City Council - Regular Meeting

Joe's in the house. Bam. All right. One minute. Where's your dog? It's more of a challenge if he runs around on his own. Yeah, he did. Uh, no, but I'll... All right, since Linda's here, I'm going to call this meeting back to order. And I have a roll call, please.

Council Member Little. Thank you. Council Member Sander. Council Member Polipotti is absent at this time. Vice Mayor Budge. Here. Mayor Gatewood.

Here. Stacey, you can go ahead and read the meeting video and record back.

The meeting of the Rancho Cordova City Council is recorded with closed captioning. The recording will be cablecast on Metro Cable Channel 14, the local government affairs channel, on the Comcast and direct TV versus cable systems. The recording will also be video streamed at metro14live.saccounty.gov. Today's meeting will replay on Thursday, June 4th at 9 a.m. and Friday, June 5th at 6 p.m. on Metro Cable Channel 14. Once posted, the recording of this meeting can be viewed on demand at youtube.com forward slash Metro Cable 14 and on the city's website at www.cityofRanchoCordova.org.

Excellent. Can I go ahead and have PC Jewell? They get close? All right, come on up and let's do the Pledge of Allegiance. Everyone stand. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. And then if I could go ahead and have Reverend Zach, I'm going to try it. Dang, I was going to go, I had it, I had it this time.

You got it. Let us pray. Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, Send down upon those who hold office in this city the spirit of wisdom, charity, and justice, that with steadfast purpose they may faithfully serve in their offices to promote the well-being of all people. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Hey, thank you for coming. Hope to have you back. What church are you guys with?

Next.

Oh, okay. All right. All right, we got no presentations. Moving on to public comment. Members of the public wishing to address the council for any matter on the agenda may do so at this time by completing and submitting a speaker's card to Stacey. For items on the agenda, speakers were called by the mayor, and at the point of the agenda when the item is to be heard, speakers are encouraged to keep their comments to three minutes or less and state the name and community of residence. UNDER PROVISION OF CALIFORNIA GOVERNMENT CODE, CITY COUNCIL IS PROHIBITED FROM DISCUSSING OR TAKING IMMEDIATE ACTION ON ITEMS NOT ON THE AGENDA UNLESS IT CAN BE DETERMINED TO BE OF AN EMERGENCY NATURE OR NEED TO TAKE IMMEDIATE ACTION AFTER THE POSTING. STACEY, DO WE HAVE ANY PUBLIC COMMENT FROM OUR CREW? JAMES? SHE WAS TALKING TO SOMEBODY.

We do have a public comment, yes. So we're going to start with James Garcia. Following James Garcia will be Lori Powell. All right.

James Garcia, resident of Stone Creek. I just wanted to comment about another violation by High Class Auto that happened on Wednesday around 8.30 that caused another ruckus. Lots of police had to come out to disperse the crowd. Once again, violation. If we go back to when they originally were coming up for their actual similar use permit, that was back March 9th of 2023. It was supposed to just be similar use that stated it was to be similar use of an auto and truck rental or leasing agency. They positioned it as a. By appointment only business. At this point in time, they have violated every single possible code that can be done. They've destroyed their landscaping, they've over-parked everything, created fire hazards, detriment, surrounded the building by boats as well as vehicles all around the whole entire building. Inside was stacked. wall the wall you cannot even open doors that's complete violation i would think the fire marshal would want to actually shut them down for that um they've now since moved some of their cars to a lot off of kilgore an international area um again without probably license plates or anything else so you know it is a lot but still um they've driven them up and down the streets this is not a by appointment only business their similar use permit should be pulled by now It's gone on long enough. They are zipping down the streets, residential streets. I don't know why somebody hasn't died yet, but it looks like it. It's gonna happen soon, sooner or later. At this point in time, they need to be pulled. This is not a business to have in our city. Clearly not a similar use. Leasing agency, no. Truck rental, no. They are out there selling their cars and creating a ruckus. So please do something about it before someone dies.

Thank you. Next. Next speaker is Lori Powell.

Lori, welcome.

Thank you. Good evening, mayor and council members. My name is Lori Powell. I am the principal at Riverview STEM Academy, and I am also a longtime resident of the city of Rancho Cordova. Hey. I'm speaking in support of the STEM field trip proposal for Rancho Cordova Elementary Schools, all of them. For many years, community enhancement and investment fund support has helped provide hundreds of local students with hands-on science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics experiences that many families could not otherwise afford. This proposal will continue to expand equitable access to field trips and in-school programs that connect students with local resources such as environmental education, museums, agricultural programs, and conservation organizations. These experiences increase student engagement, support academic achievement, and help inspire future careers in high demand STEM fields. By investing in our youngest learners today, Rancho Cordova is investing in a more educated, innovative, and engaged community tomorrow. I respectfully ask for your support for this funding request. Thank you.

In addition to the two speakers that we just heard from, We also received one public comment from Marilyn Metzger that's been distributed to the city council, placed in a binder in the back of the council chambers, and uploaded to our website. Thank you.

All right. So I will move on to council reports. Joe, what you got?

Nothing. Did a lot of walking this weekend for regional candidates for Tuesday's election, and it's just always so interesting to spend time and neighborhoods on other parts of the county and just see you know everything from the demeanor of people to maintenance of properties to how their streets are planned and yeah so it was kind of interesting to be teleported to so many doors and different communities and trying to figure out what lessons I can take away from that I went to the renew healing through art stand-up comedy show on Saturday I was there briefly and a bunch of other stuff I can't remember

I like that you're poaching people from other cities, like where the head is, like your head is. David, what you got?

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. It's graduation season. I was at Mills Middle School's graduation. Quite a nicely organized event. Incredibly international student body there. Very, very impressive. St. John Bionni, I also went to there. graduation event, Memorial Day. The community council hosted that at the Performing Arts Center on Cordova High's campus last week on Memorial Day. I was the emcee and the mayor spoke briefly in his role as mayor, very briefly I might add.

It was hurtful.

Which was amazing. So we had a really nice turnout that Memorial Day. The remarkable thing about it was the number of kids who were in the audience, enormous number of parents and children there. See, Romeo and Juliet was performed here in Rancho Cordova at the Mineshaft of all places. I think it was Romeo and Juliet on the high seas, slight adaption. This is our own local Hummingbird Theater performing. It's kind of amazing to me always what artists can do with spaces not even designed to be theaters. and when you've got the community council sort of backing them up and making that work, it was hard to believe you were actually in the mine shaft while they performed that. It was a very excellent and highly technical production, so congratulations to them for pulling that off. I wanted to let you know I will be traveling to Minneapolis on behalf of SACOG, There's a study mission going there, and I've been asked to serve as a judge for the All-America City Contest in Denver. Both of those things will happen in about two weeks. So I'll be out of town for not this week, but the week after. This weekend, Rancho Cordova's hosting the Golden West Invitational Track Meet at Cordova High School. Thousands of kids, hundreds of entries, dozens of races from Friday through Sunday. So it will be a lot of fun and very good for business. That's my report. Oh, oh.

Wait, wait, wait.

And one more thing, someone we need to adjourn in honor of. Lloyd Langerstrom, who was, I knew him as a 4th of July volunteer. 4th of July volunteer for probably 20 years, I'm guessing. He has just passed away recently. More notably than that, though, he was a Air Force veteran. He went on to work at Franchise Tax Board after retiring from the Air Force. He was a long-term member of St. John Vianney and was very active in organizations there. He was also a key volunteer for the air show. He did a lot of volunteer activities around Rancho Cordova, food locker, etc. He's survived by his wife Connie and his daughters and grandchildren, some of whom are in the area. He was the kind of guy who you could trust with just anything. Like give him a technical problem. We need to move that. We need to build this. We need to make that work over there. And in a volunteer capacity, he could handle like anything. And then you had to like step back and realize he's 87 years old while he's doing this. So he was remarkably, remarkably active, intelligent guy who was just can-do all the time and just emanated a constant positive attitude. I don't think you could have gotten him to criticize anything. So wonderful man. He made a huge contribution to Rancho Cordova. And we're going to miss him. So we're going to join in his honor.

That's Lloyd Langerstrom?

Yep, Lloyd Langerstrom.

Siri, what you got?

So I will continue in the graduation season that it is. I attended Sunrise Elementary graduation, and it was wonderful to see all the kids that were graduating, their beautiful lays, loads and loads of money they got. You know, when you see the students cheering, they're cheering for the popular kids or their friends, but when you see the teachers cheering... They were cheering for this kid that, you know, who had cancer, came out of remission, or this kid who just lost their parent during the school year, but just bounced back and was, you know, completed their middle school, elementary school with such flair. Hearing their stories, it was really heartwarming to see how these students go through life and just come out bright on the other side. attended Cordova High Graduation. It was actually a really beautiful day. I attended with my colleagues, Mayor and Vice Mayor, and for once we were not sitting in the hot, bright sun facing us, because everybody else was facing the other side, and usually we council members are facing the sun throughout the whole ceremony, but it was a beautiful day and a beautiful ceremony for Cordova High School graduation. I, along with Supervisor Rich Desmond, attended a cultural event at the temple, attended the Kannada Sangha Rangavasantham, which was at, actually it was here in May there, but they were celebrating the start of spring, but it was a hot day, I think it was on Sunday, so it was not that of a beautiful day, but it was pretty hot. Also attended the Korean event with the mayor and vice mayor, and I'm sure they'll go on more about it, so... Those are the events that I could attend in the past few weeks, and I will be taking the next couple of weeks off to be taking care of my mom, so I won't be here at council meeting. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Linda.

So, I totally agree. It's been a while since we met, and the Memorial Day observance was really one of the nicest that we've had. This is the The honoree was your grand old flag. And it was unique for the Memorial Day celebration, but it was really, really nice. And then the library authority met And the Library Authority is a very curious organization. It's made up of two different entities, an entity for the county and an entity for the city of Sacramento. And there are significant financial concerns about the half that is the city of Sacramento and how they're going to be able to keep their branches open and staffed. Graduation was amazing. We actually had nine invitations to attend graduations in this area. And it's very rewarding to be asked, but we can't attend all nine of them. So I'm really glad that David was able to get to Mills. And Siri and Garrett and I had a great time at graduation Friday night. at Cordova High. They have 430 kids graduating this year. It's one of the largest graduating classes that we can remember because Cordova High's attendance is now up to about 1,900. On Saturday, I did both the Positive Altitude event out at Mather. It's organized by the California Capital Air Show. And they brought in a thousand kids to hear a lady who was a rocket scientist and really talked to the kids about what it means to get to that position and to show up and to continue to do what you want to do. And then, as Siri said, we had the KP Festival, which again was a huge success. But this time it was a little different. They did vendor booths. And so that's why I said the other night when we were talking about reusing empty parking lots, there was not an empty parking space in that parking lot on Saturday. And while on the one hand it's a little bit like Christmas where you only fill up your parking lots on a certain time of the year, on the other hand, we really need to ask ourselves if we want to not make that available, or if we want to be able to continue to hold festivals like that in our parking lots. So yeah, this has been a busy time.

So I went to United Way.

Thank you for them coming into our city. Read to kids. I got to read. They had age appropriate books that they read to kids. I got to go to the kids. They had an author there who read to the kids. And it was interesting because she was so well trained that she was able to, this is a skid with a lot of special needs children. And so she was able to keep, and read the book even though she wasn't flipping the pages while the kids were coming up and giving her hugs because they were just excited that something was happening. And I was like, you're keeping on task. And so you know that someone's so well-trained, they're able to basically – and that's why during the page, the yellow – and I was like, that's awesome. And so she was awesome, came through, gave the kids books. Kids were all excited. I – It always amazes me how many of our kids in Rancho Cordova need books and need glasses. And luckily, we're working right now to help a lot of our kids. I guess we have like 400 kids that need glasses. And so as we're trying to improve our reading and mathematics, it behooves us to get the tool that allows them to see the mathematics, and I didn't know our kids had been on a waiting list for two years, but we are going to remedy that situation and get our kids glasses so we can improve. I bet you I, we at council by ourselves improved the reading grades by 10% by getting 400 kids to be able to read the books they're handed.

Mayor, isn't the Rotary Club working on glasses?

We're the main funder of that. Yes. Thank you to, I've forgotten his name.

I think it's Arjun.

Arjun is running. Yeah, he basically found out that they have like 400 kids that are two years behind on getting glasses and so they need someone to step up and I was like, well, that's got to be an absorbent amount. And they're like, no, it's 50 grand. And I'm like, so we have 400 kids that have been waiting two years for 50 grand, and that's just unacceptable. And I thought we were handling that, and it's just one of those things that it's a great reason why we have the Measure H, Measure R allows us to step up. Carrie Johnson is an amazing individual. We have a food hub. And what it is, it's just so everyone knows, Ten years ago when I got on council, a decade ago, thank you St. John Vianney's Church for being the one that basically collected food. And I think his name is Walt. Sat there and Walt Little and came up with an idea that they were going to do food dignity. And it basically gets all the recycled food that people don't use in stores and basically found a way to give it to the poor community. If you didn't know that 10% of Rancho Cordova is on food. on food stamps or help with the government. And so they wanted to make a way that they could get the food from the community. And so we became that group of where food was bused in and then we handed it out through the dais. And what happens is is the school and the food hub started conflicting on basically who was going there and it got too big to be at the school anymore. So they found a place and they've turned it into the first ever shopping, like a shopping store that you can go get your food on whatever dietary needs you need the free food and be able to walk away with it. And it's funny, because like, I hear people talk about it, about how this could ever happen. And we did it in Rancho, it didn't hurt our citizens or affect anybody. And we're basically helping poor or lower disadvantaged groups and people that are first generation that got fleeing from different horrible situations, they're able to go there, get their food, have dignity, walk away, and then become very good members of our community. And it's just a blessing to see the church, the community as a whole, and everyone tilt up something that was supposed to take years in a matter of a year and a half. I mean, never heard of a God's at work in our city all the time. Thank you for Memorial Day, Court of Community Council. Thank you to my pastor, Dan Deshawn. Thank you for David for running that. And thank you for dressing up one of my staff in a silly outfit to read about doing a flat. It was hilarious.

It was not silly.

Betsy Ross was at Memorial Day.

Yeah.

Yep. Betsy Ross was at Memorial Day.

And she enjoyed every minute of it.

And she may have had a City of Rancho Cordova logo on somewhere in the car.

I didn't know that we were back then when we were sewing. And she's like, I put the logo for Rancho Cordova. You know what? Not on this flag. So thank you for everyone, the families that were there that lost a loved one in a war. We appreciate everything you do to protect our community. The Korean culture affair, we had K-pop and Rancho. What can say less than that? Thank you for BJ. It gets crazier every year. We have more consulate generals. If you guys didn't know this, we have companies called Solidine, SK High Knees, and Pac Chemical, which are these giant Korean conglomerates. And they... Love Rancho Cordova, not like love. David brought David went there with S.K. Hines and and Solidine and basically helped them get the highest ever. I think it was stock rating. It's not actually true. But you know what? They attributed to it. So they posted the highest value they'd seen ever, and they haven't gone down since you made that trip. Fun fact.

Every year they've increased. I was very good luck. Yeah. They had record earnings announced as we arrived there.

We also have Korean churches, Korean schools, Korean dancing, and it's all based in Rancho Canova. Wow. It's not like it's not part of our culture. We're just a very diverse city. So we just walk by it like it's nothing. But in other states, that same type of culture tried to go in and it conflicted so much that they didn't feel safe there. They feel 100% safe. And so they want to reinvest more and more in Rancho Cordova. And I think that's just something that you two founders did when you built the city, is you made it welcoming. And everyone wants to come here. And so that was cool talking to them, talking to the constant general. They're reducing populations and businesses in other states to move to Rancho Cordova, which I think is going to create more jobs for our community. We have a gem called Jen Lorette, and she sits on the school board. I went to the high school graduation. And I think it was a while back. I don't know when. But they asked how many kids were going to college. And I don't know if the kids were just being obnoxious because high schoolers are feisty. But only like seven to ten kids stood up the time I went. And I was like, oh, my God, we have 400 kids and seven kids stood up. I was terrified. And I was like, what are we going to do? I went there this time and like 100 plus kids stood up. That is such a big improvement. and our amount of kids that are going to the school is going up. every day, like they're at almost 2,000 kids, which was before they were lacking in kids. And so our population is starting to filter into the schools, which is helping our test scores go up. And it's just, thank God that she's there helping to lead the way to help Rancho Cordova into its own school district, because she's amazing. And congratulations to all those graduates. I can't wait to see you join the community and do the junior college, state college, or just a trade Because we have all these cool things. You don't have to go to high school just to go be an academic. You can go to high school, and if you want to do machining, or you want to be an auto mechanic, or you want to do something else, we have a path for you. I went to Robert McGarvey. I was scared I was not going to see any kids, which means I was old, because if I don't see the kids that I helped raise, then I'm officially old. And yet there was a ton of families I knew, and I knew a bunch of the kids because I coached them in soccer and other sports. So I'm still not old yet, but I'm racing at that age because they are all graduating. Got to give out the certificates at Youth City Hall. That was amazing. Oh, you're right. Yeah. We do a lot. So much.

We do.

And then the most important thing, which I would like to point out, is that through our lobbying efforts, we were able to get $4 million of money that wasn't from Kevin Kiley and Ami Berra for the backside of our road, which is the connector. So we actually not only do we get $25 million, we just got an extra $4 million, which is a big deal because if we can build the backside before Cordova Hills and the rest of that city fills out, we will have a really nice expressway that will take you all the way from Elk Grove to El Dorado Hills and not have to burden yourself by going down Sunrise Boulevard. So those are those big wins that don't really hit the news but are really big for us because you need that kind of money to build that out.

And that's it.

I'm going to skip over my man, David Kwong, because he doesn't have anything. Good having you here, David.

Are you sure?

Yes, I do. And we're going to roll on to consent calendar items. Consent calendar items consist of matters deemed routine and non-controversial by staff, unless a member of the council wishes to pull an item. An individual consideration, all items may be approved in one motion. All right. Are there any items the council wishes to pull? Seeing none, do I have any public comment?

There is no public comment for these items.

May I ask for a motion? Move approval.

Second.

Roll call, please, Stacey.

Council Member Little. Yeah. Council Member Sander.

Aye.

Council Member Polipotti. Yes. Vice Mayor Budge. Yes. Mayor Gatewood.

Yes.

Motion passes.

All right, we're going on to consent calendar items. Consent public hearing items consistent matters of routine and non-controversial by staff unless a member of the council wishes to pull an item. individual consideration. All items may be approved in one motion. I'm gonna go ahead and open the public hearing very quietly. Thank you. And ask the clerk, is there any public comment?

We do not have any public comment for items on the consent public hearing.

And I'm gonna go ahead and close the public hearing and ask councilors any items you wish to pull. Oh, he popped up. That was so cute. All right, moving. Sorry. Did you see him pop up when he saw that? I did. Like he had something to say?

Hearing none.

Yeah, he went pop right up. All right.

Hearing none, I'll move approval of items 10.1 through 10.5.

Do I have a second? Second. Roll call, please.

Council Member Polipotti? Yes. Council Member Little? Yes. Council Member Sander?

Aye.

Vice Mayor Budge? Yes. Mayor Gatewood?

Aye. Yes.

Motion passes.

Excellent. And since we have nothing else, I'm going to go ahead and adjourn this meeting in Lloyd Langer Strong.

And could we just recognize... I was about to gavel. I know. Can we just recognize also on a global nature that we just lost Rick Adleman, who is arguably the most pivotal figure in the evolution of the Sacramento Kings basketball.

And Rick Adleman.

Mayor Gatewood, would you like to ask if there's any council requests for future agenda items?

No, I wouldn't. Okay. That's the reason I didn't ask. I was moving on. You guys got anything? Joe? No. We're good. Meeting adjourned.