City Council - Regular Meeting

All right, good evening and happy Tuesday, Tuesday, September 15th. I will call this regular session meeting to order at 5 o'clock. And can I get a roll call, please? Council Member Lara?

Present.

Council Member Fenn?

Here.

Council Member Martinez?

Here.

Mayor Pro Tem White?

Here.

Mayor Voigt?

Here. All right, this meeting will be open to the public and conducted in a virtual format to be inclusive of all participation preferences. Public comment participation is encouraged by emailing any comments to the city clerk's office or by calling in using the phone number provided on the front of the agenda. Do we have any public comments this evening?

I have no written requests. Simone, do we have any callers on the line?

We have no callers at this time.

All right. And Mr. Pinkney, can you please read the items for discussion?

Yes. The council meet and close session item B1 is public employee performance evaluation. And the title of the position is city manager. Item B2 is conference with real property negotiators. The property is described in the agenda as APN numbers 404, 140, 002, and 003 at the southwest corner of Beaumont Avenue and Cougar Way. the agency negotiators, the city manager, Chris Boatman, or his designee, and the negotiating parties are the city of Beaumont as a potential purchaser, and Allen Ginsberg as a potential seller under negotiation or price and terms.

All right, thank you for that, and we will adjourn to closed session at 5.01. All right. Good evening and happy Tuesday, September 15th. I will call this regular session of the city council meeting to order at 6 0 8. Can I get a roll call please?

Councilmember Laura here councilmember Finn here councilmember Martinez here mayor protein white here mayor Floyd here All right.

Can we get a report out from closed session, please?

Yes The council met in closed session item b1 was public employee performance evaluation the title of the position city manager There was no reportable action on that item item b2 conference with real property negotiators and The property is described in the agenda as APN numbers 404, 14002, and 003 at the southwest corner of Beaumont Avenue and Cougar Way. The agency negotiator's city manager, Chris Boatman, or his designee. The negotiating party's city of Beaumont as potential purchaser and Allen-Gittsburg as a potential seller. Under negotiation were price and terms. There was no reportable action on that item.

All right, thank you for that. And if you would all please join us for an invocation by Martin DeSold and the Pledge of Allegiance by Council Member Fenn.

Good evening. My name is Martin Dusold. I serve with Fellowship of Christian Athletes here in the Citrus Belt area, which includes Beaumont. The book of Proverbs calls us to seek wisdom in everything that we do. Proverbs 1.33 says, but whoever listens to me will live securely and be undisturbed by the dread of danger. Let's bow our heads. Lord, thank you for this opportunity to glorify you tonight. to call your provision and protection over our city and our community. Would you guide Mayor Voigt, Mayor Pro Tem White, and our council members, Fen and Laura and Martinez, to wisdom, to discernment, and to guidance over our community? Would you be with them, Lord, as they discuss the items that will affect our citizens, that our community would continue to grow together and grow stronger? Would you cover this meeting tonight and all of our city's leadership as they discuss these matters? Would you please cover and protect our new police chief and all of our officers with the Beaumont Police Department? as they love and serve and protect our community. We thank you and ask you that tonight you would help our community to continue to grow together, neighborhoods and community members loving and serving one another. That we would not lean on our own understanding, but in all our ways acknowledge you, that you would make our paths straight. And we pray your provision over us and their guidance throughout this evening and as this council continues to lead our city. In your name we pray. Amen.

Amen. Please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. Place your right hand over your heart. Ready, begin.

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.

All right, and before we start our official agenda, I would like to address some news that has come out with regards to our elected city treasurer. So I want our residents to know that the city remains focused on serving our community with transparency, accountability, and professionalism. When the city's financial audit identified discrepancies in our hotel tax, the city pursued legal action to recover the unpaid fees and fines. Referred the matter to law enforcement and has cooperated with the district attorney's investigation. The allegations involving Mr. Patel's private business activities and do not involve his role as city treasurer. The city will continue to protect the public's interest and provide verified information when appropriate. Thank you. All right. So we will move towards adjustments to the agenda. Do we have any adjustments?

Yes, Mayor. We have two adjustments to the agenda. Item G10 is being tabled. You have a memorandum in front of you explaining the additional revenue that was discovered. And item G16 has an updated ordinance for your review as well. And there's also copies at the back table for the public. All right.

Very good. Excuse me, Mayor. What's the...

Change in the agenda for item G16?

G16 is an updated ordinance that should be on the dais attached to the memo in front of you. Okay, thank you. There was a couple, city attorney had some clarifying points on the helmet ordinance.

Got it, thank you.

All right, so let's start with some announcements, recognitions, and proclamations. We have our first item, recognizing Solera as another Firewise community. So we would like to invite those of you up to Solera. And we have Chief Hopkins here for us to help present that. Chief, will you hit your?

Oh, I'm sorry. There we go. Let's start again. Good evening Mayor and Council. Firewise is a wildfire preparedness program designed to help communities reduce the risk of homes being damaged or destroyed by wildfire. For a fire department or a city, Firewise is especially useful because it gets residents involved in mitigation before the fire occurs. It complements things like defensible space inspections, vegetation management, evacuation planning, community wildfire protection plans, and California's fire hazard severity zone requirements. For a community to be recognized, they must assess wildfire risk around homes and throughout the neighborhood, create defensible space and reduce vegetation, dead fuels and other combustible materials, improve the home ignition zone, encourage home hardening measures, develop a community wildfire action plan, document annual wildfire risk reduction activities and investments, educate residents about evacuation and wildfire preparedness. I'm very happy to announce and want to gratulate the Solerida Oak Valley Greens Association on being recognized as a Firewise community.

So I'll turn it over to you. Congratulations. Well, thank you very much. This has been a pleasure to do. We've worked on this for about four months. By the way, I'm Ron Monroe. I'm the treasurer of Solera Board of Directors, and this is my esteemed president, Willie Hill. And they let me loose on this project. And anyway, we have some pens and some flyers. We are doing an evacuation seminar. We invite you to be there. I know you're going to be here at Solera next week, so we look forward to seeing you.

Willie? All right, thank you. And we owe it to this guy for getting this started and finished. He's actually working with a couple of HOAs, 55 and over communities, to help them get started. So thank you for the award.

Wonderful. And congratulations to you guys. I know that this has been a labor of love, as you mentioned. And we appreciate your proactiveness to continue to keep not just your community, but our community as a whole safe and fire safe. So come on up here and we'll grab a picture with you guys. And we also have a certificate for Solera as well.

Great job, guys. Good job. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Progressing.

Yes.

And congrats. Thank you. Yes, well done. Congratulations. Thank you. We'll have you guys just stand up.

Maybe one of them holds the fireway sign. Oh, yeah. Here, I'll get it. Oh, wait. She just moved it. One of you hold that. Yeah, there you go. Perfect.

I want the hand to go this way.

Ron, a little to your left.

Move it over to your left just a little bit. There you go. There you go. All right. Mayor? Yes.

May I make a quick comment?

Please.

So just a big shout-out to Ron. I appreciate all his efforts, and he's a regular member at our PASCOM meeting, so we appreciate all the efforts he puts in for the community. Thank you, Ron.

Did you have something else? No.

Okay.

All right, and on to another wonderful item today, which is our youth council swearing in. So I think Council Member Martinez.

Yes, I just want to introduce to the council, coming up we have our 2627 Beaumont, City of Beaumont Youth Advisory Council, and we have the students here today. So they are in the other room, so they're coming. They're all in the overflow. Wonderful.

Once I call them in, we'll do an oath.

There we go.

Perfect. Come on in, you guys. We'll have you stand right across the front there. Just right here, you'll follow Nicole. You might have to slide all the way over.

I hear there's quite a collection.

I love it. Awesome. We might need it, yeah. So awesome to see all of you guys here. 18, I think, this year.

Wonderful.

So if everyone can raise your hand. I, and state your name. I, Jane. Do solemnly swear. Do solemnly swear. That I will support and defend. That I will support and defend. The Constitution of the United States. The Constitution of the United States. And the Constitution of the State of California. And the Constitution of the State of California. Against all against all enemies foreign and domestic and that I will bear true faith to the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of California. I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion, and I will well and faithfully discharge the duties upon which I am about to act.

upon which I am about to enter.

All right. Well, congratulations, you guys. This is the first step in stepping up to exercise your civic opportunities. And I am so proud of all of you for taking this step. I think that this is a great way for us to be able to hear your voice as well and bring you into the community. And I appreciate you guys taking this step forward. And we are so excited to have you as part of our youth council. So you have a lot of work to get to do this year. And we look forward to your participation. So thank you all very much. All right. And you are all dismissed. You have welcome aboard.

See you at the next meeting.

That's right.

When is it? The second Tuesday of the month.

All right. So we will see you guys in October.

A couple of you will be back for your report.

Oh, yeah, they're giving a report today.

Congratulations. Congratulations.

All right. And we will be moving on to the introduction and swearing in of our new police captain, Melissa Kane. Chief.

Mayor, Council, good evening. A few months ago we had one of our police captains retire, and when we opened up our recruitment, we recruited both internally and externally. We had numerous very qualified applicants from around the area, but throughout the entire process, one person kept rising to the top. Anyone that reviewed the application, sat on the oral boards, any part of the selection process, all had one name on their mouth. That was Melissa Kane. So Melissa Kane has 25 years of experience starting with the Visalia Police Department and then 24 years with Palm Springs. She's worked numerous assignments. She's got over a decade of management experience. And before I give this detail, I got to qualify it with my source because I don't want to be called out later that I was wrong. But according to chat GPT, Melissa Kane is the most tenured police captain in Riverside County with over eight years experience. So she will come with great experience, great knowledge. And if you look around the room, just being a great person, she's beloved by many and respected by all. In the past couple weeks when people started finding out she was coming to Beaumont, I got phone calls from other chiefs of police and a few retired chiefs asking me how in the heck did I recruit her here because they tried to recruit her to their city. So we are very lucky to bring her to the family. We're very excited to have her on board. This is her second day and already she's starting to fit in and I think she's going to do very well for us, with us, and continue just moving us forward for what we do with the community. So I just wanted to introduce Captain Melissa Kane.

Thank you very much. I am extremely grateful to be here. I am really looking forward to supporting Chief Ramos. Thank you for this opportunity. I'm looking forward to supporting the men and women of the Beaumont Police Department and to being part of this new team. I would be remiss, though, if I did not mention that I would not be here today without a lot of support. I'm joined here this evening by my incredible husband, who works for the other team.

We won't hold that against him.

the best son that a mom could ever ask for, and my beautiful mom in CHP blue. But I'm also joined here by friends and family and coworkers that I have had the absolute blessing of working alongside for the last 24 years. So to all of you here, I am forever indebted. But for this opportunity, I am filled with gratitude. I look forward to being part of this new family and to earning your trust and respect.

There's one thing I forgot to mention that I love to highlight when we hire such great people is Melissa Kane is also a resident of Beaumont. This is where she raises her family. It's just part of our community. I love to highlight that because it's very rare for police departments where we have so many of our officers that live and work in this community. So I love to highlight it when I can. Are you ready to do this? Yes. All right. I state your name.

Do solemnly swear Do solemnly swear That I will support and defend That I will support and defend The Constitution of the United States The Constitution of the United States And the Constitution of the State of California And the Constitution of the State of California That I will bear true faith and allegiance That I will bear true faith and allegiance To the Constitution of the United States To the Constitution of the United States And the Constitution of the State of California And the Constitution of the State of California That I take this obligation freely That I take this obligation freely

without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion, and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties upon which I'm about to enter. Welcome to the family. Brian came up here and have him do the honor of pinning.

Thank you.

All right, well, Captain Kane, we welcome you to this family and to this team. We are excited to have you aboard, and I have to say that Beaumont patch looks very well on you. I've seen you in Palm Springs for a long time, and it is nice to have you here aboard and representing our city and caring for our constituents and the community that we have here. You have a great team behind you, and you have a wonderful leader as well, and we know that you guys will do great things and continue to do great things in moving Beaumont forward. So welcome aboard. Yeah.

So real quick, I want to congratulate the Chief and Captain King. According to social media, you haven't made a lot of friends in Palm Springs?

No. Not in the past couple weeks.

And come on up and we'll grab a picture with you. Chief, you as well.

Ready? Three, two, one. Bring the family up, and then we'll get to .

Ready, three, two, one.

All right, and now we're gonna continue.

There it is.

All right, that was awesome. Had a little bit of youth, a little bit of fire, and a little bit of police in there. All right, we will now move on to our public comment period. Any one person may address the city council on any matter not on this agenda. If you wish to speak, please fill out a public comment form provided at the back table. and give it to the city clerk. There is a three-minute time limit on public comments. There will be no sharing or passing of time to another person. State law prohibits the city council from discussing or taking actions brought up by your comments. Do we have any public comment this evening?

I do have an in-person. Dr. Delaconda?

Will you just push on the mic there for us? Thank you. Perfect.

Thank you, Madam Mayor, members of the council, and our honored guests today. This has been a wonderful example of the kind of people that we have here in Beaumont and the very positive government that we have now that is supporting those people. I shared with you some time ago that I was asked to give a presentation to the Chamber of Commerce and I couldn't decide what to talk about and finally I realized some of the most successful people in this community are members of this council I want to know what made them great and what it gave them the opportunity to enhance our city the way that they do so I began asking them questions anonymous questions I promised anonymity and about what happened in their life. Did someone help them or do something that made such a difference in their life? The stories were amazing. And when I got there, they said, well, what are you going to talk about? And I said, I'm going to talk about you. And I said, so if you don't want to be identified when I tell your story, don't jump up and shake your hand and dance or anything, or they'll know who we're talking about. So I shared some of these stories, and I must tell you that they are breathtaking. Stories about our police officers that saved children and saved families. Stories that most people in this community know nothing about. stories about our wonderful teachers who have made great changes in students' lives. One man has saved thousands of lives because of what one teacher said to him when he was in the second grade. She said, you are going to be a scientist. And he went on from there. And he sits right across the table from me at a meeting I go to every week. So I was so entranced with these wonderful stories, because that's what makes a great community, that and a good government. And so I wrote these stories down, and I kept collecting them. A publisher has, interestingly enough, found them interesting. And I thought you should have an opportunity to see some of them before they're published. So I've made two copies here for you to take a look at. And I think you will be as amazed and impressed as I was. Now, the book will come out sometime in December. but I felt it was only fair for you to see it. No one's identified, nor is the community named. Only we will know what this community is. You can feel free to use these any way you want to, but I do hope you enjoy reading them, and it hasn't gone to press yet, so if you know a great story about a wonderful person in our community, let me know, because I still have time to get in a few more stories. So thank you very much, and also I'm going to be attending your meeting where you're talking about what you're going to be doing to Main Street with the cities. Your very capable public information officer gave us a wonderful presentation at the Rotary Club, and hopefully someday I'll be in a position to help you bring about those plans you have in mind. Thank you so much.

Thank you for that, and we are so excited for you to be published, and especially with residents within our city. So thank you for that.

Simone, do we have any callers on the line? We have no callers at this time.

All right. That will take us on to our consent calendar. Are there, besides the reminder that item G10 is to be tabled and that there is an updated ordinance on G16, do we have any items to be pulled?

Mayor, I'd like to pull G16.

Okay. So we'll be pulling G16. And any others? If not, I would entertain a motion for items, for the consent items. I think it's G1 through... Mayor, I'll help with that.

So I'll move that we approve consent calendar items G1 through G9. Hold on one second. Oh, okay.

Apologies. It is not G12 that has attachments. It is the one that Mayor Pro Tem pulled.

G16?

Correct.

It's G10 that we're tabling?

G10 is tabled.

And then G16 has the updated ordinance. Yes. Okay, very good. And G16 is the one that Councilmember, I'm sorry, Mayor Pro Tem Lloyd is pulling. Okay, go White.

Okay, so Mayor, I'll move that we approve consent calendar items G1 through G9 and G11 through G15. I'll second.

Can I get a roll call, please? Council Member Lara? Yes. Council Member Fitt?

Yes.

Council Member Martinez? Yes. Mayor Pro Tem White? Yes. Mayor Foyt?

Yes. And a point of clarification. City Attorney, do we need a vote to table G10, or are we good to leave it that way?

It can be done by you or us now. OK. So we're fine.

All right. So we will go ahead and hand it over to Mayor Pro Tem White for G16.

Yeah, so when we passed the first reading, we had a lot of responses. I saw a lot of responses from people who are concerned that on a certain day, all of a sudden, we're going to start enforcing this. And I think you spoke to us before about a process of working with the community, and I wanted to give you the opportunity to sort of lay that out tonight as well.

Certainly. And this dovetails on what council also directed staff to do following the approval of the item, which is we're going to work first and foremost on a public education campaign even before we begin implementing this. So we've already contacted the school district and we're putting together a plan in conjunction with the school district and also of course, Beaumont PD and our staff and our recreation staff to go and have several different education events that we're gonna offer to help train, we'll make it available to parents to help train kids and parents on the proper safety measures and help them understand the ordinance. We're also looking at some online resources that we can turn residents to on an ongoing basis to help provide resources for them to have their kids utilize or them to utilize for proper bike safety. As with any type of violation, we measure it based off of the level of the specific issue at hand, but in most situations, we always give a warning first. If it's particularly egregious, they might go to a first citation, but it's designed to be tiered. And it's designed to give some grace first and education first before we end up providing any type of citation. And that's the macro level of it. If you have any more specifics you'd like, I'm happy to ask Chief to come up to you and add anything.

No, I think that's good. And I think this is very much needed in our community. And I just wanted to assure most people that we're going to do it responsibly. But it's something that we have to do as far as the safety of our OF THE KIDS ON THE BIKES AS WELL AS THE PEOPLE AROUND THEM. SO THANK YOU. AND I'LL GO AHEAD AND MOVE TO APPROVE ITEM G-16.

I'LL SECOND.

AND CAN I GET A ROLL CALL, PLEASE? COUNCILMEMBER LAURA?

YES.

COUNCILMEMBER FINN?

YES.

COUNCILMEMBER MARTINEZ? YES. MAYOR PROTEM-WHITE? YES. MAYOR VOIT?

YES. AND I TOO WOULD LIKE TO JUST COMMENT AND STATE THANK YOU FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF THIS ORDINANCE AS WELL AND ALL THE WORK THAT WENT INTO IT. All right, that will take us on to our Youth Council report.

Thank you, Mayor. So we do have two members of the Youth Council, I believe, that are going to be giving the report from our last Tuesday's meeting. As you saw, we have a very large group. and we did a lot of great discussions on that meeting, and they're here to give you a little bit of outline, but I'm looking forward to working with them this year. We have a lot of motivation and a lot of great ideas and a lot of focus, and that's very refreshing.

All right, great.

So we started off our meeting with introductions, as it was our first meeting. And we basically just wanted to get to know each other more. And to go along with that, we started with some icebreakers, like one-on-one with each other. And that helped make us more comfortable around each other, as we are going to be meeting a lot this year. We then discussed upcoming events that the Youth Council can help out at, such as the Monster Mash, Trunk or Tree, and Veterans Day Parade, as we want to see more youth involvement within these events. And I'm going to pass this on to Kira.

All right. For our second part, we talked about us being in community events, which should help us boost our team and get more people interested in our community. Next, we talked about having a recruitment team, which helps teens and their voice and, oh, sorry, helps teens use their voice in our city to be more advanced. We would also like to promote our team more so people can be more aware of our group. We talked about collaborating with other youth groups like Banning, Yucaipa, Riverside, and other young voices just like ourselves. We also talked about parks and recreations and community outreach. Thank you for listening.

Great. Thank you for that report. We appreciate that, and we look forward to all that you guys get to bring back to us. Of course.

Good job.

Great job. All right, seeing as we have no public hearings tonight, we will move on to our action items. So for our first action item, it is the award, excuse me, it is to award a business attraction and expansion program grant to applicant ED 2026-0005, Cluck and Moo. Mr. Pelzer.

Thank you, Mayor and Council. I'm very pleased to have this before you tonight. This will be the fifth or sixth one of these we've done in the last year, and if approved, it will bring our allocation up to close to $300,000. Anthony Calendres is the proprietor. You know him from that barbecue place he has in town too. And so this Cluck and Moo is a concept that he has used elsewhere and would plug into the former Cornerstone space on the 200 block of East Sixth Street. According to our guidelines, it's a casual eatery rather than sit down, so therefore it qualifies for the $25,000 version of this grant program. As a reminder, if they stay in business for three years, this amount of $25,000 would be fully forgiven. And Anthony's here tonight. If you have any questions about the operation, I'm sure he'd be happy to answer them for you. But other than that, everything's in order and consistent with our program.

All right, excellent. Thank you for that report.

Do we have any public comment? I have no written requests. Simone, do we have any callers on the line? We have no callers at this time. All right.

With that, I will open it up to council discussion. And if none, I would like to ask the applicant to come up and maybe describe his restaurant to us. We'll put him on the spot since he's here. And in the gear. In the gear.

My first time, sorry guys. Don't be, don't be rude. I wanted to say thank you for council, thank you for staff for helping us out. We're super excited to be able to expand and bring a new concept to Beaumont. We initially launched it in Yucaipa about three and a half months ago. It's going really well. So we're super excited. We wanted to bring it to Beaumont because we didn't want an empty space. We own the space now there and we were looking to do something with it, right? We were using it for catering and what not and keeping the space active for business licensing and help. We are excited to bring it. We brought it to life, and the concept is doing really well over there. It is a Nashville hot chicken and smash burgers, and we're also doing beef dips and Philly cheesesteaks. So a little bit more casual, more quick and fast, you know, fast pace. So we're super excited, you know, to bring a couple more jobs to town and utilize the space and continue to bring the downtown vibrancy that we want, right?

Excellent. Well, thank you for that. We are very excited for the concept. I think that it definitely has a place in our downtown area. Mayor Pro Tem White?

What is your plan on when you think you'll be opening?

So we got to do a certificate of occupancy. So hopefully that goes well. I mean, we kept up with everything. So everything's intact and we have, it was fully approved before through health and city. So I'm hoping that it goes pretty quickly.

Okay. Thank you.

Oh great, alright, great. And if no other American, I'm so sorry.

I'm sorry I should have mentioned in the attachment of your staff report is the actual copy of the agreement and there's a couple of corrections that the city attorney pointed out. Anthony's calendars name will actually be inserted on line four of the agreement and it has an incorrect address, which the correct one is 271 East 6th Street. Just want to make those changes for the record.

Alright, great. Well, if no other, oh, Council Member Lara, did you have anything?

Yeah, I just wanted to say we are excited about you being here, and we look forward to you moving in.

That's like a cluck-cluck there, huh?

all right well with that i will make the motion to move and approve the award for a forgivable loan under the downtown business attraction and expansion program for application ed 2026-0005 in the amount of 25 000 and find that the forgivable loan service is a valid public purpose by promoting economic development encouraging private investment supporting business attraction and expansion creating and retaining employment opportunities and activating commercial spaces here in Beaumont.

I'll second.

And can I get a roll call, please?

Council Member Lara? Yes. Council Member Finn?

Yes.

Council Member Martinez? Yes. Mayor Pro Tem White?

Yes.

Mayor Voigt? Yes.

And with that, we have a check to submit to you. We'll bring you up for a photo op. Here's a photo. Most photos are nightmares. There we go.

Yeah. All right, congratulations, Anthony. Thank you so much.

Congratulations.

Chicken, yeah. Chicken and waffles.

Oh, there you go.

Nashville hot chicken.

All righty, exciting. All right, we will move on to item J2, to authorize a finance director employment contract. Staff report by Ms. Mendoza.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. Mr. Travis Hickey and his family are in the audience this evening, and what is before you is the consideration of an employment agreement appointing him as our city's finance director. As you know, shortly after Chris was seated, we started the recruitment for finance director and in the process narrowed it down, and Mr. Hickey was unanimously identified as the top candidate. He currently serves as the finance director for the city of Menifee, which is a growing community with many similarities to the city of Beaumont. Prior to serving Menefee, he worked in Santa Fe Springs where he had similar experience. He holds a bachelor's degree in business administration with an emphasis in accounting. He's also a licensed CPA. City attorney requests I read the monetary items of the contract into the record. There's an initial base salary of $276,934. CalPERS retirement in the form of 3% at 60 is a classic member. Health and welfare, his annual cafeteria plan not to exceed $25,726 annually with city paid premiums, $50,000 in life insurance, leave accruals at 200 vacation, 96 sick, 60 executive with 14 paid holidays, similar to other members of the city of Beaumont. And allowances and reimbursements, there's also a vehicle allowance of $350. Staff recommends City Council approve the employment agreement as presented. City Attorney has reviewed the agreement, and Mr. Boatman negotiated the terms of the agreement. He's present with his family, like I said before, to answer any questions you may have.

All righty. Excellent. Thank you. All right.

Do we have any public comment on this item?

I have no written requests.

Simone, do you have any callers on the line? We have no callers at this time.

All right. And with that, I will open it up to council for comment or questions. All right. And with that, I hear you are a Beaumont resident as well. So come on up if you'd like to say something really quick, and then we will make the motion and move on.

Yeah, and I'm very excited to be here and join the team in Beaumont. I'm a current resident. I've lived here for 15 years, but I'm a lifetime pass area resident and, you know, graduated from Beaumont High School, went K through 12, went to elementary school right behind the city hall here. So, you know, it's nice to have a short drive to work, but it's really nice to be able to work and live in the same community. So I'm really excited to be part of the team and work with all of the executive leadership here and all the employees with the city. So I look forward to working with the council and I'm just looking forward to getting started. I would also like to, you know, introduce my family. This is my mom, Terry. This is my wife, Nicole. And this is our baby, Connor. So he's destroying the papers, but that's what 15-month-olds do.

Maybe we're two or so. We're two-ish, almost three or something. He's 15, 15 months. 15 months. All right, almost two.

Mayor, I'll move to authorize the city manager to execute the finance director employment agreement.

And I'll second. Can I get a roll call, please? Council Member Laura? Yes. Council Member Finn?

Yes.

Council Member Martinez?

Yes.

Mayor Pro Tem White? Yes. Mayor Boyd?

Yes. And welcome aboard.

Thank you.

All right. And we will bring you up for a picture op, too, since that seems to be the theme of the night. Okay. Well, there's just so many exciting things going on. Now we are going to item J3, and it looks like she has evacuated the room. So that is for authorization for the deputy city manager's employment contract, and we will turn it over to Mr. Boatman.

Just for the record, Ms. Mendoza is recusing herself because it involves her employment contract.

Thank you. Thank you, Mayor and City Council. I've been here for about four months now, and I can't think of anybody who has been more in front and anticipated my next move and my needs than Ms. Mendoza. She's truly been INSTRUMENTAL, YOU KNOW, AND I THINK KEEPING THIS ORGANIZATION MOVING FORWARD THROUGHOUT THE LAST SIX MONTHS, AND I ESPECIALLY AM GRATEFUL FOR THE TIME SINCE I'VE BEEN HERE. SHE'S BEEN SERVING ACTUALLY AS INTERIM DEPUTY CITY MANAGER SINCE DECEMBER OF 2025. SHE HAS MORE THAN 30 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE WITH THE CITY OVERSEEING VARIOUS MUNICIPAL OPERATIONS INCLUDING PUBLIC SAFETY ADMINISTRATION, HUMAN RESOURCES, LABOR RELATIONS, RISK MANAGEMENT, PAYROLL INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY, UTILITY BUILDING, AND TRANSIT. She holds a master's in public administration and is a graduate of the Post Command College. Her compensation is as follows. Her gross annual base salary will be $299.89. In addition to base salary, she will receive retired and DEFERRED COMPENSATION THROUGH PARTICIPATION IN CALPERS AS A CLASSIC MEMBER AT 3% AT 60. AN ANNUAL CAFETERIA BENEFIT CONSISTENT WITH THOSE PROVIDED TO OTHER NONREPRESENTED EMPLOYEE GROUPS CURRENTLY NOT TO EXCEED 25,726 ANNUALLY. PLUS CITY PAID PREMIUMS FOR $50,000 TERM INSURANCE, LIFE INSURANCE, POLICY AND DISABILITY COVERAGE. IN ADDITION, LEAVE ACCURALS CONSISTENT WITH THOSE PROVIDED TO OTHER NONREPRESENTED EMPLOYEE GROUPS, CURRENTLY 200 HOURS OF VACATION LEAVE, 96 HOURS OF SICK LEAVE, 60 HOURS OF EXECUTIVE LEAVE, AND 14 HOURS OF PAID HOLIDAYS. ALSO A MONTHLY VEHICLE ALLOWANCE OF $350. WITH THAT, I AM VERY HAPPY TO RECOMMEND THIS CONTRACT AND HAVE CARRIE FALL PERMANENTLY INTO THE ROLE.

All right, do we have any public comment for this item? I have no written requests. Simone, do we have any callers on the line? We have no callers at this time. All right, I will open it up for council discussion. Any discussion?

All right, I will say that Carrie has been instrumental in ensuring that through transitions, the city has remained consistent. And it is my honor to move to authorize the city manager to execute the deputy city manager employment agreement.

I'LL SECOND.

CAN WE GET A ROLL CALL, PLEASE? COUNCILMEMBER LAURA?

YES.

COUNCILMEMBER FEN?

YES.

COUNCILMEMBER MARTINEZ? YES. MAYOR PROTEM WHITE? YES. MAYOR BOYT? YES.

WOULD WE LIKE TO BRING HER IN FOR A PHOTO OP? LAST PHOTO. Unless you'd like just one of us. Congrats. Yeah, right?

Can't leave me up here alone.

Yeah.

There you go. Yay. There we go.

Carrie, you'll have to move to the front probably.

Yeah, Carrie's gonna go to the front. Chris next to you in the front too. We'll be all right. There you go. Thanks, Todd.

No, you guys are adding perfect lighting. Yeah, you guys are actually giving us perfect lighting.

Thank you, guys. Thank you, everyone.

So you started with the short jokes and then the whole show.

All right, we will move on to item J4, construction of the Oak Valley Parkway and Palm Avenue traffic signals. Item CIPR25-07, and we will have a staff report by Mr. Vestal.

Yeah, thank you, Mayor. So this item is the construction or installation of traffic signals at Palm Avenue and Oak Valley Parkway. The intersection will be signalized. But in addition to that, there'll be other improvements to the medians at all four corners to consider the pedestrian safety as well. The other improvements will be dedicated left turn lanes for all directions for vehicle safety as well. ON AUGUST 13, 2026, THE CITY ADVERTISED OR RECEIVED BIDS FOR THIS CONSTRUCTION AWARD. CAL PRO MAX ENGINEERING WAS THE LOWEST RESPONSIVE BIDDER WITH A BID OF $847,090. THERE WERE NINE TOTAL BIDS RECEIVED. And the city is recommending awarding CalPREX, CalProMax, the public works agreement for the construction of this traffic signal. That concludes my presentation.

Well, there was no presentation, but we appreciate your discussion. Usually we're waiting for a presentation from you. All right. Do we have any public comment for this item?

I have no written request. Simone, do we have any callers on the line? We have no callers at this time.

All right.

I will open it up for council discussion.

All right, and seeing none, I will make a comment. Today, I was out there near the intersection, and one of the residents came out, and she said, oh, what are you doing out here? And I said, oh, I'm just looking at hopefully the future site of our signals. And she was extremely thankful for this work that we are doing. She said that especially the houses on the corners hear accidents there all day long. and that they are always very concerned for pedestrian safety as well as vehicle safety. And so she was extremely happy to hear that this was on the agenda today. So thank you to the staff for the hard work with regards to this and, you know, getting this project to construction. So thank you.

Mayor, I've got a quick question.

Yeah.

Thank you. Robert, so I know that we have a future CIP for the traffic lights, synchronization upgrades, Oak Valley Parkway being one of those future projects. Is the equipment going in for this, is that going to be compatible with that or a relatively easy upgrade to accommodate that in the future?

Yeah, I appreciate that question. As of right now, it is the traditional loop system, similar to other intersections. However, we are negotiating with the contractor right now to include the same AI technology on Highland Springs that you'll see next, excuse me, next meeting to be constructed as part of this. So it'll be in advance of the Oak Valley corridor being transformed by AI. So we're hoping that it's a reasonable price that we can add it as part of the contingency and forego that in the future.

Okay, thank you.

Great question. Council Member Lara?

Yeah, Robert, I just want to thank the staff for their efforts. It looked like there was a lot of coordination that had to take place to get that light in. They did an excellent job, and I just appreciate the efforts that they did. And thank you for looking ahead on the AI.

Mayor Pro Tem White?

So what question am I going to ask you?

YES. VERY GOOD QUESTION. I HAD NOTES TO SAY ALL THAT, BUT I GOT NERVOUS WITH ALL THE PHOTOS. WE'RE GOING TO BRING YOU UP NEXT FOR A PHOTO. SO THE ACQUISITION OR PROCUREMENT OF THE POLLS IS STILL A LONG LEAD ITEM WE ANTICIPATE. SO IN THE SCHEDULE, WE HAVE APPROXIMATELY 14 MONTHS FOR THIS PROJECT TO OCCUR. A portion of that involves Edison undergrounding the power lines that are out there. But again, the driving factor in the schedule of 14 months is the long lead, about six to eight months. Yeah, approximately six to eight months for those traffic signal poles. We need to get a pole manufacturer here in Beaumont. We do. In fact, we started discussing having poles on just at the yard. However, there are so many different configurations, it's nearly impossible to anticipate.

Thank you.

Councilmember Martinez?

Thank you, Mary. I just also want to say I appreciate the effort here. It's a very wide intersection, so it takes a while by the time people get impatient and want to go through. My son got hit there. I've almost got hit there. So it's very critical because it's just a wide intersection, and as you get all the cars, some are slower going across than others, and people want to hurry up and go through. So I think this is really going to help a lot for safety. So I just want to throw that in. So thank you.

All right, so with that, I will move to approve the recommended action.

I'll second that.

And can I get a roll call? Council Member Lara? Yes. Council Member Finn? Yes. Council Member Martinez? Yes. Mayor Pro Tem White?

Yes.

Mayor Voigt? Yes.

All right, that takes us to item J5, consideration of a density bonus housing agreement between the City of Beaumont and Xenia Avenue Housing Associates LP. and we are going to have our staff report by Ms., oh, I'm gonna mess it up, by Melody.

Yes, and just before the staff report, just some introductory comments. I wanted to provide some clarification regarding the scope of this item because it's not the type of item that we deal with frequently. The Planning Commission approved the 66-unit project on July 22nd, 2026, including the project's land use entitlements. and the density bonus request. Because the Planning Commission's approval was not appealed, those project approvals are final. As a result, the Council will not be reconsidering the project itself or other elements previously approved by the Planning Commission. The Council's role tonight is limited to consideration of the density bonus agreement only. The agreement essentially memorializes the commitments that allow the project to qualify for additional density under the state density bonus law. It identifies the number of affordability level of the restricted units and provides the city with an enforcement mechanism to ensure that those units remain affordable as required under the terms of the agreement, which has a 55-year term. This distinction is important because questions regarding the overall project design, site planning, architecture, traffic compatibility, or other conditions and entitlements approved by the planning commission are not before the council as part of the density bonus agreement. Those matters were addressed through the planning commission entitlement process. Additionally, state density bonus law provides qualifying housing developments with certain rights when affordable housing is included. These can include additional density, parking reductions, incentives or concessions, and waivers of certain development standards. State housing law significantly limits a city's discretion once a project satisfies the applicable objective standards and qualifies for these benefits. Therefore, the council's consideration should remain focused this evening on whether the density bonus agreement appropriately documents and enforces the affordable housing obligations that are associated with the approved density bonus rather than revisiting the underlying project approval.

All right. Thank you for that.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. Melody Archiga, Senior Planner with the Planning Division. So as noted by our City Attorney, the Planning Commission did approve the entitlement on July 22nd, and it was for 66 units. Of those units, one will be a manager's unit, and 16 are designated for supportive housing. So the development is located on the northeast corner of Xenia Avenue and 6th Street. To the left, you'll see the site plan that was approved by the Planning Commission. The Planning Commission also reviewed the architecture, and the elevations are shown on the screen. Pursuant to state density bonus law, and as described by the city attorney, the applicant did request a 50% density bonus, one concession to reduce pedestrian walkways. However, they will still be meeting the ADA requirements, and two waivers requesting to waive requirements for usable private open space and private storage space. A CINQA exemption is being considered under Section 15378 for the density bonus agreement since there is no direct physical change to the environment. A separate Class 32 categorical exemption was approved by the Planning Commission for the plot plan approval. The Beaumont Municipal Code requires a density bonus agreement be executed to ensure compliance with the requirements of Chapter 1710 and state density bonus law. The agreement includes the density bonus and waiver concession request, establishes 16 units for supportive housing, and as noted by the city attorney, it maintains affordability for no less than 55 years. Staff would also like to note some minor changes to the draft resolution. A memo summarizing those changes has been provided for the record. With this, staff recommends that the City Council approve a density bonus and regulatory agreement with Xenia Avenue Housing Associates LP to authorize requested incentives and ensure compliance with Chapter 1710 and state density bonus law and authorize the City Manager or his designee to execute this agreement. This concludes my presentation and I'm available for any questions. I believe the applicant is also available on the phone line if you have any questions as well.

All right, thank you. Do we have any public comments on this item? don't have any written requests but um i do believe we have the developer on the line should you have any questions we can transfer in okay and are there any public comments online besides the developer simone do we have any other callers on the line we have no callers at this time okay then i will open it up first for council discussion and if you would like to address the applicant you can as well um council member laura

Thank you, Mayor. I appreciate the developers' desire to build affordable rentals in the city of Beaumont. I'm just a little disappointed that the state has taken our zoning ability away from council and planning commission to just basically to silence the city and to go ahead and implement state requirements as a global implementation. Thank you.

Yeah, thank you, and that's noted. I, too, agree that this does remove some of our local control with our zoning and control over that, and I have the same frustrations. All right, with that, any other questions?

Mayor, I'll move to approve a density bonus housing agreement with Xenia Avenue Housing Associates LP and authorize the city manager or his designee to execute the terms of the agreement. I'll second.

All right. And can we get a roll call, please? Council Member Laura? Yes. Council Member Finn? Yes. Council Member Martinez? Yes. Mayor Pro Tem White? Yes. Mayor Voigt?

Yes. And thank you to the applicant for being willing to be online today. All right. That takes us to Item J6, Committee Restructure and Outside Agency Assignments. And we will have a report by Ms. Wheelwright. All right.

GOOD EVENING, COUNCIL. THIS ITEM IS BEING PRESENTED TO RE-EVALUATE THE CURRENT STRUCTURE OF THE CITY COMMITTEES, THE ASSIGNMENTS TO COUNCIL MEMBERS, CREATE CONSISTENCY ACROSS THE ADVISORY COMMITTEES AND FACILITATE A BROADER PARTICIPATION OF RESIDENTS. The current composition of the city's advisory committees vary in structure. So staff is looking, or staff has looked at other cities to establish a consistent and standardized model. The recommendation would structure the membership of seven voting members. Each committee would have a non-voting staff liaison to provide technical and administrative support, as well as a non-voting council member liaison to provide the communication bridge to council. THE EXCEPTION TO THIS MODEL WOULD BE FOR THE FINANCE AND AUDIT COMMITTEE DUE TO THE NATURE OF THE OVERSIGHT RESPONSIBILITIES, STAFF IS RECOMMENDING TO CONTINUE HAVING TWO COUNCIL MEMBERS AS VOTING MEMBERS ON THE COMMITTEE. THE MEMBERSHIP STRUCTURE WOULD ALSO PROVIDE MORE FLEXIBILITY IN PARTICIPATION OF RESIDENTS BY REMOVING THE UNIQUE REQUIREMENTS FOR EACH SEAT AND ALLOWING COUNCIL TO SELECT MEMBERS BASED ON BEST The transition to the new member structure would occur gradually through attrition and the expiration of existing members' terms. This approach should provide unnecessary disruption and allow time for implementation. Staff is also recommending the addition of a municipal utility slash public works committee. This advisory body would provide a public forum for matters involving traffic, parking, city capital improvement program, and municipal utility matters. Staff is also looking to move from a resident-based administrative appeal panel to a professional contract to better serve technical code cases. Moving over to the outside agency committees and boards, staff has evaluated the list of committees and boards that the city participates in to see how staff can assist with these assignments so that council's time can be used more efficiently towards current priorities. And I'm happy to answer any questions or walk through each committee on the staff report for discussion.

Alrighty, great, thank you. And do we have any public comments for this item?

I have no written requests. Simone, do we have any callers on the line? We have no callers at this time. All right, so with that, I will open it up for council discussion.

Council Member Fenn?

Yes, thank you, Mayor. So I appreciate staff's work on this. I certainly, and I think we all do, we appreciate the involvement of the public, and it gives an opportunity for more to contribute. Just something to pass on, though, just by more information for the council. IN THE BOARDS AND ASSIGNMENTS PAGE, IT'S THE SECOND PAGE OF THE CHART FOR THE SACRAMENTO PASS REGIONAL WATER ALLIANCE. The recommended action on that was NA, but we do have a staff liaison. Thaxton Van Bell oftentimes is there at that meeting, so I think that we could just adjust that for a staff liaison there. But I appreciate looking out for counsel. We're spread pretty thin in the responsibilities that we have. There are times that I attend meetings and I WANT TO BRING SOMETHING CONCRETE BACK, BUT I SEE THAT IT'S MORE OF A STAFF LEVEL DISCUSSION BETWEEN AGENCIES AND SO FORTH, SO I THINK IT PUTS THE RIGHT PEOPLE IN THE RIGHT PLACE. SO I SUPPORT THE RECOMMENDATIONS THAT ARE THERE. BUT ONE THING I THINK IT SHOULD BE BROUGHT TO THE BOARD'S when it comes time to request from the mayor of committees that we need to that we are requesting to be on that and we've done well with it before but we continue this practice that if there's any stipends that are that are paid that that be Reflected in those assignments and just so that way it's full disclosure to the public Thank You mayor.

Sure. Absolutely. Did we gather that feedback? Okay. Any other discussion mayor Pro Tem White?

Yeah, I wanted to discuss the Southern California Association of Governments, the SCAG. I think we should keep that as a council representative. And the reason I think that is it is an opportunity for the networking with other council members throughout the region on important issues. I don't know that we would have ever had a problem of filling that position. I just think that that is something that we would miss out on without having, you know, the relationships that we can build as far as council members. Other than that, I'm good with all the other suggestions.

Council Member Martinez?

Yeah, thank you, Mayor. Yeah, I agree with that. I had that on my notes as well. Because in addition to what Mayor Pro Tem said, you can also run for the division representative. And we've had that before with Council Member Santos back then. So I think that's important to keep us on that. And the only other thing I would add is I don't see youth council on here. So I'm not sure if we want to go to staff liaison or keep a council member. That's up to discussion. But I just wanted to add that.

WE CAN NOTE IT. MY RECOMMENDATION IS TO KEEP A COUNCIL LIAISON. THAT'S TYPICAL IN MOST CITIES, AND IT GIVES THE USE SOME DIRECT CONNECTION TO THE COUNCIL. SO I THINK THERE'S BENEFIT IN HAVING BOTH THE COUNCIL LIAISON AND THE STAFF LIAISON PRESENT FOR THAT ONE. THE COUNCIL IS SUPPORTIVE OF THAT.

I would agree with that. Are we good with that? All right. I really thank you guys all for the time that went into this. I think specifically for the nuances that fall to the committees for community residents, we have seen that it has been difficult to fill some of those specifics at times. So I think that opening this up to a broader audience is definitely beneficial for the residents, and their participation is key to the success of the City of Beaumont and so I appreciate the work that went into that along with all of the other work for the list of committees that we had here as well. When you see it on two pages you think oh my goodness I can't believe we have all of these. So with that I will move to direct staff to proceed with the proposed restructuring of city committees and modifications to outside agency assignments and return to the City Council with the necessary updated bylaws, resolutions and other implementing documents. With the adjustments mentioned today with SCAG Youth Council and the San Gregorio Pass Water Alliance.

Regional Water Alliance.

Regional Water. I knew I was going to miss one word in there.

I'll second that.

And can I get a roll call, please? Council Member Lara? Yes. Council Member Finn?

Yes.

Council Member Martinez? Yes. Mayor Pro Tem White? Yes. Mayor Voigt?

Yes. And with that, that will take us to our legislative updates and discussions for September. We have a staff report by Mr. Usher.

Good evening, Mayor and City Council. I do not have a long presentation, so no PowerPoint slides, just an update. Many of the bills included in tonight have been brought before council and previous legislative updates. So rather than introducing every single bill or measure, it'll be an update on where they stand, highlighting some additional information and having the, that have the greatest potential in the city of Beaumont. In addition, I'll be spending a little bit more time on the California voting rights act legislation and ADU measure. And then the three e-bikes bills that are in relation to the ordinance that we just passed. Starting with SB 1164 and the California Voting Rights Act, Council has seen this in previous legislative updates as well as provided a detailed analysis. It's important to Bowman as although our city is currently an at-large and it impacts cities with district voting, the broader legislation could impact the city at a future time if the city decided to change the way the elected officials are chosen. So it's something that the city will monitor closely in the future in case the bill has any changes or amendments. I want to provide a little bit more context on an ADU bill, SB1117. This would change the way that impact fees are calculated for ADUs larger than 750 square feet. So from the property owner's perspective, it would lower the cost of constructing ADUs that are in excess of 750 square feet. And if the bill was signed, staff would need to reevaluate our fee calculation for the city's impact fees. Related to transparency, AB 1821 would change the Public Records Act 10-day determination period and allow a 14-day extension from calendar days to business days. This would not reduce transparency requirements but provide staff with more practical time to locate records, coordinate among departments, and conduct legal review when necessary to provide complete responses in a timely manner. I want to spend the rest of the time talking about e-bike legislation. because council has already taken action tonight on e-bike safety. And we now have additional information on how that state legislation may compliment our local ordinance. There are three bills that work differently, but address different parts of that issue. The first is AB 1569, which council has previously been briefed on and has now been signed by the governor as of August 27th. This bill focuses primarily on educating by establishing a standardized e-bike safety program. That program is important because our local ordinances addresses the enforcement and safety operation but education is just another major component of this issue. A standardized statewide program can help establish consistency expectations for students, parents, schools, and local agencies before unsafe behavior results in enforcement action. If this bill is signed, it would go into effect in 2028. The second is AB 2346, which has passed the legislature, has not yet been signed by the governor. This bill directly deals with e-bike operation and equipment. It expands statewide safety standards, addresses equipment and consumer disclosure requirements, and provides additional local authority related to e-bike speed limits. This is particularly relevant to us because it is assisting with the regulation of speeds on sidewalks, bicycle paths, trails, and other areas where there can be confliction between riders and pedestrians. If signed, staff would compare the final requirements against our recently adopted ordinance to determine whether any changes to our code, signage, or education is necessary. The third and final e-bike bill is SB 1167, which has also passed the legislature but is waiting to be signed by the governor. This bill focuses on the classification and addresses one of the more difficult issues, which is the difference between high-powered electric vehicles and e-bikes. SB 1167 would provide clear distinctions between legal e-bikes and these higher-powered vehicles. That should assist law enforcement, parents, retailers, and riders in determining what type of vehicle is actually being operated and what the law applies to. It also reinforces the important point that we discussed when making this ordinance, that not every electric two-wheel vehicle is a legal e-bike. So when looking at them all together, these bills addressed education, safety standards, as well as the classification for e-bikes. For the bills still waiting for a decision, the governor has until September 30th to sign or veto the end of legislation session. Overall, tonight's report is primarily updating the council on legislation that we've already been following. Staff will continue to monitor the governor's actions, particularly on e-bikes, ADUs, voting rights, and evaluate whether any final laws or changes need to be applied to the city. At our next council meeting, our legislative consultant, CPPG, will present a legislative session recap and will be available for any questions and updates on the bills that passed. The recommended action tonight is to receive and file this report And staff's available for any questions.

All right, great.

Thank you. Do we have any public comment on our legislative update tonight? I have no written requests. Simone, do we have any callers on the line? We have no callers at this time. All right. Council Member Fenn?

Oh, sorry. Oh, Council Member Martinez.

Thank you, Mayor. Just a quick question. So for our ordinance, we put e-bikes and electric conveyance vehicles type things. Okay. Would that help us then, no matter what their definition is on the e-bike, that for our ordinance we have those types of other things that are prohibited in parks and so forth to be able to enforce that, regardless of what the state comes up with the definition on e-bikes?

Yeah, so when working on the ordinance, we tried to make sure that it mirrored a lot of the language that was in the bill. So at the time, the bill could have had some changes. However, we were pretty broad and defined in all the definitions that we have listed in the beginning of the ordinance. But once the law is passed, we will go back and review just to make sure that there is no changes or adjustments that need to be made.

Very well.

All right. Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor.

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I think it may get more specific, you know, once it comes out, and then we may be able to identify that as well. And I'm interested to see what the signage requirements are going to be. Is it going to be a speed limit and then another speed limit for e-bikes and signage throughout the city? All right. Well, thank you for that. So I will make a motion to receive and file the September 2026 legislative update.

I'll second.

And can I get a roll call, please?

Council member Laura? Yes. Council member Finn?

Yes.

Council member Martinez?

Yes.

Mayor Pro Tem White?

Yes.

Mayor Foyt?

Yes. All right. And we will move on to the city manager's report.

THANK YOU, MAYOR. WE'RE PROUD TO CELEBRATE THE DEDICATION AND HARD WORK OF OUR INCREDIBLE CITY TEAMS. LAST WEEK WAS PAYROLL APPRECIATION WEEK, AND TODAY IS IT PROFESSIONALS DAY, WHICH NONE OF US CAN LIVE WITHOUT EITHER OF THEM. I WOULD LIKE TO RECOGNIZE THEM BOTH FOR THEIR EXPERTISE IN KEEPING BOMONT CONNECTED AND SECURE. OUR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT TEAM IS ALSO REPRESENTING BOMONT ICSC IN SAN DIEGO, WORKING HARD TO BRING NEW OPPORTUNITIES TO OUR COMMUNITY. THE NEXT EDITION OF THE CITY MAGAZINE AND RECREATION GUIDE IS ALSO BEING FINALIZED. THE FALL 2026 INCLUDES A VARIETY OF EXCITING EVENTS AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR OUR COMMUNITY TO EXPERIENCE THROUGHOUT OCTOBER TO DECEMBER AND FEATURES AN EDUCATIONAL PAGE on e-bikes in anticipation of tonight's passage. Events over the next few weeks include community events. On September 18th, we have the unveiling of a peace pole at the newly renovated library district. Mayor Pro Tem White will also offer a few remarks during the dedication ceremony starting at 11 a.m. September 19th, we will host Hispanic Heritage and Lucha Libre celebration at 4 p.m. On October 7th, the Chamber of Commerce and City of Beaumont will host State of the City at the Morongo Casino with planning efforts well underway. Pre-recorded recording footage has been completed, and staff will continue promoting ticket sales and sponsorships over the next few weeks. Events catered for our business community include Beaumont Business Forum on September 29th at 9.30 at the Biz Hub, and October 14th will be a regional vendor fairer at 7.30 a.m. at the CARC, where businesses will have a chance to become a vendor of not just our city, but surrounding municipalities, ask questions, and learn the process. Over 2,000 place cards have been mailed to known businesses within the community, and this is a great opportunity for local businesses to be a part of that process and learn how to participate. And with that, that's my report. Great.

Thank you for that report and all those updates. Looking forward to state of the city. All right, we will move on to future agenda items. Does anybody have a future agenda item? Council Member Lara?

Yeah, thank you, Mayor. Just thinking back on the backbone infrastructure project that we have and the size of the pipe that will be going through the Pennsylvania at the railroad tracks. And then also the the Penn grade set project and I was wondering is there a process that Riverside County fire takes to look at whether or not we would need to have some type of temporary emergency fire apparatus on the other side since I think. We should look like based on the size of the pipe that that project may be shutting down access from Penn as well as the grade set.

Yeah, we can do a calls for service analysis. And I do recommend that's absolutely something we should do. And we can also bring back council some options with respect to a report on that and then any options needed to mitigate that if necessary.

Would that help tie into maybe a potential future location for a fire station on that side as well? Or is that a different study?

It's tied together. I mean, you base fire station locations and priority based off a citywide response type survey. AND THAT CERTAINLY PLAYS INTO IT. SO I THINK THE TWO COULD DOVETAIL OFF EACH OTHER.

THANK YOU. THAT'S ALL I HAVE, MAYOR.

THANK YOU. AND I ECHO THAT. I THINK THAT LOOKING AT THAT IS MUCH NEEDED FOR THE SOUTH SIDE OF OUR CITY FOR SURE AND TO LOOK AT IT FROM A DATA PERSPECTIVE AND ENSURE THAT THAT IS APPROPRIATE. ALL RIGHT. I ALSO HAVE A FUTURE AGENDA ITEM AND THAT IS TO REVIEW AT CHERRY AND OAK VALLEY FOR A LIGHT. There was a post that I saw on Facebook today about an auto ped there. I'm not sure if it was called in or if it was something. But if we could look at maybe warrants or something and see if that's warranted, I would like that to be evaluated. Cherry and Cherry Valley. I'm sorry, Cherry and Oak Valley. I keep saying Cherry and Cherry Valley. Cherry and Oak Valley Parkway, right where the CRC is. Once again, another large intersection. Although it may be too close to a stop sign. Might be why. We don't have one. I don't know.

We'll perform an analysis. Yeah, and bring that back to you.

All right. Great. Thank you. All right. And anybody else? All right. That will take us to our council reports. Council Member Lara?

Oh, thank you, Mayor. Monday was the WRCOG meeting. It was moved because the first Monday of the month was Labor Day. So that was moved, and we attended that. And then last Friday was the Red, White, and Boots senior dance. Staff did a great job. I did attend. I didn't dance, though, because I had a pulled hamstring, so I didn't want to. So but great event well attended. Staff continues to put out these events. Seniors that I talked to there are all very appreciative. We do get a lot of outside folks from other cities to attend as well. So just thanks to staff and their efforts and what they did. And that's all I have, Mayor.

All right, great. And Mayor Pro Tem White.

Okay. I, um, attended the sports park ribbon cutting great event. Uh, appreciate the way it was put together. I didn't realize there was going to be a signing of the soccer ball. So I had left without signing the soccer ball. I know. Um, I'm glad you feel for me there, Mike. Uh, and, and then we, I want to talk about the Beaumont cherry Valley parks district or. whatever they're called today. I think the foundation is still the same name. We had a golf tournament there. And Doug was very well representative of the city. We ended up buying eight mulligans, and we ended up two under par.

There you go.

But you had to pick up at par on each hole. So we got par on every hole, and then we had two birdies.

So I probably shouldn't have told her that, should I?

No. So it was a great time and a good event. All right. Thank you.

All right. Great. We will move on to Council Member Martinez.

Thank you, Mayor. RCA was dark in September, so we pick up again October 5th. Of course, attended the Youth Council, as we saw. Excellent group. Lots to look forward to in that group going forward this year. And the sports park ribbon cutting was, you know, I haven't been down there in a while, I admit it. And, you know, Just to see how far that's come actually was remarkable. I really enjoyed that. And it was just a few days after that I started seeing people enjoy that and really the families gather and so forth. So I'm just so proud of what we've done and the progress we've made. And thank you, Doug, and all staff and everyone that was behind that. It's really a great feeling. It was a part of the community. So thank you.

All right, great. Council Member Fenn.

Thank you, Mayor. I'll start off by saying I recovered quite quickly from the sports park ribbon cutting. That was a fun event.

Oh, I'm so sorry. He didn't sign the ball. He wore the ball.

I'm so sorry. Did they sign it for him as a...

Yes, I'm so sorry.

No residual damage. I saw that.

David, who kicked the ball?

No comment. A six foot five male, right? Yeah, the story will grow as time moves on, right?

There it goes, there it goes.

So some meetings I did attend. On September 8th, I attended our PASCOM meeting and happily reported our contract for our emergency services coordinator. And so got a room full of applause in that one. So that was great. And also they talked about there that it's September's National Emergency Preparedness Month. So it's a reminder for a shout out for The county's website, it's rivcoready.org. So R-I-V-C-O-R-E-A-D-Y.org. So check that out. On the second, I attended our Riverside Transit Agency's Finance Committee meeting. And then on the third, I attended our local TNOW meeting. And they talked about Rail Safety Month for the month of September. And we had a couple of representatives from RCTC's rail safety representatives come out and share with us. So I wanted to share a few things. I learned a few things myself. Every three hours in the United States, someone is struck by a train. When you see a track, think a train. It takes a freight train a mile to stop. If you are stuck on the tracks for any reason, Get out of the car. There is a sign on the post. It's either blue or white. There's a phone number on that. Call that number first. It goes to the Union Pacific. They can stop the train and then call 911. Three don'ts. Don't pass on the tracks. Don't shift gears while crossing tracks. Most of us drive automatics these days. And then don't stop on the tracks. It's a reminder to stay off the tracks. That is private property. We should always cross at the proper crossings. And if the train is stopped, do not cross over or under a stopped train. So thank you, Mayor.

Great. Thank you for those updates and good reminders. I know recently in Harupa they just had one, so...

Thank you.

Thank you for those reminders and as for me, I attended the good morning Beaumont breakfast I'm always nice to hear the presentations that they have there and then also of course the sports park where I watched the 6-5 person And then and thank you to staff for the sports park ribbon-cutting it is awesome I cannot wait to play our first game which I think is not this weekend but next weekend on the sports park for Addison and then attended economic development committee as well and All right. I think that ends it for today. So we will adjourn this Beaumont City Council meeting at 738.