City Council - Regular Meeting

President Kater Thompson here. D Carly is absent. Now here. Quint here. Shribs here. McDonald here. And we do have a quorum. Wonderful. Let's stand for the pledge of allegiance.

United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. And now a moment of silence, please. Thank you. Um, at this point we move to a um an item called agenda changes and deletions where I look up and down the dis and ask if anyone of the council members wishes to make a motion to change anything we have on our agenda. not seeing anyone indicating. So we are uh accepting this agenda as is and moving on to the next item which is um our public hearings and matters for consideration tonight. And um our first item is finalization of the uh FY26 28 work plan and direction to staff. And so uh for that I'd like to turn it over to our city manager to lead us through.

Thank you mayor, council, community, my staff. Uh this two-year work plan reflects the city council's commitment to balancing long-term infrastructure investment with responsive community services and organizational sustainability. The plan prioriti prioritizes major capital projects that improve public safety, transportation, utilities, recreation, downtown amenities, including the public safety building, station one retrofit, water infrastructure improvements, pavement restoration, Lucasy skate park completion, and planning for a downtown restroom, and a trestle project. In addition to the infrastructure, the work plan advances key planning and policy initiatives such as the fairgrounds master plan, the northstation specific plan, zoning code reform, downtown parking management, climate action implementation and development of a new AI and e-mobility policies. These initiatives are intended to support a thriving economy, environmental stewardship, and a safe, connected community while preparing Paluma for future growth and resilience. The work plan also recognizes the importance of fiscal responsibility, service stabilization, and operational effectiveness in delivering highquality public services. Council priorities include economic development planning and implementation, bond issuance for crit for critical infrastructure, labor negotiations, sustainable funding strategies for programs such as safe and our homeless services, and evaluation of long-term service agreements, including our animal services and waste management. Our work plan emphasizes that the scope of work is extensive and highly collaborative across all city departments, requiring ongoing flexibility to respond to emergencies, legislative mandates, and changing community needs. Staff will continue aligning our resources and budget planning with council direction to ensure the city can effectively implement these priorities while maintaining transparency and accountability to the community. Tonight we're looking to finalize this work plan

for the upcoming fiscal year and the team and I are available to answer any questions. Well, thank you very much. U I know that um workshop we had on goals was quite uh quite a bit and I appreciate you assimilating it into one report here for us here tonight. Um any questions on that from the council before we go to public um comment? And then I think I'd like to ask the clerk to open public comment on this uh item, the finalization of work plans and directions of staff. And did we receive any um emails in ahead? We didn't uh we received comments on the budget item. There was sort of a crossover, but

it's funny how the two are really so tied together. Yes. But none on this item specifically, and I have not received any cards on this item specifically. Um but if anyone would like to speak on this item, this is the moment.

And not seeing anyone rise. Going once, going twice. Um the public comment is closed on the goal session and um like to bring it back up to council for their thoughts on the matter. Um and um I do want to thank staff for continued focus on um a number of things that that council's talked about especially um climate. Uh you know I think uh the news cycle's kind of gone past us there but we need to keep that focus on that even though it might not be the the thing the hottest thing at the moment it'll be hotter every day. Um and then um the the comments you made about finance are uh and the economy um so important and lead right into um our next item. And with no other comment, we are um looking for direction on that and I think we are in agreement that the staff report stands.

Do you need a motion? And um are we on a resolution on this? Yeah, it's just direction. and um appreciating the work that went in. I could make the motion to I think okay, we don't need to. Um we have no resolution in front of us. We we are just direction just direction to um to say whether we think we're on the right track

and that was a thumbs up. That that's that's kind of a motion, isn't it? Um just noting the there's a couple questions in there that do list some things that some milestones that'll come up. So um and with that I'm definitely supportive. Thank you. Okay, that concludes that item which moves us to our main event for the evening. The reason we're all here, the um workshop on the proposed fiscal year 2627 operating and capital budgets and the revised long-term general fund operating forecast and um um as I mentioned, we'll break this into two parts so that we have two chances to engage on each of the two halves. the operating budget uh which is so so crucial and does so much of our general fund funding and then the capital improvement budget. Um and again, city manager, will you lead us in?

To me, yep. Pedaluma's proposed fiscal year 2627 budget reflects a continued commitment to delivering highquality public services while navigating a more constrained and uncertain economic environment. The budget balances meaningful investments in infrastructure, public safety, housing, parks, economic development with the realities of rising costs, slower revenue growth, and long-term financial pressures facing cities across California. Through careful planning and proactive management, the city's worked to close a modest structural gap by identifying operational efficiencies, reducing vacant positions, and prioritizing core services. At the same time, the budget advances major community priorities through a robust capital improvement program and strategic investments that strengthen service delivery, modernize facilities, and support long-term resilience. This budget workshop provides an opportunity to review the city's financial outlook, discuss key investments and trade-offs, and continue the city council's commitment to transparent and responsible fiscal stewardship. This budget reflects both the progress pedaluma has made in recent years and the ongoing work required to ensure long-term sustainability supported in part by measure U revenues and strengthened through partnerships, grant funding and economic development efforts. The budget is designed to maintain essential services while positioning the community for future success. And above all, it reflects the shared values of responsibility, resilience, and community that continue to guide Pedalum Pedaluma's work on behalf of residents, businesses, and neighborhoods. I'd like to extend a special thanks to assistant finance director Corey Garberolio and financial analyst Isabelle Craft for guiding this process and diligently monitoring our financial trends and forecasts every day. I also want to thank our entire executive team and their teams for their partnership in delivering a balanced budget that continues to produce strong

results for our community. And with that, mayor, I'm going to turn it over to uh Corey for a presentation. Thank you.

Thank you. Um we're happy to be here this evening. It's been a challenging year. Um but we're happy to bring forward a balanced um fiscal year 27 budget. Uh on the agenda um tonight um we'll run through the budget process, the timelines and the guidelines that we provide. Um we'll discuss the economy and how it's impacting the city. We'll go over uh citywide budget strategies and the challenges that exist um as well as the assumptions heading into the new fiscal year. Um that will be followed by a citywide and all funds overview. We'll discuss the general fund and the long-term forecast and associated risks and opportunities. And then we'll go on to the operating departments. Um and then lastly we'll transition to um CIP. So the annual um budget process begins in late October. It's about a 9-month um process which follows a very tight timeline um with delivery of the budget document to the city council annually by the first Monday in May. The process includes developing um a CIP plan and updating of forecast which helps provide budget guidelines for creating department budgets. um we um establish the goals and priorities um which are identified and incorporated into the budget document. The forecasts are update updated and identify any changes um that are needed to ensure a balanced budget. Um and then council adoption of the budget occurs in June ahead of when um spending occurs um in the new fiscal year which runs from July 1st to June 30th. And the budget process doesn't end there. We're continually monitoring it throughout the year. We bring forward at least three budget um adjustments per year. First quarter, midyear and year end. Um along with midyear is a general fund forecast update. Um we monitor the general fund um and other funds as well very closely as the year progresses um to ensure that we don't have any surprises at year end. Um so we attempt

to be as proactive as we can to address any issues that may arise. So we are a full-ervice city. We have 10 departments with many different divisions and approximately 419 full-time employees. Um we have more than 40 part-time seasonal workers that provide um very variety of services. We have 120 different funds. U many of those funds have different funding sources and a large majority of them um are restricted for certain um certain things and can only be used for um those identified um projects or programs. So on to the economy. Um there is a lot of uncertain in the uncertainty in the economy. Um inflation has eased a bit compared to the prior year. But just over the past few months as a result of the war in Iran um we are seeing increases. It jumped from 2.7 in quarter 1 um up to 3.3% um as of April. So um I'm sorry as of the most recent quarter, quarter two. Um unemployment rates um have remained elevated. Uh depending on what happens um with everything going on in the world, this could result in ongoing higher inflation in the coming months. Um ongoing concerns about interest rates and home prices um and associated affordability continue. So the risk of a potential slowdown or a mild recession remains a concern. Um high prices driven up uh over the past few years by high inflation remain um and that is impacting uh consumer confidence and spending and all of that results in um our expenditure growth that continues to outpace our revenues. Um all of this has directly impacted the city's finances and we aren't alone. It's happening all around us. We remain cautious on our assumptions. Um the management team has come together numerous times um since last fall to

carefully strategize on reductions with the goal of minimizing impact on core services. Uh these reductions include eliminating eliminating vacant positions um limiting impact from negotiations uh service contract uh reductions and contract uh negotiations um as well of as well as a reorganization that creates efficiencies and um has resulted in some savings. Additional cost reductions will be necessary in the coming year. Uh um which we'll talk about later um in the uh future slides in this presentation. Um we've been working to identify and implement um a plan to address what's um needed in into um heading into fiscal year 28. Um because most costs are tied to salaries and benefits, the changes will primarily involve hiring freezes, eliminating vacant positions um or potential layoffs. So um budget strategy discussions um began last fall as I mentioned we took a targeted approach for identifying um cost reductions for fiscal year 27 of approximately 1.6 million. The goal um um throughout that process was to minimize impact on core services. Since the majority of costs are in salaries and benefits um we are freezing seven uh vacant positions that provide um ongoing savings. Four of those positions are in the general fund. Uh this includes um reducing or eliminating non-essential service contracts where feasible. Um a key strategy is leveraging shared services where we can to reduce duplication and improve efficiency. Um as I mentioned, we did do a um a reorganization in um one of the departments that has created um some savings. Um across the organization, we continue to look for and are implementing more efficient business practices to streamline operations. Um where appropriate, we have renegotiated service contracts um or have scaled back

um service levels to align with available resources. Um all of our labor agreements are set to expire June 30, 2026. Uh negotiations are currently underway. The goal is to um finalize agreements as soon as possible. capital investments um we have been have been carefully prioritized uh focusing on ensuring financial capacity with our um strategic goals. Our operating reserves um are just slightly below the 15% target. We'll continue to build and maintain those emergency reserves at the appropriate levels. Um and just a reminder, emergency reserves should not um serve as a mechanism to balance the budget. And then looking ahead, add additional budget reductions will be necessary u to maintain long-term um fiscal sustainability which we'll touch on um in a few slides from now. Okay. So in terms of assumptions for revenues, uh sales tax have stabilized after several years of um decline um where there was or there was virtually no growth. U we are expecting some growth in the new year but um due to the economy we are remaining cautious on our um assumptions. Property transfer tax has significantly um declined um due to less home sales driven by a challenged economy and high home prices. Uh we are monitoring this activity um close very closely um as well as monitoring the activity around the um voter initiative that um will likely be on the ballot um to potentially um eliminate this tax which could which could significantly impact the city. Um toot has shown signs of slowing. We are watching that closely. Um charges for services do appear stable so we're leaving that as is. Um for expenditures we are um maintaining core services. Uh we have eliminated a total of seven positions as I mentioned likely more in the coming year. Um reductions made eliminate um

some service contracts but uh minimal impact or no impact on core services. Uh these are ongoing um savings required to address the structural deficit um and maintain a balanced budget over the long term. We will continue to prioritize strong reserve levels um to safeguard against uh any economic uncertainty and unexpected events. Um we remain committed to our strategic infrastructure investments um realizing that there are some limitations on funding ability with certain types of projects. And then um lastly continue our focus on proactive liability and workers comp um management to control costs and reduce exposure. So this is a look at citywide revenues. We have about 300 400 million in citywide budget which is funded by about 380 million here um in revenues. The difference between those um numbers about 20 million comes from accumulated reserves um in various capital and special revenue funds. There are only two discretionary funding sources when reviewing um this chart. The general fund and measure U. The remaining revenues are restricted um and can only um be used for very specific functions. General fund revenues account for about 22% of the overall city revenues. That's uh made up of taxes, fees, intergovernmental revenue, and other types which we'll discuss in a couple slides. Uh measure U locally controlled sales tax revenues account for about 4.4% of the overall citywide revenue total. Measure H is the new locally controlled um sales tax revenue. That's account accounts for about 1.2% of the overall um grand total and that's dedicated for fire services. Uh utility funds are about 18.6 and that's coming from rates and connection fees for water and wastewater services. Capital projects are about 33% um and that's largely transfers from

utilities and special revenue funds such as impact fees that provide funding for capital projects. Special revenue funds are about 9.4 and that's largely impact fees. gas tax um measure in parks um as well. Enterprise funds represent about 4.7% and that's resulting from um uh airport, transit, building and marina um funds. And then lastly, the internal service funds successor agency make up the remaining um approximately 4%. So this is just another way of looking at revenues. This is revenues u by type versus fund. Taxes are our largest category at about 19%. Um utility fees are about 17%. Um other represents um the other section category represents bond issues for capital projects uh transfers in or moving funds from one fund to another. And then there's other um smaller categories. So citywide expenditures u for fiscal year 27 are 400 million. Capital projects make up the largest category um this next year at about 33%. Uh utility funds make up um another large category um and that's water, wastewater, and storm water and that represents about 18.8%. Uh general fund is about 21% and that's general government services um that include public safety, parks, recreation, public works. Um, measure U is about 4.7% and supports um, supports the general government services that are provided by the general fund um, including workforce stabilization um, and infrastructure investment. Measure H is about 1.6% and supports fire services um, and funding for the new public safety facility, staffing and equipment. Um, special revenue is about 10% which largely represents grant activity and impact fees um, funding capital

projects. enterprise uh funds make up uh the other 4% that's again airport u marina transit and um development services and then lastly internal service and successor agency combined are about 5.7 of the overall appropriations we're recommending another way of looking at um citywide expenditures um by type soaries and salaries and benefits u make up about 25% um professional services is uh makes up about 38% that would include construction contracts and all other professional um services um and then the other categories make up um a smaller percent. So general fund budget overview. Um starting high level here fiscal year 27 general fund revenues and expend expenditures are estimated at 85 million. Um revenues are slightly below expenditures. Um using about 308,000 of unassigned operating reserves to balance the budget. Um the unassigned fund reserves at June 30, 2026 are estimated at 37,000. Um we maintain assigned reserves in the general fund. So approximately 10.8 million is set aside as emergency reserves. That currently is equal to about 14% of the general fund operating expenditures. In addition, 1.1 million is designated as capital reserves for future capital needs. Um council policy does require that a minimum emergency reserve of 15% um is maintained. So we'll continue to do that um maintain at that level into the future. So going um into more detail now with general fund revenues. Um we have revenues about 85.1 million for fiscal 27. That's about a 2.1 million or 2.6%

increase over the revised 2526 revenues. The increase um as can be seen is spread across various revenue categories. Property taxes um includes about a 3% overall increase based on information from the cinema county assessor. It includes an adjustment for continued assessed valuation growth and also accounts for estimated growth related to residual um payments um and for newer or current development projects. Our sales tax, we are expecting growth of about 3.4%. This does incorporate the most recent um sales tax forecast provided by our city sales tax consultant. Most sectors are expected to remain relatively flat um with the exception of general retail food products and the county pool. Um there is a great deal of uncertainty as I mentioned in the economic outlook. Um therefore we remain a bit conservative in our budgeting and forecasting and we'll continue to monitor this closely as we progress um through the year and if necessary um further adjustments will be made. Business license revenues have um shown moderate growth over the past few years. We are expecting that to continue in the new year. property transfer tax category has shown a pretty significant decline compared to the prior years due to the economy just um less home sales lower home sales um which directly impacts the revenue that we receive. Um we'll be watching that closely as I mentioned um franchise fees are estimated to be down slightly compared to fiscal year 26 and that's largely the result of um less construction um occurring. Permits and fees are down about 199,000. That's due to decreased um activity and to realign with the current um trend that we see. Fines and penalties virtually unchanged. Investment earnings and rent are expected to be up to align with um the short-term historical trends um and continued elevated interest rates. Intergovernmentmental revenues are revenues that are coming in from other government agencies and largely made up

of motor vehicle and loo revenue um and funds from our um federal intergovernmental transfer program that funds a portion of our u medical transports. Um charges for services are down and is a reflective um of the removal of one-time strike team reimbursements. Um and the expenditures associated with those are also removed. Um that's partially offset by increased intragovernmental charges that fund support departments and internal service funds um and an increase in ambulance fees that were that have been incorporated as well as the annual um CPI escalator on fees. Toot transfers are 3.7 million um and that is up um that is up about 1.4 million and that is the result of more coming in from Toot to fund general fund support ongoing and that's necessary to avoid additional reductions into the future and what that means is there's less available in the TOT fund to fund um other projects and programs. The other transfers category includes funds coming in um for the computer aided dispatch support and the police department. Um and then measure U revenues. Uh those are funds coming in to support the general fund. Those are maintained in a separate fund. Um that's essentially flat um compared to the prior year and that is reflective of the resources available in the measure U fund. The funds in the designated reserves category are either from one-time revenues that are set aside for a specific program um such as a general plan or turf replacement um or anticipated vacancy savings in the new year. This category is down um uh due to um cost of the cost of projects that are nearing completion. So again, overall revenue is up about 2.1 million or 2.6% over the revised 26 budget.

So this is the chart for general fund revenues by type. Um taxes uh generate a large portion of the revenues at about 45%. Um if you add measure U, that's another 17 for a total of 62%. um sales tax. Um that's only one component of the tax category that makes up the largest the largest portion of our um of our taxes charges for services about 17% intergovernmental making up 11% um of the revenues and other smaller categories making up the remainder. This is another chart that focuses specifically on the tax revenues sector of the prior chart which makes up about 37.9 million of the 85 million of general fund revenues. Um property tax is the largest revenue category at 42.1%. Sales tax is the second largest u revenue source generating about 41.6%. And then some of the other smaller categories, property transfer tax, business license, franchise fees generate the remaining portion of the tax revenues. And then this chart um we thought is really important over the past four or five years. Um this shows the major general fund taxes, the historical trend that we've been seeing. Um this is part of the problem of our of our um reductions that are needed to balance the budget. As you can see here, the majority of the tax um categories have remained flat or declined. The only category that has um has a trend line that's going up over the past four or five years is our property um property tax. So sales tax has declined pretty significantly since 2022. It um has flattened out since 2025. Um we are expecting a small that small 3% growth in 2027 but over the past several years it's it's declined and come down quite a bit as well as the other categories. So this is contributing to the issue that

we're seeing on the revenue side and the general fund. Okay. So switching over to look at the expenditure side of the general fund. Um general fund expenditures are 85.4 million. That's up about 2.7 million or 3.3% from the prior year. Um 79% of the budget supports staffing. So that's 200 about 242 full-time positions in the general fund plus part-time roles that deliver core um community services. Our salaries um show a decrease that is due to the unfunding of positions. Um roughly there's seven in total that we've unfunded. Four of those are in the general fund. Um it's also uh reduced part-time and the removal of um some overtime related to strike team um that's included here. These decreases are partially offset. We have added two new planning positions um bringing services inhouse which is a council priority um as well as our anticipated negotiated cost of living adjustments and step increases that are included. The benefit increase um that you see here of approximately 1.5 million is driven by um mainly by three factors. That's our PERS retirement rate increases. Um we're seeing higher health impre health premiums as well as rising um workers compensation costs. Services and supplies are up about 568,000 and that's largely due to inflationary pressures. Um our cost increases have been limited. They would they would um be larger. um if we hadn't implemented a multi-year cost-saving effort um and renegotiated some contracts that we have um implemented over the past year. Um some key investments um that are maintained and continue to be included um for park maintenance um uh land for land management as well. So animal grazing, gopher abatement um things like that are included the aquatic program um tree

care janitorial things like that. um our in-house planning function. Um we've added several positions um to bring that that function in house. Communications is included in employee um recruitment and training as well. Um we have made some reductions but there are no impacts to um core services and then also included in this category are um cost recovery programs offset by revenue as well. Intergovernmental charges includes includes charges for um IT and risk management. Um and the increase that we're seeing there is the result of reinstating our risk management charges to maintain adequate um reserve levels uh that we're required to maintain. Ongoing um technology investments are also included. So software cost um cyber security all of that is included as well. Um on the capital um section uh there's a small decrease and that's due to the removal of one time and prior year costs that are not expected to recur. And then um transfers out um have increased by 560,000 due to higher transfers to fund storm drain operations, vehicle replacement and associated lease costs. So there are there's funding for the storm drain operations about 850,000 and vehicle replacements of about 800,000. So again overall 3.3% increase um with growth primarily tied to personnel um costs, benefits and um and service delivery. Another way of looking at the general fund expenditures, salaries and benefits combined make up about 67 million, roughly 79% of the overall general fund appropriation budget. Service and supplies are about 10.4 million. Utilities about 1.6 um and then transfers out about 2.5.

And then lastly, intergovernmental about 4.3 million. And um this is the final chart by function. Uh public safety combined is about 67% of the total expenditure budget. That's police and fire. Um our general fund support is about 10%. Um public works is about five, finance four, and then parks and recck seven. And there's other smaller departments. Community development um and the remaining transfers that make up the remaining portion. So in summary, uh the fiscal year 27 budget is balanced. It's achieved through targeted expenditure reductions as I mentioned of about 1.6 million. Um however, our revenue growth continues to lag behind expenditure growth creating ongoing fiscal pressure. Um as a result result, additional reductions will be necessary in fiscal year 28 to maintain a balanced budget. Um the budget begins with the operating reserve of about 300,000. Um total revenues are projected at 85.1 million while expenditures are at 85.4 million. This gap is covered by utilizing that beginning operating reserve resulting in an ending balance that's essentially zero. And then again um we maintain an emergency reserve that's currently at about 10.8 million. So now we'll talk about long-term u the long-term forecasts in the general fund um and our assumptions that are included. Uh property taxes are expected to continue uh moderate growth estimated between four and four and a half%. Um we are keeping this consistent with the county's estimates um for the duration of the forecast which is in line with increases we have seen over the last several years. Um and that includes um increased residual revenue coming in from the redevelopment areas. Uh sales tax revenue is projected to grow uh modestly at about 2% uh following several years of decline and um subsequent stabilization.

Uh property transfer tax has seen declines due to slowing of home sales um which directly impacts our revenue. The base revenue um has been reset and going forward we have factored in a 3% growth factor. Um other revenues are growing at about two to 3% annually. So, on the expenditure side of the long-term forecast, we've included um core staffing, our compensation alignment, and cost of living adjustments of approximately 2 to 3% annually every year in the forecast. Um we've also included step advancements through the five-step um salary range. We're still projecting a 7 um 7% escalator in health insurance. This is based on a historical 10-year average increase. We're projecting also an 8% annual growth factor for workers comp and that's um based on our actuarial study anticipated trend and our reserve requirements. We've updated their retirement costs based on the most recent valuation provided by Kalpers. The updated costs um reflect um rising costs over the next 5 years um and um that could change but that is our estimate um as of now. It does not include um increases resulting in any investment losses um recognized by CalPERS. So um as we you know from year to year as we update Kalpers based on their new actuarial um report we we try to avoid big swings in the PERS um and so we do our best to to provide a more stabilized forecasting for that. But there is some risk there that could change um our costs from year to year if if there are major investment losses. Utility costs continue to rise at about 3 and a half% uh that's been included. Um costs to maintain the city's storm water system uh that staffing and our service cost um have risen just like

everything else. Um so uh that is expected to continue in the forecast. Um and then finally, the general fund is the sole contributor to the vehicle replacement fund, which covers the cost of replacing um vehicles for governmental functions. Um and that primarily includes public safety, parks, and public works. These costs have increased um in recent years due to the transition um to newer vehicles um from an outdated um outdated fleet. Um the city currently expects to contribute about 800,000 annually. However, um this amount is projected to decrease by about 70,000 a year as leases expire and the vehicles are um retained for longerterm use. So, this is the updated 5-year forecast with the assumptions that I just um went over. As you can see, um, revenues in the green, expenditures in the orange, and our what's what is about a $1.5 million deficit in the blue. Um, the forecast is constantly changing. And so, since we are in the process of going through negotiations, um, we have to estimate what those impacts could be and, um, and that's constantly moving. And so, we've factored in an additional impact from negotiations there of about 400,000. So, the total projected deficit that um we need to solve for um heading into fiscal year 28 is about a $2 million deficit. Um this imbalance is being driven by two main factors. Um the flattening of tax revenues over the past several years um and sharp increases in costs um due to inflation and um new expenditures. Uh this isn't new um to um to us. We've been um anticipating this in our financial planning discussions and we've been talking about it over the past 12

to 18 months. Um over the past year, the management team has worked to identify and implement cost reductions in 27 and additional reductions are currently being planned for fiscal year 28. Um while meaningful progress has been made, further work and difficult decisions will still be necessary in the coming years. The forecast continues to be an important planning tool that has allowed us to respond proactively to financial challenges. It's allowed us to identify structural budget issues early before they become immediate financial crisis um and has allowed us more time to implement um gradual strategic reductions rather than sudden service cuts. With that in mind that it is a forecast so um things do change. Uh revenues could perform better or worse than expected. Our expenditures may increase or decrease um as the financial conditions evolve throughout the year. The forecast is updated um and we return to council at midy year with an updated forecast. So this slide is just for the purpose of a reminder. the general fund um budget um broke down, you know, basically in three categories here that roughly 80% of the overall general fund budget is um personnel. That means that our ability to cut costs is limited. Um we have very few options to reduce expenses without affecting staffing and any changes to to staffing will ultimately impact our service levels. So, as I mentioned, we've been um discussing um a a a plan to address the the um fiscal 28 deficit of about 2 million. This slide summarizes the reduction strategies and cost-saving options that have been explored um to date. Our primary goal is to minimize impacts on the community while continuing to preserve core services. At

the same time, we must focus on reducing ongoing structural costs, not just implementing one-time solutions. um that do not address the long-term imbalance. Um because personnel costs make up the largest portion of the budget, we are evaluating measures such as hiring freezes, uh potential furls or layoffs, reductions in overtime or part-time hours, um and reviewing employee benefit costs. Uh these are all difficult decisions, but personnel related changes provide the most meaningful long-term financial impact. Um, we're also reviewing operational spending by reducing contracted services where possible, renegotiating service levels um and tightening our spending on supplies and other day-to-day expenses. And then in addition um to expenditure reductions, we are evaluating some revenue opportunities. Uh that includes uh making sure that we stay up to date on our fee schedules to better align with inflation and cost recovery, which we have always done and we will continue to do. Um and lastly, continuing to support the um robust economic development effort to strengthen the city's long-term revenue base. So this slide outlines um what we're proposing, which is a fiscal year 28 phase reduction plan um and the timeline for implementation and evaluation. Um we are recommending a phased approach because there remains a lot of uncertainty in the economy as well as pending outcomes related to key city programs and costs. um revenues could come in greater than projected. We do remain conservative on sales tax given the uncertainty in the economy. We have costs that are estimated in the budget that um the outcome is still pending such as um animal services um our marina outstanding loan debt payback um as well as ongoing labor negotiation costs. Those are all those are all um costly items that are pending which um estimates have been included but at this time we just don't have a confirmation on what those look like. Those could

change significantly. Um so um we are we are um proposing a phase reduction plan. So as a reminder over the past year in preparation for fiscal year 27 staff assessed a range of reduction options identified um implementing a $ 1.6 $6 million reduction to produce a balanced budget. Um throughout that process, the goal was to minimize impacts uh to core community services as much as possible. This remains our goal in the phased approach. Um additional reductions are needed in 28 to produce the balanced budget. And so we've begun developing this plan. We do anticipate the plan to be in place and ready to implement midway through the current fiscal year um and well ahead of the start of fiscal year 28. The first phase of partial reductions would be implemented at the start of the fiscal year. Uh this first phase would include adjustments to staffing, service levels, and operational spending. And then from that point forward, uh monthly and quarterly budget reviews will be conducted as additional information becomes available to assess revenues and um our expenditures and determine the level of reductions needed to maintain a balanced budget. So at the uh fiscal year 28 uh midyear review in December, staff will uh reassess financial conditions that includes um our revenue performance, our ongoing expenditure trends um result of the result of our implemented reductions. Um and at that point um staff would determine whether additional contingency measures are necessary and report recommendations um back to the council. So again, this approach um provides some flexibility. It allows for um for decision making to happen based on current data and helps avoid deeper reductions than may ultimately be um necessary. So some of the forecast um risks that um

remain um economic uncertainty I mentioned it several times um whatever happens at the federal level could impact us significantly. um we are seeing inflation creep up. How long that will continue is unknown at this time. It could it could grow and and further and it could last um you know into into well into fiscal year 28. We just don't know yet. Um retirement cost um will increase. We know what the costs will be as of today if there are significant investment losses that will impact um those costs. Um federal policy changes could drive the economy into recession. um that's a risk. Um federal impacts on local and and our county regional partners could also um impact impact us directly. Um and then initiatives such as the property transfer tax um um issue that will be on the ballot could also um affect us. Forecast opportunities um revenues will continue to be revised and updated as the year progresses. Um we are uh we in initiating a robust economic development program that we're hoping you know into the future can increase our um revenue base um revenues from pending development and new new projects are um included. However, there are there could be new additional projects that aren't included and that will be analyzed and updated as that occurs. Um our tourism and TOT revenue has remained um relatively stable. We are seeing some decline, but um we're watching that closely. Um the sale of surplus properties that could generate one-time funding is also an opportunity. And then potential other potential funding opportunities such as exploring options for a dedicated funding source for storm water um operations um could also be an opportunity.

So the general fund bottom line uh fiscal 27 is a balanced budget but it did require reductions of 1.6 million. Um future years do require a strategic phased reduction plan um to create a balanced budget. Um we have reserves of 10.8 million. We need to maintain those reserves and actually maintain them at the 15% um council policy level. Um again, the use of emergency reserves should only be used during emergencies and not to balance the budget. Um and revenue um generation opportunities will continue to be pursued. So that wraps up the general fund um section of the presentation. Moving on to measure U. And um there's about four slides that are related to measure U. And um we just wanted to remind everybody of the community priorities that were um not only roads um but many other community priorities that um that the community um thought were you know important with measure U. Um we've made significant investments in all of these areas. Um significant investment in public safety and staffing to ensure prompt response times. We've also invested in maintaining our um public safety equipment. Um, we're improving our existing facilities and developing new facilities. We've addressed homelessness. Um, we've been able to leverage Measure U funding and generate millions more to advance programs and projects. Um, we've improved walkways and streets, making them safer. We made improvements on routes to schools, updated pavement striping, um, and updated signage all throughout the city. And then in addition, we have prioritized investment in city roads. um from the very beginning. We quick quickly advanced a $20 million road bond which allowed us to begin addressing years of deferred road maintenance. Uh we also leveraged um those funds to secure millions in additional funding for a broad range of infrastructure

improvements which are highlighted um on the next slide. We remain committed uh to ongoing road improvements while ensuring we spend responsibly within the resources available and maintaining long-term fiscal sustainability. So, um this is a um a list of uh programs and projects. It's not an entire list. It's just a a handful of items that um we've been able to do and um accomplish with Measure U. So, uh, homelessness and mobile showers, our our safe team that has really assisted the police department, um, our fair free public transport, um, program, we have EV chargers for our electric fleet. Um, we have safe streets, quick builds, community baseball field, docks in the turning basin, um, trestle design. There's a whole list, long list of things that we've been able to accomplish with measure U. Infrastructure, pavement projects, uh, North Mcdal, that project budget was 12 million. Maria Drive that was a $4 million project. Reineer um so 3 million Howard 2 million D Street 4 million Cfield 5 million it goes on and on pavement uh preventative maintenance um Madison and Valo um and then lastly the um public safety facility that's a $77 million project currently underway. Um, and then here's some quick photos of some of the before and afters of infrastructure accomplishments um, since the passage of measure U. And then for in terms of the general fund support, measure U has provided not only road and infrastructure, it also provides as I mentioned public safety and um general fund support um that touches every department within and

every service that the city provides within the general fund. Um much needed facility improvements all throughout the city facilities. Um as I mentioned, land management. So that includes animal grazing, organic weed abatement, gopher abatement, um equipment for public safety and um community projects and services uh such as the aquatic program in the new year. So we wanted to show as I as I mentioned um the list of uh budget reductions for fiscal year 27. I've you've heard me mention 1.6 million. Um this is the entire list of all of the reductions that have been implemented. Um a little over 1 million of these reductions are related to personnel which are freezing positions um reducing part-time reduction in cola and the remaining 600,000 are reductions in um a variety of services all in all various departments um that touch um a whole lot of different services that the city provides. Um and in addition during the budget development process, departments look for um places to reduce or move budget to meet um other needs. U and this process is estimated to have generated another 1.1 million across the entire city budget. So I believe that wraps up my portion for now and I'm going to pass it on over to the police chief. Good evening. Brian Miller. I'm your police chief. And just uh very briefly, our primary focus this budget cycle was really to maintain and continue progressing our core services so there wasn't any reduction in our public safety response. We wanted to ensure that our focus on our service priorities and our district policing model were maintained and progressed. Uh we made

some really thoughtful investments um in this budget. So, we wanted to clearly, as you've heard, continue and progress the work that we're doing in the investments on our on our new public safety facility. We've got an a meeting coming up where we're going to be accepting the bids here on the 21st from our qualified um applicants in that process. We're looking forward to coming back in July to hopefully have an award of construction um and really starting the project on that. We couldn't be more excited at the police department and we know how considerable of a project that is. Um we're making some investments into my dispatch center to ensure that we have un interrupted dispatch operations by replacing some uh backup battery systems to make sure if we have a a failure of electrical systems that the communication center will continue to operate. But what we did in the research of that, we've ensured that those battery backup systems can be transferred over to the new facility so that we're not just investing into that technology at our old facility that it's going to be transferable. And it comes with a 5-year warranty, which everyone loves a warranty. Um, we do a considerable amount of work along with our partners in the clerk's office processing public records requests and it impacts a number of ranks and roles within my organization. And so we're making an investment into some streamlined technology solutions to help both the clerk's office and my office be more efficient, more timely, and ensure that we're in compliance with how we're processing those and making sure that we don't have any missed records and that we're doing it as quickly and efficiently as possible and how we're processing those as well as its ability to do subpoenas. And we're lastly making investments as we continue and recognize the significant impacts of traffic in our community with a one-time purchase of a

mobile safety mobile speed radar display so that we continue to help us in our initiatives and our enforcement efforts. Um, and then you've heard that we've made some pretty considerable reductions over the last year, being really uh thoughtful and strategic in reducing expenditures this current year, and we've continued to make some reductions going into this coming year. So, we've uh reduced the lease that we had where we were storing our emergency equipment. You've seen the development that's going in on that property. Currently, all that equipment is back on our existing police department property. that saves $120,000 a year. There is no future plan to lease any uh space for that. So, there is not an ongoing expenditure anticipated. All of that is incorporated in the new facility project. Um we're also looking at reducing our part-time professional staff um expenditures. And then again, we are not looking at investing any extra unnecessary costs to replace equipment in my facility or in my fleet. So, we are deferring maintenance. We are not trying to maintain maintain anything that is non-essential equipment in our current facility recognizing that we're investing heavily in the new future facility and planning to um relocate and sell that facility. Um, as mentioned, we're being thoughtful on the impacts on the toot funding. We're working right now with all the event organizers and have already started that process this year to be thoughtful on reducing the expenditures and and impacts on the funding, but also providing flexible options to the the organizers themselves so that we can ensure that those events continue to occur, but reducing the personnel expenses both to them and to the DOT funding. And then lastly, we are looking at um based on our organizational achievements that you

recently turned into the public safety advisory committee. You heard our IPA present on our 100% compliance in policy. and based on their assessment and their work that they've done with my staff and the work that we're doing collectively to re analyze our contracts and reduce those expenditures, we're going to be working on refining our contract costs and bringing them in better alignment with our our scope of work the best we can and hoping for some some expenditure reductions there possible. And I will turn it over to trying to remember next slide please to chief shock. Good evening. Jeff Shock, your fire chief. Uh, as noted previously, uh, we've made some significant uh, significant investments in public safety. Most significantly, the public safety building that Brian mentioned that we're very excited about and anticipate construction to begin in fiscal year 27. Additionally, our 1938 historic fire station that needed significant seismic upgrades and remodel is currently underway and we've got crews in our temporary fire station and that uh major renovation is anticipated to be completed in fiscal year 27. We've also made uh many over the past decade significant improvements in our workforce development strategies. really trying to really trying to make our fire department uh employees represent the community we serve. We last week we had a a very successful I believe it's our third or fourth year of a high school career camp and we've been very successful with our uh EMT program staffing a BLS ambulance. Uh we currently two weeks ago I saw some of you there. Thank you. Had a badge pinning ceremony where uh firefighter paramedic Cameron Hill was pinned and he was the ninth uh the ninth person from our BLS ambulance program to transition to a full-time firefighter paramedic.

And we currently have one of our BLS or basic life support ambulance employees uh doing his paramedic internship program at fire station 3. Um but with difficult times come difficult decisions and so um as mentioned employee salaries are the most significant portions of all of our budgets. So, we are looking to freeze a current. We have a current firefighter EMT vacancy will be freezing. And then in our part-time, as Corey mentioned, a lot of part-time employees are where we'll have to see that effect. And as Brian mentioned, really trying not to significantly reduce those core services. But where the fire department has uh part-time employees are in our basic life support ambulance program where we're going to be strategic about minimizing how many hours that unit is staffed. um which helps us keep paramedics in the city. Um but we'll be strategic and have to make some adjustments there and they're also in our uh fire safety inspections. We do use part-time personnel um to complete those. So we'll have to be strategic on uh maybe deferring some of those for future years. So thank you very much for your time and I'll pass it on to Drew Halter. All right. Good evening, mayor, members of the city council, city manager, staff, and community. My name is Drew Halter, director of parks and recreation, and I get two slides tonight because of our beautiful fairgrounds. So, here we go. Um, you know, in times of uh uncertainty, stress and isolation, our parks and the services we provide in our shared spaces have been essential, essential in maintaining not just quality of life uh but building healthier cities uh and local economies. So, a major milestone to be celebrated

in this year's parks and recreation operating budget is the uh year-round aquatics program at both the swim center and the Kavanaaugh recreation center. Uh the investment proposed this year marks this full first full year in transition back towards a locally run year-round aquatics program. This is going to be made possible um by a combination of investment through the general fund as well as leveraging measure M which is the parks for all Sonoma County regional sales tax. We anticipate about 30 to 40% of our expenses operating um these two year round pools to be offset by revenues. But it's important that we be conservative uh in those estimates in our first year and report back in the fall uh after a full summer season. Um it's important to highlight um also a couple of um significant park projects which are going to be delivered this year. You'll hear more in the CIP presentations, but um you know the Pedaluma skate park uh was identified in some of the original citywide prioritization in 2000 or sorry 2019 and that project has grown evolved and we're really excited to be breaking ground here in a few short weeks. Um I can't underscore how important uh and of an impact that will be not just on current but future residents and generations. Uh we talk about activating spaces. We talk about, you know, making sure that we address gap in programming and you know those young scooters, skaters, and bikers that are looking for places to be. Uh we're going to be able to deliver that after years of uh talking about it. So really excited uh for that moment for us. The senior center reconstruction project is so much more than a parking lot. Um that area now serves uh the the cafe

211. It is the mobile um meals on wheels program. It's the iide. Uh it's a distribution center, an overflow and and parking for our waste our water utilities folks. Access to Lacy Park. So really proud um of the collaboration with uh water resources public works, our CIP team to be able to complete an in-house design that really adds better flow through that area, additional spaces, efficiency, safety, uh and new access into the park that's going to help leverage a lot of other future park projects that we're looking to do at Luke Casey. So excited to highlight that this year's budget sustains our current full-time staffing level levels uh with parks and recreation um which is a huge feat given our our challenges. This is enabling us to maintain our parks, our recreation centers, our core program areas such as youth services, adult sports, senior programming, our recreation classes, museum support, special events, and aquatics. to balance this year's budget in alignment with revenues and priorities. We are recommending reductions but not eliminations of several of our service contracts. Um Corey mentioned our citywide custodial services being reduced as one of them. Um but also some of our professional services like the gopher abatement um proactive tree pruning. Um you know these are reductions not eliminations which I'm I'm happy to report out on. also will be instituting like many others you'll hear tonight reductions in part-time staffing and looking to consolidate some of our customer counters. Um we are recommending recommending reductions to many of our city sponsored special events instead pivoting towards seeking city sponsorships to help cover many of these operating costs. This includes, you know, the big events are

the Fourth of July fireworks display, movies in the park. Um but all in all we have nearly a dozen events a year supported by parks and recreation either through fiscal sponsorship collaboration or directly. Uh so what we're saying here is you know it's um not unprecedented for the city to have a um a different model where we're seeking sponsorships to help prioritize what we offer as far as special events. Um but like Corey mentioned um it's important to to to make folks aware now that that's the direction that we're going. Next slide, please. And the Pedaluma Fairgrounds. Uh, managing the Pedaluma Fairgrounds truly touches every department. Uh, and this year's budget continues in our city's commitment implementing the eight guiding principles adopted by this council and supported by the community through the recommendations by the healthy democracy process. in the evolution of that process. I'm excited to share some highlights with you. Uh this year, uh we are partnering with a local agricultural consultant and leveraging our own staff to bring more yearround agriculture on the fairgrounds. not just focusing on the 4-day event, but sustaining uh the agricultural programming um at different sizes and scales, which we really think will help us um bring more not just revenues, but focus, attention, energy to the to the property. We're building our equipment inventory ahead of this year's fair and improving our abilities to serve as an evacuation center. Our team is working hard to bring improvements to several of our community buildings uh which will be critical for bringing in investment potential and offsetting some of our operating costs. Not to mention it's just more fun. Um, we'll be working closely with our eight licensed tenants to extend agreements, uh, which offer some stability for the existing uses,

which was a critical part of our guiding principles, while also providing traditional events unique to Pedaluma, uh, like the Speedway. Lastly, kicking off the fairgrounds master plan this year uh on the tale of a couple of really productive years piloting new uses on the fairgrounds will allow us to really hit the ground running uh and sustain some momentum. You heard uh when the design consultants presented um really building off a lot of that energy sustained by the healthy democracy process, but also what we've been able to accomplish in the last couple years. Um, we really feel excited to to put put that into earnest motion this year. So, on the budget reduction side, uh, to balance this year's budget in alignment with revenues and priorities, we are recommending a freeze to Luma ICE. I'll hold there. Okay. Um, but this will not thaw our enthusiasm, let me tell you. Um, you know, we are incredibly thankful to have the support of piloting not just this outdoor massive event in the the middle of our holiday season, but then transition towards an indoor event um and really try to activate more of the fairgrounds. Um, so we are going to reallocate the the funds um back into leveraging more into the buildings into the more small and mediumcale events and really trying to sustain those events out throughout the year uh which is important and and financially responsible this year. So similar to our strategy in balancing our operating budget, we are also recommending reducing some part-time and seasonal staffing. um really consolidating those counters. Um our part-time folks are really it's important to uh have them to support special events. So being really thoughtful and strategic about which

events we um staff, which events we sponsor um and which events we directly host. So lastly, to be sure to save the dates, June 18th to the 21st is the Pedaluma Fair. Past, present, and future Luma. It is going to be an incredible incredible display of community and tradition and I appreciate uh you guys all spending your council comments uh to highlight that issue. But um yeah, this is not the year to sit it out. So please join us for the fair this year. Thank you. Next slide. I believe is community development. All right, that was a good pun, right? Mayor Council Brian O your director of community development. Where am I? Okay. Um so investing uh over the next fiscal year. Um we are a week in to actively recruit for the planning manager. And so we delivered last week on a council priority and objective to build a core in-house planning division. Um and so that will take time. I expect a planning man manager to be uh seated uh to ensure a warm handoff before the end of that contract. Um we're further investing into our future and so as our general plan um starts to sunset, we are getting close. We'll be before you um next week to talk about general plan. We have um a wonderful presentation planning commission recommendation to move forward. Um, and so we are looking to really establish what the next 25 years will look like for our community. Two new specific plans that were touched on earlier, a zoning code reform plan. And so we have a zoning code that is two

general plans old. Um it's an opportunity for us to make the rules um clear, transparent, and work for um somewhat an uncertain economy. So how do we make um the code work for existing businesses, new businesses um and all that is contingent on getting permits through as um efficiently as possible. So, we um have the ever continuing investment to streamline our permit processes. Um and so I'm really excited about those investments. We have um a balanced budget um partially due to reductions that you've heard and will continue to hear. the contract services we um touched on at the last council meeting. Our consolidation of the public counter um and so consolidating our planning and building uh customer service functions um will help realize some efficiencies as well as some budgetary savings. Uh and then funding uncertainty again that was touched on earlier in the presentation. Um we are about a month away from uh submitting for a five-year ERF. And so as much of the homeless service funding is starting to sunset, we're looking for those opportunities to reinvest uh ensure um our homeless service uh can continue and have a um a structure that will get us through a handful of years. Next slide, please. And then new to community development this year, we merged the community development department with the economic

development department. And next month, we will be be council for a workshop to unveil a two-year work plan um centered on um our economic development strategies. Um we with the recent bringing on of our economic development manager um we have approximately three FTE so three full-time equivalents um dedicated to focus on this critical uh council objective. Um we also have spent some time talking about our real estate management. Um we got through the surplus lands process for the police station. Um and so now we are actively seeking um a sale for that property as we transition to the new public safety facility. We will continue to invest in our business navigator program. So, how do we get existing businesses, new businesses um not just through the permitting process, but just adapting um and thriving in our local economy and all that again done through some careful thoughtful budget reductions, a reorg consolidation of the two departments. Um and then really thinking about how to how best to prioritize um our planning efforts. And so specifically, I wanted to just touch on our economic development uh plan. Again, we'll be talking about that more in depth next month. Um, but we're going through the stakeholder process, working with the chamber, working with the downtown association, working with our um strong business partners and our local businesses to help prioritize and really focus um and maximize the resources that we have uh so that we can start um you know having

different conversations um for the budget. Um and so more to come. There's a few touch points that we're going to have on all these investments, new investments, continuing investments. Um, but we're looking forward to delivering to the community um ensuring that uh there's a warm handoff with um our existing services um and showing up for the community. Um and with that, I will turn it over to um Paul, our public works director. Thanks, Brian. Uh, good evening, council and community. Uh, Paul Kell, director of public works. So, for public works, we have, uh, highlighted two areas of focused investment, safe streets and CIP. Uh for safe streets, some of our upcoming projects in the coming year include improvements on Lynch Creek Trail, improving crossings along Sonoma Mountain Parkway, upgrades at 35 signalized intersections, and completing safe routes to school improvements at all of our public schools. We're also moving forward with implementation of our active active transportation plan, including um developing our citywide wayfinding plan. We'll also continue to partner and participate in the development of the Lakeville corridor study. As you'll hear later this evening, we also have a huge investment in our capital improvement program in the coming year and the year after. Uh we'll spend uh significant time going through that in detail. So I'll just briefly mention um some of the headliner projects. Uh the chief's already mentioned the public safety facility as well as the fire station uh renovation. We have the pips parallel force main and pump station projects

and several pavement reconstruction projects as well as our annual slurry project. As far as budget reductions, we have several positions um of the ones Corey mentioned earlier being unfunded for the upcoming year, including a senior traffic engineer, two street maintenance workers, and a senior transit planner. Speaking of transit, we've been working over the last several months, um, including through workshops with our transit advisory committee on service modifications, uh, due to declining revenues and rising costs in the transit world. And we will be providing some updates to the transit advisory committee at their meeting next week. And then for our landscape maintenance districts or our lads program, uh we will be raising assessments where allowable. Uh however, in some districts, we still will need to reduce service levels for maintenance to match what each district can afford in order to create uh a sustainable program going into the future. And so with that, I'll pass it to Chelsea. Good evening, mayor and council members. I'm Chelsea Thompson, director of water resources and utilities. Our department investments this year include one additional FTE is requested to help reduce span of control within utility operations. This role will support regulatory compliance, staff and operational coordination and safety training oversight for um the we are working on a wastewater bond. staff will return to council on June 8th requesting approval of a $70 million wastewater bond. This bond is needed for um to fund major upcoming capital projects, primarily the pips's force main project while also

maintaining oper operating reserves and long-term financial stability within the wastewater fund. Bond rating activities are underway with competitive sales anticipated in July to ensure funding is available ahead of construction award this fall. Um and also debt service has been structured to or has been structured to support ongoing wastewater capital needs without requiring sewer rate increases for our creek maintenance program. We're currently operating under interim creek maintenance permits for several priority creeks including Corona Lynch, East Washington, McDow, and Thompson Creeks. This year's priorities include maintenance and replacement of pulvert boxes, tree trimming, sediment removal, and location of buried outfalls. um at priority creek sites. For longer term, the department is working towards a programmatic permit to support ongoing creek maintenance at targeted um as well as targeted spot maintenance and floodprone areas. And we anticipate those programmatic permits in hand by summer of 2027. The storm drain utility remains un um underfunded and continues to face increasing regulatory requirements as well as aging and failing infrastructure. This challenge is not unique to Pedaluma. Um staff are initiating a focused storm drain master plan to evaluate system condition and capacity and identify a multi-year CIP plan to help prioritize future infrastructure needs and funding discussions. Upgrades to the SCADA system at Ellis Creek will improve cyber security, alarm systems, resilience, and replacement of aging hardware. This system is critical to plant treatment operations and maintaining reliable recycled water production as well as river discharge compliance. The department is also starting a recycled water rate study to better understand the full cost and long-term value of the city's recycled water program, particularly during

drought and water shortages. This study will help guide future uh decisions in recycled water expansion, conservation, and groundwater supply strategies. For a few of our reductions, we um we decided to shift $50,000 which was previously allocated for water conservation programming to support utility operations, particularly um for needed equipment purchases. We're postponing several vehicle replacement purchases to f future fiscal years. We anticipate operational savings from the new floating solar array at Ellis Creek. Fiscal year 27 will be the first full year of operation and our conservative um savings estimate is around $250,000 and staff are continuing to evaluate opportunities for optimization of this new asset. Lastly, following our recent March city council discussion on the integrated water master plan and recycled water master plan, staff are considering pausing construction of Adobe phase 2. This is um part of our a recycled expansion program. This pause could help prioritize available wastewater funding towards more critical infrastructure projects, including uh the two PIP pips projects. The proposed budget before you still includes the full design and construction of um funding for Adobe phase 2, but we're informing you that we're currently evaluating advancing design work and pausing on construction pending future grant opportunities and funding priorities. And I'll pass it off to Linda. Good evening, Mr. Mayor, the honorable council members, Linda Lee with the administrative services department. I'm here representing the entire central services and administration. Central services and administration play a key critical role in maintaining the

organization's fiscal and operational stability. Our proposed budget reflects a balanced approach, investing strategically in the systems, people, and processes that support every department while maintaining mindful of current fiscal constraints. This includes funding core services, managing and supporting key initiatives across city departments, optimizing technology for modernization, and continuing workforce development efforts that strengthen our long-term organizational excellence. Equally important, these efforts are aligned with advancing the city's goals, priorities, projects, ensuring departments continue working collaboratively to deliver on the community's priorities and maintain forward progress on key initiatives. At the center of this work is our commitment to the people. our entire 419 employees people first approach supporting every single employee so they can effectively serve our community. At the same time, we continue to exercise strong fiscal stewardship through diligent forecasting, workforce management, budget reduction strategies, and collaborative or operational reviews designed to maximize resources and improve organizational effectiveness. Together, these efforts position the entire city to remain resilient, efficient, and responsive both now and into the future. Thank you. And I'll turn this over to our city manager.

Thank you, mayor. Um I think we can take a pause to do um Q&A and public comment on the operating before we go into the capital.

Right. Right. Um thought we'd um move right into the public side of thing. I mean, I appreciate all the work that goes into pulling a one-year budget together, but uh pulling that foresight to the future years in at the same time. I mean, helps give us the perspective we need for the questions uh we have and um you know um I suppose we we could expect the kind of news we're getting which is grim um given what we see at the other cities surrounding us and in the economy and things so we're not shocked but uh it's uh not the most optimistic of day hopefully Luma Ice does not steal all the headlines in the paper tomorrow both for the puns and for the uh but um I'd like to ask our clerk if we've received any comments on on this and and I guess a little tricky since we're the comments might not have separated operation and capital.

Yes, we did receive comments ahead of the meeting and I believe there were 12 of those and those are posted online and we do have cards. I can start a timer right now for 30 seconds. Hi, thank you. So during these 30 seconds, um members of the public should bring their speaker cards to my desk if they have not already done so. Speaker cards received after the 30 seconds might not be accommodated. And this would be um cards for the operational side rather than the capital. And I see faces I recognize that are interested in talking about capital.

It's possible we have some capital mixed in. So you might need to I might be able to uh get the trestle comments out of there if that we're going to talk about that next. Okay. And the 30 seconds has expired. So, we have two cards that say trestle and so we're going to leave them for the next um cycle. But we'll start now with um uh and and I I'll ask you to respond if I call your name and it's if you want to be talking capital say no no not me. Um so uh the first speaker is Darren Rakusen to be followed by Rosemary Hart.

No press and it's Darren Rakusen to be followed by Wayne Eggstrom. I think Wade is seated is three minutes I believe if it says that on the card. Um, is Wade in the Wayne in the room? And that's true. Yes. Excellent. There we go.

All right. Thank you. I want to thank the finance team for putting together the budget. Pretty clear, pretty good analysis of trends, the challenges, and the opportunities the city's facing. There are some of the standard big ticket items. How do we make sure CIP monies get spent? What do we do about the marina? Like every city in California, how do we deal with rising employee benefits and pension costs? So, you have to start looking for things that are within kind of the city's domain, things that we can look at where we can reduce costs. And I really appreciated an in-depth analysis more than we've seen, I think, in any prior year where I've been involved. Um, looking at where can we scrape away dollars, where can we, you know, find savings in the budget. Uh, the items I came to talk about are in that vein. I think for me the big ticket is the uh ERP, the enterprise resource planning. Uh it was just a year ago actually that I came before council and saw that the ERP was getting dedicated funds from pretty much every fund or a lot of them. Uh that includes like marina, airport development services, wastewater, water were all giving money a small percentage toward ERP implementation. Uh but you go back to fiscal year 23 24 budget and it is mentioned that uh there was going to be monies dedicated for ERP exploration. So the timeline is kind of like 23 24 we were exploring a new ERP system. Right now we have Tyler Eden or Tyler Technologies that we pay to do a lot of the enterprise resource planning a lot of HR finance utility project management as well I believe. Uh and then there was going to be a process through 2425 of really locking down who the consultants were to help with implementation choosing a provider. 2526 was supposed to be the big investment in implementation. And now in this year's budget 2627, we do see another 1.4 million flagged. It's called kind of the final charge or the final

implementation. Uh now I pulled data from three sources that I think are always relevant to any budget conversation. That is the budget at the beginning of the year, the quarterly expense reports we get throughout the year and then the actual caffer or the comprehensive annual financial report that comes at the end of the year. I think you have to kind of look at all of the information. So for this ERP implementation in 2324 uh from those quarterly reports we saw $143,900 that were spent a lot of exploration with plant and moran. Uh and then moving into fiscal year 2425 the budget said we were going to spend 300k from measure U on this effort. But in the comprehensive annual financial report at the end of the year, we saw 570K from water, 540 from wastewater, 291 from a combination of airport, marina, transit, all kind of contributing money to this ERP implementation. We were looking to go with workday to replace Tyler Eden Technologies. I will note in that time we had still had to pay Tyler Technologies to the tune of 322,000 that year. So for ERP's total for operation and this new implementation we were at 1.7 million. You go to the next year fiscal year 2526 we don't have a comprehensive annual financial report for that yet. So we go with the budget. So the budget budgeted budget budgeted $2.77 million from different funds to contribute to ERP implementation. Now this is going to come again a little bit from every fund including some funds like information technology. uh we follow the quarterlys we see and I saw client first was on client first consulting was on a list of reduced contracts they were big on the quarterly reports so we have in our head okay we have an ERP that we're going to be contributing from all these funds so at the end of this fiscal year we should see 2.77 million or somewhere thereabouts spent on that process and

that also still has your 300,000 paid to the existing provider Tyler Technologies um or excuse me Tyler Technologies we only saw 200,000 so far this year. So with the 2.77 million budgeted plus 200,000 to the existing Tyler Eden, you're at about 3 million for an ERP. Uh fiscal year 2627. Again, we've earmarked 1.4 million for this ERP implementation, but now the vendor names have changed. So now I don't see Workday, we see Spryoint. And I'll read from the budget. It says configure, test, and go live with Spry Point software to replace the city's current utility portion of the ERP system. So there's kind of that utility and finance piece. Not every system does both. Um to replace the utility portion of our ERP system. Tyler Eden begin efforts begin efforts to replace the financial components of our current ERP system. So it makes me wonder, do we need another vendor? Now what happened to workday? There was uh what I saw from the quarterly is about 750,000 paid to workday. So I'm not sure if they're still in the mix. And this led me into a bigger exploration of information technology. I thought I would have infinite time. I'm still going to run out. But it makes you think about your tech stack and implementation. Last year when I came here, I said these implementations of these resource management tools, I've seen it with Salesforce in the private sector a million times. They get out of scope. You hire consultants who burn out. You have to get new consultants. You have to cycle through vendors. It is a cost the city has eminent control over to make sure that whoever's in charge really has that kind of scoped tied together. We know we're marching forward with whatever the solution is going to be. I imagine at this point we can't stick with Tyler Eden because we've already kind of made this investment. Who knows how far along we are in using this new software. But again, something like an enterprise resource planning tool firmly in the city's domain if we're trying to shave off $2 million. I just just listed out like a couple million dollars a year that we're

spending on this process. So trying to make sure we we know what the finish line looks like and how we're trying to reduce costs wherever we can. So thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker, uh Mary Davies, is that on operations or is that on uh capital?

Come on down. And our uh following speaker would be Chantel Rogers. I'm a cyclist and a climate activist. To reduce our CO2 emissions, we know we have to get out of our cars. Cycling needs to be safe, easy, and everywhere in Paluma. In our town, I'm seeing a lot of important attention to big, expensive, multi-year infrastructure projects. And I'm sure they're needed. It'd be lovely to have them. As cyclists, we dutifully and gladly respond to your survey requests for information, but nobody ever asks us as cyclists, how do we live a lot better with what we've got? We have a lot of wonderful infrastructure in trails, for example. Um, but they're not easy to find and they're often not easy to navigate. I have been unclear on who it is in the city whose charge is to make the easy stuff to get the easy stuff done and to find out what it is. I asked six random cyclists to jot down a quick list of their relatively easy, cheap, and transformative changes. We really kind of know a lot of stuff that needs to be done and I think you will like our list. Um, we we need to designate a budget item and a lead person to get those things done. Their charge should be how fast and cheap and effectively can you, for example, make sure folks can find Lynch Creek and Smart Trails and get from one to the other. We need to move the signalized pedestrian crossing on East Washington

at the shopping center further west so people can cross at Water Street where the trails are. We need to fix the dangerously awkward street crossings of the Smart Trail at Lakeville and Peran. A lot of this can be done with concrete, curb cuts, green paint, and it may not be the perfect, but we don't want to wait till people die on the street and we can get two-way bike lanes everywhere. There's a lot more we can do, and it's very compelling to hear how little money we have to do it. But the great news is that the cyclists of Paluma are really good at knowing what to do, and we would love to partner with you for free. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker, Chantel Rogers to be followed by Morin Gotshaw.

Good evening. Um I wanted to start off by just talking a little bit about the dates of the budget. You guys have been working on it for a long time. And um it says then that early May um you get the uh draft budget, we get the draft budget, and then midMay is this workshop. But in actuality, this year it was just one week. Um and it's over 300 pages. And I don't know if all of you read all 300 pages, but I certainly haven't. And um it would be really nice if we could mandate that there be at least two weeks early let you know so that we could all scrutinize a little bit what we're what we're being presented and ask more thoughtful questions. So um as such I'm just going to kind of jump all over the place here. um the transit budget year-end adjustment of $375,000. I assume that that is the um Soma Transit obligation that was not considered in the transit um budget, but that we are paying this year and hopefully next year we won't have to. But that was an unexpected um expense. Um, and luckily transit doesn't have to absorb it or we would be losing even more uh routes I assume, but that's really going to um affect us depending on how much we have to pay out of that. Um, the 3/4 million uh dollars for the LDS looks like it's a forgiveness. Just wanted to see if I understood that correctly. they, you know, they they carried this balance for eons and and it's been wiped out. So, it looks like the city has just forgiven that debt and we start over and hopefully everything will balance out um from from there. Um, one thing that I hadn't seen with the

police and fire um safety building come through um is any staffing consideration for the building. Um it's listed when you have uh fire and police through 27 there are no increases in uh positions and I can understand the police is a lateral move to a new facility so I wouldn't expect new positions but the fire station is actually a brand new fire station and so invariably I assume there's going to be um ongoing um staffing issues and being that safety personnel I read um are at a 70% % um increase in salary for their benefits and future pension. Those are really um expensive positions as they should be, but they're necessary for a new fire station. So, I'd like to see how that's going to be um considered and budgeted in. Thank you.

Thank you, Moren. Gotcha.

Thank you. Um, I want to say thank you to the finance team for putting a budget together. I know it's difficult and it's a significantly large budget. So, I appreciate all the hard work and effort. I also want to concur with Chantel's comment having a week to look at this budget and really kind of understand and ask the appropriate questions. It was really challenging to do, especially when it was Mother's Day weekend and it was about me on Sunday. So, anyways, um, here we go. So reserves um are not at 15%. The city says it needs to be at 15%. It's at 14% and it's not giving a plan to how to get there. So I'm asking the city to find the plan to get to the 15% this year. We use the remaining um unassigned reserves for this year's gap. The revenue assumptions while all conservative are all positive including sales tax, property tax toot and then all the unforeseen costs like salary negotiations, marina shelter, we're really on a razor thin margin and then we've also now doubled down and not got our reserves to the just minimum. So I really think that you guys should take a look at that. I have a question on the CIP. there's a that 5 million sale thing, asset sale. Why isn't that being used? And I'll just come back and talk about why aren't we using a portion of that sale to shore up the reserves and to get the variance and why is it going to the safety, but I'll I'll ask that. It's kind of a combo because it's here and there. Okay. So, for measure year, after six years of funding, we are now tied for second to last and having the worst roads in the Bay Area. The slide that was shown list skate parks, baseball fields, EV charger, transit subsidies, river judging, and financial system replacements as MeasureU accomplishments. None of these were on

the ballot. Voters approved Measure U on eight specific community priorities. fire, police, 911 response, emergency preparedness, homelessness prevention, clean public areas, business support, and roads with specific preferences with references to Pedaluma's 141 million road backlog and the worst roads in the Bay Area. What we're seeing is a classic mission creep. Measure U is general purpose by law, but it was sold to the voters on a specific list. After six years, the roads are still tied for worst, and the accomplishments slide is full of things voters were not asked to fund. The mission creep is exactly why I'm asking the council to direct city staff to publish a written response to the oversight committee's April 2025 letter where they recommend dedicating 25% approximately 4 million annually to infrastructure rather than debt repayment. That response should include either a plan to achieve that or an explanation of why we can't. The oversight committee was part of the measure you voter promise that there would be oversight. Thank you. Thank you. And uh that closes public comment on the operations budget side of things. like to bring it up to council here to uh uh weigh in on you know on the operation side of the budget which is um you know a a big discretionary part of the budget here. So who wants to lead off here? Council member Barnacle.

Sure. Um thank you for the budget. Um I concur with many of the public comments that um and I appreciate everybody all the departments for looking for ways to trim in a tight year. Um I'll echo the you know the emp or the the comments from the community to look at the ERP and see if that project can be deferred. I don't know if it's um if it can, but um if it's if it's possible to defer it without um having a bunch of sunk costs. Um look at it. Uh we are writing off the lads. That is a tough a tough pill to swallow in this year, but I think um you know I guess we could you know we John brought this or council member sh brought this up at the last meeting when we approved it that we were going to do it. So um I think if if that's on the table that's on the table but I think we've already approved that if I'm not mistaken. Is that have we already approved the lads basically?

Yes. That last uh the la at the last meeting. Yeah. So, um I think we are trying to just end that um that saga to the extent we can. Um we have factored in the fire station four positions. Is that correct? Yes. And Corey, do you want to walk through that a little bit for the new station? That includes nine firefighters. Yeah. So, as of right now, the staffing for the new station is um projected to come out of measure H. And so that's all been factored into the longer term forecast for that um revenue source.

Great. And then we've heard the the reserves question quite a bit. Can we confirm talked a little bit about the the reserves policy and how we're meeting that?

Sure. So um our reserve policy is um for the general fund is 15% of um general fund operating expenditures. We are slightly below that. Um that is a result of our cost um increasing quite a bit over the past couple years. So um historically we have maintained that reserve using um either one-time revenues that we weren't anticipating or um uh fund surplus fund balance at the end of the year. So um we'll continue to do that um going forward to ensure that we maintain at that 15% level.

Great. Um and do we have plans to respond to the measure U oversight committee's letter? Is that not has that not happened or um so the measure you oversight committee letter that was referred to was actually submitted for last year's budget. So that was in April of 2025. Uh the committee did not opt to do a letter this year.

Okay. And did we respond to that letter? There was no formal response other than just the staff communication and conversation with the committee at the measure U oversight committee meetings and we were uh we participated in the drafting of that letter and explain some of the trade-offs associated with the 25% minimum commitment. Um but there was no formal city council response at that time.

Okay. Thanks. Um so I you know I asked the questions on the goals. I'm really happy with the structure of the meeting to have the goals, the capital project or the capital and the operating. I think that's a great layout. Um I'm looking forward to having the revenue conversation. Um when I look at this and I've been doing some looks and comparing Pedaluma to other cities um you know just in terms of uh like tax density in terms of you know property tax per acre sales tax per capita toot tax per capita our general fund per capita um we are uh we have an affluent community and we do not actually have a very strong tax base in a lot of ways um in terms of property tax. We are um near the bottom. I compared it just three cities, Napa, Santa Rosa, and Runner Park. Um general fund, we are Napa's general fund per capita is 63% higher than ours. Um largely driven by extremely uh high toot tax obviously, but also property tax. Their property tax is through the roof compared to ours. um the all three cities um are significantly outperform us in terms of property tax per acre which is like the ultimate metric, right? If we if you're running a business and you have um a manufacturing plant and that manufacturing plant is only, you know, it's about how much per square foot is actually turning out revenue and we um really really poorly perform in that. And when you look at um like I was looking at the number of uh parcels within a half mile of our uh downtown train station, that's our prime real estate, right? How many of them pay over $100,000 per year in property taxes? There's nine of them. And how

many of them pay less than $10,000 per year? And there's well over a hundred of them, right? So when we talk about like actually having a strong like city, we've got to do something about the prime real estate that is not doing its job and generating commerce and generating revenue for our city. Um and so I really am looking forward to the revenue conversation. Um we've got to do something about these underperforming pieces of prime real estate if we're going to shore up our long-term finances and provide the high levels of service that our constituents all demand. um but are we're unable to deliver unless until we um can uh do something about that. So that's my my comments.

Thank you. Anyone else? Council member Shrebs. Um just some questions and comments. Um one of the things that I didn't hear about much um which I think needs to get included at least in the near future if not the far future. Um, we have a great airport enterprise that seems to be making money, but the our marina basin and our dredging program here are all kind of uh stagnant or losing money. And so I'd like to see some creativity put on uh these areas so that we especially for sea level rise protections, we need to really work with the Army Corps. Um, and that's really not even uh within this current budget and planning down the road here. So, I'd like to see that sort of uh included um as a as a process. Uh another one, the roads have been mentioned a couple of times and I looked at the budget down the road for the measure UN roads and it's drops from 4 million to 1 million, but then there's a $20 million bond mentioned in in the report. So, I just wanted to uh get more information about that um about and then how many residential roads. We have some main roads that are being worked on. Um, but it's really the residential roads that a lot of folks are complaining about. So, I'd like to uh when we get down to the um the SIP program, um how many miles of residential roads do we have and how many are going to get repaired and and sealed um in time um and how we're actually doing that with that. Um another question came up about the reserves and uh I looked at numbers simple numbers to me said we have $11 million reserves but we have a a $90 million general fund. That's only 12%, but I'm hearing 14% and how we get to 15%, but I'm calculating 12% from my viewpoint. So, I need to see where the that gap is coming from and how do we get to 15% if we're going to get up that high because that's what uh a major concern there from folks looking at the economics. Um, and the other whole area

that I'm worried about is um we've increased um in recent years a lot more police and fire. We're getting all staffed up. We've added more engineers. We've added more lawyers, but we really haven't. But a critical area for a city that we've received lots of complaints about is maintenance, just maintenance of our parks and maintenance of our facilities that we already have. And that seems to be stagnant. And so I'd like to see a little bit more of a report out as to uh because as we increasing the river parks going to eventually become city. We have um uh several other parks. We have new new materials uh new new skate park coming in. We have all this all these plans that we want to grow and do all these things with open more open space but there's no plan for the maintenance and remember from planting trees planting trees is easy maintaining them for the next 20 years is not so easy. So, um, I'd like to hear more about the maintenance of how we're actually going to plan out maintaining the fairgrounds and the trestle that we're going, uh, area that we're going to do, the downtown area, how we're going to maintain that, all these things that we want to do. And that's a, I think, a shortcoming right now. And I'd like to see more about maintenance um, and how many more folks we really need to add there to really do a much better job than what we're doing now. So, those are the areas that I'm I'm concerned about right now in this uh, what we're talking about. Thank you, Council Member Quint.

Yeah. Uh, thank you, John, for bringing up the, uh, the marina. I had a question. Um, is there anyone from staff that could I'm I'm interested in understanding if the marina is a net positive or net negative on our city revenue streams? I think I know the answer, but I just want to hear it. Yeah. So, the marina has always historically and continues to operate at a deficit of between 150 and 200,000 per year. Okay. Um so I would just advocate that we find a way to unload it.

Is that uh is that a novel idea? We run down this path to try and get rid of the debt that sits on it or the operating sits on it.

Yes. I was I was actually going to add to that. So the 150 to $200,000 a year, that is really the operating deficit. That includes zero repayment of the loan that the city took out in the late 80s to construct the marina facilities. And that loan, which started out at about 4 million, uh has an acred interest provision. So anytime we don't pay at least the interest off that gets added to the principal which now is I believe um Corey over $7 million. Uh so we're theoretically on the hook for that and we are actively working with the state division of boating and waterways to uh negotiate a resolution to that and get that repayment started in a way that's affordable for the city.

That that would be wonderful and um yeah I if so that's great to hear. Um, and I think I've heard it, you know, sort of mentioned, uh, but I I just think it's worth, uh, restating. If we've got a drain on our, you know, city revenue, we should be thinking long term, how do we, um, privatize it or turn it around or something. Thank you. That's it. Thank you. Yeah. Any number of things we have to wrestle with are 20 year, 50 year old problems that we have to wrestle with. So yeah, I see that council member now.

Um thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um mine is going to start with um measure you the roads. So my favorite subject. Um we're supposed to be repairing and deferred maintenance and thinking about road safety with this tax measure. And I have a couple of roads in my district 3 that have heavy truck use um that go all the way to Kaiser because it's now there's no exits out of Kaiser's I can't think of the name of that street. Anyway, the trucks are returning back and forth on Mcdal to Lake Phil and then farther down to St. Francis, which then gets to our one cross town connector for bike and pedestrians at the catwalk is in drier need of repair. Like,

so I'm going to I'm going to kind of try and break us into operating. So, how do I explain how do I explain to my constituents that those roads aren't going to be repaired? How how do I explain this budget and how those roads are not going to be repaired? Who wants to take on that question?

Well, we are going to talk about capital improvement program after this. Um, but I would just say that we have more needs and we have revenue. Okay. So, I just put the question out there because I know I'm going to get questioned about it. And um one of the park um we're building a new skate park. We're doing the senior center parking lot. Are we have any improvements to those restrooms between the pickle ball, tennis courts, new skate park, and that um parking lot? I see the director shaking his head. Again, we're going to talk about capital improvement right after we're done talking about

operating. Okay. So, should I not bring up the the announcement about fireworks? I don't think that's capital. I think that's in the operating. Go get it.

It was in the staff report. So, I'm just bringing it up. Okay. And I do know that Barnacle had a great idea about making sure that those empty properties are putting money back into our revenue. Can we think about an empty home tax, a vacant buildings tax, or um a vacant lots with the cyclone fencing that have got their entitlements that are not bringing us anything but a few property tax dollars but should be bringing us more revenue. So,

so I think uh we're talking about um economic development and revenue enhancement as u this summer uh on on our agenda and and I'd love you to be the ad hoc subcommittee on the vacancy. So um uh go ahead. I'm sorry that that's that's all the questions I had. I was just um going off of Council Member Shribs and Council Member Barnacle and our public comment on roads and bicycle safety. Um and thank you. And I think that's a great point that we all wish we were doing more roads and and uh we all would like to see more roads happen. Um and Council Member Kater Thompson,

most of the comments have been already stated. Um but um as far as you know that's pretty much been stated the marina is a long-term problem and part of the problem we had and say with the lads little lads they were you know since the 90s the lads have been a problem and since the 80s the marina was a problem and so you really have to think when you're doing a program the long term and how it's actually going to be paid for and that's the problem with these And those are just two examples of not really doing the long-term projection. And you know, and as far as um you know, I appreciate with the economics of our town. We need more we need more revenue coming in. We're a tourist town and we need that revenue coming in. That toot tax um goes a long ways as you can see how it's spread out through um through the entire budget. And so I just think it's really important that we understand how the budget really works and how all these dollars come together and you are and let's just talk about measure U. I knew when measure U was being presented that it was not going to fix all the roads. We have 175 miles of roads. Katy has 1.5 miles of roads. So of course they're going to have a high index. Um, but there are things that I do want to talk about how we could actually improve the roads. Um, there's areas that I have been to and maybe just some simple solutions to maintain them until they can completely be rehabilitated because I see that around town. You know, sometimes areas that are just um problematic in their um resurfaced and they're just small areas, but part of the road is decent until it's completed. But um roads is important and especially Washington Street. you know, you're on the right hand side going into town and

it's smooth and then the mid lane is rough and you know, so it's important and and people do want the roads done, but measure U was spread out um because the city had zero money and we were going to go bankrupt and there was an article in the paper today about Santa Rosa and all of their cuts and I really encourage people to read it because it's pretty frightening what's going up there up, you know, in Santa Rosa because they have a sales tax that they have to continually um pass where measure U is in perpetuity. And I really questioned that and thought it should have a sunset at the beginning and I'm completely wrong. You do not want a sales tax to have a sunset. And that's what's happening in Santa Rosa. All the cuts with employees and their budget is is in peril. And so we're actually in good shape because of measure U. But it was not primarily for roads. You always need to read before you vote.

Okay. Um thank you. And um um well where um how to follow that? Um so um I I I have a lot of tight questions like you use the term structural deficit and um for us lay persons um doesn't that mean our expenses are higher than our revenue? I mean, basically the structural part of it means that we can't just quickly dismiss some expense. We there expenses we're stuck with. So, I mean, if if that's the case, um, then that's why we're having to do all the cuts in every department we're talking about because, you know, why they have to own stand up and own the the the cut that I mean, that none of them wants to say. So um it structural doesn't mean much more than that other than it's really really hard and not simple to cut. Right.

Right. They can't be one-time savings. It has to be an ongoing cost. And so that's why we're emphasizing the fact that personnel number one is a very large portion of our budget. So that limits it right there. Um and those are the types of costs that we have to cut. So it carries through the forecast and it solves the problem, you know, all the way into the fifth year. Um, so yeah, that's structural and that means just ongoing savings.

Yeah. So I appreciate that even though we have a structural problem. Um, and and we're trying we're trying to fix we're not dipping into that reserve the the 12% or whatever the number is this year. It's not 15, which is our policy and we should be pushing. But if we have a structural deficit, it's kind of understandable that this would not be the year that we're not only cutting but taking off the table and putting into reserves. So I can see why this is not the year why reserves grow and and and I can see that we're not far from the goal that it's an achievable goal. Um but you also mentioned that we have a 400k total budget, 400 million total budget and 380 of revenue. And I thought, well, you know what? And I think you dropped in that there's fund balance reserves. Those aren't really reserves in the sense that the 15% is reserves, right? That's correct. So the 15% that I keep referencing for the general fund is um emergency reserves. Um in terms of that difference of total revenues versus total expenditures of about 20 million that's coming from um fund balance from you know many of the special revenue funds such as impact fees things like that that are intended for capital projects and um have been accumulating and now we're using them to move projects forward.

Yeah. So I would call those savings. That's our savings account, not our reserve account. And really we should be driving that down. We have like 150 or more million of that kind of money in the bank. And every year the budget shows that we trying to push that down. But uh the capital u that we and it's mostly in capital and mostly in water and wastewater. Um and mostly we're just not getting the projects built at the rate we want. So the reserve keeps growing. Maybe some outside evaluation agency would say, "Hey, you're pulling money out of the bank to put into this year's money, 20 million that we're talking about." That's not bad. That's feature. That's not flaw. Doing driving down those fund balances and getting more capital bill would be really good. And I don't think we should be rated down on some public rating system if we can hold our reserve in a bad time and still have extra, you know, increase our project, our capital every year. So, I'm I'm excited that you'll be able to do all those things and keep everything in balance. Um, and then um the health industry and hitting our personnel costs, you know, the the world's a mess for health industry and the country is a mess for health industry right now. We really don't have a lot that we can do to to help with that. So, um, too many of our, uh, outside co, you know, there are outside costs. And so, I appreciate when, um, the public mentions working on the ERP, which might be in our system. I've done ERP before and and I know how hard it is and what a total commitment from staff it is, and that you would never get into it unless the old one was like couldn't put any more band-aids on the old system. Um, but it is really hard and I I I really uh respect that you're trying to get into that and I hope you'll have a reply on whether there's one more band-aid to put on that old system or whether we got to get through to the sink or swim stage on the

new system. And um and other than that, I'm um pretty I guess one of the other questions that comes to mind is with all the staff reductions and and work that needs to be done, will that increase overtime or we saying that the service level will drop? And a kind of correlary to that and probably it's probably rhetorical question. Um when we cut staff, how do we measure the reduction in service? I mean I think if we cut a police officer and we can say that this service is not done you know there's a metric but a lot of times it's are we asking the departments or are the departments uh showing us what the metric of loss of service is? department directors are probably much better to speak to this um than me, but um the process that we have been going through for the past um 12 to 18 months is was very strategic and um took a lot of time to get to the point that we're at right now um to limit the impact. Um, in terms of public safety, it is um, more difficult when you freeze or unfund positions in public safety because that could have a direct offset to overtime. It just depends on, you know, whether it's police or fire. So, um, there is a lot to consider. Um, but that is part of the discussions that we've been going through. Um, and the goal and the goal is to minimize um, overall impact, but of course there will be impact. um to some extent with every reduction that we make.

This is a hard year. I appreciate all the departments doing all that drilling down work to to make this balance out. And I think with that, we'll move us off into the uh capital uh half of the agenda. Uh, good evening, mayor, council members, members of the public, and city staff. I'm Jonathan Sangler, the deputy director of public works and I oversee RCD's capital improvement program and I'm excited to take you through the proposed fiscal year 2627 CIP budget. And for the sake of time, please hold your questions until the very end. Uh the capital improvement program, abbreviated CIP, is the city's multi-year plan for major investments in public facilities and infrastructure. These projects are long-term and capital in nature and are distinct from routine maintenance. The capital improvement program is guided by a five-year planning framework and is regularly updated to reflect evolving community needs and priorities. Each year, city council approves a specific budget that funds the project's plan for that fiscal year. And the remaining year's budgets in the 5-year plan are planning level estimates and are subject to future council approval approval. Overall, the goal of the capital improvement program is to maintain and improve the city's infrastructure with a focus on safety, reliability, and quality of life. Every CIP project is evaluated against Pedaluma's adopted city goals as well as prioritized using a consistent set of considerations. Projects that protect life, safety, and public health receive the highest

priority. Active and in progress projects are prioritized to avoid delays and cost escalation. Projects with significant secured external funding are advanced to leverage those funds and mandated improvements and regulatory requirements are non-discretionary. Staff capacity, funding availability, and project readiness are also considered as we develop the project plan for each fiscal year. As you all know, Palum is a full-ervice city and as part of our comprehensive city services, our capital improvement program includes a diverse array of projects vital to our community's well-being. These projects touch on every aspect of life from enhancing our public parks, maintaining and creating resiliency in our water and wastewater utility systems, improving the safety of our streets, and much more. This chart shows our capital improvement program spending over the past few fiscal years. As you can see, we have experienced a strong growth in CIP delivery over the past few years from around 13.5 million in fiscal years 2021 to roughly 40 million in fiscal year 23 24 and 2425. A key driver of that growth has been measure U which has expanded both the types of projects we can deliver as well as the staff capacity needed to deliver them. For the current fiscal year, we are projecting approximately 29.9 million in expenditures. And please note that the fiscal year 2526 numbers are still estimates since this fiscal year is ongoing through June. Um at the start of each fiscal year, we estimate or at the start of the fiscal year, we estimated about 72.5 million in CIP spending and at midyear that estimate was revised down to approximately 42.8 8 million to better reflect updated project schedules and delivery expectations. Uh we are currently projecting approximately 29.9 million in year-end expenditures and a s significant portion

of this variance roughly 16 million is tied to two major projects where construction activities moved into fiscal year 2627. the PIP's parallel force main project where permitting and easement acquisition took longer than anticipated and the Pedaluma public safety facility where additional time was needed to develop the design build contract and design build bid documents. We also experienced staffing constraints earlier in the fiscal year particularly at the senior engineering level which limited our ability to advance some of these major projects as quickly as we had planned. Uh we are actively working to fill these positions more broadly. However, changes in annual expenditures are influenced by a range of factors, including project timing and schedule shifts. Oh, I think I'm sorry. I'm one slide forward. Oop, sorry. Oh, sorry. Uh, refinement of scope and projects advance and cost savings or bids coming in, under or over estimated amounts. uh permitting coordination and external agency requirements, staffing capacity and delivery bandwidth, and in some cases reassessing project needs or urgency as we get better information. So while expenditures appear lower this year, we are working or the work is still moving forward. This reflects timing, project phase, and ongoing refinement, not overall reduction delivery. So with that context on the numbers, I wanted to shift gears to and focus on the dollar what these dollars are actually delivering. The next few slides highlight how the CIP team has advanced projects over the past year. Not just in terms of spending, but in terms of real progress. Across the program, we have moved projects through key milestones, including delivering finished projects, moving into active construction, and completing designs. This slide highlights a number of projects that we

have completed this year, bringing tangible improvements to the community. We have also been able to complete a number of projects this year thanks to MeasureU funding. MeasureU has been instrumental in making these types of projects possible, and you will see more examples of MeasureU's impact throughout today's presentation. Projects supported by this local funding are marked by the powered by measureU stamp. We have also moved several projects into construction which are so on this slide. And just as importantly, we have advanced a number of projects through design, positioning them to be construction ready. Although expenditures may fluctuate, we are making steady progress across the full project pipeline from planning and design through construction and completion. Our program is actively delivering today while also preparing for the next wave of capital investment. Before we move into the proposed fiscal year 2627 CIP budget, we wanted to take a moment to highlight how the CIP section of the budget book has been reorganized. This year, we have made a deliberate shift to improve the clarity on which projects are being included in the proposed fiscal year 2627 budget. Unfunded projects as well as future enterprise and utility projects uh are still included as before, but they are now summarized in tables at the front of the CIP section. Detailed project pages are now focused only on the projects proposed for the upcoming fiscal year, i.e. those that are actively advancing and we are requesting funding for. This approach helps clearly distinguish between what is planned for the future and what we are positioned to deliver now. The capital improvement program looks ahead across multiple fiscal years to help us plan, sequence, and coordinate major infrastructure investments over time. While all five years are important for long-term planning, the most

immediate focus is on the upcoming fiscal year. With that context, we will now shift our focus to the proposed projects for fiscal year 2627. The total proposed fiscal year 2627 capital investment is approximately 132 million. It is important to note that this is not a new normal, but instead reflects timing and readiness, not a shift in annual spending or unrealistic goals. This large budget reflects the timing of two very large complex projects moving into construction this next fiscal year, which are the PIPS's parallel force main and the new Pedaluma public safety facility. The estimated budget needed to advance these projects through construction next year represents approximately 60% of the total proposed CIP budget. We are also proposing about 7.7 million in paving, continuing our commitment to maintaining and improving our roadway network. The remaining 45 million supports a wide range of other capital projects across facilities, utilities, infrastructure, and community assets. And overall, this budget reflects a balance between advancing large critical investments and continuing to deliver projects across the broader program. This slide shows the distribution of the proposed fiscal year 2627 CIP budget across major program areas. Wastewater and facilities account for nearly 70% of the total investment driven primarily by the PIPS's parallel force main and the new public safety facility projects. Public works investments are the third largest category reflecting continued commitment to safe streets and mobility. And in addition, we will continue to advance projects across all program areas. This is a deliveryheavy year with nearly 90% of the budget allocated to construction contracts, construction management, and contingency. Construction contracts alone represent 98.6 million or roughly 75% of the total

fiscal year budget. While pips and the pedal public safety facility are med uh major drivers, they account for about 64% of the construction contract budget. That means we are actively delivering a range of other projects as well. Overall, the city is in active delivery mode on its largest capital investments while continuing to advance design efforts to sustain momentum in future years. These are the four these are four of the major projects we will be having in construction this next year. Uh these four projects alone account for approximately 92.4 million or 2/3 of the entire fiscal year 2627 CIP budget. Uh next I will pass the mic over to a few of the members of the public works team to speak individually on some of these major projects starting with Lucas to talk about PIPS. Thank you Jonathan. Good evening everyone. Lucas Pereira. I'm an assistant engineer in the TIP department. So in this first slide we just wanted to start by covering the PIPS program. And before even defining the program, I just wanted to define the word pips. We use it a lot and just uh for context, it stands for the primary influent pump station. So it is referring to the pump station that we have in our corpyard on Hopper Street. So we have three projects that touch the pips pump station and the assets around it. The first one is the PIPS parallel force main which is one that it's been mentioned in the presentation a few times and we're going to go into it in the next uh few slides. The next one is the pips pump station replacement project. So that one is an actual replacement of the pump station itself and we the plan is to start design in the coming months and actually construction following roughly the mid construction of the pips parallel force main so that the the long-term goal is to have the

new built parallel force main and a new pump station ideally constructed at the same time. And last but not least, once we have those assets constructed, the plan is to go back and work on the third CIP project listed, which is the the rehab of the existing uh pips force main, which is the one that we currently have conveying waste water from the pips pump station to the Ellis Creek water recycling facility. So here now taking a bigger focus and look at the PIPS parallel force main project. We wanted to highlight all the milestones and accomplishments that we have we've had to date and where we're at and what's coming next. So this project has been in the making for quite a few years and we've uh so a couple things mentioned here in listed. We early on looked at all the alignment possibilities and alternatives that we had so that we can narrow the most efficient and uh costefficient option. We've completed all the geotechnical investigations and borings. We've already adopted a SEO document. The document the ISM andd we've already submitted all the permit applications with the regulatory agencies which include the Army Corps regional water quality control board and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and we're very close to we've had active conversations with all the permitted agencies and we believe we're very close to receiving our permits. Uh, as far as easement acquisitions as well, we've already appraised all the properties that we needed to uh, submit an offer for, submitted the offer packages, and we've been in constant conversations with the property owners. We've already had some easement approvals as well. And this is a good segue for I'll be coming back in a week to bring that easement uh, item to you guys. And another Yeah. So, coordination with there's a lot of stakeholders in the project. It's a two and a half miles long two and a half mile long pipeline. So we cross a lot of different

jurisdictions. So we've worked with smart with the assistance of our city attorney's office. We've been working with cow trains. We've worked with Sonoma Water and a lot of uh private property owners as well. So as far as like the status right now, we're on a 90 to 100% design phase. Our goal is to once we have the permits on hand from the regulatory agencies and we finish the acquisition of the easements is to bid the project for construction this summer and tenatively bring it to for construction award in the fall of this year as well and break ground at the end of the year. So on this slide, we're just taking a a bird's eye view here of the location of the parallel force main relative to the city jurisdiction. Uh on we can see it's on the south side of the city. The left star over there is where the pipeline is going to start from. It's the location of our pips pump station like I mentioned and it's a 2 and a half mile long pipeline going from there all the way to our Ellis Creek Water Recycling Facility on the right side there. Now this is a zoomed in view of that 2 and a half mile long stretch. So it just highlights a couple of those accomplishments and complexities that I mentioned the in the previous slide. So, we have in the little blue stars all the partnering agencies that we've had to coordinate with and get permission to uh construct a project and also have rights for our pipeline in the future. Those include cow trains with the freeway, smart with the railroad, Sonoma water with the creek right there, all in like basically one acre lot. uh you have with Sonoma water as well environmental sensitive areas that you have to take into account and in green the little green lines are just the multi-use pathway that we plan to construct as as well which is part of a broader active

transportation plan the blue circles are all the sensitive areas that we've had to look into perform studies provide uh mitigations for with the regulatory agencies like I listed the Army Corps regional water board and California department official wildlife. And last but not least there, all the red rectangles are just some, not all, of the easements that we've had to acquire so that we have rights to be there during construction installing the pipeline. And the last slide on PIPS here is just uh touching on the issuance of the bond that Chelsea mentioned earlier. So we plan to issue a bond to raise approximately $70 million to fund the project. uh the PIPS program as a whole. Uh the bond is backed by the wastewater enterprise funds completely and is expected to come to council I believe on the June 8th meeting for approval. And I'll pass it off to my colleague Paul.

Good evening. Good evening, mayor, council members, and general public. I'm Paul Gagan, uh, senior project manager with public works. I'll walk you through these couple of slides here on the public safety facility. So, uh, this is obviously a new police station, uh, a new fire station, a fire headquarters, and a new emergency operations center that we're positioning at the fairgrounds. Uh, the total estimated project related costs are 71.6 million. Uh, we've highlighted on the screen here because there was previous questions in public comment, I believe. Um we're allocating $1.6 million for a separate project for uh FFN furniture fixtures and equipment. So that's separate from the budget we have for um for this construction of this project. Uh right now the uh project is actually out to bid. We've done an RFQ where we've uh selected three um excellent design build entities who we you know have the ability to actually deliver this complex project. Um they are currently going through the bid documents right now. We've been answering lots of RFI questions and um bids are due in on May 21st. Um we expect to be back here in uh July 6th, 2026 to hopefully award a contract and uh targeting um uh spring 2028 for uh completion of the project. A couple of key notes. Um this public state facility as was mentioned by Jonathan is the is the second largest investment in financial year 2627 in the CIP budget and um this u facility completely replaces the uh police station and our current uh emergency operations um setup. Next slide. So I wanted to uh provide a breakout of what that 71.5 million is being spent on. Uh it's a lot of money and there's a lot of moving parts. So kind of wanted to give a big picture of what's going on here. Uh so in green there obviously the big portion of this uh is the construction costs. That's obviously everything you

can touch with your hands. It's access roads, the main uh building, the superructures, the site, um all the landscaping, utilities, everything that goes with the actual construction of the project. So we're estimating that to be $55 million. Um if you move around to the left, you'll see kind of a purple uh number there. That's the off-site storm drain project. So, this is a separate project from PPSF, but it is um it's at the entrance to the fairgrounds and it makes total sense to have this project combined with the public safety facility. So, we're not trying to manage two competing projects in close proximity and trying to deal with the headaches of traffic control and everything else. Having one uh project to deal with there helps streamline that for the city for the city and we get some efficiencies with mobilization costs and things as well. Um, so that's those two items will be bid together. And then the moving around on the pie chart there in blue, you'll see DBE design contract. That's a $2 million fee that we're estimating we will receive to continue the design. Uh, we recently took this through SPAR and uh, we have the project at an early DD set. So if you're familiar with construction drawings, you have your schematic phase SDS. Then you have DDS which is design development which takes the project through permitting and building and codes and all that kind of good stuff that you have to do. And then you get into your construction phase which is actually uh the finalization and stamping of the documents to actually go and build it on site. Um so that $2 million is the design build entities fee to pick it up from where we are today and run it through permitting and uh and through construction and it's their construction administration costes costs. So those three numbers tied together are just slightly below $60 million. Uh on May 21st, if we see numbers come in of under $60 million, I'll be doing cartwheels personally, that's a a really good win for us and a good place to be in. Uh but that takes us nicely to our next little pie there in dark green. You'll see contingency.

Uh we're carrying um just under 10% which is a industry standard for a construction cost like this of 55. H if the numbers came in slightly over 60, we'd be willing to obviously pull some of that contingency and that's what it's there for so the project doesn't die on the spot. You know, we have money to keep keep it moving forward. Um so we'd be we'd be fairly happy to pull up to about $2 million out of that contingency to be able to award the contract and keep moving forward. Um other items on the pie chart there, you have your administr uh admin legal cost, your internal construction management cost. That's for me and whatever staff works with me to deliver the project over the next three years. Uh we have our CIP overheads. And then the next big uh ticket item you see there uh in pink is design other and that's for uh a whole host of miscellaneous costs. So much have already been spent uh for our uh bridging architect to bring the project through schematic into early design development. uh we'll have ongoing costs the city will need to uh provide in addition to the design build entity which is uh you know special inspection testing and oversight of the design build entity to make sure they're building it um you know per code and the way the city um envisioned it. Uh next slide please. So slide three is a breakdown of the funding sources for the project. Um you can see measure H is doing the heavy lifting for the uh fire portion and measure U is has got the lion share uh funding for the police portion of this and additional um funding sources are city facility impact fees uh traffic impact fees, general fund. We have a nice little EOC grant in there and uh a land sale and some developer contributions. Now I'll be around if there's any more questions that come up on this later on. Thank you. Good evening, council. Jeff Stzman, deputy director of public works for our

safe streets and mobility. So, our favorite topic that we've we're talking about paving. Um, just want to take a moment to just go over our five-year plan and where we're at, but just I know there's some questions about the five-year list. If you go into city of Paluma and Google just streets, our five-year plan is on there and there's a nice map there that you can kind of go in, click on the street, so you could see all the residential streets that have been identified in that 5-year plan. Um, over the last couple years, we've done a lot of great projects. We've hit Maria Drive, Garfield Drive, North Mcdow. We've also done a lot of good preventive maintenance programs. Um, we are currently working on Reineer Avenue. That one is in construction right now and will be completed this year. Coffee Lane is in design and it'll be in construction next year as well as Howard Street. That will be constructed next year as well. So, next year will be a big paving paving year for us. And then we finally have D Street, which is currently in design and utility scoping and will be in construction in 2028. And then finally, our preventive maintenance program, um, which is focused on keeping our good roads in good condition, um, helping to support our safe streets and mobility, um, quick build projects, trying to link those two together the best we can. Um, as we have been moving forward with the 5-year plan, the timeline has shifted out just a little bit, and that is due to a few factors. um with the opportunity to move forward on the public safety facility and how we're using our bonding capacity um which has been adjusted the timing of our paving funding that's been available. The second one is the delivery approach um for our design work. We've been utilizing a combination of in-house design with our city staff as well as outside consultants. We've seen a significant cost savings utilizing our in-house team. Um it also side benefit of it is they learn and we grow that

that talent internally and can use them on future projects. Um but as as we say that last year as Jonathan mentioned was challenging with staffing. So that staffing shortage definitely um delayed a few of those larger projects. And finally just the sequencing. Um one thing we've really been trying to hammer home is combining utility and paving projects together. Um again by leveraging those two we can leverage the utility saving the we can leverage um utility funds for those for some of the paving to offset some of the impacts and kind of increase the number of streets we can hit. Um and part of it is when we combine those projects those projects become larger and more complex. Howard is a perfect example. We have both water sewer main the whole way down. So instead of just being a basic paving project, now it is three very large projects together. So it takes longer time for our team or a consultant to design. Um so over the overall message I just want to deliver is measure U um continues to be a critical funding source for the paving program. We've continued both the maintenance and reconstruction work, but with with some timing adjustments to the real world delivery conditions. It's a living program that we refine each year based on staffing, funding, and sequencing needs. Next slide. Um, here are some pave here are the projects that have been identified in the five-year plan um but not funded in the CIP. These streets include a mix of arterials, collectors, and neighborhood streets. Given the current funding constraints, we were focused on the available resources on a project that ready to move forward and can be delivered in the near term. These streets represent the next year of priorities for the city and spending for additional funding. Potential funding for these could include future grant opportunities, measure U bond, or a p a

potential voter approved road bond. While these projects are not in the current budget, they remain a long a longer term paving. It remains a part of our longer term paving strategy. Um, in total we have $17 million for paving for these projects, Rainineer Avenue, Cfield Lane, Howard Street, D Street, and our preventative maintenance program. It is important to note that these fund sources um the total budget doesn't include any of the utility funding that's related to these projects. This is a this is a significant investment would not have been possible without measure U as we see 33% of of the funding has come from measure you so it is the biggest piece of that pie up there um the remaining funds for paying comes from a mixed source including competitive grant awards transportation revenues and impact fees and one thing that is just important to note is that it is not one fund source that helps deliver paving projects. It really takes co-mingling all these and that's kind of the benefit of Measure U is you're able to leverage all these different sources to make this happen. Next slide. And then finally, I mentioned it on the first first slide um about sequencing of our paving projects, but as we've been trying to combine utility and streets and sewer projects, um it does impact our design schedule. But the benefit of combining those projects is utilities. It allows us to utilize utility funds for a portion of the paving. So when we have Howard Street, I'm just keep using as example because it is one of our bigger projects. Um it's a sewer main and a water man the whole stretch. So per our standards, we're able to utilize

some of that funding from the utilities to pay that portion of it, that kind of fair respective piece that's related to it. So, this allows us to expand um those projects, that project list, and kind of squeak as much streets as we can out of the available money that we have because as we look through um MTC and the PTAP, which is our payment technical assistance program that rates our streets through the payment condition index, um it's we have a long road ahead of us to try to work on that PCI. So, every dollar we can save and kind of move into other projects, the better chance we have at our streets. Um, let's see. Yeah.

Good evening, mayor, council members. I'm Gina Benadetti Pnik, assistant director of public works and utilities. And I need this lower. There we go. Um the proposed TW I'm here to talk about the trestle and the proposed 2627 budget allocation for the trestle projects primarily focused on community outreach environmental and project scoping activities necessary to determine a viable path forward. First staff is recommending a renewed focus on developing a collective community vision for the future of the trestle. We recognize the structure is an iconic and deeply valued community asset and it will be important for the city and stakeholders coalesce around a unifying v vision before we advance into future design phases. That shared vision will ultimately help inform the preliminary concepts needed for environmental review and permit applications. Second, we're continuing to evaluate permitting pathways uh and regulatory requirements through coordination with agencies including the Army Corps of Engineers, uh California State Lands, uh the Water Board, Fish and Wildlife, and the State Historic Preservation Office or SHIPO. Uh early discussions have already helped clarify likely constraints and sequencing requirements, but environmental permits will necessitate that ownership and site control questions are resolved. And third, staff continues to advance title research and legal analysis related to ownership determination. Resolving that thresh threshold issue remains critical before grant applications, more or less designer construction activities can meaningfully advance. In summary, the

2627 work program is really centered on due diligence, community alignment, regulatory pathway definition, and ownership clarification. All of them foundational steps before the city can responsibly move into design, permitting, or construction. And I'll be available for questions should they come up. Thank you. And I think this punts back to the director, Paul. Thanks, Gina. And I'll cover the downtown public restroom project, uh, which has been around for several year several years, and we've had multiple starts and stops on this project as the scope and budget has evolved over time, um, as we've hit some and as we've hit some roadblocks during the planning and design. So, the project was previously envisioned and budgeted as solely a downtown restroom uh project with an approximate budget of about $500,000 coming from the general fund or measure U dollars. And then the scope was later expanded to include downtown beautifification uh in order to incorporate some additional amenities in the area surrounding the restroom, things like trash recepticles, street furniture, bike racks, and tree wells and trees. So the budget was increased as part of that um to approximately $800,000. Uh but as we know general fund is flexible, right? And so there's a high demand for these dollars with competing priorities from other projects and programs. So as an example um over the last couple of years, general fund dollars have been shifted to um to other projects as listed here. Um, so approximately 575,000 shifted to Lucazy turf replacement project to close the gap and allow us to deliver that project. Uh, $200,000 was shifted to the safe streets and mobility program. Uh, the the safe streets nomination program, excuse me. Um, and another $190,000 was shifted

towards the downtown ADA improvements project. The result uh was that the proposed budget um uh proposed budget has is being reduced to $180,000 uh this coming fiscal year with the sole funding source being the Pedaluma tourism improvement district fund. Uh so for next year we will be proposing a two-pronged approach uh to move this project forward. Uh we'll advance the project. Um we'll finalize the the first we'll finalize the location and the restroom design which will include evaluating options and pricing from several um restroom manufacturers both um uh prefab prefab structures and potentially site built options. Uh one of the key elements of the design is ADA uh both uh creating accessible path to and from the restroom but then also ensuring that the restroom itself is accessible. We'll also be partnering closely with planning staff as we finalize the location uh to ensure the restroom design will fit within the character of the horse historic downtown. And second, uh we'll continue in concurrent with the design, we'll we'll work with um uh ex work with the property owner, private property owner uh to explore uh the possibility of reopening the restroom um in Putinham Plaza for public use. Um it's important to note that um the with the revised and reduced budget of 180,000 um based on the initial planning work and design work that we've completed to date um it's about 200,000 for the restroom for a pre-fabricated restroom on its own which doesn't include any necessary site improvements like utilities um um and flat work concrete and work Uh so the proposed budget will likely be insufficient to

move forward with construction. So as we finalize design and prepare an updated engineers estimate, we'll re-evaluate and um identify any additional funding that's needed for construction in the following fiscal year. And I'll hand it over to John.

Thank you, Paul. Uh in addition to the major projects just covered uh by the public works team, we have also been advancing a range of public works projects across the city. These projects focus on improving safety, accessibility, and overall connectivity within the transportation network. Together, these projects address both systemwide needs and targeted improvements that support day-to-day use of our infrastructure. Um and now we'll talk some more about some other projects including parks. Uh the skate park phase one is moving into construction uh shortly and will be completed in the next fiscal year. Phase one includes construction of the skate park and associated site improvements uh including core infrastructure needed to support future amenities. A future phase two will complete supporting facilities such as restrooms, lighting, accessibility improvements, electrical upgrades, and landscaping as funding becomes available. We are also hoping to pave the final unpaved section of Lynch Creek Trail between Edith Street and Peran Street, improve accessibility at the Payan Street trail head, and repave the section between Lynch Creek Trail and North Mcdal Boulevard. If budget allows after completing the core improvements, additional enhancements such as trail lighting may be included. We are also getting close to finishing the design of the Wilson uh pump station outfall upgrades project. Having this design will hopefully help position us better to continue to apply for outside funding sources to help close the project's funding gap. We also expect to finish the design of the storm water treatment project in partnership with CALR. Um, and while the number of surface water projects may seem underwhelming, it should be noted that these projects are not supported by an enterprise fund. At the airport, we are advancing projects focused on maintaining infrastructure and improving safety.

These projects are largely supported by the FAA and state grant funding with approximately 88% of the total $4.2 million fiscical year 2627 budget coming from these sources. This allows the city to complete necessary improvements with limited use of local funding. With the transition of our bus fleet to all electric, we have completed phase one of the transit fleet charging infrastructure project. Phase one established the core infrastructure, which phase 2 will build upon to expand charging capacity in alignment with our greater fleet rollout. We have taken a phased approach to align efforts with fleet replacement and to maximize allegibility for external grant funding. And as a result, the project is supported by both federal and local funds. This slide summarizes a range of investments across our water, wastewater, and recycled water systems. These projects focus on maintaining core infrastructure, addressing system reliability, and supporting long-term service needs. You will see a mix of replacement work, system upgrades, and targeted expansions. on this slide. Staff are being particularly considerate of the recycle water program costs and will be finishing design efforts in key segments to support obtaining grants. Overall, this reflects an ongoing investment in essential utility systems that are largely out of sight but still critical to daily operations. In addition to the PIPS's parallel force main and pump station projects, the projects supporting wastewater utility and recycle water infrastructure, there are seven active projects specifically to Ellis specific to Ellis Creek water recycling facility planned in fiscal year 2627. This represents approximately 3.1 million in wastewater capital budget funds for this fiscal year. Um, we plan on completing construction for all of these projects except for the chemical

system upgrades where we have recently completed phase 1 and are beginning the design process for phase 2. This slide shows the range of funding sources that make up the overall CIP budget. There is no single funding source and projects are supported by a mix of utility funds, infrastructure bonds, grants, and dedicated revenue streams. Of the 132 million total, about 54.4 million comes from governmental fund sources and 68.5 million comes from enterprise sources. It is important to note that most of these funds are restricted or special purpose, meaning they can only be used for the specific types of projects. The general fund is the primary discretionary funding source, but it represents a relatively small portion of the overall CAP. Delivering the program requires aligning the right funding sources with the right projects. If a specific project was not mentioned in earlier slides, it is likely that it may be scheduled in an outyear or it may have a certain amount of undetermined funding needed to fully support it. uh projected CIP uses through fiscal year 3031 total approximately 265 million and future unfunded non-enterprise governmental fund needs total about 134 million of that and the future utility needs add another approximately 120 million to this total and that wraps up our our CIP presentation and we'd be happy to answer any questions thank you

thank you wow that's quite a listening there. Quite a bit of work there. Um let's um again take it to the uh public comment period and uh I'll ask the clerk to carry it.

Uh yes, members of the public uh who have not already brought their cards to my desk should do so if they would like to make a comment on this section of the presentation. Thank you. Our first speaker is Chris Stivik to be followed by uh Dr. Lesie Crane. Council, mayor, staff, thank you for the great privilege of being able to address you. Um, I have um a history of the effort thousands of hours put into the trestle. Um, and it's documented. It's datebased. Could you're passing it out? Um, it's all the uh PDFs and letters and uh council uh presentations are all available on say the trestle.org. So, thank you very much. Um there is one common theme that this history has revealed and that it's a complete stonewalling of stakeholder um input which actually was part of the grant that the coastal conservancy state coastal conservancy required to have. That's why they came up with three

alternatives without any stakeholder input and that's why the alternatives were um not very good and uh they pref preferred um the alternative three which was demolition. Why would you take a grant to preserve the trestle and prefer an alternative of demolition? It's kind of symbolic. This afternoon I met with um the western director of uh piling uh preservation in the Denzo uh corporation and we walk the trestle and um so we're actively pursuing it. Doesn't take a crane. It can be done in place. in your handouts here are actually pictures of how people can do that. And he pointed out to me that a slight bend or tilt in one piling doesn't necessarily mean it has to be replaced with a screw pile, which would require dismount destruction of the trestle in those places. And so we're going from a a 300k load to a 30k load for a pedestrian walkway and it's going to work. It doesn't need screw piles. That changes the entire estimate. Um especially uh what has the history shows is that um the 2011 manipulated stakeholder involvement um in it. Is that my out?

Yeah, that's three minutes. Okay, that's done for me. I'd just like to say that I'm going to follow this up with a lot more information for you. Thank you so much for the

Thank you, Dr. Lesley Crane to be followed by Rick Berg. Will it still work? Okay. Are you here? try. Honorable Mayor McDonald, esteemed council members, and valued city manager Flynn, I rise in support of replacing or if not able to do that or repairing or if not able to do that, replacing the downtown train trestle. And in view of the budget shortfall that we just learned about, I would like to emphasize um obtaining grants in order to do this. I am a registered nurse of 53 years. And 37 of those years include intensive care, emergency room, and pediatrics. My biggest concern is that some kid is going to climb that flimsy fence surrounding the property and break their neck. And this is based on my clinical

experience. And as a mom and grandmother, I know also as a nurse what that involves because if they don't die right away, they will be a paraple a paraplegic or quadriplegic. And this concerns me as this drags on and the um trestle is not repaired and the property is vulnerable. And so I would urge that this get taken care of. I would I also as a Paluma resident of 40 that's 40 o years and a Rotarian I support the downtown businesses and and believe that they deserve an attractive downtown. They have serious competition from Marin, from the Soma Plaza, from Napa, and now uh Hillsburg. And they deserve a 365 day a year um downtown to compete with those other areas. And they don't have it. They have um occasional events that attract tourism and nobody loves a parade more than I do, but they deserve more. They deserve a downtown that looks better than ours. And finally, as a member of the um Paluma Women's Club, we have offered to partner with the city and contribute our considerable expertise in fundraising, in grant writing, and in organization and would like to um help get this done. Let's get it done because the businesses deserve it. I don't want to see more

empty windows downtown and I don't want that kid to break their neck. Thank you for your time and consideration. Thank you, Rick Berg followed by Gabe Kleinman.

All right. Well, good evening, Mr. Mayor. Uh, council members. Uh, my name is Rick Berg. I'm a resident of Pedaluma. I'm a real estate broker with Central 21 Epic here in town. I'm also a member of the Pedaluma Downtown Association Board of Directors. So, I'm here this evening with those three hats on to talk with you about the trestle. Um, Paluma's historic trestle is safety hazard, an environmental liability, and at best an eyesore. Uh, and it's in the heart of our downtown. Our community has an opportunity to honor a beloved landmark, further activate our riverfront, and invest in the civic and economic vitality of this city. I respectfully urge the council to take the following actions without delay, which is to say, do something now. Please treat this project as critical by assigning staff and allocating monies from the budget. convene community visioning meetings with the intention of creating consensus of a vision for the uh Pedaluma Riverfront. Establish a fasttrack project schedule with firm and binding milestones. Aggressively pursue all available uh grant opportunities. Resolve the property ownership question as an immediate priority. Uh lastly, provide the community with transparent regular updates on a quarterly basis about project uh progress and funding status. Um I believe every council has publicly agreed that the status quo is untenable. It's time for us to move from agreement to action. I urge you all to do something now. And I want to thank you all for your hard work. Budgeting is no fun. Uh, I know I appreciate staff uh

effort and time and so thank you all. Thank you. Gabe Kleinman to be followed by Amber Balshaw.

I considered seeding my time so we could all take a three minute stretch break, but uh you're all doing amazing work. So, thank you. Uh thank you to all the city employees for all of their service and dedication. in the face of all these cuts. Uh we appreciate you. I'm Gabe Kleinman. I love Paluma. So do my 10 and 12year-old daughters. I've become more active in recent years helping support and build on uh Paluma's iconic community. And I'm now working with a group to revitalize Putnham Plaza as both a respit downtown and as a true thoroughfare from Kentucky Street all the way to the river right where the trestle currently sits. And the big question I cannot shake is what if the trestle a were a true prominade where it sits today and if it were as iconic as the community it would represent. We are a river town. We turned our backs on the river a long time ago and now we have an opportunity to reclaim that. This trestle is not only a part of our identity, it is essential to it. Community and pride aside, the hard-nosed economic benefits should speak for themselves. Iconic places and spaces like this anchored at the Great Pedaluma Mill extending up and down the river and even across the boulevard to Putinham Plaza and all the way through to Kentucky Street would drive extraordinary economic activity from pedalumins and visitors alike. And the thing is, I'm betting pretty much everyone in this room agrees on the contours of what great looks like. Beauty, great places to eat, a place to gather or take a stroll, and so much more. This would be a lighthouse for downtown and an inspiration for everything that is possible here in Paluma. But ideas

are cheap and making things happen is where the real work starts. We have the beginnings of an idea and should invite community voices for more input while remembering that while everyone has a voice, not everyone should have a veto. And if you haven't seen the sketch of what this could look like at the Riverfront Cafe, you should go check it out. It's just a sketch, but it really brings it to life. The Trestle Project represents the best of this town, so let's make it happen. Thank you, Amber Battleshot. to be followed by Rosemary Hart.

Good evening and thank you very much for your time this evening. I'm Amber Balshaw. I am the vice chairman for the Pedaluma bike and pedestrian committee and I come on behalf of the Lynch Creek Trail and cyclists of Pedaluma. When you're looking at the CIP budget, the Lynch Creek Trail is becoming an even more essential piece as the building of the skate park is going to be. We're going to have kids coming back and forth across town. I think it's going to be essential that that path get repaired. I know I've seen several of you on it as I've been cycling it across it and all of the work that has gone into the active transportation plan, the planning of the bike paths. We've been taking a lot of time to create large projects but also many many small ones that will just finish the infrastructure we need to make this a bike friendly town. I'm not going to take more time. I appreciate yours and thank you.

Thank you. Rosemary Hart to be followed by Warren Granite.

Good evening everyone. I should get closer. Um, this is my fifth year of standing here with this same speech. So, here it goes. I'm Rosemary Hart. I'm now representing over a thousand of your constituents that signed petitions and have sent you emails from the QR code downtown and were submitted in your written comments. We all want to see this trestle project move forward. We were so encouraged during the goals and and priorities workshop when you all I mean the council talked for 33 minutes and prioritize the trestle and then it comes on our list in italics saying that it's sort of an afterthought. Now, um, each of each member here has their own vision of what they would like to see the trestle do, but everyone agreed in that goals and priority workshop that something has to be done now. Even to quote council, we don't want to keep coming back every nine months with nothing more figured out and no path forward. In 2022, the project schedule had our trestle project completed by now. And last year, Foss contract was going to have shovel ready plans. So, we're very surprised to see in 2026 27 proposed budget, it shows that our trestle, which has been a high priority for the past four years, was an afterthought.

And the CIP sheet shows no funding. That's a a big goose egg right there and no project schedule. It's not even really a project. It's just going to be more discussion. I was really encouraged to see that projects could actually be done in a fast track by the city of Paluma. Please take the first step. Have a project deter or and have a project determined. Only then we can ask for funding. We need to have our community visioning now and then our shovel ready project prioritized for 2627. Let's do something now. Thank you.

Thank you. Warren Danet to be followed by Moren Gotchaw. Uh, greetings, uh, Mayor McDonald, city council members, uh, city manager Flynn.

There we go. Better. Uh, I'm just said hello. Um, so, uh, my name is Warren Danet. I, um, appearing here before you today, uh, as as part of the Pedaluma government. I'm sorry. Paluma Chamber of Commerce. I chair its government affairs committee. Um before I get started, I just wanted to start by thanking um city manager Flynn and Brian O for their efforts on economic development. Um the work of business navigator program um hiring uh Katherine Depasqua and uh and uh Nancy Sand um working together. This is great stuff and I'm excited by what is happening. Uh this chamber um I am here also to echo uh many of the comments on the trestle. Uh the chamber did submit us a uh a uh letter. I will take a couple minutes just to read it into the record. Uh the Pedaluma area Chamber of Commerce continues to advocate for the economic vibrancy of our city, our downtown. A vital component of the pedalum economy thrives by offering residents and visitors an exceptional pedestrian experience. It is clear that the current condition of the trestle and the riverfront prominade falls short of that vision and detracts from the overall waterfront experience. We view the trestle and the prominade as an important community asset that needs to be revitalized as part of the city's ongoing efforts to strengthen the downtown economy. Cities throughout the US have shown that a strategic investment in an ANA corner can have a profound economic impact by drawing visitors and private investment. Time has not been and never will be an ally to the trestle and prominade. The

trestle should not be removed simply because of years neglect have diminished its appearance. Rather, the city has an opportunity to reir reaffirm its commitment to a vibrant downtown and a riverfront by recognizing the trestle and prominade as an integral element of the pedaluma identity, visitor experience, and economic future. We urge you to support a robust community engagement and visioning process and to bring that pri that communitydriven vision forward to the council for consideration. This effort will require city council leadership and prioritis prioritization including the commitment of financial resources necessary for advanced planning that will lead to long-term activation of this site. We thank you for your consideration and continued I'm sorry and continued commitment to our community. Thank you.

Thank you. Moren Gotchell uh to be followed by Chantel Rogers.

Hello. Uh, so this is going back to the reserve and it's in regards to there was on the CIP projects a one-time $5 million sale of land and I saw that it was in the safety fire building and I was confused as as funding for that and I was confused as to why that that is the aetime opportunities are are the perfect uh vehicle to use to shore up your reserves. Um, the city even said one-time items. And so I'm I'm I want this council to ask why that's why that's not being considered. And then, you know, I understand the frustration that the reserves are so important, but they're a financial factor and and that dictates whether we as a city are um viable. And so I just don't want to see us on the list last. I don't want to see us on that dashboard and be last again. And I really, really want you guys, let's put a couple million in there. We have so many things that are going to go up and down with the assumptions and the salaries, all of that stuff. We have, we are on such a narrow thin margin. We need to make sure that we're at minimum 15% if not above. Okay. And so then the next question I have is on the 17.7 million that we're spending on paving is part of that the four million that was left over from the bond prior. I I didn't I don't I didn't get cl and I'd like to get clarification on that. And then also I'd like to say that I do agree that it's a revenue problem and why we're not getting our roads paved, but I also believe it's a spending problem. It's both. It's not one or the other. In from 2020 to 2026, we had $83 million for measure U. We're going to have $100 million projected next year. The backlog uh the

total miles is 396 miles in in Paluma. We did 25 to 30 miles in six years, 6 to 7%. It's not that's not what we voted for. Yes, we voted for some other things, but we didn't vote for those low of numbers. So, I would suggest that we go back to see if we can bump up those numbers, if not necessarily this year, and let's get those side rows. Let's get those residential streets that don't need all the utilities. I get why some of those projects have to wait, but there's so many streets of Pedaluma. Please, we voted for you. This is also why the oversight committee is crucial. Uh, Councilman J uh Janice Kater Thompson reminded us that there is no sunset clause. And the reason why we agreed to that as a voter is because we said there's going to be a committee and there's going to be oversight and so there needs to be accountability and we need that letter should have been responded to in writing. We need to treat that committee as an authority. Thank you.

Thank you. Chantel Rogers to be followed by um Darren. Okay.

Hi. Um so the first thing I'm gonna say is um having a hard time believing that um in this budget we don't have money for a downtown bathroom. Like we had $800,000 last year. Now we're down to 180. And because it's 180 we don't have enough money. So we're not going to do it until we find some more money. like it it's a priority. It you know find another 50 100 grand somewhere and put and and build the bathroom downtown. Let's not drag this out and and and that's just not the place I don't believe to save money. I think it's I think it's critical to our um functioning and and our visitors and people enjoying downtown. And so I I really wish you'd take a look at that. Again, the second thing I'd like to say about the trestle is that we need to find out who owns the trestle. I don't think we need to do anything else till we find out the legal ownership. And so we know where we can go from there. We we all sat in this chamber a year ago, went through this whole process, a visioning, different choices, blah blah blah, and guess what? We can't do squat because we don't know who owns it. We don't know what the ramifications are. If we can't figure it out, let's hire somebody who can figure it out. It there has to be a company that does this that digs deep in, you know, if we haven't been able to figure it out in six months, are we going to be able to? And I I don't think we can do anything until we do. Um I also wanted to see if I could get some clarification on the $70 million water bond that we need to have. Um, is that just a regular bond like the other bonds that we've put in for? And we're going to then have annual debt. We're already up to $4 million bond debt from the uh roads bond and the um safety building bonds that we're planning to

do. So um and that's about 70. So are we going to have another four million in bond debt or is that going to be repaid in a in a different way? I'm not really sure how that's um how that's going to work. And um one of the possibilities that was up there was on a um a voter approved road bond. And um I I I can tell you pretty clearly that's that's not going to work. Um so I I wouldn't I I definitely wouldn't um count on uh count on that. The other thing I'm curious about is what happens to the old vehicles? cuz a lot of these vehicles that have been replaced in town don't look like they're on their last legs. So, you know, if we replace a a um a parks and wreck truck with an electric truck or whatever, what happens to the old truck? Do we sell it? Do we get some money back? Um you know, where where do all the old vehicles go? And do we recoup some expenses? And and where does that show up? Thank you.

Thank you. Uh Darren should be followed by Katherine Reinhardt.

Thank you, Mayor and Council. That's Darren Rakinson. Apologies for my bad handwriting there. Uh just taking another bite here because I realize the ERP I mentioned is actually listed as a city capital project. And so just to summarize, this is like a $6 million city capital project, $1 and a half to$2 million a year. My concern is we have a piece of it where we may be having to find a new vendor right now. Uh and as we face all these hard decisions about the trestle or whatever the capital project is, this is a pretty significant chunk of money that if we can move this internal capital project off the board because it is drawing funds as transfers out from other funds where we want projects done, this could be a pretty significant value. And it sits in the context of paying an existing software provider 300k a year which is part of a roughly $4.5 million information technology investment we have as a city that also needs to be queried because in 2025 we got a lot of new software listed in the budget. Um I don't know if they're all entirely new. Procore Monday a bunch of project management softwares different things. Let's make sure we're using them. let's audit that technology stack to make sure there's no wasted money as well as the significant IT consultants that we have with CDW government Marin IT which I know is on a list of reductions. So again as we face these hard decisions you have a lot of community members pushing for capital projects the ones the city controls and really sets the timeline costs and everything else. Let's get those finished moved off the board or see where we can reduce cost to make some of these hard decisions easier. Thank you.

Thank you, Katherine Reinhardt.

Good evening, mayor, city council members, staff. Um, hopefully you've you've uh received and read my written comments. Uh, so I'm just going to keep this very short. Katherine Reinhardt, local historian, and I am a member of the Pedaluma Trestle Prominade now steering committee. I want to make sure that is out there. And I, like many of those who have already spoken, uh, speak to you tonight asking that you allocate funds and direct staff to begin the public engagement and visiting process for the Trezel project as soon as possible. And then I'm just going to skip over and just say that the steering committee and myself, we're organized, engaged, and ready to work in partnership with the city. We are not asking you to do this alone and with your support, we're here to help and ready to take the next step. So, thank you very much.

Thank you very much. That was our last public comment card for the evening which um we'll bring it back on up to the Gadias and council to talk uh to ask questions or to um provide feedback on our capital uh program and who would like to lead off on this. I did have a couple of things from the uh public comment. Uh I'm seeing no one jump up. I would uh like to ask uh one um the point uh made regarding the trestle budget where it said there was no funding um could someone in staff explain how something's in the projects with nothing sourced code bel you know sourced funding below is it in or isn't it in

welcome back Tina hello again. Uh Gina Benedetti Patnik, assistant director of public works. And the question is about the remaining um budget for um for the trestle and um it has it is in the extended CIP in the future CIP because it's not funded. So monies were are shown shown in the outy years but without the question is on that sheet in the specific this year projects it says 375 for expenditures this year. Mhm. The concern was there was no funding source shown. So would there be

it's rolled over from the prior year. So it's real money. 375 is real money this year. I just wanted to confirm that for sorry I misunderstood the question. My apologies. Thank you. Um and then um my other questions from what I heard from the public um there's Wilson's um Wilson pump station and um there's a study for that. Uh I was wondering how is what where's the funding come from for that? So you're talking about the plans for Wilson or I think this year is only a study, right? Is it whatever's in for Wilson this year? I was wondering what the funding source was if it's not water and it's not sewer.

It's general fund. Is it general fund money? Yes, I believe it is general fund money. Okay, wonderful. Sorry. Hoping that wasn't a trick one. Um the um question also came up about the sale of the police station, a $5 million question, and I'm wondering if that was to be rolled into the budget for the police station. Is it counted on as part of the I mean for the public safety complex that we need? It's one of many sources to fund that project. So that's why it's not available for any other purpose. Correct.

It makes that project whole. Thank you very much. Uh the other one was I think we show $4 million in measure U money for this year and um and the question was is that part of an old bond or is that new measure U or where does that where does that 4 million of paving this year from measure U come from? Um, I'm not sure that I'm referencing what you're speaking to or asking about, but um, there's approximately 4 million in the measure U budget allocated for road um, and debt service. So, roughly half of that is going to fund directly to CIP projects and half of that is for ongoing debt service.

Um, not sure if that's what you're referring to. You know, the question was from the public that that's a great I love that answer, but I think there was a funding stack of 16 or 17 million for this year's paving. Yeah, a slide of funding stack. So, yeah, I do recall a question about whether or not the bonds are being spent. So, there's roughly 1.4 million of that 20 million bond that's carrying forward into 27. And then those bonds will be completely utilized for um and implemented for all of the road projects. Okay. Um, thanks. That's perfect. And, um, now, um, Council Member Shribes.

Okay. Just a, um, a couple small questions on on the side here. Um, just one on the, uh, the PIPS project. Um, from the map, it was looking like the, uh, pipeline ended up at the polishing wetlands rather than the actual facility out there. So, where does it actually end? Um I assume it starts over at the um old water treatment plant uh right next to inside the buildings that are already there. But where does it actually end? It's going to connect to an existing blind flange. So at looking like the polishing wetlands, but that is right now the existing forest man used to run to the oxidation ponds. Not exactly sure how long ago, but we connected it to the headworks at the new tripping plant. So it basically turns from the polishing wetlands towards Ellis Creek, but there is an existing connection point for this future force main in that location. That's why you're saying the pipeline I'm not sure if I'm answering the question, but

right it's running straight. It ends up where the plane is not. It it ends up connecting to a pipeline that is headed to Ellis Creek. We just don't have to put the new existing for or the parallel force main all the way to Ellis because there's already a connection point waiting for it. Okay, that's a different way of answering it.

Okay, because that goes through being I travel out there quite a bit um and do things. Um so it looks like it's following the trail, but then it ends up in a wetland area um that has eucalyptus trees in it with the owl box camera that I've got in it. So I get uh So now I'm looking at okay, what exactly is going to get ripped up and um are we going to actually repair the um the dyke that people are are coming up and down? Is that all going to be part of the plan for that section in there between when it enters and then when it ends? Are we going to be able to re redo that entire part of the Ellis Creek? Yeah, there is

in that along that line. I may not know exactly the area that Yuri is referring to, but I know that alignment basically when you're in that trail of the Ellis Creek Park area, the there are some wetland habitats, seasonal part of the studies, the environmental studies that I mentioned before in permitting took that into account. There are temporary impacts. So no exact no direct impacts to wetlands. Anything that's impacted as a temporary impact and then restore to existing condition. I'm not sure if I'm kind of directly answering the question. I think we have an answer here. So, um, the actual polishing wetlands are not being destroyed as part of the PIPS project. We're trying in outside of that. It's going between the two ponds.

Looks like more or less. Yeah. Yeah.

Okay. Just just checking to see what what the direction of what was happening out there for the that area. Um then on the um just on on on the roads is just like more residential because in my area um there turns out over by the um since I'm closer to like um the east side and lots of water is underneath the roads there's a few of those brand new roads that were only 10 years old completely being destroyed the water from underneath is seeping up and really bad. So yeah so I'd like to see a few more residential roads uh done. Castle Drive is is a prime example of that. Then on the um and when the police and fire are going in, I'm hoping that there's enough electrical um as we've talked about in in the uh blueprint for climate action that we need to get more um infrastructure for electrical, so for charging stations and the like so that both for ride shares and then people in the parking lot to be able to charge up their cars. Um, will there be enough will will there be a line from the police and fire into that parking lot at least the capacity to put something in for infrastructure for charge stations there in the parking lot at the fairgrounds or is or is that um I've just asked for capacity of of electrical capacity at that site.

Um I'll have I'll have a stab at answering that. Um the public safety facility definitely has EV chargers in it and we have everything to meet code for what we're supposed to do and and a little bit beyond and we have capacity to uh increase that in the future. However, we you wouldn't service uh an address outside of that for public consumption to that would be its own P gen service that would meter a future EV system for public use outside of the public safety.

So that wouldn't be couldn't be part of the project. Just just asking on that. Then on the uh the restroom, I'm hoping um when you're looking at $180,000, I'm hoping that's more than one toilet cuz that's like space satellite price. So um so $180,000 I hope that is more than one toilet that's being proposed or thought about just one. Okay. So that that's a pretty high price toilet. Okay. Um would like to see more volume on that if we can. But anyway, the um uh and going back I support everything about the trestle about replacement. I think that's new information that we just got delivered today of because we what we've been hearing is that the pilings are really bad and need to be removed and that they're environmental hazard. Um and that replacement or trying to do something with them is like unattenable. So if we have new information that let's have it. So if we so bring that to us as fast as possible and then the ownership we'll get that solved. I think uh Gina was very good about hey we we do have a plan to move forward on all these items. Ownership first. Um we have a problem down there right now. uh that needs to get solved. We also have a waste uh water pipe that's right running underneath it that apparently is also even would be even bigger hazard. Um if that was to actually anything fall in it and crack uh we're in big trouble. So um with that so we need to get that rolling. Um so anyway I would support moving forward as best we can with that. I think Gina provided us with a plan forward. So I think just let's do that for sure and bring in uh and then working with the partnership with the community as being proposed. Okay, but that's all the comments I had otherwise everything sounds really good to me.

Wonderful. Uh Council Member Barnacle. Thank you. Thanks for the presentation. Um on the PIFS project, the bid that's going to be going out is just for phase one. Is that correct? Okay. Um, and then are we is there any potential to because the the but the bond is for phase one and phase two. Is that correct? I guess I have a few questions. So, um,

apologies for not introducing myself. Steve World, deputy director of water resource and utilities for environmental services at Ellis. The bond right now is structured so that we can pay for the force main project contingency for that and have some money to apply towards the pump station. Right now we don't know exactly what the construction cost of the force man will be. Um there's a lot of uncertainty around the cost of HDPE pipe being that it's a prochemical product and you've seen what gas prices are doing right now. So we are baking in lots of conservatism and any dollars left over will be applied towards the pump station. Great. And then in the in the way that we're bidding that out or planning to bid it out, are we planning to bid it out to where we can continue with phase two or are we going to come back and do another procurement and that sort of thing?

Sure. Yeah, they'll be separate construction contracts. Okay. Y um and then appreciate the use of design build. Is there any other projects where we're going to like use our newly discovered design build strategy um in the capital program this year? Not not this year, but we'll keep that in mind as we develop new project scopes. Okay. Um on the roads um that we're doing, are we bidding those in such a way that would allow us to move from one to the next without having to do separate procurements for Howard and Cfield and D Street and Reineer and all of that? Or is those all separate um bids that we're doing?

The current ones are all separate. uh you know we try to coordinate that as much as we can but with the different utilities as you saw a large portion of like D Street and Howard are utility pieces and so it's not always the same work to different streets like Cawfield is primarily paving so okay and I I'll just add to that these are all sizable paving projects especially with the utilities combined and so we think we're going to get competitive pricing on these what we what I've been hearing um from the other directors in county is is pricing has been good. Um and so we want to get these project designed and and out as soon as possible. That's what we're working towards and hopefully that pricing kind of, you know, continues.

Good stuff. I'm glad to hear it. Um on the ghost tax, is that a tax that is specific to a project or are those thing or is that flexible that we can use for any sort of transportation um project? It's a it's a mixture of it. So there's two and and Bejorn's online too could probably add a little bit, but there's there's two pots. There's like a competitive piece. So those competitive pieces we apply for projects. You guys have seen those project lists that come through. One of them was Cfield. So they they rate those projects on a competitive nature against all the other cities in Sonoma County. And they kind of are the matchmaker with those funds. And then there's another piece which is our typical kind of they call used to call it the pothole fund. Um so there is additional money in that pothole fund that is going to kind of street operations that can be used for other things but it's it's related to street operations potholeing paving um active transportation elements.

Great. Thank you. Um and then uh the next question I have I guess is uh St. Francis. That was a one that I think a few when we looked at the 5-year paving plan, we were, you know, thinking we would frontload that one PCI of 15. And I'm just wondering if there's what the cost of that was or was there a decision to sort of delay that one because that one runs right in front of a school. And so it was just um a few thoughts. Yeah, I I know I got it ahead of you.

We we've heard it about St. Francis. Um, it is a priority. It is on the list. Um, it's not going away. It's it's the funding piece. So, it kind of hit that that cut off line of of funding. Um, we are exploring grants for it. We just were talking today about a greening grant. Um, opportunities to install trees, but it might be an opportunity to do curb ramps as well with that. So, that at least could offset that paving cost. It's I mean, this is a problem with paving it. it comes down to the money and trying to get creative with it. Um because we only have we have so many roads and so much work to be done and so little money. Um so on every single project we're looking for opportunities for savings. Howard Street we're using utility as a way of saving. Caulfield we're looking at a Calrans grant for storm water to offset that cost. So it's like all those little savings maybe here and there but it could be applied to St. Francis if we get enough of it. So

cool. Um, okay. And then I think that is all of my questions. So, I'll just tee into some comments now. Um, on St. Francis, I don't know what the cost is. So, it's hard to know for us up here to like what we would be making trade-offs with, but when we come back for a final budget, if there's some way to look at like what would actually happen, what would need to get um delayed to make that happen. I have no idea you know the scope of that paving project whether it's 5 million or 10 million or 2 million or what do you probably be around $4 million. 4 million. Okay. Yeah.

Okay. Um so I think if we can trying to get that project uh in the hopper would be good. Um I'll say the downtown bathroom is one that I would just want to get it done. Um I spent the last week in Denver. I got a good chance to talk to their mayor and he is a force. if you have a chance uh watch some interviews with the Denver mayor um and I got a chance to hang out with the former mayor of Emeryville and um in six month he said you know someone said we don't have uh seating at our bus stops and he was the transportation committee chair and he said well we're going to put seating at all the bus stops in six months and people were like whoa no no no wait we need to pick out what types of seats there are and he said this one and they said well what color and we need to figure that out and he we need to do a process. And he said, "Blue." And in 6 months it was done, right? But it was because he didn't like wait, right? And so I kind of feel that way about the bathroom. It's like we're going to we could go through a big public process and um try and find the perfect place but never get it done or we can just get it done. And I just want to like see us like focus on like, you know, check the damn thing off the box. You know, check the box, get it installed. I don't know how other people feel, but like I really don't care what the thing looks like or the lighting around it and you know it feels like there's a like mission creep and it's like just you know people need a place to poop you know like let's give it to them and um and so I just want to see that project off the list you know in in a similar way that like I want to see the trestle off the list. I think there's a little bit more of a need for public process with the trestle um than the bathroom because I think there's a lot more uh um thoughts around it and cost implications and things like that.

Um but in a similar way like I um you know like I think the elephant in the room on this is that we feel like we don't have a way for pay for construction. We're going to go through the design envisioning for this and then we're going to be like, wait, we don't we don't have a way to actually build the dang thing and we just spent six months or a year and then another million dollars and we got this shovel ready project that will never have shovels in the ground. Um, I'll say that if that if we get to that point, I will work with the community to run a tax measure just to pay for this dang thing. and um it will be a property tax bond or something like that, but we will get the damn thing done. Um and um you know, I think what I would hope with the trestle is that like it's not just um like have we talked to I imagine with the current state of it, we've talked to the the owner of the mill building. Is that accurate? Recently, I would imagine. And what has been the response to taking ownership of the trestle? You know, anything like that? Can someone speak to that?

Um, excuse me. We've uh shared what we've seen in the research with um I've spoken with their legal counsel, had a very nice conversations. She's a very nice person. They're uploading, they're having a um having surveying work done on the parcel boundaries. Um, it was kind of the wild west out there in terms of ownership and transactional documents and and the McNeers owned most of it at a certain point. Um, so so it's complicated. There's I've seen at least two different relatively recent surveys that show different boundary lines for the river side of the parcel. So the understandably the owners want to try to figure out as best they can what they think the boundaries are. And then there's the question of course because you know um there's the parcel boundaries and then there's the state lands land the tidelands trust land and um it it seems like some of the trestle is within the parcel boundaries and and and the wararf because there's also the wararf structure um and some of them and a good part of it is in the um in the state lands land. Um, and then there's the question of ownership of those structures um, as opposed to ownership of the underlying land. So, it's it's complicated. Doesn't appear to be any city ownership in any of those categories. the warf um the um the trestle um the walkway above which is supported by the wararf. Um, and I guess the one exception I should say and it has been mentioned is there there is a current active um um grant of easement um from originally from the McNair owners to the um to the city for the sewer main that's that's

aixed down on the wararf structure but otherwise there's there appears to be no city ownership. So that's a very complicating factor to these discussions.

Mhm. Um and and we and I don't we don't have a position or um you know haven't had further discussion with the owners of their council yet, but we've had had good and and and um friendly discussions about some of the issues there. And I think we're um you know we have an immediate public safety focus in terms of the pedestrian walkway um where and a shared interest of safety there and and um hopefully we'll we'll address that in in very near future cooperatively.

Okay. Um well I don't think we can keep ignoring it because it's becoming you know it's moved from like public safety issues so we blocked it off to blight to now public safety issues growing even more. we've got to do something about it. Um, and so, you know, when I think about the revenue conversation that we're going to have in a few months, um, I would like to see things like the Mills Act, things like looking at the county EIFD that, you know, um, West County just got, like all the tools in our toolbox, bring them forward and see. Um, the other thing I'll say is is it's a brilliant idea from an economic development standpoint for us to build a trestle. Um, also good capital infrastructure projects, good investments in public infrastructure, they pay back by growing your tax base. And um, we haven't proven we can do that quite frankly as a city. Like we got we had a hotel project, it got referended, they came back with a four-story project. Now I'm hearing scuttlebutt that they're acting for years of tax rebatement where they wouldn't actually be paying the toot it for years because the thing actually doesn't pencil. So they've got an entitled project and now they can leverage us to get tax rebatement because we don't act they can't actually get the damn thing built. We don't get the value from it, right? So we're going to probably be jostling with that in the coming months, you know, but like that's the type of stuff we're looking at. We've got entitled projects all over our downtown that can't get built. And so the return on this public investment for us up here doesn't really like we're not seeing it. I don't believe that we can build in this city and grow our tax base to make that a wise investment. Um and I just got to say that to the community that like um do we want to have nice things or not? Because it's you know uh a trestle without growing the tax base actually isn't a wise financial

investment for us. Um, we've got to have we've got to grow the tax base around it. Um, so that's my comment. Thank you, Council Member Kater Thompson.

Council member Barnacle. I appreciate those comments. Um, and you know, this is I'm just going to say it. I have a real issue when two groups in our town sent us a letter pushing for the trestle and they were just soft on the hotel. And that's our chamber of commerce and our downtown business, you know, the assoc association, not necessarily the members, but some of the leaders. And when the leaders are trying to stop economic development in our town, especially the chamber of commerce, not taking it seriously and then and then coming in for the first time and talking about the trestle. They should have been here talking about the hotel and economic development in our downtown because economics makes a difference. And so

let's keep the core.

So um but with that um um Gabe Kleinman, I think we've met before. I'm positive we did. And I'd like to connect you with more on Putinham Plaza. Um because I was at a conference and they were talking about plazas and the importance of having that connection. Um and so let's let's connect. Um, as far as I'm looking at the future unfunded projects, I'm seeing the Paluma Seismic U Pedaluma Museum and that's still on the list and now it's up to like $10 million. And so when we're talking about um historic buildings in our town, we really need to look at the historic buildings also that need that the city owns that need um retrofitting because we will have an earthquake and I don't want that building to come down. Um, I want to talk about just the marina and you know when it talks about the dredging I really do want to find out and I appreciate that the city's working with the state to figure out you know the debt from the 80s how we're going to deal with that. Um because I certainly don't want to spend more money dredging in that area until we figure that debt out. Um and I you know and I I'm really happy that there is a group that's going to work on the trestle. I think that's great. a lot of community support and that's what we're going to need um to move forward with this. But the first step is what um we're just talking with our city attorney finding out who ownership is, but also what um Gina was saying, you know, the steps that she's going to be taking. I mean, if we don't have those steps, we can't get to design um to the design phase because we have to understand where we're at. Um and then I'm really happy to see that the Corona overcrossing um the pedestrian um is pedestrian um I call it a canal lever for bikes and pedestrians is moving forward in SCTCA

today at the meeting that was on the list and so I think there was 500,000 for design and engineering. Is that correct? Would it be for both? Counciloman, this is beenber um transportation planner. I can I can answer that one. Um yeah, so for Corona Road, the activity that we are showing in the upcoming excuse me fiscal year will be um for what's called a a CALR project initiation document. That's because it's a a stateowned bridge. And so anytime you're working in their right of way, um there's a a a pretty um uh complicated and uh uh time inensive process involved um even out in front of uh environmental review and um and design. So that funding will go towards that um uh the funding shown in the in the proposed budget will go towards that effort. And then in the subsequent years, we will uh move the project closer to being shovel ready with um the environmental and design phases.

Great. Thank you very much. And you may want to stay on because um the Lynch Creek Trail, thank you Amber for bringing that up because it's really important um that you know for safety because more and more people are using it, especially when the skateboard park is um online. So hopefully that's going to move forward. Um, and the bathrooms downtown. I mean, it's an issue. I I do want to have a bathroom that looks decent, though. I just don't want to throw one down there because, you know, there's a lot of merchants down there and people that walk and people do want it to look nice and not just um just anything. And I do support St. Francis. Absolutely. It needs to be done. Um, but you know, I think it was it was a this was a good report. It was easy to read and everybody that came up and spoke um including the public. I appreciated the the details, but it was really it was really easy and I really appreciate um all the work that staff has done on this because this was this is a lot of work and you can actually read it and understand it and that's even better. So, thank you

council member now. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And I'm going to go back to the unfunded project. So Jeff, don't go anywhere because um can you explain what streets will be slurried is I mean St. Francis is down to a PCI of 15%. I don't even know if that's a candidate.

No. So our our slurry seals is preventive maintenance. I know this is a common mistake most people see because when they see people doing pavement work, they think they're paving. So preventive maintenance is is really like putting sunscreen on the road. It's just sealing it. So to to be able to do that, you got to have a good road in the first place. So it's just extending the road. It's sealing it up. Um when we look at a PCI, which is a pavement condition index, like a good road for preventive maintenance is 70 and above. So you can really compare that to a report card. It's C or greater. So it's got to be pretty good, right? Um if you see a lot of cracks and it is St. France is like it's it's well beyond that. I mean you you can you're just throwing good money at a bad road and in a year it's all the cracks will come right through.

So are you going to um have a list on the website of which streets will be slurried first? Yeah. So we have the the five-year plan which you guys saw and approved. It spells out all the streets that are in the preventive maintenance and the rehab and the local residential alter all that. So, if you go to the streets website, you'll see it's denoted. I think the dash lines are slurry seals and then the solid lines are rehabs and it's broken down by year.

Okay. Well, I appreciate council member Barnacle and and Ker Thompson um supporting St. Francis cuz it is really a an important road not just because in my neighborhood in my district but it's it's um in front of a school and it's a very important cuz people use that in when they want to um avoid McDow to Cfield. So anyway, I'll let you go. Um unfunded projects. I'm going to pick on parks a little bit here. The um bathrooms at Lucasy between the new skate park and the senior center parking lot is not in any anything. So, can you help explain? It needs some updating. It's the facilities there, but there's like really a big need for updating.

Yeah. No, thank you for the comment, council member. Uh we agree. So in the skate park uh CIP, we have restroom and sports lighting for the skate park in a future phase two. Uh so the team did go through the assessment. It's not just um the restroom. Uh it's also utilities uh in the back of that structure as well. Uh and there's access. There's a lot going on right there. So um we're excited and looking forward to future phase 2 construction. Um, but that restroom as well as probably the McNair restroom are probably the top two public restrooms in need of replacement.

I would love to see it bumped up just because it's so widely used. The other bathroom at the Little League Park and Miracle Park, Miracle League Park are not open when it's not the season, the baseball season. So, um, just a plug for that bathroom, the downtown bathroom. I'd love to see us negotiate with the owner who owns the existing public bathrooms that aren't being used. Can we negotiate and save the city a lot of that's the alternative that we presented tonight? So, we're looking at that 180,000 either working with the property owner to try and rehab those that restroom and um and then continue to maintain it or uh put in a a single restroom unit.

Can we have a staff report on how that negotiation is going and an update as soon as possible when when we've done that? Yes. Okay. Okay. Um, back to the parks, adopt a parks we talked about, I believe last year. How is that going forward?

Yeah, thank you. Um, we are looking forward to having adopt a park program that really centers on kind of an eventbased, not a um reactionary program where you've got a few volunteers that typically volunteer for the same amount of parks. I think that's what the council member is referencing. Um, Jen Santos, if you want to raise your hand there for the chambers. Yes, we've got Jen on board a couple of months in. And and Jen, as part of her experience overseeing parks maintenance for the city of Santa Rosa, they have a very similar program. So, it's not going to take Jen long uh to get up to speed and and really customize something for Paluma. So, we've got um you know, parks maintenancees are ready to go. Uh we've got a few parks that we want to focus on at the commission and ad hoc level. Uh now we just need to implement.

Well, I just want to add that we have a a nonprofit that really quickly got donations and put solar lights up on the trees in the downtown area and our flower baskets that we've been wanting to hang on the on the the existing light poles have been installed. And then the yach club is doing a lot of work um parallel to our trestle. So there is a lot of community involvement. So the adopter park would go right along with that. They're really um getting a lot of donations from the community and then they're putting it right back where the community can see it. And come summertime, I'm sure our tourists will really appreciate it as well as we will. and I'll let you go. And um leading into the trestle, I would love to see some sign signage and a link on the signage that takes us to the existing city website information because it would help the public. So, we have a um as part of closing the walkway where the warf is um we've got some signage going out with a QR code that'll take folks to the trestle and information on the warf. I really appreciate that. The one thing about blocking that off is that when you're sitting at that restaurant, the river cafe, the ebikes aren't zooming past you. It's it's really a problem. But, um thank you for that. And I think that's oh um to the city attorney on the trustle. Is there any way that we can push the existing trestle owners into some legal um you know if they need to fix it

within you know or give us some feedback within 90 days and so we can go forward. We have tools to um make sure that we can address safety conditions and and nuisance conditions and we've talked about that a little bit too. We always, you know, our code focus is always compliance and safety and the best way to get that is usually cooperatively. So hopefully we don't have to resort to those. But if if we if we need to or things are um conditions change so so that we don't have a lot of time, we have other other ways to to make sure we pres preserve the public safety. Okay. I appreciate that. That's all, Mr. Mayor.

Thank you. And Council Member Quinn, thank you. Uh first, I want to just uh thank the staff for the presentation. Uh appreciate the public coming out to offer their comments. Um, you know, as I reflect back uh on all of the work that's been done over the last year, I think staff has done a tremendous job uh in really completing and bringing forth a lot of value to the city. You know, just uh you know, a couple of things, you know, completing the uh or near completion of the turf uh with the soccer field. Um, you know, I'm over at that baseball field all the time and just recognize the, you know, the value that that is going to bring to the public. I'm really excited about the skate park and getting that off the ground. I'm excited about all the work that the city has done to bring the public safety facility uh to fruition. Um, all the work that's gone into the general plan. So there's been a a a you know and and the list goes on and on. And so part of the reason, you know, I I I want to share that is to, you know, share my gratitude, but also um I feel like we're starting to enter um you know, a phase where some of these some of the heavy lifting on some of these projects is starting to come to fruition. And I would uh like so many of the comments that we've heard tonight um I would like to see us turn our attention to the trussle. Um and uh I I do think you know I think it's a project that um you know while I while I agree with council member uh Barnacle where I at least kind of what I understood you you know what you were talking about with the tax base having the tax base u would

make that project easier. Uh I also believe it's true that investing in that is going to also broaden our tax base. Um and maybe that's what you were getting at, but that that's sort of you know I I think about um if we're able to bring the trestle prominade to fruition with in combination with the river park like not only is that going to help our economic development, but I also believe that you know I'm optimistic that it'll help our housing. Like I believe that people want to be where you know in great places and I think um those investments are going to make some of the the you know vacant downtown or vacant near downtown areas more desirable to uh to maybe put some some housing in. So I think it'll uh will help that as well. Um, and then I'll so so big supporter of that and uh again I've said it uh so it's no surprise I'm also in favor of a downtown bathroom and would really like to find us a solution for that as well. Um thank you so much for all your your efforts. Appreciate it. Um thanks and uh there's so much going on in town. It's it's really amazing that come you can wrap it up into one budget document. Um, I want to thank staff for being here. I'm looking across the room like staff staff staff staff. Um, but uh and you know for all the achievement of the of the last year just just in the the the park and recreation area from the kicking off the skate park which is you know been with us since co money came in or or putting the baseball field out at East Washington or or returfing out at Lucas. I mean it's been a big big year for those. And then the ambition of next year to have two $70 million projects starting at the same time. I mean that's a lot of ambition

there. Um and so I'm I'm as the engineer in the house on the dis. Um I'm loving what you guys are trying to do in CIP. Um on the trestle I mean it's time to do it now. I uh after saying all this engineering engineering stuff I think we the we've been doing all of where we're at what we need to know but the one thing we haven't asked for what we need to know is what does the public want to do what does the public what can we get all behind and that will inform design so all the work we've been doing is so essential to figure out all these elements I think we're mostly close on all the background elements you just we need that public element and then the design can kick off. And I love the uh volunteers stepping up, the women's club and council member Barnacle for helping fund it. And uh lead I don't forget a thing here. But um but I think it's it's really it's a thing we can do. It's a thing we can get done. So um I'm I'm very excited about that. Um on the other hand I do see that we keep putting in big numbers for our budget and delivering you know only portions of that and um what makes me feel good is the portions that we complete are usually more than last year. Every year we've gotten better. Maybe this year be a blip in the uh wrong but every year we've gotten more and more done. And so, um, I think, um, you know, the number in 2021 was 13 million and think where we are now. And, and I think when when I got on council in 2019, it was less than that. And so, I mean, I'm really tickled at what we're able to achieve, but if we're going to put a number like 70 million in the budget or we're going to put in a even a 5060 number, we really have to deliver on that. And if it's, you know, and if we need to say, well, we're frontloading

that. We know that's a big number. We know that. Well, then stage it out so it's more realistic. I don't like the idea of not hitting our metrics. I mean, if you know, if we set the number, we should know we have the control to deliver that amount of expenditure. And and you know, I I love the project selection and the debate that goes in on it. But for me, the bottom line is look at that fund balance. And if the fund balance goes up and up every year and now it was 180 last year was the last thing 180 million in the bank it's going to be worse when we look back on it in a down year for CIP. So we have to figure out I mean how to get further and it's obviously not the money the money is not the problem. We have money in the bank. It's either tagged for things that we can't touch or we're not staffed up to the right level or consulted out to the right level. We just have to deliver more more better projects even than we already are doing today. Um and um and I I really appreciate all the staff work on getting all these things out. I I would like to see us get more paving, you know. Um there I support St. Francis. That's my bike route from Cfield going to Kaiser. So yes, I know where where St. Francis is. Uh and yeah, it's really bad. Um but um but no Westside Street has been uh paved since 2020 and and here we've done, you know, we've done all this good on Maria. We've done good on McDow. We've done great things on Garfield. We've done great things, you know, and we're moving into Cfield and we're, you know, we're we're crushing it. Let's get Howard done. Let's, you know, let's get Webster. Let's get Webster done in front of Valley Vista there when you elect a bunch of East Side council members. Uh

oh. Um okay. So with that, um you know, thanks to all in staff and I I suppose we're all looking forward to this and you know, I'm not sure what you've heard to take away his direction tonight. Um but um you brought us a pretty good budget right off the top and maybe there's some refinement, but um we're looking forward to seeing it again next week. And is that uh want any final thoughts?

I was just going to say thank you. Thank you for the community that came out and shared your your vision of what um you'd like to see and our how we invest your money and from council for being creative and helping us. We do have more needs than we do have money, but we are creative and we've we've we've demonstrated that over the last six and a half years. um and just really appreciate um staff's creativity and agility. Thank you. Let's go get it built. This meeting is a journ.

Yeah. Oh my gosh.