City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening Vacaville. It is Tuesday, August 11, 2026. It's 6.07 p.m. This is the regular City Council meeting scheduled in the City of Vacaville. We are in the Council Chambers. May I have a roll call?

Here. With that, if you're able, we please rise for a moment of silence followed by the pledge. Vice Mayor Silva, will you lead us in the pledge?

Sure. Ready? Begin. 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.

All right. All right. We assembled for closed session at 5 o'clock. And we had two items that were legal related and there are Report outs for both of them. Items 1A, council provided direction to legal counsel to initiate litigation against major fire truck manufacturers for alleged elimination of competition, restricted supply, imposed excessive price increases, delayed deliveries, reduced quality, and forced exclusive use of proprietary replacement parts, causing substantial financial harm to public entities and threatening public safety. The vote was unanimous approval by the council with

All in favor? Aye. Opposed? All right. We'll move on to reports of the City Council. Any updates on any boards or commissions or committee meetings? Councilmember Wiley?

Just a couple of quick things. Several other council members were also there. The Junior Giants had their closing last week and everyone can kind of make a comment on it. But it was a wonderful program that the BACA PAL and the Junior Giants and the police force do for our people across So that's wonderful. And then also another thing that many people attended was the creative arts and many other vendors and groups providing backpacks and special things for the youth on last Saturday. And it was really great because there were like theater groups and music groups and sports groups and a lot of

Yeah, I would just like to acknowledge real quick. I was able to attend the ribbon cutting ceremony for Kairos High School this last week and got to tour the classrooms and the new football field and just it's really nice to see our first new school built in Vacaville like this like in 30 years and just all of the effort from the volunteers and the staff there and so I just want to Salute on a job well done.

Yeah, it was a good event. It really was. A lot of members of the public and the community, so it's pretty neat to see that, especially in the neighborhood. We seem to hear that all the time. It's like, where's the schools in the neighborhood? So yeah, thank you. Vice Mayor Silva.

Just briefly, thanks for the folks trying to set me up to tap in from West Virginia. There's a national scout event every four years. They call it the National Jamboree. It's a pretty amazing event. Some very impressive youth throughout our nation and really the globe there because different youth from different bases that came in. But Part of that was really initiating the whole part of our initiative of bringing back home just different ways to support our youth, however that might be in whatever organization that would be. So kind of piggybacking off like the backpack giveaway, like for exa

Thank you. I wanted to add on regarding to what Councilmember Wiley and Silva had stated about the backpack drive. It was great, aside from all the activities for the young people, parents and the children, they were out. I mean, oh boy, were they out. 1,700 backpacks were made available through donations. I just want to mention the school district, the city, local businesses, and the parents. Everyone was out there because of the children. Something was being provided to them. But I can see us needing to do more of that, more of working together, becoming unified, being all inclusive on the t

As a member, yes. I am not an early morning person so to be up and there at 7.30 I need a pat on the back for that one.

A nibble on the head, yes. However, the person invited me because at the last council meeting I made mention of Habitat for Humanities and the building, the groundbreaking that took place. Well, Habitat for Humanities was the guest speaker at the Rotary session, in which also our own Aaron Morris is the chairperson of this particular early morning Rotary. Yeah. But it was very nice, a very nice event. I enjoyed it. The people very kind and welcoming. But no, I won't be back unless I'm invited again. I just won't make it the habit. No, no way. And then the Junior Giants was mentioned. So anyway

All right. Thank you. Yeah, absolutely. Just a couple things. I just want to make notice that we have a vacancy, if you weren't aware of it, on our Parks and Rec Commission. Rich Kelsey is going to step down. And so just so you know, that process will be moving forward to make a replacement there. So I'm working with staff on that. Just so you all know. The next thing is, is speaking of Pina Dobi, if you weren't aware of it, this Sunday is there's a America 250 Patriot marker dedication out there by the Daughters of the American Revolution. Yes. And that'll be at 10 a.m. dedication honoring ou

About legislative body. From Cal cities, we have received information about wildfire where public entities are not able to claim There are actual laws against the, like PG&E against the energy company, and they're asking for us to support this. It seems like that is like a now, a now request.

Thank you. Thank you very much. We have no presentations tonight. We do have four items on the consent calendar, 9A through 9D. Any member of the council or the public wishing to pull an item for discussion? Any member online wishing to pull this item? All right. So we have a motion and a second. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? All right. We have two public hearings tonight, but before we get to that, we have business from the floor. So this is the opportunity for the public to address the council on anything that is within our jurisdiction that's not on the agenda. Please come forward. Good eveni

Yeah, thank you. All right, anyone online? I see no one online. I'm gonna go ahead and close business from the floor, and we'll move on to our first public hearing, 11A.

Yeah, thank you for the presentation. I initially don't see any lights here. I do know that we had this discussion in the past. The only question that I have is in your communication with the group, we have not been utilizing it here, but in your understanding, is it being actively used elsewhere?

And for clarification, because we do understand the CFD program here, this would be a choice either or, no matter what. It can't go above the limit, but the infrastructure seems to be sometimes what gets really expensive, and so this becomes an alternative.

So on this program, it's a CFD to help pay the infrastructure. And then that's separate from the CFD that we may or may not impose for public safety or something else as well.

Okay, so that was my other question from that slide. So 1.8% is the total for everything, they can't go above. So if the skip program says, well, we're gonna do like 1.5, then that would limit the city, then we would not be able to have but 0.3. So who gets to determine how that is 1.8 is gonna be?

So if you said the total is going to be 1.8, and then if the city wants to have a high one for public safety, and then they might say, well, that's not enough for us. So how is that negotiated? That's why I wanted to see if it was the total, or they would have 1.8, and we could have whatever, whatever.

Yes, yes. And I guess the one good thing about the 1.8% is then the smaller home can pay a lesser amount than the bigger home and that was the advantage of this as well, correct?

So it is kind of interesting though, if it's an infrastructure, isn't the infrastructure about the same per unit, regardless of the size of the house? If you're putting in water and you're putting in all the pipes and all the infrastructure, isn't that about the same? That's not really a lot less for a small house versus a big house, is it? The infrastructure part.

And the ones listed happen to be mostly in District 6, the Abandoned Gate and Foxboro Knolls and the Abandoned Villages. Is that just because there's more building going on there versus elsewhere? Or why is it more in the south part of town?

And if we do approve this tonight, would they be able to have the assessment district and the CFD, they'll have both options available to them, or?

All right, so those are a few of my questions.

Yeah, Ken, if you could just remind me that the issuance, sale, delivery, and administration of these obligations are at no cost to the city, right? to the general fund?

All right. I'm going to go ahead and open it up to the public and hold this public hearing. Anyone wishing to come forward?

Anyone online wishing to speak? No? Okay. We'll go ahead and bring this back to the council for any further discussion or vote. I think if there's any clarification, I know, because there's a lot of... There's a lot of... you know, information that was presented and I know that this has been complicated that you may be able to shed some light on.

Am I correct in my assumption that this removes the financial burden from the city of Vacaville when we're looking at, say, a development east of Leisure Town and all the infrastructure that's associated with that, that the developers are responsible for, but does it relieve the city of Vacaville of its financial obligations. So we're not held responsible for those bonds. I know that. But does it lighten the burden for the city?

I do read in here, and I couldn't find it as I was thumbing through this, but that they can charge up to... 12% on these bonds, all the way up to 20% on these bonds. Am I stating that incorrectly?

So I just wanted to ask again about the impact of the city because you said they're taking care of most of it so our city staff doesn't have to look at all of that. So when I was looking at the at the information, there's really a pretty lengthy contract that has a lot of different sections. And so one of them said if the city couldn't finish one certain part of the project, then developer or the private entity would take over, but then they would have to pay the prevailing wage because the city would have had to pay that. This was in section 16. So I just wondered who would be checking all th

And so there was another section that said, you know, the city will be directed to, you know, inform all the developers that they have this option. So it sounded to me kind of like we would be pushing it and I don't really think that that would be something that we would need to push. You said the park asked for it and they're doing it because of that, but I didn't want to feel that we would be compelled to, but it says the city shall be directed to, you know, make this available to the developers.

I don't normally do this, but for some clarification, I'm going to ask you to step forward again. So in case we got the question wrong, because it's very complicated, I'm going to give you just two minutes.

All right. I know some of it's trying to understand with some clarity because as I understand it, we already have CFDs, we have service CFDs, we have the SCIP program with similar terms. It's just being managed outside versus inside. Many times what we do know is we use CFDs heavily in the city of Vacaville for services, police and fire. We explored, I think more recently, Lagoon Valley has a combination of different funding sources because of the need for infrastructure. I understand where the 1.8% has a cap and it really, from what I can understand, correct me if I'm wrong, When a developer

Yeah, that's helpful. I mean, because it's important to know that, again, it's a tool. We keep talking about incentives. We keep trying to figure out how to make funds and who's paying for it and is there risk and liability to the city. But at the end of the day, we have understood that CFDs are a function of both service and infrastructure. And knowing that we've gone through this process and it is at 1.8%, I think it's important to recognize the importance of creating project feasibility and flexibility. Recognize the importance of creating project feasibility and flexibility. And every proj

So I remember when this first came up, approved it, and I know there's like similar comments and concerns from the public that I think are similarly echoed now. The way I saw it then and kind of where I'm still leaning now is like it's an option, still something we have to prove. But personally, I'd like more time for staff and for me just to investigate on the unclear impact that it would take for us to support schools and what role our school districts would have within this process. For me, that's an important thing that I'm using my vote to represent those who put me here, or all of us her

I think we've effectively had the discussion on here and held the public hearing and I do appreciate some of the the sentiments affordability is always going to usually be a supply side and and You know homes are more expensive. I heard a statistic the other day that the the average age of homebuyers in the United States is 36 in California is 47 When homes are expensive and they're unavailable, the prices go up. So affordability is complicated. I think we've debated this a lot over the last several years on some of these items. As of right now, I'm not convinced there is a downside. I think i

I'll just mention this since you said South Town. I have heard from some of the people in Foxborough Knowles, which is a relatively new subdivision, is like, oh my gosh, you wouldn't believe our property taxes. So when you are buying a house and they say, well, this is this and this is this, you don't always see exactly what the impact is until you see it all listed together. And so it is a major impact on things. So I, too, don't want to really place a burden on the people who are trying to buy a house. The other thing is, just clarify this. This is a public hearing, but does this not take a

It didn't mention that, so I wondered about that.

Actually, it does mention in here that there won't be a second reading. I'm sorry.

Okay. And so if it's approved, It will be an option for developers, but before any development agreement would be approved, the council would come back to making a decision on the project, correct?

And I think in that vein, it's because a project that comes before us will always be what is the burden on the development and what is already existing and what CFDs would be necessary if it's for public safety and if it's ongoing service.

Interesting point. From staff's perspective, if we have a policy for one, would there be an upside downside for having an aligned policy?

Thank you. So this is slightly different from the last time that a skip request came before the council. We had developers that land probably wouldn't develop if they didn't have this alternative funding. source so then the last word pretty much was with the council for us because we really offered we said okay let's offer this to this developer so this is totally different now this is something that's going to be available that the developers know is available to them they uh when they come in and start the process they can have this as their uh part of their um proposal going forward.

Gotcha. I have one other question. There's been mention of the school district schools. Do you and the or have you and the business manager for the school district ever had an opportunity to sit down and talk about their needs when it comes to

I appreciate hearing that because it hasn't always been that way. So thank you very much. Thank you. All right.

Yeah, thank you for that update. It is interesting since, you know, we already have a process in place that brings one policy or one of them back to us. I mean, I'm looking, now would be a time for somebody to entertain a motion.

We have a motion and a second. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? No. Okay. So we've got one opposed. Any abstentions?

I didn't vote because I wanted to add a call for a friendly amendment to say could we amend that to include that the council would be able to look at the project just as a pilot project like we did with the other.

We can pause for a minute because I didn't see your light. So please explain that again.

So, I mean, the motion put forth was just to pass it. But then as, you know, a finance director said, if the city council so desired, we could do like we did before to make sort of a pilot program and see the first few to see how they're going.

So what you're saying, the way we did the other one, it was the requirement to bring it back to council.

Yes. Yes. Just so, you know, maybe the first couple and see how it goes. So that was what I wanted to be included. But then we jumped into that. So. But I would need a second for that amendment, so I don't know.

My intention was just for the CFD program because we've had the other one already going since 2018. So I just wanted, since we're adding this, and there are some questions about it, just to add that.

Well, why don't you clarify, based upon the previous one, that's what we did is we were looking to pilot something so that we would understand a good process and then streamline.

So I mean, that was the motion. But as far as the council's perspective, if we did a pilot, we've got one application, but no others at the moment.

So why don't we just do it this way and just say, can we move this? Because it's already passed, but even... It didn't pass.

You probably should have had a roll call because I didn't vote either.

Okay, well I asked for no's then. But we can fix this. But we can fix this. So can we do a pilot program for a period of time?

I would suggest, I mean a three-year pilot program because we can assess the number of applications and how it works.

That's right. For a period of three years. And that way we can manage it like a project or a pilot for a number of years and determine if this is a worthwhile project tool or not. So that would be a way to do it if we can agree to that, that it puts a sunset of 36 months and it has to come back to the council. So it's a pilot.

And so 36, I mean, three years was fine with me too. And I didn't vote on the last one either. So I don't know if it did pass or didn't pass since we only have six people here.

So with that, Council Member Fremont, since you made the motion, if you're okay with that and maybe just word it that way, it's a three-year pilot that directs the CFD to come back to council. Is that okay? All right. So now we're going to get the clarification. All right. How would you like to handle this to make sure that it follows the process?

Well, Council Member Wiley, since you asked for it to be reconsidered, do you want to make the motion to have it reconsidered? adjusted justice so we have to reconsider process is a motion to reconsider the council votes on we have to bring it back for us the decision and then you go back to the item all right yes i make a motion to reconsider the item that we just voted on so we have a motion a second let's make this clean we'll do a roll call and councilmember freeman yeah i just had a question i mean what

What kind of burden does this put onto the city as far as for going through this process for all the applications coming in over the next three years versus perhaps making it over the next couple of projects and using that instead of putting a time on it, which would encumber perhaps projects going forward. I mean, what kind of burden does this put onto our planning, our city?

Yeah, and with that being said, that's why I would like to just see, I understand what you're saying, three years, but maybe we can use heritage as a guide for us on this. Harvest. Harvest, excuse me, harvest. Use that as a benchmark for us to go through the process one time. And if we're all in agreement with it, then instead of encumbering everything and adding burden onto staff, going forward, I mean, I was okay with it the way that it was.

That's my concern. I just don't want to encumber the process.

And now we're going from there to... Well, the point is, is it passed for clarification. Does the council, is there a majority in the council? And that's what the vote is. So there's six of us. And so it has passed. But the motion that council member Wiley offered was seconded. Yes. So that's where we're at right now. So this is a motion to bring this back for a further discussion for a potential amendment because it's already passed. Does that make sense? Am I correct on that?

And we can discuss the amendment further after we pass this vote to discuss it, right? So this is not saying that three years is in for sure. Well, no.

You're just opening up to reconsider it.

Right. Right, and so then if we wanted to adjust the three-year, we could adjust it then, because we're just now talking, I mean, based on Fremau's- So what's on the table right now is- Is just to reconsider.

So this motion has passed. So what we have is we have effectively passed this 11A. So what you're asking for is reconsideration of our decision.

Well, if we approve this, then we can discuss that and then that question will come up. But we might not even discuss it if we don't get four votes because we need to have four votes to pass it.

So there's a motion and a second. Let's do a roll call. This is to reconsider.

Before, just a point of clarification, Mike, I don't know. Maybe it helps. Is this some, the council can reconsider this as an option at any time in the future? Right, so three years, five years, 10 years? i believe so um city attorney that's a question can the council reconsider right in the future for three or five years i'm i'm sorry can you restate your question in other words let's hypothetically let's say something hey this this isn't working out as we originally intended five ten years ago so speaking five ten years ahead can the council reconsider pulling this as a tool at that time

Thank you. Okay, so we have a motion and a second. This is for reconsideration only. Roll call.

No. Well, that... It doesn't pass. So it's in effect right now, but to your point, in the future it's like anything else. If a program is ineffective, not working, it needs to be reconsideration. A future council can bring this item or any other project item back. So I don't think that that changes it. So we'll go ahead and move on to the next item.