City Council - Regular Meeting

get back from that

There's for anyone. There's three seats in the front. Good thing I turned it on right now. Yeah.

All right, we are going to call this meeting to order. Let us stand for the flag salute and remain standing for the innovation.

as a public residence, Lord, and I know that all of us are working and doing our part, Father, to make Riverbank better. I'm asking that tonight when we get to celebrate that we would all connect and do that well tonight, celebrate well, honoring Melissa tonight, Lord, that we would do that well. And then when we do business tonight, Lord, I'm praying for wisdom that you said we could ask for, that, Lord, at the end of this day, Lord, we would walk away all knowing that we're working together, and that's what it takes, and we thank you for it. In Jesus' name, amen.

Thank you. Roll call, please.

Council Member Uribe?

Here.

Council Member Fossey? Here. Council Member Call?

Here.

Vice Mayor Pimentel? Here. Mayor Hernandez?

Here. Uh, there are no agenda changes and any council authority member who has a direct conflict of interest on any scheduled agenda item to be considered as to declare their conflict at this time. Pursuant to government code section eight four three zero eight Levine act. Any council authority member who has received a contribution of $500 or more within the preceding 12 months of 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. Are there any conflicts?

A conflict with item 10.2.

All right, we will 10.2. Okay, if I could have CalPride or friends at CalPride join me at the front. Thank you so much for being here, for representing probably like the three counties, right, that you serve, or you'll correct me when we get there. But we're here to celebrate Pride Month. And I want to read this proclamation to you. I'd love to present it to you. And if you could share a few words after, that would be great. Whereas this nation was founded upon and is guided by a set of principles, including that every person has been created equal, that all have rights to their life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness, and that all shall be afforded the full recognition and protection of the law, whereas the city of Everbank has been and continues to be a place that values all people while recognizing and appreciating the importance of equality and freedom, Whereas the city of Riverbank is strengthened by and thrives upon the rich diversity of ethnic, cultural, racial, sexual orientation, and gender identities of its residents, all of which contribute to the vibrant character of this city. Whereas it is imperative to acknowledge the need for education and awareness to end all types of discrimination. Whereas residents who are part of the LGBTQ plus community contribute to the enrichment of our community. Whereas June has become not just a symbolic month, but a month for us to recognize LGBTQ plus communities and supporters coming together in various celebrations of pride. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the city of Riverbank does hereby proclaim June as LGBTQ plus Pride Month in Riverbank and encourage all residents to recognize the contributions made by members of the LGBTQ plus community and to actively promote the principles of equality and liberty signed today by myself and on behalf of the entire council. Thank you for all you do. And I know it is especially emotional during this time and really applaud your courage and your bravery here. So thank you. If you could come share a little bit.

I'm really glad that it works.

Hi, everyone. My name is Ryan Hull.

I'm joined with Jessica Parman, who's our Executive Director of CalPride Stanislaus. I am the Vice President of Communications here for CalPride. My great-grandmother was actually born here in Riverbank. My mom's mom's mom. For the past four generations, the women in my life have advocated for our communities as teachers, as mothers, as daughters, and as friends here in the Central Valley. And usually my speeches start a little bit differently than this. So why am I telling you guys this? It's because when we know each other's stories, we find community. It's the entire reason that I'm in communications. I want to know your story. When we advocate for the rights of LGBTQ people, it's because there are stories. It's the stories of someone that you know, the stories of someone that you just met, the stories of someone that you love. I am the daughter of Rebecca Straley, the granddaughter of Judith Reinhart, the great-granddaughter of Dorothy Steele. The love that my great-grandmother was born with here in Riverbank is the love that I carry with me today as I work throughout the Central Valley, and it's the strength that fuels my work. I'm so proud to work here with Jessica Parman. the executive director of CalPride Stanislaus, who will share a little bit more about the work that she does here in Stanislaus County, here in Riverbank, and in Modesto, and Oakdale, and beyond.

Hi, everybody. I'm Jessica Parment. My part is going to be short but sweet. CalPride, we are lucky enough to be able to cover seven counties. And I'm lucky enough to be able to have spent the last year as the executive director of CalPride Stanislaus, which means me and my team, many of which are here in our company, do our best to take care of every resident in Stanislaus County, including those in Riverbank. So thank you very much for doing this for us for the second year. I appreciate it. Ryan.

Thank you. Just a few more things. I think it's important to recognize that when we celebrate Pride as a community, we empower ourselves, we empower each other, and our movement really starts going towards a world that starts with love. We're literally safer for it too. When we are well connected with our local communities, We are safer, we are healthier, and we are more resilient, especially during times of crisis. This proclamation, it's a reminder that Riverbank is a city for all. It's a city with a diverse, vibrant history, with a diverse, vibrant communities. So thank you again for reaffirming equity and inclusion here in Riverbank. I'm just really happy to be here. And I'm happy that, you know, even though we didn't expect to be joined by very many today, I'm really excited to see what you guys are here for as well and know what's going on in our communities and be involved the same way that you guys are. Thank you.

Yeah. Depends. Yeah. I think they're coming later.

Okay. Behind the table.

Beautiful smiles.

Thank you. All right.

Who is representing Parks and Recreation? You got the whole team? Oh, is everybody? Okay. Okay. We never celebrate any of our departments enough. We're just going to stand here and make eye contact.

You can start here.

Yes. And the joke is Parks and Recreation is the fun department, right? But I mean, everybody is fun.

Yes.

It's not a joke, it's the truth. But today we get to celebrate you officially with Parks and Recreation Month. Whereas Parks and Recreation promotes physical activity, emotional, mental health and wellness through organized and self-directed fitness, play and connecting people to nature. Whereas Parks and Recreation creates memorable experiences through youth sports and enrichment activities, teen center and programs, adult fitness, free special events and beyond. Whereas parks and recreation fosters social cohesiveness in communities by celebrating cultural diversity, providing spaces to come together peacefully, access to local parks and trails, promoting social equity. Whereas parks and recreation remains versatile, innovative, and providing vital services to communities through local, national, global emergencies, all while adhering to guidelines set forth by governing agencies. Now, therefore, I, Rachel Hernandez, Mayor of the City of Riverbank, on behalf of the City Council and our community, do hereby proclaim July 2026 as Parks and Recreation Month. I encourage all residents to celebrate by visiting our local parks, participating in recreation programs, attending special events that showcase the dedication of our parks and recreation professionals, managers, and staff, and let us recognize and honor their vital contributions to enriching lives, promoting health and wellness, and enhancing the overall quality of life in Riverbank. Signed today by myself and our city council. Thank you so much. You want to share a little bit? No? Okay.

Thank you, Mayor, and thank you, Council. I'm honored to be here representing the Parks and Recreation Department. We have a great staff of 55 employees, part-timers, full-timers, high school kids, those that are in retirement. Our staff is very diverse. brings in the fun to Riverbank. And I think I brought this to council before when we look at the human body and how if you try to associate a department with the function of the body, I associate Parks and Recreation as the personality of the city. We make the city what it is. And so you can have a boring city where no one wants to be around, ignore, or you can have one where people want to be around and be involved and take pride in being their friend. And so we do great work, work hard. do the impossible where everyone recreates differently. And we have 25,000 residents that have 25,000 different needs and wants, but we do our best with our small team and make it all work. So thank you. And big thank you to my staff and that do all the work that I'm unable to do and cannot do. You guys make our parks beautiful and make our programs amazing and make sure that we communicate to our residents, what, what they can do and be involved in their community. So thank you.

Oh, yeah. Okay.

I have the parks and recreation staff come join up for a possible picture.

Again, across the one battle line.

Thank you.

Melissa, can you join me up front? Yes. It's been a week. I'll try not to get emotional. But we want to appreciate you. Look at me. We want to appreciate and recognize you for your dedication.

I'm so emotional.

I can't watch people cry either. And at signing service to the city of Riverbank, you have served us since 2002 to 2026, which I'm sure flew by. And it's always just such a bittersweet moment when we have someone who leaves the city that has brought so much institutional knowledge and a great heart to the city. So I want to thank you so much. And we wanna present you with this plaque and my jacket's falling off. Thank you so much. Do you wanna share?

For those who don't know, our Melissa started in the finance department. From there, she promoted to economic development and housing, where she helped to implement our first time home buyer program. At that point in time, we had a separate economic development department, so she was able to assist there. But I think what we will all remember her for and what we will definitely miss her for is she has been here since day one of the Riverbank Army ammunition plants being transferred over or being placed on the BRAC site list. So she has been instrumental in all of the work that's being done out at the site, setting up policies for the city with all of the environmental remediation. She has been the lead on overseeing that and overseeing those contracts. She has been the lead in so many conversations with the US Army through all of this process. And here we are 22 years later, and we're still trying to work through, you know, getting that conveyed over to the city. But she has been instrumental in all of that. And we're definitely going to miss the knowledge that you have, the patience that you have had with all the folks that are out there. And just we're going to miss you overall.

Yeah.

And so on a personal note, the reason I was able to promote full time into the city in the finance department was because of Melissa. The position she left, I got to fill. So I definitely owe her. Yeah. You know, her foresight to want to improve and continue to achieve, you know, higher positions here at the city to me being able to start my career here. So I'm going to miss you. Thank you. Yes. So you're definitely going to be missed.

Yes. You know, you guys have been always here. no no no

All right.

Item 7.4, a presentation on AB 2561, vacancy reporting for 2025.

Mayor and Council, our Human Resource Generalist, Cheryl Stefani, will be providing this report.

Follow that?

Okay.

Mayor Hernandez, good evening, City Council. My name is Cheryl Stefani. I'm the Human Resources Generalist for the City of Riverbank. And my presentation tonight is on AB2561, our vacancy reporting for 2025. So just a little review on ab 2561 it was enacted September 22 of 2024 became effective on January 1 of 2025 and it requires vacancy it requires vacancy recruitment and retention reporting of public agencies. So tonight, my specific report is for the city of riverbank it's a status for the calendar year of January 1 2025 to December 31 2025. So some key requirements under AB 2561 is to present an annual assessment of staffing vacancies, identify policy changes and vacancy issues, and provide additional details if our vacancy rate is more than 20% in any given unit. Our bargaining units for the city are miscellaneous, mid-management, executive management, which is also contract employees, and then the city as a whole. My report is required to be presented prior to the fiscal year 2026-2027 budget adoption. So represented bargaining units and at-will. Miscellaneous, as I mentioned, is it's a represented bargaining unit. It's represented by LIUNA, number 1130. As of 2025, there were 38 full-time employees. The mid-management group is represented by Goyette, Ruano, and Thompson Law. And there were 20 full-time employees. And our executive management, which is also contracted employees, at-will employees, there were five full-time employees. Some highlights for the miscellaneous unit. There were total 27 FTE positions, that means full-time equivalent positions, spread over 38 employees there were two recruitments during that during 2025 both happened to be in public works there was a successful recruitment of the water utility worker actual time to hire that means post to appointment was 99 days actually that may sound like a lot but that's actually a pretty quick turnover it's a little over three months The other recruitment was a can it was a maintenance worker one it actually ended up being cancelled and tabled to this year. So our vacancy rate for the miscellaneous unit was 3.7 well below the 20%. Some mid management highlights. There were 20 full-time equivalent positions spread over 20 employees. There was one recruitment for a new position. That was the human resources specialist that was still open at the end of 2025. Therefore the results will be included in next year's reporting. It was filled. So the vacancy report for mid management ended up being 5% for mid management. So citywide retention and strategies, our retention rate overall for miscellaneous, mid-management and executive is 100% for 2025 year. Our strategies, strong social media and professional job boards. Oops. The strategic goals for the city is we foster a work family culture. We also promote development through training and tuition, which if eligible, that also can lean to cert pay, certification pay. We provide competitive benefits for our employees. And then we also started a class and compensation study last year to see what our competitiveness was amongst our peer agencies of similar size and structure. So in summary, neither of the two represented bargaining groups came near or exceeded the 20% vacancy rate. And excuse me, the second bullet should say one of three recruitments in 2025 was successfully filled. Higher retention rate equals strong workforce. And the city continues, despite how much we grow, we still foster that work family culture. So in conclusion, the city of riverbank met ab 2561 compliance for 2025 and then the next slide is just it's the matrix that we use for the percentages and such.

So on that I welcome any questions or comments. You know any quick comments questions from Council.

Just a quick one. One of the earlier slides you mentioned additional details. So if you guys hit over the 20%, what are those additional details? Just curious.

It's more of that matrix. You have to give reasons why. You also have to present it to your bargaining units and let them know why. They actually got a copy. They were welcomed to come to tonight's meeting, but they also got a set of the slide and staff report and all that too. But it's just additional details you have to provide. Fortunately, we haven't had to do that.

That's good. Thank you.

You're welcome. Thank you so much. 7.5, a presentation about legal fireworks.

Community Resource Deputy Tovar will be presenting this item.

Good evening, everyone. How are you guys doing today?

I'm going to be presenting our firework presentation. As we know, July 4th is quickly approaching us, and I want you guys all to have a great time, but obviously be safe because safety is number one in our city. So Go to the next slide, Jessica. Oh, my clickers are even perfect. Oh, I didn't know that. So I apologize. I have a clicker. I want to make this fun, quick, fast, and in a hurry. I talk really quick, but I start talking too much, so I'm going to not do that. Obviously, we all see our local stands here. They're going to usually donate for other great things in the community, whether that be sports or any of this good stuff. All the fireworks that sell, they're going to have this seal that's on the right-hand side. It's going to be a seal through the state fire marshal as well as the state of California. If they have this seal, your fireworks are safe. Not illegal and dangerous fireworks. That's what we're really going to focus on today. So if they explode or leave the ground, it is illegal. So these are some of the examples we have seen in the past. This is not a problem just here in Riverbank or Stanislaus County. It's actually throughout the whole country. And we see this significant increase everywhere. So here's another example, right? They look like our regular fireworks that we could buy at our local SAN, right? These are the big ones that have been confiscated as well. I just want to share a couple other pictures of them. So these are the stats from last year. Engine 26 and Deputy Sheriff's responded to two fires. One was a vegetation fire, and the second was a vegetation fire that turned into a structure fire, where various fences were damaged by fire. With efforts of first responders, no homes were damaged and no one was injured. The city of Riverbank issued four temptations with the assistance of the Sheriff's Office. So here's a quick video of what a safe one looks like and an illegal firework looks like. If you look to your right-hand side, it's going to be the illegal firework. If you look to the left-hand side, it's going to leave the ground, and then you're going to see embers in the air. So the embers that you see, they look like black dots. Those are the ones that can cause fires, and that's how two fires were started last year. What you guys are looking at is video footage from our Air 101, which we're going to utilize, right? We utilize them here in the city. They do a great flyover, and they have all this great technology and all this other good stuff that I don't know, but they have a map that lays right over that gives you an address. And the way we issue the citations here in the city, it's going to be, we cite the homeowner, right? We do not cite, we do not go up to these properties and cite anybody there and try to find it. Because usually everyone's having a great time and sometimes a great time and cops don't mix, right? They could be upset because they're having a great time and then that'd be a further issue. So the way we task it now, we go ahead and cite the homeowner with the sense of the city. And if they want to say, no, that's not my house and we have this video footage, you're more than welcome to come to the roommate substation. They speak to me and I show them the video. And kind of move forward from there, right? It's going to be $1,000 for the first citation. Second offense is going to be $2,000. Third offense is going to be $3,000. Hopefully, we don't have to go to the fourth offense because if we do, we have bigger problems than just a citation. If you see on the bottom left, that's going to be our non-emergency police number here for the city of Ruben. It's going to be 552-2472. So some of the strategies we're going to use this year, obviously, we're going to use our lovely helicopter. We're going to use that. Not only us here in the Cedar Ridge Rink, but I believe they're going to be utilized throughout the whole county to do the similar strategy. When you call 911 or 911, depending if you have an emergency or not, we are going to do a BOL. So be on the lookout for the areas. And then we have additional deputies. I believe we're going to have four, including an extra sergeant, on top of our regular patrol deputies and sergeants that are working at night. They will respond to calls, locate the residents if possible, and then move forward from there. And they'll do a quick report, they'll send it to me, and then I send it over to the city, and then they issue the citation from there. Once again, I wanna show you guys then, this is how we're gonna, This is a process of it. Violators will understand it's illegal and often hide their actions. Some of the videos you see people run back in as soon as they see the helicopter right over their house. Obviously, this is a video. And it's very difficult to identify one specific person. That's why we utilize the citation for the residents. So here's the number one more time. And if you guys have any questions for me.

Thank you. Any questions?

If you have a person that got citations last year, do you kind of focus in that same area, assuming that they'll do it again or?

Well, hopefully they learned a lesson from last year, so that's not our game plan. But if needed, yes, we try to go through the whole county. It's very difficult, right? I don't have too many videos because I don't want to take too much of your time. But it goes a big pan overview, and then they dial in on the house, and then that's when they mark it, and it gives you the address. I don't know how they do the flyover exactly, if there's a certain direction or area. But hopefully we do not have the same offenders as we did last year, and they learned their lesson. But if we do, it just unfortunately, it is what it is at that point.

Do repeat offenders, do those citations roll over from year to year?

You know what? Not that I personally know. I can bug our lovely staff in the city, and I can get back to you on that one. That's a good question, sir. Don't say no.

Yeah, they don't roll over from year to year, but I will say we do take it into consideration when they come and ask for waivers or for payment arrangements because you've obviously been a repeat offender. So we do take that when we make those decisions about payment arrangements, things like that.

That's the same. Thank you so much.

Thank you guys for your time. Have a good night.

Public comment. 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 period cannot be discussed or acted upon.

Mayor, we have one public comment card for Melissa Sandoval.

My name is Melissa and this is my father, Robert Sandoval. My father is now 68 years old and we have lived here on Roselle Avenue our whole life. This is all we've known and we are now the last remaining corner residents left in the middle of the North County Corridor Project. We will be going on seven months now as of July with no running water. My question is for you, Mayor. Why is it that when I went back to look at all the times we have flooded out, mostly everyone's sitting in a chair that is currently in office now, has at least been in office for one time during the flooding, but yet nobody has noticed. And that goes for the city of Modesto and county as well. We live in one of the busiest intersections of Riverbank and what our previous mayor constantly stressed about maintaining and making sure the drains have worked when the new road was put in. But yet it seems like lately, the only thing that is being maintained or focused on is active funding for a drain system that doesn't exist and working on good publicity only to hold a certain image. Where did all the money go if there hasn't been an active drain system on Roselle and Claribel since 2019? This was a joint project for Stanislaus, Modesto, and Riverbank. So who takes responsibility for the county's accountability when people like you guys don't have enough backbone to stick up for people like us when it comes to a critical error? And this is not just concerning Riverbank regarding this project in 2019. It was also connected in Modesto area as well with Stanislaus County jurisdiction. Why haven't we received any update but yet people are talking about North County corridor updates closures and groundbreaking is like we don't even exist. How many more drains and bear and drains are buried and don't work. Why doesn't all voices matter when we've been constantly voicing our concerns to you but yet instead of helping you guys. You guys slapped a sister city sign in the same ditch my father and I built trenches and making us riverbank. Remind you, this is also the same intersection my father and I were hit head on and left to dig our own way out while undergoing multiple surgeries because nobody would have the backbone to say what happened to us was wrong. Seven months with no running water.

This is how I get free from my city. I grew up here. Just because of the health of the

Mayor, that is all the comments we received.

Are there any online?

I see no one online wishing to speak at this time.

Consent calendar items 9.1 to 9.3. Is there any conversation or consideration?

So I'll make a motion to approve the consent calendar as is.

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 passes 5-0.

Okay. Item 10.1, a resolution of the City Council of the City of Riverbank, California, amending and or approving the engineer's report for the Riverbank Consolidated Landscaping and Lighting District and the loving collection of annual assessments related there to for fiscal year 26-27. And a resolution of the city council city of Irving California ordering the levying collection of annual assessments for the river and consolidated landscape and lighting district for fiscal year 2627. Is there a motion.

This is a public hearing.

Never mind. How many times have we gone through these items?

Mayor and Council, Kathleen Cleek, our Capital Projects and Regulatory Compliance Manager, will provide the report on these landscape and lighting districts, as well as the two storm drain districts.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. This is the 20th year we're doing this. I can't believe that I've been doing this for 20 years. But tonight we're bringing to you the landscape and lighting districts, the engineers reports for consolidated River Ridgewood Place, River Cove and Sierra Vista Estates for fiscal year 2627. So annual assessments cover the costs of landscape, maintenance, street lighting, and capital improvements within each district. Maintenance costs and assessments are reviewed annually. So for consolidated this year, the increases are Chianti, there's a $15.89 annual increase and Eastwood Estates is $56.38. The others, we have a healthy reserve and we did not need to increase. Ridgewood Place, we have a $29.61 increase. River Cove, there's no increase. Sierra Vista, we don't have an increase in that district either. So tonight, I recommend that city council approve fiscal year 26-27 engineers report and order the levy in collection of annual assessments for the landscape and lighting districts. Consolidated Landscape and Lighting District, Ridgewood Place Landscape and Lighting District, River Cove Landscaping and Lighting District, and Sierra Vista Estates Landscaping and Lighting District.

Okay, so is there.

So this report that was provided was for items 10.1 10.3 10.4 and 10.5. As they are public hearings, you do have to open each of the items and call for public comment, close public comment, and then bring that forward for a motion or a vote. Item 10.2 is the item that council member call will be recusing herself. So when we get to that point, she will need to go into the next room.

Okay, are there any comments from Council on these items? Otherwise, we will open for public comment.

On 10.1.

On 10.1.

Mayor, we did not receive any public comment on 10.1. And I do not see anyone on Zoom wishing to speak on this item.

All right, we will close this public hearing. And is there any consideration?

I'll make a motion to approve item 10.1.

I'll 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 for 10.1.

Okay, we'll skip over. Item 10.3, a resolution of the City Council, City of Riverbank, California, amending and or approving the Engineer's Report for the Ridgewood Place Landscaping and Lighting District and the Loving Collection of Annual Assessments related thereto for Fiscal Year 26-27. And also the resolution of the City Council, City of Riverbank, California, ordering the Loving Collection of Annual Assessments for the Ridgewood Place Landscaping and Lighting District for Fiscal Year 26-27.

So we will need to open the public hearing.

So we will open. I will do the gavel every time for public comment or online.

I do not see anyone wishing to speak on item 10.3.

Okay, we are going to close public comment. Is there a consideration?

Okay, so 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 for 10.3.

10.4, a resolution of the City Council, City of Riverbank, California, amending and or approving the engineer's report for the Landscape and Lighting District's No. 1 River Cove subdivision and the levy of collection of annual assessments related thereto for fiscal year 26-27. And a resolution of the City Council, City of Riverbank, California, ordering the levy and collection of annual assessments for the Landscape and Lighting District No. 1 River Cove subdivision for fiscal year 26-27. If there's, I'm going to open public comment. Is there anything online?

Mayor, there is no one on Zoom wishing to speak on 10.4.

All right. We will close public comment. And is there a consideration?

I'll make a motion to approve item 10.4.

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 for 10.4.

Item 10.5, a resolution of the City Council, City of Riverbank, California, amending and or approving the engineer's report for Sierra Vista State's Landscaping and Lighting District and the levy collection of annual assessments related thereto for fiscal year 26-27. And two, a resolution of the City Council, City of Riverbank, California, ordering the levy and collection of annual assessments for Sierra Vista State's Landscape and Lighting District for fiscal year 26-27. I will open it for public comment.

Mayor, there is no one on Zoom wishing to speak on 10.5.

All right. I will close public comment and bring it back for consideration.

I make a motion we approve 10.5.

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 for 10.5.

All right, 10.6, a resolution of this.

Mayor, if you'd like to go back to 10.2, then we can continue.

Okay, 10.2. Thank you. A resolution of city council city of ever being amending and or approving the engineers report for the river being crossroads landscape and lighting district and the loving collection of annual assessments related there to for fiscal year 2627. And to a resolution of city council city of California ordering the loving collection of annual assessments for the river and crossroads landscape and lighting district for fiscal year 2627. Thank you.

The district benefit is going to increase $15.13. Zone 1 is $4.49. Zone 2, $3.24. Zone 4, $5.55. And just so the residents know, and you, Mayor and Council, we're looking at doing some improvements on Westgate as far as infill for... plants and trees that are missing. You see if you're driving down there, you see a lot of holes where the plants have died off. So we're looking at improving that area and replanting as well as Oakdale Road from Novi to Morrell Road. You'll notice that there's some dry patches there as well. Is that part of the requirements for Grover or is that not? They're to maintain, but if the plants are dying and you think it's been over 20 years that we've been doing this, so the plants after a while are going to, some are going to die out, sometimes with the freezing or if the water, there's an issue with water and They're not being watered and they're dying. But yeah, we haven't really done any replanting in a long time. So we're really excited about getting that done. And then also on the walking path, a lot of the trees that were planted have now pulled up on the asphalt. And so we've gone out and we've marked all those areas and we're looking at getting that replaced as well. So we went from Roselle to Black Sand Creek, then Black Sand Creek to Squire Wells and then Squire Wells to Oakdale. So we're going to see what the bids come in at to see if we can do all of them or just portion it out.

So I believe along that area, there was some problems with flooding. Is that going to correct that too? Is that? Where Michael was saying.

Yeah, there was a couple of areas that there's flooding issues because the trees have raised up the area. So it naturally kind of just flows and settles. So yeah. Oh, definitely. Those would have been noted. Yes.

So tonight's recommendation is the council approved the fiscal year 2627 engineers report and order the levy and collection of annual assessments for the crossroads landscape and lighting district.

Thank you. Any more comments from council? We're going to open for public hearing. If there are any comments.

Mayor, there is no one wishing to speak on item 10.2.

We're going to close the public hearing and bring it back for consideration.

I'll make a motion to approve item 10.2. I second.

Roll call, please.

Council Member Uribe.

Yes.

Council Member Fossey. Yes. Vice Mayor Pimentel. Yes. Mayor Hernandez. Yes. Motion passes 4-0.

Thank you, Randy.

Thank you, Randy.

So item 10.6, a resolution of City Council, City of Riverbank, County of Stanislaus, State of California, ordering the levying collection of assessments within the Riverbank Storm Drain Maintenance District number 2006-01 Heartlands for fiscal year 26-27. Thank you.

City of Irving storm drain maintenance districts fiscal year 2627 annual assessments cover maintenance and operations of storm drain facilities and improvements within the district district budgets are reviewed annually, we have to storm during districts, we have heartlands slight increase of $3 and 37 cents. This is the area there that covers under heartlands and then we have sterling rich storm drain basin, which will have a slight increase of $5 and 89 cents and here's the sterling rich area that contributes to that assessment. So tonight we're asking to approve the fiscal year 2627 engineers report and declare its intention to levy and collect annual assessments within the storm drain districts. Riverbank storm drain maintenance district number 2601 heartlands and riverbank storm drain maintenance district number 0501 sterling rich.

Thank you. So for item 10.6, Heartlands, is there any comment from council or questions? If not, we will open for a public comment, public hearing. Anything online?

Maybe there is no one wishing to speak on item 10.6.

OK. I will close this public hearing and bring it back for consideration on 10.6. I'll make a motion to approve item 10.6.

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 carries 5-0.

10.7, a resolution of the City Council, 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. Is there any council comments, questions? If not, I will open the public hearing.

Mayor, there is no wishing to speak on item 10.7.

We will close this public hearing and bring it back for consideration.

I'll make a motion to approve item 10.7.

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. Okay, we have item 10.8. The Thank you Kathleen, the six cycle housing element city council is going to consider the following a resolution to approve a general plan amendment to adopt the six cycle housing element and authorize staff to submit the six cycle housing element to the state of California. Department of Housing Community Development, GPA 01-2025. Also a resolution approving a general plan amendment of four properties from the industrial business park, mixed use commercial community commercial and lower density residential to higher density residential and mixed use GPA 01-2025 and introduce and conduct a first reading of an ordinance amending the crossroads community specific plan to add the mixed use designation and to rezone seven properties from light industrial neighborhood commercial highway commercial neighborhood park and basin and plan development to multiple family residential, medium and high density residential and mixed use. SPA 01-2025, REZ 02-2025. Another resolution approving a general plan amendment to amend the general plan land use element to establish a maximum density for the higher density residential and mixed use general plan land use designations, GPA 01-2025. And introduce and conduct a first reading of an ordinance amending the Riverbank Municipal Code by amending sections 153.067 and 153.071, adding sections 153.166 through 153.169 entitled Regional Housing Needs Assessment Overlay, ZOA-01-2025. And hopefully you don't have to repeat any of those. Thank you. Yeah, that was a big mouthful.

Mayor, members of the council, David Niskanen, JB Anderson, ladies planning here to present again the six cycle housing element following the meeting from April. Tonight's presentation includes more of an overview of what's changed since the last council meeting. So it'll be a much shorter presentation than the last council meeting. But we are here tonight for asking for formal adoption of the six cycle housing element and the associated implementation actions. And the implementation actions include these series of actions specifically for which includes the site specific rezone and general plan amendment and specific plan amendments. This includes the removal of the site number three that was discussed at the April city council meeting. Also the associated specific plan amendment to the crossroads community specific plan, a general plan amendment to the land use element as well as the zoning ordinance amendments required by state law. So just to provide a little bit of background, the housing element and the associated actions were presented to council on April 28th after a public hearing that was at planning commission on the March 31st meeting. And council voted at that meeting to remove site number three, and that required revisions to the housing element that we have completed and now are presenting to you folks for formal review and adoption. So what has changed since April 28th? Following the council meeting, staff met with HCD, specifically the two primary reviewers that handle Riverbanks housing element and discussed options on what we can do to update the housing element without having to select another site because the selection of another site is much longer lead time because there's public property owner notification, there's certain requirements for noticing tribes related to SB 18. So what we did was update the density calculation for HDR and mixed use. And specifically what we did was in the previous housing element, we used a dwelling units per acre at 20 dwellings per acre, which is technically the default density for this area in the Valley. and we updated it to 28 dwelling units per acre, which allowed us to increase the number of units anticipated in vacant and under utilized land, as well as sites that are identified for rezoning. What this means in practicality is that it allows the city to have a little bit more of a surplus compared to the arena. And if a property does move forward with developing at less than 28 dwellings per acre, there's still that area buffer to make sure staff can make the finding that there's enough adequate sites to meet the RHNA. So in practicality, This doesn't really change much as far as going in the future of projects, you know, moving forward and and developing at higher densities. But it does allow us to meet the arena goals without having to select another site. So that's the big, the big takeaway and allows us to bring this item back to you at much quicker pace than previously would otherwise be So in part of that discussion with HCD included another round of review. And it was a very quick review because they only really had to look at the updated removal of the site and the density increase. So we published the document for a seven day public review period that's required by state law. And then following that date, from May 7 to May 14, we submitted the document to the state on May 15. And just three days later, the state provided us with an updated letter stating that the housing element meets all statutory requirements and presumably once adopted and submitted for certification that it'll meet all the state requirements for certification. And we also went back to planning commission to present the updates and get their updated recommendation to city council. And that was done on May 19th and planning commission adopted three resolutions recommending city council adopt the six-cycle housing element as well as the associated implementation actions. So environmental review is exempt from CEQA. In the staff report, there's a detailed memorandum that discusses the exemption and the use of the two categorical exemption, the 15061B3, and then the public resources code 21080.085, which is Just fancy language for it's exempt from environmental review because when projects move forward on site specific, then they'll have to do their own environmental review. And stops recommendation tonight following a public hearing is to adopt a series of resolutions and conduct the first reading of ordinances. The first is adopt a resolution to to adopt the housing element and then also authorize staff to submit the document to HCD for certification. The second is to adopt a resolution approving general plan amendment of four properties. The third is to introduce and conduct first reading of an ordinance to amend the crossroads specific plan and to add the mixed use designation and then to rezone seven properties to those designations to from those destinations to medium high density residential and mixed use. The fourth is to adopt a resolution to amend the general plan land use element to establish a maximum density for high density residential and mixed use. And then finally to get enough to introduce and conduct for starting of an ordinance to amend the river riverbank municipal code related to regional housing needs assessment overlay and amendments to the mixed use municipal code or chapter in the municipal code. And Josh is here. I'm available to answer any questions for you. And that concludes my presentation. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Are there any comments or questions from Council?

I just want to say thank you for and to the planning department as well for coming together and really doing what we asked and our community asked of us. So I really appreciate that. I know that you guys spend a lot of time on the housing element and it's a cumbersome process. So I just want to say thank you for that. And then my hope going forward is that there's a little more proactivity on the city's behalf when we get into the next housing element and ensuring that we're doing a little more behind-the-scenes work and ensuring that we have the property so that we're not forced rezoning property. But thank you so much. I appreciate it.

You're very welcome.

Could you remind me what the highest number of units is in Riverbank for any of our properties?

In the site inventory section, we did a survey of the high density residential sites and they're around 20 to 22 dwelling units per acre for the most part, like the river bank clause apartments, the two apartment projects on clause. And then we also did a survey of the surrounding jurisdictions as well. And there's a little bit higher density sites in Modesto. There's some higher sites, higher density sites in Lathrop and Manteca, but in river bank, generally speaking, it's around 20 to 25 drawings per acre.

And those are considered high density.

That's correct. Yeah, the the city's general plan land use designation for higher density residential allows a minimum of 16 dwellings breaker and then with this amendment, the maximum would be 40 dwellings breaker.

It I will open this up for public comment.

And I just like to add to I'm sorry that today the city received a letter from San Francisco public utility Commission and that's in your packet as well, and they had comments on the specific one specific reason side.

or online any public.

Mayor, there is one online wishing to speak. Well, the number ending and 3108 the venue. Phone number ending in 3108. Can you please unmute? Hello? Hello? Here we go again. We can't hear you. We see your call. We can't hear you. Can you unmute? yeah number ending and 3108 we can't hear you we can't seem to hear you if you want to hello comment we can add it to hello hello Don't play any games with me. If you can't hear me, please go ahead and send in your comment via email to myself at cityclerk at riverbank.org and we will include it for the record. You hear Jessica? I can see her phone pop up. number ending in 3108. Can you please unmute? Oh, zoom can hear her but not Hello. Oh, there you go. We can hear you.

Can anybody hear me?

We can hear you now. Please go ahead.

Okay, I have some questions on this item. The first thing it says on the side of one of your amendments is that you are adopting and approving the housing element, but that element document is not attached to this agenda. It's not part of this agenda for the public to see. There's a little note there that says it's not attached, but if you're going to approve this tonight as a public hearing, why isn't it attached? I mean, you think came out Wednesday, you're a poster society. There's been very little time. Why wasn't the new or with the changes in your, your, uh, element, why wasn't the one you're approving attached? Um, another question I have is based on what I have seen before, because I live in the downtown Pacific plan area. There seems to be changes between my specific plant, our specific plant area downtown for now and then. But I haven't heard any comments about it. I haven't heard anything else about how this is going to affect the downtown area, which I'm interested in. I think if you're going to do all this right now, I think that we should have that new housing element that you're going to approve and send should be part of this item, especially since it's a public hearing document. public hearing item. Thank you.

Thank you, Miss Albert. Mayor, that is all the comment we received.

So, Mayor, attachment number six was a housing element insert to the staff report, which was the direct link to the housing element document due to the size. It was going to be too cumbersome to include. And so that's the website is where we have been posting all of the updates and all of the various drafts that we have provided. So the link was included directly to the housing element. And with regards to any of the reason properties and how those may affect the downtown None of the rezone properties are located within the downtown specific plan. So at this time, there's no impact associated with that. Thank you.

Is there any more public comment? If not, I will close this public hearing and bring it back to council.

So I'll make a motion to approve item 10.8.

Second. 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.

Thank you very much. Item 10.9, a resolution adopting the fiscal year 26-27, local redevelopment authority budget.

And so for the last time, I will invite Melissa Holdaway, our local redevelopment program manager, to the podium for her presentation.

I always forget because I'm not here often. Good evening, chair and authority members. This is bittersweet for me. It is the last one I'll be presenting, but my replacement will be trained well, and she will be doing a very good job in the future. The LRA budget funds, they consist of two funds now, and the first one is for 197. It is leasehold. This fund accounts to site revenue and expenses. It does include the annual payment from the master developer, miscellaneous revenue, and the general administrative expenses. Fund 199, the ESCA, it's the Environmental Service Cooperative Agreement. Those funds are received from the Army for remedial activities paid to the current environmental subcontractors. And these funds include a small percentage to the LRA for administrative costs. The preliminary budget overview, the estimated revenues are $396,597. Estimated expenditures are $644,365, with an anticipated LRA structural deficit of $247,768. So what is left in ESCA II? Of course, the final reports. There's a vent removal or remediation modification, a disposal of the remaining presses modification, and then, of course, our best management practices, the BMPs, And these are periodic testing for PCBs in the dust, and they are quarterly and indefinitely. And on that note, I received today, there is an executed, I'm sorry, an executed modification for the vent removal and remediation. It's about a little over $3 million, and we will have about 100,000 of administrative costs that will help alleviate some of that deficit at the end of the year. And that'll show up at mid-year. So the recommendation is that the LRA board adopt a resolution approving the LRA proposed fiscal year 26-27 budget. And if you have any questions or comments.

Thank you. Any questions or comments from council? We are going to open this for a public hearing, because we're still in public hearing. Yes. Any public comment? Or online?

Mayor, I do not see anyone online wishing to speak on this item.

We will close this public hearing and bring it back to council for consideration.

OK, so I'll go ahead and make a motion to approve item 10.9.

I second. Roll call, please. Authority Member Uribe? Yes. Fossey? Yes. Call? Yes. Vice Chair Pimentel? Yes. Chair Hernandez.

Yes.

Motion passes 5-0.

Thank you so much, Melissa. Item 10.10, a resolution adopting the fiscal year 26-27 annual operating budget.

Mayor and council, your assistant city manager, Tammy Alcantor, will provide this report.

Good evening, everyone. We are back here tonight after our workshop presentation at our last meeting on June 9th. Tonight, we are asking you guys to adopt the budget. So I'll be presenting it for consideration of adoption and staff had taken city council's comments and direction into consideration with the revised proposed operating budget. I also did some additional review of the budget and received some updated budget information since the workshop. So our presentation overview will include the general fund, our special revenue funds, our system development fee funds, housing funds, sewer and water enterprise funds. And the first one we will cover is our most talked about fund is our general fund. So this is what our proposed general fund status will be. That estimated reserve on July 1 of 2026, we have pulled out that 115 trust to try and make it a clearer picture. So we are projecting a reserve balance of 6.2. Our projected revenues are at 14.8. Transfers in are at 1.2. Our projected expenditures are 15.2. Our subsidies are 2.1 million. And then our sales tax sharing revenue obligation is projected at 1.2. and one-time projects or expenses are at almost 200,000. So we're projecting an estimated reserve at June 30th of 3.5 million, which does include the Eleanor Park future park project. So funding, it was proceeds from the Eleanor Park sale and are being reserved for our future park project. Our required reserve is between 13 and 15%. We presented 15%, which would mean 2.8 million. So we do have a slight surplus there of 356,000, which actually gives us a 17% reserve level when we add those two together. And our deficit's at 2.7 million.

Question for staff. Do we have any kind of like a reduction plan that we can bring back at mid-year, some options to kind of close that gap? Is that something that you guys can do, some options to address the structural deficit?

Sure. I mean, and at mid-year also we can have a better picture of where our revenues are, where our expenditures are going to. Okay.

Thank you. Mm-hmm.

I do want Council to consider that if that is something that they want us to work on that we do have to keep an open mind that that would probably require reduction in services, and so it would mean having to prioritize where funding should go.

So here's a picture of our general fund revenues. Our current fiscal year 25-26 was budgeted at 14.3 and 26-27 is being projected or proposed at 16 million. So that's a 12.2% increase. And out of this, taxes do account for 76%. This is just a snapshot of our general fund historical revenues. And then this is a picture of our revenue sources, including our sales tax, property tax, property tax in lieu of VLF, and then our transfer ends. Sales tax is being projected at 25%, property tax at almost 4% in both areas, and then our transfer ends are the 10.2%. So transfers in, this is what makes up our transfer in. Our water and sewer fund contribute to the administration staffing. System development fees contribute to our assistant finance director. We have some public safety augmentation for public safety costs. Lighting and landscape districts contribute an administration fee for staff time contributed to those along with our CFD. And then we also have our system development that contribute to our community development specialist who handles a lot of the building permit processing. And then our public benefit fund that contributes to public safety to cover almost the cost of two positions there. And then crossroads landscape and lighting district for parks and staff personnel there. So our general fund expenditures in our current fiscal year are projected at $16.8 million, and the proposed for 26-27 is at almost $18.8, which is an increase of 11.3%. This is a snapshot of how that is broken out, showing you law enforcement has 40% of that, and then next would be considered our salary and benefits. Some of our changes were in our labor groups, our negotiated contracts, my apologies. So in July, our miscellaneous is scheduled to receive a 3% COLA and then come in January of 2027, our mid-management will receive a 4%. And in July of 2026, they will also receive $1,000 lump sum payments. The study of our class and compensation study was adopted on April 28 2026. And we counsel did accept those recommendations. And so they have been implemented into the budget as well. And so other costs are purrs and funded a liability 10.10% increase health insurance has been projected with a 10% increase in January and then we did have one it does include in general fund one promotion our construction inspector from a one to a two. And there were some questions during the workshop regarding the employer contributions to PERS. And so I did do some looking into the annual reports and I found some of those projections out over the next five years. So in our current year, we saw a 10% increase But based on these numbers, they're estimating 27-28 with a 4.15% increase. But in 28-29, we're seeing almost a 10% increase there. With these projections, of course, they are subject to change depending upon the investment performance and actuarial assumptions. And Just so just a reminder, we did establish that Section 115 pension trust to help manage, you know, future increases. And I brought forward this slide that was presented to the council in I think it was in May of 2025. And basically what it was was. informing the council of what this section 115 trust can do it can assist with stabilizing out that unfunded liability payment annually um so the budget's not hit with a up and down increase in there so The council could choose to do some kind of smoothing method where you potentially set a certain dollar amount. If it hits that, then you would pull funds from the 115, so it's not impacting your budget so much. And this is just being mentioned as what we have did. Of course, it would be up to council to direct staff to move forward with anything with this.

So that was going to be my next question is a SAS recommendation as to when we start to actually utilize the trust one 15. Uh, so that peak at 2029, it does staff feel comfortable, uh, then or before that to kind of smooth it all out. So kind of even out the payments as we go forward.

Yeah. So, I mean, we have the sales tax sharing, um, obligation that we are seeing in this fiscal year too. Um,

I mean, I think, and then one more next year, right. Which will be substantially lower.

Yes. And that, yeah. And I covered that a little bit later. Um, I think it could be either way. I think we can, you know, we could go either way because you can, if you chose to wait till 2089, you choose to make a bigger payment if you need it in that year. Right.

Right. Is that something that you guys could bring back as far as like the options for mid-year? Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

That specifically I'd get behind to see that reflection in the options there for this portion.

Okay. So I played around with some of the numbers and like if we set, looking at this graph, I said, okay, if I match this graph, I set it at 820,000, right? So then that would mean for fiscal year 26, 27, that's about 145,000 that you would be pulling from the trust. 27, 28, you would be looking at approximately 183,000. 2829 would be 262,000. So you could see where that would assist in your budgeting going forward. So another item that was discussed during our workshop was there were requests for some additional staffing and departments had submitted these. While we evaluated these requests and Phil, we understand the importance of them and the assistance that they can provide, we did not include them in the budget. So at the workshop, council did direct us to come back with some additional information on these positions. So we're seeking if the council would like to provide any additional direction on these, if they want to propose adding or leaving the budget without these positions.

Go ahead. Some of these have fees that we charge to our citizens tied to them also, right? Yes. When's the last time we looked at those fees to see if they're compatible to what we should be charging?

I am not aware on some of these when the last time that they were increased.

maybe that's something that we should look at to increase some of our revenue.

So for Parks and Recreation, you recently did that in January. For the engineering technician, it talks about encroachment permit revenue, but that's already... allocated to our construction inspectors since they do the inspections. So there really wouldn't be any more available because we already don't recoup 100% of their costs through that area. I think we went through a substantial increase, Kathleen, if I remember, for encroachment permits in 2022 or even... you know, somewhere around there. It's something we've done recently. Correct. Yeah.

And for just wanting to make sure we're bringing in the revenues and, and increasing those as the costs get higher. Okay. Thank you.

So when do we bring up that we want to add these two so we need we need to have that discussion now, so this is where we would want to have that direction from Council so that prior to any motion, we would already give have the direction to include or not include the positions.

I would like to add the deputy city clerk. And maybe the one in finance, but I feel like we need to add a deputy city clerk. The city clerk right now is very busy, but I also think that this would help the city manager by Taking some of that maybe off of your plate to do does any of that honestly would probably be 100% for the city clerk okay well i'd like to to add that back in for this fiscal year.

Are you adding both or just.

i'm open for discussion on. The administrative clerk for finance.

And adding back those two positions, you would clear out that surplus to the reserve and that would drop us down to the 15%. Right.

But we still have a reserve. Yes. And the positions are needed. In my opinion.

So for looking at recommendations for service reductions at mid-year, I do want you to consider that if service reductions need to happen in personnel, typically it will happen with those with the least seniority first. Right.

So we haven't had any formal direction at this point. And I would like to propose, I mean, our next item is considering our budget advisory committee. And so you're our primary, right?

I'm just a word.

You're the primary alternate. Okay, so you're a primary alternate here. And I would love to informally ask that our budget advisory committee consider these things at mid-year, including the reduction, the potential options for reduction. We didn't get clear direction on the investments and for this item as well.

And I'll echo that. So our next meeting is next month already. And so I would like this front and center specifically that structural deficit. So.

At this point, I'm going to wait until there's a little more on the presentation before I put in my input.

OK. OK, so the next item I'm covering is law enforcement and that contract. included a 4.5% increase in salary and benefits, 3% in vehicle replacement costs, and then almost a 9% in the SR 911. Overall, for the law enforcement, we're looking at a 4.6% increase. And not included in the proposed budget is an additional deputy position for patrol, which was part of the plan presented by Chief Ridenour in January of 2026. Should the council choose to do that for this next fiscal budget, it would be, well, once they're hired, it would be approximately 285,000. Of that ongoing would be the 160,000.

I have a couple of questions on this one again. So on the last presentation we did, we talked about how the pie chart law enforcement has 7.5 million. Remind me what else is grouped into that because on the previous slide it showed 6.9 million. So what else is covered in the pie chart for general fund expense under law enforcement?

So we have our camera cost that is in there, um, for, um, all the intersection cameras. So that cost is in there. Um, we also pay for, um, office, uh, copiers, um, cell phones, the phone, um, coverage internet, um,

Yes, I you agreement that we just approved. We also put in there for the mounted posse who's here during the holiday season. And of course, law enforcement has it because we used to have a riverbank police department, we still owe they're still luckily some former police department staff that's still alive and pulling retirement. So they have their own unfunded liability that we also have to cover as well.

well okay and then on this the next slide sorry the vehicle purchase and one-time cost so those and of course the salary those all are dependent if we the recruitment process goes through and we actually get that deputy in 20 26 27 there's a possibility that the recruitment could be two to three years so that's still kind of a variable correct yes

Is there any way to find out what the recruitment timeframe is now?

I believe pretty much they're still giving the two to three year timeframe. So next is our capital outlay expenditures, which we have our annual computer components, annual playground maintenance, part replacement, city hall, north and south FOB access, a new workstation for our HR generalists, and then our ADA improvements that we annually budget for each year. This is a change, a reduction from what was done in 25-26. Our one-time expenditures city council governance training executive management team building muni permit system improvements and muni permits web portal open gov disclosure studio and then cacel community connect payment portal.

A question on the cacel community connect payment portal, that is the express pay transferring to cacel is it possible to potentially. And most jurisdictions that I deal with on a business level, they do charge a convenience fee of paying online. Do we currently have a convenience fee that we charge customers on Express Pay when they use debit or credit card?

No, we do not at this time.

And then how do we absorb the transaction fees currently?

It does get paid through water and sewer. So basically your rates pay for that.

Mm-hmm. So rates are paying for the processing fees currently?

Correct.

Yes.

Okay. Because the only expense coming from the general fund is the garbage portion of it, but we collect that through the fee that we charge for our garbage services.

Could a convenience fee, even if it's like 50 cents for using a card, could that cover this $3,200, for example, and ongoing maintenance of the Cassell website when there's software upgrades or anything like that? Is there a way to alleviate changing, I guess, is my question.

And I believe it's something that we have discussed in the past and it just never happened.

Yeah, we talked about it during strategic plan. And I know there is money on the table. I think I've requested those reports a couple of times and it was a hefty amount. And we are probably one of the only jurisdictions not charging a card transaction fee or some sort of convenience fee for using card payments or even the online portal. So somewhere, if there's a way that I hate to put a fee on our citizens, but at the same time, we are absorbing that three and a half percent that's taking away from the water fund or taking away from the sewer fund. So if we can find a way to replenish that in a way.

Yeah. So basically when we would look at that, for example, if it's a reduction and so we're charging less, we're recouping from residents that fee, then basically we wouldn't charge it through their rates. So when we do the rate study, we would reduce that amount that we're paying out. And so the rates are just that much lower, but then we're recouping through charging that separate transaction fee. So it transfers basically from one fee to another.

So when we get the feasibility study, for example, is that broken down in there, how much we're making off of the transaction fees?

So it's broken down by all of the expenses that are covered by that specific rate, because you do have to justify that to the residents. So if we reduce that amount, let's say, for example, it's $50,000, then they will separate that out and we will be collecting on the balance just not the 50 but then you'll be charging that transaction fee so it'll be still a separate revenue source that you'll have to account for that's still coming from your residence okay interesting all right thank you

So some other requested capital expenditures were proposed and we are proposing that they come from our facility improvement fund. This improvement fund is based on rentals of our facilities. We hold back some of the rental fees to save for maintenance on the buildings. So for the community center camera and security system, 6,500, the scout hall camera and security system, 4,300, and then the Scout Hall reflooring is approximately 16,000. So those are not coming out of general fund. They are coming out of our set-aside fund for facility improvements. So this is a picture of our subsidies where we are subsidizing. So recreation is one of the largest ones that we subsidize, approximately 873,000. Our neighborhood improvement is at 200,000 and it did increase and a portion of that increase is the contribution to the muni permit.

upgrades as well because they do utilize that software so they had 25 percent sierra house how much of that is our contract with cambridge academies and how much of that is um just the expenses to operate the house the contract was 315 000 and how many occupants can they have in that home

So I think we said they can, if it were just low barrier, we can probably house up to from between 14 and 16. And so technically, if they wanted to alleviate some space and not have everybody cramped in is probably between eight and 10.

And currently, based on the last council meeting. four months out of the year, we had three people there, six months out of the year, four, and two months, five. So, I mean, I'm just kind of talking out loud, but this is kind of a prime example of NGOs at a small local level almost taking advantage of our general fund. So that's me speaking out loud, and maybe we just need to reevaluate the Sierra House and the occupants there, because even the showers were like seven and a half a day when I did the math. So I think we really need to look out that MOU and maybe set some parameters on that on what our expectations are regarding occupants and how that house is being used in recruiting processes.

So I was thinking the same thing. And, you know, we did our workshop and we found the data. And so I would like to re-evaluate. It's been three years.

We just renewed? Yeah. So... Give me a minute. I can find that information.

And it's not something that would happen overnight. I don't think any of us would want to happen overnight anyway. But I think it's worth having a conversation to assess the data, the per capita data. And I hate even putting it that way.

Yeah, and putting it together, maybe even having like an amendment to their MOU. Like, hey, this is what we're seeing, hearing. Your cycle currently is six months. At the next six-month cycle, this is kind of what we want to see. And then really on their part, leveraging the day use facility because seven and a half in our pick count was around 30 and then we maybe have some folks with utilities off so really seven and a half showers a day is not that many for a facility where we're having to pay the utilities on it as well.

So we did approve that in 2025 for a period of one year with an option to extend for an additional year. So we'll be reaching that one year point here in September. And then they would have an option to extend for an additional year through 2027. So that would provide us with sufficient time to be able to come up with those performance metrics that we would want them to meet. I'm on board for performance metrics.

And then one more of our transfer out is our fleet services that covers recreation and code enforcement vehicles. And then in regards to our sales tax sharing, this is the 1.2. million there and I did after the workshop I did some more research I know the question was what is our total reimbursable so I have put it here for you guys the total reimbursable was 3.3 million we have already reimbursed them at 1.1 million and then our projected additional contributions for the current fiscal year is approximately $311,000, which would mean July 1, we would have a balance of $1.9 million, less the projected $1.2 gives us a remaining reimbursable of $713,000, $714,000.

Why is our projected $1.2, but this year we only paid $311,000?

We have already... So... We paid them 1.4, which was more than, that was a combination. So once we were starting to get our sales tax data, then we had to do a true up on that. So technically in this fiscal year, we're actually projecting to have paid them 1.4 because it covered longer than the fiscal year because of when sales tax numbers come in. The 1.2 is a projection based on that 311 is a quarterly amount.

What's the exact percentage share on that? Like, what's the split? Or is there an exact amount?

It's a 50% split based on the sales tax revenue from that commercial area, Crossroads West. Sorry. Okay, so now we'll go into our special revenue funds. They're legally restricted to be spent on specific areas or projects. This would be our gas tax, our street maintenance, and street capital projects, our vehicle tow fund, police tow fund collected from towed vehicles for traffic enforcement, and then our public benefit fund, which is cannabis revenues and expenses. So this is what our special revenue funds are projected at with a beginning balance of almost 5.7 million, revenues at 11.2, expenditures at 12.3, ending reserve of almost 4.6 million. It does show a deficit of a million, almost 1.1. Most of these funds are designed to operate with a structural deficit due to the way the revenues come in. So we receive revenues multiple years and then we will do a project. So our system development fee.

Can we back up just?

Yes, sorry.

No, no worries. So for the public benefit fund, so I know we have the negotiations for the businesses coming up. Riverbank did pass the cannabis business tax of that 10% on gross receipts in 2018, that measure B. So I would like that to be a part of the negotiations front and center as we enter in those. So I would actually like to get away from the development agreements if we can, so.

Okay. Alright, so we'll go to the system development fee funds. So these are also legally restricted to be spent on projects identified in the approved system development fee program. The fees are paid by new development, both residential and commercial. And they are primarily funding for infrastructure related to that new development. Some of our projects that are in our CIP is the Oakdale Road Project, Roselle at Patterson Traffic Signal, and Roselle at Murrill Intersection Project.

These projects are already funded in this fund, right?

Right. So the money's already there.

Earmarked, yes. Okay, so it won't go away because I don't want it to go away.

Thank you. So this is where we are projecting our system development fee funds to be, a beginning reserve of almost 11 million, revenues of 915,000, expenditures of 2.3 million, with an ending reserve of 9.5 million. Again, showing a deficit of 1.4. And just as noted in the special revenue funds, we received those revenues over a few years before we do the projects. So next is our housing funds. These funds account for our current outstanding loans to residents for first-time homebuyer program and housing rehabilitation loan program. Loan payments received must be used to provide future loans. Our terms are typically a 30-year deferred loan for first-time homebuyers The city is continuing our participation in the Stanislaus Urban County Consortium for our CDBG and home funding. Transitional housing funds are also included in this group. Those funds are referred to as the Senator Eggman funds. And then we have created a new fund specifically for the tracking of Sierra House. And I would note that our previous funds for first-time homebuyers and the rehab are currently on hold. We are having to go through a program update with HCD. So we are currently in that process, requires an application. It's going to be requiring us to come back to the council to potentially adopt some new structures in there and guidelines in that. And we are also going to be working with the city of Turlock who has some additional home funds that they need to expense. So prior to us potentially getting our HDCD approval for our funds, we may be able to utilize Turlock. Again, there will be items that will have to come back to the council for approval. So our housing funds have a beginning reserve of almost 16 million, estimated revenue 785,000, expenditures 890,000, and then an ending reserve of 15.8 million. So next we'll move into our sewer enterprise, legally restricted to be spent on sewer-related operating expenses and projects. Revenues are paid by all city customers, residential, commercial, industrial, and new development. Their fund types include our operating fund, our debt service fund, capital improvement, connection fund, and our master plan fund, along with the system development fund. So 99% of the revenues are from user fees projected to increase at 4.1% due to our rate adjustments, trend growth, and prior underestimated revenues. 10.6% increase in expenditures driven by personnel costs increased in supplies and services. And it does include one staff promotion, which is a maintenance worker one to a maintenance worker two. And this position is split between streets and sewer. So our gas tax fund is considered our streets. So our capital outlay, we have a replacement of the UTV. We have SCAVIA radio upgrades, system repairs and upgrades, aeration, basin sludge removal, which was added at the request or direction of the council during our workshop. And then sewer line replacements for Sierra and Patterson first to eight and Sierra and Stanislaus first to third. Our transfers out for the sewer enterprise fund, the general fund management fee, $218,000. All the revenues that are received come into the operating fund. So we transfer out to cover the debt service that is included in those revenues and to the capital fund. So those are all within the the sewer funds. So the operating fund is transferring to the debt service and to the capital fund. So for our sewer enterprise funds, we're projected a 17.3 million beginning reserve, revenues at 10.4, expenditures at 8.4 million, and then ending reserve at 19.3. And there is actually a structural surplus in this fund of 2 million. Our water enterprise fund, just the same as a sewer, they are legally restricted to be spent on water-related items. Revenues are paid by all city customers, residential, commercial, industrial, and new development. The funds in these enterprise funds is our operating fund, capital improvement fund, and the connection fund. There's also a system development fund on this one too. Sorry, I missed that. 99% of the revenues are from our user fees and they have a projected increase of 6.47, which is primarily driven by growth. No, we have not had rate adjustments in our water rates since 2019. The expenditures have a projected 2.69% increase. personnel costs and increase to supplies and services. The budget does include the one promotion from a water distribution operator two to a senior water distribution operator. There was a additional position requested for a water meter technician, but it has been deferred. It is later on in this budget, Meeting, Council will be seeing. We went out for an RFP to do a water rate study, and we're asking to award that. So at this time, we didn't feel it appropriate to include the water meter technician. Our capital outlay in this fund has been limited to those that are needed primarily to stay compliant in the fund. Our chlorine equipment for multiple well sites, tree removal at two well sites due to safety concerns, SCADA software upgrades, interior inspection and cleaning of two water storage tanks, Second Street water storage tank exterior painting, and then an annual well rehab. And then our transfer outs in the water fund is to our general fund for management fee. And then from the operating to the water capital fund of $250,000. So during our workshop, it was asked if this fund was going into a deficit with this budget. After reviewing between the workshop and now, it does look like this fund is at risk of going into a deficit in this fiscal year of approximately $334,000. The projected revenues are at 3.8%. Our expenditures are at 4.8%. meaning our ending reserve would be at a deficit of $1.3 million. So between the funds, the revenues and the expenditures, we're at a million-dollar deficit almost.

And eventually the general fund would have to subsidize the water operating fund at that point, correct? Correct.

In order to fund the cash and to continue the operations, yes. But technically, you would want that to be reflected in your rates. Right.

So this was just the operating fund. This is your enterprise funds in total. So for the water enterprise, which includes all of the funds, beginning reserves is 6.4, estimated revenue 4.6, expenditures at 5.7, ending reserve at 5.4. So still the structural deficit. And one thing that... could potentially happen too is part of our fees include ongoing maintenance of capital projects. That's where that $250,000 goes into the capital fund. You're going to have to defer some of those maintenance to cover that deficit in the operating as well. So for citywide, our beginning reserves are estimated at $62.5 million, revenues at almost $44 million, expenditures at $48 million, and our ending reserve at $58.2 million with a structural deficit of $4,351,000.

so that is all i have i can answer any questions you may have thank you are there questions comments from council so for me um we had asked to see a breakdown of the city council spend so i know we took that 1.2 million out of that i noticed that but it's still at 500 something thousand. And then I noticed in our proposed budget packet I had printed, there was a line that noted the pie chart of 500 and whatever thousand. But then in the verbiage, it said the city council share is 620,000. So obviously we pulled some additional monies out of that. So it says 560, 332, but then in the verbiage, it says 620. So we pulled money out there and I'd still like to see, because I mean, 900, 900, 900, 900, 1200 over 52 weeks or 12 months. it still doesn't equal five over 500,000. So I'm just curious what else is in it. And I know there was some other items like the Sierra house, possibly that was in it, unless we pulled it out.

No Sierra house is in there. So that would be the largest chunk that's in there on the sheet is 200.

So I just want to know where, what the breakdown is.

Sarah House itself is $336,000 with regards to other expenses. So we have, of course, the salaries that goes along with benefits. We have travel expenses in there as well. We have we also pay for the housing authorities property tax, because that was an agreement that was made by the city council back in 1961 so that comes out, let me actually pull that up really quick here. So that amount. City Council. Sorry.

Is that including any new development?

So not for the housing authority. So the housing authority are just the locations that they have here on Stanislaus, the one here on Santa Fe. So let me give you a more distinct breakdown on that. So your monthly stipends come out to about $55,000. $27,000 goes towards rents and leases for the vehicle that does get used a lot by the city council. So we do have one that's kind of specifically allocated to be charged to city council. And then it does go to offset building maintenance costs. So that total is about 27,000. We do pay for translation services for city council. So that's our wordly, or if we need to hire a translator for any of our meetings, we have funds allocated for $20,000. adopt a drain, the team building, your utility newsletter that does get funded through the city council's account. So that totals about 43,000. Then we do some minor office supplies at 3,500. For those who have city cell phones allocated, 2,400. We also have promotional expenses. So we buy you city logo gear. We pay for stickers. We when those we consider promotional items, national night out, things like that. So about another 6,100. And then all of the memberships. So your membership to STANCOG, your membership to the League of California Cities, your membership to the US Conference of Mayors, to the Chamber of Commerce, to the Latino Chamber of Commerce. And then we do pay for the Sister City International membership because that is actually the city as a member. It's not the Sister City Committee who's a member. So all of those memberships are $18,300. And then we have all of your travel so that we allocate about $20,000 to everybody's travel throughout all of the year. I mentioned the housing authority fire assessments. Those are about $30,000 per year. And then we also, when we need to buy you new laptops, we do allocate that to the city council and that's 2,400. So that's about 208,000 in cost itself.

So for the rents and leases of the vehicle, is that solely for council and mayor, or is it a shared vehicle that is getting shared between others?

It's a shared vehicle that gets shared amongst finance, amongst administration itself. So the cost itself, it being fully allocated to the city council for 7,800, I mean, we could decrease it by 5,000, but it's only 5,000. And it's still coming out of general fund in other departments.

And we're using the vehicle active, like continuously.

Oh, all the time. Yeah. And by all the time, I don't mean city council all the time, but all of Stafford.

Well, so the 7800 of the 2700 is city council using the vehicle.

Yes. So for travel, it gets used for meetings. So we, yeah, we have it available. Okay.

Any other questions or comments from council? So one of the things I'd like to have come back mid-year is Oh, grants. loans. money that we can get now that we have approved our housing element. We want to make sure we secure that Sierra that we lost, make sure we get that back. And any other funding that we can get mid-year, I'd like to see that come back, maybe have some updates on what we're finding, not necessarily come to council, but maybe on the annual or the monthly, what is that called? By weekly. Yeah. Just so we know that we're checking to see what we can get. I'm sure there's some money out there that we can use to pay for Sierra House, pay for sewer, water, me. No, I'm just kidding. Just different things to make sure that we're capturing all those so we can reduce, get our deficit back up. Thank you.

All right, we are going to open this up for public hearing. Is there any public comment or online?

Here I did not receive any public comment card cards for public in the chamber making comment and I do not see anyone online wishing to speak on this item.

All right, we are going to close this public hearing and bring it back to Council for consideration or more conversation so.

For me, obviously it's concerning that we're at a pace where in a year and a half, our reserves can be depleted. Our reoccurring spend is outpacing our revenues so that's concerning. Um, I do think that we do, we need to look over this a little bit more. Um, we received the big proposed budget packet, uh, Wednesday night. So that really doesn't leave a lot of time. Um, it's, it's a lot of information to go through figuring out what differentiates something between parks and what differentiates something between recreation. Um, my questions regarding public safety. I mean, if the general public looks at this, it's confusing. Um, there's not page numbers if you print it. So you're just sifting through pages essentially. Um, as a business owner, a small business owner, if I don't have the money, I can't spend it. So it's concerning. Um, it's a huge red flag for me. So I'm, um, I I'm, I'm concerned for sure.

Thank you. Yes, I think that I would love to lean on the potential budget advisory committee for a lot of this. And so are there any more comments or questions? otherwise um i want us to i want to challenge our council and and in turn to talk to residents as we're going through you know our bi-weekly reports our mid-year budget reviews uh tammy has opened her door for me to come visit the last couple months um to review the budget and so um i think there is time there has been time and I know that we're coming to a decision now. We have formally made decisions around, I would like to make a motion to approve this budget with the formal motions of getting Sierra House performance metrics by the September renewal, directing our budget advisory committee to look at our investments, potential reduction options, and staffing needs. um and i believe that was the two structural deficit options from staff can we add that one in yeah okay so for for the budget advisory committee right and for staff for okay so what are you mentioning

I would run that through the budget advisory.

Strictly just budget advisory?

So typically the way we would work our budget advisory committee is they would review it and provide recommendations to the city council. So in working through those who are already working through that.

Okay, that makes sense.

Okay, so that is my motion.

I'll second it.

Roll call, please.

Council Member Uribe.

Yes.

Council Member Fossey.

So that means we're not approving the police officer, any of the additional positions at this point.

So the motion is to approve the budget with Sierra House Performance Metrics and directing the Budget Advisory Committee. And no change in this.

OK, yes.

Yes. Council Member Call? No. Vice Mayor Pimentel?

Yes.

Mayor Hernandez? Yes. Motion passes 4-1.

Thank you. Thank you, Tammy, for all your work. Thank you. Okay, so the clock time check. Do you want to take a 10-minute break? Yes. Okay, we are going to recess for 10 minutes.

Close. It's so far away. We're so close.

Gabby gets an extra 10 minutes to take some.

Okay.

Okay, we are going to return from our recess. Item 11.1. We have a resolution appointing members to the Budget Advisory Committee and establishing staggered terms of office.

Your City Clerk Gabby Hernandez will provide this report.

Mayor, council, members of the public, for your consideration tonight, we bring forward the appointments for the budget advisory committee. And I do believe I have two of the candidates here tonight with us in the audience. So some of the purpose and overview of the budget advisory committee, it is to appoint five members, establish staggered terms, and increase resident participation. The budget advisory committee would serve as an advice in an advisory role to the city council. They will review budget matters. They will make recommendations. They will promote fiscal transparency, but they will not have any independent authority or decision decision making abilities. So the recruitment process, we opened recruitment from February 19th through April 9th. With the first review of applications, we did receive seven. Some of those were distributed among our districts. We did receive one from District 1. We did not receive any applications from District 2. District 3 received two applications. District 4 received four applications. Interviews were held by Mayor Hernandez and our Assistant City Manager Tammy Alcantara on May 14th.

And we did interview all seven applicants.

Some of the evaluation criteria that was used for the ranking and interview was their qualifications, their interest in public service, their communication skills, their collaboration, and their overall ranking score. So tonight we are recommending the following residents to two-year terms, which are Dr. Janet Nunez-Pineda from District 4, Seabree Dillard from District 3, Kimberly Lainez from District 1. For one-year terms, we are recommending Mr. Michael Christie in District 4 and Mr. Mark Heifenger, District 4. So some of the benefits of having staggered terms are to have continuity, institutional knowledge, balanced future recruitment, and consistent committee leadership. The meeting schedule will be as follows. Fourth Wednesday of the month of July, October, January, and April. They will be held here in the council chambers at 6 p.m. So the recommendation tonight is to adopt the resolution appointing the five members to the budget advisory committee and establishing staggered terms effective July 1st of this year.

Thank you. Are there any council comments or questions?

Yeah. I was curious why the primary for the budget advisory committee wasn't a part of the interview process.

Unfortunately, that primary was out of town.

or alternate, perhaps. And then also, what the questions look like, or what the scores look like. It's just, it's interesting that the two men are on the bottom for the one year term, and the women are on the top for the three, the two year term. So I'm just kind of curious of what the scores look like, and how they were scored. And then also why somebody who wasn't going to be on the committee wasn't part of the interview process.

Then, if we can get clarification that the one year terms turn into a two year terms correct for the staggering is that is that is that not correct.

No well. They can reapply. For a two year term.

got it just for this one it's a one they'll reapply for a two and then the one year terms are gone correct so it's staggered. yeah right, thank you.

Yeah. And, um, council member call, uh, usually typically, uh, we do just actually have the mayor interviewing on their own, um, for our planning commission, our budget advisory this time around, we did invite our director of finance to join the mayor in that. Um, but no, we did not seek the primary alternate for, um, to be a part of that interview panel.

Yeah. And typically the planning commission applications are a part of the report, but I didn't see any. of the applications or anything for that matter in regards to those folks who applied for the budget advisory committee. So I was just curious of the process to ensure that it is a transparent process

and that maybe we have a little more information like other commissions or committees yeah so the the applications are available if anyone wishes to see them and they are public record we did not include them in the packet um just because of private reasons um confidential we could redact them and put them in there and like i said they are available for anybody anyone um We typically like to keep those that did not make the committee private. They are aware that it's public, but some of them like to keep their personal information private. We did receive comments from a last recruitment that their applications and their information was made public and they did not want to be included in the packet. But yes, for future, we would like to include primary and alternate in the interview process. But like I said, we typically don't do that.

So something that we could do is because the bylaws stipulate that the mayor makes the appointments is that we can bring back the bylaws if there are some changes that would like to be made.

I would like to see that for sure. And as far as the why the candidates were placed in the two year terms and the one year term that was just based on the rankings course actually.

Right, which is why i'm curious what the ranking scores were and how they scored so that we could see them and see maybe how that happened, but, and those are available for you to see.

And just anecdotally, Tammy and I scored separately and had conversations at the very end. Can you go back to the Names. Yeah. I will say, and I'm not going to pinpoint anybody, but I will say these five are the strongest, all with interest in our, you know, physical health, all with different types of experience. um many of which it'll be their first time participating as a in civic service and so and even talking to them through clearly you know we expect you to show up for these meetings only four times a year um and i would say i'm trying to think of some general um but yeah no we felt strongly about all of them and even the others you know i think We had hopes would interview strongly but these five ended up being the most and I would say true to the different strategies that you had put out in terms of collaboration and future collaboration with staff with Council and with each other and just general interest in the city so yeah.

Obviously, I'm happy because three of them are from District 4. And then I also, when we do bring bylaws, if we're able to bring them back, I would also like to make a proposal for Stan County Taxpayer Association to be a part of it because it is taxpayer funds that we're looking after. And with our current situation with our reserves, I think it's important that we get some outside perspective as well. So if I can get council on board with that, then that would definitely be something I'd look at.

So are there any, can you go back to the recommendation, please? Right, and I will go out for public comment do any of our candidates or anyone else want to speak or putting on the spot no okay.

i'd like to make a motion that.

i'll bring it back so we're going to say. I was saying there was no one on. Thank you i'll bring it back go ahead.

and make a motion that we approve item 11.1. i'll second it. roll call, please.

Council Member Uribe?

Yes.

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

Yes.

Mayor Hernandez? Yes. Motion passes 5-0.

Thank you. Congratulations. We're really excited. Obviously, you have a big task ahead of you. So thank you. Item 11.2 of resolution considering the approval of a memorandum of understanding between City of Riverbank, Opportunity Standards Laws for Economic Development Services for fiscal year 26-27.

So, Mayor and Council, this is a consideration of a proposed memorandum of understanding for economic development services with Opportunity Stanislaus. Just to give you a little bit of history, in December of 2021, Council approved a five-year agreement with Opportunity Stanislaus for economic development and workforce strategy services. The annual investment at that time was set at $25,000 per year during the fiscal year 2526 budget, so a year ago today. The during that presentation, a majority of Council did request a review of that memorandum of understanding to evaluate the services being received. On September 9th, Council directed staff to evaluate potential amendments to the MOU. And subsequently, Council Member Call, myself, and Dave White, who's the Opportunity Stanislaus CEO and has joined us today, did meet to discuss potential programs and opportunities to the city. So in November, we did come back with a presentation that discussed what those programs and opportunities were. could possibly be that are available to the city. So I'll go over those pretty quickly since we did go through those in depth back in November. So we talked about some downtown revitalization and small business growth strategies by providing retail leak analysis with some SBDC support for our businesses. They were in the process of hiring a communications director at that point in time and would work with the city for some early warning detection for those businesses that were struggling. Under industrial and commercial development, they would host development tours for interested developers and host brew and builds to bring local business owners and city officials for collaborative discussions. Under workforce and education partnership, doing some talent development programs and taking advantage of those that are already offered as such as leadership courses for employees. And then they also assist with recruitments and training. So that could be another method for us to put word out of any vacancies that we have. bolt on the go, having the accessibility to Volt grants by receiving a credit of one half of our investment to provide grants for residents to attend, and developing employee surveys or perform any skill gap analysis that we might need. Housing development support, connecting the city with S2A Modular, who does modular homes for affordable housing. Under infrastructure and innovation support, preparing economic impact analysis whenever we do have a new industry that is fully up and running. Communications and reporting, developing quarterly report templates specific to the city of Riverbank. And then holding the economic development 101 workshop with the city council. And under fiscal sustainability sharing best best practices from other jurisdiction and providing letters of support, should we have any grant opportunities available to us. So here's a little bit of the progress update. There was a full report prepared by Opportunity Santa Claus that was attached to our staff report, but this is coming directly from staff. We developed the Volt Institute scholarship guidelines and the application so that could be ready to go. and issued starting July 1st. This year, with this year's allocation, we actually have two city employees attend the Volt Institute, and you have one of them who is actually helping with our AV today. So we're really proud that he was able to take advantage of that opportunity. Opportunity Stanislaus and city staff have met multiple times to discuss development opportunities, particularly businesses that are looking to expand or new businesses that are looking for additional space. workshops in partnership with SBDC have taken place. They did host a brew and build at the riverbank industrial complex. And we are having discussions about hosting a brew and build at city locations. Volt on the go has been hosted at Sierra house. And Volt on the go will be hosted at the riverbank industrial complex. And we're looking for opportunities to host that at Scout Hall. So the proposed MOU for this year, as opposed to the one that was approved in 2021, is they are looking for a one-year term. The annual investment would remain at $25,000. That's already budgeted in your general fund budget. uh we would receive quarterly reports as we do now and we would have quarterly meetings to discuss that progress payments would be made quarterly based on approved reports and those deliverables to the city so we did talk earlier about having performance metrics um included so that we could evaluate the services that were receiving. So we did discuss having performance metrics such as the number of riverbank business engagements and consultations, the number of workforce training referrals and employer connections made quarterly summary of trackable outcomes such as business expansions and investment inquiries, and then evidence of riverbank focused events or presentations or workshops here in our city. So we do have some options that are being made available to the city council as always. So we do have the option to of course approve the one year MOU via resolution that was attached based on the improved performance and the metrics for evaluation of the ongoing agreement. Two, you can direct staff to evaluate other options for economic development services, such as expanded partnerships with local chambers of commerce, or evaluate investing the allocated funds in some capacity building for internal staff or via part-time internships. to develop programs for the city. And that is all I have for this point in time.

If I'm available for any questions, we go back one screen for the for the metrics. So I see the value 100%. So we're paying the The $25,000, we're getting half of that in the bulk credit utilization. So essentially we're getting that half price for an in-house economic development staff. So it makes total sense. For the metrics, I don't know if it makes sense, but I would like to see in the last report I saw there was a capital facility. There was a dollar amount that was a total dollar amount for capital that was brought in. So I would like to see that actual number. in the quarterly reports, just so we can kind of see what actual amount is coming in. We're paying this amount. This is what you guys are bringing in, so we can kind of just weigh that. And then the bulk credit utilization, I love that staff was able to take advantage of it, but I would like to see per quarter, was it used? Who used it? Just that information, just so we can kind of see who's taking advantage of it.

Any other questions or comments from council?

Can you take it to the slide that kind of has the timeline of events? Yeah. So I understand the purpose of opportunity status loss. I think I've voiced my opinion very strongly in that I understand the services. We hear the services, but we don't feel the services we currently spend per our fiscal budget. We already spend $1.4 million on economic development. And what that entails, again, it's a big book printed. I really can't tell you what exactly. I could not articulate it to our residents. So to continue to renew an MOU or to sign on for a year after we've already spent $125,000 on something, I don't think that that is responsible spending. I personally walked with SBDC. I think that SBDC has... A lot of opportunity and riverbank and not just riverbank but county wide, and I know that they serve other counties as well. I did see that they had a survey I don't know what the participation look like I didn't get metrics on that, even though I was physically walking with them some of the items that were listed on the things that they've done. It was at the Riverbank Industrial Complex. AMETIS is already an investor. So I don't really know that those fall specifically under the city umbrella with our $125,000 spend over five years. So I feel like, again, consistently, it's definitely going to be a no for me. But I am interested to hear other feedback.

Thank you. And I was on the opposite side of wanting to give them a year opportunity to come back and show us that you and the city manager had very concerted efforts and conversations. And I've gotten to the point where frankly, I cannot, I don't think I can justify another year. I would be interested in looking at option two that you have there. Because I think in a way, since it's already budgeted, we're able to still support our economic development or our community development department. and can do that with a renewed approach to have metrics that we've talked about, to have results of surveys and different things, and just have a more clear approach to what economic development services means with a local trusted partner. So though I'm not ready to let go fully of these services, I think it would be worth exploring with another organization.

So follow up question for you. Are you leaning more towards like the Latino chamber or local chamber who has the capacity? Probably the Latino chamber, in my opinion. So.

I agree. And if anything, I think they can help uplift our local chamber. I've seen I've attended many, many states of the city, and typically they partner with their local chambers and fundraise. And I think that, you know, just now spitballing here, but for future states of the city, it would be great to be able to do that with like the Latino chamber and potentially fundraise their own you know, impact to the general fund with that or have different discussions with them moving forward. But I would be interested in having those conversations.

I have to agree with Stacy on the performance. I don't think we really saw any performance until we had some concerns. Excuse me. I also like number two. I think that we could do more with our own economic development services through the chambers, but I'd also like to utilize Amentis. It's a great facility that we could maybe hold classes that are important to our citizens, like how to buy a house, how to, you know, who to talk to about remodeling. I mean, just different things that would be interesting to our citizens that they're going through. Maybe some, you know, a financial class, how to save for that type of thing. I think Amedis would be a great place to do those. And maybe through Chamber, we could do that. So I'm with number two.

And finally, I think, Council Member McCall, you brought up a point a couple of conversations ago about this, of which services we would still receive despite not being members. And I mean, I met with our local Riverbank Chamber and they, through one lunch conversation, became clients of SBDC. to, I don't know if I was supposed to say that, but to take advantage of services. And so, you know, I think there's opportunity on both sides and for us to start fresh with another partner. Is there any more council comments? Anything from public comment? Please.

were incorrect on the report. We did hold a Volt on the Go at the Riverbank Industrial Complex. We had 25 people in attendance and none of them were from Metis, from Metis, by the way. And so, yes, we use that facility a lot because it's a good facility. And Volt on the Go has been a major change agent in our county. People are getting great jobs, making $50, $60 an hour even. So I just want to make sure that you're aware of that on the record. The other thing is we've identified retailers that we're now interacting with that would bring substantial investment to the City of Riverbank. Josh Mann is my witness on that, and we've begun discussions with some of those retailers, and it would be sad to see that relationship go. I guess maybe the Chamber can provide those services, I don't know. But we have a very professional staff that has been doing this for many, many years. Our performance has increased this past year, my suggestion, looking at your budget your your budget deficit is to defer this for six months and see. we're on a good pace we're making progress we've had several meetings we've had meetings at the riverbank industrial complex building brew, I was hoping we would see members of city staff and. and even elected officials at those meetings, but they didn't show up. So it's hard for me to convey activity and success when We don't have participation of the city. It kind of goes both ways. And we had a great Bruin build at the Riverbank Industrial Complex, our SBDC. SBDC, by law, they are not allowed to divulge confidential information about clients. No SBDC in the country can do that. They cannot do that by law. And so that's why you can't get detailed information about specific companies. But I know there has been an increase in services by the SBDC. We're heading a procurement program throughout the county. I'm hopeful that the city of Riverbank would participate in that. And so, you know, this city, we've worked very hard this past year with the city and it's getting even better. So my suggestion is to defer for six months, see what happens, see how we can improve and increase, build on the momentum that we've already had. The mayor is a member of our board of directors and And I would hope for continued participation there on the board. We have a number of companies. Boyette Petroleum is an investor in OS. We're working very closely with them on their relocation. We're working with them on increasing their staffing. That facility is going to be an amazing facility in the city of Riverbank. We're helping them get tax credits through the state, through the California Competes program. There's a number of things that we detailed in the report that were not included in the presentation that I wanted to make sure that were on the record. So my suggestion is to defer. We're a professional organization with individuals who have been working in economic development for more than 20, 30, 40 years. And we work with every city in the county. If you guys choose not to work with us, we will continue to work with you. This is a partnership, and we appreciate the support we get from the cities. It would be sad to have a city not participate in that when other cities are, and we're enjoining them with many services. So I just hope that you consider that fact and consider the overall altruistic efforts that we do. We have worked with the city of Patterson, for example, on an Amazon logistics center. It's actually, they call it the Amazon Robotics Center. It's gonna be 1200 jobs over a million square feet. Will that have an impact on Riverbank? You bet. There are gonna be people from Riverbank working in that facility. And so what happens in Modesto and Patterson and other places helps to benefit the city of Riverbank. I hope you see that because your people are getting employed at these locations and they're bringing home dollars that they spend at crossroads. And so we hope you see the altruistic big picture of economic development. Those jobs at Amazon are going to be $70,000 jobs plus. And we're working on some other projects there too. We work very closely with the RIC on attracting new jobs. We had one prospect there at the Brew and Build, a company that's in the biocircular economy that's considering the Riverbank Industrial Complex. So again, we've worked really hard as a staff to gain your trust this past year. We have demonstrated an increase in effort, and I hope that you would recognize that. In good faith, that was our mantra that you gave us, and I believe that we've performed even things that were not included in the report. So I just would leave it at that, and if anybody has any questions, I'm very transparent. I'll tell you exactly how I feel.

Yeah, if I can just address the comment that you made where You said council and staff aren't really, they don't participate. I don't think that's fair.

Well, not in the things that I've done. Okay.

So maybe it just kind of came across a little disingenuous with all the meetings that call has had the rest of the council. I even helped your staff recruit the 25 for the vote on the go. So it felt a little, Wasn't a fair comment. I just wanted to say that for the record. And Josh, your name came up. I don't know if you wanted to add to any of that.

Well, Josh and I spent, I have a great relationship with Josh. We spent two hours, the two of us, going around Riverbank and talking about specific projects that we're now working on. I took that time to meet with Josh and help him. Josh has a lot on his plate. He is stretched very thin. I think you know that, you know, with all the activity that's happening at Crossroads. We want to support him in that. And I don't mean any disparity at all. I'm just saying that the events, we didn't have anybody at the Bruin build. And I was hoping to see somebody at that Bruin build. We put a lot of time and effort into it. I was there for the whole time. We had companies there, but we didn't have any staff. And I'm sure there was something else going on. So I apologize for my remarks. but I'm just trying to be transparent and share where we are and what we're doing and where we're going with the hope that you would be our partner going forward.

So, thank you. Unless there are specific questions for Josh, I don't want to put him on the spot.

I do want to mention what was included in the presentation itself was the personal experience that we have had. That's why we did include the written report that was presented and prepared by Opportunity Santa Sauce. because I obviously did not want to speak on their behalf. So this was just our personal experience.

Thank you. Thank you for your comment. Thank you. I will say that the comment didn't sit well with me either. I think that the council and myself are the ones responsible for providing information to our residents and similarly, I guess I would take a different approach and saying, instead of letting us know what you're legally bound not to do or what you can't do, come forward with what you can share. And that could be as simple as data points or numbers. And so anyways, I would like to move forward and then maybe in a year we can release a formal RFP to have all parties reapply for tonight. I would like to move forward with option two to evaluate options for economic development services.

And I'll second it.

Roll call, please.

Council Member Uribe?

Yes.

Council Member Fossey? Yes. Council Member Cohn? No. Vice Mayor Pimentel?

Yes.

Mayor Hernandez? Yes. Motion carries 4-1.

Thank you. Item 11.3, a resolution to award a professional services agreement for the comprehensive water utility rate study to LT municipal consultants.

Mayor and Council, your Assistant City Manager, Tammy Alcantara, will provide this report.

Thank you, Mayor and Council. As I had noted during our budget conversations, I am bringing back to you tonight for consideration to award a contract for our comprehensive water utility rate study. The last rate study that was completed was in 2015. Those rates have not been adjusted since 2019. We've incurred increasing operating and maintenance costs. Our groundwater sustainability requirements have increased. Our PFAS regulatory compliance, aging infrastructure, and future capital needs all need to be addressed. And we need, of course, long-term financial sustainability. Sorry. Okay. So our current water fund financial condition almost looks like I duplicated some of that information, but our current operating fund is projected with a 334,000 deficit, 2627 operating fund is projected to end with a deficit of 1.3 million. Operating with a deficit of almost 1 million so continued deficits will require defer deferral of maintenance and infrastructure projects reduce flexibility to address regulatory requirements and system improvements. So included in our RFP was our key deliverables, a 10-year financial plan, cost of service analysis, a five-year rate implementation plan, a reserve policy recommendation, evaluation of connection and capacity fee review, evaluation of our URAP, which is our utility rate assistance program for our seniors and disabled. Be sure that we are getting our Prop 218 support, that we are providing public outreach assistance, and city-owned financial model, and then staff training and council presentations. So we issued the RFP on March 24th of 2026. Proposals were due on April 21st of 2026. And we did receive five of those. After scoring the five proposals, there were four of them that were interviewed. And then the three panelists, which was myself, our Director of Public Works and the Assistant Finance Director, all agreed that LT Municipal Consultants was the ideal consultant to go forward with. So why LT Municipal Consultants? They have an extensive California public agency experience. They do specialize in utility rate studies and Prop 218 compliance. They have experience here in the Central Valley and with other agencies. They do understand Riverbank's needs. They have comprehensive financial planning approach, a very strong public outreach and communication strategy, and they would provide the city with the city-owned Excel model for our rates. So LT, municipal finance... Outreach strategy would be to provide clear, easy to understand information throughout the rate study process, utilize multiple communication channels, our city website, social media, mailers and printed materials, public meetings and presentations, prepare outreach materials including presentation slides, FAQs, reports and fact sheets, Prop 218 notices and ballots, The goal, promote transparency, educate our rate payers, and support informed community participation. And just to note, the city council during this process will have multiple opportunities to review draft rate proposals and give input before our public hearing of adoption. So the financial impact, the contract is to not exceed $55,740. The contract amount was included in the proposed budget that was presented tonight. And within the RFP, we have proposed a budget range of $55,000 to $80,000. So they were on the lower end of that as well. Did you have a question?

I do, but I can wait if you need me.

Yeah, I'm almost at the end here. So our recommendation is approving the professional services agreement with the contract amount not to exceed the $55,740, authorizing the city manager to execute that agreement. And we are anticipating a project kickoff in July of 2026. And I will answer any questions.

You may, I don't know how much of this you can share, but the scoring metrics that landed for LT, can you kind of touch on that a little bit? So there was five that applied. How much of that can you share?

Yeah, so we had five consultants that applied and included in our RFP was a evaluation and criteria scoring. So we outlined it when we sent out the RFP, basing it on their experience with municipal water rate studies experience with Prop 218, what their project approach and methodology was, the qualifications of the project team, the ability to provide a functional rate model, the cost of the proposal, and then references, and then the last item was the interview process.

So did all five land in the interview process?

No, only four of them landed in the interview process. One of them did not have the history with municipal water rate studies.

Thank you.

And I'm sorry if I missed this, but is at least the outreach going to be in Spanish as well?

Yes, and that was discussed in our interview process as well.

Could you expand if there's what parts are going to be translated?

Well, for sure, when we do our Prop 218 notice, that is going to be translated in both English and Spanish. And then when we're doing our social media, I anticipate we will be translating that as well or on our websites.

Thank you. So any other council comments, questions? Any public comment, in person or online?

Mayor, I don't see anyone wishing to speak on this item. OK, I'll bring it back to you. I digress.

There is someone. OK. And once again, for counsel, this does not bind you to moving forward with a Proposition 218 process. This simply gives you the information to be able to consider that option.

Please go ahead. Hello? Yes, go ahead, Ms. Halbert.

Okay, I just have a question. If I understood her right, she said something about appropriating $50,000 to $80,000 for this thing. But on the financial impact on the agenda, it says $48,440. Let me get this right, $48,440,722. So she's appropriating enough to hire them, but This whole new thing is going to cost the ratepayers over $48 million. Is that a financial impact? Is that what they're talking about?

Yeah, I'm not sure. I think that number may have been the citywide budget. Sounds familiar to me. But the $55,000 to $80,000 was what we had put in the RFP for our budget range. But this contract is strictly the $55,740. Okay.

Yeah. So if you look at the financial impact in the staff report for this specific item, it does list 55,740. I do believe because we mentioned that it was included in the annual budget that she may have looked at the financial impact for the annual budget staff report, which of course was the 48 million.

Evelyn, we didn't quite let you finish your comment. Was that it? Okay.

Miss Halbert, can you please unmute? Okay. Miss Halbert? Yes.

I just wondered what the $48 million was for. Because that's what the financial impact shows.

Yes, that is for the annual budget. So that was included in the staff report for the citywide annual budget, all of the funds. That's not the financial impact for this particular item.

So that's not just for the water. So let's let her finish her comments. We're going to go back and forth. Is that all your questions and comments? Yeah, that was my only question.

I just wanted to clarify what financial impact was $48 million for the water. Okay, thank you. Okay, thank you.

Yes. So no, that 48 million is not the impact for the water fund operating budget. It is for the entirety of all of the city's funds, including the general fund.

Thank you. If there's no more public comment, I'll bring it back to council for conversation or consideration.

Okay, so I'll make a motion to approve item 11.3.

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. Okay, so staff report sign 12.1.

just some very brief comments all city offices will be closed thursday july 2nd and friday july 3rd for the 4th of july holiday and the candidate nomination period will open on july 13th for the council member district 1 and district 3 seats so if you have any questions please contact the city clerk and that is all from thank you vice mayor

Thank you, Mayor. On the 18th, Red Robin did a fundraiser with Sister City. I want to thank you, Francis, and also Sister City is still taking applications for new members. If you'd like to reach out to me on Facebook, I will be at the July 4th bike parade. So register and come on down, and that's all I have.

Council Member, would you have a...

Thank you, Mayor. Just one quick comment. So I'd like to take a moment to share an upcoming community event. So following the success of our very first Park and Play on May 2nd, the kids asked us to bring it back. So we're going to do it again. This time we're going to be celebrating America's 250th birthday. So join us for America 250 Park and Play. It's going to be a free event for the whole family. Castleburg Park, 58458 Street. So Saturday, July 4th at 530 p.m. to 730 p.m. There's going to be free pizza, water for the kids, interactive games for all ages. Bring your game so we can share it. We're going to use the open park space here for the families. It's all free while supplies last. So I'll say that a couple of times. I want to thank the community for their support. We received games from Richard O'Brien, American Veterans First donated fireworks. So we'll be giving those out for free to the parents while supplies last. And the event is proudly sponsored by Love Our Neighbors. So whether it's your first time coming out, please bring your whole family, friends. Let's celebrate the 250 together. Thank you.

Thank you. Council Member Fossey.

I'd like to thank the residents for their patience while North County and every other street in the Riverbank area gets constructed. I did go to the grand opening of the light at Roselle and 108 and I talked directly to the person that is in charge of the construction of the North County corridor and he has told me And I asked him twice to confirm that it will most likely be open in October on Roselle Road. It may be closed periodically as they do any construction needs that they have, but their goal is to open Roselle in October of 2026. Calm down. Don't get too excited. It is accounting. Anyway, I'm very hopeful for that. I'm looking forward to working with the Budget Advisory Committee. I'm excited that we're going to start. So I will see all of them in July. And then in case any of you didn't get the number to report fireworks, the number is 209-552-2472. Correct. If you want to write that down so that you can report any illegal fireworks in your area, please feel free to call so that we can get somebody over there and get it to stop. Thank you. Have a great 4th of July.

Thank you. Council Member McCall.

So first I wanted to thank staff for putting together the proposed budget for FY26 and 27. I know I mentioned that it's A little challenging to review. However, I do know there's a lot of time and energy and effort that goes into putting all of this together and not just from our finance department or city manager, but from all of the departments. And putting together your budgets. So I completely understand that. And I appreciate the work that you did. I just, I want to continue to reinforce that. I am going to continue to question why we're dipping into our reserves and the strategic plan. We use the words accountability and transparency. So it's our duty up here as council members to hold staff accountable to responsible spending and ensure there's transparency in the documents that we are reviewing, not just at a council level, but our general population. And so some follow-up that I'm looking at, especially after the opportunity Stanislaus conversation and allocating the $25,000 elsewhere, I would like to see what that $1.4 million looks like that we're spending with economic development and our budget and see maybe if there's other chambers or whatever else there may be that we're investing in that we don't know about or what else falls under the economic development category that we can maybe clean up or opportunities to leverage. So I would definitely appreciate to do that. Um, we hear from the sandables, we see them at city levels, we see them on social media, we see them at a County level. Um, so I'm hoping I can get council support and getting maybe a city engineer out there to figure out what responsibility the city has, uh, with this property. And then maybe what is just a civil matter that is out of our hands. Um, And I think that that would be important at this point because we're getting comments at all levels asking what we're doing. So my hope is that this is what we're doing. And then lastly, I still want to continue to reinforce my support for another deputy and request counsel to reconsider with the recruitment being two to three years. And then maybe possibly getting some updated expenses on what that one-time cost of the vehicle looks like. Some of that equipment and conversation, some of that information may not be very accurate on the one-time spend, but again, it's a two to three year recruitment. So there isn't an upfront financial obligation, but obviously we have to budget for it. So. Happy 4th of July and happy 250th to America.

Thank you. Let me see. So we just found out that due to the housing element being out of compliance, we were rejected for a grant that would have gone towards Sierra House operations at The total grant was $113,000, just over $113,000, with $68,000 of that going towards Sierra House operations. I mean, these are hard conversations that we're having. And year-round, the decisions we make do impact our budget. And so I want us to encourage us to take a holistic look at what we're doing year-round. Because not only is it the grant that we're losing, but now it's going to be an additional impact to our general fund. I mean, in addition to the additional consultant time, staff time, et cetera, that are more direct but real costs that we incurred for this. I was really encouraged by the collaboration, consideration, and working alongside each other that we had during tonight's budget conversation. So times like the decisions that are made around the housing element, I think, could have had better compromise. And so when we said that we're at risk of many things and we are seeing the real impact of that. um i'll stop there we do not have a closed session item so our next regular city council meeting is scheduled for july 28th someone from now at 6 p.m this meeting is adjourned