City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening. I'd like to call this, city council meeting to order. Is there any public comment for closed session? I don't have any speaker slips. I don't see anybody in the audience. And, madam city attorney, what do we have on on our closed session reports?

There's one item. Conference of legal counsel existing litigation pursuant to government code section five four nine five six point nine d one in one case. Coyote Coyote Aviation versus City of Redlands et al San Bernardino superior court case number c I v SB2418252

okay thank you all recess the city council meeting to close session and we'll see you all back at 06:00. Thank you.

Good

evening. I'd like to reconvene the City Council meeting. And before we get to our invocation pledge of allegiance, I'd like to announce that our City Manager, Charlie Duggan will be joining our meeting remotely. And I'll turn it over to Mayor Pro Tem Shah.

Thank you, Mayor. Please stand. As we gather for this council meeting at the start of the holiday season, may we pause in gratitude for the community we serve and the responsibilities that we share. Grant us clarity, cooperation, and compassion as we make decisions for the common good. May this season bring bring peace, safety, and warmth to every resident and household in our city, wishing all present and those we represent joy and well-being throughout the holidays.

Amen. Please join me in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you.

Next we'll have our closed session report. Madam City Attorney.

Thank you, Mayor. There was one item on the closed session agenda and there was no reportable action on this item.

Thank you. Next is our presentations. We have our Redlands Pet adoption, Redlands Animal Control. Joe?

Everybody.

Is there a PowerPoint? Yeah. Alright. How are you guys doing? Good afternoon, mayor, members of the council, members of the community. My name is Joe. I'm the animal services supervisor. Today, we have special guest. This is Skye. As you guys can see, Skye is a two year old spayed female husky. She's a very sweet girl. As you guys can see, she loves people, loves the attention. She craves the attention. If you guys wanna say hi to her, feel more than hap feel more more than happy to say hi. Sweet girl, she loves everybody, enjoys playing with others, and singing the songs of her people.

Who put that there? Was that you? If you guys know what that sounds like, I'm sure she she'll probably say that in a little bit. Loves to play ball and loves treats. Bring Skye home for the holidays. Now, if you

guys are interested in adopting,

we have a special event going on. There it is. We have an event going on. It's called Home for the Holidays. We're doing a $25 adoption fee going on all December long. So if you guys are interested in adopting not just Skye, but any of our pets, feel free to visit the shelter. We have a lot of beautiful dogs at the shelter that might come and warm up your hearts. So come check us out. And this event is going on all month long. Alright. Now this is the interesting part. Here's time for the fun part. I talk about numbers. We have current population at the shelter. We have 39 dogs.

We have two cats. I know we don't have a lot of cats. Right? For the month of November, we did 51 animals that enter in our care. 38 dogs, 13 cats. Adoptions, we did 19 sorry. My eyes are kinda bad. 19 animals found new homes, 13 dogs, six cats. Return to owners, we did two dogs. Oh, perfect. Thank you. We did two dogs. That means that two dogs went back home to their owners. Transferred to rescue partners. We had two dogs that went to rescue. So we try to work with rescues. Every time we have dogs that can't get adopted, we try to get them out to rescues. And we had two dogs that were successfully transferred to a rescue. Animals in foster care,

we actually have a lot,

and you guys can be part of this program as well. We do have a foster program. If you guys wanna help foster a pet, you guys are more than welcome to join us. We have 33 animals received in foster care, 20 dogs and 13 cats. Now time for the fun part. Alright. Holiday season. Right? A microchip is the best gift you can give your pet this holiday season. And what a microchip is, it helps keep the Redlands pet safe and out of shelters.

Well, guys, why microchip your dogs? I'll tell you. It helps reunite it helps reunite lost pets with their owners, permits identify permanent identification that can't be removed, increases chances of recovering your pet, and keep pets out of shelters. We're gonna be hosting a microchip event tomorrow at the Redlands Animal Shelter, December 3 from three to 6PM. $10 microchips. Welcome walk walk ins welcome. Sorry. Gotta catch my breath a little bit. We're gonna be hosting a microchip event tomorrow. Cheap as you can find on most microchip places will charge you about $25 per Microchip.

Right now, if you guys come join us tomorrow, we'll be doing $10 Microchips for residents of Redlands. Feel free to come check us out tomorrow from three to six. Alright, guys. So finishing it up. I I just wanna give a shout out to my team right here. This is the team that that works with me. They're the ones to make it happen. All year long, these guys are like the elves of the shelter. They put in the hard work helping these animals find homes, and I just wanna give them the spotlight because they deserve it. Thank you guys so much for your time. Merry Christmas. And I guess I'll see you next year. That's my joke. Alright, guys. Thank you so much. Have a good night.

Thank you, Joe and thank you to your staff for the wonderful job you do. We really appreciate everything you do down there at the shelter and Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Thank you guys. Thank you.

Next we'll as I'll announce it's our holiday performances by the Redlands Girls vocal ensemble led by Katharine Bond. And as they're setting up, we'll wait to hear their beautiful

Girls take one step forward. They can come behind you. Okay?

Perfect. That's good.

Good. There you go. See? I know. Sorry. You got us all, Daniel? I think

so. Okay.

Thank you. Thank you. Very nice.

Thank you so

Well, I know I'm in the Christmas mood now.

Dennis.

Okay. Now we're going to, have our holiday, presentation of the holiday video from our, City Of Redlands. Mr. Cam.

Mr. Mayor, if I may.

Yes. Go ahead, please.

The video starts. Okay. In a in a tradition that began several years ago, the city's produced its holiday video greeting featuring the as well as the city council and city clerk, employees from our various departments and divisions. And so that's the video that we're gonna present to you tonight. I wanna say thank you to Cam Kalanui as well as all the city employees that participated. And then this video will be posted on Redlands TV on our YouTube channel and the city website by tomorrow. So now please enjoy the video.

Seasoned greetings. My name is Mario Saucedo, and I have the honor of being the mayor here of the city of Redlands. We hope you enjoy the holiday video. And from our family to yours, we wanna wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Wherever you are spending the holidays this year, whether it be in

Ireland or in France or Hawaii,

the city clerk's office wants to wish everyone a happy holidays and a peaceful New Year.

May your season be merry and bright. Merry Christmas.

Happy holidays from home less Services. Give the gift of a happy home this holiday season.

Happy holidays from Redlands Animal Services.

Happy holidays, Redlands. I'm Mark Shaw, your mayor pro tem. Today, I'm at Ozell Jewelers, one of our local businesses in town down on State Street. This year, as you're out and about for the holidays, make sure you stop by local businesses. Spend local, buy local, enjoy what we have to offer here in Redlands. From my family to yours, happy holidays.

Happy holidays.

From the human resources department.

Your friends at Smiley Library.

Didn't you get that book you wanted for Christmas? Come on by December 26. We are open.

From the revenue and customer service team.

Feliz Merry

Christmas.

Merry Christmas, and Feliz Nadia from the wastewater treatment plan.

Hello, everyone. I'm Denise Davis, council member from District 1, wishing you all a happy holidays and a happy New Year.

Merry Christmas from MUED.

May your season be merry and bright. From

solid waste, never laying down on the job, always helping you.

Merry Christmas. From water production, Merry Christmas and happy New Year. From all of us to all of you, may your holidays be happy and never blue. Happy holidays.

Hello, Redlands. This is council member Edithe Herrera of District 2. On behalf of my family and yours, we wish you a very Merry Christmas, Happy New Year.

Happy holidays and water distribution.

From your Redlands Fire Department, have a safe and happy holiday season.

Merry Christmas.

Happy holidays for management services.

Hello. I'm council member Paul Barrich. I represent the 5th District. I wanna wish everybody in Redlands a Merry Christmas and a Happy Hanukkah. Please shop Redlands first.

Merry Christmas, from FCS.

From Redlands PD. Merry Christmas and a happy New Year. This season, we celebrate traditions from around the world that bring joy, light, and togetherness.

No matter how you celebrate, we wish you peace.

Happiness.

And a bright new year.

Happy holidays.

From the city manager's office.

Hello. I'm Jeannie Donaldson, your city clerk. Thank you for the opportunity to serve you. It is my honor and privilege. I hope that your holidays are filled with fam and friends and joy. And as we move towards the new year, I know that it is our shared values of kindness and respect and commitment that bring us together. And so I look forward to 2026. Safe travels and happy holidays to everyone.

There's good music over the rest of this.

I like this part. I'd like to thank everybody that had a part in making this presentation Christmas message from everybody all of our employees, all our departments and the community out there, street tree lighting, what a wonderful event. Had a great time. So thank you for everybody that was able to make that happen and get us in the Christmas spirit. So thank you.

We do have moving on to our public comment. I do have public comment from Mr. Dennis Bell.

Good evening. Two things Jack Dangerman has bought the Redlands Mall that was in foreclosure. Hopefully, he'll come up with development that is more appealing to residents than all the other development proposed by the mall's previous owners. And hopefully, it won't take years. I still say the city's failed leadership made a big mistake in not buying the mall the first time it was in for closure for new city hall.

And number two, downtown Saturday morning Farmers Market is merging with the Grove School Market at the Grove School. I don't know about the other people, but I'm not driving that far out to buy produce in a place with limited parking. Grove School Market needs to be brought downtown. Both markets held on the parking lot between the post office and phone company building as the city foolishly sold. I'm sure the new mall ownership will let it be used for that. Thank you.

Next speaker, Bruce Laycock.

Good evening, council and city staff. I didn't see anything on the agenda about the stop sign on Cyprus. And I just wanna keep that top of mind for you because with that new traffic light that you have going in, that stop sign is gonna be even more important because of the higher rate of travel that the people have. And I also wanted to say thank you very much. I'm going to miss you, John. Take care.

Thank you. Next public comment is Mr. Steve Rogers.

Honorable Mayor Sauceto, Redland City Council, Steve Rogers, Church Street. I'll just talk tonight about some of the problems that I spoke about before and they're really obvious on this meeting. And I'll be speaking later about a couple items. But I mean, I really question who puts this together? Who puts this agenda together?

And who puts things on the consent calendar? Who says it's new business? Who decides if the planning commission is going to approve a project, who decides if the city council is going to approve a project. Really I've met with the city attorney about a concern I have. And I think right now is a real good time to identify it to the council.

And I've spoken about it before. But the municipal code with regard to subdivisions and subdivision improvements is being misused by the city. And basically, in violation of the Subdivision Map Act, the planning commission is able to approve tentative maps without the city council seeing the tentative map. And then later on, the city council signs the final map. And and mister Dysatnik has told me the last time I complained about this, oh, it's a ministerial thing.

That's why it's on the consent calendar. But some of these projects that you're gonna be voting on here later, and specifically the final map, you guys have not seen this before. And it's an 85 unit apartment complex right at Eureka and right in the downtown. This is how Redlands will be ruined. And and it's gonna be in violation of the subdivision map act if you guys approve that later.

And this gentleman here, I mean I see it later that you're bringing in the former city manager for Yucaipa to fill mister Harris, and congratulations for being able to get out of here. But I would suggest, and I'll talk about it later on that item that you consider actually having him fulfill the city manager's position. And he and let me tell you, he can fulfill that and be the city engineer for this city at the same time. And that is a real benefit. And you'll be able to pay him more money.

And and and he's worth it. Okay? And and he he puts this gentleman to shame. And and he and and him allowing these kinds of things to happen, it's unfathomable. Thank you.

We have items to be pulled off the consent calendar. I three, I four, I six and I seven.

I'll move to approve the ballots to consent calendar. Second.

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

Council member Barratt. Yes. Council member Tejada. Yes. Council member Davis.

Yes. Mayor Pro Tem Shah.

Yes. Mayor Saucito

yes item I three is approval the final map for track number 2755 and the determination of exempt exemption from the California Environmental Quality Act and pursuant to CEQA guidelines section 15268B3 Development Services Director Zatnik.

Good evening, Mayor Zasato and members of the council. This is the final map for the residential project that was before the council recent at the leave it was before the council last meeting or two at the corner of Stuart And Eureka and it is a mixed use residential project with some commercial on the 1st Floor. This is the final map. The tentative map has already been approved. We've determined that they have met all the conditions of the tentative map and the final map is consistent with the tentative map and therefore we're recommending approval.

Any questions for staff? If not, I have a public comment from Mr. Steven Rogers.

Honorable Mayor Sauceto, Resident City Council, Steve Rogers, Church Street. Okay. Well, this is the map I was talking about and maybe you all saw a rendition of the site plan. I couldn't tell from the information in packet because all they referred to is a Planning Commission approval. But you didn't see the project in its entirety and you should have, I mean, this having the exception in the municipal code to be able to not take these the tentative map for this project through the city council.

And that would give us a chance to the people that go to the, you know, council meetings a chance and it would be a public hearing, know, that would give us a chance to talk about it, you know. And but I don't have time to go to all the Planning Commission meetings, you know, they're in the middle of the day and you know I barely have time to come to these meetings. This is illegal. I'm a registered civil engineer in California. I'm advising you not to approve this.

If you approve this, I'll add it to the other complaints I've made to the DA and I'm sure it'll be invalidated because this is all wrong. I know who the developer is to and it's a shame you're going to drag this person in, this into your guys' shenanigans. It really is disgraceful, especially after what he's done to this community, for this community, I should say, and is will continue to. I mean, this gentleman should not work here anymore after this. And neither should the city attorney because I've already advised her how illegal this is and what what is being done here.

And it's limiting public access to your your guys' decisions. And the decisions on the tentative map and the and the CUP or site plan, we used to call it when I worked in other agencies, should come go to the City Council, not just be the Planning Commission. I know that a couple of you guys served on the Planning Commission and that's but that it all should be one nice knit package that goes up through and then you get to have the final public hearing here. But not on this, it's on the consent calendar. Does it make sense? Yeah, it's illegal. Thank you.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

Mayor, really quickly, I believe this item was brought before council. Am I am I wrong, mister Desani?

Actually, I I believe the tentative map just went to the planning commission now now that

Previously, we we had met with residents near the location and we wanted to address some concerns. If you recall, you were one of the persons who attended Correct.

We did have a neighborhood meeting out at the site to address some of the concerns and there were a couple council members in attendance, but that was not the full city council.

Yeah. But that was was that derived from a planning commission discussion on this item? Where we I can't recall. I can't recall, but it's my understanding that we, a council, did approve a project. Did we?

No, this project was approved at

the Yeah, so then I was the liaison, that's why I remember a discussion on it. So, okay. And we did meet with residents who spoke on the concerns that they had in the area. Were residents that lived immediately adjacent to the proposed project. I think we did.

The municipal code only required planning commission approval for this project. That's why it was approved at commission level.

Okay. So I apologize for misremembering I recall some of the discussions that we have, but I'm okay with approving the item.

Mayor, I

just wanted to comment that the current municipal code provisions about how the approval by the planning commission on this item is perfectly legal.

Thank you.

There's no problem.

For that clarification.

I'm with City Council. If there's no further discussion, will the City Council determine that approval of the final map for track number 20755 is exempt from California Environmental Quality Act pursuant to CEQA guidelines section one five two six eight b three, and I move that city council approve the final map for track number 20755.

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

Council member Barrich. Yes. Council member Tejada. Yes. Council member Davis.

Yes. Mayor Pro Tem Shah.

Yes. Mayor Saucito.

Yes. Moving on to agenda item I four, the approval of the first amendment to the professional Services Agreement with RRM Design Group to extend the term of the agreement to 06/30/2026, to allow for the continued performance of services associated with the development of standard design plans for accessory dwelling units ADUs Development Services Director Dasatnik.

This is a contract that was approved earlier this year and the work is well underway. In fact, the designs are almost complete. We're just extending the time a few months just to make sure that there's enough time under the contract to complete the full project.

There aren't any comments or questions from the council. I have a speaker slip, Mr. Steven Rogers.

Honorable mayor Salcedo, members of the city council, Steve Rogers, Church Street. Okay. This project I feel to be totally unnecessary and really is mocking the public and the public's concern about the ADUs and the way that the city is blindly, I'll just call it issuing permits for ADUs and claiming that they have to because the state says you have to do it. They don't even review they don't write any conditions of approval for these ADUs. And then they allow them to essentially not adhere to the standards that are required for especially construction in high fire areas and in the Canyon areas.

And they're just allowing any kind of thing that is proposed. As long as an engineer or an architect stamps it, go ahead and build it because the state says we have to. They take a little bit of money, but this is actually a total waste of money because each one of these ADUs the city should be looking at independently. And as an engineer, I'll tell you right now, there's not one ADU that's going to be the same as any other ADU. Because, you know, all the properties are different.

It's all about the site. And yeah, like I said, I mean, we have mister Dusatnik over here in charge of this, I believe, and you know, he doesn't know very much about engineering, that's for darn sure. So this is like putting together a standard drawing, let's just call it, for an ADU. It's a waste of money. Who's benefiting from this?

Certainly not the public, not the neighbors, neighbors, to all these people that and maybe this is your the staff's way of getting and trying to, you know, cop out of doing anything. We'll say, oh, well, we need a consultant to tell us how to really do this. And and it would make sense. It's coming. You know, if we didn't have a fake engineer, maybe he would be able to tell tell them that this is a a waste of time.

It's a waste of money. But that's how it is at this city. You don't you don't fix the really important things like what I was just talking about and where the municipal code needs to be changed. Sure, it's legal because the municipal code is written, but the municipal code is in is in juxtaposition to the subdivision map act. The state law trumps the municipal code. And you'll hear more about this, you know, because like I said, this one's gonna go to the DA too. Thank you.

Okay. What's the wish of the council?

City Council determined that approval of this action is exempt from environmental review pursuant to section 15,061 b three of the state's guidelines implementing the California Environmental Quality Act. And I further move that City Council approve the first amendment to the professional services agreement with RRM Design Group, extending the deadline for performance of services to 06/30/2026. Second.

Motion and a second. Madam City Clerk.

Councilmember Baruch. Yes. Councilmember Tejada. Yes. Councilmember Davis. Yes. Mayor Pro Tem Shah. Yes. Mayor Saucito.

Yes.

Moving on to item I six, prove the use of city resources and request for in kind support in the amount of 35,368 and 22¢ related to the New Year's Eve orange drop event hosted by the Redlands Chamber of Commerce on 12/31/2025 approved temporary street closures related to the event and determined that the event is categorically exempt from the environmental review pursuant to section one five three one one c of the state guidelines implementing the California Environmental Quality Act, Facilities and Community Services, director Crocker.

Thank you, mayor, members of the council. And this is a request from the Redlands Chamber for their annual New Year's Eve orange drop event. The event will be held from six to 9PM. It includes an in kind request, a street closure request and they anticipate about 6,000 attendees this year.

Okay. Thank you. Any comments or questions from the council? If not, I have the speaker slip, Mr. Evan Sanford.

Good evening council chiefs and staff. I'm Evan Sanford, executive director of the Redlands Chamber and we're here to request in kind support from the city of Redlands to make it possible for us to host the free New Year's Eve Orangestrop. Since its return in 2023, this beloved celebration is a family friendly tradition that draws attendees in from near and far to ring in the New Year, not only for those who live in Redlands but the surrounding areas as well. Taking place from six to 9PM on Citrus Between 6th And 8th Streets, 5,000 people came last year to enjoy this event proving that you don't have to be in a large city to enjoy a memorable New Year's Eve. As the clock ticks down, our orange will drop from a crane 120 feet high with even bigger and taller confetti cannons this year that will make the moment even more exciting.

And we're looking forward to providing the opportunity to unite everybody in celebration as we wrap up this year with music and dancing for all, fostering that sense of community spirit. At the Redlands Chamber New Year's Eve Ornstrop attendees can expect a variety of fun, free activities that engage people of all ages. We're look excuse me, our event is completely free to attend and enjoy including the free YMCA Kids Zone and multiple performances the opportunity to purchase food and treats from from even more beloved local food vendors this year. We understand and take seriously the importance of ensuring safety and order during such a large event and we are committed to maintaining the comprehensive measures and crowd management strategies that we have successfully used to ensure a safe and enjoyable experience for everybody. The chamber would like to thank Charlie Duggan, Chris Boatman, Ross Whitman, Eric Reeves and our public safety departments for working through all of the logistical challenges for something like this.

The New Year's Eve orange drop not only provides an opportunity for residents to come together, but also significantly benefits our local economy by attracting visitors who support local businesses, restaurants, and hotels. And together, we can make this celebration an unforgettable highlight of the year. We're so grateful for the partnership with the city as we continue to build lasting memories for our Redlands community together. Thank you in advance for your consideration.

Thank you. What's the wish of the council? I'm sorry. That was the last

That was it?

That was it. Yeah.

I'm with the city council to determine if there's no further discussion or anything on this item. Move the city council to determine that the approval of the event is exempt for environmental review pursuant to section one five three one one c of the state's guidelines implementing the California Environmental Quality Act and a move to authorize the expenditure of city resources and in kind support and temporary street closures related to this event to be held on 12/31/2025.

Second. I have a motion to second. Madam city clerk.

Council member Barrich. Yes. Council member Tejada. Yes. Council member Davis. Yes. Mayor Pro Tem Shah. Yes. Mayor Susito?

Yes. Moving on to item I seven. This is the approval approval request in the amount of $5,860.83 for the street closure related to the Redlands Bowl Christmas Under the Stars event hosted on 12/12/2025 by the Redlands Bowl Performing Arts and determined that the event is categorically exempt from the environmental review pursuant to section one five three one one c of the state guidelines implementing the California Environmental Quality Act facilities and community services director Crocker.

Thank you, mayor, members of the council. This is a request from the Redlands Bowl for an event titled Christmas Under the Stars. They are requesting a street closure for this event to be held on the twelfth, and it's from 07:30 to 10:00PM. And they are expecting about 5,000 attendees this year.

Okay. Thank you. Any questions from staff? Have I a speaker slip. Mister Dennis Bell.

This past June, the council approved over 42,000 in fee waivers for the twenty performance summer bowl season. That averages about $2,100 per performance. So why does a bowl need a waiver of over $5,800 for one performance? Whoever's claimed the New Year's Eve orange drop draws 6,000 people must be drinking the same stuff as a bike classic drinks with this ludicrous and imaginary 45,000 attendees. And where's the fee waiver reconciliation report? Thank you.

Thank you. What's the wish of the council? I don't have any more speaker slips.

Move the city council to determine that approval of this event is exempt from environmental review. Am I on the right one? Yes. Is exempt from environmental review pursuant to section one five three one one c of the state's guidelines implementing the California Environmental Quality Act. I move to authorize and approve the expenditure of city resources and in kind support in the amount of $5,860.83. And I move to authorize and approve the temporary street closures detailed in the staff report for the Redlands Bowl Christmas Under the Stars event, which will be held on 12/12/2025.

Second. We have a motion and a second. Madam city clerk.

Council member Barrett. Yes. Council member Tejada. Yes. Council member Davis. Yes. Mayor Pro Tem Shah. Yes. Mayor Saucito.

Yes. Okay. Moving on to public hearings, item j one. This is a public hearing to consider and adopt ordinance number twenty nine ninety four, an ordinance of the city of Redlands amending title 15 buildings and construction by adopting and reference the 2025 California building code, the twenty five twenty twenty five Redlands residential code, 2025 California electrical Mechanical Code, twenty twenty five California Plumbing Code, twenty twenty five California Green Building Standard Code, twenty twenty five California Energy Code, twenty twenty five California Historical Building Code, and the twenty twenty five California Existing Building Code and making amendments related thereto Development Services Director Dasatnik.

Thank you, Mayor. This item is the public hearing for the ordinance that was introduced at the last meeting. It is for the adoption of the state building standards codes, all the codes that were just

Open the public hearing?

I believe I did. I opened the public hearing. Yes. Thank you. Go ahead.

The residential codes, the electrical, plumbing, mechanical, green building, historic and existing building codes. There are some local amendments that we make, but they are the same that we have been carrying forward for a number of years now. I have the chief building official John Thompson is here if there are any specific questions. Thank you. Thank you.

Okay. Are there any questions or comments from members of the City Council? Is there any well, we don't have a representative applicant, we are the applicant. So any questions or comments from members of the public? I don't have any speaker slips. Call on the city clerk to note any written comments received.

There were no written comments received.

Okay. Call upon the applicant representative which is us for rebuttal. If there aren't any, I'll close the public hearing. What's the wish of the council?

I move to adopt ordinance number two nine nine four.

Second. Motion and a second. Madam city clerk.

Council member Barrich. Yes. Council member Tejada. Yes. Council member Davis. Yes. Mayor Pro Tem Shah. Yes. Mayor Saucito.

Yes. Moving on to item k one. This consideration of ordinance number twenty nine ninety five, amending chapters 2.18, 2.32, two point three two point four eight, 2.5, 2.64, 2.66 of the Redlands Municipal Code to establish quarterly meetings and reduce the memberships of the Redlands City Airport Advisory Board, Parks Recreation Advisory Commission, Municipal Utilities and Public Works Commission, Traffic and Parking Commission, Cultural Arts Commission, Citrus Preservation Commission and the Human Relations Commission and resolution number 8742 establishing a quarterly meeting schedule for the Commission's Assistant City Manager McConnell.

Thank you mayor and members of the City Council. The staff report before you proposes to modify some of the city's commissions, boards and committees and for this report I'll refer to them collectively as the commissions for ease of reference. These proposed changes are based on the City Council ad hoc committee's recommendations and findings which were presented to and supported by the City Council earlier this year. In summary, six of the 14 city commissions were to remain unchanged as their charters and membership sizes were deemed appropriate. Those commissions included the disaster council, historic and scenic preservation commission, the library board of trustees, Measure T oversight committee, the planning commission and the Utilities Advisory Commission.

For the remaining eight commissions, a recommendation was to reduce the commission's membership size from seven to five members in addition to changing the meeting frequency from a bimonthly meeting schedule to a quarterly meeting schedule. In addition for the commissions with high school students, it was recommended to modify the rule to include sophomores and juniors as eligible to apply. Currently only juniors are eligible to apply. The affected commissions that would be affected by these proposed changes, they include the Airport Advisory Board, the Parks and Recreation Advisory Commission, the Municipal Utilities Public Works Commission, the Street Tree Committee, Traffic and Parking Commission, the Cultural Arts Commission, Citrus Preservation Commission and the Human Relations Commission. Again, these proposed changes to the commissions were primarily to reduce the membership size and the meeting frequency.

Details are listed in the staff report before you. I did want to point out the exception of the Street Tree Committee which is in a separate staff report that follows. Regarding the HRC Commission which is the Human Relations Commission, I just wanted to go over some of the changes because they were slightly different than the other recommendations. There was a recommendation to reduce the size from nine to seven members. Two of those members will be students, one from a high school and one from a college and then the remaining five commissioners will be appointed by council members by districts.

So this is very typical or this is in the same manner that we do the measure T so each council member will make a recommendation to appoint a resident from their respective district. So to effectuate all of these changes, staff has prepared ordinance 2,995 and resolution eight thousand seven four two. If adopted ordinance two nine nine five will amend the various chapters of the Redlands Municipal Code relating to those commissions and basically to implement the proposed changes with respect to memberships and meeting frequencies. Resolution 8,742 if approved will create the quarterly meeting schedules for the commissions. I did want to point out that after the posting of the agenda, our staff is recommending a change to the parks one of the commissions to change their meeting months and this is in reference to the Parks and Recreation Advisory Commission.

So in the resolution, it says that they would meet in February, May, August and November but staff would like to change it to March, June, September and December as this would better align with the sports field allocation process. So when we get to point if the council so desires to move the resolution, staff proposes to remove the reference to the Parks and Recreation Commission from Section B of the resolution and move it to Section one C. And then lastly as noted in the staff report, commissions do have the option to call a special meeting when necessary and we look to reduce the commission sizes through attrition and staff did take a look at all of the commission rosters and there are four actually that are already reduced to five and then the remaining will be reduced through attrition in 2026. So with that said, staff recommends introducing ordinance 2,995 and council's approval of resolution number 8,742 and that concludes my staff report I'm happy to answer any questions.

Thank you assistant city manager McConnell and any questions for assistant city manager If not, I'd like to thank our ad hoc committee mayor Pro Tem Shah and council member Baric for reviewing the commissions, their structure and the various recommendations coming out of the ad hoc committee. So I want to thank you for the work that you put into this. And if there are any questions?

I just wanted to ask the council if they're willing to entertain the idea of and like everything so far that's written, appreciate the work that both of you did. But we had discussed or maybe I discussed at one point with the city manager the potential for losing experienced members of the commissions. And so maybe staggering how commissioners are, you know, terming out so that there isn't, you know, three coming off at one time and then two you know, three is a lot of experience to lose. And so maybe perhaps two two one if that's something that we can entertain. If not, I'm agreeable with whatever the council wants to do.

Certainly as we look at the rosters as we are reducing the size, staff will take a look at when the terms expire and make a recommendation at that time to stagger them if we need to.

Sounds good. I'm agreeable to that.

Yeah. And I know the Planning Commission we are looking at staggering at least one of those terms to accommodate not a reduction in so many, commissioners all at one time. So Sure. I know that the, mayor pro tem and and council member Baric had looked at that. And so that's one of the recommendations moving forward as we do the interviews for the planning commissioners moving forward. So thank you for that. If there aren't any questions or comments? We have a public comment for Mr. Steve Rogers. Thank you.

Honorable Mayor Sauceto, resident City Council, Steve Rogers, Church Street. I don't like this proposal. And you guys you probably knew I was going to say that. And the reason I don't like this is because it just seems like to me that we're taking the public out more of the process. And sort of what I was talking about before about what I believe to be improper about the way that subdivisions are being processed.

I think that actually, you know, reducing it is sort of like a slap in the face to the public because I know these people give a lot of their time and I don't believe that this is coming from them, that they want to reduce their involvement. They probably are, you know, they appreciate being able to volunteer and are giving their time. And so I believe is I mean, I guess there was a pro a is it called the committee that was established to look at these things and this was recommendation. Anyway, I would suggest that we leave it the same that it is. And I think the first time that I heard about this and I made some suggestions, but it wasn't so much about the Planning Commission and other commissions.

It was about City Council. And apparently those were not that at all that there would be potentially some changes to the way that the City Council is, let's just say, elected. You can probably remember that I had suggested that we because of the way that the council has acted in the past that about the mayorship that there needs to be a separate position for mayor. And I also suggested that we look at a hybrid of the district voting where like I said, this apparently was what the committee was established to look at the different commission. So, just because it wasn't included in something that should have been looked at because the public thinks this is a problem.

And the other thing that I think is a problem, like I said, we're only able to vote on one of the four candidate four or five candidates. And, you know, I think it should be a hybrid system where the candidate has to come from the district, but the entire city gets to vote on all the candidates. We would then have our voting power that we had before. So I would appreciate it if this committee went back and looked at those things. Thank you.

Evan Saffer.

Before I begin, I'd like to offer an invitation to Mr. Bell to have a drink at the chamber office and we can go through the cell phone records of 5,372 people that attended our New Year's Eve Ornstrop event. You're always welcome. Okay. So, our Vice President Patrick Roscombe was not able to make it to this meeting today, I'm delivering this on his behalf.

Back in July, we presented public comment to support reducing the number of commissioners to five on any commission for consistency, which gets the city aligned with best practices in other cities. And this could help streamline discussion and improve efficiency. However, we respectfully oppose reducing the meeting frequency of certain commissions. While we understand the intent to simplify operations, we're concerned about the lack of clear criteria for what qualifies an item to appear on a future agenda. Is it one item? Is it two? Is it three? What kinds of items are going to be deemed substantial enough? What will be enough for a meeting to be called? Is it the staff that calls a meeting, a commission's chair?

We ask these questions and hope to get answers before a vote was taken. And based on the experience of our membership and our own experience, we believe that having a process written out would help to avoid unnecessary delays. Commissions play a vital role in connecting city hall to the community, offering timely expertise and review on issues that often impact both quality of life and the business environment. Cutting commission meetings to just three or four times a year without transparent objective standards risks creating bottlenecks, limiting access, and delaying meaningful progress. The recommendations in the agenda item also don't specify if the term quarterly means three or four times a year.

We don't think anyone here wants to erode confidence in the process, discourage participation from both applicants and residents, and delay progress on issues that require input from these advisory bodies. For reference, it took us five appearances over eighteen months at the Traffic and Parking Commission to secure crosswalk safety improvements because they currently meet every other month. If meetings are reduced further, critical safety projects could face even longer delays before reaching you. We urge the council to maintain current meeting frequencies, particularly for commissions like traffic and parking or at least postpone any until clear guidelines are provided as to how agenda items will be evaluated and by whom. One suggestion we would offer instead of going from monthly right to quarterly, which is a big jump, maybe try every other month first and then assess after a short period of time.

Thank you for your continued commitment to transparency, input and partnership with the business community.

I have another speaker slip, Mr. Bruce Laycock.

Mayor Sosoto, city council members, city staff. There are very few places for the citizens of Redlands that are not elected officials to get involved. Cutting the size of these commissions might make it more efficient at some level, but it also reduces the amount of diversity of opinion that you are likely to receive on those commissions and committees. Seven is not a big number. It's not hard to get seven people together.

And cutting the number of people and cutting the frequency both means guaranteed less public input. If that's what you want, then you should vote for this recommendation. But if you really want more public input and involvement and meaningful participation in city government, then this seems like a really bad idea. Okay? Is there a problem that you're trying to fix?

Because I haven't heard it, and neither have I heard anything in the written material or read in the online agenda about why you're cutting from seven to five. Why are you cutting from monthly to quarterly? There's no explanation. And as a person who shows up here fairly regularly, it would be nice to have more than just the minimum because the recommendation came from the committee. That's nice. And I'm not saying I don't trust the committee members. That's not my point at all. But no rationale and less public input, bad idea. Thank you.

I don't have any other speaker slips. Assistant City Manager McConnell, do you want to, I'm sorry. You didn't have a speaker slip, so I didn't see you. Mr.

Holder. Remarks are made, things come to mind. It's Andy Holder. Most of you know who I am. So greetings to mister mayor, members of the council, and members of staff.

Some of you or most of you may know that I served for an extended period of time on the street tree committee, and some things that were said this evening seem to relate specifically to that committee in particular. As it is now, it's scheduled to meet every other month and I know from experience virtually every meeting that we've had when I was there, the same issue comes up. The agenda is so long that it makes the meeting run long. And if you condense all of that into fewer meetings, it just makes the agenda even longer. Why that's an issue is because in that particular committee, the issues agenda tend to affect individual members of the community.

They have a tree in front of their house that's problematic. It's overgrown. It's dead. The roots are heaving the sidewalk or getting into the sewer lines, etcetera etcetera. And before the meeting is convened, we're given a list of problem areas around the city.

It's it's anywhere from six to eight, nine different locations where we're as committee members expected to drive out on our own time and individually or inspect each one of those individually and then write down our our observations and comments and then we can discuss them in the meeting. It's very time consuming but it makes the meeting itself longer as we share our our views on that. And it also is a problem for the citizens where if they have an issue with a tree, they would now have to wait even longer before the city addresses their issue. Yes, they can submit their complaints to the facilities department, but they would also like to have the opportunity to address the committee specifically in person. So it's a detriment to the function of the committee to to reduce the number of times that the committee can meet.

And I think that summarizes summarizes my thoughts on that. Thank you for listening.

Thank you. City manager, do you have any comments or want to respond in any way before I ask the ad hoc committee members?

Oh, I was going to just refer to I wanted

to

clarify all of the recommendations that are contained in the staff report today were recommendations out of the ad hoc committee that was supported by the council earlier this year. With respect to special meetings, I would like to point out I did speak to or seek input from our staff liaisons. Certainly the chairs can call a special meeting typically that would involve a conversation with the staff liaison on the reason why they would be calling a meeting. The typical reasons for calling a special meeting, one, if they didn't have a quorum for the regular meeting, so they would reschedule and second, there could be urgent matters as the chamber had mentioned and I did get a whole list of things and I'll give you some example like the Citrus Preservation Commission, I have a whole host of things of why they would call a special meeting. For example, if something comes up that faces threats to our growths, they're going to immediately want to bring attention to it and have the commission look at that or if there's any regulatory changes or if there's any market disruptions and they need to speak to our commission about it.

For our Airport Advisory Commission, there may be some grant funded projects that they provided input but we have to make changes to. So there's a communication and dialogue that has to happen. So they of course will call a special meeting for those things. But I just say those things because it is something that does come up and that staff does provide input to the chair to make sure that we can move forward in calling a special meeting. Certainly as we move forward with this process or this change in the meeting, if the council so wants to look at it again to make modifications, we can certainly do that. But if you quarterly meetings and see how it goes, try it for a year and see where we look at and we can readjust as needed. Those are my comments.

Mayor Pro Tem?

Thanks. I think as far as the calling of a special meeting, think that was one of the questions that I know I talked to Patrick yesterday, we had a conversation about it. And that was a concern that they've had about what we don't want something to be delayed. And I'm not sure that I think it was a little clear after we talked about what the process was. As far as getting that special meeting, I think there was some thought that the request had to actually come to the council and then the council had to approve a special meeting, which I explained is not the case.

That's all done at the staff level. They work with the commission chairs and they set that up. If a meeting if there isn't an agenda, a full agenda, what tends to happen is the meeting the staff does all of the work, they create the meeting, the meeting still occurs because there isn't an option to just not meet. We can't just decide, hey, we're not going to a meeting. The meeting actually has to be formally adjourned because by the code, if it says we meet monthly, we are required to have a meeting every month. It's not there's not an option. So an actual formal adjournment has to occur if a meeting isn't going to happen. And so then it's like, well, that's a lot of work as well. So then it doesn't happen. And then those meetings get a little less productive.

Relative to being heard and having the opportunity to speak, certainly, we are not if there is substance for a meeting, they will call a special meeting and it will occur. But I know that from sitting in on airport meetings, sitting in on the Citrus Commission meetings, even sitting in on traffic and parking, there's often nobody in the audience. Sometimes there's one person in the audience. So I don't think that the there's a huge number of people that are waiting to speak at these commission meetings that we're going to disadvantage. But again, if people want to be heard, they will have that opportunity and we'll be happy to call the special meeting if there's an issue that they feel it needs to be dealt with.

Relative to the size of the commissions, I think one of there's two schools of thought. One is that we're giving less opportunity. The other is when we see the applications come through, we're not getting twenty and thirty applications for these committees and these commissions and whatnot. We're having to re advertise to get people to want to apply because of the commitment that we expect you to be at a meeting every single month. Whereas if it's quarterly, we've heard that that's a little more palatable that I could go to a meeting for two hours a quarter as opposed to being expected to be there every single month or trying to achieve a quorum with seven rather than five.

It's a little easier for us to get to the quorum level of five. We've had several adjournments because we don't have enough members that are able to attend. So those are some of the things that we're trying to balance and part of what brought this up. Certainly not to try to silence anybody or to limit somebody's voice, but to try to make it efficient, still giving people an opportunity to speak, still giving people an opportunity to participate, but trying to be respectful of those people who do volunteer, respectful of their time. So as they come in here, we actually have a productive meeting.

It might take ninety minutes, but there are things that we are covering and we're not just kind of bouncing around because we think we need to kill time because we're required to have a monthly meeting. So that was as we work through this, that was a lot of where we were as we try to talk about it. So I don't know if that helps clear it up or not, but just that's kind of some of the context for the council and for the public to know where we were coming from when we met.

We didn't do this in a vacuum. I talked to every single head of every chair and basically that's where the suggestions come. I just didn't make this thing up. All the suggestions that we made to change were given directly to me the people that are serving on these commissions. And again, like the mayor pro temps as if we need to spill a special meeting that's very good.

But a lot of people and I constantly thank people of the commissions, thank you for giving your time to Redlands, but it is their time. And I think if we made it more convenient for them, that was the whole idea. In other words, we're not trying to silence the public. In fact, to the contrary, we want more people to participate. I don't mind making changes if you feel they're meant to be lucky then this was all because we've contacted the members of the different commissions and asked them what they thought.

We had a list of things we wanted to ask them and this was the conclusion we came at. We want to modify, I don't have a problem with that but again this is something that mayor Pro Temp and I just made up. We had certain questions we asked, and we went to a lot of people. And I went to a lot of people who have been on past members who are no longer serving just to say what they thought. So it wasn't just the people that are serving right now. And it's like I said, this was not done in a vacuum. I did a lot of inquiries and talked to a lot of people.

I want to thank the public commenters and thank the ad hoc committee. I know that a lot of time has gone into this discussion. I agree with our assistant city manager, maybe we should give it a year and see and reassess. Really our goal I think is to make this the most meaningful experience for these dedicated volunteers on our commissions. I And appreciate the question around how do things get on the agenda. I had a conversation with our city manager about that too. I think my my only concern is around the traffic and parking commission. In the past, I've been a liaison to this commission. As a council member, I get emails often about traffic and safety concerns, and it's rooted to the city manager, rooted to the traffic and parking commission. There's a lot of back and forth.

I do have a slight concern about reducing the meeting frequency of that commission in particular. But I just want the general public to know, because I don't think everyone knows this, if you do have a concern related to traffic and parking, there is a form on the city's website where you can request agenda item for that particular commission to be heard. So just want to put that out there for the public benefit and to have my colleagues maybe think about keeping the meeting frequency the same like every other month for the traffic and parking commission unless you got feedback otherwise from that commission.

I personally don't have a problem

with that if you feel that the no one complained. No one said, hey, we need more frequency or less frequency.

I guess my question would be is, I think that falls under you, Director DeSantine. Do we have a listed or Director Harris, do we have like pending items that we're not getting to in a timely manner right now on traffic and parking? Because if we do, then maybe we need to look at that?

No, not right now. It sort of comes in waves as you can imagine. We'll canceled some traffic and parking commission meetings because there just are no agenda items and then there are times when we have an abundance of items and those meetings run late. So it's difficult to predict how busy, how full the agendas will be.

I mean, would just suggest that we go with what we have with the understanding that we reevaluate in a year, we can certainly call the special meetings. But if we realize that we've called two or three special meetings specifically for traffic and parking, then let's we'll make the change. We'll go to by month back to by monthly or every other month.

That's fine. And I I hope that the the commissions are listening. You can call special meetings.

Yes. For sure. That's okay.

Yeah. And I represent the city on everyone except unfortunately the traffic commission, but all the other ones over the eleven years I've been on city council. So I don't want to comment. Although I did talk to people that are on the traffic and parking commissions and again they didn't disagree with the questions and then made the suggestion. So this wasn't done in a vacuum. This was done by people who are currently serving and they I took their suggestions and we got together with the mayor pro temp and and came up with these conclusions. But like anything else, we we can change anything we want to. We will need a special meeting. That's the privilege of the city council. And so as your elected officials trust me if we need to make some changes I'll be first one out there to push it.

So I would just like to add to I'm the liaison to the public works and utility or municipal utilities and public works commission as well as the human relations commission and I've been at at least to each of those meetings where there wasn't a quorum met and you know there's a lot of professionals on both of those those commissions that's hard for them to make it here on time or they have work, other commitments. So I've seen where and staffs here, the other commissioners are waiting for a quorum to be held, the agenda has gone out, the meeting, the agenda items are on there to discuss, but we can't conduct business because it's too big of a quorum. There's too big of a board to be able to achieve a quorum. So that's just been my experience a liaison to both of those committee members or those commissions so I'm also in favor of if we implement this if it passes we evaluate it in a year and come back and see what the trends are 2026 could be a busy year or it could be kind of a mediocre year but who knows but I think I'm in favor of moving the way it is laid out here for at least a year and reevaluate in a year.

Madam city attorney.

Mayor and council I just want to before you make your motion just remind you there's one required revision to the resolution as noted by assistant city manager McConnell which is to change on the resolution delete from section 1B Parks and Recreation Commission and add Parks and Recreation Commission to section 1C. That's one required revision to the resolution. And so when you make your motion, you'll make the motion to adopt that resolution eight seven four two as amended.

I do have a question Mr. Rogers, Lake is there one of these committees you want to join? There you know we want to invite you.

We'll need to reopen. Do you want to reopen public comment? We can hear from them but

No, The comment is I

just want to say I'm supportive of, first of all, you very much to the subcommittee for the work that you did. A lot of the comments that my colleagues have made already reflect my experience on each of the commissions that I'm on. But thank you also very much Mr. Leikud for your comment. That was very thoughtful of you.

You made some really good points. But the mayor pro tem's explanation was on point on with respect to, you know, the the rationale and things of that nature and council member Barrich's explanation with respect to and the mayor's also description of, you know, the number of people attending meetings and things of that nature. So all of those things are important to consider. There are important data points as well. So I'll support this item with the understanding that we'll revisit this in about a year.

Yes. Yes. And also the change in Yes, that wasn't a motion.

I'm just but if you'd like, I'll make the motion.

Sure. I'll just I'll move that City Council introduce Ordinance 2,995 and then I would move to approve resolution 80 seven-forty two as amended, establishing quarterly meeting schedule for the Airport Advisory Board, Parks and Recreation Advisory Commission, municipal utilities of the works commission, street commission, the traffic and parking commission, the cultural arts commission, the citrus preservation commission and the human relations commission. Second.

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

Council Member Barrich. Yes. Council Member Tejada. Yes. Council Member Davis. Yes. Mayor Pro Tem Shah. Yes. Mayor Saucito.

Yes. Moving on to item K2 consideration of ordinance number 2,996 adding chapter 2.3 to the Redlands Municipal Code to establish a street street tree commission and resolution number eighty seven thirty four to de establish the street tree committee and transfer the current members of the street tree committee to the street tree commission assistant city manager McConnell.

I think I'm going to

be a tongue twister on that one as well but again this is as a result of the recommendations from the ad hoc committee earlier this year. Basically why I separated out is because the street tree committee was established by resolution and it was recommended to formalize it into an actual commission in the municipal code. So what you have before you is ordinance two nine nine six basically establishing the Street Tree Commission in the code and it's all with the same duties and responsibilities as was outlined in the resolution that originally adopted it. And then resolution 8,734 is recommended because this will establish transfer the current members to the new commission. And this would be upon the effective date of the ordinance 2,996.

And that concludes my presentation. I'm happy to answer any questions.

Just for a clarification, I think if I'm not mistaken wasn't when this was originally done, it was part of the Parks Commission and it was a committee within the commission, that's why it was like sub of that and it just kind of stayed and when Parks changed, it didn't become its own commission?

That is correct. Clean up on this item. Okay. Any Just wanted to say

thank you to my colleagues for even considering this early on in my tenure. I tried asking about potentially doing something like this with the street tree committee and there really wasn't any support at that time. But so happy to see that there is at this time and we're gonna change it hopefully.

Okay. I have one speaker slip, mister Steven Rogers. Okay. Thank you. Want to make a motion.

I move I move the city council introduce ordinance number 2,996 and adopt resolution 8,734. Second.

Motion to second. Madam City Clerk.

Council Member Barrich. Yes. Council Member Tejada. Yes. Council Member Davis. Yes. Mayor Pro Tem Shah. Yes. Mayor Saucito.

Yes. Thank you. Moving on to item K3 this consideration of a resolution number 8,737 authorizing the city manager or his designee to execute the grant award agreement for $2,000,000 and execute the sub receipt agreements any amendments and all other related documents associated with the proposition 47 grant award as well as authorize the additional appropriation of 2,000,000 assistant city manager Boatman.

Thank you, Mayor and Council. Our Homeless Solutions Manager, David Rubinternath is going to provide you a brief presentation on this item. While he walks up, just want to give you a little context as the council is aware, the city has really achieved unprecedented reductions in the homeless population over the last couple of years, over 60%. And we've housed over the course of the last few years, hundreds of people. And it's really been made possible by the effort of our staff led by David, as well as literally tens of millions of dollars in homeless grants that we've received from the state.

Public a lot of the public isn't aware of this, but the majority of of our costs associated with our efforts to combat homelessness have been state generated, not from our general fund. And it's because of David's team and and other city staff who have continued to seek out these grants and and presented very compelling cases that allowed us to continue to get these rewards. So without further ado, I'll let David present the rest of this item.

Well, thank you, Chris. Mayor, city council, city leadership. Leadership. So So the the board of state community corrections approved our grant application September for $2,000,000 to discontinue our programs that we are already have established. $1,000,000 of this funding will go to staffing, supplies, and other things for city staff and indirect costs.

And then $1,000,000 will go to community partners. 500,000 will go towards to Salvation Army for Rapid Rehousing, which is a short term, rental assistance program that we're just continuing. 300,000 will go to Church of Religious Science to continue our shelter beds that we're already providing through other various grants, and 200,000 is potentially allocated to the chamber of commerce to continue our employment program for our clients. So like Chris said, we have helped, you know, probably over four to 500 people over the last four years getting housing and other programs since I've been here, and my staff has done a tremendous job. The prop 47 does really focus on homeless and just the populations of low criminal offenders and people that are dealing with drug or sub substance abuse and mental health issues and just guiding them towards rehabilitation programs rather than through the criminal justice system.

So that's why we were able to go for prop 47, and, thankfully, we're awarded this. So are there any questions for me?

No questions, but I really wanna thank you for if it wasn't for you and your staff to be doing the work that you're doing for this population. And I don't think that there's another city that I know of that is has the impact and the results that you have been able to do. I know it's a lot of hard work that you and your staff, your outreach teams, and your other partners that work with you because I see it. I'm out daily out in the community and I see your folks out there interfacing with the community and trying to provide them support. Sometimes they're having episodes, sometimes it's just a one on one, sometimes it's just a hello, but remarkable work that you and your staff have done and we're really proud to know that you are doing this kind of a God's work if it I can say that and and that so we're really proud to know that you are you and your team are doing an excellent job and we're so proud of the work that you're doing here in our community.

So that's what all I have to say if anybody else has any remarks before I go to a public comment.

Well, thank you.

No, I just again, council member Davis and I were really been pushing this since we've been on City Council to have a homeless program and I'm telling I'll put ours against anybody in the state. I don't think anybody comes close to what we have. So I'm very I want to thank you and I'm very proud that we were able to for sake of another word brag about our homeless program.

I completely agree. Thank you, David for the outstanding work that you're congratulations again on this grant. This is amazing.

Thank you. Okay. Thank you, David. I have a public speaker, Evan Stafford.

Good evening once again. We're very excited to be considered a named partner in this Prop 47 grant. At the chamber, our mission is workforce, economic and leadership development and we've been dedicating staff time and resources in new and innovative ways to further our impact on the community. And this grant would be an upgrade to the tool already in our toolbox to enhance the work that we've been doing under the ERF partnership with the city. It's our goal to help the business community fill available roles at affordable rates while also helping the greater community get into the workforce and find meaningful career pathways.

This grant will allow us to expand our workforce development offerings by providing basic employment services to the clients referred by the city. Key components for our strategy are career assessment, counseling and planning. And as we work with our clients, initial assessments of skills and abilities are to tailor our services to the unique needs of each person. Plus job search and placement assistance coupled with career counseling are provided to ensure a successful transition into the workforce. And our commitment extends beyond securing employment.

We offer follow-up services for clients who attain positions and track their progress for a minimum of twelve months after their first day on the job. This ensures ongoing support, making certain that the success of our programs is not just immediate, but sustained over time. Since March, when we launched our New Beginnings program, we have worked with two seventy nine formerly homeless individuals and been able to secure a job for 68. In conclusion, the Redlands Chamber is grateful for the continued trust and investment placed in us by the city of Redlands. And we've we've been working hard with David and his team and continue to be ready, willing and able to make a meaningful impact on the lives of those in our community and turning this generous grant into positive change.

Together, we are building a future where employment opportunities are accessible to all and we're very excited for this opportunity and thank you for your consideration.

Any other comments or questions from council members?

No, I want to thank the Chamber of Commerce because it's a very probably very, very important. We're here not to babysit the homeless, we're trying to be able to put them back into productive society. So I mean I can't 69 people got jobs out of that, that's fabulous. We have 69 people now are contributing to the economy and contributing this community as opposed to taking from the community. So I think that's very, very I want to compliment the Chamber of Commerce for the work they

do. Okay. I have a public speaker request, Mr. Bruce Laycock. You don't have to sit so far back, can maybe step a little closer. Just kidding.

Sorry about that.

I was just kidding.

First of all, I just wanted to say how much I want to affirm the work that David and his team is doing. And you as council members taking the lead literally in the entire state of California, what you're doing to help rehouse and reemploy people that have been out on the street. God bless you all. It's an amazing work that you're doing. I do have a question, though.

It talks about authorizing the city manager to sign contract for $2,000,000 and then it says allocating another $2,000,000 And I wasn't clear, are those the same $2,000,000 or are they two different $2,000,000 buckets?

Thank you.

It's the same. So it basically gives the city manager authority to execute the partnership agreements. Okay.

But there's only one bucket of $2,000,000.

Yes.

Okay.

I wish there was two. There's only one.

Well, just the way it said, it said unallocated. And it's like, how can you sign a contract for something you haven't already allocated? So that's why I was confused. Thank you. Yeah. You and me both.

Okay. What's the wish of the council?

I'd like to consider consider and accept proposition 47 cohort five grants awarded in the amount of $2,000,000 and adopt resolution number 8737 authorize the city manager doesn't need to execute the prop 47 cohort five grant agreement with the state with the Board of State and Community Corrections, excuse me, execute any necessary sub receipts, agreements and amendments and all other related documents associated with the grant and authorize an additional appropriation of $2,000,000 to appropriate grant funds and amount to implement the grant program. And I further move the City Council approved subrises as further detail in the staff report as a single sole source of providers for proposition 47 court

grant. Second.

We have a motion to second. Madam City Clerk.

Councilmember Baruch. Yes. Councilmember Tejada. Yes. Councilmember Davis. Yes. Mayor Pro Tem Shah. Yes. Mayor Saucito.

Yes. Moving on to item k four consideration of authorization to release $31,773 from the fire equipment fund reserve for the purchase of a replacement brush engine and water tender, approve a corresponding appropriation in the amount of 31,773, and authorize the purchase of both apparatus in the total amount of 1,000,331 doll thousand $773. Fire chief Sessler.

Thank you, mayor and council. This request is for the approval to purchase a replacement brush engine and water tender, both of which exceeded their service life, which is twenty years. The total cost is $1,300,000 $31,773 That's a mouthful. Due to the manufacturer increases in labor, materials and production costs, the price now exceeds our original budget. We are requesting authorization to release $31,773 from our equipment fire equipment reserve. These replacements will ensure our fleet remains dependable for my report. I'll be happy to answer any questions.

I didn't read it in the staff report and apologize for not reviewing it carefully. But are we keeping any one of those apparatuses as a backup or for?

Those are both the replacements. So right now the build timeframe for those, the water tender is over eighteen months and the brushing is three years.

Okay.

So traditionally budget those funds, the build timeframe wasn't nearly as long and we were right on track. So right now we're projecting being eight months behind on the water tenant replacement and eighteen months behind on the power. Okay.

Thank you. Any questions or comments from

I think it's important we need to do this. This is especially in light of what has happened in the state and all different fires we have. We we have to make sure that citizens knows we're prepared for anything like that. And since half the cities at least around the city is is there's brush area, we need these to be able to protect our citizens. And by the way, in that our number one

job is to protect citizens of Redlands, right?

I have a speaker slip mister Dennis Bell. Thank you. You're very welcome. Thank you. What's the wish of the council?

I move to authorize the release of $31,773 from the fund reserve for fire equipment for the purchase of a replacement brush engine and water tender. And I move to approve an additional appropriation of the same amount of $31,773. And I moved to approve the purchase of the replacement brush brush engine from South Coast Fire Equipment and the water tender from Fire Apparatus Solutions for a total amount of $1,331,773 and authorize a city manager or designee to execute the necessary purchase agreements in accordance with city purchasing guidelines. Second.

Motion and a second. Madam City Clerk.

Council member Birch. Yes. Council member Tejada. Yes. Council member Davis. Yes. Mayor Pro Temshaw. Yes. Mayor Saucito.

Yes. Moving on to item k five consideration of ordinance number twenty nine ninety seven amending the chapter 15.2 of the Redlands Municipal Code adopting the 2025 edition of the California Fire Code which incorporates by reference the 2024 International Fire Code with necessary California and the city of Redlands amendments. This ordinance will nullify and replace the current ordinance number twenty nine forty eight that was enacted in 2022 02/2022 as part of the previous fire code adoption process. Fire Chief Sessler.

Thank you, Mayor and Council. So this is kind of routine business for us similar as the building code. So every three years, we have to adopt the fire code. So this is the introduction. We'll have a public hearing at next council for this item. So this is the first phase for the fire code done every three years. I have our fire marshal here for any technical questions if anything, but we have the public hearing next week which he'll be available as well.

Thank you.

Let's see. I moved to introduce ordinance.

There's no public comment. Go ahead.

I moved to introduce ordinance number two nine nine seven, and the city clerk is hereby directed to publish notice in accordance with government code section six zero six six that a public hearing to consider recommendation of the city council is to be held on 12/16/2025 at 6PM or as soon thereafter as the matter may be heard. Second.

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

Council Member Birch.

Yes.

Council Member Tejada. Yes. Council Member Davis. Yes. Mayor Pro Tem Shah. Yes. Mayor Saucito.

Yes. Moving on to item K six consideration of ordinance number 2,998 amending chapter 15.3 of the Redlands Municipal Code adopting the 2025 edition of the California Wildlife Urban Interface Code which incorporates by reference the 2024 International Wildland Urban Interface Code with the necessary California and City Of Redlands amendments. This ordinance will nullify and replace the current ordinance number 2,696 that was enacted in 2008 as part of the previous code adoption process. Fire Chief Sessler.

Thank you, Mayor and Council. So similar situation to Fire Code, but this is a little bit unique in this situation is that over the many years that we've adopted every three years, the Fire Code, they haven't updated the Wildland urban interface code until now. So last time it was updated was 2007, adopted in 2008. So this year, they updated

is

And first twenty. Twenty. Then

any questions.

I don't have any public speak I do have no, I don't have any public speakers. And I'll go ahead.

I'll to introduce ordinance 2998, and the city clerk is hereby directed to publish notice accordance with government code section six zero six six that a public hearing to consider recommendation of the city councils to be held on 12/16/2025 at 6PM or as soon thereafter as the matter may be heard.

Second. Have a motion to second, madam city clerk.

Council member Barrich. Yes. Council member Tejada. Yes. Council member Davis. Yes. Mayor Pro Tem Shah. Yes. Mayor Cecito.

Yes. Moving on to item k seven which is consideration of a resolution number 8743 appointing Ray Casey as the interim municipal utilities and engineering director government code section two thousand one hundred twenty two one H assistant city manager McConnell.

Thank you, members. Thank you, mayor and members of the city council. As you aware the municipal utilities and engineering director position will be vacant as of 12/09/2025 and to maintain day to day operations of the department and provide essential services to the public, city manager Duggan is recommending the hiring of Ray Casey as the interim municipal utilities and engineering director. Mr. Casey is a CalPERS retired annuitant and possesses a specialized skills and experience to perform in this role.

To comply with CalPERS rules, the City Council is required to make the interim appointment to this vacant position under government code 21,221 H which permits CalPERS retired annuitants to be employed without reinstatement from retirement. Staff recommends the council approve resolution 8,743 to appoint Ray Casey to the interim director position under government code section 21,221 H. If approved, mister Casey will begin serving on December 9, which is next week, and there's the anticipated end date is April 15 or upon the hiring of the permanent replacement whichever occurs sooner or first. That concludes my presentation and happy to answer any questions.

Before we bring it back to the council I have one speaker slip. Steven Rogers.

While the speaker comes up I wanted to point out that there was a moderate slight modification of the resolution.

Yes,

there's just slight change I thought you could read that into the record. Yes.

City manager McConnell. In the whereas is there in the second whereas the date 12/09/2025 was actually changed to 12/08/2025 and in accordance with CalPERS format they required the date underneath the resolution number.

That would be December 2 today's date. 12/02/2025 under resolution eight seven four three.

Okay, thank you. Mr. Rogers.

Honorable mayor Salcedo, Redland City Council, Steve Rogers Church Street. I I commend you on on bringing Ray Casey air. And this is one probably the only thing that this city manager is doing that I agree with. And I noticed though that the the offer letter wasn't signed and dated by Ray. So I mean that would have made me feel a little bit better that he's already accepted this.

And I think that I have some questions though that and it really surrounds the whole issue. He's going to be the director of the MUED. He's a professional engineer and so that makes him the city engineer. And I certainly hope that that is something that is he's already aware of that the city has been operating the way it has with a lesser ranking engineer than the top engineer of an orange organization being the city engineer. Now of course, Mr.

Duggan. Mr. Harris, when I met with Mr. Harris back, I forget what we were talking about. I guess we were talking about the traffic studies. And that was right after Ray had left Yucaipa. I call it being retired. He was he got retired from Yucaipa and where he was the city manager of course. But at that, I just happened to be at that council meeting and I spoke with Ray and I told him, I said, Ray, we need you in Redlands. Of course, I was talking about bringing Miller to be the city manager.

And it's funny how and when I met with mister Harris, I even told him about that meeting and that I've made that suggestion to him. And then when I met with mister Duggan later, he he he made he sort of made poke fun at me. He would he said, I wanted to take his job. And then when I said, I really you think I really want to be the city manager? He said, oh, no. You we you just want to get somebody in here that's going to appoint you as the city engineer. So anyway, that's a small world and I'm glad that a city engineer is coming or a city department head that can be city engineer is coming to Bradlands. Thank you.

Okay. Yes. Mister Hoder, come on up.

Must apologize once again. So I'll reintroduce myself and say I wasn't aware of, mister Harris's imminent departure from the city organization until I saw the agenda for this evening, and I read it with a considerable disappointment. I'm sorry that, he'll be leaving, and I think it's a loss for the city. But what I wanted to say was basically, thank you for mister Harris for the service that he's given the city of Redlands. In the years that I've been coming to these meetings and interacting with the various components of city administration, I say with without reservation, I think he's the most intelligent person that we've had in that position in a long long long time.

So his presence there was appreciated. Above that, what I also appreciated is how approachable he was. He he wasn't sort of removed or remote from the general public. You could call him up and discuss issues with him. He would come out and personally look at the issue. And so I I hope that that way of doing business will continue with his successor. Again, would just conclude by saying thank you very much.

Thank you. Any other comments from the council?

Move to. We're good.

I just like to thank we spoke privately before the meeting, but mister Harris, thank you very much for the service you've given to this community. I really appreciate, as mister Holder said, your accessibility to members of or residents in District 2 and all over the community. It's been a pleasure to have you here working with our community.

Anybody else? I'll go ahead. John, I want to really thank you for the professionalism that you've brought to this organization, the mentorship that you've given to all the employees and staff under your direction and leadership. And to me as well, you've really helped me understand a lot of the bigger water issues that we're facing here, not only in our city, but in our region and in the state of California. And we're really going to miss you.

And I have to echo Mr. Hodder's comments about I believe in my estimation you're one of the best MUD directors that we've had in my career working here with the city. So we're really going to miss you and I had a great time with you on our State Water Project tour. We had time to talk and get to know each other a little bit better, and it was really great to know you. We're really going to miss you being part of this city, being a part of this community. You and your wife are going to you, but we wish you all the success and happiness as you move on to the next phase of your career. So thank you so much for me personally. Thank you.

Maybe I'll just add real briefly, I know it's the end of the meeting, but Ray Case is a great person and he's an even better engineer. And a funny story about Ray is that he was on the interview panel when I applied for the Big Bear Lake job. So he welcomed me into California and now he's welcomed me out of California. The city is in great hands with Ray and I was really happy to hear that he's going to fill that position for a while.

I'll just echo that. Thanks, John. I appreciate your service and your time and I wish you the very best in Colorado. I was going wait to do that later, but will move to approve resolution eight thousand seven forty three.

As amended.

As amended.

Second. I have a motion and two seconds. You can pick either one of them.

I'll second that second.

Council Member Tejada is the second. All right. Madam City Clerk.

Council Member Barrich. Yes. Council Member Tejada. Yes. Council Member Davis.

Yes.

Mayor Pro Tem Shah.

Yes. Mayor Saucito.

Yes. Thank you. Let's see. Moving on to item l, which is individual city council member announcements or reports on activities. We'll start over here, council member Tejeda.

Absolutely. Thank you, mayor. Alright. So I'll start with saying that I attended the fire explorers fundraiser. I went to do the holiday video and was present for the tree Christmas tree lighting as my colleagues were.

I had a meeting with the city managers to get caught up on, you know, some things that I was requesting and just to see how everything was going. I also met with Linda Hamilton of Anka to to receive some information she had specifically for District 2. I attended the police department's Thanksgiving in the park. It's a wonderful celebration that they do every year for our community and folks who are in need of Thanksgiving meal. And had a good Thanksgiving with family, and I'm thankful for having the opportunity to serve the community and serve friends and family on the city council.

And yesterday, I attended, was present, didn't get a chance to get all the way to the front of the line, but, was invited to the, open house for senator Rosaliso Chobog.

Good. We have a printed copy of Mayor Pro Tem's activities in the community. And I'll go over to Councilmember Davis.

It's been a busy and good couple of weeks. Met with my Redlands Youth Council. Our guest speakers this month were or last month, I should say, were our city manager, Charlie Duggan, as well as Kyra Stewart, executive director of Redlands Family Service Association. Students really enjoyed hearing from them. Also attended the tree lighting ceremony. That was fantastic. Well done to our city staff. It just keeps getting better and better every year. I attended the True Evolution Gala, which, took place at the Mitten Building. It's great that they did the Gala in Redlands.

It was in LA last year. It's all over the IE and beyond. Our state treasurer, Fiona Ma, came to town. I had lunch with her at Finney's as well as some of her colleagues interested in economic development. I appreciated them making a stop in Redlands. I met with my climate policy council at the University of Redlands. Also attended Thanksgiving Tuesday put on by the police department. That was an incredible event, very heartwarming and such a good thing to do for our community. And finally, I gave out turkeys and Thanksgiving meals, building a generation. Really lovely community events this Thanksgiving holiday weekend.

Council member Barich.

Thank you. I attended the Redlands animal shelter ribbon cutting by the way, my compliments. That's fantastic. I it was even better than I would even anticipate. It's it's fabulous. I've attended the Redlands Police Office Association's Thanksgiving. As usual, it was fantastic. I think they fed 500 at least it was a lot of I mean a lot bigger show a lot more attendance than it was last year. The Lincoln Shrine had their annual Gettysburg Address with Abraham look alike. He looks pretty darn close.

He's very good, which is always good. Mean, we're very, very lucky to have the Lincoln Shrine here and have that legacy. The tree lighting was fabulous. The kids had a great time. I did as well. We had the benefit through the firefighters explorer at Falconer. Thank you. God, it's still good. It was good. And then this weekend we had shops small and my wife did more than just shop small.

She's shop large actually, but it goes to our great it goes to the City Of Redlands, but I encourage everybody to shop Redlands first. We have a lot of lot to offer here and it goes to a fantastic city.

Thank you. And I attended some of the same events that my fellow colleagues had attended. I won't go into those since those are already mentioned, but I did attend the Caliga City's installation of new officers. Congressman Aguilar attended his open house or town hall meeting. Attended two toy drives on the that we very then the strong have have a privilege of attending the police PDs volunteer relationship CVPs and the CERT volunteers holiday event at the community center the and so those are some of the activities we get and so that concludes our announcements and if there aren't any other comments we stand adjourned to the next regular

Excuse me, do have one comment for the record I want to let everybody know that I have the most confidence in our both our city attorney, our city manager I think doing a great job. Know I'm very very proud of what they do here we have a wonderful city and I'll put our city up against anybody in California. So I want to thank.

Okay and before we adjourn I also want to make mention of the terrorist attack that happened here in ten years ago and we will always remember those that we lost and we still continue to keep those family members and friends within our prayers and in our hearts. And so I just want to acknowledge that event that's happened, that tragic event, but and just want to mention that as well before I adjourn the City Council meeting to the next City Council meeting 12/16/2025.