that's her job as a city clerk and as the elections official um so this only would work um i'll give you sort of if you want to do this option my recommendation would be that you appoint somebody subject to qualification so you could appoint somebody and say subject to qualifications you'd make a motion to appoint somebody and say only if they qualify and then direct miss reese to verify and then bring them back on july 7th or just swear them in once as the city clerk she's confident that they've met the requirements. You could do that. Again, I think the only six people in this room where you could say with any degree of confidence that they meet the requirements are the six of you sitting on the dais. You're the only six where I think Ms. Reese would say, Yeah, if you select one of you six, because you're already elected officials and you had to go through the election process, that we could swear you in tonight. Even Mr. Gassaway, even myself, I don't live in Fairfield, so I'm ineligible, but that's my point. Anybody else here, you don't know. So even if you decide this option, I think you do it, but I would say make it subject to verifying them with the city clerk. Your third and final option, well, not your only option, but the third option I recommend is to leave the seat vacant and call for an election to be, call for the seat to be filled on November 3rd. There is no requirement that you fill this seat. I know that the code says you shall fill it, but then it goes right around and says, but if you don't do it, then you gotta call for a special election, okay? Here's the weird timing about this, and it gets a little wonky here. So if you say, we're not going to appoint somebody, I recommend that you make that decision fairly quickly. And I will say that the reasons for either appointing someone or not appointing someone has nothing to do with law. So I'm not going to advise you on that. It's a purely policy decision. So you can appoint someone. You just got to do it within 60 days. Or you don't have to. And if you don't, it goes to the election on November 3. I'm going to be a little paranoid as your attorney. I think legally we are already fine in that you already called for a general election to elect a mayor on November 3rd. So I think we're fine. That's already been done. And we're outside the 114 days. However, as your attorney, being paranoid, I would recommend that if you decide that you're not going to appoint somebody, that you direct me to draft a very simple resolution to put on the consent calendar no later than July 7th, just saying, Verifying that, saying the city council declines to appoint anyone as mayor and is going to let the seat sit vacant until the general election of November 3rd. You don't have to do that. I think you're fine the way you are. I'm being paranoid. But if you decide you don't want to appoint someone, then you just say, David, put that resolution together, put it on consent calendar, and then you're really covered. But again, if you want to wait till August 9th and you go to the last minute and you still can't decide, I think we're fine because we have an election called for November 3rd to fill the mayor's seat. Mr. Gassaway, am I missing anything? We've talked about this so long. Ms. Reese, am I missing anything? Okay, that's where we are. I'll take any questions you have. I'm sure you have some.

Colleagues, any questions? Council Member Carr.

Yes, David. If we were to appoint a person tonight, What would happen with the vice mayor position? Would that be agendized for the 7th to where the new person or the person that's appointed and the rest of the council would go through the motions of re-electing a vice mayor at that time?

So that really is up to the council. The code says that the city council shall appoint a vice mayor in a directly elected mayor system. So generally, historically, city councils change vice mayors. Sometimes they change them more than every four years. Sometimes they change them yearly. And the vice mayor, again, is really just ministerial and ceremonial. You know, they cover when the mayor's not there. It's just so you know who's going to do it, right? There's no more power attached to a vice mayor under our system. Frankly, there's no more power attached to a mayor other than they're one of seven. So the short answer to answer your question is this council could do whatever they want with the vice mayor position. As you know, as this council knows, under the city council policy handbook, the mayor sets the agenda. So a mayor could set that agenda. saying we're going to select a new vice mayor or two council members after consulting with the mayor could agendize it so right now you could agendize it that the vice mayor acting as mayor could agendize that if she's like you know i don't want to be the acting mayor right now she could do that or two of you could ask her hey we want to agendize that the only requirement is it has to be during an open public meeting and it has to be noticed so to anticipate another question you might ask it's you can't select a new vice mayor tonight even if Vice Mayor Bertani said, look, I don't want to do it, because it has not been agendized. Sure.

Any other questions? Council Member Panduro.

um so similar to if anyone if any of us appear or appointed what then happens to our to our seat great question i didn't even go there because i didn't want no i mean honestly i don't know where this council is headed or thinking i mean you can appoint anybody so you know i did not know but it's a great question so the question is to so everyone else understands if a member of the council tonight If a majority of you decide we want to appoint one of our own, you know, because they have the experience or whatever reason, to be a mayor, then there is a legal, well, there's a law, I think it's Government Code 1099, I could be wrong, but it's called the Incompatible Offices Doctrine, meaning an individual cannot hold two offices that are incompatible. And here, being the mayor, you can't be basically, you can't be two council members. That is like the definition of incompatible. So if one council member were appointed to be mayor, then upon being sworn in, whether it's denied or later, then by operational law, that person would cease to be a council member for their district. So let me say that one more time. If one of the six of you were to be appointed mayor, then that person upon being sworn in would cease to be a council member for their district. Now, because I'm a lawyer, and I'm a good one, I've created a resignation form as well. So that if someone, if you just, I've got every contingency in this little manila folder for what you might do. I would advise whoever If somebody does get appointed, I would fill this out very quickly. It's a very simple one-sentence thing saying, I blank hereby resign my seat on the Fairfield City Council district seat number blank in order to assume the duties of mayor. This resignation becomes effective upon taking the oath of office for the mayor of Fairfield. And then you would sign it. Ms. Reese would sign it. I would sign it. And then, you know, we have it in perpetuity. To answer the next part of your question, then that seat would then become vacant, and we'd start this whole thing all over again. then we would have to go through and the process is pretty much the same. Then the council would have 60 days to appoint someone to fill that vacancy. And then it becomes a really lot of crazy election math as to if you don't appoint somebody, when do they hold office? And I'll just, since you asked, let me give you the breakdown. It depends on when the seat is open. So right now, districts one, three, and five, so Council Member Panduro, Council Member Williams, Council Member Carr, your seats are up for election with the mayor's elected seat this November 3rd. So if you appoint someone, and I can give this to you. I printed enough of these, so don't need to write it down. If you appoint someone on or before June 27th, Oh, actually, no, this one's easy. Whoever you appoint there just holds the seat until November 3rd, right? Because then you all have to run for re-election November 3rd. So that person would basically just be holding that seat until November 3rd, and they got to run for re-election on their own. They got to file and run for election to hold the seat if they want it. The difficult one is seats two, four, or six. Council Member Sandu, Vice Mayor Bertani, and Council Member Tonneson. there, these, you three are not, your seats don't come open until November 7th, 2028. So two years from now. If one of you three were to be appointed mayor, then again, the council has 60 days to call to appoint somebody. If the person, now this is the funny part. If that person is appointed on or before June 27th, then they hold the office only until November 3rd, and then we have to call a special election to fill the remaining two years of the term. Let me say that one more time. For two, four, and six, that person, if you appoint a new person to be the council member on or before June 27th, they only hold up till November 3rd, and then we gotta get another resolution together calling for a special election to fill that seat. However, if they're appointed after June 27th, then they get to hold office until November 7th, 2028. That is just by operational law because it has all sorts of things about when they get appointed. And then to add to the last wrinkle, if you don't appoint somebody within 60 days, then you have to call for a special election. And if you call the election on or before July 13th, then you can hold the election this November 3rd. So that saves you money because you already are paying for an election. If you waffle and say, oh, we can't decide, and then you don't appoint somebody within 60 days after July 13, then you have to call for a special election on March 2, 2027. because the state prescribes very specific dates on when elections can be held and the next available election after this November that you would have to hold the election if you don't appoint somebody to two, four, or six is March 2nd, 2027, and that would cost the city money because you'd be paying for a special election that we normally do not hold an election. If you remembered all that, I'd give you a lot of credit. But good question. My advice, all kidding aside, is I think you should focus on appointing the best person you think should fill the mayor's spot and not worry about what happens if this, you know, I think you should just, you know, for the public's sake, Pick the process you think works best for the community again, but that's not legally legal device. It's just. Otherwise you'll kind of spin yourself off, which I've been doing for the last week.

Any other questions?

Public speakers. Yes, I have several. First one is Nikila Walker Gibson.

Can you guys hear me?

Yes.

Good evening council members and members of the public. My name is Nikila Walker-Gibson, and I'm a lifelong Fairfield resident, mother, and candidate for mayor in the November 2026 election. Before I begin, I want to acknowledge the families who are grieving in our community. Recent tragedies have left families searching for answers, healing, and accountability. These moments remind us that leadership is ultimately about people. It is about trust, responsibility, and the decisions we make on behalf of our community. Fairfield is at a critical moment. According to the city's budget forecast, Fairfield is facing a now annual general fund deficit of approximately $12 million. The general fund helps pay for core services such as police, fire, parks, infrastructure, maintenance, and our day-to-day services residents depend on. Yes, many but not all cities across California are facing physical challenges. What matters is how we respond. This is not a one-time challenge. It is an ongoing challenge that requires leadership, long-term planning, and a clear vision for Fairfield's future. The decision made today will shape our city for years to come. They will impact public safety, economic development, infrastructure, community services, and the opportunities available to Fairfield families. The next mayor will help lead Fairfield through one of the most significant financial challenges we have faced in years. This moment requires leadership focused not only on managing today's challenges, but creating tomorrow's opportunities. We need a mayor who understands that fiscal stability and economic development go hand in hand. We need leadership focused on attracting investment, a strong workforce development, supporting local business, and creating pathways that allow Fairfield residents to live prosperous lives here at home. We cannot cut our way to prosperity. We cannot tax our way to prosperity. We must grow our way to prosperity. That is why I respectfully urge council to choose the option of leaving the mayor seat vacant until November election and allowing voters of Fairfield to select their mayor. The people of Fairfield are already scheduled to vote in less than five months and the most democratic path is to allow the community to make that decision rather than granting an individual advantage through appointment. This is not a question of whether there are qualified individuals willing to serve. It is a question of who should make that decision. In November, Fairfield's voters will have the opportunity to choose the leadership they believe is best prepared to guide our city forward. The decision belongs to them. I look forward to continuing conversations with our community as we walk toward to build Fairfield forward. Thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker is Lisa Clinton.

Good evening, Madam Mayor, City Council. I'm Lisa Clinton, a proud resident of Fairfield. I met Kay Patrice Williams in 2020 during one of the most challenging times in our nation's history, the COVID-19 pandemic. While people were facing illness, death, uncertainty, job loss, and fear of the unknown, Kay Patrice was focused on finding innovative ways to keep our community safe while ensuring her team could continue working remotely. For more than two years, Kay Patrice Williams chose not to draw a salary so she could continue to employ her staff. Time and again, she has put the needs of others before her own. Through her transitional housing programs, she has opened doors for individuals in need. Kay Patrice has dedicated her life to serving others. She advocates tirelessly for those who are struggling, who are overlooked, and underserved. She stands up for the downtrodden, the discouraged, and the disadvantaged. Not because it benefits her, but because she genuinely cares. When people suggest that she is profiting from her advocacy, those who truly know her service and sacrifice understand how far that is from reality. Her record speaks for itself. She has spent years investing her time, resources, and energy in improving the lives of others throughout Fairfield and Solano County. Kay Patrice Williams is a proven leader whose compassion is matched only by her commitment to public service. She has consistently demonstrated integrity, vision, and a genuine concern for the well-being of her community. I firmly believe she would serve Fairfield with a distinction as Acting Mayor. I respectfully ask for your support of Councilwoman Kay Patrice Williams as Acting Mayor of Fairfield. Our community deserves a leader who has already shown through both words and actions what it means to serve the people. Thank you. Thank you.

Next is William Harris.

hello again thank you i don't think we should have An election that's not regularly scheduled. I don't see the need for the expense. The lady that's acting vice mayor is fully competent to sign anything and take over any responsibilities. As the attorney said, it's just a figurehead, a title, a position. And if she performs admirably and does her job and cares about the community, she'll be reappointed by the electorate. Or if any of the other people wish to fill the position, they can throw their head in the ring in November and let the people decide. This is a democracy. Let's just bide our time and wait until November. It's only four or five months. Thank you. Thank you.

Next is Elaine Gotka.

Hello again. Okay, so as everybody said, we have less than five months before the November election. For you guys to take away the vote of the people of Fairfield would be an atrocity. You already did it with Mr. Ridge. I don't want you to do that again with this position. There is no reason whatsoever that you need to fill it tonight or within 60 days. Let the people of Fairfield decide who they want as mayor. Thank you.

Thank you. Next is Anne Griffin.

Good evening, Vice Mayor, council members, staff. It was kind of like coming home for me, coming into this council chamber. I've spent many hours here over the last, oh gee since 1983 I started coming here for City Council meetings and to do with Lynch Canyon and then with trying to get schools built in Cordelia which we did and eventually I served on that Community Services Commission I sat right here and Then Fairfield Sassoon School Board sat right here until we built the district office and moved our board meetings over there. So it was kind of interesting sitting here. And listening to the discussion about the vice mayor, I got a big kick out of that. because my great-grandfather, Jacob Guthard, served as the vice mayor, well, he served 38 years on the Detroit City Council. And then a number of those years, he was the vice mayor. And he never became the mayor. Then he was the acting mayor. And when he signed the proclamation ending, you know, recognizing the end of World War II, World War I, sorry, it was as the acting mayor. So I always got a kick out of hearing that whole story about the acting mayor. Yes, you are the acting mayor. So he was. Anyway, yes, I think the best thing to do is to allow our vice mayor to serve as the acting mayor she's quite capable and then hold the election in november for the position of mayor so that the public has a chance to ask the questions that are necessary that has the chance to really vet a candidate. You were talking about the clerk vetting the candidates. The public needs to vet them also. So I hope that you will do that, that you will make that decision to fill that position when the public fills it in November at the election. Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Next speaker is Nora Dizon.

Good evening. I want to share with you the opinions, not just my opinion, but the opinions of actual residents of Fairfield. You can do this poll thing like on Nextdoor, but it would allow residents from other cities to participate. So I kept it in groups. where only the city residents are members. And the city often uses polls with only 400 people, so please consider this. For the option where one of you choose a new mayor, three people voted for that. For the option where you use 60 days to get applicants, et cetera, 12 people voted for that. But the option where you allow the November elections to proceed and we get to vote, 122 residents voted for that. Please do the right thing. Let us feel that our votes do count. They still matter. Pam can remain our acting mayor. She's been doing a great job. Please don't disenfranchise the voters of Fairfield. Thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker is Joseph Joyce.

Then next speaker is Debbie Toth.

Good evening council members, community members. My name is Debbie Toth. I'm speaking as a resident of Fairfield, a 17 years homeowner. I am in the district of Cape Patrice Williams. I met her on August 6, 2017, and sat next to her at an event and knew that this was the human I was going to follow and figure out how she was going to lead for me. And I will say I run a nonprofit organization serving frail elders and people with disabilities, and we have partnered together on a variety of initiatives to help people with mental health, to help people feel belonging and included. When I want to run something by somebody that I know is sound, somebody that I know is measured, somebody that I know is a leader, I run it by Kay Patrice. I will also say that when I drove off the freeway probably three or four days in a row and almost got a flat tire because there was a massive hole on the street off the freeway exit, I called her. I got immediate instructions about who to contact, where, how, and she followed up. Right now, the city of Fairfield needs strong leadership. The city of Fairfield needs to be held accountable. The city of Fairfield needs to bring people together to have voices. I was not in this rando poll, but I can tell you that my son, my husband, my neighbors, and everyone I talk to appreciates this sound, this honest, this brave leadership. And I think that's what Fairfield needs right now. And I believe you should appoint her tonight. Thank you.

Thank you. Did anyone else wish to speak?

Oh, OK. And then I do have two hands raised on line two.

Tina, you have three minutes.

oh wait sorry Jake I have one speaker here first okay Tina just give us a few thank you this is Ksenia Tom

I'll back up so everybody can see me because we raised it. I personally, personally think it should be you, Kay Patrice. I admire your bravery from just everything you've done with the Mayor, Mayor Moy. I really respect the fact that you have, especially for the disabled community, I just have so much respect for you of how you're looking out for all of us and to even ask me to speak for The transit, which I am somebody who rides all the time. I pay attention. I'm in Sassoon now, but I pay attention to everything. And I go back and forth toward Fairfield and Sassoon. And to have all the transit buses gone out of there, that's a big thing for me. But just your bravery, your courage, just how you care for everybody. I truly think it should be you as the

running mayor for the next five months thank you Chauncey the one and only Chauncey Banks thank you very much What I see here from my own heart, I see a lot of superstars on this stage. You guys don't have to worry about me because I'm in the Sousou resident. I know everybody thinking I'm going to hit this Fairfield mayor, and I did get some big numbers when I did run. To my personal, Pam, I love how you hold it down. All right, that's true from my heart. Manvir came to me as a little kid, just probably out of high school. I had to take him around the city and teach him the city. Darice is like my niece. I grew up with her auntie. The new people I met, Doug Carr and Scott Tonneson, I've seen them in public a lot, along with Doris. To my point, I respect Kate Patrice also. It's like you stood up for myself to get all this news out here that I spent a lot of my time running for the mayor four years ago. And to have that type of information out, I would try to bring back late Harry Price and myself to battle you all. Because I think we deserve what someone destroyed. But for the truth of it, I would love to see the battle when it's time to vote for the real people to see it, for the real people to vote. I thank you all. Thank you, panel.

Thank you.

Anyone else wish to speak?

You can just tell me your name.

Ida Sines. Ida.

Oh, okay.

Thank you. I wasn't going to speak tonight, but I'm going to make this very short. I think we should wait until November for the elections. I personally would like to vote. I don't need any one of you voting for me. And that's just how I feel. I think it's a personal obligation for me to vote. And I'd like to vote November 3rd. Thank you.

Thank you. OK, Jake, why don't you bring, I see there's Dana Dean, come on down.

OK.

Thank you so much for giving me a second opportunity to speak, a first opportunity on this matter. I think some clarification might be in order. Two things come to mind. One, the election is held on November 3rd, but the seat isn't filled on November 3rd. So by my estimation, it's actually about an eight-month period.

I could have that the seat will be filled. I'm sorry to interrupt, but we seek the. New council members and the mayor. The second meeting in December. OK, because the register our voters office needs 30 days to certify.

OK, appear in a lot in my day job land use attorney I appear in a lot of city councils and boards of supervisors and each one has kind of different some are sworn in in January but in any case it's not five months the second thing is that if an appointment is made either here or within the 60 days folks still get to vote on November 3rd for the mayor who's going to take the seat for the next four years so it's not an if it's not a zero-sum game I guess I would say thank you thank you thank you

okay should we move to the online people now okay jake go ahead and bring the first person online thank you tina you have three minutes thank you good evening again city council this is tina werblin with everything that's going on in the city of fairfield i am urging you tonight to leave the mayoral seat open until the election in november i don't think we need to spend time shuffling city council seats for each person to have a one-up for november i think we have more important things to focus on so i am asking you please just leave the vacant seat open have our acting mayor continue until that happens and please do not waste time appointing a replacement i appreciate all the wonderful comments about the leadership of city council which is great we'll have that opportunity to review their criteria in november thank you thank you okay next speaker jake carl you have three minutes thank you go ahead carl

well it's Carol sorry go ahead Carol okay I've known Pam Bertani for over 20 years and I am aghast that you would think of replacing a mayor position for five months just Let the seat be vacant as the city attorney recommended. Pam Bertani is more than qualified, the most qualified person on the city council. And quite honestly, we need her right now with what's going on in our community. She is in with the black community. She is representative of the clergy action network and she is the healing force that we need and we don't need a special election and we don't need someone to sit in a seat for five months and sign forms and you know all all the you know effects that the city attorney just articulated um i have a hundred percent faith in her um and i am backing her one thousand percent and i i think that tina who just spoke before me was absolutely one thousand percent right you know don't put more angst and and chaos in our city we don't need it thank you thank you is there anyone else online

Anyone else, Jake?

Yes. Jean, you have three minutes.

Go ahead.

Hi, good evening.

Gianni McDougall here.

I just want to echo some of the things that have been said earlier, and I'll say it quickly. Our city is really, really hurting, and we really need someone who is unafraid to speak truth to power. One of the things that's happened in our community is that there have been lies and divisiveness and lies on top of lies. We need somebody who is not afraid to speak up for fear of of hurting the feelings of people that she thinks, he or she thinks is going to vote for or against them. We need someone who is genuinely immersed in the community. Someone like Kay Patrice, who has been a voice for the voiceless. Someone who has been the voice for those who have been disenfranchised for the longest. Some of those who are not afraid to stand in front of a mob and a crowd, amidst jeers and lies, and present the truth. Everyone up there is, in my estimation, is a decent human being. But I know personally, having worked with and for and around Hey, Patrice, that she is not afraid to speak to not only truth and power, but also to get her hands dirty, to get out and not in a negative way, but to get out in the community to work for women who are victims of human trafficking, to work for those who have who are unhoused and to stand up to a mob. We want someone who is honest. and unafraid to admit when they've made a mistake. And she is that person. Yes, your vote is not going to be disenfranchised in November. You were still going to have the election. And for those people who think that, oh, you know, this discounts the election, the election is still going to take place in November and you get a chance to vote. But during the interim, I would highly recommend that Kate Patrice be the interim mayor and and there's no disrespect to anyone up there but i know personally having worked with her and around her and seen her over the years that she would be the best possible choice so thank you all very very much for your work And thank you for allowing me the time. And also, I want to also add for those of you who have family members who live in Vacaville, their power has been out in the 55 and over community for 12 hours. You have 20 seconds, ma'am. Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, no more hands raised online. No more speaker cards.

okay okay let's bring it back for council discussion at this time council member sandu thank you madam vice mayor and uh i want to first of all thank uh everyone's still here

We had a late meeting a few months ago. We pushed 1130, and I think we might beat it. No, jokes aside, out of all the input I have heard, one thing that I did not hear so far is the fact that with six voting members on this dais, we are likely to split votes and do 3-3 votes on potential items in the next five, six months. We are a council that agrees when we do, and when we don't agree, we do not agree. And at times, we do break 50-50. There were a few votes in the past two years in my time here so far, but we did come 4-3. In the event, we had six people. It's not implausible that those would have been 3-3 votes. And while I understand the reason to wait, the potential ability to delay city business with the potential of splitting vote down the road, I think is a great concern. While all of us here are experienced and credentialed to assume the duties, I like the option of appointing someone that's independent of us to ensure that we have seven people on this dais. That's kind of my perspective on the matter. Because even if one of us does it, we're still back at six people, and we will still potentially split votes. And I think ensuring we have seven is really important. So I just wanted to open with that.

Thank you. Thoughts, colleagues? Council Member Carr.

Yeah, I heard a lot of people stating that disenfranchising votes and stuff. I just have to speak up that the United States, we cannot disenfranchise your vote. That is something that cannot be done. You have the constitutional right to vote. Talking about Taking your vote away and a few people that have said that I just have to it was hard for me to sit here That's impossible. We have an election on the third It doesn't matter who gets appointed if someone gets appointed or not You get to vote on who's going to be mayor and who's going to be in these seats plain and simple Nobody's taking away anything what? Councilmember sandu just said makes a lot of sense. Also. We do have three three votes when we come up to a three three vote and It's done. Our options are limited. So I think that the seven-person thing and appointing somebody for five months isn't that big of a deal, especially if we appoint somebody that has all the experience and everything that everybody would recommend. The other thing is if Vice Mayor Pitani took on the role as acting mayor, David, Wouldn't that make wouldn't she have to vacate her seat to do that?

Yes, if she's appointed, let me be clear. If she's appointed to take on Mayor Moyes role, she would vacate her current district seat. If you do nothing. And she just continues to act as acting mayor, then she does not.

OK, thank you.

Council Member Pandero.

Thank you. Thank you. So along the same lines, our role does not just consist of council meetings. We sit on regional boards. We sit on other committees. And typically, it's a lot of these regional boards. It's the mayor, and then it's the alternate, which typically is the vice mayor. reduces down by six some of us have already been attending more and representing the city more this last week than we have before because we've been covering for another person who is absent and it has been it has been a little challenging we've been we've gotten it done and i'll speak for myself but um allowing a seventh person would allow us to have someone else that can also attend to those meetings with us provide their input and just be a part of the discussion because right now um some of us are taking on more meetings and more representation which i understand that's the job but a lot of folks don't understand that it's not just it's not just these two meetings it's everything plus that and so i think for the um and we have a lot on our plates going forward we we all understand we have a lot of ins we have rough waters ahead um that need to be calm and we have a tax measure that we might need to be working on And so I think that for the intent of making sure that we are able to focus on those important things, that we do bring on a seventh person that has proven experience.

Thank you. Council Member Tonneson.

Yeah, along those same lines. The mayor is a very busy person. I forget the exact number, but I believe it's over 20 committees. So whoever we do decide to choose as mayor, their plate's going to get a lot fuller. And I know we all attended a lot of meetings now, but that's something that we're going to have to consider. We're going to have to consider that tomorrow because we're going to have to start filling in these these positions that that the mayor doesn't make so um I'll I I'll leave that there for now and let Kay speak and then we can make a decision council member Williams yes so for option one um let me make sure I have it right

appoint a person to fill the vacant mayor seat via an application process. That doesn't resonate with me at all. The application process I just feel like within the talent on this dais, we don't need to put in a seventh person that we don't know. I just would love to bypass that option. Also, what did not resonate for me for the exact same reason is option two to appoint from the community subject to qualification. It's the same exact reason, pulling someone else off of the dais. To a point, but I do have a question about the votes, even votes. I know and I feel like we've had a situation maybe in closed session, maybe not, maybe it was here, where maybe somebody was out and we had a split vote and I feel like we talked through it. So I'm not sure if I'm recalling that correctly, but what does happen in a split vote?

So you are correct that if there is a split vote under parliamentary procedures, that means the vote fails. So if you're considering a resolution and it's an even vote, then it is not passed. It's deemed failed. does not mean that you can't bring the matter back at some later point for reconsideration, but deliberations obviously need to be open and public. You can't go in the back room and do some horse trading. You'd have to kind of try to work it out on the dice. And I agree with you. I can't remember the exact times, but... this council has done that in the past where somebody has been on vacation or sick and you've gotten three three and then you all discuss it some more and then someone makes a new motion somebody says oh you know i changed my mind um i can't speak for all of you i don't know if that happened because you know in the back of your minds you knew that the seventh person would come back you know when they were not sick but i so but it's possible it is not procedurally um You know that the issue is if you get three of you on each side that are dug in and you're not going to change my mind, then that does become a problem.

And I'm recalling the most recent incident, I believe it was surrounding the LOND, and it wasn't split, but we didn't have a tiebreaker. And then we went back to closed session.

Your memory is better than mine. I do remember that now that you say it, and I agree. I don't think it was a 3-3. I think we didn't have a majority. I think we were split like... 3, 2, 2. Yeah, we split 3, 2, 2, so there wasn't a consensus.

But I really respected about that moment was that we were able to talk it through. What are each member's concerns? I don't know. We just worked it out. So I really appreciated that.

Council Member Sandu?

Question for the City Attorney. Typically, when there's an item on the agenda that there is a monetary impact to a voting member, it is common to abstain. Would that apply to this item if one of us to vote for ourselves?

No. So, actually, in my packet of magic law, Under the regulations regarding conflicts of interest by the Fair Political Practices Commission, it is true that a person with a financial interest cannot vote, and I think what you're referring to is the mayor's position has a slightly higher monthly income.

What's the income, David?

$1,600 versus how much do you all make? 300? Well, 1,300. I was like, wow. So you'd get a bump of about $300. So generally, voting on something with a financial interest would be a conflict of interest. But there is an exemption under regulation 18704, subsection D3, actions by an official relating to the official's compensation or the terms or conditions of the official's employment or consulting contract are exempt under the conflict of interest rules.

Got it. Thank you.

And I got to give credit to Mr. Gassway because he was like, check that. And I was like, yes, I should.

And I've got to give credit to Council Member Sandu who asked me that before I asked you.

To reiterate something Councilwoman Kay Patrice mentioned, not only do we have the potential to tie votes, but the ability to earn a majority on items with six people does become a little more difficult. And I think the option of either opening an application period seems compelling to me. Or there are members in the public, some even in this room, who could make good caretakers to help us transition over these next few months. Now, if that's an avenue we want to go, I'm sure there are names we can float. open it up to a complete application process if we did do an application process my question would be would that be similar to planning commission where maybe councilwoman panduro and councilman carr would be the first two to review applications and then bring it to the council uh what what system would we follow if we chose that

Again, this council could decide any process that you wanted. For simplicity's sake, what I recommended is that if you do an application process, you use the existing candidate declaration form that the city clerk has because it captures all the information she needs to verify someone is qualified to run. Then the Council could, at their discretion, decide on some questions to ask to tell the city clerk to add so that you could review it. But as you say, you could use the Planning Commission application because you have an application form. I don't know that all the questions for Planning Commission are necessarily relevant, but it's a template that you could use. You could direct staff to, you know, Prepare an application and then again you could appoint a committee of two. You just can't appoint a majority committee to not violate the Brown Act Committee of two to review the application and approve it for staff. The issue is obviously time is sort of of the essence, you know. So again, to reiterate, it's whatever you all as a group want to do, there's no. Right way to do it again. I'm here just to make sure there's no constitutional violations which were not even close. You guys aren't saying anything that's giving me any concern.

Thank you. My position, Madam Vice Mayor, is whatever gets us to seven as fast as possible.

Thank you. Council Member Panduro.

Thank you. And a follow-up to that. Does it have to be an application?

No. You could just... I mean, again, the extreme example is you could... pick a number and assign everybody in here a number and be like, whoever wins this lottery is our mayor. There is no right or wrong way to do this, as long as it does not violate a constitutional right, which you're not even close to doing.

Anyone else?

I'll just say from my perspective that I truly believe that the voters of this city should elect the next mayor. Pretty simple, pretty democratic, and respectful of the voters of this city. The last time they voted for mayor, they voted for Catherine Moy. We've got five months until an election. Let's do the right thing, Fairfield. Let's do the right thing. We've been in the news. We've been in the news for all the wrong reasons lately. And not just California news, national news. So with this, I don't believe that it is some imperative hair on fire moment where we got to do it now. We have a scheduled election in five months. Let the voters decide who sits in that seat. I'm sure you're going to be surprised by this, but I'm going to be brief on this. because it is just the right thing to do that is my opinion and so i say option three is what i select so madam vice mayor and council i've been acting as your note taker

What I'm hearing is I have five council members who said that they want to appoint. They have not agreed on the method, but I've heard clearly from five council members that there should be an appointment process. I've heard from one council member to let it go to the voters, so I think unless you all disagree, that's what I'm hearing. So I think the next discussion should be if the five of you agree to appoint, how do you want to appoint? And again, I'm just a note taker. I'm not trying to sway it. That's just what I'm capturing.

Do you agree, Mr. Gassaway?

Yeah. Okay.

Vice Mayor? Council Member Carr.

I have, along the lines, this has been a lot, and I just want to clarify a few things. One, again, The voters will vote for who sits in that chair in November. That's a fact. Having somebody step in and help us out with all the things we got. I sit on two committees. Doree sits on two committees. We go to a lot of things. We do a lot of stuff. There's a lot more I wish that the public knew that goes on here to clarify that, and they would understand some of the reasoning that I'm making this motion. We have a lot of things going on in the city. We've had a lot, as everybody has said. We've had some tragedies. We've had everything. We have three people that are campaigning. And you heard the complications and the mess that we have to go through to jump through hoops. But I have a kind of a simple solution, and I'd just like to put it forward for discussion. I have a person that is a very well-regarded Fairfieldian He was a former vice mayor, and he's willing to step up for the five months and sit in that seat, and that's Rick Vaccaro. And that's what I push forward, and I would like to have the discussion. Rick Vaccaro would step in for the five months. We can campaign. We can carry on with our city business. It solves a lot of our problems. And right now, with all of the things that are going on in the city, we've been through a lot up here on this dais, believe it or not, all of us. And this is a pressure valve. Pssh! that gives us a chance to take a breath and work on Fairfield the city and our campaigns and and that and so I thought it was gracious that that happened to take place today and I just wanted to see how everybody felt about that thank you Madam Vice Mayor I'm sorry Council Member Sandhu Thank you Madam Vice Mayor

As I look in the room, I see a former candidate, and I want to thank you for coming today. As a matter of public discourse, it's folks like yourself and all the other people that run for these kind of offices who help us move this forward. And not only those that have ran, but also have served, who are still amongst our community. And I think the proposition that Councilman Carr made is compelling. For someone to serve with the experience of decades in public service and in this community, I think is a good step forward. And I would echo, I would support Councilman Carr's proposition.

So I just want to clarify, because I heard two things from Councilmember Carr. I heard the word motion, but then I then heard him say, what do you all think? So are you making, did you make a motion or are you just? I left it for discussion. Okay, so no motions.

Thank you.

Any other comments, colleagues?

Councilmember Williams.

Yeah, so I spoke to Rick Vaccaro today, too. I called him. And so I will also say that I have talked to him about running for mayor. I think he's stellar. I think he's pretty amazing. But I have to be honest and say I'm concerned that he's not here. I just, I told him that, too. Hi, Rick. I just thought it was, you know, like, why aren't you here advocating for yourself and speaking for yourself? So that doesn't quite sit well. Perfectly well with me that we're putting his name forward without him being here forward. So that's one concern. Yeah, it's the major concern. Because now we're back at either appointment from the community, which we could do immediately, or appoint an acting mayor, which is an application process that wouldn't be done. So it sounds like we're talking appoint acting mayor tonight with someone that's not here tonight. So is that an application process? And if no one comes forward or to fill out the application or go through the application, what does that look like? So to me, it doesn't feel as clear because this feels like an appointment from the community subject to a qualification. I still I just feel uncomfortable because he's not even here. Yeah, so that's what I'll say about that.

Okay.

Any other comments? Council Member Tonneson?

Okay.

So somebody OK go ahead Mister Thomas yes so I like Rick I'm a I'm a big fan of Rex I. Didn't. Didn't hear about this until today. But if the I mean if the majority is going to to go with that nomination. I'm not going to go against the majority. So if we're getting a if we're getting forehead nods over there then you know we you know what I'd like to see is this this Council come together, you know because we've been we've been apart a lot in the last. year or so um i would it would be nice to see us do something in a unanimous fashion but i'll let you guys leave with that council member sandu thank you madam vice mayor

Now that Councilwoman Patrice has mentioned that, I do wonder that and think, well, would it be helpful if he was here, you know? And I guess what I would say, there's a certain amount of hubris to run for office, to put yourself through that. We're extroverts who want to campaign. And when the time for candidacy comes, people will put their name in the ring because they want the job. I think this is the one unique time when we may give it to someone who does not want it and they are being asked to serve when they would probably rather do anything else. And I think it is a good time for someone like that to come in because this isn't about the next election, the next election running every two years and every four years. We're talking about five, six months. And I would hope I mean, I haven't talked to Rick either, but I would hope that in the event of this passing, he would accept subject to verification of his qualifications to help carry the city forward. But I do thank you for mentioning that because I was thinking the same thing. Thank you.

Council member pandero.

Thank you.

So For me, it's about, I think, how Council Member Tonneson was saying about bringing us together. Rick does that. He's a bridge builder. He has the knowledge of what it means to be up here. He knows what it means to be up here. He's familiar with all of us. He's worked with all of us. He knows how we all work. He unites us. He is not divisive. And I think right now, more than anything, we have, and he has the capacity to build relationships, and he has the vision to help us move us forward. And so I guess I will make the motion to nominate Rick. Second. For the appointment.

Roll call vote, please.

May I offer a friendly amendment subject to verification and his acceptance. So the motion is for Rick Vaccaro, former council member, to be appointed as the mayor, subject to verification of the three requirements, age, residency, and registration voting registration and subject obviously to his acceptance right that the motion in second okay and the vice mayor's asked for a roll call vote so a yes vote will be to nominate Point a point a yes vote is to appoint Rick Vaccaro as mayor until the November 3rd election and subsequent seating Okay, no vote is to not appoint him as okay.

Thank you councilmember car. Yes Councilmember Pandora. Yes councilmember Santu. Yes Councilmember Tonneson

Yes.

Council Member Williams? Yes. And Acting Mayor Bertani?

This is not a no against Rick. I've worked with Rick longer than anybody on this dais, and he's very capable. I have not talked to him about this at all. Rick, I haven't talked to him about it. I am going to vote for option three because I believe that the voters of this city should elect the next mayor. So this is not a vote against you, Rick, at all, and you already know that. I'm voting for option three. And it looks like the motion is going to pass. So, Rick, I look forward to speaking with you soon and seeing you soon.

Can you just clarify for me what does it mean the voters need to vote in the mayor? I'm lost on that one.

Okay. Let me help you out. Appointing a mayor is different than electing one.

That's the difference. But the mayor is not up for election. Not until November. Right. So we're not taking away anybody's vote.

I just said, made the distinction for you, appointing a mayor is not electing a mayor. And I think that the people of this city are... definitely capable of doing that on November 3rd.

So once again, I have all love for Rick Vaccaro, and he knows that.

But I chose option three. But the motion carries, so subject to verification. Rick Vaccaro has been appointed acting mayor this evening.

Not acting mayor, mayor.

As mayor this evening.

Just to clarify for Ms. Reese, the vote was five to one. Ms. Reese, do you have what you need, your instructions in terms of what you need to do? So again, just to verify on the record, I'm going to verify... Madam Vice Mayor, could I? Yes, sir.

Please. Ladies and gentlemen, let the city attorney speak, please.

So, Ms. Reese, I just want to verify. So you know you have four things you need to do. You need to verify age, which is kind of funny, residence, and valid voter registration in Solano County. And we can't assume it just because he was living here when he came off council. So verify that. And then number four, he has to agree to do it.

Okay.

I just want to make sure.

Yeah. I will call the Registrar of Voters Office first thing in the morning.

All right.

Okay.

Thank you for that. And we are going to move now to Item R1. But before we do, let's take a quick five-minute break to stretch our legs, please.

Thank you.

I think about this issue.

Can everyone please make their way back to the dais so we can finish up this evening? Can everyone please make their way back to the dais so we can continue?

thank you okay we will resume the city council meeting with item r one item r one ordinance twenty twenty six dash zero four amending section eleven point thirteen point two of the fairfield municipal code Amending Chapter 11, Section 11.13.2, also known as Rancho Solano Private Roads of the Fairfield Municipal Code to allow the Rancho Solano Master Association to authorize on-street parking between the hours of 2 a.m. and 5 a.m. And our presenter is Noah Rumbaoa.

Is that right? Rumbaoa?

Associate Planner.

Thank you. Good evening, Acting Mayor and Fairfield City Council. The item before you tonight is a proposed ordinance amendment for on-street parking in Rancho Solano. So the request before you is to amend Fairfield Municipal Code Section 11.13.2, which would allow the Rancho Solano Master Association to authorize parking between the hours of 2 a.m. and 5 a.m. For some context, in 1990, the city council adopted ordinance number 90-21, which prohibits on-street parking on Rancho Solano private roads between the hours of 2 and 5 a.m. However, since that time, the Rancho Solano Master Association has been issuing permits to allow on-street parking on a case-by-case individual basis. However, this practice is not currently technically authorized under the Fairfield Municipal Code. And so this proposed cleanup item would amend the Fairfield Municipal Code to allow the Master Association to issue those permits. On-street parking will continue to be prohibited between 2 a.m. and 5 a.m. unless the Master Association were to issue a resident that permit. This slide here shows the boundary of what is considered Rancho Solano. All the streets within this red boundary, except for Rancho Solano Parkway, are private streets considered under Rancho Solano and would be affected by this ordinance. In advance of this public hearing, on May 27th, city staff mailed 1,381 notices to all property owners located within the Rancho Solano boundary and also published a notice within the Daily Republic. Since that time, staff has received three public comments with questions just requesting clarification on the proposed ordinance. This project is categorically exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act under the common sense exemption because it can be seen with certainty that the proposed ordinance amendment will not have a significant effect on the environment under CEQA and so staff is recommending tonight that the council introduce ordinance 2026.04 for a first reading which would allow the master association to issue permits for on-street parking on private streets between 2 and 5 a.m in Rancho Solano And under this proposed ordinance, the Master's Association would continue to be responsible for enforcing this on-street parking restriction. And so that concludes staff's presentation. We'd be happy to answer any questions. Thank you.

Thank you. Any questions, colleagues? Okay, seeing none, I will open the public hearing.

I do have one speaker card.

Howard Edelman.

Howard Edelman, sorry.

Is this going to work?

Hello?

Hello. Hi, members of the council and vice mayor. Thanks for allowing me to speak. We're going to go up? It's not working.

It went down lower.

So in any case, as Noah clearly stated, this is a cleanup matter for the most part. I'm the president of the board of Rancho Solano Master Association. And the board has been issuing permits for at least since 2006. I'm not sure of the exact date that they started doing it. So there's a little bit of a conflict between what the Master Association CC&Rs read and the city code. And so we were advised to try to clean this up so that it's in alignment. And are there any questions you have for me?

Any questions for Mr. Edelman?

Thank you for staying. Yeah, I have one question. How'd you do it? How'd you stay this long? How did you stay this long?

You're dedicated, right?

But thank you for your dedication. Absolutely.

So this is just bringing the Fairfield Municipal Code in line with what has been going on with parking in Rancho Solano. Correct. So no negative changes. It's just bringing the city up to speed with what you're doing.

Right. I mean, the Rancho Solano was developed in the late 80s. Yeah. And the private roads were instituted at, what, 1990 was when the road, you know, no parking between 2 a.m. and 5 a.m. was put on city code and also in the CC&Rs. And it was after that that the association found there was a need for residents with extended family guests over holidays and things like that to allow some parking on the private roads without cluttering it up. And so they established or we established a permitting process to do that. And then our own security patrols the roads and looks for those permits.

perfect thank you that's it very much thank you have a good night thank you you too thanks for staying okay any other speakers on this item i will close the public hearing oh i'm sorry here we go one more one more person's coming down

Really quick.

No problem. Welcome.

My name is Susan Lloyd. Thank you. I've lived in Rancho Solano since 1990. And I just want to say that I'm happy with the system as it is. I know that there are some families and situations that maybe require some more direct contact with the board or something. I like it because if we take it away, people will start parking and leaving their RVs on the street longer term. So I just want to say I'm for it. Perfect. Thank you. And I'm going home.

Thank you. So are we very soon. Any more public comments? Okay. I will close the public hearing and bring it back for council action.

So move to approve. Second.

Okay, moved and seconded. All in favor? Aye. That passes unanimously. Thank you. On to item R2.

Item R2, resolution 2026-129, approving fiscal year 2026 to 2027 Smith Ranch Assessment District Engineer's Report budget and assessments, approving the fiscal year 2026-2027 Engineer's Report, confirming the boundaries and assessment, and ordering the levy and collection of assessments for the Smith Ranch Assessment District. And our presenter is Chris Lewis, Senior Management Analyst.

Good evening, Council. Another quick verbal presentation for you tonight. The resolution before you is to approve the 2627 assessments for the Smith Ranch Assessment District. This district was formed in 1986 to fund the construction and maintenance of streets, storm drains, and other infrastructure in the Rancho Solano community. The 2627 assessments are proposed at $325, which is no increase from the assessments levied in 2526. The proposed budget for new operating expenses includes $7,000 for regular storm drainage maintenance and other administrative costs. But the budget also reflects about $7.5 million for previously approved pavement maintenance projects in the Rancho Solano area. And those budgets were approved during the regular 23 24, 24, 25, and 25, 26 CIP budget approval process. On May 26, this council began the annual approval process with the adoption of Resolution 2026-78, and the final step in that annual process is to hold a public hearing and adopt the resolutions.

Thank you.

Thank you. Any questions, colleagues? No, ma'am. I will now open the public hearing. Do we have any requests to speak cards on this item? I do not. Did anyone wish to speak? No. No hands raised on line. OK. Seeing no speakers, I'll close the public hearing, bring it back for council action.

Madam Vice, may I move to approve?

OK. All in favor?

Aye. Aye.

Aye.