City Council - Regular Meeting

[snorts]

Thank you. Let's

go. Okay. All right, welcome everybody. Um,

we are uh taking a pause from close session. We will go back to close session after our regular meeting here and then after close session, we'll come back and report any reportable action at that time. So, we're going to start our regular meeting. Uh, if anyone wishes to address the city council on any item considered at this meeting before going to pause that one second. It's feels like six o'clock somewhere. We're going to pause 1 minute and two seconds. Okay. All right. 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 three minutes per speaker for each agenda item. Staff reports are available online and at the city's website and also in the public view binder located on the podium at the north side of the

chambers. All right, we're going to call this meeting to order. We will start with the pledge of allegiance and then after that we'll the invocation uh from Dan Conklin, Reading Police and Fire Department's chaplain. All right, please rise with me. Council member resce to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right, please remain standing and dance.

Bow our heads. Dear heavenly father, we come to you tonight asking for your guidance, wisdom, and support. As we begin this meeting, help us engaa engage in meaningful discussions. Allow us to grow closer as a group and nurture the bonds of community. May we keep the focus on what's best for reading in all matters. Lord, we pray for our first responders. Grant them courage when afraid, wisdom when they must make quick decisions, strength when they wor are worry, and compassion in all their work. May you always bless Reading in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Thank you, Dan. How you doing, Jack? I'm doing good, Nick. Thank you.

All right, we'll start with roll call. Council member Adet here, Vice Mayor Dr. Danuka, Council Member Muns here, Mayor Prom Resnner present, and Mayor Latau

here. All right, we'll start with public comment for non-aggendaized matters within the city's jurisdiction uh pursuant to the Brown Act, city council cannot take action on public comment items. Uh the city council will allocate up to a maximum of three minutes per speaker uh 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. Uh we have uh seven speakers. So, I'm going to ask all the speakers as I call your name if you can also line up on the side wall over there so that way we can be efficient with our time and um we'll see if we can keep everybody in order. Well, that's going to be a fun challenge there. So, we will start with uh Dan, sorry about the last name. It looks like Miss correct me if I'm wrong when you get up there. After that, Kim Moore, Shannon, looks like Shoots, Mary Fuo, Nick Gardner, Sam Roose, and then Shasta County Watchdog. So, uh, Dan, you're up if that's you. And if all the other speakers, please can line up on the side over there so we can get in order. Thank you, Dan.

Very good. Good evening, mayor, council members. My name is Dan Msik. My family and I live at 3536 Leonard Street in Reading. I'm here tonight to respectfully request the city consider an ordinance addressing marijuana smoke exposure when it directly impacts residents with medical sensitivities. Over the past several months, one of our neighbors has regularly smoked marijuana near our home. The smoke penetrates into our bedroom during the night. When this occurs, my wife wakes from a sound sleep with intense nausea, headache, and dizziness and is unable to return to sleep. This is not a preference issue. This is a documented physical reaction. We've maintained a detailed log of the dates and times where these episodes have occurred, and we're prepared to share that documentation with the city privately. California law permits marijuana use under certain conditions. However, local governments retain authority to regulate nuisance conditions and protect public health under the police powers. Secondhand marijuana smoke contains s of the same irritants and toxins as tobacco smoke. Cities across California already regulate smoking in multi-unit housing and within specified distances of residences to protect vulnerable individuals. Our request is reasonable and targeted. We are asking the council to consider an ordinance that would number one allow residents with medically documented sensitivities to marijuana smoke to voluntarily register with the city. Number two, upon verification, establish a defined perimeter around their residents where marijuana smoking would be restricted. And number three, provide notice to

nearby residents so that expectations are clear and enforcement is structured. This approach protects both personal freedom and public health. It does not prohibit marijuana use citywide. It simply creates safeguards when use directly harms medically vulnerable residents. Sleep deprivation, repeated physical reactions are not sustainable. Every resident deserves the quiet enjoyment of their home and the ability to breathe safely in their bedroom. Reading has the opportunity to lead with balance, compassion, and clarity. We're asking you to explore a practical ordinance that respects lawful use while protecting those whose health is directly impacted. Thank you for your time and your service to our community.

Thank you, Dan. Um, what what would you like Jeremy? Yeah, Dan, just some thoughts and uh maybe you can email the council or meet with one of us later, but uh we have Jeremy back there and um Jeremy's if we raise his hand back there. If you look behind you, we had Jeremy turn around and maybe you can uh share some of your ideas and thoughts with him in advance. That'd be wonderful if you can connect with them. Okay. Actually, if you want to go out now into the lobby, he'll give you his contact information because he's in charge of our our code enforcement. So about what ordinance we currently have and what we could have if you could connect with him and then he'll report back to us what Yeah. Yeah. Thank you.

Thanks Dan. All right. Where is Kim? Kim. Kim Moore. And then after Kim Shannon, where are you Shannon? You need to And then Mary after Shannon. Nick. Sam. Uh where wherever you'd like. You have the option to speak down there if that's easier for you or you can go up there. come up as a group. Most of us are tall. All but one. Um. All right. She's a middle. So, we're from the Woodlands apartment. And are you Shannon? Just real quick. You're Shannon, right? I am Shannon. Yeah, you're Shannon. Okay. And I'm Mary Floral. Okay. And I'm Kim Moore. So, we're going to triple team it. I love it. Okay.

Okay. So, we're from the Woodlands and as you know, I've come in off and on over the you not personally, but Tanessa knows. I've come in off and on over the years and here's the bottom line. things aren't right. Code enforcement and housing and HUD, they know things aren't right over there. They haven't been right. In the nine years that we've been open, our security gate has only worked for one year out of the nine. And it gets worse because we have a lot of apartments, one of them toxic mold for over six years. It's a plumbing leak that leaked in the in the walls of an upstairs unit directly across from my living room for six years. And when water, and I don't mean drip, I mean leaked. When it does that for six years. So, um, a tenant that had moved into it about 3 years ago had a child who was rushed to the hospital in respiratory distress. Child ended up at a children's hospital of San Francisco. And that child will be permanently impacted the rest of their life. And then, uh, last year I had another tenant move into the apartment right across from me. They knew that there were mold issues when they came in. and they weren't given the proper paperwork, a disclosure, and the management made excuses for the mold smell and um they never properly have never done proper mold remediation. I've reported this issue to um code enforcement and then I even came in a few weeks ago and I asked for a meeting with Mr. Drestler and Mr. Pagan and uh Mr. Mr. Pagan's assistant, Jennifer, gave me her card. But when Mr. Dresler called me back, he told me that Jennifer didn't have the authority to make a meeting for me and the uh Mr. Pagan. And he spoke in a very condescending manner to me. It was 180 degrees from the language that you would use in a deescalation meeting. So if you have

somebody who's already frustrated, upset, and lives in a mental health unit, to speak to them in a condescending manner and basically tell them that there's nothing you're going to do for them and that the problem is being addressed when the problem is not being addressed, it it it um it doesn't work. And for me personally, and mainly because most of my case involves the county of Shasta and being in an MHSA unit, um I I'm at I've reached the point I and I believe in being fair and I'll give you guys one shot at it to address the toxic mold, but I'm at the point where I'm going to an attorney. I I've have nine years of documentation. and I've been documenting the entire time. And I need to go to an attorney because I need a legal advocate because code enforcement and every other city and county official that I know is not able to get NVCSS to do what they should do. And I don't know what that organization has on any of you, but it's horrendous what they get away with.

All right. Thank you. Would the other two like to speak as well? I'm pass. Okay. Yeah, I'll pass because it's the same thing. So, can you leave your information with the city clerk's office so that I can contact you? All right. Thank you. Thank you come for coming to speak. Um

okay. Uh Nick, you are up Sam after and then Shassa County Watchdog. So,

or did I repeat a name? Did I say one of your names out there? No. Okay. Sorry. thought you were talking. I'm so sorry. I thought there was four speakers ahead of me. Um, okay. I wanted to talk to uh Mr. Turbo here, our new city manager. Is that right?

Um, you know, we've got a pothole problem, road problem here in Reading. I'm sure you're aware of. I have personally heard Aaron Rezner and Mike Latau say, "Well, I guess the people don't want their roads fixed because they won't give us a tax for it." The fact of the matter is we the public have given them plenty of money. Not just them, and I'm not just picking on this city council. It goes back 15, 20, 25 years. But this year, we paid $27,671,000 for unfunded pension liabilities, $8,353,000 for the regular pension service, and that's not what we paid our taxes for. We paid our taxes for safety and infrastructure, and it was hijacked. So when they say we don't want our roads fixed because we won't pass a tax, you can understand why we have a sour taste in our mouth for that phrase. We've paid for it and the money went someplace else. Uh fire embaitment. It's almost fire time and uh uh there's a lot of places in the city of Reading that need to be have the underbrush cleaned out. One in particular, and you might not know where this is at, but up at the fancy restaurant used to be view 202, the hatch cover before, there's a green belt that runs parallel to Bachelli Lane all the way down to the country club, which is probably two miles, maybe a little more. And it's overgrown. I know of three fires that have been in there that had the potential to get away. And it's uh it's got houses right bumped up right to it. And uh we've got a really tremendous fire department and they get on it like ugly on an ape. Thank you. But one of

these days it might get away and we have our uh unsheltered population living in there with uh uh warming fires and cooking fires. And that's just the three I saw. They go in there quite often and put out small fires. You probably can't count those. And one thing I want to bring to your attention about Benton Air Park up there, I've got a friend that has a hanger and uh they have an ironclad contract, he said, with the city of Reading. The city of Reading owns it and the city of Reading all of a sudden told them that uh they have to incorporate and it's just goes against everything that's been going on up there. He also brought to my attention that uh the FAA or the state gives the city money to repair the runway and the money doesn't wind up up there. They assume it winds up in the general fund and you can go up there and see red cones to warn the uh pilots where the potholes are. So have a great day. Welcome to Ready.

That was a very good welcome. Thank you, Nick. Uh Sam, you're up. Now, good afternoon, council. My name is Sam Royce, and I'm here with support from my roommate Ethan and my neighbor Johnny over there in row three. What's up? Um, I've been living on Hartnell Avenue since December of last year. Since moving in, I've taken notice on my daily walks of the uh pretty alarming amount of trash along Hartnell when you're west of Belli on the left side, as well as the public river access on the corner of Park View and Park Marina Drives. A large amount of this trash has stayed stagnant since I first moved here in December. And after talking with several tenants in our apartment complex, as well as several neighbors across the street, it seems that this trash issue has been ongoing for quite some time, uh longer than I've been around. To my knowledge, both the affforementioned locations are city- owned with the river's access specifically being open to the public. And I personally hate the idea that every rain brings trash from the ditch into the river and the fact that the trash is being openly and illegally dumped along the river. I believe it is imperative that a cleanup is scheduled and the appropriate department is assigned. From what I understand, the city already has several assigned community work program officers and I, as well as my neighbors, would greatly appreciate some attention to our area. We all look forward to an afternoon river walk without the absurd amount of trash that currently occupies our city. Thank you.

Thank you, Sam. Picture this. We could adopt the street with your name on a sign with you and your roommates. I'd like that. All right. [snorts] So, let's get get that going. Okay. All right. Shasta County Watchdog. So, or did you have Well, I just want to make sure that the chief connects the chief will connect with you and the next time we go out to clean there. I've cleaned those areas out a few times with the writing police and you are more than welcome to go with us the next time we clean out those areas. Yeah. And Ethan and John, you too. We will put your name on the sign as well. So when we adopt that street with you. Okay. Good. You got to be careful. A special treatment in there. Yes, I do. Right. Clean. I'll be special. Okay. We'll put your name on there too, Dolores. So

Oh, no. Thank you. [laughter] [clears throat] Um I'm here actually to two things. uh in regarding the chief of police when some citizen comes forward to make uh a report or any allegations are made to the city, you you're obligated to investigate. When you don't investigate, we the people I myself have the right to retain those documents. When I request them, I demand I'm demanding now because I the second time I asked for public records, you come back with saying it bunch of little stories and telling me why I can't receive them. So, I told you if that's the way it's going to be, the next time it won't be me asking for them. It will be an attorney because I'm not going to be playing that game. So, or wasting my time. I have a right to receive those documents. Uh because you didn't do your job to investigate. So, therefore, you can't keep them private anyways because it's the public's right to see those records. And another thing I'm here to also to make sure that Mrs. Uh, Miss Erin Resner knows and is aware that the the Kevin Cry little group of people are gathering information to use against you when you since you're running, they're trying to gather all the the votes that you making and how they could use it against you. Just so you know that, be aware because they're using that and I've been hearing on the radio keeping track of what they say and even Kevin Cry make comments about you and everybody else. So, it's funny how he says that he all of a sudden he's interested again on what's happening in City of Ready. No, he's gathering information because you're you're actually, you know, you you're a person who's running against him and he's afraid to lose. And right now, what he's using as uh you know, to try to win. The last time he he used God and you know, to say I'm a godly man and you know, bull all that baloney stuff. Now he's using that he has cancer. That he has cancer. He's getting through

chemotherapy, all that kind of stuff. That's a weapon. He's using that for p people to pity him that oh, he's fighting for the people. He's only doing what's right for the people. He's not because as you know, you heard that he actually applied to get grants from a to start a new private school. Well, I took care of that. He ain't going to get any funds from any private school. Um the reason he is trying to get those public funds I mean the private school is because he's little gravy train is already ran out from the um co 19 when he was going to all the schools getting those grants and everything from the from the state and he says that he wants to stay away from the state but yet he's out there getting money for the to support whatever he needs and so that's running out for him. So I I think this is bunch of bull that he's using his position to try to um to get people's pity. You know, everybody a lot of people here has dealt with cancer. You don't see them coming up here and trying to get little pity. Say, "Hey, I went to chemo and I had cancer." You know, but now that's what his his weapon he's using. So just be aware. Thank you.

Thank you for coming to speak. I'm sure Erin appreciates all that intel and I would give you more time to share more intel, but you're out of time. So, um, consent calendar. The consent calendar contains items considered routine and/or which have 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 at 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 to respond to any public comment on an item. Three, request the record reflect an absentation may vote or n on an item. Number four, remove an item and place it on the regular portion of the agenda for delivery of a staff report andor an extended discussion or deliberation. I don't see any speakers for consent calendar. Is that correct? So, all right. So, if there's no speakers, I can entertain a motion or any comments. I'll make a motion to approve consent.

Second. All right. And councelor Muds, I'm assuming you were on the list to second. Did you have anything further down or no? No. Um, that's good. Yes, that's it. All right. So, we have a motion and a second. Uh, I didn't you stretching to Okay, we need to do a roll call vote. Is that correct? Forget. Yes, we're going to get to do a roll call vote. So, I guess we get to press the fancy button at the same time, too. But Paul does not do that. So, all right. So, let's take a roll call vote. So, okay. So, for the roll call vote, council member Adet, yes. Vice Mayor Dr. Denuka, I. Council member Muns, yes. Mayor Prom Resner, yes. And Mayor Lat. Yes.

All right. Well, that was easy. So, um, we have, uh, public hearings and tonight on the agenda was the electric utility, the public hearing to reconsider resolution approving city of reading electric utility rate increases and increasing the residential energy discount. How exciting. Uh, we do have a speaker, so we could let the speaker go first, unless there's any other council comments. Do the presentation first. Okay. Well, you have to do the presentation first then. Okay, Nick, you're up. So,

okay. I think I'm I'm green on my thing here. Okay. Um, just for the record, my name is Nick Settle. I'm the director of the Reading Electric Utility. Uh, uh, thank you, mayor, members of the council. Um, I'm going to jump in somehow. This is his recommendation. I just assumed he was giving a presentation because he gave us this. Am I missing it? Pops.

Ah, a little Easter egg. Go me. Okay. Sorry about that. So, I don't normally jump in with a recommendation, but I'm going to um in the interest of everybody's time here. So, this may be a little antilimactic when it comes to public hearings, but we held public workshops on February 26 last week, um, at 12:00 noon and at 5:00 p.m. right over here in the community center. Um, and we just did not have much attendance. Uh, we had probably four or five folks came at noon and maybe 8 to 10 after 5. And I think there's a few a few things going on here. Number one, uh the time of course spent from when we noticed this out on social media with press releases to the time of the workshop was probably pretty condensed. But number two, there is a lot going on in our world right now as we know and and it's hard to get our attention focused with enough time to focus on who wants to focus on this. So my recommendation is to the council that we because this is a public hearing, we continue the public hearing to March 17th. Uh and in doing so that allows time for my team to go out and hold additional public workshops with additional outreach through press releases, through the media and social media to around different places of town. I'll get to the next slide so we can get some more outreach to folks who really are interested in this so they can show up and ask the questions that they want to ask. So just quickly reviewing where we've started and where we're at. Uh we started with a stakeholder group back in January, February, a targeted stakeholder group representing different customer segments and classes. Took their information um to build the staff report to recommend the public hearing. We opened up a dedicated website uh city reading.org/electric rates. There's a lot of information on the website um calculators for those whether it's residential or small commercial or large

commercial. You can kind of plug your usage in there and see where these rates may land. There's information on budgets. There's information on five-year financial plans when we posted the budget back in June, the council approved budget versus the efforts the utilities taken to cut costs today with an updated financial plan. There are position uh tracking spreadsheets of adding positions in REU as the years went by. Why did we add them? What do we need them for? And there's another spreadsheet about positions REU funds indirectly um for internal service fund and general fund also. So, if you haven't seen that, uh, it's a great website to go to. If you go to REU's Facebook website, there's a link on there. We will publish all this again tomorrow morning. There'll be another Facebook posting. We'll get the press release back out. Um, we've been working well with our media partners uh to get the information out. Sincerely appreciate that. There's a I mentioned there's a lot going on in our world today. So, getting getting a spot in the news uh is is valued. I mentioned we held the two public workshops. Uh and tonight we intended to hold the public hearing but I think we need a little bit more time. So the plan is uh and my team is locking in these dates and times at these areas is we are want to hold workshops almost kind of in a in a quadrant around reading. So we held them here. We want to be at Mercy Oaks which is I'm going to put that kind of north reading. We want to go to the Shaster Builder Exchange which is east reading. Martin Luther King Junior Center, which I'm going to call that west to southwest reading, and then the Reading Senior Center, which is going to be kind of west to northwest Reading. So, we're going to pull these times together. Um they're I think they're locking them in tonight. And and thank you, uh Director Many for helping us with these facilities and others that are engaged with here. And we'll get this out first thing tomorrow morning on the times and the dates and the who and the when. and they will be um as it looking like some are going to be after work, maybe one on the weekend and then one during lunch

hours. So, we're trying to spread out the times for those who can attend. Um and with that, I do want to mention right now if you're interested and you're here in person, the RU staff are in the community room with the full workshop um information. So, there's different billboards, different staff experts. So, if you're interested in wildfire mitigation, you can go look at that. If you are curious on why power supply costs are skyrocketing in the state of California, staff will talk to you about that. If you want to understand about positions and personnel cost, staff will will walk through that. Any any of the reasons you you may be interested in. And also, I just encourage you to spend some time with the team and just kind of walk a circle around the room and gather all the facts. I think it's it's it's interesting. It's unique. Um, much like life, there isn't just one one silver bullet here that's causing this rate increase. It's it's many things. There is a bigish silver bullet uh power supply cost in the state of California trying to get to zero carbon. But but there are other items there, you know, there's of course personnel cost to run the business. There's on andm cost to run the business um debt that we issued so that we can invest in the infrastructure. We have to pay that debt service right. if you would go spend some time with the staff and also more importantly if you're here the customer service team will help you if you have a desire look into what discounts you may qualify for. So we have the residential energy discount which comes off your monthly bill if you've experienced a a one-time hardship. We have a $300 credit that can come off your bill. So spend some time meet with the team. You may be surprised. You may qualify for something you didn't know and they're here tonight and they're and they're willing to work with you. So I think with that um I will end right back where I started very short tonight but the recommendation is to continue the public hearing to March 17th provide additional time for additional workshops and then return for the full public hearing at which time I have a a slide deck uh apologies ahead

of time it's last count probably 57 to 58 slides we're going to go in very great detail as we should because this is very important we're going to touch all aspects of the utility we're start back in time with what has happened in the past. We're going to go to where we are now and what we're looking at in the future and we're going to break apart uh all the pieces of of this rate proposal for digestion by the council for an ultimate decision for their utility. So, with that, I take any questions. I I have one question. Um, would there be value or potential to either live stream one of these or videotape something to where there's a presentation that could be on YouTube that others can watch at a later time? Is that Yes. Is that something that can I think there'd be great value. We can pull that together.

Okay. We've done that in the past. Um, live streaming is difficult because you're Yes, we're trying to get people tuned in, but we can definitely record one and post it. We'll post it on the city.org/electric rates. I put a link to it. Can that video be uploaded to YouTube as well? like our city council meetings. Yeah, we'll just upload it on YouTube and then put a link to it. I think that'd be a good idea. Okay. Um, we have two here. Uh, council member Resner. So, I'll make a motion if we don't have any public comment. Yeah. I was just going to ask them what they wanted to first. I mean, yeah. So, what they wanted to say. We can We should probably have public speakers before we make motion. Okay. Go ahead.

Um, we we do have two speakers. Just a procedural question. And if this does get postponed, we'll still need to let all our speakers speak today regardless of what outcome we do today. Is that right? If they're here, if they're here, they might as well. I do recommend that. Yes.

Yes. Okay, good. So, um, Nick, how about we'll give our two speakers a chance to speak again. Uh, we have Shassa County Watchdog up and Nick, you guys. you you have a you had someone come up here and do a little small presentation basically showing on the screens uh what they would like to do what they done but I'm going to tell you that when I attended the the workshop they call It's not good enough for the citizens. You have to know what to ask to understand what they're doing. And I think it's your as a council member, it's your duty, your obligation as you took an oath. Okay? You have to actually disclose what you're doing and why you're asking so much money for the citizens to pay a higher in utilities. My gosh, how long are you guys are going to continue to drain the citizens? There's so many citizens here. They're low income, fixed income, and a lot of people can't afford it. You guys pay your employees very well. Way too much money, unfortunately. And and and when I look at this, did you did you send any mailers to inform the citizens? The citizens deserve a lot more. and for you to be thinking of raising their utilities. I find it very diff I'm so sick of this corruption. I'm so sick every time when you guys make a mistake and make bad decisions, the first thing you do is go ahead and start sucking it out of the citizens pockets and and

that's really disappointing and you expect to move on to a next level to be elected in another position. Okay, you got to remember the citizens are the ones or who actually going to be uh electing you if they want you back on the seat. But the thing is your duty is to protect the citizens, not the freaking employees. The employees, you don't work for the employees. These are your bosses. Every single one, including me, whether you like it or not, I pay taxes up here when I shop here. That's where my money goes. So I I get so angry how you guys run the city and you've been running the city the way you want to because every time the the you know the employees or the attorneys or you know anybody comes up here and say well we need more money where and let's put this uh public hearing so we could raise and get more money. Do you even think about what you're doing to the citizen when you took that seat when you took that oath when you got up there it was not to protect the employees. I see that in Anderson to Ha City of Shasta Lake in Anderson. I I was just there. But I'm saying is that you need to stop this because I'm telling you RIGHT NOW, YOU'RE ABUSING your authority. You're misusing the public funds which is I think it's code 424 and that's you're misusing the funds of the taxpayers. YOU DON'T HAVE permission to take their money. You h you have to represent the people. You continue taking their money. That's theft and that's wrong and that's actually becomes where you could be investigated. So I'm telling you right now it you better stop spending the taxpayers money.

All right. Thank you Nick.

Well, if you want to get more people to the uh town halls, maybe you ought to start serving beer and pizza. That's a great idea, Nick. Yeah. Nick. Nick, do you want to make a donation to sponsor that? The beer and pizza. Yeah. Can you be the host?

Yeah. For me. [laughter] Okay. So, uh, I've got some thoughts here to get, uh, well, these things I'm going to say, I can't say they're going on for sure, but I am told that, uh, the street lights are paid by REU, and it should be the city of Reading that's paying that. I'm told that REU pays for three firemen's wages. I don't know if it's true, but if that's true, that's not right. I'm I know that uh the they forgave a $3.5 million loan for the soccer park. You know that good and well. Um let's see. Fire safety. Oh, our EU pays for the goats to eat the uh the grass and the brush for the fire. Um let's see now. Uh, and my friend that has a uh hanger up at Benton, he tells me that every commercial customer in Reading pays $70 to have their electric bill read or not their bill, their meter each month. The guy that goes by, and that's another thing. Today, I saw two meter readers. I saw this going on about two months ago. Does it take two people to read a meter? Now, these are I know these aren't going to cover all the expenses, but it's the things that like that that make people think you don't really need a raise. You know, maybe there's some fat to cut along the way. So, uh I'll just leave it at that. Bye.

All right. Thank you, Nick. And the other Nick, I'm sure you took some notes of things to bring back to the workshops and address about our wild safety plan and all that stuff. So, all right. Um, Council Member Resnner, I think you were up. So,

um, first I was going to make a motion uh to move this item to the proposed March 17th. I was also disappointed to hear that there were not a whole lot of uh, you know, less than 10 or so who attended, which could be for a whole host of reasons. So, I'm glad that you found some other locations to hold those. I would like to request that council uh be notified directly when you pick dates and times so that we can make sure that on our social channels that we're also pushing out that same information. Um I'm sure that you wrote down mailers, but I think that that's a great idea. Uh I think that any any way in which that we can engage with the community is a we need to be better at that and I think that you know that. And then I also am wondering if during the workshop you mentioned the residential energy discount, but I just want to really make sure because I I talk to people frequently who are not familiar with that program. So I want to make sure that that's being covered during those workshops that we're handing out information, making sure that people um who do qualify for those programs that they have all the information that they need. Um, I think that those are my only suggestions andor comments and like I said, I'll motion that we move it so that we can increase engagement.

Council council member Odette. Um, well, I did make this motion that we wait a couple weeks at the last council meeting because we didn't have enough information. Um, so I'm glad that we wait a couple weeks. You sounded good. Somebody's mimicking you right now. So it's Danuka for sure. [snorts] Um, I'm a little concerned about March 17th. It is, um, St. Patrick's Day. Um, I mean, you could make it a drinking game. How many times we say personnel? Um, you'd probably make good money,

right? Right. Okay. Um, is it going to do that the whole time? I'm like in my car echoing myself. Yeah. All right. So, um, I is the prolonged workshops and the outreach to the community going to affect the amount you're going to be asking for in your rates? No. Do they get any feedback into if that rate can be lower or like what's the purpose of the workshops to let make sure that more people know their rates are going to go up or are you looking for feedback to lower that possible rate?

I answered too quickly. So, two parts of that. Part one, by prolonging this to March 17th, I've talked to the customer service team. If council were to approve the rate increase for the utility, they could still hit the April 1 billing date. Some folks are going to be staying overnight to program the billing because you have to finish up the meter read cycles, switch the billing system to new rates and do that. But that's fine. Part two is um you know one thing about the for the people that did come it was nice because it's not just a one-way reading electric this is it and then we close our ears. We listen to what people are saying. Have you thought of this? What are you doing with that? Um clearly in this community right now there is a clear desire for personnel cost containment position cost containment position containment position reduction right so um we're taking that to heart and you know we're a business we're in business we're competing against other businesses and you know managing your people cost is is ex just one thing you better be doing especially going into this future. So that was it was good feedback. U most of the people are asking well why do we do we even have to do this with this renewable energy stuff right? So and there's there's kind of bright lines gray lines and red lines to that with the state. So there's additional risk you could take with the state with compliance and in in their energy portfolio. So those are some thoughts that that we can bring back. But, um, I think that one of the feedback points we got was, "Thank you for cutting ahead of time, cutting over $44 million of costs out of the utility over the 5-year plan." So, there's some affirmation with that. There was also a lot of concern about wildfire. Are you doing enough? Are you spending enough? Are you doing the right things to mitigate wildfire? rightfully so in our community from what

we experienced. I think that is a very emotional touch point for us in the utility and I think for those in the community. So that was that's another feedback point of okay well we have our wildfire mitigation plan. Is what's in the plan the right thing to be doing in the plan or do we miss something with the community? So um I think that I think it's been great back and forth and we we want to have some more of it for those that will come and participate with it. I I don't want to couch it as just a one-way. Um I think what we're getting at here is this a box checking exercise for public workshops. And it's not. Um this is the joy of owning your own public utility in a city that you can come to workshops, talk to the staff, the experts that do this every day, talk to me, and then come here to the council and talk, right? Versus, I don't know, for a big utility with blue trucks, you're down in San Francisco at the public utility commission if you can find it and going to the rate hearings and I'm not quite sure you have much feedback there. So,

so, um, I read through the documents that you guys posted on the website, a couple over 100 pages. I went through all of that. Um, I met with you, I met with, um, your team, with our city manager, finance director, assistant city manager. I went to the workshop on Thursday. given the things that we discussed to see if sort of that's the picture that's also painted to the public of the information that's in the documents versus the presentation of it. Um I read the emails from the public from concerned citizens and then I I crunched the numbers. So one of the things that's in the packet is the year-over-year numbers. I blew it up because I am that age now um and colorcoded it because I'm that age now. And um there's a few bits of information that I think the public should be aware of and when you do your workshops I think you should answer these questions because in the last 5 years when it comes to personnel there's been a 58% increase in personnel costs in five years. If you only go four years if you don't count this current year that we're in um it's 48% increase. Um and that's no new positions since 2022. the total growth of your overall budget um between 2021 and 2026 which is 5 years it grew by about 26.4 4 million. 71% of those costs were personnel costs. That is staggering. And I know that I know I 100% know and believe that um our wholesale costs like our what we bring in in revenue is going to go down because our power generation and how we're able to sell. I I'm not discounting that, but that is a massive um gaping hole. I think that costs are falling into that needs to be addressed. And the question is who's going to pay for that? Is it going to be the public

or is it going to be um are we going to bear some of that cost here at the city? And so I'm looking at for the public when we say it's $7 uh starting in April, it's $7 by January, another seven, and then we're going to add another $8 after that and another $8 the following year. that starts to add up pretty significantly because all of the utilities have gone up. Now, I was afraid I wasn't going to get, you know, to have a slideshow, so I just drew a big a big one so you could all see it. Um, our our rates in our utilities have gone up 25% in 23 24 25% in 2425 because weight water went up, solid waste went up, wastewater went up, and REU went up. So, our rates have been going up every year and they're going to continue to go up. And what I am the most worried about is when it comes to your REU rates, it is at April, beginning of April, it's going to add $63 per year for that year um to the bill. It's $147 extra the next year. It's $243 the year after that in addition to our bill. And it's $339 by the end of this four-year rate increase. That's more per year. So that is a significant cost in addition to all the other costs that are going if we don't do your four and a half% it still goes up 19.5% next year this year 14% next year 16% next year because of all the other bills that are collected on our on our bill. So unless you're going to come up with a 3% a 2% a 1% and how you're going to make that work. Are you going to cut positions? We had we added 17 positions in 17 months between uh December of 2020 and April of 2022. We had 17 position. We haven't added any since then and all these costs have continued to climb. So if you're going to come back to us or

you're going to do workshops, I want to see significant changes. You went from 5% to 4 and a.5% with a 1.6 million in savings to personnel. Is that the right number? 1.6 6 million per year every year over the five years. Yeah. So a little over six little over $6.5 million worth of personnel cuts in the

you were going to you were going to ask for 5% you went down to four and a half%. I would task you to take the year and figure out how you actually cut more so that you don't have to come back. Our our rates went up again just if you look at your bill in the last few years our rates have gone up 54%. just your bottom line, what you're paying. It's $188 without ever using any of anything. That's just a to have your toilet flush, to have your waste barrel, to to have you, you know, access to electricity. And we're going to increase that um exponentially because we already have all those other utilities are going to continue with 8%s and 7%s and 4%s. So, I I would say I would task you don't come back March 17th. Come back next year and have a plan. Show us that you've actually cut. Cut to the point where you can say we've cut this. Not we're going to cut it. We've cut these positions. We've cut we've completely we've done our refinance. We've done all of those things and we're not going we're going to come up with a rate increase that that is going to work and not be such a massive burden to the taxpayers. I mean that literally doubles your within 5 years we will have doubled our the bill the basic bill and like at what point is it enough especially when we gave 20 30 40% increases in in our salaries to our workers so that decision is coming back to bite us we've done we it was a 38% increase on our general fund it's 58% at REU and I haven't even gone to waste water and sewer but I'm coming for you next utilities ities to figure out what the increase of personnel is there. So we we have to begin cleaning this up. So I would say we we should push this much further than March 17th. We should push this to a place where we can actually see cuts, see changes so that we can get

to a place where we can if we if we need to do we don't need to do capital improvements right now because we're working on a capital improvement plan. That's why the last rate increases were done. Okay, let's let's give others a chance to speak. So, um, councelor Muns. So,

well, I second Erin's motion, um, come back on the 17th, but I'm sure that you're already aware that you're going to need to be extra prepared. Um, and you know, one of the one of the things that we have to do in this job, which is difficult, I mean, the things that she wants to do is difficult. There's no doubt about it. But there's also we have to trust in the people that we hire and we've trusted you. You've done a great job in my personal opinion. We've met many times and I trust the words that come out of your mouth. The things that we go over on a constant basis, maybe not constant, but relatively regularly. And you [snorts] know, that's just part of the what we have to do up here. I trust you and know that you will come back on the 17th with and then we make the decision whether we like what you say or you don't like what you say and then we base our votes on on the information that you provide us. So for me I second Erin's motion and the things that she said and I look forward to seeing you on the 17th.

Okay. Council member Duka, want to make sure to see if you have anything you want to say or make sure you're you're heard since you don't have a button to press. So, blinked twice. Okay. Nothing there. But, all right. We have a motion and second. I mean, the the only comment I'll make there is I I don't think RU and City Reading is immune to any kind of inflationary issues there. You look at the cost of food that's just gone up enormously. insurance, utilities, of course, you know, um just everything has gone up, you know, since postcoid and we we expected that and we we were warned of these costs and the fact of seeing a 4 and a.5% is, you know, it is less than what we've seen in food budgets and cable TV and just all the other stuff that we pay with insurance. Insurance of course has gone up enormously. So, um I don't think we're immune to these increases and the tariffs that are hitting us and um

I do appreciate all the cost cutting, you know, maneuvers that you guys are doing and thinking about and getting ahead of this. I do see our um city attorney on here. So, thank you, Mr. Mayor. And I'm sorry for not mentioning this sooner um but uh when you call for the vote um or before, I would suggest asking Dr. Duka if there's any public comment at the remote location on this item or any prior item. I'm sure he has lots of people lined up. So, he wants to talk. Oh, yes. Councelor Danuka. And if you could answer that question if there's anybody there that would like to speak that you brought along. So, no, I do not have anybody else, but I have a comment or two if that's okay. Yeah, the floor is yours. Three minutes. Go. [laughter]

Thank you. I wouldn't take longer than that. Uh so first of all I have spent uh a significant time in taking really having a deep dive into RU budget comparative studies with other cities and other utilities in the state and uh I do appreciate uh what RU does for our city the benefit. I am absolutely interested in having more public engagement and I would encourage the public to actually come to these workshops because I appreciate public's emails and social media comment. However much more beneficial would be to have a conversation which is bilateral conversation with our staff and with the council members. So I would really encourage public to show up for these workshops so you can have a conversation rather than a one-way uh opinion. The second thing I would say is we are I uh I am very sensitive to the cost of uh electricity for our rate payers. I live on the same planet too as a commercial customers in addition to being a residential customer. I'm very worried about the rates of electricity and energy and services. Uh but as a city council member, I'm also very sensitive to our the decision making because what concerns me most is a bond ratings. If we are not careful in our budgeting as well as balancing our budget for REU, we can hurt our bond rating which actually will cost us more in bond payments and can be a very counterproductive uh for us and then we will be forced to increase the rates

even more. So I just want to caution the public as well as all the council members to keep the bond ratings in mind which can really come back to bite us. So uh I think it's a great idea for us to have more discussions and I'll be happy to attend some of these um the workshop myself as well in addition step. encourage public to do that and I would support this but I would really ask everyone to look beyond just simple explanations and simple assumptions and really have a conversation about this topic. Thank you.

Thank you very much. We heard you. It came through very very good. So um Council Member Resnner,

I just want to give a couple of comments. Although I won't be participating in council member Audet's drinking game on the 17th about personnel, I do believe that that is a topic that uh will be discussed. So I just want to give you some forewarning that there will be questions about personnel. Uh, I am giving you the warning to make sure that you are looking over that and that staff is is reviewing that because I do think that every director at this point in time should be prepared for this council to be making which council member Buns alluded to some very serious considerations and pushing on staff extremely hard within the personnel um costs. So, I just want to while I don't think that we necessarily have to do the drinking game, I just want to prepare you for that. So, to answer those questions,

I'm not drinking. I would not recommend a a drinking game. It's going to be a lot of slides. We're going to get into a lot of detail. We have um could you also include um um if with the danger of this bond rating change, can you include what bond we were going for to where that's going to be an issue in the next two years? And then also what it's going to cost us for each bond rating. What would that increase of cost be for any changes to our bond rating? Yes. So, would you include that?

That's a good point, uh, council memberette. So, I in in the slide deck that we're that we've actually prepared and we're going to continue tuning after the public workshops, there's an entire section on what we would call liquidity. So, it it's it'll discuss our rating from Fitch, which is u um for for us personally, we have a FICO credit score. So for utilities or for companies uh in corporations they're usually they're they're rated by standard and pores Moody's or Fitch. We are rated by Fitch. So we will dive into liquidity what that means for bond ratings what bonds have covenants to them for debt service coverage ratios. We'll dive into counterparty credit status and collateral requirements based on your credit rating and what that can trigger if your credit rating drops and cash calls from counterparties and limited trading. Um, back to just so I I just kind of want to repeat and make sure I'm I'm grabbing all this personnel, personnel, personnel. Um, dive deep, chop it apart, talk about the positions that were added in FY21, which would have been the 2020 time frame. Talk aboutus that were approved by council for either uh what we call like I would call like a labor group or unrepresented, which is not anou, it's really a policy manual. talk about MLUS that were approved by council.

You also sound

just a sound check, right? Um and and what we will do is start, let's call it 5 years ago with actual budget and we will build oursel up with uh anything from unfunded uh from UL pension liabilities to raises to additional positions we've added and we will walk through every bit of that to get to where we are today. Um we will also talk about um pos efforts that we are making to um hold vacancies or even possibly eliminate positions right to manage labor costs. And then we'll dive deep into the other we reduced $44 million of cost out of this out of this rate plan. Back in June when council adopted the budget it was five years of 5%. After some pretty heavy cost cutting we dropped it to four years of four and a halfs and then an advisory 2% at year five. That's not included in this rate proposal. It's just advisory. So, it took $44 million worth of cuts to get from fives to four and a halfs for four years and then a two at the end. So, um but I hear you. I also think it's important we talk about the other utilities somewhat. What I can, you know, as a director of electric, I'm not in control what's going on with water waste and solid waste, but it is on one bill, right? And from a customer viewpoint, they get app bill. They don't get an REU bill. They get a city of reading bill that includes these other utilities. So, um, I'm 100% cognizant of that because my team actually at the Aztec building does the billing for all utilities, which brings into some of that confusion that it's your RU bill. It's not not your RU bill, it's your city bill, but we we can talk about that. Um, and then we need to talk about affordability. So, as we lay rate increases forward, whether it's from power supply or it's from infrastructure and whatnot, and and we'll dive into what is included in this 4-year package for personnel and what is not included. Um, and just spoiler alert, there's no new positions and I don't, you know, there's no uh wage increases baked in, right? Just let's just get that out there. But what we will do is talk about how does that relate to affordability and how do we measure that and some different ways to

check that. So, I hear you. Um we'll talk liquidity, we'll talk personnel, we'll we will we will be prepared and we'll bring also more information from the workshops from the next two weeks.

So I well hold on I I I am more interested I don't I don't I you gave us the numbers. You gave us the numbers and this year from last year to this year there was a 6.9% increase in personnel costs. So if next year you don't go up that's not very significance because this year you went up 6.9%. So, what I'm saying is when you come back with your or when you approach personnel, I'd like to know what you're going to cut because no positions have gone away and if you don't put those positions away and we give you a rate increase, you can fill those positions and we would never know because you don't need our permission to do that. And so, to know that, right, things are really costs are really going to be cut and there's going to be a change. Um, that's what's going to need to be done. And you gave us another you gave us all of those positions. It's on the website, so it's I didn't I'm not the only one that got it. There's a document that has the different positions that were added. One of them says that they're related to a five-year capital improvement plan. So, if there are things that were temporary, let us know that. Um, if there's a way for us to eliminate some of those positions because they were for specific projects and those things have changed, or if not, if these are absolutely necessary and there's nothing that you can do, I'd like to know that, too. But they're they're a year-over-year, which is what this document is. It's not this big, but it's in the it's in the report. Um it's the year-over-year that's significant. And so an explanation of how we're going to get that back down because it still increases 2% year-over-year. So it's not it's it's not going down. Um it's a 66 this represents a 66% increase from 21 till the end of this 2030. That's a massive increase in personnel costs. And that's um not happening in any of your other sectors. they your costs in all your other sectors have been pretty controlled. So I do understand the wholesale part and how much we're going to be selling. So how much you know revenue we're going to be losing because of that. But I want us to be cognizant and if you could give us suggestions in

your about what you're going to cut I think that would be that's what I'm looking for with personnel. Okay we'll do council member men. Um and it's my understanding that before every year directors have to justify every position. Is that correct?

Well, um what we do in electric is we do what's called zerobased budgeting. So, we start off with no budget uh for the two-year budget plan. Uh the city does a two-year budget. So, we start off with no budget and then we start building uh from that point forward. Now, when it comes to personnel, the city is under contract with labor groups and so you have to respect that process and the laws that surround it. So, we can't start with just with no people and then add people. we have, you know, we do have people, but as we build a zerobased budget for ON&M or capex and these other programs, then it starts to fill out how many positions do you really need, right? And then that's your opportunity to eliminate positions or in the case of if you're doing uh you know in the past there's some regulatory requirement we'll dive into that or a large infrastructure builder you may request additional but but I think in a roundabout way after you do your zerobased budget and you build what you need then you look at your personnel and say because we're an enterprise fund we're in business is the staffing level right for the business need for this two-year budget process.

Yeah. Well, if we can't eliminate people, just make sure that you justify what we have. But well, you can't you can eliminate you you can eliminate positions um through that's fine. If you eliminate them, you eliminate them because you need to or desire, but yes. All right, we have a motion and a second. Let's take a roll call vote. Very quick.

Oh, council member Duka, you wanted to add comments. We are certainly facing some of those decisions made by the previous councils. What I would like to see is the people who are proposing to cut the uh personnel number and cost. I would like to present them to present an alternate presentation to say that how they propose to cut it and how they want to avoid any escalation in the utility rates. So I would like them to make an alternate proposal because it's not enough to just say that we should postpone it by one year but that would be irresponsible kicking the can down the road and hurting our bound ratings. What we need is an alternate proposal but I will support this proposal for now to postpone it to Sep. Uh sorry

who who are you asking to present an alternate proposal or oh that's how I understand it. Were you uh suggesting council member Odet what to that's what over here? No. Or who are you proposing to bring back an alternate proposal? To Nick. He wants he wants Nick to come back with an alternate proposal with cuts. Is that what you said? I don't know if he said that. No. Oh, I didn't understand. I understood that what he was saying is that if you're going to vote no to what this is in terms of cuts to bring No, I'm saying maybe I totally misunderstood.

I'm saying that anyone who wants to cut the personnels or by not and not increase the rates, I would hope they would come up with an alternate proposal. Well, that's actually the job of the RU director here to come up with other alternatives for us so that and we know what risks we would be taking and what alternative what that would mean to our cash on hand and what the options are which is why I asked when he comes back come back with information about what personnel he would cut because no personnel were cuts from this from what what the proposal is. There are the same positions they had in 2022 they have now. So no, nobody was cut, no personnel was cut, nothing changed on the personnel front. And so I'm I'm asking that when you present present that information as well.

I I think to your point, that's what the workshops are is for people to come with ideas and some alternate plans, but it's really important to consider that we would want people of the expertise to be able to help provide some sort of alternate options. I wouldn't ask my own child to revamp our family budget. I would take in their ideas, but they may not my kids may not be the most qualified to adjust our family budget. So, I I'm lost. I'm sorry. I was going to take If you're going to come back with four and a halfs, there should be some cuts to that. I would assume you're not going to Okay. All right. Let's Let's go to roll call vote. So, thank you. Okay. Council member Odet.

No. Vice Mayor Dr. Denuga. He's still deliberating. So, Dr. Yes. Council member Muns. Yes. Mayor Prom Resner. Yes. And Mayor Latah. Yes. All right. Thank you.

All right. We're going to move on to item nine, the regular calendar reports and communications of departments, boards, commissions, and committees. Um, we have our city manager 9.1A. This is going to consider an uncodified ordinance amending Reading Municipal Code Title 6.42, the entertainment zones to add the Hilltop entertainment zone.

Mr. Mayor, um, if I may just start before, uh, Mr. Jabiscoco um presents. Um I just want to note uh one thing that's a little bit unusual here procedurally, which is this item came forward um as a result of an item 12. Normally, we wouldn't draft an entire ordinance and bring that to you for a first reading unless we've gotten the direction to go ahead and do that. And one of the things that I want to make sure that you're aware of is that the only reason we drafted in this case is because this is the last meeting at which you could possibly have a first reading in order for the ordinance to be effective prior to um the event it's intended for. So, um uh the the intent was not to jump the gun in terms of um the recommendation and the discussion that the council would have. Um but I also want to let you know that there are some very real time constraints and that if you're not able to have a finalized um ordinance uh coming out of today's meeting, um you would likely need to actually go through a longer vetting process and bring this back for next year.

Well, [clears throat] good evening, mayor, members of the council. My name is Jason Daliscoco, management assistant to the city manager, and tonight I will be presenting on the item 12 from February 17th where the direction was to bring back a an entertainment zone for Hilltop Drive for the cool April nights cruise. So, Senate Bill 969 allowed cities to establish entertainment zones where individuals are allowed to openly consume alcohol on city's public right away. We effectively did this for downtown. We have a downtown entertainment zone. It is in operation 365 days a year from 10:00 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day. With the item 12, we are proposing to amend our entertainment zone ordinance to create a temporary Hilltop Drive entertainment zone. It would be specific to the cool April nights cruise April 24th and the hours of that would be 6:00 p.m. to 900 p.m. And that is in coordination with Reading Police Department. This is the proposed boundaries of the Hilltop Drive entertainment zone. As you can see, it is only Hilltop Drive. We have Cypress to the south and Highway 44 to the north. It incorporates approximately 10 or so businesses that would be able to participate in the entertainment zone. We do have a fiscal impact and challenges to effectively establish the entertainment zones. Entertainment zone, we need to mark the boundaries with signage. This is expected to cost under $5,000 and would be covered in public works current budget. And generally when item 12s are present presented um staff returns at a

subsequent meeting prevent or um presents a clear background and gives a clear recommendation. And essentially, we're skipping a step and the ordinance must be passed as is tonight to be able to um have this in effect for the Cool Apron Nights cruise on April 24th. Um attendees of the entertainment zoom may wonder outside of the boundaries. Um bear in mind RPD will have limited capability or be able to limit limit won't be able to enforce due to um just their staff will be held up with other responsibilities. The um cooler nights cruise is historically an alcohol-free event. So we want to make sure that we provide plenty of communication to the community and also with the businesses. Um they're going to have to go through ABC receive approval. They're going to have to follow our our procedures. They're going to have to continue to check ID. They're going to have to wristband customers and they're going to have to provide beverages in a clear plastic cup. It's the same process as our downtown entertainment zone. So, we do want to make it easy for them. And with that, we have two recommendations. We have option A, which is to offer the ordinance for first reading and following the process in option A. And then we have option B and that's to provide direction to staff to continue this item. We would miss the cool April nights [clears throat] for this year and but we can have it ready for next year.

Thank you. I'm available for any questions.

All right. Before we get any questions, we have three speakers and then we'll bring you back up Jason. So, uh, we will go with Rhonda Hansen, James, looks like Verb, and then last will be Ed Roman. So, so Rhonda, if you're here, you're up. Hello, my name is Rhonda Hansen. I am on the Cool April Knights board of directors. I have been for eight years, I do believe. I think that this is an amazing idea. I've also a business owner on Hilltop Drive in that general vicinity and I feel that I don't want to say people do it already, but I think it would make it easier if we allowed this to happen. I think it would take off the police department as well as ABC. They're out there anyways. They're they're watching everybody. Um, it works downtown. We haven't had any problems. It's been great. I think that um I just I feel that it's a good thing. I think that we should bring that up onto Hilltop Drive and make this a fun event. People are drinking anyways. It'll invite people to explore other businesses to walk and see more businesses as well. So, I think that this is a great idea. So, thank you.

All right. Thank you, Rhonda. James, where where are you or you? So, there you are. Nick, I'll have you go after James and then and we'll finish with you last. So, okay. Okay. Hello. Uh my name is James Bar. I serve as the general manager of the Holiday Inn and Convention Center there on Hilltop Drive. Um, I'm here tonight uh res representing a lot of the businesses that are uh on the Hilltop corridor. Um, first I wanted to acknowledge the city's leadership in establishing the downtown entertainment zone. Uh, since it has been activated in 2025, it's demonstrated that with clear boundaries, responsible operators, and collaboration between businesses and the city, these events can be exe executed successfully. Um, we are here tonight asking for the opportunity to activate the similar one night entertainment zone on Hilltop during the Friday evening of Cool April nights cruise uh this year in 2026. That evening already brings thousands of people to Hilltop and is one of the most highly attended nights of the year in this corridor. Historically, many attendees do bring their own alcohol and because of the size and movement of the crowd, that activity can be difficult to manage. Our proposal does not create additional activity. It creates structure, accountability and um overall activity that the the activity uh already exists. It increases oversight, enhances safety, and generates additional sales tax revenue for the city. It also supports businesses that invest yearround in jobs, property improvements, and economic growth. We're prepared to partner fully with the city staff to help coordinate communication with uh

participating businesses and work alongside with public safety to ensure expectations are clear and executed responsibly. Hilltops a major economic corridor for reading. Our hotels, our restaurants, and our retailers contribute significantly to tax revenue and employment opportunities. We believe that 2026 represents a strong opportunity to demonstrate that this model can work um and be successful here on the Hilltop area as well. Uh we respectfully ask for your support in allowing Hilltop businesses to collaborate with the city and activate [snorts] this entertainment zone here in 2026 for the cool April nights cruise. Uh thank you for your time.

All right. Thank you, James. Nick, this is your third time tonight, so you're going to win the most speaker award. So, she asked a watchdog. Must have gave up. Yeah. Hey. Yeah. How come you won't let Tanessa put her spreadsheets up here? You let these people put theirs up. I'd like to see her side of the argument. I think that's just biased in my opinion. Nick, are we talking about this agenda item right now or the agenda? Oh, excuse me, Jack. I'm sorry. All right. All right. Thank you. I got my point across. Thank you, Nick. All right, Ed.

Well, I promise to be brief and you probably most of you know that that's hard for me, but Well, you get three minutes, so

excuse me. [cough and clears throat] I really can't say a whole lot more than what Rhonda and James said. Um I think we all know what the economic value of Cool April nights is to all of us. It's the biggest event that uh Reading hosts and um my opinion, you know, I've been in the hospitality and tourism business for a long time. Um it's it's the only event of its kind that brings uh significant amount of people from outside the area to spend money in our community. And I think a lot of what what's being talked about here tonight is the economic impact of you know new revenues and and ways that we can uh you know make more money. Uh, obviously as an operator of a hotel and restaurant, I can definitely make more money by selling alcohol to people that come in and take it back out to the street. That means more sales tax for you. Um, I I think that we need to really work hard to get it done this year just as an experiment if nothing else. I think the downtown has proved to uh be able to handle an entertainment zone in our community. Um and I think it makes sense for us to modify it as needed for next year and those years beyond. I know there's been a couple of I've had conversations with almost everybody on the dis um you know and each one of you have added a couple of extra things. Unfortunately, we can't add things to this specific ordinance for tonight or we aren't going to be able to do it for 2026. So, I would hope that um you would support this ordinance and give guidance to the staff on how you would like to see it uh maybe in the future as well. Um, just

remember one thing that we don't want to lose cool April nights and uh, a lot of those people that come here, they come here to have fun and I think that's what our job is is to show them a good time. In all the time I've been here 50 plus years in this business before Cool April actually started I've never ever had an a problem with participants or some of the people that have been on the sidewalk. So thanks for your commitment to making Reading the gym of the North State and hopefully you support this ordinance. And maybe I I have one question for you. Maybe and sorry I couldn't connect with you earlier today, but um I think about the economic benefit to either hotel or restaurant.

Um you guys are all in marketing, so you crunch numbers. We spend $5,000 on signage here. I is this something over a three-hour period to where you're seeing this is going to be a big game changer for you as you crunch numbers and think about your volume of increased sales or um what kind of impact is this going to do for you? Well, I it's going to be difficult to answer that question. I do think that it will increase sales. Here's what happens. Every restaurant on Hilltop or the ones over on Dana that aren't really part of this, once people get in their in their seats, they don't leave until the cool April night's event is over. So, our turnover during the event, we're full, but at some point in time, people max out on what they can eat and what they can drink. And so you sort of sit there for maybe an hour and a half, two hours with not much sales.

Then what happens is when the cool the cruise is over, it breaks and everybody just finds the nearest restaurant or bar that they can go to and it gets busy all over again. That is not typical business for our operation or any of the operations in in the audience. So, I think by doing this, you're going to give people and maybe not the first year because they're not going to not everybody's going to know about it. Um, hopefully the signs are going to help, but I would say you could pick up $1,000 in business real easy uh at each location. Um, if as long as they're doing their job correctly and you know, people participate.

Can I ask a question? Do you guys think that you have enough time to get it together by this? We do. You do? Yes. Would Will you help others? Absolutely. I've we've talked to several people already. Um I I think sometimes the apprehension is uh you know, we've just never done it before and Hilltop is a long corridor. Um people ask me all the time, how come we don't do events on Hilltop? One of the reasons is the way that street's designed. It's just not designed really well for it except for this particular event because you already have a cruise that's going around. Honestly, people are already on the streets drinking their own alcohol.

Yeah. Um the chief and I have talked about that. I've talked to ABC. They all know that there's no way that you're going to be able to stop everybody from bringing their own alcohol in. But there are people who do come in that don't know the rules and they, you know, they go, "Can we take this drink outside?" "No, I'm sorry. You got to drink it in here." And they'll, you know, they drink it down and then they go back out and sit in their chair on the sidewalk. So, you know, I do think it's going to change the complexion of how people uh watch the cruise. Um, and I honestly don't think there'll be any problems from it.

Would would you be allowed to sell the product in the parking lot or outside the restaurant? Uh, not according to ABC rules. You cannot, if you're a ly, you cannot sell alcohol in your own parking lot. However, I'm going to kind of see if uh maybe there's a way around that. Um, we have a patio. So, yeah, we could potentially set up a a a bar on the end of the patio that just sells to that group of people with using the guidelines, which are the clear cup and I believe a blue dot is what they use downtown. So

yeah, I mean the the economic impact for us as a city, we would be doing this just to create more fun. We would have to have a million dollars in liquor sales just to generate $10,000 in sales tax. I hope that happens. You take it a little bit. So I was we're counting on you to sell a million dollars. Well, 500,000 [laughter] in liquor sales would help us break even. So that's your quota. Um so you you guys need to figure that out. But we can reuse the signs every year. So, this is an upfront cost and these signs, I'm sure, could last for lots of years. And um a thought for future years, would we be ever open to allowing this to expand to Churn Creek or the other streets to uh fill in the entire parade route or

I I would like to see that happen next year. Yes. Okay. in the hours expand the initial the initial ordinance was written um to get it through tonight and there were a couple things that I think should have happened that didn't maybe expanding the hours to

uh you know 4:00 to 10:00 would be more reasonable and and also you know expanding it to Churn Creek the one problem that you have is there's not really any uh bars or facilities on Churn Creek that I'm aware of that would want to participate probably that sell alcohol unless somebody were to take over uh some of the buildings that are closed down. There are a couple on Dana that I think would probably participate. Uh so I think that needs to be considered for next year, but uh I think Jason realizes that that ordinance needs to be uh modified a little bit. Okay. Thanks for taking all the time to answer all our questions, Ed. So absolutely. Thank you.

You did a great job. Uh, do I have any other council members or Jason's coming up or anybody like to? Uh, I'll make a I'll make a motion to approve option A. I'll second. Okay. Um, I don't see any other speakers. We have a first second. Council Adet ready to vote. I love the anxiousness. So, let's do a roll call vote. So, he loves your anxiety. He likes the five. He does. Council member Brad. Yes. Vice Mayor Dr. Denuka. [snorts] One. One more time. Dr. Duka.

Blink. Once for yes, twice for no. Okay. Dr. Duka said yes. He did. Council member Muns. Yes. Mayor Prom Resner. Yes. And Mayor Lat. All right. We did it. Million dollar quota. You heard us there, Ed. So, all right. Well, um, we're on to council travel reports. Did any council member travel and has anything to report? So, uh, councelor Muns, you're still up. Is that a mistake? Nope. Okay, that's for the last item there. There is no travel. So, to report, let's go to item line item 12. Any suggestions from council members for future topics? There is nothing. We are adjourned. We're going back to

And we are going to go back to close session. I thought my was off tonight, but I'm We will come back and report any reports. Eat a normal dinner.