City Council Meeting - Regular Meeting

We're gonna get started. Today's meeting will be comprised of two meetings, the city council and the successor agency. Please note all are open on all meetings for the consent calendar at the same time. At this time, I would like to call to order the City Council meeting. I'll pass the gavel to successor agency chair, Catheryn.

The successor agency is now in session.

We're gonna do our roll call. Council member John Roberts.

Present.

Council member Catheryn.

Present.

Council member Garcia will join

us

soon. At this time, I'm gonna ask our city clerk if he no. I'm not gonna ask him that. What we're gonna do is we're gonna stand for invocation given by council member John Roberts, and I've asked council member Catherine to give us our pledge.

We'll bow our heads. Heavenly father, we thank you for this beautiful day. We thank you for the blessings you've bestowed on our city. Father, we ask, your wisdom and guidance as we deliberate the matters before us today. Father, be with those in public safety and military service. Keep them safe. We ask this in your name. Amen. Please

join me in the pledge of 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.

You may all be seated. Now we'll ask our city attorney, Ruben Duran, to provide our closed session report.

Yes. Thank you, madam mayor. Good afternoon. The council met to consider both of the items that are listed on today's closed session agenda. They received a briefing from legal counsel and provided direction, but there is no reportable action in either case. Thank you, madam mayor.

Thank you, city attorney Ruben Duran. At this time, we're gonna have our ceremonial items. We're really happy today. We're gonna be swearing in new firefighters, and we're also gonna be swearing in police officers. So we're going to start with our Fontana firefighters. If I could have chief Birchfield join me, and then I'll ask my colleagues to come down for pictures.

Thank you, mayor. Yeah. My name is Jeff Birchfield. I'm the Fontana fire chief. I'd like to have our firefighters come on up. And as they walk up here, I'll just give you a little briefing here. We they do, can

you give them a big hand?

Yes. So these young men just completed a twenty week fire academy that's in house that our department hosts. And these are our new firefighters that are assigned here to city of Fontana. So I'll name them off real quick, and then we'll give them a little swearing in. And so we have Connor Gorean. He's gonna be assigned to station seventy one, currently lives in Costa Mesa. Matt Bolden, who is assigned to station seventy three. Well, he lives in Costa Mesa. Trying to get them to move to Fontana.

21.

Tyler Tyler Smith is currently assigned to station seventy three. He lives in Rancho Cucamonga. Bernardo Valadez, station seventy one, lives in Atalanto. I'm gonna announce you my our golden child here, Isaac Hernandez. Step forward real quick. Okay. He's station seventy seven. He was actually a Fontana fire explorer, grew up in this community, and lives in this community as well. So I know mister Cawthren's very happy about that, so congratulations. Joshua Senert, station seventy seven in Riverside, and Justin Westerberg, station seventy one in Redlands, and then Scott Schneringer, station seventy one in San Clemente.

So welcome firefighters. We appreciate you here. These are our future leaders that will take all of our places, I'm sure, the future. And I'd like to ask any of the family members to come on up if is anybody swearing in? Anybody gonna hold a bottle of bible? Do you guys have family that come up? No? Okay. He's got one. Come so have let's have Hernandez's come on up.

Member that is going to hold your bible present. We want them to come up now. Here's the staircase

right there.

In the meantime, I got this bible, guys. I got you. Okay. You can stand next

to him. Okay.

This is going to be a little bit different. We have quite a few people. Let me see how we're going to do this. Let's see. You coming up okay? I think what we'll do is I can have you move down a little bit. There we are. And then we'll see.

Okay.

You know, we started doing this quite a few years ago. We wanted to make sure that young people in this community got a chance to experience this. Alright. Okay. At this time, typically, we say place your left hand on the Bible but it's okay. I got your Bible. So I want you to raise your right hand, and you're gonna repeat after me. But when I say I, you'll state your name. Okay? Everybody got that? Alright. I

Conor Goran.

Do solemnly swear

Do solemnly swear

that I will support and defend

I will support and defend

the constitution of The United States

constitution of The United States

and the constitution of the state of California

the constitution of the state of California.

Against all enemies.

Against all enemies.

Foreign and domestic.

Foreign and domestic.

That I will bear true faith.

That I will bear true faith.

And allegiance.

And allegiance.

To the constitution of The United States

To the constitution of the state

of California

To the constitution of the state of California

That I take this obligation freely

That I take this obligation freely

Without any mental reservation

Without any mental reservation.

Or purpose of evasion

Or purpose of evasion.

And that I will well

And that I will well

And faithfully

And faithfully.

Discharge the duties upon

Discharge the duties upon

which I'm about to enter

Which I'm about to enter.

So help me, God.

So help me, God.

Congratulations. Let's give them a hand, everyone. Okay. For the two firefighters that brought family members up, I'd like you to introduce your family member.

This is my mother, Sonia Hernandez. Thank

This is my mother, Stephanie Smith.

And we're now gonna take a picture. Okay. Next, we're gonna have our police chief, Mike Dorsey, come up. Come in.

Thank you, mayor and thank you, council. This

is a celebration. The new firefighter, the new police officer. This is good. This

is very good. Welcome, everybody. My name is Mike Dorsey. I'm the police chief here in Fontana. It's my honor to introduce tonight today our four newest police officers.

So if I could have officer Gasaway, officer Howard, officer Azaga, and officer Ojima come on up here, please. And as they're, making their way up, they just recently, completed the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Academy. It was a six month, intense training program. They graduated successfully in March, and all four of these officers are currently in field training here at the Fontana Police Department. And we expect that there'll be solo police officers in the next four to five months, and they'll be out there serving our needs of our community. So with that, I'll turn it over to the mayor.

Thank you, chief. I had the opportunity. I believe most of you were there that day to come in and see get your pens. And if you've ever had an opportunity and you haven't done it yet, you need to go to one of the graduations done by San Bernardino Sheriff's Office from the academy. It is a ceremony that you will never forget.

It is really, really nice. So I'm really proud of all of you, and I was so happy when you all walked across that stage. So congratulations to all of you. If you have a family member present that will hold your bible, they can come up now. You can be a friend too. That's okay.

I'll be around. Okay. Okay.

I'm gonna have you move down a little bit so that I can get over here. There we go. There, I can watch you there. Alright, we're all set. Now, we're going to start your oaths. I need you to raise your right hand and put your left hand on the Bible. Very good. Now, I'm gonna say I, you state your name, okay? Don't do like Philip did when he got sworn in as a council person. Just give me a hard time. Alright. I. Very good. Do solemnly swear

Do solemnly swear

that I will support and defend

I will support and defend

the constitution of The United States constitution of the state of California against all enemies foreign and domestic that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties upon which I'm about to enter I'm about to enter. So help me god.

So help me god.

Congratulations. Let's give him a big hand. Those that have family members or friends, introduce the person that held your bible.

This is my wife, Jasmine Gasaway.

This is my mother, Heather Howard.

This is my dad, Orlando Isasaga.

This is city council member Cauthorn. Philip Cauthorn.

I don't know what we're

gonna do with him. Okay. We're gonna now take a picture. If there are family members in the audience from the firefighters and the police, can you all stand up so we can give you all a big hand? If my colleagues will stay out here, we still have, we're gonna be recognizing the March 2026 employees of the month from our police department.

I think captain Binks is coming up right now. Congratulations, officers and firefighters and family. Hey there. You doing? Here. Thank you.

Councilman Cawthon, I'll make sure he gets taken care of on training for not knowing your name right off the bat. Other things, though.

You didn't know my name.

It's my honor. I'm Brian Beings captain with the Fontana Police Department field services division. It's it's my honor to introduce our March employees of the month, so I will bring them up. We have officer Dustin Hodgins, officer Daniel Oliver, officer Hector Quinones, and officer Jacob Velasquez. So I'll just give a quick synopsis of of what occurred in March.

These officers were working patrol, and they were dispatched to a parking lot located in the 8800 Block Of Citrus, reference a female who was having a mental health crisis. She was armed with a knife. She was threatening to harm herself and harm members of the public. So these officers immediately responded to that location. Officer Hodgins arrived on scene first and made contact with her and tried to establish some sort of verbal rapport with her and calm her down.

The entire time, she was threatening to kill herself, was threatening the police officer saying, you're gonna have to shoot me. You have to kill me. Please kill me. Officer Hodgins tried to communicate with her, for several minutes while she was while he was doing that. These three officers arrived on scene.

They developed a plan. Their plan was basically if she continued and started pushing the issue or acting in a violent manner, they were gonna intervene with less lethal applications to try to take her into custody. We continued trying to negotiate with her, continued establishing rapport, trying to deescalate. Ultimately, she decided to push the issue. She told the officers, you're gonna have to kill me, and started charging the officers.

They immediately acted, took her into custody without any injury to her, without any injury to the public or any officers. It's just a small example of the little things that this is something if it went wrong or went bad or poorly, everybody in The United States Of America would hear about it. But because it didn't, nobody hears about it. But it's something that happens quite often, and it's just a small example of the excellence that our police officers display on a daily basis. They're heroes.

They saved her life, got her mental health assistance, were able to transport her to the hospital, and she's doing much better now. Thanks to these officers and their bravery. That could not happen without the support of our community, supporting our police officers and them doing their jobs, the support of our council and our city leaders, so we appreciate them. And for that, you guys are our heroes. We love you for what you do. Thank you very much. Congratulations.

Thank you so much, captain. We are missing one plaque. We will get that corrected by tomorrow morning. Okay? Yes, ma'am. I wanna first honor the employee of the month, the Fontana Police Department hereby awards the certificate to police Hectic Quinones.

Thank you, madam mayor. Get to honor police officer Dustin Hodgins for your restraint, your compassion, your love for our community, as well as your professional at all times. So thank you very much for your act. I'm not gonna make John walk

to me.

Thank you, Philip. And I have police officer Daniel Oliver.

And we'll make sure that you get your certificate tomorrow. Okay? Let's give them a big hand, and we're gonna take a picture. That is our special ceremonial presentations today. And that brings us to public comment.

Can we just give everybody another big hand? This is really good. Good afternoon and thank you again for attending this meeting of the city council. The Brown Act provides that members of the public may offer comment on any item within the subject matter jurisdiction of the city council and on any action item, including items on the consent calendar. What this means is that the council welcomes and encourages your input on issues of city business and on action items of today's agenda.

Issues of city business do not include personal attacks on city officials or city staff. While we acknowledge your right to comment on our actions or activities with respect to city issues and business, we will not tolerate purely personal comments not having to do with official performance of city duties. Please do not use profanity, name calling, or any other behavior that disrupts the proceedings this afternoon. Speech or other activities such as yelling from the audience. That disrupts the early business of the council and will not be allowed.

After warning continued behavior that disrupts the meeting may result in you being asked to leave the meeting. Thank you. This brings us to public communication how many cards city clerk key do you have to speak. You need the mic on there.

City clerk. You

have 10 cards, you said?

Yes, mayor.

Okay. You can start calling people up in three. Three. What we ask is that once your name is called, if you go to the back to the microphone and be ready to speak.

And Mary, you want the full three minutes?

Uh-huh. Three Okay. Minutes is Thank you.

Our first three speakers are Joss Sita, Gro Fontana, and Ada. Ada or Ada,

sorry, thank you.

Thank you so much. May I begin? Just to make sure. Yes. Perfect. Thank you. Okay. Great. My name is Josh Sita. I'm a resident here at Fontana. Thank you so much for having us today. We'd love to see more people, but the meetings are at 2PM. Wish they will go back to 7PM. I wanna talk about actually, it's new business, but I guess on the calendar, on the blue card, it's not actually there. In regards to added tax for sewage, I just wanna remind folks that back on December 11, approved was $120,000 for Nightlife Entertainment Consulting that came out of the sewage fund.

And so I just want to make sure that folks know that our taxpayer money should not be used from our tax sewer fund to fund entertainment purposes when we should be able to lower taxes for property owners, for Fontana residents, as we're already getting taxed way too much where, for example, our property taxes are increasing and people are not being paid good livable wages, especially in the warehouse industry here in Fontana. And so when we have situations like this where our money is being placed in different categories, it definitely affects the everyday lives of Fontanans. And I have put on the blue card new business, but I was called on this time. So I want to make sure that I do get that out there. Additionally, one of the biggest things that we are facing right now is high property taxes.

We're seeing the closing of small businesses, and we're seeing the overdevelopment of warehousing that is not necessarily there there's no new companies coming in, these are open for lease in every cornerstone. There's over 300 warehouses in Fontana. Out of the 300, only 34 are unionized warehouses. So they're not we're not really giving out the community good paying jobs to afford housing. For example, in the new project in Southridge, where houses are gonna be half $1,000,000 and the land was sold for $300,000 the KB Homes is gonna be making $38,000,000 additional tax for property owners at $55,000 whoever buys these properties.

So it's a lot of extra costs, and we're adding now sewerage extra costs. And again, dollars 120,000, it could be somebody's salary a year. It could be detrimental to families that are barely making ends meet. Thank you so much for your time, and I hope that folks consider switching the time from 2PM to 7PM. Thank you.

Grow Fontana.

Good afternoon, mayor and council members. My name is Grace, and I'm here on behalf of Gro Fontana and the People's Council of Fontana. I wanna start by saying a name. Diego Alfonso Rios. He was 30 years old. He was someone's son. He was someone's brother, someone's family. On 11/28/2025, he died during a traffic stop in Claremont, restrained face down, a knee on his back, in what Los Angeles County medical examiner has formally ruled a homicide. One of the two officers present that day was corporal Benjamin Alba, the same Benjamin Alba who sits on this city's Parks Community and Human Service Commission. The same commission whose mission is to foster community, well-being, and serve Fontana's residents.

At his swearing in, commissioner Alba introduced himself by saying, and I quote, in my free time, I'm a police corporal for a law enforcement agency in LA County. He connected those two roles himself. The medical examiner connected them for us. This council has had months to act. Instead, commissioner Alba was promoted within his commission after Diego's death. Meanwhile, Isabel Rios, Diego's sister-in-law, came to this very chamber to speak and was cut off before she could finish. That is not transparency or integrity. That is not the Fontana we deserve. The People's Council of Fontana has done what this council has not. We held a public session and we heard the facts.

We passed a resolution two zero two six dash zero one, formally calling on this body to remove corporal Alba from his appointed position immediately. That resolution has already been submitted to this council in writing. You have it. So today is not the first time you're hearing of this, is it the first time we are asking you to answer. We are not asking you to prejudge a criminal investigation. We are asking you to recognize that a homicide determination implicating your own commissioner is cause enough to act. Your own municipal code gives you that authority. Fontana's communities of color are watching. The Rios family is watching. So today, we ask three things.

Agendaize this matter at your next regular meeting, remove commissioner Alba from the Parks Commission, and issue a formal acknowledgment of Diego Rios' death and this city's responsibility. I hope this council will truly hear this, but seeing that you couldn't postpone a meeting while one of your very own, someone who has served on this board for twelve years, is bearing their mother today, I have I wonder if there's any compassion left in this chamber. We are here asking you to find it. Diego Rios deserves better. This community deserves better, and this council has the power right now to do better. Thank you.

Ada is next.

Good afternoon. My name is Ada, and, I'm here once again regarding the stop sign on Mango in front of Mango Elementary School. This morning when I dropped my granddaughter off at school, I had a near miss by a vehicle that decided to go flying through the street. And actually, he stopped at one point and yelled at me because I asked him to slow down to a 25 mile per hour traffic, sign that is up there. By the way, you're asking Rover to stay sober is not working.

You need to do better than that. And to add insult to injury, yesterday morning, as I was trying to get in my car after dropping my grand my granddaughter off at school, same school, There were two cars flying by. One of them was a black Jeep, happened to have Fontana Police Department written on it. Please explain this, and I hope that you guys get that sign up very soon before there is, unfortunately, some kind of a tragedy, which I hope doesn't happen, which I've heard that you guys said, not until it takes a tragedy will we do something. Thank you.

Our next three speakers are Grace, Eileen Cuevas and John Pedroza.

So this has to do with, new business. Good afternoon. My name is Grace, and I'm a Fontana resident. I'm here today with a serious with serious concerns about the proposed sewer rate increase. 15% starting July 2026 followed by 10% annually through 2030, and how this city is managing Fund702, our sewer connection fund.

At the 12/09/2025 city council meeting, the council approved a $120,000 professional service agreement with Soundbox Group LLC owned by Isaiah Avila for stage red marketing and promotion services. What caught my attention is the noncompetitive source selection justification form for that contract signed by Philip Burham. The funding source listed was Fund702, object code, 70230100Dash8130. According to the City Of Fontana's own annual report for fiscal year ending 06/30/2025, Fund702 is the sewer connection fund, the same fund that is now being cited as financially unstable unsustainable. The rate study tells us the sewer fund will deplete its reserves by fiscal year 2028 if rates aren't raised.

But before asking residents to absorb these increases, I believe the city owes the public a clear explanation of why sewer connection funds were being used for entertainment marketing services at Stage Red. My questions are, one, was it appropriate to charge a marketing and promotion contract to the sewer connection fund? Two, has this expenditure been reviewed and will it be connected corrected? And three, how much of fund seven zero two's structural deficit is attributed to non infrastructure expenditures like this one? Residents deserve transparency before being asked to pay more. I respectfully request a full accounting of fund seven zero two expenditures before this rate increase moves forward. Thank you.

Hello. My name is Aileen Cuevas, and I am a student at the school of social work at Cal State San Bernardino. Speak on behalf of my group for a group project. We are completing a requirement for our semester long community advocacy project and are here to inform you about what we are doing for our community. Our project entails doing a needs assessment for the community, unit utilizing assets within the community, and working with community leaders to target concerns.

After serving an area in Fontana, we found that many residents had concerns surrounding streets, street lights, and sidewalks. We have decided to center our project around educating our community on Fontana 311, which would allow them to voice their concerns directly to the city. We will be holding an informational session on what Fontana 311 is and how to use it on May 20 at Redwood Elementary School. Our hope is that residents' concerns will be addressed. Thank you for your time.

John Cuevas. Hi.

I'm here with the just with the justice for Diego Rio's campaign about agendizing the removal of commissioner Benjamin Alba from the Parks Community and Human Services Commission. Mister Alba also works as a Claremont PD officer. And on November, he pinned Diego to the ground with his knee on Diego's upper back for almost two minutes. Diego pleaded and said he couldn't breathe. Mister Alba ignored his pleas and instead met Diego with predatory lethal force.

Diego died less than a minute after he said he couldn't breathe. According to the Los Angeles medical examiner's office, Diego's death is a homicide with prone physical restraint by law enforcement as an attributing factor. The way that mister Alba chose to restrain Diego, with Diego on his stomach face down and mister Alba with his knee on his upper back constricting Diego's lungs, is the injury that caused Diego's death. Diego's death was not a natural death. It wasn't accidental, and it wasn't undetermined.

The coroner reviewed all the evidence and took almost three months to declare Diego's death to be a homicide. The medical examiner's the medical examiner defines homicide as the action of one person directly causing the death of another. Mister Alba's actions caused Diego's death according to the official report. This city's leadership needs to seriously consider if mister Alba is a person you are proud of to represent Fontana. He knowingly violated responsible police protocols. He heard Diego say he couldn't breathe. And instead of treating the situation as a medical emergency, mister Alba chose deadly force. How can you explain mister Alba's behavior to your community? To me, the answer is very clear. Remove him as commissioner of the Parks Community and Human Services Commission and open up the application process to new applicants.

Fontana's code of the city chapter two article eight section two dash three four one outlines the procedures necessary to remove a member of a city commission. Your city your city municipal codes clearly outline the the process for removal, and the circumstances of mister Alba's criminal behavior are exactly why you should apply your own codes. Mister Alba's not fit to serve the public. Please remove him from your leadership. Thank you.

We have four speakers remaining. I'm going to call all four. The first is Jess Arredondo, Georgia Stettner, Isabel Rios, and Victor Rios.

Before you start, I'd like to recognize that mayor pro tem Peter Garcia has now joined the meeting.

Good afternoon, city of Fontana. My name is Jess Arredondo, and I represent the Knights of Columbus. We've been here since 1947 here in Fontana, and it all started back in 1882 with father McGivy. I just wanna notify the city of Fontana that Knights Columbus are here to help out for the community in any situation that that comes up serving churches and families and communities. So we're here to help out and just letting the city of Fontana know we're here. Thank you.

Georgia Stettner. Good

afternoon. My name is Georgia, and I'm a student at Pomona College and a member of the Claremont community. On 11/28/2025, Diego Rios was killed by Claremont police officers Benjamin Alba and Joshua Arona, who used unlawful tactics while Diego was experiencing a mental health crisis. For months, the Claremont community has been concerned with the failures of our public safety system. I am one of many in the community demanding justice for Diego and supporting his friends and family's calls for accountability in the aftermath of this excessive use of force.

As you may know, Diego's death has been ruled a homicide, an undeniable testimony that Diego died at the hands of officers Alba and Arona. I am calling on the city council of Fontana to do your part in holding these officers accountable. Officer Benjamin Alba currently serves as commissioner for the Parks Community and Human Services Commission in Fontana. This commission, quote, promotes and provides guidance and delivery of quality facilities, programs, services that foster active and healthy lifestyles and promote the value of community. Officer Alba's continued presence on this commission is fundamentally incompatible with that mission.

A person who uses his authority to demean, escalate, and violently restrain someone in crisis should not be entrusted with shaping community life, public safety, or human services in Fontana. Diego's death did not only devastate his family and friends, but it shook the wider Claremont community and exposed the consequences of police responses to mental health issues and the inadequacies of our leaders and representatives to to address injustice and safety. Officer Alba cannot credibly promote the values of community in Fontana, while the community in Claremont is still grieving the harm caused by his actions. Students, community members, and Diego's friends and family demand the immediate removal of of Joshua Alba from his role as Parks Community and Human Services Commissioner. Your constituents and communities are watching.

Justice Fordiego.

Isabel Rios.

Hello. I'm also here from the Justice Fordiego Rios campaign to request that you agendize an item to remove commissioner Benjamin Alba from the Parks Community and Human Services Commission. Mr. Alba's predatory and criminal actions led to the death of Diego Rios, and it is imperative that Mr. Alba not be given the privilege of serving the Fontana community as commissioner.

Mister Alba, in his role as a Claremont police officer, chose to escalate a traffic stop to such a point that it ended in a homicide with positional asphyxia. All police officers in California after the death of George Floyd were trained to understand that choke holds are banned and that officers need to deescalate situations. Mister Alba had this training, and he chose to ignore it. In his traffic stop with Diego on November, mister Alba put Diego in a choke hold, pinned him to the ground, and restrained Diego by putting a knee on Diego's upper back. When Diego was pinned on the ground and he said he couldn't breathe, do you know what mister Alba's response was?

He ignored Diego's pleas and he pulled out his taser and he turned it on, and he said, I quote, I'm going to effing tase you, end quote. Mister Alba didn't remove his knee from Diego's back, and he kept it there until Diego could no longer breathe. Diego died of positional asphyxia only a minute or so later. When mister Alba was questioned by the paramedics who arrived on the scene about what happened, mister Alba gleefully retold how he used an arm bar on Diego while his colleague, officer Joshua Arona, was on top mount. Mister Alba is disturbingly eager to compare the traffic stop to a fight by using the terminology of mixed martial arts.

His comparison of a traffic stop to a fight is a reflection of how little mister Alba values the public. Mister Alba had just killed Diego moments before, and there is no remorse from There is no shame. What I do see from mister Alba is unabashed arrogance in describing his maneuvers and a total lack of humanity. Mister Alba has a serious lack of morality and ethics. He also has shown that he is fully capable of ignoring protocols and acting outside the boundaries of the law.

I urge you to expedite adding an I an agenda item for his removal. The council and the mayor have been aware of mister Alba's involvement in the homicide of Diego Rios since at least the March when you first started receiving public comments about this issue. What explanation can you give this community for not following the steps in your municipal code to remove mister Alba as a commissioner? Thank you.

Victor Rios.

Hello, council. I'm Victor Rios. I'm the brother of Diego Rios. I'm following up on behalf of justice for Diego Rios campaign regarding the agendizing and removal of the commissioner of commissioner Benjamin Alba from the Parks Community and Human Services Commission. Mister Alba caused the homicide of Diego Rios on 11/28/2025. And due to his criminal behavior, you need to remove him as commissioner. Mister Alba concurrently serves the public as a Claremont police officer. On November, he was involved in a traffic stop with Diego. And within six minutes, Diego was dead due to positional asphyxia. Diego was experiencing a mental health crisis.

Diego's death was preventable. He pulled over his car, turned off his engine, and gave his key without incident. He was unarmed and never threatened the officers. In fact, he looked the officers in the eye and asked for help. Diego had one handcuff on without issue, without incident, and the situation was going relatively smoothly until your commissioner showed up.

When mister Alba had Diego under control, mister Alba chose to jerk Diego's arm and wrist because he wanted to elicit a reaction from Diego. He wanted to punish Diego on the spot under the guise that Diego was resisting arrest. He continuously taunted him. And after Diego screamed in pain, mister Alba put Diego in an illegal carotid choke hold, then pinned him to the ground, and prevented Diego's ability to breathe by putting his knee on Diego's upper back in an illegal prone position. Then mister Alba ignored Diego's pleas when he said he couldn't breathe, and, ultimately, mister Alba killed him.

Diego died of a positional asphyxia much like George Floyd. Mister Alba has been a Claremont PD since 2014, and before that, he spent ten years as a jailer. He knew responsible protocols for safety, putting someone in when putting somebody into custody. He also knew how to bend those rules and abuse his authority as a police officer. And an officer who disregards the plea of I can't breathe is always committing criminal negligence.

You must remove mister Albus from his Fontana leadership position and Fontana's code of city chapter two article eight section two dash three forty one outlines the process necessary to remove a member of the city commission saying any council member may recommend to the mayor that anyone or more of the commission members be removed at any time with good cause or without without cause. Good cause shall mean, but it's not limited to, three absences within the twelve month city period, immoral criminal activity, and other inappropriate behavior for which the city council from time to time may find constitutes cause for removal. If the decision were up to me, I would immediately remove mister Alba as commissioner who represents Fontana. That decision isn't up to me. It's up to you.

Will the city's leadership knowingly choose a criminal as their colleague or will you follow your own city code and remove Mr. Alba?

Thank you.

Mayor, that concludes our speakers.

Thank you, and thanks to all those who came to participate in our public communication. At this time, that brings us to the consent calendar. To my knowledge, no items have been pooled, but I do know that consent item R, there was a minor revision to the language in attachment number one, the public road easement after the agenda was posted. So that has been noted for our city clerk to make sure she notes that. If there are no items that have been requested to be removed, can I have a motion to approve the consent calendar for the following council and the successor agency?

Move approval. There's amendment. Yes.

I'm that's right. I need to recluse for Village Of Heritage.

Thank you, madam mayor. Yep.

Do I need to leave? Or?

You don't because it's on the consent calendar, but you do need to state the reason for your recusal and the specific agenda item.

Absolutely. Thank I have property in that area. Item number.

It's the pavement management.

Q as in queen.

Thank you. Q AsInQueen.

And move approval as amended.

I'll second.

All those in favor.

Aye.

Okay. You're gonna vote? Okay. It's working there.

Four in favor? Motion passes.

Four in favor? Motion passes. Noted that the mayor was recluse from item Q. Thank you. That brings us to our new business. We're establishing procedures for the conduct of public hearing the majority protest process and exhaustion administrative remedies procedures. We'll have our city public works director and city engineer, Jia Kim, do a presentation at this time.

Mayor, before she starts the presentation, I just wanna clarify one thing that was brought up under public comment. There was reference made by a consultant for a $120,000 as it relates to stage red. The coding on that is for for stage red is 720. Sewer is 702. All charges related to stage red is charged to stage red. But I really want to be clear, the sewer enterprise fund, the only thing we can charge, it has to be related to sewer. And so there hasn't been any charges made to the sewer, and that's been verified.

Thank you for that, Matt. I was going to ask you to clarify that for the people that came for the, you know, public communication. Please do not holler out. That's your first warning. Okay. At this time, we'll have your presentation.

Good afternoon, madam mayor and members of the council. My name is Jia Kim, Public Works Director and City Engineer, and this afternoon we are requesting to authorize the process prop two eighteen procedures. The last prop two eighteen process was done in 2021 and this is due. So since then, Citi hired Raphtales, the consultant firm to evaluate our SOAR finance funds. So I have John and Nick here to do the presentation.

Good afternoon, counsel. My name is John Wright, and this is my colleague, Nick Kennedy. And as GM mentioned, we work with a consulting firm, Raftelis, that was retained by the city to assist with your sewer rate study. And so today, we're going to talk at a very high level about the project scope, you know, our work for the city, and discuss also at a high level the rate study process, talk to you about the recommended sewer financial plan that we developed in conjunction with staff, our proposed sewer rates, and then show you some comparisons to the proposed sewer rates, to adjacent sewer utilities. So I'll just summarize this at a very high level.

We were retained to produce a sewer utility financial plan for FY twenty seven through '31. And as an outcome of that financial plan is the development of proposed rates for that five year period. We also surveyed adjacent utilities. My firm also provided assistance to Fontana staff in developing a prop two eighteen notice. And then to the extent it's required, we will provide assistance at public meetings.

And then finally, we developed a Microsoft Excel based financial modeling tool that hopefully staff will use in the future. So when we think about the rate study process, it can really just be described in a few simple steps. Number one, at the start of a rate study, we sit down with our client staff and discuss what challenges challenges they're facing with their sewer utility or their water utility. And often those are related to how to raise money to pay for capital improvements. We then develop a financial plan.

And an outcome of that financial plan is an estimate of how much rate revenue we'll need in the future. Then we often, in many cases, do a cost of service and rate design study or analysis, which I'll talk about a little bit later in a few slides. And finally, that results in the outcome, which is proposed rates and also making sure that those rates are noticed in compliance proposition two eighteen for the specific effective date that we want them to go into effect. Now two things about this slide. Probably most importantly, at the top, you see an arrow going across that says proposition two eighteen compliance.

So we're in California and California has very strict requirements as to what type of costs can be recovered through municipal utility rates. And we need to be aware of Prop two eighteen requirements throughout the rate study process. And secondarily, down at the bottom, depending on the utility in question, is the public outreach process and how that utility wishes to conduct public outreach if they do and when they would like that public outreach process to start. So very quickly, one way to look at our rate study process is number one, financial planning. And the goal of financial planning is to try to develop a plan that will ensure utility revenue sufficiency over the planning horizon and answers the question how much rate revenue is required each year during the planning horizon.

Second step in the process is the cost of service analysis. And the goal here is the equitable allocation of cost to customers and specifically to answer the question, what cost should be allocated to each customer class? And then finally, the third step in the process is the recovery of costs in an equitable manner. And and specifically, it's how should rates be designed to ensure each customer class pays the cost incurred to provide service. I am not an attorney, and my firm is not a law firm, but I wanna very quickly kinda present a high level look at prop two eighteen through a rate consultant's lens.

Number one, the revenues you collect through rates cannot exceed your costs. Number two, and probably obviously without saying, rate revenues have to be used to pay for utility service. Perhaps most importantly is bullet point three, which is rates have to be proportional to the costs that the utility incurs to serve each customer parcel. And parcel is actually a term used in prop two eighteen as opposed to account, but from a non legal perspective, they're somewhat synonymous. And then lastly, perhaps most secondarily most important at the bottom is there's a forty five day notice period before you can adopt rates.

And my understanding is is the action staff is seeking you to take today is to issue a prop two eighteen notice so that that forty five day clock can begin ticking. Okay. So the first step in the process, financial planning, and it's pretty straightforward. What we ask ourselves is the question, what amount of rate revenues do we think we're gonna earn if rates remain unchanged, if rates stay the way they are? And then we compare that projected amount of rate revenues to our projected inflation adjusted costs.

And this would be our inflation adjusted operating costs as well as staff's proposed capital improvement plan. It's referred to on this as, quote, PAYGO CIP, which is another way of saying cash funded CIP where the cash comes from rates. And it's also important to note that a key items that have to be paid out of rate revenues are the maintenance of an adequate cash reserve and also the maintenance of an adequate debt service coverage ratio. And so all of those costs, when compared to revenue at current rates, invariably end up with a funding gap, where revenues at current rates aren't enough to pay for projected costs. And after we've made that projection of what our funding cost is, we work with staff to develop a long term funding strategy that they feel comfortable with.

And an outcome of that long term funding strategy is an estimate each year of how much revenue we need from rates. Put another way, how much we need to raise rate revenues each year. So the whole process on the financial planning outcome that you see on this slide, which is a proposed increase in the rate per equivalent dwelling unit, which I'll explain momentarily, each year, through the last increase shown there in 07/01/2030. And what an equivalent dwelling unit is is an equivalent dwelling unit is basically the average amount of sanitary sewer flows associated with a single residential dwelling unit. And Fontana charges rates on an equivalent dwelling unit basis.

And so what you can see in the far right hand side of this column is the dollar increases that would be occurring on a monthly basis each year starting on 07/01/2026 through the five year period where we'd have our last increase beginning on 07/01/2030. So the first increase is dollar 92¢ over what's being currently charged. Now what's the key driver of these proposed rate increases? Well, key driver of these proposed increases is the projected capital improvement plan, which adds up to $27,800,000 over the next five years. And in working with staff on the optimal funding strategy, staff we did not project using external debt financing.

And so this CIP is going to be paid for out of rate revenues And that rate funded CIP is the key driver for the proposed increases each year in total rate revenues. Now another interesting thing about the financial plan is that when you look at the City of Fontana sewer utility, and I will talk a little bit more about this in another slide, but when you look at the Fontana sewer utility, you do not provide treatment services for the sanitary sewer discharges of your customers. What you provide is a collection and conveyance system that takes the sanitary sewer discharges of your city's customers and transports it to two sources of treatment. One is Inland Empire Utilities Agency and the other in a very small amount is the City of Rialto. So what's interesting was when you look at the projected O and M expenses over the next five years, literally approximately 85% of those expenses are associated with wholesale treatment services provided by Inland Empire and Rialto.

I promise I won't walk through this in extreme detail, but this is a look at, in a very summarized way, the sewer utility financial plan. And sort of at the top part of this, you'll see a a title and total rate revenues, which is a combination of revenues and existing rates and the additional revenues we get from the proposed rate revenue increases. We then add in non rate revenue sources That's ancillary sources of revenue from miscellaneous fees or, for example, interest income to come to total revenues. And then we have a subtotal or or an item entitled total expenditures. This is our o and m expenses as well as amounts that are transferred into one of two funds.

And, basically, the way it works with the city sewer utility is you have a fund seven zero one, which is the operating fund for the sewer utility. You also have a fund seven zero two, which is a capital projects fund that is for growth related capital. And and my memory is is that is primarily funded by capacity fees. But there can be transfers in from seven zero one. And then you also have a fund seven zero three, which is a fund where you set aside dollars for repair and replacement of existing capital infrastructure.

And this would be, for example, your underground infrastructure associated with your collection of conveyance system. So when you add o and m plus transfers, you come to total expenses. And I think an important thing to note is the line that's entitled net cash flow. And you'll see that in all but one of the years in the five year planning horizon, you basically have a negative net cash flow. That means that your expenditures are more than your projected revenues.

Now that is not a bad thing. Utilities have a negative net cash flow very frequently and the way that they can run a negative net cash flow is because they have adequate cash reserves in order to absorb having a net negative cash flow. And at the bottom of this slide, what you'll see is a projection of your ending operating reserves compared to a target reserve equivalent to sixty days of annual o and m expenses. And you'll see in all cases, your variance from that target reserve is positive. You have more reserve dollars than what your target requires.

And I'll have you look finally at the very lower right. You'll see it says variance from target and you'll see zero point zero. Basically, at the end of this five year planning horizon, your operating cash reserves are going to equal your target cash of sixty days in o and m. Now the reason I wanted to emphasize the amounts on this slide is for counsel to see that, and this is my language, not staffs, This is not an extravagant financial plan. This is a financial plan where the projected levels of rate revenues are adequate to have you end each year with a little bit more money than your sixty day target.

So it's not it's not over the top with excessive rate increases in my professional opinion. A graph I'm showing right now is just a comparison of expenses versus revenues at current rates. And revenues at current rates is a solid black line going across the graph. And you can see that that solid black line is below your total expense bars. And then when you look at the dotted black line, that's revenues of proposed rates.

So the revenues of proposed rates are basically generally covering your expenses, but we do pull a little bit of money out of our operating reserves each year. Here is a look at projected rate funded or PAYGO CIP, you know, rate funded capital expenditures. And this was a CIP program that was developed by staff that's being used in the financial plan. And then here's a look at our operating reserve fund balance. You can see the reserve target that's listed there in the big black line.

The green bars show projected operating reserves. And you can see over the next five years, we are slowly drawing down those operating reserves. Cost of service and rate design. I wanna emphasize to council this issue of Fontana operating a collection and conveyance system, but not providing treatment services. So the gray box describes what Fontana provides to its customer base.

You collect waste and you use your collection and conveyance system to transport that to two other utilities, IEUA and Rialto, who provide treatment. And so you don't provide treatment services and your customers are paying on a monthly rate dollar per equivalent dwelling unit. Over in the yellow, we have Inland IEUA Empire and Rialto. They are providing treatment services for your customer sanitary discharges. And the rates, particularly Inland Empire, that Inland Empire charges for treatment services vary by customer type.

And specifically, customer sanitary sewer discharges have different strength loadings. The composition of pollutants in those sanitary sewer discharges varies. So for example, a single family residential customer will have sanitary sewer discharge strengths that might be significantly lower than an industrial customer or a certain type of commercial customer. Inland Empire specifically charges treatment rates that vary by customer land use type and associated shrink discharges. The key thing to note about this on the bottom of the yellow box is is that Fontana has no control over what Inland Empire or Rialto charge for treatment.

Those are Inland Empire and Rialto issues. So when we think about this notion of cost of service analysis and what is a cost of service analysis, well, one thing that's really important to note is is that California's proposition due 18 is in effect a mandate to conduct a cost of service analysis. Because what proposition two eighteen requires is that rates be proportional to the cost that the utility incurs to serve a specific customer parcel. And so prop two eighteen is a cost of service mandate. And so when we think about that and we think about it in broad sort of cost of service concepts, which are memorialized by various industry standards, for example, from the American Water Works Association or the Water Environment Federation.

This notion of cost of service really synchronizes quite nicely with prop two eighteen. Specifically, customers should pay rates that are proportional to the cost incurred to provide them service or another way of saying that is proportional to their unique demand characteristics. And secondarily, in most sewer studies where a utility is providing treatment services, the rates are gonna vary by the customer strength loading characteristics. And so customers with higher strength discharges are gonna pay higher rates. Okay.

That's in general. Now the bottom half of this slide. The Fontana situation is a little bit unique. As noted several times by me in this presentation, you don't provide treatment services. All you provide is the transportation of sanitary sewer flows to the two entities that provide treatment for you.

And so the issue of strength loadings from your customers plays no role in the development of rates. That's taken care of by what Inland Empire and Rialto charge, and so you really have no unique customer classes. You're just moving the waste, and it doesn't really matter whether that's coming from an industrial customer, a commercial customer, a school, or a single family residential customer. It's just flow. So when we think about how we arrived at the proposed rates that we're seeking to have put into effect on July 1, It's a fairly simple calculation.

We take the amount of rate revenue we project we need as developed in the financial plan, and we divide it by the number of equivalent dwelling units on your system, which is approximately 65,000. And when you take that $11,400,000 FY twenty seven revenue requirement, divide it by approximately 65,000 EDUs, that results in a monthly dollar per EDU charge of $14.55. And that equates to 15% more than what you're charging per EDU. And so here's a look kind of longitudinally at the proposed rates per EDU each year. This is strictly for collection and conveyance.

It does not include what Inland Empire or Rialto are gonna charge for treatment. Okay. So why are we talking so much about Inland Empire and Rialto treatment in this presentation? Well, the reason we're doing so is that the city on customer bills not only collects an amount to pay for your collection and conveyance system, but the customer bills include the Inland Empire treatment charges and the Rialto treatment charges. And so you collect that money from your customers and then you pass it on to Inland Empire and Rialto, but it is included in the rates that Fontana charges.

And once again, IUA and Rialto develop those treatment rates through whatever cost analysis they utilize, which is presumably compliant with proposition two eighteen. I promise I'm not gonna talk about this, I have two slides like this. All this really shows is what rates would be on customer bills for collection and conveyance and for treatment associated with different types of customers that you serve on your system. And and and that is because, especially in the case of Inland Empire, I'm not sure if it's true in Rialto, Inland Empire charges different amounts for treatment for different types of customer types or land uses. The key thing to emphasize on this slide, and I know it may be a little bit hard to see and I apologize for that, is that beginning in 2029, where we talk about the treatment charge, you see this terminology that says pass through.

Well, these treatment charges are a pass through in the sense that you collect them from your customers and then you pass those amounts on to IEUA or Rialto and that pays for the wholesale treatment services that they're providing. Well, we don't know what in particular IEUA's treatment charges are gonna be starting in '29, right? Yeah, '28. Okay, '28. And so what we'll see on the proposition two eighteen notice, I believe as it's crafted, is we'll see a projection of the city's collection and conveyance rates, but then in effect what we'll say is that we don't really know what the treatment rate is going to be.

Ultimately we can't give a detailed projection of what the total amount on the bill will be. And I think that's the key thing to take away from this slide. Almost done. Comparison to adjacent utilities. And so here's one way of looking at where the city of Fontana currently stands and where the city of Fontana will stand if you put into effect the proposed rate in FY twenty seven.

And Nick, I believe what we're looking at here is just the collection and conveyance component. Correct? Correct. And so what you can see is is that Fontana is sort of on the lower end currently of your current collection and conveyance rate at $12.63. You will go up to $14.55 under what's proposed and that'll raise you maybe a little bit towards the middle.

But the key thing to note about all of these other communities in this comparison is that all of these other communities in this comparison are at least most are probably gonna have the their own rate increases that are gonna take into effect on July 1 that aren't reflected in this. So whatever you see for these other communities, it's highly likely they're gonna be higher than what's shown here because they will have their own rate increases. Here is another comparison and Nick I believe this comparison includes treatment. Correct. And so what you see is that Fontana when you include the IEUA treatment rate, and Nick is that the treatment Fontana charges for residential?

Yes. The IEU treatment rate for residential with your collection and convenience rate currently currently comes to $38.41. What is proposed, will come to $44. And once again, this is collection and convenience and treatment. And then you see comparisons to other adjacent utilities.

Once again, the key thing to note is these other adjacent utilities may probably fairly likely have their own rate increases going into effect on July 1. This is just a simple bar graph comparison of the dollar per EDU collection and conveyance rate current versus proposed. And I appreciate you sitting through all this. I know it's probably pretty tedious. I'd be happy to answer questions for you.

Are there any questions to the, report that we just received?

Thank you, madam mayor. So I have the honor of sitting in on the IEUA subcommittee for us, which I get to see on a regular basis that most of the residents of Fontana at least know one of us or know of at least a city council person or the mayor, what our actual jobs are. They have no idea who our IUA rep is for the city of Fontana or what they even do, and frankly, it's because we do this. It's we don't put their name on the bill. We don't submit have them submit comment out to public.

People think it's the city of Fontana that is managing their wastewater and their treatment, and we're the ones increasing their rates. That has nothing to do with us. I sit there and I give my public comment about not wanting to see my rates go up just like every other resident does in the city of Fontana, and at the end of the day, it is up to the members that sit on that board that represent all the way from Fontana, so we are the very eastern border edge of it, all the way down to Chino Hills and every city in between, and it is up to them. And so I always tell residents, if you have a concern, unfortunately their meetings are all the way down in Chino, and it's not an easy drive because it takes me about forty five minutes to get down there for about an hour meeting and about an hour and a half to get home. So I understand the struggle on that one.

But I'm trying to figure out at what point do we say enough is enough and can we get away from having to do this for them and enact them and make them do this and take accountability for their actions.

Any more questions? Just a commentary based on what we just heard from Councilmember, Catherine. We actively do discuss these rates with our representatives, but this is considered a pass through.

Yes, ma'am.

Right. Can you explain what a pass through actually is?

Yes, ma'am. It's a situation where

you

charge on your customer's bill for the costs that you're incurring for Inland Empire and Rialto to provide wholesale treatment services. And you collect that money from your customers and then if you will you pass it through or maybe another term would be pass it on to Inland Empire and Rialto. And so it's not an amount you make money on, it's just you need it so that your customers get treatment and your customers pay it and you take that customer dollars and give it to IUA and Rialto to pay for the treatment services. And utilities will frequently have pass throughs like that. For example, you'll often see pass through adjustments for Southern California Edison electric costs or on the water side pass through adjustments for Metropolitan Water District water supply costs.

But because you're charging or including those treatment services on customer bills and it's therefore needs to be on the prop two eighteen notice, We need to make sure on the prop two eighteen notice we explain it as pass through and that the customer's ultimate bill is going to depend on whatever IUA elects to do in 2030.

Right. And we are talking to IUA right now about that, because it does we're not sure if it takes legislative moves or what it'll take, but 02/18 changed processing. The other thing is we have to also keep in mind we we allow people to come to City Hall to sign up for their sewer service and if they're having issues with their sewer service they are they can contact us through 311 and we try to intervene and help and assist with that. So we'll be very careful as we have those discussions to make sure we don't lose that transparency where we can help our citizens. So at this time, if there are okay, there you go.

Thank you, Mary. Had one question, point of clarification. On the calculation of the proposed sewer rates, so you indicated that there was the required revenue from the rates from the financial plan, it just was kind of simple math, and you divided that by the number of dwelling units. Is is there any growth factor or any anything that applied to account for future growth?

I think that you know after consultations with staff we assumed no growth in equivalent dwelling units over the next five years. And we made that assumption of no growth because it's a little bit more of a conservative assumption. And so I think that approximately 65,000 equivalent dwelling units that you see in that calculation for '27 also applies in '28, '29, '30, and '31.

You know, you bring up a good point. What I I know that we haven't really been able to, but ADUs are gonna be a major factor in the future, don't you think, or maybe not?

I think that they are, but we didn't look at accessory dwelling units, but let me just give you an off the cuff response, which I hope I didn't regret after I give it to you. Remember, you're just transporting sewer discharges across your system.

Where they actually came from doesn't matter.

And so perhaps if we thought about accessory dwelling units, they might be at some percentage of what the regular full edu rate is. But I I have to admit to you, we we did not analyze that in this study.

Understood. You know, and this we're not against ADUs because we all understand the state has been very clear. They are already approved no matter what. But at some point when I go to meetings, particularly with SCAG, I talk about how are we going to in the future really understand and be able to provide capacity for the extra water, for the extra sewer, even the extra electricity. So it's a major issue, but that's why we represent our public on these different boards so that these issues do get hammered out.

Are there any more questions related to this issue? Okay, at this time thank you Public Works Director engineer Jia Kim and thank you for coming to explain this particular option for us. With that said, may I have a motion to approve staff's recommendation as provided in the staff report?

I'll make a motion.

Second.

There's a motion and a second. Please cast your vote.

Four in favor, motion passes.

Motion passed. Okay. Before our city manager does his communication, I wanted to make sure that we announced that we will be adjourning our meeting in memory of Wayne F. Burt Jr, a Fontana resident today, and we'll have a moment of silence at the end of the meeting. K.

At this time, mister city manager, can we have your report?

Yes. Thanks, mayor and council. Kinda wanna highlight some of the the consent calendar items. The council's making investments in our public works yard facilities. You know, we acquired a new building, and we're creating some office space, particularly for our fleet folks.

So thanks for that. We also wore a construction contract for our fire training center, which is a significant investment, and it's located both near the where the 210 and the 15 Freeway are located. We purchased some land for affordable housing opportunity, and we've invested another $2,500,000 in paving rehab. So those are some of the highlights and and investments in our infrastructure. I also wanna highlight that the Fontana Day's Parade is this Saturday, May 2, and the the exchange club kinda host that.

The parade is at 10:00, and the theme recognizes America's two hundred fiftieth anniversary. Again and then as far as the 02/18, I I I'm gonna follow-up on the questions that were asked about the IUA doing their own two eighteen. We'll also take a look at the ADU question, but I I believe that the state law prohibits us from doing that. I know we can't charge diff fees, but I just wanna confirm that. So I'll get back to you.

And then I I will follow-up with, the folks in the audience about that. The coding error or or where they're seeing on the website, and we'll get that corrected. But I did confirm with our chief financial officer that, nothing was charged, to the sewer enterprise account. And, again, that's important because we get audited and the enterprise account is essentially separate from our regular budget and it you can only make charges, associated with sewer. You can't make any other charges in that. Those are audited. Anyway, that concludes my reports. Thank you, mayor.

Thank you. We'll now go to our city clerk.

Mayor, I have very few comments. Just congratulations, of course, to our new fire and PD recruits, and also congratulations to our PD employees of the month. That does it for me.

Thank you, our city treasurer.

Thank you, mayor, and I'll echo that. Congratulations to all those employees. But I did want to say that I did attend the Above the Limits program prom last week. And that's open to everybody, but especially those that have special needs. And it was an absolute fabulous prom and I just wanted to let you know. Thank you.

At this time, Council Member Roberts.

Thank you, Mayor. I was just mentioning to chief Birchfield out there that as these new hires came on board today that reminded me of where I was fifty five years ago. It was good to see all those nice, bright, young, tall gentlemen that are are now taking over for us on the fire lines. It's always great to see. Also,

I

wanna offer my condolences to council member Sandoval on the passing of his mother. That's all, mayor.

Thank you, council member Roberts. Ronaldo to mayor Pro Tem Garcia.

I don't have any comments, this afternoon, mayor, other than to wish everyone a good afternoon and evening.

Thank you, council member Philip Cawthorn.

It's good to have you back with us, Peter. I appreciate, I know it's hard to come back, but, it's good to see you, and you're doing well right now. So I won't send anyone. I'll leave it that for you. The mayor and I, as well as our, city manager, deputy city manager, Phil Burham, Robert Torres, had a wonderful trip out to DC.

A very productive trip on that side of things. Had several meetings. I'll just cover that, we did meet with the Department of Justice, the COPS program specifically on that side of things, trying to bring some more money back to our police department, whether it's going to be grant funding, it's going be funding for hiring new officers. We've got a little work to do on that side of things to make sure, that we're getting those funds available to us and that we're using them wisely, but I have confidence that our police department is the best in the nation and that we should easily secure some of those options for us. We also met with HUD, trying to make sure that we're securing our funding that was promised to us on that side of things, which is always entertaining going back and forth.

But I know HUD is gonna do the right thing, as they always do, and and we'll get some more housing for, those that are in need of housing in the city of Fontana to make sure that we're growing Fontana for everyone that calls Fontana home. Mayor, I'll leave the rest of them up to you as far as that side. I take all the thunder. So thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Councilmember Catheryn. I got to tell you, this was a really exciting trip. I want to thank all of our staff members that joined us, Our city manager, deputy city manager Byrne, and Robert Torres, and my colleague. And I have to tell you gentlemen, we represented you very well. We were able to meet with both congressional leaders, both Congressman Pete Aguilar and Congresswoman Norma Torres, and our meetings were great.

And, our meetings included making sure that we were fully understanding how we can work better with the federal level to get the funds that you, the public, have been sending there. We just go up there to get it back. And we also had great meetings with our state senators offices, Senator Padilla. It was really good to talk about what we have done with funding we have received. And let me tell you, we've received a lot of funding and it's gone.

It has been noticed that when you give Fontana money, we spend it immediately and make sure the results go out to our great public. And I was really pleased. Got a chance to talk to some of the department heads and they talked about how some of our residents even comment on how this city does not play around when it comes with funding. We make it happen. The other item that I think was very clear during our visit at the White House, we were well received in terms of wanting to work on issues that the regular public and other companies have brought to their our attention.

And every time we go back to DC, we find another partner to help and assist our public, and that's why we go on those trips. But while we were gone, something major happened in the city. I want to congratulate, the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter day Saints. They delivered through a program they have over 40,000 pounds of food to Water of Life CityLink that is now being distributed throughout our community. It really speaks to what America 200 birthday really looks like.

And people all over the city are talking about the celebrations, but this was in honor of our great nation's 200 birthday coming up. And you can see the signs all over DC. It makes you very proud to be an American citizen. Flags are everywhere. They're getting ready for the big celebrations, and we too are working in that direction, and we'll bring you more information on what that looks like. This week is Fontana Day's parade. It's gonna be a great one. They are actually honoring veterans, and so you don't wanna miss it. It's gonna be really nice. And if you see a veteran at the parade, say something to them.

Thank them for their great service. It is because of their sacrifice that we all have our freedoms. In addition, we are working closely with our school districts. There's a lot going on. Graduations are coming up and summer programming is starting. Get your book. If you didn't physically receive a book in the mail, please go online. Fontanaca.gov and look at the book and find those activities so we can keep our young people busy. We've got 58 parks. Don't correct me if I messed up.

So much going on, I forget myself. But those 58 parks represent opportunities for families to come out together. Getting a lot of compliments about the new exercise equipment up by the northern area leading into Rancho. Rancho residents as well as Fontana residents are learning how to exercise together.

Yep.

I was up there last week and here comes the Rancho people and here came the Fontana people. Next thing we were doing is showing each other how to do those exercises. So the trail has become a real meeting point for people, a community resource where people can walk, they can bike, and in some cases rollerblade found that out as they go down that trail. And it's also a source if you're there early in the morning when people are on their way to work or they're taking their children to school. Every day Fontana finds a different way to be a town that represents for all.

And it's made such a big difference when we go to meetings. We have the community area meetings. All of that is on the website. The time, the location. Everything you need to know, we put on that website.

And then there's the YouTube k phone where you'll see Mayor Mundy, where I personally get to give you an update. But I gotta tell you, and I mentioned this today and I'm not trying to embarrass him, I'm just very proud of him. Our city manager is featured in the upcoming episode of Fontana Unlocked. And if you know how hard it is to get him to get behind a camera other than these meetings, I'd like to applaud city deputy manager Ray Ebert and our communication marketing director Monique Carter. I don't know how you pulled that off, but I can't wait to see that.

But he is featured. Once again, we would like to acknowledge condolences to our fellow member Jesse Sandoval on the death of his mother. We did have a recess and we did honor her by concluding our last meeting, but we want to represent that and that's why he's not here today. At this time, we are going to adjourn for Wayne F. Burke Jr, a Fontana resident.

Wayne is one of my neighbors, has lived in Fontana well over thirty five years, and I want to especially acknowledge to Jerry and the kids, you know, how sorry we are for his loss. So at this time, if you will join me as we adjourn this meeting, our regular city council meeting on Tuesday, May 12, is when our next meeting at two p. M. In the Steelworkers Auditorium. Please stand as we have the memory.

City Council meeting is adjourned. We now go to the successor agency. Excessor agency is adjourned. Thank you.