City Council - Regular Meeting

Hey, all you people out there in the upper lodge. Can people hear me? How about those in the back? I see a hand waving. Oh, look at that. Lots of hands. Okay. Put your hand up if you can't hear me. Ooh, nailed that one. All right, yeah, it seems like we're pretty good. Sure, one minute.

Good timing.

Hey Rachel, are you doing the thing where priority is here?

Okay, sure.

All right, it looks like we are ready to get going. So when you hear this, we'll all stand and take a look over here. Thank you.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands,

Testing, one, two. Councilmember Collings? Councilmember Kler? Here. Councilmember Redmond?

Here.

Councilmember Stackliff? Here. Mayor Glodman?

Here. All right. And do we have any special presentations or announcements tonight? I don't believe we do. Okay, we are going to move on to public comment. I could be wrong, but I feel there may be some tonight. So for those of you that have not attended a council meeting recently, the way this will work is anybody who would like to can step up to that podium right there and please say your name and roughly where you reside. You don't have to give us your exact address, but just where you're coming from tonight. And then you have three minutes to speak on any item not on the agenda If you would like to speak on an item on the agenda, there will be a public comment period for each agenda item as well. I have been told that... Are we going to...

I can explain. So thank you all for attending. For those who have never appeared for public comment before, everyone is legally entitled to three minutes. I will be keeping track of your three minutes for you. So I'll let you know when you have 30 seconds remaining and when your time is up. Like I said, everyone is entitled to three minutes, but in the interest of getting through a high volume of comments, if anyone would like to voluntarily limit the length of their comments to one minute, those people can be given priority to get in line first.

And in addition to that, just so folks know, this isn't a back and forth time right now. So feel free to ask questions. Myself and others will be taking notes and immediately following public comment, we will respond as best we can to those. But just in the interest of this not devolving into us all shouting at each other. Okay. With that being said, don't be shy. Step right up.

and this time is for people who have chosen to voluntarily limit the length of their comments to one minute.

Thank you, folks. My name is Alex Hochstrom. I live on the top of Ski Village Drive, and I have a very unexciting comment. So a good friend of mine just had a real close call at Lake and Chestnut again. I have actually evaded about six really close calls of people not knowing to stop at Lake Street when they're barreling through. And this was a big pickup truck going. She said it was going like 30. So I know there is the one way plan 30 seconds possibly may resolve it. But I just want to put it out that that one in my whole time and I've seen them too. It needs to be addressed somehow. Flashing lights, something to make it a little safer before someone gets hurt.

Thank you.

Good evening council members. My name is Evan Drake. I'm a builder and member of the Siskiyou Housing Alliance and I live off of Vista. Apophiski Village. And I'd just like to submit some thoughts to you guys regarding the bottling plant, which I assume is not on the agenda. Is it on the agenda? OK, we're good. Basically, I want to advocate for a community land trust at the site of the bottling plant that can be used as a vehicle for community collaboration with the city regarding the use and the ownership in perpetuity for the site. Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Are there any other commenters who would like to voluntarily limit their time to one minute? Step on up.

Oh, it's for the folks watching at home. We just want to hear your voice, Ken. Come on.

Stage fright. Ken Nelson, I live in Hammond Ranch. I've been here 53 years. And I'm here for one reason, and that's to get advice on how to persuade the county supervisors to make a data ban on data centers in our county. And I don't know the best way to go about it, but that's my goal. I went to the supervisors meeting Valenzuela was kind to talk to me for about a half hour.

30 seconds.

The poor guy is stressed, so I'm going to add to it.

Thank you. Any other folks that would like to comment for one or less minutes? We got one taker in the back. This doesn't count as your minute.

Hi, Kathleen Hanson. I wanted to make a comment about potential for the Crystal Geyser space. I've been thinking about this for years, and I think it would be awesome to do something in conjunction with COS, or with the college system, where we turn that into a place where we're doing trade school for students. plumbing, electrical, building, and if we picked up, sorry, rail, like rail cars coming through, convert them to tiny homes, or something like that, just a way for education to happen, but then a product that could make some money. Thanks.

Thank you. Thank you. All right. Can I assume everyone else would like to speak for somewhere between 61 and 180 seconds? Less than a minute? Step right up.

My name is Debbie Derby and I live in Mount Shasta. I want to thank the city manager for making us aware of the potential of this happening. And I also want to thank, there was at least two of the council members that posted on Nextdoor. I'm not on Facebook, but I saw their comments and I want to thank you both. Thank you.

Thank you. Looks like we got another one coming up here.

Hello, my name is Neil Pawson. I live in Mount Shasta. I've been here since 1984. I would like to talk about the potential for the noisy whatever they're called. I don't even know them. Anyway, Mount Shasta depends on two things for our economy. One, tourism, and two, the quality of life. If we have these data centers come in, first thing we're going to do is lose our quality of life. There's going to be a lot of noise from the data centers. There's going to be a lot of air pollution because the data centers depend upon very big engines which are working basically 24 hours a day. They're basically really an ugly thing. I think if you were to ask the people in Mount Shasta, you would get an overwhelming response that they don't want this. If we get these in, we're going to lose our economy because a lot of people aren't going to want to come to a place that's got a bunch of trucks and a bunch of big engines. And basically, I think this is a really bad idea. So please vote against them. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Neil. For the late arrivals, we are in the midst of public comment and we are at a point where if you would like to voluntarily limit your comments to under one minute instead of the three minutes, then please step forward. If you would like to speak for between one and three, then just, you can do that momentarily. But if there's any more people who would like to speak for one minute or less.

Going once.

Oh, we got one.

Hi, council. Super fast. The noise was just brought up in the last comments, but also there's like infrasound. There's sounds that we can't even hear. That's really bad for our health, too. Please, for the sake of our health and our children's health and everyone's health around here, please don't do the data centers. Thank you.

Thank you very much. We got a hand up in the back.

My name's Kim Madsen. I live... Probably 2,000 feet away from the proposed data center in Crystal Geyser. I just was going to follow up on the comments and noise. I'm not absolutely opposed to a data center. I just think you need to approach it in a common sense way. It could be good, but there could be other uses, and you forego other uses if you decide it's a data center. There could be better uses, but they might be more difficult. As far as noise, though, I would add this, that I did a little research on AI. And it said that the large fans that are needed to do the cooling move large volumes of air. And they would have a sound that's of a very low frequency. It's 100 hertz. 100 hertz, you can hear it. But it's hard to hear. It'd be like a low hum. 15 seconds. And it would penetrate walls, and it's hard to stop a sound like that. And it has a sound, a wavelength of 11 feet, it says, and that could get stuck inside certain types of rooms of people sleeping by it. That's one minute. It can create a standing wave and be disruptive to sleep at night.

Thank you. All right, one minute going twice. Going three times, we will move on to those that would like to speak for three minutes. That would be everyone.

Dear Mount Shasta City Council, My name is Heidi George and I am speaking today as a private citizen. I live in Mount Shasta in the county and within a half a mile of the Crystal Geyser facility. I serve as a volunteer leader in my community in an effort to reduce the risk of wildfire. I am representing myself. I would like to show my support for annexing the Crystal Geyser land and facility to the city of Mount Shasta. The location of this facility is adjacent to the city and benefits from the city of Mount Shasta general plan. the benefits would apply to any future development. I am particularly concerned about any noise pollution from future development because of the growing and significant demand for surveillance, facial recognition, and AI training technology. It is imperative that we choose development that does not become outdated in three to five years, does not produce hazardous memory chips that must be disposed of, and adhere to efforts to budget our finite resources to minimize our impacts to a warming climate. Early this year, I became aware that the California Climate Investment Program had a grant opportunity for a regional factory built housing project. I think that building housing might be a good fit for our community for many reasons. It could provide a range of job opportunities and income, a needed source of skill development, and be a source of community pride. Some of the objectives for the grant are community support for such a project and that there is an identified need for housing. The Mount Shasta City General Plan, Goal H05, Support the Development of Affordable Housing, and Goal H06, Encourage Sustainable Development and Energy Conservation, speaks to both of these criteria. This is the third grant window for applications. We'll find out about it in August. If a recipient is selected, an initial grant for a feasibility study will be awarded. I would like to serve as a facilitator, a volunteer facilitator for that. From the concern I have about wildfire in my neighborhood, I would like to feel assured that if this facility should experience fire, if the Crystal Geyser facility should ever experience fire,

30 seconds.

That we have the resources available to fight that fire with an acceptable level of risk. I feel confident that we do right now. Given any repurpose of the Crystal Geyser facility, such as a data center, I would like to feel that same confidence. And I have copies for all of you.

Thank you.

Good evening, my name's Glenn Kaufman. I brought with me today seven copies of an 18-page proposal for a large-scale integrated aquaponics and hydroponics operation that produces certified organic leafy greens, herbs, premium vegetables, and high-value fish protein year-round. not to mention about 800 pounds a day of premium certified organic compost and animal feed as the main waste product. I call it Mount Shasta Organics. The property at 210 Ski Village Drive is a ready zone for agricultural use, and once built and operational, this business would employ approximately 30 full-time positions with dozens of ancillary employment opportunities, and would be fully operational by year two, injecting approximately $2 million per year in wages into the local economy, and within five years, producing an $8.5 million per year revenue stream, not to mention the enormous tax revenue boost. Mount Shasta Organics would literally be the most water efficient food production system achievable today at a commercial scale with a 98% water recirculation rate and a daily water usage of less than 10,000 gallons per day, which is less than 2% of what a bottling plant or data center could use. Capable of supplying a variety of 100% organic leafy greens and herbs, freshwater prawns, trout, tilapia, and even microgreens, dulse and spirulina, Mount Shasta Organics would be a year-round climate-controlled operation fully contained within the existing building footprint with absolutely zero synthetic waste or discharge. Mount Shasta Organics could be structured as a multi-state cooperative venture that distributes profits back to its members rather than outside shareholders. With a conservative estimate population of 40,000 folks for Siskiyou County and a proposed 25% participation rate amongst the county population, a one-time lifelong membership fee would range about $400 per person. By year five, co-op members would see yearly dividend checks in perpetuity, mind you, at a rate of approximately 12% growth per year on their initial one-time membership fee. SBA, USDA, and state agricultural development grants, including dedicated cooperative development funding, is available for approximately 70% of the $13 million acquisition and startup costs, with co-op membership and investments equity making up approximately 30%. And to give this proposal a kick in the pants, I've registered and will offer up the domain name, mountshasterorganics.com. Pure water, clean air, and good vibes. Manchester Organics.

Thank you very much.

Are we ready? My name's John Kenny. I came here from Reading today to discuss the meeting you had last Thursday night with respect to the city manager. Excuse me. The meeting was called, I understand, by the mayor as a special meeting on short notice, which would assume that it involved serious matters. The city council members who came were not given update of information that was going to be discussed and the goal was to terminate the city manager. There was no time to vet any of the charges or get any information or contact the city manager with respect to response to whatever charges were being made. I have been practicing law a long time, municipal law, and this is one of the most bizarre things I've seen. I would expect that an experienced city council, as you are, would have said, OK, we've listened. We're not taking action tonight. We're going to get to the bottom of this matter and decide what needs to be done. That didn't happen. Apparently, rather than terminating, the city manager was put on administrative leave. The operative effect is pretty much the same. The city is without leadership. And your city manager, who is a specially qualified city manager, which you're lucky to have here, and I think you all understood that until suddenly it wasn't the case anymore. There is no leadership in the city now, and this city understaffed to start with because of budgetary concerns and I used to deal with the city manager Probably once or twice a day with all the things he had to deal with he was overloaded However He did the job and he had the respect of the staff was except maybe one staff member so you're now without a leader and I don't know what your course of action here is, but with respect to the city council, the city council should have exercised some moderation here. You cannot surrender your authority to one city council member. It would be wise to take a look at the grand jury report for the city of Montague to see what can happen when the city council surrenders their authority to one. So that leaves us with no leadership. You have an interim you're going to appoint. Kim's very qualified, and the staff you have, generally, are very good staff, but Kim isn't experienced in being a city manager, and she has a full-time job already. So that's an interim, I guess, but I don't know how you're going to function that way. What the city council should do

That's three minutes.

That's time.

That's three minutes. Thank you.

That's time. Is the three minutes are up? Okay. Thank you. Thank you.

I have to imagine there's more people here for public comment.

Hi, my name's Patricia Carreras, and I live here in Mount Shasta. I came here and found the most beautiful, amazing community, nature, environment, lakes, and forest, and this mountain is just magical. And I fell in love, and within two months, I shut down everything in LA and came out here, because I was so touched, not only by the spirit of the people, but by the energy of the nature here, the surroundings here. I would really love to see that preserved, It's something that draws people here, but it's also something that sustains us, the people who live here. We're here because we recognize it's a magical, special place. And my fear is bringing in a data center is going to start to erode that and destroy that. I also have fears about what it's going to do to water situations. The headwaters is the supply, water supply for much of California, and if we start to have contamination at the headwaters, it's gonna move all the way down. I came from the south before I moved to LA, and being at the foot of the Mississippi River, I saw what happens when all the way down the river from Missouri to New Orleans, things get dumped in the river. People had cancers. There were all sorts of problems, not only for humans, but animals and the land even. So I would love to see us preserve, especially the water, because we have the most incredibly pure water for our children and for future generations and for all of California, because it all starts here. And water is one of the most necessary things for life. We can go a while without food, but we can't go for too long without water. And I agree, the noise pollution's a problem. The impact it will have is a problem. I want to say thank you to Glenn for that amazing presentation. In my very younger days, I went to Epcot Center in its opening. They had hydroponics there. I'd heard of the concept and never seen it. You could see the working model of how it works, how the plants and the fish, how they work together in this symbiotic relationship. The fact that you can have food year-round that's nutritious, that's free of pesticides, and organic. I think it's an amazing thing for... our city, for our communities, and even for the county. As food sources are gonna start to become scarcer, as different policies across the nation change, seniors feel the effect, everybody's gonna feel the effect. So to have our own food sources is an incredibly amazing thing. So I hope the annexation process is a reality that we can make happen. And thank you for your consideration.

Thank you. Anyone else? If you're here to speak on an item that's on the agenda, you will have to wait for that agenda item. Anybody else for an item that is not on the agenda tonight? Oh, there we go.

Rosalyn McCoy. I live here in Mount Shasta. And we need to really work on transparency. And having Cisco Economic Development promoting, hiding the projects that they're writing grants for, I think has deceived us, the populace, over the years. It happened with Crystal Geyser when they came in. I saw emails to the city council members to keep it a secret until they had the ribbon-cutting ceremony. And so that's part of what we're concerned about now is that all of this stuff is being negotiated and brought in and to the point where they're saying this is a done deal before it is ever brought before the people. And so having transparency will relieve a lot of our concerns. And yes, Siskiyou Economic Development is not a government agency, and so we don't have access to their information, so we depend on our city workers to inform us of what is going on. And it is sad that Todd was put down or discouraged from talking to us about the potential of a data center. There was some news articles about that. Yes. And so we the community want to help our city, not threaten anybody or talk bad or call anybody names, which is inappropriate both directions. And so all I can really say is let's keep everything above board. I requested weeks and weeks ago to find out how much does the city give to SISU Economic Development, a public record request. And that still has not been disclosed to me. And so it's like, well, what's going on? Why are this simple information being hidden? So it raises more red flags of what is going on. So thank you very much for sitting in the hot seats, and I appreciate it.

Thank you, Rosalyn. All right. Anybody else? Got a couple.

Hello. Thank you very much for allowing public comment. My name is Kristen Burke, and I'm a retired director of a crime lab from Cal DOJ. So I've worked many years of public service. Thank you for your service, everybody here. Appreciate it. I've been here for about four years. I live in Mount Shasta, by the way. And I've just sat back and observed a lot of the comments online, social media. some of your comments, and I wouldn't want to be in your shoes. Just working in public service and also having to deal with crisis management, I wanted to propose a suggestion to you all. Maybe you look at hiring a crisis management person or a communication person person to handle your social media as to the message coming out. You know how it goes when folks in the public see a gap in communication? Naturally, they'll create their own stories. I'm not saying the stories are wrong, right? It's just, instead of playing the game of telephone, it actually gets in front of a situation. So like, I did watch the the online meeting in regards to the data center and discussion with that. And perhaps that was discussed on the front end with the general public. It may have avoided a lot of some of the things that you all had to experience, but also some of the conversations that I saw going back and forth. There is no excuse for anyone treating anybody wrong or speaking inappropriately. But just working in public service, I've worked at the county level and the state level. I've seen it all. And that is a really big area where you can invest some of your funds to help support you. Okay. Thank you so much for the time. I really appreciate allowing the comment.

Thank you. Appreciate it.

Hello. Hello. My name is Mark Rogers. I'm a new resident here in Siskiyou County. I grew up in El Dorado County in South Lake Tahoe. So through my research, what I've kind of seen is that the Crystal Geyser plant actually isn't under the jurisdiction of the Mount Shasta City, and it's through Siskiyou County. And the same thing kind of happened with the Nevada state border and the California state border in Tahoe, and that's how we saw the casinos take over half of the east side of Tahoe and lead to all the problems there. So one of the things I would really recommend and would like to see the city do is put a lot of effort into at least at a minimum making whatever is going to go into the plant that's there. Because I know Siskiyou County has been having revenue difficulties with the loss of the mill and it's an asset and it's got to get utilized so that everything can keep running. But to see it so, like, because it so directly affects the town, that the town has a direct vote on either approving or disapproving what goes in there. Because I think, you know, and that, I don't know that entire process, how that would get, like, that referendum would get added to the Siskiyou County Charter and stuff, but that's something that would need to happen. would be a really good thing to happen because then we all love Mount Shasta and the nature and everything that this beautiful place provides and whether you're a rancher or a hippie or what have you, we all wanna make sure the land is taken care of and we have a place to raise our kids and retire and not see a bunch of bad stuff come in here. So, yeah, that would be my recommendation and would like to see that initiative more publicly proposed. I know people have been talking about annexing, but that would be like direct control. This would be at least like a side adjacent where, you know, the city has to be included in that decision before any kind of leases or proposals could go into the actual planning stage. So, thank you.

Thank you.

Hi, my name is Bobbie Holman and I live in Mount Shasta. I think it's a little bit in the county at this point. And I would like to say what we're looking at here as we draw people together on this issue is we're looking at our community. And one of the most powerful experiences that I've had is witnessing this community in all different sides, all different agendas come together in favor of ethics that lead our country. There are ethics that are about truth, about openness, about having a sustainable agriculture and a sustainable way of living. And now we're bringing people together on this issue. How are we going to do it in the very best way where we're not having a division of people, of opinions, but we're having people that contribute? We all want to contribute to the welfare of our community. This is the most amazing community I've lived all over the world, and the people on all sides of the political spectrum, on all sides of education and vocation. I'm a doctor, but I know that what I see here are people that want to work together. So as our leading force, let's annex this project and bring people together to see what is in their hearts, what will really serve not only themselves, their families, but our community. this common unity that we all share. So I really appreciate you all having this as an open meeting, and I know that we're wanting to contribute to the building of what could happen, but to make it for the community and to keep our water sacred, keep our children sacred, and keep our environment sacred. The data center not only is diesel into the environment and the low frequency of sounds and these standing waves, it's also radiation. And we have more pollutants than we can analyze at this point. But it belongs somewhere, and I think they're thinking of outer space at this point. But our community is a leader in ethics in this country. And we want to continue to stand by that and stand with each other in this project. Thank you all so much.

Appreciate it, Bobby.

Hi. Thanks for having this and letting me speak and everything that my wife just said. I endorse that 100%. I'm a doctor, too, a PhD type, piled higher and deeper, of course. So I own and operate a statewide mental health organization, have for the last 45 years. I kind of stepped back as CEO and let my daughter run the company. And I bought a house here up on Madison in 2019. And I love the energy here. I love it. I go up to Bunny Flats or the Upper Skeeble and hike around almost every day. We go out in the lake and swim around almost every day and agreed that something needs to be done with that building that serves the community. Bobby and I were up at Wairika at the county meeting and there's a couple of, I mean, Glenn's idea is fabulous and there's other possibilities. And I think that several could take place in that building and serve many different, I mean, the Shakespeare people in Ashland want space. So I think we could get creative and do something to really pull the community together in a way that would be really serving the community. And thank you for letting me speak. God bless you all.

Thank you very much. Please.

Hi. My name's Jack Trout, and I've lived here for 33 years, and I run four businesses around the Mount Shasta area. I'd like everybody to think about why do we need data centers? I mean, my life is fine right now. I don't need anything enhanced. I'm very content with the way I live and I think back on my life about things that have happened along the way like dams being constructed. At least we got something beneficial out of it. We got beautiful lakes. Data centers don't offer anything for people other than a low amount of employment for a few people that fit the mold And I think it would drastically change our area, whereas there's lots of people that need employment. There's youth that are forced to leave the area and come back. But I just don't think data centers is the answer. I mean, what will define our area and this building? What are we about as a community? Do we want to be defined as a data center town, or do we want to use that opportunity to look for businesses that could employ youth, also be beneficial to the state, use the water for the highest and best use? Also, hydroponics makes sense. I've been talking to the Ashland folks up at the Shakespeare Festival, and there's other areas, there's other ways that we could use that facility that would actually be a moniker. It would be something that would give people a reason to visit our area and to be proud about our area. Could you imagine if it happened, if this was approved by the council and everybody, If we actually had like a Shakespearean, Bavarian type of festival setting there, maybe a multi-use where we are also doing hydroponics, housing, things that the community needs that would benefit us now, but also our image and how people would benefit. view us as a community. I don't wanna be thought of as a data center town, you know? I look at this area and I feel so fortunate. My American dream has happened in this town. And I'd like to see others have that opportunity, especially the kids. Thank you.

Thanks, Jack.

Hello, my name is Philip Falkel. My wife and I moved to Mount Shasta about five years ago. But it was our dream for about 12, 13 years prior, we would come up here on vacation on a regular basis in the summertime and in the winter and take advantage of all the outdoor activities that we have going on here. I honestly feel trying to put a data center here is like putting a square peg in a round hole. It's just, it's not right. It's just, it is in everything against what we believe in in this community. I don't think that a data center will value our water as much as we do. I don't think they really care about the importance of how how it is one of the main features of this community in this area. The water provides so much recreation all the way down, literally all the way down to the Bay Area. So what happens here affects everybody all the way down potentially that river. So our choices are not just our choice here that are going to just affect us. We can be the cornerstone of how we look at how we're going to protect the rest of communities down the river. And with that said, I'm still quite not sure I've heard of any communities being happy with a data center being installed in their community. I really haven't heard that. And if that is really happening, then I've yet to have them speak out on any news channel at all. So I really think that some of the options that have been spoken to here are community oriented. I think a organic plant would be an amazing facility that would be a tremendous cornerstone from employment. I realize Siskiyou County has lost a tremendous amount of jobs, but I don't think a data center is gonna bring any jobs in here, really. Not as much as something else that would really provide potentially 100 to 200 people's employment, and maybe even more. So I really hope we can think along those lines. Thank you.

Thank you, Phil. Anyone else? Oh, please.

Good evening, Tim Stearns, Mount Shasta, California. I'm a 36-year resident in Mount Shasta, served on city council for 24 years, served on DIAC, also served on Active Transportation Commission, presently a member of Planning Commission. Most people in this audience are probably conjecturing, speculating, that Todd Juhasz was put on administrative leave because of his opposition to the data center. Am I correct? On the other hand, from what I understand, the council is not in favor of the data center. So it doesn't make any sense to me With my experience, I think that's why Todd Juhasz was put on administrative leave. Rather, he would suggest to me that there is some sort of personnel matter that the council is attempting to address. If that's the case, and we've had that sort of situation in the past in Mount Shasta, I have served with every city manager that has been in this town for the last 30 years. What the city council has done in the past is bring in someone recommended by Cal Cities, League of California Cities, as an outside investigator to investigate whatever the issues are, whatever personnel issues might be going on, as quickly as possible. and then come to city council in closed session and render his or her findings after talking with typically a great number of staff members, department heads, lower level as well. If that's not being done, I suggest to you that that is the immediate next step that ought to be taken. Thank you.

Thank you.

Hi, my name is Anastasia Sprout, resident of Mount Shasta, technically an unincorporated county. I just wanted to give a message. I was going to give this to Todd today, but he is not here. But I think it could be beneficial for others to hear. I just wanted to say, as others have said, thank you for your courage to inform us of what was being discussed. This increased my confidence in you and your trustworthiness as city manager and a community and land protector. I wanted to say that I feel sad about the threat, rage responses that any staff received from the public. and grateful for the decisive and strong response by Chief Gibson and the Mount Shasta Police Department against any safety threats that they are criminal and will be investigated and fully prosecuted as appropriate. While I would never commit nor endorse intimidation nor violence, I have to say I do honor the fierceness of the Mount Shasta people. I've only lived here since October, but one thing has become exceedingly clear. Mount Shasta residents are, as Bobby said, highly ethical in the main, and they are water and land protectors. I'm honored to be among them. I also want to say if you care about data centers, don't rest now. We have a city hall tomorrow night to talk about the landing, which is going to also shape the community if I have my dates right. And there's also the issue of opportunity zones, which is later on the agenda today. I think it's very important that we pay attention to anything that's coming from this federal government. that might affect our community. So I hope people here will please stay for the entire meeting so we can hear more about Opportunity Zones and how they may intersect with Mount Shasta. Thank you.

Thank you.

Oh, there we go.

Namaste and aloha. Most of you guys know me by my full name, Clay Neil Ponanuihanohana Afa Iherigarigan. Some of you know me as Afa. Random Hawaiian, lives close to the KOA. Been working here for about a year and a half with my beloved, and been saying the same message to every city that we've gone to, we, Dunsmuir, Lake Shastina, HOA, Wairika, and now we have connections in the county, that we have a demographic cliff that is coming. It is mathematical. There's not a damn thing we can do about it. Our baby boomers are making their graduation and ascension. In less than a decade, And in Mount Shasta, we have an average housing medium price of 550,000. Wairika, 400 something thousand. The average income for one individual is still 40,000 in the whole entire county. Mount Shasta is still 34,000, been like that for 30 years. 30 years ago, a house here was, I don't know, 150. 30 years later, 550. Individual income remained 34,000. We are not only losing our elders into intergenerational housing and downsizing sections, but we're losing our elementary kids to our high school kids to our college kids and weed, which is now gonna not be able to afford a $550,000 home in Mount Shasta or remain here in the county. Thereby, two generations are leaving in the next decade, which means our little county of 40,000 is gonna drop damn near close to 20,000 unless we do something. This warning has been given out many times in many cities and many councils and many planning commissions. And so I know the data center is ridiculously important. I know that. I know that our city is going through a lot with our attorneys and our city manager. I know that. But we cannot lose focus that all the hard work we did for our tiny houses on wheels, for our kids, And the work that Kim and Araya has done to bring a power team together recently last week, 12 people, to upgrade the tiny house ordinance to make it the strongest in the nation, not just California, but all 50 states, brings a white light tunnel to our generations. And so I would implore, with everything that I am, that our council remain steadfast and focused, that in the next city council meetings that we have this month, next month, the following month, that our tiny house ordinance will be upgraded, the wording, language, lingo will be upgraded, and take a vote for a yes, and then second vote 30 days later for a yes, so I can take that dang ordinance to every city, into the county, and change the golden age for all of us.

Thank you, Afa.

Greg Dinger, Mount Shasta. I'm just going to throw it out there and see if we can get an answer. Is anybody willing to answer why the city manager was put on administrative leave? Thank you.

Hi, everybody. Araya Malchasta, half of Ohana Connect, Ohana Malama Lama, formerly YAH Movement. I just want to, again, our experience, we've come to all of these. We've missed one in the last year and a half. It's nice to see a lot more people here than normal. Usually a lot of times it's just me and Afa and maybe one or two other people. But so far our experience with this council has been that they have usually acted incredibly for the benefit of the community. They do, from my experience growing up in D.C., they do not fit the typical political mold that you would expect. We've always appreciated that you guys really do seem to have a lot of integrity when it comes to the community, and we hope we continue to see that, obviously, no matter what's happening with the staff shakeups. And also I love that so many people are rallied to movement and doing things and you're passionate and I love seeing that because clearly we have that too. I would really just hope also that all our community that has all this passion about this topic in particular If we could harness that type of passion and activity and motivation to get out there every single day and do things, can you imagine what we could do in this community? We would be so unstoppable. It would be unbelievable. We're here every day. We're in these meetings usually twice a month. We usually come to planning commission too. That's a lot of extra hours after we work. I've got kids. We're family people just like you guys. We don't have a trust fund sitting anywhere. We just show up every day and we try our hardest. So if anybody else would like to join us in trying our hardest every single day, whether it's tiny houses or data center or just protecting the community and contributing, It can't just be a show up one time and then get tired and stop. We have to stay committed to it and we have to work hard at it because it doesn't happen overnight and that would just be my plea to all of you. Let's just do all this stuff together. Can you imagine what we could do? Okay.

Thank you, Aranth. Any other takers? OK. At this point, I am going to bring it back for council and staff comments. I've had a request for a brief recess, and then we will jump right into that. So stretch your legs real quick. Grab a drink of water. Yeah, go ahead. Just kidding.

Sorry. Before we go into brief recess, I wanted to mimic what was just stated. It is very, very nice to see so many people in this room and receiving so much feedback. Usually there is a handful of people or less that we see, but I would love this type of interaction on a regular basis. We have been voted in to serve the best interest of the public, but a lot of the time we have to guess what that best interest is or use our best judgment to do so, and AFA and his lovely partner, they've brought forward so many topics that we didn't even know existed, and we've acted on it because of them. So there is a lot you can do. These ideas in replacement of the data center for Crystal Geyser building are amazing, but we are limited to what we can do. You guys have a lot of power. You can form a committee, reach out to possible things that can go into it. We'll do our job to best support, but you know, I would love to see this kind of commitment and momentum moving forward from all of you.

Yeah. Well, folks can grab a drink of water, do whatever, but I am just going to address a couple of the things that were brought up. Obviously, that was Well, a full page worth of comments, so I'm not going to individually address each one. One of the things I will, and Kim, stop me if I say something incorrect or feel free to chime in, but annexation has been discussed quite a bit. And while I am definitely in favor of that, obviously more localized control of anything that affects our local community is certainly for the better. You know, annexation, it's not something we can just do. It has to be in conjunction with the county, with the property owners. And one thing that's really gratifying, I'm going to kind of echo something that Tessa said, is that folks are preparing alternatives and revenue generating ideas, things that would benefit us. Because at the end of the day, neither the county nor the property owner nor a prospective buyer is going to annex in if they think that the community is just going to shut anything down. In that case, they're not going to want to. So definitely keep that energy up. We're still going to work towards that, but we definitely need to move towards doing something. We can't say we want to annex it in and do nothing. That'll just be a non-starter. So it's really gratifying to see some of these really great ideas. I actually like a lot of them, frankly. Yeah. Looking forward to reading some of those. Let's see. Oh, yeah. Brief recess here, and then we'll get right back into it, folks. We'll address more of what was said. And feel free to stay for the rest of the meeting, too. You don't have to leave.

All right.

Well, thanks for everyone that stuck around here. Looking forward to getting back to our regularly scheduled programming. So just to address a couple more things that were said there, hear you loud and clear about where folks stand on the property, the one Shasta property up there on Ski Village. Definitely hear you, and we'll continue taking that all into consideration. With regards to our city manager, we, as a city council, are required to We are required to consider the best interest of the community. We cannot comment on personnel matters. Mr. Juhasz does still maintain his current position and contract, and he is still under his current contract with the city, but we can't comment further on personnel matters at this time. I understand that's not as satisfying as folks would like, but that's just the way it is. All right, would anybody else like to make a comment over here to my left?

Yeah, so this is a comment about what's on the consent agenda. There's a lien being put on two properties for those that notice. I'm assuming some staff member did that. Okay, it's not very much money and yet we have a property on the south side of town that owes us I assume they still owe us upwards of $50,000. Do they still owe us that, Chief? Okay, so my point is that I don't think we put a lien on that property in any way. It's for sale again, so when it transfers ownership, if there's not a lien there, we're not going to get our money out of escrow.

Which is why we're coming next week with the... our next council with the first reading of the lien uh amendment to our uh section so that we can actually have the uh the ability to do that on the uh commercial volumes so that's coming to you next so we can't do that right now with there there was an issue in our municipal code it doesn't allow us to put a lien on the fines and for those uh sections it was my understanding so we're amending it so that we can actually put it on the property for the fees and fines and everything. So that's coming to you next.

But the unpaid property, the unpaid hotel taxes have to be, could be, no? They're not leanable either? No. All right, so you're going to basically update the code so that we can do that.

We're going to update the code so we can do the lien, and then I can, yeah.

I do realize there was one other that I want to get to. Alex, you mentioned the Lake and Chestnut intersection. That is being addressed in the Lake Street reconstruction plan, which is currently underway.

Oh, there you are.

Yeah, because certainly not alone, particularly in the wintertime. We all see cars doing things there they probably shouldn't.

We have to be careful how we say things as this wonderful council. But what, and I have stated some things online, but what I do want to say is that I am in favor of clean water. I'm in favor of the environment. I'm in favor of jobs. And I think it would be awesome if we had something go into that building that could satisfy all of those things.

Well said. Couldn't agree more. You got any over there?

Are we pivoting to staff comments?

I think that would be appropriate at this time.

Okay, great. I do have an update on the landing. For the benefit of everybody in the room, the landing is the 120 acres on the south end of town. The city recently entered into a contract with a consultant to prepare a conceptual master plan. What this conceptual master plan is going to do is to figure out what developments or what types of developments should be utilized within the landing. For the benefit of everybody in the room, we are having the consultant team flew in yesterday. Chief and I and Corey, we spent most of the day today doing our internal team kickoff, meaning they are here now. Tomorrow afternoon at 5.30 here at the Upper Lodge, there is a town hall meeting, town hall meeting number one of three town hall meetings. The idea is to solicit as much information as we can from the public so that whatever plan gets put into place is a plan that everybody within the community can get behind. And so if anybody in the room is willing and able to come tomorrow at 5.30, I promise there will be refreshments. We have a gal in our office who is offering to bake cookies for everybody. So I'm hoping for a fun, engaging experience from everybody. And from there... the consultants will be putting the ideas together and coming up with a few alternatives or options that will then be shared at town hall meeting number two. We'll refine that in town hall meeting number three and then move forward with everyone's input. So that is the update on the landing.

Awesome. Thank you. Yeah, it'll be a good time. Everyone should show up. All right. Any other council or staff comments? Chief Burns? Good? No, you're good. Not to put you on the spot. Okay. Chief?

I just want to reiterate what Kim is saying here. The reason I was late was I was with them. We were doing an actual walking of the physical site down there. And they're coming up with great ideas. But again, they want to know what the community is looking for from convention to parks and trails and affordable housing. So they're kind of good in a concept of what the property looked like today. And now they're hoping that you from the community will come and talk to them about what they can, what you would like to see out there. And so they can develop the plans that the community, the developers and everybody so we can get this going so that we don't go into the history books of Mount Shasta was a nice ghost town and we stay viable and we move on. And also, if you haven't done so, the Gateway Trail is in down there, and they got the parking and stuff, so go in there and ride your mountain bikes down there. We walked that as part of the site, and that's all gonna be integrated into the development down there, the Gateway Trails and stuff. So come in tomorrow, please. I know the data center thing is a passionate thing, but the development, you wanna be involved, this is your chance. Come out as a community and give us the ideas. good or bad, indifferent, just come and give us the idea so we got someplace to work with. Thank you.

I'm missing my softball game for it, so it's a big deal.

Just saying.

All right, so we'll move on now to committee updates. We've got the Downtown Enhancement Advisory Committee, the Library Tax Advisory Committee, the Beautification Committee, and the Active Transportation Committee.

I think there's only one update to report. That is a meeting from the beautification meeting from last week. If everybody has seen the beautiful planters with the variegated dogwood and flowers downtown, that is the work of our gals in the beautification committee. So when I sat in on the meeting last week, yes, they just picked up a few more planters. And so sometime this week, they will be in downtown planting additional trees and plants. So if you see them... give them a high five, because that's a lot of work. I think we've got staff in Public Works to help them with that, but they're responsible for making things look nice and pretty, and that was a nice update to hear.

And if anybody that is part of that is watching, I saw those downtown, and they do look great. Yeah, sure. Let's do that. On that note, we do have a vacancy on the Planning Commission.

Do we still?

Yeah. One vacancy on the Planning Commission, two vacancies on the beautification committee and one vacancy on the downtown enhancement advisory committee. So if you are interested in channeling all of this energy into beautifying your city, reach out to city hall and check out what those committees are all about. All right, moving on to item seven, the consent agenda. The city manager recommends approval of the following consent agenda items. All resolutions and ordinances on this agenda or added here to shall be introduced or adopted as applicable by title only and the full reading thereof is hereby waived. A, approval of minutes, June 2022, 2026, regular city council meeting, June 29th, 2026, special city council meeting, July 8th, 2026, special city council meeting. B, approval of disbursements, accounts payable, Six, X, 26. All right, and six, something else, 2026. Total gross payroll and taxes for the periods ending June 2026 and July 2026. C, police department monthly report. D, mobile home rent stabilization ordinance second reading. E, property tax liens.

All right, move to approve consent agenda items A through E by title only.

Second.

All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed or abstain? Okay. We'll now move on. All right.

To the chair.

Yeah, go ahead.

I love doing this with applause, so this is adding a lot of fun to my night. Sure.

Why not?

All right. We are now moving on to item eight. For those following along at home, this is on your packet, page 73. This is the public hearing for the parklet ordinance. Background, on June 16th, 2026, the planning commission recommended that the city council amend the Mount Shasta municipal code chapter 19.03 parklet dining to provide additional parameters, comply with new legislation and clarify application review procedures. Kim, would you enlighten us further?

Yes, thank you, Mayor and members of the City Council. For everyone's benefit, the parklet, what the city is defining as parklets are those two wooden structures that we see outside of Pipeline and Craft House. That started as a temporary thing so that there would be a place to sit down and eat during COVID. It was such a smashing success that the city adopted a permanent ordinance to have these parklets there permanently. But as what happens over time is that as you go through the ordinance, there may be some ambiguities or things that really aren't that clear. And so this is simply an exercise to update what's already written to add in a couple of design parameters. maybe complying with an assembly bill that came out to recite our distances, and also just to clean up a few procedural things that we may or may not have been doing, but it was never documented. So this is more of a cleanup exercise. It doesn't change the ordinance in its context or spirit or the entirety or anything like that. So that's all it is.

All right. Looks like we've got a question over here. Yeah, question over here.

Yes, does the changing of 15 feet to 20 feet, is that going to have any implications for Pipeline or the Craft House? Are they gonna? No, it does not. It will affect future applicants. Got it, thank you.

Any other questions over here? I have a question. Since this has kind of become more in the public eye a little bit, maybe folks have realized this is an opportunity, have other businesses come forward with applications for outdoor dining?

Not to my knowledge, not yet.

All right, if we don't have any more questions, we will go now to public comment. So if you would like to comment about this, feel free, please come on up to the podium up here. You will have three minutes to tell us what you think for or against or ask questions.

Hi, I'm Mark Rogers. I have just a couple of questions about that. I know this was like on the agenda, but the outlets right there, the safety measures for like impact on the side that's closest to the Theory Coffee Shop and the one closest to ACE, if there's any kind of like in this discussion, if there's any proposal to put like barriers there and stuff like that because I've I've seen that you know It's just kind of like wood there, and if you know something unfortunate You know what people are eating that could be something that you know where it's you know Maybe not those concrete things you see on the freeway Maybe something nice, but in that same reinforced manner so that you know we could prevent any kind of Especially if like more businesses are going to do it. That's you know something that would be you know, would be my suggestion. Something I've thought about when I've seen those. Because I think they're really cool. I love eating there and outside. It's great. But, you know, you kind of get a little shiver when you think about it. Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Alex again. And so I think that the dynamics of the parklet situation will probably change when and if the one-way street is adopted. Because I think part of the issue is people don't know how to park anymore because the cars do it for them. And there are some safety things, but I have also eaten there plenty of times. and enjoy it but you know I think with traffic going in only in one direction and parking you know in a diagonal fashion possibly might make it actually more appealing and safer. So it's something that's probably going to evolve.

Almost certainly. Thank you. And for those that are wondering what that's all about that we haven't talked about that at many recent council meetings, but I'll just bring that up. I don't think this is really on the table at the moment, but there is talk of creating one-way streets downtown, Chestnut and Mount Shasta Boulevard. We don't have to get into that right now. It's not imminently, but that's what he's referring to. I know, I know. Not to freak everybody out.

Hello. My name is Gabriel, and I'm a Mount Shasta resident. I just wanted to say for the record that I really love the parklets. I think that they're a great addition to downtown and I would love to even see more of them. I think that it's a really wonderful place to eat and it's also a really great attention getter and community building space for people that may visit the town. Yeah, so I'm just a big fan of those. Happy to hear that they're hopefully going to be permanent and expanded. That would be awesome. Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Roslyn, so the parklets were debated for many years before they went in. So I feel like a lot of people have had input. I'm in favor of it personally, but I've had individuals come up to me and say, well, if we have so many parklets that it makes it difficult for people with disabilities to park. And so ultimately, I think we need to look at do we need to have disabled parking in those areas just as a future, because we don't have any designated disabled parking.

Thank you. I think that's a good point.

Hello, my name is Noah. I've been a resident of Mount Shasta for my entire life. I have enjoyed many, many meals on those outdoor parklets, so I am in favor of them. I do like the handicap parking idea. I think that sounds good.

Thank you very much.

Glenn Kaufman again. When I first saw those go in, I thought it's a great idea, excellent idea. Then I watched the first winter and I said to myself, why aren't these things on wheels so that they could be moved out of Maine downtown during the winter when nobody can use them? And I have no idea about the costs. I have no idea whether it gets stored. But just as far as plowing the streets and safety and everything else, they should be portable.

Thank you. Good point to consider. Do we have more? Oh, we got one.

Afa, we have friends that's on the other side by, what's that, Crystal Tones on that corner on the way to Berryville. So we've got the tapas place with Nikolai, right? And his feedback, so it's just something worth thinking about. One is insurance. Inside of his world, he claims that insurance goes through the roof for a small one-man band, little shop like that. So it seems really hard. So if anybody has insurance things that we could brainstorm, we could get more parklets out there for small businesses. And number two, he was very aware that our foot traffic stops at theory. And so I said, well, you know, it's a long shot, but what if we did put a little crosswalk on the other side? What's that, Bistro 107? What about them? Right? What if there was foot traffic somehow, someway? What if all the events somehow, someway? What if the walk-run started on the other side for all that I care? You know, what if we just need more foot traffic to not stop at that area? We just need to brainstorm about insurance to help the small guy and brainstorm about crosswalk safety, et cetera, and then brainstorm about events that possibly start on that side or some random ideas. But those things came to... our attention, so we're just passing it on. Love and light.

Thank you very much. Any other Parklet related thoughts out there? Oh, here we go, Patricia.

I think you can all understand why I would say I love the disability parking idea.

That would make it so much easier. I just want to say, very mundane, not really, I mean, no need to take it super seriously. But, I mean, when they were first built, it's just kind of like wooden structures. We have such a nostalgic, really adorably cute little town. Maybe we could add some color or character to them. That's all. It's not like it's going to affect the functionality, but they're really nice to have those parklets and something that just makes them feel more homey would be kind of cool too.

Thank you. Thank you.

All right. Anyone else out there before we bring it back? Okay. We will now bring it back for discussion.

All right. So I'm going to start off. Thanks for those in the audience that are favorable of these parklets. I'm pleasantly surprised the people I deal with almost across the board are negative about them. Now they are other business owners typically and they are under the impression that some favorable arrangements were made for these two businesses that currently have those. And I hope this settles the matter. So any business, I won't name names, that wants to open a parklet in these public parking spaces can do that if they follow the procedures in this code, absorb the costs, initial costs, which would include the fees to start to do this with the city, bureaucracy-wise, and the construction costs. And then there's a continual, call it a rental fee of the parking spaces, because they are public parking spaces, of $50 per month per parking space. It's open to anyone, correct, Kim?

Anyone along the main drive.

Because I have to go out and tell all these people. business owners that they can do it too if they want, but it's not free. Okay, so that's my comment. And yes, I'm very in favor of moving this to a second reading, so whenever you're ready. Thank you. Anybody? John? All right, so. John? No. You're sick of this one too? I know, right? Since 2021. All right, so I'm going to move to approve the first reading of Mount Shasta Municipal Code amendment to chapter 19-03, point 03, regarding parklet dining to a second reading two weeks from now by title only. All those in favor?

Aye.

Aye. Any opposed or abstain? Okay. All right, well, let's all go enjoy some outdoor dining. All right, moving on to item nine, packet page 88, professional services agreement, interim city attorney. On July 8th, the city council voted to release the city attorney and to appoint Colin Tano, Highsmith and Whatley PC as interim city attorney. I have been informed we are changing that to actually, we are approving them as contracted city attorney. And Rachel, did you want to say that part?

Yes, so there is a legal requirement that prior to the vote, we must disclose to you a couple of facts here. So the rates of their legal services for general services are $2.75 an hour, and for specialized legal services are $2.95 an hour. And the remainder of their rates and services for other types of work are indicated in our packet, which is publicly available on our website. You can find it on page 97. And again, we want to reiterate that this is a contractor, not an employee, so they will be receiving no benefits.

All right. And Kim, did you have anything to add to that? No?

Not really, no.

Okay. We will then bring it back for questions here. No? Our new city attorney is currently online, so if he's watching and would like a chance to address folks, now would be the time.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor, Mr. Council. Can you hear me all right?

Yeah, we can.

All right, perfect. Your staff was good enough to, on short order, get us all dialed in with being able to participate via Zoom. Just wanted to introduce myself, Andrew Jarrett. I'm a shareholder with... the law firm of Colin, Tuno, Highsmith, and Whatley. He did pretty well with the name, much better than most people do. And we are a law firm based out of Grass Valley with six offices throughout the state. I presently serve as city attorney and town attorney for several municipalities in Siskiyou County. And I look forward to working with you all. Awesome.

All right. If there's no more questions, thank you for that one, Andrew. If there's no more questions, we will now move on to public comment.

So I guess the question is, is how long are we looking at having this contract service? And that, as he said, he is representing a number of cities in Siskiyou County, Wairika, and what kind of conflict of interest would that be if we had a discussion with... the county over issues, are annexing the Crystal Geyser area. And so I really would promote that we move as quickly as feasible to find another representation for the city.

Thank you.

Anyone else? Just a quick question. Retainer. I was just wondering how that might work or if it does work or if it doesn't work, if it's just hourly contract or is there a $10,000 retainer? You know what I mean? So that was just my question. Cool. Thank you.

Jack Trout. I was just wondering if this new attorney that's being contracted by the city is working with the Siskiyou County Economic Development. Is he working with them too? Can he answer that question?

We can't answer.

So he's working with the city of Mount Shasta and he's working with the county?

No. Okay.

Well, he is working with the county. No, he represents other cities within the county.

For a potential conflict of interest for the city of Mount Shasta annexing the property, the CG property from the county to the city, it just, no.

No, there isn't. He doesn't represent the county and it's actually fairly common for a firm or an attorney to represent multiple cities.

Okay, but not county. Right, he doesn't represent the county.

Yeah, yeah, no conflict of interest.

I do believe the county has its own attorney or two, right?

Yeah. Can he disclose who he is working with?

Any other public comments? Okay, we'll bring it back for council discussion then. Just to address this, to the best of my knowledge, he represents Fort Jones, Aetna, and was representing Wairika, but no longer does. He dropped Wairika in order to represent Bar, thank you, Barstow.

Mr. Mayor, I can explain.

Oh, there we go.

Yeah, I can explain my retention situation and who I represent, who I don't represent. Most certainly, I do not represent the County of Siskiyou. We are commonly defending the rights of municipalities as to the interactions, we'll leave it at that, with the County. They are definitely our government partners, but they have their own lawyers, as was mentioned. and each of the cities in the county that are incorporated as you are, have your own government and you have your own attorney. And so I do not represent the county of Siskiyou. I do represent the city of Montague as their city attorney and have for, I guess, about two and a half years now, as well as the town of Fort Jones and the city of Aetna. On all three of those arrangements, the contract is on, as with yours, a fee-for-service basis. It is not a fixed retainer. um that works out best where the both parties don't know how much work is actually going to be needed and the work is variable in nature so it's not boon or bust for either one of us and i'm not in a position where i don't work a lot this month and um and take that full retainer amount so we found that that works out to be the fairest situation um the one point about your about the contract I will provide ethics training up to two hours a year, free of charge to you. And so I want to make sure that you're getting your ethics training, so it's up to you to contact me and schedule that training. And some agencies decide now they're getting their training elsewhere, that's fine. Our firm does represent the city of Wairika, and I was the city attorney there from April of 2023. until just this last May when I did have to give up working as city attorney there in order to address a need elsewhere with the firm, with another agency. And we've actually, I think the longest client in the county, Siskiyou County, has been the city of Weed. And I think we've had a relationship with Weed since around 2020 when we served as city attorney there and continue to at this time. From time to time, issues may come up. Conflicts of interest are taken extremely seriously. And of course, we have ethical obligations to disclose those. We've done a conflict check. We see no current lawsuits or any on the horizon between you and any of those towns I've mentioned or any of our other clients. And to avoid conflicts of interest, we take a very hard approach to Evaluating, investigating them, and when appropriate, seeking conflict waivers. Again, I see no conflicts right now, and if a conflict were to arise and it could not be resolved, then we would have to withdraw from representing on that issue. I hope that addresses that point. Oh, as the Cisco Economic Development Company, we do not represent them, but we have worked with Cisco Economic on a number of issues. And I think we were working with them as partners in Wairika to develop the library. um i believe they were involved with that and i had um significant involvement with their council and their uh parties um and i think that covers all the questions that were raised by um public comment uh and uh again look forward to working with you all right thank you very much for that appreciate it good job

Anybody else? Yeah. Okay. I'm going to move to approve a professional services agreement with Colin Tuono, excuse the pronunciation, Highsmith and Watley PC as interim city attorney.

We have to change it to, that was a typo.

Get rid of?

Not interim, but like contracted city attorney.

Once again, redo. I will move to approve a professional services agreement with Colin Tuono, Highsmith and Watley PC, contract city attorney.

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

Thank you.

All right. We will move on to item 10. This is on page 98 of your packet. Appointment of acting city manager. On July 8th, the city council voted to place the city manager on administrative leave. The council must now choose an acting city manager. just scrolling down there we go um there is no staff report for this item there is no staff report okay i'll let you take the lead uh all right we will go we'll go for council questions over here uh i i yeah oh sorry you did have one um just you know we have

You, Kim, listed here as the lucky winner. I just wanted to ask that you want it, get it, have capacity for it, and accept this before we announce it. Affirmed.

I'm willing and able to help in any way that I can. Thank you.

Any other questions? Okay, we'll go to public comment now.

Mr. Mayor, before we go to public comment, can I make a statement? I'm sure there's a number of questions that are going to be raised by public comment. I'll just preempt those by saying that, as with any personnel matter, the city council cannot comment any further than it has on things. This is not to say that there is... ANYTHING OF AN UNDUE NATURE HERE. THE COUNCIL IS WELL WITHIN ITS RIGHTS TO MANAGE ITS EMPLOYEES AS IT SEES FIT. AND MR. JUHAZ REMAINS AS A CITY EMPLOYEE AND HIS CONTRACT REMAINS IN EFFECT. He has not been terminated. The city code requires that there be a deputy appointed. It does not appear that that has been done. No one is aware that they have been appointed in that role. And that then necessitates this need to have someone be placed in the stead of the city manager so that the governance can continue on. This would only be a temporary matter, temporary for however long it takes to proceed with next steps, but we just need a continuation of government here. And that's what this action is designed to fulfill.

Thank you for that clarification. Appreciate that. With that in mind, we will now move to public comment. If you'd like to speak, please come on up to the podium.

Tim Stearns, Mount Shasta. I have the highest respect for Kim as a planner. I think she's doing a fabulous job as a planner. I also think that she has a full workload or overflowing workload and my understanding is she's already working overtime. An alternative to putting her into a position where she has to do two jobs, both of which require more than full-time work, would be to put Todd Juhasz back actively working as city manager, rather than on administrative leave with full pay. At the current time, He's not producing for you. And he's a very productive fellow. And beyond that, there's two other, at least one or two other good reasons. Today, somebody mentioned to me, or commented to me, the city manager must have done something really bad for city council to have put him on administrative leave. That person's impression might be other people's impression. Each one of us has a right to our reputation, and damaged reputation is compensable. So, while the city council is having whoever you choose to investigate whatever charges there may be, it might be a double benefit or triple benefit to the city to have the city manager back working because he is the lead, number one. Number two, you're getting work for the money. Number three, you're not putting impossible tasks on Kim Fowler. So just an alternative thought. Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else?

Honestly, just throughout Mount Shasta, probably futile given what we've been told, but can you confirm or deny something that a person said here at the podium, which is your intent was to fire Todd at the meeting? That's one question. And the second is, how long is the administrative leave? Can you give us any ideas about that? Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else?

Okay.

All right. We'll bring it back for discussion.

Mr. Mayor?

Oh, yeah. Sorry. Right. Yes.

Go ahead. If you'd like me to address those statements, I'd be happy to. Sure.

That would actually be very helpful.

All right, first, I just want to underscore that no one should jump to any conclusions about what the action taken last meeting means or meant. The statement regarding an intention to terminate because without basis that did not happen. And I can't underscore enough, Mr. Juhasz remains as a city employee. He remains under contract and remains able to provide his knowledge as part of all of this. As for how long this lasts, it's indefinite at this point, but it is not in any ways a disciplinary action that has been taken. And so I just want to underscore people should not jump to any conclusions about anything in regard to any of this. So if any rumors are out there, those are those people's alone. Those are not statements endorsed by the city.

Thank you. All right. Anything else? Any other discussion?

Okay, without further comment, I'm going to move to appoint Kim Fowler, Planning Director, as Acting City Manager. We agreed on the language.

All those in favor?

Aye.

Aye. Any opposed or abstain? Okay. We will now move on to item 11. Packet page 99, a resolution creating an opportunity zone. The governor of California may nominate up to 25% of the state's eligible census tracts to be designated as federal opportunity zones. Kim, you got some background on this one?

Thank you very much. Apologies for not being up to speed so much on this agenda item. But in summary, under the one big beautiful bill, there are federal dollars to be granted to 25% of California jurisdictions for improvements. The caveat is that the city has to be designated as an opportunity zone. This is a process that's being led by Siskiyou County. Siskiyou County is incorporating Mount Shasta into their efforts through the application process that is happening right now. There's nothing really for city staff to do other than to provide background information and data as needed. The Siskiyou Economic Development Council is helping facilitate all of this so that we can get this done. There is a representative. Quentin is here this evening if there are more technical questions to be asked about the Opportunity Zones. But at this time, staff is going to recommend that the city council approve the resolution to support the nomination process. of the census tract for the Opportunity Zone.

Okay, thank you. We'll bring it back for questions. Questions over here? Is there, oh wait, never mind, sorry, it says when it takes effect. Yeah, no questions, it seems like a good idea. There's federal money available. Let's get it. We'll bring this back to public comment.

Good afternoon. Quentin Gaddy, Siskiyou Economic Development. Just to clear up what are the actual details of this, there are no federal dollars involved. This doesn't include federal dollars. This is a tax incentive. So the way Opportunity Zones work is they are designated census districts that are typically underinvested, lower income. And what they allow is they allow for individuals, small business owners, investors who have capital gains to redirect those capital gains through what are called qualified opportunity funds. Now, what's nice about Opportunity Zone 2.0 is there's a few different changes. The first is they were made permanent as part of the bill, so that way every 10 years they get redesignated. So this lends some more confidence to investors that it's something worth doing. The second is the proposed Opportunity Zone that would occur in Mount Shasta would be considered a rural Opportunity Zone, so it has additional incentives included. So how capital gains work is to say I own $100 in stock and it appreciates, I sell it for $200, I have $100 in capital gains. Capital gains is taxed at a federal rate of a flat 20%. So say I want to take all these capital gains that I have and I want to invest them and put them into shelter so I don't have to pay taxes on them right away. A lot of real estate investors do this already with what are called 1031 exchanges. What this would do instead is they would put those funds and they would invest in properties in a qualified opportunity zone. After five years, they would receive a 30% step-up in basis on that capital gains. And after a 10-year period, any additional appreciation beyond that would be tax-free. So Siskiyou County has 12 census districts that are eligible to be designated as zones. California GO-Biz just moved up the deadline from the 25th to the 20th to submit that. So we're working with the county on doing an application for all 12 zones for the counties. It's something that we can take off of Kim's plate, make her job a little easier. But then it'll go into public comment period. The state of California will entertain before they actually make an announcement for those designations. So, so far after Opportunity Zone 1.0, I've worked with a few small businesses in Siskiyou County who have used them for improvements of property and investment. It led to a restaurant in Redding. I'm working with a manufacturer in Redding who's utilized them as part of their capital stack. What it isn't, it's not federal funds coming to the area. It's not funds coming from Trump. That's a misconception. That's not how it works. These are people's individual capital gains that they are reinvesting locally. It's also not large enough of an incentive to bring on development on its own. You kind of think of it as a cherry on top. It can make certain projects that wouldn't pencil without it pencil and move forward, but it's not going to... act like a vacuum that's gonna suck in capital from outside the area. It can be used strategically on certain projects, and the state's gonna prioritize shovel-ready projects, so locations like The Landing that have already received substantial public investment from EPA, those are prime targets. They can be used for things including affordable housing developments, hotels, restaurants, all host of business activity as long as the personal property is actually improved. So thank you. I appreciate it.

Thank you for the clarification. Appreciate that.