City Council - Regular Meeting

Alright. Missus Pete, could you please call us out of closed session?

Did you just call for that? Oh, okay. The council has reconvened from closed session where it discussed or conferred with their labor negotiators. That would be the city manager and administrative services director regarding labor negotiations with the San Marcos Classified Miscellaneous Employees Association and the San Marcos Supervisors Association. The council engaged in discussion, provided unanimous direction to its negotiators and no further reportable action was taken. That concludes the closed session report.

Okay, thank you. The Then special meeting is adjourned, and we're two minutes late. That's the first time that's happened in my mayorship. So we are starting our I'd like to call the regular meeting to order. This is 03/24/2026.

And if you could please all rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. And I have an invocation this evening. Lord God, I just thank you for our beloved city of San Marcos and all of our residents that reside here and our businesses that come here and call home to their businesses. We thank you for everyone that visits.

We thank you that we've got such a wonderful community and that we all tend to come together, and we have that special secret sauce of our volunteers. Tonight we're going to be celebrating some of them, and we just thank you for each one of them. We thank you for our community. We thank you that each one of us up here at the dais is willing to serve our community, and we have set aside the time to do so. And we thank you and praise you. In Jesus name we pray, amen. Okay. With that, we will be moving on to the SMILE award. So this evening we have

Madam May, I'm it's for sorry. The Roll

call. We're all here.

Yes.

Thank you. We're all here. See, you know what, when I'm feeling like we're running late, just I start panicking. Anyway, so we're all here and then we do have a smile award. So since by the way, Council Member LeBlanc is doing great. She's still though convalescing just a touch. So we want to make sure that we are not making you stand too long. So I'm thinking that I will read the proclamation for the SMILE award and then I'll have everyone come down, if that's okay with all of you. All right. I will be out in France.

So as I mentioned, we we have the honor of having such amazing volunteers in our city and you all have your shirts on this evening, which I love. I know. I know. Know. Holly and and that's probably because Holly, as soon as she was done working at the city, was probably ready to retire all of her official garb. But we sure are thankful that we have you here this evening. I have some comments, but I'd like to bring you all down. Oh, I do have actually, let's see. We have Catherine Gray, Jason Simmons, Lauren King, Holly Malin and Nick Buck, plus Marty Walls, Debbie Thompson, Travis Lindsey, and Michael Taylor. So if you could please come down, that would be great.

I'll make you guys stand, but I'm not making council member LeBlang's sound this evening. Anyway, the San Marcos City Council proudly presents the San Marcos Inspiration, Leadership and Excellence Award, the SMILE Award, to the Friends of San Marcos Parks and Recreation. Established in 2013, the Friends of San Marcos Parks and Recreation is a nonprofit organization dedicated to enhancing the city's parks and recreation system by connecting resources, partnerships and expertise. Through its ongoing commitment to accessibility and community enrichment, the organization provides $10,000 annually in scholarships, supports many educational opportunities such as the Jack's Pond Nature Nature Center and helps ensure that all residents can participate in meaningful recreational experiences. Its signature rent, the Double Peak Challenge, brings together hundreds of participants while benefiting our community and community partners.

Driven by a passionate group of volunteers, the Friends of San Marcos Parks and Recreation exemplifies service, leadership and collaboration. Their efforts have made a lasting impact on our community connections throughout San Marcos. For their leadership, partnership and meaningful contributions to enhancing parks and recreation in San Marcos, we are proud to recognize the Friends of San Marcos Parks and Rec with the Smile Award. And we are so happy to have you here this evening. And when you think of San Marcos, we have come a long way when it comes to our parks and what we offer to the community.

So I just wanted to thank each one of you and I'm sure someone is going to want to talk about what you do and why you do what you do and how other people can get I think involved because I think that's an important part of it. So when you're ready to retire, which I'm talking about retirement a lot this year because I'll be retiring from San Marcos after twenty years, I think it's important that you find the next bit of people that want to come forward and serve our community. So anyway, I'll let you have the mic. I think, Katherine, would that be you? Sure. All right. Thank you. Thank

you so much, Mayor. We're very delighted that you are honoring the Friends this evening. And we interestingly enough that Mayor Jones talks about who are the next participants or board members, We just recently had a strategic plan to discuss that and to come up with a plan for the next three years. We have goals and we also have action items against them and timelines against them. And one of those happens to be the longevity of the board and having a pipeline for board members and how we're going to do that.

So, we will be working on that. If any of you want to get involved and you are a parks person, number one, you need to be fun. So we're a very fun board and we represent various areas within our city. So, our board was strategically comprised of members who are active in different areas. For example, Michael Taylor is in the equine area.

So, he has a horse and he's very involved in the Twin Oaks Valley. So, that helps us keep apprised of what's happening with Twin Oaks Valley equestrian people. Lauren, she has children that are I'm sorry, they're teens now. So, students in the school district and participates in a lot of the after school programs or weekend programs. And so, she keeps us apprised of, you know, what the community is looking for.

And Jason, you know Jason, he's grew up here, so he knows it all. He brings in a lot of good information about what is happening in the development world here in San Marcos, which is really nice. Holly, Holly retired from Parks and Recreation, so she really has a

lot of good

ideas. And Debbie is our financier, she keeps us on track. So, if you are interested in being on the board, you can check out our website or just reach out to any one of us. You can contact us through Parks and Recreation. And the last thing I want to say is we have an amazing Parks and Recreation staff and department, and they have a lot of innovative ideas, and we really enjoy working with them. So, thank you.

Thank you. You so much. I can do it. I can come back to the room. Okay. So we're going to take a couple of pictures, and I did actually, as I was standing here, went, well, at least Holly has right color on. So, but you don't have to wear your shirt, that's fine. Anyway, but if we could just, get get a couple of pictures, that would be great.

Sure.

Thank you so much. Did anyone else wanna speak? Nope. Wanna speak. Are you sure? Okay. And then, oh, I did want to ask one thing. What is your website? Sanfriendsofsanmarcosparks.com. So if you want to join..org, sorry.

If you want to join That's right because we change everything. Yeah. But if you want to join, make sure that you go online. All right, well, were the happy things. Now we have two sad things.

Well, I mean not totally sad. So there's Tess. Tess has been around for, I don't know, ten years, I want to say ten years. So I feel like she grew up in our city almost and just has made such an amazing contribution. It's all over our city. Come on up Tess and don't make me cry so I can't look in your eyes right now. It's bittersweet. I mean, we're so happy for her and Thea, Thea's not even 10 years old obviously. So she has actually grown up in our city and so What?

Is March 31.

What? Your birthday is next week? It is it Monday? Tomorrow is my Oh, Tuesday. My son's birthday is tomorrow and, you know, twenty years, he's going to be 30 tomorrow which blows my mind. Anyway, we are so excited to have you here. Are you gonna hold this for me? Do you wanna hold this for mommy? Mhmm. Okay. I'll give that to you. Look how pretty that is.

So pretty.

Can you read this? Do you know what that says?

No. That says, Tess Sangster. I know. Oh, okay. All right.

Well, the San Marcos City Council hereby recognizes Tess Sangster, whereas Tess Sangster has served the city of San Marcos with distinction and dedication since 2015, contributing significantly to the city's growth, vitality and reputation as a thriving and innovative community. Oh gosh. Whereas under her leadership, the city of San Marcos has advanced transformative projects and has garnered national and international recognition, including a civil award from the International Economic Development Council, IDC, for the North City project and many other award winning marketing and outreach efforts, highlighting San Marcos as a leading community for business, innovation and quality of life. Whereas TES Sangster has also strengthened partnerships between the city, business community and regional stakeholders while overseeing key programs including housing, neighborhood services and public communications, ensuring transparency, engagement and long term community success. I don't know how anyone's ever going to fill your shoes, but Tess is a proud San Marcos native and graduate of San Marcos High School.

Tess has demonstrated a deep and enduring commitment to her hometown through her leadership, vision and collaborative spirit. Through her service, the city of San Marcos has become a recognized leader in economic development, innovation and community building. Oh gosh. Both regionally and nationally, we, the City Council of the City of San Marcos, do hereby recognize and honor Tess for her outstanding service, leadership and contributions to the economic development and community vitality of San Marcos. And it extends its sincere appreciation for her dedication and commitment and wishes her continued success in her next step.

And I personally just want to say, Tess, I don't know how we're going to find someone to fill your pumps, but we will. But I'm just so excited for your next chapter. And sad that it won't be here, but like I said to you the other day, it makes it a little bit easier when I still are to the county because I wouldn't want to do that from the city. So anyway, thank you so much for everything. And when you drive around the city We're to take a picture. And when you drive around the city, remember that Tess put her heart and soul into our community and we're so grateful for that. Thank you so much. Thank you. Did you wanna say something? I'll just say a couple things.

Yeah. Go ahead.

Just thank you so much. It has been truly an honor. Yeah. You can touch it. It's been truly an honor to to serve the city of San Marcos. I I've learned so much and I'm not going anywhere. I've I'm raising Thea here with my husband Paul in Santa Leo and she'll start kindergarten in the fall. So I'm still gonna be a huge part. Maybe I'll join the friends one day. So so thank you everyone for all your support. It's meant the world to me. So thank you. Thank you for

being here. And thank you for loving our community. Oh, I love it so much. I know you do. I know you do. Alright. Are you gonna

be in the picture? Oh.

If

you were wondering, she's going to our sister city Carlsbad. So just a hop, skip it. And thank you, Paul and Thea for allowing Tess to come to serve our city and love it so much because we're so grateful for that. All right, now we have a retirement. If you've driven around our city, you know that it's one of the safest cities in the county.

We are so happy about that. And we're losing our captain though. We're getting another one, but we are losing our captain, which is bittersweet. But he's going to be riding off in the sunset in his car or truck or whatever. So do you want to come down, Captain Ralph? We're going to miss you. But no, you have to. Sorry, that was actually your last order. Not that I order you around. But anyway, we are so lucky in San Marcos.

We always get the best of the best. Would say every captain that we've had in my twenty years usually are here about two or three years and then they either move on or they retire. So we always have been so lucky. But I have to say, you have been so wonderful for our community and we've been through some some tough things, always, you know, with law enforcement, but we are so grateful for your service to our community. So now I'll just read this and I'll give you a little proclamation.

I'll give that to you. So the San Marcos City Council hereby recognizes Captain Kevin Ralph. Captain Ralph has dedicated more than twenty years of exemplary service to the San Diego County Sheriff's Department, demonstrating unwavering commitment to public safety, professional excellence, and community partnership. Captain Ralph began his distinguished career on 04/04/2003. And after his introductory duties at the San Diego Central Jail, which had to be no fun, I'm sure, he was assigned to the San Marcos Patrol Station back in 2006, where he served with distinction in patrol operations, became a field training officer, and earned promotion to corporal, establishing early ties to our San Marcos community.

Captain Rall throughout his career has held a variety of critical assignments, including serving in the Poway Cops Unit and the Poway Crime Apprehension Team, narcotic gang division for the East County Gang Task Force, as well as working as detective with the high intensity drug trafficking area. Contributing to regional efforts to combat organized crime and narcotics trafficking. On 03/24/2023, Captain Ralph was promoted to captain and assumed command of the Santa Marcos Patrol Station. As you can see, that's longer than the two years that I mentioned. Been so grateful.

And now he's returning to a community he previously served and remains deeply committed to and supporting. Captain Ralph's vision emphasizes providing the highest quality public safety services while strengthening partnerships between law enforcement and the community he serves. We, the city of San Marcos, California, do hereby recognize and honor you for your outstanding service and for all of the ways that you've gone over and above to love our community and care for our community. And did you have a couple of words for us? Sure. Do you think you're going to be teary eyed? No. No? Okay. All right. I think you're going to miss us. Absolutely. Okay.

All right. I'll get that.

Yeah. I assumed the role of the captain in the station about three years ago and I can't tell you warm that made me feel to have walked the same hallways of the station and worked the same patrol streets back in two thousand six as a as a junior patrol deputy. So being back as the captain of the station was absolutely breathtaking for me. It was the best thing that could have happened to me in my career. So the community, super supportive of law enforcement and public safety, which I think is a backbone of any strong community.

I would like to extend my gratitude to the community of San Marcos and each and every one of you for supporting law enforcement, as as you do every day. So thank you for everything that you do for the city. It's been a pleasure and true honor.

Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate it. All right. Now you have to stand in. And Mrs. Ralph is here this evening too. Would you like to come down for the picture so that we yes please. And thank you for sharing him with us which by the way she also in law enforcement. So that's got to be really tough on the family.

So thank you. We we push that to the next meeting. My apologies. We if you're looking at the agenda, we did push one into the next meeting because they couldn't come at the last minute. So they're going to be coming to our meeting next month.

Sorry, council member. Sorry, I should have told you in advance. I just wanna make sure we didn't skip any. No worries. Okay. Next up is our consent calendar. Do we have any items that any council members wish to pull? No?

There is a public comment on number six, Madam Mayor.

I'm sorry?

A public comment for item number six.

Oh, for item number six, perfect. Okay, so we will pull Item six. Do I have a motion for the remainder?

So moved. Second.

Okay, motion for everything except Item number six. All in favor?

Aye.

Aye. Any noes? Seeing none. Okay, item number six, we have Mr. Cesar Javier. Welcome. Mr. Javier comes to our SANDAG meeting, so it's good to see you up in San Marcos.

All the SANDAG meetings,

mister Javier.

Cesar Javier and my wife, Perita Javier. I was telling her, are we in the audition to the America Got Talent, or are we in Hollywood? I said, is this the place you like to live? Because we are planning to live San Diego City. And, mom, I must, tell this and it comes from our heart and from our humble intelligence. We would like to chronicle, herald to you guys, San Marcos. You have the best leader. A gladiator, if I may say it in all meetings at Sandag. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am.

It give us hope. I stand here and give comment on number six. It's all about sheltering, if I may get it right. And I would like us acquainted with urban planning, civil engineering, it's time that we have to go back to basic. We attended the county water authority and they were scratching their head how to get more profit out of nature's wealth.

And the city is failing as far as providing us, I would say, free water. Why? Because the politicians there have free water, to tell you frankly. Why? You know it. Kickback after kickback. And sad to note that, they're not doing something to soften our, wealth getting, wealth using. We do not have much money. We are only pensioners and you know what? They increase the water.

They increase this garbage fee. They increase this, they increase that, and by god, how could we survive? So I said to my wife, you have to move aside from escaping from the toxic generating business next door. Anyway, my contributions there as an observer, this is high time to save, conserve or shall we say respect water, particularly surface runoff. We have to catch them.

We have to ensure that there is law for every house to have at least several buckets as to what to conserve and save this water. Also, if there is a way we could put some, you know, IT, bring back the water into a reservoir so we could use them somehow. You know Venice City? We went there and we asked them, where do you get your No, we just get from the rain and of course we pay from transporting water from other country or other islands. We must learn and we should conform with the changing time. Thank you. You, Congratulation. Mr. Thank you.

Thank you. Okay, I make a motion to approve item number six. Do I have a second?

Second.

All right, motion and second. All in favor?

Aye.

Any nos? Seeing none. Okay, moving on to oral communications. We have a few speakers. First up will be Mr. Javier, followed or I'm sorry, Mrs. Javier. Purito Javier, followed by Cesar Javier, John Mosheur, followed by Liz Santos. So

welcome. Good evening. We are Porrida and Cesar Javier, seniors with excess medical condition and victims of ceramic kiln toxicity located, constructed and operated at the residential zone. Neighbor hard since 'ninety eight for we are hurt. We live in fear.

We are here to share our story with our city leadership, all to be on guard and protect, defend residents from environmental hazards since or such as our problem and most importantly the ignored and neglected victims of Tijuana River Valley Pollution.

Crisis.

Crisis. I was with I will read to you some doctors' findings and probabilistic to follow the four steps of my heroin, niece, protecting our country and people. That's her. To whom it may concern, my patient, that's me, Burrita Javier, request my documentation in regards to how her surrounding environment, namely her neighbor, Ken, affects her health she has.

Thank you, Mrs. Javier. Mr. Javier, welcome.

We are both sick and hurt physically, emotionally. But, you know, this is a kind of warfare different from the physical warfare that we we see and experience. We are trying to fight for justice. We are fighting we are trying our best to correct something that is, you know, it's wrong. It's wrong.

Air Pollution Control District has put into rule that ceramic skill is exempt, exempt in the 20 other manufacturing and industrial activities which are emitting toxicity at a certain level. The people there came to our place and I said, you can use our property so you could observe, please. And they responded, oh, we cannot yours is negligible region wide. APCD was taken independent from the county land use and environmental group by mayor Gloria 2019 in a hope that, you know, could address reduction of air quality issues, meaning the the clean air that is supposed to be for everybody, but it's not. Let's review, let's study the setup, the tasking, and their mission.

Oh boy, it's all about collecting fish. Penalties are massaged with their board hearing board hearing board, I mean, and that's it. We have the reason to believe that mayor Gloria is the money bug of the hierarchy of this estate. My god, my god, help us. Elo Rivera, who is campaigning to be a mayor, is one of the governing board member, absentee.

And the mayor, original senior governing board member, and have done nothing except reading the smell order in July 2024. Only that particular month, only to find out, oh, rotten egg. Oh, nitrogen sulfide. Why? Why only that time when the crisis began in 1993 as presented in Sandag by counselor Moreno. We asked you, even a single amount of money, let's help those victims. Our city ignored it.

Thank you, mister. Thank you, mister Javier. You. Next up is John Moser followed by Liz Santos. Mr. Javier, don't forget your vase. Sorry. Oh. Thank you, Mr. Moser.

Thank you, sir. Thank you. Welcome. Thank

you.

Good evening, Mayor, Council members, city staff. I'm John Mosier, San Marcos Mobile Estates HOA President. What I brought tonight is a map of our park. I brought that reference to the fact that four years ago, we went to a rent review hearing. This year, the management company has requested more than even a CPI increase change.

And basically, brought this because normally what I did four years ago was I asked the council members to come and tour the park with me. But right now, knowing how busy your schedule is and also that our rent review hearing date will probably show up on the calendar on April 14, I wanted to share this with you. The streets ended up being one of our biggest things and one of the settlement items where they were supposed to take care of them and then they kind of backed off and said they'd do part of them. This map here brings you in the back gate, takes you down one side and around the park, and it takes you past the places that they left. So you can see part of what was done, but you can see where they purposely left, the alligator in spots all over the place.

And those areas have just gotten worse over these years, and they haven't fixed them. That increase that year netted them over $100,000 extra per year, which we're still paying. And the next year was about 50,000 to $60,000 Next was about the same because of CPI change. CPI was high for the last three to four years. Last year, it dropped down to 2.8. This year, it jumped back up to four. We thought we were making progress, but we're not. So at this point in time, if you get a chance just to drive through the neighborhood and take a look, it wouldn't take very long with the path I've got for you there. Appreciate it. Just a precursor.

They finally reached out to us about getting together this year. And so I asked them, please send me something in writing before we get together. He says, I always ask you for something in writing. So the response I got was two words, like what? So I made essentially two more requests talking to them until we're going to have a meeting next Tuesday, actually.

And they've agreed to bring me something in writing, but it's nothing to work with. So instead of having something for the last three weeks that I could take to my people and present, which I actually told my residents I would have something for last Saturday's monthly meeting, I had nothing. So they've chosen to be silent, and we have no choice but fight as hard as we can to save the money. Anyway, we'll get further into this as we go. Thank you, guys.

Thank you. Oops. Thank you, Mr. Moser. Next up is Liz Santos.

Welcome.

Good evening, mayor Jones, council members, and city staff. My name is Liz Santos. I'm here to address a dangerous administrative bypass regarding TPM 19,001. The administrative process is not a license to ignore the law, nor does it excuse the absence of required signatures, in this case mine, necessary to protect my private property rights. The TPM zero zero one zero zero zero one has moved forward in the shadows without our consent.

Additionally, I have requested autocad.dwg files and ALTA, Topo, and Boundary surveys multiple times through this San Marcos public records portal and indirect emails to attorney Ellen Peak and Puma sorry if I pronounce her name wrong. Parahala. These requests remain unfilled. Miss Peak, you specifically have been involved with this project since Michael McDonald's involvement. Gary Levitt's partnering and purchase agreement between the city, Gary Levitt and Michael McDonald in the early 2000s, highlighting on record the development service department requests these documents from Stephen Cresto, engineer, for their records, and we are requesting those public records.

More importantly, there's a document pattern of maliciousness that the city attorney office completely ignores. My 82 year old mother is being sued. Our vehicles have been damaged by construction debris. Our, most critically, I was hit by the tractor operated by the development team, and you saw have some pictures there. All of these above have been avoided with all of these could have been avoided with the proper written permission of our real estate as the city conducted with the property at 261 Riedel Road in San Marcos, California.

Instead, unsafe environments are in place and Gary Levitt and Michael McDonald and Mike Azobel continue to operate maliciously. Our intentions unaddressed vest rights in our oversight of the city permitting plans, the contractors used during COVID nineteen. The city currently is allowing unlimited extensions of TPM nineteen zero zero one without City Council and Planning Commission view.

I'll go

down. I'm asking the City Council tonight, one, direct the city attorney to stop ignoring the safety records of this project and release the AutoCAD files and survey immediately. Investigate why this parcel map was allowed to proceed without the signatures and why the extension was provided without elected official vote. Your duty is to require to protect. Thank you so much.

Thank you, missus Santos. Next up, we have, Marlene Walder.

Welcome. Thank you.

Hello, counsel and, everyone today. I'm, responding because I didn't know even John was gonna talk about it, but the rent, if it went up a $100,000 approximately, that's a cumulative. That's over four years, 400,000. Then 50,000 the following year, and that's a cumulative. And now, not only did they say they want 4%, but they went above that and said, we're giving everyone a flat fee of $35.

I have been trying to get them to clean the clubhouse. That's a health thing. The bathrooms. They're doing a better job in the bathrooms. But they're not cleaning the clubhouse. It was cleaned once since COVID and only because we complained so badly. And when I say clean, they cleaned the carpets. They cleaned all the windows in there, but there are dead bugs right now on the window ledges, and I've gone in every week. Just wipe them down. I mean, we do it ourselves, and they're not doing anything for the money, but they're saying, well, we're putting in the transformers now.

Well, that was supposed to be done before now, and that's maybe they're getting stuck with the bill now, but it's something that should have been done seven years ago or ten years ago when we had no electricity for three weeks during the really, really bad heat wave. And so as far as I'm concerned, I don't think they deserve any increase this year because we haven't seen last year, they said they had to wait the new management company to see what's going on. Now they're digging up the streets to put the transformers in, but then they're gonna have to dig up the streets again because the water lines keep breaking. The sewer keeps breaking,

and

we have the smell of sewer spills or backing up in people's homes. So it's not that they're asking just for money, they're not doing anything that the homeowners are asking for. And so I brought that up. But the other thing was that they changed the speed limit here on Rancheros, and it was 35. And I noticed today it's 25.

We asked for slower paces, but it's from Ranchero's coming this way to the city council meeting. But 25 is a very big drastic decrease from the 35. It starts at 40, then it was 35. It's not, it's 25. And I don't know how many people notice that.

Thank you. Thank you, Marlene. Okay. Next up is oh, they're already there. You guys are magical. I didn't even see you moving around over there. So next up is item number 16, our public hearing. The 2026 draft community development grant annual action plan and substantial amendments, two program years 2023 to 2024 and 2025 to 2026. This evening we have Quentin Hufford, our senior management analyst and Sylvia Daniels, our housing and neighborhood services director and they will provide us with a presentation. Thank you.

Welcome. Thank you. Good evening, and council. My name is Sylvia Soleys Daniels. I'm the housing and neighborhood services director. And tonight, Quentin Hufford, our Senior Management Analyst, will be presenting the CDBG twenty twenty six-twenty twenty seven Annual Action Plan and Substantial Plan amendments to prior years.

Good evening. The U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development provides annual funding for eligible cities through the Community Development Block Grant, commonly known as the CDBG program. Funds must support eligible projects benefiting low to moderate income individuals in San Marcos and meet one of three national objectives: to benefit low and moderate income persons prevention or elimination of slums or blight or to address urgent needs, typically emergencies.

Each year, the city prepares an annual action plan. This identifies how CDBG funds will be used and must align with the city's twenty twenty five to twenty twenty nine consolidated plan. Adoption of the annual action plan is required for the city to receive annual CDBG funding. In addition to the annual action plan, staff is proposing substantial amendments to prior program years. These amendments reallocate funding to construction ready projects supporting timely expenditure and compliance with HUD requirements.

For program year twenty twenty six to twenty twenty seven, the city anticipates approximately $703,648 in new CDBG entitlement funding, along with approximately $497,000 in reinstated prior year funds. These funds are proposed to support housing affordability programs, community facility improvements and neighborhood infrastructure projects in qualifying low and moderate income areas, including park and facility improvements that support timely implementation. Public service programs will also be funded through a competitive application process. Applications were accepted through March 6 and are currently under review. Funding recommendations will be presented to City Council at the April 28 adoption hearing.

These activities are designed to address community needs and support services for San Marcos residents in eligible areas. In addition to the public hearings, the city conducted outreach through legal notices published in English and Spanish, included in the Coast News and Hispano Us Unidos publications, as well as direct notifications to public service providers and stakeholders and bilingual digital communications to the city's housing and neighborhood services distribution lists to encourage broad public review and participation. The drafted annual plan and proposed substantial amendments are available for a thirty day public review and comment period from March 20 through 04/22/2026. Tonight's public hearing is to receive input on the draft plans. Staff will return to city council on 04/28/2026 with final funding recommendations and proposed adoption of the annual action plan and substantial amendments prior to submission to HUD.

Instructions for submitting public comments are included in the draft documents available online and at City Hall. This concludes our presentation, and we're available to answer any additional questions.

All

right. Thank you. Looking at the table two, the Richemire Park Phase 2 and then that's up about $360,000 and then the senior activity center HVAC, if you guys knew how much that needed to be done. The 343,000, yeah, we really uncovered an onion how that was installed in the first place that it was somehow connected to the fire station is a little bit, different. But I know that, the folks over there are very, very happy that that's actually happening, and after all these years, because I know they were really sweating it out over there.

So glad to see those things going forward. Do we have any other council? Yes, Council Member Musgrove.

Thank you, Q. Real quickly, so funds are earmarked for affordable housing projects as a qualifier?

Affordable housing programs.

Program. Oh, programs, not project. Okay. Right. Because we also have in their construction ready. So what are we differentiating there?

The programs are gonna be focused on rental assistance.

And so the construction ready projects are?

The senior center, HVAC, and Richmar Park.

So we've already earmarked the funds for those projects? Correct. So this is simply just to notify the public where we intend to spend the CDBG?

Yes. Thank you. And I I do have a quick question about the housing assistance. How will we be, allocating that? Are we is that the money that we, put into the shelter program or is that separate? Is it how we That's separate funding. Okay. Perfect. Yes. And then that's administered by your office, correct?

We've solicited for public service providers to provide that

resource. Okay, perfect. All right. So that would be, do we have anyone that's responded yet as of yet or no? I'm just curious.

Those will be presented in April.

Perfect. Okay, great. So everyone will be in the know in April. Thank you very much for that. Any further comments, questions? Yes, Council Member Nunez.

Thank you, mayor. I have a follow-up question and this might also be premature but do we already know what the eligibility for that assistance is or might be?

There are standard HUD requirements that would have to fall under, yes.

Okay. And so how will our residents know what the qualifications are or the restrictions for the funds?

Once we allocate funding or once council approves allocated funding in April, we'll then become public. So we will include public a message around all requirements for program.

Okay. So can we make sure to have that for our next item when we see that item come back to council?

Certainly. We can include that.

Thank you so much. Nothing further from

And and will that be an online platform or do we not know that those details yet? It might be Don't quite have all of

those details, but yes, we'll make it a public and open process as possible.

Perfect. Alright. Alright. Thank you. Thank you very very much for the presentation. Any other questions, comments? This is a public hearing. So, actually, I don't remember ever seeing it that we open conduct and close a public hearing and then we open the thirty day comment period, but maybe that is how it always has been. It seems different, but maybe not.

How the item is agendized, I would feel free to tell the audience that you're opening the public hearing.

Yes. So my recommendation would be to open, conduct and close a public hearing regarding the draft program year twenty six-twenty seven annual action plan for the community development block grant and the proposed substantial amendments to the 2023 and twenty twenty five-twenty six annual action plans. Do I have a

Second.

Okay, motion is second. All in favor? Aye. Any nos? And then I also make a motion to open a thirty day public comment period for the draft program year twenty six-twenty seven annual action plan and proposed substantial amendments to the twenty three-twenty four and 2025 sorry, 2025 and 2026 annual action plans. Do I have a second? Second. All right. Motion and a second. All in favor?

Aye.

Aye. Did we do that? No noes. Did I do that? Okay. Perfect. Any speaker? No, there weren't any speakers. Moving on to yes.

Move to close.

Do I have to close the public hearing too?

Move to close the public hearing?

Okay. The

motion was to open and close.

You open

control. I thought I did. Okay. I thought I did, but that's why I read it.

Didn't know you can open and close it on the same

Well, I was reading the agenda item. That's why I did it that way. I don't recall it ever being that way written, but I just thought I would read it. Okay. That's alright. That's alright. We're we're learning. Alright. Oral communications don't have any reports. Sandag, last week was our retreat, two days in Hamul. That was interesting. Basically, we were it was kind of like a well, a retreat is much like goal setting, would say. We talked a lot about a different different items. We talked about manage lanes. We talked about, you know, the plan that we approved back in December.

And then kind of what we were wanting to do with any funding that comes in, that's local funding. And one of the things that we in the past have been working on is, well, spending money on let me go back, TransNet. So we were talking about TransNet, any changes to TransNet And we have very buckets, different buckets where it has to be a certain thing and then there are some that are kind of interesting that can be flexible. And so one of the things that we were talking about specifically was in our last plan that we approved in December, there has been a shift toward smaller solutions for transit, not the bigger buses, but the NCTD plus And one of the things that we were talking about a specific bucket, about 2.5%, I think it is, out of the total bucket of monies that are at Sandag that come in from TransNet was we've been spending it on transit oriented development, actual development, but the numbers are very small. So you can't actually build a meaningful project.

And so we were talking about what could we do flexible, that would actually be more applicable and for today's standards and things that are working for the community. So one of the things council member, I'm sorry, deputy mayor that we were talking about specifically was could we use some of those dollars for NCDD plus And I had mentioned that in San Marcos, we have a congestion management tax that is specifically for areas like North City, not for residential single family, but more for our higher density projects or anything that's attached basically. And so I was saying, well, if we're going to do grants for like things like NCDD plus it'd be great if you actually were incentivized by city puts in a little bit of money, maybe a developer puts in a little money and you cobble together the money so that it actually is a better project. And and I said, and it would be great if you if a city is willing to do that, willing to get a private development to put forth money to cobble that together if there would be an incentive to that. Because if we're going to put in the money, wouldn't it be better that we could actually make that a better grant.

So talking about the criteria of what that might look like, we came to an agreement that we actually liked that idea. In fact, the director was saying, hey, that's a great idea. Then we talked also about managed lanes and what they are today. So for instance, in the 2021 plan, we had approved, I voted no, but a conversion of lanes on the '78 to manage lanes, which is basically a toll road. And in the 2025 plan, that was not the same.

So we had actually backtracked on that. So a lot of the board was talking about different things. There is the 125, which is currently a toll road. It was built as a toll road and many of the folks out in South County want us to actually make that a free road to drive on. And unfortunately, it's not in the standards that Caltrans would accept it today.

And so many of us on the board, we're also talking about this again because it comes up pretty often. And that is that it needs to pay for itself to actually be brought up to the Caltrans standard before we would be able to bring give that sign that over to Caltrans so that they can actually accept it because we shouldn't be paying to make that asset whole. Anyway, with taxpayer dollars that are outside of the 125. Anyway, a lot of discussion, but I felt very hopeful because I felt like all of the folks that attended the retreat were very trying to have regional hats on and we're trying to work together and have the different needs of different parts of the county. So I felt hopeful.

I felt like it was a good retreat. It was long and it was all the way out in Homol. But it's lovely if you've never actually been to the new Homol Casino. It's brand new and it's be really, really pretty. So anyway, I didn't stay overnight in the hotel. I had get back to work, so I drove down second day. And even a carpooled with one of the board members coming home, gave them a ride. So anyway, that's pretty much it. And we do have a meeting coming up this Friday as well. League of California Cities, council member Musgrove.

We meet next month, mayor.

Okay. Next up is North County Transit. Deputy Mayor, my apologies for calling you

council member. It's all good.

It's So all

we met last Thursday, and the majority overwhelming majority of the meeting was spent about an hour and a half of it discussing our opposition to SB677, which is another Senator Weiner bill that actually enhances, if that's the right way to describe it, enhances SB79 and puts it a little bit more stronger language in its efforts to take away local control. And so of course, all of the different cities that are represented on NCTD, we were unanimous in our opposition. And we all kind of had our own individual community based hot buttons that we didn't like about it. But we but there's definitely consensus and support in opposing that. A couple of the things I mean, it's all it was it's basically all about trying to make it easier for to do transit oriented development.

One thing one positive piece of it for our mobile home residents is that it is going to prevent mobile home parks from being converted into mid rise type of development if you happen to be that if you qualify if your location qualifies for that, that TOD. And so that's probably one of the positive pieces of it. But the rest of it's all they're if have so many different train routes that are going, then that you can have transit oriented development in that area. They now you can do it near high speed ferries, which I don't know how many high speed ferries we have, but for the for the cities that that, you know, do have ferry service. Now they're gonna have high rises on their at their docks, most likely.

And so it's it's not looking good. We know that how the things go in Sacramento and they're all about taking away the the local control from us, which is unfortunate. But we had a spirited debate on the board, like I said, lasted about ninety minutes and and we are going to be formally opposing

Interestingly enough, mayor Sanchez came to our Sandag retreat after that meeting.

Oh, yeah.

And she said that they have about 77,000 housing units right now and that it would add another 100,000. So making it from 77,000 to a 177,000. She said, she was she was actually very upset about it and I'm like, well, we don't like it either and we need to fight back because local control is so important. But I'm glad that NCD took that up. I'm glad they did that. So anyway, okay, moving on to North County dispatch.

We meet in May.

In May. Okay. Clean Energy Alliance, Councilmember Nunez.

Thank you, mayor. We have a meeting this Thursday, March 26, 2PM and we're at the Locadia water wastewater district boardroom. So that's 1960 La Costa Avenue in Carlsbad. And so the public is, welcome to attend in person. There's also a Zoom option.

Okay. Next up is business visits. Council member LeBlang and I went on a business visit there to barbecue freedom. We didn't even coordinate our clothing and we were somehow wearing a bright pink, which was interesting. But it was founded in 2021 by Kurt Blaker, San Diego native with thirteen years of experience in barbecue equipment, restaurants, real estate and construction sectors.

He is right there behind Tina's Deli in the back area. His mission is to create dream worthy outdoor spaces by combining product expertise with custom design and lifelong customer support. Did you wanna jump in there, council member?

Sure. So he sells over 30 brands of grills, and he does design for backyards and designs for, grilling areas. So he has some really beautiful designs, and he's also dabbling in selling cold plunge pools and infrared heaters.

There there is council member LeBlanc. She braved it. They we didn't They didn't show the picture of me standing next to her thinking, don't want her to fall because she's she's still wounded a little bit, and it just was a weird experience because you were doing what?

So he has virtual reality where you put yourself in the design. So you're walking around. I was I was like, am I gonna be unsteady? Am I gonna be okay? But the mayor was my, my guide. And so that's that beautiful picture there. Me navigating the backyard of one of his designs. So it's really helpful to be in the design because you can see the perspective of where is this grill? You can walk around the design and see what your backyard will feel like. So it was really cool. And Mayor Jones did the virtual reality as well.

Yes. And especially, I mean, can really feel if it's if you're close to the I you know, because a lot of times your gorilla's neck near your house, then you have a patio cover and that sort of thing. So you could actually feel what the space is like. I I thought it was really cool. And I think he's one of the first ones that's actually bringing that in

Yes.

To backyard space. And he's really he lives all the way out in Borrego Springs. We did find that out, which is pretty far out there. But he drives every day, loves what he's doing. I mean, can tell.

Yes.

He's really into He

loves San Marcos. Mhmm. He said all of the residents here are really friendly, everybody he's installed backyards for. He's he did a lot of he knows everything about barbecues. He did maintenance of barbecues for a while, and he knows his product. He does pizza ovens. He he does refrigerators. He has everything. And so if anybody's in need of a new backyard, a new grill, then definitely head over and check him out. He's open to the public every day as well.

So you can walk in. It's just him, one employee who helps him with installations, and then a bookkeeper. So really small, he just really loves what he does, so I would highly recommend him. He seems like it's a great business in our community for sure.

And he even has some really high end stuff. He was like, okay, you wanna see this cool little gadget? And he pushed a button and up pops this little remote of turning on or that it was a like like plugs. So in case you wanna plug in things, they're at your island. And then there was the grill that had the really high-tech rotisserie. You just, like, push a button and it turns on and it's really quiet. It's like Anyway, and then it was very expensive.

That one was $9,000.

$9,000. Yes. Yeah. It was like more than a car. Well

It had the phone charger and everything.

It was crazy. Anyway, it was really beautiful. He has some beautiful things. That's not for everyone. I didn't afford that. But yeah. He had some really, really cool things. And the pizza oven part is is really interesting too. And then also the fact that he's doing the cold plunges. He's just kinda dabbling in the whole backyard experience, I thought was cool.

So Yeah. And he does the designs himself or he'll work with a contractor that you've already hired to do your backyard and they'll collaborate on the design. So he kind of does a little bit of everything. So it's a really great visit. And it was Tess's last business visit.

Aw, I know.

She's very sad.

She's already has she left?

No. She's here. She's not there.

It's just not gonna be the same. Okay. Moving on to council commentary. Anybody?

Oh, yes. I have something. Just wanted to give a shout out to, Jamie Smith, who's our, San Marcos Fire Department emergency manager, and she has been named one of San Diego Weekly's twenty twenty six standout honorees for women shaping San Diego. So this is, an article that she's featured in. Were some really great testimonials in the article. So just thank you so much to Jamie for her hard work. She's a really incredible person, a great asset to our community. So this is well deserved recognition for sure. So check out the article, definitely.

And if you could just bottle her energy.

Yes.

She makes she makes fire safety actually fun, I think. I mean, she's got so much energy, and she's just real I mean, you could tell she loves doing what she's doing.

And she's been doing it more than fifteen years. So really impressive.

Very impressive. Yeah. We're so proud of her. Okay. Anything else? No? We did have we did attend the Blue Zones meeting recently, which is really cool. I thought they it was very well done and I think we actually already talked about that at our last meeting. But still, the excitement is is still lingering. Anyway, alright.

One thing I want to add about the blue zones, if you wanted to watch the keynote presentation and you couldn't make it, it is on YouTube, the full presentation. So you can watch it there. And also our spring egg scramble and bunny breakfast is coming up

Oh, yeah.

Not this Saturday, but next Saturday. So make sure to bring your kids. That's always a fun time.

Always a fun time. Alright. With that, this meeting is adjourned.