City Council - Regular Meeting

We are going to call this meeting to order. Vice Mayor, please stand for the flag salute and invocation. Thank you for Mayor Hernandez, Lord. I thank you for this council, the city staff, Lord, and their yes to the assignment, Lord, that they've been chosen for, God, that they're working and helping us, Lord, make this city the best city that it can be. Father, I I thank you for all the residents, Lord. I thank you that when we come together to solve problems Lord and when we face trials God and we are able to display and just share our concerns Lord in this place and this platform but Lord at the end of the day we understand that all all of us working together is what makes it work. So I just pray that during this season of thankfulness, Lord, that we would just be grateful, thankful, and also um just in invested in what this city can become and in our part and what that looks like. And we ask this in your name, in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Call please. Council member here. Council member Pimento here. Council member Call here. Vice Mayor FSY here. Mayor Hernandez

here. Um, there are no agenda changes at this time. Any council authority member staff who has addressed conflict of interest on any scheduled agenda item uh to be considered is to declare their conflict at this time. Seeing none, we have a proclamation today. If I can have the representatives for American veterans first come up. It has been an exciting month celebrating uh Veterans Day and Veterans Month with you and uh we wanted to end the month by giving you a proclamation on behalf of the city. Whereas November was first declared as military family month in 1996. Since then, November has been a time to acknowledge the tremendous sacrifices our military families make. They contend with separation from their families and make adjustments to living in new situations and communities. Military families embody strength, resilience, and courage. And whereas we unite with the community to honor the extraordinary men and women whose selfless service has safeguarded our nation's most cherished freedoms, their sacrifices are woven into the fabric of our community, reminding us daily of the courage it takes to preserve liberty. And whereas too many of veterans carry painful memories and bear physical, emotional scars from their service, we will never forget our veterans who are suffering from mental health issues or military families that are left behind. Whereas families provide our service members with invaluable encouragement and love and manage the homeront while their loved ones are deployed. As we approach the winter holiday season, when families across the world come together, we pay special tribute to our deployed forces and their families. Now therefore, the city council and the city of Riverbank hereby proclaim November 2025 as Veterans and Military Families Month and urge the Riverbank community to celebrate the inomitable

spirit of our heroes and reaffirm our commitment to them, ensuring that their service is never forgotten and their contributions are always cherished. Signed today and for you all. Thank you so much. That's more shy. Hello. Yeah. There you go. There you go.

Beautiful. I know my spelling be abominable. All right. 7.2. The presentation from our traffic committee.

Mayor and council, our director of public works, Cody Bridgewwater, will provide this report. Mayor, members of council, uh few weeks, actually probably last month, you guys asked me to bring forward a presentation regarding our traffic committee that we held on the first Tuesday of each month. [clears throat] So, tonight I will be presenting this information. Thank you. So the traffic committee members are made up of the city manager, assistant city manager, chief of Riverblank police services, our contract city engineer, the director of public works, director of community development, our capital projects and regulatory compliance manager, our public works superintendent, our street supervisor, and other miscellaneous development services and police services staff members as they're able to attend. Um quite often chief sends uh his traffic officers in to provide input for those meetings. So how it works is public works as well as additional departments receive complaints from the public as well as requests from other city staff and these complaints are placed on the agenda for the upcoming meeting which occurs on the first Tuesday of each month. For example, we recently had a resident complaining about speeding along Terminal Avenue near the intersection of Tennessee Avenue and requested that the city install a speed bump. Uh staff presented the item to the traffic committee and a decision was rendered utilizing existing speed data, accident data, and additional information from the area such as signage and striping.

So the initial data that was reviewed by staff was from August 8th of 2022 through August 15th of 2022. What the police services had done is they placed the radar trailer out there to collect speed data and traffic data in the area. So the northbound traffic was 52% of the vehicles traveled above the speed limit of 30 m an hour and southbound traffic which is going out of town 67 12% of the vehicles traveled above the speed limit and that threshold was set at the actual speed limit of 30 miles an hour. So based on the traffic data, the traffic committee ultimately decided to install stop signs at the intersection of Townson Avenue and Terminal Avenue as it had currently only had a stop sign at Townson. By installing stop signs on the northbound and southbound lanes of Terminal, we figured we could slow traffic significantly being that there was not a stop sign in the onem stretch from the intersection of Clarabel Road and Terminal Avenue to Kentucky Avenue and Terminal Avenue. So the data that was gathered most recently, which was from 114 of 25 to 117 of 25, we now have a northbound speeding of approximately 10% of the vehicles that were traveling in there and south was 26%. So if you have a sideby-side comparison, you can see the green there is the vehicles that are in compliance. So in 2022, you have the left side there. Now in 2025, after the installation of the stop signs and not choosing to install a speed bump, this is the the data that we're receiving now.

So just some other possible topics that we receive on a regular basis. Um, speeding is a big one. Signage such as no parking, stop signs, U-turns. Um, one example I can share is Oakdale Road and Westgate. If you're heading northbound, um, it used to be both southbound and northbound at that intersection was a no U-turn. Well, we got a complaint from a resident and so we looked at Westgate to see if there was enough room to be able to perform a U-turn safely in that intersection and from going northbound coming back around to go towards Costco, it was safe to do so. So, we actually changed those signs out and just in that one direction, a U-turn is allowed. Now, now when um Oakdale Road is widened on the north side, uh they're at Crossroads West, we'll be able to fit a U-turn in there as well. Right now, we can't do it just because of the spacing, but those are some of the things that we're presented with, and we we determine a uh next feasible step. Other things would be striping such as uh curb paint or street striping. Um crosswalks, we get a lot of, you know, requests for additional crosswalks and we do our best to accommodate those as well. Um that's my short presentation. I'd be happy to answer any questions and you guys may have

questions comments from

the only comment I have is the one I always have. So when you're traveling from Oakdale to Roselle and you are going past the shopping center, people like to turn left at the drinking um drinking um I forget what the name of the store is. Beverages and more. You can't turn left. Now, when I was on council before, I asked them to restripe that and they did. I still see people turning left. I've been in the lane turning out and have people pull in front of me turning left. I would like to see the posts, the plastic ones there, so people don't turn left because especially now it's becoming a hazard. Maybe it doesn't happen as often because of two turn lanes, but that's been a problem for several years that I've seen. Just as a suggestion,

put on the agenda. So, what's the best way to um send a concern or uh either through email or you can call public works and the girls will take down the information and hand it over to me and we can put it on the agenda.

Okay. Thank you. Um item 7.3 presentation opportunity stands memorandum of understanding. So, mayor and council, this item is a followup to a previous discussion that we had had with regards to the memorandum of understanding orou um with opportunity stasis. Uh so, just a little bit of background, uh December 14th of 21, council approved a five-year agreement for what they say is economic development and workforce strategies. that annual investment for that each of those five years is $25,000 to opportunity standoffs. Uh during the budget presentation for this current fiscal year, a majority of council requested a review of theou. So on September 9th, we did um receive direction to evaluate some potential amendments. Uh, subsequently, Council Member Call and myself uh, met with Dave White, who's the CEO of Opportunity Santaas, to discuss their current programs and opportunities that we might be able to take advantage of. I will say thatus like this require both parties to put some effort and some work into it. So, some of the programs will require some initiative on behalf of staff. Other programs will require an initiative on behalf of opportunity status loss. So, I think it's going to be important moving forward that we make sure that we hold each other accountable. And so us as council, myself as staff, um making sure that the programs that staff can take advantage of are being done so in a routine basis and same that we are holding opportunity status accountable whether it be through the quarterly reports and calling things out that we are not seeing happen um to make sure that we're doing that and and we can have these conversations um

sooner in theou um rather than waiting for things to kind of build up and and then we end up with conversations like these. So, a couple of programs and opportunities. Um, so one of the initial discussions that council member call had with the opportunity susaw staff is they reviewed our strategic plan and looked at how some of these programs can fall within the parameters of meeting those objectives and goals that were set forth um in the May strategic plan. So the big kind of topics are categorized um with an intent that these programs will help us achieve those goals. Uh so in terms of downtown revitalization and small business growth, it's always been important for the city um to be able to help our downtown businesses and our small businesses in general. I'm going to say a lot of the programs are geared towards small businesses because we know that some of the larger corporate businesses and franchises, they can take care of themselves. So, when I talk about some of these programs, I don't have Crossroads West in mind because they can take care of themselves. It's looking at our smaller areas, our downtown, our 108 corridor, Patterson Road, and some of the vacant um buildings that we have within those smaller commercial centers that we could possibly help to to fill.

But so this wouldn't exclude some of the smaller businesses in those areas. It will not exclude that. But in terms of looking to fill vacancies, Broman Development handles that on their own. Not maybe not necessarily needing any assistance from the city. Whereas some of the others may not have access to some of this specific market information or be able to perform their own market analysis to know what might be a good fit for their area. So like retention, they're good, right? They can handle that. But as far as like maybe like the grants and stuff like that they can still access

that they will still be able to access. Um so retail leakage an analysis. Um, so they have opportunity Santaas has a program called Buckton on Demand. Um, which provides information on where our residents are leaving Riverbank to purchase things in other cities because we simply don't have them here in our city or not enough of them to be able to to handle all of the residents that we have. So for us, it's being able to request that information on demand anytime that we want um to assist in filling vacancies here in our downtown and as I mentioned along that highway 108 corridor. SPDC has been a wonderful partner to the city. Um so one of the things that we talked about is identifying businesses that are not currently SPDC clients. So, we would send to them basically a business license report of our smaller commercial businesses and our home occupations so that they can do some outreach um in order to to be able to let them know what services and programs they can offer to them. Uh so, Opportunity Stannis is looking to hire a communications director and so they were in the process of recruitment um when we last had this conversation with them. Um, so the goal is to be able to help the investors with some social media um social media uh communications and being able to sort of highlight the different investors that all help to support opportunity status. And then in terms of us being proactive with our businesses that are struggling is doing some early warning detection. Uh so as part of the quarterly reports that we receive from our sales tax consultants, we're able to see those businesses that might be struggling, that might have had a significant drop or loss of revenue um quarter after

quarter or year after year where we might be able to reach out to opportunity Santaas and SBDC and be able to ask them um to reach out to these businesses and and offer them resources uh whenever they may need them to to kind of help them through um whatever struggle they're they're currently facing.

So when we're talking about early warning detection, can we kind of set a standard? So like I want to see more of like metrics in in kind of this stuff, right? So can we say, hey, can you reach out to the three um you know struggling businesses in town and then set that every month so that they can kind of reach out every month and then they're not kind of oversaturating uh the town as well. that's something that we can kind of build into it or no?

Yeah, we certainly can make sure that we include some kind of way to be able to measure how successful this partnership is going to be because I I do want to make clear as I mentioned earlier it it does need to be a partnership. It it does need to have both parties involved to make sure that this continues to work.

And and then just for clarification for the SBDC support, how many are we currently sending to SBDC now as far as clients? So the city itself is not sending any any clients. Okay. Uh typically what we've done is through some of the workshops that they do. Um we'll send information out that way. Um the last workshop that we held last week, you know, we did like a mass email blast to to all of our businesses. I think that proved to be successful because we had 19 individuals um that attended that course and we had very good reviews come from that. So I think continuing that practice um would be extremely helpful whenever we do see information coming through that will benefit them. Uh in terms of industrial and commercial developments um so opportunity Stannisol does hold opportunity development tours for interested developers. This does tend to focus more on developers that are looking for large vacant lots to do warehousing or some kind of manufacturing company. We don't necessarily have those huge vacant commercial or industrial lots. Um, so not something that we would probably take advantage right away, but if there were opportunities to annex any properties into the city, um, that would fit those parameters, then certainly we would want to make sure that we take advantage of that service. Basically, they bring them they bust individuals out to be able to look at the properties themselves, evaluate um what services are already nearby, what infrastructure needs are are necessary um and be able to kind of gauge their interest from there. A second one is to do a brewin build, which is basically like a you know, let's meet for coffee with our local businesses. Um bring them in. It would

include city officials, whether it's a council member or city staff, um, and just have a discussion to allow businesses to chair shared challenges, opportunities, and ways to support economic growth. I will say that some of this, um, some of these have been very successful in other cities. Houston just recently had one that was very well attended. Um the goal is to be able to get feedback on ways that we can streamline processes, be able to facilitate businesses to come in um and not have so much red tape as you know we we tend to sometimes have as governmental agencies.

So I know and I I believe the city of Oakdale also does this as well and so I think their goal is like three per year. So can we put in this you know a goal of like two a year so that way we have those again metrics? Yeah, maybe a minimum of one, but at least you Yeah, go for two. Minimum of one per year. Yeah.

Now, in terms of workforce and education, um as we know, uh they do offer some workforce development training, particularly when it comes to their bolt program. Uh so they do have a talent development program where they offer leaders leadership courses for employees. Um they also assist with recruitments and trainings. So, not only can this be offered to our local businesses for them to take advantage and be able to send their managers for training, etc. That also goes for city staff um and city officials. So, if we ever had a need to send a new manager or supervisor to some leadership training, we would be able to send them. And also any recruitments that we have, they offer us the opportunity to send them the information and they will post via their social media. um uh medians as well. Uh Volt on the go. Um so that would be them bringing Volt to us. Of course, that does require a location to be able to do that. Um since it does take a couple of weeks for folks to go through the courses, uh we would want a consistent location to to host those depending on the size of the class. Um we've had some success using the um Riverbank Industrial Complex and the building 18 that they have there. Um so that certainly can be something that we can offer to them. Um and they can also offer the course um in English and in Spanish. So that way multiple individuals can can attend and they can also do a course just in one language or just in another just depending on

We could use the Scott McRichie building also, right?

Yes, we could also use that as well. um vault grants. So, this is something that came out of the last discussion that um we had here at council um and was something that was offered by the CEO is to be able to take half of our investment. So, as a reminder, our investment is $25,000 a year, be able to take half of that and provide a grant for a resident to attend a bolt program. So they do advanced maintenance mechanic, they do electrician courses. Um there's a variety of courses that they offer. So currently the city of Oakdale and the city of Houston um have a grant program with certain parameters that residents would have to meet in order to be able to apply. the 12,500 would basically be enough to cover one of the larger courses like the advanced maintenance mechanic along with one of the smaller courses kind of like the electrician. Um, so we could potentially fund up to two grants for our residents. Um, so this is certainly something I think we would want to take advantage of. As a reminder for those that were on council prior to um, last November, we wanted to do this with some of our ARPA funding. Unfortunately, some of the programs came in over budget and so we had to reallocate funds. Um, but this would be a great way to be able to kind of reinitiate that desire that council had to assist our residents who sometimes may need an opportunity to enhance their skills um and be able to to go for a higher paying job.

This would probably be good for our Sierra house. Yes. People.

Yes. And actually, yeah, Volt on the go has actually been at Sierra House as well. So, they are getting sort of those free resources, too. Uh, last one is develop some employee surveys or perform a skill gap analysis for any of our businesses here in Riverbank um and including um city staff. uh under housing and development support, they actually have a um company that builds modells that if we were looking to build a tiny home village or micro home village as it they're being called now, um that S2A modular um is kind of been vetted by them. So this is something that uh developers would have an opportunity to reach out to them um probably get some good pricing uh to be able to build some modular affordable housing. Terms of infrastructure and innovation support is they would prepare economic impact analysis on new industries. So, for example, when 3R is up and running, they'll be able to evaluate the impact that they're going to have on the city, not just in terms of the revenues that they're going to generate for us or the sales tax they'll generate for us, but also sort of those incidentals, you know, how many Riverbank residents are benefiting from having a job at that location, which then in turns in turn uh means that they're spending their uh dollars locally. And so that continues to stay in Riverbank and continues to invigorate um our economy here. So they'll be able to evaluate that. So we do do it for larger industries. The last one that we did was for Circulus. Unfortunately, they're no longer here. Um but they do provide um that that type of service. Terms of communications and reporting, of course, they'll continue to develop a quarterly report. Uh something that they

mentioned is that the city of Modesto has tailored their report to make sure um it includes all of the data that they're seeking. So we will look to be able to do something similar. Currently they just use their standard template to be able to share the information. A lot of times that may include information that's not specific to Riverbank. So, I think being able to to make sure that it includes riverbank only information um will will help not only to be able to share that information with council but also with members of the public. And then hold an economic development 101 workshop with the city council. That's something they offered previously. It would require a commitment of time from council at least two to three hours. um we would meet whether it's here at the council chambers or another off-site location um to be able to host that. Um but they are still looking to to be able to offer that. And then in terms of fiscal sustainability and accountability, share best practices from other jurisdictions and then be able to provide letters of support for grant applications, particularly those um that might focus on infrastructure needs of our in industrial businesses or our small businesses. So sort of what are our next steps from here? Um, city staff will continue to work with opportunity Santaas on prioritized projects or programs such as the vault grants to residents, being able to establish the parameters to apply um, and being able to get that rolled out. Um, requesting data such as the Buckton reports from them so that we can share that with um, the different commercial centers that might need um, or have vacant spots. and then

scheduling of workshops and events for 2026 with Valley Sierra um SBDC and then of course uh council and city ha staff will hold ongoing conversations to ensure that each party is communicating their needs and then a review of the proposed five-year agreement. So, um, coincidentally, Dave did reach out to me and said he's ready to share a draft of that agreement. Uh, if council is interested in sitting down with me when I meet with him, please reach out to me so that we can coordinate uh, a time to do so. Um, that way we can be able to communicate the needs that council has expressed tonight to them. Um, and then we would bring a draft back for review um, by the city council. And with that, if there's any questions, um I think it was a very good conversation that council member Col and I had with Dave White. Um they certainly realize that there are some times because of some staffing issues that they've had themselves that they're not as proactive as they should be. And so same with us that as we've had some staff turnover um that we haven't been as proactive as we've needed to be to make sure that we're taking advantage of these programs um that they have and certainly continuing to collaborate with SBDC. Um this is a photo from that last workshop that we had just a week ago. Um like I said it was really great turnout. They had 37 signups and 19 folks show up which for them was a huge win. Um they loved the space. So I think we're going to be able to continue to collaborate with ais on the use of the space there um and continue to bring our riverbank industrial complex to light.

Thank you. Um real quick before we start brainstorming some things um what does this impact the length of the term of this final? So any of these changes that we make, it's really already included in the initial agreement that we have with him. So it's just a matter of us being proactive and taking advantage of that. So there's not going to be any change now. I think the only major change is going to be to the bolt um grant program. That's the one thing that's not necessarily detailed. So we might need an amendment, but the new agreement is coming up here very quickly. Um, so we may just end up doing like a side letter to be able to initiate that work and then make sure that we incorporate specific language in the new five-year agreement that they're proposing.

So when is this final year end? So this final year ends June 30th of next year. Um, so the goal in being able to review the draft now is that by March, April, we would have a final version. uh they try to use a standardized agreement with all of their investors, i.e. all of their cities um because there are quite a few that are investors. But with us, we did say, you know, there are some very specific items that we want to make sure we call out. Um so it might need to be tailored this year, which is why he wants to start those conversations earlier rather than later.

Um thank you for attending those meetings. Did you want to add anything? Yeah. So, I just want to say thank you for including me in those meetings. They were really productive. We got to hear a lot more. Out of curiosity, how much has Dave reached out since we started meeting with him and we agreed to uh continue with theou?

So, I haven't had any communication with him since that meeting other than to try to set up a meeting to review the draft. And then I just wanted to reinforce what you had said about the accountability piece because this really is going to take a high level of accountability from staff and from opportunity status loss and even us we vote up here to spend the community's money on these resources. So even if it's just reaching out to Valley Sierra or opportunity stands I encourage all of you to reach out to them just to kind of get a feel for what's going on or how we can support them. I walked with Valley Sierra SBDC. I think it would be great to see everyone on council walk with them, but we just we it's almost like we're going to have to hold some hands a little bit through this process to make sure that we're getting the things that we're asking for and that we're needing. And then to Council Member Yuri's point, I do think it's a great idea in theou adjustments to include measurable results. So at least one brewin build on the counter on the calendar through the uh end of the term of this agreement and then um we can include these measurable results that we're talking about in that reporting tool that he's giving us access to comments or questions. Um, and I want to commit if I could uh volunteer you as well. Um, at least both of us to communicate to the rest of council um, in the conversations we have because I, uh, I mentioned before I sit on their board and um, the meetings don't happen as often as I would like, but I want to commit to communicating um, to you all as this progresses. I would love to sit in on that meeting, Marza, as you have it.

I'll send an email out to to you both. Do you need anything else from us? Okay. All right. 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 L. Individual comments will be limited to a maximum of three minutes and time cannot be yielded to another person. Under state law, matters presented during public comment cannot be discussed or acted upon. Miss Barbara Martinez. Hello everyone. Hope I can get through this without coughing, bronchitis, and this evening weather is getting to me. [snorts] Um, so I'm here as a resident of Riverbank and also a director on the Riverbank Chamber of Commerce. December 9th is our last chamber meeting for the year. Uh the meetings are at the Riverbank Industrial Complex at 5300 Claus Road in the conference room from 12 to 1:00 p.m. December 10th is the Chambers Holiday Party from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at building 18 at the Riverbank Industrial Complex and we will be doing a White Elephant gift exchange and limit is $20 and all are welcome. Uh December 11th is the ribbon cutting anniversary for Security Public Storage and they are celebrating 25 years of being in business. The time of the celebration and ribbon cutting is 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. December 18th is a multi-mixer of the local chambers of commerce at the double tree from 5:30 to 7:00 p.m. The chamber is excited to present an event that will recognize the members of the community who are nominated for their outstanding contributions to our community in so many different ways. Nomination forms are available for business of the year, citizen of the year, and the youth of the year. The applications are available online on the chamber's website through the link on

the chamber social media page, or you can pick up one at city hall north. Um, applications are in English and Spanish, and the applications are due December 15th at 11:59 p.m. The awards event is scheduled for January 16th at the Antigo Event Center. Tickets are $45 per person or you can get a VIP table for 350. In addition, we will be having our installation of directors and board members. Um, and then the next chamber meeting in the new year will be January 13th from 12:00 to 1. And again, it's got the Riverbank Industrial Complex. And we're also looking for new board members and ambassadors. And you can find more information on the chamber website. And then also let you know that Central Valley Community Resources is um has community partners. For instance, Toys for Tots with the Marines and Riverbank Unified School District uh will be hosting a toy drive and a car show on Sunday, December 7th from 9 to 2 at the Save Mark Riverbank and Crossroad Shopping Center. And we are inviting the public to come out and help pick their favorite car. We do have um trophies for um probably the first, second, and third prize. Um we will be filling up the big red cart with toys for the Riverbank community. So, all of the toys that are collected, we have boxes throughout the the city of Riverbank at different locations, businesses, and so forth. Um, and if you ever have seen the big red cart or it's a big old shopping cart, and if you ever seen it or felt it when they when they um start it up, it gets to you. Um, and then I just want to talk about the breakfast with Santa and the toy giveaway December 13th. Thank you.

Thank you,

Randy Richardson. Mayor Hernandez, City Council. My name is Randy Richardson. I pastor Riverbank Assembly of God at 3126 Stannis Law Street. And I just wanted to take a moment to invite everybody. Tomorrow is our annual community dinner. Um the couple that is doing it is now pastoring the Spanish speakaking ministry of our church. Miner and Anna Merllo. They used to have it at the scouts hall and now it's been last couple years at our facility and we're just inviting everyone to go. There's like the last I heard 300 people have signed up. So, we'll be serving them a Thanksgiving dinner. Um there are individuals that needed it. We'll be getting jackets and hygiene bags and we're just going to love on our community together. And I just wanted to make sure that all of you were invited. Tomorrow 5:30 we'll start serving. Thank you. Thank you. Uh Diego.

Hi council. Hi Mayor. Um I wanted to uh ask if we can get more information from Bartle Wells and Associates before we invest any more money in the wastewater team project. Um the reason I was asking for that is Eric Helgusen uh gave the most recent projections for increases and the debt service coverage wasn't listed there. Uh on the original rate study that was done back in 2022, after all of the increases happened, there was an additional increase that was unlisted for 4%. The debt service coverage ratio is 1.36. The minimum debt service coverage ratio is about 1.25 and for a healthy enterprise fund for a city should be about 1.8. If you look and you Google Bart Wells and Associates, type in PDF, you'll be able to see all of the rate studies that they've done for different uh cities, localities for water, sewer, etc., you will not find another debt service coverage ratio as low as that. You won't find it. So, when I spoke to Eric Hegles on the phone, he said, "Uh, we're about 1.4." And I'm like, "That's really low. Like, you guys are barely going through on the margins and we have it's unfunded. we don't have the funds. So, to my knowledge, I try to get the draft application for WIFFIA because he said they may be on there so I can review it, but the city didn't release those to me. Um, I would like to see that information from Eric Huggleson so we can go through it. It's my understanding that the project was not viable since the beginning. Uh, I think the net revenue for funds was just over $100,000 after the first increase of 4%. Again, this is going back to 2022 with an $88 million project. So, I just wanted to bring that bring that up to you guys. So, um I believe he said he may have offered Tammy Alanur a proforma document in this regard. So, I would like to see that at least. Uh I know that um Gava offered me to go and look at the

computer screen, but I'd like the document. I like I like the forms so we can review them. That way, we don't have to wait a few months down the line, right? So we can review those in in anticipation, see if it's actually healthy and ask them to redo the study or uh update it and give the public the information so they can see that 1.34% it's actually lower than that. So 1.34% at 88 million, it's it's lower than that. Uh 1.4 for the debt service coverage ratio, really low. So, like I said, you won't find any other rate study that they've done for any other city that has a debt service coverage ratio as low as 1.4. You won't find it. Thank you.

You, Michael Christie.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. Um, hope you guys are doing well. Um, I just wanted to say I'm at a great time November 8th at the 108 sports lounge for Shop with the Cop fundraiser. It was a real huge success. Um, I want to thank my um, dear friend, Council Member Call, for organizing it, putting all the effort in, and um, I'll let her speak um, later on the the proceeds and the turnout. So, exactly what we did, but it was a it was a great night. Um, if you missed it, you could still um, drop off a toy donation or a check to Riverbank Police Services. um during business hours um the in addition to taking the kids, you know, shopping at Kohl's, they um take them out for a pizza dinner and they provide them with a new toy. So, um again, I just want to tell you it was a great time and um thanks to entire staff at 108 for all their hard work. Um so, yeah, I wish you guys um happy Thanksgiving,

Mr. Milt Treeweiler. Good evening, mayor, council, staff, and community members. Milt Treeweiler. The prime farmland in the proposed Riverwalk project is a natural resource. It cannot be replaced or mitigated because of its unique nature, its quality soils, its water availability, and its good climate. There's no other farmland as good as this on the earth. There is a major shortage of prime farmland and water in the world today. We now know that we will need to remove almost 1 million acres of farmland in the Sanwaqen Valley south of Stannislas County from production because there's not enough water to irrigate it. Mayor and council, you have to be very careful about who you listen to and what you believe. There are people here in Stannis Los County in Riverbank who are plotting to destroy the future for our children and our descendants. There would have been a ballot measure that would have stopped this project on last year's ballot if it not had not been for a corrupt signature gatherer. The citizens of Ri Riverbank would have already stopped this project for the proposed Riverwalk project. However, mayor and council, now you are the only body that can stop the proposed Riverwalk project. The majority of the land in the specific plan area is flood plane. The flood plane will be necessary to prevent flooding up river in the River Cove development and down river during an atmospheric rain event. Be strong, do the right thing, and save the Riverwalk farmland for your children and descendants. There is an abundance of poor soils and wasteland in California and our nations for the developers to build houses on like the Altimont Pass area or the large land mass area east of

Fairfield along Highway 12 all the way to Rio Vista. You can also build up and not out on your infill and blighted areas in the city with multi-story buildings. Council, do what's best and right for your children and descendants. Vote no on the proposed Riverwalk project when this comes before you. Please go out and talk to the people of your city, council and mayor, and you will find that the vast majority are opposed to this project. Riverbank community members, let your council members know what you think about this bad project. Remember, you, your children, and your descendants are the ones who will suffer. This is prime farmland that needs to be saved forever. So, it's imperative that you do this and and not pass this thing when it comes to you. And also, I just want to wish you a happy um Thanksgiving.

Mayor, that is all we have for public comment in the chamber and there is no one on Zoom wishing to speak. All right. Any other public comment? Um, we have the consent calendar items 9.1 to 9.3. Any discussion or motion? Mayor, we do have some comments on item 9.3. Oh, you do? Okay. Uh, so we'll pull that aside. Um, so consent calendar 9.1 and 9.2. I'll make a motion to approve item 9.1 and 9.2 from the consent calendar. Second. Roll call, please. Council member, yes. Council member Pimement,

yes. Council member Call, yes. Vice Mayor FSY, yes. Mayor Hernandez, yes. Motion passes 5-0. Item 9.3, a resolution approving the consultant services agreement with Blackwater Consulting Engineers. Mayor, we do have a com from public comment from Mr. Diego Hernandez.

Hi, good evening again. Um, I had a question about that. So, I ended up calling uh I think it's the owners, the president of Blackwater had a conversation with them about what was involved like specifically within the uh feasibility study, what options they were all looking for. Um he didn't say that they were going to be looking for uh a full alternative look as in um looking at the potential ability to purchase private land and such as adding like an additional percolation basin and or two. Um is that something that was to your guys's knowledge that's something that can be addressed toward them to to look at as a completely different alternative? Um, I did speak to them in that regard and try to see if that's something that they could take a look at, but he says that's not the direction that he believes he's receiving from council at this time. So, I just wanted to bring that up. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Go ahead.

We did receive a written public comment on 9.3. Um, this is from Mr. Richard Homer. Um, dear council, I just had an opportunity to review tonight's city council agenda and would like to comment on it. I am pleased to see you are awarding a feasibility study for the wastewater treatment plant. There are several recommendations that could come out of this. Of course, you could have a stage three plant, but the most most coste effective could be a stage two. continue with the current plant plus some upgrades particularly the funding of a pipe under the river to carry waste flow or the Modesto alternative or Mr. Richard Homer.

Thank you. Is there any council comments or questions at this point? Would staff like to comment on Diego's comment because it was my understanding that they would be looking at new sites as well. I had mentioned that comment before we made a vote. That's correct. the um scope of services didn't limit specifically which alternatives we would be looking at. The goal is to look at expansion as a whole, not necessarily very specific um projects like Modesto or um moving to a tertiary plant. Um even just current expansion would be um evaluated as well.

And we haven't had our kickoff meeting or anything yet. So, um, they they don't have any direction. That's correct. Yes. Now that they're under contract, they would be if we could take those comments back. Um, Diego, thank you. Um, all right. Any other questions or comments? Otherwise, a motion. I'll make a motion to approve item 9.3. Second. Roll call, please. Council member Lebe. Yes. Council member Pimementel. Yes. Council member Call. Yes. Vice Mayor FSY. Yes. Mayor Hernandez. Yes. Motion passes 5-0.

Item 11.1, a resolution approving the appointment of Alex Rodriguez as the alternate to the planning commission effective January 1, 2026.

This item is presented by our city clerk, Gabriela Hernandez. Mayor, Council, um tonight for your consideration, uh at the recom recommendation of Mayor Hernandez, um we have Alex Rodriguez here with us in the chambers. Um we conducted a recruitment for an alternate planning commissioner as our alternate position will be expiring next month from which is currently held by Ben Rubin. Um he did not um decide to do another term. Um, so we we did do a recruitment and Alex was the applicant application we received. Uh, Mayor Hernandez and our director of community development, Josh Man held a interview with him. Um, and the recommendation out of that interview was to um, appoint him to the position and I'll let Mayor speak on that if she wishes.

Yeah. Um so I highly recommend Alex and uh like was mentioned our development director said in there um Alex comes with glowing recommendations from our staff as he participates in the parks and wreck advisory committee as well. Um the he carries this type of energy and interest and uh passion for the city of Riverbank that I think is needed on the planning commission that will um really add to uh that committee. Um and so and we have him here tonight and would love uh the support and the recommendation.

Was there any question specific questions or comments? I'd like to make a motion to go ahead and approve the appointment of Alex Rodriguez. Do we have any public comment? Thank you. All right. I'll go with my motion again, please. And I'll second it. Roll call, please. Council member, yes. Council member Pimentel, yes. Council member Call, yes. Vice Mayor FY, yes. Mayor Hernandez, yes. Motion passes 50 to appoint Alex Rodriguez as the alternate planning commissioner.

Alex, would you um care to share a few words here? Yes, please. To the mic here. Good evening, Mayor. Good evening, council. My name is Alex Rodriguez. I'm locally born and raised here and I settled here in 2011 and I've been joining different programs here in the community. As you guys are aware, I'm um sorry um parks and recck committee and also on Riverbank RBSA vice president and I want to just get involved in the city because I like how it's growing and I'd like to move forward with it. Perfect. Thank you.

Thank you so much. and we'll have an official oath uh later on with our city clerk. All right. Item 11.2. Um receive direction for the city council regarding the next steps for the proposed Jacob Myers Park Trail expansion project. Mayor and Council, your director of parks and recreation, Michael Patton, will provide this report.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. Um yeah, exciting stuff here. I'll wait for Nor to get the presentation up. Uh so we are providing an update for the Jacob Myers Park Trail project. Uh we'll kind of highlight for the new council members that may not be too familiar with it. Kind of going over the scope of work, kind of where we're at right now and kind of the direction we're trying to seek from you. Uh so a summary of the of the project. Um we're this project has been in the works for many many years. uh rumor I've been told was 20 plus years, but uh since I've been here for the last nearly two years, it's been something that's been on um email exchanges talking to people about. Um so the project for those that are familiar with Jacob Myers Park on the west side over by the dog park um there's a property line with the Army Corps of Engineers and the project is to uh work with the Army Corp of Engineers to get a lease to create a non-motorized dirt trail some of sort that will loop around and kind of expand going out west. The trail is about approximately 1.18 miles. Um, and we kind of just go through the habitat there be a beautiful um scenery looking at the nature along the river as well. Uh, to date the city has been working on with consultants on an environmental review um on the property or on the project uh that includes doing SQA and as well NEPA. Um in the environmental review process um they have been identified elderberry shrubs triggering federal requirements on the project. They are home to the elderberry beetle which I what I'm told is on the list of no nos for the federal government. Um the city is has been

working with the army corp of engineers US fish and wildlife services and Sam walking council of governments. Fun fact, Jake Myers Park is in San L County, not here to Stanis loss. Um, and on the compliance of a participation in what's called the SJC COG habitat plan, um, this is something that our consultants with JB Anderson who's been working on the SQA analysis, um, has recommended in order to work on mitigation issues to avoid some of these federal and and statewide triggers um, with these species that are out there. Um but there have been many site visits, surveys, agency meetings over the last two years to and that have refined the trail alignment and to outline the next steps. So kind of we have here's a map uh kind of where you see the the two red lines on the right hand side where there's two points. That's kind of where the dog park is. As you kind of see it meanders through going out west. Um, and like mentioned before, there are elderberry bushes along the way. And we have a map here where we had a biologist go out there and kind of map out uh elderberry bushes that would be in proximity to the trail. You can see kind of little green semicircles with the number next to it. Those are identified elderberry bushes. And so there's well over 30 of them along the trail path. So with that being said, you can't really build a trail on top of bushes without some other mitigation measures. And so the kind you see meander to trying to avoid trying to disturb as much as as least as possible. Um and so this was done a few years ago as you imagine few years ago going to now things have changed with the environment. Um things grow things die. Um so the nexus we have here where we're at we're looking to complete the biological assessment. uh we're looking to receive topographical and aerial

survey complete the cultural study complete initial study to mitigate ne so this is all part of the sequa analysis part of it um we have gained direction from the US fish and wildlife services to kind of move forward with this project on how we're going to go about it and how do we mitigate uh a lot of these issues that that that are outlined here so once we do the cultural survey the biological assessment is complete JB Anderson would then complete the the sequel portion of it. Um that'll complete the initial study and mitigate negative declaration. We'll complete the mitigation monitoring reporting program. City council would approve the initial study and mitigation mitigated negative declaration and uh we'll look for permitting with the central valley flood protection board and then prepare construction document drawings. So a lot there's a lot of this is a sequel process where we have to submit it to the county and um kind of get their approval there. Um so the issue that we're at here um or we're looking at uh so a few years back the city had ARPA funds to kind of start this project out with getting the squa and getting this all taken care of. The city committed about $11,500 of the ARPA funds to go towards this project with the idea of it taking care taking care of the environmental process, the permitting, design, and construction. The city entered a contract with JB Anderson for $39,894 to do the environmental process. Uh in that time they we have had a change order with the biologists of $3,500 uh to help with the SQL work that needs to be done. That leaves a remaining um one sec here. I apologize. Um we'll kind of come back to that 58,106 here. One second. Um the proposed expenditures. So with this with now kind

of getting direction from the US Fish and Wildlife Services and on Army Corp of Engineers on what they what they want to see done out there in order to approve this project um taking back to the biologist to go back out there to kind of recheck out make sure that see where the elderberry bushes are currently today. Uh we got a change or change order of $19,200. Um, in talking with JB Anderson, they also suggested working with MCR Engineering, who's the current engineering firm with the city to help getting some additional work or additional assistance with the biology part of it with the biologists as well as performing a cross-section to kind of get an idea of what the trail would look like. Um, the addition that additional cost proposal is $23,000. And so out of the two proposals there, we're looking at $42,200. Um, with that, uh, you look at your uncommitted funds of one sec here, C. I apologize here. Um, yes. So, you look at your 39 your $39,894 plus $3500 with the $42,200 there. That leave you with the total remaining funds of $15,96 um of that original $11,500. Um, so with the idea of using this $11,000 that we had for environmental work, permitting, design, construction, now kind of takes us back here to where we would barely have enough to scrape past the environmental portion of it. And so what we're looking from council is direction. Um, with the idea, the original idea when we started this whole thing was to get this whole project done with $11,500. It's not looking to go in that direction. And so we have a few options with council. We're trying try trying to get your feedback on. Option one is to direct staff to not move forward with the Jacob Myers Park Trail expansion project at this time due to us not having sufficient funding to get past

the environmental portion of it. Uh option two is to direct staff to move forward with the contract amendments and proposals submitted by more biological consultants which is that $19,200 um and approved the proposal from MCR engineering and direct to complete the steps described previously which again this would hopefully get us through all the environmental portion of it. um the remaining funds would again go looking forward towards the permitting part of it um as well as design construction documents um which would not be sufficient. And so the idea would be if we decide to move forward, city council would hopefully feel comfortable with helping chip in some funding in the future to help complete the rest of the project. Um and option three, provide additional direction to staff that may not be outlined already. Um, in talking with David and MCR, uh, we kind of got a very, very, very rough cost estimate on what the construction documents would look like. Um, that's about $50,000. On top of that, um, there's additional surveying that they can do for additional $10,000. So, you're looking roughly $60,000 to kind of get us through that design portion. Again, that does not include the permitting and the actually label labor to get the project done. And so I anticipate this project being a sixf figureure project at the end of it or additional six figures that we'll need to get this project finished out. Um, one thing I do want to point out though, there are some funding and grants available out there to help offset some of these costs or help subsidize it so that the city's not on the hook for it. However, a lot of these grants do require kind of 50% match. And so we not saying the city has to be prepared to throw out a whole lot of money on this, but there might there may be in the future of hey, we may need some funding in the future to get this project done. Um be able to answer any questions that council may have. And

could you go back to the um yes um the 39 and then the 35? We're at 43394 for the remaining or no? Yes. For the here 101. So the remaining is the 39 after the 3984 and the 3500 has been spent from the 101500. So 58106. Yeah. So the 58106 is what's left which we would have available to pay for the MCR engineering and the additional biological.

So we have 15906. Yes. That would be the the remaining balance of the 10 original 101500 and which would take us to um surveying around 60k. So the survey will be additional 10K um getting the boundary map and topography done um and then the construction documents are about 50,000 and again these are this is a very rough estimate that they gave us the you know doesn't have a specific set scope of work so I didn't want to you know put that little asterisk there of like if I come back next year I say hey it's actually this and I want to put that little warning out there

back to the options and um are there any council comments or questions? just so just for clarification the more biologists they're just looking to reassess what the elderberries are kind of where they're growing.

So one of the issues that we've had um so in or in one of the previous things we looked at was trying to join this SJC cog habitat plan which provided mitigation measures that would be very favorable for us to perform this project. Um, and so in order to do so, there's a couple of requirements to join this part of this plan. And after months and months of conversations, we learned that we are not eligible to be a part of that. The big trigger is in their I guess they say bylaws of of joining the joining this plan is uh the property cannot be fedally owned. And so with this being Army Corps of Engineers, that's kind of the big trigger there of why this this project is not eligible to be part of the plan. And so what that would do is we talked with US Fish and Wildlife who would give consultation on this portion of it of hey what how can we do this project? You cannot avoid elderberry bush. There's a lot out there. There's a lot that I've grown that are too big, too small. You it's nearly impossible to create a trail that avoids all of it. And so they g they've given us guidance on um how far the trail needs to be from the ele from the elderberry bushes in order for us to keep count of it and see how much would disturb it. Um so with that guidance um which we didn't have before uh we will take with the consultant who will go out there and rememeasure recount again things have changed over three years things have grown things have died things have planted new you know

so they're charging us like per bush or something um sounds like like there's so many uh at least 36 just along the trail mind you yeah so I also like to get like by David up here with JB Anderson um he's the consultant that's helping us with that, who's way more involved in this, uh, way more knowledgeable. So, and then before before we pass it on, I'm assuming it's only federal grants that qualify for this, right? For the 50-50 matches, right? Uh, not necessarily. So, the state of California offers one specific trails. Okay. Um, there's also uh nonprofit grants out there, charitable organizations that work with exercise or parks and recreation. I just want to make sure like those options are out there. Federal property, right? Okay. Cool.

Thank you, Michael. Mayor, members of the council, David Niskin [clears throat] and a JB Anderson lady who's planning helping the city through the environmental portion of this project. Diane Moore is the biologist that's assigned to this project. She's a sub under under us. Um her work is primarily focused on mapping out the elderberry shrubs that are out there and avoiding impacts to those uh elderberry shrubs. So that's why you see the trail kind of wind through the property there. Um it's not so much as a matter of uh reassessing the amount of elderberry shrubs out there. Uh what we what we're doing with the US fish and wildlife is called a section 7 consultation which is required by the endangered species act. And it's the coordination between the US Army Corps of Engineers as the property owner and the US fish and wildlife service which is the regulator regulatory uh body that manages and um enforces the endangered species act. um the [clears throat] parameters in which the biological assessment's done uh has to be in con or has to be consistent with the parameters that the US fish and wildlife provides and that's different for every single project along every single river corridor um and it's very specific to um each project area. So for this project, we had to work with the US Fish and Wildlife Service to define what those parameters are. How far out from the trail does the biological assessment need to map elderberry shrubs? Is it 175 ft? Is it 20 feet, 50 feet? um if there's shrubs within a certain foot distance because there are guidelines in place from the federal agency from US Fish and Wildlife Service um that um defines what an impact would be to an elderberry shrub. That's the definition that we that we worked with US Fishial

Wildlife Service and that's why more Diane Moore and her biology team need to go back out there to really add to what they've done already. They've they've already done a lot of work in mapping the existing shrubs along the trail corridor, but now it's um to refine that uh analysis to be within the parameters that US US Fish and Wildlife Services have provided. And that brings in MCR engineering because you really can't um use a red line on a map on Google Earth. you really need to have a defined um topo survey and a cross-section to define the foot distance between the end of the trail and to the elderberry shrub. Keep in mind that the elderberry shrub is and the elderberry beetle is a federally recognized species. So any impact to the shrub in which it inhabits is a is a pretty significant impact um as it relates to mitigation fees. I mean, just one impact to a um a healthy adult shrub can be hundreds of thousands of dollars of of impact fees. So, it's very important that the trail location avoids avoids it completely. Um and that um the trail uh mapping is defined by by an engineer. Um, how we got to this point is that because the properties within Sanwaqin County, u San County has the habitat plan that like Michael said and projects in that county are able to participate participate in that plan which short circuits the consultation process that normally would be required for these projects. Meaning that if you participate in plan participate in the plan, the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the state fish and game are already signitories to that plan. So they already they already they already have all the documentation they need to

complete the consultation process. Without that, we have to go through this consultation with the US Fish and Wildlife Service. At the end of the day, what they'll provide to the city, if all goes according to plan, is a finding that there is no impact to the elderberry shrub, that species, with certain um construction measures in place like dust mitigation, using hand tools in specific portions of the trail that have are closer to elderberry shrubs than others, things like that. Um so that's why the additional work is needed where we come in is to complete the environmental document as a whole but the most important component of that is the biolog biological section um as well as the cultural section too but uh more so biology in this case since it's along the Stannos River and there's so many elderberry shrubs out there. So yeah I hope that provides a little bit of context and I'm happy to answer any additional questions

some things today. Yes, thank you. Um, and if this if we were to move forward with this, is there some sort of um I don't know if statute of limitations is the right word or expiration or is it according to any policy changes that may happen with US fish and wildlife?

No, the the biggest hurdle that we achieved so already is to define the parameters for the biological assessment. So once and if council approves the um moving forward with this project, the next step would be for the biologists to go back out to the site and complete the biological assessment, some additional fieldwork um with the parameters in mind for the US Army Corps of Engineers to complete the consultation process with US Fish and Wildlife Service and that results in a complete NEPA document um for the f on the federal side for the environmental um because we'll complete the um California environmental quality portion of that project which would use the same biological assessment. It's just done a little bit differently because it requires that federal lens to it as opposed to just California. So

David to clarify on on the mayor's question. So if for example they certify SQA NEPA um that gets recorded and we can't fund it for another five or six years there's not any additional work that we would have to perform at that point in time. There would not be any additional work that would need would need to be done. Yeah, that's correct. Because you'll have the approved SQA document, the recorded notice of determination, and then you'll have the NEPA side completed with the US Fish and Wildlife Service with the finding um for from that section 7 consultation. Thank you very much. Yep. You're welcome.

Other council comments or questions? Um, I've been on the Friends of Jacob Meyers committee for a long time, um, since I was on council before along with Cal Campbell. And just a couple of comments to let you guys know. Um, first of all, let's remember this land is not something we're purchasing. It is being given to us by the US US Army Corps of Engineers, which is a huge benefit to the city. Um, we've been talking about this for years. We've been wanting to move forward with it. Um, a lot of the people in the city that ride um, the mountain bikes and such are looking forward to this type of trail because that's specifically what it's for is more mountain biking than it is for walking. Although walking would also be a benefit. Um, just a little history, this was a big thing for Scott McRie. Um, he worked on this too. um when he was alive. And so um I'd like to see it move forward for him. And then of course the friends of Jacob Meyers, the group that we currently have that is getting smaller, um would like to see it move forward and I personally would like to see it move forward. I think it would be a benefit to the city. Um I've worked on several projects where you're dealing with these multiple agencies. It is not fun. It is not easy. I'm so sorry, Michael. I apologize for you having to do it, but when you finally get everything done and the the benefit is there for the city, it's going to be wonderful. So, I'd like to see personally it move forward. Thank you.

Okay. I like it. I like this project a lot. Uh the one part that I'm uncomfortable with is to come up here and approve the money is already allocated from the ARPA fund. So that part I'm and surveying the project, getting the biologists out there, seeing what exactly we're looking at. 110% comfortable with that. What I'm uncomfortable with is approving an additional 60,000 to move forward with survey design and construction because we understand the volatility of construction and the costs with construction. So it could be 60,000 today, but by the time the surveying is done in a year, it could be 120,000, whatever it may be. So for me, uh, I would choose option three and approving us to get the surveying done and then bring that report back to council so we can see exactly what we're looking at and get a better idea of how much elderberry shrubs are out, how many elderberry shrubs are out there, where they've got grown grown, if they've kind of intruded into the lines that have already been drawn, if we need to redraw. So getting a better idea of what those construction costs are going to look like and the feasibility of even doing this project. So

yeah, so what we're looking at here, Council Member Call, is uh we're focusing on the two proposals which are the 19,200 for the biologist and the 23,000 for the cross-section, all that. As far as the construction documents, we're not focused on that right now. That's going to be in the future like you mentioned. U we're not seeking approval for any of that. But again, just be aware where if we have $15,000 around $6,000 left, there might be ask in the future of, hey, we need additional funding to cover this portion of the project. So, it's nothing that's going to be coming in the next short time, I should say. So, that was my next question. What's the timeline look like on this project and approving this tonight if we did?

I I might have David come up and address that one. Yeah. Uh, council member call timing is is really um dependent on the biologist and a technical study. Um, she does have to go back out there and the elderberry shrub is such that it it really would happen later um in spring or early summer next year. Um, once that's complete, the the SEC document is is actually pretty close to being done as far as in draft form. So, it'd be pretty shortly after that. So, I'd expect to be able to come back to council um either spring or early early fall next year.

I agree with you um Councilman Councilwoman um call that we do need to talk about the next steps, but I think I think like she said, we're in favor of approving the money to go ahead and get these environmental things completed so that we can get our SQA completed. And I think then we'll have a better idea to go out to count to go out and see how much it would be to do construction. You know, lots of things change. There might be more opportunities for grants. There might be opportunities for um there's companies out there that like to do this stuff that maybe will have volunteers that will help with the construction. There's a lot of different things that we could do, but I um I think right now we'd like to move over move ahead with option two, which is approving this, right? Michael is just approving these funds.

So, it's just to give direction. So, what we'll probably do is next city council come up with the amendments and the proposals for for a vote of approval, but right now is just give direction on how staff have to approach this. So, I'm go ahead real quick. I'll move over to public comment before I forget. And um is there any public comment and then we'll come back to council or online? We have public comment.

Okay. Um, so I I I looked into this just before I came here. I figured out what I was talking about. I pulled up the US wildlife's um their management uh categories or profile for this elderberry beetle. Um, pretty extensive. You can only touch them at specific times of the year. You can only transplant them at specific times of the year. And if you move them, uh, you have to have a 3 to1 ratio of potential land. And then if the elderberry, which is growing on its own, if it gets to one inch in diameter at its stock, good luck. You're not going to be able to touch it. Now, um I think it's a scam really cuz the only one that I looked up was um an unpublished document in 1978. I found it in the Federal Register when this first got listed. Uh the Endangered Species Act passed in 1973. And there's one unpublished study from a EYBK, which I believe is a biologist that was at uh UC Davis, which is coincidentally where the hearings were heard for this specific elder beetle uh in 1978 and then in 1980. So I don't not only that I believe in 2000 and then also in 2014 the uh US wildlife actually petitioned to remove this species as an endangered species. It's happened twice if I'm not mistaken. Um I believe the last uh they they're on a 5-year renewal and I believe the last renewal ends in 2026. So, in 2026, what happens if it's delisted, right? We don't have the funds to like fully move forward. Who knows? Maybe maybe the uh elder berry beetle won't be a problem anymore because it's not even on the register anymore. Like I said, the US wildlife has been trying to

get this removed on two different attempts. They put out the notices and then somewhere some people come up and say, "No, don't don't mess with that." Uh, and there was a case for the Loi jail where they um I think they messed up and they had to pay like $17,000 in additional fees because they they slightly messed up or one of the plans kept drawing it. I think it's kind of a little bit scammy really. So, I would suggest holding off and waiting and seeing what happens from the five-year review, which I believe is due next year. I've worked for the city of Modesto for 17 years and I've heard about the elderberry bush for years. I wouldn't count on it going away because a lot of people like it

above our pay grade here. Yeah. Um is there any other public comment, please? [clears throat]

Good evening. I'm just when we get to the point where we put it out for construction, I would recommend um the city, the council, and friends of Jacob Meyers Park, maybe asking one of the big uh box retailers if they'd like to sponsor part of the trail. You know, maybe there might be a one be a SaveMart trail or a you know um cost less trail, a Grocery Outlet Trail, a Harbor Freight Trail, something I just don't think the city, right, you know, could take on a additional amount of debt. I mean, as a homeowner, I I love what Parks and Recre and Public Works have done for the park close to me. Silva Park are fantastic team. I run, jog, walk by Silva Park daily. It's clean and they're they're super great team. They're awesome. The way they keep it up. I love the way they built it up. But when I'm looking to buy a house or when I'm trying to get my friends and relatives to buy something in Riverbank, they're thinking about the infrastructure, the water, sewer, you know? I mean, whether you paid $100,000 a house for your house or a million dollars over in River Heights for your house or you you put that kind of money into it, they want to be able to flush their toilets every day and not worry. So, I mean, I would definitely, you know, from the very beginning, um, you guys asked us for input at the beginning of this year to come to uh the planning meeting the to give us and I've always I've always been focused on infrastructure, infrastructure and public safety. That's always And I think it's great. I think it's great what you want to do for the trail, but I would try to look for private funding donations comes time to put it out, you know, to bid. Thank you.

That is all I have. Mayor, thank you. Um, and so as I bring it back to council, I want to clarify. Uh, we tonight we're considering uh the 58,000 uh remaining just for the two um items there for the um uh when the proposed expenditures. Yes, it's being able to move forward with the 42,200 of that 58 to about a year's time. We'll come back to reconsider. Correct. Permitting etc. Do we make a motion or do we just You can make a motion for the selected option or you can give direction.

I I make a motion that we do option two because that just includes doing the two studies and then we look further once those are completed into how to um board [clears throat] or uh maintain and pay for construction costs. But let's get this stuff done so that we have an idea of what we're looking at and maybe by some act of God the elderberry bush will come off the list. And I'll second it. Roll call, please. Council member, yes. Council member Pimementel, yes. Council member Call, yes. Vice Mayor FSY, yes. Mayor Hernandez, yes.

Motion passes 5-0 for option number two. Thank you very much. Thank you both. Um, item 11.3, a resolution to approve a contract change order for value engineering for the regional recycled water project. Mayor and council, your director of public works, Cody Bridgewwater, would provide this report.

Mayor, members of the council, item [clears throat] item 11.3 is KSN's portion of the value engineering phase and project management. So as a summary, city of Riverbank has successfully completed preparation of the 60% design documents and staff is looking to continue progress with the value engineering phase of the design. This value engineering study will identify cost-saving opportunities for the project and will be performed in close coordination with Brown and Caldwell assessing potential impacts to overall design and operation of the facility. The scope of work also includes a third-party opinion of probable costs for the riverbank regional recycled water project. So KSN submitted a proposal at a cost of $194,310 to begin the value engineering. This is a crucial time being that we have not yet entered final design and allows us to easily make changes on to the design without excessive wasted costs altering final design. Based on preliminary estimates, approximately 14 million can be saved with minimal effort. Staff hopes to extend those savings through this VE portion of the project design. So the scope of work from KSN includes coordination and leading of the value engineering kickoff workshop to include city staff Brown and Caldwell for uh known as BNC and Euing Construction Services or ECS. development of the value engineering recommendations to be considered by Brown and Caldwell, the coordination and leading of the VE workshop to review recommendations with the design consultant and the city, and preparing a VE recommendations report that would be presented to council, summarizing the recommendations for implementation into

the project based on the decisions made by the city, KSN, BNC, and ECS. KSN's proposal is actually two parts and is broken up as follows. Part A is $84,440 and includes both KSN and ECS as reviewers and VE support. Part B, which is an optional portion to the scope, is 1097 or 109,870. And this is the third party opinion of probable costs, which is essentially an engineer's estimate that will be developed by ECS. So what ECS will do is they will go through Brown and Caldwell's engineers estimate line by line and ECS they have a water and wastewater construction background. That's what they specialize in. So they will review Brown and Caldwell's engineers estimate go through it with a fine tooth comb and make any alterations and adjustments that they see uh fit to those costs. Um they will look at the constructibility of the project areas that can be manipulated as far as construction goes. Maybe we would save time and money by you know moving x amount of dirt at this time. Um instead of overex apologizing instead of over excavation in one area we can um maybe import dirt and or do some other type of soil treatment based on compaction results things like that. ECS will be able to look at with their construction background and they would be providing more of a construction bid versus an engineer's estimate. So they're going to look at at a contractor's point of view and essentially give a preliminary bid as to what the 60% design looks like at this time. So again the scope fee breakdown of the 84,440

option A incorporates the coordination and leading of the VE workshops the development of the VE recommendations and preparation of the VE recommendations report based on city and design engineer decisions and the third party opinion of probable construction costs which is 9,870 is the work that's based on built-in design constraints identified during the review of the plans, inspects, and constructibility considerations based on ECS's construction industry experience. So, the cost of this overall element with the two options combined is $194,310 that would be appropriated from the city's fund sewer funds 106. And again, these funds have been collected via the five-year sewer rates implemented by city council in 2022. So staff recommends city council award the contract change order for the value engineering phase of the design for the riverbank regional recycled water project phase 1 to KSN incorporated and to authorize the city manager to execute a contract with said firm in the amount of $194,310 and authorize the budget appropriation from sewer fund 106 for said contract. Be happy to answer any questions that you may have.

Thank you

mayor. if I could step in. Um, our goal in bringing this forward at this point in time is earlier this evening we approved the feasibility study. Um, so Blackwater will begin that process. It's approximately an eight-month process in bringing this forward and being able to perform the value engineering and looking where we could possibly scale back or phase the existing project as it is now. It's to give another project that um Blackwater can evaluate as part of that final feasibility study. Uh this particular portion of the project uh would only take about a three-month process, three to four month process. So it would be complete before um that feasibility study is completed. So they would be able to take that information and evaluate it and be able to give you a full scope of all of the options including this scaledback version that has already evaluated some of these value engineering options.

So just first question then um why not bring this back in May then? So so that way it kind of lines up. If it's only a three months three-month process, why not bring it say in May construction costs? We would get a better idea during that time. We don't know kind of what's going to go on, right? So, we still got uh we're going to get get get the report back from Blackwater August 2026. Things are going to be a little bit different there. So, just kind of curious why the timelines why so early.

Uh my hope was to get it in front of Blackwater before their report is being finalized. It may take two to three months for them to finalize their reports after comments from staff. So, the earlier they have this information, the more information they really have to work with in developing that feasibility study. Um, and then so going back to the two part A and part B for this item. Um, would Blackwater I think it's just is hard for me to consider this item with having the contract approved tonight with Blackwater and not having had the conversation with them. Um, and and maybe you can answer this, but I also don't want to put you on the spot. Could we move forward with part A? Um, and would that be sufficient for Blackwater to assess alongside of their feasibility study?

If you leave part B out, we technically do not have as accurate of an engineer's estimate. So, what part B allows us to do is that allows us to give that contractor's lens because an an engineer's estimate from a design engineer could be plus or minus 20%. When you have a contractor's lens look at it, they're looking at profit, um, workability, construction cost, mobilization, all of these things. The design engineer can do that, but they can only do it off of previous bids that they have been a part of. So, with the construction industry and the construction, the contractor's lens, they have experience doing this every day. So they know what the actual costs are and what it takes to actually do this. BNC can design a facility, but they can't build it. So by having that contractor's viewpoint, they know what it takes to construct these things.

Technically, yes. And so you would end up basically with just a general estimate versus the very specifics that we would want you and be um Blackwater to be able to have to do that full evaluation of the feasibility of that specific portion of the project. So, I'll tell you why I like what you're bringing to us and it's very multiaceted because the community has asked for unbiased and third-party opinions on the work that we're doing and this gives us that opportunity to do that. We as a council have asked for value added engineering. The community has asked for value added engineering and an improve and if we approve this tonight, this give that gives us an opportunity to have the value engineering done and in a timely manner. so that it can go to Blackwater so Blackwater can include it in the feasibility study. So we can have that no limitation full circle feasibility study that we've been looking for whether it be expanding the current facility, improvising value added engineering. If we want a full circle feasibility study, we need to include some of the things that we're asking for and we have been asking for the value added engineering. So I like it. Hi. Okay. Yeah. So, I've looked at the 60% drawings and I've looked at your proposal tonight and I need you to explain to me first of all why on the 90% drawings the value added engineering was only $17,490 and now you're coming to us and wanting us to give you $194,000 which I understand now it's only 84 which by the way was not in the report which I need to make clear to you that we need to have that information in the reports when when I read the if I was to

just read this there's no mention that there's two different things and that would have been nice to have in here but anyway so before it was 17,000 for this one now it's 84,000 why

in the original the 90% there was other elements of the value engineering that were rolled into other meetings say design review meetings coordination beatings. This is specifically focused on value engineering. Also, that 84,000 encompasses both KSN's price and ECS. It's not just KSN. So, the part A, which is the 84440, is KSN and ECS as a subconultant to KSN. Part B, which is the optional portion, is ECS only at the additional 109870.

So, again, why now? I mean, we haven't even had our kickoff meeting with Blackwater to even go over what we're asking them to do. And when I look at what they proposed, there's not really an alternative that says evaluate and tell us what you think of what Brown and Calwell's doing. There's not it's it's looking at different three different alternatives, but it's not really looking at exactly that project. So why would we need to provide that information to them when that's not what we asked them to do? We asked them to look at different alternatives. We didn't ask them to evaluate this one and then give us alternatives. We asked them for alternatives and now we want to spend and only on this one $194 for something that we're we haven't even met with Blackwater. I I think it's early. I think it's too soon. I think we need to stand by and wait a couple months, let Blackwater get their feet wet, let them see what's going on and then, you know, meet with them after they've started in maybe March and say, "Okay, now this is what we are thinking about doing. How will that help you?" Right now, I don't think it's a good time. I don't think it's the right time, and I think it's way too much money. So, Vice Mayor, we did ask them to evaluate the current project. That is part of their scope of work. So, they will be looking at absolutely everything, including proceeding with the project as it currently stands. What we wanted to be able to do um is be able to give them a second option, a scaled down version that already had gone through that value engineering process. So basically, we'll receive a spreadsheet that has maybe 15 different

options and gives you the feasibility of each one so that you can then take that document and evaluate it.

And according to what I've read, their scaled down and possible reductions was only 14 million. That ain't much compared to 136 million. And 14 million is nothing. I just don't think that right now is the time to be doing this. I think we need to let Blackwater get involved. Let them look at what they're doing. Let them look at all the stuff. I mean, we haven't even asked them to look at the drawings. I mean, they don't know. In all reality, they don't even know anything except what we gave them in our RFP. I just don't think it's the time. I think we need to wait. I think we need to wait three months, maybe four. Still giving them enough time to do the review of this and do all this, but they don't even know and I don't understand between this one and the next item why we're even doing this. I mean, it just I I don't understand it. I don't think it's time. I don't think it's necessary. I think that's why we hired Blackwater to do these evaluations. And then once they come back, then we go back to Brown and Caldwell and KSN and say, "Okay, this is what Blackwater's saying. What do you think?" Okay. Yeah, maybe it extends the project a month or two before we start construction, but holy smokes, how much money are we going to spend on doing this? Yeah, it just so I really want to appreciate stuff because I mean that's that's how council has been uh managing items in general is proactivity and and being uh being proactive in general. And so I appreciate that. Um like Councilman Modiva was alluding to and and frankly with the holidays and and everything coming up it um I think uh and then

personally I was sick so I was not able to ask a ton of questions. uh I would feel more comfortable just pushing it to tableabling it to January's meeting um so that we're able to ask the questions um and have these conversations and still be proactive um in the contract with um Blackwater as we have the conversations with them. Um we would still be ahead of the game. it would still be um proactive in these conversations, but giving uh the council and residents more time to ask some of these uh more nuanced questions. Um because I don't I don't think um you know there's anything other than you know the intent to be proactive here. Um and so I'm going to move to public comment real quick unless did you want to add anything please?

So I have a question. When we enter our contract into Blackwater, I imagine it's pretty specific. It's a costly contract. It's $200,000. So, our requests are spelled out pretty specifically on what we're requesting. We're requesting the full project and the feasibility of that. Tying into Medesto, we're specifically requesting that everything that we're asking for is specific. So could we include the value added the value engineering without having the plans done or I guess my question if we submit our contract with value engineering wouldn't there be an expectation that that value engineering is done in time for them to review it before that eightmon month cycle is done. So in delaying this, do we possibly run into a place where the value engineering isn't done in time for them to review and include in the fe feasibility study? So then in return, do we have to go back and do another feasibility study for the value engineering? Is that kind of the situation that we're putting ourselves in by tableabling something like this? you could possibly run into that that option is that the goal is to be they're already going in eyes wide shut. They have not explored any other options. They don't know what the discussions with Modesto are going to be. They have not looked at vacant land within the city of Riverbank to evaluate if there's a space for us to be able to do a second um wastewater treatment plant. So they have not looked at these projects that we've asked them to look into because the contract is just now getting approved. So being able to have that information as quickly as possible because yes, we'll do a kick up kickoff meeting. We'll detail to them, look, these are the projects that we want to make sure that you look at, but we're not limiting you to these. You are the

expert. We want you to go out and look to see if there are other options i.e. you know maybe just purchasing more land and just expanding our ponds and or just moving to secondary treatment or some level of tertiary treatment but not the full scope. Um so all of those are the options that we want them to come back and be able to tell us you know what is the best option moving forward. So being able to get this done now would they're already be going to be behind the eightball because it's not going to be something they'll immediately look at. So they'll start to focus on all of those other projects and starting the conversations with regards to those while waiting for this to get completed if it does move forward.

I think a comment needs to be

real quick. Vice Mayor Council Ready had a comment. I think one of the comments that needs to be said here, and I'm going to say it because that's me. The city can't afford $140 million project to do this. So, if we can't afford to do the project, why are we doing value engineering? Why are we spending this money to do this project that we don't even know that we can afford? I think it's money that's not well spent. I think it's not the time and I think we need to let Blackwater step in here and say, "Hey, this is what we're looking at initially." Come on, guys. Are we really thinking we can afford aund what is it now? $180 million project to do recycled water. I don't think the citizens want to pay for that. They look at their rates now at 80 million. I can't afford if it goes and doubles. So, I think we need to evaluate, is this really what we want to do right now? And let's be honest, is this project going to be something that's viable?

And that's the goal of the feasibility study to be able to give you that information so that you can make an informed decision moving forward.

Even if it goes o if it goes over 80 million, it's not viable. Our our citizens can't afford it. So I think as a council we've kind of already identified that uh we're seeking federal funding before right we move to committing to full design right so that's not kind of what we're we're discussing here so I think uh so so Blackwater wasn't planning to be doing like a deep dive value engineering right they're going to be looking at all the options right at a higher level so this gives with the timeline that I'm kind of I'm worried about the timeline if we move forward with this and the residents have been asking us constantly, we want all the numbers. We want non-biased numbers. We want to hear the hard truth and this is going to cost us money so that they can hear the hard truth. It sounds like,

yeah, the goal is to give Blackwater all of the detailed information that we possibly can,

right? And so if we want to share all of the information where everything's lining up exactly to what we're trying to reach to that August 2026 deadline, right? So everything so we're not spending additional money like council member Call stated, right? So trying to revisit a bunch of different things. I just want to make sure if we do postpone it like the mayor said to to January, I'm fine with that. Right. If it's just a three-month process, I was up I was good until May. Um I think I think we should move forward with this. Uh if we're going to give the residents a full scope, a full picture, unbiased, yeah, it's going to cost us money. We don't want to spend the money, right? But we have to do it so we get the hard truth, the hard numbers. And and and I hear I hear the comments about 80 million is a lot. It is it's it's a lot. But we're in this position because we have an old failing system. So we everybody has agreed that we we have to do something. And so what is that something? And so that's just what we're trying to that's what we're trying to seek. So,

and again, it's not $80 million anymore. It'sund What's the last estimate? 140 136. It's not 80 million. So, public comment. Is there any comment here in the chamber? Yes, Mr. Dio Hernandez.

How do we know it's failing? We didn't do a service life assessment on it. So, how do we know it's failing? There's water treatment uh facilities that are just as old. They get operated on updates. First time I've heard that it's failing. Um Neil Cwell, obviously him and uh BR uh Coldwell, you know, those people, they have a vested interest in trying to get more funds out of this project, try to keep it viable because they're probably concerned that we may be looking at other options just like we signed up for for the 9.3 resolution. the the timeliness of this seems to be they're trying to keep the keep themselves in the race because the project has ballooned beyond what's acceptable. So just to backtrack and people in the audience know it was 88 million to start after the increases are supposed to stop just so that the debt service coverage ratio which is basically all the revenue that is taken in from the enterprise minus the net operating expenses the minimum that I can lend at because I'm a mortgage broker.

Address the council please.

I'm addressing everybody. The minimum that I can lend at is 1.25% 25% and they have to already increase it 4% just at the 88 million just so they can maintain a debt service coverage ratio of 1.36. It wasn't even affordable at the onset. Right? The people that have been giving you guys numbers have been not being truthful with you. Uh Eric Heglesen, he has a presentation that was presented in September that we still don't have numbers on. Apparently, they exist in Proforma, but I can't see them. Now it's 136 million. Any movement forward on this project right now with KSN Coldwell it at the last presentation that Eric Helggonson said it's going to increase 6% per year going forward. Meaning that we would have a $300 sewer bill every two months. We started this off at $49.92. We are the most expensive. We're projecting ourselves to be the most expensive sewer enterprise anywhere near us. Not just by 40 50%. We're talking almost 200 to 230 40%. We don't we can't afford it. We can't afford it. I think maybe we should take a look at the vested interests that have been pushing the council councils before you guys to try to move forward with this project. Way back in in the past, um there was a developer group A in 2007 who was uh trying to do the Riverwalk, right? They were trying to do the Riverwalk. It was owned by a company by the name of Barooa LLC. They are related to B William Barry Hill, right? They're related. They had a repurchase agreement after they foreclosed on the property and they got into that in 2014. They sued him. They got out of it in 2019. Six months later, it ended up on our strategic plan. That's what happened. And then we also

needed a wastewater treatment facility. All of a sudden, we had to push it, right? It's a scam. Like, our neighbors deserve better. Like, if we need another system, we need to look at the base alternatives. The original sale that they gave us was like, "Hey, we'll do all this recycled water component. We only identified two farmers who can take it. Maybe there's four, but we'll get you guys all these grants and it's only going to cost you 88 million. Supposedly, if we do this value engineering construction costs, they'll be within 20%. Neil Cowwell and KSN haven't even been within 60%. The project's overgrown like 67% in additional expenses. Doesn't make any sense. We're also we could head into a recession, right? There's an AI bubbles maybe potentially. 50% of all growth in this country by GDP has been specifically by three companies. Nvidia, Microsoft, Google. If there's any scaleback at the major level, it's going to have a repercussion that's going to come down. It's going to affect purchases, developments. It's unrealistic to expect any type of project in the Riverwalk to take off. We should be content with the system we have now and look for viable alternatives, which is what Blackwater is doing. Mayor, we had one written comment. I don't know if there's anyone in the chamber that wishes to speak.

Is there any more public comment?

Andy Richardson, 3126 Stannis Loss. Um, in leadership, one of the things that um I've learned is that if you don't do something about what's before you, people start to lose trust in your leadership. And this is uh there's people watching. California's the state of California is watching. Um the people I've talked to about the Modesto idea is they said it's a huge mistake. It may be cheaper and less of money, but it's going to end up costing Riverbank in the long run. And the public has spoken and this is the cost for them to get what they're asking for. And if you guys want to know which direction to go, this is what you have to do.

Hi again, Michael Christie. Um, I just wanted to ask Mr. Bridgewwater to explain the um this system as he explained to me oneonone throw because it is failing. Um, as as I disagree with Mr. Hernandez behind me, this system is failing. It needed to be done be needed to be redone before many of you were even on the council. And I feel bad for you because a lot of you got handed a big responsibility. This but this should have done been done well before 2022. So um if you can just maybe speak on the the current state of the system that's okay if that would be okay. We're gonna take the rest of public comment and come back to it. Thank you. Darling,

Darlene Barbara Martinez, my concern has always been that we need to do something. The system is old and if we don't address it and heaven forbid a disaster will happen. What do we do then? So, we will be backtracking trying to correct mistakes that, you know, we're pushing the can down the road and we need to do something. And I know you'll make the best selection, the best choice, and I put it in your hands. Thank you. Anyone else in the chamber? Uh, we have one on Zoom. Mayor, Mrs. Ager, can you please unmute? Yes. Can you hear me now?

Yes, please go ahead.

Thank you. Jamie Ares, uh, 7730 Mckenry Avenue, Modesto, California. I've read this staff report and the staff report for the next agenda item and neither one really adequately explained why the need to spend between the two items another $330,000 now to gather more information when you just tonight um awarded this contract to uh kick off the feasibility studies. So, I just wanted to say that um it's really confusing. Thank you.

Thank you, U Mayor and Council. We had one written comment on items 11.3 and 11.4 from Mr. Richard Homer. Um I was shocked to read I was shocked to read I'm sorry this doesn't read well. I was shocked to read that you are awarding contracts on items 11.3 and 11.4 basically awarding over 300,000 to continue planning the stage three sewer plant. Talk about the cart before the horse. I believe that those two items must be postponed until the phys until the feasibility study is completed and direction from that study is approved. Thank you for your consideration of my request. And that is all we have. And Cody, could you briefly uh comment on the failing um portion?

Yeah, so [clears throat] our treatment plant, as we all know, is quite old. Um our permit was is from 1994, I believe. Um it's very limited in our requirements as far as the level of treatment is concerned. We have a assumed hydraulic capacity of 1.8 million gallons per day and our average dry weather flow currently is 1.6 to 1.65 million gallons per day. So we're running at about 90 to 93% capacity as we are today. Um we currently already have issues with maintaining dissolved oxygen levels in our treatment basins. Dissolved oxygen is the leftover oxygen that's in the waste water after the microorganisms have done their job to attempt to consume the waste that's in the water. Um, our permit requires that we keep at least 1.0 milligrams per liter of dissolved oxygen in the waste water at all times. We currently cannot do that and that is running our four blowers at full capacity which is not the way that the treatment plant was designed. the [clears throat] upgrade that took place in I believe it was 2012 2013 was supposed to account for that. Um, and it was an energy efficiency upgrade and at that time it worked for a little bit but now where we're at today it does not. We cannot adequately treat the wastewater coming in in order to maintain our permit compliance. On top of that, we have additional regulations that have been instituted by the state which requires us to either buy into a program and basically pay for our compliance with nitrates and CB salts.

Um, or we can go the treatment route and treat to a certain level of the nitrate levels, which I believe is less than 10 milligrams per liter, which we physically cannot do. We do not have the ability to do that. So right now we're actually having just pay for compliance um upgrading the facility. No matter which route we go, we would put it into the design to where we could do biological nutrient removal that allows us to get out of paying for that compliance by just simply treating to the level we we need to treat to. Um full disclosure, we have issues with groundwater degradation out there because of the level of treatment that comes out of that plant. There's caulifform issues, there's nitrate issues, there's IBODS, there's metal issues, and the state is actively pursuing redoing our monitoring reporting program, instituting new requirements for us to test for. Just had a meeting with them probably a month ago to give comments on their revised permit. So, the state's already looking at us. The state knows that we have an antiquated plant. The state knows that we have groundwater degradation because we have reports that are sent in on a quarterly basis and they review those. So the time is coming to where we need to do something with the facility and we're at that time.

But the state also knows we're working towards finding solutions. Yes, they know that we are actively working towards a solution right now

and that solution that the state knows about is the current design. And so, um, I want to reaffirm that, uh, this this feasibility study is, um, only to be able to concretely say to our residents that we're, uh, reviewing all options that, um, because something needs to be done. Um, and so this also we've made clear that doesn't stop the support of the regional recycled water plant. And um at this point, when are we supposed to have a sitdown with Blackwater?

So, a kickoff meeting will probably be scheduled within the next couple of weeks because we've now awarded the contract. Um that's where we'll kind of give them sort of our final uh scope of work or ensure that the items that they're looking at are specific um to what council has requested with also giving them the flexibility to explore other options. So, that's what the kickoff meeting will entail and then they'll kind of just go off on their own to be able to do all of that background work. So, there will be check-in meetings of course um with Cody um to make sure that the progress of the report is going as we feel it needs to go. Um give them some direction where they have questions. Um also giving them access to all of the documentation that we have to date with regards to this specific project um so that they can do a full vetting of it. Um, as part of that feasibility study,

I would love to ask that the vice mayor and one of the other council members sit in on that kickoff meeting so that um, yeah, so we can have two council members there. Um, and at this point um, I I would feel more comfortable. We have a meeting January 12th. um if we could uh table these two items or this item uh until January 12th, we have our kickoff meeting in a couple weeks. They understand kind of the dynamic that's happening here and uh we reassess these items come the new year. Um I mean it's there's two big three big holidays between now and then. And so if the council would be supportive um if there's are there any other comments or questions at this point I would like to make a motion to table item 11.3 um and if appropriate 11.4 for the January 12th meeting. Um not saying no at this point rather um giving us some more time to to consider these items. So, so just for clarification, tableabling it to the Jan the first meeting in January.

Second roll call, please. Council member, yes. Council member Bntel, yes. Council member Call, no. Vice Mayor FY, yes. Mayor Hernandez, yes. Motion passes for one. Thank you. Thank you, Cody. Oh, um, we have to go through this. Yes, you would have to do a separate because we do have public comment that we may have received for those agenda items. So, we do want to make sure we open that up for Thank you. And um Cody, item 11.4 resolution to approve a contract change order. Um whatever if there's differences slightly. If you could just name those, that'd be great.

Yeah. if anything just to give the um members of the public sort of the presentation and be able to hear some of the specifics with regards to the work that Brown and Caldwell is going to do versus what KSN was doing. Perfect.

So in 2024, city council approved the 60% design phase for the rebank regional recycled water project. And now that 60% is complete, staff is looking to continue progress with value engineering phase of the design. Value engineering is a systemic proc systematic process utilized to develop alternative and lowerc cost solutions. With the concern of the total project cost being approximately $136 million, it's vital for us to look at the possibility of eliminating some costs while still being able to meet our goal of producing highquality recycled water for the purpose of resale. This process will help determine a final project that can be evaluated as part of the wastewater treatment plant expansion feasibility study. So Brown and Caldwell submitted a proposal at 138,475 to begin the value engineering. In the effort to reduce overall cost, save design time, and avoid massive redesign due to value engineering at the 90% level, staff is proposing to perform the Vphase now. Preliminary reviews of the 60% design brought forward some viable options for cost savings which include but are not limited to equipment pre-selection which is a savings of about 3.37 million elimination of one secondary clarifier which is 5 million earth work and sight civil work 4 million hypocchlorite feed station 0.7 million reducing it to a single headwork screen instead of two 0.3 million sight piping modifications 0.9 million emergency storage alterations 0.9 million and reduction of recycled water storage tank approximately 2 million. So this is just initial 15minute look at the 60% design and we've come up with about 14.17 million in potential savings. This does

not look at the engineers estimate constructibility construction costs anything like that. So Brown and Caldwell's scope of work would be prepare and maintain VE decision logs, QA and QC review of the 60% design as related to the VE study, bi-weekly coordination meetings based on VE decisions and design support, internal VE brainstorming sessions in preparation for the VE study and workshops, the VE workshop attendance and coordinate and address comments with the VE team and incorporate into the design evaluating design justifications and estimating the viability of suggested changes. The cost element of this project is cost of this element of the project, pardon me, is $138,475 to be appropriated from city sewer fund 106. Should be noted that this scope fee is presented as a time and materialsbased fee, which means that should all of our proposed not be needed, the total will be less than the proposed fee. These funds have been collected via the five-year SE rate implemented by council in 2022. Staff recommends that city council approve contract change order for the value engineering phase for the re regional recycled water project phase one to Brown and Caldwell and authorize the budget appropriation in the amount of $138,475 from sewer fund 106. And I would be happy to answer any questions.

Thank you. Um, many questions on this item based on my other comments, but I have a bigger issue on this one. So, I again I compared the two and the description of what they're going to do matches 100% with what was in their 60% drawings. Yet, in the 60% drawings, it was 62,49. Now it's 138,475 for the exact same work. Could you please explain that to me?

Again, there's more hours associated with this work because additional work was associated with other tasks in the 90% design. So this is value engineering specific.

So was this so was the 62,000. Um and it was see well because I can't print 8 by 15. I don't know how many hours. I just I find it odd that it's more than doubled the cost. That seems extreme to me. I don't know if it does to anybody else, but I I just question that. Was it because it was a package deal? So, we're getting more value for a larger package. This is more refined. It's going to cost more because you're now you're chair picking it. Um, any public comment in person or online?

Mayor, we have uh Diego Hernandez on the

Please vote no on this item. Um, the only thing that I wanted to say is stress is before we spend any more money on this program, I think we should do some outreach. um let the members of the public know that at the best case scenario that has been presented to us so far, we will have to increase rates again 6% at minimum per year for an additional years. We should start doing that outreach my opinion now postpone any further investment in the in the project until we can do that outreach wait for Blackwater. Um, and I would love to see some more information from Eric Helgen and Bartle Wilson and Associates regarding their studies. Like I said, um, to my knowledge, they've only presented a PowerPoint back in September that shows, uh, actually that one was interesting because for the first time, uh, they included a grant in their projections, right? So, every single time they usually keep any prospective grants and they set them aside, they don't include them in the projections. This time they actually included on projections because the numbers were so bad. They actually added in the I think it was like I forget the exact number but they added it into the projection so it wouldn't look as bad and the debt service coverage ratio wouldn't look horrid. But um if I was you guys I would request that they give you some updated numbers so that way that could be available by by January 12th as well and we can also have a better financial outlook of the project. Right. I don't know. Hopefully they don't c they don't charge us 200,000 for that. Thank you.

Any other public comment in the chamber? Uh mayor, we have one on Zoom. Miss Ares, can you please unmute? Yes. Can you hear me now? Yes, please go ahead.

Thank you. Jamie Ager's comment again. Um, just one point that I'm confused about after listening to the public works director's comments. I I believe he stated that currently the wastewater treatment facility is running at 90 to 93% capacity. Now, that's confusing to me and here's why. Nine years ago in 2016 when Riverbank approached LAFCO to increase its sphere of influence uh for the Crossroads West project, uh the municipal services review document stated that there was more than enough sewer capacity to handle the full buildout buildout, excuse me, the full buildout of Crossroads West. I I don't know the number or the percentage that Crossroads West is built out presently, but I'd be surprised if it was more than 50%. So, the concern is if if the statement was that there was more than enough capacity for the full buildout of Crossroads West, why is the plant running at 90 to 93% now? And that would make me concerned that there may not be enough capacity for Crossroads West. Just just a concern I wanted to share. Thank you.

Good job, Mayor. That is all we have on Zoom. Thank you. Um, if you want to answer that briefly. I mean, we've um assessed Gohead. I was not part of that assessment so I can't comment to that.

Well, we are uh confident that we can support crossroads west buildout. Um and we can address that uh offline but um I similar to the last item I think it'll just it would give us a month about a month to each um do our own research and look at the line items as presented. Um, thank you, Council Member Eva, for clarifying um why the Valley Engineering uh is different as originally proposed. Um, and um, if there's is there any further comments or questions, I would like to make a motion to table this item for the first January meeting. And I'll second it. Roll call, please. Council member, yes. Council member Pimement,

yes. Council member Claw, no. Vice Mayor FSY? Yes. Mayor Hernandez? Yes. Motion passes 41. Thank you, Cody. Thank you.

All right, staff report. So, just a couple here. Um, all city offices will be closed this Thursday and Friday for the Thanksgiving holiday. Should residents have a street, water, or sewer emergency, please call our public works hotline at 209-8697128. A reminder to residents that sandbags are available at Public Works Corporation yard just outside of the main gate. Please bring your own shovel. We do have the sand and the bags available there. The deadline to submit your application and design for the city flag design contest is Monday, December 1st. Get creative and don't hesitate to submit your application. For more information on the design guidelines, please visit our website at www.riverbank.org. The third draft of the housing element has been submitted to the state after the 7-day review period. Um, HCD does have 60 days to respond, which takes us to about uh January 19th to receive those. Uh, those interested in reading the updates, please visit the planning division web page on our website. Uh, in addition, the planning division has issued a request for proposals for an update to the citywide system development fee program. The goal of the study is to update our fee program to establish new infill development and transit oriented development fees to support infill housing and transit accessible development. This update is being funded by the regional early action plan funding from the state of California. Information on the RFP can be found on the bids and requests for proposals page on the city's website. Uh proposals are due by January 7th. And on behalf of city staff, a special thank

you to Ben Rubin for his five years of service to the Riverbank community on our planning commission and we wish him the best. That is all from staff.

Thank you, Vice Mayor. Uh December 7th, the Riverbank Historical Society will be having an event at Red Robin where they'll donate 20% of all um services to Riverbank Historical. You'll just need to mention Riverbank Historical when you go in there. We appreciate you going and having a big family meal. Um no meetings for December for the Riverbank Historical Society or the Riverbank Women's Group. On December 6, the Riverbank Women's Group and Sarropolis Group, I know I pronounced that wrong, will be having a holiday lunch at the community center December 6, uh, from 11 to 2. If you'd like to purchase tickets or want to, um, do a table, please contact me. And, um, I just want to say happy Thanksgiving to everybody. I hope you have safe travels and be safe when you're out there traveling. There's going to be a lot of people on the road. So, have a great Thanksgiving. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Ludia Brad. Thank you, Mayor. Uh thank you, Miceller, for sharing the information on the city flag submission. Um so, my my comment is going to be short as well. So, thank uh happy Thanksgiving to everybody. Uh Black Friday. Uh I know the deals are going to be out there. Everyone's going to be shopping uh all the big stores, but don't forget to shop local. Support those mom and pops here locally. Uh all that gets reinvested into our community. So support uh try to do both if you can. So happy holidays. You council member Pimental.

Thank you, mayor. On the 20th, Community Praise Tabernacle along with the assistance from Love Riverbank hosted a community dinner. They fed almost 400 people. It was a great turnout. I want to thank the mayor and council member Urebe for showing up and supporting. It was a great chance for the community to come together and just to have a nice hot meal. So, it was a good turnout. Also, on December 6th, Community Closet will be at St. Francis of Rome Church. If you have donations, you can drop them off and reach out to me. Or if you'd like to be a part of helping them, reach out to Mary Lou at the St. Francis of Church. And I also want to say the roads are very busy, so stay safe and everyone have a happy Thanksgiving. Thank you, Council Member Call.

A couple weeks ago, I attended the Santa Los Homeless Alliance where I was able to share our day use facility shower statistics. So, I just wanted to share those for the month of October. In October, we provided 269 showers and 235 meals to those in need. And then I also wanted to let you all know that Donnie is leaving for those who may or may not know. And so, Sierra House is seeking another program manager. And then during the Santa Los Homeless Alliance meeting, we discussed attainable housing, which is a little bit different than affordable housing. It's actually a lot different. Uh but it's more for those who they have really amazing jobs. They just can't afford a house because housing is so expensive. So it's hitting that $200 to $350,000 home mark. So there's a new project going in in Patterson. So, I'm hoping to share that information with both Josh and Marisella to see how we could possibly visit that in our city. I went to the Office of Emergency Services Stannis County Disaster Council where they reviewed a westside evacuation plan. For those unfamiliar with that area, that is the Diablo Grande area uh who had the wildfires recently. And there really is only one way in, one way out. There is another road that goes into Santa Clara County, but it is really challenging for those when there is an emergency. So, we are able to review that plan. And then just a reminder that respiratory virus season is upon us. So, if you're sick, please stay home and please do not kill children that are not yours. And then I also did my future and focus tours at a Medis where assemblyman Juan Alanise's office and five other constituents were there. And it is absolutely incredible when you tour that industrial complex because the first time you're just overwhelmed because of the rich history within that complex as well as all of the sustainable manufacturing there. The second time you go, things start sounding a little more familiar and

you're like, "Okay, I remember that." But the third time once you really get to see and hear, you're starting to really grasp the things that are happening there and the plans that a medicine has for that property. So, if you haven't toured the facility, I encourage you to reach out to one of your council members to get a tour of the facility to hear about not only the rich history and but to see the sustainable manufacturing happening there. There's an incredible amount of flat screen TVs coming into that facility and with machines and whatever else they're using, they're able to separate the circuit boards from the plastic from the glass and really filter it out and then melt those items eventually. Uh, they're working that's the next phase of their project. So really cool. I encourage it. At Comedy for a Cause, we were able to raise over $2,600 for Riverbank Police Services Shop with a cop program. So I wanted to thank Council Member Aribe, Council Member Pimementel, Sister Cities, many of my constituents showed up, Michael Christie, and Sus Latino Chamber. They actually came, they rolled deep. They had 20 people there to support the cause. So that was really exciting. And then lastly, it's getting cold. bring your pets inside or give them somewhere warm to sleep outside. And then for those who are seeking a warming center, our community center at 3600 Santa Fe Street is a warming center during the senior uh event time. So that's Monday, Tuesday, Thursday 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. and Friday 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. So I encourage you if your heaters aren't working to go to the community center, warm up a little bit, and then bear the cold a little bit. But that's the end of it for me.

Thank you. Um, one last shout out for the night veterans um and uh American Veterans First for a successful open house and ribbon cutting and then a subsequent resource fair. Um, I know all of us are committed to the ongoing support uh for American Veterans First and um this statistic that we're throwing out that the Riverbank uh houses the highest uh per capita veterans in the county and so um that's something that we're um looking to continue to support. The youth council is continuing to meet and um I would say they are figuring it out. they're figuring out how to communicate with each other, how to communicate with staff um and and how to work uh best together. And so it's a work in progress, but I'm really proud of uh the work that they're doing. Um Sandcog uh we have um the interim executive director that is settling now probably week two um uh but is doing great work and assessing gaps and and helping build the morale back with with the staff there. Um, I am on the board of directors of Boys and Boys and Girls Club and we recently had a strategic planning meeting and and hoping to bring their services. Um, and and a few of us had had conversations to Riverbank. uh on uh my meet the mayor, I uh if you didn't see me, I was dressed up as uh a character from a popular Netflix movie and I had a a woman approach me um on on Halloween uh interested in doing a girls uh basketball pilot program to to train the girls here in Riverbank to allow them to be more competitive and to get some expert knowledge in the sport. And uh I mean we turned it around in in maybe a week. Um and yesterday 40 girls attended um the pilot program and today

50 girls attended the pilot program all middle school age. Um and uh they're super excited to continue this program. So um we're going to be doing a little bit of a presentation with the school board to kind of pitch them the idea of supporting the program on an ongoing basis. Um, and and finally, I want to say in the spirit of the holiday, I'm thankful for this council and how everyone has stepped up in in their passion projects in the community because it's amazing to see all the effort uh in the community. I'm thankful for the staff and I'm thankful for all the residents and though we have differing opinions, I think that's what makes uh this really robust and and more um fulfilling to do. So, I appreciate you all. And now we are going to close session. We have item 13.1 conference of legal council anticipated litigation. Uh significant exposure to litigation pursuant to government code 54956.9D. Number of potential cases one. Item 13.2 liability claims pursuant to government code 54961. Claimment Anthony Campos Martinez a minor by and through Alma. I may have read that wrong. Agency claimed against city of riverbank. Item 13.3 conference with real property negotiators pursuant to government government code for 95 6.8 property 3300 Achesen Road APN 132009069 agency negotiator Misala Harcia city manager property negotiator Del Rio City Center LLC under negotiation price terms of payment or both. Is there any public comment on these items or online?

Mayor, there is no one on Zoom wishing to speak. All right, we are joining to close session.

Thank you.

All right, we are coming back from close session. Item 14.1 report from item 13.1 direction has been given to staff. Item 14.2 report from item 13.2 direction has been given to staff. And item 14.3 report from close session. Item 13.3 direction has been given given to staff. The next regular city council meeting will be on Tuesday, December 9th at 6 pm. This meeting is adjourned.