City Council - Special Meeting

Councilmember callings Councilmember clerk here councilmember stack flat Councilmember Redmond mayor Gladman here all right moving on to item three council and staff comments I

I'm good.

Okay. All right, in that case, we will move on to item four, the adoption of the approved fiscal year 2026-27 budget. Oh.

No pressure.

Sure. Why not? I got it. I got it. Yeah, I think it's important for those watching at home that we just reiterate some of the things that have been said online by myself as well as others. I do want to make it clear that I am speaking for myself, but I think I am mostly in alignment with the rest of council and staff when I say that We are not interested in building an AI data center in the old bottling plant. They did approach the city or a developer approached the city with interest. We heard them out as we would with any concern that approaches the city with a development project. That is as far as it went. In addition to that, just to clear up some information there, the property is actually in the county, the city has begun the process of annexation of both that and another unrelated property into the city, which hopefully will allow for a development in the future that the residents of Mount Shasta will get behind that can bring some much needed revenue generation and jobs to our community. And we've got something from our city manager.

Since we've brought it up. So at the last meeting, there has been this large firestorm that took off. without anybody checking, you know, the recording where it was said, again, as Casey mentioned, that there was a contact made by a company about a data center in the county and had the conversation. There were questions that they asked or that I asked that didn't satisfy me in terms of impacts to the city and everything from utility rate increases. So it was clear from the last meeting that on council there was not support for this. We didn't say this explicitly. I also said it in such a way that it was clear that there was no support for this. There's nothing frankly in it for the city in that very few jobs are created. There's no sales tax revenue. there's property tax revenue generated, but that would go to the county, there is no benefit for the city and the potential for exponential harm. So that's the city's position.

While we're sharing some thoughts, I wanted to reiterate what the mayor said about, we have a civic obligation to verify information. And I think that everyone has that obligation. There has been a plethora of misinformation spread to the point that it is, it's not even a misunderstanding of information, it's a blatant misinformation. Someone is blatantly, or many someones are blatantly shifting the information to make it look like we are a bunch of criminals. There was one post I saw that someone manipulated the city website posting and made it look like we were indeed having a secret meeting that following Friday after everything blew up. And that piece of info was spread amongst however many hundred people to make it look like that was truth. It is your obligation as a citizen that before you spread something that can be damning, to call and just verify that information, pick up the phone. We are representatives of you and it would have been much easier to answer these questions rather than kind of play this mega catch up where it had already lost control. So that is my request. I think this is a good fire drill for a few things. Number one, please be stewards of us as we are to you. And we're all in this together. And also, I think we now know loud and clear that a data center is not wanted by the public. And that can lead to some really good conversations and collaboration of how we can prevent that from happening in the future.

Thank you. And just one last closing thing to tail on that. Yeah, we know that that's not wanted, but let's take the energy that was used in opposition to the thing that's not happening, nor was it happening, and let's take an opportunity to think about, let's think about what we do want. And let's take that same energy to work towards something positive. Oh, and the chief would like to address folks as well, for those watching at home.

So just to touch on that, Councilmember Clarence, the mayors, it's one thing to disagree with a political stance or a business coming in. It's another thing to threaten violence against a person or their families. That has happened. We are actively investigating those threats. They will not be tolerated. They are a crime, and they are not protected by the First Amendment. If you cannot be on Facebook and think you're going to be protected under a fake name or a false profile, then we can't track you. We can find you. We have the way. So please, be courteous in your discourse with the council, if you will. There's no reason to threaten them or their families or their children with death and violence because you disagree with something that was a rumor in the first place. So I'm asking everybody to take a little bit of time, take a deep breath. Get the facts first before you start going off. And again, don't think because you're hiding behind a fake social media account that we can't find you or you've got a blocked number. We will find you if you're threatening citizens with death.

Thank you, Chief. All right. Anybody else? Appreciate that. All right. Now we will move on to item four. Just to reiterate what that was. It's the adoption of the approved fiscal year budget for 2026 and 27. At a public hearing on June 22nd, 2026, the city council approved the proposed budget for fiscal year 2026, 27. The budget is now ready for adoption. Our finance director, Melissa.

Thank you, Mayor and city council members. I would like to also thank the staff leadership for helping prepare this budget and the time that it takes to do that. We had deliberations, public comment, and review of the budget at past meetings on June and one in May, and the budget is now ready for adoption. There are no changes presented here from what you approved on June 22nd.

All right. Any questions? Okay. Anybody like to? Ah, right. We will open the public hearing. Seeing none, we'll bring it back for any discussion.

I will move to approve the adoption of the fiscal year 2026-27 budget. Second.

All right. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed or abstain?

Sorry, just to make sure, does the resolution number need to be dated? Sorry, it's at the end of the packet.

I think it's CCR 2615, if I remember correctly, Rachel? Hang on, hang on. 15.

Sorry about that. I know, I'm getting there. I don't see a resolution.

It's at the very, very end.

Oh. Page 19. Got it, got it. Okay. I move to approve resolution CCR-26-15, a resolution of the City Council of the City of Mount Shasta adopting an operating budget for fiscal year 2026 to 2027 and approving the authorized positions for the fiscal year.

Second. Second.

All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed or abstained? Thank you for that. And before we adjourn really quick, I think it is worth noting for anybody watching at home, Um, the, uh, there are two seats on council up for election in November. And just for anybody interested in running, if you want to chat about that, please come to city hall. Um, but the, you have to get your signatures in and declare by the end of July or very early August. Okay. Well, Early August. Check the county website. But if you're interested, please reach out. We would love to have some excellent folks join us up here on council. It's a lot of fun. The prior 10 minutes notwithstanding. On that note, anything else? Okay. All right. Next item.