City Council - Regular Meeting

Good afternoon and welcome to the February 17th close session of the city council of the city of Marino Valley. The city council receives a separate stipen from the CSD board of directors if any CSD business is conducted at this meeting. I now call this meeting to order on February 17th at 4:01 p.m. Madam Clerk, roll call, please. Thank you, Mayor. Council member Bernard here. Council member Delgado here, ma'am. Council member Vaka Santa Cruz here. Mayor Prom Gonzalez here. And Mayor Cabrera here. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Clerk. That brings us to public comments. Do we have any requests to speak on public comment for close session? We do not, mayor.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. So, we'll go ahead and move into item D. And at this time, Mr. City Attorney, what matters will the council be discussing in close session today? Mr. Mr. Mayor, we have one item on the close session calendar today. That's item D1, conference of legal counsel regarding potential initiation of litigation. That's pursuant to government code section 54956.94 and involves one potential case. So that's the only item we have on the close session calendar today. Thank you, Mr. City Attorney. And with that, we'll go ahead and recess into close session.

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Good afternoon and welcome back to our close session here in the city of Moreno Valley. At this time, I will turn it over to our city attorney. Mr. City attorney, was there any reportable action taken in close session today? Uh, Mr. Mayor, there was no reportable action taken in close session.

Thank you very much. So, with that, we will officially conclude our close session at 5:31 p.m. And we'll be back in just a moment for our regular for our actual uh special presentations. Excuse me. Good evening everyone. On behalf of the city of Mina Valley, I am honored to recognize February as National Cancer Prevention Month. This observance reminds us of the importance of awareness, early detection, prevention, and support for those affected by cancer. and it gives us a moment to

stand together as a community in hope, compassion, and action. Tonight's recognition is especially meaningful to me. My late mother, Victoria Baka, dedicated her life to public service, advocating for our community, and teaching me the value of courage, resilience, and service. Her example continues to guide me every day. And it is because of her legacy that I stand here today carrying forward her dedication to honoring those who demonstrate true strength. Today carrying forward my mother's legacy of courage and service. I am proud to honor a very special guest and the recipient of tonight's proclamation. A visionary leader whose work has shaped the future of the Inland Empire. As chief executive officer of the mount march joint powers authority and the march inland port airport authority, she oversees strategic planning, redevelopment, economic development, and public engagement, advancing opportunities and prosperity for communities across our region. Please join me as I welcome Dr. Grace Martin. Dr. Martin's career reflects a lifelong dedication to public service and community betterment. She has served in key planning and economic development roles throughout Southern California and holds an advanced academic credential, including a doctorate in public policy, planning, and development. Her expertise, integrity, and commitment have strengthened countless communities and inspired many to follow her example. Beyond her professional achievements, Dr. Martin exemplifies extraordinary personal strength. While bravely navigating her own journey, she continues to lead, serve, and uplift others, drawing from her

experience with courage, resilience, and determination. Tonight, we honor we proudly recognize February. Let me hand this off to you. Tonight, we recognize February as National Cancer Prevention Month and honor Dr. Grace Martin. It is now my honor to present this proclamation to Dr. Martin, formally recognizing her exceptional leadership, her remarkable strength in facing adversity, and her unwavering dedication to improving the lives of others. Dr. Martin, we are grateful for your service, for your example, and for the hope that you bring to our community. We would like now like to invite you to share a few words with us.

First off, thank you so much. Um I feel undeserved undeserving of this presentation especially from you and your mom and u incredible strength and it's such an honor to receive this from you. And thank you, Mayor Cabrera and uh Mayor Prom Gonzalez, council members Delgado and uh Bernard. Thank you all for your service and your leadership and your love and commitment for the community. Uh cancer does not discriminate. It hits the poor, the rich, the strong, the weak, the Democrats, the Republicans. It does not matter where you come from. Cancer does not discriminate. My family is very familiar with cancer. I lost three amazing women in my family, including my mother, um, to breast cancer. My mom passed 20 days after her 60th birthday in 2011. And, uh, my dad and I held her hands as she took her last breath. I saw her fight to the end with courage. So, when I was diagnosed with bell lymphoma in September of last year, I was not afraid. As an Army veteran, I was ready to fight and do whatever it took. So I looked at my doctor and said, "Tell us whatever we need to do and we'll do it." I started chemo in October. Yesterday was my last chemo treatment. My last PET scan. My last PET scan showed no cancer in my body. So I am the first cancer survivor in my family. I would say the difference between the women that passed on and myself were the early detection steps that I took very seriously as I paid close attention to my body as I went through pmenopause and then menopause and I advocated for myself. Don't consider the doctor's words the last words. Advocate for yourself. According to the CDC, most breast cancer and average cervical cancer cancer diagnosis in women overlap with

pmenopause and menopause. Early detection through screening can greatly improve five-year survival rates and over 90% for breast, cervical, and color colarctal cancers when found early. But racial, socioeconomic, and geographic disparities continue to persist in screening coverage and outcomes. So, as an Afropolynian woman who lives in a predominantly Latino community, I felt it important to share my story and advocate for cancer prevention, early detection, and treatment resources for communities of color. And I'm I'll be doing that as a legislative ambassador for the American Cancer Society. And I look forward to working closely with our elected officials, mayor, and council member. look forward to working with you and sharing those resources with your community here in Marina Valley. Thank you again for this recognition. It's leaders like you that remind us that we can do anything together. God bless you and God bless the city of Marina Valley. Thank you. We'll invite the council to come down and take a photo. One, two, three. All right. One, two, three. One, two, three.

Thank you. Good to see you. Yes, ma'am. Good evening everyone. Thank you for joining us tonight. Uh the final presentation is a proclamation recognizing youth development and community empowerment, honoring an individual whose leadership has actively made a difference in the lives of young people across Marino Valley. For the past 15 years, he has guided high school students through the interact clubs, helping them develop leadership skills, engage in meaningful service projects, and put the principle of service above self into action. It is my pleasure to welcome Mr. Charles James to the microphone. Through your mentorship, approximately 150 students meet weekly or bi-weekly, taking the lead on projects that strengthen our community and inspire their peers to step up and serve. Under your guidance, MNA Valley has interact clubs at Ma Valley High School, Canyon Springs High School, Valley View High School, Vista Lago High School, and Rancho High School. In addition to the mentoring students, he also served as president of the Ma Ma Valley morning Rotary Club, working alongside adult members to support important community initiatives. We are proud to recognize you for your vision. It is now my privilege to present this proclamation to you, Mr. Charles James.

Tonight, the city of Mino Valley proudly commends you for your guidance, visionary leadership, and commitment to empowering young people. Your efforts have helped shape generations of students into leaders, engaged citizens, and active contributors to our community. Mr. James, like to hear from you. tell us a little about your work that the students are doing in our city. Please give him an applause.

First, I want to say thank you to all the city council, mayor, everyone else. Um, it's honor to receive this award. Um, but I couldn't have done this without my club president. So, if I can get them to come up here real fast with me. Um,

this is David from Valley View, Jini from Rancho, Melissa from Val, Mr. Maria from Marino Valley, and Allison and North from Canyon Springs High School. It's a it's a honor for us to serve our community. We're part of Rotary and we enjoy going out in the community helping others. The model service is service above self for Rotary and that's what all these young people do as well. Um I'm just a stepping stone to help them u guide and do what they're supposed to do but for them they do all the work. So, it is an honor that I want to honor them as well along with being part of the city. So, I want to say thank you guys so much and it is a pleasure. Thank you.

Bring the council over some pictures. Take some steps this direction. Keep going. Keep going. Smile. One more. There we go. Good to see you. Good luck on your speech.

This closes a special presentations and our regular city council meeting will be at 6 p.m. Thank you. I couldn't do that. I'm going to run up there.

Good evening and welcome to the joint meeting of the city council of the city of Mareno Valley. The city council receives a separate stipen from the community services district if any CSD business is conducted at this meeting. I now call this meeting to order on February 17th at 6 PM. Would any of my colleagues like to lead us in the pledge of allegiance this evening? Council member Dogado will lead us in the pledge. Please remain standing for the invocation given by Dr. Ali al-Sadun from the Muslim family foundation. Please join me by placing your right hand over your heart. Ready? Begin. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America.

Good evening, Dr. Ali. Thank you for joining us. In the name of Allah, God Almighty, the most merciful, the most compassionate. God Almighty, we ask you to make 26 a year of peace and prosperity for all. Grant the mayors and the city council wisdom, integrity, and compassion as they serve the community with unity, justice, and care for all. God Almighty, we ask you to guide our president to lead our nation with wisdom, integrity, compassion, and to promote peace and serve our nation with justice and unity. God Almighty, mend all the broken hearts, heal the sick, revived and love and in our life. God almighty protect us, our family and our friend from all wrongdoers. Grant us wisdom to navigate life's challenges. Give us health to care for those hopeless and give us wealth to help the needy and give us time to to spend it wisely. Thank you. Thank you very much, Dr. Ali from the Muslim Family Foundation. Next, we will go ahead and move into item D. Roll call. Well, Madam Clerk, I'll turn it over to you.

Thank you, Mayor. Council member Bernard here. Council member Delgado here. Council member Paka Santa Cruz here. Mayor Prom Gonzalez here. And Mayor Cabera here. Thank you. Thank you. We are all present. So, we will go ahead and move past item E. Next is item F, staff introductions, please. Patty Rodriguez, city clerk. Sonia Gomez, senior deputy city clerk. Steven Cintine, city attorney. Brian Mohan, city manager. Lana Himenez, assistant city manager, administration. Felicia London, chief financial officer, city treasurer. Sean Keller, assistant city manager, development. Robert Alvarez, community enhancement services division manager. Kyle Warski, economic development director.

Melissa Walker, director of public works. Jeremy Bubnik, director of parks and community services. Robert Cardinz, human resources director. Jesse Park, fire chief. Sarah Mack, chief of police. Thank you team. As always a pleasure to be in the chamber to conduct the city's business. Next up is item G, approval of order of the agenda. And I'll look to my colleagues to see if there are any requests. If not, we can entertain a motion and a second to approve the order of the agenda. Make a motion to approve the order of the agenda. Second. There's a motion and a second. Madam clerk, please call for the vote. Thank you, mayor. Council member Bernard, yes. Council member Delgado, yes. Council member Bak Santa Cruz, yes. Mayor Prom Gonzalez, yes. And Mayor Cabera,

yes. Thank you.

Thank you. That motion passes with five yeses. Next is item H, public comments on matters not on the agenda. A friendly reminder that the city now offers language translation services through a free app called Wordly. The app automatically translates a variety of languages into English and vice versa. To use this service, please scan the QR code at the speaker signup table. For the visually impaired, please use your earphones or earbuds to listen to the verbal translation. If you do not have any such listening devices, please let the city clerk's office know and we will gladly let you borrow some for this meeting. Hunto. Before we move on to public comments, I want to remind everyone to direct their comments to the city council. For comments on tonight's agenda, each speaker will have a total of three minutes to comment. Madame clerk, are there any requests to comment on any items not on the agenda?

We do, mayor. The first three speakers are B. Hunter, followed by George Hake, followed by Fred Benalos.

At this time, uh, Miss Hunter, if you'd like to go ahead and come on up uh, for non-aggenda public comment. Good evening. Welcome.

Thank you so much, council. I'm just here to thank all of you for approving Power Speaks louder for the community outreach pilot program. Thank you so very much. Just want to update you too for those who don't know our organization power speaks louder goes around the city and we service the unhoused community twice a month every second and fourth Saturday. We provide them with lunches which is food distribution. We also provide them with immediate needs like um duffel bags and uh clothing shoes, power paws for pets and transitions and also some fresh start kits that our interacctors help us prepare. um in various things and various items, but we also understand the difference between immediate needs and long-term solutions. So, we're making sure as we're going out on the streets that we're providing them with referral services, right, of various um information from our unhoused uh resources for different organizations. But I also want to give a special thank you even while I'm up here for the interactors because although they were they were celebrated here, we want to celebrate them and even with this pilot program funding, they're the ones putting those resources together. So I'm giving a hand clap to y'all right here because I appreciate you so much. Yes, it's a part of my presentation. Um so we thank them for that. And in addition to those things, we also want to make sure that the city knows we want to add um additional resources which are going to be the food cards. So grocery cards, we want to provide throughout the whole entire year every month about a hundred uh food cards to go with those food items that we're giving to the unhouse community. So that's a big update for us because we see when people are out there, the lunch is great, the resources are great. We're pairing it with meaningful interaction, but they're also able to receive more of those resources whether they go into the store and buy other items that they need. So that's something that we're going to add with

the program funding. Um it's going to really help our unhoused neighbors and also community feedback. So we're getting told that they rely on our services. They are looking for us. They know our schedule. People who are living in their cars, they're chasing the bus, honking their horns, and literally, I mean, my mom can tell you, they stop in front of us so they don't miss out on their lunch. So, if that is not community support, I don't know what is. So, they do rely on our services. And yeah, just want to make sure we we thank you for that. But, uh, we will be adding some, uh, resources or sorry, some information for you guys to see the impact and additional surveys and testimonials. Okay. Thank you so much. Thank you very much.

The next three speakers are George Hey, followed by Fred Beno, followed by Bill R.

Good evening, George Hey, Marina Valley. Couple of years ago, um I and a few others appealed the project to the city and I thought I would have the same amount of time uh that I saw at the county. And yet when I got here and I started to use some time, I was told I would only have three minutes just like the general public unless the city would change what you have written in your guidelines for appeals. Therefore, I expect all projects that appeal will do that. I was hoping you would change the city guidelines and have something like 15 minutes like the county does. So those who spend $750 to speak would have more than three minutes to do so. But until you change your guidelines, everybody has to be held by the same standard I was required to uh speak with several years ago. And to my knowledge, you haven't done so. That also means that I wasn't able to come back and refute anything that was said. And therefore, again, I expect you to hold to those standards going forward until you change your guidelines, which I had hoped you'd done so in the past couple years, but I don't think you have. Another thing is Ironwood Avenue several years ago, more than several years ago, uh was given money to improve it to five lanes going all the way from Paris over to Nason, but you had a the city had a community meeting there at Palm and it was they were outraged at the idea of five lanes even though you had money. So what ended up happening was the money was spent on the west side of Paris, not

the east side. I should have said east side, okay, was where they were going to spend it. Now I and we worked with the city at the time and they came up with a plan especially for the air the area that's curved and there's only one section of Iron that's curved basically between Lel and Nason Street to make it into a three-lane road. one lane in each direction and a center turning lane, bicycles, lanes, and a sidewalk on one side. And that's what the community wanted. Then I find out a couple of weeks ago that you will probably when the general plan comes back to you as part of a circulation element, make it a five lane road through that section. That's going to mess up everything. Go there and please drive that section. You're going to see driveways and uh there's some of the side roads that have 20 homes on them. There's a whole bunch of reasons to have what the city originally promised us, which was two lanes, a center turning lane. And I thank you very much.

The next three speakers are Fred Benuos, followed by Bill R, followed by Barry T. Hello everyone. Um, be true to yourself. I wanted to go back to a topic that we talked about last week and it was already approved. Our uh, council chambers. Um, there were some comments made about San Bernardino, how people died, and if those people would have been able to shoot back, they'd be alive today. Um, our state limits us as to where we can uh people can conceal carry. Uh, there's a sign out here that says that this is a sensitive place and and you can't carry here to protect yourselves, to protect other people. Um, I believe you said it was for the employees here. Um, these employees are the safest people. The last time that we talked about this, I believe there's four deputies here at this meeting. Tonight I count five. These are good guys with the guns. So, you know, I just want to tell you how I feel about it, even though it's already been approved. Um, you know, what is gun-free zones? Who does gunfree zones prohibit from having guns? Law- abiding citizens, not the criminals. Criminals don't follow the law, so why would they obey that sign that's outside? the the our sheriff, sheriff uh Chad Biano recently in a post said he dreams of cal of a California where criminals are scared out of their minds because of how many concealed weapons the good guys have. So you guys may may feel safe with what you're getting. I want to see what

happens. But I tell you, you guys are the safest people every night that I come here. Cuz like I said last time, you had four deputies here last time. I counted five tonight. I'd rather see in our soft targets with our schools a good guy with a gun at our schools. Um if you're going to feel safe here, redirect these deputies to our schools where we need protection for our kids. when when seconds matter, we don't want to wait minutes for the calvary. And again, Calvary Siri, guys, you should feel safe. Thank you.

The next three speakers are Bill R, followed by Barry T, followed by Jill. Assuming Bill R is Bill Redden. Um, good evening. Good evening. Uh Bill Ren, Bradshaw Circle. I'm here to talk about uh recent legislation, specifically the good, the bad, and the good. So, what's good? AB uh 209 that was passed, I believe that's it, um 20 anyway, uh passed uh about a year ago that allowed for public comments. allowed for 20 days for people to speak uh in favor or against a Pacific development. This is a good development. It gives enough people for in the residence area to have enough time to figure out how they're going to approach this. Now that for the bad, this is something that's just seems so draconian. It seems so archaic. It's called density bonus. Residents up and down the state are protesting this. What does that really translate to? No matter what the zoning is, you can have a 50% increase or even a 100% increase in the type of zoning. For instance, it's only allows 20, you can get up to another 10 at least. Or maybe you can if you work at the math out and get the low incomes, you can get up to 100%. It's just unbelievable. And the response, guess what the response is? Citizens aren't celebrating. There are an uproar all across California against this bonus deny laws. Fortunately for us, things are starting to change. We actually have people running for governor who are made it part of their

central program to eliminate these uh bonus density bonus laws. In addition to that there, as we speak, there's people up and down the city state that is looking for sen senators, senmen trying to advocate at least the reduction these bonus digity laws. As you pointed out, even if you have at these hearings and they're implementing the dentist boning and you have a thousand people up, it doesn't matter. These things go into effect. So what we're hoping for and I see happening in a short period of time is their political will will switch. So these dens bonus density laws are density bonus laws are pretty much eliminated or at least reduced. I thank you for the time and uh discuss this uh and we're hoping to see what'll be good is when they that happens the reduction in these density bonus laws. Have a good day. Thank you. The next three speakers are Barry Tatlinger followed by Jill followed by Morgan Vay.

Good evening. I'd like to speak quickly about uh some comments made at the last meeting about ebikes and road safety. Um there's a lot of misinformation about ebikes across the country right now and because of that we're we're hearing seeing a lot of new laws introduced and passed limiting where you can ride. Um but before we do that we really need to understand those issues around ebikes. Um, what was mentioned was that we, you know, there are people on sidewalks riding 35 miles an hour. And yeah, I get irritated by those people, too. The teenagers on their bikes riding 35 miles an hour. But the thing is is that those things flying by you at 35 miles an hour are not ebikes. They're not legally ebikes in the state of California. They're not legally ebikes anywhere in the country. Uh, you can't exceed 25 28 miles an hour on ebike in anywhere in the country. Um, bicycles and ebikes are heavily regulated in the state already. Just last week, there were was a new bill introduced in the state to to regulate ebikes. Um, we don't need more laws about ebikes. What we need are laws about illegal electronic mo electric motorcycles. Surons, super 73s, those are the the bikes that you see out there going 73 miles an hour. They are not ebikes. They are motorcycles. But the other part of this issue that we we we don't understand is the safety around ebikes. The consumer consumer product safety commission did a study between 2017 and 2023 and they found 193 fatalities and about 87,000 injuries related to ebikes. In the same period of time, there were 280,000 traffic fatalities and 15 million injuries on our roads. Um, bicycles

kill about three pedestrians a year in the country. Drivers kill about 7,500. That means every day 20 people's out walking are killed by a driver. Um because our roads are not safe. Uh the issue is not ebikes. The issue is the safety of our roads and I think we should focus on that before we focus on ebikes. Thank you very much. The next two speakers are Jill followed by Morgan Bay. Good evening. My name is Jill. I am an ebike rider. I ride a class 3 street legal ebike. That means my bike if I get to 28 miles an hour, and I will tell you at my age that never happens. But if I were to get it to 28 mph, the assist would shut off and it would simply be a bike. Um, again, we are talking today about the confusion between ebikes and e- motorcycles. Um, I have purposed since I have retired to ride my bike um on any errand in the town that is 5 miles or less from my house. The city of Marino Valley is only about six and a half miles across. So you will see me out there pedling on my little bike going to the bank, the post office, the grocery store. My husband and I take our bikes to go to dinner. There's no reason to drive cars. We utilize our bike lanes. Bike lanes in our town are frustrating. Um on Cottonwoods particularly, there's a bike lane, there's a sher, there's a shoulder, then I'm back in a bike lane. I don't know where I'm supposed to be. The drivers don't know where I'm supposed to be. Um, it's very dangerous when I'm riding along and all of a sudden I have to cut out in front of the cars that we think are doing 40 miles an hour, but let's be real, they're doing 60 and I'm doing 20.

I'm going to lose. I'm going to lose hard when that car does not see me and they take me out. So, what I'm asking today is that we talk about the fact that there are a lot of laws already about ebikes, but we don't enforce them. I'm part of a group and you all know us um that ride the bike lanes on Saturdays. Um we ride over on Morrison, we ride Mason, we ride Eucalyptus. I will tell you there are always cars parked in the bike lane that push me out into traffic. I don't want to be in traffic, guys. I want to be in a bike lane. Um the drivers will tell you it's only on Saturday mornings, but that's not true. This past Tuesday, I was riding down Morrison at 10 in the morning. There were 33 cars parked in the bike lane for a school function. Nobody was parked legally on Dracia. Um Saturday afternoon, there was a family down on Morrison having a beautiful Valentine's Day photo shoot. There were 15 cars. All of them were parked on Morrison between Dracia and the fire station. Not a single car was parked legally on Dracia. It is enforcement that is the issue here. No one goes out to enforce the parking unless we call. And by doing that, you have now told the car drivers, it's not important unless the bicyclist call. And so now we are the Karens. And I'm tired of being a Karen, but I will do it because I want kids to have safe places around town. So if we can not focus on more laws, but just enforcing the ones that we already have on the books, that would be awesome. Thank you so much. The next speaker is Morgan Bay. They're all so tall. Uh, hi. It's me again. Uh, I also am here to talk about bicycles and I don't ride an ebike. If you see me out there pedaling, that thing is powered by breakfast burritos and oatmeal and that's it. But I have

the same issues that our ebike riders have. Um, the bike lanes aren't safe. Uh, the other part of Mr. Mr. Delgado's comments last uh last meeting was that people are riding on the sidewalks against traffic and we don't want to be on the sidewalks. Like I said, I don't ride an ebike and it's very easy for me to go 15 plus on my road bike. They're designed to go fast. I don't want to be on a sidewalk. I want to be in the bike lane where it's safe. But our city has placed bike lanes on the sidewalks. Uh the Juan Batista trail along Cottonwood, Frederick, Graham, Allesandro, Camria, and Kiting is on the sidewalks. There's no indication there that bikes are supposed to be there. So I go past a psych a pedestrian at 15 miles an hour. They think I'm flying. I'm really not going that fast, but they don't know that's where I'm supposed to be. So comment saying, "Oh, these bikes are on the sidewalks." Well, that's where you've told us we're supposed to be is on the bikes or on the sidewalks in those sections. Other places, the infrastructure is so poor that it forces us to go onto the sidewalk because the bike lane is either not usable or it's blocked by usually cars. Uh, a couple areas that are a major issue where we're forced onto the sidewalks along Valley View High School and Sugar Hill Elementary. They allow parking in the bike lanes during pickup and drop off. So, that's the time when there's the most pedestrians. Most people on bikes are not going to pull out into traffic. They're going to choose to go up on the sidewalk because it's perceived as safer. But now, we've created more conflict with more pedestrians. along Creekide Elementary. Cottonwood has parking the entire length of Cottonwood, but they would have to walk half of a block, so instead they park on Peacock, forcing us to go into the traffic on Peacock or up onto the sidewalks. Uh, Allesandro right here after Frederick. We wanted to preserve those parking spaces for those businesses that are right here. So, we forced the bikes into a shared condition, which violates CALR's design guidelines because you're not supposed

to put a Cherrow on a road that's more than 30 miles an hour. Now, would any of you drive in the middle, ride your bike in the middle of the lane on Alessandro? No, we're going to go on the sidewalks. But then pedestrians are like, "Hey, these bikes are on the sidewalks. There's nowhere else for us to go." Um, I have more Peacock. Uh, further down on Peacock, the bike lane is also labeled for commercial vehicle parking. Where where are we supposed to go? There's big rigs parked in the bike lane legally because there's signs up telling them that they can be. Um Nason, there's a very small section of a two-way bike lane that is on the sidewalk between um Eucalyptus and Cottonwood. There's a bike lane on the on the sidewalk there. It's only one block, but it's the shaded part, so that's where all the pedestrians go, but that's where we're telling bikes they should be also. So if we want to get bikes off sidewalks, we need to make sure the infrastructure supports that. Thank you. The next speaker is Roy Blacker. There's only one city in the United States of America that's designated in the blue zone. Before a lot of you get real excited about that has nothing to do with politics. The blue zone is where people live substantially longer than the average person. Places like Japan, Costa Rica, places by the sea or the mountains or very beautiful country are usually where this is located. The US happens to be different. That city is located right in the Inland Empire and it's only a stones throw from us. It's Lom Molinda, California. They've been designated for that for the

last 20 years. You live about over 10 years longer in Linda than anywhere. If you're a male 89, female 91. Why in the middle of suburban suburban Inland Empire would you think a community like that would live so much longer? I would tell you they live a lot on the principles of what the United States of America was founded on. They practice a lot and move just like those. They're people that want everyone to have a better quality of life than they had. They want to see improvement that work to that and work as a community to do it. You should look at the politics of Lom Melinda. It's much different than almost any other region here. It's based on life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Not my team against your team. We're going to infight. We're going to agitate from our deis in our community. I ask you to contemplate what do you really want in your community? What are we really striving to do? and what are the actions we're doing to make us and maybe put Marino Valley in the blue zone.

Those are questions and policies and stuff we should be talking about. We never do because we lack leadership.

Mayor, that concludes all the publics on the items not on tonight's agenda. Thank you, Madam Clerk, and thank you to all of our public speakers as well. We will go ahead and move into item I, which is a joint consent calendars. Before I open the consent calendar for public comment, I will ask my fellow council members if there are any items that they wish to remove from the consent calendar for separate action. Seeing no requests, we'll go ahead and move into public comment. Madam clerk, do we have any request to speak on the consent calendar?

We do. Mayor, give us a second. Brad Benuelos. Well, guys, anytime that I can talk about ebikes, transportation, here I am. I'm an ebike rider. Here's my get up. I love to ebike ride now. And I do it with a group called Riverside Light Parade on on Saturdays. We light up our bikes. Um, I see that there's a bill that they want to make to have DMV register the class two and class 3. It's not needed. I I can't I'm not sure what everybody else talked about, but we don't need any new laws. Um there's enough laws on there right now to handle the problems. Um the E-Mottos are the problem. They're not supposed to be ridden on anywhere public. uh the bikes that are 750 watts and greater are the problem that they whether they have pedals or not, you need to go out and enforce those laws. And I'm hoping that we can do something in our city with protected bike lanes. Uh I don't want to see kids having to be told that they can't ride on sidewalks in their residential neighborhoods because these cities are going crazy right now. I I don't want them to say that they can't ride on the sidewalks on the main thoroughfares. I don't want any of my kids or grandkids riding in the main street. I'd feel safer if they're out there with a protected bike lane. Um when I was a kid, I used to ride my bike to the park. And now the cities are going crazy where they want to make laws that you can't take bikes to the park.

Uh, we have a certain incident in our city where we had a sign saying that you couldn't take bikes at our bike park. So, I hope that sign gets updated real soon. I don't want to see tape anymore. I want to see a new sign that just eliminates that so people don't think that you can't have bikes in the park. Um, you're trying to get, you know, dense populations in here. You're you're there's going to be more people. I switched to the bike. Who knew? you know, an ebike. We need to have that infrastructure to make it safe for people to ride. And I don't want to see the DMV have to come in and and start registering bikes. It's just to me that's just a money grab. Uh we we don't need it. Um just uh just uh make it safe for us and and and I got 40 seconds, so I I got to think of something else to say here. I don't want to waste my time. But yeah, here's here I am. I'm here. You know, I I want to ride my bike safely in my city. And we talked about that protected bike lane by Morrison Park. I want to see that happen. Let's make it happen. We need more We need to get more people on bikes. We have the weather except for the really hot summer months, but we have the weather to make it happen. I want to see kids riding to school on their bikes. I want to see them riding to the parks. I don't want any rules saying that they can't have their bikes in the parks. All right. Thank you guys,

Mayor. That concludes public comments on tonight's agenda. Thank you very much, Madam Clerk. So, we'll go ahead and bring it back up to the deis for any council questions or comments. Seeing no questions or comments at this time, we can go ahead and entertain a motion and a second to approve the consent calendar. So, moved. Second. There's a mo motion and a second to approve the consent calendar. Madam clerk, please call for the vote. Thank you, mayor. Council member Bernard, yes. Council member Delgado, yes. Council member Bakasana Cruz, yes. Mayor Prom Gonzalez, yes. And Mayor Cabera, yes. Thank you.

Thank you. So, the consent calendar is adopted unanimously. Next up, we will move to public hearings. We do have one item. It's J1. And before we continue, I would like to uh just state something for the record. Um before the city council considers this item, I need to announce that I will be recusing myself from this item and must disclose that pursuant to the Lavine Act that I have received a campaign contribution of more than $500 within the past 12 months from the applicant. And so with that being said, at this time uh I will be leaving the council chamber. Mayor Prom Gonzalez will be uh presiding over the rest of this item and once this item has concluded and the vote has been confirmed, I will come back to resume uh normal duties. Uh so with that, I'll go ahead and exit the room. Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor. So it item J uh public testimony on a public hearing matter shall be limited to three minutes per individual and must pertain to the subject m subject under consideration. Those wishing to testify should complete and submit a golden speaker slip to the city clerk staff. Do we have any speakers for this item J1?

We do. We do, Mayor Prom Gonzalez, but we let's wait till we the report is given. All right. Well, I will get started while they are pulling up the PowerPoint. Uh, good evening, honorable Mayor Prom and City Council. The project before you this evening is an appeal of the planning commission's denial of a general plan amendment, change of zone, conditional use permit, and tenative trackm facilitate the development of a 37 lot planned unit development. The 4.81 81 acre project site is currently vacant and is located at the northeast corner of Cactus Avenue and Bradshaw Circle east of Marino Beach Drive. I understand that this slide has very small text associated with it, so I will be reading a general summary of what it says. On January 8th, 2026, a duly conducted public hearing was held by the planning commission to consider the project. The planning commission denied the proposed general plan amendment and change of zone based on findings that since the city is a general law city, any zoning ordinance must be consistent with its general plan. Also, the proposed general plan amendment is not in the public interest since the city is currently preparing a cohesive general plan update. Three, changing the land use designation of the project site from residential 5 to residential 10 would be detrimental to the public interest and convenience and welfare of the city in that it would be inconsistent with the existing lowdensity residential development adjacent to the west of the proposed project site. Number four, increasing the residential zoning density for the project site is not necessary for meeting the city's regional housing needs assess allocation as well as the assessment objectives with respect to affordable housing. The proposed general plan amendment is not

in the city's best interest in that the city's proousing jurisdiction designation received from the California Department of Housing and Community Development is based on the project site being zoned R5 rather than R10. Next, the proposed general plan amendment will not promote public safety in that it could potentially add more traffic to Cactus Avenue, which is currently not built to accommodate traffic based off of the proposed R10 zoning of the project site. Also, the proposed general plan amendment zone change will not promote public safety and that it will potentially add increased traffic to Bradshaw Circle that would jeopardize emergency access. The proposed change of zone is inconsistent with the general plan as set forth in the findings of the denial of the general plan amendment. And finally, the proposed change of zone will adversely affect the public safety and the general welfare in that higher density development will add more traffic. On January 12th, 2026, an appeal was filed by Shea Mohler on behalf of RC Hobbs Company. Now to discuss the project. The project is located within the residential 5 general plan and zoning designations. A general plan amendment along with a change of zone is requested to change the current land use designation to residential 10 and zoning designation to residential single family 10 district. The proposed general plan amendment and change of zone are consistent with surrounding development densities. The project site is bounded by single family residential developments within the R5 and RS10 districts to the north and west. Vacant land with R10 district, vacant land within the R10 district to the east, and single family residences within the Marino Valley Ranch specific plan medium lowdensity residential district to the south. Based on the neighborhood characteristics, the proposed amendments could be determined to be compatible in in the with the surrounding density and

development patterns. The granting of the proposed general plan amendment and change of zone would allow the project to obtain a desired density of 7.9 units to the acre. The applicant requested a conditional use permit to allow for a planned unit development intended map to subdivide the project site into 37 single family residential lots and lettered lots containing two bio retention basins, a three- foot wide drainage ditch and landscape easement and open space uh recreational lot. The newly created lots will range in size from 3,047 to 5,16 square ft in size with vehicular access to the development being provided by two access points on Bradshaw Circle. Each residence will be provided with a private driveway accessed by the internal roads. Each residential lot has been designed to include a twocar garage and driveway that accommodates a minimum of two cars parking. Additionally, the project proposes 27 on street guest parking spaces. As proposed, Bradshaw Circle would be improved with new curb, gutter, and street lighting. Uh the off street um the street improvements will provide improved access to the project site and surrounding properties. And the proposed project includes dedication of the Bradshaw Circle Rideway to the city of Marino Valley. The proposed two-story residences have been designed in Spanish, French, and traditional architectural styles and will be offered in three distinct floor plans with varying B building designs and roof lines. Exterior designs will include stuckco finishing, detailed roof elements, and decorative windows and doors. The proposed landscaping consists of a variety of of typical street trees along with along the public streets and drought tolerant shade trees, shrubs, and ground covers. A common recreation

area is provided in a central location to this residential development. And amenities will include a playground, basketball court, covered seating areas, barbecue grills, benches, and enhanced landscape walkways. An initial study was prepared in compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act with findings that a mitigated negative declaration serves as the appropriate SQA documentation with the implementation of proposed mitigation measures. The proposed project will not have a significant effect on the environment based off of that initial study. The public comment period for the notice of intent of the mitigated negative declaration began on October 17th, 2025 and ended on November 17th, 2025, which satisfies the requirement of the 30-day public review period. Public comments received in response to the notice were included in the staff report. The appealed hearing was appropriately noticed in the newspaper, on site, and to all properties within 600 ft at least 10 days before the public hearing. To date, staff has received a phone call and no additional public comment letters. At this time, staff recommends that the city council affirm and uphold the planning commission's denial of the proposed project. The planning commission could, however, if desired, reverse the planning commission denial and approve the resolutions that were provided within the staff report and introduce an ordinance for the zone change. This concludes staff's presentation and the applicant is available to answer any questions as well as staff. Thank you.

Are there any council questions of staff at this time? We're now offer uh the appellent opportunity to submit testimony. Please state your name for the record and open the appeal hearing. I'm sorry for the appellent. He is not limited to three men.

Um he's an appellent who has a um a property interest that's directly at stake in this particular instance. And so this issue so he's afforded due process. And even though the adjacent property owners also have a due process um right, we have to consider a due process in the context of how this meeting's conducted. And we have to avoid any issue or any um perception of unfairness. And if you think about it, if we limit him to three minutes and allow potentially 20 other people, 20 people to comment against the project, that's a total of 60 minutes. So he would only be entitled to three minutes to respond to 60 minutes of opposition and that would appear to be unfair.

How is it different than when a resident appeals a project? Should not be different. What do you mean it should not be different? But it is it it should not be different if a resident appeals and the resident has a property interest at stake. Well, that's what that's what

that's the difference of then in the last um hearing we public hearing we held where a resident was the appellant and the limit was three minutes. It was because they didn't have property rights. Yeah, I don't recall the details of that particular hearing, but I would venture to say that if there was not a property interest directly at stake for that appeal hearing, then they would not be entitled to the same rights to comment about the project because anybody can appeal it. Correct. Correct. Anybody anybody member of the public can can appeal it. And if they do appeal it and they're not a they don't have a a stake in the property, they have the they don't have a property interest directly at stake.

Yes, sir. Got it. Thank you. Thank you. Hi, my name is Roger Hobbs and quite honestly, I'm not quite sure what that conversation was all about. I'm not sure am I the appellant or am I the applicant or am I the bad guy or You are the appellant. Okay. So, you're the applicant. So, are we are we limited to three minutes?

Okay. Well, I don't think I'll take much more time than that, but I do appreciate uh uh the council's willingness to listen once again about my 37 homes that I'm trying to build here in town. And I appreciate the staff's work on behalf of this community, this project. It is 37 homes and it is intended to be for those people that work, live and reside in Reno Valley. And I say that with all due respect is we're in the homeowner business and the home delivery business. And if you start if you close your eyes and think about what a home means to people, it means a great deal. They have their own park. They have their own backyard. They have their own bicycles that can go in the garage. They have a two-car garage. They have a twocar driveway. And that's how families gain net worth. And I when I say net worth, I'm not talking financially net worth. I'm talking about a person's value, how they feel about where they live, how they feel about the community, how they feel about their leaders, how do they feel about their teachers. These kids are going to go to your local schools. These parents are going to take their kids to the local parks. These parents are going to shop in the retail centers that are provided in this town. These parents are going to pay property tax. These people are going to care about their community because they have an investment in the community. and I'm in the home building delivery business. I'm not talking about 370 homes or 307 homes. I'm talking about 37 homes. And we think it's beneficial and it's logical that we are asking for an

increase in the density to match the property next door, the 10 acres that are vacant, which is R10, and also to the north of our R10. This is not a huge impact on the traffic. Now, one of the things that we discussed after we were denied two and a half years ago, own the property now for 5 years. I pay property tax. I I mow the weeds, have the weeds taken care of, is I talked to Councilman Marquez about this this community, and he voted no. I met with him two times after that and we talked about the benefit of improving fully improving Bradshaw loop or Bradshaw circle and when I say fully improving that's a condition of this map that we would basically change the streets to from private streets poorly maintained streets to public standards and accepted by the city. One of the major concerns of the neighbor was the liability associated with the private streets. I mean, that was over and over and over. Now, that same person doesn't talk about the liability. Well, he doesn't need to talk about the liability if Roger Hobbs develops this project because he's going to fully improve the streets. So, there's no no talk about liability. Now, we're talking about we just aren't comfortable. I grew up in the city of Orange and there were thousands of orange groves in the city of Orange and I love the orange groves. There are no orange groves in the city of Orange anymore. Things do change. People do look for new opportunities. They look for new housing. And by the way, you have a great employment base here. We expect to not only are we going to provide help to our buyers with their

mortgages, which we do, but we also have first responder programs. We have VA programs. We help buyers buy a home and plant their family and their roots here. And again, I'm talking about 37 homes. Now, there was a discussion that was u brought up earlier today about density bonus law. And quite honestly, I did talk to your city attorney. I was told by our architect about this law. We've never used that law. We don't really understand it and we don't really want to use that law. But I will assure you as a private property owner of this property, and this is not meant to be a threat. It's just a comment that should we get denied for the 37, we will file a new application that will be greater than 37 houses. It's part of the increase in the number of houses. We will eliminate the park that's in this in the community because we have more houses. We don't have the room. We'll eliminate the park. We'll narrow the streets so that we don't have 27 cars that can park on the public on the on the street, excuse me. And we are no longer obligated to improve Bradshaw Loop. Now, how do you get the multi the um density bonus? You have to provide affordable housing. So, there will be a number of houses that will be affordable. But I must admit, we've talked about maybe the these will all be rented houses. The state law is the state law. I mean, you know, that's that's what his application here. And I and I defer that to the city attorney for comments if he has comments on this density law. I

don't want to do that. I really don't. I want to do our 37 nice designed homes that have backyards, sidewalks, twocar garages, twotory solar, which by the way brings down the cost of your h housing costs. And we're doing 37 homes that would benefit, in my opinion, Marino Valley. I've done this a few times. I've done over 7,000 houses. I've been involved in a lot of master plan communities. And in every case, in most cases, the city has been very pleased with us because we are a good neighbor. We have met with a neighbor. We've had good conversations. Very nice fellow. We talked about traffic. We talked about the construction that'll take place. And we talked about working with him closely. And that's the way that's who we are. So, we're we're not trying to challenge him. We are just trying to do what we think is appropriate and financially appropriate because we are investing probably 17 to$18 million. Th this is not an ebike. This this is development. This is construction. This has a multiplier effect on the schools, on the retail, on the parks, and the employers in town. It's a multiplier effect. So, I would ask you to ask me should you have any questions or any clarifications.

And there any questions for the appellent? I I have one question, Mr. Hobbs. Is uh What what is your price range in this uh development? Mid5ives. Mid fives. What's Do you know the median uh price range in Marino Valley for new new? I would I'm going to be estimating because we do do surveys and so forth. I would say it's the low sixes about 625. It's 564. Okay. Well, there you go. So, we're right at that same Oh, I think your point to to your point was um everybody need deserves a chance at home ownership. Well, there that's about the the going cost of any house in Marino Valley. Okay. Even new. So, okay. Um, thank you. I just didn't know what yours was going about.

Yeah. Thank you. Any other questions? Um, did you say that there would be two car parking spots on the driveway and a twocar garage for each home? Correct. Thank you. And and by the way, there are impact fees that we pay, which is close to $75,000 a house. Thank you, Mr. Hubs. Yes. Any other questions? Okay.

No. So, u now I I open the appeal hearing at 6:55 p.m. and invite any public speakers to speak. Madame Clerk, do do we have any speakers?

We do. Mayor Prom Gonzalez. The first three speakers are Bob Beers, followed by Mr. George Hey, followed by Veronica Outland. Good evening, council. Um, city staff. My name is Bob Beers. I'm the uh civil engineer for the project. And I'll just put a card in to to provide the opportunity that if you had any questions of any kind of technical nature and there's one question that I think that's worthy of of note that had been raised previously. Why don't we why didn't we take access directly off of Cactus Avenue and the underlying parcel maps previously uh granted their right of access to Cactus and discussions with staff over the course of time in the development of our tenative map and layout was the access would not be off of Cactus. It would put a intersection too close to the existing Bradshaw Circle intersection on Cactus. Therefore, all of the traffic was uh designated to go on to Bradshaw Circle. So, just a point of information. If you have any questions, I'm happy to try to answer them for you. Thank you. The next three speakers are George Hake, followed by Veronica Outland, followed by Bill Redden. George Hey, Marina Valley. I'm uh concerned again about the zone chain and again the threat. It was a threat whether he said so or not. He he wants you to understand that he wants to do what he wants to do and don't you deny that or else. Uh I hope you can stand up

to all that. I was very pleased for uh one of the first times to see the planning department to support the planning commission in denying a zone change. Uh I hope you will go along with what the planning department said. Um reading a few other of these areas that Mr. Keller already read, I'd like to point them out again. And this is in your staff report. findings. The proposed general plan amendment is not in the public interest since the city is currently preparing a comprehensive general plan update which is anticipated to be considered by the city council in February or March of 2026 with a proposed zoning of the subject site remaining residential which has been analyzed under the draft EIR for the general plan update. as being zoned residential five. I'm not sure I heard him read that section, but that is something for you to consider that this is part of what you will later on be approving uh with the help I guess of the attorney general. Another point he made was changing the land use designation of the project site from residential 5 to residential 10 would be detrimental to the public interests and convenience and welfare of the city and that it would be inconsistent with existing lowdensity residential development adjacent to the west of the proposed project site. What this basically means is if this developer gets his way, then the empty land right next to it will also be this. When people buy their homes, usually they they sometimes hopefully look at the

general plan, look at the uh surrounding land uses and say this is what my neighborhood is going to look like for the sur foreseeable future. And yet what is happening now is that what they thought was going to happen isn't being proposed. And if you accept what the developer says, you're just undercutting the existing people that are there. And hopefully you will hear them as they speak tonight. And those who could not attend, maybe they have a petition or something else to represent them. So hopefully you will do your due diligence and listen.

The next two speakers are Veronica Outland followed by Bill Redden.

My name is Veronica Outland. I live on Cactus and Bradshaw Circle since 1998. So just a little under 30 years. Um, I feel like I'm up here and I want to speak against this, but I feel like my voice is going to be falling on deaf ears. Okay, that's how I feel right now. Now, I want to thank the planning commission from 2022 and the one recently for voting this down, going against it for very good reasons. Now, Mr. Mr. Hobbes has had three years to go back to the drawing board and change it and build on our five. But no, no, he meets with us at the very last minute threatening us. Well, I'm going to put 48 houses. Okay. So, um, that's not right. It's not right. And I'm very upset. He talks about people investing in in their homes. Well, I've been there 30 years. What about me? What about Mr. Redden that built a custom home that's right in front of this? Now, I'm not saying his project is ugly, but it's a lot of houses. Okay, it's a lot of houses in a small area. Now, I've gone through some of these communities. R10 is very different from R5. Okay, I've driven down those communities. Dr. Horton has Balisera currently. These are not cheap houses. Now, the streets are narrow. There's a lot of houses and we don't want to see this on Bradshaw Circle, okay? Um it's like a horseshoe and I live on one end and Mr. Redden lives on the other end.

And so Mr. Hobbs has had time. He's He's very capable. He's built a lot of homes. He's building milliondoll homes in Harupa Hills, selling them on one halfacre lots, but he wants to come to my neighborhood and in a small area, he wants to put 37 homes, and we're not having it. He keeps coming back, and he doesn't make any changes, and he knows we don't want it. What part of no does he not understand? Okay. And he doesn't want to make any changes. And yet there's going to be a lot of traffic flow in our area. And then it's going to bring in all kinds of housing, other housing that we do not want. You're not going to make him go bankrupt if you send him packing. Send him packing tonight is what I'm asking you to go back to the drawing board and build on R5. And if he wants to threaten and build more homes, well, we'll see how that goes. But I've been there 30 years and I hope my voice holds. The next speaker is Bill Redden. Bill Redden. How you all folks? I'm on Bradshaw Circle. Um, it's probably no surprise that once again we're here hoping that you'll uh enforce uh what the planning commission said uh denial. There's he g they gave a lot of reasons for that. This is the second time we've been here through the city council with the same identical developer, the same identical development. And once again, we circulated petitions. As you remember,

we got over 100 signatures last time. And again, we have over 100 signatures, which I think hopefully all you have seen. Um, and is it a surprise that we had so many people willing to sign on to that? It shouldn't be. When it comes to general plan changes, people just don't like it. I mean, the fact is that over 90% of the people we approached practically grabbed the petition out of our hands to sign it. um they just don't want this change and that shouldn't be a surprise to you. It's not popular to change general zone. When we bought the property, a lot of people do. They look around and said, "Wow, we got R5. That's the way the community should be." So, it should not be a big surprise to you that that's happened. And it's pretty consistent. So, we're hoping that you'll go along and deny this. One of the issues that comes up is frequently is it's only 37 homes, but it's on 4.8 8 acres. You got a map there that shows how it's going to look. It's inconsistent with the rest of the properties around that area. Totally inconsistent. Even more important is what could they build? You, if you do the multiplications, you come up with, you know, five times the 4.8, you come up with 24 homes. Well, they can't build 24 homes. They only can build about 18 to 19 homes because they got to put retention basins, they got to put roads, they got to put streets, and they got setbacks. So it reduces dramatically the impact. And if you look, there's already a tenative track map across the street. Well, actually in front of them that's they're getting six homes on about two acres or so. It's running about less than about three per acre. That's all you can really do when you get these type of developments. So we're really talking about doubling the number that's there. It's just incredible. So anyway, we're hoping that you uh speak to and allow

for a denial of this project. Maybe that hopefully that can happen and hopefully you don't worry about the density bonus issues. At this time, all those people here that are opposed to this development and want to affirm the denial, please stand. Thank you. Look forward to your response. The next speaker is Roy Blackard. Pete came up to these microphones a lot of times and say, "You know what? Sometimes the choices ain't great, but you got to take the best deal there is." I never thought I'd hear following the law was being a threat, but that's the reality of the political situation we've done. Signed in by Gavin Newsome, I think Corey Jackson, Sabrina Servanis that a lot of you owe your current positions to or have supported in a long time. So when you when you talk about what the state can do and you come in and yeah, we can deny that as a city. What if we get a project that's 10 times worse? You want to build up this community? One of the number one reasons to build and have people engaged and invest in your community is home ownership. Now, we've been through that. We've been through 40 years of changes and things and yeah, it isn't necessarily the way I would do it, but that's the reality of the situation we have created with the decisions we've made in the city, in the county, and the state.

So, I would hate to hope that we would pass up an opportunity like we passed up $60 million of improvements in and community benefits for the sake of our political positions or our political seat. If we don't encourage, and I've seen a lot of these come through, and most of them have been R10 projects that have been housing in this area because that's what the developers have to put in to be able to sell them and make a profit. And if you don't do that, it's going to be dirt or as you have heard, it's probably going to be a project you are not going to like even more. So I would looking at the situation as Pete said, take the best deal you got because once you reject that and put the wheels in motion and it comes back and a higher authority says, "Yeah, this is what's going in. There's no turning that back." So, I hope this council will do what's best for the community and I understand, you know, the concerns of the citizens around there, but you throw this away and you get a project that's three times as worse. You know why it happened?

The final speaker is Christopher Baka.

Good evening again. My comments are my own and they don't reflect anybody else's view. But um I'm not uh nimi or against this or for it. Uh this is not the reason not my issue here. My issue here is the political contributions that he has given. Um I wonder how many other people were offered bribes and that's exactly what it is is a bribe. Okay. So, you got Ulysus that took money from a developer that has a project on there. That should be grounds for removal. He should be removed for that. Um, that should be illegal. and uh he this developer should not even be here and not even be considered for this project for attempting to bribe uh political officials at uh I thought we had an ordinance that the person cannot uh be giving political uh contributions when there's a project on the on the table. So whether it's there or not, it's unethical as far as giving political contributions when they have a project on the table. So uh on that aspect, I'm totally against it. But as far as any of the other stuff, um you know, it is a a area that needs to be developed, but I don't know about uh the art.

Mayor PM Gonzalez, that concludes all of public testimony on this item. Will I invite the appellent to provide a brief rebuttal if desired? I want to apologize if I in any way threatened this alternative option. It's not my intention. It's just information as well as the petition that was provided at the planning commission with approximately 70 signatures. Of the 70 signatures, almost half were husband and wife. Now, it's true husband and wives get to vote. But when you look at where they reside within two miles, and I will hand this out to you, within within uh two miles, there are 10 people. Within three miles, there's two people. And with four miles plus, there's 20 people. Out of the quote, basically 70 signatures, but half of those are husband and wife. I mean, it's 30. However, well, however you want to do it. They're they're they're they're four or five miles away. I don't think so. I I'm sorry to report this, but I don't want you to believe that there's 70 80 people on a on a petition that even have any clue where this property is, but they'll sign anything that when asked, particularly for a nice guy like Bill, I'd sign probably two. Thank you. Any any further questions?

No. Okay. Council member Y. Mr. Hobs, can you just answer? I have one question. There's a good time to ask. Um, you were approached by the residents in that area and they asked you if you would be willing to uh kind of modify your project to to maintain an R5 zoning. Um, did you not entertain that or was that was that something that you weren't going to We entertained it, but financially we can't with the fees that and the building costs. We we just need more housing and we paid a top price to the Mormon church. So, it wasn't like we had a lot of options.

Okay. Thank you. I don't have any more questions for Mr. Hobs.

Anybody else? Thank you, Mr. Hobs. I now close uh the public hearing and invite any council deliberation if desired. Who wants to go first? Yeah, I'll I'll start it off. So, yes, this is this is not a a huge project in the city of Mina Valley considering that we've had uh projects over 150 homes in areas. However, um we are not done with our general plan update. The houses that are proposed 37 homes are in the in the median uh range of any house in the city of Mina Valley. So, it's not like it's a um an affordable project. Um, and then where it really got me was when the city documents that changing land use designation for the as I was see changing the land use designation of the project site residential R5 to R10 would be detrimental to the public interest and convenience and welfare of the city. That really kind of changes things for me. In addition to that, um the proposed general plan amendment is not in the city's best interest and that the city's prohousing juris uh jurisdiction designation received from the California Department of Housing or Arena numbers will not be affected. So I hear you, Mr. Hobbs, as far as it's only 37 houses, but it it is an R5 zone. Now, I take every project on its merit. So, it's I'm not saying that since um it's a R5 that we need to keep it R5. So, every project in the city needs to be maintained and we will never have an amendment on a zoning ever again. That's

not what I'm saying for me anyways. Um however, this project is literally it it is surrounded by R5. Um, and then you have a couple of custom homes in that area. Um, that would be detrimental to them and and according to the city and the staff that wrote this report, it would be detrimental to the city as well. So, I'm not uh I'm not too inclined to uh overturn the planning commission's recommendation of denial. So, um, but we'll see what everybody else feels. Anybody else? Council member Bernard.

Yes, thank you. Um, so there are a few things that um were said. Um, and I'm looking at Bradshaw Circle and and the amount of homes over there. Um, I believe it was eight in one area, six in another. This would be adding 37 on the one side of it. So that is a concern of that um that artery of people getting in and out if there's safety. Also um as we've stated, we are in the middle of updating our general plan. So I think that's another thing where um we're asking for yet another change of zone for a general plan update. And while I understand that um to you it's just not worth it to do an R5 because financially it wasn't going to work itself out. I I I'm also coming from the elk of looking at it. Then um when we when you purchased the land, you knew what it was zoned for probably more than someone that is buying a home in that area because they might not look for all of those things. And so I'm also concerned about the residents that live over there in that major artery way of getting in and out. Um I do thank you though for apologizing for giving the threat. Um because although you said you didn't perceive it as a threat, I'm going to tell you what it felt like to me. It looked like what you said was um I'm just going to be very frank. You had a temper tantrum and said if I don't get my way this will be what's going to happen. I'm going to kind of force your hand through the courts when I'm sorry that's just that's just inappropriate and I I'm going to be very like if you go to court and they tell us they force our hand to do it, then they force our hand to do it. But I feel like you wouldn't have gone to Huntington Beach and pulled something like this to them. But you felt okay doing it here. and I've never talked to you about this project, but um I I certainly feel like you said I'm not threatening you and then proceeded to roll through the threat. So, I just want to put that out there. So, do with it what you want, but I'm not going to let that one slide because I if you're talking to like that to us here, I'm pretty sure that's what you did to the community members when they reached out to you and talked to

you about it because they don't have anything um that you would want from them to even hear their side of it. Um so, that's another thing. The other thing is you said you were talking to us about home ownership and that it was about home ownership and making sure that people are investing in the two-car garage and the 37 parking spaces, but you also said in the same sentence, not even probably, sorry, the paragraph I should say you said, but this is probably more likely going to be home renters. So then that's actually not home ownership. That's a renter. So the homes could be bought by somebody that does not live in the city. That is probably a company and they're going to be renting. So which one is it? Is it home ownership or is it renters that you're trying to support within the community? So, there's just a few things that are pointed out. So, I personally am looking at this project. It does not fit the area. I don't think we should be approving another general plan update um nor a change of zone. And if that means that you're going to take us to court because although you did not know about the law, but you were told by your lawyer for whatever reason that this was a route that you could take, I feel like you're going to take it regardless. Um, so you know, while I thank you for coming here today to appealing, I'm not looking at overturning what the planning commission did, nor what um our city staff has done the recommendation of looking at. Also,

thank you, Council Member Bernard. Council Rebecca Santa Cruz, I I want to make a just few comments. Um, the and and this is more for staff. Um, how many homes would we build under the R5 designation if that would have been the proposal? 20ome 21 22 and in in both in both the 2006 general plan and in the GPU that we're going through this is consistently been R5. Correct.

That's correct. And last question is the improvements on Bradshaw Circle u contingent on this entitlement or any future entitlement if Mr. Hobbs uh decides to go through a um you know the state density bonus route. the development improvements that are proposed as part of this project um we would have to f we would h they they are they go above and beyond general nexus. They are something that the developer is offering above and beyond um as part of their proposal. Um the city has accepted numerous sections of Bradshaw Circle or has already been offered numerous sections of Bradshaw Circle. However, the full improvements of those of that street um would be um dependent on potentially doing additional construction uh adjacent to existing single family homes along the circle which was proposed as part of Mr. Pop's proposal tonight. He would be required under this project to develop his frontage on both Cactus as well as on um Bradshaw Circle as part of the uh nexus of the overall project site that we would have nexus for both of those. The ordinance does also allow for us to require AC the full width of Bradshaw Circle. Um so it but it would again be only along the project frontage. And the last question, Sean, is there any proposal or in the past that has taken up the state density bonus route and been successful here in the city of M Valley to to date,

the only place that we've actually utilized state density bonus law here in the city is related to affordable housing projects such as the courtyards of Cottonwood. So those are city projects where we we ultimately had a city property and through the SLA process, we ultimately transferred that property over to an affordable developer for the purpose of building affordable housing in the city.

Thank you, Sean. I I I just want to make this comment. I I think for me um similar to my uh colleagues, it's about consistent consistency with with the general plan with this area that's predominantly um R5s or or smaller um in both the 2006 and the uh general plan update staff analyzed this area and continue to feel that it's it's an R5, that there shouldn't be any more dense dense projects in this area and and to kind of hit um just say a little bit there's been larger lots that have been sold in the general vicini here in Rena Valley that that have been um for home ownership and and for other other home ownership opportunities. So I at this time I can support um the Mr. Hobbs uh proposal and um and if Mr. Mr. Hobs decides to go a different route, then we'll look at that project when it it arrives here at with us at the DEAS and with the community. So, if there's a motion, I

Mr. Mayor Pro Tim, I just have a couple comments to offer before in that direction. Um, first of all, since we are dealing with a hearing that involves due process, it's important to point out, and you guys all clearly understand this, that you can only consider the merits of the project that's before you rather than consider any proposed options. I'll call it that. And municipal code section 9.02.250 2550 provides that provided that the um application is not denied without prejudice, meaning if you deny it with prejudice, the applicant cannot come back with the same or similar application within 12 months following its denial. Just wanted to put that out there.

I think you can deny it with prejudice. with prejudice. They he cannot come back and apply for the same or a similar project within 12 months from denial which would be deny if you deny the project sense. So you're recommending deny with prejudice with prejudice. Got it. To prevent another application coming in within 12 months from based on the findings of the the planning commission. Correct. But at the end of the 12 months, he's free to come back with a new project. Correct. Or if it's different than the current one, he could come back within 12 months. Right.

Yeah. If it's different or the council um votes by twothirds vote to allow him to submit another application.

That make sense? I may have I don't want So go ahead. Go ahead. All motion to uphold the planning commission's decision of denial with prejudice. I second that motion. Please call for the vote. Thank you. Council member Bernard. Yes. Council member Delgado. Yes. Council member Vaka Santa Cruz. Yes. Mayor Prom Gonzalez. Yes. Thank you.

Take a break. Uh I now call the mayor back to the deis or please take a fivem minute break. Thank you.

Good evening and welcome back to our regular council meeting. We will go ahead and pick up where we left off which was heading into item K, general business. And we do have a few items here. The first one is K1 proposed amendments to the city manager, executive director, and manager of the office of mayor and city council city clerk employment agreements. And we'll turn it over to assistant city manager Lana Himenez for a staff report.

Thank you, mayor, mayor prom, council members. Before taking final action on making any changes to the compensation of the city manager and city clerk, the government code requires an oral summary of its recommendations at a regular city council meeting before a motion is made to approve the recommendations. On February 3rd, 2026, in the context of a duly noticed close session, the city council instructed me as designated labor negotiator to present present an offer to increase the compensation of Brian Mohan, who serves as city manager, executive director by 13%, which is equivalent to $3,34 per month, commencing December 28th, 2025, which Mr. Mohan accepted. The city council also instructed me to present an offer to increase the compensation of Patty Rodriguez who serves as the manager of the office of mayor and city council city clerk by 24% which is equivalent to 30 3,500 per month commencing November 19th 2025 which Miss Rodriguez also accepted. I also want to note that while these two items were placed under the same agenda item, it is not intended to preclude two separate votes on each recommendation. This concludes my report and I'm available for any questions you may have.

Thank you very much, Assistant City Manager Himenez. We'll bring it back to the day for any council questions of staff. Lana, um I know you showed us the increase and the percentages, but is there somewhere where we could um see the total compensation? Yes, I have the total compensation for you. Is there somewhere on the website where um people can see it? Can you click us through? Yes. So that we can see it as residents.

Yes. So if residents go to moll.org, or you go to city hall. Under transparency, you'll see executive pay and benefits. Scroll down to city compensation and all of the executive contracts are listed here. So, for example, we'll click on city clerk her. She has an original agreement and amendment. this will be her second amendment. So the first couple of pages are Miss Patty's amendment and then her original agreement is after that. So if the two agreements get um approved tonight, they will be added to this website as well.

Perfect. Thank you. No um further questions. Thank you very much. With that, we'll go ahead and move into public testimony. Madam clerk, do we have any request to speak?

We do, mayor. The first two speakers are Christopher Baka, followed by Roy Blacker. Well, who's going to deny a $40,000 a year increase in pay? I mean, the average pay, the average salary for a city manager in the state of California is 181. We got a city manager that's making over $300,000 a year and he's now getting a 13% increase, which is another $40,000. So, we're looking at almost uh 340 $350,000 a year. That's more than the president of the United States. That's more than the governor. Twice as much as the governor. You know what? What's going on here? Why? I mean, I've I've called on certain issues that I have with the community that's has to do with uh Mr. Mohan, our city manager, who's stopping the transparency in our city, but you're giving him an increase of 40,000 a year for for for doing the community wrong, plus corruption. Who knows what what he's getting under the table from Highland Fairview, from Ido, his buddy Ido, you know what is he getting? Uh um never mind. But anyhow, my point is this is ridiculous. Who would not who would not accept a $40,000 increase? And I don't think he deserves it. And the community should really look into his compensation as an outrage. This is borderlining bale, the city of Bell with the compensations. This is ridiculous. As far as um our city clerk is

concerned, uh I don't think she makes that much. So, uh I don't know. But as far as elections are concerned, I don't think she's doing a good job. As far as these bribes are concerned, I don't think she's doing a good job. So, also with my grievances, she didn't do anything properly on those either. They went under the table and I'm not getting any responses on those. So, I don't know. There's a lot of corruption in this city. It needs to be cleared up. I hope uh by this time next year, we're going to have three new pe two new people here, the mayor and uh unfortunately Mr. Delgado isn't running for office, so who knows who's going to be sitting in district two and uh who knows who's going to be our next mayor, but hopefully we'll get things changed here. Now, um I'm asking for a friend that couldn't be here as far as Felicia DS is concerned that she has uh felony convictions for embezzlement. Um, how is it that a a person uh can't get a forklift operator's job with the fality, but yet we have a a financial officer with felonies?

We can pause the time, please. Just want to look to legal counsel to make sure that we're not crossing past any uh boundaries and staying with that has no uh that's not on the agenda. Thank you. The next speaker is Roy Black. Hold on. No, no, no. Uhuh. Not only is it not on the agenda, I know it's out of term, but I want to note that not only is it not on the agenda, I need someone to talk about whether or not it is true because we cannot just keep letting baseless claims like that slide, especially for executive staff that don't fall under that. I I agree with the council member, but I want to make sure that we're following proper protocol procedures. So, I'll look to staff for guidance.

Uh the city attorney just uh informed me that it would be okay to respond to a question. uh from council based on that comment. Um so based on uh an inquiry that I received uh from um uh Inland Empire informer Donovan Sadiq uh as well as a conversation that I had with another elected supposedly there's information out there uh about our new um uh chief financial officer. um couldn't understand the current speaker, but it sounded like uh he said Felicia and a last name that is not even her last name. Um but I will say this and this is what I've told um uh Mr. Sadiq. Uh and it is a public record as an email did go out to him along with the electeds. Uh so um all of the city employees go through a rigorous background check as well as we are live scanned. And when you are live scanned, it basically creates a Department of Justice and an FBI jacket uh or file that in essence anytime we have any issues with law enforcement, it will pop um uh a notice uh to our employer and we would they the not the employer would be noticed of any particular violation. Could be a DUI on the weekend. It could be uh felony charges for any reason, even misdemeanors. Um and the employer is notified. Um I know that Miss uh Felicia London um is her last name. So if if you guys are are hearing anybody else, uh it is uh London. Make sure that you're looking at the proper uh person that you're searching on the web. But Miss London has been an employee of the city for over 15 years. uh she was background then she is part of life scan now and we would have been notified if

uh there was any issues um related to uh any violation of any criminal law I've also notice I've known uh Miss Felicia London for over 20 years I used to work with her in another jurisdiction in the Inland Empire and um I know of no such uh allegations and these are the types of allegations that must stop um I I'm to the point where um I must I must protect our staff. Um these allegations have um no basis. They didn't come to us with any background check. They um they are are are just hearsay and if you want to make comments and so forth, keep them up and and and comment on the electeds that you elected to office. But I really for staff this is getting uh borderline um ridiculous. And quite frankly staff is upset. Staff is done with these types of uh comments and allegations uh to us. And with that I will I will um complete my comment. Thank you.

Thank you very much Mr. City Manager. Thank you to Council Member Bernard as well for um uh saying something. you know, um I appreciate the clarification there, uh Mr. City Manager. And at the end of the day, yeah, just uh it's important that, you know, like we read at the beginning of the script that all comments from the public should be addressed to the council, um not to the staff. Staff does their part of their job, but like the city manager said, any grievances that you have, bring them to us. That's why we're elected to these offices uh to hear those out and make sure that we address them uh as as necessary. Um, so I'll let the city manager's comments speak for themselves and we'll bring it back to the deis. Actually, we'll move to our second speaker, uh, Mr. Blacker.

Oh, could you forgive me? Well, we would never we don't we don't

Oh, once again, I'm going to prove that I'm not very smart commenting on this issue, but the last time I think it was at the crime syndicate I did this the last time, but I've did it many times. Not necessarily opposed to a pay increase for the executive staff members, but as when these contracts came up before here and elsewhere, let's make them true at will employees. 30 days severance pay. That's it. Now, the reason we do that in the private sector in most cases, in most case it's called two checks, is that's an incentive. If you're doing a great job, then you would have to have completely idiot business owner, city council firing somebody who's doing a great job. So I don't think the argument that we need all this stuff, but what it does is gives them an incentive to do that great job because some of the and it's been asked and I get it. I mean some of these have been usually a year sometimes up to two years severance paying at the salaries. It's a big chunk of change to get rid of somebody and if they're in a questionable position, I'm not saying anybody here is and I don't even think so, but circumstances change of that and it sets a precedence. Do we want to show where Marino Valley is going to be the leader in showing how you put the incentives in to make people have that ability to do that job and have their feet to the fire because that's that's the bottom line. If you take anybody who's actually

employed people in the private sector, that's the main thing somebody has as an employer to keep the employees as productive. And if you want a raise and the only way it works is if you get a raise, you're putting out as much or more production than what your raise does. Else you're costing the company. If the company doesn't get more than what you're putting it out, the company goes bankrupt. So, a lot of the principles of why we see the structural deficits and everything else, especially in the government agencies. So, let's put in the policies that are going to put that in place and set the example. Not that we're going to do it like every other city or we're going to go to the Cal League of Cities and have our brains sucked out so they can tell us exactly how to raise taxes to make things go. Let's put the incentives in where our employees are actually going to get the job done. And I think we will show Marino Valley will be the leader, which we never have been, but we can be.

Mayor, that concludes all the public comments on this item. Thank you so much. We'll go ahead and bring it back to the deas for any council questions or deliberation.

I have a couple comments for each uh city manager and the city clerk. I think you guys are doing a fantastic job. Um every time I've ever asked Miss Patty for anything uh from her office, it's very very um quick. Her response time is is remarkable. Uh city manager Mohan, same thing with you. uh I'll call you and you're you're on top of things. So, I appreciate both of you. Um and we we we negotiated. It was not, you know, easy, but uh we negotiated with both of you guys, and it was uh it was a fair and equitable negotiation, and you guys deserve it. So, thank you very much for what you do for us.

Would any of my colleagues like to make any additional comments, any additional questions? Okay. Yeah. With that being said, I just would like to just second and add on to what Council Member Delgado said. I know this item specifically is uh pertaining to the city clerk and the city manager. Um two of our three executives on uh here on our staff. Uh certainly couldn't do what we do without uh both of you and your entire teams and of course our our city attorney, but he's not part of this item, but I'll give you a shout out as well. uh we do what we are able to because you guys keep the ship running here at city hall. Um and so just want to say thank you guys for the work you're doing and uh let's keep that momentum going.

Seeing no further questions or comments, we can go ahead and entertain a motion and a second. So moved. Second. There's a motion and a second. Madam clerk, please call for the vote. Thank you, Mayor. Council member Bernard. Yes. Council member Delgado. Yes. Council member Pakasana Cruz. Yes. Mayor Prom Gonzalez. Yes. And Mayor Cabera. Yes. Thank you.

Thank you. That motion passes with five yeses. And next up we have item K2, Environmental and Historical Preservation Commission 2025 calendar year annual report. And we will get started by handing it off to assistant city manager Sean Keller. So, my portion of this presentation is actually very short because I get to introduce vice chair uh Nathan Urana to provide you the annual update. Thank you.

Good evening, Mr. Vice Chair. It's good to see you.

Good evening, honorable mayor and members of the city council. And I uh thank you, Mr. Keller, for the amazing introduction. I have uh the distinct uh pleasure and privilege to present to you and the members of the city council the Environmental and Historical Preservation Commission's 2025 annual report. So to begin, the role of the commission is an advisory role to the city council in which we focus on the preservation of the city's heritage and cultures to educate citizens on the city's heritage and matters of environmental concern. We also work on the designation of landmarks, review restoration and rehabilitation projects in the preservation areas, and educate the community on the benefits of urban forestry. So in August of August 19th of 2025, the EHPC began became the first uh city commission to adopt its own motto to which it states that the EHPC works to protect, defend and promote our heritage through preservation and we use that motto as our guiding principle through our work. The commission is uh consistent with the city policy being a balanced commission. Our makeup is our chair of Stanbo, myself as the vice chair, Farah Pleasant, Dr. Mary Mcbine, Justin Jackson, and Dr. Reginal Allen. Some of the projects that we have worked on included the city of Marina Valley flag redesign competition. As many of you may recall, the theme was having

pride for our cities, past, present, and future. The competition was held from August 11th to October 13th of 2025. We received 83 submissions. Uh the winner decided by the city council was Miss Rebecca Garcia and per the council's discretion uh and direction the artist is working on additional concepts to which our commission is currently reviewing and we look forward to bringing them back to this day. The commission has adopted a street located on Paris and Aleandro, a part of the beautify Moal program to which the EHBC has worked consistently on six cleanups throughout the fiscal year of 2025 and we have worked to maintain a clean appearance of that street. The commission also participated in the 2025 Earth Day event uh working within our community here at uh our city hall in the sense of aformational booth providing education material for the community and that was located at the amphitheater. Other projects that the commission has been working on includes our guest speaker series to provide educational element relative to the environment or historical aspects to benefit the community, our historical landmark brochure and the Marino Valley Hall of Fame to which we look forward to bringing to this day in the coming months. And as you could see, the EHBC is one of the most attended commissions apart from our other various commissions throughout the city. We have the highest attendance record for any other commission. And that is a testament to our devotion to the city. And the Environmental and Historical Preservation Commission meets every second Monday in this chamber at 6 PM.

And before I close with my presentation, I of course would like to thank our council leazison, Elena Baka Santa Cruz, for consistently being a steadfast guide for us during our meetings. And just to our staff, a special thanks to the community development director, Miss Angelica Frostto Lupo, Miss Claudia Manrique, and Miss Brandy Baron, who is in the gallery with us today. I would like to thank Commissioner Jackson for being here during this presentation and I'm open for any questions of the city council. Thank you very much, Vice Chair. Is it Urena or Urina? Both.

Both. Okay, let's throw the accent on that end. I want to make sure I get it right. Okay, let's go ahead and bring it back to the deis if you can hang hang there for just a moment uh for any questions from the council.

No questions. just uh thanks for coming up. Um obviously we you know have been working on a lot of um projects over the years. Um this commission has is always ready to work. You are always looking for more work and um subcommittees. The number of subcommittees you've put together to get your work done is astonishing. Um all very engaged, present um ready to um put up their sleeves. they've adopted a street on their own just to do more. So, I appreciate um the commission as well as the staff support that's always there to um try and wrangle you guys back in. But I appreciate you guys so much. Thank you.

And thank you, Councilwoman. Uh Nathan, I just want to make a few comments. I think the EHPC is one of the most uh dynamic commissions. I I think it has to do with the personalities in the commission, right? I I think and also with um Elena's um being the lays on and and of course city staff. So keep up the good work um with that and I know you guys have so many ideas and so many projects. So and I'm I'm looking forward to to to hear more of them as as as the months go by. But um but again, thank you for everything and thank you. Thank you, Mayor Pro.

Any further comments from the council? Good job you guys. See you back there, Justin. Yeah. And again, just want to also thank you and the entire commission, uh, Commissioner Jackson, uh, your colleagues on on the commission there for, like my colleague said, being one of, if not the the most active commission. Uh, super excited about all the projects you're you're working on and um, look forward to seeing these items come back, including the Marina Valley Hall of Fame, uh, one of the first of its kind that we'll see. um you know what what recommendation you guys bring to the council. So uh keep up the good work and look forward to seeing you guys at future meetings.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And we always encourage members of the community to come to our meetings and just see the work that we are doing. But thank you all. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Vice Chair. So with that, we actually need to do public comment. Madam clerk, do we have any requests to speak on this item?

Thank you, mayor. We do. The first speaker is Roy Blacker. So the leadoff was preserving the history of Marino Valley. I've seen a lot of it. I've seen when Edgemont or Sunny Meter Marina was smaller than a community called Linda. I remember when you had the expectations of what you're seeing in Lom Melinda today was the expectations of life you lived out in this community. I encourage you in the historical society of that to look at what's going on, where we're at, what we've changed, how we're going. Because I've said this many time, Roy is in 101. We may not be able to change history and we can't but the only thing we can learn from it is not to repeat the mistakes of the past. So we get to the point of when we're looking at this and you've seen the angst of everything that's done. There's been a lot of good, a lot of bad and a lot of ugly. It's going on in what I've seen in parts of seven decades in this community. What I don't see is a lot or very rarely just like in my last presentation or anything else. We don't where is the presentation or the council member or the mayor or the staff person that's put it out there and says this is how we're going to change. Now, if you want to criticize or what of our heritage of way we used to be or

those of us who live there, then tell us how you're going to do it better. If you can't, then let's try to go back to the traditions that we had when we were a successful community. When you had that opportunity, when you had the opportunity to buy a halfacre or one acre or two acre lot and build a custom home, that is almost impossible unless you're a multi-gazillionaire. That used to be very common in there in this community. I've transitioned from all sorts of that, been involved in a lot of that from back then to today. Now there a lot and you've heard it, you've heard of what's come on, but we don't have those discussions. Everybody complains about this that and the other. Nobody offers solutions or a path except maybe one. So maybe everybody can start today putting the policies and the plans in place to bring back success in our community.

Mayor, that concludes all the public testimony for this item. Thank you, Madam Clerk. We'll go ahead and bring it back to to the deis for any council deliberation if desired. And this is a receive and file. So, we'll go ahead and receive and file it and move to the next item. Thank you once again to the EHPC. The next item, K3, review and consider the public arts commission's approval for utility box program application for Jacqueline Trung at the corner of Lel Street and Ironwood Avenue. And we'll hand it over to Jasmine Alvarez Baragan from the parks department for a staff report. Hi, good evening.

Good evening everyone. Good evening everyone. I'm really excited to present. Oh, so sorry. You can tell I'm not used to this, right? Okie do. So, I'm going to present on behalf of Jacqueline Trung. So, she's discovered a passion for art when she was 15. And so, she pursued a degree in photography, sculpture, and mixed media. And so, she is an artist and an educator. So, her focus is in storytelling, social justice, and collaboration with exhibitions nationally and internationally. And so since 2022, she's focused on community-based art projects. And so this is one of her projects. She actually worked with a local school to create this tilel like art piece. She worked on the background of it. And then uh students actually designed each one of the tiles. Um these are some utility boxes that she's designed for other cities. And I'll skip that. And so um she wanted to do a little bit of an introduction as to why she designed this the piece that I'll show you in the next slide. So it really focuses on the beauty and importance of Box Springs Mountain Reserve. And so she wanted to focus on the natural sanctuary, also on its inspiration for artistic expression as well as a haven for wildlife and people and also why it matters to the city of Moreno Valley and local residents. And so this is her piece. She kind of wanted to focus it on different layers on what the um box springs used to look like um when we didn't really have a lot of resonance, a lot of uh other things in the area. And so um she wanted to focus on the surrounding hills with mountains stretching across the foreground and background. And so the location for this piece is Lel Street in Ironwood Avenue. and her proposed contribution is $500.

And then that's it. Do you have any questions? Thank you very much. We'll bring it back to the dance for any questions of uh staff. Well, it's in my district and I know where that that corner is. Um and that fits the landscape perfect. So, good choice. Thank you. And ple please thank her for us as well. Perfect. We'll do. And this was a recommendation from the public arts commission as far as a location. Thank you. Any further questions from the council? Okay. Thank you so much. Seeing no further questions, we'll go ahead and entertain or move into public comment. Madam clerk, do we have any request to speak? We do not, mayor.

Thank you, madam clerk. We'll bring it back up to the deis for any deliberation if desired. If not, a motion and a second to approve staff's recommendation. A motion to approve. I second. There's a motion and a second to approve staff's recommendation. Please call for the vote. Thank you, mayor. Council member Bernard, yes. Council member Delgado, yes. Council member Box Santa Cruz, yes. Mayor Prom Gonzalez, yes. And Mayor Cabera, yes. Thank you.

Thank you. That passes with five yeses. Congratulations to the artist Jacqueline Trum. Next up, item K4, review and consider the Public Arts Commission's approval for another utility box application. This is for Jared Wright and this is at the corner of Peacock and Cactus next to the Juan or on the Juan Batista Trail. And we'll hand it over once again to Jazz or actually uh Mr. Wright who's here with us this evening uh to kick off the report. Good evening.

Good evening to you as well. Um, in the interest of time, unless anyone objects, I'll skip over some of my biographical information. Uh, it's available there for you. These are some of my recent projects. I've worked throughout the Inland Empire in different kinds of media. I currently have the lower right on display at the Riverside Art Museum. Come by and see it sometime if you'd like. The the utility box in the middle is in the city of Claremont. That's currently um on display as well. My proposal is a fairly simple one. Um, it honors my wife who is an afficionado of succulents and um, not only in the interest of beautifying, but also if it reminds residents that uh, water-wise and beautiful plants are just a nursery away. Um, of course that doesn't hurt as well. Proposed budget $500. And I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have.

Thank you very much, Mr. Mr. Wright, appreciate you bringing this forward. We'll bring it back to the deis for any questions of Mr. Wright or staff. Okay, looks like we don't have any questions. Thank you once again for the presentation. And madam clerk, do we have any public speakers? No speakers, mayor. Thank you very much. We'll bring it back to the deis for any deliberation if desired. I motion to approve. A second.

And um I just want to make a comment. I I really like the design. Like this is unique. I don't think we've seen anything uh come before us that that has this. And personally, I'm a big fan of succulents and like dry landscapes, right? Like desertcape type of drought tolerant landscaping that, you know, we we push for in the city. um that really keeps in mind the environment but also uh is beautifying the city at the same time. And uh one of the things I've I've shared this with some people but never made a formal proposal was hopefully one day we could have a discussion on uh like a botanical gardens in the city of Marino Valley that would center around succulent plants like agave and wambilas and things of that nature that are more kind of native to this region. Um, so thank you for bringing this forward and there is a motion. There is a second. Madam clerk, please call for the vote.

Thank you, mayor. Council member Bernard, yes. Council member Delgado, yes. Council member Paka Santa Cruz, yes. Mayor Potm Gonzalez, yes. And Mayor Cabrera, yes. Thank you. Thank you. That passes. Congratulations, Mr. Wright. Appreciate it. And that brings us to L regional commission reports. We do have a few. We will first go to district 2, council doggado for the March joint powers commission.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Tonight, I'm providing an update from the March Joint Powers Commission meeting that was held on February 4th, 2026. The commission approved an agreement for the transfer of fire station property and balance of fire impact fees from the March Joint Powers Authority to the county of Riverside and authorized the chief executive officer to execute any necessary documentation wherein. Additionally, the commission approved and ratified the emergency action taken for roof repair at the Crossword Church located uh in the Green Acres area. Lastly, the commission approved a proposal by Web and Associates for environmental services for the proposed Riverside Sheriff's Office aviation hanger project. And that concludes my update on the March Joint Powers Commission meeting that was held on February 4th. Thank you.

Thank you. Next, we'll go to Mayor Prom Gonzalez for RCHCA. The the meeting that was on February 12th uh 2026. Uh the board received the following reports. Agency attendance roster kangarat mitigation fee transfers for member agencies. Financial report through December 2025. Contract and grant status update. Status report concerning reserve management committee for the southwestern Riverside County Multiecies Reserve and the Lake Matthews Reserve. Status report concerning reserve management coordination committees. SKR reserve management and monitoring efforts activities updates and SKR habitat conservation plan renewal. Additional staff recommendations were approved for the following approval of the agreement with Eastern Municipal Water District regarding incidental take authorization for the SKRAT for the Paris 2 Dalter phase 2 expansion project. Next is speed study update for Stevens Kangarat habitat conservation plan and evaluation or transitioning RCHCA insurance to SDRMA. Next board of directors meeting scheduled for Thursday, May 14th, 2026 at 11:30.

Thank you, Mayor Prom. Next up, I'll be providing two reports. The first one is from RCTC. This was for the meeting held on February 11th. On January 9th, the office of Governor Gavin Newsome released a budget proposal for fiscal year 2627 totaling $348.9 billion. The proposed budget maintains the entirety of one-time transportation funding included in the fiscal year 2526 budget, including $14.6 billion. RCTC requests accepted into the House Appropriations Bill for transportation, housing, and urban development. and pending funding includes the $850,000 for the Metroink double track project Marino Valley to Paris. The next meeting is scheduled to be held on February 23rd, 2026. My second and final report is for the Southern California Association of Governments. This is for the meeting held on February 5th. The first item approved was to authorize staff to remove the required penalty clauses from the SCAG standard contract agreement superseding the 2010 RC action that required their inclusion. Next, they approve contracts $500,000 or greater on the four following items. Uh, city of Los Angeles scaling housing development on city-owned land strategy. 2028 Olympic and Parolympic games community hubs toolkit, federal advocacy services, and SCAG transportation safety predictive modeling and analysis platform. The regional council also received a presentation on regional leadership on housing production. Addressing housing needs continue to be a priority by addressing issues such as a lack of building supply, zoning, land availability, utility and infrastructure needs, and community opposition. Skagg is going beyond RENA, abbreviated RHNA allocation after securing millions in REAp 1.0 and REAp 2.0 and will continue to advocate for state and federal legislation and funding. The next regional council meeting is

scheduled for April 9th, 2026. With that, we'll go ahead and go to the Riverside Transit Agency with Council Member Bernard.

Thank you, Mayor. I'm providing um tonight I'm providing updates from the RTA board administration operations committee meeting that was held on February 4th. The board approved and authorized staff to award an agreement um to Prescidio for the implementation of a softwaredefined wide area network at Riverside Transit Agency's Riverside and HIMT facilities in the amount of $324,000. The next meeting is scheduled to be held on March 4th, 2026. And that concludes my report on the last RTA board administration operation committees meeting. And also I will be giving um the update on the school districts and task force um meeting that was held today. Um so today uh we thanked Valverie as well as um Marino Valley Unified for their collaboration. We mentioned um economic development may begin revisions of the currentou. Um the police department, four deputies will attend um they announced that four deputies and the mayor will be excited to hear this one. Um four deputies will attend the car seat inspection classes um so that we can start to conduct car seat inspections um down here to be determined at a later date. The department um will partner with RUHS and present this initiative during the City of Marino Valley Public Safety Expo. They put it in the notes, Sarah. That's not me. They put it in the notes. This is not me. It's because Sarah and I had a side combo. Transportation engineering. And I didn't know till I started reading it. Sorry, my bad. Continue the replacement of uh back plates on the signal lights for transportation and engineering. um our parks and community services daddyaughter dance. They um discussed how it was sold out and successfully held on January 30th. Um February 21st, which is this Saturday, the community demonstration garden. We'll be prepping

for um we'll do prep garden for spring planting. March 14th, we are having a our Moval Multicultural and Art Festival at the Civic Center Amphitheater. We March 21st is the Sunshine Extravaganza, which is our free adaptive sensory friendly egg hunt for children with disabilities ages 3 to 13. March 28th will be our springtastic festival and egg hunt at Sunny Meat Park. April 4th, the day that everyone is waiting for, is the adult flashlight egg scramble at Lel Park. April 10th will be our glow our glowing crazy egg hunt um e evening at the rec center. We have a call to artists out to do um 32 utility boxes. We have our art loan program with the exhibition period going from February to May. Think Together has shared that they um are working with uh Cloverdale Farmers Market and they've partnered with Sprouts to give students hands-on experience exploring the joy of planting and caring for their own seeds. May Ranch Elementary School celebrated Black History Month and Valentine's Day. Um let's see. Let's see. Uh February 28th, what's school district is this? February 28th, Marino Valley Unified will be holding um their Steam Unity Expo and Reading Challenge celebration. March 14th, they will have their Moella Fest at the Marino Valley Civic Center here. Valverie will be having their Explorer Fair, which is this um Saturday at Valverie High School um where they'll be doing robotics demonstrations. Marino Valley College is having um their Monty's free clothing event on February 26. Their Mesa program orientation for STEM students this Saturday. This

Saturday is busy, y'all. So, just just drive around in circles. There will be a two-day health fair um that will be happening with Supervisor Gutierre's office um with details forthcoming. February 23rd, they will be having a um free produce distribution and the city will get the information and share that out. And that is all. Our next meeting is April 21st at the um at the community and civic rec center. And that is all my report.

Thank you, council member. And the final report will be for WROG. Council member Baka Santa Cruz. Um, at the February 2nd, 2026 WRCOG Executive Committee meeting, reports for fiscal department activities, committees, agency activities, and various external committees were received and filed. Additionally, the executive committee discussed the following key items. The Iron Public Sector activities update. Iron will now be able to provide technical assistance for clean energy and resilience services, including support for solar panels, battery storage, electric vehicle chargers, and micro grids. I ran can provide a paid fellow to work at public agencies for 11 months to support energy projects. Most fellows are recent college grads or professionals seeking to gain energy and local government experience. The California Public Utilities Commission plan application filing. The current cycle of IR funding goes through the end of 2027. Iron will keep the same sectors public code and standards and workforce education and training. The aim is to expand programs with proven success, increase cross- sector coordination and increase regional awareness of existing energy resources for other programs. The 2022 through 2027 cycle IN was funded for $65 million. The increased budget is due to increased regional demands for technical support, expansion of successful workforce programs, new codes and standards sector training and compliance support, and increased staffing to deliver expanded programs. The next meeting is scheduled for Monday, March 2nd at 2 p.m. at the County of Riverside Administrative Center on Lemon Street. This concludes my report.

Thank you, council member. And next up, item M, employee association reports. We do not have one this evening, which brings us to the famous city manager report.

Uh, thank you, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tim, council members. Um, uh, council member Bernard um said so much during the, uh, joint task force readout or update. Um I'm not quite sure if I'm going to be doing duplicate work here, but uh there are two items uh this Saturday. Uh for those hikers that are in our city, we have hike to Terry Peak, um which starts at 7:30 in the morning. And then if you're not a hiker, but you're a planter, um and like to be in the garden, um our community demo garden over here by our um uh amphitheater. Say, sorry, thank you. amphitheater is holding a program called Prep Your Garden for Spring Planting, um, which begins at 9:00 a.m. And to give uh all of our residents some time uh to get ready for this particular event on March 14th from 2 to 6 p.m. we will be um holding the Moval Multicultural and Art Festival here at our amphitheater. With that, that concludes my comments. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. City Manager. We'll go ahead and bring it to the deis for a council closing comments and we'll start off with council member Bernard.

Thank you, mayor. So, as we um close today, I would like to remind everybody it is raining outside. Maybe not right now. Um but please be safe out there. Slow down um and and just just be kind to each other because we live in Southern California and we are afraid of water on the road. So, um I have the information for the food distribution. It is actually going to be happening. No, this is still not the right one. So, this is not me at all. It's a Seventh Day Adventist church. It was a Seventh Day Adventist church in in Marino Valley. That's where it is happening at and the city will be sharing that information as soon as we get it. Um, we will be sharing it on our website. Um, so um I'm keeping my comments extremely brief. As um somebody said we were going to get out of here at 8:20, so we've passed that already. Um

8:25

8:25 So, keeping my c my uh comments very brief, I just want to um close in uh my comments in honor of um of the Reverend Jesse Jackson who passed away today who uh my my family often quoted um with his I am somebody and basically told me that every single day of my life that I am somebody and I've kind of upgraded it a little bit with my children. Um every day before they leave I tell them um I tell them what my grandmother used to tell me which was learn something new. Um, and now I upgraded to make good choices and don't be good, be great, because anybody can be good. But it takes real work to be great. And so I leave um the city of Marino Valley tonight with just that understanding that every day don't just be good, be great. Thank you.

Thank you. Next up, Council Member Delgato.

I too will be quick. Um, I held my community engagement event last week and it was awesome. Uh, great showing and thank you for the the E team that showed up and and answered questions for the public. I also attended the Adilante Hispanic Chamber um of Commerce meeting and they went over um a lot of new businesses in the Marino Valley with a Hispanic heritage. So, that was really cool to see a lot of Hispanic businesses coming to the chamber. So, that was really good. Um and I want to clarify that um after the last meeting I did uh get a call and met with a member of the public that she was an bike enthusiast and she kind of went through a lot of the existing laws on ebikes um and of the u the motorbikes that are out there. So um I got clarification on that was really good meeting and our goal is to keep everybody safe and we all have to live together the bikes the cars and trucks and um all that. So, our goal is to keep everybody safe and and obviously as you heard tonight, we're going to be working on that um with them. So, um and then I want to thank staff. Each and every one of you guys, when you were hired, your goal was to come in and do a job. Your goal wasn't to uh defend yourselves uh to uh what your jobs are. And that's that's our job. And if we are elected officials and if darts are going to be thrown verbal darts and I I I use the word u darts because it's it's just verbal. Um but if they're going to be thrown it needs to be thrown at us and not you guys. So thank you guys for doing what you do and you ought not be uh subjected to um criticism from the dis now or from the podium. let them criticize us and if there's an actual issue, it's our job to address it uh with the city manager

through his folks. So, uh thank you guys for doing an amazing job running the city and like I told the city manager, city clerk, uh that goes for each and every one of you, Steve, uh fantastic job. All of our um ET team members, thank you guys very much. And you know, we we want to support you in any way we can. we're we're your advocates and and that is a lot of why we do what we do is because you guys u allow us to. So, thank you very much. And um please be safe like uh council member and the mayor mentioned as far as the rain. Um please be safe and be kind to one another as you mosey about your days and your week coming up. Thank you very much. Thank you, Council Member. Next up, Council Member Rebecca Santa Cruz.

That brief that was two minutes. Okay, I'll be briefer. Um,

I just want to share that um um the Edgemont has now received 14 new um Wi-Fi gardens in the area and I just want to say thank you to city staff. I know that's a crazy idea. I came in here when I first came on council and I've been pushing and pushing for Wi-Fi in Edgemont and we did it halfway by getting the Tech on Wheels County program out um driving around Edgemont, but you really pushed and really did what I asked for was get those Wi-Fi into um Edgemont. And so now with the addition of the 14 new locations, we actually have 16 locations across the city where residents can go to parks or city facilities or now throughout Edgemont and hook up to Wi-Fi. And this is extremely important because um connectivity is um uh it's an asset right now. Um we really need to be able to connect everybody to the internet. So with this expansion, it really shows that we care about the residents, especially those in Edgemont where um connectivity may have been more limited. Um so I appreciate all the work that you do to um get to that you did to get this done. So um other than that, um have a good night and thank you very much.

Thank you. Next up, Mayor Prom Gonzalez. I'll keep my comments brief. Uh first of all, I want to thank all the residents who came out tonight uh especially for the Bradshaw Circle project. It shows that the our community is engaged and also the um the applicant, the developer for giving his perspective. And again, just just want to thank staff for everything you guys do. Um thank you for answering all of my questions. I know I've been sending a lot of emails and and comments and thoughts and and I appreciate you guys responding in in a timely manner and and giving me your perspectives on certain things. So, I appreciate every one of you and everything you do. Thank you. Have a good night.

Thank you. And brief comments here as well. Um another successful meeting here. And I did want to mention at the last meeting, someone uh or multiple members of the public brought up the the topic of um detention centers being uh or I should say ICE and DHS leasing and or purchasing industrial buildings across the country uh for for use as detention facilities or detention centers. And uh just want to uh clarify for the record at least here in the city of Marino Valley that such uses are prohibited within the city's industrial zoning designations uh which includes industrial light industrial and business park as well as any within any areas encompassed by any of the city's several uh approved specific plans. So just wanted to say that for the record uh for those watching at home uh in case uh you did not have that clarity yet. I wanted to make sure to mention that and thank staff for doing the research and getting us that factual information. And I don't have much more to add. Um uh we we will close today's uh meeting in memory of the the late Jesse Jackson. Uh but we have one last item to get to before we do that. So that'll conclude my closing comments and next up are future agenda items. Do my colleagues have any requests?

Okay, Madam Clerk, do we have any public comment? Thank you, mayor. We do. The first speaker is Christopher Baka.

Good evening again. Um, thank you Cabrera for uh bringing up the issue on the on the immigration uh detention centers. That was part of uh what I was going to talk about, but the other part is um the no secret police um act that recently passed. But there's a certain section that they're as far as the masks are concerned um that they're holding back but it probably will come back. And uh so my point to this is uh is there going to be any type of um discussion or how is this community going to react to ICE agents coming here with no identification and masks and um people don't even know who some of these guys are. All they have is vests that say police on them. And as far as I'm concerned, that's illegal and no search warrants and so forth. So, um, my request for future agenda items is to discuss how the city is going to enforce such acts. Um, on the other hand, um, my interpretation of the law as far as a second amendment right to criticize your government includes any government employee. Um, that's what I understand. I don't know how it is that people are upset of me criticizing certain acts by certain employees. And in my opinion, if it's not true, it's not true. You know, why are the feathers ruffled? You know, that's as far as I can see it. Um otherwise you know if I insulted anybody sorry about that but the questions are there and uh I feel that that this needs to be brought up as far as uh staff holding back information and having to go to court for such acts and that's going to happen again and it proves it

right that they're you know so therefore they need to be criticized that's the purpose of it to criticize your second amendment right to criticize your government. That's the point to it. It's not only for the elected officials. It's for any government employee. That's how I understand it. Now, if I'm wrong, maybe you can ask the attorney to clarify that and bring it up in a a future agenda item. You know, that's a purpose of having public comments to criticize your government and to bring up the question, is there something going on that shouldn't happen? And in my opinion, Mr. Mohan has done things that are unethical. So therefore, I'm bringing them up. If it's not true, well, it's not true. Call me a liar. But regardless of that, I'm not going to shut up. I'm going to continue criticizing whatever I see is wrong. Whatever you're doing that I feel is wrong, that's the purpose of it. If you don't like the criticism, don't work for the government. That concludes public comments on this item. Mayor,

thank you very much, Madam Clerk. So, with that, we will adjourn the meeting. And I want to give a quote. Uh the late Jesse Jackson uh said that both tears and sweat are salty, but they render a different result. Tears will get you sympathy. Sweat will get you change. And I think the times call for that in this moment. So, with that, we will officially adjourn our meeting at 8:31 p.m. Have a good night.