City Council - Regular Meeting

This is the special meeting for February 18, 2026 convening at 6:16 p.m. Madame City Clerk, can you please do roll call? Yes. Council member Bregman, Council Member Nanishi, Council Member Craig Hensley. Oh, here. Sorry. Mayor Potam Hoy here. Mario Lopez here. Thank you. And may you um can you also open up the special meeting as well? Uh yeah, I think I opened the special meeting. So let me regular meeting now. So let me open the regular meeting now. This is the regular meeting for February 18, 2026 convening at 6 uh7 p.m. City clerk, can you do roll call?

Okay. Second go around. Council member Bregman, council member Nakanishi, Council Member Craig Hensley, present. Mayor PM Hoy, here. Mayor Lopez here. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Council is going to convene in close session for the special meeting on item BA, conference with real property negotiators regarding the prospective sale or lease of real property at 350 North Washington Street. The negotiating parties are Mr. James Lindseay, the interim city manager, and DD construction representatives per government code 54956.8. 8 and close session items on the regular meeting agenda. Uh item C2A, public employee appointment pursuant to government code 54957B for the interim city manager position. C2B uh conference on labor negotiations with all of the city's represented groups uh bargaining units, unrepresented individuals, confidential mid-managers, appointed employees pursuant to government code 54957.6 six and item C2C, conference with legal counsel regarding anticipated litigation to matters pursuant to government code 54956.9D2.

Okay. Thank you so much. Um, is there any public comments on close session items? Mayor, I don't have any um public comments for the close session items for either the special or the regular meeting. All right. Thank you. Uh, council is adjourning to close session. uh 6:19 p.m. All right, let's go to closet.

reporting in. Okay. Thank you. The council is returning from close session at 7:05. Uh, city attorney, could you please report on close session items?

Yes. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Council convened in close session for the special meeting on item uh BA, conference on real property negotiations regarding the potential sale lease of property at 350 North Washington Street and there's no reportable action and convened in close session for the regular meeting. Close session items for C2A public employee appointment, a conference on labor negotiations, and conference with legal counsel regarding anticipated litigation and no reportable action on those items either. Thank you so much. Thank you, mayor. Before we proceed, if I can have you adjourn the special meeting, please. The the special special? Yes.

Just the special. Okay, let me go on those. This is the special meeting for February 18, 2026. Uh, convening at 7:06 p.m. And if we could adjourn it. Oh, we're closing it. Oh, adjourn it. Sorry. So, I'm adjourning the meeting uh the special meeting at 7 uh 06. Perfect. Thank you.

Okay, now we're going to move to a moment of silence. Okay, thank you. So, now we're going to do the flag salute

to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

We have no idea. All right. So, thank you. Um, now we are going to City Cler, can you do the roll call again? Yes. Roll call for uh the regular meeting. Council member Bregman here. Council member Nakani here. Council member Craig Hensley here. Mayor Potam Hothy here. Mayor Yopez here. Thank you.

All right, we will move on to presentations. Okay, so item B1 under presentations is the presentation of proclamation and in observance of the month of Ramadan um starting February 17 to March 19, 2026. And I will invite um Measool Allah Lori Muslim mosque um Kuram Khan, Roger Khan, Mosen Masud Khan and Muhammad Khan to come up to the podium.

Good. How are you? You know here we have a very large community and that's why we decided to it's Ramadan this month. So I will read this proclamation. Ramadan is the n month of the Islamic lunar calendar and is observed by Muslim worldwide as a sacred month at fasting, prayer, reflection and the community. And during Ramadan, Muslim obstain from food, drinks from d to sunset, engage in increased act of charity and service, gather with friends, family, neighbors to break their fast at sunset. And Ramadan um highlights the revelation of of the Quran and serves as a time for spiritual growth, self-reflection, compassion, and renew commitment to faith and moral values. And the observance on Ramadan concludes in the c uh celebration of Eid alo holiday marked by prayers, generosity and fellowship. And the values empathized during Ramadan are charity, service, gratitude, unity, compassion, which strengthens the social fabric of our entire community and reflect our shared commitment to mutual respect and understanding. And the Muslim community in Lorai enriches our community through its leadership in civil engagement, charity work, business, education, healthcare, public service, and the arts. Now therefore be a result that I Ramo Japz Merid of Laur do hereby recognize the holy month of Ramadan February 17 to March 19 2026 recognizing Maja Raju Alam and Lorai mosque Laur Muslim mosque in Laur and encourage other residents to join in recognizing the significant spiritual and cultural

contribution of the Muslim community to foster a spirit of unity, goodwill, throughout this secret time in which the residents of Lai Ramadan Murvarik sign on this 19th date of February 2026.

Thank you. And I will invite now a few would like to say a few words to the whole community. First of all, um on behalf of the Muslim community, I am honored and um I want to thank Mr. mayor uh city council and city staff to acknowledge Raman Mubarak as a holy month and uh we want to thank all the uh present participant to acknowledge us and uh we want to grow in this community and assimilate into American culture um and uh abide by all the rules and laws and Um we want to be thankful. I don't want to take too much of your time um to acknowledge us and uh uh more than u you know Muslim community I think we are American and um uh we want to uh do the best uh and be the best citizens possible. Thank you. Take a picture.

Okay, mayor. For item B2, we have a presentation of rec recognition to retiring retiring community development director John Delam Monica. I would like to invite Mr. Del Monalica up to the podium. I guess it's uh fitting for my last session with council to be sitting in this chair instead of that one. Um it's been an honor to serve the community. It is more than I had expected. It I think we try to achieve every day what we set out as goals to do and so much is still in progress. There's still a lot of work ahead of the city, but I have been proud to be just a small part of the last six years of moving that effort forward. I have appreciated working with the entire leadership of the city of Loi, the council and even the evolutions in council, city management and city attorney's office, our clerk and I can't say anything more except the executive team we have in this community is exactly as it's been portrayed to you and the community over the last years and that is a amazing family of professionals that have the heart of this city first and foremost. my team. Hard to explain the relationship that has been developed in six years. We are a family. We have different strengths and weaknesses and we do the best to support each other in every effort and endeavor that this department has tackled over these last six years. The ones we've inherited and the ones we're passing forward. Um couldn't be done without all of them and I appreciate every single member of that team. I'm blessed to be surprised by having my family here to this this evening. Um it's

it's um something not to prepare for. I feel and I've confessed to our interim city manager. He's still the city manager in my heart. Um the fact that you feel like you're leaving things undone. And his advice to me is, John, if you stayed two more years to finish two more things, two more years from now you would feel exactly as you feel now. And so I have a comfort to understand that there's a team behind me that is supportive, that has the training and the expertise and the growth in what they're doing that'll continue doing amazing work despite my lack of appearance. So I want to thank the council for having placed that trust in me those years ago and I hope you'll see the same trust moving forward in the department still in service to this community. Thank you. Wait,

don't sit down yet because the mayor has some items for you. Some items for you.

So I would like to present you with a series. You've been an architect, right? And also we have to get you a historical picture and your staff. sign in. So I would like to invite them all of them here to come to the podium. Please come take a photograph please. Everybody come up. Would you mind being with us? Yeah. No. Yeah. Can we actually make a comment? Jennifer and I want to say yeah. Not yet. Pictures in just a moment.

This is my Okay. We're gonna take a picture in a moment. Hold on one second. Um, I'm Cynthia Marsh, community development uh deputy director uh under John. I want to take a moment to recognize uh John Del Monica as what uh he reaches what we might call his second retirement. When John was recruited to serve as a community development director, he had already stepped away from a successful architectural career spanning more than four decades. What followed was not simply a con continuation of public service. It was the beginning of a second career that reshaped this department and positioned the city for the future. Over the past six years, John has strategically rebuilt the community development department. He stabilized our budget, placed people in the right places, created a structure that allows this organization to function with clarity and purpose. He trusted his team and gave us the autonomy to do our work while providing us guidance and encouragement. Equally important, and something that cannot be overstated in public service, is John's unwavering moral character and ethical leadership. He has consistently approached difficult decisions with integrity, fairness, and a deep respect for the responsibility that comes with serving the community. In a profession where transparency, accountability, and trust matters every day, John has set that standard and has shaped how we carry out our work and how we serve the residents of the city of Loi. John's positivity and get it done mindset didn't just influence projects. It became our culture and our department. He reminded us that our work is ultimately about sensibly improving the quality of life for the people who call Lodi home. Many of us also know that John and his wife Cindy Del Monica embody that same spirit outside of city hall. Cindy has quietly supported our department by baking birthday treats for every single person in our department for the past six years. I'm not joking. um a jester that reflects the kindness and generosity these two people both bring to the entire community. Whether they're traveling, volunteering, or spending time with their grandchildren,

uh they are always moving, always giving, and always leaving things better than they found them. John, we will miss you. And Cindy, you too, and we hope that you have many new adventures ahead. So, I really should have asked to go first because that one's a hard one to follow. Um, and I just joked with John's wife, Cindy, that uh thank you for lending to him to us for the last six years. And she joked, "Can you take him from another 10?" And I was said, "Absolutely." Um, and with that, um, there's just so much that I could say about John, but I think it's important to know that I believe the quiet success of public service is leaving behind improvements that outlast meetings, plans, and even the people who made them possible. While John is retiring, he will leave behind a legacy that will be felt for years to come. All the work started and completed over the past six years could not have been accomplished without him. He guided difficult moments, kept focused when challenges surfaced, many challenges, and reminded us that projects are never just about the outcome, but about the community we serve. Because of his steady leadership and dedication, people will benefit every day without ever seeing the obstacles that once stood in the way of real change. They will simply experience something better. Thank you for the difference you made and the lasting mark you leave on this community and every person you guided while here. Also, just so you know, retirement just means you've moved from full-time leadership to life advisor status. And let's be honest, you'd missed us giving hard time over coffee.

Rebecca. All right.

Okay. This is just a small That's why we came. Yeah.

Yeah. Made the picture better. Beautiful.

What you say? Hey, mayor. Yes. Like comment. So, Mr. Nation. Yes, please. Thank you.

I'd like to make a few few comments on John Delam Monica. John Del Monica is a visionary leader and a dedicated public servant. He is man of compassion. His commitment to public service coming to well-being has been a lasting legacy that will continue. He was instrumental in Loi's work on the homeless and the development of the Loi Access Center. Many years ago, John, I remember after many town hall meetings, the council needed to vote for an access center near American Legion. I'm right that time, right? The council was urged not to have any access center at all. I believe if we did not have you leading out, the council would not have voted for it. I I really believe that there was a time when we said no, it's because of you and we were doing this. So, we're going to miss you and thank you so much for your service.

All right. Um, last item on our presentations is B3, which is a presentation of recognition to James Lindsay, who's our outgoing interim city manager. So, if I can invite you both to the podium. this one. And then the other one's a little bit bigger. We have something for you. I need to give a shout out to our fire department cuz they made what you're about to see right now.

That wasn't in the budget. So, So now that you're going to be retired for the second time, no,

like I know that you have property that you're working on. So you are so you have like a few acres that you are trying to get the weeds out. So we thought, well, we should give him a tool to do the work. Now the kids are going to be in city council with us. But uh and and also I want to present you the key of the city as you're not going to be here for the state of the city and your time probably was short in terms but all the items that you were able to accomplish in that short time or labor agreements or internal controls in for credit cards uh all these things that is more operational for the organization James did them. So as because of him, we're going to be able to be more efficient as a city, more transparent, and of and I can say this of all the city managers that I have worked with and they've been a few. He's the best. He's been the best. I have tried to convince him to one retire. I as legal is possible. It's legally possible. So he's not illegal, but I was not able to convince him. So So thank you James for everything that you have done.

Thank you very much. Um, thank you. Uh, it has truly been an honor to serve here with you all, the city council, the community. And while those list of accomplishments happened during my term as city manager, they would not have been possible without the city staff and the leadership of the executive team, with leaders like John. Um, so I I just wanted to really tell you what an honor has been. Um, I look forward to staying in touch with you all. These t past 10 months have been and a true blessing and um, thank you again for that opportunity to serve you in the community.

You can you can give it back to William for safekeeping if you'd like.

I'll keep that in mind. Let's see some of those moves with the X. Okay. Oh, okay. Will you switch remote?

Thank you. Hey, hey, mayor. I'd like to make a comment to comments from the council. So, first we're going to start with Miss Kenishia and then Bregman

James and you said you're the best. But, uh, James Lindsay was the right interim manager at the right time. He played an important role to smooth out the path during Loai's difficult time. Your experience and knowledge helped us to come to this point where we can head for a bright future. Jim, I really appreciate you and thank you so much for being here.

Mr. Lindsay, well, I will say I thought you were a little bit crazy, you coming into the city at the darkest times, and I was right. No. Um, you've been an absolutely phenomenal city manager. And I think the word that I would use for you is is savvy. And I mean savvy in the highest remarks because you're ethical. You're as honest as you can be. You're hardworking. Um you know what needs to be done. You listen to council as much as possible and for everyone else out in the public. That's a very difficult thing to do and it's a very very difficult thing for us to find in an individual. So uh I do believe you have been the best city manager that I've worked with. um you've been phenomenal and again I could not thank you enough for coming to Loi in a very dark time and I do believe that leaders aren't born they are created and you sir are a great leader so thank you

thank you so much so now we're going to move to the um consent calendar. Uh city clerk, could you please introduce the consent calendar? Yes, mayor. Tonight we have um on our consent calendar agenda items C1 to C17. Uh we don't have any changes or blue sheets for this item. Um so we submit it as is for council's consideration. Okay. Thank you so much. Any members of the council would like to pull an item for consent to bonan separately or comments? Um, councilwoman Craig Hensley.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um, yeah, just a couple for information and and for discussion. Uh, item C6, updated strategic vision. Uh, item C7, uh, appointing Christina Germaine to city treasur. Uh item C10, LOI Tourism Improvement District and uh again for information item C12 uh rejecting all bids for door pets building demolition. Okay. Yep. Did you say 15?

Uh it's 15. I didn't get to the second page. Um no I did not. But see 15 just for information. Okay. Um, so I would like to pull um C9. That one will be to vote separately. So just for notice. So all right. So All right. So let's uh Yeah. So let's go with uh C6.

Um Mayor, thank you very much. Uh what I would like to see with C6 rather than being on consent, I would like to see it on a regular meeting so that we can get feedback from the public in regards to prioritization issues. We did have a town hall meeting on this. I very much appreciated the members of the public that came. We now have a final uh updated uh strategic vision. But again, I would like the opportunity during a public uh meeting to be able to hear from the community about priorities. We have a lot of things identified we need to move forward with, but I think this is kind of that last opportunity to engage the public in um their uh uh preferences for prioritization of the strategic vision. So, um, hence my request to remove it from consent and place it on the regular calendar.

Yeah. So, uh, city clerk, how will we do that? Like, if we want to do it right now, council member Craig Hens, did you want to put it on tonight's, uh, regular calendar? I'm I'm not in a huge rush to put it tonight because, frankly, I want the public to have more of an opportunity. So, I would prefer we move it to the March 4th agenda. So, that that's my request on item C6. So, mayor, we would need a separate vote to um continue this item to the March 4th meeting to be placed on the regular calendar. Okay. Would you like to do the motion?

Um, yeah. I'm I'm happy to. I would I would move that we move item C6 from tonight's consent to a regular item uh for public comment at the March 4th meeting. I'll second. Uh we do need to take public comment on it before any action is taken. So the motion can be made but we would need to open it up for public comment before the vote is taken to move it. Okay. Thank you for the clarification. Thank you. Okay. So um so C7 now

um just uh something I'd like to make a request of. I discussed with the city manager this and it's probably appropriate at this time uh to make this request. One of the things that we are allowed by the state of California is to actually um put in uh our our guiding policies, our protocol manual, our ordinance, whatever it may be, what the qualifications of the treasurer would be. It's silent. Uh I've reviewed it. It's up to a city's discretion if they would want to indicate qualifications. I've discussed this with the city manager and it's very clear that um the uh administrative I'm going to get this correct, James, the administrative services director uh must have some financial background in order to uh be appointed that position because they do oversee finance. What I'm looking for is for us to in essence codify that in the treasurer's position that they must have some type of a background in this for the permanent appointment of a treasurer. So I would just ask that through this process of appointing um Miss Jerome that we get that language in place so that as we move forward in the future we understand that there are um certain qualifications to be treasurer in the city. So that that's all I'm asking for on on that. That's the direction I would like to give. I don't think that affects my vote on the resolution. It just affects the future moving forward with the position description.

Okay. Thank you. Uh the last item is the one that I pulled, but I want to vote on that separately. So, we'll leave it just like put a tab in there for later. So, yeah. So, uh item C10.

If I might ask Miss Ray to come up and give a brief overview. I I don't like to just do it on consent because I think visit Loi and particularly this past year of all of the planning that's you all have initiated is important to to us and our city. So if you could just spend a few minutes giving kind of a brief overview of uh your annual report. Sure thing, council member, and uh thank you for the opportunity to talk a little bit about visit Loi, mayor and council. And congratulations, city man city manager Lindsay on uh your time here in Loi and the mark you left here. We appreciate it very much and congratulations to John. Um so visit Loi did have a busy year. You know, it was my first full year here. Um I'm on month 17 now, I think. And it was really a pivotal year setting the foundation for our future growth at Visit Loi. Um we did do two plans. Uh one was a sports plan which is still active and working a sports tourism marketing plan to really see where Loi's position in the sports tourism market is and also to help advocate uh and educate about the facility needs and requirements to host tournaments in this community. And that's going to be an ongoing project. We know there's budget challenges related around that. But I think there's a lot of good conversations happening. uh and I think it's been great to work with the uh city staff on that whole process. We also worked on our destination master plan really setting our path for the next five years where our priorities are as an organization uh everything from target markets and priorities and new opportunities um to promote and market our city uh to the world as a great destination uh that it is. Um, we also just did a lot of foundational work internally. Um, you know, really worked on establishing greater content on our website, launched a brand new website. So, hopefully you've all had the opportunity to see that. Um, and then just set it set the uh foundation for the year to come. Uh, which we started off with Loi Restaurant Week this year.

Um, which thank you for all the citizens and everyone who had the opportunity to dine out during Loi Restaurant Week. Um, it was a really successful week. Uh we've had such amazing feedback from the community whose number one reason for dining out was not necessarily value. It was to support the restaurant community which I really appreciate. Um but the restaurants uh really find it to be one of the best dining promotion restaurant promotions uh for small restaurants the community has seen. So we're thrilled about that. Um but yes, thank you. I know it was a 500page uh council packet. So hopefully you had the chance to uh read about what Visit Loi worked on um this past year. here and if you ever have any questions, you're more than welcome to reach out to me. U and lastly, I couldn't I would be remiss if I didn't talk about America's favorite small towns. Um so, as you may know, Loi has been in the running. There's 200 communities on the voting ballot for America's favorite small towns. Um we have been in the top 20 for a long time. We were number one for about 10 days. We've dropped down to number two. Um but we have about 11 days left of voting. And so, it's very important. So this is not just about u an article in parade magazine or the tourism recognition really what a great soft opening to talk about economic development and you know workforce development and bringing in new residents about Loi being America's favorite small town. So you can go to visit loi.com there's links all over the homepage uh to find the link you can vote daily uh and the voting ends on the 28th so all the support we can get is greatly appreciated. We've got a lot of support uh so far. Obviously, we wouldn't have been number one in the country out of 200 communities without the community support, but we need to keep it going for 11 more days. So, thank you all for that. Uh and if there's any question, I'd be happy to answer.

Thank you, Mr. Thank you much. All right, we go to C12. Yeah, just um we had this discussion with uh council already, but um can we just do a little summary about uh the reason for the rejection of of the bids and city's way forward on on that process?

Yeah, I can chime in on that. Um so this was uh originally started with public works just helping out the community development department on one of their abatement projects. um we kind of scoped the project with them on the full the full um demolition and kind of shoring it up. We put it out to bid with all our standard stuff and it came in a little too high for what they were looking for. Um so my understanding is they're going down a path with one of their um abatement contractors. Um so this is just a cleanup item on on our project that we put out initially. So the the project's moving forward. It's just we're doing it internally through an existing contractor. That's my understanding. Thank you, Mr. Nathan. Thank you. That's it, Mr. Mayor.

Thank you. And um I think our last item from the council is uh C15. For information purposes, I'd love to hear about some of the improvements and just what's on the horizon.

I could chime in on that also. Um so, public works worked with parks on this one. Um this one was started probably about a year ago and uh this was kind of a a couple of components to this. This included 170 additional parking spots as well as a connection loop around a Century Boulevard kind of making the circulation to the park much better. Um, so that was kind of the main key part of it as uh required by the building code. We had to make provisions for uh EV chargers there. That is a requirement of the new building code. So, while the Chargers aren't in yet, all the infrastructures in for them, we're just waiting on um on kind of the city's working on a study to determine the best way and and move forward with I think it was a co-op is where we ended up, right, on on how our publicly owned chargers are going to be handled. And so, we've just set money aside from this project to once that in has kind of been resolved to get those chargers in. But all the infrastructure is there for them. Um, obviously we had some ADA stuff. Parking lot lighting was added for the whole the whole parking lot there, as well as pathway lighting all the way from Heavenly, which is on the east side, the Heavenly Street all the way to um Lower Sack.

Thank you. I I want to ask a follow-up question. So, the the chargers are these for like how fast like charging? Uh, these are level two, so kind of the medium. They're like two, you know, 240 volt ones. Same as we have in the parking lot at city hall. Okay. And do we have any like around the city that you know there uh because I've been getting this question uh do we have some that charge fast in the city or do we have plans of having those in the future?

I think I can take that. Um so we do have a contract coming before council. It's probably going to be March April. We have selected a vendor based on that public private partnership. It will include a combination of both level two and DC fast charging. So we don't currently have DC fast chargers owned by the city. Um there are other private chargers located throughout the city, but our project will include that. Thank you so much. Okay, so we will move to public comments. Uh would any member of the public would like to pull an item or comment on a consent item? I don't have any card.

Okay, seeing none, I will go back to council. Any more comments, council? Seeing none. Um so my item now I want to pull it from consent. So how will we do that to vote on then independently?

Yes. So I have C6 that we still need to vote on separately and then it will be C9. Um and then we can take the rest of consent calendar after that. Um so I have the motion and the votes for C6 city attorney. Can we still take those or do they have to revote for those? No, we have we have the motion to move C6 to the March 4th and a second by council mayor promote. So, it would just go back to council for final vote. This is for item C6 to move it to March 4th. Okay. And it passes.

Now, mayor, you can take a motion um for C9 since that will be voted on separately. Okay. We entertain a motion to vote on C9. I'll make a motion. Second. Okay. And it passes. And now I will entertain a motion for the rest of the items. So moved.

Second. And just for clarity site, that will be items C1 through 5, C7 and 8, and C10 through 17. Okay. And it passes. Okay. So, now we're going to move to public comments. Uh, city clerk, do we have any public comments on non-aggenda items? Mayor, I do not have any comment cards.

Okay. I will um ask the public if anybody would like to comment on any non-aggenda items. See none, uh would anybody from the council would like to comment on non something that is not agendaized? Councilwoman uh Craig Um I I just want to clarify something. This is a pretty packed agenda tonight and um per the protocol manual, council is supposed to receive uh the packet on Thursday. Um it's my understanding that both council and the public did not receive it until Sunday afternoon. Um I'm uncomfortable with moving forward with some of the items, particularly the fact that I did not have a chance to read all of the um agreements uh tied to items G8 through G15. There's a lot to absorb in this particular agenda and I did attend the downtown uh specific plan meeting last night and I just feel that those items I'm ready to move forward with uh the regular calendar and the resolutions from G1 through G7 in the public hearings. But I would uh request respectfully that we move items G8 through G15 to the March 4th calendar. That's all I have to say on that. Okay, thank you. So, it was G8 through G what number?

15. Okay, thank you.

Thank you. See, uh none items, we will move to our public hearings.

Mayor, we have two public hearings for tonight. Uh the first public hearing is to consider adopting a resolution setting pre-approved engineering news record adjustment index for usagebased and flat water rates for residential, commercial, and industrial customers and public works will be presenting this item. All right. Thank you. Good evening, uh, mayor, council members. We are here tonight to conduct a public hearing to consider adopting a resolution setting pre-approved engineering news record adjustment index for water rates. And this slide is just going to provide you a little background on the water rate setting we have done in the past. On January 17, 2024, city council adopted a rate schedule for a five-year period. Annual rate adjustments over the five years are to be based on the engineering news record index or the ENR, but capped at 5% max. Uh the proposition 218 procedure that was conducted affirmed the schedule and an updated financial model was created as a part of the 2023 rate study and is used to analyze these proposed rate adjustments we bring to you. And tonight's staff recommendation is a 2.4% increase in rates effective March 1st. And while the max increase approved is 5%, the average annual ENR index change for 2025 was 2.4%. And again, these were pre-approved increases from the January 17th, 2024 council action, but historically staff has brought these annual adjustment requests back to council for their consideration.

And this next slide is just going to give a brief update again on the water meter program installation status. Um 100% of single family meters have been installed and effectively 100% are being built on water usage. Phase 9, which we just completed the multif family meter installation. Um like I said, it's complete and 100% effectively are being built on water usage as of January of this year, 2026. Um, and we just want to point out that we're aware that some duplexes and single family homes probably were missed in um, some of the conversions and we'll be addressing those and converting these to flat um, to usage based this year, which is why you'll still see some flat rates that were published in the schedule just because we know there are a handful out there that got missed. And here we're just going to give you a overview of the last seven years of our rate adjustments showing the Prop 218 max adjustment approved for each year. Uh the ENR index change and the actual rate adjustment that was implemented. Many of the years have been below the NR index and at times even below the Prop 218 cap. And this next slide is just a visual of the prior slide of the rate increase history. The black line indicates the Prop 218 approved cap, which prior to 2025's 5% was 3% max. The gold line represents the ENR index, and the blue is the actual rate adjustment that the city implemented. And just to note again, the large dip in 2021 was the rate sunset approved by council in 2017 that rolled the rates back to the 2016 levels. And this side is just going to show you the comparison of the current metered rates to the proposed rates based on the 2.4% recommended increase. For the fixed service charge, this is an increase of

56 cents per month. And for the metered charge, this is an increase of 2 cents per cubic feet per month for tier 1. And just for perspective, that is currently $136 per thousand gallons with the recommended rate increase to $139 per 1,000 gallons. A pretty low cost for the first tier. And this just provides an example of an average residential meter increase. For the average residential single family home that uses 1,500 cubic feet per month, they'll see an increase from $40.26 to 4116 or 90 cents per month. And the following slide provides an average water bill comparison of local surrounding cities, showing that we fall slightly below the middle range of the rates in the surrounding cities. And again, based on a $1,500 uh 1,500 cubic feet per month average. And this last slide is pulled from our water financial model and shows the planned projects through fiscal year 3031 totaling over just $56 million. And just want to point out um the column for 2930. This would be the start of our new Prop 218 procedure to set a new five-year rate schedule. But we just still wanted to show the planned projects that we have in the outy years and a reason for the need to keep up with the smaller incremental increases to keep up with inflation, but also to build up the fund balance to cash fund these large projects. Um allowing the city to keep up with the pay as you go strategy and avoid new debt is issuance.

You said uh Prop 215 218. 218. Can you go over that please? The Prop 218 one more time. Um, I know Katie, Proposition 218 is a state law that was adopted back in 1996 or went to went into effect in 1996, but it requires that uh we hold protest uh hearings. There's a 45day notice period before any of these water rates can be increased and everything. So, we do that every five years. Uh send out a ballot. There could be a protest procedure. So, in accordance with that, these were already pre-approved. So we just hold the the public hearing which is happening tonight in order to implement that planned five-year.

So the 25 million for capacity expansion. Can you talk about that a little bit further in 2930?

Yeah, I can right now. Um the so we build our plan our water treatment plant in 2012 came on board. It's it's been uh a great investment for the city. It's allowed us to switch right now to about 50/50 surface water versus water we're pulling out of the ground, which is a big topic right now with um with the state and with the the different GSAs. So, what this allows us to do is being that our plant is just in the north part of town, um we can only push water out of that plant so far south. And so, to to use as much as we can, we we've got a couple of tanks that we're building or have built to store that. You can push it kind of overnight. you can pump water further south. But what this project that's earmarked in there will allow us to do is um extend a a larger diameter line further south so we can push that further. And that's that's been a part of the plan since before the um the plant was built. That's just a later phase of that.

Okay. And when we're doing that piping, will we be having conversations about drainage as well? Uh that's a that's a completely separate discussion for for water service versus storm drainage, right? But if we're putting the infrastructure for I mean going to you're you're talking about the is this going to go to White Slooh then? No, no, no. This is just within within kind of the the town, you know, local town, not outside not to White Slooh. Okay. And there's no way to integrate when we're digging up for water, fresh water to redo our drainage system as well.

No, I mean we can have we can have drainage discussions any time if council wishes, especially with any specific topic, but um they're completely unrelated here. Okay. Thank you. Right. And so tonight's recommendation is to adopt a resolution setting pre-approved engineering news record adjustment index for usage based flat water rates for residential, commercial, and industrial customers effective March 1st of 2026. Thank you for the presentation. Um does councelor have any clarifying question for the staff? Councelor Bman. Um, correct. Hansley,

can you go back to the ENR slide so we can see that? And I'm not expecting necessarily an immediate answer, but it'd be nice to know this. Um, and perhaps the council member who was here at that time could share with us. Why in 2021 when the ENR was at 8 was there a decision to not go to the ENR but to stick with the three point? because it seems to me that has put us kind of behind the curve over time. So, does anybody happen to know why that actually happened? Mikey seems to know. So, co

So, that was during that and they decided that. Okay. Um, all right. I I guess that answers the question because it is does seem rather dramatic. I believe there was also a reserve um amount at that time that was in the fund and uh because it's a maximum of up to the ENR uh staff presented as us feeling confident that we could meet those rates without having to oppose additional increases on community members because it was during the pandemic and things. So they chose to and brought it to council as presenting and not needing to increase rates at that time. So they were comfortable with the baseline of three. Yes, that was my recollection that that remembering from that time.

So, thank you, Councilman. How many times have you seen this presentation right now? Many. When are we going to vote on it? Today is is final. Yes. Is that what we're going to do today? Yeah. So this comes every year with with the recommendation or the comparison of the ENR and then every five years when we do a new Prop 18 that comes kind of as a separate deal. Okay. Any more comments from council? See none.

Just one last thing. I if I could can I get a future outline? I I don't have a problem voting to approve this night, but I would like a outline of what that $25 million in 2029 is going to spend for. Yeah, we can we can give you a breakdown. Thank you. Okay. So, now I need to open the public hearing, right? So, I will open the public hearing at 7:57 p.m. Uh, city clerk, do we have any public comments? Uh, would anybody from the public would like to speak on this item? None. I will go back to council. Any last comments from council? Then I will entertain a motion.

Mr. Mayor, we need to close the hearing. Oh, yes. Sorry. So, I will I will close the public hearing at uh 7:58 p.m. So, now I'll entertain a motion. Move to approve. Second. Okay. And it passes. So we'll move on to the next item.

F2 is the public hearing to consider waving the first reading and introducing an ordinance revising Loai Municipal Code section 13.20.240 schedule G1 general service group one commercial/industrial and section 13.20.250 2550 schedule G2 general service group 2 um commercial/industrial community benefits incentive discount and I will turn it over to electric utility for this presentation. It's kind of soothing to be there. Right.

Do you want me to unplug Olivia and plug back in?

All right. All right. Thank you, Olivia. Uh, good evening, Mayor and Council. We are here to conduct a public hearing on the community benefits incentive discount. That discount is located in two of our rate schedules, which is the G1 and G2 uh small commercial. So, next slide, please. A little bit of background. Uh we're going to go ahead and call it the C bid so I don't have to keep saying community benefits incentive discount. Uh this discount was adopted back in 1996. provides for a 30% discount on monthly electric charges. The current qualifications include 501c3 status as determined by the IRS and CDBG recipient status within the past two years. So the discount was originally established to encourage the development and continued operation of organizations providing direct benefits to our community here in Lodi. It was never anticipated to be fiscally neutral or positive. We talked about this a little bit back in October about how we're currently funding it um with operating funds. So, we have about 14 entities now who currently receive the discount. I cannot disclose to you who those are in a public forum. Um those the customer information and the account discounts are private. We do have five customers that are currently ineligible under the current criteria that we've discussed. The cost of the utility fairly minor. It's about less than

$30,000 annually. Put it into perspective that is 0.03% of our total annual budget for the electric utility. Next slide again. So current situation as I had mentioned we talked about this a little bit back in October about the eligibility requirements and the funding source challenges. So council directed staff to bring this back uh change the funding source from our operating funds to public benefits what's called a public goods charge and amend the applicable rate schedules which are G1 and G2. Our rates are located in the LOI municipal code. So the changes that we're proposing are really to both clarify and broaden the eligibility criteria. Next slide. So the proposed ordinance changes. We are looking to remove the requirement regarding CDBG recipient status. Most of the folks who are ineligible are because they fall outside that two-year window that they had to receive funds or they hadn't received CWBG funds. So that's the reason for removing that criteria. Uh proof of IRS uh recognized 501c3 status that remains the same. We are asking for because of the funding source a self-certification that the nonprofit who's applying for the discount either serves a lowincome and or disadvantaged community. We define low income as at or below 60% of median income. That's consistent with our other lowincome programs such as our share and our our care discounts. So the other criteria for self-certification is that the nonprofit serves populations residing in what's called a disadvantaged community as determined by Cal Envirroc screen. So if those of you who are familiar with Cal Envirroscreen,

it's a California mapping and screening tool. It essentially identifies areas of town that are disproportionately impacted um by economic and social factors. So for Loi in general, that part of town, it's bound by Sacramento Street, uh, Guild, Kettleman, and Turner. So, um, that area of town would, um, be key for us in determining eligibility for these nonprofits, that they're able to demonstrate that they serve communities there. Uh we're also asking for certification that the nonprofit is not suspended from any federal assistance programs, proof that the entity is in good standing with the Secretary of State, and then similar to our other programs, uh LEU would conduct an annual eligibility review. Next slide, Olivia. Thank you. So the timeline for this action, obviously we're here tonight uh to conduct the public hearing, introduce the ordinance. Uh March 2026, the ordinance would be adopted. LEU plans to work with community development staff to reach out to nonprofits and community organizations um including the existing discount recipients. will conduct outreach uh posting at the library, city hall finance, obviously add the information to our website, social media, and then in April when the ordinance takes effect, we'll begin accepting applications for the discount. So, next steps recommendation obviously uh here to answer any questions you might have. uh open the public hearing, receive any comment from council and the public, and introduce an ordinance revising the LOI municipal code sections G1 and G2 of our rate schedules.

Well, thank you so much for that presentation. Uh does does council have any clarifying question? And I see um councilwoman uh Greg Hensley.

Thank you, mayor. Um thank you very much for bringing this forward. Um, I've had gotten calls from uh nonprofits who did not qualify on the CDBG and I think this is what they were looking for. I met with the United Ways Loi Nonprofit Alliance this past week. There were about 20 or so organizations represented there and they very much appreciated that this was moving forward. U just a question. I'm assuming it's um you don't have to be 100%. If you're serving that population, you're not demonstrating it's 100%. it's a certain percentage or whatever that you know is uh meets uh the um requirement that we've imposed on this on this initiative.

That's correct. The self-certification form um it it has the statement at the bottom that says I declare under penalty of perjury that we're serving. We're not clearly defining a percentage of population. Um again, the intent of this discount is to help organizations that are helping the community. So, what we're doing with the self-certification form is trying to screen out um your your local snack bar at the school um that may not necessarily qualify for a discount that's that's a nonprofit um that doesn't hold a utility account that's not a customer of the utility. So, that's the intent.

Okay. I I appreciate that. And I assume that within that uh disadvantaged area that we're including the census track, correct? Okay. That that's all I uh had to clarify. So, thank you very much. Thank you. Um Councilman Mcani. Yeah. Uh good program. There's no reason why this disbanded. Uh the 14 organization, I would like to know who they are, how much they get. Not right now, but whatever you if you give me the information later on. I I think if that's something we'd have to discuss with the city attorney because these it's utility account specific information. We're not able to share who specifically receives it and how much because it's account information.

Then who choose it? Who makes the choice in the organizations going to who makes a choice on the organization they're going to receive this? So the organizations that currently receive it are based on the criteria that's that's in the program now. And then you you look at that see if there criteria and so forth. Correct. This criteria was looked at many years ago. How about the amount you you're giving? How do you determine that? The amount was a fixed percent of 30% on the total electric charges and the total amount you gave a year each year is 230,000. Uh correct. That's the value based on the 14 entities that are currently receiving the discount.

Thank you. Okay. I don't need information. You can't give it to me. It's still a good program. Good. Thank you. Uh any more comments from council? Seeing none, I do have a comment. Um I think I have brought this before. So this is more for the staff. Uh I would like to see a similar program for the private sector for companies that are located to Lor and we can explore how that could happen and I know that there is some legal implications why we cannot do this or why we can't but I want to see explore that. I want that research.

That could be a probably an economic development option. I'm looking around for see if Luis is here on um maybe beneficial rates and things for inviting businesses to come to the city. Is that what you're looking for? Yeah, like look at other cities how how they have done programs similar what they use how effective were these programs do some of that research to bring it in another city council meeting. Yeah.

Okay. Thank you. So, we we do I just want to mention really quick. Sorry, Luis. I didn't know you were going to mention it. Um, so the electric utility does currently offer what what's called the EDR, the economic development rate. So, new businesses um are eligible for a discount. The larger discount is actually part of the new jobs discount, and we amended that program um a couple of years ago to expand it. So, it's based on the number of jobs. The highest discount you can get is 8% on your electric charges. And that discount lasts up to 5 years depending on the number of jobs that are brought to the city. Okay. And how does that work? Like the program like how do we us determine like all of that?

So we we have a number of larger customers that are currently receiving the new jobs discount. There is a whole application process they go through. We review annually. um these companies have to retain those positions and it's not just they don't get a discount for filling vacant positions. It's about adding new full-time positions, full-time equivalents. So, we request um not their personal records. We don't want their personal records, but we do require them to provide proof of the positions that they have. And so, in order to maintain that discount, we follow up with them annually. Okay, that's a good program. So for example, if a new company relocates to Lori, then potentially all the expansion will qualify as

correct. Okay, that's correct. So they could either they could apply for either or the new jobs discount um or the new business discount. Thank you so much. You're welcome. All right, so I will open the public hearing at 8 uh 8:11 p.m. Uh city clerk, do we have any public comments? Seeing none, I would like to invite the public if would you would like to participate in giving us a public comment on this item. Seeing none, I will go back to council and I will mayor close the I will close the public hearing at 8:11 p.m. move to approve. Second.

If I can just clarify the m the motion was made by Mayor Potamothi. Thank you. All right. And it passes. So now we're going to move to a regular calendar.

Yes. Um, regular calendar item G1 is to receive a presentation of the LOI economic development strategic plan and consider resolution adopting the plan. And I will turn that over to our interim city manager.

Thank you. I will just quickly check in with the city council. Um, the Luis Aguar, our economic development director, has a PowerPoint presentation and is prepared to give it tonight so you all can take action on the plan. Uh during my 101 meetings with the council earlier this week um became evident that there may be a desire to continue this item to May March 4th. The consultant is out of town and flies in. Um so they rearranged their flight uh to come in instead of tonight to come into March 4th. However, we are prepared to provide you all the information presentation so you all can take public testimony and take action on it tonight if that's the desire of the council.

Thank you so much. So I'm going to turn to council and um I'm going to like see what they think about this. Mayor, um I I think what I'd like to do is move forward with um Louisa's presentation. um just because I think getting the information out there and getting the comments from the public um if there are comments from the public that may impact the plan and and we think something could be added then if I'm correct in assuming that it can come back to uh a follow-up meeting. Correct. Yeah. That's the will of the council. The vote is to continue it then it comes back.

Okay. So since he's all prepped and ready, I would move that or I would recommend we go ahead and at least move forward with the presentation and then hear from the public.

Yeah, I agree. And then this gives the public more opportunity when the consultant next time they're here, there's more public engagement. So yeah, let's do the presentation. Good evening, council. Luis Agelar, economic development director. And as mentioned, uh this was originally planned to have a consultant here. Uh so I'll do my best to highlight some of the things that they've prepared for this uh presentation but um uh a few years ago council identified u economic development as a big uh goal strategic goal and uh and then the economic development ad hoc committee was formed to kind of oversee the u development of this plan and the implementation and I wanted to acknowledge our chair uh Mark Chandler who's here in the audience uh who's been uh instrumental in in leading this effort and uh there's Uh obviously a number of other folks uh that are part of the committee including Monica um from uh Super Tortis Chilangas. We have Mona Schulman from Pacific Coast Producers. We have Steven Griswald uh one of the residents here. We have Bill Herren, retired uh economics professor from EOP. And um and then we have also two ad hoc members uh council member uh Craig Hensley and council member uh Bregman. And I think that Oh, and then Russ Mson from uh Wine Roses. So that's the entire committee that's been involved from the start in developing the scope for for you know doing the RFP for the consultant and also instrumental in u and in and seeing everything through throughout this process. So the consultant group is the NO group and they have extensive experience in doing economic development planning throughout California. um uh just focus on on a variety of things. And so they

were the lead consultant team um in this effort. Um and they did work with um economic growth strategies who focus more on the industries and the business attraction um uh components of the of the contract. And uh again uh and this this this firm you know you you had a a consultant that had been in the private in the public sector for many years doing economic development. So we get to see both sides of uh of the practice and and really you know it it it shows in how the uh implementation plan or the action plan uh comes to life. And then finally we had RM um to do uh some of the scope was just comparing uh different cities and and and their um permitting processes. Um it was a high level u uh uh analysis. didn't go into the details of comparing, you know, dates of of processing, but really just what are other cities doing that we can incorporate. So, the the process was um you know, throughout this whole year, uh we've had a number of Oh, did I skip it? Okay. Oh, so so one of one of the things in was a swan analysis really looking at what are our strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and and threats here in our community. It also included uh market studies on demographics, target industries and uh some real estate analysis. Um and in the next slide we'll talk about the uh the stakeholder engagement. Um but this this draft was presented to the uh committee. It was also uh available for public review uh during the first couple of weeks of of January and we received we received input and and and incorporated that into into this version and so we are here tonight to present the the plan. So, as mentioned, uh, we had a couple of community engagement workshops. Um, we started in the summer and then we did

another one in the fall. And at the same time, we convened a group of u, uh, community stakeholders which included a private representation. We had superintendent of school district. We had multiple businesses representatives. Um we had the chamber, the um visodi and you know just a a very diverse group of stakeholders because we wanted to be communitydriven and this is not a staff um you know develop u plan. This is really what does the community want? what does the community see as a future uh for LOI? And so uh this is um and some of the things that that we focus on um and and in the discussions at the task force meetings that that then it became a conversation and focus group was development friendliness that was a top a topic of discussion. We also focused on workforce development and small business and entrepreneurial development. So for these three areas, we had a focus group that convened and and and provided the feedback directly to the consultant and then we also had individual interviews um that you know for example if there was a focus group and development friendliness then they you know we opened it up so they can have a one-on-one conversation with the consultant and really get some very specific feedback and and that that was that resulted in over 20 interviews with individuals. So what did the SWAT analysis tell us about Loi? Uh Loi has a lot of great strengths, right? We have our strategic location. We can go to the bay. We can go to uh the mountains and we're right we have I5 and 99. And so for business, I mean you you see you see how low I began as a community. It was a you know it was a lot of commerce, a lot of with the trains uh bringing goods in and out of the city. And so, uh, we're strategically located. Obviously, a big, uh, part of that is the agricultural industry that, yeah, over the last

couple of years has suffered, but I think we're, you know, it's kind of flattening out and that's a good indicator. And, um, that also helps drive our wine industry and our tourism here, uh, as a community. So, these are some great assets that we have here. Um we also have been able to um you know attract high-tech firms like Sephiid who now employs over a thousand people here in our manufacturing um in in Loi. And so how do we capitalize on some of those strengths and and build forward? Um again, uh sports and recreational assets, those those are important and it ties back to some of the things that uh Wes mentioned, uh and their studies and and so we're trying to incorporate all that into our, you know, citywide strategy and we're very intentional about trying to match what's going on in the community. So all the plans in line because I think that's very important. It's going to take a lot of partners. So that that was highlighted. Um, obviously our historic downtown Wes also talked about it and so with that we're also doing our our downtown specific plan and so those those plans go uh go together but we have tremendous potential as a community to bring a different thing. So you know when I first started here I I thought about loi well you can go and go have some wine but you don't have a place to stay. And so that's an untapped potential where you can have that um you know recurring visitors that can stay like like you do in Napa, right? So and that that's where our downtown plays a big role in and and expanding that. And again the the small town feel um everyone knows each other here. Everyone is invest in the community. So, you know, it's it's about partnerships and you'll see in in in in the presentation forward the number of of partnerships that we think are uh important to to this effort. Um, and again, we we have

uh great places to go and eat. Um again I I keep mentioning back to uh visit Loi's presentation the uh the restaurant week was a was a great example of how we have those opportunities here and we can expand on those as as we develop the downtown and and elsewhere too. Um, I think what's also important is looking at the potential beyond what's already in the boundaries and and how can we go to the next level and expand into those untapped markets basically. I mean the the undeveloped land in our sphere of influence which is also part of this plan. Um again uh working with all all these folks here um it really highlighted all those strengths. Um now the weaknesses is um one was that we don't market this a lot right uh we hear the term uh LOI is one of the best kept secrets well why is it a secret let's start marketing why it's important to visit Loi and and and do business here as well um one of the big challenges that council identified in their strategic vision was the uh low median household income and so it's no secret that LOA has the second lowest in the in the in the county um at the city of Stockton and it's uh it's LOI. So all these efforts are are are instrumental in in in in bringing the income levels um up for the community. There's new development, there's more more money, there's more um sales tax, property tax and and so forth. You get the idea. But um also limited resources for startup businesses. And I think this is where we can play a role as you know from from day one when when someone's interested in in opening up a business. Well, that's why having a position like mine or a department is is important because we can start having those conversations up

front and then we can then uh you know do do the handholding and connect them with our building department and and and Dererick's done a great job in and you know since he's been here and trying to uh be that point of contact at the building department to to get them uh moving. And so um you know we want to be able to have more resources available and that's going to take partnership with the chamber with the small business development center. Um but you know a weakness is an opportunity. That's the way I see it. Um again the recreational facilities we all know um um how you know those could um be better. Um uh our proximity to Stockton creates that image problem. Um but at the same time I I see that as an opportunity when you think about hospitality. Well people don't want to stay in Stockton so they come to Loi and so that's an advantage that we have. Um again the the employment opportunities to attract young professionals. I when I'm in the community I hear folks say you know people from LOI leave and they don't come back. And so one of the reasons is because the jobs that they might seek don't exist here yet. And so how do we start attracting some of those uh those those potential jobs for our community? I mean, um, so that's important because then that then that generates the the the desire for folks to live downtown and in a condo, in a studio. I mean, so, um, that's all again, it's a it's an opport it's an opportunity the way I see it. And then, you know, just the reputation for our approval or permitting process. I mean, it's it's the reputation, but that's something that we can fix because at the local level, you know, we can't control the market. We can't control um you know the we can't control what something costs, right? But we can definitely control how we um approached the permitting process because that's one of the few things that we actually control. And so there's

the opportunity there um as well. And um you know some of the things that came out of this that city was underst staffed and this was all part of the the overall conversation. These are themes that that rose from there. I I talked a lot about opportunities and and you know downtown again I'm going to sound repetitive but um the these are these are some of the things that when we're talking about the weaknesses these are the opportunities. So, um, one one that I want to highlight is the infield development and reuse reuse of vacant buildings, right? So, yes, we have potential for growth in the future, but we also still have some infield sites that we can capitalize on and and and some existing buildings that could be transformed. Um, and then obviously, uh, one of the things that came up was looking at other areas like the Cherry Cherokee Lane corridor. um that is our entryway into LOI and so it right now it doesn't look the way that you know maybe the community wants it to look but that's a you know it's it's zone mixeduse corridor so there's opportunity for housing there there's opportunity for more mixeduse uh developments and so that's an area that we should focus on in the future as well and then uh at the strategic uh visioning session uh I think it was mentioned that the I5 corridor that on that city land is there potential for some, you know, economic development opportunities there. Um, we we've heard of the hydrogen in affinity project that Pen's proposing. Well, could some of that land be used for other research and development similar in the energy sector or um clean tech? um uh some of threats agent infrastructure um obviously the utility capacity uh for future development but there's a plan for that already and and um so right now

that could be a threat but it's again going to tie it back to the opportunity um and then just the the increasing problems of big cities and so we we we know that that's a that's a reality in this community and any community. Um just on the on the population trend, there's been a decline in general um of people having less kids, right? And so that translates into uh less u less less capacity at less kids at the schools and so then that's less talent being generated um in the long term. Um and then another thing that was identified as a threat was how east and west loi are divided. Um that's just um you know that's something that the downtown specific plan will try to address as well making that connection and and really bringing uh both sides together. Um one of the things we did we looked at what the region has been planning in terms of their strategic vision. Um the North Valley Thrive region includes Sanwaqin Merrced and Status County. Um there are 13 regions in the state that then lead up to the state of California's economic blueprint. So every region is doing their own planning and so uh what we thought was to try to align with some of those things because we already have manufacturing right so how how can we tempt into more of the advanced manufacturing like sephiid um and those companies um clean energy it was identified as a regional strategy so um we've also um thought that would you know align well and then also this new concept of bioircular economy which is really taking biomass and re redoing ret taking taking it and doing something else that's useful. So, uh you know, for example, we've been approached um you know by a company that wants to take uh

sludge and convert it into some type of hydrogen. And so that's an an example. There's another one um that takes walnut shells and converts that into energy. So this is kind of the idea behind bioircular economy. Um the the dark the targeted uh industries that we have here in Lo Lai obviously are aggra business, food processing and technology. Um so continue to focus on that as they align with the uh regional strategies also arts, entertainment, recreation and tourism. That's that that's directly uh related to the downtown plan and what we want to um attract here. So the the hospitality, the entertainment, the restaurants. I mean, um, you know, I I would love to have a rooftop bar, right? That that'll be nice in downtown. And so those are some of the things that that I I think uh will work well here. And and and the concept at the regional level was the placemaking. So it's a lot of people want to be in certain places for many reasons whether it's schools um you know just the civic engagement the amenities and we already have a lot of great bones here with our downtown and and everything that you know the load out lake we have the lake we have I mean it we have a a museum um so that kind of ties into um this area this this uh industry cluster and obviously the the wineries that we have um here as well. And as I mentioned, an area and opportunity is the the biotech biomed. Um so focusing on that as well. And then clean energy, advanced manufacturing, we I talked a little bit about those. Um but really getting the workforce ready for those industries is is a big part of it. Um so we have to work with our workforce development partners and involve industry in those conversations. So, um, we want those

companies to tell us what is the next career they're looking for to to fill those the jobs. It shouldn't be just the educational institutions saying this is what we're producing, but really involving the the private sector in those conversations. So, um, the plan has eight strategy categories um, and they're kind of broken down into segments. Uh one is business development, job creation and the other one is creating an environment for economic progress. Um these are not in any order. Um I I I I think that creating an environment for economic prog progress contributes to the other categories. Um but you know on on the business retention expansion uh front the one of the things we could do and and as was identified as a strategy is to create a a formal business retention and expansion program and that's where you know having our partners like Gloria Electric to come out with us to um meet with the companies and tell them about some of the programs and resources that they have um is important and we can bring our workforce development folks to talk about some of the training dollars available Um and then as a city we can learn about what their future plans are as a company. Where can we help your growth? Um and and and so having a a business retention expansion program kind of helps formalize that and you can set quarterly meetings with the companies or or you know we can identify who are top companies that we want to um have regular meetings with and and uh that's part of that and and again the target industries I already went through entrepreneurial development that's important in terms of bringing innovation and and new and and new type of companies. Um we're actually doing a thing with um u open innovation centers where we're going to host um a pitch event here in in Loi. So that ties into

that strategy where you know these are uh entrepreneurs trying to find the next uh tool or product that they um you know are creating and and we want to be able to say hey lo LOA is a place where you can bring your idea and and and nurture it here so we can help you grow. Um and obviously the the branding and marketing is is very important. Um in terms of business friendliness, development friendliness, there's you know one of the one of one of the um things that was identified here was having a business concier program and really tying back to um a position that uh is a business onbudsman. someone that is in economic development but can walk uh through u all the requirements alongside with community development because it is a you know it is an internal partnership but having that that key person in economic development to guide some of these uh business um processes with with the potential um new customer or business. Um and then the other category development site ready is really having the state has the certification program for having sites that are um what we call shovel ready. And so it's it's hard to try to bring a project to um to the city when uh you know we don't have a site for um what the project's looking for. So identifying some sites and having the right um infrastructure in place is important and trying to get especially on on the bigger um bigger companies and then uh again the placem was was mentioned and also the education and workforce development component. This plan is ami ambitious. It's, you know, we mentioned eight focus areas and there's 60 specific action items. Um, the way that it's broken down in uh year

one, what can we do and some of the things we've already started doing um and then year two there's other actions and then beyond that. So this is intended to be a fiveyear roadmap. U doesn't mean that you can't do what you know in year two you can't do something in year one, right? So, but that's it's just a road map um uh to guide us for the next five years as as a as a city and in this effort. Um and then again just some of notes that that rose up was the agent infrastructure, the um utility capacity and um and the big city problems. I think um I've kind of highlighted all these um categories so I don't won't go into detail as to what specific things I I try to highlight a few in in each um but this is um an example here um and same thing with marketing it's about you know doing the outreach to devel to the firms participating in trade shows going out to different um uh to to to different events that were you know meeting with brokers. Um so that that's all captured in the um and action items. Uh let's see I think it's moving on its own. Um, okay. So, for the business development friendliness, I mean, I I really want to highlight this one because again, as mentioned, this is an area that we can we can help control as a city. And so, um, you know, just working with our, uh, other departments to figure out ways to, um, improve our process. Um, it's not always about time. Uh, that's one of the things I wanted to emphasize. It's really about having that certainty. So, uh, when projects are planning and and and developing their

own timeline and their financials, they know that, okay, whether it's going to take six months or three months, I know that by that day, then we're going to have entitlements, right? So, it it's really about the certainty and in the process. I I I think zoning flexibility is another area. Um uh there are some examples that you know we've seen now where does that really need a use permit or is there a way to make it easier where you know it's it's allowed by right? I mean just because you know just if it there's things in the shopping center that make sense then you know there there's ways that we can uh or require a minor use permit so it doesn't have to go to planning commission. So that's what that um addresses and and and again the business development on budsman um and position um again some of the themes that we've identified is the implementation of the downtown specific plan uh the business attraction and in different areas. Um this this is tied back to uh placemaking. So it's going to focus more on the hospitality and the retail. Um, and you know, housing is a catalyst, especially in downtown. Um, and that that could really drive um more more growth in terms of just density where we want it. Um, and uh yeah, education, workforce development, just working with all our partners. Um we we believe that um these groups here are important to to um helping us advocate and and move uh this forward. Um there's the list is extensive um but these are just some that we've identified. Here's some regional and state organizations. Uh but we've tried to include um you know folks that we've already been

working with and also some that we haven't and and that's that's okay. But that just kind of expands our reach as we um get into uh the implementation of the plan. So the other thing we wanted to do is um have key performance indicators and and and really measure some of the progress. Um when I mentioned business attraction, we can start tracking. Okay, if I attend a trade show and so vital international is a big trade show in San Diego, then we can start setting up meetings with different firms and we can start tracking how many we've touched and throughout the process. Um same thing with the business retention expansion uh program where we can start tracking um the the businesses we visit and and the you know the information um as well as um being approached by new new companies, new new startups. Um and then the other thing I will highlight here is just um at at the strategic vision we um which was um we've identified being benchmarked against the median household income for the state. So we're 12% below that. Um and so think that that's you know a a goal that we can uh strive for and uh which makes it a little bit more realistic in terms of you know in the five years how how do we how do we benchmark against that? Um and then um you know marketing exposure through social media using analytics and all that. Um but yeah sorry it was it was quick. I I A lot of this was going to be covered by the consultant, but I you wanted to give you an overview and it's um you know the the the plan is still online. So if the public wants to um revisit it um more than happy to get more comments on that but thank you.

Yeah, first of all thank you for doing the presentation although it was the consultant so at the last minute you just knew the material and went. So that's very impressive that you were able to do that first of all. Um so um does council have any clarifying question? Uh councilman Nishia very thorough really thorough. Mike, you mentioned Royal Electric. Royal Electric Royal Electric, right? It was Loi Electric. Sorry. They're in Sacramento. No, it was Loi Electric. Sorry. Loi Electric. Okay. All right. Thank you. Council woman Craig,

you know, I just want to say we got the bang for our buck with $100,000 out of this. Okay. I just got to commend Mr. Agalar um and the uh steering committee. Uh we met monthly. Um Nielsson group did a great job of keeping us informed. Um I couldn't be more pleased. We have 60 specific actions and I think that's important to understand that we have to your point uh a roadmap but very specific and I think the second key point that you stated that represents in essence the stakeholder group the steering committee that we had is all of those business partnerships that are essential for us as a city uh to work with those organizations. Uh obviously the chamber, the DBA, visit Loi, the wine grape commission, they're all representative of businesses in the city that have a stake in our economic future. uh but even to the level of the Sanwaqin partnership for example the COG uh uh you know we we we really need to be working closely with them because I remember for the two years I've served on the partnership Loi was never one of the places identified by uh the partnership as an opportunity site for development um we just never saw it. it was Tracy, Mantika, Leup, uh you know, Mountainhouse for goodness sakes, but not Loi. So, this is the roadmap to that and I very much appreciate the fact that we are looking at quantitative the KPIs having quantitative measures of success. Um I think that's going to be essential. Um and I I look forward to um in particular hearing the support and seeing uh the strategic role that our our chamber and our uh DBA and our other business organizations uh will be

playing and and feel they have a role. So just kudos Mr. Aguilar. Thank you so much. Any more comments from council? Councilman Breman.

I will make a few comments. I do remind K Cabota or I remind myself of why Kabota left which was years ago and it was because we don't have an economic development department. It's because we don't have specific or didn't have specific staff members that help private businesses get up and running. Uh bring them through the permit process, connect them again with everyone that's needed to make a business function. So, above all, I I don't even think we have to do anything fancy. I think the this plan was great. I think it helps with the basics. I think it shows us what we're doing, what we're not doing. Um, and again, the quantitative part, what gets measured gets done. Um, and I would just again reiterate, sometimes it's just the basics, sometimes it's just again, are we efficient in our development process? Are we open to businesses? And for us that actually run a company, own a company, manage whatever else, you know, we we go after business, right? And my opinion is the city should have that same mindset. We should be going after businesses and we should not just be the law, but we should be wanting businesses to succeed. So just overall thoughts on that and again I thought that the econ economic development committee has done a good job. So thank you to all involved. So before I open it for public comments I want to say there well my background is in economics obviously like I have a masters in economics. I have done economic development for my professional job. I haven't been part of this plan which I think it's going to change soon. Um but uh but it's very great to see all of this that I've been involved. So when I read the the staff report and the whole package like a few weeks ago, I

was I think there's a few things that are going to that I now that when I become part of the committee I can switch but uh but it's great that we're doing this. We never have done it in the city. So this is good in the good progress and some of my items that I have in the agenda actually are going to address the problems that we have. How do we make we're more efficient as a city? how we are more customer service like you were going to your point that you were saying it's not about the the time that a process take it's about how we deal with the uh I think of the residents as customers how we deal with customers how we give customer service so one of my items is going to talk about that so thank you for introducing that and with that I'm going to open it for public comments

mayor I don't have any comment cards but you're welcome to open it to the public okay I see some already.

I neglected to fill out a card, but Mark Chandler um the um the chairman of the committee and it's been a real honor to serve in this capacity. I'm so thankful that the council brought this forward a couple of years ago. Uh I also want to echo the mayor's comments that uh Luis Aguilar did a wonderful job tonight. I think he saved you about an hour and a half of consultants time next time around. So you may want to save the money on the air airfare in the hotel. So um but it's been a joy and you all do understand the priorities based on everything that was elucidated here. Uh updated processes, better consu um customer service mindset uh in our departments will go a long way. Um but I also met with some of our you know they're listed several of our partners here today at the wine grape commission. and I met with the beam bioircular group. Extremely exciting opportunities for agriculture and for employment and for uh higher level education jobs in this area. So uh progress is being made and um the committee I know that one of your items is to extend the life of the committee. We would like to stay on for the implementation phase. So I encourage your support there and again uh just a terrific experience all around and thank you for your support.

Thank you for your comment. Mayor, it is now up to council if you would like to vote to adopt the resolution adopting the plan or if um to council member Craig's comments from earlier. If you would like to move it to the March 4th meeting, um this is the time to make a motion and a vote, whichever way you go. Councilwoman Craig.

Um I have no problem with us moving forward on a vote to accept the plan. I think as uh we heard from Mr. Chandler, it's going to be essential to have the ad hoc committee continue because that's been the driving force that keeps us moving forward. Um, I have uh heard from the chamber about ways that they would be interested in partnering with the city uh to support efforts moving forward uh maybe even taking on some of those roles of concierge and um uh you know dealing with specific actions of our downtown area that are more um business focused and certainly uh supporting greatly the concept of uh customer centered more businessfriendly um process for uh business um expansion um not just retention. So uh I'm I'm happy to uh unless somebody else in the council I'm I'm happy to make a motion to approve and begin the implementation of this plan.

I'll second that motion discussion. Is there mechanism? Yeah, I agree with you. We have a quorum here. They also agree with the extending the term of the economic development and that will be discussed on the next item. Yeah, this is the next item. But I do have a motion and and a second on the floor. So I will um bring up the page to start voting.

Oh well. And it passes. Great. And I will um turn item G2 also over to economic development uh director Aguular and it's to consider adopting a resolution extending the term of the economic development ad hoc committee for an additional year.

Yeah. So I don't have a formal presentation for this one, but just I'll be brief. Um the committee's term um ended a couple weeks ago. So um it's really their recommendation to continue at least for an additional year to see uh the first year of the implementation and at that point they can come back and with the recommendation I think one of the objectives of that ad hoc committee was also to advise on uh future economic development related committee whether that's a standing committee or or uh or another ad hoc uh uh but but the recommendation today is to um continue for an additional year.

Thank you so much. Does councelor have any clarifying questions about that? So, it sounds like there's buyin from everybody that want to stay and there's

Yeah. And then part part of the I forgot to let me just add it a little bit. Part of the reason why is that, you know, this plan was not adopted yet and then the downtown specific plan is also not adopted or hasn't been adopted. And so this committee also has um they're looking at the economic development components of the downtown specific plan. So that will allow them to uh also be engaged in that process. And so as as you've seen the downtown specific plan is also um right now live for uh public comment. It's um so it's on the plani.com website. So that that'll give the committee um the opportunity to also um um contribute to to that effort. Okay. Any more comments from council

seen? Oh, go ahead. I'm sorry. I I did want to thank you for making that point because I think that those two plans have to come together and there's an economic component. They're not quite overlapping yet. And I think that that is something I would like to see uh because we will be getting the downtown specific plan. I would like to see the ad hoc committee uh comment publicly on elements of the plan where there's an intersection or where the committee sees the need for uh some changes or some improvements. So, so I think that would be very helpful to engage them in that that comment process. So, thank you for that.

I'm just going to make a comment. uh like we here in the city council we are a team and I think uh we should all focus on things that are skills and our strengths that we're better and I think uh my district doesn't encompass a lot of downtown so I think it will be better that uh councilman Bregman focus more on the downtown specific plan and I go and be part of the economic development a committee at this point that they have done the part that I can take over now of that and um yeah like uh yeah so that's what my recommendation Mr. Breman,

I would be happy to give up my spot on the committee. I I would mention if you're hoping to take future spots in the future, might be nice to let people know in advance. Thank you. Well, it's like and we're not going to hear it back and forth, but uh there's a few things that have come out of that committee. That's why I'm making that determination right now. All right, let's go to public comments. Do we have any public comments? See none. Oh, yeah, we do.

Make me go the long way. Uh JP Dad, president, CEO, Loi District Chamber of Commerce. Uh first off, thank you very much for adoption of the uh economic development plan. Um, echoing all the sentiments of earlier speakers, it really was a uh communitydriven process and document uh managed very well by Mr. Agular. So, we're appreciative to see uh all that hard work uh be recognized and and uh be put in that document. But it really is all about now the implementation. That's why I do agree with keeping that uh ad hoc committee going uh to help see it through that initial phase um and then kind of take it from there. Uh and also that integration into the other planning documents or the uh finding that uh synergy between all the different planning efforts that are underway uh is crucial. So we at the chamber uh were very honored to be have been recognized uh numerous times within that document as a partner uh in that execution phase. We do have members that are represented in that ad hoc committee and look forward to uh getting that information uh from them as well as we work very closely with Mr. Aguilar. Uh and to his point, we are already working uh on a lot of these issues through our business development committee uh through the workshops and other programs that we've offered at the chamber in partnership with other organizations here locally. So we look forward to that work kind of being codified and continued. Um and also I would say that you know really um trying to to capitalize on the momentum that was created by bringing so many people to the table over the last year and a half plus through all these

different efforts um keeping those people engaged because I think um you know there really is a sentiment in the community that we've gone through these planning phases before and just to see a lot of those plans get shelved and not really come to fruition. We understand the funding potential funding challenges. We understand, you know, that these are multi-deade scopes of work in reality in terms of what we're taking on. The chamber's been around for 100 years. We plan on being around uh for 100 more at least. Uh so we'll be here uh throughout um the implementation of all these different uh plans and strategies. So again, thank you very much. Uh we look forward to working with all of you and um again kudos to Mr. Agular. Congratulations.

Thank you for your comment. Next speaker. No. Okay. Then we'll go back to council and I will detain a motion. If I might. Yes. Go ahead. um move to approve the extension of the term of the economic development ad hoc committee. And if I understand this correctly, that um Councilman Bregman is willing to step back to allow Mayor Yupez to take that other council slot. And so that that would be the motion.

I'll second if you're making a motion. All right. And it passes. Next item. Mayor, the next item G3 is to discuss and provide direction on the formation of a city council ad hoc committee to review and make recommendations on the city's delivery of services to the community. And interim city manager gonna turn it over to the mayor. He's gonna turn it over to the mayor. Perfect.

So going back for in the business plan was uh an economic development plan was category five which is uh created most uh businessfriendly environment. So what I'm proposing I have talked to many of you guys already but I will iterate that proposing a group of two council members people from the community then we look at a specific problems like for example how do we make the permits department more efficient how do we implement the customer service metrics for all the departments. So then this committee basically will do that. We will look at how what is happening in the permits department like the whole process do tests do until we find a a product that works and then bring it back to cancel. So that's what is the what and it will be the hard committee after eight months it will be dissolved again and it will give the recommendation to cancel.

Mr. mechanism. Yeah. You're the champion of this. This is your baby. Yes. I suggest that you get you be you be chair and the other one be vice mayor is as appropriate. The mayor and the vice mayor for this time term. I I would I would actually make the suggestion of is that how it's written in policy right now? No, it's not written in the policy. It could be any any council members, but I think that I it's my baby. I should be in it, right? I I would suggest Lisa. Lisa or myself. I my family's been in construction. Or you can have Lisa who owns uh runs.

I I'm I'm going to stand back from this one because I'm way too invested in this from a personal and professional point of view. So I I kind of think I need to step back in that regard. And you know, I I think that those you know, Mikey owns a bis a building. Um you have business. I think one of you should be the other. Happy to defer. Mike, you can take it. I I wasn't trying to get on the committee. I was I No, I appreciate I appreciate that, but um I have too many items that sit with city and so I I kind of want to step back and Okay.

All right. Yeah. Like I me and Mikey had a conversation about this a while ago. So Yeah. So if you want to be in the committee then welcome. Yeah. Good. Yep. So, mayor, are you providing direction for staff to bring back an item for council adoption? Yes.

Okay. Um, and with the transition with interim city manager Lindsay and upcoming interim city manager between now and the next city council meeting, we'll we'll make sure between the three council appointees, we'll work on something to bring back to council. Okay, thank you so much. And now I'm going to open it to public comments, right? Because I did do that. So, do we have any cards? Anyone from the public would like to speak on this item?

Uh, Mayor Yupez, council members, I think this is a uh a very interesting um proposal. I really like the idea. I think uh there have been some uh other uh local municipalities that have undertaken some targeted um approaches uh to this uh you know this is kind of more general. I think if my understanding is correct uh the intent is to look for opportunities uh for improvement and maybe kind of dive in on those. But I I do know and would be happy to provide um uh recommendations u through the city manager's office or city clerk's office of uh other groups or or um uh other cities that have have done sort of this kind of targeted evaluation of specific city processes and kind of a multistakeholder group um and have found uh that it has yielded some some good results. So, uh, with your blessing, I'd like to be able to be a resource, um, and kind of help funnel some, uh, models of this sort of, uh, analysis and, uh, kind of, uh, group work, um, to, uh, to to the appropriate people.

Yeah. No, and um, we will part of the staff report. It says there, the chamber will be part of it. We'll be one of the committee members, representative from the chamber. And, uh, I actually sent to Mr. Lindsay a staff reported it was like 50 pages I think with he condensed it to two pages. So if you could send that to Mr. said that'd be great and explains everything like why how and how other cities have done this what is the metrics that we're looking at and and actually can we share that with the whole council certainly this is your item um the what will be returning to the city council at a future meeting is the implementing resolution to form the ad hoc and also what would consist of the membership a lot of the implementation pieces that are in the document you're referring to would then also come back to the city council with the staff report and the resolution forming the committee. Additionally, I'm happy to distribute um the draft that you had sent to me out to the city council and also to the chamber.

Thank you so much. Seeing no more comments, I will entertain a motion. So move. Do you need a motion or is it just direction? We just need direction now. And it sounds like we do have a consensus from all of council to bring this item back for further consideration. So I I think we're fine on that. Thank you. Thank you for that clarifying question. So I believe G3 is P. Well, it's not G3 anymore, right, city clerk? G4. Yeah, G4, right?

Yes. So um G4 um has been we've staff is requesting to pull this item as they're um as we need additional time to finalize uh theou. So, um, staff is requesting that we pull G4 from tonight's regular calendar and the specific request to continue this item came from the union. They did request additional time. Um, so we wanted to honor that request. Um, and then I think council, we will just put this back on the agenda for March, March 4th, excuse me. All right. Thanks so much.

All right. So moving on to G5 is to adopt a resolution approving the memorandum of understanding between the city of Loi and the Lodai City Mid Management Association for the period of January 1, 2026 through December 31, 2028. And I will just note to council and um for those of us joining us in person, uh we do have a blue sheet for this item. Um, so the motion would need to include the blue sheet and I will turn it over to HR and they will take um over the presentation.

Good evening. My name is Christina Gonzalez. I'm the interim HR manager. Um, item G5 before you this evening is to request to adopt a resolution approving the successor with the LOI city management association um, also known as LCMMA. Uh the city and the LCMMA bargaining team have been working together the last several months to come to an agreement on the terms and conditions of the newou. In addition to meeting with bargaining unit, the bargaining unit, the city representatives have been meeting with the city council since November where the terms have been previously discussed. Before you tonight is a copy of theou. A few highlights to the newou include a three-year term from January 1st, 2026 through December 31st, 2028. A one-time 3% off salary schedule payment of base salary for all LCMMA classifications to be paid as soon as administratively possible. Effective January 5th, 2026, the city shall implement the January 1, 2026 compensation study by providing equity increases for classifications deemed below market over two years. Classifications determined to be over market pursuant to the January 1, 2026 comp study uh shall be Yated and will not receive an equity increase. 3% cost of living increase effective January 4th, 2027 and January 3rd, 2028. Um, and uh, Y-rated employees will receive a combination of COLA and off salary schedule payments not to exceed 3%. Classifications that received an equity increase in 2025 due to the IBW comp

study shall receive a 2% cola effective January 4th, 2027 and January 3rd, 2028. uh medical insurance. The city shall pay up to 90% of the medical premium by enrollment category for the lowest cost HMO plan available to the zip in the zip code 95240 effective the pay period in which January 1, 2026 falls. Um city will eliminate Kalpers's employee cost sharing contribution effective July 6, 2026. There is the implementation of California state disability SDI as soon as administratively possible. Increase by lingual incentive from $150 to $200 per month. Temporary upgrade pay shall be 10% or step zero of the range for the classification billing whichever is greater. Um, we are adding longevity pay effective December 21, 2026 to be paid on a per pay period basis at the following rates. For 10 years, it's 2 and a.5% and 20 years 5% increase. So staff recommends that city council approve theou between the city and LCMMA. And if you have any questions,

thank you so much for the presentation. Um does council have any clarifying question for the staff? Yeah, councilman Nakanishi. We spent hours on this and we made it equivalent not equivalent but fair, right? And raising the salaries up, right? Right. So, uh having gone through it, we spent a lot of time on it and we're happy that we could raise the uh med salary up higher. So, I see no reason why I would not vote for this. Thank you so much. More anyone would like to comment. Councilwoman Craig,

ju just to clarify, since I got a blue sheet with red lines, is there anything you'd point to that because it's it is a blue sheet that we should be paying more attention. I mean, there's a couple things in here that are more detailed than what, you know, we had discussed previously, but is there anything in particular other than what you reviewed that changes from what we've had discussions about in the past to this blue sheet document? Okay. No other changes. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Any more council comments? Seeing none, we're going to move to public comments.

Mayor I don't have any comment cards, but you're welcome to open it to the public. Will anybody in the audience would like to comment on this item? Seeing none, I will entertain a motion. So move second and it and it passes. Mayor, I just realized that we didn't mention the blue sheet. Yes, that's what I was thinking. Yes. So I'm happy to take a revised motion. Can

who did that motion? Yeah. All right. I'll do it. Yeah. So, we'll I'll offer the to move with the revised resol ensuring that the blue sheet is reflect motion. Thank you. And a second. We'll second. Okay. Council member Nakanish, if I can have you vote one more time. Sorry. Thank you. Thank you so much.

Right. Then it passes. Okay. So that brings us to G6, which is to adopt a resolution defining benefits and approving benefit modifications and compensation for for unrepresented unrepresented mid-management and general services employees. And I will turn it over to intram city manager for this item or HR. I can read body language from across the room. Um, this this is uh an item because our interim HR manager is part of this unit. I work with the unrepresented employees to come up with a benefit package that mirrors what the other units received. Um and so we what one of the differences we did this year uh with this group is in past years um the two um management general service employees were two different resolutions but they were both underrepresented. So this year you'll see this combined as one represented group that contains both of uh the classification employees. So you'll see some of the differences within the resolution to make sure that we identify the difference the difference in benefits small but important to document between the mid-management and general service employees. Um but they are consistent with what you are seeing across the board related to the purse cost sharing the 98% uh medical sharing and then the alignment with the total comp survey and the colas. So we're trying to build that consistency among all of our labor agreements including the unresented unrepresented group. So, be happy to answer any questions the council may have.

Come to a woman, Greg. I'm going to ask the question I've always asked on these um because we do have a fiscal impact. Um how are we paying for it?

So, there are there are because of the cycle of the negotiations of these in midyear um we calculated what those benefit costs would be. um in anticipation of these agreements being approved and that was brought to you in the mid-year budget adjustment and so that has already been approved. Um the source of funding for the alignment that the city council has made for the total compensation among our market cities um was done particularly from the health of the pension stabilization reserve uh and the ability for that uh because that is now over $31 million. the council at midyear chose to appropriate funds from uh the money that was waiting to be allocated to that reserve to fund the benefits and the salaries within these packages within the midyear. Um so that would be the source of funding that has been approved. These documents are now just following um the approval of the midyear. So as we look at future years uh there is funding available through that same mechanism based on the policy changes that you had made at midyear related to the pension stabilization fund that will then be able to f provide the ongoing funding for the uhou term of three years. I I would just note that um I think one of the components that you mentioned the comparative cities uh I do recommend to council that as we move forward next year with the next budget we look at are we really picking the right comparative cities when we get to negotiating another few years down the road. So, I think that's something that uh may be worth taking another look at um in in the next year about what cities we're aligning with. So, just a recommendation to council.

Could you repeat that a little bit? Councilwoman Greg, can you repeat that again? uh the comparative cities for the compensation survey were kind of set based on the past labor negotiation agreements as to what the cities would be. So I think it's worth revisiting are those truly comparative cities to where we are now or will be within the next couple of years as we move forward uh with the next stage. So I think that would merit uh a review and analysis during the next budget year. So that's if clerk might capture that in the minutes that would be a helpful reminder to us. So I appreciate

Yeah, that'll be very informative to me. So I will support that too. And for the record and for those listening, I wanted to um the council knows this. Um is that those comparative cities are established through negotiations. The direction you're giving staff is to look into an analysis of should there be changes to those comparative stud cities uh prior to the negotiations starting in the nextou terms that the comparative cities will not change over the term of theou that you're approving this evening. This is to uh be prepared for the next round of negotiations knowing that these studies do take some time. Question.

Yes. I assume that uh when you look the cities is just not the city's not the only person they decide right you have the workers they decide we agree I I is it always the same city the same amount or do we change it every so many years what's in agreement what's so there there is

yeah there's about 15 cities uh that are within each of the memorandum of understandings um some slight nuances so for instance a fire district wouldn't be in the police departmentou right but predominantly there's the same 14 to 15 cities are in all of the um similar are all in theus and we use the total compensation of similar classifications to determine if we are compensating our employees fairly and to market um and so those are established they're negotiated within theus yes when when are they negotiated every year every two years I mean it seem like yeah whenever theou is up the decision is made do We keep them or not? We do. We make the decision at that time. Correct. Thank you.

Yep. Any more comments from council? Seeing none, I'm going to move to public comments. Will anybody would like to comment on this item? Seeing none, uh I do have a a question because this is the employees that are not representative, right? How many people are in the category? I want to say like 22. I'm looking over to Christina to confirm. Yeah, it's low 20s. 22. And then historically they've been they haven't been in a union. Uh like why historically do we

correct? Yeah. That his and and that's not uncommon um from my experience to have a group of employees within these classifications to be self-represented um and uh through through an unrepresented group. Um clearly with California labor laws being what they are um you know it doesn't always have to be that way. Um historically that has been the way city has not discouraged any employees from doing anything differently. That just been a practice and it is a common practice that I see in other cities. Okay. Thank you. So with that uh we entertain a motion

secondly buzzes. All right. So that brings us to item G7 uh which is to adopt a resolution approving side agreement with city of Loi and local um 1245 international brotherhood of electrical workers and I will turn it over to HR for this um report as well. Item G7 is a request to adopt a resolution amending theou with local 1245 international brotherhood of electrical workers through a side two side letter agreements to amend benefits um and include the classification of a apprentice substation technician. The Lai City Council approved a successor with IBW that has a term of January 1, 2025 through December 31, 2028. The first side letter um uh representatives from the city and IBW have agreed to amend the benefits provided to their employees by creating a cafeteria plan. This is in accordance with Kalpers's intern and internal re revenue code section 125 to increase the city's contribution towards medical premiums to eliminate the Kalpers's employee cost sharing and agree that the city will not be implementing an health health reimbursement plan. So, um it's just amending the medical contribution

and the cost sharing and the um health reimbursement plan that had been voted for on theou is no longer going to be implemented. So, that's the first side letter. The second side letter is the city and IBW wish to include the classification of apprentice substation technician into the mo IBW that was not included as a result of a scrier's error. So we ask that city council approve these site letters.

Thank you so much. Um do council have any clarifying questions for the staff? Uh, Councilman Nanesian, sidebar, I'd like to commend Jeff, your crew. They've been around my district, not only my place. They're very courteous. And I was thinking to myself, we in Lo, we're lucky. We have electric utility. If I have a problem, I can call the uh you, right? And if they and then if if they're not hurt, they can call me, call us. So, very very lucky to have you like, very courteous and they do a good job. So, please commend those guys. Thank you.

Any more comments? See? None. We're going to move to public comments or anybody from the public would like to speak on this item. Okay. So, we we entertain a motion now. So, move. Second. Any passes?

So, moving on to item G8. Um so so before we start I think there is an interest from council to move uh G8 all the way to G15 to the next city council meeting. Okay. So how would I do that? So there would need to be a motion and a vote from council to continue items G8 to G to G15 to the next city council meeting. Okay, I will entertain a motion. Move to move G8 through J 15 to March 4th meeting.

Second. Is there public comments on this item? Do I need to say that? Oh, do I need to open the Okay. Yes. Yeah. Any action item needs public comment. Is there any public comments on this item? Will anybody likes to speak on this item from the public?

Uh JP Detai Chamber of Commerce. I appreciate the thoughtfulness to um kind of take a look at these um uh uh items on a longer time frame. I know that council was compressed in terms of their time frame to be able to analyze all of those. Um I do recall um I believe it was uh maybe about a year ago during midyear budget adjustment we had a long range uh financial forecasting tool that was developed uh by city staff and I believe a consultant group. Um, I would be really interested to see kind of uh the the long-term impact um that all of these uh uh uh new salary ranges have on that um long-term financial plan. I don't know if that's that tool is still in use. Um and I do know that there was a lot of discussion around the utilization of that uh per stabilization fund at that time. Uh so I would um invite council to kind of go back and look at that tool because I know that um uh it was um it had the ability to look, you know, not just kind of near-term, but I believe it had a 10-year horizon on it. So as you go back and consider and go back and research this, um I would uh be interested in seeing kind of what that that impact was uh utilizing that tool that you invested in last year. Thank you.

Thank you for your comment.

Okay, now we can do the motion again or Okay, thank you.

All right. And it passes. That brings us to item G16, which is to adopt a resolution um appointing an interim city manager candidate at retired person to attend at a rate of $140 per hour and not to exceed $960 in fiscal years. Um, and I would just like to note that there is a blue sheet for this item as well. Um, and the blue sheet is to uh update the city that the candidates's name to include that name on there which is Aaron Bush. So, just wanted to um make that um announcement and then I will turn it over to um HR. Can I defer to the interim city manager?

Um certainly. So this this is an agreement um that has been pres presented to the candidate. Um and it is now presented to you uh council for adoption. Um and it is really direction then u to the staff that if you do approve this evening um that allows staff to execute it. um allows the uh selected candidate Aaron Bush to also execute it. Um and if approved um it would set the salary at $140 an hour, which is a salary of the city manager as one of the Kalpers annuitant rules. Um as mentioned, it would be limited to 960 hours. The start date um for Mr. Bush would be February 28th. Um, and that would then continue on until such time as you fill the city manager position with a full-time candidate. Um, which that recruitment is underway and I believe the city council is currently setting a date for interviewing candidates for that position here at the end of March. Um, so then the anticipation would be by May or June, uh, you would have uh, what I would call a full-time city manager selected and at which point you would no longer need the interim. So with that I can answer any questions.

Thank you. Do does council have any questions? Councilman Nanish may make a comment when we uh interviewed Erin Bush we also interviewed department heads from Loi. The reason we didn't choose department head is because it's you guys are too valuable. You guys have big departments and so forth. So that's the reason why otherwise we would have chose any of you. Councilwoman, correct? Um, just to clarify, the contract would the agreement would be at the next meeting. Is that correct?

No, there currently is a contract in the item. Uh, the only thing that would change would be adding uh Mr. Bush's name to the one that is published. Um, and that would uh be everything else would come back if he did have terms that varied from this, that would come back to council for future approval. But as long as it's substantially consistent with this. Okay, that's what I wanted to confirm because we hadn't quite gotten to that point yet. So, all right. All right. Thank you.

Any more comments? Seeing none, we're going to go to uh public comments. Will anybody from the islands who like to comment on this item? See none, I will entertain a motion. Move to approve. Uh blue sheet. Second

and it passes. Okay. Um so the last two items of the night, the last two ordinances, um I will just make them brief. Uh both uh item H1 and H2 when we get to it were introduced the ordinances were introduced at the January 7th um 2026 meeting um for to a at the January 7th 2026 meeting you had the first reading and you introduced or the ordinance amending LOI municipal code chapter 15.44 44 off-site improvements and dedications by updating section 15.44.040 exemption or deferment. Um tonight, uh the clerk's office is bringing back this item to you for the second reading and adoption um for ordinance 2044. And with that, I'm happy to take any questions.

Any questions from council? Seeing none, let's go to public comments. No cards or anybody from the audience would like to comment on this item. See none, uh, we entertain a motion. So move. Second. Second.

Council member Nakani. Yes. You can vote. Thank you. Perfect. And it passes.

Okay. And then H2 um was ordinance uh also introduced at the January 7th 2020 6th meeting um was in it was the first reading and the introduction of the ordinance amending Loi municipal code chapter 2.12 city manager by revising section 2.12.050 removal. Um staff is recommending to wave the second reading and adopt uh said ordinance uh 2045. Happy to take any questions.

Thank you. Any comments from council? Seeing none public comments or anybody from the audience would like to comment on this item. Seeing none, I will entertain a motion. Second. and it passes. Well, we got to the end. See no more items on the gin.