City Council - Regular Meeting

Press it.

You type it like.

Bear with us. We'll get started in just a minute. Okay, everyone, good evening. This is June 3rd. It is 5-10. This is the meeting of the Indio City Council, Indio Electric Financing Authority, and the Housing Authority. I'd like to call the meeting to order and ask for roll call, please.

Council Member Miller. Present. Council Member Withron. Present. Council Member Ortiz.

Present.

Mayor Pro Tem Furman.

Present.

And Mayor Holmes. Present. Thank you. I'd like to have the invocation by Pastor Williams, please.

Good evening, everyone. Let us pray. Dear Lord, we just come before you with thanksgiving in our heart, Lord, and just asking you to just govern us with peace, with provision and safety and protection, Lord, from the least of us to the most of us. Give the council wisdom as they do what they do for the city. Remembering that we steward everything and we own nothing, Lord, so give us the grace to do what you need us to do. And we invite you into this meeting and we thank you for all things. In the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen.

And now we have the flag salute by Adrian Lopez. Come on up to the, you can come right here to the microphone. From Andrew Jackson Elementary, and I'd like to tell everyone a little bit about you. Adrian Lopez is a dedicated fifth grade student at Andrew Jackson Elementary School. Outside of the classroom, he enjoys playing football and has been involved in the sport for the past three years. His passion for football has helped him to develop teamwork, discipline, and perseverance. Adrian is excited to begin the next chapter of his educational journey as he prepares to enter middle school. Outstanding. Go right ahead.

May I begin?

I pledge allegiance.

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.

Amen. All right. Don't go anywhere.

All right, so we have some cool stuff for you.

Thank you very much. Great job. And so this is a very special Indio bag, Indio Lindo, that I'd like to present to you.

Thank you.

So that you can take it, backpack to school when the new season starts at your new school. It'd be awesome. Thank you very much. And so now we have some folks that would like to take, come on back, because you get to take a picture with a mayor here. Good job. Thank you. Okay, let's see, city attorney report on closed session. I'm going to report out that there is no reportable action at this time. Item number five, presentations. Chief for a day, Kayden Mark Gattis.

What are you doing with that? Good afternoon, Mayor, Council. I would like to introduce the Chief of the Day, Kaden Mark Gaddis. He's 10 years old. He is our sixth Chief of the Day, and he's a student at Desert Christian Academy. His stepfather is Officer Jesse Juhasz, who has served our Indio community as a traffic officer with the Indio Police Department since April of 2020. Kaden spent the day with us. In my executive staff, he was able to give out a number of directions. He was able to advise our lieutenants what they needed to do for the day. Then he was off to do a ride-along with his stepfather, Officer Juhasz. They went ahead and did two traffic stops, from what I understand, and they towed a vehicle. Is that right, Chief? Yes, all right. And then from there, he ended up going out and taking a look at the drone program. Were you able to fly a drone? Yeah, he flew a drone and he was excited about that. Then we went to lunch, right? We have to go to lunch. What's the important thing about police officers? Always have to make sure you're fed, right? Never know when you're gonna eat again. right all right so I learned a little bit about Caden and I just want to kind of share it with you Caden Caden is a is a person who is lives with kindness and compassion and he has strong values his faith is an important part of who he is and it guides the way he treats others each day he enjoys camping fishing of course Legos F1 racing, basketball cards, and collecting challenge coins. He spends his time outdoors with his family and friends, and he's known for his incredible memory and creative imagination and loves learning new things. And with that, Mayor, can I ask you and the Council to come forward, and I have a few presentations to make.

We'd love it.

Come on, let's go, Chief.

Nice to meet you.

Oh, up front? Yeah, here we go. Let's step up front. Chief Kaden, why don't you step up here in the middle. I first would like to give you a certificate of recognition. Why don't you hold onto that? That's from Senator Padilla for your being a chief for the day. So he wanted to recognize your work and your efforts for the chief of the day. So great award there. And then I also wanted to give you Assemblyman Jeff Gonzales. He wanted to recognize you for being chief of the day in the city of Indio. So here's that recognition as well. Why don't you hold it up?

Hold that up so that...

All right, we're not done, Chief. Let's give you some more awards here. I wanted to leave that one for last. And for your excellent work today, I wanted to give you this Chief's Commendation for your service to the community and your willingness to go above and beyond to help others and your dedication to your family, all right? So why don't you hold that? Okay, and the most special one, I want you to hang this up in your room, okay? And this is the one that matters. This is a certificate of recognition to Kate and Mark Gaddis for being chief of the day. And it's in recognition for your selection and honorary chief for the day with the Indio Police Department. And this is from the city of Indio. So you'll be able to hang that up in your room. All right.

We have one more thing.

One more, okay. It's yours, Mayor.

It's mine, it's mine, cool. Okay, so we have one more thing. We understood that you like challenge coins, and the city of Indio has their very own special challenge coin, and I would like to present you with that challenge coin from the city of Indio.

Thank you. You're so very welcome.

At least for the day. Oh, sorry.

Well, we hope he had a blast today and hanging out with Chief Tully had to be the highlight because he's a pretty cool guy. So I really am excited for you and hope he had a great time. And I think I'd like to have the rest of the council to say a few words to you.

How you doing, Chief Goddard? It's a pleasure to meet you. Thank you for your service to our city, and thank your father as well for his service, and thank your family for allowing us to have both of you represent the city of Indio and do it well. It's a pleasure to meet you, and I hope in about maybe 10 more years, 11 years, we'll be back here, and I'll be watching out there, but we'll watch you get sworn in as an Indio police officer. How about that? Sound good? All right. Congratulations on your chief for the day.

Hey there, Oscar Ortiz, my council member here. I just want to thank you for joining us today and for all your efforts here. This is a really extremely important job, as you know, from your family members here who have served our community. It's extremely important for keeping our community safe and keeping everything running here in the city of Indio. And so we appreciate you being a part of that today. and seeing how hard that work is, right? Sometimes it can be pretty difficult. You deal with people in some of their most difficult circumstances, but that's some of the great work that our police officers do on a daily basis. And so I want to always try to show our appreciation for them, for you, for our chief, for all the work that they do. And we want to say thank you to you as well.

Thanks. I think this is working. Caden, I think you and I met at the auction at the fairgrounds. What was it that you raised?

I raised a pig named Icebox.

And how much did Icebox go for? $1,000.

You have $2,000?

Okay, over. Anyways, so I had the pleasure of you meeting. It was nice to see that you took responsibility and have a farming gut, and so who knows which way it'll go, but we know that you enjoyed that. What I'm gonna do for you is I always carry a coin, because I was a member of the police department, and I always give it to people I see throughout the week that's special, and you're lucky, because these are coins that the chief didn't have, because it was almost just before him. So it's another add to your collection. So it's my... All right.

And I just want to say thank you. Congratulations on being the chief for the day. Your father's an amazing man. You've got a great family, and you're following in good footsteps. And you have a good mentor here in Chief Tully. So thank you for being our chief for the day, and come back any time you want. You can sit up on the dais next time.

I just want to know, did you have a big glass of milk with a donut? What?

All right, let's take one last one.

I just wanted to thank you, Mayor and Council, for taking the time to recognize Kayden for this effort.

Say this real quick, go ahead, please. Yes. It's all yours, Chief.

Good evening, mayor, city council members, and everyone here tonight. My name is Kayden Gaddis, and I am in fourth grade. Today, I had the honor of being sworn in as the sixth honorary chief of the police for Indio Police Department. I had an amazing day. I got to go on a ride-along, do field training with Chief Tully, attend meetings, and learn more about how the police department serves our community. I ALSO RECEIVED THE CUSTOM CHIEF'S CHALLENGE COIN. THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO MADE THIS DAY SO SPECIAL. IT WAS A PLEASURE SERVING THE CITY OF INDIO AND I WILL NEVER FORGET THIS EXPERIENCE. THANK YOU.

ALL RIGHT. THANK YOU. EXCELLENT. THAT'S GREAT. OKAY. MEETING'S OVER. THAT'S THE END OF IT. OH, HOW NICE. NICE, NICE. I'M SO GLAD YOU HAD A GREAT DAY. THANK YOU. OKAY. NEXT ITEM.

and your reports and information Thank You mayor well after I've counted nearly 1,000 City Council meetings in my career this is my last one so I know there's an opportunity for me to thank everybody tonight but also next Thursday 2 o'clock between 2 and 4 p.m. in this room everyone's invited to come say goodbye but also for me to be able to say thank you to the whole community for the last five plus years certainly city council it's been a great opportunity great honor to serve here great team and then a new great city manager that's coming on board so my very last one thank you very much and i will continue to be one of indio's biggest cheerleaders for sure that's my report mayor that's your report okay

Okay, item number seven, City Council Conflict of Interest Disclosure. Anybody have any conflicts on this agenda? Okay, terrific. Item number eight, City Council Report on Meetings Attended. And we'll start with Council Member Miller.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. A couple of my committees were active. First one was Sunline Transit Agency. We were obviously the new AB bill that came out to do for unions and filling of positions 2561. Sunline had to I WANT TO BRING THAT FORWARD. LAST YEAR WE HAD 67 OPENINGS, LAST YEAR WE HAD 67 OPENINGS, THIS YEAR WE ONLY HAVE 10. THIS YEAR WE ONLY HAVE 10. SO THEY FILLED UP A LOT OF THEIR SO THEY FILLED UP A LOT OF THEIR BUS LINES, ESPECIALLY THEIR BUS LINES, ESPECIALLY THEIR INTERNALLY THEIR MECHANICS THAT INTERNALLY THEIR MECHANICS THAT WERE LAGGING, SO THEY'VE GOT WERE LAGGING, SO THEY'VE GOT QUITE A FEW PEOPLE BACK IN. QUITE A FEW PEOPLE BACK IN. THEY'RE ONLY MISSING 10 PEOPLE We did the short-term transportation plan. The only problem with that we see is that with the federal funding, the bill that is going forward doesn't have funding to allow it to pay for schools' buses to go. Right now, Sunline goes over to all the high schools and all the different schools. That funding looks like it might be going away unless it gets reversed. If that's the case, then Sunline's gonna have to come up with a way to pay for that to continue those buses to stop by the high schools like they used to and allow students to ride on the bus. Right now, if you're in College of the Desert, any of our colleges, Cal State Long, and also any of our high schools now, you can get a bus pass and go anywhere, anytime. You don't have to be going to work. You can just drive. It's just kind of a transportation to give the kids an opportunity to start riding the bus. That will probably go away unless we can find some funding or we'll have to change some funding around. So that's something we need to look at. The second one was CVAG executive A LOT OF THE STUFF WENT ON. WE DID THE BUDGET. WE DID THE BUDGET. LOOKS LIKE THEY'RE GOING TO BE LOOKS LIKE THEY'RE GOING TO BE BORROWING $32 MILLION. BORROWING $32 MILLION. THE WAY SUNLINE DOES THINGS IS THE WAY SUNLINE DOES THINGS IS THEY BRING A LOT OF MONEY IN THEY BRING A LOT OF MONEY IN KIND OF LIKE WHEN THEY DID FOR THE KIND OF LIKE WHEN THEY DID FOR THE CV LINKS IN THAT OR CV SYNC IN CV LINKS IN THAT OR CV SYNC IN THAT AND THEN THEY USE IT AT THAT AND THEN THEY USE IT AT CERTAIN TIMES WHEN THEY HAVE IT. CERTAIN TIMES WHEN THEY HAVE IT. SO THIS YEAR THERE'S A $32 SO THIS YEAR THERE'S A $32 MILLION DEFICIT BEING COVERED BY MILLION DEFICIT BEING CV multimodal corridor plan that went out to contract. They awarded the contracts and now they're gonna start looking at ways to be able to bring transportation in throughout different methods and how that'll work here in the Coachella Valley. And then lastly, the 29 Palms Band of Mission Indians asked to have a amendment to The CVAC executive, they've never allowed other than tribes to allow other than members to be a part of the voting board. You can actually sit on it, but you can't vote. The tribe has asked because it's very small tribe and Chairman Mike is not able to attend a lot of time that they could have one of their executive board members for each of the different committees like conservation and all the other ones. It was anonymously approved to be able to bring that forward to be able to do it. There already are some other tribes that do it, but they are different because they're a sovereign nation. And so they allowed that. So you might have Anthony or George or Eddie Garcia sitting on one of the other commissions for them, but they have to say who it is. They can't move them around. So like we do, if it's on CVAG conservation, it's you and let's say Oscar, So Wayman can't come in. So they have to say exactly who's going to be on that board. So they approved that and they're going to bring that forward to have it see what it looks like. And it's already, like I said, being done by some of the other tribes because they're smaller, like the Torres Martinez. So that was the highlights of that. I THINK A LOT OF US WENT TO I THINK A LOT OF US WENT TO ALL THE GRADUATIONS, ALL THE GRADUATIONS, CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL THE CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL THE PARENTS, STUDENTS, TEACHERS, PARENTS, STUDENTS, TEACHERS, ALL OF THEM. ALL OF THEM. THERE WAS THREE GRADUATIONS AND THERE WAS THREE GRADUATIONS AND THE BIGGEST ONE WAS INDIO THE BIGGEST ONE WAS INDIO HIGH SCHOOL AT 397, 360 FOR HIGH SCHOOL AT 397, 360 FOR SHADOW HILLS AND 135 FOR SHADOW HILLS AND 135 FOR AMISTAD. going back out to our high schools and making sure they realize how important it was for their first step of getting their education done and whatever they do is there was some of them going into the military some were going into college of the desert some were going in multiple colleges all over it was great to see a lot of our youth advisory council or some of the highlights they were going to different places a lot of more scholarship for four-year schools so it was great to see So I'm sure the rest of us will talk about some of the other ones talk about like Amazon because a lot of us go to a lot of these different things. But then Memorial Day was honored to speak at the Sun City Shadow Hills. We brought the Marines down, Command Sergeant Major. The steel came down and we were able to, there was about 200 people there, talk about it, what Memorial Day, the remembrance means, what it means to our veterans and all the people that were lost, being able to have the freedom that we do today. And then also I was at the Palm Springs Air Museum. It's pretty amazing to watch those fighter jets that are over 80 years old and bombers and that, and they all went up and they had planes from all over flying And then it turned and came around right over the top and dropped thousands of carnations down on top of everybody that was there. And there was about 7,000 people there celebrating and remembering those who gave their lives. So it was very exciting to see that many people. That was the largest attendance they've ever had. And a lot of them were Indio residents. And then the last thing I was... I don't know if you ever met Jean Guy Dubé. Jean is a... expert on history and his thing is the train station he is the historian that kind of came back and how indio became a train town on may 29th he told me this he sent me a thing uh was our 150th year that indio was formed that the first train stopped in the city of indio and he has a presentation he'd like to be able to present he presents i guess at the history museum and he presents it all over. He's an expert on trains and history of the trains. And he would like to do a small presentation one time here to show us what it was like. He has slides and presentation that shows like when they first came in and then how the train depots looked and how it changed over the years and the locomotives. So he said he's more than happy to do that if we'd like to do it. He could do like a two or three, four or five minute one. He said he can change it, but he could do it remotely. So something you'd be interested in, but I thought it was very interesting, 150 years First train rolled into the city of Mendeo and stopped.

I think that would be great.

And that's it for me. Madam Mayor.

Absolutely. And just real quick then, what do you all think about having that? I think that would be terrific. We've been talking about a train station and everything.

I'll send it over to John and Sabdi to be able to look at it.

Fantastic.

Great. Station.

It's really nice.

It preserves.

of our city. Absolutely. All right. And you're up, Council Member Dutron.

Yes, ma'am. So I had the privilege on Thursday, May 21st to attend the graduation ceremony. at the McCollum Theater of 75 nursing students from their program. A large percentage of those were from the Indio area. Helen is, God, I made a name. I keep calling her Roscoe, but it's really, Polanco, excuse me. So I've known her since she was 13 years old. She started as a police cadet. She's currently one of our supervisors for our dispatch. but she always had a love of caring, and so she received her nursing degree. And it took great participating, but also realizing how many of our locals in Indio are gonna be out there, at least over 75 nurses. It was one of their biggest classes. So I attribute that to what we've done to expand the opportunities in our city. And it was a rewarding opportunity to see how many new people have come aboard in the medical field to help, hopefully a lot of them stay here and become a working force to helping our medical needs as nursing and continued education that some will continue at the, obviously at Cal State and so forth. So that was a great moment. We also had the opportunity to attend the California Desert Trial Academy in Indio. They had a celebration at the Fantasy Springs Convention Center. It was really nice. They're getting really close to their formal accreditation. It takes a period of time. It's not easy. And talking to John Dolan and Sue Standing and the rest of the, and obviously Miss Irene, John Dolan's wife, It is interesting to see how this is developing and how, again, it's in our city and they are just full of a lot of accomplishments and state recognitions. So it was nice to see that. I also had the privilege attending the, the Thursday, May 28th, the Indio High School graduation, being also a Raja, along with my fellow Rajas here to my right, which is Wayman and Oscar. But we're all proud, regardless if we were from there or not. Unfortunately, I had the opportunity of sitting next to our mayor. She put on a jacket. I did not have one. I ended up with a sore throat, so I was not able to make a fine to, it was bad. It got cold. I mean, it was, people were wearing jackets, but the... The excitement and pride, not just at Indio High School, not just at Amistad, and not just at Shadow Hills, the community as a whole, we have a lot to be proud of. And so it was really nice to have that experience. Had the opportunity to attend Friday the 29th, Coachella Valley Unified School District, State of the District. Obviously, we know that they're going through some challenges, but if you would have attended, you would have not even thought there was a challenge. The amount of students that accomplish so much and what they're doing, obviously, some of this experience is when you have challenges, they didn't show their challenge. And so since we obviously have a portion of our city that's within the boundaries of that school, I also had the opportunity on June 1st with council member Oscar Ortiz and obviously soon to be our city manager, Jonathan Nix. We had a really good informative two on two. We did bring up some key issues because of the growth and the amount of students attending the two current schools in our city, which is Mount Vista elementary school and obviously the co, oh my goodness, Oscar, help me out in the middle school. I just drew a blank. Yeah, Correa Desert Academy is their middle school across from obviously the Trilogy and all those other homes, but traffic has impacted. So we discussed traffic signalization. They're currently working on it and some other things, but I want to give credit to Councilman Ortiz. He does work well in knowing grants and what he does in his expertise. So he was, Jonathan and I were impressed with you that you rolled off a good about five or six leads for them to look at. And they're really trying. I mean, I understand their challenges, but Oscar, thank you. You impressed me in the details and whatnot. And they took copious notes of that. The other thing, too, is I did bring up some things that they're challenged with attendance. and our city police department has worked with truancy and immunization challenges and just the mere fact of our districts are not seeing the attendance as they're losing students that are not for one reason or the other. So I did mention to Jonathan to get with the chief because our team that works in the schools work really well. And I know Jonathan was going to work with with the chief to try to get our team because we work with desert sands But we have two school districts and two private schools in our city. We have 24 places of education in our city and Obviously our three high schools and elementary schools but we still have time to show some TLC and working with at least the two schools because Those two schools within our district, even though the other one's outside, there's people from NDL in our community that attend because that's the next middle school. So we just need to remember that and hopefully assist them in their efforts. And other than that, it's just, again, a lot going on and thank you, Mayor.

Council Member, did they talk about any, I know they're experiencing layoffs in their district. from the two schools that are in our city, were there any layoffs there, or did you guys even go there?

No, I think there was, because the way I understood, because I did ask, because I know that Mount Vista was affected by staff that had to move, And that school, since it's open, they did their best to kind of cover it. They did get, some did get offended, but not as great amount because of the district areas. Because they really, they go all the way into Imperial County, their district does. And so, but there was impacts in other areas of the school. But I did forget one important point that you just reminded me, is they, because of their funding and grants, they're doing, refurbishing the elementary school and the middle school. and pretty significant, adding sheet structures, landscaping, remodellization of maintaining the school.

Council Member Ortiz.

Thank you, Mayor. I recently talked to our staff about the policy I had suggested regarding high water use, high power use, or expansive land use projects. As a reminder, we've asked our staff for guidance towards a policy that allows us a legal authority to deny These projects or negotiate community benefits for these types of projects and although that policy will be speaking about several industries We have one industry which is data centers which has caused a huge concern from some of our residents due to the high demand of water use and fossil fuels and potential environmental impacts and public health impacts and So many of our families have expressed to me that they don't want to see that increase of demand on fossil fuels or increase of demand on water for the purpose of artificial intelligence, which is also they see as causing issues for many of our families in the labor market. And so that policy is set to come to our planning commission on the 24th and back to our city council in July. And so I'd like to make sure that we don't have any data center applications in the meantime, because what we have seen, the issues that we've seen in other communities in dealing with these projects as they're coming in, And so what I'm requesting is to add an item to today's agenda with an urgency ordinance to start a moratorium for five days while we wait for that policy to come back to us. I know this would require four votes from our council, but I would like us to consider that. The second request regarding this issue would be because of the concerns that we're hearing from our community to direct staff to include options for a long-term moratorium or a permanent ban on data centers for our conversations with the planning commission and with our council which will be coming to us in the near future and I would just like to include those because you know that's what we're hearing from from a lot of our residents that they want us to consider those options so I think that should be a part of that conversation coming forward but I think that 45-day moratorium is important so that we don't get stuck with a project that we're then having to negotiate back and forth and consider you know we see the crowds that are showing up to some of our other city council meetings so I think we'd rather have a a set infrastructure to handle those types of developments before taking in any applications.

What is the estimated time of presenting the information that was brought by city manager Montgomery? I think it was maybe three weeks ago of bringing this exact matter that that gives us a timeframe, how soon we're gonna see it in front of this body.

Yeah, from what staff had told me, it'll come to planning commission on the 24th and then back to council after that.

So we're three weeks out?

it's about 45 days out from coming to the council. So those dates are correct. It's going to go to planning commission on June 24th. And then after that discussion back to council, I believe that would be July 15th.

So 45 days. And I know one big project that was brought for us, that question came up and it does not allow data centers, but it could be presumed it would be, but it's not. Okay.

Well I think I would request to see if we can add that to the agenda tonight for the moratorium.

Do we want to add it or so we want to do an urgency request to make sure that we get head this off at the pass to make sure there's anything well what is how does everybody else on this dais feel about that?

Well city attorney how does that work?

the city council could add an item to tonight's agenda if by two-thirds vote in this case that means four votes the council finds that the need to act is immediate and the need arose after the posting of the agenda if the council directed me to draft a moratorium on data centers I WOULD ASK YOU TO PUT IT AT THE END OF THE AGENDA TO ALLOW ME END OF THE AGENDA TO ALLOW ME THE TIME TO DO THAT. THE TIME TO DO THAT. WE HAVE PASSED A FEW MORATORIUMS WE HAVE PASSED A FEW MORATORIUMS LATELY SO I HAVE A GOOD TEMPLATE LATELY SO I HAVE A GOOD TEMPLATE TO WORK OFF OF. TO WORK OFF OF. BUT IF THE COUNCIL WANTED TO DO BUT IF THE COUNCIL WANTED TO DO THAT YOU COULD MAKE THOSE FINDINGS THAT YOU COULD MAKE THOSE FINDINGS AND VOTE TO PLACE IT ON THE AGENDA AND VOTE TO PLACE IT ON THE AGENDA FOR THIS EVENING.

FOR THIS EVENING. DO WE HAVE ANY IN THE DO WE HAVE ANY IN THE PIPELINE?

I don't think we have any, we may not have any in the pipeline, but when you give that open window, I think these companies already seen some of our communities are against the data centers. Well, India was the biggest city in the Coachella Valley. We have the most land and that wouldn't preclude them from at least putting an application in. and later following up with that. We've seen that with our gas stations, right? When the conversation came up about more terms of gas stations, we had some in the pipeline. So I will support an urgency ban on these. And another reason being these things are evolving as we speak, right? We have these large data centers coming into communities, but in five years, they may be obsolete and you might be stuck with this big industrial, building or whatever, you know, that data center is there and we do have land. So I would be comfortable with the urgency ban, stop it now and let staff work on what we need to do to move forward.

Okay, there's two, all right. I'm thinking, I can hear that.

45 days out, there was one project presumed doesn't have it. Would it be, do we do the emergency ordinance until we see a report? Yes.

That's correct.

I might have a question for the city attorney that may help on that point. The question I would ask that again may be valuable is if somebody brought in an application tomorrow We have to have a period of time where we would deem it complete. Do they have some sort of standing under some sort of existing land use or until such time as their application is deemed complete? When does that occur?

SO LET'S TAKE TWO OF THOSE TO THE SO LET'S TAKE TWO OF THOSE TO THE COUNCIL MEMBERS QUESTION IT COUNCIL MEMBERS QUESTION IT WOULD PRESUMABLY BE FOR 45 DAYS WOULD PRESUMABLY BE FOR 45 DAYS WHICH WOULD TAKE YOU TO THE JULY WHICH WOULD TAKE YOU TO THE JULY MEETING WHERE THE REPORT BACK TO MEETING WHERE THE REPORT BACK TO THE CITY COUNCIL ON THIS WAS THE CITY COUNCIL ON THIS WAS ANTICIPATED TO BE BROUGHT TO THE ANTICIPATED TO BE BROUGHT TO THE CITY MANAGERS QUESTION STAFF IS CITY MANAGERS QUESTION STAFF IS OBLIGATED TO PROCESS OBLIGATED TO PROCESS APPLICATIONS UNDER THE EXISTING APPLICATIONS UNDER THE EXISTING DEVELOPMENT CODE AND GENERAL CONSISTENT WITH OUR REVIEW PROCESS, BUT IF IT'S A COMPLETE APPLICATION, IT WOULD NEED TO BE PROCESSED UNLESS WE HAD A MORATORIUM ON THE BOOKS OR UNLESS A FUTURE ORDINANCE WAS PASSED CHANGING THE GENERAL PLAN AND THE CODE.

SO WE STILL HAVE A PERIOD WHERE WE COULD GET

an application yeah and i'm not comfortable leaving it any open opening for anyone to put an application let's just do the urge urgency ban and follow up with the the moratorium and let's move on with city business i don't want to even touch on this let's just stop it in this tracks before it even goes there we also don't want to uh developers to waste their time right if we're going to be having a conversation in 45 days on how to regulate these then

let's hold off on taking those applications in till they see our full thoughts and considerations and then discuss those applications afterwards.

So Councilmember Ortiz, just to me understanding, 45 days and then at that point we decide what's after that based on the report?

Based on the report, based on the feedback from the Planning Commission, and then based on community input, right?

But at least it freezes this window between them right now.

Right, exactly. Okay. And I support it, yes.

And Oscar, what do you classify as a data center? Just a straight-up data center? We're not talking innovation centers. You're talking big boxes that have all the junk in them, technically, right? But it wouldn't be an innovation center or anything else. No, I didn't mean that.

That's a good point, council member, because there's a lot of unknowns that we don't know. And so it gives us the opportunity for staff to go out and also educate us on these facilities because, you know, they're already talking about putting them on people's properties. They're talking about going into space, right? So these things are ever evolving. So let's stop. Let's get educated on this and move forward responsibly.

And that was the reason for my question. We obviously are in tune, but the general public is going to get bits and pieces out there. I would say we want to put a stop for 45 days, staff come and give us whatever information so we can make a frank decision to move forward. Then I'm good.

Okay. So we got four of us. Oh, I'm in. You're good. You're in. Okay. All right. We got it. We got it strong.

So then, Mayor, you've added it to the end of the agenda. Yes. You'll give me an opportunity to define what a data center is.

We'll see if we can.

I'll get right on that.

So we'll have that and I'll send a draft ordinance over to the city clerk and have that distributed by the end of the meeting.

Okay, fantastic. Thank you so much. Good call. All right.

Mr. Port. I just wanted to finish my report.

Please do.

Thanks. We also attended the graduations with our fellow council members, went to Indio High School, Shadow Hills High School, and Amistad High School's graduations. I want to congratulate all of our graduates and their families. It was great to see our youth moving through that rite of passage in our community and all the happy families out there. I also attended our Memorial Day celebration at the Coachella Valley Public Cemetery. I want to thank Josh Bonner and his staff there, as well as our VFW and the American Legion for always hosting us there to honor our fallen soldiers. I also want to thank all of our elections workers, including some of our NDO staff for their efforts on election day to make sure we had a smooth voting process for our residents. And a thank you to all of the candidates as well for their work in engaging our communities and working towards a positive change for our local families. I attended the two-by-two meeting with CBUSD, as Councilmember Withron mentioned, and we discussed those solutions for looking for grant funding, transportation issues, traffic issues, and also how do we work together to improve attendance throughout our community. We know that also impacts the funding for our schools. And lastly, I wanna say thank you to our city manager for the last five years of service to our community. You have an incredible work ethic, and incredible talent in organization that has helped lead to the positive changes that we see today, including our downtown revitalization, our infrastructure improvements, and electricity and transportation, our parks improvements, and many, many more changes that we've seen under your leadership. And so I wanna say, I really, really appreciate all of your efforts here over the years, and it'll be tough for us to fill your shoes, but you've done a good job at setting us up for the future by helping out John and our staff to be ready to handle that future growth. Thank you again, you made a tremendous mark on our city and we wish you the best in your retirement. Thank you, thank you. That's all I have, Mayor, thank you.

All right, thank you, go right ahead.

There we go, I don't wanna break it. Thank you, Madam Mayor. I did have one meeting, I had a Coachella Valley Power Agency meeting And one of the notable items under, we had an update on the public benefits fee that we all get. And if you look on your bill, it's a state-mandated bill.

2025-2030 strategic plan, so that encompasses these areas of focus as well. So to get us started, this is a refresher of a slide that we presented at the study session. Just are some of the key drivers, the significant budget assumptions that we make, salaries and benefits there. We did have some impacts there that we'll go over in this presentation that have changed. Since we presented on May 6th, we did have some debt service obligation changes, and we'll discuss that as we move forward. One-time project assumptions, as well as operational changes. And as we had discussed previously, the operational changes that we have been addressing and moving forward as we've consolidated water utility operations under the city umbrella. as well as consolidating some of the public works efforts. So there's just been a funding restructure that we'll see on how we develop that budget. And again, feel free to interrupt me or ask me questions at any time, I'm happy to answer. So we'll get started. So citywide budget as a whole encompassing the full roadmap for us is 484 million. It's an increase of 25 million compared to the current year budget, which is set at 459 million, comprised of all of these, the governmental funds, proprietary funds, and fiduciary funds. In essence, the governmental funds hold our general fund, which is our main operating account, while the proprietary funds encompass our enterprise funds, which would be water and golf and so forth. Let me go back. And I just wanted to highlight here on the change what we see here. The significant impact, the 459, the 484 is significantly driven off one-time transfers on capital improvements, which we'll go through forward in the presentation to explain. So this is a common slide as well. Just to give you a general fund summary, we'll break down the next couple slides in terms of general fund, enterprise funds, and capital. So what changed here from the study session is that estimated beginning fund balance of 46 million. We originally presented that at 18 million, and what was the difference? The difference is that we actually have captured $27.1 million that we have in our financials as an assigned fund balance that's been committed year over year for capital. And what we've been doing is we're going to move it out of the general fund at this point and dedicate it to our capital improvement fund. So this is just allowing for that transaction to move forward. So at any given time, depending on our capital footprint, we would have the flexibility to revise as needed. Operational revenues, no changes with this budget this evening from the May 6th study session. They stayed status quo. We felt that there was no need to adjust any revenues other than we wanted to work within our means with any changes that we had post study session. So that brings us to a total general fund budget of $159 million that is exclusive of Measure X, Measure E dollars, not inclusive of this because they do not get considered at all for any operational expenses, which then in the end provides a surplus of $1 million, which is a little over than what we presented prior, and we'll go through and explain what was the cause in the shift as well. So in the end, what that means is we still have a balanced operational budget, just slightly increased in terms of our surplus. Real brief overview, $133 million in general fund revenue. As I mentioned, there is no changes here as presented. This is all status quo from our original study session with no changes. And this... And then we move forward to the appropriations. And that's where we do have the changes. And I wanted to highlight the items that we've captured. So I wanted to first highlight and remind and bring forward for city council and the public. So we have economic development that does have that $1 million plugged in there in terms to operate the building beautification program, half a million for Highway 111 and half a million for downtown. IS INCLUSIVE THERE. WE ALSO ARE BRINGING FORWARD WITH THE REQUEST FROM CITY COUNCIL ABOUT 200,000 AS A SET ASIDE FOR AIDES TO OTHER AGENCIES. SO WE HAVE REVIEWED THE BUDGET AND WE WERE ABLE TO IDENTIFY RESOURCES WITHIN OUR COMMUNITY SERVICES BUDGET AND ALSO COUPLING THAT WITH CANNABIS COMMUNITY BENEFIT PAYMENTS THAT WE DO RECEIVE THAT WE HAVE AVAILABLE FOR THIS PURPOSE. SO THAT FUNDING HAS BEEN PROGRAMMED AND IS MADE AVAILABLE IN THE NEXT BUDGET CYCLE. Other changes on this is administration. We had some minor changes there. Nothing significant to report. And then the other is police and non-departmental. As you will see, they're probably about the same, weighted the same. Non-departmental will eventually be reduced because it encompasses one-time transfers. Police has changes in there in terms of staffing, and then I'll dive deeper into those staffing changes once we get to that slide. And this just provides general fund expenditures by category. I shared this slide primarily at mid-year and this is a slide that I just like to highlight because it tells us about, we talk about the strategic plan, we talk about the goals about the city, we talk about how we move forward and what that roadmap looks like. But what this shows to me and what I've seen and tried to convey is that we're pretty well balanced in terms of staffing in comparison to providing staff the tools and the resources to do the work, to get the job done. And so with that 34 to 36 percent share that we see there spread, that just tells that story for us. And these are the one-time items, projects, special projects, transfers, some are highlighted. And again, it's only 7.3 million. We tried to weed out as best possible just those one-time capital transfers, which is equivalent to 38 million in total that we're transferring out from the general fund. But this tells the story of one-time expenses within certain departments. Several of them we've already discussed. as well as the continued contributions for OPEB, PARS, those remain included. The changes here, we had LLD contributions. Those are landscape and lighting districts. So the general fund does make a contribution to those annually, which is about 150,000 per year. However, embedded into the budget is an additional 140,000. And what that goes to support is that we have some LLDs some districts that do not receive enough revenue to support the maintenance costs associated with that as they've been capped at the time of formation, which we'll revisit that item in July when we bring it forward when we prepare those levies. But currently there's about $240,000 in the budget for that. And then appropriations for contingency to balance the budget, we wound that back. We had presented that at 1.7 million. It is now reduced at 1.5 million. And then added notes are in the budget, but they're not general fund directly impacted, is an ambulance, which we will be paying out of development impact fees as identifying resources, a graffiti abatement truck, as well as the F-150s, which is four of them, two for fire and two for facilities.

Ruby? Yes.

On the...

for a second on the LODs are you saying that we're taking the funding from measure x and measure e and covering the cost of the the funding and we're short not measure x totally it's completely excluded it is general fund dollars okay so we're not taking anything from any of our measure that goes through because no one of the things we promised them that our community and one of the reasons they gave it to us forever after we only did for 20 years was that we would use it for one-time projects that wouldn't be a one-time project that would be something because it's always going to be 140 or 150 or 160 000 short that should come out of our budget and if we have to do something different by going back to our residents to ask them to pay for that in that area or do something else we need to just wanted to clarify

Yes, and to that note, we don't have a slide highlighted here specific for Measure X, but I can go ahead and speak to it as well. So Measure X as a whole, we've changed the funding mechanism and how we account for it. So we do receive dollar for dollar within the general fund. And what we do is at year end, dollar for dollar transfers out to a special capital fund. And that is where we disperse and allocate funding. So now we're segregating and not having it commingled with the operational fund. So we have been doing that diligently. That's why this report does not capture that because it is independent. So this budget does have $5 million set aside for roads, $10 million for debt service, which has been increased from this previous current year $6 million, as well then leaves us with the remaining $3.9 million available for capital, and that's strictly committed for capital.

Thank you. And then one other thing on this for the land acquisition, is that what we were talking about to buy property downtown? Yes. This is one thing I wanted to talk to council about. I would like to try and save the Skarner building. I'd like to do a survey on it because I don't want to tear it down. I know the back part's good, but that front part, and we've had so many beautiful buildings that we've lost. I'd like to see what it's going to cost to upgrade that and do the seismic fitting to it so that we can hopefully open that up for multiple things instead of one. If we have to take it from the land acquisition, then so be it, you know, if we can't find the money.

Yeah, I've talked to city manager and Jonathan about that as well. And I support that as well. I think we need to save that and whatever we need to invest in it, like we did some of the other properties. Reason being is no one's going to buy a Ferrari without an engine, right? So I think we need to just go ahead and invest in it wherever we could find those dollars, like council member said, and get that built and occupy it.

I agree with that as well and just as a reminder that north end is a storage area for stuff that the city is having to put in there. It needs some repair because we get a lot of dirt and dust and there's some damage. Now we inherited that when we purchased it because before it was the Imperial Furniture Store. And so in there as well, it was our antique fire truck that's still in there. And that is a piece of history that we need to go back and revisit. If we do invest in it, maybe we invest in what we can do to preserve that storage area, whatever the city manager feels is best. But we need a kind of antique sitting there with other equipment that we use that the police department has and other agencies because we need a storage area. If I could go back there.

maybe on our park where we were supposed to put the police department. Further on, we need to look at putting a building there, a storage building in that, because that was made for to be part of it. Maybe we need to put something there and that way you can do a maintenance building for the park and then do some for our stuff to be able to have a spot we can put in easily. Further down.

Okay, are we good?

Go right ahead, please continue.

And then we move forward with the authorized and funded positions. So on the May 6th study session, we presented a financial plan with authorized positions of 301 full-time equivalents. And since then, we have added to that and increasing to 305 full-time equivalents, which is the new ads are two commanders, one sergeant, and two police officers, those would be dedicated to the downtown district. The two commanders are offset theoretically as a restructure or reorganization within PD to instead of running as a chief assistant chief, it's a chief with two commanders. No changes to part-time and there are a series of a number of reclassifications and position exchanges that were highlighted that happens within the budget within some moving parts. Reclassifications that are new that weren't presented in May are in the PD as well. Admin assistance being recommended to be reclassified as senior admin staff and And then we also have position exchanges that just work within the budget. And beyond that, we did make some allocation changes. Again, in connection with water, some of our departments is looking at where are the available resources that can fund, like housing program funds that we have available that we are making sure that we make use of, as well as the shared responsibilities with water. that we've been working with Miguel Pena on that, on how we can support. And as if you recall, when I joined the city, we have consolidated finance. And so there's a lot of operational changes that we've been working through. This is just a recap of the original for general fund only. Again, we end the year with $1 million with a surplus. Still, staff is recommending the $500,000 contribution for consideration, which would bring our reserve to $19.5 or 17.1% above the 15%. This concludes my report on the general fund. Are there any questions before I move forward? I'll be going into the enterprise funds.

Any comments? I just had a comment and I thought about it, Ruby, when you were so informative when we did our financial investments about looking at our services that we've had between three and five years and then going out to evaluate our service contracts. And so I just wanna make sure that we stay steady with everything else that we have contracts with in services, that we make sure that we're within that three or five year mark, because I think it's healthy, it's important, and it was very thorough when Oscar and I were there, and we were really informed, because it refreshes everything, and I think California League of Cities and everybody else, obviously there's a standard that we go by, and it's basically We're being good stewards with our contractors. And so I think some have gone a little bit longer, and I think you should probably evaluate that to make sure if we're in line with our money, then we need to be in line with everything else.

Yes, those are some of the procurement practices that we have put in place, and we review service contracts, agreements, and ensure that they comply. Anything that is due an amendment will clearly come before the City Council, and then any other changes, then we would follow the proper process, and we are enforcing that within our processes currently.

I'd like to see forward that we list every single one, kind of have an idea where we're already, because we have so much going on. Thank you.

Any other questions?

Just one, I know we talked about the skate park funding. Where does that fall in?

Capital projects, I will highlight it in a coming slide. Thanks.

Thank you.

Yeah, so we move on to water. There are no significant changes here. Again, the only change is how we're reporting and how we're capturing it. One of the changes that we did make is we consolidated our IT efforts. Water had its own independent IT division, theoretically, for budgeting purposes, and we've consolidated that with our internal service fund. Still managed by the same team is just how we fund it. But again, no change in impact... Water is still paying their fair share and we're not overstating anything. It's just kind of how we're recording our items. The one additional increase is we did increase the capital for the Carver Tract of $3 million, so that was an increase to capital. And then we have the lights. Lights is a enterprise fund for us. So at the time of study session, we did not receive the annual plan to incorporate it within the study session. And so it is being presented to you tonight. Their annual plan is at 2.7 million. And with that annual plan, it's offset by revenue estimates of 2.8 million. And what those revenue estimates are driven off of are these golf rates. This is just a section, a small section of the golf rates. It's very much more extensive. However, the only ones I'm calling to your attention are those that are proposed to be increased. And so with the approval tonight and if we gain adoption of the budget, these rates would be accepted and approved as well. And the only ones that are being recommended for increase are the two first boxes highlighted 2026. And then the last box highlighted 2027. And it only applies to the public and wholesale rates. Everything else remains constant in their rate schedule. And then we get to capital project funds. There are no major significant changes. We do see that it was at 195 reported. Now it's at 196 million. And that is inclusive of the skate park is programmed in that this CIP plan now at a million dollars. and there were no other changes. You do have an item this evening that will be presented to you via public hearing, but that action is directly related to the development impact fees associated with any projects that are utilizing DIF funds. The item tonight, you will be approving just the capital plan in its entirety. And with that concludes the overview at the fund level. So I do have a series of resolutions included in your packets this evening for your review and approval. And staff is available to answer any questions.

Thank you. Thank you very much. What a great, strong budget we have here. And I particularly like the concept that we're continuing to add to our reserves. I know that that's super important and very important going forward. Does anyone have any other comments?

We just got one question. Ruby, because our reserves are going up, do we have to make something, a resolution, to go up to a certain percentage higher than what we are now? Or can we keep going up without it being an issue? I know sometimes people worry about it being, you know, the number going up without, if we have an idea of 15%, should we go to 20%? Or is it just okay to keep adding on to it until it gets up?

I think you have that flexibility. It's the minimum threshold. That's what holds you accountable to you maintain. When we go over that, that allows us that cushion, but then it's your discretion, right? If we needed resources, we could then reduce down to the 15%. So we have that flexibility to increase it. Now it would be upon the discretion of the city council if they wanted to increase that threshold. Again, that would then put us at that level to always maintain because our goals will never to be below that balance.

Yeah, I think we do need, because the rate of our city's growing, I think we really need to slowly start to put that threshold up a little bit higher and get to it to make sure that we have that cushion in case something does happen. You know, right now we're being very fortunate, we're putting 500,000 into it, but maybe we need to get to a 20 million so that if we do have a downfall in the economy, we can cover our employees to make sure that we don't cut services or cut back on our employees. So while things are good, I think we should put some more money back in there and make a minimum where we sit.

Do you want to consider that for that budget cycle or are we looking forward to slowly adding?

I REALLY DO THINK WE NEED TO I REALLY DO THINK WE NEED TO RAISE IT UP TO A HIGHER AMOUNT. RAISE IT UP TO A HIGHER AMOUNT. JUST BECAUSE OF THE RATE THE JUST BECAUSE OF THE RATE THE CITY IS GROWING. CITY IS GROWING. WE'RE DOING IT NOW BUT IF WE WE'RE DOING IT NOW BUT IF WE HAVE ANOTHER COUNCIL COME IN HAVE ANOTHER COUNCIL COME IN OR SOMETHING THEY'LL HOLD IT TO OR SOMETHING THEY'LL HOLD IT TO THAT STANDARD. THAT STANDARD. NOW THEY CAN GO BACK UP AND DOWN. NOW THEY CAN GO BACK UP AND DOWN. WE KNOW WE'LL ALWAYS STAY AT WE KNOW WE'LL ALWAYS STAY AT THAT 24 MILLION AND THAT PROTECTS THAT 24 MILLION AND THAT PROTECTS THE FUTURE COUNCILS AND FUTURE THE FUTURE CO 160 million, 20 million is not a lot of money. 24 million is not a lot.

Okay, any other?

We can evaluate, you know, my thought is we would evaluate what are the, and bring back recommendations and formulate a policy that makes sense for the city and discuss, have that open discussion with city council as far as what is the best direction based on the recommendation that staff provides.

Yeah, because I know a lot of different things. You always have to have like three, like when you're in a water agency, you have to have three months of revenue based off of that set aside as your reserves. So maybe we need to see like one month or two months of actual payroll or other stuff that we have to pay no matter what, and maybe put that towards that budget. But I'll leave that up to the experts.

Thank you. And then along with that, maybe a timeline of how we get to that number, right? Yeah.

Good suggestions. Any other comments? All right, yeah, great job. Thank you. Thank you for going through and all the hard work that you put into this. This is a really great place for the city of Indio to be. All right, do we have anyone that would like to recommend for approval, a motion?

I'll motion to approve resolution number 10573, adopting the fiscal year 2026-2027 operating capital budget for the City of Indio and resolution number 10574, determining and establishing the City of Indio's appropriations limit for fiscal year 2026-2027. RESOLUTION NUMBER 10575, APPROVING A CITYWIDE CLASSIFICATION AND COMPENSATION PLAN AND AUTHORIZING CITY MANAGER TO IMPLEMENT THE SAID PLAN EFFECTIVE JULY 1, 2026. RESOLUTION NUMBER 2026-17, ADOPTING THE FISCAL YEAR 2026-2027 BUDGET FOR THE INDIO HOUSING AUTHORITY AND RESOLUTION NUMBER 2026-01, ADOPTING THE FISCAL YEAR 2026-2027 BUDGET FOR THE INDIO ELECTRIC FINANCE AUTHORITY.

ALL RIGHT.

I'LL SECOND.

Thank you, go ahead and vote. All right, passes unanimously. Thank you so much again for your hard work. All right, next item on the agenda, item 10.2, resolution number 10572, consideration of a remote participation and technology disruption policy pursuant to Senate Bill 707. City Attorney?

Thank you, Mayor and Council. A few months ago, we had a presentation on amendments to the Brown Act that the legislature had adopted. That included SB 707. Starting July 1st, 2026, the City Council is going to be required to allow for two-way audiovisual communication, basically zooming in. to city council meetings and the city is required under that law to adopt a technology disruption policy essentially saying what we're going to do if that zoom or other technology service goes down in short we are required to recess the meeting the council could go into closed session for an item on closed session if you have it or we can simply be in recess while the technology disruption THE CITY COUNCIL IS CORRECTED, THE COUNCIL IS REQUIRED TO BE IN THE CITY COUNCIL IS CORRECTED, THE COUNCIL IS REQUIRED TO BE IN RECESS UNTIL IT'S CORRECTED OR AT RECESS UNTIL IT'S CORRECTED OR AT LEAST ONE HOUR. LEAST ONE HOUR. IF IT'S NOT CORRECTED WITH ONE IF IT'S NOT CORRECTED WITH ONE HOUR, THE CITY COUNCIL CAN THEN HOUR, THE CITY COUNCIL CAN THEN VOTE TO RESUME THE MEETING IF IT VOTE TO RESUME THE MEETING IF IT FINDS THAT THE PUBLIC INTEREST FINDS THAT THE PUBLIC INTEREST REQUIRES IT. REQUIRES IT.

HAPPY TO ANSWER ANY QUESTIONS, HAPPY TO ANSWER ANY QUESTIONS, BUT THIS IS A POLICY THAT

No. Is there any, I guess I'm just looking at worst case scenarios, right? If we were to have people from other parts of the state, other parts of the nation, all zooming in to the point where we're constrained on time on how to handle that, how do we handle that kind of situation?

You would handle it in the same way that you would handle a large crowd here. The city council does have the discretion to impose reasonable limits on public comment. That could include reducing the time PER SPEAKER OR REDUCING THE TOTAL AMOUNT OF TIME FOR A PUBLIC COMMENT FOR A PARTICULAR ITEM. YOU CAN'T FILIBUSTER THE CITY COUNCIL. SO THE CITY COUNCIL WOULD LOOK, DETERMINE HOW MANY SPEAKERS IT HAS AND DECIDE IF IT WANTED TO IMPOSE THOSE REASONABLE RESTRICTIONS AT THAT TIME. another question is there a legal way to maybe let's say prioritize speakers from the city of indio for any items are we able to do that so we have to give equal access to any person who wants to address the city council i'd say when we're talking about something like a quasi-judicial hearing a land use appeal or permit that's before you you could prioritize people who have a direct interest in that item so the applicant or people who live within A CERTAIN RADIUS OF THE ITEM BUT A CERTAIN RADIUS OF THE ITEM BUT GENERALLY SPEAKING WE'RE GONNA BE GENERALLY SPEAKING WE'RE GONNA BE REQUIRED TO GIVE EQUAL OPPORTUNITY REQUIRED TO GIVE EQUAL OPPORTUNITY TO MOST SPEAKERS AND THE THING IS TO MOST SPEAKERS AND THE THING IS THAT'S USUALLY A GOOD THING BECAUSE THAT'S USUALLY A GOOD THING BECAUSE IF SOMEONE WHO DOESN'T LIVE HERE IF SOMEONE WHO DOESN'T LIVE HERE HAS TAKEN THE TIME TO COME IN THEY HAS TAKEN THE TIME TO COME IN THEY PROBABLY HAVE A DIRECT INTEREST IN PROBABLY HAVE A DIRECT INTEREST IN THAT ITEM THAT HAS BROUGHT THEM THAT ITEM THAT HAS BROUGHT THEM HERE.

HERE. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. OKAY. OK

I'll second it.

All right, let's go ahead and vote. All right, the next three items are interesting, and we'll start with 10.3, introduction and first reading of ordinance number 1835, regulating the sale and distribution of Kratom products. Once again, city attorney.

Thank you, Mayor. And I can give a single report on all three ordinances if the Council would like. In the interest of time, they all regulate separate products, but they all are addressing the same fundamental issue. Would you like me to do that, Mayor?

Yes, please. If that's okay with everybody else, yes.

Okay, so 10.3 is the Kratom regulatory ordinance, 10.4 is the nitrous oxide regulatory ordinance, and 10.5 is the drug paraphernalia regulatory ordinance. All three of these ordinances add subsequent chapters to the Indio Municipal Code and either prohibit or regulate the sale of Kratom, in the case of 10.3, nitrous oxide or laughing gas, in the case of 10.4 and drug paraphernalia in the case of 10.5 all of these relate to regional efforts at the county of riverside level other cities and the county itself We did this, I believe, two years ago with the catalytic converter ordinance, where we were looking at a county-wide enforcement structure on them, and we're getting the same request on both kratom and nitrous oxide. The drug paraphernalia, I know that was a pretty quick turnaround from the request at the last meeting, but the language is essentially the same as the other two ordinances, so it was relatively simple to fold it in. It was on the same topic.

So we thought it would be ideal to add it in with these other two ordinances.

Happy to answer any questions you may have. Also, I've worked with the police department on this. So if you have any operational questions, the chief is available to answer as well.

I have a question on the Kratom one. I know there's been some history of it being used for recovering alcoholics, but I see that some of this is more tailored towards like concentrated forms. And so I just wanted to get the specifics. Is this for like the natural plant or is this for the concentrated forms and are both excluded? Is one excluded? How are we dealing with that here?

So if we look at the definition of kratom product, it means any product consisting of kratom leaf extract or both any part of the plant or any product that contains the alkaloid. It also prohibits semi-synthesized. So there's the molecule, you know, if you have a degree in chemistry, I believe that you can synthesize it. If you go to 134.020, which is page 302 of your agenda backup, paragraph B, you'll see that the concentration is listed there. So the prohibition applies to greater than 2% of the total alkaloids in the product. Okay. So it is for the concentrated versions, is my understanding.

Okay. So the leaf products are still going to be allowed?

So long as they do not meet that threshold. Okay.

You're thinking of it from a medicinal perspective?

That's how I learned about it was from recovering alcoholics. And so I just want to make sure that that access is still there for those who need it for that purpose. But I understand the added dangers now that it's being concentrated in different forms. It's a different story, right? And it causes other issues there. I do know there are other products out there, right? And I haven't looked. deeply into it but I know you know there's one in Yucca Valley somebody passed away something they were calling gas station heroin and other products so I think this is a good start I do think we need to keep looking a little bit more together with our code enforcement and police department to see if there's any other concerns there you know I know there's other stuff that there's been tests I used to work in testing right and so there's been tests on some of the things that look like they're made with mushrooms, which are also illegal, but they actually have different stuff in there, like DMT and other chemicals. So I'm wondering if maybe we can have some kind of conversation with our public health department to see if there's any trends that they're seeing on their end and potentially other laws that we can add to these three for any things of concern that are coming up on their end. Could that be something?

I was just gonna kind of reinforce what you're saying. It's kind of like everything else. You create something for the better health and there's abuse of the system. So the DEA and environmental health and all those agencies, public health is the challenge of the increase. So we're trying to curb it, but you bring some good valid points. And I think we've been very fortunate from the youth of our community coming forward, the vapes and all this stuff that's just coming quick upon us is, they're looking for opportunities that are good for them, but unfortunately there's that negative element. And so we get ahead of it, but I think if we can come back with a report later, the ordinance can always be changed.

Yeah, yeah, I think that these three are good to go, but I think we should start that conversation with public health to see any trends that are going on, and also just so we're, because these are changing all the time. There's new stuff every year, right? And so if we can stay on top of it through those conversations and continue these efforts going forward.

Well, with your chemistry background, you know that things change quick, right?

that's the thing right you outlaw one of them and then they tweak it just a little bit make it a little bit different now that one's legal so i think uh if we can catch it faster than the federal government right and act a little quicker we might be able to save some lives stay ahead of the curve chief are you noticing any yeah so um within riverside county the uh

the City Chiefs and Sheriff's Department have noticed an increase in abuse of the product and we're finding that that product is that is ingested is above 2% so that's why not only the City of Indio is considering this but also the entire county. The county already has a similar ordinance in effect and we're trying to come in line with the rest of the county.

Is there any other products that are of concern in those conversations besides the Kratom stuff that have been coming up recently?

Well, certainly the nitrous oxide that's on the, before you today, in our city we've had two fatalities where nitrous was available inside the passenger compartment for personal use. So those are factors that we're trying to prevent. EXCESSIVE USE OF ANY OF THOSE NATURAL PRODUCTS. CURRENTLY WE DON'T HAVE ANY MUSHROOMS OR OTHER ITEMS THAT WE HAVE COME TO OUR ATTENTION AS BEING TOXIC AND CAUSING ADVERSE EFFECTS. OKAY.

THANK YOU. ALL RIGHT. DOES ANYBODY WANT TO MAKE A MOTION?

ON ALL THREE OF THEM?

I'LL MAKE A MOTION. OKAY. AS STAFF RECOMMENDATIONS. on items 10.3, 10.4, and 10.5? Yes, ma'am. All right, do I hear a second?

I'll second.

Sorry, quick question. How do we, so I know the nitrous oxide is for like the smoke shops, stuff like that, but I know they're sold in retail for other purposes, right, in that we can't really do too much about.

THERE ARE SEVERAL EXCEPTIONS THAT ARE SPECIFICALLY LISTED INCLUDING DENTISTRY, RESTAURANTS AND AUTOMOTIVE USES. OKAY. ALL RIGHT.

THANKS. ALL RIGHT. EVERYBODY VOTE? MOTION CARRIES 5-0. FANTASTIC. THANK YOU SO MUCH.

GOOD DIALOGUE.

I'M SORRY?

GOOD DIALOGUE. IT'S IMPORTANT.

Next item, we're going into public hearings, 11.1, resolution number 10576 of the City Council of the City of Indio, California, approving the five-year capital improvement program for fiscal years 26-27 through fiscal year 2030-31. Mr. Wassil? Fantastic, all right.

Good evening Council, Mayor Pro Tem and City Council. Tonight, I have a brief presentation. This is basically a shorter version of what you saw on May 5th, but what I wanted to do was highlight some of the changes that have arisen based off of your feedback at that study session. For the community, I did want to highlight our completed projects. I know you've all mentioned all of these previously tonight, but just wanted to reiterate and celebrate our small wins. We did in this past fiscal year, we were able to finish our new city hall, our new library, the Indio Sports Park, um some of the other big projects we did finish was the civic center storm drain the oasis street beautification project the badlands trailhead project our avenue 44 bridge is back open to traffic um and then as you mentioned tomorrow we have the ribbon cutting for the lights at the indio clubhouse so um obviously there's a ton of other projects that we did but this is what an accomplishment that you you all have led us to this last fiscal year. So some of the, just a brief recap so that the public can see where our capital program is focusing on. About a quarter of our projects are dedicated to street projects. The blue section is our, we are setting aside money for the upcoming Monroe interchange. and then setting aside money for the Jackson interchange project that would come probably after the Monroe construction is finished. Another big project that we are going to embark in this next fiscal year is the police headquarters. So that's another quarter of our budget. And then the rest of the remaining of the capital improvement program does involve our parks, our parks, water projects, traffic signals, just a whole bunch of other projects, buildings, facilities. And so that's kind of what our capital improvement program is including. SO, PER THE GOVERNMENT CODE, WE ARE SUPPOSED TO, WE ARE REQUIRED TO ADOPT AND UPDATE ANNUALLY OUR FIVE-YEAR CIP PROGRAM. SOME OF THE THINGS THAT WE ADDED a million dollars for skate park development. So as you know, we've been pretty successful in our design build. So that's kind of how I programmed the million dollars to forget the feasibility studies, let's just hire a design. contractor have them help us present you know renderings concepts designs and then that discussion can be led to whether or not we build it at Miles Park whether or not we incorporate it into future phases of Indio Sports Park or if there are you know other locations or other ways to accomplish that in the sports park. But the idea was to hire a design-build contractor to help us facilitate that. The second thing that we heard at the budget study session was to update our parks master plan. So we did include $250,000 towards that effort. We do know that DRD also has THOUGHTS ABOUT THEIR MASTER PLANNING EFFORTS SO THE THOUGHT WAS TO SET ASIDE SOME CITY MONEY AND THEN PERHAPS PARTNER WITH THE DESERT DISTRICT AS FAR AS DOING A COMPREHENSIVE PARKS MASTER PLAN FOR THE CITY OF INDIU. The third item that we did change was there was some money to basically improve, look at all of our schools in the city of Indio and then just double check that all the signage striping, the pavement markings, crosswalks, all of that kind of stuff is up to today's codes. So based on the conversation you had at the study session, we did add parks to that study. So that will be part of the budget. And then the last thing that did come up since the book study session, it was already mentioned earlier tonight was the Carver track community. We are setting aside $3 million to, intertie that neighboring community into the Indio Water System. Basically, there are some state grants that are gonna be funding for it, but we do need to front some money before we can get reimbursed for that project. And again, if you're not familiar with the cover track for the people in the community, this is gonna cover 188 projects. residents in that community and tie it into our India water system. So those are the key changes to the CIP. And the last thing that I need to, we formally need to do as part of government code is identify which projects will have development impact fees to pay for that. In your staff report, there are 11 projects that we listed which cover Water projects, storm drain projects, road projects, traffic signals, some upgrades to the fire station 88 on Madison that would be using fire development impact fees, some QMB fees and some water supply. impact fees. So that totals about $7.8 million of our capital improvement program. And here on the last slide, I just wanted to show you how our, so what's listed here is the next five years five fiscal years of projects. And what we have been doing more diligently this year is really planning out when are those construction dollars gonna hit so we can not tie up, you know, $180 million for a bridge in one fiscal year. We're gonna spread it out and, you know, kind of plan for the next five years how we're going to basically have that cash flow to accomplish our capital improvement program. And so basically, this is a fluid document. So obviously, the next fiscal year, you know, has the majority of the funds. And then if we need to pull a project, you know, further or delay a project for whatever reason, we have that five year snapshot, so that we can better allocate our funds and provide all these capital projects that you have desired and allowed us to do. So with that, that ends my presentation. We are happy to answer any questions and allow you to open the public hearing.

Absolutely. Another ambitious plan. Okay. Do you want to make a comment before I open, sir? I'll wait after the public hearing. Okay. Thank you. All right. I'm going to open the public hearing on item number 11.1. Does anyone wish to speak? Is there anyone online? All right. Let me close the public hearing. Go right ahead.

I just had a couple of points, Dawn. Thank you so much for coming and obviously the support of your director and everybody else. I think a couple of things of what I've experienced and I think I've heard the Mayor Pro Tem mention about people saying, when are they gonna do this and what's the status of this? And I think besides doing our weekly newsletter, And I know that the Planning Department also has a report that lists projects in name. But I think the significant, like the bridge crossings and everything else, it would be nice to be able to refer the public because I hear, are you guys doing anything with Monroe Bridge? Of course we are. But I think something in the most simple ways of a photograph of what we're trying to do, a photograph of what it would look like, and a timeline, like a thermometer, where it says we started our project, the next step is it went out to bid, the next step we're starting construction. Very Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pillow water. We deal with the public, so if there was a simple, timely, that we can refer them, of all our significant projects going on, like the big ticket items that we have, at least we can refer the public and say, oh, wait a minute, they are starting something. They've already budgeted towards it. And obviously, educating the public is a never-ending thing. Whether you do a flyer or an announcement, it keeps coming back and back and back. But I think that maybe if we were to try that, where the public can do that and we can refer them, go to the site, I should tell you exactly where we're at right now, instead of them digging through all the minutiae of stuff that we have, I think it would be a good outreach for what engineering and all the team, the public works and everybody that works toward it, I think it'd be very helpful. Again, it's just an idea, looking at it from our general public that we can say, look at page this and you'll see exactly where we're at. I think that would help. The second is, I really like the fact of the standardizing our signage. That was always a challenge. The signage is very important because that's how we apply the education and enforcement of our parks and all the public areas, especially around the schools. I think if you're gonna design it, make sure there's a QR code that leads them to the municipal code. If there's further questions on the codes that we put up not only for example the use of the parks is from 10 till morning we all know there's a standard in our public because we need to do that and also it helps with the quality life challenges that we have when the park's closed but we also need to include that there is a section in our ordinance that covers parking in our public areas Parking is important because those are all tools that those people that are working late at night have a tool to be able to address it. And it has to be posted at the property as you're entering the property from all publics. And obviously if there's an event, the event will supersede that sign. If we make an announcement, they don't need to worry. So at City Hall, there's no parking You know, there's no parking in certain facilities because that helps maintain the security and safety of them. But if there's an event, it supersedes it. But I think that it helps us educate the public and helps us tighten it up for the positive reasons behind it. So I'm really glad that you're gonna do that and also with the schools. So again, it's good. Thank you so much for the information.

Thank you. Any other comments? Good ideas.

One, actually two part, but it might be for the city manager. But thank you for your report. CoverTrack, and I know we're making an investment there. Are there any other services or partnerships that we have with the county with CoverTrack?

Not specifically. The reality is Station 86, at times law enforcement is required to serve there, to respond, to back up mutual aid. but there are other direct services other than this state grant that would provide them to hook into our water system. It is within the Indio sphere, but it's not within the city limits. Okay.

And we talked a little bit about the sports park. I know I talked to the city manager about relinquishing that to DRD. Have we met with them and where are we at in that discussion? You have a lot of folks who are eager to get on those parks. And so just so we can have an answer for them.

We did meet this week. I don't know if the incoming city manager had an update or we can provide that by email.

Yeah, we can provide a full report in the city manager's report, but we did have a full discussion with our maintenance team and our communications team and DRD on making sure we get enough planning on that, making sure the kids have access to it and can play out there. Close in process. Oh yes, definitely.

Yeah. Mayor Fulton, you brought up a good question because it would help us to know So if I have a scheduled team and I need to go do my practicing or I want to have a celebration, who's in charge of that right now? All the activities from our organizations and private activities that go on.

Yeah, we were working with DRD right now to do that.

Who's doing it right now?

DRD.

DRD is doing all the scheduling of all our fields?

Except for the new sports park. That's what we're working on. Okay.

Interesting.

All right. Sounds good. All right. Are we good to go? I'll entertain a question. Go right ahead.

I just want to say thank you especially seeing our staff being proactive on the traffic issues right we see a lot of speeding a lot of accidents these days and so looking at the parks and the schools to make sure that all the striping is there the signage is right and we're making everything as clear as possible is extremely important so I want to thank you guys for being proactive on that and also thank you for for taking on the project with the Carver Tract and making sure that we're we're being a good partner there with the county and helping to provide that to our water system so that those residents there can also have clean water and be a part of the Indio water system. So I want to thank you guys for both of those.

Yeah, agreed. Agreed. All right.

So everybody done? Yep. Adopt resolution number 10576 of the C. Council of the City of Indio, California approving the five-year capital improvement program for fiscal year 2026-27 through fiscal year 2030-2031. I'll second.

All right. Let's go ahead and vote.

Oh no.

There is unanimous. All right, it is. Terrific, I guess you got it in just before.

Yeah.

All right, okay. Thank you so much for that great presentation. And it's just the energy that comes from all the things that we're working on is just tremendous. Item number 11.2, acceptance of fiscal year 2025, 2026 law enforcement activities, sub-account ELEAS funds for $141,421, approve the enclosed expenditure plan attachment two and authorize the city manager to sign the expenditure plan and other relevant documents, sir.

Mayor Pro Tem and City Council, I have Division Chief Erica Martinez here to present this item to you.

Good evening, Madam Mayor and members of City Council. I'm Erica Martinez, your Division Chief of Support Services. The staff report before you this evening is regarding the acceptance of fiscal year 2025-2026 law enforcement activities sub-account. FUNDS FOR $141,421, APPROVE THE INCLOSED EXPENDITURE PLAN AND AUTHORIZE THE CITY MANAGER TO SIGN AN EXPENDITURE PLAN AND OTHER RELEVANT DOCUMENTS. JUST SOME BACKGROUND ON THIS LINE ITEM, STAFF REPORT, STAFF RECOMMENDS THAT THE CITY COUNCIL ACCEPT FISCAL YEAR 2025-2026 ENHANCING LAW ENFORCEMENT ACTIVITY SUBACCOUNT ELEAS for $141,421, approve the enclosed expenditure plan and authorize the city manager to sign the expenditure plan and other relevant documents. The Riverside County Sheriff's Department disperses LEA's funds to local cities monthly to support frontline police services. The city proposes using the funds to support purchase of public safety equipment and supplies, offset training costs, and pay for other law enforcement services. For fiscal year 25-26, the funds have already been appropriated into next year's budget. Just some background on LEA's funds. In 1996, the California State Legislature enacted Assembly Bill 3229, creating the Supplemental Law Enforcement Account, previously known as LESA. These funds are distributed to cities and counties to support frontline police services. Each entity is guaranteed a minimum of $100,000 per capita. However, if there's any eligible funding growth, It is distributed also to cities on a per capita basis. Senate Bill 823 requires that the chief of police of a participating city or the chief administrator submit a written request to the city council outlining the revenue appropriation and plan expenditure for that year. The city council is then expected to act upon this recommendation at a public hearing. This concludes my presentation, and I welcome any questions you may have.

Thank you, excellent. Do we have any questions? This is something we approve every year. It's money that we're guaranteed. We'll take it, yeah. We'll take it, absolutely. Thank you for that report. A motion, if it's okay.

Yeah, please do.

Is there public hearing? Thank you. I'm just ready to rock and roll here. Thank you, Madam Pro Tem. Yes, exactly. All right, I'd like to open the public hearing. If anyone wishes to speak, this is not for this item. Is there anyone out there, anyone online? All right, nobody wishes to speak. Now you may make a motion, sir. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. I will make a motion.

I'll second. All right, let's go ahead and vote.

Motion carries.

All right, thank you so much. And last, well, almost lastly, 11.3, review a request for a certificate of public convenience and necessity, case number PLAN-PCN-26-0007, for a type 21 off-sale general alcohol license for the existing Circle K convenience store and fueling station located at 40695 Jefferson Street, Indio. Mr. Halverson.

Yes, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, members of the council. It's my pleasure, Brian Halverson, Director of Community Development, to present this item. So just really quickly, some background. Circle K, as we all know, is an existing fueling station and a convenience center located at 4695 Jefferson Street. They currently have a Type 20 license, which is off-sale beer and wine. They submitted an application to the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, or ABC, on November 26, 2025, for Type 21. So the type 21 is off-sale general. Essentially it is beer and wine as well, but also distilled spirits. So as part of community development's review, we look at the census tract and ABC, working with ABC, they determined that the property is located in area of undue concentration in regards to the number of licenses. And so because it exceeds the amount that's allowed, we need to come to the council for a PCN. We even know the item before you is concentration of licenses. There's no issues with crime, due concentration of crime, so it's just the license component. Pursuant to our Unified Development Code and, of course, the determination ABC requires, you must make a determination whether the sale of the alcohol is subject to a public convenience and necessity. So I did want to emphasize one thing that's kind of interesting is right now the maximum number is one. So adding a second one would be two. So if it's approved, the Circle K gas station would actually surrender their Type 20, they would use the Type 21, then they would go back to one. But begs the question, why are we here tonight? Well, there's gonna be a small moment in time where there's two licenses and that exceeds what's allowed and so we need the PCN this evening. The findings though can be made in order to make the PCN for the Type 21 license. THAT'S IN YOUR STAFF REPORT. AND SO BASED ON THOSE FINDINGS, AND SO BASED ON THOSE FINDINGS, WE DO RECOMMEND THAT CITY WE DO RECOMMEND THAT CITY COUNCIL APPROVE THE CERTIFICATE OF COUNCIL APPROVE THE CERTIFICATE OF PUBLIC CONVENIENCE AND SESI FOR PUBLIC CONVENIENCE AND SESI FOR THE TYPE 21 OFF-SALE GENERAL THE TYPE 21 OFF-SALE GENERAL LICENSE FOR THE EXISTING CIRCLE K LICENSE FOR THE EXISTING CIRCLE K CONVENIENCE STORE LOCATED AT CONVENIENCE STORE LOCATED AT 4695 JEFFERSON STREET. 4695 JEFFERSON STREET. THAT CONCLUDES MY PRESENTATION. THAT CONCLUDES MY PRESENTATION. I'M AVA

What is it, Avenue 42 and Varner, Varner 42, Varner, okay. What is the nearest, what is the other, where is the other license?

Well, this is the only one, but they're applying for a second, so existing 20, and they wanted 21, so according to APC, we kind of wrangled with them, that would be two, and it exceeds, so they would, although we don't have complete control over this, surrender the 20, because the 21 allows them to do what they're doing now, plus additional, which is the distilled spirits and packaged alcohol and things like that, so it's kind of tricky, but We work with ABC and that's what they determined. They wanna do, all right.

Ben, yes, council member. I was just gonna clarify that. Being that I manage grants and work closely with ABC in the past, it's an administrative process and it doesn't have to sound logical. And I think that's what staff was having a hard time with. It's just, it goes in and goes out and that's how they track things. And the other thing is, as far as alcohol sales, the nearest one on that side of the road would be the Stater Brothers west of it in the county area. And so I just was curious, when these things come up, I know what the police department does and all those things. Is your staff making site visits?

We usually always go by and do site visits. I've personally been at the station many times, like gas up there. But if you have any questions about that site.

No, it just lets me know that it's not just you're depending on the police department, your staff's actually going out there, which covers other things that we're working on with facilities like this and maintenance and so forth. So that's why I was asking. Okay, yes.

But no, it makes sense because if they relinquish that license before we pass this one, then what if the council says, you know what, we don't approve it. So they relinquish it. So we gotta go through the process. So it was public hearing.

All right, public hearing. Does anybody have any comments on this? Is there anyone out there that wishes to speak? Anybody online? No. Okay, we'll close the public hearing. Not a very lively audience tonight.

I'll make a recommendation to approve the Certificate of Public Convenience or Necessity file number PLAN-PCN-26-0007. I'll second.

Okay, we have a... Let's vote. It's 5-0. All right, fantastic. Now we have the urgency ordinance for the 45 day moratorium on the establishment expansion or intensification of data centers and other similar high intensity computing uses within the city of Indio.

THANK YOU MAYOR THIS IS THE THANK YOU MAYOR THIS IS THE ITEM THAT THE CITY COUNCIL ITEM THAT THE CITY COUNCIL ADDED AT THE BEGINNING OF ITS ADGENDA ADDED AT THE BEGINNING OF ITS AGENDA FORTUNATELY WE HAD A PRETTY FORTUNATELY WE HAD A PRETTY USEFUL TEMPLATE FOR MORATORIUMS USEFUL TEMPLATE FOR MORATORIUMS SINCE THE CITY COUNCIL HAS ADOPTED SINCE THE CITY COUNCIL HAS ADOPTED A FEW OF THEM OVER THE PAST FEW A FEW OF THEM OVER THE PAST FEW YEARS SO WE'VE INCLUDED SOME YEARS SO WE'VE INCLUDED SOME WHEREAS CLAUSES RELATED TO ISSUES WHEREAS CLAUSES RELATED TO THE REPORT WOULD COME BACK TO THE CITY COUNCIL JUST TO MAKE SURE THE REPORT WOULD COME BACK TO THE CITY COUNCIL JUST TO MAKE SURE THAT WE DIDN'T MISS THAT. THAT WE DIDN'T MISS THAT. I ADDED SECTION 4 WHICH IS STUDY I ADDED SECTION 4 WHICH IS STUDY AND REVIEW WHICH EXPLICITLY DIRECTS AND REVIEW WHICH EXPLICITLY DIRECTS THE CITY STAFF TO PREPARE THAT THE CITY STAFF TO PREPARE THAT REPORT AND BRING IT BACK TO THE REPORT AND BRING IT BACK TO THE CITY COUNCIL. for the purposes of the definition of a data center that's included in section three. It means any facility, campus, building structure, or portion thereof used primarily or substantially for the housing operation or support of computer servers, server racks, data storage devices, networking equipment, switching equipment, or similar electronic equipment for data processing, storage, transmission, cloud computing, co-location services, artificial intelligence, model training or inference, high performance computing, blockchain operations, digital asset mining, cryptocurrency mining, or other similar high intensity computing uses. I did put in some exceptions here. essentially customary accessory rooms or IT rooms. I don't want our server room in City Hall to be banned by the ordinance. Ordinary office, retail, school, hospital functions, public safety, emergency communications, and then telecom carrier facilities, which we probably would have challenging difficulty regulating anyway. This is the best I could do on the short notice, but I think it tracks similar to other ordinances that other agencies have adopted and I think would be a, useful shield to the council's concern that it has an impending application during this short review period. Happy to answer any questions.

Steven, if I could real quick. So what does it allow? I mean, if a regular business comes in and has an area that's just part of their day-to-day business, they're good. It's only if they're going to sell the space because, you know, if you have somebody like BuzzBox who, you know, has servers because people come in to run their machines, you know, they don't program them themselves. They have somebody, whoever, what that is, does all that stuff. How do you take businesses like that that need to do actual work and because of the product that they produce and make sure that they don't get hurt.

That's an excellent question, Councilmember. Computers are integrated in every business, in every function. You all have five computers sitting in front of you right now. What I explicitly excluded from data center use is customary accessory server rooms, IT rooms, equipment that are incidental and subordinate to the primary permitted use that serves the on-site business. So BuzzBox creates the why.

I'm just using that as an example because I know all his whenever he has a problem there's nobody comes actually into it it's all computerized goes out or if they change their paper or whatever they want to add like the logo for the firebirds they don't actually do it somebody else does it somewhere else jumps into their server and redoes the whole thing for him so it's like I said it's very I

Yeah, I think the critical word is primarily or substantially for. And so if you're a building full of computers that's doing one of these things, you're covered by this. But if you're using computers for your other permitted business and its accessory, it would not be covered.

Okay, and anybody that's already here is grandfathered in, is that correct?

Yes, that is explicitly, anyone who has vested rights to develop is not affected by this.

Thank you.

All right, fantastic.

Yes, Council Member. And excuse me, Councillor, obviously you did do this on the whim and I perused through it as quick as I can as well. So just for clarification, we approve it today, the 45 days start today, correct? Starts today. Yes, second question. Where's the date where it ends in the document?

So it was only valid for 45 days. We can explicitly exclude or add an end date if you would like. Just have that clarity.

The only reason for me to say it is to reinforce what Councilman Ortiz said, that he wished this, and I respect him doing it, but I think it helps us to tell the public it's going to end on this date. but that doesn't close it. We left it open because it doesn't indicate the date in the document of the 45 days.

Understood. So then my recommendation would be for the city council on the effective date section. So if we're looking at section eight, the second paragraph says the ordinance shall remain in effect for 45 days from the date of its adoption. So that gives you the timeline, but we could specifically say July 18th, 2026. which is the 45th day, to give you that clarity, if you'd like.

That would be my advice. Just so everybody knows, because we're going to be asked, instead of just saying 45 days, it started tonight as an emergency, and it ends on this date, and then we obviously discuss what happens after that.

OKAY. SO MY RECOMMENDATION WOULD SO MY RECOMMENDATION WOULD BE AND I CAN SEND THIS OVER TO BE AND I CAN SEND THIS OVER TO THE CITY CLERK IF ADOPTED IT THE CITY CLERK IF ADOPTED IT WOULD READ THIS ORDINANCE SHALL WOULD READ THIS ORDINANCE SHALL REMAIN IN EFFECT FOR 45 DAYS REMAIN IN EFFECT FOR 45 DAYS FROM THE DATE OF ITS ADOPTION TO FROM THE DATE OF ITS ADOPTION TO JULY 18, 2026, UNLESS EXTENDED BY JULY 18, 2026, UNLESS EXTENDED BY THE CITY COUNCIL AND THEY WOULD THE CITY COUNCIL AND THEY WOULD CONTINUE FROM THERE.

CONTINUE FROM THERE. WOULD THAT MEET THE COUNCIL WOULD THAT MEET THE COUNCIL MEMBER'S DESIRE? MEM IF WE DIDN'T DO IT BEFORE THEN, IF WE DIDN'T DO IT BEFORE THEN, WE WOULD HAVE TO DO IT BY WE WOULD HAVE TO DO IT BY THE COUNCIL MEETING ON THE 15th, THE COUNCIL MEETING ON THE 15th, WHICH IS OUR SECOND MEETING IN WHICH IS OUR SECOND MEETING IN JULY. JULY. DO WE HAVE A MEETING IN JULY, DO WE HAVE A MEETING IN JULY, THE FIRST MEETING?

THE FIRST MEETING? ON THE 15th.

ON THE 15th. SO THE 15th. SO THE 15th. SO IF WE'RE GOING TO DO SOMETHING, SO IF WE'RE GOING TO DO SOMETHING, WE HAVE TO DO IT OR IT WOULD

I THINK IT'S A GOOD IDEA. I THINK IT'S A GOOD IDEA. SO THE COUNCIL COULD EXTEND IT SO THE COUNCIL COULD EXTEND IT IF IT WANTED TO. IF IT WANTED TO.

THE COUNCIL COULD ADOPT A THE COUNCIL COULD ADOPT A REGULATORY ORDINANCE THAT'S REGULATORY ORDINANCE THAT'S BROUGHT FORWARD AT THAT TIME. BROUGHT FORWARD AT THAT TIME.

SO IF WE'RE NOT READY IF THEY SO IF WE'RE NOT READY IF THEY WANT TO EXTEND IT WE WOULD HAVE TO WANT TO EXTEND IT WE WOULD HAVE TO DO IT ON THE 15th OR JUST DIE DO IT ON THE 15th OR JUST DIE BEFORE WE GO BECAUSE WE'VE GOT A BEFORE WE GO BECAUSE WE'VE GOT A WHOLE OTHER MONTH BEFORE WE

Yeah, it was great conversations. Yeah, absolutely. Lots of detail. That's terrific. Thank you, Councillor. Are we good? Okay, so I'm sorry, that was my next question. So we need a motion for this. We need to move this.

I'll motion to approve as amended by the city attorney.

I'd be I think it'd be a good idea you have to ask for public comment for anything on the agenda regardless whether it's public hearing so it might be good just to put it on the record that you asked for public comment okay all right so and this doesn't have an ordinance number but I'm going to open this for public comment if anybody has any comments out there they want to call in or make a comment on this now's your opportunity to speak all right we're good we're good Thank you. I'll second. Let's go ahead and vote. Thank you.

I'll second.

All right, we got it. Carries 5-0. Fantastic, good stuff. All right, and now I have one request to speak. Steve Figueroa.

Steve Figueroa and I'm an advocate for children with disabilities and rather than speak three times I said I'll just wait to this time so I first want to thank you for approving those 10-3 to 10-5 on your agenda I'm not going to speak on it because I could have that chance but thanks because the kids are getting this stuff I told you at gas stations so I agree with you additional regulations are need please follow up okay and if once it impacts your kid you'll get it or your grandkid or your neighbor okay so please please follow up also you know want to thank you on issue 11 3 why because they did it the right way right and like you said there's there's not a place another way in approving that license 21 we're all for that i'm for small business you know but On the issue of what you just approved on the data centers, why that's important, you all saw what happened in Costa Mesa, right? Over the weekend, that theme was gonna explode. Everybody thought they did it the right way. A lot of this is new technology, but if it's not done right, your whole city could be, 50,000 people had to be evacuated. in that area, and that's why I thank you. Last time I was here, you said, hey, we gotta make sure this is done right. Are you having union people doing it? Because they got additional training. So that's something you consider in 45 days when people come in, if they come in with their attorneys and we wanna do data centers, hey, we're not gonna go through what Westminster and Costa Mesa just went through. If it's not done right, nah, nah. So, hey, I sincerely thank you for that approach. That needs to be taken a lot more, especially when it comes to new gas stations. And that's why I'm here to say no more new gas stations. I tried to get it extended to the churches too, but the planning commission didn't want to do that. But you don't need these emergency unexpected things we never thought would happen that happen in your neighborhoods and in your community. And you guys have been pretty wise in a lot of your decisions and I thank you. You have been thinking and appreciating the dialogue and allowing for the feedback, but I'm sincerely hoping that no more gas stations. You don't need any more. And why? Because when you put in new schools and yeah, when they try to sneak in the violations of cranium and nitrous oxide. That's where the kids are getting all this stuff. And then something happens, you gotta have better oversight is what I'm saying with these. It's gonna come back to haunt and it shouldn't. So I'm hoping, I don't believe that moratorium is over. So on the gas stations, I'm hoping that you extend it at least another six months to a year while you do more studies on it. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments. All right, everyone. And on that note, It is 7.30, the meeting is adjourned. And city manager, there you go.