City Council - Regular Meeting

It's in the blood. It's in the blood. It's in the blood.

Recording in progress.

Also in the success of the agency to the redevelopment agency. Will come to order today is. September the 3rd, 2026, 5 PM Council Chambers. Thank you. Roll call please.

Council and agency member Miller here Council and agency member Briggs here Council and agency member Garcia Arizona. Mayor pro time and vice chair pacheco. Mayor and chair o'closby.

Here you do have a quorum thank you so much is there we have an invitation i don't know if we have a pastor here with the scheduled and clerk. Okay, we have a moment of silence, then I'll ask the mayor Pro Tem to lead some pledge. Thank you. We're going to item number four, which is review of the agenda. Mr. City Manager, do you have any additional questions to the agenda?

Mayor, there are no requested changes to the agenda from the City Manager.

Thank you. Madam City Attorney? But yes, thank you. Mr mayor council can remove the, um. 12 a, there will be no need for that item tonight. So we're pulling 12.

Yes.

Let's go on to item number five, which is public comment. Members of the public listen to address the City Council on matters underneath our jurisdiction may do so for up to three minutes during public comment. We ask that you hold your comments on items on the agenda until that item is heard. This is also the time to comment on presentation items and any item removed from the closed session. All right, public comment is open.

good evening mayor council staff and our fellow citizens i'm here tonight to first announce that i'm a candidate for the division one trustee position for monterey peninsula water management district director alvin edwards has endorsed me director edwards has chosen to retire from his position as trustee he will continue to serve through the end of the year second after a very unintense grueling campaign with absolutely no opponent i will now officially be your representative when the new term begins in january i want to recognize director alvin edwards for his recent two-term service on the board of eight years director edwards has been a staunch advocate for seaside constituents he's insisted on making public uh all of the actions and issues that the district does he's encouraged regional collaboration and has served on the water supply planning administration and finance and water supply demand committees director edwards has provided strong leadership in pursuing public ownership of the water system increasing our water supply through pure water monterey and aquifer storage and recovery He has strongly advocated for lifting the moratorium on new water meters to allow cities like Seaside to access the surplus water we now have for expanding housing and economic growth. I hope to continue his legacy because I have very similar priorities. I'm a 32-year seaside homeowner and have lived and worked in Monterey County for 50 years. I've been involved in water advocacy for the past 10 years, working to get Measure J on the ballot, then passed Measure J to buy out the water system and create a public water agency. This is a passionate legacy I would like to see manifest. I have done numerous testimonies at the Coastal Commission, CPUC and other agencies and regularly attend and comment at the MPWMD board meetings and other local water agencies. I run my campaign on lifting the moratorium, creating a public water agency, fairness to ratepayers and postponing the desal until as truly needed. Please visit my website for more information at www.schiavoniforwaterboard.net. My last name is spelled S-C-H-I-A-V for victory and O-N-E. I look forward to serving all of Division I as your representative, and please feel free to contact me through my web email. Thank you very much.

Members of the public in the chamber, please approach the podium. Members of the public on Zoom, please use the raise your hand feature or dial star nine if you're calling from a phone. Caller ending in 9902, you may now unmute.

Good evening. This is Nina Beattie. I wanted to alert the city leaders and the public to some seaside schools that have hazards in the district. I've addressed MPUSD several times recently, written a letter outlining problems and an article on my website, MontereyBayMatters.org, but they've taken no action. Marshall Elementary School is next to a heavily contaminated PFAS area left over from the Fort Ord Superfund site contamination. Delray Woods Elementary is next to high voltage lines and two cell towers. Both Marshall and Delraywood schools are hazardous and must be closed. There may be other schools as well in Seaside. In addition, the district let AT&T put a cell tower inside the Seaside High flagpole years ago. This would never have been allowed at Monterey High. So I wonder about how this was done. The district must terminate that contract because of the dangers to students and staff. As the district looks at declining enrollment and how many schools it needs, the first criteria for retention or disposal has to be which schools are safe and which are hazardous, and the best and safest sites must be retained. Schools with known or newly discovered toxins or hazards must be the first ones to be closed, and children move to safer schools even if they must be transported by school bus every day. I've urged the board to reopen the former Monta Vista School on Soledad Drive in Monterey from the surplus property list and reopen it due to its much cleaner, safer environment. Delray Woods Elementary School, as you know, is in PG&E's high voltage transmission line corridor. Cellular antennas on two of the transmission towers next to the school. Children attend classes and play in the playground in those elevated EMF and microwave fields every day. The microwave levels over 10 years ago exceeded the Austrian Medical Society's recommendations by 10,000 times, as well as exceeding the legal limits in countries including Belgium and Switzerland. Now there are more antennas and more radiation from those towers. Children are at risk of serious illness, including leukemia, from power line frequencies. Microwave radiation is also a carcinogen. It damages DNA and causes multi-system health damage affecting neurology, cognition, the immune system, heart, brain, blood, and reproductive system. This is not a safe environment. The school must be closed and sold. Marshall on Normandy Road Located on the Fort Ord National Priorities, the Superfund site sits below the large PFAS dump on Numa-Watson Road. The U.S. Army only recently revealed the contamination in 2022. For at least 10 years until the 1990s, it was a dump zone and practice area. The aqueous firefighting foam went into the storm drains to Monterey Bay, drained downhill, blew everywhere. When it dried, it became dust carried by the wind to the soil, nearby homes, and Marshall School. Chartwell is there too. It found out last year, and so did Superintendent Diffenbaugh at the Seaside Planning Commission hearing, but the district has taken no public action since learning of this dangerous contamination affecting Marshall Elementary students. Marshall must be shut down pending a full investigation of PFAS and other contaminants in and around the area that risk students' health. The school must reopen schools that don't have hazards and needs to go back to the drawing board. This lack of action on this dangerous situation is unacceptable.

Thank you for your comments. Members of the public in the chamber, please approach the podium. Members of the public on Zoom, please use the raise your hand feature or dial star nine if you're calling from a phone. Mayor and others have come forward.

Thank you so much. Seeing no one else here, no one else, public comment is closed. Mr. City Manager, any questions, issues, or concerns you can speak to at this time?

No, items I can speak to at this time, Mayor.

Thank you. Thank you so much. We'll go on to number six, which is Public Agency Communications. Public Agency Communications is open.

Hi, good evening. My name is Josh Stratton, California American Water's Coastal Division External Affairs Lead. I'm here tonight to inform you that we have updated our California American Water Emergency Response Plan, or ERP. We welcome ongoing coordination with city and county staff, and if you would like additional information or a deeper discussion about any component of the plan, please do not hesitate to contact me. Our ERP outlines how we protect, operate, and restore service in our water and wastewater systems during an emergency. It covers critical systems components, reporting and notification procedures, security protocols, response actions, and the use of standardized emergency management systems, or SEMs, with the Incident Command System framework. Priorities of the ERP are to first protect human life, followed by protecting the environment, property, and maintenance of essential water and wastewater system operations. While we hope these plans are rarely needed, our responsibility is to be fully prepared. In the event of an emergency, this plan ensures we can respond effectively and maintain or restore service, including providing backup water supplies when necessary. Thank you for your time and for allowing me to present this overview. We value our partnership with City of Seaside and California American Water remains committed to ensuring the safety and resilience of our water systems. We appreciate the opportunity to share this information with you this evening and are happy to meet with you or your team to review in more detail. You can reach me at josh.stratton at amwater.com or 831-435-6015 or by snail mail at 511 Forest Lodge Road, Pacific Grove, California. Thank you.

Thank you. We'll go to 6A, Seaside High, call the report, Mr. City Manager.

Bring down the principal, Seaside High. Welcome.

good evening mayor oglesby pro tem pacheco city council and citizens of seaside i am the proud principal of seaside high school andrea guiniga i'm joined here this evening by several students uh we'll be uh presenting the majority of our report this evening uh we have uh 10th grader alex montes and 11th graders zaidi maltez before i let them jump in i do want to brag on them for a moment so Alex is a 10th grade student taking not only AP classes at Seaside High School, but is also a member of our unarmed JROTC drill team, participating in events throughout the community. And Zadie Maltese is part of our famous drumline at Seaside High School, serving this year as the captain as an 11th grader. So even though these students are not in leadership classes, they are very much leaders in their actions in our community. So with that, I will let them share a little bit about what's happening at Seaside High School. Thank you.

morning um from 2025 to 2026 momentum to this year at seaside high school we have dual enrollment classes that allow students to have the opportunity to start college early and get an early education into their later careers at seaside high school we have 225 enrollments with students having attending 15 more classes We also are an exemplar, exemplar dual enrollment school and Through 2025 and 2026, we had three seniors get a Cal Getze and one received an AA. At SeaTown High School, we give the opportunities for students to excel. Last year, we had 36 seniors receive an award for a seal of biliteracy, 20 seniors for a seal of civics engagement, and we also have a pebble beach company that provides a balanced physical therapy and other internships sorry At CSUN High School, we have great, amazing school spirit. We provide first Fridays, which allow for the students to engage with others, students at their grade level, which is a four-station circuit where students can hang out with others at their grade level. and socialize with others that they know. We also provide a freshman orientation, which allows for the newcomers to learn more about the school and what's around the campus. We also have a club fair, which allows for students to learn about the other after school clubs that they can participate in and socialize with in their peers. And at CSUN High School, we've had our first football game against Monta Vista.

Good afternoon. I'm Zadie Montes and I just want to talk about some exciting things that have been happening at Seaside High School. Recently, we have just launched our MIND Academy, which stands for Math Innovation, Networking and Design. This program gives students more opportunities to explore STEM and develop skills to use beyond high school. We also had our back to school night, which was a great opportunity for families to come and come on campus, meet our teachers and learn more about what their students do during the school year. Seaside High School was also recognized as a PBIS platinum school, which is something we are very proud of because it highlights our efforts to create a supportive and positive environment for every student on campus. We also had our fall sport parents meeting, which essentially helped parents become more involved and informed about our athletic program. And over summer, we offered drum classes for students to gain hands-on experience with new technology. Now outside of campus, our students and staff have been finding ways to get involved and give back to our community. One example is our drum line playing at Monterey Bay FC soccer games. This gives our students an opportunity to represent Seaside High School while also sharing music with people around the community. We also have a partnership with Meals on Wheels, where around 200 meals are provided each week. This is a really great example of our school working with outside organizations to help support residents locally. And lastly, a senior at Seesaw High School, Andy Aquino, was recently sworn in as a Board of Education trustee. This is an amazing representation of student leadership and shows that our students have opportunities to make an impact beyond the classroom.

there are overall there are generally many exciting things both on and off campus over at Seaside High we are excited to continue this journey throughout the school year thank you all all right as a as we draw to a close I wanted to uh also make sure that we're sharing some of the uh not only some of the great things of where we are right now with Seaside High School but the future of Seaside High School and so we are excited to launch uh the concept of academies for all so Every student on our campus, by the time they graduate, will be engaged in an academy program. So what the idea is that during students' first two years of high school is an exploratory phase to get to understand what are some of the opportunities that they could potentially learn more about. knowing that 11th and 12th grade would then be an opportunity to really focus their experience and build their resumes so that they really can be competitive with not only peers locally, but across the state and even internationally, because we know it's an ever incredibly competitive industries that we, our students are engaging in. So with these academies, the idea is that when they graduate they would have things on the resume like the seal of bioliteracy like the seal of civic engagement but also internships dual enrollment opportunities that are directly aligned to college and career opportunities after high school we want to make sure that we provide these opportunities for students during their high school experience so it's free it's paid for and they can have a leg up and whether that means a student is able to graduate with their full aa or calgett c or able to say that they've uh completed a certain number of volunteer hours by doing culinary programs at our elementary schools that they have things on their resume that make them competitive to be able to sustain a life not only here in seaside but also in the larger world so upcoming we want to invite the our students to continue their leadership journey. So we are also launching a seaside youth council in which we're looking for 8th through 12th, 8th through 11th graders that will be applying for this opportunity to meet together and really being a problem solving group. And so whether that's opportunities that you're noticing from the city lens, uh our school district and them engaging in participatory action research to be able to be problem solvers that if we're seeing that uh maybe there's not enough youth activities for young people how can they help be the solvers of the problem how can they help engage in the research themselves and be collaborators in this work knowing that it's a great opportunity for them to not only build their civic engagement but also to show the power of our youth and working together with adults that they can help come up with the solutions to these complex problems So lastly, we will invite folks to a number of different activities. Tomorrow night, we have our Vegas Night, which is an academic recognition evening for our students who earned honor roll this past semester. Battle of the Bays is Saturday so it'll be a busy one come early you can buy tickets online that is already available via parent Square and also on our social media pages we are having a Latin Heritage night this is our second annual opportunity on the 16th of September at Seaside High School free for the community it'll be free food entertainment Etc then we also invite all of the Spartan alumni to come back to the school the week of the second of six which coincides with the alumni weekend that is traditionally held annually and free admission for Seaside High alumni we want Spartans to come back get in free for those games so show your show your Spartan prize show your Spartan you know whether you've got your Letterman jacket from once upon a time or a picture or yearbook that'll get you in for free for the game and then also we have a homecoming October 24th as well and with that Thank you all for listening for us this evening and happy to hear any questions or comments you may have.

Thank you so much. Great presentation. You guys can step up a little bit. Just love having you here. We appreciate your presentation and what you had to offer. I'll see if there's any council members have any comments or we'll go with the council member Miller and then you good.

Okay, I'll make a quick statement. Thank you so much. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I think I heard you say that you guys are doing the drum line at the how's that going? That sounds like that's an awesome activity and

Yeah, it's going great. It gives us a lot of exposure, especially like even not just through music, but through other connections for like soccer, like athletics and stuff. It's going great for us.

Awesome. Because when I go to soccer games, sometimes during the middle of the game, it's a little bit boring, but the drum line, keep that thing going and keep everybody excited and have fun. So good job today and thank you for coming. Thank you. Appreciate the update.

Thank you. May I approach it? Thank you. i think one i was at the school board meeting and i wanted to congratulate mr aquino for representing the school and how effectively he spoke in representing in his comments two uh what is the sometimes we don't get the lang lingo as such uh what is the pbis platinum school

step into that so PBIS is a system that is used in our schools not only here in California it's positive behaviors interventions and supports and so that's a system for how do we build safe campuses where students are seen and validated and so a platinum status is the highest honor that a school can honor we had a number of schools within seaside as well that also earned platinum status including D-LAMP

believe or tear some of the other schools as well so it's a an auditing system to see what kind of work our schools are doing and creating safe campuses last question is i think i heard you say you have you're developing a seaside youth council is that to resolve um issues or concerns related to the city of seaside or seaside high school And if it's the total city, are you going to coordinate with the city manager or council members to get their input if it's beyond the scope of just Seafsat High School?

Absolutely. Yeah, great question. I think this is a great opportunity for us to leverage, again, student leadership that it could be that we can collaborate with city managers, city organizations as well, so that if there is something that folks are wanting youth input in and to help be collaborators in that, in that work we want our students to go do the research and go collect survey data from other students or maybe help look at some of the youth crime rates and identify how can we what can the youth do in collaboration to help address some of those it's an opportunity for our also for our students to bring things to the board as well our school board to be able to bring whatever challenges there might be. And then also, again, they themselves doing the work. Because we're looking to have both eighth grade through 11th grade, we want it to be an ongoing opportunity that's not just high school students, but also building leadership for our middle school students as well with the intent of expanding it to all seaside schools, including maybe charter schools and others in our community.

Just, I can't speak. I'm sure all the council members, if We'd always be willing to listen to their ideas or concerns as a listening hub versus telling you how to handle or resolve your own problems or community problems. We can listen. I'm sure all of us be more than willing to, as well as city staff. I think sometimes the more you listen, the more you learn and the better we are. So thank you. Thank you.

Just for the public, can you share what the CALGETC is and the syllabi literacy? Because our students are doing a lot of work and I don't think the acronyms really give it justice.

Yes, so the CALGETC, again in education we have a million acronyms, we just can't get enough alphabet soup. CALGETC is basically the transfer to a four-year university that gives students their first two years of college transfer credits. to be able to go directly to a four-year university and just then focus on their upperclassmen courses. So that's the CALGETC. And then the Seal of Biliteracy along with Seal of Civic Engagement. Those are seals that go embossed on the student's diploma, which represents for the Seal of Biliteracy that they've met, for example, in not only English, but also in another language, proficient written and verbal proficiency to be bilingual. So therefore, they can put that on a resume, they can apply for translation opportunities, etc. That's similar with the seal of civic engagement, there's criteria that students have to meet to be able to have that embossed on their diploma.

Thank you for being here.

yeah again thank you guys for being here um just wanted to clarify a little bit i thought you said it was a seaside high uh student council i thought that's what you said uh so yeah seaside youth council so it obviously 8th through 11th grade so many of the students will be seaside high but the intent is also inviting students from d lamp from seaside middle school and like i said eventually expanding it out to include international schools monterey etc

Underneath the leadership of the district. That's what I'm trying to distinguish from. I think the mayor was talking about a seaside city youth council. That's a little different because we have students that don't go to seaside high.

Very much so. Very much so.

We look forward to working with you in any capacity. What you're doing is wonderful and we thank you for these quarterly reports and just to have these youth in our midst and we know they're going to continue to do great stuff where they're at and we look forward to that. So thank you for that wonderful presentation. Great job.

Thank you.

Yes. 6B, Seaside City news broadcast and comments from city manager.

Let's play the news.

We begin with the 19th Seaside Artist Tour, happening September 5th and 6th from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Visit seaside artists at their home studios, see what they've been creating, and purchase artwork directly from local artists. Monterey Bay FC will celebrate Hispanic Heritage Night at Cardinale Stadium on September 5th. Kickoff is at 7 p.m. as Monterey Bay FC takes on Phoenix Rising FC. The first fans through the gates will receive an exclusive MBFC roller banner sponsored by the city of Seaside. Visit montereybayfc.com for tickets and details. Keep the celebration going because more live entertainment is just around the corner. Celebrate Labor Day with a free community concert on September 7th at 2 p.m. on the Seaside City Hall lawn, 440 Harcourt Avenue. The Monterey County Pops will perform music by John Williams, traditional labor songs, Americana music, and marches from around the world. Later that week, our community comes together for a meaningful moment of remembrance. The City of Seaside invites the community to its 9-11 Remembrance Ceremony on Friday, September 11th, from 10 to 10.45 a.m. on the City Hall lawn at 440 Harcourt Avenue. The annual gathering honors the lives lost and the lasting impact of September 11th, 2001. On Saturday, September 12th, Palenque Arts presents AZA in Concert as part of the 2026-27 Immigrant Voices Concert Series. The performance begins at 7.30 p.m. and features Tamazigit music from Morocco. And the following weekend is packed with opportunities to get involved and make a difference. Coastal Cleanup Day takes place September 19th from 9 a.m. to noon at Roberts Lake and Laguna Grande Regional Park. Volunteer registration is open at savershores.org slash coastal dash cleanup. Check in on the dirt lot between Chili's and Laguna Grande Park before heading out to help care for our local environment. The first annual Sickle Cell Awareness Walk is Saturday, September 19th. Participants line up at 11 a.m. at Monterey County Social Services, 1281 Broadway Avenue, and travel to Laguna Grande Park, where activities continue until 5 p.m. Beyond this month's community events, Seaside is also investing in safer streets. The city of Seaside has been awarded $2.23 million in regional service transportation program. Funding for safety and traffic improvements near Seaside Middle School. The project will focus on Coe Avenue and General Jim Moore Boulevard, a heavily traveled area used by students, families, pedestrians, bicyclists, and drivers. Preliminary plans include evaluating roundabout configurations, enhanced pedestrian crossings, and other transportation improvements intended to improve traffic flow and create safer conditions. Keeping Seaside safe and accessible also means taking care of our neighborhoods. The Neighborhood Improvement Commissions are sponsoring a citywide community cleanup on September 26th from 8.30 a.m. to noon. Dumpsters will be available at Highland Otis Park, Mal's Market parking lot, near Ord Terrace School, and Trinity Park. The event is for seaside residents only, with no commercial dumping. Electronics will be collected separately, and residents are encouraged to bring items early before bins fill up. After a morning of giving back, get ready to celebrate with music, food, dance, and culture. The City of Seaside presents the sixth annual Oaxaca by the Sea on September 27th from 1130 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 440 Harcourt Avenue. Admission is free with live music, Oaxacan dance, local food vendors, craft vendors, and community information booths. Come enjoy a vibrant celebration of Oaxacan culture right here in Seaside. To wrap things up, we also have an important opportunity for local schools and community organizations. Applications for the 2026 to 27 Digital Divide grant program are open through October 30th. Eligible public schools and school districts may apply for up to $100,000, while nonprofit community-based organizations may apply for up to $50,000 for projects supporting digital access and skills. Learn more at grants.ca.gov. Mark your calendars, invite your friends and family, and get ready to be part of all the great things happening in our community. We can't wait to see you around Seaside.

just a couple items i want to highlight from the news first and foremost the city of seaside will be receiving 2.23 million dollars for traffic and safety improvements in front of co avenue and general jim moore near the seaside middle school tremendous opportunity from a grant from tampsi to make traffic improvements want to say thank you to our public works team and our other departments who assist in those efforts And then also want to invite the community to the Monterey Bay FC Hispanic Heritage Night presented by the City of Seaside this Saturday at 7 p.m. at Cardinale Stadium. There will be a Hispanic Heritage Month proclamation read at halftime, followed by a performance by Palenque Arts. And then we will also be providing discounted tickets available on our website. Thank you.

Thank you. Next, we'll go to presentation 7, 7A, presentation on Retirement Plans for Senior Maintenance and Utility Workers, Stephanie Pemberton. An appreciation of 24 years of dedicated service. Who wants to? Any supervisors? Come on. Come on down.

Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, and members of the Council this evening. Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, and members of the Council. This evening, I'd like to invite up Stephanie Panamenti up to the podium here. Wait till she gets up. So this evening, we are here to honor Stephanie and thank her for her 24 years of service with the City of Seaside. Stephanie is a senior worker in parks, lead worker supervising a crew for many of the parks that we all experience and enjoy here in the City of Seaside. I've had the pleasure of working with Stephanie for the last two years here. Now she's got 24 years of experience. I've, you know, spent a lot of time with Stephanie just, you know, kind of talking about the park, some of the history and what she does and learned a lot. So first thing I just wanted to share something I learned is that she comes from three generations of Seaside residents and she has lived in Seaside for the past 16 years. Since she was 16, that's why I'm a little nervous myself for saying this. But we were discussing about all the tree plantings, and we kind of came up with a number. You think maybe about 400 trees that she has. She participated in planting. She also has been responsible for the playground inspections and so keeping those safe, reliable, enjoyable for all our children in our community. She has been really involved with working with FOSPA and their help with the parks. uh and a couple other projects that i i learned because she's you know we as we've discussed it she's was involved with the the roses that we see in city hall uh initially uh they were part of a memorial and the expansion of those and then also the recent improvements to the city hall landscaping that we see here and then also at the library so she's also worked on a lot of the landscaping at fire station number one or grove and around broadway as well so at this point i'd like to turn it over to you mr mayor for the proclamation and presentation thank you

I'll read the proclamation. City of Seaside proclamation to Stephanie Pemberton and Amante. She hollered that at me a few minutes ago. Yeah, that's right. Get it right, Pemberton. recognition of 24 years of service whereas senior maintenance utility worker stephanie has been honored today for 24 years of honorable loyal and dedicated service to the people of the city of seaside and the public works department and whereas stephanie started her career with the city of seaside april 2002 hired as a park maintenance worker one and whereas she worked her way up from maintenance worker one to senior maintenance and utility worker through hard work, dedication and experience throughout the years. And whereas Stephanie has served as senior maintenance utility worker for the past six years in the parks division and whereas Stephanie's strong supervisory skills have allowed her to effectively run, train and lead teams to maintain the parks, playgrounds and other areas throughout the city. uh of seaside whereas she has been a driving force behind all of the maintenance throughout the city and whereas she has commended she has commended for her work on the numerous neighborhood improvement commission projects which we had tens tens so i mean i don't know since the last couple years at least been about 30 or 40 uh every year that we we tend to add to your list so uh you keep those things going and you had to finish them and work with the laguna grande regional park joint park authority which is our city manager overseas that and mayor pro temp sits on that board and the friends of seaside parks i know they really appreciate your work and how you make sure your staff is there every week every saturday make sure they have the tools and stuff that they need to get the job done and then the wider community enjoys those park renovations that you've been part of so thank you so much for that Whereas Stephanie has been a primary source for the City of Seaside and so many others, not only because of her institutional knowledge, but also because of her extensive knowledge in playground systems and urban forestry. Now there be it proclaimed that I, the Honorable Ian Oglesby, Mayor of the City of Seaside, on behalf of the City Council, do hereby recognize Stephanie on her new and many accomplishments, including 24 years of service and her retirement from the city of seaside not until september 11 2026 but it is signed today and we want to thank you for that And we also have a plaque for you that says, Stephanie, senior maintenance utility workers, in appreciation of your 24 years dedicated service, we thank you for enhancing our city, which we really do appreciate. Congratulations on your retirement. April 15, 2002 through September 11, 2026, presented by the mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, council members Alexis Garciarzola, Rita Burks, and Alex Miller. but they want to get a picture.

Yeah, which a wisdom for us.

not much of a public speaker but i just want to say thank you guys for the 24 years of experience i remember when dave was working at oldemeyer and i remember when dan was working at oldemeyer i've been through many city managers mayors and council and superintendents directors so it's been experience um highs and lows and i just want to thank you all for this day and your acknowledgement. Thank you.

I remember you from back in the day, obviously. And most notably, as I recall, was the roses in front of City Hall. I think they were a landmark, recognizable by many cities as far as the quality and the beauty. At council meetings for decades, they were getting praise and glory and appreciation for you. I also remember the work that you did with the foster group as the mayor mentioned and others. And what I always saw was the calm, cool and you just work to get the job done and in a very peaceful without any headaches someone asked you to do something you just went ahead and did it no matter they being right or wrong you just got things done and most you know and i think work is really important but families a little step above and i I recall back in the day, ukulele, what's that instrument your daughter played?

A ukulele.

Yeah, she played that instrument and she had an amazing voice and she won countless talent shows back in the day. And she was always there. She was always supportive of her kids in seaside events. And that's what I kind of remember is the family atmosphere, bringing together kids and making sure that they were involved in getting them active. And she may have, or she wanted to be on American Idol. I don't know if she ever tried out for that. She did try out for that. But a great voice, great musician, and a great mom that led her

uh and and you are always the part of the seaside family so thank you thank you uh councilman thank you i i just want to take a time to really celebrate you and allow you to take this all in and and and really reflect on 20 plus years of services city of seaside it shows your commitment the work that you're doing you're leaving a legacy and you're leaving a stamp literally and figuratively here in the city of seaside Although you are departing, I think it's a well-deserved vacation, a well-deserved opportunity to be with family and friends. But I want you to know that we are immensely grateful for your service. Like I said, 20 plus years is no easy feat. I wish to someday be in a job 20 plus years because you're leaving behind a wealth of knowledge as well and really big shoes to fill. So thank you for all that you've done for the city of Sisa, for your contributions, because I know you did it out of love. And again, 20 plus years, it has to be out of love. So thank you so much and really appreciate you and enjoy whatever the next chapter has in store for you.

Thank you. Anyone else?

Yeah, though I've not ever worked directly with you. I've watched you and your family from afar. And yeah, definitely see the love and the commitment and all your time and effort you've put into our city. So I want to thank you and I wish you the best on your retirement. Take some time and enjoy it.

Yes, thank you.

Last few words, I just want to say thank you again for all what you've done. And I didn't know that you were a part of the roses, but I know so many people appreciate them. I know I love them and still love them going by. And I remember, I don't remember, Pacheco remembers that we had a rash of people stealing those roses.

Yeah, I remember.

People go by and they thought they were free for some reason because of the upkeep and the way you kept them and they wanted to be part of that and they wanted to take some of that beauty home with them. So besides that and the hundreds of trees and I really want to get to the things we don't see that you do inside of the maintenance shop and with your people. I want to honor you for that and that will be because I know that's part of the job of getting up every day uh getting your crew together and completing the work and a lot of times we don't see that work internally so i want to thank you for that because the citizens benefited from that work for the last 24 years with no problems at all from from the group itself so i say thank you and congratulations and enjoy you know the long life and your family and we appreciate you and and look forward you'll continue in and out of Seaside. I don't know where you live, but the point is you're part of Seaside. You've been here for three generations. We hope generations more to come. Yes.

Thank you.

next we go to item number b uh presented proclamations to jacob hart's cancer support service recognized in september 2026 as child cancer awareness much in the city of seaside uh that's the city manager i think we're gonna present a proclamation Oh no, that's not closure. And then we'll have someone take a picture. On behalf of the city of Seaside, I issued this proclamation honoring Jacob Hart Children's Cancer Supportive Services and declared September 2026 as Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. Whereas the character of our community is revealed on how we care for our children's families, facing life-threatening illnesses and whereas although children's cancer is rare, it remains the leading cause of death by disease after infancy among children in the United States. And whereas A child's cancer diagnosis affects the entire family, often creating emotional, practical, transportation, food security, and financial challenges throughout treatment and recovery. And whereas Jacob Hart's Children's Cancer Support Services exists to provide quality of life, for children with cancer and to support their families throughout the challenges they face. And whereas Jacob Hart serves families throughout Monterey, Santa Cruz counties, San Benito, and Santa Clara counties by providing compassionate family center services at no cost, including groceries, essential goods, transportation assistance, direct financial support, counseling, and opportunities for connections and remembrance. And whereas Jacob Hart has become a truly a community partner helping families remain housed nourished connected to medical care and emotional support so parents and caregivers can focus on the health and well-being of their children. And whereas Jacob Hart honors the lives and legacy of children lost to cancer while standing behind survivors, siblings, parents, caregivers, and loved ones throughout the treatment, survivorship, and bereavement, and whereas childhood cancer awareness month awareness month provides an opportunity for the seaside community to raise awareness support effective families honor courageous children remember those who lived and lives that were lost and recognize the professional caregivers and advocates and organizations devoted to this work Now there be proclaimed that I don't want to always be mayor of the city of Seaside on behalf of the city council do hereby proclaim September 26. 2026 as childhood cancer awareness month in the city of seaside and honors jacob hart's children cancer support services for his compassionate steadfast service to children with cancer and their family i encourage all residents to learn more about childhood cancer support affected families and join in recognizing courageous resilience and enduring legacies of children throughout this county signed today's state mayor ian oglesby So, thank you so much.

Good evening, Mayor and members of the City Council. My name is Daniela Anaya, and I'm the Director of Family Programs with Jacob's Heart Children Cancer Support Services. On behalf of Jacob's Heart and the kiddos and families we serve, thank you for recognizing September as Childhood Cancer Awareness Month and for standing alongside families in our community who are facing childhood cancer. At Jacob's Heart, we walk alongside families from the moment of diagnosis through their entire journey. Our families are navigating so much more than medical treatment. They have been traveling hours for specialized care, missing work to be at their child's bedside, struggling to put food on the table and trying to help siblings understand why life suddenly looks so different. as a director of family programs i'm very hands-on with our our two biggest program which is our full heart we deliver groceries to our families to their doorstep and the relief that i see in the families is just amazing and they also tell us because as you all know food is very expensive nowadays and so having food weekly delivered to their doorstep is huge for them. I also oversee our transportation department, and that department was inspired by a little boy named Agustin. Agustin had a very curable form of cancer, but because he was not able to attend his doctor's appointments, he unfortunately passed away. And that is why now we take our families from their home to their medical appointments all the way to Palo Alto, sometimes UCSF and back home. So What I hope you remember tonight is that childhood cancer doesn't just affect one child. It affects an entire family and an entire community. And these families should never have to face it alone. By issuing this proclamation, the city of Seaside is helping us bring bring greater visibility to childhood cancer, and most importantly, showing local families that their community sees them, remembers them, and stands with them. Thank you for recognizing Childhood Cancer Awareness Month and standing with the children and family of Jacobs Heart. I also want to add that on September 24th, we will be having a mixer at our at our center and you are all welcome to attend. Get to know our facilities, how we got started and why we got started. Thank you.

Thank you. Are there any comments? I don't know if it's confident. Yes.

I just want to thank you for your work. I know the impact that you do and I've met families that have personally benefited from Jacob's Heart and the relief when you talk to them about how much you've helped them and how they wouldn't be able to make it if you hadn't stepped in, it really makes a difference. And I know even something as small as groceries eases the burden off of the parents, eases the burden of having to know whether to make ends meet for rent or help put that money towards the child's benefit. So I just want to say what you're doing is very, very commendable. And thank you so much for being in our region and for being a valuable resource to many.

Thank you so much. Thank you. Anyone else? I just want to say thank you so much for what you guys do there. It's, you know, it's people say well we can't imagine unless it happens to you but we all sometimes imagine something happened to our kids right and so we know we would love people's help if we were ever in that in that need and to know it's a group like Jacob's Hearts out there is just comforting within itself so we want to thank you for the work and and knowing you guys are out there and then like you said we'd love to promote it and let people know how they can help you and assist you because uh we don't want people to think they're alone and dealing with something when it's when it's surrounding their children that's doubly hard so thank you so much thank you thank you let's go on to item number c receive a presentation from sensory centers on the 2025-26 community social service grant program uh mr city manager we're going to ask the representatives from century centers to come on down

Good evening. Thank you so much for allowing me to be here and present on the work that we did. I have a steps youth with me and she will talk a little bit of her experience once I get through this presentation if that's okay. All right, so we're going to go ahead and get started. So I'm just going to talk a little bit about the work that we did during the October through June 2026 timeframe. And so we served a total of 987 Seaside residents. 49% of Seaside clients served were 11 to 16 years old. and 44% identified as Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish. And I do just wanna say the unknown and the other percentage, it's just students or people who just maybe didn't fill out our survey or didn't wanna fill out that specific demographic question, but I still wanted that to be shown there to be as honest as possible about our served residents. So we reported quarterly and as you can see each quarter we were able to increase our people served number from October to December we were able to serve 225 individuals from January to March 373 and from April through June it was 389 totaling to 987. And on the next slide, I'm going to talk a little bit about the services that we did. But in this picture, we have our youth providing a presentation. And I believe that one was to the village project and they provided a gateway presentation to their youth. So we thank them for allowing us into their space. So let's talk a little bit about prevention and some of the activities that we did through that time frame. So we were able to have 85 steps program meetings and steps and after school leadership program where students volunteer and they're able to work throughout different campaigns as well as just provide leadership opportunities, learn about substance use education and be able to also provide that to the community. And so we were able to engage 32 seaside high school students through this program. And then we also attended 14 different tabling events in seaside where staff was able to share information and resources to the community. And then we did 29 prevention presentations, workshops and trainings. So these activities included vaping education to elementary, middle, and high school students, as well as workshops. We specifically focused on workshops for the elementary age school just to make it a little bit more interactive. And it's been probably one of the most popular ones. We also did gateway drug presentations where we focus on marijuana, alcohol, prescription drugs, and tobacco. And then we did a life skills training, which is a training that we provide to elementary, middle and high school students where we teach them about a bunch of different topics like, you know, societal pressures. We teach them about communication, a lot of many things that we do. And then we also provided this not only to Seaside Schools, but to other community partners that allowed us into their space. In the picture that you see right there are the logos for some of the campaigns that we focused during October to June. Some examples would be No Name Calling Week, which is a bullying prevention effort. And then we also focused on Driving So We're Getting Pulled Over campaign for the holidays. And then we did Red Ribbon Week, Take Down Tobacco. We focus on all these campaigns throughout the entire year. And typically each month we'll have a couple of designated campaigns that the students focus on. And I want to talk a little bit about our Road to Success program. This is a pre-diversion program for youth, typically for first time offenders. It's a three to six month program. And our main goal is to prevent youth from being expelled from schools or to enter the juvenile system. And we do this through case management, community service hours, and pro-social hours. They each have an individualized plan where the case manager, the youth, and the parent all work together. And right here, I just have two quotes from two youth that completed the program. Thank you for always being here with me and talking with me. It really did truly help me. Great program. And I thank Alfonso for helping me get back into school. We had, during that timeframe, we served 28 youth and we had 15 completions. I do want to say, because this is a three to six month program, some of those 28 are currently still in the program, right? Because if they got referred like in June, they're most likely not finished. And then some of them are rollovers, right? That completed. right here we have a couple pictures of some youth that completed the top left corner is a youth who we actually helped um helped him get his driver's license and he was very excited about that and then at the two bottom our members that came and met with some of our youth we hold these two meetings every year we call them the cab meetings Community Accountability Board, where we invite leaders from Seaside to meet three youth and their parents and discuss about what led them to the program, what happened, how has the program helped, what's changed. And this is an open invitation to all of you if you would like to attend one of these. And this is just for you all to let the youth know that you care about them and they're welcomed and you know that congratulations for finishing the program, but also maybe you might have some opportunities that they can benefit from. And all of this work would not be possible without our community partners. And I'm so, so thankful. Here are some, Seaside High School, SYRC, MLK, CPY, CSUMB, they allowed us to enter their space and provide our services. And I'm so grateful, you know, D-Lamb, a lot of schools here in Seaside have been very open. And thanks to them, we're able to provide our services. And then just a couple of tabling events that I wanted to just mention. We attended the fourth annual Youth Leadership Academy Summit, electives fair at CSUN High School, Mind Shift Youth Summit, career fair at CSUN High, CSUMB Alcohol Awareness Week, and so on. And then here I just have a couple of pictures of some community engagement activities that we've done, whether it's tabling, presentations. Thank you, Councilmember Alex Miller, for coming and speaking to our students about public speaking, how to talk to city officials, and all that, and policy work. And lastly, I wanted to end it with the face of the Seaside team. So you all can just kind of recognize them. Maybe you've seen them out in the public, maybe you've seen them at events. But just like with our community partners, the work would not be able to be done without my wonderful staff. And I just want to thank you all for this partnership and the ability that you provided us to continue our services. And I really hope we continue a future partnership. And I'm going to give the floor to Star.

Good evening, everyone. My name is Star Hernandez. I am a student steps youth leader at Century Centers. I have been in the program for about two years, and I want to share some experiences that I've had within steps. So, overall, I have this one favorite event. It's called Pink Shirt Day, where we do, it's a campaign at our squad in Seaside High, where we spread positivity around the campus. All the students show up in pink and We are also partnered with My Path Club, which I'm the president of, and all of our club members created positive shirts papers where we printed them around the school. And a lot of the students actually love them. I would always see them at the lunch line smiling at them, looking at them and all that stuff. And then some experience that I've gained through the program is the staff actually helped me build up my resume to get me a job. And also I'm a senior, so I'm going to be applying to colleges soon, all the scholarships and all things like that. So them bringing me those opportunities such as giving me training for Great Red Drug presentations, bullying preparation presentations, and life skills training really did help me. And it helped me a lot putting it on my resume, setting me up for the future, making me look good for everybody. um and also i would like to give thanks to all you guys for giving me the opportunity to spread awareness on substance abuse awareness because it is a big problem especially within the youth i see it every day at school and we are moving inch by inch to get closer to beating that problem and it's not only about spreading this awareness to the adults but it's also getting it to the youth so i would love to appreciate you guys for giving us that opportunity thank you so much

open for any thank you any questions suggestions comments any questions council member um so thank you you guys are always quick to respond and show up at d lamp star i want to give you a shout out because she's a seaside high student but she presented at monterey high uh for our parents and our youth and she did a great job and she knew like oh i'm like in the danger zone but i'm starting to present and my own daughter who had just started was very excited to hear Real information, real data that it wasn't being like, dumbed down. And so a lot of the youth as as annoyed as they were with their parents for having to attend, they were really open minded and realized a whole lot more than they had ever heard. I think in elementary, we kind of try to keep it a little too simple. And so it was really good for them to hear the truth and see what's really out there in the danger. So, thank you. And thank you. Some street centers.

I think you come from a melody and customer.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, and thank you for inviting me to come speak to the, that was a lot of fun, actually. I still remember the day and the afternoon. Is there a date for the next cap that you talked about?

Not yet, but typically we're trying to do one between the first six months of this fiscal year and then one the next after the new year. So I will go ahead and email you when letting you know when that date is finalized.

And I'll share that date around. Thank you so much.

Thank you for the presentation. I want to go to slide number two when it comes to demographics. I do see 6% age 0 to 10. When we're saying that we served 6% of students ages 0 to 10, is it outreach or is it them benefiting from the program as well?

That is through our substance use education. So whether it was a gateway drug training, a vaping presentation, or a substance use and bullying presentation, or a life skills.

Gotcha. Have those numbers increased between ages 0 and 10 and then 11 and 16?

Have they increased since this time frame?

No, have they increased since last year?

yes absolutely um one of the things is because we've increased our collaboration and a lot of people have opened their doors to us um and so we try to hit every single school in mposg but specifically in seaside has been a wonderful city and has been receptive

Awesome. And what's I guess my question would be for you, what's been sort of the feedback that you've gotten back from students when doing presentations? I know there's a picture of you all doing presentations to classrooms and organizations. Are the students more connected to you than they would be to someone like us?

Definitely, I do see a lot of the students that we did present to. So, for example, during the summer, we did life school presentations to the students at CPY. I do see them a lot around the campus and they do occasionally wave hi to me. yeah they're all super friendly and also my friends also do benefit from these presentations such as the gateway drug presentation they do learn a lot of information and um of course i take that information and spread it among my peers because obviously not a lot of people are educated on the subject so yeah i would say definitely

thank you for that and i know you mentioned or if i can paraphrase here that you know substance abuse is increasing amongst teens what are you seeing on the ground what has been your your experience

I for sure see a lot of vaping among the campus. I know the, I guess, hall monitors, they do try to prevent as much as possible, but of course sneaky little kids try to get away with it all the time. We do have a vaping detection in our bathrooms that do go off a lot throughout the school. it's pretty bad um it's like if there was an actual problem like an actual fire you know we wouldn't know if we would actually have to escape or not so that's definitely one of the bad factors about that um i don't really see it in the public and i don't really go into the bathrooms for my personal experience but i do hear amongst the students a lot um that they are doing bad things but i'm not associated with stuff like that so i try to keep away as far as i can from those things

And when you say vaping detection, what does that look like?

They vape with their pen.

An alarm that goes off?

Yes. So they actually, again, they go to the bathrooms. We have vape detectors in the bathroom. We have smoke detectors all around the school. And they're highly sensitive to smoke. So if a student were to be vaping in the bathroom, it would instantly go off, if that makes sense.

And then my question would be for you, do the young experiences reflect or allow you to modify the outreach that you do?

I'm sorry, the what experiences?

Do their experiences, what they're seeing on the ground in school, does that help the agency modify their outreach or? Absolutely.

Absolutely. We actually conduct focus groups. And in those focus groups, we have the high school students kind of tell us a little bit about what they're seeing, is it normalized? Do we do this for marijuana and prescription medication? And these are anonymous. So kids are more prone to maybe answer versus in front of everybody. So we keep it small group. We do it anonymous. We don't record names or anything. And we gather some data through there. And that's how we also can able, we can also see like our approach method. We also have a parts coalition meeting that happens every third Thursday of the month. And so we also meet with other community members and get their input on how we can also modify our approach. And of course, through surveys as well. Whenever we do presentations, we have surveys, post surveys, and we allow the students to comment there and the surveys are anonymous.

And then I guess my last question would be, aside from vaping, is there a specific substance that you're seeing is being used more frequently nowadays?

so actually now that you mentioned that for alcohol has been on the rise again and i think a lot of it has to do with the trending drinks like buzz balls um you know your um seltzers have been trending you know now there's like barritos that's a seltzer capri sun so that has been on the rise and then something that's been kind of on the rise um with youth and adults kratom um so those are some of the things that we have noticed and you can get kratom like at a smoke shop which is why um you know again with the easily accessible right this is where gateway drugs come from so um those are some things that we've been noticing and we have tried to work a little bit more on having some information on kratom and we sometimes our social media some street centers uh we post um social media posts on there with like new trends things to look out for as well as having them out on the table when we do resource first for the community

And thank you for mentioning Kratom because I was just reading an article yesterday of Kratom and the rise and how addictive it is. Are we focusing our efforts on partnering with small businesses on posting signs or educating parents? How can we help you really educate the community? Because I didn't know about Kratom until I read that article, which was quite fascinating to me and the effects that it has.

Yeah. So we've collaborated a lot with, and he's came to a couple of city council meetings, I believe, with Gonzalo from the Tobacco Control Program with Monterey County. So we collaborate with him a lot in our tobacco awareness effort. And then with parents, really, we try to find like active parent groups that we can present this information to. You know, whether that's Cafecito, whether that's a church group, we actually have an upcoming presentation at a church. So we try to go to churches as well because they have active groups. And also every Friday at our seaside building, we now have a parents creating solutions group in Spanish where we cover various topics. So if anybody has any Spanish speaking parents that they want to send my way, please let me know. But there's different ways where we try to tackle it. And a way that, you know, you all can help is, you know, when we're up here, you know, talking about tobacco policy and tobacco awareness, which you've all been wonderful with, just kind of listening to us and taking into consideration, you know, any policies that come about.

And thank you. And I'm offering myself up, right? Anything that you need us, that you need me to push out, please feel free to reach out.

Thank you. And lastly, thank you all for your support at the symposium. I was so grateful and gracious that you guys attended and thank you for supporting us.

thank you anyone else yeah just a wonderful presentation uh we love being a partner with the sun streets and and we will continue to be a partner with you uh for the wonderful things that you're doing thank you so much thank you have a good night all right let's go continue on uh go to uh is that which has received a presentation from the Village Project for the 2025-26 Community Social Service Grant Program, Mr. City Manager.

I believe we have a representative from the Village Project walking down right now, Mr. Mel Mason.

Fairly.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of the council, staff, and members of the public. My name is Mel Mason, and I am the co-founder of The Village Project. I have to say this all the time, I'm theoretically retired from the agency, but somehow I still end up doing things like this. I don't mind it, but sometimes people will yell out, I thought you were retired, and my response is, I thought I was too. But I'm happy to do this. We as an agency, and I don't have that much influence on anything anymore, but we as an agency had taken a look at the aftermath of Proposition 1. What Proposition 1 did was it basically stopped behavioral health units throughout the state of California from being able to provide any kind of funding. for community-based organization or community-based organization programs. We have an after-school academy, the Maci Johnson After-School Academy, and we prided ourselves on working with and helping to excel those students who were having incredible challenges. We continue to have students who were far below grade level in reading. And we also have at the current time, we have three students who cannot read or write. And point one is going into the seventh grade. So when we looked at that, and we also looked at the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress, which is a statewide document that goes through all of the school districts in California. And what we're finding is that the numbers or the percentages of students who cannot read at grade level are absolutely incredible. And I mean incredible, not in a good way. The decision was made since we lost $91,000 in funding from Monterey County Behavioral Health for our after school academy, then it kind of was a no-brainer that we should focus our next grant attempt with the city of Seaside on monies that we could use for our after school academy. What that meant was, of course, that we have ended our youth intervention program. And we talked about this for quite a bit. The staff, such as they were, our two folks, were told in advance. And so they had an opportunity to prepare to move on. I think what we found was that while we were able to kind of move on A lot of the students and youth who had been participating in our youth intervention program since the very beginning, because we were among that first group of folks that got granted so that we could do this program. And we got granted every year since then. So it was a little tough. And it's tough on me as well. And I'll be honest about that, that we had to end the program. But I know what we ended it for. And I think some people know I was out of the country, I was in Ghana, the summer of, part of the, excuse me, part of the summer of 2025. When I got back, I got a phone call from Ron Menhares and Elijah Belonga. And they said, you won't believe what's happening. And what I was told I wouldn't believe was the fact that we had some of our youth who had been a part of the first know iteration of this program who are now juniors and and maybe seniors who were now saying is the program going to end because we thought we had done what we needed to do and we thought other people were going to be able to do what we were able to do with this program but now that it's ending and so a lot of them came back and wanted to be a part of this program And so when we look at the numbers, when we started to crunch them, I thought, wow, that's quite a few people, 96. Well, part of that was the fact that 61 of those former participants who came back, that number was 61. And then we had 35 actually new people so we end up with 96 um people that we work with for what turned out to be that final year of our program so you know um i just wanted to contextualize what it was that we were doing why we had to make the decision that we made and and also how we came to get um those numbers um because when I came back from Ghana, you know, I actually ended up driving a van for the first time since I don't know when, and I don't like driving that much anymore anyway, but we ended up having to take folks to on outings, to places like the aquarium, to places like Point Lobos, to places like museums, because people wanted to get the absolute most out of this year, out of that year that they possibly could. So the program ended June 30th, 2026. I think we had a great run, but I think that the leadership of the village project absolutely made, I think the right decision on where we go from here. So with, oh, where are we? Can we go back a little bit? yeah so this basically is going to show you the age and gender of the young folk that we work with as well as the ethnic origin ethnicity or race of the of the young folk we work with i think you don't have to go back to this but one of the goals of this program all the time and it's a goal that obviously needs continued and intense work And that is developing positive relationships and lasting relationship between black and brown youth and black and brown communities. I happened to grow up at a time, I think some of you know, where black and brown unity was something that we just kind of took for granted. but these young people don't have that tradition. And so they need to learn that tradition. And one of the things that we did in the very first year was create a group called One Circle. And so with One Circle, it was about, you know, and primarily we were focused on black and brown youth, but we had others in there as well who weren't black or brown. But for black and brown youth to be able to call each other brothers and sisters, you know, homies and family was a real achievement. And what we saw in this last group was that occurrence. And so we know that we have a tool that folks can use in that group. One circle is a multifaceted group. Yes, it deals with relationships. Yes, it deals with appreciation of each other as human beings. But it also is a funnel for folks to get additional help who have substance issues, who have other kinds of issues, anger management, certainly turns out to be a big focus within within that group and so we have youngsters who never thought that they would be sitting with somebody else and calling somebody else family who doesn't look like them to take that for granted and that's a big plus for us When we talk about accomplishments, thank you for having that on the screen. So then we talked about some nitty gritty stuff, youth completing probation successfully. So we mentored and guided young individuals through their probation terms. We had 15 uh students 15 young people who were on probation six actually completed probation before that year was out the other ones are still in the process but we also had three who violated probation Two of them got extended probation, and one of them is going to long-term incarceration because it involved weapons. So it wasn't perfect, but we did, I think, a pretty good job. Graduation is achieved. We supported and encouraged students in completing their education, whether high school, college, or vocational programs leading to increased opportunities for success. We had... We had seven of those youngsters graduate from high school that nobody thought was going to do that. Four of them were from Seaside High and three of them were from Monterey High School. So I think we have that up there, is that correct? And then employment. Okay, so one of the programs that we had that we saw building senses of community in these young people, something that they never felt before. And these are programs where they were assisting elderly. They were going by, they were doing shopping for them. They were bringing food to them. They were working on their yards, in some cases working on some aspect of the outside of their houses. And so we had a lot of older people who were really commending us for having had this happen. They never thought that young people cared about them. They never thought that young people cared about much of anything that was worthwhile, but they had that experience with our young people. But the most important thing for me was that the young people had that experience of looking out for elders in the community and how positive that was. um and then of course we talked about uh you know we listed up here the successful re-entry programs and we provided guidance and resources for eight individuals who were transitioning back into society these are young people who are coming from long-term incarceration i know that uh the top department of juvenile justice you know shut down all of the big facilities that they used to have but they still have what they call secure facilities uh as you may know and uh and some of these uh young folks were in those they came back so they're transitioning into the society and they were able because they're still you know basically teenagers uh that they were able to participate in this program and hopefully they are becoming adaptable to being back home and being back home in a positive way And so we had collaborations with community organizations, which is real critical. I certainly want to give a special shout out to Ted Black. and the Seaside Youth Resource Center because that was an ongoing source of support for what we were doing and just an organization that provided us with a lot of strength to be able to do what we were doing. So we're looking forward as since we've now ended, We want to continue our relationships with organizations such as Sun Street, and we'll be talking with your boss in a couple of days about that, what we can do from this point forward, because we know that There's going to be a youth, what do we call it, a youth sobriety center that's going to be built right up the street here that Sun Street's going to run. And we want to work with Sun Street around that as well as other issues as well. We've worked with CASA. We work with Monterey County Food Bank. We work with other support systems, including addiction recovery, legal advocacy, food assistance, and mentorship, which we do next. Excuse me. Is there a next? Okay. And then the Youth Violence Intervention, and I'll shut up in a second here. The goal for this grant period was to bring the black and brown communities together, as I mentioned. So we had a total of 96 youth and their families who worked within this grant period. Practitioner had 15 impact meetings. These are really important because now we're talking about youngsters in elementary and middle school as well as high school. We had the one circle group in which we talked about. But here's another piece because this talks about trust. This talks about how these youth trust the folks in our program. The great significance, as it says here, is the fact that two potentially really violent incidents were averted during this period due to the program coordinator receiving quote-unquote advanced intelligence. I know there's another word for that out in the street, but we received advanced intelligence. And this is testament to the trust that these youth have in basically in our program, in all of us. And so as a result, instead of having to call the chief, people were able to sit down and do reconciliation with each other. And before, I don't think that would have ever happened. But those two incidents could have been really, really serious for the community, and they didn't happen. And in fact, those youngsters then joined the One Circle group. And now the warm handoffs to community groups. And I'm worried the pastor go because I was going to talk about him. Okay. But places like Bethel, Baptist Church, and some of the other churches as well, but also other organizations and certainly the Youth Resource Center. our gardening program our support for independent study students our continued collaboration with mpusd and community schools programs those that those are going to be i think relatively easy warm handoffs to different organizations in the community including a school district and those are some pictures of folks at work and so that's all i have i'm sorry i rambled on too long but uh i just wanted to make sure that we uh covered as much as we could since this was the last year of this program thank you thank you so much for that presentation all right any questions uh council member uh alex garcero is here thank you just two quick questions for you on successful re-entry

I know that not only is difficult to assimilate after being away for a while, but it also takes a mental toll. Do you also help with that transition as well? Not only gaining reentry into finding a job, into reintegrating yourself to society, but also how to process the emotional aspect of reentry?

Yes, and of those eight young folks that I've said, right now we have five of them ready to go into therapy. And when we do therapy with young people, because they're still young, we do therapy with the whole family. so that's going to be the case the other ones uh you know we're working on getting them situated as well you know the village project has you know some of you know the prop 47 program but that's for adults and uh but we can use aspects i think of that program to be of assistance and provide some support for these young people as well and thank you for that and in the therapy is there

a cost or what's the process? I'm imagining that for many, that might be the first time that they're actually accessing service to therapy.

That's right. And unfortunately, again, with Proposition 1, we were put in the position where we used to do therapy for free. We always wanted to make sure that that happened so that cost never came up as an issue for anybody. But now, we got forced to build Medi-Cal. But I believe, if I'm correct, that all of those youngsters either have Medi-Cal or they qualify for Medi-Cal, so that's not going to be a problem.

maybe this is off tangent, but I was going to say, I'm assuming that also puts a load on you as an agency because Medi-Cal and the billing process can delay for a while. So to access those funds might also put, might hinder the organization in the long run, if I'm not mistaken.

Yeah, and what's happened with Medi-Cal now, and one of the reasons why I came out of retirement for a little bit, was to get the agency Medi-Cal ready. And so with the county no longer being able to provide funding for us, we had to find another agency, what they call the managed care agency. We found one, Central Coast Alliance for Health. And what we worked out with them finally, it took us a while, but now, you know, the return on all of our billing and stuff, you know, is probably within a couple of weeks. Okay. So as opposed to how it used to be. And so so we do get get our returns very, very quickly. And in many ways, this has been working out almost better than the county.

Awesome. And is there a contingency plan? Because I do know that there are going to be changes to Medi-Cal, which might hinder some folks and take them off of services. Is there a plan to sort of, how do you provide the services, let's say therapy, to someone who might be going through a difficult situation?

That's right. If we have to do something pro bono, we'll do it. You know, I mean, people deserve to be able to have it. I think we're working with the alliance right now on a couple of contingency plans. I think that's one of them. But we will never let people go without critical services just because of money, even though we can use it. um but our first and our first and foremost responsibility is to people's well-being and so if someone calls us they're not going to get turned away because they can't pay we'll we'll probably work with them to help them get re-established with medical if that's what's needed or to get on medical for the first time which we've done but one way or the other we're still going to be the agency that provides quality services without cost being a problem

That's great to hear. And thank you for the proactiveness on that. And because I know that that's going to trickle down in the next couple of years and potentially affect a couple of folks out there. Another thing that I was primarily interested in was the elementary and middle school one circle groups. And I'm just intrigued to see how the process has been for the elementary school kiddos and how they've been receptive to it.

Yes, OK. And the elementary school youth, probably because of their youthfulness. it's been a lot easier. They seem to get it much easier. And a lot of them already have friends that go across ethnic bounds. And so having them come in and do, when we do our version of a one circle with the youth, with the real youth, I mean, these youngsters who are in elementary school, whether it's the impact Whether it's the impact statements or the one circle, they are so receptive. And we had people that say, well, they're too young. They won't get it. Well, it's the older ones that have more trouble getting it than them. That's what our experience has been.

No, I think you're completely right. I think at that age, their brains are like a little sponge. So they absorb a lot of the information. And I think it builds character for the latter years. So thank you for all the work that you've been doing. I think this was an amazing presentation. And the services and resources that you are offering to our youth are, we're seeing it, you know, so thank you so much for your hard work.

Okay, good. Thank you.

Mayor Patent.

Thank you. I guess first of all, thank you for your countless years of service and I'm very confident you're not going away. You know, it's kind of like I think it's kind of like being a you and your wife gave birth regina gave birth to the village project and it just kind of like your kids you never stop being a parent yeah and the village project is your child or both of your child so you will be them with them forever that's kind of my philosophy and that's what i've seen of your efforts over the over the decades uh but i just want to clarify some questions and um Maybe I don't think I misunderstood, but so the youth is keeping it simple. The youth intervention program is gone. Yes. The one circle program. Is is gone for the adults.

yeah unfortunately i mean it's it's a choice that we had to make and then also uh staffing i mean those those are programs i would like to keep i would like to see the agency keep i'm not saying that they're going away for good but we may need to figure out some kind of way to do some reconfiguration because those that group um was uh was so was so successful that I really would hate to see it go away. One of the proposals that I'm making is that we bring the One Circle group in-house as one of the clinical program offerings. And we might be able to get away with that in terms of being able to possibly bill for it some kind of way. But even if we can't, because it's been so successful, I just don't want to see everything go because we had to shut down the program. And that's one thing I think that is is worth saving and certainly worth looking into how we can save it.

And then

you're the one possibly regina train teddy black who is now the uh figure for seaside in helping do the things that you did is that is that correct that is probably correct yeah we uh we actually and this is going back mr mayor to the blue ribbon task force days because a village project was one of the founding uh agencies of the blue ribbon task force and the blue ribbon task force that asked the Village Project to basically give birth to the Youth Resource Center. And so I was given the responsibility of hiring the first staff, of which Ted Black was one. and also doing program design for the resource center. And then that resource center, after one year, was then turned over to the city and became the city's baby.

And at that time, you worked collaboratively to provide those services, information, or education.

Yes.

Do I assume, this is what I believe, maybe not physically, but just a little bit of knowledge I have, and what I've been told. There are a lot of things that happened over at CESA High the last couple of years that were negative. We can do two things and sometimes you have to do both. you can have the police deal with it on a real negative way. Or you can have people like Ron and Teddy and whoever work, I don't want to say undercover, but work with the youth in advance of that stuff.

Yeah.

And proactively help resolve some of those things before they become a reality. Is that a fair statement?

Yes, a fair statement. And I think in those incidents that I mentioned here where we actually did that, I actually sat in on one of those, one of those gatherings. And that is the ideal way. It's not that, I mean, if something gets completely out of whack, then the chief is gonna get a call. I mean, because it's about safety. But the first order of business is getting people together. And I think we were successful, you know, and thanks to Ron and Elijah. And I think also Sam Cunningham was one of our volunteers frequently, were able to get people together and get them to sit down and start talking with each other, helping them talk to each other. um and then we averted i think the program averted what could have been an incredibly dangerous couple of situations you know so i think that's an example of how we can do this work so back in the days not five can four i don't remember how many years back they had programs with uh ron i know possibly teddy

at Seaside High School bringing in past gang members, et cetera, to make the students aware of where the ramifications are of negative behavior. So that leadership provided by the intervention program has been poof in the air for right now.

Unfortunately, yeah.

I'm not trying to blame nobody. I'm just saying, I just want people to know the impact of what we're doing.

That's right. And so we just haven't said, okay, the program is over with, you know, that's it. I think we're still looking at what we can do within the agency to carry on at least certain critical aspects of the program and make it part of what we do in the agency as opposed to, you know, the way that it's been running. But we want to save the best

aspects of what we've done over all these years and incorporate that into our programs inside of the ages my last question and i'm not trying to be negative i just want sorry about it here to be what's going to be lost in part of this because i think a lot of stuff can get done under the tip under the table to help resolve things rather than waiting to a situation that we don't want to have happen right by it's kind of like anything you know you can get things done by talking versus after the fact so the um and i lost my train of thought but the um people that uh have a history of well i know ron since he was 13 years old yeah and uh young men that were They had the experience of growing up and going through challenges as they grew up. Therefore, they had street smarts, if nothing else. And many other skills, definitely street smarts, and they could relate to the challenges of growing up in a community. I think I'm hearing is people like Ron and the other young men, those street smarts in the schools, will that seemingly be lost?

Hope not, but there's no way I can guarantee that. But we're still in the process of really assessing what we can incorporate successfully to make sure that at least the critical aspects of what we were doing with this program over these few years and stuff will remain with us. And it's also going to mean, I think, contacting the school principals. I wanted to talk to this gentleman here today, and I think we'll still do that, but just to see how we can work together and what it is that we can do together and stuff that would kind of fill whatever gap there is now that we've had to shut down the program.

And just my last point, I think you said you had served 96 youth, and some do this and some do that, which is great. i think the larger picture is those that don't have numbers you know those that they meet at the schools and the hundreds and hundreds there are those that come by a booth at i don't know city birthday or whatever or those yeah i've seen ron at sunday blues or at any other event yeah just talking to you directly or indirectly about their experiences or him that kids approaching him which often hopefully impacts I expect impacts their future opportunities. That's right. I think that's the 96. It's a nice number. But I think the there's a lot in which you have to be qualitative. And I get that. There's also numbers that you can't qualify. Because there's just too many to count and getting a signature or whatever you get to do that. So just in closing, just thank you for what you do. I think the numbers don't indicate the impact and the proactiveness that you've changed and improved the quality of life for a lot of our residents. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you.

Council Member Garcia-Azul.

Thank you. And I'm going to build on a little bit on the first question you had, Council Member Pacheco, which was the closure of two programs or a termination of two programs. Are you seeking or is your organization seeking additional funding elsewhere through the state or what's the advocacy?

Yeah, and we are. I mean, we haven't gotten it yet, so I didn't talk about it. But, you know, we haven't thrown in the towel. I mean, we had to close out the program. But we're still looking at every possibility of having at least even some aspects of the program that we see as critical still being able to be implemented by the agency. And so that's going to require funding, whether it's through CDCR or some other agency, because we are preventing, you know, we're preventing crime, quote unquote. We're preventing violence. And so there should be some funding out there for an organization that has the history that we have in doing that to be able to maybe even build another program that's kind of a mirror of what we've been doing. i'm not sure but we haven't given up and we just haven't just totally shut the door on the program and said that's it you know what a great experience and and that's all she wrote we're not doing that you know so we're looking at other ways that we can still uh have maybe the same outcomes and the same impact on the on those young people in these in these schools in the community

That's great to hear. And the reason I ask is I know the mayor and I sit on legislative ad hoc committees where we. Choose or we make recommendations as to what state bills or state legislation we might be able to support that could potentially bring dollars into the city of seaside. But I've seen other organizations that when submitting applications. uh gather letters of support from agencies or other organizations to basically back up what you're asking right now and i'm wondering if maybe this legislative ad hoc committee um would be open to providing letters of support when funding cycles open or when applications open and maybe that's a discussion that the legislative ad hoc committee can have but maybe that's going to be a next step that we could potentially take but thank you good thank you

Yes, anyone else? uh thank you uh mr mason for all what you do and continue to do and phil's project has been a a a very very bright light here in the city of city of seaside since the founding of it and i think me and tim was there at the at the first day right um definitely appreciate that and a lot of questions that were asked was was information that i was looking for and information that was fresh and new to me and so it was a fantastic uh presentation and we look forward to how we can continue to work together in the future yeah absolutely we look forward to that as well yeah i think i can say that and have some kind of authority to it yes you can you have a lot of authority but uh thank you mr mason for all what you do uh for our youth and the community to come together by

Thank you all.

Thank you. Okay. We'll move on to item number 7E. Received a presentation from the Action Council of Monterey County on the 2026-27 Community Social Service Grant Program. Mr. City Manager.

Looks like we have some representatives from the Action Council coming down.

Good evening, Mayor and members of City Council. It's an honor to be here today to share the work of Seaside Rising Youth Leadership Academy, but more importantly to share the young people behind this work. My name is Nina. I'm a youth organizer for Seaside Rising and these are some of our core leaders and I'll let them introduce themselves.

Hi, my name is Elise Pierce. I'm a community engagement coordinator at the Helena Rucker Center for Black Excellence, and I collaborate with Seaside Rising occasionally.

Hi, my name is Rosemary Ruiz, and I'm a core member of Seaside Rising. So I'm going to give my testimony right now. Seaside Rising, I'm here to show support and my presence. Seaside Rising has really, really helped me to be, I mean, in these spaces, like I would have never been in these spaces without Seaside Rising. And I feel like I guess our goal is like being together, you know, have community bonding. I think that's the main goal of everyone that's in this room. And I think Seaside Rising has really showed that and demonstrated that within the community and for me personally because the real question um like what what is life right after high school like where do i go um and i think um seaside rising is like a a place like a home a family second home to go to um to just grow as a person and show up for the community like for example um just this um i forgot what day we are right now but but i went to um the the i'm sorry the victory church the greater victory church and it's just like um like resources like just going to oh my god i've lost my three notes Sorry, but it's just a way to connect with people and do like park recreation, beach cleanups, go to sessions for like community justice and even yeah just being involved in our community it's a community within the community and that's pretty much it i'm just here to um showcase um that yeah thank you thank you so much for listening to me um and have a good day and thank you so much on to what you guys do every day for seaside yeah

um so we encourage our youth to be involved in communities and curricular activities so she has to go and a lot of them are busy with cheer sports working healthy family members so thank you for the opportunity to have us present We are not just teaching young people how to become leaders someday. We are creating opportunities for them to lead right now. Through leadership, development, civic engagement, healing, advocacy, creating mentorship and community service, we give young people the tools to look at the community and say, I have a role in making this better. And this is what Seaside Rising, and this is why Seaside Rising is so powerful.

Seaside Rising Youth Leadership Academy is an eight session youth leadership and civic engagement academy designed to equip young people in Seaside with the knowledge, confidence, relationships, and tools to become active participants in shaping the future of their community. Through workshops, discussions, creative activities, healing spaces, and hands-on opportunities for civic engagement, youth explore their identities, strengthen their leadership skills, and learn how to advocate for themselves and others. Seaside Rising Youth Leadership Academy moves beyond teaching youth about leadership by creating opportunities for young people to practice said leadership, use their voices, and take direct action in the care and improvement of their schools and community. The Academy creates a safe, inclusive, and affirming space where youth voices are valued and youth have the opportunity to identify issues that matter to them, build collective solutions, and contribute to meaningful community change. Rooted in racial equity, community connection, healing, advocacy, and youth power, Seaside Rising Youth Leadership Academy recognizes young people not only as future leaders, but as leaders and change makers today.

Here are some of the pictures of some of our sessions. And so let's get down to the nitty gritty of the academy. So I know people like numbers, so let's break it down. We have served 1,000 plus youth. When we look at the numbers, this reach is significant. We have reached more than 1,000 plus young people ages from 7 to 24 through outreach, mentorship, workshops, events, and community programming. And that number is important because we're not only thinking about one age group. We're thinking about the entire leadership pipeline. Key words, leadership pipeline. A young person who may be in elementary school today can eventually become a high school leader, a college student, a community organizer, and then come back and mentor the next generation. We have served and co-led 82 events and workshops. We led, co-led or participated in 82 events. And these are just activities to keep young people busy. These aren't just activities to keep young people busy. They're intentionally experienced about leadership, wellness, advocacy, civic engagement and community connection. We've had over 55 partnerships and collaborations. with schools, organizations, agencies, and community leaders. That matters because youth development cannot happen in isolation. It takes a village. And Seaside Rising Youth Leadership Academy is proud to be a part of that village. This is my favorite part. Over 100% of the high school seniors that were in Seaside Rising Youth Leadership Academy graduated. Thank you. But graduation isn't where our relationship ends. We continue supporting young people with college applications, employment, career pathways, references, recommendations, and mentorship. Because our goal isn't just to get young people across the graduation stage. Our goal is to help them figure out where they can go across that. And just to talk about that 100%, 50% of the seniors remained local, and then 50% moved away for college or military services. so this is where the keynote words the leadership pipeline ages 7 to 24 youth reach through outreach mentorship and community engagement ages 11 to 12 engaging emerging youth through intentional recruitment and relationship building at seaside middle and other close schools around the area High school, you develop leadership skills, civic engagement, advocacy, and community building skills and curriculum to lead the workshops and event. College and career. Youth apply Seaside Rising experiences towards college, employment, recommendations, and future opportunities. Then youth leaders and mentors. Youth leaders return to support, mentor, and uplift the next generation of Seaside leaders, creating a full circle. of leadership and care. So that means we start all the way from age seven and all the way to 24 and it's a full circle moment. Where are seniors, where are they heading? The relationship continues beyond graduation. Youth continues to use Seaside Rising as references and resources for college applications, recommendations, and personal experiences. It's more than an eight session academy. It is growing youth leadership. It's a growing youth leadership pipeline. From elementary school mentoring to middle school recruitment to high school leadership development and post-graduation mentorship, we are investing in young people in every stage of their leadership journey and creating opportunities for them to actively shape their future of the community. So when you look to the left and the right, we've broken down in numbers, again, because I know people like numbers. 11 of the seniors went to Monterey Peninsula College, or 40.7%. 11.1% went to CSUMB, 11.1% went to Hart and Elm, 11.1% went to Sacramento State, 3.7% went to Howard, 3.7% went to UNLV, 3.7% went to Spelman College, 3.7% went to the military, and 3.7% went into trade school. And these are some of the lovely seniors that graduated throughout our program. Okay. So some glow areas. Our work really falls into several major areas. Political education, community service, college and career readiness, civic engagement and policy change, mentorship, and intergenerational leadership. And what I love about all these areas is that it's all connected into one. We aren't just telling youth to be leaders. We're giving them knowledge, experiences, relationships, and opportunities to practice leadership. some of our highlights my favorite part so we had an event that catered to political education in history and it was a youth movie night and the movie was called the 13th

also known as the 13th Amendment.

Our example is our political education work. We hosted a youth movie night where youth and young people watched 13th, and they had conversations about history, incarceration, systems of power, and advocacy. But the most important part wasn't the movie. It was the conversations and debrief afterwards. We created a space where young people could ask questions, challenge their ideas, learn from each other, and understand how history connects in the world that we live in today. My other favorite one. Political education and intergenerational leadership, also known as conversations with Kamala Harris and book signing tour. We also had our opportunity to bring our core leaders to the conversations with Kamala Harris book tour. What made the experience special was that our youth and core leaders didn't attend alone. some of them intentionally chose mentors and elders in our community to bring them to say thank you for the people who invested in seaside rising youth leadership academy this is what intergenerational leadership looks like young people learning from their elders and eventually becoming the people their younger peers look up to civic engagement and policy change And then we took and then we take a deeper look into what learning action means. Our youth traveled to the California state capitol and advocated for and continued investing in community schools and education. So we had the chance to go to California Makes History annual one billion one for life changing community schools. And it was really, really fun. We were sitting in classrooms learning about the government. they were inside capital participating in democracy they were speaking up they were making change they were organizing they were learning how policy really works and how it's shaped around and they saw firsthand that their voices can actually influence systems youth leadership through community service We also teach our youth that leadership isn't always standing behind a microphone. Sometimes leadership looks like serving your neighbor or your neighbors around your community. This past weekend, our youth participated in many events. We had the opportunity before our touch event this weekend, we participated in Thanksgiving food drives, toy drives. We had the chance to wrap more than 500 gifts for Christmas at the toy drive. And then recently we worked for Friends of Seaside Parks to care for our local parks. We were down and dirty, you guys. We pulled weeds. We watered plants. We picked up litter. We spreaded wood chips. Those many things seem very small, but we want the young people to understand something very important. If you love your community, you have to participate in carrying it. That's what real leadership looks like. College readiness and post-secondary support. We also recognize that young people need more than encouragement. They need access. They need information. They need people who will help them navigate systems that can sometimes feel overwhelming. So when we support young youth, we support them with college applications, scholarships, references, college and career panels, and opportunities to connect with MPC, Heart and Now, and CSUMB. We also were a part of this chaperone and took students to the HBCU caravan here and helped them build the confidence to ask questions and advocate for themselves. But college readiness isn't just filling out applications, it's helping a young person believe I belong in the room. Career pathways, technology, and STEM. We also want our young people to prepare for the future. That means exposing them to STEM, technology, AI, and emerging careers. Our team attended Plugging into Power so we could bring those resources back to our community. we hosted conversations around computer science and ai and through our attendance at the drone camp and future flight programming young people were introduced to career in aviation agriculture public safety engineering environmental science media and technology we want youth and seaside to know that these are opportunities that belong to them as well the future is being built right now and our young people deserve a seat at the table when it's done being built Environmental and science and mentorship, also my favorite. OK, so we had a session on environmental and science, and it was called Growing Green. If you didn't know, I'm a TK teacher, and I love to get youth very involved. So we took a session, and it was called Growing Green. And it was a unique way on teaching the younger generation. Our older youth became mentors to K-5 students and taught them about soil, ecosystem, recycling, and sustainability. They were becoming teachers. So the high school and college students weren't just learning, they were teaching. And the younger children weren't just receiving information. They were seeing young people who look like them stepping into leadership roles. That's how you build a pipeline and you give your people an opportunity to lead and then you let the next generation see what's possible. So to touch on this, we taught them about the ecosystem, soil and recycling and sustainability. So I don't know, in school we had a thing called dirt in the cup and usually you use real dirt, but I know we would have children. So we did pudding as the dirt. and Oreos as the soil and gummy worms as the worms and just teaching them how ecosystems work. They enjoyed it because what kids don't like food and snacks. So I thought that was really a good time to just teach our youth about science and how science could be fun. And here are some posts that we were illustrated in through our work at the MLK March and Ms. Paris Charles as she stepped into her leadership role. okay so when you look at this calendar you'll see that seaside rising youth leadership academy wasn't just active during the eight sessions it was a year we're working 24 7 or 25 8 as i would say this was year-round work so we had the opportunity to teach about political education financial literacy mental health and healing community service college support black history month programmings youth summits civic engagement stem career exploration and so much more and i think the biggest thing this calendar has show is consistency no days off our young people No, we're going to show up regardless. May it be games, may it be open houses, may it be meetings, we're always there. And because we continue showing up for them, they continue showing up for the community. So one of our favorite and biggest events is our Seaside Rising Youth Leadership Summit. And this is just a recap of last year. The fourth annual Seaside Rising Youth Summit Academy served as a platform to showcase the incredible work accomplished by youth leaders throughout the year. The summit highlights their goals, advocacy, and leadership while providing youth with the opportunity to advocate for themselves, share their stories, and demonstrate the impact they are making in Seaside. So some highlights, youth leadership and voice core leaders shared Seaside Rising youth history, impact and their personal experiences through the youth led testimonies. And may I emphasize that for this summit, it is youth led. So it's made by the youth for the youth. civic engagement, youth connected with elected officials. Thank you to Councilman Arisola and Councilwoman Birx for agreeing to be a part of the panel. We thank you so much for supporting us. Community resources, local organizations connected to youth resources, programmings and opportunities, teamwork and connection, inter active activities, strength and communication, collaboration and relationship building, inspiration and celebration. Guest speaker Zakiya Lam inspired youth following by community appreciation, raffles, music, and recognizing our youth leadership. We had a total attendance of 201 youth participate at our youth summit, along with some parents and community members to support the work of the youth. And here are more pictures of our summit. And then Juneteenth Kids Zone Leadership. Seaside Rising Youth Leadership Academy takes a leadership role in planning and collaborating the kids zone at the annual Juneteenth Jubilee. Youth leaders are coordinators. We coordinate vendors, attractions, resource tables, games, family activities, promotion and community outreach and day of coordinating and engagement. So again, we're getting down and dirty with the tables, we're lifting them up, we're up early and we're getting to the community. Throughout the day, the Kids' Zone encourages countless children and families, creating a space of joy, connection, culture, and community. Our youth are also our characters of the year, which was Sonic and Friends. This year, one of our very own core leaders, Paris Charles, was crowned as Miss Juneteenth. for consistency and active participation throughout her K-12 journey, where she attended D-LAMP Seaside Middle School and finishing off her senior year. Graduating with a GPA of 4.67 as a residency in Seaside, Paris was with us since then. anticipation of seaside rising, leading countless initiatives, mentoring young kids and truly showcasing what leadership looks like. This youth leadership in action seaside rising youth move beyond participation to become planners, organizers, communicators and community ambassadors. We love to help shape one of Monterey County largest celebrations of black freedom, culture and community. And then this is some of the pictures of Juneteenth at KidZone. See Sonic and friends. And then some of our goals. As you see, we see recruit, register voters, pathways of support, and annual youth summit. But let's dive a little deeper. As we look ahead, I want to emphasize that these aren't just things that we just plan to start doing. We're already doing the work. We're consistently recruiting and building relationships with young people, schools, teachers, and community partners. We're already creating college and career opportunities, exposing youth to STEM, AI, and technology, and providing spaces for political education and civic engagement. Now our goal is to expand the work and reach even more young people and create more pathways for them to see themselves in opportunities that they would never seen themselves before. We also want to continue growing our youth summit, strengthening youth voter registration and political education. We want young people to understand that their voice matters right now, not just when they turn 18 or become adults. We're already building a strong foundation and now we're ready to build on it. Our goal is to keep reaching more youth, creating more opportunities and developing a generation of young people who don't just imagine a better seaside, but feel empowered to create a better seaside. Collaborations, my favorite. I'm not going to read all of them, I promise. And none of these collaborations would happen alone. When you look at the list of partners, you see the village behind our young people. You see schools, churches, community organizers, colleges, different school districts, the city of Seaside, community leaders, elected officials, and so many people who have opened doors for our youth. We are incredibly grateful for every person and organization that has said yes to the young people, and we thank you so much for the opportunity today. What's next? So we have two events that are coming up. First, as we heard earlier, our sickle cell awareness event. September 18th will be our sickle cell blood drive at CSUMB. And then our sickle cell awareness walk would be at Laguna Grande Park. And we're starting at Broadway. Cool. And then please come out and support. I gave blood last year and it was my first time ever giving blood to sickle cell and it was kind of scary, but it was for a good cause and it was so amazing. And then the next event is Girls in Aviation Day at the Marina Airport, Saturday, September 19th from 10 to 1. And we plan on taking some of the youth to that. And this will be our first time. So we're very excited to attend that. And then this is our last slide. And I want to end it with this quote, youth are not the leaders of tomorrow. They're the leaders of today.

I don't know if you could click that, but it's a video. No.

okay you can't but it's just a video from our summit of all the youth that attended saying thank you um but i want to close with this um youth are not the leaders of tomorrow they're the leaders of today and i think everything you've seen today proves that Our young people are organizing, they're serving, they're mentoring, they're advocating, they're speaking at public events, they're learning about policy, they're caring for our parks, they're helping plan Juneteenth, they're preparing for college, high school, exploring careers, and they're showing up for one another in our community. So when we talk about investing in Seaside Rising Youth Leadership Academy, we're not simply talking about funding a youth program. We're talking about investing in the future of Seaside and the future is already standing in front of our very eyes. Every young person we reach is a potential mentor. Every young person we empower is a potential organizer. Every young person we learn to use their voice in another person we can advocate for their family and their communities. So we ask the city and people in Seaside and the community to keep believing in our young people, continue creating spaces for them, and continue investing in the leadership that is already happening right in our community. Because our youth don't need us to tell them that they're the future. They need us to recognize that they're already leading in their own ways and give them resources to keep going. I just want to say thank you so much for giving us the opportunity to tell you who we are. Thank you for listening. And we are very honored and blessed to have you guys keep supporting us. And we thank you for that.

um yeah i just it's a big priority for um a lot of the student body um to bridge the gap between the csu and b campus and the seaside community and show that there is value and investment in building back the black community um the historic black community of seaside and um just because you graduate doesn't mean that your a piece of your heart can't stay here and that the people the city of seaside itself is valuable to the university and it literally would not exist without seaside. So we really want to bridge that gap between the youth of seaside and create that leadership pipeline that all of us want to see. and yes i was a service learner so um seaside rising definitely helped connect me with my uh first service learning opportunity chardonnay macias um and that was an amazing opportunity to just immerse myself in the community um you learned so much about the city of seaside just by being in seaside high school and i'm from out of state i moved to the peninsula from two years ago from new york city and getting involved with the youth early definitely like uh captured a piece of my heart for this place specifically so i just want to thank seaside rising for giving me that opportunity and csumb for like exposing me to this beautiful organization well thank you so much any questions uh council member garcia zola and then mayor portin thank you so much for that presentation

So you're a service learning partner now?

Yes.

Since when?

Last year.

That's awesome. That's really good because I know that the process to even become a service learner partner is quite extensive. So I like to hear that. How many inquiries have you had from students?

Oh, we have a lot. So last year, we had three service learners. And then this year, well, now and then we had a Bayview pilot program. But I just got an email yesterday that we got another service learner inquiry and school just started a week ago. So yeah, we're hitting the ground running.

That's great. I like how you provided a lot of data. You're really right. I do like numbers. And a lot of the questions that I did have, I had to cross out because you had answered them in your PowerPoint. But it's not really questions that I'm going to ask right now. It's just comments. Seeing this group really transform over the past five years has just been amazing. impressive to me i remember back five years ago when the mayor and i were discussing about seaside rising and we attended the first seaside rising annual summit it was completely different than what it was what it is today but the passion is still there and the commitment to helping the youth is still there um and i remember speaking to the first class of seaside rising students and then to come back alongside my colleague rita bergs it was just amazing to see some of those folks some of those young folks that were in the first class you know move out to college or achieve those dreams so i definitely want to thank you for the work you're doing i do have a question i guess regarding a youth program with santa rita i saw that uh if you can explain a little bit about that one

So Seaside Rising has been helpful with building the curriculum. And so we've been able to expand some of our reach and we are in Santa Rita district as well. And so me specifically, I go out there during lunchtime and I work with a lot of the youth at two different middle schools. So Gavilan, Gavilan View and John Gutierrez.

That's awesome. And this is the first that I'm seeing civic engagement, I think, at the capital level, Sacramento. And I wanted to just dig a little bit more on that because I do see that, you know, you did mention you participated and California was able to secure $1 billion in funding for community schools. What was the key role that the students played in that?

So this is our second year doing it actually. We did go last year as well. This year we were a part of other youth programs and parents and the advocacy that they made in front of the different politicians was being able to speak on behalf of serving Seaside and encouraging them to continue to invest in our city when it comes to community schools. And because of that advocacy, they actually won that money. So Seaside is going to be continuously getting that community schools funding.

It's great considering all the budget cuts that other programs are getting. It's important to really protect our community schools and our youth. And then I guess a follow up to that would be so you did meet with legislators at the state level?

Yes, we did. And it was, it was very different. I've never done that before. So it was just crazy. It was a lot of youth, we were going to the doors and knocking, and like seeing our pitch to them about who we are, what we do. And I went with our court leaders for a youth aspect and also as a teacher aspect and what we do and why we think it's important to fund community schools so i had really fun i learned a lot and i wasn't taking no for an answer that's good

And I know the focus here was community schools, I'm assuming this year, right? Is there plans to expand that advocacy to, let's say, mental health, support, health care, higher education, or is the focus mostly public school system?

I don't want to say that.

Yeah. Thank you.

That's a really good question. Our youth are expanding. Of course, we started in education because they're students and that's what they know. But as they continue to go through their leadership academy and have different points that they're focusing on, they are advocating for mental health. They are advocating for housing, specifically like wanting to be able to go to college and come back and live in their own community without having to necessarily live with their parents. They're advocating for economic justice so that they are able to enter the economic engine and have sustainable wage, or even high road wage jobs and even considering like their entrepreneurship etc i feel like because i don't have a list in front of me that i'm leaving something out and because they're now like expanding and outreaching and advocating at the level of the capital, they are also making connections. And so they're not just our seaside kids but there are seaside representation and now they're also connecting and so they have statewide partners that they connect with and so whenever there is an assembly bill or a senate bill that is in interest to them and that directly impacts some of what we experience here on the peninsula in particularly in seaside then they are able to utilize their voices and you know either send letters to those assembly and senators assembly members and senators or you know go I think is it twice. I know for sure they go twice a year now to Capital to utilize their voice.

So that's amazing. And I really like the incorporation or the partnership or strengthening the partnership amongst higher education and our high school students. I'm really seeing a solid, I guess, mission or partnership form amongst MPC, CSUMV and Seaside Rising. And I've been seeing a lot of more activity. and also outreach to those CSUMB students, which I know sometimes even moving over here to, you know, Seaside or the Monterey Peninsula and you're from somewhere else. It can be kind of scary or daunting not knowing anyone or starting off fresh alone sometimes. And I do know that groups like Seaside Rising provide a safe space and an opportunity for development for those college students, which is crucial and important. I do see I like the list of the number of students that have post-graduation pathways. I think that's remarkable and something that's commendable because a lot of you have helped them out with either resumes or application processes. And I know even sometimes with hosting the scholarship uh event which i think all of us went there it was full some of them got full rides to these scars to these schools institutions so thank you for what you're doing and um just great work great work

And just one more thing, because to speak on that, you motivated me to say something. So I remember last year when we did present, we had showcased that we did the STEM camp on CSUMB's campus for the Helen Rucker Center. And it was the Seaside Rising students from high school, the incoming juniors and seniors at the time. And happily to say that some of those students are now CSUMB students. So it worked. So yeah.

And feel free to let them know that we have an internship program with CSUMB as well.

Okay.

Thank you. Thank you for what you're doing. Just a couple little questions. Do you have, I'm sure it's a goal, students that have moved up to student body, president, vice president, treasurer, secretary, whatever, in the leadership roles of the school district, or at least striving to do that as part of your group?

So not those exact seats. We have been trying to push them and encouraging them to that direction, but they are taking on other leadership roles. And so we do have some that are BSU presidents and presidents of some of the other clubs and stuff on campus. We're just not there yet. There's other competing parties, but they're collaborators. And so we still have some of those resources and connections.

I think it's really important to take those leadership roles, either student body or class president or club president or whatever it be. I've been told that there's an election coming up. Are they going to be involved with any of the forums or what do you call it, register your vote and kind of your goals, I guess, moving forward?

yes so our one of our biggest goals we have mentioned here was to register youth not only just registering them but just getting that information in front of them at 16 and 17 so that we could pre-register them so that when they do turn 18 they're already in the system but encouraging as many 18 year olds first-time voters as possible so that they're making this informed decisions but they're also learning about the importance of what's going on in their communities and that they could use their voices to you know speak up about what matters to them

but to answer your question absolutely perfect and then just a point um in a quiet way you inspire this older generation uh i saw some of you at the capitol park the other day and uh you made me stay for about two minutes later than i was planning to um uh no but and then uh It helps them, those that are trying to provide that and get youth involved, seeing youth to be involved, and they know that what they're doing is important by your activity and your activation. So in a quiet way, I think, and you help lead them or guide them or motivate them that they're trying to do the right thing for this city as well. So I think that's the difference maker as well.

Sorry, I keep talking. So last year we last year we encouraged our youth to do a beach cleanup and it was successful, but we wanted them to be involved in things that are already happening and make more connections and learn about the different programs and resources that are already out here. And so that's why they showed up last weekend to participate with FOSFA. And it won't be the last time.

Yes. Hey, y'all. So I'm an organizer that

is on a whole different team. My name is Renee and I didn't even plan on speaking. I think I'm surprising Deja right now, but I just wanted to highlight something that the slideshow presentation was very thorough as we saw. And there was a lot of slides that were kind of just clicked through that we couldn't really appreciate. And I wanted to just highlight the annual or sort of the monthly breakdown of all the events that our youth are involved in. and that's no small thing some of those months had slides where there was like a dozen different things and i'm only up here to kind of just have us slow down for a second and and realize that for anybody that's a lot of work but these are full-time students some of these are student athletes um some of these you know students have things going on at home that we never know about and so to just recognize first that that list right every month they're actively not just showing up and participating but there's organizing happening for weeks before those things and we as adults are experienced organizers and you sitting up there are experienced council members and um but it's something else to actually have to do all the preparation that goes into this stuff too and so i say that um sort of in response a little bit to your question about you know if they're involved in student body positions and all that that's a huge commitment but it's also worth acknowledging that being an organizer is equally a huge commitment and can still lead to these students sitting next to you one day in just a few years. And so I just wanted to highlight those slides because if we were to really slow down and take a look, that's a lot of work that these students are doing outside of their day-to-day work. And so, yeah, that was all.

we're gonna we're gonna i gotta say one last add to his question because it wasn't answered okay just a moment council member brooks would like to ask questions okay you can respond to the questions yes okay when he was he when she asked her question it's gonna be oh damn please ma'am

I don't have questions because it was super thorough, but I wanted to thank you because I think that it's very clear that the program is doing so well because it's truly wraparound services. There's a lot of times where we think, okay, 18, you're good. And that's just the beginning, right? And so I've seen Nina develop from being a student to finally finding her right niche and her position at Bayview. And so appreciate, like, all the work and i agree with you as far as it doesn't have to be a position at a high school it could be all the community service that you're doing and sometimes that's even more and definitely impactful i've seen it as a parent i've seen it as a council member and just as a community member so thank you all for the support and the continued work you're doing Sorry, I want to call me now.

Thank you. Council women, Rita works. I literally adore you. So that makes me so happy. I know all of you. Sorry. I just want to touch on what she said. I came to see that I was 16 years old, so I didn't know anyone. I didn't know, didn't know. I have a community. My dad was in the military. We moved here and now I'm 26. So I've been here for a pretty long time and I feel like it's. Organizations and activities and sessions in Seaside Rising is what made me plan today. I was able to go to Seaside High and NBC and CSUNB and get my masters and now I'm getting my PhD. So if it wasn't for opportunities like this, I kid you not, I don't think I would even be here to stand up and speak today. So thank you for saying that. It means a lot. And thank you guys for the opportunity.

I was waiting. To your question, they're just probably overwhelmed because this has been so good. But we do have one of the last student body president, at Seaside High has been working with us for a couple of years and then we also have cultivated student trustees for our USD Trustee Board and so just to be clear that our Seaside Rising students are not only students at our seaside schools because of our boundary line so we have students at monterey high and marina as well as um the the middle schools too and so to answer your question yes we are cultivating those leaders as well and i totally respect that my point was i think

you have to get involved in leadership role be it at a club be it at a school board of directors and all that and your seemingly goal is to create leadership all the way up to being mayor uh or supervisor or whatever it be uh and that's that's a rising moment and and i would just was hopeful that as you have said that they are doing that and moving up the ladder to achieve greater things and that was kind of my inquiry that you were striving to do that and you're all doing that absolutely thank you yeah i

I just got a few closing comments. Wonderful presentation. Well done. And a lot of work is going on over there at Seaside Rising. And I thought the Mayor Pro Tem had a good question. And I don't think he was taken away from any of the work that's being done by the students. But yeah, to go through the student body leadership uh role position does take away from all the other stuff so it's kind of hard to do everything you can't ask the young person to do everything right But when he was talking about the leadership, it's not just student body. It's not just aim low and be a mayor. It's aim high and be the president of a university, the president of a hospital, president of the United States, all that different stuff. And I think that's what he was getting to. And I think you are pointing a lot of students in that direction. and that's what we want to acknowledge so a great presentation uh look forward to our interactions in the future um i do i don't want to go back to one of your slides but i don't know which one it was because i don't have no numbers on there but we'll talk about that later it was the one it was the one with the um with the students that were they were graduating they had on their caps and gown oh yeah and so what yeah there's a ways back but just keep going you you'll see it uh but while while we're working to that and I think it was Councilmember Garciarzola talked about how we like the aspect of you know Seaside High or the high schools working with MPC working with CSUMB and that little You know, that that synergy to come for them 3 working together. Right? And I think a great resource as as you guys continue in the future, no matter. What what may happen here there a good resource is our city manager because he wanted his specialties is capping gals and how to get kids into. those gowns, right? That's one of his specialties. But in particular with the community working to that. What I wanted to show the community as we proceed to go out here is if you see those different colors in the cap and gowns, what it says is you guys are not just focused on one school. That's what I want people to see is on that day, all those kids had something in common. They were surrounded by Seaside Rising and the mentorship, but they were going to different schools all along the way, and they were spreading whatever good things they had to spread in those different venues. And I just thought that was beautiful because I think I was there on that day, but the point was, it was a long day. The point was for our community to see those kids are in different spaces, spreading different leadership skills. That's why I wanted them to see. Thank you so much. Thank you. I think we're to our break now. And so we want staff to be able to take a break. So we will stand in recess for the sound of the gavel.

hi hi my name is

Thank you. We'll move on to, coming out of recess, we'll move on to item number eight, is the consent agenda. A, approved minutes from August 20th, 2026. A, B, approve and file city checks. A, C, approve and file success agency checks. D, approve a proclamation designating September 21st to September 25th as Stormwater Awareness Week in the City of Seaside. E, approve a proclamation recognizing September 17th, 2026 as Constitution and Citizenship Day in the City of Seaside. F approve a proclamation recognizing September 15 through the October 15, 2026 as National Hispanic Heritage Month in the City of Seaside. G approve It's called co-sponsorship and fee waiver from Action Council Building Health Communities for the costs associated with the use of the Laguna Grande Hall and Kitchen for the annual Seaside Youth Leadership Summit on Saturday, December 19th, 2026 in the amount of $393.75. h adopt a resolution improving a memorandum understanding with the seaside public safety management association i adopt a resolution authorizing an application for up to $500,000 in Cal Recycle grant funding for cleanup and illegal dumping prevention at 100 Giggling Row, Jay adopted resolution authorizing City Hall, Odemire Community Center, and Petullo Swim Center and their associated grounds as recreational areas. Is there feedback in here? Okay, I'm the only one, okay. all right that concludes the reading of the consent agenda it is something right no i'm just i'm just saying it is something okay that's all um that concludes the reading the consent agenda is there any items that anyone from the diocese would like to pull off the consent agenda mayor i okay j i'll move i and j anyone else anyone from the public would like to remove an item from the consent agenda okay uh what is there anybody on zoom with your hand raise eleni you may now unmute yes

Hi, I live in Seaside over at Pacific Heights and I saw two Traffic Advisory, this is mainly for Alice, but I saw two Traffic Advisory people today and me and my neighbor that live here, we told them how busy Kimball is

And we told them that it's really, it's not, it's not public comment yet. So hold on, hold on a second. I'm looking for people that want to pull something off the agenda.

Okay. Sorry.

No, no, just hold, just hold on. Just hold on. Don't hang up.

Okay.

Okay, so there's no one else. So that item I and J is removed from consent agenda. Bring it back to the diocese. What is the will of the council? To approve the consent agenda. Second. And property moved and second. Now we'll take public comment on the consent agenda. Go ahead.

Me?

Yes, please. Okay.

This is really for Alex. My neighbor and I, who live at Pacific Heights, kind of accomplished in Seaside up on Highlander. We told the traffic advisory committee people how dangerous Kimball is and someone's going to get killed there. It's very dangerous. So we told them to tell city council to put crosswalk flashers or stop signs or a speeding sign because people drive like they're nuts on Kimball. And like I said, someone's going to get killed there and it won't be me. So FYI. Okay, I owe my time.

Thank you for your comment. Members of the public in the chamber, please approach the podium. Members of the public on Zoom, please use the raise your hand feature or dial star nine if you're calling from a phone. Natalie, you may now unmute.

Hello? Can you all hear me? Yes, we can. Okay. Um, my question was just, is there going to be any more time for public comment for items that aren't on the agenda?

You can make them now. Go ahead.

okay so um all right well good evening members of the board um so i believe last week i sent out an email um to the city clerk basically regarding like an idea for a youth council uh now i know that earlier um i think the principal of seaside high school kind of beat me to it um but i just still wanted to give like you know like my ideas on if we do have like a youth city council like what we could include so one thing that i was thinking of so we can have like mock positions so for example since uh like our board already has like a mayor and like all these different positions we can have like quote unquote like a youth mayor um and i would say that like the age requirement to join no age requirement but like at least like freshman year up until like second year at like a local college um and then i would also say that on top of like having this youth council that we could have like a youth council like committee So since there's the Traffic Advisory Committee and the Environmental Committee, we can have our own youth committee, essentially making plans for youth of Seaside that not only benefit the youth of Seaside, but also the parents and the overall residents of Seaside. Another thing that I would like to add is that we should have our own youth board meetings. The board meeting right now, but it'd be youth council board members and youth from Seaside would be able to come and give their public comment or give presentations regarding youth

i guess like youth resources that have been happening around the community um and that's all i would like to say so yeah thank you thank you for your comments members of the public in the chamber please approach the podium members of the public on zoom please use the raise your hand feature or dial star 9 if you're calling from a phone may or not others have come forward

I thank you so much. You know what else? You know what else? Public comments close. Bringing it back to the guys. The city manager, any issues, questions or concerns you can answer at this time?

Yeah, I think public works staff will continue to to analyze. you know, Kimball, uh, any, any safety issues that may or may not be present on Kim on Kimball as well as, uh, staff will will search the email that the caller spoke about regarding Youth Council ideas and and, uh, thank you.

Yeah, I speak to the Youth Council. Me and the city clerk has been researching it for the past several months and, uh, that's still up for review and for, um, debate as it as it is as it were. It's not as though we're not, uh, cognizant of the need for that or the possibility of that so um that's why i mentioned it before with the seaside high school what is what are they trying to do and how does it fit in what the city's trying to do uh all those in favor use the reconciling voting which is i i and nays have the same right hearing those eyes have emotion carries unanimously we'll go to item number I adopt the resolution to authorize an application for up to half a million dollars in Cal Recycle Grant funding for cleanup and illegal dumping prevention at 100 Giggling Road.

Thank you. I just wanted to see if you could explain a little bit more about what the grant entails for the public and how many applicants are allowed to apply, what is deadline, and where would the money be going to?

I will ask our public works director, Thomas Corman, to come down and answer a few of those questions that I may not be able to answer, but this CalCycles grant is for half a million dollars in funding to install fencing at the Hammerhead facilities at 100 Giggling Road. These are the buildings that are scheduled for takedown as a part of the Campus Town project. This prevents illegal dumping and activity at the site until the facilities come down. Thomas?

Yeah, that is correct. So good evening, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem and members of the council. That is correct. It's funds from CalCycle. So it is a statewide grant. Anyone is available that has property can apply for that. it is one time um as our city manager explained this we don't have an idea of how much we'd be applying for it's up to five hundred thousand dollars so the items that we're looking to include in building an estimate that would be submitted on the 16th of september so uh fencing uh removal of safe existing safety hazards out on site the cleanup of a existing debris that's been uh left there from illegal dumping um our crews that do go out there frequently but you know items do keep showing up um so we want to secure the site why i don't have an exact uh cost for the fencing is we're looking at options we want to make this something that's that's secure and that's durable and that's lasting So it's also gonna eliminate any basically trip hazards. It won't remove asbestos or anything from the buildings or no soil contamination, but it will eliminate trip hazards, fall protection, and then a lot of the low lying shrubbery where items can be stored, stashed, you know um our unhoused community sometimes gets back there as well so that's what we're looking to do it's a general cleanup um so that we can secure the site uh till we can further uh secure additional funds for the demolition of the buildings and removal of the hardscape in there so perfect thank you okay we'll open up for public comment

Members of the public in the chamber. Please approach the podium members of the public on zoom. Please use the raise your hand feature or dial star nine if you're calling from a phone. Mayor no member of the public has come forward.

I thank you so much. You know, once you know what public comments close, bringing it back to the dice. What is the will of the council?

Make a motion to approve.

It's been proud to move to second on the question. All those in favor use the Rick sign voting, which is aye.

Aye.

Nays have the same right. Abstentions? Hearing none, ayes have it. Motion carried. Item number J, adopt a resolution designating City Hall, the Odumire Center, and Petula Swim Center and their associated grounds as recreational areas.

Yeah, my question again was just, If you can give a brief overview as to.

Sure. In 2023, the state legislature adopted AB 1572, which requires those public water systems to prohibit the use of potable drinking water on non-functional turf as identified by the state legislature at certain properties statewide. requires local governments to stop using potable water on turf unless it is functional turf. And functional turf is defined as turf used for recreational purposes or as community space. And so this resolution formally declares City Hall, Oldemeyer Community Center, and Petullo Swimming Center and their associated grounds as recreational areas because they are used for community use. Okay, thank you.

The mayor just one little question or so does that include the Ross Park over here by the library as part of studio.

It's it's already a park okay just towards the fine.

Let's take it out to public comment is open.

So the public in the chamber please approach the podium members of the public on zoom please use the raise your hand feature or dial star nine if you're calling from a phone. Mary, no member of the public has come forward.

Thank you so much. Seeing no one, hearing no one. Public comment is closed. Bringing it back to the dais. What is the will of the council? Move approval. About to move to the second. All those in favor use the rec sign of voting, which is aye. Aye. Nays have the same right. Hearing no's, ayes have the motion carried. Let's go to business item number 9A, receive economic development progress update and provide direction to staff as appropriate. Mr. City Manager.

Yes, thank you, Mayor. I would like to introduce Laura Collada, our Administrative Analyst 2 in the Economic Development Department for the Economic Development Update.

good evening mayor city council members city attorney and city manager and members of the public my name is laura colada i'm an administrative analyst too with the economic development department and i will be providing an economic development tonight The Economic Development Department works to attract new businesses, support existing businesses, advance development opportunities, and strengthen relationships with our businesses and property owners. This slide gives us a quick snapshot of Seaside's market. What I really want to emphasize on is the $238 million in unmet retail service demand for Seaside. What this means is that our Seaside residents are going to other neighboring cities and spending their money there. So that gives Seaside an opportunity to potentially capture some of these categories later in the future as we discuss future opportunities with potential retailers. Some of these categories include clothing and accessories, health and personal care, grocery, full service restaurants, and the electronic and mail-in order is significantly high at 134 million which is about half of that number and so that means that our seaside residents are choosing to purchase items online so that that also brings us to a conversation of how we can assist our current brick and mortar businesses here in seaside to have some sort of online presence and in order to fill um or meet that demand in that way two other categories include motor vehicle parts and building and material garden and supplies for those we do provide an too much supply of that but i wouldn't focus on us providing too much because we are serving other neighboring cities um in in these areas I also want to share the sales tax performance for quarter one. This report was provided by our consultant. Quarter one includes January through March of this year. And so overall, our sales and use tax declined by two and a half percent. And the biggest thing to note is that 11% of that decline was in new motor vehicle sales. As you recall, the Hyundai dealership closed back in December, and this is the first report in which we see that impact directly. Other areas where we did see a rise in shopping was auto repair, auto supply stores, and grocery stores as well. Online purchasing, again, increased by 10%. When analyzing tourism and local marketing efforts, I think it's very important to track our out of market visitors. Over the last 12 months, Seaside saw 2.4 million out of market visitors, and that was an increase of 21.7% compared to last year. When we look at our visitors, we also like to see where they like to go, where they like to stay. And looking at this slide, we see that their favorite places, their top favorite places include In-N-Out, the Costco gas station, City Center, you know, where grocery outlets are, and University Plaza, home to various businesses like the Butter House, Hexbox, Lens Arcade. And speaking of where our visitors like to stay, we took a top 10 list of the hotels here in Seaside. And Embassy Suites ranks as number one with 308,000 yearly visitors compared to last year. That is an increase of 4.4%. We also saw significant increases at the Gateway Lodge Motel, Bay Breeze Inn, and Pacific Best Inn as well. We did see a few decreases, but they were not as significant as increases. Earlier in the year, you received a commercial property vacancy report. Since that time, two of the properties that were listed for lease have been leased. And then there have been some inquiries or four properties have received some sort of interest to some of those vacant parcels. While we continue to focus on reducing commercial vacancies, we're also seeing some positive movement in the market with new businesses opening and others reopening and reinvesting in Seaside. From the last reporting period, we've seen Hot Works, Mi Tierra, American Medical Supply, Ace Hardware, Textured Hair Care Academy, and most recently, Viviano Bros Restaurant. looking ahead we continue to see positive activity in our business pipeline with five businesses coming soon one of them is deli boys they will be on broadway they're hoping to open this month the lexus dealership is also very close to being done with their remodel um And so I've already seen some furniture go in there. So we're very close. So that's good to see. We also have an expanding martial arts studio that's coming in there in the permitting phase. We will also see American medical response. they will be occupying the former enterprise rent-a-car center on echo and we also have quick save in permitting through this period we did see three closures paris bakery monterey tile and marble and 7-eleven the good thing about the 7-eleven location is that will be occupied by quick save which is a convenience store in speaking to the real estate agent for paris bakery and the property owner for monterey tile and marble i'm trying to keep the lines of communications open with them in order to secure a tenant with them and i know for a fact for the monterey tile and marble location um there are um there's plenty of interest um i know of a couple businesses that have already gone in there and toured the location another highlight during this reporting period was the recognition of two seaside businesses by the michelin guide this is a great accomplishment for both of our businesses these recognitions like these help reinforce seaside as a dining destination and can bring new customers to the community so the first Restaurant is Moline. They also were given the distinction of a Bib Gourmand Award and the other restaurant being Gusto Handcrafted Pasta and Pizza. Our approach to business assistance is very hands on throughout this period. We serve it. We went and visited. And conducted 200 local business visits where we met with the businesses asked about what services they needed and provided resources as appropriate. We also conducted 10 seaside at your fingertips meetings where we provided. specific data on their customer base or foot traffic reports and provided an assessment of local market conditions. Part of supporting our business community is also making sure that our processes are easy to follow. And so in order to facilitate this, the city invested in a transitioning to a new business license provider. This transition happened in July and we transitioned to HDL to provide these services. the reason why we transitioned was we were getting some concerns that the previous software was hard to get a hold of. And while we switched over business license providers another way we're trying to improve services is um by getting a building and permitting software solution as of today we've received 13 proposals and they're being reviewed by staff and we hope to bring that new vendor for consideration sometime in october ultimately the goal is to provide technology new technology provide better communication to our businesses and among staff as well. In addition to improving our internal processes, another priority has been strengthening our relationship with key members of the business community. One way we are doing that is through our Sea Jobs Commission. We reestablished the Sea Jobs Commission this year, and we've held four meetings thus far. Their current priorities include the Business of the Month program, the Opportunity Zones 2.0 designation, and reviewing of the Economic Development Action Plan which will provide a roadmap for the next five years. We have also held stakeholder meetings with our auto mall dealerships. We try to maintain direct communication with them. And some of the priorities that we've engaged with them have been property maintenance, light tower demolitions, car week activities, and auto mall marketing opportunities as well. Beyond direct engagement with businesses, partnerships are very important to our economic development efforts. The first partnership that I want to highlight is our partnership with Monterey Bay FC. Having the stadium here in Seaside has shown to provide impacts to tourism and local spending activity. Through this partnership, we have also been able to highlight six of our local businesses through the Business of the Month program. Most recently, we highlighted El Migueleno in August of 2026. and their instagram post um received over 7 000 likes and over 16 000 views so Um, it just comes to show that it does bring increased visibility for these businesses as part of our partnership. We also have the ability to have a theme night this year. We are doing Hispanic heritage night, and it's presented by us the city of seaside that will take place this Saturday, September 5th at 7 PM. There will be a performance by arts and there are discounted tickets available to our residents. Another one of our partnerships I'd like to highlight is with retail strategies. They provide targeted recruitment of national retailers. So far in our partnership, they've been able to engage 21 national brands on our behalf. They've also represented us at ICSC Monterey. icse recon in las vegas which is the largest commercial real estate event that um conference and they will be representing us at icse western in san diego later this month and they will provide they will showcase seaside and try to attract investment to our community um our partnerships are not just about attracting new businesses they're also about uplifting and bringing more attention to our businesses and that is where c monterey comes in through our partnership c monterey was able to provide 58 businesses with Um, membership and marketing support at no cost to our businesses over this reporting period promoted 55, the seaside events featured, um, seaside and 15 articles and, um. generated approximately 190 million impressions through paid campaigns but um most importantly what all of these efforts generated were 1.68 million dollars of economic impact for seaside In addition to supporting our businesses, we're also trying to look at ways in which we can provide opportunities to position seaside for future investment. And the way that we are doing that is through opportunity zones. 2.0 recently, the city nominated 2 eligible census tracks. And we've already secured letters of support from elected officials, developers, and regional partners. If selected, the designations could help make investment in those areas more attractive to private investors through federal tax incentives. Another thing we are continuing to do is we continue to meet with developers for Campustown, Main Gate, and Seaside Grand Hyatt Hotel and Resort. While we position Seaside for potential development, we're also creating events that attract businesses or attract visitors to our Seaside businesses. And we are able to see that through our exotics on Broadway. So I'm here to give you just a quick look. um this year we saw attendance go to over 25 grow to over 25 000 attendees in order to prepare for exotics on broadway with our businesses we held three listening sessions we went door to door and provided flyers to all of our businesses on broadway del monte and our and the surrounding streets We also provided parking passes for businesses in order to provide easier access for them due to the road closures in the surrounding area. And if you see that big spike on the graph, that is the number of attendees or the number of visitors for Seaside on that Saturday, it was over 100,000 that day. So quite a big jump from a regular day. As we continue to move forward, the priorities for the department will be maintaining engagement with our automobile partners, C jobs, assisting with commercial vacancies and supporting implementation of our new permitting software system. And with that, I open it up to questions. I know it was a lot of information.

No, that was perfect, quite a bit of information, but you did so well, and that's what we've been waiting for. Are there any questions, or? Councilmember Miller, then Councilmember Garcia's own.

The question's pretty simple. On the first page, can we go back to that first page, the first slide? So the DM for the million there, 238 million, do you have a dollar amount in which revenue that would be for the city?

or what tax how much tax money that represents um so we would have to calculate it based on our sales tax i believe it's 0.01 yeah we could calculate that we don't have that prepared for this evening okay but it's a significant amount of dollars but again it's a retail gap analysis so this is money or this year uh efforts we're trying to do to to bring that money back into seaside i see that was my only question thank you mr mayor

All right, Council Member Garcia is up.

Thank you. Thank you for the presentation. It was very thorough with a lot of great information. I'm assuming that in the unmet demand and the categories that we have, there are a lot of, this is, correct me if I'm wrong, but a lot of like full service restaurants or health and personal care or specialty food or places like that. They're harder to open up because of the water issue. Is that still a concern?

i think it's always a concern uh at this time but but again i think we've been very creative in the past about um identifying solutions to the water situations for individual opportunities it just depends on the property the location the jurisdiction that the of the water service provider um and so we look at those again on a case-by-case basis thank you and then when when it comes to the hotels and those that are in red with i'm assuming a decline of

Do you attribute that to just, I'll be honest, how they are, how they look?

I wouldn't say that. I would say that as we see the other hotels increasing, I think what they're doing is they're choosing to stay at others versus those.

Okay. And then I do see that you... are receiving interest in more leasing opportunities, which is good. I like to see that. And more businesses coming soon, which is really good. I did have a question when it came to 21 interested retailers. What was it? 21 national retailers engaged in the most recent quarter. What was the sector? Was it hospitality? Was it

It was all from hotels to franchises for restaurants and things like that.

Nice. Okay.

You can't share who was interested?

Not at this time.

Okay. Yeah, I figured. And then Cjobs, how's that going?

It's going really well right now. Um, they are focusing on the economic development action plan, which will guide us to the next till the next five years, um, for the department. So, um, that just goes to show that they are engaged. They're also very happy in selecting the business of the month program, which has been very successful.

Oh, sweet. Okay, cool.

Thank you.

Anyone else? Uh, Mayor Pocha.

Thank you for the report. It's probably the best report we've seen in a significant amount of time. So I appreciate your easy to understand report. so we are using it seems ai services we have consultants to enhance uh existing businesses and potentially and to promote new business has there any been success stories or new businesses started started because of this additional technology

I would say yes. And another way that I'm using Placer AI is to try and attract businesses that way. I like to go in there and there is a feature where you can see a trade area report and if say a grocery store were to come in here, it kind of gives me data to go off of and try and recruit a business for that specific location. In terms of success stories within our businesses, one of our business actually changed their category from a bar to a sports bar based on the information that was provided to them. And some of the key data that I also see is that it tells a business which days are busier versus which are not, or it also would provide them an opportunity to see if they ran a promotion and see if it was successful as well. So they can always look back and see if happy hours on Mondays are doing well versus if they went without it.

So maybe on that, do you provide the information or do they request the information?

They usually ask me and make an appointment and then we can have recurring reports given to them if they ask for it.

Are you getting many requests for...

Not as many, not as many as I would like. So that's something that we can definitely explore and try and push more of.

So you're trying to be more proactive and going to them rather than we.

Yes, exactly. That's what I'm doing now.

So. In the relationship with the soccer team, the union, I guess, is there any financial numbers that show that our support of them increases their usage of seaside businesses before or after games or is that not part of the plan i don't i'm just asking i'm curious we know that the additional volume uh brings additional uh retail business to our community we can uh absolutely track that through place here and we can have that for the next quarterly update i was just kind of curious thank you um are we reaching out and i know some people don't like this term but chain restaurants chain businesses local businesses with more than one established uh business in monterrey or carmela marina or businesses that have closed in other areas uh because of the cost of rent uh and potentially um suggested they come to seaside and those

Yes, we are pursuing all avenues to try and recruit businesses there. I have received some recommendations to visit certain businesses as I know if they're closing. And so I've gone out to meet with them and just shared some of our available properties to them rent and seaside is relatively more affordable than our neighboring cities so i try and push that and then i also try to let them know that we do provide some concierge service where i would put them in contact with all departments all in one meeting in order to expedite the process

And then I think Councilman Garcia mentioned this, but water is a continuing issue. We have been told to relate to new businesses. I believe we were allocated more water by the Monterey Peninsula Water Management for planning for new business and opening new storefronts in a conversation with Alvin Edwards. Is this correct? And if it's correct, has there been any excess about the allocation of more water?

We have three different buckets that we can pull from for water. And as of right now, there's plenty of water available if a business comes and requests it. So water is not an issue. It's more if someone were to try and increase the water meter size or place a new meter, that would be the issue due to the meter moratorium.

let me add on that too about a year ago the city council approved the water allocation program which created some of those buckets to the seaside auto center the west broadway urban village and the small business water allocation program so we've had a lot of it also put some money aside for some water allocations aside for adus and so we've had a little bit more in the adu than the small businesses but we have had a couple examples that have used the small business program

okay good thank you has there been any thought to create incentives to encourage bins to move their business to encourage businesses to move to seaside if so those ideas will they be brought forward to the council so there have been ideas related to incentives uh um yes there's all kinds of incentives but yeah there have been thoughts of that

Yes, definitely. That is reflected in our economic development action plan and see jobs is currently reviewing that and they will bring will bring that forward to counsel for their review as well. But incentives are part of that.

Okay, great. And I'm not sure if this, you know, my I guess my logic, it's kind of like sometimes it's kind of like the seaside. It's kind of like the farmers market. If you don't have the residents shopping there, there becomes less and less vendors. So it's kind of there's a balancing act between maximizing the numbers in order for the vendors to participate so that everybody wins. So in my little mindset, it's kind of like businesses in seaside, you know, if residents or non-residents don't shop in seaside, businesses don't come into seaside because there's no dollar value there because the residents are shopping. So asking that question, and so that's just kind of where I'm, I think, so that $238 million, don't know that's out there i guess that that could be a chunk of that even 10 million could be moved to seaside there has to be does there need to be a change in the mindset of the residents uh there's another look presented of the appearance what do we do to if there needs to be a mindset change in order to get some of that 238 million dollars what are we doing if we're doing anything

to garner that some of those dollars i guess if that makes sense in the long term yeah i mean i wouldn't say that there needs to be a mindset change with our residents because what they're doing is they're spending these dollars elsewhere so um i would say that we just need to provide these services somewhere within seaside and get them to spend them here And so that's why we use our Retail Gap Analysis Report to try and recruit businesses here in Seaside that can fill those gaps. And they wouldn't necessarily have to fill the whole gap, so just a minor gap would be sufficient for us.

So going along, and I appreciate that. Do we need to do anything? Can we do anything differently proactively to Motivate residents, because if there's, I'm making this up. A smart and final in seaside, but there's a safe way to have in Jerry Oaks or Monterey. They may choose to go there. Is there anything we can do differently? Or proactively to. make people aware for more business so that way i think business creates business that's what i'm kind of saying how do we try to create change of mindset that seaside businesses have value in and encourage them to be there i'm not sure if that's a fair question but i think that's part of a answer in the bottom line

absolute fair question um and again back to the economic development action plan there's a significant component in there about shopping local um that's a big push um you know we providing small business development services to our local businesses and encouraging our citizens to shop local even if 10 of the 238 million has recaptured its significance um significant revenue for our local businesses and for the city of seaside through sales tax revenue that's thank you thank you and thank you for the great report

I had a couple questions. So I know like the electronic and mail that's kind of everywhere, right? Is that higher in our city than other cities? Or is that just I mean, I think that's something we're just going to have to deal with. Because that's like the future right or the now.

Yeah, I mean, it's pretty comparable. About half of the unmet need is generally associated with electronic mail ordering. And again, what Laura mentioned and what, again, the Economic Development Action Plan talks about is how do we ensure that our local businesses have that online presence themselves? And a lot of small business, that's a hurdle. And so if we can provide those services to get them over the technology gap, sometimes that's a good economic development fit for us.

All right, and I know this shows the gap we have, do we know what the residents are wanting? Is there information through AI or any surveys or something to know like. Which clothing or which health care, you know, like, those kinds of things that the city of seaside is.

I mean, I think we we would need to look at the data from place where I and see we're able to break down data from each different neighborhood and see where each neighborhood is shopping. So we'd have to pull that data and definitely look to see where their favorite places are, as we see with our as I shared with our visitors.

then just back to the hotels for those that did i mean 38 or 39 and 51 increases pretty big right um do we know what they did was their upgrades was their programs or promotions that they were offering or things that the other hotels could potentially do to increase um a good question um i can't bring the slide up right now but i know for example the bay breeze in they did um

They were purchased by a different company, so I believe that that may have been the difference between the big jump.

Thank you. Anyone? Yeah, one more question.

Go ahead. Thank you. Going back to the national retailers, although I do appreciate it, What is the effort that we're doing to sort of uplift our residents to start up their business? I just hope that we're not focusing our efforts on trying to attract these national retailers while disenfranchising those that want to start a small business.

I get business inquiries almost every week. I would say on average about two business inquiries. Sometimes it's zero, sometimes it's four. And I have been working with various residents that would like to start a business. And so I do provide those services as well. being that they do come in person and I don't really interact a lot with the national retailers. I focus primarily on our residents and those that are willing to start a small business. So I do put them in contact with available properties. I also put them in contact with our building planning and public works teams as needed. And I definitely provide that assistance already.

Which thank you. I really appreciate that. Do they face any hurdles along the way? Or if you're receiving two inquiries, that's a lot, I would say. Would you say that's a day or a week?

A week, sorry.

Okay. And how many of those actually follow through?

So to answer your first question, the biggest hurdles I see is taking a retail space into a restaurant. I would say that's the biggest hurdle affecting Seaside right now is transitioning one space to a different type of use because it does trigger a lot of different building codes as well. So if they will need to make 80 upgrades and things like that in terms of um the building team and then for planning that also could entail a lot of um effort as well and if they're going from a retail to um a restaurant for example that also kicks in um the review from public works in order to um pay sewer fees and things like that as well um and then i'm sorry i missed your second question my second personal question

I do want to go back and just make the points on the national retailer versus local business. We have augmented staff with retail strategies who focuses on national retailers and the recruitment of a national retailer is significantly different than local business. A national retailer from the first conversation and significant interest can take anywhere between 18 to 24 months to get some traction. our contract with retail strategies allows us to do is allow our local staff to work with local business and allow retail strategies to make sure the national recruitment is happening and ongoing and both are absolutely needed in the community okay um and then when you're talking about converting retail to restaurant or dining place

And have those conversations trickled down onto the property owners? Yes. And what are they saying?

Most of the time they leave it up to the tenants to try and make those improvements. And I would say it's definitely a hurdle. I did see one of them fall through recently. So that was hard to watch.

Fall through because it was just not feasible for them to do it? And then my final question would be, I know Councilmember Pacheco and I, during my first term, we did the facade improvement program. Have there been discussions within CJOB to bring that back in the 2.0 version?

That's actually also in the economic development action plan is to discuss and consider a facade grant approval program. It's one of the recommendations. And so when you look at that program, not only is it outlined the direction of the department and economic development for the next five years for the community, but also the specific action steps like regarding downtown business associations or facade grants. And so incentives like we discussed earlier. So that is absolutely in that plan.

thank you i guess you have one more question paris bakery do we know why they closed down um i knew i know that the seaside location was used more for their manufacturing purposes but it just sounds like they didn't make it um i know both locations closed down thank you anyone else okay

I just had a couple thoughts. First of all, I want to thank you for our research. And I think the presentation was well done. I do think some things are left out city manager about explaining some of the numbers. Just for example, when we go to the one where Yeah, the 200, the gap, the gap analysis. You know, and I think it was left for people to assume that 238 was some type of magical number. To get to 238, that means every resident will have to shop and spend every dime in Seaside. And I'm not your fault. I'm just saying we have to understand that that's that's what a number come from. So you're not going to recoup that unless you tell people don't shop outside your city. But but but the thing is, we know where areas where people are spending money and you guys can use that to entice national change retailers to come and fill some of those gaps and and It's hard to do that because I think what someone brought up about the electronic mail order, right? That's quite a bit out of that 230, right? So I see a big old number and it's like, well, let's just grab that and then grow. But every city has a gap, if that makes sense. And you guys are using this to figure out how to entice retailer and say, hey, it's $40 million of spending out there that could be spent here if you bring your business here.

Exactly.

Now, that doesn't mean that that store is going to have $40 million worth of sales. Like you said, it could be a half a million dollars. It could be $100,000. Is that right? And so I just think that's part of the story. We need to tell them what the numbers are for and what you're trying to do with them. and you also mentioned something that you know uh it was asked about water and somehow it came up water is not the issue meaning if that small business entrepreneur person only needed the water that's currently there then it's not an issue and so are we turning anybody down from a business or a retailer trying to be in that space that only needs that water no um we do provide we try to provide them with the water allocation for that property if they would like to pursue that option yeah no that's what i'm saying but you can't give them more than what's going there currently is that correct what the answer is yes i'm saying because you know my point is these open spaces or for people to grow, you probably need a little bit more water, right? And so it's not about the beautification, it's not about people don't want to grow, it's about how do we get them the ability for Cal-Am to send them more water into that building. And I don't think that's a small thing to overlook. And I'm not saying you are, I'm just putting it out there. So, And then it was asked about what are the strategies? Are we waiting for that overall strategic plan to be done? Or you guys are doing some of these things now? Yeah, go ahead. No, I don't want to be put out there that you're waiting for that document from CJOBS to be sign as though you guys have not been working for the last 18 months to do some of these things.

No, I think this entire PowerPoint showed all the activity of the department that's ongoing while we are in review with the CJAPS Commission on the Economic Development Action Plan.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I would just say I thought it was a great presentation about all the data you guys are collecting. You're using that to do national recruiting for retail, and you're doing it for local people to the best of your ability. And I thought it was good. I just look forward to be more information to come, look for you guys to use it. And then what was that day that 100,000 people came that day?

Yeah, that was the Saturday of car week where we had the Saturday of car week. I think it was August 15th.

But it was 100,000 people within the boundaries of Seaside. Yes, correct. Do we know what was the length of time? Are we just counting people that came through for the 60 seconds through the line?

No.

Is it a minimum? No, but that's what I want to know is what is the minimum amount of time?

It's over 10 minutes. And so we will be coming back in late October to provide a car week after action report. And so that data will be a little bit better presented.

No, no, no, it was, it was, it was well done. I was just thinking about what was the time for, you know, you guys do the time, but then I go to, well, what can we show them to interest them why they're spending the 10 minutes? And that turns into, you know, another in and out you know stay or maybe just something going on that they want to stay uh hour for go ahead yeah let me clarify that when we do have dive deeper into the data for the after action point we'll have an average dwell time which will be significantly more than 10 minutes for that day the 10 minutes is if they're not in the community for 10 minutes it's not counted no i i got it but i appreciate the information but that's why i just brought it up because i don't want oh they were here for the four hours no it's a minimum amount of time but it's our you know, we need to get ability from 15 minutes to half an hour, whatever it may be. And what are we doing to entice them? What are we doing to give them that information so they can't spend two hours or go buy something for 30 minutes or so? But I thought it was a well done report and vital information. So thank you so much.

Thank you.

Let's say I think we're gonna open it up to public comment.

Members of the public in the chamber, please approach the podium. Members of the public on Zoom, please use the raise your hand feature or dial star nine if you're calling from the phone. Mayor, no member of the public has come forward.

Thank you so much. Hearing no one, seeing no one, public comment is closed. I'll bring it back to the council for direction. Any thoughts? You So imagine you have enough direction.

Yes, thank you.

I'm not sure what it is, but why don't you articulate what you think it is?

I believe that the city of Seaside Economic Development Department will continue the actions that we presented tonight while working with sea jobs on a formalized plan for economic development for the next five years in the department and that aligns with our general plan and we'll bring that back to council soon.

Thank you. We'll go to item number 9B, adopt a resolution authorizing a surplus of a 2004 Pierce-Hall type, model type 3 fire engine and donation of a fire engine to the Monterey Peninsula College Fire Academy.

I'd like this presentation to be presented by Paul Blaha, our fire chief.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, City Councilmember, City Manager, City Attorney. I am presenting item 9B, adopt a resolution authorizing the surplus of a 2004 Pierce Hawk Model Type 3 fire engine and donation of fire engine to the Monterey Peninsula Fire Academy. 2003 the ford order use authority board authorized at least purchase agreement for five firefighting vehicles which one of them was the 2003 pierce hawk to the seaside fire department and it was helped to enhance the wildland fire response on the former fordard properties This picture just shows the five apparatuses that were donated on that day. Four of them are type threes and the one in the middle is the water tender that was donated to the Monterey County Regional Fire District. Besides, aside from Seaside Fire Department, the City of Marina, Pre-City of Monterey Fire Department and Monterey Fire Department received the type three vehicles as well. Monterey Peninsula College Fire Academy provides students with academic and manipulative skills required for certification as a firefighter, one, and two, through the California State Fire Marshal's Office and state fire training. The Monterey Peninsula College Fire Firefighter Academy is a 17-week program. It's offered twice a year and starts from February to May and then August to December. And it's a 17-week program, and it's designed to prepare students for a career in public safety. The academy offers intensive training, combining with classroom instruction and demanding hands-on exercises. The students gain foundational skills in core areas such as structure and wildland fires, firefighting, hazardous materials response, and vehicle executions. As mentioned in the previous slide, one of the components in the Fire Academy is the 56-hour State Fire Training Firefighter 1C course. This training takes place over a rigorous seven-day block known as the wildland week, where recruits transition to continuous daily field training. This requires significant daily field hours to cover advanced operations, dawn trail hikes, and specialized vehicle drills. Type 3 Pierce, the 2004 engine, has served the city of Seaside for more than two decades. And it was recently replaced by the 2025 Type 3. The 2004 apparatus is no longer needed as part of Seaside's primary response. And the MPC Fire Academy has an opportunity to use the engine as a hands-on training resource for future firefighters. The rationale for the surplus is to reduce ongoing maintenance and upkeep costs associated with the aging apparatus. The apparatus currently has 52,059 miles. It has 3,365 hours on the motor. If you do the math on the hours on the motor, it equates to and convert it to miles. That's 100,950 miles on the motor itself because there's a lot of idle time when the once the motor starts is stays on. And then it reduces future repair costs associated with aging vehicles. The benefits of the MPC Fire Academy, it provides a full-size Type 3 wildland fire engine for hands-on instructions. It enhances realistic apparatus and wildland training. And it gives students experience with equipment they may encounter in their careers. And the recommendation is adopting a resolution authorizing the surplus of a 2004 Pierce Hawk model Type 3 fire engine and donation of fire engine to the Monterey Peninsula Fire Academy. That concludes my presentation.

Thank you so much, Chief, for that great presentation and succinct and right to the point. Any questions?

Just one, more out of curiosity. So if there was a large fire in Fort Ord, like there was a Big Sur, would they use those vehicles or that vehicle to assist with that fire or is it just dedicated to that sole training purpose?

The engine that would be donated to the MPC is donated for their training purposes. All the agencies that were donated, the engines in 2003, we have replaced those all with new Type 3s. So all the agencies here in the peninsula have Type 3s to fight fires out in the former Fort Ward properties.

Okay, thank you. I was just curious.

Okay, let's go out to public comment.

Members of the public in the chamber, please approach the podium. Members of the public on Zoom, please use the raise your hand feature or dial star nine if you're calling from a phone. May or not, member of the public has come forward.

Thank you so much. Seeing no one here, I don't want public comments closed. Bringing it back to the dais, what is the will of the council? Move approval. We've probably moved and seconded on the question. All those in favor use direct sign of voting, which is aye. Aye. Nays have the same right. Abstentions? Hearing none, ayes have a motion to carry unanimously. Let's go to item number 10, council members request. New council members request. Let's go to B, follow up on a previous request, Mr. City Manager.

Yes, there will be a presentation on the cannabis agreements at the next meeting, next city council meeting as requested by Mayor Tim Pacheco through this process.

Go to item number 11, City Attorney, City Manager, City Council, and Mayor's comments and reports on committee assignments. Madam City Attorney.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of the council, members of public. I don't have anything to report tonight. Mr. Mayor.

Intended the police department swearing-in ceremony last week. Fantastic opportunity to congratulate our new law enforcement officers that will be serving this community. On the 28th, I had Leadership Monterey County, which was a focus on nonprofits throughout the county, which is a great opportunity to make some connections. And then this week, I had the Homeless Commission meeting last night, along with the Community Safety Advisory Committee meeting, and they are actively busy scoring the Youth Opportunity Grant applications as requested.

that's all at this time uh council member miller thank you mr mayor also went to the swearing-in for the police department that was great and then cardinale stadium they had a fight cancer with the montage health which was good was there on saturday the 22nd and am bag is next week So report back on that. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Council member works.

Yeah, I too was here to support the place wearing in ceremony on the twenty sixth. I attended the first Raider game. So the cheerleaders and the football players are out there and thank you to all of our volunteers. It couldn't happen with all the adults that are making the behind the scenes stuff go on. And then Monday I was able to attend a resource fair at greater victory. Just bringing resources to the community again and much needed. And that was it. Thank you.

Councilman.

Thank you. Similar to last council meeting, I've been pulled away in other directions, but I tried to make effort to be as in many places as I can. I attended my monitor on water meeting. We received a legislative legislative update and we also discussed upgrades. that the state would potentially be requiring of monterey water when it comes to brine so there are discussions of potential upgrades to some of our facilities and what that's going to look like discussing the financial aspects of it and whether or not the state will move forward with implementing those requirements we are Still waiting and seeing if there are possibilities of extension, or what support there might be to levy some of the cost off of the taxpayer. So just discussions early on preliminary. Nothing to to major pending to see what the state. is going to be doing. And then today I was actually late because I was at Cal State Monterey Bay with AT&T and the Boys and Girls Club of Monterey County. We gave away 100 free laptops and books to Seaside Club members, which was super cool to see the little kiddos out there receive a laptop and a backpack and also CSUMB students receive their laptop and their backpack. It was It was a very special moment. I want to definitely shout out Betty Saxon from AT&T, who has been a great partner for the city of Seaside and the Boys and Girls Club of Monterey County and the Seaside Clubhouse. Seeing those students and being with them and celebrating this moment was huge. Thank you, Mayor, for providing certificates of recognition and allowing those students to feel seen and recognized.

So it was a great moment out there.

Got the chance to briefly talk to our new president at CSUMB and look forward to having him Come join us here at the city of seaside and seeing the great things that he's going to accomplish. That is all for me.

Thank you. I attended the Monterey county caucus community resource fair. It was a great event. Lots of vendors, lots of information that was shared to the community. I appreciate making that happen.

10 in the Monterey peninsula unified school district board meeting.

The board approved numerous agreements with agencies for after-school programs and provided a report on school district attendance. The early results showed that the attendance has dropped by nearly 100 students throughout the school district and will impact approximately a million dollars of revenue via the state. I thought that was a quite significant dollar amount. participated in the fossil park cleanest of Durand Capra parks. The committee and residents continue and enhance the neighborhoods, really positive energy out there. uh tend to farmers market um continue to provide good quality food vegetables and a great cuisine uh continue to say i guess repeatedly community sports uh really important the more community support the more vendors uh the more social contact uh but hopefully that will continue to improve thank you

Well, thank you so much for that push for the farmers market. You've been pushing for a while there, and it is important to talk about shopping locally. We just had that report about the gap analysis in shopping here in Seaside, and that's from us, right? That's from us, and it's a lot of things that we can say that's not available in Seaside, but it's a lot of things that are available in Seaside. And it's upon us to shop a little bit more here in CSAP. I want to also congratulate and thank Dr. Betty Saxon for her continued work with AT&T and always giving back to her area of influence. She has more than just Seaside, and she always giving back, making sure that that company is highlighted within her area and that they're impacting in ways that she feel they need to be impacted. and our kids are benefiting our families are benefiting from that i attended a couple park cleanups i attended a laugh coal commission meeting a regular commission meeting and we talked about You know the things coming up in front of the live call we talked about. Special districts and do that. What type of help do they need to continue to move forward? And some of them are not meeting, so we're talking about how do we help them meet? How do we help them get the training that they need so desperately need so they can represent their special district members? And still looking for our. New. or returning uh what is it uh committee uh public member uh to the camc meeting i just discussed a new proposal to find funds for our regional development impact fee we couldn't decide at the meeting so At the end, the chair appointed seven of us to an ad hoc committee to try to really go through our regional development impact fee that will take this county through the next eight years of finding money, receiving that fee, and to fix the roads and repair our roads here in the county. And that money is either going to come from development funds and or some type of miles driven. But we're going to work on that as an ad hoc committee to try to make sure it's fairly done. Uh, and that's the whole county all the way from, um, to tip from one end to the other. I attended the police department, swearing in and promotion ceremony. It was a great job by our chief and those young people look fantastic being sworn in and a couple of promotions that were done also. So we want to thank them for being newly sworn in police officers and for those officers that are taking a new leadership position with their promotion to the celebration of life for Devin James Reyes. And he's such a wonderful young person. Always had a smile on his face, always was happy. And, you know, as his family would tell you, and his friends would tell you that he always had a joy for life. And he was fun to be around and just a good person that died tragically. But on behalf of the city, I attended his going home ceremony. TAMC special meeting. I want to thank the city manager and supervisor Eskew for really pushing to find some type of understanding so we could continue to be and play our role in a partnership with Sand City on their trail project. Sand City is trying to do, in my opinion, a wonderful thing about fixing the The trail, the last mile on an 18-mile trail, and they're doing a great job, and I think we're looking forward as a city to continue to play our role as a partner as some of that trail is in the city of Seaside. I want to thank Greater Victory Temple for hosting and the Monterey County Black Caucus for their community resource fair. A lot of people was there. A lot of good information was put out. And I think the community benefited from having it there and all the organizations that tabled theirs. I guess more than two dozen different entities, if not more. The first Raider game, wonderful game, a wonderful day of games. And they had the cheerleaders out there. So we want to thank the players and the cheer team for what they do in our community. And of course, thank the parents for making sure their kids are participating. all right that is it uh for those of you that may not been here from the start uh we put an item off a closed session so that item is no longer being discussed so we will not have any closed session And we will go on to item number 13, which is adjournment. If nobody else had anything, there's nothing else on the agenda. This meeting will be adjourned. Our next meeting is September 17, 2026 at 5 p.m. This meeting stands adjourned.