City Council - Regular Meeting

Mayor Barton. Present. Mayor Potem Scott.

Present.

Council Member Carrie Sellers. Present. Council Member Perez. Present. Council Member Mortoya. Present. City Attorney Eric Bell.

Present.

City Manager Tanya Williams. Present.

Okay, all present and accounted for. At this time, I'll turn it over to our city attorney for closed session.

Thank you, mayor. We have one item on your closed session tonight. It's the conference with legal counsel. One item of anticipated litigation. The one item has to do with potential litigation with regard to the housing element. Council member Carisales, I believe you've had a conflict with this item before because of your property on Foothill Boulevard. So, I am I'm guessing.

I will be in the stadium. You're accusing tonight. As a reminder. Appreciate that.

And with that, that's the only item. There's no members of the public in the audience.

Seeing none at this time. Do I hear a motion to close?

Some of.

Close session. Second. Motion's been made by Carla Perez. Seconded by council member Edward Montoya. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Any opposition during non post session is adjourned.

And we will see you

guys next week. Bye. Bye.

At this time, the city council, city of Rialto, the acting successor agency to the redevelopment agency, the Rialto Utilities Authority, the Rialto Housing Authority is now in order. We'll have the clerk call the roll call.

Scott. Present. Council Member Carrie Sellers. Present. Council Member Perez. Present. Council Member Montoya. Present. City treasurer Eric Carrillo.

Present.

City Attorney Eric Bell.

Present.

City manager Tanya Williams. Present.

Thank you. All present and accounted for. So at this time, we'll stand up for the pledge of allegiance that will be led by council member Edward Montoya.

Everybody place your hand over your heart. Begin.

Calvary Chapel.

Miss Parker, you're ready. We thank you these moments, lord, that you've given us this time, this space and time, dear god, to which we can gather and and discuss, dear God and resolutions that these council members are gonna receive and must make decisions. Lord, I pray that through your spirit, it would be you that leads them, into making the right decisions as they look at amendments, Lord, proposals for housing, buildings, Lord, city senior communities, Lord, even, water management and the things that must be decided for the city of Rialto, Lord. I pray that they would never lose sight, dear God, that the responsibilities that they have, the positions they hold have been given to them by you. And in such, Lord, that we treat them with respect, Lord, and make decisions that are fair and right before you.

And so I pray, Lord, for them this night. We pray that you would be with us. Lord, help us to make these decisions, lord, as they represent so many here within the city of Rialto. And so we ask and pray your in this in your name, lord Jesus. And we all said, amen. Amen.

Thank you very much. At this time, I'd like to call on the city attorney to report on closed session.

Thank you, mayor. We had one item on closed session tonight. It was a presentation by the city attorney with regard to one item of potential litigation. Council member Carrizales was not present council member. Would you like to state your recusal from the closed session?

Yes, I I did recuse myself from the closed session. Thank you.

That's the only thing to report. Thank you.

Thank you very much. With that, then we'll move on to the presentations and proclamation. We have a letter of appreciation to the Rialto Police Department by doctor Sean Moore from the city. He's a city manager for the city Of Yuccaipa and a longtime resident of the city of Rialto as well.

Good evening, mayor and mayor Pro Tem, council, staff, members of the audience. I'm here tonight on behalf of the city Of Yucaipa to present this, recognition and appreciation, for the Rialto Police Department traffic division for coming out, to, the city of Yucaipa and helping induce some traffic enforcement. In the past few months, we've had some recent tragedies, and Rialto helped us out in a collaborative effort, and we and the council and the mayor wanted to express our deepest gratitudes to the chief and the Rialto police officers, the mayor council staff for coming out and helping us. We we were able to, cite over 87 citations with the help of the Rialto police department as well as, arrest one reckless driver that was exceeding his speeds up to a 160 miles an hour on Oak Glen Road. So, again, I wanna thank you, the Rialto Police Department, Trap Division, Chief Clean, everybody, and staff, and the mayor council.

And I have this recognition to hand out if that's I don't know who I hand it to, but

If we can possibly either have is Mark in the back or CJ Nelson, captain CJ Nelson?

On behalf of the city council and the mayor of the city of Yucaipa, thank you very much. Thank you.

Thank you very much, doctor Moore for recognizing, the Rialto Police Department. I think, we take great pride not only in reference to the Rialto police association, but the fire department too as well, and always reaching out to our neighbors and providing whatever assistance we can, when the time and the need calls for. Thank you. With that, I'd like to move into oral communications. Is our anyone that has signed up to give oral communications?

Yeah. I think we I think we have two. I think it's two. Joe Bakker Junior signed up to do or communication in Pedro Martinez.

If if you don't mind, we were going to do the tab four. Is it is it in reference to the presentation?

It is, but I'll also present an update. That way you guys can move on with your meeting. So. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, honorable mayor, council, distinguished guests and community at large. I just want to do a couple of things today. One, just give an update on some of the partnerships and things we've done with the city of Rialto. One of the things we've done in the unincorporated area, which is not the city of Rialto, but many of your residents frequent is the we just resurfaced the Cactus, Cactus And Eastern Streets, and we just added three additional street lights on the East and this was about a $900,000 project. Those street lights are just waiting to be activated by the Edison company, which is many of our residents here in Rialto frequent.

And I thought that was important to highlight just so you know about those investments. We know that Birdsall Park was a $1,600,000 investment, which is under construction. We're excited about the investment, seeing those improvements at Birdsall Park. And the two other investments which the county has made, we're excited about is the $203,000 at the Carl Johnson Center, which is, you know, very personal for me as a youth growing there and have grandchildren and my daughters, you know, play at that park. So it's great to see those improvements.

I want to thank the city for those investments. And one of the things that's really changed is, you know, the trends in athletics, and we've invested $120,000 in Ferguson Park for renovating and and converting to pickleball courts, has become very, very popular in our community. And also very, very proud of the investment we made in the real time crime lab. We know that's under construction. We look forward to that coming really, really soon. But today, I want to talk about the investment that we're making on tab item four. I know that the board is going to take it up. So I just want to thank the Thompsons who are here. So just in conversations, one of the things that Thompsons brought to our attention was the concerns about, you know, lighting on the Cactus Trail. And one of the things that's very important about our offices.

Many of our projects are very community driven, so we get the community that shares these things with us. But I also want to thank mayor Baca for his leadership and making sure that we move this thing forward. So what we did is we had conversations with the city of Rialto. We're looking at potentially giving dollars tonight if it's the will of the council to add solar lights along Cactus Trail. It's not the entire Cactus Trail.

What we're looking at doing is paying for lights, which would be on the Cactus Trail from baseline all the way to Etiwanda, which is about an $859,000 check, we'd like to present to the city of Rialto to make sure that those get done. It will enhance safety will enhance the experience for those that you know, like to walk at night, especially with daylight saving time. You know, things get it gets a lot darker here earlier in the community. But this is an investment we're making for the community. You know, it's really an opportunity to improve.

And I know one of the concerns that was brought up was the the Cactus Basin. Now, the Cactus Basin is eventually going projected to be in construction in 2028, but that's not for the area that's pretty much from south of at a Wanda all the way north of Rialto Avenue, but that would impact the solar lights. So that I know that was a concern that was brought up. The solar lights would just be from the Edwanda to baseline and just wanted to share that news with the council. Want to thank the Thompsons for bringing that item forward, and we're just so glad that people in the community can be very vocal about that.

So on behalf of the county board supervisors, we have a check for 859,000 to present to the Rialto City Council. I hope that the action that succeeds us later will accept this check, but we'd like to come up to the

If I can have all the council members go up up

and We we can come up there.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah. We can come up there. You don't have to move.

Just stay.

We put our chairs back in here. You and I right here.

Squeeze on off.

Do we need our our financial director to take the money and deposit it? Well, thank you very much, Supervisor Joe Baca Junior, for that generous donation to the city of Rialto. And also, know, caring about the quality of life for many of the individuals in our city. This particular project came up and I'd like to recognize both of the individuals because it was their idea, and a lot of people don't know that when they talk to you in in the community, a lot of us do listen to individuals. And I'd like to recognize Kathy and Terry Thompson not here.

They're the ones that came up with the idea of doing the lights because they walked that trail all the time. Could you please stand up and give them a round of applause? Thank you very much for the idea. So members from the council do indoor community in terms of some of the needs. Sometimes it just doesn't happen overnight. It takes a while to get some of these projects to be done. But again, you know, we want to thank you. Supervisor Joe Baca junior for your generous donation, not only here, but in some of the other projects as well. Thank you.

Our next speaker we have is Pedro Molina.

Alright. Good evening, council members and, mayor, city staff, and, and, the audience and the community. My name is, Pedro Molina. I'm here tonight, not, not with a petition, petition, not not with with a a complaint, complaint, not with a check, or or presentation or anything like that. I'm just a guy who believes still Rialto could operate with fairness and consistency.

First, I want to acknowledge the city's clerk office. Every time I submit a public request records, you respond. You follow the law. You treat me like rules apply equally to everyone. That really matters, and I appreciate that. Thank you. But not every department is meeting the standards. With over twenty days, isn't it ten days minimum in California? I haven't received the records request. Today, was in court, at the harassment, case that I have filed with the court enforcement Timothy Sun.

When a resident steps forward to report misconduct, by a city employee, the process should be transparent, timely, and supported by complete records. Yet documents are requested months ago. Records I I needed to present my case were still missing. Not because I I failed to follow-up, not because I didn't they don't exist, because someone somewhere chose to delay. The delay didn't just, inconvenience me.

It it weakened my ability to pursue a legitimate complaint. And when the city delays records in cases filed by a resident against, one of its own employees, it raises serious questions about fairness and accountability. At the time, the city the city is moving aggressively towards a receivership on a property across the street. This is one of the most extreme enforcement tools available. Well, while the neighbor property remains in worse conditions, burnt and always has smoke coming out.

That inconsistency creates the appearance of selective enforcement, retaliation, and systemic injustice. Whether intentional or not, the impact is the same. Trusty Rhodes. And there's something else I need to say, respectfully and honestly. I hope truly none of this is happening because how I look or because I speak with the accent.

I hope the value of my property and the way my case is handled isn't being judged differently because who I am. I work hard. I follow the process and I show up. And I deserve the same fairness, the same transparency, and the same respect that every residents in the city deserves. All I'm asking is for equal treatment, nothing more and nothing less.

So my request is simple. Treat every public records request as urgent because for purse for a person waiting on that information, especially pursuing complaint against a city employee is urgent. And when the city's actions have power that affects someone's rights, reputation, or property, transparency is not an option. It's required. Required. I'm not only here to for an applause. I'm here because I want Rialto to work the way it's supposed to work for everyone. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much for your comments, Pedro. I'm sure that our city wants to work and not only in terms of transparency, but to make sure that every every individual is treated equally and fairly as well. Thank you. With that then, are there any other?

Everything else is for perhaps that we have.

That's it.

Everything else that we have is for the tap items that

we have. Thank you. The next item is the consent item. Any item may be removed by anyone or member of the city council if they wish to. Is there any members from the audience that would like to pull any item from the consent items? Hearing none. Do I hear a motion from the council members in terms of approval of the the consent calendar? Move motion's been made by Councilwoman Carla Perez, second ed by the council member and the car to set us all those in favor signify by saying I any opposition hearing none will move into tap one.

Good evening, mayor, mayor pro tem, and members of the city council. This evening, I am requesting that the city council conduct a public hearing for the placement of liens for delinquent refuse collection accounts for the 2025. On 01/27/2026, the city council scheduled the public hearing for this evening, February 24, to review and consider the placement of liens related to delinquent refuse. Notices were mailed to the owners of the 58 residential and 14 commercial properties shown in attachment one on 01/29/2026. At this time, I would request that the city council conduct the public hearing, take public testimony, and consider placement of liens against the delinquent properties identified in exhibit A of the resolution.

And adopt resolution number four or excuse me, eight four and seventy one authorizing the filing of liens against the properties for delinquent refuse accounts with the San Bernardino County Auditor Controller Recorders Office. This concludes my presentation and I'm available for any questions.

Are there any questions or members from the audience that would like to address the public hearing? Hearing none, do I hear a motion to close the public hearing? Second. Motion's been made by member council member Carla Perez and second by council member Andy Caraceras. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposition? Hearing none. At this point then we'll move it on for discussion for members of the council. Are there any?

Move approval of resolution eighty four seventy one.

Motion's been made by mayor pro tem Ed Scott to move resolution eighty four seventy one seconded by Edward Montoya. Turn I'm

over

tap two.

Thank you, board. Mayor. This evening, the presentation will be from Cindy Hernandez with AGI, the city's CDBG consultant.

Good evening, honorable mayor, city council, staff, and community. My name is Cindy Hernandez with Avant Garde, the city's housing consultant partner. Today, we will be presenting the proposed substantial amendment number one to the city's fiscal year 2425 annual action plan. The US Department of Housing and Urban Development requires that the city submit an annual action plan. The annual action plan outlines the city's use of its community development block grant or CDBG and home investments The the COVID-nineteen The The pandemic pandemic has

on

pandemic of different projects that we services, and capital improvement the the projects. In order to fund activities, the proposed activity must align with and address one of the goals from the five year consolidated plan. The city held a public meeting in front of the ad hoc committee on Thursday, 03/07/2024 at 05:30PM. For fiscal year 2425, the ad hoc committee reviewed a total of 11 applications comprised of six public services agencies, four non public services projects, and one fair housing and landlord tenant service program. Each agency was given an opportunity to present its program and make a formal request for CDBG funding.

The twenty twenty four, twenty twenty five CDBG annual action plan was approved by city council during the 08/13/2024 public hearing. This slide represents all approved CDBG activities for fiscal year twenty four-twenty five and their respective allocation. The city of Rialto did receive during fiscal year twenty four-twenty five an allocation of $1,151,844. In accordance with HUD regulation and the city's adopted citizen participation plan, when a substantial change is proposed to the city's annual action plan or the consolidated plan, the city requires that the public be notified and a public hearing be held to allow the public an opportunity to comment on the proposed substantial changes such as adding an activity, canceling an activity, redirecting funds, receiving additional funding. The city made the proposed substantial amendment available for public review and comment period beginning on Wednesday, February 11 and will conclude on Friday, March 13.

Today, we present to you the proposed substantial amendment number one to the fiscal year twenty four twenty five annual action plan. The approved action plan allocated a total of 113,000 for the rehabilitation of Carl Johnson Center which includes repainting the building, resurfacing the floors, and bringing equipment into compliance. Resurfacing of the floors have been completed. During construction, staff identified challenges with the existing bleachers and winches that require a change order and additional funding in order to address. The Building 500 rehabilitation project was allocated $100,000 for design phase to rehabilitate the facility and achieve ADA compliance.

As the design advanced, it was determined that securing sufficient funding to complete the full rehabilitation would require several years. To date, no funds have been drawn down for this activity. Staff has determined that reprogramming the 100,000 from Building 500 rehabilitation project to Carl Johnson project would fund the full scope of the rehabilitation work needed to complete the entire project. The Building 500 rehabilitation project may be brought back at ad hoc committee and city council for consideration at a later date. Staff recommends that the city council open the public hearing and solicit comments from interested citizens, adopt a resolution approving the substantial amendment number one to the fiscal year twenty four twenty five annual action plan, authorize the city manager or their designee to submit the substantial amendment of the annual action plan to HUD and authorize the city manager or the designee to take all actions necessary to implement the programs identified in the annual action plan.

And lastly, authorizing that the city manager or their designee make all conforming modifications, edits to execute all implementing documents required by HUD in a form approved by the city attorney. This concludes my presentation.

Thank you. Are there any members from the public that would like to address this item? This is a public hearing right now for any individual that would like to address it. Hearing none. A motion has been made to close the plug public hearing by Carla Perez, council member and seconded by council member Andy Caraceras. Any discussion? All those in favor sign ify by saying Aye. Aye. Any opposition hearing none. Now we'll open it for discussion from council members.

I just like to state that we do need to repair the Carl Johnson Center. I go there quite a lot to watch my granddaughters play either volleyball or basketball in the gym itself and it does need upkeeping too as well and I think I've mentioned it to our recreational director in terms of the ceiling that needs to be done and things that can be fallen on a lot of the kids that are participating in that area. And if we don't, we're liable if we get sued if if we don't take care of the action that needs to be done. And and it's good that we're investing some money to make sure that that we have the the standards that are important for a lot of our kids to participate there. So, I just wanted to make that comment and I actually support recommendation but do I hear motion?

So moved.

Motion's been made by Carla Perez, seconded by Andy Carrera, I mean by Edward Montoya. Any other discussion or comments? Hearing none, all those in favor, signify by saying I. Aye. Opposition? Hearing none. Motion carries. Thank you. Mayor. Yes.

I'll be recusing myself from tab three and will not be returning to the dais. So I so I wanted to just go ahead and and do my report if you're okay with that.

We will allow council member Andy Caraceras to give his report. So third objection.

Thank you, mayor. None. Real quick. Just attended the the award ceremony for the Rialto Police Department with my son, Andrew, and the rest of the council. It's such a great event to be able to recognize all of our heroes that that put on that uniform every day and protect and serve this community.

I I wanna thank our chief for for the for making sure that we're always there recognizing the hard work of the men and women of the Rialto Police Department. We had a really good emcee. I think he, Mr. Lamont, probably made it a little bit more entertaining, but it was great to see everyone there and congratulations to all the award recipients. And lastly, I just wanna just wanna say that we should I'm keeping in our prayers all the things that are going on in the in in Guadalajara, Jalisco, and just hopefully things settle down over there, and we have I have a lot of family over there.

I know a of lot our residents have family in those areas and things are slowly taming down, but I want to to hope that we keep them in our prayers so things can get better. And lastly, speaking of Guadalajara, I have some family members that came from Guadalajara. I just wanna welcome them to to The United States and welcome them specifically to Rialto, California. Thank you and welcome to the city of Rialto.

Thank you very much for the council's report. With that, then we'll continue with tab three.

The report this evening will be given by senior planner, Sandra Robles, followed by a presentation from the city's housing element update consultant.

Good evening, mayor, mayor Potem, and city council members. My name is Sandra Robles, senior planner with the community development department. Tap three of the agenda includes housing element update. In which staff is requesting action on environmental assessment review twenty five zero zero two zero, general plan amendment twenty five zero zero zero one, zoning code amendment twenty five zero zero zero two specific plan amendment twenty five zero zero zero one and specific plan amendment twenty five zero zero zero two. This first line provides a brief overview of the housing elements progress to date.

City staff and the city's consultant began work on the housing element update in 2021. The Rialto City Council adopted the housing element update on March 2022 and approved the rezone program in the form of an overlay in August 2023. Subsequently, the California Department of Housing and Community Development determined that the housing element and the overlay were out of compliance with state housing law. Following two additional submittals, city staff received a letter from HCD dated 12/02/2025 confirming that the housing of of of housing element update and to introduce the first reading of the ordinances associated with the rezone program. In the next portion of this presentation, Brian Delatorre of Camblyhorn will provide a comprehensive overview of the housing element and present additional details.

Good evening. My name is Brian Delatorre with Kimley Horn, the city's housing element consultant. As Sandra mentioned, this effort began in 2021 after a series of different submittals and back and forth with HDD. We received conditional approval back in December 2025 and that's the item that we're considering now. So the housing element, it's one of the elements in the general plan.

It's the only one that needs to be updated regularly and Massolt is the only one that needs to be reviewed by a state department which is the Housing Community Development Department. In order to be considered certified HCD, the Housing and Community Development Department must review for statutory compliance and say that it's certified. In previous cycles, cities can in a way self certify which is no longer allowed. What the housing element does is identifies housing needs in city of Rialto and breaks down the housing need by income categories. As we can see on the right, this is our allocation of unit breakdown for the sixth cycle.

The sixth cycle covers the years from 2021 through 2029. On the far right, you can see Rina. That's arena regional housing needs assessment allocation. So that's the total amount of units that the city must plan for. This is not total amount of units that the city needs to build or require or anything like that. It's just a requirement that the city must demonstrate that there's sufficient capacity. So as you can see, the total is 8,272 total units broken down by those income categories. Those income categories go from very low income to above moderate. Above moderate is typically what we consider market rate. But in that middle range you can see that income range.

So we can see what ranges those incomes fall into. So for example, any family of four making anywhere from like 56,000 to approximately 90,000 would be considered low income based off of the area immediate income. That what the housing element's meant to do is address these needs through goals, actions that the city may take to alleviate and address these housing housing needs. So the housing element certification in order to be certified as I mentioned before, it must be reviewed by HCD for statutory compliance, and that statutory compliance allows the city to be eligible for various funding sources, the biggest of which which was also discussed earlier in the previous item, CDBG, that's a big one, but it's not the only funding source. Most funding sources require a certified housing element or an adopted housing element, And that really shows the importance of having a certified housing element.

Consequences for not having a certified housing element. The biggest one is limit to access to funding. Like I just mentioned, CDBG, infrastructure funding sources. The second is it really opens up the city to various lawsuits both from private parties, from the state attorney general. In order to come into compliance, the state can require that the city come into immediate compliance, so a mandatory court order compliance.

There's monetary penalties which luckily we're not in that position, but there are some jurisdictions who have been hit with monetary penalties. The biggest one in regards to enforcement actions would be suspension of local control really over zoning and approval for projects. In certain circumstances, a city that doesn't have a certified housing element could lose that control and a project may go directly to a court, attorney general, that is rare. And lastly here, I'll reiterate the loss of of local zoning control is one of the biggest things. Hypothetically, there's projects that can come in under what's considered the builder's remedy.

That's a mechanism in the Housing Accountability Act that allows projects, very specific projects hitting a certain threshold of income levels to essentially bypass any any zoning or or general plan restrictions in the city. Adopting housing element kind of alleviates all of these potential issues. As Sandra mentioned, in July 2023, the city adopted their last housing element. The last time this one was adopted. That draft was the same draft that was adopted previously in February 2022.

And in October 2023, HCD found that the rezones and housing element itself were not in compliance with statutes. So from October 2023 through October 2025, through a series of, for lack of a better word, like negotiations with HCD, we really went back and forth determining what was considered sufficient to HDD because in our view and the city's view, we're compliant but there was a new appellate decision that came right around the time we last submitted in 2023, which changed kind of the strategy a bit. But in October, the housing element was resubmitted. In December 2025, just a couple months ago, ACD found that both the rezone strategy and the housing element itself were in statutory compliance, but could not be certified until both the housing element and the rezones were adopted. So in January 21 this year, last month, the Planning Commission considered this action and recommend that the city council adopt the housing element and the associated reasons.

As a summary of outreach throughout 2021 and even into 2022, there's series of workshops, both in English and Spanish, both in person and virtually. We also had online surveys, in person surveys that people can provide their feedback. Also throughout every single public hearing, there's option to voice opinions, recommendations, and whatnot. So all of those comments are incorporated into our community engagement appendix. Spanish translation was provided at every source of outreach, and online advertising was on the city's social media websites.

So the city's housing site strategy, this is how we address the units that we discussed earlier, so the 8,000 plus units. The units there were addressed via projection of ADUs, calculating projects that were already approved or entitled but hadn't been permitted yet as well as potential rezones. So this item that we're considering tonight. So although all of these rezone sites are considered part of one district, the housing Opportunity District, Within the housing element, we identify various opportunity zones. And on the screen you'll see there's seven of these ranging from Foothill Boulevard down to Randall Avenue.

But there are some outliers that kind of are spread out throughout the city as well that didn't neatly fit into one of these categories. That rezone strategy, sorry, starts with the density, a minimum density of 20 dwelling units per acre. And in some instances goes up to 50 dwelling units per acre. And I'll go into specifics a little more. This is the first opportunity area you'll see along Foothill Boulevard. You'll also see some in the central area there in the bottom left. You can kind of see the baseline parcels up in the top right. We have our North Riverside Avenue parcels. So as you'll see they're all kind of scattered. They're not all perfectly on North Riverside Avenue but thereabouts just for the sake of bulking sites together.

We have the gateway specific plan. We identified this as opportunity sites because it is already a specific plan that's approved in the city. These are within the central area, not too far from here. You'll see scattered about, some of these are vacant, some are not. The intent of these is that contiguous parcels can either be developed as individual parcels or can be consolidated, although not required.

These are the opportunity parcels within the Baseline Road area. And then these are arrests that are just scattered throughout. I know it's a little hard to see, but these didn't fit perfectly into any of the other categories. So the proposed rezones are being termed the Housing Opportunity district. So these parcels would all be considered as part of that district, the HOD District.

And the minimum density for all parcels would be 20 dwelling units per acre where there is the underlying zone already allows residential. There would be a range of 35 to 40 dwelling units per acre in areas where there's an underlying commercial zone. They would be able to go up to 50 dwelling units per acre. So properties that are either have commercial or mixed use underlying zone, they also go up to 50 dwellings per acre and they must provide at least 50% of the total floor area as residential. So any mixed use development will have at least 50% residential on those properties.

There is an incentive to deliver more affordable products and that comes directly from the government code. It's section 655,830.2, subdivisions H and I. So what this is, it's an incentive that if a project was to be proposed with at least 20% affordable units, they'd have a non discretionary review. So essentially what that means is the project would have to follow the city's objective requirements and that's it. More subjective requirements cannot be required of that project.

These are examples of density ranges and kind of the appropriate product type that would fit into those. So for 20 to 35 dwelling units per acre, we have like townhomes, some larger apartments or condos, and then kind of a mix of both of those. On higher range of that density range, we have 35 to 50, and this is more typically what we would associate with like a mixed use or smaller apartment style. We also have an example there of senior housing that is a bit more dense. These in the development standards, all of these parcels would be subject to the R four development standards.

So there is a cap on height, density, and all of the other appropriate development standards to ensure that we're not going 10 stories or anything like that. We have a sites buffer that's baked into the housing element. So as you can see, the requirement is 8,272 units, but the units that are planned for are double that, almost double that. The intent of that was to not get into what's considered no net loss. So for example, if there's a large parcel that is estimated in the housing element to provide say 800 units, but then it's developed or it's developed into a smaller product.

That would effectively reduce the amount of units we've planned for. And if you get enough of those deviations from what's planned then we get into territory where you may potentially have to go back and add additional sites to ensure that we're not at a negative amount of units that we planned for. Earlier I mentioned the last time the housing element was adopted was in 2023 and we'll see that the buffer was slightly higher about, what was that, 115 I believe, if I did the math correctly. So we in effect reduced the buffer by 115 sites, or units, sorry, and it equals about 1%. I'll go on.

So kind of the enforcement action of this housing element is the housing policy plan. So these are the actions, the goals, objectives of the housing element, and these are the actionable steps that the city can take to get to our goal. So this is an example of just one program. So this is housing program 2E related to ADU monitoring. So in the housing element, we we address our housing need through the projection of, you know, projecting out that there's gonna be development of ADUs.

This program, what it does, it makes sure that the city monitors ADU development to ensure that we're actually meeting those goals. What the program does is, if we're not meeting those goals, what can we do to address that and meet our goals? But we highlight this to show that this is really what a typical program looks like. So it has an action, a timeframe on when the city would complete that action. For this one, it's annual through the annual progress reporting for the housing element.

But it also has a responsible agency, in this case the plan division as well as a funding source. So for this action it's just a general process of staff monitoring. So it would be the general fund, but there's some actions that may be CDBG or various other funding sources. On the screen we have a comprehensive list of not all the policy actions that are addressed, but most of them. So you'll see ADU and JADU development.

So in that case it's just updating the zoning code to be compliant with the latest housing ADU laws. We have objective design standards, streamlining housing voucher program programs, addressing fair housing. With that, I'm gonna pass it over to my colleague Rita Garcia who led the initial study and mitigated negative declaration for both the housing element and the rezones and she'll present on this part. Thank you.

Good evening honorable mayor and city council. My name is Rita Garcia with Kimley Horn and I served as the project manager for the projects CEQA or California Environmental Quality Act documentation. As Bryant mentioned, we prepared an initial study mitigated negative declaration which reviewed approximately 21 environmental resource areas to determine the proposed project's potential environmental impacts in those areas. Our analysis found the proposed project would result in less than significant impacts to all those resource areas analyzed except for six resource areas which biological resources, cultural resources, paleontological greenhouse gas emissions, hazardous materials, and vibration. For all other resource areas our analysis found that following compliance with the established regulatory framework which would be federal, state and local regulations of the project would result in less than significant impacts.

The initial study was completed and circulated for a thirty day public review period which extended from September 26 to October 25. During that public review period we received six comment letters. To each of those comment letters we drafted proposed responses on behalf of the city. After analyzing those responses it was determined that none of them resulted in new environmental impact or increased the severity of environmental impacts already analyzed in the initial study. And so with that the next step is that CEQA requires the city council to consider the initial study and its findings as well the comment letters in our proposed responses to those comment letters before approving the project.

And with that, Bryant will conclude.

Thank you. So on 12/02/2025, this HDD, the Housing Community Development Department determined that the housing element and the rezone strategy met the statutory requirements. And to reiterate that letter that the city received states that the city can cannot be certified until both the housing element is readopted and the rezones are adopted. So that's the item that's being considered tonight. And with that, I'll go on to just next steps.

So we received the letter December 2025. Planning commission was in January. We are here at the public hearing tonight for this item assuming or when this housing element and rezones are adopted. An adopted version, a whole package will be submitted to HCD for final certification review. And HCD will have sixty days, a total of sixty days to review for consistency with what they last approved or found in substantial compliance.

Any deviations from that may extend that period, but they have a total of sixty days regardless. And then throughout the rest of the six cycle planning period, there'll be ongoing implementation per the timelines that are established in the housing element. And with that, we're open to questions. Thank you.

Thank you. At this time, well, it's a public hearing, so we'll open it up for any individuals from the public that have requested to speak on this item. Are there any madam clerk?

Yes, you have agreed to speak on this item.

Alright. Can you please call their names?

Oh, Jerry. So sopipo. And help correct me if I missed your name up.

No problem. Hello. Hello, honorable mayor and members of council and also city staff. I'm Jared Sopko. My family are the original builders. We're the owners and the operators of the North Rialto Shopping Center on Baseline Road. We're a Stater Brothers anchored grocery center. We're here because we want to support housing in Rialto, but we can't support the housing element and the associated zone changes that are presented for approval. In 2021, we worked with the staff, and we supported a housing element with a voluntary housing overlay. However, when we learned that our center would be involuntarily rezoned into the housing overlay district, we became concerned.

This is because the rezone as it's written will make our existing commercial uses nonconforming. And it's likely that when tenants close, spaces become vacant. And they remain vacant if the tenants can't be quickly replaced. For several reasons, instead build housing. This could cause a compounding wave of closures and extinguish our thriving grocery anchored center. Grocery centers are different. They're a unique community resource. They provide affordable grocery options. They combat food deserts. They can't easily be replaced by online shopping.

These grocery centers deserve the support and preservation. Because the city's proposed nearly two times the required number of housing sites, the inclusion of grocery centers like ours should be reconsidered. Our full concerns are outlined in our letter to the Planning Commission and our letter to the City Council meeting. We're grateful to the City Planning staff, particularly senior planner Robles and director Taylor, who have been working with us to understand and address our concerns, and to the council members who have been willing to hear and consider our request. We look forward to working with staff to craft the policy that will support the city's commercial centers. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Next.

Good evening, Eustine Mayor Baca and members of the Rialto City Council staff staff, fellow residents. My name is Anna Gonzales, a Rialto resident and executive director of the Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice. I stand before you to advocate for the approval of the Rialto six cycle housing element. This is not just a procedural step. It is a vital commitment to our community's future.

I want to take this opportunity to emphasize that collaborative effort that has gone into this process and to highlight the resilience of our residents in addressing one of the most pressing issues we face today, affordable housing. Over the past months and years, we have engaged in meaningful discussions with countless members of our community and staff. Their voices have shaped the housing element underscoring the critical need for affordable housing options in the city of Rialto. It is clear that our residents are not only aware of housing challenges, but are also eager to participate in finding solutions. I want to acknowledge and thank everyone who has contributed their time, energy, and ideas in this collaborative process.

Your input is invaluable and has ensured that this plan reflects the needs and aspirations of our community. The plan is not perfect, but it is a necessary step to move forward. The resilience of our residents is commendable. Despite the challenges we face, they continue to advocate for the right to affordable housing, and it is our responsibility as the representatives to respond to that call. As we move forward, there are some important items that we still need to address.

First and foremost, the inclusionary housing ordinance must be a priority moving forward. This ordinance will ensure that a percentage of new developments are set aside for affordable housing, thus making strides toward a more equitable community. We would like to have a clear timeline of when this will be completed. Additionally, we must commit to meaningful outreach to our local businesses that may have been impacted by these changes. It is crucial that we engage with them, listen to their concerns, and involve them in the conversation so that we can foster supportive environment for all stakeholders.

Moreover, we need to actively recruit developers who are willing to build and expand affordable housing in our community. This is not just about meeting quotas, it's about creating a diverse housing landscape that benefits all residents of Rialto. I want to take a moment to express my gratitude to the city staff and council members for their leadership and dedication to this important cause. Your commitment to moving in the right direction is palpable, and I urge you to continue this collaboration effort with the hundreds of Rialto residents we represent. As a single mom who has faced homelessness with my two children after domestic violence situation and because of the lack of affordable housing inventory in the city, I cannot tell you how much this progress means to me and the other families facing similar situations.

Together, we can create a future where all Rialto residents have access to safe, affordable housing. Let us work hand in hand to ensure that every voice is heard. Thank you for your time and commitment to the residents of to and we approve this housing element. Thank you.

Thank you. There any other members?

Yes and I don't know if I can pronounce his name the way they spells it. Ann up. A n u p. Yeah.

Good evening, guys. Honorable, mayor. I am the owner of the America's Best Value Inn on Foothill Boulevard on 425 West Foothill Boulevard, and we have a small shopping center also. We own this place since 1999, And at that time, the area was really rough and everything, and we support the city and the police to clean up that stuff. And especially and we also take the part of county vouchers.

So sometimes the homeland, they pay really less. So we still support them also. In order to to be honest with you, man, it's it's going to be really hard to to go give away our property. You know? That's about it. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other? No. Is there any member from the audience that would like to come and address this that has not filled out a form? Hearing not, do we hear a motion to close the public hearing? Motion's been made by council member Carla Perez seconded by Edward Montoya. All those in favor of closing public hearing signify by saying aye. Any opposition hearing none motion carries. Now we'll open it up for discussion from members. Of the council. Mayor Pro Tem and Scott.

Yes, mister mayor. I just have some comments. First off, in relationship to the outreach that occurred, I'm extremely disappointed in this city for their lack of outreach to the property owners and business owners in this community. And it's very clear there was little or no outreach. Additionally,

the

ir own

sure And to very

extremely excited disappointed in how we picked some of these properties. I'm just gonna give you a couple of specifics. There's one specific of a piece of property that is owned by a hospital. It's just as important in this community and it's been owned by this hospital for a number of years. It's just as important in this community to have an urgent care center or a surgery center as it is to have mixed use housing.

This property now will be mixed use housing or housing. One of the two. There's another piece of property where two earthquake faults run through it. And the developers already tried to build housing on it and was told that there were earthquake faults and they couldn't build housing on it. Yet, now it appears on here.

So I don't think staff has done a good job in vet vetting these properties and deciding what is good and what is not good. As to affordable housing, there is no community in this state that can show that this so called program has worked because we don't have affordable housing in the state of California. Do we need it? Absolutely. Do our residents want it?

Absolutely. But it's not gonna happen because of this. There are three important things to me in regards to my love for this country. One is the first amendment right. Secondly is the second amendment right.

And lastly is the right to private property ownership. And when a state and a government dictates what you can and cannot build on property, that's not private property ownership any longer. Outside groups come in here and sue us, force us to do things. The state of California comes in here, tells us how we have to vote. They've not only done it on the housing, they did it on trash.

It's just gonna continue and continue and continue. At some point, we, the people, have got to stand up and speak our minds. I just am really disturbed that we would go through this city and take property and tell property owners this is what you have to build on it. You have no choice. And if you don't do it within a certain time limit, this is what you have to do with it. That is not fair. It's not right, and it's not American. Thank you, mister mayor. Thank you very much for your your comment.

Any other comments by members of the council? Council member Edward Montoya.

Yes, sir. Thank you. I I agree with everything that mayor pro tem Ed Scott said. I agree with what both gentlemen that stood up said. I agree with all these emails that we got that disagree with this have said, I think it's shameful that this city has to be sued into compliance.

I think by suing this city, you put us in a bad position to where businesses that have been here for thirty years plus are being forced. And like mayor Pro Tem said, you're being told what you're going to do. That's not what this country is about. I'm retired army. I took a note to this constitution, and this is not the way it is supposed to go.

Now we're being forced into making submitting a vote tonight, and if we do not, we are going to have to pay a lot of money. And that's not the city's money. I mean, ultimately it is, but that's your money. That's your neighbor's money. It's your parents' money. That's sad. That is really, really sad. And I just want everybody to know that We are being forced into this vote. We don't want to. I think I can Fairly say that the majority of us do not want to.

But I just want you guys to know that. And at this point, it is it is about quotas. We we are having to meet a quota. You've seen the numbers. But with that, I'm done. Thank you.

Thank you. Council member Carla Perez.

Thank you, mayor. So you

know, to go

with what mayor Pro Tem and council member Montoya mentioned, I just wanted either our city attorney or someone else to elaborate, you know, some of the consequences that were mentioned here was lawsuits and suspension of certain local and land use zoning authority. So, basically, the city would lose its local zoning control if we do not move forward with this tonight. So if we can get a little more information as much as can be shared.

I I would be happy to do that. The city does face some potentially very problematic issues if it doesn't pass its housing element. I think I've heard people acknowledge that it's not perfect, but the state really is requiring us to adopt this element. If we don't do that, there are some things that the state can further impose on us. First, as you saw on the slide, the state can impose fines.

The minimum fine is $10,000 a month. The maximum fine is $100,000 a month for not having a compliant housing element. Housing and community development has contacted the city and is monitoring whether or not we're going to adopt this tonight. The state can, through the attorney general's office, file a suit against the city that would appoint a receiver. That receiver would control all land use decisions within the city until such time as the city adopted a conforming housing element certified by the state.

The city would also during that period of time potentially lose the ability to issue any permits, commercial, residential, industrial, or otherwise within the city without having the approval of its receiver. A receiver is essentially would be something appointed through legal action by the state, probably a judge or some other legal officer to make your land use decisions for you. Until such times, we had a housing element certified by the state. In addition, would should we not adopt this tonight? The prior entity CCEA EJ that did sue the city with regard to its housing element could reactivate its lawsuit because we would be in breach of that settlement agreement with them.

That's the the short list of the bad things that could happen to us.

Thank you for that. So, potentially, you know, our taxpayers would suffer the consequences to the government and to organizations like CC, AEJ. And again, it's also not fair to our business owners to be told what to do. So we're put in a very tough spot tonight.

Thank you. Then I'll make my comments. First of all, I think all of us realize that our backs are against the wall at this point. We have no decision other than to make the right kind of decision and that's to move forward with the affordable housing. It's too bad that during the period of time that the legislation was coming up with these mandates that they didn't listen to the local government when they came up with these recommendations.

Now we're faced with having to implement what the state is asking us to do. And we have no choice because we wanna move the city of Rialto forward. In order to move it forward in terms of the future, we have to comply with some of these laws that are in place right now. A lot of us don't like the fact is that there wasn't the outreach that should have been done many years ago. Part of the problem that we've had in the past is that we really have not had stability, which has presented a problem here in the city of Rialto.

I think we've gone to so many city managers. We've gone to different changes in the various departments, and that may have caused some of the notices that should have gone out during that period of time to notify the property owners so they can give their input. But that probably wouldn't have stopped anything because of the state law that comes into place that we have no choice. I understand that we're in an earthquake line in the area and some of these properties are not looking at. But I think the bottom line is that what we agree with a lot of the comments that have been said about business owners property not having to say so and should have had to say so and should have, you know, gotten some kind of notices in advance of what was going to come before us.

But at this point, we look at the possibility of being fined a 100,000 in monetary penalties that could come against the city. And that's money that can go back to improving the city and making it a lot better if we don't comply. So we have to look at how we're gonna use those dollars to as well if we don't comply with the affordable housing requirements that are before us. So it's not just an easy decision amongst us, but we have to look at our future and where we wanna be in the future based on the revenue that we have and the responsibilities. And do we wanna use those revenues to pay a 100 and some zero in penalties continuously?

We don't know how often they would turn around. How often would could they possibly fine us if we are not in compliance, attorney?

Well, the maximum fine

is $100,000 per month until you have a certified

That is housing per month. Per month. That's a lot of money.

And we've spent years trying to work on our housing element to get it certified, so it's not like you're going to turn around in a month and get it done,

and we sympathize with the business owners that are here right now, and I'm hoping that we will come up with some form of an amendment that can come out and extend the deadline. In the future too as well towards that ordinance. Think you know we've discussed a little bit of that, so that would be some form of a relief in one sense to the property owners as well. I don't know if we can discuss that or not at this point. Not at this point.

Okay. So, but I mean, we're we're looking at trying to find a solution also to deal with the property owners too as well, yet at the same time looking at complying with the law. And then also having affordable housing for a lot of our residents in the area that is desperately in need. I I constantly, you know, go to different places and people tell me I can't afford to to rent. I can't afford to buy a home. So we have a responsibility there. With that, I'd like to see if there's a motion.

Excuse me for you.

There's a motion.

I need to let the record reflect that we did receive two letters from two business owners on Foothill, and they was in disapprovement of the housing elements. That's what they're required there for the record.

Right. From Neuro and. And Patricia, well, I guess they're the same persons.

No, it's two different ones. You have an address there, but they both form food here. You have an address at. 1361 West Foothill and you also have the address at

at For the record noted that we received two letters of concerns with with this

same address, but different numbers, but the record need to reflect that I did indicate that we have them.

Thank you, madam clerk, sir. Okay, with that, do I hear a motion? If not, I'd like to make a motion that we move forward because we have no choice in reference to the affordable housing. Second second it. Okay, any other discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I roll call.

Okay, afternoon. But mayor, since you made the motion, want to read the resolutions and the ordinance for me with

the resolution number eighty four seventy three. And then the the environmental review of twenty five zero zero two zero. Resolution eighty four seventy four approving the general plan. And number twenty five one. And The zoning code of 252. Oh, and I skipped one ordinance seventeen Oh, nine. And then ordinance seventeen ten and then 25. One. I think I may have mentioned that. And then Ordinance numbers seventeen eleven.

And number 25,002. Believe those are in. Did I get them all? Okay. Okay. Thank you. With that, then we'll Well,

but I I need to make clear for the record. Let me just go back for the record. For your ordinance seventeen oh9 approving the zoning code amendment number twenty five zero dash zero zero two and requested the amending chapter 18.116 residential overlay of the city, I mean, of the Rialto and the Swift Code to establish a new resident overlay housing opportunity district and to modify permits, land use, and residential destiny to facilitate the development of the housing. That's ordinance seventeen oh nine ordinance seventeen ten approving the Pacific Plan amendment twenty five zero zero zero one requesting to amend the Foothills Central Pacific Plan and establish a residential overlay housing opportunity district in approximately 159 acres of land within the Foothills Central Pacific plan to facilitate the development of housings by reference to chapter 18.116 residential overlay of the Rialto municipal code and the ordinance seventeen eleven approving Pacific Plan amendment number twenty five zero dash I'm sorry, 25 dash zero zero zero two. Requesting to amend the Gateway Pacific Plan and establish a resident overlay.

Housing opportunity district in approximate 20 acres of land within the Gateway Pacific Plan to facilitate the development of housing by reference to the chapter 18.116 residential overlay of the municipal code.

That's correct.

Okay. That's the ordinance I read in. So, okay? In roll call, Mayor Baca.

I

Council Member Montoy. I Council Member Perez.

No.

Mayor Pro Tem Scott?

No.

Mayor and council, you've had a two two vote under your resolution sixty seven seventy three a tie vote is a failed vote.

Mr Mayor, I would make a motion that we carry this item over for two weeks.

Okay, motion's been made that we item over for two weeks. Do I hear a second? Second. Second's been made. Motion's been made by mayor Pro Tem. Ed Scott seconded by councilwoman Carla Perez.

And if I may add a comment, I was here in 2021 when this initially was discussed, and I know that we are in need of affordable housing for our residents. But back then, we discussed importance of location, not only for the residents, but for the businesses. It has to make sense. And for a lot of these areas not to make sense in all aspects, just as, you know, this was 2021. We're now in 2026. This you know again it is important. It is important that we have this available, but it has to make sense and that just, you know, does not sit well with me. Thank you,

so I just want to be clear. So this is coming back for the council meeting in March.

The first

meeting in March

meeting in March. Would we need

to continue the public hearing?

You don't need to, but if there are going to be any changes recommended to any of the documents, then you should continue the public hearing open so we don't have to.

I would make a motion to reopen the public hearing.

Second

motion been made by mayor pro tem to open the public hearing To

reopen the public

hearing. Reopen it. Yes.

Thank you.

So. Seconded. Then motion to continue the public hearing for two weeks and bring this item back. At the first meeting in March.

Yes.

Is this going to put us in breach? I

would rather not answer that question from the dais council member. Understood. There is a significant risk that it will as as much as I can say.

Well, I you know, that that may be, sir, but there's a lot of stuff we haven't been told in this thing. Clearly, what that was hidden and covered up and kept from this council. And I think we have a a right and a responsibility to this community to specifically know what we're voting on and specifically agree with what we're voting on. And I just see too many issues that have been brought up in both the staff report and this that that don't match this presentation tonight.

I completely understand and don't disagree.

And if the state doesn't understand it, then they can do what they want.

Thank you. We have a motion on the floor. All those in favor signify by saying I

I I

any opposition hearing none motion carries. So, it'll be brought back in two weeks or at the next city council meeting. Thank you. We'll move on to tap four.

Good evening, mayor, mayor Pro Tem, and council members. Yaz, I'm running your public works director here for tap four item. In May 2023, the city successfully completed the 1.5 mile improvements, creating a class one trail along Cactus Avenue between Rialto Avenue and Baseline Road. The project transformed the dirt path into a safe, accessible, paved corridor for pedestrians and bicyclists. This item before you builds on that, and through this agreement, the city will install pedestrian oriented solar lighting, along the trail to enhance safety and extend.

Motion's been made by a Carlos Perez seconded by Mayor Pro Tem. No, I think I heard Edward say it first.

I think. I think he said it's it's

seconded by Mayor Pro Tem Ed Scott. Any discussion I just like to restate again, know, want to thank you know Kathy and and Terry Thompson, you know, making the the recommendation that we have lighting there. And I think it's important for the safety of our residents in the area that will be using the trail. That's healthy. It's good, and it would allow more of the residents to participate in that walking trail and and both Kathy and and Terry.

I think it was at about two years ago or a year and a half that about a year and a half ago that they came and and said, look, we need to to make sure that the trail is safe for a lot of our residents that like to walk and a lot of them, you know, like to walk in the evenings and and it when it was getting dark, especially at five, there was no lighting. And for the safety of our residents, I think it's it's good that that we're now taking the immediate action and thanks to the supervisor, Joe junior with his generous donation that will be putting me on the lights and for us just to maintain the lights during the the time that that they're in existence there on on the Cactus Trail. So again, thank you and with that, all those in favor, signify by saying I. I. I.

Any opposition? Hearing none. Thank you. Item number five.

Thank you, mayor. Good evening, mayor, mayor pro tem, and council. The item before you this evening is a request to appropriate approximately $250,000 for repairs to a city owned property located at 119 North Riverside Avenue. This property is known as the Kukas Building. The city has owned this property since 1992, formerly owned by the redevelopment agency and subsequently transferred over to the city to be the owner.

Kukka's Restaurant leased the building from the city from 2000 to December 2023. The building has been vacant since December 2023. The building currently is in need of repairs to the roof, HVAC, electrical, and plumbing systems. There are also some ADA issues in the building. However, the funds requested at this time are specifically to address the roof and HVAC while staff prepares a request for proposal to go out and seek potential operator for that facility, something that would likely be compatible with the Pacific Electric Trail expansion that is currently underway.

With that, I'm happy to answer any questions but again, the request before you tonight is to appropriate $250,000 to make repairs at a city owned facility. Thank you.

Council, you start your comments we have a speaker would like to speak. Thank If you like for me to call her up, I will call her.

Would you call the?

Yes, Anna Gonzales.

Hi council. Good evening again. I just wanna commend, the leadership of the council and the staff for moving forward with these repairs and renovations that are very much needed in our community and just open it up to having conversations of more eateries coming into that space. I know when we lost Cucas, it was a very devastating loss to our community and especially staff who always ate there during their lunchtime. So I commend this opportunity and proposal that's being being brought to you all today, and I recommend a yes vote. Thank you.

Any other comments? Do we hear a motion then if there's no

Move approval. Second.

Motion's been made by mayor pro tem Ed Scott, seconded by Carla Perez. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposition? Hearing none. Motion carries. Thank you. We'll move on to tab six.

Good evening, mayor mayor pro tem council members. The city successfully secured 3,900,000.0 in active transportation program cycle seven funding through California Department of Transportation to support construction of these important projects. This additional $1,000,000 TDA article three will strengthen our funding strategy while positioning the project competitively at the regional level. The project will deliver critical safety and accessibility improvements near seven schools as listed in your report. And these enhancements are designed to close infrastructure gaps between residential neighborhood and neighborhoods and school campuses.

Planning is scheduled for the current fiscal year. The design in fiscal year twenty six, twenty seven, and construction program in fiscal year 2028. This grant.

Move for approval. Second.

Motion's been made by council member Carla Perez, seconded by Edward Montoya. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Motion carries. Thank you. Move on to cap seven.

Thank you, mayor. Good evening, mayor, mayor pro tem, and members of the council. Sachin Chawla, director of utilities. I'm here today to request city council and Rialto utility authority to adopt resolution number eight four seven eight and RUA resolution number twenty six zero four, amending the 2526 wastewater fiscal year budget for an amount of 120,000.

Move approval. Motion's been made by mayor pro tem escott, seconded by Carla Perez. Any discussion? I just like to say that they have brought over $8,200,000 in grant funding for projects. 18. 18.2. That's great. Thank you. With that, hearing other discussion or comments, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposition? Hearing none, motion carries. Now move on to one of our favorite topics. Oh.

I thought

the robot was up at the front.

That was me, sir.

So Tap tap eight.

Sir, I know it's been a pretty tough night for council, but I always try to bring in some new technology for the community. And I think that I really appreciate number one the Ontario Police Department for helping us. We're gonna be one of, of course if you approve this tonight, we'll be one of only two departments in the entire area here, this region, that actually has a robot dog. And I want to talk to counsel quickly about this. This is an amazing tool for law enforcement.

Watch it. It's gonna bite you head. That's fantastic. So

mayor and council, what I'm asking you to approve tonight is the purchase of this Spot robot, including hardware, on-site training software, warranty from Fly Motion LLC, and it's for the amount not to exceed $380,255.82. Authorize the city manager or their designated execute all the related documents.

I make a motion to approve.

Second.

Seconded by Carla Perez.

But I want you to finish your presentation.

Okay. No, I really appreciate it. I think what I want counsel to know and also the community to know is, you know, Rialto PD is certainly trying not only to emulate other departments, but also set the standard. And this tool is truly going to be used for community events, number one. Primarily, you know we've had some concerns in the past with our canines, but frankly this is the future.

I think what council needs to understand, the community needs to understand that in the event there needs to be a tactical situation, this robot can be deployed, it goes upstairs, it can open doors, it can actually do quite a number of things that most people quite may not understand. I will tell you that if there's a barricaded suspect, and I know Ontario Police Department's had at least two of these situations where they deployed the robot dog inside the house and people have just given up. It's a very non lethal approach to solving a lot of situations, and again I'll always emphasize that we'll eventually roll this out at our groundbreaking, but it's going be one of our big tools for National Night Out here in August. And we'll again follow Ontario's lead on this. We're gonna open this up to the community to name our dog.

I think that that's gonna be an exciting time for us to be able to get some kids in local schools. What's that you?

That's the question I was gonna ask you.

What are you going to name? Yes, so we're gonna open this up to the community and some schools and try to get some input, and I think you'll just kinda get a little bit more community involvement on this. But you know it's the future, and I'm really happy that Ontario has shared this with us. I saw this at a chief's meeting a few months ago. I sat in a chair and I told the chief there, we're gonna get one of these in the city of Rialto. So that's it. I don't know what else you wanna show what it can do, but it'll probably grab that in a second. Except

It's too far away. It's not long enough.

No

no. So captain Adams wants the dog to go all the way through the chair the table. Now while the dog's figuring out what to do, I also want you to know that if you push this dog, it won't tip over. So and if it does happen to get tip over, it can actually ride itself. And then again I won't get into a lot of the deployment features with it, but it will be able to deploy a number of tools for us depending on the type of situations that we're gonna be getting ourselves into. And it also does play fetch.

Thank you very much. And I think the statement that's on here too as well, that it provides effective and comprehensive policing service that meets the safety needs of Rialto. And I think that's really the key right here is the safety needs of Rialto, but also of our men and women who serve as well. Because now, I mean, in some of us that attended the the ceremony were able to look at the situations that many of our law enforcement are are encountered with. And having this robot might, know, save the life of either the law enforcement officer that's providing that that safety, or it could provide additional safety for another individual that may get scared of the dog, you know, in a spot.

But with that, since seeing that there's another discussion, although. Edward Montoya Councilmember Edward Montoya

just really quick. You had mentioned and I just I just want to clarify that. This is a nonlethal piece of equipment. So there's no weaponry. I I just want the people to hear it.

It can be equipped, but our goal right now is to keep it less lethal. But we'll be actually to deploy in those tactical situations a lot of tools for us to keep it in that that lane.

Got it. Understood. So my last couple of deployments, we used dogs and various types of robots like this, and they were wonderful. It kept us out of harm's way while we controlled it, you know, from a quarter mile away. And I I really like what they can do. So I'm excited.

We are too. Thank you so much for your support.

Hey, chief. Will that fit in a smart car?

Sir, I I I'm pretty sure that this would probably control your smart car.

I think I wished I had my smart car still. I donated to you for that dog to drive around in.

We're really excited. Council, goes back to 2018 when we actually put a plan together that Rialto PD was going to be that agency. So we've worked with our partners, Ontario being one them. And I think that, you know, with your your guidance, your your your your vision, and your support, this is a much changed police department. It's got tools for the future, and it's all geared around keeping our residents and businesses safe. So again, thank you for all your support that you give us. We much appreciate it, and thank you for approving it tonight.

Thank you.

Thank you to Ontario PD. Thank you.

Thank you. Motion's been made. It's been seconded. Discussions were held at this point. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposition? Hearing none. Motion carries. Congratulations. Thank you. Concludes the items on the agenda. We'll move into council's report. We'll start with Edward Montoya.

Remember nothing to report, mayor.

K. Thank you. Next, I'll start with Carla Perez.

Thank you, mayor. So as mentioned earlier, Friday, we were, invited to attend our police department's award ceremony. And, you know, every day, I'm extremely proud of our department. But during those ceremonies, it gives us a better look on what they do day in and day out. And, you know, the recognition that is given to them, I feel that on a daily basis, they're out there protecting our community and doing everything they can to get the job done.

But, you know, it it's a great event where they highlight a lot of what they do. And I know that there's so much more that is done, and I you know, it must be my motherly instincts, but I just I feel so proud. I feel you know, and anytime I'm there and and I see it, it just fills me with so much joy and and pride. And it's funny because even on social media when I see, like, little negative comments, you know, it it does bother me because sometimes I feel like they don't have the opportunity to see what we see. You know, there was one that kind of made me laugh.

They said, you know, I'm tired of seeing so so many Rialto police officers out in the street. And I said, well, that's the goal. So they must be doing their their job right. So thank you for all you do. You know, all the staff, whether they're administrative, you know, on every level. Thank you for all you do.

Thank you. Next, mayor pro tem Ed Scott.

Thank you, mister mayor. I would echo council member Perez's comments but I'd also like to add that one of the most impressive thing were the videos of the life savings that happened and that Rialto Police participated in and actually allowed people and helped people to keep their lives. So I I was very impressed with that. Captain I think you did a remarkable job. Maybe next year we can work on your jokes.

No, they were good jokes. But you did a remarkable job up there. So thanks for your assistance and help. And I want to thank the men and women of the Rialto Police Department for all their hard work and everything they do. They have a thankless job a lot of times. And we do notice you out there. We see you out there. And we appreciate what is going on. And I also wanna tell the community something. You folks need to slow down.

And you need to start stopping at stop signs and stoplights because you're taking and risking people's lives. And our police department is gonna get more aggressive, I believe, when it comes to running red lights and speeding through neighborhoods. So please slow down. It could be the life of one of your family members that gets lost because somebody runs a red light. So please think before you run a red light. Thank you.

That concludes mayor Pro Tem's report. I'd like to report at this time. As mayor, I attended the senior sweetheart dance that was held at Grace Vargas Senior Center. It was well attended by many of the seniors that enjoyed the dancing that went on. I did take a little step on the side, but I didn't go under the floor At the dance, but I want to commend the senior center for doing an outstanding job and bringing out members from the community to enjoy themselves during a period of times that we look at the Sweetheart Valentine's dance that was held there.

Also attended the nights of Columbus Valentine's at Saint Catherine's Church. That was a dinner dance, and I did dance at that one because I took my wife to that one. So I did a lot of the dancing. I think I may have lost maybe a pound or two, you know, dancing, but I enjoyed it very much and wanna thank them. Also, attended the the West End Mayor's Roundtable that was held in the the West End at in Ontario along with our assistant city manager, Tim Sullivan, that attended it as well.

And last but not least, on behalf of the the council that attended, I'd like to mention their names because they all attended. Anybody takes time to go to an event in honor of the Rialto Police, employees performance award banquet, members from our council, were present. And and I'd like to mention, and I'll start with the the you know, he's already gave a little report on it, but I'd like to mention, mayor pro tem that was in attendance. Andy Caraceras that, was, had to leave, was in attendance. Councilwoman Carla Perez that was in attendance, and then also Edward Montoya that was in attendance.

And and behalf of the the city council, we'd really like to thank the police department and all of the individuals that were involved and those that were recognized, for the awards they received on on that night that were, duly respected and awarded for the service they provide in keeping our city safe. I think as mayor pro tem, Ed Scott mentioned, the the videos that actually were able to witness and see. And I think when when the public sees these individuals that are putting themselves on the line, sometimes we don't realize the danger, that they're going to, whether it's an individual that they try to, well, they did in in one of the videos where an individual was shooting his gun, and they were able to, or rifle, they were able to convince him to drop the rifle and and not harm anyone else, but they could have also been harmed during that time. We needed the the spot dog to have been there at that time. I think that the spot dog may have been able to go over there without having to one of our law enforcements, put in danger.

The other incident that I I we happen to see in that video, and we really appreciate, part of our law enforcement that was able to talk a young lady that wanted to commit suicide, and, she had a gun. She had a gun to her her throat her throat underneath, and she, thanks to the police officer, that was able to convince her to, drop the weapon and kick it away and, you know, saved her life. And, basically, now she might be able to be changed and and go in a different kind of direction with the assistance. And then, also, there was another one that was very touching to me is when I saw a baby, and and that's that goes for everybody. And when, mayor pro tem was talking about speeding, it also pertains to individuals, that have swimming pools.

There was a child that was a year and seven month or something like this, that happened to fall into the pool. And thanks to the, quick reaction by our law enforcement, was able to save the life of that child. And that child now will live, you know, and hopefully one day he'll remember that it was someone from the police department that saved that a was it a he or a she? She? Yeah.

It was a she. That she'll remember the rest of her life that someone took the time to react immediately, pull her out of the pool, and give her r s p what is it? CPR. CPR. To make sure that she got the CPR.

And then there was another lady that happened to the you know, and I wanna say this because the public should should hear that what our law enforcements go through on a daily basis, not just after people that have speeding tickets, but also in conjunction with the fire department. We're able to to look at not just the child itself, but another individual that happened to, I believe, have a stroke in the vehicle and had other kids in back of that vehicle and were able to provide assistance to them. So thanks to the police department and the fire department in reacting and saving the lives of those individuals. And these are a few of many other incidents probably that are unheard of and we don't see. And we sometimes label our law enforcement in a negative way when we should actually be thanking them for the service that they're willing to serve.

You know, and I say our country, but I say our city. And they're putting themselves on the line every day that they step in because they don't know what the reaction of is going to be out there in the community. So I wanna personally thank you. And in behalf of the rest of the council, thank all of you. And that concludes my report. So at this time, we'll move on to reports from Other individuals. I'll start with city clerk Barbara McGee.

Thank you, madam mayor and council mayor pro tem. I have nothing to report this evening.

Of course. Okay.

We

open every Wednesday.

I'd like to move on to our our city treasurer, Edward Carrillo.

Thank you, mayor. Next,

I'd like to move on to our city manager, Tanya Williams.

Thank you, mayor. No report this evening.

Thank you. That's because she said I spoke too long. I'm not kidding. I thought well. Well, next, I'd like to, call on our assistant city manager, Tim Sullivan. K. I can't talk that report, so, no reports for me tonight. Thank you very much. Next, I'd like to call on Eric Vail, our city attorney.

Thank you, mayor. No report this evening.

Next, I'd like to call on our police chief, Mark Lane. Oh, and by the way, at the reception, smile. There you go.

You know. I I would love to tell you a point. Team. And with the department heads. I mentioned that at the night that, you know, I've got a fairly easy job when I've everything comes together, but it doesn't happen without your your input, your support, and of course, my colleagues here at the city.

So thank you all. And chief, I'm grateful that you were able to dig out, but I also want just the community to understand that yeah, law enforcement gets there quite a bit sooner than the fire department on occasion, But all we are is just that initial response and if it wasn't for the fire department, the paramedics, I think the work that we accomplished together, there would be more lives lost in this city. So, we get there, we start it, but all we do is just pass it off to the paramedics and the Rialto Fire Department their fantastic partners. And I wanna thank Chief Jensen and of course all the staff for what they really mean to us and what we collectively mean to the city and its residents. Also speaking of that, I want council to know that it's all about preparedness, and it's all about getting our training together, both the fire department and the police department.

So Friday and Saturday, you're going to see or hear about some extensive training up at Sunrise Church. It's a active shooter training for our paramedics, our firefighters, our police officers, command staff. It'll happen over two days with all of our teams collectively along with the fire department. So we'll put it out on social media. We'll also actually have a lot of signs up there letting residents know we've already made canvassing.

We hear you counsel, know, make sure the residents know. So we've done some canvassing in the area letting question. I'll with with and respond accordingly. So when you hear residents the concerns over the weekend, it's simply training. And I do really appreciate Sunrise opening up their facility for us. And that's all my reports.

Thank you very much. Next.

Due diligence. I received my notice today. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Next. I'd like to call on our fire chief Chris Jensen.

Thank you, Mayor. Just a couple of things to report. We had two of our new paramedics that just completed their EMS onboarding academy. So they're currently working their 10 shift ride outs and then they'll be on the floor performing as paramedics here in the city of Rialto. So we're pretty excited about that.

We also completed our Fire Station 203 dorm project that provides a more environmentally safe and improved crew work rest cycles. So we appreciate the support from the city council on that agenda item from previous. The Fire Station 204 generator project has also been completed. That allows us now to continue to provide service delivery without electrical service interruptions at Fire Station 204. And we're continuing to work on Fire Station 201 Reconstruction to get the crews back into quarters.

The construction documents are now at a 100% permit ready, and at the next council meeting, we'll be bringing that item forward. Lastly, I I just wanna highlight the outstanding professional service, the members of the Rialto Fire Department, as well as Rialto Police Department and our dispatch centers, provide each day. Their compassion and friendly demeanor never go unnoticed, and their actions consistently bring calm and comfort to the community during some of the most stressful moments in people's lives. So I just want to recognize all of them and let them know that we do appreciate the services that they provide here in the city of Rialto.

Thank you. Thank you. Next, I'd like to call on our public works Eaz Amrami.

Thank you, mister mister mayor. I just have one announcement in terms of our household hazardous waste collection program which we operate in partnership with our fire department with San Bernardino County Fire actually. The facility is located behind 246 South Willow Avenue and will be open for hazardous waste drop off on this Friday, February 27 and Saturday, February 28 between the hours of 8AM to 12PM. And we have this program twice a month on the second and fourth Friday and Saturday of each month. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Next, I'd like to call on our community development director, Christina Taylor.

Thank you, mayor. Nothing to report this evening.

Thank you. Next, I'd like to call on our parks recreation director, Cynthia Alvarado Crawford. Good

evening, mayor, mayor pro tem and members of council. Here's what's going on in Rialto. Feeling the funk senior social will be this Thursday, February 26 at Grace Vargas Senior Center from two to 4PM. Rialto Girl Softball Association's opening day will be Saturday, February 28 at Frisbee Park starting at 10AM. Tiny Tots March session begins on March 2 at both Hugh Banks Elementary and our community center.

Classes are 9AM to 12PM. Our Rialto Youth Pony League Baseball opening day will be Saturday, March 7 at Budbender Park starting at 09:30AM. Youth basketball winter season championship will be Saturday, March 7 at Carl Johnson Center Gym from 12PM to 3PM. March swim lesson registration will open up on Saturday, March 7 at the Tom Sawyer Pool, both online and in person. We do have scholarships available for our community to take advantage of, but you do have to go in person to get that scholarship.

And then, of course, your save the dates. The CMEX annual run around the rocks will be Saturday, March 7 at the CMEX Lytle Creek Quarry, 8AM to 11AM. Rialto passport day will be Saturday, March 21 at the city clerk's office here, on Civic Campus from 10AM to 3PM. The spring Extravaganza will be Saturday, April 4 at Frisbee Park from 10AM to 2PM. Rialto on Wheels will be Saturday, April 25 here at the Rialto Civic Center from 9AM to 2PM, and International Festival will be Friday, May 1 at Rialto City Park from 05:30 to 09:30PM and that concludes my announcements.

Thank you very much. Next, I'd like to call on our finance director, Williams. Thank you, Mayor. Nothing forward. Next, I'd like to well, let's see. She's not here. Our utilities director. Thank you, Mayor.

Nothing to report today.

Thank you. That concludes the reports from everyone. If not, do I hear a motion to adjourn?

So moved.

Motion's been made by Carla Perez to adjourn, seconded by Edward Montoya. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Council's adjourned.