City Council - Regular Meeting

This is the regular meeting for March 4, 2026, campaigning at 5:07 p.m. Cler, can you do the roll call? Sure. Council member Bregman here. Council member Nanishi here. Council member Craig Hensley here. Mayor Prom Hoti, Mayor Yupz here. Thank you. City attorney, can you please announce the close session items?

Yes. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, Council will convene in close session regarding item C2A, public employment, regarding one position. It's conference with Greg Nelson of Mosaic, regarding the recruitment of city manager, pursuant to government code 54957 and item C2B, public employee performance evaluation for the appointed position of the interim uh city manager in initial review pursuant to government code 54957B. Thank you so much. Is there any public comments and close session items? Mayor, I have no comment cards and we have no members of the public here for close session. Thank you so much. Council is adjouring to close session at 5:08

Oh, good morning progress. start. The council returning from close session at 7:16 p.m. City Attorney, can you please report and close session?

Yes. Thanks, Mr. Mayor. Council convened in close session regarding item C2A, public employee employment, regarding the city manager position pursuant to government code 54957 and item C2B, public employee performance evaluation for the new interim city manager regarding uh u excuse me per pursuant to government code 54957B and there is no reportable action at this time. Thank you so much. Okay. All right. So, we're gonna do the invocation, a call to civil responsibility. And Nancy Sinclair Gonzalez,

thank you for having me here today, Mayor Yep, and council members. Um, the world's a very difficult place to navigate right now with war and unrest, and every time we turn on the news, there's something worse. So, I've been about awe. There's been neurological studies regarding awe. Experiencing awe and wonder isn't about just feeling good at the moment. It reduces stress and anxiety and enhances your mood. So, the poem I'm going to read today is about uh small joys and finding awe in small things. Joy of tiny things. I've learned to begin my days with tiny bits of awe. To ling close to the world as if it's whispering my name. When the morning opens, coffee rises warm and dark. Rain still winkering in the air. Children laughing somewhere down the school halls, singing wild notes of being. Then the old companions, my family's long steady hugs. Friends who sit with me in truth, who speak of hardship plainly and stay until the room fills lighter. A treasured book from childhood. Brownish soft edges soft edged with years. A teacher's who belief once nudge me forward. A stranger's gentle compliment, an unexpected candle. The world also blooms outward. The monarch fluttering on its long migration. A soft helping hand extended without ceremony. Leaves waving their golden tenderness. Raintapping its patient rhythm on the windows. Puppies trembling into joy. My cat purring her small engine of trust against my chest. In the kitchen, chicken mola simmers its scent a door way to every memory my mother ever cooked into being. Sometimes I catch the trace of her perfume soft as a blessing. At night the world reveals.

Stars scattered like first language. A shooting star cutting its brief silver prayer through the blackness. I remember the mountain I climbed. How the air thinned. How reaching the top felt like faith. And always at the end of a long aching day. My husband's kiss small as a sigh but carrying me home. Joy arrives gently in the quiet where I fi finally listen. In the tiny offerings I once hurried past but now cradle like prayer. Again and again the world leans toward me and I say yes. And I hope everyone says yes to awe. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Now we will do the flag salute. with liberty and justice for all.

All right. This is a regular meeting for March for convening at 7:20 p.m. City Cler, can you do roll call? Council member Bregman here. Council member Nakanishi here. Council member Craig Hensley here. Mayor Promhoy here. Mayor Lopez here. Thank you. So I would like to invite Randy S. Howard to because we're going to do a a proclamation for him. Do you want to join?

Right. We have a proclamation for Randy, Mr. Howard. Randy Howard has announced retirement for the first quarter of 2026 as general manager of the Northern California Power Agency NCPa concluding more than 40 years of exemplary service in public power including senior leadership at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, the nation largest public utility. And during his tenure at NCPa, he scully guide the agency in serving its 16 members and more than 600,000 electricity customers while ing partnership in advancing reliability, affordability and community based energy solution across Northern California. And Mr. Howard has been a respected leader at the state and national levels representing publicly owned utilities in key industry forums including the western energy Imbalance market and westwide governness pathways initiative and serving in the in leadership roles in the California Municipal Utility Association and other public uh public power organization and his visionary leadership advance in innovation. environmental stewardship most notably in position the lower energy center for a transition towards green hydrogen integration protecting public interest while supporting California's green energy goals there for being resolved there I Ramon Jes mayor of the city la behalf of the city council and the executive team and some of our members in uh NCPa honor Mr. for how for his exemplary leadership and dedication to public service and extend our profound gratitude for his lasting contribution to NCPa in his member. Congratulation on a well earned retirement and our best wishes for the future. Thank you so much.

Thank you. So, uh, I actually serve as our rep to NCPA, myself and Council Member Bregman as our alternates, and energy policy is like the most complicated thing I've ever done in my career. And I do this for a living at the capital. So, Randy has been exceptional at leading a 700,000 person rateayer entity in NCPA. He's helped to to put together this exceptional executive team and even helped with the placement of our own here, Jeff Burkheimer, and I know he's been a source for Jeff as you know, one of the things that we brag about the most in here related to energy is how cheap our rates are compared to to PG&E. And when you think of your energy bill and how how how much of a discount we get, think of Randy Howard at the helm in representing us. He's done this at a high level for a very long time, just within this last year. He's advising the governor on energy policy. We go to the US capital uh just last year and we're meeting with US Senator Alex Padilla. He's doing this at a very high level and NCPA is well respected in the industry. So I just want to thank you Randy for everything you've done for our constituents. This is the last chance I have to uh um the city of Loi and the rateayers I don't think will ever truly appreciate what NCPA and specifically Randy Howard's leadership has done for us over the past decades. But I can tell you we get a lot of the credit for owning and operating the distribution system. But NCPa under Randy Howard's leadership are the ones that manage our generation resources. They help us identify cheap and reliable power purchase agreements to meet our renewable portfolio standard. They are front and center with all of our lobbying efforts to make sure

that state and federal policies that impact the electric utility bill that you get are fair and balanced and in line with what the goals of our community are. I like to joke that Ry's core job is representing the 16 member agencies who all have diverse priorities in terms of their community, their politics, what they want their energy policy to be. He identifies what we have in common and he sets the policy to march in one direction. Uh to get 16 utility directors on the same page working for the same goal is worse than hurting cats. I can assure you we do not see eye to eye on everything, but Ry's leadership has been able to accomplish so much. And on a personal note, I've been so blessed that every time I call you to ask for your advice or your opinion on something, you take that phone call and you've been a tremendous mentor to me. So, thank you so much for everything you've done for the community and for me personally. And I'll just say how honored I am to receive this resolution and just for recognition. You I work for the city and NCPA is jointly owned by our 16 members including the city of Loi. Um so really you're all my bosses.

He's on my executive committee. Um but I just so appreciate um the working relationship that we do have and how effective we have been. and and you will see your rates tend to be about 50% below, you know, what we see in P Genesis territory. And you're very fortunate. We have incredible resources that we work with and and use to provide that power to your community. But you're also very fortunate to have somebody like Jeff leading your utilities. But thank you. Appreciate this recognition. important. All right, we'll move to uh consenting calendar. Uh city clerk, could you please introduce uh consenting calendar?

Thank you, mayor. Tonight we have items C1 to C6. There are no changes or blue sheets, so we submit them as they are for council's review and approval. Okay, first uh will any member of the council would like to point an item for vote separately or just comment? Seeing none, I'm going to move to city clerk. Do we have any public comments in this and consent? Not for consent calendar.

Not for consent. Okay. All right. Um then I will go back to council. Um motion to approve the consent calendar. Perfect. And it passes. Now we're going to move to uh public uh comments. Uh city clerk, do we have any public comments and non-aggenda items?

Yes, mayor. I do have a few comment cards. The first comment card I have is from David Mendoza. Good evening and thank you for allowing me to speak. Um, my name is David Mendoza and I live in Mantika. So, I came all the way from Mantika here to I'm an engineer. I spent 38 years working for public agencies. The last five I've been working as an individual engineer. I have a lot of projects in Loi, commercial, residential. I have clients that are uh you know anxious to get projects done and I like to say about your departments, your building department is fantastic. We've met with them on several projects. You know, their their uh ability to work with people and engineers and owners is is fantastic. and uh I I really enjoy working with them. Your public works department on the public works side, same identical relationship that I have with them. And you know, I was I've been on both sides now of the counter as a San King County engineer. I was on that side. Now I'm on the opposite side. So I know what it feels like to be on both sides. But the one thing I I'd like to say about public works is that they got a good great group of people there. Two of them used to work with me at San King County. They're not related to me. That's not why I'm here. But they're underst staffed. You know, when they make a commitment to get something done and it's five weeks late, it's not because they can't do the pro the work. It's because they're underst staffed. So right now it's budget time. So all your pro all the departments are

probably putting your budget together trying to figure out how much work you going to get next year, how many employees you have. Are you going to need more? Listen to them. You're the governing body that decides. Yeah, you know, our city is growing. And I'm from Antika. Just drive a little bit south here and you see how we're growing. They got they finally got the picture over there. You can't keep the same works the same uh staff if you're putting 40 50,000 people there, you know, over 10 years. You just can't do it. They were trying to do it and it failed miserably. Now they got a good staff over there. You got to do the same thing here. And again, I'm going to continue to work with Loi because I got clients here and um you got a great group of people. Don't wear them out. Give them help. Thank you. The next comment card I have is from Gordon Shields.

Good evening. My name is Gordon Shields. In 2001, my family, my wife, son and daughter moved to Loi from Stockton. Um, and u my children were in their early 20s at the time. And since then, my son is married and moved up to Sacramento, but my daughter, who is a type 1 diabetic and on disability, tongue cancer survivor, still lives at our home with us in our LOI home. Uh 2011, my wife and I bought a home in South Lake Tahoe to retire, but we kept our home here in Loai because it figured at some point due to age or health issues, we'd have to come back and move full-time back in to to Loi. On July 4th, 2025, my daughter was involved in a horrific single car accident and is now a parapolgic, paralyzed from the waist down. need just to say my mother and I moved down to be with her be your chief caregiver. One of the challenges we found was that she was not able to get to the community mailbox uh in her wheelchair because the lip on the curb of the driveway was little too high and there was a handicap uh curb on the other side of our street but not on our side. So she was would be unable to get to the community mailbox in a wheelchair. Of course, the goal is for her to become independent at some point. So, we felt, well, we've got to try to figure out something. She's got to get

to the to the mailbox. So, we called the city of Loa and I was directed to the appropriate departments, spoke with someone. I don't remember which individual, what department. I explained the situation and she said, "Yeah, I think there's money in the budget for that." And within several weeks, surveyors were out because we didn't have a handicap um place or a curb at the end of our block, but there was one directly across the street. So, we needed one at the end of our block so she could access across the street and go to the mailbox. In the weeks of contacting the appropriate departments here in Modi, the surveyors were out there and a couple of weeks the construction men were out there. Thank you for doing that. It's made a very heartbreaking situation a little more challen Thank you so much for your comment.

Okay, the next comment card I have is from Vanessa Barbares. I'm a little teared up. Um, so, uh, good evening, Mayor Yipz, uh, council members. My name is Vanessa Barbares and I'm here from Waste Management tonight. Uh first and foremost, I wanted to say uh congratulations to our new interim city manager, uh Mr. Bush. Uh we look forward to working with you and getting to know you soon. I'll leave uh a business card with the city clerk. Um but I came tonight because um every year our company hosts electronics recycling events at our transfer station four times a year. Uh this year our first event is actually this Saturday. Um, but I wanted to come tonight and share that we are expanding our recycling events this year to not just have electronics recycling. Um, but we will also have secure document shredding out there with a truck that will shred uh documents on site and we will be accepting tires and mattresses as well. Uh we believe that these items, you know, will help uh illegal dumping, you know, items that uh families usually have a harder time with disposing. So, we will have those uh recycling um opportunities available this Saturday from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at our Turner Road uh transfer station. Uh and um you can also check the city's website, city's Facebook page because the city's been great partner in uh posting that information. Thank you.

Thank you for your comment. My apologies. Um those are all the comment cards for non-aggenda items that I have mayor and we are um able to move on to the next item.

Okay. Um so I will ask if anybody in the audience would like to make a public comment. Seeing none, we'll move to the next item. Uh, oh, sorry. Council comments. Just a followup, Mr. Mayor. Um, actually, I'd be interested in knowing what neighborhood that was because community mailbox is usually in a more contemporary neighborhood, which I would have assumed should have been built to ADA standards. We've had them in place for decades. So, Um, Mr. Nathan, I don't know if you can speak to that.

Yeah, it's um it's right off of Mills just north of the WD Canal or just south of the WD Canal. So, I think it was those were built in the 80s. I think they had it was the 80s. It wasn't because we didn't have the could have been right on right on the cusp of of the requirements. So, like like you mentioned, there was a ramp on one side but not on on the other. Okay. Do we know if we have other neighborhoods like that? I imagine there are some um this one we we responded with based on the call and the request for wheelchair access and why

the re one of the reasons I bring that up too is um the senior citizens committee is always focused on creating more accessible areas to eliminate hazards and the like. Um so I I think that's important for us to know about things like this. It does make me wonder if we should circle back around to senior citizens committee and ask them are there other places that they've heard of this being a challenge in in what is comparatively new neighborhoods.

So we do have a database of our all our ramps and areas that have old ramps that don't meet ADA and then as money comes available we do do those and we do have a plan to try and improve long corridors. So, we have a bunch of east west corridors that are that have been improved as well as a bunch of north south ones. And we just kind of keep ratcheting that that grid of corridors smaller and smaller as money becomes available. And then we do also have a trip hazard prevention survey that we utilize um uh light duty staff every fiveish years to go walk the entire city and and note trip hazards above a half inch. And then we utilize that to do um sidewalk grinding programs and replacements and and patching.

If I might ask you if you could share that with the seniors, they become a much more uh robust committee and trying to deal with some of the issues that are um you know neighborhoods with more elderly population. But obviously uh you know there this is something maybe the LOI improvement committee would also uh need to be made aware of because of the issues of accessibility. um and the needs of uh that community of individuals. So just just if you could share that information with both. Yeah, if you want to maybe shoot me an email, let me know who you want it shared to and I'll send it over to them.

That would be great. Thank you. Madam City clerk, might you share with um public works with Mr. Nathan, uh the chairs of those committees. I'm sure they can get that information and share it with their committees. Thank you. How long you had this program? going through street and saying there's the problem with the sidewalks. Um so they're kind of we have two those two separate ones. We've probably had them about 15 years. 15 years.

Um yeah, I think we did the first uh trip hazard survey back in 2013 2013 or 2014 when I first got here and then um yeah, we kind of did the the sidewalk or the the curb ramp database was a little older than that, but um yeah, so close to 15 years. Is it done consistently each year? someone does it. Not not each year. The the trip hazard prevention one is probably on a fiveyear or so rotation. It it kind of depends on um sometimes a wrist department asks us, hey, we've got a light duty employee that can't do their normal job, but they're able to walk and they're able to bend down and measure stuff with no limitation. Do you have a need for that? Yes.

And if it's been a certain number of years, then we said, "Yeah, we'll we'll set them up to do the the survey." You paint it pink, don't you? Uh they our guys when they get called out, they'll they do paint with a highlighter or a a high visibility orange um when they're about ready to come or if they've gotten a complaint to fix it. I've seen that more than I did before. So, thank you. I just want to say thanks for figuring out that issue. I think that's a good reminder of why we do this is to, you know, to be responsive to our constituents. Uh and in fact, anytime I've had a trip hazard that I've sent over to your department, they're on top of it. So, just if you could express the gratitude from the city council. Thank you. We'll do.

Thank you. Any more comments from council?

Seeing none, we'll move to the regular calendar. Mayor, uh we're moving on to one public hearing item before we get to the regular calendar, and it is the public hearing to repeal and replace resolution number 2018-11 and authorize the city of Loi to join the statewide community infrastructure program. Authorize the California Statewide Communities Development Authority to accept applications from property owners, conduct special assessment proceedings, and levy assessments, and district taxes and to form assessment districts and community facilities districts within the territory of the city of Loi. Embody the terms of a joint community facilities agreement setting forth the provisions for community facilities districts financings approved form of acquisition agreement for the use when applicable and authorized related actions and I will turn it over to our economic development director Lis Aguilar for that report. Good evening, mayor, council members. Olivia Sagler, economic development director. I have a a short uh brief uh verbal report on this item. Um so, as Olivia wrote the long read the long title. I won't get into u those specific names, but wanted to highlight the uh the statewide community infrastructure program is a program provided by the California Statewide Communities Development Authority, also known as CSCDA, to help finance development projects. It's a pulled tax exempt bond that funds development impact fees and public improvement for private public improvements for private developments. The bonds are issued by CSCDA which is a joint powers authority sponsored by the League of California Cities and the California State Association of Counties. The city of Loadout originally um joined the the program in 2018 as authorized by resolution 2018-

111 uh which is attached. Um at this time the program only included the financing of development related fees through the creation of special assessment districts. Since then, the the program has expanded uh to include financing of public capital improvements constructed by develop developers and public service services necessary to support new development through the creation of community facilities districts or CFDs. So, what's what is before the council tonight is to consider modifications to uh the its program participation to modernize the legal documentation as it relates to CFDs or also known as meerus. Um and a public hearing is required for this purpose. Um but I also wanted to take the opportunity and remind the public of some of the uh benefits of this program. Um so for the property owner, it's a voluntary program. Um so only those that choose to participate uh will have assessments or special taxes imposed uh on their property. Um, and instead of paying cash upfront, uh, they they receive lowcost long-term financing uh, that they, you know, so they can use that freeing up that cost for other purposes for the development. Um, the property owner can choose to pay off the assessments or or special taxes at any time. And then owners of smaller both residential commercial projects can have access to tax exempt financing of infrastructure. And for the city, there's no cost to the city. um um city's not liable uh to repay any of the bonds. These are all issued by the by the authority and so it's another tool that we can have to offer to developers without costing any staff time. I mean they the authority administers all the district formation the um administration the bond issuance and and all the other functions. So um you know many developers rely on assessment districts or CFD financing uh through skipping and making the decision to purchase land. So thereby improving the city's competitive

advantage and attracting new development. Um the availability of this program it could encourage um developers to um you know pull permits or or or go through the process earlier or in in bigger blocks um given you know given us an opportunity to um to bring in potential new projects. That was a very brief uh summary of some of the benefits, but I'm happy to answer any questions. Thank you. Thank you so much. Um does councelor have any clarifying question for uh Louis?

I I just want to make a comment, Mr. Agalar. I think um it was a nice summation. Um I actually reached out to the BIA to get their input on it and as you stated, it's pretty standardized uh direction to take for the city forward looking. And I would commend you on the fact that actually what you just presented is all is meeting a couple of our strategic priorities. A the economic development plan implementation being one, but also under infrastructure uh allowing us to support future growth areas and also to ensure that funding for uh those future developments projects are sustainable and self-supporting. So this is the kind of thing I like to see to reference back to our strategic priorities and I think you're doing a very good job of making sure that we're moving forward with some of these efforts. So, thank you.

When I see a subject, I want to briefly know what it is. I asked what is it? Basically, it's a tax exempt bomb state of California has and the developer can borrow money from this another source income. It's if I'm correct, it's a tax exempt bond. California. Is that right? City manager. That is correct. Yeah. Okay. Basically, that's what it is. Thank you. Thank you. Any more comments? Seeing none, I will open the public hearing at 7:48 p.m. City Clerk, do we have any public comments?

Mayor, I don't have any comment cards for this item. Okay. If anyone in the audience would like to speak on this item, that would be a good time right now. See none, I will close the public hearing at 7:48 p.m. Any additional council comments? I'll make the motion.

Second. Okay. And it passes. All right. So that is all the public hearings we have to for tonight and we will move on to item uh regular calendar item G1 which is temporary access center and emergency shelter quarterly update and I will turn it over to our community development team for that report. Mayor, members of city council, thank you for having us here today. Give it just a moment for the PowerPoint to get up. Thank you. And as Olivia said, we're here for the quarterly update. I do apologize in advance that you're actually receiving two quarters. Uh we were in the midst of the the RFP and then there was some uh rescheduling of council meeting, so this did get bumped out a bit, but we wanted to make sure we did two full quarters for you guys to catch up with that. So, we're here today to provide an update on access center construction. We uh do have a slide for that and then provide an update on the temporary access center including budget status overview, comments from outreach ministries international OMI uh on one-year success status updates, 15-month updates, and the treated success and some demographics that they're going to be here to present. So, this is the access center construction budget and schedule update. So, the original contract amount was uh just under $9.9 million uh with original change order authority of 600,000. Subsequent to that, we did experience some environmental concerns um that we had to come back to city council for additional uh change order authority in the amount of 1.4 million for a total of 11,866,433.

Uh to date uh as of uh the last change order that was executed this past week uh is 1,448,927.50 with the remaining change order authority of $551,7250. Um, just to note, the original construction start date did uh start in April of 2025 as we were working on getting the temp facility foundation completed to be ADA compliant before we transitioned them out of the warehouse um to allow the construction company in to begin construction. Um, with that we as shared had some environmental delays that did um push back our construction timeline. As of the most recent change order authority, it does the September 30th, 2026. Um, I do want to note that as we've learned with this construction project and other construction projects, there can always be unforeseen conditions or items that occur that could affect that schedule and budget. Um, so we are monitoring it closely. We meet regularly with our construction manager and our architectural team as well as our contractor. Um, now that the weather has improved, um, they are moving quickly to get the roof and the sidewalls put onto the building. Um, if you've driven by there in the last few days, there's been a crane out there actually lifting roof tiles onto the top of the building. Um, once those are up, they do plan to sequence multiple trades concurrently to try to maintain the momentum of um, that construction schedule. Um, we will keep city council updated if we see any significant changes. Um, and if you would like, we can even to keep this kind of slide on these type of quarterly presentations so that you guys remain updated as we go along. Obviously, if something needs more immediate addressing, then we would come sooner than that, but at least we would want we want to offer if you would like, we can present this at every quarterly meeting as well

with that. So, the temp access center operator budget status overview, we actually just finished out the one year a few months ago. Um the budget was 1.1 million. We uh the operator ended up expending 1,ion32749. So a savings of approximately $67,000. Uh first quarter of year two, the budget remained. Um they ex they have expended $250,000 approximately since up through January 31st, 2026. Um, and just because of the timeline of when we have to get the staff reports in and everything like that, that's why we're through January 31st and not the most most recent month. Um, average monthly invoice to date is $83,000. Year one contract budget breakdown. So over that first year, as you can see, the majority of the funding did go to salaries, and that is because does take staff to perform case management, monitoring day-to-day janitorial services, um, and just running a shelter, um, and identifying resources to help these individuals um, become independent um, and move on to either program or housing. The next uh, significant cost was meals about 115,000. Uh this is does not inclusive of the Salvation Army contract which was in a different a separate $160,000 contract which included meal service and laundry. First quarter of the year two of the contract uh again we see salaries taking up the majority of the cost and meals coming in secondary. Uh we do track every invoice that comes in by category of what the use is. um every invoice that comes in, we do have to uh look at each receipt um each invoice that comes in for eligibility of the grant resources that we receive. Um so everything is validated before it is uh processed for payment.

And with that, I will invite the OMI team up to share their presentation.

Good evening, council. How are you tonight? Evening.

Good. As Jennifer said, we weren't able to update you uh for the last couple of quarters. There's a lot of activity happening. And so tonight, we're going to give you two quarters worth of information. Tonight's presentation, I want to start by sharing with you a success story of an 18-year-old man that came through the doors of the Access Center in February of 2025. Uh his name is not Stephen, but we'll call him Stephen tonight just for narrative purposes. Uh Steven was 18 years old when he came to us as I said and he was carrying unfortunately what we've found to be a very common weight of trauma that had been caused by a childhood experience that uh turned into a growing drug addiction. Did I tell you he was 18 years old? Okay, I want that to sink in. When you looked at Stephen on the outside, every outward measure, you could tell that the odds were not in his favor. When he came to the access center, his journey was not going very smoothly with us as well. He had multiple suspensions for violating the code of conduct, and many of our staff had to take extra time to have the difficult but heartfelt conversations with Stephen about the direction that his young life was heading in. But through consistent encouragement and unwavering support from the staff at the LACE, something began to shift in his life. And on January 7th, 2026, Steven made a life-changing decision to enter a live-in recovery program. Upon a recent check-in with him, we are

grateful to report that he has expressed a sense of joy, peace, and direction in his life that he says that he has never experienced before. I share this story with you tonight because what we've experienced is that in order to get a person to initiate into our process that I I will remind you of in just a moment, it requires a person making a choice for themsel. As much as a family may really be passionate about seeing a family member that's in a difficult place in life want to change on their behalf, it always takes the individual making that decision for themsself. And this young 18-year-old young man who had his whole life in front of him had been dealt some cards that many of us have have known of other people maybe in our own family that they'd been faced with. and he had started off making the poor decisions that were leading in a wrong direction. When he came to us and he gave us the resistance that he gave to us, many of you have heard me refer to the three categories of people that we engage and these are just ad hoc uh descriptions that I gleaned from a friend of mine who was a deputy sheriff for 30 years. He said in the police force when they would engage with with people in the community that were on the streets, they would they would break them up into categories that they referred to as the have nots, the cannots, and the will nots. And it was just a simplistic description for them to be able to try to help the general public. And we found it to be very helpful as well. And we would have have categorized Stephen as a will not by his attitude and by his resistance. But eventually Stephen became not a will not but a have not and we were able to offer him help and we were able to offer him resources and options for his life and he is

currently making better decisions. I want to remind everybody that our mission at the Lodi Access Center is very simple. Our mission is to transition people from the streets of Lodi into permanent housing. That's why we're there and that's why we show up every day. We continue to track the statistics and the data because we believe that this is a worthy cause that is worth tracking those statistics and keeping track of every single person that comes through the door because we want to see success for every single person that is possible. Uh on the next slide you'll see um our numbers for the first 12 months of operations. We had 174 successful transitions in the first 12 months that the LOI access center was operating. Um, and through 15 months of operation, we have a total of 225 successful transitions. That is an average of over 14 people per month. This is something that is a reproducible process and it's something that we're seeing success in and we believe in. But one of the other statistics that we're very excited about on this slide is that you'll see that there was 61 individuals that have gained employment since we took over operations of the access center. To put it a different way, there are 61 people who are now working and contributing back to society rather than taking from society. And if we were to put a dollar amount on that, it depends upon it what the wages that a person makes, but um between$1 and $2 million of income generated from these people being put back into the workforce, which I think is amazing for them and for their families and everybody that's associated with them. The next slide, you'll see our tree of success. This is something that we've worked to refine and develop. And we've shared with you before that when somebody comes into the center and

we do an intake with them, we're able to quickly assess what is the best track for them to follow based upon where they're at currently in their life. If they have opportunity uh with family or friends, we want to see them get re reunified with them. um if they have some sort of income, if they're on SSI or if they have some other source of income, we begin talking to them about financial uh responsibility, helping them put a budget together and being able to see if they're um ready for some sort of housing option available to them. If they don't have any income, we begin looking at how can we help that person go down the track that leads to gaining an income. And for many of them, uh, we're very aware that substance abuse is a big part part of people that are sometimes unhoused. And so we begin to address that issue with them. And some of them are ready to make that decision to want to get clean and sober. And if that's the case, we help them in that area as well. Anything that we can do to meet the individuals where they're at to help them go through this tree of success, we want to see that happen in their lives. And the last slide that I want to share with you um because it continues to be one of the one that is the most heartbreaking for me personally is the number of seniors that we serve in the access center. Uh we have continued to see that 43% of our clients are over the age of 55. Um this isn't changing. There's a huge need in our in our uh community to try to help seniors that have very little financial means and they have zero options. And many of them have been found uh homeless not because of some of the the typical things that people think cause people to be homeless. It's a financial problem and they don't have a place to go and so they're ending up with us. And so I want to continue to bring that to the the public's awareness so that if there is any options that are out there available

that at least the conversations are being had and um we can look at another option to help them because it's a huge it's a huge situation. And with that do you have any questions? Yeah. Can we go back to the three again or the whatever we see the end result? So maybe there. So the people they gain employment um how we track them like what like when they come back like because obviously some people go back to the streets after a certain amount of time. Do we count those new people or in your statistics or they're

we track if it's the same person twice we we track them separately. So in one of the the slides you you'll see they're unique individuals. They're unique individuals. for the long-term tracking because I think yes, like it's good that we put them into housing, but we know they're all of them are not going to they're going to go back to the street. So, I want to know that like Yeah.

So, on the on the on the bottom of that, it says follow-up percentage. So, those are the ones that we've followed up with. So, our statistics are showing for those that have gone into program, there's a 66% rate of those that actually stick with it and follow through. Under housing, there's an 84.3% follow-up success rate. So, those are the ones that are sticking with it. And under uh job gain, employment gain is 64.7% followup. So, we are following up with them to make sure that they're sticking with it. And of course, nothing they're not 100%. You're absolutely right. There are some that And still is early because you guys have been um in this project for like one year or two years. How long? Do you remember? We started November 2024.

So, yeah. So, it's still too early. So when we get more I think we're going to see different numbers when but but it's good that you guys are tracking them because Yeah. Okay. So we're tracking them when they go back. Yes sir. Okay. Perfect. Thank you. So if I might follow up um you know I this is not scientific at all. While you were talking I was doing some math. I was never good at math but I'm going to make a stab at it. So when I calculate if we're talking about 204 unique individuals, that's the number I'm using

based on the investment over the past year, you guys are astonishingly below the average for county and state. Even if I add in other things in our uh other departments and divisions to assist with uh homelessness issues, whether it's policing or cleanups or anything like that, I come up with um just with your initial information about $5,000 per person for that $1.2 million investment. So I think that's remarkable because the uh county spends on average $56,800 and the state indicates per person it's $42,000. So even if I add in our other uh costs that we have as a city that takes us to 14,000. So in essence, you're far below what the average is for individuals, which I think it is important. The the dollar uh contribution back to the economy is is really critical and I'm glad you're tracking that because that's job creation and opportunities for people to contribute uh and to begin to demonstrate their own self-sufficiency. Um but I do want to just point out that it seems to be a good investment for us per person because you're having significant uh um time you're not holding people just as you said average days are much less uh than the national and county average. So I think that's important to track. So maybe that is something with a little bit more of a scientific analytical approach you could take a look at in the future and think about this is kind of what we're spending per person in Loi by having a facility which is considerably less than what we would be spending uh in the big bucket of the county. So I know the county has got the mental health services and the like that

they expend resources on but um it's important to me to be able to see what kind of return on investment. So, thank you. I think you did your math perfect, by the way. That's Oh, I'm sure. In the same way that the city of Lo has got the best electric utility, the city of Loi has got the best LOI access center in the state and as far as we're concerned. Dr. Nishi, thank you. I've been following this since you began. Yeah. If I'm correct, you have less number in the program than you had before. My question is, am I correct in that? And why? Uh when you say less in the program.

Yes. Number who were in access center when you first started access center a certain number that you had patients there right? I'm not sure is it is it pardon? Yeah, that when we when we moved that's that's how it was before we dropped down from 49 beds to 46 beds when we moved into the tent because of the footprint of the tent was smaller than what we had before in the uh temporary building area. So we we did drop our bed count a few I'm mistaken it hasn't hasn't gone but we're about ready to get bigger as soon as they get that building done for us.

I thought we had projected it for more than the 60 people. So, thank you. You're doing a good job. Are we at full occupancy on a regular basis? It es and flows. There's there's weeks where you're full, jam-packed, and then there's weather affects it, and then when we transition a bunch of people out, then there creates a vacuum, and then they they all seem to fill up eventually. Yeah. And as far as referrals go, have you experienced any referrals from outside the city of Loi least recently? Uh, that would be probably question for Johnny or Marvin. I'm not sure

unless it's a HIPPA violation. I I can answer it from a a nonviolation of that. I think they're trying to be cognizant of that. Uh the only referrals that we would receive from outside would be a warm handoff from another agency. So that would be um them talking to the shelter director and identifying that it was a fit for them. And same with us. Sometimes we have had to identify another shelter may be a better fit for an individual and have a warm handoff but we do not do walk-ins of individuals from outside the area. Understood. Thank you. Questions for council?

See I do have a question. Can we go back about the salaries? So what is the average salary for employees at the access center? I think just like uh most of the most of our staff works by the hour. their hourly employees. Their hourly wage ranges from $17 an hour to 2122ish, something like that. And how about like upper management? Uh we only have one we only have one salaried employee. Um and they're right at the baseline of the exempt status. Okay. Thank you.

Okay. No more comments. So we'll move to public comments. City clerk. Mayor, I don't have any comment cards for G1, but you're welcome to open it up to the audience. So, I'm going to open for public comments on this item. See none. Uh I Oh, perfect.

I have no idea. figuratively. It's not hollow. It's not hollow, you know.

Double large. Double large. Let's take a picture. Yeah. I think so.

All right. You're terrible.

Okay. This is This doesn't require a boat, right? This uh doesn't require a vote. So, okay. Cool. Yeah. So, we will move to the next item.

Yes, we can move on to G G2. Um, and I will just um make an update uh to the title correcting the name of um the company, the LLC. Um, so G2 is to consider adopting a resolution authorizing the interim city manager to enter into concession lease agreement with G Fuel Station LLC for a portion of Lawrence Park located at 350 North Washington Street and I will um again turn it over to our economic development director to present on this item. Good good evening council uh Lagar economic devel director and again this item is for you to consider a resolution authorizing the city interum city manager to enter into concession lease agreement with Gfield Station LLC for a portion of Lawrence Park. Um so Lawrence Park, adjacent to Lawrence Park is the American Legion building which is located at 320 and North Washington Street and the Legion building is currently um going through significant renovations to be repurposed as an event space and be and become another amenity for the LOI community. So to further enhance the Legion building improvements, Gfield Field Station LLC is requesting that the city lease approximately 5,400 square feet of the land from Lawrence Park that would allow them to construct and maintain an enclosed dining and entertainment patio and related improvements on the southern end of the property. Wanted to highlight some key terms of the agreement. Um again, it's 5,400 square feet for a maximum of 15 years and an annual lease payment of 500 $500. Um repairs and alterations to the premises. Uh the city has no obligations to make any repairs um or replace any components under any circumstance. Upon the expiration of the agreements um or

early termination of lease, the premises shall be delivered to the city in good repairing condition. um the tenant will maintain um insurance throughout this whole time. And then in the resolution, there's also a section that um um for reimbursement for appraisal and outside legal fees that um the city um paid for to get to this point and that'll be part of the um that we be required upon the execution of the uh agreement. By entering into the lease agreement, the city preserves ownership of the land while enabling private investment to enhance the adjacent property and community amenities which will remain consistent and compatible with the city's Lawrence Park uses. Uh that concludes my brief presentation on this item. Happy to answer any questions. Thank you so much. Um does council have any clarifying questions um to Luis or the applicants? I believe they're here. I I do have one question for our city attorney. Uh Kitty, would you go over what we as council members can actually say? I do know that we had had close sessions about negotiations. I'm not too familiar.

Yeah, you cannot disclose any of the actual conversations or the terms that council considered during close session, but the agreement based on the terms that uh you had authorized to negotiate is in the council packet. And so that is a public document that was out. So you could talk about that portion. Okay. Any comments? Um see none. Then city clerk, do we have any public comments? Yes, mayor. I do have two comment cards for this item. The first comment card I have is from Ria Jones.

Hello there. Good evening. Thank you for allowing me to speak. I appreciate it. I stand before you today to speak from the heart about the American Legion Memorial Building and the future of this treasured space in our community. My husband and I have been members of the American Legion for nearly 30 years. In more than a decade, I served as a secretary of Post22. From my office window overlooking Lawrence Park, I've had a front row seat of what that park has become. Day after day, I witnessed homeless individuals sleeping in the park, defecating in public, prostitution, child abuse, gang fights, hearing the screaming and the yelling, picked up trash, put out campfires, fought the illegal camping, and so much more. We all understand that the park was donated for use and the enjoyment of the community. But is this what the donor or the community envisioned for our beloved LOI? I believe the answer is no. Just as we reassess any situation that no longer serves its purpose, it's time to rethink what is happening here. Lawrence Park and Lo Memorial, the memorial building here in Lodai have stood side by side as partners and neighbors serving the east side in the greater Lodai community with pride and dignity. We now have an opportunity to move these properties forward together in a way that meets current needs and restores them both as a source of community pride. The vast majority of the park will remain a park through with thoughtful planning. It can be revitalized and used as it was originally intended, a safe and welcoming place for families and neighbors. The memorial building is not just another structure. It is a memorial of the veterans of Loi, a building they created with their own blood, sweat, and

tears. It is a treasure of the east side and has served this community with honor for generations. Over the years, the memorial building has also hosted countless cultural cultural celebrations, community gatherings, and events that brought together many of our citizens across Lodai. It has been a place where community life happened. It is a treasure of the east side and served this community with honor. The members of Loi Post 22 have made their voices heard as reflected in the letters you have received, supporting a forward-looking decision that would allow additional footage for the memorial building project. This is not simply about square footage. It is about preserving a legacy, strengthening a community institution, and honoring those who built it. I urge you to think about what it could be. A revitalized park and a strengthened memorial building standing together once again as symbols of pride, of service, and community here in Modi. Thank you.

Thank you for your comment. I have one more comment card. Castro.

Hello. Good evening everyone. Um, hello council members. As a resident of Lorai and the president of Unidos Progressando Progressing together, I'm here on behalf of our organization and the community we represent. We are here to express our strong support to improvement to the American Legion Hall and addition of the new community ballroom. Our priority in is the well-being and safety of our people. For too long, east side of Laurai has struggled with gang activity and lack of safety at Lawrence Park. Our children deserve to play without fear and our families deserve a dignified and safe place to gather. This ballroom is more than just a building. It's a vital tool for revitalizing an area that has been neglected. By transforming an under under utilized space into a vibrant community hub, we are reclaiming our park and sending a clear message. Lauren Lawrence Park belongs to the community, not to the crime. I also would like to add that uh Lai police department also have their training uh canine there and I spoken to the neighbors around the uh park. They I was told that uh they had seen an u a decrease and of the crimes around the park that they feel safe and the house value. people are taking more care of their houses and keeping them in order because of that. They're not afraid of somebody's robbing the house or destroying their property, graffiti and all that kind of stuff that was happening there. So, uh some of the neighbors that I spoke to, they highly

recommend for the Lorai Police Department also to continue there. And I remember that chief of police uh asked or told us that soon the police cadets are going to be training there. So I think that is a class for Lawren Park. Uh so with all respect uh that I have for you, I ask you to please vote yes on this proposal. Thank you.

Thank you for your comment. So uh now I'm going to invite the public if they would like to speak on this item. Good evening, Mayor Yopez, council, uh, and the community. JP Ducet, president, CEO of the Loai District Chamber of Commerce. Aaron, welcome. Uh, hope hope the first meeting is going smooth for you. Uh, we'll be talking to each other for, you know, from here to there every so often. But uh first off, Ria and and Martin, I want to thank you uh from this podium for all of the years of service you've given uh to the that post and that building the love uh that you put in there. Just uh incredible. If you have some time um to hear all the things that that her and her husband did um uh just to support not only the American Legion people, but the building, it's incredible. Uh we appreciate at the chamber our leadership remember is how thoughtful the council has handled this process. You know, uh our public spaces here in our community are uh really invaluable to us. Uh we have a it's reflected in how much uh park space and open space we have. It shows the value we place on it. So to to to have to enter in this sort of negotiation uh we appreciate the thoughtfulness that you've taken. We have been looking uh you as a council, we as a community for a way to activate uh some of our various public spaces uh ways to be creative to uh make them uh you know utilize in ways that uh have public benefit, economic benefit and in this situation I truly believe that that we can deliver on both. the American Legion building. Um, as as Councilman Bregman knows, when I

recruited him to serve uh sausages at an October fest there, uh not only do we have weddings and celebrations there, uh we're having uh fundraisers for the community, uh and the the more that different types of events and things that we could host there, uh really can be a boon not only to um you know, organizations within the community, but in terms of those fundraising fundraising efforts. efforts. Um, this is just going to be a spectacular space. So, we're really really looking forward to hopefully having this item approved so that uh we can really bring a unique asset into this community and maximize uh all of the amazing work that's already being done there. Uh, and uh we're going to be talking a little bit about the strategic plan uh later this evening. And this is one of those projects that is a mobilization of that strategic plan, the downtown specific plan. Uh it's a gateway into the community. Um I only got five minutes, but we could talk for hours on on how amazing this project is. So, thank you all very much and we hope to get an approval this evening. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Good evening, mayor and members of council. My name is Ryan Ranchod and on behalf of the DD family and everyone involved with the Legion Hall renovation. I want to thank the city for the collaboration over the last 18 months that has brought us here tonight. We truly appreciate the work from city staff and I would especially like to recognize economic development director Luis Aguilar for helping continue to guide this effort. For us, the Legion Hall renovation is not a revenue generating pursuit. Our mission is to deliver a first rate facility that becomes a catalyst for both direct and indirect economic impact, creating sustained activity and becoming a regional draw for LOI. The proposed patio expansion presented here today is a key element of that venue. When complete, the Legion Hall will operate as a premier event space that brings weddings, community events, and visitors from throughout throughout the region. That means more people coming into LOI and supporting local restaurants, hotels, tasting rooms, and other businesses while also capturing additional sales tax revenue for the city. We believe the Lockford, Washington, and Stockton Street corridor has the potential to become what we affectionately refer to as a recreation and entertainment corridor or the wreck. With the synergy between the great festival grounds, the Legion Hall, the Armory, and the significant recreational infrastructure already in place, such as the Great Bull and Softball Complex, this location can serve as a gateway to

downtown and the heartbeat of sports and entertainment tourism. Equally important, activating spaces like this with responsible investment and regular activity helps ensure the area remains safe, welcoming, and well cared for. When spaces are actively utilized and valued by the community, it naturally discourage discourages the kinds of issues that can arise in neglected areas. And as discussed with the chief earlier today, it's been a true blessing and partnership uh with the community and with the police. and uh we're grateful and better for it. This project is truly a passion project for the DD family. We are proud to invest in Loi. We are proud to help preserve this important community asset and grateful for the opportunity to collaborate with the city to recognize this vision. I would be remiss if I didn't mention the legacy of American Legion Post22 and commend their original vision in 1945 to collaborate with the city for the first time. an effort that ultimately led to the land purchase and construction of the American Legion facility at Lawrence Park where it is today. As Post22 embarked on its fundraising campaign following World War II, Deputy Vince Webb declared, "Members of the Legion feel that this building, which is to be erected to commemorate the brave deeds of the dead and serve the living, is not only for this generation, but for generations yet to come. It is our intent to once again work in tandem with the city of Loi to build upon deputy web's vision. We are honored to have the support of Post22 as evidenced by Mrs. Jones and their multiple letters of support and is with tremendous pride that we commit to delivering a first rate facility that will stand the test of time and be enjoyed by generations to come. If approved tonight, we look forward to moving forward quickly with

the patio improvements and continuing to work with the city as we bring this vision to life. Thank you for your time and consideration. Thank you so much, Mayor. I'll just note that there is one member of the public on Zoom. So, I'm just going to make a quick statement. If anyone on Zoom has a public comment, please feel free to raise your hand and I will call on you um during the public comment period for each item. Thank you so much. Um do we have anybody on Zoom then? Okay. Okay. Perfect. So then I will go back to council. Any more comments?

Yeah, if I might. Mayor, um I I appreciate Mr. Anshod what you just mentioned. And I think people need to know this is a memorial. This is not just a building to house the American Legion. It is a memorial to those who gave their their greatest gift um to protect the nation. So I think it's important to point that out and why it is so important to see that space activated again. Um, and I want to say my thanks to Miss Castro and Miss Vargas who are going to be helping us with getting a survey out to the broader community to find out first how they use and if they use Lawrence Park um, and what we can do to enhance and create a a situation where they are comfortable using the park. Because as we all heard at the town hall that was hosted, there were two things that the community expressed support for. One was the renovation of this building and the creation of an outdoor space to demonstrate that the park is used and there's activity and two uh the continued presence of the police on site. And I I had the benefit of talking with the chief and one of his officers about uh the new um uh youth citizen academy that you'll be hosting uh there uh as part of the K9 uh um complex, but also in general around the park. So I think we are going to see more children out there using the park. I think we're going to get a better sense in the community what uses that they want and that this again is a catalyst for activating that and getting people uh into the area once again. So, um all good things and uh thank the DD family um and the many volunteers who have worked to keep that site uh clean and also bring it back to use in the community. So, thank you guys.

You have a few comments. So, I would like to start with saying thank you to all our veterans and the American Legion building as a prized possession for the city of Loi. Um, as well as all that go into it. Um, I actually MCED our American Legion fundraiser the other night. I think I blew out some people's eardrums fundraising. So, that was fun. Um, and so a lot of love towards that community as well as the DD family. I know you guys are very philanthropic and help quite a few local residents. So, I appreciate that. Whether it's through Got Kids or anything else, I've seen your family in action. Um, and what I'm about to say is more directed towards the city of Loi, not anything with American Legion or DD family at the business or anything. Um, my position is we need a a system on our end. So for instance, this is uh an un reasonably unprecedented event where we're leasing out a piece of property like this. Um my position is I believe we need to create some type of calculation property value versus return. Um and then even if that is subtracted by public benefit which could equal zero. Um my belief is great leaders create great systems. I believe our issue in the future is if we have another business owner that wants to take a piece of park, we should show them the process, right? We should have a process. So, um I believe on the city's end, we should do that. Uh so, I will be voting no towards this item tonight. It's not because the American Legion, it's not because of the business or the DD family or anything. It's because I believe on the city's end, we actually need to do a better job. Um, I

I do believe and here's the thing. Do I think the $500 I believe it's a year if that's correct. Um, do I think it's low? Yes. But again, if we wrote in the public benefit that the public benefit is more because we're going to have less blight, less homeless, more oversight, everything else, then it still might come to zero. Um, but I I need to see that calculation because again, I want to be able to go forward if we ever did have another agreement with a new business or anyone else that wants to lease property. So, unfortunately, I do have to vote no on this issue. It's not because you guys, it's because the city side. So, I appreciate your patience. I think you guys have the votes anyways, so I think you'll be all right. Thank you.

All right. Any more comments? make a motion to approve.

And I would just clarify, we were going to make sure that the resolution references G fuel station. There was a typo left out station with that addendum.

And it passes. So, we're going to move to the next item now. The next item on the regular calendar, item G3, is to adopt a resolution repealing and replacing resolution number 2023-98 and adopting a revised LOI city council strategic vision. Um, due to Mr. Bush not being here when we adopted this, I'm just going to give a quick or when we uh went through that the discussion. I'm just going to give a quick two sentence report. Um, in 2023, the city council had gone through an all day two-day strategic planning session. Um and then on January 28th, the city council with interim city manager James Lindseay at the time had gone through the strategic vision and made appropriate updates uh per the council's direction. Uh the item before you tonight is a resolution adopting those changes and I am happy to turn it over to intram city manager Bush uh if he wants to add anything. Uh but that's the item before you tonight.

Yes. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of the council. Uh thank you. I just would add that this is um a foundational piece that uh you know the council will um rely on for budget purposes and for work plans. And so I look forward to working with all the departments in the city to incorporate your strategic priorities going forward as part of the budget and making um incorporate those as u appropriately in in the work plans for the year coming ahead. And so I look forward to working with you all and um prioritizing those priorities because there's a lot of of work out there and a lot of need and we need to make sure that we're all on the same page going forward. So we're happy to answer any questions.

So sorry, Councilwoman, I'm going to have that question very fast. Um so I I think you've been here like for 72 hours but what I want to see is that um these strategics are part of the evaluation for employees for director specifically because these are the priorities of the council and we represent the community so it's what the community wants to look do forward so how are they each director aligning with this strategics that's what I would like you to do in the next few months

certainly and that's something that that we can certainly explore I think in order to ensure that we're um on the same page with that, I think that there's an opportunity to for further clarification from council because as I read the document and the last presentation that was made, there was an overview of some of the work that's been done to date, but I think that there was also an identification of here's some other competing priorities. Um some of those that had some funding issues and so I think going forward is going to be incumbent on me to work through with the department heads and getting back with council to ensure that this is where you want to spend your money. This is where you want us to spend our time and energy. And once that's, you know, finalized and confirmed, then absolutely that can be reflected into um honestly every staff report that comes to you, we'll identify that it's achieving this priority or that priority. Um and then that can be incorporated into the uh work plan and goals of of each department director. so much. Councilwoman Craig.

Yeah, I just want to follow up on that. I I think um uh the city manager Bush and I talked about this. We do need measurable objectives under each of these because you got to be measured against something and uh it's it's a it's a great priority, but we got to break it down. So, uh and to your point, the word plans need to align um because uh you know, we're we're hard into budget setting now. But, um I do have priorities that I would identify and I think the rest of the council would and um I think it's pretty easy to go through some of these. I'll give you an example. Uh the downtown uh I uh item E and B actually work together. Revitalization and um preserving the historic character that is such a draw tie together. So that's an easy one to do. And then obviously the downtown specific plan uh is important. Same when we're looking at economic development, economic development plan, if it's in the plan, it's a priority and it's a matter of to your point, what do we have funding for? Uh what can we what's the lowhanging fruit we can do? Uh first, um uh I'm just going to do my list because I don't have to send it to you. Uh fiscal health, uh we need a diversified mix of revenue. Uh I think that pretty much addresses a lot of uh what fiscal health can can do for the city. um and bringing that information to us as elected uh officials um and and to the public so that we can really keep our focus on the fiscal priorities. Um housing I think that D and E tie together again adopting standards to promote housing type for all economic levels um and supporting uh or policies that promote housing uh through good design generational housing. It's all kind of the same thing together. um infrastructure. I'm going to always say

this, invest in hydrogen. We have this capacity and ability to make a revenue generating opportunity out of our electric utility. So, do that. And then secondly, um uh future growth capacity I think uh both financially, how we finance, we heard about that tonight. Um and then just creating the capacity for future growth. Uh parks maintaining our facilities is critical. That's been a challenge for us. And Hutchinson Street Square is a gem of a building. The facilities building there needs some help and could be turned into uh some type of a use that would be beneficial uh uh to um the community. We talked about maybe an innovation center or something there and working with parks to make that happen. Uh lastly, uh strategic safety problems e in public safety. um the outdoor public safety training. We got to find funding for uh that training center out there at White Sleep. And then lastly, something we added at the council meeting at the um workshop under wellbeing a customer centered focus. I think that actually runs through all of the strategic priorities. So, um I hope you capture that because that's my my priority list. So, I'm sure other council members contribute to that over the next week or so.

Thank you so much for that list. Any members of the council they would like to speak on this item? See none, we'll go to public comments.

Mayor, I don't have any comment cards for this item. Thank you, Mayor Lopez, council members, uh, uh, JP Detai Chamber of Commerce, uh, here to talk a little bit about, uh, kind of, uh, uh, to Council Member Craig Hensley's point, and others up here about, uh, kind of prioritizing some things early on in this process. Uh we've this is I think the second out of third major plans that we're going to adopt uh with the downtown specific uh plan still pending. Uh but I do believe that there's some initial overlap um that uh I think should be prioritized and the chamber stands uh ready to help support. Um a couple of the things that I want to highlight uh one being a business retention and expansion uh plan. I think that uh you know the the business as much as we'd love to attract uh new businesses in our community and we work hard to do so uh the most important businesses we have are the ones that are currently here uh we want to try and do everything we can to keep them here uh and support them in growth because that's our our best opportunity uh for increased economic activity in the short term. So, uh, a key, uh, component is of this is outreach to local employers. Uh, at the chamber, we have over 600 members, most of which are small business and most of which are, uh, within the city limits. And so, we want to work with our economic development director, uh, Mr. Agular, to to help reach as many businesses as we can, help collect meaningful data, uh, that can help support your policy decisions moving forward. Uh, also, uh, in terms of uh you know creating that

businessfriendly environment or um you know really taking a look at uh how can we uh create systems uh to Councilman Bregman's point um that allow set us up for success as businesses are trying to either uh start up or expand within our community. uh one of the great ideas that I think crosses over to the multiple plans but uh is looking for sort of a concierge type approach or service or I mean personnel would be great but um at least a process that is going to give the businesses uh that are navigating the permitting process somebody uh that can help them as it's going through the the various uh departments or various stages of planning. uh it can be very uh challenging um and confusing sometimes to go through. So uh I think that's a great idea and something that I believe crosses over multiples multiple uh plans that were we've brought forward. Uh also I I just think that alignment piece is so critical and Mary Pez talked about it in terms of trying to codify it uh within the work of the staff and department heads. Uh but it really doesn't stop there, you know. It it's got to go all the way down to the city council committees. Uh it's got to go into the community, the different community organizations, uh that are here to support. Um I'm fortunate enough to serve not only as president CEO of the chamber, uh but on several boards such as open innovation centers and the LOI community foundation. You know, both all those organizations are are really stand and be partners to help you uh bring this strategic vision to life. So, thank you very much for going through the process. We look forward to working with you on setting those priorities, identifying

the specific tasks and objectives that us as community partners can help support. Um but looking forward to this uh uh revision uh any input that Mr. Bush will bring to bear from his experience. Um and thank you for the opportunity to work together. Thank you so much for your comment, mayor. I do have a member of the public online as well. Okay, they had their hand raised. Katha or Katha Renfro, would you still like to provide your public comment?

No, I'm sorry. Then we can move forward. Okay. Thank you so much. So I will entertain a motion now. I will make the motion

second to approve the strategic framework here. Ser can you do it again because it disappear from my All right. And it passes. So, next item. Next item is to adopt a resolution approving side letter agreement between the city of Loai and Loai Police Mid Management Organization for a one-time off salary schedule payment. And I will turn it over to our interim HR manager, Christina Gonzalez, to provide that report. Good evening. Um so this uh item is uh to adopt a resolution to approve the side letter agreement with LOI policeman management organization for a one-time offsary schedule payment. The city previously negotiated Kalpers cost sharing agreements with all employee groups. The cost sharing agreement allows public agency employers and employees to formally share a portion of the employer's required pension contribution. typically reducing the employer rate. The LPMO members had agreed to contribute 9% to toward the employer's contribution in priorus. The city and LPMO negotiated a successor

mo successor that was approved by council at its November 19th, 2025 meeting. During the negotiation process, the city agreed to reduce the LPMO's member cost sharing agreement from 9% to 3%. The members continue to pay the full share of the employee portion. The amendment to the Kalpers cost sharing agreement took longer than anticipated and LPMO members continue to contribute 9% cost sharing instead of the agreed agreed upon 3%. City staff prepared the amendment to the cost sharing agreement with an anticipated effective date of March 30th, 2026. The LPMO filed a complaint with the city manager regarding the len length of time it took to amend the cost sharing agreement. City staff were able to work with Kalpers to amend the cost sharing agreement to be effective February 2nd, 2026 instead of March 30th, 2026. The LPMO members had already contributed 9% cost sharing for the period of January 1 to February 1, 2026. The city and LPMO representatives met and conferred in good faith and were able to resolve LPMO's complaint. The city and LPMO have agreed to a onetime off salary schedule payment of $1,000 per LPMO member. The one-time off salary schedule payment is anticipated to be included on the March 19th, 2026 paycheck or as soon as administratively possible. By adopting the side letter, the city will resolve the LPMO's complaint about the length of time it took to prepare the cost sharing amendment and for the additional Kalpers cost sharing incurred from January 1, 2026 to February 1, 2026. Staff recommends that council approve the side agreement between the city and LPMO. Thank you.

Thank you for um that presentation. Um does council have any clarifying question? Seeing none, um we'll move to public comments. No comments. Okay, then we entertain the motion. So move second.

I know he went away. I don't know what is happening exactly

right away.

You voted no. All right, I passes. So, next item.

The next item is to adopt a resolution authorizing the city manager to execute an addendum to the employment agree agreement with Jennifer Fontine Fontinea, a library director, including future wage adjustments to bring the library director's base salary to $172,10 annually effective January 4, 2027. Elimination of cost calers sharing and modification to the city's contribution to medical premiums. And I will turn it over to interim city manager while I pull up the PowerPoint.

Thank you, uh, Mr. Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of the council. So, I'm I'm trying something unique tonight and I hope it works and pays off because as you can see on the agenda, you have, uh, eight very similar items um, due to the nature that they were presented and set up. And so, My hope tonight is is not to circumvent the process by no means, but to condense it a little bit by giving you some background about how we got here. Um, that applies to all eight of these items. And then as I get to the next slide that gets to the individual that is the subject of the particular agenda item, I'll highlight the, you know, the key differences for that particular position. Then I'll turn it over to you to have discussion and take motion. then we'll go on to the next one and that way we don't have to repeat all the background. So hopefully that that works for you. So with that we'll get started. So this is um a little bit of background on the negotiations. As you just saw the item before this was yet another bargaining group that has come forward with um its proposed contracts. And so, um, as you can see here, um, there has been a lot of different work on all the, uh, different bargaining groups, um, that the city, uh, has here. And so, what I wanted to do here was simply illustrate that, um, for consistency purposes and due to the fact that contracts uh, were expiring and or had expired. What we were trying to do is make sure that we get all the the negotiations completed in a timely manner. And so, as you can see here, you had um labor agreements approved mid point last year towards the end of last year and then even some earlier this year. We also have some few groups that will be um wrapping up their negotiations with HR and we'll be presenting those to council

hopefully at the next meeting or the the April meetings. So with that there we go. So, what I wanted to do next is is kind of highlight some of the commonalities, if you will, between um all those different agreements that you have with those different bargaining groups, just to show you that the objective here, I believe in looking at it and talking with staff is to again provide consistency throughout the organization and address some of the key negotiating points. And so, some of those uh commonalities were cost of living adjustments um that would become effective January of this year as well as January of 27 and 2028. The percentage varies based on the union and bargaining group. Another key benefit negotiation item was the city will pay 90% I believe that's up from 80% of the medical premium by enrollment category for the lowest HMO plan. And so that became effective January one of this year. Another key uh benefit negotiating piece was reducing the total employee pension contribution by eliminating employee cost sharing. Again, based on the the different bargaining group, the percentage of that varies. Um both of those two items are non-persible costs, but they definitely show a reflection, you know, increase for the for the employee. And then finally, there were equity adjustments based on the salary survey to bring salaries to the median of fair market value. those composite those comparable cities that were agreed upon. So with that um there we go. So now I'm going to get into the specific item for G5 which is the library director addendum. So as I mentioned really what the proposed addendum is really focused on is 3% cola

effective January of next year and then January of the following year 2028. the medical premium contribution, the 9010 split is also in effect here as well as is the reduction of the total employee pension contribution um by 6% effective July of six of this year. Um the final two bullets are items that are included in this particular addendum. You'll notice that those will be common language in the other department head agreements. And I think that the uh purpose here is to ensure that there's not a compaction issue between the department head and they're mixed in line and that's pretty common place to ensure no compaction. Um the final bullet is is another one that relates to ensuring that um there's you know fair treatment, fair equity that if individual is asked to um serve in another role that they receive um compensation for. So I believe that is it for this particular item. So I'm happy to answer any questions on the library director addendum before you tonight. We'll move on you take action on this. So we do need you to take action then we'll move on to the next.

Yes. All right. So first we will go to council comments. Yes. I just want to thank you for clarifying this because it's not something that really is made clear when you're looking at all of the information in the packet. So getting it to something that's digestible and that public can see also is is critical. Um so again, thank you for that. We are a little different in that we have contracts with all of our executive team. Um, but this goes a long way to the amounts that

any more comments from council Dr. Nishi. I'd like to tell the citizens that city council take hours on the district contract. We've met negotiated and so forth. What we're trying to do is uh try to get our employees good employees to the medium because we have not done that over the past 10 20 years they they not been in medium and at this point we can do it and it's good it's good we're doing it.

Yeah. I I'll add to that is I used to have a landscaping company and I call it hell month because I went through a period where I was hiring people like no tomorrow week after week and that's when you realize retention is your greatest tool and when you have to spend time to train somebody which takes another full-time staff member over right and they have to learn the process and then if they leave you have completely lost all of that time which equates to taxpayer money. So, I do believe in retention over trying to underpay individuals. So, pay individuals what they're worth. If they're working hard towards it, pay them. If they're not, then cut them. In fact, there's another saying, which is hire slow and fire fast. So, um I do believe at the director level, we have great directors. So, thank you. Okay. So I you know like I run a business I have been an employee in the private public sector and just because uh I don't have any information for uh saying yes or no and not having any information to approve this or not approve is just what I see in the community and only a few only four directors have demonstrated to me using that criteria that they deserve this the race. So for the other ones, I'm going to vote no and I'm not going to individually say why, but I'm just saying that. So I we will go to public comments now.

Mayor, I don't have any comment cards, but you're welcome to open it up to Would anybody from the audience would like to make a comment? Seeing none, I would entertain a motion. Second. I'll let Dr. Dr. I'll give him the honor. Last time he slugged me. So either way, fine. Next time it passes. So let's move on.

Thank you. And I hope this process is is doable. So the next item is um an agreement an employment agreement amendment for the parks and recreation and cultural services director. So do we have that slide? Okay, here we go. So once again uh same background to get to this point is part of the department head discussion and negotiations. Similarly, we have 3% cola effective January of 2027 and January 2028. The same 9010 medical split premium as well as the elimination of the cost sharing of pension expense. Those last two bullets are similar as well. And so those are the extent of proposed amendments to this particular director's contract. And so with that, we're recommending your approval of that. Questions,

council comments, seeing none public comments. Okay, I would entertain a motion. Second.

All right, we're going on a roll.

Okay. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Item G7 is a similar uh resolution for an addendum to the employment agreement with the electric utility director. walk through that one and essentially it's the same as what you've seen the past two 3% colas effective January 20 2027 and January 2028 and 9010 medical split and the reduction in the pension contribution by 6% effective July 6 2026 we're recommending approval of this particular addendum as to answer any questions.

Council comments, Dr. McNish. No. Oh, no. Oh, I thought you were uh first I need to go to public comments. Public comments. Okay, now we can second. I'll let it.

Okay. passes.

All right, moving on to item G8. This is a resolution for an addendum addendum to the employment agreement with our police chief. Um, this has much of the same similarities with one difference. In this particular case, there is an equity adjustment that is based on the compensation study that was completed um in order to bring the police chief salary up fair market value median. Um, a 1.21% retroactive increase to the wage effective January 5th of this year will bring the chief salary to 269,921. Again, the colas are the same. The reduction of the cost sharing contribution is a little bit different just because the bargain group and then 9010 premium. So that we're approve council comments. None public comments. I will entertain a motion to approve.

Second and it buzzes. Okay, moving right along to item G9. This is another addendum. This particular one is for the fire chief. Also, very similarly, you'll see the colas and the medical changes as well as as well as the reduction on the cost sharing contribution. This one also includes an equity adjustment again based on the compensation study. This includes a 5% retroactive increase effective January 5th of this year and then a 1.5% increase effective January 2027 that we're recommending approval of the contract amendment and be happy to answer any questions. Excuse me. I'm told I need to mention that with the 5% retroactive effective January retroactive back to January 5th of this year, the chief salary will be $236,752. Council comments. Seeing none public comments, I would entertain a motion.

Move to approve.

Second. Thank you. Thank you. Um we're almost there. Item G10 is addendum number two to the employee agreement with our economic development director. Um this again includes the same common elements of the 3% colas effective January of 2027 and 2028 medical premium um changes as well as the reduced contribution to um pension cost. This one also includes uh equity adjustments to bring it to the fair market median. Those include a 5% retroactive to January 5th, 2026 this year, which will bring the director salary annual salary to 198,198 a year. And it also includes a 2 and a half% increase effective January 2027. So with those changes, we recommend your approval to answer any questions.

Thank you so much. Council comments, see none public comments. Okay, perfect. I'll wait a motion. So move. Second.

All right, the passes. Let's continue.

Moving along to item G11. This one's a little bit different, the next two. Um, I will just highlight another piece of background for you because these are your appointees. So these are employ such as myself that are directly um employed by and hired and appointed by the city council. And so there's a little bit of a different process and I certainly won't go through all this, but as you can see in this slide, there are six steps to um accomplishing that process of bargaining between your appointees and city council. Um essentially it it starts with um the HR manager initiating that conversation, bringing to you the fact that you're employees are due for a performance evaluation and then that includes a conversation in close session about how their first how was their performance and then second of all what are those the benefit packages that are to be discussed as part of that process. So I will tell you that um I'm not sure if it's on the next slide but we can jump to that um that those particular meetings did occur. The first one occurred on December 17th of last year and then the second process to meet confer finalize the terms of the contract occurred at a special meeting earlier this year on January 27th. So as a result of those conversations in close session, what you have before you next are the proposed amendments for your consideration approval. So the first one is the city attorney's position. Um so this proposed acknowledges those discussions from that special meeting on January 27th. Um I'll skip over the first item again. You'll see here the colas 3% effective January of next year and the following year in 28. The medical premium shares to 90% and then again the reduction in the employee pension contribution. The equity adjustment up at the top again that was

based on a compensation study that was done and so that agreed that agreed upon amount was 9.35 retroactive January 5th of this year bringing the city attorney's annual salary to $33,680. So with that we're recommending your approval of that. answer questions. Thank you so much. Council comments.

If if I might, I think that these last two are the only ones that we actually have the opportunity to do performance review on. So, we actually as a council as a whole met conducted the performance review as city manager indicated and then I appreciated you letting me know what council decided because we don't have notes from those meetings. We don't take notes. We don't get notes. So, it was a refresher to reported in your discussions with the HR manager um as a whole council uh approved uh the next two um because we had the discussion and I needed that refresher I didn't recall us actually having that discussion so because of that and because we had previously indicated uh that that we were going for the meeting of the relative to the standard of compensation survey that we had seen then I thank you for

any more council comments I think can we take public comments to the group okay now Second.

All right. And it passes.

The final item before you tonight is the addendum to the employment agreement with your city clerk. So once again, we follow the same process as we just outlined a moment ago for the city attorney. And in just a moment you'll see that those include similar items. The colas 3% effective next year and the following year 28. The premiums for the medical and the employee pension contributions. This one also includes an equity adjustment that is 5.91% retroactive increase dating back to January 5th of this year which will bring the city clerk's annual salary to $162,842. So with that, that concludes my presentation on these items. Happy to answer any questions.

Thank you so much. It was very efficient. Um, council comments. Seeing none public comments. All right. I want toend a motion. Oh,

actually this is a question um and a recommendation. understand with the appointees that these people report to council the directors however we have a strong city manager form of government and the directors report the city manager it is confusing to me why city council is approving and I know it's coas and all the rest of that stuff but essentially it's a performance issue you don't manage them dayto-day city manager does and it seems to me if there's something in an ordinance that you have to app a contract and that's why it's coming here. Seems like we should clean up that process and not have this. That's my recommendation.

Uh thank you for your comment. Uh see no more uh comments. I would entertain a motion. Move to approve.

Second. any well last item of the night is mine and I will move through it through it quickly. So item H1 is the second reading of ordinance number 2046 um which was introduced on getting my dates here um February 18, 2026 um and it is to revise the LOI municipal code section 13.20.240 schedule G1 general service group um one commercial/industrial and section 13 20.250 schedule G2 general service group 2 commercial/industrial community benefits incentive discount. It is recommended that council fa wave further reading and adopt ordinance 2046.

Thank you so much city clerk. Do we have any public comments? Not on this item. Okay. Any council comments?

I just might I may, Mr. Mayor. Um the I did talk uh with Melissa Price to um clarify uh who is benefiting from this outside of based on their status in a commercial industrial zoning area. So I think I got a satisfy I was satisfied on I am tired um and would just encourage any of the nonprofits out there to reach out to um Jeff I don't Melissa Melissa said she's willing to talk with any of them. So, Loi House will probably give a call um because I think that those nonprofits that are meeting the other criteria um it's pretty specific. It's commercial industrial. So, I'm not quite sure if they qualify or not. So, she's very willing to help everybody through that process. So, I just want to make that statement for them.

Thank you so much. Any more council comments? Then I will entertain a motion. Now it doesn't like me there. All right, it passes. So we'll see no more actions on the agenda. I will adjourn this meeting at 9:16