City Council - Regular Meeting

Mic's hot. Good afternoon. Welcome to the City Council regular meeting of Tuesday, July 7th. Madam City Clerk, can you please call roll for quorum?

Council Member Warren.

I am here.

Council Member DeForest. Council Member Stone. Here. Mayor Pro Tem Holliday. Here. Mayor Lavelle. Here. Let the record reflect that all members are present with the exception of Council Member DeForest with an excused absence.

Thank you very much. Before we start tonight, I'd like to note that today will be the very first day of the teams due to Senate Bill 707 requirements. The city clerk will provide direction during the public comment portion. I've asked Councilwoman Laurie Stone to do the pledge for us, and followed by that, we're gonna have an invocation by Pastor Lynn Parsons from the Meredith Springs Adventist Church. Please stand.

Shall we pray? Our Father in heaven, we are grateful for the establishment of our nation 250 years ago, conceived in liberty, with freedom and justice for all. We pray now that you would continue your blessings upon our nation and upon our local communities. Please bless these, our elected leaders, our mayor, our council members, as they guide the affairs of our city and strive to protect the rights and the livelihoods of all. And please bless our other civic leaders, our city staff, our police and our fire. Please protect them, Lord, especially and keep them safe as they're out there to protect us. Father, we also pray that you would keep our citizens and our schools and our businesses safe from fire and earthquake and send us a healthy rain in its season. We thank you for all these good things that are available to us in this good land. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Madam city clerk are they any changes to the posted agenda? Thank you, I'd like to call for a motion in a second Screens are frozen There we go. I have a motion by Councilman Warren and a second by Mayor Pro Tem Holliday. Let's vote.

Motion carries unanimously, 4-0.

Thank you very much. Moving on, city manager update. Mr. Clifton, what do you have for us?

Thank you very much. Good afternoon, Mr. Mayor and Council and members of the community. I have a handful of updates for you this evening, afternoon and evening. First, I'd like to call up Garrett Strang, our Capital Projects Program Manager, to give you an update on the Sidewalk Improvements Project.

Good evening, Mayor and members of City Council. So I want to give you guys a quick update on the citywide sidewalk replacement project. So we kicked off construction last week. We've already began demo. We've removed all the trees that we had anticipated to remove with the exception of five. As a result of our biologist report and our bird survey, we found evidence of two active nests that we cannot remove or touch until the birds have fledged until after the nesting season or until they've moved on. So we'll go ahead and remove those at the end of the project, probably closer around September. But we anticipate construction to be complete right around the end of July, early August. So it's going to be a pretty fast schedule. Like I mentioned, we already started the demo and removals. We'll get into some of the asphalt work in about two weeks, and that's about it. So we advise all residents to be aware of traffic control, safety concerns, obstructive paths of travel along Whitewood in the meantime. And We should have a pretty good, fast, and smooth project. So, any questions? Cool. Thank you so much.

And next up, I'd like to invite Chief Henry to come up and talk a little bit about the Police Department Annual Report.

Good evening, Mayor, Council Members, Chief Matt Henry, Marietta Police Department. And what I am here, as CM Clifton just stated, is kind of just to go over our annual report that we publish every year. Just kind of a quick snapshot of our department, what we did in 2025. Just, you know, just lets the community know what we're about and what we've been doing for 365 days. So there's one of our K-9 officers. He's one of our newer officers a couple years ago that came here making great strides in our department with his K-9 Robbie right next to him. One of the things that we focus on is our partnership with the community. This is just kind of a screenshot of just everything that we do within the community throughout the year, our participation in community events around the holidays, the summertime with the schools. As you can see, the Shop of the Cop is probably one of the best ones that we do. There's us with the cow from Chick-fil-A. All right, what are we doing for staffing wise? We have 114 officers sworn positions. We just had an officer start this week, and so we are pretty close to being fully staffed, if not fully staffed as of right now. We also have 44 dispatch personnel who dispatch for us, the city of Menifee's police department, and our fire and rescue. Additionally, we have 27 support staff that come in and really keep the department running on a day-to-day basis. Our operations division, this is, the best way to explain our operations division is anybody that you see in a uniform, that would include our patrol officers, our traffic officers, our community policing team, anybody that you're gonna see kind of forward facing with the community. As you can see, we responded to over 67, our statistics are kind of spread throughout the report, so I'm just gonna kind of pick them out as I go. As you tell, we have responded to over 67,000 calls for service. And in 2025, our officers processed 5,439 police reports, and we responded to nearly 700 Priority One calls, Priority One being an emergency call. A lot of times, either lights and sirens that we're getting to, or there's a threat to public safety. Here is our K-9 team, who are also part of our operations team. division. One of our newest canines is canine Fender, as you see right there with Officer Calise. We have another one that we added since then. That is canine Mickey, and he's with Officer Pena. And the bottom left, we did lose one of our department canines last year, and that was Jerry, just due to some health reasons unexpectedly. And that's kind of our little memorial for him down there. Our traffic unit, one of the busiest teams that we have in the police department with the traffic that we have in our city currently. But as you can see, a good thing is traffic collisions did decrease 12% from 2024 to our from 2024 into 2025. I'D LIKE TO ATTRIBUTE IT TO THE SPECIAL ENFORCEMENT THAT WE ARE TAKING. WE ARE HITTING THE HOT SPOTS AND PRIMARY COLLISION FACTORS SUCH AS RED LIGHT RUNNING, FAILURE TO YIELD AND STOP SIGN VIOLATIONS. WITH THAT DECREASE, WE DID DO 611 TRAFFIC COLLISION REPORTS IN OUR CITY LAST YEAR. Community policing team, we speak a lot about our community policing team. They are a very active part of our department and really are the jack of all trades. Anything that I need within the community, whether it's enforcement or community relations, I rely heavily upon my community policing team. One of their specific duties is to assist with the homeless outreach team with our city officials here. And as you can see, the team alone had 263 homeless outreach contacts during the year. Our CBAT team is our officer that has teamed up with a licensed clinician. They responded to 530 mental health calls. What's important about this is we are bringing a professional mental health person into the mix when we're responding to these calls as opposed to just a police officer. The resources that this clinician can bring far exceeds anything that we could offer as a police department. Kind of the unsung heroes of our operations department are listed, are shown at the bottom two of them. Those are our community service officers. They eat up a lot of reports that without them, our officers would be taking instead. And so instead of spending time doing proactive police work or responding to emergencies, our officers would be taking these reports. And as you can see, handled 600 police reports between the four of them. And that's 600 police reports that our officers were able to not take and be ready for other other duties. Under our support division, this is the easiest way to explain anybody not in uniform. Our detectives, our school resource officers, our professional staff, you see property and evidence, So our Investigations Bureau, we have some highly trained detectives that sit within our Investigations Bureau, handling cases from your petty thefts all the way to major crimes of homicides and robberies. In 2025, our investigations team handled 534 cases. And as you can see, evidence collection IS VITAL TO ANY CRIMINAL CASE THAT WE HAVE, AND OUR PROPERTY EVIDENCE PROCESSED OVER 5,000 ITEMS OF EVIDENCE, ALL WHICH IS STORED OVER AT OUR POLICE DEPARTMENT. OUR TASK FORCE. THESE ARE SOME HIGH-LEVEL TEAMS THAT INTERACT COUNTYWIDE WITH OUR FEDERAL AND STATE PARTNERS. I'M JUST GOING TO POINT OUT A COUPLE. THERE'S A LOT OF STATISTICS AND A LOT OF DATA IN HERE ABOUT WHAT THEY'VE DONE. but I just wanna point out a couple of them to you. The top one, our Riverside Auto Theft Interdiction Detail, our RAID team, that's our car theft task force. As you can see, they recovered over 555 vehicles with a total value of almost $20 million. The third one down is our INCA team, that is our Major Narcotics Task Force. They have seized over 1,800 pounds of cocaine, 2,300 pounds of methamphetamine, 400, I'm sorry, 41 pounds of fentanyl powder. I think we're all pretty much aware of fentanyl and how dangerous it is and how a pin drop amount can be fatal. Here we have, this team has collected 41 pounds of it in 2025 with over a million fentanyl pills taken. The last one I'm gonna touch on is the third one down, which is our child exploitation team. We know with the increase in social media and just the ability of bad actors to reach out online to our youth is just growing insurmountable year after year. 2025 was no exception. But as you can see, this team, in 25, they reviewed over 11,000 cyber tips and made 179 arrests of individuals who are probably up to about as no good as you can possibly be up to. And 179 of them are probably sitting in jail still today. Our communication center, like I said earlier, they dispatch for our police department, our fire department, and also the city of Menifee. In the blue box are some of the statistics that I'm gonna give you. They handled over 400,000 communication center tasks. That is just anything that they touch, any sort of phone call, any sort of call that they make, any sort of response that they may offer is gonna be captured in that amount. See almost 70,000 911 calls into the center between all three departments. over 135,000 police incidences, over 13,000 fire and rescue incidents, and the last one I'm gonna talk about is the 5,994 emergency medical dispatching calls. This is our dispatchers taking calls from people who are in emergencies, usually with a family member or friend, And our dispatchers are able to walk them through immediate first aid and care until our EMS are able to arrive and take over. And our fire chief, I'm sure, can speak more on it, but they've saved life after life after life. They've delivered babies multiple times. They're just a tremendous asset to this city. On the bottom was dispatch supervisor Maddie Bedina. She received the Marietta Rotary Club Award of 2025. Innovation and technology. We're in 2026 and in the law enforcement world, if you are not up to date with your technology, you are years behind now. Some of the things that we have done in 2025 was we moved our CAD, our computer-aided dispatching and report management system to the cloud, just much more efficient and secure than having it on-premise. In the middle is our Jonas first responder program. If you're following our social media, you're seeing a lot of our drone first responder. This is just a way of us getting eyes on scene before police officers get there. And in recent weeks, we've assisted in some major investigations, including a fire that was started on the 4th of July. And just for our property and evidence room, we are, like I said, we have a full service team. And that's Riley Cameron, he is our property evidence collector. That is a bullet chamber, bullet collection chamber that we recently purchased. We're able to test firearms and determine if they were used in crimes and associate those two crimes nationwide. And with that, that's our annual report.

Thank you. Speaking of annual reports, every year we produce a document that we call the 2025-26 Citywide Accomplishments. The heavy version is here in my hand, and it's about 30-some pages. Certainly, the community and council gets to see a lot of the more public-facing work, especially when we talk about council priorities and some of our significant projects. But really, the vast majority of the public service we provide to the community is found in these pages. It's things like what the Chief just described, that is happening on a day-to-day basis in our police department and across the rest of the organization. So I'd like to just cover a handful of highlights, especially some of the things that might not be as apparent or are captured in quick numbers, and I'll try to move through these relatively quickly, starting with the city manager's office. I'm particularly excited about a couple of new initiatives that we've started. One, we organized a group of employees that we call the AI champions. They're responsible for helping the organization adopt AI faster than we would if we didn't have some organization in place And they recently hosted a lunch and learn where we had a lot of city employees come in and started talking to them about using large language models and some other AI. And we are approving almost weekly now new tools that can help us be more efficient, including in the building permit area. So really excited about what we're doing there. And then another initiative is just some lean training. We hosted members of the Denver Peak Program to learn some of the lean principles. That's a quality or a process improvement framework where we learn how to identify and eliminate waste, how to engage in process mapping and other things. And we have team members from across the organization that are undertaking various projects and looking for areas where we can be more efficient. In addition, some of the stuff we do on a regular basis, including our household hazardous waste pickup, our bulky item drop off that we do with our waste partners, On the public information side, we produce the More Murrieta e-newsletter, the Murrieta magazine, and, of course, lots and lots of activity on social media. Moving on in our administrative services department, where we have human resources, information technology, and risk management, we hired about 60 new employees and promoted about 59 employees. So when you do that math, that's one every couple of business days. So just to give you a sense of the turnover and the growth and the things that we have happening here With our employees. In addition, we've been doing a lot of work on training. Some of that is the mandatory training. Others are just opportunities for us to try to grow and improve as a team. Our IT group has helped us with things like installing new flock cameras at Cal Oak Sports Park and Torrey Pines so that we have a little more intel and oversight of those parks. They've helped us with things like upgrading the citywide firewall. We live in an era of cyber risk, and they do a really good job keeping our system safe and helping us do our work through the use of technology. And on the risk management side, just to highlight a couple of things, one stands out to me, which is recovering from 11 claims totaling over $54,000 in damages to city property and vehicles. So we are active trying to protect those taxpayer resources. In our city clerk's office, you're familiar with them because they help us with meetings like these. Many people know they hosted a ballot drop-off program this year, which I think was really appreciated by our residents, where they could just drive through Town Square Park and hand their ballot out into the box out of the window. Tonight you're seeing the product of getting ready for SB 707 compliance and keeping up with a whole host of other State rules on how we engage and just for some brief perspective with numbers last year 19 council meetings 292 council agenda reports We have attestation and records contracts about 300 our Public Records Act requests 1016 Yes, and some of those are behemoths that take hours and hours and hours of resources. We dedicate substantial personnel to processing public records requests, also 97 FPPC filings and 46 legal notices. In our community services department, starting with the library, summer reading challenge included 3,000 participants this year. Children and family programs, 7,900 participants. And the library for all programs, 1,500 plus participants in over 100 programs. Our library of things now has over 390 items. So we all know about our rich programs at the library, but really impressive to see some of those numbers. Moving on to some of the youth and recreation type activities, our youth center had 21,000 check-ins from 319 participants. So those are community members coming in and enjoying our programs. Nearly 10,000 participated in youth sports, which I think is really amazing. 22,000 check-ins at our senior center and over 18,200 meals served. At our community center, we contract with 36 recreation instructors who taught 896 classes across a wide variety of programs. And then in our homeless services program, we know that that's another shining example of where Murrieta leads with innovation. We not only secured a $12.6 million encampment resolution fund, on behalf of some of our regional partners or together with our regional partners, but we exceeded all of the milestones that we put into that grant application well ahead of the expiration. So we've already surpassed the goals of that program with more than 18 months left in the grant period. That's 69 individuals into permanent housing. You know, it's just really impressive that we are as close to functional zero homeless in this community as probably any other in Southern California. something to be very proud of. In our development services department, again, just for some perspective on the volume of work, we average 55 permits per week, a total of 2,834. We perform over 15,000 inspections and assist 1,400 residents at the counter. In code enforcement, we handle about 1,900 cases, and our closure rate is over 90%. So we hear about some of the high-profile cases that aren't as easy to resolve, But the day-to-day work is that team getting those cases, closing those cases, and helping our residents make sure that we have a beautiful community and one that's compliant with our code. And then in the planning department, we're about 75%. now finish with some of our general plan updates that keeps us compliant with the state. And I'm also really proud across that group and with our engineering team that handles some of the development. They've been really engaged in the SWOT analysis that we did that kind of identified some of our areas for improvement, deploying some of those lean tools. And we have groups in those departments meeting regularly to improve our service level, to eliminate waste and become more efficient. And it's been really exciting to see that work unfold. The engineering and public works side, a little more. Again, lots of kind of permits and inspections, over 200 just for encroachments alone. So encroachment permit where somebody needs to do some work in our right-of-way. In addition to that, we have lots of inspections related to water discharge and other aspects of new development. And then you all remember that we were tasked with a pilot program to improve traffic flow and alleviate congestion on Los Alamos. that yielded a 13% reduction in travel time in the morning and 56% reduction in travel time in the evening. So that also was in partnership with trying to promote getting a little more autonomy to control signal timing at interstate intersections, which thanks to the leadership of our council and our members of the legislature is on its way to being passed and giving us even more ability to improve traffic congestion in the town. Municipal Services Department, again, just highlighting some numbers, 449 facility work orders, 2,893 street maintenance work orders, 56 signal and lighting work orders, 266 signs and markings. These are the things that, you know, you drive around town and largely take for granted that this work needs to be done from time to time, but it's part of our ongoing obligation. 18,876 miles of streets swept, 4,000 trees trimmed. So again, we might hear about the ones from some of our neighbors that say, hey, I'm overdue. Am I going to get some help? And we certainly try to mobilize to do that. But our day-to-day, the stuff that might not get noticed as often is something like 4,000 trees being trimmed on a regular basis. Moving over to the capital project side, you know about some of our exciting new projects, the Alderwood Pickleball Courts, Fire Station 2 emergency renovation, the Los Alamos Hills and Torrey Pines turf replacement, and the Glen Arbor Dark Park. In addition, we have a lot of fun projects under construction, including the library children's expansion, Murrieta Hot Springs road widening, The Hayes Bridge, which was actually started, I believe, construction commenced today or yesterday. So we are finally underway there. And then, of course, some of our big projects still in design. Keller Road, among the most important there. Moving on to economic development. We all got to celebrate the opening of the Murrieta Innovation Center, affectionately known as the MIC. In addition to that, our team continues to host a lot of engaging events with our local businesses, including the Medical Leaders Luncheon and other brokers events. We're also very active in things like SelectUSA and, of course, ICSC, where we're meeting with retailers. Virtually all of Council every year is there helping pound the pavement to bring great businesses and great amenities to Murrieta. And over there on the right, you see a long list of new businesses that have opened recently here in Murrieta. On the finance team, they are always working on a deadline of some kind. It's either the budget or the audit or something. It's an ongoing cycle. but nothing captures the impact of their work better than just noting their awards I think they're running out of space in the trophy case, but they are, again, a triple crown recognition from the Government Finance Officers Association for distinguished budget, capital budget excellence, and reporting. Murrieta Fire, you had a recent update on their operations in the annual report, but just to recap a couple high-level things, 23,913 hours of fire department training. So that's our team trying to keep sharp and focused so that they can deploy quickly, help save lives, put out fires, and do all the good work that they do. Something you wouldn't see every day, but every day they're engaged in that level of training so that they can respond to 13,815 calls for service of various sorts, including fires, medical calls, et cetera. And then last but certainly not least, you heard a lot from the police department tonight, but just to Again, encapsulate some of their work. 67,533 total calls for service. That would include fire calls. That would include police and those of our neighboring community where we help dispatch. But also 611 traffic collision reports, 263 homeless outreach contacts, 530 mental health calls, et cetera, et cetera. So I know that... From the public point of view, a lot of the high-profile conversations that we have tend to be what people think of as the work we do. I'm really proud that our team, we don't count our value in dollars and cents. We count our value in the impact that we have on the community. It's really this day-to-day work. It's the permits and the files and all the things that each and every department does that lands that impact. So I'm really happy and proud of our team and the work we do. Just want to take a moment to kind of recognize them in completing this work and much much more That we simply don't have time to cover but is available on the city's website That's a show-and-tell I've ever seen one before Good job. And not to belabor the brag, but I do think we understand we are the envy when it comes to our public safety departments. We are the envy when it comes to homeless services. We do have the best library programs. Our finance department's winning awards. We really do an excellent job. I've been in the public sector most of my career. I've spent time in the private sector as well. This group is phenomenal, and I'm proud to be with them. Moving on, if there's nothing else on the community report, just want to give a couple high-level public service announcements. So one of those is our library. Remember that part of that children's expansion means some work in the interior of the building that requires us to close. So we will be closed July 20th through August 1st. We will plan on reopening August 3rd. And so we're going to have some new carpet and some other things as part of that closure that all tie together with our long-awaited children's expansion that will be coming sometime after that. Also a reminder that we have our standard dark period where we will not have our council meetings that would have normally been scheduled for July 21st and August 4th. So we will resume our council meetings on the normal schedule starting August 18th. And then some likely noticed we had a wonderful Independence Day celebration that included City Hall lit in honor of Independence Day and celebrating the 250th, the week of June 25th through July 4th. And then, always, we like to close with Hilder Sam, our public information officer, coming up and telling us a little bit about what's going on in Murrieta. I spoke so fast that I think I've lost a little bit of my voice. Thank you, Mayor and Council.

Good afternoon, Honorable Mayor and City Council. All right. So, first up today, we're going to talk about The State of the City.

Hey.

So the State of the City has been announced, and we would love for the community to come join us for Mayor Lavelle's State of the City address on September 30th at 7 p.m. here at Town Square Park and Amphitheater. We promise an informative and engaging event. Our summer concert series is coming up. So every Saturday evening, From now on, through July and August, we will have a concert in the park. And you can bring your blanket, bring your picnic, or you can use some of the vendors that will be available. Also coming up on August 4th is the National Night Out, which the Myrida Police Department hosts here at Town Square Park and Amphitheater. And... A few days later, on the 8th, we will have a household hazardous waste drop-off event where you can bring all those hazardous items from your house that you don't want to flush or throw in the trash and get rid of them here. And that is in partnership with Riverside County Department of Waste Management. So that will be here at City Hall on August 8th. And we invite you to stay connected with us through our weekly, no, monthly, more Murrieta newsletter. And our fall edition of the magazine will come out in September, and we invite you to request a physical copy at connect at murrietaca.gov, and we will send one straight to your home. Thank you. Thank you.

Mr. Clifton has more.

Just one more quick item. Anybody that came in from the east likely saw the big header of smoke that we have kind of to the west of us in the area of the Santa Rosa Plateau. There is a fire up there. Some people are probably tracking that hopefully on your watch duty app. If you don't already have that, please do download it. One of the other things that we do is we serve as emergency responders, especially when we need to activate our emergency operations center or anything like that. So we provide some support functions as well as our fire department doing more kind of operational support. So if some of our team members leave over the course of the meeting to go provide some of that support, please don't be surprised. And again, everybody should have that WatchDuty app. It's a good one to have. We don't see any current threat to the city or anything like that, but because we do play a support function, because we like to be prepared early for anything that we might need to do, it might come up that one or two team members leave the meeting to go lend a hand. So thank you.

City Manager Clifton, my phone is blowing up as we speak right now, and it's with regards to the large animal, the equestrian center, if it will be open if necessary. Can you just touch upon that, please?

Yeah, I'm also observing some of the text, and if our chief has any new information, that's great, but my understanding is we are prepared at least for temporary. It's not in an ideal location when you have a fire just west of us, but for now I believe it is available for at least temporarily for large animals.

Right now, we're working with County EMD on the evacuation site. We have offered our large animal site as a temporary shelter. We have some team members going out there to get it ready in case they are going to be using it. The county is looking at where exactly they want to be evacuating to because that is directly in the path of where this fire would move. We don't anticipate it moving into our city, but if it were to move into our city, that would be the first zone we evacuated. So making it the initial evacuation side isn't the best method, but it might be where they initially stage the animals while they assess the progress they're making on that fire. And they are making good progress, but it is still an active fire that's developing. And you see me stepping out and making phone calls, and I'm talking with the county fire chief right now, and our team's integrated with their team, working the solution.

Thank you. And that finally concludes my administrative updates.

You have a rough life with all that bragging so it's a it's a good problem to have Next up we have our City Council Commission and committee reports Starting with councilwoman Warren

I think I'm missing something. Oh, no, I'm not. Okay. We're going to get started. Well, it's all put together, so moving along. On June the 18th, I attended the WRCOG along with my fellow colleagues. It was a well-attended event, and the best part of the evening, I think, was when our Rotary Club Marietta was honored with the Community Service Award, and That is thanks to Council Member Laurie Stone for putting them up for that award. So great job and well-deserved, very well-deserved. Lovely night. On the 23rd, I, along with my colleagues, attended our CIP Budget Workshop. Our Tea Now meeting was held on the 24th, which I am the chair of for this southwest region. Our total ridership for our buses in May was up 5.2%. from 2025. Fiscal year of 2026, total boardings was up 3.3% from fiscal year of 2025. So people are riding the buses. Right after that meeting, the next day I ended up with an RTA meeting. So I am your representative. Wanted to let you know a couple of things. FIFA engaged with RTA and we were providing rides to the Anaheim station And then from there, they would go to SoFi. And we did over 3,475 rides. That was up to June 12. And we're still helping out and having riderships. Every bus has been packed with fans going there. So that's pretty cool. Also, if you didn't know, 25-cent rides all summer long. Our TA is providing 25-cent rides until August 31. Make sure to catch a ride before the time runs out. Both the RTA and TNOW will be dark during the month of July, so there will be no meetings. And our board meeting for September, we have changed it from the 24th to the 17th to allow everybody to go to Cal Cities, which is going to be at that same time. My governing board announcements, been a busy couple of weeks, as it always is. Started off with my District 5 safety forum at Buchanan Elementary School, and I truly want to thank Chief Henry and his entire team, did a Excellent presentation. We had a lively discussion on many op topics, and I had a lot of follow-up work to do, so thank you so much, I think. Ladies, all the Knowles have a Minesplained Luncheon, and they're kind enough to include me in that. And Meadowlark Neighborhood did a brainstorming meeting with residents and I. They're going to start a Neighborhood Watch Committee, and they're going to probably encompass that whole area of Hunter, so that's exciting for our community. The Mega Mixer. Hats off to Patrick and his team. What a great night that was. Lots of buzz, lots of networking, and lots of food.

Yeah, lots of food.

We had a great time, and I know Ron was there, but I didn't see him, but I did get there the same time that Mayor was there, so we kind of hung out a little bit. Then on the 27th, I had the honor, along with Council Member Stone, to be a judge at the Mission Hope Deuces Wild Car Show and Poker Run. We had a blast. It was quite warm, but it was very nice. Lots of beautiful cars, ones I wish I had.

ones I think she wish she had too, right?

I also attended the demolition derby on the 28th, and that is for the Burn Institute, and our local Marietta firefighters, 354, have a car in there every year. Last year we took second, this year we took fourth. We got stuck in a ridge and he couldn't get out, so we had to pull his flag, but it's a fun time at Del Mar. Anytime you can go there and support our local fire department and our guys, they're amazing. On the 27th, also we had the Marietta birthday bash. You can see the confetti flying. There was this weird competition with our Mayor Pro Tem and our Mayor about throwing something liquid at them to see if they could figure out what it was. Council Member DeForest was the judge and I was keeping score. They only got two each. out of 15 each, so they did not do very well. But they were a mess, I will tell you that. And if you can see in the picture, the entire bottom field was filled with pop-up tents. It was a happening day, Marietta. That concludes my report. If anybody needs to reach me, you can always get me online, and everybody has my phone number, so I didn't put it on there. Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you. Thank you for bringing that memory back. Now, I forgot about how much I... I lost my taste for everything that day. Moving on to Councilwoman Stone.

Thank you, Mayor. I attended the Western Riverside Council of Government General Assembly meeting, and as the representative of Marietta, I had the opportunity of meeting with Tony Hawk. He gave a great presentation. Also, I attended the City Council Capital Improvement Plan Budget Workshop. And I want to reiterate some things about that meeting. I have to be honest with you. I had shared with our city manager that I was a little confused why we had this meeting because our goal session meeting identifies all of our capital improvement plans. Each mayor has an opportunity to discuss what their goals or objectives are. And as a city, even though we represent districts, we have to identify what is important to our community. And there's balance between what the community wants, infrastructure, public safety, and our budget. I want to also give kudos again to our economic development team. You are absolutely amazing. The uses that, since I've been elected, that you have lobbied for along with our Chamber of Commerce in going to conventions and seminars across the United States to bring unique uses to Marietta. We have a brand new Home Depot that has, I believe, brought in close to a million dollars of tax revenue. Am I close or am I a little bit off? I think that that was projected. Thank God for that second Home Depot. Merida Hot Springs is killing it. The majority of the tax revenues is from outside of Marietta, which we want. We want people to come to Marietta and experience the unique uses. We have the Golden Triangle that we're hoping by the end of the year is going to break ground. And you will hear from the Domonogoni family, again, the unique uses that are coming to Marietta that I truly will believe Regionally, it's going to be absolutely over the top, amazing. And to reiterate, Marietta, we're doing well. The sales tax might be, I think, a little flat, but again, I think that we are doing well. We've been able to negotiate with our public safety. We're still one of the safest cities in the nation. We hear from our residents what they want. We're doing everything humanly possible to accommodate everybody's request. And I'm very proud of our economic team and the direction that they have taken the city of Marietta. And I'm excited for the next few years what Scott will be announcing, which will benefit not just the city of Marietta, but also our region. In addition, I attended the Western Riverside Council of Government's annual meeting. I attended the Father's Day car show. And the mayor and I spoke with many people at the car show. And I will tell you, everybody I spoke to didn't even live in Marietta. Again, this is a benefit to our community when the region supports our signature events here in Marietta. I attended the annual birthday bash. And I want to thank the mayor and the mayor pro tem for making me a... It was a sandwich covered in teriyaki sauce and clam juice. And they decided to give me a hug. And, of course, I had to leave the event and change. I had no idea that our mayor was... He was grossed out by the liquids that were thrown in his face. And Mayor Pro Tem, you were a great sport during the competition. It was a fun event. We also toured the Marietta Police Department Mobile Command Center, a great asset to our public safety. I attended the Mission Hope Car Show with Mayor Pro Tem. Councilmember Warren, I attended the California State University San Marcos breakfast about higher education and I want you to know this has been more than 20 years of vision from this entire region and thanks to the current leadership in this region and also I'd like to commend Patrick Ellis, our entire council, Dr. Lisa DeForest, and the other leaders in the region for advocating for higher education. And also, Council Member Warren, I attended a meeting with staff with regards to the downtown marketplace policy. So that concludes my comments, Mr. Mayor.

Thank you very much. And moving on to Mayor Pro Tem Holliday.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I also attended the Western Regional Council of Governments General Assembly meeting with Tony Hawk. I think almost all council members were there that night. It was a great event. Wasn't the pick I had lobbied for to have come to that, but he gave a good speech. I attended also the Capital Improvement Budget Workshop. And then the more fun events, Father's Day car show. The mayor pointed out to me that there was an F3, a vintage F3 race car there that he was letting people sit in. I think, did you put that picture up on your, or you have that on your comments? Yeah. He got a picture in the race car. I'm surprised he fit because those race cars, those F3s are not very big. Yeah. So, but it was, it was one of the nicer cars, but you picked a truck. I believe you're going to share all that, right?

Yeah. I was going to talk a little bit, but yeah, it was a very nice truck.

Okay. I attended the all chamber mega mixer and took the opportunity to pass out A flyer opportunities sponsorship opportunities for the Santa stops. Yes Santa stops. It's not Christmas yet, but we got to prepare So we're gearing up for the Santa stops and getting the sponsorship Positions out there because they there's only limited number of spots. They will go quickly attended the 35th annual myriad a birthday bash it reason councilmember stone got put in the sandwich is because this was her idea and And I wasn't too sure that it was something I wanted to do. I know Mayor Lovell absolutely doesn't want to do it ever again.

I didn't want to do it to begin with.

And the challenge I had with it is they're supposed to throw stuff in our face and we're supposed to taste it. Well, whoever was throwing... Councilmember Stone, would hit me in the side of the face here, the side of the face, anywhere but my mouth.

Excuse me. It was your wife.

It was your wife. She told me it was you.

It was your wife.

Of course she's going to blame us. Likely story. I'll have to tell her what you said. Threw her right under the bus. I'm like, you can't hit my mouth. I can't taste it. Of course, I couldn't taste what it was after the first couple ones. It's like, I have no idea. Yeah, there was a lot of nasty stuff in there. Clam juice, really? But it was fun. It was fun. I'm glad everyone had a good time. I asked two things. I said, don't get my jeans and my shoes trashed because I've got to go up on stage later and I didn't want to go home after the event. And sure enough... I had it from head to toe. So I went and grabbed a burger, did the stage thing, and then headed home to take a shower and throw my shoes and jeans in the washer. Um, it still was a fun event. Um, I attended the mirror to market nights this last Thursday. And I know that, uh, this council has been, um, tasking our police department with e-bike safety and e-bike education. And I always say hi to the officers when I'm down there, and I said hi to the two officers who were there. And while I'm talking, and I didn't even realize they're paying attention to everything that's going around. It's what they do. I don't. I don't have to. I have them. But all of a sudden, he turns to his left and says, you, you, come here, you in the black shirt. And he brought a kid over, he was probably 11 or 12 years old, and he goes, you were riding that e-bike earlier, I saw you, come with me. And he said, let's go find your e-bike. And the kid was honest, he says, yeah, I was riding an e-bike. And, you know, he was just not educated about what he's allowed to do and what he's not allowed to do. And the officer took him down, found his e-bike, found his parents, and gave him a nice education. So it was nice to see that effort in action. You can thank those officers for me, Chief. And I think that is it. You need to reach me. My contact information is on the last slide. Thank you.

Thank you. Yeah, I was in a few of the pictures, as usual. None are on my phone. Most are on Lori's. Some are on Cindy's. And if they're not on there, they're on my Instagram. So, yeah, really just to touch on the Father's Day car show, that event, I mean, like Councilman Stone said, It's such a benefit to our community, and it's filled by people not living in our community, and they're paying money to an organization or to an event that helps fund a great organization in this community. So if you like cars or trucks or race cars, it's a really cool event to go to. And the weather might have been perfect that day. You couldn't have asked for better weather. The race car I did fit in it. It's a coat longer to get out than I expected or would hope to I would not make a good race car driver, even though I do like race cars And then the the the tasting contest it's the most disgusting thing I've done probably in my adult life If you've never I didn't know clam juice was a real thing. I Don't know what you would ever use it for and The challenge clam chowder. Oh, wow. Okay, so I mean, I would just use clams if it were me, but the challenge with it the most was when, if you've never had monster energy and teriyaki sauce thrown inside of your nose, it really ruins the ability for you to taste anything. So although the smell of clam never really left that day. I couldn't win the game because I literally couldn't taste anything. And the fun part about that is something had pulp in it, and I was hoping it wasn't the clam juice. And so you're getting this... warm fluid thrown all over your face and with chunks of something it was aloe vera you're just praying to god it's it's something that's not a biohazard of some sort um but it was fun um i will not do it next year i will pay money not to do it um and i will volunteer one of our leaders here maybe to a good charity of their choosing to take my place if i'm asked to do it so um That's it. Summer's here. It's hot. Just glad to be here and glad to be back. And that's all I have. Thank you. Moving on to public comments. Madam City Clerk, are there any non-agenda public comments?

if I may before we move forward. Members of the public may participate in this meeting in person or remotely using Microsoft Teams or the telephone option provided on the meeting agenda. If you wish to address the City Council remotely, please use the raise hand feature as the public comment period for that item begins.

Please note participant cameras and the chat feature are disabled during this meeting.

During each public comment period, I will call speakers in the following order. First, those president council chambers, followed by those participating remotely. If you are participating by telephone, I will call on you using the last four digits of your phone number. When I call your name or phone number, please unmute yourself before beginning your comments. For the record, all speakers are asked to state their name before the beginning of their comments. Speakers are limited to three minutes. A timer will be displayed to assist you in tracking your time. At the conclusion of the three minutes, your microphone will be muted so the meeting may proceed. We're moving on to Council Chamber's public comments. Connie McConnell.

I'm supposed to state my name because none of you know me. It's Connie McConnell. And you guys have all been bragging. Well, guess what? I'm going to brag too. Thank you for the extension with the marketplace. You cannot believe the crowd that we had last Thursday. It was wonderful. I've gone from like 75 vendors to 115. And it was really terrific. I do have to mention one thing. We did have the... Old-town Temecula gunfighters there to start off the weekend with a bang, which they did. And they needed a volunteer to come up and actually be blindfolded, put a straw in their mouth, and have one of the gunfighters shoot the straw out of their mouth. And they asked our wonderful mayor, John LaBelle, And he very graciously pushed his wife out there to have her go do it instead. And Mayor Pro Temp Ron Holiday can back me up on that. But anyway, it was a lot of fun. We had a great turnout. And I think, I don't know, 6,000 people there, maybe guys, whatever it was. But it was perfect. It was wonderful. Thank you for your support. And we are going to continue to be the Best darn street fair slash market in Riverside County.

Thank you.

Darlene Ball.

Hi, I'm Darlene. I'm originally from the Midwest. We looked at Murrieta in 1999, and you know, there was hardly anything here then. We lived up in Coors Gold by Yosemite for 14 years, and then we moved down here to be near our daughter in San Diego. I have a few concerns. A couple are safety, and a couple are just with rental issues. So we live in the greens, and most of the houses around us now are rentals. And with The two-story big houses, you have eight people in a house with five and six cars. So there's no room for any of us to provide our cars, put our garbage cans out, all kinds of things. One of the houses down the street is a bunch of young guys that do motorcycle repair, and they repair the motorcycles and run them up and down the street. My husband spoke to them, and they actually came back and were very nice about it. Nobody wants to stop at the stop signs from Hunter coming into her. I'm a pediatric nurse practitioner, so I'm really into watching safety. And I saw a lady almost hit a teenage boy coming in because she ran the stop sign. People are going 45 miles an hour down Masters Drive. The police have been wonderful. I did have to call code enforcement on a neighbor, which she was cited. She's not going to do anything. I can already tell. But so I just wanted to say we really like Marietta, but we're concerned about some of the things that have been going on recently. So, OK, thank you.

Thank you.

Philip O'Reilly.

Good evening, Mayor, council members, city staff, and neighbors. This is Philip O'Reilly for the little measure there. I had the pleasure of participating in Temecula's 4th of July parade celebrating America's 250th anniversary, as well as the joy of watching my three sons get hosed down by firefighters at Murrieta's 35th birthday celebration, something I also once loved as a student at Murrieta Elementary decades ago. In that same spirit of celebrating our community and its future, I would like to speak about Jefferson Avenue and West Murrieta. My family has lived in Marietta for 36 years, a year before the city was incorporated and 30 years at our home today. Over that time, we have watched tremendous growth throughout the city. We've also watched areas like Jefferson Avenue past Marietta Hot Springs remain largely unchanged. Today, development is finally occurring on Jefferson and Hot Springs, an intersection of two main arterial roads. While this development is encouraging, it also highlights how much work remains to be done, particularly in West Marietta. For years, we have heard discussions about Jefferson Highway improvements, the Highway 395 recreation project, and the future goals of Jefferson's business district. From my family's perspective at 23590 Jefferson Avenue, we've spent two decades preparing for the, quote, future plan to connect Palomar Road to Jefferson. It's been almost two years since Wildomar's private development began in that region between the two cities, and it troubles me to know that our plans still read, prepare to plan. At the capital improvements workshop, Jefferson Avenue road widening was not mentioned once despite being labeled a tier one project at a previous special workshop. My concern is simple. If Jefferson is intended to function as a major arterial corridor, a frontage route for the 15 freeway, what is the city's actual plans for the portion of the roadway that remain constrained, unsafe, and unimproved? As someone raised there and raising a family there, I respectfully ask the council to provide clarity on two straightforward questions. First, will the Palomar-Jefferson connection remain closed after Wildomar's efforts are completed? Will the dead end remain there until Morita secures funding and completes its planned improvements? And second, if the road opens before those improvements occur, how will the city address safety concerns associated with the existing two-lane pinch point, a blind curve, and a lack of sidewalks on what is described as this arterial roadway? I bring you this as truly I am excited about the future of West Morita and Jefferson Avenue. I believe everything you're celebrating today goes in line with that. There's a lot of things coming and there's a lot of good already there. I believe our property and our aforementioned ideas of a gateway monument and heritage sites can contribute to the city's vision through heritage attractions, economic development, and improvements that would benefit the residents and visitors in the region alike. But meaningful investment requires a clear path forward. As we celebrate our nation's history and Murrieta's growth, I ask the Council to prioritize Jefferson Avenue's improvements and provide residents with a transparent, accountable timeline for the future of this corridor. Thank you, and have a beautiful evening.

Mr. Reilly, do you still have my phone number?

I believe so.

Give me a call tomorrow, and I can clarify some things. Thank you. Thanks.

Herman Gray.

Oh, thank you. Yeah, I got a wireless microphone for you there, sir.

Oh, is it right here?

Yeah.

Oh, my. Happy Fourth Day of July to everybody. I know it's late, but I am glad to be a 101-year-old man in the midst of all of you all. And my reason for here again is to plead to you guys. I own land on the corner of Magnolia and Washington. I was kicked off. Say I didn't own it. Say I stole it. I was a drug dealer. I was a child molester. And everybody in this building, you know a black man that did that, you know where I'd be. So I was told by this fellow a couple days ago to come back and plead my case to you guys and let you look into it and why that the Filipinos in Manila, I had to call there to find out that U.S. Bank is right in my neighborhood. That don't make sense to me. And I was here before all this was. It was in Beckman Cove. That's where we used to go. And I was wondering, is anybody in this building 101 years old?

No.

And I'm pleading to you guys. I had a good thing going here. I understand the lady said they were wanting somebody to bring revenue in. I got documented proof that I had a service station, a pancake house, IHOP. You name it, Channel 9 News, all had signed up. And I was kicked out by them. They said I didn't own it. And I've been fighting, fighting. And I still don't know who owned the land. And they won't tell me. And they told me to come back and pay my kids, the boys. And the only man back in those days that tried to help me was Mr., oh God, it's a street name now, Adam. And I, your fire department, I hauled it from Bass Creek to all the way down, I clean up my picture.

Mr. Gray, you have 10 seconds.

Thank you very much, sir. You can cut it. We're all out of time, sir, but thank you very much for being here. It's up, yes.

Yes, sir. Mr. Clifton?

Yeah, just to make Council aware, last time Mr. Gray was here and spoke with Council, he did provide a briefcase of documents. Our clerk's office made copies of those documents. I reviewed them immediately the following day, asked our police chief to do the same, and assigned some investigators to review the materials. I don't want to get into the details of the substance of what appears to be the dispute or case, but it involves property ownership. The transfer of which appears to have occurred a little more than 30 years ago. There's also additional documentation that this has been reviewed by the district attorney's office. So I looked high and low through the materials to see if there was anything that I could see that could be missing, even though that's not really my area of expertise. And I know our police chief personally oversaw the investigators who really specialize in these areas of potential crimes. To look at the same materials. Unfortunately, we don't see that there's anything more for us to do in this dispute, in part because of the age with which it's now been, I believe, more than 30 years since something occurred. So certainly it wasn't for lack of effort that we have reached the conclusion that there's really just nothing more that we can do. I do believe we've communicated back with Mr. Gray, but I would offer if Mr. Gray, if you're only here for this item and we're intending to leave after that, either our chief or we had at least looks like still one captain in the room could just touch base again and make sure we're clear on what communication he's already received and what else, you know, may be coming in terms of communication. But again, I just want to emphasize, both on the administrative level and the police department level, we really did open up all the materials to see if there was just anything that we thought we had jurisdiction to do. And at this point, unfortunately, we don't see any path forward where we can help. So wanted to make you aware. And again, if you would like to speak with our chief or a captain, just to make sure that we've closed the loop on all communication, I would offer that up now.

Mr. Gray, if there's any clarity that maybe we can fill in gaps, maybe like Mr. Clifton said, so make sure you got all that information so you have that information to do with what you need to, okay? But thank you. Is that it?

Mr. Mayor, that concludes public comment for chambers. And just a reminder, if you're joining remote, please raise your hand for non-agenda. Seeing none, Mr. Mayor.

Surprising. All right, we're done with comments in, right? Okay. Was that, did I have to ask for that? Yeah. Thank you. Moving on to consent calendar. Are there any requests from city council to pull any consent items for discussion or recusal from voting? Mr. Holliday? Any recusals for consent? Yes, I am recusing my oh no mine's number 16 All right, I have recusal for number 11 Just FYI because I own property within 500 feet of item number 11 Before I move on I understand mr. Clifton has a few words

Just a couple of them quickly. I want to highlight a couple of things. Number one, items five and six in the consent agenda are our tentative agreements with our public safety police department units, the general and the management unit, and similar to the ones that we had on the last agenda from our fire department. I just want to emphasize that this was a very different year for negotiations because our budget has been relatively flat and And I want to thank our police department team for really hearing us and understanding the financial position we were in. It was really, they were excellent conversations. I think of them more as conversations than negotiations where They were, you know, transparent with us on what they need and we were transparent with them on what we could afford and it's really wonderful when we reach this point where we have tentative agreements with all four of our public safety units on time before the start of the fiscal year where we can implement those changes. the first full pay period of July. So that's that item. And then item number 11, just briefly, this is, we have on our consent agenda some community facility district business. And then later in our public hearings, we have landscaping and lighting district business. And I just want to clarify for some of our residents that both of these tools are similar but different. They live in different areas of California statute. The landscaping lighting districts really are limited to those two things. They're an assessment added to property tax to help cover some of those maintenance items. Our community facilities districts do a little more, including recently the establishment of public safety and maintenance districts. Procedurally because they live in two different places in California law They have different procedural requirements Which is why one of those is handled on the consent agenda and the other is handled in the public hearing and and both of those are also different from our community services district which is kind of a Parks and Rec entity that precedes the city where an assessment is still collected so a Bit confusing, but just wanted to cover that for the the sake of residents following along at home Thank you very much for the clarity and with all the

Thoughts in my head, I missed one of my recusals. Also for number nine on the consent calendar, I will recuse myself because I own property within 500 feet of that item. I'd like to call, or Madam City Clerk, are there any members of the public requesting to speak on consent?

Seeing none, Mr. Mayor.

Okay, I'd like to call for a motion and a second. I have a motion by Mayor Pro Tem Holliday and a second by Councilwoman Warren. Please vote.

Motion carries unanimously 4-0 with recusals from Mayor Lovell on items 9 and 11.

Thank you very much. Moving on to our first public hearing. Fiscal year 2026 and 2027 fire suppression assessment.

Good evening, Mayor LaBelle and Council. I'm here this evening with our senior management analyst from the fire department, Sue Ann Herring, who runs our administrative services division of the fire department. She is going to present on our first public hearing this evening for the fire suppression assessment fee. With that, I will turn it over to Sue Ann. Thank you. Thank you, Chief.

Good evening, Mayor and Council members.

In 1981, myriad of voters approved a unit of benefit fire suppression assessment by a 79% margin. The City Council has approved this annual assessment each year since 1993, when the Fire District became a subsidiary of the City of Marietta. Prior to that, the independent Marietta Fire District Board of Directors adopted the fire suppression assessment on an annual basis. The maximum fee per unit of benefit is $40, which has remained unchanged since it was first established in 1981. The $40 fee is levied regardless of property valuation, with most all single-family homes paying this fixed amount. The fire suppression assessment revenues for 2026-2027 are estimated at approximately $1.62 million with the final amount available by the end of July once the tax assessments are completed. Additionally, the agenda packet includes a Proposition 218 compliance letter certifying that the Marietta Fire District complies with all laws governing special assessment taxes imposed on property owners under Proposition 218. Upon closing of this public hearing, staff recommends that the City Council, in their role as the Board of Directors for the Marietta Fire District, adopt Resolution No. MFD 26-229 and authorize the City Manager to execute the associated Proposition 218 compliance letter. This concludes our staff presentation. We're available to answer any questions the Council may have, and WILDAN staff is also available to address any specific financial questions related to this item. Thank you.

Thank you. I'll look for the queue or head nods for questions. Any questions? Okay, no questions. I will open the public hearing. City clerk, is there any public testimony for this item?

Seeing none.

Okay, going back to council. Good, I'll close the hearing. And I'd like to call for a motion and a second.

I'm so sorry, Mayor. I do have a question.

Oh, you missed that.

I know.

Three items ago. Oh, go ahead.

With regards to the $40 rooftop fee, the residents voted on that, correct?

Correct.

Thank you.

Cool. All right. Now, call for motion. I have a motion by Mayor Prootham-Holiday and a second by Councilwoman Warren. Let's vote.

Motion carries unanimously, 4-0.

Thank you. All right. Moving on to one of those districts that was mentioned earlier. Consolidated Landscaping and Lighting District Levy of Annual Assessments. Who do we have from staff?

Mayor, I need to recuse myself.

Yes. Yes.

Is that to do this now? Okay. I'm recusing myself from item number 15, LLD 11 only due to owning property within this district.

I also have to recuse myself. So is this the straw draw?

Well, who loses has to leave the room.

Okay. Thank you. Actually, Mr. Mayor, you're recusing from LLD 15, is that correct?

Yes.

Okay, and this one is, that's it for now. Oh, they're different. City Attorney, it's another one.

We're in different districts. Staying on this one.

Yeah. Okay. Thank you.

Okay, so I'm good. Okay. Yes, we're good.

All righty. Good evening, Mayor, City Council. My name is Crystal Aurora. I'm the Management Analyst for the Community Services Department here with the City of Murrieta. And I have Brian up here joining me. And I'm here to discuss the public hearing report for our LLD assessments. For the LLD, these assessments help cover costs associated with park, landscape maintenance, and street lighting in more localized areas that benefit numbered districts and that were formed after the passage of Proposition 218 in 1996. These assessments are reviewed annually. Zones may see decreases, increases, or no changes. This year, 36 of the 40 active zones and sub zones have increased, ranging from $2.72 to $180.78. We would like to point out that these assessments are not new assessments. In most instances, the zones and sub zones have been assessed at levels lower than year-to-date levels. The intent meeting for the consolidated LLD assessments took place on May 5th, and the 45-day public hearing notices were issued accordingly. Upon closing the public hearing, it is staff's recommendation for the City Council to confirm and provide for the annual levy of the assessments in the consolidated LLD. That concludes the overview of this item. Staff are available should there be any questions. Also, our consultants, Will Dan, are here as well if there are any questions.

Thank you. Any council questions? Going once, going twice. Okay. I'm going to open the public hearing on this one. Madam City Clerk, are there any public testimony on this?

Seeing none, Mr. Mayor.

Okay. Any comments from council to close this out? Good. Close the public hearing. I'd like to call for a motion and a second. A motion by Mayor Putnam-Holiday and a second by... Sure. Councilman Warren again. Let's vote.

Motion carries unanimously 4-0 with the noted recusals of Mayor Lavelle on LLD 15 and Council Member Warren LLD 11.

Moving on, are you guys staying? Yes, we are. So now we have the public hearing of the Merida Community Services District to consider ordering the levy and collection of annual assessments. Are there any council members from this item would like to recuse themselves?

Mayor, I do.

Ms. Warren?

Okay. Item number 16, I'm recusing myself. CSD zone N only due to owning property within the zone.

Thank you. Mr. Holliday.

I thought I was done with that.

He's digging out of the trash.

I even crumpled it up. I'm recusing myself from item number 16, CSD zone F only due to owning property within 1,000 feet of the zone.

Back in the trash. Okay. And I also recuse myself from item 16. I own property within 1,000 feet of this zone. For me, 16. Oh. F&L, sorry. And I think now we're going to draw straws.

Yeah. Yes, so it looks like I also have recusals for Zone G. And my apologies, I don't have my glasses on, so I can't really make eye contact. Zone G with Holiday, Lavellan, and Stone, and so I'll draw straws for that.

Fun.

Okay.

Do you want us to come over there? No, I can. Okay. I don't have to draw straws.

I don't have to draw straws.

We've got a lot of confusing stuff figured out. 2026, and we're still using straws. No, no, I'm saying it works. It works. It definitely, I mean, it's better than an app, I'm sure. Staff, would we please add the report?

And we're back one more time. I'm Crystal Laura, Management Analyst at the Community Services Department, joined by Brian Ambrose, our Community Services Director. This public hearing relates to the annual levy assessments for the Community Services District. The Community Services District assessments help to cover the costs associated with flood and drainage services, street sweeping, and in most benefit areas, local park and landscaping and street lighting. They benefit general areas and lettered zones. These assessments are reviewed annually in accordance with the provisions detailed in Proposition 218 that was passed by the California voters in 1996. For the CSD, these assessments have not been increased since their establishment in 1997, as there is no cost inflator tied to them. Depending on the zone, the annual assessments range from $45.44 to $751.16. The intent meeting for the assessments took place on May 5th, and the 45-day public hearing notices were mailed to all property owners within the city. Staff's recommendation upon closing the public hearing for council, acting as the CSD board, to approve the levy report and order the collection of the rates and charges for next fiscal year. That concludes the overview of this item. Staff and our consultant are available if you have any questions.

Thank you. Questions from council? I'm getting nothing, so I will open the public hearing. All right, Madam City Clerk, any public testimony on this item?

Seeing none.

Thank you. Any council comments? Anything back? Okay. Sometimes it comes. You got to ask. I'd like to call for a motion. I'll close up up hearing. I'd like to call for a motion and a second now for this item.

All right.

I second. I have a motion by Council Member Warren and a second by the one and only John Lavelle. Let's vote.

Motion carries 4-0 with the recusals noted as Mayor Pro Tem Holliday on F and G, Mayor Lavelle on F and L, Council Member Warren on N, and Council Member Stone. There is no recusal for her at this time.

Okay, moving on. You guys are leaving now? Okay. Okay, we have another district consider the levy of 2025 delinquent. Oh, yeah, this refused service charges on the fiscal year 2026-27 property tax roll. Hello.

Good afternoon, Mayor and members of the City Council. My name is, oh, there it is. My name is Pedro survive some imagine analyst in the city manager's office tonight, I'll be presenting on the annual delinquent refuse charges that are proposed replacement on the fiscal year 2026 27 property tax rule. So I'll start with an overview of how the city handles unpaid refuse charges so per our franchise agreement with waste management residential solid waste service continues even when accounts are left unpaid. As a result, those charges are typically collected through the county's property taxable process. Each year, waste management submits a list of delinquency refuse charges to the city for its review. Prior to submitting those charges to the county, the city council is required to submit a notice public hearing to review and then approve of those charges. Here is a summary of the 2025 delinquent charges. As of July 2nd, there are 1,331 parcels with delinquent accounts, totaling approximately 501,000 in unpaid principal. When you add the interest and the penalty, the total proposed levy is approximately 651,000. Delinquency notices were mailed out to homeowners on June 1st, providing the homeowners an opportunity to resolve their accounts by paying off the principal balance prior to the tax rule deadline. After July 17th, those remaining balances that are left unpaid will be subject to penalty and interest. This slide here shows the outstanding principal balance between May 5th and July 2nd, 2026. As you can see, the balance has decreased from approximately $596,000 to about $501,000, and this is reflecting some payments made once the delinquency notices were sent out to homeowners. This is from July 2nd, We anticipate that it is lower now and will continue to decline as we approach the tax roll deadline of July 17th. That does conclude my presentation. The staff recommends that the City Council conduct the public hearing, adopt a resolution approving of the delinquent refuse charges that are proposed for placement on the fiscal year 26-27 property tax roll, and then authorize filing with Riverside County. Staff and representatives from Waste Management are available should the City Council have any questions. Thank you.

Thank you. Maybe I miss this. Mr. Holliday, I'll get to you after this. But just to clarify, this is not a new process. This is not new. This is something we do every year, correct? That is correct. Okay. Mr. Holliday.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Yeah, I just want to clarify a few things for the public mostly. What is the reason that we collect trash when people don't pay their bill?

The primary reason is to promote and protect the cleanliness of of the city and then also discourage illegal dumping.

Because if they didn't just if we didn't pick up the trash and pay their bill, the trash would accumulate, creating health hazards, environmental hazards, et cetera, et cetera, correct?

Correct.

And of the total that you showed on the earlier slides, when it goes to the tax rolls, there's additional fees that are not waste management that is included in that, correct? Are you referring to the penalties and interest that's added to the principal balance? There's a cost to put it on the tax roll, right? Yes. And that is money that's collected through this delinquent charge on the property tax bill that goes to the county for placing it on the property taxes, correct? Yes. And so that doesn't go to waste management. Waste management gets to collect their fees that are delinquent.

The city, per the agreement, just like we get our 12% franchise fee, that 12% is also applied to this overall balance, which includes principal, interest, and the penalty. So you would take that large sum, and the city would retain its 12% by the end of it. Plus the cost to put it on tax rolls. That fourth cost that you might be referring to is a figure that I don't know off the top of my head. That's okay. I'm not looking for the exact figure.

Council Member Stone has a mouse in her pocket.

We just had an AI training, I thought.

We need it. And so I just wanted, like I said, I want to clarify to make sure that the residents understand that this is not money that's coming to the city except for that franchise fee portion. that would have come if they paid their bill normally. And it's the only way that we can continue to pick up trash in the city and keep it clean and free from health and environmental hazards while still doing all that and getting waste management paid the amount they're owed. Correct?

Correct, Mayor Pro Tem. And I'll just emphasize one more time that if residents pay before the taxable deadline of July 17th, they're only paying the principal balance that they've owed for some time and not the penalty at interest before that point.

I appreciate that clarification. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Councilwoman Warren.

Easy for you to say. I do have a question for you because I've been asked this. I know the answer, but maybe people in the audience or out in cyberspace do not. What happens when it goes on the tax roll and they still don't pay it? What happens with that fee?

So that's what after the deadline of the July 17th?

Right. It goes on the tax roll. It goes on their property taxes. And they don't pay their property taxes, which that is still a part of now on their fee. What happens with that? Does county takes over collecting it? It's in their jurisdiction at that time? Or does waste management?

No, the county does at that point. The county takes care of it at that point? Yeah, if it's not paid after a few years, they would foreclose.

Okay, so then it becomes the county's responsibility to take care of it, not the City of Marietta or Waste Management.

No, we're doing this to help Waste Management.

Okay, that's what I thought. I just wanted to make sure I understood correctly the procedures that went through. Thank you very much.

Thank you. I don't see any more questions, so I will open the public hearing. Any final comments from council? Ideas, thoughts, concerns? Oh. Is there any public comments on this? Or are there any public comments? Seeing none. Okay.

Seeing none, Mr. Mayor.

Thank you. And I will close the public hearing now. I'd like to call for a motion and a second. I have a motion by Mayor Pro Tem Holiday and a second by Mayor Lovell. Please vote.

Motion carries unanimously, 4-0.

Thank you. Bye, Robert. Bye. All right, next up. Oh, Mr. Javier, what's up? The money team. Consideration of the fiscal year 2026-27 capital improvement plan, budget and approval of the capital improvement plan for fiscal years 26 and 27, all the way to 30 and 31. Look at this team.

Well, good evening, honorable mayor, members of city council, city staff, member of the public. Javier Carcomo, Director of Finance, and joining me tonight is our City Engineer, Mr. Jeff Hitch, Garrett Strang, Capital Project Program Manager with MSD, and Mr. Aaron Mendoza, Financial Analyst with Finance. Tonight, we're pleased to present to you the Capital Improvement Plan budget for fiscal year 2026-2027. The CAP document serves as a city's planning and budgeting document for capital projects. It provides proposed funding sources and appropriation for the current fiscal year 2026-2027, but also establishes a five-year framework for infrastructure investments and project delivery. This presentation will provide an overview of the proposed fiscal year 2026-27 CAP budget, and as well, we're going to provide a budget update, sorry, a project update on status update for some of the projects that our team has been working over the last year. And with that, I'm going to go briefly into the budget itself for fiscal year 2026-27. We currently have 107 active projects of those of active projects. We have approximately 48 that are fully funded. And approximately 59 that are partially funded with additional funding plan in future years to complete those projects. The prior year's CAP project balance is approximately $86.2 million. The staff is recommending an additional $37 million in appropriation for fiscal year 26-27, bringing the total proposed CAP budget to approximately $123.2 million. Because the CAP is a five-year plan, It also identified approximately $40.5 million in restricted funding that are anticipated over the next four fiscal year. Finally, the capital improvement plan includes a list of inactive projects. These are projects that have been added over the years. They're usually tier two, tier three projects. UNFUNDED, AND THAT AMOUNT REPRESENT, I'M GOING TO SAY APPROXIMATELY BECAUSE THEY'RE, THEY TEND TO BE UPDATED ANNUALLY WITH THE COST OF CONSTRUCTION INDEX NUMBER, BUT THAT APPROXIMATELY, THAT AMOUNT IS APPROXIMATELY $590 MILLION. WITH THAT, I'M GOING TO TURN IT OVER TO MR. MENDOZA WHO'S GOING TO PROVIDE YOU WITH THE OVERVIEW OF THE CAP BUDGET AS WELL AS SOME OF THE COMPLETED PROJECTS.

Thank you, Mr. Carcomo. Good evening, Council. Just wanted to reiterate and correct the previous slide. We did correct the slide. It is 52 active and 55 unfunded. So the numbers on the slide are correct. The proposed 26-27 CIP budget includes approximately 4.5 million for new capital projects. The largest investment is 2.4 million funded by Measure T for the purchase of a new fire department tiller truck. The budget also includes 750,000 for maintenance improvements at the Equestrian Center and $750,000 for first floor improvements at City Hall to create additional office and workspace needed to support growth in the development services and engineering departments. Additionally, projects include traffic signal improvements at the Clinton-Keith Road and Nutmeg Intersection, along with a new citywide beautification program designed to enhance the appearance of landscape areas while reducing long-term maintenance costs. This next slide reflects a comprehensive, the 26 27 CIP budget reflects a comprehensive review and reprioritization of the city's capital program to better align available funding with the city council's strategic properties. The proposed budget includes 106 active, sorry, I apologize, 107 active projects representing a reduction of 66 projects or approximately 38% from the prior fiscal year. This reduction reflects staff's efforts to close completed projects, consolidate related projects, and remove inactive or lower priority projects from the CIP. Through this effort, staff identified approximately $37 million in restricted funding that can be redirected to other projects, such as the city council priorities projects. As directed during the CIP budget workshop, staff will return to the city council with recommendations to further refine project priorities and discuss potential reallocation of these available funds toward the city council's tier one priorities. This next slide represents the 2526 completion of 22 capital projects totaling approximately 14.6 million. These projects delivered significant investments in public safety, community amenities, and economic development. Highlights include new self-contained breathing apparatus equipment, a mobile command center, emergency generator upgrades, pedestrian safety improvements, enhancements at Glen Arbor Park, expanded pickleball courts, technology upgrades at the Alderwood Community Center, and completion of the Murrieta Innovation Center, which supports business attraction and long-term economic growth. Additional notable projects include improvements to the police department, traffic bureau and locker rooms, fire station, number two improvements, and the synthetic turf replacements at Los Alamos and Torrey Pines parks, which both are substantially complete. This next slide represents the proposed CIP budget. It's funded primarily through restricted revenue sources dedicated to infrastructure improvements These include development impact fees, Measure A, transportation funds, gas tax, SB1, drainage funds, grant funding, and other restricted sources. These funds combined and represents approximately 86% of the CIP budget. General fund and Measure T contributions total approximately 12 million, representing about 10% of the overall CIP funding. These local funds provide the flexibility needed to advance the projects that do not have dedicated external restrictions. I'm now turning it over back to Mr. Carcomo for the presentation. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Mendoza, and I appreciate the corrections on the previous numbers. Those were like last minute updates to the presentation. The proposed CAP budget is funded primarily revenue sources. Two weeks ago, the City Council held a CAP budget workshop to review and discuss the proposed five-year CAP. During the workshop, the City Council directed staff to return at a future date to further refine the capital project that advances City Council's priorities. As part of this future report and discussion, staff will present several funding strategies available for the City Council's consideration to help address the remaining funding gap. This includes the reallocation of restricted funds identified through the project consolidation and closeout efforts, the use of available unassigned fund balance from the General Fund and Measure T Fund. These funds will be designated as a strategic reserve and allocated to project... allocated as project advance towards implementations, reassessment of the city's operating reserve, which could make up additional resources available for CAP projects, and explore external financing options, including the issuance of debt or bonds to accelerate delivery of priority infrastructure projects. I'm finally a staff will continue reviewing the C. A. P. Portfolio for additional opportunities to consolidate projects close inactive projects and reallocate funding to higher priority needs. These strategies will be presented to city council for consideration and be and maybe further evaluated as project scopes cost and funding needs continue to evolve. With that ends the portion of this presentation related to our capital improvement plan budget. Now I'm going to turn it over to Garrett to provide you a project update for some of the projects.

Good evening again, members of city council. Again, my name is Garrett String. I'm a capital projects program manager with the municipal services department. So I want to talk about a few recently completed projects on behalf of MSD. So we've completed four major CIP projects since the beginning of 2026, including the Alderwood Pickleball Courts, the turf replacements at Los Alamos Hills and Torrey Pines Park, the Cal Oaks Tennis Court lighting, the Los Alamos Hills charging stations, as well as a major one here, the Fire Station 1 site improvements project. I'm happy to report is at 95% substantially complete. We expect the project to be substantially complete here before the end of July. Some ongoing projects that we have. So another hot item is the Marietta Library Expansion Project. So we anticipate construction to be complete on that project around the end of December with a ribbon-cutting ceremony about end of January, beginning of February of 2027. Also worth noting, we will have a library closure starting at July, excuse me, starting July 18th through August 2nd. We also have the fire station one living quarters project that will be beginning construction before the end of July as well. And as I previously mentioned, the citywide sidewalk replacement project is fully underway. Some exciting upcoming CIP projects. We have the Cal Oak Sports Park pool and park revitalization. The PD parking lot expansion project is currently underway with us. It's currently selecting a design consultant who will be overseeing that project, the municipal services yard, the fire station six project, Los Alamos Hills football field turf replacement, the city hall first floor remodel project is currently under design, equestrian center rehabilitation, and miscellaneous tot lot replacements. And I'm now going to pass it over to Mr. Jeffitch.

Thank you, Mr. Strang. Good evening, Mr. Mayor, council members. Tonight, I'm just gonna give you a brief overview of the various projects we have going under construction now. As you know, we have a couple of projects underway, and some projects that have been recently completed within this last fiscal year. As was previously indicated, Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Project was completed near the end of last year, so that would be midway through the fiscal year. Those again are just curb ramps that are replaced under CDBG funds. The Myriad Hot Springs Road and Altamira Turnpocket has been ongoing for some time as you're aware. We've been asking for the community's patience with this project. However, we are currently I believe now full steam ahead to complete this project. The majority of the work on this that was causing delay was related to water infrastructure that was within the project. Contractor was just not able to get it complete. That is now done and behind us. That moving forward, the contractor recently installed a new signal pole foundation last week, and they will be erecting a new signal pole, which is required with relocation of that curb ramp. That's anticipated to be done later this week. Shortly thereafter, they will be redeveloping the actual driveway throat going into the Sam's Club parking lot. which will be a little demanding for travelers in the area, and we'll be notifying people accordingly as we progress with that. We are anticipating that project to be completed in August. The Myriad Hot Springs Road Widening Project, I had some pictures, some better pictures of this than this picture, which is not showing any construction. Much of the wall is now built on the south side of the road. That is what's caused a bunch of the delay that we've experienced thus far. There's been other delays associated with the rain earlier this last winter that we experienced, but really the bulk of what we're dealing with is related to the retaining wall that was built. We believe most of those delays are now behind us. We're anticipating that wall to be completed within the next week to two weeks. And then they are going to start constructing the actual curb line down the south side of the road, and then removing the artificial bench that they had there that they used to install that retaining wall. Shortly after that, we'll start the relocation with Southern California Edison. We've done quite a bit of communication with Edison. Edison is committing to us that they believe they will have a contractor available to start relocation of those wires as soon as our contractor is ready. So that was good news for that, as sometimes that can be a source for delay. The completion of this project is, well, we are now Beyond where that was supposed to be completed here in early and in June, I believe, was the deadline. We are now looking at the end of the year for completion of this project. Payment rehabilitation or was our asphalt overlay that was actually managed by the gentleman to my right, Mr. Strang, Los Alamos Road, Antelope Road and Elm Street. As you know, that project has been completed. So that was something that we completed over this last fiscal year. And the Hayes Avenue Bridge, if you look in the photo, that's actually where it used to be. This was a picture as of Monday morning. I believe it took them all of 30 seconds to remove the wooden bridge that was there that you see kind of piled up in the right corner there. And then the actual bridge abutments themselves were removed probably within about an hour after that with a breaker there on the end of the excavator. They are currently excavating for the new foundations that were surveyed this morning, and they're advancing that work. They are currently on schedule for completing this project by August 21st. Looking at projects moving forward, yes, more pedestrian safety enhancement projects that we plan on putting out to bid later this fall, winter, probably a time frame. Actually, this might push into February. as we get approvals from the county who carries our CDBG fund approvals. Our next pavement resurfacing project is anticipating doing an expansive section at Clinton-Keith. We had originally, actually prior to this morning, this was the plan, we've actually revised this plan as effectively this morning. We likely are gonna do Clinton-Keith really from Spinning Wheel or the eastern boundary I say spinning wheel, but it really goes all the way to our city boundary there, just to the west of spinning wheel. All the way over, instead of going all the way to Whitewood, we'll probably stop at Mitchell and reserve the piece from Mitchell to Whitewood for next summer's project. Part of the reason for that is really kind of a funding mechanism. In this particular case, it makes more sense probably to break it up into into a smaller piece. This was a three mile long segment. This would get us to a two mile long segment on Clinton Keith and a two mile long segment on Jefferson from Ivy to Nutmeg. The remaining piece would be completed with next year's project when we plan to also include a big section of Whitewood from Hot Springs to, Hot Springs to Avenida Acacias or Los Alamos, somewhere in that stretch, depending on funding availability. Citywide slurry seal is on track for being put out to bid later this year for construction this winter, as when we typically do our slurry seal projects. Madison Avenue is currently at a 75% design. We're anticipating finishing most of the design on that, at least up to 90% this year. getting into right-of-way in 2027 and construction into 2028. Menifee Road, this is the infamous 500-foot-long roadway project. And for the benefit of Council Member Holliday, I know you've asked various times about the minor criteria refinement that we had been, we finally received a written notification from the regional, the regulatory authorities that the minor criteria refinement has been approved. So that was good news. We are still pushing forward with our CEQA document to get that completed. Still have some work ahead of us and some further discussions with the RCA dealing with work associated with the PQP area and the adjacent conservation lands because we have to grade into those. So those will be some ongoing discussions related to the environmental for that project. But we are... obviously still advancing that project and moving forward. Whitewood Road project is currently in design. We've got the 35% plans are in and our design consultant is working on the 70% plans as we speak. We're expecting, I think in this case, that this will follow under a CEQA exemption if everything goes well. and there is not anticipated to be any right-of-way acquisition anticipated, so I think the only thing that's remaining is construction, which would be probably in the winter of 2027. Line F channel, we are approaching our 35% design alternatives completion. We should have a final design and prefer alternative selected probably within the next month or two. We have some coordination with flight control and some with the executive team to go through some of those alternatives before landing on a preferred alternative. Once that is selected, we will be advancing an additional contract to finalize the rest of the design after we know what the preferred design is supposed to be moving forward. But otherwise that project is on track. We still have another two to three years really to get to construction. We just commenced with the storm drain master plan that was approved by your council on June 2nd, awarded to Rick Engineering. So that is commenced. That's about a 12 month long project to complete storm drain master plan, which of course will define an update to all of our storm drain deficiencies within the city and model all of our watersheds within the city to help us with capital project prioritization for new projects that we need to do and help us even with land development work that requires improvements within our watersheds. Traffic signal work, as was discussed earlier, the Clinton-Keith and Nutmeg traffic signal modification, the design of that is complete. We're waiting to put that out to bid later this fall. And the Jefferson and Magnolia traffic signal design is also complete. We're also planning on putting that at bid this fall. We also have the adaptive timing project, which still requires some additional work with Caltrans. The design is complete, but we need some approvals from Caltrans before we can proceed with construction. And that concludes all of the projects that we're currently working on in design. Just other regionally significant projects, you're all aware of 215 and Keller Road interchange. I don't think I need to belabor that project any further. So the French Valley Parkway Phase 3, the city has been assisting the city of Temecula with attending monthly PDT meetings in this project. So we're in the know of what's going on, just to stay kind of in the loop. In the pink there is the Phase 3 design, which is the overcrossing. they're actively working on that. And then they have a phase four section, which is the braided lanes that you see kind of in the dark blue that might be done at some point in the future. I believe the phase three portion that they're referring to, they're expecting completion, I think it's very preliminary, sometime in 2029. With that, that concludes engineering's update.

Thank you, Mr. Hitch. The recommended action before you as the City Council is to hold the public hearing and adopt joint resolution number 26-4962, MLB 26-201, CSD 26-289, RSA 26-230, entitled Joint Resolution of the City Council of the City of Murrieta, and the boards of directors of the Murrieta Library District, Murrieta Community Services District, and the successor agency to the Murrieta Redevelopment Agency, approving the capital improvement plan budget for fiscal year 26-27, approving the fiscal years 26-27 to 2030-31 capital improvement plan, authorizing the operating transfers for various funds, authorizing the use of unassigned fund balances and committed fund balances. As stated, we have our project managers and department directors available for any questions that you may have, thank you.

Thank you much for that very thorough report of all things going on in the city, thank you. Bringing it up for council questions, starting with Councilwoman Warren.

Thank you. Thank you very much. That was very well done. A lot of information. I have, I think, four questions for engineering and one question for Garrett. So we'll start there. First question for engineering. With the delayed on both the pocket lane and the hot springs, I know the pocket lane signage has been updated, but has the signage been updated on the hot springs widening project for when it will be completed?

I know we've discussed it whether or not it's I have not physically seen the sign in the field So I will double check on that.

I would appreciate that because I'm getting questions Can imagine also I have also received questions and concerns about the Retaining wall that's being built and that with the question that was that is out of wood and the renderings look like it was out of a cement type Material is that treated wood and will be painted that I'm just answering questions for constituents. I

Yes, it's a treated would is what it is so it's pressure pressure treated would that you would this is obviously commercially done, but if you were to go to Home Depot and bio. Treated 4 by 4 it's that type of a pressure tree that provides that it's the natural color is what we were is what we're going for we're not planning on painting the wood. We are planning on on planting The walls which mean there were with vine pockets so there would be vines that will be planted and there's pockets Every so often along the wall and eventually the wall will fill in with the vines. That's the idea behind that if if the wall is is the image of the wall is not the desired image, we can discuss painting the wall with the material if that becomes necessary. We are getting some comments that some of the wood elements are different color just because of the nature of if they bought pressure treated wood from different sources, then the color might be slightly different, it might appear different. We think that will age pretty quickly over time and turn to a unique, or at least a blended colored wall. If that becomes an issue, like I said, we have some options that we can look at, sort of staining or painting.

I think they were more concerned with fire more than anything, having a wooden structure next to those apartment buildings, the residential areas. I think that's what their concern was more than anything. So I just, hopefully they're listening and they can hear this. My other question was, have you notified the RTA when you're going to be shutting down any bus stops along hot springs when you start moving the Edison across. So I just want to make sure we do take care of that.

We have been in notification with you.

My last question is, you said you're going to break up the asphalt overlay on Clinton, Keith and Whitewood. You're going to maybe break that up, do partial now and then the rest of it maybe next year. When you do that, do you use the same contractor so that we have the same consistency or do you have to go back out to bid for that?

We have to go back out to bid for that.

So once that one section that you decided that you're going to go so far, then that would be one contractor. And it could be a separate contractor, even though it's continuation of the same road. Is that correct?

It is. And I would point out, in this particular case, we're talking about a mile-long road segment. So it's not like it's a small sliver. It's a pretty lengthy stretch of road, which is why we kind of elected. We were trying to, I think, bite off a little bit more than we can chew. It would have been a total of five miles of pavement resurfacing, which is a very large project. And so the decision to do two miles on Clinton-Keith And there's another factor that's involved in there as well by eliminating the section between Mitchell and Whitewood. That crosses the 215 freeway, which requires Caltrans permits. And we're a little concerned that we're not going to get our permits in time with Caltrans. Well, usually we get those pretty quick. All it would take would be one little thing from Caltrans that causes a delay, and then all of a sudden we can't get that project constructed now this fall. which would push us in the next summer anyway. It just made more sense to try to break that off. We are a little concerned about bid pricing for asphalt overlay. We have obviously high oil prices or higher oil prices than normal. We were somewhat excited to see maybe things are resolving themselves in Iran. But news today is we don't know what's going to happen with bid prices. This will be another decision point that we'll make after we actually bid the project. If for whatever reason the oil prices are super high, we may be recommending pushing the bid out to a later time when we feel like the prices will be more reasonable. We'll provide you with an update to that when that time comes.

That sounds very smart. My last question is for Garrett, and it's regarding the sports park resurfacing of the fields. I do know that you're doing the larger fields at Los Alamos. Is that correct?

Yes, ma'am.

Okay, so that being said, I have had a lot of people come to me and say, well, you know, we have no grass on the smaller fields, and do we have anything in our plan for that? Do you know anything about that?

Not that I'm aware of at this time. Unfortunately, we did the soccer field first, which made everyone ask the question, well, what about the other fields? So we did plan on doing the football field as a next order of business, but no plans as of now for the other fields.

I'll catch up with you on the other fields later and just show you what we're talking about. Absolutely. That concludes my questions. And again, thank you. Great presentation.

Thank you. Councilwoman Stone.

Mayor, I really don't have any questions. I have more comments, so I'll wait for that period. Thank you.

Awesome. Thank you. Mr. Holliday.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. To the Menifee Road... Such a little road, such a big problem. Have you had conversations with Bryan Stevenson about the alignment of the intersection at Los Alamos and Menifee Road?

We have had some discussions with that. And it'd probably be a good idea maybe to have a discussion specifically about that and whether or not that's feasible or not at this point. The changing the alignment I think of the road to utilizing more of a route curve instead of a stop sign controlled intersection would probably cause a significant delay to the project if we were to try to accomplish that. But I think we need to talk a little bit more about just the traffic volumes, because I think the traffic volumes are not significant. We may want to maybe even think about seeing if we can determine what the volumes on that street are so we can make a more educated decision related to that before we cause a delay. The delay would be coming from, we would probably have to redo all of our environmental analysis because our environmental analysis doesn't incorporate the area where the route curve would need to go. So that would be the concern with trying to make that kind of a change.

Let's talk about that in the next week or so, if we can.

Yeah, absolutely.

And then... The Whitewood Road widening project is the rest of Whitewood going to be not the rest of the rest of that section of Whitewood. Is that going to be paved at that time?

The section between Clinton, Keith and Hunter would would be. The project is widening that road. I think it's three lanes now. It would be widening it to its full four-lane width.

But there's a lot of, I mean, the road needs some repair through that whole section, too, on this part that's not being widened. Would we do all that at once?

We would likely be looking at that. If there's obvious pavement work that needs to be done on the other side of the road, we would probably grind and cap that at that time.

Okay, perfect. And then I think one of the... I think RN mentioned something in the last slide about unassigned fund balance. Do you know what the dollar amount of unassigned fund balance is being allocated to these projects?

Thank you for the question, Councilmember. So the unassigned fund balances, we're using special revenue funds for this. between the Measure T and general fund capital, we are using both funds. With approximately 37 million is unassigned fund balance from existing restricted funds. So that is the potential unassigned fund balance.

Not the unassigned fund balance from the general fund? Correct.

Yeah, and if I can add to the response, specifically with the use of unassigned fund balance is from Slightly from General Fund and Measure T, primarily for the fire truck theater, 2.4 million. The question center maintenance project, 750,000. And the city hall improvement with 750,000. So that is the proposed use of unassigned fund balance between General Fund and Measure T. All other, the proposed $37 million, all other requests comes primarily with restricted funding. That usually is like transportation funds, like Measure 8, SB 1, so on and so forth.

Perfect. Thank you.

Okay. With that, I'll open the public hearing. Madisonia Clerk, anybody out there want to talk about this one? Seeing none. Okay. Bringing it back for final council comments. Mrs. Stone, you can go.

Thank you, Mayor. Can you go back to the proposed projects? It didn't have a page number. I think it would have been after 7. I think it was 8. Going to 8. Go to the next one. Yeah, yeah, this one. Thank you so much. I just wanted to point out to the residents that... Our staff is very diligent about applying for grants. And I think it's really important to highlight the amount of money in grants to offset the costs for our residents as well. In addition, the Measure T, so it's close to $30 million. And I just wanted to commend staff for doing your due diligence. So thank you for that. If you could go to page 19. I've driven Merida Hot Springs many times. And I'm not sure if we're not in the phase where it's going to be very disruptive, but I want you to know that it has not been disruptive. It's gone very... I know, I don't want to... I know. But I have to commend the team. And again, there may be a time where we may be frustrated, but right now, I have to really commend the team for the signage and... the cleanliness and the efficiency of this project. So kudos to the team. I think we can move on to page 21, please. I have had several phone calls, emails, Facebook posts about the Hayes Bridge. And thank you for the updates. I know the residents are frustrated, but I think they're seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. I've been telling them August, but maybe September because of unforeseen hiccups. So again, I wanted to thank staff and your entire team for being so efficient and being on top of this because the residents are... I'm not going to tell you that they're frustrated, but maybe just a little frustrated, but they understand that there is... environmental process. They understand what we have to go through in order to rebuild this bridge. So again, I just wanted to thank you, and I'm so glad that you brought that up today. If you go on to page 27. Oh, so yes. Thank you for the update on this. The residents are going to be very, very happy that this project is moving forward. And again, thank you to all of you and thank you to Council Member, Mayor Pro Tem Holladay. I know that you've received many phone calls of complaints and why this is not paved. So again, I just wanted to say thank you for your diligence. You don't have to go to page 29 and 30, but I think you know that we have a resident, since I've been elected in 2020, it seems like several times a year, Mr. Klein has been bringing up these two projects. And I think you are gonna make him very, very happy that his voice has been heard and the team is moving forward. So thank you again for that. Page 33. So as I spoke about higher education, that conversation happened many councils ago, 20 years. And here we are, 15 years later, with Keller Road. And when you talk about a collaboration amongst our elected officials, our state elected officials, especially Senator Kelly Ciarto, I really have to give kudos to him for stepping up. As you know, we've been to D.C., we've been to Sacramento to lobby for grant funding for Keller Road. And I actually had a conversation with a former mayor who was on council when the medical corridor was established. And my question to him was, why in God's name did you not plan for Keller Road when you identified our medical corridor? And Mr. Hitch, I know you've been here for a long time and you may remember this obviously. And he had said that There was not funding at that time to even begin this project. While it was on the radar, there was another part of Marietta where there was not a bridge, but do you know what I'm talking about, that there wasn't a, what would you call it? It was a roadway to connect streets in order to get to Whitewood where Keller Road was, and they had the funds at that time.

You mean the Oro Crossing, maybe at Linnell?

Yes. Mayor Pro Tem, was that the project that they actually funded at that time?

It may have been Whitewood Road itself because when we annexed what is the Mapleton area, all those housing tracks, the only connection between Main Murrieta and that housing track was the 215 freeway. And you got off at Scott Road. So it could have been Whitewood Road itself.

But it's very important that... Current council today and the future council understand the history and why decisions were made. And the former mayor that had the conversation said, Lori, we realized how important this was. And if we did not implement this without Keller Road at that time, you would not have Loma Linda today. And so, again, I really want to thank everybody, our entire council, the entire city team, Senator Kelly C. Arto, anybody that advocated to get this through the finish line. I'm very proud to be part of the current council that we were able to accomplish this. So I wanted to say thank you so much. As I shared at our workshop, I also want to commend our economic development team. Because at ICSC, in meetings that we attend, this is going to be the economic hub of Marietta, which is next. We have hotels next. We have the expansion of Loma Linda. We have a brand new hospital from Kaiser. We're going to have medical buildings that are going to bring unique uses in the medical industry. We have our MEC. I really believe that Marietta is on the path of just awesomeness. And I just really wanted to say thank you for your years of commitment and our current staff that are here today for accomplishing hard tasks. hard obstacles, hard unforeseen hiccups. So thank you to the entire team. That concludes my comments, Mr. Mayor.

Yeah, Council Member Stone, I really appreciate the comments. I'd be remiss if I didn't acknowledge Bob Mailing, who's really been the leading driving force behind Keller Interchange all these years. So anyway.

Thank you so much. Thank you.

I've been complaining about the traffic today, Bob, so thank you.

Oh, but she already took care of Mary Hotsprings.

Today's not over, so. Okay, I will close the public hearing. Call for a motion in a second, please. A motion by Mayor Pro Tem Holliday and a second by Councilwoman Warren. Let's vote.

Motion carries unanimously, 4-0.

All right. Last item of the night. Consider the establishment of a city council subcommittee, which I believe would be an ad hoc subcommittee regarding a statewide ballot initiative for November, 2028. Assistant city manager, Kristen Crane, who's probably going to tee this off.

I will kick you off on item 19. So back at the April 7th City Council meeting, the City Council considered establishing several different subcommittees to work on different topics. One of them was a subcommittee related to a potential statewide ballot initiative that would be for November 2028 pertaining to local control of land use. And at that time, the City Council Decided to postpone the discussion and decision about that subcommittee until after the June 2026 primary election and that you wanted to reconsider it after that so that's why we are bringing this topic back to you at this time and Just a little bit more background about the topic. So protection of local control has been a key topic of the city's legislative platform for many years. You've also passed resolutions on two different occasions in recent years, back in 2020 and in 2024 pertaining to this topic. And you have been talking about this idea of initiating a statewide ballot initiative related to local control of land use for some time. I want to acknowledge that we did receive public communication about this topic that raised a lot of really good questions about what would the language be, how would this work, how much staff time would be involved in something like this, and to clarify that That's actually part of the work of the subcommittee, that those things have not yet been determined because it's very preliminary as you've been considering this topic. There is a really long lead time for a ballot initiative. The language would have to be submitted to the state in August of 2027 for approval prior to the signature gathering phase. And it is a long road that requires building a coalition And it's very expensive as well. But again, that's part of the work that the subcommittee would do. And so we wanted to bring this back to you. It's for you to take the discussion from here. And we're happy to answer any further questions.

Okay. I appreciate it. I think Ron's kind of the champion of this topic for sure, although I think the idea came from our city attorney at one point back when, back in the day, as Ron would say.

The idea that that's a way to try to address this.

Yeah. Before you go into this, Ron, I was going to ask you, Tiffany, do you know of the last, in the state of California, the last constitutional amendment that passed and what it was for in this state, from a city, or from, I mean, in the recent history?

There have been recent ones. But I don't know, do you remember?

Because I can't think of any. I didn't even Google search it, but I was just curious if anybody had any examples of how this, what has been done with this tool before in the past.

There have been a number of amendments, constitutional amendments that are ballot measures. You know, things like Proposition 218, you know, things about taxes and fees and the limits and increasing the... Would Prop 13 be a good example? She's a 218.

218, recent.

Well, I mean, that one's not super recent, but that's just a well-known one that establishes the process for how you can enact property-related fees. But there are a lot, and they are done periodically.

Okay.

But within the last several statewide elections, like maybe in the last two, there was one for sure. I can't remember if it was the last one or if it was the one before that.

Okay, awesome. Mr. Holliday, the floor is yours.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So I've got a few points I want to go over. One is, take you all the way back to the founding of this nation, actually. Yes, when I was a child, according to our mayor. One of the reasons our Constitution, the U.S. Constitution, was written the way it was is because Back then, territories that were soon to be states, they were colonies, didn't trust central government. They had just come from England. They didn't trust the central government. The central government also had a state religion That was imposed on the different areas of England. And so they were very leery of a central government as in Washington, D.C. So they put into the Constitution that there are protections, there are rights that states have that the federal can't supersede. And that was intentional. And that system has worked well, even though when there's conflicts between the federals and the states, the courts come in and say, nope, that's definitely a state issue. You states decide that. And sometimes it's like, no, the feds have priority here. Well, when it comes to cities, the cities have none of that. The state looks at us as an extension of their jurisdiction, their authority to say, you implement what we tell you to implement. And the problem with that is, is that when the state enacts legislation that affects how a city develops and the city has no say, We're left with whatever the state said was good. And the state doesn't know our city, doesn't know any city, except for maybe the city they come from before us. Our current governor might know a little bit about San Francisco, which is a gigantic city and not a small city like Murrieta. And so... If you ask any city around the state, and I've talked with many of them through a group called the California Alliance of Local Electeds, and it ranges from there's no party difference there, ranges from libertarian to Democrats to Republicans, they all agree on one thing is nobody knows their city better than they do. And one size legislation does not fit all. If the state would have come to us and said, here's what we're trying to accomplish. We want to write legislation that gives you enough leeway to make it right for your city. We would have been all on board. But the reason that I think we need a constitutional amendment is because if you just do a ballot initiative, it can be overturned by the legislature. could be overturned immediately. And even if you had a favorable legislature and a favorable governor at a time, it doesn't mean you're going to have that permanently. And so I think we need a constitutional amendment in California that says cities get a say. Now, what that looks like, that's the job of the subcommittee. What is that going to look like? I'm not suggesting we're NIMBYs and can't have any future development, but it needs to be responsible growth. It needs to fit in what's best for Murrieta and what's best for each individual city. My favorite saying is this one-size-fits-all legislation is ruining communities one at a time. Because we don't have a say and the penalties are so egregious that you can't even think about delaying a project because you're guilty until proven innocent. The fine is enacted as soon as somebody complains and you have to go through a lengthy process to prove that you were not guilty. And I'm representing our residents. The number one thing I've received, I mean, yes, there are local issues, you know, bridges and roads and different things that we all hear about. But the number one thing that I hear about from residents time and time again is why are all these apartments going in? Why are all this dense housing going in? Why wasn't this planned out better? And the reason, the answer is because we don't have a choice. And I'm tired of giving that answer without doing something about it. So this subcommittee gives us the opportunity to see the feasibility of getting this on the ballot, what it's going to take. I've presented this to the local elected collaborative at a couple meetings ago. And every city that's a part of that was at that meeting. And every single city in this region was 100% on board. And so building the local coalition first, and the subcommittee may attend some of those meetings to get that coalition going to say, okay, how does this work? What is it going to cost to get the ballot language written? What does it need to say? Because we have to create the ballot initiative to be able to go to other cities and say, well, you support this. We have to have something to hand to them. We can't just go up there and say, well, what does it look like? And we say, we don't know. You're not going to get a lot of support for that. So we need to create something that we can hand out. And so having these local cities on board with it will help share the brunt of the cost of that. I'm definitely not interested in spending money or wasting money of the limited resources that we have. We know what our financial situation is. And I'm willing to put in as much legwork as is necessary to minimize staff time as much as possible as well. But I think this is, the residents have spoken, I think this is worth fighting for. Instead of saying, sorry, there's nothing we can do, there is something we can do. If we get this on the ballot and we get it passed, and we have to craft it so that the larger cities, LA and San Francisco being the two largest, also agree that yeah this gives us some say without saying we're not we're not help trying to help solve the problem worse and we're not saying note in any new housing we just wanted to be responsible that fits for each city so I think we need to have this committee I would request that Council Member Stone be added to it along with myself since she already sits on the elected collaborative and get the research done and see, I mean, we have till August 27. It's probably gonna take a good six months of that to get all the local cities together and get the language put together so we can then come back and agree to move forward to the bigger picture.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you. Councilwoman Warren, you're up.

Thank you very much, Mayor. And Mayor Pro Tem Holliday, you are right. But this is a very heavy lift. It's going to be down the road a very heavy lift because we don't only just have to convince the local cities, but we have to convince statewide cities to join this. And this is how we get started. Sitting back and saying we don't have a choice is not the answer for today any longer. We have a choice. And we need to make that choice by investigating what we can do. We may not be able to get it done. I don't know. But we won't know if we don't try and we don't start to at least collaborate about it. I was quite disappointed with the region when we proposed the 2024 resolution. And they all said, yeah, we're going to get on board with it. And they did not. So that is a concern of mine. It's easy to sit in a room and say, yay, we're going to do it. But it's another thing to get involved and do it. So that is something that does concern me about that. Not the subcommittee, but the fact that they say yay and then they backpedal. I don't like that. And yes, we need to local control to develop our cities the way we see fit and still keep in line with state laws and things that we have to do. The state doesn't have a clue of what's going on in Marietta. In fact, I can guarantee that most of them don't even know where Marietta is, and they should, because this is a damn good city, and they need to know about Marietta. But we won't get to make those decisions until we at least figure out what we can do, and I support this 100%. Thank you.

Councilwoman Stone.

Thank you, Mayor. I actually wrote a little dissertation. California has always had the authority over matters of statewide concern. The concern today is that the legislature has increasingly limited local discretion through mandates affecting housing, zoning, homelessness, labor, public safety, and environmental regulations. The debate is whether those mandates leave enough room for communities to govern according to their unique needs. One size fits all policies do not work for every city. Marietta is not downtown Los Angeles or San Francisco. Cities differ in infrastructure, traffic, water supply, schools, public safety resources, and community character. State mandates often require local governments to accommodate growth without providing funding needed to expand our roads, our freeways, schools, parks, public safety, and utilities. Housing is more than zoning. California's housing shortage is real. But zoning is only one factor of other contributors, including lengthy environmental review and litigation, higher construction and labor costs, interest rates, infrastructure costs, Fire insurance availability, development fees, limited water and utility capacity simply require more housing through the state mandates does not automatically produce affordable homes if these barriers remain. Insurance costs with regards to wildfire risk is certainly a major factor here. in Southwest Riverside County, but it's not the only. Regulatory policies, rebuilding costs, litigation, inflation, Land use decisions all influence insurance premiums multiple factors to be true local officials understand their communities City councils are directly accountable to the residents they know where the roads are congested where schools are overcrowded where Infrastructure can support additional growth local officials should remain meaningful Discretion to determine how the state housing goals are achieved So I posted this meeting on Facebook two days ago. And I want you to know 44,000 people reviewed my post. 876 people said, yes, Lori. And there were more than 150 comments received. And the reason why I posted it, because it's very important for me to hear from our residents. But obviously not all of our residents had their input, which is fine. But there's a couple things that we need to understand. Local control is being taken away from us every single day. And we are here, we are elected by the people to fight for local control. This is a nonpartisan issue. This is not Democrats, this is not Republican. This is about quality of life and having a voice because as stated, we, Marietta, we are not like San Francisco. We have different needs. As we know, we are a large commuter region. Sadly, we don't have the industry here to support are new homes. The average new home that's 2,700 square feet with all the fees with Melrose, with HOAs, with off-site improvements from development that goes back on the home buyer is $900,000 for a brand new home in the city of Marietta. In order to afford these homes, it's about an hour and a half to two hours to travel south to San Diego, or an hour and a half to two hours to drive north to Orange County. And we need to have a seat at the table. I understand that Governor Brown and probably even the governor before him were the ones that set this mandate for high density affordable housing. And our current governor is punishing the local cities for not complying. All five of us that sit on this dais today cannot be accountable for the past council and not accommodating the request of the state of California. We are here today, we want to comply with the state of California, but local cities have to have a seat at the table. And the governor does not care what your opinion is, how you're demanding all of us to fight the state of California. If you've been following the news, look at Huntington Beach. They have spent millions of dollars and sadly and unfortunately, they've lost every single lawsuit because the court system unfortunately is siding with the governor. They're forcing us without the infrastructure to deal with The public safety, we have to increase our public safety. Besides public safety, you have to have support staff. We have to build another fire station to accommodate the extra 30,000 people that are coming just to the city of Marietta. I talked about the commute. Just Marietta has 30,000 extra people. What about Temecula, Wildomar, Lake Elsinore, Menifee, Corona that affects our freeways and the state will not expand or build more freeways. But what they want to do is they want to put a bond on the November ballot to ask the citizens to pay for the roads and the freeways here in Southwest Riverside County. We could either do two suggestions, and this is where the subcommittee will do their due diligence. We can have a people's initiative and put this on the ballot. And additionally, we can work with our Senator Kelly Ciarto. I wanna give credit to Senator Ciarto. When people run for state office, they always say they're willing and able to reach across the aisle. But typically, on both sides, when you're elected, there is no reaching across the other side. But I have to commend Senator Sciarto. He has reached across the aisle. He has partnered with moderate Democrats and we're seeing change because of his advocacy. So with that said, again, we could do a people's initiative and get this on the ballot. And additionally, we can ask Senator Kelly Ciarto if this is something he would like to champion and co-author this with the Democrat up in Sacramento, because I said, this is a nonpartisan issue. Mayor Pro Tem Holladay and Council Member Warren have brought up some very important issues. And I want you to know that there is an agency called the California League of Cities. They're an agency that lobbies on behalf of all cities in the state of California. And I've been in contact with our district director. And I'm gonna let you know that if we do vote and have this subcommittee, that Cal cities will be at the table with us. They understand how important this issue is. Strategists have reached out to me saying, we wanna help you. Strategists that have put ballot measures on the ballot. I don't want us to reach for the sky and try and figure this out because guess what, we only have till 2028 to implement this. We want those that have been in the industry that understand the challenges, and we're talking about $10 million. But if we can get Cal Cities on board, if we can get SCAG on board, that I'm not sure about. The strategists, WRCOGs of the state of California. And as a representative WRCOG, I've already brought up this issue that we need to address this locally. Somebody needs to lead the effort. And I want you to know that the city of Cala Mesa and the city of Temecula are joining forces with us. And when I mentioned it at our meeting last month, remember WRCOG, it's Western Regional Cities that are a member. I think there's about 40, 40, I think 40, about 40 cities. Every single one of them said, we wanna be part of this, Lori. I promise you, that this is the number one most important issue to gain control back at the local level. We were at a Cal Cities convention about two years ago. There was a private meeting, and I believe your law firm was actually in that meeting. You were not there, but your law firm was in there, along with the... the city attorney of Huntington Beach, but they were cities in Northern California that facilitated this meeting. And again, this is a nonpartisan issue. This was a council that was Democrats. They are angry about the mandates imposed on their cities. They want change. I believe if we create this ad hoc committee, I guarantee you at least 50% of the cities in the state of California will be with us and we will implement change and all we're asking is, all I'm asking is give us a chance to prove to the cities by having all the professionals at the table, especially Cal cities that I believe, whether it's through the People's Initiative or whether it's through a legislation bill that's co-authored by a Republican and a Democrat, that I think that we, our voices finally will be heard. And I believe there's not enough amount of money to advocate for local control. Because once that's stripped from us, there's no reason for any of us to be sitting on this dais and fighting for quality life here in Marietta. So with that, I would like to make a motion.

Yes, okay a question for you and Ron so who would make up the committee initially who would make it? What are you looking at? Because I mean I don't want staff to have to put a lot of time in this or a city attorney until they're needed So what are you looking at to how are you forming this committee? So?

councilmember Warren I Don't think there's a need for our city attorney to be on this committee in the beginning of You can't put a value. Listen, our job is to set policy. That is our main role is to set policy. Without those policies, how are we going to get the information? This is staff's job. This is what is required of staff when we set. I know that. So for you to ask us the amount of money, no, I'm not going to answer that question. The amount of money, because I cannot answer what the amount of money is going to be.

Who are you inviting to the committee besides you and Ron and staff? That's what I'm trying to get at. How about Cal Cities?

Okay. How about other representatives from other cities across the state of California? How about SCAD? How about strategist organizations that have the experience to guide us to put this on the ballot? I just didn't know who it was.

I was just asking. I just didn't know who you were thinking of. That's all.

That may evolve as this goes on. You would hope it evolves.

Yeah. Okay. Thank you.

And I wanted to address one thing about this subcommittee, too, is you look at all the subcommittees we've created in the past. Some are still ongoing. Some are finalized. I mean, Code Enforcement, Los Alamos Hills, which we haven't met on Los Alamos Hills Sports Park in two years, but it's still an existing subcommittee. I don't know. I can't think of another subcommittee, and I know we just approved a few just a month ago. I can't think of another subcommittee that is more important than creating this one. No, I agree.

Yeah. Before you make a motion, Lori, I just want to say a few words. I completely agree with, I think, everything that was set up here. One of the more frustrating things since I've been elected is Facebook. And so I never want to respond, even though I feel the urge every time. But it's comments like these. And this was from five hours ago today in Marietta Talk. These are his words, not mine. Hold your beer, Governor Newsom is bringing in thousands of low-income Section 8 rentals, transplants from the inner city, homeless to admire Marietta and Temecula finest neighborhoods in an effort to destabilize your region. reach out to your local city council and elected officials and find out what they have been hiding from before you get robbed, carjacked, or worse. One phone call can verify this. It should horrify every resident in Meriden Temecula. And there's 164 comments from five hours ago. It's stuff like this that The sentiment is that, on Facebook at least, is that we're not doing anything. But they're really, as of right now, every conversation I've had with everybody that I hope is smarter than me, there is no answer. There is no tool. There's no mechanism to do this until now. And although it seems like a hoop dream and a far reach, if this is the only way, I mean, this... This is the answer, because there's no other intelligence pointing to anything else that can help this conversation with this issue. And secondly, I would love to know a city that does not want local control. What city would forfeit... Decision making to us to a state authority saying you know what we we really think you would do a better job Managing our city than us and that that to me seems insane that that could be looked at from that perspective, so although you say 50% of the cities, I mean you would hope that every single city in the state of California would want to claw back and then You touched on it, what governor did there, what legislator was, what year it was. How this even started, where you would have had voluntary legislators or lobbyists saying it's a good idea to remit any controls of the state. I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall for those, and what those conversations looked like. And I just can't make sense of how that even could have been a thought process. And look what hole it's got us into now. And I guess to the interwebs, this is one tool, if not the only tool, that we've been talking about to help address some of these comments and topics. And the funny thing about all the postings is that no one offers thoughts or offers ideas that would help us battle this. It's like they throw tomatoes, but they don't offer anything for us. for us to do a better job if we're doing a bad job. So, anyway. There is public comment.

You know, can I, additionally, there's a few other things I'd like to say. All we're asking for is for the cities to have a seat at the table. And that's something that we have not been invited to. I don't know what happened 20 years ago when the governor at that time imposed these mandates. Maybe the cities didn't have a seat at the table. But we should have a seat at the table because as I stated, we are very unique here. We are not Los Angeles, we're not San Francisco, we're not Sacramento. And it's not a one size fits all. And it's really important that we continue to fight for low. So there's like several prongs of this. It is fighting for us to remain a city where we control everything. What is happening in our community? We need to have a voice just like I asked all of you Email me call me. I want to hear what you have to say and I do believe that Sacramento also I truly believe to be honest with you. I'm not even really sure that There will be a people's initiative I believe that this subcommittee is gonna grow so large that our voices will be heard so loud that I'm praying to God, our new governor, whether it's Steve Hilton, whether it's Becerra, Becerra, Becerra, Becerra, I'm praying to God That they invite us to the table after one of these people, these men become our next governor. And we can avoid all this because we've been quiet for too long. It's just been small cities. You know, thank God for Huntington Beach. But we, Marietta, we don't have millions of dollars to waste on lawsuits that are going to go nowhere. It's the people, it's the voice of the people, and it's the power of the people. And it's up to the elected officials at the local level to drive this bus. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

All right. Didn't see comments in the queue for public comment on this.

Mr. Mayor, I actually have remote.

Oh, remote ones.

Yes, I don't have the ability to put it in your queue at this time.

Oh, okay. Today marks history. Let's do this.

Okay. So please raise your hand if you would like to speak on item 19 regarding the subcommittee. I'm going to unmute the phone number 2654. Okay. So if you have a phone number ending in 2654, we're ready for you to speak. Please unmute yourself.

Hello, caller. The lines are open. This is Loveline.

Can you unmute yourself? Phone number ending in 2654. I'm going to call on the next caller. I have Christy White. If you can unmute yourself. We just need a second, Mayor.

No, you're good. It's like the other unfunded mandates that don't work very well.

Virginia, can you unmute yourself and speak, please?

Sometimes the software, Teams or Zoom, doesn't give the participants the ability to unmute themselves. Is that maybe what's happening? The permissions?

I've actually allowed them to. I can unmute. That was her. Okay, go ahead and speak. Mr. Mayor, can I call for a few-minute recess?

Sure. We'll be back.

Take five minutes.

Can you hear me? Yes, I can hear you. Test test test. Test, test, test, test, test, test, test, test.

Test, test. Miss White, can you hear me? Yes. Okay, we can hear you. I'm going to put you on hold, okay? All right.

Almost dinner time.

The person with the phone number ending in 2654. Can you say test and unmute? You have the phone number ending in 7672. Can you unmute and say test?

Test, test, test. Can you hear me? Hello?

Yes, we can hear you. Hold on, okay? Stay on the line. Can we take public comment, Mr. Mayor?

We are back.

Okay, so we have a public comment ending in phone number 7672. Your mic is unmuted. You have three minutes.

Hi, can you hear?

Okay, go ahead, sir.

Can you hear me?

Yes.

Okay, great. So my name is Henry Fong. I was one of the people that voted for Governor Newsom, along with 6.4 million other Californians. And, you know, as the council member had stated, you know, federalism and our constitution is the relationship between the states and and the federal government. And Murrieta is a general law city. So as stated, you know, the state of California has control over these items. And, you know, the state of California has to accomplish statewide goals such as climate change. You know, we, as voters, 20 years ago, we passed legislation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80%, by 2050, which is 24 years away. We have a housing shortfall. We need to create jobs. You know, the cities have had control for decades and they have failed as we have seen. So therefore the state is taking control, which is their right, because again, you know, the state is, the government is elected by a state of California. The legislature is elected by the citizens of the state of California through their districts. And the districts are drawn using communities of interest, not arbitrary boundaries like cities are, you know, they're done by communities of interest, you know, areas, community areas, whatever, right? Or in the stream commission through our state legislature boundaries. And I would also add when we talk about local control and people complaining about development is that the ultimate local control is control of a private property owner to do what they wish with their land, right? So that is local control. That is the pursuit of happiness in our Declaration of Independence, that you can build what you'd like to do on your land. And so if members of the city council want to do this on their own time and expense, you know, it is a free country and they can certainly organize and convince the voters of the state to agree with them or not. But I don't believe it's appropriate use of staff time or staff resources to weigh in on this divisive issue. You know, the staff did take time out of their busy day to put this on the staff agenda. You know, the city manager is sitting here listening to people like me talk about this thing. I don't necessarily know if that's a good use of taxpayer resources. You got a lot of great things going on in Marietta. So if you wanna do this on your own time, go right ahead, it's a free country. But I don't really think the staff needs to waste time on this myself. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Christy White.

Yes, can you hear me? Yes.

Yes.

great good evening mayor and city council members my name is christy white this agenda item isn't about whether local control is important because it is but before you build another committee i respectfully ask you to answer two simple questions what problem are we solving specifically and what should myriad of taxpayers why should myriad of taxpayers have to pay to solve the problem that's yet undefined specifically tonight's agenda item seeks to establish a committee to develop a substantive statewide constitutional amendment committee Nowhere does our staff report tonight explain anything about what's really on the table tonight. You cannot call yourselves fiscal conservatives if you don't first estimate what the anticipated commitment of city resources will be in terms of time, staffing time, city attorney time, and use of taxpayer dollars. And then these details should be properly noticed to the public at another city council meeting. Tonight, you may hear requests to go forward blindly without any of these relevant details to support what is estimated to be a $50 million constitutional statewide project. You may hear that the proposed committee will figure all that out later and will do so behind closed doors without reporting to the public. Is this responsible governance today? To me, it's a recipe for lack of transparency and accountability. There is already an existing private coalition that's drafted and promoted a constitutional amendment addressing local land use and zoning. Why are we duplicating efforts? We pay a firm to lobby for our specific needs in Sacramento. Or let's ask the county to sponsor this constitutional amendment for all cities in Riverside County. Or let another city take the lead crafting the framework. I suggest that council focus on priorities and refrains from serving as an expensive incubator for future campaigns for a statewide constitutional amendment. Don't green light this costly committee. Use taxpayer dollars here in Murrieta. Marietta has numerous unfunded Tier 1 projects and without any established prioritization hierarchy. At last month's budget update, Council discussed lowering emergency reserve funds balances, proposed a bond to cover costs, and expressed worries about paying for maintenance needs and CIP projects. Council still must figure out how to pay for projects such as our municipal pool and the Los Alamos Sports Park expansion phase two that are on the books. Since our police department has outgrown their existing facility, council might proactively and intentionally focus on the expansion of our PD facilities and resolve PD parking lot problems in our own backyard. That's really local. We have limited financial and staffing.

That was your three minutes, Christy. Thank you.

I asked for another moment. I have two more sentences. I have no timer in front of me, so I can't see the counter.

Can we do one sentence? Thank you.

No, let me just go ahead and finish my closing remarks since there's no timer visible. We have limited financial and staffing resources. Put Murrieta first and battles with Sacramento second. Tonight, this item is about whether establishing a taxpayer-funded, non-public reporting, long-term, undefined committee without any major elements memorialized in written form actually represents the best and highest use of Murrieta's limited taxpayer dollars and staffing. I suggest that it does not.

Hold on. That was a long sentence, that's all.

Thank you. That concludes public comments, Mr. Mayor.

Okay. Just want to note, we should remind the callers on the line that their phones could be timers, right, if that's going to be a common thing going forward. As we work through these new processes.

Yeah, it's not constituent nor our fault. It's just something we'll work through. Yes, and we'll help out moving forward.

We're going to back the council for comments. We have Mr. Holliday.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I anticipate the cost of this subcommittee to be somewhere around the cost of the educational, higher education subcommittee. I don't anticipate the city of Murrieta spending any significant money on this or staff time on this more than on that committee. I think the majority of it, maybe constituents have gotten the wrong idea that we're gonna somehow spend, you know, 10 to $50 million on getting this on the ballot. That's not the case at all. We're just looking to get the feasibility, get the, get the language and the group together to move this to another group like Cal Cities to carry this ball forward. I have no intention of spending any significant taxpayer dollars on this. As Assistant City Manager Crane has mentioned, the amount of staff time required for the higher education coalition was minimal. I intend this staff time for this subcommittee to be minimal. Most of the work will probably be done by council members stone and myself and so there's minimal cost to the city to have this done We will be providing regular reports back to this body of where we are We will not wait until the culmination of this to give you continual updates and and the goal is to get a coalition together to carry this forward to a higher level than the city of Marietta. That's the goal of this subcommittee.

To answer that second question, specifically the goal, get this to the committee and this is the idea of retaining or getting back an element of local land control use? Yes.

Okay.

So that answers the two questions I thought I heard. Okay. Yes.

Mr. Mayor, I'd like to make a motion, please, to establish a city subcommittee ad hoc committee for a ballot measure. And I would like for Mayor Pro Tem Ron Holiday and I to sit on the ad hoc committee.

And okay, I got that motion from Councilwoman Stone, a second from Mayor Pro Tem Holladay, and let's vote.

Motion carries unanimously, 4-0.

Okie dokie. Okay, at this time, we're moving on to reconsiderations of previous council requests. Madam City Clerk, or council, do we have any reconsiderations? Okay, no. At this time, we will ask council members to add or withdraw items to future agendas. Do we have any additions? Lori Stone's in the queue, go ahead.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I have three items that I would like to add to future agenda items. The first one is for the council to oppose the SDG&E proposed project to our neighboring city, to the south, the city of Temecula.

You're just asking for a formal opposition letter to be drafted, correct?

Yes, sir.

Okay.

The second.

Hold on, let's do these individually.

Okay, you got it?

I support that.

Anybody else?

Yes, yes, consensus. Okay, there's one.

In addition, I'd like to agendize for a future agenda item, a senior and youth advisory commission.

Yes, yes. That's one for me. Anybody else? What about our senior?

Yes, our senior. Okay, we've got a consensus, thank you. And then the last item is I've been working with our superintendent and our city manager and Salvation Army to present a brand new project for the city of Marietta in the holiday time. is called Stuff the Bus. And our goal is to get sponsors and businesses and the community together on a certain date where we provide toys for underserved children in the city of Marietta. So I'd like to agendize that for discussion.

Yes.

Okay, looks like we got consensus. Consensus.

Consensus.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

That's all? Anyone else? Okay, moving on. Madam City Clerk, would you please go over our closed session we're about to go into?

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. City council will conduct closed session pursuant to government code section 54956.92. There is significant exposure to litigation in one case. And the city council will conduct closed session pursuant to government code section 54957A to consult with the chief of police and city attorney on matters posing a threat to the city. And seeing no public comments.

Thank you. We are now recessing to closed session. We will be back. Okay, we're back from closed session. Madam City Attorney, can you please give a report out on what we covered or what was talked about?

Yes, Mayor. The City Council met in closed session on two items to confer with the Legal Council regarding anticipated litigation because there's a significant exposure to litigation in one case pursuant to Government Code Section 54956.9D2. In that item, the City Council was updated and asked questions, no reportable action. The second item was a threat of public facilities pursuant to Government Code Section 54957A. The Council was updated and asked questions. No reportable action on both items. Council Member DeForest was absent. Thank you.

Thank you. With that, the meeting is adjourned.