City Council - Regular Meeting

for being here. Let me just check in with Merab. Do we know if Council Member Morales is participating by Zoom or is she not? Did we verify that?

Okay. Okay. So let's go ahead and get started. Then let's go ahead and start with a Pledge of Allegiance. Council Member Pichet, can you lead us?

Did we get an answer from Council Member Morales?

She is on, I think. Hello? She's on right now. It's just we're not able to see her. Are you able to get her image on the screen so we can see her?

But I don't even see the cell that has her name on it.

I think you're on mute. Can you unmute and then just let us know that you're present?

I'm here. Are you able to hear me? Hello, can you hear me? Can you hear me?

Yes, can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Hello? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me?

Yeah, we can't we can't hear anybody. So I think it's on our end the audio issues.

Are you able to hear me? Hello? Testing? Are you able to hear me?

Thank you all for your patience as we just resolved some of the tech issues. Hopefully we'll get it resolved really quick. We want to make sure that Council Member Morales can participate.

Can you hear me? Hello, can you hear me? Hello, can you hear me?

Wait, hold on. Can you hear me now? Oh, okay. I think we can. I think we can.

So let's go ahead and finish the roll call with Council Member Morales and then President.

Okay, and then Mayor Stephens is here too. Okay, thank you. Okay, thank you all as we just deal with some of these little tech issues. Appreciate your patience. We're going to move on to our first item. Are we doing any report on the closed session session? Is there any, is there?

Okay. Okay. So we're going to go right into council business and we're going to start with 5.1, a resolution declaring a state of financial emergency, establishing financial recovery and stabilization priorities and directing immediate action to protect the city solvency and continuity of essential municipal services. So, City Manager, you have the floor.

Okay, thank you for that report. Yeah, that's like really tough for all of us to hear. I'm sure that it's really tough for the public to hear as well. So we will have to proceed responsibly and then make this really tough decision. Let me check with my fellow council members to see if there's any questions. Any questions, Vice Mayor? Councilman, appreciate any questions.

Yeah. So I've been on council for going on a couple of years now, and it seems like For the last couple of years, we have been having these conversations with Dave Marion, city manager, with Jim Pia, and now you. And it's been going on for at least the two years we've been on. And we've been doing everything we can to be... Politics aside, just conservative fiscally, literally for the last couple of years. You guys probably thinking about, but the biker rally, the biker rally. Yes, we did do the biker rally. But we really didn't know how bad we were about rubbing nickels together until June. A

Okay, I'm going to ask the chambers to just listen quietly. I appreciate the comments, but we will have an opportunity for public comment in a little bit. But I'm just going to ask that we just keep the comments in the chambers. Thank you.

Thanks for that. You can just ballpark it. It's been five years, ten years.

Okay. So it's probably been quite a long time because we're down in a hole and we dug ourselves pretty deep. We've done some things the last two years. We haven't dug our way out of it. creating the, what was it, the Halster Financial Task Force, which isn't fully, we don't have full headcount on that yet. So if anybody would like to be on that task force, you have some acumen when it comes to, you know, making things balanced, it would be really nice to have you. So that's all I have now.

Okay. Thank you, Councilmember Pichet. Councilmember Morales, let me check in with you. Do you have any questions?

No questions. Thank you for the presentation.

Okay, so let's go into public comment. So here's what we're gonna do because I'm gonna anticipate that we're gonna have a lot of public speakers and I appreciate that. However, I will need to reduce the three minutes to two minutes so that we're not here until midnight. So I am gonna just give you a warning that we're gonna reduce the time to two minutes. per speaker, so you can adjust what you're going to say, and then we're going to begin public comment on this item. And so when your name's called, please come to the podium and say your name and where you're from for the record, and then go

Whoops, thank you, Mr. Leyland. Next speaker, please.

Okay. Thank you, Ms. Casey. Next speaker.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Urcia. Next speaker.

Thank you. Thank you for the comment. Next, do we have any other speakers?

Okay, so I'm going to bring it back to the council for any other final comments or questions. Go ahead, Council Member Ritchie.

Yeah. So I do have a question, especially since SEIU is here. And I'd like to know, when it comes to certain things like the stormwater and, you know, keeping the storm drains clean and like abating the leaves, we've got a lot of deciduous trees. We've got to clean those things out. Where does that show up on a bill for stormwater? Where does that show up?

okay so you know when you said that we should potentially change the way we look at running the city and run it more like a business which you brought up the the phrase cash flows um well when you say cash flows it it occurs to me that you have money coming in you have money going out and that that cash has got to come from somewhere so we've got a cost center we provide a service and that's what businesses do they provide goods and services so it's a service that the city's provided but we don't have any way of collecting for that so we don't have like two bucks kick in for the fun two bucks

Well, there's never been a utility is what she said.

Never been a utility. But how long have you been providing the service? More than 10 years? Because we've had these trees for quite a while.

Okay, that's over 12 years ago. Okay, so it's been a long time. And there's just a lot of little holes like that in this city that we have been in the last two years. We've been trying to shore them up, trying to shore up these kinds of things. So yeah, is it comfortable to raise water rates? No, it's not. It's not comfortable to do that. But there are two sides of the town when it comes to where you get your water. One side sunny slope and they're a little bit newer side of town. So it's like the east side of town. The houses are more stucco versus shiplap, right? And they're not gonna need c

I think we're three years behind now. We were seven when we first came in and now we're, is that right? Are we at three audits behind or is it four?

Okay. I know we have a, it was in the documentation, but you have a plan and we're going to pass another audit this coming, what was it? June. And then a year later, we're going to pass another audit. So we're literally doing what we can to catch up. Literally, it's not enough. We haven't passed audits for a bunch of years. So it's going to take a little bit of while for an outside generally accepted accounting firm to go through all of our numbers because You guys don't know exactly what's in the numbers. We clearly don't know exactly what's in the numbers until we have an actual catch up on

Because I want to make sure that our city manager and our finance director understand what it is they ask. In terms of what are you asking them to do? So all the accounting documents are public. Those are public. So what is it that you're asking them to do?

I just want to verify. Everything that we are discussing right now, all of the numbers, when people are asking us to crunch numbers, It's really not what I believe I'm here to do exactly, do the number crunching. I thought giving direction was mainly the job. But are these documents all publicly available? Are we hiding anything?

And then is there a way on the city's website, like, functional work groups like important work groups like Hollister Police Department can be notified when there are important matters that they might want to attend to or come to because I don't want people that are important to decision making not to have a chance to come up and speak literally you guys I'm not always my mind's not always made up up here when I read all the documentation which I do I'm probably 70% kind of made up. The other 30% is whatever you guys see in here. And that's just ballparking it, right? So is there a way that im

Okay, so they can just go on our website and sign up for notifications. Okay, cool. So there is a way. There's a way. There's a will. That's the thing that we need is the will to go on the website and figure out when these new meetings are going to be happening. That's all I have.

Okay. Thank you, Council Member Pichet. I'm going to check with Vice Mayor. Do you have any questions or comments? Go ahead.

Thank you. Okay, so... If we were to wait to address the issues that you brought forward this evening, what would happen to us financially and as a city itself and how we run?

Okay. Thank you. And I just want to confirm that our city attorney has reviewed this proclamation.

Okay. Council Member Morales, any questions, comments?

I think Council or Vice Mayor De Anda kind of asked my question, which is appreciate the framework. I know that's moving forward. We don't need a resolution for that. But declaring the state of emergency for the city, that's really the action we're taking right now. So if we move forward with that piece, can you tell us the significance of declaring a state of emergency for the city?

You did. And can you share, are there any negative consequences if we move forward?

Okay. Thank you. Okay. So, um, can you, can you explain, um, the process moving forward if in fact this item is approved. So what would it look like? Okay, and what I would like to hear in your explanation so that the public more importantly can hear is what are some of the steps that need to happen as you move forward through a process like this?

Okay. And I just want to ask a real specific question in terms of some, so these, so this is the list of the things that would be part of this, right? These are the goals. Essentially, this is a strategy moving forward and, and, and I, this is my assumption. Let me know if I'm assuming properly that these are not being done like step one, step two, step three. These are going to be done simultaneously all at the same time as part of the broader strategy. That's right. Is that right? Yes.

Okay. And then so can you explain the way in which staff would be involved in any of these steps?

Like, okay, so we have a CIU well represented here today. In what way would they be involved in any of the steps related to any of these items?

And what does that include? Like what sorts of things like me? OK, so when when there are any actions involving involving union members in which it is related to what is in the MOU. including any kind of reductions, any kind of change in working conditions, things like that, then there is a discussion, right, with, okay, and so those will happen before any steps are taken related to union members, staff, is that right?

Okay, so then that process of meeting with union through, it's a meet and confer process, I believe, will happen in the event that there are any changes that you may be wanting to consider related to the MOUs that we have with our unions.

Okay. So then just again... As you are going through that process, then I'm going to also assume that we will get regular reports about how those discussions and meetings are going on. Right?

Okay, so let us know like how, so I guess that's the level of detail that I want to be clear. What will it look like so that we understand like the progress of how things are moving along with all of these items, including some of the staff related items? What would that look like?

Okay. And so we will be getting then some progress, like I'll put in quotes, progress reports on how these discussions and activities are going.

I think that's a really good idea. I think we should do that. So Mr. Machado, I think that would be a good thing to add as it relates to the progress, specifically how it relates to the progress of any of these items should this item pass today. right okay i mean honestly i think that's that's a good action to take regardless i think so right right okay okay i don't have any other questions let me just double check make sure there are any last minute questions go ahead councilmember pache can you yes

Yeah, we're going to make it quick. So, man, a lot of people have come up here and said, hey, we don't want you to do it, right? I just told you. I just told you. 30%, right? A lot of people say, don't do it. Don't do 5.1. But I must be getting this all wrong because when I look at this, I look at it as a declaration, right? A declaration saying, we we messed up we have not been running the financial side of the city very well and we need to change course we need a course correct we need to stop gap all these holes start charging for things that we need to start charging for and make some chan

So it makes me wonder if I even know the English language. If you were going to define the word declare, right? That single word, right? We're declaring that we know that we're in a deep hole, right? And we're going to outline some things that we're going to do to get out of it.

How would you define declare? I'm not sure. Like what exactly? I mean, I guess we're declaring something.

I just want to know what we mean. Is it to make a statement?

Are we just making a statement publicly that, Hey, it's a recognition of the emergent of the emergency or the urgent nature of where we're at in our financials.

Okay. Right. So we're just making a statement that we're, we recognize that we're in financial turmoil. Yeah. And these are the things that we're going to do to get out of that. We're going to do because our creditors are going to want answers. That's all I got. Oh, and the last thing, we've been talking about the bike rally for a long time. We're talking about the financials of the whole thing. We knew it wasn't going to be like a big old money-making enterprise. It really was for the businesses of downtown Ulster. But are we going to get those numbers soon?

I just want transparency. Thank you for that, by the way. No problem. Please help. But that's what we're doing. We're declaring that we know there's a problem and we're declaring the actions that we're going to do to rectify.

Okay, okay, any other? Okay, and Council Member Morales, I can't see you on the screen, so do you have anything? Let me check in with you.

Oh, okay. Okay, so then I'm gonna just check in with the Vice Mayor and Council Member Pichet, so we should take an action on this. So can I get a motion from someone?

All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? No. Okay, no opposition. So that one passes. So we're going to move on to item 5.2, resolution authorizing an interfund loan from impact fee funds to the general and water funds in the amount of 18 mil. So city manager, can we get a report on 5.2? I know you've given us a little bit of information already, but I'll just have you report. Okay, thank you. Thank you, Ms. O'Connell.

Thank you. Okay. Any questions? Questions, my sir? Questions?

Yeah, I got a quick question. Hey, so we got a letter from the Building Industry Association of the Bay Area, and it was from Dennis Martin. man is that for the previous item or for this item it is for this side so uh how did dennis martin know that we had this agenda item on and how is it that like certain work groups of our own don't know that certain things are going down like how did we just get this letter regarding borrowing from impact fees that we get from the building industry, like how would we get this?

So just to summarize, the concern was that, or the question from that letter was, please assure your public that this was vetted through a legal counsel before any action is taken. So let's check in with our counsel, Dana.

Okay, thank you for that. Other questions, Council Member Pichet?

Well, I just wanted to assure the public, I mean, in the letter, it's stating, hey, you need to make sure through independent legal review that this has been verified and that has been completed. This literally has gone through legal. Okay, that is my only question. Okay.

Vice mayor, any questions? Okay, and then I just want, we'll ask Ms. O'Connell and or city manager to restate if we do not access this fund, if we're not able to, I'm sorry, this loan, what would happen? What would occur? What would be the consequence?

Okay. Any other thing that you'd like to add, Dean, about what would be the consequence of not doing this, other than the fact that we wouldn't be able to make payroll tonight?

Okay. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Any other questions? One final question.

So clearly, if we're going to use money for purposes that it was not meant for that, like impact fees, pay for schools and fire and police protection.

Not ours. Impact fees for the schools go to the district. So not our funds come from impact fees.

So we're reasonably certain that we can pay these funds back.

Okay. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Okay, so let's go to public comment. Do we have any speakers on this 5.2 item?

OK, well, let's go ahead. Since we only have two, let's go ahead and move it up to three minutes. Let's go back to three minutes. Thank you. Go ahead, Miss Casey.

Thank you, Ms. Casey. Next speaker. Okay, I'm going to ask the audience to refrain from interrupting. Let's just move forward. Go ahead, Mr. Casey.

Thank you, Mr. Rojas. Any other speakers? No. Okay. Thank you. Okay. So let me bring it back to the council. Any further questions or comments?

Yes. Still processing it, but let me see. So I understand, or the public, where the math isn't mathing, right? Or just where are the numbers? And it just seems like the numbers continue to fluctuate. Let me see, how should I word this? My only assumption is that because we have years of unreported audits, right, where we didn't do audits, the city did not do audits, we are not guaranteed to know exactly what those numbers are, correct? Like, we just know what you know right now based on the work that you and your team have been doing.

Yeah, so... Because a lot of people are saying, you know, how can we show numbers, right? Like everybody wants proof. However, does the audits have something to do with the lack of yearly reporting of the audits?

That's all I have right now. Okay, go ahead, Council Member Bichet.

So the Casey's had a lot of concerns and they want some accountability, right? Everybody in here's here on a Friday night. Can you justify the $18 million? You confident you can pay it back when we get, you know, our revenues. But can we just provide the, can we just disclose the, the, the numbers behind the, the staff report and make it so they can go through it themselves? Can we just disclose everything on the website?

Okay, thanks for that. Sure, no problem. Did we not discuss that we were working on ways to tighten our belts and potentially get back to pre-pandemic levels of spending?

No, that's all I had. I just want to say, guys like Matthew, thank you, and that's all I had.

Okay. Okay, so I'm going to bring it back to the guys. What do we want to do? Somebody want to make a motion?

Well, we don't make payroll if we don't move forward. So if we can satisfy the Casey's with the information that they would want and have the accountability for guys like Matthew, I totally agree. This is not the way to run a city. Borrowing from ourselves is not the way to run it. We can just do everything that is outlined in the previous document on 5.1. I move to adopt.

Okay. Can I get a second? Second. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? No. Okay. So we're going to move on to 5.3 resolution authorizing city manager to pursue special state legislation providing the city of Hollister authority to impose subject to future city council action and voter approval and additional transaction and use tax of up to 1%. So can we get a staff report on this?

You know, clearly we could use the scratch, but we could do this backwards, right? We could go to voters and they could even approve it. And then it would go to Sacramento and they could potentially deny it.

Okay, so this is a necessary step. But the voters are going to get their say. Ultimately, it's up to the voters. That's all I've got.

Okay, let's go to public comment. Speakers on this item?

Okay. Thank you, Ms. Casey. Next speaker.

Okay. So let me check in with our city manager on this item. I want to just talk again about the process for doing this. So this is authorizing, if this passes, this resolution will authorize you to begin the conversation at the state level about lifting the capsule, then it could go to the voters, right? So what would be what, what's the timeframe for that kind of a conversation, that kind of decision? Like, how long are we talking about? Is that next week? Is that two months from now? Is that a year? Like, how long of a discussion would that take with the state?

But it has to happen within the next three months.

And how long would that process take, the time for the analysis? So by the end of the year, the discussion of what happened with the state, then we're now January 2027. So then we say, okay, yeah, please do the analysis. What's the timeframe for that?

No, no, I'm not talking about putting it on the balance, just the analysis. Thank you. Yeah. Six months. Six months. Okay, so then comes back, the report goes out to the council, council makes a decision whether to move forward and for how much, and then that could take a little bit of time, right? So I'm assuming that now we're looking at maybe we're fall of next year,

Okay. I don't know if there's an election. It'd have to be a special, I believe. Okay. I just wanted to get the timeframe. If in fact, because it's not just simply about have the conversation, vote on it, go to the ballot. It's really like a process that includes various steps. Yes. And the most important piece in all of that, at least in my opinion, is that analysis so that a decision can be made at the diocese around whether to have it and for how much, and then also to get the information out to the public.

Okay. Okay. Thanks for that explanation. Appreciate it. Okay. Let me check in, Vice Mayor. Any last minute? Council Member Pichet?

So, You know, Speaker Revis has told us time and time again, especially when it relates to California 25, come to me with shovel ready projects. So that's that's he doesn't have time to help us hold our hands and figure out like his staff, the information that the Casey's are asking for.

Yeah, it'll be his staff. I mean, he may be part of the conversation, but his staff would be not.

Okay. So all we're doing right now is giving you the authority to reach out and start the conversation. And then if he's got additional questions, then our partner is going to help us figure out what information they need to give to Sacramento. So we're just starting a conversation with Sacramento about potentially raising money.

it's no no decision about going to the ballot is being made it's just simply about allowing the conversation to begin okay okay okay so i'm going to check in with um the three of us here does somebody want to make a motion on this item i mean i moved to adopt yeah can i get a second it's not like a no-brainer second All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? No. No opposition. Okay. So then that is our last item. And I'm going to go ahead and adjourn the meeting.