City Council - Regular Meeting

Okay, we are uh coming out of close session. Uh we are in recess. We we intend to go back to uh close session at the conclusion of this meeting. At that point, we'll be able to come back and report uh any uh reportable action at that time. So, I just wanted to keep you up to speed on that. 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, uh, 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 at the city's website and also at www.c cityofwriting.gov and also 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 uh pledge of allegiance. If you'll rise with me,

council member Duka, would you lead us? I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

If you stay standing we have our invocation. Uh this is going to be a sure treat. It's with Lynn Fritz from the Native American tradition as a Carrick tribal descendant Shassa County Interfaith Forum chair. And also we have Joey Carol, Native American flute. [music] As we stand together, we stand to honor the original people of this land. the first nations, the wind tube. And we offer this prayer and blessing to creator, the great spirit, to grandfather sky, and grandmother earth, to all the two-legged, the four-legged, the wing creatures. the rocks and minerals, [music] our insect brothers and sisters, to all the plant life, to the life that fills our waterways and the lifegiving energy of water itself. To all of life, we speak this blessing. And as we assemble and gather this day, we speak a blessing to our community leaders, our elected officials who represent us, who work to enhance life,

to create health and wellness in our communities. We're families, individuals, all of us to feel safe, honored, and welcomed. So, as we speak this blessing, there's a presence of peace, of creative collaboration, working together to address issues, to solve problems. with deep respect. It is in our differences that we learn from one another. And so we honor those differences as part of our teachers. Just as our ancestors are gathered with us here now and our teachers that we carry with us, we honor honor all those in all of life. We give thanks. And as we speak this prayer and blessing, the energy goes beyond this room, across this community, our state, our nation, the one ocean, to our global community, and into the stars and universes upon universes. to all to all our relations.

Oho, thank you. May be seated.

All right. Thank you very much. Welcome to city council our St. Patrick's Day edition today. Hopefully we'll find a gold of pot of gold of cash by the end of the meeting. But uh if not, you should know that my heart feels like gold that you're here with us today. So all right. Um just for procedural uh things uh we are going to move an item uh we are going to move item 9.10A under finance. We're going to move that in front of uh 9.1A uh before we talk about the circle 6 consulting for the city of Reading. So, we're going to move that one up. Okay. Uh we'll start the meeting today with a presentation. Uh oh,

Jack. Jack, I I think we should figure out who's here, right? So, let let's You don't have to. I mean, I can see you, but we should verbally say it. So, let's let's do our roll call today. Thank you, Councelor Muns. So, Council Member Adet here. Vice Mayor Danuka present. Council member Muns here. Mayor Prom Breer present. And Mayor Latau here.

All right, that's my one mistake today. That's all I get. Okay, we'll do our We have a really neat presentation today. Item 2A, uh, a presentation by the Office of District 1, Assembly Member Heather Hadwick, honoring our firefighter, Steven Sawyer, as the city of Reading Fire Department's 2025 firefighter of the year. Pretty special day today. We have our fire chief uh up here to to take us off. So, there we go. There we go. Good evening. Thank you, mayor, members of council, staff, uh community members, uh Jared Van Landingham. I'm the fire chief here, city of Reading. Uh special night tonight. I have with me Deputy Chief Jay Summerland uh with the Reading Fire Department and Mark Mazano who's a familiar face and representing uh Assembly Member Heather Hadwick's office tonight. We're here to recognize Steven Sawyer as our firefighter of the year and Pride and Ownership recipient. And to give you a little bit of just a quick little uh background about these two awards, the Reading Fire Department give these are the two main awards that we give out uh each year. And they're voted on uh nominated by and voted on by their peers. And so Stephen uh Sawyer has been with us just about three years and received both of those awards this year at our award cere ceremony a couple weeks ago. So, we wanted to drag him in front of everybody and uh celebrate him for a moment. But Stephen uh you know to to tell you a little bit about it is is that he has jumped in as a new firefighter at the Reading Fire Department. Um helping us out with technology uh some of our mapping stuff, our our rostering and callback uh you know things that we've always done on paper and he's helped us get everything electronic. And so he's been a major help on the fire ground. His bosses, his

captains, his battalion chiefs have had great things to say about him. He's a great tactician. He's a great firefighter. Always looking to step in and and, uh, do the work that needs to get done. So, we're really proud of you, uh, Steven Sawyer. And I want to turn it over to Mark Mazano and to, uh, make this rec uh, recognition as well. I don't need that. It's pretty simple. But when are you going to start the fire with his mustache? In time. All right. The assembly finds out about things like this. You've been chosen by your peers. Congratulations. [applause]

Yeah. I want to do a picture. Okay. We got to get these guys.

[applause]

All right. Uh, public comment. Pursuant to the Brown Act, city council cannot take action on any public comment items. 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. The mayor will determine the order of the speakers. If 30 minutes is not adequate to accommodate all 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. All right. I'm trying to find our speakers. We do. All right. So, we have four speakers today. I see. Uh, we have Tony Trimp, Mark Ewing, we have Tim Bower from Choose Reading. Just says L. There might be more after that. And we have Sheree. I'm going to butcher that last name. IT or you'll have to correct me when you get up there so I say it right next time. But if all four of you could line up up there and we'll start with Tony. If you're here, take us off and hi Tony Trip from the Ring Dragstrip. Uh, just wanted to come and offer that my support for this and I appreciate you guys. there's any questions I wanted to be here to answer anything that you may have as far as we're on the closed agenda. I couldn't make it earlier. Just got into town about 4:30. Also wanted to offer this weekend. We have our season opener and for those of you that have not been to the facility, uh would like you to offer to have you guys come out Saturday or Sunday, get a hold of me, come out and see exactly what we do. So you kind of have you can see see how

that how the routine is out at the racetrack. and uh would like to sit and speak to you guys about, you know, the different facilities we have out there. So, we're open from 9:00 to 5:00 Saturday, Sunday. Wanted to reach out to you guys and invite you out. Great. Okay. Thank you for being here, Tony. All right, Mark, you you are up. So, all right. I also have handouts. I don't know if you all take handouts.

You can hand those right up here. All right. So, good evening. Thank you for having me. My name is Mark Euing and I'm the lead volunteer with a community organization called Beautify Shasta. We're a volunteer-driven and now officially recognized 501c3 nonprofit. We focus on reducing litter and restoring natural spaces and building community pride across Shasta County. Beautify Shassa started very simply with a bucket and a grabber and a belief that constant actions add up. And since then it has grown into an active community effort. Over the past several months, we've organized cleanups throughout the community. And even as small as an organization as we are, the impact is already visible. In just the past few months, our volunteers, including students, families, nonprofits, and local partners, have removed thousands of pounds of litter from streets, creeks, parks, and trail systems. We've helped address illegal dumping sites, supported encampment cleanups, partnered with schools, and worked in areas that are off that often go overlooked. But the impact goes beyond pounds collected. What we're seeing is a shift in mindset. When people come out to a cleanup just once, they begin they [clears throat] begin to see the environment differently. They pick up litter during their daily routines and they talk to their families about stewardship. That ripple effect is how long-term change happen in a community. We've also been fortunate to build strong community partnerships with local organizations, schools, businesses, and work alongside city staff. And I want to specifically thank your teams at Solid Waste and the parks department. With their support, it has made everything that we do when it comes to organizing safe and effective cleanups.

And I'm just simply here tonight to share that this work is happening. The community is responding. And now, as an official nonprofit, we're positioned to grow that impact even further. We would welcome continued partnership with the city, whether it's helping share events, supporting logistics, or collaborating on larger scale efforts in the future. Thank you for your time and for the work that you do for the community, and I'd be happy to connect at the further at a later date or you're welcome to come out to any one of our future cleanups. Mark, thank you very much for what you're doing. And I'm still going to connect with you to uh give you a couple names of the people that spoke at the last meeting that we talked about. So, they're eager to help clean up hard with you. Okay. Thank you for being Thank you.

All right. Uh Tim, Tim, you're here. You're up next. Good evening. My name is Tim Bower. I work with Jennifer at Choose Reading Lodging. We represent the hotels and I'm here to talk about some updates with the Iron Man 70.3 Northern California uh happening in August. Um so I'm going to start from just some basic logistics. Race week, that's what we call it. The event is on August 16th, Sunday, but technically we will have people coming in Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. The staff will arrive on Monday. Uh that's a staff of the Iron Man teams. About 75 of their people will be flying in. So race week um starts pretty much on the 12th. So just a breakdown of that. Um Wednesday, Thursday, athlete registration starts opening up. So we'll have an influx of people in the in the area. Uh Friday, we're planning a downtown Reading welcome reception. And Saturday there's going to be a practice swim at Oak Bottom and a potential morning yoga on the Sundial Bridge, which we're excited about. And then Sunday will be race day. So that's kind of a general overview of race week. Um some good news, we're officially five months away from race week as of today and uh we have over 1,200 athletes registered from around the world. I just got an update today. We have 37 states represented that will be flying in and we also have 11 countries that will be flying in to Reading, California. Uh, one of the big things with triathlons is the number of tri clubs they draw because outside of race week, they will be here weeks and months ahead to literally beat the

course before anyone else can. So, we have over 200 tri clubs signed up uh as of today and we still have five months left. Our cutoff I'm going. All right. Our cutoff is 200 people. So, that's we're pretty much halfway there from having a maxed out full capacity race. Um just some updates from our end. Uh for visibility, we will be uh passing out over a thousand volunteer posters at local businesses. Um so there's awareness. We'll be doing that at the end of the month. And we'll be utilizing all the 122 street lamp banners about 60 days before the race. So, a lot of Iron Man branding will be visible in the community months before the race is even close. Uh, good news, [sighs] we have we're distributing 4,000 cooling towels to all athletes and volunteers. And we get to start the race early around 5:52 civil sunrise. And most people should be done with the race about starting at 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 pm. So, That's probably the best news you'll ever hear. And there is an eight eight and a half hour cut off. So Mike, you can do it. So if you guys need anything, chooseing.comman for the most updates, timchwriting.com for email. Thank you.

I I I am training just for the record. Actually, I I make a motion to make sure that a mayor runs the race. Absolutely. I am [laughter] running. I am sure running. I don't know if I'll survive it. You may need a new mayor after the race. I'm looking, but um [laughter] I I'm next in line. I will I will mayor wear the mayor's hat and everything. So, I I cannot [laughter] wait. So, okay. Good stuff. All right. Uh next one. Sheree or I may have butchered your name, so please correct me if I got that wrong. So, first and last name. So, that's okay. My name is Sheree Topedi and my maiden name wasn't any better. So, I'm used to it. It's all right.

Well, if it wasn't Lat then you're okay. So, yeah. [laughter] Um, so my name is Shrito Petty. Um, I was born and raised in Reading. I work for the state of California and me and my husband are local business owners here in town. Um, we're raising a family and so we're invested in seeing Reading be successful and healthy. So, I'm here today to express my support for expanding our opportunities for local medical care, including a school, um, making our area attractive for physicians. Um, and I won't speak on it today, but that includes a mental health facility. Um, like many in our community, I've been directly impacted by the shortage of doctors. My daughter here has special health needs, and we're really used to traveling for specialists, but we're getting to that point for primary care as well. Finding a primary care physician is extremely difficult. And even if you do have one, appointments are often booked out for months and sometimes close to a year. you're lucky to get your wellness visit in. Um, it's nearly impossible to get a same day appointment and for several years now, tellaalth has been my family's only option for actual illness and even then you can't really diagnose everything virtually. It's really difficult. Urgent care centers, which should help fill that gap, are frequently overwhelmed as well and a lot of times unable to accommodate walk-in patients. Some even refuse to see sick patients and focus on things like sport physicals because any symptom could be COVID. Um, we were referred to the ER for for a sore throat. And PTPs, primary care, are moving to concierge services. We were on a waiting list for local doctors because I pay for insurance. I can't pay $200 a month in a membership per patient for my family of four. It's just not possible. Um, and it's not just an inconvenience, it's a growing access to care issue that

a affects our entire community. So supporting a local medical school is meaningful long-term solution. Physicians train in a community and they're more likely to stay in practice there. So by investing in medical education locally, we create a stronger pipeline for providers who understand our community and are committed to serving here. Um, we have an opportunity to make our area more attractive to future physicians by supporting education, training, and a health care environment where they can succeed and serve. Some studies show that up to 70% of graduates will remain in the same general area long term, and our community depends on having access to medical care. So, thank you for your time. She was gonna say happy St. Patrick's Day. [laughter]

All right. Thank you to all our speakers that came today. Much appreciated. Always great to hear from you. Uh moving on to our consent calendar. Uh the consent calendar contains items considered routine andor 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. Uh 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 absentation or vote on any item. or four, remove an item and place it on the regular portion of the agenda for delivery of a staff report and or an extended discussion or deliberation. Council member Adet, I see you would like to speak.

Uh, I did not hear that in the microphone, so I don't know if they heard that either, but forgive me. Um, I'd like to pull 4.9A. 4.9A. And would you like to pull that for a presentation letter or for questions right now or? Well, I had a Well, I just wanted to I have a clarifying question and then I just wanted to make sure if it's a budget item that the city manager is the arbiter of where it the budget's going, not what's stated in we didn't act. Is our police chief here? Uh, he's definitely here. I saw him. Who? Chief. Chief Chief Barner, are you here? He is here.

Is this the same grant that we did two weeks ago or is this a different one? It's a different one. Okay. So, we didn't actually weren't we didn't approve it before they submitted it. This is they approved it and it's coming back. So, we didn't see it beforehand. So, I just want to make sure it states some places of some intent of where to spend it. But, I because we're going through budget stuff, I'd like the city manager to be not what's stated in the staff report, but what the city manager approves as far as a budget because it has to be in categories. But how that works, I think that the city manager should be determining that. Okay. Do you want to So I mean that would if you want to change that. We don't have to bring it back.

It says uh authorize as design designate to execute the contract and then it also says to administratively appropriate the grant funds. But so what I'm trying to avoid is that the council because the staff report is specific that that then it's as though of the council approved that specific allocation as opposed to we're giving the authority to the city manager to appropriate it. Who has the authority now? Brian. No. Uh the council does. And so because if we say yes as written, it's what's in there because we have the authority. See, that's what she's saying is like specifies where the money goes. I know. I'm saying that.

So, let's just say that let's say the city manager goes, "Okay, I want you to get one car, but we're going to use one for more for this other piece." That the city manager would determine that as a budget, not what's written in here. I understand. Doesn't number three cover that. No, because the staff report is too specific. So, now it would be the will of the council because we approved it as written. Hi, Councelor Resnner, you were saying something, but maybe so we can all hear you. Um, I was going to request that maybe we could have some advice from city attorney on how we could change items one through three so that it matched that because I believe the council's in support of what council member Odette is.

Yeah, if I might suggest, give me a minute while you vote on the rest of the items and then um when we come to this item on the regular calendar, I'll see if I can come up with some language to capture that. Okay, so that item is pulled. Does that become 9.9A? Is that right? I'll make a motion to approve. I'll make a motion to approve the rest of the items on the Okay. I have to pull though um on the minutes the February 3rd budget and the regular meeting that's agendaized. Those are not um to be considered tonight. They'll come back April 7th. That's correct. And what items are those? Those are And that is the February for item 4.1. Let me get back to it here. It's 4 A.

Sorry. 4A. 4A and it's the special meeting budget prioritization and modification session and close session of February 3rd and the regular meeting of February 3rd 2026 and that's just pulled and that will come back to a future meeting. Correct. Okay. Thank you. All right. So, we do have a motion. I don't know if I heard a second. I I will second. All right. All in favor? I I

Look at that. We can get things done. All right. Okay. We did have uh item 6.1 on our agenda, but that was uh pulled by uh staff. So, I think we're able to bypass that. That was 6.1 from the electric utility. So, we're moving along. We have um to our regular calendar items. Uh 9A uh consider a letter of support for Northern California Medical Sciences School in the city of Reading. I did see one speaker earlier on that. Let me see if I can get to there.

So maybe we'll go with the speaker. Uh first we have Tom Thomas Perry. Yeah. All right. Come on down.

I'm not seeing any like children. Oh, really? Good evening and let me um thank you council members for allowing me to speak along speaking to what uh this nice lady was just talking about as far as the needs for for medical school. Sure. For the need for a new medical school in our area. I am Dr. Thomas Perry. I've been practicing here since 1981

when our hospitals were uh young and u they were um uh having to transfer patients that were uh cardiac patients uh neurological patients, pediatric and OB patients out of the area to UC Davis because of lack of of uh of uh facilities as the years have gone on. Um, [clears throat] we now have some state-of-the-art u hospitals managing high-risisk pregnancy patients, cardiac patients, surgical, and we're a level uh one trauma center. All that to be said is that at this point, as you know, if you go to the emergency room, you're going to be spending quite a long time in there to see a doctor or anybody. uh let alone if you need to be admitted you might be st spending the night in the emergency room for upwards 24 to 30 hours before you can find a bed. So this is a crisis that's happening throughout the country. However um the the issue that we need to speak to uh is that um uh a we need to be forward thinking. Now, in the the time I practice here, each hospital has had forward thinking in trying to improve their services. And here we are in uh 2026 with what we have. The problem is that the u there's burnout for physicians. There's physicians um that are uh retiring and not coming back. I retired once and was asked to come back to work in one of the local clinics in my specialty which I've been doing right now for the last seven years. So, um I think that bringing a a medical school to the area will increase our pride as as a uh as a as a city and also a graduate school will help bring the elevation will elevate uh the the the playing field for high schools,

colleges, junior highs. I decided to become a doctor when I was in eth grade. So if we could uh if we could focus on what the medical school will be doing and to increase industry uh increase finances uh and to to grow our schools and our hospitals our hospitals will need to grow our staff will need to grow our physicians will need to grow. We can do that with a medical school and that's the fastest way to to do it. So thank you for your attention and your time.

All right and thank you very much for speaking. So, yeah. Um, so this item was brought to me by Dr. Hall at Simpson. He's uh asked us to consider a letter of support. I I was really encouraged to see Simpson involved. I I know Simpson's got big dreams and visions for the future and expanding programs and just doing more to help support the community and um it's not again if they're successful in uh creating medical school with uh with the group of course it doesn't take away from anything from what other people are already doing. I think it just adds more value. It just uh it's like adding another business in town. So, you know, we can uh certainly support any kind of assistance in the community to be able to attract more doctors, train more doctors. It's great for the economy, and I'm sure people can speak about the economic benefit when we uh when we do something great like that. But, uh Dr. Hall, I I see you're here. Would you like to say anything to us or I I know I asked you earlier. I felt like you say something really profound and you're a smarter guy than me at times. So, well, many times, but Thank you for the invitation. I'll be brief. Yes, this is a tremendous community and we know if uh any of you have a family, how difficult it is to get a doctor. Uh the the data shows very very clearly that we're in crisis as Dr. Moo has stated publicly on behalf of the county. Simpson University has endeavored to be uh both faithful to its roots and also Simpson University is endeavoring uh with haste to be everything that it can be to fulfill our commitment to being Reading's hometown university. In recent years, we've uh grown our nursing program. As you know, it's ranked uh presently ranked number three in

California out of 140. We're uh we've u been approved uh federally for dollars to launch a family nurse practitioner program. We're writing curriculum for uh sid doctor of psychology and it only makes sense as uh Dr. Duka brought to my attention some time ago that we endeavor to build a medical school that not only provides doctors and as we found by studying a resource uh upike Pikeville University in Kentucky is far more rural than we are and a lot of people would like to say, "Oh, we can't do this." Well, the fact of the matter is that they're two hours from an interstate and they graduate 150 uh doctors every year. Of those 150 in residency, 72% serve in what they call the greater Appalachin radius. Let's imagine 100 miles in all directions around us. And then when they graduate, 40% plant in the rural Appalachin radius. Uh we've spent two days with them in addition to other significant study. We're confident that we can do it. We have plans to raise the funds and I think uh it not only impacts our access to doctors, the likelihood of increased resources and increased opportunity for uh opthalmology schools for example or dental schools. It has a virtual guarantee in a 10-year period of generating about $700 million in revenues. So it's um it's a landscape change. It's a sea change. It's uh it's one of the most impacting things that we could do and it would be our great pleasure at Simpson University to serve our community in this way uh to leave some legacy to make some impact. There are children in our community right now in in 8th grade, 9th grade, 10th grade.

Those are our solution. Those kids can be in our medical school in just a few years. I'm confident we can get it spooled up. Uh if we pray and pull for one another, brighter days are certainly ahead. Thank you. All right. Thank you very much. I don't see any other council members up. Um but I'll make a motion to approve the letter of support since um I help bring that item here. So, I'll second.

Okay. Before we take a vote, I just want to make sure um I don't see any any harm or any negative in supporting I I don't think that any member of council probably would say that we don't have a need for for medical access. I just want to make sure that we're being really clear um that this is a letter of that we support the cause, but that it is we're not agreeing to any sort of budgetary support. I I think that we all understand that. And I just want to make sure that we're all being very clear with the with the public that this is our support of the cause. Actually, we're hoping that they would contribute to actually they will because so

because I think I think there are studies Dr. all coded but Florida State University when they built a medical school in first decade of 2020 202 their impact was $1 billion and the second decade their impact was $17 billion B as in boy can't wait for numbers so it definitely is a very impactful economic more you know more support for our services I'm hearing get to work quick is going to help solve some of our finance things here in the city Right. So, [laughter] yes. Can I just ask a question to Dr. Danuk? I know that you guys had recently taken a trip. So, are there like are we closer on this? So, maybe some highlights.

Yeah. U if I'm if you allow me to give a quick recap. I think five of us went to Pikeville, Kentucky, which is a rural town which Dr. Hall mentioned 7,000 population in the deep Appalachia. And that's what he was talking about. So, this is a long process. Usually medical school building from scratch takes anywhere between 5 to 7 years. Even if an existing university wanted to build a different campus here, even they will take the similar amount of time because accreditation process takes a long time. So what we are trying to do is uh make sure that things are done as fast as possible but actually correctly. So we build not just a school just because we want it. We want to make sure that we become a destination for the nation and an inspiration for our next generation. We want to make it right. So people want to come here. So we have this will transform not just reading but our county as well as all the surrounding counties around us. If you see there's no medical school between Sacramento and Portland region. This will be the first one. So this is going to be transformational and we have now received pretty much a unanimous support from pretty much every quarter now.

Sounds great. This is going to happen faster than the football program started. And this is probably going to have a little bit more winning record, too. So, but we're getting better, aren't we? So, shrewd. Oh, I'm just I'm fighting words. I know. I know. [laughter] All right. Well, um, good. We do have I meant that in all good fun and I do love the football games and the team itself. I we do have a motion, a second. I don't see any other comments, so let's take a vote on that. All in favor? I I. All right. Any oppose? No. All right. That passes. You're on.

It's St. Patrick's, so I mean, it's just good vibes, good moods so far. And um we'll see how the rest goes. But uh we did move our 9.10A. So technically we did pull nine the consent calendar that doesn't have to go in front of that. We can just pull that consent item later then. Okay. So we'll we'll go to 9.18. Consider accepting the city reading midyear budget review and adoption of the associated resolution. Greg, you're here. So all right. [clears throat]

Waiting on my presentation to come up. But mayor councel, good evening. Uh, Greg Robinette, director of finance and city treasure and honored to be here tonight. I don't think I'll say happy because of the current state of the budget, but um, honored to be here to present our midyear and our general fund quarterly update through December 31st. Doesn't want it like vibrated. Sorry. Oh, there it goes. I trust it. Did you just move it? Okay. So, you want me to tell you when to move it? Okay. So this first slide um shows kind of the the history of the general fund cash balance from the actual on June 30th 20ou 2025. I always talk about this V pattern of cash if you will where the general fund is utilizing reserves um very heavily through the first six months of the year and then rebuilds reserves um through the spring months into the end of the year. Um the one point here is in the attached uh recommendation is a $2 million beginning cash adjustment from 9 million to 7 million as the beginning cash. And then um I I also want to highlight the fact that after receipt of the property tax, we're we're almost back up to zero there at the end of January. Um through May, we still may be burning some cash until we receive the next installment of property tax. Um, and then projecting to in cash at around 8.3% which would be below the council's policy of 10%. SH, you want to go ahead and do the next slide?

Um, cash.

Okay, thank you. Char, do you want to give me the next slide? Okay, so this slide is a highle overview of our budget to actual. the bar, the graphs on the left, the set of graphs on the left are our revenues. And so, um, in a perfect world, you would have revenues perfectly projected andor slightly above your projection. Um, as you can see here, we're $2.5 million under projections. Uh, the coming slides will talk about why that is. Um, and importantly, I'll get to it, but the tax is updated to reflect the amounts that were approved by council on February 3rd at the uh, budget workshop. And then the expense side, we're about $493 494,000 over budget. Again, we would prefer to see that under. I will get into the details of why, but it's important to know that that's simply a cash flow projection. So, it's taking our budget and dividing by uh 12 and multiplying by half the year. So, multiplying by six to get you to kind of a forecast or a um pace at which you would expect to spend budget. So, we're slightly over that pace. And I'll get into the details of why on the coming slides. Okay. So, um this slide talks about the revenue budget to actuals details and as I stated on the previous slide, we've updated the tax projections to reflect council's um direction given on February 3rd um of this year at the budget workshop. And so sales tax through December. The next slide we'll kind of zoom in and talk about through December and through February is slightly below um the projection that was updated. And then you can see there property tax although it's not a major revenue through December slightly below. Transient occupancy tax is slightly above. Um cannabis tax is a little below and other taxes is slightly below as well. The two big ones there that stand out are revenue from other governments

and that one is actually above uh forecast. Um in the resolution before council this evening there's a recommendation to recognize the $3.25 million from uh writing rancheria that for the agreement that was entered into um and that would actually once that is recognized bring that more so we're slightly below the forecast. I always point out to council that the revenue from other governments is pretty volatile because it has to do with grant billings. when are we billing it, when are we receiving it, um when are we performing the work? And so it it can look wildly above or below depending on where we stand at any point in that. Um but without the revenue from Reading Rancher, we'd be pretty on track um given the forecast. And then internal departments and transfers, this is mostly the result of transfers, timing of the transfers, specifically around gas tax. as we complete certain work um those transfers will happen as the expenditures actually happen on the gas tax front in the streets department and so um the amount that we're trailing there is just because we haven't incurred allowable expenses andor completed the administrative work to transfer the money fully sure you want to go to the next one okay so as I said here we're going to zoom in a little more on taxes and talk about through February given that this uh presentation is a little later we have some more data points here and so sales tax is above the forecast um by about $350,000. Um property tax now through February is a much more substantive revenue as we've received approximately 16 a little over 16 million. It's $138,000 over forecast. Um and then um transient occupancy tax is about $120,000 over forecast and other taxes in cannabis continue to kind of trail below forecast. But all told through December we were about 500,000 below the updated forecast. through February about $127,000 above the forecast in total. Sorry, you want to go to the next one? Okay, so this slide I always think is important because it allows us to look

at our historical kind of tax revenues through um the month that we're presenting in. And um so you can see there sales tax continues to decline year-over-year. This is the third consecutive year where it's actually going down through December. um through February that trend s somewhat corrected itself and it's about flat I believe now um property tax you can see there as I mentioned is not a substantial revenue through December but as soon as January hits it becomes a very substantial revenue um basically overnight becomes $16 million in line with the sales tax there um but it was pretty much flat or slightly increasing there year-over-year um through January it did increase um by uh close to 4% and so that was that is good news because our assumption was 3%. Um transient occupancy tax as you can see there continues to grow and the other two um revenue sources there continue to be largely flat. Okay. So I kind of wanted to walk through council with this. I think it's an important slide before we get to the actual 10-year plan slide that shows the updates to the 10-year plan. And so this basically bakes into one slide um the discussion that council had on February 3rd. And so bear with me while I read some numbers off of uh my page here. But so we made adjustments to sales tax which um was basically recognizing the actual amount for FY uh 2025. And then we recognized a 2% decrease from FY25 to FY26 as directed by council on February 3rd. And then we lowered the long-term assumption from 2.5% to 1.5% thereafter. And so um what that meant was we lowered our sales tax revenue uh assumption by 1.7 million in year 1. And then by um the last year of the 10-year plan there, it's about $5.1 million. And so that would be every year it's growing to the point where we no longer have $5.1

million there in year 10. Um this is important because um that's the blue line there or the sorry the blue bars and it is the primary driving force behind that blue line which is basically reductions to our revenues which total about $6.5 million by the last year of the 10-year plan. And I'll really quickly go over what we did with property tax. So with property tax council um wanted to recognize the actual amount for fiscal year 25 and then um use the same adopted budget amount of 3% thereafter um which meant we recognized about $81,000 of revenue growing to about 100,000 by the end of the 10-year plan. That's that little dark blue line that you see or dark blue bars that you see above the line there. And then the green bar is a transient occupancy tax. um council decided to um recognize the FY uh fiscal year 25 actual um reduce fiscal year 26 growth amount from 4% to 2% and then reduce the long-term growth amount from 4% to 3.5%. And so that ultimately meant that we were reducing revenues um by $236,000 in year one and uh growing to almost 800 780,000 uh by the final year of the 10-year plan. and then cannabis another I won't try to articulate the entire conversation those that are interested I would encourage you to go uh listen to the meeting on February 3rd but um ultimately it reduced uh revenues by 424,000 in the first year growing to about 686,000 um by the last year and that's the pink um bar there that's cannabis and other taxes you want to go to the next slide thank you okay so the ex on the expenditure expenditure side budget to actual details um again above the line is savings below the line means um through 6 months. We are overspending at the pace of 6 months of the budget. Um police largely the result of some ATS that are in process and the transition from new city managers. Um there's been some delays on some of our appropriation

transfers where some of them are recognizing revenues andor rolling stock or equipment replacement. Um and then also um police had some retirements in the early part of the year and so uh it takes some time for cost savings to catch up to those retirements as as you have vacant positions. Um and so there's also um a timing issue with a shasscom payment of about $500,000. Um the way our new system recognizes that we no longer do carryovers. And so when you actually look at the actual expenditure paid versus um the budget, it looks higher because it's not recognizing that there was a reduction to the actual incumbrance from the prior year. And so it's kind of a technical thing with our new system. Um but it does make it appear by about $500,000 uh to be overspending when in reality if you looked at it including the incumbrance changes um that would uh normalize a little bit. And then on the fire side, um they have about $900,000 in mutual aid reimbursements that um we don't recognize until the end of the year once we know the actual need um for their budget impact. Um so that will offset any overages and overtime. And then they also have some ATS in process. And then just generally, I always point this out, but the timing of their overtime, these graphs are um basically uh equalizing six months. And in the case of fire, their overtime is heavier in the early part of the year because July, August, September, October are our fire season. And so, um, we're hoping some of that will normalize by the end of the year and they won't be over budget by the end of the year. But I do want to point out some global measures. It was mentioned in the staff report, um, that the new city manager has enacted. Um, that includes an expenditure freeze for anything that isn't missionritical, um, overtime freeze and a hiring freeze. And so those items we're hoping will also help to um save money as we go towards the end of the year here. Okay. So, as I kind of alluded to, the updated 10-year plan. And so, the the

lighter blue line would have been what was adopted by council in June. And um after all the adjustments um so this includes any resolutions council has approved year to date, not many have been approved. the resolution included in this packet which does reduce revenues is the primary thing it does um that causes this significant um decrease in cash. The blue line becomes the updated 10-year plan. This is with no changes to expenditures. And I'm I'm sure um now that we have the new city manager here, he's going to be moving some items forward to council um such as item 9.1A to to hopefully start to address this structural issue within our budget that's driving cash. um that starts below 10% and go and if we continued on this trajectory, we would be um below zero, which would be effectively um insolvent uh by year three of the budget. And so we're going to start working uh vehemently with the city manager to address these issues. Okay. So, real um not real quick, but quickly, I'll kind of run through the budget requests included in the um staff report. Um so first up is um the general fund. There's a ann animal regulation for 41,500 in each fiscal year. Um this is the result of a contract that was executed after the completion of the budget. And so there was increases in that contract that need to be recognized by council today. Um $31,720 for the recruitment of our new city manager and then $260,880 related to measure A. Um throughout the general fund, I'll just pause real quick because I'll get to it in a few slides. Um there are other increases that are a result of increases associated to internal service funds that have to be reallocated because they do not have adequate reserves to cover those expenditures. And so we'll get into those, but the other general fund departments you see are result of those reallocations from internal service

funds that we'll talk about in a couple slides. Uh, next up is the Reading Electric Utility or let me start all of our enterprise funds starting with Reading Electric Utility. Um, RU has um reduced officially nine positions um in the budget uh that will are recognized here in fiscal year 26 and fiscal year 27. Um there are also some increases as I mentioned on the previous slide to fix charges that offset some of these savings. um wastewater had a position um in budget that should have been um placed in storm drains. So there's a a reduction to wastewater's budget and an increase to storm drains budget. In the case of storm drain and solid waste, they um solid waste had eight positions this happened with and storm drain had one position. We checked our entire budget. So the positions were in the budget. Um, as you work through personnel costing in our old system and our new system, there's a process where you kind of build the costing, I would call it in a personnel costing environment and you push those costs through in total um to the actual what we call line item budgets. And so you put them in the actual areas of that the um costs are budgeted to. We're not sure why. brand new system, new problems. But for some reason, these nine positions, it did not move those costs over to the actual budget line item environment. And so that this resolution here is recognizing those costs that were not moved. We checked our entire budget. Um, we know that these had to do with vacant positions that we had to add into the budget. Um, so we checked for any position that we added like that, which was almost a hundred positions that were vacant at the time of budget, and these were the only nine that this occurred with. And so we believe this cleans everything up. Um that may have been an error. There was this did not happen with the general fund which I was relieved about because um that would be highly concerning for me. But there are two of those instances here and um storm

drain and solid waste. Next up is I'm apologize for the size of that font. We should have increased it. But next up is uh our internal service funds. And so our public relations, marketing, communications team needs to make um updates to our city website for 88 compliance requirements for $21,000. Um fleet uh has overages of vehicle repair and maintenance costs of $450,000. And then employer services has $72,000 for pre-employment services and $330,000 of labor relation costs. Um all of that had to be reallocated. And the next slide gives you a brief overview of um how each of those allocations impact our various departments. And with that um I'm available for any questions that council may have [snorts] at this time. Oh, we got one. I knew we'd get one. So, uh Council Member and not picking on you. I'm sure I know. Uh Council Member Aette. Um, okay. All right. Um, before I ask my questions, can you go back to that first slide? This one. This is the very first slide. That that that one. Can you um in the 10-year it ends at I thought I think it said 9.2% but this says 8.3. So do you have numbers for these?

So for like I'm sorry I think I made a mistake and I didn't update that 8.3. It should be 9.2 higher. Look at this. We're off to a really good start. 9.9 million. 9.9 million. Okay. So and that's 9.2%. Yes. Okay. Look at that. I'm already giving you money. Don't leave any credit that you deserve. 9.2%. to don't get don't give it monopoly card bank in your favor. Okay. So the I know that the I know that this uh second bar was 3.3 million that was Q1. Q2 is what amount? Negative.

Can I ask that question one more time? You want to ask? Yes. So so um this the third bar third bar. So, so it it was negative 10. It was 111.4. 11.4. Okay. Was it 11.4? Is it the proof of cash? Will it be the first number? Yeah, it's the first number off of that. It's the first number. Okay. So, on the proof of cash for the fourth bar, it would begative 836,000. Then directly off the proof of cash I was presented. So up to so up to to basically the end of January, our reserves are still negative, but they're better negative. They're negative 836,000.

Yeah. And actually since the publication of that report, we we did find a journal entry that could be entered for about 830,000 actually. A little more than that. So yes, we So we're going to be like, yeah, it would be basically zero through January. Yes. Okay, that's also part Okay, I like that. That's better. Okay, it does give me an opportunity to highlight something about these reports. These reports are, you know, done at a point in time and it they're only um as good as the work that's been completed through that time frame. And so sometimes actually going through these reports, you find, oh, hey, we missed that entry or this entry and you actually are able to make those entries as you go through actually creation of these reports. And so, um, I I just kind of wanted to add that for

council. Um, okay. So, let me I have clarity questions and then I have suggestions of things that I'd like to see. So, in this report, in any of my uh quarterly reports, what I'm tracking is my 10-year type elements. And then if you're asking for appropriations in Q2 and Q4, I'm looking for information in my staff report about what you're asking for. Um, but I need to have that where we are on the reserves. So, it just so happens that this report did not include that 11.4 negative 11.4 million in the general fund reserve section. So, if that can always be in there, that would be great. I know it's a point in time, but it is a measurement to to to track how we're doing. So, I'd I'd like to see that.

This is good, but it's not as specific as I'd like to see. Um so um I also point of clarification um when we're looking at these you went retroactively back to the beginning or just to the second quarter for these numbers like because I know we changed the assumption you're talking about for the revenue assumptions. Yeah. Um I went retroactively for the whole year for the whole year and updated them. Yes.

Okay. So, when we're easier to look at if you actually update the projections and not to um distract from what you're asking, but I also think it's important to remind council um when we make those, we do cash flow assumptions and we base it on the last five years, right? So sales tax has kind of this kind of es and flows throughout the year, right? And so we try to bake that into those assumptions. And so when we're presenting here this evening, it's based on those es and flows. The the largest example of course of this kind of eb and flow that's way more than an eb and flow is property tax where basically we know we receive approximately a million through the first six months and then we get you know 15 to 16 million in January and then uh off into May and June we get the rest of it and it's about a $30 million revenue.

Yeah. Um okay. So if if included in this we are always getting what our unencumbered or un unassigned or you know our basically our general fund our 10year plan reserve number is up and until if that's always stated that would be great um um so that we know what the result is at that point and then um and so it's memorialized all the way till the end. I just wanted to make sure. So when I'm looking at this, this we're up to date as far as with the new assumptions so I can see its performance. That's what I'm looking for. Um and then um the $2 million that was great to be in the report so I can memorialize that in that decision. Um and then okay, so these requests for funding, what exactly is a fixed charged fleet maintenance? Is that fuel or what exactly is that?

No. So what um fixed charge fleet maintenance is is they do all the maintenance for the entire city fleet. And so that includes oil um oil filters, parts on cars that that might be breaking. Um frankly purchasing the inventory so that they have those parts available so that they can quickly um replace those parts as as necessary. And so it's anything you can imagine with the exception of fuel that may need to be uh used on any of our city vehicles to repair them. So there's there's many many many many many of these charges in this resolution. Am I to understand that in we fixed the beginning cash, we fixed the revenues. Is this a fix of expenditures that don't line up to the budget as passed because there's a lot of them. So I'm I'm confused as to why all of a sudden there are dozens and dozens and dozens of

discharge. Yeah. So what happens um so when fleet goes through and analyzes their budget um for the purposes of making a request such as the one presented to council this evening and they say hey we're we think we're going to be $450,000 over by the end of the year and then we come to then the next step is finance looks and says how much does fleet have in their reserves can they can they cover that expenditure with their reserves the internal service fund that we call fleet has their own set of reserves. They do not have $450,000 of reserves. And so any amount that they cannot cover out of their reserves, we have to do what we call a reallocation um to all the users of that internal service fund. And so then we go through the allocation methodology, find everybody's percentages, and then we reallocate based on their percentages or their share of those costs.

So are we saying that we just didn't budget enough for those things for fleet? Yes. So when we said we were cutting budgets, we cut them too much and we had to put more budget back. I would defer to Director Web to answer the specifics of what's going on with the fleet budget. [laughter] Good evening. Um, assistant city manager web, can you please repeat the question? There's just um like I don't even know. We budget too little for

there's 50 or 60 of these fleet charge employer services and fleet charge fleet maintenance these fixed charges and I'm just wondering did we just not budget enough for these things or how did we get all of these what are these charges it's one thing if you say oh well overtime we're appropriating overtime but this looks like quite a bit of budget was it cut too far and we're not able to do it or how did we get here so

so those are great questions um going through the budget process gosh maybe 18 months ago I would say round about there um obviously at that time uh then city manager Tippen and the directorship were looking at ways to control costs as much as possible um fleet just like all of the other departments either internal service fund or other um looked at ways to control costs um the original and I would have to dig through my notes to find them but the original fleet requested budget my understanding is was in line with this request here. Um, obviously fleet has information on the the inventory right of the fleet that the city owns and operates and and I'll remind council that this is everything from Chief Van Landingham's fire engines, ladder trucks to Chief Barner's police vehicles to director Zettle's equipment. And I mean, we're talking a thousand plus vehicles that um we perform both the routine maintenance on as well as preventative maintenance, 90-day inspections for vertical element or vertical um pieces of equipment as well as the uh state and federal inspections for the heavy stuff. So, there's a lot of stuff going on in the fleet department. And as director Robinette explained, essentially we just do not have the budget at this time to continue to make the repairs and the preventative maintenance to the equipment that we have. Therefore, that that is why the request is here.

So, am I to understand the budget, we didn't give enough budget to this and now we're fixing that. That that's correct. And I would say that it was a a risk that we took in preparing the budget and we were hopeful that obviously escalations would would maybe um simmer down for lack of a better term and unfortunately we're not seeing that. Um and we are going to continue to do everything we can uh within the fleet department to control costs but but unfortunately um these are the realities of the times that we're in. Okay. Well, thank you. You're welcome. Was the UL increases added to the second, third, fourth?

Yeah, I missed that. I I appreciate you pointing that out. And um so it's important to know that in year two um we'll probably bring a resolution to council um at the appropriate time for that because you'll have the prepayment which will offset some of it. So I want to make sure we're bringing the actual amount that we need for year two. Sure. But the amount was placed in correcting the budget in all years 3 through 10 effectively. So yes, but I want to do a full analysis on year two. Um including any ch any budget modifications that are done prior to you know us paying that bill. Okay. So three on

three on Okay. I just wanted to clarify. So so next year could be a little bit worse. Slightly worse. Slightly worse. About Do you know if it was like a million? I think it was like 800,000 to the general fund if I remember right. But I think the prepayment will save some of that. Some of that. Okay. And then my I think my last one. So when I'm calculating I'm looking at your graph that has the line um which we're going to talk about graphs another time. Oh yeah. This Okay. This one I have nothing good to say about it. It's also confusing because it's

we have positive numbers after the first year for most of these. It's just that this is taking it off what we had adjusted like the budget to. Yes. It's not like we don't expect sales tax to do that. It's just what we assumed. It's important to say this is the update. Yeah. From the adjustments that were discussed on February 3rd with council. So basically it's it's baseline the line is the original adopted budget and saying hey we lowered it from that which then means the line is going to lower our available resources within within the general fund by year by the line basically

for the public's consumption we anticipate sales tax to go up even though it doesn't look like that there. All right. So th this one I want some clarity because I'm not sure if I'm computing it properly just so that I understand. So when I look at the 10 year and I'm trying to figure out what is our deficit in the s like let's just do the front page of the sixyear. So if the deficit this year is going to be about a little under a million next year it's going to be three. It's not at two years it's not 3.9. It just it rounds to the next number. It doesn't we're not adding. So next year the deficit is going to be 3 million. The following year it'll be negative 7.6 million.

I think this is an important thing and and we can change the presentation if council as a body wishes because we've done this before and I see council member Resnner shaking her head. Yes. Um but what we did before is I actually we computed that number for council's benefit and we added a line. There's a line that said revenue increases or expenditure cuts needed to balance the 10-year plan. Yes. And and I say I offer that because it would make council's idea of the target maybe a little easier to quantify in their head because if you let's say you save 3 million in year 1. Well, that gives you a higher starting balance for year two

to that you would then have and it would reduce the need for a cut in year two. Yes. So that's why that's helpful for potentially for council if they so wish um to change the presentation potentially and bring back that line that we had at one time. I I would love the tenure to be the previous tenure that we used prior to 2022 and it does have that line at the bottom. It instead of this direction it would be this the larger one. Perfect.

Um but I do appreciate the adjustments that were made on this. This is so great further into the right direction. Um, but I'm trying to figure out as a 10 in this six years, am I reading this correctly to think that we're at a $23 million deficit for this six-year plan? Like these six years at the end of it, I would need to compute that, but because it's about, like you said, it's about 3 million, but then you're going to have 3 million increase and um you're about a million this year, 914,000. Yeah, it's so it' be about six 3 million the next year and you're up.

It's year three that it jumps to negative 7.6 because that number that ending cash balance has to be has to be relative to 10% of the expenditures. So that gets us to 7.6. I do want to add one point of clarification. Um when we say um a deficit, you're speaking of a deficit relative to the council policy of 10%. Right. Um you know, often times when you hear of the state or the federal government or even us sometimes talk about a deficit or a surplus, it's revenue minus expense. Do you are you positive negative? Right. And so I do want that point of clarification that we're talking about relative to the 10% requirement of the reserves.

Yeah. We don't get into negative money until year four basically or uh yeah year year four9 would be when if we did nothing if everything stayed the same which we don't anticipate but if it all stayed the same. So I just want to make sure that I'm reading that. I think you're very close. Okay. Um if you could add that line then I wouldn't have to do it and we'd all look smarter. Okay. Um I think that's my only questions.

All right. Good questions. I think you answered her question the way I was going to ask the question, but when we were looking at the um the revenues on the graph in the month of December, it was showing that we were way off the mark, but then we lowered our assumptions and it's it's looking pretty good in the on the next graph there. But what you answered is you were retroactive. I went retroactive. So, it wasn't we were just positive just because we changed our assumption and it made it look really really good. No, that is what So, that's I think that's the way you answer the question. We did change the assumption that made it look better. Well, we changed the assumption, but it still didn't December would have looked worse. Oh, yes. If you didn't change the assumption, December would have looked worse. True. I just want to articulate what I think the question is.

Okay. One more. Sure. But December would have been worse. Correct. It would have been even worse had council not updated the projections. Correct. This is a lot better. We're we're basically off by about 2.4 4 million in our revenues, but that's also timing as well. There's a lot of timing in that. Okay. But we're getting a lot closer.

I know in previous conversations with council member Ad over the years, I think she asked me at one point, why do you focus so much on taxes? And um I think the workshop on February 3rd talked a lot about why we focus on taxes. It's because it's the one we have the least discretion over. you know, it kind of it's a byproduct of what's happening in the economy, happening um with the state or with uh the county with property taxes. There's a variety of factors there that we don't have a lot of control over the actual revenue um mechanism, but it funds almost all of the general fund discretionary items that council wishes to provide services to the community on such as police and fire and parks and things of that nature. And so the taxes are highly important to to those funding streams.

All right. Um you may have explained it earlier, but um maybe I missed it. The other taxes, that's a big chunk right there. What is the other taxes?

So the other taxes consists of uh three or four primary things. Um one is franchise taxes. That's the one that's actually tracking behind and that's mostly you know uh because we receive a large amount of it in uh June actually from P Gen as one of the franchise taxpayers. Um I also am noticing a decrease in um the cable franchise fees that are being paid. Um but the other other taxes um business license tax is the largest one um it's trending right at or a little above the updated forecast. And the last one, hold on real quick. Sorry, my memor is escaping me. Property

is a real property transfer tax which is trending right on uh forecast and do forecasts. This is just a seasonal thing where that segment will get better in it certainly will get better by the end of the year because we'll collect the one from P Gen. But I I will say there seems to be a softening that I'm trying to track down get to the bottom of what's happening. It's not a large revenue, but on the on the um cable franchise fee side, there seems to be a softening of that revenue. Okay, good. Uh council reser, you're up, so your questions. [sighs]

I'm This may be really silly and really juvenile. Um, but if in a staff report we could have um a picture maybe that looked similar to this or simply an over under. Some of us I noticed as I was walking by are doing our like chicken scratch sort of thing like 2 plus 4 plus 6 plus to get to our number. So anytime that you could make that like a fourth grader was trying to read it that would be really helpful for those. Do you have a specific example? Sorry. Um do

I well I mean I was looking in overview when we were talking about revenues and and in the very beginning you it said general revenue as of December 31st yada yada right but anytime then we start going through all of these we're over we're under we're over we're under anytime that you could give us a nice picture like you have done your little chart some sort of visual I'm not really picky about what that is but I do think that that's helpful for some people It understand

not as a not as a I I like it in the three the way that it used to be the three different ways that it goes but in the in the staff report it is helpful to see a chart because some of us you know word problems versus charts versus whatever the pies and bar graphs. I am I really appreciate all of the changes that you have made here. So thank you. No problem. All right. Do we need to make a motion to um No, I think this was information only. No, no. There's a budget resolution. I see. Okay. Oh, that's right. Accept. I'll make a motion to accept the city of Reading's uh fiscal year 2025 2026 midyear budget report and adopt the resolution. I'll second.

All right. All in favor? I I All right. Uh we will go to uh we'll go to the circle 6 9.1A. So consider approval of consulting and professional services agreement with Circle 6 Consulting uh for the city of Reading. So um we might do a presentation first and then see if there's any comments after that. So I'm just waiting for it to load up. Okay.

Oh, there you do it. You see,

good evening, mayor, council. My name is William Tarbo. I'm the city manager for the city of Reading. I'm pleased to uh present for you this morning or this afternoon. I mean this evening. [laughter] Do all three. Uh this is the consulting and professional services agreement with circle 6. Uh item 9.1A uh this is a rapid efficiency and cost reduction engagement. Uh this has been part of the uh plan to come in and will be part of the plan to address what we had previously just uh listened to moving forward. At this point I'll move I'll hand it over to the assistant city manager Michael Webb who will walk us through. [clears throat] Uh good evening honorable mayor members or member excuse members of the council. Um, assistant city manager Michael Webb here. Um, so what I have this evening for you is a brief uh, presentation. Um, and we'll run through um, what an efficiency study um, is entitled to cover, what likely outcomes may be. We'll touch on some of the why. Um, we will touch on costs. Um, and then of course um, city manager Tarbo and myself will be available for any questions that council may have. So, first I'm going to touch on um probably a question that a number of us have is, you know, why would we conduct an efficiency study? Um and a few things that I should note is is obviously as uh director Robinette just kind of laid out um in the previous presentation, there are some financial pressures that the city um is currently experiencing. Um and that's not uncommon. We're seeing a number of cities and local governments throughout the state um dealing with the same issues right now. Um, another good reason is we want to look at this from a citywide perspective, really from top to bottom, from side to side, and make sure that there are no uh, you know, rocks that are unturned, for lack of a better term. Um, we would prefer to be proactive as opposed to reactive. Um,

striving to be data driven. Um, always interested in continuous improvement. The goal would be able to respond strategically and and of course to protect essential services amongst a number of things. Um but those are a number of the highlights that that I'll mention here. Um you might be asking how does an efficiency study support data driven decisions. Well going through this process uh we intend to work with our consultant to establish clear baseline of costs. Um look at staffing workflows and service levels. Um, we're looking to identify any inefficiencies or or probably a better description of that would be duplication of efforts to make sure that staff are working as efficient as possible and not bumping into each other with duplicative processes. Um, identify any anti antiquated systems um you know manual processes or things that may have been hanging around from a number of years ago. I might add just as a side note, each of you are aware that my tenure with the city's slightly around two and a half years. I was uh very much floored when I started in November of 2023 that I was signing paper time sheets. And so I I personally believe that there are a number of um antiquated systems or processes that will likely be identified and and potentially be ripe for value ad to the city. Um, we're also anticipating visibility and operational uh or improving visibility um and turning into operational risks, looking to remove bottlenecks, resource gaps, um provide strategic data to prioritize funding, staffing and core services and ensure that they're alignment with council priority and community um desires. Um, a a key thing here with these studies um both with our um our proposal and our uh recommended consultant as well as my experience with these efforts during my time at CALR is the identification of performance metrics, right? How do we

make sure that are we we're moving the needle, right? How do we measure it? How do we track it to make sure that we're getting the value that we thought we would get? And and that will be part of this process. Um, and then ultimately, of course, it strengthens resilience by helping the city prepare uh for revenue pressure and make targeted decisions during economic downturns. Um, what we can expect. Um, there's there's four main areas that working with our Circle 6 team, um, I anticipate us jumping through. Um, right out of the gate, um, we're going to be gearing up for a rapid assessment. This will roughly be a one-month endeavor. Um it's going to be a combination of uh the consultant having staff here uh boots on the ground for lack of a better term um as well as a small team that's been identified within the city consisting of myself and a few other key staff to support the consultant in their um uh meetings with teams going out and seeing facilities reviewing data and looking at documents. really I look at the first uh four weeks or so as information gathering and just kind of wrapping our arms around what do we have? Um not long after that um we anticipate implementing any quick wins that the consultant and the city team um can identify that ultimately get approval from the executive sponsor, Mr. William Tarbo. Um and we would look to implement those quick wins as soon as possible. Um, shortly thereafter that we'd be looking um at the opportunity development stage, which would be the third stage. Um, this is us working with the consultant to really develop a road map on after we've implemented the quick wins, what else is out there, how do we get there, what that time frame looks like, and really putting, for lack of a better term, a roadmap together for us to get there because we recognize that not everything may be able to be achieved immediately. Um, and then last but not least of the

four main areas, there would be execution and governance. Governance, excuse me. This would be kind of in the the 3 to four month range after inception. Um, and this would ensure that our improvements are implemented and s sustained. Um, the consultant does have a number of deliverables. U we, um, expect and they've committed to delivering a highle diagnostic summary with key findings and root causes. I'd say again in my experience in dealing with lean six sigma analyses at Calrans, the root cause analysis is very critical here to make sure that we've identified the appropriate issue when we identify a barrier or um a process that that could benefit from improvement. Um we're they're also going to deliver a prioritized list of savings and efficiency opportunities. Um again, they're going to help us define success criteria. So, these would be performance metrics that we could use to track and make sure that we're actually getting the bang for the buck that we anticipated getting. Um, and then we would uh work with them as well to develop a dashboard, something that would be easily reportable, something that could be looked at um and maybe within a glance on one sheet of paper just ensure that we're hitting our hitting the mark. And I should have mentioned um to to feel free to ask questions as I go through this. So, I apologize and um please feel free to interrupt if you have any. And of course, I uh city manager Tarbo and I'd be happy to take any at the end as well. Um so, another question um that some of you may be asking yourselves is is why circle 6 consulting? Um well, there are a number of of reasons and I believe the staff report outlines um a number of the justifications, but really at the end of the day, they do um have a unique qualification. Um when we look at the um the organizations, companies um smaller local municipal governments somewhat similar to ourselves as well as larger federal governments, um they have done

this type of efficiency study for a number of agencies. Um I've also spent a couple hours or so speaking with the main staff, Nathan Sprag, over the phone and walking through the process with him. He seems to be well informed and engaged over um the lean six sigma principles as well as what the ultimate goal is which again is to find the the most value add for what we have remove barriers um to to really empower staff to do the real work that sometimes is being deprioritized in order to um take on activities that may not be as efficient with their time. Um so again, Circle 6, they have a proven public sector experience. They've worked with the cities of Venicia, conquered, uh Department of the Veterans Affairs, Navy, the FDA, and the Army, just to name a few, as well as a number of private um organizations throughout the the country. Um they've have a successful track record of identifying common government inefficiencies, but not only that, to help identify solutions and help develop a plan to get there and implement um the fixes, for lack of a better term. They have the proven results. Um they have a highly experienced team. Um multiple staff have over 20 years of experience in this arena. Um and they seem well qualified for the services. And then another noteworthy um achievement or accreditation if you will is they they are a GSA contractor. So that's a government services analyst contractor. So that means that they have all the proper accreditations to do this. Um which is a big thing in a in a number of these worlds working with the large federal agencies. So, I have a a smidge of an off-topic question here before I show council their their favorite type of chart, which is a pie chart. [laughter] Um, and I'm curious what type of pie is council's favorite. So, I can maybe

pitch that that's what I'm showing here this evening. Apple, pumpkin, cherry,

cherry. Okay. So, what I have here is a cherry pie chart for council member Reser. Um, apologies for that. But what I have what I [laughter] what I have here is a slide to cover the fiscal uh essentially the costs of this. So, we have a proposal from Circle 6 um for $300,000 and that includes everything that I outlined on the third slide, if you recall. Um, we've worked with Director Robinette and his team to break up those costs as we most see fit, which is really based on the size of each department's budget. And so what you'll see both in the pie chart, the cherry pie chart I should say over on the right, um as well as in the text on the left, you'll see that the enterprise funds are funding roughly twothirds of it at roughly about $22,000. Um so that would be your electric utility as well as your water, wastewater, solid waste, and storm drain utilities. Um all of those um funds for the $22,000 are budget ads. they are from the um enterprise funds reserves and they would be added into the budget and they all have adequate reserves to fund their respective share. The $65,000 you see in the green wedge up on the right, this consists of the what I would call the true blue general fund um departments, it's roughly 22%. Each of those uh departments that are funded there have found savings dollar fordoll within their individual department um with exception if I recall correctly of the animal control department which does not have any savings or reserves. So they do have a new $640 ad to the budget if I recall correctly and director Robinette can correct me if I'm uh

what do you have against animals? [cough and laughter] I I have a four-legged critter at home that is a family member. So, [laughter] um then you'll see the there's a very small orange sliver there. Um that rep represents the special funding, which again, these departments do not have reserves. This would be your parking, your library. There's about a $2,000 ask there. So, those are new budget allocations for them as well. And then the last but not least is the dark blue wedge, which represents about $31,000 or 10%. Um these are your internal service funds. So these would be like fleet like we discussed a few moments ago. Um your building maintenance, your records, your risk, your your your um your GIS, your IT and a whole slew of other departments. Um those departments do have their own reserves and so the $31,000 there would be coming from each respective department's reserves. However, in the spirit of being as transparent as possible, those reserves are a combination of enterprise funds that contribute to those departments as well as general funds that contribute to those departments. And for council just to wrap their arms around what percentage of those um reserves are general funded versus funded by the enterprise funds, we're roughly looking at an average of about 40% being funded by the general fund and this the other 60% being funded by the enterprise funds. But but please note those are funds that are already budgeted and included in there. So they're not new budget ads. I'm just simply stating where those reserves came from. And with that, that concludes my presentation. I'd be happy to take any questions that any of you have.

All right. I don't see any public comment. Uh, Council Member Resnner, you're up. First and foremost, I want to say thank you so much for that presentation. almost every single one of my questions that I had either received from the community or um that I had jotted down, you answered in in this presentation. So, thank you for being so thorough. The only question that I don't think that I I missed this topic and I'm assuming that maybe slide number three or slide number four is is the answer that we would get to. Um but is there a reason that we didn't go out to RFP? So, so that is a great question and um first thank you for the the comments and in reality the team put this together and and I was able to be the talking head. So many

kudos to the entire team. This is this is very helpful.

Um so yes, great question. Why why are we um not putting this out to bid? Well, I think as director Robinette laid out in the previous presentation, obviously we have financial pressures that are on us now and so obviously time is of the essence and I think that that is a very critical element here that we we need to we need to acknowledge and move forward with. I would also state that um really when we look at the sections of ready municipal code that govern um purchases um section 420.080 080 bidding does uh under item six, if I recall, give the city manager authority to sole source activities such as this as long as it is not a public works project.

And so technically this activity does fall within the city manager's um authority or purview, thank you to move forward with it. However, given the dollar amount, when we jump into section 420.120, it is over the $200,000 limit. Now, I'm not um by sharing that, I'm not insinuating that city manager will um Tarbo or myself would ever move forward with a contract that was less than $200,000 to avoid coming to council. I'm just simply pointing out that Ready Municipal Code currently allows the city manager to move forward with a sole source um agreement as long as it is not a public works project and that um the best value um to the city and through our analysis um this does provide the best value to the city. Um we've reviewed the proposal and and we believe it is imperative that we move forward. Now, [clears throat]

last question. You feel strongly about this amount of money that we will be able to uh that that ROI is going to be substantial on the other side. I think that's the other thing the community really wants to know.

Yeah, we we anticipate um getting a strong ROI. Um and we're looking forward to doing that. I think the continuous improvement um portion of it is is very valuable. Right. We as as stewards of of public resources, we need to always be in continuous improvement mode, always looking for that, leveraging technology. Um, as new processes become available, we need to leverage them. And a lot of times in my experience, um, think things change over time. And what I've seen historically is individual divisions or departments are constantly having work and new deliverables put on them, but very oftent times the no work or deliverables are taken off of them. And so over time departments grow. Going through this process will help us identify our departments really doing what they need to do or are they doing things maybe that other departments should do that may be more efficient in doing that or maybe we don't even need to do that anymore and we can find ways to remove work from departments and staff can be more value you know more useful with their time for some of the things that actually matter and move the needle um and to that's been my experience with this again during my time at Calrans All right. Thank you,

Council Member Adet.

Um, I just wanted to also comment that I'm really grateful that it's costneutral and that we spread out the cost to all the departments since we're going to be it's going to be impacting all of the departments for all of the budget discussions that we've had. Um, I appreciate that approach to this. Um, sharing the cost around the city. Um, I would also just say that part of the um process of of hiring our city manager was talking about these types of efficiencies and growing into I think it's one of the tenants of the city is that we are a 21st century that we're actually trying to stay ahead of things and to be as efficient as possible. So, I appreciate the budget neutralness of this and um in all the research that I've done, I I'm very much looking forward to what they do and I think even giving updates. Are we will we will it come back with some updates so the public can kind of get an idea of what's

the best highlights of what's happening? Absolutely. I I plan on um coming back for regular updates. Um obviously executive sponsor Tarvo will be involved um as well as the directorship and and I expect to be back here multiple times throughout the process updating council and I should clarify too that um worked pretty extensively with director Robinette and his team on spreading the costs out appropriately. So they were intimately involved in that as well. So kudos to them. Yeah, appreciate it. Thank you. Just one question. That's it. I'm I'm just kidding. So I know when you do it right uh council member Duka

in medical field this continuous uh work performance with an external authority or external group reviewing the process is extremely common place and I have been advocating for something like this that every few years we should be doing this so I'm all for it uh my just extra comment was about the finance committee appointments I think we should just as a reminder that we should uh go ahead and execute that part also which was approved by the city council earlier and they should work together not contradictory but complimentary absolutely um it's in process and we intend to marry the two up and make sure that they

okay but I would like the public has asked me several questions about that and it would be prudent for us to just finalize those appointments and appointments okay council I think it was important for me I met with uh Mr. Tarbo this morning without solicitation um cuz he's worked with them before. He said he's not friends with these people. They just do good work and and I like that. I was so I was impressed that we're not we're not hiring them because he's buddy buddy with them. We're hiring them because they do the work and they do it right. So I think that was important for people to know. Okay. Uh council reser

sorry one one last sorry one my apologies for being muted. One last thing that I uh thought of is that we're authorizing the city manager, but um assistant city manager web, are you going to be project manager? I'm assuming we could call it whatever title you want to call it, but yeah. So, thank you. Good question there. Yeah. Will city manager Tarbo has asked me to project manage this effort and so I've accepted that and will be involved uh through the duration.

And yes, you are correct. So, uh, the action before you this evening is to approve the sole source consulting and professionals professional agreement. Um, per ready municipal code sections 42080 A6 and 420120 L8. I'm not going to read the whole thing off uh to all three of you. Um, and then al also authorize the city manager or designate to execute the the agreement um and then adopt the the requisite rep can't even speak this evening. A resolution approving the um the new budget. So, I'll make a motion that we do items one through three. Second. Second.

Okay. Um, my only comments would be I'm excited for this uh just to see how the efficiencies can not only shore up our finances, bring the reser reserves back to a healthier balance. But, um, really excited at the opportunities to see what kind of money it can create maybe in surplus for the future. is, you know, we're not immune to the the struggles that we have as a city, such as the $10 million gap that we have every year towards paving um the infrastructure we have with our own city buildings, the sports parks, the aquatic center. There's there's just a lot to do and the struggle over the past year has just

been a little tough and challenging to figure out how are we ever going to tackle that stuff when our revenue is shrinking and and we have deficits. And so I I'm I'm hopeful. I'm optimistic. I'm excited for the results. And uh maybe this will uh lay the groundwork for us to be able to start tackling some very very important things that are ahead of us, you know. So um that's it. Uh we did have a first and a second. So without any other comment, we'll vote. All voted. I We're just waiting on you. We're way ahead of you. Yeah, we all voted. Well, you could have changed your mind if I gave a horrible comment there, you know. So I guess you jumped ahead. So

Mr. Mayor, if I can ask one closing question. Yes. Council member Audet. Is cherry pie okay or do we need to find a different flavor? No cherry pie apple apple. Yeah. So apple pie is okay. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Pie chart just like a piece a slice just slices. Can't afford the whole thing. Moving. Are we prepared to bring back uh item from our consent which was now going to be 9.9? Are we prepared to talk about that?

Uh yes, Mr. Mayor. I do have a suggestion but I want to make sure that I understand the concern correctly first. Um I believe the concern is essentially that because a copy of the grant application was not included as part of the agenda item. Uh you the council is not fully aware as to what restrictions there would be on the expenditure of the funds because the uh proposed uses within the application would likely become part of the requirements of the final grant agreement. Um if that is the concern um I have had a chance to talk to the chief. I do agree it would be a better record um for the item actually to come back with the grant application in front of you. Um there does not appear to be any time limitation other than council policy. Uh so there would be enough time to accommodate that.

It's already been submitted. We're just ratifying it. Correct. So it would probably be better if when there is a grant application that we see it before it actually gets submitted. So that's number one. Number two for this. I'm not I don't I don't have any issue. Here's what I'm trying to avoid. I'm trying to avoid that the council says ratifies this staff report and then our city manager doesn't have the option over that budget. especially since we're dealing with we just paid to have somebody look at all of our budgets and and everything. So, I just want to make sure that the city manager has the final approval and it's not the city council because we approved the staff report as written.

Yeah, I I I can speak to both of those. So, as the first one, your policy does say that for any grants above uh I believe it's $70,000, the council should weigh in first before the application is submitted. However, the policy as written uh recognizes there may be situations where there's insufficient time to bring an application to council. Usually that occurs when the grant um is not something the department becomes aware of until right before the closing of the grant period. Um and it does allow for the grant applications to be submitted without prior council approval subject to coming back within the first meeting.

Um uh as to your second point um given the language as written, I don't actually see that as concerning any of the the budgetary requirements. you'd have the ability to go ahead and appropriate the the the grant funds um or the sorry the city manager would have the ability to go ahead and administratively appropriate the grant funds for any appropriate purposes. Um you would still be confined by what the state approved. Yes, I have no problem. I I've read many I've read many of these grant applications. It'll have maybe like three or four buckets of things that you could possibly do. And of course I want the chief to weigh in on what they would like to use that money for. Absolutely. I just want to make sure that it's not that it's the council's wish that it's this that the city manager is the arbiter of is that where he wants to place it. I want all you know.

Yeah. Um so I'm just saying that that whatever needs to be in the language if they are going to ratify something when it comes back then there should be something in the language that says that the city manager has the final say on where that money goes in which bucket. And I believe that is the intent of the item as written. I think it's sufficient that you have articulated that and that is the understanding of the council at the time that you were voting. Okay, great. So, we can pass it as it is but with my very long lengthy request and it's now on the record and it may be I will make a motion to approve as recommended. I'll second. All right. All in favor? I'm ahead of you. I I or it's a race.

I know. All right. Very good. So, we're moving on to public works. 9.11c consider city of reading public works downtown parking division financial update quickly

and adopt resolution amending the city of reading traffic control map. [clears throat] Uh thank you honorable mayor. Um good evening again. Michael Webb, interim assistant city manager. Um this evening I will be presenting a um financial update on the downtown traffic control plan. um as well as touching on a few recommended changes that I'm recommending for your approval this evening. Um and similar to the previous uh presentation, I'd be happy to take questions as I go along. Um as well as um at the duration of the presentation. So with that this evening um we do have 15 slides, so I apologize for that, but I am going to try and run through them as quickly as possible. Um, we have uh three or four slides three to five are on history goals and uh

please

and we're gonna move on. All right. So, a little bit of history on the parking program here. Um, as all of you know, we've had a parking program in downtown since 1947. Um we've historically shown flexibility the city that is by waving uh parking for a m a majority of community traditions and events similar to the downtown pancake breakfast or other things. Um and you can see a number of the old news news newspaper articles from over the years that my team has collected. So it's been here for a while and I just figured I'd make sure council was aware of it. This is not something new. Uh you might like that back in 1947 it was a nickel an hour7s it went to 10 cents and 20 cents in the 80s. Just interesting facts.

Very

um quick background on just the downtown redevelopment um because that is closely tied to the parking 2018 the existing parking garage and meters were at the end of the useful [snorts] life. Um we adopted updates to the downtown specific plan. 2019 we received a $20 million grant for the downtown redevelopment. 2020 the garage went away. We established parking mitigation fund. We leased alternative parking lots and we began development of the downtown reading parking strategy. 2021 we did um extensive outreach. Um got our second $20 million grant plus an additional $5 million grant for housing trails and new parking. 2022 we completed construction of downtown streets and circulation shortly thereafter deployed deployed excuse me new parking systems. Um and then we did have a slight delay. The the public market downtown did take a little bit longer than originally anticipated to get to um completion and that's why you see the the slight gap there uh from 2023 to 2025. Um and then most recently as council's aware we have the downtown entertainment zone and we had the November opening of the public market. I I I asked staff to lay all that out because I think it is very important for council and the community to um recognize and remember that the downtown parking program really is a integral part of a bigger plan to really redevelop and vitalize downtown and you we really have done a lot as a city in the last seven or eight years and it's very commendable um what some of our four folks and staff have done as well as the local businesses downtown. Um, it's always good to touch on the goals for the downtown parking because I downtown parking program, excuse me, because I think oftentimes um things can get misconstrued and and words really matter here. Um, really at the end of the day, we want to make sure that we're using the um the time as efficiently as possible and we're striving to get

turnover. Businesses have told us time and time again that they need turnover and they need folks to be able to get there. however, whatever mode they choose, but they cannot stay there all day to prevent someone else from coming in. Um, we've also had it be a goal of the downtown parking program that we would we are striving to have it be um self- sustaining or cost neutral, which u I'll let the cat out of the bag a little bit. I have positive news to share with the five of you in a few slides. Um, but that is a core goal of the downtown parking program. Um, and then we're really looking for the best service, which we've defined as an occupancy rate of 85% on average. And what that means is that if there were 100 stalls downtown at any given time, 85 would be occupied and 15 would be available. So, in other words, there would always be a space for someone that is looking for one. Uh, a few challenges there. Um, we've got 600 plus workers, 2,000 visitors, 200 residents. There's a lot of folks down there for different reasons. Um, we've implemented a number of solutions incentivizing employees to use off- streetet lots. We've got free parking zones. Uh, we've promoted ride share, drop off, bicycle transit, so other modes to get downtown. Um, we've worked with developers on the downtown public parking garage. Um, we've also looked, and you'll see in a few slides, to reduce the administrative costs um of the program as well. Uh what we have here um a few things. So I'll run through these quickly. The the aerial photograph photograph that you see on the lefth hand side with the slimr green green if you will that really shows hot spots of where we're still seeing um I would say compliance issues. And so these are the areas where um working with Chief Barner and his staff, we're seeing the the highest um number of folks that are parking but not complying. And so we can use this

information to make sure that we have the proper signage, we're providing proper education, but we also use it to make sure that the parking program is operating in its most optimum uh capacity possible. The table that you see on the top right of your screen provides a breakdown for the last three years of what type of mechanism folks are using to comply. Are they paying at the meter? Have they downloaded the app and are they using it? or are they using um the text option or have they um secured a permit? Interestingly, over the last three years, we've seen about a 10 or 11% drop in the number of people using the meter and we've seen a um 3% increase in the app, but most most notably, we've seen a 7% increase in the text usage. So we are se seeing people kind of move away from the meter slowly and transition to using these my cell phone and that's a trend that we're continuing to monitor and and obviously as if meter use continues to decline that could come with benefits to the program because then we would no longer have to own operate and maintain meters. Um right below that we have a um chart that shows just kind of the usage by day of the week. should come to no surprise. Friday is the busiest day. Monday we tend to see the least amount of folks. Um, jumping to the bottom slide, we've also broken that down by hour. Um, so you can kind of see the trend. Um, but I do want to point out that 8:00 hour is grossly skewed because that includes folks that are parking for 8 to 10 hours. So that if you were to go there and park for the, you know, in the 10-hour parking area, you get um marked as an 8 a.m. person. So really the peak is during the the lunchtime when we remove those numbers. So what I have here is a bar chart that talks about our expenses. So I'm going to take a second and kind of run through

this because I think the expenses and revenue and then just the general net position are very important for council to be apprised of. Um we've broken each chart into three main categories or food groups if you will. Blue being personnel, orange being on and m and green being our meter debt service. So you can see from the previous budget year 2425 we had about a half a million dollar budget and it was really spread out pretty evenly in thirds between personnel O and M and debt for the parking meters and you can see that our 2526 budget really kind of mimics that as well and going in the 26 27 again it does but you'll notice in 2728 you'll see the yellow um cross-hatched area and really what's happening there is 20 if our revenue revenues continue to move or continue to come in at the rate that we're going to discuss in the next slide, we will have paid off our meter debt service um I don't know maybe halfway through the 2728 fiscal year and we'll be able to start paying back the other internal loans that we have the parking program has had to take from other city departments and that's a very key um point for the parking program in general and we would anticipate that we would be able to continue to do that and that is a very good position to be in. So moving over to um excuse me revenues on the similar side you'll see that last year our revenues were around half a million dollars. Um however I want to point out that a big chunk of our revenue is that purple hatched area where that is we're taking on loans from other departments to make sure that we have the revenue to cover our expenses. And if you recall from the previous slide, I was showing the yellow area with the hatches in a further year out. That is when we are able to start paying those advances back. So you see here that in the last year, we had to take out roughly about $200,000 of internal

loans. Um but this current year we're only budgeting for around $40,000 worth of loans because our revenue um is is increasing significantly predominantly due to downtown market opening up and other businesses as well. Um and then you'll see that in 2627 um our revenue doesn't include any um fund transfer. So again we're getting to the point to where the parking program is approaching that cost neutrality. It's paid for the debt for the equipment. We're paying back our internal loans and we're getting to the point where we can start putting money away for future needs that the parking program may have. Um, as well as making improvements to the parking area downtown in general, updating light standards, signage, um, or other things within our parking lots. Here we have a a few graphs and charts. So the one on the left shows um both our revenues and monthly expenses with a red vertical line there that really shows what's been happening since the public market has opened. And you can easily see that the blue line has gone up considerably since public market opening. And again, blue line is our our revenue uh with dashed lines being forecasted and solid lines being actual. And you can also see that our monthly expenses, again, that's the yellow line with solid being actual and dashed being forecasted. You can see that our expenses are coming down. And that is really um attestable to the team within public works, the finance department, as well as Chief Barner and his team looking for ways to more efficiently process citations, more efficiently run the route, and get information, and really at the end of the day, spend less time on the parking program in general. So, right, we're trying to control costs as much as possible, but take advantage of the businesses opening up down there and encourage folks to comply. The table, the bar chart over on the far

right, um, this is really our revenue versus expense outlook. So, that table there or bar graph, if you will, is a combination of the previous two, um, charts that we saw that were expenses and revenues. This is combining them into one. And again you can see that trend where last year 2425 we were having to essentially take on debt. We had to take on a little bit of debt in this current year but next year we anticipate being costneutral and paying off our debt and then being able to 27 28 and into the future pay back the internal loans that the parking program has taken on. Again a good trend or position to be in. Um, now I'm going to pause for a second because there's a lot of information there regarding the parking program financials before I jump into modifications that I'm going to recommend to this body this evening to make to the parking program as a whole or I'd be happy to continue your uh council's prerogative. All right, we're marching on loud and clear. All right. So, the first recommendation I have to changes downtown, and this is very much in alignment with what I've shared with you each time I've presented on this, is that as development occurs downtown in the parking program, we will adjust and make accommodations to support development. And what we are proposing here today is to eliminate paid parking on West Street as well as Yuba Street, west of Court Street. And you can see that on the figure in front of you. Um, so again, that would remove paid parking requirements along those locations and those would be free parking areas now. And then we would take the four parking meters that are out there and we would relocate them within the program to put them at spots that would save someone, you know, maybe a couple hundred feet of walking. Or if we don't need to do that, we would keep them as backup inventory, but we would redeploy those as necessary. And we believe that this makes sense with the courthouse

relocation. And just looking at the metrics, um what we have here is um looking at again the downtown parking program, specifically that downtown area. So um recently we've had Assembly Bill 413 which created which amended the California Vehicle Code and it's really been known as the daylighting legislation. And what it is doing is it it is requiring us to not have parking stalls right at the corner of an intersection. And if you think about it from a traffic engineering or a safety or an operations perspective, that makes a whole lot of sense because as vehicles are making turns there, you need to have enough sight distance to see. That's a spot where we have, you know, the vulnerable user group and the bicycles, peds are walking to make sure that, you know, people can see one another. So, as a result of that, I'm recommending that we modify our downtown parking program and remove 29 spots because those are affected by the assembly bill. However, I would like to convert eight of the 29 to um commercial loading zones which are in compliance with Assembly Bill 413. And I should note to council that we have received constant feedback from businesses downtown that commercial loading zones are strongly desired for obvious reasons. So, I anticipate this to be wellreceived and it has been based on the the feedback that my staff has taken and gone out and and met with businesses. [snorts] And then uh last but not least here, um I'm recommending that we add some red curb locations um along Jana Avenue um as well as Lake Boulevard. These are generally related to traffic engineering issues as well. Again, safety site distance operations. We want to make sure that vehicles aren't parking in an area where they um put the motorists or

users of the the facility in an unsafe uh situation. So, in general, um, I'm recommending this evening that council accept the department's downtown parking program financial update. And then I'm also recommending adoption of a resolution amending the city of reading traffic control map as shown on exhibits A, B, and C and summarized below. Modifying the eight on street parking spaces impacted by the state daylighting requirements, converting them to commercial loading and short-term commercial spaces and authorizing yellow curb markings shown on exhibit A. modifying red curb no parking design designations along the frontage of 1155 Lake Boulevard and to reflect full frontage as shown on exhibit B and extending the existing red curb on Yana Avenue at Shasta Meadows Elementary School crosswalk by approximately 20 ft on the north side of the crossing to approve sight distance pedestrian safety as shown on exhibit fe and then uh last but not least find this action is exempt from environmental review under SQA the common sense exemption. So, with that, um, I apologize. I was attempting to go quick. Um, I'm available for any questions that council may have.

Just a real quick question. What's the commercial loading zone or what does that mean? It means that um, if I owned a a restaurant that a delivery truck could temporarily park there while they loaded or unloaded um, you know, perishable goods or deliveries to that business. So, typically it's like a 15 to 30 minute park, load, unload, and then then move. So, a customer parking to run inside an office real quick and coming right out could still be cited. Does that I saw you put the one right in front of his office. That's why he's um unfortunately no. Uh Mr. Mayor, he's recused. Is there one there? Yes, the red curb. No, not a red red curb. Commercial loading. Oh, yellow. There's no commercial loading over there. Yeah.

Take a vote. Motion to approve. Motion to accept. Okay. Approve the plan. All in favor? I I should have just gone right to the vote, Michael. [laughter] We love you though. I I think you're just getting tired. So, it is past bedtime. All right. So, we're going to speed right along. So, to our city attorney 9.14A, consider approval of contract with Burke Williams and Sorenson LLP to provide legal services as an interimm city attorney.

Uh thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh, as the council is aware, back in January, I give the council notice that I would be leaving appointment with the city of Reading as I had accepted a position with another agency. I have since signed a contract with the city of Militus to be their city attorney. Uh, as per council policy, the city promptly contracted with a recruiting firm to conduct a formal recruitment for the replacement to the city attorney. Uh, the council has been involved in that process during the closed session. Uh, it is underway. However, there will be a gap between when I have left and when a permanent city attorney is able to step in and take over. Uh because of that, the city is in need of some interim city attorney services. Uh I briefed the council on some of the legal issues that you have in closed session. Um but uh in short, given the the complexity of the job, the nature of the issues that you have in front of you, um I would strongly recommend that you take a an experienced city attorney uh during that interim period. Um after discussing a few options, uh Burke William Sorenson uh appeared to be the the best fit. Um they did agree to bring their rates down to 335 an hour for general legal services. Uh there was still a provision for 405 an hour for specialized services, although the intent would be to minimize the utilization of that. Um and we have discussed some structural options to accomplish that. Um the the firm is uh offering to have its um uh managing partner of the Marin office as the interim city attorney with a lot of the work to be done uh by another partner within that office uh Mary Wagner. Uh both have extensive experience in municipal law. Um have dealt with uh dealt with many challenges uh for cities and public agencies in general and appear to be an excellent fit for for this work. Um they I will say um u your your new city manager has also had some experience working with them in the past and there's some indication that they should be able to have enough of relationship to be able to hit the ground running which I would say is really going to be important for

this interim assignment. Um uh they they appear to be the the right option. Um the request is that the council approve the contract um approve the accompanying budget resolution um to reflect the the expense and then also to vote to approve Mr. Stock as the interim city attorney um effective as of April 5th. Um my apologies. Um the second and third of those are in the body of the report but did not make it into the recommended action uh section of the the staff report. U with that I'm happy to answer any questions. No. I'll make a motion to approve. I'll second. I I. All in favor? I. [laughter]

All right. You guys are fun. Okay. Uh, moving along to uh that was great. Uh, council travel reports. Anybody have anything to report? Nothing. Uh, Tanessa, was that KCOG?

Do you have something to report? uh Calcog Serta, but I did go to the uh regional for California League of Cities in Chico who is um coming I think they're about 8 months from being released from their lawsuit over their homelessness encampment. So, they were talking about sort of their transitions and some unique um housing options, some builders in the area that are trying um some different ideas around density and um uh what their arena needs. So, yeah, keep up the good work. All right. Thank you. Um any suggestions from council members for any potential items in the future?

Nothing. Uh we are adjourned. Uh we are going back to close session and we will come back to report any action after we are done.