Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

call meeting to order. Uh, welcome to the city of Mel Peters planning commission meeting on March 25th, 2026. I'd like to read the public comment instructions. Um, oral public comments may only be provided live during the planning commission meeting in person. All comments provided shall be limited to 3 minutes or less as determined by the chair. All public members will be limited to one comment per agenda item and one comment for non-aggenda items. Members of the public may submit written comments by mail to planning department alpis.gov. At this point, uh, I'd like to, uh, have the pledge of allegiance. Uh, M. Commissioner Castilla will lead us. Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you. You might have noticed the pledge of allegiance was on the screen, so you could actually make use of it if you if you needed to. At this point, uh, like to start with the roll call. So, uh, Miss Marina, you want to please take the roll call? Yes. Thank you, chair. Good evening, chair and planning commissioners and staff. I'll take attendance starting with Commissioner Castillo

here. Thank you. Commissioner Brown is absent this evening. Commissioner Culkins here. Thank you. Commissioner Awasi is absent this evening. Commissioner Galong present. Thank you. Commissioner um I'm sorry. Vice Chair Kong is absent this evening. Chair Gupta here. Thank you. Thank you. May I request now attorney to ask questions about conflict of interest declaration. Thank you chair. I ask the chair and each member of the Milas plan commission whether he or she has any financial or personal conflict of interest related to any of the items on tonight's agenda.

Commissioner Castillo none. Commissioner Culkins none. Commissioner Galong none. Chair Gupta none. Thank you. I further ask the chair and each member of the milpas plan commission to please disclose any campaign contributions of $100 or more received within the last 12 months remaining the parties entering into contracts with the city on tonight's agenda or contributions received from development project applicants for development projects on tonight's agenda. Commissioner Castillo none. Commissioner Kulkins none. Commissioner Golong none. Chair Gupta none. Thank you.

Of the minutes for today, March 25th, 2026. I'd like to make a motion to approve the agenda for March 25, 2026. Is there a second? Second. So the mayors are approved. Want to We need a vote. Chair. Oh, we need a move. Yeah, let's take a vote, please. Commissioner Castillo, I. Commissioner Culkins, I. Commissioner Golong, I. Chair Gupta. Hi. Thank you.

Next item is approval of the minutes for November 19th, 2025 and February 11, 2026. I'll make a motion to approve the minutes for November 19th, 2025 and February 11th, 2026. Is there a second? A second. Okay, let's take a vote for the approval of the minutes, please. Um, Chair Gupta, may we do them separately because um, Commissioner Alana, I mean, I'm sorry, Commissioner Castillo wasn't present at um in November.

Okay. She is allowed just to clarify and and we did have a clarifying amendment to the bylaws as well on this. Um commissioners can approve meeting minutes if they have sufficient information to do so. All right. In that case, let's do it together. Let's take a vote. I November 19, I was not here. Can I can I Yes. So that was um uh commissioners can approve meeting minutes even if they were not present at the meeting. Commissioners only need sufficient information to cast a vote in order to vote uh for or against any motion. Thank you.

And yes, we can procedurally do two sets of minutes in one motion. This please go ahead with the vote. So I have a motion by uh Commissioner Caulkins, a second by Commissioner Castillo. Now the vote. Commissioner Castillo I. Commissioner Kulkins I. Commissioner Golong. Hi. And Chair Gupta. Hi.

Thank you. Uh, attorney has has a comment or No, I just wanted to say the microphone. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Um, Lillian, you have any uh No announcements. Thank you, chair.

Thank you. We we do have one announcement from the the secretary. Um, I just wanted to remind our planning commissioners that there is a commissioner recognition event. I believe it's on uh the 16th of April.

of April. Yes. At 6:00 p.m. in the Militus Community Center. and invitees are those who served in year 2025. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Marina.

Uh let's move on to public forum. Uh members of the public are invited to speak on any item that does not appear on today's agenda. Comments will be limited to 3 minutes or less at the chair's discretion. When called to speak, you're encouraged to state your name for the record. At an item not listed on the agenda, no action can be taken. However, the planning commission may instruct the staff to place the item on future meet agenda. Now, I'd like to invite me public to address the commission with Medina. Are there any members of the public who wish to speak? We have no speaker cards this evening, chair.

Thank you. that case we move on to public hearing. Uh first item on that is capital improvement program CIP general plan conformity finding. I'd like to now request Mr. Lehim, public works engineering division manager to make a presentation.

Thank you. Uh good evening chair commissioners. Liha public work division manager overseeing the design constructions sections and administering the city capital improvement program. The purpose of tonight's presentation is for the planning commission to review the proposed 2027 2031 capital improvement programs and adopt the resolution finding the program is in conformant with the adopt general plans. Next slide please. Tonight agenda I will start off with an overview of the proposed capital improvement program. Then we we will take a look at the general plan conformance and conclude with the recommendations. Next slide please. First we will briefly go over the this year capital improvement program with the calendars and the process. staff presented the proposed capital improvement programs to the city council on February 24 and received their feedback. Tonight I will demonstrate how the proposed CIP is in conformant with the city general plans and next month we will present the projects associated with the park and recreations improvement within the CIP to park recreations and cultural resource commissions and then staff will return back to the city council in May 5th for the city council consideration and the adoption of the five-year programs. Next slide please. Before diving into the budget discussions and the analysis, here are an overview of what the capital improvement program is. The program is a comprehensive five years budgeting and planning tool for the infrastructures need that is update annually. The document identifies city priority capital projects for the new infrastructures as well as the sorry to interrupt you. Um the slide

presentations aren't coming up on our screens properly. No problem. They do appear they do appear in back of you though if you want to follow along.

So the the document identified the city priority capital projects for new infrastructures as well as the replacements and repair of the existing infrastructures. It outlined the improvements associated expenditures funding sources and the anticipate project schedule. The document is uh organized into S category that include the community, park, street, water, sewer and storm drain improvements. Only the funding request in the first year of the program are funded which will be effective starting July 1st. The project in the subsequent four year may be partially funded or not funded at all based on the funding resources. Next slide please. Here are the city council seven budget priority which align with the elements of the general plan. The CIP is in conformant with this priority which are the community wellness and open space, economic development and job growth, environments, governments and administrations, neighborhoods and housing, public safety, transportations and transit. Next slide please. During the budgeting process, funding requests for both existing and new projects are reviewed and prioritized by engineerings and finance department. Each request is evaluated based on the council priority, legal mandate, health and safety need, grant eligibility and many other key factor as listed on this slide. One is prioritize. The requests are reviewed by with the city manager's office before final recommendation are present to the city council for approval. Next slide, please.

The five-year capital improvement program that is brought forward tonight consists of 138 project in the amount of $26 millions. This slide include the breakdown of the project cost and the correspondent number of the project in each category. The total cost of the city infrastructure improvement without the funding source in the last four year of the budget is estimated at 22.6 million. The cost is mainly associated with the improvement backlog in the community park and street category. Next slide please. This slide summarize the proposed funding for each f each category in fiscal year 2627 which the funding will be available starting July 1st. staff is recommending 30 funding 39 projects for an estimated amount of 35.7 millions. I will present these 39 project in the next few slide. Next slide please. Here are the eight project proposed to be fund in 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 the Sakra buildings on call facility and maintenance and repair services and the improvement to the HVAC system at Mipira Sport Center fire station number three and the senior center. The only new project recommended under this category is the implementation of real-time monitoring center for the police department allowing them to use live data and technology to support the officer and investigations in real time. Next slide please. Here are the five project recommend to be fund in park category in the amount of 12.3 millions. The design of the metro tango subd district park is expect

to complete early next year. The funding request is for the constructions and anticipate to start in 2028 pending the completion of the sip piras boulevard extension projects. Two new project are being recommended. The first one is the pathway improvement at various park to enhance the access accessibility and comply with the ADA standards. The next project is for the the Lano Manong soccer field artificial turf replacement. This project is to replace the existing natural grass at the Lano Manong Park with artificial turf to support the year round use and maintain the field quality. Next slide please. Here are the 12 project recommend to be fund in street category. Majority of these project are for the annual maintenance and improvement to the city street infrastructures. There are two project that I would like to highlight. The first one is the exip traffic safety improvements. The project provide for the installation of the retroreflective back plate and leading pedestrian interval at all 72 city owned traffic signal locations. The project is funded by a $2 million federal grant which from local highway safety improvement program with the local match of 230,000 which is funded by gas tab. The next new project is for the roadway preservation program which helped to maintain and improve the city overall PCI rating of 70 or highers. The program will be used cost effective treatment like slurry seal or cape seal to extend the payment life and prevents further deteriorations. This treatment also help reduce long-term cost and avoid street from falling into poor conditions which would require much more expensive repairs. Next slide please. Here are the six project underwater

category in the amount of 3.4 millions. Majority of this funding is for the assessment of the city water infrastructures and improvement of the fire flow capacity for the community as identified in the adopt water master plan. Next slide please. The first table includes six sewer projects being recommended in the amount of 6.6 million. Approximately 70% of the funding is for the city contribution to the rehabilitation projects at the San Jose Westwater facility. Other project are for the inspections of the city pipeline and improvements of the critical sewer line as identified in the adopt sewer master plan. The second table include two projects under storm category. One of these is a new project that focus on implementing citywide green infrastructures storm water improvement projects that is required by the new state mandate to reduce storm water pollutants, control runup and improve the local water quality. Next slide please. Now we will review how certain projects in the CIP conform with the city general plan. Next slide please. The city general plan identify the community visions for the futures and provide the frameworks that will guide decisions on city growth, developments and conservations of open space and resources in the manner that is consistent with the quality life desired by the city residents and business. In accordance with the California government code section 65401, the planning commission is required to review the proposed CIP and report to the city council on on it conformity with the city of Midas adopt general plans 2024 or part thereof.

As part of this process, staff review each project to ensure that it does not undermine the planning framework established in the general plan. Our review found that majority of the CIP projects will directly advance the goal and the policy are specified in the general plans whereas other project will focus on essential infrastructure improvements or operational need. Overall in accordance with the government code staff had determined that the proposed CIP is inconsistent with the general plan and we further it go policy and implementation strategy. In the next few slide, we will highlight the applicable general plan elements and identify key projects that support the goal and policy of those elements. Additional detail are included in the staff report. Next slide please. Let begin with the land use elements. Staff found that several project on the CIP support the goal and the policy of these elements. That's include the innovation district park and trail master plan skateway main street specific plan impact fee study and sense of place plan comprehensive zoning on and the metro specific plan and the metro impact fee. These projects support update to the city zoning on help implement the visions of the main street specific plan. Overall they guideline use planning and support the development of the vibrant mixeduse community along the main street corridor. Next slide please. This slide include the list of the project that support the circulations elements. It include the annual sidewalk repair program, bicycle improvement projects, SS4 improvements, street light signage, traffic signal improvements. This project improve the accessibility and safety of the bicyclist and pedestrian of all ability by constructing and improving

infrastructure such as sidewalk repair, installing striping and signage which align with the circulation element goal and policy. Next slide please. Additional project that support the circulations elements are included in this table. For example, the Lano Manong pedestrian bridge, Sami Piras Boulevard extensions, street resurfacing project and roadway preservations program. This project focus on constructing and maintain the city transportation infrastructure to enhance mobility, safety and connectivity. Next slide, please. The following are the list of the project that further the goal and the policy for the community design elements. The construction of the pedestrian bridge and vehicle bridge and various park renovation and improvements such as metro tango subd district park senate park playground renovation projects and the dano manong park. This project improve the pedestrian and bicycle mobility between the transit area, school, park and the and the residential neighborhood and provide a safe, comfortable and enjoyable passive and active recreation opportunity for parks for the community. Next slide please. Other project that also support the community design elements include Kalas medium beautifification projects, city hall fountains and landscape renovations gateway main street impact fee and sense of place and the gateway signing projects. This project enhance the visual characters of the city and strengthen the community identity. Next slide please. These are the list of the project that contribute to achieving the goal and the actions of the economic development

elements. The project like metro linear trails, sipas boulevard road extensions, annual sidewalk repair program and the bicycle improvements help improving cyborg trail and road network to ensure adequate and convenient access to commercial and employment area which align with the general plan. Additionally, there are several project within the main street area that helps supporting the revitalizations along Main Street as specified in the general plans. Those project include the main street utility undergrounding, main street light projects and the main street gateway specific plan updates impact free study and the sense of place plan. Next slide please. Next slide. Um this one is for the conservation and sustainability elements. Projects such as the Montego pedestrian overcrossing and the bicycle improvement projects promote alternative transportation options which help reduce vehicle mile travel and lower greenhouse gas emissions. Other initiatives support sustainability include climate action plan, community and senior center energy resilient projects, common way solar street light pilot programs. Next slide please. The CIP also includes several project that support the utility and community service elements in water category. The projects such as Santa Clara Valley Water District Water Reservoir and pump stations well upgrade and the Pine Boot well facility rehabilitated rehabilitation projects help ensure the city maintain an adequate reliable and safe water supply for existing and future developments by pursuing additional water supply sources and maintain existing groundwater. Another

project include aging water system and seismic improvement. Demcy road water line replacement minor water projects will help replacing aging water infrastructures to ensure safe drinking water system for the community. The CIP also include water conservation program such as water leak detections, pipeline and facility condition assessment which help reduce water loss and improve system efficiency. Next slide please. Here are a few other project under the storm and sewer category that contribute to the goals of these elements. The projects such as the storm drains system rehabilitation projects on call storm maintenance repair technology drive utility and road improvements and the main street flood study will help to support the maintenance and improvement of the city storm drain system. Other project in sewer category that include the sewer pump station rehabilitations, minor sewer projects, sanitary sewer CCTV inspections and pipeline improvement phase one and two and the force main a projects will help maintain the existing sewer main extend the lifespan of the system and ensure safe and reliable sewer system for the city. Next slide please. Here are the projects that contribute to the goal of the safety element under various CIP category. Projects such as fire stations improvements, fire station number one modular building and the public safety disaster plan update and support the repair and renovation of the fire station facility and help ensure that the city is prepared to respond emergency situations. Additionally, several project under the

water category including the fireflow connect fireflow interconnections interconnections and pipeline improvement phase one and two. We upside the water main in accordance with the adopt water master plan to ensure adequate water supply for the fire suppression throughout the city. Other infrastructure project including the city bridge improvements, street pavement restriping, street resurfacing project and the M main street flat study help maintain the city road and bridge, improve traffic safety and reduce flat risk to protect the community. Next slide please. The last element that we are reviewing is the project that contribute to the goal and actions of the park recreations and open space elements. There are several project in CIP that help develop and maintain the highquality city park and recreation system to serve the community. Those project include metro tango subd district park, senate park playground renovation projects, sand wooden renovations and the bleacher replacements and ADA improvements. Additionally, the project like the Lano Manong pedestrian bridge and the metro linear trail support the development and enhancement of the public trail and linear park through collaboration with private developers and partnering ship agency including Santa Clara Valley Water District. Next slide please. In summary, the capital improvement program outlined the five years program for a variety of public infrastructure projects and it include associate scheduling, financing and related detail as shown by the analysis and incorporate into the agenda report and the presentations. The city proposed 2027 2031 capital improvement program is in conformant with the city general plans. Next slide please.

The recommendations for today item is first to open and close the public hearing and then adopt the resolution number 26-006 finding the proposed 2027 2031 capital improvement program is in conformant with the city of Mira's general plans. This conclude my presentations and I be happy to answer any question you might have. Thank you. Thank you very much. Nice presentation. Um, I have a few questions, but I'll have other commissioners ask the questions first and I'll ask my questions in the end. So, are there any questions from the commissioners?

Yeah, I have one just a round. So, I appreciate the presentation very much. There's a lot of details in it and I do like a lot of the um plans that I saw in here. Just kind of curious. I realized you said to, you know, the initial year funding is taken care of already, but in the future, looking at like the 5-year plan, you know, $25 million or so of future needs, do you guys is there a plan in place as to where that's going to come from?

Thank you, Commissioner, for the questions. So, Asuka mentioned that this is a five-year budgeting planning process. The first year is fully funded. the for I mean from year two to year five some project might be fully funded some might not depend on the funding resources and as you mentioned they are like a shortfall of 22.6 6 millions for the last four year budgets. So some of those um unfunded projects it can be generally it can be funded by the general government CIP fund. We normally we don't know how much that we have until the funded year. So every year so next year we're going to start to look into it again. We're going to re-evaluate it. We're going to take a look if if there are any new money that come in because some of the funding source we don't know. It's just uncertain. For example like some of the project in park category which is mainly funded by park fund. So those park fund is generated by the developer fee. So this year we might not have enough funding to fund those project but next year our park fund might increase. So we have those enough budget to fund those shortfall additional funding. So we continue to seek for the grand funding to make sure that we close that loophole as well.

Thank you. I wanted to piggyback a little bit on that also. Um there's certain funds that we we can't predict or we we assume that we're not going to get until we get them. Um but there are other funds like related to the water or street funds that we know our projections in the future years. So we project those into years to two to five. So the typically when uh the unfunded money we believe we're there's a possibility that it'll be there in those years but we have to wait until that year comes about to see if it's there. Um so it's not always guaranteed. So that's why you see an unfunded uh amount in the out years. Gotcha. And I I do see what you're saying with water and sewer and those ones how they're funded. I was just curious kind of the community one, you know, which is one of the big goals too, has a huge unfunded liability.

Yeah, because the that's based on the general fund. So, and that's always the most um challenging fund to predict. Uh it goes from year to year where the sewer and water funds, we know we're going to get that because it's based on revenue and rates that we get on a yearly basis that we project out already. Mhm. Question Mr. Golan. Yes, Commissioner Golan.

Yeah. Um I think in in page five um this is the projected CIP expenditure and the funding available needs for a fiscal year over the next 5 years based on fiscal year I'm my question is on year 2027 2028 so total expenditure of 70 million and then projected funded available 57 million and then funding needs 12 million and then compared to 20 to 2028 29 9 30 30 30 to 31 is lower compared to 27 and 28. Um what why is that?

Um so I just want to clarify make sure I understand your question. So your question is that why the expenditure for fiscal year 2728 is way higher than the other year out. Okay. So basically I mean there are several high-profile projects that really costly for the fiscal year 2728. For example, I believe there are like the force main a projects that is a total of 20 million that is for the constructions of the city force main that basically that is collect all the sewer from the city of midas transfer transported to the city of San Jose. So that project alone is 20 million that we scheduled to do the construction in fiscal year 2728. So that is the $20 million projects there and there I believe there are some other projects that um not on top of my head but I believe there are like some of the park improvement project we have like two or three millions in that column. So it's just about the schedulings.

So who who funded who's going to pay for the 12 million would you get that for the 20 million? Um right now we are planning to go out for the bond or maybe some financing because right now there's no identify funding. We going to work with finance department to see if we can go out for the bonding and financing their projects. Thank you. Any other questions?

Okay, that case uh let me ask some questions myself. Um so one question relates to while you know the report finds CIP consistent with the general plan but it acknowledges some projects focus on operational needs rather than directly advancing general plan goals. Can you clarify which projects or types of projects fall into this category where you know you might be actually drawing resources away from high priority policy goals in the general plan like conservation and sustainability.

Thank you chair for the questions. So as I mentioned that the goal of this um presentation we want to make sure that the CIP is in conformant with the city general plan. It mean that as long as we have the CIP doesn't undermine the um planning frameworks of the general plans which mean that we want to make sure that the projects will I mean some of the project will help to further advance the goal and the policy of the element as shown on the general plan. As Kai mentioned some we can only find majority of the project we advance the goal but some of the project we only focus on those um operation needs and the questions like what type project that um that um fall into that operation needs. So I mean I can give you one example is for example like the HVAC repair for the city hall that is not really advance any goal of the general plan but it's the operation needs that have to be part of the capital improvement program for example the elevators at the city hall that right now it's some have some problem so that going to be built out of CIP projects and again that project is not really advance any goal of the element but it does not undermine the goal or strategy of the general general plans. So with that say our CIP should be in conformant with the general plans elements.

Yeah, I mean depending yeah I can understand that is conforming to the plan depending on how you look at it but the point is that if most of the funding is used in the operational needs right or maintenance type needs then the strategic objectives of the general plan may not really come about. So that are you aren't you concerned about that?

I'll answer to that. Um, so the CIP is is not set up where it the goal is to meet everything in the general plan. It's to meet the needs of the city primary and to be sure that the infrastructure is uh built to provide the necessary service to the city. Uh so if there are projects that align with the general plan then we identify them and say yeah these these projects certain projects um advance the general plan um and that's what we're defining. So we don't have when we develop the CIP program we don't have an eye on the general plan we have an eye on infrastructure needs. That's the primary goal. Um where we get the investments or all the revenues that we look at, we're going to put those re revenues where they need to be uh funded for certain projects. Uh and it's more on the maintenance and replacement and ensuring that our facilities and our infrastructure uh meets the needs to our community. Um now what's part of the CIP is that we have projects that do advance certain aspects or elements or policies of the general plan. Uh but not all the CIPs are going to be to align with the uh not align but is going to have a focus on the general plan. Is that

I understand your viewpoint. That's okay.

And chair may may I add kind of a legal part of it? Um structurally the general plan goes to guiding um community development um which is only one of the policy goals um that the council passes. The council in passing CIP budget is effectuating all policy goals. The general plan conformity finding asks if the um if the those parts if the CIP does um is consistent with the general plan but it doesn't mean that the only function of the CIP um budget is to fill objectives in the general plan. It just asks for where this um CIP um uh budget is stepping into that area to be consistent with it. Let me try that again to see if I can make it a little bit a little bit simpler. The city's policies and objectives are broader than the general plan. It is but one document. And so by the same token, the city's CIP budget is broader than the objectives of the general plan. Asking that the U budget be consistent with the general plan does not mean that all portions of the CIP budget um are related to um community development, nor should be. Okay, I understand your interpretation. Yeah, I understand. Um, so other question relates to um this report notes that there were no public inquiries at the time of writing. Given the overall citywide impact of these projects, uh are you taking additional steps to ensure that residents understand how these multi-million dollar investment will affect their specific neighborhoods or

uh I want to clarify the question. So you kind want to see that how what is the public involvement in the development of the CIP is that

yeah how the CIP whether the public uh also understands and and uh doesn't have any serious objections to the CIP plan. So basically as kind of Kai mentions earlier this CIP process is developed I mean internally first of all with the each department head review by finance department engineering departments and we also further discuss with the city manager's office and one we believe that is good to go to the city council for recommendation approval we go to have the council study session which is a public forums. So when we go to the study session we have the public hearing the community are welcome to make the comment if they have any questions. I mean last year we do have public come up to make some comments express their concerns certain projects they would like to request for funding or some projects. So that is a public forum. We welcome the community to make that involvement on that.

Okay. Thank you. What one other thing that this the CIP is developed on what happens throughout the year also and at the direction of the council and the council of course um takes in public comment and and they and they relay what they're looking in this for in the CIP also. Um so we do um develop the CIP with the communities not directly but indirectly uh their concerns that they make to to the council and and we hear that and we also budget those things appropriately as we hear them through other means.

Understood. Um, next question is, um, you you allocated $4.5 million for that was 6118 project for, uh, regional wastewater facility. Um, it's a sewer uh, related project. Can you elaborate what that project is? Does that have anything to do with the uh, the famous order problem that we have in Militus?

Yeah, thank you chair. So basically as I mentioned earlier regarding the force main a project a little bit. So the city doesn't have any treatment plan. So all the sewage that throughout the city it bring it to the main lift station and then we transports using force main air to pump into the San Jose wastewater treatment plants. So this CIP that uh budget that we show in this five is based on the number that provided by the city of San Jose for the rehabilitation of their facility. We need to pay our fair share because we use that facility to treat our waste water. So this is the uh capital improvement budget that we need to pay our share to improve the facility. So uh you know this this problem that I mentioned um is there anything being done that seem to be uh the biggest problem that we have in militus uh is environmental related problem is is safe safety problem I think uh I don't know if anything is whether that's being addressed whether that's being I mean uh you know every problem can have can possib should have a solution especially these days with so much technology

I'm sure other cities elsewhere must have solved that problem. So have you uh actually put that on high priority and see if anything can be done maybe approached the congressman Roana about it get some funding whatever is required it's a problem that not caused by mil petas caused by San Jose and Santa Clara but we are the sufferers right and uh so I'd like to see if uh you want to address that issue if anything is being done or or it's just we have given up and nobody going to do anything

so I'm I'm going to go back what I think I heard at the beginning because this is the key to your question as as you're as after he responded is about the odor that comes off the landfill. Is that correct? Okay. So 6118 just to be clear is for the capital improvement rehabilitation of the entire plant. It has nothing to do with the order. It's actually the order comes from the landfill uh which is also San Jose's and and they've put in uh several monitoring. They have taken several steps to control that odor as best as they can. Um, unfortunately, you get a windy day in a certain direction, you will smell that odor. Um, that's just the bottom line. Has it improved? It has. Uh the city uh at their own our own main uh lift station has put in um odor emissions control to um to lessen the odor that comes out of our uh our lift station that we have the control of it. So it kind of helps that. Um, now like I said, are we always going to eliminate an odor from a landfill or a public uh or the plant? Probably never. I' I've been alive nearly 50 years and lived in San Jose and on certain days you will smell that odor. Has it improved? I believe it has. So there has been uh certain steps that San Jose, Militus and the county has done to minimize that odor. So you're not aware of any uh solution to this problem that can eliminate it completely?

Probably not. Probably not. So how how the other cities are taking care of it. It must be similar issue or everybody is living with this order. I've only heard about militas from all the neighboring cities. Repeat your question again. This problem seems to be only in Militus. I've not seen that anywhere else in

Silicon Valley. But there's at times where I live in San Jose, it does reach there. Like I said, it depends on the wind and certain times of the year. Um especially during the summer months when when those areas get a little bit harder, but they have tried to control it as best they can. Unfortunately, they built a landfill where they built it and the plan is where they we built it. Um have they attempted has sounds they attempted to control this the odor? They have. Uh but unfortunately the these this has been installed or been there for several years even before you know we existed.

Okay, moving on. Um I want to kind of peel the onion a little bit and go down a level more because you have all these numbers. Something costs a million dollars or $2 million. All these numbers are there. It's difficult for us to validate whether those numbers uh are are high or low or or whatever. Right? So, so one question that comes to mind is what is the uh burdened or loaded hourly rate that you charge for your staff time? And that's one question. Let's start with that then I'll kind of expand on that. Chris, I'll need your opinion and is that something that we can provide them?

That information is information that we can provide. If we if we have it if we do not have it then we can't provide inaccurate information for just just confirming. So we don't I don't have that that would be a finance question.

Um I mean it's it's public knowledge. I mean your uh schedule of fees at least for the planning department uh that document which is on the website that shows that hourly staff rate is $267 an hour. Um, in fact, if you just do search on chat GPT, it'll tell you the hourly rates of just about all the cities. And it turns out that Malpus has one of the highest rates, if not the highest rate in all of Bay Area. Um, so I was wondering how that rate is arrived at. I mean you start with the the you know basic salary average salary of staff and then you have overheads right and all that calculation is done and finally you come up with the rate. So the point is if your hourly rate is more than other cities your projects is going to be also uh more expensive. Same project over here may be more expensive than same project in other cities where the hourly rates are lower. Does does that make sense what I'm saying?

Sure. Yeah. Um with one legal distinction, the rate paid on public works projects is prevailing wage which is not tied to employee salaries. So most work that the city performs for capital improvement projects are done through contracted work. Um yeah and going to be my next uh question in the sense that I understand most of the projects are contracted out uh but their staff time is also used to interact or get the work done. So staff time cost does come into account, right? And when you're trying to figure out the cost of a project, you you calculate the cost of the staff and then you calculate the cost contracted out cost, right?

I mean, does that I guess that's a question for you all. Do the do the numbers that you have for the CIP budget reflect staff time costs? Yes. Yep. So So how did how do you arrive at the final project costs? Can you just elaborate on that? How do you project? You say this project cost $4.5 million. This project costs a million dollar. You must have arrived at that from all the calculations that you made.

We do an analysis of the project, determine what the improvement cost will be. Then from that improvement cost, we apply a certain percentage that we more or less know what it be for staff time or design time and then we come up with the the entire project budget. Okay. Um, so you do have that I mean that's how you arrived at that's you have all all those worksheets which tell you correct how you arrived at a project cost, right? Correct. Okay. Okay. And that does involve some staff time and staff cost. Yes. In the calculation.

Yes. A a pro a project is based off not just on improvements. You have staff time, you have design time, you have soft costs. Yeah, it's like anything else in when it when it comes to, you know, there's always overhead on everything and and to do, you know, we we're just not paying for improvements. Um here um of a project budget it when a part of our team in the engineering we budget for the engineer that spends time on it the designer that we hire to spend time on it in addition to the construction cost you know that's kind of the three categories of a pro project budget

yeah just to take one one example I won't take that much more time just another minute or two Um, let's take one example. To put a street light in the city of M Peters, not the traffic light. I'm talking about street light on just any street where there's dark and somebody requests a street light. So, how much does a street light cost? Brand new street light. Yeah, probably 10 10,000. 10,000. Just the pole. With the pole? Yeah, with a pole and a regular light, not full burden, you're probably looking at $15,000.

Okay. Um, you know, that that sounds reasonable to me. But I know some applicant applied for, you know, uh uh street light and and and he that applicant was told that it cost the city $200,000. That's why they didn't okay they didn't encourage doing anything like that. So I don't know where that number came from. That way too high cost $200,000 for a street light.

There could be other factors involved that they have to pull electric to the pole. Um you you just specifically just said about a street light. Uh there could be PG& costs. I don't know what the scope of work. So you have to identify the scope of work to have an appropriate budget. Um when you mentioned just a street light, I was just thinking replacing cotton street light 15 grand. Yeah. I mean what what he mentioned the 15 grand is only construction cost. If you need to design, there's another cost associated with that. If you need to trench like 1,000 ft from Pen transformer to street light, there's additional cost for that. So we need to know really clear 200,000 might be the actual cost is we need to bring a,000 conduit install across this road. So

yeah I'm sure all that was must have been taken into account when we got the response that will cost $200,000. So it's you know city can't afford it at least they didn't encourage doing that project. Um, so I mean I mean these days you can get solar based lights and I know places where people have put in their solar lights with 20 25 ft pole and nice lights lightens up the street and cost them less than $2,000, you know. So my point is that looking at costs is very important when you're trying to come up with the budget or or project costs, right? Yeah. If if costs are optimized, you you can do more projects or you can do the same projects with a lot less cost.

Yeah. So that uh you have to move with the with the times and these days you know going with solar based lights I think you can achieve that with relatively speaking as I said 2,000 versus 200,000 a big difference right?

Yes. Since you can't mention about that I mean I want to highlight the project that we just finished that is basically for the street light. So I mean as part of our capital improvement program design construction we did do those analysis when the capital improvement program come in for example like Harmon way street light we did do analysis between the traditional street light which is we need to bring the power from PG doing the trenching the cost estimate is come up about 400,000 to install maybe six or seven street light okay

so we do that analysis and compare with the solar street light it's a cost about 100,000 So that is the analysis we did and we go to the council to recommend go with the solar street light which is cost only 100,000. So yes we did I mean when there's a project need we do those analysis feasibility study what is the most cost effective approach that we can use the city limited budget effectively. Yeah. Okay. So I guess when you say even six solar based street lights cost $100,000.

Yeah. That's something I know people are doing it for less than 2,000 and they're you know 25 ft big street lights. So so I know city has different ways of calculating costs and so on. It always comes into play. But there's a big difference when some homeowner putting their spending their own time to get the street lights done versus what the city has to spend.

One other thing I want to point out that like u acting city attorney K mentioned all the public project have to be prevailing wage. That's another thing that the cost is more expensive the than the open shop. If you go to private, the cost may be 1,000. For example, if it public project for prevailing wage, the same contractors, but because you work for the public projects, your cost going to be maybe 1.5 of that cost or two double the cost. So, it's the prevailing way is a state um requirements that we have to pay.

Yeah. Okay. So that may be part of the problem but anyway that that's okay. So anybody else now thought of new questions right? Do we have a motion to uh move forward with this recommendation? Sorry, we need public comment first. Yeah. Is there any public comment? Chair, there are no speaker cards for this agenda item.

That's fine. Thank you. Okay. So given that uh we can move on and any any motion question. Sir um I you mentioned earlier that um every time you have a project do you get the contractor from outside city? Yes, most of our capital improvement project we hire the contractor to perform the works. But if there's some maintenance, I mean for sure it's operation is um ongoing maintenance of the city facility. We have in-house uh operation staff doing the work but the most of the capital improvement project that list in here is we hire the design consultant to design and then we go out to bid and get the contractor to perform the construction work. So you go from bidding bidding also right? Um

that's correct. Bidding we go with the lowest biders and we award the contract according to that. Okay. Okay. So um um from like 5 years ago um how about their charges? You see getting higher every every time you how can you repeat the question? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like for example the charges um are different like every year are different.

Yeah. Basically it depend on the market. I mean sometimes like for example like during COVID the price go up quite a bit and then it start to go down and this year around I think like three or four months ago when we go out to bid we get a fairly good amount of bid and with the very reasonable cost but we foresee that with the ongoing war between the United States and Iran with the gas price increase we can see that the bit going to go up a little bit more. So it's really fluctuate and depend on the market and part of the public contract code we going to go out to bid we going to choose the lowest bid we just whoever give us the lowest price we have to award the contract to them assuming that they are responsible their package they qualifies meet all requirement as stated in our contract documents. So when it comes to beating um do you how do you how do you um inform the the public if you have a beating?

So so as part of the bidding process we prepare the contract document that include the specifications and the plan drawing. Then we post it on the newspapers. So two time on newspaper inviting to bid so that people can know and we also post on the plan room which is kind of one central location where the contractor go there and see the project and they in um submit the bid for us. We also post on our open gov website. I mean we use the city platform post all the bids. So and any contractor that might be registered with the city interested in any project they will get notification or alert when we post new projects.

Um do you have a board uh uh that who will approve the the who who are the um member of the board to approve the bidding? It's a city council. Okay. So when we received the bid we evaluated if they are the responsible responsive lowest bid we went go to the city council and recommend the city council to award the contract. Thank you. Y thank you. You're welcome. So you just get three bids typically and then compare the bids or what's the process?

Not necessarily three bid it's whatever amount that we receive. So sometime we receive recently I received 14 15 bits. So it very good market. So very competitive sometime the project scope might be not many expertise they there might you might receive only two bit three bit sometime you even receive one bit so you you don't know and there's no limit to no limit or constraint to how many bit that we we should receive okay thank you thank you any other questions are we so there is there any motion then to uh recommend or approve this project No. Um,

chair, just for the record, um, are you closing the public hearing? Okay. Okay. Yeah, I thought I did. Okay. Uh, like to close the public hearing at this point in time. Um, and that requires a motion to close the It does not. We updated the bylaws to clarify that the chair can close the public hearing. Okay. I close the public hearing then without without any uh motion without any uh vote. Okay. All right. So, now we move on to uh to the recommendation. Uh is there a motion to recommend this project?

Yeah. I make a motion to adopt resolution number 26-006 finding the proposed 2027 to 2031 capital improvement program as in conformance with the city of Militus general plan. I'll second. Uh what please? Yes. Uh, Commissioner Castillo, I. Commissioner Kulkins, I. Commissioner Golong, hi. Chair Gupta. Hi. Thank you.

Grill you a little bit with some questions. No, no problem. Thank you. You guys have a good night.

All right, we move on to new business. Uh I don't see any items for new business. Um so there's nothing else. So we we can uh uh close the evening uh uh we can adjourn but I have supposed to read this uh statement before we do that. Any person agreved by any final decision of any board, commission or department head, the city of M peters may appeal the decision to the city council. of filing written notice of the appeal within the city clerk within 12 calendar days of the date of set decision and paying the required fee. This time limit shall be strictly enforced. With that, can I have a motion to adjourn the meeting, please?

I'll make a motion to adjourn the meeting. You also we also updated the bylaws to clarify that you do not need a motion to adjourn the meeting. The chair can adjourn the meeting. Oh, like your new bylaws. Yeah. uh anything that improves the process or simplifies is is welcome. So in that case uh I join the meeting. Thank you very much

toend the meeting. No that that's just eas explained not required anymore. Yeah. So Dawis wins.