City Council - Regular Meeting

Thank you.

It's rated for $220. Yeah. I don't know how in the world that could happen. It's up there. You see the back wall? That's $220. We're good. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So, we're going to do something probably...

Thank you.

Good evening, everyone, and welcome. It's 632. We have a long night. I'm telling you that now. I've got my pillow in the background. So I'm going to call this meeting regular city council meeting for June 2nd to order. Let's stand together and proudly recite the Pledge of Allegiance.

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.

I heard some very enthusiastic young voices out there with their predilections. Uh... Madam Clerk, would you kindly do roll call, please? Of course.

Councilmember Brando Cruz? Here. Councilmember Melissa Lamatina?

Here.

Councilmember David Oro? Here. Vice Mayor Mark Joseph? Here. Mayor Pierre Washington?

Here. Report on closed session, confirmation of reportable actions, our attorney for the night, John. Nothing to report, Mayor. Nothing to report. Thank you, sir. Tonight we have two proclamations and one presentation. First, we will start with item number two, a proclamation for June 2026 as Pride Month. Are there some recipients here to come up to the podium for Pride Month? I'll read the proclamation, and then I'll allow you an opportunity to say a few words, and then we'll take a picture with you. Are you by yourself tonight?

I have some family members.

They can all come up there with you. You can stand up there with them.

They're going to record.

Oh, they're going to record. Okay. They've got a job. Sorry about that. Okay. All right, reading, June 2026 is Pride Month. Whereas the City of American Canyon recognizes and proclaim the month of June 2026 as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer, the LGBTQ Pride Month throughout American Canyon. And whereas the City of American Canyon observed Pride Month with a flag raising ceremony to honor the history of the LGBTQ liberation movement and to support the rights of all citizens to experience equality and freedom from discrimination. Whereas the rainbow flag is widely recognized as a symbol of pride, inclusion and support for social movement that advocates for the LGBTQ people within our community. And whereas all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights, LGBTQ individuals have made immeasurable impact on the culture, civic and economic successes of our country. And whereas the city of American Canyon is committed to supporting visibly dignity and equally for the LGBTQ people in our diverse community. And whereas, while society at large increasingly supports the LGBTQ equally, It is essential to acknowledge that the need for education and awareness remains vital to the end of discrimination and prejudice. And whereas celebrating the Pride Month influences awareness and provides support and advocacy for the American Canyon LGBTQ community. And it is an important It is an opportunity to act and engage in dialogue to strengthen alliances, build acceptance, and advance equal rights. And now, therefore, I, Pierre Washington, Mayor of American Canyon, on behalf of the City Council, do hereby proclaim June 26th as Pride Month and that the rainbow flag will be raised for the entire month of June in support of our LGBTQ community to recognize the influential and lasting contributions they contribute and continue to contribute to make our vibrant community in which they live, work, and play.

Hello, everyone. It is such a privilege to be able to accept this proclamation today. My name is Kylie Dalton. I use she her a pronouns and I am a program coordinator with LGBTQ connection in Napa and Sonoma counties. I am grateful to be standing here amongst allies as we enter into what I feel to be a bittersweet pride. Pride is rightfully a celebration of our community's love, beauty, creativity, resilience, and ultimately our survival. The LGBTQ community is under attack in our country. Our trans and gender nonconforming members are currently facing the early stages of genocide according to worldwide genocide scholars and educators. It is hard to focus on the joyous side of pride when every day our constitutional rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are being stripped away by the very people assigned to protect them simply because of our queerness, gender, or otherwise. Queerness has existed the entirety of recorded history. It is natural and it is beautiful. This pride, I am asking our allies to not just celebrate with us, but help us protect all that is worth celebrating. Thank you.

And Kaylee will come up front and we'll take a picture with you.

Also, if anyone wants to receive a signed proclamation for this item or the next one, there's a list to sign up on the counter over there. If you just fill it out, we will get you a signed proclamation.

Thank you. Thank you.

Our second proclamation will be for Juneteenth Independence Day, and those recipients that will be collecting that, if you could come up to the podium as well. I'll read the proclamation, and then I'll have a opportunity for someone to speak on the behalf of Juneteenth. Yes, sir. I know you don't have a problem with no public speaking, so I watch your videos. So I'll read the proclamation and I'll give you an opportunity to say a few words and again we'll take a picture with you as well. Juneteenth, Independence Day. Whereas January 1, 1863, President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring all enslaved people in the rebellious states to be forever free. And whereas, although the Emancipation Proclamation was signed in 1863, it was not until June 19, 1865, that the Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas announcing the end of slavery in the South and Southwestern United States. And whereas Juneteenth observed annually on the 19th commensurates the end of slavery in the United States and honors the history, culture, resilience, and contributions of African Americans. And whereas Juneteenth is an opportunity to celebrate freedom, equality, and enduring principles of the Declaration of Independence. And whereas on June 10, 2026, in partnership with the American Canyon Arts Foundation, the American Canyon Chamber of Commerce, and the City of American Canyon, the community will celebrate Juneteenth during the Chamber's Meet Me in the Street event, located on American Canyon Road from James Road to Elliott Drive, and centered around Northampton Park. And whereas this free community event celebrates African American heritage, the history, the freedom through culture and ceremonies, live music, performances and activities that reflect the power of the community, family, art and culture. Now, therefore, I, Pierre Washington, Mayor of the City of American Canyon, on behalf of the City Council, do proclaim June 19th, 2026 as Juneteenth Independence Day. In celebration of this day, I encourage the American Canyon community to attend Juneteenth celebration on June 10th, 2026 during the Chambers Meet Me in the Street event on American Canyon Road and in North Hampton Park. Mr. Nutt, you have a few words.

I wasn't planning on speaking, but thank you. This is a great respect for your leadership, and we appreciate this honor. My name is Henry Nutt III, and I've lived in American Canyon since 2001 in June and raised my family here. And these young men behind me that support this is really important to us in the acknowledgment for a city that you live in and to know that we have that acknowledgment. So we appreciate your leadership. and the respect of other people here today.

Thank you, sir. No one else going to say anything? No? All five of these guys talk all the time, so I don't know.

And Mr. Mayor, if I may, I did not get a chance to pass the word on to the Arts Foundation, which is why they're not here. But as a member of the Arts Foundation, I will say I appreciate the recognition and want to encourage everybody to come out on June 10th. Unfortunately, Brenda Knight has retired, and she isn't putting on the event, but we have a new person who has put together a pretty impressive talent package. So be there a week from tomorrow, 5 to 8. Thank you.

Everybody take a step to the side. All right, smile on three. One, two, three. Thank you. See ya.

Our presentation for this evening will feature the American Canyon annual report delivered by the Napa Housing Authority.

Good evening, Mayor, council members.

Thank you for having me again. So I'm here to, oops, let's see, for this year's Housing Authority Report for fiscal year 2526. So I'll give you the brief report now. So the City of Merritt Canyon contracts with the Housing Authority for a variety of housing services provided throughout the county, throughout the city. Services provided include technical assistance on a variety of housing functions, including housing assistance with affordable housing development, funding resources, monitoring of affordable housing projects, and rental assistance. Additionally, the Housing Authority is contracted to administer the city's home, CDBG, CalHome, and BEGIN grants and the monitoring of those grants. So the countywide is some of the rental assistance and homeless services project and under the base housing services contract, that's the regulatory agreement monitoring and the additional housing services are mutually agreed upon after that. One of the main functions of the Housing Authority is to administer the rental assistance programs countywide, including the City of American Canyon. The largest program in the Housing Authority portfolio that it administers is a Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program. So annually, HUD awards the Housing Authority grant funds to provide rental assistance to very low and low-income households. The grant funds are used to issue vouchers to households to assist them with paying their rent on market rate rental units. There are currently 154 households in American Canyon receiving the rental assistance, which represents a 5% increase from the last fiscal year. 26 American Canyon households are currently on the waiting list for the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program. There are 34 project-based vouchers that were issued at Valley View Senior Apartments. 17 are veterans' affairs supportive housing vouchers to assist chronically homeless veterans. Additionally there are eight project based vouchers at the Napa Cove apartments. Sure. Okay. Currently, 13 American Canyon voucher holders participate in what's called the Family Self-Sufficiency Program, which is double of the last year, so it's great news. They receive services, counseling, education, job training to become fully employed and independent. The goal of the program is to assist these families to become financially independent and no longer require government assistance at all. There are six American Canyon households who receive assistance through our non-elderly disabled persons voucher program. These special vouchers provide assistance to the non-elderly disabled or households with disabled persons. And there are 14 American Canyon families receiving rental assistance through the Family Unification Program. So this is a special program that collaborates with the Napa County Child Welfare Services to assist families who lack housing places, places their children outside the home so they can remain housed together. So it's a very important program. This program also provides transitional housing for older teens coming out of the foster care system to secure appropriate and safe housing for them. The voucher stays with the family as long as they stay Section 8 eligible for assistance. Under all of our rental programs and all of our rental assistance type programs, each household must meet annually with the housing specialist to recertify that they are, in fact, income eligible, that their benefit amounts are correct, review program guidelines with them. We inspect the units to ensure that they meet housing quality safety standards. Those are done on at least a biannual basis. And let's see, next. The other area of countywide services that the housing authority represents the city in is for homeless services and projects. Housing staff represents the city of American Canyon at monthly continuum of care meetings that are held where local nonprofits and housing agencies coordinate with county health and human services to gather and discuss strategies to develop programs to end homelessness countywide. So annually the continuum of care of this group applies for HUD grants to fund housing services and case management and rental assistance. This last year HUD approved the renewal of grants in the total of $973,104, which is about a $43,000 increase over the prior year. So we are utilizing the funding so well we continue to receive our assistance. And next is the Housing Based Services Agreement. So under the base services agreement, one of the things we do is we monitor the affordable housing regulatory agreements. All the different affordable housing projects that the city has done such a good job executing over the years, they need to be monitored to ensure that the deliverables are happening, that these units are being rented to appropriate household sizes, appropriate income categories. We verify owner occupancy for any affordable housing sale projects that happen to make sure that they're still owner occupied, they still live there, insurance is covered. Let's see. And we also provide technical assistance for any of the properties where they have management changes. We'll work with them to ensure that they understand how the agreements for the city work and so they can comply. Uh, so loan servicing conducted annual owner occupancy for all first time home buyers, uh, and rehabilitation loans. We have to verify that their insurances are covered. They've paid their title fees and such, and we respond to any loan payoff or refinance requests for these loans. Also under these additional services, the housing authority administers the home grant, the CDBG, CalHome and BEGIN grants. So the 2019 home grant application was awarded and continues to be active and an extension was granted. This program was originally applied for under first time home buyer and owner occupied housing rehabilitation programs. But HCD froze the first-time homebuyer activity due to an audit that they had with HUD. So we transitioned those funds to directly to focus them more on the rehab projects for the owner-occupied housing rehab program. So in this last fiscal year, $275,000 worth of repairs were made to six separate homes. And there are currently two additional homes in progress. And so those should be completed by the next fiscal year and more waiting. Lastly the housing manager and myself are always available to city staff throughout the year to provide any technical assistance We come to meet in streets and provide any technical assistance and answer any questions people may have so thank you for this Opportunity to speak with you. I'm happy to answer any of your questions.

Thank you, sir councilmember lamatina Thank you, thank you for that great presentation one question the section 8 housing list is that open or closed the the waiting list is still closed and Do you see that opening anytime soon?

It's hard to foresee due to HUD's funding.

Correct.

Yeah. So HUD would need to continue to fund the program in order for that to change. We're hoping that things will change. As a housing authority, we had requested HUD look at the fair market study that they use. And so hopefully they can increase that because the standard that they use is an algorithm. And if you look at what they consider to be fair market rent, it lags pretty far behind what we see in the Bay Area. So we've done a study to try to advocate for our community.

All right. Thank you so much.

Vice Mayor Joseph.

Yes. Thank you for the report. Does the housing authority oversee Lemus Point Apartments? Do you manage that or have any involvement?

We don't manage it, but we will do the annual monitoring of it to ensure that they adhere to the city standards and part of the agreement.

Thank you.

Yeah, absolutely. Seeing no other questions, thank you for the presentation. We appreciate you coming out. We appreciate what you do. Thank you. Thank you so much, Mayor. Now we'll move on to public comment. Uh, so at this time, I would like to open the floor for public comment on items that are not on tonight's agenda. Each speaker will have up to three minutes, uh, to address the council. Uh, when you come forward, please begin by stating your name, uh, for the record. Uh, madam clerk, do we have any comment cards?

Yes, we do. Uh, the first speaker is Sophie Borgard.

Bonjour.

Okay.

Oh my goodness. I brought half the tribe. Just half. Okay. Good evening, Mayor, Councilmember. My name is Sophie Bourgeois, and I am a resident of this community, a mother, an advocate, a member of the Napa Valley Fight School District Parent Advisor Committee representing American Canyon High School, and the founder of the Inclusion Effect, or TIE. Disability inclusion is not just something I care about. It is my life. I grew up with a brother who has Down syndrome. From a young age, I saw both the challenges he faced and the incredible gifts he brought to our family and community. Those experiences shape how I view the world and taught me the importance of acceptance, opportunity, and belonging. Today I'm also the mother of five children with disabilities. My oldest child has cerebral palsy, an intellectual disability. My second child has ADHD. Three youngest children are on the spectrum. I am also neurodivergent myself. I am on the autism spectrum and have ADHD. So when I speak about inclusion, I am not only speaking as a sister, and a mother, I'm also speaking from my own lived experience. Through my children, my brother, and my own journey, I have spent my life advocating, navigating systems, and search for opportunities where people of all abilities can be included and valued. What I have learned is that families are not looking for sympathy. We are looking for opportunity. We are looking for places where our loved ones can build friendships, develop skills and contribute to the community and be seen for their strengths. This is why I funded the Inclusion Effect. The Inclusion Effect was created to build inclusive space where neurodivergent, neurotypical and disabled individuals can connect learn, grow, and thrive together. Our goal is to create programs, activities, community events, and opportunity that bring people together and break down barriers. Inclusion is not just about disability. It is about creating community where everyone feels they belong. Tonight, I am asking the city to partner with the Inclusion Effect as we work towards that vision. Through community partnership, access to facility, grants, sponsorship, and future funding opportunities, we can create meaningful programs that support individuals and families throughout our community. I stand before you not only as a nonprofit founder, but as a sister, a mother, and an advocate. I have witnessed the impact inclusion can have on a person's life, and I have also seen what happens when opportunities do not exist. I believe our community can be a leader in inclusion. Together, we can create places where every person, regardless of ability, is welcomed, valued, respected, and given the opportunity to thrive. Because inclusion changes lives, and when one person is included, the entire community becomes stronger. Thank you for your time, your leadership, and your consideration.

Sophia, I just want to say thank you for sharing. Thank you for being an advocate and sharing your family with us this evening. Thank you.

Karina Cervante? No? Okay. Let me see. Sorry. I'm not sure how to pronounce it. Mitchell? Chatty? Okay. Chatty Mitchell.

Thank you. My name is Chatty Mitchell. I've been a resident here in American Canyon since 2005. Started Rain City Basketball in 2017. What we'd like to have happen is American Canyon to recognize and realize that we mentor student athletes, boys and girls, from ages five years old. three now, five years old all the way out to 17. As we all know, when they get to college, it's competitive, their first year. They tell them, half of you won't make it. Well, our student athletes are making it, and that's because they get to, it starts with competitive sports. So without further ado, we hope that you guys get a chance to shake hands with the kids. But it starts with my wife, Joyce Mitchell, Zaza Estabillo, Karen Thompson, Christian Royal, Eric Cabana, Paul Nocum, of course, our wonderful parents. A couple weeks ago, these kids right here, they've been with our program for a minimum of two years, and they went out to Reno, represented American Canyon, and went undefeated. And so without further ado. Rodney Cook. Come on, Rodney Cook. Brooklyn Datus. Come on. Caleb Royal. Come on. Leo. Andre, Gervais, Xander, Alex, Garrett, Bubba, Elias. Please recognize these student athletes as they continue to work hard. They bring great grades. Man, that was just a minute.

Well, I hope you have a minute to take a photo with the rest of us. We will take a photo with the champions.

Yes. All right. Thank you so much for the invitation, my good friend David. Thank you.

Yeah, well, Mr. Mayor, before we take that photo, I just want to say that my son spent a short two years in Chatty's program, and he was a better basketball player. You're doing a great job, Chatty. And he's a lot taller now, but he is a starting player at his high school. So thank you very much.

Yeah. Thank you. Thank you all for all you do. Appreciate you.

You want to take the picture?

Please, come on up.

And bring the parents that are supporting these young people too.

Oh, please, parents.

Thank you. Everybody be close, be close, be close. Everybody look at me, smile big. Alright, we're gonna do a video really quick. Everyone say we are champions on the count of three. One, two, hold on. Thank you.

I was thinking every time I watch you guys, sometimes I just kind of button it.

It's like a nervous twitch.

I have to straighten up.

Since I saw all we do in American Canyon is turn out champions.

Before I call the next speaker, I just want to remind everyone to really pull that microphone down towards you and speak loudly so we can hear your comments, especially they have to go through on Zoom. So, thank you. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Next up, I have Simon Vargas.

Thank you.

Good evening, Mr. Vargas.

Okay, thank you.

I'm a past president of the Golden State Homeowners Association, and I know Mr. Joseph there. He's been there for a long time. When the way... Napa Olympia Mobile Home Park is a home of 200 people. It used to be a senior park where you had to be 55 years old or older to live there. But it was changed by the city with approval of the company that took it over. My point being is the majority of the people that's living there still are senior citizens. We just received notification today that they're raising our rent. My rent went from $700 to $1,000, and that's half of my retirement from the Department of Defense. And the point is, there are people there that just have $1,000 to live on. And... The city, well, okay, let me go back. Ten years ago, the Homeowners Association come up with a proposition, nine, for the state of California to be approved by citizens of California. It was approved. And therefore, the city of American Canyon come up with an ordinance that they cannot raise the rent by 1.7% of the CPI. Now, come on. From $700 to $1,000, it's not 1.7%. Now we're asking the citizens of Napa Olympia Park, majority are senior citizens, asking for your help. Is it legal what they're doing? This is a new ownership, by the way. They just took over ownership the past couple of weeks. So I got the ordinance from the city, their ordinance, but They put a bunch of mumbo-jumbo ordinances that I don't even know if it's legal. So we're asking for your help. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Vargas.

BEFORE WE GO TO THE NEXT SPEAKER, THE VICE MAYOR WANTS TO MAKE A COMMENT, BUT TYPICALLY WHAT WE DON'T DO DURING PUBLIC COMMENTS IS NOT AGENDA. WE DON'T HAVE A DIALOGUE WITH IT, BUT FOR THIS MOMENT I'M GOING TO ALLOW THE VICE MAYOR TO HAVE A FEW WORDS.

Thank you. And I didn't intend on having a dialogue really. It was more a matter of my recollection is we do have a mobile home rent control ordinance and my recollection is increases are limited to the CPI which has been high but not 40% high. So I was going to suggest that we refer to staff or city attorney to review the ordinance and make some inquiries to Napa Olympia Because there may be some kind of legal exception, but as a general rule, the increases are limited to the cost of living, not to new ownership. So I'm just asking that we, I'm basically just requesting that we refer to our staff or city attorney to investigate and get back to you.

And we'll add that to the end of our agenda tonight. So thank you. And thank you, Vice Mayor. Madam Clerk.

Hugh Marquez. Hugh Marquez.

Mayor, Council, City Manager, I just want to come up and say I went by Northampton and seeing the covering and using the restroom at Northampton Park is a great, and I want to thank the city parks and you all for getting that implemented. The bathroom at the wetland edge is marvelous. And I just wanted to thank the council and the city staff for getting that for our city. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you, Hugh.

That was my last speaker card for items not on the agenda, and I have no hands raised online.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. Then we'll move on to agenda changes. Counselor, are there any agenda changes?

Yeah, I would like to suggest an agenda change. There's a number of people here that I think we all know for in the business items, and I would like to move up. Items number 18, citywide circulation, and number 17, initiative of petition of Measure M. And I would suggest that contextually, the citywide circulation be first, and then the initiative for the petition of Measure M follow shortly after that. And those are the two changes I'm making. So right after the consent item, I would like to make a motion to change the order from 18 and 17 to go first.

Okay, so that's your motion is to make that change is there a second for that motion I second that motion We have a second on that motion Can we get a roll call please?

Yes. Bear with me just one moment and I catch up here 17 and 18 but we want to do 18 before 17. Oh, that was the motion. I Okay. Council member Brando Cruz.

Yes.

Council member Melissa Lamatina. Yes. Council member David Oro. Yes. Vice mayor Mark Joseph. Yes. Mayor Pierre Washington.

I'm going to say no, because those two items at the very end are very lengthy items. We're putting them at the beginning. So everybody in this room is going to have to go through what 17 and 18 is all about. And I don't think it's fair. So my answer is no. But it's passed.

Yes.

Our first public item will be which one did you want first? Consent, please. Sorry about that.

Having made those changes, I'll move the consent calendar.

I'll second. We have a second. Can we get a roll call, please?

Yes. Council member Cruz?

Yes.

Council member Lamatina? Yes. Council member Oro? Yes. Vice Mayor Joseph? Yes. Mayor Washington?

Still a no. We have passed that one as well.

You're voting no on consent?

Excuse me?

You're voting no on the consent calendar?

On the consent calendar, yes. Okay, thank you. Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry.

I'm just making sure.

But which item are we going to go first?

MOTION TO PASS WAS 18 FIRST AND THEN 17 SECOND. AND THEN THE REST OF THE AGENDA.

WE DO HAVE A PRESENTATION. SO WE'RE GOING FOR ITEM 18. SO STAFF WILL LOAD THAT PRESENTATION UP.

CITYWIDE CIRCULATION PRESENTATION.

Amen.

All right.

Okay, so Mr. Hawley, will you be starting that presentation?

Correct. I have a brief presentation. We have a short staff report, numerous attachments, including a couple that we added on Monday to the packet.

Mr. Hawley, can you put the mic a little closer to you?

Yes, thank you. Yes, Mayor. Brief presentation here, staff report, and then a number of the attachments we can review at the council's leisure. Next slide, please. So before we kind of get into any topics, first with this item, this was a council requested item at the end of your last council meeting 14 days ago. The council requested this be on the agenda. So staff endeavored to prepare some of these materials. Given the limited amount of time we had, we did the best to do that. It's not necessarily a comprehensive presentation, given everything else we had going on. But we gave it our best shot. And we began all of these sort of big picture conversations, rooting ourselves in our purpose. why we're here, where we're trying to go, why we exist, vision, vision, values, goals. One of our express goals relates to transportation and with the goal of improving transportation network within the city to alleviate congestion and enhance the quality of life. For the community, we have other goals as well. I won't list them all. They show up at the bottom of the page there. And this is the hierarchy of how we organize all the things that we do. Next slide. So kind of a then and now series. This was then. So transportation plans, this is circa 1992. This actually comes from the EIR. I think it was maybe a year later. But these two documents are how things were done back in those days, kind of black and white and a little more rudimentary than what we see today. On the left is the land use plan. This is the original land use plan. On the right is the original circulation plan for the city. These documents come from what's known as the city's general plan. A general plan is our guidepost for how development activity in American Canyon will occur, how we will become that vision of ourselves. And it's important for those of you who weren't here to recall, maybe you didn't even know, back in 1992 was a far different place than where we are today. Much of the area that you may live in, particularly members of the audience, you may be living in portions of American Canyon that didn't exist in 1992. Um, and so everything east of the highway, except with the exception of a couple of our mobile home parks, uh, didn't exist, uh, much of the area along the wetlands edge did not exist. Uh, and so, uh, these plans back in 1982 described how American Canyon would continue to evolve and grow and build out, uh, in conjunction with that growth would be a roadway network, transportation network. And that's, what's on the right hand side of the page. roads like Wetlands Edge, Devlin, Flosden, and so forth, were all part of the plan, not yet built, but part of the future plan. We'll go to the next slide. And so, you know, what happened since 1992? The list of roads here are the roads that have been built during that period since 1992. I put up this list to kind of frame the conversation and frame some of the thought processes. Generally, the city doesn't have a roads department. We don't have a transportation engineer, and we don't have a roads department. We're not a county, we're not a state department, so we don't have a department focused on building roads. In American Canyon's history, roads have come about as development activity has occurred. The roads on the right, many of them should sound familiar to folks in the audience and the council, are all example roads that were built in conjunction with development activity between 1992 and today. I won't list them all, but they're numerous. On the left are the very limited amount of roads that the city has been the lead on and has done. Segment H, widening of American Indian Road and the realignment of Broadway, and we're currently widening Green Island Road now and reconstructing that. This is not necessarily an exhaustive list. These roads are what are considered are major roads, meaning they're collectors or arterials. All of the intract roads, the residential streets would have also been built by the developers, but we didn't have time or space to list all of those small streets. And it's possible we may have missed one or two in any of these categories given our limited amount of time to pull this presentation together. The other purpose of this slide was to kind of talk about how these two lists come to be. So the ones listed on the left go through a very distinct, very regimented series of phases, at least four distinct phases over time, starting with engineering, property acquisition, ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW AND CONSTRUCTION. THESE AREN'T NECESSARILY IN SERIES. THEY CAN HAPPEN ALONG THEIR OWN PATHWAYS, BUT DEFINITELY THE FIRST THREE HAPPEN BEFORE THE FINAL ONE HAPPENS, AND ALL OF THOSE PRESUME A, THAT THE PLANNING PROCESS HAS OCCURRED, LIKE A GENERAL PLAN, AND B, THAT FUNDING IS AVAILABLE. THOSE ARE ALL TWO VERY BIG CAVEATS, BUT WE DIDN'T TALK ABOUT THEM HERE. WHAT'S NOTABLE IN THE PROCESS and which roads get built by development is that's generally just two phases. So a project is brought to the city for approval, that approval happens, and then construction happens. Generally speaking, the environmental review happens as a part of the project approval. It's not a separate phase. And generally speaking, property acquisition is part of the product approval as well. So it's a way to say that It's a more simplified process for road construction. It's a more normal process, I would say, especially for a city that doesn't have a roads department. Next slide, please. So where are we today? Well, click the button again, please. So last fall, the city council approved a new general plan. This was after several years of work by staff and professional consultants, engineers, planners, a consortium of folks. GHD, for example, was the engineering company that provided the traffic engineering services for the circulation element. It was approved, like I mentioned, last fall. And this map on the left is our new mobility element. You'll notice the title change. We no longer call them circulation elements. We call them mobility elements. I should just take a step back. The city's general plan, if you members of the audience may not be fully aware, this guidebook for our future and for our development is built into chapters. These are topical chapters. Each chapter has a certain topic. One of the topics is land use. One of the topics is circulation or mobility, and there are others. And so when you hear the term circulation element or mobility element, we're talking about chapters in a book, if you will. Back in 1992, we called it the, quote, circulation element or circulation chapter. These days, we call them the mobility element or mobility chapter. And the reason for the nuance in the name is that we're no longer just thinking about vehicles. Back in 1992, all we cared about was cars and whether cars were going faster or they were delayed. That was a very simple metric, and that's all we cared about. Now, changes in legislation and the way the state is requiring us to view the world, congestion is an afterthought. It's really about mobility, reducing vehicle miles traveled, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, multimodal plans for bicycles and pedestrians. Those are far more important than levels of service delay or vehicles. So it's just a different paradigm that we review these things. And so on the left is the map that correlates to one of those earlier maps we showed, but it's the modern one. The lines on that map generally correlate to roads that exist, whereas the ones that are dashed are future roadway networks that are envisioned. The documents on the right, and you can click one more time, the documents on the right are some of the other PLANS THAT ARE SORT OF ANNEXES INTO OUR GENERAL PLAN. THE FIRST IS LOCAL ROADWAY SAFETY PLAN, WHICH IS ACTUALLY APPROVED BACK IN 2022. AND YOUR PLANNING COMMISSION LAST WEEK RECOMMENDED BRINGING FORWARD PEDESTRIAN AND BICYCLE PLANS TO YOU AT YOUR NEXT COUNCIL MEETING, ALTHOUGH GIVEN THE WAY OUR GEN IS MOVING, I DON'T ACTUALLY KNOW WHEN WE'RE GOING TO DO THAT ANYMORE. BUT THEY WERE GOING TO BE COMING TO YOU AT YOUR NEXT MEETING. WE'LL SEE. SO THE BOTTOM LINE IS THESE ACTIVE TRANSPORTATION ELEMENTS, AS WE CALL THEM, ARE COMING TO YOU SOON. It's how we think of the world and these plans are meant to horizontally integrate with each other. So the map on the left hand side of the page generally has sort of four areas that we can expect prospectively. So next slide please. And these would be what we consider our planned future roadways. The first one I know of interest of late relates to Newell Drive and South Kelly Road. That's really a combined set of roadway features on the east side of American Canyon. The next one is Rio de Mar East. This would be also on the east side connecting the Watson Ranch development to State Highway 29. The third one is what's known as the, quote, west side connector. As a part of the general plan process, there was a citywide steering committee that evaluated options, alignment options. This was a public committee of residents that got together with engineers and did some real planning around the alignments of how roads should go. As a result of that, the committee made recommendations to the council that were ultimately adopted with an alignment for the Westside Connector. The last one is known as the SR29 Multimodal Project. received a presentation from the Napa Valley Transportation Authority in February, and there are excerpts of that presentation in the staff report, and there was a public meeting, I think it was last week, last Wednesday, there was a public meeting from NVTA giving a status update on that project. What's not in the general plan and not a planned future roadway is Watson Lane. Next slide. Thank you. So just a little more details about the Newell Drive, South Kelly Road project, if you will. First, talking about the alignment. So on the very left-hand side of the page is a very large view of the Newell Drive and South Kelly Road on the eastern boundary of American Canyon, extending north all the way up to the end of South Kelly Road. The colored picture in the middle is a zoomed-in snapshot, particularly of the South Kelly extension shown in red, and its featured tie-in there with Newell Drive in that purple shade. This is a road that would go through lands known as the Hess Laird property. Currently, those properties are not in city limits, but we hope they'll be in city limits soon. And bringing those lands into outside city limits is what will allow for that part of this project to go forward because as I had mentioned before, it's this development activity which makes new roads happen. The top side of the page is a more specific picture of one portion of Newell Drive, the color coding relates to different property ownerships and this shows Newell Drive crossing over railroad tracks and future alignments and future property ownership. And this is what's shown in the general plan. And the verbiage down below is the excerpt from the general plan. The next slide. So, This project, Newell Drive, South Kelly Road, somewhat complicated. As I mentioned, capital projects that happen when the city is involved have these phases. They also have these phases when development activity, although they're often more streamlined. So what we have here is a chart showing segments one west, segment one east, segment two, segment three, segment four, the railroad segment, segment five, and South Kelly Road are the different columns. and a description of those segments and then various statuses of those various phases. In many ways, Newell Drive mirrors that of Devlin Road. Devlin Road is on the west side of American Canyon and in Napa County and was built over the period of 25 years in multiple segments, with the last one, Segment H, being completed four or five years ago now. So again, these are the status of some of these phases. Those being complete are in green. Those that are in process are shown highlighted. Those that aren't started are in red. Just want to note, it was previously mentioned in a prior meeting that all the property acquisition for Newell Drive has been completed, and that's not correct. There are still segments of 5 and the railroad that don't have the property acquisition completed yet. So that phase is not yet completed, as is the right-of-way phase for South Kelly Road not completed. But segments one, two, three, and four are completed for property acquisition or right-of-way. Next slide. The next project that we identified as the future roadway is what we're calling Rio de Mar East. EXCERPT FROM THE GENERAL PLAN IS THE RIBBAGE ON THE RIGHT. THIS IS A ROAD THAT WILL CONNECT THE WATSON RANCH DEVELOPMENT TO HIGHWAY 29. CURRENTLY THE CITY IS EVALUATING A VARIETY OF ALTERNATIVES. WHAT'S SHOWN ON THE LEFT IS A PICTURE FROM A STUDY THAT'S CURRENTLY UNDERWAY. THE SCOPE OF WORK OF THAT STUDY SHOWS IT AS AN ATTACHMENT IN YOUR PACKET. THIS IS JUST ONE OF, I THINK, EIGHT PICTURES, EIGHT EXHIBITS THAT THEY'RE STUDYING. whether the alignment should be Rio de Mar, whether the alignment should be South Kelly Road, whether they should be signalized or T intersections at the highway and a combination of those are all being studied. I think it's a total of eight alternatives. We're also studying the variations of those alternatives as it relates to the main street extension to see if there are any sort of differences there. I mentioned before that NVTA, Napa Valley Transportation Authority, is working on the SR29 multimodal project. Their project team is led by traffic engineers, the firm Kimley Horne and Associates. We have also contracted with that firm directly to work on this specific study because you can see how these two play together. And so the results of the information that's already been gathered for that Highway 29 work are also playing into THESE STUDIES HERE AND TAKING A LOOK AT THE ANALYSIS FOR WHICH OF THESE ALTERNATIVES SHOULD GO FORWARD. I'LL NOTE, AS IT RELATES TO THIS REAL DEMAR EAST, THE ENGINEERING AND RIGHT-OF-WAY PHASES ARE IN PROCESS. CEQA IS COMPLETED BUT CONSTRUCTION OBVIOUSLY HAS NOT STARTED. NEXT SLIDE. Uh, West side connector again, uh, exhibit from the general plan. This is the dash line in the middle of the page, really the extension of, um, of Hess road, uh, as, as it were, uh, due West to commerce Boulevard. Like I mentioned before, there was a citizens committee, uh, that the council had appointed and move forward with recommendations for the general plan update. Uh, and after studying must've been a dozen or so alternatives, THE COMMITTEE RECOMMENDED THIS ROADWAY ALIGNMENT. THE COUNCIL TOOK THEIR RECOMMENDATION AND PUT IT INTO THE GENERAL PLAN. AS IT RELATES TO PROJECT DELIVERY, ENGINEERING HAS NOT STARTED ON THIS, ALTHOUGH THERE HAS BEEN SOME RIGHT-OF-WAY, SOME OLDER MAPS AND SOME OLDER DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITY THAT HAPPENED EVEN PRE-INCORPORATION ACTUALLY ON OAT HILL RESULTED IN SOME PROPERTY DEDICATIONS ALONG THIS ALIGNMENT. Whether it's in the right spot, whether it's the right width, and all those pieces are still valid, I'll say, remains to be seen until the engineering phases. We wouldn't put any finishing touches on property acquisition. Although the general plan does an environmental review, there would need to be a project-specific sequel analysis for this particular project, and then construction. Next slide, please. PREVIOUS SLIDE, PLEASE. YES, SO THE SR-29 MULTIMODAL PROJECT AND THE CORRIDOR PLANNING, THIS VERBAGE IS LIFTED FROM THE GENERAL PLAN AND I'LL NOTE IN HERE WHEN WE WERE DOING OUR general plan last fall there were actually a couple of alternatives that NBTA was still studying and by February there had been a conclusion about one of those alternatives. So we sort of pulled out the alternatives process because now NVTA is just proceeding with alternative one, which is what the picture on the bottom left shows. Consists of widening the highway at certain intersection points and consists of adding a bus dedicated lane in certain areas. That's what shows up in red. Undergrounding of all of the utilities, landscaping, a class one, which is the yellow on both sides. and a variety of signalized intersections. And there you can see in the middle of the page the connection at Rio Del Mar. There are also a variety of connections at Eucalyptus that are being evaluated as well. That's what shows up on those kind of blue dashed lines. Here, given the Caltrans process, theirs is a little bit different. I apologize for the acronyms, but PID is a project initiation document, and so that process, the PID process, is complete. The significance of that is, I'll call it formal recognition in the Caltrans world of an actual project that occurred about a year and a half ago or so, two years ago. And what that means is this project now has a project number. It's as simple as that, but in Caltrans world, there is now a project on SR29 for this stretch that has a project number WHEREFORE WE DIDN'T HAVE A PROJECT NUMBER IN THE CALTRANS WORLD. SO WE DO NOW, WE ARE INVOLVED IN THE PAED PHASE, WHICH IS THE PROJECT APPROVAL ENVIRONMENTAL DOCUMENT PHASE, ALSO KNOWN AS CEQA NEPA. AND SO WE'RE GETTING BOTH THE STATE AND FEDERAL ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW. THAT PROCESS IS FUNDED WITH SOME LOCAL FUNDS AS WELL AS FUNDING FROM MTC, OUR REGIONAL PLANNING PARTNERS. NVTA is the lead on that. Optimistic to have that process conclude by the end of the calendar year, and we're beginning to have conversations with NVTA about the right-of-way utility undergrounding phase. We expect to receive a letter from them in June talking about funding for that phase and how we might deliver that. And so that would really kind of be the next step, but right now the focus is on finishing the PAED phase, which will result in a CEQA and NEPA document. Next slide. Lastly, just wanted to cover Watson Lane. So the exhibits on the left were from what's known as the PLA Watson Lane EIR. So as the city moved forward with the pre-zoning for areas within the PLA Watson Lane affected territory, we provided an environmental report. The product description for that was both the annexation and potential development activity along with the construction of Newell Drive. And as a part of an alternative selection process, we analyzed having the traffic go down Watson Lane instead of going on Newell Drive, a different alignment, if you will. That excerpt is one of the attachments to the staff report. Here are just some of the conclusions. THE BENEFIT WOULD BE LESS COST THAN A GRADE SEPARATION, LESS INTENSE THAN A GRADE SEPARATED CROSSING, AND THERE'S RESIDENTS ALONG WATSON LANE WOULD HAVE A DIRECT CONNECTION TO WATSON RANCH. AGAIN, THINKING OF THIS WAS DONE IN THE CONTEXT OF THE EIR, SO THIS WASN'T DONE IN THE CONTEXT OF CITYWIDE CIRCULATION AS A WHOLE. THIS WAS DONE COMPARING WITHIN THAT PROJECT AREA WITHOUT THAT FOOTPRINT. The constraints, you know, recognized what happens when railroad, when trains sit across the railroad, the Watson Lane aggregate crossing and the blocking of that access. Having new drive route down Watson Lane and over to Paley Loop increased VMT, which is vehicle miles traveled and travel time, less of a direct connection. There were recognition of the impact to existing residences and then the general conflict with the general plan and Watson Ranch specific plan. and there's the conclusion that came from that EIR document. So just wanted to share that information with this. Happy to talk about any of the attachments or any of the projects that are on this screen or any of the information that the council wishes.

Uh, thank you, Mr. Holly for that thorough overview and that presentation. Um, I will go to my colleagues to see if there are any clarifying questions, starting with council member oral.

Thank you, Mr. Hall.

Thank you, Mr. Hawley, for putting this together. I requested this item just to give an overview. I had not anticipated that actually the next item on Measure M would be in front of us tonight, honestly. I just wanted to get an update on that. And I would encourage the public to actually pull down this agenda item because you seem to have attached everything about traffic and circulation in the last... eight years at least, probably. So there's a lot of information in terms of what the city has done there. So I appreciate that. Thank you very much. And I'm still reading through most of it and seeing historical documents that I haven't seen in a while. And... Before, Mr. Mayor, I might have to turn to you. I do have a couple comments. Do you want me just, that was a comment, but I have several questions. Do you want me to, do you want to open it up for public comment? I don't have any clarifying questions at this time.

If there's no clarifying questions, I'm sure we have a lot of people that want to have some words about this item, and then you can come back. It's going to come back to us again, and I'll get your statement. Thank you. SO ANYONE ELSE ON COUNCIL, ANY CLARIFYING QUESTIONS? VICE MAYOR JOSEPH.

YES. THANK YOU FOR THE REPORT. AND I WOULD AGREE WITH COUNCILMEMBER ORO. EVERYTHING YOU EVER WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT TRANSPORTATION IS IN THAT ATTACHMENT. EVEN THINGS THAT AREN'T TRAFFIC CIRCULATION RELATED. IF YOU WANTED TO BECOME A TRANSPORTATION JUNKIE, THIS IS YOUR DOCUMENT. I WANTED TO ASK A CLARIFYING QUESTION BECAUSE WE TALK ABOUT THE RIO DEL MAR CONNECTION. I AGREE THAT IS THE PREFERRED what I'll call the preferred west side highway connection. But we've also discussed a little bit about South Napa Junction. Maybe not the ideal configuration, but it has certain advantages, not the least of which is it's less disruptive to adobe lumber and the railroads like it better. So can you compare and contrast South Napa Junction as an interim solution to say Watson Lane or Newell? And what pros and cons? For example, one of the issues that we've talked about is emergency access or more likely emergency exits. Would South Napa Junction provide that? adequately compared to Watson Lane or Newell? Would it give you the ability to get out of the east side in a reasonable fashion? So again, a little bit of discussion about pros and cons of South Napa Junction as an interim solution vis-a-vis Watson Lane and ultimately the ideal arrangement, Newell, which is not on the immediate horizon but has been envisioned for 30 years.

I'm sure Vice Mayor, I'm happy to give a crack at that. I'm sort of laughing because you have a civil engineer playing city manager tonight, and I'll kind of go back to my civil engineering roots. But I think more importantly, that's exactly the work we're asking Kimley Horn to do. So starting on page 271 of the packet is their scope of work. And so we went through a pretty exhaustive set of alternatives. they're going to be doing exactly what you talked about, kind of rating those and evaluating all those sorts of criteria. I've asked them, hopefully you can still hear me, I've asked them to prepare a sort of matrix, right, evaluating, actually using a very similar process to what was used with the Westside Connector Steering Committee, where we came up with a dozen or so criteria and evaluated each of those options against each other to that criteria. So this wasn't a purely quantitative exercise, definitely more in the qualitative nature, but evaluating the known alternatives, evaluating the aspects of those alternatives, comparing them against each other, and then rating them, and then providing a hierarchy, right? And some instances cost may not be as important as safety, for example. So as you start to rate a project, and that's what the steering committee did, as you start to rate out a project, that's how they ended up coming to the conclusions they did for their recommendation. So I've asked the consultant effectively to do that same process here, which is how we ended up with those pictures, which begin starting on page 282 of your packet, of the different options. So the first sets of alternatives were really South Napa Junction related alternatives. The second set of alternatives were Rio de Mar alternatives. And so as it relates to then the connections on the highways, whether they're traffic signals, or whether they're always, sorry, not always stop controlled, but side street stop controlled, we've asked them to evaluate that. Included in their evaluation, and you can sort of see that on page, I guess it's 276, they're also going to be evaluating more particularly issues related to the railroad and the railroad crossing and the at-grade crossing. they are, to be clear, they're evaluating at-grade crossing options. We haven't asked them to look at the underground option. We've asked them to only look at the at-grade options. And so within their expertise and the folks they have on their team are folks who specifically work on railroad engineering, which is their own specialty. So they'll be evaluating that particular criteria as part of their matrix. What about the railroad crossing and what about conflicts with the railroad crossing and some of those details. So I'm not in a position today, despite my expertise, to give you benefits of all these alternatives and to really sit and to sort of tell you which one's better or not. engaging the folks at Kimley Horn to do. You know, in talking with them today, the timing of their finishing their work is really going to be patterned after the timing of their finishing their work for NVTA. So we're thinking at the end of the calendar year is when they're going to have this matrix for us, because as they continue to do iterations and continue to do studies related to the NVTA work, it's going to dovetail with this work. But in speaking with them today, they said it would be about six months, so we can expect to see some of the administrative drafts. You know, we'll see some of that technical information ahead of time, but they're thinking, you know, that their work would be concluded within that time period. So, you know, there are, you know, There are certain pluses and minuses with each of these alternatives. How these connections connect to the highway, signalized, sub-street, side-control, where they connect related to other signals or other side-street sub-controls, it isn't necessarily just one aspect of it. It is a variety of these aspects that kind of marry together. And so that's why we've asked them to do this work for us because trying to find another consultant wouldn't make sense. And it is more complicated than just picking lines on a map.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Holly. Any other clarifying questions, Vice Mayor?

No? Council Member Cruz? Council Member LaMedina?

No? Okay. I'd like to open up to public comment for item number 18. Madam Clerk, do you have any comment cards?

Yes, I do. Just one moment. We are, I have, I'm calling Leon Garcia.

Thank you. Leon Garcia, resident of American Canyon. And thank you for this opportunity. Is this mic on?

It's on.

Okay. Thank you. Uh, during my terms of mayor, I was also involved with the original initial look at this type of project. Uh, I'm here at the, uh, I think it's, uh, attachment five. It's that picture of the, uh, uh, the area. Um, the issue was railroads and at grade crossings. uh... we can use existing at-rate crossings uh... we were actually told no more than that it was no way ever they're going to get a new uh... at-rate crossing is that changed i don't know on that anyway the uh... rio del mar one One of the alternatives that was explored, discussed, was over a bridge or underground. There was not enough room for a bridge, so it was an underground to go underneath it, coming through a part of the lumber yard on the north side. And the cost of that at that time was $21 million. So it's something to consider. If we can work with the railroad, that's great. We can find alternate areas for at-grade crossings in numerous places. But South Napa Junction Road, yes, that goes right past the south end of the lumber yard. Chamber of Commerce is in a building on the south side of that road, existing at-grade. Watson Lane is also an existing grade. When we discussed Newell Extension in the past, it was arcing over, lining up with Green Island Road. And I do believe the railroad crossing was either, well, we can get in that grade, or we will have to use Watson Lane. So those were the issues that we were dealing with at that time. There's certainly a lot more to that picture than what I just discussed this evening, but those I think are big key points in discussing how we get traffic from east to west, north to south. Further with Measure M, there'll be further discussion on north-south through a rather large development, Watson Ranch, and how to access safety. Thank you. I'll talk more on Measure M. Thank you, Leon.

Hugh Marquez.

Mayor, council, my name is Hugh Marquez and I was on the circulation, we'll start with the west side and I'll work myself to the east side. I was on that circulation committee for the west side. And as going through your packet, I'm gonna spout off some information and give you page numbers that you can look at because I figured you should know. When I looked at the packet, I WAS CONCERNED BECAUSE I LOOKED AT THE NEXUS STUDY ON PAGE 649. I BELIEVE JASON MADE THAT NEXUS STUDY. I WAS CONCERNED BECAUSE ON THE NEXUS STUDY IT SHOWS COMMERCE DRIVE TYING INTO EUCALYPTUS AND NOT WHAT THE CIRCULATION COMMITTEE RECOMMENDED. I WANT TO MAKE SURE THAT THE COUNCIL AND JASON KNOWS THAT THAT SHOULD BE AMENDED BECAUSE THAT WAS NO LONGER PART OF THE WEST SIDE CIRCULATION. I looked at page 288, the alternative six of the west side going over to the Rio del Mar going to the west side. And I was curious about eucalyptus drive. I talked to Eric last Wednesday about the eucalyptus drive coming through. And I'm curious if the city is preparing or is thinking about buying property to do that. There's some property for sale now, and we lost out on the psychic house. The city lost it when they bought it. So now you have property owners there that the city must. And I'm just curious if alternative six, is to be used, then the city should start preparing or thinking of a way to acquiring property. I do not believe in eminent domain. I saw the couches back in 2001 when I was fighting for the town center. And I saw them come up and I was, that is now our water treatment plant. And we took their land to get it. And I'm not for that. The other thing is the Eclipse drive to the highway property, the acquisition, I think that they should follow the general plan for that. And so make sure that, I still believe that our general plan was well thought out of. Now to the east side. Oh, shit. The implementation program shows on page 333 that Newell Drive should connect to Paley Loop via railroad crossing. There should be a crossing over. That's what the initial plan was, and I think it should be followed. Technical memorandum July 8, 2023 proposed the circulation of Newell Drive, and it has the pros and cons. It shows why Watson Ranch connection to the residential area is not preferred. Page...

That's your time, Hugh. Thanks, Hugh. Thank you, Hugh.

Terrance McGrath.

Mr. McGrath. Good evening, Mayor, council members. So for the record, I love Newell Drive. I absolutely love Newell Drive. And as many of you know, the devil is always in the detail. And so I appreciate Mr. Hawley's presentation. It's very thorough, super complete, but it's missing a couple of key items. So I'm only going to focus on Newell Drive. And so the CEQA work, I did the CEQA work. We did that CEQA work in 2018. The city certified that EIR and CEQA was the California Environmental Quality Act for all of you, CEQA. In 2019, We gave the city, deeded the city. They own that land for the right of way. Let's see, I gave them segments three and four, which is 2,650 feet. I own Paoli, which is the remaining piece of it. That gave them segment five. And so they've owned that land since 2019. The engineering piece of Mr. Hawley's study, I did the engineering. About half that engineering is done for all of segment, all of segments one through five for Neural Giant. So, my question, what's happened since 2019? Other than they checked a lot of those boxes up there. And the cost of segments three, four, and five, So we built part of one. Newell Family is responsible, our promontory is responsible for segment two. Segments three, four, and five is somewhere, if you didn't have to build it, I mean, didn't have to bid it, and you weren't a public agency, maybe 60 million. It's the responsibility of the city to build three, four, and five. If a city's building that roadway today with that over-crossing, that above-grade railroad crossing there to get it public, you're not getting in that grade. That alone is at least 30 million. Those segments, three, four, and five, are at least $80 million. So again, I love Newell Drive. Love Newell Drive. But I'm getting close to being halfway through Watson Ranch eight years later, seven years later, and I don't see anything coming from the other side. So that's the devil in the detail. Thank you.

Valerie Zizak-Morris.

Hello, everyone. Valerie Zizek-Morais, President and CEO of the American Canyon Chamber of Commerce, following the footsteps of Terry McGrath tonight. But no, I'm here to say that I appreciate the plan that Jason Hawley has put together and presented to us. I think the number one thing everybody in American Canyon has to remember is safety first. and making sure that as we develop American Canyon, we are providing access routes for our residents. That means emergency routes, that means convenience in and out of American Canyon. These are things that when you develop, they must be coincide with the development plan. So I know we got ahead of ourselves. We have planned projects 20 years ago. Here we are today putting them on the ground, but we haven't fully thought through what the roads and the accesses look like with that projects in mind. So with Jason Holly's presentation tonight, it shows where we're going and what we're doing, but we have to make certain roadways priority. We have to make certain access points a priority for the people living in the houses, working here, and being part of American Canyon. I don't know if the rest of you feel the same way. We don't want to take land from our current residents. We don't want to cause controversy in American Canyon. We want to build a community that is strong and beautiful and represents everything that American Canyon has to offer. How do we do that? We all sit around the table together. We draft the plan. We construct the projects and we bring them to life. It takes all of us, everybody in this room, it takes the council, it takes the city staff, it takes the chamber, the public safety, it takes the residents, it takes every one of us being part of this plan to provide the strongest community American Canyon can ask for. What I'm standing up here for tonight, is not just the business community, it's the future of American Canyon. It is what we are all here to do, which is bring our community together, provide safety, provide access, provide housing, provide business, and provide the structure we want to see. You all can be here with me. You can be here without me. We can sit around the same table or not, but we all have the same goals in mind. Thank you.

Thank you, Valerie.

I have no other speaker cards. I do have one hand raised online.

Okay.

There we go.

Justin, go ahead. I have Justin Hamilton-Hull.

Thank you, Teresa. Good evening, American County and team. My name is Justin Hull. I've been American for 34 years. I want to see that... I want to see that or do something that take out this stuff and make open space, how to be safe out there. I live here when I was two, so thank you. I hope it start work soon.

Thank you, Justin.

That is, I have no other speaker cards and no other hands raised online.

Okay, thank you. Then I'll close public comment on item number 18 and turn back to the council for further discussion or direction for Mr. Hawley. Any additional questions?

Yeah, just, Council Member Orrall. Did I jump ahead of somebody?

No, they blinked around at the same time. It's a tie.

Just a couple of comments and thank you for the public for making your comments. It's great to hear this and I think obviously in the town that we sit in where 45,000 cars come in a day, and they also use our local streets. Traffic is an issue, and we've been fighting for circulation elements and traffic mitigation and relief for some time. Unfortunately, it's out of our hands, and I'd just like to remind people that we're a town of 21,000 people. There's no way we can create 45,000 cars going through here today, because half of our residents are younger and don't have a driver's license. AND SO A LOT OF PEOPLE ARE DRIVING THROUGH HERE TO GO UP TO UP VALLEY. MANY OF THEM ARE WORKERS. MANY OF US ARE WORKERS THAT LIVE IN TOWN AND WORK UP IN NAPA. There was talk about general plan and following the general plan on the west side connector at Wetlands Edge to Commerce Boulevard. The general plan called for that to go through, all the way through. General plans change. And in fact, when I got on council, it is a guiding document. It is not a permanent document. And it's a way for cities and municipalities to get together to think about how something happens. But the reality is, is that things change over time. And no one can predict the future. Right now, we actually don't have a west side connector. EVERYBODY THAT LIVES ON THAT SIDE OF TOWN, EVEN IF THEY WORKED AT MAZETTA, HAS TO GET ON THE HIGHWAY TO GET OVER THERE. AND THAT COULD ADD, YOU KNOW, LOTS OF TRAFFIC. IF WE HAD COMMERCE THERE, THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN, YOU KNOW, THEY COULD GO THERE DIRECTLY. IN FACT, IF WE HAD COMMERCE OR A WEST SIDE CONNECTOR, YOU COULD ACTUALLY GET TO THE NAPA DMV WITHOUT EVER GETTING ON THE HIGHWAY NOW THAT DEVLIN'S DONE. AND SO THERE'S CIRCULATION CHALLENGES THAT WE HAVE THAT THIS IS WHAT THIS DISCUSSION IS ABOUT AND THIS IS WHY I WANTED TO CALL FOR IT. AND SO MY POINT THERE AGAIN, JUST GENERAL PLANS ARE NOT PERMANENT DOCUMENTS. THEY CAN BE CHANGED TO THE REALITIES OF THE DAY. THE OTHER THING I WANTED TO ASK MR. HAWLEY ABOUT BECAUSE THE EAST SIDE CONNECTOR CAME UP, NEWELL CAME UP. I DO KNOW THAT IN THE CITY OF DIXON, THEY ARE DOING AN OVERPASS ALONG THE RAILROAD TRACKS OVER THERE. AND I SAW THAT RECENTLY BECAUSE I WENT TO SACRAMENTO TO GO SPEAK AT THE LEAGUE OF CALIFORNIA CITIES CONFERENCE. AND I WAS ON AMTRAK. I TOOK THE TRAIN TO SACRAMENTO. I inquired about it through a contact that I have over there, and I said, how long did it take for you to get that thing done, and how much did it cost? And that was Flatland in Dixon, and it was a cobblestone of money. And it's been 30 years. Clearly, we've had, according to one of the speakers, we've had it for seven years now. What's the reality of actually building Newell Extension? And let's just, let's paint the rosiest of pictures. And I'll remind you that I moved here in 2005 and the highway is exactly the same. And everybody's been complaining about that highway. I just want to have like a real discussion of what an east side connector would actually look like and when we could actually get relief.

Sure. I'm going to ask, is Nicole still here? I was going to have her put the presentation back up. Can you mind putting up, there's a slide. Thank you for staying tonight, by the way, Nicole. This wasn't part of her plan tonight. Thank you for being here. My recollection is we're looking for slide eight, but I could be wrong. Yep, there we go. God, I was right. It was slide eight. So that was what was intended by this. I don't have the ability to forecast a completion date, but what I can talk about in more detail are the steps that are involved. And so... You know, what's not shown on this particular chart are the activities that need to even be completed for the engineering phase to really kick off. So general plan being one of those, right? So we finished general plan this past fall. In the case particularly of Newell Drive, I think maybe one helpful way to be thinking about all of these activities, engineering right away and CEQA, all funnel to your construction point. So they don't necessarily happen one right after another. They'll happen in their own sort of series, and then they all finish, and then you can start construction. What's not shown in here is your funding phase. For example, in the case of segments four and five, sorry, in the case of segments five and South Kelly Road, what's not shown in here are even some of those predecessor activities around annexation. The next steps that we're working on in this process that, again, not in full detail on this chart, are related to funding and related to property acquisition. So we have some of the property we need. We don't have all of it. Annexation of land will be the trigger for more of these property acquisitions to come forward. We will be probably 70 to 80% done with the property acquisition once both of the pending annexations go through. At that point, The next step will really focus on the engineering phase. You can't finalize your right of way until your engineering is done. What you end up in actuality is a kind of circular loop. So you have a general idea of what your property needs are. Then you do your engineering and you get real specific about your property needs. And sometimes the road moves one foot or another a different direction or you may need temporary construction easements or there may be a pipe you didn't know about that you have to go and fix and go on to a property. And so the finalization of the right-of-way process can get very granular and take its own sort of timeframes. So there ends up being this sort of circular feedback between engineering and property acquisition. We'll get the bulk of the property acquisitions when the annexations are complete. Then you fully launch into your engineering process where you determine, I need this construction footprint temporarily. I may have these drainage easements going onto private properties. I may be coming onto properties to doing driveway conforms through rights of entry, that sort of thing. And so all of that has to kind of be finished before then you can hire a contractor to move forward. So we do envision these to happen in different components, so probably not all at once, much like Devlin Road. was built piece by piece by piece by piece from south to north, we envision these pieces to happen in a similar fashion. So segment one west is already done. Segments one east and segments two will be the next up. Segments three and four are probably a more logical phase, but as you start to get into your railroad crossing, you end up with some decisions, particularly determining whether that's an at-grade crossing or a grade-separated crossing, and that has great sort of variability to the design of segments four and five. So, you know, these processes will take a while by their very nature, both their number and their nature. And like I said, I don't have the ability to forecast when they would be complete, but I do, I can talk about some of the next steps, which is Phoenix and Axation. One of the speakers was correct. Our traffic impact fee that was referenced was from 2015, from more than a decade ago. A DIFFERENT GENERAL PLAN, A DIFFERENT CIRCULATION ELEMENT BEFORE THE WATSON RANCH PLAN WAS APPROVED, BEFORE THE GENERAL PLAN CIRCULATION WITH WEST SIDE CONNECTOR IN A DIFFERENT LOCATION, BEFORE WATSON LANE EIR, ALL OF THOSE THINGS, THAT WAS FIRST. SO IT DOES NEED TO BE UPDATED TO NOW LOOK AT THE GENERAL PLAN THAT WAS APPROVED LAST FALL. and we need to update those projects now that we have a better sense, for example, of the work on the highway, the updates there that would feed into the traffic fee. So the next steps in the process I can speak to that would be completing the annexations and updating the traffic fee program. From there, it would be finalizing the engineering, which then leads you into property acquisition.

Thank you. Mr. Hawley, you know I love you very much. That was a very bureaucratic answer. It is, let's just take the West Side Connectors example. THE COUNCIL MADE A DECISION TO GO UP AND OVER THAT HILL. IT'S BEEN FIVE YEARS. THAT WAS IN OCTOBER OF 2021, WHATEVER YOU HAD IN YOUR SLIDE. THAT WAS FIVE YEARS AGO. WE'VE GOTTEN RIGHT AWAY ON THIS IN 2019. WE HAVE SOME PROCESSES DONE. THE STUDY THAT IS UNDERWAY FOR REAL DEL MAR IS PROBABLY SIX MONTHS TO A YEAR OUT. WHEN YOU TALK ABOUT LAND ACQUISITION ON NEWELL EXTENSION, THAT'S A TWO-YEAR PROCESS. THOSE ARE ALSO OUTSIDE OF THE EIR, I THINK, TOO, CORRECT? THE SEGMENTS FIVE? So that was done with the annexation. Yeah. So, okay. So we're saving two years there because a sequel takes at least a couple of years. Honestly, it is a 10 year timeframe before that happens. There's no way that this is happening in the next four to five years. Would you agree?

Yes. I'm comfortable saying that it would be, I would be surprised if we had a ribbon cutting for ALL OF THESE SEGMENTS OF NEWELL IN THE NEXT FIVE YEARS. WHETHER WE HAVE SOME OF THE SEGMENTS DONE, I DON'T KNOW. FOR ALL OF THEM, I WOULD BE SURPRISED.

THAT'S JUST IF WE HAD THE MONEY?

YES, MONEY, BUT ALL THE OTHER THINGS, TOO. IT ISN'T JUST MONEY.

THANK YOU.

VICE MAYOR JOSEPH.

YES. THANK YOU FOR ALL THE COMMENTS. I WANT TO JUMP OVER TO THE WEST SIDE FOR A LITTLE BIT AND TO BE HONEST I WOULD BE MORE THAN HAPPY TO REVISIT OUR WEST SIDE CONNECTOR. I DON'T KNOW IF WE MADE THE RIGHT DECISION AND IT MIGHT BE WORTH IT TO HAVE ANOTHER DISCUSSION ABOUT THAT. NOT NECESSARILY TONIGHT BECAUSE PEOPLE WOULD SHOOT ME. BUT PUT THAT ON A PARKING LOT. THE SECOND POINT IS I'M GOING TO BORE YOU ALL A LITTLE BIT BECAUSE I'VE HAD SOME TIME HERE IN THE CITY. MR. VARGAS IS CORRECT. I'VE BEEN HERE FOR A WHILE. And as city manager, I had the privilege of negotiating with many developers building a good amount of the residential. And there's a certain pattern that developers operate under. And that is they understand that if you don't have the road access to your property, it's a lot harder to sell houses. And that is why, in almost every case, developers are more than happy to give you the land for the right-of-way and generally willing to build the roads and the infrastructure. They know they will get it done quicker, and it will help them sell homes. That's what we did with all the properties along Wetlands Edge Road, how we handled the southeast area, Levine, Vintage Ranch, even Promontory. The project that's been approved hasn't been started yet. They are giving us the land and they are building the road. So that's the way most developers operate. Here, we have the rest of Newell. We have a situation in which the developer did give us the right of way, although for what it's worth, he's now suing us in part to get it back. And he is not obligated to contribute financially to the Newell construction, and he is not obligated to pay any traffic impact fees. So where we stand is in contrast to just about every other residential development in this city. When you ask what's happened to Newell, the answer is the developer isn't paying his fair share. And that's the simple bottom line. HOWEVER, I DO APPRECIATE THE FACT THAT PEOPLE ON THE EAST SIDE OF TOWN SHOULD NOT BE SUBJECTED TO GOING ALL THE WAY DOWN TO DONALDSON TO GO NORTH. THEY DESERVE ANOTHER WAY OUT. IN THAT CONSTRUCT, WE OUGHT TO LOOK AT THE WATSON RANCH PLAN BECAUSE IT ENVISIONED FIRST THE CONNECTIONS FROM THE SOUTH, THEN FROM THE WEST, FROM HIGHWAY 29. And Rio Del Mar, as we've talked about, there are some issues there. South Napa Junction is a viable interim solution, relatively quick and easy to do. Yes, you have to work with the railroad companies and the PUC about the crossing. You're going to have to do that with Watson Lane. So in my mind, South Napa Junction is an extremely viable interim solution that will give you the same value as Watson Lane, probably cheaper and quicker, and it's a straight shot to the ruins, which frankly is the real appeal. And it most importantly gives the residents on the east side a viable option out. Now, it also buys us time. Newell isn't going to happen overnight. But, you know, it will buy us time. And what do we do with that time? I would propose a way to make Newell happen sooner rather than later is a number of things. A, facilitate the Hess-Laird annexation because those property owners get it. They're going to give us the right of way. They're going to contribute to the road. They will do more than their fair share to facilitate that Newell-South Kelly alignment. That's number one. Number two, give some serious thought to taking the Watson Lane at-grade crossing and relocating it to wherever Newell is going to intersect the tracks making it an at-grade crossing. Now I admit There was a city manager years ago who said if you give us one at South Napa Junction, we'll do a crossover at Newell. But times have changed and he's not the city manager anymore. So again, move that. And this is easy to say. It is going to be complicated. But what I'm trying to offer the community is a global solution that makes sense. Move the at-grade crossing, save yourself $20 or $30 million, get all the property owners to contribute, and lastly, get the property owners to build it. The simple reality is McGrath can build it faster than we can. Hess Laird can build their share faster than we can. I'd like to argue that we could, but in reality, they will do it faster. They're far more motivated and they can get it done. So for me, if we want to get Newell done in 10 years or less, you've got to take some big steps. And like I said, get the annexation to Hess Laird so you've got those property owners online. move that ad grade crossing, get the property owners to contribute their fair share, and then let the property owners build their share, their portions of it. That way you get the short-term relief, South Napa Junction, long-term correct solution, Newell Extension. Thank you.

Thank you, Vice Mayor. Council Member Lamertino.

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you for all the comments and the report. I just want to state that we talk about the past, but this is a different council. Right? We're not the old council. So I just want to make that clear. We're a different council than in the past. And we definitely need to expand Newell for safety reasons. And we need a connector on the west side. You've probably heard me say this before. When my kids were younger, if there was an emergency, I'd say, go to the wetlands and swim canoe whatever because we're not getting out over here. We can't all dump into Highway 29 and think we're going to get out safe. So we do need to look like council member Joseph said globally and get those extensions done and get them done quick. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Lamartina. I guess for me, the decision comes down to this. To me, it's kind of plain and simple. We have to ensure, one, that this council and our residents have access to complete, factual information. And I sit here and I listen to my older colleagues on the council, Council Member Orrell, Council Member Joseph, who I respect greatly. I listen to what they say often. And even today councilmember oral says yeah, you know ten years you got here in 2005 I got here in 2006 and Yes, something still seemed the same, but there's a lot of things that have changed for the positive as well What I don't want to do is sit here and try to make our city manager the the target Because it's not him It's the council he gets his direction from the council and And so if you want to point fingers, point them at the council, when you want to talk to everybody out in the audience, turn it around and face the council, because we're the ones making the decision. We're the ones telling him what to do. And I promised our city managers that I won't let him be that target any longer. While there are strong opinions on both sides tonight of this issue, the responsibility for what we do in the community is that we are fully informed on what's happening. I think the city manager did a very good job with this presentation tonight. Give us some factual stuff. You've heard some things, segment one, segment two, segment three. And I bet you if I ask you guys to put your hands up in the air, explain to me what segment one, segment two, segment three is, not a single person here will be able to do it. Maybe Mr. McGrath. No one else. I also say that we need to start looking at how are we being informed? Are we being informed by ways of being influenced? by certain people that want to have certain things done. The last 10 years, I've watched, I don't know, four or five different campaigns go down. Every time somebody campaigns, they campaign about what they're going to do about transportation. But yet, we're still sitting up here saying it's 10 years and we haven't seen any changes. So be careful when you listen. It's ironic today is an election night. Be careful when you listen to the promises that people make to you. HOLD THEM ACCOUNTABLE. HOLD US ACCOUNTABLE. WITH THAT SAID, I KNOW THAT TONIGHT WE HAVE ANOTHER AGENDA ITEM WHICH IS WHY I DIDN'T WANT TO MOVE THESE ITEMS UP IN THE FRONT BECAUSE WE HAVE SOME OTHER THINGS WE HAVE TO DO. WE STILL HAVEN'T GOT BEYOND THE FIRST ITEM FOR THE NIGHT, ITEM 18. ALTHOUGH I RESPECT THIS IS A VERY IMPORTANT ITEM, I JUST THINK THAT FROM A PLANNING STANDPOINT, THIS AGENDA WAS PLANNED PURPOSELY TO BE ABLE TO GET THROUGH THIS NIGHT. AND, YOU KNOW, I ASKED MY COLLEAGUES TO CONSIDER THE NEXT TIME THEY WANT TO MOVE AN AGENDA FOR THAT MAIN REASON. THERE'S NO ACTION ITEM DONE FOR THIS PARTICULAR ITEM TONIGHT, CORRECT, MR.

Yes, 18 was just informational. 17, which is currently the next on the calendar, does have action.

And it will probably last longer than item 18. So with that said, if there's no other comments from my colleagues, I'd like to file this report and then move to item number 17. No objections? Seeing none, let's move to item number 17. OUR NEXT BUSINESS ITEM NUMBER 17 IS THE INITIATIVE PETITION FOR MEASURE M. I WOULD ASSUME TONIGHT'S PRESENTATION WOULD BE DONE BY OUR CITY CLERK. I JUST TOLD THERESA I CAN COVER IT.

I AM HAPPY TO HAND THAT TO CITY MANAGER HOLLY.

I'm on a roll, Mayor. I know there are some remarks maybe you wanted to start this with.

Yes, yes. I was going to have the City Attorney do it, but I will take care of it. Before we begin public comment on this particular item, I would like to clarify the actions available for the City Council this evening. That is what we are going to be asked to do this evening. Again, going back to making sure that you have the facts of what the purpose of tonight's ITEM 18 IS. THE COUNCIL IS NOT, I REPEAT, NOT BEING ASKED TONIGHT TO DECIDE ON THE MERITS OF THE MEASURE M. INSTEAD, THE COUNCIL IS CONSIDERING THE PROCEDURAL OPTIONS PROVIDED UNDER CALIFORNIA ELECTION CODE THAT MUST SELECT ONE OF THE THREE OPTIONS TONIGHT. I'M GOING TO READ THOSE THREE OPTIONS SO YOU'RE AWARE WHAT THOSE OPTIONS ARE. OPTION NUMBER ONE IS TO ADOPT THE PROPOSED INITIATIVE ORDINANCE WITHOUT ANY ALTERATIONS. Option number two, submit the proposed initiative ordinance directly to the voters for consideration at the election. And option number three, direct the preparation of a report to provide additional information regarding potential impacts of the measure. IF A REPORT IS REQUESTED THE ITEMS WILL RETURN TO A FUTURE SPECIAL MEETING ANTICIPATED TO OCCUR IN APPROXIMATELY 30 DAYS WHERE THE COUNCIL WILL CONSIDER THE REMAINING OPTIONS. WE RECOGNIZE THAT THERE ARE STRONG OPINIONS REGARDING THE SUBSTANCE OF MEASURE M. HOWEVER, TO ASSIST THE COUNCIL IN ITS DECISION THIS EVENING We encourage speakers to focus their comments on which of these procedural options they would believe the council should pursue. So does anybody in here need me to read those three options one more time? You would like for me to read those three options one more time? I will do that for you. Option number one, adopt the proposed initiative ordinance without alteration. Option number two, provide the proposed initiative ordinance directly to the voters for considerations at an election. And option three, direct the preparation of a report to provide additional information regarding the potential impacts of the measure. Those are the three options that we have tonight.

Thank you for that great introduction, Mayor. We're going to put you on the payroll. I don't have a ton to add on to that, but I think the Mayor's point about this particular item, it was added to the agenda. IT WASN'T PART OF OUR AGENDA FORECAST. IT WAS ADDED TO THE AGENDA. A LOCAL VOTERS INITIATIVE HAS BEEN CIRCULATING IN THE COMMUNITY AND GATHERED SIGNATURES. WE'VE VERIFIED THE FORMAT AND THEN SENT THOSE SIGNATURES TO NAPA COUNTY REGISTER VOTERS, JOHN TUDOR. HE PROVIDED A CERTIFICATION OF THE SIGNATURES THEMSELVES THAT THEY WERE VALID SIGNATURES. AND THEN THIS WHOLE PROCESS HAS BEEN COVERED BY THE CALIFORNIA ELECTIONS CODE. And now we're into a different phase, but also still being followed by the California Elections Code, which requires the council now to be presented. So earlier on the consent calendar, there was an item that said sufficiency. It was a formality recognizing what John Tudor's work had done. And so now we have a sufficient petition. And the council has three options. There aren't other options. It's not a yes or a no one. Measure M, whether it's a good idea or a bad idea or any of those things, it is really only three options they have. And that first option is to take what was circulated and to adopt it without alteration. And what that means is it becomes law. So essentially the equivalent of what a yes vote on Measure M would be if it was on the ballot. would be the equivalent of that. So it becomes law. So the council has the authority tonight. Procedurally, so folks are aware, it takes three council members to vote yes to make that happen. But that's what option one is. So option one, if you felt like that was a good idea, you would then tell the council, I think you should adopt this as is. Please take option one. Option two is where you would ask the council to send it to the voters. So this would be for the November 3rd election. You would ask the council to say, let the voters decide whether this should become law or not, rather than you deciding it yourself tonight. So that would be option two if you wanted to address the council and say, hey, council, put this on the ballot in November. Option three is a unique option at this stage only and goes away. uh... if the council does not choose option three but option three is informational so uh... right now there is no information about this proposed measure at least no information that the city has prepared uh... and so uh... under the elections code there is the uh... possibility of preparing a report this is a report that we will compile information uh... and as you start to see in the in the packet starting on page two thirty six the report addresses a lot of potential topics. Fiscal impacts, land use impacts, traffic and circulation impacts, infrastructure, environmental considerations, consistency with general plan, specific plans, and other matters that may be relevant. So this option three is the preparation of a report that would then explain to the council and to the voters what Measure M actually does, what it does, what it doesn't do, et cetera. Right now we don't have that information and so the council doesn't have it either. So option three, if you felt like more information would be useful from verified sources like what we will be preparing, then you would suggest to the council you should pick option three prepare a report and provide more information. The council has to pick, like I said, one of those three options. Option one is sort of a finality, meaning it becomes law tomorrow. Option two means that it's going to the voters in November. No real further conversation, at least from the city perspective. You'll have a variety of campaigns doing their thing, but NO REAL CONVERSATION FROM THE CITY'S PERSPECTIVE. OPTION THREE, THERE WILL BE A REPORT GENERATED. THAT HAS TO TAKE PLACE WITHIN 30 DAYS. OUR CITY COUNCIL CALENDAR, WE DON'T HAVE ANOTHER MEETING IN 30 DAYS. WE DO HAVE ONE IN TWO WEEKS, BUT THIS REPORT WILL TAKE MUCH LONGER THAN TWO WEEKS TO PREPARE. SO MUCH FURTHER TOWARDS THAT 30-DAY DEADLINE, WE DON'T HAVE A REGULAR MEETING. SO THIS WOULD BE A NEW CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL MEETING. roughly in that 30-day timeframe where the council would receive that report. It's at that meeting then they would only be presented with two options. They can't do another report. They already did the report. So you're really down to the first two options. They could at that point in time receive the report and say adopt as is, or they could receive the report and then put it onto the ballot. And that would be a decision they need to make at that point in time. So those are the options that are available to the council tonight. They can't say no to Measure M. They can't say yes to Measure M. All they can do is either adopt it as is, put it on the ballot, or direct the preparation of this report. Lastly, there are expenses to this. I don't think we should shy away from that. The consultant report, roughly $40,000 to $50,000 would be my guess. In this case, we've already begun to solicit proposals from a consultant. We've gone so far as to schedule a kickoff meeting with them later this week because this will be a very complicated report and we need to get going on it. So we're prepared to act and to implement if necessary. Putting the measure on the ballot at whatever stage, if that happens, is about $20,000. EARLIER IN THE CONSENT CALENDAR TONIGHT, THE CITY COUNCIL TOOK PROCEDURAL STEPS TO CALL THE MUNICIPAL ELECTION BECAUSE THERE ARE TWO CITY COUNCIL SEATS UP AND SO WE'VE ASKED THE COUNTY TO CONSOLIDATE OUR ELECTION WITH THEIRS THIS NOVEMBER. SHOULD THE COUNCIL ULTIMATELY DECIDE TO PUT MEASURE M ON THE BALLOT, THERE WOULD BE AN ADDITIONAL COST FOR THAT, ROUGHLY $20,000 FOR PUTTING IT ON THE BALLOT. THERE ARE THREE RESOLUTIONS ATTACHED TO THE STAFF REPORT staff doesn't know which of the options council might select, so we had to assume any of the three were possibilities, and that's what those attachments to the staff report are. The lastly thing I wanted to cover, sort of unique, is environmental review. Normally, when the city council acts, we're required under the California Environmental Quality Act to assess the environmental impacts of their action. including making the lights go off. So normally we're required, normally the council is required to make an environmental determination. In the instances of their activities tonight, those activities are not, an environmental review is not required. They aren't the ones proposing any of this. This is something that the voters are proposing. And so they are not required, and that's why it is fine that there's not been an environmental review. I mean, fine in the sense of legal, that there's not been an environmental review because one isn't required for voter initiatives. They can be done, they're just not required. So that's what the environmental review section is meant to contemplate. I think I've covered it all. Mayor and council, if you had other questions, happy to answer it.

Any questions from council? Seeing none, is there an additional presentation that you want to provide? Or just go ahead, you're good with me opening it up if there's no question.

Mr. Mayor, I do have a question. Actually, Mr. Hawley, can you... The one thing missing in this whole process was the, I think the audience would appreciate just a little bit of background on the California voter initiatives and why this is being treated a little bit differently than a typical council action.

Yeah. That's a great point. Sort of skipped over the very first step, I suppose. Apologies for that. California is unique amongst the states. Actually, the western states have this sort of power not often found maybe in the eastern states, but in the California Constitution, voters are treated effectively like a fourth branch of government, meaning voters have the power to make law. It's not subject to the whims of the legislature or the judiciary. It really operates as its own sort of apparatus, if you will. There are, of course, limitations and there are laws that apply and everything else, but tremendous power. And it's really this notion of kind of crowdsourcing and this idea that You know, if thousands and thousands of people get together, there's some merit in the idea is where that is sort of rooted. And so things like state environmental laws don't apply because the legislature doesn't get to impose those sorts of prerequisites on a voter activity. There is the power. Right, but it comes with numbers. So in this case, it's 10%. So there are 14,431, I think, registered voters in American Canyon. Keep in mind, most of our households have school-aged children that aren't registered voters. We have 22 plus thousand people, only 14,000 are registered. So 10% of that, roughly 1,400, is the threshold. So when a local voter, the other thing is to propose an initiative, you have to be a registered voter in American Canyon to propose an initiative. And so you and 1,400 of your other friends have to sign the documents that you want adopted. The without alteration is very important. There isn't a negotiation with the council that occurs or changes. What is exactly proposed is what is exactly circulated, what is exactly signed off on by those 1,400 or so folks. and then that's what gets presented to the council. So it's a process that is used with somewhat regularity. We did actually go and to look at some of the histories MEASURES RELATED TO GENERAL PLANS. I ACTUALLY SMELL SOMETHING BURNING.

SHE TURNED ON THE HEATER BACK HERE. SHE'S COLD. SHE TURNED ON THE HEATER. THERE IS NO FIRE. IT'S COLD IN THIS ROOM AND SHE'S COLDER.

SO ANYWAY, I DON'T HAVE ANYTHING ELSE TO ADD, MAYOR. HOPEFULLY THAT ANSWERED YOUR QUESTION.

NO, THANK YOU. I JUST THINK THAT'S IMPORTANT CONTEXT JUST BECAUSE IT'S UNIQUE IN THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA AND THE WESTERN STATES.

Okay. Now that we know we're not having a fire, I'd like to open up to public comments since there's no more clarifying comments from the council for item number 17. And Madam Clerk, if you would, do we have comment cards?

We have comment cards. Thank you. Before I call for speakers, I want to note for the record that we received written comments for this item from Steven and Jacqueline Ross, Jessica Sanders, Karen and John Freskin, Chris and Leanne Folk, Leanne and Sam Clarisi, Jessica Sanders, Leslie and Margaret Lawson, Christina Hunt, Joan Lonely, Jose Rangel, Jeanette Goit, Karina Cervante. And those have all been provided in real time if they came through e-comments to our council. We also emailed them ones that we had been hand delivered here actually. And they are also up on that counter for your review.

I've read the majority of them. Okay.

All right. And what I'm going to do is call one speaker and then I'm going to call the next one to kind of be on deck there with Nicole so that we can get through faster. And lastly, we did list those three options and the descriptions and it is on the podium for your reference. Okay. First up is Joe Gonzalez and on deck, Jessica Sanders.

Good evening, Mr. Gonzalez.

I'm afraid to speak tonight. An hour past cocktail time and 30 minutes past my bedtime. Mayor, council, staff, audience, what a crazy. I'm here on behalf of my wife and myself. I'm Joe Gonzalez. We reside at 360 Watson Lane, the very end of Watson Lane. We would select option one. I'll explain that. The importance of the... I'm going to digress just a split second. When we bought, we were told that Null was going to be through in relatively short order. We obviously see that's not going to happen now.

So the importance of Marcus Road to Watson Lane, the connection, is understated.

It's urgent. The timing and location is perfect. It's above all else a safety issue. Watson Lane and our soon-to-be new neighbors, they're going to be our neighbors, we all knew this, have one way in and one way out. I'm going to go back to October 8th of 2017. October 8th, 2017, I thought life was fantastic, don't have to worry about a thing, never thought about a fire. October 9th of 2017, I evacuated my family and all my animals, and quickly. I went back, our Atlas Peak fire was coming on us. I went back October 9th, got a water truck up there. October 10th, at 2 a.m., I realized I wasn't going to do anything. I wasn't going to save my house. So I thought, I got to get out of here. Didn't occur to me that I had one way in and one way out. It was an inferno. How I got out, I have absolutely no idea. I drove through oak trees. I drove under wires. I was burned. My car was demolished. But I made it out, have no idea. We had the trailer over here. Now, I want to, just real quick, The cabin that we lived in when we first built our house, we lost our house 20 years, we built it with our own hands. The cabin we lived in prior to that was built in 1933. The garage and the shop that my son and I built our little toys in was built in 1915. That's 102 years that those structures remained. Everybody here that I've talked to, or at least on my lane, Oh, no, it's impossible. It's not going to happen. Let me tell you, I'm here to tell you that if you got one way out and a fire starts on the east side, west side, we're all in trouble. I experienced it. I witnessed it. I almost lost my own life as a direct result. I'm out of time. Thank you very much for your time.

Jessica Sanders and on deck Alex Eastler.

Good evening. I've heard that more people are afraid of public speaking than they are of dying, and unfortunately for me, I'm one of those people, so I hope you'll bear with me for a moment. I avoid public speaking at all costs, but this is too important for me to say silent. My name is Jessica Sanders. I am the fourth generation in my family to live in American Canyon and the third generation to live on Watson Lane. My grandparents built their home there nearly 70 years ago. My parents built their homes there nearly 40 years ago, and I have lived there my entire life. Our street is unique because my family is not the only multi-generational family there. There are several two-generation, three-generation, and even four-generation families. That's one of the reasons we're fighting so hard to protect and preserve it. To many people, Watson Lane would just be a way to get from point A to point B. To us, it is home. My grandparents are no longer here. My parents are no longer here. That land, my home, and that little street are part of their legacy and part of the legacy of the families who have lived there for generations. The people who moved there and the people who were born there and chose to stay did so because they wanted to be part of a small, close-knit community. We all cherish that same feeling. once that uniqueness and way of life are gone they are gone forever and there is no going back i have been told by people who don't live on our street and won't have to live with the consequences that being against this project means i'm against progress i am not i simply believe progress should improve residents lives and not diminish them what is progress without quality of life and what about another important word preservation preservation of local history, community, and the character that makes American Canyon special. Many of us feel we are being asked to accept major impacts to our homes and our community before the originally planned and agreed upon infrastructure was in place to support this level of growth. To those of us who live here, that feels backwards. This development has jumped out of an airplane and expects Watson Lane and its residents to be the parachute before it hits the ground, sacrificing our land, our safety, and our community. It is not right and it is not fair. I will leave you with this. Please put yourselves in our shoes. What would be going through your mind? How would you be feeling if someone was trying to take part of your home and turn your way of life upside down? So out of the three options available, I would please urge you to consider option three. Thank you so much for allowing me to speak about something that means so much to me.

Thank you, Jessica.

I don't know how I'm going to follow that one up.

Alex is, sorry, Alex and on deck Tiffany Mayrong. And if you don't mind, if we could not applaud between so I can just call the next person. I know it's exciting. Thank you.

Okay. Hi, everybody. My name is Alex. I live at Watson Lane. I'll keep this short and sweet. So thank you, council, for giving us the chance to speak on this issue tonight. Tonight, I urge you to consider option three on measure M to look into the infrastructure and cost of developing the proposed cross-through in our Watson Lane community. My understanding is that proposed street will take a minimum of 15 feet on both sides of our street. I work for government as well, and I can tell you they very rarely take the minimum. I urge you all, citizens including, to come out to our street to see what that would look like for our community. All I ask is for you to go to your own homes and imagine what it would be like if someone took 15 feet on your property and what would that look like for your families. Thank you.

Thank you, Alex.

If I could get, we've got Tiffany to comment and on deck, Terrence McGrath.

Hi, everyone in City Council. I have a little bit of anxiety up here, so I am hoping you guys all consider option one, and if not, option two. A lot of you know my family and my children. We have given a lot since we've been here to this town, try to help with inclusion. But you know I was a part of the team that did help with the insurance team that helped with Paradise fires and the Humboldt fires and I live back there on Marcus Road and having one way in and out is very scary, like he said. A lot of the families, I've been on the phone with Humboldt families who had one way in and out. I was helping a family figure out what to pack and take and make sure they had all their kids and stuff just to get out of a fire. I helped an American Canyon resident find and locate their mom because they couldn't get out of the Paradise Fire. It's very scary living with that one option. IF NEWELL CAUGHT ON FIRE, ROLLING HILLS WOULD BE THE EMERGENCY SERVICE ROAD AND THE REST OF US WOULD JUST BE STUCK. THAT'S ALL I HAVE. THANK YOU.

THANK YOU, TIFFANY.

OKAY. TERRY IS UP AND ON DECK. SAM CLARISI. AFTER THAT IT'S GOING TO BE SAM J. CLARISI IF YOU GUYS WANT TO GO.

JUST A QUICK COMMENT ON MR. JOSES' COMMENT ABOUT NOT PAYING FAIR SHARE. So in 2019, Council Member Oro was on the negotiating team for the development agreement. So I have a 30-year contract with the city, and I have sued the city, obviously. I sued him in October for a breach of contract. But when the development agreement contract came to the council to be voted on, I begged Mark. I sat right here at this podium in 2019 not to vote yes on it. Remember that, Mark?

Yeah.

And you know what he did? He voted yes. And the other thing that is very unfair, he can sit up there behind the dais. I paid 2X in impact fees. And I welcome Mark to come and audit what we've spent. So back to Measure M. I love Newell Drive. But there's 6,000 plus or minus people that if, to Joe's point, if a fire starts on the east side, they're trapped. And as Council Member Orrell said earlier, specific plans change all the time. We've already done two specific plans on Watson Ranch and we're working on a third one. They're never intended to be static. And so again, I appreciate the fact that eight years later, there's nothing happening on Newell drive and I'll bet the ranch that it's not 10 years on Newell drive and Newell drive does not work unless it's all built building segments. One, two, three, four. That doesn't do any good. That doesn't connect you to Paley loop road. That doesn't connect you to 29. It only works if it's all in and I'll bet the ranch. another 20 years probably close to 30. in fact mr holly in a meeting in december with the mayor in attendance and all the developers in the community mr holly said it's at least 30 years away 30 years away and i have the notes from that meeting and so again we're talking about less than 200 yards to connect what we already have to build of Marcus to connect to Watson Lane, and that protects 6,000 people from getting caught in another story like Joe mentioned. I lived through the Oakland Fire. I've lived through the Glass Fire, and you don't want that to happen here. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. McGrath.

Sam Clarisi, and do we have a Sam J. Clarisi on deck?

Hello, everyone. My name is Sam Clarisi. I live at 210 Watson Lane. I've lived there for 33 years of my life. I had a speech prepared that was going to explain all the things that were wrong with connecting Marcus Road to Watson Lane and how Newell Drive was the appropriate answer. I think that a lot of you guys at the city council agree with that. AND HIS PERSONAL PLAYGROUND, THE RUINS, WE DON'T CARE TO CONNECT IT TO WATSON LANE. AND I WILL SAY THIS AS WELL, IF MR. MCGRATH CARES SO MUCH ABOUT FIRES, YOU THINK THAT HE WOULD TRIM HIS WEEDS AT THE PAYOLI LOOP PROPERTY HE OWNS? SO WHEN THAT FIRE STARTS AND WE'RE NOT ALL TRAPPED ON THE LANE AND WE'RE NOT ALL TRYING TO SCRAMBLE THE MCGRATH RANCH, THANK YOU.

THANK YOU, SAM. Sam J. Clarisse and on deck Chris Folk.

Hi, I'm Sam J. Clarisse. I live on Watson Lane and my family built that house in 1954. I'm against widening Watson Lane. If they want to eminent domain people that have been in this city for over 70 years, I don't think it's right. It's an elevated crossing at Watson Lane. They'd have to bring in hundreds of yards of dirt to make a ramp to go up and over it. Watson Lane comes and tees into Paoli Loop Road, which I come out of Watson Lane every day to go to work to Paoli Loop Road. There's constantly semis that are going down Paoli Loop Road to go down to Mazetta, go down to Coparts, go down to Central Valley. There's lumber trucks. There's people that work down there. It seems like two times a year a truck will be going under the overpass. It'll flip over. It's closed there. um a lot of the times three to four times a day southern pacific will go down and sometimes they use the yard down here to switch and they block watson lane uh i i think that using this as a route uh is an excuse to save people's lives is just a ploy um i think it's an easy way to get the project to come out an easy effective way to make more people money um everybody points fingers um IT IT WHOSE FAULT IT IS A CITY WHAT I THINK SHOULD HAPPEN IS THAT THERE SHOULD BE A STOP PUTTING TO THE WORK FOR THE SECOND PHASE OF WATSON RANCH UNTIL THIS IS ALL WORKED OUT AND I DO PROPOSE NUMBER THREE TO ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT REPORT AND EVERYTHING HOW IT'S GOING TO AFFECT MY LIVES AND MY FAMILY'S LIVES IF YOU DO WIDEN WATSON LANE I THINK IT'S A HUGE MISTAKE THANK YOU

Thank you, Sam.

Chris book and Karina Cervantes on deck.

Uh, and, and before we continue, I just want to make sure that when you come up to speak at the podium, I'm going to ask you that you address the council and not the audience because the audience is not the one that needs to be addressed right here. We are the ones that are going to be making the decision. So please focus your comments on the diets. Sir?

Council? I'm a resident of Watson Lane. A lot of good stuff said tonight, and I'm going to have a hard time covering what I want. I'm going to start with just option three, makes the most sense. A few things. Everybody seems in agreeance that It's not the best option. In fact, it's the worst option. And even from the meetings from years ago, it seems like that's what we left with then. It was the worst option. There's other multiple better options. The primary one being Newell. And then to the, you know, I've heard, you know, taken 15 feet. I mean, it's more than that. You know, in front of my house, the pavement is 17 feet wide, the gutter another three feet. So it's, I only have 17 feet to the side of my garage. so unless they're gonna take my garage as well and then even if they go to the which is what the picture shows right now it shows it right at my garage setbacks is that another ten feet now my garage is gone and it takes twenty six feet plus off the other side of of the house or of the street uh... and then i hear a lot about the safety thing the fire uh... which is valid arguments however i just i can't help but think in twenty twenty six We have the processes, we go through years and years of planning that we've discussed tonight and somehow I don't understand how we got this far along and there wasn't something in the steps to be like, you can't build the houses before you have the access for safety. That blows me away. I know if I wanted to go get a permit to do an addition or add on to my house right now, the county would not give it to me unless I updated my access, my driveway to 4290 whatever whatever fire code. I can't even get a permit before I do that. But yet we're building hundreds of houses before we have any infrastructure in place. You know, on that I'll close with, I feel like kind of a common theme nowadays is the normal people kind of losing trust in the institutions that are supposed to enforce these things, that do these things. This seems like a clear one where we've lost that or where you could get it back, like right the ship. This does not seem to go the way it should have gone. uh... in the planning cycle we missed something uh... with my thirteen seconds i mean again this is taking I lost half my property to the Highway 29 over crossing before I owned it, but my property got shopped in half. Now I stand to lose even more that I use for my family.

Thank you, sir.

When there's better options out there.

Karina is up and on deck. Leon Garcia.

I support Measure M and want you to either adopt Measure M or place it on the November 2026 ballot so the residents of American Canyon can vote on it. In my opinion, it is the most important issue this city has faced since the NVUSD school bond issue passed in November 2006 to build a new high school in American Canyon. Additionally, our town's infrastructure has not kept pace with its growth and remains significantly behind current needs. It is of the utmost urgency that we develop several additional entrance and exit routes to improve traffic flow, emergency response capabilities, and public safety. Expanding access points is critical to ensuring residents can evacuate efficiently during emergencies and that first responders can reach affected areas without delay. Furthermore, you voted in favor of acquiring county land, which presents an opportunity to address these infrastructure deficiencies. Development of Watson Lane and the Paoli Loop would not only improve safety and connectivity, but also support future business growth, attract investments, and strengthen the local economy. I urge you to prioritize the development of additional access routes as part of our future planning and use of that land. Thank you, Council Member Oro, for your motion to amend the agenda. A lot of us work and it's truly appreciated. Also, I keep hearing about the fire. I don't know if you guys remember, Newell did caught on fire. I was part of the CERT team that helped out during that night. It was one of the scariest nights that I've experienced here in town, besides the earthquake. And you could not even imagine the faces of the folks trying to get the animals out of there. all the animals that they have on that land. It was very chaotic. I was working with the CERT team, first responders, CAL FIRE, until midnight that night. The next day I went and talked to a lot of the CAL FIRE folks. So it did catch on fire. We are not immune to fires. Look at L.A. Look how all that residential communities burned to the ground. So thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Corina.

Leon Garcia and Eva Garcia is on deck.

Thank you everyone for the discussion on this matter this evening. I can sense the importance that is to so many people here. I was helped, my wife was very much involved with the initiative on it. 2,300 signatures to put this on the ballot in three weeks. There's a lot of, normally that takes a very long time to do that. So that's the level of urgency or support that people see for it. We are both active members of the American Canyon CERT team. I have in my position as an elected official been very involved with a lot of the evacuation and the impact it's had to many people. And the discussion tonight helps me also assess where I am with it. You know, there's a lot of concern about the impact. Long-time residents actually have the ability in that. On the other hand, time moves on and life changes for all of us. So I think probably I'm more inclined at this point weighing the options. Council approve it. You're hearing all the discussion this evening from many people here and I'm wondering what's going through your minds right now with it. I think putting it on the ballot would be a way of handling some of this discussion with it if the council deems that appropriate. Certainly a study might OCCUR FROM THAT, I DON'T KNOW. BUT I THINK THE BALLOT MEASURE IS WHAT IT WAS INTENDED AS, AND I THINK MOVING FORWARD IN THAT DIRECTION IS A WAY OF HELPING GET THE INPUT AND THE KNOWLEDGE WE NEED TO MOVE FORWARD. THANK YOU.

THANK YOU, LEON.

EVA IS UP AND ON DECK.

GOOD EVENING, MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL. I love that American Canyon is conversing. We have this conversation. This is healthy conversation because we want health and safety of the residents of American Canyon. I know that Every time something happened in American Canyon, as the First Lady before, I have a lot of phone calls. And I was one of the person that circulated the petition. And people that are signing would call their relatives and their family. hey, Auntie Eva is coming, please sign this, because we want Highway 29 to be clear. That's what I heard. I only had two person that said, I have to check with the Watson Lane residents. see what they say. So at first my intention is you decide, but now that I heard citizens from Watson Lane, I think it's good to put it to election, you know, measure. And that's what I, we need to have a safe place and I'm also part of the CERT, Citizens Emergency Response Team, when during the fire, I cannot go and help because I had a lot of phone calls. Ate Eva, where we gonna go? And the panic that I heard. It is really important for us, all of us, to have a safe way to in and out of American Canyon. Thank you.

Thank you, Eva.

Thank you. Jeanette is up and on deck, Charles Lemon.

Good evening, we're watching 10 City Council.

Do you know if you could speak louder.

Good evening. Can you hear me better? Mayor Washington, city council members and members of the audience. Um, I came here with a long speech cause cause I did three minutes, but anyway, I'm in opposition to the Watson lane, Marcus road, um, ranch. First of all, I do want to thank everybody's comments and the presentations cause I did kind of learn stuff tonight too. But, um, So I've been here a long time, seen a lot of changes. But those living in Watson Ranch probably do need another access road. My daughter just moved up there. But I don't know if the new extension, I mean, they say it'll take 10 years, 30 years. Who knows? It's been on. I don't know why we waited so long. I guess I'm kind of getting off track here. And one person did bring this up about And I don't know, I'm not a developer, but why wouldn't you build roads first and, you know, in your plan and then build the houses, you know, where you wanted these? I don't know. I mean, that just occurred to me. I drove on Watson Lane today just to see. I hadn't been there in a long, long time. And I drive by it all the time and I see those houses, those ranches. would hate I mean my husband talked to someone today who their whole family has been there for since the 1800s I don't know I wouldn't want 15 feet of my front yard taken away I just breaks my heart to think that that and then one fellow was talking about his garage being taken away think about that that's all I mean that just blows my mind the safety thing again I I don't know why this wasn't thought of before you know why now I Don't know this is where I'm going with it, I guess just It's kind of like why why are we talking about this now when we it should seems like it should have been a better plan and building roads first, and then having the design of the houses in between, whatever you do, I don't know. I don't, I guess I came here to say I do not want Measure M to be law, and I guess that's not one of the choices here. I'm gonna go with the last choice. I think if we could have more information for the public, would that be a good thing, like town halls regarding this? Would that be something we could do? Like a like we did at the transportation thing the other night when people this place was full If we said town hall about what we're going to talk about And and I think tonight we got a lot of information about different ways of getting Go from east to west west to east. I think those were good comments and I appreciate those That's all

Thank you, Jeanette.

Charles is up and on deck. Valerie?

Charles Lemon, Watson Lane. I would like to support option three to give Jason the time to address the missing fact in Measure M. Where does the money come from? Measure M provides an illusion to the voters of American Canyon that a road is magically going to be built by their yes vote. It will not. The hardest part of any project is finding the money. I've done billion-dollar projects in my industry and my career. Getting the money is the hard part. The other thing they also say is follow the money. But in this case, we all want a safe way out of the new subdivision, and the biggest thing is how to find the money. Jason, I give you the best wishes to find it. $63 million in 30 days. I'll loan you a little bit of it, but not all of it. At any rate, seriously, it's a flawed proposition. I'm not even afraid of it because it doesn't provide funding. So I'm looking at it going, they're going to take my front yard, blah, blah, blah, blah. But it's not going to happen. There's no money in it. So let's give Jason time and see if he can find the money.

Thank you, Charles.

Validates up and on deck, Michael Salinas.

Hello, everybody. Valerie Zizek-Maurice, President and CEO of the American Canyon Chamber of Commerce. Once again, I stand tonight in front of the Council and Mayor and our city staff. I'm here to say that do we have the solution to this problem? No, we don't. Do we have three options in front of us? We absolutely do. What is the best one? None of us know. Do we have to come together as a community and find a solution? Yes. I have a video here on my phone. I captured the fires six years ago live myself over the fences from a friend's backyard at a barbecue when the land caught fire. We saw people rushing out of here. But guess what? We had one way out, and the people got out. But what happens when the people don't get out, right? We can say, push them through Watson Lane, and that's the solution. Maybe it's a temporary solution, which I believe it is, to solve the problem. We know Newell Extension is the ultimate end goal. How do we get there? Do we have the funding today to get there? No, we don't. But how do we provide an option that meets everybody's needs? A temporary solution that leads to the final solution is what I truly believe is what we need to look at. We need safety for our community. We need a way in. When we develop as a city council, when we have contracts in front of us, we need to be held accountable for the decisions we made. Maybe we didn't make those decisions today. Maybe we made them 20 years ago. But the people sitting in the seats today need to honor what was authorized 20 years ago. So Terry McGrath, he sits here in front of us.

Valerie, I'm going to ask that you address the council and not the public.

OK, I'm sorry. So Terry McGrath sits in front of us today, but he also was granted a contract from the City of American Canyon that addressed certain issues, which is the city was to provide a certain portion of the road. He was to develop a certain portion of the project. If we aren't able to meet the agreements where we agreed 20 years ago publicly, we should be coming up with a solution for the problem we sit in front of today. It doesn't mean anyone is right. It doesn't mean anyone is wrong. It means that together as a city, we need to work together, sit around the tables, and find the solution that meets everybody's needs. I don't want to see the people in Watson Lane lose their property. I don't want to see a street that isn't constructed for the traffic that's going to go through it also be an issue five years down the road. We need to come up with a solution for the problem, that we together have created. Thank you.

Thank you, Valerie.

Michael Salinas is up and Travis McDowell on deck.

Hello, mayor, vice mayor, council members, and people of audience. My name is Michael Salinas. I grew up not in American Canyon. I grew up in a small city. I grew up actually in Sacramento, went to high school where it was a small little community. They didn't want another high school. They didn't want other people. I watched that city grow. I've seen people fight for it. I've seen people lose farmland. It's not the best, but it ends. It works out. I've had family who did not want to move in different areas and didn't want the growth of areas, and they had to move in different areas. It sucks. Growth happens. One thing in this world has changed. Everything changes. There's amendments. We have plans from 20 years ago. Those plans we're talking about that are here, all those aren't in place. They're working, but they take time. We have something right in front of us right now that presents a solution for a big problem. Not that it's the only solution. We can continue working on these other projects. However, why spend $20,000 to put this on a measure that's already been signed by enough citizens of American Canyon, as opposed to putting that $20,000 towards the new project, towards something else? Spend our money wisely. We're growing. American Canyon is growing. I can say I'm part of it here. I have my fiancee. We're getting married after when I first came here, I noticed that place. We've been going there every five years. I've been here for five years. We've been going there watching the growth of it. Now we're going to get married in October. I'm excited about it. The growth that I see in this community, the growth that I see that could bring this community, when you have something like that, an event in a place like that, you bring people to the area. That then is going to allow other businesses to then open up, and then it's going to be able to bring more revenue to the city, which then can help with new, help with other projects. But we need to have access to people to get in here and to have access and things for people to do. You could build all the hell homes you want, but you're only going to get so much money. When you start building more businesses and you start having that mindset and things going, you're going to bring more revenue into the city, and that's what the city needs. Where we started off, well, I can't even say we. American Canyon started off as Napa Junction. Now they're American Canyon. They only had a Safeway. Now they got a Walmart. We're continuing to grow. So you want to say this, you want to say compact, I don't want to stay in Little House on the Prairie. I like 90210. You know, growth. Things change. People change. It's hard to adapt for some people. Other people are all for it. But change is... It's inevitable. So whether it happens now or happens later, Watson Ranch connecting to Marcus Road or the lanes, however, that's a great starting point. Not saying it's the end point. Those other projects, they do present great options. However, something that's feasible and manageable now is what's presented in front of us. I vote option A. Why waste the money for option two?

Thank you, Michael.

Travis McDowell, and on deck, Hugh Marquez.

Good evening, everybody up there. Dad always said keep it simple, so I'm gonna do the same. It makes no sense to just adopt this proposed ordinance without altercation. I mean, he even stated staff doesn't know what Measure M is about, nor can they talk about it, nor can they deliberate about it. So the only option that makes sense is option three. Let's find out what option Measure M is. That's all I got.

Thank you, Travis.

Thank you. Hugh is up and Cindy Biederman is on deck.

Nice to see you again, Council and Mayor. You? I would propose option three as a good choice. I think it would be nice for the city and the public to find out all that is going to happen with it. I do think option two at the end should be submitted to the voters. I think the voters should have it. But I believe that we should get the information. I look at this and I find the report money is a big factor. We're not getting new because of money and as we know that is a big factor in all of this. It's part of the South Kelly Road problem if that ever goes. It's the money. I'm hoping that if option three is taken that you will look at what's proposed in the measure. And that there will, I do think Watson Lane would be a good exit. I just think that it should be up there where it ties in where Newell would come over. I think it should go straight up, turn over on the railroad tracks where Newell is supposed to eventually be done and go over right there. The residents don't lose their property and we don't, the biggest part with going over Watson Lane is the grade. And if you look at all the reports, that's the biggest problem. And there's residents around there. And I do think we need another access out of there. I think South Kelly Road, one of these days, will be ready. But to go without any kind of report on all the factors that it takes, I think would be... would be wrong. Again, I do feel in the end, after this report, I think the voters should have a vote, but we have all the information on what's gonna happen, and maybe alternatives off Watson Lane. I mean, you're still using Watson Lane as an exit. Anyway, thank you. Thank you, Hugh.

Cindy's up, and Toni Clarisi is on deck.

Excuse me, good evening. I LIVE ON THE WEST SIDE. I'M A LONG-TERM AMERICAN CANYON RESIDENT. I WAS RAISED OVER HERE ON MANY DRIVES.

CINDY, COULD YOU TALK A LITTLE BIT MORE DIRECTLY INTO THE MICROPHONE?

IS THAT BETTER?

BETTER. THANK YOU.

I REMEMBER BACK IN THE DAYS.

AND NOT TO INTERRUPT YOU, MAKE SURE YOU FOCUS ON US. I'M SORRY. THANK YOU.

I'M READY? YES. I GET MY THREE MINUTES BACK?

YOU CAN GET ALL THREE MINUTES. START NOW. WE SET YOU BACK TO THREE MINUTES.

Thank you. Anyway, like I said, I live on the west side. I was raised over here on Minnie Drive. And I remember back in the days when this Highway 29, you couldn't go anywhere because there's the train going right there. You weren't moving. So it has changed over the times that I've been here. I've been in American Canyon for 34 years now. Raised two generations now here. But what I want to say is when you sit there and you look at LISTEN TO THE COMMENTS TONIGHT. EVERYBODY HAS A VERY VALID POINT, ABSOLUTELY 100%. BUT WHEN I'M LOOKING AT A MAP THAT WAS PRESENTED TO ME, I DON'T KNOW ALL THE INFORMATION ON IT. I'M NOT AN ENGINEER. BUT I'M LOOKING AT DOTS THAT GO INTO PROPERTY THAT'S NOT DEVELOPED NOW. SO WE'RE TALKING ABOUT SAFETY. SO IF THAT ROAD GETS DEVELOPED, THEN I THINK THAT I'M NOT MISTAKEN, THAT OPENS UP TO BE ABLE TO BUILD 800 MORE HOMES BY THE DEVELOPER. So on safety, are we talking about now that one road is now not only impacted by on the safety measure fire, we have more homes, 800 more homes, more traffic going through there. So is that really going to be an access or is it going to come to a standstill? So my thing is, like I said, I mean, everybody had options. I believe the biggest thing out tonight, what I love hearing is the community gets to come and talk and have a chair at the table. And I love that. That is perfect. What we need to be doing. But I can't vote on something if I don't have the facts, if I don't have the information. And I want the information. I want the whole story. I want the details, all of it, to be able to give me something that I can vote on. So thank you.

Thank you, Cindy.

Okay, we have Tony up. And on deck is Debbie Runke.

Good evening, Council. I'm Tony Clarisi. And I want to say that I do not support Measure M. I would say to everybody I WOULD SUPPORT THE THIRD OPTION FOR SURE. I THINK THIS DEVELOPMENT PROJECT HAS BEEN GOING ON FOR 20 YEARS, I BELIEVE, SINCE 2004, AND I THINK IT'S ABSURD THAT THEY HAVEN'T THOUGHT OF A SECOND EMERGENCY EXIT IN THOSE 20 YEARS. AND I LIVE ON WATSON LANE AND I THINK AS VALERIE SAID EARLIER IN HER SPEECH THAT THEY DIDN'T THINK THIS THROUGH OVER THE COURSE OF 20 YEARS OR EIGHT YEARS WHEN THEY STARTED BUILDING IT. I DON'T THINK THEY SHOULD NOW BECAUSE THEY DIDN'T THINK IT THROUGH TO THINK OF A SECOND OPTION THAT WATSON LANE RESIDENTS SHOULD PAY FOR THEM TAKING UP TO 15 FEET OR PROBABLY MOST LIKELY MORE OF THEIR PROPERTY. ON WATSON LANE, AS PEOPLE SAID, THERE'S A LOT OF OTHER ISSUES LIKE THE TRAIN, THE RAILROAD, AND THEN ALSO THE MAJOR ISSUE OF THE PROPERTY. AND I BELIEVE THAT THE FIRE ISSUE IS A VALID ISSUE, BUT I THINK THERE'S OTHER BETTER OPTIONS LIKE NOLE ROAD OR EVEN NAPA JUNCTION ROAD. or the Napa Junction crossing that does not affect private residents living in their homes. So I just think that one of those options, another option would be a lot better than the Watson Lane option. Thank you for your time.

Thank you, Tony.

Okay. Debbie is the last speaker card that I have, and I do have a couple hands raised online.

Debbie Runke, American Canyon since 1988. I live on the west side, so I don't live on Watson Lane. I'm not even that familiar with Watson Lane, but I don't like the idea of them losing their property. So I've gotten a lot of information tonight. I feel like we need more information so that we can make an informed decision at the ballot, and I hope that that is what happens. So tonight I'm gonna say I hope you go with option three. I hope we get to vote on it, but I think There's a lot more information. I'm so glad to see the public here tonight, rather than everybody bickering on Facebook. I'm really happy that people came out, because usually there's like the same five of us here. It's great to have everybody here. I don't like to speak in public. I think a lot of us don't like this, but it's important. and the safety part yes absolutely i understand they need a second way out of there i went there for the very first time a few weeks ago never been to the ruins my kids tell me they had been to the ruins as teenagers and i don't want to know what they were doing out there but that's okay uh... but i do also wonder why why didn't we think of this when it was in the planning commission and at city council why did this get approved without another way out Don't want to take their land good turnout. I think that's it. I'm happy that we have all the people here I hope we can have a town meeting kind of thing again or at the very least Mr. Holly's got a big job of getting all the information to us before we meet again in a month Thank you. Thank you, Debbie Thank You Debbie

Sarah Gonzalez. I am calling her from online. It's going to take me just a moment to get her situated.

Okay.

Go ahead, Sarah.

Hi there, everyone. I'm actually in Ohio where it's past midnight here, but I've stayed up because I do feel like what I have to say is important. So good evening and... Council members and Mr. Mayor and everybody else who's in attendance tonight. My name is Sarah Gonsalves. I live at 360 Watson Lane, which is the last home on Watson. I'm here tonight speaking in favor of the East Side Connector and specifically speaking to the effects and impacts we as residents on Watson Lane will feel directly related to this development. Progress can be a difficult time. change to see happen in your neighborhood. However, it is happening all around us and we are not immune to it. I understand the worry or concern over an increase in traffic down our nearly private city road. However, when I started to really think about it, I sometimes use residential side roads on the west side of the highway, of Highway 29, to go around traffic such as Melvin Road, Elliott Drive, or Danrose Road. Those are just to name a few. And they're never crowded with traffic, even during peak commute hours. So I have little concern over that possible issue. I believe the benefits we are gaining as residents on Watson Lane, which there are several, far outweigh the possible negatives. And we have quite a few younger families on Watson Lane now and more foot traffic. I myself have a young daughter and I'm looking forward to becoming connected to walking paths and parks. so that we are not an isolated road from the rest of American Canyon. We are part of the city of American Canyon, and having this connection on the east side is not only addressing a safety concern for a lot of people, but further uniting our community. I hope to see that the east side connector goes through as soon as possible, so I am in favor of option one, and I thank you all for your time, and have a wonderful evening.

Thank you, Sarah. Thank you. And this is our last comment of the night. I have Miriam Abadamos.

Good evening, everybody. Can you hear me?

Yes, we can hear you.

Excellent. Good evening, Mayor and members of the Council. I just have a couple of comments. I'll keep it short and brief. First and foremost, I just wanted to remind everybody that the downtown project and the ruins have been contemplated since the city's incorporation in 1992. If you read the city's general plan, it is in there. And that was written in 1992. And I also wanted to address the fact that people are saying it's ridiculous that the developer didn't think of other roads to get in and out of the Watson Ranch project. That's not correct. We've been talking about the new extension for years as well. And there's also going to be the Rio Del Mar entrance. The issue here is that neither one is happening anytime soon. Marcus Road is built out as the houses are built out. So the connection is the issue. What's happening is we're not voting right now on building a road. What the ballot initiative is, is to amend the city's circulation element to allow two roads in that area. Right now, the only road allowed in is the Newell extension. So even though this road is being built, kind of, sort of, we're not allowed to use it. We're not allowed to open it unless the city's general plan is amended. Excuse me. What we have before us tonight is not an action item to debate the merits of this connection. If it were, I can go on for hours and I understand that now that I'm on this side of the dais, I only get three minutes. What we have before us is a ballot initiative proposed by the people of this city. I was one of the circulators who went door to door and talked to residents about this initiative. And I'm willing to bet that if we had more time, we would have gotten enough signatures to make this a law without even going to the ballot, thus saving the city tens of thousands of dollars. I'm always of the opinion that if the residents are proposing a ballot initiative, then we should let the residents decide. The more information and the research will come with your ballot book. So rather than spending $50,000 on a consultant, I say let the residents decide and more information will come. I'm sure there will be campaigns for and against once this is on the ballot. Thank you so much, everyone. Have a good evening.

Thank you. Thank you, Miriam. If that was the last... comment, then I'll close public comment and I'll return to the council for, uh, additional comments from the council. And I will start with vice mayor Joseph.

Well, thank you. And I appreciate everybody's input. And from what I'm hearing, there's kind of a general consensus that however we go, we put it to the vote of the people. There's a few that would like to just approve it outright, but I think most everybody wants to see it on the ballot. And a fair amount of people want to have option three, some more information. And frankly, I would like to see more information. And I'm really influenced by Mr. Lemon's comments, where's the money? Because at the end of the day, I don't know where the funding will come from Measure M. It talks about allowing things to happen but doesn't say who's paying for it. And so for me, I would go for option three, let's get a report. And, and if that's the direction of the council, then I have a whole bunch of things I would like to throw on the to-do list when, when our city manager is getting that information.

Thank you, sir. Uh, council member Cruz.

Yeah. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um, so thank you everyone coming out today and just, uh, voicing your opinion. Like Valerie said, you know, we're all out here to, uh, you know, give her two cents or more. Um, For the options, of course, we owe it not only to the residents, but also to the town to get more information on this measure. As we said, we're not saying what we're for or against it, but we owe it to the public to learn more about it before we even make a decision. Of course, we'd also want that to go to the public to make that ultimately, if it goes to the ballot, have the community make that decision. Valerie said it plain and simple. You know, we're all here. We're sitting at the table. If you're not sitting at the table, you're on the menu, and we don't want that to happen. So thank you for being out here and discussing this very, very important discussion. And that's all I got. Thank you.

Thank you. I don't see anybody else on the guys that want to have a statement. But for me, first I want to address one of the comments that was made about the city manager earlier by one of the speakers. I think it needs to be added some more context. Again, that's what we're missing. That's why I'm saying that we need to have these meetings where we have a little bit more information before we just sit up and make a decision. What was misspoken was that the city manager was at a developer's meeting. that we had about a month ago. There was some misinterpretation about that meeting, that the developers tried to do that meeting. It was a meeting that I asked to have happen with all the developers. Because when I got on the council, one of the things I didn't understand is how do you make roads, because I'm not a developer. So what's the best way to figure that out, get all the developers inside of a room? Well, in that meeting, we had every one of the developers, the key stakeholder developers that live and work in the city. And it was very informative for me because I wanted to know how to build roads. How are we going to build a road going north and south for the east side connector? How are we going to build a road for the west side connector? I could talk to my colleagues, but none of them built a road day in their life. They couldn't even tell me. But they got ideas. I have ideas. When the speaker spoke earlier about Jason saying it would take 30 years to develop that road, he did say that. But let's add some context to why he said that, which was the reason why I even asked for those developers to meet with me in the first place. Because I knew it had to be a different kind of way of doing it. 30 years, yes, if you have about five or six developers with different kind of visions of what they want to do. But if you get five or six developers in a room and they tell you what's the easiest way to do it, by the time that meeting was done, they were talking six, maybe 10 years at the most. So that was the end result of that meeting. Okay, so I wanna make sure that some context, again, being informed is important. And part of that is being able to have the truthful information, the factual information before you make a decision. Now, just to up and say, we need to put it on the ballot because 2000 people signed a petition. I will ask you, well, what was the initiative to the initiative? What were those people who was asking for signatures getting in return? What do we ask you to give us to be here tonight? We have to ask you for absolutely nothing. But we need to hear what you got to say so we can make a better decision. I'm not buying you any kind of food to come see us tonight. I'm not asking you to do that. I'm asking you to come here on your own free will to give free information that is factual. So for me, You know, I don't want to belabor, uh, we have a whole night worth of stuff still available to go through, but I just want to say that I want us to make sure that we, we value the input of our community and these kinds of meetings where we can have this type of dialogue is important. But the main part of that important piece is having the factual piece of what we're trying to make a decision on. And now I have a light ringing for council member oral.

Thank you. Yeah. And listen, I think, um, Option one, two, and three, they're all there. And I really appreciate everyone showing up tonight. And I actually think it was beneficial to have the item on traffic circulation ahead of time because, Mr. Mayor, you just talked about context, and that's the reason why I put that forward. It was contextual. Measure M is one part of a larger circulation challenge that we're trying to figure out in American Canyon. And so I think it was valuable. Because if not, we would have gone through, if we did not move this agenda item, it would be right about now before we actually started talking about this. And I'm pretty sure after we're done with this, you're not going to stay around for the rest of the presentations. We'll be here till midnight. So if you want to stay, we've got some leftover pizza in the office if you want it. But what I did want to say is I'm leaning on option three TO PREPARE A REPORT TO LEARN MORE ABOUT IT. AND I THINK, YOU KNOW, IF I RECALL THE EARLIER THING IS EVEN IF THAT REPORT COMES, WE STILL HAVE TO MAKE A DECISION ABOUT IT WITHIN 10 DAYS AFTER IT COMES. AND THAT REPORT IS DUE IN 30 DAYS, CORRECT? YES. CORRECT. SO THIS IS NOT ONE OF THOSE THINGS WHERE AS LONG AS BUILDING A ROAD OR IMPROVING A HIGHWAY. SO IT WILL HAPPEN PRETTY QUICKLY. AND TO THE MAYOR'S POINT ABOUT HEARING OTHERS, I APPRECIATE OTHERS. I ALSO DID ATTEND THOSE OPEN HOUSES AND LISTENED TO A LOT OF OTHER PEOPLE, AND I'VE TALKED TO A LOT OF PEOPLE IN MY NEIGHBORHOOD AND ACROSS TOWNS. AND THERE WAS A REFERENCE TO FOOD. ONE OF THE THINGS THAT I HAD HEARD And it's not something I'm voting on right now. It's really I'm voting on option three. But one of the things I heard that kind of struck with me, they said they would take a road over tacos any day. So that's just kind of what I heard. So if there's no other comments, I'll make a motion to direct staff to direct the preparation of a report to provide additional information regarding the potential impacts of Measure M.

which is option three second motion yeah point of clarification um if we pursue option three which i support we need some time i mean we need to give staff direction on some of the issues or at least i've got some questions so is that going to be part of the discussion as council members don't we have time to give staff like direction all the time or

Yeah, I have a pretty decent sense, I think, of what the council's interests are. I don't, I mean, Mark, if you wanted to outline some particular things, you could send them into an email to me as well. I mean, with your unique experience, you know, we communicate quite frequently. I'd be surprised if some of the things on your mind aren't already on my mind and already being scoped in the consultant's contract. So, you know, I... The council doesn't have to formally give direction. The elections code identifies those items that are bullet-pointed on page 236. Those are the general topics, American Canyon-specific topics. The good news, the subconsultant is the same subconsultant that prepared our circulation element, so we won't have to bring them up to speed necessarily. They're going to have that understanding, so...

And that's certainly a possibility. One question first. In looking at the initiative and maybe because we got copies of a copy, I can't tell what Watson Lane's profile is supposed to be, how many feet and what it has. So can that be at least one point of clarification? Because I think the right-of-way is no more than 40 feet. And I don't know what the profile in the initiative is calling it to be. Does anybody have a better picture than what I got?

What I'll answer that with Vice Mayor is that we are only allowed to go from the documents that are given to us. So that we're not soliciting testimony on what is supposed to be in there. We were given hard copies of a singular thing and then copies of what were circulated. So we will examine that information. We haven't examined it. And so we will examine it and we'll share that with the consultants. But Yes, copies of copies can be harder to, aren't as legible sometimes, but we are only allowed to go from the documents that were given to us in the notice and then the documents that were given to us with signatures attached. We aren't allowed to have a further inquiry.

Okay. So if we're not really sure what we're voting on, how do we figure out if we did it or not?

What you would be voting on tonight is to whether to get a report.

Yeah, so the report should be able to provide us that information.

I hope so.

Yeah, that's the key reason why we're going with option three. So we have a first and a second.

Correct.

And we're going to do a roll call, please. Okay.

Council Member Cruz?

Yes.

Council Member Lamatina? Yes. Council Member Oro? Yes. Vice Mayor Joseph? Yes. Mayor Washington?

Yes.

Perfect.

Thank you.

So that's done. It's 934. I need to take a vote with the council to make sure that we were going to continue the rest of tonight's agenda, which I suggest we do.

I recommend we extend it recognizing there's some leftover pizza in the back room.

Okay. I would agree with that. If we could just take a five-minute break, though.

Take a five-minute break now? Five break, please. Okay. We're going to take a five-minute break now. Return back at 945. Okay.

Thank you. Thank you. sorry college I know because you guys, like, support grandma this year. Thanks for being here. I'm sorry. Thank you. Real quick, I got to tell you, I'm taking my family to a grad luncheon. I'm not going to get you to support a great group of players.

I don't know where the number is in my phone.

I probably spoke. It was like, do you have a mic or not? Yeah, sitting, but if it's a door for me, it should be open. Yeah, I have the, perfect, yeah, okay.

Thank you. Mostly like, Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Where are you? All right. Yeah. Thank you. All right. I just want to thank you for your time. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Where are you looking? You're hot out here. I can turn the camera around.

Okay, everybody, it's about 9.45.

It's 944. I'd like to get our meeting back in order. Those of you that's going to stay, please stay. Those of you who have conversations that you want to continue, could do it outside of the chambers, please. We need to take care of some business. Thank you. So our third item tonight is item number 14, recommending the budget of a five-year capital improvement program, typically referred to as a CIP. Director James, Jim, and are you going to do this by yourself? Okay.

So I'm presenting with the public director's committees the 26-27 final proposed budget and capital agreement plan. So this started in February. Last month, or two weeks ago, we presented the budget. And so now the final step is the formal adoption of the final budget and the final plan. So what's changed since May 19th? There have been a couple of updates to the capital improvement projects. So in the last meeting on May 19th, there was an approval for the South Kelly Highway 29 project. So we had to also update the budget with our expected roll forward going into fiscal year 27 from that increase. And then there were also increases to Melvin and storm drain sidewalk improvement and the building E pump station. And that was a result of just more analysis and estimations from the engineers based on the project scope and today's prices. And in the general fund, we see a decrease in revenues and expenditures. So the transfers into the general fund were lower. And we also saw a lower amount in contractual services of $77,500. In the overview we still have a balanced budget total revenues and available resources are at thirty four point two million and the expenditures match that amount resulting in a balanced budget. The final proposed version reflects a slight decrease that seventy seven thousand five hundred that I mentioned earlier again tied to the contractual services reductions across multiple divisions. Now we have, this is what we saw at last meeting where the general fund revenues are 34.2 million at the largest resources being property tax, transfers in, and sales tax. So property tax continues to be the largest single revenue source and transfers in That includes funding that supports general fund operations that we provide to the enterprise funds and other funds and developer related projects. Together these top three categories represent a majority of the general fund. And then moving on to the expenditure side, also at 34.2 million. Personnel costs make up 11.3 million, or roughly 33% of the expenditures. And the other major cost drivers are the share of contract and supplies and services. and we also want to highlight our continued commitment to community contributions so we still have the uh... fifty thousand dollar allocation to the chamber and thirty thousand to our non-profit community grant program so this reflects the service oriented organization where public safety and operations drive a majority of the cost Okay, so here we have the staffing levels across all of the departments. So the total authorized personnel will go up to 122 from 119, and that includes the additions of the parks maintenance worker, the chief building official, and the sheriff officer. These additions are targeted and support service levels in priority areas such as safety, development, and maintenance. And then moving on to fund balance, the total fund balance is 11.4 million consistent. The contingency reserve is projected at 8.3 million, which is 25% of the general fund expenditures. that meets our policy target. So we also maintain a smaller unassigned balance of the 1.4 million, which provides flexibility for revenue or cost fluctuations if they don't meet our targets during the year. So now we have our general fund forecast. While the budget is balanced in fiscal year 26-27, the expenditures begin to outpace revenues in future years. Although the gaps are manageable in the near term, this reinforces the need for continued monitoring and long-term financial planning. So let's talk about the numbers behind the graph. So these numbers here represent the numbers behind the graph. On the revenue side, the property tax growth ranges from 2.5% to 6%, and sales tax is projected at 3%, and TOT sees steady growth with the one time increase in 2030, which is an estimated opening of a possible additional hotel. And then on the expenditure side the assumptions are that salaries grow by about 3 percent annually and health benefits grow at 5 percent and the share of contract increase between 4 and 5 percent. So these assumptions are conservative and reflect the current economic expectations and what we've been seeing in the past couple of years. So this concludes the operating budget overview. So I'm happy to pause here before we go into the capital improvement plan for any questions.

Okay. Thank you for the presentation, Jim. And Vice Mayor Joseph.

Yes, thank you for the report. And it's not so much questions as a general comment and raising a level of concern. First of all, I made it to the infinity bottling chamber chat, had a chance to talk to some people. And I want to express the concern that I'm hearing from the business community, the industrial part, about there are businesses that are either closing down or giving serious thought to that. And so I think where I'm coming from is I think at the micro level, we could be seeing some serious problems in our revenue stream. At a more macro level, we know the wine industry is kind of going sideways and that has effects on us. And we also know the national economy is probably teetering on a recession. When you combine all of that with the operating forecast showing that we are gonna have operating deficits, And when you throw in the fact that the mayor and I were just at a fire district finance subcommittee meeting, and they're experiencing the same kind of gap, I'd like to suggest that we give thought to what the fire district is proposing. And that is to put together a five-year plan on how we're going to basically crawl ourselves out of that ongoing gap. How we do it I don't know but it seems to me that we shouldn't say we balanced it this year and it was hard and we'll see what happens next year because that is essentially not the way to approach it from my opinion. I think we know we have a problem. We can sugarcoat it but it isn't going to taste any better and I would recommend that we try to get ahead of it and spend some time after the budget is adopted before jumping into the audit to try to figure out what that five-year plan might look like. What kinds of things should we be trying to do now rather than wait until it hits the fan? Thank you.

Thank you. Any other questions? Clarifying questions? Seeing none, I guess you could proceed back with your...

Turn it over to Director Smibies.

Yep.

Good evening, Mayor, council members. COMMUNITY OF AMERICAN CANYON. JUST TO RUN THROUGH THE ACCOMPLISHMENTS THIS PAST YEAR AND WHAT'S COMING IN THE FORECASTED FIVE-YEAR AND 26-27 FISCAL YEAR BUDGET. ACCOMPLISHMENTS THIS LAST YEAR, WE COMPLETED substantially completed five park projects. A couple haven't come back to you for final notice completion, but they are active. The bathrooms actually will, one will be open tomorrow at Northampton Park, and Silver Oak will be completed once we get the locks. There's locks that are on the bathroom right now that we're making sure we got actuated and working properly. But these five projects were delivered this year, and Then we delivered six more projects across transportation, um, EV charging, recycled water, and the city hall reroof. Um, that's 11 projects this year that were delivered. I think that's the max we've ever done. So we're getting a lot done in the city and, um, we're continuing to do so across the years. Um, our budgeted forecasts for this next fiscal year alone is 44.2. If you remember the slide before and the operations budget. This is 10 more million than our annual operating budget. So 25 million of that is transportation alone, or 23 million, and that's to all the Knightsbridge, Rancho, Green Island Road, of course, is one of the largest ones we have. We have the Rio Del Mar extension all on there. Um, you know, that's why it's the biggest chunks of our projects and combined with that with some of our utility projects. Here's our schedule, just an outlay. All the lines are active projects in process. The other ones are all the new projects. I believe I didn't say that we have 44 projects on the docket for this coming fiscal year. Last year it was 31. So we're adding projects. And there's some that we don't even have assigned yet, which I'll show you in a later slide. But that's a lot of work. And as you may be aware, we lost one of our rock star engineers this past week to a special district. But now we're recruiting for two engineers for this coming year. And that's actively out. If you know anyone in the community or nearby, it closes on June 21. We're hopeful for some great candidates. to help continue on our endeavors of delivering more projects. Park projects, we have, as you can see here, oh, this is not the latest slideshow. I don't know what happened. We're missing a couple of things here. But, you know, we have the parks here. What we showed was the project managers working on them. So our capital projects coordinators delivering and working on all these projects are actively in process. Transportation projects we have our senior engineer doing most of them two of them. We have a vacant engineer position So those projects are slightly on hold I'm taking on South Kelly, working with a consultant to bridge that gap so we can keep that project moving because it's out to bid currently. And then we have a co-op agreement with Caltrans. But Melbourne Road pavement rehabilitation, we need to prioritize because that's $1.3 million of grant funding that we have to get obligated by January this coming year. So we'll have to probably leverage consultant time to help us get that project designed. then we have some time once we get obligated for funding so we do have a sewer project that we have to prioritize now along that segment of road so it's brought to our attention it's been on the books but now we're like oh wow it really is bad it's tied to the Andrew sewer repair it's all kind of the same legacy of ancient or over 50 year old pipe utility projects. We have quite a lot being delivered here, but it's being handled mostly by the operations side of water systems manager, wastewater systems, our system director, Norm Woods, who's here in the audience, and then a couple that require more engineering intel, such as the Recycled water fill stations, which we're taking on, which that'll be a letter coming to your attention in a couple of weeks, along with the building a pump station project with our, now that we have the ecology center, we weren't sure which one would come first, the cart or the horse, and they're out there in front of us, and we don't want to have two different consultants or contractors on site, so bridging that gap and having them take a lead on those projects, but, and our senior engineer that's doing development, We'll be helping with the wastewater system manager on delivering those projects for us. And then of course the SS4 Broadway sewer project. and the Zone 5 pump station. And then here's all the upcoming projects this coming fiscal year. We have quite a few projects. More than half of them on this list are new projects that were being budgeted in 26-27, and we'll figure out who'd be assigned. Some of them have been assigned already, such as the high strength waste. The lead will be taken on by our assistant director, Norm Woods, and then the other projects will fall in as we can, but they might be on hold while we figure out resource to take those positions up and get those projects moving and Then our five-year project budget it is 71 million I believe total over the next five years with the big brunt of it coming this next fiscal year again Transportation is taking the lead of that forty four point two million dollars.

So with that I'm welcome here to take any answers or questions you have Thank You Erica Anybody on council have questions for Erica?

just uh council member oral yes thank you very much uh thank you for that quick overview i'm sure we just came out of a traffic three hours of traffic studies and i see some road improvements um and some paving uh where can we start to begin to track like actual capital expenditures for RIO DEL MAR, THE NEWELL EXTENSION, OTHER BIGGER CIRCULATIONS IN THE WEST SIDE CONNECTOR. HOW ARE WE GOING TO BEGIN TO PRIORITIZE THAT AS A CITY OR AT LEAST BEGIN TO TRACK IT? AND I'M TALKING EVEN LIKE I WOULD LOVE BUDGET REPORTS FOR JUST CONSULTANT STUDIES AND THINGS LIKE THAT. BECAUSE IT DOESN'T LOOK LIKE IT IS A PRIORITY HERE BASED ON THIS PRESENTATION.

Yeah, go back to the slide, Erica, that shows the transportation projects. There we go.

And I apologize. I should have checked the presentation up here that I was updating before I came to the meeting, but Rio Del Mar is on this list. It's moving. It's active right now. Kimley Horns, the consultant on board, you guys approved this project last year, and they are on board to do this work. I think it was November or October we approved their document, and the amendment was a couple of weeks ago.

So yeah, so inadvertently left off the list real tomorrow is on here were in the planning phases of that. Neither the West Side connector nor new driver listed as capital project. The reason that it's not they're not listed as a project is we only list projects that we're going to see construction next year year after year after we sort of eminent is construction. And so Many of these projects don't have an extensive design phase or an extensive property acquisition phase. Most of them already have existing property rights. So we don't put projects in the CIP that don't have all of the prerequisites either figured out or lined up. And Westside Connector doesn't fit that bill primarily because of funding, but even the design hasn't started. And it's the same with Newell, right? We have some of the pieces but some aren't. Part of the issues with Newell is that we also don't put development projects on here, and so, for example, the segments of Newell that Promontory's gonna be doing wouldn't be listed on here, because it's not in our CAP, developers are doing that. So I think a good way of tracking those not yet ready for the CAP projects, yet still important to the community, would be through more annual reports or through annual check-ins, you know, as we do performance evaluations with yours truly. IT'S CHECKING IN ON THOSE PROGRESSES TO THE EXTENT WE WANT TO DO REPORTS TO THE COMMUNITY, FOR EXAMPLE. WE CAN DO THAT IN ANY MANNER OF WAYS. AND I ADMISSIONED IN THE COUNCIL'S FEEDBACK ON THE ITEM FROM EARLIER TODAY AND HOW WE WANT TO REPORT BACK TO THE COMMUNITY ON SOME OF THAT. BUT THE BOTTOM LINE, THEY'RE NOT SHOWN IN THE CIP BECAUSE WE DON'T OVERLOAD THE WE ALREADY HAVE WAY OVERLOADED CIP. WE DON'T ADD ADDITIONAL PROJECTS IN HERE. that aren't going to be under construction next year, the year after, the year after, because we don't want to create the expectation that it's going to be built in three years.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH. AND IT KIND OF MAKES SENSE THAT IT'S FOR THE BUDGETARY REASONS FOR THE CIP. BUT THE MAYOR JUST CALLED THE CITY COUNCIL OUT EARLIER THIS EVENING SAYING THAT WE'VE ALL TALKED ABOUT TRAFFIC AND WE HAVEN'T DONE NOTHING ABOUT IT. AND I'M SURE HE'S CAMPAIGNED ON IT AND EVERYONE ELSE HAS CAMPAIGNED ON IT. AND I'D LIKE TO FIGURE OUT A WAY THAT WE ACTUALLY DON'T DO THAT ON AN ANNUAL BASIS BUT AT LEAST DO IT QUARTERLY AND GET AN UPDATE ON THAT AND WE BEGIN TO TRACK that and so i'll bring that up for a future agenda item but there's got to be a better way to like actually you know that's the biggest amount of people we've seen in this room since we voted on the watson ranch project in 2019. it's obviously important to the community and we should be tracking it more thank you thank you uh vice mayor joseph first of all i would second that because i i think no matter what happens with measure m

it is still a very valid issue. We need to finish the circulation. And I would agree, at least a quarterly report, and it can, you know, the format can be whatever, but it should talk about, here's what's going on with the East-West connection, however that may play out, with Newell and so on, and just to let the public know that we're doing something. Or, quite bluntly, if we're not doing something, then we all can ask why.

you

Because I think this has gone on for way too long and there's you know We can point fingers all over the place the bottom line is it's taking too long and and I appreciate if nothing else a Full house might be kind of the motivation. We need to start focusing on making this stuff happen now jumping over to the point I was going to bring up a Couple of questions on page 115 there is the rio del mar extension that has about 5 million budgeted for next year and What exactly is that project?

That is the project of design and construction. We put all the money at once into that one.

And I guess what I'm really saying is the alignment because I can answer you there, Mark.

So that project is a carryover. Last fall, the developer of Watson Ranch came forward to the council and said, we're proceeding with Rio de Mar at grade. We need immediate connections. And so we went through a process to hire a consultant to figure out how to do right in, right out of Rio de Mar. A few weeks later, we learned that he wasn't going to be pursuing that anymore. We left. And so we started asking the very same questions that you're asking right now around alignment. And so we've left that project. The council responded by creating a project in the CIP during the middle of the year, making an appropriation during the middle of the year, spending down traffic impact fee funds to make, which is an eligible project. We left that project in here. It's not scoped. It's called the real-to-mart extension, but what it really is is the current phase of figuring out which of those options might we pick. So once we learned from the developer they weren't going to be doing that option, then we decided, okay, now we should study, okay, which of these alignments. And so it doesn't have a predetermined alignment. We're in the figuring out alignment stage.

uh... and so that's that's what it is but we didn't change the name of though capital all right then i'd that i understand that that does make sense and yes it's amazing how we have bounced all over the place which by the way is another reason why it takes longer if you GO LEFT AND THEN TURN AND GO RIGHT, YOU'VE WASTED TIME. OKAY. SO THAT MAKES SENSE. AND THEN MY LAST PITCH IS FOR THE HIGH STRENGTH WASTE PROJECT, JUST A SHOUT OUT. A LOT OF THE DEVELOP OR A LOT OF THE GREEN ISLAND INDUSTRIAL PEOPLE ARE REALLY LOOKING FORWARD TO THAT PROJECT. I KNOW IT'S BIG AND HUGE AND THEREFORE CAN'T BE DONE OVERNIGHT. That's for what it's worth the industrial park people would love you the sooner it can get moving.

So That's my input Thank You vice mayor many other comments Seeing them I like to open it up the public comment for item number 14 Madam clerk. Do we have any comment?

I have no speaker cards and No hands are raised on mine

Okay, then I will close public comment for item number 14 and return back to the council for further discussion or to adopt both resolutions because there's two of them.

I was going to make that motion, but my little iPad iLegislate app is stuck. I can't read it.

I'm able to move faster in my non-iPad program. So if there's no further ado, I will make a motion. adopting resolution number 2026, next in order, a resolution approving adoption of the recommended operating budget for fiscal year 2026-27 and authorize the city manager to increase the appropriations for 26-27 expenditures in an amount not to exceed the amount encumbered for expenses that did not occur prior to the end of the 25-26 fiscal year but are expected to be expended in fiscal year 26-27 consistent with the original purpose that second half is a brain teaser and if i weren't a former finance director i'd say what in the heck but it makes complete sense good idea so i make that motion so we have a motion do i have a second a second and we have now a second uh madam clerk can you do a roll call please

Council Member Cruz?

Yes.

Council Member Lamatina? Yes. Council Member Oro? Yes. Vice Mayor Joseph? Yes. Mayor Washington?

Yes. Mr. Mayor, I want to make another motion consistent with my hair on fire comment earlier. IN WHICH I'M ASKING THAT STAFF COME BACK TO THIS COUNCIL, YOU KNOW, IN THREE TO FOUR MONTHS WITH A REPORT INDICATING HOW THEY'RE PREPARING TO ADDRESS THIS ONGOING OPERATING DEFICITS THAT WE'RE PROJECTING AND WHAT KIND OF STRATEGIES SIMILAR TO WHAT WE TALKED ABOUT EARLIER AT THE FIRE DISTRICT.

MAYOR, WE DON'T I APPRECIATE THE not to be overly formal, we don't actually have a resolution that says that. We can certainly talk about it on future agenda items that I don't know that we'd need a resolution to talk about that as a future agenda item, but we don't actually have a resolution in your packet.

I think that's a future agenda item, Vice Mayor.

I'll save it for a future agenda item.

Okay, just motion happy over there.

Yeah, I am motion happy, not resolution happy. How's that? Okay, so...

There is a second motion.

There is a second one that we need to have a motion on, yeah.

That's what I thought you were going to do.

Okay. And I can still do that. Okay. I'll make a motion that we adopt resolution number 2026, next in order, adopting the five-year capital improvement program for fiscal years 2026-27 through 2030-31. We have a motion. Do I hear a second?

A SECOND. I HAVE A SECOND.

COUNCIL MEMBER CRUZ.

YES.

COUNCIL MEMBER LAMATINA. YES. COUNCIL MEMBER ORO. YES. VICE MAYOR JOSEPH. YES. MAYOR WASHINGTON.

YES. MOVING ON TO OUR FOURTH ITEM.

I was just telling staff congratulations on that. I'm trying to move along here.

Item number 15, engineer's report for the citywide LLAD fiscal year 26-27.

Good evening again. Two weeks ago, we brought this item forward for the assessments for Zones 1, 2, and 3. I brought back the feedback we gave you. We got a public hearing notice sent out, I believe in record time, probably a day and a half later, thanks to our city manager, Holly, providing us a draft the next morning. overnight actually and then we got it out you know started just to fill in the envelopes and stuffing envelopes and mailing them out by Thursday morning just to give a brief overview of the historical budget you know there was a few years prior to 2023 where we had pretty much a flatline budget by zones we even barely didn't even do a CPI for the first three or four years before that um so it was a steady steam of you know we did nothing extra it was it was just maintenance only going on in those districts and folks weren't quite happy with us it wasn't until 2023 that we started doing improvements um in those zones which i'll show you some of those those outcomes of those projects that we implemented thanks to council approving them By zone, so Labinier is seeing an increase of approximately $669 a month. That was the $80 assessment increase, an annual increase of $80, which is assessed to $669 a month. It puts our reserves balance this coming year actually at 64% where we were trending below that. But if you also see where the maximum assessment allowed is still we're at 73% of that maximum assessment of 742, even with the $80 increase this year. um which will be over the two taxes will be spread out over two tax payments in december and then one in april so approximately 40 bucks i had two residents come this evening they were ready to speak on this and then they just asked for clarification and said oh it's 660 660 a month okay great thank you um so they appreciate that feedback something that will maybe keeping our letters next year and hopefully we get a little started earlier and we'll have this kind of number to those residents prior to going out for our pop-up meetings so they have more time to get feedback to us. But I believe other than the one e-comment we received over the weekend, a phone call this morning about there was an error on our zone one. The total amount, a 540 assessment was accurate. It was the incremental $80 was said 60 was a typo. uh... but that was really other ask is that a monthly cost or is that i couldn't constant and they seemed okay with it and then zone two vintage ranch uh... we're at only forty percent of our maximum assessment ever asking for this year which comes out to a ninety dollar per year increase which the process seven sixty a month uh... and then i'll put us right on target of a reserve balance uh... the next graph will show you that we've been dipping those to do some of the projects that i discussed earlier As you can see, the dashed lines are expenditures the past three years. Over seven years, we stayed right below our annual fee assessment, which was basically just the contracts, utilities, and that's about it. And we knew about back then that we were getting complaints. We had probably almost two dozen show up at our first pop-up meeting four years ago It came down to four residents that showed up this year, and we had zero attendees at our Zone 2. Regardless of having, we said that there may be increases, you know, we put a generic, you know, press release or notice that went out. We usually always got someone in Zone 2, but we didn't get anyone at Zone 2 this year. And then those that did show up were just excited that we're starting to see improvements in Zone 1, which is Lavinia via Bellagio. The LAD project completed in the past three years. If you remember, we had a citywide irrigation controller upgrade three years ago that some of the big costs went to zone two and zone one. and that was recycled water. We had the smart controllers and we had all the irrigation leaks we discovered we had, and so we had to fix some of those. Zone one, we got the playground replacement, the park surfacing redone, and then this year we started the tree removal and replacement project. If you've been down Flosden or via Pelagio Park, you started seeing where they're replacing and removing, replacing trees that are failing or just dead and were removed. Silver Oak bathroom, that's a big success story, you guys pushed for that, we got it, it's out there. Other than locks, it's plumbed and ready to be used as soon as the locks are figured out, and that should be later this week. And then zone three, the Main Street Park electrical improvements. Here are some of the photos of the past three years, irrigation controller upgrade, viability playground replacement, park surface, the lower right hand is what it was before, and now you have that all-inclusive surface and all-inclusive play. And zone one tree mobile replacement. This was just literally in the last few months replacing old bark and Replacing trees that were had we being improved earlier this year and what some of last year and then the zone two We have silver oak bathroom project Which is exciting to see The future needs that are planned we have fence replacement in zone one that will be phased over multiple years. We have additional tree pruning replacement planning going on and then trail rehabilitation Zone 2, some of you may be aware, the Shandoa tree is not healthy. And that's hopefully the next few weeks we're going to be removing that tree, amending the soil, and preparing it for a new tree that will be here by October 15th. There's some testing to be done, some communications to go on that, of course, as well as tree pruning in the zone by street over multiple years. They want to start with Donaldson first and then move on to Newell. If you haven't been down there, there's some trees that have started to die or some that have fallen during the winter storms, especially on Newell Drive. There's specially some some care that needs to be done around the Donaldson Newell intersection And then if you haven't heard there was residents from Farentino place After Newell Drive got built or the extension through Mallon Way When are we getting our frontage like our next-door court has so that's in the in place to happen in the next few years That's not in the budget for this coming year but these are some of the things that are coming down the pike that we just can't do not do no increase at all and Zone three we have the Main Street Park stairs. I still haven't done ad ramp access down on the detention basin we have sidewalk replace what need to be done and then the park playground and Maybe you just need to do a whole park refresh. That's, again, these, other than the park stairs, that improvements isn't in the current fiscal year that's coming up, 26-27, but something I brought up to the Director of ICADA today, or Deputy City Manager of ICADA, that we should look at a whole maybe park refresh and package, re-scope that whole project, because there's a lot of elements that need to be refreshed and ADA components, not just one little area, so. Um, and there's funding already in zone three, which they're not recommending other than CPI into that zone at this point. That's why we've contended heavily on the zone one and zone twos. And then here's some pictures of the zone one, the trails we have post holding that post on the fence line. That was one of the biggest things when we get in our fence replace, and we've mentioned that the residents in that, that is something we need to do. And we're trying not to shock them with a big increase other than what we have now, but it's going to be phased because it's a lot of deferred maintenance for over 20 years. And then project needs in Zone 2, you've got Ferentino Place and Newell Drive. You can see it's just bare. The developer was only required to put in the sidewalk, but there were plans from prior development of Vintage Ranch to put that in. It was cut from the original project. Now that it's installed, we now need some shrubbery and trees to complete that section of the Zone 2. They've been paying just like everyone else for that section. And then, of course, the Shenandoah Christmas tree. And with that, I'm happy to answer any questions.

Thank you. Thank you, Erica. And also, appreciate you getting that letter out on time. So that was nice.

I appreciate the city manager staying after that council meeting.

Yeah, yeah. So I got mine, so I know I got it. So Council Member Orill.

Team effort.

Yeah, I'm sure. Council Member Orill.

Yeah, thank you for the letter, actually. I emailed staff and let them know that I got it on Sunday before Memorial Day, and I don't think I checked my mail, so it probably showed up on Friday or Saturday, which was at least a week's time to get there, and it was before Memorial Day, and so that was very helpful. And we did get one comment via email saying that, you know, they were against the fees, and I actually was... going to go against it until I saw the seven 96 a month on there. I'm in zone two. Um, and it is something that I do really like and enjoy and I'm happy that we have it. Um, I'd say for the future ones, I think a good guidance, if we can make it work, is CPI, right? And I think, you know, we were guilty of just kind of holding them down in years past. That was pre-pandemic. And that was pre, like, when life was good and things were cheap. And we're like, yeah, we don't need more money. Let's just hang out. But now I think, you know, I don't want to get above inflation. Everybody's being pressed. Everybody knows everything's a little bit more expensive. But I do think people know that, you know, a reasonable increase given all the cost is fair. And so my guidance to staff and as we look at these and they do the studies, CPI would be great. And then we got to learn to live within the means. And finally, I'm glad that we are replacing our sad little Charlie Brown Christmas tree. It's starting to look pretty bad. I mean, even without lights. I mean, actually worse without lights. So I'm glad to see that in there. Hopefully we're speaking to an arborist to figure out how to living clay environments and all that. Yeah, we're gonna get a good tree.

Local tree, not an out-of-state tree.

Yeah, okay, yeah.

Cool, thanks. My grandson said, Papa, what's wrong with your Christmas tree? We're fixing it, we're fixing it. Vice Mayor.

I'm shocked. Well, I noticed the Christmas tree wasn't all that vibrant, but it's sad to hear that our Christmas tree is ailing. I actually agree with Council Member Oro. I think we should say going forward, let's plan on bumping it up to the CPI If that gets us more money than we need, it can go into the reserves. If it's not enough money we need, we can tap the reserves. But I do think there's some merit to just saying, let's stick with CPI. We're starting at 30%, 40% below the maximum. So it's still value. And I was thinking about it today that you know, trying to tell people we're not charging them 700 a month or 700 a year, we're only charging them 400, that doesn't resonate much. But if you think of it in this context, that when we started this 20 plus years ago, we charge whatever, 100 bucks a year. Over time, CPI meant we should have been paying 700, but we're only paying 300. So it does indicate that we are giving you more value than cost of living. So there's an angle that you can go out if that makes sense. Oh, okay. So yeah, and I'm glad because like I said before, I don't object to setting these rates. Yes, because I don't live in those districts. But I was concerned that maybe we weren't letting the residents know what was going on. So I truly do appreciate staff's ability to get those letters out. The fact that we have only one person frustrated and a couple of people that were just confused is a good sign. I think it does demonstrate that you have in the last few years been providing a good level of service and people are usually okay paying for a good level of service. I think if we had all these headaches and then gave them a 20% bump, they'd be down here. So I'm happy and more than happy to move forward.

And moving forward, we will do. I'd like to open up to public comment for item number 15. If there's anybody in the room that has any comments, I'll defer to the clerk.

I have no comment cards and no hands raised on mine.

Okay, then I will return back to the council for item number 14 in the further discussion or to adopt the resolution for the Landscape and Lighting Assessment District.

I'll make a motion to adopt resolution number 2026 next in order, a resolution approving the fiscal year 26-27 annual engineer's report for the Landscape and Lighting Assessment District to approve the budgets within the engineer's report confirming the assessment diagrams and the annual assessment amounts and authorizing the levy and collection of annual assessments for fiscal year 26-27. I'll second that.

We have a second. Madam Clerk, do you mind doing a roll call, please?

Council Member Cruz?

Yes.

Council Member Lamatina? Yes. Council Member Oro? Yes. Vice Mayor Joseph? Yes. Mayor Washington?

Yes. And thank you, Erica. Thank you. So now we're going to move on to our first business item. We have three. Item number 16 is a potential revenue measure draft ballot language. Mr. Hawley, I presume you will be offering us that recommendation?

Correct, Mayor. Thank you. The item in front of you is a final draft based on presentation you all received a month ago and the information that was shared from the polling. If the council wants to put a citywide sales tax on the November 3rd ballot, your deadline to do that would be at your regular meeting next time on June 16th. After that, the ship has sailed for November, and you'd be looking at a subsequent election. And so we included again the presentation that the consultant had prepared for you. It's in the packet. We made a couple of tweaks to the ballot language. particularly around issues on maintaining, managing brush wildfire vegetation and tweaking some of the language around park and recreation, including the word expanding in there. And so it was a slight response to what we saw from the presentation and what we felt like the council interest was. But otherwise, we kind of kept it the same. And so at this point, staff is looking for direction on which looking for if there is any council direction as far as bringing back an item at your next meeting. If you're interested in doing that, we would bring back an ordinance placing it on the ballot, an ordinance that would be placed on the ballot and the direction to do that. and we'd also be talking about writing measures, arguments in favor, arguments opposed, that sort of thing. So if there was an interest in doing a half cent, that would be a fairly simple change, half a percent, that would be a fairly simple change to this bold language. If there were things you wanted to strike out or add, you could. This is a pretty all-encompassing, intended-to-be general tax. And so... It ranges from everything from public safety, park and recreation, quality of life services. So it is a general tax that can be used for just about any general purpose. So it was deliberately made that way. We just tweaked some of the words to have some additional broad appeal. So our aim is to have a general tax with a 50 plus one threshold and it would be used in that fashion and brought forward in that manner. So don't have any other things to add. You saw this before and for the direction, we'll bring it back on the 16th. If not, that's all I have.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Hawley. Are there any clarifying questions from council before I open it up for public comment? And there is. Vice Mayor Joseph.

Yes, it's an odd clarifying question. The deadline for us is June 16th because that's when we're having a regular meeting. But in terms of Measure M, The deadline is later. So my real question is not really as it relates here, but I'm thinking of other concerns. What's the real drop dead date for the council putting other measures on the ballot for November?

Good question. Tax measures such as this can only be placed on the ballot at a regular council meeting. And so by function of the regular council meeting agenda you adopted in December, you laid out your regular meetings for the rest of the year, which next Tuesday, sorry, two Tuesdays from now, the 16th, is your next regular meeting. And after that, July 21st, is your next regular meeting. The county administratively has said July 10 is a deadline for asking them to put stuff on the ballot. We've left unexplored this little differential between July 21st, theoretically, is your next regular meeting after that, The August 7th deadline is 88 days to the ballot. And if you happen to do something, wait until July 21st and then send it to the county. You know, you'd be asking them to bend over backwards, probably call a special meeting and they wouldn't be really happy with you. Would they be able to pull that off? Maybe. But what they've told us, you know, is your deadline is July 10. And we only have one regular meeting left until July 10. Other kinds of measures. not tax measures, have up until, they can be done at special meetings. And so that's the distinction.

All right. Well, that's good to know.

That's definitely a clarifying question. Yeah.

And actually, that's a good one because in all my years, I never knew that. Elections have all kinds of interesting technicalities that blow your mind. So thank you for that clarification.

Thank you. Seeing no other questions, I'd like to open up to public comment for item number 16. Madam Clerk, do we have?

I have no speaker cards and no hands raised online.

Okay. So I'll return to counsel for any additional comments on item number 16 and or for further discussion or direction for staff to accept the summary.

Okay. COUNCIL MEMBER ORL. I'M GENERALLY FINE WITH THE REVISED BALLOT LANGUAGE. I THINK IT'S GENERAL ENOUGH, RIGHT? AND I THINK, YOU KNOW, THERE IS VICE MAYOR JOSEPH TALKED ABOUT A GAP AND THAT WE'RE TRYING TO MEET OUR GAP IN OUR FISCAL BUDGET. THIS COULD ACTUALLY HELP US. MY ORIGINAL GOAL AND SOMETHING THAT Council would have to do if this were adopted was to fund civic things like a community center, but clearly this will help CLOSE THE GAP AND MAKE IT EASIER TO DO A BALANCED BUDGET. WE DON'T HAVE TO VOTE ON THIS TONIGHT. THAT'S WHAT THE 16TH IS FOR. SO I WOULD RECOMMEND THAT WE MOVE FORWARD WITH THIS BALLOT LANGUAGE AND THE COUNCIL COME BACK ON THE 16TH AND WE MAKE A DECISION OF WHETHER OR NOT WE PUT IT ON THE BALLOT IN NOVEMBER THEN.

THANK YOU. VICE MAYOR JOSEPH.

I SECOND THAT MOTION. Unless you have a question.

I was going to make a comment. And my comment is probably not going to be appreciated. I am concerned that we're trying to rush this before we've really had a good opportunity to build the case. And that there's a whole bunch of other stuff going on on this particular cycle. There's the other half cent initiative that's going on. There's Measure M that's going on now. And if we try to add a half cent or a full cent item, I'm worried that there's going to be a whole lot of negative reaction. So number one, I'm worried that this may not be a good time, even just from a political perspective, in terms of messaging. I personally think we ought to spend the next year or two demonstrating that we're tightening our belts as much as we can and that all that's left is to go to the voters for a bump. I think if we go straight to we have problems, let's ask voters for more money, some of them are going to react poorly and say, you know, you've been doing great and now all of a sudden you want more money from me. I just think it's in our best interest to... focus on a game plan that's got a two-year head start instead of rushing it, especially because there's so many other things going on right now. And my concern is we're going to focus on this initiative and, frankly, we ought to focus more on Measure M because I think Measure M has a lot more consequences THAN THE OTHERS. SO FOR ME, I WOULD FEEL MORE COMFORTABLE SUPPORTING IT IN TWO YEARS. I WOULDN'T. BUT I WOULD SHOW UP AT THE PODIUM AND SAY, THIS IS A GOOD IDEA AND I WILL CAMPAIGN FOR IT. THE OTHER ONE IS MORE PROGRAMMATIC, AND THAT IS TO PUT SOME KIND OF A CAP ON THE DEBT SERVICE LEVELS. AND I APPRECIATE COUNCILMEMBER ORO TALKING ABOUT, YOU KNOW, HE WAS ORIGINALLY LOOKING AT IT AS AN OPPORTUNITY TO FINANCE SOME PARK IMPROVEMENTS. And I think that would be great. But frankly, I think we need to make sure we have a fair amount of money that's available just to make ends meet. Because it looks like that may be a bigger priority. And if we tie it up too quickly with debt service, WE'LL BE ABLE TO GET THOSE COOL THINGS AND NOT HAVE THE MAINTENANCE PEOPLE TO MAINTAIN IT. I THINK THAT WOULD BE ILL ADVISED. I WOULD PREFER WAITING FOR TWO YEARS AND ABSENT THAT I WOULD PREFER PUTTING SOME KIND OF A CAP ON THE DEBT SERVICE OPTION IF THERE'S A WAY TO SAY THAT. THOSE ARE MY TWO COMMENTS.

THANK YOU. COUNCIL MEMBER ORO.

Yeah, just a quick rebuttal on that for the vice mayor there. Two years from now, there could be a dozen other things that prevent us from putting this on the ballot. I can't predict the future. I know that we've talked about this, and I know that there's an identified need for it. And I think I don't want to belabor it tonight at 1034 in the evening after a pretty long debate, but if we could bring it back on the 16th, we can discuss it further and vote on that. BUT I DID WANT TO REBUT ON THE FACT THAT THERE'S ALWAYS SOMETHING HAPPENING TO SLOW IT DOWN, TO NOT MAKE IT HAPPEN, TO FIND AN EXCUSE TO NOT TRY TO BRING SOMETHING FORWARD. AND SO THIS TAX MEASURE, IF THIS GETS ON THE BALLOT, IN SIX, RIGHT? OKAY. I KNOW WHAT'S COMING UP IN 26. I DON'T KNOW WHAT'S COMING UP IN 28. AND IT COULD BE WORSE THAN WHAT IT IS NOW. IT COULD BE ALL CLEAR, TOO. SO I WOULD LOVE TO BRING IT BACK ON THE 16TH TO DISCUSS IN FULL.

THANK YOU, COUNCIL MEMBER ORL. ARE WE PULLING HIS MOTION TO UPDATE THE LANGUAGE?

I DON'T THINK I HAD A MOTION. I JUST HAD GUIDANCE.

THERE ISN'T A MOTION NEEDED TONIGHT. I THINK IT WAS JUST SORT OF CLARIFICATION. WHAT I HEARD WAS THE LANGUAGE SEEMS FINE. I SEE SOME CONSENSUS. I THINK I SEE SOME CONSENSUS ON BRINGING BACK A DECISION POINT ON THE 16TH IN THE FORM OF AN ORDINANCE AND EVERYTHING ELSE. THAT'S WHAT I'M HEARING OR AT LEAST SEEING.

The only question I have is that language. Does it make sense to put a cap on how much debt service is? Assuming that's a prudent thing to do, how would you craft the language?

I honestly, at this moment in time, am not sure. We would need to sit and talk with our financial folks. GAN LIMIT IS NOT THE SAME THING.

PUT THAT IN YOUR HOPPER FOR THINGS TO TALK ABOUT ON THE 16th.

THIS IS A GENERAL MEASURE. THIS IS A GENERAL TAX THAT WOULD GO INTO THE GENERAL FUND WITH A LIST OF THINGS THAT IT COULD GENERALLY BE USED FOR. TO THE EXTENT THE COUNCIL SEPARATELY WANTED TO HAVE A POLICY THAT SAID WE DON'T WANT TO HAVE DEBT SERVICE. RIGHT NOW OUR DEBT SERVICE IS A PERCENTAGE OF GENERAL FUND. is measured in low single digits, if my memory is correct. And so if the council wanted to come forward with a policy that said we're not ever going to have general fund debt more than what have you, I don't know that you would put that in a voter initiative. That would be a pretty extreme sort of thing if you wanted to have it as a council policy. The council has to vote to take on the debt. I can't take on the debt. The council has to vote to take on the debt. So that's sort of another reminder point.

Yeah, and it almost seems like it could be a moot because there's still other general fund money that you could apply debt to.

Yeah. Correct. It would be outside of this measure. You would have to want to constrain your entire perspective on the general fund as a percent. And given that we're so low right now, I'm not sure how... All right.

I'M GOING TO JUMP IN. I'VE BEEN VERY QUIET FOR MOST OF THIS MEETING, BUT THIS IS A POINT WHERE I THINK MY INPUT IS WARRANTED IN THAT BECAUSE THIS IS A GENERAL TAX THAT YOU'RE CONSIDERING, I WOULD NOT INCLUDE ANY RESTRICTIONS IN THE ORDINANCE ITSELF. THAT WOULD BE A SEPARATE COUNCIL POLICY THAT THIS GROUP MAKES, AND MAYBE IN TWO YEARS THERE'S ANOTHER GROUP OF FIVE FOLKS WHO WANTS TO SPEND THAT MONEY DIFFERENTLY, THEY CAN MAKE THAT DECISION. BUT THIS ISN'T GENERALLY WHERE YOU WOULD WANT TO PUT THAT TO KEEP IT IN ITS STATUS AS A GENERAL TAX.

All right, thanks. Thank you, John.

Yeah, and I just think that when we move forward with this, educating the community would be on us to make sure that we give clear understanding of what's going on, back to our original conversations earlier today. So thank you, and we'll move on to our management and staff oral reports. Mr. Hawley. We've exhausted ourselves for the evening there. Have you? We don't have anything else. Let's go. Okay. No updates on events or anything like that? Okay. and check our social media page. Gotcha, gotcha. All right, then moving forward to the mayor and council comments and committee reports. Vice Mayor Joseph, we'll start with you.

I did submit, so I will only point out that this Saturday from one to six, RD Winery is the annual art extravaganza and concert Be there or be square. It's free and it's fun. And then the following Wednesday, we already heard about Juneteenth, but be out there Juneteenth. It's going to be exciting and it's also free and fun.

So thank you. Oh, council member oral.

Yeah. Um, 10 of the laugh co meeting on Tuesday. This is an addition to the report that I submitted written. Um, uh, there was, uh, the, the Watson lane area was passed as annexed into the city. I think there's a couple more steps that needs to happen. There's a 30 day, uh, sort of, uh, appeal period or objection period, but it's looking good that thing is finally happening. And I'll include a full report in the next council meeting.

Thank you, sir. Council Member Lamartina.

Just to echo what Council Member Joseph said, be out there. It's going to be fun. And nothing more to report. I'll get my report in tardy again, but I'll get it in. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam. Council Member Cruz.

Yeah, just a reminder, it's going to be the ACMS promotions this Friday at 9 o'clock, and it's going to be the ACHS graduation at 7 p.m. on Friday, and also I'll be attending the Public Policy Committee for North Bay representing us. That's all I have.

Thank you. And my streak has ended. I missed submitting my committee report this week, and I got a call by staff and anybody else, hey, what happened to your committee report? But, yeah, so my streak has ended. I'll get it back in there, get back in rhythm here pretty soon. For future agenda items, are there any future agenda items? Starting with you, Vice Mayor.

I'm being just a nuisance. First of all, I would like to follow up on the mobile home part. RENTAL ORDINANCE, THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT A FAIR RETURN AS THE BASIS FOR A 30% INCREASE AND THEN THE COST OF LIVING. IF OUR CITY ATTORNEY COULD LOOK INTO THAT.

THE REVIEW HAS ALREADY STARTED, VICE MAYOR.

And for what it's worth, Bill Ross is kind of the godfather of that mobile home park ordinance, if you want to consult with him. The other one is more substantive as far as council action, and that is to ask staff to come back with a five-year plan to address the operating deficits that we are forecasting. So that's my request.

Yeah, the first one's already in process. The referral happened about 12 hours after we got word of it. But as far as this five-year, we could just go ahead and get a motion and a second and a vote on that. We can get this tracking on future council items.

Can we get a second on the Vice Mayor's motion? I'll second. We have a second. Madam Clerk, can we get a roll call?

Yes and this is to address a five year.

The deficits in the five year forecast.

Councilmember Cruz. Yes. Councilmember Lamatina. Yes. Council member oral yes, vice mayor just said yes, mayor Washington, yes, thank you councilmember oral anything for future.

Yeah, I would like to add that we tend to is a quarterly circulation update. And then also one of the you could probably add it with this one. But I think I heard a couple times tonight a revisit of the West Side connector. AND JUST BRING THAT TO COUNCIL AND KIND OF REVISIT THAT AS AN AGENDA ITEM. IT COULD BE PART OF THE QUARTERLY UPDATE, BUT IT SHOULD BE A DISCUSSION FOR SURE WITH POTENTIAL ACTION.

I APPRECIATE THE THOUGHT. I THINK IT WILL BE VIABLE, ESPECIALLY FOR THE FOLKS THAT WERE HERE. WHAT I WAS, AS WE WERE THINKING ABOUT THIS, WE IDENTIFIED KIND OF FOUR AREAS, RIGHT, IN THE REPORT, YOU KNOW, OF THINGS MOVING FORWARD. South Kelly, Rio de Mar, and SR 29. So I think the west side would just be part of that quarterly report, and we can use a format, and I'll come up with a format that makes sense, but to report on those four topics, and just where they are, what's the next steps. We are sort of doing it with the CIP and our quarterly CIP, but those are like, when can you expect a shovel in the ground? These are more, advanced planning is still happening, but there's still tasks that are ongoing, and I think we can come up with a quarterly report that addresses those four, because those seem to be Even the ones we're talking about today so I would bundle those together.

That works and I would second that motion for both the quarterly circulation update will include the West Side connection to yeah, it's going to include off or care.

So what are you going to second it. I'm second it. Okay, so we have a sign in the madam clerk.

I'm really trying to put a transportation of the circulation.

And so we are, oh, sorry, this.

Joseph was the second.

Joseph was the second? Yeah. Dang it, okay. I didn't mark it before I, okay, anyway. Councilmember Cruz? Yes. Councilmember Lamatina? Yes. Councilmember Oro? Yes. Vice Mayor Joseph? Yes. Mayor Washington?

Yes. Councilmember Lamatina, any future items?

Joseph. You said no? As it would say. Any future agenda? Joseph moved and. No, no. Not at this moment in time.

Brando, make us go 16 more minutes.

Bring something up, dude. We're not even 11 o'clock.

I was expecting a midnight thing.

Okay. I want to personally just thank my colleagues and the staff and the community for coming out tonight and the voice in their opinions and, and, uh, being part of tonight's city council. So we have concluded our business for this evening and we are adjourned. Good night, American Ken 45.

Not bad. Not bad at all.