City Council - Regular Meeting

to lead in schools.

okay thank you for that um okay before we get started with our regular agenda we're gonna go right into a uh a special order of the day public works week proclamation uh tonight it's my pleasure to recognize and celebrate national public works week observed may 17th through may 23rd 2026 public works professionals are people who help keep our city running every single day from maintaining our streets and public buildings to ensuring reliable water, wastewater, and solid waste services. Their work is essential to health, safety, and quality of life in our community. This year marks the 66th annual National Public Works Week, sponsored by the American Public Works Association, and it is an opportunity for us to acknowledge the dedication, professionalism, and hard work of the individuals who serve our community behind the scenes. On behalf of the City Council and the residents of Hollister, I want to thank our Public Works staff and all Public Works professionals for their continued commitment to serving our community. So do we have anybody here from Public Works? Okay, so do you guys? We have lots of you. Does somebody want to come up and actually get the proclamation? Does somebody want to be a representative for the group that's here? Who wants to be the person? Okay. I'm going to ask you to go to the podium first. Okay. And then can you just please state your name quickly?

My name is Frank Garcia.

Frank. Okay. So thank you for representing this very important group. And I just want to read a couple of the items that are on the actual proclamation, and then I'm going to go down and present this to you. Okay, so public works professionals that focus on the infrastructure, facilities and services that are vital to the importance of sustainable and resilient communities and to public health, high quality of life and the well-being of the people of the city of Hollister. So like clearly you guys have a lot on your plate and we expect a lot from you guys live up to it every day. Thank you so much for that. So now with that, I, Roxanne Stevens, Mayor Pollister do hereby declare this week as National Public Works Week. I urge all the citizens to join with representatives of public works association and government agencies in activities, events, and ceremonies designated to pay tribute to these very important professionals, engineers, managers, and employees. So thank you all so much for your hard work, and I'm going to come down and present this. And a round of applause would be great.

Thank you, Mayor. We appreciate it.

Yes, that would be great. Come on, you guys.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, we can get all this out.

And the council members too.

That was very convenient. Thank you. I know.

I love seeing all those hands go up when I ask who's here from Public Works. That was really cute. Okay, well, thank you all so much again for your hard work, and we will look forward to more success in Public Works, because we know you guys are doing a great job. Okay, so we're going to move on with our next part of our agenda, and this is our public input part of the agenda. This is a time for anyone in the audience to speak on any item not on the agenda and within the subject matter jurisdiction of the council. Speaker cards are available in the lobby and are to be completed and given to the city clerk before speaking. When the city clerk calls your name, please come to the podium, state your name and city for the record and speak to the council. If you're joining us by Zoom, please click to the bottom of your screen to raise your hand. If you're joining us via Zoom on your cell phone, press the asterisk nine. Each speaker will be limited to three minutes with a maximum of 30 minutes per subject matter. Please note that the state law prohibits the city council from discussing or taking action on any item not on the agenda. Okay, so do we have any speakers for this one?

Mayor, if we may, we need to get the position report out from the May 4 meeting. Would you that first or would you. express on the agenda, we could do that, and then.

I apologize, I did skip right over that i'm sorry that go ahead and i'm sorry.

At the closed session, the Council took a unanimous vote to not accept the settlement. Okay.

Thank you. And with that, our first speaker is Caitlin Felix, followed by Judy Ganson.

Good evening. I'm Caitlin Felix, and I'm here from Hollister. Good evening, Mayor and members of City Council. My name is Caitlin Felix. I am representing Cat Crew California. First, I want to sincerely thank you for your time and for the work that you do for the residents and animals of Hollister. I'm here tonight to ask you to continue the funding for this NIP program, the Spay-Neuter Improved Project, because it is a tremendous difference in our community. One of our biggest missions is TNR, Trap, Neuter, Return for feral cats. Funding the feral SNP clinic is where we see the biggest impact on the population of cats. These clinics directly help stop the cycle of endless litters and suffering before it begins. With the SNP feral clinics, around 500 feral cats were fixed last year. That means 500 feral stray cats that could have continued reproducing if they had not been spayed or neutered. The impact of fixing even one single cat is enormous. One unspayed female cat could produce enough offspring and lead to hundreds and potentially thousands of cats over the next few years. With the intervention of overpopulation grows rapidly and becomes much harder and more expensive to manage. With these feral clinics, feral cats are not only fixed, but they are vaccinated, dewormed, and treated for fleas. Improving both animal welfare and public health. These efforts help reduce disease, prevent suffering, and stabilize outdoor cat populations in our community. However, that's simply not enough. Slots available in our clinics. Multiple resources have to split those slots, and because of shortage, many of us have to take the remaining cats, the veterinarians, at much higher costs. Cat Crew alone TNR'd a total of 389 cats in 2025 and has already TNR'd 127 cats so far in 2026. That shows both the need and the demand in our community. When you compare San Benito County SNP numbers to the surrounding cities, the numbers were significantly lower than, unfortunately, the locals around us. There are no other options for low-cost spay and neuter services or feral cat clinics. We understand that budgets and funding decisions can be difficult, and we understand that the City has many important priorities. However, continuing to fund these clinics ultimately saves the City money in the long run. Reducing overpopulation helps decrease stray animal complaints, shelter overcrowding, disease spread, and community issues that become far more expensive if left unaddressed. We have compassionate, hardworking people in this community who generally want to do the right thing and help these community cats, but we need your support to make that happen. Continued funding for the SNP clinic allows programs to remain accessible and help effectively control the cat population. With this program, it's not just about the animals. It's about preventative, public health, responsible spending, and building a healthier and safer community for everyone. We respectfully ask you to continue the funding for this program and continue investing in a solution that is already making a measurable impact in San Benito County. Thank you again for your time, your compassion, and your consideration.

Thank you, Ms. Felix.

Okay, so I'm gonna ask the audience to refrain from applause. I know that this is really important, I agree. However, I'm gonna ask that you not do that so that we can just keep moving along with our speakers and allow time for the other speaker to speak. So I'm assuming you're our next speaker?

Yeah, Judy Ganson and I live in the 400 building facing San Benito Street and I was out walking Tuesday and I went by the garden box right by where you enter San Benito Street and it was pretty shabby looking. So my neighbor told me that she thought that the flower mart was taking care of it. So I contacted them and she said that their contract with the city ended about a year and a half ago. So I sent an email to Anna and said I would volunteer to adopt that box and take care of it. Well, then the city guys came out and they trimmed a little bit and then a couple days later they came out and they planted one little plant. that has red flowers on it but the one on the right as you're entering one set south there's no flowers that the one on the other side of the street has some geraniums and stuff but i would i'm quite willing to take it over and work on it and do it myself so anyhow then you guys just have to water it okay thank you thank you miss gantz next speaker please lisa sears followed by natalie day

Hello, Mayor and City Council. My name is Lisa Sears, and I'm proud to be born and raised in Hollister. Since 2018, I've been advocating for spay-neuter services in your city, driven by a belief that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. In fact, my family and I took a significant step by sponsoring the very first SNPUS feral cat clinic here in Hollister back in December of 2018. Thanks to the city's support, along with contributions from local donors and rescue groups, we have successfully fixed over 4,000 feral cats on SNPUS. Imagine the impact if the city hadn't invested in these clinics. If half of those cats were females, each having three litters a year over the last seven and a half years, the number of community cats in Hollister would be staggering. This investment in SNP bus clinics has been crucial in controlling Hollister's feral cat population. Today, I urge you to continue funding this vital service. It is essential for the cats, for the dedicated rescuers and trappers who volunteer in Hollister, for animal lovers who wish to prevent suffering and neglect, and even for those who prefer not to have cats living in their neighborhoods. I'm also here to share as a member of the Animal Advisory Board for Seaside. I'm thrilled to announce their success in addressing animal overpopulation. Seaside has implemented a three-pronged approach that Hollister could easily adopt. Number one, in December of 2024, Seaside passed a required spay-neuter ordinance requiring cats to be fixed by five months and dogs by six months with the breeding licensing fee of $1,000 per animal. Number two, they have a full-time animal control officer that enforces the ordinance using a fix-it ticket system, and he also runs a feral cat trapping program where he fixes approximately 200 cats annually within the city limits. Number three, the city sponsors one SNP clinic a month to meet the demand for the fix-it tickets. This approach has resulted in a dramatic 30% decrease in shelter intake in the first 12 months of having the ordinance. The most effective solution to our animal shelter problem is source control. By reducing the number of unaltered and unwanted pets, we alleviate the burden on Hollister Animal Shelter and its dedicated staff, ultimately saving the city cost in the long run. We need stronger protection for animals, including a required spay-neuter ordinance and higher breeding licensing fees. to protect dogs from the exploitation by irresponsible backyard breeders that is happening here in Hollister. Please join Seaside in leading the way to solve animal overpopulation and saving the taxpayer money in the long run. Thank you for your attention and your support.

Thank you, Ms. Sears. Next speaker.

Natalie Day, followed by Liam McLaughlin.

Good evening, Madam Mayor, other council members. As many of you know, I am the volunteer liaison for the SNP feral clinics in Hollister and the founder of For Feral's Sake, a small TNR-focused rescue. For those of you who do not know what that is, it's trap, neuter, return, the only humane way to address the feral and community cat overpopulation. I have been involved in over 100 feral cat clinics and have seen firsthand what happens when we can't provide the services. The local rescues here have fixed over 5,000 cats since 2018, and we're extremely proud of those numbers. But what is now imperative is the implementation of a spay-neuter ordinance and continued funding for SNP, also low-cost clinics for certain high-risk and lower socioeconomic areas here in town. California used to have the best live outcome numbers, only about 30% of the shelters report. But right now, California is one of the worst euthanasia rates in the country, second only to Texas. Texas euthanizes 125,000 animals, and we euthanized over 100,000 every year, just because there's no place for them to go. I wrote this all crazy, you guys, so please be fair with me. If not addressed, the problem doesn't go away. It gets worse. Last night, a feral cat scheduled for surgery today gave birth in a trap. Six more kittens. At another location, we trapped a mom with kittens somewhere. Hopefully they make it through the night without mom, but we have no choice. We have to fix the moms. These are the situations we face almost daily, and our decisions impact lives, the lives of animals with no voice and no way to stand up for themselves. Cutting funding, closing the shelter, all of these choices being made are going to be the reason cats and kittens are dying in our streets, backyards, bushes, and in driveways. I can't live with that. And knowing what y'all know now, I hope you can't either.

Thank you, Ms. Day. Next speaker.

Leanne McLaughlin, followed by Carolyn.

good evening my name is liam mclaughlin um i'm the political and community organizer i work on staff with sku521 um i don't actually just be uh just to be straightforward i actually live in santa cruz but i represent city and county workers in san benito county monterey county and um santa cruz county um and just wanted to um ask i sent an email on the 7th i know he's going to get a lot of emails uh but we're the frontline workers would really like to set up some time to meet the council members individually just to kind of share their you know what they're dealing with at work um share their you know their concerns and kind of just have that that time to meet with you individually and hear your perspectives as well so um just just a reminder to to please look at i'm going to follow up those emails today so you guys have them on top of your inbox would love to find some time the next couple weeks to meet with each of you as well as well as roland i hope he sees this as well i'll follow up with him as well so yeah that's all i wanted to say and again city workers just want to have a chance to you know, have an honest conversation and hear your perspectives as well. So thank you for your time.

Thank you, Mr. McLaughlin. Next speaker, please.

Carolyn, followed by Olivia Martinez.

Hi mayor and city council members. My name is Carolyn and I am a resident of Hollister and the worksite organizer for the city workers. These workers are calling me every day due to the stress and fear that the city manager is causing. The workers have always been understanding and worked in partnership with the city until now. But today they come to you asking for you to stop this ongoing behavior from the city manager that is causing workers to go on workers comp. Financial uncertainty is not new to them. They have helped the city before, taking a 0% wage increase last year, as you all know. We ask your thoughtful city leadership to make decisions to support the city workers. Thank you.

Thank you, Carolyn.

Next speaker, Olivia Martinez, followed by Frank Garcia.

I'm Olivia Martinez, and thank you for listening to a city manager. I see that you're not even paying attention, but that's her behavior lately since we've been meeting with her and with the workers. She disregards the workers. But let me start with my speech. The city of Hollister employees are the backbone of this community. Many were born and raised here. They are not new to a budget deficit. right they helped balance the budget last year by not taking an increase they are not afraid of change and so if she tries to tell you or inoculate you to tell you that they're afraid of change that is not what they're afraid of They are tired of being disrespected by her as she came in here. She has not been transparent with them. She has created lies and miss uncertainty for them, telling them we're gonna outsource the water department. We're gonna get rid of animal services. We're gonna reorganize this. Tons of things constantly that she is doing that isn't unfair to your city workers. They are the city of Hollister. They were born and raised here. You hired a city manager that has a long history of reputation. We met with the Teamsters where she came from. We heard from them and we heard what she did in Washington. And then you hire her here. They are asking you to step up and talk to them and meet with them and see what's really going on in the city. They are here today because they are tired. They are afraid. It is not fair to them. The city is one of our smallest bargaining unit. We have 26 in our region. We are 50,000 strong. That's how strong SEIU is. And they are here today because they will not tolerate having somebody that came from Washington come and change their city. They have been committed to you. And every single bargaining that we have with you, they come and say, no, we cannot ask for money because they are trying to balance their budget. We need to help the city. Now you need to step up and hear them. They will tell you the truth about how this city manager is disrespecting them.

Thank you, Miss Martinez next speaker okay no i'm going to ask you again i'm going to ask again i'm going to ask again. respectfully that you hold your applause, please, because we need to get through this and we want to give everybody an opportunity to have their time to speak okay go ahead, Sir.

Good evening mayor city council, my name is frank Garcia, I am a public works employee. For the last 45 days, I've carried this quietly, thinking about timelines, meetings, credibility, documentation, and whether I was handling this right way. People see the emails. They see the documents. They don't see the mental exhaustion behind them. They don't see the nights, second guessing myself, wondering, am I overreacting? Did I miss something? Am I the only one seeing this? Why do I feel like I'm carrying this by myself? How do I protect the bargaining unit while protecting my own credibility? For 45 days, I've tried to stay composed while watching timelines continue to shift, explanations continue to change, and concerns continue to grow. I understood how important credibility was. I knew that if I became too emotional, people might focus on my tone instead of the actual issues. So instead I documented, I questioned, I compared notes. I stayed up thinking about timelines. I carried meetings in my head long after they ended. And the truth is it takes a toll on a person mentally. The hardest part is realizing that eventually your mind never really shuts off. Even when you're home, your thoughts are still there. Replaying conversations, wondering did I miss something important? There were moments where I questioned myself more than anyone did, not because concerns disappeared, but because carrying something this heavy for this long starts wearing on you mentally. I'm not asking for sympathy. I'm asking for people to understand there is a human side behind all of this. There is pressure that comes with feeling like you have to catch every detail, protect your coworkers, remember every conversation, and still remain calm and professional through it all. I've done my best to handle this responsibly. And regardless of how difficult this process has been mentally, I will continue protecting the bargaining unit the best way I can. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Garcia. Next speaker.

Cristina Tamarillo, followed by Timothy Pearson.

Hello, Council. Thank you for your time. So I'm speaking on behalf of what I feel that I've seen within the budget and the deficit. I keep hearing that we're $21 million in the hole, but yet I don't feel that the city has done their due diligence to protect the city the way it should. I pulled a number. I requested a public documentation. We're $4.5 million behind on our collections for water. That's a lot of money when you look at that. And I can forward you these documents. When we're asking to cut jobs or to make sacrifices, we have to do our part for these workers that are here every day. They're doing the job or not doing the job in the front end. We have to collect the money. We cannot charge less to deliver a product to the public. that it's not enough to afford the expenses that we have in the city. We're charging $13, a little over $17 now base rate for water. When other districts, district I live in, I have to pay $37 a base rate. What makes my district different than any other district? If we get called, if I have to call out an emergency worker in my district, I have to pay an extra fee. If they get called out in any of the other districts, they don't charge. How can we, math doesn't matter. If you are not going to step up and do the job to charge the public what needs to be charged so that these people do not have to worry about their jobs, so that this is an enterprise fund, We're going to be in this situation every single year, and there is not going to be no change. So as a city council, we voted. I voted for Priscilla. She's my district. I've spoke to all four of you up there. Roland was the only one that didn't return my call. But at the end of the day, we don't need to beautify our city if we can't even afford to provide water to it or sewer or streets or anything else in this department, in this city it needs. You have a duty to the public to do the job correctly and make sure that you are charging the right rates for the things that need to be charged so that you can afford to run a city. That is my position because every one of these people that are standing here today, they work really hard to do the job. And it's not their fault or anybody's fault except who is responsible is the top. So I appreciate your time. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Jaramillo. Next speaker.

good evening council taxpayers um i'm keeping it real short and sweet i was here a few weeks ago discussed about a sad situation that my family has been thrust into regarding uh killing our family dogs over an incident um what i did bring today was all the sworn statements and record that seemed to work be ignored by the hearing officer as well as commissioner galloway that i would just like to leave with y'all to read through um

Mr. Pearson, I'm going to ask if you speak into the mic so that we can... Okay, yeah.

Sorry, Mayor. Is that better? That's fine. Okay. Usually I have too much of a booming tone, my wife says. So anyways, bills are here to be a matter of public record once and for all, but I'm running out of time. In two weeks, the city manager has authorized the city attorneys to... issue a order for us to turn our family pets over for destruction over a limited one-time offense they got out they mix it up with some cats who are also roaming which we feel super sorry about and i've actually we've made restitution to the to the owners But yet the hammer was put down on just killing these dogs and making an example out of us. We're upstanding members of this community. I coach, I volunteer coach for the high school. My kids are both on ASB, 4.0 students, Girl Scouts. Heck, I help pick up trees after Christmas with the Boy Scouts, and I have two girls. So we give back, and this is what we're getting in return. So... The TNR groups that are here, thank you very much for what you do. It makes a huge impact. Imagine how much more of an impact you could have with another $10,000 or $15,000 of city money that went to killing our dogs instead of your program. That's all I have to say. And the overreach of the city attorney and uniformed officers in the courtroom at Superior Court to make sure our dogs die. The day after Christmas, a surprise kennel inspection, because we had a huge windstorm on Christmas, remember? Well, let's show up at the Pearsons house at 1.30 in the afternoon and pound down the door to see if they're adhering to the commissioner's instructions when all the posts from half and the animal shelters say, bring your pets in when it's cold. Fireworks, you know, bring your pets in for the fireworks. Our dogs had to sit out on the back patio

all that stuff was going on but more to come thank you for your time thank you mr pearson um other speakers there are no more speakers okay okay thank you everyone for your comments we're good we are we appreciate every comment that we get and we'll be following up with some of you so thank you for that we're going to move on um to the consent agenda um so do any members of council have any brief questions or comments on any items on the consent agenda um i don't know i have a knack of not being super brief okay wait hold on hold on a second council member can we just do you have any no okay okay go ahead go ahead council member yeah okay go ahead can you hear me i feel like i'm yelling and saying

um you know when i hear about annexation my ears perk up and my spidey senses start to tingle um and i read the documentation but can somebody in the know city manager possibly just kind of help me and wrap my mind around 7.5 and 7.6 um maybe i should probably know at this point a year in you're in 16 months where we're at uh but you know what are we annexing what's going on here what is the community facilities district number five specifically and number four i will ask mr hernandez to respond to that public works director so should i pull it let's see if he can answer quickly and then you can make you can decide okay okay let's see

uh good evening council and mayor um these items so so the the the there's two items on on the agenda today the cfds and there's also a lighting and landscape district so these are um annexations this one particular Um, is the proposed boundary of I believe it's item 7.5. Is that when you're 5? Yep. So this is, this is related to, um, the proposed boundary of the 1621 of multi family subdivision and 361 for the annexation into territory. Of the community facilities district number 5. so it's basically annexing that property to be able to be levied for for, um, the fees associated with, uh, CFD.

um in order to incorporate them into our landscaping district okay so this is specifically for just landscaping um fire is that the next one so can i just make sure that that we're really clear and make sure that i'm understanding the annexation is into the cfd not into the city is that correct

That is correct. This has nothing to do with annexing anything to the city. This is strictly individuals who want to join the CFD. We can pull it if you want.

Okay, thank you.

Okay, thank you, Mr. Hernandez. Appreciate it. Okay, any other questions or comments on any items on the consent agenda? Okay, not seeing any, let's go to public comment. Do we have anybody, any speaker requests for this item? No, ma'am. Okay, thank you for that. Okay, so can I get a motion then on the consent agenda?

motion to approve the consent agenda, can I get a second, please a second.

All those in favor aye aye any opposed Okay, thank you, then, with the consent agenda has been passed so we're going to move on, then to item eight. It's a public hearing, a resolution confirming and approving the assessment boundary diagram and ordering the levy and collection of assessments of landscape and lighting district number 93-1 for fiscal year 2026 through 2027. Can we have a staff report, please?

Again, Mr. Hernandez will take this item. Mr.

Good evening again so on a yearly basis, we have to bring this levy over to Council for authorization in order to collect the assessment for these for this district, this lighting landscape district. And so. I mean, the staff report kind of explains it, but it's for street lighting, landscaping, maintenance of walls, and it's for a reoccurring item. So we're required to bring it into public hearing.

Is that the entire report?

Correct.

Okay. Okay. Thank you for that report. Any questions from the council? Go ahead, Vice Mayor Bionda.

So as you know, I have a constituent from Sunnyslope Village who reached out regarding the maintenance in Zone C. So I had a couple of questions sent over to you guys earlier for review. So I want to be transparent about that. So I will ask when were Zone C maintenance needs last formally evaluated?

Madam Mayor, members of the Council. So we have fallen behind on evaluating the needs of our various projects. Where this has become more important, I guess, is in the fact that we have not been able to apply consumer price index adjustments to some of our areas. So for 26, 27, for the new fiscal year beginning July 1st, I'll just say it that way, as of July 1st, we need to look, we need to assess all of our lighting districts, our CFDs. We need to engage in conversations with HOAs. Right now, the county, for example, is examining the possibility of adopting an HOA type of business model for any new additions to the county. I am not suggesting that that's something that the city should do, but I think that the city should study it. So that is part of an overall assessment of our conditions. For all purposes, the bucket in which I'm putting that in is under beautification. So it is not, beautification is not something extra, it's something that deals with the services that right now we have to provide to our CFDs, to our landscaping districts, and making sure that we not only know their needs, but also know how much we spend on those needs.

So is it safe to say that there, as of right now, there's no maintenance planned for the next fiscal year or how is that looking?

There is a maintenance plan. The maintenance plans have not been pegged to the resources that we're getting. So a theme that is happening in the city as far as impacting our budgets is the fact that we don't necessarily take the list of all the tasks that need to be accomplished, and then the resources. There's a mismatch. We provide higher levels of service with lower levels of revenue. That's how we get into deficits. And so, when we investigate the levels of services that should be provided, one of the conversations is going to have to be, how do the two coincide? Because the resources that we receive should determine the levels of services we provide. That's not necessarily the case. Now, I will be able to tell you more specifics about each of the districts. In this case, you made a specific request about one particular area. I'm confident by September, we will be able to bring that information to you.

Thank you.

Okay. Questions on this side? No. Okay. No questions. Any public, oh, let me open the public hearing. We'll open the public hearing at 7.10. Any comments on this item? No, Mayor. Okay. So I will close the public hearing and then bring it back to the city council for further discussion, comments.

There are no further comments that I can make a motion to approve.

Okay. We have a motion to approve. Can I get a second?

I'll second that.

Okay. All those in favor? Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? Okay. Thank you for that. Okay. So we're going to move into council business item 9.1 discussion regarding bike safety throughout the city. Can we get a staff report, please?

Yes, Madam Mayor, council members, members of the public, this topic is, it's been raining very lightly for a number of weeks now. Some of us have experienced the young people that go around in their bikes, sometimes wearing helmets, sometimes not, sometimes they're on the streets, sometimes they're on the sidewalks. We've had phone calls to the office of drivers who are concerned about the safety of those young people and the fear that a driver will hit one of these young bikers. We also had a number of community members that expressed concerns on this topic, both Concerns about the bikers, but also concerns about the fact that young people don't necessarily have things to do in the city of Hollister. The fact that we don't have a youth center, a member of the community indicated that we used to have a cafe where the kids used to hang out, but that cafe closed on 6th and San Benito, etc. And so I want to make sure that I convey to you that the concerns are on both ends. Concerns that they're riding around without helmets, but also concerns that it's summertime and kids are going to do what kids do. And so we wanted to bring this to your attention. Some of you have asked questions about this topic to see what direction you would like to provide to staff as to how we can possibly engage community members to talk about this, engage the young bikers. Again, nothing for them without them. So if we're going to talk about the young bikers, maybe we need to talk to the young bikers. um there are many possibilities we can do a pizza party invite them over have conversations you know what uh what makes you do what you do uh etc but again we just wanted to get direction from council as to how much um how much energy to give to this particular topic okay thank you for that any questions or comments question comments go ahead thank you yeah uh so

Thank you for the report and thank you for bringing this to our attention and the community members who. Went to the workshop to voice their concerns. Uh, so. For me, I'm thinking that we start with engagement. 1st, um, moving forward because. I believe it is important that we engage the youth in these discussions before moving forward. How are we going to build collaborative community efforts without their input? And I think that's really important. So before we start enforcing anything, we should be able to connect with them in an informal setting and establish a relationship just to see where they're at and just go from there in life.

City Council Chambers, Okay, thank you for that comments on this thing go ahead customer around us.

City Council Chambers, yeah um so I do have a lot of young people in bikes in my neighborhood and one I think it's great. City Council Chambers, That they're outside and not in front of the TV or on the phones are playing video games that they're outside and sunshine getting exercise. City Council Chambers, I do have a lot of residents that call me and say hey there's a group of kids that are riding around their bikes. Okay. concern for safety Okay, but we don't have 1000 cars, you know we don't have you know significant traffic we don't have any programs in the past, we talked about parks and RETs doing programs we talked about. alternatives right so they're looking for socialization you know socializing with other other kids. it's sad that are the only place we have here to socialize this target. And that is very sad, but true. So it's both a preventative measure and a socialization measure and a recreational issue. So you have three different areas or domains, but we don't have alternatives. Also, I think we need to encourage kids going outside and exercising and actually being able to talk to other human beings because that doesn't lead to mental health issues. um so i think if we're looking at it from a data perspective there are foods right they're not engaging in graffiti or crime or anything which a lot of kids their age you know when they're bored and don't have anything to do they could engage in in in those kind of activities, and they don't. So I think that's great. I like the idea of talking to the youth to see what they like. But again, people don't like to waste their time. If you don't have an option or solution that's realistic, implementable, then what are you offering? What are we going to offer? let me hear you complain share I won't say complain but some people complain that we don't have anything to do we don't have anywhere to go we don't have anywhere to socialize we don't have anywhere that we can feel safe or have you know talk to our friends other than target so I I think that's wonderful that they're going out and exercising and and socializing those are two super healthy activities I wish more kids would do that I think once we hear the youth once you hear the Community and all concerns we actually need to have a facilitated dialogue between all the parties, so what does that mean. Youth if they want to engage they might not, but people that are concerned for safety or people that are concerned about whatever it is that they're concerned about. And really how facilitate sessions in terms of Okay, well, what are some viable options, because if they say build a you know $5 million recreation Center. What are you going to say. So. My comments are yes, I think, having a town hall meeting is fine, but I would get frustrated we've had a lot of town hall meetings where people have shared a lot of wonderful ideas and concerns and then nothing happened. And I think that's where we lose trust and when people are coming engaged in a process and then nothing happens. I think people really feel like that slap in the face to say hey you took my time out of my busy day to bring legitimate concerns, without any possible solution. That I think if we're going to engage in a process, then we need to be realistic about what we're going to offer and what we're going to do if we're going to follow through with anything.

Okay. Okay. Thanks for those comments. Appreciate it. Um, council member, do you have anything to go ahead?

So I'm a cyclist myself. Um, I mean, not these days, but there was a time like during COVID, I was doing 125, 150 miles a week and it felt good. Felt real good. So I'm all about kids getting outside, getting off the screens, reducing that screen time, getting their energy out and coming home. You know, when I was a kid, it was kind of like when the streetlights came on, came home. It was like old school. It was old school Hollister. And, you know, I'd be there for dinner and hopefully it was something warm. And if it wasn't, I'd eat a bunch of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches if I missed dinner. But I rarely did, because I would eat dinner at friends' houses, and I did it at home. So I'm all about kids getting out, getting exercise. But I too have gotten, you know, reached out to, and there are kids on bicycles that aren't really getting as much exercise because the bikes have motors on them nowadays, and they're electrified, and they're going above 25 miles per hour on the sidewalks. And so that, for me, is... A little bit dangerous, you know, when you're going above 25 miles per hour and a bit of a pack and you've got a business. And people are walking into and out of these businesses. You've got a pack of like motorcycle writers, I guess. I'm not wearing helmets, not exactly being safe. And being a little bit mischievous, so I'm kind of on both sides of this thing. um so i'm really concerned about the kids first of all because there was an incident on nash road a few months ago where uh there was a a kid on a bike not wearing a helmet was over on nash road by the chase by the round table and the kid got hit right and the motorist you know was apprehended and that whole thing is going through but the kid you know you're You know, as a kid, hopefully he's going to be okay and there's not like any kind of life threatening, but I've gotten hit by a car in my youth. pop right back up and no problem at all. Now I'm older and I got hit by a car like, and I was riding pretty safe and sane, but motorists aren't always paying attention. And a lot of these kids, even if they don't have a motor, are using some cool wheelies. I mean, they can turn the bike while on a wheelie. In my forties, I can barely manual off like with a wheelie, you know what I mean? But I'm super impressed. So there's got to be a way that they can show off these skills and do something in a way that's just a little bit safer. So I love the idea of a pizza party. I would love to hear what some of the concerns are. But the motorcycle, like with the electric bikes, it is really unsafe. The kids are traveling in packs and they're kind of taken over the road. They're almost, when I look at it, without the helmet, on the road blatantly disregarding like traffic and safety motorists are all going to be at fault if there is an incident there's already been one so i feel like we have a duty to act and actually do something about this if it's like putting an ordinance out there on top of authority it's a state law to have a helmet right it's if you're under 18 like you have to wear a helmet on a bicycle if you're going to be on a public street but that's already So I'd like to engage with the public. I'd like to engage with parents. And I think a pizza party is a great way to do it. I think that'd be a great piece of public fun, but there's already something that's already happened. Um, and I'm concerned, like, more will happen and this isn't. Unique to Hollister, um, I think on our end, maybe before we even have this pizza party, we reach out to other communities, Watsonville, Salinas. Santa Cruz San Jose and see what they're doing to give it an opportunity to be kids, especially with summer work coming around the corner. So, see what they're doing. I know they have 5 groups that do like. lives around town. They'll go grab food. They'll go do something, go to a park, hang out. So there's constructive things to do. And then I'd also like us to reach out to other communities and other leaders and electives and see, you know, what they're doing about this kind of mischievous part of, you know, being a kid, just being a youth and having a whole bunch of energy, a young body that's to do cool stuff. so yeah i'd love to do i love the idea with pizza party there is a race coming up uh in july it's kind of put on by off the chain i don't know it's more of a gravel ride so it's kind of a cross-country mountain bike slash it's a new type of riding we've gone basically a road bike but they're riding dirt so you just love that geometry and they love riding fast on dirt so that's something But I definitely think that this is not a real big issue now, but as this gains popularity, I have a feeling something bad might happen, and I'd like to get out in front of this as soon as possible.

Okay, thank you for that. So after we come back, I would like to hear what is it that you'd like to see moving forward, because there's a lot in that. So here's what I think. I think that the idea of connecting with the youth and having a conversation with them is good, and here's why. It's not just because we may need to have something to offer, because I agree with you, we're not going to invite them and say oh we want to hear your idea so that we can do something it's just simply so we can have a conversation with them here's what i would do i i i know you have had this experience councilman morales i have too spoken in our work to a lot of youth who have engaged in some behaviors that are maybe not super safe but it's just really about we want you to be safe how how can what can we do to help you to be more safe we want you to be outdoors I think the idea of being an organized activity, that's one thing. But I think this is more of this idea of we're free. We want to just be out exploring. We're young. We just want to do these cool things. And I think they should be able to do that as youth. Uh, that's part of that. And how can we make sure that you can do that and still be safe? So have that kind of conversation with them. About the concerns that we've heard, because if we've heard it, if all of us sitting here, and I, and I spoken to house member morale rescinded, and he has also heard from constituents about concerns. uh about their safety in fact i have had my um incidents myself with these use and have asked them to be super careful because i was afraid i was going to run them over so we so i think it's just this idea of having this conversation about them so that they know that the community is concerned about them but also how what can they do to help us to ensure that they're safe and then we can go from there i think moving on to other things such as an ordinance i don't i'm not excited about an ordinance what happens if you have an ordinance it is just another way to in to enforce some things that will limit the uh these young people's ability to be out in the world and exploring and having a good time so i would i would be very that would be my absolute last choice and i don't think that we're there yet And the idea of like offering some kind of a big, you know, like a community center or some other option, I don't know that we're in that position to have that conversation yet. However, I think just having a conversation about being safe and keeping them outdoors, encouraging them to stay outdoors and keeping them safe, I think that's a good place to start and it doesn't have to be elaborate. I do also think that what might work, what might be a good idea is if we reach out to our schools and see what kinds of things they're doing around bike safety. And city manager Cortez, I don't know if we've I know you've had some conversations with the superintendent, both superintendents of the large school districts, but I don't know if we've done any kind of, maybe we could find out if there's anything going on at the schools, because I think if there is some way to partner with them, I think that might be helpful. But I think ultimately all we want is we want them to be safe. That's what we want. We don't want our our residents to feel like they are in any way going to harm kids because they're being unsafe. But we also want kids to just be kids. So that would be what I would like to see. Like, let's just start with the conversation with these kids. um and i think inviting them again i agree with council member morales if they're interested we'd have to find a way to reach out to some of these kids and then see if they're interested and have this conversation um offer their parents to come along and then offer pizza id that would be a great place to start And then we just go from there. But I also think that engaging with the with the schools would be good. And then maybe, you know, it's another school year. There might I don't know if there's anything that they can do now. I mean, they're literally like two or three weeks away from the end of school. But for sure, this is something that we can start to plan for next year. And then over the summer, we just continue to try to stay on top of this. with just in general, the conversation, having conversation with our law enforcement that we want them to be safe, but we don't want a heavy hand at all. We just want the kids to be kids. So that's where I come down on this. Okay, any other, let me, before I go to public comment. Okay, so let's go to public. Oh, go ahead, Council Member Morales.

No, I appreciate those comments, especially the last in terms of law enforcement, the residents that have contacted me are concerned about they're not comfortable with a group of kids hanging out in the street and. I don't want to mess that with. It's their safety, right? It's just they're uncomfortable with a group of young boys being together, right? And so that's, I think, the part that concerns me is that just because they're out riding a bike together, a group more than three, that can be categorized as something, right, under the welfare institution code. And so there's a very fine line that I want to make sure we don't cross. Again, from a policy perspective, it can go in a very different road very quickly. I think that's where I think we need to also have some type of facilitated conversation with our community that perceive this or see it from a very different light versus how the young people see it. That is just the difference in perception that I think needs to happen.

yeah okay okay well yeah thanks for that perspective i had not gotten those kinds of comments mine with my the the concerns that i've gotten are literally like oh this kid just started out you know in front of me in my car it was like those kinds of things but that is there's another layer to that that i think we want to stay on top of and that is why for me i don't want to move into this area of adding another ordinance asking law enforcement to do anything more than then they that they should be um around this because we don't want any like profiling of especially kids of color um and generally that's what we're talking about so i agree go ahead bye sir yeah i uh city manager this staff report that you created was uh

influenced by the workshop, the results of the workshop when community members came out for the meeting?

A number of things. I mean, in reality, we've experienced it, all of us. If we live in Hollister, we've experienced the young people. We see them during Truck Tuesday. We see them during Farmer's Market. Folks come to City Hall and voice their concerns. Also have had just, you know, conversations with neighbors. I mean, that's kind of what I do on weekends. I just go and talk and you hear it. And then, of course, we had a workshop and that, if anything, was probably cherry on top at that point.

So that's the full circle or cherry on top to really bring this forward. So thank you. I see that it's important that we just start with the youth first in an informal setting just so they feel comfortable in this environment. So I think we need to build trust with them first, just to kind of just gauge where they're at. Just get to know them, just approach it from a human perspective. And then once we get a sense of where they are, we have what the community input already and what the serious safety issues have been, right? Or public issues. So I think just connecting with the youth itself first and then we could come back and see what type of formal facilitation we could have moving forward. But I think it's really important that we engage with them just again in a humanistic approach. And that's just I just feel like that would be a good way to get through to them and just try to understand where they're coming from. That's important. So.

Okay. Yeah. Good. Thank you. Annette Dubreuil, Ph.D.: Less comments on this side. No, go ahead.

Um, there's two things really um like for me. I uh you know I I would prefer not doing an ordinance uh either, or as well. Um, it should be common knowledge at this point that you only have one brain, Annette Dubreuil, Ph.D.: and it's basically Annette Dubreuil, Ph.D.: it's protected by your skull, and the what are they called a little gentleman inside your skull. but you get a traumatic head injury, it's really bad. So wearing a helmet shouldn't be any kind of a profiling thing. You can be black, brown, red, green, whatever. And if you have a helmet on, you're safer than if you don't. It's like wearing a seatbelt in a car when we drive a motor vehicle. If you're gonna be riding a bicycle on a street, It's like a one or a zero. You're either have it or you don't. So for me, I wear a helmet every time I ride. If I ride on dirt, I'm wearing a helmet. If I ride on the street, I'm wearing a helmet. That's just all there is to it. It's super basic. So that is, it's just, it's a no brainer. Uh, for me. So, and they're cheaper than ever. Like there's like helmets you can get like, um, they're like 40 bucks at the local bike shop, $40. It's, uh, not even a tank of gas these days. And I think a gas is almost a hundred. So that's, uh, you know, even for those who have some food insecurity, I'm sure there's, there's stuff that can happen. My other thing is, it's not even directly associated with this, but it's just something that I think about when I think about government. People often look at it like the government needs to do something when we have a town hall. The government needs to be the one to do the thing that should get everything going. Realistically, government's not always the answer. Private groups and private citizens and organizations outmass us. How many employees do we have in the whole city of Falls for all of our employees? 180 180 employees how many people live in halls for like 45,000 people live in holster at the county 47 000 now please don't tell me that i probably see him every day going on california 25. so that we're we're outnumbered basically so churches community groups people that care about these young people can do something um we just want them to know that we see the kids and all their cool maneuvers that they can do, like turning while you're doing a wheelie is pretty cool. So your kid's super talented right off the bat. But we care about them, and we care about their brains, and we care about their lives. And it's super important to wear a helmet. It's totally basic. So I love the idea of the pizza party, but I also just want to remind people that government's not always the answer. Smaller groups can get together. If their children matter to the people that love them the most, stop by, have a slice of pie, let's talk about it, and let's let them know that the community is concerned about the kids, especially since one of them already got hit. And from what I read, I thought it was in Benito. I don't see no here. But I swear the kid was not wearing a helmet, and I don't know what happened to him, but it's kind of important.

So thanks for putting us on there.

I tried to put the song on the fifth if I didn't fill out the form. Protocol, got to do it.

Thank you. Okay. Okay. So let me check in. Do we public comment on this item?

Yes, max.

Okay.

All right, so that works. Hi, I'm Maxwell Neff. I live in Ridgemark, which is close enough to Hollister, about 100 yards from the city line. For four years, I lived in Davis. I went to the university, and Davis has a very strong biking culture. I know that Well, it's assumed that you own a car to go somewhere. In Davis, it's assumed that you have a bike. There's just so many. Personally, I can attest that there are streets that were clogged with bikes so heavy that cars couldn't get off the highway. And when I got to university as a part of orientation, they sat us down with a local organization for bikers that said, here's what you do. Here's what you don't do. Do not die, please. and so i think that davis has about a century of experience with bikers that could be helpful in this situation i'm certain that there are other cities which also have a very strong and established biking culture and i believe that this is a problem that has solutions that have been explored before to very effective ends i can say in davis i biked every single day that i was up there even when i had my car to go to the downtown to get stuff that I needed, to go to university, to just go and bike around for fun, right? So I think reaching out to Davis or reaching out to cities that have established volunteer organizations for biking could be a good first step for how Halster should approach this. Because the city of Davis did not have a direct influence outside of wear a helmet, this is the right of way for bikes, stuff like that. So thank you.

Okay, great. Thank you, Mr. Neff. Other speakers? Okay. Okay, so let me bring it back. Any other last minute comments, questions? Okay, so let me just, I just want to summarize what we've heard. So I want to be really clear that there are different perspectives on this, right? Our different ways to approach this and different things that we're concerned about on the diet. So there's The issue about making sure that they're wearing helmets. So that's one issue. There's just the idea of road safety. So when the kids are riding their bikes, that they're darting in and out of traffic, that's another one. That's what I've experienced. And so that's where I was coming from. And then council member Morales got complaints about groups of kids riding their bikes and some concerns about what that might mean. So there's that issue. And then finally, there's just in general this, I think all of us agree, this idea that we want our kids outside exercising and exploring the outdoors. So we wanna maintain that. So I think that as we begin to have these conversations that we keep those in mind and remember that they're separate things in and of themselves, that we don't mix those issues up, but they're all equally important.

So let's make sure that when we're having these conversations that we're thinking about that. The thing that I heard overwhelmingly that everybody seemed to be good with starting the conversations with these young people and their parents just at a level around, you know, we heard some concerns about keeping everybody safe and then starting from there, just keeping it really low key. some sort of a pizza party or just a discussion and then moving from there, but starting there. And I also just wanted to add to that. I do really want you city manager to reach out to the superintendents to see what they're doing around. I mean, I think council member Pichet's comments about helmet safety, that should be, I think maybe a simple thing that they might be able to do or that maybe they're already doing. but let's explore that. That might be something, some place where we can partner really, really nicely with. Okay, so with that, go ahead. Oh, go ahead. I'm sorry, Council Member Morales.

Thank you for summarizing. I think that's very important. I think that two other elements that we should also consider is that they're gathering because they're socializing. um and the lack of opportunities in the city of Hollister to gather right together to socialize the options that we had the cafe about what it's called the Fast Street closed so the areas where they had the ability to socialize are closed and so those are other two human elements of connection that should also be considered

Okay, good. Thanks for that. Thank you for that. Okay. Okay. With that, let me just, let me double check and see what we need here. So with this, we are not, I don't think we're going to, I don't think we're going to make a motion. We're simply going to give direction on next steps. Is that right? Okay. So let me get just consensus that we're going to start by reaching out to these young people. And I think that, I think we have a starting point. I think we know at least the kids that I'm thinking about, I think we can start with them. And then, so I think we have a way to connect with them. So we can start there. And I will volunteer to work with a city manager on doing that, if that's okay with everybody. Okay, so thumbs up that everybody's okay with that. Okay, looks like we're good with that. And then anything else that we need to do?

Yeah, actually, I wouldn't mind talking to the youth in my neighborhood to formally invite them as well.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, yes. Okay, good. That'd be great. Okay. And then anything else, city manager? I think what we're saying, you guys correct me if I'm wrong, is that we want to just start small with this one small first step, and then we'll figure it out after that, what we think is necessary after that. Okay. Okay. Okay. So I think we're good with that. Okay. So we're going to move on then to information, informational reports, committee assignments. So this is the time for any members of the council involved in any ad hocs or standing committees to make any reports as needed. So let's go to, I'll start over here. Councilman, I mean, Vice Mayor DeAnda, anything to report? Okay. Council Member Morales, anything to report? Okay. Council Member Pichet? Okay.

Yeah. So on the thirteenth and bag, basically the number, the most important things that we did were we had a public hearing on job vacancies and recruitment and retention efforts at the Association of Monterey Bay Area governments. So we received a presentation on the vacancies and recruitment efforts and retention efforts. It's actually very positive, um, very few vacancies. They have very high retention and. Just seems like a great place to work. We were very happy. So not really. Too much to report on there, so just received a, um. Uh, presentation on that, and then the Monterey Bay regional overall work program and budget. It was just basically a budget talk, uh, and. We just basically approved the budget. Everything seems healthy with the Monterey Bay regional overall work program and its budget. We went ahead and approved that. So that was basically and bag in a nutshell is actually kind of a quick meeting. Uh, the other thing was on Sunday, as it relates to the rally, I was able to attend with the mayor and the manager. A meeting with the Monterey Bay confederation of clubs. Um, and this is like 3rd meeting you've had with them. Might have been 4. um and it was a good meeting uh we just had a conversation about the rally and expectations and keeping things safe and then basically policing themselves so they can uh keep their members have a great time keep their members safe if anybody gets out of line they kind of police themselves and they seem to commit to doing that. So everything seems safe, sane and fun over the course of the two day event. And I'm glad to see SEI use the number stayed here because you guys put up the K rails, you guys help clean up the joint after, you know, we it's just everywhere where it's not supposed to be trash gets left on the ground. That's not good. But it's all about the businesses in the area. A lot of them have told us time and time again that rally got us out of COVID debt. That thing, as crazy as it sounds, it's part of our history. It's part of our heritage. It's part of who we are as Hollister, along with being an agrarian and growing food for people to put in their bellies and taking the power of the sun and turning it into food. It got people out of COVID debt. At one point in time, a couple of business owners were telling me, I put payroll on a credit card and that's just not a good way to run a business. So our hotels are full and our restaurants are full and cash flows in when those bikers come through. And the first one at 47, if I'm just going to be so bold as to say, Mayor Mrakas, A lot of them were military veterans coming back buying military surplus.

Mayor Mrakas, i'm just going to remind you that this is your committee report i'm just real sorry i'm just going to interrupt you just going to remind you that it's just your committee report that you should be getting right now. Mayor Mrakas, that's all I have Okay, thank you for that appreciate it Thank you go ahead, Councilor Morales all right.

City Council Chambers, Integrated waste management and i'm looking at our city manager for this one, so we had um. We've had a lot of robust conversations when it comes to integrated waste management, because we're going to have our. An RFP for services, and it happens every 20 years. So we're at that mark right now. We have a couple of years, but one of the items 1 is, I asked our city manager to see at the negotiating table. There's going to be a consultant there, but I think she's the best. Person equipped to be able to look out for the best interest for the city of policy. that's one um two we talked about the structure of the committee because that's an advisory committee there's a lot of things that we're at the very end of the workflow process so when the county's talking about um transfer station or the landfill capacity you know we're only having a couple of years we're looking at raising the cost for our residents we're going to be at the very end of that workflow and very little input. Right now there's an affordability issue with most of our citizens, especially if there's going to be a water increase and a garbage increase at a significant rate to our residents. The City of Hollister needs to be at the table to negotiate that and redirect other funds like for outreach or for maybe county priorities. Either for us to do it internally or for that money to just be redirected so that the residents are paying such a high cost for garbage. Um, also we did request that the integrated waste management, um, come here and do more for reports. Again, my role in that committee is an advisory. It's the workflow if we're at the end and we're supposed to get. And I have no authority, um, then we need 3 members. Right to be present to get anything fast. So the only way to do that is to come to the city, but not as a line item expenditure. right not as a consent or here's here's the list and then just approve it um as a road stamp but really have a meaningful conversation to talk about how those we are the largest contributor five bar um we should be able to prioritize the city's needs and our residents needs and be able to really focus on the cost of those services for especially as everything else is going to be increasing

No, Councilwoman, you've got it all.

Okay, great. Yeah, great. Yeah, I agree. Wholeheartedly agree. So yeah, let us know how we can support you on that. Okay, and then all I have to report is fire advisory happened a week and a half ago, and we are still in the midst of getting the Baker Tilly What we call evaluation for visibility report. Thank you so much. I couldn't remember that word feasibility report and the feasibility report is specifically around the formation of a fire district in this area as a different model for providing fire service. So we just got some basic updates about timeline and some basic activities that are ongoing, including reaching out to stakeholders, getting their input, getting some data. So not any real, real major reporting happening. At the next fire advisory meeting, we expect to have a little bit more of a robust report, but that is moving along and that's really important. the other thing that i wanted to just mention is a week ago i was able to go to the high school uh superintendent tenenbaum invited me to meet with the student congress and i met with their with their group it was really really a great experience at the president their vice presidents president super um impressive kids and leaders at the high school going to be our future leaders and no doubt and the entire congress which is They're about, I think about 75, maybe 100 kids strong, but very, very impressive. And the idea of me doing things like that is just really to encourage service, like the idea of public service and this idea of moving those or bringing those leadership skills that they're learning in this experience into their college experience, their work experience, and just in general into adulthood. so that was the whole idea and they just seemed super receptive to that so i'm just really happy to be able to do things like that and just want to let you know that we have some incredible kids in hollister as i'm sure you all know um and i won't say anything about our confederation of clubs meeting as uh councilmember fashay reported on that and that's all i have to report so i'm going to move it on then to we don't have any future agenda item requests uh city manager report

So I basically have three topics today, one of them is the airport and we will start with a short presentation by our report director then we'll do a quick update on sewer matters and, last but not least, we'll talk a little bit about the. impacts on our low income families, due to the changes in the federal government around food stamps and health coverage, Mr.

Okay, Good evening, Council members and Mayor members of the public. So I was asked to give a brief little update here on advanced air mobility and unmanned aircraft system progress going going on kind of activities at the airport. So with that let's move to the next slide. So One of the things is we have over a 100 plus companies in that are advanced air mobility or considered uncrewed aircraft systems located in California. There's great potential for economic development, job creation, and workforce development across the San Benito, Santa Cruz, and Monterey counties, as the region has become highly recognized on a national level in these emerging technology and markets. In January, the Monterey Bay Economic Partnership received the grant award for California Advanced Air Mobility Corridors Initiative, or CAMSI. that positioned california's first fa compliant multi-airport flight corridor network connecting the rural public airports of watsonville marina salinas and hollister this integrated corridor would be utilized to support the testing certification and commercialization of clean energy aircraft for passenger cargo defense and next generation drone operations Uh, Mr. Director, can you indicate how much the grant was for the grant to M. Beth, Monterey Bay Economic Partnership was seven point. I believe it was seven point seven million dollars, and it's anticipated that for infrastructure to be located at the airports, we need charging equipment to serve as an endpoint to these corridors. So we're probably looking somewhere between half a million up to 1.5 million maybe for each airport to accomplish attaining the infrastructure necessary to serve as that endpoint.

And if I could jump in, because I think that our airport director knows this so well that he doesn't realize how cool this is actually. This is like Waymo, but for airplanes. It's that same idea. This is like Uber. changing the business model on how we do taxi services, except for airplanes. And we are one of four potential hubs for this new technology to really explode to the next level. I cannot emphasize how exciting this particular technology is and how strategically positioned we are to take advantage of something like this. Sorry, I had to jump in.

It's your report. so the next slide okay so in march and april um the lift com the lift summit conference was held by the monterey bay drone aviation robotics technology called dart organization the conference was in monterey california and it focused on the advanced air mobility and the uncrewed aircraft systems and The conference was very well attended by industry representatives, companies, aviation colleagues, Federal Aviation Administration, and Caltrans Division of Aeronautics, providing excellent networking opportunities and updates on this emerging ecosystem. exciting when you get fa and caltrans coming to conferences as well it just speaks to how valid this this industry this emerging technology is going and the dedication to trying to see this come to fruition Dave Kuntz, That being said, I was invited to speak on a featured panel for the advanced air mobility airport integration lessons from the field panel, so it was the very last panel to speak at the conference, so we closed it and. Dave Kuntz, I was just very honored to speak and share my experiences and highlights in particular that I could show the highlight the progress made here at the Hollister municipal airport. and um so just prior to demonstration day was on may 31st and we were actually off on may 31st beta technologies is a company that makes charging infrastructure as well as has aircraft for cargo and passenger disciplines so one of the electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft They came to our airport, very interested in supporting us with charging infrastructure for electric aircraft, as well as the advanced air mobility, the electric vertical takeoff and landing. And it could also potentially charge UAS like drones, because obviously drones go everything from under 55 pounds in the recreational world on up to airplane size drones as well. So that was very exciting to have them visit our airport. They currently have chargers at the Salinas Municipal Airport. Next slide, please. In April, the airport hosted Wing, a local UAS operator. to provide a presentation followed by question and answers. So on Wednesday, April 22nd, in the airport office conference room, we had about 30 tenants and mostly pilots attend. According to their message, it was come meet the wing team and learn about the UAS operations taking place at Christensen Ranch, which is a private airfield just about 1.3 miles to the east of Hollister here. So they're just one of our local neighbors here. The wing presentation highlighted their home delivery operations for DoorDash and Walmart that are currently going on in the greater Dallas metro area. This presentation highlights the advancement of the safe UAS operations and integration into the national airspace. Really, really cool.

So again, to interject because it's so cool.

We'll get to a photo. What you'll see is their drones actually fly out to an area where store clerks are trained to go set a unique bag that is proprietary to them. Little hook drops down and it connects to the bag and pulls up. And you as a customer, you get on an app, right? And you say, I want a home delivery. And it lets you pick, would you like it on the front door, the driveway, the back? Yard, really, really cool stuff, right?

So let me emphasize, less than two miles away from Hollister, there's research and technology taking place that is allowing the residents of Dallas and other larger cities to receive drops from drones. Again, this is the future. This is the new way. This is the new economy. And Hollister is part of it.

So the wing operation at Christensen Ranch, there's kind of like an aerodrome over the Christensen Ranch airfield. So it's about a mile, so about a half mile in each direction around in a circle. They post notums and they fly daily up to 1250 operations of drone flights each day researching and trying to perfect the platforms for various types of deliveries. So that's really, really cool that they're here. And of course, I took that opportunity to say, let's have some discussions about how Holster might meet your needs. Maybe you need a bigger building. Maybe you need some more facility, right? So. Okay. Then in Dave Kuntz, February through April, the airport has been meeting with representatives of NASA ames research Center for air traffic management and safety project. Dave Kuntz, To discuss the technology and potential development of our deployment of advanced awareness sensors at the airport in support of the poster airspace ecosystem research project, this was news to me. Dave Kuntz, So. NASA Ames Research Center, they are involved in collecting data and informing the FAA to develop policies and how they're going to write regulations for the integration of all this technology into the airspace. So when you are talking about drones, you're typically talking about 100 feet and down in altitude, down to ground level. and then the evtols it's anticipated that they will operate between the 500 and maybe up to 2500 foot level above ground level so this is really cool to be working with nasa and we just took this to the airport advisory commission and they made a recommendation that we bring forward an airport use agreement For the 1st, partner company that would would be deploying. Installation, so it looks like we'll have 2 installations and we'll put multiple sensors there and we may have various companies. So each payee would, I anticipate would probably have an airport use agreement. So, but again. the role that the airport is playing with its partners like NASA Ames Research Center in formulating information and data gathering so that we are participating in the evolution of this whole emerging technology going into the national airspace. Really, really cool stuff. So next slide, please. in may the airport received the federal aviation administration determination approving the jovi aviation through the fence access permit the site will be supporting the flight testing activities at for pursuit of the fa certification that is located at 1891 airway drive so here in another month or two we should be seeing jovi aviation's s4 aircraft flying out of the airport going to the north they've already filed for what's called a certificate of authorization for their flights to happen up the valley a little ways to the north of us um so you know in our long time committed and very long-term tenant with Scarrow. Since September 25 through the present, they continue to grow their presence at the airport. They were at about 35 employees daily prior to September of 25, and that's now morphing up into the 80 to 90 people a day level. That being said, they utilize over 30,000 square feet on the West side and over 10,000 square feet. On the East side, so they're in multiple spaces and then we'll get to a map to demonstrate a little bit of that here in a 2nd whisk is making tenant improvements at what they call the hanger to the through the fence. Location they have a ground least additional area for increasing the employee parking, serving both their hanger 1, their, their building that they built back in 2017 on the airport and the hanger 2 locations there on the West side of the airport. And the whisper report project is in a review. We've already achieved the technical. Airport Layout Plan 10 and Inc. update that's been signed off by FAA. We are hopefully wrapping up the environmental effort that is required here in the next week or two, and we're excited to have construction. WISC has just started receiving components off of containers, and so we're eagerly waiting to get the project started. and the wist through the fence location that's 1969 airway drive next slide please This just gives you a little diagram of where some of these locations are. So the whisk hangar 1 building, which again was built in 2,017, 15,000 square foot. Hangar building, and then the whisk arrow through the fence, the hangar 2 building there, 1969 airway drive. The parking lot will just be to the immediate South area of the current hangar 1. so it'll be on airport property and it will serve both locations so that they can increase the occupancy load in both buildings, but primarily in hangar 2. Joby aviation through the fence that's right there at the large building at the back of the gate. It has a nice aviation door. It was designed as an aviation building. However, in the last 15 to 20 years, it's been serving, um, as a cannabis. Type location, cannabis dispensary, I believe. Um. So that being said, it's great. We will be adding a 60-foot rolling gate there for access. They will be taxiing to the west down along our access road and then up through the hangars and enter into the aviation system that way on taxiway Charlie. And last WISP vertiport location that will just be there to the west of our main runway. Yeah, we're looking forward to that. That sets them up so that they don't conflict with the legacy aircraft operations that are coming in on the main runway. They kind of get to use the vertiport in parallel to that approach. So we're excited to see those operations go. And again, WISC is a major partner in gathering data that will inform FAA on vertiport policies. So that's one of the exciting things to have this vertiport there. And just to note, we are the first airport that is getting a fully approved permitted vertiport on airport property. So that's pretty cool. Um, and then just to give you some cool pictures here that we want to cover. So, you know, you know that we participate in the Monterey Bay tech hub, which is all about advanced air mobility and the Uas companies and and operations. So the um, yes, So here, Archer Aviation, Salinas Municipal Airport, this is what they call their midnight express, their eVTOL. So this is one pilot and four passengers. They are slated to, they were selected to provide eVTOL transportation for the Olympics in the LA basin. And I think recently I read that they leased out the Lancaster airport or something like that. Majority of it for their to stage their operations in support of the Olympics. Archer is considered the probably second to get to soon as to get FAA flight certification with a pilot in here and start offering passenger rides. That being said next slide please show the aviation. They were at Marina while I was there. I brought them to the airport and it's very exciting to see how they've evolved over the time. But they are at the Marina municipal airport, and they are also at the Watsonville airports. They run a nice. Dave Kuntz, pilot training program and they also build aircraft at the Watsonville airport in the hangar so they're they train kids and and other people to build traditional like rv eight type aircraft. Dave Kuntz, And then they have pilot training, where you can train to actually be a pilot for the EV tall, I understand. Dave Kuntz, And last but least here we will not last but. Our. Next slide please. Our long term tenant here that we're very grateful for with this is their generation six aircraft again, so this is going to be autonomous. And this is meant to take four individuals and fly you to your destination so. WISC Aero is considered the leading candidate to get FAA certification for autonomous flights for passenger travel. And Joby Aviation is considered the first to get the certification for piloted passenger flight. So very cool to have them both here now utilizing our airport. And then next slide, please. And just wanted to give you a picture of what it looks like for the wing operation. So this is a photo from their one of their Dallas Metro. operation points probably at a like near a walmart um you can see there that they have multiple pads that the drones actually charge on that's a proprietary pad that does the charging kind of similar to putting your cell phone down on the charger right and that's what that looks like and so to give you an idea that aircraft would probably set between the two of us right here pretty cool And there's a lot of safety, a lot of programming that goes into that. And as their test operator here said, you have to fly literally thousands and thousands of flights because you're always trying to find where does the computer program break down so that you know how to fix it, right? And so that's why they do the testing that they do out here. So it's a pretty cool operation. Um, and then city manager asked me just to touch base on, um, we are going to be bringing staff reports to you guys to, um, do our typical authorizations and acceptances for the, um, F. A. The anticipated F. A. Grants for, um, our airport improvement program and the infrastructure law money. So the AIP project this year is a planning design for the taxiway alpha reconstruction. So it's a grant that'll be somewhere in the 830 some odd thousand. I remember right on top of my head. And then airport, the bill money, project will be the airport layout plan update along with a narrative and with agis surveys and so this is the opportunity where about every 10 years or so airports typically go through this airport layout plan update which is your technical document so we've had safety changes so the configurations of the ends of the runways have changed a bit and um this will be where we add the um site plan for the cal fire new air attack base on there and potentially some of the other west side upgrades including the port for whisk will be on there so this is a very important step in in things that we need to get accomplished so council members um the big picture impact of the airport is

Basically, that it is at the core of our economic development strategy in a few minutes ago we started talking about economic development. And we talked about the districts and, as you may recall, one of them was the airport, and this is the why. Because exciting technology, the future is actually here in hollister we are part of the Silicon Valley, we are not you know some. town in the middle of nowhere. We are in the thick of the new technology for electric planes and what do you call them? Auto what?

Autonomous.

Autonomous, autonomous flights. Not sure who would do that, but I'm excited for those who want to do that. And so this is what's exciting. Again, we have assets in our city. we have exciting things happening in our city. And hopefully as we move forward, the energy can be shifted from all the bad things and the negativity and the disagreements and really focus on the good stuff, on the things that we can all agree on because these are good for our city. These are good for our residents. These are good for our high schoolers who hopefully will have internships at these shops. One of the things that I did when I visited one of these tenants was I asked, where do you guys live? Because what I was hoping to hear is we live here in Hollister. And actually one person did. There was one from the South Bay, one from the East Bay, and then one from Hollister. Because that's what we want. And so I hope that as we continue to have conversations about economic development, the need to invest in our districts, in this case, the airport district, you begin, hopefully, to feel the same excitement that I think we feel for the technology that we have and the competitiveness that that gives us as an area, as a region.

And along the lines of workforce development, I'm. Trying to be meeting with, um, Sean, the superintendent and talking to their curriculum counselor about how to start to shape some. Some classroom courses around preparing high school students in this emerging technology industry. And then we're also trying to encourage Gavilan College to look at upgrading their aviation program to start to take advantage of some of the workforce grant monies that's out there as well, so that we could make sure that there's a career pathway available to our citizens here in the Hollister.

Nice. Thank you for that incredible report. Yeah, really. It is real exciting stuff. I do appreciate all the level of detail. Please continue to update us on all of these things. I think these are one of the things that we want to make sure that we highlight. I agree with you, city manager. We have to highlight these. I think what I hear from members of the council, as well as people from the county, the airport, that's our that's our goldmine. That's where we need to really focus in on real industrial and retail and commercial economic opportunities. Because that's where we, it's like the plate is set for us to be able to do that. These are two examples of that. So it's an incredible report. So thank you for so much for bringing this report to us. Let me check in to see if anybody has any questions or comments, questions.

Thank you for that update and report. And I'm really excited and looking forward to coming months to see how much we progress. Good job. Good work, Jack. Thank you.

Questions or comments?

This is super exciting.

I was excited when we were talking about Whisk Arrow and Joby Aviation when they were coming to town. I was like, this is really cool. Like, we could be at the center of, like, some electric vertical takeoff and land aircraft. I mean, for deliveries, moving human cargo, like human beings around. It's like jets and stuff. And I was like, hey. every time I think about this I think about those popular mechanics from like the 60s and they're like when is this stuff going to start like finally coming out right like and like this is like real like Jetsons type stuff and it's like finally like um you can tear it all right so my ear my ears perked up grant money there was like a point something and then there was a million dollar I I remember the center what was the grant

that was the camc grant that was that air corridor grant yes and that's between like us and watsonville And Marina.

And Marina. Oh, yeah. He's got a lot of good stuff going on with their airport. I think Joby's over there, too. And then I'm hearing FAA and NASA. I'm like, this is like some really good stuff. So, and then that Christensen Ranch, I had no idea. I'd never even heard of that.

I've been here since I was two, basically.

So, blown away. Yeah, super exciting. Keep it up. The airport is a great place for... development expansion. That whole Northgate property has got so much potential. So hopefully we can get this California 25 figured out so we can get people in and out still by road. But if people want to like hire an Uber or Lyft because they're in game two, you know, and if people want to like leapfrog over traffic, how cool is that? Right? Is that what Joby's doing? Is that what Joby's doing? Where they have a car on the road and then it like

that is that company i forgot to put them in the presentation that's um a leaf a-l-e-f flying car we did an airport use agreement for them to be doing testing and they are the top rated company that actually has a street legal driving car that can also fly. So it can hopscotch another car if you just encountered an obstacle, but it can also get into the air and then it rotates on its axis and flies like a biplane. So you can take off and fly much greater distance at a greater speed. And so that's really cool. They've been on kind of like a world tour, so they haven't been down to the airport since we did the use agreement. So that's kind of why I left them out of here. But they still have the right to come and start doing their testing here at our airport.

yeah great thank you thank you for that incredible report like really great to hear exciting stuff like that okay city manager i'm going to ask you to continue on with the rest of your report but but jeff please come and bring us some more of this good news any time we love hearing this

So we started with the high and now we'll go to the low, unfortunately. And we do have a partner here in the audience. The executive director of the community foundation is here. Cassandra, do you want to address the council at all? We had a meeting and we talked about HR1, the big, beautiful bill. and the impact that is having on the low-income families, on the working poor from various angles, from anywhere between food and food stamps in uncertainty, as far as how people are going to eat, all the way to healthcare and everything in between. And in the question of what is our role, if any. Cassandra?

Thank you and good evening Council and Mayor. As she said, my name is Cassandra and I'm the newish adjacent CEO of the Community Foundation for San Benito County. And I really wanted to spend some time to talk about the impact on HR 1 in our community. This is going to be something that is going to have a huge impact on a lot of our very important infrastructure in our county. And I hate to segue after Jeff because that was such an amazing report. I want to get a shirt that says the future is Hollister. But talking to the other side of things, for many people, including myself, when I hear about federal policy, it's hard for me to draw a connection on what that means often on the local level. And what HR1 did is it put in new restrictions on who qualifies for Medi-Cal and for CalFresh. And in April of this year, I heard from Tracy, our public health director, over a thousand residents lost their CalFresh benefits. So this is our food stamps. And this is a tremendously horrible thing to have happen. In our county, we have about 19,500 citizens who qualify and currently have Medi-Cal. So this is insurance that helps people who are very low income. It's an additive insurance that covers their health costs. And when we think about the impact of community members losing their health care, the cost of covering their health benefits, this is absolutely detrimental. It's detrimental to them on an individual level because many of our community members are living paycheck to paycheck. A lot of the folks that are going to be impacted by this don't have US citizenship, so there isn't a safety net for them. And they're living paycheck to paycheck, as you know, and often houses that have a lot of family members in them. And so when we're thinking about what this means, it's incredibly difficult for the individuals, but it's also really hard on our infrastructure. So, for example, Hazel Hawkins Hospital, we almost lost our hospital a few years ago. And when we have more people that have Medi-Cal that they can't tap into, we're going to see an increase in uncompensated care. And so with that, that means the hospital has to foot the bill in covering the cost. That money doesn't just disappear because someone can't pay. And so we're talking about what this looks like for our hospital. And so what does it look like to potentially lose our hospital if we don't do something? And then when we think about CalFresh, being able to have access to fresh food is a basic human right. And what this bill does is it says that only some people get this basic human right now. And in Hollister, that's not the way that we work. If a neighbor is hungry, we feed our neighbor. But what does this mean for our food bank? It means that they are going to have more community members reaching out to them asking for help because community members no longer get that federal benefit. So we're also expecting that we're going to see a huge incline of needs for our food bank. And we also know that all of our nonprofits who have received federal and state funding are kind of under attack right now. So CASA lost two-thirds of their funding because it came through the feds. Amaya's House, our women's shelter, they lost one-third. And we're a small community. So when we lose that much money, we lose that much money, but the needs don't go away. Okay. And so I had a conversation with Anna Cortez, our city manager, about what this looks like and how this needs to be something that we're not only talking about, but we don't wait to find solutions. We're starting to have conversations now about what this could look like, who needs to be at the table and not working in silos. So one of the things that we did is we just secured a grant with the Health Trust, which is based in San Jose, to put together a work group to start looking at this issue and develop a strategic plan for what we're going to do as a community. Because we can't do what we do, which is be on the defensive. Something bad happens. We're like, oh, that's a bummer. There's loss of resources. We can't afford that logic and that way of doing business. We need to think creatively about how we're going to position ourselves so that way as many community members don't lose the benefits that are available to them. And so as part of this, we're a work group. We're going to come up with a strategic plan. And then the health trust said, if you do this, we'll also come back and support you whatever it is in your your plan to help with implementation so we're bringing out outside resources to help support our community but one of the things that i wanted to share with you all today is um it's been shared with me that we're looking at exploring increasing the costs of sewer and water And so when we think about what this is like on an individual level, you've just lost your insurance, you've just lost your food, and now the cost of your basic necessities in your house, your water and your sewer, just went up exponentially. So it's a triple whammy. and so one of the ideas that i just want you to explore because you've got a budget you have to figure out what to do with it is if you do go that route to take the lens of how can we have financial assistance for our residents that are really struggling financially right now so that way the increase in cost doesn't impact them as much as it otherwise would We can't do this work to protect our community members in silos. We need partnership and we need creativity. This is one of the ways that we can be creative in coming up with solutions. But I hope to work with all of you when we're coming up with what this looks like in our community. Thank you so much.

Thank you Council members, I felt that it was that Cassandra would do a much better job at explaining the impact that each one is having already having in our Community again, this is not. Some theory, it is real, it is happening, and we will take into consideration the information that we just heard us we crunch our numbers so and that's my report Thank you so much.

City Council Chambers L' yeah well, thank you for that, because we appreciate this, I mean it does force us to look at this from all different. City Council Chambers L' angles or different perspectives, so this is really important information for us to have as we consider go ahead Council member Morales.

Thank you for bringing this, and thank you for bringing this and actually bringing people together. I just want to share a few things that some of us are working on. I want to let you know that lobbying started in last year, September October timeframe in various jurisdictions from a regional approach. So various regions got together, Santa Cruz, Monterey, San Benito, not so much in Santa Clara to lobby our legislators to put money on the books to help with CalFresh and for Medi-Cal. Our senator, Senator John Laird, actually passed legislation just recently for distressed hospitals, keeping in mind Watsonville and Hazel Hawkins. So he was just here explaining what the legislation means for us. And they also have money moving forward for distressed hospitals, again, to make sure that hospitals don't close. We know that most of our residents commute, so about 60 to 65% actually get their medical services outside of San Benito. Those hospitals are aware. They've actually done studies to look at the impact, and so they are prepared. They're prepared for closures. They are also taking a significant budget deficit, but they're trying to close through either measures like Measure A. Or other measures, and other jurisdictions are looking at tax measures to close kind of that gap, not long term. I think the scary part is that next year, two thousand and twenty seven is when the we're going to feel it the most, and that's where it's good to plan now for that, because I think we're going to see a significant impact to not just food and medical services, but we're also seeing the impacts of the federal budget, right? With the recent news that we might have $1.3 billion withheld. Of course, I'm hoping that the state of California will sue in order for that not to occur, but it is layer after layer after layer of just impacts to our community. The good thing is, I think, is that there are several bodies in San Benito from a regional perspective. So the Central Committee passed the resolution. The Labor Council passed the resolution. The neighboring jurisdictions are all working with one voice. to really identify the impacts to individuals and what does that mean in terms of numbers. It also forces jurisdictions like the counties to look at how does social services work with the hospitals so that residents are not losing their medical services. So what does that people work? What does that mean? How can we change our workflow to make sure that folks are not losing their benefits if they're eligible? How can we maximize and provide services to our food banks to make sure that they have the capacity to serve our community? And how do we identify private or corporate partnerships to make sure that we're closing um and again this is only going to get worse so as we're bracing for those impacts I think it's really good to have a strategic plan to have a work plan that really builds our community and focuses on our strengths so that we can help each other through these tough times so thank you for bringing that yeah

Thank you for that information, Council Member Morales as well. A lot of people are working really hard to try to figure out how to get around some of the things that are coming out of the federal government and we just need to keep working together and considering these issues from different angles because it's not so straightforward anymore. Yeah. Okay. Well, thank you for that. I'm going to check back with the city manager. Anything else before we go to closed session? That is it, ma'am. Okay. Thank you for that. So will you go ahead and read the closed session items?

It's a pleasure. There we go. We have four items to be discussed in closed session. 11.1, public employees performance, title city manager. 11.2, conference with legal counsel, anticipated litigation, significant exposure to litigation related to the purchase of right-of-way. an eminent domain 11.3 conference with legal counsel anticipated litigation valenzuela water and 11.4 conference with labor negotiators pursuant to government section 54957 and it's regarding our various unions and non-represented employees okay thank you for that um so let me check with the city clerk any public comments on these items no mayor

Okay, okay, then we're going to move into closed session. So I think we're going to, I think we're going to take a quick break, a five minute break, and then we will, we're going to clear the chamber and then we will go into closed session, but we're going to go ahead and take a five minute break.

Yeah.