City Council - Regular Meeting

Thank you. Uh, I'd also like to ask that everyone note or um those at home listening um that we do concurrent translation services and they're available for this meeting in Spanish and a variety of other languages and to access the translations online. There's a link in the agenda package. So, when you turn on the computer and pull up the agenda for tonight, you'll see a link where you can go right in the translation services. And then in addition, we have a QR code in the room if you want to access in that way. With that, let's have our roll call for the evening.

Barnacle, present. Ker Thompson here. Darly here. Now here. Quint here. Shreds here. McDonald in here. And we do have a quorum. Wonderful. Let's all stand for the pledge of

allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. [clears throat] And a moment of silence, please. With that, I'd like to um start with uh checking in our agenda and agenda changes and deletions. This is where I look up and down the council dis and ask if anyone uh has anything that they see a miss. I'd like to invite our city attorney in right now.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I'd actually like to propose in addition to tonight's agenda.

Um so, by way of background, uh section 54954. I'm I'm sorry. Um good evening everybody. Eric Danic City, attorney. I hope everybody had a nice holiday and is starting off a happy new year in 2026. Um, so I'd like to suggest in accordance with section 54954.2 of the government code, which is part of the Brown Act, um, and which generally requires legislative bodies subject to the act to post an agenda that contains a brief general description of each item of business to be transacted or discussed at a meeting of the body, including items to be discussed in close session. Um, that those be posted at least 72 hours prior to the meeting. um in the case of a regular meeting. However, that same section in subdivision B, paragraph 2, provides that the legislative body may take action on items of business that are not on the posted agenda on a determination by twothirds vote of the members of the legislative body present at the meeting or if less than twothirds of the members are present, a unanimous vote. um that there's a need to take immediate action and that the need for action came to the attention of the local agency subsequent to the agenda being posted as required. So, in view of that, I would like to recommend that the council move to add and by a roll call vote add a close session to tonight's meeting agenda um to occur at the end um of the agenda after the other business on tonight's agenda to discuss a lawsuit that has been filed against the city of Paluma and also the city of Morgan Hill today in the Northern District of California based on a finding that there's a need for the council to take immediate action concerning the case in the form of direction to staff and the Need for action came to the attention of the city only hours ago today when we were notified of the case which has not yet been served on the city. The agenda description of the close session item I'm recommending be added to tonight's

meetings would would read as follows. Conference with legal counsel existing litigation pursuant to paragraph 1 of subdivision D of section 54956.9 of the government code. The name of the case is the United States of America versus City of Morgan Hill, City of Paluma, case 5 col26-CV- 00056-BLF and the US District Court for the Northern District of California. Thank you.

Thank you. Um, I think that's um kind of a first for me and my seven years on council that uh we'd have to add an item a close session like this at this time. So, um let me ask one follow-up question. Is uh is this this is a voting matter with roll call vote like you like you noted and um is shall we open for public comment on this item or is it not subject to public comment? Um you're you're we can entertain public comment on the item um if the council wishes. Um

we let's see I guess you know I guess what I would suggest is um that the council deliberate if there are more questions for me I'll be happy to address them. Um, but I'm going to be a little circumspect recognizing that this is for close session, but I think probably best to receive comment on it. If the council um adds this item to tonight's agenda as I'm recommending, it'll be added to the end of the meeting and before we call it, that'll be the right time to hear to hear if there's public comment before we go into closing. Modifications of the agenda don't uh uh require public comment period. I don't think so because Right. Usually we just accept them and right on

and and once the item's added, it'll be part of tonight's business and then subject of of you know public comment just like we receive when we have um close sessions that we've agendaized typically in the beginning of the meeting. So I think that'll be the right time. Thank you. Thank you. Did anyone on council have a question of the attorney? Uh council um council member D Carly.

Um if the city hasn't been served yet, how come we need to have a special meeting tonight about it? because we've um received press inquiries about the lawsuit. I've reviewed a copy of the lawsuit. It's been I've confirmed it's been filed today. Um and I'd like to receive council direction regarding the case so we can follow that direction in response. And may I add that our next meeting is three weeks, not our typical two weeks. It's a full three weeks out or our next actionable opportunity. Okay. So, it's just my recommendation, but that's that's why I'm making that recommendation. Thank you.

Yeah. No, I I understand that. I'm just saying we I mean, we could always have a quick special session about it, you know, and give the proper notice and everything and but just Okay, any other questions? Um, with none and and and [clears throat] moving over to our clerk, we'd like to have a roll call roll call vote, please. Mr. Mayor, I'd actually recommend that you um entertain a motion. It's a really good idea there. Yeah. Um so I'm looking for a motion from I'll make a motion for the close session. Thank you very much. A motion by Kater Thompson and a second by Vice Mayor Now. Barnacle [snorts] I. Kater Thompson. Yes.

D Carly. Yes. Now, yes. Quint. Yes. Tribs. Yes. McDonald. Yes. Motion carries unanimously. Thank you, council.

Thank you. So, that is again that we'll be adding a close session at the end of the regularly scheduled items for the evening. And um that brings it um back up to our next item for the evening, which is general public comment. And uh during general public comment, the public's invited to com make comment on items of public interest that are within the city council's subject matter jurisdiction and that are not listed as the current agenda. Public comments are limited to three minutes per person depending on the number of persons wishing to address the council. Time will be allocated in equal shares totaling no more than 20 minutes. If we have more than 20 people wishing to speak, the additional comments will be heard after the last business item of the agenda. Like to invite the clerk in here now to help us out.

Yes, we did receive 28 general public comments and those have been posted online. And at this time, I will start a 30 second clock for general public comment. So during these 30 seconds, members of the public should bring their speaker cards to my desk if they have not already done so. Speakers received speaker cards received after this time may not be accommodated. Thank you. It's going up the numbers.

Good. Thank you. We have nine speaker cards and uh dividing that into 20 minutes, we'll have two minutes. Please set the clock at two minutes per person. And um I'd like to invite up John Hania to speak first to be followed by uh Tom Gaffy. Good evening. [clears throat and cough]

Well, first of all, happy new year and hope this year will be better for everybody. The what I want to talk about tonight is exactly what you just did, Kevin. [clears throat] You don't have a policy of when people turn their card in. If I come in here and I want to pay my water bill and there's five people in line, I don't go first. But you seem to have an issue with me. I don't know what it is. So, why don't you tell us what the policy is? How you going to call the card? That's one. Are they by numbers or are they are they by your discretion? So, let us know what it is. Then you you mention if there's over 20 cards, you carry them until the end of the meeting. So, who's going to stay till the end of the meeting? The first card or the last card or is by your choice. So then the second thing now you given 30 second for people to turn their cards in for agenda item. I've never seen it done. No other city does that. The supervisor meeting don't don't do that. They don't even turn cards in. Okay. And please if I pass out my sugar level is really low. Okay. So you know at if you go to a supervisor when they open the meeting anybody walks up the line they get their time. But here Paluma is completely different. Why is that? So if somebody is sitting in the audience and they hear something and they want to say something, they can't turn their car in because you decide that's it. You got 30 second to turn your cards in for agenda item and this is not cool. So please give us your policy so we are aware of. Thank you. Thank you. Tom Gaffy to be followed by Claudia Eron Ross. Hello everybody. Tom Gaffy. I think pretty much everybody knows me. Um, you

know, I'm going to start out saying something I never expected to say. When I started going to observe the uh GPAC committee meetings, I wasn't expecting to to find the best results. I was wrong. uh the fact that I am here saying that even though I'm not a fan of our system of you using the M group to uh assist us in planning our city, Heather and her group did a wonderful job with the crew. So great thanks to that. We have the meeting last meeting and everything was going great and it still is going great. But when it got to the last part, the uh center core area uh and the council decided to uh go above what the GPAC group had recommended and recommend for eight stories. I think that's specious thinking and and I'm hoping we don't do that. It started with Brian saying if this is about housing then let's get serious or something like that which is good but it's not just about housing. It's it's it's always got to be about livability in our community and the community ourselves. And I think placing packing in eight stories uh of of apartments, which we all know could go to 120 ft up to 11 stories maybe. How many people would that be? 500 people that we'd be talking about packing into the city core where there's already high traffic and high business going on. Uh and I think that's not a great idea. Um, Janice corrected me and thank you for that, Janice. I thought it also was including the CVS lots and all that. It's not. It's just including the smart lot, which kind of makes us even stranger. Why are we picking on this one piece of property right in the center of the city? I know it's next to the smart train station, but we're building apartments next to another train station, and they're not going above six stories. I don't think we need to go above six stories here. I think we can keep it at eight stories. Is that it?

Thank you very much. Perfect. I think that Okay, thank you. Claudia Aaron Ross to be followed by Jody Johnson.

Hi. Um, I actually came to speak on the same matter that Mr. Gaffy came to speak on. Um, just a few other points that the city council added the eighth story section at 10:30 at night when there was hardly anybody left in chambers instead of doing it the way they said they were going to do it with input from the community at the GPAC meetings. There was no input from the community on the eight stories. And I don't want to hear one more time from any member except one that this is a progressive move. There's nothing progressive about it. Just because it's different does not make it progressive. Progressive is a positive move. This is a negative move for the community of Paluma. It's a negative mood move for a town that has small roads that was meant for a small town and now you want to add eight stories. And I'm sure that in many people's minds in particular a few. This is only the first of the eightstory buildings they'd like to put up. We're not built for that. That's not what Pedaluma is about. It doesn't serve the community.

Thank you. Jody Johnson should be followed by Tim Portius. Happy new year, city council and city staff. Our pedaluma mobile residents are aware that many strides have been made to secure protections of their rights as mobile park residents. The MRL law of the state and the defined rent stabilization ordinance of the city of Paluma have clarified the intent of the ordinance originally created in 1994. We believe we could speak for all that we are ready to get back to the business of living in peace and the city concentrating on other pressing issues. But unfortunately, even though enhanced and concise intent of each part of the rent stabil rent stabilization ordinance were made, laws are only as good as enforcement of violations. We have large investment group park owners who thumb their nose at violations and double down to break even more laws and ordinances in Youngstown. current sale of Ford Bell and now two others listed park properties are being sold as all age with a whopping ground rent of $1,875. Ground rents on Ford Bell went previously for $720. the clarification of vacancy control on August 4th urgency ordinance as it pertains to the 60-day notice of termination of tenency which is created with a resident intending to sell was just a clarification of the intent of the original vacancy ordinance. We remind all park owners that this revision, which was retroactive, makes the setting of ground rents triple the amount upon sale unlawful unless there was an eviction or the mobile home was removed and a new one placed on that lot. That law has existed for years, but park owners used it as a loophole to gouge. In Capri, tow trucks throughout the holiday prayed upon residents just merely dropping off something at their house or running in to get a family

member. Quickly, tow trucks lifted the car and demanded $600 to release the car or make a resident collected in the towy yard. This is abuse on top of parking still not restored after making the entire park fire lane. Tim Portius to be followed by Jennice Barker.

Hello. Overcharges continue to pile up for Capri residents and park owners intent on bleeding residents dry in legal fees unless the residents give up their hard fought rights in Little Woods. While delivering a holiday message, it is truly hard to take the suffering of loss of parking, the tow trucks, the fear of the parking far away and then looking at a fenced back completely empty for over a year now. It's abuse clear and simple. It's agreed. It's greed unchecked and every violation, notices or letter is met with attacks on the city and on the residents. They see enforcement as a joke. Imagine what would be done to a resident with any violation that was not remedied. They would be evicted in a very short window of time. Today, we turn in petitions from Littlewood's residents. Restore parking with any legal means. is available immediately and to allow residents to have personal trash service even if cans are moved to the front of the park for collection days. As leaders in protecting the most vulnerable and keeping seniors and families housed in a mobile home they own, it's time we find the solution to stop the abuse and restore a life without harm to our pedaluma mobile residents united. together. After the courageous paths taken by both both residents and the city itself, we are confident that the right path forward has been presented. This path will not ever include residents giving up their hard fought protections or the city giving up the intent of why a rent stabilization closure and bankruptcy control ordinance revised as to intent was needed. Finally, our humble mobile home parks

residents are not asking for a handout for lawful positions if park owners had not violated laws.

Thank you, Janice Barker to be followed by Kelly Walker. [snorts] Happy New Year everybody. If park owners had not violated laws, ordinances or residents rights, this would never this would never have come to this. Park owners, specifically large investment groups, knew that they were bullying, knew that the profits they could realize for their investors, knew the RSO and the closure process, knew the zoning before closing escrow. No large investment group or any investor would buy a property believing that they were not making a profit. Greed and gouging were the only things checked by residents [clears throat] and the city against these large investment group park owners. Our mobile home park residents thank you for your due diligence and the courage it takes to open the city up to litigation. With six arbitration wins, two appeal wins to lawsuits against the city dismissed. The court of law themselves are telling the community that these frivolous law lawsuits have no merit. Just because a business screams that they deserve more does not mean that there is truth to any of the those false narratives. Just because you scream, rant, or perjure yourself, truth finds a way. Truth is finding its way and the city of Paluma is a model to that. Thank you. Pedaluma Mobile Residents United.

Thank Thank you. Kelly Walker to be followed by Chantel Rogers. Thank you. Thank you. Chantel Rogers to be followed by Morin Gotshaw.

Good evening. I'm here to express serious concern about proposed changes to downtown density, height, and zoning regulations. Specifically, the council is considering using rooftop activation as a mechanism to exceed established height limitations. What's most troubling is the timing. These proposals emerged after the public comment period closed and were not included in the community engagement process. This circumvents the transparent planning process our community deserves. Height limits and zonings exist for important reasons. They shape our city's character, manage infrastructure capacity, and reflect community values. Any modifications to these fundamental regulations should be subject to full public review and input, not in introduced after the community has already had its say. Now, the way this started was Councilman Shri said, you know, in Europe, they put some um green roofs on or maybe some exercise equipment. and Brian O jumped in and said, "Or restaurants." Now, we all know what that refers to, right? That's the EKN project. And I would say that if you have rooftop activation, they I imagine would immediately pull their fourstory um proposal so that they could put in a fivestory proposal including rooftop bar or maybe a restaurant up there. Originally, this was talked about for the downtown core and Councilman Barnacle immediately said, "I want it citywide." So, unilaterally, you guys all voted to increase the height of every single project in Paluma by a floor, by a story, because that's what a rooftop activation is. No uh uh contractor is going to be like, "Oh yeah, let me put a couple of um sun chairs out there for the residents." It's going to be about

commercial activation and that is another floor. And so please consider if bringing that back and having the public's input.

Thank you. Our last speaker is Moren Gotshaw. Uh, this council continues to ignore public input. After extensive goodfaith community engagement on the general plan, residents consistently oppose building over six stories near downtown. Despite the city proposed plan meeting all state requirements, including affordable housing at the height, oh jeez louise, there we go. despite the city proposed plan meeting all state requirements including affordable housing at the height you approved eightstory buildings around the smart station. Anyways, with the bonus density option for building this location cannot be supported by any realistic infrastructure in that narrow of a space in the heart of our city. It took 25 years to add one freeway lane. Scalable mass transit is many decades away and well after planned term exploration. Without a robust local economy to employ this population, residents will still drive. The average commute here is 25 miles. You can't wish away these realities. This decision doesn't strain our infrastructure to breaks it. You're not making bold choices. You're collapsing the foundation of what makes Paluma livable. Affordable housing is extremely important, but so is affordable living and quality of life. These must be balanced. Stop governing from a small echo chamber. Based your decisions on your city's actual conditions and realistic outcomes, not aspirations disconnected from reality. The public spoke clearly you chose not to listen. That needs to change.

Thank you very much. That's our last public speaker and we'll move to council comments now. And I'd like to start over on my left here. Council member Shribs.

Okay. Um, so far for actual meetings, it's been pretty quiet the last three weeks. However, I did want to comment about the um, uh, the land use uh, plan that we put forth last time. Um, I was a little bit reluctant to pass it at that time. I was kind of I was concerned about some of the higher density, especially the eightstory that we were doing late at night. So, yes. Uh, so I am concerned about that. However, we already uh it's been voted in for the moment just to have staff look at it, but it's not set in stone. We have time to review. We have time to look at it. So, let's go ahead and um envision now. Okay, housing is a great idea. uh we need more housing and the plan that we have in place, the land use plan looks more like a 2100 plan rather than a 2050 plan because basically with urban growth boundary we're going to be at a pretty much uh we're at our limits already in hospital infill. So, what is it going to look like in 2100, not just 2050? And what can we allow now to get to that goal, which would and since we have a population that started at, when I was here, 30 to 35,000 is now 60 to 63,000. Um, and in that period of time, we'll probably grow again by at least that amount. So, we really need to figure out how to put that many people in a smaller space with the transit. So, um I agree we need to review it again and that we need to reinvision what this density might look like and how we are going to actually get provide the water, the electricity, the roads, the transport, the mobility all around these properties. So, now's the time to really look at that again and and I'm sure we'll have more discussions. It's still open for debate. It's not set in stone. So, I just want to see uh we would like to have I would like to see a little bit more public review on it. Send it back to the GPAC. What do you think about it? Send it back to the um various other committees. What do you think about this higher density that we're trying to do for affordable housing? Um, if we do uh six stories and someone comes in and

says, I want to build eight stories with affordable housing. Yeah. Um, that that's going to be allowable by state pretty much by right. So, um, what are the other I don't think we we did not have enough time to really review the whole thing. I think it's um a good idea for housing. I like housing. We want to move forward with that, but we really need to look at the entire plan. what type of density are we going to end up with? It was mentioned that we're going to have six six cycles of housing element that we're actually covered uh right now. So, which is a plan for six times eight years. So, that's at least 50 years. So, with this plan, it's really really looking at 2100, not just at 2030 or 2040 or 2050. Um, so let's look at it from that perspective coming back. Um, so I I'd like to see that reviewed one more time. uh and had let the public speak some more because we also received some positive notes as um as well that that people did like the idea. So needs public more review on that. Um but just what the other thing I would like to bring up is that I got invited to give a talk on what the city is doing. I'll be at the village network um presented at the library on the 22nd which before the next meeting. Uh that'll be at 1 p.m. at the library. I'll be reviewing um basically the city for the village network which is mostly uh folks over 55 or 65 um group that nonprofit here in town. Um but it's a public meeting and everyone's invited to show up if you like. All right, with that I'll just leave it there.

Thank you very much, Council Member Quint. Uh good evening and uh uh welcome back and hope everyone had a wonderful holiday. Uh I was unable to attend the transit advisory meeting that was on 1216 due to unplanned travel. That said, TAC received a follow-up operating financial plan presentation. The goal of that presentation was to lay out more clearly the financial information that will play into the workshop that will take place later this month. As always, interested parties can find the presentation posted on the city city's website. Also, as an FYI, um um I wanted to just briefly note that Whimo has received state authorization to expand driverless operations across much of Northern California, including Sonoma County. The authorization comes from the California DMV uh and for passenger service, the CPU. At this time, there is no robo taxi service operating in Sonoma County, Sonoma County Cities, but Whimo is now legally permitted to deploy in the region if and when it chooses. Um, sharing this as a FYI, uh, it looks like Whimo is eyeing expansion into Sacramento and San Diego in 2026. And uh lastly on 1217 I participated in the Paluma High School civics fair where I got to spend time hearing from groups of students about civ civic projects they were engaged in. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and look forward to participating in future events. Thank you.

Thank you council member D Carly. So I hope everybody had a [clears throat] happy New Year's Eve and that your new year is off to a good start. I have not had any leazison meetings since our last uh get together, but um and I didn't realize either we were talking about the last meeting tonight at all, but um you know, I would support if you know, we do have more meetings to talk about land use, and I certainly stand by all my comments that night. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Barnacle.

Thanks. Um happy new year to everybody. Um I'll just make a few comments on the last meeting as well. I've certainly been the target of a lot of eye from the community. Um, so to the point of rooftop activation, that's a zoning code issue. So the zoning code is kicking off right now. There's going to be ample time to be in engaging in that. We were saying we wanted that to be looked at through the zoning code. Um, so it's um direction for looking at in the zoning code. It's not a final policy. um to the point of eight-story buildings. Um in March of 2025, the briefing book that was recommended by the general plan advisory committee, Tom, actually included eight-story buildings around the station. Um and we were the ones that brought it back and the planning commission was the one who said, "I think you guys got it wrong. You should relook at that." And it came back to us. It was in the staff report. It was agendaized for everybody to read, to comment on, and we talked about it. it wasn't some late night be under the under the radar thing as it's been portrayed um to many um and I know because I've got emails of people saying that this was some like dark room you know smoke and mirrors thing that we did. It was in the staff report for crying out loud to look at that. Our count our planning commission passed a resolution 6 to one saying I think you need to relook at this. Um, it shouldn't have been a surprise to anyone who read the staff report that we were going to be talking about that and making a decision on it.

On my way out, I'll just say

um published online the whole community. Um, so and then just to the people talking about livability. Um, in the last 15 years, our cost of living in or the the cost of housing in Paluma has tripled. um if you want to talk about livability, like think about um how much people are paying for housing right now. And so when we're up here talking about trying to bring more housing to the town and increase supply so that we can bring down the costs and do that, um like that's what we're doing. And you can roll your eyes at it if you want, but that's those are the policy choices that we're working on and trying to push forward with. Um and I I think that it's u you know, there's two sides to every story. we're not going to be on social media combating everything. But none of that stuff was done behind closed doors. It was all agenda and um quite frankly that's the job of the council is to take inputs from multiple different um sources and make policy decisions for the city. So I stand by what I said. Um I think uh that um I think nobody was happy with it. I certainly don't think that we got enough done. But you know what that's what um policym is. You can't get everything you want. you get um you talk about it and you debate it in public um and you move forward. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Kater Thompson. I didn't have any le liaison appointments during the holidays and I just hope everybody had a great holiday because I certainly did spend a lot of time with my family [clears throat] and and that's it. Okay. Well, thank you, Vice Mayor. Now,

um thank you. Happy New Year's to everyone and thank you for being here tonight on such a blustery and rainy day. Um, since our last council meeting, as council member Quint Quint mentioned, I too had the pleasure of visiting Pedalumma High School before the winter break. I listened to students present their final projects covering topics as bathroom safety, river and stream cleanup, graduation hat decorations, and more. I'm incredibly proud of these young people and their dedication to making our community even better. I also joined our mayor and council member Kater Thompson and city staff in the rain for the groundbreaking ceremony at a Corona North Smart Station. It's always exciting to see our city planning for future housing needs and even more exciting when we're actually building new housing and including muchneeded affordable housing opportunities. Last Saturday, I attended the North Bay Guns and Hoses Ice Hockey Game at Luma Ice at the Fairgrounds. This fun community event has raised and donated nearly $300,000 to our public safety causes. It was a great time chatting with our city of Bed Lima police and public safety staff both on and off the ice. A big thank you to our parks and recreation staff for creating another wonderful Luma ice season. Having it indoors brought back so many great memories of from my childhood when we used to roller skate there on a wooden rink. Yes, I'm old. Memories like that are truly priceless. And if anybody wants to talk to me directly about our decision that we made at the last meeting, this is my first rodeo at the general plan. And I'll be willing to sit down and talk to any about anybody about how we need to think about our future in Paluma when we make

the general plan because my council in 2008, we made some mistakes and I'm always willing to sit down and talk to people about how we need to do it right. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, I um happy new year to everybody and and um I just want to touch on on one thing you said it is so fun to u walk through town and have all the people saying good things about Luma Ice and and just how many people have gone and how many activities and how many nonprofit beneficiaries and things. So, you know, um kudos to staff for pulling that off. Really, uh appreciate our second year of it here. And then uh in addition um uh on the 16th I was um representing the city at our blue the blue zone volunteer appreciation night and the city is a partner in this and uh blue zones is changing Paluma uh they've got over 6,000 participants now and that's pretty good growth rate of connecting with people in town. Uh on the 17th, uh the county's continuum of care board, the fed the homelessness board um at that meeting, the federal government announced how their housing and homelessness uh practices are throwing uh another challenge at us and another court case at us that that the county is uh leading the fight against on that. But basically, it will result in people being put on the streets. And so it's a big step backwards for all the efforts that the city and the county have made in terms of reducing homelessness. Um and on a happy note on the 18th then I was able to go to ro Rotary's uh gingerbread house meeting represent the city as the judge of ginger. You know a lot of important things come with being mayor. Um and then uh on the 19th, so that's 16, 17, 18, 19. On the 19th, um uh with uh members of council, as noted, uh we were groundbreaking at the Meridian Station. And I just wanted to give a shout out to the city staff who helped bring in so

much grant monies, over $30 million of grant money was brought into that project to help make that work. And part of that was uh because of some of our uh planning staff, Heather Hines and her team, uh our housing staff, Karen Shim Shmuzu and her team, but also uh with our legal team clearing what otherwise would be hurdles in securing funding. Uh we had uh great assistance out of our legal office as well. So the whole team uh is helping make that housing happen. And then um the uh fourth annual holiday lighted bike parade went went off went off without a hitch except a little bit of rain maybe. Uh so a big shout out to our police department for their support and including the chief and assistant chiefs being out there on their bicycles. So um and um I don't know if you're following there's a survey out for u Sonoma County Libraries and Paluma Library what you want from the library and since our library system in Sonoma County is the fifth most used in the state of California. Apparently Sonoma County uh has opinions and has use of their library. I hope you'll check in with that survey. And uh um and with that, I hope you all had a uh a good New Year's. Welcome back. And passing it to our city manager now.

Thank you, mayor, council, and our community. Um I have a new skate park update. Um while the project is now out to bid, uh we are um doing a request for proposal for Lucasy skate park public art um which is now open. We invite anyone in our community to participate. Um you can review details, requirements and apply. Just go to our website and look up skate park art in the search box. And the um submissions are being accepted through January 31st. Also of note, not only did we have Luma Ice going on at the fairgrounds, but from January 2nd through the 4th, uh the the fairgrounds hosted um 33 uh youth ages 8 to 18 part they participated in cattle camp. It was a hands-on learning experience focused on livestock care, showmanship, and agricultural stewardship. They used the large cattle show ring and barn 2 and campers, yes, they camped, uh, learned directly from experienced clinical adviserss and the excitement traveled far and wide. Uh, while most participants were local, a third came from as far as Yuba County, Apollo Pines, and San Jose. Um, many of the participants we expect to see back at the Paluma Fair in June. So, super exciting. And that concludes my comments. Thank you.

Thank you very much. And [clears throat] that brings us to our consent calendar for the evening. And I see that there are 12 items on the consent calendar for the evening. And uh I'll note that item number 10 uh was removed from this agenda uh to be considered at the January 26th. And item 10 is uh award of contract and the completion of and the release of retentions for the McDall at South Point emergency water main repairs. Um so we'll see that at the end of the month and um and then I'll also note uh that I get to invite uh Council Member Kater Thompson in at this point.

I'll be recusing myself on agenda item number eight. And item number eight is rainer the water um service replacement and um other work done and I'm within 500 ft. Recusal is one of those standards we all have to be conscious of of when we are um living too close to um do I need to leave the room?

And you do not as it's on the on the consent calendar. Um and we'll just take them as separate items. So, at this point, does anyone um wish to speak on any of the items before I go to public comment on the consent calendar? Council member Carly, I have a question about item number seven. Um exhibit A is not actually listed on there, which is the safety plan. It's not in there with it. [clears throat] So, I'm not sure if we should be voting on that tonight because we don't have the actual document we're voting on. Do I have Gina or Paul available? There's Gina. [snorts] I am looking right now to see what was included and what was not. Uh Dan Cohen should, if he's not in the chamber, should be on uh as a Zoom panelist. Dan, are you on? This is for uh item number seven.

Oh, sorry. Pedaluma transit. It's the um safety plan. Oh, I apologize. I thought we were talking about a different item. I thought we were on six. Um yeah, I do not see it. And I um I agree if it's not posted uh we may need to bring that back. The resolution is it's listed there, but the resolution is what's actually linked. I'm seeing a staff report, an attachment, and also an exhibit, which is the report. The exhibit is missing.

Yeah, if you open it, exhibit A is is not there. Oh, I see. Oh, it looks like exhibit A is a repeat of the resolution. Yeah, it is. [clears throat] So um the question is is this a timely uh item um timesensitive or is it possible to uh table this item?

I would I would recommend that we um that we table it and bring it back with with the appropriate attachment. So, um, that sounds like a great, um, modification. Any motion that happens to get made here as we go into the rest of this conversation? Other question? Yes.

Yes. So, on item number 11, um, with with the stream gauges, does SA staff suspect any contamination in the locations where they're going to be adding gauges? Because I know that's one of the things that the gauges will be measuring. Uh Oriana's here and she'll take that. Short answer is no. Um no, we're not anticipating any contamination. Uh it's mostly to do biological monitoring. The parameters that we're looking at are for stream health for the fish biology. And then for our particular interest, we're looking at discharge velocity measurements to help our flood flooding preparedness.

Okay. And then um I am I am curious how that sort of data will help modeling for flooding and and what sort of benefit that will be to to residents because we can kind of

you can kind of see when a flood is coming you know and I understand you can model everything and study everything to death but for a quarter million dollars I just wonder the you know if that's worthwhile. Um, so we do have the models that we've done that are part of the flood resiliency framework that looked at the sea level rise in downtown Paluma and a lot of the inputs from that used historical data. So this would give us more accurate upstream data. Um, and just to point out that it is 100% grant funded. So this doesn't come from any city funds, right? No, I understand it's grant funded, but I I always still look at it as tax dollars.

Understood. Okay. Um, and one more question I have about it, you know, do we because this data is going to be going to the state, you know, and I don't know if we know what the state's going to do with it. Are there any potential negative impacts where the state could be coming down on the city and imposing control in some way or or could the city even be doing that on the community? uh it is open source data. So part of the requirement of the grant is that we have a radio transmission that um allows the water quality and the stage which is the level of the river um can be picked up by no or anybody else who wants to use the data. Uh but it's a DWR project. I don't anticipate especially the locations that we're looking at that there would be any regulatory implications or use from any of the state agencies that we would see.

Thank you. Council member Shribs.

Um just uh two two comments. Um one on item number um five just so that everyone notes that um we're looking at a time change for city council members meetings to start at 6:00 rather than 6:30 to accommodate the folks so that we actually have an earlier start time. So uh maybe we can have an earlier end times also with that. So just as a note so people recognize that for the next meeting uh if this goes through we'll be meeting at 6 not 6:30. Um the other one is number item number 11. Uh just a another comment the um the gauges which I I asked about and they're they're high quality gauges. They'll be reporting things for flooding and things. However um the one thing of concern is E.oli from uh the ranches um because that is the one thing that has been noted for our pollution within our river. However, that's not an automatic thing. It's more of a consistent going out there and actually collecting and actually having to look at it because ecoli you have to actually look at physically rather than it's not an automatic thing you can do with a little um little device in in the river on a constant surveillance. So, I just wanted to add note to that that is why we're not doing that probably and uh you may want to talk about that a little bit more about what we are doing for looking at the ecoli that that's being complained about by the state.

Yeah, that's correct. You can't do ecoli in real time. It has to be sampled in a lab. Um, and our storm water program does do sampling um around the wershed in response to the TMDLs for bacteria. Chel could probably speak to more of where that is, but we are looking at that as well. Okay. Thank you. I just want to make a note of that that that we are doing that. Thank you. Yeah. Coun um council member K Thompson. For clarification on number seven, what's actually missing in the staff report? because there is an exhibit there that the res and there's but it's a resolution. So there's there's a safety plan that's missing. The safety plan is missing. Okay. Okay. Thanks.

Okay. Council member D Carly. Um, I'm trying to pull up your question from that got emailed to us earlier, John, but I that was a concern of mine is is any of this data going to be monitoring, you know, ranches or agriculture.

Um, in in relation to coli, no, this program is only looking at u real time water quality parameters in like physical parameters in the creeks. So not a coli and not anything that we are under regulatory authority about. So there's nothing they can hold against us in relation to these particular gauges. But we are measuring for E.coli um both upstream and downstream of our city as I understand to kind of kind of target where that's coming from in relation to the places that we are under TMDLs for pathogens. But E.coli say there's no other uh contaminants that you're looking from on ranches.

Not in this program. Okay. Um, thank you. Um, let's let's go to public comment on the consent calendar as a one whole consent calendar.

We did not receive any comments ahead of the meeting, but if anyone and I don't have any cards yet, but if anyone would like to make a comment on the consent calendar, this is the moment. Okay. And uh not seeing anyone uh rushing forward to submit a card, we will close public comment on this item and bring it uh back up to the uh council. And um I'll make a motion

and uh one second. That's going to be critical. Uh so uh let's see here. Uh this is it. We had the the question part, but I did want to delve into the comment part just a little to make this little statement before we go. And um I did h want to suggest that of the many things we're doing tonight, we are changing our vice mayor. mayor. And so I want to congratulate in advance uh hopefully our uh council member Carly as new vice mayor and also to say farewell to our existing vice mayor as they switch uh template tape uh placards in front of themselves. Um but I have relied on Karen extensively this year uh at many many formal and fun activities uh in the past year and she's always been there for me and for the city. So, thank you. And um I note also that the the Sonoma County Mayors and Council Members Association has an appointment to make on the county child care planning council, which I think we're going to agenda dive into our next meeting. Um and I'm just happy to note that council member now has put in for that position. And um also uh that as we approve our assignments liaison changes right now um uh Karen has volunteered to take the assignment for the continuum of care the homelessness coalition board. She's been my alternate. She was Dennis Posake's alternate u prior to that. Um and she understands just how um how much responsibility and effort goes into I mean a lot of effort goes into that position. And so again a big thanks to Karen. And um and then also I did want to note the 6:00 uh change. I'm very glad to support the change to the 6 p.m. meetings to improve and ensure public participation opportunity. So uh with that I'm looking for a motion and um and I think the first motion would be for the bulk of things and it would also include tableabling the item seven. Yes. So is

okay. So I have So it's for one, two, three, four, five, six, nine, 11, and 12 is the motion. Correct. That sounds right to me. Okay, we've got we've got a yes now. We need a second. A second and a. So we have a motion by Ker Thompson and a second by Quint. And a roll call vote, please. Barnacle, I. Gator Thompson, yes. D Carly, yes. Now, yes. Quint, yes. Shribs, yes. McDonald, yes. Motion carries unanimously. Thank you very much. And now, uh, on the item that Council Member Kater Thompson is recusing, we would like a motion for that.

And I'll make that motion, Mr. Mayor. Thank you very much. I'll second that motion. So, we have a motion on item eight by the vice mayor, seconded by Shri. And may we have a roll call vote on that? Barnacle. I keer Thompson is recused. D Carly, yes. Now, yes. Quint, yes. Shribs, yes. McDonald, yes. Motion carries unanimously with one recusal. So, that brings us to our public hearings and matters for consideration this evening. And we have a first reading of ordinance authorizing. Oh, let's take a moment and

[applause]

This item 13 is an ordinance authorizing the acquisition of permanent public reclaim water line easements associated with the Adobe road recycled water pipeline. And um to help us out with this, we have Lucas Pereira, assistant engineer, and Jonathan Sangot, our engineering CIP manager. And who's going to come up to help us out here? Welcome, Lucas. Hello. Good evening, mayor, council members. I'm Lucas Pereira, an assistant engineer in the public works department. So wanted to introduce you guys to the item that we have on the agenda. The easement acquisition for uh two easements that we have for uh acquisition basically for rights for us to access our recycled water pipeline that was recently constructed as part of the Adobe Road recycled water pipeline project. You guys saw that item a few months back. Uh so the ement is located in Sonoma County outside of city limits. It's basically on Adobe Road heading towards Sonoma. Uh, one is inside the Bronzini Farms property. Most of you probably know the property. They have the pumpkin patch, Christmas tree farms. And the other property is the Klein Vineyards just adjacent to Bronzini Farms. These are no cost easements that we coordinated with the property owners way before construction. we got into an agreement with them to acquire rights for the portions of the property so that we could install the pipeline. Uh and the reason why we waited until construction was completed to actually execute the easements, acquire and record them is due to the risk that we had that during construction unforeseeable conditions were going to come up that were going to force us to move the pipeline either outside of the easement boundaries that we had and therefore had we recorded the easements beforehand and we made changes we were going to have to avoid those easements and then do new ones. So we basically

did an agreement beforehand. property owner signed the easements. We're now just waiting for that execution piece which if you guys approve, we would then have our city manager sign the documents and then we can record those easements so we have those rights for the future. Uh so let's see location. I think I covered the the reason again for the rights so we can have access our pipeline for future repairs as needed. And that's basically it. any questions that you guys may have?

Yeah, thank you very much. Any uh questions or uh and we're going to roll questions and comments kind of into this and and uh so we don't get confused anymore. Did I'm sorry. Did you Vice Mayor, do you do you have a question? No, I did not. Okay. I thought thought I hand up. Council member Shripps.

Um yeah, just for for clarity as to the pipeline itself in the description, it's recycled water. it when we watched it go in uh go by there at least once a week if not twice or three times. Um it was a pretty large pipe and so is um it's going to accommodate basically two large vineyard areas. Um is that a full capacity or is there an additional capacity that could be gained as um that area may be growing um and could the pipeline be extended out? So just like so just not for the eman itself but uh what's the what does the future look like for this pipeline? Um just so we answer that right now.

Yeah, I was going to say that currently the pipeline extends beyond the easements. They it basically still terminates in front of the Bronzini property farms. The easement is just on the side that's closer to Paluma, closer to the threeway intersection between Freighus and Adobe. So we did extend it. uh it's about 5,000 feet but does extend along Adobe road and we just terminate with the intent to in the future extend to an existing recycled water also pipeline that we have on Tanzi lane so we basically create a loop in our system so there is an intent for we're just currently working on the planning phases for that second phase if you will uh I don't have timing per se but we do have plans to extend it and basically create a loop in our system and that that would open the opport opportunity I think for future demand and access to recycled water for vineyards that are there now or vineyards that may come in the future.

Good. Thank you. So, I know there's there is a larger master plan in play here that we're working on. Thank you.

Right. Thank you very much. Um and I appreciate uh staff um always answering all the questions the council puts in and being able to post them to the website at a time for the public to see all um all the kind of questions that do come up. And one of the questions that came up uh that I put in there was when is the recycled water master plan coming? because for several years now I've been asking because um as you know there's an opportunity for demand increase but there's also um you mentioned capacity capacity being different than demand and um my concern was you know where is the water tank where is the looping how does the pressure stay up during high times of service and do we have the raw water supply for it during those periods and I the answer I think we posted online is we'll have a March reading is that is that right the March is when Finally.

Yes. Good evening. Don't take the teasing too badly, but finally see what what we can achieve. So, it's it's coming um March 2nd is will be the integrated water master plan and the recycled water master plan. It's a um a lot of plan all in one evening to include water and recycle water. And so, um but I'm but I'm really grateful that it's coming uh to council. Um were there other questions on this items or comment on this item? Then uh let's pivot to um public comment on the item and I'll pass it to our clerk here.

Uh we have not received any comments ahead of the meeting. Um but this is the moment to make comments. I haven't received any cards. Doesn't look like we have any takers. Okay. Well, uh we have opened public comment and not seeing anyone moving forward, we we will [clears throat] now uh close public comment on the item for the evening and um bring it back to council for a motion. I'll make the motion. So, we have a motion by Kater Thompson to second and a second um by council member now. So, may we have a roll call vote, please? Barnacle. Hi. Ker Thompson. Yes, Darly. Yes,

now. Yes, Quint. Yes, Shribs. Yes, McDonald. Yes. Motion carries unanimously. Thank you very much. And uh thank you staff for being here. And that moves us to item 14, which is a public hearing to levy an annual assessment for the fiscal year 26 for the downtown Pedaluma business improvement district and a resolution establishing that levy for the uh downtown Pedaluma business improvement district. And to help us with this, we have Nancy Sans, our senior management analyst.

Thank you. Good evening, Mayor and Council. Happy new year and congratulations, Vice Mayor Darly. Um I'm Nancy Sans, senior management analyst in the community and economic development department. And joining me this evening for questions um and presentation um are Brian O, our director of community and economic development and Marie McCusker, executive director of the Pedaluma Downtown Association, which manages the Paluma Downtown Business Improvement District and our uh wonderful city clerk um Caitlyn is going to be helping me with the um with the presentation tonight. Um next slide, please. Uh this evening, for the benefit of council and members of the public, I will be giving a brief presentation um that will review the action needed from council tonight, describe the role of business improvement districts in California, and provide information about Paluma's downtown business improvement district, as well as um then open up uh the the floor for questions and comments from council. Next slide, please. Tonight, uh, we are asking council to hold a public hearing and adopt a resolution to establish a levy for the 2026, um, annual assessment for the downtown, um, Pedaluma business improvement district. This is actually the second step in a process to collect assessments. Um, the first step happened at the council meeting on December 15, 2025. Um and that included uh that that was the council reviewed the proposed budget and approved it and set the public hearing for tonight. If the council approves or adopts the resolution tonight, um this will allow the business improvement district to move forward with its assessment collection and

activities for the year. Next slide, please. And we're going to go to the next one after that. So what is a um business improvement district? Uh in California um the business improvement district is a tool. It's a specific geographic area where um extra fees or assess or assessments are collected to fund supplemental services and improvements beyond what a mun a municipality would provide. Business improvement districts are regulated by the California Streets and Highways Code and they they operate as a public private partnership again between a municipality like ourselves, a city um and uh and and the improvement district that is overseen by uh an independent board of directors that manages the budget, makes decisions about activities and programs and then coordinates um the programs and activities. Next slide. In California, there are different types of business improvement districts based on the type of entity being assessed. And that includes um businesses, a business improvement district that assesses businesses, one that assesses property owners, and one that is related to tourism. Next slide, please. And um our Pedaluma downtown business improvement district is a business-based bid that was established in 2000. Um it it's managed and overseen by the Pedaluma Downtown Association. And all businesses within the bid boundaries are required to pay, but the assessment amounts depend on the type of business and the location within the

bid. And um right now the number of businesses in that improvement district is is about a little over 550. Next slide. So where does this fee or this assessment go? Um as you as the council saw last month, um the um business improvement district has a budget. It's budgeted about $64,000 for 2026. It's um those monies are allocated in different amounts to administration about 20%. Which covers the cost of collecting the assessments including mailing, processing, bookkeeping, so forth as well as some staff time that are used for bid meetings and bid activities. Um 20 about 27% is is spent on security. So, the security services are it's a drive-thru service seven nights a week. Um, the the downtown association and the business operating for the business improvement district receives daily reports regarding graffiti. Uh, they then alert our rebuilding um together Paluma or the city. Um the reports also include information about property damage and or other property related information uh issues. About 23% of the funds collected are spent on marketing promot and promotional activities including events such as shop small Saturday, Santa's riverboat arrival, the Halloween trickor treat openhouse and shopping strolls. And um the bid funds are leveraged with other funding sources for example the PDA budget or visit pedaluma to get more value from radio

ads digital marketing and social media that promote these activities and uh about the last 30% is spent on on beautifification efforts and that includes the biggest expense in that category is the installation, removal, and storage of banners and holiday decorations. Funds in this uh category are also used for the um business improvement district's annual cleanup day, which in 2025 brought out the gardening club, rebuilding together Paluma, um the PDA, and numerous community volunteers, including members of the city council. Um, and that cleanup day involved replanting planters, cleaning graffiti, and just a general downtown cleanup. Next slide, please. So, our next two slides are just some photos showing um, you know, some great photos and and some of the marketing materials that go out. Next slide. Again, some banners. Um this year uh some of the holiday decorations uh that the city purchased last year, the uh for um Water Street, the um lights and garland and the um other holiday decorations that were on North Water Street, the business improvement district took on the cost of installation and storage um for those decorations. Next slide. Another very important part of the business improvement district is the meetings and business support that is provided among the uh businesses that

are in that district. There are monthly meetings um every third Tuesday as well as each quarter there's an e evening social event. Um last year, you know, those meetings included planning for activities such as Arts Alive and the seasonal events. Some of the business support that was offered during those meetings included the small business development center came out and provided a presentation as well as uh the business owners themselves providing marketing support and advice to each other. And then the city also attends those meetings. Last year we did presentations and and were available for questions to discuss the parking study, community policing and uh parkletits. Next slide, please. And now I just want to just remind uh while why while we're here is for the public hearing and the council to vote on whether to uh go ahead and approve the bid the bid assessment process. Um and I want to open it up to for questions.

Well, thank you very much. I think we're going to u bring it up to council for both comments and questions. Um and and uh keep us on track here. any questions or comments on this? Um, certainly economic development is on everybody's mind this year. Uh, it's focus of the city and of this council. So, we appreciate the presentation and we appreciate the uh downtown business efforts and council member Kater Thompson. I'm just curious if we ever do surveys to find out how businesses are they happy or is everything going the way that they want it to go. So, do we ever do a survey with the business improvement district?

Uh, uh, I have not been involved in a survey um to the business improvement district specifically. Um, I'm just going to ask Marie McCusker. I know Marie's team does a lot of different surveys um to council to the manager. Um yes we do actually send out occasional surveys to the business community asking for their input on you know what kind of events that they want. Uh we do do um surveys after major events often we did lots of surveys regarding you know overlay all those types of things. So yes, we do we do um after Christmas and also this year we actually asked them how the passport program went. Last year came up with a new one which was a henh hunt which was very successful. So it's important to us to know what works and what doesn't work.

That would be great if we could even see the sur I'd like to see the surveys. Oh yeah, sure. I can send you some copies of this. Okay. Uh council member Shreds.

Um mostly just just comments. Um, given it's only a $64,000 budget and how much actually happens, I suspect there's lots of volunteer hours put into this effort to make this happen with the downtown. Um, so I'm looking at a a costbenefit ratio that's probably really really high uh for this. Um, so, uh, given the the the value of this and there's a couple other programs to support the economy downtown, I think, uh, I think we already said that there's budget this year and I think we're covered for this year. But I would suggest maybe next year when we look at this again that we look at the total package of all the revitalization we can do downtown and maybe uh, come up with a more holistic approach because this is just one part of several parts. And so presenting them all together and then maybe upping um the value and the uh um and the the cost and even the benefits uh that we can obtain from this. So I'd like to look at that maybe next year look at what could we do more what are we not doing that we could do more of this next year. I think that if we put that in the surveys and let's get some feedback on this next go around this next year to see what we can do in the future. Um, but I think it's great that you're doing what you're doing and um I think for for the amount of money I think we're getting big bang for the buck. Thank you.

Thank you. And and um comment. No comment. Question. Okay, there we go. C Vice Mayor D Carly. So I've got um well, I've got a few different questions. Um, for the security aspect of it, how much patrolling are they actually doing? Because I I broke down what the security company is paid per month and it's like seven bucks an hour, you know, to monitor through the night.

Basically, we actually um we share obviously with security the amount of money which is around $17,000 a year. It's a number of drive-throughs on a nightly basis. So they go anywhere between 4 uh 10:00 at night till 4:00 a.m. Um so they drive through on 15inut um intervals. So they have to get out and press buttons in certain areas so that we know that they've actually been there. And then they take pictures of certain areas so that they can show us evidence that they've been driving around. And then they, you know, take pictures of graffiti or if there's a homeless um an encamp person maybe somewhere they want us to be aware of. Not that we do anything about that. We might send it over to um you know the safe team or something like that. But in general it's um it's a minimal contract. It's gone. We had to reduce it because the cost of security was outweighing the actual income that was coming into security element of the assessment.

Mhm. And it is seven nights a week. And if they do encounter any sort of vandalism, do they what are they instructed to do? Well, it depends if it's actively going on. It's rarely actually happening when they are watching, right? If they see it something as it's happening. Yeah. So, they'll call the police. I mean, when they find something's going on, if they're actively seeing it, they call the PD. Um otherwise, they take pictures of it and send us the information. If it is a broken window and it's un um there's no one there, they call the PD and the PD come out and deal with it.

So, it's about defense of property most of the time. Okay. Because I I am curious about how they report. Could council be sent like an example report from them, you know, to see what exactly there. I know Nancy, you spoke about it in your presentation, but um it I would like to see it because it Well, I'll I'll talk more in comments, but um

uh let's see on on page six of the report from the downtown association, what um the Sierra display, what exactly is that? Because that's about a sixth of the budget. So, Sierra Display is the uh company that puts up the banners and takes them down and stores the decorations for the year. So, we have an annualized banner um system which um the Christmas takes most of that. So, they store um about 80 banners. We also cover the theater district and they take them down and put them up and often we have to do repairs because the brackets get broken by some of the the the trucks. Um many moons ago you might have remembered that we had taller lamposts and we had electricity and then we had very large old-fashioned litup decorations. Well, when we changed the lamposts there was no way of putting up electricity and we had to put banners. So we had to install brackets. So at Christmas we um and as we get more money we put more up. We try and expand the uh district. It's impossible to do all of it. We just would we we would have no money in the B at all. We just do decorations. And this year we were able to incorporate the additional ones on Water Street near Brewers and lower water streets. Um, so yeah, most of the money just go to the holiday decorations and then we put up the um summer ones or and we have them for we used to change them out three times but we do it twice now.

Okay. Because the cost the the thing with the B is got no inflation in it so it just gets smaller. So the cost go up so we have to reduce the three banners a year to two. Mhm. Okay. And we're paying for Spanish storage too. You are okay. Yeah. Well, we are the B is Yeah. Mhm. Okay. Um they are used to most of these companies do store banners for many cities. Um we don't have access to storage for that amount of banners. Okay. Yeah. We have we ever explored like different city buildings banners could be stored at just to try to put money in a another bucket for the businesses downtown or um

I mean I don't know how much it costs or not. I don't know. We've never pulled out the storage element of it. there's a cost, you know, per banner up, per banner down, and the storage is usually including that cost, but I could ask the question, but it would have to find a storage unit for them. And then, you know, them having access to it directly to be able to keep it nice and um you know, you got to keep them dry and and have access for a storage company in a um an event company like this to come in and pick them up easily, get them out. Sure. Sure. Yeah. And then um so in in combing through things and looking at the admin costs, I know it kind of says it everywhere that it's only 20% of the budget, but if you

let's see and pull it up. If you actually start to look at it, you know, there's, you know, bid share that there's that all those lines at the bottom about bid share of admin costs and that correlates to marketing, security, and beautifification. I mean those those to me still seem like admin costs and if you tally them up that's it's about half the budget um goes on admin for other things. What you mean? So if you look at uh professional fees, credit card discounts. Oh those types of things. Yeah. Yes. And and if you total that up with the $23,000 or so for for admin, um that that's about half of the budget.

Well, um basically when you look at other cities like Pleasanton and even San Rafale, their cities actually match their Bs. We're one of the only BIDs around that don't actually hire hire a person to manage the B. As the downtown association, we've always many years when we added higher costs, we turned our admin down to like 10%. And we incurred the costs ourself, which the PDA does incur most of those costs through their staff. So when we look at admin, that's only a very small amount for when we actually work the holiday open house and we've got the trick-or- treat trail, all the coordination for that, all of the major, they're not the major events, but the merchant events downtown. uh we have staffing that work that it's not volunteer-led. Uh most of the merchants don't actually do that work. It's it's a staff member that's paid to do it and then all the marketing that goes along with it. So um the administration cost does not cover anywhere near what it actually costs the PDA to actually deliver the B P uh B, but we believe it's a really important thing to to do and always have done. So I, you know, PDA actually funds quite a lot of the B to actually execute it. Um, so and also Pleasanton um matches their B by 80,000. Yeah. As a city.

We're going to take a little break here and invite the city. I was just going to add, you're correct, Marie, and um the city does pay for the rent for the visitor center. So we do house PDA, so they don't have rent costs.

Right. And and I'm going to suggest we're um maybe not getting to the the right answer here. I mean, I think uh the city's role is to support from the outside and uh the role we have tonight is the assessment of the businesses for the business's discretion of how they spend the money. And so the boss is those businesses paying the dues over the B. And what we are is we're facilitating the assessment. And so I' I'd like to keep us folks in, you know, staying in our lane a little bit and where we have suggestions for how they can be better, we take it off the council das and directly to them with those concerns.

Yeah. Well, I mean, we're voting on approving it, right? You know, so we want to make sure that right on the recommended by the businesses self assessment. It's a self assessment. Yeah. But we're the vehicle for it. No, I understand we're the vehicle for it, but I I guess too um it you know, um Councilwoman Janice mentioned it that uh we don't really have anything to go off of as far as I guess the business's input in this. So,

well, they have a they have the right they can know about a public hearing. They have a right to write in. They have a right to make comments. they have a right to come tonight to actually say how they feel about the B. Um when we look at the monthly meetings that we have, we actually move the meeting every month to a different business. So they host it. So it's their meetings. We bring what they want to those meetings. Um we bring the PD in. We bring people to actually help them with their marketing. We give them examples ourself. Um we're doing we do we are very active B. So what I think I'd like to do is since we are focused on economic development this year and as council member Shribs suggested he'd like next year I hope it's not next year. Economic development should be something that happens independent of this assessment stage because assessment stage is a very finite thing. If the question is

is the maximum collection here because of business's ability to contribute or is it because they're not invited to come up with a better program? Well, maybe economic development is what we do in between to assess how our businesses are doing in town. So, I think we're going to leave that conversation for the appropriate moment uh sooner than a year and um and try and come to

it's a self assessment tool to actually meet some of the the the fun the things that aren't funded by a city. So, decorations, those types of things are not funded by the city. some of the beautifification like painting the utility boxes, um doing some podiums, things like that. Um and it it's not a lot of money. It's $60,000 has to go a long way. So, um you know, I've been doing this 20 years and when I first started it, it was a low collection, but even when we get the the maximum, you know, we we stretch that thing as far as we can. We appreciate all the good work. Thank you very much. Thank you. Um bringing it back here. Um, Council Member Shiz,

we go to public comment now or go to vote public comment at the time. Okay. Yeah, we've done council comment. We've done council questions. We're moving to public um comment now, please. Uh, we did not receive any comments ahead of the meeting. Uh, but I do have one card. There's anyone else who would like to deliver a card. And um, so we have one speaker tonight. Is it Darren Recusen? It is. It is. I don't know how I guess that. Uh, come on down.

Thank you. And actually, given Kevin's response to uh, Council Member Darly, I don't want to take you guys off your purview, but I I kind of noticed the same thing on page six of this report, and I guess it would just be feedback from someone who works with some of the businesses who do pay into the downtown business fee. you know, when I see some of the admin costs creeping up into the 46% territory, just want to make sure that when we're getting this collective pool of money for the benefit of everyone, we're not seeing it all kind of go away to administer it, right? To do the billing and send the bills and collect the payments, we don't want to lose most of the the chunk of money there in administering the program. So, uh whether or not that concern is in your guys' purview, I guess, is is a uh something that Kevin has addressed. I think the other piece of this is really and it sounds like we've gotten some notion of businesses involvement. You know, this is a public hearing. They can come here. Maybe there's I I guess two areas of feedback. A way to communicate better the benefit of the business improvement district. I think some businesses see it as a fee that they just have to pay. They're not almost like a city related tax or something. They don't quite understand what it's for and and what they're getting from it. So, a way to communicate better what the business improvement district is doing. Maybe that comes with more communication, getting them more involved in this type of process, which is always a big ask. And then, you know, I think kind of in line with that, figuring out where can we see resultsdriven analysis, economic development super important. This kind of pooling of business money to make a better downtown environment for everyone is a big issue. What are the ways where we can track what what this is resulting in, right? I mean, we know what decorations do and we know kind of the ambiance and some of the the kind of activity that's occurring, but is there a way to figure out results-wise? Is there any correlation to foot traffic, any correlation to the amount of businesses staying open? Any anything we can tie this to? Again, to help businesses feel like they're involved in

this process, they know what they're getting out of it. It is a small pot of money, but that kind of cuts both ways, right? It's like well it how can we maximize what we're getting out of this to make sure the exercise is really worthwhile and businesses are getting the most out of it. So uh thank you.

Thank you. And that uh closes uh public comment on the item and uh I think the speaker makes a really important point is that everyone needs to be engaged in their community. the business needs to be engaged and understand um how the process works and to engage with their administrator of the business uh improvement district. And so, thank you for that encouragement to uh all business and the communication uh from the city staff where where city can be that facilitator of communication. So, at this point, we're looking for a motion, please. Okay, I'll move the item.

We have a motion by Shribs and a second by council member now. And I'd like to take this time to thank Marie because I know that she works a lot harder than she gets paid for. So, thank you. And our customers that come downtown are very happy. And the businesses all are so unique. And to bring those together in the common B is very hard to do. and they all have different ideas on how they want their business advertised or their customers brought in. So, I really have to, you know, take give the credit to Marie. She really is and your board, which is made up of downtown merchants.

That's an excellent point. I really appreciate you bringing that up. And we have a a motion by Shribs and a second by now. May we have a roll call vote, please? Barnacle, I. Kater Thompson, yes. D Carly, yes. Now, yes. Quint, yes. Trips, yes. McDonald, yes. Motion carries unanimously.

Thank you very much. Thank you very much, Miss Sans, for being with us tonight. Miss McCusker for being with us tonight. And that moves us to our very last item of the evening. I know it doesn't show on the paper agenda, but we've added it for the evening. And before we move to that and I ask the attorney to introduce that, I do want to remind everybody that um our next meeting will start at the public section will start at 6:00. So set your alarm clocks appropriately. And um with that, u Mr. Attorney, will you introduce the next item?

Uh thank you, Mr. Mayor. So I'll just read the agenda description like we typically do, just at the end of the meeting rather than at the beginning. Um, and then if you'll be so kind as to see if there are public comments before we adjourn to close session, I'd appreciate it. So, this is an item concerning conference with legal counsel existing litigation under government code section 54956.9 subdivision D paragraph 1. The name of the case is United States of America versus City of Morgan Hill, City of Paluma. Case 5 col26-CV-00000056-BLF and it's in the US District Court for the Northern District of California. Thank you.

Thank you very much. And uh I'd like to ask the clerk to open public comment in this item and obviously there are no pre-existing public comments. So is there anybody in the room? Correct. I have not received any uh comments ahead of time and I don't have any cards yet, but this is the moment and we have open public comment and see no one stepping forward to uh fill a card out. We'll close public comment and council will adjourn to close session and we will return uh when we finish the discussion and make our report out if any at that time. We are now adjourned to close session. Thank you.

I think we should be back. Mayor,

we are back in session. So, the council has returned from close session and formally reconvenes its meeting. And um the close session uh was held and I'd like to ask our attorney if there is any report from our close session. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I am just in real time right now just confirming. I don't think um we have any reportable action, but I just want to confirm. Give me just a moment. Thank you. Come on. There we go. Okay. Sorry. Almost there. Okay. Um No, there's no action to report tonight. Sorry for the delay and thank you for

your patience. Okay, and with that uh we are moving past that close item session, moving towards adjournment and uh I'd just like to wish everybody a happy new year, happy and productive coming year and also uh welcome our new vice mayor Darly. So, thank you very much. This meeting is ajourned.