City Council - Regular Meeting

I will call the regular of the Milpita City Council on February 3rd. February 3rd

13th Why does it say 17th? It's right here says third to order. While this meeting is being broadcast via Zoom, oral public comment may only be provided live at the Milpita City Council meeting in person. The city council meeting is available for instant instant translation uh in over 60 languages with wordly accessible via mobile phone, computer and v video displays by scanning the QR code in the upper right hand corner of the agenda. So back to today's business assistant city manager Kano, please take the role. Vice Mayor. Vice Mayor Barbado here. Council member Chua here.

Council member Lamb here. Council member Leanne here. Mayor Montano and I am here. And does anyone like to would like to lead? Uh, Council Member Lynn. Okay. to our flagg 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.

Okay, great. Thank you. Thank you everyone. And so now we're moving on to the invocation and that is Council Berlin. She will provide the invocation. Thank you. So today is the beginning of the Luna New Year. Uh may this new year bring wisdom to our decisions, compassion to our leadership, and unity to our com community. May we approach the work tonight with clear minds, open hearts, and a shared dedication to the well-being of all those we served. To all who celebrate Luna New Year, I extend my heartfelt wishes for a year filled with health, peace, prosperity, and happiness. May your homes be filled with joy, your families with harmony, and your endeavors with success. Happy Lunar New Year. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Can I say Oh, yes, you may. We have um Council Member Lamb.

Yeah. Thank you. Uh since today is a Lunar New Year, I'd like to say a few words. As we welcome the Lunar New Year today, we celebrate 2026, the year of the Fire Horse, a powerful symbol of energy, courage, and forward momentum. The fire horse remind us to lead with passion, to face challenges with confidence, and to pursue new opportunity with determination. I see this year as a call for unity, wisdom to guide our decisions and determination to build a stronger, more vibrant community for everyone. Let's let me say a few words. Um, say a few well wishes in Cantonese. God bless us all. Thank you.

Okay, great. Thank you for that. And so now um we will do our presentations and we have here the uh the Militas High School Diabol Diabolo Club members. So um we will step on down so we can give them the the pres the accommodation. So with that, happy Lunar New Year everyone. Today is the official Lunar New Year uh from my understanding the 17th, right? Yeah. So, so good evening everyone. It is my honor to recognize Lunar New Year 2026 and celebrate the rich cultural traditions that make our community so vibrant. This year we welcome the year of the horse and I think it's the fire horse which is really special symbolizing energy, perseverance, strength and forward momentum inspiring hope and renewal for the new year ahead. So Lunar New Year is a time for family reflection and renewal and it strengthens the bonds of our diverse community. So on behalf of the Milpita City Council, I Mayor Carmen Montano and the Milita City Council extend our best wishes for a year filled with health, happiness, and prosperity. So happy Lunar New Year everyone. Okay. And we we have this proclamation to give to the club. And the members are Leah Wong. She's the president. We have Forest Lynn, the vice president. We have Peter Lee, the treasurer. And we had Dena Chavez at who is the adviser, but she uh I don't know if she's here or

not. No. Okay. Anyway, she's part part of the Mus High School staff. So, here we go. Thank you so much. And I want you guys to say something. Why don't you get over here picture first? Um, the Mopedus High School Diablo Club is very,

sorry, the Mopedus High School Diablo Club is very grateful to be able to accept this proclamation and a happy Lunar New Year to everyone in this room. Thank you. Uh I want to thank the city council for giving us this honor of uh this proclamation. Uh I want to say that our members have worked really hard and uh unfortunately some of our um our advisor isn't able to be here but uh I want to thank her for helping us along this journey and thank you.

Um thank you everybody for being here. We've we we worked really hard kind of to get this proclamation and I just want to thank everybody for being here and listening while we accept this proclamation. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you for coming here and I know this is Was this your first time here in in the chambers? Yes,

it is. Well, congratulations and welcome and I hope you guys come here more often. Thank you. Thank you everyone. Thank you. Okay, thank you so much. And so now let's move on to the public forum. So members of the public are invited to speak on any item that is not on today's agenda. Please note that oral public comment may only be provided live at the city council meeting in person. Public forum will be limited to two minutes tonight. So, uh, Assistant City Manager Ko, will you call, um, any speaker cards?

Thank you, mayor. We have three speakers. First is Andres Mino.

Welcome. Hello, my name is Andres Mo. Um, I'm here supporting my fellow neighbors with respect to the mini cell tower installed near our homes. Uh, we are concerned about safety as it pertains to long-term exposure and proximity. I spoke in November about this and asked the council to regulate these installations. It's the right thing to do and I imagine it's what you would do to protect your families and neighbors. So far, this council has not moved to do so and said it appears prefer to cater to outside interests and not our citizens who you're supposed to represent. And I I think you've made it very easy for them. Um I have yet to see any environmental or safety study. Um forget about uh radiation concerns. Uh from what I've seen, these cell towers are mounted on very tiny, skinny um light posts that could fall down and injure someone. Uh I would highly recommend that you guys um it's called have an uh what's it called? Uh agenda item for us to discuss this more openly and our larger concerns that can uh that take more than just two minutes. So please uh thank you. I yield back my time.

Next the next speaker is Alex Lee. So, we will have uh our uh assistant city manager make some comments after all all of the uh comments from you are completed. So, come on up.

Welcome. Uh happy lunar lunar new year. Uh so, um yeah, I'm here also for the uh cell uh our uh tower stuff. um here not only on behalf of myself I think there are um almost 100 families also uh uh has very uh serious concern about the things. Uh on one side we think we we definitely think this has serious um health impact uh for the community uh with if install uh by installing a a cell tower within the community. And uh on the other side we strongly believe there should be a better solution which both serve the original cell tower uh functionality also uh can get rid of the u health uh concern about the uh impact to the uh community. So, we're here um to ask um the help for the city council to um have a negotiation or talk with the uh chroncast so that um find a better solution whether relocate their current installation uh or something else so that we can uh both uh both side happy. Yeah. Thank you.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Cavary. Good evening mayor and the vice mayor and all the council members here. I'm here repeatedly coming uh since November we are talking about this wanting to have a special ordinance like the other cities adopted and why can't you move it away from the immediate distance of the house like a 20 ft 30 ft is not okay because like I kept saying again and again because studies are not concluded 5G is not 5G is safe for all office and I requested last time with the mayor and the vice mayor separate letters to have a meeting with them and I didn't get any respond for that and then also after that Matt uh sent an email saying that he would like to talk to me over the phone what is the progress on the the public works department is doing. So this is not a private matter. We are we are coming and speaking in the public forum here and I don't want to accept any private calls at all regarding this anything at all. Set up a meeting. Give us a let us a question and answer. Give us the answer. What is the roadblock for you guys? What is the roadblock? I mean don't you want this welfare of the future of the community not today and for future and I don't think there is a really common thread among all of you I noticed that because if it is so this would have been acted

on long time ago and Matt said and then I responded saying that to Matt no you know what whatever you want to talk, please put it in the email in this response is that and thank you for answering and then there is nothing to update and you know I would like to use the slur word but I will stop it right here because if that is the case why the email started with what is that he wanted to relate to me and just me alone we are approaching in a group Hillrest and then the Glen View Drive what started to to be so thank you also Guan send a letter for you I submitted okay thank you is there anyone else

no more speaker cards mayor is there anyone else from the public that would like to make any comments on on anything so uh thank you very much for coming um So, I will have our assistant city manager. We and just for the record, we have had a a a town hall meeting on this issue and um we we we haven't forgotten. They're still working on it and we'll have our city assistant city manager talk about this.

Thank you, Mary. Uh mayor Jared Hernandez. I'm the acting city manager and I appreciate and I empathize with the the comments from the public and as I'm taking on this new role. I did receive a letter last week and I empathize with with what you guys are going through. Um, in all fairness though, there's been a significant amount of staff work behind this and council may not have received all of that information yet and it would be um it wouldn't be right to make decisions and have discussions without all of the information, but my commitment to you as residents is that there is an information memo, basically a staff report that's going to be going to council in the next couple days. We're almost done with it. And um once they have that information, they can digest it, then we can decide what's the best way to move forward. Um but I assure you, it's not falling on deaf ears. It is being listened to. I got that uh letter on Wednesday, last week, I think it was. And so we're we're working on it and you have my assurance on that.

Thank you. Uh did you want to say something? So, uh, we have council member, uh, I mean, Vice Mayor Barbara Dio would like to make a comment.

Right. In conjunction to, uh, that anticipated, uh, response, uh, I would like also to follow up on, uh, another angle, uh, my request, uh, for the permitting process and and to see what policy considerations uh, the council uh, would be able to do uh, to alleviate uh, the concerns of uh, the Glen View uh, community. Thank you. Okay. So, it's noted and and they they're aware staff is aware of. Okay. Thank you very much. All right. Now, so moving on to the announcements of conflict of interest and campaign contributions. We have acting city attorney Creech.

Thank you, Mayor. and ask the mayor and each member of the Milia City Council whether he or she has any financial or personal conflict of interest related to any of the items on tonight's agenda.

Thank you. Vice Mayor Barbara, none. Council member Chua, none. Council member Lamb, none. Council member Leen, none. Mayor Montano, and I am none. Thank you. I further ask the mayor and each member of the Milia City Council to please disclose any campaign contributions of $100 or more received within the last 12 months from any of the parties entering into contracts with the city on tonight's agenda or contributions received from development project applicants for development projects on tonight's agenda. Vice Mayor Barbado, none. Council member Chua, none. Council member Lamb, none. Council member Lean, none. Mayor Montano, none.

Let the record reflect no reported conflicts. Thank you very much, Mayor. Thank you. And I would like to ask any council member that would like to read the code of conduct. We have a council member Chua. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Milas, city council code of conduct. Be respectful and courteous. Words, tone, and body language. In words, tone and body language. Mo model civility. Avoid surprises. Praise publicly and criticize privately. Focus on the issue, not the person. Use electronic devices appropriately while on the council dies. Disclose conflicts of interest and affiliations related to agenda items. Separate governing from campaigning. The council speaks with one voice after making policy on issues. Respect the line between policy and administration. Council will hold one another accountable to comply with this code of conduct. Thank you, mayor. Thank you very much for that. So, now moving on to the approval of the agenda. Is there anyone that would like to make any changes before making a motion? If not, I need a motion. So, we have council member Chua. Seeing none, move to approve the the agenda. Is there a second?

Second. And we have Vice Mayor Barbado made the second. So, now we will call for the vote. Oh, one moment, please. Vice Mayor Barbado. Hi, Council Member Chua. Hi, Council Member Lamb. Hi, Council Member Leanne. Hi, Mayor Montano.

I thank you everyone. And now moving on to the consent calendar. Does uh staff have any comments? None. And uh is it okay to proceed? If so, we'll I'm going to call for the public comment on the consent uh calendar. Is there anyone from the public that would like to make any comments on the consent calendar? Okay. I do not have any speaker cards, mayor. No speaker cards. Okay. So, um All right. So, now I need a motion for the consent calendar. And we have Council Rich Chua. Seeing none, move to approve the consent calendar.

Is there a second? We have uh Council Member Leanne that made the second. So, let's call for the vote. Vice Mayor. Vice Mayor Barbara. Hi. Council member Chua. Hi. Council member Lamb. Hi. Council member Leanne. Hi. Mayor Montano. And I am an I.

Moving on to the community services and sustainable infrastructure city assistant acting city manager. Thank you, mayor. Today for uh council's uh pleasure we have the approved the increase to the Milpus assistance program but known as the MAP program where our utility bill subsidy and we have our director Renee Lorenzen from recreation and community services. Great. Welcome.

Thank you. Good evening Mayor, city council here tonight to go through the map water utility subsidy increase. You can go on to the next slide. We will quickly go over the background real quick. Directed subsidy increase model and demographics as well as costs, program administrative costs, subsidy funding, the fiscal impact associated with the action that's recommended tonight, and then ultimately the recommendation. Next slide, please. So, just as a quick reminder, in 2019, the Malpa City Council uh adopted a resolution estab establishing the Malpus Assistance Program or MAP. Um it replaces enhances um a previous program named RAP and provides discounts and fee waiverss on water and sewer utility bills, recreation and community services programs, and qualification for um incentives for the residential building incentive program. During your fiscal year 2526 budget process, you requested that we prepare information on options for increasing the water utility bill subsidy amount. Next slide. On November 18th, we presented information on the MAP water utility subsidy, including the current subsidy delivery, which was a flat rate, current usage levels, the demographic of the residents participating in the program, and the funding source. The council directed staff to research a tiered subsidy model for up to 205 participating households with increment incremental increases, excuse me. The direction was to uh research what we're calling the 503020 model. So for tier 1 MAP customers, they would receive a 50% discount on their water meter fee, 50% discount on their sewer connection fee, and up to $50 off their water

consumption. For tier 2, they would receive 30% off their water meter fee, 30% off their sewer connection fee, and up to $30 off their water consumption discount. And then lastly, for tier 3, they would get 20% off their water meter, 20% off their sewer connection fee, and then up to $20 off their water consumption discount. Next slide, please. So we did analyze the cost of the 5030 20 tiered subsidy model using 205 existing program participants looking at their last full year of water consumption and and data. So what we have put together is based on their actual bill and households that are participating. Of those 205 91% uh participants are tier 1. 91% of those participants reside in single family homes. 4% have either a 1% or a three and three and a quarter, excuse me, not percent, inch. Uh 4% have a meter size of 3/4 in. And 92% have a meter size of 5/8 in. 9% of participants reside in multifamily homes. 37% of those have a meter size of 1 inch and 63% have a meter size of 5/8 inch. The the uh the graph for excuse me the table next to that is an example of customer bills with the new subsidy examples using the 50 30 20. So customer number one is in tier one. They have a meter size of uh 1 in. Their per bill subsidy is $164 which is their buy by monthly bill and their annual bill subsidies total $984. Customer number two is in tier 2. They have a 3/4 in meter. Their per bill

subsidy is $90 and their annual bill subsidies total out to $540. Customer number three is in tier one as well. They have a 5/8 in meter. Their per bill subsidy is $144 and they have an annual bill subsidy of $864. Next slide, please. So based on the MAP utility bill subsidy customers, the below table demonstrates the total annual subsidy costs with implementing the 5030 20 tier subsidy model. This is capped at 205 households. So for fiscal year 2627 which is bill cycles 1 through3 tier 1 would cost $70,54 in subsidies. Tier 2 would cost $4,714 and we don't currently have any tier 3 customers. That will subtotal to $75,218 for 2627. Then we move on to the second half of the year. For tier one, we have $72,898 in subsidies. It goes up a little bit, we think, because of increase in water consumption in those bill cycle months. Tier 2 is $4,857 for a subtotal of $77,755 for a total annual fiscal year cost of $152,973. Those are just subsidies. Next slide, please. There are some administrative costs with this program. We have one-time costs to set it up and then ongoing staffing costs. So, we do need to enhance our current utility billing system, Cayenta. The one-time expenses for Cayenta are to uh is for the developer to configure the

proposed new subsidy structure, conduct system testing in a testing environment, deploy the new subsidy structure to the city's utility billing system, and reconfigure the bill P printing and reporting that would be required. Those costs are anticipated to be up to $40,244. The city staffing cost to to support the deployment um is $11,314 for a total estimated onetime expense of $51,558 to upgrade this system. Ongoing administrative costs for staff to manage the subsidy program in both the finance and the recreation and community services departments are anticipated to be $43,000. Next slide, please. So, the MAP water utility bill subsidies, it's funded through collected water bill late fees, which go into what we call fund 109. The balance of the fund at the last fiscal year close, 2425, was $99,751. Based on past data, our finance department projects that we will bring in $321,500 um in this and future fiscal years in collected late fees. So, the proposed tier subsidy program increase and including administrative costs are within the anticipated revenues for fund 109 annually. to go over the total cost. The customer bill subsidies would be $152,973. Staff support in one-time costs would be $11,314. Ongoing staffing is $43,000. The billing system enhancement is $40,244.

So to reiterate, the onetime administrative costs would be $51,558 and the ongoing annual cost of the program would be 195,973. Next slide. So the fiscal impact would be to fund 109. The first year would be $247,531. That includes the ongoing costs of the subsidy and staffing in the finance and recreation department as well as the one-time costs for Cayena to configure and enhance the city's billing system and some support for that deployment in the finance department. Ongoing costs include 152,973 in customer bill subsidies and the 43,000 in staff and administration fees. In subsequent fiscal years, the ongoing annual cost is estimated to continue at $195,973 if we stay at the 205. Customers and uh staffing resources do not change drastically. Um but we will watch program enrollment and water consumption patterns to see if that number does fluctuate. Next slide. So the recommendation tonight is to approve the increase to the map water utilities bill subsidy amount. I am here in front of you and Christian Dorenzo our public works uh director and lafihauer finance director are online to answer any questions you might have.

Okay. Thank you very much Renee.

And now we have public any public comment from this item. Anyone from the public? Okay, we have uh Mr. Monttoayor. Welcome. I think your mic is off. Hold on a minute. They're going to turn it on. Oh, there it is. Anyway, I'll repeat. the mayor, vice mayor, members of the city council, acting city manager and staff, u volter, mayor of militas. I just got inaccurate. So I was I'm struggling I was struggling comprehending but I I see I printed at home my agenda when I see subsidy it's it's kind of a h for everybody but and then um the neutral part or the other part is the impact and if uh whatever the overhead overheads whatever whatever is we need uh to be financed then uh is for the good of everybody. I'm pardon me public if I'm uh I'm citing um the approval of the um map increase. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you. Is there anyone else from the public? Okay. I'm going to move with my colleagues and ask them if they have any comments on this new and revised um map assistance program. Anyone? Yes, sir. We have a council member Lamb. Yeah.

Okay. Is it on? I don't think your your speaker's on there. Okay. Um yeah. Um I just have one question. Um this calculation is based on 205 and um uh we limit ourselves to 205. That was the direction from city council to look at the costs for 205 households. That is the three-year average. We do currently have 238 households enrolled in the program.

238. So there's a difference of 33 households participating right now. Okay. Um on on the documents there's 236. Oh 236. Thank you council member. Okay. So there's about 30 31 households. Okay. Um I'm thinking maybe perhaps we could increase to 230.

Okay. Um, if whoever is controlling the slides go back goes back to the subsidy increase model demographic slide which I believe is slide number five. One more. Go back. One more. There you go. So if you look at customer number three which is tier one 5/8 inch meter size um the amount of water consumption varies between household that is a good average subsidy amount. So um if you if we did under 33 houses um it's a additional $28,500. So, you're probably looking at um another 26 to $27,000 in costs. So, that would bring your total ongoing up an additional let's say 26 26.5 or $26,500 a year.

We could cap it at a enrollment number or a total dollar amount, whatever the council would prefer. Yeah. Um, at this time I would like to cap number of people of household. Oh, household. I mean, okay. Council member Chua.

Thank you, Mayor. Director Lensson. Yes. Have we ever in any year have we ever um not give grants to anybody that is requesting um this subsidy? The reason we would um not qualify somebody is if they if their household does not qualify in the income levels. The other reason is if they are not the person that is paying the water bill. So there are a few times where people apply for the subsidy but they actually don't pay their water bill. So those are the ones we decline.

But if it is somebody that qualifies and they pay their water bill then we have been able to um accommodate them. That was at the flat rate of $225 per per bill. I was thinking more of rejecting someone a household because of the limitation or capping the number of household. Have we ever done that? We have not had to do that to date. No.

How were we able to do that? The subsidy amounts were smaller and so we were spending about $31,000 to $32,000 in subsidies annually. This is a substantial increase. Um, it is of the will of the council if they'd like us to cap it at uh a certain amount of households or a dollar amount. For my one vote, I really don't want to cap the number of households. I want everybody to get the subsidy. No, you know, you can always come back to us and get an additional funding. Okay.

Okay. That's my opinion. Okay. Thank you, Mayor. Okay. Thank you. Is there anyone else? Oh, wait. Uh, we have council member Lamb. Yeah, I I I just want to say I agree with uh council man. Um, for the first year perhaps we just not putting a cap and see how it goes. Okay. And then we decide on the second years. Okay. Okay. Thank you. We have uh Vice Mayor Barbara Deal.

Thank you, Mayor. So if I understand it right, uh the subsidies coming from fund 109 and fund 109 are uh collection of uh fees uh penalty fees, late fees and

so uh would there be a time in the next few years that this fund uh is exhausted and and what are we antic anticipating to do? Will we subsidize it uh from our own funds or uh we expect uh based on the history of funds 109 it can sustain this subsidy? Yeah, I'll I'll let Matt maybe promote lose to go into it further, but if they anticipate if finance anticipates that incoming revenue annually is $321,500 at a point where we are subsidizing more than we're bringing every in annually, then that money will that subsidy will start chipping away at the $99,000 balance. It depends on how quickly the money is expended or how how many households we're serving as to how quickly the fund would be exhausted.

We have um we have our acting city manager would like to make a comment. Yeah, I I think that's an excellent point and and one thing that council can consider is just to delegate the discretion to staff that if at the point where the anticipated late fees aren't going to be able to come uh cover the program, then we can pause the program and come back to council for direction is an option, right? I think that's a prudent way to proceed. Okay. Cuz people will learn you're going to pay on time and those fees will be gone.

Yes. and and you know since uh the MAP program is very helpful uh you know considering that you know there's a small percentage of uh people uh people in the communities being helped you know $20 here 50 here uh helps those uh percentage of people. So uh just in anticipation if ever that comes about you know I I hope that uh you know we have some some remedy uh to just continue the M program. Yeah. Got it, mayor. Okay. Thank you. We have council Chua. Thank you, Mayor. I just have one quick question.

So, we have 321 approximately, right? And our projected expense is 200 something now because of the uh yeah, the additional 30 plus households, right? Or there's no cap. What happens to the rest of the the the funds? Where does it go? Does it go to to where? The funds stay in fund 109. Oh, it does. They will stay there and continue to be available for um the discretion of the city council to use. Can you repeat the outstanding balance of uh fund 109, please?

Sure. As of the close of last fiscal year, we had $99,751 in the fund and uh we anticipate um ongoing late fees collected of $321,500. If you add um let's say another 33 to 35 households um just as a as a bar, then the annual ongoing cost would be $224,473. Um but again as as what I'm hearing is that we could um monitor for the first year and see

um how many more households we might get signed up because the subsidy is um more beneficial or more substantial and worth their time to apply and provide the correct paperwork. Mhm. And then um as our acting city manager mentioned, we could monitor that and if we do see it getting a little bit close or surpassing the annual income, then we would we would come back to city council. What type of marketing do you do you do to reach out to the need the household that really needs them?

When we first launched the program, we did information um in PG& bills. We worked with P Gen to put a a mailer in their bill or the those that are receiving or on P Genie Cares. So that is another option. Um we can also do um info uh mailers or information in our own water bills that go out. That's that's about a two month to two and a half month process just based on the cycles. um Facebook, social media, we can put it in the resource centers, share it through the school district outlets. They're aware of the program and could share it with their with their families. Um there's ways to get to school district um and families that are on free or reduced lunch. So, there's there's a number of different ways to get the word out to families that would most likely

every year. We do it not every year. We do it every other year or so. And then we also have had um like come in and apply for MAP and we'll help you things like that. So it's ongoing and out there throughout the year. I think with um this type of increase or change to the program that we would do another larger outreach. Okay. This this one warrants a a new one, right? Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you. We have Council Lean. Thank you, mayor. Um, I I feel like we are taking part of the funds just so that we can have the admin uh monitor how to bill and how to fund this instead of really saving each and every penny to help the residents with the MAP program. Why should we spend 40ome thousand dollars annually just to have the admin cost there instead of doing that? Why did we why didn't we go or leave it alone and instead of proposing some different calculation to each family with different rates of 50 50 30 or 20 20 I I feel like we are um taking or giving the money or taking the money away from really helping the people that's really needing that penny. So that's my comment.

Okay. All right. Thank you. Uh we have council member.

Uh I just want to point out that this is the first time we actually really increased the number of of subsidy to the house to to the household that really need it. Before we we have like $20 which it didn't make any difference and now we have this substantial subsidy which I think would make a difference and we could uh attract more like like director uh Renee said attract more household that really do need this subsidy. We we we didn't it's $20 average for the last few years. This one is more. Thank you. Thank you, mayor. Okay. Thank you, uh, Council Mua. Okay. So, I have a couple of questions. So, so, uh, what what did you say the balance was that uh, in our in the fund 109?

Fund 109 is 99 I should have this committed to memory at this point, but it is 99,751 and anticipated of 30 That's a million. That's a lot. Correct. Um, is there any way we could uh put it in a some other account we could uh gain some entrance interest on there? Um, maybe that finance director would be the one. Yeah, I believe it is acrewing some interest, but I guess would be the best one to um answer that question because a million you can get a lot a lot of interest

and I think uh there's some banks that I think Provident have a 4% or something like that or key point one of those. Yeah, it's uh and then that way you can help more people. Yeah, I believe it does. Um yeah yeah I'm just wondering are we so we do have it is in a fund where we can we collect interest I believe there is interest collected in that fund from what I have seen but Louis Kofiha would need to confirm that so oh so we have our do we have our finance director yes I am here

hi how you're doing good evening everyone ly finance director for the city of mitas yes with all our funds that are sitting In special funds, we do earn interest on it and it is allocated uh the interest on that account is probably roughly around 4%. So it's generally the going interest. So that $99,000 did not just include the late fees, but is also any interest that was accured on that bal on those balances. Okay. So it is an it is accumulating some interest. Okay. Well, that's good. Yeah.

All right. Um thank you so much. So, I have another question. So, on the meters, I'm still a little bit um not clear on the meters, how that works, why you have why do you have So, when they put the meters on in each household, how do they determine what size meter you need? And then what if um and if you say, "Oh, it depends on the household size." What if the household size changes? Then what? I mean, why? That's where I'm a little bit confused. Can you explain the size of the meter is um has a different ongoing fee or a fixed cost. Uh, director Dorenzo would need to speak to how that works out um and how that's figured. Um, the size of the household and the income to the household and their qualification for map if that's um is that the question?

No, just how not regarding the map just every household because we all have meters. The whole city now has meters. But how do they determine what size meter you they put in there? I thought they were all the same. It was just standard, but no. Is Christian on the line? I am. Okay, great.

I am. Um, thank you for the question, Madame Mayor. Um, meters are uh determined on the lot size of the lot size on the square footage of the home and um the ability for us to provide fire fire suppression. So um most meters uh it's common uh are 5/8 inch or 3/4. Uh 1 in meter is actually on a residential lot is actually quite large. 1 in meter has a uh flow capacity of 50 gallons per minute as opposed to a 5/8 inch meter that has a flow capacity of 20 gallons per minute. So it's it's over twice it provides twice the throughput of water to the residents. Um yeah so you know of uh all of our 16,000 or so accounts about 12,500 of them are 5/8 inch meters. I'm trying to remember from the rate study that I did three years ago. At that time there were about 1,300 meters that were 1 in in size. So we have a um a obligation to provide fire flow uh throughout the far reaches of our distribution of 20 PSI. So um it's a combination of um ready ready to serve fire suppression and the size of the development.

Okay. Thank you. Uh, so, um, yeah, I lost my train of thought what I was going to say, but yeah. Uh, so the meters are all I'm glad I found out that now you let me know it's the it's the lot size, not the family household because it's the lot size that determines what size meter you put. So, thanks for that clarification. Learned something new. And then, um, and then is there a limit per household of the map? Now going back to the map, is there a limit per household um you know how much they can receive a year?

Um there isn't a limit on how much they can receive a year. the um this program itself with action tonight would create limits on connection fees and fixed fees as well as uh not to exceed amounts on HCF usage charges. For other um subsidy areas, there is a limit on the recreation and community services fee of up to $1,000 per household. And then the building residential um program has some limits as well, but there isn't an overall cap on each household. Okay. And then for the small businesses or large businesses are uh do they um on the going back to the meters do they use the same they use the 1 in meters or

um that is I saw the spreadsheet but they are different um and they are not included in this and then if the business owner is late does that money go to the 109 fund? Okay. Um, that would be a fantastic question for our director of finance, Liz Kafesi. How if she's still on? Um, pardon me. May I hear the question again, please? Are the uh small businesses or businesses in general, if they are late with their water bill, does that money also go into fund 109? All late fees go into fund 109.

All right. I think that's all the questions I have. So, um, is there anyone else on the council that would like to make any more comments? We have a council member Lamb.

Just a, um, question uh, which council member Lynn asked earlier um, for for the continuous support every year is 43,000. Can you um tell us a little bit more why it cost so much for the support? Yeah. So, the $43,000 in staff time exists currently and is for the cost of recreation and community services to qualify households, generate approval letter letters and get that information over to the finance department. That is the larger bulk of it. Um, it is a robust program in general to to qualify people annually all year long. The finance staff are the ones that are when um uh operating in the Cayenne system. So when somebody has been assigned a tier, they go in, they make sure that the subsidies are set up correctly. Um and then any um removing of somebody off the system if they haven't renewed their MAP qualification in time. So that is what that staff is doing as well. The bulk of that money is and it is an effort to qualify people um every month, every week for 12 months for MAP. So that's where that cost is. It is not a new cost with this uh subsidy increase. This is an ongoing cost. And the re we talked about it in November 18th that moving those um monies and where they're charged for administrative h uh staff and those cost to a special fund was part of the fiscal strategy. So that was a consideration for city

council to um charge them not in the general fund but in fund 109 for their work on this special program. understand already. Um we we pays finance um a fixed salary everyone and um whenever they work on this program. So we allocate the hours they work on this program and then we charge um the hourly rate based on how many hours they work on this program. So even though we already pay them the salary but we allocate different tasks they do and and we charge them um or different I I guess different number of uh accounting

right go ahead is that correct thank you council member I'm happy to answer it the the short answer is yes it would be similar to how we bill abandoned vehicle abatement when there's special funds designed to uh and staff time to support that function. We build that function and that's how we alleviate the burden on the general fund. It's not something that we did well in the past, but it's something that we're doing well now.

Thank you very much. So, uh kind of following up on that, um what Oh, never mind. I was just going to say something else, but I will just go ahead and ask for someone else. Go ahead. Okay, we have council member J. I Hold on. Listening to everybody. I just thought of something. Um, director LSE, are you still there? Yes, ma'am, I am.

Hi. Thank you. Is there anything else that we can do with this with this fun 109 because we have there's quite a bit of uh funds there. Is there anything else that we can do with it? The count at the council direction we can do other things with it but please remember these are dollars these are dollars um paid by rateayers. So they have to m stay with the the that particular purpose. So um not right now but uh later on if you can send us an info memo all of us just to give us an idea where else we can use these funds for.

That's your pleasure. I think that would be good. I'll do that collaboratively with uh uh Renee and Christian with the directors of public work and recreation. Thank you ma'am. Thank you. Thank you Director Lewis. Thank you. Okay. Is that anyone else? Okay. Is there a is there a a motion? What is the wish of the council? Well, we have council member Lamb.

Yeah. If no further question, I uh like to move to approve this uh um item. Okay. Hey, is there a second? Uh, oh, if I may, um, from the discussion that I heard, um, you could move to approve, I also heard proposals for removing the cap on the number of participants,

as well as authorizing the city manager designate to suspend new enrollments into the program if the projected annual revenues for the program exceed the projected annual expenditures of the program or appear like that. May. So those were the two modifications to the recommendation you might want to consider adopting. Yes. Um correct. Um I'd like to move to approve the increase of M Peters assistant program with the modification of um removing the Nimmit for the first year. Um and the second point was to um

authorize the same manager designate to suspend new enrollments into the program if projected annual revenues for the program appear that they're going to exceed uh sorry if projected annual expenditures for the program appear that they may exceed projected annual revenues for the program. Okay. So move. So move. And who second it? Second. So, it was uh motioned it was motioned by uh Council Member Lamb and seconded by Council Member Chuas. Let's call for the vote. Vice Mayor Barbara I. Council member Chua. I. Council member Lamb. I. Council member Leanne. I.

Mayor Montano. I. Okay. Passed unanimously. Okay. Moving on to leadership and support services. Thank you, mayor. for um for council. For item number 14, we have the adoption of a resolution to appoint Christopher, I'm sorry, Christian M. Curtis as city attorney. We don't have a presentation, but I think I would add for the public's benefit and commend the council on the exhaustive and extensive search that they did to find a new city attorney. They went through a series of interviews uh with several candidates and Mr. Curtis uh ended up on top. So, I'd like to pass it off to acting city attorney Christopher Creech for the legal compliance.

Thank you. Um, under the government in compliance with the government code, the um, stay salary for the position would be $340,000 with benefits as provided in the employment contract um, attached to tonight's agenda and presented to the city council for approval.

Okay. All right. Any comments from the public? Any comments? Because we know we have a we're going to have a new city attorney. Come on up. I'm reluctant to say uh but anyway, I listen to the acting city manager and uh all we know is uh Portuguas is what we do. So uh either whatever uh retention of someone doing good and uh having one coming will do good also is is our hope. Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else? If not, we're moving it on to the city council discussion.

Wait, we need to we need to do roll call. Oh, sorry. I'm good. Any comments from the council? Uh I I want to make a comment. We it was a very just to let the public know it was very extensive uh search and um so we hired a firm to do a search and we had some really qualified candidates and I'm really really um I'm really pleased on who we chose and um this person is very very wellqualified and and um I'm sure that the city is going to benefit so much and the staff the whole city. So any more comments? Okay, with that we call for a motion.

Oh, we have a comment from Council Chua. Oh, no. This was from before. We have a comment from Council Member Lynn. No. Yeah, that came from Oh, no. Comment. It's a motion. They were already on. We're calling for the motion. Okay. It's motion. Okay. All right. So, uh, we have, uh, council me, uh, we have Vice Mayor Barbadio.

All right. Having, uh, chosen, uh, our new city attorney, I would like to, uh, move to adopt a resolution to appoint Christian M. Curtis as our gu city attorney approve and authorize the mayor to execute an employment agreement on behalf of the city and authorize the acting city manager and it or designate to such other actions as necessary and appropriate to carry out the purpose of this appointment. Okay. So it was motioned by Vice Mayor Babado and seconded by council member Chua. So let's call for the vote. Thank you. Vice Mayor Robert Dia.

I. Council member Chua. Hi. Council member Lamb Lamb. Council member Lamb. Hi. Council member Leanne. Hi. Mayor Montano. And I'm Nai. Okay. Congratulations. All right. So now, um, we didn't have any items pulled from this consent calendar. So now we'll move on to the announcements and future agenda items. We have a council Chua.

Thank the parks and Rex uh team for doing a wonderful job over at at at the Lunar New Year. It was really well attended and well organized and everybody was happy having a good time, young and old. Thank you so much. I I also want to echo that uh I've been going to several I've been invited to several uh Lunar New Year events and I will tell you ours is the was the we are really really classy doing a classy job. It's I mean we I mean that's why you have a lot of people coming to Petus even those that don't live here but it's really nice. You guys put on a really fantastic show. You guys you know how to do it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for and thank you staff and all the people that were there to help. Thank you. Okay. Uh, anybody else have anything any announcements? Just

Jared, I I'll make announcement and and acknowledge uh assistant city manager Matt Kano who's been working our microphones and calling roll call all night. It's not usually his job, but he's doing a fantastic work there as well as it who's been running the PowerPoint. So, thank you folks. Great job. Thank you very much. Okay, with that I'm going to adjourn the meeting. Good night everyone.