City Council - Special Meeting

Okay, everyone. Like I said, happy Tuesday. So, where's the I will call the special meeting of the Militas I will call the special meeting of the Malpa City Council to order. This is February 24th, 2026. While this meeting is being broadcast via Zoom, oral public comment may only be provided live at this city council meeting in person. The city council meeting is available for instant translation in over 60 languages with Wordly accessible via mobile phone, computer, and video displays. So by scanning the QR code on the upper right hand corner, you can access that. So back to today's business, city clerk, please take the role.

Vice Mayor Barbadale here. Council member Chua here. Council member Lamb. Green. Red means it's on. Okay. Red is on. Red is on. Okay. Council member Lean here. Mayor Montano here.

Okay. So, now we're going to rise for the pledge of allegiance. And everyone there's a flag over there. Ready? 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. Okay. Thank you. So now let's move on to the public forum. Members of the public are invited to address the city council and on anything that is not on the agenda. And please note that oral public comment may only be provided uh live at the city council meeting in person. Public forum will be limited to three minutes. So call for

caller call for speakers. City clerk. I have no public speaker cards. Mayor. Okay. Is there anybody from the public that would like to speak? Okay. We don't see any. So moving on to the announcements of conflict of interest and campaign contributions from our city attorney. Thank you, Mayor. Council member whether he or she is a financial or personal conflict of interest related to any of the items on tonight's agenda. Vice Mayor Barbara, none. Council member Chua, none. Council member Lamb, none. Council member Lean, none. Mayor Montano,

none. I further ask the mayor and each member of the Milas City Council to please disclose any campaign contributions of $100 or more received within the last 12 months remain the parties entering into contract for the city on tonight's agenda or contributions received from development project applicants for development projects on tonight's agenda. Vice Mayor Barbadio, none. Council member Chua, none. Council member Lamb, none. Council member Lean, none. Mayor Montano, none.

Thank you. And now we will read the code of conduct. And we have uh council member Chu who would volunteer for that. Thank you mayor. Midas city code of conduct. Be respectful and courtes civility. Avoid surprises. Praise publicly and criticize privately. Focus on the issue not the person. Use electronic devices appropriately while on the council das. This close conflicts of interest and affiliations related to separate governing. Council speaks with one voice after making policy on issues. Respect the line between policy and administration. Council will hold one another accountable to complied with this code of conduct. Thank you, mayor. Okay. Thank you very much for that. Okay. So, now moving on to the approval of the agenda. Is there anyone that would like to make any changes?

Seeing none. So move. Okay. It was moved by council member Chua. Is there a second? And seconded by Vice Mayor Baba Deio. Okay. Call for the vote. Vice Mayor Barbado. I. Council member Chua. I. Council member Lamb. Hi. Council member Lean. Hi. Mayor Montano. I. Okay. Thank you very much. So, um, now we're going to move on with the staff on the agenda items. And we have our city acting city manager.

Thank you, mayor. Today for agenda item one, we have for council to receive a presentation on the proposed 5-year 2027 through 2031 capital improvement program and fiscal sustainability initiatives and to provide feedback to staff. And I'll pass it on to director Christian Rosenzo from our public works department. Uh good evening, madame mayor, city council, and members of the community wherever you may be. As a public works director, it's my privilege to introduce the proposed CIP for fiscal years 27 through 31. I'd be remiss if I did not thank all the departments for their invaluable contribution that helped to inform the development of the CIP. And a big virtual high five to all the public works staff who are responsible for managing the projects I'm about to spotlight. two or two on my right and three more of my fantastic staff are in the audience or in the audience and the audience. Before I yield the floor to Lehawk and Michael, I want to quickly summarize what you are about to see. First, we'll share some accomplishments for this fiscal year, followed by a highlight of this summer's eyewatering, truly transformative construction schedule that will complete not one but three distinct road projects totaling close to $9 million. The department will break ground on playground improvements at Senate Park. Reduce trip and fall hazards by investing $700,000 in sidewalk curb and gutter repairs. Complete a $510,000 project to modernize and reinforce the elevators at the library. Replace seven obsolete scoreboards at three park sites. Complete a $570,000 median beautifification project on Calaveris Boulevard. Complete $430,000 in exterior enhancements at the Milita Sport Center and so much more.

Also, you'll be introduced to a CIP for next fiscal year that proposes to invest over $20 million for the community. The investment includes efforts by the engineering team to increase the city's pavement condition index above 71 through judicious and strategic use of our budget. Complete design for the estimated $11 million metro tango subd district park. Invest $1 million to rehabilitate park pathways and embark on a firstofits-kind ongoing proactive water and sewer main replacement cycle. I hope some of these details have aroused your interest and with that I'll yield the floor to my colleagues.

Thank you director Christian for the introductions. Good evening Mayor Montano, Vice Mayor Babado, Council Burea, Council Bian and Council Lamb Leha I am public division managers of the engineering divisions overseeing the design construction sections and administering the capital improvement program. The item before you today is the discussions of the proposed 2027 through 2031 capital improvement program. Today agenda we will discuss the accomplishment of the fiscal years, key work plan for the upcoming fiscal years, review of the proposed CIP budget, council priority update and conclude with the council discussions and feedback. In the next few slide, we will highlight accomplishment from various departments that were or will be completed this fiscal years. Overall, the city have invested more than 15 million across 17 majors capital improvement projects that benefit the community. Beginning with Harmon Way solar street light pilot program, the design construction sections completed the installation of six solar street light along Harmon Way to improve the visibility and safety of the nearby residents and motorists. Solar street light does not require trenching compared to the city standard street light which is a construction cost saving. Additional benefit include no recurring P Gen electric city cost, reduce risk of wire theft and support the city climate action plan. However, there are a long-term maintenance considerations including the replace of the replacement of the battery which have expected life cycle of 10 to 12 years. This pilot program will allow staff to evaluate its performance, reliability and maintenance effort requires and determine if this is a viable options as an alternative option to the city standard street light and

for the area lacking of lighting such as for the city facility parks and roadway. Building on this effort, staff is now evaluating solar lighting at park currently lack of lighting. Senate park will be served as the next implementation site where solar light will be installed along the park pathway to improve the visibility and enhance the safety. Next slide please. Next slide please. In collaboration with the recreation and community service department, public work operation team complete the pickable court enhancement at Hall Memorial Park. The work include resurface of the sport court, stripe parking stall along la Honda and curb red cup in the parking lot. Adjust the fence between the pickle ball and tennis court. implement court curing system and provide limiterm assistant program for the nearby seven residents. Design and constru Oh y design and construction section also complete the replacement of approximately 6,000 linear feet of deteriorating 50 years old cast iron water man along Dempsey road from North Park Victoria Drive to Euse Drive as show on this map. The next step is to resurface this road which is scheduled to start in April. The traffic engineering section successfully complete the street preservation projects by sealing East Calaras Boulevard from IA 680 to Aban Road North Parkway from East Calaras to Jaclyn Road and the resident streets such as Tempon, Temple, Lawton, Canton and other street are shown on this map.

This preservation payment project will increase the existing payment condition index from 50 to 80s. The project like this will help support the city goal of maintaining the citywide PCI rating of 70 or highers which is considered in good conditions. Work also includes sidewalk repairs, replacement of 34 ADA curb runs and upgrade to approximately three mile of bike lanes and also resurface of the deteriorating asph pathway as strict rock park. The improvement of the woman and men locker room at police department building is approximately 60% completed and is scheduled to be complete in this fiscal years. The project expand the showers and the storage area to better accommodate it the increasing police workforce that have occurred over the past decade. Here are some of the project that were or will be completed this fiscal years. In May 2025, the city council adopted the public art master plan which helped establish the policy for the public art within the city. Planning department completed the mipidas gateway main street specific plan update. The plan provide a new visions and strategic policy framework for to guide developments and transform this area into a more attractive and vibrant destinations. They also complete the modernization of the city zoning ordinance. Currently they are developing the conceptual design for the park and trail within the innovation district of the metro specific plan areas. The design will be established the baseline concept and the preliminary cost estimates to guide future development of this area. Traffic sections secure a $1 million earmark for the bicycle improvements along Street, Main Street and Mipas Boulevard corridor. The project will be

completed by this June. The last go back please. The last project on this list is the Kadza Park Dixon Landing Park softball field physibility study. The study explore options to renovate this park to provide home field for the softball league. Staff will be meeting with the softball league representative in March to present the finding and gather the feedback. The design and construction section is managing the replacement of the modular building at fire station number one that is anticipated to be completed in April. This building will serve as the venue for firefighting academy, various training courses and additional office space during significant emergency events. Public work operation team recently complete several projects include the installation of fire of vehicle canopy at fire station number one and number four to provide the shade parking for the fire apparatus, installation of address lettering at city hall and the replacement of the fuel dispenser at the public work cooperation yard building. Staff will also complete the modernization of the library elevators by April. The project will restore reliable operations and improve the security and accessibility for the community. Another project nearing the completion is the replacement of the seven scoreboard at Mipita Sport Center, Kadosa Park and Dixon Landing. The demolitions of the scoreboard is completed and the new scoreboard are anticipated to be in operation by the end of spring. In the next few slide, we will discuss the work plan that are scheduled to start or be completed in fiscal year 2627. Staff is expecting to deliver 11 major capital improvement projects to the community in the amount of 21 millions.

Sure. wanted it. So, is are there any questions for um the previous slide? Because I had one and if you can go to slide uh I think it was four for Hammond Road one way. One more the first one. Yes. So, I just want to thank staff for uh for their due diligence because we got a lot of complaints from the smash and grabs because it was so dark and then you have people doing the what do you call those? Donuts.

Donuts because it's so dark over there. So, I'm really glad that you guys uh staff was able to prioritize that because from my understanding we you guys contacted Pug Genie but it was going to cost a lot, right? So this was the alternative and this is really good and that the fact that you're going to look at other places where you can use that that the solar lighting. Um the other thing how long does that battery you said 10 to 12 years how much does it cost? It have the life cycle of 10 to 12 year but with this installation it come with the 8year warranty and the cost to replace the battery I believe it's 500 to 600 bucks. Oh that's not bad. That's good.

That is really good. So I'm so glad you guys did that. It was the community. They're very happy. Very happy out there. Um the next one uh slide is I think slide six. Dempsey road. So this area has been we've been bringing this up all the time because it's been one of those areas that the the piping the conduits on the bottom of the street. So right now it's it's going to be slurry sealed and then sealed. So the water main project is completing. The next project is to resurface the whole street.

So it's going to be drying an overlay for most of the area. Some area we going to do the base repair as well if the condition is really bad. So after the resurfacing this street, you're going to see the brand new street there. Okay, that's great. That just um yeah, that's been an ongoing issue, but I'm glad that that's project is going to be completed. And it'll be completed when? By summer. Summertime. Okay. Yeah. All right. Any questions? We have a council member Shua.

Uh, thank you, Maya. Thank you, mayor. I just want to echo what mayor said about the Hammond project and I'm so excited when I saw that as you can tell because this is like few years ago when we went to the conference and we saw this uh uh demonstration of this solar thing and it's just exciting to see it and I thought they were just giving us a sales pitch but you guys are doing it so thank you so much. That's awesome. And also I want to ask about strict growth park. What exactly are we doing there? It's just they you know fixing the this one.

Yeah. So for straight rock part we fixing the asa pathway. As you can see the before pictures the asa is cracking damage is nonada compliant crossing tripping hazard. So we remove the asa and repay it to be ada compliant. But we we're not doing anything else. Right. as part of this project. That is the only scope. Yes. Okay. However, during the opera project that that you guys approved uh for us to make improvements to about 20 projects a few years ago, yes, we did substantial improvements to the amenities such as replacement of uh the tables, tables,

uh picnic tables and and some minor repairs around there. I can't remember all of them. It's been a little bit. But one thing that we identified during that project was this this asphalt pavement was getting pretty bad. So we we found an opportunity to repair it this go around. So I think from the ARPA thing we have $4.3 million for for the 20 parks or something. Okay. Thank you so much. Good job on those. Thank you. Okay. Anybody else? Oh, we have customer lamp.

Yeah, I have a question about the solar street light. Um, do we have other plans to install more street lights? Um, for example, as some of the street lights go off or the light bulb is not functioning, can we replace by the solar light?

So, right now, as K mentioned, this is a pilot program. First of all, we would like to track or evaluate it performance reliability because we always hear from our vendors say this is a good product it reliable but we want to do this pilot. We want to track it performance and so that car like we don't have any future plan to expand to like kind what you address but the next step that we want to look into is the park lighting. So as mentioned Senate park going to be the next implementation site to start the kind similar pilot program for the park system.

Just just to piggyback on your question a little bit more in depth is that for existing street lights that are in place we we will maintain the current uh center procedures on those. There are no plans to convert those to solar. It's just not very cost effective. However, we're going to use these street lights for cases like this where there is lack of lighting um that we can evaluate and be at a cheaper cost. Um this situation or this area here um the biggest challenge that we had was P Gen and bringing power to this area was roughly 1500 ft away and that really increased the cost of the street lights. Pole for pole it's the same cost

uh with the different operations that we cost a little bit. However, bringing power to these street lights or this section is what increased the cost. And so there could be opportunities that we there are lack of lightings and we want to consider this as an option uh as it a cheaper option as we're finding out. Okay, good. We have council member uh Lyn. Okay. I want to say thank you for having the um library elevator um completed in by April. I heard yes

it is for the safety reasons and if we can have it sooner than April they'll be greatly appreciate it because for the elder people with babies with strollers or with books that's donating to the library they have to go around and sometimes cars are driving up the ramp. So thank you. I was not going to say, but you val told volunteer me for the me the the the comment. So there it goes.

Thank you. I want to piggy back on customer Lyn's uh on the comments on the elevator. Yeah, it's already been over what is it over two years now that they've been and so I'm I'm really surprised that we haven't gotten sued by the ADA uh American Disabilities Act.

Don't say that. No, I'm I'm just I I'm really glad that this this is a priority and and it's already been over a year. It's just uh I'm glad that we're finally moving on it. But uh but from my I think you guys did fix it, but then it got destroyed again. That's what happened. Okay. And I think that people need to know that that you did because people are saying that you know why haven't you fixed the li the elevators? But you have but they get destroyed again. So I just want to make that public. Okay. Thank you. All right. Next. Senate Park. Okay. So for Senate Park, staff anticipate bringing the construction contract award for Senate Park playground renovation to the city council in April. This new all-inclusive playground will be ADA compliant and equipped with various play structures such as zipline, slides, and swing. The resurface will be rubberized and it will be enclosed by fence for security. The renovation is estimated at 1.5 million and expected to be completed by spring of next year. As mentioned on the previous slide, staff will begin with the planning for the design and installation of the solar lighting along the path pathway.

I like that. I just want to Oh, man. Go ahead. C. I I just I'm just excited again. It's this is an exciting evening. Anyway, you know how long they've been? I mean, I I get like emails and texts and I we visited the park how many times? I mean, Matt was there, mayor was there, I was there several times and we met with the residents and this is beautiful. So, thank you. Another thank you. Yeah, thank you. I think that that that deserve

so much. Next one.

This year engineering section will complete two street resurfacing projects. The first project show on the map to the left include Dempsey Road and Great Mall Parkway phase 2. The construction contract was recently awarded for 4.2 2 millions. The project is anticipated to be complete this summer. The second project will resurface the Yellowstone Avenue areas and the neighborhood south of Euseity Drive as shown on the map to the right. The project will be completed by this fall. The construction is estimated at 4.5 millions. The current PCI rating for this street is range between 20 to 30 and it will increase to 100 upon the completions. Next slide please. The traffic section will complete the design of the resurface of street at Peter Gill Park neighborhood by this fall and start the constructions next spring I mean spring of 2027. Upon the completions the PCR of this street is expected to improve between 80 to 100. The construction of the Sip Petas Boulevard Road extension is expected to begin this summer and is expected to be complete in 2028. The construction cost is estimated at 6.5 million with $3 million funded by Federal EMA which is secured last September. This has been a very complex inter agency collaboration effort lead by engineering teams with the support from our assistant city manager Meno and acting city attorney Chris Krish staff work diligently with valley water district the property owner to acquire the necessary land right and clearance required by car train. So thank you both for their support. Upon the completions the construction of the tango path will begin. staff is currently working with the design. The implementation of these

two project in Tango district represent another milestone in advancing the visions of the metro specific plan. Over the past few years, the city have partnered with the developers to enhance this area by constructing the public linear park and trail that was completed in 2024 and extending portion of the Saipas Boulevard and Sango Court Sango Court. The last portion of the Sango Court extension is currently under the construction. The key infrastructure improvement needed to achieve the full connectivity between the nearby neighborhood, school, park, grade mall and bar station is the pedestrian overcrossing bridge which is highlight in red. The design is completed but the project is not currently funded. Staff will continue to pursue grant funding opportunity to advance the constructions. As briefly discussed on previous slide, tango park construction will begin in 2028 after the completion of the road extensions. The project is expect to finish in 2029. The park will be constructed on two parcel that are offset from one another and separated by single court. The improvement consists of multi-use space for all ages include community gardens, dog play area, fitness station, sport court, picnic area, playgrounds, and the walking pathway that will connect to the existing Rashbone Park located to the south. It is also important to note that the development of this nearly 5 acres park will significantly increase the ongoing maintenance needs to keep the park clean, safe, and in good condition for the community. Additional staffing and operating fund will be required. As the project progress forward, public work will evaluate the long-term maintenance demands and return to the council with the request for necessary

resources to properly maintain this facility. The public work facility team will bring the construction contracts award in the amount of $430,000 to the to the city council in March for the building exterior coating and modernization of the Mipira Sport Center. The renovation will address the water intrusion concern and enhance the facility appearance which will provide a similar look as the ren rendering shown on this slide. The work will also include the painting of the air reservoir tank adjacent to the building. The project anticipated to be completed this fall. The annual sidewalk repair program address the nonADA compliant sidewalk and remove trip hazard to ensure a safe path of travel for the community. The prioritization of this repair is based on the assessment survey request from the community and safe route to school. In early 2025, staff completed minor repair to approximately 700 location sidewalk. And last week, the city council award the construction contract in the amount of 700,000 to replace sidewalk at 195 locations which anticipate to be complete by fall of 2026. Here are a few key project that anticipate to start in the next fiscal years. Traffic section received a $2.9 million federal grant to improve the safety along school route. Staff finalized a funding agreement with the federal last month and will begin the design. Implementation of the safety improvement is expected to begin in 2028. The construction of the facility for Mckenless well is under construction right now and is anticipated to be in operation next year. This well will meet the water demands and storage

requirement mandate by the state to serve the gateway and metro specific plan areas. Public book facility team is anticipating to complete the kitchen remodel at fire station number one and the replacement of the police department evident freezers that have exceed their service life. The design and construction team held the bid opening for Calabraas medium improvements yesterday and will bring the construction contract to the city council for consideration next month. The project is anticipated to be complete by the end of summer. Staff will also complete the assessment of the 40 years old community center building to determine the conditions and necessary improvement of the roof structure, electrical and mechanical system. The environmental clearance and the design for force main a replacement is expected to be complete by spring of 2027. The construction cost is estimated at 20 million and is planned to be fund in according with the sewer race study. Utility engineering will complete the replacement of 20 water valve at Jupata pump stations that have reached the end of their service life. The replacement will ensure uninterrupt operations of this critical facility for storing and delivering water to the community. Lastly, planning department anticipate completing the update of the mipidas gateway main street fee study and sense of place plan by June.

Okay. So, any questions? So, we have council member lamb. Did you say did you say you had a question? Yeah, just um uh wondering on on slide 13 um how do you come up with the PCI rating? Yeah. Um is that based on consultant or do you guys do the study or we have rule of thumbs? No. Okay. So, for an example, if you're going to reconstruct the road like a a two inch, you grind the top few layers, then repave it, you can automatically go to 100 PCI on that value.

Uh when you do a more of a road preservation, for an example, um where you do crack or a slurry over it, that only gets you about 20 pa. However, it extends a life between 5 to 10 years. So you probably the the area to the uh right side that's going to be a preservation project slurry and those are in the 50s to 60s. We'll be able to preserve those those streets for another 5 to 10 years and increase the PCI by 20. So we'll be up between where we want to be 70 to 80s you know and that and that helps us with our overall PCI is by by the quantity. Now on the roads off to the right, I'm sorry to the left, those are in need of reconstruction. Those are in the 30s, 20s and 30s. So by re resurfacing with the grind and overlay or reconstruction or rehabilitation uh method, we'll get those to 100 PCI. So depending on the method is what what uh the PCI will be. You know, we we we we balance the the preservation versus the reconstruction. I'm going to add add just a comment to that, Council Member Lamb. U you you may recall um we don't do condition assessments in house. Our own staff uh MTC runs uh the Bay Area's um pavement condition um efforts through what is referred to as a PTAP program, pavement technical assistance program. I'm I'm looking at you, but I'm looking also directly past you at U at Roberto for reassurance or confirmation. Uh MTC does assessments for the communities every two years and the condition index is a three-year moving average. We have a 71 uh PCI at the moment which is tied with the cities of Fremont and Newark. And in

in a few minutes, another exciting thing we're about to propose is a strategic use of our money and see we can increment that to 72 and possibly even 73 into the future. Okay, I'm done.

Customer, can we go back to Cala's uh early bird median? Can you add two or three sentences exactly what we're doing there?

Next one. Yep. That one.

Yep. Thank you council member for the questions. So we have the bid opening yesterday. The bid come within the budget. So we planning to go to the council next month to over the contract. The scope of this work is to get rid of all the vegetations in this medium and we're going to install the concrete cobblestone in the middle meandering. If you can maybe notice that meandering is 4 ft wide. We're going to install that and on both side of that concrete we're going to install the red lava uh gravel. So that is one scope and we also going to restain the existing um red or oranges concrete as you can maybe I don't see if you notice we're going to refresh those concrete so that it can increase the appearance of this medium as well.

Are we getting any assistance from the county on this calaver? No, unfortunately not. Oh, is this state? This is Are we getting any any Nope. there. Um just real quick and um the team can talk more about this. We are not getting any assistance from the state and we've have had discussions with them. They do have a paving project funded for their section of Calvary from around this location all the way to El Camino Rial and that project is in the design phase and I think we're a few years away from seeing it under construction, but the repaving of Calveris um will be occurring in I think two to three years. We can follow up with a better schedule. Thank you. I think it's anticipated for 2829. That's where I recall.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you all. Thank you, Mayor. Just to piggyback on that, I know they have a uh Cal Calrans, they have a beautifification uh grants and and but because the state is in in a deficit, I don't think they're doing it anymore. Yeah, we did put um we did meet with them a few months back. um the public works team and I was there as well and we were really pushing them on the section that they're going to be paving like in front of the Sarah Center for example to really see if during that project they can enhance the medians. Um we're going to keep pushing them on that. At this time they don't have the money to enhance the medians during the paving project though but we're going to you know keep pushing them to the extent we can.

Yeah. Ju just to let you know uh so uh we had a group of people put in volunteers put in some oleanders if you probably noticed. So, they'll be they're little small ones, but they they'll be blooming maybe about two years. Anyhow, um can you put that slide back up? I had a question on that. Um so, you know, this is the same uh it parallels the same one on McCarthy Boulevard, right? That is correct. The concept going to be very similar except McCarthy you have the tree on the side, but this one you are not allowed to put the tree because it's in Cra.

Okay. Um, one of the things I noticed is that the weeds come up even though you have the gravel and all that, but can you ensure that they have a thicker lining because that way the the weeds won't just pop up? Yes. Uh, so as part of the improvement, we going to have the vid barrier installed below the gravel. So we we're going to take out the vegetation, install the vid barrier, and put the gravel on top of that. Yeah, that's really nice. I'm glad you're doing that because that's the first thing that people see when they come into our city. It's one of the entrance main and you know we need to beautify that area. So,

so kudos for that. I'm glad you're doing that. Okay. Thank you. Anyone else have any other questions? Yeah. Con Vice Mayor Barbadio. With regards to uh the PCI, do we have a mandate to to have a 7172 PCI? Can you repeat the question? Oh, the answer is no. Right. So what uh what motivates us to have a 7172 PCI I'm just trying to understand the

I could touch on that. We we're on the transportation subcommittee and we're push pushing because people want to make sure that there's no potholes that streets are really maintained. So that's part of it. Mayor. Okay. Council member and also I think having the 70ish up like I think I went through this before for every like one like 71s and it's millions of dollars to to get there because I was hoping before that we can get hey why don't we shoot 490 and they they showed me the the the the numbers. I said okay we'll stay at 70s. So

thank you. Can I can I amplify on that uh response which is great by the way but uh a primary motivator is the a road that's failed at PCI of 50 the worse the road is the more expensive it is to reconstruct it. So we have a our primary motivator aesthetic safety aside is roads that are have a payment condition index of around 60 to 65 are optimal for us to be able to cost effectively preserve the condition of that road. So a road that has a failed PCI of 28 like Dempsey road is going to be expensive now to do a full uh grinding. a road that has condition index of 60, which is a result of many of the roads that we did a preservation project this past summer. Uh those are exponentially cheaper for us to maintain in a state of of good good condition.

So, um I I've been getting complaints about Murphy Park. I think I mentioned that to you. The roads are really bad. You know, Murphy Park right in front by Yellowstone. Is that Did you guys fix that or is that still Yellowstone is actually Yellowstone is actually um will be repaved Yellowstone will be repaved next year. Oh, next year. Okay. Yeah, we identified one of a lot of complaints about that road. Exactly. And then we're also doing a new neighborhood adjacent to it. Okay. Okay. Good. Um All right. Um so we have a

deal. I wanted to also kind of add on that. Uh being in the 70s is considered good um good condition. um below 70 is in fair condition. Um majority of the cities are in the 70 plus right around 71 72 73. Uh there's there are a few cities in the county that are in the 80s but that's Certino. Um we all know why. Uh um however uh the Bay Area average for all cities is 67. So we're right above that average just to give you a little bit of context.

Okay. Yeah. relating back to budget. So, we've been doing this for a while, trying to uh be at par at 70s, right? And uh I I think I heard uh you know, the cost of repair uh versus you know, just uh reconditioning it uh is is cheaper. So, throughout the years that we've been abiding with uh the the 70s, right? So do we have a idea of savings uh on what we recondition as to what we will repair or totally uh reconstruct for example uh Dempsey I have traveled Dempsey several times and that's really terrible right it is and uh compared to Euseite you know you just did it because I I live by by that street So the question is for purposes of uh our our budget discussion right so did it really save us let's say a span of 10 years you know we we did just recondition uh obviously uh several times during the five years cycle as compared to we didn't do anything with dempsey now we're on this budget now you know we're projecting again so did we really save uh by maintaining streets you know, at that part at 70s. Do we have a date on that or is it worth it or just let's just grind them and put a new one?

Great question. Right. We don't we don't typically we don't typically look at a road and quantify the cost of that road to do a preservation like a cape seal, slurry seal, a micro surfacing, whatever technique we use

versus a full a full reconstruction 3 4 inch grind in overlay. We don't normally assess one or the other. Ideally, we never have to have that that type of equation in mind. We have a road that we know we can cost effectively for about a third of the price, preserve and and provide that and maintain the PCI of that road for sometimes 10 to 12 years before it starts to degrade back. And then we have roads like Dempsey where it's not even a conversation. We know that something like that, had we been able to preserve it decades ago, had the city and staff been able to invest and preserve that road, it would have costed us considerably less than than do a full reconstruction that we're doing this summer.

Just a parting thought on PCI and then I move to another one because here's my my my thinking, right? Let's say uh we have done, you know, we have maintained a certain uh roadway for 10 years. doing uh you know enhance I mean the conditioning group DCI uh what would be the cost of that 10 years or 15 years let's put 15 right because we do every five as compared to just digging it now as to the cost of construction later would are are we good on on doing what we are doing well we've been doing this for a while this should be a data for example right let's say every five years we recondition let's say 2 million each, then that's 2 4 6 6 million. I'm not good in math. Let's say 6 million. Then we know there's going to be a uh an end of that road's life, however we recondition it. But if we do it, if we do total uh reconstruction now, let's say it takes 10 million. So we save four. However, if we look at that, we know that there's going to be a street and life in 15 years. the cost of uh reconstructing it in 15 years to say 20. Do we have a data like that uh that that we're trying to to maintain PCI but at the end of the you know of time it will be more in in construction. Shall we bite it now or we keep on doing what we've been trying mean doing for a while?

Yeah, this is a good good conversation. Yeah, I'm excited. We made we made some formula. Yeah, let's have this conversation.

The city has not had a decadesl long program where it does pavement maintenance or conditioning or preservation. Historically, unless I'm mistaken, every every so number of years, the city will embark on an effort to preserve roads until the money expires. And we have about $4.5 million a year that we get for our roads. So normally what we do and what I think has been done in the past is people in my position and and LeHawks and Michael's position is they do a careful assessment of the data that informs us through the PAP reports that are provided to us and then we tackle the roads that we feel we can most cost effectively preserve. We don't it's not common for there to be a consistent effort on one distinct roadway. We're using Dempsey as an example that and let's say Dempsey was paved in 30 years ago. And you know we don't do preservation on that road every five years, every six years. So that so that today when you know an informed vice mayor poses staff that question we could say to you yes we have inflection points over the last 2030 years where every five years we've spent a million dollars to preserve that road. Had we not done that and we you know had we not spent the five million dollars over five over 25 years every five years today we would have be looking at spending x number of dollars to completely reconstruct that road. That's not how the business works. The business is simply informed on you have a limited pot of money. How best do you do you use that money? And those decisions are driven mainly by preserving roads that are in decent condition that are informed us through the PAT reports.

So it's money driven. Yes. Okay. Okay. Ask another question. That is great. No, no, I mean you know money driven. Okay. I I thought it's, you know, a long-term uh All right, I I'll let you go of that, Christian. Last question. Right. So, I I saw that uh you know, we're having projects with trail, pedestrian, and bicycle master plan. How how much are we devoting to that? Oh, at least uh 26 27. I remember there's one by uh by the extension. I saw that. And there's another one

just before uh this presentation. So you you want to talk about Streth Roth Parkway? Uh no actually. Okay. I I'll start from the bottom. The reason I'm asking this is we have uh devoted funds and uh uh projects with regards to bike trails. I mean bike plans, right? We talk about that. Are people using it? Are people using to buy and sell? Yeah, I assume so.

Right. The reason I asked that is uh since we're devoting energy money uh on on uh trail pedestrian and bike master plans, why don't we ask recreation department to enhance our our you know to to encourage people to to the trails and bikes so that you know if you go to Mountain View you know there's a lot of bicycles there if you go somewhere but I seldom see uh people riding their bicycles here and uh we're trying to enhance the bicycle network so it's put to use. Um, thank you, Vice Mayor.

Oh, thank you. I was Thank you for the comment. I was just going to add that um our parks, recreation, and cultural resources commission uh with merging of commissions. A few years ago, they have um now oversee recommendations to you all on part on trails as well and and bicycles. So, they're actually working on a um call to action campaign in the month of um May, which is bicycle month, to start that effort to really promote that out into the public. There was a lot of work out in the community, I believe, that our planning department did um as well as some um project staff regarding uh getting feedback from the community about how they use the park, the trails, and the bicycle and pedestrian pathways. So that effort um is underway to start promoting that. Um and then I know that we've been working with some of the local bicycle coalitions on um improving the maps and redistributing those out to the public. So

yeah, great comment and there is some work on that right now.

Yeah, let's put that to a thing and then you know let's say free tour to the mayor's office something like that if you you do the bicycle. But yeah, because it's, you know, if since we're improving infrastructure, you know, uh and it will also enhance people's lives, right? Health and everything. So, not only that, we're beautifying and making sure that uh the network is safe for pedestrians, trails, and bicycles, but you know, encourage people to to use them. We're spending 94 million I saw, right, for 5 to 10 years plan. Thank you. If if I could add something to that as well, that that work is actually being done as well through Charmaine and through the PIO work that she's doing and the videos to enhance or to promote the different businesses and the different activities in Malpus. And um I'm glad you asked that question because it highlights an opportunity for Charmaine to also kind of speak to that and the community that's listening can can hear about that as well. Just to further add to that, so we actually receive grant dollars from the VTA and it's called the bike education and encouragement plan. So we already have started developing outreach materials starting with bike safety videos. Uh we also participate in workshops. So admittedly we have some challenges because unlike our neighboring cities, we're not there yet in terms of like a being considered like a bike friendly city. So at the moment we are more focused on educating people about the availability of these facilities um especially the infrastructure that our engineering public works team have already started working on. And then like a key initiative that's upcoming is the announcement or the launch of the new bike map because we have not updated the

bike map in decades I believe. So so that's in play as well. So it's an interdep department effort. It it seems like it's going to be an interdep department uh effort. It's going to be big. How about free bikes? Do we have budget for free bikes? actually um we do give out uh bikes vice mayor to our lowincome households every year. Um so we work with our solid waste um team to do that. Um and so yes, that's actually also part of it. Okay. And I I was also going to add that the grant allows us to buy ebikes

as part of a contest. So, as long as it's within an outreach campaign, then BTA will refund us for the ebikes. So, that's also part of um our scope of work. Let's give them the bike. All right. Thank you. Thank you for the comments and nice to know. Okay. We have council. Thank you, Mayor. Director Christian, since you're asking for questions, I knew it.

Here's one. It's very easy. Okay. So you said you mentioned that uh decisions are based on funds when you do the the what is it called the maintenance or what's the other word preservation. Yeah better word preservation of the streets. What is the lowest PCI do we have? And I know the highest is around 70. What's the lowest? I know Dempsey is 24. Is there lower than Dempsey that we don't know about? There there may be. There may be, but there's one. There's one. Okay. There is one. Where is that at? Hammond. Hammond. Yeah. Yeah.

Because of the traffic. That's That's probably the worst street that we are. We're looking into that.

So, my question is, how do you how how do you make your decision which ones to do? because you have the funding constraint and you have this uh PCI that are you know flashing in front of you. So what what do you do? How do you decide? Well, I asked for that question. I I admit it. I admit it and now I'm stumbling. I mean the the easy answer would be you know we would ask council for money. That would be the easy answer. But you know as I had mentioned uh we have through various trans uh various u funding mechanism transportation related funding mechanisms measure B SB1 B you know whatever it may be

uh we have $4.5 million that come in every year right we we knew we know that so that's that's been fairly consistent give or take a hundred $100,000 so sometimes uh staff and I will discuss a road like Hammond way that has a payment condition index somewhere in the 20s. Um you wouldn't it wouldn't look any different than Dempsey. I mean it'd be almost indistinguishable right at that level. They failed to such a degree it's indistinguishable. And we we will determine what is the full cost for that project to do a full reconstruction. If it is something that is initially prohibitively expensive, if if one single road would be 78 million in its totality because we do the construction, then we have to do ADA compliance improvements in conjunction with the road,

right? Then that's where staff and I decide this is going to be a long-term project that we will have to slowly and incrementally acrue enough funds over a period sometimes two, three, four years before we can tackle a project of that magnitude. Um those kind of projects are are not grant eligible. There's never a grant that's going to you know be given to a city to do something like that. So um so we would begin to slowly um parse some money and set that money aside. so that one day we can do a full reconstruction project. Um and as I mentioned the otherwise in the absence of that the the money spent to optimize and maximize our delivery to the community that is we have money we will spend it on preserving roads so that those roads for the next 10 12 years you would we talked about five years but really you don't do a preservation on a project on a road every five years. something went arai if you're doing it that quickly you would do one every 10 to 12 years so that is our effort but as I mentioned the city hasn't had a decadesl long program where it does both concurrently every single summer a preservation project and a reconstruction project is relatively a novel movement that the department is undertaking years just want to be clear

wouldn't it be wouldn't it be prudent to I know You mentioned that it's always within the range of 4.4 4.5. Would it be prudent to kind of estimate higher or ask for more every year so you're not at that level every year? U the funding that we receive is um formula based.

We don't re we don't ask for $4.5 million. If we could ask, we would ask for grows over the years. We will see that incrementally get larger. But then there's a whole other discussion about the transition to EVs and how people are using less gas and what happens to the the gas tax that you pay right now on per gallon basis. Some of that will be funneled away from municipalities and counties, right? So that's a whole other conversation that's being that's happening on the transportation industry. four and a half million is more or less what we get unless it's through an application for a grant like OAG uh one Bay Area grant that we were successful and we're doing great mall phase two through that. Okay. Thank you,

Council Member True. I wanted to expand on that. The $4.5 million that we received is through three funds. It's SP1, Measure B, and VRF. M they tell us the monies that they're going to give us and typically it's right about 4.5. Sometimes there's years that we get a little bit more a little bit but you know I I wish like Christian says we could ask for a lot more so we can do more money but that's what we're given. Um the good thing is uh we've been seeing good bids come in and it's actually helping us extend that dollar a little bit more. So, you know, if these bids keep on coming in, we get to kind of look for the next future and do more streets as possible.

So, as long as those bids keep on getting as low as possible, you know, we keep on expanding our program as much as we can the next year for the following years. That's a good point. Yeah. Yeah. You know, and one thing that we got several years ago that actually has helped us nowadays is the OBA grant. you know, even though it was about 1 point I think $ 1.5 million that stretched our dollar for what we're doing today.

Um, so we last year, like we talked about, we went after I can't remember the grant. I think it was a CTC grant. We were trying to get $3 million. If we get that $3 million, that's, you know, takes us to the next level, but unfortunately we didn't. So, we just got to continue looking for grant opportunities and, you know, um do our best with the $4.5 million projections that we get to stretch it as best as we can. Okay, sounds good. Thank you both so much. Thank you, Mayor. Okay, thank you. If I can just uh remind council that we do have proposals to still get to. This is just all the amazing stuff that they've done so far. We also have the amazing stuff that they want to do. So, just wanted to throw that reminder out there. Okay. Okay. We have Thank you,

Council Member Lamb. Yes, I have a couple more quick questions. Uh, last week, uh, the council awarded, um, the construction contract in the amount of 700 to repair sidewalks in 195 locations. Um, I'm pretty sure there are more than 195 location we need to repair. Um, do we wait for the next opportunity grant to do the next phase or what's the plan for that?

So, council, thank you council member for the question. So this is the annual sidewall repair program. So we're going to implement that annually. So as part of the annual program, we have the consultant go to do the assessments throughout the whole city and identify the deficiency. Any minor sidewalk repair, they will repair as part mentioned early 2025. We do the minor sidewalk repair of 700 location. Those are just by grinding and sliding. So you don't need to replace the whole sidewalk. any sidewalk deficiency that is more than two inches, we have to take it out and replace it brand new. So this project is going to replace 195 locations and the next year we're going to do the another assessment. We're going to identify other area that have deficiency and we're going to continue to repair our street accordingly.

Now to expand on that a little bit more also is that we do have a limited budget. So, we we we set a goal of an annual budget, and you'll see it here in our proposal, $600,000 a year for these sidewalks. Uh, and that's that's not enough to fix all the sidewalks at one time. There is continue. What we try to do also is we we kind of wrap this program into our street resurfacing program where their work comes ahead of the resurfacing program

and then we come back and do the so it's kind of like a two-tier uh process. The sidewalks will get fixed all in that area before the street resurfacing project comes in and does the paving and the major curb ramp work and the major uh curb and gutter. So we're attacking areas uh in simultane simultaneously. Also another thing that we uh also respond to as part of this program is service requests from the community. If they identify something that's something that we want to kind of uh address right away.

Okay. Um the next question is related to Mckender's well project. Um can you educate me why do we need a well project? So, as a specific plan for the task bar area,

we were adding, correct me if I'm wrong here, uh Jay, 7,000 residents. So, our current supply levels did not allow for an additional 7,000 supplies. So therefore uh based on our studies and our master planning we had to implement a new reservoir I'm sorry a new tank that can store the water demand for that area. Um one one thing here in the future that we will have to uh install is also a reservoir because we have to meet certain water demands and certain supply that are mandated by the state. So that's the reason why we're building uh mechanis well and also it it becomes a supplement to our water supply of hetche and uh valley water. So it's actually a backup system to our water supply.

These are unfunded mandates, right? Unfunded mandates. The water that the the valley water they require us to have these reservoirs are because all the housing that we're building. That is correct. But these are unfunded where they're not giving us money to build these. So that's what that's that's my argument right there because it's housing elements. Never mind. I'm not going to go there. Yeah. It's not just our city, it's all the cities.

That is correct. Um I remember I um more than 10 years ago um when the city raised the water rate at that time the city advertise or telling us that um we're going to do a um reservoir nearby or or develop a reservoir and I haven't hear anything since then. Um, is is is that project abandoned or is the reservoir I assume that there's a reservoir up on the hill. Um, I I seen it and then um but I'm not sure what the status is.

I'm I'm not sure what reservoir you were referring to, Michael. I've this there is a reservoir um in the master plan that's called for that council member is referring to and I can I can reprovide the um information um from the master plan. Right now um we don't have any near-term plans to move forward with that but it is we it is in the future master plan. Correct. And we can provide council details on that from the master plan as a followup from this meeting. Okay.

Okay. Thank you. I know we have to build wells to sustain water for those new housing and in the future those reservoirs or percolating ponds I guess you call. Okay. Anyone else? Um I have a question on that one that we were just the continuity of the parks. So, uh we had a meeting there at one time and um what's the name of that park? It's got a weird name. Ross World. What?

Wrath. Augustus Wthbone Park. Who that name? Anyhow, uh so the residents uh they they they're concerned they would like to see some water fountains there or water faucets. Um some of them said they wanted a bathrooms, but you know, they can always go to their their home with it because it's right there. That would be I think that would be a big problem, especially with the Sango apartments there. If we put I I wouldn't want to see bathrooms there because um Yeah. So So you mentioned it's going to be a continuity. There's not going to be a fence there. That is correct. So that's not going. We're going to remove the fence between the Rashbone Park and the new park.

Are you sure that's a good idea? because there's a lot of things that are happening at that at those apartments and um the residents are always they're already complaining about thefts and all kinds of things going on. So, I don't know. You might want to rethink that. Maybe a maybe a in-n-out gate or something. I don't know. Yeah, we will take a look at that. Thank Thank you for the feedback. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Um that's it. Then I I I'll just go ahead and let you continue. Sure.

The following section will be the discussions of the proposed five-year budget of the capital improvement program. Next slide, please. Before diving into the budget discussion and analysis, here are the overview of what the capital improvement program is. The program is a comprehensive five-year budgeting and planning tool for the city infrastructures that is update annually. The document identifies city priority capital projects for new infrastructures as well as the repair and replacement of the existing infrastructures. It outline the improvements associate cost project schedule and it funding sources. The document is categorized into six category including community path street water sewer and storm drain improvements. Only the funding requests in the first year of the capital improvement projects are funded which will be effective starting July 1st. Project in the subsequent four years may be partially funded or not funded at all based on the projected available funding. During the budget process, funding requests for both existing and new projects are reviewed and prioritized by engineering and finance. Each request is evaluated based on council priority, legal mandates, health and safety need, grant eligibility, and many other factors as listed on the slide. One is prioritized. The requests are reviewed with the city manager's office before final recommendation are present to the city council for approval. The five-year budget that is brought forward tonight consists of 138 projects for an estimate budget amount of 206 million. This slide include the breakdown of the project cost and the corresponding number of the project in each category. The total cost of the

city infrastructure improvement without funding source in the last four year is 22.6 million. the cost mainly associated with the backlog improvements in the community park and street category. This slide summarize the estimate project cost projected available funding and the funding need per fiscal year over the next five years. The first row show the estimate project cost for an estimate of 206 million and the next row show the projected available funding of about 160 millions followed by the anticipated grant funding and external financing. The bottom row represent the funding gap total at 22.6 million over the last four year of the budget. This table provide a summary of the funding distribution for fiscal year 2627 across each category with the total budget of 35.7 millions. Majority of the funding contribution are from task impact fee and the street fund which focus on street and park improvement. I will pause here a few seconds so that you can review this table. Next slide, please. Oh,

you have a question, William? question. Next slide.

This slide summarize the proposed funding for each category in fiscal year 2627 which the funding will be available starting July 1st. Staff is recommending to fund 39 projects for an estimate amount of 35.7 millions. Majority of the funding will be allocated to the project in street and park category which account for almost 70% of the proposed funding. I will present these 39 project in the next few slide. These are the eight project proposed to be fund in the community category. Majority of the project are for the upkeep of the city existing infrastructures. A total of approximately 1.1 million is being allocated for various building improvements including the exterior painting of Sakra building on call facility and maintenance services and the improvement of the HVAC system at sports center fire station number three and senior center. The only new project recommended to be add to this category is the implementation of realtime monitoring center at police department. This center will enable the city the police department to use live data and technology to support officer and investigation in real time. The implementation will pro improve respond efficiency inhand deployments decisions and reduce unnecessary fear respond for non-urgent situations. Here are the five project in park category being recommended in park category being recommended to fund in the amount of 12.3 millions. As mentioned previously, the design of Tango Park is anticipated to be complete by early next year. The funding request of 10.6 million is for the construction and expect to start in 2028 pending the completion of the road extensions.

Last summer, the National Park Services award the con award the grant for approximately 300,000 for the construction of large dog play area at the Lano Monong Park. The project will be built after the completion of Mckelis well. Two new project are being recommended. The first one is for the park pathway improvements. This project will repair and upgrade the deteriorating pathway at various park to enhance the accessibility and comply with ADA standards. Staff recommend funding 1 million from park funds and we have identified Foothill Starite Sunny Hill Albert Austinine and Ben Roger as the top priority park. The next project is for the the Lano Manong sport artificial tur replacement. This project is to replace the existing natural grass at the Lan Manong Park with artificial turf. The current natural grass is in poor condition due to year- round usage and program activity. As a result, the grass field does not have adequate time to rest and reestablish. Restoring the natural grass is estimated to cost up to 500,000s and would still require usage restrictions to maintain the quality. And based on our experience with the current artificial turf, football field and sport center, artificial tur provide a more durable and cost effective solution for high use field that can support the continuous play without any downtime. The proposed funding of 300,000 is for the design and the construction is estimated at 1.5 millions which can be fund by task impact fee.

I just want to make a comment on the Deleno Manong's grass. It's really bad. I mean you have uh areas that there's no grass and then there's a lot of holes and it's Yeah. So I I really think that that it needs synthetic grass there. It's pretty bad.

All right. Here are the 12 projects recommend to be fund in street category. Majority of these project are for the annual maintenance and improvement of the city street and sidewalk infrastructures. There are two project that I would like to bring to your attentions. The first one is the except traffic safety improvements. This project provide for the installation of the retroreflective back plate and leading pedestrian interval at all 72 city owned traffic signal locations. staff secure a $2 million for rock grant from local highway safety improvement program with the city globall 230,000 which is fund by GASTA. The design phase was funded at last council meeting and the funding request of 1.9 million is for the installation of the improvement which is anticipated to start in 2028. The next project is the roadway preservation program. staff recommend establishing the new roadway preservation program to help maintaining and improving the city overall PCI rating of 70 or highers. This program will focus on the street with PCI rating between 50 and 70 and using the cost effective treatment like slurry seal or cape seal to extend the pavement's life and prevent further deteriorations. This treatment can help reduce long-term maintenance cost and avoid street from falling into poor condition which would require a much more expensive repair. According to the 2024 PAB report, an investment of 700,000 is needed to achieve one point increase of city overall PCI goal. Based on that, staff recommend allocating 700,000 from Gast on the bianual basis to proactively maintain our roading network. Here are the six project recommend to be fund

in the amount of 3.4 millions. A total of approximately 2.8 million is recommend for the last four project listed on this table to assess the city water infrastructures and improve the fireflow capacity for the community as identified in the adopt master plan. The first table includes six sewer project being recommend to fund by sewer fund in the amount of 6.6 million. Approximately 70% of the funding is for the city contribution to the rehabilitation projects at San Jose Westwater facility. Staff recommend funding three project in the total amount of 1.7 million for the inspection of city pipeline and improvement the critical sewer line as identified in the adopt SE master plan. The second table include two project recommend to be funding under storm category. One of these is the new project focused on the implementations of citywide green infrastructure improvements. This project provide for the physibility study and design to implement green storm drain infrastructure improvements as required by the new state mandate to reuse the storm water pollutant, control runoff and improve local water quality. Under the regional storm water permit, the county is the county of Santa Clara is required to treat 46 acre of imperous surfaces and the city of Midas must treat 5 acres for in the next few years. Staff recommend funding 200,000 from the storm venture fund to complete the study. The full improvement cost will be determined after the physibility study is completed.

That is correct. Here are the five project that are being recommend to be fund by the general government CIP fund in the amount of 1.65 millions. Four are the existing projects that for the building improvements such as um building exterior improvements on core facility maintenance and city h building HWAP system improvements. One new project is listed to the right is the real-time monitoring centers. So the next section will be the discussion of the project with no funding and I will hand over this to the city engineer Michael Sea. Good.

Would you guys like for me to pause for you guys to discuss that or for me to keep going? customer. Let's go back to 25. Yes. So, um let's go to slide 25.

Yes. Um why would 2728 will the number will be double as next year 70 million of a good portion of that money is going to be uh for a finance project for force main a so you see that amount really increase based on that project for the force mana project we'll be coming back to council next year uh requesting $20 million for this force mana project

replacement of it and currently right now we're working with San Jose to find a suitable alignment that will work for both of us. The force main a can you expand on that? Yeah. Oh, I'm sorry.

So, our our sewer all goes to our main lift station there off McCarthy and then from there it goes into San Jose's uh wastewater treatment plant. So that pipeline from the the station to San Jose plant is 50 years old and has exceeded his life uh service life. So now we're in the middle of looking to replace it and next year we should be at the ready to construct and be coming back to council for requesting for $20 million to replace that line. That's the estimate right now. And Michael, that that money would be financed based on the rates that the rate payers and the the sewer rates, right?

That is correct. So based on the You want to speak a little bit more to this, Chris, as you did the rate study?

Yes, we we are the rate study assumed the construction would be about $20 million for the for the pipe. We have two pipes. We have force man A and Force main B. One is redundant to the other in case one one goes offline. The rate study that was performed and presented at council by yours truly a few years ago baked in the assumption that we would finance for the construction activity whether it's a bond an SRF loan or an I bank loan whatever instrument it is that we would finance for the construction of that and the debt service was going to be recovered through the approved rate whether or not we actually secure financing in fiscal year 2728 will um is still up up up in the air at the moment. A lot of that will be predicated on when we will exactly complete design and be ready to go through a financing application effort.

Okay, that's 20 million. And what else that boosts up that number? Um so in addition to the 20 million for the force main a we have budgeted 9 million closer to 10 million for the contribution to the San Jose um wastewater facility. So that's another 10 millions. So there's an annual contribution that we have to pay San Jose for their capital improvement projects. So that's an annual. So right now their estimate for next year is over $9 million. Every every year we we pay we have two obligations in San Jose. We don't have our own wastewater facility, thank goodness,

but we have two obligations every year. repay um a treatment portion obligation that is based on the amount of flow and the strength that is in that flow. I won't get into the gory details about sewer and the strength of that flow. And the other obligation is we own rights to 7% of San Jose's treatment capacity.

When they have a capital improvement program and they have a $2 billion capital improvement program, long-term capital improvement program, we are obligated to pay 7% of that initiative. So every year from year to year based on their capacity, uh we will see our contribution to their CIP funding efforts go like this. Right. And it's entirely up to them and we have no way of knowing from year to year. They submit to us preliminary five-year numbers, but those change all the time. So we will next year we are seeing a spike in our contribution for their capital program.

Okay, that's about three million. Anything extra there? There's some park projects like a sandalwood park with two 2.2 2 millions that is for the improvement of park at sandwood and we have the budget for the lanong soccer field artificial replacement of 1.5 millions that's so the total is right here is another 4 million there okay that's about 34 yeah y

little bit of history so we were part of the tributary agencies we sued we sued the San Jose I mean but it was costing us too much and we winded up the cities winded up just folding because it's just it was just too much money. We were spending too much money to try to get you know a fair uh outcome of the because we pay a lot but you know that's the nature of the beast. Okay. Yeah. Okay. On uh on page 28 on community project

28. Yeah. Um last year didn't didn't we spend some money fixing the HVAC system in the city hall? Why do we need to uh do this again? So thank you council member. So the the improvement for this year for the HVAC is will be happen at sports center fire station number three and senior center it's different facility that was last year the city hall so something wrong we it's not fixed yet it's not

we pay the money we we had a uh a series of HVAC failures that um resulted in an emergency declaration in order to in order to

expeditiously make those repairs and and some of those repairs included u new boilers. And the issue with city hall being pulled right now is um is a meter on the PG& side that needs to be uh replaced so it feeds proper calibrated gas to the facility. Now we we spend money u to do there is continual investments that need to be made in the facility and one of those major probably the major investment that will have to be made u in the not too distant future is replacing the chillers with the entire AC system. The chillers are at the very roof of city hall and if you haven't been there Samu and I will be happy to walk you through that project one of these days on a nice warm evening.

Okay. I'd love to do that. That is anticipated. We there are funds available uh for the chiller replacements, but that is going to be between a two and $2 and a half million dollar project. Yeah.

Page 30. Oh, okay. Okay. Um, that's one item. Oh, yeah. On the bottom, it says, uh, Main Street signal improvement. Um, can you elaborate on that? If you don't mind, I'm going to talk about this project and council priorities. Do you mind if I postpone that conversation to then? Okay. Okay. Just don't forget about I won't I have a slide dedicated for this project.

Okay. Um um street lights on the third row. It says a street light signals and traffic signals improvement. Um, is that repair or what kind of improvement you're talking about?

It's repairs and upgrades. So, as part of the street resurfacing project, we look at all the street intersections um and look to see what upgrades they need to have. And so, we'll take a chunk of money out of this program here to do, for an example, do we need controllers? Is it on a loop system? um and and convert the loop system to a uh video detection.

Um any pedestrian upgrades, we use this CIP to fund those type of improvements. Also, we use this CIP for any maintenance work that operations has. So the there's always maintenance of a street sign uh street signalized intersection that needs to happen. So we allocate a a a allocate a portion of this CIP for that purpose also. Okay. Um, if I understand correctly, currently most of the traffic light has camera sensors. All right. Um, not all of them, but quite a few of them. Most we do.

Um, does those need to be upgraded or they Okay. And how about the circuitries? Um, are they updated? I I wouldn't say they're all updated. There are some that are aging, but as part of the street resurf surfacing project, we take those intersections in the areas and be sure that they get upgraded accordingly. Um, so for one thing, all traffic signals probably 10 to 15 years ago were on a loop system where the loops were on on the street floor.

That's right. Um, and so that we had to do a kind of um a long-term effort to be sure that they get on to a video detection where now they are detected video by video rather than loops. But there's still some loop systems out there. I think this upcoming street streets uh street resurfacing pro uh project. We looked at seven intersections and we found that five of them were still on the loop system. So we're going to convert those. So that's part of the CIP. Okay. I understand. Okay. Okay. Thank you, Mayor.

Okay. I just have to um and this is just to uh refresh our memories. Director Daniel on the project community project 3473. Yes. And user computer replacement. Did we change the methodology on that the last time we spoke last year? Yes. Okay. Can Thank you for the question. Two or three sentences only.

Sure. Um so we uh generally replace our computers. Um we used to replace an ad hoc basis. So as the funding became available, we just purchase computers five at a time, 10 at a time. Um right now we have a lot of computers that are in circulation. Users are actually using them daily that are six, seven years old. So we needed to come up with the sustainable way to continue to replace them. Um and that's why we brought uh in front of you last year

and we uh requested um a fiveyear schedule and the numbers were kind of fluctuating if you remember correctly council member. Um based on your uh great feedback what we did was we have normalized a year two through year five. So the numbers exactly the same for uh following four years but the first year purchase has been completed. Uh you might have heard from uh some of the news uh articles, you've probably read them. Um the the shortage in memory and storage in the industry has been increasing our computer prices significantly,

but we were able to move fairly quickly and we secured the the prices the lower pricing that was available a year ago. uh next year we don't know but what we are doing uh we what we have been doing the first year is that we've been going through every computer that we're replacing or every computer that are on the schedule to be replaced we're consolidating as much as possible so we're reducing number of computers um and we're hoping that the prices of the computers will come down next year but yeah that's what we're doing and uh it'll be year two next year

thank Thank you. And the other one is can this is new. Can somebody explain the real time monitoring s center? Oh yes. I have the same question too. Oh

good evening mayor and council members. Thank you for the thank you for the question. Uh a real time crime center um is something that u you may have been seeing more frequently in the news. A lot of agencies are starting to implement this system um for their crime fighting um tactics. A real-time crime center essentially allows departments to be more uh responsive rather than reactive to crime. Um it basically consolidates um different technologies um through um through a software platform that allows um our staff that would allow our staff to basically um respond to a crime that's in progress. they would be able to utilize our some of our tools um like our ALPRs, our drones, um other video feeds that would come into the center would allow us to uh be more strategic with our responses to crime. Um versus the way that it is most often is officers respond to an area maybe not knowing where a suspect has gone. Um the theory behind this is that we'll be able to get our eyes on people a little bit quicker which uh in turn would you know be a tremendous benefit to the community because we would be allowed to um take swift action um with the realtime crime center. So um right now the funding that we're requesting for is is basically to um to start uh this project um purchase equipment um evaluate different software platforms to uh consolidate our technologies and and video games. So it's a software and and hardware combined.

Correct. And it's trying to connect. Are you are you connecting to the other software that you have? Is that or this is this is the centralized one? Yeah, it would be centralized. So think of it like on a on a large monitor, you'd have a map overlay and you would see where your ALPRs are, you'd see where your drone is, you see where your video feeds are. Right now all of those systems are separate. So our staff h are watching a drone feed right and then um you know having to look at different maps or you know um take different actions. So right now it's just it's not consolidating.

So it will consolidate correct because I know when I visited that the the drone room he has his own monitor. So that one will be centralized to this uh real time monitoring center. Right. Correct. Okay. Sounds good. Thank you. So, is that the the one that we saw in San Jose where they had that master control? Oh, yeah. That we that we need that. It's really sophisticated. Thank you.

So, so what I would add to um what Chief Morales said is that it allows us to have a quicker response and better allocate our resources. And the reason is because in the real-time monitoring center, they're hearing the 911 call come in as it's being discussed with the dispatcher. They're able to send drones. are able to start pulling up video feeds before the officer is even told this call is happening. So now when the officer is in route, hopefully the drone's already above, which through our DFR program or drone as a first responder program, we've already realized a lot of these um these successes. And now if the suspect leaves or whatever, we're not wasting the time of sending a bunch of officers, let's say it's a bank robbery, we're not sending all the officers to the bank to find out that the person already left. the drone, the license plate readers, they're already following the suspect through the city. We're able to send the appropriate number of officers over there to um to deal with that and we're not wasting resources going somewhere else. A good example, though we don't have a real-time monitoring center, is today while I was on a meeting in my office, we have a license plate reader hit for a stolen trailer that was driving on Calveris going eastbound, which it was coming from Burger King. So, I looked out my window real time at real time. I saw the stolen trailer drive past city hall. Um, so it's the same concept, but we're using intersection cameras, we're using license plate readers, we're using drones, all in the same place. And the last piece that I would add is is that our intent is to uh build this up in the uh EOC, which you guys are familiar with. And so if we were to have an EOCC activation, that same real-time information is available to everybody. if we're dealing with a natural disaster or something, uh, we can see the whole city, all those things right from there, from the from the planning room.

So, we're not actually getting rid of the drone system, but we're linking it to to to this to the real time monitoring system. We're creating a one-stop shop where everything's in one location being watched, monitored live, and we're able to allocate resources as a result of of that live data.

That That's great. You know the a the ALPR too. That's good. Thank you both. Is there anyone Is there anyone else we have? Vice Mayor. Okay. All right. So, uh page 25, please. If I remember the page right. But while uh we're good, I I want to ask how do we prioritize? How did we come up with the 39 recommended uh projects to be funded?

Thank you vice mayor for the questions. So as I mentioned on one of the slides so during the budget process staff receive funding request from each departments and we review with engineerings and finance take a look and this is a priority process. So we verify each project is it aligned with the council priority. Is it legal mandated? Because some of the project is required by state law so we have to improve move forward with that. Is the project improve the health and safety concerns or is the project is part of the grand funding? So the project might be received the grant. So we have to move forward with that. So we account in all of these factors and collaboration and determine which one that we should move forward. And on one we have those prior we consult with the city manager's office and finalize that before present to the city council for that.

Correct. So now on the 25 so I understand that you know each uh project not just those prioritized to be funded uh have a part uh specific source of fund. Some are grants, some are uh from TAS uh task uh fees and some are from our general fund. Right? So with this uh uh funding summary for five years, did we how will I say that? Did we consider the same amount of what we have in 2076 207 with regards to uh your projection for example you know I forgot how much 16% you said with the TASP right so is it 16% across and then you know those grants that we get are they across your projection as well the general fund are they across the projection as the different projects you So we there's multiple funding sources that we have. There's funding sources that we know that we can project for 5 years. For example, gas tax,

right,

or measure B. That's kind of my prime prime example of we can kind of allocate that money adequately because we know we're going to get those. And when it comes to the general fund CIP, we don't know. That's that's discretionary every year. So those typically those type of projects are our unfunded projects in the last four years of the CIP. This, you know, we're assuming we're going to get something, but we don't know if it's going to get there. So we want to have that part of the budget, but just to identify it as it hasn't been identified yet. Now, other sources like the water and sewer, it's based on rates. Uh, we know we're going we should have that money, but we do evaluate it on a year-to-year basis. You know, this year, the the first year is always the funded year that we know we have that money in hand. Everything after that is projected. Um, and then we re re-evaluate every single year. So, of um of the 209 or 28 million over the five-year budget, we identified only 22.6 million. That's not identified funding, but that doesn't mean will it be there? Maybe on a year-to-year B budget. Now, as far as comes to grants, as you identified there, uh grants we don't know if we're going to get so we don't project that into our budget. So, and another uh fund that we we also don't project is park funds because that's based on developer impact fees.

But at least sorry to cut but at least you project them. That is correct. Although it's not available. That is correct.

All right. So that brings me to my question. So uh you know as as uh Christian said it's uh uh fund base, right? Um, we know that you're right, sore funds and the other things are almost always guaranteed to be there in the next 5 years. But what we're not guaranteed is, as you said, grants that TASPI, I don't know how much more uh fees we're going to get that or when it's going to drought because it's almost fully developed, right? And most of all is uh the general funds. So would it be would would it be prudent to uh consider that's why I asked my first question how do you prioritize it and you have those list would it be prudent to consider these three sources as a consideration how we going to prioritize projects

is if I understood your question are you saying that could we use these other funding sources to fund unidentified projects. No. Okay. Right. Because I know that a specific bucket goes for a specific project. Correct. Right. Uh my question is uh since uh we have a way to prioritize things maybe just for for the thought process

and we know that uh not all uh funding source are guaranteed throughout our projection and we can identify three of them now. uh general fund, the TASP and some grants or there's more others, right? So, why don't we use uh that fact and consider it in prioritizing the projects that we're going to at least fund this year because we said is for sure the first year has to be funded and then uh wing the next four years with what we already know on the first year. We we do. Okay.

So, so you know, I've been doing this for over five years and every year that we put every budget cycle, they they give me projects from the operation side that we know it's going to be for facilities. We always evaluate that every year because we know the general fund CIP is going to fluctuate, right?

So, we have a plan, but if we don't have money there, then we push it out and prioritize the projects that we know we can do. That's another thing is do we have resources to deliver those projects? That's another consideration. And what's the project schedule? That's always another consideration. So we look at you know we don't want to be short-minded but we are shortminded in that first year. We know what we can do in that one year. And then longterm we say okay if we can finish this one year hopefully deliver it that one year then we can do it in year two. But sometimes that project might be postponed by 6 months for various reasons. And when it comes to that next following year, we'll re-evaluate maybe push that project out.

So it it every year you reeval evaluate the the entire requests and their existing workload. That's a huge uh consideration is if we're going to fund you, we want to be sure that you're delivering on that money uh on that project. So, there's a lot of factors that go into what we present to council on a year-to-year basis,

right? Here's one factor. Uh, if we had considered it, right, specifically on the, uh, general fund CIP, have we considered, uh, our dreaded anticipation of a structural deficit in the next 5 years in prioritizing those uh, projects that's funded uh, by our uh, general fund? wants to answer that. Who wants to answer that?

Vice Mayor, thank you. Um, so a couple ways we've approached that. One is what we are looking at as part of this budget process is the staff that are charging to CIP as part of our fund review. And um, a number of staff already do charge to CIP projects. Um, and so their salaries are paid for out of this the CIP you're seeing tonight. But we are looking through um to find are there other staff that are possibly charging to the general fund right now that should be charging to CIP projects. And so that's an effort that is going on right now um that we're hoping to make some adjustments to this year and possibly next year as well. Um it's not going to solve our structural deficit at all, but it but it is one of the many factors we're pursuing. Um additionally, um there are times and this city has probably done it before as well. I would um and other cities have done it as well. If structural deficits get too bad, um we can look at projects that were sourced originally from the general fund and deferring them. Um that has um pros and cons. Um a pro is it does help stem um on a one-time basis. It helps with with deficits. It doesn't help with structural deficits. A con of that is a lot of cities have did that like during the recession for example. And what happens is there's deferred maintenance. Um and that's one of the reasons we're likely seeing more HVAC um issues than we would want. So but those those are just some factors that we are looking at and will continue to look at um in relation to our structural deficit.

All right. So there is the connection. So uh so we're going to look at it how we look at those that factor. I know that it's not uh the the deal breaker for the for solving the structural deficit, but it's going to be uh something that would help in the long run when we consider uh CIP projects that's going to be sourced from uh the general fund. So I I just want to to see if you know when we look at this when you are proposing this have you considered that factor because that's going to be the the the end game right trying to resolve a structural deficit maybe uh not not substantially through CIP projects but it's going to help uh uh if we consider that in our thought process in presenting what's to be prioritized and what's to be uh budgeted especially that coming from the general fund. So that's the question. Hopefully we have that connection while we present this and hopefully uh as we go forward with the budget presentation, we see that connection as as part of you know this not just a department asking for a certain project to be funded but uh what at least my one vote would want to hear is this is what we need is being a priority in our consideration. we have uh you know as far as uh consider the effect of uh this to the general fund which will if you add up will uh hopefully you know um lighten the structural deficit that we have. Maybe that's one thing, you know, when we were talking about uh the the structural deficit, we're looking at buckets. We're looking at at uh sources of funds that are recurring and one time. Maybe this is one of them we consider uh planning

and then doing the budget, you know, based on that at least a factor of that. Yes. Okay, let's take a break. Maybe uh come back at 7:05. 10 minute break. You want five or 10? All right, let's take a 10-minute break cuz I got to stretch

Would you have time after the meeting or you're tired today. Yeah. Like just Oh, okay. Oh, yeah. It's supposed

Okay, we are ready. Where's Where's the other council members? I'm only missing one behind you. Oh, right there. And Gary. Oh, there he is.

All right, we're going to go ahead and continue this. Who wants to start? Leak. Oh, really? He He's done now. It's up to me. We're going to continue this. City Council, I got 15minute presentation that has to deal with no uh available funding aspect of it and also the city council priorities. So I asked if we I go through every through it all and then we can have a discussion thereafter. Is that okay? Great. Excellent.

All right. Good evening uh city council, mayor, vice mayor, council members. My name is Michael Sera, city engineer. I want to thank Christian and uh Lehawk for their wonderful presentation and introduction. So I'll start off with projects with in insufficient and no available funding. Um next slide please. As previously discussed, as a long-term planning effort, staff has identified sorry as uh mentioned earlier in the presentation about funding needs within five-year capital budget. We also wanted to highlight the importance of this matter and make sure we continue to discuss the funding needs with city council and future budget cycles. Through the CIP process, master planning completed in recent years, we have identified approximately $656 million uh funding needs for both existing and new infrastructure. 243 million is needed to address uh repairs and replacement of existing infrastructure where 413 million is needed to build new infrastructure as identified in master plans and specific plans. As we move forward, we want to continue to discuss the importance of where to invest the city limited capital dollars and prioritize the funding for infrastructure projects. A few examples of a fund of funding mechanisms that are help that will help with budget shortfalls are continuing to pursue state and federal grant opportunities. Establish a development impact fee for the metro and gateway specific areas. renew sewer and water rates every five years to maintain the systems and consider financing measures as such as a general uh obligation bond to fund larger infrastructure projects. Here are a few uh a list of existing infrastructure backlog projects in the amount of $22.6 million. I'd like to

highlight a couple of these projects. Staff is currently working on an assessment of the 40-year uh community center building to determine the condition and necessary improvements, for example, of the roof, structural uh electrical and mechanical systems in the kitchen. The preliminary estimated is $4 million, but may increase based on final evaluation and recommendations that is anticipated to be completed this March. The design for the renovation of Sandalwood Park is completed and shovel ready with the support of ARPA funding. The picnic area and portion of the pathway was improved. However, additional funding is needed to complete the remaining improvements. As mentioned previously, as part of a long-term planning effort and staff staff has identified approximately $634 million in funding needs beyond the 5-year budget. This slide is a summary of the infrastructure needs. A large portion of this amount is for a new facility dedicated to the police and IT department and the renovation of the existing building for public works. The operation of these three departments is starting to outgrow the space of the existing building, especially the police department. Fire station number three is in need of a replacement as it was built in the 1960s and no longer meets current fire standards or building codes. A new infrastructure identified in the basic improvement plan of the metro specific area is the Montigue pedestrian overcrossing adjacent to Penitencia Creek. The design is completed. However, the funding of the appro of approximately $21.5 million is needed for construction. Staff has applied for several federal grant programs, but the project was not selected as these grants are heavily uh competitive. Staff will

continue to explore funding avenues and opportunities in future budget cycles. Now, we'll discuss city council priorities. Next slide. staff explored to incorporate murals at two VTA pillars along Grey Mall Parkway and McCandless Drive. While with Senate Bill 456 taking effect July 1st of this year, which exempts artists from requiring contract license, the work can finally move forward. Artists submitted proposals in January and the evaluations were recently completed. The agreement will be executed uh by this April and the mirrors are anticipated to be completed by fall. Last December, city council allocated $310,000 for the attended improvements to open a police satellite office at cityowned properties on Main Street. Work is anticipated to start by the end of the summer and construction is expected to take up to 12 months to complete. In addition, an office is planned to be incorporated into the housing development of these parcels in the future. In June of 24, staff was directed to conduct a stud traffic study along Esquila Parkway from Jaclyn Road to Washington Street. This past October, the consultant completed their findings of the corridor and identified potential mitigations measures to alleviate traffic congestion. This information was presented to the tra transportation subcommittee and school district over the past few years. Staff has started implementing a few mitigation efforts by coordinating with police department to improve crossing guard operations and enforce parking restrictions within the bike lane. In addition, staff has started the collaboration with the school district

on outreach regarding designated drop off and pickup areas to improve traffic flow. Next steps. Staff is developing a work plan for public outreach and circulation and safety improvements. Implementations of this work plan is anticipated to start prior to the beginning of next school year, pinning the feedback from the school district and the public. In addition, staff is also developing a work plan for mid to long-term mitigation measures which will be presented to stakeholders for future discussions and considerations. Infrastructure projects along Main Street, such as installation of decorative street lights and un undergrounding the overhead utility lines are contingent on the approval of future development and the Main Street sense of place plan and establishment of impact fees for Ma G uh Gateway main street specific plan. The undergrounding project is estimated at $6 million and a portion of this cost will be funded by PG& rule 2A program. The city has accued uh approximately $4.5 million in credits which is set to expire in 2031 due to PG& counseling program in 23. city's fair share cost is estimated at $ 1.5 million because the infrastructure for the future decorative lights street lights will be part of the common utility trench. However, funding has not been identified for this shared cost. PG requires the city to acquire easements on five properties for the undergrounding of infrastructure that is appraised at 330 uh $10,000. staff is currently coordinating with PG& on rideaway acquisition and design refinement. The image to the left shows the

anticipated phasing of the street light project from Carlo to Great Mall Parkway which is estimated at $7.9 million. The image to the right shows the limits of the undergrounding project from Corning to Curtis Avenue which aligns with the green segment of the street light project. Highlighted in yellow are the easements the city needs to require. Only two of the five property owners have responded to our requests. The city was selected to receive a federal airmak of $250,000 for the safety improvements along Main Street in 2025. However, the federal government has not passed the bill allocating this funding as of yet. The city also received a federal earmark of a half a million dollars for the street light and traffic signal improvements on Main Street in 2024, a portion of the $3 million request. which is insufficient to complete all planned improvements. This past fall, MTC approved the work plan to upgrade pedestrian and traffic equipment at five signalized intersections on Main Street, consistent with the intent of the earmark funding request. Staff is currently working with CALR uh on CNR's E76 approval that includes environmental, rightway, utility clearances, and design specifications. The E76 package must be submitted to Calrans by spring of next year to ensure the funding is obligated by the deadline of September 30th of 27. Construction must be completed by September of 2030. Staff initiated pickle ball pilot project at Gillan Hall Park in 2022. pickle ball improvement project with an

allocation of $100,000 was approved as part of the 2024 and 28 CIP. In November of 2024, staff completed the installation of the fence and sound dampening panels and perform maintenance of courts. Last May, city council approved the recommended improvements from staff at Hall Park and allocated an additional $100,000 into the same CIP. In addition, staff was directed to explore and analyze public and private pickle ball court opportunities throughout the city. The improvements were completed in November and the study will be circulated to city council for review in March.

Next question.

In 2023, staff was directed to conduct an assessment of the flooding on Main Street near the library. To date, staff have coordinated with the regional water board for dredging and vegetation management of Ford Creek and will continue this effort. Staff has also lowered the rear wall at the pump station, which has minimal benefit. The main street flood study was approved as part of the adopted 202529 CIP. Last fall, the consultant completed the assessment and identified potential improvements. The study concluded that the primary causes of flooding is limited to is the limited capacity of Ford Creek and the existing storm drain system that was constructed below the flow line of the creek. Potential improvements to increase storage capacity such as a series of vaults pipes with a pump are estimated to cost up to $2.8 million. Currently, there is no funding available to implement the the recommended improvements, but staff will continue to explore funding opportunities and partnerships. In addition, operational staff will continue to perform preventative maintenance ahead of anticipated storm events to minimize the impacts, which has proven to be effective.

City council has approved an agreement with VTA to manage the environmental phase in 2021. for the Calaveris Boulevard widening project. The city's contributed $5.1 million which was funded by the TASP and and traffic impact fees where VTA contributed 600,000 to this phase. The environmental phase will be completed by this summer. Design phase and rightaway acquisition is anticipated to start this spring and be completed in 2028. and construction will start thereafter and then take up take about two and a half years to complete. However, this schedule from BTA depends on funding and rightaway acquisitions. The project is estimated at $3235 million where the city's anticipated local match is $32.5 million which represents a 10% of the total cost. The design phase is estimated at $20.2 2 million which excludes rightaway acquisition. VTA has committed $9 million through measure B funding, but there is a shortfall of 11.2 million to complete the final design and $3.1 million to reach 65% design. Current funding only advances the design of the project at 35% which min limits the project to comp the project competitiveness for state and funding f federal grant programs and earmarks. Completion of 65% design will make the project more viable and competitive. City and VTA staff will continue to pursue funding opportunities to advance the design to 65% and discuss the opportunities with city council and VTA leadership in the future. In an effort to maintain the project's CA schedule, staff recommends council

consider funding the shortfall of the 65% design with task impact fees. The task basic infrastructure plan identifies the fair share goal of 6.8 8 million for this project. To the to date, the city has contributed $3.5 million for the environmental phase. BTAA is requesting the city contribute $3.1 million to advance the 65% design. In summary, the city has invested more than $15 million across 17 major CIP projects this fiscal year and is expected to deliver 11 major projects in the amount of 21 million next fiscal year that will benefit our community. Staff recommends funding 39 projects in the amount of 35.7 million for fiscal year 26 and 27 where nine new projects are being proposed to be added. The 5-year CIP includes 138 projects with the neester made budget of $26 million of which 183.4 million is projected to be funded leaving 22.6 million with insufficient or no funding identified. This slide summarizes the overall timeline of the CIP review and approval process. Today is the first step of this process which staff provides a presentation of the proposed CIP to council. In March, staff will present the findings that the CIP is in conformance with the adopted general plan to planning commission. In April, staff will present the park improvements to the park, recreation, and cultural resource commission for review and re and their recommendations. Then staff will return to council on May 5th for a public hearing and consideration to

adopt the C 5-year CIP budget. Excuse me. Recommendations. Receive the presentation on the proposed 5-year 2027 2031 capital improvement program and provide feedback to staff and find the CIP ex uh SQA exempt. Thank you. We're here to answer any further questions. Okay, great. Thank you. Michael, are there any questions? Anybody?

We have a vice mayor. Uh if we could go back to uh the slide where we had a traffic study by Washington and please I think that

right this Yes. All right. I remember this when this was uh prioritized. So here's my question. Um Militas High has been there for the longest time, right? And it's always uh been a an issue uh of you know traffic being congested and uh I'm sure over uh the years uh both MUSD and US had some mitigating measures in place. So my question is so we did the study again in 2024. What's new that they're recommending? I I'm sure you know circulation uh uh you know some one way or I mean is there something special this time that they're recommending? I I was expecting an earth moving uh uh effort like they're going to relocate the other gate to the other side. Something is you know in looks like it's I'm not the expert. I'm sure that we had that, right? But on a layman's uh uh looking at it, it's something that I can think of tomorrow. What's so special about this special uh traffic study that we had that would be able to at least alleviate you know what's going on in Esqella and Washington that we have not done before over the years and how much did we spend on that consultant and what are we expecting to spend uh on this uh implementation of the mitigation of the mitigating plan? I can't speak to I I can't speak to what was done before, but what we found out during this traffic study was really the cause root

cause was human behavior. Um so one one thing was being more efficient with the crossing guard. We saw inconsistencies with the crossing guard. Uh by correcting those provided a little bit more traffic flow. other is where parents drop their their kids off using bike lanes or using non designated pickoff or drop off areas. So, we're working with the school district to to educate the parents or go outreach and teach teach uh the parents these designated areas to help that traffic flow. So we can also do some minor uh circulation improvements such through the cut flows that we're seeing that could be a pinch point. Um that's what we're looking on a lower cost uh uh improvements is to me is education uh reminding student uh reminding parents how to use you know at the end of the day there's four schools there at 4,000 students

um which you know during 7:30 to about 9:00 it's just you know all these cars going into that single area. So, we're looking more on the public outreach to educate the students through the school district or the parents through the school district to see how we can uh better have better traffic flow through these areas where we want the parents to come in, drop off and leave rather than park and um and disrupt the traffic flow throughout the area.

Okay. No, I I I was what I was expecting is hey, we have the innovation. Those 4,000 kids became 35, you know, uh yes, we've been educating them before and uh this is what we believe either infrastructure education that can elevate it. Is that some do we have a report from from uh the consultant that we had? We do. And to answer one of your questions, the the report was roughly about $80,000.

Wow. to educate people. Sorry. Well, we we did all the traffic studies necessary to determine that you know there are certain there there is certain mitigation measures in there that do cost quite a bit quite a bit of money that um is adding another lane into um uh the squala on both lines. The only problem the the challenge there you would have to go into hedgeh um property and they are not going to allow that. So you know that's a that's the issue that that was a a a measure that we took off the board. Another one is adding a stoplight at the intersection of Russell Lane or some kind of stop control to help you know control traffic a little bit better. That's a little bit more of a long-term and more expensive improvement to do. So, right now, we're really focused on the near-terms. What can we do right now to improve that traffic state to improve alleviate that traffic congestion? I think the best way to do is public outreach, you know, and being sure that cross guards are more efficient and seeing where where the the congestion can happen.

Is that what we believe or that's what's recommended by consultant? the consultant has a recommendation the near-term about efficiencies because they identify that um and also long term maybe some more um a traffic signal could help because the intersection at peak time gets really bad. So putting a traffic signal in that area will help but that you're looking at about a million and a half dollars. Isn't it true? I'm I'm looking at my council member Lyn that that uh the the morning time of the students were staggered now. Right. Yeah, that's why

right did did the consultant uh consider that we we've been talking with the all three schools are staggered about a half an hour apart or 20 minutes apart. 15 15 to 20 something like that. Uh we are looking to stagger that a little bit more. Uh but we do have to um work with the school district on that. That is in discussion. The staggering time doesn't work anyways because people want to avoid the traffic so they go early.

No, no online class something. Just kidding. But yeah, well hopefully that resolved. Ever since uh I remember in in Militas that's always been a problem and you know I've been uh with the city for a while and I think this is what the third uh study that we had and it's all always almost uh the same concept and uh we'll do another study again. Well, there's a single high school in the city. I mean, there's the continuation school and there's the tech campus, but that high school serves a huge population in comparison to other areas and there's limited things that you can do.

The study that was done before is outdated in this in the sense that it doesn't account for the volume. So, that's different. But the structure of the streets not changing. The structure of HCH HCHE and what they own in the center is not changing. So, you're right. To a certain degree, we're limited in options. um unless we do some earth changing thing. Yeah, I know when I started I think the population formas is close just close to 3,000. If you say it's 4,000 that's huge

and no street has widened, right? So but it's an unfortunate situation that we have you know we have to to address what we have uh I mean you know considering uh the increase in population considering that you know uh streets are are the same size and lengths I don't I don't know the answer but you know what I'm saying is is or if there is an answer uh to that but there there is there must be otherwise we're talking again in 5 years, same study is going to be 5,000 population. We've been building a lot of houses that will flood uh our school system.

All right. Thank you. So hopefully we'll we'll develop something um more concrete and and and worth spending for. Thank you. Is there any way that because those lanes are pretty wide, you could make a two-lane. Actually, they're not wide enough to do to do wide uh to do two two lanes. You need a minimum of 24 feet and I think they're at 20ish. Yeah. Plus plus their bus routes and the buses require more space. Mr. Eminent do mean some some portion of those houses.

Yeah. Well, I when I was on BTA, I had recommended that you know we give the give the buses. Well, we'll encourage them to ride their bikes to school. that one too. That's another one. That's the education piece, right? I need to get back to walking.

Yeah. So, as I was saying when I was on BTA, well, I still am technically, but I'm the alternate. So, I had recommended that um the students get free bus, the high school students get free busing. That'll alleviate a lot of the students, but you know, it's you know, they want it's all always comes down to the money, you know. So, that didn't happen, but it might happen in the future. Just never know. Yeah, I'd like to u make a quick comment. Go ahead.

Um yeah, I went um when my daughter was uh I raised my daughter in New Pierce, right? And we left nearby that area and um I was dropping off and pick up my daughter in that area for 13 years. So I know that area well. Um, one of the uh thing I have to agree with Michael is uh the training of the crossing guard. Um, that's one of the key thing we need to train them very well. Right now the biggest problem I see on the crossing guard is they um they let the student pass but after that they don't really direct the traffic. So if they train a little bit better, they could direct the traffic a little bit. It will make things better. And second thing I like to see is uh the traffic lights on Escala and Jacqueline and also Hillview and Jaclyn. Those two lights if um a lot of people are waiting to do a left turn on Jacqueline. Um if the lights can be a little bit longer than we set right now that would ease off the traffic. Um yeah those those two thing we can do at this point. Yeah, I I would say on the on the crossing, unless Frank wants to speak to it, but I would say on the crossing guards, um their their purpose isn't necessarily to direct traffic and there's really limited routes to go. You're either going towards the high school or or you're not. Um one of the problem areas that I had seen previously with the crossing guards is that they

would cross every single student. Instead of letting five or 10 or 15 students accumulate and then stopping traffic for a group, every time a single person would show up, they would stop traffic. They let the one person cross and then they stop traffic two cars later and let three people cross. And so I know that we've worked with the vendor to try to improve that. I personally haven't checked on it. So, I don't know what that status is now, but that's definitely an area that we can follow up through the police department with the crossing guards to make sure they're doing Yeah, that's that's one of the things I I um yeah, I was trying to point out is yeah, they need to really know to pause a little bit and accumulate the student and and also

uh sometime uh after the student cross the parents at the at the tra uh at the intersection They don't really know to proceed. They just pause for a while. That that pause. That's what you mean by traffic control. Yeah, we could we could take care of that. Yeah. Yeah. So So if the if the crossing guard can just wave their hand and then move the traffic. Okay. No, I got it. Yeah. Okay. Mayor,

uh thank you, mayor. One of the takeaways I think from uh I don't know your title. I was going to say manager or director

city. Oh, CD CD engineer Michael said from your 15minute presentation, one of the takeaways that I got is there's a need for a public service uh announcement video well from the PIO department to educate us the especially the students on on how to best optimize you uh the most effective way of including the parents too. Correct.

Something to that effect. I think is very less less expensive and if we do it really funny way to introduce that concept I think that would help and also like mayor said educating the student to use more bicycles to go to school. I think we need that

in talking with uh the school district. I guess they do have an outreach for biking to school. it hasn't been very success success successful as they were talking about. Um, which is unfortunate. Um, but we are working on a work plan to see how best to kind of inform the parents. Hey, these are designated drop off hours. Please, you know, use them. It's stuff like that. And, you know, go into your pickup areas. Yeah. Uh so because sometimes what we do see is that people will stop in the middle lane, get the students out and hold up traffic. You know that that becomes an interruption of traffic flow.

Um or you know cross squad not queuing up the students happens too. And what we see also is there's furless cutthroughs and when those people are trying to cut through onto another line that that's another factor that we're looking at. So, it's it's a matter of these minor uh modifications and a combination of outreach. I think if you do it on a yearly basis prior to the school year, I think it will help a lot. Yeah. And it's less expensive, too. I agree. So, anyway, something to look into. Yes. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you.

Thank you. And and if you can look into BTA, there are times when they pick up the students because maybe they end up maybe they don't have a bus available in the mornings. So, if you can look do some research and find out. Yeah, we're looking into that aspect. Right. Anybody else? Anyone else? We have Huntsman.

So, Michael, do we work with the school district to see if they have um school bus that can pick up students and drop off? I remember before leaving the school district there like electric um school bus that does that. I think they work with VTA from a school bus perspective. Renee, do you have a little bit more background?

Um, I believe that the school the school buses that pick students up are for students who are in special classes. Yeah. And um, some of them are used I would what I have noticed and experienced is after school taking them from one site to the other um, but not morning pickup. um for everyday student. So, um I was also going to add I shared with um acting chief Morales that I dropped my son off at the high school or actually outside of the high school, but I had to drop him off yesterday and I did see the queueing. So, there was some improvement at the crossing guard. So, the feedback that's been giving, I as a parent who has a child that goes there now, I have seen some improvements over the last few weeks. Um, but as far as school district buses, um, uh, I think they're reserved for special programs,

special ed. Yeah. But I'm not sure for regular students and and um Frank, do we have officers um in the morning or at pickup time to issue tickets, you know, in in drivers that violate like stop in the middle of the road getting your students out?

Yeah. No, I appreciate the question. Um our challenge is we have two motor officers right now and our motor officers are the ones that have the um easiest way of maneuvering through all that traffic. What we do is uh we participate with the school as far as education especially at the beginning of the year to you know reinforce that message to the parents on where they can and can't park. Um and then after uh some time if they're not um adjusting to those requirements the officers will cite them for illegally parking if they need to. Um I know that uh the school district does reach out through parent square. They provide maps to parents and they ask them to you know for certain grades to drive through this way in a parking lot and other grades go another way. Um and there's a lot of messaging that's happening there. So that might be another platform to reiterate to the parents that um you know the these concerns but our officers do do spend time there. Um we have SRO that's out at the school um who uh can also be aware of that. They're out there especially um when class is let out. Um so visibility wise parents are seeing you know police car there and hopefully that's you know modifying some of their behavior.

I guess at the first day of um school maybe Cheryl can announce because parents or even that even before the first day have Cheryl yes you know do the announcement and and yeah we usually share with parents. Yeah, we usually put stuff out on social media before the school year starts reminding parents um safety tips um reminding the kids, you know, also to be safe in crossing intersections and all that. So, um we put they read them though. That's the question. And we put sign boards up as well um to let them I know. Um that's why we're there to to you know remind them issue them a couple of tickets they learn.

Yes. Yes. Um, so we do have some challenges there on on people's willingness to actually listen to the message, you know, and not be so consumed by what they're doing for themselves. You know,

one thing that we could add to the messaging though is they have the opening day for high school where you come and you do the registration prior to the school year. Maybe we could work with the school district to do a little map. These are no stopping zones. Here's alternate drop off areas to consider throughout the school year type thing. Um, one of the challenges with enforcement is if an officer makes a car stop in that traffic, it's now going to delay everybody cuz that's going to take about 10 to 12 minutes. So, they calculate in that decision to take enforcement action or not. Often times, it's the motorcycle officer pulling up to the person's window and saying, "Come on, what are we doing? Let's let's be better type thing." Um,

it's a great idea. Maybe we can uh include the flyer of where to stop, where not to in the package where they enroll in the school year. Yeah. Because that time uh everything is so important they would read through it. Thank you. Okay, Vice Mayor. Right. How about let's do the Fremont style. Let's put some camera that captures them. No need for a police officer to stop. They receive the tickets uh in the mail. You know, that's a good idea. I'm with you. We could do it from the monitoring center. How much do we need? How much do we need?

No, I think that's, you know, it's it's a deterrence, right? If you know, if a police officer uh politely just say, "Hey, please, you know, they'll do it again next time." That's true, right? Yeah. Let's probably consider that. See, can I have a percentage of the 80,000 now? No. Here, can we ask uh can we see the report uh from the traffic study? The consultant the consultant and probably the last one whenever that is if we can find it uh on the archive just for our thoughts. Maybe, you know, we put

right now it's at a draft form because we've been trying to figure out what we want to uh present, but let me go back and look at it and then we'll we'll release it accordingly. Okay. And I remember so let's uh put it on the right channels. We do have uh the city school collaboration which the mayor and I can we uh make this as a next topic uh uh for Renee. I guess Thursday is our meeting, right?

Yes. I was just reminding Lee Huck behind Christian that this is an item that will eventually go back to the city school collaborative and maybe at that time we can um we'll report on the findings from the study and then also have a discussion about the buses and some other and working together on education updating packets and um you know shared messaging through the PIO's office and um the MUSD princ superintendent office and and I think also correct me if I'm wrong Uh Michael, I think this went to the transportation subcommittee as well. It did. It went in November. Yeah. And we can provide that presentation to the rest of council they gave, right? So that is a little background on Yeah, we can do that.

Yeah. Well, we'll do school to city that channel. Okay. All right. Anybody else? So, um was just to piggyback on your on the consultant report. Did they do community outreach involve the community for We haven't hit that. We haven't reached that stage yet. um because we were trying to figure out what improvements we were going to move forward because usually the consultant, you know, that's what they do. They do out they do studies and then they do outreach. So,

just we were going to do that as soon as we kind of figure out what improvements we wanted to move forward with. I talking to transportation committee was important to us. Also talking to school district and get some feedback on our presentations, talking with the council about this topic also. Um, so we want to do uh when we're ready with solid improvements that we want to move forward with, then we'll do uh some more public outreach. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Uh I have one question before I go to uh So the Ford Creek. Um who owns that? The city uh we own Ford Creek. We own Ford Creek. That's actually creek right behind the railroad or behind the library. That is city owned and maintained.

Okay. So, we've never dredged it or because you know that's the problem. It gets over overflows, right? Um I've been here for almost 10 years. We have never dredged it. But I have seen plans back in 2010 that there was I would say minor cleanup um and some vegetation removal and minor debris. Yeah. But a major dredging. Uh no, we have not. Maybe that's what we need. Okay. All right. Um, so we did the Isqual Parkway. Um, yeah, that's it. That's all I have. Uh, we have William. Oh, yes. Council member Lamb.

Uh, thank you. Um, I have question on Cara Ba widening project. Um, if we go forward with that project, what's the impact on traffics? Would there be any impact on traffic if we move forward? It's going to drastically improve traffic. No. From during the process of uh widing.

Oh, there there will be some delays because um in order to do that project, it has to be phased onto one side. You would take one one bridge down and move the traffic onto the that bridge right now is two bridges or that overpass is two bridges. So you would take traffic and put it on one bridge while you're constructing the other one. Wow.

So there there tra transportation projects are very tricky um and cost a lot and do impact um but at the end of the day you have to look at long term how much it will improve that traffic because right now you go from three lanes down to two over the bridge then back to three lanes. So that's that bridge is is a bottleneck. So if we take one side of the brush down that means only two lane for both directions probably. Wow.

I I think I I I remember that I recall that the the VTA looked on putting two lanes on that one bridge which would be fairly tight but that's the only way they would be able to maintain um the current circulation. Okay. And what's the duration of this project? uh construction would be about two and a half to three years. So for two and a half to three years people has to go through just one thing. Yeah. Unfortunately or they or they use Monu or they use if they're coming from the north use Mission over in Fremont to cut across to 880. So there's other alternatives are not ideal necessarily

but um there are alternative routes a lot of public education if that project ever moves forward to me this is it's it's unrealistic it's not it's not going to happen I mean we have to provide what was it what we only have like a little fraction of what we're what's required for it to be built it's you know it's just unless we get a big grant from the federal government, but that ain't going to happen.

Yeah, that's um not going to dispute that the statement at all, but I do want to say for projects like this, the goal is to get them to at least 65% design. That way, if and when the time is right, um if and when the federal government um is has funding that they um significant funding that they can direct to California, um then we could take advantage of that possibly. And so that's why the team is um looking for opportunities in collaboration with VTA to get it at least a 65% design which makes it um very would make it very competitive for potential grants. But um there's nothing on the hor near-term horizon that we see that would get us the couple hundred million dollars. But maybe when the federal if and when the federal government um has changes at some point um and more money opens up for California then we may then we'd be ready if we keep it moving forward. So, uh, the design, how long will that last? Is it, you know, once you do with the design, it's completed and it's, you know, shelved. How long can we keep it? Do we have to do another start all over again, do another design? Are they good for 10 years, 20 years?

No, you would probably once it's shelf ready, you it's pretty much you're locked in. Um, so that's the goal is to do a design. If you shuffle it for too long, you might have to come back because of uh codes might have changed during the cycle. Will there be a major impact? Probably not. I mean, the biggest thing is acquiring right away, which we already resolved with UPR and um CALR. That that was a huge hurdle for us. So, yeah. Yeah. I remember when they came before us, VTA, to pass Measure B and they said they were going to fund the bridge, but that didn't happen.

Thank you, mayor. And just to add to that, as um as Michael mentioned is sort of is summarized in the last bullet to the slide, there is $9 million available right now in Measure B funding um for VATA to keep the project going. that doesn't get it all the way to 65% design. And so we're in discussions with VTA right now where there's a request for us to add $3 million to the project or 3.1 that would get it to 65% design. We are not ready tonight to make a formal recommendation to you on whether to add that or not. Um but we want to make sure that we include that in discussion, get any feedback you have on that. um and our um as we continue to work with VTA to release that $9 million that's currently in the budget that would keep the project going as we collaboratively work with them to get that extra $3 million. And so, um we're still in the process of going back and forth with VTA, but we wanted to make sure to make that make you aware of that this evening.

Um just one more comment on the bridge. I'm I'm just wondering why we have to demarge one side of the bridge to build that part of the bridge. Uh can we uh you know when they build the new bra bridge they build a set of new new bridge and then they merge the traffic at the end. So can we modulize that bridge? So we build it on the side and then demarge in a quickly time frame and then just merge the modular section into the main sections. uh that would would not um

you're talking about prefabocating it but then not not in that not in this scenario because of what what Rick restrictions that we have with the UPR wouldn't allow that and plus um with the Bay Bridge they were the transport to bring in that module was a lot easier was by freight where when I say freight boats so there was a little a little bit more where cranes lifted it up and brought it in here. We don't have that opportunity. Um the the the UPR is always active. So that's another constraint that we have

is that that has to be fully operational at all times. Um and UPR will not allow us to stop their trains to coming in on a daily basis. So that's a it's from an operational standpoint and and bringing in these modules. I don't know how it would be, but it would be a huge challenge. Huge challenge.

Okay. Yeah. Um I'm I'm just thinking if they prefap the bridge and then um they just bring in the prefab portion and then you know they could stop the traffic for a short period of time and then we can connect the bridge. So that would be much easier approach than stop demarge the whole bridge and then in one to two year people cannot you know use the uh the traffic will be very bad.

Well we'll go ahead and talk to VTA about that and see what they consider. I I think that this probably we're getting into a discussion that could probably go to the transportation subcommittee. Yeah. And kind of hash those things out and then bring something to council in the future of what makes sense.

Thank you. Um I I do have one question on page slide slide 45 on the impact fees. What's the status on the impact fees for Main Street? I mean, um, you know, we have a lot of new businesses that have come in, the car wash, Stratford, and it would have been ideal to get those impact fees at that time. Um, so what that you guys I was told we were working on it. So, where what's where are we at on that? I'll defer that question to Jay.

Hello. Okay, just checking. Uh so we had a study session fairly recently to go over some concepts for um the uh if you recall the streets the streetscape and also the right ofway. Uh the impact fee study is happening alongside the main street sensitive place plan. So, when we hopefully come to council um later this year, uh I it's hard to say exactly when, but um in the new fiscal year, but before the end of this year, um we expect to bring both to the council for adoption and then we can start collecting after that. Um it's we have to just do some work in identifying what the improvements are because that lays the ground for um the cost and then we based off of the development that we expect the specific plan to facilitate. We do the calculations to figure out how much each development should pay. I mean on a square footage basis but we're we're almost there. I think

the existing buildings or businesses um you can't go back and charge them, right? Can you? We can't go back, but the lot for for these projects, they do pay like our regular citywide fees. The difference is just that with an impact fee for a specific plan area, you're collecting it for improvements just for that area. Yeah.

Okay. Um there was one more that I had and that was um p uh slide 46. that one. Um, again, it's with this the main street. So, I was just wondering th those you said that those little utility lines, is that something that you PG& has to have, you know, the the yellow area. What is that?

Yeah. So, those areas are where PG& requires easements on private property for their new infrastructure. So we have to acquire um the rideway or easements for the this purpose of this infrastructure. Would that would that mean um eminent domain? We're going to work with the property owners first before we go in that route, but that could be a possibility. All right. Okay. All right. Thank you. That's it. Anyone else? If not, let's move on. Yeah. One more questions on on um this is the main street flood study.

Um seems that the proposal from the um consultant is to put in a pump station in order to drain the water. Um, is there a possibility to to build a channel to drain the water to a lower ground? We don't have enough rightway for that. So, our the improvement was to build a series of vaults that acts like an underground tunnel or underground pipe in that adjacent street because there is enough that water can go in there as secondary fill up hold it for a certain time. hope hope it eliminates the flood. And then once the the the eye of the storm or the intense the heavy intensity of the storm passes by then that water that's being hold for a certain time gets pumped back into the channel then goes into the bigger berry. Yes, a creek I believe um into the channel. So it's it's really the problem is at times uh that channel will get over inundated because the intensity of the storm. So when you have a large amount of water coming in at one time that water can't sustain that volume. So you build uh to eliminate to eliminate that flooding on the main street, you have to build basically another kind of uh volt system

that'll c hold that water for a certain amount of time and let the the intensity flow by. Then you pump it back into the creek but at a later date a later time. So that assume the flooding because the area is lower ground that's that's why the flooding happens, right? Um so um another way is not necessarily not nec it's slower ground but the problem is the because the creek or whatever goes into the creek it inundates the whole drainage system and it floods the adjacent streets.

So instead see the water is going to go to the lowest point and it kind of pops up in main street. That's his storage. What we're trying what we're looking at doing is doing an underground vault system that'll hold that water so it doesn't flood the street, right? And then you just store it there and then once the intensity of that storm passes by, then you pump it back into the channel to discharge into the ultimate creek. Okay. At a later date, you know. Okay. Can can the underground storage um dig another hole to go out to the creek? Well, you would hold it. You would hold it first. So once

um no no I'm thinking um yeah you have that storage at the same time can you build a drainage from the storage so you you could drain it to it to the nearby creek well that you have that's the only our only access is that creek so you have to to kind of increase the size of the creek is build a supplemented storage uh bolt system. We can't take it 4,000 feet down the road and discharge it at another point. There just is insufficient and very not cost effective. I I just council member I didn't mean to interrupt but the the uh shaft and wheeler that did our our storm master plan um there aside from the flow crete capacity that inundates there's also an absence of if of sufficient infrastructure in that area sufficient storm infrastructure which hopefully would be addressed with development the recommendations are three and they're all about the same price between 2.6 and $2.8 8 million and they're all centered around temporary uh storage. They're all centered whether you do it with a 60in conveyance pipe that is adjacent to the creek and then and then dumps into the creek, whether you have vaults underground that then will convey the water. The other option is a uh detention pond at the vacant lot that the city's flirting with purchasing that if that were developed as a park. That is also a consideration and something that the storm that the storm u uh consultants have proposed as an option. So the water from from basically adjacent to the library would be diverted to the park the detention pond and then it would per collect from there. Those are the only three viable options.

Okay. And those three options are about the same. They're about the same. Yes.

All right. Uh, anyone else? Okay. Is there is is that the end of your presentation? That's okay. I think council member Chu had a comment.

Uh, this is this is not C. I don't know. I I think this is CIP, but on a different take. I I just want to take this opportunity because when I was looking at the CMO's by month bi-weekly um status report and I noticed that we now have which I requested before we now had statistics on work orders for January and it looks really good. I mean like for parks there were new and open work orders 81 and you and the team closed 81. There's like street requests and work orders for 304 and the team closed 302. So I did a a reach out and it's 90 90% completion on work orders open. Isn't that amazing? Right. Yeah. So, so thank you so much. I finally got my statistics. Thank you.

Thank you, mayor. Okay. Thank you. Is that is that So, so that closes out the CIP portion. Okay. So, now would you like to Yeah. So, we're going to shift gears. We're really going to put our party hats on. We're going to talk about some organizational assessments, some overtime, and some pec cards real briefly, and answer some questions if there are any. But, I think um I'll pass it on to Matt to get us done. Thank you. And um wanted to check real quick. Sorry. Um Jared, do we need an act? We don't need an action on the we on on the report. Okay. Okay. No, it's just feedback.

Thank you, mayor and city council. So, um I have a brief presentation I'm going to go through quickly and um obviously defer to you as much time and questions as you have, but if you'd like I have about eight slides. I'll I'll go through pretty quickly. Um and again, as as city manager mentioned, we have an additional presentation. Um we want to provide you a um a briefing on some of our fiscal sustainability efforts. These are not all the efforts that we're working on, but these are certain consultant led efforts. Um there are some questions during the mid um uh the vice mayor raised during the midyear budget about our work plans and the status of these efforts. And so we want to provide that this evening and we'll be talking much more about the operating budget at next week's city council meeting as part of our presentation on the forecast. Next slide please. Who has the um oh can Michael can you bring that to me when you have a chance? So next slide please. Thank you. So, we have two organizational assessments that we're working with consultants on. Um, they're broken into two different ones, but they're both very similar. Um, the one organizational assessment is looking at the planning, housing, building safety, econ, finance, HR, IT, and city clerk departments. Um, we've gauged the consultant to look at our organizational structure, our org charts, the roles of different positions, obser observations on um, how does our staffing align with similar jurisdictions and industry standards. Um, look at some process um, come up with some processes and technology that may be able to assist us in the recommendations and come up with some implementation action plans. um um which could be anywhere from recommending new processes and procedures to recommending um maybe some consolidation of different positions and functions, could be recommending addition of positions, etc. Again, this is a roadmap for the future. Um and it doesn't mean if it recommends additions that we would necessarily can afford that right now, but these organizational assessments will help provide us road maps as we continue to refine our departments over time. Um and the bottom

of the screen provides a structure uh a schedule. Um we kicked this this off on October 16th. Um worked on with the consultant on assessing current structure and operations. They've been going a lot of back and forth questions um interviews with staff, talking to departments. We um are starting to receive some draft recommendations for them. They're very draft very draft at this point. Um and we anticipate their recommendations to be final to us by the end of March. Um as part of our annual budget process, we have recommended budget proposals that we recommend to you all the city council on our May f around May 1st published budget. Any recommendations from this study um that we um that the city manager would propose moving forward in this current budget would be part of that likely part of that May 1st publication. Um, as always, um, what we do during the months of maybe late March, during the month of April, we provide briefings to the city council members on what we're moving forward with in the budget. So, we would provide briefings to you on proposals related to these organizational assessments and any other proposals that we may be moving forward with. Next slide, please. This organization assessment number two is very similar. Um, so I won't um everything I said about the last one um applies to this one as well, but we have a different consultant that's working on public works and recreation and community services. Next slide, please. There's two additional um processes that we're reviewing. The first is our PCR process and policy review. This isn't necessarily a um a budget um reduction item um but it is an important item that's been discussed with you all during the budget times and the budget discussions. And so we're continuing to discuss it here this evening. We're looking at our PCAR processes and policies. Basically working with the consult having the consultant analyze our citywide PECARD usage and PCR purchasing policies. Um aimed at assessing compliance. How are we

complying with those policies um regarding our how we document that and how we're using the cards. Focus on understanding our current practices and identifying areas where we can improve. Um and um again there's some bullet points here but I sort I I summarized that they've basically came in and um um did a um an audit of our of our PE card purchases and our policy and the next slide please. Actually um no you can leave it here Jared but we are nearly done with this one. Um we expect um the final um final final results to be um pro done in March, but we do have preliminary findings and we will provide be providing obviously more than just these bullets points to the mayor and city council during the month of March um when we finalize it with the consultant. But the preliminary findings um are the consultant did not find evidence of misuse of public funds. So no evidence of misuse of public funds was identified. There were certain transactions that were found that did not follow procedures regarding proper receipts, splitting of charges or proper forms. Um it appears all these transactions were used for legitimate city uses um within department's budgets for items that our staff needed to do their work for the public, but um there are procedures that weren't always necessarily followed. Um and then regarding making sure that we have the proper receipts, um splitting charge, you know, maybe one large purchase into two, um and then using the proper forms for like when meals are purchased, etc. So, we are going through that and you'll have a lot more information in the future about the volume here. The volume was not large um for these, but um uh we want to, you know, continue continue to minimize any policy um uh any any any purchases that don't follow policy in the future. So some preliminary recommendations that are moving forward in the report are reducing the number of PE cards overall for better internal controls and a lot of that um our

finance department is working on establishing larger purchase orders with larger companies so staff don't have to rely on their pre PECards as much updating the PCARD manual to provide clarity on the approval process for transactions and make sure that the manual is extremely clear on the role of the approvers of the PECARD purchases. Um, and then enhancing our onboarding and really enhancing our training of staff um, prior to PECARD issuance and on a regular basis as they have the PECARD to make sure staff really understand the rules and that we provide them that training and that opportunity to really understand the rules. Next slide, please. So, the last item that um, we're discussing this evening is our public safety overtime review. So we um have consultant taking a look at our public

we ask questions about the previous ones or do you want us to wait?

Um is I'll be about two more minutes if it's up to you though or or or three or four more minutes. So public safety overtime review we've focused on the police and fire departments. There were questions about the overtime usage and and the amount of money we spend on that. Um so we really wanted the consultant to come in and take a look at the um you know analyze the overtime expenditures, the number of hours by department, the reasons for that, the framework, analyze our general practices and patterns and make any recommendations they may have. We are getting very close to completing this one as well. Um and so this one will be done in March. Next slide please. Um preliminary findings are that overtime budgets have not increased um with compensation and staffing increases. We have increased compensation for staff overtime um through union negotiations and cost of living increases um and we haven't necessarily increased our overtime budgets. Both P both PD and fire overtime trends do correlate um pretty well with the leave hours take over the last three years and staffing needs are key drivers for overtime usage. Um next slide please. So with this um there's two more slides. Um, I'll turn it to Frank first to overview this trends, provide information on this trend slide for police and then Jason will have we have a similar one for fire and then those are the last two slides we have this evening. Briefly, I'll just say that the top line um shows the leave hours taken over the past three years and the bottom red line shows the overtime hours that were taken.

Thank you. Um, for the police department, obviously um overtime is something that we're very sensitive to and that's how we've operated historically. So, we're fortunate in the sense that we are on a schedule where our officers are um maximizing their availability to be on the street while reducing the opportunity for overtime. So, we regulate our overtime use uh uh pretty strictly. Um there's a supervisor approval process uh that must uh take place before overtime is even authorized. We use uh overtime um uh based on community need. So if we're having, you know, certain crimes that are taking place, u we authorize overtime. Um, additionally, the leave that you see here that that encompasses officers that are out on injury, um, that includes vacation, um, other leaves, maternity leave, uh, etc. Uh as you can see here that even though we've had some uh peaks there with leave, our overtime hasn't really increased drastically. And that's because our supervisors um have the flexibility to um not have to fill a full shift. So for our officers that work 10our shifts, um there's overlap amongst those shifts. So if somebody's out sick, somebody's hurt, um what the officer, what the supervisors do is they fill only a block of it, maybe five hours of it. So that allows us to maintain um some control over the overtime. So we have flexibility in how that um how that functions in the department. Um and and again um um it is all based on need. It's not um just given out um without any oversight.

Does that include the um you know like Fourth of July? Yes. And I just want to clarify there's no you don't you don't see any numbers on this slide because we are finalizing the numbers with the consultant right now. So we didn't want to publicly um share any numbers that are slightly subject to change with our final report. So next slide please. Oh the only thing that I would add is that um there's not a lot of discretionary overtime that that's out there. It it's really based on need. If there's a crime trend, we may increase some officer staffing because a uh uh uptick in auto burglaries or something that's discretionary, but it's still based on community need. Everything is really revolving around staffing.

And we'll go to the last slide. Um and and Chief Skunover can provide some talk about this one.

Thanks, Matt. Uh good evening, mayor, city council, city staff. Jason Skunover serving as your fire chief. What you see here in this chart is um basically the totality of leave usage and then the corresponding overtime required to backfill for those positions. Um fairly consistent with the exception of the two spikes you see there in the summer of 2024 and then going into January 2025. What that indicates was a very active wildland fire season. So for example, you can see in January of 2025, we had multiple deployments to support um the palisades and eaten fires. So that's where you see the spike there. U when I saw this graph initially, you know, this is not was not a surprise to me. We also track our overtime very closely. um we know where you know every hour of overtime how it's used and we do track that internally and you know similar to the police department we do have you know multiple checks and balances and mechanisms to ensure that our supervisors when they're calling back overtime it's consistent with our with our overtime staffing policy and also similar the police department you know um today um basically all of the overtime that we incur is non-discretionary ary and required to staff our four engines, our ladder truck, our ambulance, and our battalion chief vehicle.

Thank you. Any question? So, I know we went through that quickly, but happy to answer any questions the council may have. Any questions from the my colleagues? I have a question. I I do have one. So I know that um when when officers and firefighters get injured, they're on work comp. So somebody if there's no one there, they have somebody else has to take their place, right? So that also affects the overtime.

Yeah, I think I think it impacts police and fire significantly for the fire department. it may be a little bit more impactful because if we've got a firefighter that's um on extended workers comp, so for example, a muscle skeletal injury before they can come back to full combat duty, sometimes they could be off for, you know, six, seven, eight months, even a year. Um that equates to about 2500 hours of overtime for a single firefighter, which, you know, put significant pressure on our overtime budget. Um, I did fail to note looking at this chart here, you know, just a re a reminder for council that during this active wildland season, um, and the spikes that you see here, the fire department brought back 1.7 million, which which essentially, um, uh, made the city whole for every hour of overtime that was that was spent. And in addition to that, um we do receive uh money from the state for the lease of our vehicles to deploy to those events along with the administrative fees for our staff to reconcile uh with the state to get the reimbursement. And that was about $600,000 during this time frame above and beyond what we brought back to um to make the city whole for the overtime. And that money goes back to the general fund. And we're we're happy to be able to generate a little bit of revenue for the city. Um, and you know that again goes back to the general fund. It's not earmarked for the fire department.

Okay. And mayor, I'd like to add one thing for us. When someone is council member Oh, thank you, Council Member. Uh, when we do have an officer that's injured, we also have the ability to pull staff from specialized units rather than fill it with overtime. So, uh, our traffic unit, for example, it's perfect, um, example. We have two officers there right now and that's because, you know, patrol is our core function. So rather than um uh fill those positions and then open over time for our patrol um we take from traffic and put them into our patrol services. So we we have that luxury where we can um move people around. Good.

Thank you, mayor. And that was my question because I remember you told us at the city council meeting that you do or we do get the reimbursement from u going to other states other fires. Thank you. Yes. Is there anyone we have a council? Thank you mayor. My question is I know we get reimbursed. is have you done statistics on the uh what we spent versus what we got and what's the difference?

Yeah, thank you for the question. So again, I'll go back to the example um of the you know the Palestades fire for example in January 2025. We spent about $450,000 in overtime to deploy those resources and then the state reimbursed us the $450,000 um you know a couple months later. It takes a while to reconcile and then and above and beyond that then they also uh reimburse us for it's about $170 an hour for example for a fire engine for the uh for the duration of that 14-day deployment. And then again, there's the administrative fees, which is basically the fees meant to offset the cost of the fire department or the city having to reconcile all the receipts and put the data into the state's um portal um where they validate the the expenditures and then reimburse us. So, it's um we make a little bit of money on every deployment. We do track that. We've got um I've got a list of all our deployments going back about seven or eight years in front of me. So, and then we we work closely with the finance department to make sure that, you know, our numbers match

um and that we're getting, you know, full cost recovery for those deployments. Okay. Uh I mean, when we do this, I think the council should have an info memo on what went out, what was spent, and what was what we got back. some something like that. It's probably, you know, that would because if you see that not knowing what you're looking at,

um I do know that the um the overtime reports that you receive um on a pretty consistent basis. We've worked with the finance department to capture what is the reimburseable piece. So councils can see clearly the delineation between overtime that's incurred for, you know, this non-reimburseable and the overtime that's incurred that is reimburseable. Okay. Well, we'll just ask director loose on that one. Okay.

My other question is uh have we made plans to increase the reimburseable percentage higher than 100%. Because other cities was mentioned that they get 110% or 100 is that have you made plans to to petition or ask whoever reimbursing us to make it 110% instead of 100%.

Yeah. So I think what you're referring to so the the for example like the money we get back from the apparatus deployment that's a rigid number that's not negotiable. The administrative fees is negotiable. That can range from, you know, as low as 5% to, I believe it can go all the way up to maybe 12 or 15%. But with that comes a significant amount of work for the administrative team. Um, it's basically the it's it's a way where the state says, "We're not going to do quite as much work here. You guys do most of the leg work and then we'll reimburse you once you're done." So, um, there's a balancing act there. I mean, we're we're definitely looking at that. We'd like to pursue it. Um, who's going to do the work? I mean, firefighters or finance?

Um, most of that work currently would fall on our senior analysts and we've only got one. So, we would have to work with her to make sure that she's got the capacity to, you know, for us to go to the state and increase our administrative fees. It's something we certainly are looking at and we're interested in it. Can you do a comparative analysis on if we if we hire another half a analyst would would it make or make sense for a 12 15% increase in the refundable amount before we tackle on this one.

Good evening council member Tro thank you for the question finance director for the city of Mitas. We have asked our consultant to put together what's called a federally eligible uh cost allocation plan and that is what we would present to them essentially saying these are our actual costs and we need to be reimbursed for them. So that would get us a better return on on on that and we expect to have that done because they actually have to do it on our annual costs. So we can't give that until the our um annual comprehensive financial report has been accepted. That was done on December 16th. So they've been working on it and we should see that in the next month or so.

Yeah. And so yeah, and then once we do that, we can submit that to the state and say this is what we want to be reimbured. So it's much closer to Yeah. Actually, so that's already in play. Great. I like to hear that. That that's good. That's another revenue generation that you know I like that. Thank you so much. Thank you both. Thank you. Thank you. Vice Mayor.

Yeah. With regards to uh the PE card uh rate that uh we didn't find out any irregularities. Uh but how about on the recommendation we put a little bit of uh tit on on on the manual, you know, uh make uh uh people who who uses SP cards a little bit more accountable by providing not only providing a clear uh manual on how uh you know the the how to use a P cards but also accountability should there be um how do you call this nonpolicy way it was used not necessarily uh you know misused but at the way it's used uh because one I believe you know now look it's costing us uh stuff resources to figure out what happened so if we have that uh not only a clear manual how to use pec cards but some accountability and I don't know how I'll defer to uh HR about that and the city managers office. I think it it will be um you know more effective use of PE cards on that.

Mayor that on PC card. Oh yes. I'm not but if you have something on

I was I was going to add to is that okay mayor I was going to add to vice vice mayor's uh opinion comment. I think it should be part of their performance review. you know, you know, are they following this this PECARD process that you guys are going to implement fairly soon after the assessment? You know, there's got to be like vice mayor said, accountability and you can only do accountability through performance review and that would be something for the executive team to look into.

Yeah. So, u thank you for the comments and the questions. I think that it's uh just because it might not be up there doesn't mean that it's not a discussion point or something that we're moving towards. This is a summary. It's not the complete report. These are the key uh findings and the key recommendations when it comes to making sure that we're doing things properly. Um the consultant recognized language in the existing manual that could be interpreted different ways. So step one is clarifying the language. Step two is teaching people properly. When I first became a city employee, um the purchasing agent at the time that was in charge of the pecards met with you in person, pulled out this binder, spent 45 minutes to an hour with you going every word in this policy manual. As a practice over time, we got away from that as a city. We need to re we need to reborn some new way of making sure people know how to use it properly. The next step is going to be accountability and that can come in different types of fashion. It could be a situation where uh we have uh existing um process written reprimands, verbal reprimands, all these different types of things. Uh in the pecard world, one of the things that I envision is that um you get trained properly. If there's a misuse, you're it's going to be documented. If there's another misuse, you're just losing your card because we're not going to risk

uh that, right? That's that's an option. and that's something that we're going to explore building into it. I don't necessarily think that the review of the use of the pecards should wait for a personnel review. That's annual. So, um what should be happening is when a pec card's used, whoever the direct supervisor that's responsible for the um verification and the final approvals, they need to be doing that more timely and it's more real information. And if they have to deal with an employee because they're not using it properly, then we could put that in the par. But we shouldn't be waiting until that performance repraisal to to recognize the problem.

And I think that there's more discussion for us to have inside between finance and and HR what that process looks like. But um that's the long answer to the vice mayor's statement, which is yes, we are looking at that. uh what I mean by part of the performance review is also a good way to look at the statistics on which department are having a problem and then in terms of the number of issues with that department then you can see what's wrong I mean then you can gauge what you need to do correct you guys know that right I don't mean to say you have to wait one year you have to act on it because those are funds absolutely

yeah I I think we're all in alignment Oh, okay. Thanks. Thank you, Mayor. Yes, mayor. It's about overtime. So, yes,

I wanted to uh touch on the P card. So, I re I recall there was a time when I worked at at an agency that when we had the P cards, we would every week we would have to say what we used it for. So, I don't know if that's something you want to implement, but it'll be a lot easier to keep track, but just want to say that. Yeah, I appreciate that comment. One of the challenges that was recognized in this uh study is that the system that we use um when the person enters it for that pay period, it's only there for a 30-day window. So, if the supervisor was out sick, on vacation, something happened, whatever reason they didn't get to it, by the time they logged in, if it was past that 30-day window, the purchases were gone. So, unless you're really familiar with the advanced features of that system, you would just assume there was no purchases. And that was a huge problem in this. And so we have to have better practices and making sure that there's more timely approvals. That's that alone would have cleaned up probably everything that we saw um happen. And so it's not just on the employees. Honestly, it's on the it's on us as as um managers. It's on us as department heads to be honest with you. And we're going to be better at it moving forward.

Okay. That's good because Yeah. When when I saw this, I go, "Well, we were told something else, so now at least you got now we have the full story." Okay. Okay. Good. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Oh, before the over time, just out of curiosity and uh being trivial about it, what does P means in P cards? I'm glad you asked because I have no idea. If it's a C card, then I know it's a credit card. Pard means purchase card. Purchase card. To us, it's a credit card. Purchase card. Okay, thank you for the question. All right. I've been hearing pe cards and I I'm shying away from I'm on the peard. Can I go before you?

Yes, please. Yes. So, who gets the PE card?

I'm going to let I'll give you the short answer and then if LSE wants to expand on it, then she can. It's the people that need to make purchases on a whim anytime because their role requires it. Um, so somebody that may need to maybe it's somebody in public works that's responsible for needing to make um parts purchases spur of the moment because they're out on a job or maybe in the police department for example it's our armors who need to buy you know parts because they're repairing firearms or something like that. So, we identify a need and every single person that has a BC PC card at some point the manager has demonstrated a need and there's a form that they fill out that says, "Hey, this person needs a PC card. These are the spending limits that we need for them and here's the reason." And then it's vetted through finance um and then they're issued. Does that satisfy your question or do you need more information?

Followup. Okay. So, does that person has to be a regular full-time employee or a temporary uh employees can do that too? Have that too? No temporary employees have purchase cards. Okay.

So, it has to be a regular full-time employee. And I'm going to actually give just a little it's not on a whim whim. They need it's for the purposes for something for the city, but we are re looking at mechanisms so we can reduce the number of PE cards. So we've are setting up accounts with uh organizations like Home Depot, uh Granger, Amazon, lots of things take uh time to get into place and then as we roll them out, the people use those PE cards will no longer need those PE cards. So we will retrieve them. We have a lot of um um Home Depot purchasing. Once again, the intention is to have people have the ability our our staff who are um were authorized to do those purchases, go walk into a Home Depot, get authorized to do the purchase, and they will not need a PEC card.

So, that's that's one of the big things that we have and and reduce limits. Reduce reduce no reduce the number of cards. Not just reducing the limits, but reducing the number of cards is our goal. Yeah, we do set limits. Oh, we absolutely we set both monthly limits and daily limits. Okay. Thank you, Mayor. I just piggybacking on the back and forth discussion. So, so we have limits for PE cards, right? Now that but on the purchase itself there's none.

There is. So some have some have single purchase amounts that they cannot go beyond and then also some cards have is it daily amounts or total amounts on the card. It is also daily amounts and then you can't buy you're also limited by the type of thing you're buying. Can't buy alcohol for example. Oh darn it. I know. Darn it. Darn it. Darn it. Should it should be No, that that policy has been in place for a long time. So, there's certain things you can't buy. And so, I was concerned about that when you guys said there's there's a limit. Okay. What about the purchase?

And there are other things that you can't buy simply because a merchant code comes up and it gets stopped at the it gets stopped at the register. Okay. And honestly, not to belabor the point, but you see up there split charges. That's an example of the limits working. employee didn't necessarily follow the best procedure because they could have called a supervisor and said, "Hey, I really need to buy this product that's more than my limit. They were all legitimate needs." Um, and so that could be an education thing. Okay. So, yeah, sounds good. We're on the right track. Thank you so much. Yes, we are. Okay. Overtime, sir. It's okay. Okay. Over time. Over time.

Okay. First of all, I want to thank William. you know, he opened my eyes on overtime and it uh made me read read my emails often, you know, cuz I was looking at those reports over the months and you know, silently uh you know trying to understand uh what's going on with overtime and uh there's only two things about uh overtime on my thoughts and I think I expressed this uh during uh my briefings. One is it's either there's an issue, the other one is it's just the way it is, right? What I hope to find out is it's just the way it is so that uh we can develop policy uh to uh address uh the issue and not the other way around. So I I heard both chiefs uh uh both fire and and police. I I I do understand and from the brief uh presentation that they they made I I think I understand the difference with regards to the police department is discretionary. It's need based and uh with regards to the fire and please correct me if I misunderstood it. It's about uh staffing and nondiscretionary right that's what I heard. So to me if that's the reason for fire particularly fire then it may be a policy solution right uh I understand that uh we have uh agreements with other departments that we help if there's major fire and that probably explains those hikes the red hikes on on the graph uh but I also uh notice uh during those uh months that we receive overtime reports that it's uniform yes there's a a jump but it's uniform over the months right and uh

it's coupled by things that we cannot control people who are in work comp people who exercises sick sick leave and other uh you know statutory way to to be absent but the bottom line is there is it generates overtime you know my math may be off but at least in fire what I see is it's about 15 to 20% % of the base pay is what we have uh in a uniform uh overtime. All right. So I understand some uh the the the scheduling of fire is different. I I haven't heard uh any direct uh information yet that it's about that uh uh peculiar scheduling and shift schedules of fire that is causing overtime right coupled with the other factors. So if that's the case what can we do to solve it? uh you know we one again my thoughts I think I expressed this on the briefing one is to see if we send people uh out of uh the city to uh have help or collaborate with firefighting and they they come up they came they comes back they come back injured then I don't know if there is a way to recoup that from the you know from the the group that that we participate in that's one. Number two is if it's staffing, uh then maybe we need some policy changes on staffing. I don't know if that's statutory. I I'm not uh aware if there is a required staffing for a cert uh for firefighters. But if it is and we cannot touch it,

there's only one to solve that. is to reduce the force you know and and here's what again this is just my thing very preliminary we have four stations uh in Milpas and the comparable uh city that we are in population wise and size-wise is Certino Certino has three fire stations that serves the whole area almost uh similar geographically and population If it is a policy change that's needed, it's not and it's not about uh the culture or or the the the way that uh fires look at uh the opportunity or the need for overtime then I think the solution is to shave off one uh fire fire station and that would probably solve uh the problem. If we can solve it other way that again it's very preliminary. I'm not saying that we should do it, but uh as I see the difference between fire and police without repeating myself, it's nondiscretionary and a stopping issue. The only solution to that is a policy change.

So, I I'll respond first. I'm not going to respond totally on on response of of the fire chief, but um the fire the police department and the fire department are only using overtime because of the staffing. The difference is that in the police department, the way their schedules are played out, the way that they're laid out, they're not forced to bring somebody in on overtime every time somebody's absent. And so it it's it's not necessarily a fair comparison when you have a police officer working 10-hour shift and um you have overlap on each side of that shift because dayshift overlap swings swings overlaps mids and mids overlaps days. You're reducing that 10-hour window to something even smaller, right? And so it's it's not a fair comparison to to to do that because your firefighters are scheduled 48 hour shifts. So, if somebody's out for 48 hours, you're also backfilling on overtime for 48 hours. Um, I just wanted to clarify that it's not that the police department's using overtime in a discretionary manner. It's not the case and it's mostly non-discretionary FLSA and workers comp. Um, so I just want to make sure we we're clear on that point.

It's crystal. I didn't compare uh overtime uh rate uh with police and fire based on schedule. What I said is it's uh the peculiarity of firefighters shift schedules that probably is uh generating this overtime. Correct. Right. That's that's that's what I I I said I'm not I understand that's why I said to uh Chief Morales it's base need and somewhat discretionary because as he said right if everything is calm during the night there's two absences maybe the the the the supervisor will just put two just to cover for the night everything is fine or we flex in the fire department you can't flex a shift so we can have come in early

make a comparison that's why I focus on fire and I reiterated it may be a a policy issue that can be addressed by a policy issue. I did not make any comparison.

I I misunderstood the nondiscretionary comment, so we're good there. The other thing that the only other comment I would I would mention about when we're comparing agencies um based on population alone may not always be the fairest assessment because Certino is predominantly um uh there's a lot of residences in Certino and there's not a lot of high structures in Certino, right? So when you're going to go fight a fire in uh a Miss Suite's hotel or a touring apartment complex, it's a whole different contingent of fire personnel and apparatus that you need. Um but I'll pass it over to the fire chief to answer any of the specific questions.

Okay, before the chief, uh I did not compare compertino because it's apple to apple. It's an example, right? Don't don't get me wrong. when when I I I I I put examples is just an analogy so we get you know my my point that that's all

I'm not comparing the cops to the firefighter I'm not comparing to Dorsy it's just an example to emphasize a point and what I'm saying is it may be a policy change because we cannot control it otherwise that that's why I I suggested maybe it's a reduction that is the uh solution other than factchecking every people who get sick or who who calls in sick and things like that because that's statutory. So it's about probably my focus is to to find out and I'm not saying it's the solution is to see if a policy change can alleviate what we are experiencing. Don't get me wrong, I love you all, right? And I'm not it's that I am we're trying to brainstorm through policy changes what we can do to address what we can what we're seeing or feeling as as an issue.

Yeah. I don't feel like it's an attack. I feel like it's a healthy discussion. So, if I'm coming off like that, I I don't mean to. I think that it's an important discussion point so we can completely understand the situation and the potential solutions. Yeah, we're good. Before you chief

before you so this is to address my colleagues here. You know sometimes you train the army you trained the soldiers three years just so that they are ready for one time to go out there and fight. So I I I'm not taking sides and I don't love police more than fire or fire more than police.

I love you all. I love you all equally. Okay. But on Saturday, there was a fire right next to my house and three minutes. It took three minutes. The luckily the fire station is right next door to it too. They were able to save two babies and instead of having the upper level and the below one damaged to they they minimize it to just two units. One unit is completely burned and the other unit is the apartment.

So that's what I'm trying to say. Yes, they they work the whole year. Doesn't mean that there's fire every day. No, if there is one fire, you don't know how much, right? People appreciate that. It's that quick response time. I appreciate the quick response. I'm so proud of her. 2.5 minutes response time anywhere. But that's not the issue. The issue, you want to shut down one station.

No, no, no. Again, here's here's my problems. Either people uh don't know what I'm talking about or it fails to understand. My point is we are having structural deficit and this overtime is one factor or contributo to it. We're trying to brainstorm it to see if this can be something that we can work on. I do not question the integrity of the police. I do not question how fast and effective the firefighter are. We are in a budget discussion which this overtime NP card came about because it's part of an expense. Let's just get that clear so that you don't misconcept what I'm trying to say. Okay. Okay.

Right. I don't question. I'll let I'll tell you firefighter twice that I I I I I personally experienced firefighter. My wife choke in great mall. You can uh check that on records. They're there in one and a half minute. So I don't question that. I don't. We are discussing about budget. It's just seems to be I mean it it just so happened that overtime and Pard talks about money and I think it's just timely to talk about policy. That's all. Okay. That's all. All right. And one more time another year my mother you responded and and you save her. So that's not the question.

Okay. So I think we said enough so that they all all these um head department heads know exactly what to do to come back to implement what your request or our request are.

But I love this kind of meeting uh where today I our council member Cher was asking to have 110% reimbured from firefighter. This is not a place to make money. You help each other out. Imagine if we have a fire in our city and people would come in or another city come in and say we're going to charge you 110 reimbursement rate. We are going to have that same question saying what the hell is going on with that city? Right. True. True. In some sense, right? Yeah. Is it are you

I I'm fine. Again, this is a preliminary discussion. We will have a lot of budget session, right? And you know, if you want to reserve uh responses to my preliminary thoughts, then great. This is not just the night. We will have more nights to discuss all about this. Well, we were kind of hoping to get overtime out of the way so we can have more productive conversations later. Oh, lucky you. You can claim overtime us here. We're free. Yeah. Um, sorry. Do you have other items? is is well is there question outstanding questions that the fire chief can answer if not I have another comment about it

right so all it's up to the fire chief I'm saying is is this a policy policy issue that that I think that's the question I have because you said you know it's non-discretionary and it's about scheduling

yeah it's a good conversation so I'm glad we're having it here this evening um I'd like to provide a little bit of clarity because it it is fairly complex when you look at the firefighter our scheduling in comparison to other departments in the city. So, I'm happy to to try to provide some additional clarity to help council, you know, makes make um um informed decisions in the future. So, when it comes to the overtime and and I referenced it earlier, overtime is not a mystery for the fire department. We track our overtime very diligently and the the the manner in which we utilize overtime today is actually a fiscally was a fiscally strategic decision that's been made in the past by previous councils when we've had these same conversations. And what I mean by that is um the the the staffing model that we have now that includes um two additional floater firefighter positions per shift um gives us flexibility but more importantly reduces our overtime. And it's it's a balancing act that we you know that we take very seriously but it's it's cheaper than the options um than the other options that are out there. You know, assuming moving forward that we maintain the same level of service and we maintain the same minimum staffing numbers and staff all four of our stations. You know, there are there are mechanisms to reduce overtime significantly, but they, you know, they require the additional investment of fully board fully encumbered FTEES and the recurring cost of that long term. So we we've got this balancing act where we we've really tried to reduce our overtime to the lowest extent we can by utilizing these additional floater firefighters and that's been in place for about eight years now. And that's not uncommon in Cal California. Um many fire departments utilize the same type of staffing model to reduce their overtime. But there's

also several departments and there's some here in the Bay Area that they in order to reduce their overtime significantly or excuse me um that have higher overtime by not having floater firefighters at all. So you know without crunching the the numbers um on a calculator right now if we didn't have that floater pool that it helps reduce the overtime today you know the overtime would probably be close to a million dollars more than it is a year now. So really it is a fiscally strategic decision um and in how we use it right now. Um and it's not inconsistent with our neighboring agencies. And I appreciate the um the comparison to Certino um because it is a life-sized city populationwise. But one thing to note is the city of Certino is not a full service city. They actually contract out to the Santa Clair County Fire Department. So that allows them to operate um with with with a little bit less resources in this city because they're part of a bigger organization. There's about 15 staff stations uh in the Santa Clara County Fire Department. So they've got no boundaries. If there's a structure fire in Certino, there's no no mutual aid required. Um there's no picking up the phone and asking their, you know, your neighbor agency if they can come and respond. They're part of a a larger fire department. They're one fire department. Um, I would I would venture to say that if Certino was a full-ervice city that didn't have the opportunity to contract out for services, they would be hard to serve that city with three fire stations. Um, I would also add that um, back in 2019, the fire department um, did what's called a standards of coverage um, report. It was conducted by Citygate. And the the way we got to the current staffing of 19 firefighters a day was based on recommendations in that report

which really looked at the uh the risk profile in the city uh the population. And what they found was um we needed 19 firefighters to accomplish what they refer to as as an effective response force. And what that means is in order to handle a regular single family dwelling structure fire, you needed to assemble 19 firefighters on scene in 10 minutes. Um, and at that time we had 16 firefighters on duty a day. This was back in 2019. So that was that was really part of the um the rationale for adding the additional staffing we've added since that time. They also noted in the report um and I'll quote them, "Cygate is concerned about the overall staffing per day and the department's ability to respond with more quote unquote weight of attack and to also respond different differently to single patient EMS incidents. Uh their recommendation was to add a fourth firefighter per day to the ladder truck and to uh place two firefighter paramedics on an ambulance that can handle low clinical acuity patients and augment the uh the fire engines in the ladder truck on a structure fire. Um so that's that's kind of the you know the 19 firefighters on that we have a a day right now. Uh it wasn't an arbitrary number. We use that data to make that decision and and we're very grateful for the support we got from council to hire those additional firefighters. Um, you know, certainly council sets the priorities and sets the service levels for the city. When it comes to public safety, um, it's important to note that, you know, in a city that's only got four fire stations, um, it would be difficult to eliminate one of those. And regardless of the call volume from each station, you know, those four fire stations are strategically located, but more importantly, they help us achieve that 19 firefighters per day. If we didn't have a station in service, that

brings us to a lower level. we know we can no longer meet that recommendation um to to assemble an effective response force and now we're relying on mutual aid from other cities who may or may not be available for incidents like the incident that uh council member Lynn referred to on Saturday where we had um structure fire in a multif family dwelling apartment building with multiple rescues that were conducted by by the police department fire department. It took all 19 firefighters that were on duty that day along with the police department to affect those rescues and simultaneously um suppress the fire, complete ventilation and search the rest of the buildings and evacuate residents. Okay. I believe I I do really but uh you know uh at least our role my role is uh to balance things right. uh who does not want uh uh uh fully staffed uh firefighters who can respond uh effectively and quickly to an end emergency. Uh but part of uh my my balance is uh the budget, right? Even if we want the best and double uh you know uh you know firefighters we have or police officer we have if we cannot afford it. So what I'm trying to to see is hopefully there is a compromise in between uh something that uh you know preserve what we have in consideration of what we have financially because even if we dream of everything uh special in Lupas if we cannot afford it look at our projection there's about 16 million five years and I fully trust uh you know the leadership of the city to to address that but What happens if it's hard and we can't even if we have want the the

best of everything if we can't afford it then there there has to be you know some sort of delivery sacrifice that we have to meet. That's why we're airing all of these good conversations so we can see if there's a meeting point of all of these concerns preserving what we have and uh working on what we truly have uh financially. that that that's really uh the the point that I'm trying to drive at not anyone uh not questioning anyone's uh integrity as we work good for the city because your intentions our intentions are the same make sure that the city goes forward safe and thing it's just that how we deliver it

right I think that's the challenge right for for all of us like you said we we all want the best for the city of Midas you guys know me growing up here how important the city is to And when we start talking about cuts, regardless of what department is, we're talking about which services is it that we can live without based on how many dollars we have. Um I will I will say and I don't think council feels this way. I'm not accusing council of feeling this way, but we're not sitting on our hands over this issue. Uh we're looking at it from a lot of different lenses. One of those lenses in both public safety departments, and I would say in a lot of departments, even beyond public safety, is that workers comp is a huge driver in overtime in our departments. It's a huge problem and it's a huge expense for the city and in partnership with human resources and the finance division. There's a few things happening with the public safety department specifically. It's a workers comp overall city workers comp process uh assessment. How do we build in efficiencies? How do we work better within the very complicated and challenging environment of workers comp in the state of California? So, that's happening because if we can get that right, we're going to reduce overtime in both departments. And the other part of it is that we recently onboarded a service to help us streamline care for the injured employees to get them back sooner. Um, huge kudos to HR and finance and also our city attorney's office in in bringing that here. Um, that program currently is not costing the city anything because we're using risk management dollars through one of our pools. So there's a lot of work going into this. We might not realize the benefits of those pro programs overnight. But even with the implementation of ready rebound, that's the third party service. We're already seeing quicker care for some of the officers, some of the employees, some of the firefighters that um that are injured on duty. So we're very hopeful and I think that that's a huge huge uh reduction to overtime in the fire department. Losing a firefighter for a

year cost us $250,000. If we can get that firefighter back in 6 months, we just saved a lot of money. So, there's a lot of different fronts that we're trying to attack this problem from. I I really feel that the workman's comp system is broken. It needs to be fixed. I think that's one of the that's one of the bigger big problems. Can you expand on floater firefighters? I'm not familiar with that.

Thank you, mayor. So, um, we kind of refer to them as a relief pool. So, currently each, um, each shift, A, B, and C shift, has 21 firefighters assigned to the shift. Our minimum staffing is 19. What that allows us to do is utilize the relief pool and plug them plug them into uh shifts that would otherwise be overtime when a firefighter is off on vacation, workers comp, or sick leave. So, just like a substitute teacher then, something like Okay. Okay. Yes. All right, that's good. Cost more. Okay, great. Thank you. Thank you for that clarification.

Okay. Um, anything else that staff wants to Not unless council has more questions. Okay. Does anybody have any more questions? You want to do it all over again? Okay. I think that's that's it. That's the end of our meeting. And this is all information only. And uh thank you everyone for a a lively discussion and um I know that staff has been working really hard to come up with some great ideas and solutions. Thank you. All right, this meeting is adjourned. Thank you everyone. Good night.