City Council - Regular Meeting

Good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to the August 16th meeting of the Red Bluff City Council. Would you all stand for the Pledge of Allegiance, please? Salute pledge. 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. Thank you. I want to welcome all the candidates here tonight that are applying for the position for the road street commission. I'll call it commission, but I forget what we call it. What do we call it? Measure S. Measure S. You all are Measure S people. That doesn't stand for Secret Service or anything like that. But we're glad that you're here, glad that you're volunteering. As you know, five of you will be chosen tonight. appreciate you coming and submitting your resumes. Before we have public comment, I have a few comments to make. I want to say that the time is set aside for citizens to address the City Council on any item of interest to the public which is within the subject matter jurisdiction of the City Council. To make a public comment on Zoom, you must raise your hand for the items on the agenda. Public comments will be heard at the time the item is discussed. If your comments concern an item that is noted as public hearing, please address the city council after the public hearing is open for public testimony. The mayor reserves the right to limit each speaker to three minutes, and we will hold to that. Multiple presentations by the same individual will not be permitted. So with that, Jessica.

Good evening, council. I'm sure there's some of you in this room that know who Lester Fox is. He was a staple in this community. He passed away, so I just wonder if we could take a moment of silence for him.

Thank you.

Thank you. He was a staple in this community. He was, for those of you that appreciate Pat being here, he was one of the ones to get it in and taken care of. He's done a lot of things for our community and talk about someone that is community driven. It was Lester Fox. Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Honorable Mayor, members of the City Council, staff, Fellow citizens, well attended this evening. Good to have you here. My name is Ken Boone. In Scott's absence, let me open in prayer. Heavenly Father, thank you for this opportunity to gather together, and we do this whether we recognize it officially or not, under your care, your protection, your wisdom. And we pray, Father, this evening that as each speaker is afforded the opportunity that there would be truth, that there would be clarity, that there would be wisdom, that there would be kindness, and that we would be able to move forward in a way that's honoring to you. In the powerful name of Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen. Scott has another commitment, but he is going to try to be here next week. Because of our national motto, In God We Trust, I love reading his word. Tonight, something celebratory. Psalm 96, the Bible says, sing to the Lord a new song. Sing to the Lord all the earth. Sing to the Lord, bless his name. Proclaim good tidings of his salvation from day to day. Tell of his glory among the nations, his wonderful deeds among all the peoples. For great is the Lord and greatly to be praised. He is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the peoples are idols. But the Lord made the heavens. Splendor and majesty are before him. Strength and beauty are in his sanctuary. Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord the glory of his name. Bring an offering and come into his courts. Worship the Lord in holy attire. Tremble before him all the earth. Say among the nations, the Lord reigns. Indeed, the world is firmly established. It will not be moved. He will judge the peoples with equity. Let the heavens be glad. Let the earth rejoice. Let the sea roar and all it contains. Let the field exult and all that is in it. Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy before the Lord, for he is coming. For he is coming to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in his faithfulness.

Thank you. Anyone else? Having seen nobody coming forward, I will go on. From a citizen's comment, we will go on to announcements of agenda corrections.

There are none.

No items of agenda corrections, so we'll go on to staff items.

Thank You mayor council members just a few items to announce there's a ribbon-cutting for the boutique by Tama floral on Thursday August 20th at 11 a.m. at their location at 645 Antelope Boulevard suite 8 the next chamber good morning rub bluff is on August 27th that is at the Tehama eLearning Academy when their address is 979 Douglas Street. That event starts at 7.50 a.m. And then just the last thing to remind you that tomorrow night is one of the last two farmers markets down here on Washington Street. As you know, continuing on Saturdays in River Park is another farmers market. And that's all I have.

Thank you, Tom. Scott Garrison.

He's not here this evening, so we'll go to Beth.

Oh, sorry. Garrison? I welcomed him last time twice. Now he's gone. What a guy. I'll have to welcome him back this time. Beth Lindauer, please.

Thank you, Mayor. I have no updates this evening.

Thank you, Beth. Scott Miller, Public Works.

Thank you, Mayor. A few items to report. This weekend, the 99's Palms to Palms Air Race, the ladies came roaring through town Friday. First plane arrived right about 2.30. They had a slight delay. They were fogged in in Santa Monica and then it lifted and they were able to come in. They finally were able to finish their route in Madras, Oregon on Saturday. We had 17 planes that were registered. There was 16 that actually arrived at Red Bluff, but only 14 were competing, and one of them had an emergency failure. You might have read it in the news. They had an engine failure and had to set down on one of the county roads in Fresno. Both pilots were perfectly okay. Land of the aircraft was good, except for the engine. They put it up on a truck and got it off, and they just came back to attend the air race. Ladies had a wonderful time, had a barbecue in the afternoon and then left early in the morning the following day. The speeds on that was anywhere from 113 to 200 miles per hour over that race course. Other things is the auction of surplus equipment. We finally got a date set up for that. August 17th through August, pardon me, October 17th through October 20th will be the dates of the auction with load out on the 22nd of October. Also some other good news, Trainer Park, that one little extra playground piece of equipment from Rotary that will be installed this Friday with the help of city staff. The Rio Sewer Project is looking about getting wrapped up at the end of this month. The boys were out there finishing up the crosswalk striping around the high schools this week. And then also they began some cleanup operations of the Welcome to Red Bluff sign at the corner of Main and Adobe.

Thank you, Scott. Appreciate it. Chief Buckmeyer.

evening mayor members of council only thing i really have to report i think mr westbrook has updated you we did send out personnel early this morning one of our division chiefs as a strike team leader and our type 6 engine we call squad one they're joined with linda fire department olive hearst willows and sutter county and they've been assigned to the timber fire which is down in monterey county around big sur so I expect for them to be gone, if not the whole 14-day deployment, very close to it. So wish them well.

Yes, wish them well. Thank you, Chief. Paul Young.

Thank you. The audit is scheduled for next month on the 21st. We're on track for closing the books on time, but there's still a lot of work to do. Our last major accrual is sales tax is outstanding. The rest of the general fund revenues are pretty decent. If the final sales tax payment comes in at the average, we should be about a break even for the general fund general revenues. but we should get that amount next week. That's all I got.

Thank you, Mayor.

No update from the Police Department tonight.

Thank you, sir. Robin.

Okay, a couple things. We are getting ready to put out a mini RFQ for the design services for the Trainer Park sidewalk improvements. This is funded by the grant associated with the Palm Villas project, so we're starting to move forward on our portion of those projects. The second thing is we met with the design team today for the South Jackson lift station project to make sure we're in queue for Palm Villas to be fully occupied and utilizing that lift station. And we anticipate having 100% plans for final review mid-September. And we'll go out to bid shortly after that. So we are on the right path to meet their time frames. And we're working with the contractor on that, too.

Thank you, Robin. Thank you, staff. Commission's report, Parks and Rec Commission.

I don't see any of the commission members here, so I'll take that. They had a meeting last Tuesday in this room. There were some updates from staff regarding the pool season. There was another successful pool season that had a lot of use by our residents. There was some minutes they approved, and they also heard some updates regarding the splash pad project. I suspect that we'll probably have an item to update the council at your meeting on September 1st regarding that.

Thank you, John. Appreciate that. Appreciate it. Can everybody out there hear us okay? Very good. Thank you. Okay. There will be no presentations tonight. Any conflict of interest for council members? Pat?

No.

No. Chris? No. No. Myself, no. Thank you very much. All right, we have items, five items on the consent agenda tonight, and I will read them. It says approval of minutes, and number two, open market purchases, 2,000 or more, and contract awards. Number three, approval of warrant lists. Number four, code enforcement activities report for July. And number five, approval of urban green grant application for natural resource agency urban greening grant program. Before I ask anybody for a vote, does anybody from the audience or anybody from council want to withdraw any of the items to be put on the regular agenda? Anybody? Anybody from the audience? Okay. Thank you. I haven't seen no hands or anybody want to withdraw any of the items. I will ask for a motion to approve the consent agenda items 1 through 5.

I motion.

Motion made by Mark Clement. Do I have a second?

I will second.

Second by Pat Hurton. Anita, please take the roll.

Councilmember Pope. Yes. Councilmember Hurton. Yes. Councilmember Deiters. Yes. Mayor Pro Tem Clement. Yes. Mayor Gonzalez.

Yes. Item passes unanimously. Thank you, Council. We'll go on to item number six, which is the appointment of members of Measure S Citizens Oversight Committee. And I want to say that we received two letters, one from Anthony Eyestone that he cannot attend and unable to secure because of his job right now where he works. And number, again, Jennifer Torres, she apologizes. She has another meeting that she can't attend tonight. So they also can be considered for the positions tonight. So please, council, you may consider both Anthony Eyestone and Jennifer Torres for the positions. as Oversight Committee, Citizens as Oversight Committee, and I will pass this on now to Tom Westbrook.

Thank you, Mayor. Also, I wanted to mention one more. We did get notified that Colleen Tobin, who is also one of the applicants, had an emergency come up today and also cannot be present this evening, so she can be considered. And then we do have members in the audience. We will promote Ken Readers. He's also one of the applicants. He's going to be participating remotely this evening.

Oh, very good. Thank you, Tom. Appreciate that.

So my report, essentially, as the council is aware, the voters approved Measure S at the June 2nd, 2026 election. And Measure S provides for the establishment of an oversight committee, a citizen's oversight committee. THAT COMMITTEE WILL CONSIST OF FIVE MEMBERS APPOINTED BY THE COUNCIL THIS EVENING THAT WILL SERVE IN AN ADVISORY CAPACITY TO THE REBLEF CITY COUNCIL. THE COMMITTEE DOES NOT EXERCISE ADMINISTRATIVE, OPERATIONAL, OR POLICY-MAKING AUTHORITY. Members must be residents, they can be business owners, they can be property owners, all located within the city of Red Bluff limits. At all times and pursuant to Measure S, the citizens initiative that was approved by the voters, the committee must have at least one resident that lives within the city limits, one business owner, and one property owner. What's a little bit unique about this is sometimes we may have an applicant that fulfills all three of those roles. They're a resident, they're a business owner, and a property owner. So a member can satisfy all of those above, but we have to have at least one resident, one business owner, and one property owner within the City of Red Bluff. The following individuals are not eligible for appointment. That would be members of the Red Bluff City Council, members of the Tehama County Board of Supervisors, employees with the City of Red Bluff, and employees of the County of Tehama. As of August 13th, 2026, the application deadline for the Oversight Committee, we did receive 10 applications for the five available positions on the committee. The order in which we received those were Anthony Eyestone, Jonna Jones, Richard Hardin, Ken Readers, Jennifer Torres, Susan Meisler, Bill Byron, Lisa Harris, Colleen Tobin, and Ronald MacGyver. As the mayor had mentioned, some of the applicants this evening will not be able to participate in this process. They're not here. That doesn't mean they cannot be considered for appointment by the council. The council has a lot of options here. There are folks here this evening. I will say the application that they submitted are pretty detailed. It provides a lot of their experience and qualifications. If the council would like to have anybody that would like to speak to say why they want to be on the Measure S Committee, you could do so. You could ask them a question, but you're not necessarily required to do so. So the council just needs to decide how they want to proceed and move forward. But the applications that were submitted were extremely detailed. following the selection of the five committee members the council will need to recommend which members will get which terms and what i mean by that is all of our committees the planning commission the parks and rec and the airport commission they serve three-year staggered terms because this committee's brand new there's going to be five people that will be appointed today Some will serve a three year term, some will serve a two year term, and some will serve a one year term. So that's going to need to be decided by the city council this evening. As I mentioned, the Measure S Citizens Advisory Committee is advisory to the city council. And so your task this evening is to review the applications. Those were presented to you on Friday when the public, when the agenda was published. also on Friday we sent an email to the applicants letting them know that the selection process would happen this evening and hoping that they could all attend some were not able to do so you'll need to select the five members and then you'll need to make the selection of the staggered terms and so if the council has any questions for me I'd be happy to answer those at this time

Thank you, Tom. Any questions for Tom regarding what he's just shared? Chris?

Mark? Pat?

OK, very good. So what we're going to do is, again, everybody's going to be considered, even though they're absent. But this is the way I think, for the sake of time, I'm going to ask everybody that if you are a candidate for this position, would you raise your hand, please? It should be everybody here, right? OK, everybody got placed in the front row. Perfect. What I'm going to ask you is that each one of you ready to speak.

Before we proceed Anita, can you please promote Ken readers to panelists so that he'll have the ability to To speak if he so desires Thank you Can can can you hear us on your end it looks like you're muted at the moment I

Yes, I can hear you. Thank you so much.

Okay, thanks, Ken.

All right, very good. Ken, you will be number five on the speaker. You will follow Richard Hardin. Richard Hardin, who are you? You are there. Thank you, sir. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to give you each one. Anita, if you could set the clock to two minutes, please. I'm going to give each individual two minutes to speak. And then after that, I would ask the council members that if you have any questions after they're speaking, to ask them a question after they've spoken for two minutes. And after that, I will ask you to please, each one will nominate one person. And I would ask you to, if somebody nominates that person that you have nominated, that in your mind you have a secondary, that way there will be five of you nominated. for the position, and then we will go on to selection of time, and then we will have you approved, okay? Does that sound fair to everybody? Sound fair? Very good.

So this is different than when we appointed a council member? I know when we appointed a council member, if we asked one a question, we had to ask everyone the same question. You know, that's true. This is different?

Let me ask our attorney, does it have to be that way?

an opportunity to speak for two minutes to tell you why they want to be on this committee. So that's the prompt you're giving them. You're giving them two minutes to respond. So that's the same for everybody.

That's the same for everybody? Okay. So if you have a question from council, I will give each one one question from council if you want to ask and they can answer it. I think that's fair. I think I appreciate that. Is that fair to you?

They were speaking for two minutes. I think we can just hear from them.

I'll have each from there. I think that's probably a lot safer just to listen to them. Just to listen to them.

Okay, very good. I just want to be clear. Everybody gets that. Okay. Thank you, counsel. Appreciate that. All right. So you'll get your two minutes, and then we're going to go from there, okay? So the first one to speak will be Anthony Ashton, who is not here, and he's not online. So Joanna Jones, please.

Sorry, I'm shorter than Ken. Thank you. Thank you for opening up this process as fairly as possible. It's nice to see a three-week window for the applicants. You guys have all reviewed our applications. Like Tom said, they're fairly straightforward. You guys asked all the questions that you wanted. You guys have our background. It was a long list of expertise in that application. I think that when you take into account that a lot of these roads are around our elementary schools and our middle school, that parental input is important. So I'm one of those parents that have kids that walk back and forth between multiple schools and home And they're walking on these roads. That includes bike lanes and pedestrian right-of-ways and crosswalks and all of those things. And most of you have heard me talk about this on both sides of this dais, that it is a constant that we have to think about. So I think that's an important role in this oversight committee, that that is seen, it's discussed, it's watched, just as part of the overall plan. That was one of the things that prompted me to apply for this position. I was going to ask if you guys had any questions about my application, but maybe that's out of their own possibility. I'm not sure if you have questions or not, but that's what I have to give. Like I said, most of the information is in the application, and I think that a parent's point of view on these right-of-ways, crosswalks, sidewalks, it's, you know, you have to touch everything when you pull up a road. Very good.

Thank you. Thank you, Joanne. I appreciate that. So we'll go on to Richard Hardin.

Thank you, Mayor, City Council. I took a look at this from the outside looking. The roads in this town are terrible. I worked inside this town as a route man for the last 12 years. I rode up and down these roads. I put a couple hundred thousand miles on a couple trucks. I put more tires on those trucks from these roads inside the city limits than I have ever done anywhere. So they're really, really bad. And the children that are walking through these areas, especially going over to the high school, these kids coming out of the high school. I don't know if you guys have been over to the high school lately, but lunchtime, those guys come out of there like a bat out of hell. You know what? And those roads are bad. And I mean, I've almost been hit by kids I don't know how many times in my truck over there when I've been working. So the potholes are terrible. I mean, we can't just keep replacing potholes. I mean, and we're about to triple our budget. The city puts in like $2.5 million a year into our city streets. Well, that isn't working. I mean, it's not working at all. I mean, we're going to get another $5 million here. We're going to be tripling our budget. I mean, this is important. This is really important stuff. You know, we get tripling it. We got to quit thinking about this. We got to start thinking about laying down some real roads, you know, so that we don't have these problems all the time. I mean, we shouldn't be having these problems. I mean... We're supposed to be getting all this money from the gas, but we're not. We're supposed to be getting all this money from every place, but we're not. So we've got this opportunity in front of us now. The good citizens of Red Bluff have decided to take the 1% sales tax. That's fine. I mean, we've got 12 years to put this together in a really good way so that 12 years from now, we ask for another 1%, which we may have to, you know, they'll be, we'll be glad to do it, you know. I've been living up here for, moved up here 24 years ago. And I love this town. And I've worked in it for years. Thank you, Richard. I just got to retire.

Once the music starts, the dance is over. Thank you, Richard. Ken Reeder, he's online. Ken, can you hear us? Go ahead, please begin.

Thank you. I am so pleased to be part of the 10 applicants to be appointed on this committee. Everyone brings a different variety of viewpoints to the council and to the committee. So I really appreciate the cross section we have. among us and so the reason i want to be on the committee is that most people know who i am and i'm an accountant and i was the treasurer for the committee that brought forward the initiative i know the initiative i read the initiative i know it very well i know what it can do for us and I just want to make sure that the money is spent exactly the way it's being raised for. And let's see. I had another minute. Hey, and by the way, I apologize for not coming today. I even went out and got a haircut. So if you know me, I got a haircut. Wow. That's amazing. I was out and about with my guide dog for the first time, and so I ride the bus a lot, and those buses are getting beat up by the roads. And so I'm a disabled person. I use our city amenities. I live in the city. I work in the city. I have my own business, and I have free time. Thank you for considering me.

Thank you, Ken. Appreciate that. Jennifer Torres cannot be here, so we'll go on to Susan Messler.

Thank you, Mayor and Council. I appreciate you guys doing this. And I know it's a difficult choice. There's a lot of great applicants. And I have every confidence that staff and Council are going to take care of this project correctly and do what's required under the vote. And so why I want to serve is just to participate in my community and do what I can with the knowledge I have of almost 40 years of accounting history and understanding audits and just working in different aspects of different businesses. And so my main goal, though, is just to serve the community. I don't have any doubt whatsoever that everyone is going to do what's required of them. So thank you.

Thank you, Susan. Bill Byron.

Hello. Bill Byron. And yes, I would like to be on this committee. I'm very good at asking questions. And this is just about, that's what we're here for, is to ask questions, to hold you guys accountable, and then to take that information and pass it on to the taxpayers for the Measure S initiative. We're not here to actually oversee or to tell you guys how to do any of the projects. We're literally here just as an oversight committee. And my biggest thing to you guys is what would the perfect oversight committee look like to you in a year from now? Because that's truly the question that it is. And that's truly where we would need to come from to know what to do to be on this committee. And that's really all I have. Thank you. Thank you, Bill.

That's a Harris. Did I say that correctly? With Lisa, Lisa, Lisa, but it's okay.

Good evening. I'm sorry. It's all right. That's right. Good evening, Council, Council, staff, department heads, public, citizens. I just want to take this moment to thank you for the opportunity to participate in this setting. A little bit about my background. My education comes from finance and business law. And I've been in this community for about 45 years. I've owned businesses inside the city limits, homes. And I just really enjoy participating and lifting up our community. And so this was an opportunity, I think, is a move in the right direction in connecting our citizens who are concerned about things that are happening around in our community and working together and collaborating on a project like this where the taxpayers know that it's coming out of their pockets. So again, I'm happy to see there's plenty of applicants. I'm just here to support, and I appreciate the opportunity to.

Thank you. Thank you, Lisa. Appreciate it. Colleen Tobin cannot be here tonight, so the last person will be Ronald McIver.

Good evening. I agree with the city manager. I thought the application was very complete, and I am prepared to submit on that. I'm not a lawyer who likes to hear himself talk. The only thing I would add is that I am retired, and I have plenty of time to be on this committee. Thank you. Thank you, Ron.

We'll stipulate.

I want to say I appreciate, again, each one of you sharing, each one of you coming tonight. I want to let you know that whoever serves on this committee, you're serving a great council, number one. Number two, you're serving a great staff, and a staff that has a lot of integrity. And especially our accounting system is without question one of the best that can be seen anywhere. And whatever you do on that committee who was ever elected will know that I don't know where it came from that the city would use this as a kitty or whatever it was to do their pet projects. That is literally crazy. We have a better understanding of what integrity is than whoever spread that rumor. And each council member here, you can look at them and know that they are trustworthy, and I appreciate them. So with that, yes, Tom?

Yeah, one of the things I wanted to mention, Mayor, before the council makes their nominations, if you want to open it up for the public, if there's anybody that would like to make any comments.

Okay. I'll open it up. You have one minute to make a comment. Anybody from the public? Okay.

Hi there, Danielle Eyestone, City of Red Bluff resident. One of the concerns I had just reading from the staff report with two people at the three years and three people at the two years, are we concerned about what the six-year mark may look as far as potentially a four-member turnover?

So hopefully I didn't write it incorrectly in the report. So there's two three-year terms and two two-year terms. So understanding your question, that within a two-year window, you could have four of your committee members turn over?

So at the three-year mark, you're gonna turn over somebody, then at the three-year mark, you're potentially turning over somebody else, and then two, four, six, they're potentially all, four are potentially turning over

Would your recommendation be to change a three year term to a one year term to mitigate that?

I honestly didn't know that was as much thought as I put in the math other than maybe the three and two like you do for the yeah, the three and two like you do for council. That was the only other I was just concerned that I hope that it would happen. I hope people would stay but you potentially have the risk for

And I agree with you on that, and where we were at is we tried to set these up similar to how our Planning Commission, the Parks and the Airport Commission, where it's two, two, and one, because they're also on three-year terms. It's just this initial.

One's messes, which is what, I didn't know how to fix it, but it concerned me to get it started.

That was the challenge, is how we start that. So we went two for three-year terms, two for two years, and one for a one-year term.

Yeah, I was just concerned that potentially that could turn over a big group at that one time which would be not necessarily what anybody would want. And then the other thing would just be to fully consider because I saw and heard the email and heard from by the time it was done people that were a little shocked and a little less than happy that it made it seem like it was mandatory to show up tonight and listening to the beginning of the council meeting I was not any less convinced and all ten people need to be considered you had their applications it should have been as much as that they had to answer a lot of information about what they needed and as somebody who passed out eight applications seeing five of my people show up here that I gave applications to I'm super stoked but all ten need to be considered whether they were able to show up tonight or not. Thank you.

Just for clarification, I think I stated, I think everyone here understood that I said everybody would be considered. Am I correct? All right. Everybody's nodding their heads. Thank you. So I appreciate that. I think, and like Ken was online, and we were able to get him online, and he also spoke. So with that. I will open it up to each one of our council members, nominating one person to the committee. And I will open it up first to Chris, because she's the... How did I get this lucky to be first, right?

Before I say anything about any of you, I want to thank all of you for your participation. I am pleased that Measure S passed, and I'm glad to see the public is engaged in it. And I am very hopeful that this is going to be very successful because there are so many good people out here who have applied to be on this committee, and thank you for doing that. It means a lot. So if I'm going to nominate somebody first?

Yes, you are. Yeah, well, you're going to nominate. Each one is going to nominate one. Those will be the five people that are going to be in the committee.

I'm going to nominate Lisa Harris.

I'm going to go to this side.

Pat? I'm sorry.

Go ahead.

I don't know how this works again because... asking one question and haven't asked everybody. I had a question about Lisa Harris, but I don't know how to ask it. And that was just, I noticed in her application, I don't know whether to direct this to her or the city attorney, it's a simple question, is she a current business owner or previous business owner and would she meet the business owner criteria for the committee? That's my only question. I noticed her application said multiple previous businesses and I'm just curious if she meets the current business owner requirement. That's my only question.

You're not asking me, though, are you?

I am throwing it out there to whoever the city attorney says can think about. How do you get tossed off the list? I don't know if I'm allowed to ask her. She's also a property owner. But no, because we only have, if she is a current business owner, we have four of the ten that are business owners, and I'm just seeing if she meets the business owner requirement. That's my question.

We'd have to ask that of Ms. Harris.

Yes.

Ms. Harris?

Yes.

Your current property owner. So that answers my question. That would not count as the business owner on the commission? Correct. She could fulfill the property owner role. Thank you. Because in the chart, she was listed as a business owner, yes. So we've got three business owners. Thank you, Chris.

I'm going to go side to side here.

All right. Yeah, thanks again, everybody, for applying. Not as hard as picking 1 out of 8, 5 out of 10. I'm still not good at that math. Daniel, I have no idea who's going to end at what point. I trusted Tom that the staggered terms were good. I didn't. But my math says that picking 5 out of 10 is easier than 1 out of 8. But thank you for 10 people. With that, I would nominate Ronald MacGyver.

Ronald MacGyver? Cassie. My turn.

Yes. I wanted to say, as I come through every single applicant, there was something in every single application that stood out to me. So I just want everybody to know that every single applicant was you can tell that your heart is with your community and that you guys actually have a desire to serve and I appreciate each and every one of you putting in the time to apply and caring enough to engage with your community. My nomination is based off of really just the application and looking at overall experience and I'm gonna nominate Colleen Tobin.

Calling Tobin.

Mark. Again, I want to thank all of you for being here tonight. This is a huge opportunity for everybody to be a part of this. I'm going to nominate Richard Hardin.

Richard Hardin. That's number four. And last, if you're like me, your hearts are pounding, right? Again, I just want to share with everybody that we hear your hearts. The greatest thing that can happen when you serve on this committee and serve with this council is that we work together. That's the most important thing. Because a city that's divided is not going to go anywhere. We'll have issues that some other people are, you know, go behind the scenes and talk about how bad, you know, that city's run. We don't have that here. We have a great unity. And I really appreciate, again, as I shared from the very, very beginning of this council, we work together. And that's the most important thing. We're going to get these roads done, but we're going to get them done together and working together because united we stand, the old saying, divided we fall. It's an old slogan, but it's something to really remember, especially during this time. So with that, I nominate Richard Hardin. He's already been nominated. Lisa Harris. Man, everybody that I checked here has been taken. I feel like, what's that, solve the puzzle? I'm going to nominate Jennifer Torres. She's not here, but I know her and she'll do a great job. So those are the five people that will serve. And now we'll go on to length of service. So with that, I've asked Tom to, I will ask for everybody that's here, and I'm going to assume that everybody that's not here will serve whatever term that they are asked to serve. So Tom, can you bring out the wheel, please? Everybody here will serve whatever term they have, right?

I think that if you want to ask for people that are interested in the certain time commitments, when we talk about the time commitment, even the one-year commitment is going to serve the rest of this calendar year, which would be 2026, with the term expiring in 2027. So we're not going to make them reapply here in the next three months. Yeah. Yeah. the one year term and all the terms will serve the remainder of 2026 and then kind of starting that loop in 2027. So they'll serve into 2027. They're correct. So you have an appointment, two appointments for a three year, two for two years and one for one year. So of the candidates that are here tonight, you could certainly inquire to see if there's anybody that has a desire to fill one of those roles. If somebody only wanted to serve a one-year commitment, they could take a one-year role. We do have the kind of the random drawing. If we don't have anybody volunteer with that, we can use the random drawing to select those terms. So we should start from one then? No, I think you should start by asking them if there's anybody that wants to fill a specific term.

I agree with you, Tom. I think maybe we should just inquire because some people just might want to commit to one year or not. Certainly they can reapply. Don't be afraid to say I just want one year. Okay.

And you can reapply. Then you can reapply.

All right. Potential contract extension.

Okay. I'm flexible. We'll go with that. Is anyone here that's been nominated willing to serve just one year? I think we're going to spin the wheel. We're going to go for two people for three years.

Okay, let me have to pull up my computer screen so it'll show up on the screen here. Just bear with me a half second.

Place your bets now, please.

We're going to wait for this to pop up. I've populated the...

There it is. So just to be clear, the five of you that are nominated, you don't care how many years you're going to serve. It doesn't matter. You're subject to a bouncing ball. I just want you to know that.

Yeah, that's what I asked them, and they all said okay. So go ahead. Three years.

Two people for three years. Here we go.

Two people for three years. You can see the names up here. I'm going to hit this. Hopefully it rotates. It's a little slower on the TV. It was a lot faster on my computer. Looks like Richard Harden.

Richard Harden. Three years. Okay, Richard, you're three years.

The second for the three-year term is Lisa Harris.

Lisa Harris. Lisa Harris, you accept that? Okay.

Spinning again.

Spinning again. Oh, now it's spinning faster.

This is for the two-year term or the one-year term?

This is two-year term. Excuse me, two-year term now.

Jennifer Torres.

Jennifer Torres, two years.

And then two names left. The next one selected will be for the two-year term.

Correct.

So Ronald MacGyver for the two-year term, and Colleen Tobin would fill the one-year term.

Colleen Tobin, one year. All right. Everybody knows your assignments? Thank you. Congratulations to you, and you'll get some information. Give them a hand. All right.

Thanks again to all 10.

Appreciate you. We'll go on to item number seven, which is introduction and first reading of ordinance number 1101, adding article 13 to chapter 2.102 through 2.11 of the Red Bluff Municipal Code Establishing Measure as Citizens Oversight Committee.

Thank you, Mayor, Councilmembers. Just to follow up, on June 2nd of 2026, the voters did approve Measure S. At your meeting on July 21st of 2026, the Red Bluff Council provided direction to staff to return with an ordinance to codify the Measure S Oversight Committee. The proposed ordinance is tended solely to implement Measure S through the administrative procedures authorized by the Citizens Initiative and does not amend, modify, or alter any substantive provision approved by the voters. The ordinance includes provisions addressing the creation of the Measure S Oversight Committee, committee membership eligibility requirements and appointment procedures, three years staggered terms of office vacancy removal and annual eligibility certifications elections of officers and organizational procedures compliance with the Brown Act committee duties and responsibilities as described by measure s confirms the committee's serves solely in an advisory capacity just like the Planning Commission the Parks and Rec and the Airport Commission also requires ethics and Brown training, Brown Act training, and then also the preparation and presentation of an annual report following the completion of an independent audit that is required in Measure S. This ordinance is consistent with the language contained within Measure S and also incorporating administrative provisions commonly found in the city's municipal code for other committees, which is the Planning Commission, Parks and Rec, and the airport. Adoption of this ordinance will codify responsibilities of the Measure S Citizens Oversight Committee in accordance with Measure S. With that, I'm available for any questions that the council may have this evening.

Any questions for Tom from the council, please? No questions then I don't have a question so I will open public hearing at 620 So do we have any questions for Tom from the public on this? agenda item number seven Anything on the Okay. I will close public comment then. I'll call it 621. So we have now have, we go to item number two, introduce and waive the first reading of the ordinance, adding that article that I just, excuse me, I'll read it again. Adding article 13 to chapter 2.102 through 2.111 of the Red Bluff Municipal Code establishing measure as citizens oversight committee. Do we have a motion on that? I motion. Motion made by Mark Clement. Do I have a second? SECOND BY CHRIS DIETERS. I NEED YOU TO PLEASE TAKE THE ROLL.

COUNCILMEMBER POPE. YES. COUNCILMEMBER HURTON. YES. COUNCILMEMBER DIETERS. YES. MAYOR PRO TEM. YES.

MAYOR GONZALES. EXCUSE ME. MEASURE PASSES UNANIMOUSLY. THANK YOU, COUNCIL. WE'LL GO ON TO ITEM NUMBER EIGHT. BETH LINDAUER, COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR.

Mayor and Council Members, on July 28, the Planning Commission conducted a public hearing and considered the proposed ordinance and adoption of Resolution 2026-19, recommending that the City Council approve Ordinance 1096, establishing a City Tobacco Retailer Permit Program. The tobacco ordinance aims to reduce illegal tobacco sales to minors and strengthen local compliance with state and local laws. Implementing this ordinance provides an administrative mechanism to address enforcement and educational gaps at a local level. The program activities includes retailer inspections, code and law enforcement officer tobacco education, retailer education materials, and is intended to be a multi-agency collaborative. This program aligns with the California Healthcare Research and Prevention Tobacco Act of 2026, also known as Prop 56, and it goals to promote a healthier California by reducing illegal retail sales and marketing of cigarettes and tobacco products, including e-cigarettes to minors. Unfortunately, there is a great deal of concentration of tobacco retailers in the city. We have approximately 25 licensed retailers. And within any given school, there's anywhere from 13 to 18 retailers. So the concentration and exposure to youth for advertising displays, point of sale marketing, retail environments, That children are being exposed to on a regular basis is a great vulnerability The proposed ordinance is exempt from CEQA pursuant to the common-sense exemption and staff recommends that council conduct the public hearing introduce and waive the first reading of ordinance 1096 and answer any questions that the public or me or you may have I am available. Thank you

Thank you, Beth, and she's already stated what the subject matter is on this agenda item. Do we have questions for Beth from council right now?

Hey, Beth, do we get a lot of complaints about tobacco sales to underage children?

We do not necessarily. Most of the information that we get is through our conversations with the schools, our resource officers, and just conversations with community members.

It's just a radio frequency interference. It's okay.

Well, regardless of who it's coming from. It's resource officers. That's fine. But we do get complaints about tobacco sales to people under legal age.

Absolutely.

Do we get a lot of them?

I don't have a quantity.

Is that OK? It's just hard to, for me anyway, to always approve new things without kind of, are we talking 10 complaints a year versus it's happening all over the place and we're concerned about it. I think that's my thing. Because quite frankly, I'm not sure it's going to stop anything.

So a part of the grant funding that we have applied for, as well as the opportunities that this ordinance would allow, is investigations and inspections. We would also conduct some decoy operations, thank you. And so we would put forth effort to try to minimize the impact through those law enforcement activities.

So Chief, do you get a lot of calls or requests regarding this issue?

It occurs daily, but I don't believe we get calls daily. It is an issue, and it would be nice to have an ordinance or some avenue to be able to hold people accountable for what's happening within our city. So it's a good thing.

I'm asking some of these questions because it's some of the things that people in talking about this with me have asked, and I don't know the answer to it. So I think it's good for those people who maybe think this is an unnecessary piece of legislation or ordinance to get answers to the questions they have that I couldn't necessarily answer. So that's kind of why I'm really asking.

So thank you. Thanks for indulging it. You're welcome.

And it's a collaborative effort. So Beth has done a great job in working with another agency. So we would be working together for this project.

And I want to say the same thing to you about my questions are kind of built on some of the comments and questions people have asked me about this who are not necessarily excited about it.

On that something I can't elaborate on is a lot of the questions I have gotten about this ordinance and why it's necessary based on state and federal laws that are already in place what a permit program would allow is a If there are notice of violations or an open investigation towards a possible retailer who is distributing to minors with that permit, it allows us to immediately revoke that permit or temporarily suspend it while law enforcement is doing their part of the investigation. And it would then give us an opportunity to stop sales immediately under this platform while state and federal laws are being reviewed and investigated. So it just creates that local mechanism for state and federal laws to be implemented more swiftly.

Thanks for the additional information. Appreciate it. There we go. Okay, we're good? I'm done.

Thank you. Same thing, Chris. Thanks for starting that. My default setting is no new regulations. California's got enough regulations, and if we're going to make a new regulation, it better be very, very, very necessary because we've got enough regulations in California. So I guess, yeah, I guess my questions that I wrote down were, we know that there's 25 right now, so we have track of them somehow. So I guess my question was, how does a person become a tobacco retailer now? Can't we do minor decoy ops, like with alcohol, without this ordinance? And it already says that all these requirements in this are already law. And what happens to somebody who sells to minors now? Have you ever seen Back to School? I only have one question for you in 27 parts. I looked at on page 167 is 25.265, and I don't remember off the top of my head what that was. I'd have to look it up, but can't we do that already? Those are my questions, and I can ask them one at a time. So how does a person become a tobacco retailer now? What happens to someone who sells to minors now? Can't we do, and I understood your answer to the question that we could pull their permit now. That would give us one thing that would change. locally and then can't we do minor decoy ops like with alcohol because we don't have a local alcohol Permit and then with without this ordinance Like twenty seven point two sixty five. Can we do that or whatever? I'd have to look that back up, but okay. Thank you, Beth

I love it, Pat. So to answer your question, currently all a retailer needs is a business license and an occupancy and a commercial space to operate. So any number of retailers are subject to this permit, gas stations, grocery stores, independent smoke shops. As far as operations are concerned, I'll mildly answer it and then I'll defer to the chief on this. But in short, yes, we can perform those operations. The grant funding that we have applied for provide the funds for us to be able to have those specialized operations specific to this.

Beth answered it very well. I agree.

No, thank you, Beth. And thanks for doing all this work. And obviously, I mean, I hope nobody out there, just because I'm asking this question, thinks that I'm in favor of any tobacco products getting in the hands of minors. I am not. But now I lost my train of thought. This happens to me on a lot of Sunday mornings when I'm preaching.

It happens to a lot of us. It might come back to me. Oh, yes, it did come back to me.

So now it's gonna go away again. But no, I better ask it quick. So yes, there it is. So there is no like ABC for tobacco, like somebody to sell alcohol, we get their ABC permit, the police department does, we get a copy of it. And so there's nothing like that for somebody to sell tobacco here, huh? There's just a business license and it's just like selling Pepsi or something like that, huh?

That is correct. So again, the ordinance as written also prescribes some... more local mandates such as Requiring that anybody who looks under the age of 40 would have to be Would have to be Have their identification verified where California only requires that somebody be 21 or older so this would put it in place that well if you look under a certain age it automatically has to be checked it and it again allows more of a local regulation and

Just to clarify, you said age 40. If you look younger than age 40, right? Okay.

So they better ask every lady that comes in there because they're going to be offended if they're not, right?

Wow. You came up with 40.

I just mimicked the alcohol example, which I'm pretty excited when I still get carded.

Any other questions, counsel?

So is that an annual permit update that they'll have to do?

Yeah, so I modeled it very similarly to the cannabis commercial permit. So because that is an annual renewal, I modeled this permit similarly.

And the cost?

The cost, I have ran an analysis, but I did not bring the fees forward to you at this time, and I'm not asking for consideration for the fees pending the grant application and the results of that. So the analysis that I ran for the fees would simply fund administrative time to process the permits annually and allow about 30 minutes a month for any type of inspection or decoy operation to occur.

Thank you. Thank you. And I found 25.265. It says compliance check. So this is what we can already do, right? Compliance checks shall be conducted to enable the city. This is already in law, right? To determine at a minimum whether the tobacco retailer is complying with laws regulating youth access to tobacco. When the department deems appropriate, the compliance check shall determine compliance with other laws applicable to tobacco retailers. Okay.

So, yeah. All right. So this, okay, okay.

So this would give us the ability to immediately, now this would, okay. What would give us the ability to yank their permit? I'm sorry, I know it's in there and I read it, but I don't remember what the topic is. If a confirmed violation or, I'm sorry, go ahead.

I think I understand your question. So if the retailer is identified to be in violation of any local, state, or federal laws, or they're under investigation for such and they're a repeated violator, then we would pull the permit at that point or temporarily suspend it while that investigation is occurring.

OK. Gotcha. I'm just sorry. Some of the stuff I'm just thinking through in my head right now. Off the top of my head, I would have a problem with somebody's permit being pulled maybe before they're found guilty or something like that. Just off the top of my head. All right. Thank you.

Would imagine at the discretion of law enforcement We would identify how egregious the violation is and determine what type of suspension is appropriate while that investigation is occurring I

Beth, again, said it very well. And it allows for grant funding to pay for some of this so it's not totally on the city's books.

But I understand, Pat, what you're saying. Because, you know, if you circle K is still a pack of cigarettes to somebody that's 16, and clearly they have people who are adults who...

it would affect all of that segment of business right period because they couldn't sell to anybody so what I'm getting the biggest part of this is because there's so many state already regulations is that they can legally ask them for their ID which they probably don't do now I would imagine that's part of the ordinance right or is that a state not understanding your question mark I'm sorry as far as I understand the only requirement in place is identification needs to be verified that they're 21 years or older create

kind of, I guess, a subjective analysis that if you, at the interpretation of that cashier, they would say you look under 40, so they would ask by automatically listening.

I understand. I mean, yeah, I understand.

Anything else? Okay, here we go.

No, I'm sorry. I'm just keep dragging this out. And you're doing a great job. This is nothing. That's why we pay you the big bucks, I guess. So what happens now? If a retailer is found in violation now, what would happen now? Based on previous experience, I know you'd do a great job, but I don't know if the chief wants to step in too. What would happen now? How would it look now? How would enforcement work, and what sanctions would go against them? How would it work now?

Depending on the violation, it would go through the court system, and then it would be determined if there was a violation there, so whether it be fine or time.

But in that time frame, they don't lose their license to sell, correct? Or they can continue to sell? Correct. Okay.

Anything else before I open the public hearing? Okay. Thank you, counsel. So I will open the public hearing at 638. Any questions?

I actually run a business. I'm at Subculture, and I actually have to have a tobacco license, and I have to provide my tobacco license any time I want to purchase something. A pack of papers from a vendor, I have to provide them with an updated time stamp, the whole nine, before they'll even ship it. So I do have something from the state. I don't need anything locally. I can't just buy a pack of cigarettes to sell to somebody. I have to have my license to be able to acquire those cigarettes to sell. I'm so sorry. I just had my tonsils taken out two weeks ago. So I typed up just my little concern. If I could just pass it to somebody. You can read it. It's just basically... Yeah, it was just... I love, absolutely support keeping tobacco out of the hands of kids 100%. But I do know that Ortega mentioned... you know, holding the right people accountable. And I can't imagine that if there is that many instances of kids having tobacco that it's literally every shop in town just selling it to them. They have to be getting it another way. It can't be just all on us. It doesn't matter the age. I will always get the ID. If you've ever come in and bought a pack of papers from me, you know I will get your ID no matter how old you are. It's not under 40 or over 21. It's every person. But thank you for listening to me. Thank you for sharing. Hold on.

I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Well, ma'am? Yes. And that's given to you by the state?

That is, yeah, the state of California, as well as an electronic cigarette license, as well as my seller's permit.

This is real short. Can you read it to us? My throat is absolutely killing me. I guess we can read it real quick. Yeah, absolutely. All right. Thank you. Yeah, I'd like to. It's actually, it was wrote by my boss, and that's why he had me come down.

I'll read it. My name is Miranda, and I represent civil culture at Walnut Street. In our nearly 25 years, we have never sold tobacco products to minors and will remain extremely diligent in carding customers to ensure that they are of legal age. We support thoughtful regulations, but not overreach, as we feel our adult customers deserve the freedoms rightfully afforded to them. We believe that vape products should be made available to legal age adults because it is been proven to aid in quitting cigarettes. We'd like to formally request a moratorium on any new tobacco stores in Red Bluff for a period of 10 years for a duration that the council sees fit to ensure no new bad actors enter the area and would allow more focus to existing businesses rather than risking closures and vacancies to businesses that currently strive to prevent underage tobacco use. So my question to you is you believe vape is okay. Is that what I'm saying?

No, I was just more talking about the under 21, over 21. I do believe that adults should be free to choose what they want to do. If they want to buy a pack of cigarettes, they should be able to buy a pack of cigarettes.

But I definitely support youth smoking a vape or anything. Okay, thank you.

Yeah, this was a quote by myself.

very good uh thank you very much anybody else okay so i have a question for you as a shop owner or worker or whatever okay do the cash registers flag like they do the alcohol no but okay some places okay some places when you like like okay let's say you go into right right eight or or whatever, when they scan a bottle of alcohol, it flags it and wants you to put in a date to do. Does your cash registers do that for the tobacco products? OK. And my question is to Chief Ortega, why isn't this tied in with ABC? Because it's not alcohol? I don't understand why it's not. I mean, it's something that's got an age limit on it. It's regulated differently. I'm sorry?

It's regulated differently. Oh, okay. It's separate.

Okay. That was my question to you. You guys got flagged to do that. Okay.

I think I need to address everyone in the audience that the questions go to counsel.

Oh, I'm sorry.

That's okay, just to be sure, because I don't want to be a conflict between people. But I appreciate what you just said. Okay. Yeah, I didn't understand. No, that's no problem. Thank you. Anybody else?

Good evening, council members. I'm currently working with the community center for health program. We're working on multi housing, smoke free multi housing. But my previous job, I'm a retired health educator from Chesapeake County. And tobacco retail license was an issue. It wasn't an issue. The problem was that a lot of the stores will sell to minors. A lot of high schools, a lot of the students smoking and vaping, and it was a big issue. So the community pulled together and they came to the city council and addressed the same thing that Beth is trying to inform you about. They realized that CDTFA is the agency that comes and regulates the tobacco and they only come maybe once a year or maybe not even once a year because there's like four officers that cover the whole state. unless they have a complaint from a local city or a county, they'll come and do inspections. So with this proposal that Beth is doing is you have the local power to decide who gets the license, but also rebook the license from someone who's not being compliant. And then you'll know because of you'll do an investigation. But also, you can also limit like in Chesapeake County, limit the number of retailers who have the license. So if you have 15 or 20 right now, if you limit to 20, there's no more to sell tobacco, they could sell other stuff that doesn't mean they're gonna lose business, but not sell tobacco at all. So that's based on my experience.

Thank you. Anyone else?

We're here with the Tehama County Department of Public Health and we just wanted to say we can offer, since you guys have a lot of questions about the prevalence of tobacco use in the community, we're willing to provide an educational presentation at another meeting if you would like. Just to provide statistics about the local prevalence of tobacco use, kids and adults in the county.

If interested. Anybody want to ask her a quick question while she's here? Yeah, to the ordinance, correct.

Yeah, we can just provide educational, like if you, we can provide an educational presentation if you would just want to like, oh, what's the prevalence of vaping or smoking use in teens in the community. Just wanted to offer that.

Thank you very much. Appreciate that. Anyone else? Seeing no more, I will close the public hearing at 6.46. So, we've conducted public hearing, so do we have a motion to, excuse me, no, we're already past that, I'm sorry. Introduce?

Mayor, I just wanted to mention one thing that Beth didn't cover that may be important for the council and the public members tonight to know. Beth mentioned that there was a grant application that was applied for. We got letters of support from the district attorney's office in addition to Red Bluff Elementary School District and I believe the high school district. So they were supportive of an application. It may have been included in your packet, but I wanted to make sure the public was aware of that as well. Thank you very much, Tom. Appreciate that.

I have one more question. Sorry. Just since it brought it up. Are you planning on limiting the number of permits you issue so that we have a cap on retail, the retail number we currently have?

Under this ordinance, that is not included. That would have to be a separate action.

Okay. All right. So we have a motion on number two on agenda item number eight, introduce and waive the first reading of ordinance number 1096, adding article XXV11128, that's 28, tobacco retailer permit to chapter 25 of the Red Bluff Municipal Code. Anybody make a motion? We'll go once. We'll go twice. OK. Measure dies for lack of a motion.

city attorney do they need to recommend denial of this and approve that motion or suggest if they want to any changes or simply the lack of a motion can suspend the progress on this ordinance if somebody wants to make an alternative motion to amend it or something else as opposed to just approving it outright or to ask staff to bring it back then they can certainly do that at this time but

If it remains silent, there is no action that has happened, and it can just fall off.

Thank you.

I think for me, my main concern in this is that, and thank you for being honest about it, that tobacco sales, if they sold it to one person, then they can't sell it to anybody if they're violating the ordinance or other laws. I have a problem with that. So I would like to see something come back that maybe doesn't have that kind of penalty to it because I think that's too severe. And I know that smoking is, gosh, since I was a kid, which was a long time ago, has always been an issue with underage smoking, always. It's very difficult to deal with.

And some things I just think in my lifetime,

You just can't legislate. It's nice to think that we can sometimes, but sometimes people's personal habits are not really legislatable. Maybe they shouldn't be either. But I would be more open to this if we would eliminate, if you violated just by selling to one person, then you can't sell to anybody until it's resolved. I find that too punitive.

So are you making, can we go back? Sophie, because I've declared that this is a table item, can we go back and she can make an amendment to this motion, to this agenda item?

I don't think I understand your question.

Can we now make an amendment to this item, even though I've said it dies for lack of a motion?

So the approval of the stuff as written is lack of motion. If you want to change something, there has to be another motion with a second and a vote.

Chris, you want to make that motion as you read?

Yeah, I can make that a motion. Okay, please. Specific to what I said. I know. Okay. I'll make a motion to have this come back to council with a revision of... not requiring stores to – I'm not sure how to say this – to not be able to sell to anyone if someone underage bought a pack of cigarettes. However you want to word that in an agenda item, and so I guess I'll make a motion to do that.

To make it less punitive, I would say. I'm just trying to help you there.

My motion is to have this agenda item come back only with the provision of amending it to not penalize a store that they cannot sell any tobacco to anybody over age if they have sold to a minor. I don't know how else to say that.

Okay. Very good.

So that's my motion.

All right. Do we have a second?

Yes.

Second by Kathy Pope. OK. Anita, please take the call.

Council Member Pope? Yeah. Council Member Hurton?

This is just to have this brought back to us? Correct. All right, yes.

Council Member Deiters?

Yes.

Mayor Pro Tem Clement? Yes. Mayor Gonzalez?

Yes. Motion passes unanimously to bring it back on another date.

So you're basically asking to amend.

I do, but I just don't know how to word it in there with all of that. We'll throw it out there and see what happens. Yeah.

The problem is that this needs to be very specific. So when you're amending an ordinance and asking the staff to amend an ordinance, you should be saying, you know, I would like to amend section 25.266 in the specific language that you want to change. broad directive and I think that's a little unfair and it's not fair to our public either to generalize like that if we're only asking to change one specific thing so so for any council member if you're asking to change something please be specific because otherwise I don't know how staff is going to comply with your request so that was not clear to you Beth

The note I have is penalty too harsh to stop sales to all while under investigation.

And I'm not asking for that provision to be rewritten. I'm asking for it to be eliminated.

So that the entire 25.26 steps to be eliminated. Did the rest of the council understand that to be the motion?

Council, do you understand that, that that provision has to be eliminated? Yes, no. Pat?

So totally take out 25.266? That's correct. Not just change it.

Not just change it. Is that correct, Chris? I think I'm going to make sure .

and i think the other part of this is if there's other council members that would like to see other changes we need to know about that so that when we have the next revision that we're not talking about asking for more changes at that time so i personally might the only change that i mean i understand chris's position on it i

Don't want to see it eliminated. I understand she's asking for less harsh, I think was my understanding of it when she said that. I personally, and based off of what we've read here and who supports it and a little bit of the public statement that was made, would like to see a limit on the number of permits we have. If we have current retailers and we have an abundance in excess of and all of these people within resource, I'd like to see a limit on those permit numbers if we're going to bring it back.

yeah and i don't think that we can do that and the reason that i don't think we can do that is because that wasn't part of the public hearing notice this evening we didn't notice people to say that we're going to limit this and so that's not fair to the people that have the permits or that somebody that may not gotcha so what we can do though simply is we could move forward with the whatever the revision needs to be and then under future agenda items, the council could say, hey, we want something to come back to talk just about the specific number of those businesses within the community.

So I turn it over to our attorney.

Go ahead, Pat. Just a couple of clarifications. My reading, and again, I'm not in favor of tobacco getting into the hands of minors. That's not what I'm advocating for here or trying to facilitate. But when I read the letters of support, my understanding of the letters of support, it didn't say anything about an ordinance. The letters of support said that they supported us applying for a grant. I don't see an ordinance mentioned anywhere in the letters of support. I don't know if the letters of support knew about an ordinance. If we remove 25.266, this just becomes words on paper. Why? Regarding limiting retailers, obviously the state chooses to do that with alcohol. The state chooses to have a total limit and they choose to have a limit of where they can be. Too many concentrated and for some reason, There's something California does not do wow And that is apparently they don't limit tobacco retailers as to how many there can I don't know what their reasoning is behind that so or where they are their concentrations are so I don't know what their reasoning is behind that but so Yeah So it sounds like that can't be changed now so bring that up in the future I think it's already against the law. I think we enforce the law.

So, Miss Attorney, I'm lost. Because we've gone one way, we've gone another way, and we need to really be specific because I don't want to be vague in what we're going to declare here. Because we've already taken a vote.

You have. And like I said, that direction is understood one way and intended another way. So we can certainly bring it back and you guys can vote on it then because you've already passed that motion. I'm just saying for future, it is very important to be specific and to articulate exactly what you want to change in these ordinances and not be vague about what you want changed. And that's for everybody. That's not one person. That's everybody. We do this frequently.

Okay, so what we're going to do is the motion's been made and passed. Yep. But now we can, later on, we can address this as a future agenda item, correct?

It's going to come back to you with the modification, and at that time you will have an opportunity to address it at that time.

Okay.

And you can pass it, you can amend it again, you can do whatever you want with it, you can listen to the public, again, speak on that, and you can state your opinions about that particular section and whether you agree or disagree with the modifications that are going to come back to you.

You will have another shot at it.

But if you have additional amendments to this or any other thing, training opportunity. Be more specific.

Okay. Very good. Beth, do we have clarity on that? We bring it back? Tom? Yes. Okay. Very good. Thank you, counsel. All right. Agenda item number nine, Beth Lindauer again.

Are you sure? Do you need a break, Beth? No. I'm great. So tonight, this particular item is ordinance 1090, which would amend the city's general parking restriction in section 13.13 of the municipal code. Currently, vehicles may not remain parked on a public street, alley, public right-of-way for more than 24 consecutive hours staff is proposing to increase that limit to 72 hours this change was directed by council in September of 25 following concerns from residents about the enforceability of the existing 24-hour standard particularly in residential neighborhoods The proposed 72-hour limit also brings Section 13.13 into alignment with Section 13.11, which already provides the city authority to remove vehicles that have been parked in violation for more than 72 hours. Overall, this provides a more practical and consistent standard while continuing to discourage long-term vehicle storage in public right-of-ways. The proposed ordinance is exempt from CEQA under the common sense exemption. And staff recommends that council conduct the public hearing, introduce, and waive the first reading of ordinance 1090. And myself and Quinton are available for any additional questions.

Thank you, Beth. Questions to Beth or Chief Ortega from council?

No.

No.

No, believe it or not. Chris?

other than maybe this is not the time to talk about it and the city attorney can tell me if that's correct. Two years ago when we started talking about this and that kind of went away, a former council member had made the suggestion which I liked that certain areas, for instance the area that I live in in the Victorian area, most people do not have driveways nor do they garages and they park on the street. So if you have multiple cars there, you might have three cars there and maybe they might be parked for longer than even 72 hours. But it's their personal residence that they're parked at, it's their car. And there was a suggestion that maybe we should have some mechanism for people that are in that position to have maybe a city issue sticker that you're not going to be subject to that 72-hour situation because you have no other alternatives.

That's the only thing I was going to comment on. Okay. Thank you. So having no questions from – do you have any more, Pat? You said no earlier, but that's okay.

No.

I was just going to say to Chris, I agree. I mean, I don't like having laws where we set people up to fail, and if somebody can't comply – I don't like that either. I think I'm the one who brought this up back in September of 2002 or whatever it was.

It was a long time ago.

And the only reason was is just making our laws consistent, the 72 hours with the 72 hours. But I do agree we have a bigger issue. And I don't know how at some point I think we probably should solve it because I don't like having laws on the books that some people can't comply with. And then having selective enforcement of when we choose, oh, well, we just don't enforce it. Well, when do we and when do we not? And so I agree with you.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you. So with that, I will open the public hearing at 7.03. Do we have any questions for Beth or Chief Ortega from the public? Please come forward if you do. Having nobody come forward, I will close the public hearing at 7.04. So now before I say item number two, introduce and waive the first reading of ordinance 1090 amending section 13.13 of chapter 13. Article 3 of the municipal code to increase the general parking limit from 24 hours to 72 hours. Do we have a motion?

So moved.

So moved by Patrick. I will second. Second by Cassie Pope. Anita, please take the roll. Council Member Pope.

Question, though, first. Is there any discussion about that? Is there any council discussion about that motion? Any amendments that need to be made to this ordinance?

So as far as if they're talking about a permit type thing, sticker, that can be added later or should that be discussed today?

Prerogative of the council.

Make an amendment now.

My only concern with the sticker thing, and I totally agree, I mean people have multiple cars, is it being abused with motorhomes and maybe people who are family who end up staying longer than that. and they continually get stickers and that vehicle becomes a nuisance.

I just brought that up because that was part of the conversation two and a half years ago. That was my concern. The attorney can literally correct me, but I'm not sure that should be in the ordinance. I think it could be an item that we could discuss later if we're going to pass this or not.

I think that would be most appropriate. I think it's a whole separate issue that needs to be dealt with. Yeah. That was one question.

It was a separate issue, but yeah. So yeah, I agree. This is what needs to be done.

And to be brought up, you can bring that up as an agenda item. Yeah. Okay. So where were we? Were we taking a vote? Is that where we were?

Okay. You finished council discussion on the motion, and now you're ready to vote.

Okay. Anita, please take the roll.

Councilmember Pope. Yes. Councilmember Hurton. Yes. Councilmember Deiter. Yes. Mayor Pro Tem Clement. Yes. Mayor Gonzales.

Yes. Motion passes unanimously. We'll go to item number 10. Again, Beth Lindauer. You need water, Beth.

I've got some.

You've got some. Okay. Yeah, I know.

I'm starting to feel like Miller over here. Gatorade or something? So mayor and council members, this is ordinance 1100, which would amend chapter 15 of the municipal code by adding article 2 to establish a local process for pursuing judicial receivership of chronic nuisance properties. The city does have the authority under the California Health and Safety Code to petition the Superior Court to appoint a receiver when a property remains substandard and traditional enforcement methods have proven ineffective. What we currently lack is a clear local framework establishing the criteria and administrative process for determining when this extreme remedy should be considered. The proposed ordinance fills that gap. It establishes eligibility criteria and requires findings, including that property presents a continuing public nuisance and dangerous condition that other enforcement remedies have been exhausted or proven ineffective, and that receivership is necessary to protect the public health, safety, welfare, and as a last resort effort. There is no immediate fiscal impact and costs associated with receivership may be recovered to the fullest extent permitted by law. Staff recommends that council conduct a public hearing, introduce ordinance 1100, and waive the first reading. And I am available for any additional questions.

Thank you, Beth. Questions from council on agenda item number 10?

Chris? Cassie? Yeah.

No. I don't have any questions, so I will open up for a public hearing at 7.08. Any questions from the public or for Beth on this agenda item number 10? Everybody's tired, I can tell. All right. I will close the agenda item, I mean, public hearing at 7.09, almost there. So we'll call it 7.09. So we go on now to, I forgot to ask. There's no hands raised on anything. Okay, very good. Thank you. So Beth has read item number two, which is introduce and waive the first reading as read by Beth. Any other discussion by council on this item? No.

Anything, Chris? No?

Very good. So do we have a motion on agenda item number 10 as read? Motion by Mark Clement.

I'll second.

Go ahead.

Chris Diders makes a second, so Anita, please take the roll.

Council Member Pope? Yes. Council Member Hurton? Yes. Council Member Diders? Yes. Mayor Pro Tem Clement? Yes. Mayor Gonzalez?

Yes. Motion passes unanimously. Thank you, Council. We'll go to item number 11. This is a discussion item regarding ownership and operational alternatives for municipal water and wastewater utilities. Tom Westbrook.

Thank you, Mayor, council members. As you know, the city of Red Bluff owns and operates both a municipal water utility and a wastewater utility that provide essential public services to residents, businesses, and industries throughout our community. Recent planning efforts, including the water and sewer master plans, which were adopted by the council last year, have identified substantial long-term infrastructure investments that are needed. The city is currently in a 218 process to adjust the water and sewer rates that have been raised since 2012. There are some agencies in California that have explored other governance and ownership methods for the utility systems that they own. These alternatives can range from maintaining full municipal ownership like we currently have But contracting operations are transferring to another public agency or even in some cases selling the utility asset to a regulated investor owned utility The purpose of this report is just informational only as an intended to provide information THE COUNCIL WITH AN HIGH-LEVEL OVERVIEW OF VARIOUS MODELS UTILIZED THROUGHOUT THE STATE. OPTION ONE IS CONTINUED MUNICIPAL OWNERSHIP AND OPERATION. SO CURRENTLY THAT'S WHAT WE HAVE IN PLACE FOR OUR WATER SYSTEM AND OUR COLLECTION SYSTEMS. option two is an operations and maintenance contract so the city of red bluff does own our own wastewater treatment plant i mentioned that we own the sewer collection system which is operated by employees with the city of rub bluff however for a 13 to 14 year period the city has had a contract with jacobs for the operations and maintenance of the wastewater treatment plant So essentially, they have the employees, they do the state reporting, et cetera. The city of Red Bluff doesn't do that. We oversee the contract. Our interaction with the wastewater treatment plant is our sewer collection system, making sure to maintain our lines to get that sewage to the treatment plant to be treated. So we currently do that, and that's option two. Option three that some cities consider as a regional partnership or a joint powers authority, which is also known as a JPA. Several cities in California have conducted those and they do operations for either a water system or wastewater system. This might be a little bit more of a stretch for us. Typically, you see these regional efforts in communities that are a little more urban, where the cities are in relative proximity to each other. Certainly up here in the north state, we're a little bit more remote. Option four is transfer to another public agency. Again, that would be a little bit more of a challenge for the city of Red Bluff just because of kind of our spacing. We're not near any other providers that do operate a wastewater treatment plant or have their own water utility. Another option that some cities can explore is a long-term lease where they would kind of get a proposal from companies to kind of operate the system and get some payment back. Generally those leases can be 25 to 30 or 40 years or more. And really the last option is that some cities consider is actually selling your municipal utility to a privately owned and regulated owned utility. It's not as common, but there are cities that have done that. In that circumstance, the city council would lose control over kind of setting or establishing your rates. That would be transferred to the Public Utilities Commission. Public Utilities Commission of the state of California, they're the ones that regulate the rates through the utility, electrical utilities such as PG&E. But it is something that does happen in the circumstance of selling a water or sewer system that is and does require voter approval of the citizens of Red Bluff. So it's not something that the council could take that action on. As you know, Reblup has made significant investments in planning for its utility infrastructure, evidence of that, adoption of the general plan, updating the housing element, which is state required, but also the commitment and the work that was put into the water master plan and the sewer master plans that were approved last year, and then currently the process with the Prop 218 for the adjustments of water and sewer rates. So the council is kind of making a lot of efforts to improve our community. Should the council desire to explore any of the alternatives that have been discussed, staff would recommend an ad hoc committee be formed to develop some options to bring back for future council consideration. And so this is just really information only at this time. So you can receive the information. You can provide me direction, ask me questions, whatever you would like to do. And I'm available at this time to answer. Also have Robin here, our city engineer, and Scott Miller, our public works director. They may answer questions as well.

Thank you, Tom. Council, questions for Tom?

What was number two of that?

Number two is an operations and maintenance contract. So currently we have that with our wastewater treatment plant. We own the ground, all the buildings, all the facilities. They just operate and maintain that. So they have some special requirements that are required for the state of California. And so they control the employees and we just pay a monthly rate to Jacobs to maintain that. um that facility and to make sure that we're compliant with the state reporting requirements i don't know robin if you had anything you wanted to add to that i've covered it

So the new treatment part that you wanted that we're talking about, that was $6 million going back?

Yeah, so the second clarifier, yes. The second clarifier would be built by the city of Red Bluff through a bid, and it would be part of the property and the wastewater treatment plant that we would own. We would currently retain ownership of that. All they are is the operation and maintenance of the facility. Okay. so they would take that maintenance of that once it was built correct they would take on the maintenance aspect of a second clarifier when it's uh built okay thank you how long have they been doing the maintenance on the town um they've been in place i think 14 years there's been a contract It's been at least 14 years. Well, it was the company. So we've been under contract with different companies at the treatment plant for many years. Jacobs hasn't been there specifically for 14 years, but there have been other companies that have provided the maintenance, operation and maintenance of that facility.

That is correct. We've gone through four different providers via name change and transitions through the time that we've operated it. Staff down there was city staff at one point in time where we didn't have a consultant operating. But because of the state requirements and under the general permit, it's a lot for staff to do independently. So to have a consulting company do that, an operating company, that way they're up to the most current regulations, they're doing all the testing, they're lab certified, all of those items are met through that contract.

You found that to be more feasible than doing it on a

Yeah, we would have to double our sewer staff to make that happen.

And that's a waste of time.

And then it's also treatment and distribution, training, certification, all of that would have to be met with city staff. So it's money going out for us to pay for those items also.

Very good. Thank you. Any other questions?

Would they be able to run our water system too if we chose that option for the water system?

They would be, but our guys manage the collection and testing and sampling at this point in time. We have our distribution certificates, but it is something that they do. If we had a water treatment facility where we were pulling not groundwater but surface water out of like a lake or a reservoir of some sort, then definitely we would be going that option. There's a lot more requirements, but because we're doing groundwater through wells, it's much easier to maintain and operate. Yep.

Good. Anybody else have questions before I open it for public comment?

I don't have questions, but I just wanted to mention I told the city manager this the other day. This is one of the best written agendas I have seen in a very long time in terms of being concise and with all of the options. And it was really exactly what I had in mind when I asked if this could get on the agenda. So thank you very much for that. And I don't have any questions about any of this. I do want to say, I think at some point we need to be realistic about what we're doing here. And I'm glad that the city manager took the time to give us these options to consider. Anything that we would choose to do would be quite a process anyway. But I think that in the past, and I've been in the city long enough to say with some authority, that the city has just kind of in the past sidestepped some issues that they should never have sidestepped. And we kind of are where we are today. We're not the only ones who are in this situation. The city of Willows was in this situation a couple of years ago. The city of Redding is now looking at water sewage treatment plants. It's going on up and down the state through various cities, so I suspect we're not the only ones that have been ignoring this, but unfortunately it gets pretty darn spendy. So I think this is valuable going down the line. I think it will be interesting to see what the 218 situation brings us in terms of response from the public. That's going to be an interesting situation, I'm sure.

But I think we have a lot to think about.

And I'm glad all you guys are here to think about this with me, particularly you, Budget Buddy, because I'm still going to miss you. But thank you, Tom. Thank you for the good work.

I'm going to buy you a sign that says budget buddy. I think my suggestion, my comment on this is that I think we have, who's operating our system now, and there's a saying that is said, it says when you've got a good horse, ride him. And we can continue to ride this company that operates the system and maintains it and we have Less on our hands to worry about and that's what we need to concentrate on other issues that are before us especially the streets and So to me Any other council member wants to go some someplace different that's that you can suggest that to me We've got a good thing going with an option to and I I would say that we continue on

I personally don't want to make a decision about anything tonight. I just wanted information available so that we can take our time and digest it going forward. I personally don't like making rash decisions and this is a complicated issue. So that was kind of my intent of just getting this information.

I don't think it's a rash decision. I think, to me, I don't think it's a rash decision. So I think I'm making a comment on somebody that's doing a good job. All right.

Do you want to open up public comment?

Yes, I'm going to do that now. Thank you, Tom. Appreciate that. So I'll open it up for public comment on this agenda item number 11.

Good evening, honorable council members, honorable mayor, honorable Mayor Potem. I just want to make a statement on this. If we lose control of our water and sewer, from what I did a little bit of research, haven't done a lot, some of the counties and cities that have done this, have opened up to data centers and that's why California is trying to pass SB 58 so that the data centers are no longer allowed to use palatable water. I personally think that we need to keep control in house with us because we lose it we can lose just like we lost our river. Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else? Any other comments? OK, closed public comments. So I believe we have, do we understand where we're going with this, Tom?

Yeah, I think this was just an informational item. We'll just hold tight. At some future point, if the council wants to provide direction to come back and explore some of these options or have additional discussions, we can do that at that point in time.

OK. Thank you, Tom. Thank you, Robin. Appreciate it. All right, we'll go on to committee reports and council comments. Antelope Water Sewer Project, JPA. No meeting. No meeting. Chamber of Commerce, as Tom stated, we have all those, the ribbon cutting and also the markets are coming to a close. Great time out there. A lot of people participating. We have no ad hoc committee scheduled, right, Chris?

That's correct.

Community action. Chris?

Next meeting is September 12th.

Thank you. Executive Committee of Solid Waste Management Agency.

I think it's kind of open to question. They've been trying to figure something out, and it's not been working, so we're still on hold.

OK. LAFCO, we had a meeting, but it was just a little budget item that we had to take care of. Red Bluff Community Center Commission.

The August meeting was canceled. The next quarterly meeting is scheduled for November 19.

Very good. Thank you, Tom. Tehama County Air Pollution District Review, Gonzales and Pope. There's no meeting, right? No. No. Okay. And Tehama County Continuum of Care Executive Council, Chris and Mark.

I haven't heard of the date yet for the next meeting. Have you?

Okay. And then the JPA, all council members?

They requested, I don't know if you guys saw in your emails, they requested a special meeting. They could not get enough of us for a quorum. It has now been set for September 3rd at 3.30 p.m., and they're still needing enough of us to make that happen.

Thank you. Tama County Transportation Commission?

next meeting scheduled for the August 24th but I don't think it's gonna happen there there's gonna be a grand opening slash ribbon-cutting for bus service between Reading and Sacramento and I think in place of that meeting everybody's going to attend that ribbon-cutting that's August 24 thank you additional council comments and other meetings attended

Chris? I mean, Chris, anything?

No, I don't have anything. Mark?

Pat? I just want to say something. Unfortunately, Bill has left, but there's going to be a memorial service held at the High Point Assembly for Joe Cagle. And I just want to say, if you ever met Joe Cagle, he was quite a very unique individual. And to say that he was inspiring doesn't carry it forth, because he inspired mostly everybody that he spoke to. And there should be a lot of Joe Cagles with us. And unfortunately, Joe Cagle has now gone home. But I think there wasn't a person that Joe Cagle wasn't friendly to or communicated well to. And I think it's somebody that we can all look up to. And he's going to be greatly missed by our community. And I want to say we need to honor Joe Cagle's life, because he was a great asset to this community. And he'll be greatly missed by his friends and, I believe, the city of Red Bluff, because he was a great individual. So we will miss Joe Cagle. Any other comments? Future agenda items by council? Consensus?

I just wanted to, you had somebody from the health department offer to do a presentation about tobacco use. So if the council wants to hear that, you just need to let me know by consensus and I can work with them to schedule a future presentation.

I think that's good. I think I would like to hear from her. Anybody else? I would too. Yes, yes.

I'm fine with that. Yes, yes, yes. That'd be fine.

Anything else? Thank you. Okay. There's no closed session tonight, so I will adjourn this meeting at 7.27.