City Council - Special Meeting

Good afternoon and welcome to the June 4, 2026 Salinas strategic planning session and go ahead and call the meeting to order Patty.

Buenas tardes y bienvenidos a la Junta de Junio 4 de 2026, Junta del Concilio de Planamiento Estratégico. This meeting is available in Spanish for members of the public in attendance and on Zoom. Translation devices can be obtained in the foyer. Esta reunión está disponible en español para los miembros del público y en Zoom. Las unidades de traducción se pueden obtener en la entrada a la rotonda.

Zoom webinar participation is available for members of the public. The Zoom webinar ID and link are available on the posted agenda on the city website. Can we please stand for the pledge?

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you. All right, Patty, if you'd call the roll.

Council Member Barajas absent. Council Member Barrera? Here. Council Member DeRigo? Present. Council Member De La Rosa? Here. Council Member Salazar?

He sent a note to me. He will be here at 4.05.

Council Member Sandoval?

Here.

Mayor Donahue?

I am here.

Thank you.

All right, we are going to go ahead and proceed to public comment. This is a special session, so we'll have 15 minutes of public comment. Public comments are restricted items on the special meeting agenda. So comments do need to pertain specifically to this agenda. Each person who addresses the city council during public comment shall do so in an orderly manner and shall not make any personal, slanderous, or profane remarks to any member of the city council, city staff, or general public. Any person who makes such remarks or uses threatening or personal or abusive language or who engages in any other disorderly conduct which disrupts or disturbs the meeting may be asked to leave the council chambers. With that, we are open for public comment. Two minutes for up to 15 minutes.

Mayor, our translator is a minute or two late, so I'm going to jump in on that, OK? OK, thank you.

Buenas tardes, miembros del concilio. Mi nombre es Elizabeth Reyes del Distrito 2 y trabajo en las high schools como en la seguridad. Y estoy participando en el semestre de 2026 de la escuelita. Involucramiento cívico está en mi primera vez que estoy en este espacio compartiendo comentario público. El equipo de vecindarios de Salinas VHC mostró su interés y dedicación a la importancia de participar en el presupuesto fiscal de 2026 y 2027 de la ciudad de Salinas. Y como resultado, la vecindad, la prioridad, is la vivienda cada dia escucho la gran necesidad en los padres y los niños por vivienda y traemos a su atención la apropiación de vivienda formando cooperativas como se verá esto en este presupuesto como una oportunidad más la vivienda accesible queremos que este esta comisión de planeación recomiende al concilio tomar acción inmediata a este tema queremos que nuestra voz sea tomada en cuenta por que nuestro compromiso y el de nuestro equipo de vecindarios prosperos de salinas Thank you.

Okay, so I'll be pinch-hitting today, Mayor. So my name is Elizabeth Reyes of District 2. I am a worker with La Esquelita and Prosperous Neighborhoods. We're participating in the 2026 La Esquelita in public civic engagement, and this is the first time that I'm here before you to share my public commentary. BHC and Prosperous Neighborhoods have shared the importance of being part of the annual budget process for 2026-2027 with the City of Salinas. As a result, we have found that the number one priority is neighborhoods. Each day, We have been hearing the need from parents and children in the neighborhoods and request your attention and participation in neighborhoods and forming cooperative neighborhoods. In this budget cycle, we are requesting that the Commission and the Planning Commission also consider taking action on including neighborhoods and accessible housing. We request that our voice is heard and taken into account and that our compromise and our organization with Prosperous Neighborhoods with Salinas and would work collaboratively with the City of Salinas. These requests are a necessity for the city in forming cooperatives and accessible neighborhoods as well. Thank you. Thank you, and we hope that our commentaries are reflected in the budget cycle for 2026 and 2027.

Buenas tardes, concejales y alcalde. Nidia Soto, organizadora de la justicia económica con BHC. Estoy aquí para compartir por mí, por mi parte, por mi familia y por mis vecinos. Apoyamos enérgicamente los objetivos para abordar la crisis de vivienda. Solicito se priorice la construcción de vivienda verdaderamente asequible y se implemente soluciones que reduzcan el hacinamiento extremo y eviten el desplazamiento de familias trabajadoras. Por esto, incitamos a este concilio que adhiere a la implementación de cooperativas de vivienda al presupuesto del año fiscal 2026-2028 y se comprometa a asignar los fondos o buscar a ellos para llevar a cabo esto. En beneficio de las cooperativas, vecindarios más seguros, atraya vecindarios más seguros, residentes más comprometidos, reducción del crimen, reducción de desplazamiento a gobernantes de salinas trabajemos juntos y luchemos por vivienda asequible para salinas gracias

Yes, good afternoon, my name is Nidia Soto and I'm with BHC. And I'm here to share for my family, my neighbors, and myself. We support the goals to be able to address the housing crisis. And I'm asking to please give priority to the construction of housing that is really affordable. and that they implement solutions that reduce overcrowding and avoid displacements for the families, the working families. That is why we're asking the city council to please implement the co-op implement or include co-ops in the budget of 2026-2028 and that you commit to assigning funds so we can establish a co-op. The benefits of having a co-op is that we have safer Neighborhoods, residents that are more committed. We also reduce crime and we also reduce displacements. Please, governors of Salinas, we have to work together to have a better Salinas. Thank you.

All right, anyone else? Okay, seeing none, we will go to, we'll take, looks like we can take a few calls. So Judy, you are up on Zoom. Judy, are you there? All right, why don't we, if she's still there, we'll see if she comes through. Why don't we go to the next one, Patti?

Consuelo, public comment, two minutes.

Hello, can you hear me? Yes. Go ahead. Okay. Muy buenas tardes, señor alcalde y concejales. Mi nombre es Consuelo Rosales y soy miembro de la escuelita. y que quiero pedirles de favor que nos tomen en cuenta en el presupuesto en 1528 y lo pongan como prioridad las casas de bajos ingresos para todos. La gente que vivimos aquí, hay demasiados trabajadores en el campo que no tienen ni para pagar ahorita sus rentas. El trabajo ha bajado, ha disminuido muchísimo y no hay manera de que puedan... Pagar una sola renta, ya estamos cansados de no tener un hogar digno para nosotros. Junto con nuestra familia, nosotros estamos teniendo, tenemos que meter a mucha gente. Y el detalle es que no sabemos ni quiénes están entrando a nuestras casas, poniendo en peligro tanto nuestras familias como nuestros propios hijos. Entonces, yo les pido de favor que tomen en cuenta y se nos dé esa oportunidad de tener un hogar digno. Y también les quiero pedir de favor que he escuchado, yo estuve en un evento el domingo, el que fue en el rodeo, y me encontré con dos, tres personas donde se van a mudar porque sus loncheras no tienen tanto permiso, han tenido muchos problemas. ¿Y qué va a pasar? Esas loncheras están yendo para otro lugar y ese dinero se está quedando en otros condados. We need a way for everything to stay here in Salinas. We have hard-working people here. We want the kitchen to be built as soon as possible because there are plans to continue with our work. We want to see a business, we want to have our own business. I ask you with all my heart, thinking of our entire community, and thank you very much.

Good afternoon, Mayor and City Council. My name is Rosalba, and I participate in Esquelita, and I'm here to ask you to please include in the budget housing. Here, there's a lot of field workers that work very hard and can't afford to pay rent. We have the right to have a decent and stable home and it is really hard for us to be able to afford this and also another thing by the rodeo, there's some like food trucks that they're not able to be that they're having to go to other cities. We ask you to please help them to stay here in Salinas. We need a commercial kitchen. We need to be able to be work to create work and have our own businesses. Thank you.

Thank you. All right. Adriana.

Buenas tardes, Concilio. Mi nombre es Adriana Garcia y solo mi comentario es para pedir, por favor, que tomen en cuenta las prioridades las cuales la comunidad ya les ha informado previamente acerca del presupuesto 2026 y 2027, enfocando como primera prioridad la necesidad de vivienda asequible. Debido a toda la problemática que la mayoría de la comunidad que renta it is very difficult to get affordable housing. Secondly, a cooperative for economic development and that supports people to be able to put their own business, that benefits so that the economy of the city of Salinas is promoted. On the other hand, we also want you to leave a part of the budget for the support de programas que benefician a los jóvenes y a los adultos mayores. Muchas gracias. Pido tomen en cuenta todas estas necesidades que la comunidad necesita. Gracias. Thank you.

Good afternoon, City Council Mayor. My name is Adriana Garcia, and I'm here to highlight all the needs that the community have been mentioning for the budget 2026-2027. One of the biggest highlights, and we want to focus more, is housing. We need to have affordable housing because the community cannot really afford rent. We also want funds for a co-op for economic development. so people can have businesses here in salinas and be able to progress another thing that we want to focus is on the budget for programs for youth and also for senior citizens i hope you consider all these needs and include them in the next budget thank you thank you all right gabriella gabriella you're muted Gabriela, ¿está en mudo? No se la escucha, Gabriela, está en mudo.

Buenas tardes, ¿me escucha? Hoy sí. Buenas tardes, mi nombre es Gabriela Camacho y pertenece...

Ya no se la escucha, Gabriela. Oh, she disconnected? Okay.

Okay. Judy, and you'll be the last comment unless Gabriela comes back. So, Judy, you're... Can you hear me? Yeah.

Okay, thank you. This is Judy Stroyer calling from City Council Death Squad. We are a free speech activist group. I'm calling today to ask your council to consider a day of understanding for the... So that the public can understand that the SPLC, Southern Poverty Law Center, has made up white supremacy and funded it. That was exposed recently. And because of that, whites have been targeted for this boogeyman.

All right, comments do need to be pertained to the subject matter at hand. With that, I don't see Gabriela back, so we will go ahead and close public comment. And we will start the festivities by turning it over to the city manager.

Hi, Mayor, Council. Thank you for taking the time. I'd like to introduce Rebecca Feldman who's been helping us. She helped us with the current strategic plan and now we've asked her to come back and work with all of you on the new strategic plan. So without further ado, I'd like to turn it over to her.

Thank you so much. Good evening. Nice to see you all again and be back here in beautiful Salinas. And it's been my pleasure to be able to assist you with fine tuning your current strategic plan. There's not a lot of changes we're going to have today.

Do I have a clicker?

that we'll have to go through, but I did have the opportunity to speak with most of you and get your input on how you felt about the current wording, priorities, and all of that. So we're just going to jump into it. The green boxes are the six goals that are in your adopted plan, and on the right in the yellow color is a proposed seventh goal that has come up as a priority to include. And so as we go through, we'll talk further about including environmental sustainability and climate resiliency into your list of things to focus on for the coming year. So the first goal of economic development, most of you seem to agree that you guys are focusing on the right things, that the staff has been in the right direction. The changes that came up would be to delete the agricultural technology plan. You'll see the strike through on the bottom. And adding instead a goal about analyzing emerging districts that are coming up around the Intermodal Transportation Center, Chinatown, and Alisal Marketplace. So what you would want to talk about for this goal is if you all agree on those proposed changes. So I think we'll go goal by goal. Does that work for you, Mayor? All right. Anybody have thoughts on these changes? You like them, you don't like them?

And forgive me if I don't understand this, but why is the completed agriculture technology plan, why was that scratched off?

Go ahead, City Manager. Oh, so in going through all of the discussions with the council members, I heard that that wasn't something that needed to be as high a priority. The work that's involved in it is included in other tasks in the adopted work plan and budget. So it didn't need to be called out as a specific goal in your strategic plan. But it is work that will continue, but not as its own standalone goal.

Thank you.

If that's helpful. And just as a reminder, and I know you all know this, you know, the strategic plan is kind of up here. It's, you know, what are the big things that the city council wants to do? And then the how of those that those get done being in the weeds. That's the city manager's job to incorporate those in the city's adopted work plan and tie the work plan to the budget each year to make sure that there's money to do all those things to get you guys to the big goals. So I'm trying to keep this plan out of the weeds, so to speak.

And may I just offer a little bit, as we were saying, the ag tech plan was very, very specific. And what we're really getting at our understanding is the innovative workforce training. And so that's something we'd rather focus on, not just in the ag, but Citywide, industry-wide, whether it's medical, it's the new aviation, there's a lot of new emerging technologies. So being that honed in, we thought, let's just continue to focus as we're developing our work, our economic development division, on a broader terminology of what workforce training looks like, and working in partnership with Hartnell, CSUMB, and again, expanding our intention if we want to reach out to you.

Okay, Andrew?

Yeah, I just had a question. I mean, that's a good analysis of why we're removing that, but to kind of look at the proposed item about analyzing the Intermodal Transportation Center, Chinatown, and Elsa. Aren't those already incorporated in what we're doing anyways? Is there a specific reason why we would just call out those locations?

I think it was to make sure that you were focusing on them as emerging districts, not just specific standalone projects. And really it's just to analyze whether that's something you want to move forward more specifically. So that would be my response on that. I don't know if that's helpful or not.

Yeah, I just, I mean, if we're going to specify districts, I mean, we have a lot of businesses in North Salina, especially a lot of small pocket businesses. So, you know, would it be appropriate to include the addition of, you know, longstanding established districts or businesses, or is that already covered in the initial one?

I think from my understanding, and obviously it's your community, so you're going to know it a lot better than I do, this is more about emerging districts. So you already have your well-established districts that are part of the city's work plan. So this is more looking at ones that are kind of coming up or new. So if you have an intermodal transportation center, things naturally gravitate towards that. I see the mayor trying to cut me off. No, no, no.

I was just raising my hand. Oh, sure. Go ahead. Just don't raise it high. I was just waiting my turn.

Go ahead.

Well, I want to echo what both Tony and Andrew said. I think the top item does pick up current businesses, both big and small. And we have shopping districts that may need help with permitting and small districts. So I think that picks that up. I think my thought about the emerging districts is that those are going to present new opportunities for housing and expanding our tax base. And so just be mindful of that. And then, you know, Tony, I think, and I think Lisa answered it well, You know, Salinas really does have a very interesting innovation footprint emerging. So I think, you know, I would kind of look at the ag tech as we don't have to limit it to ag tech. What we want to do is send a signal to the outside world. You know, we know we have a great small business community, a lot of entrepreneurial spirit, but then we also have some potentially bigger industries in formation. Because ag tech will spill over to ag sciences. I continue to be really intrigued by what Salinas Valley Health is doing in terms of the possibility of a venture fund. And then if you look at CSUMB and Hartnell, and I think even Central Coast College, they're all thinking about RN degrees. So whatever we can do to be supportive, and then a lot of that's gonna spill into workforce development. So in my mind, the ag tech piece, there's a lot of private industry Driving that I think the signal we want to send is this is a place where a lot of innovation is happening and on a national and global scale so just To me it's just kind of broadening the base, you know, and and so maybe rather than crossing it out to Lisa's point It's more highlight the fact innovation is that we also besides, you know, we grow innovation, too Yeah, I was gonna suggest that maybe this would help clear it up is that the first bullet could say

support and engage with established businesses and districts and then so take out both new there and then on the new bullet it could be analyze um new new and emerging districts including so maybe that would kind of

Well, another follow-up to Andrew's point, and this is important because we had it in terms of the budget, and I think it's terrific. I assume the folks at the mall are telling you that they're bigger than the Gilroy Outlet Mall, so we want to support the heck out of them, whatever they need in terms of permits and that sort of thing. And the mall really is a combination of big and then small operators and then And then there have been a number of small businesses all over the city, certainly in District 5, that I can recall have needed help with permit and support. So we want to really support them.

So does that work to do that little bit of word changing there? Would that meet your needs?

I think it's fine. I'm okay with the proposed, the way you have it formatted here. Oh, okay. To propose that and then the elimination of the ag tech. I'm fine with the changes now that you explained it.

MARGARET. OKAY. I SEE YOU'RE READING THE BODY LANGUAGE. I'M TRYING. I'M TALKING ABOUT SUPPORT AND ENGAGE WITH BOTH NEW AND ESTABLISHED BUSINESSES TO SERVE ECONOMIC GROWTH AND JOB CREATION. you know, not towards Smith, the entire document, but there's also some initiatives. I think if we can add initiatives, probably right after established businesses and initiatives, and the one that I'm thinking of in particular is Bright Futures, which as you may know, originated with CSUMB and partner college recently took that over and it's that cradle to career. So as we're talking about economic development, I think it's one of these things that we also partner with current and existing initiatives as we're getting RESIDENTS WORKFORCE READY. SO IF IT'S GETTING THEM INTO AERICULTURE, HOSPITALITY, EDUCATION OR NURSING, THERE ARE THOSE INITIATIVES AND I THINK US HAVING A SEAT AND PARTNERING UP WILL HELP STRENGTHEN OUR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVE GOAL.

AND THAT'S IN THE FIRST BULLET? IS THAT WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT? YEAH. SO ADD INITIATIVES. DOES THAT WORK FOR EVERYONE?

I just wanted to comment that I kind of hate to lose the innovative workforce training phrase because I think not only developing businesses, creating businesses, creating opportunities, but also a workforce that is able to supply the need to, you know, the workforce for those different industries. And then I also think the airport is a very, very specific thing talking about the use of airport property. That's a specific focus point. And I know there's a lot of work being done out there. I recently took a tour and was really impressed with the amount of development and growth and partnerships that are happening out there already. And I know they're continuing to grow that as well. But to me, that seems really specific. as is you know the intermodal and the chinatown outside marketplace i don't know that needs to be called out as a separate item but um it's part of that you know growing throughout the the entire city not just airport this area that area that's one of my concerns thank you okay so let me make sure i got what you were bringing in would you want to take that phrase innovative workforce training and substitute substitute that for job creation in the first bullet is that what you're asking

So instead of job creation or job creation and.

Well, there's job creation, but there's also a workforce that fills those jobs. So it's to me, that's two distinct things. We're creating jobs. We also need a workforce to take those jobs.

I will play around to make that a proper English sentence. I'm having trouble doing it on the fly, but I hear what you're saying. So workforce. And then I'm sure the city manager can expand on this, but my understanding of anything that you're doing on an airport is a pretty big substantial project. And so probably does need to be called out separately, but I'll let him weigh in on that.

Yeah, thanks Areeva. That's correct as you made the tour and we are actually emerging on some other, we're working through with our chairs, kind of the connecting them and they're expanding the footprint. And I think it aligns with the the emerging technology, the innovation, and so forth. And I think it's such an area that I believe has a lot of potential to drive more economic development jobs, that it is worthy of it being focused and stand on by itself. Because if you think about what we have right now under development is the Amazon site. That's active. Now, we'll see what else happens. And it's the airport site. Our future growth areas are not quite here yet. I mean, we're working on them. So that's why I think it's worth the, like Reva mentioned, to kind of stand it out. So that's why I would recommend that.

That makes sense. I agree with you on that as far as the opportunity to boost economic growth is definitely there. So yeah, I don't want to remove it. I just wanted to call it out. It is a very specific area.

Okay. Well, I think I've gotten the wordsmithing and certainly will provide this to the city manager to review and we'll make sure it meets with the notes. And the one comment I kind of heard from everybody regarding the economic development is making sure that we're just doing this equitably throughout the city and in all districts. So I just put that on as a note that that was something that I kind of heard consistently. So I don't think we need to add it. It's just one of the things I heard. All right. Okay. Move on. Okay, goal number two is housing. We didn't have any changes or removals here. I did hear a suggestion and an issue with residential parking, particularly during harvest month. I understand it gets really congested in some of your neighborhoods, and so I added that on as an idea that you could start looking at some solutions To relieve that I don't know exactly what all of those are But that's why you have a good city manager for him to think about that so the proposal would be to add that as one of the goals on housing Y'all are easy tonight.

You know, I want to, and I appreciate BHC's comment on co-op possibilities. You know, it so happens a group of residents did just create a co-op for a trailer park, and they were working with the... California Center for Co-op Development out of Davis. But that example required a willing seller, which there was one, willing to work with the tenants. So there are different models of how do you get to a co-op. If you have an existing building, the ability to explore those possibilities is good. But if it requires acquisition of land and building something, desire for the same outcome, but how you get there, different path. But I think that's something the city can more fully explore. This co-op thing, it's interesting and it has some obvious appeal and interest. So I would just, an accent piece on co-ops.

So do you want to add that as a bullet, or do you want to add it to somewhere else, or maybe the city manager can address whether it's in the work plan?

Well, it could easily fall under facilitate the addition of workforce low income. I mean, it could fall under that, and then that just becomes a tactic or a strategy. But I just want to make note of there's been some strong interest expressed in that concept, so I think we should capture that.

And Mayor, because there is a strong interest, is there a way of putting co-op in there as well?

Yeah, no, I mean, I would recommend that. So we highlight it.

So this is under the facilitate the addition of workforce, low-income farm worker housing.

Yeah, it might be something like in particular explore co-op possibilities, you know, that type of thing.

It's my understanding that the city manager has a lot of experience in these.

So one of the things I'd like to come in and add, and Reva can help, is there's emerging, innovative products out there when it comes to housing, the co-op model, the housing summit had some other innovations, so maybe some synthesis including. So to give us more sort of, so we don't lock ourselves into one or two things, but I think what we're after is can we work on innovative models or new models to come forward. The co-op example that was done, that was done with no city participation, which is actually good. But there's a ways we can sort of leverage that. So I would just ask for a little bit more flexibility that as these opportunities present themselves, we can bring them to you or people can bring them to us. So we're just not locked into these specific

Where is innovation taking place in housing in terms of products? The other thing that's interesting, as folks did get to work and try and form some coalitions and they're still doing it in terms of these new types of products, different approaches, particularly something manufactured, but this issue, and we saw a great low-income housing project, but it was difficult to get financing. So that's something we can try and put some elbow grease to, you know, because affordable housing in terms of marketplace conditions hasn't necessarily been affordable to build.

Okay, so we need to wordsmith into that third bullet and not locking you into just adding co-op or the word innovative, but something to do with prefab products. Innovative products. I do a lot of work in disaster recovery, and I can tell you that the prefab and new construction of buildings, every day there's a new product and something else that's out there. So I definitely would want you to keep your you know, boundaries open to what might work as a solution.

We may not be the financiers, but we, I mean, we can be conveners, we can go after grants, but we can also be a convener of local banks and that sort of thing. So we have the ability to be proactive. I mean, we can't pay for the housing, but I think there's some things we can do.

And there may be opportunities for Salinas to do a pilot program of some sort because there's so much in this area. There's definitely people looking to do pilot programs, so. I would encourage that. I know housing's a problem everywhere. And then the only other kind of overall comment I heard on housing is just making sure that we do have realistic deliverables and establishing timelines and meeting those as best we can, and that obviously is included in the work plan and the budget. That's what we have on housing. Are there any changes other than that?

No?

No?

We're good. All right.

Okay, goal number three is our infrastructure goal. Nothing to remove. We did get a kind of consensus of a proposal to add leveraging private and public partnerships to improve infrastructure. And that could look like if you have a developer coming in to enter into development agreements for them to provide a benefit to the public, whether it's street improvements or something else that's on the priority list for the city. So that would be the suggestion to add this as a goal for infrastructure. Getting lots of nods.

Andrew, go ahead. What does that mean?

So let's just say you had a developer that came in that wanted to build something, housing, commercial property, or whatever it might be. You could, as a city, say, well, we're willing to allow you to do that or work with you to do that. but in return would want to enter into some sort of agreement that you would then provide a benefit to the public. It's called the development agreement, something cities use all the time. So you could specify, you know, X amount of dollars that go towards something that's of high priority within infrastructure in your city, whether it directly benefits that new project or doesn't. It's something that you as a council have the ability to do.

AND ANOTHER EXAMPLE IS THE WAY THE CITY BUILT THE POLICE STATION, POLICE SERVICE STATION AND GAVELIN LIBRARY. THAT WAS A PRIVATE-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP IN THE FINANCIAL REALM AND WE ARE ACTUALLY, I MENTIONED TO THE COUNCIL MY UPDATES THAT WE'RE WORKING ON EIFD WHICH IS NOT TECHNICALLY A PRIVATE-PARTNERSHIP BUT WE NEED PRIVATE PARTICIPATION WITH THE LAND ORDERS AS FAR AS THE CREATING THE DISTRICT. So I think this is broad enough that it gives us ample opportunity to explore financial concepts. Tomorrow the infrastructure summit, one of our speakers is going to talk about a different financial model to develop PUBLIC CAPITAL. SO ESSENTIALLY GIVE YOUR COMMUNITY AN OPPORTUNITY TO INVEST IN THEIR COMMUNITY. COLORADO IS DOING IT. A BUNCH OF CITIES ARE STARTING TO DO IT. AND SO THAT'S A LOT OF LEVERAGING PUBLIC PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS IS REALLY BROAD BUT IT DOES GIVE A LOT OF OPPORTUNITY TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF EMERGING TOOLS. OR TOOLS THAT HAVE BEEN EXISTENT BUT WE JUST HAVEN'T USED HERE.

JUST SEEMS LIKE A REALLY VAGUE THING BECAUSE IT'S NOT A DEVELOPMENT AGREEMENT. IT'S NOT.

I think you know that if I can jump in you know the way I understand it is just making sure that this is something that gives the staff something to work towards because leveraging public and private partnerships is pretty a big there's a lot of options for that another example of things I've seen is a city-owned property and a developer comes in and builds on that city-owned property as a long-term lease but that property is actually still owned and that BUILDINGS ARE OWNED BY THE CITY SO OVER TIME IT'S INVESTING AN ASSET FOR THE CITY. SO THERE'S LOTS OF DIFFERENT WAYS THIS COULD PLAY OUT SO I THINK THIS GIVES THE CITY MANAGER SOMETHING TO WORK TOWARDS AND THEN IN THE WORK PLAN BEING ABLE TO BRING BACK SPECIFIC PROJECTS AND FINANCING SOLUTIONS.

BUT WE CAN ALREADY DO THAT, RIGHT?

YES, WE CAN.

I'M JUST SAYING THAT I DON'T I'm not getting any specific examples. I understand you work with the private sector, but I'm just not seeing the connection. You're sharing things that already kind of exist. So I guess this wording allows you to have more flexibility. I'm not very clear on it.

NO, I THINK WE'RE SINGULING THAT WE'RE GOING TO LOOK FOR OPPORTUNITIES TO DO PROJECTS USING DIFFERENT MODELS FOR LOWER COST GETTING DONE SOONER AND SO FORTH. SO IT'S HARD TO REALLY PIN IT DOWN. BECAUSE, FOR EXAMPLE, RIGHT NOW THE CITIES USE DEVELOPMENT AGREEMENTS. SO THAT'S BEEN DONE. YOU'RE CORRECT. WE USE FINANCIAL DISTRICTS. THAT'S BEEN DONE. THAT'S CORRECT. WE DID THE GAVELIN POLICE STATION. BUT ALL OF THOSE WERE A LITTLE DIFFERENT. And I just think it's important to single that we're going to look for ways to do projects low cost, more efficient, quicker, and maximize the public dollar. So I think that's all this is singling it.

And remember, we're up here. These are the big pictures, thoughts of what you all have committed to directing resources towards. So I think we do kind of want to keep it vague. And over time, you can certainly look at it and

decide that that's not something you want as a priority that this tremendous but you know what on that same note just what i've observed against your leadership uh... the mayor getting involved in others i think we have some good leverage we've got some good private partners right now it just depends on what the project will be i feel pretty comfortable i mean look at look at what's going to happen in the future growth area I mean, there's already developers that are willing to work with the city. I've seen it. And it seems like there's a good working relationship that has been established.

I agree, and we continue to work on it. And also... We talked a lot about the co-op. So we had residents come to us that asked, hey, we want this opportunity to co-op to own. That's also a partnership. So it's like, help me. Can we work on this so I can own my future? So it's not just the high-level stuff. It's all of that as well. And I see sometimes we focus so much on infrastructure, which is incredibly important, that we kind of leave people out of the equation. Or at least that's the perception, even though we're doing infrastructure for people. So I just think this gives us that kind of opportunity. And even the co-op, if you think about what's happening, if we can be a catalyst to spark that, that's a partnership.

And remember, too, that, you know, people in the private sector or people in financing, they're all going to be looking at your strategic plan too. To see it called out isn't like, oh, this is a city that is focusing on this, that has this as a priority. I'm going to go to them before I go to some other town. So I think it's just good to call it out that way.

Sounds good. Margaret?

I just had a question about the box on the bottom. I'm not sure exactly why that, if that's like a summary or what the box means, but the improved lighting in all city facilities, I know we've all talked about lighting throughout the city, not necessarily, when I think of facility, I think of a building or a structure versus street lighting. And street lighting isn't called out in the streets and sidewalks, but to me, that's a big area that we've talked about a lot that really needs attention. Because we have a very dark city and that creates an unsafe environment. So how do we call that out more specifically? Sure.

So the box on the bottom was just some general comments that I heard from more than one council member. So I just wanted to make sure I made note of them. Promoting completed projects. I don't think we need to do that as a plan. It was just a reminder that you all are doing a lot of really good work. Your staff is out there every day doing really good work. And so making sure that we're promoting that. Like, hey, we did do this because I think We spend a lot of time worrying about what we haven't done. So I think that was the first one. And then the second one, and I apologize if the word is incorrect. Facilities, in my mind, is both buildings and parks and parking lots and anything that is owned by the city. So I know this is something that's already in your work plan. And so it was just making sure that lighting is something that is focused on. But we can add it. if we need to more specifically or leave it as is.

It wouldn't be too big a stretch to just move it right up, improve the condition of the city street sidewalks and lighting.

That would be my suggestion. Yeah. Call it out.

You can run the table up here on our interest and commitment and more lighting. OK. Easy. So I would just make it a- Perfect. Great.

Thank you for mentioning that. Thank you.

Yeah. Thank you, Margaret. OK. Lori?

Oh, I'm so sorry. I agree on the lighting. That should be a priority for us in our city. Our city is very dark, especially in the retail areas. Yeah, you go to other cities and they're lit up and you come to our city, it's dark. We have an area that's very dark. So we need to light up our city. So to me, this is a priority.

Okay, wonderful. So we'll add that into the first bullet and include that in with street sidewalks and lighting. Anything else on that one?

No, it looks like we're good.

All right. Number four, easy. No one had any changes unless you do now. And again, this was the box at the bottom was just general comments that I kind of combined is making sure and I know that there's been great progress on this in terms of improving response time and customer service from City Hall and just kind of a reminder that we want to continue in that vein. So that's goal four. Any last minute thoughts on that one?

Mayor, I'm all about customer service. We're in the people business here. And sometimes that's one of my biggest concerns when people come to government offices that we have. It's important that people understand that the person that's coming is because they have a situation that they need help with. And we need to be inviting And sometimes it's scary coming here because people don't understand the situation. And sometimes I think when somebody will ask a question, it would be nice instead of sending them to the Department 2 and 3 and 4 to figure out a way, how can I assist this person while they're here? And maybe I can connect with Department 2. That way they don't, I get a lot of this. People tell me that they're always sending them everywhere.

When I hear high quality service, I would like to see that in action It's easy to see and this city has spent quite a bit of money on I'm sure we can always do better and so I'm sure the city manager is making notes of that I will say having run a city for many many years is that I learned it's like any of us we only complain when something is bad and we never complain and when the restaurant service is good. So I always try to remember that, that you never hear from the people who had happy service. So just a perspective.

Well, I think one of the things I would add just to underscore Tony's point, and it was brought up also at the last council meeting. I'm not sure we, do we have a formal volunteer coordinator? because we used to. For instance, if you go back to infrastructure, you use the phrase explore innovative ways. I think we're going to have to explore this customer service issue. I appreciate and applaud the training that's going on for employees, but the organization can only move so quickly and absorb so much at a certain time, but I think this accountability issue uh... customer service issue on behalf of that after the council i think i think we need to see if we can find some different or innovative ways for customer service. You know, it's interesting. A lot of folks tell me they have a great experience with Salinas Connect. Maybe we need to be talking about that more. Maybe we need to go to our good friends with Sea Hospitality in Monterey and go help us introduce the concierge customer service concept for the city. You know, get creative. So I think we need to think about this customer service issue. You know, we can tell people with a smile, it'll take 10 years to fix your sidewalk. But it'll be with a smile. And obviously we hope... Well, you know, that whole thing, that's its own conversation. But I think this idea of we know there's money, but we may need to be innovative about this in terms of some things because the public's kind of tired of 25 years, and it just seems to be kind of a moving target. So I think we're going to have to address. And customer service just simply may be a timely response. Here's what we think it is, and here's why. But at least you know. But we've got to be able to answer. We have to be able to answer. questions Also, you know so that that so I just kind of would underscore these these these last three So I'm looking at them trying to think of a way of kind of weaving in what you said innovative Exclamation point or solutions and I'm struggling to find that so I don't think but he sees any opportunity to add that word and

use innovation to provide high quality customer service.

So when you say high quality, can't you just say quality? What's high quality?

This is your plan, so I'm happy to teach it however you want. We can take out the word.

Just quality. It doesn't take a whole lot of training to be nice to people. You know what? You can send people to college and try to, hey, can you learn how to treat people right? I don't think you can learn that in college. It's got to come from you. Okay.

Do you have any ideas, Mayor, of anything to change here, or you want to just make this as notes to the city manager? Is that okay?

I mean, I think you heard it, and that's fine. It's comfortable. I mean, certainly I have confidence the conversation will be captured.

I do, too. Thank you.

Okay.

Moving on to goal five, which is public safety. So... What we see here is taking those first two bullets and basically rewording them and combining them into the bullet that's in bold. So it's the same priorities. It's just investing in staffing, operations, and infrastructure, making sure our response times are correct, making sure we're prepared for emergencies. looking at the future of the size of the community to make sure we're doing all of these things. So it's staffing for the future, preparing for the future. So just sort of a rewording of those first two bullets without taking away from anything.

And Mary, if I may. Please. You know, one thing I've learned just going on police ride-alongs, we've got some really good police officers that know about customer service because I've seen them. And sometimes... there's a police officer that will call the individual and say, you know what, we're super busy, in their own wording, but they say, we did get your call, we will be responding to you as quickly as we can. Man, that just goes far, you know what I'm saying? And I think that's part of customer service and response time. Sometimes police officers may be busy, but I've even seen officers that will take that time to be able to explain to them. Eventually we'll get there. People really appreciate that.

Thank you, that's a good point. So anything on this change and rewording, does anybody have any comments, concerns, thoughts?

Mr. Mayor. So again, I'm looking at the two boxes, prioritize community preparedness, add nonprofit partners. Is there wording in it? Go in there as well, or I did see those two notes.

Yeah. So the note on, I was about to get there. Yeah. So on the priority prioritized community preparatives, I did hear that as something that is important. Um, we can certainly emphasize that on emergency preparedness. Um, if you want to, I don't think it really needs to, I just wanted to comment that I had heard that quite a bit. And on the third one, um, I did hear a request to add, not just partner agencies, but nonprofit partners. Partner agencies seems to allude in people's minds to public agencies. So adding a nonprofit as just another bullet there, or not a bullet, another word there.

I THINK I MAY HAVE BEEN THE COUNCIL MEMBER THAT BROUGHT THOSE UP IN TERMS OF PUBLIC SAFETY AS FAR AS GETTING READY FOR THE NEXT MAJOR FIRE OR FLOOD OR EARTHQUAKE. WE HAVE NONPROFIT ORGANIZATIONS LIKE THE AMERICAN RED CROSS. OVER ON THE PENINSULA WE HAVE THE COMMUNITY EMERGENCY RESPONSE VOLUNTEERS SERVE WHO DEPLOY THEIR VOLUNTEERS IN THE EVENT OF LIKE A MAJOR NATURAL DISASTER. SO IF OUR CITY, AS WE THINK ABOUT EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS, THOSE ARE SOME ORGANIZATIONS, I MEAN, THAT'S WHAT THEY DO AND IT WOULD BE GOOD IF WE PARTNER WITH THEM AND HAVE THEM AS AN ALLY IN THE EVENT WHEN THE NEXT NATURAL DISASTER IS GOING TO HAPPEN.

So maybe this would kind of encompass both of it. I'm saying increase collaboration with nonprofit partners and partner agencies to address public safety and public health issues. How about that? Because public safety is also emergency preparedness. So that's looking at all kind of encompassing all of it. Does that work?

That works.

And I know I said this last time I was with you all, but I definitely encourage community preparedness.

Renee knows that well about me.

Any other changes on public safety? Okay.

All right.

Number six? Nothing. Everyone liked this one. So does anybody have any changes or additions now?

Okay.

Sailing along. Okay. Number seven, this is the proposed new goal that would add a seventh goal for the strategic plan for environmental sustainability and climate resiliency. This was a goal I understand maybe four or five years ago in a strategic plan that over time has kind of gotten encompassed into other goals and there seems to be a desire to add that back in. Certainly an important part of the work that is already being done in your city by your city staff. A lot of things are mandated by law to be in compliance with Water Act, pollution requirements, recycling laws. All these things were now being mandated to do so. It does behoove the council and the city to make this a set standalone goal. So I know they're very wordy and I apologize for that. I'm happy to read them, let y'all read them, go through them one at a time, whatever makes sense. So I guess the first question is, do we all agree that we want to have the seventh goal? Okay, so the first one would be protecting the community from flood risk, something we all worry about. By modernizing critical stormwater infrastructure, integrating green infrastructure, increasing the urban canopy urban canopy is also the tree canopy thoughts on that one just just I don't want I don't want the

integrating green infrastructure just to be I mean the way I read it's kind of saying we're gonna protect the community by Doing more green infrastructure, but I don't want it to be just that's what we're focused on is we're only planning to address flooding I think there needs to be an intentional approach to green infrastructure not just flooding I mean this seems like in response to a concern about flooding we want to plant, you know do more green infrastructure and

What if we made those into two bullets? So the first one would be protect the community from increasing flood risk by modernizing critical stormwater infrastructure. And then the next one would be integrate green infrastructure and increase the urban canopy. Does that work? Okay. Everybody okay with that?

Heidi's really excited about it.

Look at that smile.

No, no, she's, trust me, she's thrilled.

Oh, she just got from her service.

She really is. There we go. See, I mean, you're smiling. We're all smiling. It's all about the trees. Okay.

We could put a footnote to fund it as well, not just make it part of our strategic plan, but yes.

Okay. I'm making a dollar sign there. Anything else on those? So now the first one has now become two bullets. Anything on those? All right, the next one will be enhanced local water supply reliability and drought resilience by implementing water capture, recharge, and recycling and reuse projects. Lofty goal, but a good one. You're good? I'm getting a nod. Everyone good on that one? Yes?

I have a question. Sure. Could there be the inclusion of like, TO HELP ADDRESS SEA WATER INTRUSION, SOMETHING ALONG THOSE LINES?

SEA WATER INTRUSION IN WHAT SPECIFICALLY?

AS IT APPROACHES OUR CITY AND OUR GROUNDWATER. IT'S NOT SOMETHING WE EVER DISCUSS AS A CITY BUT I THINK IT NEEDS TO BE HIGHLIGHTED THAT SEA WATER IS COMING AND I THINK IT'S RIGHT AT THE BORDER.

I think in my mind, I'm not a water specialist, but what little I do know, I think with the protecting against increasing flood risk, that part of those efforts will be about seawater intrusion. So because flood risk is not just rain coming down, it's sea level rise as well. But we could certainly put in sea level rise somewhere, if you want?

Renee has a comment.

Yeah, if that's something, let us work with REVA on that. We are obviously a member of the Salinas Valley Groundwater Sustainability Agency, which is actively working on that. so it's much, so it's more than just us. Maybe we can figure out a way to craft it so we are, you know, increase our intentionality and participation. We are targeting bringing a water master, one water plant to the council. I've told you that we've been working on it for a while, so hopefully it gets to you by the end of the month. That'll speak of some of those efforts. So if you allow us to kind of, we can work together and sort of craft it, because I do agree it's important.

But it's something that we're working with a lot of our other partners on and we need to be more intentional about it Yeah, whatever we can do to weave it in there just so we know that that's okay Thank you for bringing that up and the third which will now be the fourth bullet will be improved local water quality by reducing stormwater pollution to our creeks and advancing multi-benefit projects and So this could look as stormwater capture projects that reuse that water to irrigate during dry months, those types of projects. Any comments on that?

Yeah. Yes. I think it's a good line, maybe add and focus on debris cleanup within our waterways.

That's a big one.

So improve local water quality and, I'm trying to figure out how to say that, by reducing stormwater pollution and debris removal and trash. Trash in our creeks though, not to our creeks. Okay, got that. Any other changes on that one? Okay. The next one is advance the city's transition toward a low carbon energy future by promoting energy efficiency, renewable energy generation, and clean mobility options.

All good? Mr. City Manager, can you explain that one there?

I think it's moving towards having like electric fleets, I'd imagine, as part of that.

Yeah. So a lot of it's electrification. We belong to 3CE. So part of it is how do we promote renewable energy for future growth? So looking at whether it's micro grids, micro technology, some of the other storage opportunities. We're even having a conversation with 3CE. And this is being developed so we can bring it to the council about a utility and how to sort of power our future. PG&E is going to be a big part of that as well. INVESTOR-OWNED UTILITIES. SO IT'S REALLY TRYING TO GIVE US THE BREATH TO KIND OF EXPLORE ALL THESE TECHNOLOGIES. TO THE EXTENT, I THINK WE HAVE SOME OPPORTUNITIES WITH THEIR WASTEWATER IN THIS SPACE THAT WE JUST HAVEN'T KIND OF EXPLORED TO THE LEVEL IT'S GOING TO BE EXPLORED. SO NOT THAT IT'S GOING TO HAPPEN TOMORROW, BUT IT GIVES US THE ABILITY TO WORK TOWARDS THAT.

We're seeing a lot of cities looking at, you know, whether it's solar generation or, as city manager said, energy storage, not necessarily creating their own grid, but having the opportunity to have microgrids within the cities. Obviously, we're seeing what's happening with electric supply throughout the state, particularly in our hotter months. So I think it's a long-term goal to be able to have some alternatives that the city is responsible for.

Thank you. So would clean mobility options include like the consideration of like e-bikes or scooters or bike rentals?

It's everything. It's the entire gamut of things that we don't even know tomorrow what it's going to be out there. But yeah, so it would be e-bikes, anything that's a renewable source.

So can we call out a little bit more specifically, because just clean mobility options, people are maybe thinking electric cars or things like that. Is there a way to include some maybe alternative non-vehicle or non-car options?

I would suggest sort of reading the city manager's mind that until they're further along with some of the potential projects you might want to hold back in this particular document, but you could have other things that are a little more detailed, but I'll leave it to the city manager.

Yeah, that's kind of where I was thinking, but if the council wants us to put a little more detail, let us work through it, because you're going to get this back when we bring the budget. So we'll have it. So it's not like, you know, you'll see kind of as we're trying to adjust it based on the feedback today.

I was just thinking, as you shared a little bit earlier, that people are reading our strategic plan. So if there is that, you know, somebody saying, oh, look, they're looking at, you know, alternatives to vehicles and maybe scooters or bike rentals, maybe they'll see, you know, bring a proposal to the city. That was my thinking behind that.

I mean, we could. change the word mobility to transportation, or mobility and transportation, and maybe that captures it?

Yeah, if you can give us, let us work through that, and you'll see it as part of the budget document.

Okay, thank you.

Did you want an e-bike?

I'm kidding. No, but I've had residents say other cities have those rental options and maybe a way to get people out of their vehicles if they have an option.

Absolutely, yeah.

We're investing significantly in bike lanes and things like that, so just increasing the access to folks.

Yeah, so let's see if we can work on increasing the access. I would caution against being that specific. Some cities are struggling with e-bikes. So I would just be real careful, like really teasing it out so we can sort of frame it in a way that allows for that, but we don't kind of specifically call it out. That's what I would suggest.

Any other comments on that one? Okay. And then the last one would be promote community resource stewardship by reducing landfill waste through increased diversion of compostable and recyclable waste. Probably already doing that one.

Mr. Mayor, if I may, I heard somewhere that there's a possibility the Madison name might be going back to the Crazy Horse?

No, no crazy horse will be open it along with the landfill.

Yeah No, it's not an either-or will become both thank you So those are all of our new goals in goal 7 did anybody have anything they want to add in addition to what we put in here I

Yeah, I'd like to add something about reduce the use of pesticide use and maybe create some buffer zones or additional protection for residents.

So can you be more specific on city property?

On city property, but as well as, you know, I mean, there are cities that have, and this is something we talked about at the League of Cities, but there are cities who have additional restrictions on pesticide use within their city limits for agricultural as well.

so kind of an eye the city attorney here in terms of what the city is allowed to do in limiting the use of pesticides on private property i know you can do certain things on city property but banning things on private is possible or not possible yeah so i would to the extent that we are doing um goals for the city i would recommend that it be limited to city property as opposed to private property

but could it be included? I mean, is that something that's feasible to do? I know that's your recommendation, but.

Well, I don't think it's feasible to regulate private property in that way, at least without looking into this some more. So I would suggest, give us an opportunity to look at that and see if we can't include private property as well as public property in the school. Just give us a chance to think about it. Sure, so for now, maybe city property.

Yeah, because along those same lines, Mr. Callahan, Do I may and go to we're talking about effectively promoting health and safety of unsheltered residents. There's been a lot of conversation around spray and it's impacting people. Yes, I would. I would appreciate us looking into it somehow.

We can certainly do that, but I would just sort of caution you that the recent complaints about quote unquote pesticide use may not be entirely accurate. Let's just be careful about the road that we go down.

Okay. But with that, and I appreciate what you just said, is there any, because you know what a lot of times. I'll use the word lightly a lot of times we get beat up with misinformation. So would it be right for us to give the factual information? Actually, if somebody's bringing an issue, would it be right for us to look into it and give out the factual information?

That's part of the reason why I suggested give us an opportunity to look at it.

Yeah, so along with the city attorney, we are actually based, it's come up a few times now, we follow a lot of strict protocols. You can spread your house with less restrictions than I can as a public employee. And so I think we can bring all that information to you. And then actually you can also tell us, well, we don't want you to spray on city parks. So we can adopt those. And frankly, we do pay a lot of attention to that. But we can tighten that up. We can have a policy and so forth. So I think that's all appropriate, but just let us look into it. And then we can go there. And as far as buffers, we already have with LAFCO and so forth, we already have some sort of... Um things that we have to do when it comes to compatible between urban and role and ag and how you align things and so forth. So that's all kind of already part of the mix a lot of times. So just give us an opportunity to kind of discuss all that and bring that forward.

Because certain cities have specific policies, weed tolerances, like as far as height, you know, as opposed to weed eating as opposed to absolutely absolutely.

So just let us look at that. I think it's going to be a little long conversation, but if you tell us to bring that back, we can bring it back.

So just to be clear, we're going to hold off on adding that as a bullet, or you want to add that? I wasn't clear on what the desire is.

I'd like a reference to it. I'm not sure how we can leave that in there, because I do think we're talking about the environment, so how can we leave?

asking the city attorney, would it be okay if we added in analyze the use?

Yeah, I think we understand the intent of what you're trying to get at. Just give us an opportunity to, one, look at it, and then we can come up with some language that addresses your concern, Council Member. Thank you.

Great. Well, that is that. So next steps will be your staff will include all of this Towards the work plan and the budget for next year where you will get funding to get all these wonderful things done So does anybody have any? last thoughts questions comments, smiles.

I do. So I know that when we have items that are brought to the agenda, they reference our strategic goals. What would be helpful for me, and I know we kind of do it through our budget process, but I don't remember if during our budget process we actually look at each goal and identify what progress we've made on that specific goal, or do we only highlight the ones that we did make progress on?

So Lisa, help me out. We did bring that update to you, but if you want us to look at our actual individual staff reports as we beat that up a little bit more, we can, if I'm understanding, but.

I'm not sure I understood the question. So we have, in the staff reports, we do have the, where we reference in the strategic goals section, and we brought all of our, so we have those objectives, and then we listed a number of action items and where we were on those projects, and they were, broken out to one-year, two-year, three-year implementation timeframes. And I assume we're going to keep coming back to each year with how we're doing on each of those objectives, and we'll probably add more to them. Was there something else you were looking for in terms of reporting out?

No, that was my question is, and I didn't remember if these specifically, if the strategic goals, we actually review each one and show what we made progress on each specific one, or if we're only bringing back the ones that we did make progress on. That was my question.

No, we did each and every one. It was a couple months ago. It was a lengthy document, if you remember. And I only highlighted just the highlights, but the actual report contained, and it was in the agenda packet. And I'm happy to provide that list to you again. But our intention is that each year around January, February is to report out how we're doing on each of these objectives with all of our action items and where we are in the status of them.

Thank you. Mm-hmm.

All right. We're adjourned. Reva, thank you. Great to see you, as always. My pleasure.

Nice to see you all.

Part of the city family now.

Thank you. I love that.

You're almost a regular.