City Council - Regular Meeting

We're ready to go, madam mayor.

Hop. Ready to go, miss Rebecca? Okay.

Missus Peek, if you could please call us out of closed session, that would be great. It's 05:55.

Thank you, madam mayor. The council has mostly reconvened from closed session during which it discussed the following matters. Item number one, anticipated litigation under government code section five four nine five six point nine sub d sub four. One potential litigation matter relating to the lease of premises at assessor's parcel number 221704300 Addresses 591 Grand Avenue Suite 100. There there were no abstentions, no recusals, no absences, and the council discussed the matter and provided unanimous direction to the city manager and its lease leasing agent.

Item number two, conference with real property negotiators under 54956.8 of the government code regarding assessor's parcel number 2221738. City council conferred with city negotiators, the city manager, Matt Traino, and special counsel, Alan Fenstermacher, and provided unanimous direction on the matter to those negotiators and no reportable action was taken. That concludes the closed session report.

Thank you, Mrs. Peak. And with that, the special meeting is adjourned and we will start our regularly scheduled meeting in just four minutes. Welcome everyone to our regularly scheduled city council meeting for April 14, 2026. We actually have a little bit of a treat this today, and that is we have our pledge of allegiance that's going to be led by our boy scouts, scout pack six fifty and scout troop six fifty one.

So if you could please come up to the podium and lead us in the pledge, that would be wonderful. We very much appreciate it. And if you could all rise, please. By the way, we're all here, if you didn't see. Oh, you can pull the mic the microphone down a bit.

I was just giving him peace. Peace. It's alright. I have to do it for myself too. Well, thank you so much for joining us, and you can have a seat.

I actually have an invocation this evening. Some people think their heart is beating. Lord God, we just thank you for bringing our community together this evening. Thank for the Cub Scouts for leading us in the pledge of allegiance. Thank you for all the generations that are located here tonight in our council chambers.

Thank you for blessing us with all of the folks that are willing to serve on all of our commissions and up here on the dais, and we are so appreciative that the fire that we had here in the city on Easter was not something, that was a huge fire, and we're so grateful for our first responders, that came together and made sure that everyone was safe. We had no loss of anyone's home and no loss of life, which is definitely a blessing. And we just thank you for bringing us together. And we pray this in your name, Amen. Thank you. Okay. So next up, we do have our roll call.

Council member LeBlanc.

Present.

Council member Musgrove. Here. Council member Nunez.

Present.

Deputy mayor Sanella. Here. And mayor Jones.

Here. And now we have a few other things. If, the council could join me down in front. So I know we talk about this a lot, but one of our best parts of our city is our volunteers. And whether you're volunteering to support businesses or you're volunteering to help our kids, we appreciate all of our volunteers.

So today, have Femi. Femi, if you could please join me. Femi is actually with the San Marcos or with the where is it? The Filipino American Chamber of Commerce, Greater San Diego. They started right here in San Marcos, and I'm trying to remember what year that was. Was it 2000 here, come around this. Was it 2021 or '20? 2020. Fifth. So it was right before the pandemic. I was there, their very first meeting. What a what a great job you've done all of this time. I do have a proclamation that I'd like to read for you. You probably don't know this. My mom is actually Filipino.

So I love, how you're supporting all of our businesses just and and really, focusing on also our Filipino population. We have a large one here in San Marcos, you're just helping them, learn live their dreams and and open their businesses. But I'd like to read this real quick. The San Marcos City Council oh, someone's got a a timer going off. The San Marcos City Council hereby recognizes Femi Cupid, whereas the city of San Marcos proudly recognizes leaders and organizations whose commitment to entrepreneurship, community development, and cultural engagement strengthens the economy by the economic vitality of our region.

Whereas, Femi, an accomplished entrepreneur and community advocate founded the Filipino American Chamber of Commerce, Greater San Diego in 2019, it says here. I think that you hadn't had your first meeting, and has served with dedication and vision as its founding president, guiding the organization through its formative years and establishing it as a catalyst for business growth and community collaboration. Under her leadership since 2020, the Filipino American Chamber of Commerce Greater San Diego has grown into one of the most impactful and innovative Filipino American chambers in California and nationally, fostering entrepreneurship, mentorship, and economic partnerships within the Filipino American community and the broader business sector. Through her unwavering commitment, Ms. Cupra has championed initiatives that support small business development, promote financial literacy and entrepreneurship, and create educational opportunities throughout scholarships and youth programs that inspire our next generation of leaders.

The chamber has also built strong partnerships civic leaders, nonprofit organizations, and regional chambers of commerce while also collaborating nationally through the coalition of Filipino American chambers of commerce to elevate the voice and influence of Filipino American businesses across our country. We, the city council of the city of San Marcos, do hereby recognize you, Femi, for five years of visionary leadership and dedicated service as the founding president of the Filipino American Chamber of Commerce Greater San Diego and commend your outstanding contributions to our community this day, 04/14/2026.

Thank you so much.

Thank you. Here. Thanks.

Can I say something? Yes. Already. Oh, sorry. Right on this side. So everyone can see your pretty face.

I have to read it. Otherwise, I I will forget every words for it. So good evening to the honorable mayor, Rebecca Jones, and esteemed members of the city council community and leaders and distinguished guests and it is with deep gratitude and humility that I accept these proclamations from the City Of San Marcos. On behalf of the Filipino American Chamber of Commerce Greater San Diego, with me is the Vice President of North County Region, TJ Sunglao and wife Cheryl, with our Board from American Medical Response, Eric Nixon and of course Michael and Sandy. We extend my heartfelt appreciation to our Mayor Rebecca Jones for her leadership and for officiating our oath taking ceremony on 01/05/2020 when we chartered the Filipino American Chamber of Commerce North San Diego with five board members only.

From that humble beginning, we have grown two sixty five strong members. In November 2022, we proudly unveiled the Filipino American Chamber of Commerce Greater San Diego marking a significant milestone in expanding our reach and impact across the region. We also extend our sincere gratitude to our Council Member Ed Musgrove for his continued support and commitment to our chamber and the community we serve. Mayor Jones and Council Member Musgrave, your leadership has been a true inspiration. Your belief in our mission has helped guide us as we continue to empower business uplift and community and create opportunities to future generation.

We are deeply honored by these recognitions and remain commitment to serving with integrity, purpose and unity. You so much. You. May I, can I ask the board to come Please, here to have pictures with

absolutely? Yes, thank you. They're all sitting there. No, you get to come on Thank you. Thank you.

That is the first time we've seen a dog howl like that in our council chambers. I thought that the miniature horses and then the ponies were awesome. That was pretty cool, I have to admit. Alright, kids, you don't ever get to see fun things like that. So anyway, so we're also going to be recognizing our Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts today. So we've got quite a stack. Look how many showed up. I am so excited about this. Okay. So we have honorable certificates of recognition for our scouts, for their participation, for demonstrating a strong commitment to community service.

Yeah, there you are. Look at that. Through your dedication and teamwork, you have made a positive impact in our community and set an excellent example for others to follow. Your efforts reflect the true spirit of scouting and our spirit of service in San Marcos. I don't have that in my notes, but we really appreciate everything that you do for our community.

And how wonderful. So people helping our businesses and then our youth out there helping our community in other ways. Anyway, you're setting an example for others to follow and your efforts reflect the true spirit of everything that we're doing here in San Marcos and make the the world better for everyone. The City Council of the City of San Marcos commends you for your achievements, and encourage you to continue leading with integrity and service. And I'm going call you all up, and then you get to give me a high five. And then also shake the hand of the council, and then we're going to take a picture after. So first up is Grady Miller. Grady, come on down.

Do

I keep it? You're going to keep that. You're going to take that off. Okay. You weren't listening though. Let me just say it one more time. It's okay. I'm not I'm not picking on you.

I know.

So okay. So everyone's gonna come up. We're gonna do a high five. You're gonna shake everyone's hand and then you're gonna stay right over here and then we're gonna take a picture. I'm also gonna bring up your your group Group leader. Your your bosses. Your your Group leaders. Group leaders. Group leaders. The people that are the people that are Pack leaders. Yeah. The pack leaders. And they might be your parents. I'm not sure. I didn't check the names yet. So anyway, you got it? Yeah. Okay. We know what we're doing now. Okay. Sidi aunt Kamal. Hi. Got this? Nice. Jack Newt.

Jack, where are you? No, not here, okay. James Huggins. Not here? That's right, we're still going to clap. Benjamin True. No Benjamin? Joey Borsa Barossa. Sorry. Come on, Joey.

Okay. I'm gonna let you in on a little secret. Okay, Sebi Rohr. There you go. Joshua Brooks.

There you go. Right on. Harrison Manser. Not here. Not here. Seth Friedman. Marcus Andrews. All right. Is it Abai Garcia Waterman? Not Not Yes?

All right. Still coughing. James Andrews. Isaac Garcia Waterman. Are they brothers?

Yes.

Okay. Charlotte Shealy. Is it Shealy or Shady? Did I say it right? Shealy. Shealy. Okay, there you go. William Spillane. So when they're watching the video later, at least we said their name and clapped for them. Devonte Wolfe.

Owen Shealy. Wait. Are you related? No, it did it. No, high five. 5. 5. It's okay. John Andrews. Okay.

JJ Barasa. That's husband. Sorry. Okay. Okay. I didn't see. I had switched out from Okay. And then Tim Shealy. Okay. Now your daughter, so now see, right? Yes. Okay. All right. I put that together. Ben Dougherty. No? Okay. Alright. So I'm trying to see where are you on the list, honey? Come on up.

Come on. I'll give this to you. Alright. Are you do I have a certificate for you? Oh, thanks for showing up. Thank you for doing that. Yeah, I'm sure he did. Okay. Yeah. Will you come up for him? And then we have Hector Garcia. Alright. Marla Pendley.

Am I missing her? Am I missing her?

Yeah. Wasn't able to make it either.

Well, could she just come up with you? On. Come on up. I wanted to make sure I wasn't missing a certificate. Sometimes we try we work really, really hard to I think she yeah. Alright. You give me a high five. Two others. Okay. Well, wait. Did someone want to say a little something about your pack and all you do in the community? Picture. You just wanna go straight to a picture? Picture. And we're gonna have to a minute. Who said that?

Okay. Just I wanted to hear Yes. Yeah.

If you don't mind.

So I am the PAC committee chair. My job in general is to herd all of the parents, whereas Tim Shealy's job is to herd all of the kids. But one of the other things that I do is set up service opportunities, and we want to thank the city of San Marcos for being so welcoming, and deputy mayor Sanella for coming to one of our PAC meetings and speaking to all of children. He was amazing. He has this very calm demeanor, and all of our wild kids were just sitting on the floor, looking up at him, listening to him about all the wonderful service opportunities and how important it is to provide service for our communities.

So I wanted to thank him for coming in and for for all of us in the city of San Marcos for for doing such great things for the communities in which we live. We have another opportunity on May 2, so we'll be out there participating in Scouting America's Trash the Trash campaign. It's a worldwide thing on the first Saturday in May, and so we're gonna find a nice place to do a little bit of cleanup. So thank you all for everything that you do for the city.

Thank you very much. Do you have any ideas?

Yeah. If you have any ideas, let us know.

Oh, they're asking for ideas of where to have the trash cleanup. Well, we yeah. We would love to get together with you on that. So thank you so much. And alright. Let's take our quick picture.

Do you wanna go to that? Can we do two rows? Yeah. Think we put the

I think

Okay. Awesome job guys.

All right. Thanks you guys. All right. Our future mayor might be out in that group out there. Okay.

Well, thank you for coming, everyone. And we really appreciate you being here and then all you do in our community. So staff, you heard that. Michelle, maybe we can find a park project for them to pick up because we love a clean city. So thank you, I really appreciate the offer. We're going to reach out to you. Okay, moving on to our consent calendar. I know that we have some speakers on item number four. As exciting as our council meetings are, you don't have to stay. You might have homework at so if you want to go ahead and jump in the car and go home and get your homework done, we want to make sure you do that.

And we want you well rested when you do your park cleanup too. So thank you so much for coming. Appreciate it. Moving on to our consent calendar. We have eight items and I know that we have some speakers on item number four. Are there any other items that any council members wish to pull from the consent calendar?

I'll move to approve the consent calendar, balance of it. Second. Everything except for four. Second.

Perfect. We have a motion and a second. All in favor? Aye. Any noes? Seeing none. Okay, item number four. We have two speakers at this time. We have John Mosier, followed by Joan Slagle. Welcome, John.

Good evening, the honorable mayor, city council, city staff. For the record, I'm Jon Mosier. Tonight, I'm here as the HOA President of San Marcos Mobile Estates. And off to my right, we have quite a few of our residents over here and Jonestown over here. I just want to say I'm appreciative of the fact that the city has an ordinance that helps protect us against extreme rent increases.

Many of the cities in our state don't have it. One thing, unfortunately, what we run into was each year, the raises compound. So a small raise small percentage raise now is like a large percentage about six years ago. Like even now, they're asking for like 35 a month, which is about a 5.5% average increase compared to 4% that our CPI change was. And when I look at what a 75% increase would be of that 4%, that still nets them over $60,000 for the next year compared to the $110,000 they're asking if the 35 went through.

And I look back to like 2018, 2019, and back then, a 3%, 4% would have netted somewhere around $30,000 So just in a short span of time, the last six years, the cumulative impact of all our rent increases now has even small rent increases holding even more weight on our residents than what it seems like just by the percentage increase. So we'll continue to do the best we can to save money for our residents and negotiate this thing. But I'm grateful that we have this in our city. Thank you.

Thank you. Next up is Joan Szlegel.

Stagle.

Come on down, Joan. Sorry about that.

Oh, that's okay. Don't worry.

Welcome. Everybody messes my name up. What I'm questioning is the owners are they're so deficient. Now this is kind of an old list, and I've been kind of in and out of the medical system, so I haven't followed this right to the tee like I should have. But the thing about it is they're so deficient on fixing anything at this place. It's ridiculous. Okay? It's beyond ridiculous. And they want this much money for the rent and all, but there's I don't even know what's been fixed and what's not, but I'm sure there's most of this list has not been even addressed. I almost guarantee it.

And so the point is is I don't know. They keep asking us for more rent, but are really they doing their part? And then we got a management company in there now. Are they really taking the ball and running with it and really communicating with the owners? That's my question to you because this you know, and this is hard times. Nobody's making it. I mean, everybody's working on the side or trying to bring a few dollars in just to survive. And this is just really bad that they want this much money in my opinion because every dollar counts. You know? It's one less dollar you have for food or whatever else.

So the whole thing just just looks bad to me, and I'm wondering what what are the owners still deficient in. And I'm sure they're they're deficient in a lot of things. So my question is why are we raising it up so high? And I really appreciate you guys keeping the rent down. It's really important because other than that, I wouldn't be able to stay here.

I wouldn't be able to afford this cost of living, not retired, even though I'm still working. But the the point is is it's just everything's so high now. And the seniors, a lot of it's unreachable for most seniors. And so you just do without, and that's not good because most of these people worked all their life, and they should have what they need. But, you know, like I said, the owners, they they should they should give a little bit more and ask for less, in my opinion, knowing the situation at hand.

Because from what I understand, they own other parks, and these are full fledged parks. You know what I mean? They're not they're not rent rent reduction. So they're still making a lot of money on all these other people, and they can afford to live there. The reason we have people at San Marcos Mobile Estates is they can't afford to live anywhere else. That's why they're there. So, you know, the this whole thing just like I said, I haven't followed it because I've been in and out of the medical system too much, but the point is is that they just don't do what they're supposed to do. And I've been coming to these things off and on whenever I've had a moment, but they just don't follow through. And I don't understand this. And we I don't know.

I'm just waiting for someone to hang themselves at any moment because I've seen so much stuff going on there. And it's just a matter of time. You know? So it just seems like the one don't get the other one done, and I don't know. And like, I okay. I guess my time's up.

Thank you so much, No.

That's okay.

So the the meeting the actual rent control meeting will be on June 9 at 03:00 in the afternoon here at City Hall here and I urge you to come to that meeting as well and we will then hear the petition and then also thank make a decision. You very much. Thank you very much.

Just as a note because people are here, Madam Mayor, we do anticipate having to reschedule that meeting but we did wanna get it rolling. So the tentative date is the ninth but we do anticipate having to reschedule that.

Okay, thank you, Mrs. Peek. Okay, with that, I make a motion to approve. Do I have a second?

Second.

Okay, motion and a second. All in favor? Aye. Okay, any noes? Seeing none. Oral communications, do we have any other? Yep. We have a couple of other speaker slips. Thank you much. Marlene Walder followed by Liz Santos. Welcome.

Let's wiggle.

Been a mayor, deputy mayor, council members, staff, and best of all, we have nice turnout today, mostly from my park. I'm here really to say I'm grateful what happened with the fire department and having the air drops. Could have been worse, and we were very fortunate. There is one thing with the telephone system, which was fantastic, the emergency. But in our part, because we have a lot of low income people and people who are older and don't know how to use cell phones.

I had to go to four different people who have old fashioned landlines, and they didn't get a call, and so people happened to be calling them to warn them. And our park doesn't have a system, to warn them. There's no evacuation plan yet and so that's a problem. But coming here today, changing the subject because I don't have much time, coming here today, I tried to get out and had to wait two signals for people getting onto the freeway because instead of they're all rushing to make the turn, and when it comes to the last three, four cars who should stop, they come and they park right in the middle of our exit and I honked the horn for the lady to move up. She left a whole car space in front of her in the middle of the opening, and I couldn't get behind her, I couldn't get in front of her because she was a bigger car and blocked it.

The sign says, go 45 as you pass just as you get on Lemore, then it comes to, I can't remember, but I think 30 miles an hour, then the next sign says, Senior Park, slow down, and then it goes back up to, I don't know what speed, I don't pay attention, because they want to run you over anyway. The, cars were very nice in the other lane, willing to let me come through to turn left, but the people who are getting onto the freeway could care less. And usually, the other cars are going really fast. So for two signals of getting on the freeway, I had to wait. Anyway, the sign shouldn't say 45 and then immediately three trees later say 30 and nobody reads it because the tree blocks it until you're on top of it and they're more concerned about going.

Thank you. Thank you, Marlene.

One thing I did want to say is that alert sandiego.org, everyone that has a landline should be signing up for that on a computer because it will give you that reverse nine eleven, what a lot of people refer to it as that. It will call you and give you an alert. So you might want to we can actually reach out to you. And I was also going to suggest to staff that we reach out to neighborhood services, housing and neighborhood services reach out to our mobile home parks and make sure that everyone has an evacuation plan because they might not think about an evacuation plan, so maybe that could be one of the things on our list when we reach out to them on a regular basis. Okay, thank you so much.

Okay, moving on, Liz Santos is our next speaker, welcome.

Good evening, mayor Jones and council members. My family and I are not just property owners. We are part of the fabric of the city. We are proud alumni of Cal State San Marcos and Palmer College. We believe in being good shepherds of our land, hoping to leave the next generation better than we are today.

But recently, the lack of support for local residents in this chamber has been deeply troubling. Mayor Jones, you have championed control local control stating that Sacramento doesn't know doesn't know our needs and that cities want to do the right thing. Yet since 2012, while the state supposedly ended redevelopment, this city continued to act as a private broker for one developer, Gary Levitt. You have extended purchase agreements via amendments as late as 2022. Agreements that bear your original signature, you are well aware of this history.

We have been clear we are keeping our property at the corner of Barham and Twin Oaks, yet the city approved mister Levitt's plans, which plan placed private improvements directly over our real estate. If the city had allowed city manager to buy half of 200 acres and gave me acre a 100 acres to create project renderings at a discounted price, I'm sure I could provide a thoughtful design too. Instead, you left us with an impossible choice: maintain residential use or built to the new specific plan, neither of which is actually reflected in the plans you've approved for mister Levitt. You as well aware of our pain, and yet you do nothing and try to remain in the shadows. Most disturbing, the city is now weaponizing the subdivision map act against us by allowing incorrect tentative parcel maps to remain active instead of letting them expire.

You have enabled Gary Levitt to sue us over our own land. We are facing aggressive harassments because the development team knows they cannot build what you've processed without taking our real estate. Instead of fixing the oversight, the city is facilitating a legal assault on local family. Mayor, a person a a person's home and land are their biggest assets. If local control is a good you say it is, prove it.

Stop favoring one developer's timeline over a local family rights. Correct the map. Stop the harass harassment. Finally, I'd like to note for the record, despite the severity of this situation, not one person from this council has reached out to us. Thank you.

Thank you. Okay. Next is, reports. No more, oral communications. Okay. Next up are the reports. SANDAG, I have a SANDAG, report. Shoot. What did I just do with my phone? Sorry about that.

I left my iPad at home today and I'm a little lost without it. Okay. So at our last Sandag meeting, we had, by the way, we I I think I already mentioned that we had our retreat, last month. But we also had, some updates on different meetings that we, had attended. Those were fairly straightforward.

And then we had, a construction change on a bridge, which is a really important one. It's on the Elvira Moreno double track. That's actually, an initial contract of $5,500,000 Then we had to, we're spending another $4,500,000 That was also a closed session item, which I can't get into, but we did approve the $4,500,000 additionally, to pay for that project. And then there was an amendment to the Regional Transportation Plan, RTIP. And then also, we also updated one of our board policies for equal opportunity employment and then the rest were legal closed session items which I can't discuss.

So not too much at our last meeting. We do have another meeting coming up this week. Next up is League of California Cities, and I think that was Councilmember LeBlanc.

Mayor. I was out of town and Councilmember LeBlanc covered it.

Okay. Yes, I covered that. We had a meeting yesterday. It was a virtual meeting. The star of the show was we had a presentation by Dan Denham, who's the general manager of the San Diego County Water Authority, and he talked about emerging water deals that enhance reliability and affordability of water. And, basically, he had a really great comprehensive presentation, but he explained, it was very complicated. I learned a lot. So I'll try to sum it up as easily as I can. But basically, in San Diego, we have an abundance of water supply. And we have this abundance until about 2050 because of our impressive local water infrastructure.

So we've been looking at water transfer opportunities, due to the need for innovative water solutions, near us. So in March 2026, the Water Authority actually approved the first water transfer with Western Municipal Water District in Riverside. And in April 2026, they approved the second water transfer with Eastern Municipal Water District in Riverside. And both of these will be twenty one year contracts, and they will transfer 10,000 acre feet of water annually. And this will they anticipate this will generate millions in revenue for San Diego County Water Authority.

And, the really important thing about this is no new infrastructure is needed, and this revenue aims to reduce the high water rates for San Diego County users by just leveraging our current infrastructure. So there will be no new infrastructure. It's just a way for San Diego County to make some money off of this abundance of water supply is what it is in a nutshell. So I don't know if and so that was the main, presentation of our meeting. We also have the, city leaders summit next week in Sacramento. So, our division president is council member Nunez, so I don't know if she wants to add anything or if anyone has any questions about the water transfer.

Oh, I have a lot pinging around in my head about it. It has nothing to do with you, but I just would like to mention, I was telling Deputy Mayor and Councilmember Sunella, don't I know if I'm not going to be able to say something, but I don't think I cannot say something about this. So recently, I live in a community that has front yard landscaping that's maintained by my HOA. My whole entire front yard, I can't have any passive grass any longer because of a new state law because there's not enough water. So here we are selling water and I don't have grass in my front yard anymore, so I've got bunch of tiny little shrubs, little one gallon shrubs in my front yard, which honestly looks a little bit ugly, but can I just say Sacramento is losing their mind?

It's very frustrating. So anyway, you all Yeah, they're definitely losing their mind. But anyway, it's not against you council member or you council member, but gosh, I find this stuff so frustrating. So when all of you think, well, how do we have extra water? That's my question. And then why are we continuing to force all of these density bonus projects and then also having to take out landscaping, I find it interesting. Anyway, I'm done with my little, time. Well, you

can reach out to Dan.

I think we all find this very frustrating. Anyway, council member, did you have anything to add?

No. So we'll be in Sacramento next week. Mhmm.

And our representative can you guys talk about that?

Unfortunately, I will not be there. Okay. I'm unable to attend, but I know that Maria will be there.

Council member Nunez, can you say there's a lot of frustration even in your mayor that these these laws don't make any sense to me? Let's get rid of extra water because we have it and then we actually have to pull out our landscaping and not have landscaping. Okay. And when I say yeah. When I say paths of grass, that's anything that's decorative that you can't run on. So anyway, anything yes. Council member.

They sold were the contract rights because the water comes from different sources and this was fifteen years ago, I think, the County Of San Diego in the last drought cycle when we were told to not water our lawns. The water authority engaged contracts to ensure that we would always have a supply. They sold some of those contracts, but part of that includes water from the Colorado River. And the federal government is now weighing in on that whether or not we have the right to sell the contracts to the Colorado River. So it's not completely settled, but some of the other systems that we engage are being transferred.

See, and I'd rather just see us actually build more dams and more storage.

Yes. So in fact, I I had a conversation just the other day about that where we have been paying a tax for the over the last ten years, all of us have, to build more reservoirs. And to date, we have one that's been built, and yet we have storm runoff, rainwater that goes back into the ocean where it could be conserved. The issue is a lot of these decisions are made in Northern California where they have a plentiful supply of rain, so they don't really consider what we're effectively living in a desert down here. So that does need to change or quit paying that tax, one of the two.

There are also a lot of articles about this in the media currently, so you can read a little bit more about the background if you're interested. Just do a Google search about the San Diego County Water Authority water transfer, and a lot will come up if you'd like to read more about it.

Alright. Next up, North County Transit District, deputy mayor.

Yes. We meet in Oceanside on Thursday.

Okay. North County Dispatch, Joint Powers Authority.

We meet next month.

And they did a great job getting everyone out. So the on the fire that was here on Easter Mhmm. Interestingly enough, it was such a good response and when I say good response, quick, swift, but everyone came together. So, back in the day when I was on NorthCom, we didn't even have boundary drops, so that's a significant difference. So when I first was driving up because it was literally across the street from my community, my neighborhood, it was two trucks, one was Escondido, one was San Marcos, which shows exactly what NORTHCOM does.

They send the closest equipment, so it happened to be a San Marcos truck and an Escondido truck. And then, it was within a minute and a half or two minutes, and then it was like, it was Carlsbad, Rancho Santa Fe, Escondido, Vista, San Marcos, even Escondido, course, and then also Cal Fire. And then the aircraft came, which was this was all within, gosh, probably twenty five, thirty minutes where all of this happened. There were I think there were seven drops, two of them were chemicals, the rest were all water, helicopters. I mean, was just a sight to see.

I just actually sat there in awe of how well our training has worked with all of our North County agencies actually countywide, but how everyone came together and how exactly what we trained for was executed. It was seamless, it was amazing and then we also had our sheriff department there to evacuate people and then also and there was what, there were three or four houses that it was really right up to their fences. One unfortunately lost their outdoor shed, but no loss of life, no loss of animal life, no loss of any homes. It was absolutely seamless and everything that happened that we trained for again, you know, was just superbly executed. So thank you so much to everyone that was at the dispatch center that took all those calls because I know there were a lot of calls coming in, but everything just worked the way it was supposed to where it was quick and oh, and it was less than two acres.

So that was just an amazing thing to see on Easter. A lot of people were out for a while, but they were let back pretty quickly. Quickly. Okay, Clean Energy Alliance, Councilmember Nunez. Thank you, Mayor. Our last meeting took place on March 25. So in March,

I was there and I just want to highlight that the Clean Energy Alliance has really been intentional and focused on making sure they're receiving input from the community. At the end of last year, they engaged in a series of community workshops in the member cities including here in San Marcos. And, to no surprise as, Greg Wade, the executive director shared with us in his presentation when he was here, the concern is affordability for a lot of our residents as we continue to hear from our seniors and from other families that are just having a really tough time paying their electricity bills. And this also the case for a lot of businesses. So affordability continues to be a priority.

So at the last at the March meeting, we did adopt an energy programs plan to meet hopefully the needs, the demands. They're still taking shape and so I do encourage our residents to continue to give feedback, continue to reach out. The Clean Energy Alliance does attend community events. They were not at the Spring Fling this past Sunday, but they will be at the Fall Festival.

Okay, there's a Fallbrook one coming up as well. Yes. This weekend, the Avocado Festival, I think that Sunday.

Yes, and they do try to have a presence. So I do see that they will be at the next week at Palomar College for their Earth week. And so that's scheduled for next week if anybody wants to attend to see them, but obviously they can always call and and reached out. They could reach out to me. We have an advisory community representatives that are part of that also I know represent as well, to make sure that those voices are included.

And so we are gonna continue to see this topic of affordability and making sure that that we meet those needs. I also want to announce that we are preparing to celebrate our five year anniversary and so there is a celebration scheduled for May 28 at Agua Herrionda Lagoon and that's in the evening after our regularly scheduled board meeting. So I'm sure all of you probably already received invitations. If not, you should be seeing those. And our next meeting is at the end of the month, April 30. We start at 02:00 and it's at the Luhedia at the Luhedia Wastewater District.

And council member, one quick question. What is the website for our folks out in the audience and at home where they would be able to find out more about the rates and where the feedback, where they could provide feedback as to what their thoughts are.

They can find definitely information on the website and they can also call and speak to somebody to help them look at their bill and find out what the options are.

Sorry to put you on the spot. No. It's Is it on our, electric bills? I don't recall.

It is.

It's the cleanenergyalliance.org, but you have to type in the word the.

The. Yes.

Thecleanenergyalliance.org. Okay.

And it's the long name. Okay.

Alright. And then, they would be able to find contact information if they wanted to call on the website.

Correct. They'll be able to talk to a live person who'll help them.

Okay. Alright. Thank you so much. And next up, we had a couple of business visits. That would be, well, the first one, Neighbourhood Health Care. Council Member Musgrove and I went to that. You want to start us off, council member?

Thank you, mayor. So this neighborhood health care has been around since 1969, and the inception originally was the Escondido Community Clinic. They have a mission to improve health and happiness of the communities they serve by providing high quality health care to all regardless of situation or circumstance, and they opened their San Marcos facility, which is off Montiel, north go north on Nordall and then east on Montiel as though you're going to Escondido, and it's in the business area off to the right. And they've been there since 2022. They have a pretty expansive network, and they see they have seen 614,000 patient visits.

And just in 2025 alone, 105,000. Mayor?

Yes. And I was there actually when they opened the first one. So it was great to see it kind of in the beginning, no patients were there and then kind of when it was lived in a little bit. So yeah, they have a lot of different things that they do there. In San Marcos, they had 4,500 patient visits and almost 14,500 so far.

They average about 74 daily visits in 2025. And the interesting thing that I thought because they keep adding different services as an emerging community needs are happening. So they have primary care, behavioral health, so that's basically counseling, women's health, pediatrics and then they have a lab right there on-site. And there's our city manager right there with us. She was invited to that too.

They wanted to make sure that we know everything that's going on there. But their lab services are so quick, they said like five minutes for blood work to process it, is pretty quick. Like a lot of times you go to the lab and you don't hear for like weeks or something like that. Anyway, it's pretty quick. And then they also have acupuncture that they've added.

So they really have definitely tried to respond to community needs And then about one hundred and five patients in 2025 their community health is more than just vaccines and checkups, it's about giving the people the resources they need to live their best lives, which fits right into our whole Blue Zone concept here in San Marcos. So I'm really glad to see that they're doing so well. I mean, sadly, I mean, I guess maybe that's not a good thing, but it's good that people have the care that they need. So and then they did mention, shoot, now I can't remember the details of it, of patients trying to get there. Didn't they say something about that they have, maybe you remember.

The shuttle service?

Yes. I'm trying to remember what the details were on that.

I think our city manager has

it Our city manager is like, oh, shoot, you're putting me on the spot.

She's our backstop.

Yes. I think that we were brainstorming, assisting them with some of transportation needs because I think that they're able to get some of their patients, but there is still a bit of a gap in that market.

So maybe San Marcos Plus could fit in on that. That's I'm sorry, did I say San Marcos? See, I always wanted this in, you know, for twenty years. No. I'm just kidding. I'm sorry to say that all the time now. Well, for twenty years, I wanted this. By the way, oh, so it leads us right back into the next thing, which is council commentary. I'm sorry. Oh, shoot. We did have another business. Darn. Darn.

And also And

we really only have one.

Wanted to add that, we when we do these business visits, we don't typically, do it with more than two council members so that there's no possibility of a Brown Act violation. But for the neighborhood health care, I know I, was invited and I toured on last Friday with the team as well and by myself and I believe councilwoman, Daniel LeBlanc did too. Right?

Yes. I went a couple weeks ago. And it's really nice. They've very welcoming to all

of us.

I I have

had a add add what you guys thought about about all of it.

I I think you covered it really well and I'm about ready to go talk about pipes. But I just wanted to make sure that everybody

More exciting

than the we were all there. Probably was, but we had a good tour too. Yeah. So yesterday, fresh on our heads, Councilman Maria Nunez and I went to Pacific Pipeline Pipeline Supply when they're off of Pacific Street right here not too far from Bradley Park and they're in that industrial area. And we met with Bob Mowry and he founded the company in 1987 with his family and they've have established the region's long standing family owned infrastructure.

One of the one of the region's longest standing family owned infrastructure suppliers and they mostly compete with kind of the big like the Fergusons and some of the bigger company more national companies and they're thriving even though that they're still kind of a smaller family owned company. Their facility here in San Marcos houses one of the largest and most complete inventories of pipe piping products in the county. They're not open to the public. They they provide their pipes and their valves and everything, their fire hydrants to cities, Valecito water district is one of their customers. And so when there's either a sewer line break or a water line break within Valecito's for example, they'll you know they'll be called upon for an emergency assistance and they'll bring in the pipes that are needed to repair those facilities as quickly as possible.

They have a small but mighty team of 18 and combined with that whole group they have over a hundred years of waterworks experience and that's really good and they they supply pipes and materials supporting water, wastewater, storm water and recycled water and fire systems like I mentioned, helping deliver essential underground infrastructure. Maria, you wanna take it from there?

Yeah. No. Thank you. Can we go back to the first picture? I just wanna mention because they are really so rooted in in our city and if you look at Bob, the owner that's next to deputy mayor and then to his left is Bobby, his his wife.

Bob and Bobby.

Bob and Bobby. That's amazing. It's amazing and they've been here for so long and they don't have any plans of moving anywhere. In fact, they shared with us that they own the building. Mhmm. And they were very intentional about acquiring the building. So just a lot of history here in the city really invested and wanting to continue to grow with the city.

Yeah. Yeah. Had a good conversation in the lobby about some they've been around for so long. They you know, were, kind of name dropping some of the folks that they've worked with either with real estate, deals like Dean Tilton. They sold some pipes to the original owners, the Eubanks for, Restaurant Row that went into the ground there. And he and actually he hopefully, it's statute of limitations for them. But but the Eubanks actually they bought the pipes themselves and probably installed them themselves.

Yeah. No. They did. They did. They definitely did. That's what I've heard. Yeah. Wow.

It was it was a it was a great time. And their last day actually, this was the second the second business visit that they've had from the city. But the last one was performed by then Mayor Jim Desmond. That's Wow. How long it's

That's so cool. Yeah, they've been there a long time. But my question is, do they do the lining for pipes that like have cracked or whatever? You might not know that. I don't really

We talked a little bit about the cracked pipes because of my background at Valacitas.

That's why I'm just wondering

an aligning process, but I don't think they do it.

Okay. Yeah. Okay. Alright. I was just curious. Because that looks like it's more flexible pipe. Most not all flexible.

There's a few different types of materials. Yeah.

Yeah. So do they do storm drains? They do. Yeah. Well, when we reinvested in our storm drain system, which doesn't sound very exciting, but it's really important because you keep the water flowing so it doesn't bunch over onto the roads and whatnot. Yeah, I remember when we did that, that was probably about fifteen years ago. No, was it that long ago, maybe ten years ago. We invested quite a few million dollars on that. It's a very expensive process, but definitely needed. Not exciting like that, but definitely necessary. Good company to have in

our Yeah, great local business.

Yeah, great. Okay. Council commentary. I did have one thing to say, and that's our Christmas holiday tree. It's new.

I had someone say to me, this is this is hilarious. I was at the street fair, Spring Fling on Sunday, and someone came up and said, Mayor, can we get a new Christmas tree? I was looking at the tree during the day and I thought, And I said, do you realize, and not everyone knows this, it's actually a very interesting story, but our new tree is 23 years old, grew up in Valley Center and went Council Member LeBlanc and I went to check it out the first day that it was there. But we just found out or we found out why our tree actually was not growing properly and that's because there was concrete down in there. So our poor little tree was trying to thrive and he just couldn't get his roots in.

So now, our new tree is not going to have the same issue because we cleared out all that old concrete and so it's going to thrive. So I'm really excited after twenty years of wanting to get a new tree and we have our little arborist that's handling it and taking care of it. So we're gonna have a really beautiful tree this year and every year it's going to get a little bit better. So, just very exciting for all of us. Any other commentary from the council? If not, thank you for coming this evening and this meeting is adjourned.