City Council - Regular Meeting

All right, welcome everyone to our regular meeting of the Calamusa City Council. Calling this meeting to order here 6 pm sharp. Today's Tuesday, February 17th, and I believe this is going to be um a short one, but we'll see. Never know, right? Um, I want to remind the public if you'd like to make public comment, you are allowed to do so by filling out a speaker slip here and submitting it to our city clerk. Please uh be mindful of the three minute time constraint though and um if we can do a roll call please.

Council member Kundiff. He is absent. We'll excuse him. Council member Garcia also absent. Please excuse council member Garcia as well. Council member Molina, Mayor Pro Tim Manley here, and Mayor Cvantes here. You can't be excused because we need you.

All right. And for the record, uh we have our city manager Cobalt, our city attorney. We have a Reed today. Welcome. Thank you for being here. Uh, city clerk Gertis, finance director, Reed. Our community development director, Luca. We have public works director is here, Shakir and no city engineer, Thornton tonight. Our deputy fire chief Shaw. Thank you for being here. And our sheriff, Captain Northrope, is here. Welcome everybody. Thank you for being here. Uh, if you would stand, I'm going to lead us in the pledge this evening. Honor our nation's flag. Please begin to flag United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation under indivisible and justice.

I'm going to go to the podium. We have a couple of recognition service recognition awards. Okay. This time I'd like to call our very own uh Deputy Hinkle. Please come forward. want to honor you. This is a service recognition award for the city. Uh there's some important whereazes here. I can if I can read those if you don't mind. Uh I was looking over these and they they speak to to your commitment to our city and what you've done. So um this is a service recognition. Whereas in February 2023, Deputy Mike Hingle commenced his appointment from Riverside County Sheriff's Department to serve as the Calama uh problem oriented policing officer or POP officer. And whereas Deputy Mike Hingle during his tenure with the city has played a substantial role in the enhancement of our city which will have a lasting impact on all of us. And whereas Deputy Mike Hingle has been committed to improving the lives of individuals, families, and neighborhoods by providing quality public services. I therefore, mayor of the city council, uh, city of Calamsa, Jeff Cervantes, on behalf of the city council, do hereby extend our deepest appreciation to you for this dedicated service to the city of Cal Mesa and wish you success in all your future endeavors. Thank you on behalf of the city council, on behalf of the city, the staff, our community

service you keep in touch too.

Thank you. And we also and also we have another service recognition award for Captain Northro if you would come up as well. I want to honor you with an with a recognition and if you would allow as well. So whereas in July 2024, Captain Al Allan Northrup commenced his appointment from Riverside County Sheriff's Department to serve as the Calama Police Chief. And whereas Captain Alan Northrup during his tenure with the city has played a substantial role in the enhancement of our city which will be la will which will have a lasting impact on all of us and whereas Captain Alan Northrup has been committed to improving the lives of individuals, families and neighborhoods by providing quality public service. I therefore, Jeff Cervantes, mayor of the city of Calama, on behalf of the city council, do here hereby extend our deepest appreciation to you for your dedicated service to our city and wish you great success in your future endeavors. We thank you so much on behalf of city council, staff, our community.

Thank you so much. Thank you. Would you like Thank you. It's also always an honor to to do that. So, at this time, um do we have any communications from the public? No.

Okay. So, we need to um approve our agenda, consent calendar, and full waving of the reading of ordinances. Staff, are there any changes or clarifications to the agenda items that we would like to make at this point?

Um, honorable mayor, we, as you mentioned, we will be waving the full reading of the second reading of ordinance number 419, but I'll read out the full title just to make sure that that's a part of the record. So the ordinance for number 419 is an ordinance of the city of Calama adopting zone text amendment number 25-01 amending chapters 17.15 18.10 18.15 18.20 18.25 18.28 18.35 18.39 18.40 18.45 45 and finally 18.125 of the Calama Municipal Code to implement a suite of actions identified in the city's 2021 2029 housing element of the general plan and finding the zone text amendment exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act pursuant to SQA guidelines sections 15282H and 1501 B3. Thank you for reading that. Council, are there any items you'd like to pull from the consent calendar?

No. All right. Do I have a motion to approve? I'll approve um items one uh through five consent calendar. Include six, too. Can we include six with this? Have Yes, you can. Yes. Through six as as presented. Second. All in favor? I. Thank you. That's 30. All of our consent items have passed. So, this takes us to our Calama Chamber of Commerce report.

Well, I'm not going to be brief because there's a whole lot of nothing going on here tonight. Uh, first, I'd like to share with you I wrote a letter to the council uh for your January 14th meeting because I was out of state. Um, so I'd like to read you that letter. You have it in front of you. The council has it in front of them. Um, it's regarding the appreciation for the Get Your Lights on Calama Christmas Parade and continued partnership with the city of Calama. Honorable mayor and city council members, on behalf of the Calama Chamber of Commerce, I am writing to express our profound gratitude uh for the city's partnership in making our recent Get Your Lights on Calama Christmas parade a resounding success. The event serves as a cornerstone for our community's holiday spirit and its triumph is a direct result of the seamless collaboration between the Kent Chamber and the city staff. This past uh year brought significant transa transitions including the change of administration at our chamber office. We are especially grateful for the city's guidance during this period. Your support was instrumental in ensuring that the logistical task and preparatory detail was addressed allowing for a smooth and professional execution of the festivities. We would like to extend a special thank you to Mari and Yza for their exceptional contributions. Their dedication and hands-on assistance were vital to our success. Furthermore, we wish to recognize the entire public works crew uh for their timeless efforts. Their extra hard work on the evening of the event ensured the parade route was safe, clean, and ready for our

residents to enjoy. Our gratitude also goes to the city at Calama Fire Department for their vital contribution to the evening's magic and a very special thank you to the Riverside uh Sheriff Captain Northrup for his unwavering support of the sheriff's department. Their presence ensured a safe and family-friendly environment for all attendees. We value the partnership immensely and look forward to continuing our work together to make Calama a vibrant place to live and do business. My sincere apologies for not being able to be at the meeting to present this in person, but I'm getting a chance to do that. So, um because I would have and do prefer to address you in in person. I wish everyone a safe and prosperous new year and that's a sincere appreciation Tony Phillips vice president Mesa Chamber of Commerce. So like I said u after the parade uh Julie and I uh wife went to uh Nashville to enjoy a Nashville Christmas couple of concerts. They were fun to do. Uh so I wasn't here for the um meeting of the council in December and then uh we got to go uh visit our daughter, her husband and our grandson um during your the next um council meeting which I understand was cancelled due to the fact that you guys didn't want to show up.

That's one way to put it to so it worked out. So uh so that's why today's presentation was made in late February. But uh it is with sinceress that uh I show my appreciation to the city for that uh because it was a stressful time for me in planning the Christmas parade. So any uh comments or anything you guys want to make on that?

I'd like to make a comment. It was a lot of fun. It wasn't cold. There are a lot of people and kids and it was thoroughly enjoyable. I didn't see a hitch except when it was you told everybody in the parade, if you think you're going too slow, go slower. Well, in some cases, it was really slow, but we only have four or five blocks. So, I'm looking forward to the day when we can expand our parade because it's such a wonderful event and um possibly bring back taking the fire trucks to the mobile parks for the people who can't attend our parade. So, I'm looking forward to working with that with you next year if you'd like to. Yeah, that that but it was a wonderful event. Thank you for all the hard work you do. Thank you. And the staff. Our staff is wonderful.

The the person who started the parade that was the first one out. She was the one of the slowness. Oh, we had fun. We were doing We were doing circles. Yeah, you were doing We had fun. It was fun. Thank you. I had people down at the at the end of the parade like, "What's going on? Are you starting the parade?" Yeah.

So, that's one thing about the parade. You can't you So, you have people that stop, right, to do performances, you know, like the Jeep guys driving over each other. Uh the um the believe athletics people doing tumbling, the music, all that stuff kind of stops the parade in its tracks. and you know while they do their performance. So, you just have to understand that that's why, you know, there's a big gap between, you know, the the vehicles, you know, it's when I start them off at the staging area, they're all the same distance apart,

but you know, what do you do when they stop? And we had that that wonderful little young lady in the Power Wheels.

Oh, yeah. and she was going back and forth across the street handing out candies and so it's all part of the fun, right? But uh so really enjoy it. Um looking forward to next year and every year we look towards um bigger and better, right? And we learn from our um our lessons each year on it. Okay. Um the city council meeting report. Thank you to all who attended the Calama Chamber of Commerce installation and community recognition dinner. I thank uh Mayor Svantes for uh being our installer of officers. He it was really great when he uninstalled me. I felt like running out the door. Uh but it was too quick that I got reinstalled. So um but we had a great time at the dinner. Um, Hos Beastro uh provided a great meal and um I think everybody had a really good time. You know, we were able to give officer Hel here his uh um service award and with the fire department. They they did the firefighter of the year. So overall was a good program. Uh, as you are aware, Dan Roberts uh from the Enchanted Cedar Yoga uh studio and holistic studio uh is our new president of our chamber. A he is a bright light uh for us going forward. Um he recognizes that the chamber having gone through internal personal changes uh has issues that need to be addressed. I believe he is the right guy for that uh at this time. The Chamber Foundation, which is a 501c3 that we started last year, uh is hosting

a bingo night at the Plantation on the Lakes on February 26th from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. You're more than welcome to attend. Um these uh there are sponsor sponsorship opportunities for this and this is the fundraiser for the chamber for its scholarship program. Um, so this leads to the scholarship into the scholarship te which we will have in midmay um right after uh Mayor Jeff has his uh breakfast meeting presentation. Um speaking of that, our February breakfast u was held on the 10th and it featured Jerry Flowers. Uh he spoke on the seven aspects of successful business ownership. It was quite informative. Um, I probably do two of them. So, I have some lessons to learn from that to uh increase my business. Um, our next breakfast is uh March 10th and Will will be our uh city manager Will will be our um sharing his vision of Calam Mesa with us. Um so, we look forward to many of you attending in support of Will. Um, it will be at the Cafe Royale as normal. Uh, unless we get a large response from our first couple of of emails that go out to the uh to the chamber members, we get a large response, then we may be seeking a larger facility and that's just going to put more pressure on will. So you guys have any questions on that? I don't have the numbers for membership and um because we just Karine is like literally nine days into it now. So um yeah, we

went through another transition on the administrator side, but we're really happy with her and we think that she's going to uh be very positive for our chamber. Mayor, I have a comment if you don't mind. Um, so is the chamber still going to do the goodie bags for um two new residents in Calama? The new homeowner gift bags. Yes, that's still ongoing program.

Yeah, we still have and we just uh uh Karine just uh emailed everybody on Thursday that we need those that need to resupply. Um so we had our board of directors meeting this morning. Um a lot of stuff we covered. One of them was the new homeowner gift bags. Um, and so generally how that works is we get all the supplies in and then we contact one of the local uh schools and get like three or kids to, you know, three of the youth in to pack the bags. And then uh we get the addresses for new homeowners through real estate agents, through real estate companies here in town. and then hand them to me those addresses because I was a UPS guy in Calama um years ago when I was way better looking. But uh yeah, so I put the routes together three there usually three to five routes depending on how many new homeowners we have. And then uh we go out in groups of two, two or three and and hand out the gift bags to we try to make contact with the with the people the new homeowners to give them that, you know, that that little sales pitch of we want you to reroute your lives into Calama because most of what what I found over the years with the new home owner, I'm sorry I'm carrying on. Um, but what I found out found with most of the new homeowners is they're coming from local resment places. You know, they might be moving from San Frernardino or Riverside or uh some from Bulmont and Banning, right? Or Palm Springs. They're moving into Calam

Mesa. And they have a really I don't want to call it a bad habit. They have a habit of going back to what they know. So they'll jump on the freeway and they'll drive back to San Bernardino or back to Riverside to do their shopping or do their, you know, whatever they do, their entertainment, their meals, you know. So what we like to do is share with them what do you what you have here in Calamsa and what opportunities they have to you know to reroute their lives back into Calam Mesa and become a a viable Calama comm community you know patron. So that's the idea behind the new homeowner gift bag. So if we don't get that opportunity to talk to them, then you know we leave the bags at their porch and hope that they, you know, read the material that's inside.

Any other questions on sir? Thank you. Yeah. Great guys. Thank you so much. I appreciate you giving me the extra time tonight and uh I know it's the old story. Put a microphone in front of me. Appreciate your report, Tony. Thank you. Next on our agenda is the mayor and council members reporting on county and regional meetings, conferences, or just any anything you'd like. And we're going to begin with council member Molina.

I'm always excited to share. Okay. On uh February 3rd, I represented our city at the Ukipo Women's Club for an event that they have every year. It's called A Tale of Two Cities. and that's where they invite a representative of of Calamusa's council and a representative of Yukipa Council to come to their group and talk about what's going on in the city. So Judy Woolsey and I were the ones they were invited to come. It was a it was a nice event. We had a lot of fun. We shared a little bit about procedural things as that a council does but also an update on what's going on and kind of um settled feathers about you know people who are not happy with the roundabouts or people who aren't happy with whatever and turned it into kind of a nice uh nice afternoon. So that was a lot of fun. Um on the fee on February 4th I attended RTA's admin and operations committee that I now chair and that that was just routine business. On the 5th, I attended uh SKAG's transportation committee uh meeting and in Los Angeles and I had forwarded to you the summary of that meeting. It's it's quite lengthy. Uh the committee members are uh for SCAg are allowed to there I forget how many committees there are but they're allowed to they're hybrid meetings and so you can either go in person or um um arrange prior to the meeting a place where you you're going to be located so that it's approved for anybody to to attend the meeting. Um if you're on policy committee, you have to be in in person for SCAG. And then on February 9th, uh Cal City's um um had uh their dinner, their um they have six a year. This this this week, this month, February, was held at Tuckwet and Banning was the city that hosted and I know I was there and I I I but I can't remember who the guest speaker was. So I'm sorry. I will provide that information to you. We had about 60 people. It's a great way to network and

meet new council persons, new vendors with Cal Cities. Um, but they do um every other month they do a a dinner somewhere in in Riverside County and so I will get a a an information sheet to all of you on on that on that meeting. Um, on February 11th, I attended RCTC's commission meeting and I have um Oh, I passed out the summary. I just got it today. So, I I provided that to you of all the things that happened. There's a lot of statistics, so it's easier just to have you read it. Uh, but if anybody ever has questions, they can always ask the city. We could provide it to them. Um, on the 11th, I also attended um Kell Mesa Breakf um Lion Tony. Uh we uh our Lions Club every year, Kell Mesa Breakfast Lions Club does uh what's called student speaker contest. This is an opportunity for for students from 9th grade to 12th grade to prepare a 5 to 10 minute speech and potentially earn about 25 to $30,000 in scholarships. And every year you every year you can apply there's a different topic every year. This year's topic is last year's it was really interesting was AI friend or foe. This year is youth mental health overcoming barriers to well-being. We had four speakers. Uh they they happen to come all from Ukipa High School and um it was really it was really great. We have um between now and April we'll have three contests at St. Alvin's Church in Ukipa. This is the club the the that our club sponsors and each at each uh meeting you earn higher dollars when we give our students cash because in the past we used to give them checks and they'd lose them. They wouldn't spend them. They wouldn't cash them. And so we figured now it's just good to give them cash. Um, and so, um, it's a great opportunity for for students to learn public speaking, um, to get familiar with our Lions Club that we sponsor. And, um, I'm thinking, was

it last year, Tony, that our student went all the way? I'm sorry, Tony. Was it last year or the year before? It was two years ago. Audrey Audrey went all the way to the district level to the multiple district level where the prize was um $15,000 scholarship, but she had already won a $5,000 and $6,000 scholarship. Right. So, her total winnings had she won that um would have been $27,000 in scholarships. And that's and when she talks about our club paying in cash, that's the first club level, right? Payout, right? So, uh, after that, everything's a scholarship. So, um, thank you for correcting me. Yes. So,

but it's an opport it's a great opportunity for our students and we invite all the schools in the area. So, it's and they can as long as it's just one contest per year, but they can do go every 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th grade. So, it's an opportunity to raise some money. And then um last and final on February 13th, Friday the 13th, I passed my vision test and renewed my license, my driver's license. When you get to a certain age, you have to do things. I I've renewed it by mail for I don't know how many years. And so I was it was a little I was kind of nervous about that, but I I did it. I passed. So and that's all I have to share. Thank you. Heard you pass. Thank you, Mayor Pro Tim.

Thank you, Mayor. Been attending the regional meetings, but I did want to thank again Deputy Hinkle and Captain Northrip. Um, it's unfortunate we're losing them both kind of about the same time here, but uh I just wanted to say I did appreciate both of you. It's you guys have been great to work with and that means a lot your your service to our community. So, we wish you the best, you know. going forward and I'm sure we'll cross paths again. So, thank you. And that's all I have, mayor.

Thank you. I also don't have a report on any county or regional meetings this time. Um I will next time for you and other than echoing your comments. Thank Thank you again. Appreciate what you gentlemen have brought to our city and wish you continued success. Um, that's going to conclude my report and move us on to our uh city manager comments and report.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Just a couple of items. Um, first, I would like to give a huge shout out to Motti um as well as Mike Thornton and Dave Fredborg um for their work on the Q&A portion of our city hall RFP. So, we had our walkth through um before our last council meeting and we received I think was 169 questions um from biders. Um and Marty went through was took the lead on that and answered most of those questions. There was a few that um I had to answer um and then um but but Mike and Dave also helped her out with some of the technical things um that she wasn't able to get, but she had 95% of it on her own. So, um, it was not she was working almost on that non-stop until it was due and she got it posted in time. So, we really appreciate that. So, the proposals for the RFP are due this Thursday. So, we'll see what we get. Um, just a quick update on our strategic plan initiative. Um, the we have a community survey out right now. Um, it the link is on our website, also on our social media channels. um people in the public can can participate in that up until f this Friday, February 20th. I believe we're we have somewhere in the 55 to 60 range right now. As far as responses, we're also doing an internal uh employee survey as well that is was sent to all employees. So, that one was also due on the 20th. Um and we've had a good response from that so far. I don't know what the results are. I just I'm just talking purely about numbers. I have no idea what they what they actually say yet. Um and so and those are um the the employee surveys are anonymous. I think the I haven't I can't recall on the um the community surveys, but I don't think there's any identifying information on that for us

to you know we want to make sure people can give us you know candid feedback on on both fronts. So and last week I attended the the Cal City manager conference and there was a session um was very timely. There's a session on strate strategic plan implementation. So, um I made I I attended that one and um I'll talk about that. I'm going to I'm going to do a podcast episode on the Cal's uh city manager conference and some of the things I learned and how we can apply it here in Kalama. And lastly, um I would like to bring up Captain Northrup who is going to introduce our new community services officer. Uh, first I want to just again thank the city city staff for for my time here. Um, the staff is great. They work really hard behind the scenes and and I see know the city just heading in the right direction. It's really exciting. Um, and then I want to thank Mike. When I got here back in July of 2024, I really leaned on Mike to to kind of educate me on some of the things that are going on in the city. um as far as law enforcement goes and crime trends and those type of things, very instrumental in in helping me understand the city and kind of um direct services as needed. So, thanks thanks to Mike and then just want to bring up Jake. Um CSO Marberry, come on up. So, so Jake was hired by the sheriff's department back in January of 2020 as a SSO. SSO's kind of they do a lot of behind the scenes work, make sure cars are working, computers are functioning, and the deputies go out with all the the gear that they need and that's in good working order. And then he was promoted to to community service officer in August of 2022. Um, and then in December, I think of

2025, uh, he was assigned as the dedicated community services officer officer for Cal Mesa. So, he brings uh some youth and energy to the city. And uh when you guys are out and about and you see him wave, um he'll be out driving around the city. I urge and encourage the community to stop and bring up things, you know, that uh they see or areas that they think that need to be u identified as as more patrols and just direct um his attention to those things. So, I just want to give give Jake a quick uh mic so he can introduce himself. Thank you. Thank you, sir.

Uh greetings all. Uh CSO Jake Mabry from the Cabazon station and uh happy to be working in Kamea. Uh good change of pace, good change of scenery from the county. So, uh looking forward to it. Sir, thank you. May I ask you your your last name? You said it so quickly. Uh, Mabberry. M A B R Y. Oh, thank you very much. Thank you. Absolutely. Welcome. Thank you. And that will conclude my report.

Our agenda. Wow. Almost record time, right? So, we're going to adjourn to the regular meeting of the city council on May uh excuse me, May Monday, March 2nd, 2026, 6 PM. Thank you all for