City Council - Regular Meeting

Good afternoon. I'd like to call this meeting to order, the City Council. Do we have any public comment for closed session? I don't see anybody, no written comments, nobody on Zoom. Madam City Attorney, what do we have on our agenda?

Thank you, Mayor. We have one item, Conference of Legal Counsel, existing litigation pursuant to Government Code Section 54956.91. In one case, Coyote Aviation v. City of Redlands et al., San Bernardino County Superior Court Case Number CIBSB 2418252.

Thank you. We stand in recess until open session at 6. Thank you. Good evening. I'd like to reconvene the city council meeting. The next order of business is the invocation by Council Member Baric and the Pledge of Allegiance by Victoria Elementary School. Councilman Baric.

Thank you. Please, let's turn the heat down. Hate does not stop hate. Violence does not stop violence. Yelling and cursing doesn't stop anything. We have a great country. Robert F. Kennedy, Sr., a Democrat, by the way, was an unbashed patriot. While running for president in 1998, he spoke at the University of Alabama and underlined the privilege of being an American. History has placed us all, northerners, southerners, black and white, within a common border under a common law. All of us, from the weakest, most powerful men to the weakest and hungriest children, share one precious possession, the name American. Amen.

Ready for Victoria Elementary School?

Good evening, everyone. Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance and raise the flag. Please place your right hand over your heart. Ready, begin. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Now please be seated and enjoy some of our cheers.

Go Geo! Ready? Okay! Go Geo! Go Tigers Go! Go Geo! Go Tigers Go! Last time! Go Geo! Go Tigers Go! Okay! Spark up, up, and shout! Let's hear it for the Tigers! Spark up, up, and shout! Let's hear it for the Tigers! Last time! Spark up, up, and shout! Let's hear it for the Tigers! Ready position! Blue and white. Ready! Okay! Tigers, Tigers, let's get loud! Sing the school that makes you proud! Victoria! Tigers, tigers, let's get loud! Yeah, the colors that make you proud! Blue and white! Victoria! Blue and white! Thank you for having us here today. Go Victoria! And go Red Wings!

Here we go. Ready? One, two, three. One more here. Ready? One, two, three. All right. Right here? One, two, and three. Keep smiling. Admin, Ms. Henry and Ms. Broker-Burr.

Can I get one of you guys on the side? Yeah. Okay, ready?

We're here. One, two, and three. Good job, and hold still for a second. I feel bad. All right. Thank you. Thank you, Earl. You did an awesome job.

Oh, he thought the parents were coming.

Thank you so much. What a great job, the students from Victoria Elementary School. What a great school system we have here in Redlands. So proud of all of them. We'll give them a little minute to exit, because then on our next agenda item is the pet adoption from the Redlands Animal Services. I'm sorry. Thank you. We have a closed session report, Madam City Attorney.

There was just one item on the closed session agenda, and there was no reportable action. That ends the closed session report.

Thank you. Now we can go to the animal control report. Pet adoption. Okay.

Good afternoon, mayor, members of the council, members of the community. Today I'm going to be talking about a few things. Where did my PowerPoint go? I just saw it. Today I'm going to be talking about a few things. I'm going to be sharing some numbers with you guys and discussing some stuff that's going on in our shelters and also discussing who is my pal here. I always said I had the best job because I get to bring a dog with me to do a presentation at City Hall. So this is great. So I'm going to be discussing about our numbers starting from December through the month of January of 2026. So what these numbers are, guys, these numbers are going to show you our beginning numbers when we first started the month of December. We started with 56 dogs. We were sorry, 56 animals. We had 49 dogs, seven cats, six. We did a total of 103 intakes. We had 71 dogs, zero cats. Now, the outcome of the animals, we started with adoption. We had 72 dogs that we got adopted out. Three cats were adopted out. We actually had a pretty good month. Return to owners, we had 20 dogs that were return to owners. we had three dogs that were transferred to rescues. Now, if you guys can see, I don't know if this has a laser pointer. It does. All right. That's our current population right there. So right now, at this time, the shelter has a total of 25 dogs. That is the lowest that I've seen it since I started here. I've been here since August, and I'm very proud of my staff for bringing down our numbers. We have had pretty high numbers that you guys can see. That's a pretty low number. So... And we have four cats. So I'm really proud of my staff. This is a pretty good success for us. I'm going to switch to my next. Here we go. Another great thing to talk about, we have our new modular kennels, and now they're finally here. We have a total of 24 kennels that we just added to our facility. These are modular kennels. The climate control. Here we go. They have climate control with both heating and air conditioning, indoor and outdoor access for each kennel, designed to improve animal comfort and welfare. Now, this is going to help us increase better housing for these animals so that way they can have access, if you guys can see in the picture, they have access to going inside and out. So this is really gonna help just the overall release the stress with staff. We have a total of 28 kennels, but with adding these additional kennels, it's really gonna help boost up our capacity here. And now to close it up, I'm gonna talk about my buddy Wizard here. Wizard is our longest resident. He's been with us since August 25th, and he is looking for his forever home. What he likes to do, he loves to meet new people. He likes to have fun. He has a great personality. He loves to do magic. He's still working on his spell to get himself adopted. He likes to people watch. If you guys ever come to our shelter, he's probably the only dog that's not barking at you. So he has been adjusted. He has adjusted to the shelter pretty well. And he's actually one of the dogs that I've been kind of spending more time with. I'm almost thinking about adopting him, but I have a senior dog and I can't bring him home. So maybe one of you guys or you guys can maybe give him a home. But he's such a great dog. It's true, it's true. He's a great dog, though. If you guys ever look to adopt, people always ask, why should they adopt from the City of Redlands? And the answer is simple. We have the best staff that work with our dogs. We have the best community that volunteers and help with our dogs. They walk our dogs. They spend time with them, give them treats, train them. So when you adopt from the City of Redlands, you're getting an overall well-behaved dog. So no one's perfect, but you guys can make our dogs perfect when you give them a home. So thank you, guys. I appreciate your time.

Thank you. Thank you, Joe. Thank you, guys. Next is G2. This is the presentation of Black History Month proclamation to the Redlands Community Reunion members. Jimmy Dixon, Sandra Dixon, Audrey Jones, Taylor, Karen Hill, Donna Calloway, Reggie Harrison, and Tony Smith, and Vicki McSwain. I'm going to read off a little history on their organization, and I'll explain what's on the screen here in a minute after I get done. Black History Month is celebrated annually during the month of February and was created by Carter G. Woodson in 1926 to highlight the contributions and accomplishments made by the black community to our nation, which until then has been omitted. The Redlands Community Reunion stands as a living testament to the resilience, history, and enduring spirit of Redlands black and brown communities, rooted in love for our hometown and deep respect for those who built it. The reunion was created to honor the past, celebrate our present, and strengthen our future. The vision for this gathering began years ago when a community conversation made clear that something precious was being lost. The connection between generations, families, classmates, neighborhoods, neighbors, and families who helped shape Redlands cultural and civic fabric. In 2022, under the leadership of my friend, Jimmy Dixon, who courageously declared, the time is now. The vision that became a reality and action formed. What began as an idea became a movement to bring our people home, to laughter, remember together, and to stand together in pride. The purpose of the Redlands Community Reunion goes far beyond a single event. It was to create and to provide a safe, welcoming space where people could reconnect, restore relationships, and honor those who paved the way in sports, education, public service, faith, politics, and civic life. It's a sacred space for remembrance, ensuring that those who made their transition are never forgotten and that the contributions continue to live through our stories, our families, and our collective memory. Over the past four years, the reunion has grown into a powerful expression of unity and cultural preservation, a reminder that Redlands is not just a place on the map, but a home held in the hearts of its people. Whether we stayed or moved away, the reunion reaffirmed that our roots are still here, are still matter. Together, those leaders have served not for recognition, but for remembrance, restoration, and responsibility to those who came before us and those yet to come. We, as the Black History Month and the Redlands Community Reunion, stand as an example of how community-led leadership preserves history, strengthens identity, builds bridges across generations. With the torch being passed forward to 2027 and beyond, this work will continue, ensuring the legacy of the Redlands Black and Brown families remains viable and honored and alive. So this is a banner that is a timeline starting from the 1940s and on, and it has the contributions of both our black and brown communities' leaders, significant milestones through our history here in Redlands. I mean, Redlands at one time only had one junior high and one high school, and those memories still continue to this day as we have a number of middle schools now that used to be called junior highs. But we are so... impressed with our traditions here in Redlands, that we do it our Redlands way. And this was created by the committee, and right now this banner hangs in the Chich Marín Chicano and Cultural Arts Museum in Riverside, and will be there in display to the end of March, I believe, and then we'll have it back here in the community so that everybody can enjoy it, and maybe we can share it here in the community. So without further ado, if I could have Jimmy Dixon, Sandra Dixon, I'm going to call these names. They may not be here, but if they are, please come up to the front of the podium. Jimmy Dixon, Sandra Dixon, Audrey Jones-Taylor, Karen K.K. Hill, Donna Callahan-Calloway, Reggie Harrison, Tony Smith, and Vicki McSwain. Thank you. All of what I just read is in the proclamation format, is all the whereases, whereases, and then we get down to the end. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the City Council of the City of Redlands hereby declares the month of February 2026 as Black History Month and encourages residents to fight racism, intolerance, and prejudice through education, kindness, and compassion and understanding. And so we want to thank you all for the wonderful work that you have been doing in this community for so long. I've known you all my life, right? And so we really want to acknowledge and let you know how thankful we are for the contributions that you allow us to do as a community members here together. And so I'll pass it on to you if you want to introduce yourself and if you want to say a few words. I'm Tony Smith.

I want to thank the council for this proclamation. Thank the mayor for his recognition and support for the committee. Thank you.

Introduce yourself.

My name is Reginald Harrison. And as Mario mentioned, we've known each other since high school, maybe even before then. But I appreciate the opportunity to represent Redlands. There's my friend there, Rob.

My name is Sandra Dixon. I'm Jimmy Dixon's wife. I wasn't born in Redlands, but I am part of the committee.

My name is Jimmy Dixon, and... I also want to thank the mayor, and I also want to thank the city of Rutlands for recognizing us and the things that we have done and trying to do. So we also are going to do something in 2027, and we have the person Vivian Dixon that's standing over here, and she'll be hosting the next community reunion. And we hope that the city of Rutlands and the mayor gets behind that as well. Thank you so much. We appreciate you.

Thank you.

Thank you so much. Congratulations, all right?

Thank you for all the work. Thank you so much.

Next is our consent calendar. We have a request. Public comment. I'm sorry. Thank you. Getting ahead of myself. Tracy Wise, public comment. Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor Salcedo and members of the Redlands City Council. My name is Tracy Wise. I live in Redlands, 92374. First of all, I want to thank the City of Redlands and Redlands PD for, over this past year, continuing to support the First Amendment, which allows residents of our city to gather peacefully, not necessarily quietly, but to gather peacefully to state our concerns while on public property, or for drivers passing by to peacefully indicate their support or peacefully indicate their non-support. So I have greatly appreciated that from everyone who's been involved. We're watching right now our constitutional rights and the rule of law denied and even smashed across our nation. Minneapolis has been the poster child for these attacks, and they are ongoing. I have friends living there, and I'm in touch with them every day about what is happening. I'm very grateful that Redlands has not seen the same scale of attack at this point, and I pray it will not. Rene Good's last words were, dude, I'm not mad at you. Alex Preddy's last words to a woman he was trying to help up were, are you okay? I believe the majority of Redlanders are inherently decent human beings, as do I believe this of our city government, our police and our elected officials. I'm therefore calling on all of us to remember that basic decency and our adherence to the rule of law and the U.S. Constitution in 2026. as this year progresses backwards into violent repressive iterations of past U.S. history, as those with power and military weapons attack people living their everyday lives, including children coming home from school. I would like to therefore suggest that Redlands follow the example of cities across the country by implementing regulations or following actions that federal agents cannot be masked. That is a law in California, regardless of what the chief of Los Angeles PD chooses to agree to do or not. that federal agents must have their IDs visible, and they must have arrest warrants signed by federal judges, not just by their bosses. And if they do not do this, they can be arrested. Because at the end of the day, all of us in this space are neighbors, and we must find a way to live together, respecting each other's lives and right to live without being kidnapped or extrajudicially murdered.

Next up is Bruce Laycook. As he's coming up, for those of you that this is your first time here, we ask you to introduce yourself. There's three lights on the podium. One's the green. The middle one is the orange, and you have 30 seconds to wrap up your comments, and then the red will show up. Mr. Laycook.

Yes. The previous speaker actually spoke to most of my concerns. The thing that I'm most concerned about right now is you know that we've run out of budget for the food card program that the city had administered with the previous grant, and that's putting a huge burden on family service and other community agencies. So I'm asking the city council to look at the budget and to ask yourselves, do we need to spend money on hardware? Or do we need to spend money on food for people? Because right now we have a real crisis brewing. Thank you for considering that. Secondly, food collection locations across the nation have been targeted by ICE and Customs and Border Control because they serve lower income people of color frequently. And I ask you to be sensitive to that as you look at those things and maybe consider working with the community leaders to find a way for people who are at risk to get food delivered so that there's not one place that people that would like to intervene can take people away when they're just trying to get food to feed their children. That's it. Thank you.

Next is Roberta Layfield, or Late. If I mispronounce your name, come on up. And did you say you were going to interpret for another?

Actually, okay, so I'm Roberta LaFelton.

I live on Clay Street here.

My mom moved here in 79, so I moved here in 79. I understood that we get three minutes. Yes. So I was also told that somebody could come in here and that I could use their three minutes to help speak for them. It's the same issue.

Yes.

Okay.

I don't think so.

So you'll get three minutes, and if someone else wants to come up and speak, but speak Spanish, and you will interpret, then we'll give some extra time for that individual to say his or her comments and have you interpret.

That's not what I understood, but it goes however it goes. Go ahead and start?

Yes.

Okay, so I live on Clay Street. When the Boys and Girls Club...

I'm sorry, could you move closer to the microphone? Sure.

Is this... I'm little. Is this better? Okay. Okay, so I live on Clay Street. Across the street from the Boys and Girls Club, when it was originally built, it wasn't an issue. They have 11 parking spaces there. Parking is one of the issues. So is safety in the neighborhood and the impact on our neighborhood. We are a wonderful family kind of neighborhood. A lot of retired people live there. But the impact of the Boys and Girls Club... They provide no parking whatsoever, and they have, as it was originally built and used, the traffic would come and go a little bit depending upon when the parents, but now they want to extend that use as their administrative offices. I counted over 100 cars over in our little area. Last Thursday on our trash day, I've also brought pictures of the parking issue and how people aren't getting their trash picked up because the way that they're parking over there, it's not the pickleball players. They come here for two hours, three hours max, and they leave. Those people want to park there for eight hours. Also, because they lack parking, that means that people are double parked on both sides of the street to get their kids. Those parents are not... finding a parking space. They're just parking in the middle of the street. The Boys and Girls Club attitude towards us is just wait, wait. They have even been double parked and I told her I'm going to work. Her words to me, wait. We're good neighbors. They might be good for the community. They're terrible for our neighborhood. They're trying to shoehorn as much use out of that little facility without providing any parking, and it's truly impacting our neighborhood. The modifications to the property, the extended fences, they're grabbing every inch that they can without... while excluding the neighborhood at the same time. People used to come and play basketball there. They used to put cones up so nobody could use that public parking. It's all about them. They put lights. They would shine all the way up my driveway. People who are putting in those curtains, you know, to block the light, they can't sleep at night. There's an 85-year-old lady on the other side of the wall. She can't sleep at night. They're being treated like residents when they are an entity that impacts anything. Anything extended beyond whatever that they should have had impacts our neighborhood. There's nothing more going towards them. They're just take, take, take. And we live there. Many people are there 16 to 24 hours a day. They're there for, what, 8, maybe 10 max? And yet they're vastly affecting the quality of our life. It seems we feel like they have more rights than we do. This is very upsetting. I don't know where those lights are, but I'm just saying. Because I've had to, oh, thank you. I've had to go around the neighborhood and meet. I was shocked at some of the other issues, depending upon where they're located with these people. Please quit treating these people as if they're residents. You need to deal with them on a different level. Thank you.

Next is Juan Carlos Urola.

He doesn't feel comfortable speaking, so I was, oh, Carlos, I'm sorry.

Hello, my name is Juan Carlos Mora, M-O-R-A. This is my first time coming up here speaking, but it's the same issue as Robin has spoken. I do live on Clay Street. I moved there in 1999. I bought my home. Majority of all the people are homeowners there. except maybe two residents are probably renters, but they've been long-time renters. So when the Boys and Girls Club at that time, when we moved there, it was like a church location. It was turned down, property bought by the Boys and Girls Club, which I thought was okay. It was great for the community. It'll be nice. It'll be good. But as time has progressed, Now we're showing that a lot of employees are parking in our residential parking area. We I mean, I work 10 hours a day. I get home and I have to park down the street around the corner. And then I have to walk to my house late at night, nine o'clock. Now I have to go get my car, bring in clothes. That's not right. These employees have been there. This is parked there eight hours, and we have to park. I have five adult drivers in my home, so we have five cars. I only can put two in my driveway, and the rest has to be on the street. We have no parking. We have reached out to the Boys and Girls Club. I have sent messages to Michael Wells, CEO, Montree, COO, Teresa, Director of Operations, Dana, Executive Assistant to the CEO. We have reached over to the Human Resource Chisholm, I believe his name is, and there's no progress. They're not doing anything. So... This is horrible. The pickup zone, when you're turning, when you're going eastbound on Lagonia, you're turning southbound on Clay Street, they are parking right there in the corner. If you turn too fast, you're going to hit one of those cars. The pickup, the people that are picking kids up, they're going the opposite way, parking across the street illegally. And we have reached out to the Boys and Girls Club, and they have not done nothing. So I really think that's something the city needs to look into. I know there is a residential parking permit that probably can look into it. But this is a really big concern, and we really need to get this resolved. Eddie, this is your district. Clay Street is your district. So I really hope that you look into this because as residents, We never had this problem. Been there almost 30-something years. I'm sorry, 25 years, 26 years. And now it's like I just want to leave because of the problem we have with the Boys and Girls Club. Pickleball is great. I love when the pickleball people come in. They're there for two hours, and they leave. No problem. Like that. But the Boys and Girls Club employees, they really need to find somewhere else to park at. Thank you.

Mr. Mayor and Council, we'll have staff follow up with them and direct them to the appropriate forums. It could be our Traffic and Parking Commission or something like that. So we definitely will follow up and contact them.

Thank you. Lucy Lariba, did you want to speak to a public comment or on L1? Oh, same thing. Same thing? Okay, public comment. Come on up.

My name is Lucy Lariba, and I've lived on Clay Street. It'll be 50 years. And I never have had this problem. You know, if my daughter's friends would want to come and park in front of our home, they have to go on Western or even on Lagonia. And I don't think that's right. The other thing is there was a black truck that parked His tail end was sticking out into our driveway, and my daughter could not get out. And if she would have had an appointment, she would have had to call and cancel because we don't know who the black truck belonged to. Probably one of the people from the Boys and Girls Club. And I just don't feel that it's right, you know, the parking situation. And we try and make our areas look presentable and nice, and we keep them updated and clean and everything. And, you know, for the Boys and Girls Clubs, just to say, oh, we're just going to park here. They can park on Western and Lagonia, or maybe they can even ask the community center, please can we use some of your parking spaces that is up against the wall, right? There shouldn't be no problem. I mean, if we are going to build, if we are going to be like a community, then that's what it needs to be based on. And I have more, but that's all.

Okay? Jose Rojas. Can she interpret for him? Yeah, you're welcome to come up and interpret for him. Really?

Hello, my name is Jose Rojas. I live in Clay Street for more than 20 years. And I may complain about the street, the parking lots, the cars parking in the street. There's too many, too many cars. If I move my car and forgot to store it when I come back, where am I going to park? It's full. I understand that the street is public, but not for a business play. Business play is supposed to have your own parking. Those people parking there, working in Boys and Girls Club. This was my complaint. Thank you.

Mr. Mayor, if I may, if you will indulge me, a comment for my constituents. Thank you for coming and bringing this to my attention. I'm pretty sure we can put this on the agenda for the Traffic and Parking Commission from here, correct?

We'll get some more information, but... They'll need to make the application?

All right. Okay. So I have had other constituents who have brought concerns, and once we give them to the city staff, there is a process, but it does get resolved. So I just wanted to reassure you that it's not we're going to do this, and then you feel like you're not taken care of. We will take care of you. Thank you.

Okay. Andy Hoder?

Good evening, Mr. Mayor, members of the council and staff. On a lighter note, this is a comment or recommendation on the format for the city council meeting agendas as they appear on the city's website. I'm guessing very few of our residents read the agenda verbatim as I do, but I doubt that many of them would notice the bias in the format. That's what I want to speak to. So on the one hand, this may seem like a trivial anomaly, but anomaly... anomaly. How about that? But if we can make it better, why not? As the agenda items now appear, it commences with an abbreviated summary of what the item is about, followed by sections labeled in this order, motion, recommendation, and discussion. I believe these are presented in the reverse order of what would seem more logical, certainly from the public's point of view. Wouldn't it make more sense to read the discussion first and familiarize yourself with all the aspects and circumstances pertaining to the item? You might say you do that anyway, but how does the public, the folks you work for, know that? But I offer this colorful analogy. Imagine sitting down to dinner with an agenda next to your plate. It starts out with put down your fork. You're done. That's the motion. You're starting at the wrong end of the meal. Then you will like this food. No need to taste it. That's the recommendation. You're getting the recommendation before you've even gone into the meal. Lastly, your agenda says enjoy your meal if you haven't already finished it. That would be what should be the discussion. So that's all kind of backwards in my mind. In the council meeting agenda, the motion should come at the very end after the discussion. But before the motion, there should be a phrase that says this item meets the criteria for approval. Instead, it reads recommendation. So you're already predisposed to consent to that. It's a subliminal inducement to give consent potentially without familiarization of the facts and circumstances. It's as if to say, so you don't need to have any doubts as the correct course of action has already been presented to you. What if a major developer comes to town advocating a major project for a single parcel of commercial property or housing tract? When their item comes up before the council on the agenda for consideration, they would like you to cut to the chase and give approval without lengthy discussion or cumbersome challenges. Just say yes so we can get on with it. That's what the agenda recommendation suggests. So the public sees that methodology as kind of a project being done deal before the meeting ever starts, which, of course, is not good. Therefore, I hope you will consider rearranging the agenda sections for future meetings. I have brought this to the attention of the city manager, so he's already aware of my thoughts there. Thank you. Thank you very much.

Next public comment, I believe it's Rose from 106 West Pennsylvania. Ryan, I'm sorry. My apologies.

Hello. It's nice to meet you, Mr. Mayor and the City Council of Redlands. I'm here to speak on an issue. Firstly, my name is Radon Rice. And secondly, I would like to state I do not have children, but this is a very important issue to me. It has come to my knowledge that Within the past decade, there have been over $50 million that have been delegated to different issues regarding sexual abuse of children within the school district of Redlands. And to me, sorry, I'm a little flustered at the issue. Again, I don't have children, but considering the youth, it's kind of hard to imagine the lack of care that has been delegated to the future of the community. The other day, I was going across the street, just going to grab a quick soda to take home and uh i noticed two young gentlemen around the age of 15 and 16 who were attempting to steal something out of the store and i spoke to them told them not to told them i saw them etc etc and i let them know like hey just you know i had a job when i was 15 or 16 to which they stated hey man like there's no jobs etc etc we were just taking what we can so while i am making a little bit of a straw man argument it's a bit of an issue to me to see that there's a lack of civic engagement for the youth to where They can't work. There's no third spaces. There's nothing to keep them engaged and out of trouble. On top of the fact that there have been millions of dollars of taxpayer money that have been paid to settle sexual abuse amongst the youth on top of a $500,000, half a million allotment for Sabine Robertson Williams, if I'm correct. who used to be the HR director of RUSD, that is alarming to me to know that while I don't have children, it's... Almost disgruntling to me to know that growing up, while I may have gone into my fair share of excuse my French, shit, my parents kept me in sports, they kept me in extracurricular activities, and they made sure to engage with their community to not only make sure myself and my siblings stayed out of trouble, they did it for the greater community. So when I see that there is a lack of proper infrastructure, public transportation, extracurricular activities, and oversight to ensure the safety and engagement of our youth, Again, I don't have kids. I only ask that you as the representatives of this community take it very seriously and delegate it properly, considering that while I may be from Charlotte, North Carolina, I have spoken to my parents a number of times and told them that Redlands is a town that I hope to come back to in the next 10 years and raise my own children. So I hope that for the sake of not only my future children, but the present youth in this community, you take this issue very seriously. Thank you.

Next speaker is Stephen Rogers.

Stephen Rogers, Church Street.

I'd like to talk tonight about what I saw happen yesterday, and that was... with the city of San Bernardino. I know they had a special meeting last night where they were considering possibly changing their charter in order to go to an appointed mayor from the council, similar to what we have, as opposed to their elected mayor. that is currently the case and, you know, basically their attorneys were pushing to do that and the community stood up and said, no, we want to have our vote, you know, we want to have the vote. Everybody have a stake in who is the mayor of the city. And it got me thinking, you know, what really is important for this city. And I know I brought it up before. I don't I think that there's a lot of divisiveness. And I mean, right now, the divisiveness is at an all time high. And it's in my opinion, it's all created by the government, you know, and sort of to say, hey, don't look at us. We're It's them, you know. It's really the government, you know, just trying to not do their job. And I'm really concerned about this divisiveness, especially with regard to how it affects this council with regard to the mayorship position. And that all came about really... And it came obvious when we went to districts, district voting. And so we now only have one-fifth of the voting power that we used to have. So I proposed in the past that we need to consider, and I think we should consider putting a ballot measure on the next election to look at whether we should have an elected mayor and also if we should have a hybrid district system where we go to, let's say, four districts and we would have The candidate would come from the district, but the entire city could vote on all the districts. Thank you.

That's all the public comment I have on request. We have one on Zoom. Mr. Moderator?

Yes, Mr. Mayor.

Zoom user, it is your turn to speak.

I wish to remain anonymous. I live on Clay Street and biggest concern is the safety of these children during. Now what I've witnessed through my observation of the Boys and Girls Club is that their employees are hostile with these parking spaces. There are people on the street with disabilities. The Girls Club next door comes out anywhere between the hour of 8 and 6 p.m playing music whenever they decide to and make a whole lot of noise that is a huge complaint of mine they have no respect for any of the neighborhood around them i suggest that the boys and girls club find a new and bigger location that's safer for the children because we are Redlands and we're supposed to be a city that works. This right here does not work.

Okay. It sounds like you finished your comments. Okay. I don't have any other speaker slips and I don't see anybody else on Zoom. I'll now close the public comment. Move on to our consent item, our consent calendar. I have a request to pull item I-2 and I-11.

Move approval of the balance of the calendar.

Second. There's a motion and a second. Madam City Clerk.

I'm sorry, who seconded? There were two. Okay. Barich. Okay. Council Member Barich. Yes. Council Member Tejeda. Yes. Council Member Davis. Yes. Mayor Pro Tem Shaw. Yes. Mayor Saucedo.

Yes. The item for discussion is to authorize Mayor Saucedo to sign a letter to Southern California Edison regarding the electrical infrastructure capacity in District 2. Council Member Tejeda.

Yes, Mayor and my colleagues, thank you very much for indulging me in this item. And thank you to staff also for working so quickly on getting this item on the agenda. Recently, the council was made aware of a shortage of infrastructure in District 2 specifically. This shortage of infrastructure impacts developments that were already approved by the Planning Commission in I think 2024 and 2025 or maybe also previously. A recent development was approved also for the corner of Tennessee and Lugonia which this shortage of infrastructure is impacting as well. It impacts any future development that's coming into District 2. And my concern on top of that was how any shortage of infrastructure elsewhere in the community is going to affect, let's say, for example, the future fire stations that we're planning for and the police department as well, the new police station that we're planning for. So knowing this, I... drafted this letter and I ask for forgiveness after the fact. The way I wrote it was implying that we've already had the discussion and approved it, but I'm asking my colleagues to support the mayor signing this letter as I think it's important to tell our partners at Southern California Edison that there is development in the community and appropriate attention needs to be paid to the areas that are getting approved so that when the development comes in, they're not waiting at the last minute to find out they can't build their project because there's no electricity. So that's my comment and forward to the discussion.

Thank you. I have one public speaker, Ray Kayakan.

Good evening, Council, Mayor Sauceda. And I wanted to thank Council Member Tejeda. He and I have been speaking over the last week on this matter. I represent a company called Regency Centers. We have a commercial project that's proposed for the corner of Tennessee and Ligonia. We've been working at it for over a year, almost 18 months. We've been working closely with city staff, and I must commend this city for having a phenomenal staff. It's been a pleasure to work with everyone, and they've been super supportive of our project. Recently, we were informed of not only the lack of infrastructure, but just the unwillingness of Southern California Edison to step up and put in an infrastructure that is really their responsibility and something that they need to be handling and putting in, not just for our project, but for projects around the entire area. This is really critical for all developments to occur within District 2 in this region of Redlands, and it's really impeding on our ability to do so. I'd also like to note an important fact, which is that these properties, not only our property but the neighboring properties, have been zoned for commercial industrial uses as well as commercial uses that can bring many residential units. And that's been zoned for well over 20 years. So it's not that this has been a change that they didn't know about. Our project alone they've known about for the last six quarters, about 18 months, and was not voiced to us to the level of concern that we are now aware of. So... Again, really appreciate Council Member Tejeda's support on this matter. He's really jumped on this over the last week and would greatly appreciate your support. I've also brought our neighboring developments that are occurring. We're here united and just coming to speak to you guys and say we're here to bring some awesome projects to the city of Redlands and appreciate any support you can give to push Southern California as in to put the infrastructure in that they need to. Thank you. I do have a question.

Is your project being delayed because you're not getting? Our project will die because of this. Okay, thanks.

Let me, if you'd like me to be blessed about it.

Yeah, that's pretty well, yeah, that's an answer.

So the responsibility of putting infrastructure in is on Southern California Edison. They've informed us that the timeline to bring power to our project is approximately 36 to 42 months. We've been working on this project for 12 to 18 months. We have a lease signed with a grocer. We're going to be building a neighborhood shopping center with a grocer. We are Regency Centers. We are a public REIT. We build shopping centers, and then we don't sell them. We own these in perpetuity. We will be your neighbors. We will be community members forever. So those are the types of developers you'd like in your community. So to find out that that power would not be available for so long is really quite challenging. And so the option that was presented to us was you guys can do it. And unfortunately, we don't have the economic viability to be able to do that. Retail is a very challenged business to make development work. Our returns are substantially lower than most. And I don't mean to interrupt. No, no worries. There's a protocol. No problem. Sorry about that. Thank you.

I can't answer it. This was a pulled item, so I thought.

What? It's a pulled item. It's a pulled item. We run the item as we do all the other items. It's deferred to the mayor to ask for public comment and follow-up questions. So it's really up to the mayor.

All right. We're going to go ahead and have Bruce, you have a comment, and Steve, you also have a comment, and then we'll bring it back to the council.

I'm puzzled how the Planning Commission can improve a project for which there's no electrical power. That seems like the process is broken, like there should be some fact-finding before a project is approved so that a developer who wants to do something we really need, which is more grocery stores on the north side of town, doesn't get in this situation. How did that slip through the cracks? I mean, the Planning Commission has very specific rules, and the Planning Department has very specific rules about things. But having electrical power seems like... Design 101 kind of thing. And so I would encourage you to consider putting a moratorium on anything in that north side while you fix the process. Because it's pretty clear from this unfortunate situation that it is broken and broken badly. Thank you.

Mr. Rodgers?

steve rogers church street okay well this i mean this makes all the sense in the world the way that you all have been approving projects and when i say you all i mean these projects a lot of them aren't even coming to the city council for approval anymore they're just being approved by the planning commission And so, you know, that really limits the public's involvement, and it's being done for a reason. It's, you know, you guys want your, what is it called, deniability, your plausible deniability or whatever it is that this is going on. And it's not just electrical. It's all infrastructure. You guys have approved, you know, this transit organ... specific plan that allows all these usage, but you didn't do any infrastructure planning whatsoever. You know, because it was all done in reverse. You guys were supposed to update your general plan, get the transit villages all in place before the train was approved by SPCTA, and that's not how it worked out. SPCTA actually built the train, and we didn't even have our transit centers approved yet. So this is the tail wagging the dog. I mean, this is going to be your guys' legacy unless you do something very quickly about it. And I'm not sure I know exactly what to do, but some of my suggestions have been, some of these projects have to be overturned because they were approved on false premise. specifically the Tennessee Village and Meadowlark. I mean, I know that subdivision is huge and almost halfway done, but it's all been approved by the city on false premise, you know, and so... You have to have the appropriate people doing the appropriate jobs for the city to protect public health, safety, and welfare. That hasn't been happening.

Matt Jordan.

Mayor Cecito, city council members, we have a project that's part of this quadrant, if you will, and I will let you know that this issue with Southern California Edison is a statewide issue. It's not specific to this town. We have other projects that we're working on in other communities. In some communities, it's there. Some communities, it's not. It really has to do with what's going on at the time in that community. But having said that, one of the reasons for that is simply state policy forces electrical power everywhere. You know, it's hard to get natural gas approved for a project anymore. And the truth is, with this policy, they're simply, the infrastructure can't support it. And so it's a tough policy to build infrastructure around. Having said that, obviously Southern California Edison has known about this. I will tell you, it's been at the top of our list as an industry for the last two or three years. And so far, it's been kind of like a whack-a-mole. Southern California Edison's been fixing it by just Whoever comes first in line gets the power. They're trying to improve that, but it's not been improved quick enough, and these situations arise. And all I can tell you as a neighbor, anything the city can do for this project would be, in our quadrant, would be most important. We need this on the north side. This particular retail project... will make a huge difference on how the neighborhoods are received there on the north side. And so anything special that the city could do for this particular project and our particular quadrant on the north end would be greatly appreciated. It's very hard to plan your business. around these kinds of circumstances when you're not quite sure if you're going to have power. It's kind of difficult to line up financing and other things. So it's not a Redlands problem. It's a regional, statewide problem. But nonetheless, anything you can do to help this specific project at this specific time would be greatly appreciated.

Okay. I'll bring it back to the council.

I was just going to comment.

Hold on, Paul. I'm sorry. Go ahead.

Okay. I was just going to comment that, you know, I think that I appreciate the letter being written. I think the response so far from Edison that, you know, this could be 36 to 42 months, and that if they want it done sooner, then the developers can pay for that, I think is ridiculous. This is, you know, it's infrastructure that Edison is required to provide, and I think that They should certainly step up to the plate here. We've made it well known and will continue to make it well known that it's a priority. And these projects need to move forward and not in 36 months or in 42 months because, like the first speaker said, that project will be dead by the time power gets in there. if Edison doesn't move this to the top of the list. So I support the mayor in drafting the letter and for us leveraging the resources we have with Edison to make sure that they understand it's a top priority for us to get that power sooner than 36 months.

I agree 100%. My question is, what can we do? I mean, it's not our power company, but...

Well, we have been in touch with Edison already. This letter will be transmitted to them tomorrow if approved by the council. Basically what it comes down to is Edison does a capital plan similar to a city does. They've planned out where their dollars are going to go to extend their infrastructure in a variety of places. There was power to this area, but I believe the CarMax development basically took up the last allotment of power for that area. Now a new line needs to be run. I don't know what the cost is on that. Edison said they were trying to work on getting an estimate to see what that would be. I will tell you that cities and planning commissions are never in the business of approving a plan because of whether power exists. That is solely on the developer and the power company working together on that. We would handle water, wastewater, streets, sidewalks, things like that. So it just wouldn't be something that the planning commission would take up. Our planning department and and Planning Commission does a very good job of vetting these projects. Really the problem is that Edison, we hope, will reconfigure their budget. Maybe they have some projects that aren't as high priority as the one that we have that we'll be bringing to them and they'll be able to move up the timeline. They will have to design the project and actually construct the project so there's a time lag in that but Like I said, we talked to them several times last week, and we'll continue to see if we can get some movement on this.

Do you want to make a comment?

No, I just think we just need to put some pressure because time is money, and I see development have to close, you know, pack up and leave because of a power. So anything we can do, I'll be supportive of, you know, putting some pressure on Edison to move as quickly as they can for this.

All right. I don't see any other public comment, nothing on Zoom. I'll make the motion. What's the wish of the council?

I move the city council authorize Mayor Salcedo to sign a letter addressed to Southern California Edison requesting immediate attention.

Second.

Motion and a second. Madam City Clerk.

Council Member Baric.

Yes.

Council Member Tejeda.

Yes.

Council Member Davis. Yes. Mayor Pro Tem Shaw.

Yes.

Mayor Sacido.

Yes. On item... L11 on the consent calendar. This is an adopted resolution number 8746, approving a memorandum of understanding pursuant to penal code sections. 830.76B and 836 outlining the authority and responsibility of the University of Redlands and the Redlands Police Department in accordance with the Jeanne Clary Act, California Act, and California Education Code Section 67381, Police Chief Tolbert. Just to be clear, this is I-11. I-11. I'm sorry. What did I say? L-L. I'm sorry.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. As you stated, the item that you have before you is to adopt the resolution approving this memorandum of understanding between the University of Redlands and the Redlands Police Department. There's been a continuous MOU between the university and the police department since March of 1996. The most recent MOU was from 2005, so over 20 years old, and was last updated in 2011. This revised MOU will replace the prior MOU. It also provides for cooperation and division of authority between RPD and public safety. It incorporates the grants of limited authority available to public safety officers as outlined in the penal code. on the university campus, provided that they meet specified qualifications. And RPD maintains primary responsibility for policing response on the campus with specified exceptions that are laid out in the MOU. There are two amendments that need to be made. They can be found in paragraph 20, subsection B of the MOU. The heading there is insurance. and those amendments are as follows the numbers in the parentheses do not match the written numbers or written amounts and the numbers need to be corrected in the first parentheses to 1 million and the second set of parentheses to 2 million the university's representative is here tonight as well this concludes my presentation and we're happy to answer any questions that you might have on this item

Are there any questions before I go to our public comment? Mr. Laycook, did you have a public comment on this?

I think this is an excellent thing to update the MOU, but I've suggested this in previous meetings. This is a very technical document. I know because I read it through. Having it as a consent item, given that it's like a 20-page long document, doesn't seem like the right way to deal with it. I think these kinds of things where you're talking about an agreement where the city is ceding some of its enforcement power to the university and the university is making an agreement to work cooperatively with the city is something that should be aired in somewhat more detail rather than having as a consent item. I fully support the MOU. I'm not speaking against it, but I'm concerned about the fact that it could have gotten short shrift were I not to have spoken like this. Thank you very much.

You represent from the University of Redlands. Do you wish to speak? Not if the council has no questions, but I'm here to answer any questions the council has. Thank you. All right. What's the wish of the council with the amended corrections on the MOU?

I'll move that the city council adopt resolution number 8746, approving the updated MOU between the University of Redlands and the Redlands Police Department. As amended. As amended.

Second. We have a motion and a second. Adam City Clerk.

Council Member Barrett?

Yes.

Council Member Tejeda? Yes. Council Member Davis? Yes. Mayor Pro Tem Shaw? Yes. Mayor Saucedo?

Yes. Okay. Moving on to item in communications, J1. This is the annual report of the Street Treat Commission given by Chairwoman Chris Sedmek, Facilities and Community Services Director Crocker.

Thank you, Mayor. Unfortunately, I received a text about 30 minutes ago that she was unable to make it tonight.

Mayor, I apologize. She let me know and I forgot to tell you, so I apologize. Okay.

So we'll receive and file her report? Yes. Okay, thank you. Do we need a vote on that? One need a vote.

Make the motion. Motion to receive and file the report from the Street Tree Commission. Second. We have a motion and a second. Madam City Clerk?

Council Member Baric.

Yes.

Council Member Tejeda.

Yes.

Council Member Davis. Yes. Mayor Pro Tem Shaw.

Yes.

Mayor Saucedo.

Yes. Moving on to item J2. This is a discussion of possible action relating to the Food Security Task Force and continued coordination with the community partners in addressing food insecurities. Assistant City Manager Bowen.

Thank you, Mayor and Council, for this item. Homeless Solutions Manager David Rabindranath will present you with our work on this.

Good evening, Mayor, City Council, City Leadership. In November, City Council did form a food task force due to the snap cuts on the federal level. So in January 8th, we did launch a food task force meeting. City staff from Homeless Services, Assistant State Manager Boatman was there. Our supervisor from the Rec Center, Dave Jaffe, was also in attendance. And a few of our community partners were invited. The Church of Religious Science, Family Service Association, Salvation Army, Stronger Together Now, The Blessing Center, the Redlands Charitable Resource Coalition, the Riverside Redlands Ghana Church. And a couple others were invited, but were unable to make it. So out of this food task force, we were reaching out to some of the big food service providers in the city just to receive information from those community partners to see what, when the food snap cuts happened, what the impact was to the local community. And a lot of them did tell us that they saw triple to quadruple families in the area and single adults reaching out for food assistance. So some of the recommendations from the from the partners locally were to ask for the city to increase our educating the public, so if it's on social media or education groups or workshops, educating the community on local food resources. Also, we did reach out to the Redlands Unified School District. They did inform us that lunch and breakfast is provided to all students, but there isn't much resources in the summer. They do food drives, their nutrition department, And they do pass out that information to students, but there isn't a lot of food for the families. There's also the Sun Bucks program through CalFresh for families where they can receive up to $40 a month per student that they have enrolled. So some of the other feedback we did receive from community partners is just having... areas maybe at city facilities or community partners where there's locations for people to access. So especially on the south, north, east, and west side of the city of Redlands. So city staff is just seeking recommendations from city council and feedback on what the next steps you would like us to take and any advice you can give us.

And I'll just add, I think one of the things I heard resonate the most amongst the groups at the task force meeting was the need for there to be like a, what they really thought we could provide the most benefit from that we heard is acting as a central repository for resources and information. and making sure that that information is widely accessible and that we continue to coordinate meetings like the one we held recently. They felt like it was really valuable. They felt like that bringing everybody together in one spot and having us take the lead in doing so could lead to a lot of good things going forward.

Yeah, I just want to say thank you so much, David, as well as Chris. Thank you, city staff, for putting together a really great meeting. I was pleased to attend the meeting. I just want to make a note that when I proposed this in November, the full title is Food Security and Child Nutrition Task Force. And I was sorry that the school district wasn't able to make it to the initial meeting. But I really do want us to have an emphasis on children obviously everyone, but also with a particular interest in those families in need. As Mr. Laycook noted earlier, the funding for the grocery gift card program is coming to a close. I believe the same will be true for our utility bill assistance program. There are rising costs right now, especially with the proposed health care cuts. I think we're going to see a lot of families in our community hurting more than they have before, and so I think this is a really important group to convene going forward, and I totally agree. I think that we need to have this meet more regularly, and I think the members who participated were encouraged. They said they never participated in something like this. No one in the city has brought together specifically a food security task force before, so I'm glad that we're having this conversation now. Just a couple of notes. I think going forward, we should develop a more concrete framework for our who's most in need and how we can serve them. Certainly some of the partners suggested that financial resources would be helpful, especially in this moment when they're seeing double, triple the amount of people come for their food distribution services. Dr. Craig Turley has sent a proposal to me, just an idea about some data and statistics we can use for a framework, and I'll send this along to staff. Just a couple of Things that stood out to me, he noted that 12,531 children in the Redlands Unified School District are classified as low-income, 7,630 families in our city, which is approximately 31%. of our populations of 23,000 people are currently classified as low or very low or extremely low income. And so I think that these statistics are important for us to think about as we move forward working with these community partners and really trying to identify those most in need of food resources. As we've talked about before, food security goes hand in hand with housing security, and we've done an amazing job of trying to address not only housing affordability, but homelessness. Kudos to you, David, and your staff. But I think this is another important piece when we're thinking about taking care of our community members most in need. So I look forward to continuing this conversation going forward, and just thank you again for your work.

Yes, and, Councilmember, we were looking at having this meeting bimonthly every other month, so that's what we were aiming for, maybe the next meeting in March, just for your end. Thank you.

Thank you. I think one of the things I suggested when we first started is that we have to have a way of sourcing money. I mean, everything, we can be organized, but if we don't have the money to be able to pay for this, and we've got to be able to find out a way that the general public, because I know people would be more than happy to donate if they know that food is going for the kids and people that really need it. But there's no vehicle for them to be able to participate. I mean, if we just had $100, $200, you know, two or three hundred people, that would be a lot, and that's not a lot of money to give. So I think we should look in a source, and I'll be more than happy to help with that as well.

In the blue resource book that the Redlands Charitable Resource Coalition publishes and like our homeless service and a lot of local nonprofits do provide with all the local resources. There's about nine to 10 like food banks or hot meals out here that, you know, that Almost every day of the week, there is some kind of food assistance. I know we did speak with Family Service Association and Salvation Army, and they, again, saw about triple food boxes that they were giving out monthly and even weekly during the snap cuts. And those are probably two of the biggest distributors that give food regularly. But people don't know, like I said.

A lot of people don't have that. I do have that. But I think we should be able to try to communicate that, hey, you know, we're looking for donations or something of that sort. I mean, we have to set up a I don't say a separate nonprofit, but I'm sure there's something we could do it where people can write it off their their income tax. And so, again, I'll be more than happy to explore avenues of doing that.

And we have talked to the Redlands Chamber of Commerce just initial to maybe get the business community involved. So it's just initial preliminary talks, but we have.

Right. And I'll get together with Evan. I've talked to Evan about it as well. So we'll do something about that.

And I'll just add that one of the items the task force talked a lot about was us having an online resource that's easily accessible to the public that we can push out that makes these resources clear and helps pair people with them.

And I'll just note that I think charitable giving is great and vital, but I also think that the city can and should be thinking about resources that we can dedicate towards this effort as well.

And I'll just add, I want to thank you for organizing the meeting, and it was a great meeting. I was there in attendance as well, and I heard much of the same thing that everybody is listening to. I am coming at it at a different kind of perspective that we're asking a lot of our staff to incorporate another project, and staff is already... weighed down with a lot of responsibilities and perhaps having to do this would take away from another project that we're doing. I think a lot of the good work that our non-profits are doing and I think one thing Family Service did say that when they reached out to the public they got a tremendous amount of private donations to actually help their food storage and their food shelves. There's a lot of county organizations help out there. Unfortunately, Redlands doesn't get that because of our zip code. You know, there's just, for some reason, but there is a lot of, the Community Action Partners does a lot of food distribution and donations to those needy families. I think we did get a questionnaire and answers to some of these questions. I think one of the things that that triggered this food task force and insecurity for families and youth was that the federal government doing away with the SNAP program affecting our CalFresh recipients. From the information that I got, that has all been reinstated now at least until today. September of 26, but with some restrictions and some different requirements for the ability for those recipients to maintain and still be able to receive that. So I think, you know, that The resolution that was passed was in response to cutting those. And so now that those are reinstated, maybe what we can do as a city is to be able to do as what was suggested, a clearinghouse of information, where those resources are, where they can be located, Family Service, Salvation Army. The Filipino church over here on East State Street and Reynolds Boulevard does it a lot. The Boys and Girls Club provide food. Micah House does. Think Together, Building a Generation. There's a number of other faith-based organizations that does that. I think if we just... look to trying to coordinate and facilitate a clearinghouse of information, posting these new requirements on our website so that at least the public knows that there are new work requirements and when they go in effect and who it's going to affect. I think that's really helpful. But again, I know that our staff is, and we don't want to take away from the great work that your homeless department is doing and have to deviate or take away from that. We want to make sure that we keep doing that and allow the nonprofits that are doing that, leave it to them. And I think we owe it as a responsibility for The community is really to focus in on our programs and our resources. The Senior Center provides meals to our seniors. We have the lunch program for the – what is it – the home meals on wheels program so there's a lot of opportunity here if we just let the community know and in fact the meals on wheels is seeking they have more capacity to take on more seniors to deliver lunches to them and also do a little welfare check on them as well so I think if we as a As an organization, as a city, are compassionate to trying to provide the information through our website, through our programs. I think we should be cautious or be conscientious of... adding another priority, adding another project to our staff that's already kind of stretched thin. And as Council Member Barrett said, you know, it comes down to funding it. And if we have to take the money from somewhere, then somewhere else doesn't get the funding and somewhere else doesn't do that. So I just want to see where this goes.

I was referring to private funds, not city funds, when I was going to Gomi Fund and things like that.

Yeah.

Because you're right, we take, we rob Peter to pay Paul. Someone's going to come up short.

Yeah, and I believe our Saturday morning market accepts EBT. We have a farmer's market over off of Iowa and Orange Avenue. So there's a lot of opportunities and places where folks can get at least some of those resources. Anybody else? Okay. I don't have any speaker slips for this item. Oh, Bruce. Stephen Rogers, I do have. Do you want to speak to this? No? Okay. Okay.

I agree with you, Paul. And when you find whatever that foundation is, I've got $1,000 that will go to that foundation. Okay? I'm just telling you that this... Making sure that the people of Redlands, particularly the children of Redlands, have food to eat. If it's not one of your priorities... I'd like you to reconsider and make it one. And that means you may call it robbing Peter to pay Paul. I'd say it's called redeploying resources you've got to care for the most vulnerable people in our community. It's not an option. It's really something I think you should consider your responsibility. And I would ask you to look, as I did first thing in today's meeting, look hard at the budget and see. I don't think it's an either or. I think it's a both. And I'm willing to step up. But the city has resources. And I know that the community, the businesses in Redlands will do the same thing. This is so important. We've lost SNAP. We've lost the grant for the food cards. The utility support is going away. This is a bad situation, and Redlands is a wealthy city. We have the resources in the community. We just have to have the mindset that we will not accept our children going hungry. Thank you.

Okay.

Has sufficient direction been given to staff?

Well, there was a proposed motion in the item. If the council wishes to make that motion or if the council wishes to alter that motion, that would give us direction and we would have a vote. Okay.

I move to direct staff to continue convening and coordinating with local nonprofit faith-based and school partners to address food insecurity and related basic needs for the city of Redlands. and to return to the City Council with periodical updates and recommendations for next steps.

Second.

Motion and a second. Madam City Clerk.

Council Member Baric.

Yes.

Council Member Tejeda.

Yes.

Council Member Davis. Yes. Mayor Pro Tem Shaw. Yes. Mayor Saucedo.

Yes. Moving on to K-1 on our agenda. Yes. which is the consideration of ordinance number 2999, amending title 6, animals, and the title 18, zoning regulations, and resolution number 8747, amending residential specific plans to update permitted and accessory land use and development standards. For the keeping of hens within a single family residential zoning districts, the proposal qualifies for exemption for environmental review in accordance with Sections 15061B3 and 15378B5 of the California Environmental Quality Act. I now declare this as an open and public hearing. Assistant City Manager Boatman.

Thank you, Mayor. Excuse me. Thank you, Mayor and Council. Associate Planner Jasmine Serrato will be providing your presentation on this item.

Good evening. Thank you, Mayor and members of the Council. I have a few slides prepared for this. I can get to them. So due to an increased interest in chicken keeping, staff received direction from the city council on November 4th to prepare an ordinance. And on December 9th, this item was taken to planning commission where they recommended approval for this item. Currently, hens are only allowed in two residential zoning districts, the rural residential animals districts here in green and the residential estate animals district here in blue. These areas were annexed into the city around the 1990s and were particularly meant for agricultural uses. And so continuation of agricultural uses such as chicken keeping was allowed and permitted within these residential areas. The map shown here shows all single-family residential districts, including those within specific plans. These districts range in a variety of lot sizes, which led to us amending the table in Section 18.29 to regulate the number of allowed hands based on lot size. Sorry. The table within this section shown here, would now clarify no keeping of chickens for lot sizes less than 4,000 square feet. And then at 4,000 to 7,200, it'll be three rather than two. The next segment will be four. The one after that, five. And at 20,000, it'll remain the same at one per 2,000 square feet with a maximum of nine per lot. Additionally, this section will now require a minimum outdoor open yard area of 10 feet by 20 feet. The regulations currently require the proposed structures, such as coupes, to maintain a clearance of five feet from the side and rear property lines and 15 feet from an existing street side setback. A new amendment would require for these structures to also be 10 feet away from any existing main building, which aligns with our current accessory structure requirements. Amendments to Title VI would clarify that no permit from the Animal Services Division would be required. The permitting of sale of eggs is incidental, and it will also prohibit the slaughtering of chickens on residential properties. It will continue to enforce regulations to prevent excessively noisy animals and other sanitation concerns as well. The proposed amendment qualifies for exemption from the listed sections here. And as mentioned, the Planning Commission did recommend approval, and the following motions have been provided on the screen.

Thank you.

Thank you. Are there any questions or comments from the City Council?

I'm sorry, from the map, how have we expanded it? Most neighborhoods now are allowed with those new rules, is that correct?

Yes, correct. So that second map that I showed would be all the areas in which it would be permitted.

Everything that's on that map?

Correct.

Okay.

Almost, well, almost everything. I'm talking about the green.

The zoned areas, yeah. The color-coded areas.

Thank you.

Thank you.

A few questions. The first one, first off, thank you for the work on this. Thank you to the Planning Commission for getting this here. I know a lot of people have been asking about it, so I'm thrilled that we're almost there. One of the questions I talked about in the beginning was I saw we're not doing any kind of permitting. I made a suggestion for like a no-fee permit just so if we had issues relative to

flu or things like that that we would know where the chickens are just curious what happened on that so we evaluated that and and we feel that the that the administrative burden of maintaining a permit program for that wouldn't would would outweigh the benefit we would get from having the registrations in place we feel that with the parameters that this ordinance has and the regulations that that um prevent potential nuisances We can address any concerns when we receive them through typical standard enforcement. I think it's a more efficient means anyway. That's how complaints usually come to us.

Cool. And then the only other question is relative to the sale of eggs, are we in compliance with CDFA and their sale of eggs? Because there's some rules related to them in registration, even public people selling just like eggs out of your house. Can we make sure that we're...

Yes, we will be sure of that. This is consistent with similar zones that have agriculture allowances for this type of use. So there is an allowance right now in other zones, particularly the canyon, where you can have a sale of eggs. But we'll make sure of that as well. Okay, thanks.

I do have a question. We talked about chickens. I noticed chickens and rabbits. That excludes roosters, right?

Yeah, correct. Roosters make noise.

That's why I said they make noise. Chickens don't. That's right. Okay. Thank you.

Okay. I don't have any speaker slips. I don't see anybody on Zoom. So I'll ask the city clerk, have we received any written comments? No written comments received. Okay. I'll now close the public hearing. What's the wish of the council?

Move to introduce ordinance number 2999 and find that the proposal is exempt from environmental review pursuant to section 15061B3 and 15378B. of the California Environmental Quality Act and I move to approve resolution number 8747 and find that the proposal is exempt for environmental review pursuant to sections 15061B3 and 15378B5 of the California Environmental Quality Act guidelines. Second.

Tide goes to the runner. Who do you want? Okay, we have a motion and a second.

Council Member Baric.

Yes.

Council Member Tejeda.

Yes.

Council Member Davis. Yes. Mayor Pro Tem Shaw.

Yes.

Mayor Saucedo.

Yes. Moving on to item under new business L1, which is a consideration of a proposed project listing for the 2026-2027 Community Development Block Grant. Program Year and Authorization for Submittal of the 2026-2027 Cooperating City Recommendation Projects from Form to the County of San Bernardino Community and Housing Division, Assistant City Manager Boatman.

Thank you, Mayor. Our resident CDBG guru, Tricia Munoz, will be presenting this item.

That was pretty good. Honorable Mayor, City Council Members, Trish Munoz, Management Analysts with Development Services and Facilities and Community Services. The 2026-2027 Community Development Block Grant, this is the funding recommendation that we do annually. And as you can see from the staff report, there's about a 50% reduction in funding over the past six years. So we're very limited in the amount of funding that the City of Redlands currently receives. For the 2026-2027 funding year, it's $200,201, of which only 15% max cap can go to community-based organizations, of which we're recommending several of those that follow suit with the Homeless Solutions Program in providing meals to families. So Family Services Association provides housing and food assistance. Boys and Girls Club, Family Strengthening Program, they also provide meals to youth that they're serving. YMCA provides legal aid services to qualifying individuals. And then Partners Against Violence provides supportive services to victims of violence. The funding amount for each of those is $7,500, which doesn't seem like a lot, but we're capped out at about $30,000 to spread amongst these. And this is for administrative support to carry out those programs. And then for our capital improvement project, we're recommending the Phase 2 Sullivan Park rehabilitation, the existing restrooms, and some ADA improvements because the restroom is currently beyond its useful life, and we would like to provide a more suitable and safe ADA-compliant restroom for that facility. And I don't think I have anything else to add to that. And do you have any questions for me?

I just want to highlight, too, we do have $7,500 in assistance for FSA for housing and food assistance. So, you know, based on our earlier topic, I thought I'd point that out.

Thank you. Any questions from staff? If not, before we consider the motion, I have two public comments, one from Bruce Laycook. Thank you.

Thank you.

Yeah, this is Peter. $170,000 for bathroom repair. $7,500 for food. Really? Please. I use Sylvan Park. I agree the bathrooms need to be fixed. But this is a crisis. I would ask you to please seriously reconsider the budget allocation. Please. Thank you.

Next public speaker, Stephen Rogers.

Steve Rogers, Church Street. This, of course, is a CDBG federally funded project. And, you know, there are requirements, like you were saying, how much can go to the private, how much can go to the city on projects. I know in Ontario we always used to do streetlights in, you know, in those areas of town because this is supposed to be a community, you know, it's supposed to benefit everything, everybody in the community. And I am, you know, my neighborhood is right there by Sylvan Park, so I agree this is a great project. that we should be going for. But I want the city to be eligible to get the money. And, you know, one concern I have is hearing the things that are being said about the sanctuary cities, sanctuary states. and federal funds, it's sort of, I'm a bit concerned that we may not even get this money. And then secondly, and especially, you know, this Sylvan Park job is a public works project. It's being done by the Parks Streets Division or whatever, which is in community development as opposed to, you know, this is an engineering project that should be getting done by the engineers. And I'm really concerned that, as you'll hear in the next item, that, and especially when you're talking about federal funds, I mean, You know, there are certain requirements, and our contract on public works projects doesn't even come close to even handling the requirements for state work. When you're talking about a federally funded job, I mean, you have to do everything the right way. And, I mean, I've already looked into some of the past CWB projects that were... were being done by non-engineers. And basically, I'm concerned that, you know, that we weren't paying prevailing wages and those kinds of things. And if there's an audit by the feds, which there will be, I mean, that's what's coming. That's why everybody's so mad. Thank you.

Council, I can assure you that we're doing things correctly, and we promise to use licensed plumbers for our restroom job.

Thank you. All right, bringing it back to the City Council.

Move to direct staff to prepare the 2026-2027 Community Development Block Grant Program, cooperating city of recommended projects from a form, excuse me, and submit it to the County of San Bernardino Community Development and Housing Division.

Second. Motion and second. Madam City Clerk.

Council Member Baric. Yes. Council Member Tejeda. Yes. Council Member Davis. Yes.

Mayor Pro Tem Shaw.

Yes.

Mayor Saucedo.

Yes. Moving on to item L2, consideration of rejection of the lowest bid, approval of a public works contract with Alcorn Fence Company for guardrail installations at Garden and Redlands Boulevard for an amount not to exceed $293,195.95 and determine that the project is exempt from the environmental review pursuant to Sections 15301 of the State Guidelines Implementing the California Environmental Quality Act, Facilities and Community Services Director Crocker.

Thank you, Mayor, Members of the Council. And this item is for the replacement and installation of guardrails on Garden Street and Redlands Boulevard. Staff have identified locations where upgrades are recommended to enhance roadway safety and align with current federal safety guidelines. Staff prepared an RFB for the project and received five bids. Alcorn Fence Company was determined the lowest responsive and responsible bidder. In addition, for the council's information, City engineering staff prepared the plans and specifications and conducted the procurement process for this project. I just wanted to add this in case there were any concerns regarding the oversight of the engineering of this project.

Thank you. I'm familiar with the Garden Rail location, but where is the one on Redlands Boulevard?

So we don't have one there right now. It'll run from Ford all the way down to Palm and it runs the V ditch. Oh, it's off to protect that.

Yeah. Great. Yeah. I saw the new one that was installed on garden and said, Oh man, that looks so nice. There used to be a chain on the chain card there. And then, you know, sometime went by and then it got hit. And so it's unfortunate that, But that's what it's there for, so we appreciate those kinds of safety issues protecting our community. So thank you for that. I do appreciate it. It happens to be in my district, and we do appreciate that. Okay, I do have a public comment. Stephen Rogers.

Honorable Mayor Salcedo, Steve Rogers, Church Street. This contractor, again, I have a concern about this being a public works contract, and we don't have the engineers administering this contract. I don't even see where there was a plan done. It looked like all that was done is we said, oh, we need this many feet of the fence. Maybe there was something done, I don't know, but it wasn't contained here. The other thing is that is this contractor even licensed to be able to work in the public right-of-way? I mean, there's a lot of things about this public works contract that an engineer needs to oversee it. The design and the construction. And it's not... about, you know, these guys know how to put up a rail. You know, this is something that's in our public right-of-way and it's a public improvement that there's certain requirements on how you do public contracting and in the public contracting code. And this is not following that. This isn't even coming close. And all you have to do is look at the contract to get an idea of how antiquated our city is with our process. This contract had to be done in the 60s or 70s by Best Best and Krieger. It has not been changed since that time. And we are just throwing ourselves out there. I mean, one of these days, somebody's going to die on one of these projects. And it's going to be because there weren't the right safety precautions done because we're on the public street with, you know, people that shouldn't even be out there. So I urge you, this is not something to joke about like the last item where we were talking about the renovations of a bathroom and the city manager says, oh, we'll make sure we have licensed plumbers. How about licensed engineers to design it in the first place? And that's what I'm concerned about here. Who designed this and to determine where this guardrail is supposed to go? You may say that you have somebody on staff, city engineer, you know. Well, where is that in this report? And there's nothing in here. It says everybody that reviewed it and recommended it, and there's not one engineer involved. Thank you.

Okay. Closing the public comment. What's the wish of the council?

I move that the City Council determine that the project is categorically exempt from environmental review in accordance with Section 15301 of the State's Guidelines Implementing the California Environmental Quality Act. And I move to reject the bid from R&J Construction in the amount of $290,575.25. And I move to approve the public works contract with Alcorn Fence Company for an amount not to exceed $293,195.95.

Second. I have a motion and a second. Madam City Clerk?

Council Member Baric.

Yes.

Council Member Tejeda.

Yes.

Council Member Davis. Yes. Mayor Pro Tem Shaw.

Yes.

Mayor Saucedo.

Yes. Moving on to item M1, which is individual council member reports on activities for January 2026. Mayor Pro Tem has already submitted his written ones. We'll start over here on this side. Council Member Baric. As the...

Mayor Pro Temp, we participated, well, I'm not sure how much we participated, but we were over there enjoying the fishing tournament that was between the Optimist Club and the City of Redlands. I want to thank the staff. I'm not exactly sure who arranged for the fence, but I think that helped out quite a bit. But the kids had a great time. I think we had 500 pounds of fish. trout. So it was very successful and a lot of participation with the city, Optimist Club, and I believe the Forestry Service, was that, what was the, was that, pardon? Fish and Wildlife, thank you.

Absolutely. I attended the Chamber's annual installation and awards dinner. It was great to be there. Congratulations to all the awardees. Beyond that, we had our Redlands Youth Council meeting, and the speaker this past month was Josiah Bruni from Music Changing Lives.

That's Member Tejeda.

Thank you, Mayor. I attended a special briefing, or not a special briefing, a council member briefing. I attended the special meeting and also the Residence Chamber Civic Awards.

All right, thank you. I attended the Common Vision Coalition Disability Resource Luncheon, the Measure I Ad Hoc Committee, Caliga City's Community Policy Planning, Disaster Council, toured the University of Medicine and Science in Colton, the Cal League Divisional Regional Meeting in Grand Terrace. Also attended the Black Chamber of Commerce of Southern California Art Exhibition at the San Bernardino County Museum. And just yesterday, the Municipal Utilities and Public Works Commission. So that's all I have. So I want to thank everybody. We now stand adjourned to our next City Council meeting on February 17, 2026. Thank you for your patience and consideration.