City Council - Regular Meeting

Welcome all. Thank you for attending Plymouth City Council meeting Thursday, August 27th. If we can get a roll call vote.

Council Member Bottomley. Here. Council Member Cranford. Here. Council Member Dill. Here. Vice Mayor Hornish.

Here.

Mayor Nunn.

Here.

Thank you. We have a quorum.

Now I say everybody stand for Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag

All right. Number two, approval of City Council regular meeting agenda of August 27th, 2026. Can I get approval?

So moved. I second. Council Member Bottomley? Aye. Council Member Cranford? Aye. Council Member Dill? Aye. Vice Mayor Hornish?

Aye.

Mayor Nunn?

Aye.

Thank you. Motion passes.

All right, so regular meeting public comment, and I just remind people this is for items not on the agenda. When we get to items on the agenda, you all have a chance to speak on those items at that time. So do we have anybody who wants to make public comment for an item that's not on tonight's agenda? Steve?

Steve Pinotti, Plymouth. I have several topics I want to talk about tonight. First one would be, most of you don't know, there is a drain inlet across the street by the city park. There's one above it. I'm not sure where it is. The drain runs through town. Most of you probably don't know that. Goes under taste, comes out by I want to say on Poplar Street, about a block behind the hotel, goes down, goes across the alley by my house, which would be between Sturgeon's apartments and my house. There's a DI, which is a drain inlet there. There's a DI on my property. There's actually two. There's one on the north side, one on the south side. There's a DI on the other side of that fence by Gloria Stoddard's house. The drain continues, comes out, if you know where the childcare place is on Empire Street, goes under that, comes out back by the back gate of the fairgrounds, goes under the road and comes out in the ditch. So this has been here for hundreds of years. City's always maintained it or tried to maintain it. I've maintained... For about 50 years now, I've cut brush, I've cleaned the drains off, I've done everything. City was always really good. I'd have a pile of brush out there. Mark Giovannetti would come by, taking five minutes, throw it in the pickup, off he'd go. So, I'm doing my job normally. This is two or three times a year I have a pickup load of brush, and there's a pile of brush out there. I get a call from City Hall saying, what do you think you're doing? I said, well, just... doing what I've done for almost 50 years, trying to maintain some of the city property that the city does not maintain. Well, we're not going to pick that up anymore.

Okay.

So the city is not going to maintain the drainage ditch, apparently. Okay. I don't understand it. It's the city's responsibility, but apparently that's the way it is now. Second thing on my agenda would be the speed limit on the highway. I've addressed this for two years at this council. The 40 mile an hour sign fell down, down by the empty lot of Lubankos. Caltrans said they didn't have one, and now we have a walkway there, so they put up a 40 zone ahead. I think the 40 zone ahead was there, but the 40 mile an hour sign should be in front of it. So now they're coming through town, 50 miles an hour. The next 40 mile an hour sign is up by Poplar Street. So it's pretty much a done deal by that time. They're already going too fast. So the city has a tool. It's sitting down in the corporation yard. I know somebody knows how to program it because they had it out for when the Casino opened, had red light, red and blue lights on it. I know it works. When Margaret was here, I talked Kathleen into putting one by the roundabout, one down by where the Indian's office is. And I own a property off of Pacific Street. So I was out in the yard. By God, it worked. I mean, they slowed down. They saw the red and blue lights. They slowed down. But they only left it up for two days, and it's never been put back. So I understand that I would like to understand why the city doesn't use the tools they have to try to slow traffic down on the highway. CHP said it's not their responsibility. They called the Sheriff's Department. They said they don't do traffic control. So where are we at? It's back to the city. So we have tools to slow people down, but we don't use them. I think that was it. I did have a question concerning the bid for paving or repairing walking paths in Zinfandel Ridge. Just try and make it really fast, Steve, because you're well past the three minutes. Yeah, I know I am.

Go ahead. Just make it really fast.

I just wondered if Zinfandel Ridge residents pay for that or the entire city pays for it. No, city does not pay for it. That's all I wanted to know.

Zinfandel Bridge has a budget line item set aside for that. Thanks. Anyone else? I will say that, Steve, I saw two sheriffs sitting up on the highway today alone because I went to the Ace twice. One was inside the old trading post at one point, and then there was a truck parked towards the gas station just pinging people. Well, stopping, measuring speed, yeah.

But it doesn't slow people down. Those signs actually work.

Robert? Robert Moody. So these speed things, they don't work. They work. They don't work. They don't flash. They don't show the speed. They're sporadic. But they don't work at all right now. Number two is on my walk, I noticed the roundabout and everything over here.

Real quick, I don't mean to interject, but can I get clarification on which sign we're talking about? Are we still talking about the sign that Steve talked about?

No, we're talking about the new ones that were put down here on Main Street. If I can, so they do only flash during school hours? Only one was flashing, the one over by the fire department. The other two weren't.

Because that flashed for me earlier today.

It's sporadic. Okay. And then the speed display don't even show.

Okay. I'll have them double check that.

The one here on Main Street by the preschooler, they don't even work at all. Okay. All right. Thank you. I noticed up here on the roundabout, the ornamental grass and the lavender bushes and everything, they just went up there and weed-eated most of it. There's sprinkler or drip line threaded all through there.

If I'm not mistaken, that's also Caltrans property, correct?

No, sir. We're responsible for maintaining it as far as weed abatement and whatnot.

I understand somebody put some money in it. I heard it was Michael Spinetta, but now it's all drying out and dying. Whatever work they did up there on the other side, they cut the the drip line all up in pieces so i'd like to see it green again i mean that's kind of the first thing you see when you come into plymouth anyone else for public comment rosemary rosemary merino plymouth um

So the school signs, because I walk every day, and I usually either two to three times a day. So the one here at Empire in Maine does not work at all. It worked the first day of school, and it hasn't worked since. The light doesn't go around when it says 15 miles an hour when flashing. the speed limit doesn't show at all. The one out of town, as you come into town, it is flashing the yellow around it, saying 15 miles an hour when it's flashing, but it's not showing the speed any longer. It was for about a week. And then the one down by the fire department is not showing any speed. It did for a couple of days. It is showing the flashing lights around it, but that's about it. I did not notice the flashing lights today though. So I don't know if that is no longer working, but the one on main street doesn't work at all. And it's kind of a, why have it up if it's not going to work? I complained about it two weeks ago and it's still, I saw one maintenance man there for probably a half an hour and he left and it, it never worked.

It's not that we're not listening to you. I'm having the same experience as the city manager. I drive by it and it's working. At least the speed part is working. On which one? Not so much the one down coming into town because I haven't been coming up that way. But the other two, the times I've gone by and I look at them, they work. So it's like when they're not working.

The speed limit shows this is how fast you're going?

Yeah, it did for me. Yeah, it's only supposed to be during school hours, but I mean, we'll have to take a look at it.

How fast you were going was going 24-7 when it first came in because we were walking at night and it was tracking how fast we were walking. So it should be showing the speed all the time so people know the flashing around the top that says 15 miles an hour when kids, you know, during school, that should only be doing whenever you program it for school. There's two different issues here.

Right. And I've noted, I'll clarify because we can adjust them here, you know, through the program. But they're only supposed to be operating 15 miles an hour if you go above that during school hours. But I'll make sure at least that's happening.

Yeah, because it's not happening on this one. And we've checked it. I mean, we drove around town every day the last few weeks during school to see if they were working or not. So I know they're not working. The other thing is I really would like to – suggest to the city council members to take time and walk around the town go out see what it looks like see what our drains look like see what our curbs look like see what our sidewalks look like what our streets look like i think you would be a little shocked i've had friends come to visit and they can't believe how bad our town looks just from a year ago and from two years ago. So I really think that we need to focus on maintenance. You don't see a maintenance person at all in town. When I walk in the morning, I see them coming out of the corp yard and then I don't see them again. In all three of my walks, I don't see them at all.

Thank you. Anyone else for public comment? Stephanie?

thank you stephanie moreno um resident small business owner i want to um follow up on what all three speakers talked about why put a sign in on main street where we've been complaining for years about speeding and only have it working part of the day i mean there's a tool that you're not using to tell everybody coming into town that they're speeding and then the lights are supposed to flash extra when it's school hours so it should be working consistently but Even if you didn't intend that, let's get that working. We have people driving by our houses at 50 to 60 miles an hour during the day. And that in a school zone is just having that light flash speed at the edge of town. We can see a little bit of a difference with some of the people are driving in a little bit slower. So the second thing is it's been, I think at least a year since I brought to the city's attention and probably six months or so since I brought to the council's attention, that you're not paying the city clerk's salary according to state law and the Plymouth Municipal Code. And I provided all the research. I provided a potential fix for that. And there has been no word back on getting that corrected. I just want to eliminate any potential liability for the city and get that fixed. Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else for public comment?

On Stephanie's last point, we've got something we're going to bring back next month on that.

Okay. Anyone else for voting? No one online? Okay. Last chance. Anyone public comment or closing public comment? This time we're going to move on to consent calendar items.

I move to approve the consent calendar.

Second.

Council Member Bottomley? Aye.

Oh. Yeah, she's right. Comment on consent, Connor. Go ahead.

We got ahead of ourselves. It wasn't on purpose.

Stephanie Moreno. Did the council members get my comments on the conflict of interest code?

Yes.

And none of what I put in my comments concerned you?

I got that earlier today via email.

okay and i didn't have a chance to even look at it yet okay perhaps you'd want to pull that off and talk about it before you vote on it then um i brought to your attention that there's some clarification so it would be helpful in there to prevent a new council member plan commissioner for maybe misunderstanding that the code doesn't apply to them i brought up to the fact that you're exempting the city engineer and planning director from disclosure requirements that you're putting On the public works supervisor, that makes no sense. Public works supervisor has very little authority. The planning director and the city engineer have a great deal of authority to act on behalf of the city. Why are their disclosure requirements less? I also brought up about why there's only one category for procurement for the city clerk, even though she is responsible for elections. A lot of it is consolidated with the county. It goes to the county, but she has pieces of that. Her disclosure, I think, should be higher. And I also brought up that all of those positions that you have in there are currently, almost all of them are currently filled by contractors. State law allows the city manager to set different disclosure categories for contractors, but it has to be in writing with a clear explanation. I'd like confirmation that the council's intention is that whether those positions are filled with independent contractors or employees, that your intent is that they all follow those disclosure categories. unless the city manager brings forth a reason why that should be exempt. Thank you.

Thank you. And I will say, I read this earlier, and quite honestly, I forgot to bring it up when we got up here. We can pull it. Ask Andreas a couple questions on that. Fine. You guys are all right with pulling that off?

I mean, we got this today at 12 p.m. I worked until 5 o'clock and came straight here, so... I haven't had time to.

Yeah, so we could pull it off and either put it out to the committee or we could pull it off and discuss it with Andreas. Ask him if he has concerns about any of these things. It's up to you guys. Yeah, we can do that. So could you speak to a couple of things she has on here? Do you have the letter there? Okay.

All right. So take it from the top. Well, let's start with actually with the bottom. So the intent of this is to have the disclosure categories apply based on responsibilities, not on whether somebody is an independent contractor or not. So I would say that, yes, we can confirm what Stephanie wants us to confirm there.

Okay.

That's how this is written. As far as the categories for the city clerk, what we put in there is very standard for city clerk disclosure categories across the state. We're not trying to do something special here. Again, for city engineer, the disclosure categories were assigned based on the types of response, the scope of responsibilities that the city engineer typically has. Pretty narrowly defined, same with planning director.

Okay. Sorry, still reading through it here.

Okay. As far as the first one council members. So again, this has to do with whether or not you're a code filer or a statutory filer under these conflict rules. So different rules apply based on whether or not you're one of these positions. If you're a public official, like a council member, planning commissioner, city attorney, for example, then you file under a different set of categories.

Okay.

So that's why that's not called out in the way that I guess Stephanie is looking for.

So you have no issue with the way things have been done?

Perfectly comfortable with what my colleagues prepared on this. Very standard conflict of interest code.

Okay.

And this revised because we talked about this.

We added the separate positions that Stephanie pointed out last time.

Yeah. So we have made some adjustments.

Okay. Just one question. And do I need to, since we pulled it off, open this for public comment? Or can I just have this council discussion like we've already started?

No, we should have separate public comment on this.

Okay. So let's go ahead and do that. And then the council members will do it like we regularly do and let the council members speak after that. Anyone want to make a public comment on this? So Stephanie, to talk again on it. Sure. Okay. Go ahead, Stephanie.

Thank you. Stephanie Reno means that there is not alignment with the city municipal code. The city planning director makes all sorts of discretionary decisions, issues use permits, administrative use permits, makes recommendations, negotiates with developers. She has a lot of authority working on behalf of the city. You should know if she has any conflicts with any of those developers or consulting companies, The higher level of disclosure makes sure that she's disclosing that. When I first asked for her Form 700, the response was she didn't have to do it. And then Andreas, I think, said that, yes, it is required. The city engineer gets to approve certificates of compliance and boundary line adjustments and encroachment permits. He's making decisions on whether the engineering plans for subdivisions are appropriate. He has it all on behalf of the city council. It seems to me, again, you should know what his investment interests are, the property he owns, or who he's doing business with. Just make the disclosures as much as you guys have to do because they're acting on your behalf. Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else for public comment on this matter? Nothing. Okay. I'm going to close public comment on this. Go to council discussion. Do council members have anything else to add?

Andreas, is this standard across the state that your superintendent and these people would not do a Form 700?

Yes. What you have here is an extremely standard conflict of interest.

Okay. So we're not unique or different or leaving something out that other cities do, and we're not doing it. Correct. Okay.

Okay. Debbie? Yeah?

Nothing.

Benny? No. Otter?

Sorry.

Okay. So this point we'll need to take a separate vote on this. Okay. So in my feeling, I appreciate bringing up the concerns. I do feel they're valid concerns if, but if the city attorney is saying that he's comfortable with this, then, you know, I feel like I need to move forward, even though they're, you know, we've talked about it, we've addressed it, move forward. So at this point, I'd be looking for someone to make a motion on it.

Are we? I know. I know. So do we need to do a consent calendar motion to approve with an amendment or do we need to?

How do we? You pulled this one off the consent calendar. So you'll vote on just the conflict of interest code and then we'll go back to consent. Okay. Okay.

I move to approve adopted, sorry, I move to approve 2026-17, a conflict of interest code pursuant to the Political Reform Act of 1974. I'll second.

Council Member Bottomley? Aye. Council Member Cranford? Aye. Council Member Dell? Aye. Vice Mayor Hornish?

Aye.

Mayor Nunn? Thank you. Motion passes.

All right. So at this time, we're going to move on with the rest of the consent calendar. Open public comment. Are there any other issues on the consent calendar that anyone would like to speak on? All right. Closing public comment. Going to get a motion.

So moved.

Yeah.

I'll second. Council Member Bottomley. Aye. Council Member Cranford. Aye. Aye. Council Member Dill? Aye. Vice Mayor Hornish?

Aye.

Mayor Nunn?

Aye.

Thank you. Motion passes.

All right. So we're going to move on to Item 7.1, Adoption of Residence Leasing 2026-16, Adopting the Revised Annual Proposed Budget and Fund Balance for Fiscal Year 2026-27. Staff report.

Good evening, Mayor. The staff report is essentially the same. Andy's not here tonight. There were some last minute changes that we've discussed between our office and the council. And so there's nothing new to report. We just got to kind of have a discussion and try and work through this for the next meeting.

Okay. I understand. So I'm going to open this for public comment. Anyone? And I think we have actually... We have some written in once, I believe. I'm trying to find. 7.1. We had something on 7.1. No, Stephanie had one. Oh, she's here, so she can just tell us. Go ahead and open a public comment.

Stephanie Moreno, I'm sorry, and I'm unclear what you're doing. Are you continuing this to another meeting?

No, we're not continuing it. We're opening a public comment right now on 7.1.

You're planning on voting on it tonight?

Yes.

Well, we may. We may not. We don't know yet. We're having council public comment, council discussion.

I just didn't understand what he said.

Let's see if there's a motion.

So, first of all, per the Brown Act, any conversations that he's had with council members that created amendments in the budget need to be disclosed because otherwise you're having serial meanies behind the scenes. So, if there are differences between the last budget and this budget based on council member input, Those need to be disclosed to the public so that we know that those happen. That's easy enough to do. You just put it in a spreadsheet.

There's no changes in what's in this budget versus what you saw last time.

That's not what he just said.

He said he had heard from some council members that they would like to see changes.

Okay. So are we going to hear what those are is my question.

Probably when we get to council member discussion. Council member wishes to discuss those, they can bring those up if there's still concerns.

Okay, so again, I don't think it's if they wish to, I think the Brown Act requires them to disclose those conversations. Secondly, I put lengthy comments about the intent to transfer The loan from the Symphindale Ridge Community Benefit Contribution Fund, the ZR development agreement, thank you, Victoria, for getting that to me, clearly says four categories of how the fund can be used and repayment of a loan for match for a project you didn't use is not one of those categories. And it specifically prohibits operating expenditures. Now, given the city's financial issues, if the city wanted to do a very transparent loan from that fund to the water fund with conditions on how it's repaid, I think that might be appropriate. But just transferring money out of there and putting it in the water fund without transparency on repayment, I think, is not fair to the people in ZR. or the people in town. Also, the city has still not answered the question as to whether or not that $150,000 was included in the water rates that we just had increased. If you've included the $150,000 in the water rates, now you're going to use different money to pay it back than your double dipping. and charging us for $150,000 that you're taking from somewhere else. So where's the $150,000 that we're going to pay in water rates? How is that going to be used? I think it needs to be in the record. And then the other thing is, there's other things in here, but you do have 4.8, $6 million in cash. It seems like there may be other funds that you could tap for loans that would be more appropriate than taking money out of a community benefit fund that's supposed to provide community projects for the community. And then just one more thing. It'd be nice to know if there's been any other transfers or loans out of Fund 5 over the last few years to balance the books. Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else have a comment?

Rosemary Marino Moody Plymouth. I'm going to ask again about the salaries. I want to know what methodology or formula was used to arrive at the city manager and superintendent of public works percentages that go to the water and sewer. Currently 50% of the city manager and 55% of the superintendent go to water and wastewater funds. You can't just arbitrarily put it there to help balance a budget. So it just seems like that's pretty high, especially for a city manager to be 50% to it when the superintendent is 55%. He oversees the superintendent, so why is so much of his salary going to that if he's not doing the work? So I still have concerns over that. I think the city council needs to look at these percentages that they're charging. Is it just moving money around to balance the budget? That's what it seems like on us rate payers. I also noticed that several line item amounts have been reduced in this year's budget as compared to previous years. Examples are the swimming pool and cemetery. Are these services being reduced in these areas? I mean, why? I mean, expenses don't go down. So why is there less for cemetery and for the swimming pool than there was in previous years? And I mean, drastically a lot less than there was. There's no, what is the methodology for that? Why are we doing that? Or is it a way just to bring down expenses and then we're going to override them later just to make the budget look good? And then I still am not happy about the $150,000. Thousand dollar loan, there's an Aurora ditch fund in the water fund for that has 174,000 dollars in it. Why aren't we using the money that they gave us to give back to them? Why are we taking it out of a community development fund? That's just not right. I mean, you guys need to think about this. You can't just transfer money around. You need to really pay attention to what you're doing. You need transparency. If that money, they gave it to us, we did not use it, we should have that cash. If that cash is not here, then the city council needs to ask where it went. What was it spent on? Was it spent on general fund expenditures? And if that was the case, then this loan needs to come out of the general fund money.

Thank you. A couple of things real quick. I'll say as far as the swimming pool, we operated a lot less days this year. I think last year was open seven days a week. So it would be less this year. And that's one of the things I know, because I've discussed that with the city manager. So that's part of why there was a reduced on salaries and stuff. What's that? Yeah. Yeah, we weren't open seven days. I think last summer we were. That's the one I talked to off the top of my head. Okay. Anyone else for public comment? Anyone online? All right. There's no one else for public comment. We're going to close public comment and go to council discussion. Councilwoman Cranford?

Yeah, so... I agree that there are a lot of items that can't be explained in our budget. And this has been going on for decades, frankly, as far back as I can remember, even as a young girl hearing about the budget at the city of Plymouth. Um, so I think that for myself, you know, again, I, what I have seen happen in the past has been the buck has been passed. The buck has been passed. The buck has been passed on things that need to be addressed. We had that with the water rates, right? Yeah. We hadn't had water rates raised since 2011. Here we sit. And then this becomes the council. That's the a holes that raise the water rates because it just get passed down, passed down, passed down, passed down and never addressed. So I'm going to be really unpopular right now and say that I feel like we need some sort of a forensic accounting of our budget. And I don't know. How that works and how, what that costs the city. But I also am very concerned about a hundred, $150,000. That's not like, you know, 10 bucks that got put in a wrong fund. $150,000 that we borrowed from the County and we. We don't have anything that tells us where that money went, what it got spent on, if it got spent. I spoke to a very knowledgeable old-timer in Plymouth, and he said that there was a time when parts of the ditch fell in due to a fire. And he thinks that's when the money was borrowed and supposedly something was supposed to be. But nobody has any paperwork or facts or information. It's just like all this hearsay about what happened. So I really... I want this council to be the council that maybe wasn't so popular, but that the buck stopped with us. We quit passing the buck to the next guy. So if that means that we have to figure out where these funds went and do some level of forensic accounting, to know, I mean, did somebody embezzle money from us at some point along the way and we just don't know about it because nobody's ever bothered to really look into this? Is there somebody that should be held legally responsible for stealing $50,000? we don't have the answers to any of those questions. And I passed the budget last year. I voted to pass it. I was admittedly very new to all of this. But now that I've sat in this seat longer and I've seen the culture of things and the way they've gone on, I just don't, I'm not in a place anymore where I feel comfortable just passing the buck to the next guy. If we pass this budget, my feelings are, It just gets, to quote the person I spoke to, it's been 40 years of people just passing the budget without answers. So I agree with that. I think that, you know, at some point we have to take some level of accountability, responsibility to have answers to questions. And it's okay that the current staff and the current finance people don't have the answers. I wouldn't expect them to. They weren't here 30 years ago, 20 years ago, 10 years ago. But what does that, how do, I don't have the answer. I'm just saying we can't keep doing things the way we've been doing things because look where we are.

Thank you. Debbie?

I agree with Wendy with what she's saying. Um, I think it would be good to figure out what's going on with these funds. I expressed concern before about the funds that were in the negative balance and what was going on with those and how we get those straightened out. So I agree with Wendy.

Can you tell us one more?

So I agree that Start off with $150,000. I agree that it would be nice to be able to find that. I look back at those records, 2017. And if we're saying that we're not going to be able to produce any documents, it's hearsay, it's a big guess. I don't know, I don't think that the amount of forensic accounting would actually be able to follow that paper trail if there's no paper trail. And we're going to need proof. So people are going to want, well, you're acting on this. You're doing all this historical data on it, but you don't have any proof. You don't have any actual papers. So in not to stagnate that one item, I think we need to pay the loan where it is approved to come from. whether if it's approved to come from the community fund, if we have it in this water fund that somebody has spoken about, maybe we see about pulling out of that because it seems like water to water, right? But we don't want to be the city that defaults. And apparently we defaulted for a very long time. That's a black mark on us. And I would like to see this paid in some regard. If the city feels or the council feels like we need to do this 10-year forensic accounting thing, okay, cool. But let's take care of the problem at hand.

If I may, ma'am. So on the proposed budget, the money is, there is an Arroyo Ditch loan line item, and that's showing the money being moved from the community fund to the thing. So that was already moved just for proposed budget, along with some interest in case we have to pay that. So that's why it's showing that there's money there for it.

Right. So the Arroyo Ditch fund with the $175,000 in it, that money was already moved to that from the community benefit fund?

It hasn't been officially moved. It's in the proposed budget. It's the proposed, yes.

That's the proposal for what we do. We move it into that fund and pay it out of there. Okay. I agree with Wendy. Like, I 100% agree. We need to pay the county back. And if we can do that in a way that makes sense, I'm fine with that. But at some point, we need some answers. And maybe there never will be any answers. I don't know. But at some point, it seems like there should be some. Answers to funds, and it's not just the 150,000, there's other chunks of money that have gone missing.

Correct. And ma'am, if if we do not pass the budget tonight, that's why we have 7.4 as well to help pay a lot of coming back.

Yes. Okay. So wait, I'm not done. Okay. I'm not done.

I was just going to clarify something real quick. Speaking of 7.4, I was reading through that and. It actually says in the contract with the county and the loan agreement, it says that the money, I found it, I highlighted it in there. Let's go and look. It has to be paid out of the water fund. So we have to transfer something from somewhere to that water fund. Yes.

I took a pretty deep dive into this budget. I spent quite a bit of time this week. Found a few things, clarified it with Andy, asked for some methodology. Some of it I didn't understand. And for the lack of a better word, there's a million ways to skin a cat. As long as the numbers add up, the numbers are there, the way people present them, you know, you added this in with this. I would have moved it out. So we discussed that. I came up with... the conclusion that the numbers are all there, nobody's trying to rip off the city, nobody's trying to hide anything. They are, the way Andy presents this budget, and I mean, there's a few things that I wouldn't pass until they get cleaned up, but the way he presents it is in his philosophy. So, okay, as long as the numbers are there and they're solid, I'm okay with that. I don't see any hidden hiding money. I asked some pretty solid questions to him and she was flustered for a minute, but he came up with the answers and explained them to me. And I said, This is why I asked them, because I don't understand why this number is here and it doesn't match. Oh, he explained it to me. Great. Now I understand your methodology. So a lot of work went into this. Again, because there are some holes, I wouldn't approve it. But in general, I think they've done a good job of doing what they can. So that's the budget. The negative numbers I said at the last meeting, I fully believe that those need to be moved out. So I'm not going to change my opinion on those. So I'm done.

Thanks, Tamara. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

I had correspondence early on when Andy sent out the proposed budget, and I did have some communication via email with Andy. It is my personal understanding that – well, it is my personal belief and the way I'm feeling that we're – to quote Wendy – To my right here that we're kicking this came down the road kind of a thing. Right? Um, I think it would behoove everyone, including us that when. Important subject matters come up like the budget. And we get an email from either city manager. Or Andy, in this case that we give feedback. within a week, that would prevent us from then sitting here and going, well, I have a question about this, I have a question about that, and I don't like this, right? So I think we can dedicate ourselves to getting back to whatever person that is within a week. And then we don't have necessarily the situation. I mean, are there questions and holes? Sure. But could we have arrived to this, you know, point earlier? Probably. Um, and that's all I'm going to say about that right now. Thank you.

So I have basically just all the same concerns about the budget and, uh, I'm feeling like reading through it. I'm not ready until we fix a couple of things in there to vote on it tonight because I would be a no tonight. And it sounds like the majority of the council is feeling like they want a little bit more time. So I think at this point, unless somebody else has something to say, I'm going to say that basically I'm not going to call for a vote on this and it'll be put off.

I just want to make one more comment that I want it to be on the record and very clear. I, because of what Wendy said, it made me think of this in no way, shape or form. Do I think any current staff or Andy are doing anything nefarious? I do not believe that. I believe they're trying hard. I believe they've worked hard. I believe these are We're paying for the sins of our father, right? Like, I think these are like leftover things that we're trying to figure out. I think everybody that currently is stopped at the city and our current finance director, Andy, are above board, I know that all my city council member part, all of us above, there's nobody that's trying to do anything scrupulous, uh, you know, nefarious, nothing like that. This is just literally problems that have existed that, that at some point have to get shaken out. And, uh, I appreciate I want to say appreciate Wendy's time. And it's very nice to have somebody who has accounting background on the council who can scrutinize budgets and understands them. So I really appreciate that. So but yes, I'm not ready to vote. It sounds to me, though, like. It could be a long time before we get some of these answers, but I'm not ready to vote on the budget tonight.

Well, again, I would just encourage anybody that still has questions to email city manager and Andy together.

I would hope that we could bring this back in two weeks. I would think that perhaps if people would send emails and Cameron, when would you comfortably need Anybody have any other questions in for this to make it on the next agenda without stressing everybody out?

We'd like to post our agenda by Friday at 430. So you guys have the weekend to start reviewing things. Ideally, Thursday, you know, or early evening, you know, and I can work with Andy on a Friday morning to get things taken care of, depending on his schedule. So you're saying like Thursday, 530, you want this stuff? That'd be awesome.

Next Thursday. Yeah. One week from today. Yeah.

Six days from now. If there are more extensive questions, maybe think about them and get them a little sooner so we can work with Andy directly. I think we can make that happen.

We all agree that we'll try for 5.30 Thursday night and have everything and hope to bring this back at the next meeting. Thank you, sir.

Just so you know, I'm done. I spent a lot of time on this. I'm cooked. Everything that I have sent to you guys, And my big, giant, long email in blue is I'm good with everything. You will get no more comments from me. We appreciate the feedback. As long as those changes are made.

Yes, ma'am. Thank you.

Okay. So we're just going to move on to item 7.2 from there. Okay. Item 7.2, discussion of possible action to adopt resolution 2026-18, establishing a no parking on both sides of Gunner Way between Main Street and Landrum Street.

Staff report. Thank you Mr. Mayor. Gunther Way is a city street extending between Main Street and Landstrom Street. The roadway is narrow. It is 19 feet wide and vehicles parked along either side can reduce the clear, along either side can reduce the clear width available for through traffic. Maintaining sufficient unobstructed roadway with width is particularly important for fire engines, ambulances, law enforcement vehicles, and other emergency response apparatus. The proposed action would establish a permanent no parking restriction on both sides of Gunter Way for the entire street segment between its intersection with Main Street and its intersection with Landrum Street. The restriction is intended to preserve emergency access and promote the safe and orderly movement of vehicles through the corridor. California vehicle code section 22507 authorizes a local authority by ordinance or resolution to prohibit or restrict parking on designated streets or portions of streets except for alleys. A locally established restriction does not become enforceable until signs or markings giving adequate notice have been installed. Plymouth Municipal Code Section 10.26.010 provides that the City Council may designate by resolution no parking, limited parking, or restricted parking on city streets. Municipal Code 10.26.020 requires compliance with official parking signs and curb markings. Chapter 10.27 also establishes citywide parking restrictions based on paved roadway width. those existing restrictions would remain in effect and would not be limited by the proposed resolution. The attached resolution designates both sides of Gunter Way between Main Street and Landrum Street as no parking at all times. If adopted, the resolution directs the public works superintendent or the superintendent's designee to install and maintain official regulatory signs and any consistent curb markings necessary to provide adequate notice. The restriction would become enforceable after required signs or markings are installed. Staff recommends the permanent restriction because parked vehicles can narrow the usable travel way and delay, obstruct, or prevent safe passage by emergency response apparatus. Keeping both sides of this segment clear will provide a more reliable access route for emergency services, improve traffic circulation for residents, service vehicles, and the traveling public. The fiscal impact... Uh, is limited to staff time and the signs and staff recommends that the city council adopt the attached resolution, designating both sides of the way between mainstream and Landry street has no parking at all times and directly the public works. You were 10 or the superintendent says need to install and maintain official signs and any consistent curve markings necessary to provide adequate notice of the restrictions.

Okay, um, where the effect. Well, were the affected homes where they noticed on this at all?

They weren't they were not noticed after it was brought to our attention the issue with that potential issue with that road. Myself and other staff member did walk up there and took a look and it was narrow with a truck and trailer parked as close as they could to that side of the street. Okay. And there was only, I believe 1 residents. With a gun to road address.

But I believe there's two affected residents. Is it two or is it three? I think it's two. I believe it's two. Two right there? Okay. Okay, that was just a quick question. I'm going to go ahead and open this to public comment at this time. Anyone like to make a public comment? And we do have one. I think it was a typo from Stephanie. Actually, Sarah, you can go ahead and speak. Go ahead.

I did submit public comments in writing. The issue of not giving public notice is a big one. I imagine any one of you, if you came home and found out you couldn't park in front of your house anymore and nobody had told you, it'd be an issue for you. It happened to me and about 10 other property owners on Main Street when they did the Safe Schools Project. I left in the morning. I came home that afternoon. The road was shut down. They told me I couldn't access my house even. They finally gave in and let me get to my house, but told me I was locked in for the day. Notice is important. They walked up there. They could have knocked on doors right then. It's been two weeks. This is an unprecedented speed to have a public complaint come to the city council. I'm just asking that you give notice to those people so they have an opportunity to come and talk to you about it. Even if you decide to move forward, it's just appropriate to do that. There is inconsistent CEQA determinations in the packet that I hope council will clear up. One portion relies on a class one exemption while the other states that the action is not a CEQA project. Those are inconsistent with each other and typically it'd be one or the other. I think just it's a cut and paste error in the packet. There's no indication of the width of the street even. Usually when you make findings of this nature and you want to do something so quickly, you have facts in the findings so that it's legally defensible later if, for example, one of these property owners wants to challenge you at doing it without notice. And then it obviously is of concern when you have roads that people can't pass, but it's not the only road in town. Wouldn't it make more sense to have staff do a survey of other areas that need to be addressed and then bring all those in to them at once? And then it's being consistent and fair and applying equally to everyone in town. Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else for public comment on this?

Rosemary, Marino, Moody, Clement. I noticed there's someone from the fire department here. Are you familiar with that street, Gunner Way? Okay, so I'm curious if there's no one parked on that road, if the fire truck can get up and turn left or right off of Gunner Road onto Landrum.

Aaron Watkins, amateur fire battalion chief. I'm a little bit familiar with that road. I would have to have an engine go up there and we could validate it. Can they make that turn?

I could tell you can make it. I've taken that engine around both those turns, but that's with nobody there. No vehicles there. Yeah. Anyone else for public comment on this? Okay, nothing. All right. Seeing and hearing no one, we're going to close public comment. Open this to a council discussion. Councilwoman Cranford.

Me turn? My turn? Me turn? It's me turn. It's late. I'm tired. I... has anybody just gone and talked to these folks and been like, Hey, would you mind parking around the corner or with your truck and trailer parking in a different spot?

What? The answer is no, we did not speak with them. No.

Okay. Well, so this is where the nostalgia gets me. It's Plymouth. It's how Plymouth is. there's some roads that are very narrow to Stephanie's point, unless we're going to go around the whole town and survey every road that's narrow, like Gunter street. To me, it's like, maybe we can just go talk to the fella. I'll go talk to him. Be like, Hey, is there anywhere else you can park some of your trucks? He has five trucks, Robert.

You're in business.

Yeah. Okay.

So, All right.

So what if we... What if we just go talk to him first? That's my two cents. What if we just go talk to the guy and be like, hey, you know, we don't really want to put no parking signs up here. Is there any way you can park some of your vehicles somewhere else? Maybe he's got a friend in town where he could park. I mean, there's a big open field behind my house. Have him come talk to me. Like... I mean, just maybe we don't need to put the cart before the horse.

There are some places nearby that are public where he could probably park it if we told him it was an issue. A lot of them, I would think.

Debbie?

Debbie?

I agree with what Stephanie was saying about not giving notice and also just targeting that one street. It seemed a little much after one complaint. I like Wendy's idea about talking to him and seeing if we can come up with a solution.

Wendy? I agree with talking to him. He actually mowed my lawn for me. He's a really nice guy. I was just going to say, if he's a turd, then just let's put up signs. But if he's a nice dude, like, let's just talk to him. He's a cool guy. You know, not giving the neighbors notice. I mean, if we go through this and quick to draw on this and, you know, marinate on it a little bit, you know, if we. but the no parking, the people that live there, they have friends that come by, they can't park there. I mean, I don't know the street and I apologize. I don't know how many houses we're talking, but if they have somebody come over, they can't park there. They're gonna have to park down the street. They might not like that. Then at least we should give them some kind of, this is what we're planning. Give us some feedback. The other side of the coin is if any cars are parked there and these emergency vehicles can't get in and those people need medical attention, they're going to be bitching because people are parked on their street. So it's kind of a hard thing. But I think... Just going and putting signs up is a little of a knee-jerk reaction without doing a little bit of research on the neighbors and what they could come up with. And one person complained, how long has this street had cars on it? Hundreds of years? A hundred years? Well, maybe not a hundred years, but there were buggies and horses. I know, but clogging it now, why now? Like, okay, all of a sudden they want to change it, which...

I actually think it's great that Citi jumped into action. I think it's a great example of a concert season comes by. We took a look. We deemed it unsafe. Yeah, here we are. So kudos to you guys for your time and energy. I would love to see us broaden our horizons and have Citi staff identify all potentially dangerous roads, dead ends, whatever the case may be. Coming up to my questions, how much notice do we give residents?

What's the rule? So there is no rule or law on notifying, sending notice if we pass it by resolution. So there is no requirement to notice.

So would you then in turn, if we approve this tonight, would you then immediately go out and hammering the signs? Well, we'd have to get the signs. I would have a conversation with him before it'd be something for the signs we're in. So my sense today is, um, I'd love to see that if we can talk to him, uh, Recommend alternative parking areas and for obvious reasons, you know, like, hey, dude, if you need a medical attention and they can't get in and out, what are you going to do? And then, of course, just mention that, you know, this is something that the city is working on in potential dangerous areas. Thank you. Sorry, can I?

So in fairness, where we're talking about like emergency vehicles could park on Main Street and walk to the guy's house like it's it's on the corner of main you'd have to go see it like it's a very easily and there's many ways to get to Landrum Street so only reason I'm saying that is just like Gunter is not the end all be all to get to that location to get to the back of Landrum there's in fact it would probably even be easier, I would think, for a fire truck to go down by Bob Surratt and Eunice's there and go up around

In general, even if it was in the middle, when I was on the department here, we would either go up to the end by the post office, or we would go down above and come up for a couple of reasons, because a lot of times, if it's a fire, we don't know exact, you know, we might, you know, spots we would like to start at the end, go in, and it's easier turns on both of those, and sometimes, you know, depending on where it is, we want to point in a certain way, so...

And I want to piggyback on Holger's sentiment. I appreciate that you guys jumped right on this. I think that's great. Somebody came in concerned. You looked at it. You did your due diligence. Super awesome. I'm just wondering, like, could we avoid, I don't know.

Can we keep first before an action item comes up? Wait, what? No, communicate first with whomever in whatever situation before having to implement something drastic.

Yeah, so I think the citizen came in and brought it up. It's a valid concern. It's a valid point. But I'm very much with Wendy and the rest of you guys on the fact that I think I have a real big problem with making a decision without even though maybe we don't legally have to anymore. We should have told the person so they could come and speak.

So everybody keeps saying we didn't give him notice. It was in the packet. It was on our agenda. So there has been notice. I take a little bit of issue with saying we didn't give any notice. So you can't expect the average person. That's not what you're looking for on this.

I'm not even saying we didn't give him notice. All I'm saying is maybe we just avoid having to do anything and purchase signs or whatever if we just go talk to the guy. Maybe he'll just move his trucks. That's what I was saying.

I just want to be clear that... I understand that. I guess what I'm trying to say is the average person doesn't know that they need to read every agenda or look in the public notices or legal notices of the paper every week to see if something's affecting their house. Yeah?

That's kind of the expectation with the Brown Act. That's what we're obligated to do, and that's what we do. That's how we give notice.

So...

So maybe the terminology giving notice isn't the right thing. Maybe it's... Maybe what we...

Yeah.

Yeah. Like all I'm saying is like, it's small town life.

Go talk to the guy.

Yeah.

And is it just one guy? I mean, is it one house, one guy? So there's no other cars that block that street?

Well, there's two houses. The issue seems to be that the house that's on the corner of Gunter and Landrum, they're parking there, so it makes a hard turn. And sometimes they have their vehicles. I think sometimes it's friends over, employees stop by, because the guy runs a business there. I mean, not there, but he owns a business. So I think it makes it narrow sometimes. But generally, most of the time, because I can see that street from my house, I look up there. Most of the time, you don't see them parked right along the fence.

You see them at different times, but not all the time, like overnight or anything. Right.

So I agree that we try and work with them. That'd be where I'd be at. But I would say, you know, Don here, somebody want to make a motion on this, that we take a vote on it?

Okay.

Well, do we still have to vote on it?

If you don't want to approve it, you don't have to vote.

I'd rather take a vote, but we don't have to. And I don't know how you guys feel.

So are you looking for a motion to vote no on it? I'm not there on what you're looking to vote on.

Well, the recommendation was city staff recommend city council adopt the attached resolution. So I'm saying, does somebody want to make

But just like direction was to first go out of conversation with him and then potentially bring it back.

Yeah, I'm just saying, should we go ahead and vote on making the resolution or not?

I think we've gotten the direction to go have a conversation with him.

So then we're going to have the conversation. All right.

Yeah, go ahead. So if we adopt the resolution, that doesn't necessarily mean in two weeks we're going to go stick signs up there.

Correct.

It's just that you'll have the ability if it comes to the petition after maybe you go talk to people. or whatever we're going to do, then you'll have the latitude to put signs up.

Correct. This doesn't take effect until the signs are posted.

Okay. And this just covers this one street, or is this going to be adopted in for all the others?

This would cover this street. Okay. And to be clear, we'd have to do the same thing for any other streets we covered.

If so, it sounds like we're going to move on. Let somebody else make a motion. OK, we're on 7.3. Yeah, I think. 7.3 discuss impossible action authorizing the purchase installation of a 20 to 30 foot Christmas tree for city of Plymouth annual community Christmas celebrations.

Staff work. Thank you. This is the Christmas tree that you brought up a few times and we started taking a look at it and all these numbers are, if we didn't get donations, you know, they're, they're high, but this is for a lot of these are one time costs, but it's 20 to 30 foot real Christmas tree would create a welcoming centerpiece. for Plymouth's annual Christmas celebration and provide a traditional gathering place for residents, families, and visitors. The tree would enhance the community tree lighting ceremony, support holiday activities in the park, and help create a tradition that reflects Plymouth's small-town character and community spirit. Staff will select an appropriate tree and installation location based on safety, access, and utilities, visibility, and pedestrian circulation. The tree will be professionally secured using a suitable ground sleeve, engineered support, bracing, or other approved method. Staff will also work with property owners, tree farms, local businesses, contractors, service organizations, and residents to seek a donate or discounted tree, equipment, materials, sponsorships, and volunteer assistance. These partnerships could substantially reduce the city's actual costs while making the project a community-wide effort. If you look at the staff report, there is kind of a preliminary budget of what it could be if we didn't have any donations or help. But staff recommends authorization of an amount not to exceed the 18,500 permanent internal administrative costs. If any will be absorbed by the city and will not be charged to the project. Staff will seek donations, sponsorships, discounts, volunteer labor and in kind equipment before committing city funds. Much of the inaugural year expense is a 1 time investment, commercial grade lights, ornaments, the topper timers, cords and approved anchoring. Or electrical improvements can be reused in future years, reducing annual cost city public works will cut, remove and dispose of the tree after the season, avoiding any estimated removal cost. So, our recommendation is that the city council authorized. The city manager to purchase and arrange for the transportation, safe installation, lighting and decoration of a 20 to 30 foot real Christmas tree. In an amount not to exceed the 18,500, except appropriate donations, sponsorships, discounted services and volunteer assistance and reduce the city's net cost through community partnerships and reuse the inaugural year materials and improvements.

Thank you. And I want to say we have, I think 3 different letters sent in on this agenda item. I think all 3 have been. A post. that so we're opening it this time public comment anyone like make public comment it Keith White citizen I like that that's the sound we fixed it since you were here last so you got it back up now um so uh yeah um

We can talk about donation. We can talk about all that. But what it really boils down to, if any money comes out of it, that's our money. And that just seems like I love Christmas is just as much as the next person. But that just seems like a ridiculous amount. And I understand. No, it's going to cost that much. I mean, I know what. Lights and trees and all that stuff cost, but I just think for the city at this time, it's way too ridiculous. And as we all know with Christmas trees, you can say, hey, I got this one-time cost for lights. I don't know. I buy lights every year, so I don't think it's a one-time cost. I think this is going to turn into... it could be a snowball thing. And I think actually the price of the tree, and once we get into all this, could be a lot more than this. And I understand the donations and not take seed a certain price and all that, but no, this is, the city just can't handle this. Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else for public comment? Stephanie.

Stephanie Moreno. I agree with Keith. I think that not all of you are on social media, but there was a post about this on one of the Plymouth pages, and there was 50 comments. Only one was in support. Some of them were multiple. Lots of people liked the idea. Was it Santa Claus?

It's real.

I don't know. I couldn't help it. But you could probably guess who it was. So there was a local property owner that offered to have a tree cut off their property. But people were excited about Christmas, right? And doing something, but it was just the cost given what's happening with city finances right now. If TOT was still coming in, it might be a great idea to do that. So I'm hoping the council will just take a step back, see if you could get donations before you approve any money. But also, maybe this is an opportunity to get some community volunteers to start planning for the Christmas celebration. Bring them in and get them to help with that and maybe turn it into something even more for next year. This is an opportunity, so I'm just suggesting maybe hold off on the expenditure, but don't miss the opportunity to bring the community and volunteer on this. Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else for public comment?

Good evening, everybody. I'm Raymond Essie. I live in town. Yeah, I second what Stephanie said online as far as the backlash on spending that amount of money right now. I love that thought process too. Timing just isn't good right now. If we want to be physically responsible, we want to balance the books. I think maybe in the future or maybe get a community together, see if we can get some donations, something like that. Get the community together to decorate the tree, maybe get donations of lights, et cetera, you really cut that cost down. And if we have somebody that wants to donate a tree, even better. But I think it would be irresponsible to put that money towards that right now.

Thank you. Anyone else from public comment? Rosemary?

Rosemary Marino-Moody, Plymouth. I agree with all of them. This has been the topic of conversation on my walks in the morning from people coming out of their house and says, Rosemary, what is this? People are really upset because they just got their new water bill and it's gone up. And they're thinking, wow, they raised our water rates and now they want to spend $18,000. Even though they're not related and I totally understand why the water rates went up. I'm not disagreeing with that. It just doesn't make sense of timing of this. And the other thing the city manager writes is about getting sponsorship donations, that type of stuff. I really think you should have researched that first and found some community partners, some sponsorships, some volunteers, something, and put that into the proposal first than asking for all this money because it may end up in the end you wouldn't need very much from the city. Thanks.

Anyone else for public comment?

Robert Moody. Everybody's just bashing that. I like Christmas just as well as everybody. Well, I don't know. But, shut your mouth.

How many decorations do you got?

It might change this year. I don't know. You know, there's J&R logging, and I know he's very community active, and I'm sure if a bug was put in his ear, maybe a loan of a truck or something coming down the hill, the forestry gives out permits over the year. I mean, go up, cut one, maybe get somebody a 20-foot trailer. Lobanco's got 20-foot trailers. I mean, you don't have to go 30.

I got a gooseneck trailer.

Well, I'm just saying, I mean, let's exhaust any donations or put the word out and see what happens. I'd like to see it happen, but I know that's a lot of money.

Anyone else for public comment?

No, if I may, Mr. Mayor, I apologize. Saw the comments on social media and the cool thing was a lot of people came out of the woodwork saying, hey, you know, we could help. We could do that. So we'll be tapping into them, too.

Yeah. I think there's, well, go ahead.

Elizabeth Pinotti, Plymouth. Um, I, I think that it's, I love Christmas and it's a wonderful idea. I think it's bad optics. Now the city of Plymouth pays for it, but, um, have you reached out to the Maynards because then they're doing the haunted forest because they have talked about wanting to expand and wanting to do things at Christmas and Easter and, um, they were talking about some things and they might be some people to partner with. They do pretty well over there. They've gotten a lot of support from the city of Plymouth and it might behoove us to reach out to them to see how they can help. And they have equipment. He has a construction company. They have equipment. They've done things like this before. Their thing in winters was multi-seasonal. So perhaps that would be a resource to tap into.

Thank you. Anyone else for public comment? All right, so this time we'll close public comment. We'll go to council discussion. I'll start.

No way are we paying $18,000 for a Christmas tree situation. I was just at the farmer's market and Supervisor-Elect Lobenko was talking to somebody and the person may or may not own a Christmas tree farm and the person may or may not have said that they have a 30-foot Christmas tree that they could happily... So then maybe that means that we can ask somebody to do the... What is it? The base? The thing? The sleeving. Thank you. So I think we can make it happen without spending the money. And if we end up having to spend a little bit of money for something, maybe that's okay. But I think between Rotary and all the different... places that want to help. So the question is, since Don had this idea in the first place, it seems to me like Don should be, one, the head of the Christmas committee, and two, should play Santa Claus in the gazebo.

I actually have Don down for possible Plymouth car wash.

There you go. Well, I will say it was my idea, so I'll actually jump in and go next. What I'd say, I haven't saw anything on the social media yet. At no point, no time was there ever any plan by, I think, any of us to spend this amount of money. Now, I appreciate that the staff put the work in to show us all these estimates. When we originally had this idea, I think I originally had brought it up and everybody's for it. We were talking about since we don't have decorations like most of the other towns, the first year we'd have to spend a little bit more. And I think we were going to have a discussion discussing that we have that taught funds thing, you know, for promotions and stuff. I'm thinking in the realm of less than 5,000 dollars or less is what I was thinking the whole time and that just on the 1st year. Yeah, so that had been the thing. And then when I saw the estimates, I was just shocked. I was blown away. Talk to the city manager. He goes, that's just estimates what that would cost. So, in no way does the council. You know, we saw this estimate a few days ago. Do any of the council members have any intention of spending that kind of money? I would like to know, you know, we would try and do stuff with donations as much as possible. I would like to know, you know, I guess what the other members think about it. I think we all want to do something like this, but what the other members think about, you know, where they're at on the amount we would put into this and out of what fund. Saying that, Olga, you want to go next? You can go next.

Yes, please. Okay. Not trying to beat a dead horse, but large banner with all the sponsorship. We have excavating. We have Ace Hardware. We have Lowe's. We have Rotary. And we also have like a Plymouth volunteer team. I forget the name of it. Ambassadors. Plymouth Ambassadors. Thank you. And then, I mean, I'm sure there's electricians out there. Like, I use Sam Bakari, for example. Like, maybe they'd be very happy so i think crowd funding crowdsourcing first um would love to revisit this but my notes also say that definitely not no unless we can get it down to five grand because i mean that's something that we hand out for for or less okay or less next to free amount not to exceed an amount not to exceed uh because we actually do give that out for uh tot funds and i mean personally i'm with everybody Times are tough. Rotary partnership bake sale. California grant for beautification. There's always floating some around on that type of page. I know it's hard for us because we don't have a grant writer, but anyhow, crowdsourcing, please, and funding. Wendy, do you want to go next on the show? I'm going to go first.

I agree. I think we need a Christmas tree. I first thought when I saw this $18,000, I went, wow, that's a lot of money. There's a big tree in Veterans Park. Can we make that our Christmas tree? Yeah.

We actually thought about decorating that one too.

It's a pretty treat coming into town. You see that beautiful tree. I don't know. Just when I saw that, I'm like, we got to go to plan B. But now after listening to you guys and realizing how many resources we have in town, I think if we, I think there's a really good chance that we could get it at 5k or less. And yeah, have a great Christmas celebration, be part of what Sutter Creek does, what Jackson does. And, um, absolutely. So 18, five. And I, and I, I understand. And Cameron, thank you for, for putting this together, your staff. I mean, it took a big hit and it was his idea. You're just, you just got it. Everybody's come to you. Cause you put it out. Um, but, uh, I think this is a lot of money. And again, the first year costs are going to be a lot, right? I mean, all that. But I don't know. I'm for it at $5,000.

That's all I have to say.

Debbie?

I don't have anything to add, but I agree. I would like to keep it under $5,000.

So the only other thing I'd say is, because my thought had been all along that we would use tot, not exceed 5,000. And that would just be like in the first year. I think next year after we had some decorations It would be less money. But I do think we need to do something. Like I said, when it was originally brought up is that we're the only city in the county not really decorating our main street or doing anything. I think it's a disservice to the citizens as well as to the merchants. So we just voted to close the street down because it was going to help merchants and bring more people into our farmers market. It has. I haven't been able to make it yet, but work and stuff. But I think that, you know, when people come up from other towns and stuff around Christmas time to shop and walk around and spend their money, they obviously want to be in a town that's, you know, Christmassy and decorated. So said my intention was never more than at the most 5,000. But if we want to do that, if somebody wants to make a motion or we want to put it off and research more, I'm open to it.

I mean, my guidance would be to revisit this as they get more. My direction would be to get more information from crowdsourcing and maybe seeking sponsorship and then bringing it back.

Would it be helpful, Cameron, to have some sort of a Christmas committee rather than staff trying to chase all this down?

That would be amazing, considering staff's pretty short.

I will volunteer. To head up a Christmas committee. No, there can only be two of us to talk about Christmas. I don't know if I want you on my Christmas committee. So I'll volunteer to head it up and start trying to figure it out and get a hold of some folks and see. I would assume we need the... the two top things would probably be the date and the sleeve situation, because we can't even bother with the big Christmas tree if we don't have a place to put it safe, right?

Correct.

Okay. So I say we just don't vote on this, and I will... Why am I doing this? I don't know, but I'm doing it. Okay.

Yeah, I mean,

All right. So we're going to move on to item 7.4, which is discussion and possible action to authorize a transfer of up to $150,000 from the Community Benefit Contribution Fund, Fund 05, to the Water Enterprise Fund for repayment of the city's outstanding loan with the County of Amador. Staff report.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. In 2017, the city entered into a $150,000 loan agreement with the county of Amador for the benefit of the Water Enterprise Fund. Interest was deferred for five years thereafter. The outstanding principal bears interest at 1% above the local agency investment fund or life tax rate. The city did not make payments on the loan for several years despite multiple delinquency notices. The city manager later addressed the man or county board of supervisors, affirmed the city's intent to repay the obligation and advised that the city anticipated making a substantial payment by July 1st, 2026 through the fiscal year 2627 budget. The county has remained cooperative and accommodating while the city works towards repayment. Staff requests authority to transfer up to $150,000 from the Community Benefit Contribution Fund to the Wastewater Enterprise Fund only if further delay in adoption of the fiscal year 26-27 budget prevents timely repayment. The transfer would allow the city to satisfy the county obligation and limited additional interest. The projected deficit in the fiscal year 26-27 budget shows to be just over $400,000 and cannot support the loan repayment without the requested fund transfer. The city's financial director, Andy Heath, was notified on this matter. According to the loan documents, repayment must be made from the water fund. The fiscal impact, if required, up to $150,000 would be transferred from Fund 05 to the Water Enterprise Fund and applied to the county loan. The county's final payoff amount, including any accrued interest, will be verified before payment. At the fiscal year 26-27... A budget is adopted in time to make the plan payment without the transfer. No transfer from fund. Oh, 5 will occur. Our recommendation is that the city council will authorize only if necessary due to further delay in the adoption of the fiscal year 2627 budget transfer of up to 150,000 from the community benefit contribution fund fund. Oh, 5. To the Water Enterprise Fund, for repayment of the county loan, authorize any necessary budget amendment and accounting entries and condition of the transfer on confirmation that Fund 05 monies are legally available and verification of the county's final payoff amount. Any interest forgiveness on behalf of the county will not be known until after the principal is paid off and the city can make the request. Thank you.

And thank you and I just want to clarify 1 thing I think you accidentally said the wastewater fund and it's water enterprise fund as you well know, but I think you accidentally said wastewater. So, if anybody caught that, we are talking the water enterprise fund. So, at this time, I'm going to open this up to public comment anyone for public comment. Stephanie.

Stephanie, I already went over most of this. It looks like you guys can approve it. So I just have some comments, but I want to respond to what Wendy Cranford said, because I absolutely 100% 110% agree with you. And I'll volunteer to be on the Christmas committee too, if you want. You can say there's no record of these transactions. but there's still an ability for staff to do a digital printout of all the transactions that have happened in the software system. And has anyone asked for that? Because then you can see if money's gone in and out of accounts.

So I think we changed software systems as part of the problem, right? At some point, not too long, like before you came, I think there was like a changeover of the accounting system. Is that true?

There was a change. We've looked to see where this money's gone. On the surface, we haven't done a deep dive into it. When the county asked me if I knew where this money went, I told them I was afraid to find out. And so that's where we're at. We haven't done a deep dive into where the money was, if it's gone anywhere or what. But it's kind of a mystery at this point where that money went.

Yeah. I don't buy that. I mean, that's just incredulous. First of all, if you change software systems, you still have to maintain the old one for all your audits and government records. So it's somewhere. It might be on an old computer, but it's there. Ricky could print out anything from the new system forward. I believe a cumulative accounting. If not, you can go through the warrant registers and get some basis for some of it. But there should be an ability to look. Secondly, Gloria did a wonderful job of keeping extensive packets of information. I've been through some of them. Sometimes they're redundant in the information. You might find financial records in there if you didn't look in the minutes for the agenda items as well. So I think that it needs to be researched further. And if it takes a forensic accountant, because you're going to need that information to get through your audits. You can't do your audits if you can't tell the auditor where the money went. I mean, that's just not going to pass muster. I do think you should approve this. We owe the money to the county. It's just costing us more money to not approve it. But I want to know. Number one, what about the interest? How come that's not being discussed, which we owe starting after five years? Number two, why is there an odd number of 149 something instead of 150 coming out of the fund? I don't understand that. And then number three, I think it should be a loan with conditions and documented instead of just taking it out of the community benefit fund and saying, oh, well. So thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else? Public comment on this? Rosemary.

Rosemary Marina Moody Plymouth. I agree with Stephanie on that. I know that we do need to pay this because we've had this money for so long. I still don't agree with the community benefit fund taking the hit for it. Are you ever going to pay it back? I mean, I really think we need to find out where this money went. And if you can't find it, you pay it out. You know, you transfer it from the general fund to the transfer from your reserve to it and document why you did it because you can't find the money. I just think it's wrong taking it out of the community development because it went somewhere. It didn't go into the community development fund. It went somewhere. It shouldn't come out of a specific fund just to cover it so that you guys can get it paid off. Take it out of the general fund. Take it out of your reserves.

Thank you. Anyone else for public comment? All right. Hearing and seeing nothing, I'm going to close public comment at this time. Go to council discussion. I'll switch it up. Debbie, you want to go first?

I think the question was asked at the last meeting that the community benefit contribution fund, it said that it could be used for projects that had already happened, correct? That's why Andy was saying that we could use that fund?

Correct. That's our understanding.

Yes, but the argument is the project never got done. Okay. So...

There was no project.

There was no project. It's one thing to take the money out and pay it back if there was a project done, but there was no project then. So that's why everyone's concerned where the money went. Like, what happened to it? Okay.

Any guess? All right. Wendy?

We definitely need to pay it, pay it, pay it, pay it. As far as trying to find the $150,000, 2017, I'm sure there were numerous deposits that year. We don't know when the checks came in. We don't know if it was one check, if it was multiple checks. Just having an entry into the record-keeping system If you don't have a copy of the check, but the deposit slips, we don't know, right? I mean, that's kind of my understanding. We say, oh, there's $150,000 deposit. That's got to be this loan money that we received. Unless you have the backup paperwork for depositing the check, it could be any $150,000 deposit. Or in multiple checks. I don't know how. It's been a long time. I don't even know how we received that money. So it would be great if we could find it. I'm not sure if it's worth the effort. You know, forensic accountants cost a lot of money. We won't get a Christmas tree. I'm just saying. I just... It just seems like it's a lot of money. It should be found. But that fell on the prior councils that weren't making the, we're not properly keeping the books. We're not properly paying the loans. That's on them. We're just trying to fix it. And the community fund, there's a bunch of funds. We're going to take it from the community fund because we can. It's a clean transaction. If we miraculously find it, great. We can move the money back in and put it to where it properly needs to be. But for right now, I think it just needs to be handled through the community fund and be done with it.

Thank you. Volker? I would also like to see this through and get done, taken care of, put a check mark on it as long as it is done legally and in ways that you mentioned make sense. And like you said, I mean, I don't want to stop looking for it. And if it does appear that we can find it somewhere at some point that we then reimburse the other fund with it. But it's got to get done. All right.

I concur with what everyone has said.

And I'm with Wendy. I concur with what they're saying too. I believe we need to get this loan paid and we need to take action tonight. So at this point, unless anybody has anything else to say, looking for a motion.

So moved. I'll second. Council Member Bottomley? Aye.

The motion is to authorize a transfer of up to $150,000 from the Community Benefit Contribution Fund 05 to the Water Enterprise Fund for repayment of the City's outstanding loan with the County of Amador.

I'll second. Councilmember Bottomley? Aye. Councilmember Cranford? Aye. Councilmember Dill? Aye. Vice Mayor Hornish?

Abstain.

Mayor Nunn?

Aye.

Thank you. Motion passes.

Okay. Item 7.5, discussion of possible action to approve a second amendment to the professional services agreement with Four Leaf Incorporated, increasing the total not to exceed amount to $300,000. Staff report, please.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. On November 1st of 2023, the city entered into a professional service agreement with Four Leaf Incorporated for on-call planning services, including project review, permit processing, and long-range planning initiatives. The agreement originally established a not to exceed amount of 100,000. A first amendment dated June 18th, 2025 increased the amount to 200,000. The proposed second amendment increases the contract by an additional 100,000 for a total not to exceed 300,000 to allow continued planning services. These services supplement city staff capacity and support timely review of development applications and permit processing. Portions of the costs associated with applicant-driven planning, review, and permit processing are recoverable through fees charged to the applicant where applicable, reducing the net cost to the City. All other terms of the agreement remain unchanged. The second amendment increases the total not to exceed by 100,000 from 200,000 to 300,000. Actual expenditures will be based on services performed. Portions of planning, review, and permit processing costs associated with individual applications are recoverable through applicant fees where applicable, which offsets the city's cost for these services. And our recommendation is staff recommends that the city council approve the second amendment to the professional services agreement with four leaf. increasing the total not to exceed amount of $300,000 and authorizing the city manager to execute the amendment. Thank you.

Agreed. Okay. Thank you very much. I'm going to open to public comment. Stephanie? Okay.

Stephanie Moreno, I did submit written comments on this. I'm going to have to assume that this agreement that was executed by a previous city manager did not go to council for review because there's no scope of services saying what you're actually expecting your planning director to do. It has the actual, it looks like it has the bid information from the bid in there as to everything this firm can do. And it says under scope of services, that it can do code enforcement, building and plan review and inspection, permitting, public works and fire-related, fire marshal duties. You're not expecting that person to do all that. So it seems to me the scope needs to be revised to include just what you're expecting from this firm. And then this is a good time to do it. You're doing the amendment. The second thing is, it says $100,000 for reimbursable expenses. Reimbursable expenses are mileage, lodging, travel, paper copies. They're not the actual rates that you pay the planning director. It seems to me this is another typo in the previous amendment and this amendment. that they're actually expecting the total compensation to go from two to three hundred thousand, not the reimbursable expenses. If you're spending three hundred thousand on reimbursable expenses, there's something wrong and you don't really know what you're spending on the rest. So I think that should be corrected. The other thing is it doesn't indicate if the rates that were originally approved are still in effect or if they're going to raise them. I'd like the city manager to indicate that on the record if they're still the existing rates from 2024 or 2023. The amendment number one doesn't appear to have been executed. They haven't been able to get me a copy that's signed. And I suspect that the previous city manager just didn't get that done. But now would be the time to get it done is to have them sign it all. But one of the biggest things is that there's no reporting of how much you've spent on this. Have you already reached the 200,000 or are they anticipating that they're gonna need it for this fiscal year? How much has been charged to applicants? How much has been invoiced to them? How much have you recovered? Are we having accounts receivable that applicants haven't paid for that are also involved in this? And I think that before you approve the amendment, it'd be worthwhile to have an accounting of those costs so you're not just throwing $100,000 in to a contract when you actually have all these other expenditures that haven't been recovered.

It's just looking at the whole picture.

And then I'd like confirmation at the Because of the scope of services, city manager is not planning on using this for anything other than the planning director services, that he's not planning on using it for building services, and he's not planning on using it for code enforcement, and that's why he's asking for the money. And then the final thing is there's been complaints about the planning process being slow and not being consistent. Some people get to do some things, others don't. Maybe it's time to do an evaluation of the service you're getting and decide if you want to actually go out to bid for another firm that can provide more comprehensive and excellent customer service.

Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else? Anyone online? Okay. Hearing or seeing anyone, going to close public comment, council discussion. Councilwoman Cranford.

Can you come back to me?

Yes.

Hell yeah. Sorry, my man filter didn't come on. Cameron, why exactly are they asking for another $100,000? Why now? Do we know where we're sitting at to Stephanie's point within the $200,000 threshold? And... Let's start with that.

We're approximately $7,000 over the last approved $100,000 increase.

Are there any less expensive options out there?

We'd have to put it out for bid. I mean, there are other options out there. We have since last August, we have gotten Graylich Ranch going back again. So they're in full force trying to, you know, move their project along. We've had to deal with the 49er. We've had a lot of projects that have, that were kind of sitting by the wayside that we've been working on to revitalize. And so, you know, A little over a year we spent that money.

What has been the track record of recovering some of that money and what is the likelihood that we can recover $100,000? Because I know that there's no crystal ball that says, well, you know, if these projects come to fruition, blah, blah, blah. If there's no new projects, then we're out of that money, right?

Yeah, and I can tell you now our accounting department is on top of that stuff, and we are invoicing as needed. We did find that one of our projects had a significant balance that we're trying to collect as well right now. So we are working to now collect those in a timely manner where it doesn't seem like it's been done in the past appropriately.

I think it's worth balancing as far as thoughts go of – putting it out to bid versus is it feasible that we can recover X amount of dollars and then therefore we feel more comfortable agreeing to another 100K if the light at the end of the tunnel looks pretty bright, right? I will also say that I've heard rumblings about this company. And I think if we're going to stay in their good graces or, or them with us, that I think they should be held more accountable and to a higher standard. And, um, that expectation is to work quicker, um, more expedious and get better at customer service. That is my two cents.

I guess I'll be able to keep going online.

Um, So yeah, I had some of those same concerns. I was looking at this and I understand now I talked to the city manager because we had spent a hundred thousand the first 20 months of this contract in 2023. And then we went to, we extended that, gave him another hundred and it only went 12 months. I understand we're doing more. The other question I had on it was, and we probably don't have the answer to this tonight. I wanted to know if there was ever an RFP put out before we hired this company, but that was back with another city manager, so I don't know. Did they? They didn't put it out? Okay, because we weren't on the council then, so I wasn't sure how it was done. And I feel like, why not put an RFP out now for competitive bids, and we might still stay with the same company, but it seems like if we're at that point... And I also had a concern that it doesn't seem to be like a contract with a start and end date, like a regular contract that I could find. And I could be wrong. Ask Andreas about that one and correct me if I'm wrong. But it just seems like we just keep every year extending this whenever they come and ask for more money. It's just like, oh, yeah, here's another hundred thousand dollars. So those are my concerns. The money.

Yeah, I apologize. I'm not fully versed on Orleaf and what exactly they do. And I read this and kind of it made some sense to me, but I was concerned about, you know, how well do they work for the city? Are they effective? I'm hearing that they're kind of slow, I guess. Not as quick on The assignment, just handing over $100,000 was the previous $200,000 well spent. Did we get the most bang for our buck? I mean, what did we get for $200,000? And again, I apologize that I don't understand this. Do we get money back for these fees from developers? Correct there, there are fees associated with a lot of inspections, but that comes later down the road when the actual development.

Yes. And we've discovered that in the past, it looks like a lot of those fees haven't been recaptured the way they should have been. And so that's something staff is now working to do. Sure. Gotcha. Okay. On your question about the term, it's an on-call services contract that goes on indefinitely, and you can terminate it according to the contract, but it doesn't have a defined term, like year to year or something like that. Oh, okay.

And do they charge per project, per hour, per piece of paper?

It's per hour. And it's the same rates still as are in the original contract. They haven't asked for increases.

And who directs them? Is it the Planning Commission?

The Planning Commission and myself. Okay. Okay. Yeah.

So that's about all the input I have. I apologize.

Do you want to come up, Roderick? Yeah.

Go ahead.

I'm trying to find something real quick.

So you don't get recovered money when the project's approved. These monies are supposed to be put on deposit before the application moves forward. In a normal, not a normal, that's the wrong word. I didn't mean that. In another jurisdiction, I apologize for that. They would be requiring deposits from the developers to do the planning work. And when the deposit fund gets low, the developer is required to put more money into the fund and no more work happens until that's replenished. So I just want to correct that. So they should know how much money has come in. And if only $50,000 has come back in on $200,000, then there's another issue that they've acknowledged, but it needs to be resolved because then you're fronting money for the development projects. So I just wanted to correct that one thing in there.

Thank you. So to her point, that's how we do it. You know, it's just as deposits were running out, the city in the past hasn't been going back and asking for more money, which we've changed that policy as well. I'll start doing it. Okay.

When I went and looked at the contracts, one of my questions was because it just says that the term of the agreement shall begin on the date first noted above and shall end on the date of completion. And it was completion of what are we using them for? I didn't know if this would be considered like a perpetual contract, and it sounds like that's what it is. But I think... For services, I agree that we should go out to an RFP and maybe define what the scope of services is a little bit more because are we just using them for the planning or are there other services that are in this scope that we're using them for?

So that brings me to my next question, which is then if we're $7,000 over, an RFP takes time. So maybe we don't approve the $100,000, but we approve incrementally more until you think we can have an RFP out and back.

Yeah, I mean, if we don't approve anything tonight, then services stop until the RFP is done. You know, we could terminate this contract, you know, with no notice and all that stuff in a matter of time. So we can still approve it, put it in our RFP, let them bid. And if they don't get it, then we move on.

Do we have any projects in place of the repercussions if we don't have them finish them?

We have a couple of projects that are in critical stages right now.

And if they don't, bringing somebody new in to wrap them up would be an issue?

It would cause a lot of delays. You know, granular transfer, for instance, we're kind of on that cusp where we need to keep moving forward or it's going to stall.

On Andreas, this is probably a question for Andreas. I was looking through their rate sheet, and for planning director, it says we're being billed at $185 an hour. So if we approve a contract extension, could they, at any time they want, say, increase it to, say, $225 an hour? Or do they have to come to us and get permission from us for that rate increase if they're taking it out of our money that we put on deposit?

I believe they'd have to come back for a rate increase, yes.

Okay.

And...

And I will say that their price sheet is pretty in line with what it would have been for services like this a few years ago. It's probably going to look different on new proposals.

Okay.

Okay.

I think just getting the proposals too, though, it might be an aha moment for us, right? Like, oh, other companies won $400,000, $500,000, but at least... Due diligence comes to mind. I don't know.

Yeah, that's what I think. We might still keep using them. I agree that we should be looking anywhere we can if that saves the city money or anything. But I also agree that we don't want any stoppage to the projects that are in place right now.

Hold on. Before we move off that last point, if you're going to put this out to bid, Four Leaf could put in a new proposal as well. They wouldn't be bound by these terms anymore necessarily. I understand that. Unless they agree to that again. And they could increase their rates. Correct.

That's why I want to make sure to highlight that now. So we're rolling the dice on that.

Correct.

Just want to make sure that's... And how long have we had these rates?

Since 2023. 2023.

Well, they're going to raise them for sure.

Yeah.

Okay. Darius, you work in different jurisdictions. Yes. What is your personal slash professional opinion on...

I don't have a legal opinion on this one.

What about Andreas, the citizen?

Andreas, the person who sees this in other places, is a pretty standard set of pricing. I would have written some of the terms differently if I were drafting the agreement. For example, I wouldn't have called services part of expenses. I agree with Stephanie, that's not very clear in here. But their services are sort of tied back and called expenses. That's why the total contract is not to exceed expenses of what's proposed.

Okay, thank you. So could you make, could we approve it, this money, and without doing a new contract, could you tell them we're approving it, but we want you to be able to change a couple things things in the language as that were not comfortable with the way it's worded, or would that have to be a whole nother contract for you to make a change to it?

We could make more contract amendments. I mean, what we're, what we've brought before here tonight is an amendment to that one section on the expenses. Okay. There's other stuff we could change. There's nothing critical to change in here. I don't think there's any fatal flaws in it the way it's written.

Okay.

So I'm just saying stylistically, I would have done it different.

Okay. And, And we can do that anytime. We can do that anytime, yeah. When you get around to there's amendments that you want to change that make you feel more comfortable.

Yeah, for whatever reason, the council decides to stick with them going forward. Next time we're up for other amendments like total contract amount, we could look at some other stuff to change as well.

Okay. Anybody have anything else?

I just have a comment. So if we do this for this $100,000, in the meantime, can we go hunting for other organizations like this to help us or get other quotes?

Yeah. And I hate to say that like on the back end. It's a not to exceed amount. So it's not committing to spend all that money necessarily. Right. Right.

But so we'll commit to this amount. And then in the meantime, as we use this money, it's going to get lower. And then we can be like, well, once this is done, we're going to go with these guys because they're cheaper. They give us a better deal. Could we do that?

We could put it on an RFP. Starting tomorrow, we could work on an RFP. We're just looking to keep our services going at this point.

Putting on an RFP is not going to have any impact on this.

One other question, basically for Andreas. Stephanie Moreno had brought up a thing about there not being a scope of work when she was talking. And I noticed Four Leaf, actually, I had no idea everything they do. They have quite an operation there. And I know that we have situations here in the future where, at least for short periods of time, we might need interim personnel for some of the contracted services we do, like code enforcement and different things. Does it matter? Is the city manager free to Just use him if he has to for those services, or do we have to have some kind of scope or something written into this, what he could do? So if he needed just an interim, could he just call him and do that?

It's a pretty vaguely phrased contract on this point, but so it does seem to capture their entire scope of the services they offer. So theoretically, he could. I will say in my time with the city, which is now like a year and a half or so.

Yeah.

It's been planning services that Eric has provided.

Yeah. Yeah. And I was aware of that. I was just wondering because she brought up the scope of things. I didn't realize until today when I actually read all this this morning. I was like, well, they offer quite a scope. So and we might have a situation where we need some of that. So I was just curious if that would matter. So does anybody else have anything? Nothing. Are you comfortable with what's being asked, or do you want to do a shorter, like a smaller amount, like 25, and then look at that?

No, I'm fine with the way it's presented. I'd be comfortable making a motion.

Okay.

What's he doing? Here, I'll tell you something. Here you go. Do I have to put the RFP as an amendment? No.

That sounded like direction that we received.

So then I make a motion to approve a second amendment to the professional services agreement with Four Leaf Inc., increasing the total not to exceed amount to $300,000.

I'll second. Council Member Bottomley? Aye. Council Member Cranford? No. Council Member Dell? Aye. Vice Mayor Hornish?

Aye.

Mayor Nunn?

Aye.

Thank you. Motion passes.

Okay, so at this time we're gonna take a really quick little break here like five minute break and we'll be right back for city manager report. At 832.

Okay. Thank you, everyone.

Back in session at 840. And we are moving on to item number eight, the city manager report. Cameron?

Thank you Mr. Mayor this last week there was a pretty significant. It was a small leak, but it. A problem on Garen street is pretty being able to use our public works crew and our back trailer to take care of that. And they were able to repair that with any outside help, which was a pretty proud of those guys for that. Um, the fire hydrant that's in front of Marlene and Glenn's that was damaged, um, earlier this year by a hit and run driver. Uh, Shando excavating was out there today, digging it up, finding out problems, um, parts of being ordered. Uh, we're going to be able to take care of some of that with our flexible spending with CIRA, which is our risk management group. So it won't come out of our general fund. Um, Last week, or last meeting, Mike Spinetta was up here discussing the little library and the help that he had, and you directed us to write gratitude letters. Letters were sent out to Isabella Gower and Emily Dayton last week, thanking them for their hard work and wishing them luck in their next school year. Our wastewater treatment plant, Dyke Survey, is going to start tomorrow morning. So they're coming out to start drilling. And so hopefully, I don't know how long it'll take to get the report, but hopefully maybe my next meeting I'll have an update for you. And then I kind of touched on it last time, but John Peabody announced his retirement. He was gracious enough to give us until October to kind of find replacements. I've spoken to a few other building inspectors from Placerville and Sac County. I think they're looking for a little more full time work that we just don't have for them right now. But we also discussed with the county possibly contracting with them. And so once I get more information on how that would work, it'd be. Well, I'll bring it to you to the council, but it seems like it'd be pretty beneficial to entertain going with the county. And other than that, yeah. We're just trying to correct mistakes and move forward and have a good time. So thank you.

Thank you. All right. So council member reports and requests for agenda items. Wait.

So I don't have any agenda item requests tonight. For council member reports, I have a couple of things. One, I just want to thank city staff. Any work and extra you're having to do for the farmers markets, it's very much appreciated. And their farmers markets and to Rotary, thank you for them. They're awesome and all their work. I know Johnny Lobenko has been going out and helping set up tables and stuff like that on Main Street. I think he's at Burning Man right now, but usually he is out there helping set all that up. And so he's just volunteering his time to do that. Um, and farmer's markets have been amazing this year. They are so busy and so many people in town. Yep. Look at that. Holger's got his produce. So I just a huge shout out and I would love to see that kind of stuff going on into fall and then Christmas and all of those, those things. It's just a really cool thing to see how much it's grown. Um, and then for the County stuff, um, I was appointed this week to the Juvenile Justice Commission by the Board of Supervisors. And it's a small process that you have to go through to become a Juvenile Justice Commissioner. There are seats open. And so if anybody would be interested in becoming a Juvenile Justice Commissioner and you're interested in more of that information, yes.

I was going to say, if you can tell us a little bit about it. Sure. What do they meet?

So a small amount, just brief synopsis, is the Juvenile Justice Commission is comprised usually of 15 commissioners, two of which need to be of the age... Over 14 and under 21. And they inspect the juvenile halls. They once a year go and inspect juvenile halls, make sure that everything looks and is being done appropriately in those spaces. They also do things like assist putting on DUI court at the high schools, the Every 15 Minutes program, which is a very elaborate program that goes to the high schools once every few years. CHP comes in, brings in their helicopter. They stage an entire drunk driving scene. and pull kids from the cars and it's all actors and kids from the school. And then they've got basically a grim reaper that comes into the classroom every 15 minutes and pulls kids out. It's a two to three day ordeal and everybody participates. Amador County Sheriff, CHP, firefighters, Amador Fire, it's a huge production. And so, and probation, Department of Probation. And so Juvenile Justice Commission helps with all of that. And in the last couple of years, it's dwindled. We have some officers that attend that are not commissioners. So Judge Day, Judge Hermanson, Darren with the chief of probation, these people kind of help oversee things on the commission side. So it's pretty cool. It's fairly low time commitment, but it's something that's really valuable for the community to be a part of. So if you're interested, let me know. I can get you the information. You do have to have a life scan. So if you have anything nefarious in your background, you can't be on juvenile justice. And then... Sorry, Holder. Yeah, you're out. And and so you do a life scan at probation doesn't cost you anything. You put a letter of interest into the courts. They send you an application. Once they approve the application, probation sends you a notice and you go get a life scan and then you get put on to be approved with the board of supervisors. So it's a really easy process. So if anyone's interested in something like that, we'd love to have you. The meeting is one time a month, and it's like Thursday afternoon at the county office buildings down in Jackson. Okay. And then the other thing I want to put a plug out for that maybe folks in Plymouth aren't aware of, I even hesitate to promote it just because it's very busy, is the mobile crisis team in Amador County. So the mobile crisis response team in Amador County is for mental health crisis. So if you're in a mental health crisis or somebody you love is in a mental health crisis, the goal of the mobile crisis team is to kind of reduce law enforcement involvement in situations that don't necessarily need law enforcement involvement. And it's also to help reduce emergency room situations, um, You know, somebody being 5150 that doesn't necessarily need to be those types of things. So the crisis team comes out in pairs. There's two folks. They come out. It's 24-7, 365. And they assess the situation and kind of help guide the family or individual through crisis. some assistance, de-escalation techniques, and then provide follow-up and resources for that individual. Also like urgent referrals to behavioral health, things like that. So the phone number for that is 209-800-0295. So if somebody had a mental health crisis or somebody you love does, you can call that number and it serves all of Amador County. And there's no requirement to get that. There's no qualification or eligibility. It can be for anybody. So it's free. Yep. That's it.

Thank you. I don't have anything new to report. However, there's a sign on old SAC about a new subdivision. Arroyo Woods. Why is that sign there? It's creating confusion.

Clarification, please. I don't have any clarification. I saw it as well. Arroyo Woods is a development that's on the back burner with us, but I don't know why that sign was put there. There's no other follow-up signs pointing any other direction.

So we can say to the public that...

The signs there, we don't know why, right? We'll look into it. I mean, I see it and then I get my mind goes somewhere else. So, yeah. Yes. Yes.

Yeah. Um, and then. The only question I have when I drive past the veterans park, there are some. Plans that look like they might need some help. Um, are we scheduling service out there?

Maintenance. I just talked to our public works superintendent about that a day or two ago. They've been stuck on guarantees, but they will address those needs. And there's also a hole that was pointed out by Mr. Robert Moody that they're going to take care of. It's just some little cleanup that they need to get. Thank you.

Yep.

I don't have any agenda items that I want to put, but I do want to just let everybody know that I will not be at the next meeting. My daughter's graduating from Navy boot camp, so I will be in Illinois. I'm not missing that for nothing. Okay.

I don't have anything for the next agenda. I want to say, Wendy, kudos to you for being put on the commission. I did see that somewhere, and I'm like, oh, good for her. And, you know, and being part of all of the organizations that you're a part of for the kids and for mental health, it takes a special person to be able to do it, and good for you. Good, good for you. Yeah. The Arroyo Woods sign, can we just take it down?

Yeah.

I keep thinking it's like a Halloween thing. I'm like, oh, the first couple times I saw it, I'm like, oh, they're already advertising for the haunted forest. Now it's called the Royal Woods. So anyway, I'd be all for taking it down. Little tiny update on the Old Sack Road and ACTC. I talked with John Gedney a couple days ago and just asked him for an update on how it was going. And he reassured me that it was full steam ahead. We are the first slot. We are the next project that will be coming out. Old Sack. And I confirmed it's not just the county portion. City wants their part too. So he says they're going to do the whole strip. So, yeah, so just a tiny little update. And then for the agendas camp, do we have, I think we do, I just haven't seen one, like a list of all things that have been, they're on our agenda list that sometimes they make it or they're, that's not the right words. There are higher priorities.

You want to see the stuff that's in the pipeline?

Yeah, what's in the pipeline? We probably have 15 things on there and we only pick you know, four or five of them that we can do in a meeting. I'm just curious about what else is on there. Could we see it?

Could you share it with us? Yeah, absolutely. You know, and we, I mean, there's things that are continuously being worked on, you know, so these are just things that are ready for these meetings, but absolutely, I could share that with you.

Forget about them, and I'm all, I wonder what that was.

I can start adding those to my updates to the... Yeah, I'm just curious.

I think that's it. Thank you.

All right. Yeah, I have nothing to add to the... Agenda, nothing to report. I have been hearing also that the farmer's market is really great this year. Of course, one night I couldn't make it. The other two nights I've been in here. So I'll try and check it out sooner or later. So with that, we have no closed session tonight. So with that, I believe meeting adjourned at 853.