City Council - Regular Meeting

Everybody to the June 16th, 2026 Salinas City Council meeting. We'll go ahead and call the meeting to order and I'll ask the city clerk to weigh in as she always does so capably.

This meeting is available in Spanish for members of the public in attendance and on Zoom. Translation devices can be obtained in the foyer. Okay.

This meeting includes teleconference participation by Councilmember Andrew Sandoval pursuant to California Government Code Section 54953. Zoom webinar participation is available for members of the public. The Zoom webinar ID and link is available on the posted agenda on the City website. And with that, will everyone please stand for the pledge?

under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you. Why don't we go ahead and call the roll?

Councilmember Barajas, absent. Councilmember Barrera? Here. Councilmember DeRigo? Present. Councilmember De La Rosa? Here. Councilmember Salazar?

Here.

Councilmember Sandoval?

Here.

Mayor Donahue?

I am here. Thank you. All right. He's outside. Good screensaver. All right. We are going to head into closed session. Is there any public comment about closed session before we do that? All right. Seeing none, we are going to go in and discuss labor negotiations and be back shortly. Or it says we'll be back by 4. There is nothing to report out from closed session. We are now open for public comment on items that are not on the agenda and that are in the City of Salinas' subject matter jurisdiction. Comments on consideration, public hearing items, and the consent agenda should be held until those items are reached. Public comment will be two minutes. Each person who addresses the City Council during public comment shall do so in an orderly manner and should not make any personal, slanderous, or profane remarks to any member of the City Council, City staff, or the general public. Any person who makes such remarks or uses threatening, personal, or abusive language, or who engages in any other disorderly conduct which disrupts or disturbs the meeting may be asked to leave the City Council Chambers. And with that, we are open for business.

This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. Good After Eve, everyone. My name is Kimberly Bryant and I'm here to offer a prayer over our city. Heavenly Father, I ask you to open the eyes of our heart so that we can see you rightly. I ask for vision for our city and over our city, Lord. Lord, I ask you to release a plumb line over this rotunda right now to make our crooked places straight. Lord, that there would be a return to righteousness, a return to truth, a return to holiness. Father, I ask you to just come in mighty power over our city and call your lost children home. Bring the prodigals home and those who are found, Lord, in you, Lord, that they would enrich their relationship with you, Father. Let your kingdom come. Let your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Amen.

Good afternoon. My name is Denise Estrada, and at your June 2nd council meeting, I came before you in the position of liaison to the city for the Heritage Park Stakeholders Group. After thoughtful consideration, you unanimously approved the name Salinas City Heritage Park. This action will serve to help promote the historic center of Salinas and encourage economic opportunities around heritage tourism. As a follow up, I'm here tonight to say thank you. As one of the legion of many of the volunteers who've donated years and hours and hours of time at this site, we are truly appreciative of your action that demonstrates your understanding of the value of our efforts. During these politically contentious times when divisive actions separate people and keep us all from achieving our best outcomes, our coalition of stakeholders recognizes that we must stay true to the mission of respect for one another and solidarity in our purpose we expect the same from our elected leaders and on june 2nd this council demonstrated their understanding and support of our mission we thank you Further, Salinas is a city of champions as we regularly demonstrate at our recognition events. I'm here also to thank all of the volunteers, not just Heritage Park stakeholders and our near property partners, but also the legions of people who volunteer for soccer fields, seniors, the libraries, the commissions, the air show, many at the rodeo, and so many at other activities. I thank you and them as well for making this a better place for us all to live in Salinas. Thank you.

Good afternoon. Mark Dorman with the Monterey and Salinas Valley Railroad. We're inside with Heritage Park. I want to thank you for making that change. It has already had a positive effect for us, and I think that's the important part. Denise covered how we got there, but there's already been a result. We've had people come looking for us because they heard we were in Heritage Park. We've had people... give donations to us because we are in Heritage Park. Being a part of the park has opened up doors for us to obtain grant funding and improve our services to the citizens of the city, which we provide free, no admission to our museum, and all that is done without expense to the city. So it's an investment without time or money from the city that I think can pay great dividends in the future. Thank you. Thank you.

Hi, thanks for having us. I'm Mary Jane Choate, and I'm a retired teacher from many years in the Alice House School District. And I volunteer with the First Mayor's House, helping to coordinate the school field trips. And we love having third graders visit us. We've had over 1,000 this past spring, including their chaperones and teachers and everyone. And I received just this week an envelope with the letters from Mrs. Freeman's class at Baronda Meadows School. And I wanted to read one of the third graders letters. The kids alternate through stations around the first mayor's house learning about Salinas history. And then they go down to the Welcome Center and learn about the importance of the trains coming to Salinas. So that's what this letter is about. It says, Dear First Mayor's House, thank you for welcoming our third grade class from Buronda Meadows to tour the First Mayor's House and the Welcome Center. My favorite room was the parents' room because I learned that back then when women washed their gloves, their gloves would shrink. So they had this thing called a stretcher, and the stretcher would help them make their gloves bigger. That's something kids have never heard about. Another one of my favorite things I did was doing the chores. Pumping water, washing socks, making cream, and we even played with hoops and sticks like kids did in the olden days. But finally, my last favorite room was the Welcome Center because we got to learn why we're called the salad bowl. I think that's pretty special that kids are not only learning at the mayor's house about Salinas history, but also about all the little towns in the Salinas Valley and how important they are and how important the train was to them. Your support. Okay, thank you.

Daniel Munoz, East Salinas resident. I'm gonna be nice and not say anything about the Welcome Center, because I don't want to take it there, but the reason why I'm here today is because of the spraying of poison all over the city. It's still happening. As a matter of fact, I was driving by the soccer fields yesterday, and they were spraying poison in the soccer fields. It's called Roundup. Glyphosates is the proper term for the chemical that they're using. We don't have to be using these chemicals. There's nothing written in stone. We don't have contractual obligations to use their stuff. There's no reason why we have to be using this. City Manager Rene Mendez could make a simple phone call to Public Works. He could also make a phone call to Smith Enright and let them know, hey, no more glyphosates, right? They could do that if they want, but he doesn't. He chooses not to. It's ridiculous that we have to even worry about this. They shouldn't be spraying it in sandboxes. They shouldn't be spraying it where people are playing. It's like soccer fields. I mean, can we have some common sense application of this poison at least? I mean, sprayed in areas where people aren't present, sprayed during hours. I mean, there are requirements. There are guidelines. If it's windy past more than 10 miles per hour, they're not supposed to be using it. They're not supposed to be using it multiple days in a row. But just like a bunch of cowboys running around Salinas doing whatever they want, that's how the city of Salinas is handling this. It's very irresponsible. It's very negligent. But I mean, hey, they can't prove that they get cancer from that. So who cares, right? That's the attitude. They can't prove where the cancer comes from. So let's just act like it's not a big deal. It is a big deal. It's very serious. Protect our children. City Manager, Assistant City Manager Lisa Murphy. Renee's not here. But can somebody pick up the phone and make a phone call and do some common sense protecting of our children here? Make it make sense.

Good afternoon, Mayor and City Council members. My name is Alan Stumpf. and I'm a retired longtime city employee and also a longtime resident of Salinas. I first want to congratulate the council and thank you for officially naming the Salinas City Heritage Park. The park is now officially a cultural center for what Salinas has been, but it's also the connection for all the future activities taking place, all the activities taking place there now and in the future. For many, many years now, the modest investments, first of the Salinas Redevelopment Agency, and now the city, have been leveraged many, many times by investments by entities such as, as you've heard, the First Mayor's House, the Model Railroaders, and diverse as TAMC and the California Welcome Center, and so on. With your continued support and investment, We will also be bringing additional rail service to our city and our region. Again, thank you for your foresight and your investment. Thank you very much.

Hello, good afternoon City Council. My name is Erin Lawrence. I am a Monterey County resident and I work with an organization called Monterey Waterkeeper. I am the Outdoor Education and Outreach Coordinator and I do work with water quality monitoring and youth engagement. And I'm here today to ask you to support our Gabblin Creek to Coast restoration project in your budget. THIS PROJECT IS ABOUT RESTORING ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT.

IF THIS IS RELATED TO THE BUDGET, WE'LL HAVE TO ASK YOU TO WAIT UNTIL THE BUDGET HEARING COMES UP, OKAY?

OKAY. SORRY. WHEN IS THAT?

IT'S COMING RIGHT AFTER PUBLIC. THERE WILL BE ONE HEARING BEFORE THAT AND THEN WE'LL GO RIGHT INTO THE BUDGET. THANK YOU.

Good evening, Mayor and council members. I'm Theresa Savage with Sea Monterey, and I'm here. We've had a long working relationship together with the city and the Salinas Valley, and I'm here in support of the Heritage Park project as well. This project has become an investment in tourism, a downtown revitalization, and Salinas identity. Heritage Park creates a true gateway to Salinas, transforming that arrival point into a destination that sells the story rather than just serving as a transit stop. Tourism is about an experience and not just attractions. Heritage Park connects our railroad history, agricultural heritage, historic downtown into a single visitor experience. more visitors downtown mean more supports for local businesses when travelers have a reason to stop walk explore they spend money at restaurants hotels and local attractions this project will leverage the investments already made and heritage parker helps maximize those returns on investments making the area more marketable and visitor friendly And in closing, tourism is one of the cleanest forms of economic development. It brings outside dollars into our community and supports local business. Thank you for your decisions and appreciate you guys. Thank you.

Good evening. Everybody looks wonderful up there. I've had a lot of reflection in 2026. It's a great year so far, challenging, and there's a lot of heat that comes this way, a lot of passion from a lot of people here, and I'm looking to shift mine a little bit, but I look at these problems that we're having here, and we talk some things about a lot of things going around, like I believe there's solutions in everything we're doing, whether it's Oversight with the rodeo who's in the foundation of it the most amazing event in our community? and I think that their solutions aren't it doesn't have to be so combative and You know I think that you know our challenges with the finances of our city I first and foremost I hope the cops and the firefighters Get a raise oh they deserve it But you know what that said I see for instance tickets being given to cars out here when there's empty spots next to them go down to harkins i think we should have the guy parked on harkins and giving every single semi truck that's recklessly abandoning their equipment and utilizing our resources defecating all over every one of them needs to be ticketed every single night and they're lined up that's one thing that can happen but i also want to i just uh say prayer for jose um I might not approve of the flags, but that doesn't mean that I don't approve of him. And I pray for him, and I hope that he gets a swift recovery. And thank you all for being a part of our city and working so hard. Thank you. Thank you, Michael.

Jose Mendoza, District 1. My main purpose for me being here today is to speak out against my district representative, Mr. Barajas, who's still not here. Also, I just can't understand why, Mayor, you would nominate him to be on the Oversight Committee for the Rodale. I feel was wrong, not just me, but a lot of people in my community, in my district, they feel the same way. They feel that, one, it was wrong to remove Mr. Sandoval. To me, it appears to be retaliation. So question is, is the city council and yourself required to follow the city's established harassment retaliation policy? As far as Mr. Barajas, if he's on medical leave, how is he going to do a fair job on the committee? Doesn't he require medical doctors releasing him from medical leave? Just a lot of questions, a lot of people have. It's just kind of shady to me. Well, Mr. Baraha needs to respond to my emails and phone calls, along with other constituents, because we've got a lot of stuff in District 1 going on at this time. You shouldn't be posting half-naked selfies on Instagram. If you know, you know. The other thing, lastly, as far as District 1, for the last few months I've noticed there's four vacant committee positions on the website. One of them is a police advisory committee, which I think is a very important one to have filled, and streets, whatever that committee is called.

Good evening council. I just want to say like I wanted to comment on I wonder where you guys at Making them more accessible for homeless people to have more confidence and having resources because I have like he's not a friend but there's this guy who's struggling and he has to wait like he's been waiting probably like for Four months for to get approved from a shelter, but every second matters, you know like between that weight and It's a lot of time, and hopefully you guys could consider this comment. And yeah, also, I'm from the east side, and I don't know who would I have to turn for my cousins, and hopefully he'll have a speedy recovery, but where do we turn to that's for people from my district? That's that's all I guess more efficiency more confidence Also more reasonable time for homeless people to move More designated places so they could go because if they don't really feel they have that much resources That could overwhelm someone. But anyways, that's all I want to say. Thank you so much. All right.

Thank you Hello City Council David Mason of district 3 I wanted to bring up something. I went to the meeting for Chinatown, and I was kind of taken back a little bit when they were talking about finances, that nothing's really been done except for some planning, and it's cost the city, and I believe they said $1.2 million to get to where they're at now, which is absolutely nowhere. They've been looking at putting things together, and again, I was surprised because the city keeps saying, we're not in the business of development. We're not in the business of building. Yet, the city is taking on costs that pertain to building. Something you might want to think about. If you're not going to do it, don't. If you are, don't tell us you're not. Thank you. Thank you.

Robert Reyes. Mr. Mayor, I'm looking at the last two or three months of statements that you've made and the positions that you've taken. One of them is that you're not for tenant rights, so you side with the landlord there. That's pretty clear with most of the community. When it comes to the Rodeo, the city is the landlord, but yet you side with the tenant, which is the Rodeo. So to put you in a box and the people that are here, we're trying to make sense of the way you think. Is it a compromise in the way you think in the terms of if Andrew is there asking questions that generate income for the city, you remove him? Because that's kind of like the picture that you've drawn, right? And so you start putting people in there that aren't going to be fighting for the city. But you're the landlord. You're the landlord here. And your position seems to be a compromised position. Your vision also seems to be short-sighted. You are more concerned with the dollar or two dollars that we're going to get per casino table than the amount of parking that you could have received had you stayed with the soccer field. There are over 420 parking spots just in the first section. This new section has now brought in another 380. The amount of revenue, and for the city to lease that for $1. And then that entity, they thrive on mostly government grants. For example, The last job that was given was given to Don Chapin. He made over $7 million in construction work. Don Chapin sits on the board. Don Chapin came here two months ago and spoke about the Heritage Center, about why it was a good thing to lease that to them for $1. You see, $1 when you get land and infrastructure, a lot of people can thrive on that. but it starts to seem like we need to know the mayor in order to be able to get those deals your deals are short-sighted four or five tables two or three dollars thank you all right we'll go ahead and see who's on zoom um all right mary randall you are up

Hi, good evening. I want to thank the City Council for renaming the Intermodal Transportation Center the Salinas City Heritage Park. By doing so, you have recaptured the plan of our original citizens to use that area as a place for our people to gather as a community. What was once an area of blight, like 20 years ago, 25 years ago, is slowly being redeveloped into a destination. One of the most important things that we share with our thousand plus third graders and their parents is that Everyone in Salinas was a migrant or an immigrant in this generation or a former one. We think of the Californios, the Gold Rush pioneers, Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, the Vaqueros, the Braceros, the Dust Bowl migrants, and today's immigrants. Each of them has contributed to make Salinas the wonderful city it is now. We have problems. Every city has problems, but our front door is open and we look forward to a bright and economically rewarding future together. Together, we will keep our history alive and our future bright. Thank you.

Thank you, Mary. All right, Jose.

Hi, good afternoon. I'm coming in. Sorry I'm late. Some of us have real things to do. First thing I want to say is I saw you guys are fixing a street over here. John Circle? What a joke. John Circle. Does anybody pass by John Circle? It's like a parking area. Tony, that's your area, isn't it? It's your Barajas. Why are we fixing that road when we have all these other roads that need to be fixed? Come on, guys. Really? Man, look at you. You're all squinting and looking away and looking down. You have no respect for the people in Salinas, really? Come on. Mayor, you could do better. I sure hope you don't get re-elected, honestly. Because you're just going to drive us into a bigger deficit than we have now. And you guys want to make comments, man, you know what? Come see me and talk to me like a person. Let's go have a cup of coffee and be real people. We don't have to negotiate with, you know, politics or what's going on. Let's just be friends. Mayor, you stopped coming. What happened? Everybody misses you. Where's the mayor? I said, I don't know. He's busy. But guys, we need a... Go to your districts and fix everything, please. Look at your roads. You should be embarrassed to be in Salinas and your friends come over and say, wow, all that money you guys getting, you guys can't fix your roads. Sad, very sad. I'm embarrassed to say, you know what, you guys are representing Salinas. No disrespect, but man, it's sad. Everybody's looking at the clock, he's got 10 seconds. Yeah, I do. MAYOR, PLEASE DO YOUR JOB. NOW THAT YOU DON'T HAVE A JOB, DO YOUR JOB. ALL RIGHT. GOD BLESS YOU GUYS. HAVE A GOOD DAY AND, YOU KNOW, LA ROSA, LET'S HAVE COFFEE SOMETIME. DON'T BE SCARED. HAVE A GOOD DAY.

ALL RIGHT. THANK YOU.

ALL RIGHT.

WITH THAT, WE WILL CLOSE PUBLIC COMMENT AND WE'RE GOING TO DO A REAL LIVE PUBLIC HEARING AND I THINK WE'RE Oh yeah, but before we jump to that, I want to note the moderate one water informational update has been continued till after the break and now we'll go ahead and do a public hearing.

And I think we're looking for Courtney.

That over there is alright, there you go.

thank you mayor and members of the council this afternoon we' re going to talk about a pud on 200 casatini street. The location is 200 casatini street the general plan designation is Looking at the subject site, 4.59 acres, the right-hand side, the blue line, is the alignment of a creek, and we'll talk about that in a minute. This project was reviewed by the Planning Commission. The Planning Commission recommended approval on May 20th, 2026. This project started back in 1992. There's a little bit of history on this one. A 1992 PUD authorized about 120 units on the entirety of the property and it had essentially three phases. What has happened so far is that there have been construction on what they call Mariposa Apartments, the Manzanita House, and what we're looking at today is the last phase. And what that means is we're looking at 88 residential units, or what we call multi-family residential dwelling units. These would be subject to site plan review in the PUD, so the delegation of authority from council to staff to review the final product would come at the site plan review level, which is administrative. and a daycare subject to conditional use permit. So the commission is going to be, or sorry, the council is going to be asked to make a decision on the PUD and the conditional use permit. Those are the two discretionary actions. So you have PUD and CUP. This shows the three phases. The phase first, or first phase, is where the number one is. This would be where the Mariposa Apartments have been constructed. Phase two, the square kind of in the middle there, facing lower to Cassantini Street. This is where the Manzanita House is, which I believe is operated by Interim Inc. And what we're talking about today is phase three, that remainder site, which is currently vacant. The PUD from 1992 included three phases. They're listed there, 50, 20, and 50 units. So what this project does is it modifies the PUD from 1992. This slide shows an aerial, sorry, not an aerial, but rather a drawing of the site. So what we're looking at here In terms of the project, we have 87 affordable units, 88 total. One of them is a manager unit. There are amenities, including community rooms, fitness center, basketball court, tot lot, and business computer room. There's other items happening on this site. And I'm going to find the laser. I think it's this one. On the screen here, nope. I think laser's dead. So on the right side is the creek alignment. There was a study that allowed encroachment into the 100-foot creek area. And in this case, I think they're holding back at 35 feet, and that's where the abundance of the open space is provided. We're looking at about 27,000 square feet of usable open space. Down in the lower portion of the site, down by Cassantini Street, there are two access points. One of them is the access point into the apartment project or the multifamily units. The first building is the leasing building. Next to and immediately to the right, which would be more or less to the east, is where the daycare center is. And it has a separate access and a separate parking lot on Cassantini Street. This is the chart that shows how affordability is proposed in this particular project. Again, 88 units are proposed, 87 are affordable. In this case, there's a mix of what we call income levels or unit mix, 30%, 40%, 50, and 60 of AMI for the various categories of income. 87 units in total for affordability. This slide includes the density bonus waivers. In this case, with state law, waivers are a part of housing projects which are affordable. In this case, one of the waiver requests is a reduction in the number of parking spaces provided on site. The zoning code requires a certain number of parking stalls. In this case, the state of California has adopted something called AB2097, which means that if a site is located within a half a mile of a performing bus stop that has service of 20 minutes or less, then no parking is required. So in this case, this waiver really is inapplicable because no parking is required to begin with. The second one is the reduction of open space. About 44,000 square feet of open space is required. In this particular proposal, 27,000, I think 305 square feet is being provided. There is a requirement in the zoning code to provide four-bedroom and three-bedroom units to provide for larger families. In this case, a waiver is requested to reduce and eliminate or waive the four-bedroom requirement. So no four bedrooms will be provided in this project. And the fourth one is about tandem parking. This means that parking stalls will be loaded end-to-end in what we call tandem parking. Next slide shows the architecture on the top of the residential buildings and then the daycare at the bottom. Generally earth tone colors, changes in planes and pitch on roof lines and architectural projections which meet the zoning code development and design standards. Analysis, the project facilitates a number of items. One, general plan policies promoting residential higher densities, affordable housing, efficient land use, and it meets the purposes of the high density residential zoning district. In this case, 21 units towards the city's RHNA capacity and the provision of 10 extremely low, 54 very low, and 24 low income units. ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW, IN TERMS OF CEQA, THERE ARE A NUMBER OF EXEMPTIONS IN THIS PARTICULAR CASE. THREE IN TOTAL. TWO APPLY FOR WHAT WE CALL THE PLAN UNIT DEVELOPMENT PERMIT AND TWO FOR THE CONDITION OF USE PERMIT. ONE OF THEM APPLIES TO BOTH. ESSENTIALLY MULTIPLE PHASED PROJECTS. THE ORIGINAL PROJECT WENT THROUGH AN ENVIRONMENTAL PROCESS AND THIS IS THE THIRD OF THE THREE PHASES. ENFIL, WHICH IS THE CLASSIC CLASS, WHAT WE CALL 32 ENFIL EXEMPTION, AND FOR THE CONDITIONAL USE PERMIT, IT'S A SMALL CONSTRUCTION OF A SMALL STRUCTURE, RATHER, IN THIS CASE THE DAYCARE, AND ENFIL AS WELL. SO ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW OF THE PROJECT IS EXEMPT. Recommended action the Planning Commission recommended approval back on May 20th The City Council is being asked to confirm the findings that are in the resolution find the project exempt to the various sequel findings of one five one six five one point four three oh three one five three three two for the sequel guidelines approve the PUD authorizing construction of 88 units and the various related site improvements on the site, subject to administrative site plan review, and the daycare subject to a CUP, then the final action would be approval of the CUP for construction and operation of the daycare center with related site improvements. This concludes staff's presentation. Staff's available for questions.

Thank you, Courtney. All right. Any questions? I'll start with Margaret.

Yes, can you give us an idea of what the delay was from 1992 till now to finish phase three? Was that what was caused by that or maybe probably a combination of things?

Yeah, I'm not really sure. I can only go back to 1996. I think I was the planner on the Interim Inc. site, so that was a couple years after the approval. I wasn't here back in 1992. I think that the first phase went fairly quickly. The second phase, four years later, and why it took so long to get to this particular phase, I think that's a really good question of the applicant.

Okay, because I know we've talked about the importance of infill projects and the importance of more housing. I just wondered why we were sitting on empty land for so long. It didn't seem to make sense to me. I also have a question about the daycare. Will that be open to all residents, not just residents that reside on the property? Will that be open to the community if there's extra spots?

I'd like to defer that one to the applicant. I think the operator of the daycare is here with us today, and those answers would probably best come from him.

I'd be curious because we don't know what the population is going to look like that moves in and whether they would have a need for daycare or not. And then, so you said that only 21 of them will meet the RENA requirements? Can you explain a little bit about that?

That is a really good question for housing. I'm not sure why we only get to the 21 based on the number of affordability units provided. That's a little bit out of my wheelhouse.

Is there someone here that can answer that or is that a I'll get back to you kind of thing?

Is there someone from housing that can? We can follow up with you on that specific question, Councilmember.

Okay, but if we vote tonight, then that'll be kind of a moot point, right? Are we voting on anything tonight, or we're just taking?

We're approving the project tonight, irrespective of whatever RENA objectives it needs.

Okay, but yeah, I'd like to know that. And then you also said that it is EIR exempt, correct? Because it's already been done?

Correct, yeah. There are three different categorical exemptions applied to the two permits for the overall project. Yes, correct.

okay and then my final question um i just received this after the the um the closed session that's 26 s 221 um maybe mr callahan can you explain what this is and i haven't had a chance to even look at it but

Yeah, I'm not quite sure what this is. I haven't had an opportunity to review it in any great detail, but it appears to be a complaint for damages filed against a couple of contractors. It's not clear whether those contractors are related to this project or not. I'm not sure the relevance of these allegations to this project.

so something you're surprised as well so maybe we can follow up with that after after tonight i would appreciate that like i said i just i haven't had a chance to even peek at it but okay that answers my questions thank you great thank you courtney nick sorry my question is okay was there any opposition to this project

The Planning Commission was pretty quiet. There were a couple of questions raised by commissioners, but overall, I believe I have not seen or I'm not aware of opposition.

The residents were notified around that area.

Correct. In fact, if we can pop on the PowerPoint presentation, we go one more slide past the recommendation slide. If that's possible, there are photos of the public notice. I think it's one more slide after questions.

OKAY.

THERE WE GO. SO WE PUT NOTICES AT THE SITE FOR BOTH THE PLANNING COMMISSION, THE COUNCIL, PUBLIC PLACES, SO YES, AND MAILING NOTICES WENT OUT 300 FEET TO THE NEIGHBORS.

ALL RIGHT. WELL, IT'S GOOD TO SEE THAT A PROJECT OF THIS IS COMING FORWARD, AFFORDABILITY. WE NEED TO HOUSE OUR COMMUNITY MEMBERS. MY SECOND QUESTION WOULD BE THE DAY CARE. HOW MANY CHILDREN WILL YOU BE ABLE TO SERVE?

I think that would be a good question for the potential operator and the applicant.

OK, the operator. And then my other question is, who will run the daycare center?

Would that be the applicant? Yeah, to the applicant. Thank you.

OK, so that's the other question. But I'm very glad to see this project coming forward. We need housing, affordable housing. Thank you.

SITTING VACANT FOR A LONG TIME.

NO, I HAD SIMILAR QUESTIONS AS COUNCIL MEMBERS DELROSA AND DERRIGO, JUST WANTED TO KNOW IF THE APPLICANT WAS GOING TO BE THE LEAD OPERATOR OR IF IT WAS GOING TO BE A THIRD PARTY OR A NONPROFIT THIRD PARTY.

I THINK IT'S BOTH.

COMBINATION OF BOTH? IS THAT WHAT I'M HEARING? OKAY. JUST WANT TO CONFIRM BECAUSE I'M LOOKING IN THE AUDIENCE, THE APPLICANT IS NOT HERE, RIGHT? YES, THE APPLICANT IS HERE AND THE OPERATOR. MAYBE AT THE APPROPRIATE TIME WE CAN RECEIVE A COUPLE OF COMMENTS FROM THE APPLICANT BECAUSE I KNOW THAT WAS A PART OF THIS PROJECT THAT CAUGHT MY INTEREST AND I'M SURE CAUGHT OTHER PEOPLE'S INTEREST AS WELL. SO I'LL WAIT UNTIL THAT TIME.

Yeah, back to Planning Commission, the commissioners were asking the same questions. A contract was not enforced at that time, but I think they're getting closer to something, and I think the applicant can share that information with you. We just don't have the information at staff level.

Thank you.

All right, Tony. Yes, thank you. Good to see you, Mr. Grossman. Mr. Grossman, is this in the flood zone?

Yes, a portion of the property is in the flood zone. It's along that right-hand edge alignment, the eastern property line.

Can you put that slide there, please?

This would be the green site plan slide. It's basically a concrete channel that carries water, I think, from north to south, if I'm not mistaken.

What does that mean as far as their quality of life? What can happen there being in a flood zone?

My understanding is that all buildings have been cited so as not to be in the flood zone. We do have a standard condition that requires compliance of all the floodplain rules and regulations, just in case anything were to shift around or move. But yes, it's in the floodplain. No, none of the buildings are in the flood outline or contour, so to speak.

Mr. Grossman, do we know, Cassantini, I've been through there several times. Any idea how many apartments there are already on that stretch of street right there? More or less?

The roadway? Yes. No, I did not calculate or do that research. I don't have that information.

There's probably about 700 to 1,000 apartments in that whole stretch. Good looking street. I mean, very nice apartments. Your report, beginning here in the public hearing, you call it a residential high density. Is that what it is now? Is it ?

Yes. The general plan designation and the zoning are both aligned with the high density designation.

You spoke about state law about the parking. Could you put the slide on the parking, the density bonus slash waivers, please?

I think that was the density bonus waiver slide, slide seven, I think.

You mentioned as far as the parking spaces. What does state law do here? There's 88 apartments with this AB 2097. How many parking spaces are we going to have?

The number provided for this project, I believe is listed on the zoning table. Let me pull that number up real quick. 152 parking stalls.

152 64 will be tandem Forgive me for my ignorance, but when if this project does go through Even though you mentioned state law how many Are we going to put there how many spaces?

How many parking stalls are we gonna they're gonna be a hundred and fifty two parking stalls with this project? Yes

So you put 152 spaces, there's 88 apartments. I start thinking when I'm, you're asking me to support something, I start thinking, putting myself in that neighborhood to see what my quality of life will be. The fantastic thing is the low income, very low income, I mean, who doesn't want an apartment that they can afford? But how do you see Mr. Grossman? And let's be honest here. What is the quality of life here? Okay, so my rent's gonna be very low, very low. But how's about the quality of my life? So I'm gonna get a daycare center, a playground, maybe a recreation center. But physically, let's look at the project. What's the quality of life for these folks that are gonna live there?

From a zoning planning perspective, our task is to look at the regulations. In this particular case, 164 stalls would normally be required. The state indicates that no stalls are required, but 152 are provided. of which a certain number are tandem. It has 37,305 square feet of open space, whereas 44,000 square feet is normally required. But the state density bonus regulations provide for flexibility in order to encourage residential development.

Yeah. Can you put this light on your analysis? Forgive me. I don't know the number of it, but it says analysis Yes You know, I look at this and thank you for your good work, I really believe you do some really good work and I think of the quality of life of these folks, hardworking people. Yeah, who wouldn't like a very low apartment? But I hope in the infrastructure, Who's taking care of the street, of the road itself? Because you're gonna have a lot more cars. I could just see that whole area. And I'm thinking about some apartments that were bought. I think the mayor had gone through their grand opening. A union bought several apartments over there close to Allisaw High School. Beautiful complex. But my God, the amount of cars that are lined up everywhere. And I can just see this one street Full of cars, and again, that's not on you, but what I'm saying, it's already high density. We're gonna create a higher density development here. When somebody's gonna pay for a low-income unit, can you give me a rough idea of how much are they paying as far as, okay, so I get my check, How much of my check will go to that low income unit? Any idea?

Off the top of my head, I don't have those figures. Perhaps Lisa has them.

So the HUD guidelines are that housing costs are to be limited to 30% of the individual's income. So it's going to vary per income level as to what that 30% number is. And that will be the calculation of their rent. And usually that's all in, including utilities.

Yeah. And Ms. Brinton, there's no doubt some people are gonna be blessed because of the rent. Sometimes I get concerned that we squeeze people in neighborhoods, make it very difficult. Ms. Murphy, to that question, some of my colleagues had asked some questions, but I think if we're gonna vote on this, Every question should be able to be answered. I'll be honest with you, I feel great people are gonna have a place to live, but then at the same time, the neighborhood, what we're gonna do to this neighborhood. Thank you, Mayor.

Okay, all right, Andrew.

Yeah, I have two questions. One is, I see that there's going to be some undeveloped land, so will the developer have an opportunity to build additional parking if there's a need in the future?

This project consumes the remainder of the 4.59 acre site. There is open space, but that is a code requirement for this particular project.

Okay, the second question I have is there have been concerns about the location of the daycare center and I want to just ask for safety reasons. I know that there's some power lines close to the property and I wanted to find out what the distance between those power lines in the daycare center will be.

We were looking at a number not too long ago. We think it's just over 450 feet, if we're referring to the lattice towers that go along the open space rec trail, the greenway, so to speak, to the south.

okay great and uh along with this project there is a substantial amount of money for traffic impact fees that are going to be collected and i know that traffic along casentini has been a concern for many years and unfortunately it's my understanding that with our current traffic management plan it has not allowed for traffic calming Along the area, so my question would be. Well, 2 different things 1 of the concerns. That has been raised is the obviously it's a dense area. So the parking availability often goes into neighborhoods just like across our city. but one thing that may be beneficial to the community that a neighbor brought up along Rico Street was if there was designated parking spots along the street, and I don't mean permitted parking, I mean designated lined parking spots because sometimes people park and take up a parking space and a half and it's already a dense area. So my question is, have the, has the funding that we're gonna be receiving for a traffic impact, has there already been a recommendation as to where that will go and will that be simultaneously developed with a project or can traffic calming and the drawing of parking spaces be included in the project? I'm talking about on street parking.

Yeah, so I believe this is a question for Public Works to respond to. You are correct that traffic calming is not included for a collector street. We also find that when we add those T-designated parking stalls, it actually reduces the number of parking spaces that can be accommodated because in many cases, depending on the size of the vehicle, people can fit in more tightly than what is accommodated by those designated spaces. In terms of the, and I'm looking for Public Works, I don't see him here, but in terms of the impact fees, it's my understanding that they're already dedicated to other projects and not, they have been collected, but those fees go into public works To the bucket, yes, good, thank you. And funding other, they identified projects that were set up when the TFO was established, the traffic fee ordinance. So they are not, it's not a direct correlation. The fees collected do not go specifically to this project. And then- No, but the impact to the project- Oh, and here we have Director Jacobs.

Yes. So speaking of the traffic impact fees, those are collected to go to a specific project list that was developed when the traffic impact fees were developed. So there's a list of 50 or 60 projects that that money is obligated to go to. And for example, the widening of a roadway would be part of the traffic impact fees. I don't have a list. in front of me. I actually have it in my folder that I left in the other room. But they are there specifically to mitigate traffic impacts that the development has so they don't have to actually build things. They actually contribute toward the completion of those projects by paying into the traffic impact fees. Hopefully that answers your question.

But projects directly impacted by that development, is that correct?

I'm sorry, I didn't hear the question.

So those are funding projects that that development will directly impact traffic for. Is that correct?

Yeah. So they go to a specific project list. Correct.

But a project list. What I'm saying is that impact fee is to mitigate traffic impacts in that particular neighborhood.

It not necessarily go to that particular area. It just mitigates traffic citywide. And anytime a developer goes, development goes in, they're creating traffic just not in that area, but citywide. So those traffic impact fees are going to projects to mitigate. If they weren't there, then the project would actually have to build more projects to mitigate their traffic. For example, if there was no traffic signal at Main Street and this project went in, most likely the impact would be to build a traffic signal at that intersection. And without the impact fees, they would be responsible for that entire cost. So this is, you know, it's kind of a wider discussion in terms of what we're talking about, but impact fees are for the benefit of traffic citywide.

All right, well, I appreciate that clarification. I must have a misunderstanding because 1 of my questions recently was the 10M dollars that we receive for Amazon. And it's my understanding. I was told that that had to be for the traffic and the projects that track that Amazon was impacting in that vicinity. So I think I'd like to get some follow-up clarification on that. Because obviously this project is going to bring traffic to this immediate neighborhood. So I want to see what we can do to help offset that.

So as part of the general plan update, they are doing a traffic portion of that. And we are updating the traffic impact fees according to the new general plan. So that's coming forward as that goes through the process. All right.

Those are all my questions. Thank you.

Mayor, I think Lisa may have a response on the RHNA question.

Yes. Thank you. So there was a question regarding the RHNA numbers. So just to clarify, what the staff report says is our current 2023 to 2031 housing element identified 67 units for the site. and so this project then adds units so we were estimating before the project really came forward the number of units and the type of units and so this really adds to that so it's not just the 21 but this 67 plus 21.

Thank you, Lisa. All right. Before we go to public comment, the applicant, I understand the applicants here. So let me give you five minutes to present and perhaps in that five minutes, pick up some of the questions or comments you heard from the dais.

Sure. Mayor, council members, my name is Aaron Barger. I'm with Milestone Housing Group. We're the applicant of the project and we're here today with the our development partner and owner of the property, the Housing Authority of Monterey County. Also here tonight, we have the daycare operator, Planning Commission hearing they were able to attend then, but they're here tonight to help me address any other questions that you might have. I'll do my best to answer most of the questions right now. As Courtney, the planner, pointed out, it's an 88-unit project with a mix of affordability from extremely low to low income. The average is about 49%, which is just in the very low-income average. There's 24 one-bedroom and two-bedroom units, and then there's 40... three-bedroom units. We aren't building the four-bedroom units in this project. It was a waiver. Instead, we're putting laundry units on each of the floors. And so that was what was used to offset for the four-bedroom units. Parking, which I know is always a big issue, and I appreciate that. I know I live in a townhouse community and I'm always driving around trying to find parking and I drive around and help my kids find parking too. The requirements for parking, as was stated, would have been that we needed to provide 164 if that was the case to use state law, zero parking. And what we're doing here is we're providing 152. We're using State density bonus law. So if you would have applied the state density bonus law to the Prior parking requirements we would have had to have provided 120 parking spaces. So we're Above that at 152. We also have another 16 parking spaces available for the at the daycare center And so it's a total of 168 parking spaces total. As was mentioned, we are building our buildings outside of the flood zone. On the map, as you look at on the site plan, you'll see a blue line, and it shows where that floodplain line ends, and that's where our buildings start. And so the rest, that open space area to the right is undevelopable so we can't put any more parking in there or buildings. And then as far as the parking is concerned, we do have some surface parking of that 152, and then the remainder are built inside garages that kind of tuck under the buildings. And there's five separate housing buildings. We also have a leasing center that has amenity rooms in it. And then there's also the top lot and the small sport court for the residents to use. and then as far as the daycare is concerned we have our partner maof they're here they can help answer certain questions but just to the the question on number of availability availability of students there's roughly 40 to 48 students would be allowed there it's a mix of zero to two years old and they're in their own classroom and then there's two to five year olds called a preschool that would be in their own classroom And each each classroom has its own outside area play area. There's a drop-off Location so there's a roundabout as you as you go through the the daycare specific parking lot you drive in off Cassantini They had and they have staggered drop-off times. So it's not always it's not the full 40 students coming at one time it would be staggered and And then on the roundabout, there's space for somebody to stop, drop their kid off, get them into the classroom safely, and then leave. And they don't stick around. There's no parents that stay all day. So it's just the staff. And the staff generally parks either rides the bus or they park either in the 16 spots that are there. And there's roughly six full-time staff. I think there's a total of 13 staff members part-time between a mix of the part-time and full-time. And then to the question of why the site has not been developed until now, I WAS AROUND IN 92, BUT I WASN'T HERE, AND THERE'S BEEN A LOT OF STAFF TURNOVER AS FAR AS THE OWNERSHIP OF THE PROPERTY. I THINK THAT PLAYED A ROLE IN IT. ALWAYS FUNDING, FINANCING OF THESE PROJECTS IS ALWAYS DIFFICULT, BUT NOW THE HOUSING AUTHORITY IS PUSHING THIS PROJECT FORWARD. THERE'S VOUCHERS THAT WILL GO TOWARDS THE RESIDENTS OF THIS PROJECT, SO THAT HELPS FUND A PROJECT OF THIS SIZE, AND PLUS THE SITE CHARACTERISTICS. IF YOU'VE EVER BEEN OUT THERE, There's a big slope there, and it's difficult to build on. There's going to be a lot of grading work that goes into it. So the vouchers definitely help with that, and that's why this project's able to move forward now.

All right. Is the daycare operator here? Yes. OK. If she would like two minutes, and then we'll go ahead and go to public comment, if she would like it.

Good evening, City Council Mayor. My name is Vicky Santos. I'm the Chief Operating Officer with MAOF. The acronym stands for Mexican American Opportunity Foundation.

Good evening. My name is Dina Lozoya, and I am the Program Director here in Monterey County.

I know that you had quite a few questions. Some of them were answered. The one that I don't believe was answered was a question from Ms. De La Rosa, Councilwoman, and that was a question if it was open to the community or just the residents, and the answer for that is it's open to the community, and it is based on income, and so our families come, apply, and then they're ranked in a specific order, depending, again, on income, family size. If they are foster children, they get, obviously, priority or ranked number one. and then that's how we select the students that attend our centers. I don't know if there's any additional questions for us.

Actually, I have some follow-up questions.

You're still providing services on John Street? Yes. You've been there how many years?

I'm going to date myself. Let's see. 15 years, 20 years? We've been in Monterey County since 1986, I believe. Yes.

Okay.

There he goes. 20 years, he says. A very long time.

A very long time. In our city. Correct. Monterey County. Okay. Well, thank you.

No, I was just curious to know how many are you anticipating taking care of in the daycare unit? What's the maximum number of youth and ages?

So we're estimating between 40 and 48, depending on actually once a building is built, then we will go and measure, then we furnish it, and then we measure it again. That would determine the amount of children we can serve, and then we obviously submit that application to the licensing department.

And then in terms of the ratio between youth and providers?

So we follow Title V. So depending on the age groups, for example, preschool is a 1 to 8 ratio. Toddlers is a 1 to 6, and infants is 1 to 4. OK.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right. All right. We will go ahead and open it up for public comment.

Hi. Good afternoon. I was looking at a month of community. I like the idea, but I think we need housing for people. We need people to show ownership. We're giving our handouts, but the wrong way. Let's do ownership for people to actually own something and be proud of it. Handouts are nice. We give them to Don Chapin and everybody else in the community. The Rodale is probably a big joke too. I don't know how much money we lose every year. I'm just saying we need to make people accountable to be able to afford their own home. Build affordable housing for people to buy a home. Stop building apartments. You're making it a ghetto. Stop doing that. Make it a respectful Salinas. Come on, guys. You're probably going to vote on this. You probably already voted on this in your closed session. I'm sure you probably did already. It's so sad that you guys do that. Like the lawyer said, yeah, we're going to vote on it today. Not vote. He said, yeah, we're going to have it approved today. That's sad. We don't do that. I can't believe that we're doing this. But I guess we need it. I mean, I'm for it. But I'd rather have people get houses and pay taxes and make more revenue for the city and the county. You guys are trying to put a Band-Aid over a bleeding artery. How many of these houses are going to be for farm workers? Have we talked about that? Has anybody talked about the farm workers? They make your great big agriculture companies rich every day, every year, day, every decade. Lot of money. We don't talk about that, huh? We should. We should talk about that. Those people that bust their humps every day and work through pesticides and everything else you spray through there. Like Mr. Munoz says, you guys spray a bunch of stuff and don't care. Man, that's just sad. I don't know, man. I'm embarrassed. I'm embarrassed that you guys really am. Thank you. God bless you guys. Good luck.

Hi, I'm William Cunningham. I'm a resident of that neighborhood. We purchased a house in the Rossi Rico subdivision in 84. So I've seen what's been going on with the city since then. There are five apartment complexes already in that neighborhood, to answer your question, Mr. Pereira. And there's also another facility that's in that area too. I don't remember what exactly its function is. Right now on Cassatini, the parking is atrocious. Cassatini is almost completely taken up right now by cars every evening. What guarantees are we going to have that these apartments that they want to build, these 88 units, are going to be for single families in each unit, not multiple families. And if you figure two cars per unit, that's over 178, I think it was, 176 parking places that are needed. That's just for two cars in every unit. So right now, we have an overabundance of vehicles on the roads. Those people have a hard time trying to find parking places. Even in my neighborhood right next door, it's hard to find a parking place on the street sometimes. So I think the city really needs to take a look at this. Also, the ditch that runs right through there on the lower side, that floods up to 20 feet Outside the ditch area on a heavy rain year So that's also something that we need to take into consideration. Thank you.

Thank you Good evening, my name is Daniel Alvarez. I'm your representative for the Carpenter's local 646 I represent members on Santa Cruz, Monterey and San Miguel County and To answer the question, I brought a paper that's a case against the developer, and it's not too old. That's what you have in your hands. And we do not support, we support housing, but we want responsible contractors doing the housing. Because the developer has a history of not paying the workers, as you can tell on the paper. That's all I'm saying. Hopefully you make the right choice, and have a good day. Thank you.

All right. Good afternoon, City Council. My name is Jose Marquez, and I've been a Salinas resident for the last 12 years here in Salinas, mainly on the north side of Salinas. And one thing I could say that relates to the previous comments is that parking is very, very difficult to get around here. I currently live in an apartment, and so especially in an apartment complex, parking is terrible. And then the local neighborhoods around it that are housing, that are actual houses, their neighborhood have to suffer because of the excessive parking. or cars that need to find parking, right? And so I think that's a big thing to cover, but also in terms of the developer, I'd like to ask, you know, is there a cost of benefit that they're gonna have to pay for the environment, for the degradation of the surrounding area? We're not sure what type of chemicals or spills are going to happen that are going to run off into that floodplain. Looking at our topography of Salinas, where is that chemical and contamination going to run off to? Could it run off into our aquifers? We're going to pump it back up and it's going to be used for public or agricultural water. So what's gonna be their cost to maintaining the ecosystem, the healthy environment in that surrounding area? So thank you.

Thank you.

Buenas tardes a todos. My name is Jesus Estrada. I am a housing organizer with a community advocacy center. I am in favor of building affordable housing because Salinas City needs affordable housing for those who rent. And I am one of those who are renting. And while there are more affordable housing with a low price, para nosotros que estamos rindando si nos conviene. Por eso yo espero que aprueben este proyecto porque está hablando a vivienda asequible. Esto y muchísimas gracias.

Good afternoon to everyone. My name is Jesus Estrada and I'm organizer with CCA. I am house organizer and I am in favor of building these affordable houses. The city of Salinas needs affordable houses mostly for the people that rent. I'm a renter and I need to have more affordable houses so we approve and we are in favor of this project because then there's going to be more affordable houses and this is what we need. Thank you.

Hi, I'm Robert Reyes. I think when we look at the way the city has looked at this, it's not too clear. You have city workers that are looking at the traffic, and what we really don't see is the 45 to almost 50 families that will be coming in to pick up their kids. If the daycare were to reach 48, you now have 86 units plus another 48 families that have to come in, drop off their kids, come back, pick up their kids. so where this thing turns gray is with traffic i think the city is a little light on numbers there and i have an interest in that because when you live on west dallas you get to see the damage that was done there from two roads to one road and so one of the things that we need to focus on is what is the traffic impact you have to now calculate the daycare the daycare starts to look more like a school okay because of the amount of round trips that you have to make to pick up your kids. And so issue one is parking. Issue two is the traffic impact. And issue number three is the city needs to be better with their numbers. You kind of got a little hitch today until they weren't too clear. And this is not a project that we want to push. This is a project that we want to have. We want it to be measured with traffic, want it to be measured appropriately. If not, then we fall into the same trap that we fell into 40 years ago. We started building apartments on top of apartments. Then we start to ask, why is there violence? Why is there these issues that give us a black eye? Now is our time to have good, smart planning. I think if we can pause and maybe come up with a better traffic plan, we would all be winners. But the project itself meets In terms of what we need, we need more housing. It's just the numbers. I think the numbers are being pushed to a point where it's possibly in an area where it's no longer good for traffic and good for the rest of the communities that live there. They need a fair shot also because they've been living there for a while. So that's my two cents.

buenas tardes mi nombre es Maria Chavez y vivo en el distrito 4 yo estoy a favor de estas viviendas de bajo costo ya que muchas personas lo necesitan este si estamos sobre poblados porque porque ya nuestros hijos crecieron pero también nuestros hijos no se pueden mover porque las rentas están muy caras y para poder pagar no pueden ya sea que tienen que irse y juntar como lo de tres meses para poder cambiarse. No pueden. Y pues dicen que hay muchos carros en la calle. Sí, hay muchos carros en la calle, pero hay personas que tienen hasta cinco carros y nomás mueven uno. Y todos los tienen parqueados en la calle. No los necesitan. Ese es el problema. Because they don't need them, they have them there and they are disturbing them because we need other people there to park them and be moving them. They sometimes last up to a month without moving in the street. I live there in Roosevelt. And then also in season, other people come from outside and relatives put them in apartments there. y pues trae más carros. Entonces ese es el problema. Pero eso de las viviendas accesibles las necesita la comunidad. Yo en el 2012 vivía con mi hermana. Éramos nueve personas en una casa. de dos cuartos, mi hermana con sus dos hijos y yo con mis tres hijos, mi esposo y mi hermano. Todos estábamos ahí apretados. Y gracias a Dios ya luego nos calificamos para una vivienda de bajo costo y nos movimos y nos ayudó eso. Y sí, hay muchas personas que lo necesitan. Gracias.

Good afternoon, my name is Maria Chavez and I'm from District 4, and I'm in favor of these affordable houses. We need it, it's true that there's overcrowding in the community, but the problem is that many of our children, even though they're adults, they can't afford to move. It is so expensive to pay their own rent, they have to save three months of salary to be able to move. And it's really not possible. Regarding the cars, it's true. There's a lot of cars there, but there are also families that have five cars and they don't move them. They just use one. And sometimes we see that one car is there for a month and hasn't been moved and other people do need to park. So that is another problem. Another thing that we see that happens, like when it's work season, they allow other family members to live in their apartments. So that increases the amount of cars. In 2012, I was living in a household with nine people and it was only two rooms. I was living with my sister. It was my sister and her two children. It was me with my three children and my husband and my brother. Thankfully, we were eligible to get a low income house and we were able to move. So that really helped us. So I agree with these low income houses that are being built. Thank you.

Thank you.

Buenas tardes, alcalde y concejales. Mi nombre es Nidia Soto, organizadora de la justicia económica con BHC. Estoy aquí, no estaba preparada para hablar de esto, pero al escuchar comentarios, escuchar María, sí es cierto que mucha gente vive en situaciones difíciles. deplorable with several families, two, three families per household. But that is precisely what we want to prevent with these 88 homes. We want to prevent people from living overpopulated in departments and that the children of our youth have a worthy space to go back to school, study, do their homework, continue with their education. y queremos prevenir con esto el desplazamiento de nuestras familias trabajadoras que hacen posible la economía aquí en salinas entonces por eso nosotros estamos en apoyo de la construcción de estas 88 unidades multifamiliares gracias

Good afternoon, Mayor, City Council. My name is Nidia Soto, and I'm organizer of Economic Justice with BHC. To be honest, I wasn't prepared to talk today. I wasn't going to talk. But when I heard everybody comment and, for example, what Maria is saying, it's true. We do live in overcrowding cities. Sometimes there's two or three families that have to live in a household. That's why it is important that these 88 units are approved because our children need to have a space. Our children, our youth deserve a decent home to come back where they can do their homework, where they have space, where they can live and avoid displacement of all the working families that help with the economy here in Salinas. So we're in favor of these 88 units that are going to be built. Thank you.

Buenas tardes, mayor y miembros del concilio. Mi nombre es Sabino Lopez. Por muchos años, muchas décadas viviendo aquí en el Valle de Salinas, principalmente en Salinas, y trabajando muchos años en la comunidad con CCA, Centro de Obesidad de la Comunidad. Por muchos años apoyando y promoviendo proyectos de bajos ingresos, Yes, we have always supported and promoted these developments, although it is true that there are many needs, but unfortunately, when I see that they are making the plans, the parking lots are limited. We are talking about 80 apartments. 80, 88 families. I'm not even listening to two parking spaces for each unit. So where are those families going to park? What are they going to do? Yes, it's true that they create a problem in the neighborhoods, that's true, and we look at it every day. So it is very important that these developments are tested, but also plan a more comfortable space for families who have spaces for families. Remember, we also have children, our children grow up and they are going to get a car. y traen otro carro a la familia. Hay que considerar eso también, no solamente limitadamente un apartamento con un estacionamiento. Creo que debemos de planear espacio para no crear tanto problema en las calles. Eso es cierto, tenemos un problema y tenemos que buscar una solución, pero definitivamente tenemos que tener más casas de bajos ingresos que la gente pueda vivir. Thank you.

Good afternoon, Mayor, City Council. My name is Sabino Lopez, and I have lived many, many years here in the Valley of Salinas, specifically in Salinas. I work with CCA, and well, I'm here, and I work in many projects for affordable housing. And it's true, we need affordable housing, but sadly, most of the time, parking is not included when we're planning these homes. Right now, we're thinking of building 88 units. And it's families. We cannot really think about one parking space for family because it does affect, it's true, that it becomes a parking issue because there's not enough places to park. We see this every day in our neighborhood. So it's really important to think about a parking space, not only one for apartment because sometimes we have children and these children grow and then they get a car. And where are they going to park? So help us find a solution. We need these units. We need these affordable housing. But we also need to think about including parking spaces. And we need these units because there's not enough renting places here in Salinas. Most of them are market rate. And we need affordable housing. Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor, City Council members, Eleanor Elliott, District 5. I am very much for this affordable housing building this. And I can say that if the housing authority is involved, they're very stringent. They're very rigid on the parking regulations for their residents. They, excuse me, but they will monitor a lot of that. And I have seen it work in other cities and other states where they develop these buildings for families and children and include the schools and parks and everything. And it's beautiful. It's really beautiful. And, you know, I live in an affordable housing complex for seniors. parking is regulated very stringently and We're at the end of a very end of a dead-end street and we never we don't have problems when we do Management takes it takes care of it. Well, you know people are You cannot park and in I'm sorry they're very very cautious about this and they watch and the traffic they consider the traffic in the area around them and I think it will work I really do and I would love to see this one happen in Salinas we need more affordable housing apartments are important because not everybody can afford a home and not everybody can afford to to live in, I'm sorry, not everybody can afford, excuse me, I'm losing it here. We do need affordable housing in this city. It's very important, thank you.

Hello everyone, John Aaron, I'm with District 4. Love the idea, I live about six blocks. I was painting a house today, I went down Cassantini 10 times today. Well, there's no parking. There's no parking on Main, there's no parking on Rico, on Rossi, on Cassantini. I'm not, I was thinking if there's 88 units and you double that, that's 176. We don't have 176. So if I am fortunate, it's a great idea, it's based on my income, and I'm in apartment four, am I designated one spot that says, you know, apartment four, this is my parking spot, is that enforced, or Darius Park, wherever I can park. I'm a little confused on that. Because it's almost like there's one and a half parking spaces. How do you determine who gets what parking? You could park, I guess, where I live. It's probably a five-minute walk. There's some residential, but it'd be a very long walk. You just cannot park on Main. You can't park on Cassantine or Sansom. It's already booked up. So great idea, parking is a big, big issue. Because there are hundreds of apartments there. And they're beautifully kept, beautiful apartments. As someone mentioned, they're sort of low looking. They're a very nice area, very good area. But I'm just concerned if I was lucky enough to get in those places, how do I know where is my parking spot? Thank you.

Hi, good evening, council. My name is Erin Lawrence. fully support having affordable housing. It is very necessary. I also support having enough parking for everyone because obviously there's a big issue of congestion. I also wanted to bring up the point of if we are increasing parking, we are also likely decreasing green spaces. And I believe that green spaces are very important for salinas and the well-being of everyone who lives here and i wanted to bring up the point of maybe we introduce alternative transportation methods to new developments like this such as walkable areas bikeable areas and decreasing our car-centric mentality obviously it is very hard to do that but i just wanted to bring that up because while parking is important we also have environmental considerations of increasing parking in the city. Thank you.

Daniel Munoz, Eastside resident. I've been a renter probably most of my life. I've been renting. Probably going to continue to rent, unfortunately. Now, every apartment that I've ever had, I've only gotten one parking spot. So people are saying that we need two or three parking spots for these apartments. That would have been fantastic if I had got two parking spots for any of the apartments that I've ever had. We've only gotten one. So I think, you know, all this... All this fuss about the parking is kind of funny to me, really. If you have two cars, park down the street. Take a walk, right? I've had roommates off and on throughout the years. And I'm in an apartment. I only got one room, one parking spot. So yeah, you park down the street. I mean, it's simple as that. Now, I think the biggest issue here that was brought up so far is the gentleman from the carpenter's union. who said that this company doesn't pay their workers and that they have pending lawsuits, litigations. I don't know if that's true or not, but that's the only thing that I've heard so far that is a big red flag to me. So if these guys are gonna be doing their workers like that, not paying them, then I don't think they should be allowed to build the city of salinas just based off of that now maybe you guys should do some more research to see if that's true because like i said this is all allegedly i don't know if it's true or not this is the first time i heard about it the gentleman from the carpenters union stated that and um i'm a former union worker so you know there has to be some kind of truth behind what he's saying i'm assuming so that's that's the biggest red flag that i'm able to pick up on so far the parking It is what it is. We don't have parking. We need housing. So you can't have it all, right? Not everybody's going to get a puppy and a pony, right? I mean, that's what it is. We don't get everything that we want. Sometimes we have to balance it out. So anyways, I'm in the middle.

Muy buenas tardes mayor, miembros del concilio. Mi nombre es Bernardo Alexis Cordovera Eta. Pertenezco al distrito cuatro. Está muy interesante todo lo que he escuchado y lo que se ha expuesto ahorita hasta el momento y me llamó la atención como para poder participar. Esos años anteriores, tengo que, voy para ocho años trabajando como campesino agrícola. Entonces, he visto muchas familias, o sea, niños con sus mamás que están en proceso lo que son procesos migratorios. Entonces, esa mayoría de personas, cuando se termina la corrida a Can Salinas, se traslada a lo que es Yuma, Arizona, o a cualquier parte como es Osnar, Huron, Colinga, a seguir las corridas que llevan durante todo el año. Entonces, en ese tiempo se muestra como un pequeño déficit en la economía de Salinas, si no me equivoco. ¿Por qué? Porque hay mucha gente que se traslada a otro estado o a otra ciudad. Por lo general, para no hacer muy largo el tiempo, a lo que se viene esta temporada va a estar un poco más complicado. Entonces, estoy de acuerdo que si ustedes pudieran aprobar el proyecto de las 88 viviendas sería excelente, pero también hay que tomar muy en cuenta lo que dicen los estacionamientos. Tiene que si ya se aprueba el proyecto, que esperamos y confiamos en Dios que lo podamos lograr con el apoyo de ustedes, sería un gran beneficio para la comunidad de Salinas. ¿Por qué? Porque este año va a haber más influencia comunitaria de personas en Salinas, porque la mayoría no va a ir a Arizona. Se los digo por experiencia. ¿Por qué? Porque la mayoría estamos en proceso migratorio. un proceso en el cual ustedes saben que ya no estamos teniendo seguro para pasar retenciones. Muchas gracias.

Good afternoon, Mayor, City Council. My name is Bernardo Alexander Cordoba Iraeta, and I'm from District 4. And I decided to make my comment because of everything that I've heard. It's really interesting, and there's a lot of things that I want to mention. I've been living here for eight years, and I've been working in the field. And I have seen a lot of families with a lot of children, a lot of mothers that are going through immigration processes right now. Most of the families that work in the fields, they follow the seasons. They go to Yuma, Arizona, Oxnard, Coalinga, and they follow the season. And as I say, I think that creates an economic situation and deficit for Salinas when they leave because they have to go to another state or another city. Well, generally, I think that Having these 88 units is going to really benefit all these families. I think this is an excellent idea, but also we have to pay attention to the parking and this project. I pray to God that with your support it is possible to be able to approve this project. What I am seeing is that, and I say it in my own experience, a lot of families are not going to follow the season this year because a lot of families are with this immigration process and it's harder to cross the borders. So I feel like they're not going to leave. So housing is going to be necessary because they're not going to leave the city or the state. Thank you.

Buenas tardes. Mi nombre es Adriana Garcia y como ya hablaron varios, nada más es pedirles por favor que tomen en conciencia y en apoyo para la comunidad el construir estas 88 viviendas y Thank you very much.

Good afternoon. My name is Adriana Garcia. And as all the comments before, I'm here also to ask to please approve this construction of these 88 units. It is something that is going to benefit the community and these 88 units and daycare. There's not enough affordable housing. The community needs it. There's a deficit of affordable housing and housing. So this is going to help the community. So please approve it. Thank you.

Okay, thank you.

All right, Marianne.

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. I'm very familiar with that street. My storage is right there, the frontier storage. For the last, we've been there for the last 20 years, I guess. I see the homeless sleeping, camping in those ditches or whatever you call them. A few years ago, it wasn't good enough for us to have the dog park out there. They put it over in our area, remember? Anyway. What are we gonna do with those homeless that are living along and through there? There's still the camps right there. On Casadena Street, you have from about four o'clock on, you can't find a place to park on that street. It's loaded. When I try to come out through that back gate, you barely can get out of there. You barely can see, because the cars are coming. They're parked there, and then they come through there fast. But there's cars, and there's campers. I've seen people living in little campers along that street. I mean, I'm not against the apartments. Don't get me wrong. I think that's great, and the daycare, and the whole bit. But we need to think about the other things. We need more spaces for those apartments, or cars a lot. Nobody to live in there that have more than two cars. What are you gonna do with their families? Especially if their children are out there working or going to college and they need a car. At least a space for them to put their car or visitors. Where's the space for visitors to come? You need a space for visitors because I'm going to guarantee you, you're not gonna find them out in the streets. Because of what's been done in the past, we can't have visitors in our place because people from all the other apartments are parked in our street.

Thank you, Mary Ann.

Thank you.

Good afternoon. My name is Gabriela Camacho, and I just want to ask for your support to approve these 88 homes, so that many people can benefit, since there are quite a few people evicted from their homes. I've had cases where there are mothers with children who have nowhere to live, who live with their families. pero en realidad no es un ambiente seguro para ellos cuando viven más de 10 personas en una sola casa. Si ustedes se ponen a pensar, sería mejor que hicieran esas 88 viviendas, aprobaran este apoyo para que se construyan y así solucionarían también muchos problemas de personas que viven en las calles. Gracias.

Good afternoon. My name is Gabriela Camacho, and I'm here to support the construction of 88 units. This would benefit a lot of people in the community. I have seen a lot of people that are being evicted, many mothers with many children that don't have a place to live, and they have to live with family. This is not safe for them because they're living with like 10 people in one household. I think these 88 units are going to help the community, and it's also going to solve the issues of people living on the streets. Thank you.

David Mason again. The word I want to say is code enforcement. If we're not going to have enough parking for everybody, then we need to have code enforcement. And that means if you're not there for a reason, you get cited. Thank you.

Thank you. All right, we will see who's on Zoom. Matt Huerta, please. Matt, you're up.

Yep. Okay. Good evening, Mayor and Council. Matt Huerta, Senior Advisor for Monterey Bay Economic Partnership. We fully support staff's recommendations to approve these 88 new high-quality affordable rental homes and a new childcare center. There are only so many infill opportunities in the city, and this is one of those sites that should be developed as identified in our general plan and state-certified housing element. We cannot only count on the future growth area to meet our current needs. This is a challenging development, but this is what being a pro-housing development designated city looks like. Building here will actually reduce vehicle miles traveled by residents currently traveling far and wide to find housing, or worse yet, living in overcrowded and substandard housing in our city. We commend the project partners for coming together and hearing from the community to address parking and traffic conditions wherever possible as they create these new housing and childcare opportunities for farm workers and many other hardworking families here in Salinas. Thank you for your leadership in approving this important development today.

Okay, thank you, man. Yeah, okay, we'll go ahead and close public comment. And before we come back to council, defer to the city attorney. Thank you, Mayor.

So the discussion about parking is an important one, and I've certainly heard the council members' questions and comments and those from the public, but I want to make it clear. that the state of California has severely restricted your ability to require parking on projects that are located within one half mile of certain public transit facilities, which this project is. So what that means is you cannot require them to include parking on their project. You cannot deny this project if it doesn't provide parking. So while it's an important issue, the state has tied your hands and has prohibited you from imposing minimum parking standards on this sort of project. So I think it's just really important for the council and the public to understand that. We hear the concerns about parking that the state has determined. that in interests of having housing developed throughout the state that parking is taking a second or a back seat to developing new housing so i just wanted to make sure that that was clear for the council okay all right thank you chris all right uh we will come back this is an action item so we'll come back to council for uh any final comments and we'll be looking for a motion

okay mr mayor before we vote can i can i get a question after uh my colleagues yeah so you have a question because i wanted to make the motion and i wanted to i wanted to make a comment or yeah i wanted to i wanted to ask you a question okay okay well why don't we why don't we do go ahead a motion see if there's a second then we'll have it okay yeah i'd like to make a motion to approve the project and um and for these reasons Right now, we have families, families that are unhoused, that need affordable housing, that are living in cars. Okay? And we get that, unfortunately, we get those reports from teachers, schools, and it's heartbreaking. For that reason, I'm going to support it. And it also will help house farmworking families that fit the criteria. And as far as the traffic in that area, we need to enforce and work with the surrounding neighborhoods and try to mitigate the traffic issues. We heard that the traffic impact fees can put a stoplight there if it's needed. And my question would be, What else can we do with those traffic impact fees to help the neighborhood, signs, whatever we can do to slow down the traffic and make it safer. But it's providing daycare, daycare that's so needed for these families to get on their feet once they get affordable housing and go to work. go to work, go to school, that one day they can afford to get housing when it's available, when we have it available. So we got to get families ready. But the most important is getting families housed. And this is a great project, affordability, We solved the numbers. So again, thank you to the applicant and my motion is to approve the project.

Okay, there is a second from Council Member Barrera and then so we'll go ahead since you second it, we'll let you.

Who's our traffic professional here today on the staff? Is that Mr. Jacobs? Mayor, my question, there's no doubt housing is needed. But I'm visualizing, I mean, it's one long street. However people feel, you should park a mile away or whatever or walk. I'm interested in improving the quality of life of anybody in any neighborhood. And I want to thank the developer that's putting this together that you're creating parking even though you're not required by the state. So I say thank you to that. My question to whoever the traffic professional is, we have a traffic light over on Main and Constantini. I'm visualizing early in the morning when people are taking their children to school or they're going to work or coming back from work. Does the city have any authorization? I don't know how you time the traffic light. I don't know how you do that or if we can do something. But how do you visualize? It's gonna be bumper to bumper. And let's face it, we can all argue about what it is or what it isn't. but I'm trying to figure out a way, how can we help these folks that are already living there? We heard from a homeowner today that lives there as well. So Mr. Jacobs, is there any, in your view, how can we help the morning rush, the afternoon rush, or is there anything that we can do about that?

So you're asking a loaded question because it does take studying in terms of what can be done but be aware that Main Street is a Caltrans facility and we have no control over that in the timing or anything that's up to Caltrans to determine how that operates. Same with Market Street. That's all Caltrans. So once we get on the city streets, that's when we can start looking at what we can do. Cassantini doesn't have any traffic signals on it or anything like that. I mean, possibly we could put up... the radar detection signs to show how people are driving if they're going over the speed limit. That's one issue that seems to help. But again, it's going to take a study to determine what needs to be done out there. I can't say that we have the answers right now.

During the rush hour, I can't see anybody speeding through there. I'm talking about the rush hour when... You got 20, 30, maybe even 40 cars on that one strip, and there's that one traffic light. From time to time I do hear that there's nothing we can do or we have to depend on state government or Caltrans or anybody else. I think there's some things that, we're always talking about improving people's quality of life. So if there's something that we can do for that, because it's going to be very congested, even more so now. With good reason, I mean there's some good housing coming in. But I think as a local government, we should figure out ways on how we can minimize that. Understood. I'm going to look to your guidance on that. Thank you, sir.

All right, any final? Andrew?

Yeah, Tony, many years ago, I heard the residents of Cassantine about that traffic light, and it took about 6 months, but we were able to add 7 additional seconds of green light to the Cassantine light. So I know it is. Feasible not too long ago we had a representative. from caltrans attend city also um you know i'd be glad to reach out to them again to see if there's anything else we can do to increase the amount of the green light to keep that traffic flowing because you're right for a while residents that have to just end up you turning that area because that light just wasn't on long enough my question is for the developer who's still here um you know we heard i'm not not privy to the letter that you dropped off regarding concerns about making sure we're paying or that the developer is paying fair wages. But to the developer, I have a question if you can meet with the carpenters to ensure that you're complying with all labor codes and making sure that you're paying your workers in line with any concerns that may be had. So I'd like a commitment from the developer on that.

Yeah, two things. One, yes, we're always open to meeting with the Carpenters Union. But two, I would like to see the letter, because I am not aware of any lawsuits against Milestone Construction Group or Milestone Housing. So I was a little thrown off by that. But yeah, we're always open to meeting with the trade union. based on funding, a lot of times these projects are prevailing wage. So we work with a lot of union contractors.

Thank you.

Yeah, I appreciate that public commitment. So I'll be making sure we follow up with that in the Carpenters Union as well. And I understand the concerns over parking. That's a heavily congested area. And to the conversation around traffic calming, I recently had a conversation with residents along that street. One of the residents, Bob, who said that people literally just take that curve right after Cassantini without even stopping and ultimately the traffic calming and our plan is being reviewed by the traffic commission right now and this city council ultimately helps develop and approve our traffic management plan So, it's incumbent upon ourselves as the governing board. To make changes to that plan. So, although it may not be allowed at this moment, which. I have my concerns because just because it's an arterial road. Doesn't shouldn't limit how we, we can help regulate traffic. I'm thinking of Riker. Who has those roundabouts, which. Helps mitigate traffic, whether you like those. Traffic circles or not, so I asked for support to make sure that we are able to. Address some of the traffic concerns along because. Council member the levels I knows for a long time that has been a concern. So we need to make sure we're making changes to that policy to make sure we're addressing those concerns. um we need more affordable housing it's it's just a reality and uh like matt huerta said we're you know we're a pro housing designation that means that we do what we need to to support housing and i'll do what i can to help address some of the traffic concerns that we may be facing. I do appreciate the developer, including the parking. I know that it's not enough. If it is gonna be under HUD, like my District 5 resident from the senior housing said, who lives in the houses, it's a little more regulated than other developments.

So I'm happy to support this item.

Eleanor, sorry, Eleanor, I forgot your name for a second. Hi.

All right. Thank you, Andrew. All right. Any final?

Just a few quick comments. I agree with you, Mr. Sandoval, on the traffic plan and I'm glad the commission is addressing this seriously. The fact is that we're not adding any more roads to the city of Salinas and we have seriously outgrown our infrastructure. That's obvious, but we do need housing first and foremost. And I don't see many projects come forward that have daycare centers built into their plan, which I think is really exciting. So that's why I'm really in support of THIS PROJECT AND I THINK WE JUST GOT TO ENCOURAGE PEOPLE TO TO RIDE THE BUS YOU KNOW AND IF THEY IF IT GOES WITHIN THEIR YOU KNOW ROUTE TO AND FROM WORK WE'VE GOT TO GET MORE PEOPLE OUT OF CARS AND ONTO THE BUS AND ON THEIR BIKES ET CETERA SO WE'VE INVESTED IN A LOT OF BIKE LANES THAT START USING THEM THANK YOU UH YEAH I'LL ALSO BE SUPPORTING THE MOTION UM YOU KNOW FOR ME UM HEARING AND LEARNING ABOUT THE

THAT HAD AN IMPACT ON ME. I JUST WANTED TO ENTER INTO THE RECORD. IT'S MY UNDERSTANDING THAT THERE IS A SIGNIFICANT SHORTAGE OF LICENSED CHILD CARE PROVIDERS. SO HAVING AN ORGANIZATION LIKE MAOF COME IN AND PROVIDE Their curriculum, including nutrition programs, is really important. I know it's very challenging for families to find a licensed child care provider. It's my understanding that the entire county, that there's just a huge shortage. So we have families that are trying to find child care as they're trying to get to and from work and making sure that their children are in a safe place. IF I CAN KIND OF TRY TO PUT SOME OF THIS INTO PERSPECTIVE, AS I LOOK AT THE PROPOSED NUMBER OF UNITS, I SEE ABOUT, LOOKING AT STAFF'S REPORT, ABOUT 24 UNITS OR ABOUT 27% WILL BE ONE BEDROOM. SO PART OF ME IS THINKING THAT MIGHT BE MAYBE A SENIOR OR A SINGLE PERSON. I KNOW THAT THE ISSUE REGARDING TRAFFIC CAME UP A COUPLE OF TIMES. about another 23 units or 26% will be two bedrooms. So that'll probably be a very small family or maybe a single parent. And then I did see that there's about 40 units or about 47% of this project will be three bedrooms, which I'm assuming will probably also be a small bedroom. I just want to think the public for sharing their thoughts, both kind of in support and against it. I'd like to thank City Attorney for bringing up the issue and clarifying parking and what we can and can't do about that. I think it's although we're not required to have those parking spaces available, but I think we should continue to strongly suggest it. And again, as I look at this project and I see that 40%, those making 40% of AMI, we're talking about in terms of people that are gonna have access to these units That would be an individual making about $30,400 a year. Or if you're a family of four, that's $43,400. So really this project, as I say, it's providing some housing for people who are making below what they should be here in this county. And so I'll be supporting the motion.

OK, thank you. Just a couple of things real quickly. I'll be supporting the motion as well. The project checks off a lot of really positive things. Doesn't need to have parking, but does. I think the daycare is necessary and attractive. But the bigger picture that I think we should all be mindful of is this project speaks a little bit or maybe a lot, frankly, to the future. That if we're going to do affordable housing, imagine the signal that sends if here comes an affordable housing project and we're interested in strategic infill. we do know there's a parking problem, which I wanna address, but our answer is no. So that creates a chill off of potential developers looking at, okay, they say they want affordable housing, here it comes, because the things that will go along with affordable housing in many instances, not all, but in many, are the sorts of things that Chris mentioned from the state. So the reason that's important also is because the ability to solve some of our problems in terms of circulation within the city is we'll be needing to interact with other agencies. So fortunately, Tony sits with MST. MST is obviously in the middle of some conversations in terms of where they're moving facilities, helping with alternative transportation. So it's so I think it's important to be mindful of that, that that this situation somewhat represents THE FUTURE. AND WE ALREADY KNOW WE HAVE A CIRCULATION PROBLEM, WE HAVE A PARKING PROBLEM. AND SO WHAT THE STATE IS ALSO BASICALLY SAYING, WITHOUT SAYING, IS WE'RE COUNTING ON CITIES TO FIGURE OUT NEW WAYS TO BE CREATIVE IN DEALING WITH PARKING. IF THERE'S ONE THING I KNOW ABOUT SALINAS, THEY'RE NOT CONTENT TO SAY, OH, WELL, YOU KNOW, SO ON A GO-FORWARD BASIS, I THINK THIS MEANS WE We've approved the project, but it also means we're, and I have confidence in the community, the various staffs, that we're going to begin to look to alternative solutions. We may need to start building parking lots in neighborhoods for all I know. I don't know what the answer is, but I think it is, it's important to look at this project as a good thing, a necessary thing, but something that we ought to be thinking about in a broader context as we move forward. Because we do want more affordable housing projects. Some of them are going to be strategic infill. And really, frankly, on a de facto basis, you can count on parking being an issue. And so at least, and even when we do ADUs, I mean, you can do an ADU and you know exactly what accompanies that. in terms of parking if you've sat on the planning commission. So I think it's a great project, but I think it's a project we kind of ought to blow out and think about in a broader context. So with that, if you'll call for a question.

Motion made by Councilmember De La Rosa, second by Councilmember Barrera. Councilmember Barrera? Councilmember DeRigo? Yes. Councilmember De La Rosa? Aye. Councilmember Salazar? Yes. Councilmember Sandoval?

Yes.

Mayor Donahue?

Yes.

Motion passes.

All right, very good. Thank you, everyone. all right now we're going to consider stuff and it happens to be the budget uh and the budget will be broken up in uh two two pieces uh the the uh operating budget uh For twenty seven twenty eight and then and then we will take a look at the capital budget and the five year capital improvement program. So I'm going to. So we'll go ahead and get started. So depending upon how things go, at some point there will be. 15 minute break. I'm not quite sure when that is, but that will that will occur So I'll kind of see how the flow of things go, but there will be a break in the middle So with that It kind of looks like a quorum so get going Thank you a good evening mayor council members Selina Andrews finance director it's a pleasure to be here today and

The item before you is the proposed biennial 2026-27 and 2027-28 operating budget. Staff recommends. that council approve a resolution adopting the biennial proposed operating budget for the City of Salinas and successor agency to the former Salinas Redevelopment Agency, establishing the appropriations limit for fiscal year 26-27 at $362,368,000. Additions to the budget need to be included in a motion for council vote, and we'll talk through what those are. The budget development process. Started in December with the release of the community budget survey followed by a community meeting in January staff also started working internally on the budget Meanwhile concurrently also working on the mid-year report which was presented to council in March of 2026 Today we are presenting the biennial budget And in February 2027 we plan on coming back to council for the first year of the budget mid-year report. And then in June, 2027, we will be coming back to council to review year two of the biennial budget. And then in February, 2028, we'll do a mid-year review. We'll present a mid-year report for your consideration for year two. Here are some forecast assumptions that were made in the budget development process. So overall growth is moderate. Sales tax increase, 7.2% in year one. and 4.5% in year two. Property tax increase, 3.5% in year one and 3.1% in year two. Interest earnings are forecasted at 4% and it is pretty clear that expenditures are increasing at a higher rate than revenues are. There are some risks, unknowns, and that's uncertainty with federal administration policies, new forecasted revenues such as Amazon revenue, the sunset of Measure G, and there's also economic uncertainty. The proposed biannual budget includes a balanced general fund, and focuses on council strategic plan, long-term service delivery, long-range infrastructure projects, customer service, public safety, small business support, and economic vitality. Here we outline the recommended positions in year one for police officers that were previously unfrozen a deputy police chief administrative analyst code enforcement officer combo building inspector and a permit center clerk in community development. We're recommending code enforcement officer combo building inspector and there is also an additional recommendation from in the city manager's budget while not included in the numbers and that's to add a position by community outreach assistant in the police department. And please note that this is not included in the biennial operating budget and would require Council action. So here we have year one citywide budget. This includes all of the funds. As you can see, year one revenue is $331 million. General funds is $193.1 million. You can see the enterprise funds are $68 million. followed by internal service funds at 13.6 million, other governmental funds at 30 million, and capital funds at 26 million. year two expenditures. Consist of a general funds is a 196.2 million enterprise fund 24.6 million. Internal service funds 14.9 million other governmental funds are 41.1 million and then there's a capital budget of 47.2 million. The reason why you see the enterprise funds in year one much larger than year two is a potential debt issuance of sanitary sewer bonds. And that's about 40 million difference. So that's why you see that in year one, because that's when we'd potentially issue them and not in year two. And here you have this year 2. Citywide budget for all funds and this is the revenues. And as you can see the general funds are 199.9 million. Followed by the enterprise funds. Internal service funds other governmental funds and general funds. That's in year one, so that total is $302.8 million. And year two is $320.3 million. And the reason why you're seeing here that the expenditures may not be the same as the revenues is because we're using fund balance as well as other budget balancing strategies to make up the difference. And now we're going to get into a little bit about how we balance the general fund. So we added new revenue, which again includes potential Amazon revenue, and increased certain revenues that we saw that historically were coming in a little bit stronger. There was a significant amount of fund balance after we closed the books, and so that's also being used. And the use of one-time funding, which includes the police development impact fee to fund the police building debt. Here we have a breakdown of the general fund revenues. As you can see, the major revenue categories are sales tax and property tax. Together, they consist of about 73% of the revenues for the general fund. And here you have year one of the general fund budget by departments. As you can see, the distribution of expenditures, the increase from the current year to year one is about 6.5%, which is about $11.9 million increase. And then Year two, again, this is a distribution of expenditures by department. And year two increase from year one is about 3.5% or 6.8 million. I made a note here also to the right what is included in non-departmental because, as you can see, it appears to be quite a large department. And that's the 9-11 dispatch services, animal services, JPA, community sponsorships, sewer rental assistance, debt service, insurance premiums, and so forth. This chart illustrates the breakout of year one general funds. As you can see, personnel is the lion's share of the budget here, and that's 135.3 million, or 68% of the budget. And non-personnel includes services and supplies. So those are contracts with consultants and any supplies that would be required within any of the departments. And then you also see the allocation to reserves at $1.4 million, and that's to maintain that 12% economic contingency. Here's year two of the general funds by category again. Personnel's going up a little bit. That's 70% of the total general fund budget. And non-personnel is 30% of the total general fund budget. And the allocation to reserves to maintain that 12% here is 800,000, about 800,000. So with that, staff is available for questions on the operating budget. In a few minutes, once we get done with the questions and vote on this item, Abe Pedrosa, our assistant finance director, will be presenting the CIP budget, the capital budget, and the five-year capital plan.

All right, Margaret, I'll start with you.

so on the um the general fund i'm looking at a three million dollar uh deficit right or loss compared to revenue and expenses for year one is that what i i'm and that's rough i kind of average it but i'm looking at your pie chart um are you looking at this number right uh no actually going back further kind of early on you showed the pie chart uh i think yeah that's the one I WAS JUST GOING TO ASK HOW THAT COMPARED TO OUR LAST BUDGET, WERE THE GENERAL FUNDS THAT BIG OF A DIFFERENCE IN REVENUE VERSUS EXPENDITURES? I KNOW YOU SAID EXPENDITURES ARE GOING UP HIGHER THAN REVENUE, WHICH WE'RE ALL EXPERIENCING THAT PERSONALLY, SO I'M NOT SURPRISED BY THAT, BUT I'M JUST CURIOUS IF WE'RE TRENDING IN THAT DIRECTION WHERE OUR EXPENDITURES ARE GOING TO CONTINUE TO JUST REALLY TAKE OFF COMPARED TO REVENUE.

Thank you for the question, Council Member DiIorigo. So this year, there was a lot more positions added also throughout the year. So after the budget was adopted, there were positions added at mid-year. So additional ongoing expenditures, and then there were more being recommended, more are being recommended in this budget at year one, 26, 27. So that is gonna make a pretty significant difference in in the disparity but again there was a high fund balance and so we are able to use some of that fund balance and um we're also able to cover um to increase our revenue because we did have that projected increase in revenue for amazon and other revenue that was coming in a little bit stronger that's making up that difference. So generally the trend is that way. Their expenditures will outpace revenues because each year there are new, not new labor agreements, but as new labor agreements are negotiated, there's usually a cost of living increase. Health generally has a pretty significant increase and also the cost of pensions.

Okay. And then on the Amazon revenue, it looks like it's going to now be coming in more like late 26, 27, like closer to the start of our 27, 28 fiscal year.

So that is something that we're going to be monitoring. So one of the things that could offset that is if revenue comes in, the sales tax revenue receipts come in stronger than projected. So we have a projection here. And we'll be reviewing the receipts as they come in. And if anything changes, if there's a need to adjust that, then we'll bring that up at mid-year.

Okay, you're looking at that kind of monthly, I mean really tracking that because that could make a big difference. Okay, then my last question was, do we have an idea of the cost of the additional position that's not in the budget for the SPD, the Community Outreach Assistant, what that cost looks like?

We do have that cost and let me check with our assistant director to see if he can, I believe it's in the staff report, but I can look at that. That's 156,000 approximately. Thank you, that's all my questions.

Thank you, Selena, for presenting this. And my question was kind of with Amazon, but it's been answered. But my next question is about the reserves. You mentioned that A healthy reserve is, can you repeat that, the percentage?

Yes, thank you. So currently we have several reserves. The economic contingency reserve is set at 12%. There's also an OPEB, other post-employment benefits, which is a 115 that can be used to pay for pay for pension benefits and so that's set at 10 million and there's also in infrastructure and facilities maintenance reserves and that's combined is 6.1 million so all of the reserves combined are about 20 percent of the general fund expenditures so that that that is a covers about two and a half month worth of expenditures but it is within

a reasonable uh a reasonable reserve okay so that's what i want to hear we're reasonable we have we're okay with that right correct but then in the next page when you said um for year the second year general funds on the reserve how you said 0.8 million correct and and the reserves are being maintained at 20 about 20 percent

So as expenditures get added, we also increase the reserve level to always maintain it at a certain percentage. And right now it's at 20%, approximately 20% in year one and 20% in year two.

Yeah. Well, thank you very much because I was like, okay, we need to make sure the reserves are okay. Thank you.

Yes, I was wondering if you might be able to go back a slide.

Did you say the last slide, council member?

You can go back. Oh, back. I believe it was a slide regarding, it was a pie chart regarding kind of the percentage going towards staff and the other percentage going towards other expenses, I think. Is it 69 and 31%? There you go, 68 and 31%. In terms of the non-personnel, I did hear you say some of that does go towards contract or contractors. By any chance of that 31%, do you know, would you be able to share with us what percentage it goes towards contract work?

five percent fifteen twenty uh and then is that also available um is that percentage also available by my department so i don't have thank you for the question council member i don't have that breakout but we can definitely get that for you uh what percentage is going towards contracts by department that's what i'm hearing a consulting services essentially

If I could receive that in the future, it's not contingent upon my vote tonight, but I would be interested in knowing. Thank you.

I'm sorry. Would you mind repeating that question?

That information, my vote tonight, it's not going to be contingent upon that information, but I would like that information at a future time. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Good to see you, Ms. Andrews. Ms. Andrews, at the beginning of your report here, you had mentioned there's risks and unknowns that sometimes being with the federal government, we don't have control over. And at the same time, being that we don't know if Measure G is going to pass or not, it's getting ready to sunset. On the recommendations that are several here on Measure G, What are we doing right now as far as, even though we don't know what's going to happen in the future, how are we justifying hiring these new positions for Measure G, not knowing what's going to happen here in the next few years?

Thank you for the question, Council Member Barrera. So while the positions are being added, it takes time. to recruit and actually bring people on board. We actually have a number of vacancies. Let me double check what that number is. So we currently have 70 vacancies citywide and so we're adding yes the other positions are being recommended for addition but the reality is that they're not we're not going to get through all of them it will take quite some time to start recruiting as there are currently a lot of ongoing recruitments as well so We will monitor that. We are monitoring the revenues that are coming in every month, and so at mid-year, that's gonna be an opportunity, or sooner if needed, that's gonna be an opportunity to make adjustments if needed.

Yeah, and Ms. Andrews, and you speaking about reserves, it seems like this, not only will it be a balanced budget, but it looks like a healthy budget. Am I right, or is it pretty tight, huh?

So given that we shared the budget balancing strategies and we had an imbalance of about 13 and a half million in the first year and it was about a million higher in the second year, I would say that while the budget is balanced, we need to continue monitoring it.

As we monitor this budget and having reserves It looks like we're going to have employees. We're not going to be laying off anybody in the next year or two years.

So it is not anticipated that that will be happening. But again, everything is contingent on how the revenues are coming in. So I think that's something that we need to look at closely, which we do regardless. But given that there was that imbalance, we do need to especially monitor the revenue as it's coming in.

Yes, thank you. And Mayor, by me, I would like the public to know, I know there's a $400,000 item here, the mobile crisis unit. I hear some great things about it. I would like the public to know, because it is a lot of money, but I would like the public to know how effective it's been, if there's somebody that can speak. Yeah, no, we'll have Lisa.

That's actually on the agenda as a separate item, and we'll have folks available to speak to it.

Thank you very much. And I think with the mobile crisis unit, that comes out of the general fund, am I right?

Yeah.

And thank you, Ms. Murphy. Ms. Andrews, I know we're all excited about helping our nonprofit partners. I know Ciclovia is on this report, and as well as, is it Water Keepers? Is that the name of it, Water Keepers? Ms. Murphy, there's an item here, community sponsorship of $150,000. In speaking with the city manager earlier this week and the attorney, I think he gave a good recommendation. I wonder if you know about that where these two groups that are very effective in our community, but that they could go through the process of being fair for every other group. Can somebody share about that?

They certainly could. That is a process that we have 150,000 set in the budget for the community sponsorship program. I am aware that those two groups have come separately before the council requesting separate funding. And this council can consider providing direction to staff with regards to both of those. I am aware of the recommendation to pursue funding through the community grant process. But again, that's a council decision, and they could provide instruction on that.

Yes, and so my colleagues would hear about that. I do want to hear about that, the process that you're talking about, because I think it would be fair. Let's just suppose there's another nonprofit that comes forward and say, hey, we want 50,000. So do we just do that and keep doing that instead of them going through the proper application process?

Certainly, the council has set up a process by which the communities can apply for grants. It's, again, a council-adopted process, 150,000. I believe the process opens up in August, September. There's a group that then reviews those applications and makes the recommendations, ultimately, which I believe it comes to the council for approval. Again, the 150 is budgeted in this year's budget. Anything beyond that would have to, obviously, if you wanted to increase that budget or add funding for additional groups, that would have to be another separate action and additional funding because it's not included in this year's budget.

Yes. Thank you. And Ms. Andrews, And maybe somebody else can help me with this as well. The rental assistance program at $500,000. Did we talk about putting more money in this? Can you remind me of what was happening with this?

Thank you for the question, Councilmember. So I failed to mention earlier that there is also an attachment D to your staff report, which identifies, hopefully captures most or all, if not all, of the items that have been discussed in public meetings over the last few months. And there actually is one thing that was inadvertently Inadvertently left out and that's the small business grants So I did want to make that point But also the item that you are asking about is included in there and there are options Included in there as well Let me just So it's question 12 in attachment D and it's related to the rental assistance budget. And we do, the city manager has made a couple of recommendations there. And of the first option is of the 500,000 reflected in the budget, which is already there. Council may provide direction to designate 350,000 to MCOE and 150,000 for general rental assistance. Option two is increasing the appropriation reflected in the budget of 600,000 and directing staff. that $350,000 go to MCOE and $250,000 for general assistance. And if this option is preferred, $100,000 would come from the general fund. And it would be either fund balance or reserves. But we would recommend that it would first come from the fund balance if there is sufficient fund balance.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Okay, thank you Tony. Andrew.

Yeah, 1st, I'd like to ask, it's not on the slides, but in our strategic plan that was included in the packet. There's 2 items missing from our discussion that we had. I'm at a strategic planning session and item number 1 was. The consideration that our city. Consider a reduction of pesticides and herbicides in our city landscaping activities. So I want that noted. And also there's another item missing in the evaluations of projects to prevent seawater intrusion. So I'd like those that as we move forward with our strategic plan, since it is in this agenda item that update be made.

Thank you, Council Member Sandoval. I'm sorry.

Thank you. And then, you know, we are considering the addition, like you said, of several positions, including officer positions and in your two code enforcement positions. And as has been noted by my colleagues, there was a mention of a deficit. Could you just clarify a little bit more for the public that although we are intending to hire these positions, like you mentioned, there is currently vacancies in, for example, our police department. So even with the unfreezing of this, I don't want the public to think that immediately because the council unfreezes these positions, we're going to have an influx of officers or other positions. Could you speak to that?

Thank you for the question, Councilmember Sandoval. So regarding the imbalance, we did share with you, I think as of the budget study session, we did have to reallocate some funding in order to make that up. But I think, as I've mentioned earlier, with so many vacancies, and to your point, yes, when you add positions, you also are taking up, holding up budget. However, there is always a vacancy factor that the cities, all agencies have to consider because the reality is that a lot of agencies close out the year anywhere from a 5% to a 10% vacancy factor. And we anticipate closing out the year with about a 8% vacancy factor. So it is not realistic that all the positions are going to be filled. And so as time goes by and we see that maybe the revenues aren't coming in enough to support all of the things that we have in the budget, then we will have to make adjustments at that time.

Right, and as we come up to our mid-year budget review, we'll be able to analyze what positions have been about. We're negotiating with bargaining units, and some of that is already reflected in the budget, what we anticipate those costs will be. there's a lot of moving parts. The budget reflects a lot of the community's priorities. Two of the budget asks, and thank you for clarifying that it was inadvertently left out, but two of the budget requests that I had were small requests, but big impact for our community. And that was the doubling of our small business grants currently. well it's it's two steps the doubling of our small business grants and moving all our small business grants to citywide as we know you know from district three to district four to district one and district five which i represent there's a big need for small business support so um you know moving that from 75 000 to 150 000 and uh making sure all our grants are available citywide that's one of my requests for this budget cycle. And the second is, and we've all seen it from Councilwoman de Arrigo's District 3 Neighborhood Grant, who funded a important autism event for the first time in the City of Salinas to Councilmember Salazar's Neighborhood Grant, who funded a very important market that helps provide scholarships as well as opportunities for students to visit colleges. So my second budget ask was that we double our neighborhood grants program from $42,000 to $84,000. So those two are my request that the council consider as we work through a motion after we receive public comments.

Okay, all right. Thank you. Okay, thank you. Thank you, Andrew. I'll, and I think Council Member Sandoval, so if, I think it sounds like if there are individual things we want to add on, each one would need to be considered one by one by one.

Correct.

Fair enough. Correct. With that, I'll hold my one by one until later, and I'll have some comments later. With that, we'll go ahead and open up to the public.

thank you. I' m not confused per conversation last night Mr. Mendez city manager you had a $10 million surplus now you' re showing a 1.4 which is 8.6 in the negative what happened to that money I would like to know or where did you guys redirect it? Second of all how much of this have you put towards homeless I didn' t see anybody talk about get rent stabilization is a whole different department I didn't see that being mentioned at all either and I guess rental assistance 500,000 I Mean you gave that to Don Chapin for the Welcome Center Why can't you up that a little bit and help people? Get somewhere to live you have somewhere to stay I don't understand these numbers. I mean, consulting services, why are we paying consultants to do the jobs that our city can do? We have great intelligent people working for the city. Why are we paying other people to take our money and tell us how to do something? I don't get that. Retirement, it's inevitable. You have to pay people retirement. That's understood. I just don't see a number there. Raises too, I don't see a number there either. New hires, hopefully we'll fulfill the 70 vacancies. I thought it was more the last time we spoke. I'm just a little confused. I like to see the real numbers. I like to sit down with you guys, with a bunch of regular public people and go through the books with you. That'd be something really nice to do. So anybody can put a number up here. I mean, I can do that. I can tell you that, Mr. Donahue. All of you, I can tell you. This is what it's going to be. Nobody asks those questions.

How come?

Where is the money really at? So $10 million down to $1.4. That's $8.6 million that now is missing within two or three weeks. Well, God bless you guys. Thank you. I hope Mr. G passes, because if not, we're in trouble. God bless you.

As far as the budget goes the city is basically responsible to protect the city to take care of its infrastructure and a lot of these other Areas that are non-pertinent to the city. I think should be considered to be removed also as far as with wages the city employees are making more than the general public and They're getting premium wages compared to the general public out there. I think some of the wages are too high. I've seen the police chief and other different department heads that have been brought in over the years. They stay a couple years, then they retire. Now we're paying their retirement. I just don't think that that's right. I don't think it's fair to the people of the city. I think we should cut back on a lot of the excess spending, the extraneous spending for this city and focus more on public safety, the public interest like police, fire, those kind of things, and start cutting back on some of the other stuff that's not necessary. Thank you.

Good afternoon, Mr. Mayor and members of the council. My name is Yahaira. I am an eighth grade student at Gavilanville Middle School and I live in District 6. I'm here for the first time and I thank BHC for inviting me. I am the proud daughter of hardworking peasant parents. I was working and raised in this city. and I know firsthand how the housing crisis affects my family and other essential workers in our community. Our parents and agricultural workers sustain the economy of this city, the state, and the whole country. However, those who work so hard suffer every day the devastating impact of not having a decent home. Access to housing is a fundamental human right, not a luxury. The city has the obligation to elevate this urgent need that affects those who make our economy better. For this reason, we hold the government of our city responsible and demand that they assign direct funds in budget 2026 to 2028 and look for local programs that support the development of collective property housing cooperates supporting these solutions is not only charity, it benefits all Salinas because it protects our people and prevents the displacement of our families, thank you.

Good afternoon, mayor and council members. My name is Elena. I am a student at Everett Alvarez High School, a resident of District 4, and the daughter of a working parent here in Salinas. This is my first time here, and I thank BHC for the invitation. I help facilitate budget meetings because I care about city well-being. I want to ensure the voices of Salinas residents are heard. I am here for my parents, my family, and all the families who cannot be present today. They suffer for the lack of affordable housing, yet they do not give up. They keep fighting, day after day, with the hope that one day they will stop paying rates and become homeowners. This is why I ask this council today to consider and allocate the necessary funds in the 2026-2028 budget to support the acquisition and creation of corporate deep housing. This model allows residents to become co-owners affordably, curbing displacement, and creating stability for our working families. Investing in cooperating housing is an investment in the future of Salinas. We hope to be taken into consideration. Thank you.

Buenas tardes, concejales y alcalde. Mi nombre es Nidia Soto, organizadora de la Justicia Económica con BHC. Como ustedes pueden mirar, las voces de los jóvenes están involucrándose más y más para que sean tomados en cuenta por este gobierno. Están involucrados en las viviendas asequibles, viviendas de cooperativas para esta ciudad que traería un alivio for preventing the displacement of many families that are workers, that contribute to the economy of this city, to this government. It is very important that this budget is taken into account and at the same time invest in youth, like the Cyclovia event that brings health and well-being for young people. Please listen to the voice of the people and finally listen to the voice of an older person.

Okay, good afternoon. My name is Nidia Soto and I'm organizer of economic justice. And I'm here to emphasize the voices of the youth that we heard. Please listen to them. Please take into account what they're asking for. We need affordable houses. We need co-ops so we can have relief and avoid displacement. This is for the benefit of all the families and for the working families that help for the economy here in Salinas. So please include this in your budget. And also, please include all the programs that help the youth. Like, for example, Ciclovia. This is something that is healthy, that is for the youth. So please listen to the people. And somebody else is going to talk right now.

Hi, Eleanor Elliott again, District 5. I serve on the Salinas BHC Thriving Neighborhood Team. And I wish to express my strong support for the creation and expansion of housing cooperatives in our city. In the face of the current affordability crisis, housing cooperatives offer a proven and sustainable solution. By allowing residents to collectively own their buildings, they promote long term stability, prevent speculative evictions, and strengthen the social fabric of our neighborhoods. Cooperatives empower workers, families, and seniors, giving them direct control over their housing costs and their living environment. I urge the city to explore funding mechanisms, provide public land, and reduce bureaucratic barriers to facilitate the development of future housing cooperative projects. want to ask you to support Ciclovia. Our youth need this program. It's very important. Thank you for your time and your commitment to the well-being of Salinas residents.

Good evening. Thank you for considering the request raised during the May 26th budget study session regarding parks and recreation staffing. I am speaking on behalf of the Salinas Parks and Recreation Coalition, a partnership of community organizations that includes the Salinas Regional Sports Authority, Big Sur Land Trust, First T. Monterey County, California Rodeo Salinas, Tatum Garden, Rancho Cielo, YMCA of the Central Coast, Center for Community Advocacy, Boys and Girls Club of Monterey County, and the Salinas Valley Chamber of Commerce. We appreciate that the need for additional parks and recreation staffing has been recognized as part of the budget discussion. As we noticed previously, parks and recreational facilities are more than amenities. they are important contributors to the health and vitality of our city they support physical activity mental well-being youth development community connection and public safety as the city continues investing in parks recreation facilities and programming we respectfully encourage the city the council to ensure that staffing resources keep pace with those investments The coalition continues to support the addition of at least two parks and recreation staff positions so that these community assets can be properly maintained and remain safe, clean, accessible and welcoming for all residents. Thank you for your consideration.

Good evening, Mayor, council members and staff. I'm Jennifer Vasquez with Big Sur Land Trust and also representing the Salinas Parks Coalition, as well as the Friends of Ensign volunteers and interns. First, we want to express appreciation for your consideration of additional staffing for the parks and recreation. This is especially important and timely given the upcoming expansion of parkland within the city of Salinas. On September 20th, we will be opening a 67-acre restoration site here in Salinas, which is an exciting, new, vibrant area for our residents that we hope that you and the public will come out and enjoy with us on September 20th. Prior to the opening, Bixby Land Trust will be transferring this land to the city. So while we will continue to fulfill our habitat management requirements per our MOU with the city, we are still concerned because this still represents an additional 67 acres that are being added to the city and that the city will also need to manage. We had anticipated an increase in staffing last year to prepare for this expansion, but it has not occurred. Bixter Land Trust will be providing an additional staff member for the restoration site. We will have a staff member dedicated to growing Friends of Ensign, managing interns and volunteers as well. And the heavy use of the park and volunteer work we already see at Ensign is a testament to how much these spaces are needed and valued by the community. To protect these investments and ensure that our parks remain clean, safe and welcoming, We respectfully urge and request the city to include funding for at least two full-time staff positions within Parks and Recreation for maintenance and operations. Thank you.

Thank you.

Hi, Council. My name is Erin Lawrence. I work with Monterey Waterkeeper. We are a nonprofit organization that works to preserve and protect our drinkable, fishable, and swimmable waters here in Salinas and across all of Monterey County and the Central Coast. I'm here today to ask you to support the Gavilan Creek to Coast Restoration Project in your budget. This project is about restoring one of the most important tributaries in Salinas, and it is our main wilderness that runs through the middle of the city. And we do this work by cleaning up trash and revegetating the Gavilan Creek with a lot of volunteers, especially youth through Everett Alvarez High School. It is a heavily polluted area. It has become dangerous. And despite all of that, there is still wildlife trying to live there. So we really need to restore it. And our work not only benefits the creek, but it also benefits the city's tree canopy cover by helping to increase vegetation and reducing the impacts of extreme heat and the urban heat island effect. it also benefits the city's trash amendment requirements by reducing pollution and keeping our water clean and it creates youth leadership by making more people engaged with the city and benefiting our health and well-being in the city so what we're asking for is nominal compared to what the city would have to do otherwise for the work that we are already doing and will continue to do for the Gavilan Creek. And so we're hoping that you will consider allocating funds towards the Gavilan Creek to Coast Restoration Project. Thank you.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, City Council. My name's Jose. I spoke a little earlier, but I'm along with Erin, my peer. I've been with Monterey Waterkeeper for the last six months. And during my first three, four months with Monterey Waterkeeper, I was doing some research on water quality in the Salinas Valley for Monterey Waterkeeper. And I had to present the research and the study to my TO MY SCHOOL AT CSUMB. I'M ALSO A CSUMB STUDENT STUDYING ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE, ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES. AND SO DESPITE EVERYTHING ELSE ERIN SAID, WE WOULD LIKE TO INCREASE THE ATTENTION TO ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES HERE IN THE SALINAS VALLEY TO HELP PROTECT THE you know, the large harvests or the large yields that we have with agriculture. I think on the back end of having, you know, a successful agricultural industry here, we need the ecosystem, the healthy soils, the healthy waters. And so along with this Gavilan Creek to Coast project, we're looking to see how we can increase carbon sequestration that ends up, you know, putting us into the carbon market, how we can, you know, clean our airs, clean our air quality, But not only that, I also like what you mentioned earlier about improving the quality of life for the Salinas residents, and I think of Monterey County. And I think by doing so, by improving the Gavilan Creek to coast project and restoring that area, we could possibly increase or make a bike lane or have you know, a nicer sanctuary for the city to enjoy. Ultimately, there's studies of biophilic design where, you know, people have an increase of health, an increase of a better mentality when they have, you know, a nice landscape to see, to view, right, and to live around. And so that is my point. Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor and City Council. My name is Juan Gomez. I'm the Director of Programs at the Center for Community Advocacy, CCA. CCA's mission is to identify, cultivate, and recognize leadership from farm workers and low-income families to expand opportunities in their lives. For eight years in partnership with the Big Sur Land Trust, CCA has led the community engagement efforts for Ensign Community Park and Restoration Area at Cart Lake. As open and recreational spaces continue to expand, like Ensign Community Park, Hebron Center, Closter Park, and others, it is important for the city's budget to reflect the increase in staff within the Park and Recreation's department. We are here to advocate for two additional full-time staff, and we thank you for your consideration. Thank you.

Daniel Munoz, East Salinas resident. Well, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but our water's not gonna be clean. We got ag out here spraying poison, people. So if you wanna spend money to try to clean up that water, it's not gonna do anything. Ag is spraying poison every single day into our water runoff. It's polluted. It's like putting lipstick on a pig if you wanna waste money on that. We have too many positions here in the city. We're spending too much money on consultants. on data collectors when we have people elected and we have people hired that should be taking care of this for us. The last meeting we had a strategic plan. You guys paid a consultant. I don't know how much money did we waste on that consultant. All the consultant did was stand up here and take notes. on what to write up in a plan. We could have had a high school student do that, but instead you guys go and hire a consultant. And we have our, a lot of our people are here to talk about the budgets. They got five people here to answer single questions that we have for them. And most of the time they don't even know what the answer is. Most of the time it's we'll get back to you, we'll get back to you, we'll get back to you. We got five people here. I don't know how much they get paid. That's probably a million dollars right there if you add it all up. The more we make, the more we're gonna waste. You know, you guys raise our taxes and squeeze, squeeze, squeeze the citizens, right, the residents here in Salinas, but nothing for ag. Let's squeeze ag to pitch in on this strategic plan and our budget right here that we have. How many more dollar leases are we going to give out? Should ask Dennis, how many more dollars, does Don Chapin have any more dollar leases that he wants to get? We did First Tee, we did the Welcome Center, or Heritage Center, I guess we changed the name. I mean, how many more dollar leases are we gonna do? The Rodeo has a dollar lease too, right? 50 year lease? I mean, this is money on the table right here. We should have way more money in the budget. And we should have way less people hired wasting our money. Everybody has an assistant. Lisa Murphy is the assistant city manager. We don't need an assistant. We need the city manager to do his job.

Again, good afternoon to everyone. I am here for this, also the same, we hope that you support us with two positions to keep it clean or give maintenance or the park. Although we, as CCA or members of the community, we have gone to clean the community garden of the native plants that are there, we have gone to clean, I have gone to clean there, but it takes uh. que está muy contentos con el apoyo que están dando a los que no pueden. No sabemos diferentes situaciones. No ha podido pagar su renta, pero con la ayuda que existe, ellos están muy contentos. Alguna familia está en punto de desalojo, pero con el apoyo y con este... Thank you.

Good afternoon, Jesus Estrada here again. And I'm here today to also ask if you can support the two positions, two more positions so they can clean the Essent Park. At CCA, we have gone to clean the park. I have gone there to clean the park, the community garden, the native plants. And the park is getting bigger, so we need to have these two positions to be able to maintain this park. Another thing, I'm here also to ask that more funds are allocated to the rent assistance. There's a lot of members of the community that are very happy with this. There are people that are families that for one reason or the other are not able to pay the rent. And they're very happy because they have been able to get help. and be able to cover their rent. Also, we have been able to achieve this with the help of some landlords. And a lot of people in the community are very, very thankful because they were maybe like one paycheck from being evicted and this program has helped them. So thank you so much for these funds.

Okay, thank you.

Good evening. Larry Hirahara, Selina Stranitown, Mayor Donahue and City Council. I have this staff report in my hand. Are these recommendations going to be done separately or is it included already in the budget?

Just comments.

Oh, okay. Well, I've looked at this staff recommendation and Considering the police, the four police positions, I would strongly recommend that. As a person that works in Chinatown, we've had incidences that we needed increased presence, and so they have done that. I'd like to congratulate or compliment Mike Baxter for helping out. So that makes a big difference in Chinatown, and it's been very effective. And as far as the community sponsorship program, we as Asian cultural experience have benefit from that. And so I would say that that as a part of Chinatown revitalization and collaboration with the city is a very effective program. And some of these other projects that are shown in this report, as far as like the Share Center or the Mobile Crisis Unit, those are cooperative issues with the county, and I think they're very effective and helpful, so I would recommend that continuation of those projects. The other one that, kind of related to the Mobile Crisis Unit, there's a recommendation about an additional OUTREACH PERSON FOR SO MAYBE THEY COULD BE INCORPORATED INTO THE MOBILE CRISIS UNIT AND IN THE PAST THERE WAS AN OUTREACH HOMELESS OUTREACH OFFICER POSITION. IT IS FUNDED. IT'S JUST A MATTER OF BEING UNFROZEN. SO THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

Peter Zelai. Tax measures failed in Soledad, Gonzales, and Monterey. That should be a wake-up call as Salinas prepares to ask voters to renew Measure G this November. Although this measure would simply continue the current tax, some voters may now view a yes vote as approving higher taxes. Voters are skeptical. They want to know where their money goes and what tangible benefit they receive. They want results they can see. For years, citizen oversight commissioners warned against drifting from the promises made to voters. They cautioned against diluting spending priorities and urged the city to take oversight seriously. Too often that office, that advice was ignored. And now we find ourselves in a difficult position. Recent surveys show troubling numbers. Only 24% of Salinas residents viewed local government favorably. A majority believe the city lacks transparency. 74% are dissatisfied with basic services such as street maintenance, street lights, and stormwater drainage. Council Member De La Rosa recently reminded us that residents want and deserve good customer service. She's right. If Measure G is to be renewed, if 107 employees are not to lose their jobs, and if progress in public safety, public works, and parks and maintenance, parks and recreation is to continue, city leadership must make service its highest priority. Between now and November, voters need to see results. The message cannot be that the city needs more money. The message must be that the city is using taxpayer dollars responsibly, efficiently, and thoughtfully, always looking for ways to do more with the resources already provided. That is how trust is rebuilt, and trust is what will determine Measure G's renewal. Thank you.

Thank you.

Good afternoon again. Sabino Lopez with CCA here asking for your support so that you continue to support all the community programs in Salinas. All the events that promote the well-being of our families. principalmente la mayor parte de campesinos. En este caso CCA también ha sido parte de esta coalición para desarrollar este nuevo parque, que es un orgullo tener un nuevo parque en Salinas, Ensign Park, que hemos trabajado en colaboración con Big Sur Land Trust, por varios años para desarrollar este proyecto que finalmente está a punto de ser realizado ya finalmente ya como vieron en septiembre se va definitivamente abrir las puertas este parque que va a dar espacio a toda nuestra comunidad de salinas y el condado monterrey para disfrutar entonces por favor it is very important that they support all the parks, but especially the one we are opening in the center of Salinas, which is going to be a place, it is a jewel, it is a jewel of Salinas, that instead of being full of houses and apartments, we have an open place so that families can take their children to walk, there are some very beautiful paths that they will be able to walk, Inclusive, ahorita todavía hay agua. Parece que tenemos unos pequeños lagos increíbles. Es hermoso. Por favor, les recomiendo. Vayan a mirarlo, disfrútenlo, pero también apóyenlo con los recursos que necesita este parque para que siempre se mantenga limpio y bien mantenido para que todas las familias de nuestra comunidad lo puedan disfrutar. Por favor, también ahí pongan esos recursos de esas dos personas que se necesitan para mantener el lugar. en buenas condiciones y en buen estado para para bien y bienestar de toda nuestra comunidad gracias

Good afternoon. Sabino Lopez again. CCA has worked on a lot of community programs here in Salinas. We have worked for the Essendon Park. This is a place where a lot of families can go and enjoy, mostly field workers. This is a new park and it is a gem. It is something that we're very proud of. It's gonna be a park that is gonna be completed in September. It's gonna be open for everyone, for all the families to come and enjoy. So we really need you to support this. We really need you to help us so we can continue maintaining this park. These two positions are necessary so they can maintain this park clean And it is an open space. It is in the middle of Salinas. It is a gem for us. It is a great place for families to enjoy. It has a lot of paths so families can come and walk. It has lakes. So we're asking you to please support this. We need two more people so we can maintain this park. Thank you.

Thank you. All right, we will go to Zoom. Okay, seeing no hands, we will come back to counsel. Andrew, I'll start with you.

Thank you, Mayor. I just want to follow up with the request from the community for. The addition of parks workers. I've been in communication with the city manager and. The last update we have is that staff will work with finance to look for opportunities. To bring forward the recommendations for the 2 additional parks workers. As, you know, we are way below our. Our staffing for the amount of acreages we have so just want to update you on that this year. We're allocating 150,000 dollars to our sewer rate assistance program. And this wasn't a response to the council raising sewer rates. What I want to tell us as council members, it's incumbent upon us to share this information because of last update I received about how much of the funds were expended. I think we're. Less than 5% of our available funds for sewer rate assistance. If you remember when the council made this decision. I really emphasize the need to have a bigger percentage of assistance as opposed to helping more people with less money. I think the average probably is we're only helping about 30 to $40 per person. And the paperwork involved in applying for that is it's pretty extensive. So I know that we need to revisit that to make sure that that those funds that are allocated are being used by those people. Who need those also, you know, we are facing measure G renewal and. This council really needs to be mindful of of what decisions we're making. Collectively, and what organizations were funding? I've made a. A budget ask for small business, economic development support and improving our neighborhoods through our neighborhood grants. But, you know, even that, that request that I'm that I'm requesting is not even reaching the amount that we funded the welcome center at. So I just want to emphasize the importance of making wise decisions. I want to keep pushing for us to get additional project management support. We have a lot of projects in the queue and as the council has seen, there's quite a bit of projects pending and carry over. So, whatever we need to do to assist a city manager in making sure we have staff capacity to move as many of these projects forward as soon as possible is very important. Um. I want to thank the city manager, the finance department, all the staff, because I know that this was quite a heavy lift to make the transition to a 2 year budget cycle. Obviously, there's going to be opportunity for community input. And revisions along the way, but I just want to highlight some of the. Things in this city's budget this year's budget funding to keep the mobile crisis unit. So this is providing mental health and crisis response and helping support the police department when there's people facing these. Mental health situation, unfreezing for police officer position. Ideally, increasing staffing funding the deputy police chief position. Continuing to fund our fire staffing after our safer grant expires. So those are very important issues. Continue funding for the share center. And, you know, helping assist people experience homelessness and transition to stable housing. the continuance of our rental assistance program, the important community sponsorship funding that helps so many nonprofits, the addition of code enforcement officer to address flight, housing complaints, zoning issues, continuing investment in traffic calming projects. Some of the projects I'm excited about are things like additional traffic calming, but also sidewalks and lights alongside One Great Road. Addition of permit center staffing and the new building inspector to help anticipated growth and development projects. There are some things that I don't agree with us continuing to fund. There are certain memberships and certain organizations. I don't feel that the public. Has a full awareness of how they can also. Participate in we are collecting more revenues, but also. As you see, it's not all sunshines and rainbows for what our city is going to be facing in the next couple of years, which is why. Making sure that we're supporting those businesses that are generating that tax revenue, but also looking for additional revenue sources that are not raised on the back of our residents. It's so important, so I'm looking forward to an upcoming discussion in September for a new tax revenue. That's not off of the backs of our residents. But with that, I'm happy to support the recommendations. I'm going to hear my colleagues. But I do wanna emphasize that I'll be pushing for the doubling of our neighborhood grants program, as well as the doubling of our small business grants and making all our small business grants available citywide. So all businesses have the same opportunity. Thank you.

Okay, thank you, Andrew. All right. Just as we proceed, one of the things, because I'm hearing that we're going to be interested in a couple of add-ons. So there's the first motion we will be looking for is passing the budget, or that's a potential motion. And then, for instance, if we want to add the community engagement or want to consider parks, that'll be separate. So the first thing we'll be looking for is you know, passing the budget if the council is so inclined to do that. And then we proceed to whatever we want to tweak or add on. So I just want to throw that in as we proceed down the dais. So, Tony.

Are you ready for a motion? Yeah, if you'd like a motion. I'm always ready for a motion. Well, then, if that's the case, if we can't come back for discussion. Oh, yeah, absolutely. I'll make a motion to pass it. I want to thank Ms. Andrews and her staff. Not an easy lift, but thank you for all your work. I'll make a motion on that.

I'll second that.

So there's a second to... the budget as presented, and then following that, comments and vote, then we'll proceed to tweaking. Tony, go ahead, please.

Yes. You know, there's a lot of things that we can be worried about, but I heard today, I think we have a group in front of us, Mayor, and my colleagues that are willing to work for their city. They're willing to step up. I heard, and as we can all agree, when we go out there door knocking, we always tell people, put me in there, I wanna improve the quality of your life. But today we have, we can do that. I heard a gentleman say, people wanna see results they can see. We have a lot of neighborhood issues that we can start working on. But a lot of times what we hear is we see this broad picture. We got a thousand streets. Well, let's figure out, let's start fixing one street. And let's start doing that. Sometimes I think, especially in government, we can get very complicated, Mayor. If we're gonna pass Measure G, we gotta start showing results now. because we can do a lot of talking, what we can do. But if people start seeing, people are interested in what's in front of their house. You know, how's my sidewalk? How's my street? You know, and I think what's important, we just, we're gonna get a brand new park, which we already do, Ensign Park. We got a cluster park, we got some, we got Gavilan Park, the little Todd Park on Toro, right there off of Barton that we're gonna start working on. We need staff for our green space. You know, when families can go to a park and enjoy the green space, they see that we're doing something. But if they go over there and all they see is weeds and overgrown grass and we're not taking care of it, the bathrooms are dirty, that's what they see. We can start taking care of those things. I'm not saying we're not. But we can make improvements today. We heard people say we need more parts that which I would agree. I would encourage my colleagues to see how we can do that and. Also, you know, we have a city that's full of volunteers. We have a lot of young people that want to get involved. Let's figure out how to open the door so they can help us. We have water keepers, which is new. I don't know too much about them, but I've been involved very little with them, but they're willing to go to work and make our creeks better. So a merit to that, I hope, I don't have any specific positions that I wanna talk about. I do know that we do need more park personnel to work on our parks. And if we can figure out a way, Mayor, and I'm looking at the city attorney, because I know in government, a lot of times when there's volunteers, there's some restrictions, liability and safety. But I think, Mayor, we have an opportunity here. There are people that are constantly coming to this podium, and they're just asking, how can we help? Let's open the door. Let's figure out a way to do it. Thank you.

Thank you, Tony.

Yes, I'll be supporting the motion. And for those of you in the audience, our department heads, our leaders in the finance department, I know that you've all worked very diligently and hard on putting this together. So I want to acknowledge all of you for that work tonight. I know that some of you don't have the same information that we receive up here. in terms of the budget and that whole thought process behind the budget and how that all gets put together before it comes before us. The one sheet that I do wanna highlight that appears in each one of our respective departments is that I can see that within each department, Each department had that opportunity to take a look at their budget for the year. And it's very specific to staffing levels, what they would like to see in the upcoming fiscal year, followed by another column that communicates to us the change, right? Like if we're adding or we're letting go of a position And then our department has, again, want to thank all of you for thinking ahead in additional year into fiscal year, 27, 28. And again, what we get to see here is, you know, I'm looking at the community development department, it's got the entire list of all of the staff that is there. And again, I'm looking at the respective columns and it's communicating to me what the proposed change that they would like to see two years down the road. And then again, it tells us if it's a POSITION THAT NEEDS TO BE ADDED OR A POSITION THAT'S BEING LET GO. PRIOR TO THAT, YOU KNOW, EACH DEPARTMENT, YOU KNOW, THEY HIGHLIGHT THEIR PROGRAMS AND SERVICES, LIKE WHAT EACH ONE OF YOU DO. AND I THANK YOU FOR PROVIDING US THAT INFORMATION. AND THEN ALSO HIGHLIGHTS WITHIN EACH DEPARTMENT. some department goals that were were achieved as well as other information like um you know funds that are being managed um which makes it all like you know very challenging and it's a balancing act amongst departments and then within our our finance department um THE ONLY THING THAT I WOULD WANT TO ADVOCATE FOR TONIGHT, IT DOESN'T HAVE TO BE TONIGHT BECAUSE I REALLY WANT TO MAKE SURE THAT WE PASS A BUDGET FOR THIS YEAR AND THE SUBSEQUENT YEAR, BUT I DO WANT TO GO BACK AND SEE AND ASK IF IN DECEMBER WHEN WE DO GET TO, YOU KNOW, IF WE DO HAVE A MID-YEAR BUDGET REVIEW AND POTENTIAL AMENDMENTS IS I REALLY WANT TO TAKE A LOOK AT THE POSSIBILITY OF LOOKING AT ADDING MAYBE ONE PARK WORKER. INSON PARK IS AN ABSOLUTE GEM IN THE CITY OF SALINAS. AS I THINK ABOUT MAJOR ACCOMPLISHMENTS FOR THE YEAR AND GOING BACK THE YEAR WHEN WE RECEIVED IT, I know that this city, we had also made that commitment that once that asset was handed over to us, that we would be good stewards of that. And so being good stewards of the park means maintaining it, which means having the staff and the resources to make sure that that happens. I don't know if we can add two or add two tonight, but I think if we can do that in increments, I would like to see what we might be able to do in December to at least maybe ADD ONE AND THIS TIME NEXT YEAR IF WE CAN LOOK AT INCREASING IT TO A STAFF OF TWO BECAUSE I DO FEEL THAT THOSE ARE TWO VERY IMPORTANT POSITIONS THAT WE NEED. for an absolute gem that we have in our city. It brings people together, it's addressing some of our health inequities, that skate park that we have out there, a lot of youth are using it, families are using it. And it's still in that second phase regarding the trails that are gonna be coming in soon. And that we know is gonna require additional I'LL CONCLUDE MY COMMENTS THERE AND LOOK FORWARD FOR A VOTE.

THANK YOU, RELIA. GLORIA?

THANK YOU AGAIN, SELENA, FOR PRESENTING THE BUDGET AND I HAVE NO PROBLEMS APPROVING IT. BUT I WILL ALSO SUPPORT COUNCIL MEMBER SALAZAR'S COMMENTS THAT HE JUST MET ON INSTANT PARK. WE DID WHEN WE HAD CONVERSATIONS WITH THE BIG CIRC LAND TRUST THAT WE WOULD we would support and maintain that park, our park, which is a gem. And it's being utilized by a lot of community members. So I would also like to support Councilmember Salazar's statement on coming back in December. And yes, we need to fund those positions. We said we were gonna support them and we need to do it. We need to look at that and then, yeah, support the positions. So we're going to come back to make more comments. And if we want to move something else and approve. Right, yeah, the first one is just, yeah. Okay, so as long as it's in there. And then we're going to come back. For that position. And then community services will bring it back, the comments.

Anything in addition to the general fund, the budget as presented will be the next conversation. Okay. So right now we're just proceeding with approving the budget. Weeks to follow.

Okay, thank you. Mr. mayor. I just wanted to comment on some of the comments that were made here tonight. I think I listened loud and clear that show us what you're doing. If you want us to keep funding measure G, I get that loud and clear. And I think that's brilliant of us to really focus in and do a few things right and not try and do everything. given the time that we have. And I also don't agree with just adding people. I think that we really need to add people and get the most out of them that we can and make sure that they're as effective as possible. I do question the Parks and Recreation staff that there was not, I don't believe there's any funding for any increases in staffing there. And are we confident 100% that we can maintain it without adding staff? I have to ask that question tonight because I'm not so sure that we can. And I want to maintain it. And then a couple of the groups that came forward, I love the projects of working on the Monterey Waterkeeper. I'd like to learn more. And I did hear from them. And I reached out to say I would love to meet with them. I want to see the data. I want to see what you're seeing so I can be more supportive. I like the work you're doing. I love that the youth are getting involved as volunteers. I think those are the kind of projects we want to have going on in our city. I'm very supportive of that. I just don't know that we can do that now, but I would want to get more information. And then I'll save my other comments for the

the specific ones coming up but i support the motion and this evening okay um just just a couple things um before we go ahead and call for the question uh i i think this budget does reflect uh what uh what we've been hearing and and where the council wants to go and the input from staff you know you know in in my mind it's it is kind of a pivot to to the future and it picks up For instance, there was a question about homelessness. Those things had typically, you know, Share Center, Mobile Crisis Unit, SORT had been basically grant funded. In order to maintain a commitment, we have shifted those to the general fund. So that's an action that we've taken. you know, a million plus. The budget, and we'll pick it up as we move forward, begins to reflect, you know, Amazon's arrival into the city in terms of contribution to the tax base. And we're not quite sure what that high-low ceiling looks like. But, you know, it's a net positive. And certainly speaking for myself, you know, it looks to me like we ought to be a minimum of 50% put into our streets, our sidewalks, our potholes, our lights. So I think that's some good news coming as it relates to infrastructure and the priorities that you're talking about, improving quality of life in neighborhoods. I mean, I think that's a message we're hearing loud and clear. And we certainly have heard a lot about potholes. This budget reflects we're also going to take a look at new technology and innovation. So. Coming soon to a city near us as in the city of Salinas. Pothole pro, which, you know, is an exploration of new new technology. you know, to see if we can do a better job. So we've heard those things. And I think this budget does reflect that we're responding to that. And when we get to the capital budget, we'll get into the infrastructure cost. But, you know, if you really think about the performance, you know, Christian's group, you know, Hebron Family Center, Closter, just Ensign Park, there are just a number of big things coming online. Buranda, Laurel, we're talking about Abbott. So those are big projects, but we're hearing loud and clear close to home. And I think we're beginning to address that, and I think there are more resources coming. The one thing I want to say about Measure G, and if you think about parks and libraries and we've heard how people are doubled or tripled up in houses. I mean, the reality is our park system is an extension of the housing conversation because you've got to be able to get outdoors and have a place to play and kind of spread your ring. So these conversations about services are really important and I frankly think they reflect part of the broader housing conversation. So I think it's really important we do take a close look at that. So the thing about Measure G, the sunset is not until 2030. What we're trying to do, because at the turn of the century when we had to deal with Measure V, it was two bites of the apple. Now I have confidence in the residents of this community that they generally have understood when we go to them on this sort of issue. And so just as Measure E, the sunset, was taken off, likewise, I believe this will Technically, if there were to be an issue in this election, we have another bite at the apple. So in my mind, we need to be moving forward, providing the right services, getting confidence, because it is important, as people have picked it up and asked questions. You've heard how long it takes to hire people. We wanna provide financial, we wanna send that signal to financial stability to those who are interested, to our residents, that the services are gonna be there, that we can continue to build in public safety, that we can continue to move forward in infrastructure. So the sooner we can provide that stability, the better, because without Measure G, you just simply blow a hole in the general fund budget, and then everything contracts. And Tony, you and Gloria and I have been through that, and when things contract, they tend to contract around your contractual obligations, your pension obligations do not go away, and infrastructure in particular tends to suffer. So we want to make sure that folks understand It's not, hey, let's get this taken care of for the sake of getting it taken care of. Because I believe the community will. I think we also owe them an explanation. Why are we going out a little earlier? Because we're trying to build momentum. And the guardrails are in place for mid-year adjustments, because that would be the exact right time, because it would be after the November election. Like, OK, we're going to have to think about some things. But if we get that addressed, then the council, whoever that may be, has a decision to make. Business as usual, confidence in 2028, or pump the brakes. That's a future decision. The budget will require diligence, but all budgets do. I can't think of a single government body that isn't looking at a budget and sleeps well at night. You kind of got to sleep with one eye open when it comes to budgets. So I think we understand that. We clearly have a community that's interested and perfectly prepared to keep us in check. So, so I, I think we should proceed with confidence with this budget, but we, but also just kind of see the slightly bigger picture as we do that. So let's go ahead and call for the question on this and then we'll proceed to the addendums. Patty.

Thank you, Mayor. I just want to make sure that I clarify this for the record and to ensure that the council and the public knows what we're voting on right now. So the motion was made by Council Member Barrera, seconded by Council Member DiRigo. To approve what's basically the recommendation that stated on the council agenda, which is approve a resolution adopting the city of salinas and successor agency to the former salinas redevelopment agency proposed by annual budget for fiscal year 2627 and 2728 operating budget, which also includes the approval of a resolution establishing the appropriation limits for fiscal year 2627. The motions of the maker agree on that? Yes? Okay, thank you. So with that, I'll go ahead and call for the vote on this item. Council Member Barrera?

Yes.

Council Member DeRigo? Yes. Council Member De La Rosa? Yes. Council Member Salazar?

Yes.

Council Member Sandoval?

Yes.

Mayor Donahue?

Yes. Motion passes. Okay, very good. Thank you, everyone. All right. So I know we've heard some things from the audience and then on the dais. So we can just simply hear some comments, though I might synthesize a bundled option, if I've heard, and I have no problems if it gets picked apart, but here's, here's, I'm prepared to lead with, as a trial balloon, based on what I've heard and based on late breaking news, that we've got, we've got roughly 450,000 I always like to round up to half a million, but let's call it $450,000 general fund carryover to kind of package some of the things we've heard. Now, we could go in and tweak something and change the line item, but based on what I've heard, I'll offer up a trial balloon that I'm happy to get, you know, comment on. So I would proposed that we consider adding the community engagement assistant, which as I understand, it's about 150, give or take 150,000. I think we're hearing the importance of parks. So one, and keep in mind as we do this, it takes X amount of time for them to get hired. So it kind of falls in a little further down the line. And this is a two-year budget. So we could allocate one park. Person now trial balloon. And then I, I really and again, I think this is. Part of housing youth development and we, we clearly have made a commitment to. Young people in this community, you know, youth council, et cetera. So I'd like to propose. So there's there's $15,000 already allocated for fees with. I would be comfortable honoring their request at 60, but to make the math work, maybe it's 45, which is a total of 60. Or go to the 60. I'm comfortable either way. And then lastly, on the rental assistance side. Some of the options that we could play around, I was interested. So, assuming we're looking at that 500,000 dollars in the city manager was. The homeless student program, talking to Donna Smith at MCOE, I think has been very successful and well received. And I asked her, is that the right number? And she hadn't spent it all yet. But she said, yeah, that's about the right number, but it's a little tight. And then I also know, when Rebecca was here, I also know they have homeless students as well. So my thought was, either add an extra 100,000 or bump that to, 350, though it is true our rental assistance has been well received. The feedback I've gotten is we appreciate immediate solutions. So one option is to bump up to 100, to go to 600, and go 350, or leave it at 500 and play with the 150. And the reason the homeless student issue is important, because it's a broader definition, but it reflects that. doubled up, tripled up, or a couch, or sometimes cars. But the homeless student investment is also, besides being rental assistance, because there's obviously going to be, or there's often a family attached to that conversation, but it's also a preventative measure, thinking long term. That if you can, you know, based on what I was told, you know, the working average is if you can help a student cross the high school graduation finish line, you diminish the possibility of being homeless by a third. So that seems to me to be a good investment. And all I know is occasionally I stop and visit with somebody on the street and I'll tell you. And when people wonder who they are and where they come from, I can't tell you how many cowboys and vikings I meet. So this is our community. So that idea of thinking long-term and being preventative might make some sense. So that package gets us about $450,000, which is the number. Feel free to tweak it, but that's a trial balloon that deals with the known carryover and some of the things that I thought I heard.

I just want members of the public to know that Ciclovia, $60,000, but it's an investment on prevention. And I do have to tell you, it can go into the millions of dollars. What these young people are doing, they're mentoring each other. They're creating leadership within leadership. And one of the things that they're out there doing, they're getting other children involved. So when I see $60,000, I see the investment of these children are not gonna go to juvenile hall. Some of them are going to continue in school. Some of them are creating mentorship within their family with their brothers and sisters. Mayor, I do wanna go out on a limb here with the water keepers. Even though we don't know too much about the water keepers, I've gone out there to the creek, which is between the... in the share center, I went over there and there are 20 encampments, there's a village out there right now. And the creek, as we hear that the waters are getting dirty, it's really bad. And here, not only do we have an investment of $35,000, again, I don't know these young people, but I know of their work. They came up today and they says, you know what, not only do we have workers, but we also have a bunch of volunteers. And Mr. Mayor, we need help on that creek right now. I've gone out there to see it. We gotta start seriously working on that creek. We have so beautiful trails out in our parks, but people are afraid. People are afraid to walk these parks. And I think with this group, that's asking for an investment of $35,000. I wanna see if I can convince my colleagues to go along with that, because you're gonna see a bigger investment. This is pennies on the dollar for what these young people are willing to do. Not only that, but they're gonna be out looking for grants as well, and they're gonna be coming out and giving us a report on what they're doing. So I'm looking for a buddy here.

What's the number you're attaching to that?

$35,000. If you go look at that creek, you send staff right now, you're gonna talk $100,000 that we clean it up when these people are willing to go out there and help us with this. Thank you.

Okay, thank you, Tony. Okay, we'll continue comments on the diocese. Okay, I saw Margaret first.

Thank you, Mayor. So what I'm, I guess we're negotiating here. I'm in favor of Ciclovia. I'm in favor of supporting the water based on what Tony just shared with us. Because like I said, I've not seen it firsthand. And I do know about the encampment. I know that's a real issue. So I hear you there. That what if we considered including the $15,000 in fees that the city is already putting towards Ciclovia and giving them the $45,000 increase so we can fund the two projects, which I think are both important. And I've not seen a budget for St. Clovia, so I don't know what their budget looks like. So these are numbers just coming out of the blue. And I know they're doing some fundraising. I know fundraising is really difficult right now. But I also want to encourage them not only to go out and put on the events, but fundraising is part of it. It's the worst part of putting on an event is having to ask people for money. Trust me, I've been doing it for 40 years, and it is not fun. But you're not doing it for you, you're doing it for your community. So I want to encourage them to have that incentive to continue to go out and get a broader base of support instead of the city picking up the bulk of it. I really like when projects are funded by multiple sources, so that's why I'm asking for the possibility of a compromise on that one.

Okay, Laura.

I agree with you. I think that we need to continue to fund Ciclovia. I call it Ciclovia or Ciclovia. And I just want to remind the city that Back when it started, the city supported it and started it with BHC and CCA and everybody got involved. So we need to continue to support you. But I like the idea that you said about the 45,000. We're giving 15?

15's already there, so 45 would bring it to 60.

So 45, we would add the 45 to make it 60 for Ciclovia. And then about the water, yeah. I think that Creek really needs to be clean. And we're talking about quality of life and we're talking about volunteers, but since you're asking for a budget from Ciclovia, I think you're also a nonprofit. Did they leave? I don't know if they're still here. Yeah, can we also see what their operating budget is? Yeah, but I would say fund them.

Okay.

Fund them because that creek does need to be cleaned. And the recommendations about the police position, I'm in favor of that. And we need to fund the position for the parks. That one position, we need to fund it for Eslan Park.

Really?

Yeah, I'll just go back to my previous comments regarding supporting our parks worker. In terms of Gavilan Creek, IF THERE'S AN OPPORTUNITY TO USE SOME FUNDING FOR TREE REPLACEMENT, I HAD AN OPPORTUNITY TO GO OUT THERE WITH RESIDENTS ON A NUMBER OF OCCASIONS. I KNOW THAT THERE'S SOME TREES You know, I always feel like whenever you remove a tree, you have at least a one-to-one, if not a two-to-one tree replacement. I know that there's some costs that typically fall behind tree replacements, but those are the only changes or recommendations I would advocate for tonight.

I forgot to add one comment. I'd like to add the amount that you suggested for the rental assistance program.

So that plus 100. Yes. Go to 600. Yes. Okay, so.

Rental assistance.

Okay, so that's plus, okay. If this is leading, just so we're doing the math, plus 100, plus 45, plus 156. plus 113. And Tony, I know you're keeping an eye on my 114. OK, and then Lisa, did you want to?

I just want to add a couple of suggestions. You know, from the administrative side, we do see lots of requests come in from various groups for requesting funding. And while I want to respect the groups that come before the council and make the request, I do want to remind the council that we do have a well thought out policy and process where groups have a fair opportunity to apply, state what the reasoning for their funding is. We are able to see what their budgets are, what's the impact. We're able to vet through that process. I actually sat on the review committee last year. So that way we can see all of the different grant applications and the requests that come through, such as the Monterey One Waterkeeper or Cicla Via. it gives an opportunity for the groups to be fairly vetted together. So I just want to offer that reminder and that it may be better served to actually utilize that funding that you're suggesting towards increasing the grant amount from 150 and add the 60 to that. Just again, we do see a lot of groups that come before us requesting funding and we always push those groups towards towards that process so that it is a fair vetting and consideration process.

Thank you. And I just want to add on to that a couple of things. One, Councilor, you just adopted a balanced budget just a few minutes ago, and now you're starting to throw some things in there that may affect that, right? And it's definitely a good conversation. You're talking about funding the water keepers, but they haven't made a specific request for an amount. You haven't sort of suggested an amount. which is why I think to Lisa Murphy's point, that process that you established, which allows all of these nonprofits to come in to compete for the same funding, will give them an opportunity to make an actual request for funding and provide a basis for that request, right? Rather than just, we want money to do something. Right. That process would require them to tell us what that something is and the amount that they need in order to do that something. Right. So request that you honor the processes that you already have in place. It went through a very lengthy process for you to get there. And in terms of the park position, we haven't had a discussion about what level of park maintenance person that is, what that funding implication would be. We haven't had a conversation with the director as to whether she would require a park maintenance one or two or whatever. And we need to give her that opportunity, I think. And budgets can always be adjusted as we go on past tonight. And I think you've heard the city manager say that many, many times. You can always bring back budget requests. We can always adjust as needed as we go forward to make sure that we have this properly accounted for and that we don't go into an, you know, things that you can't fund because you don't have the money, okay?

Not a spectator's board. All right, having said all that, I will make a motion knowing that there is a bit of a fund balance to play with. Mayor.

Oh, I'm sorry, Andrew, go ahead. Yeah, no, I think the only part that you didn't capture was. The request that we double the small business grants, and we make those city wide. So they're available to all businesses. Also, I want to talk about the neighborhood grants program. That neighborhood grants program, each council member will be able to allocate there. There's a little more discretion on who. It's council member can can allocate those neighborhood grants to projects that they want to. See beautified or supported in their community so I want to just remind the mayor that. That that was a request I made as well.

Okay. No, thank you. Um. Well, just speaking for myself, if there is a if there is noting that we had carefully calibrated and I am just frankly, I'm adamant about the police position. So the. If. If. You know, if incorporating what Andrew said, then then I think I'd make this motion and again it could be tweaked or played with, amended, but $100,000 up rental assistance, $100,000, $45,000 for Seclovia because that's a known entity that we're already investing in that we've spent time with and we're familiar with over the years. The estimated $156,000 for the community assistant. Um, and then and then a senior park person, as I understand, it's in about in the 100 110 113,000 range. So that that would leave. Roughly another 45. Or so to play with and then Andrew, I, you know, your input if you want to. I recommend dispersing that to each of the council members for neighborhood activity. That might be a play. But in light of what Lisa and Chris have said, we should try and stay maybe within that 450 window. So right now, with what I just laid out, there's about 50,000 to play with. Now, it could be tweaked. But again, with the idea of let's just bundle it and then move forward, that's the motion I would make.

And Mayor, with that, to Assistant City Manager's discussion about through this application process, because Ciclovia and even Water Keepers have been here continuously But is it possible, even though we may agree on that, but to have them go through the application process as well so we can view their background as well? I think it's important.

Well, I'm simply making a motion. It may die for lack of second, or it may be amended. But that's the motion I'm making.

So if that's your motion, Mayor, let's just make sure that we're all crystal clear as to what the motion is. And I'm going to repeat this, and you correct me if I'm wrong. so a hundred thousand dollar increase to the rental assistance program right forty five thousand dollars to ciclovia right the police department's community um assistant position right which i'm told is about 156. and then a senior park maintenance position yeah about 113 110.

The senior part maintenance worker is 130. A part maintenance worker one is 113.

OK, I'll make it part maintenance one.

OK, and then also adding in Andrew's two requests for the small business grants and the neighborhood grants, doubling both of those. Was that?

Right. I'm not familiar with the number. I mean, and I'm not opposed to it. What's the number with grants?

So was that not a part of your motion?

let me just um it's always hard to do it from the dice right because i'm i'm i'm a little bit concerned i want to go back to the parks maintenance worker one just real quickly because by adding one you need to add what i'm told is the supervisor position so this is what happens when without the input from the the directors to understand the dynamic of what by adding one maintenance worker is actually not what they really truly need. What I'm understanding from our library and community services director is that it's really actually the supervisor position, because if they're gonna work on the weekends, which this is gonna have happen So it's adding the supervisor. Now, can we have the supervisor without an additional park maintenance worker? I'm looking to my community. Yes, okay, so they prefer the supervisor. So that's the 130. I just want to make sure we are clear on that.

Okay, 130, okay.

And then on the neighborhood grants, the request from Councilmember Sandoval was to double the grants from 42,000 to 84. That's an additional 42,000. But I'm not clear if your list included, does your list include the neighborhood grants?

Well, again, the purpose of my motion was to synthesize, create a bundle if numbers need to be tweaked or not everything fits into the bundle, so be it. It would be a council discussion. Do both, double neighborhood?

Yeah, I'm sorry, I'm still thinking about what our city attorney advised us that we voted on the budget, now we're adding all these extras. I'm not sure where the $450,000 comes from, where that number came from.

Thank you for the question. I can answer that. So our ending fund balance at year two is 1.3, just under 1.4 million. And so we're adding a PD, the recommendation is to add a PD position. that's about 160,000 and that's ongoing. So you reduce, so we're dividing that by two and we're reducing now that ending fund balance because we need that fund balance to balance the budget in the coming year. So we, with all these additions, we're potentially going into a negative fund balance And then we'd have to touch our reserves. I think what I'm hearing here in the group is that we would like to maintain our reserves because of the uncertainties, the unknowns. So I do agree that perhaps a separate conversation, this can happen in August. This can happen in September. We can wait for mid-year. There's a lot of opportunities. Every council meeting is an opportunity to have conversations about, with the directors, with the city manager, about any potential adjustments to the budget.

I think, you know, personally, I would feel more comfortable with that. I feel like we're sort of making decisions a little bit on the fly. And I do like the community grant opportunity. Opportunity, because people will have to again, submit a budget, submit a plan, submit a project that's very specific that we can say, hey, we all sign off on this versus we need 35,000 dollars to go do whatever we're going to do.

So, yeah, well, and my purpose was simply to create a strong. But but the 1, the 1 thing I do. feel strongly about and I would make a motion that we do the community engagement officer for for the place because he will have to cut back on community engagement and he directly attributes that to that process has helped build community confidence in the place has led to a higher homicide solve rate and so cutting back on community engagement. I think would be a mistake. So I think I certainly would like to propose that that gets added on.

I agree, Mr. Mayor. I think you pulled that out in the very beginning and said, by the way, this is not in the budget. So I was prepared to go along with that. But I think the others, I feel like I would personally rather reserve some more time for us to communicate it to the council and make some decisions based on some more information. That's just my personal view.

So I can withdraw my motion and make a new motion. Right, so you're free. Yes, please.

I think with everything being said, I think we can also use that as direction for staff. I mean, one of the reasons why I said I wanted US TO LOOK AT THE TWO PARKS POSITION IN DECEMBER WAS TO KIND OF GIVE STAFF ALSO THAT TIME. I KNOW SOMETIMES THERE ARE VACANCIES THAT COME UP WITH THE DEPARTMENT SO THAT MAY THAT MAY THAT MAY OPEN UP SOME SOME FUNDING BUT JUST WANTED TO CHIME IN AND YOU KNOW WE CAN USE THAT AS DIRECTION.

That's a really good point, and if I may, Mayor, your original motion died for lack of a second, right? So now the only motion that is alive is the one that you just made with respect to the community engagement officer that I understood was seconded by Councilmember Di Iorio.

I would second that, yes.

And the rest, as Councilmember Salazar said, would be direction that we would take back to the city manager and then have a consideration discussion how we bring those other items forward for your council to consider. And so there's a motion and a second on the floor that you can call for the question on Mayer if you're ready.

I'd like to make a comment before we do that.

Oh, OK. Go ahead.

Yeah, I do agree with with with what's happening right now. It got really messy, especially considering we didn't take staff's consideration. We all have the same opportunity to give our input on about our budget request. I made mine ahead of time. Our small businesses are hurting increasing that budget for small business grants and making those city wide. I think is a priority for everyone. And the same thing with the neighborhood grants program. It's not a significant request. I believe the city manager supported that. That request as well. I'd like a timeframe for when these discussions will be had. I understand the parks position because that's something we had already discussed. We're going to be analyzing. But I'd like to get a little bit of information of when we'll see the neighborhood grants program because. that usually gets awarded August, September, November. And I wanna know when that neighborhood grants or the discussion about the small business grants. When will that happen?

So I think that Lisa, you can chime in, but I think we can bring that back to council in August so that we're timely with that council members down the hall.

I agree. And again, as the finance director had pointed out, every council meeting is an opportunity to bring back these items to discuss. And particularly, again, in light of the Measure G and waiting to see how that what happens with that in November gives us a lot of comfort and stability, knowing to move forward, particularly with positions, and to have an opportunity to hear from the Parks Super, Library and Community Services Director, I was gonna say Parks and Rec Director, sorry. to hear what, come back to us with a report on what the needs are, given what the, what's coming online, when they're coming online, because you also have to remember, when you add bodies, you have to add equipment, you have to add vehicles, so it's usually a much larger picture than just adding a body, so I think it would be good to have a fully vetted conversation, again, to bring that back.

Okay, go ahead and call for the question.

Calling for the vote on this motion. Council Member Barrera?

Yes.

Council Member DeRigo? Yes. Council Member De La Rosa? Yes. Council Member Salazar?

Yes.

Council Member Sandoval?

Yes.

Mayor Donahue? Yes.

Motion passes. Thank you, everyone. All right, we're going to take a 15-minute break. We are going to need the clerk. Do we? Yeah, we probably do. For the PowerPoint? It was an excused absence. All right, now we're ready.

All right. Good evening, Council, a Pedro's assistant finance director. I'm here to present the proposed biennial capital budget and five year capital improvement program. At this time, staff recommends that council approve a resolution adopting the proposed biennial capital budget and approving the five year capital improvement program for the city of Salinas. It's important to note that similar to the operating budget, any additions to the CIP budget need to be included in the motion for council vote or separate council action as determined by the city attorney and city clerk. Here's where we are prior to the biennial budget. Currently there is approximately 66 million in unexpended and unencumbered CIP funds. This amount encompasses 123 projects citywide from all funding sources. The final amount remaining at June 30th, 2026 will be carried over to next year, FY26-27. 29.3 million or 45% of the total are categorized as streets, sidewalks and related projects. Two more items to point out are that staff conducted a thorough review of CIPs as part of the mid-year report, which included timelines of each project, and also the current proposed biennial CIP budget has a large investment in sanitary sewer infrastructure due to the rate increase approved by council last year. Okay, now we're getting to the details of the proposed biennial budget. Year one totals $47.2 million and includes funding for 40 projects. Some of the larger projects are listed, such as the sewer lift station and mains at $16.5 million, street maintenance at $8.5 million, Baronda Road $3.4 million, and pavement and sidewalk improvements at $1.8 million. As you'll note on the bottom right, not included in the total is an additional staff recommendation of 1.5 million for year two residential of the pavement improvement plan, which we will also discuss in a few slides. Fiscal year 27-28 includes a total of 40.3 million over 38 projects citywide. And some of the key projects are listed on the screen now sewer infrastructure is proposed at 15.3 million to safe route to school projects almost 12 million and significant additional funding for various street related improvements. And here's a recap of the biennial CIP budget. 87.5 million in citywide infrastructure is being proposed over the two years. The top three categories for both years are streets and sidewalks, sanitary sewer, and engineering and transportation. The details of the CIP budget are provided in the hard copy binders as well as the attachment to the staff report. There are two recommendations that I wanted to highlight as detailed on pages six and seven of the CIP staff report. Recommendation one is a 3.4 million reallocation of funding and is included in the budget as presented. Staff is proposing to shift funding in the amount of 2.6 million to Abbott Street, another 500,000 for traffic calming and 289,000 to Baronda Road. Recommendation two is the appropriation of an additional 1.5 million from SB1 fund balance to complete year two residential of the five-year pavement improvement plan, as I mentioned earlier. This recommendation is currently not included in the budget. And that concludes the capital portion of the proposed biennial budget. Staff is here for questions. Thank you.

So before we proceed with questions, same situation as based on the last recommendation as presented an option. And then if we want to consider the million five, that would be an addendum or an additional. Okay, very good. All right, with that in mind, Tony, why don't we start with you and then we'll go to Andrew.

Mr. Pedrosa, can you go back to the slide where you have Williams Road, please? There's two slides that has Williams Road. Yes, right there, 2.1 million. Can you explain specifically what is that for?

Our city engineer will answer that.

Hi, good evening. Yes, so Williams Road, we actually have multiple projects that are going on for Williams Road. We've identified them here just as Williams Road, but really we actually have Williams Road undergrounding. One project we have John Williams, which was a grant that we received for active transportation. program, and then we have safety improvements on Williams Road, which we did receive the $16 million from the federal government.

Yeah. And Ms. Adriana, on the sewer lift station, is that the one that's over on Lake Street?

Yes, this is Lake Street sewer lift station.

Can you just share a little bit about that? Because I understand that's the main lift station in Salinas, if I understand correctly.

Yes, this is the largest lift station that we have in the city. It's in the heart. It's in Chinatown. And it really, it has a sewer shed that encompasses District 2, District 4, District 6, District 1, it's pretty massive, and it basically takes all of that, a lot of that area, and that's the pump station that pumps it out.

So it's my understanding, I mean, whenever the entire project gets done, we're talking about like $50 million, is that right, in that neighborhood?

no the the 50 million dollars actually was for a much bigger project um when what we're looking at right now is we're looking anywhere between 16 and 20 million for that specific project and what will that that amount of money what will that do what we're looking at is for a basically a new pump station

Thank you. And if I may, Mayor, I have one other question. Mr. Pedrosa, with the reallocations on page six in your report, I know there's several reallocations here and it does say, that staff will continue to revisit the project and make recommendations in future budget cycles. On some of these reallocations, is it possible to do, I wanna go out on a limb here. You know, there's a lot of small pending projects throughout the city, infrastructure, sidewalks. Is it possible to do any of these smaller projects with some of this money? You know, pending projects that we already have, if you ask any council member here, hey, what does your neighborhoods need, I think we all know that. So I guess my question is, it does say that staff can reallocate money, but can we reallocate money on these, and I'm talking like restriping, crosswalks, stuff like that. Smaller projects.

I'll jump in. So it is possible and that basically is one of the options that we are providing. One of those is for traffic calming. We obviously hear a lot about the need for traffic calming. So we are proposing as part of this reallocation is also to possibly fund just like a consolidated traffic calming project so that we're not doing these, basically these, all we can fund is two a year, right? So that we have like a larger consolidated project.

Yeah. Once you start reallocating, do you know when we start talking about, What projects we're going to work on?

Yes, that's basically what we're talking about here. We did point out the reallocation would be for the pavement project, which for this year we're saying it's going to be Abbott Street for traffic calming and then for Buranda Road.

Thank you.

Yes. Well, thank you for the addition for the the additional one point something million dollars to make sure we're making sure we're keeping our word to our year two payment management plan with with that additional funding. Do you feel confident that we'll be able to be on track with that?

Yes. The additional funding will provide basically that gap that we need to fill for the residential. We had originally budgeted or in our estimate when we prepared the program, we basically had 1.8 million. We do have funding from the 2025 project that can also be allocated towards that. So then we identified to finance that what we needed was the 1.5. Okay.

Those are all my questions. Thank you.

No questions. Thank you.

My question on Abbott, Abbott Street, you know. Because I've been, you know, I go around the area and everything, and I just realized that when you come down Abbott from the south end, that's a gateway, Abbott, Abbott Street. So this funding is going to go in to... to Abbott Street, right?

Correct.

Yeah, some of it so that we can, now that Amazon's coming in and we're gonna have all this traffic and so forth like that. Correct. Right, so I just wanna make sure that we do that, that we don't take money from this because that really needs to happen.

no and and we are and we are we're actually ready to come come forward to the council we we pulled it from tonight's agenda but we're ready to come forward on the 30th um to award the contract for this project oh okay i mean all of them are important but i just want to make sure that yeah because it's a gateway you're coming into the city from the south and it's like wow correct okay thank you

Adding on to Gloria's question, so I kept hearing $4 million for Abbott Street from the Sanborn Street to the railroad tracks. This $2.6 million, is that an additional to take it further south?

Yeah, the project actually grew a bit because what we're doing is, since we're going to be in the area, we're also going to be making sewer improvements. And so what the original pavement management program, how we had originally scheduled it, was we were actually going to be doing the improvements from the railroad track, or better yet, from Harkins to the city limits in year two. So that's what was scheduled. But since we're doing the sewer line, the sewer line extends to Harkins and then it goes up onto Harkins. And so what we're looking at for the project now is actually consolidating year two and year five, which identified Abbott Street, and also incorporating Harkins because we are doing those sewer improvements on Harkins as well.

Okay, so you're just, I think I understand. So you're basically just accelerating everything and doing it now while it's cheaper and while your roads are torn up anyways. Correct. Which makes a lot of sense. So what about the area from Harkins to Harris? Like I know there's a lot of work being done now at the median. What part of that are we funding and when will that happen?

We're basically, the limits that we're proposing for this project is gonna be from Sanborn all the way to the city limits. So the entire length south of Sanborn.

And that'll be late because that's not in these numbers, I'm assuming. Excuse me? That's not in these numbers that we're looking at here, right? That's an additional funding that will have to- No.

That is? So with the reallocation, that would take care of that entire limit. Okay.

And then can you explain, so the last bullet point on the additional staff recommendations, the 1.5 million for the preventative maintenance plan that we're supposed to be, that you're asking us to approve tonight, it's not in the budget. Can you tell me again what that is? And I think that might have been what Andrew was referring to. I just want to make sure I understand what that's for exactly.

So that's the $1.5 million. The $1.5 million really is for the year two residential streets that the program had. Because the program basically identified, we developed the program with the assumption that there would be about $5 million to $5.5 million. And so what we did was we broke up major streets and then residential streets.

you

Abbott Street being what it is and the amount of work that it needs, it needs a lot more than $5 million. So what it ended up happening was we requested additional funds for Abbott Street in order to accomplish resurfacing that. But then what happened was then we were deficient on the residential. So the 1.5 million gets us there so that we're able to also move forward with the residential streets.

And the residential is throughout the city?

no the residential really is is um streets within district three and that was based on the um the street selection okay um in the pavement management policy okay thank you answer that question thank you very much appreciate it

Mary Ann. Just I want to pick up on something that Tony asked. I'm in favor of the reallocation, but as the five-year plan proceeds, within a year or two, there may be within a year or two, there may be another opportunity to aggregate funds of, you know, costs weren't quite, some fund balances, that type of thing. And so in theory, there might be another bite of the apple of smaller projects if that was the disposition of the council at that time. And that's a question. Or is that not likely to be the case?

Well, it can be the case. We would have to know this. Obviously, when we do the CIP budgeting, we basically program things. So we would have to know direction from council as into which projects they would want to

Yeah, no, completely understand. I'm just asking on average, is there a likelihood of some fund balance that might carry over? And when might that be a window to look at? Is that a year out or two years out? If the question makes sense.

Thank you for the question, Mayor. So in terms of fund balance, that really depends on the revenues that come in, right? Because each year we project revenues, we get those projections from the state. So if they exceed what we appropriate, then that would increase our fund balance and then there would be opportunities. But again, that's just part of what we're monitoring regularly.

So it's really something that's in all likelihood a year or two out to that content. Okay, and that's all I was asking is that possibility exists. Thank you. Okay, great. All right.

Let's go out to the public.

Peter Salai. All right, so here's what I don't understand. In May, I went back and I looked at a report from the engineer from the Public Works Department where they showed there was some work done in your district, I believe, Tony, I looked at the residential roads that were selected and they were cul-de-sacs, they were dead ends, they were roads that did not connect to any kind of thoroughfares. I don't understand why we are taking scarce resources and using them on areas that are not heavily traveled. For example, in District 5 where I live, if you go down Main Street and you cross Alvin and you're going south, there are no stripes whatsoever on the road. Zero, it's a three-lane road and you have no idea where you are on the road So if I were taking scarce resources and I were going to apply them to areas with the highest need I would have striped Main Street because it is Main Street for a reason a lot of people use them and so I am sick to death of going over the same potholes as and the same poor conditions of our roads. And at the same time, I'm hearing from staff saying there are millions of dollars and there are all these projects that are in the works. And like I said earlier, to go along with what Councilwoman De La Rosa suggested, where are the results? Where is the service? Where is the tangible results of the money that we're providing, right? That's what people want to see. They want to see their particular road that they go on every single day and not a side road, not a cul-de-sac, not a circle, not, you know, something that is not a through street. Cherokee is another lane of Highway 101. It connects to Madrid. Madrid is basically dirt. That's how you get to Northridge. Everybody goes through the same way. Adams is another road. It's practically dirt in sections. Why on earth would you go to one of these roads over there in District 2 when you have those needs in District 5?

Good evening, Mayor, City Council, Mr. Callahan, and Ms. Murphy. Sharon Field, North Salinas, District 6. this is a thorn in my side my neighborhood was on for speed bumps from february of 2017 to july of 2022 we never got them the four that's four we were always number five the four streets above us kept changing each year one was one block dead end street in the creek bridge area Westminster was number 12 and Mendocino was number three in 2022. We all, the city went to the meeting and at that time they dumped us all off. They said there were two streets, enough money for two streets and all the rest of us had to reapply again. I gave up. So our street still doesn't have it. We have five schools around us, a daycare, a church that has a daycare and a preschool. People come down Mendocino, they take Placer on two wheels. Many times I can't get out of my driveway. They're going up on the sidewalk on the side when I'm halfway out. It's dangerous. But I gave up. I don't have time to do this again because I was the one going around. So this is kind of a sticky issue for me. Thank you.

Thank you.

Marianne Wharton. I'm very happy that Abbott Street's getting fixed because that's one of my complaints. But fix the roads, do the beautification, the slowdowns after the pavements have been fixed correctly, not just potholes, completely corrected because that road has been bad for years. And then Williams wrote the same thing. Tony knows we've been to these meetings so many times. And one of the things that we had all voted on, no one had mentioned a roundabout there by the library. We don't need a roundabout. roundabout we need our streets and the lights i think they're 16 or 17 they have been working for over two years and i've been complaining we need to get those done first then slow down the i mean i can see the bicycles doing right now with with the new pavement but the other stuff Forget about that until we get the payments done correctly and striped, because at night when I go back, you can't see where you're going. It's worse in the wintertime. Get those done first. Rider is horrible. If you wanna fix a road in there, we've got our school there and we have the parents going to another school right there down the road. We need those done first, right, Tony? Before we go doing other things and beautification. That comes afterwards. Get the payments done first and the lights. Thank you very much. I don't care where you are in the city. Fix those things first, then do the other. Thank you. Sorry to get mad.

I'm just here to offer a suggestion. If you're familiar with the road to the Marina dump, that was done with recycled tires. And that road has been in there for decades. And it's still in perfect condition. Just a suggestion, looking into recycled rubber for the roadways, especially the ones with heavy traffic, big rigs and what have you. Thank you.

Daniel Munoz, East Salinas resident. And our roads are very pretty on the east side, if you guys haven't checked it out, just like Mary Ann was saying. Abbott Street, that's a lot of ag traffic. They eat all that up, but I don't see them trying to pay for it. I don't see you guys trying to get them to pay for it. It's everything comes out of our pockets and not ag. And I sound like a broken record, but I mean, that's their road. I mean, I don't know if you've ever driven down that road during, what, maybe 2 or 3 o'clock or something like that. I mean, if, because I live on the east side, so I come from the airport. Sometimes I'm going to the elections department because I've been filing paperwork and stuff. Anyways, it takes like 30 minutes to get over there, to get past that little intersection right there. You know what I'm talking about? Right there, when you get the overpass, then there's like, what is it? I think it's Harkins or something like that. It leads to Abbott Street. It takes forever to get right there. So, I mean, like I said, it's Ag that messed up Abbott Street, right? Those are the people that drive on that road. Now Amazon's gonna move in. They're gonna get a brand new road. But all the taxpayers, we don't get nothing. We get the short end of the stick. Our roads are falling apart. People can't even walk down the street. Like I'm talking about like people who are in wheelchairs, people who are, you know, they're not ADA compliant in our streets. So I know that's a lawsuit right there. Mr. Callahan, somebody trips on that, right? It's gonna cost a lot of money. So we should start fixing that stuff before we try to fix Abbott Street, which is, I mean, it's, nobody, in my opinion, nobody comes into the town on Abbott Street. I know you guys are saying people come from the south side. No, people come from the south on Highway 101 and they get off whatever exit they're going and they don't drive through Abbott Street. Amazon's gonna be driving on Abbott Street. So maybe we should get them or maybe Ag to fix it instead of us. Just a suggestion, thank you.

Okay. Anyone else from the, all right, all right, all right, all right. It is not a spectator sport. I love you, but. I'm gonna talk to you like I talk to my mom. All right. Anyone else from the public? All right, anybody on Zoom? Jose?

Hi, good evening Jose Guerra, Montpelier Community. How are you? I'm gonna agree with everybody that's talking about that. The east side looks so bad, it's embarrassing. It is embarrassing that, I mean, Tony Barrera, you're in charge of the east side. I mean, why haven't you tried to talk to someone there to get the roads done. You know, I don't get it. I don't understand. I'm coming in, guys.

Yeah, I don't get it. Ridiculous.

You know, all that money you guys spend and you want it all done on Abbott Street? Are you kidding me? I mean, we're so behind on the east side, it's terrible. You guys need to drive down there. Tony, you live over there. Gloria, you live there. You guys are both embarrassed and you don't stick up for us. Really. Seriously. Tony, you've been down there. You've been to East Salinas. Went outside. How'd you like that drive on Williams Road? Did you like it? It was pretty bumpy, huh? Or you don't remember? Or you got a lowrider too? You were hopping it or what were you doing? You guys, seriously, man. You guys can laugh all you want and look away and make your faces, but you're an embarrassment to the community that you can't fix the roads. And like Ms. Warden said, we never talked about roundabouts. They want to put roundabouts everywhere, spending money. Remember, federal-funded money and state-funded money is still taxpayer money. It's not free money. It's our money that we paid. You guys don't get it. You just like spending it. Yeah, you can laugh, Laura, all you want. It's all good. You live on the east end. You don't do anything over there anymore. Tony, God bless you either. I don't get you guys. Should we just recall all of you guys? Maybe we should. God bless you guys.

All right. Anybody? I see none on Zoom. We will bring it back to council for... Um, so this, this is a two part process. So, um, um, I'll look for, I'll look for a motion on the, on the CIP five year.

Okay. Second. Okay.

Are there any additional comments?

Yes, Mr. Mayor, if you want me.

Yes, please.

I think there is, and I know that the staff is doing the best that they can. I think one of the important things is, we can look at- No.

No. Not in council chambers. We're trying to conduct business.

She asked me a question.

I understand that. but that should be happening. I just got through correcting her. We're going to be quiet while we conduct business. Okay, thank you. All right, go ahead, Tony.

I think what's important, and I know there's a lot of projects, but we just heard a gentleman going through a street and it just needs striping. You know, we could... You know, we just finished Pacific and Garner Avenue. I thought it was a great work. Well, three corners were painted red, but one corner was not, and there's a little space, and there's always one car or cars that just looks for that small space, and they cover half of the crosswalk. And I'm thinking, I wonder why we just didn't paint that area red. So we didn't finish that project. And you know, we're talking state law, and I'm speaking neighborhoods. I'm a neighborhood politician. Whether some people believe I don't do anything or not, that's opinions. But we're governed by laws here and ordinance, I don't like when we're getting ready to approve another ordinance because we just don't enforce them for whatever justifiable reason. And people aren't supposed to park in front of fire hydrants, but they do because there's no parking. They park in the corners of the street, they're not supposed to, but there's no parking. But for whatever reason, we don't enforce it. And you know how I think sometimes, here we have eight different departments in the city. I would just think whatever department I'm in, if I'm cruising down one of the neighborhood streets and I see something, hey, guess what? I'm gonna call or let the other department know this is happening. But I don't know if we just work in silos or we work as an assembly line. And sometimes I see simple projects that could get done easily, but my God, they become a career. For some odd reason, we just don't get to it. But I think overall, things are going well, but we need to start looking at these little things in our neighborhoods that need to get done. to the point of cul-de-sac, why are we doing cul-de-sac? Well, I just mentioned Wyron Street. Wyron Street hadn't been done in 35 years. Do they deserve something? Maybe another street needs it more than they do, but what about them? They're also taxpayers, they're homeowners, they live there. Wyron Street was done, it's a brand new street, but yet I get constituents say we don't do anything out there. So everybody, The luxury that you folks have, you can criticize us because that's your luxury, you can do that. But when I hear somebody say our street was designated for street calming, but yet it never happened, we need to address those issues. Those are important. So, Mr. Pedroza, I think you're doing a fine job with these numbers, and hopefully we can continue, but I think, Mr. Mayor, on these smaller projects, I think we can do a better job. Thank you. Thank you, Tony.

andrew anything since yeah i i do want to address something miss fields mentioned because um uh you know i i have residents to give you an example off of northridge drive who were also on list before and then removed and unfortunately i i'm still dealing with promises made by my predecessor that there was funding allocated for a traffic calming project in that neighborhood, but it just never, it never materialized in a budget or a formal approval process. Council Member Herrera was talking about some red zones. Well, I'll count you blessed, Tony, because along Jackson Street, residents are asking for their red zones painted. I have a neighborhood, and you've been CC'd on some of these emails from Miss Irene Merrill, where we've been trying to get a fire hydrant painted zone painted red shouldn't take so many years when I see other fire hydrants being painted red. And so other zones being painted red. So I do want to thank the staff for Ms. Robles for the approach of trying to get a lump of traffic calming projects done. I'm really looking forward to seeing that, because I think this is probably historic from the amount. But I just want to remind, Tony, you just said we need to do better on these traffic calming projects, but we need to, as a council, bring back this traffic management plan and make revisions to it so we better serve our residents. I do also want to... find out a little more details about the segments that are gonna be done this next upcoming year and two, because I do know that there are specific roads, but I think being able to identify those segments, and I'll give you an example. I've been reporting potholes on Tyler Street and there was a cul-de-sac recently fixed there, and the potholes that I reported, well, let me tell you, the neighbors originally thought Tyler Street was gonna get redone, not just a tiny cul-de-sac. I mean, our public works crew was already there, and the pothole repairs that they did along Tyler Street they're they're really disappointing um you know it's the roads you can literally peel the road off of that street um so you know while we're in a specific neighborhood it'd be best to try to find a solution for either the entire road or mitigate some of the concerns for those residents so just want to emphasize the need for the roads that i identified and the red zones and it shouldn't really be it shouldn't take three years for a curb to be painted red. I've got neighborhoods along Alhambra who are concerned about line of sight. So I want us to find a way to appropriate more money for striping. I know that North Main is gonna get done this upcoming year, but red zones are such a big issue and many residents in District 5 are really struggling with line of sight and Northridge and Jackson. There's been several accidents along those streets and people just can't see around the corner is also along Rossi and Rico area. So whatever we can do with this next mid year. budget review to see what we can do to accelerate some red zone painting. It'd be appreciated, thank you. And I'll be supporting the, are we making an additional motion or are we taking those two motions separately for the additional roads?

We're taking them separately, Andrew. Okay, thank you. Thank you. All right, to my left.

YES, IN TERMS OF OUR FIVE YEAR CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM, I THINK WHAT WOULD HELP ME AND HOPEFULLY OUR RESIDENTS AND MEMBER OF THE AUDIENCE, I KNOW WE HAVE A NUMBER OF RESIDENTS THAT COME TO OUR MEETINGS AND THEY CONTINUE TO BRING TO OUR ATTENTION SOME OF OUR INFRASTRUCTURE NEEDS AND I CAN UNDERSTAND THE FRUSTRATION AS SOMEONE WHO ALSO LIVES AND DRIVES THROUGH THESE STREETS AND WALKS ON OUR SIDEWALKS, I ALSO SEE ROADS WITH SIGNIFICANT WHERE AND IN NEED OF SOME ATTENTION. I KNOW QUITE OFTEN BEFORE COMING ONTO COUNCIL, SALINA'S CONNECT, I WAS TOLD SALINA'S CONNECT IS WHERE WE ALL NEED TO GO. SO I SEE A SHAKE IN THE HEAD AND I UNDERSTAND THAT. AS I HEARD BACK REGARDING SELENA'S CONNECT, I HEAR ONE OF THE CHALLENGES QUITE OFTEN. THERE MIGHT BE MULTIPLE REQUESTS ON THE SAME PROJECT. SO I HEAR ON THE CITY END LIKE THIS LONG LIST GOING ON AND ON. I WOULD LIKE TO SEE, RELATING BACK TO OUR AGENDA ITEM, A PRESENTATION BECAUSE RESIDENTS KEEP BRINGING UP THE SAME CONCERNS. IF WE NEED TO PRIORITIZE SOME OF THESE ISSUES, I THINK THAT'S WHERE WE NEED TO GO. BUT I AGREE WITH THE STATEMENT THAT WAS BROUGHT UP EARLIER. WE GOT TO TAKE CARE OF OUR MAIN ARTERIES. NORTH MAINE, SANDBORNE, WILLIAMS. THEY ALL NEED ATTENTION AND SOMETIMES WHEN WE SEE SOMETHING THAT SEEMS RELATIVELY BASIC AND YEARS HAVE GONE BY AND IT'S NOT BEEN ADDRESSED, THERE'S A LEGITIMATE CONCERN AND FRUSTRATION THERE. I THINK THAT WILL HELP US PROBABLY CONTINUE TO AMEND THIS. I KNOW WE PROBABLY DON'T WANT TO TALK ABOUT AMENDING THE CIP BUT AS WE HEAR THESE THINGS WE NEED TO BE ABLE TO ADDRESS COMMUNITY AND RESIDENT AND CITY NEEDS AND BE ABLE TO PIVOT BECAUSE I DO AGREE, YOU KNOW, OUR ROADS ARE A MESS, OUR SIDEWALKS ARE UNEVEN AND THERE'S WORK THAT NEEDS TO BE PRIORITIZED. sooner rather than later. Thank you.

In District 4, I have gone around and I have had conversations with Adriana on prioritizing some of the neighborhood streets in District 4 that are really tore up. So I'm hoping that I can make that happen. And I know going back to arterial streets that are very busy streets like Laurel, which looks great, it feels great when you're driving, that's the way every street should look like, I feel. But now even Natividad is needing help. I go by there all the time, you know, all the way from Veranda all the way to downtown. And yeah, so you're going around our city and making an assessment and you're going, God, a lot of our streets need repairs. And I get it, you have to prioritize, but from what you have explained to me and thank you is that you, You have to decide which ones are the most important ones. Well, to the community, everything's important. But again, I am looking at that for District 4. And yeah, we have to keep working. And we have to keep fixing our neighborhood streets and the main streets. And I know in the Chinatown area in Sun Street, that's a very much needed repavement. Right now in Sun Street from Market all the way to the Expo Park. And then where... Cristo Rey, all those little streets, Cherry. Yeah, those are in a very much needed repair. So I thank you for communicating with me. I wanna give kudos to you because I can come to you and you will give me feedback. And I just wanna let everyone know that those are my priorities right now for District 4 and that I will support the budget.

All right.

I really don't have any anything more to add. I think all all the districts need road improvement. I think we can all agree that there are certain areas that are worse than others. And striping is certainly an area of concern for a lot of places for safety reasons. When there's no middle line, people are going to go wherever they think the middle line should be. So that is a concern. And it's happening in every district throughout the city. I think this is just, you know, our infrastructure is just like I said, we've we've outgrown it and it's falling apart and We're spending a lot of money to fix it. We just have to keep prioritizing that as one of our top areas of concern because I think that at a minimum, that's what our residents deserve is safe streets and sidewalks.

Okay, before we call for the question, just a couple things. One of the things to recognize is, and I think, and tonight is not a surprise, the importance of the potholes, streets, sidewalk lights in people's immediate surrounding. And I think we hear that loud and clear and we are working to address that. We certainly have heard about the quality of how you fix a pothole, so we are addressing that. If you attended the infrastructure summit, we are looking at new financial tools to accelerate more available dollars to be applied. directly to our streets, sidewalks, lights, striping, and all of that. So we hear that. One of the things that's important to recognize, for instance, when you go to some of the sessions and you hear about roundabouts, and by the way, for what it's worth, I don't like them either. But when you, no, actually we did. Because in 2017, roundabouts, and I'm just choosing a number, but I think that's the specifics going back to the roundabout in Buranda and McKinnon. That's already in the works. We can't pull back. And so for instance, when you hear about some of these projects and you say, we approved them, not actually we didn't because planning and project, and I'm not walking away from they got proved or the formalities, but the point is these things get into the queue much earlier that frankly, that predates this particular council and in certain instances, previous councils. and and so they're in the works and so i'm i want to i certainly will support this budget but i think the direction that you're hearing from staff and the public which we agree with is we need to find a better way to address the small issues that pertain pertain to our neighborhoods And so moving forward, that's what's on this council's mind. And that's how we're gonna look at things. So I think we wanna lay down that marker. But I think we do also need to just simply recognize that there are things in the works And we need to move forward with them. And the thing I will say about Abbott Street, it is the west side gateway to the city. And it is not just ag. It is also a gateway to hospitality, to the peninsula, to the medical community. It is well traveled by all quarters. And I understand there'll be plenty of conversations about ag. But let's be clear, Abbott Street is a bigger, more regional intersection than realized. And it is responsible to the residents of the city, as Adriana pointed out, that as we got into it, um it made sense to keep our costs down and move now coupled with the fact we know we've got a half billion dollar highway improvement project coming in a few in a few years so taking care of that now simply makes good good finance good financial sense so that so that reflects that and and i think you know then when we get to the next item it is important to keep the street pavement plan intact, but in terms of, and we'll go ahead and call for the question on this, I'm certainly gonna vote to approve it, but also wanna echo, we need to be paying attention to the things that make our quality of life in neighborhoods, and that needs to be part of our game plan on a go-forward basis. So with that, let's call for the question.

Motion made by Council Member Barrera, second by Council Member Salazar, adopting the proposed biennial budget for the capital budget and approving the five-year capital improvement budget for the City of Salinas. Council Member Barrera? Yes. Council Member DiRigo? Yes. Council Member De La Rosa? Yes. Council Member Salazar? Yes. Council Member Sandoval?

Yes.

Mayor Donahue? Yes. Motion passes.

All right, thank you. All right, is there a motion to approve the million five appropriation from the SB1 fund balance? It's approved. Is there a motion? Second.

Second, Salazar.

All right, let's call for the question.

Council member Barrera? Yes. Council member DeRigo? Yes. Council member De La Rosa? Yes. Council member Salazar? Yes. Council member Sandoval?

Yes.

Mayor Donahue? Yes. Motion passes.

All right. Thank you. All right.

With that, I've got to bury my agenda here.

OK, I got it. All right, with that, we will proceed to the consent agenda. Matters listed under the consent agenda may be enacted by one motion unless a member of the council requests a separate vote for discussion. Members of the public may comment on the consent agenda items collectively during their public comment. Would any council member like a separate vote or discussion on any of the items?

Discussion? Mr. Mayor, I'm just gonna make one comment on, I'm gonna lump 276. Okay. 281. Okay. 282.

Yes. Okay. 288, just one comment on. One collective comment, okay, got it. All right, anyone else? Margaret.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just have a question on 250, 278 and 282.

Okay, you're 282 and would you say 278? Correct, thank you. Okay, thank you. All right, anyone else?

Just a comment on 26-247, the MOU at the County of Monterey for the Mobile Crisis Center.

All right.

Just on that one, thank you.

All right, very good. All right, anyone else? Andrew? Yeah, I'd like to hear from staff on 247 and 282. Okay. All right. All right, that sounds good. All right, public comment on any of the items on the consent agenda?

Jose Guerra, Montevideo Community. One minute now, guys? Okay, here we go. Let me know when you're ready. Thank you. Okay, guys, like again, Mayor. This is a unjustifiable that you want public comment for 2 minutes on 15 items. That we don't even get to discuss or hear about or get the questions you guys as we can interact. This is wrong, I mean in for you guys that the same thing up there nobody to even. Saying this is he's right, you know we should that the public speak right so that you guys want us to do to interact with you, I don't think you do honestly. I don't think you do. I think you just want to do what you want to do and you want to go home and rest and everybody say yay and everybody passes everything and you're good to go. I think it's wrong, Mayor. I mean, you need to do better, honestly. I'm going to be here every week, Mayor, telling you the same thing because you need to let us engage with every information that you guys have to share with us. When you're not doing that, you're not being correct. You can be disrespectful to me, Mary, but not to Ms. Warden. Don't be disrespectful to her. I know you like hitting that gavel and it makes you all powerful. It's not. You're just a man like everybody else. Everybody out there, you're all human beings, guys. You're our representatives. Act like it. Don't get offended. Don't get offended. You took the job and this is part of the job. You need to be able to take the criticism when you're not doing something correctly. And for no one to speak up about it, that's really ridiculous. You know, I'm sorry. Everybody looks at the clock. I got 15 seconds. Man. Well, God bless you guys, man. You guys need it. I'm going to pray for you tonight. God bless you. Have a good night.

How's it going, council, mayor? Daniel Munoz, East Salinas resident. I noticed on here that there's something about, it's idea 26-219, and it's an ordinance about some gambling tables, poker tables, I guess, or blackjack or something like that. There's only one casino in town, so I'm guessing this is bankers, right, about bankers. I have no issue with them getting more tables if that's what they want, but can we get some more money out of them? Can we like... Squeeze them a little bit, you know? It's a squeeze, squeeze, squeeze on the residents, but nothing on the businesses that are making money hand over fist. Bankers makes a lot of money. They make a lot of money. And I think we could get more off of them. So if you guys are going to, you know... Let them get more tables. Let's get some money off of them. I don't know. What do you guys think? Is it a good idea, maybe? Squeeze a little bit from bankers? They're making a lot of money. So that's just my suggestion. There's a whole lot of stuff on this consent. But that's the main thing that I just wanted to say. Because whenever I see opportunities for us to get more money, FROM SOMEBODY OTHER THAN THE RESIDENTS, I GET KIND OF, I FEEL OPTIMISTIC A LITTLE BIT, LIKE, HEY, THERE'S OTHER AVENUES THAT WE CAN PAY FOR STUFF. SO I DON'T KNOW. LET THEM GET TABLES, BUT GIVE US A BIGGER CUT. JUST AN IDEA. THANK YOU.

OKAY. SO I APPRECIATE YOU GUYS. IT'S A TOUGH JOB TO DO. For the public's purpose, I want to just say there's ways of getting all the information that they talk about at city council meetings. You go online, you go on their website, you go to the agenda page, and you can pick and print out the entire agenda with all the information and all the reading you want. I just wanted to throw that out there because it gets thrown back at you guys a lot that nobody ever tells us anything. Well, we can find out what it is you do. So I personally apologize for that. I get hot sometimes. As far as the money spending tonight, it's a little tough to watch. It's my tax dollars. I don't know. I just felt like everybody is feeling like, hey, let's just go spend some money. It's not ours. And it feels that way sometimes. And I know you don't mean it that way, but that's the way it feels. So thanks again.

If you want to get mad at me, you can get mad at me. I just want to inform all of them. Those big trucks pay for... taxes when they fill up their tanks with diesel and gas, that money that they pay on taxes goes towards fixing our roads. So you need to understand that. Every time you see a big truck filling up a gas tank or their diesel, that money is going towards our roads. Be thankful for them. They're filling them up here instead of someplace else. And another thing, I've watched these guys put their money in the bank. I happen to be right behind them. I won't tell you how much or what, but they're putting a lot of money into their bank account. I think some of that could come to us because I remember when they came here asking for permission, the police were against it. And we did not charge them enough for them to go over there. I don't know exactly how much. But the next thing is a veranda. You got two different things here for veranda road. And so on the ranches that you're going into or whatever you're going to do, as long as we get those roads fixed completely with four lanes, I don't care what you do with those other lands. I just want to make sure those roads are finished. But just so everybody knows, big trucks help pay for our roads. Thank you.

Getting late, Sharon Field. Thank you. I live off of Buranda, so I figure I won't be getting out of my neighborhood for 20 years with all the traffic circles you're having there. But I want to piggyback on what David said. For 18 months, I've been telling everybody I know, go to Salinas.gov, make an account. It's free. You get all the information. It comes to me like the whole month. I have every commission that's there. I can pick and choose what I want. I can download the agendas. If I choose to download the packet, I can, but they're usually 400 pages, so I don't. I just pick and choose what I'm mostly interested in. So again, selenas.gov, go and make an account, people. Thank you.

Thank you. All right.

All right, let's see if we've got anyone on Zoom. We do not. We will come back and we will go through the council's request. So 247, I have Gloria and Andrew. So Gloria.

I just wanted to make a comment that I think this is such a necessary collaboration of services. And as we all know, they provide mental health services. And yeah, we need to continue the contract. So I'm very grateful to them.

Thank you. Andrew?

Yeah, I just wanted to hear from the police department about how the collaboration is going and what results they're seeing from this program.

Chief. Good evening. So I'm not sure what your question is, but as far as the relationship, it's very positive. I think the staff report and the statistics indicate that there is a need. There's a major response that they do assist us with as it reflects referrals, case management. or even dealing with somebody in crisis in the community that doesn't draw to the level of criminal activity. I know in one of the reports from July of last year to March of 2026, there was a total of 5,900 crisis calls that were received by the crisis service line in Monterey County, and 66% of those required a mobile crisis response. in some capacity but 52 of those crisis calls and that service were for community members here in the city of salinas so absolutely there is a need from a law enforcement perspective anytime we can lean on a partner in the community such as mobile behavioral health or their services it's it's a win-win because many times we respond to calls for service not knowing what we're dealing with what type of situation the officers are encountering sometimes we've given information when it's not completely factual as to what they're responding to and when there is a mental health nexus to that, it's really nice to depend on these equal partners to help us facilitate that exchange, hopefully for the best possible safest outcome, but more importantly, get that individual and or their families the support that they need from a case management side or a referral side.

Thank you, Chief.

You're welcome.

Thank you, Andrew. All right, let's jump to And Margaret, that's you.

Okay, so I'm not sure if this is a Lisa Murphy question. It says, because it refers to the city manager to execute the agreement. I guess I'm trying to understand. It's a million bucks, which kind of blew me away, and that's where I caught my eye. For no parking signage, community outreach support with street sweeping and on-call. I just don't understand, how does that whole on-call thing work?

I think David Jacobs just- David, okay, thank you.

So the on-call, we don't know how much work we're going to actually need. So we put these on-call contracts out. And when we need a service, we ask for a proposal. And they give us a proposal. And as long as it's within their contract, we can give them that contract to do the work. So we're looking at several different districts that we're going to be no parking on street-stripping days over the next five years. So each time a district comes up, we want to make sure we do plenty of outreach in that area, and we would select one of these consultants to go out there and help us without outreach.

So they'd be putting up signs saying it's street sweeping day or?

Yes, so we're working on a plan to do no parking on street sweeping days citywide. And we're doing that in phases. So the next phase is what's coming up this next year. We wanna make sure we outreach that neighborhood that it's coming. and let people know that these are the days we're looking at. This is the time you can't park in front of your house and all that information. And that's when we need consultants to go and help us do that outreach. Okay because when I say on call I think like who's going to be answering and will they answer and will they respond that's what I was thinking my mind like you'd have to call somebody and they'd have to respond so we actually get a proposal from them okay and for not to exceed amount for each project that we do okay but this is this is just a master service agreement and then we we use that to do these these one-offs or or different projects

And have you anticipated that you'll be needing this going forward? Because I did have some residents ask about putting signs out or something, or like in some cities, they actually have the red and white signs that say street sweeping on these hours these days. And then you don't have to have somebody going out there and doing it.

Yeah, this is just letting the neighborhood area know that this is what's coming. This is the time we're doing it. Give us your feedback in terms of this. We did the same thing for the current pilot program. So we want to do that for the next neighborhood as well. Make sure everybody knows that it's coming. And so that also, when the signs go up, then we go out and outreach and do... We don't issue tickets for the first six months. We give them warnings and and that's all part of this outreach program.

Okay.

Thank you for that clarity All right Let's see Tony you have 276. Well if I understood and it looks like we can Take all your comments in one fell swoop and then And mayor I think these These four items are very easy to support

But you know what, as I'm looking at these, and they're very important, I mean, you're talking about 35 cardiac monitors, self-contained breathing apparatus, grant application for fire and emergency personnel for nine firefighters position. But I would like maybe somebody from the fire station can just quickly, I mean, this is great because not only is it cost saving for us, I know it's taxpayer money, but I think this is fantastic what you folks are doing. Thank you. Chief, if you want to make it.

Sure, Council Member Rivera, thank you. These grant opportunities are unique to the fire service. There's not a whole lot of things out there in the grant world that pay for staffing and things like that. And as we know, and we talked a lot tonight about, those are the large liabilities to the budget. And where we can do our part and give us some breathing room, we will apply. We've been very fortunate with this specific grant in the past and If we're if we are fortunate to get this one again, it would be our seventh We do have a new one here also as you've noticed the fire prevention and safety grant we talked about the commercial inspection program again the uniqueness of this grant being able to provide the funding for the staffing and the vehicles and the the upstart cost to get that program started and get it running so that we have some breathing room in the budget.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chief. Andrew and Margaret, you both also wanted to comment on 282. Margaret, why don't you go and then Andrew.

So the nine firefighter positions are those current positions, Chief, that that grant is funding?

Correct. Those are positions that were initially funded by SAFR. In the uniqueness of that grant, they were 100% funded for that period of time. And in this new budget, if you recall, the bridge funding funds it to the end of the SAFR grant, the $450,000 is what funds it through the end of the grant period. Beyond that, then if we're not successful with the new SAFR grant, Again, those positions would not be funded past that point.

When will that grant be expiring?

Mid-2027.

Okay. I think you answered my question. What if the grant is not granted, then basically we would have to fund those nine positions or get rid of those nine positions. We're relying heavily on this grant, which is, like you said, they don't often fund positions. How do you feel about it going forward that we'll be fortunate enough to get it again?

Again, getting it once or twice is a feat. Getting it a seventh time is something significant. I would add to you in all candor is that using this money over probably a 15, almost 20-year period to fund positions, at some point, we do have to take a look at. We have to pick up this ball at some point. Using the federal money is great. It runs out eventually and and you know the premise of these grants we provide a narrative and demonstrate a need and that we need to We need to really look at how we make this permanent moving forward.

I appreciate that I know and I wanted to hear you say that because I think it's something that we all need to be very mindful of that that we need to be planning for the future including Funding those positions on a going forward basis. So, thank you. Thanks for the question Andrew

Margaret covered all my questions. Thank you. Okay.

Thanks, Andrew. Okay. All right, I think. All right. With that, I will be looking for a motion to approve. Oh, I'm sorry. Did I? Oh, I'm sorry. Margaret mentioned 278, Victory Mission. Yeah, you had a question on Victory Mission?

I did. Thank you for bringing that up. This is definitely a Lisa answer, I think. So I just want to make sure I'm understanding this correctly. So they're going to be taking, they will be subletting these three buildings. And I'm curious what they'll be using the properties for, because I think I heard that they will not be running services out of the building.

They will not be running services. It's just purely administration in there. They might do some case management out of there, but they are not using it for any day services of any sort.

OK, thank you. That answers my question.

Thank you. All right. With that, I look for a motion to approve. So moved. OK. I think I know I've got a first and a second in there somewhere. So why don't we go with Gloria on the motion and Tony seconding. And go ahead and call for the question.

Thank you, Mayor. Motion made by Councilmember De La Rosa, second by Barrera for the consent agenda in its entirety. I will note that I will bring back the June 2nd minutes, so that will be tabled for today. Councilmember Barrera? Yes. Councilmember De Rigo? Yes. Councilmember De La Rosa? Yes. Councilmember Salazar? Yes. Councilmember Sandoval?

Yes.

Mayor Donahue? Yes. Motion passes.

All right. Do you have anything?

No, I just wanted to make...

I'm not sure if the comment was made earlier, but that the reason that the city manager is not present and I'm in place here is due to a family emergency. That's all.

Okay, thank you. All right then. Council member reports and appointments. Andrew, why don't we start with you and then I know you're a little under the weather and that way we can let you go, though you're obviously welcome to stay, but we'll give you the first crack at things.

Yeah, I just want to remind staff about the issues on Tyler Street. as well as Baldwin, some fire zones, as well as Jackson. I know there's been a commitment for a parking permit program and us to revisit the traffic management plan this upcoming year. I also want to point out that tomorrow is, no, not tomorrow, the 18th is Juneteenth at Hartnell College, and it'll be from 11 to 2 p.m., And this year, their theme is know your history shape our future. So that'll be a hard now college also on June 24th is the city of Salinas. Public works, urban forest presentation, and that's going to be at 200 Lincoln Avenue from 6 to 7. So encourage the public to go and it's my understanding they'll soon be a. tree planting demo so residents can start assisting in getting our urban tree canopy up. And there is a group and they have, they're called the Salinas Tree People. And so you're all encouraged to join that. I'll be sharing the information with the city and they're working on bringing more trees and supporting the city's urban tree canopy. also you know there's been a growing concern around uh e-bike safety and um you know we're seeing uh more accidents i think you know probably regionally um and uh there's there's i know the state has taken some action around new regulations and i think i i'd request that the city Council support a request to bring an ordinance around e-bikes and e-bike safety to bring some ordinance to see how we can improve safety around e-bikes. So I don't know if I have support for something like that from my colleagues.

Yes.

All right, thank you. And that concludes my comments. Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Andrew. Hope you feel better. All right, Tony.

Thank you. Mayor, Mr. Callahan, I know there's been some talk regarding pesticides and I don't know if you've already, Mr. Callahan, if we've already formally addressed it here. I think we need to say something about this. The allegations are getting serious that we're Poisoning children and families and what have you I think you and I briefly spoke about this. So Mr. Mayor when it's when it's possible, I mean I like the city attorney to talk to us about that. So the public can know What we're doing in that situation Also tomorrow we're having a rodeo committee here and they're attended at 6 p.m. And Uh, we celebrated father's day at the bread box with the seniors. It was fantastic. The chief of police was there. The mayor was there. I also attended the Williams wrote in veranda road. Community means I want to think. Sophia room, she's awesome facilitator. I think you folks already know that. She knows. how to work with people and very, very productive meetings, very informative. Some people agree with them, some people don't, but I think, oh, Ms. Roms here, you just do a great job. I really appreciate your work there. And also, last, if you folks can help me congratulate Ms. Patricia Soratos, She's got her bachelor's degree, she went to college while she was working full-time, so I think that is awesome. The city clerk, yes, let's give her a, And Ms. Murphy, I think you folks have, you have some great staff here. I know sometimes we get beat up a little bit, but I have to say, I'm glad you're here. I really am. And it's not easy doing this work. And for the folks that came and talked to us about the agenda, thank you very much. And you know, I love when people get involved, In their city, because that's the only way change positive change starts happening. So, thank you for participating. Thank you.

Thank you. Don't really.

YES, I ALSO WANT TO THANK STAFF FOR ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY MEETING AT McKINNON ELEMENTARY SCHOOL REGARDING STAGE THREE OF THE BRONDA ROAD ROUNDABOUT PROJECT. THAT WAS LAST WEDNESDAY AT 6 IN THE EVENING. THERE WERE A COUPLE OF CONCERNS THAT CAME UP. I'LL BE SHARING THOSE WITH THE CITY MANAGER. THERE'S QUITE A FEW. I THINK THE THREE MAIN ONES I WALKED AWAY WITH. you know, again, based on the design of the roundabouts, residents are really wanting to see a rail to provide additional protection for students walking to and from school. As some of you know, right, it's Baronda Road and McKinnon, and I think we all, you know, those that took driver's ed, you know that the four corners are essentially, whether there are crosswalk signs there or not, It's a crosswalk. This particular design that we have, all the crossings are going to have in one particular area, so there might be some confusion in terms of where do you actually cross. And I know a number of parents were concerned about student safety, so adding rails was a suggested addition to that. Also, let's not forget, we're taking those street lights out, right? So before, when we had the street lights on, if it was red, you stopped. the lights are gonna be gone, which means you just continue to flow through or go in a circle and make your turn that way. Since we're taking those out, that means that people are still going through UNLESS, AT LEAST AS IT EXPLAINED TO US, THERE'S GOING TO BE A CROSSWALK KIND OF LIGHT SIGN ON THERE. I THINK WE ALL KNOW THE LEVEL OF SERVICE IS PROBABLY D AT BEST. RONDA ROAD IS ONE OF THE MOST HEAVILY TRAVELED STREETS IN SALINAS WITH THE HIGH VOLUME GOING either direction so with the stoplights going away you know there's no stopping so what was recommended was making sure that we add some additional speed limit signs so that people begin to slow down as they get into the roundabout Another concern that came up is, you know, right now we're fortunate that the summer's coming, but when school starts, you know, it's gonna be something completely new for students and parents taking their children to school. so either having crossing guard or at least when school starts up again if we have some additional police presence just so that you know people can start getting used to and acclimated to the new roundabout i do want to go back to a comment i made earlier regarding selena's connect hopefully before the end of the year i'd like to make a request if we can get A PRESENTATION ON SELENA'S CONNECT. WOULD LIKE TO SEE AN OVERVIEW OF THE APP. WHAT'S THAT LIKE? JUST BEING A REGULAR RESIDENT USING SELENA'S CONNECT. ON THE FLIP SIDE FOR STAFF, USING SELENA'S CONNECT APP. How are we pulling data? When does data get pulled? What's that workflow? I'd like to know what that workflow is. I'd like to know when somebody submits something on Salinas Connect, where does it go? It's gotta go to a staff person or a department or a group. How does that get assigned? Who gets... Who does they get assigned to? Who's assigning, you know, if something comes in and it's gotta go to Parks and Rec or maybe it's something for Public Works or Fire Department or Police Department? What's that process? And then, you know, how does the city assess? Is this something that we can fix, right, soon rather than later? HOW DOES IT GET RESOLVED? HOW DOES THAT PRESIDENT GET NOTIFIED LIKE, HEY, WE RECEIVED your request on the Salinas Connect. When do they get notified? Is it by phone? Is it by email? Is it something in writing from the city? I would also like to know what are the top three most requests from Salinas apps, albeit roads, sidewalks, lighting, and do we use AI? Are we using AI to like, you know, SEE WHERE SOME OF OUR MAJOR ISSUES ARE. AND THEN LASTLY JUST WANT TO END WITH TO ALL THE FATHERS OUT THERE, HAPPY FATHER'S DAY TO ALL THE DADS AND ESPECIALLY TO ALL THE MOMS WHO STEPPED UP TO THE PLANE AND AUNTS AND UNCLE WHO EVER HAD TO TAKE CARE OF A CHILD AND STEP IN AS A FATHER, HAPPY FATHER'S DAY TO ALL WHO STEPPED UP TO THE ROLL.

THANK YOU.

A lot of things. First, I want to start out with Laurel Heights. To the residents of Laurel Heights and the neighborhoods that are on Facebook, Neighborhood Watch, I call them. On June 25th, that property owner on 11 Circle has the opportunity to either clean up the area If not, then the city will take action. We'll have to take legal action to clean up the area, remove the residents that are living there on private property. And I know the residents have been waiting for quite a while now to see some action. Like I was told, you know, There's a lot of talk but no action. But it is going to happen. It is going to happen. I'm looking to my right to Assistant Manager Lisa Murphy. And so that's good for everyone because I know fire has been out there various times to put out fires, very dangerous for the residents and police. But anyways, I just wanted to give that report. The 2nd thing I attended a budget and strategic plan meeting for community human resources. In Monterey, and my alternate is console woman to Regal. She also attended and then I attended a. An executive meeting with. I used to call it Salinas Solid Waste Authority last Thursday. And then I attended the Father's Day event at the Bread Bucks with Council Member Barrera. That was a really great event. I also want to thank San Andreas Regional Center for putting on the event at Tatum Garden, the superheroes. And that, San Andreas, they provide services for children that have disabilities. So that's always a great event to attend. Also, I know that on Friday, and the mayor and council member Dorigo attended on Friday at the community center, right? You attended the, what is it, the Story of My Life? My Life Story. Yeah, My Life Story with Carol Adessa was the keynote speaker. That was very well attended. The other thing I have to report is that Tomorrow, I'm holding a With Community Development. I want to thank the staff. I want to thank our staff here, Patty and Alexis, that tomorrow I'm recognizing some small business women from the Alice Ellen Market Street area. We're going to give them resources. Bajaro CDC will be there. The Chamber will be there. You know, we need to support small businesses and some of those women started a business 40 years ago or even, you know, even maybe even longer, but we will have the data, I think, but they'll be recognized tomorrow. And again, to give them the resources that are so important right now, especially for small businesses and the support that they need. And on June 25th, I'm having a community meeting neighborhood meeting for the residents of the Rossi Rico area. at 5.30 at the school. Council Member Sandoval, are you still there? Maybe he left, maybe he left. The school, not Cameron. No.

Is it Laurelwood?

Laurelwood, Laurelwood, Laurelwood School. And so I'll be having a community meeting from 5.30 to I believe 7.30. So that's my report.

Margaret.

Okay, I want to start off by thanking Kristen Lundquist and her team for putting the memorial bench for families who've lost either an infant or a young child. And it's placed in Claremont Park, which is right adjacent to Monterey Park School. I encourage you to go and go by and see it. It looks very classy. They did a great job. They put it on a nice concrete slab and people are sitting on it all the time. So that was a really nice project that she helped me finish up this year. having a district cleanup, later this month and also we're going to be doing a park cleanup, either park cleanup or downtown street. We're still deciding whether we're going to do Main Street and the adjacent streets in the district or go back to Central Park like we did last year, trying to bring them downtown. And then we had an Amazon stakeholders meeting last Friday and it was very well attended by lots of stakeholders that are either in the area or affected by it. And there'll be monthly meetings happening there. And we'll probably be setting up some kind of a way to get information out to you on that. And the My Story event was very well attended. They talked a lot about how youth and adults can work together to find solutions to trauma. There were so many young people in that room that you could tell had experienced trauma in their lives. And these are young people that are 16, 17, 18, 19 years old. and um but they were there to help find solutions and ways to communicate um their feelings better it was very well attended by the city and the casp community so i was happy to be at that for a brief time um also wanted to mention the soccer is soccer month and soccer you know time so um they had a really nice event at the monterey bay football club on sat last Saturday night and they honored some women who had done some work in empowerment. I was one of the ones from Salinas that was selected to walk under the field and be thanked for my contributions for that. So I just want to shout out to them. That was a really nice event. They did a great job and that was a lot of fun. And then attended the soccer femenil game on Sunday, which is the YOUNGER LEAGUE OF GIRLS PLAYING SOCCER. IT'S SO GREAT THAT THEY HAVE SOCCER BEYOND HIGH SCHOOL NOW AND THESE GIRLS WERE KILLING IT. THEY WERE 2-0 WHEN I LEFT AT THE HALF. SO PRETTY PROUD OF OUR SOCCER WOMEN IN THIS COMMUNITY AND YOUNG GIRLS. AND THEN MR. SANDOVAL, I KNOW YOU'RE NOT WITH US BUT I WANT TO TELL YOU I SUPPORT THE E-BIKE ORDINANCE. I GET A LOT OF COMPLAINTS ABOUT THOSE AND THEY'RE REALLY DANGEROUS. And also, cars running red lights at major intersections. I'll talk to the chief about this. Big intersections on Main Street. They're not running yellows. They're running red lights and making left-hand turns. And we've got to have some enforcement. It's really dangerous. And then I also wanted to request that we talk about noticing residents who are going to have a tree removed in their front yard. If we know that a crew is going to go out there and take a tree out, we have enough time to tell a resident that they're going to lose their tree whether they like it or not. Some people are very, you know, they love their trees and other people can't wait to get rid of them. But I think we owe them due notice and that's happened a couple times in my district and people are not happy about it. And yes, happy Father's Day to everyone. And I like the way you worded that, Aurelio, people who have stepped up to be dads in people's lives or an adult father figure. Thank you for doing that. My dad's going to be 102. He's going on 103. So God bless him. He wears me out. And we swear he's going to live longer than I am. But anyways, I just want to shout out to all the fathers out there for the good work that you do. And being a parent's not an easy job, but it's well worth it. And that concludes my remarks. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Happy Father's Day. All right, very good. Well, it's hard to improve upon Happy Father's Day, so I think folks heard I was hanging out with them for a lot of the activity that was going on. So with that, we'll go ahead and adjourn, and we'll be back on June 30th.