City Council - Regular Meeting

Is there anything to report at this time?

Thank you, Madam Mayor. The Council did meet on Item B for closed session. Just for the record, Mayor Pro Tem did join closed session at 6.57 p.m. Council did not finish its conversation on Item B, so we'll be adjourning to closed session following the meeting as well.

Thank you. We will now move to public comments. And this is your opportunity to address the council about anything that's within our jurisdiction. And you know that we have translation happening in real time. And so what we ask is that you be mindful of our translator. The meeting is being streamlined and recorded. So for accuracy, if you could please speak clearly and slowly into the mic. Again, you have two minutes in English and you have four minutes if you're going to need translating support. So with that, is there anyone that would like to come up for provide public comment at this time? You can come up to the mic. You don't have to have a card that you submitted. Uh-huh, and...

Hi, my name is Maria Zaragoza and I came here because I found out that they wanted to take away the transportation here in Arvin and I was worried because that's the way we have to move.

Señora Zaragoza, gracias que está aquí con nosotros. Y es tan importante, verdad, que usted participe, porque a veces por las redes o los chismes se riega información que es incorrecta. Así que déjeme decirle, la primera de decirle, que esa información es incorrecta. No estamos quitando aquí el transporte público. What I just shared is I just thanked her so much for coming because she had heard that we were eliminating public transit in the city of Arvin and I said, this is why attending these meetings are so important because this is where we could clear up the record and make sure that there isn't any misinformation that's being spread online or through other sources. So thank you very much, Ms. Zaragoza. One question. Yes, I use Dial-A-Ride to connect to other transportation, other buses. I go to Lamont, I go to Bakersfield, and I come home. Pero es a través de llamando para que la vayan a recoger a domicilio. Dial the right? Okay. Muy bien. Gracias.

Okay, gracias.

Okay, thank you.

There's another.

Good afternoon. My name is Anthony Castro.

Do you want to move the microphone up so we can hear you? I think it's that little machine, right?

It's the first time I'm here. Excuse me. My name is Anthony Castro. I wanted to mention the same situation of transportation.

Santo, can we hear you? Maybe it's your cell phone.

Quería yo mencionar la misma situación del transporte, ¿verdad? Yo vivo en Hood Street y pues necesito ir a veces al supermercado y para mí es importante. El transporte, tengo problemas de la mácula y tengo problemas en la rodilla, no puedo caminar mucho. Tuve una experiencia muy fea hace una semana. Hablé a Transit del condado de Paldaio Wright, hablé como al mediodía. Well, I am also here because I was also concerned. I wanted to talk about the transportation.

The transportation, because, you know, I need it. I live in God Street and I need transportation to go to the supermarket sometimes. And I have problems with my macula, the generation and problems with my knee. and I cannot walk very much, and I had a very bad experience. Last time I dial, I called to dial right, and it was at noon, and I had a very bad experience. The person that answered the phone was really, really rude, and I mean, it was a very bad experience, and I mean, I understand it's hot, but I was wondering what we can do So to solve this problem, I have my car right here. I don't know if I have to move out of the city, and I don't know if we're not going to be able to get that transportation anymore. I mean, if we're paying for it, if we're not going to receive it. I don't know if I should move or what we can do.

El señor me mandó a que yo fuera a agarrar a donde estaba el autobús, y yo quería, pues, que, creo que tenía derecho que fuera a mi casa.

And this man told me that I could go wait at the bus stop. And, I mean, I dialed the right, so I wanted a ride. And I think I had the right to get it. And this guy was very rude, and he hung up on me.

Señor Santo, usted tiene más de 60 años de edad, ¿verdad?

Seventy-two years old.

Seventy-two.

I'm born in San Diego.

Okay, and you use dial-a-ride.

Yeah, I pay for that. Yeah. And the secretariat, and this office, the same thing, the same attitude. No education. I don't know why they... I employed 20 years for UCSD in San Diego, and I never do this with the people.

Thank you for sharing your concerns. And Mr. Santo, know that the city of Arvin, we do have a dial-a-ride and that it is a service that is here for seniors, people with disability. And so the city is not looking to eliminate the dial-a-ride service where you have the right, you're right, where you can call and they can pick you up to take you to your appointments. And you deserve the best treatment and customer service.

The man would not even let me speak. What can I do? Señor Santo.

Let me be the first to apologize on behalf of the city for your experience with calling to schedule a dial-a-ride and know that the treatment of our residents is of most importance. So I, on behalf of the city, I apologize for your experience and we will commit to doing better.

I called Kern to file a complaint because I thought, man, if I am not going to receive this service, maybe I'm going to call an attorney and maybe I'm going to file a lawsuit because I think this is not fair. This is not good. It's discrimination. I don't think it should be this way. My doctor has told me that I cannot stand more than 15 minutes because I have circulation problems. And I cannot see very well because I have macular degeneration problems.

It's in the books. You can look it up if you want it.

Are there any other comments? ¿Puede bajar el micrófono?

¿Puede bajar el micrófono?

Aquí en el micrófono.

¿Puede bajar el micrófono?

La ciudad no está explorando. Elimina a Dalerite.

My name is Guadalupe Duarte, and I wanted to know if there's going to be a route here for Dial-A-Ride. I use Dial-A-Ride for doctor's appointments, if I'm going to run errands. I don't drive, and I've been using this service for quite many years, and I haven't had any problem. And I was just wondering if you guys are going to eliminate some routes.

Are there any other comments? Okay. Seeing none, we will move on to the presentation. Today, we are blessed to have with us Raquel Pacheco, a regional planner from the current Council of Governments, who will be providing a regional transportation plan for 2026. And she did share with us, all of the council members should have this before you, which is an overview there that she won't go into detail. But I just want to say thank you, Ms. Pacheco, for joining us. It's always great when Kern COG comes to our council meetings. It's always informative. And just thank you for your patience with us. Please proceed.

Thank you. And good morning again. My name is Raquel Pacheco. I am a regional planner at Kern Council of Governments. or Kern COG. The Kern COG Board of Directors includes one elected representative and alternate from each of the 11 incorporated cities and two of the Kern County supervisors, including Mayor Calderon and Supervisor David Couch. Consider Kern Cog staff as an extension of your staff. Please don't hesitate to contact Kern Cog. The Kern Cog board, with technical input from Kern Cog staff, decide how to spend gas tax and other revenue in the Kern region for transportation purposes. The first step is identifying transportation projects to include in the 20 plus year regional transportation plan, referred to as the RTP. Projects that have been advanced or have funding identified are then included in the short term FEDERAL TRANSPORTATION IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM. KERN COG IS CONCLUDING A FEDERALLY REQUIRED FOUR YEAR PUBLIC OUTREACH PROCESS THAT HAS GARNERED INPUT FROM OVER 10,500 RESIDENTS ON HOW TO EXPEND $14 BILLION in gas tax and other revenue in the long-term plan. Half of the input came from over 50 public workshops and booth events. The other half came from online surveys, including an annual 1,200 person, statistically valid phone, and texting survey. What we heard from this grassroots bottom-up public process so far is to maintain, fix, and finish what we have. Your packets tonight include a transmittal memo, public meeting flyers, the draft RTP executive summary, a listing of projects benefiting this subarea of the county. This subarea of the county has 4.1% of the population. and under the draft plan would benefit from 10.2% of the transportation expenditures. Projects benefiting this sub area, including funding for road maintenance over the next 20 plus years, and funding for bike lanes. Comments are due by July 2nd on the draft long-term regional transportation plan, the environmental document, the short-term federal transportation improvement program, the associated federal conformity analysis, demonstrating that the projects will not delay Air District air quality attainment plans. A summary of comments received will be incorporated into the final documentation as appropriate. Adding projects to the next in line list can more easily be accommodated. Some projects though, however, may not be able to be added. but it could be part of a future update as Kern Cog will be right back here four years, every four years with an updated long-term plan when our forecasts are revisited. These documents represent where we are today and they meet the goals of the plan that we have before you today. Thank you for the opportunity to speak this evening. And a reminder to please submit the comments to the emails at the bottom of the transmittal memo.

Thank you so much, Ms. Pacheco. And if you could stay here with us. Are there any comments or questions from the public for Ms. Pacheco at this time for the presentation? Yes, I see Mr. Aguirre in the audience.

Good evening. My name is Gustavo Aguirre. I was expecting this presentation to at least have some maps for us to make comments. We participated, I'm with the Center on Race, Poverty and the Environment. Actually, we held two community meetings providing feedback And our hope, some of the residents and myself, was to see some of the maps, updated maps to make comments. So I don't know if you have copies of that or something of that, but I think... As a respect for the public, I think we should also see a little bit more than just words because it's a complex document. I don't know how many pages, but at least looking at maps, for us, being here, to be able to make comments. I was hoping to make some comments because I've seen prior maps and see what we are, the feedback that we are providing was included. So if you can please, you know, maybe for future public meetings, if you at least include some maps, you know, visuals for us to be able to understand, you know, the current status of your proposed plans.

Thank you, Mr. Aguirre. Your comment is well taken. Ms. Pacheco, do we have those to provide visuals so that the community can see that 10% that you said we're going to benefit from in this region where we're 4% of the population?

So in our long range plan, it is a close to 700 page document. So at this point in the process, we've already received all the comments and whatever we've been able to incorporate at this point is in the plan. So at this point, we don't make a presentation of 700 pages because we understand and appreciate this venue. But what we're asking for now is for individuals to look at that document AND MAKE THEIR COMMENTS DIRECTLY TO THOSE EMAILS THAT I MENTIONED IN THE TRANSMITTAL MEMO. IF THERE ARE WAYS THAT THEY WANT TO, IT WOULD BE ON THE WEBSITE TO SEE THE DOCUMENT. IT WOULD BE COMING TO OUR OFFICE. WE HAVE A COPY OF THE DOCUMENT PRINTED. SO IF SOMEBODY WANTED TO SEE A PRINTED COPY. WE ALSO HAVE FLIERS IN THE LIBRARY SO THAT THE LIBRARIES, I KNOW THEY HAVE COMPUTERS, THEY CAN LOOK AT THE DOCUMENT THERE. BUT IN TERMS OF I mean, we do have maps in our document and it does show the projects.

Those maps are there for the community's benefit so they could visualize. Correct. Specifically the projects in our region.

Yeah. Our document has just the preview that we did provide in the agenda packet. It has just the Arvin section.

Are there any other questions from the public? So the purpose of the presentation today was to provide an overview, but not to solicit public comment at this time, since you've been having the community meetings where you have solicited those public comments, like the meeting that we hosted in the fall of last year at Fado Church, for example, where the community was seeing the visuals and providing feedback. Correct. So now the next step, since that was provided, those visuals at that meeting, is for us to, you said, go through and the 700 document where specific ARVN projects are there for folks to be able to search and find and provide comment. When is the deadline to provide that? July 2nd. July 2nd. Okay. And are there going to be, the meetings are complete now? All of the regional meetings you've had where you were soliciting public comment and the surveys, that's already complete?

So where we have the presentations, if it's those you're talking about, yes. Those were the ones that we were talking about that we reached 10,500 residents and received comments. So now what we're looking for is our documents are now in draft mode and we need comments on the drafts that are out for public review.

and so that the community can see that their comments were incorporated in that draft? Are there plans to have another community convening where they could visualize that through these maps?

So that would be the start of the next cycle. So our long-range plan is every four years. And as soon as we adopt our next one, we start working on the following four-year cycle. So that is where we would make the presentations again. But at this point, the draft document, we receive all the comments by July 2nd. Then we have a response to comment period. Then we're going to bring our final documents to our KernCOG board. In August is what we're expecting, but it might potentially slip to September and then depending on the comments that we receive. And then from there it goes to our state reviewers. From there it goes to our federal reviewers and we're expecting approval in December of this year.

And so you said that your office is open and any community member can go to your office and meet with you personally to go through and if they have specific Arvin Lamont projects could provide feedback at that time? Correct. Okay. Are there any other comments or questions? Any comments or questions from the council? Mr. Weissmeier? Oh, yes, Mr. Aguirre. We'll make an exemption at this time. I know that I've said you have one opportunity, but go ahead, Mr. Aguirre.

Thank you for the second opportunity. I don't normally enter into discussions, and I want to be very respectful of you, but... You know, yes, I received emails directly from your office, and I know that there are documents, and our lawyers are going to make comments of your document. But that's for us, you know, that we are paid to do it. But I mentioned to the residents, you know, that are here with me that the county was coming to a presentation and this may be an opportunity for them to make comments. So I just want to express that, you know, some respect to that a bit more. And in the past, you know, your office and the public meetings, community meetings show, you know, few maps, you know, something easy for the community to understand. So, and we have been advocating for few routes, you know, around Arvin, around Lamon, around Shafter, you know, especially on truck routes. And we were expecting to see that included. So, you know, I want to be respectful, but at the same time, you know, when we saw the agenda that, you know, Cranco was coming, we saw that it may be an opportunity. I just want to mention that. Thank you.

Thank you. And for the future, I receive that will be clearer in the description so that there is no misunderstanding about the expectation of the presentation. So thank you for that. Okay. Did you have any final thoughts? Any other comments from the council at this time?

I have a question. Towards the end, you have a list of all this is bicycle and pedestrian complete streets improvements and maintenance. Some have a start date and some don't. Are those pending or proposed?

So in our long-range plan, we're looking out 20 years, and it's depending on actual funding materializing. So we have a forecast of what's available potentially, but if that funding actually gets realized, then those projects actually turn into federal transportation improvement program projects. That's where then you have the real revenue, the committed dollars, and that's why you don't have a date yet, because it's just... It's our list. We know the community wants this. We want to make sure to put it in here. For if there's any grant opportunity, we have to refer to it being in the regional transportation plan. Otherwise, we don't get the funding. Because they're like, the community's not behind that project. Oh. Mm-hmm.

Thank you so much, Ms. Pacheco, for joining us. And I know that you've expressed so anyone could, your offices are there downtown on 19th Street. And so anyone could meet with you there to be able to see these maps like you have suggested. It's an open door policy in your offices. Thank you so much. We appreciate you. Thank you. Okay. Are there any other comments? Seeing none, consent agenda items. We will go ahead and approve the consent agenda. Are there any comments from the public regarding the consent agenda? Seeing none, are there any comments from the council regarding the consent agenda? Okay, seeing none, do we have a motion to approve the consent agenda? Great, do we have a second? Roll call, please.

Council Member Tarver.

Yes.

Council Member Horton. Yes. Council Member Reyes. Yes. Mayor Pro Temperez.

Yes.

Mayor Calderon.

Yes.

Motion carries 5-0.

We do have two proclamations. And for the record, I am going to read these proclamations into the record. We all just celebrated a three-day weekend and taking a moment to pause to honor all of the brave men and women who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedoms. This month, there are several key dates, but the entire month is Military Appreciation Month, and the city is proclaiming May 2026. Whereas Military Appreciation Month is a special time designated to honor and recognize the contributions, sacrifices, and the services of members of the United States Armed Forces past and present. And whereas on Memorial Day, we remember and honor the sacrifice and the service of those who gave their lives in defense for our nation, including members of the Army, the Air Force, the Coast Guard, Marines, Navy, Space Force, and the National Guard, as well as the contributions and sacrifices of their spouses and families. And whereas Congress designated May as National Military Appreciation Month in 1999 to ensure that the nation has an opportunity to publicly show appreciation for our troops past and present, And whereas the right of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are enumerated in the Declaration of Independence and secured by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, are enjoyed by every citizen of the United States as a direct result of the service and sacrifice made by members of the United States Armed Forces. And whereas the sacrifices made by members of the United States Armed Forces, along with the support and sacrifices of their families to preserve the liberties that our nation hold dear, the citizens of Arvin have a proud history of service during times of peace and war. Whereas many citizens of the City of Arvin continue to serve on active duty in the National Guard and in the reserve components of the United States Armed Forces. Now therefore we, the Mayor and the City Council of the City of Arvin, hereby recognize and honor all members of the United States Armed Services, past and present, as well as their families, for their sacrifice, and designate May 2026 as Military Appreciation Month here in the city of Arvin. On this day, the 26th of May, 2026. This is also Small Business Appreciation Month, and I wanna say a special thank you to everyone who is out there and understands that our small businesses are the backbone of our local economy. And when our small businesses do well, we all do well in the city. So whereas small businesses are the backbone of the City of Arvin's economy contributing to local job creation, economic growth, innovation, and community character, and whereas small businesses provide essential goods and services to residents, support local families, and help strengthen the economic vitality and resilience of the City of Arvin, and whereas the City of Arvin recognizes the dedication, perseverance, entrepreneurial spirit of small business owners who invest their time, talent, and resources into building successful enterprises that enrich our community. Whereas small businesses play an important role in fostering community pride, supporting local organizations and events, and creating opportunities for future generations, Whereas the City of Arvin encourages residents to support local businesses throughout the year by shopping locally, utilizing local services, and recognizing the positive impact small businesses have on the quality of life in our community. Whereas celebrating Small Business Appreciation Month provides an opportunity to acknowledge and thank the many small businesses that contribute to the prosperity and success of the City of Arvin. Now therefore we, the Mayor, the City Council of the City of Arvin do hereby proclaim May as Small Business Appreciation Month and we encourage all residents and community members to visit our small businesses and support our local economy on this 26th day of May, 2026. And I know that on the dais, we have small business owners and a family of longtime small business owners. So thank you, Mr. Perez for your contributions to our community. With that, we're going to move on to the first action of the day. And this is action item five, a, And I see members of the Committee for a Better Arvin here and other nonprofit organizations. You'll recall that at a previous meeting, we had a conversation during public comment about the city's now a new policy that has been adopted by the council, where we can now legally as a city of Arvin, except donations. That was the first step. And we unanimously passed this now in the city of Arvin. And so this is, um, the empathy is really for us moving with urgency is thanks to the support of local leaders, members of a committee for a better Arvin, who are our neighbors, who are behind the scenes, who go to Sacramento, who advocate for us for additional resources, who partner with regional and statewide organizations like the Center on Race, Poverty, and the Environment, and many others. Today, this action is for us to now formally adopt a memorandum of understanding between the Center on Race, Poverty, and the Environment and the City of Arvin accepting a donation for the purchase and the installation of certain park equipment for Felicita Park and authorizing the City Manager to execute the MOU and any documents necessary to implement the MOU and the project. Staff recommends that we approve the Memorandum of Understanding And so with that, I know we have members here that have been patiently waiting. If there are any comments, then this is your opportunity to come and provide comments on this specific item.

Good afternoon.

Want to move it down a little bit? There you go.

Good evening. I'm mayor and members of the city council. My name is Diana Mireles. I'm a community organizer with the Center for Race, Poverty, and the Environment. We really appreciate to help these community members and our communities like Arvin and Lamont. Our role in this MOU is because we are part of the agreement with Recology. The role of CRP is to approve the project, and also we are the entity to administrate the money. So that's right, the MOU is between the CRP and City of Irvine. And I want to thank Pedro Barraza, that we start having the conversations with him to have this project to be, that's a wonderful project. But I want to give that credit for Community for Better Urban. There are residents from Narbonne that they are wanting to be donate to improve the parks. They always having like for years having that dream to have this park like beautiful. So then thank you for all the staff, the manager, Mayor Olivia. So we have all these conversations. And thank you, like I said, and we are happy to continue with the city and some future projects. And now I want to give the vote.

Thank you so much. Thank you so much. So for clarity, the Center on Race and the Environment Poverty are the fiscal agent for the Committee for a Better Arvin and the donations from Recology for Improvements to Felicitas Park.

Good evening again. Yes, just a little bit of background. I think all of us recall that, you know, the compost company here at the 223 Willis Ridge or 184 used to call community recycling center and two boys, you know, pass out at that facility. So we were advocating together with the committee for Iberia Arvin there. Eventually Recolo came and We enter on what we call the community benefit agreement, and part of their commitment is to provide funding for community projects. So this is part of that funding, assuming that you are going to approve this MOU this evening. We are very happy for that because the committee has been trying to help improve Felicitas Park for many, many years. i think the only person i think is tarver and i think he's on his second term or turn we were trying you know the committee was trying to help that and because you know we didn't get that engagement from the city we gave funding to the school district which i think one of the school district members is here one of the board members we gave uh you know the school district some money that you know we wanted for felicitas but didn't happen at that time, but I'm very happy that it's happening now. I think this relationship is good because, you know, the companies continue, you know, providing funding and the committee, you know, want to improve their community here. So I think looking forward, you know, there may be other opportunities, you know, for funding, you know, to do something in this community. And again, Ms. Calderon, thank you for your engagement. I think you have a lot to do with that one. And at the same time, you know, I want to recognize Pedro Barraza because he's been key, you know, in the conversations and, you know, how can we make that happen? Thank you to everybody, but thank you to you and Mr. Barraza. We hope that this will be the first project that we can partner to improve this community. Thank you.

Thank you so much, Mr. Aguirre, for your leadership. Are there any other members from the Committee for a Better Arvin or others that would like to provide comments before we vote?

Good afternoon. My name is Estela Escoto, and I am the president for the Community for a Better Arden. Well, I just want to thank you because I think we're a little bit more at the end of this whole project that's being carried out, and we hope we can make it happen, because there's still one more step to go. But we've approved everything. It's just a matter of you signing the MOU, I don't know. But for us as a community, as part of this community, we have that ilusion de hace varios anos de lograr que ese parque luzca un poco mejor de lo que está.

Well... I am... Este es el escoto. Good evening, my name is Esteles Cotto and I'm the president of Community for Better Arvin and I am here just to thank you, to thank you because it seems like we are finally reaching the end of this project. And I mean, it's about to be accomplished. It's just one little step still, but we hope that everything is going to be approved and that you're going to sign the MOU because this has been a dream of us as a community. Community for a very Arvin, it's been a dream for years and we really want to improve and have a beautiful park, Felicitas Park.

Como lo dijo el señor Aguirre, si se logra que pase ya todo y que se haga. Queremos que nuestra comunidad siga creciendo y siga viéndose hermosa y siga sus parques viéndose mejor. Entonces, en el futuro, queremos también llegar a hacer otro proyecto aquí en la ciudad de Arvin con esos fondos que somos parte de ese acuerdo que hay. Y esperemos que hoy sea una buena noche y se logre el último paso.

And I just want to repeat what Mr. Aguirre already said. In the past, we have done a lot and we also would like to continue to cooperate and have more projects because we want our community to be beautiful and we want our community to grow. and we also want our parks to be beautiful and in the in the past we've had some projects but we also hope that we can fulfill projects in the future because we want to invest here in arvin and we are the organization that has the funds and we hope that everything is approved tonight, and we hope that it's a good night and that you can approve this for new funding.

And lastly, I would like to thank you all, and I hope you'll approve this. Are there any comments or questions from the council at this time?

I have a question. Once we approve the MOU, do we get like a visual of where this equipment is going to be installed?

I don't think we're getting a visual. My understanding is that once we execute the MOU, then the fiscal agent, which is the Center on Race and the Environment in Poverty, will release the funds to the city. The community, which is why they were thanking Mr. Pedro Barrasa, they have been working closely since they live around that park in Felicitas, where they've identified where they would like to see the solar lights installed, because that's where they walk and the park is very dark, and where they would like the benches to be installed so that they could sit under the shade of trees there and also workout equipment. so that they could exercise out in the open air. And so they've had several meetings and conversations to identify exactly where they would like that to be placed. But there isn't a visual sketch. Although I'm sure that Mr. Barraza would be happy to schedule a walkthrough with you like we did when we went to the bathrooms so that you could visualize exactly where that's going to go. with this donation of over $50,000 that is being made to the city for the benefit of everyone that lives at Veracitas Park. Any other comments?

I just wanted to let you know we appreciate your work that you do for the people in the city and the time that you put in. It's much appreciated. It takes a lot of people to build a whole village, right? So that means, you know, us together makes a big difference, and you're proving that today. And again, thank you.

Anyone else?

I would like to also thank Pedro Barraza for joining his time. like helping you guys to get exactly what you guys were trying to do because he donated all his time and we were having a conversation the other day and I was like, okay. I was like, thank you for this. Thank you guys very much.

I echo You know, we say that when our community is united, when we're working in a united way, that everything and anything is possible. And it's true. Unidos prosperamos. And that's what you and this partnership is a clear reflection of. A lot of folks don't know that you meet regularly and you meet after work. After a really long day, many of you out in the fields, you go and you meet regularly. And you come up with these projects. And in your own time, you travel all the way to Sacramento and you advocate for Arvin. And that's how we're able to get a lot of these resources. And you meet with organizations like Recology. And I just want to say that I am so incredibly inspired by each and every one of you. So thank you. Because you don't do it for the credit. You don't do it... for the recognition you do it because you love arvin and we love you and i just want to say thank you so very much and i can't wait for all of that to be up there and to do a ribbon cutting and to celebrate you all exercising no there's no excuse you have to be out there exercising every day um so just thank you very much and with that um god bless you can we call the roll you got a motion a motion in a second roll call please

Council Member Tarver. Yes. Council Member Horton. Yes. Council Member Reyes. Yes. Mayor Potemperes. Yes. Mayor Calderon. Yes. Motion carries 5-0.

Okay. We are now going to move on to an ongoing conversation that we've been having here. I invite everyone to stay please. We have now for months have been examining our finances in the city. In fact,

Oh, 6A.

Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. Thank you so much. I just wanted to get to the budget already, but this is also really important and we have Chief Huggett here with us. Discussion 6A, thank you, Vice Mayor, is a discussion regarding electric scooters and electric bike safety. You all saw the recent news where the Arvin Unified School District has made a decision to no longer allow e-scooters on campuses because of the several incidents where there have been accidents and students have gotten hurt. We know that in about a week or so there are going to be students on vacation and they're going to be out and about and we've already heard from many concerned residents about close calls where they almost hit someone or there's just that fear that we, like other cities, might face a tragedy, and that's exactly what we want to avoid. The purpose of this discussion is to hear from our Chief Huggett about the laws that are in place now, hear from the council in terms of what else we could be doing, because it's gonna take a community in partnership with our parents to keep our kids and our students and our family safe. on the road so with that i will open it to staff chief huggett if you wanted to just share um the framework and put this in context for the discussion sure thanks mayor and city council um

So as a department, we've also seen an increase in complaints, unsafe riding behaviors, and traffic collisions involving both juveniles and adult riders. The purpose of tonight's discussion, I just want to talk about the three different classifications that e-bikes, that the state of California recognizes with the e-bikes. So there's class one, class two, and class three. I'm going to go over each class. That way you guys have a better understanding as to the different classifications. Class one and class two e-bikes. The legal California vehicle code definition states it's a pedal or throttle assisted electric bicycle equipped with a motor that assists only up to a speed of 20 miles per hour. I'm gonna discuss some of the rider requirements for that. A license is not required to operate a class one or two e-bike. Helmets, however, are required if the rider is under the age of 18. And those bikes can be ridden in designated bicycle lanes or to the far right of the roadway, as well as bike trails or any other place that allows our bicycles or e-bikes to operate. The second... Actually, that was the first one and two classes. The third class is... defined by the California Vehicle Code as a low-speed pedal-assisted electric bicycle equipped with a speedometer and a motor that provides assistance only when the rider is pedaling and ceases to assist when a speed of 28 miles is reached. Again, there's no license requirement to operate a Class 3 e-bike. However, the same helmet requirement applies applies as well. No riders under the age of 18 can ride their e-bike without a helmet. Bike paths and bike lanes are allowed for those bikes to operate off of. And the difference between the class one and two is in order to operate a class three e-bike, the rider has to be 16 years of age or older. The last one, which we have a A lot of kids operating motorized e-scooters. Motorized e-scooters cannot be operated without a driver's license or a permit. Those also require a bicycle helmet under the age of 18, and those may be ridden in traditional bicycle lanes as well and must stay off sidewalks.

Can you say that one more time?

Where they can operate e-scooters would be if there's no bike lane to the far right of the roadway or in the designated bike lane, or they must stay off the sidewalks as well. We have a municipal code as well as state code that doesn't allow e-scooters on sidewalks. Some of the penalties for e-scooters would be a citation. There's also bicycle or helmet laws that apply. With that one requiring a driver's license, they can tow or impound that vehicle at the officer's discretion. So with that said, I'll open it up to any questions.

Thank you so much. Are there any comments or questions? Go ahead, Mr. Vice Mayor.

So you said a citation amount? What is that? Sorry? What's the citation amount?

Citation amount? It's whatever they apply to the courts. We just issued the citation and...

Oh, whatever they cited? Yeah. We don't have like a specific, this is what it is? No, no. Okay, got it.

So the citation is issued and they have to show up to court where that fine then is assessed?

We're facing the juvenile, so they'll go to juvenile court. Juvenile court. All citations will be sent to juvenile court.

So do we have anything for the dirt bikes, pocket bikes, and ATVs?

All of those. All of those are not prohibited, not allowed on the roadways. Those require driver's license, registrations, insurance. They're treated just like, they're called, what are they called? Those are classified as motor-driven devices.

And they're not allowed on the streets at all under any circumstance. Okay.

And then for the e-bikes, I mean the scooters. When is that being enforced now? Is it going to start being enforced?

Right now, we have enforced it. We've impounded a few, but we're trying to educate. I've had officers go out to schools and do some school outreach, and I think it's going to take a little bit of parent education as well, and then we'll begin the enforcement process of it. But I'm not saying we're not going to enforce it, but we do enforce it, but we'd like to educate the community as well.

Are there any other comments, questions? Ms. Riggs?

Well, he answered mine, because I wanted to ask him as far as have you focused on education before citation? And he says you have. I also wanted to know how difficult is enforcement for unsafe riding for now? How difficult is it going to be for your officers to enforce it?

It's difficult in the sense that, I mean, we've tried to pull over kids and talk to them, and they think we're there to just cite them, and we've had them flee from us several times. And at that point, it's kind of risk-reward, so we choose not to pursue. So I think the best place to target and talk to them would be in the schools, maybe holding some, like, helmet campaigns. And I've been working closely with Mr. Jones as far as grants and OTS grants, Office of Traffic Safety grants. try to get something like that to where we can educate the members of the public.

Maybe also draft like the flyer and post it on the city Facebook page.

Sure. Yeah. I mean, social media is huge. Whatever it takes. I mean, we're going to try to educate them as best as possible. That way there's no excuse for it.

Maybe this question is for the city manager. Do you have any, have you done a research of other cities around the vicinity, if they have any e-scooter ordinance?

Council Member Reyes, no, I have not. This was just an introductory discussion, but I can take direction to get that information for you.

Okay.

So what other cities are doing on scooters?

That's all. Any other questions?

So my comments are, those poor kids, I hate to see you take all that fun away from them because I know if I was a kid, I would have loved to have one of those things, but hell, nobody had anything like that. They had those, what do they call those things? You know, they had them, taupe goats or something, you know, but... us kids didn't have nothing like that. And I'm sure Mr Charter will vouch for that. But but the other thing with that is, is guess what? If you did have something like that and you did something that you weren't supposed to be doing, whatever parents seen you do that will show up at your house and you'll get it twice. Now You know, it's a whole different animal out there. You know, you tell those kids something and they just look at you and say, Chavez. And they're gone. You know what I mean? But I think that on our part, the city part, I think that we need to be more aggressive in. delivering the information to the kids. And you are correct. The right place to do that is in conjunction with the school districts because I've heard their superintendent say, we're going to let the parents know. They have all that mechanism. So before you really start hammering them, I think that you should join in on the, you know, skirt tail of the school district because they have parents' numbers and they have those contacts, let them know that this has become a problem. And the biggest problem is that we don't want you not to have fun, your kid not to have fun. It's a safety factor. You know, we don't want to be grieving with you in this community when your kid is the one that's underneath that car. I mean, that hurts everybody. Nobody wants to see that. So we need to all take it serious as adults and deal with it the right way, but figure out a solution where those kids can still have fun. You know, I thought, well, maybe they can just, school's going to be out, maybe they can drive in the parking lot at Arvin High or something, or, you know, where there's big parking lots, you know, over here at the college. But the bad thing is the cars aren't, hitting them, they're running into the cars. So it's a problem. But that's all I've got.

Thank you, Mr. Tarver. Were you going to say something?

I was saying that the private property, they can ride on private property. Put around on their own.

I can't hear you. I'm sorry.

I was just saying they can ride on private property. They can just put around on the driveway, do circles in the driveway or something. Yeah.

So thank you. In terms of direction to staff, it's great that you're at the schools and that you're providing that information to the schools, but schools are out in about a week or so. They're all going to be in summer vacation. And so I would suggest... And I agree with Mrs. Reyes about a flyer in English and in Spanish, just very clear so everybody knows what the law is. And then obviously, yes, we could put it up on our website. Facebook and on our Instagram and on our website. But I would also encourage you to share it with our Arvin Branch Library. They have a bulletin. They also have social media. And they also, for the benefit of the public, will also print those flyers. And they will have them out there on their counter as well. And they have a lot of summer activities starting on June 2nd because they're providing lunch and supper and they have coloring and so forth and arts and crafts. There's going to be a lot of kids there And the parents also show up there. The other part of this is obvious to me is that, yes, it's important to talk to kids and deliver the message to our kids. But our parents here are key. Because a lot of these children, they're children, they're minors. It's their parents who have purchased these electric scooters without knowing that they required a driver's license or a driver permit. And they're purchasing that for them, and the kids are out there. And so a comment and a question. Our churches are a great place to put the word out as well. So just like the library, there's bulletins at all of the churches. Many of them have their own social media, so I know they would be happy to also post it up there. and also allow for there to be an announcement after service and Those are also a great place especially when our Spiritual leaders are out there as our messengers as well saying it during service. I really highly recommend that I've had experience where they do that and it's really impactful but the other question is what happens in the event that you have a minor and So you're going to give that minor a citation. At what point, if you have a repeat offender, at what point is the parent or the guardian the one that receives that citation since they're the ones that are allowing it to happen?

That could be from the first citation. If they're allowing it and they admit to allowing it, that could be from the first citation. Typically, we try to give them benefit of the doubt. We keep a database of all the people we cite so we would know if they're repeat offenders and then we could start targeting them. parents as well. There is a vehicle code to cite the parent responsible.

And assuming that this flyer is something you can quickly create, you have access to all of the codes and so forth, at what point will the police department start to enforce the laws? I think that it also comes down to accountability, and oftentimes, not only with this instance, but with other laws that are broken, just very, you know,

Yeah.

It's because there's no accountability.

It's a case by case. It's up to the officer's discretion. If the kid's riding around with, you know, his behavior is improper and he's just, you know, going in and out of cars and being very, you know, dangerous on the e-bike, it's up to him. He can enforce it right away. If it's a little girl or a little boy just kind of putting around the neighborhood, maybe that's the time and place to sit there and talk to them and educate them a little bit, maybe deliver them to the parents, which we mostly do or mainly do, talk to the parents about it. So it's a case by case. We're not saying we're not going to enforce it. We're still actively going out there and enforcing it. It's just up to the officers.

Using your judgment at that point. I will say that. I have heard and I have also witnessed that our streets are dark and they're out there and they are going fast without any helmet, without no protection. And I have heard from residents where it's just a close call. They were so close to hitting and that we know in other cities they have dealt with the tragedy of loss of life. And that at that point, it becomes this rallying call and we're wanting to be proactive about it. So how soon do you expect that flyer to be available and that could be shared and we can also help spread the word and be a partner as well?

We could get it done pretty quick. We have something like that in office that we kind of share amongst the officers and we'll go out and enforce it, but it could be done a week or two.

Great. Within two weeks at the next meeting, we can also have a copy of that. Wonderful. And then to Ms. Reyes' point, would the other council members, would you like to see what other cities in our county are doing as it relates to this, if they've introduced any ordinances or are doing anything beyond the state law? Would anybody else like to see that?

Yes. Just know that if we do adopt city ordinances, we can't override the state law as far as licensing requirements or age differences.

All you can pretty much do is make it stricter. Correct. Yeah, yeah.

Pretty much. Okay.

I did have a comment, like a question. Would it be possible for you to talk to... the school district to see if they would wanna partner up or donate some helmets. So when you guys are talking to the ones that don't have any helmets, at least have something to be like, here you go, use these.

Yeah, that's something we were looking into as well. We wanted to do a helmet campaign. I mean, heaven forbid we have to go to an accident where a kid suffers a traumatic brain injury, but that's something that we would like to do. And like I said, we're going after some grants, Office of Traffic Safety, DUI and traffic control grants, and some of that we could use towards the education and purchasing of these helmets, teach them how to wear it properly, things like that. But yeah, that's something that we're exploring.

Thank you, Chief Huggett. Any other comments or questions? Okay.

Actually, I'm sorry.

That's okay. We still have to get to the budget.

Actually, the school district, as part of their attendance incentive, they have given the students helmets, bikes and helmets.

Yeah.

As far as donation?

I was thinking more on the lines of, like, the school district is not out... patrolling right so the ones that they do pull over and they're like oh this one needs like another chance on their judgment they don't have a helmet just like here you go at least be safe, you know? So that's more of the ones I'm not saying. You guys don't donate, but just.

We do it with car seats, right? There is a car seat campaign where it's very specific when it comes to car seats. Perhaps there could be one with, yeah, with CHB, one with there's a helmet campaign that we could explore is what you're suggesting.

I think we've reached, as a school district, we've also reached out to Walmart, and Walmart is very good in donating.

Donating, yeah.

So it's.

Folks not wanting helmet hair. Go ahead, Mr. Chief.

I remember back in the day, Veolia would take care of all of that. So you guys need helmets, no problem.

Yeah.

Did he hide? All right.

Wonderful. So any other comments? Seeing none, thank you, Chief Huggett. for the background there and for your great work, you and your team. So with that, we're going to move on to the last discussion item. And we have a report. Oh, are there? Oh, I'm sorry. Of course, Ms. Pichardo. Are there any comments? Of course, please come. Absolutely. Why don't you make your way to the mic? If there's any comments from the public, this is your opportunity. Thank you, Mrs. Pichardo. Perfect. Yes, go ahead.

Good evening, mayor and council members. My name is Tony Pichardo, and I'm a member of the community. I have a great-grandchild that they bought him one of these scooters for Christmas. They're not cheap. Knowing that there is a coat, and now he won't be able to be riding it because he's only a seventh grader. I did have a concern because I read... the posting you did on your Facebook, and then the district did send a post to all the parents that have students in school telling them about the scooters. They're not allowed at the school, but they did mention about the code that they're not allowed in town also. And my concern was, yes, how are you gonna communicate to the parents? It's the parents we have to get to because they're the ones that are buying the equipment. And they're the ones that are going to enforce that they don't use them. The kids are not going to mind. You can tell them you're going to give them a ticket or something. They're not going to pay attention to the officers. So we need to reach to the parents. Yes. And once you start giving them a citation, then the word will get around and they'll start saying, hey, you know, they're serious. But it's for the safety of the kids. If you had a student that was to fall get a concussion and wouldn't be the same. It's, it's heartbroken and it, you know, and it can happen. So it's for the safety of the kids, but we have to reach the parents. That's the main thing. And I believe the city has where they can send flyers with the water company with the water. So maybe the officer, maybe, um, yeah, acting chief can get some flyers and, send them to the parents with a water bill, hopefully.

That's a wonderful idea.

You know, they'll understand that there are going to be citations. Because it is confusing. You're saying to be 16 and under, no, 16 to 18, you have to use a helmet. And then you're saying now that some have to have a license and some don't.

18 and under, that's for any e-bike or e-scooter. The general rule, just under 18 has to wear a helmet. And then just the age limit to get a license is 16. So typically an e-scooter, 16.

So if you're 12, 11, 12, you can't have one, period. That's what it comes down to. So that's what I think needs to get, you know, because it's confusing. Yes. I mean, even when the school sent it out, a lot of parents were confused. They didn't understand what meant 16, what it meant 18, the how meant no how. So I'm glad that it's going to be – somehow get, but please communicate to the parents. They're the ones that are buying it. They're the ones that can say yes or no. And if they get a ticket, it would be their fault because they've been announced, they've been told. And we need to reach the parents.

Yeah, your comments are well taken. And I absolutely agree that we need to communicate with the parents. And so that was the purpose of this discussion is because there is that confusion out there, like who's required a license, who's not. So now I know that we're clear. And we're also going to need your support with, you know, the school board and so forth. They can also think about your parents squares or other like PTA groups and so forth. We can also think about the little league, the soccer league, you know, and other groups where parents are actively engaged. But you're right. We now know, all of us are clear, if you have an e-scooter, it always requires a license, period, an e-scooter. E-bike, no license required. But for everyone under 18, helmet across the board. And we'll put that out.

But it's true. The schools are working, and they have been sent out announcements to all the parents on Parents' Square. But when it comes from the city and the police department, it has more of a stronger announcement or the people take it more serious because it is from the police department.

In your experience, Ms. Pichardo, has there been a joint statement that's been provided between the board, the school board, and the city council when it comes to issues that overlap with student safety? Has there ever been a joint statement?

We never have had anything that, you know, anything that they're, With the city, it's different than with the schools. But all the parents do get Parent Square and every announcement that comes out.

So that's something where we could maybe work together is to perhaps put out a joint statement or share that flyer and blast it through your Parent Square because it has to happen through the school district. They're the ones that have to approve it?

It would have to be approved, but it's costly. So since you have the facility to do it through the water district and it doesn't cost you anything to mail them, I would go through to the water district because it's not going to cost you anything. And if we have to mail them, you know, if the school needs to mail them, it's expensive to mail. You know, what is it, 70-some cents a stamp?

I think it came on Parents' Square. It posted on Parents' Square.

Yeah, but it is posted on Parents' Square. But it's not the same from when it comes from the police department. When you get something physical, yeah.

Thank you so much, Ms. Pichard. Okay, are there any other comments or questions from the public? Okay, seeing none, thank you all so much. We're going to move on to the last item in open session, the budget. So with that, staff, please take it away.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Before I begin, mega, mega compliments to Acting Chief Huggins. Joe, you've done a fantastic job filling in, and on behalf of city staff, I really appreciate the job you're doing. I want to acknowledge you for that.

I echo that. Thank you.

Okay. So moving on to the budget. Tonight, we're going to talk about transit a little bit. But before that, I wanted to give a further update of the triple shock, the budget deficit, and what we're looking at. I have, this will be about my fourth or fifth time now, I've talked about a $1.4 million structural deficit, a big majority being the fire contract, but the the largest piece being the falling sales tax revenues. I just received the sales tax receipts for the period ending January, February, and March of 2026, and they continued the negative trend. This particular quarter was 25% below last year, and that was both for Measure L, but now Interestingly enough, for the general sales tax as well for the city, that kind of surprised me a little bit. And that just tells me that people are starting to cut back on essentials on top of other things that we'd like to have. Before I was seeing hits in just like-to-haves, but now the 25% year-over-year in the general sales tax suggests that this triple shock is hitting us hard and it's hitting us real.

Could you please, Mr. Jones, I know you're putting things in context, could you just, for the benefit of all of us, just describe the distinction between the general tax and the sales tax?

So the general tax is what's called Bradley Burns tax. That is when you purchase something at a store in Arvin, you pay 1% regular tax. And that regular tax is a state tax that's for purchases based on pickup. The city of Arvin also has a 1% measure L tax or the penny tax, and that is for anything that is delivered into the city of Arvin in addition to being picked up at like Dollar General or AutoZone or McDonald's, things like that. So if you're getting something from Amazon and you're seeing an 8.25% sales tax rate, that additional 1% is for the... doing the business at Arvin, picking it up here in Arvin. I hope that explains it.

Yeah. So the sales tax, again, it's for those specific goods and services.

Yeah.

That's what that 1% sales tax, the measure of.

Yes, correct.

So this is not food that is being taxed, just so that we're clear.

Correct. Yeah, food is never taxed unless you buy it like a McDonald's and it's taxed as fast food. But no, milk and bread and beef. That is taxed. That's not taxed, correct.

Okay.

So with that in mind, I've continued to see the 25% drop year over year. And what I'm also seeing is numbers that have regressed us or put us back in time to the period right before COVID. So I'm seeing sales tax numbers that were reflective from 2019, basically. And that's unfortunate because even assuming a zero growth 2019 to 2026, okay, flat. Well, that's not good. But you have to factor in that we've had like 25% inflation between 2019 and 2026. So the fact that we're at 2019 levels is a double not a good thing. And I am finalizing getting better fine tuning on the general fund budget. I should have a much better update in two weeks. The council at the last meeting directed staff to bring back a series of reports. There were a lot of accounting reports that you were asking for. Look back for two years of expenses. You wanted transit and I believe there is also one discussing use of America Rescue Plan Act funds. The acting finance director just completed those reports. I will be sending them to council shortly. I do not have a PowerPoint for that, so I'm not presenting that tonight. The other request was for a fee schedule, and as I mentioned, that's going to take a little more time to get that information back to you, Mayor Pro Temp.

Describe what that is for the benefit of all of the audience and the folks that are watching this that has been requested.

What's that?

Yeah, what has been requested.

Okay, so again, there are certain accounting reports that were requested as far as two years worth of expenses at the line item level where city council members could actually go into the report, double click on a cell and actually see all the expenses for like gasoline or office supplies, each individual purchase. We prepared that also for the transit department operations. And we also prepared one for a combination of America Rescue Plan Act funds and fiscal year 23-24. Correct, Dennis?

Did I miss any reports? Yeah, 23-24, 24-25.

Yeah. And those reports we sent out to you later this week. One thing, the other thing we're going to talk about tonight, and this is going to be a policy discussion I expect will take several meetings and may not correspond exactly to this year's budget, is the use of street and road money from Kern Cog for transit operations. The City of Arvin receives two different funding sources for transit. We receive money called STF and LTF. STF is one bucket that can only be used for transit purposes. And a lot of cities use those funds to fund a dial-a-ride service. So those are funds that can only be used for transit-specific functions. The other pot of money, which is called LTF funds, is an either-or. Once the city has determined that it has met all of its unmet transit needs, whatever money is left over in those funds can be allocated for streets and roads. So in this case, the city of Arvin's policy has, we have a very robust transit system, but we do not spend as much of the LTF money on streets and road repairs compared to other cities. That's a fact. So a policy decision that the city council can make is determine what the actual transit needs of the city are, taking into consideration other agencies, transit services, et cetera. And that will take a while to determine because we will have to figure out ridership levels and things like that to come back to the council to show you the utilization of the transit service And so the council can make a policy decision. Do they wish to sustain this level of service, which means that we spend the majority of this LTF money on transit instead of spending it on street and road repairs?

And for the record, so that everyone's crystal clear, STF funding that must, must be spent on transit is what funds the dial-a-ride, is what funds dial-a-rides in most of the 11 cities across the county. That money is dedicated for dial-a-ride and it's not going anywhere. So whatever misinformation is being spread out there, that the city of Arvin is exploring eliminating the Dial-a-Ride service for our seniors and people with disability is not true. It is not factual. Because that dedicated money is here to stay for Dial-a-Ride, yes?

That is absolutely correct.

So the LTF funding, this is now funding that the city can, it's a policy decision, the city can spend on road maintenance?

Correct.

Okay. And could you share with us, those two buckets, how much LTF money is sent to us through Kern Cog every year?

Okay. And this is cash that is kept at Kern Cog. It is money that we have to spend the money and then draw back. It's almost like a reimbursable grant, even though the money's up front. I sure wish we could have that money in our bank account up front because it would help with our cash flow issues, but that's for another day. Got it. So quickly looking at the numbers, the LTF money is about... $1.1 to $1.2 million per year.

Every year, $1.2 million approximately of funds that the city could make a policy decision to utilize for street rehabilitation, street maintenance, if the transit needs are met.

Correct. And that's assuming that we can run the dollar right on the $250,000 STF portion. That may cost us more. It may cost us like $350,000. Okay, so $250,000. STF 1.1 LTF. Now, and these numbers I expect to drop over time. Because you have to remember these numbers come from gas tax revenues. And as people start shifting for electric vehicles, you don't pay a gas tax. So there's going to be less of this funding over time. And that's something that the state is actually looking at at a higher level. Perhaps you may have heard scenarios where the state wants to go away from a gas tax and charge a per mile basis tax. That may help us in the future to sustain this revenue source. But again, I apologize, I'm talking a little bit in the future, but it's important that we bring this up.

But in the short term, the increase in gas, there should be a spike in the funding in the short term, given what we're seeing when it comes to energy.

Yes, exactly, because... This should be a little bit of a spike, correct? Although I would expect that spike to be more in the sales tax numbers than the gas tax numbers. Gas tax numbers are more set cents per gallon as a constant, whereas as the price goes up, sales tax goes up, revenue goes up back to the city.

Right. Could you share based on your experience and the meetings that you have regularly with other city managers, the 11 cities across the county? What are they? What have they decided in terms of their policy locally of how they're utilizing transit dollars and the services that they're providing?

The majority of the cities that I have spoken with just have a dial-a-ride service. There's a question about what Delano's doing. I need to follow up on them. They're a bigger city, so they may have routes. I have not really broached that with their city manager. I do know that Shafter and Wasco, Tehachapi and Taft are pretty much dial-a-ride centric.

Dialeride, and then the rest of the funds that are utilizing it for street maintenance, for rehabilitation and street repair?

By default. I have not asked that question, but that's a logical assumption.

Okay. We just haven't confirmed it.

Correct.

Are there any questions from the council?

I just wanted to clarify. What did you say was for STF? About $250,000 per year. Okay. And at the next meeting, I do plan on giving a balance of what's in those funds because the good news is because those funds are collected in advance from Kernkog, we may actually have some reserves here. So that's good news. I may actually be able to provide some good news at the next meeting on this.

It would even be better if we could put it on the roads and start repairing roads.

Yeah, exactly. I'm saying if we have. If we do have identified that there's no money in the bank at Kern Cog and we've met all of our transit needs, yeah, you betcha.

Because again, if we're looking at 1.2 million approximately of LTF funding, give us a sense just so that we can visualize and folks can hear. How much would it cost, for example, to stripe? Because that's costly, the striping of our streets and folks are asking for that for public safety reasons. How much would it cost to stripe main boulevards in our street, whether it's campus, Meyer, Franklin, Sycamore, how much would that cost just so that we could get a sense of how those funds could perhaps be utilized?

That's an excellent question. And I wish Pedro was here so I could get a better answer, but I'll tell you what I recall, okay? There are two different types of striping. There's the water-based paint or whatever stuff that just sucks up and is gone within nine months. That's what we're currently using now, and that's like, I believe our investment in that is less than $50,000 per year. There's a better thing that's called thermoplasty, which is what I believe we put on the new streets on Haven and Franklin. And if we were to do that, that's more like $200,000, but it would last for three, four, five years.

It's a longer lifespan because of the material. It's not water-based.

Yep. And one thing we're also looking at is improving, and this is kind of in the weeds here, is getting a better striping equipment for the city. Because if you've had to see what the public works people use for striping, frankly, council, I'm ashamed. It's almost like using a bicycle and stencil in a garage. We have an opportunity here to improve that.

Right. And if we're looking at, for example, just hypothetically, if we're looking at 1.2 million, if there was a policy decision to see about how you provide like a critical service, like a dial-a-ride, but then take LTF funds to start the work of what we hear the community clamoring for all the time, which is fix our roads. There are many that don't have basic sidewalks and or gutters. and just have deteriorated for decades, that looking at a project, for example, like the Haven project or South 8th Street or what's happening in Tejon and Comanche, other cities have developed a clear plan to start using those funds hypothetically to say, this is the plan to start repairing one street at a time, year after year? Is that what you see happening in other cities?

Correct. I know for a fact that Tehachapi, you know, they've paid everything. So yeah, we do have a pavement management plan, but it's going on 10 years old. But it did identify critical streets and priorities.

Okay. Are there any comments or questions from the council?

I do. So you said STF was $250,000, correct?

Correct, yes.

Okay, out of those $250,000, does that all go towards administration? Yes.

It's a combined number. I mean, I throw it all in the transit budget. I can't tell you how much is administration versus bus driver salary versus utilities, how much it costs to run the buses. I can have that for you at the next meeting.

And is it the LTF that you currently utilize for the maintenance of the electric buses?

Yes, because with the transit budget itself, I think it's like, $1.1 to $1.2 million, and we do get like $150,000 in federal funds. Before, when we were actually charging for the fare box, we'd get like $50,000, but the balance of about a million dollars was funded from a combination of LTF, STF.

Big picture, Jeff, to follow up on that. Yeah. Big picture, the budget, the overall budget for transit.

Yeah.

operations and maintenance? What's the budget of the transit department?

Again, I want to say about $1.2 million. I wasn't prepared to talk about that tonight. Dennis, did you happen to, when you were running your numbers, get a clue on that?

No, I was strictly looking at expenses versus revenue.

That's the report that's going to be shared with us?

Yeah.

Okay. Okay.

But because this is critical, I will try and get the information to you guys before the next council meeting on this stuff, if possible.

Yes, so what you're looking at is the bus routes and the numbers on how many of our residents are benefiting or taking advantage of the ridership numbers, the ridership number, could it get down so that it's clear about which specific routes so that we're not just looking at, we're not just looking at ride share and the large universe, but that we can get clarity on which are the routes that are, um, the most used in the community. Um, and then also, um, it could also give us a sense of which ones right are not being utilized, but also are there routes where you have the get bus that comes out where it's duplicative, where they run similar paths? Do we know that? And I think also just getting clear about that would be really helpful because the County comes out here regularly, right on the get and goes out to Bakersfield and also Lamont.

They do. I can't vouch for their dependability, but they definitely come out here. Yeah. Okay.

Any other comments or questions before we go? Any clarifying questions or any other information that the council? No? No one else? One more.

How many electric buses do we currently have? Five?

Yeah, I think it is five.

Five?

Yeah, four, yeah, three and one and a dialer ride, yes.

Electric buses, four? Yeah. Five?

Okay. That's the other thing we'll have to consider is the fact that when we look at this whole matrix is that we have had a commitment in some of our grants to expand services in certain areas in order to get certain grants. So it's gonna be, it's not quite an easy picture of what our routes are. We have to look at what we've committed to do for future expansion based on grants we've already received.

Right, and it would be an informed policy decision based on ridership, right? And what those routes could look like, given ridership, so that we stay committed to public transit, but we're not being wasteful and or duplicative.

Correct. And again, as long as we meet the commitment to what we said we'd do in the grants, yeah, totally, totally.

At a time when we're facing such financial challenges that you just described the triple shock, and we know that the number one thing we constantly hear from our residents is fix our streets, fix our roads, and that a sidewalk is more than a sidewalk. It's dignity. Yep. And... for our families and public safety for a lot of our students and so forth. And so that there is the possibility that LTF money could be invested in meeting this need that the community has clearly and loudly have been demanding for years now. Is that right?

Yeah, again, as long as we meet the grant commitment on the expansion, it's going to be an interesting discussion. And my job and Dennis's job is provide you guys with all the facts and all the scenarios so you can make the best decision for the citizens. Yes.

I have a question. How do you track how many people use the bus or the routes for the buses?

I'll have to ask our transit manager. I know we have a lot of route counting things. We track fare revenue. We track when people get on for free. We have those numbers. I'm not exactly sure how we do it, but I can get that.

I imagine now with the new buses, you also have that console. I've taken a tour of them where you actually can scan your card.

We're actually, that's actually an enhancement we're just going to be purchasing. Believe it or not, we did not have, we were not a cashless system. That's one of the things that we're just purchasing is in order to do that.

To have clear data.

Yeah.

Okay. Well, thank you so much. I know that the council is looking forward to receiving those reports. Thank you, Mr. Clark, for creating that for us. I know this is going to be an ongoing conversation. And just so that we're all clear, and it's on the record, the city of Arvin is not doing away with dial-a-ride. That is not what's happening here. And we're doing away with public transit. That's also not what's happening. It's really us continuing to provide oversight and get clear so that we are being really good stewards of these dollars and investing them in what the community is asking for. Okay. With that, are there any comments from the public regarding this presentation? Seeing none, we'll move on to closing comments from council members. Mr. Tarver, you're up first.

I have nothing tonight. Thank you.

Mrs. Reyes.

Do you want to thank Acting Chief Huggett for... giving us that feedback on the e-scooters and working collaboratively with the school district as well. I also wanna thank Mr. Dennis for compiling all that information that we requested. Can't wait to review it. And for those that stayed till the end, I appreciate you staying till the end. It's greatly appreciated. Thank you so much. I'm so tired of you guys today.

Mr. Horton.

Thank everybody for coming out tonight.

Vice Mayor Perez.

I want to begin to apologize for being late to my council members, disrespectful to the citizens. And I want to thank Cecilia for being here. You're really missed when you're not. Should I apologize for that? Thanks, everybody, for staying. Thank you very much.

Absolutely. I echo that. I want to say I see that we have a board member from a committee for a better Arvin. And again, you know, just thank you for that donation of over $50,000. I'm so happy to hear that Recology, that there is that commitment and that interest, that this be a regular donation that we're receiving so that we could keep doing these community improvements of our city. So just thank you so much for that. And yes, I echo Chief Hoggett. Thank you. Thank you so much for stepping up and for everything that you do. We're not aware of, but we appreciate your leadership and really look forward to seeing that flyer so we can start working collaboratively with everyone to get it to the parents. And I know that the water bill is a great idea. I don't believe that that amount has been changed in terms of what the water, the community services district is charging us, but it's really helpful, because it gets to every household. So I hope that we could explore that. And just thank you so much, to our acting finance director. I'm really looking forward to those reports as well and continuing the conversation so we can explore the funding. And Veolia, we know that Veolia has been mentioned as one of these community partners who in the past has made these donations for the benefit of the community. And we're just really looking forward to perhaps exploring that donation perhaps being increased. We know our sewer rates have gone up in our city. Perhaps there are funds there and we can revisit that so that there's a great need and we now have a policy to accept these donations. Yes. So with that, thank you all. Oh, Mr. Perez.

I just had a question that I just, I had, I don't remember now. Oh, wait. Oh, Jeff. Do we have anything that we could do about getting ahead of legislation and implementing like a utility tax on like electricity or something like that?

Mayor Pro Tem, we could certainly look into that. I do know that that was tried back in 2018 and there was no outreach and it only received about 30% of the vote at that time.

It failed in 2018.

Yes, with about 30%. And at that point, I believe the estimate was it would bring in about $600,000 or $700,000 a year.

Just that sense that they're moving away from gas, just trying to get ahead of it for now. Yeah. Interesting, yeah. Gotcha. That was it, sorry. Okay.

No, no need to apologize, and it's really great to have you here. So just thank you again. We know that at the next meeting, we're going to continue to explore our finances and continue to dig into the budget. You had mentioned that at that point, we'll be able to see a more robust proposal from you at the next council meeting, so I invite everyone to be with us on June 9th at 6 o'clock, and that as a community, we're going to get through this, but it's a very painful time. This structural deficit is real, what we're facing in Arvin, um and the numbers don't lie and so uh just you know getting more concrete um proposals from the city manager about how we're going to close that 1.4 million dollar deficit if you're saying that that deficit is increasing i think it would be really helpful to get a projection of what that would look like you know out into the new fiscal year so that we get a clear picture and we could make really sound informed decisions to close the gap because we Unlike the federal government, we do not have the luxury of printing money, so we have to make really tough and painful decisions that we don't want to make, but we're faced with a crisis that's before us, the triple shock. So with that, we're going to close into closed session. The meeting will still continue. There will be silence. You're welcome to stay to hear the report out. Madam Attorney, would you read the closed session items?

Thank you, Madam Mayor. The two items that will be discussed are conference with legal counsel for two cases of anticipated litigation and continuing the conversation on item B for conference with labor negotiators.

Okay, we're going to close session now. Thank you all.