City Council - Regular Meeting

Good afternoon. I'd like to call to order the City Council meeting in the City of Redlands, our closed session agenda. I do have one speaker slip, James Estrada.

Good evening council members, good evening city staff, appreciate your time. I'm gonna read here something we have written down. Members of city council, I am speaking today regarding the ongoing bargaining process and the city's position on the employee's compensation in healthcare. The city's own classification and compensation study found that employees are on average 12.5% below market compensation. This is not a claim made by the employees or the bargaining unit, this is a conclusion of the city's own analyst. The purpose of conducting such a study is to identify compensation gaps and provide a roadmap for addressing them so the city can remain competitive in recruiting and retaining qualified employees. Despite these findings, the salary increase currently being offered do not close the 12.5% gap identified in your study. Even more concerning, the City has taken the position that any additional funding for health care must come from the money available for wages. This approach forces employees to choose between making progress towards market competitive compensation and offsetting rising health costs. Healthcare cost. Employees should not be required to sacrifice one component of their compensation to preserve another. Healthcare and wages are both essential parts of our fair compensation package. Redirecting money from the salary increases to healthcare contributions does not solve the underlining problem identified in the city's own salary study. It simply shifts limited resources from one area to another while leaving employees significantly behind the market. If the city accepts the findings of its own compensation study, then those findings should be reflected in the bargaining priorities. A workforce that is 12.5% behind market should not be expected to absorb increasing health care costs while receiving raises that do not adequately address the documented compensation gap. I urge the city council to provide additional bargaining authority and direct their negotiator to Pursue solutions that address both compensation and healthcare. Employees deserve good faith effort to close the compensation gap and identify the city's own data while maintaining affordable healthcare coverage for themselves and their families. The city employees provide critical services to the community every day by addressing the documented 12.5 compensation deficit is not only a matter of fairness, it is an investment in the workforce, stability, recruitment, retention, and continued delivery of high quality public services. Thank you for your consideration. Appreciate you guys.

Mr. Moderator, do we have any public comment for closed session?

No, Mr. Mayor.

Okay, thank you. Madam City Attorney, what do we have on our docket for our closed session?

Thank you, Mayor. We have 2 items. The 1st item is conference of legal counsel, existing litigation, pursuant to government code section 5, 4, 9, 5, 6.91 in 1 case Holzer versus city of Redlands at all San Bernardino Superior Court case number C. I. V. S. B. 2322787. The second item is conference of labor negotiators pursuant to government code section five four nine five seven point six agency negotiators john back heat jay chairman janice mcconnell and jorge castillo employee organizations redlands association of department directors redlands association of management employees redlands association of mid management employees redlands association of safety management employees redlands association of fire management employees. Redlands Police Officers Association, Redlands Professional Firefighters Association, Redlands Civilian Safety Employees, and Teamsters Local 1932 Redlands Chapter.

Okay, thank you. We'll stand in recess until our open session. Thank you. Good evening. I want to thank everybody for their patience. I'd like to reconvene the City Council meeting. And I have the honor of the invocation on the Pledge of Allegiance. So if you could please stand. Heavenly Father, we come before you asking you for all the guidance, wisdom, and strength that we need to continue moving the city forward with all of our citizens, all of our employees, and all those affected by the decisions we make. May we make them in good conscience and common sense and that we all work for the good and the betterment of our community and our city and our country. We ask you all this in your name. Amen. Please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. 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.

Madam City Attorney, what's our report out of closed session?

For item number one on the closed session agenda, pursuant to Government Code Section 54957.1838, the City Council took action in closed session to approve a proposed settlement in the matter of Holzer v. City of Redlands et al. based on the following terms. Plaintiffs shall release all claims, both known and unknown of any kind whatsoever, against the City of Redlands. In exchange for the release of all claims, the City shall pay plaintiff $450. and $75,000 without any admission of liability. Plaintiffs shall resign her position and dismiss her lawsuit against the City with prejudice, and the Mayor is authorized to sign the settlement agreement on behalf of the City. A copy of the settlement agreement shall be available in the City Clerk's Office once fully executed by all the parties. The motion to approve the settlement was made by Councilmember Baric and seconded by Councilmember Davis and passed unanimously with Mayor Pro Tem Shaw absent. The second item on the closed session, there was no reportable action, and that ends the closed session report.

Thank you. Madam city attorney next presentation is our pet adoption.

Good afternoon, everybody. My name is Joel Alcaraz. I'm the Animal Services Supervisor. This is Haley. She's one of our kennel attendants. And this is Bugs. We'll get more into him in a little bit. All right, so I'm just going to go over a few numbers real quick. For our community impact for the month of May, we did 19 adoptions. Returned with owners, eight of them got returned back to their owners. Two dogs were rescue transfers. They ended up going to rescues. One dog ended up going into foster placement. So we did a total of 30 positive outcomes for the month of May. Sorry. He loves attention, so there he comes. Right now, guys, if you guys are looking to adopt, I always tell people, come to the shelter. We have a lot of animals right now. Right now, we have a total of 51 animals that are looking for homes. We have a total of 41 dogs and 10 cats. So I always tell people we're one of the best shelters around the area. So if you guys are looking to adopt, come check us out. I promise you guys, you guys won't be disappointed, especially looking for a dog like this guy right here. This is Bugs. You guys can see. You want to show them why we call him Bugs? How many of you guys heard of Bugs Bunny? He likes to hop. Bugs is a four-year-old neutered German Shepherd dog. He came to the shelter back in April 7th. He's a gentle, loving boy. Bugs is ready to be adopted today. So if you guys are looking for a very unique, special dog, this is your guy. So what happened with him, it looked like he had an injury when he was younger. It seemed to be healing just fine. He's not in any pain. And now he has this effect when he jumps or when he walks, he hops. So he just looks like a happy dog, right? So he really is. So... Now, I just want to give you guys an update from last month. We have Gordy here. Gordy was here last month, and we were trying to get Gordy adopted. Unfortunately, Gordy's still at the shelter right now. So, I know, right? So we really need the community to push this more for us. We want to get ourselves involved so you guys can talk to your friends, talk to the community. We need more help pushing our animals. Daniel does an amazing job with our social media, but we really need more. So if you guys know where we at, come check us out. We can really use some support because, like I said, we have 51 animals at the shelter. that's pretty high and 30 uh animals that we got out last month is still not a lot but we want to do more numbers so thank you guys so much for your time and you guys have a great evening

Thank you, Joe. Next on our agenda is a recognition of Redlands High School student for receiving a $50,000 scholarship from Southern California Edison. And I'd like to have Mark Cloud come on up to the front and bring your big check.

This is yours. You hold it. Don't try and cash that. It's a novelty. Well, first I want to say, mayor and council and city staff, thanks so much for having us tonight. When Bugs came in, I knew I should have worn a tie tonight because he came in in a tuxedo. And I feel like I should have dressed up a little bit more. But anyway. We are here tonight to celebrate Jai Ray, who has earned a $50,000 scholarship from SCE. It's part of our annual scholarship program that we do across the Southland. We give usually around 30 of these checks out to students who are graduating from high school and going into the STEM fields, science, technology, energy, and math. So these are kids. Hey. Hey, buddy. Let's go. Come on. Come on down. So Jai Ray is an incredible student, very impressive, right here from Redlands. And she is now $50,000 richer. Her mom is too. Mom's back there in the back. Thanks, Mom. And I think what we should do is hear from Jai Ray, right? You guys want to hear from Jai Ray? Jai Ray, tell us about yourself and what you're doing after high school.

Hi, my name is Jairi Lee, and after high school, I'll be attending Princeton University, where I'll be majoring in operations research and financial engineering, aiming to bridge the digital divide between generations. So hopefully older folks don't fall for scams.

That's brilliant, actually. In a time of rising or emerging AI, I mean, these scams are going to be incredible and bad. So that's great. Maybe you can work for Edison one day. I don't know. I applied for Princeton too, but it was to clean the toilets, and they wouldn't let me in either. I'm really proud of you, Jai-Rae. She is one of many students that we've given these checks out to this year, and we could not be prouder of you. And we know you're going to do incredible things. And so, Mayor and Council, we wanted to show her off to you so you'd know what was here in your town. This is the third Edison Scholarship that we've given out here since I've been with the company since 2016. So this is number three, and I'm sure there's going to be more. If you know of high school seniors graduating next year, please check out the scholarship program and apply online. If it's not applied for, it's not given out. So please check it out. I encourage the young folks here throughout our service territory to apply for these scholarships. And that's all I've got. Would you like to say anything, Mayor?

No, we'll just take a photo. Okay, next on our agenda is a presentation of our Juneteenth Proclamation presented to Dr. Tyra Richardson from the Chamber of Commerce Leadership Group. A little bit about Dr. Richardson. At the core, Dr. Richardson's mission is a commitment to... To equity, justice, and the opportunity for all youth, particularly students from underserved and historically marginalized communities, she believes every child deserves access to safe schools, strong mentorship, and quality education, and the opportunities that allow them to thrive regardless of the background or circumstances. Through her leadership, advocacy, and service, she strives to be a voice of marginalized communities, challenging systems, inequities, and create pathways that empower the future generations to succeed and lead and feel seen. So if you could join me up front, please, Dr. Richardson. So I first met Dr. Richardson at the Senior Center. We were doing some nonprofit work and then she also come out to volunteer for our special needs community at our superstar rock and roll and had the other privilege of doing a presentation from the city of Redlands as the mayor, what it takes to be the mayor, and some of the things that happen here in the community at her leadership group in the Chamber of Commerce. She's a wonderful person, very engaged in the community, and we're so honored to honor her with a Juneteenth proclamation honoring for her work and advocacy in the community of Redlands. So we want to thank you.

All right, everyone. Well, my name is Dr. T.R. Richardson, and good evening, everyone. I'm deeply honored to accept this proclamation on behalf of the city of Redlands, leadership Redlands, and many individuals who work day to strength in our community. I'm here supported by amazing people, my amazing fiance, my friends in the back, and the members of my leadership cohort. I want to thank Mayor Saucedo and the City Council for recognizing the importance of Juneteenth and creating a space to honor our shared history. Today we honor generations of black residents whose stories were woven into the fabrics of Redlands. Long before diversity became a goal, black families were building businesses, serving their neighbors, educating children, leading churches, and helping to shape this city while facing barriers that often sought to limit their opportunities. Their resilience helped create a foundation upon which we stand today. Juneteenth reminds us that progress is not automatic. It is a result of ordinary people having the courage to do extraordinary things in the pursuit of justice. As we celebrate Juneteenth, let us remember that progress is not measured by how far we've come, but how committed we are to ensuring that Redlands' dignity and belonging for every person to call home. I'll leave you with one question. The generation before us fought for freedoms that they may never live to enjoy. The question is, what will we do with the freedoms and opportunities that they've left in our hands? Thank you.

Okay, next on our agenda is the presentation of the San Bernardino Valley Demand Management Incentive Check to the City of Redlands for the water savings achieved through conservation efforts for the Demand Management Incentive Program by the San Bernardino Valley Board President T. Milford Harrison and Chief Executive Officer General Manager Heather Dyer. If you want to join me up front, please. All right, Melford, thank you so much for coming.

Well, it's good to see you.

And you brought a present for us. I did. $150,000. Two presents.

This is basically a reward to the City of Redlands and the citizens of Redlands for doing such a great job of conserving water. It's our responsibility to make sure that this whole valley has enough water and our focus is on our children and grandchildren. You are providing water to your citizens today, and we're hoping to have it, our work is to have it tomorrow, way out tomorrow. And this kind of conservation, of course, means that there's more water left over. So it's a real treat to be able to do that and work with you. We're really working well with your staff, And matter of fact, we just had a meeting a week before last that we're going to go into a whole new venture that will benefit both the city of Redlands and our water district. So we appreciate that. Thank you so much, Heather.

Thank you. I wanted to explain a little bit about what these checks are for. So we like to provide an incentive to the retail agencies that we serve, all 15 of them, that we can provide a financial incentive for the good work that you're doing on demand management, water conservation. Every drop of water that we save today is a drop of water that will be available in the future, and so we want to promote that. The city of Redlands did a great project that I want to especially call out. So one of these checks for... $87,500 is because the City of Redlands did a very innovative citrus grove retrofit using recycled water to irrigate that grove. So that's one of these checks. And then also San Bernardino Valley provided $63,371 towards the water conservation rebates, which are really meant to serve as a bridge as the city develops its conservation program to meet the California Conservation as a Way of Life law that is going to be coming into effect here in a couple years. So we hope that you can put this money to great use in terms of your water conservation efforts, and we celebrate you and your staff for making these huge strides forward and making every single drop count. So thank you so much for your work. This is Adekunle Ojo, one of our staff members. He's actually our manager of integrative planning, and he's helped a lot getting those through. He's also a Redlands resident and a fierce champion of this city. And then my board member, Milford Harrison, and I'm Heather Dyer, the CEO.

Thank you, and all the thanks really goes out to our citizens for actually taking up and doing all the hard work of conserving, and so really the thanks really goes to them for doing the hard work, and we really want to thank all of our citizens for conserving water. Daniel?

Thank you so much.

Okay.

We're on to public comment. Our first public comment is Justin Wheatley. There he is. Yes, Jonathan Beatty, come on up.

Hi. I just wanted to relay some comments from Justin Weakley. Unfortunately, he had to leave at 6.40 for medical issues. But Justin Weakley, the past vice chair of the Parks Commission, wanted to relay a few things about the pump track. First, he wanted to let you know that the price of the skate park doubled from a four-year delay in construction. So potentially moving on that quickly is a great way to save the city money. Redlands is a jewel of the Inland Empire. However, there are already pump tracks in Moreno Valley, Rialto, and Beaumont are building theirs as well. Rialto just finished theirs, I think, for about a million. And I'm speaking as well for myself, for the parents that are currently driving their kids over through Redlands Boulevard to go to Moreno Valley to actually use their pump tracks. So... He said that the pump track's original cost for the pump track itself was about $636,000, but has amenities that were added almost doubled the budget. And with his experience with ADA, He understands that there are probably some cost effective means to be ADA compliance and perhaps things like lighting and fencing and that sort of thing could be added at a later date rather than trying to package it all into some. You know, big, big effort that would break the city's budget. And the final comment was that when he was vice chair, he's past vice chair of the Parks Commission, this was the number one priority for the Parks Commission, Parks and Rec. And it was top on their priority list, so it's a great project. Now we'll get to my comments. I'm Jonathan Beatty, a bike commuter, probably 30 years in town. And I just wanted to open by thanking the city for the route that I had to ride to work today. I went down the newly constructed Orange Blossom Trail connector to Mountain View Avenue. That was a nice partnership with the city of Loma Linda. I understand that the Orange Street connector is now back online. That's a partnership with Highland. And I also finished my commute over to Hospitality Lane on the recently constructed Santa Ana River Trail. So I'm just ecstatic that things are Moving in the right direction. This pump track is a fantastic asset I'm also a volunteer co-manager of the hurt ducky preserve and we like to have resources for people to do the other jumps and things without going out and just building road trails in our open spaces. So all of this can come together. I think Justin and myself were very interested in helping any kind of cost optimization. And we'd love to see this thing get built. Thank you.

Next public comment is James Estrada.

Good evening everyone, good evening city staff. I talked earlier in closed session, you guys know exactly what this is about. You guys hear that? This is my time, so I just want to listen for a minute. It's sad. It's sad that they have to be out there doing this. But we're told you guys are making the decisions. If you could, if you guys believe we deserve affordable health care, could you raise your hand if you want to? You don't have to participate if you don't want to. Okay, good. You guys have the ability to show that in this negotiations. Or maybe I'm confused, maybe we're confused on who's making the decisions, but we've been here. People have been talking on the mic. We got new people showing up. This is going bad. We've been here three years ago. We're literally in the same place with really the same group of people that were here three years ago. I don't understand where the miscommunication is. You don't have to answer this question, but have any of you seen any of the proposals that we've turned in? Raise your hand if you have. How can we be negotiating properly if you guys don't even know what we're asking for? I don't know what your information you're getting. And I feel there's a lack of communication here. It is sad. 20 years I've been here. 20 years I cleaned sewer lines. I got my wife and kid out there. This is, it's sad and embarrassing. I'm at grandparents. I don't know if you guys realize we have grandparents out there that work here. We have aunts and uncles. We got kids right out of high school out there asking for affordable health care. And we see other money getting spent on city infrastructure. We have a problem with that. And there's no answer. You guys have the ability to reach out and let us know what's going on. We are being told we have a pie this big and this is all you get. Well, you can get affordable health care. You just can't get it in these rates. You got to take it from here and put it in there where you guys are having us negotiate against ourselves. It's like we're buying health care off ourselves. We're cutting ourselves at the feet. You have the ability to impact that change and difference. It's up to you if you want to or not. Apparently, it doesn't seem like you guys do. That's not how it feels to us at least. So I ask you guys to think about the people that you guys work for. I mean, some of you are still working. You guys know how important affordable health care is. Uh, Mario, you you retired here with with good health care, you know, um, I'm going to be doing the same thing too. Hopefully at some point in time, it is important to make sure we're maintaining the, you know, the affordable health care for the members. That's what we're asking for a contract with dignity and respect. I don't know how else to say it. I just don't know how else to say it. I really don't. It's about dignity and respect. And you guys need to listen to us. We're trying to tell you guys, we want to work with you guys. You guys always refer to us as family. Don't do that anymore if you guys are going to do us like this. This isn't how we treat family. That time's long gone. I don't know what's going on here with Redlands, but this is embarrassing. And this is shameful. This is shameful. So for anyone who's up here that has to come up and talk, I'm sorry that you have to do this. This is embarrassing and shameful. City employees right here and out there. So everyone here has the ability to impact change and make a difference. It's up to you. Thank you.

Gregory Moran.

Evening, Mr. Mayor, City Council, City staff. My name is Greg Moran, resident City of Redlands, employee City of Redlands, and proud Vice President of the Redlands Association of Mid-Management Employees. I stand before you tonight proudly representing the mid-management employees who keep Redlands running every single day. We manage your city departments, oversee critical infrastructure, ensure public safety, and implement this council's vision. We are here tonight because our ongoing labor contract negotiations have reached a critical juncture. We're asking for two fundamental things, fairness and respect. Fairness means a contract that reflects current economic realities. Like everyone else, mid-management staff faces soaring inflation and a rising cost of living. Crucially, we are being squeezed by skyrocketing healthcare costs, which slice directly into our take-home pay. Furthermore, our compensation has fallen behind neighboring cities. A recent class and compensation study commissioned by the city revealed that our employees are on average 12% below our neighbors, with some positions as high as 35% below market. This gap makes it incredibly difficult to retain talent and recruit the top tier professionals this city deserves. We are already feeling the strain as evidenced by our current 5.1% vacancy rate across city mid-management positions. When positions sit open, the remaining mid-management staff absorbs the extra workload to prevent city services from slipping. Respect means valuing that dedication, that expertise, and that sacrifice. We have always stepped up during staffing shortages, managing heavier burdens to keep Redlands running seamlessly for our residents. We do this because we care about this community. Now we need the council to show that same care for us at the bargaining table. Investing in employees is a direct investment in the operational stability of Redlands. A contract is more than just numbers on a page. It's a statement of what you and this city values. We urge you to direct your negotiating team to come to the table with a renewed spirit of collaboration. Let's finalize a fair agreement that stabilizes our workforce, addresses healthcare burdens, and honors our hard work. Thank you for your time, leadership, and consideration.

Joe Burma.

Good evening, mayor and city council members. My name is Joe Beerman and I am the management analyst in development services here at the city of Redlands. My comment tonight is regarding investing in city history. The council has a lot of responsibility to maintain city infrastructure and services, which allow the residents and visitors here to enjoy the living history, which exists here in the city. We know that maintenance does not come at a low cost, but it is necessary. There's another part of the living history of the city which is necessary and needs maintenance and investing in, and that is the employees of the city of Redlands. I will read from the council minutes of March 21st, 1995, in which a salary resolution is being considered. Point number six says upgrade the building maintenance lead worker classification by 7.5%. Noting that this position has been determined to be 39% behind the average of comparable cities surveyed recently. City Manager Lubbers praised Gary Bierma's performance as far above that of a maintenance worker. Mayor Larson observed that Mr. Bierma was an outstanding employee worthy of his salary increase. Now, investing in your employees does have a cost, but fairly compensated and well-treated employees can save the City money. From the minutes of the February 19, 2002 Council meeting discussing Employee of the Year, Gary Bierma and Jesse Savelle were nominated as a team last year by seven different employees for their excellent work with the relocation of fire station number 261. During this time, they exhibited friendly, upbeat, and positive attitudes, solved several crises, and generally provided work with a great display of competency and attention to detail. Without their hard work and tireless efforts, the move to the city yard would have been delayed, and this would have resulted in additional city funds being expended. The benefit of investing in employees is not just for them, it's for the city as well. The conduct of the employees is reflected upon them and the city as a whole. Here from the minutes of the December 18, 2007 council meeting. Gary Burma, Jesse Savelle, and Ron Salazar. During the Civic Center flood and recovery, Gary, Jesse, and Ron, working as a team, provided exceptional support and service to the staff and contract responders. The actions of these employees reflect well on them as individuals and on the quality of staff serving our community. You could say I'm a second generation city employee. My name has been before city council on over 100 staff reports. I'm a part of the living history of the city, as are all past, current, and eventually future employees. The city of Redlands has a long history made up of many parts. We are asking you to invest in this part of that history too. Thank you.

Claudia Caceres.

Good evening, mayor. So, so though, uh, council members, um, see manager and assistant city managers and directors. My name is Dr Claudia and I had the privilege of serving as the city's Gia supervisor since 2023. My team and I manage and maintain the city's infrastructure, including servers. enterprise applications, and spatial data. We develop mapping and analytic solutions that support city operations and help staff, residents, businesses, and stakeholders make informed data-driven decisions every day. First, I would like to thank the council and the city leadership for your continued support of city employees and for the difficult work of balancing fiscal responsibility with the needs of the workforce. I am here tonight to respectfully ask the Council to consider additional measures to help employees manage the rising cost of living. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, consumer prices increased approximately 3.7% over the past year. However, several essential expenses have increased at a much higher rate. Gas prices in San Bernardino County have risen from approximately 464 per gallon one year ago to approximately 6.13 per gallon today. This is an increase of more than 30%. For many employees who commute to work every day, this represents hundreds of dollars in additional annual transportation costs. In addition, grocery costs continue to rise, and healthcare expenses are becoming an increasing concern for many families. Health insurance premiums are expected to increase significantly, with some plans seeing increases approaching or exceeding 8 to 12 percent. As a single parent of two, I understand these challenges personally. However, I know I am not alone. Many City employees are working hard every day while facing the same financial pressures. I respectfully ask the Council to consider increasing the proposed If higher COLA is not financially feasible, I respectfully ask to consider alternative solutions, such as a healthcare cost relief to help upset rising insurance premiums. In hybrid work, opportunities were operationally appropriate. Hybrid work has been successfully implemented by many public and private organizations as a practical way to reduce employee expense fuel costs, and vehicle wear and tear while maintaining productivity and service levels. For eligible positions, even one or two remote work days per week can provide meaningful financial relief without significant budget impacts to the city. Thank you for your time, your service, and consideration.

Ashley Sepulveda.

Good evening, Mayor and members of the City Council and City staff. My name is Ashley Sepulveda, and I have had the privilege of working for the City of Redlands for the past five years. I am here tonight because I care deeply about the City and the people who serve it. During this time, I have worked in multiple positions, which has given me the perspective on compensation across different roles and different classifications. The concern is that our current salary structure does not adequately support long-term sustainability for employees who remain in those positions. Employees can reach the top of their salary range relatively quickly, and once they do, meaningful compensation growth becomes limited while the cost of while the cost of housing, groceries, transportation, and other necessities continue to rise. The issue is not isolated to one person or one department. It affects all of us who continue providing consistent high quality service while facing increasing financial pressures and limited opportunities for salary growth. This is what causes employees to begin looking elsewhere. It's not because they don't love working here. but because they are concerned about their financial future. When employees leave, the workload unfortunately doesn't disappear. It's absorbed by those who remain. Many employees spend significant time covering vacant positions while still being expected to perform their own duties at a high level. This is why I believe our salary structure needs to be reviewed. The top end of a salary range should not be treated as just another number in the compensation schedule. It should reflect the value the organization places on its long-term employees, the people who stay, build institutional knowledge, train others, and continue carrying the organization forward year after year. When salary ranges top out too low, it sends the message that experience, loyalty, and long-term commitment are not being valued at the level they should be. The city has emphasized the importance of investing in infrastructure and I agree infrastructure is important, but infrastructure alone does not provide services to residents. It's the employees who answer the phones assist customers process permits, maintain parks, repair streets, support public safety, manage finances and keep our operations running every day. The city offers valuable benefits, but benefits aren't a one size fits all solution, and not everyone uses them. The immediate concern is being able to afford the rising cost of everyday life. The reality is that salaries matter. The focus should not only be on attracting new employees, but also on retaining our experienced and dedicated employees who have already invested years of service into this organization. I am only one employee, but I stand here representing many others who share these same concerns. We continue to show up, take on additional responsibilities, adapt to staffing shortages, and do whatever is needed to keep the city moving forward. All we ask is that the city make the same investments in its employees that its employees make in the city every day. Thank you so much for listening.

Mike Rogel? Rogel?

My name is Mike Rogel, and I'm the database administrator for the City of Redlands, and I'm a Teamster. Teamsters aren't just the fine people that pick up the trash, fixing up the streets, or cleaning our water. They're also setting up your computers, resetting your passwords, recovering your emails, As a database administrator here for a little over a year, I know I've done some great work. I've assisted in several projects behind the scenes, migrating the city databases into newer systems, automating backups, inquiring data for reports. But I've also seen many staff members come and go. My team is one of the first to know whenever someone is getting off-boarded. These are hardworking people with a wealth of knowledge, some with years of institutional knowledge, or some with fresh new ideas who move on quickly because they can't afford to stay. I'm a data guy. It's in my position name. I utilize data to help make informed decisions. The compensation study, whether you like the results or not, is great data. I should know. I'm the most referenced person in it. I'm the most underpaid employee in the study. I am currently paid 35.8% under market. My colleague, an IT security analyst, is underpaid by 32.3%. I rode a roller coaster of feelings when I found out. Anger, shame, regret. My peers ask me, what are you still doing there, Mike? I'll be honest, I've thought about leaving, but I'll be even more honest, I love working here. That's why I'm not leaving. I learned the term training city recently. People come work for the public, learn the ins and outs, and leave for greener pastures. Grass just always happens to be greener, an average of 12% greener. I've also learned through being a Teamster that we are allowed to enjoy doing what we do and voice our concerns to make this city better. So let me ask council and staff this. If the numbers were reversed and you overpaid all of us, would you still choose to ignore this compensation study? Or do you only acknowledge the data if it's convenient? If you want more data to help make your decisions, I'd be happy to help. You're even getting a 35.8% discount. The city has a chance to address the high turnover, pay people what they're worth. I don't expect to be compensated the whole 35.8% as much as I would love it, but this isn't just about me. It's about us, all of us. We want what's fair and what the city is offering clearly isn't. Just remember, as you build your million dollar buildings, that the employees working inside them are the real foundations of Redlands. Thank you.

Dori Yashamiro.

Good evening. I am speaking tonight to review my previous requests, which have had no responses from the Council, and to add a few. Please enter my comments into the minutes in their entirety. I request that the City of Redland support Donkey Land in a meaningful way to continue to receive the care and intervention that the organization provides the wild boroughs within the City of Redland's jurisdiction. That the City of Redland stopped telling residents the only recourse for sick or injured wild burros is euthanasia and to direct animal control to develop and implement a protocol to include donkey land in addressing this type of situation. That the city install signage in San Timoteo Canyon, including warnings regarding the presence of burros, laws prohibiting feeding, harassing and removing them. Numbers to call regarding emergencies or to report illegal activity, including the jurisdiction of. Location this information, this is information that would positively affect public safety with regards to burrows in the roadway, train problems, car accidents, fires, power line issues, illegal dumping and auto versus borough incidents. I also ask that the City of Redlands facilitate the creation of and participate in a multi-jurisdictional task force to address borough issues and other safety issues that arise within the city limits, particularly in San Timoteo Canyon. The canyon has unique features with regard to the number of jurisdictions within a small area. Retchie Canyon faces the same issues. A designated representative, knowledgeable about the canyon and able to communicate directly Quickly and effectively with others on task force would have a direct positive impact on public safety as we enter into fire seizing time is of the essence as in any emergency. I specifically request council member Barrett to be the designated representative from the city of Redlands. As San Timoteo is his, Canyon is his district, and anyone else you would recommend as a point of contact for this task force. Council Member John Echevarria from the City of Colton has agreed to support and participate in the task force. His district includes Retchie Canyon. Council Member Baric, I ask that you step up and give more than lip service to these issues. I am relieved to report that there have been no additional maulings, and I ask that you reply to my request via email. Thank you for your time.

Notchafrish? Sorry if I mispronounced your last name.

Good evening.

The reason I am coming, I live in wetlands for about 20 years now, and when we bought our house, we were paying roughly 90 bucks every other month, with the new price close to 400. I don't understand. So why not for the trash and stuff, start to educate people, like reduce, reuse, recycle, instead of keeping the price going up and up. Most of the people, they don't know how to recycle. They put the food into the trash, And then the price go up. So that will be my first concern. The next one, if it's possible to have another size for the trash can, a smaller one. Redlands used to have three size for the trash can until the 90s. You remove the smaller one and help, you know, the elderly, the people to have smaller and help, you know, the city. And the next thing I want to ask, if it's possible to have sign that there is no parking available. on street cleaning day and on trash day. The reason is I live in a very small street. One of my neighbors has up to 16 cars on the street. No one is doing anything. So the thing is, all the neighbors started to put their cars. Last week for the trash day, we have only 16 houses, 27 cars. We didn't have space. And on top of that, your driver, they take a long time to do it because they have to go in between the cars, and that's ridiculous. So I don't know if there was something that can be done. There was a survey done in the south of California. A city invested $200,000 in sign and a tow truck. They made $1.2 million the first year by towing the car that were parked. when they were not supposed to be. And my last question, what is the big thing that make a lot of noise outside the AC that go to the garage, and how long will you keep that? It must be expensive. No?

So, yes, it is. And I do see that you did request somebody to follow up with you, so we'll have somebody follow up with you and try to get some answers for you.

It's not the first time I tried to request something. I went to the city a few times. The cops were called about the cars, and according to what I found, the city of Freelance allowed three cars per driver, but you have to store them in your property. I don't understand why you let people put 27 cars on a small street.

We'll have somebody follow up. Thank you so much, I appreciate it. You did provide your phone number, so thank you.

Thank you.

Robin LaFell.

My name is Robin LaFelt, Roberta LaFelt, and I'm here again about the Boys and Girls Club. I'm grateful I got to spend 25 minutes with Tabitha last week, and I see them even like I even saw one person go over and look over the fence, the wall that's a couple feet too short to be even code over there. But what I'm here about today is because they are rewriting their history. Okay, that little Boys and Girls Club of Redlands is the hub of their of their Redlands, Greater Redlands, Riverside area. We don't want that over there. How come we're finding out after the fact we want transparency when they're doing something over there? This neighborhood deserves to know because they're affecting us on such a big scale. The fact that their income increased so much when our lives were made turned upside down by them. And why are we still dealing with those lights over there? They should be at least on a timer. The way that they have impacted our neighborhood and they can go break their arm, patting themselves on the back. How great this they're doing for our neighborhood at the expense of our neighborhood while they line their pockets. I resent this so much. So much, but I'm tired of finding out after the fact what they're doing. Because by then it's already gone through the city and gone through whatever. How can we get things back to how they were before? They made themselves so successful there. Now they've made themselves so big, like... We already wanted to know why they had all the rights, and now they just seem like too big. I really need the city to step up and to quit. No more growth over there. No, no extending the fences. No, just please fix the wall, fix the lights. Their lights are supposed to be pointed down. They're supposed to be hooded. They're pointing out they're not a school. Nothing has ever happened there to justify the need for that kind of lighting in that area. In our little residential area, this is ridiculous. I'm going to be here every single time I'm capable of being here because I know it took years to get it worked out with the community center and I don't expect anything less except for the thing is that who are they accountable to? At least the community center was accountable to us as citizens. This is a nightmare that you guys got to get these people under control and you need to fix our neighborhood. because the more kids that they bring over here, the worse it is for us, I promise you. The worse it is, and it's not even summer. I have brought numbers, 47 cars, 11 pickleball players. Today, six pickleball players, 43 cars. I have the data for you to show you, and they haven't even, we're not even at summertime when they're gonna be wanting to have kids there all the time, and they're bringing them in? This is not what that facility was built for. This is not what we agreed to. I'm sure this is not what the city agreed to. You need to get on top of them. They have all the money, and it seems like they have all the power. Anyway, thank you so much. And please, thank you for all your time. Thank you for the time that you gave us and the opportunity to come in here and see you about this. And I'm sorry, but you have so many other things that are on your plate.

Thank you. She also checked the box to follow up with herself.

Thank you. And my neighbors are getting in touch with you. I put out flyers finally today.

Hey, Mr. Moderator, do we have any public comment on Zoom? I don't see any. Hands up.

No public comment, Mr. Mayor.

Thank you, Mr. Moderator. We'll now move on to item I, our consent calendar. Also, we are removing I-11. We have approval of the balance. Okay. I have a motion to approve the balance and a second. Madam City Clerk?

I've not heard anything about it. What's here?

Council Member Barrage? Yes. Council Member Tejeda?

Yes.

Council Member Davis? Yes. Mayor Sacito?

Yes. All right. Item I-4, authorize the issuance of a proclamation declaring the month of June 2026 LGBTQ plus Pride Month. Mayor Saucedo. And I'll now turn it over to Council Member Davis. Carl, I think you're still mic'd up, Carl.

Okay. Let me call him and see if he's still there.

What did he say? I'm going to call and see if he's still there.

Are we ready for this? Yes. Okay, great. Can I please have Jerry and the folks from Free Mom Hugs join me at the front? It is my honor to present yet again this year the LGBTQ Plus Pride Month Proclamation, and I'm so grateful for your patience and waiting through all the public comment for this presentation, the amazing people from Free Mom Hugs. You can find this proclamation in its entirety on the city website. I'll just read a few of the bullet points. Whereas the city of Redlands is a diverse community, including its LGBTQ plus residents, and welcomes people of many backgrounds in the belief that a diverse population leads to a more vibrant community through inclusion, justice, and love. And whereas many residents, students, city employees, and business owners within the city of Redlands who are a part of the LGBTQ plus community contribute to the vitality enrichment of the city. And whereas despite being marginalized, LGBTQ plus people continue to celebrate authenticity, acceptance, and love, as it is imperative that all people in our community, regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity, and expression, feel valued, safe, empowered, and supported by their peers and community leaders. And I have to say, this group does an amazing job of that. I've gotten to So many hugs over the years from Free Mom Hugs. They are a national nonprofit. I'll let them speak in just a second. They can tell you more. But as far as I know, they're a national nonprofit with chapters all over the country. They're very active in the city of Redlands. I've seen them at many events over the years, always creating a force of positivity and support for the LGBTQIA plus community. Jerry is born and raised in Redlands. So I'm so happy to have you here tonight and to present you this year's Pride Month proclamation. Thank you. Thank you so much Shanice.

Thank you, Denise. It's such an honor to recognize Free Mom Hugs for Pride Month Proclamation. Just a little bit about Free Hugs. She is correct. We are a national nonprofit. We have a chapter in every single state, and we're all volunteers. So what we do is we educate, advocate, and celebrate members of the LGBTQ community. What does that mean? It means we show up. It means we show up at pride parades. It means that we show up at weddings. It means that we show up at graduations. And it means we show up at funerals. Anywhere unconditional love is needed, we show up with open arms.

Thank you so much for everything that you do. Oh my gosh, I would love a hug.

Thank you so much.

She's a great hugger.

I'm a professional.

Thank you. Actually, I want to do hugs and then a picture if we can.

Thank you all for being here so much.

Thank you to present this to you. And Whitney will take a picture for us.

Can we put you in the middle?

Thank you so much.

Moving on to agenda item J, communications. This is a discussion and possible action relating to the cancellation of our August 4th meeting and August 18th meeting at the regular meetings of the city council. This is our normal month that we go dark. So what's the wish of the council?

Move approval. Second. Oh, public comment.

Okay, we have a motion and a second, but we'll pause it. I don't have any public speakers. Mr. Moderator, do we have any public speakers on Zoom?

No public speakers, Mr. Mayor.

Okay, we have a motion and a second. Madam City Clerk?

Council Member Barrett? Yes. Council Member Tejeda? Yes. Council Member Davis? Yes. Mayor Saucy?

Yes. Thank you. Moving on to Conference Report of the 2020-26 City and County Conference of the San Bernardino County Transportation Authority, SBCTA. I will report out. This was held on, I believe it was May, I don't remember when it was. Oh, May 14th. And it was we had a general session on the first day and the first general session was our report on airports and the economic engines, the driving growth in San Bernardino County, both at Ontario International Airport and San Bernardino International Airport. The panelists were Adel Elkhart, the Chief Executive Officer of Ontario International Airport, and Mike Burrows, the Executive Officer of San Bernardino International Airport, which gave reports on how well they coordinate and are expanding their both passenger and cargo operations. Business then we had concurrent sessions throughout the day. I attended the opportunity zones 2.0, which is an opportunity to provide tax incentives for growth in different communities. We had panelists in a good discussion. Later on that afternoon, I attended the San Bernardino Regional Housing Trust, which I believe we have a representative council member Davis on that as a committee as a joint powers authority to be able to address the housing crisis in all communities. Then we came back for a general session, which was building on the future of delivering housing at a scale in San Bernardino. We all know that there's a housing crisis. And then we heard the moderator was Greg Devereaux. Randall Lewis was one of the panelists, and so was Mark Torres. Randall Lewis, he's the executive chief officer of the Lewis Group Companies. And Mark Torres is the president of LNR, the Inland Empire Division. And it's a great conversation about how much accelerated we need to provide housing and the challenges that some permits and approval processes sometimes slow those efforts down. And then we had a half a day on Friday the 15th, and we had a legislative roundtable with Chad Mays. and Bill Higgins, which is the director of the California Association of Councils of Government, and Jason Ryan, Senior Director of Legislative Affairs of the League of California Cities, and Nicole Wordleman was the legislative advocate for Precision Advocacy, and it was really a great conversation about the different challenges that communities have and trying to understand how we can work together. That concludes my report on the City and county conferences of this year, moving on to the Council report of the twenty twenty six regional conference of Southern California Association of Government Skag General Assembly Council Member Davis.

Thank you so much. Mayor Pro Tem Shaw and I attended this conference May six and seven. He was the city's voting delegate this year, and I was the alternate delegate. It was a great conference. I would say some of the highlights were the main sessions. One I attended was called Aligning Land, Capital, and Infrastructure for Sustainable Communities, just talking about the difficulty in building affordable housing and how, in an ideal world, we'd have better tax credits. Working on state legislation, obviously, is a priority. Yes, Mr. Laycook knows all too well But really thinking about how we build affordable sustainable housing. So that was a good session to attend the next breakout session I attended was forecasting the future of an AI fueled economy and I have to say it was a very stressful session to attend thinking about data centers and just the resources that are used and the rapid rate that we are expanding into this AI world which is important, but also from an energy grid and a water and resource perspective seems concerning. So that was not the most optimistic session to attend. The next day, there was a panel on the future of regions, innovating institutions for a new era, talking about the importance of understanding climate impacts. I'm really proud of our city. the work that we've done to advance sustainability, hiring a sustainability manager, really putting some thoughtful work into our climate action plan. And I would say, too, I go to a lot of these conferences, and there's often a keynote speaker, and typically they're not super exciting, but this year's conference had a really great keynote speaker, Dr. Sunil Gupta, and he talked about just the importance of protecting our energy as people, right, and how These roles which can be stressful and overwhelming and have a lot of competing interests Just the importance of having support from each other. He actually did an exercise I've never seen before where he had people write down on a note card something that they're struggling with It was an anonymous exercise and then we had a chance to pass these cards several times around the room and if somebody Agreed that or understood through this shared Struggle that was written on the card that they received they can put a plus one they can include their email address It was one of the coolest and I think most beneficial Exercises I've seen from a keynote. So I really enjoyed the conference and appreciated the opportunity to go.

Thank you Thank you for that report Move on to public hearings item k1. This is a public hearing regarding an assembly bill 2561 vacancy and recruitment report Assistant City Manager McConnell and I'll declare this a meeting open and public hearing Thank You mayor members of the City Council HR manager Jenna York will provide this report

good evening mayor city council and my director friends here my name is jenna york i'm the human resources manager and i have the pleasure to present the great work that we've been doing for the past year assembly bill 2561 went into effect on january 1 of 25 so it was the first year that government agencies reported out on their vacancy rates if we hit a metric of 20 or more we do enhanced reporting to you um to help facilitate the conversation regarding our strategies to recruit and retain for government employees. Some local government staffing challenges include job vacancies, limited pool of qualified candidates, and then obviously our competition with the private sector and evolving job expectations across multiple generations in the workforce. We do understand that high vacancy rates can lead to burnout of existing staff and exacerbate the staffing challenges already in play. Public agencies have the obligation to work with our employee and labor relations. And I did notice all unions and give them the opportunity to come and speak regarding our vacancy rates. On the great note, I don't think that any of them took it. You do have a report for you from one of them. They prefer to communicate in writing. So I'll be the only one presenting tonight on our vacancy rates. Given that, we did respond to last year's feedback in the timeliness of the data. We reported January to December, but we reported it in June. So now I'm coming to you with data as of April 2026. And so we have great news. We have 607 budgeted full-time positions for this reporting period. My team did excellent work. We hired 110 employees to the City of Redlands and we separated 96 employees from this includes both voluntary and involuntary separations. The clicker did stop working. Thank you. As I said, if we did have 20% more more than vacancies, we would do enhanced reporting regarding the total number of vacancies, the total number of applicants within those bargaining units, the average time to fill as well as opportunities to improve compensation and working conditions and the strategies that we're implementing to improve. Great news all of our bargaining units are well below that metric. The only 1 that is quite close would be our, um, we love our acronyms. So that is the Redlands. Oh, I did worry that I was going to fumble this. The Redlands of civilian safety employees association lovingly referred to as research that does include some intended vacancies for the purpose of a reorg. Police department did a great job and solicited. An administrative rework and part of those positions are in the proposed budget. Um, we have 3 bargaining units at the time of this reporting that had no vacancies whatsoever. So, some of the strategies that my team has implemented in the last year, we are leveraging social media. I know that you guys have expressed your appreciation for that. My team and our partners do a great job in advertising. Not only the jobs that we're trying to recruit for, but that the city of islands is a great place to work. Um. We have increased our number of engagements. Um, so we have over 138 impressions and over 3000 engagements. Um. I wish that I knew more about what those are not very social media savvy. However, I know that the team does great work and we get great feedback on it. And so I'm so appreciative of that. Um, we're increasing our enhanced career fair presence. Um, again, 1 of our recruiters had the pleasure of joining mayor at a local, um. High school, and I think junior high as well, um, in order to make sure that we're engaging the community and letting them know that we are an employer of choice in the area. Additionally, we hosted local high school students on civic state, and we, and HR ourselves hosted several, um, people that were interested. And then we had a really, really great engagement. They asked really good and insightful questions, and it made us look forward to having them and receiving them in the workforce. We reduced our time to fill. We've been streamlining our hiring process, not only through technology and utilizing NeoGov more effectively, but also working closely with our department heads and hiring managers to make sure that they understand the process, and we kind of break down any bottlenecks as they come up. Additionally, we've been utilizing hiring incentives. PD has typically a little bit more, they have a longer time to fill their positions due to an enhanced background investigation, and we do utilize hiring incentives to make sure that we are Attracting and retaining great candidates for those that we do have challenges. We can also utilize a continuous recruitment, meaning we don't have to have a definitive open and close date. We can leave it open until we get sufficient number of qualified candidates. And additionally, we have developed a benefits guide to help people navigate the benefits. There are a lot of great options in the city. And so that benefit guide helps them break it down because it is by a bargaining unit. So the benefits here vary. by bargaining unit, as you've heard at length. So we've enhanced our onboarding. We have a great team that engages employees from start to finish. We call it the life cycle cradle to grave, if you will. We also have enhanced our training and development. We've launched new HR workshops. We have to help with succession planning to make sure that we grow and retain our own employees. And then additionally, we have employee engagement events. We just recently had our annual employee engagement event, and it was a great success. My team worked really, really hard on that. Uh, we have wellness initiatives. We just recently closed our bloom, which was a wellness event in which we encouraged employees to walk them and move 6000 steps a day. Um, and so they were able to join teams and coach each other and celebrate each other's successes. Additionally, we have really great tuition reimbursement to help people to be able to continue to grow and develop in their career. And we have incentives if you do achieve a higher education than is required of your class concept. And then we have a lot of promotional opportunities And we hope that we're setting people up with success Not only with the tuition reimbursement as well as the training and development to be able to help again grow our own and retain that institutional knowledge This concludes my presentation and I'm happy to answer any questions you may have are there any questions from the City Council No, but thank you for your report just a comment I great report Thank you very much.

Especially the percentage. This is good to know that when we're short in the city, I'm sure the citizens would want to know that as well.

Thank you. Absolutely. Thank you very much.

And also call on any questions or comments or testimony from the labor group that made a request to speak. I don't see anybody. Okay. Um, I have one public comment. Uh, Mr. Bruce Lake cook.

Good evening council members and city staff. I appreciate that this presentation didn't rise to the level of the 20% threshold that the bill requires. 607 positions, 110 hires is more than 20% turnover. if I'm not mistaken, if I did the math right. That's a significant problem. You heard the Teamsters and others speaking about wages. Those two facts, it would be reasonable to assume, are not unrelated. As a citizen, my concern is the police And the safety employers are the two highest groups without positions filled. And it is your obligation as a city council to work with the department heads to figure out how to get that done. Because what's going on right now does two bad things. One, it puts my life at higher risk because there are not enough safety staff around. And number two, it puts more strain on the hired employees that have to work overtime and extra shifts and get burned out. And then guess what they do? They leave for someplace else with normal staffing levels. Both of those are bad things. Please, please. Figure out a way within your constraints to improve the hiring for both our police and safety employees in particular, because those are of great concern to me. Thank you very much.

Madam City Clerk, did we receive any written comments?

Yes, we did receive the one written comment from the- Redlands Association of Management Employees, that was distributed to you. You were in closed session. You may not have seen it, but it just is expressing their concerns about retention, about vacancies, and several other items they list as well.

Thank you. I'll now close the public hearing. What's the wish of the City Council? Any public comment? We already had that.

Mr. Mayor, City Manager here on the screen?

Yes, Mr. City Manager.

I just wanted to point out the 100 number includes when we promote someone, which creates a vacancy in their position, and then we have to do another recruitment. And so if we have a promotion at a higher level, it may cause four recruitments. So it's not that we had necessarily 100 out of our 600 recruiters new hires. It may be that one position caused four different recruitments. I just thought that would be helpful for people to know.

Yes, it is. Thank you very much.

Thank you for that, Mr. City Manager. Okay. What's the wish of the council?

Move to receive and file the vacancy report and status of recruitment and retention efforts as required by Assembly Bill 2561. Second.

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

Council Member Baric. Yes. Council Member Tejeda. Yes. Council Member Davis. Yes. Mayor Saucedo.

Yes. Moving on to item L2, consideration of resolution number 8789, approving agreement 3CA07718 with the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, CAL FIRE, for wildland protection during fiscal year 2026-2027 for an amount not to exceed

Mayor, I think we're on K2. I'm sorry. K2, second public hearing on your agenda.

You're right. Okay, correction. So K2 is the public hearing to consider resolution 8786, adopting the water shortage contingency plan, municipal utilities and engineering director Heredia. I apologize.

Good evening, Mayor, Council members, staff, and the public. The Water Shortage Contingency Plan is a strategic plan that the City uses to prepare for and respond to water shortages that may occur due to water quality changes, climate change, drought, a regional power outage, or catastrophic events such as earthquakes. This planning document provides a process for this For city staff to prepare and submit an annual water supply and demand assessment pursuant to California water code by July of 1st of each year, it provides shortage stages and various actions that may be implemented to mitigate the effects of a potential supply shortage. While the city is expected to meet long term demands, there is a potential for shorter term shortages due to a combination of foreseeable and unforeseeable events. So, the city uses for shortage stages to identify and respond to water shortage emergencies that required components of the are summarized in the agenda report. The intent of these components is to lay out an actionable plan for identifying potential shortages and responding to them effectively. Uh, additionally Redlands, uh, is exceeded is 20 by 2020 conservation target, which required a 20% reduction in baseline per capita water use by 2020. Um, and at a minimum Redlands encourages baseline conservation efforts year round, regardless of a shortage emergency. So, finally, this plan also incorporates and aligns with the city of Redlands water conservation plan. And that concludes my presentation. Paul Maris Maris Marisco is their water utility manager as well as Patricia parts representing water systems consulting is here to answer any specific questions you may have.

Thank you. That report director already. I'll declare this a public hearing. I'll now call on any members questions or comments from the members of the city council. There aren't any. I don't have any comments or questions from members of the public. I don't have any speaker slips. Mr. Moderator, do we have anybody on this item on Zoom?

We have no speakers on this item on Zoom.

Thank you. Madam City Clerk, have we received any written comments?

No written comments.

I'll now close the public hearing. What's the wish of the City Council?

I move the City Council adopt resolution number 8786. Second. We have a motion and a second. Madam City Clerk?

Second.

Council Member Baric. Yes. Council Member Tejeda.

Yes.

Council Member Davis. Yes. Mayor Sacito.

Yes. Moving on to item K3, public hearing to consider resolution number 8785, adopting part 1, part 2, chapter 4, part 3, and part 4, appendices D of the 2025 Regional Urban Water Management Plan, Municipal Utilities and Engineering Director Heredia. I'll now declare this meeting a public hearing.

Thank you, Mayor. So the California Water Code requires urban water suppliers to prepare and adopt an urban water management plan for submission to the California Department of Water Resources every five years and must satisfy the requirements of the Urban Water Management Plan Act. This, better known as UWMP. So this UWMP is intended to function as a planning tool to guide Broad perspective decision making by water supply managers. It is a long term general planning document rather than an exact blueprint for supply and demand management. Water management in California is not a matter of certainty and planning projections may change in response to a number of factors from this perspective. It is appropriate to look at an as a general planning framework, not a specific action plan. Thus, water suppliers within a region may work together to develop a cooperative regional UWMP, which the region has done since 2010. The 2025 regional UWMP includes nine participating retail agencies, and not all parts of the plan are applicable, as mentioned in the recommendation. And so every participating agency and subsequent changes made to individual agency UWMP chapters can be done. And it doesn't affect the other plans or the other sections. Each agency chapter provides service area information, past water use, projections of population, demand and supply for a 25-year planning period, an evaluation of water supply reliability and drought risk assessment, a description of demand management measures, and a summary of the agency's water shortage contingency plan, which you just approved. Thank you. This plan evaluates the cities and the region's near-term and long-term water service reliability under various hydrologic scenarios. It evaluates and compares water supply and reliability to existing and projected demands. Also, submittal of this planning document is required for water agencies to remain eligible in the state drought water bank assistance and is also prerequisite for receiving state-funded grants and loans. So in summary, The analysis in this plan concludes that the region has sufficient supplies to meet demands for a normal year and demonstrates that adequate regional supplies are anticipated for years 2030 to 2050 under normal average conditions. Normal year across all of the supplies available in the region There is a surplus of supply which results in accumulated storage in local groundwater basins for use in dry years And while the region currently has sufficient supplies it continues to invest in additional water supply projects to enhance long-term supply reliability the regional currently has over 17,000 acre feet per year of recycled water recharge in direct use in the San Bernardino Basin and And has identified projects to provide an additional 45,000 acre feet per year in recharge of stormwater, imported water and recycled water by 2050. There's the city has long term water service, reliability and their normal year, single dry year and 5 consecutive draw years and has sufficient near term supply reliability for a job lasting 5 consecutive years. Finally, the city participates in several ongoing water conservation measures and regional recharge projects to optimize and enhance the use and reliability of regional water resources. And you witnessed that today with those rebate checks. So that concludes my presentation. Again, Paul, Water Utility Manager, as well as Patricia Parks from WSC are here to answer any detailed questions that council may have. Thank you.

Thank you for the report, Director Heredia. I'll now call on any comments or questions from the City Council. Hearing none, I don't have any written requests for public comment. Mr. Moderator, do we have anybody on Zoom?

No public comment on this item, Mr. Mayor.

Thank you. Madam City Clerk, did we receive any written comments?

No written comments received.

Okay, I'll now close the public hearing. What's the wish of the council?

I move that the city adopt resolution number 8785. Second.

We have a motion and a second. Madam City Clerk.

Council Member Baric.

Yes.

Council Member Tejeda.

Yes.

Council Member Davis. Yes. Mayor Sacito.

Yes. All right, now moving on to item L1, which is the consideration of two resolutions related to compliance with Senate Bill 707 and Senate Bill 707 Resolution No. 8788, amending the restating protocols for resolving disturbances at public meetings, and Resolution No. 8787, establishing a policy for addressing connection disturbances Disruptions, thank you. During hybrid public meeting, Assistant City Manager McConnell.

Thank you, Mayor and members of the City Council. I am so pleased to introduce Management Analyst, Whitney Mesna, who will provide this report. Thank you so much.

Good evening, Mayor and members of the City Council. Before you tonight are two resolutions related to SB 707. These will be taking effect July 1, 2026, and SB 707 requires qualifying legislative bodies, including the City Council, to provide two-way remote public participation during meetings and establishes new requirements related to meeting disruptions and technical failures. As Council is aware, staff has spent the past several months implementing the City's SB 707 compliance measures. These two resolutions represent the final policy actions necessary before the July 1st implementation date. The first resolution resolution 8788 updates the city's existing meeting disturbance protocols, which were originally adopted back in 2015. The current policy addresses disruptions occurring in person, but it does not address remote participation. The proposed update applies the same standards to participants attending remotely. Under the policy, a disruptive participant would first receive a warning. If the disruption continues, the mayor or the presiding officer would have the authority to mute or disconnect the participant, similar to the authority that already exists to remove an in-person participant who is disrupting the meeting. The second resolution, which is Resolution 8787, establishes a formal policy for technical disruptions affecting remote participation. If the City's two-way telephonic or audiovisual platform fails during a meeting, the meeting would be recessed for up to one hour while staff attempts to restore service. If service is restored, the meeting would reconvene. If service cannot be restored after one hour, the Council could either adjourn the meeting or continue only after making findings that staff made a good faith effort to restore the service and that the public interest in continuing the meeting outweighs the need for remote access. So these resolutions are procedural in nature, have no direct fiscal impact, and are necessary to ensure the city is prepared to comply with SB 707 when it becomes effective on July 1st. Staff recommends the adoptions of both resolutions, and I am happy to answer any questions that you may have.

Are there any questions from staff? I don't have any speaker slips. Mr. Moderator, do we have any public comment?

No public comment on this item, Mr. Mayor.

Thank you for your report.

Thank you.

What's the wish of the council move to adopt resolution number 8788 amending and restating protocols for resolving disturbances at public meetings and rescinding resolution number 7482 and I moved to adopt resolution number 8787 establishing a policy for addressing connection disruptions of 2 way. Telephone or audio visual platforms during public meetings pursuant to Senate bill 707.

Second.

We have a motion and a second. Madam City Clerk?

Council Member Barrett. Yes. Council Member Tejeda.

Yes.

Council Member Davis. Yes. Mayor Saucedo.

Yes. Moving on to item L2, consideration of resolution number 8789, approving amendment 3CA07718 with the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, CAL FIRE, for wildland protection during fiscal year 2026-2027 for an amount not to exceed $319,021.75. Fire Chief Sessler.

Thank you, Mayor and Council. This is our annual renewal of the wildland fire protection agreement with Cal Fire for 5,158 acres. This agreement provides the city with access to supplemental wildland firefighting resources, including helicopters, aircraft, hand crews, engines, Dozers unified command support during vegetation fire since. The agreement helps ensure rapid access to specialized resources while providing more predictable fire suppression costs. Staff recommends the approval resolution 8789. With Cal fire for fiscal year 2627. And this correction 5,985 acres if I stated incorrectly, this concludes my report and I'll be happy to answer any questions.

Yeah, the only question I have when it was the last time we had this type of mutual agreement and where they cal fire has actually gone and we've had to reimburse every every year we use this agreement. Okay. Yes. Very good. Thank you. I don't have any speaker slips. Mr moderator. Do we have anybody on zoom?

No speakers on this item. Mr mayor.

Okay. Thank you.

Um, city, um, city council, what's the wish of the council? I move the City Council adopt Resolution 8789 with the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, Cal Fire, for wildland fire protection during the fiscal year of 2026-2027 for the amount not to exceed $319,021.75. Second. Did you get that?

Council Member Davis got that. Okay. Second was Council Member Davis. Okay. Madam City Clerk. I'll take your word for it.

Council Member Barrett. Yes. Council Member Tejeda.

Yes.

Council Member Davis. Yes. Mayor Saucedo.

Yes. Moving on to item L3, consideration of a second agreement to the agreement with Cell Plan Technologies, Inc. for the provisions of a video management systems replacement to increase the total agreement by the amount of $501,970, Interim Assistant City Manager Garcia.

Thank you, Mayor and members of the council. Eric Owens, our IT manager, will give a brief report on this item.

Good evening, Mayor and members of the City Council. The item before you is for an approval to amend the existing agreement with Cell Plan Technologies. The original agreement with cell plan was approved in late 2024 with the project commencing in 2025, which included. Completing a major redesign of the city's camera network. Replacing the majority of cameras downtown and in high traffic areas. Along with new high definition units supported by a new wireless backhaul. Earlier this year, members from it team met with staff from police department facilities, community services and municipal utilities and engineering department determined to determine locations where it would be beneficial to have new cameras installed within the city's facilities. Cell plan technologies walked each location to determine the best camera makes models, locations and options for reliable connectivity. These 72 new cameras would be installed across 13 locations throughout the city, including police department facilities. Water treatment plants, the landfill recreation center. And a few additional street intersections, the additional high definition cameras also required additional data storage, which is included as part of this amendment. The requested increase of $501,970 to the first extended term would fund the installation of cameras, equipment upgrades, as well as the necessary software programming. There is sufficient funding in the Division of Innovation and Technology budget to cover the cost of this amendment to the agreement with Cell Plan Technologies, and I'm available to answer any questions you may have.

Are there any questions from Council to staff? I don't have any public speakers slips. Mr. Moderator, do we have any public comment on Zoom?

No speakers on this item, Mr. Mayor.

All right. I move the City Council approve second amendment to the agreement with Cell Plan Technologies, Inc. for the provision of video management system replacement. Second. Motion and a second. Madam City Clerk.

Council Member Baric.

Yes.

Council Member Tejeda.

Yes.

Council Member Davis. Yes. Mayor Sacido.

Yes. Moving on to item L4, consideration of a new enterprise lease agreement with Esri and related subscription services for a three-year term in the amount not to exceed $271,185.15. Assistant City Manager Garcia.

Thank you, Mayor and members of the Council. This is a once every three years item that we bring forward. It's to review our agreement with ESRI for the use of their GIS platform. The platform provides support across all different city departments, including planning, engineering, utilities, public safety, and other operational activities. Included in the price are some new programs notably drone to map and the extension of our hub premium and with that this agreement is funded in the current budget and included in the upcoming budget request as part of the biennial budget process and that concludes my presentation i don't have any i don't have any speaker steps for this item and mr moderator do we have any public comment on this item on zoom

No, Mr. Mayor.

Okay, thank you. What's the wish of the council?

Move to approve a new enterprise license agreement with ESRI and related subscription services for a three-year term in an amount not to exceed $271,185.15. Second. We have a motion and a second.

Madam City Clerk.

Council Member Baric. Yes. Council Member Tejeda.

Yes.

Council Member Davis. Yes. Mayor Sesedo.

Yes. We'll move on to item L5, consideration of procurement for three solid waste collection vehicles from Rush Truck Centers in the amount of $1,443,359.68. Facilities and Community Services Director Crocker. Thank you, Mayor, members of the council.

The proposed procurement is consistent with the city's purchasing policies and will be conducted through a cooperative purchasing agreement with Sourcewell. The purchase includes two side loader vehicles and a roll-off vehicle, and it is in a total amount of $1,443,000 and some change. Funds necessary for this purchase are included in the 25-26 budget, and this concludes my report.

Okay, thank you. I don't have any speaker slips for this item. Mr. Moderator, do we have any public comment on Zoom?

No, Mr. Mayor.

Okay, what's the wish of the council? Move to approve the purchase of three solid waste collection vehicles from Rush Truck Centers in the amount of $1,443,559.68. Second. We have a motion and a second. Madam City Clerk?

Council Member Barrett? Yes. Council Member Tejeda?

Yes.

Council Member Davis? Yes. Mayor Sacito?

Yes. Moving on to item L6, consideration of a cooperative purchase of a 623 scraper from Caterpillar Inc. in the amount of $1,346,837.80, Facilities and Community Services Director Crocker.

Thank you American sense of the Council. I know I couldn't get rid of it. The city of Redlands relies on a 623 scraper at the city's landfill for daily operations, where it plays a critical role in ongoing site management. The city's existing scraper, it's a 1990 model. It's approximately 37 years old, and it no longer meets compliance standards that are established by the California Air Resource Board. So this will be replacing our very loyal scraper that's been out there, but it will bring it into compliance.

Yeah, I think I was operating that scraper back when I was still working. Okay, I don't have any public speaker slips. Mr. Moderator, do we have anybody on Zoom?

I do have one question though, Mr. Mayor. Okay, go ahead. And I should have asked it before, but I'll put them together. What's the life, how long are we keeping these for? I mean, how long are they good for? Well, I think- Let's start with, how about the first one I showed you?

The first one, those that we're replacing, they're about 13 to 15 years old. And I think the recommendations is around 10 years with the newer models. The ones prior that I've brought into council, they're about almost 20 years old. So we've been replacing the fleet, reducing maintenance cost and stuff like that. The scraper, I don't know, it's one vehicle out there. I hope this next one lasts a long time as well. But I don't know the life I could get back to the council on the life of the scraper Thank you, yeah Sorry, no, that's fine Anybody want to make the motion?

Oh, yeah, sure I move to approve the cooperative purchase of a 623 scraper from Caterpillar Inc equipment identification number GL 8 C 9 5 in the amount of 1 million three hundred and forty six thousand eight hundred thirty seven dollars and eighty cents and

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

Council Member Baric. Yes. Council Member Tejeda. Yes. Council Member Davis. Yes. Mayor Sacito.

Yes. Okay, moving on to item L7, consideration of the City Manager's proposed two-year budget for fiscal years 27-28 and the resolution number 8794, Interim Assistant City Manager Garcia.

Thank you, Mayor and members of the City Council. Charlie and I will run through the proposed biennial budget presentation one more time.

Yes, Mayor and council members, this will cover most of the material that we talked about three to four weeks ago. The budget has been on the city website and printed copies have been at the library and some other places so that if anyone wanted to see it, there was plenty of opportunity for the public. This presentation will cover a little bit about the time period leading up to this budget. Certainly what we concentrated on for the next biennium, which will be fiscal years 27 and 28. We will touch on some of the unfunded things that were brought up. One of the things mentioned tonight was a pump track that currently is not a budgeted item. Of course, we also look at our long-term financial forecast. We will budget for two years, but we'll look at four more years just to make sure we're not having any problems coming at us that we should have foreseen, and the next steps on the budgeting. Leading up to this budget, we saw revenues going rapidly. Our property tax did go up. Sales tax had been going up also. However, we need to realize that gains in property tax do level off. While we were doing that, we were recovering from the layoffs and the shrinking of services during COVID. So we were able to come back and try to fit in even more things for the community that the community was asking for. We did look at community priorities as much as possible. Those priorities are assembled by people who contact us, people who talk at the council meetings, people who contact you, of course, and also our boards and commissions who concentrate on certain areas such as parks and recreation. If you were to look at the fund balance that the city carries, we definitely were anticipating borrowing for police buildings and new fire stations. So we did have a buildup there. but we are showing a drawdown of that ending fund balance. We're doing things like buying new fire trucks. I think we have three currently on order. We were able to also put money in the budget for what the council had authorized for compensation and benefits. What we anticipate is going to be happening in the next biennium is a slowing of the economy. The last time we did this, all of the conversation was about the coming recession, the coming recession, which actually never happened. We have already seen a slowing in the economy and we anticipate that that will continue. We are not forecasting or preparing necessarily for something like a recession. However, our ultimate goals in budgeting are always to make sure we're providing great services to the citizens. And while doing that, that we're able to ride out any of the cyclical nature of the economy. We will see expenditure growth continue due to inflation for the costs that we're paying for things. People mentioned the city has to buy quite a bit of fuel for police cars and other trucks and skid loaders and fire trucks and things like that. So that costs a lot, whether it's gas or diesel. We do have added budget pressure. We're hearing from labor and certainly we're trying to work on making sure that compensation is where it needs to be. Inflation persists for the city too. And then we have built in the debt service for both the new safety hall, the new fire station 264, and we're also able to add HVAC replacement and improvements for the library. So what do we look at when we try to start building the budget? Of course, we're taking our cues from you, the council, because we wanted to develop and deliver a budget that meets and suits what you want for the community. We listen to the community. We hear from a variety of areas. And then we also have our financial goals. We're looking at, of course, a balanced budget. well compensated staff. We tried to eliminate the deferrals of maintenance as much as possible and to try to catch up on the maintenance that was deferred in the past. One of the things I think we're going to need to do and I am proposing as part of this budget is take a really thorough review of all of the departments and one by one going through line by line with our budget team and really identifying those things that we consider essential services and those things that we think are important and add to the benefits for our citizens, but are more flexible in case we need to make some hard decisions in the future. So for the next two year proposed budget, in order to afford things like the debt service for the new buildings, the MOU improvements for our employees in both salary and benefits. It required a $4 million reduction in services that was mainly borne by facility and community services. We will be reducing some of the things we're spending on. We did do things like during COVID and the last biennium, we had put a lot into trimming of trees because we had a backlog that was considerable. We feel like we've caught up a lot and we're moving more into routine maintenance. So trying to cut back on things like that. We've asked departments to really look at their core operations, make sure we're doing those extremely well before we look at branching out from there. We did give departments a target to come back with, and then we asked for extra items that they would spend money on if we had money. We call that our supplemental requests. We were able to get some of those, but in order to afford those, the departments had to seek the money out of their own budgets. The same goes for new positions. There was a number of new positions asked for by all the departments I went through those with the team. I whittled those down to certain positions, but then when they were given back to the departments, they had to absorb those within their current budget. So we weren't adding to the bottom line for those positions, we were shifting funds. The class and comp study that we did that you've heard so much about, does show that we are behind in salary, but when you factor in all of the benefits that we have and compared to the other cities that we're comparing with, 62% of our jobs are at 5% within the market total compensation. So we've heard a lot about being 12% behind, and some jobs are considerably more than that. in salary, but when you factor in the benefits that everyone's receiving, it's much closer to market than we heard. So major investments coming up in the biennium. We have the new Redlands Police Department facility. The bids came back on that. They came back very good. And we'll be bringing those to the council, I think, at the next council meeting. And then we're looking to do a borrowing soon after that. We have the replacement project for Fire Station 264. We have the contracts coming to you still, I think. I don't think... I think they're coming at the next meeting too for design. Design will take anywhere from nine to 12 months and then construction probably about a year after that. So the fire station actually could get done before the police building. We have the cooling tower replacement for the library. We do have costs with our homeless solution with the Goodnight Inn that we're still working on negotiating. We are fortunate that both the state and the county are partnering with us and bearing a great amount of that cost, but it still will be more expensive for us. Also, the Museum of Redlands grand opening is coming. Right now it's slated for this fall, but we are starting to bear the cost of that. And so that's included in this budget. I'll turn it over to you.

Thank you, Charlie. This slide shows our current year estimate and our next 2 years of the proposed budget. We talked about the slide before just to recap revenues are still growing, but they're growing slower than in previous years. And by the same token. Expenses are also going up and we talked about that. We're absorbing normal cost increases. personnel cost assumptions for the successor MOUs we talked so much about, and also the rise in services and supplies cost. The budget does a good job keeping the current services in place and also accounting for the costs of those MOUs, and the general fund is still using fund balance in both years. So that is why this budget required some trade-offs and why future prioritization will be important. We talked about these before as well. And the budget includes funding for about a quarter of the supplemental requests that came through from departments. These supplemental items, the ones that were added, were added after departments made reductions to absorb the cost without increasing the bottom line to the general fund. The most significant items for capital that were included outside of these supplementals, Charlie has already mentioned, Safety Hall, the relocation of Fire Station 264, and the library's cooling tower HVAC system. As we mentioned before, there are 8 1⁄2 new positions recommended in the budget. It should be noted that the funding for these positions was found in the requesting department's budget, and it did not add to the overall bottom line in the general fund. This slide also lists some of the unfunded items that we've already mentioned before. To recap the risks to the forecast, no one has a crystal ball, of course, but the direction of the U.S. economy is stable for now, but it remains somewhat sensitive to potential disruption. The MOU related costs have not fully been resolved as the city has not entered into successor MOUs with any of its nine bargaining units. There are other risks to be aware of as well, all which reinforce the idea that we need to anticipate future reprioritization and strategic planning in the future. We'll move to our long-term financial model. As we've covered before, the budget team uses a six-year model to forecast future consequences of spending decisions made in the near term, like in the biennial budget process. Some of our assumptions are listed here on this slide. Overall, we assume a steady economic outlook where revenue scenarios assume current trends continue at a steady pace. In our six-year forecast provided our assumptions and increases in costs. We see that by the end of fiscal year 2029 We need to make significant corrected actions to avoid dipping too low in our fund balance amount If we if those corrections aren't made before and beyond that point the impact is sudden and pretty steep But this is why we use the model So we've talked about the need to prioritize and reprioritize as a function of future year budgets that are upcoming and the spending decisions that will have to be made. This is where it applies. Starting in fiscal year 2029, staff plan to implement plans to structurally reduce the general fund by roughly $4.5 million in spending. The key here is that prioritization and spending will translate to less budget flexibility and the need to be more strategic with where we put the money. And looking ahead. The next steps during the course of the upcoming two-year budget cycle Charlie mentioned it will be conducting an in-depth analysis of Department service levels and develop layers of priority for consideration. The goal is to help counsel guide discussions and how to develop a strategic plan and for fiscal years 29 through 32. It's our objective to have clearly defined ways to reduce general fund spending and implement those reductions in planning for the next biennial budget cycle should we not realize a vast increase in general fund revenues during that same time period. Here's a look ahead at the schedule. Just want to take a second again to thank the department heads their staff the finance team the budget team that put this together James Garland Marie that's when you're in Valterra City manager assistant city manager McConnell and the City Council for their support and that concludes our presentation, but we're available 30 questions.

Okay. Thank you I first like to make a couple of comments. I want to thank as an echo all the thanks that Assistant city, an interim system, city manager Garcia had mentioned for all the hard work and working and creating these opportunities or options for us as a city council, balancing all the. Diverse priority funding requests from. Our organization from top to bottom across the board, it's really challenging us as a city council to really try to consider everybody's request and we know how important every operation every employee is to our organization. Um, and so I want to mention that also, I want to mention if anybody has an opportunity to look up online and look at the city manager's budget message. Uh, it's very good. Uh, kind of a way of looking at some of the information that is. And the rest of the rest of the, um, the report. Um, so I just want to thank, uh. Those that have had a hand in providing us all this information and it's really hard to try to. decide on the priorities, on the funding, and I know in a perfect world, if we had the funding, we would fund just about everything that we could, but we're living in kind of a critical time, not us, but other agencies as well, and we're doing the best we can to keep the service levels that they are, keep our employees, and still keep providing services to our community, programs and services, so I wanna thank everybody for providing this. I know it's not the best, but we're gonna get through this. We've made some commitments to larger capital improvement projects, and we'll continue making those projects as priority as we move forward into the next five to 10 years. So I'm hoping to see some progress as we make these commitments, and I want to thank my council members for their commitment to prioritizing these diverse projects, diverse requests of funding, and we're doing the best job we can So I just want to make those comments, and does anybody else want to make a comment before I open it up for public comment?

No, I'll go ahead.

Okay, thank you. Ed Milliken, Edward Milliken. I've got two speaker slips, so you can... There's three, yes, I know, but both of them just came up, so I'm not sure what they were going to do.

Yes, Mr. Mayor. We're reporting from the Measure T Citizens Oversight Committee, and so this is really on behalf of the entire committee. This is our chair, Ruth Cook, and so I'll defer to her first, and then I'll follow along.

Okay, so each of you have three minutes, so we're... What do you want to do?

I don't think it's going to take that much time.

Okay.

We just have a short statement to make. The Citizens Measure T Oversight Committee of the City of Redlands is charged with a couple of things, just as a reminder. Reviewing the city's budgeted and actual expenses of the Measure T revenues to ensure that these expenditures fall within the parameters as understood by the voters. In the November 3rd, 2020 election, when the tax was approved and advising the city council regarding the use of measure T revenue to ensure that the measure T expenditures reflect the council and community priorities. So it's just a constant. We constantly remind ourselves of the. Reasons the committee is in place and the purpose of the measure T. The Majority Oversight Committee met May 21st, 2026 to review the Measure T expenditures in the City Manager's proposed budget for fiscal years 2027 and 2028. And after the presentation by City staff and a discussion among the members of the Committee, we arrived at the following conclusions with regard to the charges 1 and 2 above. First of all, our committee finds that the measure T expenditures in the city managers proposed budget for the fiscal year is 2027 and 2028 fall within the parameters that were approved by the voters. This finding was unanimously unanimously agreed to. Secondly, our committee encourages the city council to assign the highest priority to staffing needs in the safety services, police and fire when making decisions regarding the allocation of measure T funds. The need to maintain safety level, safety service levels was prominent in the arguments for Measure T in 2020, yet we note that the staffing levels in the safety services, particularly fire protection, have fallen far behind city growth, and we recognize it as prerogative of the Council to determine community priorities, but the use of Measure T funds to close the safety service gap would be consistent with the promises made to voters. and the committee was unanimous in this concern as well. Lastly, the Measure T Oversight Committee wishes to acknowledge the invaluable assistance of the City staff, especially Interim Assistant Manager, City Manager Garcia, and Interim Management Services Director Garland, who guided us through the intricacies of the budget process with unfailing impartiality and patience.

Thank you. If you have any questions, we're happy to help, happy to answer. Ed, did you want to say anything?

Yes, honorable mayor and council. The Measure T Citizens Oversight Committee is an official advisory board of the City of Redlands. Our meeting minutes are on the city website. And the minutes of our most recent meeting, if they're not up right now, they will be very soon. And our committee was established by the voters when they adopted the Measure T tax override back in 2020 to make sure that Measure T expenditures are in line with what the people thought they were voting for when they established this tax in the first place. And I will stress that the funding of safety services and fire protection was very high on the list. On the ballot statement as to what the money was going to go for, there were 11 items, and number one was safety services, fire protection. And it has come to our committee's attention that fire protection, there has been no increase in the fire protection staff since 2004. And there's been a lot of growth in the city of Redlands during those 22 years. And we believe that the city council should give strong consideration to using Measure T funds, which are 15% of the city's total revenue for the purpose of trying to close that particular gap and any other gaps in safety services, fire protection that may exist. And we know that there are many competing demands for the city's attention and that it's the council's job to juggle those various requests. But our job as a committee is to speak out for the voters who enacted Measure 3 in the first place. And I think I'm done. Thank you. And again, if you have any questions for us.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay. Any comments or questions from the council?

Did you want to have one more speaker slip? No, this speaker slip. Bruce Leacook. I think we should. I'm not going to hurt you.

as a voter who voted for, council members, city staff, as a voter who voted for Measure T, as I spoke to earlier about where our open positions are in both police and public safety, I second what our previous speaker just said, and I would like you to look at that measure T-specific money, but I'd also like you to consider something maybe a little out of the box and that is, I know that the staff members that are doing recruiting for police and public safety are working hard to get people that are good employees here, people that can pass all the screening, because I know passing the screening to become a qualified public safety employee is a pretty high threshold. So you may need to consider I'm gonna call them extraordinary incentives, something out of the box, some way to incentivize recruitment, and most importantly, retention. Like if you come to work here, After 18 months, you get a bonus of X, and maybe after five years, you get a bonus of Y, or something like that, so that it's a one-time thing. It's not something that's gonna add to the overall inflationary effect of employee compensation, but it's gonna make the city a more attractive location. So if you would consider something like that to make that 16% and nearly 10% vacancy rate lower, I would very much appreciate it. Thank you very much.

I'd like to move that. I'd like to move that the City Council proposed to your budget for 2027-28. We move it to the next meeting. We're still in the middle of negotiations. I'd like to get a little closer so we'd have, because that's going to be one of the biggest part of our budget is salary. So if my colleagues are in objection to that, I'd like to see if we could. We're not going to make or break this, but I'd like to get closer to find out what we're looking at in the way of salaries and benefits.

I appreciate that. And I'm OK with postponing the vote. I just have a couple of comments. Thank you to all of the public commenters tonight. I wholeheartedly agree with everything that you said. And I want to first start by thanking our assistant city manager, Garcia. and also James Garland for your hard work on this. I know you and your team have an impossible task of balancing these competing priorities, and I recognize that a tremendous amount of work has gone into this budget. I do have a deep concern, though, and that is my concern, right, that over the last 22 years, emergency call volume has increased 71% while sworn firefighter staffing has remained essentially unchanged, right? There was an article recently in Community Forward Redlands that says that the department is on track to handle nearly 12,000 calls in 2026, which is a sharp increase from a decade ago, and the number of frontline firefighters has remained the same. I'm concerned about our response time. The department... aims for a response time of five minutes and currently reaches that benchmark only 70% of the time. The article goes on to say that if we had the two more stations that are proposed for some future date, that could be 90% of the time that the firefighters reach that benchmark. And I just, I don't know, I just have really significant concerns about the fact that we have Measure T, but we're also staring at this data, which is, I was just in my office on Friday at UC Riverside and I smelled a fire. There was a terrible fire right next to the campus. 50 plus of our students lost their apartments in that fire i mean we're just seeing fires increase throughout our region day after day and i think that we really need to put our resources into our public safety first and foremost our police and our fire and i really i'm not sure where we can pull and reevaluate the budget but i think we need to take a serious look at measure t funds and how they're spent I'm having a hard time supporting this budget without a firm commitment to increasing our public safety staffing, specifically the six firefighters that the department has asked for, and a commitment also to a timeline for Station 5. Thank you.

You have the comments?

No, I agree. It's very, very important when you're down 13 police officers. And like I said, there's a couple nights we only have five or six units outside for a city that's 35 square miles. That's a pretty big city. I have the response. But obviously, it's not lack of trying. I know sometimes it's tough to get police officers. Firefighters, same way. I didn't realize we were that percentage down. But again, I'm going to tell the public it's not for lack of trying. We're trying the best we can. And the station's the same way. I think we've already did acquire some property already that we've cleared escrow for at least one. Is that correct? And I think we're in escrow for one other one.

The 2 locations are on city property, so Justin, the city property in the orange groves as well as heritage park location, and then we're in the final processes of California.

Negotiations we still have to finance it again. It's not like lack of trying. We are. In the process of doing that, but yeah, if we can speed it up, I'd be happier as well. So.

Well, I appreciate what both of you said. I agree with you. There are stressors. And I think that's the operative word right now. Stressors that are pushing and pulling on our ability to service this community the way it deserves to be. And sometimes it's this exercise that brings those stressors front and center. As a public employee myself for well, I'm a teacher. And being a public employee in that. Aspect of public employment, I understand. Wholeheartedly what are. All of our bargaining units are asking us to do or asking us for. first and foremost to me is always, not always, but first and foremost is the police who have once upon a time taken a pay cut to help us during times of needs and have struggled to come back, to get back on par. That to me is, it was very, everyone was thankful when it happened, but when it was time to bring them back to par, it was very difficult. And again, during this exercise, when we talk about the budget, it's where we show as a council what we're focused on. And the fact that that remains an area where we need to get caught up is significant. in itself. Also with the fire department having the stressors of additional service calls and things of that nature. And again, the people that work day in and day out in every department across the way. So I would support holding off and seeing what we need to demonstrate to our staff all the way across the board from the bottom to the top that we are taking this seriously and looking everywhere we can to get it right. So I would agree with you on holding off on this and there are some things that we may be doing.

Yeah. Um, I, I agree with everything that's been set up here by my colleagues. And I think it's important that, you know, our first charge is always to protect and keep our community safe. Um, I, I really like to see, I like this. I'd like the gains that we have made in our police department and some of the investments that may be not as, as much as we'd like to right now at this point with our fire. But I do believe that, um, there it's important to have station five out on the, Uh, district 3, it's important for those residents to know that there is a another station out there. Um, but, um, so I agree with everything that's been said, uh, I know that our police department is has some needs and has some commitments where we're doing as hard. hard work as we can. It's fallen on this council to finally follow through with that commitment, even though past councils maybe had other priorities or just other situations that didn't allow them to Fully commit and that's understandable, but where we are, where we are, and we're here, I believe there's a commitment on this whole council, including mayor pro tem was not here to finally see these capital improvement projects for our public safety will fire and police to to finally come to fruition. And so I would, I agree if we need more time, we need more time. I'll stop there and I'll ask Mr. City Manager if you have any comments that you'd like to make.

Well, I just wanted to ask the council certainly, uh, we build into the schedule, uh, multiple times to bring this to the council, uh, because ultimately it is, you know, I make recommendations, uh, and bring it to you, but it's your budget, uh, setting the tone for it for the community. Uh, so if, uh. Without any guidance, though, we would be just bringing this back to you exactly as is in two weeks. So I would have to ask, what would the council like to see in two weeks? That would be different. Or do you just want to think about this for those two weeks? If you have things in mind that we can take a look at. Um, we certainly can, uh, so, uh, I would just ask, uh, is there any guidance you would like to give staff?

Yeah, we'd like to be able to get some idea what what our cost is because again, we're right in the middle of negotiations and salary and benefits are. I'll be 1 of those largest items here. So, you know, given it. In other words, I've read through the budgets. It's great. But again, I'd feel much better if we're closer in negotiation. We might even be able to settle in 2 weeks. So I don't think it's gonna, and it may change. So that's, again, I would like to see if we have any movement with our bargaining units.

And again, I'll just reiterate, my main ask was to prioritize funding and a timeline for the six additional firefighter paramedics and the implementation for station number 265, not at the expense of the police station or the fourth fire station that's being moved. I know I'm asking for a tall order here, but I think this is really important.

And I guess- Well, the six firefighters were requested in year two by the fire chief and we had made a conscious decision not to act on personnel requests for year two, that we were gonna take those up in January when we had a better idea about revenues and finances. Are you saying that we want to go ahead and start those immediately and have those at the beginning of the year and therefore reconfigure the budget for the extra million and one point, I think it's $1.4 million?

If we can, that would be ideal. But I think it's been unclear that there's a commitment to bringing this back and a timeline to bringing it back. So I think that's important to establish.

Well, I guess what I'm asking is, does the council want to see us come back with $1.4 million worth of cuts to be able to go ahead and start recruiting these positions now?

I think we have to start as fast as we can, especially on the police side. Now, I understand a new police officer, especially if you go through the academy, it does take some time. Maybe we could do something to get more laterals to come over, because I understand that takes a lot less time. But it's imperative that we get more police officers, because you guys are going on overtime, and it was stated by one of our Citizens stated that we're concerned, you know, you make make mistakes if something happens and we're very lucky that these guys work their tails off and and we have a very very safe city and very few very little with any incidents between the public and and and the police officers that are Adverse to anything. So again, we're lucky compared to other cities. Yeah, but we do have to address specially recruiting. I

Councilmember Barrett, I think if I'm understanding you correctly, the first thing you want is for negotiations to conclude.

No, not necessarily conclude. Well, I would love to conclude, but let's say if they don't, then again, we could realize this on the 16th, but I'm hoping we'll have at least some idea.

You want some certainty with some sort of certainty with negotiations so that we know how it's going to affect the budget?

Yeah. Again, contracts might have to be signed, but if it's in You know, it's an understanding that we're here that would help out.

Right? I think that's step 1 step 2 would be after that. Figuring out if there's a way to get to those 6 positions or other also officer positions, or what that would cost. That would have that information available that way. They have clear guidance on what they're. What they're looking for that would also and what their next steps would be. Yeah, that'd be great. Okay. That's the guidance that we have for the staff.

I'll make a motion. Mr. City Manager, do you have the sufficient guidance

Well, I'm not sure what new police officers we're talking about. We have a number of police officer positions we created in this last budget, and we've made significant headway over this last biennium to fill positions, and we're still continuing to do that. So if there are additional police officers, I guess I'm going to need to know about that. And then I don't think I got an answer to the question of, does the council wish for us to make the cuts... right now in order to fund the firefighters to start as soon as we can get them hired, because then we'll have to, it's a considerable ask for us to get that back in time for you, because it'll really be the middle of next week when we publish the next budget. So it only gives us about four or five days to work on this.

I guess I'm curious more about, Chief Sesler, if you can talk more about timeframe you're envisioning and what it looks like to have this funded in the second year versus the first.

So the initial plan was the fiscal year 28 and the reason for that is that we're purchasing a new squad in the game this next fiscal and takes about a year to receive that squad and the personnel were to be looked at, you know, start recruiting and those things later in the year and reality of them starting sometime in fiscal year 28 when the squad arrives to have that unit to staff and it would be out of our fire station 263 on the north side. Okay, that was the plan for fiscal year 28.

Okay, I just want to make sure that that is the plan. I think it's been a little bit unclear about the timeline. And then I also think it's been unclear about the timeline for Station 265 and District 3. I really would like for us to be able to make a firm commitment to when that will be planned and funded.

Any thoughts on that, City Manager, on a commitment for Station 5?

We can certainly put the dollars in the plan and show the council the ramifications of the design, construction, and whatever new employees would be for that fire station. We can have that ready for the council.

I think that would be good if we can't. That would help out. Okay. I move that we continue. The consideration of the City Manager's proposed two-year budget for fiscal year 2027 and 2028 to the next regular meeting of the City Council on June 16, 2026. Second.

Do we have a motion and a second? Madam City Clerk?

Council Member Barrett? Yes. Council Member Tejeda?

Yes.

Council Member Davis? Yes. Mayor Sacito?

Yes. Okay, moving on to item individual city council member announcements and reports. We'll start over there with you, Council Member Baric.

Sorry, it's been a busy couple weeks. And a lot of these, again, I wasn't the only one on the city council participated. Last Saturday was bats and badges. Great show, and all my colleagues, we all showed up, and it's always been a great event. And I want to remind everybody, this Saturday, they're having the boards and badges at the skate park. So if you know anybody, have any kids that want to skate, it'll be good. Of course, with my other colleagues at Memorial Day Cemetery, it was a very touching service we had to hear from our third district supervisor and what she went through when she lost her husband in combat. Uh, we had the ribbon cutting, uh, for Jack and Laura, Benjamin's, um, radiation center. That's what a big thing that is going to be. Uh, I was at a library board meeting. Um, library seems good shape. It's again. I can't. We don't know exactly when the, when the museum is going to open. Um, so 1 of these days, um, uh, fireman car show was was fantastic. I don't know how many cars, but it was. Wall to all people, um, and, um, red Redlands bowl benefit. Um, again, as people know that all the city maintains the park, but all the entertainment is by fundraising and volunteer given information that doesn't come anything out of the general fund. And then last, but not least, uh, honor with, um. Councilmember Davis we went to I love someone rare and this this little girl has a rare Autism and it was a benefit to get research to be able to you know, get a little headway on this this You can't it's horrible horrible disease.

So there you go It was a great benefit concert at the U of R and a lot has been mentioned so I'll go through this quickly and I had the final meeting of the fifth cohort of the Redlands Youth Council, which was fantastic. Looking forward to taking the summer off and starting again in the fall. In addition, Firefighters Car Show was great, same weekend as the Festival of the Arts. There was a lot going on that weekend, which was wonderful to see in downtown. And this past weekend, bats and badges. I really enjoyed attending that. Thank you so much.

Yes, I attended the Bats and Badges and the Memorial Day service at Hillside Cemetery.

Okay, thank you. I had a Measure I meeting. I also attended the Employees Appreciation, Ribbon Cut for a New Business Senior Helpers, went to a planning session for Juneteenth, also a Certificate of Appreciation to Principal Arnold at Redlands Adventist, car show at Toyota, Tom Bell Chevrolet, I'm sorry, for breast cancer awareness. And I attended many of the same events with my colleagues. And before we adjourn, I'd like to adjourn in Carlos Herrera's memory. Carlos Herrera was a local Redlands resident, a lifelong resident of Redlands. I believe besides Jose Rivera, the first constable, Mexican-American, Carlos Herrera was the first Mexican-American lieutenant here in the Redlands Police Department. He also was involved in many of the community youth activities with boxing clubs and round tables and prevention. And I just want to acknowledge his contributions, his family's contributions, and his lasting legacy here in the city of Redlands for being the great person and police officer here in the city of Redlands. And I want to adjourn this meeting in his memory, Lieutenant Carlos Herrera. Thank you.