City Council - Regular Meeting

We'll just give you about 20 more seconds here. All righty, we'll go ahead and call the meeting to order. It is four o'clock now. Good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to our afternoon-only session for today's council meeting, October 6, 2026. And with that, we'll roll right into the Pledge of Allegiance, and I'll ask Council Member Rasch to kick us off.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you, Gene. All right. And with that, I'll pass it to staff for roll call and share announcements with the public.

Thanks, Linda. All right. And with that, we're going to go right into our first item, which is the presentation for today, recognizing Monterey Sports Center aquatic staff and Monterey Fire Department personnel for their life-saving response on September 6, 2026. How cool. This is just another demonstration of the amazing team that we have here in the city of Monterey, and it's, I think, a wonderful way to start today's meeting off. So with that, I'm gonna go ahead and pass it to Dante for a staff presentation, and then let's get some recognition for these awesome staff that we have.

Thank you, Bill, and thank you, Dante, for getting this on the agenda. It's a small token of what we can do to recognize the work that you all have done to save somebody's life in Monterey. So why don't we have all of the folks that participated in this come up? We have some proclamations for you here, and we'll take a photo. So come on up. Don't be shy. I'm just going to read off the names just so it's... We have Lou Valdez, Danny Given, Rob Klemek. I apologize if I said that last name wrong. Who is it? Nathan Perginan. Russell Stopper. Yeah. Everybody's following directions. I love this. Amy

Who else do I have? I got Danny. Danny's not here. And we got Rob. Right there. Appreciate you for it. Nathan. All right, Rob.

hey love you for it thank you so much and tyler tyler uh-huh it's a good name thank you so much all right why don't we come on up through this way and i think the cameras will get us in the front you got it did i just take off the mic the no no no that piece yeah the pieces

All righty, and with that, we'll actually do public comment on the presentation that was just given. So I know I see everybody's leaving already, but we'll open up for public comment as is tradition. As for folks' awareness, what we do is we identify folks at the beginning of the public comment period. Once those folks are identified, we then cut it off and only those folks will be able to speak. So if you identify yourself after the public, the identification period, unfortunately you won't be able to speak, but everybody gets a chance. So you have to identify yourself at the beginning, and t

Thanks, Esther. Thanks for your public comment and your recognition of our of our workforce. All right, and with that, we will go ahead and move on to general public comments. So this is an opportunity for folks in the public to speak on non-agendized items. So if your comments today are related to an item that's on the agenda, this is not the time to speak. This is for general public comments for non-agendized items. I'll start again on Zoom. For folks on Zoom, you can navigate your way to the raise hand function. In the meantime, I'll check in the chamber. Just ask folks to stand up to the l

Mr. Vega, I know that you stopped me the, well, we ran into each other the other day, and I'm assuming that it's related to this, so if you want to connect, I'm happy to chat.

Okay. Either way, I'll be happy to connect if you'd like.

Pardon? I'm sorry. Please go ahead and finish. Okay. Did you have a chance to reach out to staff about this already? Yeah, I talked to staff. You talked to staff.

Okay, perfect. All right, and with that, we'll go to our callers on Zoom.

Thank you. All right, we'll take the next caller.

Thank you. That was it? All righty. Thank you for all those that provided public comment today. With that, we're going to go ahead and move to consent agenda. There's been a request to pull item 11. Council, is there a desire to pull anything else from the consent? Yes, sir. Yeah, I'd like to pull number two. All right. Two and 11, please.

Do we want to keep anything on the consent today? I made a mistake. Just kidding. Item 3, not 2. Sorry. Item 3. It was supposed to be laughter. Yeah, no, I was trying to do a mea culpa before. Sorry.

So let me write this down. What were your numbers? Three. Just three? Just three. And then, Jean, you were 9 and 11. You were 9, and then there's a desire for that. So we're doing 3, 9, and 11. Anything else? Okay, this is an opportunity now for the public to pull something from the consent if you so desire, or you can just make a comment. If you're wanting the council to take action though, then you'll have to request the item be pulled. So we're gonna open it up for public comment on the consent. If you're wanting to pull something though, or if it's already been requested to be pulled by th

I move that we accept and approve the consent except for pulling 3, 9, and 11. Second.

All right, so moved and seconded. Any other discussion? All right. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes unanimously. With that, we'll move on to our first ordinance, which is item three, second reading to amend Monterey City Code section 19-103, the schedule of fees and services charges to reduce the amount of the city's cost recovery for specific encroachment permit and inspection fees to less than 100%. And I think Councilmember Smith requested to pull this one, so I'll pass it over to you to see if you have any questions that might help us focus the conversation as we pull th

Yes. The reason I wanted to pull it, because there's still a couple of comments in the community that have come to me. This is a second reading of a reduction in the certain categories of the rates and permits. and we had a July release of updated rate schedule and this is a reduction of a portion of that. The last time we spoke about this, I made a motion and it was concurred by the council that we would come back with a study session. So part of the conversation is with staff, do we have an update of when we might have a study session scheduled to review some of the other increases in the ra

Okay, and if you could report out for the public the list of the five that are on the agenda tonight. We have added in the staff, it's the percentage reduction from the rate schedule from July, but I think the public's questions that I was fielding for the last couple of days had to do with, well, what does that mean the rate will be? So do you have something you could present for the five rates that we're talking about tonight that's the actual dollar amount? rather than just listing a percentage amount. Is there something we can put up on the board?

Okay, and I'm sorry, Andrew, are you talking about the new rate? These are the new rates. These are the new rates. Yes. Okay, the second rate was how much?

I was able to pull it up. It'll be showing up on your screen just momentarily. Thank you very much. Thanks, Nat. So that's the suggested amounts for after the proposed 70%, reduction 50, 70, 50, and 50. That's helpful. Thank you very much. Sure. Any other questions from the council at this time?

I know we talked about this, but are we getting data? And I know the answer was it's not directly comparable, but are we getting data from other cities?

Okay. And for review, we can't, even if we wanted to... accrue more than 100% of the cost. That's correct. By law. By law?

Thank you. Any other questions? All right, thank you, Andrew, for answering those questions. With that, we'll go ahead and open up for public comment. For folks on Zoom, you can navigate your way to the raise hand function. Meanwhile, I'll check in the chamber. Anybody in the chamber wish to speak on this item? We have one taker. Anybody else? All right. I'll cut it off in the chamber. I'll do a countdown for folks on Zoom to five, four, three, two, one. We have one on Zoom.

You're saying you don't want us to approve this tonight. But this is lowering the rates. This isn't the end of the discussion, though. So we're coming back for a study session so we can better understand this. So you're saying you'd rather pay more than us lowering the cost right now?

We'll go ahead and go to the caller on Zoom.

All right, thank you for the public commenters. And with that, we'll bring it back to the council for motion and deliberation. I'm going to go ahead and start us off here and just say, look, there's no, I don't think there's any desire to rush through this and get this behind us. I think the goal is to make sure that we're charging. You're good. I'll stop. I think the goal is to make sure that we get it right. And the whole purpose of this is to make sure that, one, we're doing cost recovery appropriately, but secondly, that we're not Pricing out folks from being able to do projects and allowi

Yeah, just a comment. Yeah, I'm going to support the motion because I think that once I know that the rates are too high, if we acknowledge that today with this recommendation, just to stay with the higher amount that was approved in July for this category for the next month until we can come back and look at a bigger piece, to me it's sort of disingenuous to those that were collecting fee payments from tomorrow and the next day until we we see this again i would rather try and get this as low as we can now until we get staff's opportunity to give us the complete picture and so that that that

Thanks to Wendy Brinkman for her comments and to Tom Berara for participating in the process. It's great and it's a way to get the right answer and to participate in the discussion, so thank you for reaching out. I think we're on the right track. We do want to get it right. We are lowering them. Just be patient. You know where I live, Tom, so we'll get back to this.

And if staff could repeat the timeframe they thought we would be looking at, is there an estimate? By the end of the year. Yeah, by the end of the year.

And I wanted to provide one additional clarification in regards to the fee that you had paid as of late as yesterday. It's because we haven't adopted it yet. It takes a second reading before the fees are changed. So after the second reading is approved, which is going to happen tonight, the fees will, the new fees will be implemented. I'm sorry, I can't take public comment. We can talk afterwards, though. I just want to make, I want to make sure that we follow the process, because if I allow you to make a comment, then everybody else is able to make a comment, too. So we'll connect offline. Wi

Any opposed? Motion passes unanimously. And with that, we're going to move on to item nine, appoint agency negotiators for conference with real property negotiators pursuant to government code section 54956, TAC 8, property... 1110 Veterans Drive, American Legion, Agency Negotiators, Kim Cole and Jenna Aldredi, Negotiating Parties, Shane Strong. With that, who pulled this one? I did. Do you want to go ahead and start us off here?

Sure, sure. I know this is just for the appointment of the spokesperson, but in the agenda item, were inclusions of the attachment of the lease. And so I just wanted to make sure that the community knew they could speak out and participate again in this discussion. And I want to acknowledge Council Member Barber for reaching out to the Old Town community and seeing how happy they were. And I reached out to make sure that they were feeling good. And what they report is that the Legion has been a great Legion. 41 has been a great neighbor. And they do have some suggestions that are public. And s

Any other questions at this point? No. Okay. With that, we're going to open up for public comment. For folks on Zoom, you can navigate your way to the raise hand function. In the meantime, I'll check in the chamber. Anybody in the chamber wish to speak on this item? All right. Seeing none, I'll do a countdown for folks on Zoom to 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. There's one on Zoom. We'll go ahead and take that caller.

Esther. Is it the wrong item? That's the wrong item. Yep. Okay. Sorry. All right. With that, we're going to bring it back to the council for motion and deliberation.

I'll make a motion that we approve the negotiations listed in the agenda item.

It's been moved and seconded. Any other discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes unanimously. With that, we'll move to 11, appoint agency negotiators for conference of real property negotiators pursuant to government code section 54956, TAC 8, properties 300 Glenwood Circle, numbers 258, 820 Casanova Avenue, number 61, 820 Casanova Avenue, number 108, agency negotiators Kim Cole, Jen Eldredi, and Jose Acosta. Negotiating parties, Teresa Gianmenco, Sotheby's International Realty for 300 Glenwood Circle, number 258. Andrew Phillips with Phillips Real Estate for 820 Ca

I just pulled it for a public comment. It was some comment that's... Requested from the public? Yes.

Okay. Any questions from the council on this one? No, I'll have a statement. Yeah, we'll do questions now, and we'll come back. Okay, so public comment. Folks on Zoom, you can use the raise hand function. Folks in the chamber, just ask you to stand up to the left of the podium. Anybody else in the chamber wish to speak on this item? All right, so we'll cut it off to the one. I'll do a countdown for folks on Zoom to five, four, three, two, one. And there's one on Zoom. We'll go ahead and start in the chamber.

Thank you. We appreciate you for it. With that, we'll go to our caller on Zoom.

All right. With that, we'll go ahead and close general public comment and pass it to Dr. Barber.

So with that, I know there are two comments that want to be made, but I'd like to go ahead and motion to approve item number 11. Second.

It's been moved and seconded. And did you want to add any additional comments?

No, I'm good. I know there's a couple other.

I appreciate the conversation. I'm glad we pulled it so that the speakers got the chance to add the richness to the conversation. And the only comment I wanted to make, and I think it was clear, but this is new inventory. This is not a resale back. So it is an increase, and it's great.

Yes, so the comments I have is for the public knowledge. Sometimes when one might read the agenda and then in the outside conversations, there's always the comment of, well, how could we be in a position purchase when we're trying to deal with a deficit so again we have many many different budget items the general fund and then this is a specialized fund that comes from revenue that comes from the old days of revenue where there was property was built on urban renewal so we have an affordable housing This is a program, this is a purchase, and it's done with block grants. It's not money coming

And I just wanted to add a comment. This isn't the first time that we've done this since I've been on the council. And there's been other opportunities. And to your point, I appreciate you making those comments, Council Member Smith. We can't do this all the time, but when the funding is available and there, we try to strike at the opportunity when a unit matches that timing. And so I just appreciate staff's work on this. And just to kind of make sure the context is fully understood by the general public, we purchased these units and then we sell them to a first time home buyer at a more affor

We had the storm preparation presentation by staff and some new faces that really added to the richness. It was extremely well done. To all of you who participated and contributed, thank you. It was excellent. The mayor and I did go, and I hope in the future we can actually make it a special session so that all of us can go. And they're taped, and you can see it online in a little while. It'll be on the website if you want to reference it. Also, I am partnering with the Monterey Vista Neighborhood Association in presenting on November 14th in the morning, Saturday morning at the library, a spe

So this last couple of weeks have been busy. And for those who are ever thinking about running for city council, One of the obscure duties that we all have that no one really ever talks about is that we have evaluations that we need to do. So I won't go through the list of who they were, but evaluations this last couple of weeks, I've done five of them. And all fine representatives, executive directors, and any board that I serve on, that's the occasion that we have. And other council members do the same thing for the boards that they serve on. So that's an exciting time, because we get to eva

Awesome. Dr. Ruby, you didn't have anything? Um, so speaking of outside agencies that we represent, I, um, and the chair of Monterey one water, our wastewater treatment facility. Um, and just one update that I would share with you all is regarding our energy production improvement pro project. And the idea here is that we're trying to save us as rate payers money. So we were trying to work in partnership with, um, What is your agency? No, Regen. And taking waste and utilizing that waste to turn it into energy and actually create biogas and use that gas to help not take as much renewable natura

Beautiful. And with that, we're going to do public comments on closed session agenda items. I'm going to try to do a really quick recap. We have a lot of items on our closed session this evening. Item 14 is conference with legal counsel regarding existing litigation. There's multiple pieces of litigation that you can find in the agenda report. Item 15 is closed session conference with real property negotiators related to 731 Dry Creek Road. 16 is closed session conference with real property negotiators regarding 693 Del Monte Avenue, which is the outrigger canoe storage. 17 is closed session c

Thank you for the organization's philanthropy and the cultural diversity that you bring to the community. We're gonna go ahead and reset the clock for him so he'll have his full three minutes and thanks for being here today.

Thank you for coming to speak. It's not often we get underage folks that come and speak during council. So very proud of you. You're well-spoken and thanks for sharing us your experience. So let's give it up for this guy.

Can you say your name again, and where are you going to school?

I have to take tests. Just say thanks. He wouldn't be released early to go outside and paddle. So there you go. I have congratulations.

And can you let us know how to attend the next LUA? All the LUAs. Put us on the mailing list.

All right, and with that, we'll go to our callers on Zoom.

It's always in our minutes. So that's one place that you can find it. But you can also reach out to the city attorney's office and follow up on the outcome in between the end of our meeting tonight and the minutes being publicized. Is that it?

Awesome. Thank you, Chrissy. All right. With that, we'll adjourn. Have a good evening, everybody. Unless you want to come back after closed session and hear the report out.