City Council - Regular Meeting

Uh, roll call, please. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Mayor Gilman, here. Mayor Prom May here. Council member Rule here. Council member Lang here. Council member Whitman here. Thank you. And Mr. McGomery, will you please lead us in the pledge? Yes, Mayor. Welcome community. Honorable council, please rise as you are able and ready to begin. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Any changes to the agenda? No.

From staff, mayor. Okay, I'll make a mo motion to approve it. Second that. Any objections? Wonderful. We'll go forward. Um, we have two presentations tonight. First, we have a quarterly progress update on findings of the city of OHigh's targeted forensic review, please. Thank you.

Thank you everyone. We're getting our presentation up right now. Thank you. Honorable mayor, members of the city council, I'm Christy Billings and I'm presenting to you the progress made by the city on findings within the Croll report. Croll was hired to perform a targeted review which was presented to the city in December. Included in the review were 23 findings which were broken down by key areas of observation. The list of the findings and their status has been provided as an attachment to the administrative report. This presentation will go through each of the findings. Council asked staff to provide a quarterly update on the tasks and this is our first update. Well,

aha, we're we're on the same page now. Okay. So, there were 23 findings within the report. 30% of the tasks have been completed, 26% are in progress and 44% are in discussion. So the next question would be what does that mean? What do the statuses mean? In discussion, staff has met on the task and is working towards a solution. Some solutions involve software updates or may require different meetings with count with staff. things may need to be ordered from contractors. We're we're working on it, but I wouldn't call it quite started in progress. I have defined as uh things have been implemented, the task is on track, but I have not yet observed that um it's fully implemented. So, I'm putting it in that in progress category. Complete means I've observed that it's moving through. City is performing that task and we're done or we're in progress. It's it's heading along. So now we've gotten through all that. I am going to walk you through all the tasks by areas of observation. And within the accounts payable area, there were three findings. one is still in discussion and two are in progress. So the findings that we have here, the batch check description issue that would be updating our descriptions that we're providing within the general ledger and we're working to streamline that and and make it um we're working within the constraints of the software though there's only so many fields allowed. procedure documentation documenting our

process for accounts payable. Staff has begun that progress, but I've not fully reviewed it and observe staff doing the step the steps. Purchasing system, we have the purchasing system. The software glitches have been mostly worked out. We're in a test process already and we hope to have it fully operational for the next fiscal year. Next area of observation was accounts receivable. There are two findings. One has been completed. One is in discussion. The accounts receivable findings. We're having a segregation of duties for mail opening that has been completed and then reviewing the aging of accounts. In other words, looking at our listing of what's in accounts receivable and getting it caught up so that everything's balanced. Uh that is in progress. It's being assisted by some of our new software implementation, but I don't see it completed yet. So, I didn't give it a gold star yet. Budget management, we had one finding, we have one in progress. Um, I want to say that I think the city has made some really strong decisions on its uh new finance staff and they're working, everyone's working really closely together. uh the oversight is coming together and I think you're going to see real growth in this in the next year but it's in progress claims process there were two findings uh one is the documentation of repair costs and while they are documented we haven't yet fully made it so they're in a one repository so everybody has the costs and a formal claims process we are meeting with CJPIA our insur who works with Carl Warren to handle the claims process for the city. So, they would be doing the billing for any um an example

would be if somebody hit a stop sign in the city that needed to be repaired. We build the insurance company. This would be handled by Carl Warren. We are in process of getting that set up. It's um just a matter of getting that finalized. digital security. There was one finding which has been completed and that has to do with enhancing the logging and retention of our data. Employee management two findings. So a better audit reports for payroll. We are limited by the reports that are provided by our software. So we are still working with our provider to get the reports um better aligned with what information you need. And then the frequent employee list reviews, while that has been started, um it's it's not a task that's being done on like a certain regular basis. And some of these tasks, I'm purposely not saying what that regular basis would be because then we'd be telling everybody what our internal controls were exactly and we don't want to detail all the details. Mhm.

Uh employee separation one finding that is a checklist to go over all the steps when we have an employee departure. I know that is being worked on. It is in progress but uh I haven't reviewed it for completion. Grant management uh staff has completed a centralized grant listing. Um so that's been completed. grant tracking improvements that again deals with our general ledger management and staff is working on that with some upcoming changes just to the way they're laid out within the general ledger for the next budget cycle hiring process. We had one finding which has been completed and that has to do with updating our background checks. Uh staff has already implemented this mail receipt and distribution. One of the finding there was to centralize the mail handling. Um and that has been completed. Physical security. There was one finding it has to do with the securing the check story stock storage. This has been partially implemented but um is officially in progress because we have one more step that needs to make it get to the completed box. Positive pay. I don't know if you're familiar with positive pay, but it is a way for businesses when a check goes through, you're able to say who the vendor is supposed to be and what the amount is supposed to be. So, if I write a check to BIN or the city writes a check to Ben for $100, the system would say that's supposed to be check 1234 and we tell the bank it's written out to Benjamin Harvey. If somebody else tries to present an altered check for a different amount or a different payee with that check number, the bank flags it as as a problem and staff would deny that going

through. Uh we did have some positive pay in place, but we didn't have all the security in place. Now we fully have that in place. recordkeeping. We again this has to do with the standardization of our data entry within the general ledger system and this is something that uh finance is working on standardizing so that it makes it easier to find the backup and and this will just take time to get it get staff trained so that they enter things in a format that is standard for every entry. vendor management for findings. Um, new hires are completing in key positions are completing our conflict of interest forms. Uh, we are working on a master vendor list maintenance. This is going to take some software review uh system generating onboarding that again has to do with some more software and some training that we've got to put in place. And then once we have those conflict of interest forms in place, we'll be reviewing them on a basis to with accounts payable to make sure that everything's in place there. So that's we don't quite have that together yet. So alto together you had a total of 23 comments. Staff has you know worked in the last few months to get you up to date on everything. Um, I think the city should be very proud of the progress made in the short time that we had. Staff is working together to improve the internal controls, bring the city in line with the findings. The next quarterly update should be in the August time frame and I'm going to bet that it's going to show over 50% of these tasks are completed

and only a few remain in discussion. We have a few more that are tasks in progress. Um, thank you for the support and uh, are there any questions? I'm happy to answer them. You answered one which was by the time the next report is, but that 50% that seems like quite a task in the midst of a new budget and a new fiscal year. That seems reasonable for you though. Well, if we look here, we've already completed 30 and we have 26% in tasks in progress. So, I have faith that those tasks in progress in the next few months because I know where they're at, right? That we're going to be able to move forward on those

some of the tasks in discussion, I have to admit, are it's a lot staff is it's a lot of change and a lot of training, but these are super important and I I know that um Ben has directed us to all focus in and get this together. So, I have faith. Do you anticipate by the the next fiscal year that the other 50% would be completed or what do you think of that? I do. Okay. And if there's something that we have to work together with then um we'll report that out. Understood. Any questions? Thanks for all the hard work. I have just um

Oh, sorry. And I don't want to belabor this, but for the hiring and the uh the departures, is that for your for finance specifically or would that wouldn't that come under HR? Not that I Yes. In the role that I'm serving, I am not um working just with finance on these projects. I'm working under the city manager's office. So, some of these are public works. Some of them are That's what it appears are um HR reporting to the city manager's office. So, uh I'm you're working across

I'm working across departments and not and and I've switched up my role from what you saw me in the last time. Okay. And now I'm helping to get these in place so that um but a lot of them are finance, but many of them are processing. Yeah. Mail handling, things like that. Um one last question. Can I have a gold star? Uh, I would gladly give you a gold each of you a gold star. I appreciate the support. I think that the city um I I've seen a lot of growth in the year I've been here and I I really appreciate the support that you're offering to the Thank you staff. Thank you so much. Appreciate it greatly.

Okay. Our next uh presentation will be from the Green Valley Project and the crew tree planting presentation. Hi everyone. Um, my name is Tara and I am the program director of Green Valley Project. Um, Green Valley Project is a program of the crew. Can you guys hear me in the microphone? Okay, sweet.

Yeah. Um and basically we have um youth council programs all across Ventura County. Um we have one in Thousand Oaks, we have one in Oxnard, and we have one here in Ohigh. Um and the kids um today are representing our Ohigh Youth Council group. And they basically um each session will come up with an environmental issue that they are concerned about and they will create a community service project. um and try and solve that environmental issue. So, they're going to tell you guys more about their tree project um that they're working on in Ohigh. Thank you. Thanks.

Hello and good morning council members. My name is Joannie Small. I'm the president of this year's Green Valley Project. Yeah, I'm only 13. I have a great goal for this project. This is a youthled initiative based here in Ohigh. Our goal is to reduce heat distribution by replanting native trees so that there's less temperatures in hotter air. We are very passionate about wildfire prevention, replanting our local ecosystems, supporting mental health, and uplifting our local communities. Thank you for having us.

Hello. Uh I'm Celeste. I'm also a part of the Green Valley Project. I'm on the what was it? Activities chair. Um I'm a part of this because I really care about the local environment and like protecting it and enhancing it for everybody. And yeah,

thank you. I'm Cadence McColl. I'm 19. I joined Green Valley Project because I want to be able to help our community and our people and also help distribute heat. Um, and I'm part of the activities chair as well as social media. Thanks. Who are we? As I already explained, we're the Green Valley Project, a program of the crew located in Ventura County. We're empowering youth to speak out against environmental justice. Our age limit is from 13 to 20. And we love working together to support communities and help others know problems in our society.

Why trees matter. No worries. Okay.

Trees are essential for life on Earth, providing critical benefits such as combating climate change, improving air quality, supporting biodiversity, and and enhancing human well-being. Um, why oak trees? That's the kind of tree that we're that we're aiming to plant more of. Um, and this is because they're native, safe for the environment, and will um help pollinators and local wildlife. Uh, they also provide a lot of shade, which is um a part of the goal for this because we're going to be planting in areas that are like urban areas that are known to be really hot. Um, a small summary of our project is, uh, we're working to better understand where heat gathers in Ohigh. Um, so what we did is we created a map of Ohio that shows all the major hot spots. Um, and then we went we went from there to figure out where to put the trees. So, here shows our Ohigh heat urban heat islands over here. So, the red spots, as you can see, is where there's extreme heat. Um, and um, we actually made this map ourselves during a workshop. So, we had a full workshop to understand GIS mapping um which really helped us pinpoint specific locations that we're going to in

introduce to you um that we're looking to plant trees. So, um so the project summary after identifying these hotspot areas, we selected about several or more potential locations where we're wanting to plant trees that could help our community reduce heat. Um, and actually Tara over here visited these hotspots and took some pictures for us. And we're right now evaluating and trying to speak to these areas and see if it might be possible and if it can actually help our community. Okay. Our next steps Our next step will be to present our findings to the Ohio City Council and Ohigh trees. Obtain permissions to plant trees on these various properties. We hope to lead three tree planting communities events in midfall 2026. We will work with the crew to maintain and water our trees until they are established. These are our identified hotspots. We plan to reach out to these local businesses to ask if we can plant trees on site. Adam's Towing. It's a huge lot full of cars. And we noticed around the plot, we can add trees. It'll also help with the air because of a lot of cars there. Um carbon. I can go on, but um we thought trees could maybe support the health the health in that area. Another um area we saw was Ohhigh Valley Inn. There's a huge piece of land that has no trees and maybe locals or even um people visiting Ohhigh, they would love to have shade. Um we also saw Ohigh self storage. Uh the tops of the buildings aren't covered necessarily and it is hard to plant trees on top, but we find

it as a possibility so we can limit um heat. Uh one last spot was the community hospital. It's just a huge area. It seems it's really hot and we just felt like we could put trees there.

Nice. Uh this is our project timeline. So in the spring we're looking to determine locations, get permissions, and gather resources. And then by the fall, we're looking to start planting the trees and uh hosting community events so that people can help us with that. Uh and then the end goal is to decrease uh urban heat density or just to make it so it's less hot. Uh there will be more shade, cleaner air, and more nature in Ohigh. Yeah,

I just have a quick update since um the group created this PowerPoint. Um we were able to talk to the community memorial hospital already and we are going to be working with them in fall um planting about uh six to eight trees on their property. Um so we're already starting somewhere and that's really exciting. Yeah. question. Three quick questions. One is um so they're all private property. So you're going to work with the private property owners for permission, right? And if you run into any resistance, then you may come back and decide on different locations. Am I getting that right?

Yeah. We're also hoping that we can offer like a variety so they're able to pick what they actually want. At least we're able to plant trees and also help benefit their community as well as the rest of Ohigh. Thank you. And then just how what was the method by which you picked the hot spots? Just curious. Um so we actually each one of us um we because we actually have more members, but we each spoke about what we thought the hottest places were um in living in Ohigh because a lot of us grew up here.

Um and so writing all of those specific places down and then also just kind of looking around on hot days. um and people we know as well. So, who recommended really hot spots. And then just the last question is um you're going to come back to us soon with a proposal. Okay. That was my question.

Where's Oh, yeah. Go ahead. you know, I I don't want to so we recently had a uh town hall on trees for our tree ordinance and some of the things that for instance Con Edison spoke about was and I think the whole panel probably spoke to it was the idea of when you plant understand and you probably do this um I didn't understand how big and how the tree is going to grow so that it's protected as it you know as it grows and when Conison you know comes comes in to do the trimming that they inevitably do, um it's best to have planted so that it grows in a way such that Con Edison doesn't uh amputate it too much. So that just might be a consideration and I think we might also be having um additional uh discussion on tree ordinances and you might want to come. Um I think it it was really really valuable for me. Um and it was it was uh normal language. In other words, it wasn't highly technical. it was really just common sense stuff. So yeah.

Um and then also um one of the other things that we were thinking is the oak trees would be primarily for spaces that have the space for oak trees because we know that oak trees get a lot bigger than some of the other trees. Um if we're doing street trees, uh we're going to be working hopefully um speaking with public works and kind of deciding with them what types of trees work the best. And one final question, I'm sorry. Um, where do you where are you going to get the trees? Um, we're going to be working with Ohhigh trees. Okay. Um, and they'll help us to kind of get some of the trees. Okay, great. Thank you. Appreciate it. Appreciate your work.

Go ahead. So, if the goal was to pick um a project that the community would love, you guys did a great job. I know this is like the best part of the night probably tonight right now in front of us right here. Thank you so much. Thank you. And look forward to seeing the proposal. Thank you. Yes. Thanks. Thanks. Well done. Oh, I know. We got to break our own rule for that one. Okay. Uh commission reports. I do not have any. None received, mayor. Okay. And then city manager report. None tonight, mayor.

Okay. Public communications. I have a few cards here. Ron Solarzo, please. William Hayrick. and then Larry Stangled. All right. All right. Good evening, uh, members of council. My name is Ron Sorso. I am the regional librarian for the Ohio Valley. I'm here today to just give you an update on what we have going on at the library. And I have big news for you today. Um, we finally have a start date for the upcoming renovations to the Ohigh Library building. So, we've worked with our contractors, library administration, and uh on feedback that we've gotten from the community, and we've settled on August of this year uh to begin our construction. So, that means that the library is going to be closing to the public at the very end of July. So, we will be open for one more uh full summer, including a great summer reading program before the work itself begins. So, we've been advised uh by the contractors that the work is going to take anywhere from 6 to 8 months. It's a little longer than we had thought, but it will likely be concluding in the early part of 2027. In the meantime, library staff are going to be able to continue supporting the Ohigh Valley community at the Miners Oaks and the Oak View libraries. And we're going to be bringing in the Ventura County Mobile Library to to do some uh regular weekly visits uh to Ohigh uh to deliver story time, deliver books, uh anything else uh that we might be able to do with them. During this time, the Ohigh Library itself is going to be receiving new floors, new lights and electrical systems, new shelving, furniture, and paint, a new hydration station, two electric fireplaces, and new ADA compliant front doors.

Love it.

Yeah. The uh architect has also helped us to make sure that we maintain a uh character that is consistent with the Ohigh feel that is so important to us uh library staff as well as the community. So, the building will continue to be uh something that we can all be proud of. The uh renovation itself, it's possible due uh in large part to the incredible generosity of former Ohhigh librarian Anne Croer. An was a passionate and devoted librarian who worked as the head of the Ohigh branch from 1975 until 1997. Uh this tenure makes her the second longest serving Ohigh librarian since the branch first opened in 1893. Anne's contributions to the library and the community were many and she made an incredible impact on those around her. It is a bequest from Anne's estate that has made this library renovation a reality. In the next few months, uh we will still be open and we still have so much happening over at the Ohigh Library. We have our ongoing poetry readings. We have a number of talks by local authors and academics, of course, our weekly story times, and our upcoming summer reading program. So, for details on any of these programs, you can always drop by the library, talk to me, talk to our staff, or visit us online at library.venturacount.gov. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Wonderful. Mr. Ry can um one second. I I skipped the city manager report. He didn't have Oh, you didn't have one. Sorry. Okay, good. Sorry, I'm losing it. All right. Thank you, Mr. Wyrick. Please. Thank you, sir. Inspiring presentation by the Green Valley Project people. I would suggest they maybe go before the municipal advisory council uh with Matt Levier's office and go valleywide.

I think it'd be very the valley would be very receptive to the effort. Um, I'm co uh had a call from Ryan Blatz today uh over the uh lot uh we've always talked about as the AT&T lot uh which is street address 111 West Matilah Street at least according to Bing Maps and uh I um he was noticing it that was his law office is right there. It's zone PL I believe still and it's part of a cup that is decades old. Um the uh institutional memory um that Ryan and I and the and a city attorney worked on quite extensively back in the day was to look at that CUP which was intended to say, "Okay, you're going to improve that um one project there on Blanch for the AT&T building. Uh you're going to have a lot of trucks there. Um part of the cup is you're going to maintain a public parking lot and park your trucks in that parking lot." Well, AT&T like to forget that they had a cup. They like to forget that they were responsible for maintaining the parking lot. I was glad to see that the parking lot was uh getting some attention, but then I saw that it's listed for sale and the listing says commercial property suitable for commercial land, land, parking lots, garages, automotive properties, retail properties and spaces, and general commercial real estate. Saw that today. That's not what the CUP says. That's not what zoning PL says. And I'm hoping that the city enforces these terms of use with the property and does not get into letting this thing get out of hand again where then it becomes litigation and god knows what else. And hopefully what our dream was all back in the day was to enforce the stipulations of the CUP and the responsibilities for when they weren't taking care of the parking lot and say,

"Hey, you know, let's do a creative uh little piece of donation to the city here, give you a tax break, get a parking lot without paying a whole lot of upfront money." I believe they're asking over 800,000 for the lot, which I don't think that is market value if the city enforces the terms of the CUP, which although archaic is there and the uh the PL zoning, it's PL zone because of the CUP. So, I thought I'd just bring up little institutional memory and situation. Thank you.

Thank you so much, Mr. Eric. I appreciate that. Mr. Stangle, please. ladies and gentlemen, fellow residents of Ohigh. I actually wrote this, so it should be good. A few weeks ago, our city manager Ben Harvey appeared on Ohigh Talk of the Town podcast, which is very nice. Brett does a great job. In that conversation, he referred to dedicated citizens who regularly attend meetings and speak up as the same 10 people. I had thought at when I first heard this that was a compliment. Gee, that's a it's a good thing. It's nice to have people who show up and I do appreciate that. However, the same 10 people he said in a way that many many of others have found dismissive and even mocking. Um, I can take a lot of abuse. I'm married, three kids, and six grandchildren. So, you can abuse me all day long. It's okay. All right. I've got a thick skin. Um, but let's be clear, these people are not a problem to be managed. They are the backbone of civic life. Look at the people who show up tonight. Even if it's for the one thing they like, but they show up. You want people to show up. Otherwise, we have dictatorship. We have run a muks. We have whatever. They're not involved. In communities like Ohhigh, where most residents are busy with work, family, and daily life, it's normal that only a few committed show up a month after month. My wife works. Thank God. And I'm retired. I have time. I actually like coming here. I like you people. I like it's fun. It's interesting.

We live here.

Okay. They read the agenda, study the budgets, ask tough questions, and hold us all accountable. Without them, important issues would slip through the cracks and transparency would suffer. So, please, let's put videoing, closed meetings on the agenda so we can have a conversation. Even if it's voted down, at least bring it out in the light of day. San Francisco has the Sunshine Act. Even they record, which is bizarre, but that's okay. The solution isn't to belittle those who participate. The solution is to make city government more accessible, more transparent, and more welcoming so that the 10 can grow into 20 and 50 or more. I know that means three minutes maybe. And it takes a long time for democracy to happen and that's what we need. Maybe if there's a lot of people depending on the issues, start earlier because a lot of people here go to bed at night. It happened. So the city manager to all let let's stop mocking the people who care to show up. Instead, let's thank them and do real work in inviting everyone else to join in because a healthy democracy doesn't need fewer voices. It needs more and we just need more. So, please um I realize I was going to be sarcastic and say something snarky, but I'm not. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Stangle. Anita Cran, please. Good evening everyone. I would like to thank Larry Steinold and Bill Miley for being here at times when no one else could because people have to come to city council. And if it's always the same people, then thank you to the people who show up because it's better than no one. So, thank you to those 10 people who show up all the time.

Thank you, Lyanna McNeely, please. I wasn't sure that the STP comment was made made in a derogatory manner. I actually think it was made to thank people for showing up because our input is what gives direction to the city and to the city council. And STP is a badge of honor. And I think that that's probably how it was meant to be conveyed. Um, any other person thinking otherwise? Oh, well, thank you. Anybody online?

Yes, mayor. We do have one raised hand from Mike. Thank you. We have two raised hands now. Okay. First, we'll have Mike followed by Star Child. All right, Mike, you have the floor.

Tonight, I'd like to speak about three things. Respect, waste, and hate. First, respect. I once told my Nordof high school leadership students that the world revolves around respect. Give it and you usually get it back. Four years later, I wrote a book on leadership and told the story about a man tragically shot in the neck. A story centered around entirely around respect. At the end of the story, I mentioned Jackie Robinson's f famous quote. Quote, "I'm not concerned with you liking or disliking me. All I ask is that you respect me as a human being. We all need to provide more respect in this world and more is needed from city hall. The next topic is hate. I don't like to use that word, but most Americans hate two things: taxes and wasteful spending. Our citizens work hard. They grind and they grind and they pay and they pay. The double stinger comes when the hard-earned money is spent inefficiently and ineffectively. This often leads to waste and abuse. Waste, fraud, and abuse. Three words we hear all too often. I never thought I would witness blatant abuse of the Ohigh city municipal code and other critical city processes. I'm shocked to see our contract bidding process for accounting and other city services abused. I'm also shocked when I see we might spend $20 million over 10 years for 30 tiny units previously known as Cabin Village. And we can't even get that right. That is a big number, 20 million. The 22 residents, 22 neighbors currently living in Tenttown need help. There is no doubt there. And let's provide it, but let's do it efficiently and effectively. We need to reboot Cabin Village project responsibly. On a side note, I want to flag my suggestion two weeks ago about

getting air conditioners or better coolers for Tenttown. I've already volunteered to help raise fund. Who's wants to help? Back to the main topics. I'm also very shocked to hear the a city official dismissing our citizens on a recent podcast. Ohigh residents are by and large deep thinkers and take pride in their city. to hear the city manager agree that the citizens who attend meetings because they are bored. Yes, bored. That's insulting, disrespectful, and disturbing. It's 2026. People, I have a news flash. People in power should not be labeling labeling people labeling those quote same 10 people, the people who speak up and question you in meetings, calling them STP while laughing at them. Those are the people you're supposed to serve. and it's unacceptable. In closing, I say we need more respect, less hate, and less waste. It's that simple. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Next, we have Starchild. Okay, Starchild, you may unmute, and you have the floor. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um, I just wanted to provide the city manager an opportunity to reaffirm his dedication uh to public comments uh his appreciation uh for the public uh that work to make the city better and uh to apologize uh for any offense uh his comments may have uh given. Are you still talking? That's all. No, that's all. Okay. Thank you. That's all, mayor.

Okay. All right. Okay. Moving on to the consent calendar. Um, we do have our parks and recck commissioner here just to say a few words, but anybody want to pull anything out of consent? Uh, I'm going to pull four. Okay. Anything else? Any public comments on any consent items that we don't have? Okay. So, um, let me intro let me actually ask Mr. Bailey to come up and say a few words, please. Hello, sir.

Hello. Hello. Uh, my name is Jim Bailey and I take it that I've been nominated or voted on to become a member of the parks commission. You're you will be confirmed after this vote we're about to do.

Okay. Excellent. Well, I just wanted to say that um you know, I've been I've been teaching in Ohio for 25 years and for the last part of that, I've moved over into the positive youth development sector and in that work of providing enrichment and support for kids. Uh I've had some opportunity to work with the mayor's youth council and in a project that we did with young people and the mayor's youth council, we identified that young people felt the teens in our community felt they didn't have a place to be. And I was um you know I was so affirmed that our parks and recck coordinator Christy Rivera when she heard that said come to the parks and wreck department and let's find a place for young people to be there. And I saw it was kind of a bit of a light bulb that um indeed our our parks and recck department is a heartbeat of positive youth development in our community and the research shows that that's how we help all young people thrive. So, I'm I'm really honored to uh play my part, to listen, to learn, and to see if we can support all young people to thrive in our community. So, thank you.

Thank you for your service. Thanks. I know. Yep. So, could I have a motion to approve 3, five, and six, please? I'll move. Second that. Should we do a roll call, Mr. McGomery, please? Yes, Mayor. Council member Whitman? Yes. Council member Mang? Yes. Council member Rule? Yes, Mayor Gilman. Yes, Mayor Pro Tim. I'm sorry, Council Member Lang. Yes. Yay. Thank you so much. And welcome to the Yes. Thank you, Mr. Bailey. Yay. Yay. Wonderful. Okay, let's go to number four, the city warrants, please.

Yes. And if I could ask Miss Joe if she is if she could just join us. Give us one moment, please. Thank you. So yeah, mine is just a comment which actually predates you, Miss Cho, but thank you for coming up. Um, on page 30, uh, second from the bottom is Meyer's nave, a professional corporation, um, for an amount of $7,68110. And I just want to point out that this has now um this settlement uh and um my indemnification cost is now up to $257,000 and counting. So we're at a quarter of a million dollars. I know that they have been um that they are no longer involved. So I'm assuming that this was their last invoice.

Um but to see it again is quite a chunk of change. I think that we all need to to realize we're at a quarter of a million dollars for this. That's all. Okay. No other items. Any items for anybody else? Okay. Can I have a motion, please, to approve number four? I'll move to approve it. I'll second that. Roll call. Mayor, thank you. Council member Rule. Thank you, Miss Joe. Sorry. Who' you call? Council member Rule. Abstain. Thank you. Council member Whitman. Yes. Council member Lang. Yes. Mayor Prom May. Yes. Mayor Gman.

Yes. All right. On to our first discussion item. The Ohigh permanent supportive housing project. Danny moves project bid affirmation city council direction. Yes. Thank you, mayor. Thank you. Give us a moment to call up a presentation.

Uh while I'm doing that, I want to advise the council that I'm going to be asking Dignity Moves to participate in my presentation. With us from Dignity Moves this evening, we have Mr. Jeff Gatis in the front row. Mr. Dylan Johnson. I see Mr. David Grunwald. Is it Grunwald? Am I getting that correctly? Okay. Thank you. In the back with his wife as well. Uh David doesn't have a speaking role unless he wants, but you'll be hearing from Mr. Gatis Johnson part of my presentation.

Okay. So, uh here we are. Um we are before the council this evening to ask council to consider affirming um the project bid for the Ohio permit supportive housing project. Next slide please. Going to get into some background in the introduction. Next slide. This has been going on for some time. So this is going to sound very repetitive to a lot of you but I'm just going to go through it again. Uh the city received a 12.7 million grant from the state of California. It's called the Encampment Resolution Fund Grant, ERF. This was in April of 2024. And the point of this grant that the state provided to cities and counties on a competitive basis, was to transition individuals living in homeless encampments, much like the one we have outside our doors, into safe, stable housing. So that's why the city received this grant on a competitive basis. Next slide, please. We have looked at a number of different sites as this council knows and as recently as last month we were looking at another site. Uh I'm conservatively stating that 10 potential sites have been evaluated. In fact, there actually have been more that I would call unofficial evaluations, but definitely 10 that have been uh considered seriously for the project. The city council back in May picked the lower public works yard, approved it as the site selected for the Ohio permanent supportive housing project after much deliberation and again after reviewing many other sites. And I'm not going to go into all those selected. We did talk about that at length at the last meeting. Um if you look at the agenda report, there's a link to the landing page for the project and you can look at all the sites that we've uh discussed. Next slide, please.

Little overview of the project. Next slide. This is familiar to the council uh as well. You may recall that back in September we went through the uh design uh of the project in detail with this council. It is a 30 unit style sustainably built project with a courtyard. It features on suite bathrooms, has uh community gathering area, laundry, um very thoughtfully designed and laid out uh by a renowned architect and this council got to participate in that process uh that got us where we are today. Next slide, please. Let's talk a little bit about the bid process and budget considerations. city went through an RFP in order to determine or pre-qualified contractors. Uh the reason being this was not uh going to be Oh, actually I'm just going to keep saying Nick Flight. That's okay. Know your limitations. Um four four prequalified contractors and we we we dignity moves uh under the supervision of the city did this because it was a special project construction that we were asking for. These were not modular units or Similar to other dignity moves project, this was a sustainably uh constructed project with very specific features that we were looking for. Uh we went through a competitive bid process uh and in the end it was specialty construction from the three bids that were received that was determined to be the lowest responsive bidder. Oh, there we go. Next slide. Uh this is in your agenda report. There you see uh those who bid upon the project. uh the construction costs, the hard cost, the soft cost. Those are the costs on top of the bid for things like utility

connections and other other things. Uh there were two slices at the bid, if you will. One just with everything and one with cost-saving alternates. Uh you are going to be hearing this evening from Mr. Dylan Johnson, who is the architect. He is the most well-versed in this area. So, I'm going to ask that if you have specific questions about the bid or cost that you save those for Mr. Johnson. Next slide, please. As we were preparing to bring uh the bid affirmation to you, we received some amazing news from Dignity Moves that an unsolicited donation in the amount of $1 million had been pledged to Dignity Moves towards a project from the Ballet Co. Foundation. And at this time, I'd like to call Mr. Jeff Gatis forward uh so that he can speak to the council about that. When Mr. Gatis is finished talking about the donation, he's going to hand things over to Mr. Johnson to talk about the two primary recommendations we have for you for bid affirmation. So, Mr. Gatis,

thank you. Thank you. Uh mayor, members of the city council, city manager, and city staff, thank you for the opportunity to be here tonight. I'm going to read remarks because I feel this is just an important moment and I want to open up my heart a little bit because I've been coming out here for two and a half years

to this podium and what this project means to me why this matters. People ask me why I do this work. The answer I keep coming back to is this. I needed to create safe places because for so much of my life I had none. I needed to become the person for others that I needed on the worst days of my own life. Many people thought I wouldn't make it past 25. I was lost. I felt like the world had given up on me. And here I am, 65 years old, standing before you in full possession of my life. As they used to say about me at residential treatment facilities for adolescent males where I work, they let one of us in here to run the place because of a chance I was given. That chance is what I bring into this work every single day and is what I feel in this room tonight. It is what I see in every person in this pro this project will serve. It is also what I bring into the classroom training the next generation to become the people we need in those moments of loss and despair. I feel the full weight of it. I feel the full weight of this project. As my mom would always say to me, God has a plan and that guided me through my whole life and my own recovery. I stand before you on behalf of Biggie Moves accountable to this entire community. Which brings me to tonight and why that matters for this donation. The BICO Foundation, one of the most focused and missiondriven private foundations working on homelessness in California, has committed $1 million to dignity moves for this project. This is a restricted grant with the following conditions. The funds are designated specifically for the hosianda style permanent supported housing development at the lower public works yard 611 South Montgomery Street. This address, this design, this community,

and within that five of the 30 units designated for transitional age youth. This condition is not transferable to any other project or location within the city. BICO and dignity moves have built together across central coast from Rover Beach to Santa Barbara to St. Louis Abyspo. They do not invest lightly and they do not show up where they do not believe in the work. We are deeply honored by their partnership and by their willingness to step into ohigh stand with this project and to become a part of this community. This is this gift is a signal that what we are building here is real and that others see it too. For a younger person who's never had stability, permanent supportive housing is not a destination. It is a foundation, a place to land, to stabilize, to begin building a life toward independence. Transitional age youth, young people between the ages of 18 and 25 along with the elderly represent the two fastest growing age groups experiencing homelessness in this country. Including this population within this project is not only the right thing to do, it is a response to where the crisis is moving. And by expanding the city's commitment to its most vulnerable residents, Ohigh demonstrates good faith to the state of California that this community is doing its part that carries weight. It will look favorably on future housing projects, funding opportunities, and other means of state support. Without it, the cycle continues. With it, everything becomes possible. And before I introduce Dylan, I want to acknowledge the person who made this introduction to Dylan possible. Sage Stoneman. Sage is a beloved member of this community and someone who has become a friend. Just over two years ago, Sage stood in the public comment section at a city council meeting and asked me in Dignity Moves whether we were open to

environmental build materials for this project. My answer was if there's a viable path and the city supports it then yes absolutely. The next day Sage introduced me to Dylan. Dylan Digny Moose brought Dylan together with her vice president of innovation and design boy a highly educated and experienced architect and project manager who has poured herself into this work from the beginning. Dylan and Marina have worked diligently together with the city for this community to design a site that meets the needs of the people we serve, honors the vision of Ohigh established and charts a new course. And to city staff, contractors, experts, and the community members who showed up, those who advocated, those who questioned, and those who pushed back, you have made this project better and made us accountable. All of it matters. I am so humbled and honored and if I'm being honest, it feel still feels like a miracle to me that I'm standing before you tonight alongside this team in this organization. They have exemplified the best in all of us. They have been professional, singularly focused and unwavering. No matter the obstacle delivered to deliver this to you this evening, challenges the communities are facing are only going to increase. that calls on all of us to face these issues together, to recognize our interdependence, and to build solutions that are sustainable, dignified, and lasting. This project is a step in that direction. We have assessed and we have that we have the right site, the right plan, the right team, funding, and community support, and the options for you to consider and choose from. Tonight, Dylan, I will turn it over to you to walk the council through what is before them, the contractor selection and the options they will be considering and

making decisions on. Thank you. Thank you. Next slide, please. Mr. Johnson. Thank you.

Good evening, council. Mayor, thank you for having us back. Um, thank you, Jeff. Uh so as Ben described, Mr. Harvey described, there are there are two options at this point with the project. Um as we all know, the bidding process u it took place in a challenging uh time in the construction market. Uh things are expensive. Uh the budget was tight. As you all know, we've been through many iterations of the design to try to get the the design and the scope uh to match the aotted $9.5 million for the project. Um, and it's it it hasn't been without its challenges. So, this donation uh makes a tremendous difference in in the in the viability of the project. Um, so what I'm going to do is I'll walk you through two versions. The Dignity Moves team uh and I believe Jeff Spar is on remotely uh from Dignity Moves who's been managing the budget and the spreadsheet. So, we may need to defer to him uh for specific line item questions. But, uh we've worked quite hard to come up with two schemes uh to present to you tonight. uh one that does fit within the 9.5 originally allocated. Um there are some hard decisions there as you'll see. Uh and the other uh just in the in the recent couple of weeks uh when we got news of this donation um that is much more comfortable uh it allows us to have some of the features that we've all wanted uh to be part of this project um included for a total project budget of 10.5 which is the 9.5 originally allocated plus the 1 million in donation. Um, feel free to interrupt me if you have questions along the way.

Thank you.

So, I'll begin uh by just reminding everyone what's actually in both of these projects. Um, the the goal is to meet the core requirements of the ERF grant and and the requests of the council and the community. Uh, so this includes 30 accessible um I'll remind everyone these are fully accessible units, all 30 of them, wheelchair access, turning radiuses, etc. within each unit. uh with on suite bathrooms. Um they also all have windows in the bathrooms. Uh the slide that was up earlier actually was an earlier conceptual version without the windows. Um I can I'm pleased to report that in either scheme we have all of the windows that are designed. Both schemes also include um a gathering space uh for the residents and guests with the compressed straw uh ceiling structure that we've all been very interested in using. we went into at length um several months ago. Um so that compressed straw, the brand name is Dura Panel ceiling panels are in both schemes in the ceiling of the gathering space. We're using hemp insulation throughout the building in both schemes. Again, these biio-based uh low embodied carbon materials were a real priority. So we've worked hard to maintain as much of that as we could in both of these schemes. Uh both schemes include the same administrative and laundry facilities layouts for the residents. So the floor plan is the same. Uh both schemes continue to uh include the peaceful courtyard which I think we all believe is a an integral part of the project. Both schemes also include a fenced dog play area right outside for for residents with pets. Uh both schemes also include an accessible pedestrian ramp and stairs up to South Ventura Street. Um pretty significant piece of site work to connect this site to the downtown in an accessible way. And both schemes don't compromise on uh fire hardening and fire resistance. So

we're meeting all the most current uh standards for the WOOI wild urban interface design requirements from Pentura County uh for the for the very high fire severity zone. So none of those are compromised in either schemes. Now what I'm going to do is talk through uh scheme one which is the the version um at a $10.5 million budget. Um and this includes so these are the differences from the project or the alternates selected or not selected um that you saw in the bid set that we presented late last year. Um so for option one the $10.5 million version uh we are not taking the ad alternate uh that was explored to add additional foundation drainage below the slab and on the downhill sides of the building. after studying the soils report, talking with the engineers, uh we think that is money that is reasonably saved and not added to the project. Um in terms of materials, uh in earlier schemes, we looked at at versions that used the door panel or the compressed straw panels throughout many different parts of the building. We've had to pair that back again. Both schemes have it in the ceiling of the gathering space. And the $10.5 million version also uses it on one side of the partition walls between all of the residential units uh significantly enhancing the acoustic performance separation between the units. Um in this scheme we've also uh considered using a lower cost clay tile roof. Frankly, it's probably imperceptible to folks in the room. Uh it's just a good cost savings that we've we've been able to secure. Uh and then also the $10.5 million scheme uh reduces the amount of acoustic ceiling uh panels that were in the base bid design by 50%. So we're using the acoustic panels uh in the most critical 50% areas of the

building and removing them um from the other half. With regard to site and landscaping, we uh are removing raised planters in the courtyard. We think that's a a necessary expense at this point. it could be added later. Um, we're also removing the steel screens around the heat pumps mounted around the exterior of the building. Given the minimal visibility of the perimeter of the building, um, we think this is a reasonable cost savings to take. Uh, we had also designed a quite nice sort of estate style sandstone address column at the base of Montgomery Street. Um, that came in in the bids at about $30,000. We think that's a reasonable savings. uh we'll use a simple sign instead. Uh we also are taking the deductive alternates that were in the bid as it related to the shipping container storage building. So that whole scope of work is removed uh from the project and we've simplified the trash enclosure uh working closely with uh the city um uh to essentially pair down the trash enclosure to the minimum requirements which is a three-sided enclosure to block the dumpsters from view as you're coming up from from Montgomery Street, but eliminating the roof and all of the the the gates and the rest of the enclosure um for the trash. Um and then there's a couple items that we've shifted the scope from uh the general contractor's contract which is then burdened by all the general conditions and overhead and markup and so forth to expenses allocated to the future operator which is yet to be named of the site. This includes the electronic keycard access system. Uh this makes sense particularly in dignity moves experience to coordinate that with the operator's uh preferred access control system. uh as well as um some of the common area appliances, the dishwasher, uh refrigerators and freezers uh and the

three decorative steel gates that secure the courtyard from from the outside. So again, that's sort of interrelated with the uh uh with the electronic key card access system. So that's scheme one. It's more or less the original project that we've designed with I think some strategic and logical uh cost savings measures implemented. Um a wonderful project as um as Mr. Gatis uh also shared this would the other change here with this $10.5 million version is five of the units would be dedicated for transitional HU. Um, so, um, option two, uh, for 9 9.5. Next slide, please.

Uh, thank you. Um, and we have the spreadsheets. I believe they're in your agenda reports as well, so we can get into the line items if you'd like.

Um, we take all of the savings that we just discussed for option one with the addition of a few more uh, to take another million dollars out of the budget. This includes the removal of all of the plantings and irrigation. a pretty significant line item um that would remove that from the general contractor scope and be installed at some future date as additional funding becomes available or volunteer resources uh come online. It also replaces all of the pavers in the courtyard with decomposed granite. So the courtyard uh would be substantially simplified. No plants, no planters, just simple uh DG uh paving in the courtyard. Um the compressed straw panels that I talked about on the partition walls of the units would be removed. So the only uh compressed straw panels left in the project would be those in the ceiling of the gathering space. Uh we would also remove the non-structural sophet beams and portbals that surround the arcade of the courtyard and the exterior of the building that give it part of its Spanish hosianda. um uh sort of visual aesthetic. We would also remove the colored and stamped concrete that is around all of the paving around the project and the colored concrete on the inside. Uh and we would remove all of um the acoustic panels. Uh understanding we would need to add some of those back in through the operator's uh budget or future donations to support acoustic paneling and acoustic comfort in the building. Um importantly uh there is a meaningful difference in the project contingency in these two um schemes. In scheme one with uh 10.5 the project is able to proceed at the point of awarding the contract with a 10% contingency. So that's 10% of the

general contractor's hard cost reserved for unforeseen conditions, owner changes, scope changes, etc. Um, and in scheme two with 9.5, the contingency is uh brought down to only 4%. So, I'll pause there. That's a lot of information kind of in the weeds, but I think it's important. Um, and it looks like you have the spreadsheets here, so I'm happy to answer questions. I also think we have the drawing set available uh on the screen if you want to look at, you know, any any uh illustrations of how these scope changes affect the project.

I just have a real quick question. We've looked through all this packet and I appreciate that. Thanks for sharing it. Can you just off the top of your head with all of the things that you're that would be removed from um option number one, what does that total the amount of all of those things that you would be removed? That's a excellent question and I'm not going to be able to answer it precisely. Um Jeff Spar may be able to do a quick sum in the Excel, but it's I'm going to say it is in the vicinity of $300,000.

And I say that because the difference in the contingency line um a 4% contingency, if I'm remembering these numbers, is about $300,000 and a 10% contingency is close to 800,000. Right? So there's a million additional dollars coming to the project. Half of that's going to contingency roughly and the other half would go to to directly funding the scope. So, so I guess my math was wrong. It's probably $500,000 worth of savings. Any other questions for now? Yes, please go.

So, if uh for option number two, so that option number two does not count the the million dollar donation. Is that correct? That's right. Option number two is the the project that we would have had to recommend had this million-doll donation not come into the picture. Um so it it is of course at that point there is no donation. There's not a requirement for the transitional age youth units. Um it is a stripped down version of the project you've seen before that fits within a $9.5 million total project budget. And is that because the donation was specific that it had to be the exact project or I mean we couldn't take that million dollars and apply it to the

Well, that's actually what we did. No, that is really what we did. We I mean it was an incredible um it was incredible news for the team to get this just quite recently.

Um and it really took some of the pressure off the value engineering work that the team was engaged in. Um and we said okay if we have a million dollars coming into the project where can we add scope back in that's most meaningful and so uh that was one we felt it prudent to increase the contingency to 10%. um and then use the balance of the money um to add back in for for example landscape. I think that's huge um as everyone in Ohio can appreciate um including you know maintaining the landscape as part of the project um under the general contractor scope so it's done when the project is done uh as well as adding more of the compressed straw panels back in and a number of these items that are frankly important to the community that we've heard about over the last two years. So that that that's the process we've been through in the last couple weeks.

Just to follow I just to ask the question more pointedly, you we could do option two and include the $1 million and keep the reduced um version of the building and then grow the contingency. Is that correct or not correct? Uh it is a reasonable suggestion. Um, I think option two, essentially what we would be doing there is having a we could keep the scope the same, minimize the hard construction cost, have a much larger contingency. Um, the only

piece of the project that as far as I understand that is um restricted as as as it relates to the grant is the transitional age youth units. I think um the donor is open to our recommendations about what the right refinements of the details are in the building. Um so I think it's certainly plausible. Okay. Uh that's what you were asking. Yes. Yeah. Sorry I didn't. No no no that's okay. Right. Yeah. And this is for Mr. Harvey I guess. Um adding setting aside five units with this age restriction. HCD has said they are open to that idea. So so far the message is that's correct.

Okay. We have just when when the the concept of the donation first came before us before we really knew anything about it, we let Moves know that we had to talk to HCD to see if this would even be allowed. And they said kind of what you would think that they would say, which is everything goes through them via a revised grant application. It's actually a budget modification is the tool that they look to, but they said that is consistent with permanent supportive housing. They support the inclusion of TAG. uh they in particular talked about some of the services that you provide to Tay also apply to others uh in in the in the development notably job training and those life skill training across the board. So

if the council gave us that direction we would be submitting a revised budget modification to HCD. They would ultimately review and approve it but they have indicated that they would be inclined to do so and they're supportive of this. Thank you. Yes. Oh, who provides the job trainings? I've done research and I have it's not anything that um help of Ohigh has listed on there. There are other uh organizations in town, notably Mesa, that does provide that type of of service and it's certainly not just Mesa, but there are other organizations that can't provide that. The director is here in the audience if we need need more information. Yes, please.

I I had a question. uh do we know what the need is for that population in our community in Ohigh specifically? I can speak from experience. We have had Tay within OTT. Uh we know that there are uh kids in that age group that are without housing that need that. We've had them live here with us. I might possibly if if he's willing to have Mesa come up and simply say what what the expectation of the need might be if we were to open up five units. Is that a reasonable question for you? Oh, but come to the mic. Thank you.

I think you would know better than anyone. The question is, if we were to have five units here dedicated to this age group, what are you seeing at Mesa in terms of does this seem like something that would also support needs that could augment what? Yeah, I mean, I think that in general you see a much lower percentage of Tay that need permanent support of housing than other populations, right? Um, but it certainly exists and we've seen it at Mesa

in the last year and a half. Um, so it would be an absolute need, right? There's only one be corrected on this. I think there's only one other TA permit sport of housing project in Ventura County, eight units run by many mansions, D Street. Um, and so there's, yeah, there's definitely not enough support for that percentage of Tay who are incredibly high needs and will need a higher level of service than something like section 8 could provide. Okay. Thank you. Yeah, I' I've got a question if you don't mind. Yeah. So, um, I

They weren't expecting this, but thanks for being willing. Uh, thanks for showing up. Uh, I did some reading and I and I know it's only cursory, but my understanding is that the goals for that K individual are quite a bit different than what they are for that person who's permanent supportive housing

and that there is concern about mixing K individuals into the permanent supportive housing population and how that'll impact I don't think there's concern that the supportive housing community is going to be negative impacted by having the teenagers but the other way around the teenager is you know the goal is to get the teenager to be self-sufficient and absolutely move on and that is the complete opposite goal of permanent support

so so a couple of clarifying points there um because there's a lot a lot in that Right? But transition age youth is 18 to 24 years old. So not all teenagers, right? And then as soon as you turn 25, you're no longer Tay. So you could theoretically have a 25-year-old who moves into one of these other PSH units who's not that functionally different than a 24-y old who does. Um, generally speaking, and I think that this rule applies universally, that if you get into a TA unit as a transition age youth, you are not exited from that unit when you turn 25. Right? So theoretically speaking, you could welcome five transition age youth into the building at 23 years old and in five years they're still there and that unit then only is open to another TA resident when that unit is vacated. So I I so that's part of it. I would also say that generally yeah you want to ex expire all other options for a TA individual before you move them into permanent support of housing right when when someone's welcomed to Mesa I would say we're not thinking about permanent support of housing for a very long time. We want to we want to look at every other option that's available to us. Um, and generally speaking, I would say it's true that the earlier you can work with someone, the less likely it is that you're going to rely on something like permanent sort of housing, which is a really expensive intervention, right? Um, that being said, just like the general population, you are going to find a small percentage of transition age youth that can absolutely benefit and are appropriate to be placed in a transition in a TA permanent sort of housing unit. Um, but it is more rare and I would say it's a much smaller percentage of the population than the general maybe chronically homeless

population which is why you might see five units only five units out of 30, right? Um, but I I think you're totally right in in terms of a general approach. Um, I would say in this case it's appropriate. Mhm. So, so one other question. Uh I was, you know, thinking does I've been to your property. Uh it looks like you have room that is on the 10 acres. Yeah. Yeah. Uh so I are there any goals of, you know, expanding the population at Mesa?

So I'm definitely not prepared to answer that question tonight. I don't think that's the the topic, you know, that it's at hand. I could speak really generally to it, which is that it would take a very long time for us to get approval to be able to add any units at Mesa. We um maximize the amount of construction that we could do on that site without having to go through a multi-year, multi00,000 environmental review. Yeah. And we had to even expand beyond what was given to us, right? We went back to the county and asked for an additional aotment. So, um, so having money short-term and money isn't the only issue. You've got lots of things you'd have to go to before you increase.

And then the other really simple piece of it, we'd have to go back to HCD and apply for an exemption because right now we have a 15-year covenant to provide transitional housing for Tay. If we were to add something like PSH, that's a whole different operation. Um, a very different thing. And I I don't know that we would necessarily do that on that property. Uh, I was only thinking in terms expansion of services. Yeah. I I wouldn't be I was only asking about K. Yeah. Yeah. Appreciate it. Yeah. And you did just finish you just had a capital I mean a fundraising campaign that just recently completed, correct?

Yeah. Which puts us in a position where we're going to be around for a while, you know, and I think that um puts us in a space where we can start to look at expansion opportunities. Um but we're we've been open a year and a half. Oh wow. Right. So I I think that it's a little premature to I wasn't talking about expanding. I was trying to bring up the point about you have I think for this project I mean you know I've been following this obviously really closely. Um and I think that

you know it's really easy you look at the O Valley news article that just came out. It's really easy to look at a number and say man not getting enough for that number. It's the what other options do you have? you know, and I think this has been done incredibly thoughtfully and the longer we wait, the more it's going to cost, uh, at least the trends we're seeing. Um, and I think that, you know, ultimately you want to get things done as quickly as you can, right? We we sprinted from the day we won our award to get open. That being said, it's a better project now than it was a year ago. And I think that the the work has been put in. You're working you're you're collaborating with some pros. And uh I'm definitely impressed.

Thank you, sir. Appreciate you stepping up. Any other questions for staff before we go to public comments? If if I could, Mayor finish the presentation before we Oh, sorry. Yep. Finish.

It's okay. Uh next slide, please. So, uh as you saw from your agenda report, you besides the two primary recommendations that we we do offer, you could decide to provide some type of alternate direction. And I don't know exactly what that might be. uh and you could take no action. I just do want to point out that either one of those, but especially the take no action option does come uh with some uh significant follow-on requirements. uh namely uh what what city staff would be doing with uh as far as OTT is concerned you know how the discussion would go with HCD uh because we have been told by HCD that this is a competitive grant you know they have to provide all the approvals if you're going to take no action or or do something else they have to be the ones to provide that approval and and there are other agencies that have submitted very competitive bids that weren't awarded that might be uh in their view more deserving of the award. If you are um you know looking at uh taking no action, you do have to also consider some of the sunk costs that have taken place so far. Uh you also have to consider that if HCD does ask for the award money back, it will be with interest that the city uh has earned on it. In the meantime, you also have a contract with dignity moves that is sight specific and project specific. So, you know, if you're looking to do something else, you have to consider that as well. You don't have that flexibility in the DMA that the city currently has. So, I'm happy to talk more about these considerations. If you decide to go down that path, but these are things that you need to be aware of, and I wanted to make that statement. Thank you.

Understood. I think with that uh that's the end of my presentation. Okay. If we have any questions from council before going out to public comment, happy to take those. Thank you. Roll. Um I I think this will come up in in discussion, but um you know, the implication that that HCD will take the money back. I just feel like that's out of the blue. So I mean that would be many many many steps and you know I feel like in some ways well do you want to ask I'll bring it I'll bring it up I'll bring it up during discussion I I'll bring it up during discussion.

Okay so I have I have several questions finish if you got more. Um, no, I have deep discussion about this. So, I think these things will come up during deep discussion. So, I'll I'll leave it there. But I did feel a little bit of um pressure just right now from from you about uh, you know, not moving forward with this, which I didn't really appreciate. So, that having been said,

I just I just want to point out, and this is not pressure, this is information that's in the agenda report. I I put that in the agenda report because I want to provide council with an understanding of, you know, every action. You know, you need to consider what the consequences of it are. And so I'm just presenting that to you. No, I understand that. But I'm not trying to pressure you. I'm just should the council take no action, the city council must provide direction to the city manager for who says we must provide. So that's a question that will also come up. I'm telling you you must because of the requirements that we're operating under with the grant. None of these are questions. These are all impressions. Yeah, they are. Fair enough. Okay, they are fair enough. Mr. Whitman.

Yeah. So, um let's see. Do we still have the option to shift to uh modular construction if it were our goal? Um I'm if it were our goal to try to get our overall construction costs um below our 9.5 threshold with room to do all aspects of the construction that was in kind of the original plan and design with the exception of all of the Can I jump in construction?

Can I jump in really quickly? I do have during discussion an entire uh sort of uh outline of possibilities. Okay. So, but I'm asking please do hold I'm asking uh yeah no I I I understand that if you know so do we have an option of so so you have two shifting gears and going back to HCD and saying hey

uh we want to do this type of project now. So you have you have a couple considerations that have to be made and again these are things I just talked about a little bit. So one is you yes you would have to uh change the scope of the project and that would require a budget modification submittal to HCD which they would have to review and approve. in general, their their overarching um uh council when making changes to projects are, you know, they're trying to if you're going to make a change, it needs to provide more than what you've, you know, proposed previously or it has to be something that provides better access to services. That's the general overarching guidance they've given us. However, probably more uh of concern than that is you are in a a development management agreement with Dignity Moves. It contemplates a very specific project at a very specific location and that is the one before you. And if you want to do something different, I'm not saying you couldn't, but you would have to renegotiate that agreement with with Dignity Move or you'd have to enter into a new agreement with a new developer for that because If you read that agreement, it's very specific on exactly what and what

it but the agreement and I this is more for legal counsel. The agreement also says that we're going to come in at a specific price point and as much you know there there's a there's a lot of wrangling about how this is all going to be changed. I view that as we're not coming in at the at our price point. So that we should be talking well the question is can we go to the developer and talk about that type of change given what's happened. I think we would I think we can absolutely have a conversation with the developer. I don't know the answer of what their position on that would be. We can't um we can't

we can't know that until we enter those discussions. We can't unilaterally change the terms of the agreement but but we can always have a conversation. So my my next question is I I just want to add one more thing because I think this is important and now we're in discussion. Well, we're going to this is going to be our main item for tonight. So we'll have a lot of time to talk.

So can we ask uh look at splitting the project? Um because you know as much as the McCrae property and I'm sorry I'm using that term but I think that's what everybody

recognizes but you know as much as I didn't think it was appropriate that we would try to move the entire project onto the McCrae property. I have been very concerned and you know before we started getting a series of letters from an ADA uh lawyer, I've been very concerned about the accessibility of this location for some of the people who show up here to speak to us. I mean, I don't understand how they're going to get on or off that property unless some car is going to come and, you know, take them wherever. But we don't really have control. They're free to do go and do whatever they want. And we we're we're planning to put um some fairly significantly disabled people um on a property that's very difficult to assess. So is it possible that we could propose to HCD that we move we create some specialty units on the McCrae property Um that would be uh for a specific population in terms of uh their physical ability and other characteristics and then have a smaller project um for those who are really you know physically fit and able to get on and off the property.

I will first answer the the legal question and then I think the city manager also has remark. Um, in terms of whether we could approach HCB with that question, I think we could, again, we could absolutely ask the question. I don't know what their response would be. Um, I I think the other kind of element of that is that we would have to we would have to again we'd have to go back and look at how that would change the other elements of the project. Um, in addition to that,

Dylan, could I ask you um the the ADA seems to come up a little bit here and there? So, can you talk about that ramp and and address some of those concerns again? I know you've done it before, but I'm asking again if you don't mind.

Yeah, you bet. The uh yeah, the ramp is um as we all know this the site is challenging. it's on the topography is such that it's uh there is some elevation change that has to be navigated to get from the housing project to downtown. Uh when we first uh were looking at this site, we considered taking an ADA ramp downhill to Montgomery and then all the way back up, but you lose an additional roughly 30 feet, 30 vertical feet that then folks would have to gain back up as they as they climbed up Montgomery uh to get into town. Uh furthermore, Montgomery doesn't have the the sidewalk and rideway improvements that um that would make sense. So, uh in light of that, we opted to design, uh the switchbacking ramp that's in the plans now that just is simply across the parking lot, doesn't cross any meaningful vehicular traffic, um and and up the up the slope to uh South Ventur Street. I think it's about 20 vertical feet from I could pull up the site survey from the units to the point at which we uh intersect the existing sidewalk on South Street. So, it is um you know it's a long path. There's no question. Um but it is the most reliable code compliant um sort of durable solution to get folks uh to town in the absence of a van or some sort of transport. Okay. Thank you. I appreciate that. Do you have other questions, Mr. Whitman, for now?

Uh, no.

Okay, thank you. Okay, we'll go to public comment. Um, I have some cards here. Delaney Labar, please. Anita Cra, and then Dean Wiger, please. Good evening. Hello. Delaney the bar. I live on Blanch here. Um what a remarkable gift we've been offered, you know, for this. We've just received this $1 million grant commitment. And uh the Grantor Ballet Co. Foundation's mission is to solve housing and food security for the homeless in California. And they focus especially on the central coast. They've partnered with Dignity Moves on several successful projects. Reading the le from the letter to Mr. Harvey in the city, I quote a few of the following what stood out to me in that letter because it was long. Um so the following passages that the foundation does not accept unsolicited grant applications. It conducts its own research, identifies strategic partners, and invests where it believes the greatest and most lasting impact can be achieved. And they chose Ohhigh. That's important. In each of these projects, the Ballet Co. Foundation has not simply written a check. It's shown up. Volunteers from the foundation have built gardens, painted buildings, prepared rooms, and worked alongside the community members. Balo Foundation has made a request that the city modify the ERF grant to designate five of the 30 rooms for transitional youth, as we've heard

tonight, uh for homeless youth within Ohio. This not only expands and and it is 18 to 25, which is a real crunch age for people who've been in the foster home situation and are like essentially graduating out of that but are unprepared um and really need some housing. Uh so this not only expands the housing for our young adults at a really pivotal time in their life, but it opens up much more in the way of state and federal funding opportunities moving forward. So I think that's really an important piece because there's been a lot of discussion about the money and how's it going to keep going and and one thing or another. So I think that in one way the one grant creates an opportunity for many more grants and that's a really important piece to this. Um the most important paragraph of the letter to me is that it bears emphasis that this gift is committed specifically to the proposed hosianda style development at 611 South Montgomery Street site. It is not a general contribution to homelessness services in Ohigh, nor is it transferable to any other project or location within the city. I submit that we are done saying the grass is greener over there. Thank you.

Thank you, Anita Cra, please, Dean Wiger, and then Marcy Tasha, please.

Good evening. Um I think we should go forward with the project at the current site. Um I think the consequences are too high to not go forward and the biggest consequences are human a human cost of the people who this is supportive housing for. Um and I think it could cost our reputation both with government organizations and uh NOS's if we do not proceed with it. Um, I would just want to make sure I mean the million-dollar grant is awesome. Thank you so much. But I I just want to make sure that it's clear that these it's stipulated that all of these no matter what the designation of them go to Ohhigh residents that we don't end up getting people from the county who come in for these five units designated as Tay. I think that's very important. And also, I'd just like to say that if we had a vacant home tax, the money from that could go in to support this very project into the future. Um, so of course, scheme one is better with the 10% contingency, but also I kind of wonder if there couldn't be something in between the two. Um, I think that, you know, we just had a presentation on heat islands. I think it would be a mistake to pull out the plants and the irrigation and I also think that the substrate should be whatever will allow uh watershed you know rep percolation. So I think whichever substrate is um suited for drainage into the percolation is going to be the better one. I'm not real fond of modular. I think we're getting too many of those in Ohio that there is a big trend right now because it's cheaper. Um and again I also think that the modular you run the risk of the heat island issue you know and and also we have to think of the con construction out of it offsite. We can't just say oh

bring it in it's easier. Uh modular housing is usually dirtier than building housing. It's usually not as environmental. And my question would be also would that be would there be a heat island effect with modular versus some of this straw uh you know bail type of construction? And I must admit I haven't been to all some of the more recent meetings so I may be out of the loop on some things but um so I think it's it's a great project and I think we should go forward in the most sustainable matter available to it. Thank you. Thank you uh Dean Wiger please. Marcy Tasher and then Larry Stangled.

Hi back there.

Oh yeah. Um, all right. A bunch of my questions got answered that I sort of came for. I wasn't super prepared to to talk this evening. So, um, I think that, um, hopefully a lot of discussion is going to be had and I'm just sort of like proposing that you go further into the discussion. Um, specifically with contingency, I don't um, just to offer you definition of of uh, contingency, a provision for an unforeseen event or circumstance. So, the fact that we're calling this 10% uh contingency seems to just be an ad to the budget. And I know there's by looking at the budget with the uh the contractors, there's already a $200,000 contingency fee being charged or in that budget from the contractor. Um and it's just it's not normal in construction that would you would see this developer contingency on top of everything. Um so I'd really like you guys to to drill down on where that money is getting spent and how it's getting spent. um just to make sure that you know it it is being appropriated for the the benefit of the project. Um I also am very curious how the project management um came into to to need uh to become a need, excuse me. Uh you know, you have a a contractor who's doing project management and you have a developer who should be doing project management for the $500,000 cost they're charging to this project. So to use taxpayer funds for additional project management doesn't make sense to me. So I hope you guys are going to drill down on that further.

And um I think I'll wrap it up in there and listen to all the discussion. Thank you sir. I appreciate it. Marcy Tasher please. Larry Steinangold and then Ruth Miller.

Hi. Good evening Mayor, city council and staff. I want to thank you first of all for the two years of hard work and hundreds of hours that you all have have devoted to the permanent supportive housing project formerly known as Cabin Village. Tonight, after countless diversions and detours driven by NIMI opposition, we are finally at the finish line. And yet again, we're presented with a red herring, another lastm minute proposal to move the project to another new location, including the land abuing Stewart Canyon, and that's already been vetted previously. Um, Steuart Canyon is a repairarian environmentally sensitive habitat and for years residents of the city, numerous public and private organizations have invested time, money, and real human effort to restore Steuart Canyon to its native condition. Many Ohio residents are looking forward to enjoying that land as park space envisioned in collaboration with the green coalition. Frankly, I'm surprised that the Pimmen Hill group hasn't suggested a parcel recently photographed by Artemis 2 on the moon because every week they seem to find a new location anywhere except the one already approved. We keep hearing complaints that the process have taken too long. Yet here we are at the 11th hour being told there's suddenly a better plan, a better site, a better design, a better contractor. These better ideas always appear just in time to delay the project. These are stall tactics meant to run out the clock and now we're facing yet another Hail Mary. Please don't fall for it. Delay tonight equals death to the project. Some opponents offer polite words about empathy and concern, but actions tell the truth. So tonight, instead of rejecting all the bids or launching yet into another location for the another parcel

while still claiming to support the project, I urge one of you to make a substitute motion for a simple up or down vote. Build a permanent support of housing as proposed with the total $13.7 million in grant funding the city has already been awarded on the public works yard site. Let's go in the record. clearly about whether we support the permanent housing project for our OTT residents and now the TA population or not. And I've yet to hear a rational fiscal argument for walking away from 13.7 million funds. Uh continuing the OTT as it is will cost the city at least $500,000 every year without any other money coming in. We lose county funding. We we we lose everything. And plus, we have to pay back the approximately $180 million that have already been expended. And what do we get? Nothing. Nothing. We'd have to start over again. Probably without any grant money. I don't think this city has the appetite for that. Let's just move this forward. Thanks.

Thank you, ma'am. Larry Stangle, please. Ruth Miller, and then Lyanna McNeely.

And here's another fine mess you got us into. Um, this thing has been a screwups since for the past two years. It's been going here. It's been going there. It's been Look for this, look for that. It's got to get done. You're between a rock and a hard place. Okay. Uh, a lot of the things that Mr. Harvey said are true. You have to do this and have to do that and this will change and what this rule said was true and what M it's all true, but we've got to take care of our own. The five the Tay thing Mesa doesn't want to manage it. That's from what he said. From what I understood, that means who's going to manage it? O USD, these are 18 to 25 year olds. Are they going to sign the contracts that the people there have to sign? No drugs, no this, no that. Come on. I mean, 18 to 25, let's face it, we've all been there. Um, the fact that this thing started out as a very nice hotel room with a kitchen and now it's turned into a Motel 6 with god knows what there because the developer keeps cutting, cutting, cutting and he blames it on the tariffs and he blames it on this. How about lowballing the deal the first place or overdoing it? I feel for his life and that's his this is a tough thing to do and taking care of the homeless. But if he's that concerned, let him donate the $500,000 fee. But that's another We have to do something. But how are you going to do this? Mr. Whitman's right. We going to have ADA issues. My wife's an occupational therapist. You go on this little ramp thing that they're proposing in a wheelchair or in a walker. Is aren't those the customers, the clients, our our fellow city residents? Aren't those the type of people we have? They're handicapped. They've got issue.

You walk a ramp or go on Montgomery. Is it the best location? No. I mean, I was in real estate. I would have suggested it as a public works yard because you own it. It's away from everybody. It's an easy thing to do. But it took nine months to do the phase two and then they poo pooed it and didn't want to use it and they said, "Oh, it's a circle. We won't we don't want to take care of it." Okay. And then we found lead and we found some arsenic and now that's being taken care of. But I mean this shouldn't have happened. We shouldn't be here like this. I mean you've got a lot of smart people in this community. Most of them not in this room because on this issue I mean they could have come up with something. A motel type is fine but the 180 square feet really. I mean come on. I mean we can do better. I mean, how about 30 boxables together or not boxable, pick another company, whatever. Doesn't matter. They bolt these things together. They're all over the country. It doesn't take that much to go, hey, what's it take? It's the site work and I know it's the engineering and I know it takes effort.

Thank you, Mr. Stangle. Ruth Miller, Lyanna McNeely, and Brad Smith, please. Hey,

good evening. I was feeling uh good about this until I read some of the comments. Let's postpone the project. Let's look for a better site and developer. Never mind the deadline to allocate funding is just a few days away. I'm sure the HDD will approve an extension with no location developer or plan. Better yet, let's just The people we've been working to house are old and sick and poor. They aren't contributing to our society. In the words of Ebene or Scrooge, perhaps they should just die and decrease the surplus. The wealthy people of Pimmen Hills have been working hard to kill the project since day one. Just look at the comments from the planning commission meeting from November 6, 202024. The proposed multiple alternate sites, they disparage everyone who supports the project. That shows their deep commitment to their idea that those people should not live close to them. They've suggested the city make the tent more habitable instead. That's just putting lipstick on a pig. The tents do not have walls. People lay awake at night and listen to the rats chewing their way through the canvas. The tents leak on their clothes and their beds when it rains. They don't have a locking door. They're portaotties and they have no way to clean up if they have an accident. And some of the elderly do on a regular basis. They need a ride to access the shower once a week. And how long before the city council

decides that supporting OTT is not a good use of funds? You'll see them again sleeping in the doorways of the arcades and camping in Libby Park. When one of our elderly fell recently, they were discharged back to their tent even though they were unable to toilet themselves and were still a fall risk. When they fell again, the process was repeated three times. They were not eligible for any home health care services. People living in encampments or on the street do not get home health care services. If someone has a chronic illness, they don't have a nurse to come by and check on their medication. They're unable to bathe or feed themselves. So, they do not have they do not have an aid to assist them. If they are dying, they cannot receive hospice. They are in a tent listening to rats chewing. Oh, shoot.

We get it. We get what you're saying. Lyanna McNeely, please. Brad Smith, and then Renee Roth.

Good evening. Um, I'm a little disheartened by what I've heard so far. We have the gift of $12.7 million. Um, and now the milliondoll private donation given directly to Dignity Moves for the Cabin Village. This would allow the city to move forward with a healthy contingency fund, three to four years of operational funds, and the opportunity to provide housing for youth who are trying to find their footing in the world. You'd think that'd be an easy yes vote, but now we're hearing all these objections. We've heard repeatedly over the last few weeks about additional sites, better sites. There is no unicorn, people. There is no perfect sight. it does not exist. Um, looking in the the public comments in the letters, we see that now there's this grand proposal to move the site to the 8 acres here. Let's just change it all. We've had complaints that after the public works site was approved 18 months ago that it's just taken too damn long. Well, folks, this is why it's taken too damn long. Nobody can make a move. Nobody can make a decision. What you have here is delay, delay, delay. And the purpose of that delay, the purpose of everyone looking for the the unicorn site, that perfect site is to kill the project. Let's not be koi about it. I'm done with koi. Nobody wants this project anywhere near them. We're living by them. I live on Blanch Street. These people are not a problem. You know, we we the city council um last meeting voted to remove the contaminated soil from the public works yard. So, it would be ready for housing. I ask, what housing? Why not this housing?

What? You don't want to live by these people, but you want to live by other people? We are now at the 11th hour. Funds for the grand, I've heard, need to be allocated by April 18th. delay will kill the cabin village and you're asking the city manager, you know, if you want to change the site to request an extension with no approved site, no developer, and no plans. And you can bet that money will go to another city and at great financial cost to our city. If I were cynical, I would think that this was all carefully orchestrated to delay and kill the project. Please vote to move forward with this project. The folks in OTT outside are not getting younger and they're not getting healthier. And if the cabin village fails, nimiism will be this council's legacy. It will be our town's legacy and our nimi status will be legend.

Thank you, ma'am. Brad Smith, please. Renee Roth and then Bill Miley.

What she said. I knew you were gonna say that. Thank you. In a relationship, one's usually smarter than the other. Appreciate it. Y'all been kicking the ball down the road, down the field. It's true. Let's bring something else up tonight. Let's delay it some more. Let's make a decision. Throw some big ones. Put on your big boy panties or whatever they're called.

Make a decision. Do it or don't do it. But it needs to be done. These people are not getting better. I live with her. You already know where she lives. We live next door to the solar lot. These people are not a problem. And I'm talking about these people, these unfortunates who are some are wired differently than we are. who have had issues. We could be there but for the grace of God if you believe in God or make another choice. You could be there and here we are. Oh yeah, well let's do this and well let's do that. No, they need permanent housing. They need doors that lock. Don't kick the ball down the road. It'll kill the project. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Renee Roth, please. Bill Miley and then Sudepra.

Good evening everybody. Renee Roth um you are in a difficult position and uh Mr. Whitman, I do want to thank you very much for bringing up uh the access issue and the ADA uh needs of this community. I think they are very real and I do think this project is inadequate because it is not addressing that need adequately. I don't have all the answers. I am not a building expert and I'm ass sure that probably none of you ever thought you'd have to be a building expert when you took over your job as a city council person. And that was one of the reasons why I recommended that in my comment that you hire and you should have hired it at the very beginning two years ago when you first started a new owner's an owner's representative acting on your behalf to negotiate for the city with dignity moves. That should have been dignity moves right now holds all the cards on what the site is, who gets access to what, and how much money other people may want to contribute and for what. I don't agree with that approach. I really don't agree with that approach. I do think the city should be holding all the cards. This was your grant. It wasn't a dignity moves grant and there may be other people wanting to come forth and negotiate directly with the city on this project. So this is

really difficult for me to watch and see an an inadequate site being used to develop this housing. This is the biggest project the city has developed in how many years? You know, when have you spent $10 million on anything in 20 years? You know, hi. This is a huge project. It's a huge investment. You You do need an owner's representative to help guide your analysis of the bids and how to negotiate further. And I am one who does believe the grass is greener. I do think you could take this site and the sunk costs and put it on another site pretty easily and have your ADA access as well. I honestly do sincerely believe that. But you've got to be able to not have dignity move say this is the project and now and this is the only one we're going to do. That to me is not okay. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Miss Rob. Bill Miley, please. Uh, Sudeprow and then Whitney Nunes.

Hello. Hi. In reading the Ohigh Valley News last night, it told me that the city has allocated $2 million for future operating monies for the Cabin Village when it's finished. I checked the grant application and sure enough it was there. 500,000 for each a fouryear. My suggestions tonight go to option number four. Provide alternative direction to the city manager. When that reserve was set up for operating costs months ago, I remember a number of times when the city manager was asked, "What about this?" He said, 'Oh, there will be grant opportunities in continuum of care funding. Don't worry, we'll have the money to operate. That's not a quote. That's just what I remember. The original grant award was 12.7 million. 2 million operating reserve was put away by the city, bringing it to 10.7 million. The award to dignity moves was 9.5 million. The difference being between the grant award of 12.7 and the lowered amount to dignity of 9.5 is $3.2 million as I see it in the city reserve. 15% plus change. That's why I'm suggesting we use some of that money to finish the original project. Specialty construction says we can do it for 10.45.

What is missing is 900,000. Giving away five units to get $1 million for a different type of rehab does not, in my opinion, fit our programs. It reduces the supply. The county just recently did a count in January or February. There's 70 people in the Ohio Valley who are homeless. So, I would suggest we take some of that reserve money and add it to specialty construction so they can do the job properly as designed. Take some of the tourist money. We have three million extra dollars this year and add that. Let's make this thing work with 30. We need more, but 30 that that million dollars goes to some place else. We have the resources. Let's get them, apply them, and succeed in our vision and goal. Now we see a successful personal

Thank you. Thank you Mr. Miley. Appreciate it. Uh Sudepo and then Whitney Nunes please. Thanks. Thank you very much. Thank youman Lesie Rule and uh staff manager Ben Harvey and and attorney and uh police chief and uh

you're taking up your time here buddy. That's okay because I realize that in the work we're doing uh I see Norma and Weston and and Westridge and I realize you know these people are not robots that I just show up in city hall they are human beings and so I I want to acknowledge that I mean part of the discussions we're having about a group in Pimman Hill or others or tent ohhigh tent town um or anywhere else I mean the people have stories people have histories people have um a life and uh we're looking at it with compassion but also uh with uh clarity of uh thought and fiscal um uh wisdom I suppose. Um so all these balancing all these is of course on your shoulders also on uh there are so many people in the in our uh who show up here who show up online who are listening who are reading so participation is an important process so I'm glad um I'm here to just share that um we have as a city we have fantastic infrastructure not just in the city uh owned by the city there's nonprofits uh just being at help of ohigh seeing the seniors and nutrition center. Um, so there are there are people who uh who need the services. We need to grow as a city and uh we need to grow in d in density. Uh maybe there's a philosophy in the past that okay we are 8,200 people. Let's keep it that. Uh I think it's important for us to be flexible and allow us to grow. Um and uh with that growth will come uh for Ohio Unified School District the number of uh uh residents uh and that will increase the amount of state funding. So I think it's important for our city as a as a value statement to allow ourselves to grow. Uh that's important whether it's people who are like Casey from Ohigh Tenttown who

shows up in our uh s training and thank you uh council Leslie who's here uh in the search class in the 30 seconds that I have I want to just share the state of the union of the wildfire resilience festival is going strong. Uh we look forward to you're all invited staff and also council members, mayor. Uh we would love to give you a platform to speak and please speak with your constituents to show up to volunteer to step up to be counted. Uh to step up to actually offer the services there, whatever they have in their garages. If there's excess stuff, let's put it together. Let's auction it off. Let's offer it to people. Let's create this beautiful eBay Amazon that is uh ohigh uh culture. So, show up Saturday, April 25th, 10:00 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sazori Park. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Uh, Whitney Nunes, please. Hello. Hello.

Um, I'm sure most of you know me. I'm one of the case managers here at the encampment. So, I just wanted to chat a little bit with you guys. Um, it's really great that they found another million. I just want to make sure that like with the ERF grant because it is encampment resolution fund that that won't take away from anything because it's I thought it was supposed to be the encampment. So I could be wrong. I haven't spoken to any of the higher ups or anything. So, if the five Tay units come in, of course, I'm a case manager, so I think everybody needs help. But when we wrote the grant, 57% um are seniors on fixed income here at the encampment. And so, I just want to make sure like a lot of who I work with are seniors. And so, of course, I want Tay to have their opportunity for housing if they need it, but I just want to make sure it doesn't mess anything up with the grant because I was under the impression they had to be here at the encampment or homeless on the streets. Um, so we just want to make I just want to make sure, but I really want this to go through. I love the people that I work with. the people here so badly need housing and this is a people thing and we really need to help these people because we have the opportunity to do it. Um I think Ruth really hit it home with like how hard it is and I'm not saying we shouldn't use the million. I just want to make sure that like the grant we respect it. We make sure we're doing the right thing and if the 5k units is what we need to do then that's fine. But I just really truly want to make sure that my clients are taken care of because these people are so amazing and so deserve this and we've been working with them for so long and I don't want to see this fall apart. So please, please, please just let's think about the people who are here. Thank you.

Thank you. Anybody online? Yes. Yes, mayor. We have two raised hands now. Three with that notification. First we'll have Jean followed by David and then Starchild. Thank you. Jean, you have the floor.

Hi. Uh, I urge the city council to vote no on the proposed options. Both options are fatally flawed because the maintenance yard site is the worst possible location for ADA access for its many future disabled and elderly residents. Both options include a very expensive $700,000 cost to build a $325 foot ADA disability ramp that leads to South Ventur Street. For reasons I explained at the last council meeting, this is a ramp to nowhere because there are numerous ADA barriers that prevent wheelchair bound residents from being actually able to travel to downtown Ohio. Contrary to what Mr. Lee said, uh, from the maintenance yard site or any other nearby South Ventura Street site because the sidewalk, there's no sidewalk and there are all sorts of problems where you don't have the 36 in access. Uh, and in addition, many elderly non-wheelchairbound residents will not be able to safely or helpfully climb up 30 steps simply to get to street level. city knew when it started the location process that many of the potential residents were elderly and disabled. Therefore, ADA friendly access should have been on the top of the city's selection list when it first started looking for a location. The reluctance now to pivot to a friendly ADA accessibility site is essentially motivated by the city council's and city manager refusal to acknowledge its huge blunder of choosing the maintenance yard, the worst possible ADA accessible site. The site west of Kent Hall does not require a $700,000 ramp. You have no ADA barriers for those residents to get downtown. There should be a feasibility study done

now. If not, this is a textbook example of bureaucratic inertia bias. It's important to note that the city council and city m uh manager have never publicly explained like why they decided to change their original choice of building a facility near Kent Hall. It appears the city manager and city council were suffering from their own version of nimiism with them not wanting to see the facility next to their own workplace. Perhaps they thought it looked unprofessional to have the site so close to city hall. It appears that city council member Leslie Rule has decided based on what she was saying at the last meeting not to be a victim of this inertia bias and is considering pivoting and considering building the facility west of Kent Hall. I urge the rest of you to do the same. The city council needs to immediately conduct a feasibility study for the PSH location at the site adjacent to Ken Hall. Don't be hoodwinkedked by the city manager providing excuses that this will just take too long. This is your last chance to get it done right. Thank you.

Thank you. Next we have David followed by Starchild. Okay, David, you have the floor. David, we'll give you the option to unmute once more. Hello. There we go. Hi.

First off, uh, thanks go to Ben Harvey, the administration, mayor and council supporters, dignity moves, and the cow foundation and help of Ohio who have tirelessly worked to improve and move this project forward. Uh here we are today, April 14th, just four days away from HCB's requirement to have all grant funds allocated. If this does not occur, there is a high probability of losing the grant. An individual opposed to the project has proposed last minute site changes. In fact, three in the last month or so. This is not to identify a better site, but to continually delay the program to a point where the project self-destructs. This is unacceptable to the people of Ohio. How does it feel when your true position on a project is so unpopular and lacks compassion that you cloak it in disingenuous comments and pretend that you actually have the well-being of the OTT residents in mind? Most people are too smart to buy into that. People were complaining about this project taking too long. Now at the 11th hour, when delays will kill it, everyone has a better idea, a better plan, a better location, so on and so forth. Where were these plans and ideas while the public works yard has been the approved location for 18 months now? Stop messing around and vote to complete this project. Nothing is perfect, but this will be far better than what the current residents of Ohigh 10 have delivered

or vote to kill it. But don't pretend you want to fix it at this late date. Please vote to support option one to get this project started. To quote the learned gentleman, Larry Steinold, enough already. Just do it. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Mayor, we have one more on Zoom and that would be Starchild. Okay, Starchild, you may unmute. Speak.

Thank you. Um, I have uh some comments about the $1 million grant um that uh you're contemplating accepting today. I can see the temptation to accept that grant. $1 million of free money. uh is something that this city could use to increase housing. But I want you to think further about whether that grant should be accepted. Right now there are right now the current proposal is 30 units of permanent supportive housing. The grant would reduce that number to 25. Who are the five adults who you would have not be able to get permanent supported housing if you accept this grant? Who are the five 18 to 25 year olds in Ohio right now who would move in to these t reserved housing units? I think the effect of this grant would be to make elderly residents of Ohigh or homeless stay living in tents or living in the woods while the city waits to fill the five T units. Those $1 million would be better spent by this foundation on a different project. Remember that Mesa built their 10 units at a cost of about 100,000 per unit instead of the 330,000 that this project is spending per unit. Additionally, as a former member of the same 10 people, I remember Mr. Harvey said that if Dignity Moves would be responsible for any overage if the bids came in above 9.5 million. reading

public comments today, I saw that Klay Cy heard him say the same and I would like to hear uh you asked the city manager whether he said that whether he misled this council. Thank you. Thank you. Start job. No more raised hands on Zoom mayor. Okay, I have one more public comment. Melissa Balding, please come up. Yeah, thanks. This isn't my forte, but um No, it's okay.

Speaking for um the elderly that live here, because I live here, um they would much rather be able to go up a ramp than have to live on the dirt or what we've already lived in, which was hell, you know, and the the rat without the rats would be great because it keeps me up all night every night. Um, so I don't think that everybody here that I live with can make it up a ramp and they would be happy to do so and it would work, you know. So just take that in consideration. It's not about the accessibility. They can get there. They will get there if they want it because they're going to want it, you know. They're going to need they need it. So

thank you. I appreciate it. Uh, Doug Labar, please. When you guys um need to use a facility like a sink, you just turn on the hot water, turn on the cold water. You can take a shower. Toilet flushes. It's warm. You can keep the rats out. We've kicked the can on this thing way, way too long. And just think about what some of these people are having to deal with because they've been they've just had a series of uh bad situations one after another that's made them without a house, without shelter, without security. without being able to lock a door. How privileged are we sitting here trying to figure out like whether it's going to be okay to build the cabin village because there's a little bit of a problem with uh elevation change. I see the people coming from tent town going to the market having to having to negotiate going down the grade to the trail and then back up again. They pause sometimes in my bushes on their return on a hot day because it's so hot they don't know if they can make it. When the Cabin village is developed and

operating and successful, there's going to be other things that come into it, other services and other programs that will be supportive. There will be people who will say, "Hey, why don't we get a uh transportation system, even if it's battery operated, to help some of these people?" That's what we will do as a community. So, let's get this thing done. Let's move on. It's not going to be the only place that's that's I mean, look at the look at the cost of homes in Ohigh. What do you buy for a hund for a million dollars right now? How are these people going to get there? Or or rent for 2500 or 3,000 a month. It's out of reach. They need assistance and there's going to be more and more and more people in that category. This is just the start of what's going to start happening. So, let's start it. Let's get it going. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Okay. Public comment over. We've been sitting for two hours and 15 minutes. Do we need a quick break before we get into discussion? Five minute break. Okay, we'll come right back.

Check. Check. One, two. Welcome back everyone. I would like to ask um dignity moves and and the architect to come back and just address a couple of the questions related to what you heard so far just so we can understand and kind of come from a base of as much information as we as we can. Uh sure. Yeah, I'm happy to speak to a few of the points that have come up.

Thanks. Um, first I think it's important to note uh it wasn't discussed the timeline for the bids themselves. Uh, they were opened on January 16th and are valid for 120 days. So that means that the bids that we have are valid until May 16th. Um, so we are there is um a real clock as it relates to the validity of those bids. Once they do expire uh it's a significant process to rebid, you know, many months um if if we were to do so. Okay.

Um, second, I think there's been a lot of discussion about um modular versus the design that we have today, which is what's known as type five or stick built construction. So, simple 2 by sixes. Uh, the same type of construction you would see in um essentially the lowest cost single family housing you can you can build there. If you just go look at a housing development, that's typically what you see. Um and when we started this project, there was uh a request for the lowest cost solution we could come up with um particularly for this site. Um given the the land area that we're working with to accommodate 30 units, uh the offices, the laundry, the gathering spaces, the other support spaces, the total gross square footage. uh working with some local contractors and other engineers and and uh industry professionals, we determined that singlestory stickuilt construction was the most costefficient way to deliver 30 housing units. Um which led us to uh the project that we have today. Of course, there have been things that were added that did add cost such as the natural building materials, the clay tile roof, you know, the Spanish acienda um sort of aesthetic. um a lot of things that were uh you know as the design team uh we took as as requests or even mandates to fit within the architectural fabric of OHigh and deliver a responsible sustainable building that will be permanent at the most costefficient you know structural system. So,

um I know there's been a lot of discussion of modular, but when we uh start to look at 30 individual units with their own foundations and their own utility hookups, um you know, it's not designed, so of course I can't say definitively, but my uh professional opinion is that that would actually cost more than what we're getting at a per unit cost for the project that you're looking at today. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. All right. You want to start? Thank you. Okay.

Um, so I I want to thank everyone for their comments and their passion. Um, right off the bat, uh, you know, I I understand the fear of the high prob probability of losing the grant. That's never the intention here. Um, the idea that it will kill the project. That's something um that nobody wants. Um, I hear references to when we started this process. When we started this process, it was two years ago and things have changed and all of those natural building materials are gone except for the ceiling for the common roof is a straw panel now. So many of the things that we asked for at the beginning have have been whittleled away to you know virtually uh nothing as as far as those those asks that we had about it you know fitting in with the ohigh sort of aesthetic. Um no one is talking about a perfect site. There is no perfect site. The question is is there a better site? Um solutions never go in a straight line. Things emerge. you have to you have to be ready to change paths and um I think what it really comes down to here a lot of it is risk adverse like you know what are what are the risks that we're that we are what risks are we taking in in trying to evaluate another site so you know the main risk that I hear is HCD saying no and pulling the money back now I would like to say that um that just means we need to have a discussion with HCD if we do indeed come up with a plan. And if they say no, we say okay. Like they're not going to say, "Thank you for calling us. We don't like your idea. We're taking the money back." They're going to say, "No, you can't do this. We need you to stick with the original plan." So the the idea of HCD

pulling the money back and giving it to, you know, another town, I think, is unrealistic. I mean, let's ask them. All we can do is have a conversation. That having been said, um, are these in the back as well? So, I have put together, uh, it's a one pager that's based on a seven-page sort of analysis of a 30 unit modular cabin village. And the question that I started with, and I might need more than five minutes, so I hope that I can get that. Well, we'll have you stop at five and then we'll all take I won't get through the whole thing from five. We'll have to pause and get a second. Yeah, we'll have a second round. Yeah.

Well, we have made exceptions for that protocol upon asking. Yeah, take your two minutes here because then we all have things to say. I'm sure you do. Um, okay. So, you know, the question is, can we build a 30-unit ERF project to be delivered on city-owned land east of Kent Hall using modular construction within the budget with a kitchen, a garden, storage features that are being cut from the plan? Um, so why this works, modular construction, I'm just going to go through the bullet points. I had hoped to have a little bit more time to be able to explain this since I put days and days and days and days of research into the one doesn't affect the other. Yes, it does. Um, I understand.

So, you know, ADA compliance is a huge issue. So, if you're going down the bullet points, better access to town center, peer foundations can be used, code compliant. This is code compliant, pre-permitted, um, HCD inspected at the factory and arrive site at the site pre-permitted. And indeed, it's more environmentally um, friendly if you look at how the build happens, not necessarily the materials. Um, so you know there are things that need to be uh verified. Survey the east parcel an arborous report outuilding conditions. Um, so I do have a proposed motion but you can see there's a current path the maintenance yard with the figures that are pulled from the most recent budget as well as an east parcel with modular. Um indeed it is also to uh council member Whitman's point, you know, it's it's not impossible to ask ask a HCD would they agree or would they have a problem with us uh parceling this out at different locations. Um you know, ask the question, get the answer. Um I right now the maintenance yard to me is unsupportable. It still is in the middle of a talk screen. Um, when are we going to get back the findings from the Department of Toxic Substance? That's a two-stage process that we are still in the middle of. There is a big pile of toxic soil there that needs to be removed. And that's not even the lead and the arsenic that's in the ground. That also needs to be determined. um that with the ADA compliance and the fact that everything has been stripped out of these units um leads me to believe that there is another better option and I have put a a one-page plan together that to me at least hits the issues.

Let's and then let's take turns. Uh we could just go do you have something that you want to say now and we'll just go down the line.

Yeah, I am not in in support of changing the scope of the project of looking at different locations. We've investigated this property and there were too many concerns that were some of which were brought up here today, but we've brought them up in the past. Um, environmental concerns, the the land uh slope. Um, and so I'm not in support of of doing anything uh of starting over from scratch. Uh, and I'm not saying this because I'm concerned about the timeline and I'm concerned about the, you know, the the grant. That's definitely a consideration. Um, but but I'm it's more that we have a great project. They've the architect has worked with us every step of the way to ensure that things that we wanted that we said we wanted to have a part of this project were included including the green building materials um even though I know that the scope has changed because prices has changed uh that it's they've been working on our direction um the you know the there's a human cost every day that we don't move forward with this. And you know, yes, we could do a lot of different things right now, but but every day that we prolong this, more and more people are living in these conditions. Um it's to me it's like we've come too far to

start all over from scratch if we want to look at other types of projects for temporary shelter down the road. I think that modular could work but we heard tonight that modular was a consideration and this actually cost less. So, um, the other thing that we don't get with modular is a trauma-informed approach where there are opportunities for people to gather to come together. That was an important part of this project as well. These were all things that we discussed that were a part of how we got to where we are today. Um the other thing too, I mean I'm I'm in favor of making this as as low cost as possible. Um so that we do have access for maintaining the property and for uh you know for for four years at least if you know it would be great to have more. Um, one thing that I heard in conversations with Whitney, uh, and a couple of other folks is that we don't really have a huge TA population here. And to tie up beds, uh, from people who really need them, it there's some concern about that. And if we're limited and we have to have five units forte residents and we don't have those residents, I don't want to see empty spaces when we have people who are living in tents right now. Um, you know, we have to do something. We are spending a half a million dollars a year on OTT. Before that, we had people camping all over town. We had security issues. We had business owners in the arcade being harassed by people who were hanging out

in their doorways. We're going to spend money no matter no matter what, but at least having some place for people to go opens us up to funding from the county, funding from the state, and it solves a real problem that we have. Um, and so I'm in support I'm in support of moving forward with the 9.5 million, not accepting the TA and with getting this going and breaking ground.

Thank you. Yeah, I'm intending to I have the same concerns about the grant. If there's any flexibility on the grant, I would love to hear that. Otherwise, actually, I thought Mr. Miley had a very interesting idea which is how using some of the levers that we have to say we increase the sales tax that would have to come through a vote of course but that's one idea to pay for this structure another thing would be let's say the TOT but in either case finding a way to fund this I would actually personally be completely okay with moving more towards option one without the limits of the grant personally so we get a little bit more of the project similar to what Mr. Miley had just said. So, my intention is is that I would like to proceed with this location. And I had to really think pretty seriously about this. As as Renee Roth pointed out, it's one of the biggest projects we're going to do in recent history. And being dedicated to a process is what I'm very interested in. And it's not inertia in the sense that in my view, the process has been adhered to. And we've gone every step of the way, looked at every single piece, including with dignity moves. We when we first looked at the project in Santa Barbara, the public outcry was we want something more. We want each one to have its own bathroom and we want to have the central area. So, as you pointed out, they have met us every step of the way on these requests. So, I guess for me, the process has been adhered to. We have look at locations and every time we look at another location when it gets brought up, it always gets brought up as this is why it's going to be better and as soon as we start looking at it, it's not or we say nobody's everybody's going to like it here in this place. But as soon as it gets brought up, people start coming to the meeting saying here's why it's not okay. So the only through line I've seen in all of the concerns is not at the

public works. That's the only concern that I see from a group expressing their concern. And so they've I've counted 11. It's a whole variety of things and I I'm just it's hard for me not to see why it's just the concern is really not just not there. It's anywhere but there. So I can't know their hearts. But what I do think is the process has been adhered to and those sites have been looked at. And I'm intending to vote tonight to say option one with a little increase or option two, I'm sorry, option one or option two. I'm happy to have a um a project assigned a person that the city assigns to work on it. No problem there, but I'm intending to move forward tonight. Thank you.

Well, I have a a ton of questions and all this stuff, but for the sake of time, I appreciate what everybody said. Um, I know everybody's like, "Accept the money, take the million dollars and all that, but you have to realize that from this process since I've been involved, anytime there was something that we wanted to do to change things or whatever, it was like, no, the grant says this, the grant says that, we have to adhere to this, which I completely understand."

So, I feel like, you know, we're making progress. I think we're close. I think there's things that still need to be dialed in. Um, and I I think for the sake of time and all of that stuff that if Bethany goes to Sacramento and sits down with everything that we have, here's what we want to do to get a straight answer. So, we know if we accept the million dollars, what do we have to do? Are her is who's going to be, you know, out of something because we've taken this money? So, I think to just get all the questions answered for once, like let's do this right and and and get all those answers. Come back. If it's in a week, I'll tell me the day we can all come back and discuss everything. So, we we can still be in time of the May 16th deadline, but I think that all of the information we really need, you know, this is a great project. It's the first time and to do it right because it would be a shame to do something and have it jeopardized or we only have this much money because Now we have to pay, you know, close to a million dollars for a a manager from the city side. All of these things I think need to be thought out more so we can be successful and hopefully have more money in the end. And um another thing I'm going to go tomorrow that if it could play in perfect if not whatever. But like a year or so ago, um I don't I think I don't know if I've shared it with anybody, but um the city of Long Beach, they were doing a unhoused community, purchased the units, 30 of them, decided like this is way too much. We can't do it. Well, so I had spent, you know, sending emails, talking with people, getting the runaround for months, and finally, you know, I didn't stick with it. I was like, forget it. I'm not getting anywhere. Well, just on Friday, I get a letter from Long Beach. Are you still interested? 30 units are down at TNT crane off 33 and you could look at them tomorrow. So I think it would be well, you know

what I mean? I've got nothing to lose. I'm going to go there tomorrow at 11:30 and I I'll take photos. I'll do everything, get all the information we can. Maybe we could take that if it's a cheaper thing. Not that we're saying to use it for everything, but if we could get, you know, units at a cheaper price to do and then take that back to HC to see like Hey, this is what we have. I think just that's that's my thought. Thank you. Yeah. Um so I actually Thanks.

We go.

Sorry. I I I I'm kind of looking at things from a different perspective. That's you know just based on my experience in watching this project and the concept evolve. And when I started on uh city council, you know, we had primarily people uh living in Libby Park. The gazebo was always kind of filled with people. And then everything kind of transitioned over here to city hall and uh and it was you know so I went to uh Cal City's conference and there was a great presentation about addressing the homelessness issue and this was before the grant and actually did dignity moves was a presenter in the panel that I listened to, but there were there were several and what what they identified was the idea that you need to get your consolidate your homeless people under roofs. all roof structure. And then um you need to bring in social services and identify the programs that these individuals qualify for and then you move them into those programs and it was referred to as transitionary housing. I've always thought that that fit what oh high it kind of you know the attitude of the average person which I you know the a lot of people want to make this a binary choice of yes or no and I I think that most of us can agree that we need

to do something to address this problem and and the issue is that it it it's difficult to decide the best way to solve it. And I want for OHigh that we find the best way to address our homeless issue. Um, and so I, it has always bothered me as I learned what permanent supportive housing was, and I didn't really even understand permanent supportive housing, uh, until long after we applied for the grant and were given it. And that is that we're going to take 30 people and give them a home for their lifetimes. Mhm.

Uh we're we're promising to the state that these people will always have a place

as opposed to we're, you know, we're going to shepherd them from their, you know, bad condition into hopefully a program that's going to place them in a better condition. And you know, they explained at what back at the Cal City's conference I went to that someone might end up staying in our in our program for, you know, three or four years, but eventually a program is found for them. Um, one of the things that concerns me about going with a permanent supportive housing approach is that it is um, so we're only helping 30 people. I would much rather use whatever amount of money it is we decide we need to use um, to help a lot more people. um you know, especially people who are actually housed, but they're close to being not housed. And we're not addressing a lot of people who are in our community who aren't housed. Um and we don't really have a plan for how to address that. Um and I'm going to run out of time, but uh so Yeah. Uh I don't support the Tay and that's because one, we've received zero information about what that would entail for us in terms of the services that we would have to provide concerning the Tay. And I've frankly stopped expecting to receive any

explanation of what our expenses are going to be. I've asked repeatedly and I never receive a response. Let me let me come back to you guys both. But yeah, m

um so I want this to be a deliberative process. I want to work through this. Um so a couple of things. Um, to council member Lang's point about we need to move forward. In my mind, there is no assurance. I think it's a 50/50 on on where you would break ground first. Um, I remember the soils test for Cababrio and when it rained, they had to wait months before they could do a soils test and I asked about that oh so long ago. So, I have no confidence that we would break ground at the maintenance yard before we would be able to get all of the information that we needed for this particular um for you know Kent Kent Hall. Also, I will say that it's been two years and all of the reasons that we had for why the Kent Hall Kent Hall parking lot didn't work. Um that was then, you know, we said, "Oh, the slope is too much." Well, the slope's probably no more than the slope at the maintenance yard. In other words, there is a process and part of the process is re-evaluating after two years and seeing if all those assumptions that you had way back when still hold after you've gone through two years of analysis of other places to so to me this is not not being part of the process. This is absolutely part of the process. Um all of the reasons you know we've had this whole project has been you know death by a thousand cuts. We've let things go and we're not going to do this anymore. we're not going to do that anymore and let's look at where we actually are in what we would be building, what it would cost us and where it would be. I think we simply we should have and I would hope that everyone here would agree to have a discussion with HCD and to you know put some of these things forward and if they say no, they say no and then we know at least where we are and if HD says no, I'm like okay, I'm in for the maintenance yard. Um, but I don't

believe the maintenance yard to be the best site for this. I don't believe that it will be a quicker build. Um, like I said, we're two phases along still on the lead remediation. So, you know, I just I just don't believe that argument. Um, it doesn't make sense to me as having um real solid uh a real solid basis for this is a timesensitive and we'll do better at the maint. I just don't get that. Um, you know, to to council member Whitman's point, we've said this before, this money is from the state for permanent support of housing. So, if we want to do other things, we can do other things, but we can't do other things with this money. So, you know, that's kind of that. I also do not I I don't support the the million dollars. I know it's really hard to say no to a million dollars, but but number one, it's not money to us. It's money to dignity moves. We have no idea what what the parameters around that are, what the, you know, restrictions might be. Um we haven't had any direct contact with the, you know, the funer at all. Um, so I wouldn't put ourselves in that in that uh state, but I I I would also say if you want to have a conversation with the actual funders and see I mean I'm a little bit suspicious when it's like, oh no, it has to be the maintenance yard. There's no other place it can be. Um, if I don't support the maintenance yard, I certainly don't support, you know, the um condition that it be the maintenance yard. Um, you know, that having been said, I want everyone to know that I am not going to be the down vote on this. But I also think a conversation with HCD is entirely plausible, absolutely warranted. We can't break ground at the maintenance yard until we have clearance from the Department of Toxic Substances, DTSC, whatever that stands for. I mean,

we can't. So, and we don't have that. Uh, so, so I see that there is a time frame here. I know people are so so upset with the idea of this is still in flux. That's the hard part is that it's still in flux. But deciding on the maintenance yard doesn't move it any quicker. I mean, we can make that decision, but that doesn't mean that the maintenance yard is going to clear for the lead. We don't know what it's going to take. There's still a pile of contaminated soil that needs to be removed. not even to talk about the le lead remediation. So, um this is to me the process. I don't believe that the maintenance yard would be quicker. I don't see that at all. So, um I still would like to make a motion of some sort with my recommendations, the proposed motion. Um and but this is a deliberative body and and I want to deliberate with this body. I don't want to be um here, but this is what I have arrived at after two years of this. And Ruth and I were at that first meeting and we supported it from day one.

Anything you want to add to what he said? I don't think I have anything to add. Um just a question for the city manager. Uh, how when a couple of questions when is the soil remediation expected to to be finished to come in? Let me I was just going to see if Lucas is here. He is here. Mr. Cybert, could you come give an overview on what's going on with what we call the dirty dirt process, please? He's the closest to this. So, thank you, Mr. Good evening.

Hello. Okay. So, I am meeting on site with uh Pacific Petroleum as well as Ringcon on Friday and we're going to scope the site out in terms of the trucks coming in and working working through that. It's looking like they're going to start um a week from this Monday because this coming Monday is when when they're going to start. Now, you're going to ask how long is this going to take? In a conversation I just had with them yesterday uh via Zoom, they're not seeing more than five days working through um the stockpile as well as the u the lead subterranean chasing it. It's they're not seeing more than five days.

Can I just ask a quick question? That's assuming that the borings come back with no findings and that assumes that I mean they themselves might be able to do the work in 5 days but it still has to get final approval from DTC. Yes. DTSC. DTSC. Yes. And and maybe we have a relationship with them and you know they promised a quick turnaround. I don't know.

Yeah. So, DTSC is kind of the um the the unknown in terms of how we'll be working through that with them. I can tell you that in working with Ringcon and talking with Andy and Jessica about how they'll be chasing um the subterranean pieces, they're already aware of of an area where they're not seeing it going any further, but there are areas they're going to be chasing it through the wall um through that that dirt wall when they end up going down and then um out. So, it's not a matter of in terms of how and I'm only regurgitating what they just told me because I am not the expert on this. So it it was really kind of what they were explaining to me is when they get out there and they do a dig then they'll have their equipment out there to see if the lead is still any further. Right. So it's not necessarily a boring piece like what you were talking about before. Those have already been done in terms of identifying where where the lead is located.

But you need to I mean we've had this discussion before. You need to bore into the sides to make sure that there's no margin. Maybe it's the same thing we're saying. It's it's more like you're taking a scoop, right? and then doing a reading, right? Taking a scoop and then doing a reading,

right? And and the reading that they take on site is with handheld devices, but they need to take that back and actually do a a lab analysis because DTSC DTSC doesn't accept uh the on-site equipment um determination. So, I mean, not that that I mean, they can go back to the office and do it, but I'm just saying um the assumption is that things are going to come back clean and we don't know that. Well, that's the goal.

That's of course that's the goal. I mean, yeah, but you know, we don't we don't have I want to stick with Miss Questions for your time. Um the the other question you were with were you you were involved in the process of looking at the Kent Hall property. Is that correct? And and three years ago and doing feasibility studies. Uh not necessarily feasibility study like we did recently for the one at 50 by street. So what's your question?

Okay. just if you could speak to any anything that you want to that that any either challenges or opportunities with that property. Yeah. So, this site presents the challenges very similar to what we're seeing for um this site. Is that what you mean? Yeah. Okay. I'm sorry. When I'm pointing that direction, I mean this behind me here

similar similar challenges. I mean, you're looking at um difference in grade. You're looking at some some historical pieces which are not necessarily the same as what we're looking at for Kent Hall. So you've you've got some other it's kind of a mixed bag in terms of what you're looking at here. I mean I'm only talking at the 20,000 foot level, not necessarily drilling down like what we did for um 503 South Ventur Street. So both like everybody's been talking about each each side is presenting itself with some problems and some challenges. Certainly.

Can I ask a question that I thought you might ask? If if the when we get if you get into a scenario where you say all right well we we're going to go here instead or that's the intention right I mean over or if the um suggestion is this will be faster versus the public works yard talk about that a little bit what what would be entailed with changing a location what would need to be done it would be the same number of studies that we've done for um the lower public works area so you're looking at phase one and likely because it's on a public piece of property and it's residential, we'd be asking for a phase two

and then we'd see what would come out of that. No one anticipated the lead at the public works yard. I think to be honest, I was I was projecting petroleum, subterranean petroleum, and for that to not come back with all the boring we did was a bit of a relief. Chasing that is is from what I'm hearing is significantly more difficult. There if I could jump something, there's some other because I've I've looked at 10 different The other big part about it you have we talked a little bit about it is the public part of it. Once you know you make public aware that you're considering this you're going to have folks come out with things you hadn't considered just it's just what has been our experience. The other thing is that you know we have OTT currently and this is one of our challenges.

It's you know bifurcating our organization. We've got our finance department in another building. This would invariably somehow impact that. Again it's another thing to think about. And then not to mention you've paid the green coalition $100,000 to do a master plan for this entire property and that's not contemplated in that

I I just if I Dylan if you don't mind I guess I just want to ask this question again just just so we're have that we're just being plain that if we said oh if we're going to switch a location is it possible that it will be faster if we were to build it here versus continuing here. I just want to make sure we're we're being clear about what we're saying. Yeah, I think from a timeline perspective um with respect to council member Rule's concerns about the lead, um I think Mr. Sbert explained it well, it's it is most likely um a couple of weeks process to do the borings and test and carve the sidewalls to chase the lead. That's my understanding as well. Um, beyond that, the project is uh likely two to four weeks from receiving a final building permit. Um, based on the decision that's made this evening, we'll adjust the scope uh work with the city and the and the plan reviewer to finalize the permit. We're we're virtually done. Ventura County Fire has largely signed off already. Um so I think um the the project at the public works yard if it is um decided tonight to move forward would break ground within six weeks I would say

um if we were to look at an alternative site um you know there's all of the feasibility that uh Mr. See just explained which is some number of months. Um design for a project like this is surely some number of months probably six months uh to get a whole consultant team um to design a new site. Uh bidding is typically a couple of months though call that eight months um and and permit review as well. So add all of that in. I think it's likely uh from the point at which a site is selected best case scenario 10 to 12 months until project's ready to break ground. Okay. Thank something along those lines.

Let me finish. Do you have any more questions though because I do want to go down the line? Yeah, I I have one more question and that was a there was a public comment that was brought up about the contingency and the developer contingency. Is there anything that you could speak about that? Yeah. Um thanks for bringing that up. Uh so the contingency uh in specialties bid there is uh the public comment is correct. There is a contractor's contingency although I believe it's $100,000. Uh we could check um and that is a contingency that is um to be applied to cost differences um throughout the course of the of the project uh that the contractor would need to have a pool of money to

is that GC contingency escalation is that line of uh um I'm not looking at the spreadsheet. It's above the hard cost total, so it's higher on the spreadsheet. Okay. There's a GC contingency line. I think it's $100,000. It's Yeah. Well, it says um the allowance is 100, but Yes, that one. Yeah. So, there's an allowance. Okay. So, below the line,

uh there is what's a developer contingency. That's 4% in the $9.5 million budget and 10% in the 10.5. So, the developer contingency is an overall project contingency that the that Dignity Moves and the city's owners rep would have control over to uh use for unforeseen conditions. Um 10% is a very standard number at at this point in a construction project. When you go to bid and you have a bid from a contractor, um it's important that the that the design team, the developer, and the owner have a pool of money that is available because construction is unpredictable as anyone knows who's ever tried to build anything. Um you need some money set aside uh within the overall project budget that can cover unforeseen conditions, code compliance issues that come up, code changes. Um, and to the the deeper you are into the project, that money is also available for uh owner driven changes, upgrades, if you want to change the design, add add more straw paneling or more landscape or whatever it is. Um, that money is there at the discretion of ultimately the owner's rep sign off to add to add scope. And I will say um part of Dignity Moves contract is um I hope I'm not speaking out of turn here, but my understanding is any money that is left over in this construction budget in that contingency pot is rolled into the city's operating budget for for the project. So best case scenario, the 10% contingency still has a few percent left

uh late in the project and that can just be used for ongoing operations. More questions on your side? Okay. I'm just want I could just do with three minutes. Okay. Because I'm gonna use mine for questions. Um Mr. Gas, would for you would the um would the granting organization would they if we could not fill those five spots with those people from Ohhigh, would they allow us to use it for other people?

We can have that conversation. I mean, I'm open to having and we're open to having that conversation. I do want to push on the TA a little bit more because I'm doing studies around the state and I'm working with community based organization. The TA population is under reportported. They don't show up in the homeless count.

They fall off. Typically, you show up in those counts when you get older. They're hidden in your population and they are growing. So, there is that number is there and you will find them and be able to work with them. And I have worked with mixed populations of elder and Kay together and a population and the services are similar. So there are issues there. Like I just want to push back on that a little bit like and and I'm actually working with HCD on it's a path to independence. I want to also just address council member Whitman's um comments about transitional housing. We applied for transitional housing in the grant. You don't have enough housing inventory here. They they pushed it to permanent supportive housing because of your housing inventory in Ohio. You didn't have permanent enough permanent housing in your inventory. They flipped it on us. But we initially pushed for transitional. So that's why you have PSA.

Um James, you can keep the clock running. This could be my tech. So and to and you have the other question too for me is again we can talk to them about that. Okay. But the population is there I believe. So I think that the concern that I'm hearing and I do understand it. We have said we want people let's say if they're coming to Tenttown or they're going to go here, they're going to go through the continuum of care through help of Ohigh. So we do want them to be an Ohigh Valley res. Now I get that. So then we would just want to be cautious because I believe Mesa extends to Venta County and and appropriately. though. Yeah,

that would be a concern if if we imported people that way. And I'm not trying to be inhumane. I'm just trying to No, that would be a condition of of this too. And I would also say in terms of Dan, he's focused on the transitional side and this is the and PSH centric to Ohigh. Just I want to put that on the record just to push a little bit on before you move beyond the money that there there are the contingencies on there aren't as extreme as you think. And if they said we won't have five unused units, if they said that like we had the need, I would say great, sign me up. Define that a little bit more.

What I mean is if you had people over that age group that could come in and we had any available units there that were set aside, if they could use the unit, I would it'd be hard to say no to somebody if there was an open. Yeah. And I want to speak to the foundation and what they've done and what a lot of philanthropy is shifting to right now that we're working with across the state is focused on transitional age population because of the return on investment. You end up moving them from PSH quicker. So that we're seeing more philanthropy shift to that. So when you're asking what the intention of the foundation is, we're seeing a lot more focus on that population. Of course, I would like to see more funding toward the elderly. Is very difficult to get that right now. We're still fighting for that kind of funding.

No, thank you. I appreciate that. I'm going to now I'm going to ask um Miss Mang this question when you were saying to u the city attorney, could there be a list of questions that we asked HCD? I guess I like what you said and I'm also wanting to ask though the problem that I'm seeing in the group is what are the questions? So you said what um if we take the money, what's the limits? That's a good question. Yeah, because the the grant the grant as it stands now. No, I agree with that one for the age. Yep, I'm with you. That was an issue, but like moving the location. Well, I don't know what questions you were thinking about

and I don't know, you know, is it possible? So, now that we have three locations that we're talking about, would it be in our best interest if because of the um ADA issues at the yard, could we change and put some houses there and maybe have some over at McCrae? You know what I mean? So we can help everybody instead of having to worry about ADA issues and people. I'm not going to walk. You said three properties. So I'm wondering Oh, and the Kent Hall.

But so I the part that I'm wondering about and I'm using my time to have this conversation is when we say we have three properties we're talking about. There's one that's been vetted. The other two are completely open. So that's part of the questioning I'm wondering is we would go if we were to go to them and say there's three properties we're talking about. That's not quite right. Okay. Well, no. I'm No, no, I just I just feel again like to explore it all because this is such a big project. I would hate to say something like stick to this and then have it come back and down the road to find out, oh my god, that would have been a much we could have accommodated more or had more money in the bank to provide more for a longer period of time. Yeah. I I just want I guess more the best bang for the buck.

I totally hear that. um and and how those questions if they have to be limited, I'll let Bethany use her discretion. Well, it just feels very open as presented like we're looking at all these places. We want to have the best bang for the buck, right? You Well, it seems to me you'd want to be much clearer and down the road to say here are two locations that we have vetted hypothetically, but that means Well, I'm just proposing that. No, I'm listening. No, but that means that's work that would have to be done before the question. Otherwise, we're just asking really open-ended things. Like if you were to say, "Can we can we have a year extension to explore options?" No, that's

okay. Well, fair enough. No, I get that. But I'm I'm just trying to look at these possibilities about what kind of vetting would need to take place. So, I'm gonna I'm gonna addressing I'm seven. Yeah, I'm done. I'm done. Go ahead. No, I'm here. Okay. Okay. Uh so uh you know when when council member Mang came on um council, she at kept asking, well, you know, if we're going to spend all this money on this project, what are we not going to spend money on?

That's it. And and that's a a big concern that I have because and I have a different view of where we are financially. I I and I'm and I'm watching money evaporate here tonight assuming you know if we if we end up going forward we're be there's going to be lots and lots of money that disappears. Um, I saw uh, you know, I I I've been asking about the actual both the actual construction costs and our operational costs. And, you know, I'm I don't I'm not going to guarantee this, but I think I'm hearing about this uh, you know, three quarter of a million construction supervision costs for the first time. That's not being covered by the grant. So all of you know all of this gets subtracted away. And

what what somebody explained to me recently is when when you're such a small town um you really need to build your financial strength because any interruption

in your income and we've seen this happen a couple of times in the last 15 years or so. any interruption in your income and you're potentially like sunk and and we're committing ourselves to longterm, you know, we will not have the excuse to say, "Hey, we don't have enough money to fund our uh homeless our permanent supportive housing this year." And I'm and I'm not saying that because we're not going to do it. I want the community to understand that if we're going forward, there are going to be some financial consequences for doing that. Now, what I see what I could potentially support um is the idea of going to HCD and and segregating two properties. uh is that being the McCrae property and the service yard with the McCrae property becoming um a place for one a caretakers unit and I'm not you know we'd have to do the analysis of the number of people who are um little elderly and and and or disabled and really not realistic to be making that sojourn uh on this path and let's you know so let's say eight to 12 units

uh and then the balance of the units being put at the service yard and then I you know I know it's not going to leave the concerns of the folks that have um don't want to see it at the service yard but at least potentially reduce the project from 30 to 18 or whatever, you know, the number became.

Um, and I absolutely do like the idea um of of looking at modular housing, what it would cost to do. So, you know, basically we're talking about, you know, putting in slabs and and dropping housing and most of these companies will will bring in install the housing. I don't have in mind doing it uh on the western part of our campus but I could see you know depending on the need the potential for doing some units that were on the border of the McCrae property so that they would be

but I haven't you know I haven't thought about what populations make sense um and So, uh, I don't think that we should be even thinking about accepting a grant unless there's a grant agreement so that everything's, you know, lawyer approved, all the details spelled out and signed by the grtor. We're we're getting the representations through um, dignity moves and we need it from the from the actual grantor. Miss Mang, did you have anything you wanted to say? No, I think Can can I Yeah, we're gonna take one more round.

Okay. And I'm gonna do this quickly. Um I just wanted to point out that in my research, Nest toolkit, which is a qualified modular PSH provider, has provided um exactly these kinds of these kinds and these size of permanent supportive housing. That's why I said perhaps a request for information. I don't have deep details but they have done permanent supportive housing with modular at about the same uh number of units. That's what I know. Um the other thing that I will say is is that no matter what you say um building you know modular or prefab is quicker and it you're not at the bakeries of weather for instance. Um there's a lot of things that when you talk about construction and construction time um you know you have to there's it's not just how long does it take to p you know pound nails or anything. So anyway I think that a request for information um I I also think that you know with Sunny and Bethany doing some creative thinking about asking HCD where we actually are here um is worth our while. I I they're not going to say give us the money back. They're going to say no, you need to move forward. I mean, you know, you need to move forward like you said you were going to move forward. And that's good for us to know. Um or do we have options? We this this thinking outside of the box or thinking outside of the hienda model because you know we haven't really done that and I do think it's part of the process. And finally, the ADA compliance is for me, it's one of the biggest things because that population, you know, my mom is, in other words, I see that we've heard from experts. We've heard from ADA compliers who say, you

know, um it's not going to work for them. And I believe I believe that. So, that's where I am on it. Like I said, we're a deliberative body. I think that we should have um our city attorney and Sunonny Sonnani who is a very creative thinker ask HCD where we are in this and you know give them some options as Miss Mang said we could buy 30 units right down the road there. Okay, what does that look like? I'm not suggesting that we do that but you know what is their what is their malleability here? We don't really know what other towns the issues that other towns have had. We can certainly assume that our issues are not greater than any other towns and HCD has thought this through and you know will be able to give us some sort of guidance which I think we need.

So which brings up another question. So like keeping the yard with dignity moves with their model and all of that stuff and perhaps using the units if they were a fit if we view them tomorrow if that would work at the McCrae property, you know. Oh, that's interesting. Can we can we mix it up? Yeah. Well, that's the question. Why do we mix it up? How much can we mix and match? And as we start to do creative thinking and try to make this really work for our community and as many members of our community as we possibly can, um,

right? you know, we need to know what the limitation, what HCD's guard rails are. We can't assume. I I don't I don't feel comfortable saying uh you know, they want you to do exact, you know, that we're going to have problems with HCD. Maybe we will, maybe we won't. So, um I don't know. There I am. Okay. Anything more to say? Uh I don't have anything more to say. I It's unfortunate that I I feel very defeated right now. Um, and I feel like this project that we've worked on for three years, we've come to a place where we can break ground in six weeks

and now there's a great big roadblock in it. So, you know, if if moving forward with approaching HCD and seeing what what parameters we can adjust if you know if that can be done in a in a timely manner like how how how much time are we talking about? Like what would what would that entail? Let's ask let's ask the serious question, Bethany. We're we're asking if how much would it delay the project? How much time would you expect to delay to go to

Sacramento, meet with HCD, and come back or just call on the phone? But I I think the question would depend on how long it would take to get the meeting scheduled, what their availability is. Um and then, you know, whether there is anything they would have to do, you know, I mean, what I would What we would try to do is have a meeting with someone who can who would be a decision maker, but we have to we have to get to the decision maker. What is the question specifically? Is it just is it just what what the limitations are on on a $1 million donation or what is what is the question?

That's what I mean. It's to me that it's way too open-ended. like that was going to be my follow- on question is I would want to make sure that we have clear direction in terms of you know what what you would like for us to ask. So my question relates to our ability to

do units on the McCrae property for the more disabled population and then units on the um uh the service uh property for the more athletic population. So, I just I need to jump in really quick because I think this is not so much an HCP question because what they're going to say is, you know, is that what your direction is to do? Okay. Is that providing more units or better access to service? This is more of a question about the operation of this project once you've got it built because now you have it split in two different spots which is harder to manage. And we we designed this project with Dignity Moves who builds these types of developments. We had a whole discussion at one point, you may recall this, looking at a a location behind us here, and I am pointing the right way, where there were individual little cabins, you know, kind of spaced out here. And when we discussed this with dignity moves, our concern was it doesn't really work very well with this population. If you've got people spaced out in a bunch of different spots, we're trying to bring people together. Mr. Gatis can jump in on this. you were there at this discussion, but that was that was the

that was the expertise we got on this. That was site that was site mostly about a heavily wooded area and sighteline and security and trying to build that in a heavily wooded area. But could you speak to operating two different location

and operating two just as someone who's operated them it it can be difficult. Um you want integrative services because you've got staffing now you're going to hire more staffing. You're going to have to have staffing at two locations. So your staffing ratios are going to go up, right? You're going to have to start to like build services out. The the way that you have everybody on one site, you're integrating services and you're capitalizing. You're reducing your FTEEs. You're reducing your operating significantly, reducing your operating expenses. You may have overnights. Now you got two overnights at two places.

You don't have a property manager anymore. You have a property manager and you have overnight staff at two sites. So you start to really your costs start to go up. That's why you have when you have one site, you're able to integrate those services and the cost of operation on one site and utilize that staff to to do oversight on that property. And I wanted to say too, when we moved from Kent Hall to the public, we moved from 20 to 30 units, right? We could only fit 20 units over there. I just want to reference back to that. That was one of the reason another reasons why. And HCD is looking at us. Is this an improvement on

what you originally wrote the grant for? And that's what Ben had to go through several iterations on in terms of proving that we were improving on that. Well, I think they've actually kind of changed that a little bit. What they've told me is what you last proposed. So, if you're, you know, Yeah. not what you originally submitted. Look, we have something in front of us now for 30. Now, you're saying it's going to be 20. What the Well, and then they look at us like, okay, what's the endg game? I mean, they're going to look at us like, "What is the endgame here? Keeps the goalpost." Okay, again, you go to HCD, but they're going to keep looking at you like, "What is going on here?" Because they see communities stalling on these projects, right?

Well, not all. They also see communities fulfilling them.

Well, they do. They see both, but they have guard rails on it to make sure that communities don't backtrack on the obligation to build housing. They want to look at the intent of the community, right? So, they just need to see the intent like this thing has been going on for two years within the within that. They're going to look at that that time frame and all of these other things. So, yes, go and ask those questions. We'll move along with you. We'll decide, we will decide as a development team, too, like how we can and if we can and if that arrangement is there. But again, these are questions they're going to be scrutinizing. It just seems like it keeps moving. So just to say if if the project tonight were we proceed with option one and we seriously commit to exploring but really making a real serious commitment to say there's a couple of units on 503 Ventura that cater to those other people that actually adds to the number of units or something. I would I would agree to that today.

Yeah. or even you know well I I think one thing is um HCD asks you know is it better well you know I mean does it provide you know uh access to services for the question I just proposed doesn't even require them to say okay because we just agreed we're going to put a couple of tiny homes on 503 Ventura we're not changing the we're not changing the public workar project at all we just put a couple of couple up there which we have been pondering not deciding that possibly the manager lives up there possibly. That's not deciding. I would I would say that the 503 discussion should probably come back as a separate

Yeah, fair enough. Just I mean I thought that Mr. Whitman's idea was actually a really novel one that I hadn't considered before and it's interesting. Um well that's and that's another option we have tonight is that we could decide to go into close session talk about all of this in terms of um because there I'm assuming we can go into close session but why would we need to I guess I'm something about a like contract negotiations on that. Uh yeah, property negotiations, all the rest. But we have the property already.

But this I have a question. This brings it up. In the past that um I don't recall exactly when it was, but in the past when we were talking about the proposal when dignity moves for 9.5 million

and Mr. Harvey, you said at that time that you know if when we asked like oh what if they go over and you said well that would be on them I guess dignity moves would take a loss. So with them going over now by a million dollars to something that we agreed on with 9.5 is that still true that they would have to go back and give us what we said we wanted in the beginning. So the the the the way this is contemplated is that the city remains consistent with the DMA which says that it will pay no more than $9.5 million to dignity move. That remains the same. What changes is they're holding, if you will, this additional million dollar that is being applied towards the project.

That's only if we accept the grant. What she's asking though is is a different question. So with them coming in over 9.5, not accepting the million dollars from what You had said in the past that that would be on them. We we the city can only pay $9.5 million to dignity. Isn't Isn't the answer that we we can make it be where we can't do the project for more than $9.5 million and they have said that's option two. In other words, here's what you would get. Here's what is possible for $9.5 million.

So if I may, the the development management agreement does address the situation where the development mud budget appears that it might be exceeded. And so you know what it what it basically says is that if it becomes apparent that the budget will be exceeded or that funding is insufficient. Um after being advised of that by dignity moves, the city and dignity moves are required to meet and confer to identify um and obtain sources of additional funding or agree upon changes to the project to accomplish cost savings and efficiencies. So, you know, I can't I can't speak to what may have been stated in previous meetings, but I will say that is what the DMA says. It contemplates that the parties will work together and and you know, one solution might be that dignity moves does bring in additional funding. I think that's an option.

Um because it it you know, to obtain identify and obtain sources of additional funding, but the other alternative is to agree upon changes that bring the cost down. So I I think um seems like both have happened. Well, I mean what what's left? I mean seriously like that seems like an overatement to me because they could say no earth and materials and then we can bring the cost down even more. They've responded to what we've asked for including we said we want there to be a bathroom in every room. That was a change from the beginning and 10 more units from the grant. So yeah,

it just seems like it doesn't seem like what's left. It's more like we asked for the world and they told us here's what we can do for this amount of money. That's how it appears to me. That's one way to look at it. Yeah, that's way to look at it. That's good to look at it that way. Um well um it seems like it seems to me the question is though basically Dignity Moves is not on the hook for any overage. It's a it's a it's a conversation between them and us to decide either to find money with city money or grant money or uh whatever money or we we decrease scope to where we get to the budget. There is there not Yeah. So

the development management agreement does not require them to find additional funding. Correct. Correct. Um I I have to admit to my colleagues here I am hearing the the audience to say we do keep adding things and we keep wanting to move it down the road. We've constantly been doing that for a year. So I'm I want to I want to entertain a motion that we accept option well here's how I want to say I would accept option one pending conversation around flexibility on the five units. I'm not going to vote for that. Okay, that's okay. Yep. Uh or or I'll go with two. Uh I would be more comfortable with option two.

Two is fine. And um and have and pending and have discussions further discussions. And if that comes in at another time, great. Yeah. So I guess I would propose accepting options. Okay. I'll I'll make a motion to accept options.

I I second that. Okay. I'm going to make an alternative motion that we authorize the city attorney to talk to um HCB about the two property option, but I'd also want to get back, you know, maybe for the first time I'll get some discussion about what the expenses are. I haven't been able to get the expense of what it's going to cost us to operate this, but maybe when I make it into two properties, I can

I know you're making a motion, council member, but I I do I do want to say that I think I have actually provided this in my estimate, I'm going to say this again, is $500,000 a year. You're going to know definitively when you go out for bid, which is in the agenda report. That's when you're going to know better what it's going to cost. But in talking to operators about it and describing the number of units, that's what I've been provided. They've said, "Yeah, it's probably a half a million dollar expenditure." And we have talked about that in public meeting before. City attorney, um, can if if I would if I offered can I offer a friendly suggestion or an amendment to this motion even though we have one out or do you need a second on that one before? Yeah, I'm

okay. My I would second. So, so the motion is to continue this until we have a discussion with HCD or is what? Yes. Yes. Okay. So, it's to continue this until we have a discussion with HCD. You want to put a time specific and the specific subject matter of the discussion is whether we can split the project between the two properties. And I'm thinking more like, you know, 20 and 10,

right? And you know, of course, that the property across the street from the McCrae property is city-owned property. It's at the top of the maintenance yard. That's city-owned property. That's the same site, same size as the McCrae property. Just saying. Just saying. I I'm interested in configurations between the city property. I I just was never supportive of the Kent Hall.

Okay. Okay. And I assume that that that is we don't have a taker on the Kent Hall property, which is fine. Um I'm I'm perfectly fine. Although uh there are schematics that say that 30 units will work, but you know, we're a deliberative body and if I don't have any, you know, support, then I don't have any support. I would support your motion. I'm not ready to vote on this and I would hate for this vote to go down.

Um I need more information. Uh I, you know, I'm not comfortable at all with uh where we are with this project at at the city, uh the maintenance yard. I'm just not comfortable with it. Um I think we have had a lot of different, you know, discussions on September 9th. You know, we were given a budget at 9.5 uh that was supposedly B and I don't want to rehash all this stuff. You're saying why you won't vote for the first one, but you're going to the second. You just you're going to go for the second. Yeah. I mean I don't Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

So unless there's a third motion I think we got. So here's this what I would propose is that we go with option two pending and also encouraging conversation with the donor on flexibility of the five units and that we we engage in a feasibility study on um tiny homes at the 503 Ventura. property as an extension of the project. I'll second that. Okay.

Yes. That so that so I was saying yeah I'm saying number two asking dignity moves to explore the flexibility of the five units of the the restriction. that. So, we're just asking them to explore that, but we're only taking number two. And that we are asking staff to engage in a feasibility study on extending a few tiny home units or some sub small units at the 503 property. That would be in addition to the project. And is that contingent on getting dignity moves uh getting the money from the foundation or no?

No, because we're just saying option two. And if they come, so hypothetically, if the if the grant comes through, great. And if they say we got flexibility, we could come back and say, actually, we can make an adjustment. But pending that, I think it's we've just it seems like a good call not to take it. You want this to Does that make sense? Huh? Okay. Okay.

What was the first motion? The first motion was just option two and the second option was go to HCD looking at the two properties just saying the shorthand. Third option is option two and a feasibility study on extending the project to 503 Ventura. And if I if I may with option two, well maybe you mean motion two or Yeah, motion two. Motion two.

I think part of what we would also be inquiring from HCP is what other you know ancillary issues I mean so ultimately if if they are willing to consider the the substitute motion with an alternate project with bifurcation of the project on two sites there will be some other approvals we would need from ATP related to um project timelines wasn't trying to tie hands the ability to talk to them. That was just the focus. I just want to make sure that we ask all the questions. Um that I understand that motion.

Okay. So, we will first need to vote on the third motion. All right. Do you need me to say it again? Mayor, I understand you're the motion maker. Suggested the amendment to Miss Lang's motion, but it's option two. Pardon? Sure. Who was the second or the third motion? Thank you for clarif. Are you saying I'm the motion and you're the second? Okay, whatever.

Fine. And speaking move a little slow here for the city attorney and myself is to move forward with option two and authorize staff and dignity moves to proceed with questions with the donor about five units and direct staff to engage in a feasibility study for units at the Ventur Street McCrae property as understood. That's it. Roll call. Okay. Council member roll. Come back to me. Council member Whitman. No. Mayor Gilman. Yes. Council member Lang. Yes. Mayor Prom.

No. Council member Rule. The wrong project. I feel your pain, Rachel.

Can I ask a legal question? Is this revisitable at all? It would be subject to a motion for reconsideration, which is a majority would need. And then

at a future meeting, it would require a supermajority of council to approve waving the rules in order to make the motion for consideration. Yeah, consideration. I just want to say that this has not been to me an upfront above board process at all. And um I feel like a gun is to my head. I feel like uh you know time after time after time we've been given wrong information only to come back four months later and you know half the people have forgotten the wrong information. It has been horrible. It has been horrible since September 9th when Dignity Moves gave us a budget that was not real where they said there were, you know, bids online. You could look at all of that. There were there was none of that and the bids came in way higher. Um, like I I agree that as far as architecturally has gone that Dylan, you've been great, but the management of this has not been great. Not from the city, not from Dignity Moves. And it pains me to have to have sat through this for two years. Um, and I could get a litany of situations where I have felt um disrespected, have felt uh manipulated, have felt dishonesty, have felt I'm going to tell you this now so we can move on and come back and it's

not true. Oh, you know, and our previous attorneys made a contract and told us things that weren't true. Um, that's not our, you know, our new attorneys view it in a different light. Yet, we moved forward on the assumption that, you know, we weren't uh going to get different information and different interpretations. And I'm not saying that yours, I'm just saying that we heard from our previous attorneys that we would be able to review this. Um, we heard a lot and for two years we've heard a lot both from our project manager and from the city staff about what's true and what's not true and how much lead there is and how much lead there isn't and how long it's going to take. Um, and you know, we vetted 10 properties. No, we gave a blink to a few properties. Um, you know, as far as the Bryant Street, uh, not, you know, that property, we had attorneys, you know, weigh in on whether or not, uh, that could be, uh, could be, you know, vetted. And so, there's just been, it's been horrible. And I don't feel like I've gotten clear true answers. And I do feel like I have a gun to my head. This idea of a um, of a foundation giving us money only if we put it in one place. Like how does that work? Um anyway, uh but I have heard from many many many people that I love and that I trust who have begged me to vote yes on this. And so I'm going to vote yes on it even though I am so incredibly disappointed in my fellow council members in the staff of the city in the in the management of the process. Um but in the end these people need homes and um nobody seems to believe that the best way to do

it is not this way which I firmly believe. But I'm not going to put it at risk. I'm gonna put this to bed and um we're going to do the best we can from here on out. And I don't appreciate a gun to my head by anybody. So, I'm voting yes with a gun to my head because I can't possibly vote no. All right. Um five minute break. We'll come right back.

check. Check. Thanks y'all. Are you ready, Mr. McGomery? I think we can get through the rest pretty quickly if you guys are up for it. Or me, Mr. Whip. We definitely have to do the next item. We definitely have to do the next item. There he is. Okay. Let's go on to number eight. Revising the city council protocols to establish quasi judicial hearing procedures. All right. I will provide I don't have a presentation but I will present the item.

Yep. The basically this item is intended to bring a modificate it's really there are three parts three elements um and it would be approved by resolution. The first part of this is modifying the council protocols and part of that is to adopt um a policy for quasi judicial procedures. There is a second cleanup modification included as part of the council protocols to um correct what I can only believe is a scrivener's error in your council protocols to refer to Robert's rules of procedure instead of Rosenberg, but your municipal code says it's Rosenberg. Yeah.

Um and then the third piece of this is simply is actually just approving the um the quasi judicial hearing policy and procedures. The the reason this is coming back before you is last September, city council started the process of hearing an appeal on a transient occupancy tax um audit determination. And as part of that process there, I believe there was some confusion regarding what the procedures were and what the the rules and parameters were both for the appellant as well as for city staff in terms of providing information to city council and then what the procedures themselves would look like. Um, since that time, you know, we've we've prepared this policy, but we also have another appeal on a different matter that we intend to bring to city council later this month. And so, um, it would be helpful to ensure that we're providing adequate due process and a clear process and policy for members of the community who have filed appeals or who have other quasi judicial applications pending before city council or before city commissions. And so, for that reason, we are recommending that council approve the resolution adopting the revisions to the protocols and adopting the policy. And then just to me that there were some key issues. So this is a question. I'm looking at page 106 of the full document or three of seven of attachment C. And I'm seeing timelines for when things are submitted to us because that I felt like that was a huge question was we were given things the day before expected to read it and all of us were saying we can't do this right now. I'm seeing that as a material change here.

That is a big change. Um the other thing that it does so and and we've provided some flexibility there because you know sometimes appeals get filed and we have time to provide more extensive notice but there are a number of provisions in your municipal code where um shorter notice periods are allowed. And so, you know, if if there is going to be a a hearing for which we only provide, let's say, you know, 5 days notice, um, you know, it doesn't make sense that we would require materials to be submitted before people even have notice of a hearing. So, that's three.

So, so just trying to provide some ground rules there. The other big things that I think are important here is it sets some expectations around um you know the length of time for testimony as part of quasi judicial hearings um and appeals and so that there are some you know boundaries around you know how long both parties would speak. So, I believe what we or what I included in the policy was that it would um testimony like initial testimony would be allowed up to 20 minutes um with an additional five minutes on all sides for rebuttal.

Um you know, when these matters come before city council or a commission, they're also public hearings and so there's always an opportunity for public comment. Um, you know, I I have included a provision that allows the provid presiding officer of either council, so that would be the mayor or the chair of a commission to modify or adjust those timelines depending on the nature of the matter. Um, because sometimes more time may be appropriate or less time may be necessary. Um, that sounds good. Also happy to take any other questions. Any questions? Please go ahead.

I don't believe this is something that some other city has been using. This was actually prepared by your previous city attorney's office initially, the initial draft of this. Um, I reviewed it and revised it based on other quasi judicial procedures I've used in the past. Um, so but it it wasn't a specific written policy. It was more based on my own experience handling these matters.

Absolutely. So I but it wasn't a specific policy from another community. So we have I believe it should be in a red line. Um there is a section. Hold on one moment. Yes.

So we have so in the council protocols um there were two changes. One was in the rules of procedure. Um of course now that I'm flipping through it I'm not finding it quickly. You mean in the main document? Yeah, in the council protocols document. Um, bear with me one more moment. There should be red print. Okay. Theoretically, um, thank you.

So, it appears I didn't see it. So on the rules of procedure Now that I'm flipping through it, do you remember just what the word is? Um, so the one would be reference to Rosenberg.

Okay. Got it. Yeah. It's on page 91 on page 80 of the packet and then page 91 of the of the document under city council meetings. Yeah. Yeah, it's not redlined, but that's the uh that's the revision right there. So on Yeah. One was on that page 80, Larry. Is that on this item? Yeah. So the first change was on page 80 in section D and I apologize that it's not in red line. That's okay. Um it was simply to change the reference from it previously stated Robert's rules of order.

Okay. And the only change was to change it to Rosenberg's rules of order. Okay. And then the other change was on um if you remember the word I can search it real quick. Quasi judicial. Yeah. Okay. Um page 97, public hearings. Yes. Nine. Is that it? That is not it. Okay, there's more. Um

the rest are all in the um addendum at the end. And it makes it refers to the policy by name. So quasi judicial hearings. I see it in the resolution.

1092 number. I apologize guys if we need to defer this. Oh, quas adjudicative. That's on page 85.

If I may try, mayor, page 24 of the council protocols document, section 9, public hearings. I may offer that. Ah, yes, there. And thank you, Weston. So, which page is it? So, it's on page 97 of the packet on page 24 of the protocols. Right. It's adding one sentence that reads, "Quaz judicial proceedings shall be conducted in accordance with the city council policy for quasi judicial hearings. Um, that policy is attached to these protocols as attachment A. Okay. Sorry. I That was at nine. It wasn't nine. I Yeah, no problem.

There you go. No, that's good. Um, I was also going to propose that that I just noticed a few little tweaks here and there. So, I definitely want to go forward with what you proposed today and but then just have the city manager possibly go or you go back and just go through with a more fine tooth comb and we will make sure that the next time that we bring other revisions back. They are in red line. Okay. Um, any more questions though for staff? Yes.

No, I um I guess we can wait till discussion, but I have the same. I would like to make some minor changes or revisit some of the protocols, but I don't want to um you know stall this approval for tonight. So um perhaps we can figure out how that would work. Larry, would you mind coming up? Thanks. Cool. This is great. I think it's wonderful. I have a question though. Um the Bab uh this is sort of aiming at doing away with the BAB which is building

which is usually made up of people who are very very knowledgeable about the things that are being discussed. that is not your special forte and therefore would lean more for establishing people who have expertise in some of the issues that are being brought up because good intentions and quick reading and a few YouTube videos or whatever does not necessarily make you experts of the topic that you will be adjudicating. So on certain boards you may want to include that

if if I may. I know we don't typically respond to public comment from the dis but I would like to but I would also like to address your question. So this does not actually change who or modify which city body would be the appeal authority under the municipal code. All it simply does is provide procedures that will be used. So if if the municipal code today um provides for a decision to be appealed to the the building appeals board, it would still continue to be appealed there. So this is also the same process that would apply for appeals to the planning commission that are made by city staff. No, but to the mayor, right? Yes.

Because we don't have a BAB and no one established it. We do have a BAB. There are no members. No, there's there are there's just no appeal. No, there hasn't been a case. There hasn't been an appeal in over four years, right? Well, for example, okay, would the freezer go for the appeal? Would that be appeal? Would that be something? It would be if the council said something to the client and the client then appeal and we made the decision and then the client appealed to the B because usually it's the um the community development director says are they they're against it and the board says no. And they and the applicant appeals the decision. You mean the commission or the what board? You mean

the commission? The the applicant appeals the commission to the BAB. Uh the applicant appeals the decision to the BAB. To the council, I believe. No, but now you want to make it to the council. The Bab we're not changing. Yeah. Nothing's chang. We'll count on Bethany when it comes time for somebody to appeal something where it goes. No, this is good clarification. No thanks. No, good. Good. And I'm still confused because I thought Bab is appeals the council. I don't know. I thought that too. I would have to look at the how the BAB functions, but but this my only point is that this doesn't modify the um

who the review authority is for a decision. and it simply adds procedures that apply for those reviews. That's how I understood. Thank you. You ready to make a motion? I move that we accept the uh protocol changes or approve the resolution. Approve the resolution. Yes. A second. Okay. Roll call, please. Yes, Mayor. Thank you. And thank you for bearing with me. It's No, no problem. All good. We're all good. We're all good. Council member roll. Yes. Council member Whitman. Yes. Mayor Gilman. Yes. Mayor Prom Mang. Yes. Council member Lang. Yes. Awesome. Okay. Pest control services number nine.

Real quick, we just received this from Weston not too long ago under here on the building appeal board. The term expired in 2021. Okay. So, we need to revise, but there hasn't been a case, right? No, I'm I don't absolutely Fair. I actually asked for I think I got a second that we have the attorney come back and talk to us about okay the ramifications or alternatives if we were to dissolve the board. How would we do it? And I think I think that's wise. Let's I think there was a question about whether it would be better to have the city council be the appeal board or whether it would be better to have the planning commission be the appeal board.

Okay. And we were waiting to get um That was probably something on Matt's or Taylor's to-do list. So, let's put that on our agenda. Thank you. That's a good call. Wow. Okay. All right. Um, thank you. Number nine, pest control services. Yes. I'm gonna ask Miss Roas to please join us. So, thank you, Jackie, coming up here. Thank you very much. Thank you, if you could add that last item on to the report of reports if you don't. Thanks. Got it. Is this on? Okay. Okay. All right. So, good very late evening. I'm super happy. Thanks for hanging in there.

Yeah, no problem. Um, so good evening, mayor and council members. Um, for this item, public works is recommending council award a maintenance agreement for citywide pest control services for various city- owned facilities and parks. Let me just ask you to pause, fellas. We just can't hear when you I know you guys are whispering, but it come it carries. Go ahead. Thank you. Uh so obviously pest control is needed for several reasons. Um but we're mostly concerned about maintaining safety and sanitary conditions in our city- owned facilities and parks.

Uh in the past we've used uh Ventura Pest Control and we've been satisfied with their service, but their contract did expire in March of this year. Uh so best practice for our department is to go ahead and get uh or seek quotes or in this case informal bids. Uh with that said, we adopted the uniform public construction cost accounting act or as we referred to CUPKA. So that allows us to enter into a contract by force account or in other words like I said uh informal bid and technically we did not have to do that because the total cost of this service is coming under $75,000. Uh so we can solicit we we decided as best practice to solicit an informal bid. Um so we did that. We got three bids. Um those were from Ventura Pest Control in Newberry Park uh which we currently use.

Uh Carpentria Valley Extermination in Oak View and Mary's Pest Control of Bakersfield. Uh so Ventura Pest Control was the lowest and responsive responsible bidder. Uh coming in at around 45,000. Uh so again like I said uh I referred to them as VPC, Interpest Control. They performed worked uh in the city most recently. This means that um you know we've been satisfied with their service and they did come in it's a low spitter. Uh they also have implemented and have complied with our earth friendly management policy which states that we cannot be using any poisons or any um harmful tactics to mitigate our pests. Um and we've been very satisfied with that. Uh so again, the benefit to the to our staff and to the community is, you know, having these things be more of a proactive maintenance approach is what we're going for. And then we want to maintain cleanliness and usability of our facilities. Uh and it protects the public in our parks. Uh therefore, we do recommend that council authorize uh the city manager to enter into this agreement with VPC for a remainder of this fiscal year because again, like I said, they expire in March. Uh so we'll take us through the end of June 30th, 2026. Uh and then they will also be awarded for a year. So that'll take them to 2027. And then they'll have the option to be extended for another three years. Um so that'll bring them to a total of four four and a half years. Four four and three months. And the costs are included in this fiscal year and will be budgeted for next fiscal year. Any questions? Just to say the last thing you said again, the funding that will be for the end of this fiscal year is already in the budget

and then your prop this is the proposal that you're offering us is for will come back for us for next year. Well, no, you'd be authorizing the city manager Okay. to uh for the option to extend for another Okay. three one-year terms. Okay. So, we we currently do this inhouse. No, no, we actually contract with Venturas Control right now. Oh, okay. So, it's $10,000 to go through June 30th, right? Okay, cool. Yep. Understood. No, we have a contract.

The the um the contract we have currently in place are only for a couple facilities. Um so, this is more comprehensive. It just includes every single facility and park that we already have an agreement with. So, we're so we're currently not addressing certain locations with best control. we're expanding the scope of where we're doing pest control.

Well, as as currently as we have it right now, we do have like three different agreements. Um, and that's only because as we were going through some of the facilities that we have like for in particular, uh, for example, the police department, right? So, we had to look at our lease agreement to see what we are required to do in there. And so, we added that as a facility and so that was kind of a separate agreement. But again, like I said, in order to to kind of just put this all together into one pack big nice package, we went out to bid for all the facilities at all the parks to put this together.

I just have a quick question because I've heard from Mr. Harvey that there's creatures that climb in the attic. So, is that not been addressed if we have a current company helping with pests and rodents and all of that stuff? Yeah, if I could just jump in. Um it's we I think we have this situation here because of where we're looking unfortunately. That's what the that's what they've told us. The pest control is like look so that and that rolls over into tent town because I know they always say you know what I mean. Yeah. So that's a two-part problem. So the problem here is the we're in the forest to basically cover every single possib

we have the it's not the sterilizer right yeah the problem with tent town that we have and and this is the food sources and so that is our big challenge and people are tense and so you can't seal we do our best yeah and and no matter how hard you try to mitigate the the rats. I mean, it really comes down to cleanliness. But the other the other great thing is having a regular thorough person with knowledge of all the facilities will be better. But it's an ongoing. Yeah. And we have Earth friendly policies. I understand. But we, you know, we try to

No, I are those boxes that you see like in restaurants where the black boxes where you put those are friendly. Those are not the ones you see in restaurants are usually not. I can't and I can't speak to any private properties. I mean, but the ones we have are and they're just pellets inside ours and they're just feeding. The box those boxes typically have poison that they eat and then they get eaten by birds and stuff like that. So, it's not it's not that bad. Yeah. But but we've we have in our contract right now as an exhibit D to the contract that is our the entire Earth friendly management policy. So they have to comply with that and they have been right now and you included that.

Well, I would I would like to move that we authorize the agreement to the end of the fiscal year and then going into the next fiscal year as recommended. Cool. I'll second. Thank you. Any more discussion? Roll call, please. Yes, Mayor. Council member Lang, yes. Mayor Gilman, yes. Council member Rule, yes. Mayor Prom, yes. Council member Whitman, yes. Motion passes. Thank you. So, on to number 10, the installation of air conditioning unit at the Libby Bowl ticket booth.

Yeah. So, this is going to be another uh quick quick item. Uh so, this item requests approval of a $21,000 budget appropriation from the Libby Bowl maintenance fund to install an air conditioning unit at the ticket booth at Libby Bowl. Uh the ticket booth is currently utilized by event coordinators during event, many of which occurred during the summer months. Currently, there's no climate control within that ticket booth, which creates uncomfortable working conditions for staff. I bet most of us have worked at in the booth already before.

Yes. Yes. I'm sure. Um, so another driving factor behind this request is obviously requests from key users such as, you know, Ohigh Valley Music, Ohio Music Festival, um, and there's quite a few others who utilize that as well. Um so again the work will be completed under an existing on call maintenance agreement with green globe HVAC uh which allows us to get the project done expeditiously uh before a large amount of programming and events begin at the Libby Bowl. Um so the work includes the cost for the split heat pump AC unit and the installation. So the total cost is 21,000. While this is within the city manager's authority, the project was not included in the adopted budget.

Uh so council approval is required to appropriate the funds. Uh the Libby Bowl fund does have sufficient balance to cover this expense. And I would like to make the point while this improvement is quoted at 21,000, I would like to just address that as a government agency, we do have to pay prevailing wage. Um so in the case that you know somebody gets a quote from the public for their private improvement it's not going to come in as high as it would for us. Understood.

Uh so again the improvement supports the ongoing functions at the Libby Bowl uh and it's a high use facility. So it will prevent unfavorable conditions in the summertime. So therefore, staff is recommended to uh authorize the appropriation of the $21,000 from the Libby Bowl maintenance fund to install air conditioning unit at the ticket booth. And it's we are it's already in the Libby Bowl fund. Correct. The $46,000. So it's not it's not contributing to the budget anyway. It's already there. Okay. Cool. Oh, and authorized the city manager to uh execute the task order with Green Club. Cool. Questions. But you are asking for a budget appropriation, correct?

Mhm. If that makes sense. There's there's money in the fund. It just wasn't specifically allocated in your approved budget. So that is what we will have to do through an appropriation. Of course, but you have money to pay for it. That's it.

So I don't have questions, but I do have a comment. and that is that I looked at the $21,000 and I was thinking I'm talking about someone about my whole house for that amount. But but then I went and talked to somebody who knew about this stuff and they said this is a it it's a great unit. There's it has to service four different offices and so the it not only are the prices in line but this is a really great energy efficient great unit. So we're so uh that's great to hear.

He he talked me out of being concerned very quickly. Can I make a comment to your comment? Um, I did try to, so this was not a part of our uh, energy modernization program. It was not included. Although there was a split system at the Libby Bowl green room. And I thought, well, if we're just going to replace that one, then we could use the old unit. But unfortunately, the old unit that we will be replacing is beyond its useful life. So, I tried to save some money there, but No thanks. Thank you for that. That That's great to hear. And I'll just say that I I support playing paying a provailing wage. Absolutely. Yeah. I don't ever have a problem with that.

And it gets very hot in that room. I just wanted to I just have one quick comment from a constituent who said we at a later date it would be great for us to revisit the that whole entrance and the building and the way that all of that is laid out. So, I'm I'm in support of moving forward with this, but I think it's a both and like let's, you know, let's revisit that in at a later date as well.

I totally agree with that. Well, I move that we recommend the budget appropriation of 21,000 for Livville maintenance fund balance to purchase installation of an AC unit at Livville ticket booth and authorize the city manager to execute the task order with green globe. I'll second. All right. Roll call, please. Mayor Gilman, yes. Council member Lang, yes. Council member Rule, yes. Council member Whitman, yes. Mayor Prom May, yes. Okay. Um, may I make a request? Yes, sir. In order to give this next item, it's better due. Would council be upset if we continued this through another? Of course not. Because it's going to be that we'll rush through it. It really is worth it.

Norma spent spends a lot of time organizing this and and I want Thanks, Norma. Is that okay? Yeah. No, I mean is it okay? Okay. Okay. I would have asked I was afraid to any council member reports. No, but I would like to make a recommendation. Um Ben's review is like past due is typically Yeah. So I would like to um Okay. Would you add that to the reporter reports, please? Did I performance evaluation city manager? If I missed a date, it would be well with the next time we can reasonably have a close session, but it should be fairly soon. I can consult with the mayor and we can

Okay. Fairly soon. Happy birthday. Yes. Happy birthday. Thank you everybody. Uh I have a yes future agenda item. Got it. Um the so I' I'd like us to address the issue of these um large speed bumps. I don't know exactly how to describe them, what the term is. I know we're doing I know we're doing the safety commission. Um, but I'd hate to have So, the folks who live on Quiamama

are really upset. Uh, that they have been for a while, but now they've just had an accident

and um, and I'm really interested in this idea because I've seen it in operation of places. I'm really interested in hearing a report. So what what we've what we're doing is we're we're proposing and this is going to be the first item when the public safety commission is consummated. The public works director is emphatic that we develop a citywide policy and that is she's been very clear with with me on that many many times that you don't want to just go and throw speed bumps out in a neighborhood because you need to look at things systematically. We want the sheriff to be involved with this. And so that is the first item that we want to bring to that commission.

I don't know how far away we are, Mr. Montgomery, with getting applications and getting those people on board. We just got the protocol email, right? So I believe there's one application. Okay. Awesome. So So my my thought was on I agree with you 100%. My thought on this agenda item was that we as a city council could just address this issue of these big speed bumps. You could a council can do whatever council wants and if that's what you guys want to do, but I'm just I'm just channeling my Palmer who's going to say I really want you guys to build a citywide on Okay, I I understand what you're saying,

but I but I think we can adop city. I'll I'll support that. I was going to say I'm I am quite tempted to say if we could just throw something down there for now until we figure out something better. I would really like to do that. I know. I mean, we want Chief Abbott to agree, but I know you I know you have been on that street much more. I've seen I I ride my bike on that street. I do see it. I see that the the police are there. Um, but they have been and I believe we have a meeting, we the chief and I and Miss Palmer have a meeting with them tomorrow. I think it's tomorrow. Correct. Well, I agree with you. I want to second that. And you got a second here as well.

Okay. On it. Okay. Anything else? All right. Thank you all. Thank you. Thank you.