City Council - Regular Meeting

Okay, everybody. We'll come back to order with a roll call from our city clerk, Kathy Valdez.

The record shall reflect that all members are present.

Our city attorney, Walter Chung, will bring us out of closed session.

The city council took no reportable action in closed session this afternoon.

Thank you. Council Member Contreras will lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance this evening. Stand.

Ready.

Move in. Congratulations 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.

Our city clerk, Kathy Valdez, has some procedural items.

Thank you, Mayor. In accordance with the Brown Act, I'd like to announce as a result of convening simultaneous meetings, the members of the Buena Sanitation District will receive compensation of $147.75 for the district meeting pursuant to Buena Sanitation District Ordinance 2006-1. I would like to remind everyone that the VISTA Municipal Code requires members of the public to observe order and decorum at the meeting and to conduct themselves in a courteous manner. The ordinance was adopted to allow for public input and to facilitate city business without disruption in the meeting. Applause is appropriate for items listed in the presentation portion of the agenda only. Thank you.

Thank you. And we'll go to our city manager for approval of tonight's agenda.

Thank you, Mayor. There are no changes to this evening's agenda.

Thank you. To speak on an item on tonight's agenda, please fill out speaker slip with the number of the item you'd like to speak on and give it to the clerk, secretary, staff here at the dais. Speaker slips are available on the table just outside the council chamber doors. For members of the public participating via Zoom, you may use the raise your hand feature to indicate you'd like to speak or press star nine on your phone. We will announce when to raise your hand to indicate you'd like to make a comment on a specific item being discussed. Speakers will have three minutes each to address the council. We have two presentations this evening, so I'd like to invite my fellow council members to join me at the podium for those presentations. All right, our first proclamation tonight is one recognizing the fifth anniversary of the Clean Energy Alliance. Accepting the proclamation this evening is Rob Howard, External Affairs Manager.

Thank you.

Okay, and our proclamation reads, whereas the City of Vista is a proud member of the Clean Energy Alliance, a locally governed community choice energy provider serving communities throughout North San Diego County, the City of Vista joined the Clean Energy Alliance July in 2022, began receiving service on April 1, 2024, reflecting the city's commitment to sustainability, innovation, and local energy choice. Whereas the Clean Energy Alliance was formed in 2019 and began serving customers on May 1, 2021, providing clean electricity and customer choice to residents and businesses across its member communities, the Clean Energy Alliance now serves approximately 256,000 customers across seven member cities with electricity that is between 50 and 100% renewable and are carbon-free. Since its launch, the Clean Energy Alliance has reduced greenhouse gas emissions by approximately 746,092, or more exactly, metric tons of CO2 equivalent, and has committed substantial investments toward renewable energy and battery storage projects. The Clean Energy Alliance offers innovative programs that support clean energy adoption, customer savings, and community resilience while advancing local and statewide climate goals. The accomplishments achieved over the past five years are a testament to the vision, leadership, and dedication of the Clean Energy Alliance's board, staff, and member agencies, its partners and supporters. Whereas on May 28, 2026, community members, local leaders, and supporters gathered to commemorate this important milestone and celebrate the continued growth and success of the Clean Energy Alliance, Now, therefore, I, as the mayor of the City of Vista and the City Council, do hereby recognize and celebrate the fifth anniversary of the Clean Energy Alliance and commend its leadership in advancing clean energy, customer choice, affordability, and community benefit. And we extend our sincere congratulations and best wishes for your continued success in the years ahead.

First of all, I want to thank the city of Vista. And I also want to acknowledge our board is a group of phenomenal members from our seven member cities and our board chair is your own council member, Katie Melendez. And so I want to thank her for her leadership. It's pretty exciting the things we're doing and we'll be working with your entire council to be able to help people in your city with affordability issues because that's front of mind right now. And so we have a few programs. I won't get into them right now because I could be here all day because I am an energy nerd. And I don't want to take up all the time. But again, on behalf of our CEO, Greg Wade, I want to thank Mayor Franklin and the city council for this proclamation. We really do appreciate it. It's always good for people to see what you're doing and acknowledge it. So thank you on behalf of Clean Energy Alive.

All right.

All right, and now the star of the show tonight. Please welcome Deputy, Junior Deputy Emiliano Eli Hernandez for being selected as sheriff for a day. Deputy, come forward. And parents, if you'd like to come forward too, please. I'll recognize you and let you show that off while I read it. So you go by Alex, huh? Is that right? What is it? Emmy?

Emmy? Okay.

Whereas Emiliano Emmy Hernandez, a fifth grade student at Breeze Hill Elementary was selected as Sheriff for a Day winner, demonstrating outstanding character, compassion, leadership, and dedication to serving others. Whereas in his essay, Emmy expressed his commitment to helping families, children, and older adults by creating a safer community, supporting family programs, reducing gang and illegal drug activity, and assisting in locating missing persons and serving others with integrity and respect. Whereas Emmy also shared his aspirations to become a future canine handler and officer in service and law enforcement to protect and assist the people of San Diego County. Whereas as sheriff for a day, Emmy received an official sheriff's badge. And that is a sharp looking badge too, by the way. He visited specialized sheriff's teams and units, rode in a patrol vehicle, and experienced firsthand the important work performed daily by law enforcement professionals throughout San Diego County, whereas programs such as Sheriff for a Day inspire young people to become engaged citizens and future community leaders while fostering positive relationships between law enforcement and our community. whereas the personnel of the Vista Sheriff's Station are to be commended for creating an engaging and memorable experience that inspires the next generation of community leaders. Now, therefore, be it proclaimed by myself, the mayor and the city council, the city of Vista, we hereby recognize and honor Emiliano Hernandez for being selected as Sheriff for the Day and congratulate him on this outstanding achievement and commitment to serving his community. Come on. Hold on. Wait one second here. Hold on. There we go. There you go.

I want to thank all the people, especially Sheriff Martinez, who made this program, this experience possible. And it was really fun. Thank you.

All right.

You took a photo of me?

Oh, yeah.

I don't want to start here.

It's not too late.

I missed our excellent sheriff's captain and our lieutenant and all of our deputies that are here. I should have invited them to come say a few words. So we're so proud of you.

And so what I want to point out, so this was a countywide application to put in for this opportunity. In his own writing, with pen and paper, he wrote what's important to him. So let me just share with you. It says, I would like to be a sheriff in my community because I would have many opportunities to help families, children, older people, have a safe community. And what I'll tell you is this, is no matter where you're at in your life, if you keep that as your foundation, you are going to have an absolutely incredible life and you're going to be such a blessing to so many people. So always keep that in your mind, whether you're wearing a uniform or whether you're an elected official or a city manager or whatever you're doing in this life. If you do that, you're going to be just fine. So you're a part of our family, you're a part of the city family, and we'd love

Can we have our deputies come down for a picture? Ha, ha, ha.

Ha, ha, ha. Ha, ha, ha. Ha, ha, ha. Ha, ha, ha. Ha, ha, ha. Ha, ha, ha. Ha, ha, ha. Ha, ha, ha.

Ha, ha, ha.

Ha, ha, ha. Ha, ha, ha. Ha, ha, ha. Ha, ha, ha.

Good work.

Good work, Deputy Mayor.

All right. Thanks to the Deputy Mayor for reaching out and recognizing that we needed to recognize Semmy. Sheriff for a day. All right, that's going to bring us to oral communications, and I know we have some oral communication speakers here. Any member of the public may address the City Council on agency-related matters not on the agenda by requesting to speak during this section of the agenda. If you're participating via Zoom, please use the raise your hand feature or press star nine now if you'd like to speak. The number of speakers heard during this segment is limited to 10. Any additional remaining speakers will be heard under the second oral communication items if there are more than 10. Yeah, so let's hear first from Alex Parsa and then from, I think it's Braywell or Bramwell, and then from Eileen Fernandez. If you heard your name called, would you grab a seat in the front row and be ready to speak when you hear your name called? Mr. Parsa.

Hello, my name is Alex Parsa and I want to thank you for allowing me to speak tonight. The reason, I'm actually nervous to do this because it just comes unnaturally to me.

So I'll close right into that microphone, just bring it up right to your mouth. There you go.

Sorry. Margaret Hamer is employed by you guys, and she was a manager over at Encinitas Community Center where I worked. I'm actually originally from the Bay Area, and I moved here in 2019, and I've been a tennis coach for over 20 years, and I wanted to find... You know, my clients were kind of built up through word of mouth. And when I moved here, I just joined the community center because it was a good place to work. And I also enjoy basketball. And anyways, getting to the point. I had worked there for about a year, and then Margaret Hamer came on, and we had an employee. I was friendly with all the employees. We had one employee that was a little bit distressed, and one particular night, she spoke badly to me at work, and she wanted me to leave early, but we kind of had a slotted time that if you leave at 9.30, you leave at 9.30, so that kind of fumed her even more. I don't know what she ended up telling Margaret. I still don't know to this day, but... I was let go the next day, and I reached out to the deputy, to the mayor, and everyone, but Margaret had put a hush on the case and would not even let the assistant manager, who had day-to-day action with, even discuss why I was let go. So it's not even what I did. I couldn't defend myself. I didn't know what I had done. So basically this stunned me. This has never happened to me in 30 years. And I kind of looked in Margaret's past and I saw some discrimination issues that she'd had in the past working at Carlsbad Community Center where she showed ageism and banned some lady about six months. I was actually banned myself for going back to play basketball after I was dismissed because the lady under distress again said that I was there. and trying to find out why I had gotten laid off and it was like bugging her or something like that. So Margaret doubled down and they put a temporary restraining order on me and the judge immediately cut that case loose. And I had just seen behavior of Margaret, it shows it on the internet that like, you know, she'd also kicked out a black lady that was pregnant in the community center. And the lady had not done anything very much.

I apologize that your three minutes. Okay, our next, thank you, thank you. Everybody gets three minutes, thank you. Our next speaker is, Im, is it Bramwell or Braywell? I apologize, Bramwell, right? Thank you, Ms. Bramwell.

I'm here, good afternoon, council members, mayor, and staff. I'm here in opposition, continuing opposition of the potential expansion of the Vista Detention Center. The center will affect my community because the inmates, once they're released, they're set out on the street. You have Costco around there, you have traffic around there, and it may take up a lot of the utility. Right now, my water bill is over $500, and it's only two of us living there. So some of the utility would probably increase with what you propose. So therefore, I'm opposing the building of a new detention center. If you're gonna do anything, why can't you do a remodeling to fix the problem? Because I noticed that you had a remodeling done in 1989 and you added 310 beds there. And now with that private person coming in, you're going to add more beds. And I don't think a detention center should focus on the human to make money. Why don't we build some homes for them? Like Deputy Mayor said the last time I was here, that there's not enough housing out there for them. So why don't we build something for the community instead of more beds in a detention center? So I would appreciate that you consider that when you're thinking of expanding that area. Thank you.

Thank you. I invite you to go and share your thoughts at the Board of Supervisors for the county, because they're in charge of the jail. Okay. And the county, the jail is a county facility, and the decisions, while may be supported or not supported by individual council members, but that decision will happen at the County of San Diego's Board of Supervisors.

But you can also have influence in that?

Absolutely. Thank you. Absolutely. Okay, Eileen Fernandez. Yes.

Good evening, Mayor Franklin and city council members. I'm gonna be fast. The opinions of three Vista council members is affecting all Vistas, Vistans who are aware of their decision to fly the pride flag. And I thought it right and fair for me to express my opinion. Over 30 years ago, my six-year-old daughter and I moved to Vista. We moved into an apartment complex by the library and so very near the City Hall complex. At that time, it consisted of some trailers and a couple of small buildings, but for the 10 years I lived there, there was never a pride flag flown at City Hall. At one point in that 30-year span, I went to live with my mom in Oceanside. I was still in the Vista School District, but not in Vista. And after my mom passed away, I moved back to Vista in 2014. My girl had become married and had graduated from college, so it was just me. And I had lost contact with many of the people that I had known through her school, my church, a job, and other activities. I was working in Carlsbad and was no longer involved in local politics, where previously I had run for Vista School Board. So it came as a total surprise and shock to me two weeks ago when I checked out the agenda for the council meeting that day and found out that the proclamation, one of the proclamations was going to be to recognize the Pride Month. Later I learned that the recognition would also include flying the flag here. I think that's happening. My late husband's two sisters were both in that particular community, are both in that community which that flag represents. But I love them very much. And this is just to let you know that you can love someone but not support what they do. So anyway, they made their own choice, and if they're not hurting anybody, it's between them and God. He will be their final judge. But it's well documented that less than 12% of the world's population identify with this community. Of those who are not a part of it, it's probably... safe to say that a small percentage of them support it because of their state stats. These stats I'm referring to, I'm guessing that hundreds of citizens are not pleased with this decision, but because three council members wanted and approved it, we are all subjected to seeing our civic center adorned with a symbol of many of us do not support. I was going to go through the whole thing about a particular part of that community, but I don't think I have time. But anyway, I just wanted to conclude with one good thing is that I feel there is a shining star to overshadow this proclamation and flag display that is that President Trump has made a proclamation that June will now be recognized as Veterans Month. I would hope that eventually this will take precedence over the other. Nothing would make my late disabled Vietnam vet husband more proud. Now that's a pride I can support. Thank you for your time.

Our next speaker is on Zoom. We'll hear from Barbara Gordon, followed by Michael Poleski, followed by Teri Ann Skelly. Barbara Gordon. Barbara Gordon? Okay, we'll come back to Barbara Gordon. We'll move on to, oh, do we have her? Barbara Gordon, can you hear us?

Yes, uh-huh.

Thank you. Go ahead.

Okay. As a public health advocate, mental health services are vital, especially for individuals with justice involvement, many due to substance abuse. I wanted to share with you Sandag's 2025 Juvenile Arrestee Drug Use Report. This is self-reported by juveniles who have been arrested. Marijuana continues to be the most popular drug used. Consistent with previous years, marijuana at 93% was the most commonly used substance among those interviewed. Youth were asked about the recent drug use and marijuana showed the greatest percentage of recent use. 73% used within the past 30 days. Most of those that were used perceived marijuana as harmless. When asked about the ease or access of certain drugs, most responded that marijuana was very easy or easy to obtain. Youth perception of marijuana is that it's easier to obtain than tobacco or alcohol. This report underscores the risk of the city's widespread marketing of marijuana, whether it's billboards, storefronts, advertisements, signage, The accessibility and availability of marijuana in the city is unparalleled compared to other drugs. When city leaders advocate for more pot shops, it makes our society less safe. People that smoke do not make their best decisions when they're high or stoned. I urge you to not put profits ahead of young people's health and safety. Thank you for letting me speak.

Now we're here from Michael Polaski followed by Terry Ann Skelly. Michael Polaski.

Hello, good evening.

Good evening.

Hello, Mayor and City Council staff. I would like to address the development of 552 Beaubier where the Frock Rock is. Currently, it's been painted since the 70s. And I just would like, if the development goes through 15 attached homes, that the boulders there can somehow be preserved. Throne Rock has been loved by many visitors who've entered that way through Oceanside Boulevard, and I wish for a monument sign to be put there instead of a small one on the post that says, Welcome to Vista. Also, I'm concerned with the Flowrider at the wave being redone to be working again. I believe that there's $3.5 million allocated for revamping the wave, which I fully appreciate and love, but I really wish the Flowrider could be done, and if not, we could have more explanation on why it can't be done. ALSO, I'M WONDERING ABOUT THE SURVEY AND THE COMMENTS ON IT, AND I HAVE NOT SEEN IT ON THE DATABASE, AND I HAVE NOT SEEN THE CITY COUNCIL DISCUSS IT IN THE PREVIOUS CITY COUNCIL MEETINGS. IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE SHOWN AT CITY COUNCIL ON APRIL 14TH, AND I THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME. THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME. THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME. THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME. THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME. THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME. THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME. THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME.

Good evening, this is City Council. I'm Mayor Franklin. My name is Terri-Ann Skelly. I'm a County Planning Group member, a parent, and a public health educator. This morning, I spoke at the Board of Supervisors meeting in support of an agenda item regarding support for psychiatric and mental health services in general with an emphasis that it seemed for older populations. However... I concurred with Supervisor Desmond who felt psychiatric care for children and youth also needed careful consideration and support as well. Rady's Children's Hospital pediatrician, Dr. Natalie Lobb, has spoken regarding the increase of adolescents to its emergency room in 2025 because they needed mental health services. She specifically spotlighted their need for treatment because of their cannabis use. She said that prior to 2020, we were only seeing a handful of adolescents a year, maybe 20 or 30. Now, it's over 600 emergency room emittances in 2025 and likely even more in 2026 if the current trend continues. She reminds us that, and I quote, cannabis products are far more potent today than what previous generations were exposed to. Again, Dr. Lobb is quoted. We see this public health crisis emerging in children and young adolescents with early initiation of cannabis use. I think we as residents of San Diego County and the city of Vista need to ask ourselves what this early use marijuana really means. for the long-term well-being of our younger residents and the many who care about them. We need to reduce visibility and promotions that come with selling marijuana in our county and in our city and reduce marijuana businesses' footprints in our North County communities as everyone suffers because of it. Thank you for hearing my concerns this evening.

Becky Rapp, followed by Peggy Walker.

Good evening, my name is Becky Rapp and I'm here tonight to ask the city to prioritize public education and prevention regarding the risks associated with today's high potency marijuana products. The science around marijuana has changed dramatically over the last decade. An ever growing body of evidence from researchers, hospitals, public health agencies, and now the federal government can no longer be ignored. Just recently, the US Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration released a national advisory calling for healthcare providers to screen patients for cannabis use disorder and educate them about the risks associated with cannabis use across the lifespan. SAMHSA specifically highlights concerns related to addiction, mental health impacts, cannabis induced psychosis, and the increasing potency of modern products. Many residents believe cannabis is the same product that existed a generation ago, but it's just not true. Today's concentrates, vapes, edibles, and high THC products can contain potency levels that would have been unimaginable just a few decades ago. Yet many consumers, are unaware of the potential consequences, especially young people whose brains are still developing. Consumers deserve honest science-based information so they can make informed decisions. Parents deserve resources to recognize warning signs and young people deserve to hear the full story, not just the marketing. The individuals struggling with cannabis use disorder deserve to know that there is help available. I urge this Council to support stronger public education efforts, community outreach, and prevention campaigns that communicate the documented and science-based health risks. Thank you.

Peggy Walker followed by Madison Rapp.

Hello, I come as a public health advocate to share important information just published by the International Journal of Drug Policy, which is warning policymakers of rising rates of Cannabis Hypermesis Syndrome, or CHS, especially among those under 25. CHS was brought to our attention years ago by San Diego physician and addiction specialist Dr. Ronit Lev, who has served with the National Office of Drug Policy. Dr. Lev continues to warn about rising ER admissions in San Diego County for CHS. which is marked by intense pain, nausea, vomiting that is often uncontrollable, and screaming. This led Dr. Lev to call the symptoms scrommeting for the vomiting and screaming. The Journal of Drug Policy Studies shows 6% of marijuana users beginning at age 16 develop CHS, which demands costly ER medical attention. Dr. Lev has said rising numbers and sometimes lengthy diagnosis processes take ER time away from the care of other patients. Following new studies, The journal has called on policymakers to better educate constituents about CHS and to oppose efforts to increase access to today's high-potency, mind-altering marijuana. I urge your consideration of the journal's suggestion that it's time to take a hard look at policies that result in rising CHS CHS cases and other marijuana related medical emergencies and the high medical and social costs. Thank you for your time.

Madison Rapp.

Hi, good evening. Thank you for allowing me to speak tonight. I'm here to share some important findings about marijuana use and respiratory health, particularly among young people living with asthma. As a mother of a child recently diagnosed with asthma, I was especially interested in this information and wanted to make sure it was known because as marijuana use continues to rise across the United States, it is critical that we understand its potential health impacts. Asthma is one of the most common chronic respiratory diseases affecting millions of adults and children. Yet surprisingly little research has examined how inhaling marijuana affects asthma outcomes. A recent national study analyzed data from 4,400 adults with asthma and found that inhaling marijuana, whether by smoking, vaping, or both, was associated with a significantly higher likelihood of experiencing an asthma attack within one year. Compared with non-users, individuals who smoked marijuana had 64% higher odds of an asthma attack. Those who vaped marijuana had 81% higher odds. These findings highlight a clear association between inhaled marijuana use and increased asthma risk. The sensitivities people with asthma have should open the window for us to see that these inhaled products are actually very dangerous for everyone's lungs on some level. It is not safe to be breathing in these toxic chemicals. So why are we allowing them to be sold? Four cities in California now have bans on all tobacco sales, so it's not a huge leap to me to expect that at some point, maybe all of these harmful products could be banned. As policymakers, you have a responsibility to ensure that residents receive accurate health information. Public education, warning labels, and continued research are essential so that individuals, especially those with asthma, can make informed decisions about their health. Thank you.

Okay, the opportunity for all communications at tonight's meeting is now closed, and that will bring us to our consent calendar. The recommendations on the following consent calendar will be enacted in one motion. Unless an item is removed from the calendar, any member of the public may remove an item by submitting a request to speak card to the clerk secretary or by using the raise their hand feature on Zoom or by pressing star nine. Items removed from the consent calendar will be considered immediately following adoption of the calendar. We have 12 consent items this evening. Deputy Mayor O'Donnell. Motion to approve the consent calendar. Council Member Melendez.

Second.

We have a motion and a second. Please cast your votes. And motion is approved unanimously. That'll bring us to the first of three public hearings this evening. Public hearing number one is regarding the levy of delinquent mandatory trash charges for fiscal year 2025 and 26. The public hearing is now open. If any member of the public wishes to speak on this item, let me indicate so by using the raise your hand feature by pressing star nine or submitting requests to speak card here at the dais. Speakers will be called upon after the presentation. Our finance director, Mike Silvio, will introduce the item.

Thank you, Mayor. Good evening, Council. Public hearing number one is an annual recurring item. It's statutorily required by the VISTA Municipal Code. Specifically, the collection of refuse trash is mandatory for all residential, commercial, and industrial properties. Delinquent accounts which were more than two months in arrears were mailed notice in late March and on April 14th. City Council set June 9th, which is tonight, for the public hearing, for the purpose of levying any remaining delinquent accounts on secured property tax rolls. On April 17th, city staff issued a final notice to the affected customers after the April 14th Council action. As of the preparation of the Agenda Report, there were still 254 delinquent accounts remaining, totaling $72,628. The single largest delinquent amount was $1,210.22. Those are on agenda report pages seven through 12. Staff's recommendation is to conduct and close the public hearing and approve the item's resolution. That completes staff's presentation and both Assistant Finance Director Matt McDonald and I are available for any questions.

Very good. I'll make a motion to close the public hearing and adapt staff's recommendation. Council Member Fox. I'll second. We have a motion and a second, please cast your votes. That item is approved unanimously. It'll bring us to item PH2, a public hearing regarding the levy of delinquent fiscal year 2026-27 property-related administrative citation violations. The public hearing is now open. Any member of the public wishes to speak on this item, they may indicate so by using the raise their hand feature by pressing star nine or submitting a request to speak card. Speakers will be called upon after the presentation. Finance Director Mike Silvio will introduce the item.

Thanks, Mayor. Similar to Public Hearing No. 1, this is annually recurring. It's to place the prior uncollectible administrative citations on the property tax roll. It requires two steps to complete. Much like the first public hearing, the first step was completed by Council on April 14th and facilitated tonight's public hearing. There are 22 delinquent accounts with citations totaling $11,405, and the affected property owners were notified by certified mail on April 17th of the charges and tonight's Public hearing, the citations are for accumulated junk, property maintenance, business license. Those are per Exhibit 3 on page 8 of the agenda report. The largest single citation amount is $415. Staff's recommendation is to conduct and close the public hearing and approve the items. Council resolution.

Very good. Thanks to our great code enforcement team for doing their job. And it looks like the people of Vista were responsive to their requests and mostly paid their citations. That's a good thing. Want to continue to encourage our code enforcement department to be diligent in enforcing our city's codes for the benefit of all of our residents. Deputy Mayor.

Move to close the public hearing and accept staff recommendations.

Council Member Contreras.

I'll second.

We have a motion to second. Please cast your votes. That motion is adopted unanimously. That'll bring us to item PH3, our public hearing regarding the 2027 Regional Transportation Improvement Program update. The public hearing is now open. If any members of the public wish to speak on the side of them, we indicate so by using the raise their hand feature by pressing star nine or submitting a request to speak card. Speakers will be called upon after the presentation. Finance Director Mike Silvio will introduce the item.

And finally, public hearing number three, much like the first two, this one's a biennial recurring item. It's required by SANDAG, specifically Section 5A of the Transit Extension Ordinance. Our budget manager, Sarah Taylor, is going to provide the staff report.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. This report is for the Regional Transportation Improvement Program, also known as the RTIP. And the RTIP is SANDAG's program that includes proposed projects for transit improvement in the San Diego region, including projects that are eligible for TransNet funding. TransNet is the countywide voter-approved half-cent sales tax distributed to local agencies based on population and miles maintained. And SANDAG uses the RTIP as their planning and budget document, similar to our six-year capital improvement program. The RTIP is formally updated by SANDAG every two years and Transnet funds must be programmed in the RTIP for the city to use the funds for improvement projects. SANDAG requires each local agency to hold a public hearing for Transnet programming changes and for a resolution to be approved by the city council for each amendment before any updates to the RTIP are accepted. This slide shows the three VISTA projects programmed with the Transnet funding for this update. The programming for these projects is in line with the upcoming six-year capital improvement program budget, which was just approved by Council. And this concludes the presentation and staff is available for any questions.

Deputy Mayor.

No questions. Just move to close the public hearing and accept staff recommendation.

Council Member Fox.

I'll second.

The motion is second. Please cast your votes. Thank you, finance team. That motion is approved unanimously. That will bring us to our first discussion item this evening, a discussion of the senior budget workshop recommendations. If any members of the public wish to speak on this item, they may indicate so by using the raise your hand feature by pressing star nine or submitting a request to speak card. Speakers will be called upon after the presentation. Our recreation and community service director, Margaret Hamer, will introduce this item.

Thank you, Mayor Franklin and Deputy Mayor O'Donnell and City Council. I'd like to introduce Kevin Grancy, our program manager.

Good evening, Mayor, City Council. We are here tonight to discuss the recommendations from the recent senior budget workshops. Workshop number one was held on March 31st, 2026. At that meeting, we discussed budget considerations that focused on the senior population, identified preferences and recommendations for facilities, programs and staffing support, and identified key topics such as new facilities, transportation for the senior population, accessibility, communication strategies, technical upgrades, partnerships, programming and signage. Moving on to workshop number two, which was held on May 6th, 2026, three priorities were identified based off the feedback from workshop number one. The priority number one or the top priority was to provide additional or enhanced transportation for the senior population, which would include the purchasing of two new vehicles to provide transportation. The estimated costs for those vehicles are $100,000 each. There is a footnote at the bottom stating that one vehicle is currently in the procurement process, so the ask at this time by the seniors would be for one additional transit van. Additionally, a request for two additional part-time staff in order to drive those new vehicles. Since they are transit vans, it doesn't require a specialized Class C license or Class B license with a passenger endorsement, meaning anybody with your standard Class C would be able to drive those. Much easier to recruit that type of employee as opposed to the specialized one. Priority number two. at that workshop on May 6th was to improve communication for senior programs and services. That was to expand and improve public communication of services and programs in both written and digital forms, to ask communication staff to develop plans specific to seniors and to present to the Senior Citizens Affairs Commission at an upcoming meeting. The estimated cost for additional written and digital materials is $10,000 per year. That would be an ongoing cost. And priority number three would be to increase staff support, to support senior programs and services. That would be adding one part-time staff to support specifically the programming and services at the Gloria McClellan Adult Activity and Resource Center. as well as add an additional part-time staff to support information technology needs at the Gloria McClellan Adult Activity and Resource Center. That second one would be to help those seniors that needed specialized technical support with their devices, had questions about usage of computers, things along that lines. The estimated cost for those is $22,500 per year for each additional staff member. Staff is seeking the city council's direction related to these recommendations for the forthcoming operational budget discussion.

All right, we've got one member of the public that wanted to be heard on this item. Shelly is a Weisler, Whistler, please come forward.

Thank you for allowing me to speak this evening on behalf of seeking funding for our improvisation class at the Gloria McClellan Senior Center. I've been attending these classes every week for the last nine months. I have participated when our fledgling group was only a couple of people to what is now a solid company of regular participants. Our first meetings were held in the cafeteria of McClellan Senior Center. Other seniors with some cognitive decline were finishing lunch with their spouse or caregiver and would bravely decide to join our class. I have watched when someone struggled to find the words they wanted, and sometimes it never happened. But when it did, you could tell the neural pathways would light up, their eyes would sparkle, and they'd get a smile on their face. They were not only back in the game, but sometimes they hit it out of the park. I don't know who was more surprised, us or them, but they were always met with cheers and applause. Improvisation has now begun to be taught to many thousands of seniors, caregivers, and those afflicted with dementia around the country. The two magic words always used in improvisation are yes and. Those with dementia too often hear no. In improvisation, we meet someone where they are with the response, yes and. Yes meaning I hear you and and meaning let me enter into your reality. Seek understanding and together we move forward. And couldn't we all benefit from that skill set? In improv, we focus on flexibility, adaptability, empathy, and creative thinking. Our participants have included people from 55 to 90 years of age, and has also included people for whom English was not their first language. Everyone is accepted, everyone benefits. Improv means meeting people where they are, being in the moment, and viewing every encounter as an opportunity for meaningful engagement. The maximum that laughter is the best medicine is grounded in truth. Laughter decreases the amount of the stress hormone cortisol in our bodies, which helps improve short-term memory, according to a study conducted by Loma Linda University. Improvisation classes also improve the quality of life and is an anecdote for isolation and depression common among seniors. And this has certainly been the case in my own life. We've become a tight group and continue to meet socially outside of class, but are very much hoping for funding. Thank you.

Thank you very much for coming to speak tonight and for your heart for our community and our seniors. Appreciate that. Okay, let's hear from Council Member Contreras.

Well, thank you so much for reviewing this and Margaret and Kevin for being a part of this every step of the way. Thank you so much to our senior population and folks that have concerns about seniors that came to both workshops. I really appreciate the opportunity to review some of the things that came out of the Senior Budget Workshop, and I'm curious to hear from my council. There's a lot of different recommendations, and for me it was really important to build broad-based consensus and have everybody prioritize. So the prioritizations that you are seeing in front of you and that we went through in the presentation, those are coming from our seniors. The recommendations are coming from our seniors. So this is really built with a senior lens so that we can hear from our senior population what it is that they want to see more of and the prioritizations that they have across the board. So I do have, Margaret, I can't remember what the stat was, but you said that our population is going to be like X amount of seniors by X time. I'm putting you on the spot, but do you remember? Because it was a significant portion.

I do not have the statistic right off the top of my head, but I know by like 2030, which is just around the corner, they are saying that older adults will start exceeding younger children. And so the scale is slanting in the other direction.

Yeah. Definitely, and for me, I think it's critically important. I mean, this is one, this is the first time that we've ever done a workshop for budget just with seniors in mind, and because the senior population is growing, because we also see a lot of financial constraints for a senior population, I thought it was really important to conduct this. But for me, taking a look at... the long-term projection of where our population demographics are, I think it's really important that we might not be able to prioritize all of these things in our budget this year, but that we build out a 10 to 15 year plan that incorporates some of the things that we're seeing here that the seniors prioritize as far as strategies that are gonna be helpful for them and their friends and family. So I do have a few questions. I think it's great that we were already looking at procuring another van. Do we have funding set aside for that driver?

No, that would actually be a replacement vehicle. There's some replacement funds that were identified during the past fiscal year. So we have, yes, we have currently drivers available for that one. Okay, and this is replacing which vehicle? Be replacing 262, so it's not an apples to apples replacement. Vehicle 262, that was once funded by Caltrans many years ago through a grant. They donated it to us at the end of that, the lifespan of that grant. It had become the primary transportation bus for the Senior Nutrition Program. Since then, we have obtained, as well as through a grant through SANDAG, through a capital grant, three additional buses, an eight-passenger, a 12-passenger, and a 16-passenger. So we're able to meet the needs of the nutrition transportation utilizing those vehicles. The philosophy behind moving from the 18-passenger 262 van to a transit van, much more easy to navigate. Again, to reiterate, easier to find drivers for that than it is for a Class B license. But it's also easier to navigate the transportation program for the out-and-about program because a lot of those, the seniors live in apartment complexes, senior facilities, where there may be issues with clearance where a larger bus is a difficult time getting in. On the flip side of their destination, you're looking at low clearance where a bus may be very difficult to get that senior from their door-to-door service, and then having that senior walk an additional length when it's really not necessary with a smaller transit van. For reference, those transit vans are the size of those newer ambulances that you see around town.

Yeah, and so, okay, so you're saying that with the replacement vehicle, we're going to be at the same amount of seats or more than we had before?

We would be at technically less seats. We'd be down 10 seats, but we do have the ability, because we're not able to drive those three Sandag vehicles every single day as it is because of the amount of drivers that we have. So we still obtain... Usable seats were exactly the same.

Yeah. Okay.

If that makes sense.

Looking at another $100,000 for another vehicle, where does that put us at? More than?

At that point, we do have more vehicles than we have currently. We have one additional vehicle. We would be able to drive more people in different directions, kind of taking a step forward. With that additional staff, you're able to run two different routes at the same time and get more people transported on a day-to-day basis rather than having to cut it off once that seat capacity fills.

Yeah, and the out and about program, a little bit different than just the senior nutrition, right? And so can you just speak to the out and about program and some of the activities that our seniors are able to conduct with that? Of course.

Yeah, so the out and about program is designed to get those homebound seniors or those without transportation on medical appointments from their door to a destination that's not necessarily at the senior center. It would be taking them on weekly grocery shopping trips where that may be the only opportunity they get to stock up for the week for their nutritional items. It also takes them on their medical appointments or them and their caregiver on a medical appointment anywhere along the 78 corridor. So as far west as like the Scripps off of Jefferson and then as far east as what now is Kaiserman will soon be another hospital out there too, and then kind of branching off of that. So within the North County region, outside of Vista, but it gets them, so it's medical appointments three days a week, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, and then shopping on Mondays and Wednesdays.

Okay, and so if we had another vehicle, are we looking at maintaining the medical appointments to being only a certain number of days, or are we able to expand that as well?

Expansion. Expansion of both the medical, which...

Which I think is, that's a huge deal.

Agreed, our philosophy at the McClellan Center is that should be our number one priority. Getting those people to those medical appointments, there's often times where we get last minute requests for a ride. The program states that we ask for 72 hours advance notice just so we can have the drivers scheduled. Anytime we can, even if it's within 24 hours a day, if we can find a driver, we're going to bring them in to get them there. Sometimes it's a challenge because we've already got that route set and they're out on the highways. So, yes, we could expand that multiple days, multiple routes on the same day. And the same would go for grocery shopping as well.

Okay, yeah, I mean, this is... One of the important things for me was just to hear directly from our seniors in the transportation issue kept coming up. It was an overwhelming majority. I would say it was like 100% of everybody that was there for both workshops said that transportation was critically important. And I've heard it from my constituents when I'm going to speak to different folks at senior conferences complexes multi-family that's dedicated to seniors one of the biggest issues is that they are continuously feeling isolated because transportation is difficult and i've had too many seniors tell me that they can't make it to the grocery store um and and that to me is unacceptable so i just i know that we don't have a lot of wiggle room in our budget But for $100,000 for one more vehicle that we can continue to show that our resources are keeping up with the population growth of our seniors and that we're dedicated to ensuring equity for our senior population so they can get to where they need to get safely. They can always be connected to the resources that they need. I don't think that that is so much to ask. Now I know that this comes, it's kind of like you're buying a printer and then you continuously have to buy ink, right? And so the driver at $45,000 a year, I know that that is an expense that will continue. But again, that $45,000 means that we get to expand the services that our seniors need to get to. And we don't have to do anything to even grow the services, it's just about connecting them to those different appointments. And I know on the health aspect, getting to your primary care is critical and it is really difficult and I've just seen it in my own family as I see my grandparents and other folks, my great aunts and uncles age it's it it's a big issue so um i just got to tell my council please i want to hear from you i you know we can go through all these other ones but i just want to see if there's consensus even on the hundred thousand dollars for one more vehicle and adding a driver um I think some of these other priorities are critically important, but I do wanna hear specifically about the transportation, because that was the number one issue. And some of these other things like communication, increasing the budget, that's important. So we can talk about that, but thank you so much. I look forward to hearing comments.

Council Member Ramirez.

Yes, thank you for this presentation. Thank you for gathering the seniors together to give us recommendations for this upcoming budget cycle. It's not every day that we get to review these concerns. And so when I'm looking at the recommendations, makes me really pleased to see that there is alignment between our senior neighbors who have participated in these meetings and then of course staff that can confirm for us that there is a need for more transportation options. you know without kind of seeing the logistics and the fleet in front of me it's kind of hard to follow exactly what vehicle is being used for which program because it sounds like we're trying to optimize right and use our vehicles for nutrition program for getting folks to medical appointments so But as far as I'm understanding and what's outlined in this agenda item, we would be able to help people get to more medical appointments, we'd be able to schedule more appointments with folks. And tell me a little bit about this process. Are the participants paying for the ride at all or is this a completely free service?

For the out and about program, there is a fee of $5 for round trip service. So again, door to door service, we pick them up at their residence, get them to their doctor's appointment, either wait for them and bring them back home or if there's another appointment at the same time, we'll have basically a ride share where there's multiple seniors in the same vehicle. We'll drop them off and then go back and pick up the previous senior. If it's a one-way trip, which happens occasionally, that's when a senior would have a medical appointment, but they've already arranged to have a family member or somebody else pick them up, that's a $3 charge.

Okay. And then how often do we review these particular fees? $5 for a trip that could go all the way into Carlsbad area, essentially, and then deep into San Marcos, Escondido. How often do we update these

We review the fees each year when we bring the master fee schedule back to Council for review and approval. So that would have been within the last month. So we do make sure that we're in line with what other neighboring cities are charging. We are a pretty unique program to North County. There's not a lot of other agencies that have as robust of a transportation program as we do have, even though we're looking at hopefully expanding based on the seniors' requests. I think we're a little bit less expensive than City of Oceanside, but we don't have, and we don't have near the reach that that city does.

Okay.

But we do review them each year.

Okay. Well, I definitely support this requests from our senior community. We are seeing this kind of in an isolated way where when we're doing the next steps in our budgeting process and we see these priorities outlined with other departments and other needs, even within recreation and community services, it might have to come under further assessments. And so in part of that process, I would love to see a little bit more of just like a description of the fleet and how it's used and how this expansion is going to impact the fleet and then how it could really even double our efforts, right? Like as you're describing, being able to send out folks on, you know, last minute trips or I really appreciate the idea that we can be more strategic with our routes and come up with, you know, I do feel like there is parts of the city that feel inaccessible. And so if we had more transportation expansion that we can maybe cover a little bit more ground. I also see outlined in the item that there's a point to advocate to North Kennedy Transit District to basically have more services provided to seniors. So I would also like us to look at those components too, similarly to how we do for a lot of our other services that we offer at the city. For example, homelessness services, we've been very successful in our advocacy of being able to bring in funding for some of these more specific community services. So I would like to really bolster any funds that we put into senior services, specifically transportation, that we're working with other agencies, we're applying to grants, we're looking for opportunities. We may be facing harder and harder economic times and so looking at expansions can be challenging, but I absolutely support the goal of an expansion, and I appreciate you Council Member Contreras for bringing the senior community together, participating in those workshops and promoting the workshops, and also suggesting that this is something that we should be doing, even if it's not something we can do right now, we can do some planning towards that. So I do support it. and would love to learn more about our fleet and how we can enhance it. Cool, thanks.

Deputy Mayor.

Yeah, thanks for the presentation. I just had a couple questions for you. So, you know, $100,000 for a bus right now, and my understanding is it would put us basically at the brink of our budget for the year, even though it's not a tremendous amount of money. That makes it harder for me, while I support the program and the idea of itself, it just makes it harder for me to approve one right now. But I know that when we had spoke in the past about North County Transit District, the NCTD Plus, what's the ridership like that for our seniors, and what does it cost for a round trip

Oh gosh, I'm trying to rack my brain. It's a little bit more than what we charge for our ridership. As you know, the NCTD Plus program, you have to live within that specific geographic.

I'm aware because it doesn't come to my district.

But the bullet point that you see in the presentation specific to NCTD Plus That was a recommendation that came from the Senior Citizens Affairs Commission at the May meeting in order to get support to have North County Transit Department reinstate the discounts for seniors, military and disabled on that NCTD Plus route. The ridership, I don't know what their total ridership is for the general population, let alone the senior population. I do know that we do see the NCTD Plus bus pull up to the senior center several times during the day, so there are seniors utilizing it to get to our center. Could you answer that?

Yes, Deputy Mayor, I don't have the stats on seniors, but the City of Vista's NCTD Plus is the number one zone, the highest utilized, so it's over 2,000 individuals utilizing NCTD Plus every day. I will say that there was... Initially these are pilot programs and NCTD was looking at rolling one out in Fallbrook and Senitas, Oceanside, but due to not having enough funding for those, they're on hold indefinitely. And so we were able to maintain NCTD Plus here in Vista and I have advocated on the NCTD. board publicly and privately for discounts to be part of NCTD Plus, that might be difficult to materialize due to just not having enough funding.

Yeah. I'm curious if it would be more financially feasible to do a short-term voucher program or something to try and cut, if the costs are comparable, right, versus spending $100,000 right now, if it's available to do something similar to that, to where we do a voucher program for our seniors to be able to utilize that program more effectively. You had said it was $5 round trip. What's the yearly cost to operate the bus?

Staffing-wise, you're looking at about $85,000 currently. I'm not sure what the cost is to maintain those vehicles.

That was my next question, so you jumped ahead.

Any maintenance on a vehicle is expensive. I know our fleet division of Public Works does a fantastic job of their preventive maintenance and keeping ahead of things so they don't have any of the major repairs, but there is that cost, and fuel as well.

Rest assured, I'm not going to ask our seniors to pay more, but there's more than $100,000 cost is my point, and there's more than a driver cost. I also, you know, you and I had spoken in the past, this is probably about a year ago, but there was trouble filling some of the positions sometimes for the drivers. Is that still an issue?

Not as much as it has been. And again, with these additional vehicles, being able to get a class, somebody with a class C license is much easier than a class B. Anytime a recruitment is open, it is difficult to see any applications come through or very many at all. And those recruitments are done at the same time as Cultural Arts is recruiting for drivers too. So you've got two separate entities of our department looking for drivers and you're lucky to get four or five applications. let alone have applicants that can meet your needs and work those unique schedules.

And also show up sometimes because I know that was a problem at different times in the past. Look, I'm actually, I'm not unsupportive of any of the things you presented. The timing right now I think is off just because of where we sit in a budgetary process or in the budgeting and the finances that we have, but I can be supportive of all of them. I mean, it's not really, it's not a huge ask I think coming out of this that we shouldn't be able to facilitate in the next year. but I would expect that it would come back to us. So I'll look forward to that. And then I did have one other question. Oh, not a question. No, Dawn Bennett had reached out, and she had also shared support about the improv class. And my understanding is it's not as cheap as I had expected it to be. And so is there a way to get more funding through grant funding for that, or what are we looking at with that?

Potentially. City Manager Conley reached out to me today to ask a little background about that program for the rest of the Council's knowledge. That was a program that the San Diego Senior Community Foundation reached out to us about nine months ago to see if we would be interested in testing out this program at our center here up in Vista. Been very successful down in San Diego as the speaker mentioned during her public comment. So they paid for the first six-week session. It's $1,800 a session for six weeks. We were fortunate enough at that time to have some year-end fund money that we wouldn't have had after this fiscal year. So we saw the promise in this program. We saw what it was doing to the seniors and bringing that life out of them again. So we were able to fund that for two more sessions. At that time, we simply didn't have the funding. I know the nonprofit organization that runs the Senior Shenanigans Improv Program, they were looking at trying to find grant funding on their end. At the same time, we can potentially look at grant funding here in the city to see if we can continue that, staff believes that there is value in that program as we've seen and heard. Additionally, there's also an opportunity where that program could develop into somewhat of a contract agreement like we have with our fitness and some of our other instructions where there'd be more of a financial split, a 60-40 split. So that's something that's been brought back to the nonprofit organization as well. I know they're looking at it to see what would make sense financially from their ends, but it's something that we would like to continue should the funding materialize through grants and agreement or anything like that?

Yeah, I hope so. And when we talk about programming for community centers or senior center, whatever it is, like these are the type of programs that are kind of outside the box that we don't often think about, but that have huge impact on our community. So I would love to see that thing continue. But for $1,800 a session, I don't know if we can fund it as the city entirely, but I would love to find ways that we can get funding in there to continue that program. But that being said, I appreciate all the information brought forward tonight. I think you did an excellent job. I look forward to this discussion coming back to us in the future, and hopefully we can get some stuff done.

Kevin, why is that program $1,800? How long is this, a one-hour program?

Hour and a half to two hours.

Okay. So $900 an hour. Why do you think the cost is so high on an hourly basis?

It's $1,800 for the six-week session, so it works out to $200 a week.

Oh, I see. Okay. All right. That makes more sense.

I wouldn't have even entertained it for $900. Okay.

I was going to say my lawyers don't charge me that much.

I'm glad you just clarified that because that is way less expensive than I thought.

Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, that's much better. As a rhetorical comment, I'll just say maybe we could think about whether there are elements of that program that we could recreate. You know, obviously we don't want to take anybody's intellectual property, but maybe there are similar programs that are curriculum. I'll let you look into that on your own. Of course. Do you know how many trips that we make? Because we have three buses now, right? Three vehicles, is that right?

Well, we have three vehicles that are part of a capital grant through Sandag.

How many total vehicles do we have regardless of who paid for them and how we got them? Many passenger buses.

Specific to the senior center because there's other vehicles that share our yard, we have? Five.

Okay.

One of those is a very small Dodge Caravan that seats two additional people.

So the senior center has five vehicles? Correct. Including one minivan? Correct. Okay. And do we know how many passenger trips that we are affecting on a weekly basis and a yearly basis?

Yearly basis, we do about 8,500 one-way trips. So the majority of those are specific for the nutrition program, although some of those nutrition participants do stay at the center and they're participating in events outside of the congregate meal program.

So about 4,250 round trips? About 4,200, yeah.

We could potentially do more with an additional bus and or additional driver. We can expand not only those trips to the medical and the grocery shopping as previously discussed here tonight, but also get people there for educational presentations, whether it's from a medical professional or a resource fair, which are so very important to the community. Right now, the only way we're able to transport people to those, if the passenger is somewhat tied to that lunch program, because we'll strategically try to schedule those fairs and those informational sessions right after lunch where our captive audience is there so we can have the most reach.

The reason I ask about that is because I just looked on Lyft and said, what would it cost for a round trip ticket to the McClellan Center and back? Probably, for most Vista residents, $24 would do that. That's less than what your per round trip is. I did the math. I'd want to really sharpen my pencil on that. And I get that there's a communal aspect to being on the bus, but probably less a communal aspect to getting somebody to a doctor's appointment or a shopping trip. So... I'm not gonna ask you for specifics, but I'm gonna ask you to do the analysis and maybe come, not back in open session, but maybe come back to us having really looked at, you know, is that an option? Is that a more efficient way to help people get where they need to be? Is transportation the priority or is the, you know, does it need to be a city vehicle and a city driver? If we have a competent professional driver who's fully insured and a serviceable vehicle, is that the most important part of what we're doing is getting people where they're going? I would just want to look at that and understand, because sometimes in government, we like to kill a fly with a hammer instead of a fly swatter. So I just want to make sure we got the most efficient tool to accomplish the objective. And maybe I'm not thinking about some of the ancillary benefits of how we do what we do. So I'd appreciate any thoughts on that, but I'm just looking at that. And if it's only 4,250 round trips, we got a pretty high round trip cost. So if there's a better way. And then if we have Class C vehicles, and Mr. Conley just loves it. Actually, it was Mr. Johnson who really, really loved it when I brought up the idea of volunteers. But why can we not utilize volunteers who are duly examined for medical fitness, who have a perfect driving record that we've examined, who might want to be of service. You know, if I had extra time, I think it'd be great. I'd love to volunteer to drive the bus. I can imagine if I were one of the more vivacious seniors, I might think that I'd want to be helpful to the other seniors by driving that bus if I was in good health and I was, you know, had good eyesight and had a clean bill of health from the doctor. is, you know, I know I'm gonna get, I'm gonna get taken to the woodshed by the city manager.

Do you want me to bring our HR director up here to discuss the reasons why we can't do that?

No, I just, I really think that we ought to push a little farther, you know. In the real world, you know, in the private sector and, you know, in the nonprofit sector, I mean, we look for how do we utilize volunteers. Why can we not have a robust volunteer program? I don't, you'll never convince me on that. So, you know, I just encourage the council to more strongly, I mean, talk about building your sense of community. I mean, your labor cost is your number one cost for these passenger trips. So, yeah, why can we not do more with that? I mean, I think inquiring minds want to know.

Well, we did have a volunteer driver program pre-COVID. Oh, you don't say. However, there was a- Did COVID fundamentally alter the nature of driving? There was about eight volunteers on that program once post-pandemic, which that was when I came on board back in- I'll tell you what-

because we have a lot to get to tonight. I would love if you could do the research on what the elements of that were, that volunteer program. And I would like to see a memorandum from the city manager's office detailing in specific the reasons why we ended that program and why it's no longer an acceptable risk. And I'll leave that at that. Council Member Fox.

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you for this presentation. I really appreciate the workshop. This is a big deal. Right when I first started, I think there was a series of workshops that I think was hosted by SDSU in some way, shape, or form, and I can't remember. And I think if I remember correctly, transportation communication were the two big outcomes from that as well. And I think that was what kind of influenced the senior plan, if I remember correctly. So the fact that this is kind of having similar information come out shows it's probably accurate. I know we touched on transportation a decent amount. I'm also interested in contracting or subsidizing other programs versus doing it in-house and what the cost difference is. If there's programs that have already figured out how to do it for a good price, sometimes it can be a more affordable way of doing it, but can't tell until I see the numbers. Do we currently max out the capacity on the out and about program? Do we turn people down?

We have in the past. Obviously, we try not to, to the point where we'll bring in a second driver if somebody's available. And honestly, it's not the most efficient use of that staff time, especially if it's an important medical appointment. There's been times where the full-time program coordinator will go and they'll take a passenger because they know it's of such an urgent need. Our primary driver's out. okay yeah no that's we'll max out on our grocery trips too for some of the more popular places to 12 seater bus and we'll have 14 people that sign up so then we keep a wait list fortunately we offer multiple grocery shopping trips each week right so if we had more vehicles even if they're smaller you could potentially shift people around to correct right okay um

Yeah, I was also thinking NCTD Plus when we came in to see if there was any kind of partnership there that we could potentially, you know, even if, I know it doesn't serve the whole city, and even if it did, it's not going to be the right solution for everybody, and I just remember it being something in the ballpark price-wise, maybe it was $3 or $5 each way instead of like $5 round trip or something like that, but yeah. So, yeah. If that's something that, you know, I was like, if we could help subsidize that or something that could be a lot, you know, subsidizing $5 for a trip for $3 for a trip would be cheaper than, you know, a potential staffing. But if that, you know, that's tenable, then, you know. On the communication side, and we haven't talked about that at all, is something already in the works for that? Like, what's the plan currently on the communication side?

Staff has spoken with our communications department, actually just this afternoon I spoke with Fred Tracy, so he and his team have developed a plan, a framework of a plan to increase social media presence specifically for senior programs, to get a more robust calendar posted on the city website, which would be supplemental to what we have in the monthly senior newsletter that's also on the website, but it would be more, more interactive and easier for not only seniors but anybody to see what's going on on any specific day. He's planning on bringing that forward to the Senior Citizens Affairs Commission at the July meeting. We've got him on the agenda for that so he can get feedback from our commission as well, as well as to help develop a survey to put out to the senior population to see or determine where they're getting their information from. Are you getting it from the newsletters? Are you getting it from social media? Where do you get the typical questions that a communications officer's gonna ask?

I always ask that because that's my background in some ways. Make sure that you're going to places where people are hanging out to go talk to them instead of trying to get them to go somewhere new is usually the correct answer. I appreciate that. I think that's pretty much all my questions today. Thank you again for the presentation. Thank you for all your hard work on this one. I think... FINANCING-WISE, I THINK I AGREE WITH THE DEPUTY MAYOR. I THINK THERE IS A BIG NEED HERE AND I WOULD LOVE TO FIGURE OUT HOW WE CAN PUT THAT TOGETHER. SO WHETHER IT'S NOW, WHETHER IT'S SOMETHING IN YOUR FUND BALANCE, WHETHER IT'S IN A BUDGET, NORMAL BUDGETARY CYCLE, I'M OPEN. I JUST WANT TO FIGURE OUT WHAT THE BEST USE OF THE FUNDS IS AND WHEN. SO THANK YOU.

Yeah, and I think for, I'm trying to remember the cost for NCTD Plus. I want to say it's just under a million dollars. So I'm sure if the city wanted to form some kind of partnership with NCTD, they would probably love that. But again, it's geofenced, so it doesn't go throughout the whole city. It does go into District 4, but just... not super far into it. Luckily we were able to get the senior center in there, but the reason that it has that it's geofence is that you wanna guarantee that you're not in excess of 20 minutes and you wanna get to like 10 minute waits or less. So the larger the territory, the more vehicles you need, which is just part of the logistics of transportation, which is why having another vehicle to be able to expand the services that we already have and not turn our seniors down is just critically important. I've talked to seniors where they do find recreation in the vehicle as well, right? Because there's still that community feeling where you get to meet someone that maybe you didn't know and you can strike up a friendship. So I've heard really positive things. And when I went to film the video for the senior budget workshop, The bus was out there, and I got on the bus, and I was asking folks what their opinions were, and a lot of folks wanted to be able to go to the workshop, but they specifically cited that they don't have transportation back. So they could not stay for the workshop, even though it was just after lunchtime. lunch because it was at 2 p.m. So, you know, this is a huge need. I'm really thrilled that it seems like there is majority council support to kind of flesh out what the recommendation could be, take a look at utilization of seats, what kind of vehicles, kind of explore the fleet a little bit more, explore optimization of the current vehicles, explore potentially being able to bring back volunteers, explore potentially funding or procuring another service that could help facilitate transportation for seniors. So I'm really glad. I would love for this to come back to the council after we have a better idea of what we have left over for our fiscal year. You know, it sounds like transportation, there's definitely an appetite for that. I think the communications portion, there wasn't a lot of talking done about it, but I think Councilmember Fox, you seem to have indicated that this is something that you've seen in other communities. prioritizations from our seniors. So I think looking at the improved communication plan for seniors is gonna be important as well. I didn't hear anything too much about priority three. Can I hear from my counselor just, you know, put a thumbs up or down? Are we looking at maybe just focusing on priority one and two at this point? Or would priority three be something that you want to look at as well? Okay, so it sounds like maybe prioritizing transportation and communications. Yeah, okay, fantastic. So I look forward to bringing this back when we have a little bit of a better idea of what our budget looks like after the fiscal year closes and we can take a deeper dive into priority one and priority two and I'll work behind the scenes and any seniors that have or any folks that are interested in this, process. If you want to talk, my door is open and we'll continue this conversation after this fiscal year closes, which is the last day of June. Awesome. Thank you so much.

Yeah, I'll be quick. I just want to touch on something that was just brought up by both council members. The marketing aspect is extremely important because if you put something where somebody is not, then it defeats the purpose of it. And I know you know that. So I'd be really curious. I don't know if you've done a survey or if you plan to do one for seniors and ask them specifically whether they're getting their information. I don't know how many seniors are using Instagram or TikTok or Facebook. I don't know if you have that information or if that's something you plan to do.

We don't have that information now. That's something that was discussed with our communications department just this afternoon was to develop that survey to see where they're getting it from and or where they'd like to get it from.

And not just for our senior community. I think they should be utilized across the city through all of our departments depending on where they're trying to target and what the audience is because If you're trying to target seniors on TikTok, you're probably gonna miss a whole group of the population, right? And so, but like if you go on Nextdoor, you probably have more seniors on Nextdoor than you even have on Instagram or on Facebook or any other social media platform. So that information I'd actually like shared with us. I think that's really important so we can see that. So moving forward, we know exactly what it was we're trying to do. So that was my only comment, appreciate the work. And as far as priority three, I'd rather focus on transportation at the moment. It doesn't mean that we cannot focus on that later on, so.

Council Member Melendez.

Yeah, just one more comment to your point, Mayor. I'm not opposed to expanding volunteer opportunities I think at minimum we would need to hire someone such as a volunteer coordinator to ensure that there is reliable scheduling and logistics is all nice and tight. We are using these trips to get people to their medical appointments. For our seniors, these are sometimes very high stakes appointments, sometimes really hard for folks to get those appointments. So we need to have a protocol and logistics for the driving portion of this activity that has a backup, backup, backup plan so that we do not miss out on any of those medical appointments. But I really look forward to seeing what's able to come back. It's definitely the will of the council. We want to be able to support this fleet because it's taking our seniors where they need to go. and it's helping to address that isolation. So thank you so much for advocating for that.

Thank you both for the great job that you're doing for us. We appreciate you both. Okay, that'll bring us to our last discussion item tonight. A discussion regarding fiscal years 2025, 2026, and 2627 operating budget for mid-cycle update, item D2. If any members of the public wish to speak on this item, they may indicate so by using the raise their hand feature by pressing star nine or submitting a request to speak card. Speakers will be called upon after the presentation. Our finance director, Mike Silvio, will introduce the item.

Thank you, Mayor, and good evening again, Council. Item D2 is the mid-cycle update to the city's two-year operating budget. The original two-year budget was approved back in June of last year. With me here again this evening for this item is Sarah Taylor, our finance manager. She's going to provide an overview of the requested revenue and expenditure amendments to year two of our operating budget, and then staff will be available for questions.

Thank you. All right, this is for the mid-cycle update for fiscal year 26-27. Under the city's two-year budget process, we continue to adopt annual appropriations and as part of the fiscal controls, staff completed a mid-cycle review and is presenting revised revenues and expenditure estimates for fiscal year 26-27 to the city council for approval. The proposed amended budget reflects current financial information based on economic conditions and operational needs identified by departments. The proposed amended fiscal year 26-27 operating budget for all funds totals 187.4 million, and that's an increase of 895,000 over the original adopted budget. This slide shows expenditures by category and funding source, with general fund expenditures shown in green and non-general funds shown in blue. The general fund continues to support the majority of city operations, including general government and all of public safety. The mid-cycle update includes two significant operational and accounting changes designed to improve transparency and strengthen long-term financial planning. First, operations for the Wave Water Park will be consolidated into the general fund. Revenues and expenditures were previously budgeted in a separate enterprise fund and they will now be reflected directly in the general fund. This better aligns with the budget with ongoing general fund subsidy and operational support provided to the facility. Second, funding for fire apparatus and specialized fire safety equipment replacement will be transferred from the general fund to the fleet replacement internal service fund. Fire vehicles sometimes take years from the initial procurement to actually be received, so this aligns better with the multi-year, the asset replacement schedules, and it provides greater transparency regarding future replacement needs. The total general fund revenue is projected to increase by just over one million compared to the adopted budget. That's 131.9 million for all of the general fund for revenue and other financing sources. The city's three largest general fund revenue sources continue to be property tax, sales tax, and charges for services. Property tax remains the city's largest single revenue source and continues to demonstrate stable growth despite broader economic uncertainty. Sales tax, however, remains sensitive to changes in consumer spending and economic conditions, and current estimates reflect a decrease of approximately $567,000 in the city's Bradley Burns sales tax allocation, along with an additional $300,000 reduction in projected Proposition L revenues. The charges for service category include development permits, ambulance billing, other public safety revenues, recreation program fees, Facility rentals, the revenue in this category is projected to increase by approximately $2.5 million, and this is primarily due to the consolidation of the Wave Water Park into the general fund. Other revenues include franchise fees, transient occupancy tax, business licenses, fines, and investment earnings. Overall, this category reflects only modest changes from the adopted budget, with the most notable adjustment being increases in investment earnings and transient occupancy tax or hotel tax protections, primarily due to the STRs. And finally, the use of reserves is projected to decrease by approximately 937,000. And this is primarily due to the transfer of the fire equipment and vehicle reserve funding out of the general fund. So the use of reserve is now going to exist in the internal service fund. The proposed amended fiscal year 26-27 general fund budget totals 131.8 million, an increase of approximately 2.4 from the adopted budget. Personnel costs across all departments have increased, primarily due to negotiated COLA adjustments that exceeded the assumptions included in the original adopted budget. In the general government category, expenditures increases include the addition of a communication specialist and additional funding for the lifeline rebate program for the sewer fees. Public safety expenditure increases include the addition of a gang suppression deputy. and the transfer of fire apparatus and equipment replacement costs to the fleet replacement fund. Community development, engineering and public works reflect only minor changes from the adopted budget. And the transfers out are projected to decrease by approximately 3.3 million and the significant changes here is the one million reduction in the transfer to the wave fund and 1.93 million reduction in transfers to the fire equipment replacement reserve and the general fund. So there's an associated increase in the fleet internal service fund for the transfers out. The mid-cycle update also includes eight recommended personnel changes intended to support operational needs and operational efficiency. These recommendations include two new positions, a communications specialist in the city manager department and the staff assistant in information technology. In addition, six position reclassifications are proposed to better align classifications with current job responsibilities, organizational needs, and recruitment and retention considerations. A detailed description of each recommendation is included in Exhibit 5. The reclassification of the assistant to the city manager position to deputy city manager will create a new executive level position as required by California government code section 54953, section D3A. The salary range for the deputy city manager position as shown in exhibit six is $11,082 to $23,445 per month. Employer paid fringe benefits are estimated at approximately 32% of salary. This final slide summarizes the revised operating budget by fund type. The total proposed fiscal year 2026-27 operating budget for all funds again is 187.4 million, representing an increase of approximately 895,000 Exhibit one of the agenda report provides revised revenue estimates and appropriations by fund and by budget unit. And this concludes the fiscal year 26-27 operating budget mid-cycle update and staff is available for any questions. Deputy Mayor.

The only question I have is where does our TOT calculate into these numbers?

The TOT revenue is in the general fund. Right now it's in the all other revenue section there. It's about 2.2 or 2.3 million estimate for fiscal year 26, 27, about 2 million for hotel tax and about 375,000 for the STR component.

Do we have any anticipation that the STR will go up or is that your calculation that you're sharing with us now?

The anticipation, yeah.

Awesome. Okay, those are all my questions for right now. You need us to make a motion, don't you? So I will move to accept staff recommendations.

Councilmember Contreras.

Yeah, I'll go ahead and second that. And I just wanna say, I am concerned just about the budget. I'm concerned that you know, we might see a 25% increase for the contract price for our sheriff deputies and, you know, we just procured a second gang detective, which I know, you know, I was on the losing side of that, not because I don't believe in public safety, but because I'm just hearing different things from my my constituents, but I am concerned about how much this is gonna cost in the future. And I'm concerned, you know, I've been very transparent and clear with the public that when we have funds to be able to have certain programs, that we should do that. And we've seen a great benefit from reinvesting in our community. But I do think that the sooner we can have discussions about which programs we want to prioritize, what thresholds for those programs we want to see, I think it's just better to have a very large discussion with the public, with our council, and with staff about what our budget looks like for the next five years. Because I am very concerned. I'm concerned that our economic situation is not getting better. I'm concerned with the incompetence of the federal government. And there's only so much that we can do locally. We've done a really good job but we might be subject to external forces that we just have no control. So I am worried about that. But if I didn't say it, I second it already, and I look forward to continuing these really important discussions. Thank you so much for all the work that you've done to provide us this information and to keep our budget salient and on track.

All right, I see it's balanced to the penny. No room for error. Very good. We'll be keeping an eye on that. I'm sure that our city manager will appropriately adjust the outgo as necessary to make sure that we bring this plane in before it reaches the end of the runway. So we have a motion, second, please cast your votes. That item is adopted unanimously, thank you very much. That is the end of our agenda, and that'll bring us to comments from our city clerk's office. None tonight? City attorney, city manager. Okay, they didn't have any comments, I'm just saying. No pressure, Council Member Fox. No comments. Oh my goodness, Council Member Melendez.

I just want to say thank you all tonight for celebrating CEA's five year anniversary. It's been wonderful to serve as the chair of Clean Energy Alliance. And I know that times are tough and utility costs continue to go up. I want to continue to plug that Clean Energy Alliance has cost saving programs. It is our goal to be at parity or below SCG&E. And we don't have to worry about paying out our investors, like as an investor-owned utility. We are a community choice aggregate. So if anyone listening is concerned about their utility bill or would like to access cost-saving programs from Clean Energy Alliance, you can reach out to customer service and we will assist you.

Thank you. Council Member Contreras.

So I do want to say that I've continued to push at Sandag regarding the heartbreak of the Inland Rail Trail. And I am pushing right now because we have cycle eight ATP funds at the state. And I don't see any indication that we are moving forward with any applications for this grant funding. And we just had to give $11.7 million back to the state because we're not even at 60% design, meaning we can't use the construction funds. So I have had a meeting with the CEO, Mario. I've communicated. about the urgency and the fact that we need to have ongoing uh communication with sandag and our city staff because that seems to have been an issue so i'm on top of that and i'm also advocating that if the inland phase four between civic center drive and north um If phase four is just too challenging to do in one fell swoop, that we should break it up into multiple phases and just start getting this done. So very upsetting. It's one of the very few regional projects that we have here in North County and I really wanna see it completed. So if anybody does have any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out about that. Outside of that, if you are looking at volunteering and picking up trash, team captain and founder, Jovita Serafin, with Guerreras en Acción por un Vista Limpio. They go out every single Wednesday. It's been more than six years. They're incredible. And they'll be out picking up trash in District 1. And if you need to communicate with them, they are on social media. But I can also connect you. So thank you all so much.

Deputy Mayor. Let me just get out my report.

Oh, hold on, and just one last thing. I'm so sorry. While you take your report out of your briefcase here, I do want to say I'm super excited. I really pushed hard internally with the city and was met with open arms. I know that it's difficult for folks in my district to get all the way to Bringle Terrace for Movies in the Park. We're gonna have our first ever Movie in the Park at Luz Duran Park on the 13th. It starts at 8 p.m. Get there early. Bring your blankets, your family, your snacks. I'll be there. I'm super excited. We're gonna see Encanto.

Deputy Mayor.

I'm not going to give my Cal cities report tonight just for the sake of time, but I will do it at the next meeting that I am at. I just want to say the sunset sidewalks are in motion right now. You can see them. They look amazing. I think it's going to be awesome for the entire community over there. So I just want to thank the council again. I know it took some time to get there, but. it's going to be a huge improvement for that community, and I think it's going to be very, very well received. I don't know how many people are watching on YouTube, but I know there is one person, Chris Rainwaters. Happy birthday. I know that you'll appreciate that. To my wife, Allie, I love you very much. Thank you for letting me serve in this capacity. This is a very early meeting, so enjoy the rest of your evening, and you all have a great night. See you soon.

Council Member Fox, did you have anything you wanted to say? No? You didn't? Yeah, tell me you love her.

She knows I love her, and I really appreciate her letting me serve.

Okay, very good. And to my beautiful wife, Shauna, thank you for letting me serve the community for these past 14 years, and we'll see you in two weeks.