City Council - Regular Meeting

I will call the meeting to order at 06:31. Our invocation will be done by Brian Graley. And then, Josh, can you please lead us in the pledge of allegiance? Thank you. Welcome.

If you join me in prayer. God of grace and mercy, thank you for the opportunity to gather yet again for the administration of this city. I pray for wisdom and peace and patience. And in this season of of Christmas and holiday celebration, I pray for the peace of Christmas to be where we are. We thank you, father, for the for the privileges of of administrating and leading. I thank you for the the wisdom in each on this council, and I pray for pray for safety and blessing on them and their families. Thank you for the opportunities afforded to us in this country and in this city. We give you praise and thanks. In the name of Jesus and the power of the spirit, I pray. Amen.

Amen. Thank you.

If you please join me or join us in the pledge of allegiance, place your right hand over your heart. Ready? Begin.

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

Can we have a roll call, please?

Mayor Bennington? Here. Mayor Pro Tempoland?

Here.

Council Member Greg?

Here.

Council Member Lee? Here. Council Member Ochoa?

Here.

Thank you. Are there any corrections or revisions to the agenda?

No revisions this evening.

Do we have any closed session reports?

Yes. Thank you madam mayor and members of the city council. We did meet in closed session to discuss one matter of potential litigation but no reportable action was taken.

Okay, thank you. Moving on to presentations. We have two presentations tonight. If counsel will join me in the front please. Good evening.

I'm very, very proud to say that we have another award for our Neighborhood Pride Enhancement Program, and tonight's honoree is Ahmad Hussain, if you'd like to join us, please. Thank you so much. Do we have pictures? Pride enhancement, yes. Nope, okay.

Well, we're proud to say that you have won the Pride Enhancement that was voted on by our City Council Advisor there we go City Advisory Council Committee, the Neighborhood Pride Enhancement Program honors Hesperia residents who contribute to the beauty and charm of our neighborhoods through exterior home improvements. As you can see, that's a huge difference. That's beautiful. These enhancements may include drought tolerant landscaping, rockscaping, fresh exterior paint, and other upgrades. Each quarter, the City Council Advisory Committee selects honorees who receive $1,000 in gift cards and a neighborhood pride enhancement program yard sign to display in front of their homes.

Mr. Hussein has improved the curb appeal of their home by transforming the exterior, obviously from dirt to a finished driveway and adding rockscaping gates, bushes and palm trees. Tonight, we are pleased to present you with the three gift cards from Ace Hardware, Harbor Freight and Affordable Decorative Rock in Cal Herbal Nursery along with the yard sign in recognition of your contribution to enhance the beauty of our city. We appreciate all you did. It's gorgeous.

And there's your yard sign. Yes. It looks like it was a lot of a lot of work. Well, paid off. It's beautiful. Thank you so much. We're gonna do a photo op.

Stand right here.

Yeah.

Thank you. Thank you so much. Appreciate all the hard work.

Thank you so much for having me. Yeah. Thank you, guys. Thank you so much. Thank you. Gorgeous. Thank you. Thank you so much.

Okay.

Presentation to Don Zappia, residential Christmas decorating contest winner. Do you have a picture of that? Driving through town, I think there's so many more people that are putting up Christmas lights. It's really fun to drive around town. Oh, look at that.

That's awesome. So, the residential Christmas decorating contest invites residents to showcase their holiday creativity with festive light displays and decorations. The community votes for their favorite entries through the city's social media pages and website. 14 residents joined the fund this year and over 2,700 community members voted to select the winner. That is awesome. Congratulations to Dan and his family for earning the top spot in our contest. To celebrate your achievement, we're presenting you with a yard sign for our well deserved recognition and a trophy honoring your festive spirit. Thank you so much.

So you

how long does it take you to do all that? Oh. When do you start? January?

Actually, we we start

at Halloween, and then after Halloween ends, then we take some of the stuff down, and we decorate for Christmas. We do from Nightmare Before Christmas. That's their favorite movie, so we kinda do a theme.

Nice. Awesome.

And hence the sweater. Oh, thank you. Absolutely

love it. Thank you so much for your participation. We deeply Well, will have to, this is Cameron Gregg's idea. He came up with it a few years ago, and you want to say a few words?

Absolutely. Well, congratulations. This is a really, to hear those numbers of the resident community involvement in it, it's only growing year over year. I think I've seen more lights out in our community than we So, have in numerous thank you for being so dedicated to getting that spirit of our community back into our community. Awesome. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank

much. You so

Gonna walk around. Moving on to general public comments. Individuals wishing to speak during pub general public comments on a particular numbered item are requested to submit a speaker slip to the city clerk, with the agenda item noted. Speaker slips should be turned in prior to the public comment portion of the joint agenda or before an agenda item is discussed. Comments will be limited to three minutes for general public comments, consent calendar items, and new business items.

Comments are limited to five minutes for public hearing items. In compliance with the Brown Act, the City Council may not discuss or take action on non agenda items or engage in question and answer sessions with the public. The city council may ask brief questions for clarification, provide a reference to a staff or other resources for factual information, then direct staff to add an item to a subsequent meeting. I see we have some general public comments starting with Mr. Nelson. Bob.

Bob Nelson.

Bob Nelson, his fairy neighbor. Well, we did it. Our de facto plan has worked. Sincerely, thank you five seated on the dais very much for participating. Let me explain.

Collectively, during our last four meetings, the six of us have proven absolutely, irrefutably that section fifty four nine fifty seven point nine b added to our sunshine law last year is nothing more than a legal puzzle to silence out welcome, but explicitly first amendment protected speech at its most important moment, presenting a grievance from a public meeting, Rostrom, to the government officials seated on the dais. From my comments during previous meetings, you five well know that on 12/29/2021, a Victorville Courthouse jury said not guilty to each of the two counts right against me for lawfully disturbing the June 6 and 06/12/2021, Hesperia City Council meetings in violation of penal code four zero three by breaches of your three minute rule. And from my past comments, you five also will know that your three minute time limit rule for rostering speakers is unconstitutional on its face for lack of a narrow specificity provision limiting its enforcement to meetings where a time limit is necessary to ensure that all wishing to speak might be heard in the time reasonably set aside for the meeting. In the California Supreme Court's opinion expressed in the matter of Patrick Henry k, Alfred Figueroa, and Royal Lawyer, one Cal three d nine thirty.

You five also well know from my previous Rostrom comments that section fifty four nine fifty seven nine point nine b authorizes the time limit for Rostrom speakers only during meetings where a time limit is necessary to ensure that everyone wishing to speak might be heard in a time reasonably set aside for the meeting. With those last four meeting each ending with at least an hour of their scheduled three hours remaining. And so without Brown Act authority to impose any time limit on Rossum speakers. For a breach of that unconstitutional rule empowered by that nasty section fifty four nine fifty seven point nine b law, which allowed you to effectively place a muzzle on my explicitly first amendment protected speech, yet still authorized the right of exercise by our state's sunshine law. And, at the new mayor's first order of business, out I went, the key element of the moment in our public meeting process escorted by two, this time polite law enforcement deputies.

And, of course, as I have pointed out to you five on the diocese, according to his text, PC four zero three can only be enforced during public meetings, not unlawful in character. Due to First Amendment consideration of PC four zero three conviction is generally penalized by no more than a small fine according to research done by the California Supreme Court for that Patrick Henry k case. Yet the last four citations you five have produced in twenty through '23 for violating a time limit you knew was unconstitutional on its face for that narrow Mister Nelson,

your time is up. We're asking you to step away. No. We don't want you to finish it. Please step away from the podium. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Step away from the podium. Captain Allen, can you please have mister Nelson removed? Thank you.

Kim Jones, please.

Got up here. I wouldn't quite call him that with a little film camera filmed himself using profanity to you people. I was so shocked. I have to put my hands up over my ears, finally. I was very offended by that, and you people did not deserve to be cussed at like that for any reason no matter how a person disagrees with you.

I've disagreed with you folks through the years, not just you, you know, the the the other council through the years doing things, but this place is no place to use profanity. People can disagree, use another type of language, And I was still shocked over it. I mean, I couldn't believe what he was doing. Hey. I'm sorry. I don't talk like that. I know a lot of people do, and I've even heard a couple of you folks out in the parking lot, good natured amongst yourself, using profanity, but not in here. And I please, people don't use that. Don't use it in here. And I'm very offended when people use the name of my lord Jesus Christ as a curse word.

And the other thing that I'm kinda bothered at, and I am bothered, it really doesn't have anything to do with here, but it could. Australia, Sunday, 15 Jewish people were murdered just because they were having a dadgum Hanukkah celebration on the beach. How safe is it for Jewish people in this area or this valley to put a mousseuse on their door or put a menorah in their window? How safe is it? It's getting scary.

I mean, my sister's father was Jewish, and I have been harassed. As far as I know, I'm not Jewish, but my sister's father was half or or was full blood. And the other thing is, I doubt if you folks would do it, but how about putting a menorah at the city hall in your window? I mean, you'd have to put, a nativity set and a few other things too, you know, but just to show solidarity, we ain't gonna tolerate this prejudiced. One of them ladies that was killed or the people who was killed was 87 year old Holocaust survivor, dad coming.

It's getting like the nineteen thirties Germany here in The United States and in Europe and all these other countries. And I'm fearful even when you had the protest with the Gaza folks, and I spoke during the break to one of them boys come by there and give me an obscene gesture right in this room during the break. How safe is it for people that are Jewish or their support Jews? That's what I'd like to know. Thank you for your valuable time.

Thank you. Gina Whalen, please.

Good evening. How are you guys today? First of all, I'd like to say the lights on the poles are awesome on the street lights because I get up really early and I drive my bus really early. Awesome to see. But my friend had a good question because she lives on the other side of the bridge. What about the other street poles down there? There's like no decorations on there. Maybe I don't know if that can be done if it's not too late. Just asking for my friend. Another thing, Councilmember Greg, you had asked about policies and procedures when I brought up the subject about the quarantine area, the escort only areas.

I know you can't answer the questions, but do they even have them? Do they exist? I would like to know. I'd like to see their written policy because I am still being met with resistance, being denied, being escorted in there. Staff will not I'm being told that staff won't escort me in there without a supervisor on-site. But when people go in there looking for their dogs, do they have to wait for a supervisor on-site? That's not fair, that's not right. They're allowed to go and see those areas to look for their lost pets. Or am I just being targeted and harassed because you know, I've brought out the truth and helping out brought out the truth of what has been going on in the shelter? I've actually been going in there and doing good.

You all see my social media, you know what I post on there. I've been diligently working those, networking those animals, trying to save lives, and I've done a pretty good job. My pictures and videos, like I said, are still being used by networkers and center rescues. I know that the staff do a good job too, the ones that do go out there and take video, but come on. I mean, that's not right. I feel that my rights are being violated. I don't see why a staff member can't walk me through those restricted areas. Every animal needs to be noticed there, and a lot of them aren't. Also, do you guys know who Romina Gonzalez is? She is the Community Program Manager, aka the Shelter On-site Manager there.

She's there from Monday to Friday. She's actually a wonderful lady, and she has great ideas for the shelter, wonderful ideas for the shelter, which I would hope that the city manager and Melinda Sayer, and I'll even include Caleb Enriquez because he still has somewhat to do with the shelter without actually officially being in the mix. But you all should meet with her. I highly doubt that you know who she is, have met with her, and I feel that the council should meet with her and go over her wonderful ideas to help make the shelter better. Because I like to do that.

I like to volunteer my time to help, too. And please fix the social media page. It's an infomercial. Put animals up there like Apple Valley and the other shelters do. That helps save lives, too. Thank you so much.

Do we have any additional public comment cards?

No more white cards.

Thank you. Moving on to joint consent calendar. Do I have a motion to move the consent calendar?

Madam Mayor, I'd like to pull item number four.

Thank you.

Other than that, I'll make a motion to approve all the rest of the items minus item number four.

Thank you very much.

We do have common cards for item seven. Okay. On the consent calendar.

Okay. So you wanna pull item four?

And I'll request that we pull item number seven as well. Okay. My motion to approve the joint consent calendar minus item number four and item number seven.

Do I have a second? Can we have a vote, please? Motion passes five five zero excluding items four and seven. Any your discussion for item four please?

So my question kind of stems around what is the full purpose and scope of this. I know that I've read the information but I did receive some questions from the community regarding item number four, how this pertains to silverware maintenance more specifically. So if you can provide a little bit of background on that, I think that would go a long way.

Sure. So, this is a part of the, SB165, which requires that the city, on an annual basis, basically disclose what the funds that are taken related to each one of those CFDs. So it provides the information as far as any funds that were taken through the taxpayers that participate in the CFDs and in any use of those funds. So it's just an annual disclosure.

Okay. Just as a clarifying point, whenever it mentions the CFD that encompasses the Silverwood project, that's basically an it's essentially a separate tax that's levied upon that area to cover the expenses such as police, fire, animal control, and those kinds of things. And we actually report on that on an annual basis. Is that safe to say?

Correct, yes.

Thank you, sir. That's my only question to that.

Do we have any additional questions regarding that? Moving on for public comment on item seven.

We would need to vote on item four first.

Okay. I was gonna combine them. Thank you. Do I have a first by council member Greg, a second by council member Lee? Can we have a vote, please?

Item passes. Five zero. Moving on to item seven, public comment. I don't have oh, Mr. Voegler, please.

Good evening, city council. I'm Al Vogler. How unfortunate that the sales tax contract is on the agenda during the holidays when the audience is almost nonexistent. The potential contract to Team CivX may cost over $200,000 This is an example of why Hesperia wants more general fund money, which can then be spent on anything the city council wishes. Unfortunately, the only available public information does not give statistical data regarding the proposed tax rate increase or what the average Hesperia taxpayer may expect in an annual total sales tax increase.

There is no data expressing how much additional money the city expects annually. Will the sales tax be collected, for instance, from illegal street vendors? You may not justify an increase by stating that other cities have higher sales tax rates. Similar arguments were used in raising Hesperia's water rates three different times. The proposed higher rates will force some Hesperia shoppers to go elsewhere.

Hesperia's overspending on real estate, a $1,250,000 deficit on the Hesperia Golf Course, untimely expenditures on flood control, and an attempt to pass an additional tax on property owners near the golf course are all examples of misplaced unnecessary priorities. Public safety and road conditions including roads on which people have died are more important than continuously spending to raise salaries and benefits for employees or spending on a golf course which loses money each year. Why was team CivX chosen? Perhaps because they have the highest success rate of sales tax increases. I wonder what the bids were of all of the other bidders.

Again, no information was given to the public. It is ironical that Hesperia taxpayers' money will be spent to raise our taxes yet again. Please do not vote to pass the team CIVEX contract. Thank you.

Mr. Chuck Wolfe, please.

Hi, I'm Chuck Wolfe. Please excuse me, I'm dressed. I didn't know anything about this item seven until about twenty hours ago. Okay, so my little talk here might be a little bit hyphenated by other items, but I just want to talk to you and address the background, first of all, on this item. It says here, acting on the City Council's direction I'm reading right straight from your staff report a request for a proposal RFP was released on September 21 with a submission deadline of October 16, yada yada yada.

Each proposal was evaluated by a seven member staff review committee consisting of the city manager, assistant city manager, deputy city manager, director of development services, director of public works, deputy HR, whichever I don't know what is that. What's that deputy HR? Human resources? Nobody can answer. Okay.

IT director, deputy city engineer. On that committee, there was no citizen representation unless you guys just had a misprint. So anyhow, then it goes on to say something about a team civics and that they're okay to go ahead with a success because they have a success rate exceeding 90% to go ahead with a survey of the attitude of the local area toward a tax change. You didn't say raising taxes, got to hand it to you, okay? Or you didn't say anything about reducing taxes, I still got to hand it to you.

It's blowing smoke but that's okay. I just want to address this counsel with a book, Taxes Have Consequences, by a guy by the name of Arthur B. Laffer, PhD. His team also consists of Brian Demetrivik, PhD, and Jeanie Karnes, PhD. PhD does not stand for piled high and deep.

These people have educations on how to handle taxes and policy. In this book it talks basically about a larger, more macro issue which is federal taxes, federal income taxes. I suggest we use the same format in examining our local taxes. I want to push as a representative of the community, I hope, I hope, I want to suggest that the people that are trying to push for an examination sales tax consider my proposal. My proposal is that we reduce the sales tax in Aspiria to 5%.

No higher, maybe lower. Who cares? Right? If it's lower, it's fine. But at 5%. And what I will tell you

you. Your time is up. Thank you very much. Do we have any additional public comment cards regarding item number seven?

No more white cards.

Do we have any council comments? Go ahead please.

So I do want to clarify some of the things that Mr. Wolf spoke to. As far as the panel that was to select the company, that wasn't to place a tax on or anything like that. It's to sort through all the RFPs that we do get in for that and weed through those. One thing that I want to take note of on this is that I've noticed most of our contracts, the contingency is usually 10%. I'm kinda wondering why this one's 15. I'm sure Casey can probably chime in on that one.

Sure. So the the reason of 15% and you're correct. Most contracts are 10%. The reason for 15% is this particular contract is not only doing a study of registered voters to see if a tax is feasible. They will monitor that that, statistical study. So there is money built into that. If it looks like it's feasible, the 15% comes in in case there is additional need of further public engagement, having those conversations with the public. So if we're getting close to that threshold, that's why 15% contingency is there to further have communication with the public to talk about if the citizens would be open to a sales tax.

So in my opinion that should be part of the initial contract where we would see that 215,000 not on the back end of it but

So specifically the reason the 15% comes in is working with the consultant we have two registered mailers in there. The 15% is if we need a third mailer. So if we don't then we wouldn't use that 15% at all. That's how the math breaks out. And that's why 15% was built into this contract.

And I wanted to piggyback off what Casey said. The intent was not to award it if we didn't need it, but just use contingency to cover it if it should be necessary. So you won't commit to it currently.

But we usually do that with every other contract anyways with that contingency. So what I'm concerned about is that we're we're kinda getting these cost plus contracts in the form of a instead of a 10% contingency, now we're at 15%. Where does it end? Does it become a 20% contingency if the city so chooses to elect? Whenever I know that we send out contracts in their entirety of what we want, why are we kind of biting at at the bit of, you know, additional sales pitches and stuff like that?

We should send out the contract based on the intent, let the bidders respond with that intent, and not kinda dangle additional things in there. That's just my take on it. I I could look. The people that went through this, I have complete faith in judging that. So that was just my my only caveat to that is I wanted to make sure sanity check for myself that normally we only do 10%. Why is it a 15% now?

I I I wanted to point out it it wouldn't be a sales pitch. It would be community engagement explaining the need for it, not necessarily a sale pitch. The the the city would be neutral Was the next presenting an information.

Was the next lowest bidder on this? Were they at a 15% contingency as well?

So the the vendor did not ask for a 15% contingency. This that was that was staff recommendation putting this together for that in case a third engagement was needed.

Was that offered to the to the that second company as well?

If if the second vendor was selected by the during the which which they weren't. If they were selected, it would have been my recommendation to do another 15% contingency for that community engagement if a third one is needed to tell our story.

Thanks, Casey. And and, you know, kinda to piggyback off this as well is that this isn't we're not proposing a tax increase right now. This is all about community involvement engagement. But seeing that they have a 90% success rate kinda tells me that they're they're good at their job and what we requested them to do in that sense, and I get that. But I know our community as well, and any kind of vote measure on this stuff is gonna be very close. So we have to send that out. Let let the residents get the full information, and then we'll come back here based with based off of that information whether or not we send it out to the vote. Just a clarifying point, mister Wolf, on that.

Certainly. Thank you, Councilmember Greg. This action by the City Council, should they approve this contract, it does not add anything to the ballot. That action, will come several months down the line. It will be agendized. This action only engages consultant.

Absolutely.

That consultant will engage with the residents, and they will bring back recommendations to the city council. The city council will weigh those recommendations, and the council will then decide whether it is appropriate to add to the ballot or not. But that is several months away, likely late spring.

It would be in the calendar June or July. The council would have to make a decision.

And it is for consulting purposes only. We're not putting a tax on. We're doing public outreach to the public. There was a workshop at our August August 19 council meeting that we had public comment regarding and what that 1% tax would be used for for improvements. So it is not going on the ballot.

We are doing the con the consulting firm to do the research on it to see if it's feasible for us to put it on the ballot and reaching out to our public, getting their opinion on it as well, and to what the benefits will bring to our residents with the one with the percent, whatever percent we come up with tax increase. Any additional comments?

Yes. Casey, just for clarification, because Mr. Wolf proposed reducing taxes, local taxes to 5%. How much do Hesperia residents currently pay in a sales tax?

Of the 7.75%, 6% goes to the state, half a percent or 0.75%

will go to the county and the city gets its state allocated share of 1%. Of 1%. And if in the event we were to proceed to put this on the ballot, let's say, let's just forecast to November and it were to pass, how much would how can I say this? At that 1%, how much would a Hesperian have to spend in the city of Hesperia to pay $1,000 a year in taxes?

Let me bust out the calculator.

So you're asking if it was an Yes. Additional one Because it can vary 05%, three quarters.

Right. Or

up to two.

Up to two. So $1,000 would be $10 Let's say they make $1,000 of taxable goods, which doesn't include your most of your groceries unless it's prepared food, medical items and prescriptions are exempt. So think of it as this, I'm gonna buy this iPhone. You would have to an additional thousand dollars would yield $10 cost to to that person. Yet a 100% of that increase comes back to the city. It does not go to the state. It does not go to the county.

So that increase that tax would go straight back to the city? That is correct. That is correct. So that would go towards our roads, capital improvements and things like that. Do you mean general fund, excuse me?

Correct. It would go into the general fund and it would be it could be allocated to the programs that the council sees fit.

Okay. And the the just a comment. I as a working poor person, right? Doesn't you don't think that with me sitting up here. I live paycheck to paycheck.

You know, so I I understand what it's like to make, you know and and mind you, I pay I make a decent wage and I'm very transparent on what I make. I make about $32 an hour working as a supervisor in health care. And I know what it's like to go paycheck to paycheck, having to budget, making sure I have enough to pay my groceries, my bills, making sure I have new clothes for my kids. So I understand what the impact of a sales tax could be, but I also understand what the impact of not having one in our community is and that's our crumbling roads, that is our lack of resources. We have the opportunity to seize an investment in our city And if we do it responsibly, transparently and keep the community involved, just as yourself coming in and speaking and seeing what we could do to marry that, I think we have the opportunity to do something beautiful, long lasting that will ultimately give something to our generations to come, our posterity.

Sir,

you had your public comment. Thank you, sir. You did your public comment. And do we have any additional counsel comments?

That's my final comment. Thank you.

Thank you. Do I have a motion? Do I have a second? Can we have a vote, please? Item passes, five-zero. Moving on to item number nine, public hearing. Comments for public hearing items are limited to five minutes per individual. Do we have a I see we have a staff report.

And

staff to present. Thank you.

Good evening, mayor and council members. Tonight, I present to you a development code amendment to establish outdoor residential lighting standards as well as update existing language within the general performance standards pertaining light site lighting for commercial and industrial uses. To begin, over the recent years, code enforcement has received an increase in complaints from residents due to excessive bright lights encroaching from adjacent properties. It was then recognized that there is little to limited guidance within the development code to restrict outdoor lighting within residential areas. The amendment would establish such standards to restrict residential outdoor lighting to 0.1 foot candles at property lines adjacent to residential uses and 0.5 foot candles at right of way and require that lights be shielded, directed downwards, and maintained in a manner to keep light from encroaching onto neighboring properties.

The standards would also require security lights to be motion censored with a maximum duration of five minutes. Lastly, the standards would prohibit flashing or blinking lights with the exception of holiday lighting, which we will discuss next. Temporary holiday lighting shall be subject to the following restrictions. Lighting shall be used for decorative purposes from November 15 through January 15 for winter holidays or within thirty days of other nationally recognized holidays and shall not create a traffic hazard by impairing visibility of drivers or mimicking emergency vehicle lighting. Furthermore, while reviewing the development code, staff recognized inconsistencies between the general performance standards and light requirements listed within our parking standards for developments.

The final component of this amendment would consolidate the two sections and restrict exterior lighting for all uses to 0.5 foot candles at property lines adjacent to any residentially zoned properties. In all, the amendment will establish clear and enforceable standards while resolving existing inconsistencies. This is the end of my presentation, and I'm available for any questions.

Thank you. At this time, I would like to open the public comment at 07:13. Do we have any public comment cards regarding this item?

No white cards.

Thank you. Then I will close the public hearing at 07:14. Do we have any council comments? Please go ahead.

Do we have a number of complaints? Do we have a trend chart of how many has occurred over the last two years roughly?

We don't have a trend chart per se. This was really a result of code enforcement and a request to amend our development code. As Leilani mentioned, our development code currently contains standards for commercial industrial properties and maximum lighting intensity at the property lines, but it doesn't contain any standards at all for residential to residential property lines. I would say on average, we experienced a couple of complaints a year.

A whole couple of complaints a year and yet here we are trying to reinvent the wheel whenever we have illegal dumping within the cities, fireworks within the cities, and other things that we can't control. I can I can understand and respect that we're adding this? This gives an opportunity to enforce a certain standard. Right? But if we are sending our folks out there to enforce something like this and taking away from other high needed items, it's kind of a mute point.

The other the other aspect to this is I'm curious as as does this go deep enough? What about our flashing stop signs that we have? Is that in violation of this, or it's not because it's our it's the city's? There's lots of things here that I can see that can start becoming really petty on homeowners whenever there's way more items that we need to be taken care of. So for one or two complaints a year, even if that number was five complaints a year, I'd be curious to see how many complaints we have for illegal dumping, fireworks calls, loud music. We should probably start looking at those items before we start trying to enforce something like this. That's just my take.

Is this kind of in unison with Silverwood development and they're honoring the, think the low lighting in their development. Is this something that maybe as a takeoff for those residents that are not in a planned community?

So this doesn't have anything to do with Silverwood per se. Silverwood and the entire city has a dark sky

Dark sky, thank you.

And this doesn't in any way change or alter that. But the reason for this development code amendment was it was property owners who were calling code enforcement as a complaint or as a nuisance upon their property because of extreme lighting intensity. And really, this just adds teeth to the development code so that code enforcement can enforce those standards when they are called out there because of a complaint from a property owner.

And I agree with you a 100%, council member Greg, but I know in my neighborhood, there's a bright light that it looks like lights are shining in the back of my house and the front of my house, and it never goes off. So my bedroom is in the back of the house, so it's not as bad. But when I wake up, I think somebody is in my driveway. Haven't been one that complains.

I was just gonna say that.

I you know, I'm hoping we're not taking

our order. My neighbors are amazing, but and it is distracting when you're driving down the road because you tend to go toward go towards the light. So and this is our our houses are set back off of our street too. So I could see if one is an entrance to a gate, your yard that if it's bright, that it may be distracting to a driver. But and I I can go either way on this one, but I do see that it if we don't start something now we seem to be behind the eight ball on some of the ordinances and municipal code amendments that we make.

So more and more people are going to be moving up here. So are we behind the eight ball or are we in front of it before it does become an issue and we have people that are injured or hurt as a result of distracted driving or distractions. So As a whole.

Go ahead, please. So are the lights that are outside of our city hall and the sheriff's station Are those on distance. Within this limits? There are a lot of residents that are close on 7th over on 9th.

We haven't taken any measurements of those, so I can't say with all certainty.

So if we do pass this, we have to make sure that those are in compliant with this code. Am I correct?

Correct. Now the measurements taken from the property line. So typically like here at City Hall, have lighting within the parking lot, but the measurements taken from the adjacent property line.

And I do I'm asking the general question, but I do notice that we do have trees that do block them, which are great.

What are we using as nationally recognized holidays? What the city uses or what framework are we using for that? I I asked because it says from November 15 to January 15, but we just awarded someone that said they decorate from before Halloween till and then I'd argue that, like, there's other holidays. Like, how much time are we really gonna be spending enforcing this? Like, when we use this thirty day window.

Too much time for two complaints.

Well, think generally the intent is to use the city recognized holidays. To your point, it's hard to say how much time we spend. We spend some of that time regardless. We get a handful of complaints annually from people whose quality of life they communicate to the city is being diminished because of these lights. And there's nothing in the code that allows us to do anything.

But these come in year after year after year. And some of those lights are more intrusive than others. I don't know that Christmas decorations are a great example. I'm not saying they're not. Don't I've never spoken with a code complainant that's complained about Christmas decorations, but a lot of the complaints come from individuals whose neighbor may have a floodlight of type of sorts that is angled into windows of the home.

And depending on where those lights are located, you know, the complaint you know, from the code enforcement perspective, if there's nothing in the code that we can do about it, you know, it can be, you know, difficult to tell people, I'm sorry, you know, there's there's no recourse for you. But, you know, those calls will continue to come in. If the council chooses to leave the code as is, you know, we can explain to the residents. I mean, the same thing that we explain now. There's nothing in the code, and and also the council recently took action to, you know, let the code remain.

But it's a lot of those floodlights. I mean, we've you know, those of us who've lived in Asperia a long time, some neighborhoods in Asperia are very, very dark. Some lot sizes are very, very large. Sometimes those lights can be necessary,

and sometimes

just adjusting where the light is being shown is all that's needed. But if we can't require someone to adjust it at all, then a neighbor may be plagued with their home being flooded by a light that may be appropriate if adjusted.

So And and I think that that's what's important to look. An egregious amount of light that somebody's doing it probably intentionally because they don't like their neighbor is different than opening the floodgates to this. We have two complaints or a let's say a handful of complaints a year right now. As soon as you create an ordinance, now you're gonna start having people, well, you know, somebody told on me, now I'm gonna tell on somebody else. It could get real iffy. And and, again, you know, this was a point five candle lights. We don't I guess it's hard for me to imagine what that is without seeing it in in kind of some perspective.

I I think that's a fair point. And if the council would like us to bring this back and we can add more code enforcement information, we

can

have demonstrations of what the light looks like so we can bring some clarity to discussion, we'd be happy to bring it back in the New Year for further consideration and discussion.

I would like to see that, get more information. Please. Great presentation, but I think, again, more define what a I know what a huge spotlight is. I see it. But, I mean, what is going to be recommended? And, I mean, the housing tracks, I could see everyone most people wanna protect their yards. So if but I think a motion light is very acceptable where if somebody comes by that comes on, but the ones that stay on all night long could be very distracting. So Talk to your neighbors, folks

Yeah.

Because a lot of this could probably be eliminated by that.

Okay. Absolutely.

Madam Mayors, with that, I'll make the motion that we push this item till we have more information regarding the full scope of this.

I have a first by council member Greg, a second by council member Ochoa. Can we have a vote, please? The item passes unanimously. Thank you. Moving on to new business, item number 10, traffic cabinets wrap discussion.

Do we have oh, there you are. I didn't see you. I'm sorry, Kelly. You snuck up there.

Good evening, mayor and council members. Tonight, I'm here to continue our discussion from the December 2 meeting on traffic cabinet wraps. There are currently 34 traffic signals in the city of Isberia with the potential to add two additional signals next year. You may recall at the December 2 meeting I did state that there were 32 however we did just energize the signal at Timberlane and Sultana and the one over off of Phelan And Caliente will soon come online. Staff is recommending with starting with 12 cabinets annually for the first three years and on year four an update to the original 12 from year one will be undertaken.

To implement this new program, it is recommended that the city council approve five themes for the community to vote on. Those five themes include desert beauty, active community, community connected, flora and fauna of the Mojave River Valley, and seasons and colors of Hesperia. Please keep in mind that we are keeping the themes a little bit more broad in nature as creativity does vary from person to person. The city council is also being asked to approve the yearly wrap installation locations. Year one is approximately the same list that I presented during the December 2 meeting with the addition of 8th Avenue at Smoke Tree Street, which is the signal right here at the Paseo at City Hall, which connects us to the county buildings.

Year two and year three, we have added the two additional signals you'll see at the bottom, which is 7th Avenue and Sequoia Street and Ranchero Road at I Avenue. The recommended photography contest will help protect our city's brand and image. The contest would be open to all Hispere residents, and the initial judging would be done by the CCAC. Their recommendations would then be presented to the community to vote on for the 12 cabinets each year. That concludes my presentation. I'm available for any questions.

Thank you. Do we have any questions from council? Nothing? So you're asking us to recommend that staff city council provide direction to staff on opportunities to implement a traffic. I would like to see this moving forward.

I think it's a great idea. If it were my recommendation, I would like to keep it to floral and fauna of the Mojave River Valley. I like the idea of community connected regarding our residents, their activities. However, I do have concern about privacy, permission, and then also if we're working on I mean, it's no I I'm very vocal about softball. It's always been my sport.

You know? If we're focused on youth groups, what youth groups, I would be a little reluctant to move forward with that one. Love the photography. I think that's a great idea and capturing the beauty of our desert. And I will look to my counsel to see their thoughts on this. Madam Mayor, I think

this is a great idea pushing forward. I think I mentioned last go around about trying to get tri agency involved with trying to know, share the cost in this. It's a good opportunity for community involvement from other governmental agencies. I I did see a lot of public outreach regarding the cost. Why is the city of Asperia looking to spend between this much and this much whenever we should be fixing roads or whatever the case is there?

Whenever we highlight highlight this, you look at the material that that's there in those cabinets now, metal paint. Right? Anytime we have to do graffiti removal, the cost is gonna be, you know, substantially more than replacing a wrap. So and I think that this has with the wrap, we're able to actually get rid of the graffiti a little bit easier than on metal containers. So there is a cost neutrality there at least, if not a cost savings in the long run for this.

So this is a long term kind of investment, I would say. And I I see Cassie back there shaking her head that yet that this is a a plus for the city in that sense. I like the fact that Kelly brought back with these items in your team. Really helped us versus, you know, this kind of robust area of we didn't know which avenue to go. So I think narrowing that down definitely helps us.

Definitely. I also wanted to highlight the protection that these wraps provide for the internal components of these power boxes. So we're actually investing in protecting what we own and what's ours. I do like the idea of community connected as well. I'm also concerned about maybe using images of people without consent.

Maybe moving forward, maybe we could do some type of release of consent at our healthy events because we do a lot of photography there, a lot of posting of pictures. So I mean maybe something that we can do and see if people want to be actually be memorialized and put on our wraps. I don't know if that's something that we have to worry about Pam legally.

It depends on the subject. Obviously, for minors, yes, we would need a release from The Guardian and all of that. And generally, if we do use certain photos, we'd have to ensure that they are covered if they're not from the city but from somebody else. I have seen that sometimes it may be easier to graffiti on faces than flowers. That's just my personal observation. It's not a legal conclusion, but that's another concern as well.

And maybe Desert Beauty might be an option for for now.

I think it would become a little too labor intensive for staff to try to pin down who, what, where, and get the appropriate signature for the release of the photos. I love the idea because we're about community, but I just think it's not set in stone. If we move forward with one theme, we still have two more phases that we could phase in other ideas as well. So that's my recommendation is to move forward. I do have one more question. Okay, please. I'm sorry.

That's okay.

Oh, there you are. Do

do we have any rough estimate cost of what it takes to remove graffiti paint from these boxes? If not, I I mean, we're gonna.

We don't have a cost to remove an individual item. Oftentimes, the cost savings that we would, you know, achieve is in not having to spend staff time, you know, to to go out and remove the graffiti. We have staff, you know, rotating throughout the city removing graffiti each week, but I couldn't pinpoint, know, the cost of one graffiti removal.

I am also concerned with the amount of pushback, I would say, that we got on social media for this.

And so if I could speak to that. I saw some of the comments and concerns. One way to view a program like this, and I think it's shared in a lot of municipalities, is that these type of programs are considered to be a form of public art. We allude to that in the staff report. And communities like ours, we don't have a lot of examples of public art.

Even something small a traffic cabinet is a small form of public art, but it is truly public art. And when we all visit other communities that we love and enjoy, sometimes public art in those communities are some of our favorite components of the community. In February, when the Civic Plaza Park was being constructed and it opened in 2008, it unveiled the globe that's in the park. That globe received quite a bit of criticism because of the expenditure. The globe that is at the fountains in the park is a form of public art, and at the time, I believe, $50,000 Those types of installations in communities can change the way a community feels about their park.

They can be things that attracted them to those installations. They can be the source of pride. They can be a great monument, a great landmark. I saw criticism at the time about that expenditure. And also, I saw people saying, well, why don't you do x, y, and z? I don't know if we save $1,800 on one traffic cabinet that someone will be satisfied with that. It's hard to say with public sentiment.

Would please everybody.

Yeah. And so it is a decision that, you know, each council makes when they consider things like this. Historically, even our Christmas decorations on Main Street is a form of public art. And those investments in communities have been done in Hesperia very incrementally. Certainly, you can see, even with our Christmas decorations, we don't have, you know, enough allocated to our decoration budget to be able to have decorations at every signal.

And just very recently, just this calendar year, did we energize some of those so we could have illuminated decorations. This is the first year we've ever had illuminated decorations outside of the parking lots here. So those are certainly real considerations for city councils to make. Again, Hesperia has only done incremental programs or projects and spent relatively, you know, little money to be able to deliver some of these things that make communities feel a certain type of way. But the criticism, certainly, we hear it.

We're not insensitive to it. We're very responsive to what the council prefers. I think, you know, in researching these type of projects, other cities have received similar criticism, but our approach is, you know, a graduated approach in phasing the delivery. If we had, you know, some budgetary concern or the city council wanted to take alternate direction after the first year, certainly they could. But in totality, all of them could be delivered for, I think, 60,000 if we were to do it all at once, about the cost of that globe that's in the park that was there in 2008.

So I hope that answers your question. Yes, I do have

one more thing. I know we have several of these boxes that are near schools, and I think that the children would like it if we chose a piece of art from a student from the school that it's near to So,

know, Kelly and I did discuss that I think it would be challenging to try to assign art in a certain location, and the art that we're referring to are photographs. We are going to be actively speaking with our Tri Agency members about encouraging their participation. The Parks District and the School District both have a lot of youth programs that we would love to push out this program to. But it would be hard, I mean, if we had two winners, you know, from a vicinity who we didn't really wanna get into, you know, a location war. And also, with the phasing of this, in replacing the art after it's been out in the elements for four years, it will be ever evolving.

So if the council would like to do that, we could try to make some tweaks. But again, we anticipate that lots of photographers in the community will be submitting, not just students. So I don't know that we would necessarily know if a student went to a certain school the way that it's structured right now. The structure that's presented includes judging by the city council advisory committee. We anticipate a lot of interest.

We've had photo contests in the past. We got a lot of interest in those. We most recently did it for the city's twenty fifth anniversary. Great submissions. But because of all that interest, we're anticipating the committee will have quite a few to narrow down for us to put onto social media. I also wanted to inquire. The staff report is written where the identified themes would be provided to the community to select.

Oh, okay.

And so, if you would like to strike one of these themes, assuming this program is approved, please let us know which theme you would not like us to present. At the last discussion, Council Member Greg did request that the community select the theme. So if one of these themes you don't think is a good fit, we will strike it and present the remaining. Or if the council, would like to go in another direction and you select the theme, please let us know.

Could I recommend a theme? Because it's just been Certainly. Yeah, it's patriotism. Think we have our city as a longstanding history of military service and law enforcement service as well and fire service. I think this would be an opportunity, something that we could add on and highlight heroes, fallen heroes as well, and have portraits or murals done of people who have given their lives and service to our country.

If the council would like to add that theme and present six themes, I mean, it's the council's pleasure. Again, if we provide these to the community for their decision, we'd like to provide something that the council is good with no matter which six or five are selected. So whatever the council's pleasure.

Yeah. I I wouldn't have any problem adding that on there. And then from those six items, the community look. If we can get as much community involvement in this as we did with the the voting for the Christmas lights, I think we'll be in the positive for getting some engagement here from the community. So I'm hopeful in that. So it'd be nice to six, I think, is good. It gives a little bit more options. People like choices these days. So

I would like I move forward with adding the patriotism portion, but I am concerned about the community connected. I would upon, my, council being with me on this one, I, would replace that one versus with the community connected. I think it's gonna be problematic for authorization and allowing pictures, community events. I just I see that as and maybe I'm being drama. I'm okay with that too, but I think it's more problematic than it would be beneficial.

Well, why didn't you pick us? We do those for the community. You have a lot of groups that do a lot for the community, but maybe they're not the most popular community event out there. So that would be my recommendation is do the five and replace it with honoring our patriots.

And it's the council's pleasure on what you'd like to select, but

recognizing

that patriotism, someone could interpret that as submitting a photograph of a patriot, we may run into that same issue.

Yeah, that's And

in the history of our military banner program, we do get waivers from families that are participating in those programs. But we have had some patriots request their faces be removed. So on a couple of occasions, a proud mama has come and enrolled her service member, and that service member has requested it be removed. They had a sensitive assignment, and it was, you know, obviously the mother, very proud, well intentioned, but we would want to get clarification on what type of patriotism. Sometimes certain photos of individuals are great candidates, while portrait type photos can be difficult candidates as far as submissions.

So if you have a photograph, for example, of a crowd in a public place, like perhaps the tree lighting ceremony, and it's just a crowd of people and an illuminated Christmas tree, that may be a fine submission. Generally, there is no expectation of privacy when you're gathering in a public place, And so that may be perfectly fine, but a portrait of somebody, maybe an up close shot of somebody at that tree, and that's not your somebody, that's not your child or anybody, and it may be a cool shot, but that would be problematic for us to use.

So I think that that would be smart to just remove the portrait aspect of it, because I don't think that that would be our intent anyways. You know, the intent would be to do something like advanced disposal with a student submitted drawing or artwork in that kind of sense. Right. Or, you know, as Rachel mentioned, the the candor, the tree lighting ceremony where it's a, you know, people in the in the background type of thing. So I I think if we eliminate the portrait aspect out of that Right. I think that takes care of of your concerns, Bridget,

I would I would think.

I I know I also I'm sorry. And also the graffiti aspect. I think Yeah.

I agree with Pam. People are more likely to maybe draw funny mustache on a face, you know, than are to really maybe deface a picture of a Joshua tree, which is less money.

Yeah. I I I would like to not have portrait portrait tape photos on there.

If we're going to be honoring our law enforcement and our heroes in our community, if that's what we wanna do, I would look into doing it as we do our military personnel. The same, so it's up high and on our go along that lines instead of putting them on a traffic cabinet. My recommendation.

These are all gonna be filtered through the community and then our advisory committee. So I mean, there's a big process of checks and balances in this to where you're gonna should be able to weed out most of that that kind of stuff.

Yeah. I agree.

We can certainly add into the guidelines as well for all of them that faces will not be included. It doesn't have to be just to the few.

Perfect.

And so did the city council want to move forward with the five themes, or are we doing a sixth?

I would recommend for removing item three. That's my recommendation. I

wouldn't be for removing that because I don't see any any issue with some of those. I I see that the, you know, people centered themes, but are we trying to get back to that community type setting, community gatherings? I mean, the Spurrier Days, the Spurrier Days Rodeo, that would fall under that category. So I would just leave it in there. Let the community decide. I mean, they'll agree with you, but let's give them that opportunity, I would think, versus maybe pulling it.

I It's adding the sixth. Just add the sixth.

Add the sixth. Yeah. And no portraits. No portraits which we should eliminate concern.

Do I

That'll be my motion then.

Can we have a vote, please? Item passes unanimously. Moving on to our next agenda item is item 11, city council appointments to outside agencies. We do this annually, and we will start with are we going to have a oh, we don't we don't we love you, Melinda, but we do this all the time. So okay. Oh, Rachel?

Oh, it's

it's Jessica. Okay. Jessica has a few words to say.

So What are your words,

the last item before you is the annual selection of City Council agencies, committees, appointments. Historically, the council has looked at the list given in your agenda packet and gone agency by agency and reached a consensus together and then taken one motion and a vote at the end of the of the item. It's open for discussion.

Perfect. Thank you very much. So we will start with Cal Cities, League of California Cities, and the Inland Empire Desert Mountain Division.

I don't get mad at me, but I think that it needs to be Cameron. He's on the ethics committee. He got voted into the ethics committee, so I think that would be a good choice.

I was on it for many years. I gave it up last year. I thought I was going to be on an additional committee. I too was on the I was on the transportation committee and still receiving notifications on that. So I would like to be considered as a primary to the Cal cities.

I'm good with that. Do you wanna input Cameron as this as the alternate?

Yeah. Since I was appointed

You were appointed. My will. I

should probably be more involved with that if that's counsel, I guess, that sense. I'd be more than happy to to fill in for that if if Chris is willing to give that alternatives the alternate spot up for that.

Def definitely.

Okay. So if we have the consensus, I would be the primary, and council member Greg would be the alternate for the Cal Cities, League of California Cities. And we will vote on that. Correct, Jessica?

No. At the end, do we just Yeah. Wanna burn through

Oh, okay. Okay. So we're okay with this one. MDA QMD, I've been on that too.

I'd like nominate you to to remain on that. I didn't see any any problem with that. I I didn't have to fill in for you, which was great. But if you if you need me to fill in still, I can do that unless somebody else wants to take over that alternate spot.

I'm good with leaving it the way it

support it.

Okay. That's okay. SBCTA, San Bernardino County Transportation Authority. I would continue to like Josh to represent us on that. Hear good things from the other committee members on that. And then also you were asked to chair committee?

No. General policy committee.

Okay.

On the general policy committee along with, the Mount Desert Committee and the Metro Valley Study.

And I will continue to be the alternate unless anyone else would like to take on that role.

I think I agree with those.

Okay. San Bernardino County Solid Waste Task Force. I don't remember council member Greg never being a part of that, honestly.

And It's twice a year.

And then even if they did have it, I think staff went anyways. So is it that's okay with with staff for for attending that, then I can remain the, like, pseudo alternate if you need me. Absolutely. Need me for that.

Perfect. Victor Valley Economic Development Authority, VBEDA. Primary is council member Ochoa. Alternate is council member Lee. We're good with that.

Did you have any meetings?

We had one.

Special meetings as needed. Moving on to Victor Valley Transit Authority, BBTA. Currently, the primary is council member Lee. Alternate is council member Ochoa. I'm are you willing to serve I

would like to stay on that.

I could stay

on it. Perfect.

Greater High Desert Chamber of Commerce, liaisons, normally, think

we skipped VVWRA.

Did. I went right to it. Right. Well, I have notes under that. Okay. Victor Valley, V B W R A. Say we leave Do you want one to?

Yeah. I think that we've

made a great job.

We've made a substantial push and all this stuff with the help from from Rachel over there. And I I like to see it through at least for the next year and see what happens. But, I can definitely tag you into that, Bridget, if if you wanna go get your feet wet over there again as the chair. I

mean No. You did a great job. I don't I, we kinda arm wrestled about that last year, but I could not have done as good of a job as you did. So I would my vote would be for you to continue to be the primary, and I would be more than happy. You I didn't go to any of your meetings either, so that's a trade off. So if we could keep it as is, I'm okay with that.

I like stepping in the the mess over there. So

Literally?

Literally. That's two puns on

the same. We like it. Okay.

Now moving on to the Greater High Desert Chamber of Commerce. Normally, a few years ago, we made it the mayor and mayor pro tem. I'm okay with that, if you're okay. It's way

it should be. Yep.

Minimum commitment, but it's a great group. Okay. Southern California Association of Governments.

K. What happened to Tri Agency?

Tri Agency's down at the bottom.

Down at the bottom. Oh. See? Fine print.

Oh, I'm going through this one. I'm not on that part.

That's the fine print. And I got new glasses, so I have no excuse. K. Skag, Chris.

I would like to stay on as primary.

Do we have anyone that would like to be an alternate? Right now, we don't have an alternate.

I could be an alternate for him.

Okay.

Chris is always available for

that stuff. Yes.

Okay. Tri agency. Moving on. Gray council member Greg and I were the primaries. The alternate was council member Ochoa. I would like to continue on with what we've been doing on that.

So there was quite a bit of confusion, I think, with this one, with the way that it was the, like, dual primaries. Like, somebody was expecting me there. I'm like, no. No. Chris is the the second on that unless Bridget doesn't show up, then I'm on there. Is it good? Are you guys good with the way it is? You two? And then I'll be the alternate if Chris can't show up?

So we're yeah. That's fine. Yeah.

I okay. Because if you don't wanna do it, I will do tri agency. I I enjoyed that one when I did that. Okay. But you guys are good?

I I would like to continue

with So

for clarification, Chris and I are the the primaries. And then when needed, do you want to be the alternate, or would you like Allison to be the alternate?

I'll let Allison do it. It probably has a more delicate touch than I would over there.

That's okay. We'll make that change. The city council advisory committee, We have council member Ochoa as the primary, and the alternate is council member Lee.

I only attended the very first one, so he's doing a great job.

I I like it.

Okay. And I believe

that is it. Alright.

Do you want me to go through the changes, or did you get those, Jessica?

You can go one more time.

Okay. Cal Cities, I will be the primary. Council member Ochoa is the alternate.

That is council member Ray.

I didn't change my notes. Maybe these glasses are not working. Okay, Greg. Because of the ethics committee. I apologize. I am the primary. Council member Greg is the alternate. MDAQMD will stay the same. I am the primary. Alternate will be councilmember Greg.

SBCTA will remain the same. Primary is Josh Pullen. I will be the alternate. The San Bernardino County Solid Waste Task Force, we're keeping as the primary council member Greg and staff as the alternate. Victor Valley Economic Development Authority, primary is council member Choa. Alternate is council member Lee. VVTA will remain the same. Primary council member Lee. Alternate Ochoa. Council member Choa.

VVWRA staying the same. Council member, Greg, myself as the alternate. Greater High Desert Chamber of Commerce will be me as mayor and Josh as mayor pro tem. Skagg will be primary, council member Ochoa. Alternate will be mayor pro tem Poland.

Tri agency will be me and council member Ochoa, and then council member Lee will be the alternate. And the last, the CCAC, the primary is Ochoa. Alternate is Lee, and that will remain the same. Whoo. We have

a also a note on SBCTA measure I. Representatives are remaining the same and a clarification solid waste task force. The primary is a staff appointee. Council member Greg is the alternate.

Perfect.

So do I have a motion? I have a motion by council member Lee, a second by mayor Pro Tem Pullen. Can we have a vote? The item passes, five zero. I believe that is it for tonight. Good job. Moving on to council committee reports and comments. Can you please start us out? Council Member Lee.

Definitely will. It was very quiet for me because I was sick for quite some time. December 5, I did go to the Cars toy drive. They're still taking donations over there off of Maine and Tamarisk. December 13 was the Christmas tree lighting. The Hesperia recreation department did a great job. Santa Claus arrived by Mercy Air helicopter. That was great. The weather was great. It was it was it was a lot of fun this year.

It was it was nice. They everybody did a great job. So many people came out on a Saturday night, so that was that was a lot of fun. I just wanna make sure that y'all have a very happy holiday, and you're safe out there. And thank you to our first responders and our staff for all the hard work that you guys do putting all these agendas together and staff for pulling people over, which they did my husband, so good job.

Sorry, Chris. Hope you're not watching. Again, I would like to congratulate Bridget and Josh as our new mayor and mayor pro tem. I'm really excited for 2026. I think they're gonna do a wonderful job. And Kim Jones, thank you for the wonderful, kind words that you said about all of us up here, and, I appreciate that. And one other thing. I think that was it, but my last words are my quote is, a day without laughter is a day wasted, and that is from Charlie Chapman. That's it. Lee out.

Council Member Ochoa.

Thank you, Mayor. I had a busy month, I would say. I was able to attend the twelfth Annual Accolade Awards. VMI was enjoyable. Got to see a lot of awesome people, and I really enjoy that event because you get to really sit in community with people who are out there actively involved in making the community better. Let's see here. On the fourth, I was at a ribbon cutting for corner store caregiving. It's an important one for me to attend. There are a lack of resources for our elderly community members here in the High Desert. So anytime you see something like this open up, it's really awesome.

I did get there slightly late, if I recall correctly. Right. Well, I made it on time for the ribbon cutting, but not for the picture. But it was fun nonetheless. I got to get to know everyone there and that which was which was fun. And then the tree lighting ceremony, also wasn't there on time for the tree lighting ceremony. Got stuck in traffic, dropping someone off and coming back. If you all know what happened on the freeway that Saturday, it was quite intense. There was a huge fire. So thank you to our first responders, who got to that and took care of that emergency.

And that is pretty much it. The tree lighting ceremony was amazing. I did get there late. We did still, take some awesome pictures and enjoy everything. It was beautiful. It was awesome seeing everyone from the city that was out there enjoying. It was great. I got to see a lot of the community members come up and say hi, and it was just beautiful. I think they really outdid themselves, and it still looks great. I mean, our lighting this year throughout the city is wonderful, so we're doing a fantastic job. And that is it.

Thank you. Council Member Greg, please.

All right. Thank you. First off, I want to touch base on the question that was brought up regarding the lights on the decorations on the Poles. Yeah. The poles.

So I I know a little bit of background stuff to that is I think we're having some issues because the city doesn't own the lights. The Park District didn't want to do anything with us at the time. So, hopefully, we can move through that pro that process and get the parks back on board to try to see. I it's still hard for me to grasp how the city doesn't have the light district. That should be the city's responsibility on all that stuff, and yet the park district maintains the lights and landscaping.

So I just wanted to at least make that clarifying point to that that member that requested why don't we have lights on that side of town. It's probably because the city doesn't own it. Have VVWRA on Thursday, so that should be exciting.

You're cheering that too. Correct?

Yeah. Why?

We don't make a face.

I'm cheering it, and and I'm doing it kicking and screaming, but it's it's a great group of people, so I couldn't ask for for better people to be working with over there. So thank you again for, you know, allowing allowing me to stay on that community that committee. The I'll say it. Merry Christmas, everyone. Be safe. Don't do dumb things. Stop causing problems for our folks in the back over there. Drive safely. Get to where you're going safely. Happy New Year as well. This is the last time we'll see you until the next year. Do it safely. That's right. Spend time with your family. That's what it's about.

Right? Cherish those moments that that you do have. We look at the tragedies that's that's such that happened in in Australia and Brown and and all these things. We never know in any instance when our lives could be taken from us. Right? So use this time to spend it with family and cherish that. Other than that, I have nothing else.

Thank you. Mayor Pro Tem Poland.

Thank you, mayor. Yeah. Last couple of weeks, we're kinda busy. I attended VMI. I saw some of our sheriffs and, fire personnel. They were, recognized there for their efforts in the community. Had multiple SBCTA meetings. Also attended the Christmas tree lighting. Chris left out that he also had assembly member, Korea, with him and made him late.

Jay did.

So I had to give him a hard time because Jay was giving us a hard time about it. So, attended the sheriff's holiday open house. And then I just wanna say, congrats to Corrine Mora at Obernolte's office on her appointment to the Victorville City Council. That's awesome. She's gonna be good over there, and Merry Christmas. Have a good holiday.

Thank you. I did owe that to Corinne Corinne. She's an amazing person. So I had a pretty busy month. Did chamber Zoom update. I did the coffee last Friday. The tree lighting ceremony was absolutely beautiful. Hats off to the recreation Hillsborough Recreation Parks District. They they did such an amazing job. I when you're on the stage, you can't see how many people are out in the audience, but I it was standing room only.

And Josh and I was standing there watching the helicopter come in, and the helicopter came in with Santa. And he said, woah. And everybody went to where the helicopter where Santa landed, and he had the sheriff's escort. So he was okay. And then the Grinch came. And I was like, the crowd went from Santa, and the Grinch Grinch came on the fire truck, and they all ran the other way towards the Grinch. And I stood back with Josh and just watched the crowds. It was crazy, but it was the community involvement was amazing. It was just a great night. The decorations definitely we could put that on one of our signal boxes.

It was just beautiful. So congratulations to Robert Hernandez and the parks boards for a job well done. I will have coffee this Friday. I would like to do a huge thank thank you to our sheriff's department, to sergeant Cross White, deputy Harrison, and deputy Hawkins. We have the little mini bikes that have been going up and down Cottonwood for months.

And it's been a couple weeks ago, we heard the little mini bikes going up Cottonwood, and we the sheriffs were in tow. They were able to and I'm sure that has gone further, but one was caught. I believe they sent up the helicopter as well. But those minibikes, they are so dangerous. Cottonwood I live on Cottonwood and Sultana, and their traffic you just hear the traffic hauling down the street.

Extreme, excessive, high speeds, and those minibikes go maybe 20 miles an hour, if that. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you. My neighbors all thank you. They said, wow, Bridget. And I said, nope. Had nothing to do with it. I cannot take any credit because I was just as elated as my neighbors were. I we attended the city's Christmas party, and it was great.

The employee activity committee did a great job. The, award presentation was really done well. I didn't know we had so much comedy from, one of our finance team. And congratulations to Yvonne for the Employee of the Year. And also, she got the nicest person of City Hall.

So that was a lot of fun to watch, but thank you to the Employee Activity Committee. It was a lot of fun. I would like to thank our animal control, code enforcement, public works, Rachel, and her staff to continue to get the work done. Really, really proud of what we've done, the public comments about the lights. The lights are so pretty.

It's just nice to see that we're coming together and beautifying our city. So appreciate that. I also would like to thanks, oh, thank you to our sheriff's department. I am not a social media person, but it went through I was at Disneyland yesterday, and I kept hearing about this stopping of this terrorist attack that was, went through Disneyland. And, then when I did watch the news, it was County Of San Bernardino sheriffs that took that and, stopped it, potentially saved very horrific, terrible, tragic deaths.

So, again, look at our sheriff's department. Both police and fire at work hard all the time in making our city a safer place to live. I would like to also prayers to the victims of the Brown College shooting and the Australia that Kim Jones mentioned, and also thank you for your support on the public comment of two weeks ago. And I also sorry. I am doing Chris Ochoa right now.

I would like to wish my mama a happy birthday. Today is her 80 birthday, and then my grandson will be four on the twentieth. So I, my mom's 89, and my mom used to volunteer her volunteer here many, many years ago. So she's still she's still a little ornery. She's just a slower ornery.

So now I can actually catch her and tell her to behave. So last, we don't have a meeting on January 6. Our next council being meeting will be January 20, and I have nothing further. Do we have any city manager or city attorney staff reports? In closing, have a very merry Christmas and happy New Year, and see you in January 2026. And the meeting will adjourn at 08:10. Thank you.