Economic Development Committee - Regular Meeting

order it is three o'clock and we'll go ahead and call the economic development committee to order first thing is we have our public comment item number one if you can go ahead and play the recording

Public comment is now open for this item, available in both English and Spanish. Call 951-826-8686 and follow the prompts to access the meeting in either language. To request to speak, press star 9. You can also join via Zoom. The meeting ID for both languages can be found on the agenda.

Okay, and what I'm going to do is go on to discussion calendar item number two. And we have recommended city council adopt a resolution establishing a capital investment incentive program. And we have Eben Webb and Jessica Gonzalez to present.

Well, good afternoon, honorable committee. I'm Jessica Gonzalez, senior project manager in economic development. And I'm joined today by with my colleague, Evan Webb, project manager. And we're delighted to provide here for your consideration a capital investment incentive program. This program is a statewide program that serves as a mechanism to attract manufacturing firms. And today we are pleased to share how this specific program can strategically support Riverside's business attraction efforts. So our goal is to share an overview of the Capital Investment Incentive Program, which we'll call CIP for short. We will highlight how the CIP can support attraction of key manufacturing industries and encourage their investment here in Riverside. And we would request that the committee here recommend that council adopt the corresponding resolution that is necessary to allow us to include this program as part of our business attraction strategies. So ACIP, as mentioned, is a statewide business attraction incentive to support communities across California to be better equipped to attract manufacturers, bring in investment, jobs, and essentially strengthening our local economies. The way it works is that eligible manufacturers that meet specific criteria that we will cover shortly, they receive a partial property tax abatement from the city. These rebates are in effect for up to 15 years. And this partial property tax rebate is provided from the city's portion of the property tax that the city receives, which is above the qualifying threshold. In return for this partial tax rebate and to offset the city's financial incentive, the manufacturer is then responsible for making economic investments in Riverside, which would be outlined in the agreement with that manufacturer. The agreement, which we will detail shortly, would include noted capital investments, specific hiring and job creation commitments that would demonstrate the manufacturer's investment in Riverside. In terms of eligibility, the state law requires that manufacturers meet qualifying criteria. First, as per the original legislation, manufacturers must either make an initial capital investment of $150 million or exceed $150 million in assessed property values. Now in 2024, the state did pass AB 2922, which lowered the threshold. So it now makes the SIP available to manufacturers exceeding 25 million in assessed property values. But with this lower threshold are also additional job requirements. This includes detailed information from the manufacturer to the city on the job and compensation data, a targeted hiring program that they must develop, and also a commitment to hire local within Riverside. Additionally, manufacturers must fall within specific industry subsectors, including aerospace, biotech, clean transportation, which of course align very well with Riverside's areas of excellence. A manufacturer must also submit a written request to the city and enter into community services agreement. This agreement would include job creation numbers, a plan specifying the number of jobs to be created by the manufacturer with higher wages than the state average. The agreement also requires that the manufacturer make annual community service payments that would be equal to 25% of the rebate that they would receive from the city. So the sip can only be offered after the manufacturer and the city enter into a community services agreement that outlines the economic performance responsibilities and the financial commitments that would be made on behalf of the company. Now, as noted here on the screen, there are various jurisdictions throughout California that have adopted SIPs as part of their business attraction strategies. Adopting a SIP would add another strategic tool to Riverside's business attraction efforts. It would strengthen our ability to be able to compete for large-scale manufacturing investments while being very intentional about job creation expectations. Next, my colleague will share additional benefits of a SIP in Riverside.

Thank you, Jessica. So why a SIP? Adopting a SIP enhances Riverside's competitiveness for large-scale manufacturing attraction. It supports attraction retention efforts across all wards, particularly targeted advanced industries. The program promotes high-quality job creation through enforceable commitments and overall aligns with city goals around innovation, economic resilience, and long-term growth. The draft resolution formally establishes the program but does not approve of any specific incentive. It authorizes staff to notify the Governor's Office of Business Development as required by state law. And future incentives would only be granted through individual community service agreements brought to Council for separate approval. This ensures full transparency and allows case-by-case evaluation. There's no fiscal impact associated with adopting the resolution itself. Future agreements may involve partial property tax abatement, but only in exchange for significant capital investment and job creation commitments. Staff will ensure that any proposed incentive is only offered when it secures a net positive benefit for the city. This includes jobs, economic activity, and long-term competitiveness. The city's fiscal exposure is limited because SIPP payments are only used if the company pays for its community services fee. Delinquency automatically disqualifies the company from receiving funds and triggers recapture provisions. So today, staff respectfully requests that the Economic Development Committee recommend City Council approval of the SIP resolution. This action enables the program to be used for future qualifying projects, while specific incentives would return to Council under separate action. We will prepare program guidelines to ensure SIP use remains strategic, fiscally responsible, and aligned with community benefits. Thank you very much for your time, committee. Jessica and I are available to answer any questions that you might have.

All right. Thank you, Evan. And thank you, Jessica, for that presentation. Do any of my colleagues have any questions or comments? I'll make some comments, I guess. Oh, yeah. There's no public comment for this right now, so we'll go ahead and go to our discussion. Thank you for bringing this to the committee. This is obviously one of the tools in the belt that we need, and I think before we couldn't really have it because $150 million, we didn't really have any projects being proposed in the $150 million range. And so I'm glad that the requirements have dropped down to $25 million. But if you look at the counties and the cities who already have this, Palmdale, City of Long Beach, That's where all the aerospace companies are going to, and that's where all the big development's happening. So I'm really, really glad we have another tool in our belt to attract this investment. So I'll go ahead and make a motion for approval. Second. All right. Do we have any no's? Nope, approve? Right, we can't use that, so go ahead. Yeah, we'll go ahead and, I guess we can do it. Member? Yes. Vice Chair? Yes. All right, yes as well, so it passes unanimously. Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, we'll move on to our next item, which is item number three, Code Enforcement Operations Processes Practices Discussion, and we have Chris Pullen to present for us.

Good afternoon, honorable chair Robillard, members of the committee. I am your code enforcement manager, Chris Pullian, and I will be discussing our processes, operations, and practices of the code enforcement program. Our mission is to protect the public health, safety, and welfare through education and outreach. Our efforts help to preserve property values and the quality of our neighborhoods. When it comes to our processes, our goal is voluntary compliance through education. And when that proves to be unsuccessful, we can issue notices, citations, administrative civil penalties, and cost recovery methods. The citation fine amount is $100 per violation for the first citation, $500 for the second citation, and $1,000 per violation for the third and subsequent citations. Administrative civil penalties is a process that can assess up to $1,000 per day per violation until the violations are corrected. We have eight officers that are assigned geographical areas. The officers are responsible for both residential and commercial properties in their area. The areas are modeled after the PD structure and have further been broken down in consideration of the number of cases received. We have structured assignments in this manner to focus on efficiency because we found that officers can address more cases by working specific areas rather than using other methods. Usually inspections are conducted by one officer, but other officers can assist when there are safety concerns or large-scale inspections that require extra help. We also have two officers that work our receivership cases and cases that require an extraordinary amount of time. For the receivership cases, they work closely with the city attorney's office while conducting inspections and preparing declarations that will be used to file court actions. Our three senior officers provide oversight of the daily operations. As mentioned earlier, our officers attempt to obtain voluntary compliance through education. Part of this education process is attempting personal contact. In all of our customer service interactions, we strive to be professional, informative, and helpful. In most cases, the officers are able to issue notices at the time of the inspection, and Riverside Municipal Code Section 1.17 states three ways that notices can be issued. The first is personal service, mailing to the responsible party, or posting at the property. A notice is not issued unless the officer has the necessary evidence to demonstrate a violation exists. This slide shows common violations that our officers address. Some of the violations include green pools, homeless encampments, trash debris, unpermitted construction, vendors, and zoning violations. There's many more, but I'm not going to go through each of them right here. However, this chart does demonstrate several of our most common topics. It shows a breakdown of our current open cases right now. Our public nuisance cases make up the majority of cases at approximately 38%. Public nuisance cases include trash, debris, and landscaping issues. Building cases which consist of unpermitted construction comprise approximately 19% of our cases, substandard housing 7%, homeless issues 5%, and vendor cases approximately 3.5%. Our officers work a wide variety of cases and often work with different departments during the course of a case. Over the past 18 months, six new officers have joined our team. We're very proud of the team we are creating, and we're focused on training and professional development. Our officers complete required training, which includes PC 832 certification. This certification is a 40-hour post-training that includes criminal justice, laws of arrest, and report writing. They also complete HR training, such as anti-harassment, ethics training, and cybersecurity training. New officers complete a robust training program that includes topics such as building and housing enforcement, public nuisance investigation, the street vendor program, case investigation and documentation, and the administrative hearing process, just to name a few. A complete list of the topics covered during the training period is on pages three and four of the staff report. Throughout their time with the city, our staff also participates in ongoing training opportunities with KCO, which is the State Association for Code Enforcement Officers. We also participate through CIVICA law training and city human resources training, which includes leadership and supervisory development and other training opportunities to help officers stay current on updated laws and practices. I mentioned that our officers take different courses through CASIO, and one of our officers, Senior Officer Brian McDougal is here somewhere. Oh, he's right there.

He moved on me.

He recently competed against several officers in the region and was elected to the state board for our region for KCO. It's a huge accomplishment. I just wanted to give Brian a shout out, tell him congratulations. We look forward to his representation for Riverside and the region. Our supervisors provide daily oversight and assistance to our officers. They routinely review cases to ensure processes and procedures are being followed and offer guidance throughout the enforcement process. Additionally, they answer questions from both reporting and responsible parties. They also review all cases where an appeal is received to ensure due process were given and that the burden of proof was met. Our goals are to be transparent and consistent and our supervisors work to ensure these goals are being met. Senate Bill 946 became effective on January 1, 2019. This law decriminalized street vending and was intended to promote entrepreneurship and economic opportunities. In July 2020, the City Council amended RMC 5.38 to bring the City's Municipal Code into compliance with state law. RMC 5.38 was further amended in late 21 to provide revisions specific to the City of Riverside. For a sidewalk vendor to be permitted and operate in the city, certain steps must be taken. Sidewalk vendors must obtain a Riverside County health permit and a California seller's permit. The health permit ensures inspections are conducted and that safe food handling practices and sanitation are in compliance with health and safety codes. The next step is to obtain a city business tax and city sidewalk vending permit, which then authorizes a sidewalk vendor to comply with the regulations and operate within the city. There are currently 15 permitted sidewalk vendors. This is down from 37 permitted vendors in 2024 and 20 permitted vendors in 2025. Since 2024, over 100 citations have been issued to sidewalk vendors, with the majority of violations being operating without county or city permits, obstructing walkways, or being in an unpermitted location. When code enforcement makes a contact, a warning and informational brochure is given. During the contact, the code is explained as well as the opportunity to obtain necessary permits to successfully operate their business. Repeated violations could result in citations being issued. Of the issued citations, only a small amount are paid. This slide shows the number of citations that have been issued and paid since 2024. In 2024, 22 citations were issued and approximately 36 of those citations were paid. 38 citations were issued in 2025 with about 13% being paid and only 7% of the 43 citations in 2026 have been paid. Our next two slides show the total number of cases for the past three years with the breakdown by topic. The number of new cases for 2026 is on pace to match the 2024 numbers. Here we see a breakdown of cases by topic since 2024. The public nuisance cases comprised 42% to 45% of our cases during this time period. Homeless cases from 15% to over 20% of our cases. Building and housing cases, 8% to 9.5%. And vendor cases, 3.5% to 5% of our cases. This slide shows a comparison of open cases versus sidewalk vendor-related cases. The actual numbers changed slightly since the report was prepared, but the sidewalk vendor cases remain approximately 3.5% of our total open cases. Staff reached out to other jurisdictions to try to find out their approach to enforcing sidewalk vendor cases and to research best practices. This table shows responses received from 10 jurisdictions. All but one utilize citations, most confiscate perishables, and four have a dedicated team to address this type of violation. The percentage of vendor-related cases varies a bit, but most are around the 5% range. There are also two cities that are utilizing contract service for their vendor enforcement. We also asked how many utilize body worn cameras and found that two currently use them and one other city is in the process of developing a process to provide them to their officers. Now that we went through the processes and procedures that we follow and also the recap of the sidewalk vendor ordinance, staff is requesting input from the committee regarding a wide variety of topics that are critical to code enforcement operations. This input will then be utilized to create a report for discussion by the full council. The first is appearance and identification. We'd like to establish standards for uniforms, identification, and other visible indicators. Hours of operation and service availability. We wish to evaluate the current hours and consider expanded, staggered, or flexible schedules. Body-worn cameras. To evaluate the use of body-worn cameras to enhance officer safety, transparency, accountability, and the documentation of field interactions. to discuss a proactive versus reactive enforcement, to establish a model that balances proactive enforcement with response to community complaints rather than relying exclusively on either approach, to develop a consistent system for prioritizing cases based on health and safety risk, severity of the violation, and impacts on neighborhoods and businesses, An enforcement philosophy and the tools. To evaluate the progression of enforcement tools with the goal of achieving compliance efficiently and proportionally. Different violations may warrant different approaches rather than a one size fits all enforcement model. Performance measures and transparency. Establish measurable outcomes for the program such as response and case resolution times, number of citations issued, open versus closed cases, and to determine how results should be reported to leadership and the community. cost recovery and fiscal sustainability, to evaluate the full cost of the code enforcement team, including staffing, technology, vehicles, equipment, abatement, training, and legal support, and to identify appropriate opportunities for cost recovery where legally permissible. And finally, resources and funding to identify the staffing, equipment, technology, training, and funding necessary to implement the desired level of service, including options for phased implementation and leveraging existing resources. At this time, staff recommends the Economic Development Committee receive and file this report, provide feedback on current economic code enforcement processes, and to provide direction to continue researching best practices and return with additional information and recommendations for City Council consideration. This concludes the presentation. I'm available to answer any questions. Also here are Senior Code Enforcement Officer Brian McDougall, Deputy City Attorney Tom Chisholm, and our Community and Economic Development Director Miranda Evans if you have questions for them.

Okay, thank you for that presentation. I'll go ahead and go to public comment.

Public comment is now open for this item, available in both English and Spanish. Call 951-826-8686 and follow the prompts to access the meeting in either language. To request to speak, press star 9. You can also join via Zoom. The meeting ID for both languages can be found on the agenda.

All right, we have no callers online. We do have one caller in chambers if you want to sit down, Chris. We'll have Eddie Torres, please.

Hello, good afternoon. Eddie Torres, Policy Director with the Yellen Coalition for Immigrant Justice. Thank you for this presentation, staff. Thank you, council members, for hearing this issue. It's been a long time coming to talk about what we can do to improve court enforcement in the city. I've had the privilege to talk to the mayor's team and council members here about this issue. We work directly with street vendors. In the report, I'll talk about the report a little bit. We highly discourage cities from contracting out their services to third parties. There are instances where these third party court enforcement agents take things a little bit further, as some examples can show from this city as well, from those two enforcement agents. So highly discourage, again, the use of third party agents to do your work. I think there's a lot of transparency issues and accountability problems that come along the way when you contract those services out. For example, we're in current litigation with one of those agencies in the city of Fontana for a lot of violations, constitutional rights being violated left and right for street vendors when it comes to the search and seizure and of their property. So I want to highlight that as a point of emphasis to think outside the box a little bit here and not look to the solution of hiring from a third party contractor. The other thing is we're also conducting our own survey of vendors in the city of Riverside. So I would love to work with you all once we have a full list of folks that have been impacted by not only those two agents that are highlighted on those reports, but at large, right? In the report that the city prepared there's a lot of citations that are given out and only a few are actually paid out right I think there's a way where we can work together on this issue because when it comes to getting a permit from the county if you've gone to the county's website and you looked at the material that's out there to learn about how to get a permit from the county health department quite frankly the material is not welcoming at all it's actually pretty racist if you look at the actual language of the material Very discouraging for a vendor to see that and then say yeah Let me go ahead and send this information over to the county right? Language like are you sure that their street vendor cart is as clean as your home? Things like that along the along the side of that so again from the vendors perspective There's barriers of entry when it comes to the county to get those permits to then be fully licensed to work in the city of Riverside So there's an educational component that needs to be emphasized here, right? And like I said, we've been talking to the city and working with the council members and the mayor to bring this to fruition. And once we compile the list of vendors that have been directly impacted, we would love to host some workshops with the guys with the county so that we can all get on the same page and make sure that we tackle this issue of enforcement and bring some resources of true economic development for these vendors, which is something that's missing from this report. I'll just leave it at that. This report is mostly about enforcement, and it's less about economic development.

Thank you. Okay. That will now close public comment, and I'll go to my colleagues here. And I see Steve Hemingway is grabbing the microphone.

I'll jump in and just say thank you for the report. I think Council Member Mill even mentioned it a while back that he rode along with one of the officers recently. I did as well. And there is not a shortage of things to do. I think there is constantly something from start to finish, at least in the ride that I was on. I guess my question is with all of those sort of things to respond to, what I noticed and actually mentioned to the officer is I see now why you simply are responding to requests that come in rather than identifying or attempting to address every issue that you encounter along the way, because we probably would have made it about four blocks that day if we did that. But I'm wondering, is there a way, does each So what we saw is a lot of – it seemed like a lot of manual had to be writing and doing different things, entering – does every violation that we see in this long list of things, weeds, graffiti, garage sales, things like – do they all require the same – sort of process for identifying the violation or some, could some be done in a different way that would kind of move it faster? I'm thinking like weeds, for example, that one seems like you could identify it and send something and you wouldn't have to be there as long, but certainly for unpermitted buildings, you might have to look and go in. Have we noticed when we're looking at best practices that different methods for addressing certain violations?

Yeah, good question. One thing that's being considered is, like you mentioned, certain types of violations could require maybe just a notice being sent out. An alleged violation has been received. If you have this condition on your property, please correct it. We will be reinspecting after this date, and then that would require one inspection instead of two. Like you mentioned the building issues Those are things that we would have to see to see if it rises to the level of needing a permit on a lot of those cases We do work with our building department to identify to see if it does rise to that level We can usually tell if it's over a certain size that would require a permit certain additions would require but as far as how it's being built that would require assistance with building but yes answer your question there are certain violations that we have been exploring going to different practices in june like a notice based on the complaint before having to go out yeah it just that way it sounds like maybe um

especially having to be a jack-of-all-trades, if you will, learning and knowing how these violations work, officers could spend their time really on the more detailed, specific types of activities rather than going out just simply to redo the same sort of paperwork for one and then have to come back. But that sounds like you're doing that. That's great. And, yeah, I support the continued research. I think that was our task today, to continue to look at best practices and then come back with what you found effective. always looking for more effective and efficient ways of doing it and certainly we heard from a community partner that is willing to have conversation about how we can also better address the the vendor the vendors and so I think all that sounds good to me so thank you for your work and we'll look forward to what we hear next thank you all right thank you I think councilmember Hernandez wanted to speak

Hello, Chris. Thank you. I want to just mention that I appreciate your team and all the services that you guys provide because I know my ward, you guys are incredibly busy. I did want to ask some questions and see if you had some answers. As I know you mentioned earlier that there was a drop in the amount of street vendors that were permitted over the years. Is there any indication as to why that may be it's dropped so significantly? This would just be guessing on my part.

My guess would be that when you couple that with the number of citations that were paid, I think that the word is getting out that the citations... How do I say this? If the penalty is a citation, maybe your confiscation of food, you could still make more money just doing it on the side without getting the permits. And I think that's a lot of what we're seeing. A lot of people came in and were doing it after getting the permits. I understand after hearing from the caller that maybe they're dissuaded a little bit by the county process. And if they don't get the county process taken care of, then they can't get the city site. So that could be a part of it too. And just as far as what he was saying, as far as a workshop, we definitely welcome some kind of a collaboration. Our goal is to educate everybody, educate the vendors to the program, get them licensed and working in our city. And if we can do that hand in hand with them, we're definitely willing to do that and want to do that. It just makes it safer for the community. It makes it easier for the officers. We know that the people there are permitted and operating in a professional manner per code. And then we can just move on to the next cases like Council Member Hemingway said we have enough cases, so that would be great if we could do that.

Thank you. In the future, I don't know if there's any way that perhaps maybe we could gather some data, some information as to maybe why the drop in individuals who had permits and then dropped so significantly over the years. The other question I had was, When it comes to code enforcement and then working with street vendors, is there a uniform? Is it the same as other code enforcement officers throughout the city? How does that work?

We don't have a specific team dedicated to the sidewalk vendors, so all the officers do it. They basically operate in the same manner as they do any other case, which is education first. So we inform them of the violation. We hand out a brochure like this telling them the steps they need to take to get the permit. explain the codes that regulate. So once you get a permit, you're allowed to set up in these locations, these hours, and things like that. But we also direct them on how to get a permit so they can operate legally in the city. So we do that consistently across the board. It's education first, and then after the repeated calls, that's when we move up to citations.

Right. But do they usually approach them in plain clothes? Is there some sort of uniform involved with code enforcement when they approach these individuals?

It's the regular standard uniform, which is the city polo shirt with the logo on one side and code enforcement on the other side. And the vehicles will have the city seal on the side.

Okay. And I ask that because I have spoken to some of the street vendors and one of the major issues that they deal with is individuals approaching them and extorting them for money posing as individuals from the city. So I ask that just for that to be taken into consideration and maybe there's some ways we can find to address that so that they know for a fact that these are individuals from the city that are approaching them and not giving the opportunity for other individuals to perhaps extort them for money.

Right. All of our officers, when we make our public contact, whether it's at a door or a sidewalk vendor, we identify ourselves, provide our identification business card if we have it, tell them who we are. And like I said, we have the uniform. We explain everything to them. So I understand that does happen. Sometimes we've heard that at residences also with contractors. So we've heard that. But we do identify ourselves, and our shirts are identified also.

And I think going earlier to what you mentioned as being open to some education presentations, programs, things like that, I think that would go a long way to help make people understand what these individuals look like and how they would identify themselves when they approach would probably be helpful as well. I know that body cams was one of the items on the list. So that's something that I think would probably help keep from, you know, situations that have previously happened in the years from happening moving forward. So I hope that's something that we strongly consider and take a look at when it comes to code enforcement dealing with maybe specifically just in certain situations. Obviously, we don't need a body cam when you approach things about weeds or overgrown weeds or things like that. But in certain situations, maybe perhaps when it comes to interacting with the community, maybe that's something we can definitely take a look at. Okay.

Excuse me, Vice Chair Hernandez, if I may, and Code Enforcement Manager Pullen, Miranda Evans, Community and Economic Development Director. Just wanted to add a clarification to one of your questions, Vice Chair, and state for the record, we do not currently have any vendors on contract with the City of Riverside for vendor enforcement. And we also do not have a sidewalk vendor enforcement team, as Code Enforcement Manager Pullen had shared, that is handled by city staff. And we do not have any third-party vendors conducting this work.

All right. Thank you, Chris. I really appreciate your time and answering all my questions. Thank you.

All right, thank you, Chris. Could you go back one slide that had the topics of discussion? Thank you. So the professional appearance and identification, and, you know, I understand you have eight officers and you haven't broken down by area to kind of coverage. I do think there's something to say about what Councilmember Hemingway mentioned about having areas of specialty because building and safety is a whole thing. You know, you're dealing with that every day. When it comes to street vendors and food permits because there's so many different departments that touch that, it's not just Riverside. It's health department. It's public work, you know. So there's a lot of kind of you get to know some tips and tricks as you kind of get into a certain area and also getting to know the people, getting to know the folks I think is helpful. And so I think that helps bring that awareness and knowledge to Vendors when they say hey, this is the guy I've seen here last time, you know, there's there's some repetition So I know who I'm dealing with here So I think that would be helpful and and you know, you guys can do your own internal to see what's most most efficient, but I think having a you know, people facing versus property facing that kind of, you know, cause people have different people have different people skills. Right. Right. And so if you're having a, someone who's, we did a lot of people work, let's have our officers that have good, good people skills doing that, doing that work. Um, body worn cameras. Um, you know, I, I, I know they can be expensive. Um, but I do see the value because you know, you're showing up, you're the, you're not necessarily the bad guy, but people are not happy when they're talking to code. Yeah. And so, um, it's protection for you guys as well. Um, because, uh, you never know when someone's having a really bad day and you're like, here's your next violation. And they just, you know, get upset. Um, And it's protection for us, it's protection for them, for the individual you're contacting as well. So I do think there's value in the body-worn cameras and looking into that. Hours of operation and service availability. We do know you guys work six days a week, basically. What we've seen is trends of people avoiding the days that you guys are on hours you guys are working. And so I think having a little bit of flexibility there on an as-needed basis can be helpful to kind of address needs and move quickly to address those. The proactive versus reactive enforcement. I can... And this is what I tell community members is that currently right now we're primarily reactive enforcement. Is that correct primarily? Correct.

If we see a life safety issue, then we'll stop and address that proactively. But for the most part, it is reactive.

And I tell people all the time, I said, you know, why is the city picky on me? It's like. well a neighbor or a resident or someone called, that's why you guys are there. It's not because you guys are picking on them. And so I think leaning on the reactive side for a lot of things and then maybe proactive, there's, there's some different scenarios or proactive makes sense. But, um, I think that gives us the, um, knowledge of, Hey, we're, unless it's like you, like you said, it's a health and safety issue. Um, It gives us the approach of, you know, if you're not bothering anyone kind of thing, we're not going to come and hammer you and ruin your day, so to speak. And so I think that's a better approach. Prioritization and triage, absolutely. Not every complaint is equal. There are ones that are time sensitive or urgent. You know, I think we should triage our stuff. I already kind of talked about the geographic assignments, enforcement philosophy and tools. I agree with the education first and getting people into compliance. And unfortunately... You need to have a stick to back up the enforcement because not everyone is going to act in our best interest. So I do think there's that. Performance measures and transparency. I like the report that you give us. This is what's outstanding. This is what's going on. But I would also like a little bit of... you know, on a word specific kind of specific anecdotes of, you know, we all come to you and like, Hey, we have this issue with this code enforcement thing or whatever. And we follow up with you guys, but it only paints us as a very small picture because it's what we're hearing from the community. And usually there's a whole lot of other stuff that's going on in our community that we don't know about. And so if code enforcement can be a little like, Hey, we're seeing a lot of building issues, issues in your with you know and so we can address that in a community conversation or in our newsletter and say hey if you have an unpermitted adu this is what you need to do if you're thinking about building one like this is what you need to do and so it allows us to become advocates for the community of like hey we're starting to see the trend here in this neighborhood let's stop that before it gets gets bigger okay um cost recovery and financial stability you know fiscal sustainability that's always a tough one sometimes depending on what it is so if you have a property to tie to it obviously it's a lot easier than a street vendor in most cases. And one thing I do want to mention is when it comes to street vendors, and like I said, we have multiple entities that touch, that have jurisdiction over this. And, you know, I've heard from a lot of restaurant owners who are like, you know, we're held to this level and it seems like no one else, the street vendors are held at a much lower level of cleanliness and standards. And I just want to say that it's, for equity purposes is to treat everyone fairly and to treat everyone by the same rules. And it's not that, you know, we got to make sure that the health and safety is there. We're not picking on people. It's, you know, you have to make sure that the residents and the people are protected. That's literally what environmental health is for. And so, and also people don't need to know the difference between environmental health County and and Code Enforcement of the City. They are two different animals, two different responsibilities, and that we try our best to work together but they're the county where the city, and sometimes there's not the best communication between both entities. And so that's something I want to focus on. And also just to finally touch on the reason why we're discussing this, Council Member Cervantes was the one who brought this to committee. Unfortunately, she's no longer on the committee, so she wishes she could be here. But I think it's important to, again, The code enforcement officers that were involved in the previous wrongdoings are no longer here at the city. There's been big changes, and I think more proactive effort from us as the code enforcement and from the city to show that we are not pretending it didn't happen. We are saying, yes, it did happen. Here's the positive change that we are doing to make sure it doesn't happen again. I think, you know, like the body-worn camera example is a very important example. Like, it could cost more. It's going to cost us money to implement body-worn cameras. But I think we owe it to the people to have that transparency, to know that we're taking it very seriously, that we don't want to have that kind of same issue again happen in our community. And so that's where, I don't know if...

You want to make a comment? No, when you're done, there's almost one thing I forgot. Thank you for pulling up this list, because one thing I've been trying to connect with the city manager and other staff on is the hours of operation and service availability, I think, is a really, really important thing that we could think about. And here's why I say that. For many of the residents that reach out to us, particularly... After everyone's been home from work, that's when we maybe see the parking issues or on the weekends. That's where you may have parking and noise issues. And wondering if certain days we could stagger teams or hours so that maybe Thursday to Saturday night or Thursday to Sunday, something like that, there's some evening hours that go until 10 or 12. You know, it's probably the worst part of the job when you have to – respond to a noise complaint. But it's also one of the things that we hear from residents that affects their quality of life the most when someone's trying to enjoy their own space and yet someone's not being respectful of that. What you wanna do in your own space, sure, but when it starts to impede in someone else's ability to enjoy their space, that's a problem. And so I think we could get at some of that

just by shifting some hours of operations i know there's some logistical work we'd have to do but i certainly would put that on the high priority list among the other things that the uh the others have mentioned so if we could look at that that would be that's something we could definitely explore while balancing the the hours during the week from people coming in and we can still communicate with different departments and that's one of the issues when we move somebody to the weekends now they're not available to talk to other city staff that they might need to help work their case so you have to find that balance

And thank you for that because, again, when we talked about perhaps specialty spaces, maybe then in fact it would be, you know, if someone's parked illegally, that's a citation. It's pretty, I mean, and maybe it's even parking in a different enforcement. To your point, we'll have to coordinate there. With noise, it might just be, um you know interacting with pdf needed but also a citation in the mailbox that's here we we were here and this is what was happening but um i would appreciate anything because this seems to be one of the one of the big challenges that i think we all experience when it comes to residents frustrated uh with with uh others in the community not uh sort of respecting some of the rules that are in place for noise and things like that so appreciate that thank you

All right. And I'll just ask that when you, cause we've made some suggestions. I know that your plan is to kind of, kind of bring it to council. And I know that councilor Cervantes wanted to speak to that, but I think maybe just briefing the council member cause she's the one who asked for it and unfortunately she couldn't be here. So that'd be helpful before you bring it to council as well. Okay. With that, I'll go ahead. There's no vote on this. Just a discussion, but are we voting just to get input and, Can you go to the next slide, please? Yeah. It's receive and file and provide direction. So I think we did that. You provided direction, yes. Yes. Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, we're going to do something a little out of order because we have time constraints. I'm going to ask, I'm going to move up item number eight next, which is our business excellence series of Hyundai Rotem. And we have our presenter, Felipe Vasquez and Hyundai Rotem, Director of Operations to present. All right, I see Desi coming down as well.

Good afternoon chair Rob Lard and members of the committee team so excited to welcome Hyundai wrote them as a part of our business excellent series it where we highly businesses are investing growing and contributing back to Riverside economy. Hyundai wrote them as an apartment important part of Riverside's advanced manufacturing sector with this Riverside operation supporting rail manufacturing locally we like to go ahead and pass it on over to flip a who present on behalf of Hyundai wrote and thank you.

Thank you, everybody. Thank you for welcoming me and to be able to present for this. Go here. All right.

Go to the next slide, please. You can just ask for it, too, and they'll. Next slide, please. Yeah, next slide. Thank you. All right, there it goes.

Oh, next slide again. Sorry about that.

I think it's the video that's causing problems.

Here, on the land of Riverside, a new story has been written. This factory is more than just a building. It is a place where the very heart of Tomorrow's Trains is created. Hyundai Rotem's next leap begins in Riverside. HRSEA is our U.S. hub for producing and testing rail electrical systems, built to reliably fulfill our partnership with LA Metro. Here we produce and assemble propulsion inverters, auxiliary power supplies, traction motors, and HV boxes, then validate every unit through full testing. On a 42, 790 square foot facility and a 104, 310 square foot site, this plant integrates controller lines, motor lines, and full testing areas. She went from receiving parts to assembly, testing, and shipping. Every step flows under one roof. VVVF propulsion drives acceleration and efficiency. APS powers onboard systems, the traction motor delivers force, and the HV box safeguards reliability and safety. We remember 2025, the moment when the first designs were drawn and the very first bolt was fastened into the ground. In everyone's eyes, excitement and uncertainty coexisted, but it all began with hope. From the 2024 contract and incorporation, through equipment procurement and permits, we secure TIP and TCO in 2025, ramp mass production and ship in phases, delivering quality on schedule. Every product must pass full functional and high voltage safety tests before shipping. Data-driven quality, that is the HRSEA standard. From Riverside, we power tomorrow in Los Angeles. HRSEA, setting a new standard for rail electrical systems in the U.S.

Thank you. So my name is Felipe Vasquez. Again, I appreciate this opportunity. I am the director of operations for what we call Hyundai Rotem Smart Electric America, HRSCA for short. And that's Brian Kim, and he's an expat from out of Korea. Back there, he's the COO. Next slide, please. That's currently our executive staff that we currently have on site. I try to tend to hire university hires and then local from the Inland Empire. I'm big on education myself. I'm also an adjunct professor over at USC, double children myself, and I try to keep the talent in-house that's from the Inland Empire. So something I strive to do here, and I kind of build up Riverside itself. So I live in Riverside County, so the better opportunity we give our own citizens locally, I think the better overall Inland Empire would get. So next slide. Again, these are our university hires. They're from here. We got UC Irvine, Cal State San Bernardino, and La Verne University. Next slide. These are our current technicians that we have. We hire these technicians from out of Chaffey and San Jacinto Valley College out of the Ontario site. We do have a couple out of the Paris site. So there's a couple requirements that are very limited. It's a niche market to build a train, and one of those requirements is high voltage. IT'S KIND OF A PROBLEM WE'RE HAVING WITH THE HIRING FORCE NOW. I KNOW I JUST HAD A MEETING WITH ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ABOUT THE OJT PROGRAM WITHIN THE CITY, WHICH WE'RE GOING TO TRY TO TAP INTO THAT AND KIND OF JUST BUILD OUR OWN WORKFORCE INTERNALLY. WE LAUNCHED THIS IN SEPTEMBER. IT'S A COMPLETE LAUNCH. THIS IS THE FIRST HONDE MANUFACTURING PLANT IN AMERICA. I KNOW YOU GUYS PROBABLY HEARD ABOUT THE GEORGIA ONE THAT'S CURRENTLY BEING BUILT. THAT'S SCHEDULED TO OPEN NEXT YEAR, BUT WE ARE THE FIRST FOOTPRINT FOR HONDE. SO IT'S KIND OF FROM THE GROUND UP. HAVING A LITTLE DIFFICULTY WITH THE MANUFACTURING FORCE, BUT WE'LL GET THERE. WE'RE CURRENTLY ON A WE'RE GOING TO DO ANOTHER HIRING SACLA HERE AT THE END OF THE YEAR. THAT WOULD BE ANOTHER THREE TECHNICIANS. WE'RE GOING TO GROW TO ANOTHER 20 MID-NEXT YEAR AND THEN IN A COUPLE YEARS WE'RE HOPING TO HAVE 50 THERE AT THE PLANT. NEXT SLIDE. NEXT SLIDE, PLEASE. Yep, so currently again, we have a headquarters that's also, it was in place for us to conduct bidding and sales contract. They're located in Cerritos. What they do is they try to reach out to other cities, again, to see if they want our train and our metro capabilities. So we're currently bidding right now in New York, Philadelphia, Boston, and hopefully that growth, all the proposed units will be built here out of Riverside. We're trying to bid for another contract with LA Metro and open a full-blown manufacturing plant to finalize the train, hopefully in Paris, so keep it in Riverside. So currently, the proportion of units that we create get shipped to Palmdale, Kikusharo. That's a train manufacturing plant here in California that was capable of helping us out to complete this train as the train is for the Olympics for 2028 LA, which is pretty neat. So we're scheduled to deliver 90 cars by 2028 for the Olympics and then up to 182 by 2030 with an extra 100 optional for LA. So it's a long project. It's five years, the contract. So the headquarters is established to kind of do the admin part of that portion. Next slide. Yeah, so you guys know when you guys think Hyundai, they think it's the cars. Yes, that's the biggest part of the company, but we are under Hyundai. They have a multitude of subsidiaries. As you can see here, those are the biggest ones, $280 billion in annual sales. The good thing about this that we're establishing here is we're backed by Hyundai. We're under Hyundai, so there's no collapsing or something later on that can happen. We have the funding needed to continue on and expand our operation here in Riverside. Within that, Hyundai Rotem itself is a defense company, official defense company for Korea, similar to our base systems, Lockheed Martin. Their main focus is, as you can see, there is a Battle Tank K2 that they are now selling globally to NATO countries. which is pretty neat. And then also their main focus is speed trains. So we develop speed trains that go anywhere from 200 to 300 miles an hour, again, globally in 40 countries. That is the main focus. So this is the first time this car we're building here is completely new, built from the ground up. Same with the components. So it's a custom car for LA Metro. It's pretty neat. So it just puts a footprint in America for Hyundai Rotem. And then going forward, we're going to build different type of cars for different cities based on the requirements. Next slide. Yep. So currently, again, just like I was talking about, these are kind of what we're bidding in, what's going on with the future and what we deal with now. The defense part of it, a lot of people access, you know, because they see the website. Even when we're interviewing, you know, manager salary level type operation managers. They kind of focus more on the defense part. And so we do not do that here. That is done solely in Korea and will never be done here. That is a Korea type option that they will keep there. So our main focus is just trains. In the future, we are establishing, we're trying to establish a hydrogen. Just so everybody knows, we have built the first hydrogen train that won a global award for innovation. We are also a company that we can install hydrogen platforms like a fuel station that comes from out of natural gas. So we're the first to do that. It's actually being tested in Korea, and we're hoping to kind of expand it also in America as an option. I know hydrogen is, they're kind of saying, they're labeling the new future of green, so it's hopefully something we can expand here out of Riverside also.

Next slide.

Yep, so again, like I was stating, is our hiring process, I like to keep it in the house. It's something that they gave me. I have free roam within the company. I was the vice president of Western Region for operations for Amazon. That was a big, big, big, huge, obviously Amazon's huge, but it's kind of automated there and we're kind of limited to what we can do. So I kind of came over here in a free roam for however I want to build this company up. And my goal is, again, to keep it here in Riverside. The reason why we didn't go to LA initially is because the time to make this train, it's a slow process. But as we know, LA permits can take two to three years just to get established and foot in the door. So Riverside was the easiest footprint for us to get in and kind of get it going. Helped me out a lot because I live out here so they have to take the drive to LA But yeah, so again, we're trying to keep a local we partner with UCR I just know the equal equal car program there is pretty neat in the engineering department And our goal is to start an internship program next year locally I don't you guys know but their engineering program is pretty top-notch. They got qualified the equal equal car program I think only seven or eight schools in the nation have that program and and all their talents graduating here locally, and they're going to Detroit, Tennessee, Dallas. We're losing that talent. So hopefully we can start some next year with them. We're working on MOU now so we can start having electrical engineers come in in-house for our department. Yeah, next slide. So these are propulsion units. So what I'd like to tell everybody is it goes in the bottom of the train. So those traction motors is what powers the train. It's kind of like a Tesla motor. I mean, just way huge. So there's four of those going in each train. And we have our APU unit, which is equivalent to an ACU. I call it the brains of the train. An inverter is every train track in LA or every city has different kind of power sources. So what that does, that just converts the power either down where we need it to our level or up. So it's pretty neat. That's a first of its kind, by the way. A lot of trains don't run that system. They just run the power needed for the train off the lines. So we don't need that with our train. And then high voltage is kind of just a turn-on switch for the whole entire train, which is pretty neat. We built these in-house, and then also we test them in-house, which is A lot of technical equipment, which we're learning also. Two of these units are completely new to Hyundai Road themselves, so everybody's on a learning progression for these. We do get a lot of support from Korea currently. They do fly in and help us with training on these units. We're almost there to where we can train internally ourselves. So, yeah, I think about another year we'll be kind of locked in on when it comes to the equipment used for this. Again, it's a market that, you know, a lot of people don't build trains, so even electrical engineers themselves are learning this process. So, currently we are, like I said, we did our grand opening this past September. And last year, and we kind of didn't really get in a full swing until about February. You can see in the video that was just during our construction phase. But if you go there now, I know Desiree's been there, but it's completely filled up. So we're over about 3,500 man hours assembly on these units and then 800 testing hours. So our OJT program, and something I just talked to the UCR program through the city, is we're trying to develop our own training program. Again, so when we have the OJT training through the city employment office, we can actually certify, you know, local citizens here on these units and electrical equipment, which is pretty neat. Next slide. Yeah, so that is it for Honda Rotem. Again, I appreciate this opportunity and thanks for the support and for the economic development department. And if you guys have any questions.

All right. Thank you so much for that presentation. Thank you.

And my colleagues, anything you'd like to share?

Well, I'll just say congratulations. Yeah, I was actually in Korea visiting Hyundai headquarters when you guys had your grand opening. Me and the mayor were there and got to ride on the hydrogen-powered buses and we toured Hyundai Heavy Industries and see the shipbuilding yards and everything and how massive the operation is there. And that's something when... So residents are like, why are we focusing on foreign direct investment and why are we talking to these companies? And this is exactly why, because it's bringing capital in, they're hiring locally. These are jobs that are high paying, well training jobs as a skill set that you said is like you said, it's hard to find. but something that puts Riverside and differentiates us from other cities. And so having Hyundai Rotem here is a fantastic opportunity for us. And, again, I hope you guys grow the other sectors into Riverside because we welcome you guys with open arms. But with that, I have a certificate I'd like to present to you, and you're the COO. And if you guys want, I can stand up here. You guys can join me down there.

Yeah, thank you.

One more, please.

All right, now back to our regularly scheduled programming. We'll go back to our number four, which is Human Bulb, Community Impact and Future Collaboration. And we'll have Henry here from Human Bulb to present.

Is there a slide?

Oh, there it is. Well, thank you.

Good afternoon, honorable committee. I'm Henry Chang. I'm the co-founder of Human Bulb. So we've been working with Miranda Evans' economic development team, gosh, for a while. Our goal is to really help strengthen the local startup and small business ecosystem. So we brought Startup World Cup to Riverside in 2025. It is an international startup competition. with over 130 regions competing now. Grand prize is a million dollars in funding, so a little bit of money there to make your company work. But the goal there is to really connect local entrepreneurs here in Riverside to the global startup ecosystem. We also delivered entrepreneur workshops in 2025. And this year, we brought Meta, which was pretty neat, to Riverside, as well as we delivered a two-day green tech growth boot camp for entrepreneur development. So I really want to thank Council Member Robillard for speaking to our entrepreneurs and giving them inspiration. In 2027, I haven't told the economic development team, but we're working with Amazon Web Services as well as Verizon to bring AI native programs to our local communities. So that's gonna be fun. So these initiatives demonstrate an ongoing commitment to Riverside and really not just a one-time program. So today I wanna share how we can expand and deepen this partnership. So this summer, just over the last eight weeks, Human Bull launched our AI native accelerator program in Sacramento and in Roseville. Roseville is about 20 minutes east of Sacramento. It's a place where you stop to get gas and food when you go up to Lake Tahoe to go skiing. So it's a small town. Oops, sorry. Thank you, Miranda. So the result is we created 42 new businesses in this greater Sacramento region over one summer. So we believe this model can now be applied to Riverside. Change the slide. There you go. So economic development has traditionally been in two major strategies. And the folks here talked about this earlier, but it's to attract companies into this region and to help existing companies grow. That's a great model. You guys have been doing fantastic with that. But we want to propose a third strategy. Systematically create new companies locally. Grassroots. So Riverside already has the experience and local economic talent. The accelerator transforms this expertise into new products and ventures. It brings opportunities that go beyond the core sectors. It supports B2B products, service vendors, ed tech workforce development, and training providers. So the real goal here is to build an interconnected pipeline of startups to strengthen Riverside's overall community. All right. So why does this work? We take our companies from no idea to a validated product within eight weeks. It's really scaled up fast. Here's our secret sauce. We have built proprietary software to help accelerate this process. So we help with opportunity intelligence, product blueprints, customer validation, cohort community building tools. This all means that this happens really quick. So this program works across all technical abilities, from someone with no coding experience to we have full-fledged AI engineers working with us. So AI isn't something that the participants learn about. They use AI to build the company, and AI becomes part of the product and company infrastructure. So we start with industry expertise people already have. This is your brain trust here in Riverside. And we help turn that knowledge into companies. Participants don't just spend those eight weeks talking and maybe doing like a 50-page business plan. We've seen that before. But they actually build and iterate throughout those eight weeks. So because of the model works across industries and technical abilities, it's designed to create companies across an economic ecosystem at scale. So we're seeing people that are from various economic backgrounds, from various communities do very well in our programs. And again, most importantly, we have proof. 42 businesses created across the greater Sacramento region in 2026, this summer. So our proposal is to bring company creation model to Riverside. I'm glad to answer any questions and thank you for your time, committee.

All right, thank you for that presentation. I see some questions.

I'll just be quick. First, I'll make sure not to let the Adventist and Adventist Health folks know that you said Roseville is a gas station town, but it's okay. But secondly, so where along in the development of a business would someone jump in? In other words, could we tell our students that are in the university's local, hey, if you've got an idea, here's where you can start, or does there need to be a certain level of business development already in place?

That's a great question, council member. We have students go through our entrepreneurial program. Actually, we have 30 interns that we actually ran this summer. It was a grant through the city of Sacramento. They were paid by them, and we put them through this entrepreneurial program.

Oh, excellent.

And there were 16 to 24. That was age range.

And would we just like direct them to your website? Like if it's a student, we have many business students in this. In Riverside, we have many institutions of higher ed, as you know, and we could direct them, I'm guessing, to you all through the website or something like that. How would they get in touch with you?

Absolutely. When we have a program, we'll definitely reach out to the student groups. UC Riverside, any of the local universities or colleges or even high schools. We'd love to work with them.

That's great. Okay, perfect. That's it. Thank you so much. Appreciate it.

All right. Thank you. All right. Yeah, no, I, I, I, I love talking to the, the green tech companies, uh, a month ago, I think it was. Um, and you know, I, I think there's something to the, uh, starting the company, right. I was having a conversation with somebody at lunch today and, um, you know, we talk about attracting companies, especially American companies. Um, a lot of times they were founded somewhere and the people who founded that company loves that city and they don't want to leave that city. So it can be extremely difficult to get someone to convince them to move to our city. But if you get to be that city where it started, that's a fantastic opportunity, right? And it's usually when you invest in that, if the city is investing in that business and that business is investing back into the city and that, so you build those connections, those roots and, and, I also mentioned how Riverside had these great business owners who started these massive companies and they gave back a lot to the community. And over the years, they sold their company or they moved on. And now you have a corporate owner that's in New York or a hedge fund that owns it and They don't care about Riverside, you know, frankly. And so building those business owners and having them call Riverside home is a great way to rebuild that industry and that ecosystem of business owners that care about the city. And so that's something that I think is fantastic about this. All right. Thank you for that presentation. I appreciate it. Thank you.

Thank you.

All right. General plan update, business engagement and updates from our city planner, Laurel Reimer.

Good afternoon. So just for a quick update, a quick reminder, so a general plan serves as the blueprint for development in the city and it provides long-term policy guidance for the city's physical, economic, social, and environmental changes. The general plan guides future growth within Riverside and has a 20 to 25 year planning horizon. As seen in the icons here, there are several mandatory elements that every general plan must have. And there are a few that the city of Riverside has elected as optional elements, including an economic development element. We are at the very beginning stages of that and we will present that to you in the coming months. We are also preparing a climate action and adaptation plan, and that is a strategic roadmap to guide the city in preparing for climate risks and creating meaningful reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. We are preparing the Climate Action and Adaptation Plan alongside the General Plan Update to ensure robust and efficient climate adaptation and mitigation efforts, but also to synergize the CAP's goals with the City's policy priorities to maximize resources and create efficiency. As you can see, we have done a lot of outreach since this project kicked off. We've had pop-up events, workshops, online engagement, and we've put together a general plan advisory committee and climate plan advisory committee, both of which have representatives from the business community on them. In total, we've received over 4,300 comments and we still are counting. I know we're in a time crunch, so I'm not going to read all of this. But basically, these are the seven main ideas that we have heard from the community thus far. People want to preserve open space. They support mixed-use development and revitalizing aging commercial corridors. There's a desire for pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure. They want stronger code enforcement in neighborhoods for illegal dumping and street beautification. They desire a creative economy and a robust cultural tourism industry. The road safety and crime reduction is a top public safety priority. And communities seek low-cost transit passes, solar and EV incentives, and energy rebates to improve air quality in affordable ways. Most recently, on August 28th, we hosted a workshop with the Greater Riverside Chambers of Commerce that focused on the land use element and the proposed land use place types. The land use element of a general plan designates areas for commercial, residential, industrial, and mixed use development. By aligning these designations with economic goals, the general plan can attract new businesses, encourage investment, and create jobs. So we felt it was very important to engage with the business community and get their feedback on the proposed changes to the land use map. The workshop was very well attended. We had 50 to 60 members of the business community primarily focused in the development sector, and we got some really great feedback from them. What we presented to them is kind of the overall vision for our land use plan. The main change is that the land use element is going from 27 land use types down to 10. And the new map will provide more opportunity for a mix of uses. So in this graphic here, you can see that of the 10 place types, four of them are complete neighborhoods. And by this, we mean that they have everything you need there. There's housing, retail, commercial services, et cetera. Six of the 10 allow for commercial uses and seven of the 10 will allow for residential uses. So you can see that it's a very dynamic land use plan that we're putting forward that will allow for more opportunities for business growth and residential growth. This is an example of one of the maps that we reviewed at the land use workshop. People could mark it up with stickers to designate areas where they thought we maybe got it wrong and they would like a different type of land police type, or they could hand write things like I would like X here. And if anyone is interested in viewing this police type map, you can scan the QR code shown here. Our next big outreach will be held on October 14th from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Riverside Airport Terminal. The focus of this open house will be on the circulation and mobility element, and we will be discussing our roadways, transit, walking and biking, and we'll have a few demonstrations that we think people will really enjoy. We will continue to partner with the Chamber of Commerce for this event and future events. We really want to make sure that we have representation from our neighborhoods and from our business community. And we would love to see all of you there as well. That concludes my presentation. Typically, you would see Matthew Taylor giving this presentation, but he had a conflict today. But if you do have any more questions, you're always welcome to reach out to me. Or our project managers for the general plan update are Matthew Taylor, our principal planner, and Fortino Morales, who is our sustainability manager.

All right. Thank you for that presentation. Any comments from my colleagues?

I'll just say thank you. I see now a shameless plug. It's at the airport next. That's why it's here today, huh? No, I'm just kidding. We had it in Ward 7 already. Thank you. It was great. And I think that the community is really grateful, and I hope you're getting a lot of great feedback. This is exciting every time I hear it. Thank you.

All right. Thank you so much for that presentation. Okay. Now we'll move on to the communications part of our agenda. And we have two more items left, basically, items six and seven. If we can do those quickly. Item number six, developer day announcement. And we have Jessica Anderson giving that announcement.

Good afternoon, honorable chair and committee members. I'd like to take a moment to share an event that we are very, very excited about. On October 21st, the Catalyst team will be hosting Developer Day, an opportunity to create a stronger connection between the city and the development community. To provide insight into the event, we're building the day around five key objectives. The first is connect. We want to create a direct line of communication with developers through the region. This is an opportunity to connect to create a direct forum for developers to better understand the city's priorities, processes, and investment opportunities. The second is showcase. We'll highlight priority city-owned development sites and put those opportunities directly in front of the development community. Third is clarify. We'll walk through our new and improved RFP and RFQ process, providing developers with a clear understanding of how to engage with the city as they pursue opportunities involving city-owned property. Fourth is empower. A site is only part of the equation. We also want to help developers understand the tools and incentives that may be available to support the development and help address project challenges. The goal is to ensure that we make sure the development community knows what resources a city can bring to the table. And finally, engage. Developer Day isn't intended to be a one-time event where we exchange business cards and go our separate ways. We want to create a clear path for ongoing engagement, continued conversations, follow-up, and opportunities for the city and the development community to work together. This is really what the Catalyst team is about, being proactive, identifying opportunities, connecting the right people and resources, and helping move development conversations forward. So on October 21st, we're opening our doors to the development community and saying, here are the opportunities Riverside has to offer. Here is how you can engage with the city. Here are some of the tools we can bring to the table, and most importantly, we want to hear from you. We're excited about the event and look forward to building relationships that extend well beyond October 21st. Thank you.

Thank you for that. And I will be reaching out to people to attend that virtual meeting. Thank you.

Thank you.

All right. Number seven, economic development organizational and staffing updates. And we have our director, Miranda Evans, giving the update.

Thank you so much. Good afternoon. It's a pleasure to be here. Thank you, Honorable Chair Robillard. Welcome, our new Vice Chair Hernandez, to your first Economic Development Committee meeting, and of course, Member Hemenway. Thank you so much. It's an honor to be before you today to share just some quick staffing updates. I will, of course, be mindful of time. You just heard I'll start with the middle, our new Catalyst team. So this is really to provide you with a quick update on all of the progress that has been made just since Q2 of this year. And excuse my voice. I'm getting over a bit of a cold. But nothing brings me more joy than talking about and celebrating this amazing dream team that we have the privilege of building, all thanks to your support. So I'll start in the middle with our Catalyst team. This is new as of last month. And so this is really, as you just heard from Jessica on Developer Day, being a Catalyst. How can we bring these key P3 projects that you've heard about in the north side that we're moving forward, our concierge program for businesses and permitting, and real estate development. So we have a new and improved RFP process, as Jessica had previewed, and we will be announcing that on October 21st, Developer Day. And we've already been hard at work implementing that, taking several items before you for consideration at Council this very week. Of course, we have our best team, and that's led by Desi Massey. We strive to be the best at all we do here in Riverside. And in fact, next month, I'm so excited, counting the days, we will be celebrating the official recognition of earning our International Economic Development Accreditation from the IEDC, the gold standard of economic development excellence. So I am so incredibly proud of the team. Desi leads business expansion, retention, and talent, and we've welcomed Caroline to the team, Simone on the team, and I'd love to introduce you today quickly to Brian White. He's a new project manager. Brian, if you'd like to wave. We're so proud to have Brian on the team and welcome him. His first day was last Friday, and we'll also be welcoming a new fellow to the team as well, rounding out our best team under Desi's leadership. We're also building out this Catalyst team. You heard from Jessica today. She is a real estate agent, and so her role is Catalyst real estate manager. We've also welcomed Paige Montoho to the team as Catalyst project manager. And we have a new hire I'd like to introduce you to today at his first EDC meeting as well, Angel Cardoz. Angel is joining us as a project manager for our Catalyst team. Welcome, Angel. We're so excited to have you. And, of course, we have our APEX team, and it ended up working out so well. We have the ABCs of economic development, APEX, Best, and Catalyst. And our APEX team, led by Jessica Gonzalez, that is Attraction, Promotion, Expansion, and Capital. And on the team that Jessica leads, of course, you've met Evan. He helped present the SIP program earlier. Thank you, Evan. He's done an amazing job hitting the ground running for the team. Amaris has now joined the Apex team after she was promoted to project manager. And a new hire we welcomed as well, Matt Menno. Welcome, Matt, to the Apex team. And Matt has already done an amazing job. He represented us at ICSC Western in San Diego just earlier this week. So thank you, Matt, for jumping in with both feet and representing us so well. We've also welcomed a new fellow to the team, Sarah Colbert. And so this, we are rounding out our ABCs of economic development to continue to bring you world-class award-winning results. At the end of the day, what we're here to do, our new logo, everything that motivates us is to unlock opportunity. This a little bit I'll just go quickly through is the RFP process and we when we look at disposition and sale of city-owned real property So this is something that we will be explaining and going into more detail on on developer day But really the the impetus and the catalyst behind the catalyst team if you will is how do we speed up the disposition process? how do we really tap into and leverage this incredible asset of that the city of Riverside holds in our real estate portfolio. And so what we have done is to create a new process that moves a qualification-based process up front. So this is a much more competitive, transparent process, and that's focused on selecting the best partner, not simply a buyer. And so oftentimes before, there would be negotiations ongoing for years. There would not be an ENA. Conversations would just keep going without an end. So this really is a new way where we are creating a new level of accountability and additional attention to all of the details. We need schedules of performance. We need accountability on the staff side and on the developer side. We're here to be a great partner to the development community, but Riverside means business. We want to build. We want to see value for our community. What all of you will love most about this, it really increases your oversight and overall accountability on the staff side and the developer side. This is the qualification-based process I spoke to you about. We'll be requiring upfront statement of qualifications, a project overview, development pro forma, implementation schedule, their proposed business and economic development benefits, and other preliminary terms and conditions, and then moving into an ENA, similar to the structure we have followed with our Northside development projects. So this should be much more expedient and help to fast track the development and negotiation process. And so really what this is, this is the catalyst of the catalyst team. How can we be more proactive, competitive, and performance-driven? That's a priority that you've seen across our whole department today already. You've heard from code enforcement today. You've heard from planning. You've heard from economic development. And this is a new part of that catalyst team as well. How can all of us be more performance-driven and accountable to you and to the public? So Developer Day, Jessica did a great job touching on this. We're building out the invite list. We'd love for you to attend and help us promote that as well. And with that, thank you so much for all of your support. I'm so proud of the team and very grateful for the resources we have building up not just economic development, but the whole community and economic development team. I'm happy to answer any questions you may have.

All right. Do we have any questions? All right. Thank you so much for that update. Thank you. All right. Glad the team is growing. All right. We have no legislative updates. Any items for future consideration? We have none. All right. We'll go ahead and close the committee. Thank you.