City Council - Regular Meeting

Good afternoon and welcome to the May 19th closed session of the City Council of the City of Moreno Valley. And I'll call this meeting to order at 4.02 p.m. Madam Clerk, roll call, please.

Council Member Bernard. Here. Council Member Delgado.

Here, ma'am.

Council Member Baca-Santa Cruz. Here. Mayor Pro Tem Gonzalez.

Here.

And Mayor Cabrera.

Here. Thank you madam clerk next up is public comments on matters on the agenda only do we have any request to speak at this time.

There are no public comments there.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. Next is item D at this time. Mr. City Attorney, what matters will the council be discussing in closed session today?

Mr. Mayor, we only have one item in the closed session calendar, and that's item D1, conference with real property negotiators pursuant to government code section 54956.8. It regards property located northeast corner of Redlands Boulevard and Brodiella. Our negotiator is Brian Mohan, our city manager, and he will be negotiating with Oscar Graham, who is, I believe, the owner of the property. The negotiating parties are the City of Moreno Valley and Pasco Pacifica, and we're negotiating price in terms of payment. And that concludes the description of item D1.

Thank you, Mr. City Attorney. With that, we will recess into closed session. good afternoon good evening welcome back to our closed session here in the city of moreno valley at this time i will turn it over to our city attorney mr city attorney was there any reportable action taken today mr mayor there was no reportable action taken on our single sole item d1 today bless you thank you mr city attorney so with that we will adjourn and conclude our closed session at 5 32 p.m we'll be back in just a moment for our special presentations thank you presentation we did have to originally but would like to just share that that actually was a recognition for our fire department was our second presentation and we will be moving that to future council meeting our fire chief actually has been assigned to the fire currently over in Jurupa Valley so We've been asked to just postpone that presentation and we will certainly do so. And for our presentation that we will be recognizing this evening, it is as always a special one. And in this case, we're recognizing one of our students, one of our youth here from our city. And we are very, very proud as a city to recognize Mr. David Zaragoza-Quesada, a graduating senior from Valley View High School for his outstanding academic achievement, leadership, and his service to our community. Before we invite David to come up and join us at the microphone, I'd like to introduce someone who helped bring this recognition and make this possible. This recognition was brought forward by Ernesto Daniel Izararas, got three Rs in there, gotta get it right, Izararas, local public affairs representative with Southern California Edison. Ernesto helped connect us with David's story as an Edison scholar and helped make tonight's recognition possible. At this time, I'd like to invite Ernesto to please join me here at the microphone to share a few words. If we could give him a big round of applause as he joins us at the mic. Good to see you. The floor is yours.

Thank you. I made sure I brought my talking points, OK? So good evening, mayor and council members. Thank you for allowing me to be here today. On behalf of Southern California Edison, I'm proud to share a few words about the Edison Scholars Program, one of the most impactful ways SE invests in communities that we serve. Each year, Edison International awards $50,000 scholarships to 30 outstanding high school students from across the service territory who are pursuing a career in science, technology, engineering, math, or any of those fields that continue to power California moving forward. But this program is much more about opening financial doors for support. It's about opening doors to higher education, to opportunity, and to the future that might otherwise be out of reach for many students. In many students and families, the burden of college costs can be overwhelming. By easing that burden, we allow these scholars to focus on what matters, their education, their passion, and their potential to make the lasting impact in their communities. Since its inception, the Edison Scholars Program has supported hundreds of students, creating a growing network of leaders who are solving real-world challenges and shaping brighter futures for all of us. We are incredibly proud of our scholars, and we're honored to play a part in helping them achieve their dreams. So, David, felicidades con tu beca. Papa, felicidades. Mom, felicidades.

Thank you so much for that Ernesto and just a little bit more actually before we invite David also Ernesto didn't mention it but Southern California Edison has what is called Edison Scholars and they award scholarships I know it's several cities if not most cities in Southern California within their service area and so it's just always really nice to see our partner agencies in this case SCE giving away scholarships and recognizing the work that they are doing so Without further ado, at this time, I would like to invite David Zaragoza Quesada to join us here at the mic. If we could give him a big Moreno Valley welcome as well.

Welcome, welcome.

Of course, of course. And so before I pass the mic over to David, I would like to share a little bit about his resume because he hasn't even graduated high school yet officially, but he has arguably a longer resume than maybe most of us here in this chamber. And so a little bit of his list of highlights here. He ranks first in his class of 654 students. He has a perfect 4.0 GPA. He was accepted and is attending Stanford University. Yes. He's majoring in computer engineering. Yes, let's give it up. He's majoring in computer engineering. He's completing research work at UC Riverside, participating in TRIO, Upward Bound, and Moreno Valley College, participating in LIDA, Leadership Enterprise for a Diverse America, David has also shown strong leadership and service through founding and serving as president of the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers Chapter, serving as president of Mu Alpha Theta, serving as president of Interact Rotary, supporting cyber education as a teacher assistant. And David, each of these accomplishments reflects discipline, focus and commitment to building that strong future. And Moreno Valley is so proud. I mean, that's just amazing to read all those accomplishments and to know that you've been able to do that at such a young age. And now you're going off to Stanford and you're leading by example. And hopefully this scholarship through SoCal Edison will help you achieve those dreams and keep on setting that example for future generations that are coming up here in the city of Reno Valley. So without further ado, David, I'd like to hand the mic over to you.

All right. Well, first of all, I want to say thank you to everyone for this recognition, especially to SCE Edison for his incredible scholarship. Thank you so much. Growing up, I learned that opportunities like this didn't just come around without the support of people behind me who are always pushing me forward. So as always, I want to thank my family and to all my teachers as well. And just everyone in here who believed in me, even when I wasn't sure I believed in myself. This scholarship means more than just financial support. It means someone who looked at my potential and said that I'm a person worth investing in. And for me, I don't take that lightly. I plan to honor this investment by pursuing a degree in computer and electrical engineering, and by giving back to the community that raised me and supported me throughout my entire high school career. And to anyone out there, I don't know who's watching this outside of this room, but to anyone out there who feels like this path moving forward is unclear, my biggest motivating words would have to be to keep going. Opportunities like this open up when you stay committed. So once again, thank you to the City of Moreno Valley, to Southern California Edison, and to everyone here today. And I promise that I won't let anyone down. Thank you.

Well done. Well said. And as I grabbed the certificate. recognizing David Zaragoza-Quesada from Valley View High School. Went there as well, very, very proud of it. And on behalf of our 215,000 residents, our entire city staff, our entire team here at City Hall, our colleagues here on the City Council, we want to commend you for the amazing work that you're doing, and we wish you nothing but success in the many years ahead in your bright future. Congratulations.

All right, and nice big smile. And one, two, three. Perfect.

All right, hold it. And one, two, and three. Got it.

All right, nice big smiles, and one, two, three. Wonderful. All right, hold it right there.

I'm going to take one more, and one, two, and three. Good. Congratulations. Congratulations. Thank you, guys. Anything you need to know where to find us.

Let's give it up one more time for David. Computer engineering, Stanford, wow. I mean, the resume speaks for itself. So thank you once again, everybody, for joining us here this evening. And everybody watching at home, thank you for tuning in as well. So with that, we will conclude our special presentations and we'll be back for our council meeting in about 15 minutes. Have a good night. Good evening and welcome to the joint meeting of the City Council of the City of Moreno Valley. The City Council receives a separate stipend from the Community Services District if any CSD business is conducted at this meeting. And I'll call the meeting to order at 6 p.m. Would any of my colleagues like to lead us in the pledge this evening? Mayor Pro Tem Gonzalez will lead us in the pledge, and please remain standing after that for the invocation given this evening by Pastor Edward Ogwo from Heartbeat of God International Ministries. Pastor, are you here with us this evening? Welcome, welcome, if you'd like to go ahead and come up to this microphone up front. Thank you for joining us.

Let us pray. Holy God, we stand before your presence this evening. Father, we call for your presence and your spirit to be among the selected men and women of Moreno Valley that oversees the affairs of this city. Father, I ask you for wisdom, knowledge, unity among them, that all they're going to deliver this evening shall be done decently and in order. And as they continue to oversee their faith of this city, Almighty God, I pray for progress. I pray for longer among them. And I also pray for everyone here today who will listen to them, who will contribute, who will listen to abide by the rules and regulations meted out by this city council. Father, I thank you. May your wisdom guide them. May your knowledge fill their heart. And may they, on behalf of you, give Moreno Valley a stable lifestyle that each and every one of us who live in this city shall give you glory and honor. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

Thank you very much, Pastor Ogwell, for that beautiful invocation and for joining us here this evening. Next on our agenda is item D, the land acknowledgement. And we wish to acknowledge that we are on the unceded lands of the Cahuilla and Payocahuicham or Luiseño, who has original inhabitants and now as sovereign tribal nations have continued to live and thrive upon these lands since time immemorial. Item E, roll call. Madam Clerk, I'll turn it over to you.

Thank you, Mayor. Council Member Bernard. Here. Council Member Delgado.

Here, ma'am.

Council Member Baca-Santa Cruz. Here. Mayor Pro Tem Gonzalez. Here. And Mayor Cabrera.

Here.

Thank you.

Thank you. Motions to excuse. We will move past that as we are all present. Next, staff introductions, please.

Sonia Gomez, Senior Deputy City Clerk.

Paul Radvika, Management Analyst. Stephen Quintanilla, City Attorney. Brian Mohan, City Manager.

Lana Jimenez, Assistant City Manager, Administration. Patty E. Wheat, Deputy Finance Director, Operations.

Angelica Fraustalupo, Community Development Director.

Melissa Walker, Director of Public Works.

Claudia Torres, Facilities and Special Events Division Manager.

Robert Cardenas, Human Resources Director.

Sarah Mack, Chief of Police.

Thank you very much, staff. It's always an honor to be here in the chamber to conduct the people's business. And before we continue, I just want to take a moment to also just send our thoughts and prayers over to the folks over in Jurupa Valley, including our fire chief and all of our first responders that are currently responding to that fire out in Jurupa. We send them all our best and hope that they can get that under control. And next up, we will move to public comments on matters that are not on the agenda. The city now offers language translation services through a free app called Wordly. The app automatically translates a variety of languages into English and vice versa. To use this service, please scan the QR code at the speaker's sign-up table. For the visually impaired, please use your earphones or earbuds to listen to the verbal translation. If you do not have any such listening devices, please let the city clerk know, and we will gladly let you borrow some for this meeting. La Ciudad ahora ofrece servicios de traducción de idiomas a través de una aplicación gratuita llamada Wordly. Si gustan usar este servicio, por favor avísele a la secretaria y entregue una tarjeta para hablar. Para usar la traducción, escanee el código QR que está en la mesa junto a las puertas. Before we move on to public comments, I'd like to remind everyone to direct their comments to the City Council. For comments on tonight's agenda, each speaker will have a total of three minutes to comment. Madam Clerk, are there any requests to comment on any items not on the agenda?

Yes, we do, Mayor. The first speaker is Christopher Baca.

GOOD EVENING.

GOOD EVENING AGAIN. AGAIN, MY COMMENTS ARE MY OWN. THEY DON'T REFLECT THE VIEWS OR OPINIONS OF ANYBODY IN THE COMMUNITY BUT MYSELF. ANYHOW, I'M GOING TO READ YOU THIS ARTICLE DATED MAY 7, California Medical Board takes ex-HCC CEO's medical license. The California Medical Board permanently revoked former Tulare Hospital executive Iori Benibenzi's ability to practice medicine after his conviction in public corruption case tied to the collapse of the regional medical center. What relevance does that have to do with Moreno Valley? Well, it has a lot. This is Benny Benzivi, who is a brother of our pseudo developer here in Moreno Valley, Benzivi, Ido Benzivi, which happens to be the co-conspirator in crime with our city manager, Mr. Mohan. So why is this important? And what relevance does it have? Ido Benzivi purchased the home in Tulare and brought his brother and got him to run for office and ran his campaign in order to become that CEO for that hospital that he ran to the ground and swindled $50 million and caused a collapse of that hospital in where the community suffered. People died. People actually died. when they were trying to oust him, he got the Israeli army ex-people that were looking for work to firebomb a political rival's home. This is the type of people that Edo is and this is what's going on in our city and people need to wake up and see what's going on. I want to know how and why and the process when our city manager tried to get that public safety building project on Benzivi's land for his benefit. That's straight out corruption. So was that MOU and other things that we're unaware of. So with that, I believe Mr. Mohan should be charged with racketeering amongst other issues. And I believe this city, elected officials have a responsibility to look into this. Firstly, you need to remove Mr. Mohan. Secondly, you have to investigate what are the connections that Mr. Benzivi has with the staff. Is our chief financial officer one of his plants so that the books can be burned?

The next public speaker is George Haig, followed by Nikita Wilson.

George Hague, once again, I appreciate meeting with some of you. Maybe I will submit a request again tomorrow. I would hope you would, the five of you who control the Marine Valley Utility will once again put a stop to the limitations to the solar that are on large buildings. There's a large storage, multi-story building coming towards you eventually. That should have solar. Planning department should be requesting solar in all these buildings, the last warehouse you built. No so, anyway. Get solar please, much appreciated. Planning commission a few weeks ago approved our 24th car wash in our city. And there's six others going through planning as we speak. Even if you stopped it today, that's a total of 30 we will eventually have in our city. Most of them are the type that will not go into your car and clean like they used to. They've been pushed out of business. There is actually one left on Sunnymead Boulevard across from Ace Hardware. So if you want your car cleaned like that, there's the location to be able to go in and do that. It is open again today. so that you can have that. You will, over the next month, be approving what was agreed to between the city and the Attorney General's office. The city put together a matrix like this, the first column being what the Attorney General wanted and about 20 points. The middle column is how the city wants to implement those 20 points. There is major discrepancy and problems and undercutting. You read this, you believe that warehouses are going to be 1,000 feet away. No. The 18th point from the city staff that has no relationship to the first column, they slip stuff in there and say, well, you can actually be within 100 feet. But if you read closer, they don't talk about the property line of the warehouse. They talk about the facility itself. So you can include in that 100 feet the parking lot, the drive aisle. So that sensitive receptor can be 50 feet away from the warehouse. I would like to talk to you about that and other points within this. I will have a page here with information on both sides that points out the problems within that. So hopefully the Planning Commission will deal with some of this and then hopefully you will and honor the request of the Attorney General. When we get public notices, there is always a sentence that reads, City Council may consider and approve changes in the proposed project under consideration during the public hearing. Other words, when there is a public hearing, you can make changes in that. I never see it. I don't see it at the Planning Commission. I do not see it with you.

The next public speaker is Nikita Wilson.

Good evening, community, city staff, city council, and mayor. For months, I have been talking about institutional patience becoming institutional permission. Timelines, enforcement, spending, measurable outcomes, and accountability. What the public may not understand, I was not studying these systems from a distance. My family lived inside the conditions tied to them. And I'm going to repeat that. What people do not understand is my family lived inside the conditions tied to them. Over time, I began studying the system, and what I found was not a single isolated complaint I found APR reports showing 0% very low income housing production. Multi-code enforcement cases tied to the same property. Continuous gaps between what residents experience and what systems report. More investment in warehouses than spaces for our youth to gather. Residents living through serious conditions while multi-million dollar city connected agreements remained attached to the same property. Even efforts to take out mom and pop restaurants like Jose's to make way for corporate chains. Obligations existed when I was told that the city's hands were tied. Authority existed, conditions existed, and we the people remain impacted. So my question is again, when does institutional patience become institutional permission? Thank you.

The next public speaker is Luis Palomares.

Wow, somebody was talking about another car wash. How many do we got now? This is what this council, the mayor's bringing to our city. Car washes, storage places, et cetera, et cetera. You know, $2 million you cost us on a previous lawsuit, Mr. Mayor. $2 million, I want the room to know we're paying the bill. right here, $2 million, plus we're gonna go to federal court. The couple's gonna go to federal court, and we're identifying you again. So if we lose again, we're gonna pay them more money. I mean, this is what you're doing. This is how you're running our city to the ground, you know? Drive-throughs, you know, they're talking about the Jose thing. I'm not here to talk about that, but, you know, that's corporate greed again. And the way you're running the city, I'm saying all the way into the ground because we're in a political mess here with you as our mayor here. When are you gonna do the right thing for the community and for the city? I'm gonna be talking in the consent calendar about how you try to stifle our speech, control us. It's not right. You gotta read Victoria Baca versus Marina Valley Unified School District. You gotta read that 25-page opinion she won in the court that gives us the right to come up here, raise our voices, You know, all day long, Shalinda said. I'm not here all day long. I'm not here from 9 to 5, Shalinda. So I don't know what you're talking about. Sound bites, really? Theater, really? I don't think so. You know, so things have to change in the city. So I want to know, who serves who in the community here? You, the council, do you serve us, the people, we, the people, for the people? Or do you serve each other for your personal agenda? I'm not talking about... Baca or Delgado, I'm talking about you three. You three. Gonzalez, everything this guy does, you're right with him. And Chalinda's always on the fence. You don't know which way to go. Say what you mean and mean what you say. Because we the people are paying the bill here. In millions, millions. A lot of money. You know, all these... I can't even get there. I'm already forgetting what I was gonna say. But yeah, it has to change here in our city. Vote this guy out. Gonzales got, what, three more years on there? Wow, think for yourself, Gonzales. Do the right thing for your district, Gonzales. Not for the mayor, for the district. Do the right thing for we the people, Mr. Mayor. Not for the staff or not for yourself. Like you wanted to throw the $5 million seed money? Really? Really? That's what you're doing with our money. You want to do that? Plus a $10 million albaco Corey Jackson. Well, he helps you with your campaigns, of course. Imagine if we weren't here screaming all day.

Mayor, that concludes all public comments on items not on the agenda.

You gonna let me speak or not?

Next speaker is Roy Blecker.

Thank you. We reap what we sow. We've had a lot of challenges in this community in 40 years. We need to work. We need to work. and not doing repeating the mistakes we've made in the past. You can see by today's agenda, and where is the economic development? I keep asking for it. Where are the three, four, five, six, seven, eight projects that used to be on almost every week? Too hardly at all. Why is that happening? That needs to be answered. That is your fiduciary duty as the five sitting up on their dais to answer that and to explain to the citizens why we are in the condition we are in. If you don't, then you're failing at the oath you swore, to the promise you made to the citizens? Do you enjoy the narrative that we have? And what are you doing to remove the perception of Moreno Valley, all of you? Because if it was, people would be flooding in here. People would be wanting to participate in this community. Businesses would be coming in. Everybody complains about this and that. I can tell you, businesses do the market research. And everything that everybody wants or says they want coming in would be here if this community could support it. Because if they are not coming, they're telling you the community cannot support it. That shapes in a lot of what happens in this room and in these upper floors. You create the environment. You can create the environment where they will come. where we do have opportunity, where we do have school districts that people want to send their kids in and come to this community. Number one is what those studies will show and how these businesses are determined is the quality of your school districts. So to say it doesn't affect anything, you do not know what the facts really are.

The next public speaker is Bob Pollermars.

Bob Pollermars, Chief. I could see that our other fire chief is at, there's quite a few fires on right now. So I wish the best for him. I just wanted to say real quick, and I'm asking the mayor here, at the end of your closing comments, if you could tell me, according to the definition by the city attorney during that study session, if you can tell me one time there was a disruption, according to his definition of what a disruption of a public meeting is. and I'll tell you one in the next council meeting what is. I went to the planning commission meeting about the McDonald's up there and it was pretty good. A lot of people came, you know, they don't want it. And I asked a couple of them after it was all over, you know, why don't they come to the city council meetings and, you know, they're busy every day coming from work. A whole bunch of reasons. They say, what difference will it make I said, yeah, you know, I used to think like that. I said, but if you don't go, they're not going to hear you. They said, well, you know, they're all in it for themselves. I said, not all of them. There's good people. But anyway, I said, are you scared, or are you afraid to go? They said, no, it's just that it's almost a waste of time. Some of them are liars, and you know. I said, okay, I understand. But, uh, The city attorney, when he was speaking, he said that creative problem solving. I said, you know, that's pretty good, creative problem solving. And that kind of goes to if the city council, if any council members are doing stuff, you know, and I'm going to use the mayor as an example because he has a long, long list of every... Anyway, a long list of problems going back years. And I know they censured him and they held him accountable when he was doing the LaDonna thing because the DA was on their heels, him and Marcus. But all the other times, you know, it's up to you, the rest of this council. Maybe you don't have the teeth to do things to stop him but give the community a break because they come up here and they speak and some of the speakers don't know why maybe they're getting loud because they know what's been going on and the speakers like the lady that came up and she don't know what's happening. To her, it's just loud speakers talking. Thank you.

Mayor, that concludes all public comments on items not on the agenda.

Thank you very much, Madam Clerk, and thank you to our public speakers as well. We will now move to our joint consent calendars. And before I open the consent calendar for public comment, I will ask my fellow council members if there are any items that they wish to remove from the consent calendar for separate action. I don't see any at this time, so we will go ahead and proceed. And just to read into the record here at the advice of our city clerk's office, for items J12 and J13, since I own property within 500 feet of the project, I have been advised that under the Fair Political Practices Commission's conflict of interest regulations, I must recuse myself from participating in the decision regarding items J12 and J13 in my capacity as mayor. However, since these are consent items, I may remain on the day as provided a separate vote is taken on those two items without my participation or vote. And so I'll just repeat that whenever it comes time for a vote, but at the advice of the city attorney's office and the city clerk's office, we wanted to make sure to read that into the record. And so with that, we will now move into any council questions before we move into public comment. Seeing no questions from the deus, Madam Clerk, do we have any requests to speak on the consent calendar?

Yes, Mayor, we do. We have our first speaker, Christopher Baca.

Good evening again. Like I've mentioned before, there's habit here of stuffing this agenda with items that the community really doesn't have any idea what most of the stuff is about, and it's just being packed in there and approved without much consideration or public information. I think this is really wrong. I think a lot of these issues should be at least at the absolute minimum, the description on here for any annexations or any taxes should have more information on them, not just, you know, you're annexing something. You know, it doesn't say where you're adding taxes. It doesn't say of what. It doesn't make any sense and this is all packing the agenda to keep the community ignorant of what's going on here. This is exactly what happened with the MOUs. It's exactly what happened with the public safety building where our manager tried to sneak it in there and we need answers as far as that public uh safety building that he went ahead and did all his doings without public input and claims he has a right to it and he was called out on it and it's been changed can we get an update on that where is that going to happen who's you know where what's the process of that we need to know that i've also asked in a public records request, what the timeline was and how did this come about? How did the city, manager just come up with this out of the blues and asking for architectural money to pay for the pay for the uh plans without any public knowledge and he claims he has the right to do it i don't think so and you should be ashamed of yourself for allowing this as i mentioned before with the benzivi issues you should also be ashamed of yourself that people like benzivi choose communities of ignorant people he considers you He considers you fools that he runs things under you without your knowledge. And you sit there and do nothing and allow it to happen. And Mohan, I don't know what he's getting out of this, It's straight out corruption and he should be in prison and he will be once this call comes out. And you just allow this packing of the agenda to go on. I've also mentioned about the asphalt. You're spending another $50 million on what? On junk, on painting the streets black? That's ridiculous. It's incompetence and you're allowing it to happen. All you're gonna do is, yeah, approve the agenda without no oversight.

Our next public speaker is Ms. Luis Palomares.

Mayor, as the speaker is coming up, just want to let everybody in the audience and everybody that's out in the foyer know that due to the Bain fire west of us and the current winds are blowing the smoke this way. There is a lot of smoke in the area. We're pulling it in through our air conditioners. Risk management just brought in various face masks and so forth. Anybody who wants one, please just see the HR director or any member of staff. Thank you.

Perfect, thank you.

Luis Palomares, community activist. Say a prayer for all our firemen out there. They're out there putting their lives on the line. I commend them and my hat's off to them. Thank you about that one. Okay, I'm gonna talk about, on the 12th of May, they had a study session because I don't know who, called for it but a study session about how they can control the room because we're out of control we're screaming we're yelling all day people are scared to come to the meeting i don't think so really you know i put my pretty in pink blouse on so i could tone it down for the people that are scared to hear a loud voice but when we were hearing screams from shalinda out there in the foyer that was not the court she was cussing out sammy luna from the district school district That was screaming, because you could hear all the way in the room here. If I'm screaming, believe me, if I'm screaming, you can hear me all the way to the parking lot if you really want to hear me scream. I'm talking loud. Maybe you'll open your ears and you'll hear what I'm saying. Anyway, so you know, it's another way to stifle our speech, because the mayor don't like me to say about all the things that are going on with him running the city. You know? And Shalinda gave a big infomercial about, wow, people should act this way, people should act that way. Oh, about words of wisdom. We're trying to do sound bites? I never get on social media. How is that? Lying. You know, we're here doing theater? I don't think so. You're the one that was giving your resume about you worked here, you worked there, you worked there. You know? and you were talking to the audience of one, our mayor here, so what are you talking about? You know, uh-uh. And strong women, I remember when the mayor was throwing you under the bus, reading you the riots, saying you're emotional, you're out of control, look at her. You got up, I would have done the same thing, walked out of the room, bacca santa cruz followed you to stand up for women she went out there with you and i said every woman in this room should walk out because he's throwing us under the bus we're all emotional we're out of control but no you didn't you you know she went but you didn't do that when the other day she was talking at the council meeting about the arts the arts how it was great wow these are some nice you butted in talked over her where's your decor Talked over her, but she's not petty. She just let you make a fool out of yourself and say what you wanted to say because you didn't agree with her. In your opinion, keep your opinions to yourself. The floor was hers. Is that following the core? Really, really, really. you know giving your resume right here you know while we know you're running again but like i said you're not the girl the mayor has somebody else he's running you're not the guy so hey don't tell try to tell us how to act in this room or try to sample over our first amendment right because you're walking a thin line unless i'm cussing threatening people you you don't have no right to tell me what i could mayor

All right. Mayor, that concludes all public comments on items on the consent calendar.

Thank you very much, Madam Clerk. We will bring it back up to the dais for any council questions or comments on the consent calendar. Seeing none, we'll entertain a motion and a second. Just once again, with reading into the record that I am recusing myself from a vote on items J12 and J13, but I'm a yes vote on all the other items besides those two on the consent calendar. Is there a motion and a second? A motion to approve. Second that. There's a motion and a second. Madam Clerk, please call for the vote.

Council Member Bernard? Yes. Council Member Delgado?

Yes.

Council Member Baca-Santa Cruz? Yeah. Mayor Procter-Gonzalez?

Yes.

And Mayor Kerbera?

Yes.

Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. We will go ahead and move on to the next item on our agenda, which is Item K, public hearings. We do have a couple of these on our agenda this evening. So public testimony on a public hearing matter shall be limited to three minutes per individual and must pertain to the subject under consideration. In other words, comments must be related to the particular item that is being considered. The first item is K-1 Public Hearing for Delinquent Solid Waste Accounts and Abatements of Public Nuisances. And we will begin by turning it over to Deputy Finance Director Patty Hewitt. Hewitt? Did I get that right? Yeah, close. Hewitt. What was that?

Hewitt.

Hewitt. Okay, see, no, I was very off. I want to make sure I get it right. Hewitt. For a staff report. The floor is yours.

Thank you. Honorable Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, and Council Members, this evening our Special Districts Division Manager, Valerie Arenas-Ray, will be presenting the staff reports for public hearing items K1 through K4. So, Valerie.

Good evening, Honorable Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem and Council Members. This item K1 is part of the city's routine annual process related to weed abatement and delinquent solid waste charges. Each spring and in the fall when deemed necessary by the fire marshal, the Fire Prevention Division issues notices to abate to owners of vacant parcels identified through the latest equalized assessment rule. These notices advise property owners that weeds, dry vegetation, trash, debris, discarded vehicle parts, and other waste materials constitute a public nuisance pursuant to Moreno Valley Municipal Code Section 6.04 and must be removed prior to the scheduled inspection date. Solid waste charges become delinquent when invoices remain unpaid for more than 60 days. Statement of costs were mailed to property owners for parcels requiring City-performed abatement services. Property owners were invoiced for all associated abatement costs and staff is recommending that the City Council authorize the placement of unpaid charges as special assessments against the affected properties. Any unpaid costs not received by June 28, 2026 will be placed on the fiscal year 2026-27 property tax roll. In addition, the Franchise Waste Hauler provides quarterly notices to property owners with delinquent solid waste accounts advising them of the City's intent to place unpaid charges on the property tax rule. Property owners may resolve delinquent solid waste charges by paying the Franchise Waste Hauler directly prior to June 28, 2026 or paying the County of Riverside after the charges have been placed on the fiscal year 26-27 property tax bill. On or before August 9th, 2026, following final determination of the delinquent charges, the city clerk will file a certified copy of the resolution and report with the Riverside County Auditor-Controller. This concludes my report. I'm available to answer any questions you may have. Thank you.

Thank you very much for the staff report. We'll bring it back up to the dance for any council questions of staff. Seeing no questions at this time, we will go ahead and open up the public testimony portion. Madam Clerk, do we have any requests to speak?

Yes, Mayor, we do. Our first speaker is Chuck Rosconzi. Sorry.

Good evening, Mayor and members of City Council. My name is Chuck Krolakowski. I'm legal counsel for Gilbert Morales, who owns a property at 23166 Sunnymead Boulevard in Moreno Valley. I submitted an objection letter to this item tonight. I saw that it was in the packet, so I'm assuming it was received by the council. It will be part of the permanent record tonight. If I can have that confirmed by someone, that would be great. Thank you. In addition to the letter, I have three points I'd like to raise tonight. And the first point is an item of due process. The notice to abate for this particular property, we'll call it the subject property, identified that there was some trash and debris and referenced a stormwater flow. It said nothing about pulling weeds, trimming bushes, trimming trees, cutting trees, anything of that nature whatsoever. The required action set forth in the notice to abate nuisance identified that the owner will remove trash, debris, and junk from the property and campers. Again, nothing about removing trees or bushes from a water course, from a drainage area, or any other place on the property. Then the city decided to hire someone and come out and dig up a bunch of trees and bushes in a drainage course without notice to the owner, without consent to the owner, without it being identified on the notice to abate. Now the city is trying to charge my client $25,000 for the work that was illegal. It was not permitted. It's a trespass. It constitutes inverse condemnation and is a nuisance. I've actually submitted a tort claim to the city already identifying all these claims that the city had no right to come on the property and do any of that work because the notice to abate mentioned nothing about that. This is an absolute violation of due process. The second part I'd like to talk about are the violations themselves and the responsibilities. As outlined in my letter, the drainage area is subject to an eastern municipal water district easement, the city has jurisdiction over portions of it, and Caltrans actually owns the right-of-way where the culvert extends that drains water into this area. We've told the city numerous times that other public entities, including the city, have the obligation to maintain this area and they're not doing it. And yet the city wants to do the work and charge my client for it. This is also unlawful. Third, the city already assessed a lien against the property, which violates the city's own municipal code. They must pass the resolution tonight to enforce any liens, yet the city already did it. So in conclusion, here's my proposal. You either do not pass this tonight, or if you do adopt it tonight, you remove my client's property from the resolution.

Mayor, the next public speaker is Gilbert Morales.

Hello, my name is Gilbert Morales I bought this land about a year and a half ago, I want to work with you guys, I know you have some master drainage. Something or other you need to do on the property and all I needed to call and let's work it out figure it out, I want to develop my land, but I need this sort of thing resolved so. If somebody can call me let's figure it out. Okay. Thank you.

The next public speaker is Ms. Louise Palomares.

Well, it never ceases to amaze me. What's going on in our community? Who's running the community? Who's running the city? I could be all in the wrong, but these are the hard questions that people are asking. Somebody got a lawyer because the city's dropping the ball here. Maybe I'm wrong, but golly. Help these people out. Straighten it out. Do the right thing for the community here, because we the people, we pay taxes here, and we want to get it right rather than wrong. Mayor, look into that. This is where you should put a lot of your time in, not just campaigning 24-7. And your sidekick here, Gonzales, you know, do your homework, Gonzales. Help out here, and these are kind of issues. This is what we should know. The consent calendar, just wow, put everything on there and just slip it through. Couple of the speakers are talking about that too. Golly, when are you gonna get it right? Listen to Roy, he knows what he's talking about. 95% of the time. But it looks like 95% of the time you're doing everything backwards. Not all of use, just some of use. Just some of use, not all of use. And the staff, wow. I mean, like I say, who are they serving? The mayor or us, the community? It's so wrong. It's so wrong. They gotta start serving us, the community, not the mayor or the mayor serving them and giving them glory. They're all washing each other's hands. They're all in the, you know, all together with it all. Just do what's right. Serve the community. Let the people know. Do what's right for the community, not what benefits you, not your personal agendas. The community's agendas, help them out. This lawyer comes and talks about this. Strain that mess out. How many times does a person have to come and talk about his property over there? I'm sure he came here, I'm sure he tried, you know? It's so wrong the way on the train wreck, the Titanic, this mayor has a son, because like I said, he's too busy on a down campaign trail. Instead of doing the right thing for the community and the city. Between you and the staff here, get it right. I mean, the staff does a lot of great things. I'm not knocking them all together, but on some of this stuff, it's totally out of control. It doesn't have to be this way. You're getting your paychecks, you're getting your stipends, you're getting it all. Just give us a city that works at the end of the day, please. So we don't have to come up here and scream, you know, and get soundbites in theater. Really, really? Thank you.

The next speaker is Anthony Alonso.

Good evening, Council.

So I'm representing my father-in-law who recently got his land. The same thing, pretty much. They unlocked his gate, or they broke the lock, I should say, and tore down, not tore down, but they cleaned up part of his land. And they find him pretty hefty. The only thing was, is at that time... my father-in-law ended up going through a double bypass procedure and that cost him about eight days in the hospital and then after that he spent a month recovering in a skilled nursing home so he was unable to do it himself and i don't know if there's anything you guys can do about his fine or if they can reduce it maybe do payments or anything like that but and then the lien that was placed against his property as well was um that was also one of the penalties so if there's anything you guys can do to help him out since he was physically unable to do it himself that'd be great and that's all mr alonzo do you mind uh sharing the name of your father-in-law the property owner My apologies. So his name is Efren Lucena. Thank you. Was that it? Yes, thank you.

Just to make sure we could find it. Yeah, thank you. Thank you. Would you like to speak as well?

Yes, sir.

Yeah, okay.

I tell this story this once regarding 2024. It's company, they built their bridge in Moreno Valley. Okay, and then the tree engineer, he come with me in that property, 2024, he convinced me to take the dirt in my property. Ten years ago, I have the permit that one before. I pay for the engineer that one before, and then all the dirt is dumped there, almost more than 10 feet. And this cancer, they told me, they convinced me to take out some of the dirt. But they told me, he said, no, because the city is very strictly. The one that gave me the ticket for 2024, the same day and the same date, is twice. Morning and afternoon, the ticket is a debate. That's inspector. I don't like that because I think that the property, they want to tell my land property. How can they land the property? I pay for every citation. Yes, sir, I pay every citation. And then I pay the land for more or less $4,000. That's against for the people here in Moreno Valley. I know, I'm Filipino. The guys, they give me a ticket, they told me like a minority. Thank you.

The next speaker is Bob Palomares.

And before the next speaker speaks, just a reminder, we don't comment during public comment. Just for those that are new, that might be your first time here. We don't comment during public comment, but once it's over, we will be asking staff to comment and answer some of these questions as well. Please go right ahead. Thank you.

Good evening. I'm sure there's a lot of people that have incidents like these Two people or this one here that they just pay the fines and don't come here and speak about it. They can't afford to hire an attorney. The city just says, here, pay it. We'll go in there, clean it up. We'll lean it on your property tax or whatever. I came here one time, maybe a couple of years ago, And I had mentioned that there's a lot of senior citizens in this city that are barely making ends meet, and I'm sure it's getting harder now. This city needs to get a program going where maybe you get high school kids during the summer that aren't in school to go and help clean up some of these properties that senior citizens live in. I remember one time Councilman Delgado told me that they had a program the sheriff's where they would get kids to you know get in programs and help them out that maybe had gotten in trouble well that's basically the same thing you know, but that's the city just reaching out to people that maybe can't afford it. i'm aware that. You don't know who the people are, but you can reach out to them. You got a senior center. You could spread the word and tell them, hey, if you kids, you know, if you're getting citations because the weeds are higher in your yard, here comes summer and they're going to find you and they're going to cut them and give you the bill. You know, let's help these people out. You can do it. That's the right thing to do. And I would appreciate it if you looked into it and said, you know what? Let's help our seniors out. Thank you.

Mayor, that concludes all public testimony on this item.

Thank you very much, Madam Clerk, and thank you to our public speakers as well for joining us tonight to ask your questions and express your concerns as well. That's exactly what this forum is for so that our constituents can bring these issues forward and be heard. So at this time, I would like to turn it over to our city attorney and any of our staff to maybe answer any of the questions that have come up and any other concerns that have been brought up.

Mr. Mayor, I'd like just to comment on The property is owned by Mr. Gilbert Morales and I believe it's his attorney who spoke first. That's the property that's located adjacent to Chuck E. Cheese. It's a vacant piece of property there. We've had for years had problems there with homeless encampments. And he's been cited on several occasions for rubbish, scrap metal, abandoned appliances, shopping carts, wood and plant cuttings, broken discarded furniture, household equipment, junk, trash, debris, cans, boxes. And we had repeatedly, staff has repeatedly reached out to him since he had gained ownership of that property on several occasions to attempt to have the property, have these problems abated in a manner that was, you know, consistent with our codes. It presented a public nuisance, particularly for the surrounding properties. And there was a lot of concern about that area, particularly since it was located at Chuck E. Cheese. So we believe that we afforded him proper due process. The attorney represented that there was a tort claims filed. That will go through the process. That has been submitted to our insurance carrier, which is known as PERMA, the Public Entity Risk Management Authority, and that will be processed. for a 45-day period at the expiration of that time or at the time that that claim is rejected they'll have the opportunity to file a lawsuit against the city i do not recommend taking any other action at this point and to proceed forward with the um you know with what's presented to you as recommended by staff

Thank you. And I'll look to my colleagues to see if there are any other questions, any follow up questions.

I do have questions. Can you walk us through how an abatement fine, all the steps and what due process is considered and how long we allow for due process and how we address it, please? All the way down to a lien. So basically, I would like for you to, in the open, to discuss how we get from siting a property going out there and actually removing whatever it is and then applying the charge as well as how long we give the property owner to address the concern and then how we end up to a lien on the property.

Thank you Council Members. Angelica Frustolopo, the Community Development Director who oversees community enhancement as well as the City Attorney will respond.

Thank you Honorable Mayor, City Council. Generally speaking, a lien on a property is the absolute last resort. The initial step is a notice of violation and property owner is given sufficient time Normally it could be between 2 weeks to 30 days depending on the situation and if there is no response then it is a citation again time is provided if there is no response second notice may be issued depending on the situation in this particular case there are children who visit the neighboring property. In this particular case, it was a, um, health and safety matter. There were several encampments and, um, the city's code enforcement staff worked very closely with the city attorney's office and, um, we went in and abated the property. The, um, when the citations were not responded to, an abatement notice was issued and again, um, no response and therefore the city proceeded.

So this correspondence is through the mail, correct? The correspondence and the citations and the communication?

They are mailed and notices are posted on the site as well.

So I think that I don't, I'm not sure that he's disputing that. I think what he's disputing is the way it's written. But like our city attorney said, this will go through the court system, right? And they will determine if it was bad enough when we got out there that our workers that were doing the cleanup on The trash debris and junk and the flood area. If it was so bad that they had to cut the tree and just because it's not listed on here doesn't mean that that wasn't part of the abatement process while they went out there, right? So the judge and the courts will determine that.

Well, again, so there's various remedies that are available to the city when we have a code enforcement issue. The first thing we do is we try to identify who the property owner is, and we do that by looking at the county records. We send notices to the address that's recorded with the county. We issue citations. We issue notices of public nuisance. We specifically define and describe exactly what the situation is out there in the real world. We take photographs. And then we send and we don't get any responses to the notices, which we offer a hearing in most cases. And if they don't respond to it, then we can't just leave that property as is and put these children and other people in danger. of getting hurt or harmed by some of the trespassers out there. So we have to take action.

I remember this.

And provide sufficient notice for that. It will go to court only if the property owner ends up filing a lawsuit against the city. Before they can file that lawsuit against the city, they have to file what is we call a tort claims with the city which is filed through the city clerk's office that gets filed perma the public entity risk management authority which are which is our pooled insurance carrier makes a determination within 45 days to whether or not to reject that claim or to let it expire. If it expires, you know, at the end of the 45 days, that triggers a statute of limitations period for the property owner to file a lawsuit against the city. with that lawsuit gets filed against the city, that's when a judge will determine whether or not the process for, you know, citing them in the first place, but this would be specifically tied to whether or not we had the legal authority to impose the fines and record the fines, you know, record these special assessments against the property to collect the fines. So they have the opportunity to go to court if they so choose.

Well, I remember this, and we were shocked. And again, I live in the Marina Valley, and I drove by it. And the Chuck E. Cheese is the only Chuck E. Cheese in our city, and it's a staple of Marina Valley for our kids. All of our kids probably went there. And it was really, really bad. So we got to a point where we said, all right, well, you're not going to do it. We're going to do it for you. And now this is the end result. So I think that if we gave them ample opportunity, to remove the debris to clean it up prior to us even stepping in, right?

Correct. And we provide sufficient notice that we were going to do that if the property was not cleaned up in, you know, with the amount of time that we gave them. They got more than sufficient notice. Yes.

And the end result is we did it and it looks great now.

And the law allows us to recover our costs.

Thank you.

Right. I remember this because it's a District 1. I was getting phone calls daily from the managers, from parents. I have a membership at Chuck E. Cheese. I would see it myself. Yes, I have a membership. And I remember walking up to the property line and saying, you know, we've got to do something. I was calling in complaints daily. And I remember being told, he doesn't want us to go in there. He won't clean it up and he doesn't want us and we have to go to court. Oh, I mean, there's a long process of before I got to this.

Thank you for for answering the questions and for providing additional context there. Um, are there any further questions? Any other comments from the council? If not, um, in accordance with our city attorney is recommendation and advice. Uh, we can entertain a motion and a second to approve staff's recommendations. Make a motion to approve status recommendations. Second. There is a motion and a second. Madam Clerk, please call for the vote.

Council Member Bernard? Yes. Council Member Delgado? Yes. Council Member Baca-Santa Cruz? Yes. Yes. Mayor Pro Tem Gonzalez? Yes. And Mayor Cabrera?

Yes.

Thank you.

Thank you. Our next item is K-2. It is another public hearing to continue Moreno Valley Community Services District annual parcel taxes and charges for fiscal year 26-27 for various zones. And we will hand it over once again to Financial and Management Services Deputy Finance Director Patty E. Wheat for a staff report.

Thank you, Mayor. Again, Valerie Arenas-Ray is here to present the item for K-2.

good evening honorable mayor mayor pro tem and council members this item is part of the routine annual process to continue the moreno valley community services district annual parcel charges for fiscal year 26-27 the proposed resolutions authorize the levy of parcel charges for zones a zone c d e m and s on the fiscal year 2026 2027 property tax rule in addition pursuant to government code section 6 11 15 the community services district board is required to conduct a public hearing to receive public input regarding the proposed levies parcel charges and annual adjustments may only be imposed when previously approved by the qualified electors and subsequently authorized each year by the community services district board Approval of the resolutions will establish the maximum and applied parcel charge rates for each zone and authorize the county to place the approved charges on the fiscal year 26-27 property tax rule. The proposed parcel charges represent a continuation of the existing assessments currently appearing on property tax bills. No increases to the maximum parcel charge rates are proposed other than the allowable annual inflationary adjustments previously approved by the qualified electors. For fiscal year 26-27, the proposed consumer price index adjustment for most districts is 3.01% based on the Los Angeles Consumer Price Index. The newest parks maintenance district and public safety district utilize the Riverside Consumer Price Index, which is 3.28% for 2025. Revenue generated from these parcel charges supports parks and community service programs within zone A, operation and maintenance of arterial street lighting within zone Z, and maintenance of public landscaping and related improvements within zones D, E, M, and S. The level and frequency of maintenance services are dependent upon available funding. The applied parcel charge rates represent the actual amount levied on the property tax rule and is necessary to support ongoing service delivery, administrative costs, and service requirements for each zone. This concludes my report. I'm available to answer any questions you may have.

Thank you very much. We'll bring it back up to the dance for any council questions of staff. Seeing none at this time, we will move to public testimony. Madam Clerk, do we have any requests to speak?

Yes, Mayor, we do. Our first speaker is Regina Martin.

Hello, panel. Pointing that agendas go forward already approved without the voice or vote of the homeowners.

Ms. Martin, sorry, if you don't mind speaking into the microphone to make sure we can hear you. Thank you.

I understand that structures need to change and improvement, but at the increase of the homeowners' finances, increase to the tax bill of 2627 creates added hardship due to mortgage increase because of homeowners' insurance policies being dropped or increased. due to homes being placed in fire zones when they were even in fire zones when we made the purchase. We were traveling hours away being employed outside of the city just to come home not to even cover the mortgage. And our children are latchkey. because we're two and three hours away in a drive. We need rec centers for our children. We need affordable daycare centers built, maybe low income or whatever the case may be. We don't need any more car washes where they only employ one or two individuals. demand mandate them we don't need any more warehouses where you never see not one car parked in the parking lot like who's being employed there um yeah it's just very disappointing we're barely um we have so many new build apartments and homes where we can't buy these homes priced at six seven hundred thousand we're barely making the mortgage with the increase so yeah that's just my vote and then you know we get these agendas and they're already passed and we we have the knowledge after the fact they never asked prior for our votes it's already a done deal and that's it thank you the next speaker is ariel castillo

Hello, everybody. Thank you for the opportunity. I have a couple idea that I think is going to bring more income to the city of Moreno Valley. I think increasing the taxes to the property taxes is not going to make better city, but I think bringing business to the city of Moreno Valley is going to increase the property taxes. When I say business, for example, A lot of people from Moreno Valley go to Irvine Spectrum, go to the wineries in Temecula, go out of the Moreno Valley city to enjoy and think about it. We don't have anything in Moreno Valley to bring people from other cities to enjoy what we have in Moreno Valley. How the lady said before, we don't need more caguaches. We need more nice restaurant, like longhorn restaurant, cheesecake, But to the restaurant, those kind of restaurant, nice restaurant people would like to go to Moreno Valley to enjoy that kind of restaurant, that kind of business. We don't have like a water park. We don't have any attraction in this city to bring other people from other city to enjoy Moreno Valley. Think about it, how many Mercedes-Benz B&W we see in Moreno Valley City, and we don't have those kind of dealers here. so you go to the modern valley dealers if they are like basic uh um car dealer that we have we don't have nothing extra so what i suggest in bringing business to modern valley that more people can wait uh invest money and spend money money so thank you very much mayor that concludes all public testimony testimony on this item

Thank you, Madam Clerk. We will go ahead and close the public testimony portion for this item and bring it back up to the dance for any council questions or comments.

seeing none i do yes um because i i do i do hear what the resident is saying um can we can we discuss the special district um and and how this is assessed i know that there was a there was a presentation that was given but can we explain the the special districts and how this is assessed please

And in addition to that, to piggyback on that, how CPI, I think it's important that we differentiate and specifically look at this is CPI, it's not a discretionary increase that we're looking at doing.

And please don't use CPI, use the whole thing. No acronyms, please, thank you.

Consumer Price Index, please, thank you. Okay, let me handle yours first, and then I'll get into Consumer Price Index. So, Moreno Valley has had a long history in creating various districts through state law that affords municipalities to create districts, whether they be landscaping, lighting, maintenance districts or parks community services districts or specifically CFDs or community facility districts created for funding of future parks and future public safety or even if one of the developers wanted to create a CFD, which is on the property tax roles as well. So all of these districts are managed by special districts. When that district was created and based on the specific state law that it was created under, it created a legal framework at that particular point in time as to whether or not there could be consumer price index inflators in the future, or if the electorate at that particular point in time chose not to have those inflators, then there would be no CPI. So I'll give you an example. Zone A, which is 8750 and has been 8750 since the creation of it, it's on every parcel in the city, and that goes to pay for a partial what parks and community services costs the city. So that is potentially going to generate 5.311 million based on this particular table and this particular approval and the fact that there's 50,519 parcels that are estimated in the city. That particular district had no index in it when it was created so it's been that same amount for a long time and that's why the general fund has a general fund subsidy that goes to assist parks funding parks programming and services So it's all predicated on when the district was created and under what state law it was created under as to whether or not we can apply various charges that are afforded to the municipality under state law to ensure that we keep up with the cost of the various service that is inclusive of that particular district. So giving you an example, if it's a landscape district, If there's one of the newer districts and there's consumer price index that is being added to it annually, we're able to keep a higher service level in that district than an older district that doesn't have a consumer price index. And in essence, costs have exceeded what we're able to provide in revenue for that particular district. So now they're going to be on a longer service timeline than one of the newer districts. So you typically look at four weeks, eight weeks, 12 weeks. And some of these districts that don't have any consumer price index are on a 12-week service because we just don't receive enough revenue to service at a higher level. Hopefully that answered the creation of the districts, the long history of Moreno Valley using districts in the past, which our council approved, and the various ways that they are created in the state law. Consumer price index, as the mayor had mentioned, it is just an index that are done nationally and regionally. And when most of these indexes or most of these districts were created, they were created when our region was under the LA consumer price index. And that's why it's referencing LA still. More recently, the Census Bureau who oversees all of the consumer price indexes, they have carved off Riverside, San Bernardino, counties into our own consumer price index. The newer districts that have been created in recent years, that's why they reference Riverside's consumer price index. All of those indexes are put out by the federal government through a myriad of economic indicators, but those are the driving documents that were part of the creation documents that we have to abide by when we're looking at adjustments to any of these particular special districts.

um hopefully that has that answered your your questions certainly it definitely answered my question and it looks like councilmember bernard yes also i'm trying to just what i'm just trying to say is that the the the districts are were created when these developments were happening

Yes.

Okay.

And they could, I mean, so it could be back decades ago. And it is, we are only applying based on the creation documents of the district.

Thank you. I just, I'm going to go to Council Member Delgado next. We just want to point out one example. It's a different, I believe that's a CSD, a community services district or a landscape district, which is different from what we're looking at here. But to point out an example, if you look at some if you drive down some of these streets like cottonwood i know for a fact is one definitely west of indian and paris you'll see that there's no landscaping basically along the the back side of these homes that are facing the streets because there's no revenue there's no special districts that can produce or generate revenue collect that revenue so that the city can go out and pay a landscaper and contractors to do that and then you go go drive through some of these newer neighborhoods as the city manager mentioned at sunnymead ranch area moreno valley ranch those are newer and as part of those approvals many years ago those included special districts as part of those projects and that's what you see the landscaping is kept up a lot more often more common because enough revenue sometimes not even enough but most of the time we collect enough revenue to be able to pay the contractors because we have to go out to bid right we're at the whims of the free market and with i'll go into it more in a second but Um, just to give you an example of areas that have the funds. To maintain and upkeep and other areas that that don't. So, uh, Councilman.

So, and this goes right along with that. So, Brian, at the beginning of the presentation, she said this was a routine. assessment. So they every year we look at it and say, what is it costing the city? Basically, this is how it goes. What does it cost in the city to maintain this particular arterial street intersection lighting? And then we say, wow, we're not collecting enough because of the prices going up. We need to go back to the riverside index, right, CPI, and see where the levels consumer price index are going and then make that adjustment. And this is that this is the adjustment or the assessment, the new assessment on how everything is costing everything else, right, and then we apply it.

Agreed only if the consumer price index is afforded based on the original electorate that approved the district And if it is available, then yes, it would be applied based on that but if it's not it's not and if it's not it's not Yeah, so when we say routine so every May Special districts brings forward a myriad of staff reports related to setting the applied and the maximum rates for the special districts. It then goes through a myriad of information to the property tax collector, and it culminates in a large file that goes in the first week of August, and they then have some time to, in essence, put that on the property tax rolls.

Thank you, Brian.

Yeah, and I just want to add on that. I know these type of, you know, sometimes we use acronyms and things like that. It can get confusing because it is. It's very dense. It's a lot of information. But just like, you know, all of us, we own homes, right? We have to pay our bills and oftentimes it increases whether it's our you know electric utility or water bill city also has to pay its bills and the bills go up every year as well and so this is routine in that this is something that we do every year it's not we didn't get together and say we want to raise the rates and that's not how it goes. It's something that we have to consider every year to make sure that we can keep up and maintain various areas and zones and districts in the city. And I want to just point that Really, maybe the largest factor here, kind of like the city manager mentioned, the federal government level, we just have to face these headwinds that we're getting hit with, like inflation at the national level. Right now, if you look at the reports, inflation is increasing pretty dramatically. And even PPI, which is producer price index, also, that's what producers, the large companies, are paying for their materials and to import and things of that nature. The producer price index is also going up pretty exponentially right now. And all of those things trickle down to us, to the everyday consumer, paying more at the pump for gas, paying more at the grocery store for food, paying more in our bills for utilities. And we don't want to see it, but these are the things that we have to face because of factors and things happening out of our control. And so, you know, just doing the best that we can with what we're facing. City Manager?

Thank you, Mayor. I would also like to add, as identified in the staff report for this one specifically, page five. So when the district is also created, there potentially is a general fund obligation that is required. And so for Zone M, um landscape medians we have an obligation that the general fund must fund 165 000 and then in zone c there's a general fund obligate or a general fund contribution for certain medians and portions thereof that don't have any funding and so the general fund is also putting in 149 000 into this district

for those areas that are underfunded as well and in each of the next two items that same occurrence occurs different dollar amounts and values i thank you for that and and lastly that just reminded me of the the second public speaker thank you sir i can't recall your name right now off the top but ariel i believe yes um to your point i 100 agree with you where we as a city need to continue diversifying our local economy to make it a regional destination. And I believe that we have been planting the seeds and taking steps there. Just a few years ago, we didn't have a Texas Roadhouse, for example, right? We got that. We got a Dutch Bros. We got Cava. We got Sprouts. We got another Aldi. It takes time. These things happen a lot slower than we would like, but to your point, I have two young children. I also, I get tired of having to leave the city to go have fun with my family. And so, you know, we're opening our first museum over at the mall and the town center that was approved years ago. But some of these projects sometimes take longer than we would like, because again, even developers, just like when we go buy a house and we're going to get pre-qualified or pre-approved for a mortgage, they have to work with what the rates are currently. And so right now, even for developers, they're facing higher rates and other economic factors that maybe aren't as conducive to develop in this current environment. And that means that these developments, these projects like the town center, like the mall revitalization, take longer than we would like them to happen. Still, regardless of that, there are things within our control, and so we're working on our first museum, which hopefully will be a big thing for our city. It's the first one ever. Hopefully, we'll open by the beginning of next year, 2027. Sky Zone is opening up right on the second floor above them. That's a premier trampoline park as well. And we're working on our fourth library. We're working on a new dog park in Delgado's district where a lot of seeds have been planted. And we're going to continue those efforts so that we can bring in that extra revenue, bring in that extra foot traffic from across the region and make Moreno Valley a destination city as opposed to what it historically has been just a commuter city, where our folks are leaving the city every day to work, to play, and all those things. So we're changing it, but it's a slow, slow turn oftentimes. So thank you, thank you for your comments. And we took public comment for this particular one, and we can go ahead and entertain a motion and a second.

I make a motion to approve staff's recommendation.

No 2nd. There's a motion and a 2nd man could please call for the vote.

Council member Bernard yes Council member don't go to yes Council member back a Santa Cruz yes mayor Pro Tem Gonzalez yes and mayor cover. Yes, thank you.

Thank you that passes and we will move to item K 3 which. is another public hearing to confirm a diagram and assessments for lighting maintenance district number 2014-01 for fiscal year 26-27. And we will hand it over once again to our city staff for a staff report.

Good evening Honorable Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem and Council Members. This item is also part of the routine annual process. The public hearing is specific to Lighting Maintenance District Number 2014-01 and includes the required procedures and Council authorization necessary to continue the levy of parcel charges for the district on the fiscal year 26-27 property tax rule. Consistent with the previous public hearing item, approval of the resolutions will establish the maximum and applied parcel charge rates for the district and authorize the county to place the approved charges on the fiscal year 26-27 property tax rule. This concludes my report and I'm available to answer any questions. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Are there any questions from the council? Seeing none at this time, we will go ahead and move into the public testimony portion. Madam Clerk, do we have any speakers on this item?

Yes, we do, Mayor. Christopher Baca?

Good evening again. So the same issue continuously how you pack this agenda with very minimal information on here. What exactly are these districts? Where are they located and who they affect? Particularly my concern is with some of the districts regarding that encompass what was supposed to be the Aquabella and the cut-through of the first Aquabella, not this new one, the cut-through on Nason that supposedly he used for 20 years, the developer, Benzivi, uh with the aqua bella project that he used that he's doing something that's exactly what he tried to uh pull with the with the safety um uh center uh public safety um center that he he would have used that that he's uh he's working on the project where as the city has has built that for him the same thing happened with nason that The city built the cut through. Yes, it was good and beneficial for the city, but it was a farce in order for him to claim that he's working on that project and doing things. He also got the flood control to do some of that work and claiming that he's working on the project. He's ripping off the taxpayer for his benefit and does nothing and will end up selling that as an approved, improved project FOR MILLIONS, MAYBE BILLIONS OF DOLLARS FROM THE TAXPAYER. AND IT'S GOING ON WHEN IT HAS TO DO WITH THIS LIGHTING MAINTENANCE ON THE NATION CUT THROUGH. YOU'VE RECENTLY REDID SOME WIRINGS AND LIGHTING ON HIS PROPERTY. from the Moreno Valley utilities. You know, that's costing millions of dollars, but yet people, why don't you give discounts instead to the rate payers rather than giving these millions of dollars worth of gifts of public funds to a greedy developer for his BS? So all of this is, you know, it's, you know, great, you know, if it was real, but the whole system, the whole system here has been perverted by this ridiculous agendas that have vague information and the community really doesn't know what you're really doing and putting in there. It's all corruption and it's really sad that we have to go through this. And I just ask my concern with the, elected officials and the ethics and the the honesty of the staff you know you were given you you swore an oath to all the next public speaker is luis palomar's

COMMUNITY ACTIVIST LOUISE PALOMARS. WOW. YEAH, LIKE, WHERE ARE THEY GOING TO PUT THESE LIGHTS AT? WHAT DO WE KNOW ALL ABOUT IT, REALLY? AND IT'S SO, LIKE, THE OTHER SPEAKER SAID IT'S SO VAGUE. YOU KNOW, YOU DON'T GIVE US A WHOLE FOR ONE. YOU GIVE US BITS AND PIECES. AND I BELIEVE THAT THEY WERE PUTTING LIGHTING WAY BACK WHEN, THAT LIGHTING THAT IS, I GUESS, SAVES MONEY ON THE STREET LIGHTING. SO HOPEFULLY IF THEY'RE GOING TO DO SOMETHING, DO THAT. AND WHY? I KNOW EVERYTHING'S GOING UP, BUT, HEY, Do we always gotta go up? Can we skip a year here and skip a year there? And maybe make some cuts on these six-figure incomes that we're paying a lot of people here on the staff? Let's cut some other corners, like when you're charging 300,000 to find out about the colleges and the school, another 400,000 to make this room safe. That's our money, those are our dollars. $300,000 here, $400,000 there, $500,000 there. Just put it like the county of Riverside has. So you're gonna cover all yours for the safety on this end, but we're out there and we're open they should uh put a you know like the county of riverside has like the courtrooms have like the county supervisors have you know that will do nobody could get through not nothing nothing through that so this is the way you spend our money it's not just this it's everything add it up three hundred thousand four hundred thousand five hundred thousand uh you know seed money you know not that they even went with that but still uh you know it's just every time oh we got to go up because they went oh we got to go you know do the math figure it out make it make it work give the taxpayer marina valley a break once in a while please thank you mayor that concludes all public testimony on this item thank you madam clerk we'll close the public testimony portion bring it back to the dance for any council questions or comments

Seeing none, we can entertain a motion. Council Member Bernard.

Just like the last one, can we go over this one too, please, for the public?

Okay. So let me see if I can address the agenda comment. The agenda, when the city clerk develops it, it's a summary of all of the staff reports that are encompassing and posted on our website. So this particular item has a staff report and a multitude of resolutions and boundary maps and so forth as part of the attachment. 2014-01, LMD 2014-01, very similar. This was a very long established district. There are zones 1, 2, and 3. The actual table on the staff report, page 4, shows only one zone that's actually being increased because zone 1 and 3 didn't have consumer price index inflator as part of the creation of the district. Zone 2 did, so that is an adjustment to the maximum, which is 3.01%. The change in applied is $1.10. And this is on 7,243 estimated parcel units. And very similar to the last item, the general fund is also contributing $425,465 to this particular district. Does that answer your question, Councilmember, or do you want more specifically related to any particular item?

So I know we've discussed that these are routine, and these happen every year. Assessments can be made, they cannot be made. But what I'm trying to gather is, just like with the previous ones, this is all in law when it happens. Is there part of the developments when it happens?

Yes. This is all based on historic state law and these were all created based on then council decisions and these districts have been in place for a considerable amount of time. As far as compliance and so forth to the law, every year each of these districts has to have an engineer's report that shows what the money is being used for, how the money is being generated, and so forth. And we have a special district's website or web page, a landing page, and it goes through all of this information related to all the districts. And the engineer's reports are part of the documentation on that landing page. Thank you.

We wouldn't assess these if we didn't have to, correct? I mean, it's not something we want to do?

Correct. I mean, your predecessors on the dais created these particular districts as a means and ways to pay for landscape, lighting, other types of services as opposed to it just being paid through the general fund. And so these are not new to the city. They're not unique to Marina Valley Every single jurisdiction 483 jurisdictions in the state of California have some type of district that pays for some type of service That is on the property tax rolls.

Thank you Thank you very much if there are no further questions or comments we can entertain a motion and a second to approve staffs recommendations I

Motion to approve staff recommendations.

And I'll second. Madam Clerk, please call for the vote.

Council Member Bernard? Yes. Council Member Delgado?

Yes.

Council Member Baca-Santa Cruz? Yes. Mayor Pro Tem Gonzalez?

Yes.

And Mayor Cabrera?

Yes. Thank you. That brings us to item K four. It's another public hearing to confirm a diagram and assessments also for lighting maintenance district this time, number 2014 dash O two for fiscal year 2627. And we will turn it over once again to our staff for a staff report.

Good evening, Honorable Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, and Council Members. This item is also part of the routine annual process. The public hearing is specific to Landscape Maintenance District Number 2014-02, includes similar requirements, procedures, and council authorization necessary to levy parcel charges for the district on the fiscal year 2026-27 property tax roll. discussed in the initial public hearing item approval of the resolutions will establish the maximum and applied parcel charge rates for each zone within the district and authorize the county to place the approved charges on the fiscal year 20 26 27 property tax rule this concludes my report and I'm available to answer any questions you may have thank you very much are there any questions from the council

Seeing none, we will open the public testimony portion. Madam Clerk, do we have any public speakers on this item?

Yes, Mayor, we do. Our first speaker is Christopher Baca.

It smells like cigarette smoke in here. But anyhow, same thing with these districts. And one of my questions would be, do any of these districts encompass and include any approved projects, particularly Aquabella, the Town Center, or WLC? What I'm talking about is, some of these areas, for instance, Alessandro cuts right through the project, but yet funds from the capital improvements are included in there to improve Alessandro. I don't know if they still are, but I seen that they were gonna pave and put lighting and put sewer lines. Why would the city do that if that's a project that includes WLC? And he promised to do and pay for everything, of course. His promise is he sold you a bridge. um and uh and you went for it so uh with that i i ask you know where do you draw the line as far as funneling this money into special interests um this man this benzivi man um uh doesn't want PEOPLE THAT WILL QUESTION SUCH THINGS AND HE HAS HIS INSIDE PEOPLE AND THE STAFF PUTTING THESE THINGS ON AN AGENDA SO YOU WON'T UNDERSTAND. HE HAD A PHANTOM CAMPAIGN A COUPLE YEARS AGO TO OUST COUNCILMEMBER ALENA SANTA CRUZ. HE RAN A CAMPAIGN AND PAID OUTSIDE PEOPLE TO RUN A CAMPAIGN AGAINST HER. and that was brought up to the city clerk and nothing was done there was a there was a flyer that from a fake pack that included elisa and cabrera and that's what they were pushing and we brought that up to the city clerk on another issue that it'll bring up i think the city clerk has proven their inability to conduct uh elections and the and the the the city should consider having the county run our municipal elections because of this inability to look into it and pinpoint the corruption that's happening in our city as far as these developers are doing. The reason they wanted to out oust elena santa cruz is because they wanted a puppet they wanted an ignorant person there to push these things through without knowing what exactly they're doing and they're subservient to special interests but yet the taxpayers are paying for this the taxpayer doesn't get a break and these special interests get billions of dollars for their projects and it goes under the radar with this kind of stuff.

The next speaker is Ms. Luis Palomares.

Just a friendly reminder to keep it to item K-4. It's a lighting maintenance district.

And landscaping, or did that pass?

This is for K-4, for lighting.

Oh, wow, I talked about that earlier. I'm confused right here. But anyway, yeah, the lighting. We gotta do our research, really look into it, get the best bang for our buck. You know, act like it's your money you're using for whatever we're gonna do next here with the lighting. And as far as the landscaping, I mean, I'm just gonna say that, and you can shut me up if you wanna. You know, we're no another city that's a great city that they're doing excellent things in it. Golly, I forgot the place. My mind went blank here. But anyway. no we got to do the right thing for the community the taxpayer and uh everybody as a whole because i don't i don't see the city looking that way right now it's it doesn't look good and we gotta we gotta really do our best to bring it up a notch you know thank you mayor that concludes all public testimony on this item

Thank you. We'll go ahead and close the public testimony portion and bring it back to the dance for council questions. Mayor Pro Tem Gonzalez.

I have a question. Just to answer one of the speaker's questions, do any of these districts run through Aqua Bella or the WLC? Based on the map, I don't see it. Just want to confirm that.

I would have to look at the vicinity map but the specifically the Alessandro question that he continues to bring up has been answered in a PRA and has been answered a multitude of times in different ways but and that was specifically related to the Alessandro street improvements that continue to be on our pavement projects and that was answered in a PRA.

Thank you, are there any further questions or comments from the council Okay seeing none I'll go ahead and make a motion to approve staffs recommendations and seeking a second Make a motion to approve staffs recommendations I'll second the motion there's a motion in a second madam clerk.

Please call for the vote councilmember Bernard I Yes. Council Member Delgado?

Yes.

Council Member Baca-Santa Cruz? Yes. Mayor Pro Tem Gonzalez? Yes. And Mayor Carver?

Yes.

Thank you.

Thank you. That brings us next to item M, the Regional Commission Committee Board Reports. And we will first go to District 3, Mayor Pro Tem Gonzalez for RCHCA.

Thank you, Mayor. At the joint meeting of the RCHCA Board of Directors, on May 14th, the Board received the following reports. Agency attendance roster, SKR mitigation fee transfers from member agencies, financial report through March 2026, contracts and grants status update, status report concerning Reserve Management Coordinating Committee, status report concerning Reserve Management Committee for the Southwestern Riverside County Multispecies Reserve and Lake Matthews Reserve, SKR Reserve Management and Monitoring Activities Updates and Educational Outreach Program Activities Update. Additionally, the staff recommendations were approved for the following. Approval of fiscal year 26-27 Riverside Communities Partnership Project budget. Board of Trustees Meeting, Approval of the Leadership for the Remainder of the Calendar Year 2026, Approval of the Fiscal Year 2026-27 Agency Budget, and the Nexus Fee Study Update for the SKR Rat Habitat Conservation Plan.

Next scheduled meeting is July 9th, 2026. Thank you. Thank you. The next report, actually, I'll be providing that for RCTC, the Riverside County Transportation Commission meeting that was held on May 13th, 2026. As part of the commission's SB, that means Senate Bill 821 program, 2% of local transportation funds revenues are allocated annually to support bicycle and pedestrian improvement projects throughout Riverside County. For fiscal year's 25-26 funding cycle, the commission approved funding for 13 projects that received scores of 41 or higher, totaling approximately $7.28 million. the city submitted the San Juan Batista de Anza multi-use trail street lighting project for consideration. While the project received a score of 37 and was not selected for funding during this cycle, it has been placed on the contingency list should any additional funding become available or any of the approved projects fall off of that list. the next meeting is scheduled to be held on june 10th 2026 and that'll conclude my report for the last rctc meeting next up we'll go to district four for in report on rta

Thank you. Tonight I'm providing updates from the Riverside Transit Agency Board Administration and Operations Committee meeting held on May 6th. The committee supported adding eligible vehicle transfer applications to Riverside Transit Agency's Retired Vehicle Recipient Waitlist and forward the item to the full Board of Directors for consideration. The recommendation includes 12 applications, including one from the Enhance the Gift Ministries in Moreno Valley. The committee also supported the adoption of Public Transportation Safety Plan, effective May 28, 2026, and advanced the item to the full board. Lastly, the committee awarded an agreement to archaeological architects for bidding and construction management support for the Wentworth facility upgrade project. The revised project cost is $381,000 and is supported by existing capital funds. The item was forwarded to the board for full consideration. The next meeting for board operations is June 3rd, 2026, and that concludes my report.

Thank you. Lastly, we will go to District 1 for W.R. Coggers.

Thank you. At the May 4th, 2026 WRCog Executive Committee meeting, reports for fiscal department activities, committees, agency activities, and various external committees were received and filed. Additionally, the Executive Committee discussed the following key items. Approval of the Tump Reimbursement Agreement. One Tump Reimbursement Agreement was approved with the County of Riverside for the planning phase of the Nuevo Road widening project in the amount not to exceed $500,000. This project is a study of widening Nuevo Road from two to four lanes. We approved approval of the fiscal year 2025-2026 supporting foundation budget amendment and adoption of the fiscal year 2026-2027 supporting foundation budget. The fiscal year 2025-2026 budget amendment anticipates $440,000 in revenues against $426,000 in expenditures. The 2627 budget anticipates 448 in revenue against 434 in expenditures. Changes are the result of increases of in-kind scholarships, sponsorships, I'm sorry, and the addition of the Women's Day Forum event into the supporting foundations budget. The next item is Energy Resilience Plan 2.0 Final Deliverables. The ERP 2.0 has been completed and includes eight microgrid studies, a community resilience center feasibility studies, a microgrid regulatory memorandum, and an implementation plan. The Western Riverside County Clean Cities Coalition activities, WRCOG is making strong progress on its $1.35 million green zones initiative with most zero emission vehicles and supporting charging infrastructure now deployed across partner agencies. The coalition is investing in workforce readiness, recently training 12 technicians in EV safety and maintenance while developing a regional toolkit to support future deployments. Regional Food Rescue Program Activities Update. The Regional Food Rescue Program was launched in response to the edible food requirement under SB 1383. WRCOG issued an RFP, a consultant was selected, and the consultant began work and collecting data by September of 2023. Tasks included identifying commercial edible food generators and food rescue organizations, setting up workshops, site visits, and launching the carrot food rescue application and reporting. Since the exemption of the program, at least 85% of consumable edible food generators and 95% of food rescue organizations have been compliant in the three participating cities. Over 18 million pounds of edible food have been recovered during the program. The next meeting will be on Monday, June 1st, 2026 at 2 PM in the County Riverside Administrative Center.

Thank you. That'll conclude all the regional reports. We will move to employee association reports. We do not have one tonight, which brings us to the famous city managers report.

Thank you. Honorable Mayor, uh, MPT council members. Uh, just one item tonight. I just want to remind everyone that the city will be observing Memorial Day holiday. which is this coming Monday on May 25th, as we honor and mourn the military personnel who sacrificed all for this country. That concludes my comments. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. City Manager. We will bring it back to the dais for council closing comments, and we will first go to Councilmember Bernard.

Thank you. So I attended the Public Safety Expo on Saturday. That was a lot of fun. Thank you for the city and just law enforcement and everyone that put that on. It was really interesting. My children enjoyed it a lot. They especially probably enjoyed One, they were obsessed with the drone. They were also obsessed with driving the race cars around the little track. So please let Jeremy know. I know we got them like a year or so ago, but they are always a hit, so I appreciate that. And then I will move to some things that I have been considering and would like to possibly, well, not possibly, would like to see as a study session. So I would like to first point out We have a lot of conversations around warehousing here in the city And so I would like the city staff sometime in the fall either September October to put together a study session regarding all of the warehousing that we have in the city How many how many we have how much square footage we have how many of them would we consider vacant or are vacant? and then also looking into the different usages for those warehouses and One, I want to see if there are different usages, especially for the empty ones that we can use. As we've heard people say tonight, I'm considering things like, is there a way to transition them into my sister played volleyball, but a sports complex so that residents don't have to drive to Orange County and be locked in one of those all day? Could you transfer some of those into a wine bar, an indoor playground? So things like that. So I would like a study session on that. Also, I would like a study session because you're starting to see a lot of conversation around this, and I think it's a very important conversation that needs to be had in this community. because they don't want us to be caught flat-footed or not understanding them. But I would like a study session regarding data centers. That is a concern that I personally do have about warehouses is if they are empty, if they could possibly be transitioned into data centers, what that would look like. And when I'm looking at data centers, I would like to also have... information included regarding the economic impacts, the environmental impacts, and also our partners. So I am saying Eastern Municipal Water District, SCE, Merino Valley Utilities Company, and that information to be included. I also am going to ask that when those reports are issued, any of the presentations that are issued, at the time that the study sessions are published, I am requesting that that information is published at the same time so that the public has it and has enough time for both study sessions to digest that information and come with their questions ready and hopefully be able to answer them. I think it's a lot of information to give somebody and then not have that presentation available to them prior to. with that i will say please enjoy your memorial weekend as um yes this weekend as we know that we're slowly transitioning ourselves into the summer months if your children are graduating congratulations whether it is high school college kindergarten preschool please celebrate these moments this this world is often is going through a lot and is often cold at times, but please celebrate those moments. My own son is graduating from kindergarten. He has been counting down the days to let me know that in 180 days he will graduate. And so he knows he's about 13 more days down and then he graduates kindergarten and then we will transition into the summer. So I will take a line from Council Member Delgado who always says, just be nice to each other. It's really that easy. And with that, I close.

Next up, Council Member Delgado.

And I was just kidding about the marriage counseling. I already got a couple calls for hired, and I'm not going to do it. I attended the community outreach in District 2 last Thursday night. Thursday night? Friday night. Friday night. Steve did a great job and I think that you set the tone, Steve, and that's why everybody was very professional. They asked hard questions, but they were professional about it and I think that went very, very well. So thank you for that. And on the lines of being kind, I almost, I was four buying in my Honda Accord on the 215 South going towards Paris. You know, if you drove it, you know what I'm talking about, four buying in a Honda Accord. And I kind of, I had to get over because It was that bad, and I kind of cut a guy off. He kind of got mad and started raising his fist at me in my rearview mirror, and I apologized like this. I said, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. He backed off and waved at me. So kindness killed a road rage incident, so I'm telling you it works. So smile, be kind, and it goes a lot further than someone being mad at you on the road. And that's it. Happy graduation to anybody that's graduating, and be safe this Memorial weekend. Thank you.

Thank you. Next up, we will go to Councilmember Abanca Santa Cruz.

Thank you. I also attended the Public Safety Expo on Saturday. That was good, always to be out in community, watch the competition between the fire explorers and the police explorers. It was tied into the last event and fire won out. And everybody cheered, so that was good to be out there. It was a nice addition to our program. I also went right after that to our inaugural, hopefully. If I say inaugural, it makes next year annual, right? Dodger Angels game for the community. So 30 of us from Marina Valley drove out to Anaheim to watch the Angels lose. and cheer on the Dodgers. So that was nice to be out there with community and everyone got to meet each other and root for the Dodgers, except for one lady. It was very sad that the Angels had lost. I want to remind everybody that our firefighters are out there fighting the fire, so please keep them in your thoughts. And I want to say congratulations to all the graduates this year that are graduating our high schools, that are moving on to high school or moving on to middle school, those who are graduating from our colleges across the state, those who are away at college. and are going to be able to come home. Congratulations and a special shout out to three of my nieces who are getting their bachelor's this year, Faith Rivera, Gianna Wilson, and Angelica Garay. Congratulations on your bachelor's degrees. So thank you.

Thank you. Next up, we'll go to Mayor Pro Tem Gonzalez.

Thank you, Mayor. I just also want to say two things. I also attended the Public Safety Expo. It was a great turnout. I saw some new vendors, and again, they put on great demonstrations, especially the fire hydrant one. Just seeing the participation of the community is great. Everyone's raving about Hawkins Burgers. I haven't had one yet, but I'm really tempted next time to eat one of those burgers. Everyone says they're one of the best burgers in town. And also on Friday, this past Friday, I attended the Consular Mobile, got to see all the members of our Mexican American community and other members of the community who were there to process various paperwork. And I just wanna mention there, the Consulado is super appreciative of the city, of the partnership. and they're gonna come back out in September, if I'm not mistaken. And hopefully this continues our partnership with the Consulado and our partners in that arena. They really wanna work more with the city and we'll be bringing a few more things hopefully between the city and the Consulado. So again, thank you to staff that assisted in coordinating that and hopefully this partnership continues towards the future. and also congratulations to the graduates, and please have a safe Memorial Day weekend. There's a lot going on, so please be safe. Thank you.

thank you and for my closing comments also would like to wish all of the graduates uh congratulations wish you all the best on your graduations your commencements enjoy it because it flies by and before you know it you're off to bigger and better things and so congratulations to to everyone that is making that transition to that next step in your life in your education in your careers, including my son. He's transitioning over to TK officially in the fall. And that's an exciting time to just be as involved as possible. I wasn't able to attend a ribbon cutting this morning because they were on a field trip. I was out there helping do traffic control and all that good stuff. So just, you know, look for all those moments. That's what I live for nowadays, you know, to see a smile on my kids' faces along with the rest of the community. And so I want to once again congratulate David, who we recognized during special presentations. I don't think we mentioned the amount of the scholarship. That was a $50,000 scholarship. for David and there's only 30 students out of the entire SoCal Edison service area. Only 30 students are selected out of over 10 million customers. And so I would encourage all of our Moreno Valley students for the next application window when that opens up for next year that you apply so we can keep the tradition going of getting our Moreno Valley students into that program and getting a scholarship. I also want to wish everyone a safe Memorial Day weekend and as we honor, you know, remember why Memorial Day is on our calendars and we set that day aside to honor all of our fallen soldiers who have sacrificed and given everything to give us the life that we have, the freedoms, the liberties, the country that we have here in the United States of America. So we honor all of our fallen soldiers. on memorial day and also would like to extend an invitation on may 27th this is coming up in about two weeks just over two weeks from now may 27th at 6 pm we're having our telephone town hall and this is an opportunity for our community to learn about various updates things that are happening around the city also answer various questions and so around that time around five 55 or so there will be notifications going out so that if you would like to participate and partake in that telephone town hall you can go ahead and jump on your phone and log in or tune in through your phone and get connected so that you can stream that it's about an hour long and so once again just invite everybody so that you can tune in to our telephone town hall on may 27th at 6 p.m Also, the Consulado Mobile had the chance to go with Mayor Pro Tem Gonzalez and meet with the Consul himself at the Cottonwood Golf Course is where they had the Consulado Mobile, I believe, for four or five days last week. And that was the first time ever that we can recall that the Consulado has come to Moreno Valley to conduct one of these events, and it was packed. The appointments were full early on, and there was... a little bit of walk-in services, but it was primarily for those that made appointments. And so not only are they coming back in September, but they would like to explore additional opportunities for us to partner, expand on the MOU that we have. There's interest from them to have the Consulado móvil more than twice a year. And so hopefully that's something that we can make happen as well. And they even mentioned potential opportunities to partner maybe with our museum, potentially bring in artifacts from Mexico to showcase in our museum that's going to open here in the city as well. So a lot of different opportunities and just want to thank the consul and the Mexican consulate for their partnership. Public Safety Expo, that was a big hit again. My kids loved it as well. My son, he kept us there until after 2 p.m. We were running around, still having a good time. So hats off to our Chief Mack, our Sheriff's Department, and our Fire Department, and all of our partners who participated in that, the Explorers. It was fun to see them go head-to-head against each other. I think the Fire Department came out on top in the end, but... you know, we could try again next year. So hats off to everybody that made that happen. And just in closing, just, you know, economic development keeps coming up and there's a lot of things to look forward to. I know we're facing economic headwinds left and right, things that are outside of our control, but A lot of things to look forward to. I'll say it again. New dog park that's coming this summer. Our first rooftop hotel that's getting built off the 60 freeway. You will see it if you drive on the freeway spaces. It's kind of like a we work for entrepreneurs and small business owners opening at the mall. Right next to them is Sky Zone that's opening up here in the next month or two. We also have the museum that is under construction that will be opening up next year. Loma Linda Medical Clinic, RadNet that are opening later this year. Sky Zone, I already mentioned. And we also have a few new ones that were announced on our economic development summary from our director, Kyle, and economic development team yesterday. Five Below. We're getting another Dutch Bros and Alessandro. We're getting Gordos Cafecito, Tiny Toes Play Cafe. This is a place for children, but also for parents to be able to have fun and enjoy an indoor playground. And then Casita Sonora, which is by the owners of Sonora Grill just right next door they're opening a coffee shop as well so that's only a few things that I can rapid fire as my time has has ended here has concluded but a lot to look forward to here and it's all because of this council and because of our city staff and our residents so thank you for the opportunity to serve you up here on the dais and with that we will go to Q future agenda items are there any requests from the council Madam Clerk, do we have any requests to speak?

Yes, we do, Mayor. We have one public comment from Mr. Christopher Baca.

A reminder, we'll do a minute for this.

I think you should put it back to three minutes. But anyhow, like I mentioned, I think you need a study session on our municipal elections and handing it over to the county or have a study session and have the city clerk commit to the transparency and the honesty and the possibility of having staff being influenced by special interests, as is the case with other issues. So I don't trust the city clerk at this point because of other city staff. Apparently the city manager calls the shots, not the city clerk. So I would recommend that you have a steady session to avoid any conflict with special interests. They've proven the city staff has perverted our local government. therefore i would recommend that our municipal elections are handled by the county and not the city nothing against our city clerk it's totally against the city manager and our city attorney thank you mayor that concludes public comments on this item thank you very much and with that we will move into adjournment at 8 0 6 p.m everyone have a good night