City Council - Regular Meeting

Councilman Stockton, are you commenting on this? Yes. All right.

Well, it sounds to me like it's probably supportive. I'll take a roll call.

No. So is there an opportunity, obviously we've got a lot on the schedule with things that are going on during this election cycle, but what's a good time for our schedule?

Okay. All right. Yeah, thank you. Council Member Chapman, you still have the floor.

Oh, that's the only item I had right now. Thank you.

Okay. Anyone else have anything else to report out? Council Member Weil?

Thanks. I just wanted to say that myself and the mayor and Dr. Chapman and several other people attended the POW MIA session last Friday. And we've done that every year in front of the Vietnam veterans. And it's really a very great remembrance, because it's not a ceremony. It's not politics. It's a remembrance for the people who never came back. or people who served as POWs. And Gail Minkler spoke to the group, and I have known her before too, and she was a casualty nurse during the Vietnam War, and she did a really good job talking about, you know, what it was like in her service. And I also

Yeah, great. Before we move on, just a couple quick comments. Great events in our community. I think a lot of people are really enjoying the partnerships between the city and maybe some of the events downtown. Obviously the car show was another big hit. As far as boards, there was a discussion at the Solano County Water Agency at the last meeting that I attended and more to come, but one of the things that I've asked in the past is as things have progressed through the State Water Resources Control Board, We're paying attention to when we need to make comments on a lot of things just like what

It's probably something where it's not your average parts store. All right, we're going to go ahead and move on to presentations. We have a proclamation for our Public Works Director, Brian Oxley, in honor of his pending retirement. So Brian, you want to come forward? You got your speech prepared? Thank you. Before I let you share a few words of just your thoughts, it's always a time to appreciate the longevity of staff and commitment over the years to making this a better place. But I want to read a proclamation to you, to our community, to our staff, and those who are attending online. Where

I would say that your service and the service alongside of everyone that has served over time is really commendable. When we drive around Vacaville and we see all the staff and the hard work and the smile on people's faces and are willing to drop anything and everything at all times, you'll be missed. And at least the legacy is as you know who you're leaving behind to continue the legacy and the work. So congratulations. Vice Mayor Silva.

So Mr. Oxley, soon to be retired, I want to just, one of the top five moments of me being on this council these past six years was coming home from a call from D.C. after having this conversation, a public conversation about a section of sidewalk we just, we all, including myself, totally missed as far as putting in some sidewalk along Brown Street. And I've shared this before publicly, but I, When people think about or ask me, hey, what's achievements and whatnot, nothing's done alone. But again, for me, every time I think about it, the fact that you and your team were proactive, were focused

All right, we're going to go ahead and move on to the consent calendar. Any member of the council or the public or anyone online wishing to pull an item? We have 9A through 9J. No one online? All right. I will be looking for a motion then.

We have a motion with Councilmember Ritchie and a second with Councilmember Chapman. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Abstain? All right, we'll go ahead and move on to business from the floor. It's an opportunity for any member of the public to address the council on any item that's not on the agenda, but it's within our jurisdiction of concern. So please come forward. Good evening.

Yeah, please come forward. Good evening.

Thank you. Is there anyone online wishing to speak? Good evening. Are you online? Are they muted?

And thank you for your comments. Anyone else? Yes. All right. We'll go to another one.

Yeah, thank you. All right, anyone else? Okay, well, I'm gonna go ahead and close business from the floor and we will move on. Council Member Ritchie.

So, when it comes to... I'm not recognizing you. This is the public's business, and so they have the right to speak to us, and anything else can be offline. We're not going to begin... creating opportunities of engagement where we're going to start having discussion and dialogue that's going to be personal. Well, I'm not recognizing, Councilmember Ritchie, I'm not recognizing you or moving on.

Yes, I do. We're going to move, if you don't stop, I'm going to stand in recess right now. Okay. This is, this is for doing the city's business. We don't always have to like the messages we hear, and that's not the point. It isn't for us in this moment to try and defend the position because then it becomes subjective, okay? But none of us like to hear comments that may be personal. I get it. But as long as they're not violating the First Amendment and they're respectful, then we allow that. That's what a public forum is, and that's it. So with that note, we're moving on. So item 12A, we're going to move on.

I'll second. So you can call a point of order if you need a personal break. Is that what you're doing? No. Okay. We're going to stand and recess for a personal break.

We're going to bring this meeting back to order. It's 6.48. I want to briefly recognize Councilmember Ritchie for a very brief statement.

OK. All right. We'll discuss that later. We're going to go ahead and move on to item 12a.

Yeah, great. Thank you. Please come forward.

Thank you, Vice Mayor Ursula. Just a clarification, is this underground or going to be added to our poles?

And then this is a question for staff. The underground, in the past, we've denied slurry seal. And then soon after, we had a funding committee repair some other lines. What's the strategy to kind of cover up where the roads are going to be opened up, if that's the case? Yeah. We'll clarify if that's even the case. We'll have our public works director come forward.

So, and this is just generally, anytime some type of project goes in to where we need to dig into the roads, we fill it in. Typically, is it about, like, on average, about a year turnaround time to get that paved up, or maybe up to a year and a half, just depending on weather?

right after that. That's the goal here, but in general, is there usually like we try to do within a year or so?

All right. Thank you. That was it. Thanks.

Thank you. Council have any questions for the team here? Well, thank you for making your way out here. I really appreciate it. I think there is an opportunity. Okay, I do see a light. Council Member Wiley.

So have you done this in several other cities around or in California or how much other? Tell me about where else you've been.

And you don't have to worry about snow as much here as in Colorado and Minnesota.

Yeah, I'm just curious, is most of this that's going to be laid going to be as a result of directional drilling? Is that what you guys, and is it to a certain depth that you guys go?

Yeah. And then for the... As far as for notification for contractors digging and that sort of thing, so you guys will map this out so all of our contractors that are doing work will have a very clear view of, I only ask that because I hit one one time with my backhoe and I took out a couple of banks and part of the city north, I won't even say where, but anyways, that's why I'm just asking.

And in the event that somebody does hit one of these, which inevitably will happen, you guys have a repair crew? We do. Who address those issues? And is this the box of gold? Or do you guys have reasonable rates so that our contractors and people that might hit this can rest reasonably assured that it's not going to kill their company?

And those repairs, you guys got those down pretty good?

I will go ahead and open it up to the public for any comment. So thank you, gentlemen. Thank you.

Yeah, thank you. Yeah, we don't want that.

Yeah, thank you. Any questions online? Comments? All right. Go ahead.

Yeah, thank you. And as far as the noticing, I think that's a valid question. Obviously, a project like this is letting, from a public relations, letting the community know what's coming and what that looks like. And as best we can is advance notice of a project area. And then certainly if it's nearby, obviously, I think we do a pretty good job of making notifications happen. But because we're having to coordinate with a third party, we just need to make sure of that. So if you have any comments on that, we'd love to hear that.

Great. Yeah, thank you. Council Member Fremont? Excuse me.

Yeah, I was just curious. You know, a lot of our... residential areas have you know under everything is underground so where everything is underground now are we going to continue to be underground because cables through some neighborhoods are just atrocious and ugly and I just want to make sure that it's not going to affect communities right now that don't have to look at cables above you know to So is that the case then that you guys would run them where there's existing above ground and stay below ground where it is below ground? Okay, thank you. Council Member Whalen.

And just a question on, since the time, the 15 days. So overall this project will be like three years, is that what you were saying? And then after that time we'll have areas that are not hooked up yet, but it'll be on the city to hook them up as we go. It'll just be in place and ready, but for three years to get everything in place, is that correct? That is correct, thank you.

Thank you. Thank you for your question or comment. I heard them say there would be poles, but I was thinking everything was going to be underground. And I thought that was the move, that was the movement now was to get everything all wiring underground and not overhead. So are we looking at having cables overhead running from these poles that you mentioned?

So I'm going to have you come forward, that way you can explain it. This is a good conversation to have. Oh yeah. especially for the public, because sometimes it's an opportunity. Hey, let's just trench and put everything underground. But homes that are overhead have all their existing cabling, wiring, electricity overhead. So this isn't a move to transition everyone into a new way.

OKAY, SO SOME AREAS IN DISTRICT FOUR, THERE ARE NO OVERHEAD. SO WHERE THERE ARE NONE, You will be?

You will not. Okay. That's what I wanted to hear. I am District 4. Okay. All right. I can't think of that other question I had right now. Thank you. Sure.

I just want to make a comment. Yeah, go ahead. Broadband, I share with the city manager, you know, this is a long time coming. This has been a topic ever since I've been on the council. Broadband is coming. Never heard where it was being implemented, where it was starting. I'm happy to hear it. Also, it will improve our efficiency. And now with all the technology that we're putting in place, Vacaville is over two decades, three decades behind with getting fiber optics in. Yes. And some of the new developments, people say that their phone lines, you know, poor connection. Anyway, I think it's g

Vice Mayor Silver. I motion to approve 12A.

So we have a motion by the Vice Mayor and a second by Council Member Wiley. There was, did we open this up to the, we did for, there was no comments from, we already did that. I just wanted to make sure. So we have a motion and a second. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Well thank you. Look forward to this project starting. Thank you for all the hard work and appreciate the team. I think that this is always a good thing when there's a benefit to the community and for the city. So thank you very much. Move on to item 12B.

Yeah, thank you. Looking for any questions from the council. Council Member Chapman.

Thank you. Can you go back to the slide where you showed a distribution of the funds to 11, the Boys and Girls Club? Yes. Okay. Okay. During the discussion, I recall making mention of PAL, Police Activities League, and I didn't hear them being mentioned anywhere with any allocation. Was there a reason why they were left out? Okay. When we, oh, someone is coming down. Yeah, I think you're going to get your answer. Well, hello there. I got you.

You're absolutely correct. Thank you so very much. Yes. I think my question at the time was regarding the facility that they were moving out of and knowing that Pell needed space. Okay. Yeah, that's right.

Thanks for the information and the report and all the work on it. It was hard to determine how much public comment there was. Can you, I mean, were there two public comments or 22 public comments, or do you know?

Okay, and the time is over, so if we didn't receive any, we didn't receive any. All right, thank you.

Could you go to slide six, please? So the, I always get this tongue twisted, CDBG funds, right now we're being allocated about $530,000 a year from HUD. Is that correct? That's correct. And then out of this for the Montoya Center and the Section 108 loan, that's going to be every year the $300,000 and basically... $40,000, is that correct? Every year, that's going to be roughly the number?

Right, okay. Well, so I don't really have any other questions, but I do want to go on the record and just say that I'm opposed to spending the next 20 years of our CDBG funds over what looks like to be over 50% of that for one community in our entire city uh i'm just i'm just opposed i just i i think it's a mistake i think it's 25 000 basically comes down to about 25 000 a month that we're going to have to pay out of our out of our funds for the next 20 years and i know we've discussed this and we've ripped it up and down the road and everything else i just wanted to one more time go on the re

All right. Seeing no more questions, I'm going to open it up to the public for any comment. This is your chance because there were no other comments, right? Anyone online? All right, I'm going to go ahead and bring it back to the council for any further comments. Or if not, I will be looking for a motion. Motion to approve. Second. So Vice Mayor Silva motions and Council Member Chapman seconds. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Aye. All right, so we've got five and two, so that's the record. And with that, thank you very much.

We'll go ahead and move on. There's no more items, so what we're going to do is we're going to adjourn at 7.22. Good night, Vacaville.