City Council - Regular Meeting

All right, we are going to call this meeting to order. Vice Mayor,

please stand for the flag salute and remain standing for invocation. Thank you. Let us pray. Father God, we just thank you, Lord. What a wonderful time of year, Lord. A season full of love, joy, and peace. And Lord, we know that because of your love for us, you sent your son. And Lord, we celebrate that. Lord, I want to all of us want to thank you for our mayor, Mayor Hernandez. Lord, our council, the Riverbank City Council and the Riverbank City staff, Lord, for them being here and putting in the work, advocating for us. Lord, I just pray, Lord, we ask for your help tonight that you would come and help us with business. Lord, that we would recognize, Lord, that you said that we could ask for wisdom and you would give it without finding fault. And so, Lord, we know Riverbank has a lot of big things and good things ahead of us. And we're so excited about that. And I thank you for unity in this place as we work together to get there in Jesus name. Amen. And roll call, please. Council member Oda

here. Council member Pimentel here. Council member Claw here. Vice Mayor FSY here. Mayor Hernandez here.

And there are no agenda changes at this moment. Any conflict of interests for any council authority member staff uh on any scheduled agenda item to be considered is to declare their conflict at this time. Hearing none, we have a presentation from our friends at California Health Collaborative for the tobacco prevention efforts in Riverbank. Good evening, mayor and members of the city council. My name is Jorge Yepes and this is my colleague, David Cisneros, and we're here today to talk to you about um tobacco issues in Riverbank, uh the city's current tobacco retail license and how we can strengthen it moving forward. We work for the California Health Collaborative. We're a nonprofit focused on improving health in uh communities that don't have the same resources as the larger cities. Um we special our program compromisantes specializes in uh tobacco policy and best practices for enforcement and implementation. I live I myself am a riverbank resident. I have lived here my whole life and I uh still reside in district 1. Um, I've seen the problem with tobacco from an early age, seeing those around me, young and old, uh, fall victim to tobacco addiction. So, this issue is is very personal to me. And, um, so over the past few years, we've gathered uh, data specifically from Riverbank so that any decisions you make are based on what's actually happening in the community and not just uh, not just the statewide numbers.

So, um why update now? Um first, youth and riverbanks still have access to tobacco and nicotine products. Um even though there uh there uh policies like the flavor ban that are in place, those laws don't enforce themselves and we don't currently have strong consistent local enforcement. Second, Riverbank has already taken an important step by unanimously passing a tobacco retail license back in 2015. What we're talking about tonight isn't starting from scratch. It's about updating and strengthening what already exists so it better matches today's products, today's laws, and what we're seeing in local stores. In the next few slides, I'll walk through the data we collected here in Riverbank that show why these numbers matter. But before I do that, I just want to quickly go over what a tobacco retail license or TRL for short is. A TRL is a local authorization that enables vendors to sell tobacco products within city limits. It gives a city a tool to make sure retailers are following state and local laws. Um things like not selling to anyone under 21 and complying with flavor restrictions. A TRL can also include a fee that helps pay for compliance checks, staff time, education for retailers. So, not it's not just a rule on paper. It's a framework that supports responsible sales and protects youth and public health in a fair way for everyone. Now, I'll go over what we found when we looked at youth access here in Riverbank. As many of you know, the Stake Act raised the legal age to purchase tobacco and nicotine products to 21. To understand what was happening in practice, we hired and trained youth under 21 to conduct an underage tobacco purchase survey in local stores. We supervised the process so they were never alone. They attempted to buy

products using cash. They did not show ID. And if they were asked their age, they were instructed to to lie and say they were of age just like um just like it would happen in a real life situation. In Riverbank, one in five stores, 21% sold um without asking for ID. This tells us that young people are still able to access tobacco in real access tobacco in some of the local retailers. It also suggests that the current TRL may not be functioning as in as effectively as intended. When the ordinance was first adopted, it stated that a fee to issue or renew a TRL would be established by resolution of the city council. However, a fee was never put in place, and it's now been 10 years. Without a dedicated fee, it is difficult to consistently fund compliance checks, support local enforcement efforts, and provide ongoing educa education to retailers. On this map, you can see how uh how close the retailers are to schools. The green border represent outlines uh schools and shows the thousand foot boundary around them. The red dots represent the retailers that sold to our you to our youth and the blue dots the ones that didn't. Uh later David will talk more about how distance from schools and other locations can be addressed within a TRL. Along with our um youth purchase survey, we also conducted a public opinion poll. We wanted to know how residents felt about tobacco, local tobacco licensing. So, we posed the question, would you be in favor of a law that requires store owners to have a local license to sell tobacco? On this slide, um, shows the the map by council district. In every single council district, the majority of respondents supported a TRL. Many people told us they see tobacco as a local concern and want the city uh the city to be

proactive especially around youth and flavored products. So this tells us that strengthening the TRL is not just a health issue, it's also something residents across Riverbank are ready to support. Uh now going back to Riverbank's current tobacco retail license. Uh like I mentioned earlier, uh Riverbank is not starting from zero. The current ordinance already has some really strong features. It prohibits the sale to minors. It includes distance requirements from schools and parks. It also has penalties that increase with repeated violations. Retailers are also required to renew their license every year, which uh helps with accountability. However, without that fee attached to the license, it's very difficult to consistently enforce these features and make sure all retailers are following the ordinance. Updating the TRL now would allow Riverbank to keep what's already working while addressing tools needed to support local enforcement and compliance. Uh to close out my portion, I want to bring us back to the main reasons for updating TRL. Now, first it's about strengthening protection for youth. We know from our data that young people are still um able to buy these products and that has long-term impacts on their health, school performance, and families. Second, updating the TRL can help local retailers by making expectations clear and aligning city rules with current state laws and best practices. And um it also helps support community compliance and enhance uh public health initiatives. And uh lastly, I want to mention that uh a few months ago, series uh successfully passed a tobacco retail license. And um it's very comprehensive and uh a model for uh implementation, a great model for implementation. And uh with that, I'll hand it over to David who will go over that in more detail.

Jorge, can I ask a quick question? Yeah. Uh so as far as the so the RTL uh how is that structured for the fee to the license? How are you guys determining that? What what would that feed kind of look like? Uh is that Dave is gonna go over that? Perfect. Yeah,

it's good that you're getting ahead of Hi everybody. Uh like Horge said, my name is David Cisneros. Uh I work with Horge on the Compro. I thought it would be a good transition. I'm actually right down the street. I've been a series resident my whole life, so right around the corner. And I thought it'd be a good transition to talk about what series did and how it was a little bit different from what Riverbank's been doing. Uh so they did a little bit uh different requirements for the proximity. They only required proximity restrictions on smoke shops rather than all retailers. That's something that was good for Riverbank to do. So that's something that would be considered stronger than what series did. Uh their annual license was $550 to be issued. So that's a more expensive fee and then lowered to $450 a year. Their penalties increased for repeated violations and non-compliance similar to riverbanks. One thing that they did include was the banning of sale of all electronic cigarettes and vape devices. So they banned it entirely within the city of series. And they also added other suspension rules. Everybody's suspension rules are going to look a little bit different versus like three strike rules. They're going to be four strike rules. Whatever it's going to be, everybody's is tailored to their own local ordinance. I'm going to be very data heavy, so I apologize ahead of time. I've got three studies that I'm going to go over real quick just to kind of show the effectiveness of TRLs. So, this is the percent of stores that sold to youth before and after the adoption of a TRL. You'll notice that some of these dates uh are pretty far back, but all of this data was gathered in 2018. So, this report as far as before and after adoption, the after adoption was taken in 2018. Uh this comes from the pets database was the policy evaluation tobacco system. I want to say we have a lot of acronyms so I apologize ahead of time. Uh but all of this data that I'm showing you guys is going to be emailed to you afterwards as well. So I have the full report of the young adult tobacco purchase survey data that me and Pora did the public opinion poll data. You're going to have the studies behind this

and the two other slides that I'm going to go over shortly. This is another slide showing stronger retail licensing and lower youth access in California. You notice that we talked about some of the we'll call them plugins that you can include in the tobacco retail license. So what's included like the proximity restrictions, density restrictions, all these things which I'm going to go over in a little bit as well. Um the more that you include the stronger your tobacco retail license will be. Like Horge mentioned, the main thing is to provide a fee so that you can actually enforce it and make sure that people and retailers are complying to it correctly so that all your plugins are effective. But here you can see some of the illegal sales before TRLs and after TRLs and then youth buying cigarettes in stores before and after TRLs as well. You'll also get a presentate the slides as well. So everything will come in one email. uh strong TRL policies versus weak policies. This is the last study that we showed. In this study, they actually graded TRL policies from A to F. So, compared to uh F-grade policies, you saw a 39% lower odds of ever smoking cigarettes in TRL policies that had a so that included a lot of those strong plugins. uh 49% lower odds of past 30-day smoking, 33% lower odds of beginning smoking as young adults, and 26% lower odds of starting ecigarette use. The bottom line is that stronger retail licensing and those with enforcement and accountability are associated with substantially lower youth smoking and vaping. So, really quick, here is a quick timeline of what it would look like. And as you go through, I'm going to go through a couple of resources like a TRL fee calculator that will actually help you kind of justify what that fee would look like. Uh, but basically what you'd be looking at is if you chose to develop and update your policy is the first step, actually developing and updating

that policy. Uh, then you would be looking at implementation and then finally education and enforcement. So once it's all implemented, how are you going to make sure that it's working? Uh first off, here's one resource that is really helpful. This is from the public health law center and this is just a small snippet. Um so on this page, it actually has a definition for a flavored product. I was also looking through the current riverbank product uh riverbank TRL. There is no definition for a flavored product uh that is as extensive as this one. So, this one the difference is uh presumptive flavored tobacco product that covers a lot of things that weren't covered by the state ban. For example, if a flavor was called blue storm, that's technically not a flavor under the original flavor ban. I believe that's been updated, but it's always a good idea to have it as a local ordinance and have strong language that closes any of those loopholes that would allow for that still to be sold. So, in the public health law center's model ordinance, there's language as far as what the definition of a tobacco product is. And that's now all tobacco and nicotine products because there's new products on the market that aren't just tobacco products. There's some that are just strictly nicotine, but do the same thing in addicting and getting young kids started. So, here's a couple other plugins that we haven't talked about and that could be included in a strong TRL. So, there's density caps. Density caps cap the amount of retailers that are going to be either in your city or in your district. So, if you find that there's a lot of retailers in one district versus the other, you can put a density cap on that district and say, I don't want them to be all concentrated in this area. Um, you can also set minimum prices and minimum pack sizes. That means that you can't put anything on sale. So, you can't entice other people with a sale

like say buy one get one free. You can't sell one individual cigarette out of a pack. You have to sell the whole pack. This is typically to uh keep others from either it's very helpful for quitters to not be enticed to go back. And it's also helpful for youth who don't typically have a lot of income to go and spend the money on these products. Advertising controls is another one. You do actually currently have something in the Riverbank TRL that controls the amount of advertisements. I believe it's uh no flashing lights that are visible within schools. So that's something else that you can do as well. It's really interesting to see actually. Um flavor restrictions. Like I mentioned, you can put in your own definition of what a flavor is and how you're going to define that. Uh and then finally, enforcement funding. So providing the resources for effective uh regulation and compliance. Like I mentioned, this is a TRL fee calculator. I know that's probably too small to read, but it covers a lot of things like staffing costs, equipment and supplies, printing and mailing, meeting costs, anything like that. This is an interactive calculator. So it's not something that you have to print out and do yourself. Uh that will also be emailed to you after this meeting as well. So in that it is an interactive calculator that you can go plug in your uh your amounts or what you are thinking about and then this way you can actually calculate the fee that's going to be uh cost. Hopefully that answer your question but again if you have any questions again let me know. Uh on top of that we also developed a policy implementation plan uh for seriesir and riverbank. Uh this was done through a project with uh Americanore. So we had a fellow work with us a few months back. She developed a policy implementation plan for us because there's not a good way to show people what they need when they're implementing a policy like this. And we wanted to make sure that that process was as streamlined as possible.

So, this covers a lot of things like developing a system for collecting, tracking, and managing the fees, uh, developing protocols for conducting compliance checks. That's similar to what me and Horge did when we actually took the young adults out there and told them, "Hey, we're going to have you pay cash. You're going to tell them you're 22. That's what we mean by the protocol for conducting that compliance check." And then finally, providing materials to retailers. This is not the whole list, but um, this is just a quick snippet of what we can provide. The good thing is is that enforcement is going to be a lot easier than it's been in past few years. Uh this is actually going to be released by the end of December. It's called an unflavored tobacco list. So everything that's legal to sell because as we know there's uh for those of you who don't know SP 793 had a flavor ban across all of California, but there wasn't a good way of knowing what fell under that and what didn't. Um, so the unflavored tobacco list is a list of all the legal products that are going to be allowed to be sold. So now you actually have something to cross reference and say like, okay, this is not on the list for sure this cannot be sold here. Then I can c uh find this retailer who's selling irresponsibly.

Who's putting that list together?

I believe that's the office of the attorneys general, uh, Rob Bont's office. Uh, so here are some of the key benefits of the TRLs. This is a databacked best practice. 200 jurisdictions in California have passed a TRL. They don't all look the same, but this is already something that's happened across multiple jurisdictions of California to address their own local needs. Uh reduced youth access. Youth access can be addressed with strong policies. And finally, local control. You can tailor your ordinance that best fits the community. And better than anything, you can always update it if you find that there's another issue coming up. As we know, it's an ever evolving issue. uh we have to deal with a lot of things like vapes, zins, and other products that we previously didn't have to. So, this is really great and that you can always tailor it to whatever your needs are going to be. And that's it for our presentation. Thank you so much. And if you have any questions, our contact info is here. Uh if not, again, you'll get that email at the end of this presentation. And um if do you want me to send it over to you three as well? I have the council members included and the mayor, but Awesome. Awesome. Thank you

so much. Thank you. Um, were there any other questions from council? And um, we see you um, in the audience. Thank you so much for being here. Were there any comment um, from your group? We would love to maybe one or two to represent the group. We did get a public comment card regarding this item. Okay. Um Carly, thank you. Thank you.

Hello. Good evening, city council members. My name is Karly Gonzer and I'm a very concerned student and member of Protecting Health and Slamming Tobacco Fast Club at Riverbank High School. I'm concerned about the health of my peers. There are many tobacco retailers in our area selling products to high schoolers and middle schoolers, making them addicts at a very young age. I have seen firsthand the number of students that this issue has affected. All are affected, but not just the students who are smoking and vaping, but the bystanders as well. As a student who does not use these products, it has affected me in many ways. For instance, I'm not able to use the bathrooms at school throughout the day because not wanting to breathe in the smell of tobacco products that pollute the air in the bathrooms. It is not just the smell of smoke, but a chemically favored smell like cotton candy and blue raspberry. Going to the bathrooms at school gives me headaches from the tobacco smell and vape smells. This issues became so bad I would just hold it until the end of the day when I'd get home. Being a student athlete and being a part of many clubs, I would end up being on campus for 12 plus hours a day. This led to serious personal issues a few weeks ago. I had to stay home because of the amount of pain I was in because I messed up my kidneys from doing this. Coming back to school, I was forced to use the bathroom once every class period. Every time I would enter the bathroom, it reminded me the reason this all happened in the first place. Because tobacco retailers and the tobacco industry are targeting us, the youth in Riverbank and flavors and smoking are advised as way to target us to create lifelong addicts. is told to make us calm and it's told to be cool. But we are young and we're having long lasting negative effects in this new generation. It will do no good if if being addicts will do no good if we're dead at a young age from lung cancer. So, I ask you to take action today and target

I ask you to take action today to update the tobacco retail license in Riverbank to be more comprehensive and to protect the youth in this the city. You That is all the comment cards I got. I don't know if there's someone in the chamber that wants to speak on and on online. There's no one online on this item.

Is there anyone um in the audience that would like to comment at this time? Thanks. I would just like to uh thank Jorge and David for coming and the rest of you. I've had several people in my life pass away from lung cancer because they started smoking when they were in high school. So, um, the young lady that's in high school, we hear you and I hope the council members and the mayor hears and will be able to do what they request because dying of lung cancer is a horrible, horrible way to die and you always die at least 20 years sooner than you're supposed to. Thank you. I could just make a quick comment. So, I know this is a informational just a presentation, uh, but Carly, um, it's unfortunate that you have to deal with that, right? And so, um, I work at Winko Foods as well and walking in and, um, having customers kind of vaping and, you know, puffing it where it doesn't need to be, right? It's not, we're not choosing to to walk into that environment. Um, but this, thank you for this presentation, uh, David and Jorge. Um, so you're asking us to to kind of strengthen our current RTL uh ordinance language. I think that's super valid. I think that's something that we should move forward. Um, so um is is this something that we would need a need a majority to move forward to seeing as just a presentation? Because I would be in support of having staff uh let's let's look at let's look at the ordinance. Let's see how we can strengthen it. Um I do like that idea of banning electronics just like the city series. So, let's do a full um review of

the agenda and see if council would be in support of that. I'd like to support reviewing that. Sorry. Go ahead. No, I was going to say if we get the the support then we I would suggest we bring it back for discussion so that we can refine what those points are that the council would like to make in those changes and then then we would bring it back for um to go through the process to adopt. Yeah, agree.

Thank you. It looks like you have majority, but if we could ask everyone emails Marisel and Tammy separately, that way we have it um there on file. But thank you all so much for for coming here. All right. So, we have public comment. Um we 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 board. Individual comments will be limited to a maximum of three minutes and time cannot be yielded to another person under state law. Matters presented during the public comment period cannot be discussed or acted upon. Alley and back. Did you have a public comment? Okay. Um, do you want to let her go? Okay. come on up and just state your name, please. Hi, good evening and happy holidays everyone. I'm Hi Van Deender from CambridgeMies at Sierra House. Uh, first I want to publicly thank um Winnie and Hung Wong, the owners of Lucky House Chinese Restaurant. They provided an incredible Thanksgiving meal to the staff of Sierra House, the men who currently live there, and also the homeless men and women uh that use the day center. And we just truly appreciate

their kindness and their generosity. So, um three of the men that are in our program right now are here. And um part of the restart program, it ends with an inter an entrepreneurial project. So they create a business, develop a business plan, create logos, flyers, and that type of thing. So um then the next uh progression is for them to apply for jobs and obtain employment. Well, that kind of started before we finished our entrepreneurial project and Zach will come up in a few minutes and talk more about that. Um, but the good news is that happened because uh one of our men have uh already left on Sunday for Washington State. He uh is now working as a truck driver with the new company up there. And that's actually one of the goals for each of the men that are in the program. So, um, Zach will come up next and talk a little bit about what their entrepreneurial project is. Thank you.

Good evening. My name is Zachariah Pullman and I do currently live at the Sierra House. Um, and we as a part of our restart entrepreneurial project, we originally decided to hold a free car wash for the community over the next two weekends. But since as our former roommate had a job and he decided to pursue that, which we are all thankful for, that will no longer happen. Um, therefore, we have to revise our plan and offer the free car wash for one day, which will be hosted at the Sierra House, which will be this Friday, December 12th, um, from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. This car wash will be completely free. And if you, anyone in the city, would like to donate, it will go straight towards the people or the people in need. Um, and it is not required to donate to attend said car wash. Uh we at the Sier House would like to express our gratitude for the opportunity given to us in an extensive amount. All the help requiring from Dr. Ber who is the head manager at Sierra House which is from Cambridge um as well as the Sierra House staff and with the full support of the city of Riverbank and the community. Nothing was progressing in my life and a few of the others lives in the house until we were given an opportunity by all of you and the rest of the community. And as a token of our appreciation, we are going to still do this car wash. This car wash will be open to official council members, sheriff's department, or any city vehicle regarding in Riverbank. Um, and that will be all. Thank you so much for your time, and we look forward to seeing you later this week where hopefully we can come together as a community. Thank you. Olivia.

Good evening, Mayor Hernandez, council members, and everyone here in our audience. Um, I'm Olivia Rambble. I am a broken owner of Timeless Real Estate here in Riverbank, but today I am here for the Riverbank Chamber of Commerce as a director of community events. I want to share some events that we have coming up. First off, tomorrow evening, we will have our um Riverbank Chamber of Commerce Christmas party. It's a white elephant gift mixer. The white elephant gets only $15. Come on out. We'll have some good food, drinks that are non-alcoholic. and come on out and join us for that tomorrow night at the industrial complex here in Riverbank on Claus Road from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. And then the next day on Thursday, the 11th, we do have a 30th anniversary ribbon cutting celebration that is going to be held at the Security Public Storage here in Riverbank on Oakdale Road from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. To make it more fun, we have um a ugly sweater contest that's going on with that. So, wear your ugliest sweater so you can win. And um we're just going to celebrate that that night. So, come on out and celebrate and support security public storage with 30 years here in Riverbank, which is amazing. And then we do have on the 18th, we have a holiday multi-chamber mixer, which is all the chambers collaborating together. And that's going to be from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. on December 18th at the Double Tree. So, um come on out here. It's going to be beautiful there. So, um, that'll be all of our chambers collaborating and working together to help our businesses out in the community. And then right now, if you go on to our website, we do have nomination awards open. These are for the citizen of the year, the Riverbank Chamber of Commerce business of the year, and the youth of the year. The youth of the year um is there's more check online for all of the details, but the youth of the year is basically going to be someone who's generally a high school senior.

They have a little bit changes this year with with age, but that person either has to live in Riverbank or attend school in Riverbank, but it could be a Riverbank student that goes to school anywhere in the county if somebody lives here in Riverbank as a resident. Um so check that out. they um are the winner will receive a scholarship anywhere from $100 to $1,000 just depending on um what kind of um applicants we get. So those nominations are open till 11:59 p.m. on December 15th. So please make your nominations for your citizen of the year, the Riverbank Chamber of Business of the Year, and then the youth of the year. And then those awards are going to be presented um be presented on January 16th uh for the new board installation for our chamber of commerce which is going to be held at Antigua Event Center January 16th Friday night from 5 sorry from 6:00 p.m. to 7 sorry 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. that night. So come out those are up for sale. We're looking for sponsors and we hope to see you guys all there as we are actively in our town. Thank you. You just state your name and you can start your comment.

Okay. Um, my name is Missy and I want to talk about Toty. Um, I know it's like a sore subject for some people. They chose to cancel it, but I personally feel like there was so much going towards it. that I get a lot of people weren't coming to it and things like that. But in the past, there was immense amount of like advertising that I saw. My son went there. My son's nine, the oldest that went there. My now he just turned four a few days ago and I feel like the social emotional skills have came up and and his development and things like that. And I know it seems like such a small thing of like, oh, we put money towards this and we're putting too much money out, but like is there another way that I feel like I don't want to just come here and go playing. I rather have like is there another solution that we can go back to to save the money that we're not spending so much so that we're just cancelling the program because we can't afford it? Um, in the past it was three days and I get like staffing issues and stuff like that and I have talked to the teachers that are there and I know there's backend things that go on. It's a business, but overall like there are studies showing that three-year-olds that do get an early education have a higher chance of being in college, finishing college. MIT actually did a review um a study on it and 20 there's a 28% chance increase in college there's 19% chance in college attendance they improve um their cognitive skills their social emotional development economic and there's economic gains over time they have better jobs higher earnings reduced um crime just in our county. Um 701 juvenile

felony arrests were made per 100,000 from the youth ranging from 10 to 17 in Stannis Los County in 2016. That has reduced but on in 2019 the average of use in the detention center was 75 per day. It can be it is studied by an an MIT study that says it can be reduced by 5% if three-year-olds are actually going somewhere. And I get there's a new law that like, oh, four-year-olds will be able to attend, but the cut off is September 1st. My child's born November 9th, my other child is born December 5th. They're stuck. That four years, they lose it. They don't have a chance. There's nothing for them to do. There's nothing in our town. There's nothing. I can go all the way to M MJC, but I work two jobs. I'm pregnant. Like, yeah, I work from home, but like it's just not attainable. Like, it's not to to go all the way over there and like it's not realistic either. That's all. Thank you.

Do you mind leaving your contact information? Yeah. Thank you. Is there any other public comment? We have one on Zoom. Mayor,

Mr. Pearson, can you please unmute?

Yeah. Uh, good evening. Uh, Gary Pearson, uh, Riverbank resident. Um, I appreciate the passions of everybody who's presented thus far. Uh, we have a lot going on in our community. I have listened intently to all the wastewater treatment upgrade project discussion. I would respectfully request the city council direct staff and its wastewater consultants, multiple ones at this time, to provide at a future notice meeting the following written materials related to the riverbank wastewater treatment facility. First, the full California integrated water quality system project report on violations and the enforcement history for the current riverbank wastewater treatment facility. Second, the most recent state regional waterboard inspection reports with all the related attachments. All current engineering memos are feasibility analysis comparing treatment approaches, including any considerations of expanding or reconfiguring percolation ponds. Fourth, soil percolation and groundwater monitoring data for the existing potential disposal storage pond areas. And fifth, a regulatory risk a memorandum addressing whether percolation only expansion would meet current and future waterboard requirements. In addition, I as a concerned resident am want to have a costbenefit analysis and the regulatory com uh comparison between expanding existing ponds as a short-term measure and proceeding directly with full wastewater treatment upgrade with a projected value added engineering options and present this information publicly so the council and residents may be informed. and all available options for the wastewater treatment facility. I have listened to the history and researched this specific

talk uh topic from previous city councils. Now we need to move forward and take action and in order to keep the sewer system and the rates reasonable for our residents and uh thank you and merry Christmas to all of you on the council.

Thank you Mr. Pearson. U Mayor, that is all on Zoom. We did receive a written public comment from Diana Nasser regarding um her opposition for the cancellation of the top time program. Um and that will be included in the record. Is there any public comment in the chamber at this time? All right, we are moving on to the consent calendar um for items 9.1 to 9.5. Is there any discussion or motion?

So, I'll make a motion to approve the consent calendar as stated. Second. Roll call, please. Council member, yes. Council member Vmentel, yes. Council member Claw, yes. Vice Mayor FSY, yes. Mayor Hernandez, yes. Motion passes 5-0. 10.1, a resolution accepting fiscal year 2425 annual uh AB1600 report of system development fee activity.

Good evening, mayor and council. I will be presenting um this item tonight. So tonight I'm presenting to you our fiscal year 202425 AB1600 which is our report of system development fees. Um what is an AB what is AB1600? So it set forth specific requirements as to how local government imposed, collected, and reported various aspects of their system development development fee program codified as section 66001 of the California government code and became effective in January 1 of 1987. Riverbank system development fee program has been in effect since 1967. um codified in the riverbank municipal code under 150.31B. So system development fees are defined as charges levied by local government agencies on new developments. The purpose of these fees is to offset the cost of constructing or expanding public infrastructure and necessary facilities due to the increased demand created by these developments. System development fees help ensure that local resources such as roads, water systems, parks, and emergency services can meet the needs of the growing communities. The following information must be made available to the public within 180 days after the last day of each fiscal year. And um just as information for everyone, the fiscal year for um city government is July 1st is the beginning, June 30th is the ending date. So, um, a description of the type of fee must be included in the report, the amount of

the fee, the beginning and ending balance of the account or fund, the amount of the fees collected, and the interest earned. Identification of each public improvement on which these fees were expended. Identification of an approximate date by which the construction of the public improvement will commence. description of any interfund transfers or loans including interest and repayment details. The amount of refunds made during the fiscal year. So, system development fees, we do have some system system development fees that are inactive funds. We're no longer collecting revenue. Um, expenditures made are included within the capital improvement plan. Um, our current inactive fund balances for June 30th of 2025 was in our bridge and roads fund 140 38,662 and then in our overpasses fund 145 $28,158 and then a railroad crossing fund is 146 um at $399. So, we're actively collecting revenue from new development funds um and expenditures are made pursuant to the city's nexus fee study that was adopted March 24th of 2015. Um the current or the balances as of June 30th of 2025. Um our streets and public works which is our transportation and traffic fund uh 4.1 million. Our water fund at fund 206 um approximately 1.6 million. Wastewater fund 207 54147,000 our storm drainage fund uh 208 approximately 2.2 million parks and

recreation fund 1.3 million and police and general government fund 210 um 990,000. So project highlights from our fiscal year 2425 where we purchased uh land for the site of our well number 13. Um we had budgeted $415,000. It came in at $410,717. Um so there was a small savings there and we are currently working on the design and bid services for the well. Um in 2425 we've expended 281,000 um leaving usund almost 119,000 remaining in that budget. Um, and I just wanted to note that the last time that we adopted our fees was in 2015. And we currently have put out for an RFP to um revisit our system development fees and update them to match what our um current anticipated capital improvements are. Um so in addition to updating the fees, we will also be exploring some potential new fee categories um which could include an infill development fee which um the intent would be to potentially um incentivize the infill lots um not a whole new subdivision. And then a VMT or TOD fee um which is vehicle miles traveled then transit oriented development. Tammy, is it best practice to revisit these every 10 years or is that based on jurisdiction or

um actually it should be done every five years, but we are behind maybe. So tonight, um staff is recommending that the city council adopt a resolution accepting the fiscal year 2425 annual AB1600 report of system development fee activity. Is there any other council comments or questions? this time and then we This is a public hearing. A public hearing. So I'm going to open it up for public comment. Is there any public comment online?

There is no one on Zoom wishing to speak. Mayor, we're going to close the public hearing and bring it back to council for any last comments or questions. If none, is there a motion? I'll make a motion to approve item 10.1. I second. Roll call, please. Council member, yes. Council member Pimementel, yes. Council member Caul, yes. Vice Mayor FSY, yes. Mayor Hernandez, yes. Motion passes 5-0. Thank you. Thank you, Tony. Thank you.

We have 11.1 receive direction from the city council regarding the next steps for pest control services for city-owned facilities. Mayor and Council, our director of parks and recreation, Michael, will be presenting this.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. Um, so as you all know, parks and recreation, this department, we oversee the facility maintenance and upkeep of all city- owned facilities. And so when it came to our pest control services for city-owned facilities, that's why you see me. Um, so I want to provide a little bit of background of where we're at. So, the department published an RFP for pest control services for se 14 city owned buildings and facilities including city hall north, city hall south, teen center, community center, scout hall, corporation yard, wastewater treatment plant, and other facilities like that. The last time the city did an RFP was done in 2018, and the services cost was just south of $4,000 annually. Um, our contracts typically go three years. This one had a little bit of a weird lapse going on. So this year the RP we the department published RP on September 25th and it was designed to close on November 6th. We contacted virtually five local pest control companies um within the area of Stanos County. Um we hosted a premium meeting on October 24th and we only had one company attend. The deadline for proposals was on November 6th. that dead deadline passed and we received zero proposals. We contacted the one company that showed up to the pre-bid to kind of say, "Hey, what what kind of threw you off here and um kind of get that information on what why didn't they put in a proposal?" In our proposal, we threw in there that it required prevailing wage. Um once they told us that um the company told us that that was the one item that really kind of turned them off on the project u we consulted with with the city attorney to determine if pest control services required prevailing wage. Um the response was it did not require prevailing wage. Um the following question we asked was do we need to issue a new RFP or can we contract

moving forward? Uh the response that we received was uh since the RP process was done, we can go um contract with whoever we want on the services. Uh so we informed the interested company um that the prevailing wedge is no longer requirement and if they want to submit a proposal, if they're interested, we can gladly accept look into it. Uh the one company was Dwey Pest Control. Uh their proposal came in at $10,590 annually for services. And so with that said, we are seeking want we're interested in seeking direction from city council as staff. We came up with two options. Option one would to provide direction to move forward with the submitted proposal the amount of 10,500 annually. The pros of this is that there's no lapse in pest control services for the city buildings. We're hoping to get this started in the new year uh with the idea of at the following city council we would bring contract to you guys for approval. The con is that is a 166% increase from what we're currently paying for the current standards. That's about $6,66 annually. Um and that additional money would need to be requested from the general fund. Um usually our contracts we try to do three years. So that would be a three-year um dedication. Option two would be to revise and reissue the RFP to remove the prevailing RA requirement and solicit to additional companies so we can um try to reach out to more companies, see if we get better input. Uh the pros of that is we can seek additional interest and may receive better pricing. The con is there will be period of no pest control services during the RFP process. Um so depends on how interested staff are dealing with cockroaches and spiders and all that. Um and so we kind of want to seek input from from council on how we best or should go in the direction you guys think is best.

Um is that is it typical the the um cost the 10k that came in from Dwey for city services. So it's a little bit difficult because we have nothing to really compare to. But to keep in mind though the 3,800 was seven years ago precoid. So if you look at inflation and with all that's going on um I mean like I said 160% is a lot but looking at the past RPS I received in 2018 their bids received around 7,000 8,000 as well so it wouldn't shock me if we go out there and get something relatively in that in that ballpark.

Any questions comments? That requirement for the prevailing wages, was that communicated to the first to the other four companies that you guys had reached out to initially or just the one? That was just the one uh with the feedback we received that we can go contract with anyone. We only had received uh interest from one company. The other four that we contacted, we emailed uh with the original proposal. We also emailed them to remind them, hey, we have a pre-mitting on this said day if you're interested asking questions. We received zero response from the four companies. The prevailing wages was in that initial correct. Okay.

So, I can help a little bit. Uh, so I did the math with Tammy actually. We kind of worked on this and in perspective, we have small unit buildings and even at 108. So, we pay around $65 to $85 a month. And is this bi-weekly? I mean by monthly or monthly service. So, it these are quarterly. So, three months. Every three months they'll come out.

Okay. So, we pay around $65 a month, I would say, average between everything that we have. And when I did the math, that's around with 14 buildings, that's $910 a month, which comes up to around $10,900. So, the quote, in my opinion, based on what we do as a business, it's on point. So, if that's helpful or not. Um, but it is it's a good quote in my opinion.

That is helpful. Thank you. Um, any you have a comment? As a former purchasing person for another city, I have a real problem with not getting anybody else on the RFP because we had the prevailing wage. I think we would have gotten more response had it said no prevailing wage requirement. And in my opinion, we really just need to go out and see if the other people will bid. Just a little note, when I was on the budget committee many moons ago, they had a contract with a company and they had not gone out to bid and I said, "No, you need to go out to bid and see if they are really the lowest." They did. We did go out to bid with the city riverbank and we ended up saving $5,000. So, I think we need to put out a good RFP. Plus, if we're doing it quarterly, you should be able to get the RFP out and responses back within three months. That's my opinion. Does the city have chemicals to the right chemicals to handle the pest control until we went through this proc if we went through this process again?

So, we do do pest control at our parks. The city staff does or I pause back up. Grover does it for us. Um, we do have staff that are certified and trained to apply pesticides. So, I mean, it could just additional staff time that not counted for. So, I mean, but that's something we could look into and explore. Um, I just need to confirm with those that are certified to do that. So, staff time, the additional chemicals, do we have the permitting to carry some of the chemicals that we would need? Um, I'm not familiar with that. Uh, Council Member Cal said we do have staff that are certified to apply. And then Grover, what do you think they would charge additionally to service those 14 buildings intermittently at a one time?

Yeah, that's a question that we'll we'll ask Grover as part of their contract with their lawn care services is that so it's all bundled up. So it's kind of hard to say, well separated like here's what it is to the pesticides for Castleberg Park or what it is over here. So um so I mean there's options out there we can do intermittently where it's like okay well if we have a a call from there's there's pest in this one building, we can take care of that one time during intermittently. Um, so that's an option too. Thank you.

Um, your comment was helpful, I think, because I was kind of torn between both. But so if they if D is the one that um responded to the RFP, came to the preven meeting and has had subsequent conversations with you, it makes me feel comfortable that they would be a good partner in the long term for the three-year contract. So, I would be okay going with them. um and not having the labs or not having our staff having to step up and do that or I don't even know if Grover would um do that outside of the lawn care services and landscaping services for individual buildings but um I am open to whatever the council wants to consider and have a strong opinion. Yeah. Any thoughts? Logan, mayor, council member, staff. Um, I just want I think that we should probably resubmit that out with the prevailing wage off of there. Um, I know that a lot of companies do look at that and they will skip over it because that's just a big increase in their budget and sometimes you just can't make it. So since that was on there prior is what it sounds like right I think we should give that opportunity but shorten the time frame maybe something like that I don't know it's 3 months what you have to have on there or not but maybe shorten that so we can get the pet services started just comment

hi my name's Randy Richardson 3126 Dannis and um I was a general contractor ctor as well and I just it's difficult in these types of situations but because of the lapse of not being able to have a service but I I know that in the long run having more than one estimate is always good business and it's um it just builds trust and with the public thank you online mayor there is no one on Zoom wishing to eight. So my first question would be what's the quickest RFP turnaround we can do?

Uh so the RFP is done. We just got to take out delete section back out ready to go. Um so it's something we'll consult with uh with city staff on what what's the appropriate timeline to have again if that is make it fair and appropriate. We don't want to say RFP's due tomorrow, you know, and so we want to make sure it's something that's fair and equitable for other companies to bid. Okay. So like it could be a couple weeks, three weeks, a month. So, I'll talk with staff on that tomorrow on what what is appropriate. And it does sound like we have a backup plan in the intermittent in that window. Uh, we could find something. Yeah, sounds like there's options there. Okay. So, I'm leaning towards option two at I'd like to go ahead and make a motion that we do um option two.

I'll second it. Roll call, please. Council member. Yes. Council member Pontel. Yes. Council member call. No. Vice Mayor FSY. Yes. Mayor Hernandez. Yes. Motion passes 41.

Thanks, Michael. Uh, item 112, resolution approving the memorandum of understanding between city riverbank and riverbank bin management employees association for the term of January 126 to December 3128 regarding the salaries, benefits, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment. Thank you, mayor. Um, tonight I will be presenting this item. It's the again the Riverbank Mid Management Employee Association. Um, we are asking the council to uh adopt um a resolution. The city of Riverbank and Riverbank Mid Management Employees Association have mut mutually agreed upon a tenative agreement through good faith negotiations and are respectfully asking for your approval at this time. Um the key terms of the agreement and fi financial impact are as follows. So the term of the agreement is for a three-year agreement beginning January 1st of 2026 through December 31st of 2028. Um, we have agreed upon cost of living increases in year 1, which is the first full pay period of January 2026 for 4%. Year two would be 4% and year three would be 3%. In addition to the wage increases, each employee will receive two lumpsum payments, 1,000 in the first full pay period of January 2026 and 1,000 in the first full pay period of July 26. Deferred compensation. The city will match up to $125 per pay period when the employee contributes at least $125. This is an increase from $100 to $125 per pay period. Our insurance opt out. The city will increase the monthly payment for employees who choose to opt

out of city provided health plan from $250 to 350. Life insurance. The city has agreed to um city paid life insurance increasing from 50,000 to 100,000. Midmanagement leave increase leave hours from 48 hours to 56 hours with no cash out options. Certification pay. The city does encourage professional development of employees and encourages employees to obtain certifications relevant to the employees current position. Subject to prior approval, the city shall provide an additional two and a half percent incentive pay for only one of um the certifications. Uh we are adding to our current list qualified applicator certifi certificate, qualified applicator license and notary public commission longevity pay. The longevity pay schedule will change with the addition of a five-year tier. So we are adding 1.5% on the five-year tier um which then uh increases each of the following tiers. So there is a maximum longevity pay for employees um to receive of 11.5%. Safety boot allowance. We are adding the ability for our probation employees to be eligible to receive the safety boot allowance during their sixmonth probationary period. The maximum reimbursement for the safety boots will increase from 250 to 350. Employees may purchase safety boots through a city account with prior approval and office employees are not eligible for this benefit. Equity adjustments. the city um agrees to meet and confer with the mid management unit with the completion of our citywide classification compensation

study that is currently um in the ending phases of that process. Compens compensatory time eligible for two cash outs in the first full pay periods of June and December and cash out hours have increased from 40 hours to 50 hours. tuition reimbursement um increase of tuition reimbursement from 1500 to 2500 and we will be including certifications and trade schools and this is subject to prior approval. Sickle leaf cash out is currently at 9 hours and we've agreed to increase it to 25 hours. one cash out each fiscal year provided the employee has a minimum of 200 hours of sick leave and not used more than 40 hours in the prior fiscal year. There were also some uh language changes in theou um so we did make changes on our on call compensation. This language was updated to match our current practice. Um, in our PERS retirement, we updated the clarification regarding the employees portion. In our employee assistant program, there was clarification language regarding um how many uses. Um, in our sick leave, it was updated to match recent changes in state law. And then bereavement, the same updated to match recent changes in state law. So, the financial impact for year one associated with these items um comes to a total cost um of $168,176. And with that, I will answer any questions the council might have.

Thank you. Any comments or questions from council? I just want to thank the team for doing these negotiations. you. Um, any public comment. Sorry, I'm back. Olivia Rambula again. Um, mayor, council members. No, I think it's good that we should take care of our employees here in the city, take care of us, and I think that you should say yes and improve it. So, thank you. Anything online? Mayor, there is no one on Zoom wishing to speak.

We will bring it back to council. Any comments or a motion? I will make a motion to approve uh item 11.2. I'll second. Thank you. Roll call. Council member Odiva. Yes. Council member Pimento, yes. Council member Call, yes. Vice Mayor Fy, yes. Mayor Hernandez, yes. Motion passes 5-0.

You Thank you. All right. Stuff report. Thank you, mayor. Um, wait, I have a piece of paper. Um, just a couple reminders for the public. Um, our annual Riverbank Christmas parade will will take place this Saturday, December 13th, beginning at 5:30 p.m. in downtown Riverbank. Following the conclusion of the parade, we will hold our Christmas tree lighting ceremony, and Santa will be available for photos with families. In addition, the annual downtown Christmas craft fair will be held the same day from 3 pm to 8:00 pm. The craft fair will feature a variety of local vendors, live entertainment, and special guest appearances from costumed princess characters to enhance the familyfriendly atmosphere. We also have our Riverbank polar bear plunge that will take place on Wednesday, January 1st at the Riverbank Community Pool from 12:00 p.m. noon to 2:00 p.m. This annual event invites participants to kick off the new year with a refreshing swim and washing away the old year, beginning a new 2026. Participants will receive an event medal along with hot soup and hot chocolate following the plunge to help them warm up. Registration fee is $5 and tickets may be purchased online in advance or at the gate on the day of the event. Um, and then just a note of reminder, city offices will be closing for our holidays beginning on uh Monday, December 22nd through January 2nd. So, uh, we would reopen on Monday, January 5th. And that's all I have.

Thank you, Vice Mayor. Thank you, Mayor. Unfortunately, I will be out of town, out of the state for December, but I hope that anybody and everybody can come to enjoy the parade because I am really sorry that I am going to miss it and the craft show. Um, but I do wish everybody a merry Christmas, a happy new year, and please be safe and be nice to each other. Thank you. That's from Thank you.

Thank you. So, um, so the last couple days I've been having some discussions with several parents. Um, a few of them showed up today in discussions of the, uh, the tot time. Uh, a lot of the parents kind of voiced, uh, you know, alternative uh, ways to kind of save the program. Uh, other options would be maybe doing a once a month pop-up style. Uh, a lot of the parents even offer to volunteer to kind of offset the cost. um it's some were willing to pay a higher fee. Um if you kind of compare it locally here, it's it's very affordable. So even increase it would still be affordable. Um so um if I think as a council, those would be some of the best investments, right? Is for our youth is for the kids. Those uh ages three that are going to be in that they're going to just kind of fall short of where the state programs at uh and what's kind of offered out there. Um so I would like to either bring it as a referral or if I you know if there's majority uh that would support at least bringing it back to council as an agenda so we can have a further discussion as to you know do we want to continue t time uh amend it you know or just fully fund it from general fund just kind of discuss the options and and see kind of what's out there. Um thank you Olivia for being here. Uh I would like to invite the entire community. I know it's a Riverbank Chamber event. We're doing White Elephant, but it was, you know, that that invite was for everybody, whether you're a business, a resident, or none of the above. Just come out. Uh it's $15 gift. Just kind of exchanging it. Meet some businesses, meet, you know, whoever, you know, just kind of, you know, mingle with us, mingle with the chamber, and kind of see uh the businesses that they support and all the all the work that they're doing. Um so it'll be at uh 5300 Claus Building 18. Um that's tomorrow, 5:30. um December 1st in in kind of preparation for uh our feas uh yeah so December 1st uh kind of in preparation

for next week's feasibility study kickoff meeting um I met with uh our director of public works uh just kind of update on our wastewater treatment system right we had a kind of we got hit there pretty hard with that with that weather um so I'm looking forward to uh attending the meeting uh it's going to be December 16th at 9:00 a.m. just kind of want to make sure that every option is kind of thoroughly evaluated there like the comment that was made on Zoom, you know, including adding additional pawns. So, right, so we want to make sure that everything is looked at fairly uh and appropriately. Uh so, next week I'll also be meeting I've been doing quarterly meetings with the Metis just kind of getting updates out there uh as far as what how their project is kind of uh moving forward plus all of the tenants that are coming and going. Um, so as as a lot of you know, um, just you know, showing up in two, three months, a lot a lot of things kind of changed. So I'll be going out there uh getting some updates um on how all of that's kind of progressing and I'll kind of share that uh on my social media there. Um, I will be out of the state, actually out of the country December 28th. I'll be back on the 4th. So, I won't be doing the polar bear plunge, but I'll be out there uh plunging in Honduras and Bise, Mexico area. Uh so, happy holidays. Merry Christmas to everybody. Uh and then 2026, I'm kind of working on my uh first meet and greet. So, it'll be in February. I want to do it at Hutcherson Park. Uh we've been doing a lot of work with uh kind of like the trespassing there, just kind of informing residents there. So, so I want to do uh a meet and greet Hutchinson Park. It'll be in February. I'd love to connect with the chief there so we can get some flyers going and share that information so if if you see some stuff that shouldn't be happening out there uh and then just come come chat with me about anything and everything. So, happy holidays again. See you guys soon.

Thank you, Council Member Pimento. Thank you, Mayor. Christmas feast. No veteran should go without a meal. If you know someone in need, call Shirley at 209-281-5170 before December 15th. I too want to thank Winnie and Lucky House for feeding the Sierra House for Thanksgiving. That was a a great thing for the community to come together and help one another. And also um this coming Toys for Tots coming up on Saturday with Darlene. We look forward to having Santa out there and taking photos. and I want to wish everyone a merry Christmas and be safe out there. Thank you, Council Member McCll.

I'm going to piggyback a little bit on what you said about Sierra House. So, I have a lot of information on Sierra House for November and for year to date. For a lot of you, for those who do don't know, the gentlemen who live at the Sierra House actually help maintain the day use facility. So, in November, I want to give you those stats for the use. 155 showers were taken and 166 meals were provided. Some of these numbers may be duplicated because people visit the Sierra House uh the days facility more than once a week. There are 97 men and 59 women who used uh the showers and the meals for Thanksgiving with Lucky House. They provided 28 meals and and served them. 32 meals were handed out additionally. Then for the whole year, year to date, we had 58 new folks admitted to the HMIS system. 53 of 58 of those people were experiencing homelessness. 34 were men and 24 were women. And then I do want to reinforce that we do have folks who still continue to use the facility since 2024. So we do have um people who still use it. And then last week I attended my project resolve committee meeting and that was a lot of fun but I was not made to be in law enforcement. I can tell you that right now. Uh we went through a forced option simulator, a traffic stop, and a deescalation moment with our probation department. So for me, it was just the quick thinking that our law enforcement has to do. They have to make decisions based on the training that they've been provided and some of it is really keeping themselves safe as well. So huge shout out to our law enforcement because I had no idea what to do on the traffic stop. And I was standing there and the driver had a gun. I was on the passenger side and my passenger ran out of the car and the only thing I could think of is, "Oh, I'm just going to shoot him while he's running away." But that is not what

you do. Okay. So, uh it's it was really eyeopening that you have to think that fast. So, uh that was a lot of fun. And then a Medus, we attended uh council member Gerbe and I attended their holiday lunchon today. And so, I wanted to thank Jarrett and Drew for hosting us. And then I actually had an opportunity to connect with the CEO, Eric, which was awesome. Uh 1211 Santaas Latino Chamber is going to be out bell ringing with Salvation Army at Hobby Lobby on Mckenry Avenue from 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Last year when I did the bell ringing, our group raised the most amount of money. I will not be there this Saturday, but it doesn't mean you can't make Santaas Latino Chamber one of the biggest providers for that event. And then the polar plunge. I am going to be freezing again this year. Last year we uh jumped for foster love this year. I'm actually jumping for Children's Crisis Center of Santaas County. This is an organiza organization that I hold near and dear to me. I actually learned to tie my shoes there. So I'm really excited to give back to them all these years later. And I'll be jumping with Karen again. And then we actually added Brock Condit, who is vice chair of the committee for Children's Crisis Center. And then lastly, holiday season is upon us and our roadways with the construction and additional shoppers. Uh we're extra busy, so I just want to remind everyone to be patient and aware of your surroundings. And merry Christmas.

Thank you. um our youth council just um as the one who sits there with them um every meeting um is focusing on fundraising through the local businesses like Red Robin um Chipotle um Pend Express. So um keep an eye out on their social medias primarily for when they're going to be out there. Uh their hope is to fundra for an end of school year um youth social. So, they kind of want to um make it more of a social setting to introduce themselves to their peers um and to other youth in the city. Um for SANCOG, I I keep mentioning it. It's really important for me to uh get them to a place help them get to a place where they're um back to normaly um in their business of providing funds for transportation here in the city and regionally. Um at this moment we're going through the process of uh doing recruitment for an executive permanent executive director um and uh I'm sitting on the ad hoc committee to do that. So, we're going through um some pre-in process, some um actual interview process and the like. So, there's a lot going on there um along with a normal business and that meeting is um tomorrow night. Um, this Thursday I am hosting a uh nonprofit lunchon. And so, um, I worked with staff closely to create a list of nonprofits that, um, do provide services in the city and others who we would like to um, see here in the area. Uh, it's more casual and a way for us to break bread together and to learn. I believe you're going to join me um, Council Member Call on Thursday. And so we have about 40 nonprofits that have RSVPd. Um, and I think it'll be a great

conversation and we're excited to bring back um some information around that. And I want to say happy anniversary to Council Member Call and uh Vice Mayor FSY. Uh, one year ago tomorrow we were sworn in. Um, and uh, I don't know those those things are always sentimental to me. So happy holidays everybody. The year flew by. Uh we're going to close session. Uh just one item 13.1 liability claims pursuant to government code 54961 claimment Sydney Ningale agency claim against city of riverbank and we're is there any public comment on this item? Anything online?

There is no one on Zoom wishing to speak. All right we're going to join to close session.

All right, we are back from close session. Um, item 14.1, report from close session. Item 13.1, uh, the claim has been denied. And uh our next city council meeting unanimously, our next regular city council meeting will be on Tuesday, January 203, 2026. So happy new year everybody. This meeting is now adjourned. See you.