City Council - Regular Meeting

We are going to call this meeting to order. Let us stand for the flag salute. For a call, please.

Council member here. Council member Fossey here. Council member call here. Vice Mayor Pimentel here. Mayor Hernandez here.

No scheduled agenda changes, correct? We do. We are moving forward. Okay. We do have scheduled agenda changes. We are going to, um, Postpone items 9.1 to 9.7. For a future meeting, we will move forward with public hearings though. with it as a public hearing. Any council authority member who has a direct conflict of interest on any scheduled agenda item to be considered is to declare their conflict at this time pursuant to government code section 84308 Levine Act. Any council authority member who has received a contribution of $500 or more within the preceding 12 months from a party participant or their agent related to an item on the agenda must disclose that contribution on the record prior to participation in the discussion or decision on the item and may be required to recuse themselves as applicable. Is there any conflict? We have just in time. We have a proclamation for Juneteenth. If I can invite you forward here with me. You're the star, okay. We are very excited to welcome Olivier here to receive the proclamation for Juneteenth. Whereas the Juneteenth observed annually on June 19th commemorates the day in 1865 when Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, and announced the end of slavery more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, whereas Juneteenth represents a critical moment in American history, honoring the perseverance, strength, and contributions of African-American people who endured the injustices of being enslaved, who have played a central role in shaping the nation's identity, culture, and democratic ideals. Whereas the recognition of Juneteenth is a powerful reminder of an ongoing journey towards justice, equity, and inclusion, and encourages all citizens to reflect on a collective past and renew our commitment to building a more just and equitable society. Whereas on June 17, 2021, Juneteenth was officially recognized as a federal holiday, with the signing of the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act, further affirming its national significance and the importance of acknowledging this end of slavery in the United States. Whereas the City of Riverbank values diversity, equity, and inclusion, and recognizes the importance of commemorating historical milestones that reflect the American struggle for freedom and equality, now, therefore, I, Rachel Hernandez, Mayor of the City of Riverbank, on behalf of the entire City Council, and our community do hereby proclaim June 19th, 2026 as Juneteenth Freedom Day in the city of Riverbank and encourage all residents to honor this day through reflection, education and participation in activities that promote diversity, inclusion, and understanding. So we want to thank you again for being here. We met recently through a lot of, I would say, civic activism work that you do through food and your culture. And so we're excited to have you. We'd love to share a few words if you want to. Do you want to come here for the folks online?

Good afternoon, everybody. My name is Olivier Granbonnet, also known as Ollie B. Eaton. I'm a chef, a foodie, a community activist, a nature lover. I recently relocated to the Riverbank area. I just bought a house out here, and I'm very excited to be here. I love the area, and I've felt nothing but love and respect since I've been here. There's no love like small-town love, and I really feel that being here. So thank you again. Thank you so much, Rachel. I think we're really lucky to have such an awesome mayor who cares about her job, and it's very evident in her work. And just to have her so present and so I really appreciate that as well. Obviously, I wasn't around 250 years ago but I know that my people have struggled and I know that we struggle today. I'm not going to dwell on the past I'm going to focus on the future and my goal on this, this planet and my I think my purpose in this earth is to be a positive role model in my community in my family's lives and my friends lives, and, you know, I try to reach as many people as I can with my social media stuff so. Without further ado, I'm going to do what to do. Thank you so much. Everyone who's involved here. I love the city of Everbank and how cool is this? Thank you.

You're going to take a photo with the council right here in the middle.

Yes. Behind. Yeah.

So we have the city logo on this.

All right, next we have a presentation from Sierra House. and Cambridge academies.

Mayor and Council, I'd like to welcome Julia Hernandez, our Sierra House Enterprise restart facilitator for this presentation.

Hello, hello. All right, let's hope I know how to work this clicker. So good evening, Mayor Hernandez and City Council members. It's good to see you all again. For anybody who doesn't know me, my name is Julia Hernandez. I am the Enterprise Restart Facilitator and Daytime House Manager of Sierra House here in Riverbank. I am here tonight to report on all we did at Sierra House in the year of 2025. so it has been some time since we revisited what exactly we do at sierra house so please allow me to give a quick refresher sierra house is divided into two parts our main house and our day use facility our day use facility is the only point of contact for our homeless community here in riverbank it is open monday through friday and provides essential access to showers meals hygiene products clothing and connection to outsourced outside resources to address individual needs. At the heart of Sierra House is our Enterprise Restart Program, which is a life transformation program designed to equip our participants with the tools that they need to become self-sufficient. We accomplish this through our structured program, including attendance of our daily coaching classes, where we talk about how to build a healthier mindset, lifestyle, create new successful habits, and take responsibility for the great lives that they are building. So let's talk about the first component of Sierra House, which is our day center. In 2025, we were blessed to be able to provide 1,968 showers and give out 2,528 meals to Riverbanks homeless community. Of the almost 2,000 showers provided at Sierra House's day center, 1,121 of them were provided to men and 857 were provided to women. We welcomed 63 new individuals that utilized our services in the last year for the very first time. Of these 63 individuals, 58 of them were experiencing unsheltered homelessness, meaning they were either living on the streets or in their vehicles. Our day center is an important resource for those experiencing unsheltered homelessness because for most, it is the only way of meeting their daily needs. As requested, we have also prepared a breakdown of the number of participants that were actively living at Sierra House and participating in our program each month over the course of the last year. In January, we had five residents. In February and March, there were four residents. In April through June, that consisted of three residents. In July, we once again had five residents. From August to November, there were four residents. In 2025, we had two cohorts of men that completed our restart program. During that time, our focus was on developing their life skills, getting them ready for employment, and just overall life stability. There were a total of seven individuals who graduated from our program in 2025, six of which were able to leave Sierra House both employed and transitioned into stable housing. The first three graduates completed their program in early 2025. Our first participant referred to here as DH actually graduated and secured employment at Sierra House as our day use facility manager. He has done an excellent job since assuming this position and takes great pride in serving those in need in his community. Our second participant referred to here as JM graduated the program and also completed his GED during his time with us. He secured a vehicle, a job, and a place to live in New Mexico after exiting our program. Our third participant referred to here as SD also graduated and secured both a part-time job and housing. Four other participants graduated from the program in late 2025 during our second cohort. First here, we have participant DC who graduated and then secured employment in Modesto. During his time with us, he worked on solving legal issues and both studied for and completed a course and training to become a peer support person to support people who have been in his situation through getting out of it. Second, ZP graduated and secured employment locally, then moved into an apartment in Modesto with a friend after working hard and saving up enough money. He grew substantially in mindset and maturity while here at Sierra House, which ultimately led to him also reconciling with his family. Third, participant K.A. graduated and secured employment as a long-haul trucker and is now residing out of state, traveling across the country in his red Kenworth truck seen here that he's very proud of. During his time with us, he learned how to open up and was also able to address some health concerns, which enabled him to secure full-time employment. Lastly, participant J.T. graduated the program and entered directly into a drug rehab facility to continue working on transforming his life after our program. Now to give a clearer picture of the participant experience i'd like to share a brief testimonial from one of the individuals who successfully transitioned into employment. and stable housing of his own, this is participant zp he was a graduate of cohort to who recently became employed has a place of his own and is actually doing very well so norma if you wouldn't mind playing this video for me.

Uh,

Peace be upon you.

So that reflects the type of outcome that the Restart program is designed to support. And we are so very proud of him and the work he put in to change his life and his effort and progress truly does show to everyone around him. Now with each new cohort, we have the privilege to meet and assist people from all walks of life that bring unique sets of needs. We work to ensure each individual's needs are identified and addressed during their time with us in our program. Now, some of you have already been able to meet and chat with my wonderful group of students who are here with me tonight. This cohort of men began their journey with the Restart Program on March 30th, and they have been showing up for themselves in so many ways since then, with a focus on living lives of sobriety, engaging with the community when opportunities arise, as seen here with Love Riverbank, completing their GED education if needed, and making significant steps towards becoming the men they want to be. I'm incredibly proud of how they have been putting in the work to grow and change both their mindsets and their lives. I'm truly so excited to see where this journey will take them, and I am confident that they can achieve the goals they've set for themselves. At Sierra House, we believe that we are stronger together. So we'd like to take a moment to thank our local partners. We thank Kaiser Permanente and Modesto for their weekly food donations. Through their donations that were made available to us, we have helped them eliminate food waste while also providing these meals to both our full-time residents and visitors to our day center. We'd like to thank Debbie and our partners at the Oakdale Shelter Pet Alliance for their generosity in providing essential vet services for the furry friends in our homeless community when needed. And of course, the City of Riverbank, thank you for your continued support. The future for these men and our future participants is bright in the City of Action, and we are so grateful for all of you and the City of Riverbank for providing them with the opportunity to get back on the right path and achieve success in their futures, bringing light and opportunity to themselves, their families and friends, and anyone they meet. Thank you for your time.

Thank you so much. Does anyone in council have any comments? No, we don't typically do.

No, just maybe the graduation dates. I know some of us would love to be there for cohort number three for sure.

Oh, absolutely. As soon as we have a date set, you'll be the first to know.

Appreciate it.

Thank you. Thank you. Item 6.3 of a presentation on bicycling safety.

Mayor and Council, we have Deputy Orr tonight giving this presentation with regards to bicycle safety.

Good evening. I'm Deputy Matthew Orr. I've been with the Sheriff's Office for 11 years. The last 10 years I've dedicated to riverbank and traffic safety. So I'm well versed in the issues here in town. Obviously the hot topic right now is bicycles and bicycle safety and what is going on in town. Sorry, my allergies are killing me. So I'll try to get through this the best that I can. My goal here today is bringing education not only to the council, but the public. We're going to talk about bicycle laws, e-bikes, the different classifications of e-bikes, and also e-motos. They're all three different in their own ways, and they all have rules and regulations that pertain to it. We'll view some current trends and issues that we're seeing actually here in the Riverbank community as we progress through this and kind of give you guys something to think about, right, as we progress. So, why are we here? Right? I think I kind of explained that. We're here to give education to you guys as the council, give education to the public that's here today. We've seen an increase in calls for service regarding bicycles, e-bikes, e-motos, young children, young adults. You know, us as Riverbank Police Services, we want to let the community know the council know we monitor social media we see your guys's concerns we see all the posts that you guys have out there so don't think that your problems are going unheard that we're not doing something there's just times that we can't bring it up you know and we can't talk about it directly you know there's certain things that we have to do behind the scenes in order to get things done um As a result of all this, right, we've investigated actual crimes being committed involving the bicycles, crashes as a direct result, and they're usually involving young adults or juveniles. So what applies to bicycles? As the community, do we know what laws apply to bicycles? Madam Mayor, do you know what applies to bicycles? all everything, every law that you have to do as a driver, you would have to do as a bicyclist, right? So in the vehicle code, I'm not gonna read that whole long paragraph, but it essentially says under 21-200A that we have to obey stop signs. We have to ride in the proper direction, right? We have to come stop at stoplights. There is all rules regarding and regulating bicycle operation, right? And then that will go to continue to regulate e-bicycles, not e-motos, e-bicycles, right? Because e-bicycles will actually be classified as a bicycle when it comes to rules of the roadway. So this is just a definition of bicycle. Again, I'm not going to read the whole thing to you, but essentially a bicycle is a pedal-powered device, right? It's man-powered. We have to pedal that It's got a belt, a chain, and gears. It has no electric assist to it until we get to now what 312.5 in the vehicle code has been created with the release of e-bicycles. E-bicycles have three different classifications, and they all have their own rules and requirements. Some of you may have seen Riverbank Police Services on social media share two flyers, one regarding e-bicycles directly in the different classifications, along with one with e-motos. Each flyer or each classification has different requirements. As you can see, class ones, right, they can't exceed 20 miles an hour. There is no throttle. There's no minimum age on them. There's no driver's license requirement. And if you are under 18, you shall have a helmet. You can ride them on bike paths, trails, roadways, sidewalks are prohibited, right? Sometimes city ordinances would allow riding and operating of bicycles on sidewalks, but typically they are not allotted space on the sidewalk because under the law, a bicycle is actually a vehicle. So again, pertaining back to those roads of the rule, right, they have to or rules of the road, they have to obey all of those rules, which would mean, you know, we can't drive our cars on sidewalks, therefore, we can't drive our bicycles on sidewalks. So as we move to class two, you'll see some of the circumstances change, they now add a throttle to it, still no minimum age, still no license, still have to have a helmet under the age of 18. And they're still able to be ridden all in the same places as a class one. Now, As we move to your class three bicycles, this is the high speed pedal assist. They cannot exceed 28 miles an hour or have that ability. There's still no throttle, per se. You have to be a minimum of 16 years old. There is no driver's license requirement. And everybody, including adults, must wear helmets when operating a class three motorcycle, or I'm sorry, e-bicycle. If you were to crash doing 28 miles an hour with no helmet, it's going to be pretty devastating to your noggin. So again, they are restricted to roadways only. You cannot take them on bike paths, trails, or sidewalks. As we continue, we have the e-motos. 60 miles an hour isn't just a cutoff per se. All emotives, regardless of what they are, are unlawful in the state of California, okay? Emotives are a new thing, right? They're high and rising. They're not like the Zero motorcycles that some of you may have been around that the city purchased or got through a grant for us to use for enforcement aspects, right? Those are actually a legal vehicle and able to be operated on the roadway. They have a process to them. These companies like Sur-On, Tutu, and a few other ones that are coming out, are not lawful, right? They only have a serial number associated with them. They don't have a VIN number, so they cannot be registered. They cannot be legally complied. You might be able to add turn signals on them, right? There's no way for them to be legally registered to be on the roadway. Now, when it comes to e-motos, if they were lawful and allowed, right, you would have to have a driver's license. So these 14-year-olds that we're seeing out on these e-motos that can go anywhere from 30 miles an hour to 60 plus miles an hour because they make modifications to these things, must have a driver's license. At 14 years old, you can't have a driver's license, right? And I don't know, Ms. Fozzie, you're probably a mom if I was to guess, right? You wouldn't want your son or daughter probably on something that could go 60 miles an hour out on a roadway. So it's just something to think about, right? And a lot of these people don't realize that. A lot of these parents, because it's the current trend, they don't see that, right? They see it as, Oh, little Tommy, little Jimmy wants to be cool. He wants to fit in. They don't know what that Emoto does. That Emoto on Amazon says it's safe.

I had no idea that these weren't even lawful in California. I don't know how many people know that, but I had no idea that they weren't even allowed here. So how can they sell them?

Money, right?

So they buy them on Amazon or something?

Yeah. So, uh, You may see some things in the news that Amazon's actually restricted sales to California regarding certain e-bicycles and e-motos because everyone's saying, oh, I bought it on Amazon. Oh, I bought it at this distributor. And now I'm sure there's probably some litigation or liability that's coming back on those sellers, right, for shipping those to California because they're not legal here, right? But just like anything, right, if it is legal or not, it will still make its way here, right? It will still be a potential problem for us to have to deal with, right? And so us as Riverbank Police Services, we are trying to take the upfront and preventative actions before it becomes a problem, right? And we are starting to see that trend. Last year, I went to a conference put on by the Office of Traffic Safety, which I'm actually leaving for tonight. But down in San Diego last year, the Emotos were the hot topic. Laguna Beach, obviously a very affluent community, right? Beautiful beaches. They alone last year, Back in July of last year, we're already up to 150 crashes solely with e-motorcycles. That doesn't include all their vehicle crashes, right? That was just solely e-motos, right? So I actually came back from that conference. I almost skipped out on that thing because I was like, who cares about e-motos, right? It's not going to be a problem. Literally, that whole next week and a half, I was, oh, e-moto, e-moto, e-moto, right? And I was seeing that here. So... Like anything, right? The trend's going to start somewhere. And right now it's starting down south because you have those beautiful beaches, they have the bike trails, everything, right? And now it's all starting to trickle its way up north, right? And we're going to start seeing.

Just curious, what's the hot topic for the conference this year?

You know, I don't know. So they, we'll see, right? I go this year, I did get a little briefing and e-motos and e-bicycles were on there. So we'll see when I go there the next two days, what I get to bring back. If you're interested, right, we can get together and we can sit down and talk about it.

Now, if you find somebody riding one of those, can you confiscate it?

Yeah, so this slide here talks about things on that flyer, right? So the nice thing about e-motos, because they fall under the law as a vehicle, right, an actual vehicle, where, yes, a bicycle does, but bicycles are classified differently when it comes to rules of impounding and certain laws, right? So with the e-motos, right, you would be required to have a driver's license. You would be required to have registration. So that's the first thing right there off the bat that it can be towed for. It's an unregistered vehicle or unregisterable vehicle. Now, if that person doesn't have a driver's license, you add that on top of it. Well, I don't know if I have any other fellow motorcycle riders in here, but to ride a motorcycle in California, you need what? You need an endorsement, right? So even if I have a driver's license, but I don't have a motorcycle endorsement, right? That vehicle is now seizable under the law, right? So e-motos, we have a lot to work with, right? They would be required to have a DOT helmet. They would be required to have insurance, right? Because unfortunately, if they crash into you, if you don't have uninsured motorists, guess what? You're out of luck. So just things to think about as we progress and move forward through our journeys here in town. These are absolutely not safe. They're not good. The only place that they would be able to be ridden and utilized would be on private property. So if you have someone, they're essentially a dirt bike, right? They're just not registrable. for the street. So if you have somebody out in the country that you want to go right on and do all that, great, awesome, great. But they cannot be on our streets, on our roadways here in Riverbank.

But they can't even be tagged as an OHV, correct?

Correct. So I don't know if that will change as we as, you know, legislation progresses. But essentially, right, they are an OHV vehicle. That is what they are designed to do. But in California, there's no regulation to allow them to be an OHV vehicle. Right. So they are basically private property. That's where you can write it. I lost my train of thought. I had something that I was going to go with. I'll come back to it, I'm sure. My brain squirrels. But we're seeing, like I said, the rise of these. It's getting to a point where it is a dangerous concern. And so that's why it was nice to come here and be able to talk about it and bring that to everybody's attention. So regarding calls for service with bicycles, e-bicycles, e-motos. So Riverbank Police Services responded to 87 incidents. We can make that 88 now just as we were walking over here. One of our detectives had a group of about eight kids riding in and out of traffic over on Roselle, causing a road hazard. And so that had to be handled. Most of these issues we're seeing are young adults, juveniles, right? Summer's here. I'm only going to project those numbers are going to go up, unfortunately. There are laws that we can enforce, right? Helmet laws, right-way riding on the roadway. As far as that goes, and we will start taking action on that, right?

In your slides, are you going to go through how we should handle it if we're a driver behind them?

No, but we could talk about that. Absolutely.

Yeah, because I've had instances where they were right in front of me and I'm honking my horn and telling them, move. Right.

I could tell you what I would like to tell you to do, but I could tell you what's not probably the appropriate answer. Yeah. So yeah, so from November of 2025 to June, right, we're at 88 incidents. That's a lot of calls for service for that timeframe, right? That's a lot of time where our resources are being tied up. And you got to think that's just what's being reported. That doesn't include, I'm sure all of you have social media, right? That's not getting posted in Riverbank neighborhoods and anywhere else, right? So just what's been reported alone, we have 88 incidents, right? Five of those were vandalisms, where individuals riding bikes, e-bikes, or something damaged somebody else's property. And that would be with malicious intent, right? Because it's vandalism. Four of those were crashes involving bicycles, e-bicycles, or e-motos. One of the ones I can think of that was, or two of them that I can think of that was recently, we had a young gentleman who was 15, no helmet, brand new e-bicycle, class two, right? rides it, crashes, gets knocked unconscious, gets transported to the hospital, right? Probably a lot of lack of educational purposes there, right? And that's what we're hoping to try to achieve. But again, trying to stress the dangers of these things, right? Had he been wearing a helmet, probably would have prevented the unconscious there. We had a probably 10-year-old, I believe it was, maybe even eight on an e-moto trying to jump a ramp. Car was pulling out from the curb line, right? Not expecting an e-moto to come flying down the road. Hits the kid, kid ends up with a broken ankle and a tib-fib injury, right? So we are seeing that kind of stuff as a result of these. So 80% of our calls for service were due to some kind of stunt writing, unsafe writing, impeding or blocking traffic out of those 88 incidents. And again, that doesn't include what is not being reported, right? As far as you guys as motorists, what I would recommend if you end up in a situation where you're behind them, Call 911 if it's creating a hazard. Call us if we have the ability to get there. We will get there as soon as we can to try and handle the situation. Do not run them over, please don't run them over right as you know, again, I'm going to stay politically correct there on on that. But do not run them over right call 911, we will try to get out there as soon as we can be patient. You know, and do the best you can to be to be safe about it. If you're able to turn off on another side street and take another route, right. Do that it is important, I always tell people no more than no more than one way to get where you're going right so that way, if you do have a situation like this, you can avoid that kind of conflict. Does that answer your question council member.

let's say we call 911 and report it, but you guys aren't coming right away, is there anything like information we should take down that will help you.

So obviously bicycles don't have license plates. Right. So, I mean, you can do a description the best you can if you can remember any of that. Right. But at the end of the day, we don't have any major crime that's occurring that we can do anything later. Right. Because at that point, that's going to be. Potentially an infraction, maybe a misdemeanor, depending what's occurred. Right. And so we're going to be kind of tied up as far as that goes at that point. But definitely, you know, I mean, I've invested personally in my own vehicle, a dash camera. Right. I think nowadays you can't be too careful with the people that are out there. Right. So if you have a dash camera in your car right if that's constantly recording. You can always save that later you can provide that to us, not that we can necessarily do a ton with it, but we can start documenting and seeing like hey, I contacted that kid last week right because What we've started doing is every time we have an incident, we're calling parents and we're making parents come pick them up. We're making parents understand what they're doing, right? That's my next question. I'm not just giving them a ticket and letting them go home, right? I'm making mom or dad or whoever their guardian is come pick them up, right? And it's ultimately up to the parent to parent at that point. So, these are taken directly off social media for somebody that I actually recently had an encounter with. This is stuff occurring in Riverbank. This is going to be an individual riding his bike right towards an RTA bus and veering off last second, right? The next one, again. Your car is parked. Oh, missed that time, right? So that could be your parked car potentially getting hit and damaged because they're having fun. This is, let's talk about things happening around the state due to e-bikes and e-motorcycles. Up there you see this young man, 13 years old, stellar baseball player, right? He was killed in a e-bike or e-moto, it was an e-bike accident there. Fresno. Both of these have happened within the last month, by the way. A 12-year-old was hospitalized back on May 9th after that incident. You can see his e-bike there is pretty mangled, right? Again, these bikes versus cars are not going to hold up very well in a crash. So this is a recent vandalism incident here in town. The victim is a young Hispanic female. That's her only way to get to work, that car. And you're going to see what these individuals do as we progress through the slideshow to her only method of transportation. So before the incident, you can see her bumper is still attached to her car. Car overall, even though it's an older car, looks like it's in pretty good condition. So if you look up to the right, you'll see kids riding their bicycles towards the Honda parked in the parking lot, jetting away last second. This gentleman's gonna now strike the car. Set off the alarm, right? At this point, it now prompts, you can't see all of them right now, but there's about a group of 10 of them that decide they're now gonna play a game of basically ripping the bumper off the car. So as we proceed here, you can see the front bumper completely just ripped off the car. You can see the marks from the bikes, you know, touching the sides of the bumper as they continue to drop it off. At one point, you're going to see in this video where it looks like the one cyclist is actually just constantly sitting down and pushing down pressure on the bumper to continue to get it to fall off. And obviously this is now criminal at this point, right? But there's methods later on down the future that potentially we as a community can look at to prevent stuff like this. i'm sorry but no they don't yeah so here you can now see they're now just purposely going and setting the alarm off tapping the bumper um And at one point during this incident, like I said, they actually touched to it and just continue to push pressure down onto it to rip the bumper completely off the car. Correct. So during this, this is the other part of the group, right? They're all outside the El Pollo Loco patio. You'll see while they're hanging out, They leave quite a bit of trash behind. They were heard swearing, yelling, racial slurs all while they're hanging out on the patio. One of them, the long blonde-haired gentleman, is actually saying they're ripping it off, referring to them intentionally, continuously trying to rip that bumper off the car. During this, they're all playing dice. You know, just... kind of being, I don't want to say a menace, but they're being not the best model citizens. So I will warn, they do obviously use some inappropriate language during this, right? So I will give that advisory, but this is what we are seeing out there with these groups of children while they're doing it. Norma, if you want, you can actually kind of just fast forward a little bit on that video on the bottom, just so that way we can, I think everyone can kind of see the concept of, I think you should be able to on the bottom, if you go towards the bottom of that, be able to slide the bar across. Okay. Okay. Well, so eventually, right, once the final set of the alarm is set off, right, they all scatter, they all panic, and they all take off, right? Because at that point, they've now completely damaged the car to look like that, right? There was other 360 photos, right? As they continued, they were hitting the side of the car, the back of the car, basically damaged 360 to the vehicle, right? I here showed you the more prominent ones that were easy to see. So what are we seeing locally? These are some news articles. The city of Ceres recently recorded 19 injury crashes involving bicycles. Two of them were fatalities. They had around 85 calls for service. And you gotta think that's a much larger city than us having 85 calls for service. We're probably about half the size of the city of Ceres, if not more. And we've had just as many calls for service as them regarding these incidents. So some of you may be aware the city of Ceres actually enacted a city ordinance regarding this kind of behavior to where when there is some kind of illegal activity that is deemed unsafe or dangerous on these bicycles, right? And most of these cities are actually just using technically any California vehicle code violation could result in the impound of a bicycle. Right. And they have impound fees with that right. City of Modesto's series. So City of Modesto was the first one to enact an ordinance like this. It's very vague. It's very open to interpretation as to what is considered a violation. It really gives them the tool to have a lot of. discretion as far as what they utilize it for, right? They're not going out there and pounding a bike because Jimmy's riding down the street with his helmet off, right? But if it's a group of kids, right, and there's violations, they can take that group of kids' bikes just like that because they have the ability to do that under an ordinance, right? It's definitely targeted through a specific group of people that are causing incidents similar to what I've shown you so far, right? City of Ceres, same thing. Uh right next door city of Oakdale uh last week I think it was on their agenda passed a five to zero uh on a uh ordinance right and again we don't have anything like that in place this is merely here just to talk about what's going on in the community and around us um so that's city of Oakdale series um Modesto, I think Manteca is another one that recently did it. So it's not just here, right? It is everywhere. It started, I think, primarily down south, and now we're starting to see the trend continue to migrate north to where it's ultimately gonna become potentially our problem. Okay, so what are we currently doing? Like I kind of talked about before is we are taking enforcement action to the current bicycles that are out there in violation of things, right? Last week, I had a kid popping a wheelie wrong way on Oakdale Road, which is, you know, two lanes in each direction, very busy roadway, straight on to some lady's brand new Kia Telluride, right? I stopped him. I cited him for the helmet violation along with wrong way riding. Right. And additionally, his cohorts all got helmet tickets as well. Right. Because we're going to share the love at this point. Equal opportunity. Right. We have the flyer right that I've shown you in this presentation that shows that. the different classifications of e-bikes, the e-motos. We have it placed in our lobby. I think even the city has put it up on their bulletin boards. We have it in our school system. I've provided the flyers to our school resource officer, Deputy Johnson, right? He's working with the junior high and high school to have that education available to the kids, right? That's important to us because that's where we're seeing the primary age group of problems. So it is getting out there. We do have our annual bike rodeo that is tomorrow night. Right. That's a great time for those of you that haven't been there. Right. It's a time for everybody to get together. Bicycle safety. Usually there's helmets passed out. Right. There's an opportunity for kids to receive free bicycles and a raffle all around. It's a great opportunity for kids in the community. So that's our current stuff. What's currently being worked on, we are diligently listening to feedback. We're listening to what the community has to say as far as monitoring social media. We are, you know, Every time a council member calls us regarding something, we hear you guys. Typically, if you call Sergeant Hickman, it ends up making its way into my office because I've been assigned to traffic for the last 10 years, and I'm the guy. So we do hear you. We start looking at those. We start looking at the other communities. Like I said, if I can't think of a solution for something, I always reach out to my surrounding agencies and cohorts. I'll call series PD. I'll call Modesto PD, right, and say, hey, we have this problem. What did you guys do? What didn't work for you? What could work for us? Right. So we are actively always looking to better grow our community and what we need to do. There's currently no vehicle code that allows the impoundment of bicycles and e-bicycles for the dangerous and unsafe riding behaviors throughout the community, right? So if we were to want to look and to do something like that, that would have to be a later on date, right? A whole nother discussion topic. And ultimately it'd be a collaborative effort, I think, between Riverbank Police Services, the council and the community. And something, you know, if the community and council's interested in, right, we'd have to obviously table for another day. And ultimately we're sitting down and we're analyzing data, right? Like 88 calls for service, uh, in under a year. Right. And we're not even completely at that year mark. That's a lot of calls for service for us. Um, so that's kind of what I have for you guys. Uh, any questions from either the council or, uh, community?

I'm curious. How do the parents react?

Uh, depends. Right. Um, I can tell you I would have never thought to be caught doing anything like that growing up. Right. My dad would have severely taken away and dealt with the issue. Right. Some parents honestly don't care. And that's frightening. Right. Others, I think, maybe put on the facade of caring. Right. But then we literally one of the ones that I stopped last week, one of my deputies rolled up and was like, oh, I just warned them three weeks ago. And they're right back out doing it. Right. Because, again, there's no accountability, no punishment potentially. Right. And so even more why they all got citations. Right. And now we can send them to the court system. And, you know, yeah, they're probably going to get community service. Most kids don't like community service. Right. That's a pretty miserable task for them. Right. But then sometimes there is positive feedback from parents, right? Because unfortunately, there's times where parents don't know where their kids are, which, you know, sometimes I guess is shocking and sometimes isn't, depending on the circumstance, right? But I'd say it's a pretty good mix on something like that.

Are you seeing most of them from the city of Riverbank or are they juveniles from other cities coming here or a little bit of both?

That's a great question. Both. We had an incident up at Panera Bread where we had approximately, I think, 20 riders between e-motos, e-bicycles, and bicyclists. Deputies contacted them. The more disturbing thing is they were hanging out with a 22-year-old that was encouraging this behavior with them. And none of the parents knew where they were right somewhere from Modesto, you know, or northern Modesto area right cycling down here and some of them were here. And one of the kids and not thinking kind of spouted off. Well, we come down here because there's no consequences. So they know that there's no consequences and riverbank potentially so they are migrating their ways here. Right. And so To answer your question, we are seeing both right and I don't know that it's one way or another on. Higher or lower right, but we are very close to Modesto we are very close to Oakdale right it's very easy for people from other communities to come into our Community and cause problems.

So I know this is just a presentation, so I do have a lot of comments, but we'll save that for your... I would encourage you guys to continue doing the research, gathering the information, and do bring this back when the time is right. You've already kind of laid out... Great presentation. I got to watch the Oakdale City Council on June 1st. Great presentation. You kind of laid it out exactly... what the concern is and and what you know what the gaps are here and what we actually kind of need so um as we kind of move forward i would love love to see uh a code ordinance move forward that is focused on education as well uh that being at the at the forefront as well um and yeah so i would love to see some type of code come forward uh within you know sooner rather than later so

I too would like to see some sort of code come forward. I know you said 88 calls for service, but I've seen some of the conversation on social media. I personally have experienced it going on walks with my six-year-old son where older boys are coming at them, coming at him with their bikes, and he doesn't know what to do. So he ends up falling because what does he do? And that creates an additional hazard for our young children as well, and dogs on leashes, off leashes, whatever.

So I'd be curious to see, I mean, that last slide where you said what work you're doing now, to see what information and data you gathered, as was mentioned, so that we can come back again. And I hate having to come back over and over again, but to create a plan around what's next. I have a lot of questions about the data, too, when you come back. I feel like I am less of the wanting to be punitive right away side of it. So it'd be great to hear that information first before considering an ordinance, but to have the idea of moving towards some sort of actionable plan, for sure. Sure.

I think my question on that would be what sort of data specifically are you looking for? Because there's a lot of data that was presented tonight that shows that there is a demand and there is a need for this. The social media comments, I think, alone show what we should progress towards. I don't know why that's so squeaky. But I'm just curious because if we present it, there's data presented tonight, so what additional data would need to be presented? or for them to bring in that regard.

Yeah, I guess I just want to see a breakdown of what those calls for service are, you know, who are Riverbank residents versus not, and the outcomes that have come from it. That is all I wrote at this moment. So I could come back with a couple more questions before you finalize.

I can touch a little bit on that. Yeah. As far as I mean, we could always try to analyze an exact number. Right. But one thing to think about, too, with these calls for service is obviously we get to them as time allows. Right. Based on priority. So unfortunately that while, yes, there's the call for service. We may not be able to accurately track all of who's who just because of, you know, if they're gone by the time we get there or whatever, right? So we can definitely look into obviously any of the ones that we have names and contacts in to see if they collected addresses from the kids. because one of the big things that deputies will do oftentimes is they may not necessarily get the kid's address and that may not get inputted into the call. They will call the parent, the parent comes, and while they might write down that information, that doesn't necessarily get generated into the call unless there's an actual report being written. So that could be a little bit hard to exactly pinpoint, but the calls for service are definitely gonna be, like I mentioned before, the stunt writing, The taking over the roadway, if you will, the wrong way riding towards cars, those are the primary calls for service that we're looking at.

You mentioned briefly too that you're kind of comparing other ordinances and what kind of improvements have happened since then. I'd be curious to hear that too.

Sure, absolutely.

I would just like to comment that I want to see an ordinance as soon as possible, because I have run into this problem. Boy, I'm really loud. But I want the ordinance to do training, but unfortunately, it has to have some consequences. And whether there's no consequence the first time, multiple times, there has to be some consequence for the child and the parent, because the parent has to get that child to stop doing this. I have seen this happen several times because I do live off of Roselle. So I know the dangers and I'm just very thankful that my daughter's not that age and gets involved in it. So I think we need to see that ordinance sooner than later and get those consequences out there so that we're not the area to come to.

Yeah, I really appreciate the feedback. Again, it's a little bit above, some of that's above my pay grade in my head, right? But I know when Chief Ridenour gets back, he's definitely more than willing to help take a look at all this and his information. So, you know.

I know the chief is very interested in this. He is a bike guy. So I know once he comes back, he will be definitely looking at this and I look forward to that.

As Deputy Orr said, and for those of you who don't know me, my name is David Hickman.

Could you use the mic for the folks online?

I'm one of the sergeants here in Riverbank, one of his bosses. So what we're looking at too is we're looking at Ceres Modesto, looking to see what kind of impacts they've had since they've introduced their ordinances. I can tell you as a resident of Ceres, I've been in some of those groups where there have been not 20 kids like we have out here. We're talking two to 300. We're talking where they take over the entire roadway. They shut down both lanes of traffic. Northbound southbound they cause traffic hazards as a sergeant working out of the main office i've actually responded to those incidents where we've had people in the group pulling guns on dry on motorists for honking Adam. Now, some of them been airsoft guns, some have been real guns. But we are looking with city a series. deputy or has been talking with them and city Modesto. We're looking to see what kind of impacts they've had since series has done this ordinance. I know that their calls for service to the bikes have gone down by 20. I think it's 25 or 30% over the last two months. But it is something that we want to, as Matt said, we want to just get it to where we stop it or try to prevent it. And that is through diversion through education. The punitive stuff. Yes, that can come later, but It is something that I think it's going to be one of those things where once one person has a bike confiscated by us, if we go to that route, it's going to spread like wildfire. The traffic stop he had last week with the three, with the one kid who actually some of his stuff was on social media against the RTA bus and stuff. That same child, those three kids that were stopped, there were 10 or 15 more riding towards them on the traffic stop. And he literally heard one of them. You can almost hear it in his body cam. They got to stop and they flipped around and went 15 different ways. They just separated. So it is something that we want to get as many statistics, get all the data that we want to bring to you. This was strictly just tonight a presentation for public service just to remind people, hey, there are rules of the road, not just juveniles. Our deputies at night are constantly stopping people on bikes, no lights, not stopping at stop signs. They just in the last week have arrested like 17 people with warrants that didn't stop at a stop sign on their bike. So it's something even that will spread and it will let people know.

And you've mentioned in previous conversations that you're already partnering with the schools because that's going to be pretty critical for that educational aspect.

He got with SRO Johnson. They gave flyers to all the kids at school. Exactly.

Thank you. So it sounds like we're on the same page about getting a workshop moving forward. That way we can have a full conversation, get some public comment, all of that. Definitely, yeah. Thank you.

Yeah, this strictly was just a presentation just to remind the public, hey, we see it. We hear what's going on out there. We're just trying to nip it in the bud before it gets too bad.

Thank you. Thank you, Deputy. Yep. Mayor, there is a hand raised online. I'm not sure if you'd like to take any public comment at this point in time, given that it is just a presentation.

Yeah, we'll hold off. That way we can have a full conversation. Thank you so much. We encourage the person online to email or call us afterwards. All right. We are in public comment, and if the person wants to continue with their public comment, we can do it there separately. At this time, members of the public may comment on any item not appearing on the agenda and within the subject matter jurisdiction of the City Council LRA Board. Individual comments will be limited to a maximum of three minutes, and time cannot be yielded to another person. Under state law, matters presented during public comment cannot be acted upon or discussed.

Mayor, we have Mr. Michael Christie.

City Mayor and Council and staff, how are you guys doing? Michael Christie, I'm in Crossroads East since 2007. And just a couple things that my friends and neighbors and community advocates over in Crossroads wanted me to ask the Council. The first thing is several of us are in favor of an ordinance for the bicycle issue going on. I think it's a great idea. I thought it was a great presentation tonight. I wish I could tell Deputy Orr that. But my biggest concern with that, we can create all the ordinances and all the new requirements and laws and everything, but do we have enough staff? As we move forward to the 2026 and 2027 city budget, I hope there'll be another, you know, room to add a full-time patrol deputy. because The reality of it is if Wells Fargo is being robbed, the patrol deputy can't go take care of the bicyclists. It's just, so my concern and my friends and neighbors concern is public safety and do we have enough deputies moving forward with the great growth by Sea River Bank doing. The second thing, let's see, I wanted to ask too, I thought Sierra House did a great presentation. What are the critical donation items they might need from the community? If one of the council members it's close with a CR house could get back to me and some of the other members of the Community, and so we can make sure, especially when weather does turn and things get cold in the winter that they have enough. And then I think the last thing. Everybody's talking on social media and asking me about and. I did have this conversation with Council Member Uribe yesterday, but as we get closer to October of this year on Roselle Avenue, if the city could find out from the state about the road work, if actually, in fact, Roselle will be open again going southbound. I mean, I have to say I appreciate the hard work. I drive that way a lot for work, and they're out there five, six days a week. The crew is working. I see the overpass over Roselle now. I know the framing of it is up. But a lot of us, you know, have to go to work in Modesto. They want other ways, you know, or going out to Oakdale. Just, you know, they want to get out of town other than having to use Oakdale Road where there's a lot going on there too with work. So it's closer to get to October if the city could, you know, look into that and maybe post something on social media to the residents. I'd really appreciate it. So anyway, thanks you guys. I hope you have a great night.

Mayor, that is all the comment cards we received for comments in the chamber. Unless there's someone else, we do have Zoom and written comments.

Is there anyone in the chambers?

So we'll move to Zoom. Mr. Hernandez, can you please unmute?

Hi, I just unmuted. Can you hear me?

Yes, please state your name and go ahead.

Hi, this is Diego Hernandez. Hi, Council. Hi, Mayor. Thank you for taking my comment. I wanted to comment on the proposed future ordinances that are supposed to be coming back with more information. One of the things I was asking about or wanted to know about, if these juveniles or young adults are committing traffic violations on bicycles, what would Why can't we just cite that? Why couldn't we just cite them under traffic ordinances? I know a few years back, probably 10 years back, I was pulled over by Deputy Gingrich at the time, and it was for a traffic, it was for a violation on a bicycle. All right, so why could we not just enforce based on the existing laws that we have? Why would we have to make a new ordinance? That would be one of my criticisms that I would make. Take a look at what we could do with the existing laws. If someone is actually crossing the median on the roadway, swerving into traffic and then coming back out, that's a traffic violation. That's something that can be actionable immediately. You know, why would we have to impose a city ordinance that can then be interpreted by each individual deputy in a different manner? Like I said, I got pulled over by Deputy Gingrich. It ended up getting dismissed. And that's all my comment, really. If we have traffic citations already being done, why can't we just enforce it using the existing traffic citations? Why do we have to go with a whole new ordinance? Thank you.

Thank you. Mayor, I believe that's all we have on Zoom. We did receive a written comment. And it reads as follows from Mr. Jordan Davidson. Dear city clerk, please include the following as a public comment for tonight's meeting. I support the city's efforts to develop an ordinance addressing the growing concerns surrounding electric bikes in Riverbank. While e-bikes can be a useful mode of transportation, many residents have observed situations where high-powered electric bikes are being operated at speeds that create safety concerns particularly around children, parks, schools, sidewalks, and residential neighborhoods. I encourage the City Council to consider regulations that distinguish between traditional pedal-assist bicycles and high-powered electric bikes that more closely resemble motorcycles in terms of speed and operation. When these vehicles are capable of traveling at motorcycle-like speeds, it is reasonable to evaluate whether additional requirements, restrictions or classifications should apply to better protect the public. My goal is not to prevent responsible use, but to ensure that families, children, pedestrians and other residents can safely enjoy our neighborhoods and public spaces. I appreciate the City Council and staff for proactively addressing this issue before a serious accident occurs. And that is all the public comments we received.

Great, thank you. We are going to move on to consent calendar items 8.1 to 8.5. Is there any discussion or consideration?

I move that we approve the items on the consent calendar.

I'll second it.

Roll call, please. Council Member Uribe?

Yes.

Council Member Fossey? Yes. Council Member Call?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Pimentel?

Yes.

Mayor Hernandez? Yes. Motion passes 5-0.

All right. We are going to move to our public hearing. Item 9.1, a resolution of the City Council of the City of Riverbank, California, amending and or approving the engineer's report for the Riverbank Consolidated Landscape and Lighting District and the levy and collection of annual assessments related thereto for fiscal year 26-27. We are going to open for public comment. What do you mean? Oh, and the resolution of the City Council, City of Riverbank, California ordering the levy and collection of annual assessments for the Riverbank Consolidated Landscape and Landing District for fiscal year 26-27. We are going to open this for public comment. Is there any public comment on this specific item or online?

Mayor, we did not receive any public comment on this item.

We are going to close public comment and bring it back to Council.

I'll make a motion to continue this item 9.1 to June 23rd.

Second. For a call, please. Council Member Uribe. Yes. Council Member Fossey. Yes. Council Member Kahl. Yes. Vice Mayor Pimentel.

Yes.

Mayor Hernandez. Yes. Motion carries 5-0.

Item 92, a resolution of the City Council of the City of Riverbank amending and or approving the engineer's report for the Riverbank Crossroads Landscape and Lighting District and the levying collection of annual assessments related thereto for fiscal year 26-27. And a resolution of the City Council of the City of Riverbank of California ordering the levying collection of annual assessments for the Riverbank Crossroads Landscape and Lighting District for fiscal year 26-27. I'm going to open for public comment. Any public comments?

Mayor, we did not receive any comment on item 9.2.

I'm going to close this public comment and bring it back to Council.

I'll make a motion to continue item 9.2 to June 23rd.

I second.

Roll call, please. Council Member Uribe.

Yes.

Council Member Fossey. Yes. Council Member Call. Yes. Vice Mayor Pimentel.

Yes.

Mayor Hernandez. Yes. Motion. Carries 5-0.

Item 9-3, a resolution of the City Council of the City of Riverbank, California amending and approving the engineer's report for the Ridgewood Place Landscaping and Lighting District and loving collection of annual assessments related thereto for fiscal year 26-27. and a resolution of city council city of evergreen california ordering the loving collection of annual assessments for the bridgewood place landscaping lining district district for fiscal year 2627 i'm going to open this comment period mayor we did not receive any comment for item 9.3 all right i am going to close public comment bring it back for a motion so i'll make a motion to continue item 9.3 to june 23rd a second roll call please

Council Member Uribe?

Yes.

Council Member Fossey? Yes. Council Member Call?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Pimentel? Yes. Mayor Hernandez? Yes. Motion carries 5-0.

Item 9 for resolution of City Council city of ever been California amending and or approving the engineers report for the landscape and lighting district number one River Cove subdivision and the levy and collection of annual assessments related there to for fiscal year 2627 into resolution of the City Council city of ever been California ordering the levy and collection of annual assessments for the landscape and lighting district number one River Cove subdivision for fiscal year 2627. I'm going to open it for public comment.

May I not receive any comments on item 9.4? All right.

I'm going to close public comment and bring it back for motion.

I'll make a motion to move item 9.4 to June 2nd.

June 20th?

Sorry, June 22nd.

I second. Roll call, please. Council Member Uribe. Yes. Council Member Fossey. Yes. Council Member Call. Yes. Vice Mayor Pimentel. Yes. Mayor Hernandez. Yes. Motion carries 5-0.

Item 9-5, a resolution of the City Council, City of Evergreen, California, amending and or approving the engineer's report for Sierra Vista Estates Landscaping and Lighting District and the levy and collection of annual assessments related thereto to fiscal year 26-27. And two, a resolution of the City Council of the City of Riverbend, California, ordering the levy and collection of annual assessments for Sierra Vista State's Landscape and Lighting District for fiscal year 26-27. I'm going to open public comment.

Mayor, we did not receive any comment.

We're going to close public comment and bring it back for a motion.

I make a motion we move item 9.5 to June 23rd.

And I'll second it.

Roll call.

Council Member Uribe?

Yes.

Council Member Fossey? Yes. Council Member Call? Yes. Vice Mayor Pimentel? Yes. Mayor Hernandez? Yes. Motion carried 5-0.

9-6, a resolution of the City Council of City of Riverbank County of Stanislaus State of California ordering the levy and collection of assessments within the Riverbank Storm Drain Maintenance District number 2006-01 Heartlands for fiscal year 26-27 and open for public comment.

Mayor, we did not receive any comment on 9.6.

Okay, we'll close public comment, bring it back for a motion.

I make a motion. We move item 9.6 to June 23rd.

I second.

Roll call, please.

Council Member Uribe?

Yes.

Council Member Fossey?

Yes. Council Member Call? Yes. Vice Mayor Pimentel? Yes. Mayor Hernandez? Yes.

Motion carries 5-0.

Item 9-7, a resolution of the City Council of the City of Riverbank, County of Stanislaus, State of California, ordering the levy and collection of assessments within the Sterling Ridge Benefit Assessment District for fiscal year 26-27. We're open for public comment.

Mayor, we did not receive any comment on 9.7.

Close public comment. Bring it back for a motion.

I make a motion to move item 9.7 to June 22nd. June 23rd. June 23rd.

And I'll second that.

Call, please. Council Member Uribe?

Yes.

Council Member Fossey? Yes. Council Member Call? Yes. Vice Mayor Pimentel? Yes. Mayor Hernandez? Yes. Motion carries 5-0.

Thank you. Item 10.1, we have a workshop for fiscal year 26-27, major fund budget.

Mayor and Council, your Assistant City Manager, Tamiel Cantor, will provide this report.

Good evening, Marin Council. So tonight, I will be presenting an overview of the proposed fiscal budget for 26-27 for our major funds in anticipation of the adoption of the budget at our next meeting on June 23rd, 26. This is the council's opportunity to review ongoing annual expenditures as well as review capital requests from each of the departments. So what are our major funds? So our major funds receive the majority of our city revenues. They typically are discretionary based on the type of revenue received and provide resources for the primary operations of the city. Our major funds are our general fund, which does include some recreation, our gas tax fund, which is our streets fund, our sewer fund, our water fund, and our public benefit fund. So some notable increases to our major funds in the upcoming fiscal year, we will experience a 10.06 increase in costs resulting in the city contributing approximately $970,000, which is nearly funded by the general fund for our CalPERS unfunded liability. In the current fiscal year, the city did move forward with establishing a Section 115 Trust Pension Stabilization Fund in the amount of 1.5 million. The benefits of this fund is that it increases our potential for investment returns additional budgetary flexibility to arise to address rising pension costs and we can use those funds to contribute to offset annual contributions to this unfunded liability or we can pay down some of our unfunded liability. I just wanted to put it out there. It is an option that council did, we did put in place for when we see maybe larger increases that we could use that to offset some of those funds that are going out. Our insurance costs, go ahead.

Tammy, would you like questions during your presentation or to the end? Do we have a three to five year projection on the CalPERS unfunded?

Of what, three to five years in the future? We do not. Typically, they will give us a projection for the following year. I don't have that number with me. Insurance costs for our workers' comp, vehicle, property, and liability insurance, we're anticipating about a 2.5%, 157,000, 158,000. So we're going to go over the general fund. Our general fund is the city's primary discretionary fund. Revenues are allocated at the discretion of the city council. And some of your primary revenues are your sales tax, property tax, and then general revenues not specifically allocated to other city purposes via council resolution or state law. So what is in the general fund expenditures encompass a variety of our core municipal services are parks and recreation facilities planning building some code enforcement administration legal finance development services and our stormwater administration. So we'll start off first with where's our general fund? So right now, we are estimating that we will end the current fiscal year, 25-26, with a fund balance of approximately $7.8 million. This actually is about a little over 500,000 more than what we were projecting at mid-year budget. The projected ending fund balance includes mounts that have been designated for specific purposes and are therefore excluded from the available ending balance. So what I'm referencing there are the funds that were deposited into the 115 pension stabilization trust and then some proceeds that we received that we sold some land that was meant for a park. And we're setting those funds aside obligated to a future park project. So we are projecting revenues at 16 million. Our ongoing expenditures, 15.2 million. And then our general fund subsidies are at 2.1 million. And then we have a sales tax revenue sharing obligation that's estimated to be 1.2 million in the next year. And some one-time proposed projects and expenditures at approximately 200,000 with an anticipated ending reserve of five million. And when we take out those other obligated funds, the stabilization and the park project, Our required reserve is 15%. That's about 2.8 million. And then we still have a surplus reserve of 400,000. And that leaves us with like 3.2 million of reserve or 17.15%. The projected budget does have a deficit of almost 2.7 million.

So Tammy, if you could back up just real quick. So if you could put it in context, because that structural deficit is, I'm sure we're going to get into that. But could you kind of share the percentage reserve start of the year and then ending projected?

Yeah. So at the start of the year, we are actually, that is about a 46.1% reserve. And then the ending was the 17.2%. Or yeah, 17.15.

But Tammy, to clarify, that starting reserve already includes the 1.5 pension stabilization and the proceeds from Eleanor. Those are not excluded from that.

Yeah, it's not excluded from that. So you would probably be closer to maybe like a 38%.

So, okay, so that was going to be one of my clarifications. I was going to say we're going from 46 to 17, but you're saying we're going from 46 to?

Well, you're not going from 46. You're going from probably more close to like a 38% in the beginning of the year when you subtract out the pension trust fund and then the park obligation.

And we're projected to be at?

Yeah, 17.15%.

So it's 38% to project it to a 17%? Correct. Wow, okay.

So here are some, your general fund revenues in comparison. In our current year, we budgeted 14.2 million and we're proposing 16 million. So an increase of almost 1.8 million. That's a 12.55% change. This is a snapshot of where our revenues have gone over the past several years. Typically, they are increasing year over year. So to highlight some of our major revenues, our property tax, well, first I will say that in our general fund taxes, account for 76% of our revenues. And those are made up primarily from our sales tax and our property tax. So for the upcoming year, we are projecting property tax with a 4% increase based on some of our continued growth and then rising costs in the homes. And the State Board of Equalization is authorized for a 2% inflation factor to our to all county assessors. Then in our sales tax, we have actually projected a 25.02 percent increase. We utilize a sales tax consultant who helps us project out where our sales tax can be, and that's using the data of some of our known oncoming retailers, and what can be expected there. They give us an optimistic, a conservative, and most likely forecast of those. And we typically go more on a conservative side where we are taking the most likely.

So the 25% is a conservative number?

Yes.

Gotcha. Okay.

So over the past years, we have seen some increase in our, obviously our new construction is still going and our regular solar permits. So we've only projected a 3% in our building permits. This is the history of our sales tax. And you can see that revenue has climbed largely due to our increase in our retailers that have come on board. So here I wanna touch to about that 1.2 million. So a portion of our additional sales tax generated within our Crossroads West Commercial Center is subject to a sales tax sharing and reimbursement agreement with the developer. So under this agreement, eligible infrastructure and public improvement costs associated with the development are reimbursed through a share of sales tax generated within the project area. So as a result, not all of the growth in sales tax revenue will be available for general governmental purposes. In the proposed budget, it's estimated to be $1.2 million, and it is within the transfer out in the city council budget. So your city council budget saw a large jump. That is the 1.2 million that was included in the transfer outs of that department.

How much is that tax share agreement? What's the threshold? So is it ongoing or is it once we hit a certain amount?

It's reimbursement of their infrastructure that's there.

But is there a cap on it?

There's a total amount that's payable through the sales tax, your spreadsheet that you... Well, the 50, the percentage of that they... The actual construction costs for infrastructure.

Yes. Sorry, because the developer had two separate reimbursements. I want to say on the sales tax side, I think it was like $3.8 million. $3.8 million.

Total. So once we hit 3.8 reimbursement, then we're done with that part.

Yes.

Okay. So just for context for there. So in my notes, I have that we owe the developer 3.9 million. We've paid 1.2. combined with the 2.67 projected 2027 deficit and reserves declining. So we are on a trajectory actually to wipe out our reserves in under four years, right? So once we hit that 3.9, then it goes away, right? So then we get the full 100%, but it still shows 100% in our general fund, correct? Correct. It shows 100% in our general fund, but we're still transferring out the 1.2.

So the revenues reflect the sales tax that's being collected, and then our expenditures reflect what we have to send out.

Yeah, and just for some context, so when this agreement was set up, we had an agreement, I believe it was like $800,000 was the total amount, right? And so that's what the city council had kind of signed off on. Now with the construct construction costs and everything like that, so this number has gone from 800,000 to the 3.9 million and so that's the that's one of the items that's actually shown in the city council line item that I, I would like to address once we get to that point so.

Well. The 3.9 is not shown in the budget. The only thing that is shown in the budget is the estimated portion from the sales tax that we would be paying out this fiscal year.

Correct. So the 1.2 million is shown in the city council line item, right? That's the same exact thing.

Yeah. So we're showing the contribution for the upcoming fiscal year. And with regards to that developer agreement that was approved in 2019 when Crossroads West was first being approved by the city council and before annexation. And so one of the incentives for the developer was this sales tax sharing incentive, which is why we're now obligated to pay that portion back to the developer. But Yes, it does have a cap. And once we reach the amount owed for the actual paid on the infrastructure, then that obligation does go away for the city. Which was that 3.8 million. Correct.

And this is the first drop of money that we've given them, the 1.2. No, no.

This is going to be the second. Because this fiscal year, we've obviously been able to realize costs or sales tax coming in from the commercial center. So they have been receiving payments throughout this fiscal year. So then after this will be a 2.4 paid.

Give or take. So we've currently reimbursed them 1.1 at this point.

Okay. So then we'll be at 2.3. Okay. Thanks.

So this is just showing you our major fund sources in the general fund. This is 81% of them. Your sales tax being your largest, that 42.4%. Property tax at 13.3%. Our property tax in lieu of the VLF at almost 18%. And then our transfer ends at almost 8%. So here is a breakdown of what our transfer ends are made of. So the general fund has a total revenue from other funds or our transfers in, in the amount of 1.2 million. Sewer and water provide funding to cover a portion of the cost for the city manager, assistant city manager, city clerk, and executive assistant. So they cover, each fund covers 25% of those salaries. um and then the general fund covers 50 of all of those salaries from the public safety augmentation fund the general fund receives 150 000 to supplement the public safety cost um Within our lighting landscape districts, we do transfer $44,000 for administration fees to cover the staff that manages the reports or takes care of, finance takes care of taking in all the payments, processing, and paying any of the bills through that. So that's what that's meant to cover. And then in our CFD district, the general fund receives 60,000 to help cover the cost of parks and storm staff for maintenance within the districts. System development fund does contribute 137,750 annually to assist the coverage of personnel costs in the community development. which is who handles processing of building permits and associated tasks with the development. And then lastly is our public benefit fund. The general fund receives 300,000. This was initially meant to cover the two positions of public safety. It's not quite two positions anymore. It's probably like 1.75, 1.8 position. And then, I'm sorry, one more in the districts for the cost of park staff for maintenance in those districts. And that's where the 1.2 is transferred in from. So next is our general fund expenditures. We're looking at an 11.1% in this fiscal year. an increase of 1.9 million. And that largest increase is in your transfer outs, which is your 1.2 million for your sales tax sharing agreement. So this is your general fund expense overview.

It's just- Sammy, if we could go back one slide. So this is the city council line item that I pointed out earlier. Is there a way, because it kind of shows the city council receiving $2 million. In my eyes, it's kind of misrepresenting a little bit. Should that line item not be under like an economic development or a transfer out for that development payment?

So also within that city council is the transfer outs for subsidies for your Sierra House and LRA.

In the city council account?

yeah in so that what those are totals within those departments so. Because those are subsidies that the Council has authorized that's why they were put into the city council department, because those are our departments and how expenses are split out.

Because, I mean, to me, I'm not the expert. You guys are the experts. But the $1.2 million transfer out to a developer, to me, is economic development. And it really should not be in that line item. But that's just my opinion.

Okay. So you said LRA, any authorized subsidies, essentially. So the $2 million that we approved or whatever it was a few months ago where we subsidized Parks and Rec and then

couple of other equipment that's all incorporated into the city council number not all of it um just the three the sierra house the lra and then this sales tax um sharing is in the city council there is a recreation line or department and the recreation department shows um the subsidy within it

Okay. I think for me personally, and council can agree or disagree, but I'd like to see a breakdown of the council specifically on what's included in that 2 million. Just, I mean, just specific what dollar for dollar is. Cause I mean, it's public information, what we're getting paid. So there, there seems to be a gap in the public eye. And I mean, for me too, and I agree with what councilman is saying is that it does look like an astronomical number. But we just want to see where exactly it's going, and that way the public can see it as well.

So typically when we do this is a much broader presentation. When I bring the council back the full budget, there will be included a breakdown of what is in there. We'll show what salaries, what other expenditures are in the city council and transfer outs. Okay, cool. Thanks.

Uh-huh.

So again, this is just a snapshot of where, how the expenses are split out between different categories. Law enforcement is your largest contract or category there at 39%. And then your next would be your salary and benefits at 27% or almost 27%. So included in this proposal is what our labor agreements include. So for our miscellaneous unit, we do have a two-year agreement that was adopted in September of 2025, which included a 4% COLA adoption and then a 3% in July of 2026. And that 3% has been incorporated in this proposed budget. The contract does expire in June of 2027. In our mid-management, there is a three-year agreement that was adopted in January of 26. Included in that at adoption was a 4% COLA, as well as a one-time non-PERSABLE lump sum payment of $1,000 per employee. And that was to be applied once in January of 2026 and then in July 2026. And in January 2027, this group will receive a 4% COLA. And, and all of that has been included in the proposed budget and when we did our class and compensation study that was adopted in April of 2026 accepting and implementing the studies recommendations at that time implementation was approximately 211. 264, and all of those recommendations have been incorporated into the proposed budget. So some of our other personnel costs is our PERS, the unfunded, the 10.06%, and then what's been included in the proposed budget is an anticipated 10% in our health insurance costs. um that would be that would come in january so it's completely an estimate at this point um it does include in our personnel budget a promotion from a construction inspector one to a construction inspector two um And there were additional staffing requests that were submitted during this budget process. However, due to budget priorities and the city's commitment to trying to maintain our long-term fiscal stability, they have not been included in the proposed budget. So the deferred staffing requests include a deputy city clerk for administration, an engineering tech for development services and admin, administrative clerk for finance, planning, building, and code enforcement, and then a recreation and event coordinator in recreation.

Tammy? I would like to have it considered that we re-include the deputy city clerk. City clerk has asked that this position be filled for the last year. This also has been on our strategic plan. The city clerk has taken on the youth council. This was our first year with it and has done an excellent job. She also has elections coming up and doing all those duties on top of her regular council agenda activities. So I'd like to see this added back in. Not sure what the procedure is, but.

But the procedure would be same as with other items is direction by a majority of the city councils. Do I ask for a vote or a motion or anything?

No motion. You would just provide direction. I'd like to direct my fellow staff members to or my fellow council members to move that we add this deputy city clerk back into the budget. Thank you.

I mean, I would be interested in seeing each of these positions. And some sort of like justification for public viewing it'd be great to have that a following meeting I don't know what step is next, but I mean they're all very important and we do need a deputy city clerk, but I think I would like to see all four of these side by side.

I agree with that. putting job duties side by side, so that we can kind of see overlap and where the opportunities are.

Okay, so next I have covering our law enforcement contract. For this fiscal year, we are looking at a 4.6% change in our contract salary and benefits of a 4.5% increase. Vehicle replacement costs are up 3%, and then dispatch services, 8.65%. But the overall budget for the public safety law enforcement is increased by 3.74%. So the 4.6 at the top there is just the contract only.

Yes. Does this 911 include any changes that they're going to make, any costs reflected in that?

No, because at this time, there has been no decision made on whether the county will move to a different dispatch center. Our expectation at this point in time is that we would continue with SR 911.

Okay.

On the pie chart on general fund expense overview, it says law enforcement contract is 7.3 million. But on the This slide that you're on right now, it says it's moving to 6.9. So is it 6.9 or 7.3?

So the 7.3 is the total cost that is being allocated for public safety. So we have other expenses outside of the contract. So the 6.9 is strictly the contract.

With the sheriff's office.

With the sheriff's office, yes. Thank you. Mm-hmm.

Yeah, with the law enforcement, something that you have seen on our consent calendar today was the approval of the Special Investigation Unit. So obviously that is an outside contract independent of the law enforcement contract. In addition, we used to have a police, Riverbank Police Services that was city staffed. And so we still owe PERS for some of those employees that are still able to take advantage of their retirement through the city because they were Riverbank Police Services at that point in time and city employees. So those are costs that we still contribute to that are also allocated to the sheriffs or within that fund or account.

And we have some of our cameras that are paid through our general fund to the majority of the cameras are paid through the public safety fund, but some of them are paid through general fund as well, some of the most more recent ones that were added. So not included in this proposed budget is an additional deputy position for patrol. which was part of the plan that was presented by chief right now are in January of 2026 for this additional deputy the cost would be a total of 285,000 that would be a 160,000 350 for the salary a 113,000 734 for vehicle purchase and then 11,000 for some one time cost.

And the vehicle purchase is a one-time cost as well, correct? So then the ongoing expense would be the $160,350 because that's their annual salary. Yes. Obviously I'm supportive of this. I think it should have been included in budget, but for obvious reasons, that's why we're doing the workshop. But we heard it tonight. There is a demand and people want the law enforced traffic citations issued, and we can't do that without more people on the street. So for me, I support

efforts in getting um another deputy in our budget and i'll just i'll just echo what uh councilmember call said plus all the uh additional development that we're seeing the population growth as well so i'd like to second this one as well

Okay, so next we'll head to our capital expenditures. For this year, we are projecting about $120,000 in capital expenditures. It is a decrease. That difference is completely not right up there. Sorry about that. You know, you look at these things so many times, you think you should catch everything and it always something pops up. So I apologize for that. That is obviously not our difference. I think our difference would probably be more like a hundred and 50,000 or 60,000. So the decrease change might be that 28%. That could be pretty close. Maybe more closer to a 50%. So, but what that includes in that 100 and almost 20,000 is the ADA improvements of 50,000. And we leave this in our budget every year for those areas that might arise where we are having issues and needing to make some immediate repairs to potential sidewalks or something. Our computer components, this is an annual program that we do to keep our computers up to date. playground maintenance and part replacement, 21,000, city hall north and south, equip them with a FOB access, a new workstation and administration for the HR analyst, and then a carpet cleaner was requested. So some of our one-time expenditures are city council governance training. So this training would provide guidance on governance, best practices, roles and responsibilities, ethics, and effective collaboration between elected officials and staff. And then we have our executive management team building. This training's intended to strengthen communication, collaboration, and coordination among executive staff, supporting effective leadership and efficient delivery of city services. Then we have our muni permits system improvement. So this is an overall improvement to our building permit system that we use. It's our permitting system, but it's also our tracking system for our code enforcement as well. And then the next would be our muni permit web portal. And that is to create a public-facing web portal that will allow residents and developers to submit applications upload documents request inspections and track permit status online so obviously making it more convenient for not only our residents but it would help alleviate some of the um follow-up with staff that they they're needing to answer those questions for The Cassell Community Connect Payment Portal. So this is through our current financial software, Cassell, and it is a new payment platform for them. This platform will directly replace our current platform, Express Bill Pay, which Cassell is transitioning away from. Migrating to this platform will maintain our system integration, reduce manual processing, improve operational efficiency, and enhance customer payment experience. And then we have our open government disclosure studio. It is upfront a one-time cost setup cost. This platform will assist with the preparation of our annual audit, quarterly financial reports, and other recurring reporting requirements. This will improve reporting accuracy, streamline report preparation and reduce staff load. There is an ongoing annual maintenance for this of 29,000, almost 30,000 a year as well.

Tammy, do you guys do like annual performance reviews for these kind of like softwares? So for like OpenGov, it'll be a total of like 48,000 moving forward. So do you guys kind of do that annually, kind of make sure we're staying with the new technology?

Yes, yes. And so with OpenGov, they actually have recently joined with another company. competitor so they've actually merged so they they're this is a new um studio to them the financial side of it is new to it so um they are increasing their abilities as well within that software but yes keeping mindful of what what we're getting from it thank you mm-hmm

And the same goes for our mini permit system. I've shared that that is a customized system for the city. So we're not seeing continuous updates to that, you know, we request updates. But we want to do this major overhaul to be able to allow for the web portal access, which I think will significantly benefit both staff in terms of how quickly we can process those permits and also for our residents to be able to see you know where their permits are at at that point in time what inspections have been already scheduled etc so certainly improve efficiencies for our building and planning and development services department for the muni permit system are fire and police going to have access because i know in other jurisdictions where i deal with similar software fire when they do their uh

Extinguisher inspections or any sort of inspection there they actually have access to invoice us through that so is that going to be a part of that or is that still going to remain separate.

That will still remain separate as we are technically all separate entities, and so the difficulties is we're all on different networks.

So these expenditures here, we are proposing them from our facility improvement fund, and they won't be coming out of the general fund. So this is a set aside fund from our facility rentals. So when somebody rents a facility, there is an amount to be set aside for future maintenance. So these expenditures were proposed. They fall within those facilities that are rentable and do the set-aside. So we're proposing them to be taken out of that fund instead of the general fund. A community center camera security system, $6,500. The Scout Hall camera and security system, $4,300. And then Scout Hall reflooring for almost $16,000.

My question on this was, we currently use Bay Alarm. How long is our contract with that? And if we did invest in new Cameron security system things, would they be able to be used with another company under the circumstance that we did not renew with Bay Alarm? So that was kind of my question before we spent $10,000 on equipment.

So each one of these would be a new contract and I think typically Michael I don't know if you recall off the top of your head might be three to five years. But usually these types of systems do not transfer over to a lot of times you're actually leasing the equipment, so they would actually come and remove it and take it with them.

So there were some other capital expenditures that were requested, but again, we're not included in the proposed budget. Parks has requested a backhoe that's at a $77,000 cost, repainting City Hall North, 30,000, repainting the community center gazebo at almost 21,000, and then City Hall North and South security system upgrades at almost 13,000. And again, those were not included into the budget.

They are deferred.

So here is a slide that breaks down our general fund subsidies. And the recreation and community center are shown within that recreation department. So for this proposed budget, we are proposing $869,445 for public housing. the recreation, which is actually a decrease from the current fiscal year, 7%, 65,000 almost. And then neighborhood improvement, While we do get some funding through public safety for code enforcement from the public benefit fund, it's not enough to cover both of the positions within that department and other costs. So we are proposing $200,000 subsidy for that one and that is almost $43,000 more, 27%. Community Center actually is only needing a $15,000 subsidy and that's a reduction of $20,000. Our gas tax, our streets, we are proposing $448,000 That's just a slight 2% increase over what our current fiscal year is. And then Sierra House is $361,000. This is an estimate. I did not have a full budget from them as of the time when I prepared this. And then the LRA was an estimate as well. It might slightly be off. We may be at 243, 245 on that one. But that's what makes up the subsidies of the 2.1.

I can make a couple comments. So shout out to Recreations, Michael, Parks and Rec, dropping 7% there. That's a pretty huge number. For my question, that's probably... Not something you can answer now, but for the neighborhood improvement saw the largest increase for 27% so are there grants partnership opportunities there we can address you know the the subsidy need from the general fund. would be a question I don't know if you can answer that now or for future so just wanted to shout out those two and then for Sierra house for just for context. I don't believe it's showing the PLHA subsidy in there as well. So it's going to be covering $206,000 this year, $155,000 next year. And then by 2028, the PLHA is gone. So the general fund will have to pick up the entire thing. So that's just context for the general fund and how the subsidies are impacting that. So that's it.

So these are our transfer outs, which our fleet is a whole separate fund. It's our fleet mechanic that's at Public Works. So as a portion of recreation and code enforcement city vehicles that they maintain, We transfer out almost 44,000 to fleet. And then this is where the sales tax cost sharing agreement is being shown for the transfer out of the 1.2. So the total subsidy and transfer outs in the general fund are almost 3.4 million.

And just for clarification, because I probably said it twice already, but I'll say it a third time, right? This is the city council line item, correct? This is the one.

That is part of it. It's that 1.2.

of the two mill.

Whoops. 1.2 and then the LRA and the Sierra house are also included in that number.

Thank you.

So we'll touch a little bit on some of the recreation fund. It's primarily supported through the general fund subsidy and below are some maintenance and facility improvement projects. Most of them are related to the community gymnasium. We do have a joint use agreement with the school district and the city is responsible for 50 percent of the eligible maintenance and repair costs associated with the facility. The school district has let us know that the gymnasium needs maintenance to its restroom drain. These are half the cost. Exterior light replacement, the gymnasium wall seal and paint, gymnasium door crash bar replacement. We have also been informed that the HVAC system is nearing the end of its useful life. And we were given some replacement ranges between 34,000 and 36,000. That would be the city's portion. But that has not been included in the budget. So there may be a time of that if we need to come back to the council on that one. And then crowd control barricades is not part of the gymnasium, but as we have continued to do more events, it's become necessary to get some additional barricades for those events. Okay, so now we're gonna go into the gas tax fund. So the gas tax fund is monies that we receive from the state of California for the excise tax on gasoline, diesel fuels, and sales tax on these fuels, and some vehicle registration fees. So in this year, we are projecting an increase in our revenues of 3% and increase in our expenditures of 4.8%. For fiscal year 26-27, there was a slight increase in the actual gas tax revenues of 1.6%. These funds support our street maintenance operations, and then any of our SB1 monies that we receive go to infrastructure projects or our street projects. So within this proposed budget, there is a promotion of an existing staff member from a maintenance worker one to a maintenance worker two. The position is split between streets and sewer, so it does show up in the gas tax, and you will see it in the sewer as well. So ongoing structural deficit primarily attributes to rising costs for supplies, materials, maintenance activities. which have outpaced the available revenues. Again, what we're projecting as a shortfall here is the $448,000 covered by the general fund subsidy, and it's about a 2% increase from the prior year. So now we're going to go into our sewer fund. So in our sewer fund, Majority of our revenues are from user fees, and we projected a 4.1% increase in revenues based on rate adjustments, trend growth, and prior underestimates. So in our expenditures, we're projecting a 10.61% increase, primarily due to the additional personnel costs and then increased in services and supplies. Personnel updates. This is that maintenance worker 2 promotion, so half of it is here in sewer funds. We have some capital projects or equipment. We have a replacement of a UTV for the wastewater treatment plant itself. The other, we had a 2002 or 2003 UTV that has been surplused and sold. We have 100,000 in there for SCADA radio upgrades. Some system repairs and upgrades, 45,000. And then sewer line replacements. Both of these are carried over. Sierra Patterson Alley, 1st to 8th. And Sierra Stanislaus Alley, 1st to 3rd. let's. um transfers out um in the gas tax fund so i'm sorry in the sewer fund um there is 1.6 million that is being transferred out some of this is within other sewer funds so um as we noted in our transfer ends for general fund sewer and water pay a portion of the administration salaries. So there is the transfer out of almost 219,000 to general funds. And then because the revenues are rates that we collect, all go into our operating fund. We transfer out revenues that are meant to cover for our debt service. So we transfer out $622,000 to the debt service fund. And then a portion of those revenues are meant to go to capital fund, so for our ongoing maintenance of our lines. So that's the $800,000. So really outside of the sewer funds, we're only transferring the $219,000 for the general fund. We did have some additional capital projects and equipment requests that have been deferred and not included in this budget. An aerial truck, boom truck that would be split between sewer, water, and potentially could be split between the gas tax street fund. It would require a $60 deposit and then it's a $2,800 monthly lease for that vehicle. Aeration basin sludge removal, that's about $300,000. This needs to be done every two to three years. On our 2003 ag tractor, we have been experiencing ongoing maintenance issues. That replacement is estimated to be around the $950,000 mark. And then equipment and vehicle storage coverings at 65,000, which would be split between sewer and water funds.

Tammy?

Yes.

On the aeration basin sludge removal, when was the last time that was done?

Okay.

I'd like to see that added back in, as I think that's something that we need to have done at our wastewater treatment plant to keep it flowing like we want it to be. Thank you.

Cody, could you provide us some more context to that, if that's okay, is now okay, since we are kind of giving direction? That was, I was going to ask this. I was kind of curious.

We call them T1 and T2, the two treatment basins at the treatment plant. They do get a sludge accumulation building up in them over the years, and it is a routine maintenance item that needs to be done every three years or so. So what it would entail is a company coming in with a dredge and a pump, and they would suck the material out, dewater it, and haul it off. So what it does, it does actually, if you don't do it, what happens is that sludge accumulates, and it basically swallows up the treatment volume of the basin. So instead of having the full, let's say 6 million gallons of treatment volume, the more it builds up, that could reduce down to 5 million, 4 million, and it reduces the actual treatment abilities that you have at the plant.

Just kind of curious why we haven't done, so it says there every two to three years. Just kind of curious why we haven't done it every two years.

It was done in 2018, and I believe it was 2018. It could have been a little bit before then. But it was done, and there wasn't a lot removed because of the Schneider project that took place beforehand. There was some cleaning that took place then. So we do probably an annual sludge judge. It's where you turn the air off probe it and you see how the sludge accumulation is in the basin and it is starting to accumulate to a level where the solids are starting to wash out into other processes.

I would like to see this added into their budget.

I'd like to see it added as well.

Thank you. Okay, so now we're going to go to our water fund. So in our water fund we've projected a 6.5% increase in revenues. Primarily that's just driven from some customer growth and then expenditures 2.7%. And as you have heard me say, we've had no rate adjustments since 2019. We did go through an RFP process. We have completed that. And at the June 23rd meeting, I will be bringing back an item to award the contract to a consultant. Expenditures, the 2.7, primarily personnel costs and increased services and supplies. So included in our personnel cost was one promotion for a scene for a water distribution operator to to a senior water distribution operator, we did defer one position, which is the water meter technician. Based on the. And level of funds available within the the water funds and we have left that out and thinking that we should probably wait until we go through and our rate study and evaluate. Where we might be because this fund is projected to be in a deficit for an inner operating. So our transfers out in this fund and similar to the sewer fund that goes to the general fund management fee and then included in the rates is some capital funds that are transferred to the water capital fund of 250,000. So what has been included for capital projects and equipment is some SCADA software upgrades. chlorine equipment for multiple well sites, tree removal at two well sites due to safety concerns, interior inspection, cleaning of two water storage tanks, Second Street water storage tank exterior painting, and then our annual rehab of 85,000.

And then I guess just a clarification for the audience. So you mentioned the waterfront's already projected to go negative next year, correct?

This year, yes.

Next cycle. So these expenditures are legally required, right? Like we have to do these, right?

Correct. These were items that we felt we need to continue to do to be able to stay in compliance with the state. Or safety reasons for the trees. Deferred capital projects and equipment, the aerial truck, as previously spoke about in the sewer. While seven, the request was for a vault to be able to access chlorine lines. Right now, they're having to go through like a small box, a 36 by 20. Some 36 by 24 box like a meter box, instead of a vault to access those so this was for that and then second street water storage tank some fencing and then the equipment and vehicle storage covering so again, none of those were included in this budget. So we are at our public benefit funds. Um, so, um, with this fund, we have projected an 8.5% increase in our revenues and a 2.4, 5%, 4, 4% in the expenditures. Um, this fund supports public safety police code enforcement. And any Community benefit projects and primarily we've been using the fun to. help with the police code enforcement and then we pay for a lot of our cameras through this fund as well, the street cameras so our current revenue sources come from flavors can arise off the charts and E and J distributors and. As I just covered, we the ongoing expenses are the sheriff's law enforcement contract code enforcement and the city's camera system. So that is all I have for my presentation. If there's additional questions, I'm happy to address those. But what we are looking for tonight is direction for this budget, and it would be brought back with those changes for adoption at June 23rd. Tammy. Tammy.

I didn't notice anything in here about any grants or anything that we are hopefully going to get, which I understand right now we're not eligible for, but could that be included in the next one as possibilities to reduce budgets, especially like Sierra House? I think we usually get a grant.

And grants for oh good yeah so for Sierra house, we have the PLA che that we did allocate to that and so at this time we haven't received the formal agreement that will allow us to access those funds we're just waiting on that to be able to actually. count them as revenue being able to come in.

So I think that would be good for us to see the possibility of those things coming through once we get everything squared with the state. Thank you.

Are there any more cons or questions?

So I'll just make just kind of like a closing comment. So it was a little concern. So last year, our general fund reserve was around over 50%. Then we got into 46.1%. Now we're saying 38 down to 17%. So it is a little concerning there with the structural deficits. We're clearly spending more than we're bringing in. The Crossroads West obligation, the 1.2 mil, the rising CalPERS costs that you mentioned, the $900,000 PLHA cliff ending in 2028. The water fund already projected to go negative next year. So we definitely have to act. So fortunately we do have our budget advisory committee being restarted. So our first meeting is scheduled for July 22nd. So I would like to see the structural deficit, the reserve trajectory that we just mentioned and that upcoming funding cliffs kind of front and center on the agendas. So we can kind of build on four year, 2027, 2028 budget. So thank you.

The other comments or questions move to public comment, are there any comments from the public.

yeah.

Mayor, I do have one on zoom and if there's anyone on the Chamber that wishes to speak. i'm starting christy we'll start with the Chamber.

My question is about the i'm Sarah house when the PLA chair money runs out, do we still have the 1.5 million from Senator Eggman. Or was that spent on another project? Could that be used towards the Sierra house to help them out after 2028? So that was, that was just my only question if that money is still available, if that's what that's supposed to be used for. I know that was, there was talks about using the 1.5 million back in 2024, 2025 about the project on morale, the tiny home project. Thank you.

So the Council did provide direction to issue a notice of funding availability to affordable housing developers to be able to allocate that $1.5 million to them. We did issue that notice and we received two applications and that we're currently are under review so eventually that will be allocated to one of those two developments.

If there's no one else in the chamber, we do have one on Zoom. Mr. Hernandez, can you please unmute?

Yes. Hello, chamber. Hi, my name is Diego Hernandez. Thank you for taking my comment. I had some concerns with the budget. Luis has been bringing it up consistently. Thank you for that. The reserve requirement is 15% for the city of Irving. We will be down to 17%, but we can also say safely that unless we raise revenue, we are going to be below our reserve requirement. So if spending continues the way that it is now, as in we continue forward into full year actual 2028, we will not have a reserve anymore in the general fund at all. And then people are saying, like, add this back in, add this back in, you know, continue with these promotions, you know, LIUNA agreements. This year, in my opinion, is the year when the city needs to take the bull by the horns and then start to rebalance the budget as best as you can. You see what's happening. We can see it down the road. It's not too far down the road. It's one year. the city is going insolvent with its reserve requirement, right? That's exactly what we're looking at. You just take a look at the sewer enterprise fund. I think on the mid-year adjustment, it showed that we were only gonna have a net of 17,000. That's not even including the wastewater treatment project, which is still in flux, meaning we're barely even covering the fund itself after we've done all these rate increases. You can go department by department in full year 2024 when the general fund began to offload its employees onto the enterprises, right? So when the employees that were covered by the general fund that were working intra-departmentally, you know, working in finance, working in public works, working, you know, we begin to offload those into water. We begin to offload those into parks. We begin to offload those into sewer systems. and then we're still facing deficits. So that's why I would say this is the year I think we should take it more seriously. And if we need to go back and redo the budget as before you presented on June 23rd, we should do it now because we will not have any reserves in the general fund whatsoever. And there's other cities that have actually taken a different format. I think I continue to bring this up every time we have this conversation, but the city of Ripon has opted in a completely different path. And that's actually for the general fund to cover those employees, not to start offloading them into the enterprises. And we've did that. Like I said, in 2024, we offloaded the employees where now the individual enterprises are paying for them. And even then we're deficient. So if we're saying, The water fund is deficient. We have an RFP, which the citizens of Riverbank have not seen because we haven't presented it to them. If you go back and you look at payroll benefits, salaries, et cetera, for the water fund and you see the increase from 2022 until now, well, there's the increase itself. We also have to look at other things like the utilities that we're supposed to be saving or trying to break net even.

Thank you, Diego. We're out of time. We appreciate it.

Thank you, Diego. Mayor, that is all I have on Zoom, and we did not receive any written comments on this item.

All right. I'll bring it back to council. We gave some direction. I don't believe we need a motion for any of this.

I just need, I would like clarification on direction because there were a couple of The positions, I'm not bringing those back in the budget. The deputy and the patrol deputy and the deputy city clerk.

We are proposing bringing back a request, not including them in the budget, but in bringing back the additional information. Correct. And so at that point in time, council can give us direction whether to include it in the actual final budget. So that we will bring back the deputy position. I believe we did receive concurrence that that should be included or once again, Yeah. So, okay.

Then we did also for the sludge removal.

Sludge removal I will include. Yeah. Yes. Okay.

Thank you. Okay. Great. Item 10.2, a resolution to appoint Kelly Velasco to the Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee.

Your Director of Parks and Recreation, Michael Patton, will provide this report.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. Our item here is to provide a recommendation to Council on appointing Kelly Velasco to our currently vacant Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee position. To provide you kind of a little bit of the history on the City Council meeting on April 28th of this year, the City Council approved a resolution to begin recruitment efforts to fill a vacancy on our Advisory Committee. Our committee is composed of five local residents that are volunteers, That means once a month to give Parks and Recreation community input advice and just help us out with some decisions that we do with our department. On the next day, we publicized the recruitment for the position. We had it open for two weeks where we did a first review. We received six total applications by May 13th. I scheduled interviews with five of the six candidates, as one of them was not from Riverbank, from Salida. That's just how good we are, that people from other states want to be a part of what we do. We had four of the five, four candidates who attended their interviews. As part of the interview panel was myself and the Parks and Recreation Administrative Clerk. We created a rubric with questions where we evaluated the answers that the candidates gave, and we rated them based on that. Following the interview, we rated the candidates based on their answers, and based on that process, Kelly Velasco received the highest overall score. And so based on our results of the recruitment and the review process, we recommend City Council appoint Kelly Velasco to the Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee for a three-year term beginning June 9th, 2026, so today, and ending on April 30th, 2029. And we do have Kelly here with us. She showed up and wanted to bring a smiling face to council here. So I'm available to answer any questions, and then Kelly's also here to introduce herself and answer any questions you guys may have too, so.

So if we vote for this, you're putting her to work right now?

Yes, right now. She's actually out there at the Tuesday market right now putting some work.

If you're willing, would you mind introducing yourself?

Hello, my name is Kelly Velasco. I feel like I know a lot of you guys for different reasons. I love being involved in the community as much as possible. When this opportunity came up, I was excited to find another way to get involved and meet people in our community. I have a local preschool program here in Riverbank, and then I also have a preschool nature program in partnership with the Parks and Rec Department that we do on Fridays at Jacob Myers Park. Throughout opening my business here, I've made a lot of friends through the community. I look forward to keep doing that. I volunteer. This is my third year at the Riverbank Tuesday Market, and I run the kids' corner there. Through there, I've met a lot of great people, a lot of... different kinds of people here. And then also at my Friday class, I have not only just little kids coming, but I have their parents coming, siblings, grandparents. I am in contact with a great amount of people in our community on a weekly basis. So I'm looking forward to this opportunity to better know everybody in our community and also just be more involved and understand the background process of it to also help relay that information to questions that I frequently hear, such as this flash pad and all of that. I'm excited to kind of help you guys be the middle person to kind of answer any questions that you guys might be getting flooded with as well.

Any questions for Kelly or Michael?

I make a motion. We approve 10.2. Mayor, public comment. Oh, sorry.

Is there any public comment in person or online? for either of them.

Mayor, I do see a hand up on Zoom, but I do not believe it's for this item, but I will call on them because I believe it was from the last item. Number ending in 3108, can you please unmute? She hung up. So no comments. We'll bring it back.

I'd like to approve item 10.2.

And I'll second it.

For a call, please. Council Member Uribe.

Yes.

Council Member Fossey. Yes. Council Member Call. Yes. Vice Mayor Pimentel.

Yes.

Mayor Hernandez. Yes. Motion carries 5-0 to appoint Kelly Velasco to the Pratt Committee.

Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you. All right. 10.3. Oh, we're going to take a five minute recess. Requested bathroom break.

24.

Okay, we are going to come back to our meeting. Item 10.3, a resolution adopting the disruption of remote participation during city council slash board meetings policy as required by Senate Bill 707.

Mayor and council, your city clerk, Gabby Hernandez, will provide this report.

Mayor, city council, tonight for your adoption is the policy on disruption of remote participation during city council and board committee meetings. A little background for you. The city of Riverbank already provides an internet-based two-way audio-visual platform for remote participation. for members of the public to remotely attend and participate in meetings of the City Council and Planning Commission. Why do we need this policy? Senate Bill 707 was passed in October of 2025, amending the Brown Act and requiring agencies to adopt a disruption policy by July of this year. This applies when telephonic or internet services fail during a public meeting. It ensures transparency and continued public participation. But overall, the key objective of this policy is to provide clear procedures when remote meetings access become unavailable. What constitutes a disruption if public cannot attend observe or participate remotely but loss of video only is not a disruption if audio remains available. This applies to city council any boards and committees under the brown act. how do we respond to a service disruption? The procedure will be to announce the disruption publicly, suspend the agenda discussion and action, assess the issue and restoration time, recess the meeting for a minimum of one hour, or if we can fix the issue before that, we can continue, or move to closed session if applicable. Closed session would only be applicable to city council. IT staff begins restoration efforts. Recess may be extended while restoration efforts continue. If service cannot be restored, there are two options. One, we adjourn the meeting. Two, we adopt the finding by roll call vote that good faith efforts were made to restore the service. Public interest in continuing the meeting outweighs remote access concerns. Upon decision, the meeting may continue. So for recommendation tonight staff recommends that the city council approve the resolution adopting the city of riverbank disruption of remote participation policy and establish gene clear procedures for city council boards committees and compliance with sb seven oh seven.

Thank you are there any questions or comments so back one slide I just need clarification on that one. One right there, public interest in continuing outweighs, adopt a finding by roll call vote that good faith efforts were made to restore service, public interest continue to be the main, outweighs, who would make that decision on public interest in continuing the meeting outweighs remote access? So who would make that decision? Council. Council makes it, okay.

The council would move to either postpone the meeting or continue the meeting, whether the majority of you feel that we can move on without participation of the public or whether we postpone the meeting, continue it until we can have public access through the two-way remote participation.

All right. Is there any public comment or online?

There is no one online wishing to speak.

I'll bring it back to council for consideration.

I'll make a motion to approve item 10.3. Second.

Roll call, please. Council Member Uribe?

Yes.

Council Member Fossey? Yes. Council Member Call?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Pimentel?

Yes.

Mayor Hernandez? Yes.

Motion carries 5-0.

Thank you. Item 10-4, resolution to consider approving a park system development fee credits for LGA homes for construction of a dog park on lot A within the River's Edge 36 lot residential subdivision.

Mayor and Council, your Director of Community Development Joshua Mann will provide this report.

Thank you and good evening tonight. As you mentioned, this is item 10.4. And this is related to the LGI Homes River's Edge, which is a 36 lot residential subdivision. Got some maps up here to kind of show you This thing is really loud sorry. Oh my God I got some maps up here to kind of show you the location so generally speaking Patterson. Okay, generally speaking. The project is located along or in between which would be south of Santa fe north of Patterson. Generally speaking it's in the riverbank high school area. And so the request tonight is to approve a park SDF fee credit for the construction of a public dog park within the River's Edge development. As I mentioned, the River's Edge project itself is a 36 lot residential subdivision, typical single family detached type of homes. The credit amount that they're requesting is related specifically to the park SDF fee category. As it relates to this project, the park SDF credit would amount to $5,617 per residential lot. Altogether across the 36 lots, this would come out to approximately $202,212. Just a little bit of background on this property. It's kind of got a unique history of how it came about. So originally, OSBT- Dave Kuntz & And this area again to is referred to lot a within the subdivision map and so, as you can see, on the exhibit on the right hand side of the screen this lot a was originally intended to be an expansion area of the diamond bar East or the bruin park basin. OSBT- Dave Kuntz & After the base in itself was developed as part of the diamond bar he's project. Actually, the city found out it performed very well. It's kind of got a sand bottom and just drains exceptionally well. So at the time when the River's Edge project came about, they were intended to expand it because of the very well or very good performance of the basin. It was decided that it wasn't needed for an expansion of the basin area. So at that time, LGI Homes kind of offered up the idea of constructing a park Discussions with our parks department, it was determined that one of the top kind of requested amenities was a dog park. And so then that kind of spurred the idea LGI Homes would create this dog park in lieu of the basin. HAB-Jacques Juilland, Within the dog park itself. So this park is about just about a half acre or a little bit over 21,000 square feet. HAB-Jacques Juilland, And they've designed in such a way where it's separated for large dogs on one side and small dogs from the other. This would all be gated and fence so that the dogs can not interact. HAB-Jacques Juilland, Within within amenities within the park would include an obstacle course there's going to be watering stations, both for the humans and the animals themselves. Of course, there'll be a weigh station. And as I mentioned, it's gonna be all gated and secured. There's also several kind of unique seating areas that are proposed. One of them's like a dog bone bench and one of them, some pod seating areas. So actually it turned out very nice. Again, the applicant's request is that they receive a credit against the park SDF fee. in lieu of constructing the dog park improvements. Again, this comes out to a 5,617 per lot credit. This is specific to the park SDF fee. The credit is limited just to this park SDF category. There's no cash reimbursement proposed and no credit above and beyond this 5,617 per lot. I'm just wanted to go over briefly the cost and credit comparison so LG I homes is provided. estimates and receipts showing that the dog park construction will be approximately 480,000 again they're only requesting a sdf fee credit so just wanted to mention that the additional cost is going to be born by LG I and there's no intent of seeking additional reimbursements. Overall, the financial impact of this, I kind of wanted just to show what our typical SDF fees for this project would be. I've kind of highlighted the parks and rec fee as a $0. And again, the financial impact to the city is we are providing a credit on the SDF portion of the parks in lieu for a dog park that's estimated almost for a little bit over $480,000. Now, how will this credit be applied? So it will be applied as each building permit is issued. Each of the 36 lots will receive a one-time PARCC SDF credit. Again, this only applies to the PARCC SDF category. No other categories are intended to be used. And no cash payments will be . Conditions and acceptance of this. So LGI homes will remain responsible for completing the construction of the dog park on lot A. These improvements will all be inspected and accepted by the city inspectors. The approval of the credits tonight does not waive any of the inspection or construction requirements of the dog park. And then again, any unused credits will not be paid as cash or transferred unless separately approved by this council. The action tonight would just memorialize the credit and allow building permits to be issued with that credit applied. Staff's recommendation is to adopt the resolution approving the park SDF fee credit for LGI homes for construction of a new dog park on lot A within the River's Edge residential subdivision. That concludes my presentation. I'd be happy to answer any questions. Thank you.

Who will be maintaining the park?

So ultimately, that will be a city responsibility to maintain. I believe it would just be how we typically maintain our parks with a, I believe it's a contractor, Maricela. Yeah.

So what would those fees have paid for if they weren't going to the dog park?

So typically the SDF fees would be collected and we have a list of park projects in our SDF program. So those fees would kind of go into an account and they would be used to do one of the park projects.

So as new development comes in, they do annex into our community facilities districts, which provides us some funding for park maintenance. So part of the maintenance of that park would come from that fund. Yes, so it's the CFD. So as opposed to the landscape and lighting districts that we traditionally had, we transitioned to a community facilities district that helps to fund some of that.

Are there any other questions or comments from council? If not, I'll move to public comment.

Mayor, we did not receive any public comment on item 10.4.

I'll bring it back for consideration.

I'll make a motion to approve item 10.4.

Second. Roll call, please. Council Member Uribe?

Yes.

Council Member Fossey? Yes. Council Member Call? Yes. Vice Mayor Pimentel?

Yes.

Mayor Hernandez? Yes. Motion carries 5-0.

Item 10.5, a resolution to consider approval of a modification to condition of approval number nine for vesting tentative map number 01-2025 for the MediView subdivision to allow a slope easement in lieu of a block retaining wall along the rear property lines of lots 18 through 31.

Good evening again. This project in particular, it's located generally in the same area. So the best way to describe it is at the northwest corner of Snedeker in California. Just kind of wanted to go over the the original project and then some of the requests and I are the request tonight. So the applicants requested to modify condition of approval number nine. And this condition required the applicant to construct a retaining wall along the rear property lines of lots 18 through 31 and those lots 18 through 31 kind of about each other. Again, the projects located on California Avenue 4537 is the current address. Kind of want to go over just real quickly. So the exhibit on your right, so that's the subdivision map. And if this looks familiar to you, it was recently at a city council and planning commission meeting where a rezone to a plan development was approved. along with this tentative subdivision map. So again, this is back in front of the council tonight because the council was the original approving body and ultimately the applicants requesting to amend the tentative map condition of approval number nine. I've highlighted kind of that yellow line on the map shows generally where the retaining wall, where the area in question would be. HAB-Jacques Juilland, And this exhibit here may give you kind of a better idea of what we're talking about. So on your left hand side. HAB-Jacques Juilland, Actually, I'll start on the right hand. So right hand side would be the retaining wall. So just typically how you would deal with elevation differences between two lots HAB-Jacques Juilland, On the left hand side is a slope easement where you have kind of a general slope going up to the neighbors backyard. So the applicants requesting that The original condition which read a slope easement shall not be permitted along the rear property lines of lots 18 through 31. The applicants tonight requesting that this be modified. So the modified condition of approval would read the rear property lines of lots 18 through 31 shall be designed to address grade differentials, drainage, slope stability, and long-term maintenance to the satisfaction of the city engineer. HAB-Terry Palmos- Transition grading may be provided through retaining wall slope easement slope slope easement or combination thereof, provided the design complies with the city of riverbank standard detail 901 HAB-Terry Palmos- And I kind of wanted to just hit on this because I believe there was some when this project was originally heard there the way it was conditioned. There was some I guess it wasn't clear to the city engineer at the time that our city standard that detailed 901 does provide the allowance to do either or. Unfortunately, the way the condition was written, it made it problematic words that it shall not allow this slope easement. Just kind of wanted to finish up this condition. So if a slope easement is approved the easement shall be shown on the final map or recorded by separate instrument. As determined by the City Engineer and Community Development Director, the easement shall include adequate rights and obligations for construction, access, inspection, maintenance, drainage, slope stability, and protection of affected lots. Here, I just wanted to kind of hit again on that standard detail 901. So that's kind of the highlighted area where I was talking about. It does give you the ability to either do a slope easement or a retaining wall. The yellow highlighted portion, just wanted to hit on that also. Typically, it could be problematic if these were existing lots, but because this is a new subdivision, it will all be constructed by the same developer. These easements will be set up so each homeowner will go into it knowing that they're buying a property that has a slope easement.

Question?

Sure.

What is preventing the homeowner from coming in in a year from now changing that slope?

That's a great question. And a lot of times that happens on a slope easement property. So what it would take would be both property owners that are affected would have to be in an agreement to kind of relinquish or give up the easement. And that would enable maybe the neighbor wants to spend the money and build a retaining wall with a swimming pool or some outdoor feature like that. That would enable the property owner to do such a thing.

What if they do it and nobody knows?

Well, then it becomes kind of a legal civil issue where, you know.

My concern is that somebody will go in and just, I want it flat because my kids want to play ball.

Yeah, yeah. Keep in mind, though, as they go in and buy these properties, there will be, you know, will be disclosed that there's a slope easement. It will be recorded on their grant deed. You know, it will be reflected that there is an easement in their backyard.

Okay, thank you.

I wanted to hit real quickly on the environmental determination. This requested condition modification does not change the approved subdivision density, land use, circulation, number of lots or residential design. The original project was determined to be exempt under CEQA for qualified housing projects and we feel this project is no different. Staff's recommendation is to adopt a resolution approving a modification to condition of approval number nine, vesting tentative map number 01-2025 for the Meadowview subdivision to allow a slope easement in lieu of a block retaining wall along the rear property lines of lots 18 through 31, subject to compliance with city of Riverbank standard detailed 901 and review and approval by the city engineer. That concludes my presentation. Happy to answer any questions.

Thank you. Are there any further questions or comments from Council, if not any from the public?

Good evening, Mayor, members of the Council, Carrie Pope, I'm the applicant. great presentation by Josh and I appreciate the cooperation. It was kind of odd that this was included as a condition when the city has Section 901 that it can be done the other way. One other thing that wasn't brought up is these particular lots are exceptionally deep, much more so than the standard because they're like 130 feet deep. So you'd be able to actually construct a pool or some other things back there without even affecting the easement at all. If the lots were a little bit more shallow, you wouldn't have been able to do that, but you would be able to do that on these. So that was the other reason why, you know, we're just trying to look at affordability and cost every way that we can. So be happy to answer any questions that you may have as well.

Any other public comment for now?

Mayor, we did not receive any public comment on this item.

I'll bring it back to council.

I'd like to make a motion to approve item 10.5.

Second.

Roll call, please.

Council Member Uribe? Yes. Council Member Fossey? Yes. Council Member Call?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Pimentel? Yes. Mayor Hernandez?

Yes.

Motion carries 5-0.

Thank you. Item 10.6, a resolution approving the First Amendment to the Employment Agreements for Michael Patton, Director of Parks and Recreation, and Joshua Mann, Director of Community Development.

So Mayor and Council, the item before you is coming as a follow-up to the direction that was provided during the adoption of the recommendations for the classification and compensation study. So currently both the Director of Parks and Recreation and the Director of Community Development are in contract. So we wanted to make sure that we reflected the changes in the salary ranges on their contract itself. So on April 28th, the City Council did adopt a resolution that accepted the findings of that classification and compensation study. This first amendment to their agreement reflects the new pay structure for both the Director of Parks and Recreation and the Director of Community Development. The amendments are consistent with the recommendations of the study that was prepared by Evergreen, and both positions are realigned consistent with the study's recommendations on market equity and internal consistency. Just to give you a little bit of background and for residents who were not able to hear the presentation with regards to the classification and compensation study that was performed, the study identified opportunities to modernize the city's compensation structure, improve internal equity and align the salary ranges with the external market. The market salary analyzed Riverbank's pay ranges to 19 peer public agencies with cost of living adjustments applied. At the 50th percentile of the market median, Riverbank's contract and executive salary ranges were found to be below market at all points of the range. and lagged behind the market median to a greater extent than other groups. And I will say that one of the reasons why the executive and contract employees lagged behind is because within their contracts, there was no built-in cost of living adjustments, whereas the two labor groups were experiencing cost of living adjustments throughout the years based on the agreements that we negotiated with them. The compensation gap widens at the top of the range in part because of riverbank salary range spread that's narrower than that of peer agencies, and so the figures that you see at the bottom of this slide just show how much below the market, we were throughout our salary ranges. So recommendation four of the study calls for a consistent step methodology where typically the employee would retain their current step placement within the new pay grade. There was an exception where if a classifications individual pay grade had to be realigned by more than 10%. then the city would place that employee at the closest step nearest to their current salary. So that's why you're noticing that the director of community development is going from a current D step at his salary range to a proposed C step of the new salary range. It's because his realignment was more than 12.5%. Now, I do want to make it clear that this is not because of any adverse action against the employee. It simply is because of the recommendations being made of the classification and compensation study. And so the cost allocation for the 2526 fiscal year in terms of salary and benefits for the director of parks and recreation is 1500 dollars. And for the director of Community development it's 50 approximately 5800 dollars and there's a breakdown, where the director of parks and recreation is fully funded from the general fund. Whereas the director of Community development is allocated amongst a variety of funds, including sewer and water. And so our recommendation is to consider adoption of the resolution approving this first amendment to the employment agreements for both the director of parks and recreation and the director of Community development, thank you, are there any comments or questions from Council.

Any public comment.

Mayor, we did not receive any public comment on this item.

i'll bring it back to Council.

So I'll make a motion to approve item 10.6.

Second.

Roll call, please.

Council Member Uribe?

Yes.

Council Member Fossey? Yes. Council Member Call? Yes. Vice Mayor Pimentel? Yes. Mayor Hernandez? Yes. Motion carries 5-0.

10.7, a resolution approving an employment agreement between City of Everbank and Cody Bridgewater, Director of Public Works, interim local redevelopment agency director, and authorized city manager to execute the agreement.

So mayor and council members, this is an item related to the current employment agreement with the director of public works and interim LRA director. So Mr. Bridgewater, his contract expired as of December 1st, 2025, and we are recommending a new contract that's effective as of today should council desire to approve that. A salary adjustment is being proposed based on the classification and compensation study that would take effect as of February 6, 2026. And the negotiations for Mr. Bridgewater's new contract began after the recommendations from Evergreen Consulting were received. So just a little bit of background, Mr Bridgewater was selected as the director of public works effective December 2 2022 following an executive recruitment. He previously served with the city of oakdale and the sanitary sewer districts for jamestown and Salida so he came in with some significant. Experience in terms of wastewater and municipal service, the proposed terms are the result of negotiations between the city council and Mr Bridgewater. So the salary range realignment range 253 to 311, which is the new range recommended by the classification and compensation study so effective December 2 Mr Bridgewater is at his current salary, which was received after a successful. performance evaluation effective February 6, he would transition to the new step D of the new public works salary range 311. And now Mr. Bridgewater does receive an additional 7% increase to his base salary while he serves as the interim RLRA director. Once that Um, does cease, whether it be through a transition in the LRA or the river bank industrial complex to the city, and then to a master developer, um, then that appointment would cease as well. So some of the key provisions of the proposed agreement, as mentioned, his effective date would be as of today, if approved with a three-year term. He would be eligible for cost of living adjustments in July of 26 of 4%, July of 27 of 4%, and July of 28 of 3%. He would receive, of course, a review and evaluation conducted in December of each year. You'll notice that does not align with the June 9th date, but that is consistent with his current anniversary of his employment. Deferred compensation, the city would match the employee's contribution for up to 2% of gross pay, and the city would continue to contribute to the union pension as they do for all city employees. Retirement Mr. Bridgewater does belong to our tier 2, which is the 2% at 60 classic plan, and he would continue to be responsible for his 7% contribution. He is currently eligible as our other city employees for a $50,000 life insurance. He would continue to fund a portion of his health insurance, which is similar to what LIUNA is. And we shared earlier that that's at 15% of his premiums. Eligible for 20 days of vacation with a maximum accumulation of 400 hours and would accumulate sick leave at the same rate that other city employees do at one working day per month. Holidays, we do currently observe 13 holidays, and he would have access to three floating holidays throughout the year. As a director, he is eligible for executive leave, which is an additional 80 hours per fiscal year. He can cash that out, but it does expire on June 30th and does not roll over. He does use a city vehicle for city-related business, and the city does pay for any professional development and any dues to any professional organizations. Mr. Bridgewater would be eligible for longevity once he does reach 10 years of service with us at 2.5%. At 13, that would increase to 5%, and at 20 years, that would increase to 7.5%. The total cost allocation for the current fiscal year, this is the impact for the year would be $10,633 and the breakdown to the various funds, he is mostly paid out of sewer and water, because he does oversee the public works division and so with the minor amount coming directly from the general fund. And with that, the recommendation is to consider adoption of a resolution approving the employment agreement with Mr. Cody Bridgewater as the Director of Public Works and Interim LRA Director.

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

Mayor, we did not receive any comments on this item.

All right. I'll bring it back to Council.

Okay, so I'll make a motion to approve item 10.7.

Second. Roll call, please. Council Member Uribe?

Yes.

Council Member Fossey? Yes. Council Member Kahl? Yes. Vice Mayor Pimentel?

Yes.

Mayor Hernandez? Yes.

Motion carries 5-0. And lastly, 10.8, a resolution approving an employment agreement between City of Riverbank and Tamarack Alcantara, Alcantara? Assistant City Manager, Administrative Services Director, and Authorized City Manager to execute the agreement.

The mayor and Council, this is also consideration of a new employment agreement with your assistant city manager i'll call her tammy because you know how we all know and love her as your assistant city manager and administrative services director. So I'll start with her background. She was selected as the Assistant City Manager and Administrative Services Director effective December 16th of 2022. Also following an executive recruitment by Mosaic Public Partners. She did previously serve as our Assistant Finance Director, but then was with the City of Escalon as their City Manager prior to that. As the Assistant City Manager and Administrative Services Director, she does oversee finance. She assumed the Human Resources Division oversight and supports myself on a day-to-day basis. And so the proposed terms are a result of the negotiations between the City Council and Ms. Alcantar. So Tammy's current contract expired December 15th of 2025. So we are proposing a contract effective as of today should City Council approve the agreement for a three-year term. The salary adjustment does come from the recommendations of the classification and compensation study, which would be effective February 6 2026 and the negotiations for the new contract also began after we received those recommendations from evergreen. So currently tammy is at 173,000 for 6761 or step D of the assistant city manager and administrative services director range and would go to step C of the new salary range 315. Based on the classification and compensation study. Some of the key provisions of the proposed agreement. Once again, her effective date would be as of June 9, 2026 with a three-year term. She would also be eligible for cost of living adjustments of 4% in July of 26, 4% in July of 27, and 3% in July of 28. She would also have her review and evaluation conducted in December of each year, which is her anniversary date of her appointment to the Assistant City Manager position. Deferred compensation, the City would match 2% of her gross pay, and we would continue the contribution to the Union Pension Retirement Fund. Tammy is also a member of our Tier 2 2% at 60 CalPERS classic plan, and she would continue to be responsible for the 7% employee contribution. Tammy has negotiated for a life insurance of $100,000, which is similar to what we negotiated with our middle management group. She's also eligible for one workday per month of sick leave, vacations of 20 days, holidays of 13 days, plus the three floating holidays. And she has also negotiated one additional management floating holiday with executive leave of 80 hours per fiscal year, which is similar to what the other department heads receive. Sorry, I skipped over health care. She does currently pay 15%. Well, she would be paying 15% of medical premium, but she may waive that with spouse coverage and receive in lieu $450 per month in cash. She does pay for full vision and dental, or we do. Sorry, that's the city would pay full vision and dental. She's eligible for a cell phone stipend, whether that be in the form of a cash payment for the use of her personal phone or the city would issue her a device. Tuition reimbursement, she would have access to up to $2,500 for relevant coursework. And in terms of longevity, she will be eligible for longevity starting at five years at one and a half percent four years 4% at 10 years six and a half percent at 13 years and 9% at 20 plus years. And the fiscal impact to the current year's budget is $11,200. It does show on here that the salary and benefits are fully allocated to the general fund, but that needs to be corrected. There is an offset to her salary from both water and sewer as she does oversee the finance department. And so the recommendation is to consider adoption of a resolution approving the appointment agreement with miss tamielle Cantor. You any comments or questions from Council.

Any from the public that online, maybe we did not receive comment on this item i'll bring it back to counsel.

I make a motion, we approve 10.8 and i'll second it roll call, please.

Council Member Uribe?

Yes.

Council Member Fossey? Yes. Council Member Call? Yes. Vice Mayor Pimentel? Mayor Hernandez?

Yes.

Motion carries 5-0.

Staff report. So just two comments. So City Hall offices will be closed Thursday, June 18th and Friday, June 19th for the Juneteenth holiday. And from the city clerk, the candidate nomination period for the November 2026 election will be open starting July 13th through August 7th of 2026 for the following city council district seats of District 1 and District 3. Residents that are interested in becoming a candidate or learning more about the nomination process are encouraged to contact the city clerk's office for information on eligibility requirements, nomination documents, and important election deadlines. For more information, you can reach out to the city clerk, Gabby Hernandez, or you can visit her at City Hall North Suite A. And that is all the comments I have tonight.

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

Thank you, Mayor.

I have nothing this time. Just two quick comments. So first, I'd like to invite anybody or everyone to get involved with the Riverbank Thrive, so formerly known as the Blue Zones Project Committee. So they're just getting started. Tomorrow is going to be their third open to the public meeting for anyone interested in helping shape the mission and the identity of this new community initiative. It's going to be here in the council chambers from 530 to 630 p.m. So we'd love to see you there. And finally, I'll be hosting a park and play event on July 4th at Castleburg Park, 530 to 730 p.m. It's going to be while supplies last. So there's going to be free pizza, interactive games for all. There's going to be free books. And we're going to have some free fireworks that we're going to give to the parents to light. for the children so they can light it off the park um so bring your family your neighbors so we can celebrate america's 250th together here in riverbank that's all we got thank you

First of all, I'd like to thank Deputy Orr for his presentation on bike safety. Certainly did teach me a lot about bike safety, and I look forward to us moving forward with an ordinance to have our citizens be more safe. I also just want to remind everybody that there is a bike rodeo tomorrow in Plaza Del Rio here from 530 to 8. If you've got a bike, come ride it. Thanks.

You can start a call.

Yesterday, I attended the Chamber of Commerce ribbon cutting at American Chevrolet. I know that American Chevrolet is not in Rubber Bank. However, they have shown to be a tremendous community partner in many efforts. I know that I've personally done when it comes to Sierra House life jackets. So it's really awesome to kind of have that full circle moment and be there for that ribbon cutting. And then Life Jacket Drive has officially ended. We were able to donate 80 life jackets to Parks and Recreation. to use over at Jacob Myers Park. No non-district East ad hoc committee updates at this time. And I wanna thank Riverbank Police Services for coming to present today.

Thank you. Stanislaus Regional Transit Authority is looking at likely cuts to routes by 15% countywide by next year due to state funding cuts, mandates, overall inflation. So we're making an effort and a push to get feedback on what those cuts will look like. There's some propositions now and then also do a push on updating. everybody on what that will look like eventually. Stan Cogg completed an independent review as a result of the grand jury report. This, I mean, exemplified some of the things that I think, well, it exemplified some policy gaps that existed and that is being worked on at this time. Jean Folletta is no longer with the organization. separately from that, giving you general updates. And there is going to be a meeting next week. Then finally, just want to give an update to the entire council and residents on the communications plan. We have been moving forward with it week after week, very intentionally to ensure that all communication concerns and just trends are addressed. The first phase was to talk to residents, staff, and the council to assess where we are in our communications and to kind of create a preliminary draft and framework on what our plan is going to look like. And so we're very excited because that's going to address, I mean, anything from elections to our day-to-day updates to any crisis response that may be needed and get us all on the same page in how we communicate information out. So there's more to come on that and there's going to be some trainings now. Um, for the public and for our council. Um, that is it for me for the moment. Uh, we're going to go to close session. Item 12.1 liability claims pursuant to government code 5, 4, 9, 6, 1 claimant, Jeff Emmons agency claimed against city of river bank. Is there any public comment on this item?

Mayor, we did not receive any item, any comments on this item.

All right. We are going to adjourn to close session. We are returning from closed session report from item or 13.1 report from closed session item 12.1 direction has been given to staff. The next regular city council meeting will be held on Tuesday, June 23rd. Do I have to give? Okay. Unanimously denied the claim. And the next regular city council meeting will be held on Tuesday, June 23rd, 2026. This meeting is adjourned.