City Council - Regular Meeting

Erin, can you hear us? Yes, I can.

Great. Okay, we have uh we have no reportable action out of close session. We we are pausing our uh special meeting of close session with the intent to go back to close session at the conclusion of our regular meeting. Uh, if anyone wishes to address the city council on any item considered at this meeting before or during the council's consideration of that item, please enter your name in the electronic kiosk located in the lobby. The city council will allocate up to a maximum of 3 minutes per speaker for each agenda item. Staff reports are available online at the city's website at www.c cityofreading.gov and in the public viewbinder located on the podium at the north side of the chambers. We are going to call this meeting to order. We're going to start with the pledge of allegiance and after that will be the invocation by Colin Duffy from the Reading Nazarene Church. If you will all stand.

Jack, will you lead us? Yes, sir. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all.

Thanks for the opportunity to pray for you tonight. Let's pray. Father God, we thank you for your many and abundant blessings tonight. We thank you for life, for health, for the ability to fulfill our callings and for sustenance and for friendship. We thank you for the ability to be involved in useful work and for the honor of bearing appropriate responsibilities. We also thank you for the freedom to embrace you, the freedom to reject you, and we thank you that you love us unconditionally from your boundless and gracious nature. In the scriptures, you've said that citizens ought to obey the governing authorities. And since you've established those very authorities to promote peace and order and justice, therefore, I pray tonight for our city, for the various levels of city officials, and in particular for this assembled council. I ask that you would graciously grant them multiple things tonight. Grant them wisdom to govern amid the conflicting interests and issues of our times. Grant them a sense of the welfare and true needs of our people. Grant them a keen thirst for justice and rightness. Grant them confidence in what is good and fitting. Grant them the ability to work together in harmony even when there is honest disagreement. And grant them personal peace in their lives and joy in their task. I pray for the agenda set before them tonight. give an assurance of what would please you and what would benefit those who live and work in and around our great city of reading in Jesus name. Amen.

Amen. Okay, if we can start with a roll call. Council member Adet here. Dr. Denuka Muns here. Resnner and Mayor Latah

here. All right, we're gonna start the meeting off with a presentation of a city of ready and appreciation clock to Joshua Divine or if I said that right. U but it's for his service on the community services advisory commission from January 1st, 2018 to December 31st, 2025. Josh, if you are here, we'll meet you at the podium. Okay. I have Josh here with us today. He's served eight years. We're presenting him with a clock. When I think about this clock, I think about all the time that he has given serving the city of Reading. time that he's given up away from his family, given up important trips to make meetings. Josh has contributed an awful lot to the city of Ready with his ideas, his contributions, and I've just heard a lot of good feedback. I also think of this clock when I think of this, it's also an alarm clock. I think maybe we should start making it with alarm clock if it doesn't have it because it's a reminder that there's lots of things for you to do in the future. We hope you come back and continue to serve and I don't think your job is really done as long as you live here. We're just hoping that you'll continue to serve and find more things to do for us. And I am so grateful for all your contributions and your service to the city of Reading. Thank you very much, Josh.

Great. And if you'd like to say anything, um, the time is yours. Three minutes. That's it.

I won't even take three minutes. I'll be quick. Uh, just a couple things that, um, I've been here a little over 20 years, and Reading has got some really cool stuff now. When I first moved here, not so cool. Now we've got bike parks and neat buildings and I hope that continues. Um it's a place to be proud of and I want to share something with you guys. We were several years ago dealing with an issue with the convention center and um they have a piano in the convention center that was played by Ray Charles when they first opened the convention center. And uh that's just an example of some of the cool little treasures we have in Reading. And uh you know it's still there. They'd still tune it. Uh I had hoped to get Brian Wilson from the Beach Boys to come out and play it, but nobody had that much magic. Anyways, keep reading wonderful. I really appreciate the opportunity to serve and thank you. [applause] Okay, today uh we also have a presentation uh from public affairs uh specialist. Um we have Mary Bradfield uh here with us tonight. Uh she's going to be here on behalf of the US Small Business Administration regarding services provided to and available also to the county of Shaston, the city of Reading residents regarding the December 2025 uh flood defense. So Mary, if you're here, the floor is yours.

They gave me a box to stand on. I am Maryanne Bradfield. I am with the US Small Business Administration's Office of Disaster Recovery and Resilience. I am actually going to hand the presentation off to my colleague Charles Kite here who is with me and he's going to speak for just a few minutes and then open it up for questions from you.

Uh thank you, Mary. Uh my name is Charles Kite. Uh, as she stated, we're with the Small Business Administration, Office of Recovery and Resilience. Uh, we're here uh to support the community uh due to the storms that took place in late December uh last year, December 16th through the 26th, I believe it is. And um so what we have to offer is uh low interest loans to help you uh recover your losses. Um, for businesses, we can loan up to $2 million substantiated by your losses. For homeowners, renters, and nonprofits, we can loan uh 500,000 for physical damage, 100,000 for personal property. The that's based on your uh credit and repayment capability. The terms can be up to 30 years. Interest rates for businesses would be 4% fixed 4% for nonprofits 3.625 for homeowners the interest rate would be 2.875. Uh there is no prepayment penalty. Um the benefits of the loan is there's 12 month deferment on the payments as well as the interest. We also have uh assistance with mitigation to help upgrade your property so that if you're in a like disaster, you won't sustain a severe damage. We have possible help with refinancing as well as uh relocation. I would um encourage you to get your applications in as soon as possible. The deadline for physical damage is April 6 for economic injury disaster loans. The deadline is uh November 3rd, 2025. Um, and that's pretty much it in a nutshell.

And if you would like to uh see someone in person, we have a uh disaster delock right here in this building. They're open Monday through Friday from 8:00 to 5:00. If you would like to go online and submit your application, you can go to lending.gov and start your application process. And if you uh can't make it into the center, you can give a call to our customer service center. That number would be 1 8006592955. And if you have any questions, we have our expert here, Maryanne. She can assist you with that.

And last but not least, I want to say thank you for for having us here. And also, if there's any other events similar to this that you could uh have us share this information with them, we would greatly appreciate it. First of all, Charles is actually an expert. He used to run those deluxe like we have here in this office. But we are well open to any questions you might have. Um, we are here to help homeowners, renters, nonprofits, businesses of all sizes, and the community as a whole recover. So, how can we help you?

Thank you so much. We're we're so grateful you came. Uh, is there any other questions from council members or anything on there? Thank you.

Okay. Well, thank you for being here. We appreciate you guys. All right. All right, we'll move to our public comment. Uh, pursuant to the Brown Act, the city council cannot take action on public comment items. Uh, the city council will allocate up to a maximum of three minutes per speaker for 30 minutes total at the beginning of the meeting for public comment for non-aggendaized matters within the city's jurisdiction. Uh, the mayor will determine the order of the speakers. If 30 minutes is not adequate to accommodate all of the individuals who have submitted their name through the electronic kiosk, the council will trail this item to the end of the open session agenda. The remaining speakers will address the city council at that time. I see four speakers today. Um we're going to start with Michael Kylie and then I have Rob. Rob, if you can line up over by the hallway so you could be next. Rob Swindon, we have Shasta County Watchdog and then we have Mark Monroe. And if you guys could all just be ready up there. Okay. So, Michael, you're up. So,

it feels so regal. [laughter] First, I'd like to thank you and I'd like to thank Josh, if he's still here, for kind of teeing this up for me about what he's uh what he's proud of with the community. My name is Michael Kylie. I'm the athletic director for Shasta Special Olympics. Um we're extremely proud of the growth of Special Olympics. We've been recently uh rewarded with the commentation for having the largest growth of Special Olympics for Northern California which occupies 31 counties which includes San Francisco, Oakland, Alama. So 27% growth in participation. The other thing we were recognized for was uh fundraising. We led all of California for fundraising for Special Olympics. And that's Little Shassa. That's actually pretty impressive to have uh the community surround our athletes to give them the best opportunity to do what they can. So, some of the things that I'm here to talk about is mostly to invite the council members and not only them, but anybody in the audience to come and see what we've done in Shasta County. We're extremely proud of it. Uh the athletes uh echo our our pride. when we would first go to some of these events, Shassa would just show up. Now, the expectation when we show up, we show up to be on the medal stand. So, not only has the expectation with myself, the leadership with Special Olympics here in Shasta County elevated. It's also transferred our to our athletes. We're extremely proud of the whole process, the growth, and once again, I'm here basically to invite the council to show to to share with the with the pride that we have with our athletes to come and see what we've done, some of the things that you can come to participate to see is we're having our basketball tournament in March 21st and 22nd, which we are

hosting. We'll have up to probably 20 different teams from five different counties. It's uh it's a lot of work to host an event. We do we host basketball, we host uh a bachi tournament and we host uh uh bowling tournament. Not only that, but that we have a dance before that and the athletes love to come to our dance. We have these elaborate themes. So, if you go to one of our events, make sure you go to the dance and see see what these athletes uh come to to see the it's it's a social thing, but when they get between the lines to compete, 30 seconds. It's it's you have to see it to believe it. So, I'm here to invite you, council members, members of the audience, come and see our basketball tournament. March 21st, we have our Polar Plunge, which we go jump into uh a freezing cold lake, which is a lot of fun. I invite all of you to do that. Our law enforcement torch run, which uh Reagan was involved in, which is uh May 27th. So, it's just on and on and on. It's it's it's a labor of love and it goes throughout the whole year. And my heartfelt invitation to all you guys to come and participate.

Thank you, Michael. Thank you for all your contributions to the community. We really appreciate you. Thank you. Tell Steve and Peter thanks too. I'm sorry. Tell Steve Bell thanks. I think you had a conversation with a few of my colleagues. So I did. That stimulated me being here. So thank you for that. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Rob, you're up. [clears throat]

Uh good evening. I'm Rob Swendan. Um, I've attended a number of, I believe, four or five nationwide protests, including the No Kings, the ICE out, the Renee Good, Alex Prey, um, and anti-fascism rallies in front of Reading City Hall and adjacent to our police headquarters on Cypress Avenue in the past year. And at these events, I've witnessed a variety of traffic violations, what I consider to be assaults directed at peaceful protesters. Uh if any police officer had been present during these infractions, the violators would have most certainly been detained and cited for their violations. These infractions include exhibition of speed, excessive noise from engines, and intentional dumping of exhaust fumes. At the last rally, an off-road motorcycle with no muffling made two passes and then continued to assault protesters with deafening revs as he was waiting at the red light. Myself and at least others that I spoke with after the event reported significant hearing loss and pain. Mine actually went on for a few days. Clearly more people were affected. Uh the size of these rallies and reading has varied from 400 to 3,000 people and across the nation. The last protest was was estimated at 7 million plus. While we have received incredible support from passerbys at these rallies, at the same time we have seen many middle fingers and heard vocal obscinities to be expected for sure in a community that harbors a significant number of MAGA supporters. They clearly have their first amendment rights. With the division in this country at the levels we have never witnessed in my lifetime, it's only a matter of time before more confrontations and potential physical harm becomes even more prevalent at these events. Uh after speaking with police chief Brian Barnes on January 28th, he informed me that they didn't have the resources to have one officer parked conspicuously at these events uh to

deter these violations from happening, which by the way, there were officers at um the Turning Point event and um once one did park in the middle of the road there, the uh the assault stopped that night. Um, I'm requesting that the city council provide one officer one officer's presence for a two-hour period at these events that probably happen once every couple months, if that. The next national protest is currently planned for March 28th, and it is anticipated to be the large largest protest in our nation's history. Um,

you've still got 30 seconds, so Oh, good. Okay. So, to me, it seems to be a little bit irresponsible for our police not to be given the minimal budget to support uh to monitor these highly visible, potentially volatile events. As citizens of the United States, I believe we still have the rights under the First Amendment to peacefully protest without being assaulted. Thank you for your time and consideration in this matter. Invite you to join us in standing up for democracy at the next protest against fascism 28th.

All right. Thank you, Rob. All right. We have Shasta County Watchdog. So, [clears throat]

good evening. I am here because I actually am a little upset regarding uh when I requested for public records act. I expect for you guys to comply with the law. So if you don't comply with the law and I actually send sent a letter to um I'm not sure who received it demanding for my public records requests and if you don't comply I actually said I will retain and you will pay for my attorney's fees. So, I'm telling you right now from what every time I ask for public records, I expect for you guys to comply with the law. And um and another thing I just want to inform you that January 23rd, 2026 of this year, I actually filed complaint for one of the cities, and I'm going to say where to audit and they accepted it. They actually provided me a a number saying if I need to add any more addition information for that agency to be audit that I could submit more addition information. So, I'm letting you know that I'm making wave out there and there's agencies are actually responding to me, including uh another attorney, the attorney general. They accepted another application. They accepted another for another thing that I submitted to them. And I'm letting you know that I all these years that I have been um accused of things of you know about what I was accused of and I'm letting you know that I'm watching all the people who come in here who are public officials who actually know from right and wrong. Besides that, they know the law and they continue to break the law. And I'm saddly to say that some of the public officials who actually know that right under their noses that the

people are breaking the law which is a conflict of interest prohibit laws which is criminal for public officials to do that. And I just noticed also out there in your wall it says Mark Sibila. Mark Sabilla was a lawyer and still was act practicing law as when he was a council member and also a board of supervisor at one time. So his father actually committed a conflict of interest and I actually hold I actually went after him and filed a lawsuit. He settled out of court with with me and he's dead now. But he actually did wrong to other people, other citizens and that was way back a long time ago. But I'm telling you right now, I am so sick of the corruption and you guys all just continue to just pat each other in the back and cover each other's back and and including Mr. Duka. You are actually pro promoting and soliciting and and steering for you to be able to get a medical um school and you are a board member of multiple agencies which is a conflict of interest. And I'm telling you right now, you have a medical license and I can go after that.

Thank you. Thank you very much. All right, Mark, you're up. Mark, it was well played. You get three minutes. The group early only got two because it was during close session, but well played. You get three. So,

good good evening everyone. I'm Mark Monroe with Shasta Super Moto representing Shastamoto and Shasta Car Club. Um, was just uh trying to find out where we're at. I haven't heard anything um one direction or the other, but would like to get out there to the track and do some inspection and maybe have a race season this year. I've got email after email and texts and calls and everything about everybody wanting a season and I just want to know if we can kind of get going that direction. Um I don't have any complaints. You guys have been great. Thank you so much. Uh just reach out to me and let me know. Thank you.

Thank you, Mark. We're working hard. We're going to hopefully get there. Uh, Robert, Robert, are you out there? There you are.

Thank you. Good evening.

Wow. Okay. [laughter] Um, I just want to say thanks to uh RPD for showing up at uh uh these um what are labeled as peaceful protests. Um but a and had had an officer not been there at the school, worse would have happened. My problem is, yeah, we have a right to peacefully assemble and to redress our grievances with with our magistrates. If you don't like where you're living, you don't have to stay here. you know, uh you can be um but but to to but to have this feeling of entitlement um you're not going to win sympathy, especially here in Shasta County. Um we're law and order conservatives. We realize that everybody has different views and that's fine. But um to say, you know, profanities about our law enforcement and to um put them in a light that's dishonorable when when there's when they've done nothing dishonorable, just enforcing the laws um is just very aggravating. And and no, I I don't want to have um anyone budgeted for for that. We need to be stopping criminals, catching criminals and um not entitled, you know, elderly liberals who feel that that that that we owe them something. We don't owe them anything. Be respectful, be honorable, and don't involve the kids in this. Kids need to be in school. Thank you.

Thank you very much. All right. Now, our consent calendar. Uh, the consent calendar contains items considered routine and/or which have been individually scrutinized by city council members and are anticipated to require no further deliberation. If a member of the public wishes to address an item on the consent calendar, please enter your name in the electronic kiosk located in the lobby before the consent calendar is considered. It shall be the prerogative of any council member before the consent calendar is acted upon to one comment on an item, two respond to any public comment on an item, three request the record reflect an abstation or nay vote on an item. Or four, remove an item and place it on the regular portion of the agenda item for the delivery of a staff report andor extended discussion or deliberation. Um, I don't see any speakers on consent item. Is that correct? Okay. All right. Uh, council member Idat.

Yes. So, I just want for the public, the minutes were changed. Um, there was just a mix up on a vote. And then on item 4.4A, the cost um the code enforcement took the cost instead of the general fund. I just want to say thank you for doing that. Um, and then I want to add a comment to 4.9A. I'm I'm I'm fine with the grant. it's already been written so we can't change that. But I do want to just say that I think that the execution of where that budget those budget items go and its allocation should be determined by city manager um once those funds come through. So I just want to make that caveat. Are you guys amendable to that?

Okay. Thank you for your comments on that. Um and are you amendable to that? If I make a motion to pass it as it is, but but make it that that budget item would be go through. Does it manager Brian? Is that capable? I mean, where does that have specific funds go for specific things?

Sorry, I should say Chief Barer. Thank you. [snorts] Yeah, that was it. That is correct. Uh, so we have submitted for the office of traffic safety grant and usually in June they will let us know what we were selected for. So it won't be probably in in past history it won't be everything that we put in for and then at that time um it is locked in. uh we we can work with our grant coordinator on ask asking for changes but uh normally we we go with what we put in for and what we receive.

So again, so I know that there's categories you guys applied for this without coming to council first. So you've already applied for this without coming to council. So this is retroactive. And all I'm saying is that for whatever amount that you get, there are categories that you um ask for. But but how much goes into each of those categories? I think should be conferred with the city manager is is my point. Yes, absolutely. We can do that. Yeah. Okay. Thanks, Council Member. Uh let's see. Resner, you are you're still with us. Do you have any comments or um

Well, while we're waiting, I can entertain a motion to p pass our consent calendar if anybody would. Motion to approve. Okay. Could there be a second on that? Well, I made the motion with that change. So, as long as you guys are good. Second. I'll second. Doc, Mr. Second the whole thing, [laughter] right? Too easy. All right. We do have a first and a second. Who second to that? So, make sure we have that. Okay. We have to do a roll call vote. Uh, as councelor Resner is out, so we are ready for Council Member Adet. Yes. Denuka, yes. Muns, yes. Resnner, she's sleeping. And Mayor Lat.

Yes. All right. We're going to move on to 5.1. We're going to consider the mayor's reappoint to the Shasta County Commission on Aging. Yes. And I'll just make this very brief. I'm asking to accept the mayor's recommendation to reappoint Michael Rokloff as the city of Reading representative the Shasta County Commission on Aging to serve a two-year term effective January 5th, 2026 through January 3rd, 2028 pursuant to the Shasta County COA. Motion to approve. Okay. And I'll second. We're going to have a second. So again, we're going to do a roll call vote. We'll call Jack in the bathroom. So I think we said yes. I heard Oh, he did say yes. Okay.

All right. So we're ready for that. Okay. So, Muns has already affirmatively said yes. Uh, Council Member Adet, yes. Duka, yes. Resner. This is for um item 5.1, the reappoint to the Commission on Aging. Are can you hear me, Erin? I'm working. I can hear you. That's a yes. And thank you, Erin. I thought I was going to lose your support on that one. So, but I'm glad you can chime in and vote on that. Um, and we're

an age I was going to make an age joke that you're older than you, but I didn't feel that it was appropriate. So, I just said yes. Okay. Excellent. All right. Uh, we are moving on to our regular calendars, our reports, communications, and departments, boards, commissions, and committees. We have 9.1A. We're going to consider memorandum of understanding with the reading tourism marketing group. We saw this at a prior council meeting and we're bringing this back. And um [snorts] Jason, [clears throat] it's all you.

Good evening, mayor, members of the council. My name is Jason Disco, management assistant to the city manager, and I am returning tonight regarding theou with choose reading that outlines our roles and responsibilities for the Iron Man event coming in August. This this was brought to council on January 20th. The message from that meeting was to find alternate savings and funds for the cost of the services and come back tonight. Following the January 20th meeting, I met with both public works and community services regarding the cost of the road and trail maintenance. Public works would like to hold off on committing to any costs at the moment. There is a chance that the bike course may change. Um, this will allow them to re-evaluate and if necessary, we would come back to council to ask for more funds, but public works highly anticipates being able to cover the costs in their current budget. So, we wouldn't need to come back to council. With community services, they can also cover the costs, but they will not be doing any plan or they will not be doing planned uh maintenance or um park improvements. And if you have any questions on that, Director Minnie can provide more details. with public works and community services covering the costs. Um the the costs have been reduced to 53,000 a year for each year of the race and that will be begin next fiscal year since the race is in August. Um the cost will allow additional police and fire staff, shuttle services, and also some miscellaneous costs such as um um a possible econom economic impact study and sending notifications to impacted city residents. We expect there to be a budget increase that we did not plan for. Um we expect increases to both transient occupancy tax and our sales tax. staff recommends

that council allow the mayor to signu and also approve the budget resolution. And I'm available for any questions. Thank you, Jason. Are there any comments or from council? We have councelorette. Do we have any public comment? Uh I did not see any public comment. No. [snorts]

Um thanks for going over this and thank you for the departments for looking to see if you can put this in your budget. Um since our since again we're at a deficit, I think spending deficit money um is problematic. So my possible solution um would be to ask or to take from our contract with visit reading in the next three years to negotiate them paying this 53,000 out of their contracted to because that's toot funds that actually pays for that sort of within this realm. I mean we have our other tourism group that's coming in hundreds of thousands. So, it would make more sense to me that with that bucket of money that is for that that we would have it come out of that contract, which we would then have to negotiate with them. But, um, that would be where since we don't have the funding, I would think that's where we would try to pull from.

Aren't they already councelor M? Aren't they already paying a whole slew of stuff for the advertising and everything? Yeah. And this would be part of that.

Okay. So, I I don't support that without deep level talks with them. I I think that's um I don't know what the right word is for it, but it it does seem a little disrespectful just without having that ongoing conversation to first of all see if they're willing. It does seem like we're we're going after their money. I think we know that we will see a return. We've read the staff report. There's going to be um sales from merchandise. We know there's going to be an uptick to toot tax and sales tax. We're talking about $53,000 that can come off the general fund. Um we have ongoing conversations about some of the money that we uh spend that we have from Still Water that we recently spent. We also have the rancheria money. Um for me, this is an easy one just because I do expect to see a return on that investment. I think it's a good for the community. I think this is what the community wants us to do. Um, and so I I I would not go with your option there, but I would just um like to just pass this out of the general fund.

I'm councelor Muns. Um, one of the things that uh our new city manager and I talked about today was is this thing going to be televised, Jason? So, Iron Man televises it on their own network like um I don't think it's on the local channels, but they they televise it through probably their website, I'm guessing.

But one of the things that uh city manager Tarbo suggested today that the that the benefits of this being filmed and all the benefit would come from that would be well worth the $53,000. And I I agree with that. It was, you know, it's great advertising for our city, great advertising for the things that we're doing and going on and and uh so I'll make a motion to uh recommend to Okay, I'll pass. I will second that motion, council. Um I'll Where are you going to do it from? So, where is it coming from? Because you're at a deficit in your general fund. So, where exactly we can do it from the rancher or the sales take, you know?

Well, again, your rancher has to fill your $4 million deficit. It's only 3.2. So, where is it coming from? I understand. Either one of those is fine with me. Wait, I just [laughter] Rancheria money. Rancheria has to cover a $4 million deficit, which is 3.2. So, you're still at a deficit. So, where is it actually coming from? Rancheria, that doesn't cover it. Okay. I don't think we've ever formally said that there's a deficit of that large. So, I I think that's something that we're going to $2 million starting cash and then 2 million of um tax assumptions. So, I we do have a motion. We have a second. This is next quarter. So we'll have 7 million plus in end of quarter 4. We'll be fine which is below your 10% council policy 412.

We understand. Okay. Council Resner, I don't uh see you up there. I I should just check with you to see if you have any feedback or any thoughts. So I actually council motion. I actually like the idea of taking it and it seems like a logical place. So, I'd love to see whether or not there's enough votes for that. And um I guess you have a secondary motion also. That one first.

Okay. Um our attorney would like to speak. So,

yeah. Uh just to to note, the action in front of you today would be to be approving the agreement. Um and then there's a budget resolution that goes along with it that I believe would be not taking it from identified source. So, effectively by default reserves. um if if you want to take some other action uh we may need to come back particularly if it's going to involve a renegotiation of a contract. Um so what we would be doing in that case would be delaying the item and then coming forward at a future time uh with presumably both an adoption of the Iron Man agreement um and uh a budget resolution um and potential amendment to the um uh the the reading contract to be able to accomplish all those items together. So I mean that was my question. You just answered that we will have to agendaize that if you're going to renegotiate a previously contract. You can't just unilaterally take it. We will have to agendaize it number one for the public comments and then take it back with them that we want to claw back or negotiate. Right. So that is not on agenda today.

Right. So in effect are you saying that motion cannot be on the agenda today? Well, I'm I'm saying from it running. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm saying that if you want to go that route, what you'd really need to do would be to continue it and then come back. Okay. So, the question in front of us is right now is we need to approve the expenditure. The source can come back later with a separate agenda. The what I'm worried about is if we delay this is this includes let's let him finish his question. My my worry is okay you can remove the source if you want. My worry is if we delay this so much

that um then it will have an ill effect on our so let me just in on the whole I'm worried about how it is seen as our commitment for not just for this event even for the future event my suggestion would be approve this expense remove the source of it and source we can discuss on a separate agenda um is that possible yes just be aware that if you don't end up agreeing on a source at a separate agenda it by default But will it still be out of reserves?

So I don't want to do that. And as far as timing, that's a really good point. So th these costs are for the day of the event. So it's the police, the fire, the shuttle service, the miscellaneous are things that not you have to do in preparation, but at the event. So we wouldn't incur that cost until August. So I do think we'd have enough time if we were going to renegotiate, we'd actually have enough time to do that. I'm not trying to say I don't commit to it. I I do think we should be funding this. I I all of the points are exact. I agree with all of them. It's just that the source of funding I think we need to be smart about where we're sourcing funding w with money we don't have. So we do have a pot of money a toot for marketing for this exact type of thing um through uh that we then contract with um visit reading and I think that we we've used we use that money to pay for other things this year.

Absolutely. I'm absolutely supportive of you know as part of our second budget meeting we will have we'll be looking at all the expenses and visit reading or whatever it is should be part of it and I'm absolutely fine with that only thing I'm saying is u these things are not so easy to come by and I want to send a message to anybody out there that city of reading is will absolutely support something like this in the future if we kick the can down the road by fixed few weeks few months it just looks bad that's what I'm worried about for a public event.

I I understand that. I think this is more so a administrative issue of are we going to spend money we don't have or are we going to creatively find the place where we can appropriately put funding towards it. So I think we should do it. I think it's obviously worthwhile. Unfortunately, because we've spent so much, we don't have money for the things that we want now, which is why fiscal responsibility is so important. And so because we didn't do the hard work before, we're going to have to start doing hard work now. And this is one of those things. And because we do have time, I think we should explore all of our other options, especially our partnership with Visit Reading because they are partners. They want this to happen. And I think that that's a good use of of funding for that. I think it's a win-win for everybody.

I'm I'm fine with the having that conversation with them. Yeah, that's what I'm trying to find because we have two motions. So two motions, but the first motion cannot stand. Sorry. Second motion cannot stand because that's not on the agenda. Yes, my motion can stand. No, because that's Yes, it is. The negotiation is not agendaized publicly. I I think we should clarify what the second motion is.

My second motion is to go after different funding for this. So, this is saying that your source of funding is going to be the general fund. I do not want to pay for this with general fund dollars. So, I instead I would say take it back and get a different negotiate a different source of funding for this. I mean, we've already committed that we're going to fund our police, our fire, our services. It's just a matter of where it's going to come from. Well, just to be clear, are we talking about approving theou today or are we talking about not approving it and bringing it back with another item um addressing the the funding and the renegotiation?

I I want to approve theou. If you want a separate agenda for a resolution of budget, that's fine with me later. You can you can approve theou. I um I may look to finance as to whether or not we would need the resolution adopted uh concurrent with the adoption of theou. You can always move the money around later with a separate agenda item. Uh but you do need to you do need to either kick the can down the road on theou or uh make the decision on that now.

So the question is can you do this separate like just today and resol budget resolution later? So, so theou itself doesn't have any fiscal impact directly. It's our agreement that um and Jason would have to kind of correct me on this, but I believe it's our agreement to commit to a certain amount of funding to support the event. Um council can identify a number of different scenarios in terms of how to fund that obligation, if you will. Um but I you know to amend that would pro it would probably have to come back based on the direction of council. Um what I'm hearing from council is potentially renegoti renegotiation of a contract as a way to lower the cost there um in order to fund our obligation in terms of this agreement. Um, and there's a few other things that have been mentioned, but I think if we were going to change the resolution as stated, it would probably need to come back unless it was a very clear and straightforward. But frankly, nothing I've heard has led me to believe there's a clear answer here.

We could approve it as we could approve it as stated, but then come back with a change at a later date. You you absolutely could do that. I mean, that that's council's prerogative if they wanted us to change. Frankly, our entire budget is going to change as part of the workshop process or however we decide to do that. Um, so there will be identified savings probably brought forth to council and different expenditure areas. Um, so this would just be another expense that is added in for the purposes of analyzing any potential shortfall or um,

so is it cuts? Is it pos sorry is it possible to say yes to one which is approve that we are going to take on that obligation because we should I I have no problem with that but two the source of funds we should have a an alter we should be looking for a different alternative to source of funds can that come back later the second item for us to be able to identify the source of funds at a future date

absolutely we could bring it back I think the the point that the city attorney is making is is that contingent or is council intending to adopt the resolution to provide the statement that we do plan to spend that money with the understanding and maybe part of the motion is for staff to bring back potential options or scenarios around how to fund this. Is that is that kind of how you're outlining that? Yes, because I don't want to deficit spend when we're I'd like to support theou and ask ask the staff to look at couple of more options later. But honestly, we're spending the money. You're just not deciding where we're going to pull. Yeah, we will pull it later.

Yeah. And I I I think the point's been made. We're going to have some budget workshops that are going to come up as we look at certain cuts to balance things and that that's going to be part of the project. I'm sure staff is going to say, "Okay, we we have another $53,000 and uh we might be able to find the funding source from that just from attrition savings or uh what are things we're not already spent in our budget." So, that is something I fully expect that we're going to deal with. Yes, it does put a little more stress on staff to say here's another $53,000 of something to tackle, but um this is just nonsense to not support the Iron Man and obviously do uh item one and support the uh theou on that. But this makes a great bold statement to the community and to Iron Man that we want you here and we think this is going to be great and it's not just great for the community, but we know we're going to get a return on revenue. So, um, so,

so my motion is that we pass one, but that we go for an alternative source of funds to look at if we can renegotiate to have the TOT money that's going towards visit writing that 53,000 be covered through them through that fallback of that contract. I'm I'm sorry. um before identifying the specific alternative and the direction to renegotiate, I think I would actually recommend that that be its own agenda item so that the the um other party has an opportunity uh to have the notice before the direction is given to renegotiate. Right. But the point is is that staff's going to go back to look at that. So you're not going to bring that item. No. So it would be bringing back an item for the council to vote on the direction to renegotiate. It wouldn't be staff immediately renegotiating. Correct.

So basically they'll come up with different options. More than one option. So, as long as that's one of the options. Yeah. Can Can I um get some clarity here between the two motions that council's made and I talked to Jason really quickly just to confirm. According to Jason, theou can be approved without the resolution this evening. Okay. So, I guess my point of clarification for council is do do you want to approve the resolution or not approve the resolution? has us have us bring back a resolution with andor an item with potential funding sources.

So we want to approve theou for sure. Absolutely. I think that I hear that kind of everyone for that. The funding where it comes from we want you to come back with the options other options. Can I ask a point of I'm I'm I'm in agreement. I will be fine with that. But are the question that you asked are you asking us that question because that's a better way to do that? It's just a cleaner way to No, I I'm not suggesting there's a cleaner way. I just I I just think it's important for the minutes importantly whether we are approving the resolution and staff is going to bring back another resolution in the future that cleans it up, if you will, or if we are not approving the resolution and it's all coming back

and it's all coming back as part of a separate agenda item. That was the point of clarification I was asking. I have a question. Do we have a timeline of when this will come back? Because if you wait on it, then it defaults is what I'm assuming. So if you approve the resolution, yes, it would absolutely default to what the resolution says until we brought something back that changed the nature of that. Well, there's no funding in it, but by default, are you saying you'll just pay it out of the reserves?

If if you don't approve the resolution, then we would have no way to pay it. As you pointed out, Council Member Adet, it's not until next fiscal year. So we do have some time to of course appropriate the funding so that we can actually pay for the expenditure. So the absence of the resolution does make it more timely if you will for us to bring it back. Um or the absence of approve the approval of the resolution would make it more timely. Sorry. Yeah. Okay. So I've heard a cleanup motion that I think there's navated we can vote on that which means we're going to approve theou but we're al and the second part is we're just asking staff to come back with options of the funding. Is that what I'm hearing? Yes.

Okay. So that seems like a clean way that we can all agree and it's fun to agree a lot of times. So uh so you have the motion clear now. We we we understand that we are ready to vote. We have to do a roll call vote on that. So I think we're ready. Whose whose motion is it? Well that was your motion. Well, I'm just making sure. I'm just making sure. We'll give you all the credit for that. No, I'm just I'll second and I'll second it. Well, because Aaron seconded it. That's why I'm asking. Okay. We're making sure that it's more than just, you know, Ed Ed's group. There's several options coming up. There's different options. So, I do I do want to point out I I think Council Member Adat's motion was the visit reading contract, which is Yeah. No, he he all options. Visit. Yeah, but just come back with said I can't be specific.

Let me make it clean up. Let me make it clean up. We did. We did clean that up because we just they're gonna come back with options. And that one is one of the options. Is that clear? Yep. Is that clear, Christian? Yeah. Okay. Uh so let's see if we can vote and move on. So uh are we ready for roll call? Did we get that right for the minutes? Are we good?

Okay. So I have for the motion. [clears throat] Tanessa made the motion. Erin is seconding um to number one approve theou as stated in the recommendation and number two to bring the budget resolution back for consideration at a future meeting um with different source of fund options to include one of the options to include yeah the visit ready with one of the options to I don't want to say that not that okay well I do want to say that I think the whole purpose of this I think staff can understand that that could be part of the one of the options they researched, but I'm with councelor Duk. I just did not want to add that verbiage. I can he said I can specify that that we're looking into that.

Well, yeah, but three of us don't want that verbiage. So, yeah, that that's a matter for the council to decide, but that would create a brown problem. Okay, that's my motion. That's your motion. That's fine. And Aaron has a second on this. So, I have Tanessa made the motion, Aaron second. number one approve the moou and number two a budget reszo to come back with uh with other sources of funding um one of the s one of the options to include a discussion with uh visit ready. Yep. Is that good? You're good with that? Fantastic. Give lots of options. Yeah, you have lots of option.

Lots of options. Are you a fine that we include visit reading? Absolutely. Okay. All right. Okay. So, we'll take a vote on this. And this is so council member Adet. Yes. Vice Mayor Dr. Danuka. Nay. Uh, Council Member Muns. Nope. Council member Resner? Yeah. And Mayor Latah? No. All right. Can we get a new motion? Yeah.

I'll make a motion. Okay. My motion is to approve the MOU as written by the staff. And uh a second part of the motion is to bring back the funding resolution with multiple different options for the staff to research and bring it back for appropriation in the future. Okay. Can we get a second? Are you excluding? I just This is my language what it is. It's just u Well, I need to know for voting purposes. Are you excluding it? I'm not saying anything more or less that Well, you have to give direction to staff. Sorry. They can bring back options whatever they want. So I've asked the staff to bring all possible options and multiple options to bring back to the We have a first. We have a second and let's take a roll call vote.

Who was the second? I'm sorry. The second was council. I I think that I want some clarity on that as as well because I'm unsure how that motion is different.

Yeah. So un multiple options is different unless your desire is to exclude visiting in which case it does matter to me in my vote. No, I'm not excluding aid. Yeah, just to clarify, I'm not excluding any option including visit reading. It's just that I do not want to uh point finger at a single source of funding or single group because uh that I do find uh that's a conversation that needs to take place before we agendaize that item. So that's why I'm not incl I'm not including excluding that's why I'm saying all options whatever they can find bring it on. That's what I'm saying. But we have to give direction as to where we want them to land.

Let them let them find. No they don't work independent of us. We direct them. This is what leadership looks like. You have to direct counselor. We are going to we are going to take a roll call vote.

So this new motion is made by Dr. Danuka seconded by council member Muns and that is to number one approve the memorandum of understanding as stated and number two bring the budget resolution back with as many sources of options or sources of fund options as possible at a future council meeting for consideration. Yes. Okay. So we have council me council member Audet. Nope. Vice Mayor Denuka. Yes. Mayor Muns. Mun. I'm sorry. [laughter] Council member Muns. Sorry, I'm looking at Mike again. Yes.

Uh, Council Member Resnner. No. And Mayor Lata. Yes. All right, that passes. Uh, we are we will anxiously wait for staff to come back with lots of more deficit spending. All right, so we'll move on to 9.5A. Electric utility. Uh, we're going to consider writing electric utilities quarterly financial report and industry activities update. Nick, I've been anxiously waiting for this so all week. Well, I hope I don't disappoint.

All right, I think we have a slide deck we'll get up on the screen. There we go. Okay. Thank you, uh, mayor, members of the council. My name is Nick Settle. I'm the director for the Reading Lodge Utility tonight. Um, for 95A, I'll be going over our quarterly financial report update. This would be for the end of the second quarter for FY26. So, this would capture the period of July 1, 2025 through December 31, 2025. We'll also talk uh towards the end about an industry activities update um so we can stay a little bit more breast of what's been going on in real time in the industry. I think I got to point this that way. There we go. Um just quickly going over some financial highlights. Um re retail sales were slightly above budget. This is mostly just due to seasonal weather conditions. It was just a little warmer than our load forecast indicated. But we also have a way to normalize back to the load forecast using uh cooling degree days so we can understand what drove the increase. Wholesale sales were on target. Um power supply costs are within our normal budgetary expectations. Although notably our revenues net of power supply costs were better than planned. So what that translating that into um something that that even I would understand is it we had to serve additional load because it was warmer. we had to buy more power or generate more at the power plant and our trading team was able to provide more energy for less than the original budget was before we knew we were serving more load. So I'm going to give them uh some kudos

with that system ops uh on and m savings was favorable um for two reasons. one is due to some timing of expenses, mostly a payroll um that was expensed in January that um was applicable back to December, but also savings on personnel and just savings on general on&m activities, which is what we're supposed to be doing here in good news. Lastly, cash reserves are within the council policy 1414 at 96 days. I will speak a little bit more on this uh in some detail here. So, taking a quick look at net operating revenue exceeded the budget by 48% for the first half of the fiscal year. This is good news. This is what you want to do. You do not want it to go the other way around. Um, just dropping down to the bottom line, year-to- date actual net operating revenue is 18.3 million after factoring in 69.6 million in operating expenses. The budget was 12.3 million. And there's two main reasons. One, as we mentioned, operating revenues were up by 1.2 million due to seasonable favorable seasonal weather. and two operating expenses were down 4.8 million. I would attribute about half of that 4.8 million to timing issues. So, we should see that pulled together. Those expenses will show up as we move into the second half of the fiscal year. Um, just kind of keep in mind as we as we report halfway through a fiscal year, things are a moving target, right? Expenses are coming in, revenues are coming in, we're taking a snapshot of time. Um, but the other half of the operating expenses are savings from personnel, um, contract savings and and other items. Just as a quick look, we won't spend a lot of time here. This is what the load forecast was anticipating for retail sales on the dotted line. And you can see where it came in actual month over month it trended higher. You know, I'd like to say it was because of more load growth, more electric vehicles being plugged in, people using more energy, but the reality is using our load forecast model, we can pull it back and normalize it to weather. But we'll, you know, it's still good

news because, you know, you could have hotter weather and people use less power and your retail sales drop. So things are trending in the right direction there. From a cost uh perspective, power costs came in 1.8% below budget. As I mentioned, I want to give kudos to the team for pulling this together. They served more load and spent less money than budget. So that that's good. That builds that margin. And then system and m was 30.8 million on budget. Um and we actually came in 26.9 million again to some of those savings that I mentioned. Capital outlay right on target. Spent about 47.8% of the budget which we're halfway through the fiscal year. So it's about half half of the budget. The pace is consistent from a debt service perspective. We've made the payments. We're on plan and we're meeting all the bond covenant requirements. This is our uh we call it our liquidity ometer. So, this is the uh the dashboard that talks about how much days of cash you have on hand. The council policy minimum is 75. The target's 150 days of cash. We landed at 96. However, notably, we are requesting a $3 million bond reimbursement for Q2 capital outlay. So, if council recalls, we issued $70 million in bond debt in the spring of 25. you will actually lay the cash out to do the work and then after the work's completed, you will request to be reimbursed from those bond revenues back into your unrestricted reserves. So that should increase days of cash by about 7 days. Uh a a new item that popped up is we also are terminating a contract early for outside line services, contract line work that will release funds that are encumbered uh of about nine days of cash on hand. So, as of I would say right now, we'd probably be right around 112 days as we're chasing the moving target. Industry landscape diving in here. Um, I spent some time at a few strategic issues conferences and other workshops trying to figure out where is Sacramento headed? What's the biggest concern in

the legislature and for electric utilities anyway? And it's wildfire costs and how does that impact the customers and the rateayers? The the strain is wildfires are catastrophic. They're happening more and more. They're unpredictable. Utilities are scrambling to mitigate or adapt and rem and remove the risk. But it's exp equals expensive expens expensive equals more and more rate increases. And so you you can't you you you have to really balance and this is really for the investor on utilities. Pacific Gas and Electric, San Diego Gas and Electric, Southern California, Edison, they're they're chasing this wildfire risk at the same time investing billions into it and trying to manage their rates, which is a very difficult thing to do all at the same time. And of course, the legislature is dealing with this at an affordability level. Gasoline prices are moving up, food prices are moving up, uh, and they're trying to at least temper down uh, rate increases to somewhere around cost of living or a little bit above it. From a regulatory landscape, our world is really focused [snorts] on the advanced clean fleet regulations from the California Air Resource Board. the when the Trump administration removed the EPA waiver for uh heavy duty vehicles, it removed the California's requirement for EVs for heavy duty vehicles for private fleets. However, public fleets are still regulated by by the legislature. So, the city of Reading, REU included, our fleet is still subject to zero mission vehicle requirements starting in 2027 for any vehicle over 14,000 lbs in weight. Um, and this doesn't just apply to RU, it applies to all cities, uh, city departments. So, we are working with our advocacy groups, our joint power agencies to drive for delays, exemptions, and trying to get this entire thing repealed that we can

through carb, although that is proving difficult. Uh, as far as cap and invest, formerly cap and trade, that was renewed by the legislature, signed by the governor last year, extended uh, for another 10 years. That also has caused some financial risk for the utility is it it appears they're going to be removing allowances that are provided to us by the state to emit carbon through our portfolio to the tune of about $1.6 million between now and 2030. Although I'm hearing we're fairing well and some other utilities are having many more of their allowances removed as part of the cap part of cap and vest. They're lowering the cap. Lastly, emissions reporting. There's some new hourly emissions reporting mandates beginning in 2028 and we are doing our best to work on practical implementation for something that I'm finding to give questionable gains. Um but it's an incredible amount of staff time and effort. So to summarize here our financials for the first two quarters of this fiscal year positive net operating revenue reserves are falling within the council policy. Although I will say if the target's 150 days and we're at about 112 is what I feel like right now reporting back 96 days that's not I don't think a comfortable place to be. I think we should be moving more towards a target of 150 days. Uh from an operation standpoint, capital projects are on track. ONM's below budget with staff uh reductions and salary savings in certain positions and we're actively engaging and with our federal and state advocacy groups to protect our customer interest as best we can. With that, my recommendation is for the council to accept the FY26 second quarter financial update. I'll take any questions.

All right, we have uh two speakers. Um, I'm going to guess it's the same person and less uh twins, but we have Shasta County Watchdog and we have Shasta County Watchdog. So, if you are still here, yep, there you are. What's that?

We should ask for I have a question in regarding this item here and and my question is since this is um a financial report and and it's to an update I'm going to be asking for all of the reports on this because I know it's some information and I think it's ridiculous how we continue to raise the utilities and we continue not question this. And I actually know about something about this um entity who continues to continues to actually keep on raising the utilities. There's something that I found out there's a it's called a cap and that cap is where they hide the money. So, I'm letting you know I'm going to request for all those documents and I expect those documents to be all in full and I will look into that. So, but I am interested in what's been going on in the city of Reading also, you know, the board of supervisors and Anderson and Redluff. So, is this is the way I look at this? This is where they they're always asking raising the utilities against the citizens and you're going to break the citizens. You're going to wear them out pretty soon. You you're not going to have citizens to able to afford to continue you asking money from them. It's wrong. especially when you're only asking to support the staff and to continue to

support these buildings and support their salaries and and continue to inflate their salaries. It's absolutely corrupt. So, thank you. So, Shasta County Watchdog was the same person. I'm assuming that was you. So, okay, Nick, you're back up. Nick, you've done a great job of keeping our rates low. I know your previous presentations when you've talked about how the increasing utility rates with PG& in comparison to us and other utility companies, a pretty remarkable job and um thank you for keeping our cost down and I know there's been a tremendous investment of RU and capital improvements, the bond that was taken out and um as you're trying to modernize our utility system. So, I just want to uh commend you for that. Just u RU is just doing a wonderful job. Thank you.

Yeah, appreciate that. And I think on our next item, I think we can dive in a little bit more on on rates and and some financial positions. Sure. All right. Councelor Duka, you're up. Actually, I'll I was just going to ask that why the 4.75% rate when the inflation is less than that, but probably that answer will be there in your slides. Yeah. Okay. I'll wait for that. All right. Councelor Adet.

Um, so I would just ask for these reports that we would get something that looks like the budget that we that you pass. So we know how we're doing to budget some type of charts. I I went through these. This is just for the month I'm assuming of what what it is up to date through through December. So it would be nice to just see how it's tracking for us to actually be able to compare it to something so that we know how it's coming along the or even if you just printed your presentation so that we can track along because I went I went and printed all the attachments. if you think that they're going to be better, they're not. Um, so as far as being able to really look into this, especially for a rate increase, I found this very lacking in research and being able to sort of see I had to go through all the past budgets and they those are incomplete as well. So, I know that obviously the general fund is a lot more comprehensive and we get a lot more of that data, but I would love to see more data, more transparency um around specifically personnel costs and these on&m costs and that type of stuff um for everybody's benefit so that we can sort of track along and we're seeing it as it happens. So, that would be my request.

Yep, that's good feedback. You know what? When we present uh we present how councils have wanted it in the past and if council wants it different in the future, we have all the data. Awesome. We can do budget to actuals, we can we can build anything we need fully transparent. So, thank you. Yep. All right. So, today we're just simply accepting the city of Reading's electric utilities fiscal 202526 second quarter financial report. We're just accepting the report today. That's all you're asking us to do. Correct. Okay. Can I get a motion to do that? I'll make a motion to accept it. All right. Is there a second? Yes. All right. Councelor Duka seconds. Uh we're ready for a roll call vote. Did Did Aaron have any comments that she wanted?

I didn't see her. That's right. She can't really click a button. I guess Aaron, I [laughter] um Sylvember Resner, do you have any comments on this item? Speak now or forever. Hold your peace. So, all right. Here we go. Okay. So, uh Council Member Adet, yes. Dr. Danuka. Yes. Council member Muntz. Yes. Council member Resner. Yes. And Mayor Latah. Yes. Look at that. 5.0. We're doing good, Nick. Okay.

Um, now we get to move on to 9.5B. We're going to consider setting a public hearing for March 3rd, 2026 regarding the Reading Electric utility rate increases. Here we go. So, as we wait for the slide deck to queue up here, Char's doing it'll come up. I want to kind of preface this item here tonight for anybody watching and for members of the public. So, when the city's uh ordinance for Reading Electric to request a rate increase kind of requires two parts. Um, one is what we're doing here tonight is requesting the city council set a future public hearing to have the debate and the discussion about raising rates. Um what and that's that's in place and it's a good stop gap and a good safety guard to not to do put an item on the agenda show up and then have the council discuss rates and adopt a rate increase without the public knowing without a chance for public workshops without chance for discourse comment. So this item tonight is is not a rate hearing. Uh we are not going to change rates or set rates tonight. All all I'm asking tonight is to go through a slide deck quickly to set the table for the reason that we would like to request a public hearing on March 3rd, which are two weeks from now. Um to then offer the opportunity for members of the public to come comment council to consider it. We will be having a public workshops, two different workshops between here and there if council approves us tonight and also have a website, press releases and many many things to to set the stage here. So, if I may, I'm going to jump in uh to just start setting the table to why I am recommending the council set a

public hearing on March 3rd to consider retail rate increases. So, RU is facing five critical cost drivers at the same time. Everybody's facing everything at the same time anymore is what it feels like in the electric industry in California. I will add uh we have five major items here. We have surging supply costs. So, it's it's probably well known by most that the state of California is mandating electric utilities to move to a zerocarbon energy portfolio. What that means is you can't burn natural gas at a power plant. You can't burn coal anymore. You have to have something from renewable energy or hydroelectric energy, which is not considered renewable even though it's zero carbon. Um we and and this is all utilities are working on this in California. At the same time that um tariffs were put in place for most of the equipment that is made for renewable energy, at the same time the federal government terminated the investment in production tax credits uh for renewable energy projects. So the mandate still stands although the costs are driving up and so we are facing about a $20 million a year increase by 2030 from where we are today just in power supply. And these are these are what we call non-discretionary or external driving force factors. That is something that if we're owning and operating an electric utility in California, this is what we're facing. Um aging infrastructure, as we mentioned in the previous council item, we issued $70 million worth of debt last year. We need to service that debt uh for $4 million a year on payments. We have regulatory mandates. They're all unfunded. Um and the the beat goes forward with that. Wildfire mitigation. We are we are a tier three high fire threat area. We are spending a lot of money to mitigate fires both in system hardening um and then suppression resources, vegetation management and the like. And lastly, we have uh inflation that I'm going to click here on this next slide and and give a little this is

illustrative, right? But it's it's real. So this consumer price index from 2020 to to 2025 for food increased about 31%. So that that is a that is a marker that most of us use as you hear CPI in the news. Consumer price indices are helpful for your real time feeling of what am I paying more for food or housing or fuel and these things. We track more producer price indices and those are going to give you some upstream signals of what are producers facing. So if you own or operate a business, you'll start to quickly notice that most of your costs are quickly outpacing what's going on at CPI because quite frankly um when we have inflation and we have tariffs and things, they're placed on businesses and producers to then be passed through to consumers instead of just directly levied right on consumers. So copper, which is something that's key in the electric industry for transformer windings, generator windings, most things in a substation in the same time period increased 63%. Just in 5 years. Uh cement and and and other items that are made, you know, right? We build power plants and buildings and things that increased about 48%. So inflation's there. Um it's been heavy. Our trucks 75% price increase. Transformers 100% price increase. Poles 35. Um I don't want to beat this drum too much because it is what it is. It's a it's a reality and we've been managing it. Uh but electric has we've done our best in the electric department to manage these price increases, reducing cash reserves to minimize some of that impact on our customers. But eventually you can hedge and mitigate yourself in the short term. you will become part of the new pricing market eventually and you have to get yourself there. So, what have we done uh

to get ahead of this and get proactive? So, the last time I presented to city council on a on our rate plan, it would have been back in May or June for the budget for the FY2627 budget. And what we were showing in our 5-year financial plan was five years of 5% rate increases. And that that was kind of the plan before last May. it was the plan in 2024. You know, I think one of the things that that has helped me along the way is watching what's going on in the general fund. Um this it's it's hard. The expenses are up, the revenues are coming down. And I think as an electric utility, we have the same standard of care, the same duty to manage our costs uh before we go ask our council to ask our customers to pay more. So what we have done for actions taken is zerobased budgeting. So we start from nothing with our budget and we build up from there. Then we take another hard look at it. How many positions do we have? If a position goes vacant, do we need to fill it? Well, why don't we try to not fill it and see how far down the road we get? So, we've been seeing some position savings, some labor savings. Um, as far as on andm goes, do you need to go to that conference? Do you need to do that training and travel? Do we need a consultant for that? Can we do that inhouse? Right. Every there's there's no silver bullet for this. It's it's, you know, every little thing makes a difference and a lot of things add up to a big difference. So what we've been able to do is reduce the five years of 5% uh to five years of 4.5s and the fifth year of 2%. Right? And what we're targeting is that last year of cash reserves and I'll get to that in a minute here. So this is I like this graphic. I found this along the way. It chops up RU's budget on a $1 bill so we can all understand where does the money go. So

on the left 2026 you can see the majority of the dollars go right into cost of energy procurement right you have to serve the load you can either buy the power or generate it at reading power plant if you do that you have to buy natural gas you have to pay carbon you have all the on andm right then you have to transmit it and distribute it around town through our power lines and our substations we have debt and capital expenditures power production uh is also part of just the the debt in the maintenance of the plant and then you have administrative and programs if we were to fast forward to 2029, you can see these are the cost drivers. So, it's mostly the cost of energy procurement. As I mentioned, we have to get to these zero carbon targets. Um, or if you want to burn natural gas at the ready power plant, you have to buy a carbon allowance. Of course, the price of the carbon allowance is skyrocketing. To encourage you to not do that, to go buy renewable energy. You can see transmission distribution about the same, debt and capital lowering a little bit. power production lowering and admin programs um holding study. So here's the ask. The ask is four years of 4.5% annual increases on average. Um I'm going to get a minute to in a minute I will get to what we are proposing to do for our uh vulnerable customers that are on our income qualified programs because socioeconomics matters. Uh I think to the public speaker's last point, it really matters. Um our effective date would be April 1. It would be a four-year duration and then by 2030, if the financials hold, we are looking at dropping to more of an inflation rate uh of increase. As I mentioned, um the socioeconomic impacts matter and you have to address them. We have about 3,500 customers on our residential energy discount program and you know

they're on the program because they have income limitations and the the income is being attacked by grocery costs, gasoline costs, rent costs, insurance, all these other items. And so we do have tools to help uh offset the rate increase on our income qualified households. We have our public benefits program. This was put in place by AB1890 over 20 years ago, the state legislature that allowed us to carve out 2.85% of our retail revenue, set it aside to fund things like an energy discount program. So if you increase rates, you also increase that 2.85%, right? So it grows and you can then apply that. So what we were looking to do is enhance the discount um by the the natural growth dollars in it but also fund another million dollars towards it annually with carryover funding that we have. We were we were holding back on dollars for the program because we didn't want to increase the the discount and then reduce the number of customers that could participate. But I think we're saturating around 3500. So, I I feel comfortable and I talked to the team, they feel comfortable about about moving those discount dollars up and giving those who are on the program um a bigger break. So, putting this in average dollars, this is what this would look like for a residential customer, about $7 a month in 26 and 27, moving to $8 a month. Um, and for our residential energy discount program customers, they would be about a dollar a month in 26 and 27 and $2 a month in 2829. um to not just show up here in front of the council and the customers and kind of in an echo chamber of just myself and my staff. We assembled a community panel to fact check and vet this um and kind of put them through like a ratemaking class

of cost of service which is an interesting financial study that you uh it's very rare. You'd only do that if you were in kind of ratem. We have a a consultant, New Genen. Uh they're very well respected in the power business. NewGen uh is our cost of service consultant. They will break down large commercial, small commercial, residential. What are the different units of costs that are served, transmission, distribution, generation, power cost, and then who should be paying what. very very important with Prop 26 in the state of California that was passed that says customer classes can't pay for each other. You can't just say, "Well, let's just have residential customers pay for all the commercial customers because we want that to that doesn't work. That's against the law." So, you really have to use a lot of data science and really be sure that the rates you're designing don't create cross conflicts and violation of Prop 26. First class for our community panel is just that cost of service. The second class for the community panel is sitting down and saying, "Here's the budget. Here's the numbers. Here's the details. Do you think um that a rate increase is warranted? And if you do, do you feel that the amount proposed is sufficient or not?" Interestingly enough, we brought a four years a 4% proposal to the panel um which is very bare bones and what it did was drove the days of cash on hand down to about 105 to 100 days by 2029. The panel brought it back to our attention and said we're not real comfortable with doing that. What if there's a drought? What if there's some type of disaster? What if you have an issue with the power plant? you should be targeting 150 days of cash at the end of your five-year plan. So, they recommended to us, which I thought was interesting, to go from four to somewhere four and a half or five. I

think four and a half was more appropriate with that. some of the members of the panel. Um, just so that we have an idea who these folks were, we had Miranda Edwards Favorite from the Reading Rancheria, Kurt Swanson, independent CPA who also has experience with City of Shasta Lake and their utilities and ratemaking, Shelby Morocco with uh, Community Revitalization Development Corp., Todd Jones with the Chamber of Commerce, and David Ledger with North State Climate Action. So, we had a a good diverse group of low-income advocacy, environmental, commercial, both small and large. Um, and it was helpful and I think it was good feedback. So, where would this put us right the end the bottom line? So, this is this would be an average residential customer. So, you can see where we're where we started 2022 kind of looking back in time and then moving forward uh four years of 4 and a half% would land us at about $190 a month on average Shasta Lake a little bit more and P Geny of course much more. And I think it's it's relevant. And not to be tongue-in-cheek here, but one of my favorite actors, Matthew McConna, says that, you know, relativity is is key, right, when you're facing a difficult decision and situation. Although, I also want to note that what's relative for a reading customer is what they were paying last year and what or last month and what they're paying now, right? Not what's going on in other cities because I don't pay that other city's bill. So looking at the the process, we're here tonight, Feb 17. If council approves to set a public hearing March 3, between here and there, we want to hold two public workshops right here in the community room at noon and at 5, two different times depending on folks schedules. We'll issue a press release. U we will have a website, uh city reading.gov electric rates. There'll be calculators on there folks can go and see and what's going on with it. what's going to my bill based on my usage. That's for commercial, residential,

everybody involved. The key here is transparency, right? We we want to make this as transparent as possible. Get the word out as much as possible and give folks a chance to come on March 3rd to to the public hearing and express their thoughts and feelings and ideas to the council so we can make the best decision possible. So with that, my recommendation is that council approves setting a public hearing to consider increases in in RU rates of 4 and a half% per year, including an increase to the residential energy discount. Um, I'll take uh any questions.

All right. Thanks, Nick. So today, we're not just as you said, we're not approving the rate increase. We're just approving setting a public hearing for March 3rd, 2026. So we can go through the process of that. I don't have any speakers here. Council members, do you have any comments or a motion? Council Adette. So,

yeah. Um, so I just want some clarity on a couple things. Um, I was the report for this is only one page. So, and no attachments. Um, and so in your presentation, I was hoping you were going to go over all of the cost escalators that we've had. And so you just went over I'm assuming that was on and m is that what you were showing when you showed the little the truck and the what were those costs? Well and M also leads into capital, right? So um transformers are capital items. That's not just operations and maint so I I had to I went to my budget to see like where are our cost escalators coming from. Mhm.

So I assume and because it wasn't in the report, I was looking for in this presentation where my cost escalators are. So I from what you showed us, you were displaying would you call that the capital outlay? Is that what you would have screen and m and capital? Yes, it's both. Okay. Um what I didn't see is your personnel cost increases. Okay. Um and that seems to me a big one. Um, do you know the percentage of cost increase that you've had over the last four years just in personnel or even two? [snorts] I don't want to say that number out, but I can my team's here. Um, they can pull that together and I can

I think it was in your report in May. I believe it's it's a $9 million increase just over the last from the last budget. Does that seem accurate? 9 million. I'm gonna ask them and Joe's in in the audience. Assistant Director Bowers is with the finances group. he can come up and answer that. So, it's a it's a huge I think it's I I want to say that's over Do you have a percentage of what that would be your cost increase in personnel just over the last last budget cycle? Yeah. Come on.

Good evening. Uh so it's a bit difficult to track last budget cycle to this budget cycle. If you recall that council approved severalus to labor groups in the previous budget cycle and never actually passed a budget resolution to increase the budget. And so this budget cycle not only was there just a natural increase in labor but it also caught up for all of theus that were never reflected in the previous budget. So it's if you wanted to actually go back and like build a trend over time of labor expenses, we can do that.

So I'm so glad you said that because I went and looked at all theus because in the report that you gave us in September, it said that the reason that you had increased September at Q4, you asked for a 4.2 or $4.3 million increase to your personnel budget. So in the previous um budget for 23 to 25 which fiscal year ending 24 ending 25 in that 2-year bannual budget it had also said you were going you had added 10 positions in 2022. So it reflected that in last that budget. It also reflected a $4.5 million increase because of personnel in that last budget. So in addition to the $4.5 million increase there was another $4.2 million that came in addition to that. the of the all theus which I think there's like five or sixus that were all signed before that budget there was only oneou that came for IBW electric after the fact so before that budget was passed all those majorus for IBW power IBW maintenance upgra your executive group had all come before the 23 242 it was only the one that came the major one the big big huge one that came after the fact so

I do hear what you're saying. Um, so in September when Director Robinette brought basically the end of year cleanup, that was for two years. Yep. And it was September of 2025. Yeah. Was it to clean up the FY25 budget? Yeah. At the time when we provided you our budget doc last summer showing that jump in our budget dollars, that $5.2 million that you referenced or whatever was not in our budget at the time. So we are comparing approved budget. Right. If you would like, what we can do is I can go back five years and I can show you the growth in every single function of our utility of the labor cost, what's attributable to actual growth in positions, growth in just natural folks, and then also those the agreements by labor group.

Yes, I would love that because for the information that we have and what's available to us and I went through every single and when it was passed, if it was before the budgets were passed or not, and they were all previous to that. Now listen, I what's crazy to me is that the oneou for IBW electric that came in November, we passed the budget in June. The new year starts in July. They passed it in November. It was 5 months in. They didn't charge for whatever changes came for another 19 months. They waited till the very very end to actually then charge and then so you knew what the bill was for all those changes and all those changes. I don't know why we waited so long, but we waited a long time. It was two years worth of changes all happened.

So just to be clear when you say charge you mean increase the budget to reflect those increases. Yes. Yeah. And and I don't want to misspe but I remember at the time uh there were not it wasn't just IBW electric. There were several other groups and I believe for example IBW power that was approved I want to say in April 2023. It was after the budgets were already approved and ready to go to workshops and all that. And so I don't I don't believe like for example IBW power was baked into that budget either. Now,

I would have to go I I can go back and look, but I do not believe that any of those. And now, in our financial plans, for example, we would capture the the financial plan that we presented to council with our rate plans and all that, we were reflecting in there adjustments to our labor cost to reflect what was not included in the budget or ever captured in the budget. And the decision to whether or not to send a resolution with any of the council approved changes was entirely outside of our department. That's a decision by the city manager, the personnel department. Yeah,

we would say here it is. Or in fact, well, for example, on some of these units, we weren't even in the negotiating table, but a lot of these were approved by council and then there was no actual budget reso. So the current budget that we are in right now reflects a true up for like four years ofou changes that were never actually captured in the previous budget cycle. Well, I'm glad that I'm just that was an administrative decision.

Yes. And I'm glad that you said it because it's he's going to argue with you now. Okay. But I want to say this um that for the council's awareness when they come to us in April with a change of anou and show us a 10-year budget because we don't just decide on a raise. It's all they show us a 10-year it works within it's going to cost this much. The idea that it came in April and it was not put in the next year's budget is would be news to all of us. So, if you're saying that they approved that before the budget was voted on, before the budget was determined, and they did not include it in there, that would be news to the council that that is not being included. And that tab is running up outside of the budget that we are understanding and we're getting reports for. And that's a huge bill to come at the end, that 4.2. And so, my my point in this is I don't see anybody telling us in any of this documentation the runup of personnel costs. We've had you have had an increase of 10 people working there. Your costs are gone up $ 8.9 million over that one budget cycle. So that's a that's a huge factor in determining what am I paying for when I'm doing these rate increases. What's the real cost? It's not just capital. It's not just O andM. And as a matter of fact, according to this budget, the O andM is going down. So good job. But it's going down. So, when we're talking about why we're going up on rate costs, I want to make sure we have a clear picture of what we're talking about because what you're asking for is a change in April and then January. So, within 6 months, you're going to increase rates by 9%. That's what you're asking for. And I I think and in 18 months it's 13 and a half%. Plus, once you get the increase and then you add it on top of that increase, it's probably a larger percentage than that. So, that's just a major I think jump for citizens here, especially in the current financial climate. and I just don't feel like we've gotten all the information. So, I would say I'm not prepared to say that we should go to um move forward on

this, which is going to happen and then pretty quickly without all that understanding, documentation, and information. So, people if they're going to weigh in, they're not going to weigh in and say, "Hey, you know, I don't want my cost to go up." They're going to say, "Did you fix your own issues and did you drive down your own personnel cost before you came to us with this is what we want you to to charge you with?" So, if I may, I think that's what the public hearing would be for.

But where's the documentation to show them? Well, well, that's we would there's I'm hearing what I think that the level what your focus would be on isn't acceptable is a deep dive into personnel costs and we can prepare that for the public workshop on Feb 26. We can prepare that for presentation at the public hearing and we can we can deep dive into all theus when they were increased why we increase certain positions in certain years regulation changes like having to become a transmission owner transmission operator. So I think I think that's all what you're saying is valid and I think I'm fully prepared to be fully transparent and and put it all on the table for discussion. So, I I think what we're here to do is say you've presented a case that says it's deserving of a public hearing. That's all that we're doing today. And some of this information will flush out during a public hearing, but um I don't think you're under trial today for everything. I think you've demonstrated that, you know, AR has done a pretty good job fiscally and, you know, upgrading our systems. You've obviously taken out a lot of bond debt and we're having to pay that back. We've um you've done a lot. So, I mean, I think as we give it a fair shake, I think it's deserving of going to a public hearing and um have all the stuff flush out. That's all you're asking us to do is just approve going to a hearing.

And a public hearing does not mean a rate increase. Correct. Either. So,

that's where a lot of questions can be answered and councelorette can go herself and ask those questions herself, too. I would say that we should delay setting a a hearing until you can provide the council enough information and then the public enough information so that when they come to this workshop they're actually armed with information to know what they're asking about, what they're talking about, if they think it's fair because it's very possible. I don't just want personnel what the personnel costs. I'd like a breakdown of of the increase of all of these. I don't just want personnel. I'd want all of it so that we have a snapshot of here's where the costs are. Here's what's gone up. So, you make the case to the public, but I certainly don't want just one of the costs uh uh escalated that's escalated to be shown to the public. I'd like all of it and I didn't receive that. So, certainly they haven't received that. And I think before we go to a public hearing where time is not on their side, I think we need to put out that information. I would have liked to see that in the documents that you provided in your financial report or this to say here's sort of the case as to what we've gone through, what we've looked at. And maybe you did that with that group, but I didn't even know you were doing that group. I was I wasn't included in that group. I don't know if the public at large was included to come into that group, but I didn't get to see all those documents or what that is. And I haven't seen enough to feel like I want to set a meeting. And with with the public having no nothing to go into that meeting with.

All right. Council, you've more than taken up time to present your case and you've stated that multiple times. Councelor Muns, do you have something to add? So, uh, no, I don't have anything to add, but I'll make a recommendation that we set the public hearing for March 3rd. Okay. So, there is a motion on the floor. Is there a second for this? Yes, you you can ask a question. Um, that Aaron, is it possible for you to provide that information in a public fashion and uh maybe right now March 3rd is only two weeks away. Uh, maybe hold the public hearing bit later in the month. Will that work for you?

Yeah, I mean, we could we're we could move the public hearing to the 17th of of March if that's the desire of the council, but I do I I want to kind of put some levity to the request of council member Aette that the reason we would have a public workshop uh on the 26 and then a public hearing and then a website that includes information in it is to do what just what council member had asked. I think I think sometimes when you when you set these public hearings um you have the desire to have all the information immediately right now to make the decision go or no go on on rates and that's not what tonight

is intended for. So I understand I'm just the reason I'm just asking is that will be two weeks may not be enough time for the public to kind of chase look at the schedule calendar the date so maybe four weeks will be like a good period but I would say that just for the public to be aware of this take some time to disseminate the information my suggestion would be four weeks if you're okay with that 17th it it it will push back on an April one bit so it if rates are approved they have to be put into the billing system. Uh, and it's that's not really a small feat. I mean, it seems like it should be, but it's not. Um, we have 21 billing cycles a month.

Uh, 21 different read cycles a month. And so, you're trying to target a start date in on April 1. Um, it would probably push the start date to May one. And the cost of that that is in the millions as far as it would be it would be a month's worth of revenue increase, right? Councelor Danuka, what you're suggesting is just by delaying that could cost RU millions of dollars. I I got you. So, how about uh 3 weeks from now, uh second week of March rather than first week. Is that I think that's I think that's what I was referring is is that would then we would miss that April one and have to move to a May one.

Oh, even if you do it like not April, not March 3rd. If you do March 10th, even then that will delay it so much. So, so I I guess maybe a special public hearing, a special council meeting for is that what you're you're thinking? Well, this public hearing is separate from council meeting anyway, right? No, it's at the council meeting. So, people can actually I'm fine. March 3rd is fine with me. Okay. So, we did have a motion. We did get a second, but I do want to ask councelor Resner if she had any questions or feedback since uh we haven't given her a chance.

Um I just wanted to echo I know um the director say, but cash on hand, our credit rating um and our credit standing with our trading partners, those sort of things and just be surging in supply cost and and mandates from the state. All of those sort of things really are impacting um the utility. So, those are of concern to me. One of the things I've been most impressed with our review um as for the last year is every single document that we ask for Mr. will provide. So I'm confident that staff will bring back all of those documents. I think that they have zero problems with all of those sort of things that council member mentioned. Um, and I actually really appreciate their value for engaging with the community holding meetings specifically to them like a lunch hour and an after dinner hour. Um I'm not sure whether um I missed director mentioning the implementation of AI but they are doing all the things so that we can serve the customer the best that we possibly can uh and be as transparent as possible. So, I'm looking forward to uh that hearing and and presenting um and that [cough] we can actually be part of that discussion and part of that process all the things that were mentioned. So, take a little

So, uh we do need a second on the motion. I

Okay. Well, I have one more thing. Are you saying so I was at the last uh workshop for rate increases and there was nothing of the stuff that I've asked for and I'm concerned that I know you'll give it to me. I I believe you but I want the public to have an opportunity to look at it and it was not in the documents provided. So I'm how is the public going to see that and in what form if we don't actually know what you're going to provide? So, so I think what I I think what would help me is a little bit more definition maybe and maybe council member Reddit you can email me kind of offline what level of detail you're looking for we can produce anything uh and then so if the c members of the public come to the to the workshop um either workshop depending on their level of detail they desire I will have the entire [snorts] financial team there uh to sit down and they can pour over every detailed spreadsheet at at every line item if that's a desire or if they want to talk at a higher level or if they have a specific interest on say wildfire mitigation or renewable energy. Um I think we can we can tailor the workshops to all ends the of the interest spectrum. Um and I think for council I think what I what I would do what you're asking at the for the public hearing and the staff report can be very detailed. We can air on the side of of ultradetailed um and and provide different attachments and then

let me give you an example so that you know what I'm talking about. You have pictures of a truck, right? So, it's up 75%. There's no picture of a person that says personnel has gone up 50%. 30%. 20, I don't know what it is. You know, it's gone up 9 million in two years. So, like, you know, whatever the number is, I mean, according to this. So, like, so whatever that number is, that should also be included that personnel costs have gone up by this much. Now, if somebody wants to know more about that, that's great. But if it was one picture with that number of what that's gone up as well over over the last two years of that budget cycle, probably be worthwhile to know because you're asking them to pay more. That's part of what they're paying. It's a huge chunk of what they're paying for.

So yeah, so our personnel costs are about 25% of our budget, right? All in versus general fund personnel costs are about say 80 to 85% of the budget. So we're we're pretty inverse. And uh I guess maybe forgive me if I focused on but that would be a good thing to say. So 25% of the pie it's gone up 30%. And se you know 50% of this pie has gone up sure

20%. Something very simple like that. And then if people want to know more they can I I think again we work for the people. So it is actually important that we talk about those things so that people can then give us feedback and say actually what I wanted to know you said this in the meeting but this is what I actually want to know cuz they're the ones that were asking to pay more. So I do think that that that it's important we clarify so they can they can correct us as well if they want. I think it's deserving that you two have a meeting and um clarify exactly what she wants and you guys can probably really iron out a lot of those details and have very good conversation and I I would recommend that. Yeah. I think I think what I'll do I'll work with uh uh city manager's office and

and we like stories and pictures so you know people next time and what I'm hearing it's on the slideshow but we do have a motion we have a second we are going to do a roll call vote [snorts]

okay so I just want to be clear that the motion on the table is made by Jack Muns, seconded by Dr. Danuka. Um, and for the recommendation to approve setting the public hearing for March 3rd. Is that correct? That's correct.

Council member Odette, no. Vice Mayor Denuka, yes. Council member Muns, yes. Mayor Prompor Resner, Mayor Latah, yes. All right, that motion passes. All right. Um, I did a terrible job. Thank you, Nick. Good job,

Nick. I did a terrible job at the beginning of the meeting to formally introduce our city manager. So, um, we are so excited to have you here. I built up this greeting for you for like months. I knew exactly what I was going to say. Welcome. And it's your second day on the job because your first day on the job was on a holiday. So, very well done. And, uh, we're excited to have you. I should have let you say some words at the beginning of the meeting, but um I didn't know if you have anything to add today. So, all right, the microphone. I just want to say thank you. I'm very happy to be here, very happy to serve the community of Reading. My family's already embedded and very we're all very excited and this is where we want to be. So, we're going to get down to it and everything that needs to be done in this city, which is fairly substantial, will be addressed. and we're looking forward to doing that in a in a way that is good for the community and good for our employees.

All right, great. We're excited to have you. I'll give you a better introduction next time. We'll just do it again. This was good practice tonight. Okay. All right. If I may just say that uh Sure. we welcome you and uh we're also looking forward to you're coming from a different city from outside our area. So hopefully we look forward to getting some fresh ideas and fresh eyes and uh I think uh all of us supported the recruitment all five of us. So that speaks highly. Yeah. Great. Okay. Uh item 11, council travel reports. Is there anything to report from anybody? Erin, we speak up. You can go first if you got anything.

I'm not hearing you. Does any other council member have anything? May I just ask just one clarification that we need to appoint the members for financial committee. When do we do that? Well, we we could potentially talk about that line at 12, but I believe that is that is going to come up later once we uh bring back the My apologies. Uh either the ordinance or the reading of that, but um yeah, it's okay. Any travel reports? doesn't mean maybe you want to travel and go recruit someone, but um that could come up later, but I don't see anybody speaking there. So, let's move on to item 12, suggestions from council members for future topics at a council meeting. Council No, I can councelor Adette, I'll let you go first. So,

um I want to know if you guys would be interested um for the cool April nights event to do a one-time economic entertainment zone on Hilltop. One day, one week. What? One for just for the um for that main like four or five days away. The main no for the for the Why am I for the cruise? Okay. I'm like the tour that the cruise. So that could be of interest. My question is is there time? Is there That's I don't know what's involved in that, but before we approve that, is there enough time to bring that back to the council to approve?

So, uh I I need to double check the ordinance as written to see if we'd be able to do it by resolution. If we need to do an amendment to the ordinance, there'd need to be a first and second reading. Uh so we would probably be looking at a total of three meetings and 30 days for it to take effect. Uh I'm doing the math on top of my head. I think that would put us at the end of April. Um we can check if it if it is allowed if it is something we can do by reszo. Uh we can bring that back uh in relatively short order. Okay. And when you said three meetings, that means it would be too soon to bring back to the first meeting, March 3rd, which then March

I I was actually contemplating direction on the specifics, then the drafting of the ordinance and then bringing it back for the language and then uh then the the the first reading and then the second reading. Although actually, sorry, let me correct myself. We can actually make one of those readings, the first reading, a special meeting as long as it's not within five days. So we might be able to shorten it up to two meetings. councelor Id maybe you could give some vague specifics and that would give them a head start. So you talked one day. Yeah. On Hilltop um for the cool April night's cruise that it would be an entertainment zone just for that one event that one day.

And why just Hilltop? Why not the whole parade route? So can we make the whole parade route the entertainment zone so that way we don't exclude other businesses in your suggestion for light item 12? Um route go from Churn Creek, Cypress, Hilltop, and Dana. So let's start with Hilltop. Yeah. And then we could expand it other years if it works out. Maybe just to test it in a smaller area. We can bring that back. I'll probably have to work with the relevant departments just on defining the specific boundaries. Uh would you be willing to go along with just bring back all the options including Hilltop and other streets? Well, if we're doing it as a first reading, that means I'm writing a draft of the ordinance for every version. I would definitely want

I don't know that's going to be feasible. I would definitely want the uh RPD input on that. So, see what they feel is uh safe and appropriate. Okay. How much can they expand that? I I think it's a great idea and I could go along with um council that on you. Is there So, did you want to get Chief Barard input on that or what? I mean, I'm I'm in favor of that as well. It will happen. That'll happen. Oh, I see. They'll do it. But in terms of Hill Prop versus the entire route, you know, I think you've got three there. So, um Okay. Yeah, I'm okay. You need a vote. No, you got consensus there. Um now, councelor, so just wondering that when does this uh does financial committee does it come back for a second reading or are we ready to appoint members on that?

Shouldn't we be giving you appointments and then you bring it back just for approval? Yeah. Um so uh we can we can work with um the finance department or actually now the city manager's office I believe in terms of the the process for bringing forward the appointment. Uh we it's not an ordinance so there is no second reading. Um it has been adopted. So we can go ahead and basically make our appointments. Yeah. Make your selections and we'll bring them forward uh for a an item for ratification by the full council. So do you guys want to bring it next? Yes. Time. We'll email them our our names and then they'll bring it back on the next one.

Okay. Um, so we're saying March 3rd. I I don't think that would be enough time for me to come up with someone as I'm leaving on a trip. So that my my timeline would be asking for March 17th to give me a little bit more time. So I'm I'm going to be gone a very long time. So I think I'm just trying to see because so that we can move on to the next stage of uh figuring out how to reduce the costs. Okay. [clears throat] 70 is fine. I'm not too that it's okay with me. Okay. Um, councelor Resner, do you have anything to add? Okay, this meeting is adjourned but we are going to go back to close session and we will be back to report on anything after we meet. Uh

anyone who wants to stay back is most welcome to