City Council - Special Meeting

Who's Who's Good afternoon everyone. It is now 4:00 on Wednesday, April 29th, 2026 and the Carl by the Sea City Council will call this special budget meeting to order. City Kirk Galley, will you please give us a roll call? Thank you, mayor. Uh, council member Willoughby here. Council member Sibi is absent. Council member Crab here. Mayor Prom Norman here. Mayor Blessing here. We have a quorum. Thank you, Mr. Galley. Council member Willoughby, will you please lead us in the pledge of allegiance?

Please rise. I pledge algiance 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 will now go to public appearances. Members of the public are entitled to speak on matters of municipal concern not on the agenda during public appearances. Each person's comment shall be limited to three minutes as or as otherwise established by the mayor. It is still 3 minutes. Matters not appearing on the agenda will not receive action at this meeting and may be referred to staff. Persons are not required to provide their names, but it is helpful for speakers to state their names so that they can be identified in later minutes of the meeting. If you'd like to comment on a topic that is not on the agenda, please step forward to the podium. Seeing as there is no public comment, we will go on to the orders of business. Uh we will move to item one on the agenda. Consider adopting resolution number 226-029 to authorize a budget adjustment in the amount of $150,000 with specific expenditures to be determined by the council. At the end of the staff presentations, we will open to public comment on this agenda item. City Minister Frey, will you please present this item to the council?

Thank you, Mayor. Good afternoon, City Council of Karma by the Sea. As Mayor Blessing stated, we have a 150,000 budget surplus to allocate for projects to improve our community. We will now hear from some of our esteemed staff of as they have put together some amazing presentations to put the money to use towards the betterment of our village. From here, we are asking for clear direction from our council on how to move forward with these plans. Thank you. We will hear from our first presenter today, Maya Messiah, as our information technology manager.

Hi, my name is Maya Messiah and I am the information. There you go. Click the button. Click the button. No, click the button on your mic. The button on the mic. On your It says push. It says push. Oh, there's no button. Oh, she may begin.

Yes. So my topic is called smart parking systems. So my idea is to use technology to manage tourist parking differently than local residents parking near Ocean Avenue and downtown. Through tools such as license plate recognition, local residents could receive priority access to parking or extended free parking while visitors would be directed towards time limited or paid spaces. I move it.

Hello.

Sorry about that. Okay. So the issue in Carmel by the Sea is that parking is often limited and Carmel makes no revenue from parking as we don't have anything implemented to pay make people pay for parking and this causes a lot of traffic and congestion while people are circling around looking for parking and they don't really find parking most of the time especially during the weekends and it's always crowded here and locos often get crowded out because there are so many tourists coming and parking and just visiting in general. Okay. Um how this can be fixed uh I can in or our team can install license plate recognition in streets one block from ocean starting on Hunipro and ending at Lincoln. Those are like the store or the streets closest to stores and the main area and it's the easiest place to install it because it's not that far and it's where most of the parking is. Uh residents can register their vehicles through the DMV for pre free permits and people who work can also do that as well. Even if they live in like Santa Cruz, they can do the process through the DMV and the system can automatically automatically identify who lives in the county or not or who works there through the license plate recognition and payment can be done through an app or a kiosk. Um so some support for this idea as I said in the beginning uh it would cause less circling for parking as people

would know that they have to pay for parking. So that would cause less traffic and congestion in the downtown area. It will yes like generate more revenue for the city as we have a lot of tourists and we can get more money from that as a city and it also encourages walking and biking. If people don't want to pay for the parking, they can also just walk and bike and it encourages that. Um, it improves local frustration of not finding parking and I've seen Monterey use a type of system similar to this to handle tourist demand as well in populated areas and it just supports a stronger sense of belonging and convenience for the community. Um

um so some logistics and costs for this. The license plate recognition cameras are about $50,000 per system. Kiosk, if implemented, would cost $15,000 each and if using a software app $15,000 annually to pay for the app. And the total estimated cost would minimum be 80,000 and could reach the max amount 150,000. Uh thank you and feel free to ask any questions.

Does any member of the council have any questions? Um, I have a question from your last slide. When you mentioned it was 50K per system, how many systems will you need? Cuz it just is that just for one set of c cameras that only reflects one area or will you need multiple of those?

Um, I'm assuming I'm not quite sure. I can get back to my uh team about this, but I believe that it covers one street and if we wanted to try it at first, we would only do like two streets. That would only be 100,000 per system and see how it works. And if we like the idea, we can add more, which would cost more money. But I think trying it with like only two streets would be the beginning of this hypothetical issue. Any more questions?

Yeah. So, you said that if you're not if you don't have the permit or anything, then you have to pay for the parking. How would people from out of town know that they have to pay for it? Will there be like signage or what will tell them and where will also where will the kiosks be for them to pay? If we had kiosk, I think it would be just like on the side of the road, not where the curb is, but like where kiosks usually are. And it would say like on the um side of the road, there would be signs that say like parking from this amount of time or depends on like I mean it could be from a certain amount of time, but it could also be um just like the whole day you pay. It'll say that on the sign if possible. Yeah. Sorry, follow up. Um, but when they're there, how will how would how would you enforce that? Because if how would you know how much they paid for if the kiosk like how would you enforce that they're paying for it?

Can you repeat the question? How would you enforce that the like non-residents are paying for it? Because how would you know that they have to pay for it? How would you know that the car has to pay for it? Well, using the license plate recognition, it'll tell who's not from out of town. And it should have signage that say like saying if you're not from the Monterey County, this is your fee for parking. Okay. I just have a follow-up question on that question. Um, so you mentioned so the pe the residents get free parking obviously, but is that only that people that live in the city of Carmel? Is that all of Monterey County? Monterey County. Okay.

I don't think it's fair for only Carmel residents because from seaside to Carmel is only like 10 minutes. I think that's pretty local and they're not being tourists. They're living in the area. How much were you like thinking to charge like per hour or like the whole day? Like I know you kind of mentioned that it could be the whole day or were you going like per hour and like I was thinking more conveniently would be per hour because sometimes people are only like picking off well dropping off stuff. So probably per hour would start at like I don't know what's the usual amount like $3 per hour and then increase from there if that makes sense. Like first hour this much, second hour this much, certain amount of time like total 5 hours or more this much. If

there are no further questions from the council, we'll go to public comment on this agenda. Hey, council members. I'm my name is Jeff Baron and I'm a resident of Carmel and I really like this idea until the speaker got to the point of saying that there was going to be free parking for everyone in Monterey County and I think it should be free parking only for residents of Carmel. Thank you. Thank you, speaker.

If Jeff's going to make a comment, I'm going to make a comment. So, I didn't see anything about revenue. Is is there another presentation coming that's going to tell us how much money the city can make from this? Because that's a pretty big expense item to to put in without knowing how much you're going to make on it. So that's my question. Thank you. Thank you, speaker.

Um, for the second person, I think I can get back to my uh team about what we can make as uh Carmel City from revenue from this idea. Awesome. If there is no further public comment, I will turn it back to city clerk. Um, now we will hear from Jasmine Jyn, our finance manager. Oh, thanks.

Good afternoon everyone. My name is Jasmine Jyn and I'm the finance manager and we have a shuttle service proposal. So essentially we're requesting around 80,000 to 120,000 for this program and we are requesting the funding for um the pilot uh program of a shuttle program that could be extended into the future. And the pilot program will be from around 8 to 10 weekends which will be a shuttle service in like the Carmel downtown area connecting to possibly Carmel Valley or the Carmel Mission. And the goal of this of this program is to test the possibility of making this into a long-term investment. And this would be an investment because we would be um essentially improving the quality of life in Carmel downtown. As we all know, the parking issue in Carmel is definitely a problem and it's also it would increase uh the sales tax revenue and that's how we could make some of the money back. Um and so we are requesting for a shuttle that would connect um places outside of Carmel downtown so that we would have a shuttle service to transport people who could park in the parking lots or empty lots that we would rent out in uh Carmel Valley or by Caramel Mission. And this would bring in more visitors. This would just be on the weekends, but it would bring more visitors, especially when we have more congestion in Carmel downtown. And we would essent uh and then long-term we could expand this to be like an annual program. So it would start as a free shuttle for this pilot program and if all goes well and we find that we wouldn't be able to make as much as a revenue of it to cover

or if we want to make more we could extend this and make it so that we have a fair so around like $2 to $3 per ride for a visitor um transporting people into Carmel downtown. And another possibility for making revenue is the actual parking where people would park in Carmel Mission or down in the Carmel Valley or by hotels in Monterey possibly. So we could charge a cost to park there. Like Monterey currently has a program of a free shuttle, but they do charge parking around $10 to 12 for a parking space. So we could do that if we don't find that we end up getting enough revenue from sales tax. Um yes. Now, we have previously done a shuttle program during the last car week and it was very successful. It was a very popular idea and um it ran for I think around uh from Wednesday to Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. It was very popular and so we're requesting to bring that program back and see if we can make it more of a long-term thing by testing this with a pilot program. And so currently Monterey does have the free trolley system and as you can see the green trolley is very recognizable and uh if we were to have one it would fit right in to the Carmel downtown um aesthetic that we have now and it's highly recognizable and it's uh it would be widely used by tourists and even locals to avoid the downtown traffic that we have now. So for the specifics of the operation, we would have to uh go into more depth and plan more details, but currently we're planning around two to three trolley style shuttles and it would be a loop through around the Carmel Mission area to Carmel Valley and then back to the loop. And then the hours we're thinking of, and this can be adjusted, is around 10:00 a.m. in the morning to

8:00 PM. Since a lot of the Carmel downtown restaurants close around 8 or 9, this would be a good time for the last shuttle. And it would be much more convenient than people having to park downtown. So, it would uh we would be able to bring more sales tax through more customers and more foot traffic in Carmel downtown. Now for parking details, we previously during the car week uh shuttle service, we had a lot by Carmel Mission and there are also a lot of empty lots that we could look into in the Carmel Valley that we could use to for parking and that would have to be worked out with more details eventually. But um as for the renting of the empty lots, it could be it would be funded by the um it would be funded by the money, but like how Monterey does it is they have the city fund most of it, but they also have the Monterey Aquarium fund a part of it. And so if we wanted to, we could look into the idea of having possible shops or stores fund into this shuttle service in in order to increase more um customer visits at their store in Carmel downtown. Now we do have a MST service in Carmel downtown. However, it is less Carmel focused and it doesn't specifically only focus on Carmel downtown. it. The MSD program expands throughout um I believe all throughout through many places in Monterey County and there are a lot of less shuttle services to Carmel downtown and so having our own trolley service would be very convenient especially for the weekends when we do have a lot of people in Carmel downtown. Does anyone have any questions?

Hi, I have a question. So, I understand that to keep this more sustainable longterm, you had mentioned having a parking fee for people to pay, which is like $10 to $12, but I also understand that like this would be going out to the valley. And would this only be for if people park there or could people just hop on the train, like local kids who don't have cars but just want to ride from Caramel Valley to downtown Carmel, like or would there be a fee for them or how would that work? I think it definitely depends. We would try to keep it as a free service and try to make our revenue through sales tax and also just to improve the quality of life in Carmel downtown for people to be able to come and visit and have fun. However, if we do find that we do need more funds, we could do that through parking fees for people who want to park there. And then for local people who live in Carmel Valley, they uh it depends if we want to have a fee just to ride the shuttle. And so that could be around two to three dollars if we do end up implementing that. How much are you planning on making? Like how much revenue do you think this will bring in?

We don't have the exact numbers currently, but we're hoping that we will make a profit off of this um through sales tax. And if that doesn't happen, hopefully uh we'll have to look into more of the details into how much revenue we would make. So the pilot program is to see if this would be successful. And so if we find that a lot of people would want to use the shuttle program, then we could extend it long-term and then look into more revenue through uh paid parking and also the writing of the shuttle itself if it is a popular program. Okay. So, on the slide where it was per year, how much it would cost? It said around $300 to $420,000 a year. Um, does the city have a budget for that? Because the money that we have right now is only $150,000. So, if we did do the pilot program and it worked out, would we be able to pay for it at all or is it just we're just piloting it and then if it goes well, we don't have enough money. So currently we're requesting for a pilot uh program and if all goes well and we find we don't have the sufficient funds to fund this program, we would hope that it would be able to fund itself through the parking and also through uh paying to be on the shuttle itself. Um what would stop people from not wanting to pay like $12 to go park somewhere else and from just going and parking Carmel? Uh, parking in Carmel downtown is absolutely an option. The shuttle service would only be for those who don't want the hassle of having to find a parking spot in Carmel downtown or those who live farther away or tourists who might not be able to find a parking spot in Carmel, but it's definitely an option to still park in Carmel downtown.

Just a quick follow-up question. So, I know you had talked about using the trolley from Monteray because of their aesthetic. Are we getting our own shuttles for Carmel or are we borrowing from Monterey or how is that acquisition of the actual trolleys to Carmel? Uh the trolley we would not be using the exact same trolley as Monterey as it's more specific to the U Monteray. It's more like a tourists would recognize it or the locals would recognize it and so Carmel would have our own. It's more of an example as to a successful program that is currently ongoing and something that we would be able to replicate. All right, thank you. We will now go to public comment on this agenda.

Wait, I just have one more question. Sorry. So, um I might be wrong, but are trollies the ones that are like stuck to the ground and move like that or would be using more buses? No, they don't have to be stuck to the ground.

Okay. Did you look into like any legal liabilities here? Because I like if we have people park in different spots and then we drive them here like what if there's an accident or what if there like something happens? Yes, there would absolutely be I mean it would be part of the city property, but there would absolutely have to be some sort of insurance or contracts to make sure that if there are any uh accidents that occur that it would be covered by um the insurance or contracts that uh we would have signed.

And did we like add that into the budget that was proposed or would that need to be added? Could you clarify what funds are being added like the insurance? Um, yes. For the pilot program, yes, because so the program that Monterey has currently, they run it every day throughout the summer and that is around $400,000 to $600,000. And that's with all of their parking facilities and all of the insurance added together. And so when estimating that budget for Carmel downtown, that was considered into the cost. We will now go to public comment for this agenda item.

Good afternoon, council mayor. My name is Marissa. Um, how many shuttles are going to be running around town is is my question. And I feel like as a resident, this would just add to the um to the amount of traffic we have in town. And I would ask the council consider whether we need more people shuttled into town. Thank you. Hi, my name is Jamie. I'm resident. I really like the idea of helping the tourists get in town so they don't have to circle around and around. But what about the employees? Uh, could they use a shuttle? And if they did use the shuttle, how much would that cost?

Thank you, Speaker. Jasmine, would you like to respond to any of the public comment?

Um, yes. So, we plan to have two to three shuttles around town and our goal is to hopefully reduce the amount of traffic that is circulating in town as we would have more cars and um parked elsewhere other than blocking up the roads in Carmel downtown and hopefully that would reduce the traffic flow. And as for the tourists that are actually in town, we would want to have more tourists because it would be able to increase sales tax and hopefully um hopefully improve the hopefully improve Carmel downtown and employees would be able to use the shuttle since it would be a shuttle provided to anyone, not just tourists.

Thank you, Jasmine. Seeing as there is no public comment, I will turn it back to Drew.

Uh, next up we have Andrea Olivera, the police chief, who will present Okay. Good afternoon. My name is Andrea Oliver Va and I will be um the police chief. Is it just this one? Okay. Role of police. Police chief plays a vital role in maintaining public safety, enforcing laws, and protecting communities. Their responsibilities include preventing crime, responding to emergencies, and ensuring social order. Through dedication and discipline, police forces work to create secure environments where citizens can leave peacefully and confidently in their daily lives. Youth outreach. I would use $50,000 of the budget for youth outreach and prevention programs. By partnering with schools and local organizations, we will fund after school programs, mentorship opportunities, and antiviolence education. The presence of law enforcement offers re reassurance and stability during critical situations. This serviceoriented role highlights their commitment to helping people, maintaining peace, and supporting community well-being in day-to-day life. One example of this is a program called team kids and I would um love to bring it to River School or to Ridos. It's a six-week course helping students understand the power of one person and the impact of their choices and consequences.

Mental health support. Next $50,000 will be used for mental health response support. Establishing or expanding co-response programs with mental health professionals to handle non-violent crisis calls more effectively. Police services focus on protecting communities and building trust, offering assistance and responding quickly to needs. This community oriented approach strengthens relationships and encourage cooperation, helping create a safer and more supportive social environment for everyone. Um, sorry. patrol support. I would then put another $35,000 towards patrol support and overtime coverage. This ensures adequate staffing during peak hours and community events without overextending current personnel. Police officers monitor public spaces, gather evidence, and take necessary action against all unlawful activities. These responsibilities require strong judgment, professionalism, and integrity to ensure justice is served while respecting the rights of all individuals. Public safety now, now $20,000 on public safety campaigns focus on issues such as DUI prevention, domestic violence awareness, and emergency preparedness. Crime prevention is a key objective of policing focusing on reducing risks through patrols, public education, and strategic planning. Officers and alani alanize crime patterns and implement preventive measures to protect communities by addressing potential threats early. Police help maintain order, minimize incidents, and promote a sense of security among citizens. Safety improvements. and I would use the last $50,000 for small infrastructure safety improvements. Improvement on lighting in high-risisk areas and

support minor environments are built through engagement and early intervention. Utilizing data and analytics to identify crime hotspots, patterns, and emerging trends allows for more targeted and effective deployment of resources, providing crime before it happens, while ensuring both public and personal safety in various situations. One example of this is using drones. We can definitely improve the department's response and decrease response times. By using newer and better technology, a small um unmanned aircraft system or UAS, a drone program gives gives our department aerial awareness for critical incidents, improving officer and public safety speeding searches. Two to three drones provide minimum coverage, one primary, one backup, and one deployable for extended um operations. Um thank you. So my question is we don't we have drones already cuz there was some that was just used in like Carmel a few days ago. So would we be adding more drones or would we be improving the quality?

Um definitely checking to improve them if anything using any new technology we can use. Um but if not if they are all up to date definitely just adding more to help the community. Referencing your first the first two or first one things you covered that you want to spend the money on. How will you like the programs at River School and two Ritos? How will you keep this program sustainable long term? Will like the kids have to or will they be charged the fee? And then also would it be the who are leading these like teachers, officers? Um, probably maybe a very small fee, but definitely more volunteering than like just like showing up and paying a fee of $20 and them learning something that they should be learning. And then it would probably be officers volunteering, making sure that these kids have the information that they need for their adult life. Um, so obviously you have a lot of different proposals. What would you what do you think is the most important one for Carmel by the Sea?

Um for Carmel by the Sea is definitely community- based. So probably the youth um programs or maybe having an event where you can talk to the officers. I know we had one I think a couple years ago in August. It was hold on I have it. Um national night out to connect with their communities and first responders. I think that is definitely the most important for Carl by the sea.

So why would you need $50,000 for those programs? Could you not just have officers go out and talk to the students? Like what would be added on? Why would it be $50,000? Um we could definitely implement different things for these programs. It is a six it is a six week course. So, we would definitely need to maybe apply that money for lunches if they want to stay that long or just like different activities these students can um or these kids can work with. Is there any revenue that would be coming from this or is it like purely just for the community?

Purely for the community. Hi, Andrea. Um, I just wanted to wonder if this, so I know Juliet had already talked about that this is sort of a lot of different proposals in one. Is there a possibility that these could be broken up? Because I did do the math and you're at $155,000. So, is there a way that we could cut like one of them to be under the budget?

Definitely. I added a little more money than is needed for I think all of these because just like Juliet said, I definitely agree we do not need that much money for youth programs or um since we already have drones, we do not need that much money. I definitely went over just a little bit to have a broader idea. If there's no further council comment, we'll go to public comment on this agenda. been waiting for this my whole life.

Hi, my name is Todd. I'm a resident. Uh, thank you, Chief Chief Andrea, for your uh your comments and I just want you to know I 100% agree with everything you're shooting for here. Uh, first of all, I think the youth outreach is critical because it gives us a chance to kind of reflect on the COVID times and everything you guys went through as kids back when you were kids. And um, I think it's important that we do youth outreach as a police department. So, thank you for thinking of that. But, you know, when I was a kid, I was a bad kid. And I uh and the police came to my my school and I was part of Team Kids. And I think Team Kids is really special. And I'm speaking firsthand from that. And that um it does cost money because you have to pay for the curriculum and all the special things like t-shirts they gave us and the big graduation party they had for us. The parents and the community all come to it. So, thank you for bringing that up. It's very special to me. Um and the drones, the drones are unbelievable. What a great idea. I know Carmel doesn't have any drones, but I think that that would be amazing to have drones because when we have missing people in town, those things can fly over and use fleer and find people in the middle of the night, right? And we do have that happen in Carmel. So, thank you for for for bringing that up and uh thank you, Chief, for your time. Great job.

Um, good evening, council. Um, I just wanted to say I really object to the youth programs because we don't really have youth in Carmel by the Sea. You know, in 2012 there were 279 youth at Carmel River School and now thankfully we only have 129. And so the halflife on having children in this town is only like 4 years anyway. So what is the point of investing in that? I think that we should spend money on things like senior housing. So, thank you. Thank you, speaker.

Seeing as there is no further public comment, I will turn it back to city clerk Ali. Mr. Mayor, could I just make a suggestion as your attorney, just something for you to legally consider. Um, you do have the option as you go through these to provide for a little bit of dialogue among your council members after the public comment if you want to discuss. I know you're planning on doing that at the end, but uh perhaps you may want to open up for your colleagues uh to just get some of their ideas on the table. Uh and you guys can take notes when you get to the final deliberations at the end. Maybe you have some signposts along the way that you can go back to. So you may you may want to consider the three items you've heard so far, just talking amongst your council members what you what your thoughts are just just to each other. Absolutely. And I believe we have one more question for Andre while we're here.

Yes. Okay. So you mentioned how you wanted to implement this in the local school district schools like two and river school but why would we be applying this money to 2 when they are not in the city of Carmel's like real um defin well yeah that that makes completely that makes complete sense definitely river school would probably be our main focus but I definitely want to get all this information out to kids like in Kashawa um they don't have sometimes they can't come all the way to river school and definitely Tular is a lot more local for them. So I'm just thinking of all the youth in general.

Thank you. Andrea council would like to discuss any of the three proposals that we have heard so far. So, council, I would I would ask that just legally since you are in a public meeting, you have to make your comments into a microphone so that everyone can hear them. Um, and that they can be part of the record. Go on, please. Wait.

Um, I think that the safety improvements would be very important for Carnival by the Sea just to keep everything up to date. Um, and I also think that the patrol support and overtime coverage would also be important so that we're not stretching the police too thin. And then I think that volunteer if police officers want to volunteer to help have some outreach to Carl River School, then that could be good. Yeah. Going back to like the smart parking ones, like how would we implement like how would it be implemented? Would that collab like with the public like safety part maybe like do you kind of know what I'm saying? No. Can you repeat what you're saying? Like for like it we have to enforce them somehow or they're just going to be like paying one time but then they can stay for longer. So how would we like enforce that? What would also stop people from just like cuz right now she only has it on like three on like seven streets and then she also said each one costs $50,000 per street and so that comes out to more than $150,000 and then also what would stop people from just like parking on the street next to it where there's no parking fee. I also think with the like using empty lots in Caramel Valley for the shuttle service. I think unfortunately a lot of Carmel Valley residents would majorly object to using open land to park cars during the day and at night. And then also why we we I understand we're like getting cars out of Caramel, but why are we just bringing in more foot traffic? Like how would that affect the quality of life for Carmel residents? And I think that we should take that heavily into consideration because they are our number one priority, not tourists.

Well, we will continue on to the next proposals. City clerk galley, back to you.

All right. Up next, we have Sarah Capot, our community planning and building director. Director. Okay. So, my proposal is for Build Carmel. It's basically an app where our systems can all put together for building permits and checking them. We go to the next slide. So right now the challenge is online you can submit your permits but it's difficult to check them and there's a lot of people that are tied into building projects and updating houses and restaurants being built and stores wanting to do little things where it's kind of difficult for a whole team that's working on a project and the people that own it or trying to get something done to check their permits. So yeah, right now, as I just said, it's really easy to submit it on the city website. It's more difficult to have a current update, and it takes a lot of time for people calling you constantly emailing you being like, "When's my permit getting approved?" Um, there's a lot of personal experiences where it takes over a year or there's restaurants that are like stationary. They're trying to build a new restaurant right now. They're in the process of getting their permits approved, but it's difficult because there's a lot of different permits that they need to change it from being a it's like a residential to being into a restaurant allowed building. Um, and so it takes a lot of time and there's just an empty building that they're spending money on for rent that could be used a lot sooner if we had a better system of approving and getting everything in order. So having the access to a portal and a app where you can check it makes people feel a lot more confident that there's work and time and people paying attention to their projects on a

constant basis. Um and it also helps for if there's a lot of paper pro like that you have to fill out to make this permit, this one, the next one. It helps to put it all onto an app so if you lose a paper, you're not freaking out wondering where did this go and the city isn't having to keep track of a giant binder of papers. It can just be all digitally um like taken photos of on a thing and then put onto the app. And so it helps us keep track of everything. So this affects a wide range of people in Carmel. There's tons of homeowners. Like there's city projects that would be beneficial to be able to check and see where things are moving along. Um architects. I mean there's giant teams for all of the pe all the building projects here. There's architects, the contractors. Um even just people that are they know they're going to work on this project at some point. They want to know what part and how close they're getting to being able to work. It helps everyone stay on time and make everything move faster and more efficiently. And then it helps with the city staff so we aren't getting pested as much for people going crazy and wondering what's happening to their projects. And so the solution to this is bringing back our digital world that we've jumped into so greatly. Um and it just really helps having an app where people can go and feel more confident about what they're doing. And so the app, it's nice because if you have just an app where you have to log in with your username or whatnot and you can see just yours, it helps if you're the one doing a single project. But for the architects that have multiple projects going on in Carmel, it would be very helpful for them to be able to access all of those at once and on one system instead of having to like make multiple emails be like this is one project. They can get all their information for all of their different projects in one space. And this really helps for people who are

just curious about Carmel. And there's a lot of people that like to complain about things happening in Carmel and new building projects. And so for those very curious minds, they can check to see what's getting approved or what people are wanting to do. And pesky little neighbors that want to shut things down can check to see if things are getting approved. And we're not asking for a ton of money from the budget. We're asking for $50,000. Basically, we'd need to spend $25,000 to get um the portal public with layers to see the entire of Carmel. And then we'd need $15,000 for moving all of for scanning all the papers that we have right now and bringing them digitally so that people can keep track of that a lot easier and we're not using space as well. And then I think $10,000 would be a fair ask for training the staff and making sure that people know how to use it and that everything goes smoothly so it's not a giant mess up when it happens. This would definitely be a giant efficiency gain for everyone. Um, like emailing people constantly takes a lot of time in the day. And if you have a hundred different projects happening in Carmel and every single week you're getting a new email from the project and they can just do it themselves and look on their phone or on their computer and just open an app and know what's happening. It saves a lot of time for a lot of people. And the bottom line is that modernizing Carmel isn't the worst thing in the world. And it's helpful for the whole community. Everyone benefits from it. People that get mad about it and don't want their permits getting the people that complain about the permits getting pushed can obviously come here and make a complaint about it if they would like. And if there's any questions,

I have a quick question. So, how will you so you mentioned how the architect how people will have their login and then could like homeowners will have their login to go see which one how their house is going. But then you mentioned how architects will be able to me just see all of them because it would be a lot of work to have like individual loginins. How will you determine like which architects get access to all the information? So I think that if it's a giant app and we have a bunch of different companies here in this local area that do projects, there's multiple different big ones and there's smaller companies as well and there's people that are more paperwise. It kind of makes sense for the companies to reach out and say, "Hey, we're doing a bunch of projects in Carmel now. We're not doing them in Pebble Beach. We're doing them in Carmel. We need to have login for a team and just have a easy part of the app where you have the company login. And so it's like the whole company can access the portal and access all of the houses there and buildings.

And then I just had a follow-up question. You also mentioned how like neighbors could check in on their neighbors like process to see if they want to complain or not. How would the neighbors have access to their information? having a public part of the portal where you can see like the baseline of like this house like a little thing like a dot on a house that says this house is like waiting for a permit to redo this part of it where it doesn't give the details of your personal stuff but it gives the overview of if you live in the neighborhood and you see five dots around your house and you're like this is going to be a lot of noise and destruction like chaos at 8 in the morning when you're trying to sleep. Um I think it would be helpful. Um, as far as that, do you think that residents would want like their information about what they're doing in their houses and stuff for other people to see? Like, do you think that

I would want that?

Maybe not the full details of the project, but being like this is a like a cuz there's different projects. It's like if it's like a little bathroom renovation, it can just be like home improvement. It doesn't have to be like home like a home knockdown would be a lot different and doing like a full different like you know what I mean having like cover things for like the whole thing. If it's just like a little home improvement then that can be something where people know it's not going to be crazy. But if it's an entire home project like rebuild then it should definitely say that so people can expect what's going to happen. And also um how many permit applications do we get per year? It varies based on year. Um it's definitely risen up as a lot of people have during co the expenses for building materials raised a lot and so people were putting off their projects and so now I mean you'll drive around Carmela and most streets there'll be some sort of project happening. So it's definitely grown a lot. I don't have the exact number but it's grown significantly. So this would be a good time to add this. Um, what would you estimate the timeline being for uploading all current paper documents onto this app and getting things up to date?

It depends on the system that we're able to get for scanning all the documents and exactly how many there are. I don't quite know. Um, but yeah, it depend on how many like boxes full and how many years back we want to upload. And then I saw that you allocated $10,000 towards the employees for like learning how to use the system. Is that $10,000 also paying them for uploading the files and testing? Yes, totally. Okay. So that money is included in that.

Just a quick question sort of two parts. Uh number one, is this like a free public portal or is there like a fee that you have to pay to access it? And then to that, is there like a server fee or maintenance upkeep fee that has to be put in to like manage this over time?

So, it's definitely a free portal for all the people that need to access it because I think it's an important part. Maybe we could eventually add a fee for the construction companies that want to be able to access all of their projects, but I don't think Carmel needs to be charging for people just being curious about where their permits are when you're already spending a lot of money on redoing stuff and improving the town. Um, and I think that's definitely something that the city, if there's big expenses for making the app, like keeping it updated and keeping it working, I think that's a take that we could absorb just because it's an important part of the city. And I'm only asking for $50,000 and there's a h 100,000 left over. So, we could use that and debate up on the years and see how it works. And then as far as who's like updating and uploading all of these things, would it be workers that we have now or would we have to hire new people? I think it would definitely be the building team. It would probably take a lot of group effort to upload all the files, but once they're done and everything's on the app, you don't have to worry about the paper documents and you don't have I mean, there's a lot of free space and it just clears everyone's mind when you don't have to go sorting through a giant room of papers. All right, we'll now go to public comment on this agenda item council mayor. Uh my name is Ken. I've done a lot of technology in my time and one of the questions or curiosity is you know when you put all this data up into this new app uh who owns that data after a while say you want to switch to a new app a new uh provider uh do you have ownership of that those files? Thank you. Thank you, speaker.

I have a question. So, you're spending Well, if you spend $10,000 to train the staff uh to learn how to use the system, who's going to train the community to use the system, and how much are you going to spend on that? Any other questions? Miss Capot, would you like to respond?

So, for the first question, it's tricky to say just because I think the first year or so would definitely be a trial period to see how well everything's working on the app. And I don't know much about the data and like who would be able to hold it. If we're able to have all the files definitely be under our name and have ownership over them, I think that's definitely important to make sure that we are the main owners so that if we do switch that we don't get those files taken from us. Um, and for the second question, I think for people that are if you submit your building plan or you already have to once we have all the files uploaded, everything's in the app, it's all working, email everyone their username and login for all the homeowners, reach out to the construction companies and the architects and say we're doing this new project. Um, and it would be on our part for just emailing and we could just have a nice set step of this is how you log in, these are the different like your home, the rest of the town, and if you like have any questions, we can have a feedback area on the app. And so if people need help, they can always call. I mean, it's not very difficult to learn how to use an app in this generation and century.

All right, now we'll go to council discussion. Would anyone like to bring up anything for discussion on this proposal? Well, since the median age in Karma by the Sea is 68 years old, how do we know that they would be able to use this new technology that they have not been trained? So, I just don't know if this idea is But if we had like a training, I thought I think that this is a great idea.

Yeah. I mean, it's only asking for $50,000. And I feel like it would be a like big improvement for a lot of residents, especially with like a bunch of just like home renovations and stuff. A lot of permits take forever to get approved. And I feel like if you know where that is, that would definitely be like easier to figure out your timeline for how much you're spending. And I think for like educating the community, we could make videos, but also if we want to do more in-person training um easier for the older population, we could there could definitely be money allocated towards like a training night and just some demonstrations. Yeah. And I think that also it doesn't necessarily mean that you have to use the app if it's available. You can still do like the calling in or emailing as well. it would just eliminate some of that work for employees. Um, and so it would be helpful for people who are able to use it and it doesn't necessarily mean that everyone has to if they're not able to figure out how to use it.

And mayor and council, I just want to offer I did hear a question in there earlier that sort of tipped into my realm of legal. I think Mayor Prom Norman asked a question about the privacy of some of these documents. Um most if not all of the documents that director Capot is talking about are already public records. Uh so if someone were to request them through the public records act, they would be entitled to those anyway. Uh there would just be certain things that would have to be redacted like publicly public identifying information or personally identifying information, but that would be part of the service, I'm sure.

Thank you, city attorney. All right, I will turn it back to City Clerk Galley for our next proposal. Uh, next up we have Julia Gallagher, public works director.

Okay. Hello, council. Um, so I'm actually Abby Fry. Um, and unfortunately Julia was not able to be here today, so I will be covering for her. So I'm going to do my best with the understanding that I have. Okay. Um, so the problem. So Carmel is behind on planting trees all around the city and they need a new plan to help catch up on all of the planting. Um obviously trees are very good for the environment with all of the wildlife that and animals that live in them, but they also provide Carmel with a unique gorgeous look. Um there are many reasons as to why it is difficult to plant trees in Carmel due to a lot of this, you know, sidewalks and lack of green space. Um but some of the biggest ones are limited row planting, slow approvals, and inconsistent outcomes. So, the proposal, um, Julia is proposing a $14,000 program to establish a standardized low-risk system for the right-of-way row tree planting in Carmel. This approach will prioritize long-term tree survival, in infrastructure compatibility, and efficient implementation over short-term planting volume. By proving the model at a small scale, the city can confidently expand and sustain its urban forest over time. Um, benefits. There are obviously many benefits to planting trees in Carmemell and some of the few are being environmental, scenic, and overall community benefits. Planting trees gives our cute town a foresty look. Sorry everyone. Um, improving scenic beauty and increasing property appeal. Um on the environmental aspect of planting these trees, not only do they provide improved air quality, but they also support wildlife and help buffer the coastal winds and salt exposure. Julia's plan. So it it begins by developing clear planting guidelines, pre-approved species list, making sure that we're keeping native species in the area, um and streamlined approval

processes to reduce delays and ensure consistency. The program then installs approximately 30 to 45 carefully native trees in low conflict high visibility areas using infrastructure and compatible methods. A key component is dedicated funding for 2 to three years of maintenance including watering, pruning and monitoring to ensure high survival rates. By proving this model on a small scale, the city can build capacity and confidence needed to expand tree planting sustainability over time. um the cost financially. So about $5,000 will be dedicated to species selection and site standards. So ensuring that we're keeping native species in the area. Um $14,000 will be dedicated to tree purchases. So about 30 to 45 trees, which with once again a variation of native trees. Um about $25,000 for site preparation, excavation, tilling, soil amendments. um $10,000 to root barriers and materials to ensure that these trees um are long lasting and that we're not getting weeds popping up or gopher issues. Um about $20,000 for planting labor. Um $15,000 for watering and the water cost. About $7,000 for pruning and maintenance um to make sure they don't get out of hand and conflict with our sidewalks. Um about $5,000 for inspections and monitoring. That's very similar to the pruning cost. and about $3,000 for tree replacement pres reserve in case any of the trees um aren't doing well. Um so the the total of this cost would be about $104,000. Thank you so much. Any questions? Can't promise I can answer any of them. I'll do my best. This is kind of just clarifying, but what's pruning? Pruning is like cutting tree branches that get a little bit out of hand and, you know, making sure they're nice and out of the way.

What areas of caramel would the trees be going in? Because there's not like a lot of room in caramel for a lot of trees. Yeah, this is a great question. Um, you know, um, I'm going to be so honest with you. I don't really know, but I can ask Julian get back to you on that. Would this cause traffic? Cuz if you're like planting a tree, there's going to be like some road closures and I feel like that would be traffic related and there's already a lot of traffic in Caramel by the Sea.

Yeah. um to that question. I'm sure it would and it would probably require some coordination um with um other departments that handle that type of thing. Um so yes.

Okay, we'll open public comment for this agenda item now. Council mayor, my name is Ken again. Uh I love trees. I love nature. Um and I think this is a great proposal. Um some of the recommendations I would give to the council is uh we can use our partners to help plant these trees for the labor. We have a great partnership with Carmel Cares, for example, uh and others and just get a community uh uh uh program put together for people to do the planting as long as we provide the supplies and the materials. Thank you.

Thank you, speaker. If that is it for public comment, council, would we like to discuss anything? Thank you, Abby.

Um, I was just like, I'm not really sure if one of the slides covered this, but what is the issue that's being solved here besides lack of forestry? I mean, I think I I cannot speak for for Julia, but I think that it's less of an issue and more of just sort of, you know, bettering our environment and the environmental benefits of of having more trees in caramel, but I of course cannot speak for Julia. I think it's a lot of money and a large majority of our budget uh for something we already have trees. So I think that that much money is kind of excessive for something that's not really like an issue that's pertinent. If we take the suggestion like of the public and we do like implement like the community or partner that could eliminate a like $20,000 out of this proposal which would come around to 80,000 which is significantly less than what was proposed. But I also do agree with Councilman Norman's statement about how where would these new trees go because we already have a lot of trees and not a lot of sidewalk room. And then back to Councilman Willoughby about how she mentioned how implementing these trees would it block roads and just cause more congestion in the city. Yeah. I also think that still even at $84,000, it's still a lot of money for something that seems like it'll create a lot more hassle than actually solving an issue. So wait,

um I think that with this speaker's idea of involving our community, I think that this initiative, once again, not to speak for Julia, but um this initiative could al could also be pivoted into having the community involved with maintaining like Devonorf Park and the existing green spaces that we already have. So that could also be something that the council could look at and consult with Julia about. I think we could also use our community partnerships in order to just have them do this because a lot of them really like planting trees and doing stuff like that. So, I think that we could use community funds and their willingness to do that rather than our own budget for that.

Okay. Thank you, council. Back to city crook GI.

Okay. Skyler Schlanker, our human resources director, is now presenting. Hello again, council. Um, I'm Abby Fry once again. Skyler was unable to be here today, so I will be covering for her. And this is about the city employee accountability training program. Um so the problem um inconsistent standards for employee behavior and conduct. Um lack of accountability in real world world situations. Um online trainings are passive and often ignored. I know a lot of people have experiences with that. And employees need practical real life training that they can bring in and take initiative with. Oh. Um, okay. So, Skyler solution would be interactive in-person training program. So, hands-on training, so scenario-based learning, real situations employees faced. Um, so modeling those um group discussions and role playing once again with the scenario-based learning and then group discussions. So discussing um what went wrong and how we can move forward with it and focusing on accountability, communication and professionalism as well as more engaging which means better retention and real behavior change from people in the real world and real um problems. So the program structure would be quarterly in-person training sessions. It would be small group workshops of about 15 to 20 people to make sure that every person is feeling seen, heard, and can really get the education that they need. Um, it would be led by trained

facilitators and topics would include workplace conduct, conflict resolution, ethical decision-making, and public interaction and customer service. Why interactive training works? People learn better by doing, not watching. Um, and I think that is proven a lot in everyday life. Um, it encourages participation and honest conversations, builds team accountability, and prepares employees for real situations, not just theory. The budget breakdown, so facilitators and trainers would be about $60,000 of our budget, and we would hire professionals to lead sessions to make sure that our employees are getting highquality education. Program development would be about $25,000 to create custom scenarios tailored to our community, which is a very unique one, as well as materials. Venue and logistics would be about $20,000. Space setup, equipment, and scheduling. Materials and supplies would be another $15,000. Workbooks, printed guides, and activities, once again tailored to our community. The employee time comp compensation about $20,000 paying employees for training hours, as well as evaluation and feedback system um at about $10,000. So, surveys, tracking progress, and improvements to make sure that this that this initiative is making long-term change. the timeline. So, this would be about a year-long rollout program. So, month one to two, program design and hiring facilitators. Um, so really tailoring once again this to our community. Month three would be a pilot training session to make sure that things are working and to fix any bumps. Um month 4 through 12 would be a full roll out um of quarterly sessions and then ongoing year-by-year if this program is successful um ongoing feedback and improvements. Expected outcomes would be stronger accountability across departments, improved employee behavior and professionalism, better communication with the public, more positive work environment, and long-term culture shift, which is really what this is seeking to accomplish.

Why this matters for Carmel? Carmela is obviously a very small community focused city with a lot of tight-knit connections. So, every employee interaction matters. Most people know most people. Um, this program protects the city's reputation and builds trust between employees and the public.

Thank you. Um, what does our training look like now? What do we do? Excellent question. Um, I'd have to talk to Skyler and her team and get back to you on that.

And then as far as building trust between employees and the public, how would that work? Would that just be you would learn how to build trust in the training or would it be or is the public going to be part of this in any way or how would that what would that look like? Um assuming I'm assuming that these programs would really help build people's people skills. Um and from there hopefully just getting out into the community showing face um would hopefully hopefully help to build trust. I have a question about the employees that are required to do this. Will this be a requirement? And then what employees?

Um I do think that the idea is to have this required. Um I would assume for all employees make this a universal training. I'd assume like all the employees of downtown Carmel. I think the intention is the employees of like Carmel City Hall and like the council and department heads.

Again, I'm not sure if you're aware of this based on this is not your presentation, but do you know where this is going to take place? I know you had set aside some money for space setup, but you know like what actually that space is? Um, I would assume that that money is sped set aside to maybe rent a bigger space because um maybe to have breakout groups or breakout rooms and um to fit all the employees to create a universal training experience.

If the council has no further questions, we'll go to public comment for this agenda. Uh, Mr. Mayor, council, um, thank you for that presentation. Um, my question relates to sort of the program evaluation aspect of this. So, $150,000, you know, it's like 200th of our budget, so it's pretty pretty big. Um, so how are we going to know that it's working? And so I'm, you know, I think it'd be really interesting if we did surveys, you know, after resident interactions with staff. Um, and so I'd urge you to think about, um, if this is something we're paying for long term, how are we going to make sure that it's actually effective?

Thank you, Speaker. If there's no further public comment, council, would we like to discuss this proposal?

Um, I think that this is very important. I don't know about it taking up our entire budget. Um, is there some way for us to pilot it to see if it would actually work and would that be less of our budget? Um, I think that maybe a good approach to that would be maybe piloting it with the department heads themselves and maybe possibly council members. Um, so a smaller group than every single employee, maybe piloting that and like the speaker said, taking surveys of the community. Um, and using that as a jumping off point for the training and then if we do find success with um, the pilot group continuing the program. I think that also before we like look into approving this that we should look into if there's already a standing or previous system that's in place and if this is a whole new thing or if this would just be upgrading a old system. If there's no more discussion, city circ but not least we have Ava Daniels our library director will present next. Good afternoon, council. You guys are saving the best one for last. So, um, my name is Ava Daniels and I am your library director and I have come to propose the library initiative. The clicker. Okay. Um, the issue. So, as the 2026 um year rolls out, the city of Carmel plans to close the Harrison Memorial Library for 2 years as it undergoes major renovations due to funding in the past six years since 2020. The Park Branch Library has struggled to get back on its feet and ultimately has ultimately had to shorten the work week due to staffing fund cuts. Also, there is labor unions that have

prevented the library to be opened on Saturdays. So, who does this affect? Um, with the library closing, this is affecting working families and along with anyone else in our community. Most families really rely on going to the library on Saturdays. But without this, families have left being lost on Saturdays on what to do with their children. Um, so this could really benefit them. So phase one, which is our top priority, is on staffing expansion. We plan to hire two part-time library aids to cover Saturday to cover Saturday shifts, plus having multiple opportunities for schedule flexibility. This helps reduce the strain on current full-time staff. This will be $90,000. Phase two is Central Coast families. $20,000 will be spent on Saturday family programs. This includes storytelling events, arts and craft workshops, local guest readers, and small performers, and child and family support. Phase three will be library support. Now that the library will be open on Saturdays, this means that there will be a lot of wear and tear on our books, our supplies, um our cleaning. So, $30,000 will be used for extra supplies and program materials for children. And then phase four, which is the last phase, addresses labor unions. So $10,000 will be put on staff incentives and scheduling flexibility um to train our new staff, encourage voluntary Saturday shifts, and much more. are why this allocates this allocation prioritizes staffing first because without the people the doors don't open and then builds a vibrant Saturday

experience that serves working families and strengthens our community. Thank you. I have a question on how will you be able to keep this program sustainable long term? Will there be any revenue or like what will be in place to ensure that this program can continue after the budget runs out? Um, okay. So, this is a great question. Um, answering for the library director. Um, I think that as the p the program grows, um, we could definitely look at charging um, a small fee for some certain Saturday events or maybe even expanding into um, family-friendly events for Friday nights or Saturday nights. Um there definitely is now a hole in the community um with um Hosianda not doing line dancing anymore that I think the library could take advantage of um and fill that space um and yeah so possibly charging a small fee um as the program gets back up on its feet to create some revenue. Um, as far as like this would only be for Saturdays and it would be for So the budget you're asking for would be for the entire year only for Saturday.

We would change the schedule to a Tuesday to Saturday schedule instead of our Monday through Friday schedule. Okay. Just a quick question. And I apologize if I missed in the presentation, but I know you had talked about $90,000 for staffing expansion. How many more staff is that? How how much does that give you?

We would hire two full-time staff members to be working. Oh god, maybe I'm No, two part-time staff members um on the $9,000 budget, but I will have to check back with my team on some other numbers for you. So, as far as hiring the two part-time library aids, would that be you're trying to hire outside of the labor unions because they don't the labor unions won't work on Saturday? Yes. Um, Abiel, um, I think that is definitely an option. And then also looking at maybe negotiating um, with the labor unions to redis changing the schedule and the hours. um and kind of, you know, building a good connection with them to make sure that we have open communication for things like that. And I also think that the $90,000 budget um could be smaller um and we could definitely reanalyze that and so it probably will not end up being that expensive. So, is there any way to instead of doing all of this like work to negotiate and use like less of our money but use it towards negotiations with the labor unions instead of like getting around the labor unions? Would that be a possibility? Yeah, I definitely think that would be a possibility. However, this is kind of hitting it straight on um and addressing the problem straight on so that we can hopefully get the library open on Saturdays sooner than later. How do you think the labor union would respond if you're taking away one of their working days like Tuesday because then they lose hours and lose money?

Probably not. Well, if I'm going to assume um but I think that we could probably work around it. Uh go back to my team, let the team know. Um you know Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I think that that would just go back to negotiations with labor unions um and making sure that they know what our plan would be if they don't um try to negotiate. Um so I think that I think that it's more important that we work with the labor unions rather than trying to get around them and then making them angry. Yes, great point. Okay, if there's no council discussion, we'll get a public comment for this.

Mayor, council, I I I like the idea. I like the initiative. I I would support it. I think the um family programs on the weekends are very important and much needed in Carmemell. But I would um ask council to consider the fact that um you might have the money now, but once you add staffing to your books, it's a it's a commitment, right, for the years to come. It's not just a onetime $90,000 expenditure. It becomes an an annual $90,000 expenditure. So, how would council hand how would council um manage this during uh budgetary constraints, you know, if they come uh our way next year or you know, soon after. So, thank you.

Thank you, speaker.

Hi, city council. I like the Saturday hours. Could it be set up so that the fees that are collected go towards supporting those activities so that they become uh funded and sustained by their fees. Thank you, speaker.

I don't want to be an angry mom, but I'm going to be. The library is a free space. We should never charge for anything and we should be open on Saturday.

Thank you, speaker. So, um I have young kids and basically the only time I can get to the library is like at like 5:30 at night. Um it makes it tough and Saturday would be fantastic. So, I'm hugely supportive of that. Um but $90,000. Can somebody help me with kind of where you came up with the math on that? So, I was looking at this. So, $90,000. I think I worked the math. It came out to like $108 an hour, which works out to a part-time library aid making $225,000 a year. So, I was wondering if somebody could kind of walk me through reverse engineer the math on on how you came up with that. Thank you.

The team at home was kind of crazy with the money. Um, so, um, Council Member Fry has a response. Um, I would say that the $90,000 definitely needs to be re-evaluated. Um, and that we will do that very soon and, you know, we can think about it right now. So, definitely the $90,000 would not be the cost. Correct. If there's no further public comment, council, would we like to discuss? That was also our final proposal. So, if we'd like to make any motions, now would be the time.

What was the total cost she had overall? Because I cuz

Oh, she plans. It was exactly $150,000. I don't know. I just feel like with the whole issue with the labor unions and then additionally not being able to keep this sustainable for more than one year because I understand she wants to charge for like the Saturday nights but we don't know how popular those would get because Carmel is a very small town so we don't know how many like people we'd have and then also they also said small fee so I don't understand how we would be able to use that money to cover $90,000. I think that also a good initiative that could be discussed um with this could be partnering with the Carmela Youth Center um to possibly get their help and maybe with volunteering. So some with them with some events and Saturday stuff to cut down on costs could also be. Would that mean that we keep the library open on Tuesdays then?

Yes. So it would be the Tuesday through Saturday or we we do it Tuesday through thou through Saturday. How would we know that those volunteers are properly trained as librarians? We don't it's it's a thought. It's a thought. It's a concept. And then I also feel like let's talk about the other ones now with Sarah's with Sarah's proposal of modernizing Carmel and making it online portal so people can go visit. I think that's a great idea and that is money worthwhile because there might be a small fee to keep it going but it really is just a big onetime investment.

Yeah. to back that up. Um, I'd like to like make a motion that we approve that. I second. City clerk, we have a first and a second. Can we get a roll call vote, please? Yes. M Mr. Mayor, could I just interrupt? Could we just get the maker of the motion, please, to clarify what the item is and how much money they're uh requesting to allocate. A little more specificity on the motion would be helpful for the record, please. Yeah, I'd like to make a motion to approve the Build Carmemell program, which is $50,000, and it will help modernize our public administrations where we are making permits public through a portal online.

I second. All right. Uh, Council Member Willoughby. Yes. Council member Crab, yes. Mayor Prom Norman, yes. Mayor Blessing,

yes. Motion carries unanimously. So, Mr. Mayor, of course, uh you know, uh just another another piece of legal advice for you. You just essentially allocated $50,000 of your city's budget. You do technically have $100,000 remaining. Um certainly the council is not limited to one decision in the evening. Uh the your decision could be to put the rest of that in essentially a a future fund for the city as a savings account or you can uh continue to discuss the other I guess six items that remained presented to you this evening.

Thank you. City attorney council. Do we have any opinions on that? So I feel like let's talk about the finance dire or the finance director's proposal Jasmine's about their proposal for to bring more people into the city. I just feel like that would upset the residents of Carmel and personally would not and would affect their way of life in Carmel because it is only adding more foot traffic. Yeah. Yeah. I agree. Um to go to I want to move on to the police. Um I think that there's like a lot of different things that we could look at here that would take up as much of our budget but would still be like really beneficial. Um, I definitely think that the $15,000 for safety improvements is really important, um, just to also modernize Carmel and um, to make it so that the police have more ability to do their jobs with the help of technology. Um, and I also think that the $35,000 would be important also um, just to support our police and make sure that they can do their job to their best ability. How wait, how would we be able to ensure or how would we be able to like continue to support the program of police?

I don't think over time. I don't think we're necessarily like supporting like a program if we don't do like the youth outreach. We're supporting like we're putting in a one-time investment for like patrol support to get better like technology and like better like safety items. Yeah, I agree with the safety improvements. I'm talking about the overtime coverage like patrol support.

Yeah, I was just seeing how we'd be able to like continue to keep that fund funded. I think that it could act as an investment for them as like a one-time investment that we would be helping go towards that. Um, it's not necessarily that we'd have to continue funding it, but it's just something to help support the police. Yeah, I think that drones would be very beneficial. Motion.

Okay. Um, I make a motion to approve the 20,000 or $15,000 for small infrastructure safety improvements for the Carmel Police and um $35,000 for patrol support and overtime coverage. I second that. City clerk, we have a motion in the second. Can we get a roll call vote, please? Council member Willoughby. Yes. Council member Crab, yes. Mayor Prom Norman, yes. Mayor Blessing, yes.

Motion carries unanimously. And then for how much money have we used now? 100,000.

We've used 100,000. I don't think that we implement the library initiative. Same thing with the finance director's idea about the shuttle. And then also we just don't know enough about the human resources manager's plan because we don't know if there's already a plan implemented. Yeah. I think if we like looked more into like the smart parking systems, I think it could be very like very beneficial like down the road, but I feel like we would need more in depth like on how it would be implemented, like how it would be enforced and how much it would cost to implement each systems and how many systems we would want. Yeah, I agree. I think that um for the library one obviously the library is very important to the culture of Carmel and it's um kind of a acts as a sort of community center that everyone can go to. So um I do acknowledge that it's very important. However, since it doesn't seem like the budget was very accurately allocated, um I'd like to return to that maybe later on um to see how much money we would actually need to use for that. And then I think that it would be best for now just to save the um rest of the budget for later. I agree.

So council just making sure what I'm hearing is that we are putting so we have spent $100,000 on proposals and we are putting the remainder 50,000 in the city attorney's uh future fund. Yes. Yes. As much as I appreciate that, Mr. Mayor, it would not be going in the city attorneys fund. would be going in your city's general fund. Uh my firm would very much appreciate that, but it should stay in your general fund, sir. Thank you, city attorney. But yes, we are saving the $50,000. So, just a question to the city attorney. Is that a motion that we make to put that in the

Wonderful question, Mr. Mayor. You do not need to uh take any motions if you don't want to. You certainly don't have to adopt anything for that money to stay uh in the budget. However, uh sometimes if a city council wishes to formalize a decision, you could ask for a roll call vote. Um I would actually suggest that in this point just to memorialize the decision. Thank you. City attorney, city clerk, can we get a roll call vote on putting the $50,000 in the fund? Uh Mr. Mayor, I would suggest you get a motion and a second on that one first. I a motion to put the rest of the $50,000 into the reserve fund. Second. City clerk. Now we do have a motion in the second. Can we get a roll call vote, please? Yes. Council member Willoughby? Yes. Council member Crab?

Yes. Mayor Prom Norman? Yes. Mayor Blessing? Yes. Motion carries unanimously. That is the end of our business tonight. Thank you everyone. We will adjourn this meeting at 5:35 p.m.