City Council and Authorities - Special Meeting

Good morning everyone and welcome to the 2026-27 budget special study session and I will call this meeting to order and let's go ahead with roll call.

Council Member Blower is absent. Council Member Enriquez. Present. Council Member Ponce. Present. Council Member Padilla. Present. Council Member Villapadua. Present. Vice Mayor Lee. Present. And Mayor Fugazi. Present. We have a quorum.

Okay, so we will be moving on then to public comment. Public comment is in regards to today's Agenda item so if you wish to talk about budget now would be the time but it will only be for budget correct city clerk. 3 minutes.

Leslie here on to the podium, please.

Good morning, Mayor Fugazi and City Council. I'm here because the budget must be the budget that includes the contract for the police department. And I just wanted to say what a fine job our officers are doing. Just that article the other day from Ron Freitas saying how one of the this was a probation officer how they doused him with gas and lit him on fire our Officers walk into danger every day. They don't know what they're going to expect and they deserve to be Compensated you guys were saying how the crime is decreasing So we need to keep it decreasing and we need to compensate our officers and make them want to stay here instead of going to a safer city with less violence and more money. We need our officers and all of them are valuable. And I just want to say that please give them a contract that will make them all happy to stay, you know, and continue their enforcement. And they're just they are such wonderful officers. I just love them all. Thank you. Thank you.

Antonia Fields.

I'M HERE TO SUPPORT THE POLICE DEPARTMENT. THEY'RE DOING A WONDERFUL JOB IN REACHING OUT TO THE COMMUNITY. THEY CARE. SO JUST GIVE THEM A GOOD BUDGET. GIVE THEM ALL THEY DESERVE BECAUSE THEY DESERVE IT ALL. THANK YOU.

Zoila Moreno, please.

Good morning, Honorable Mayor Christina Fugazi, City Council. our extraordinary city manager and i'm going to be briefly because i'm gonna need to go to a funeral from a community member from western ranch and i'm going to say what i need to do about the excellent customer service from the police department but i'm going to do it officially during the city council meeting which is going to be Tuesday, June 6th, got you. Oh, nine, okay, anyway. First of all, I'm going to talk briefly about three items only. On the budget, please make sure to include a little piece of the pie for our neglected Western Ranch District 6, but specifically District 6, and I know that someone is listening. Also, I want to second the motion about giving a fair budget to our police force because you know what? Despite of working without I contract, they are doing an excellent job because you know what? Wherever I go, there is the police, okay? Yeah, it is true, it is true, and they deserve a pat on the back to really tell how much we appreciate it is by giving them a fair and equitable pay raise. And thirdly, I don't know if you remember that two or three years ago, I came before you asking to fund the Fourth of July parade. Here I am again because it was brought to my attention that some of you, and you know who you are, that contributed, you know, to sponsor the Fourth of July parade and thank you for you and for those that gave zero shame on you because you know what? Fourth of July is a national holiday and each of you receive a discretionary fund, and thank you, thank you, thank you, and thank you for those that contributed. But I received a notice from the committee of doing the Fourth of July that they wanted me to read, but you know what, I just need to be brief. by talking to a city official instead of giving them, you know, like a little donation every year. This is the appropriate time for you to make it official into the city budget. Do the right thing and God bless you all. Thank you.

That concludes public comment.

Wonderful so we will be moving on to item 3.1 that is our budget study session and I know we have many people presenting but we are going to go ahead and start off with our CFO Mr. Garcia.

Actually, madam mayor, I'm going to agree city manager, no problem. Madam mayor, vice mayor and members of the council. And I will be quick. Uh, we want to give you and present to you the 2026, 2027 proposed annual budget for the city of Stockton and

now we will give you gilbert garcia cfo good morning gilbert garcia cfo first of all i'd like to thank my budget team they're very very talented team i was a budget analyst for a big chunk of my career i've always pretty much worked in budget every year of my career at some level or another and i would put up this team against any other budget team in the state honestly Our team is John, Naima, Vanessa, Brandon, Jose, Daisy, and Sabrina. Today I'll provide an overview of the budget as well as a drill down of the general fund revenue and expenditures. Then I'll be turning it over to departments for their presentation and we will conclude with city manager comments. The charter requires the city to submit a budget by May 15th. We did submit a balanced proposed budget by May 15th. I do want to point out a technical term. There's a balanced budget, which means you have enough money to pay for all of the things that are in the budget. It could be use of prior year money. So for example, in capital projects, it's very common to accumulate money from a prior year to pay for things so that in that case, you're spending more than you may have collected that year. ALSO, WE COULD USE PRIOR YEAR MONEY FOR ONE-TIME THINGS, RIGHT? SO IT'S COMMON TO HAVE A BALANCED BUDGET THAT INCLUDES THE USE OF PRIOR YEAR MONEY. A STRUCTURALLY BALANCED BUDGET IS A BUDGET THAT IS ONGOING REVENUE, SO ALL THE NEW MONEY YOU HAVE COMING IN IS EQUAL TO ALL THE PLANNED EXPENDITURES THAT YOU HAVE. WE DO HAVE A STRUCTURALLY BALANCED BUDGET NOW. HOWEVER, WE DO KNOW THAT WE HAVE CONTRACTS THAT WILL BE OPEN AS OF JULY 1ST, AND HOPEFULLY WE WILL HAVE NEGOTIATED WITH THEM, BUT ALL OF THE CITY CONTRACTS ARE DO IT ONCE, SO WE DO PLAN TO USE SOME RESERVES FOR ALL OF THE CITY'S CONTRACTS. and then work towards getting back to a structurally balanced budget, which means our ongoing revenues will be covering our ongoing expenditures.

So Mr. Garcia, quick question because there are people at home that are watching structurally balanced budget. Because if we look at B13, B12, B13, B14, B15, when we're looking at expenditures versus revenue. there is a difference in amounts. So when you say structurally balanced, that is with then the inter-fund transfers that have been added, I see on B14, but also looking at potential unspent funds from the 25-26 fiscal year?

That's correct.

Okay. Because it shows a difference of more than, well, you can see it, 50 million. Okay. Thank you.

All right. When the staff presented their budget request to the city manager, they kept in mind the council priorities that were identified at the goal setting meeting on February 19th, namely public safety, economic development, and infrastructure. THIS FLOW CHART SHOWS THE CITY'S BUDGET PROCESS WHERE OUR NEW YEAR STARTS JULY 1ST. WE START DOING OUR REVIEW OF HOW THINGS WORKED OUT IN THE PRIOR YEAR AROUND AUGUST AND SEPTEMBER. BY OCTOBER, NOVEMBER, THEY START WORKING ON THE CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PLAN. AND AROUND DECEMBER, WE DO OUR PROJECTIONS FOR OUR REVENUES, OUR SALARIES, AND GOING ON INTO, SO THIS IS WHEN BUDGET SEASON BASICALLY KICKS OFF IN JANUARY. SO BETWEEN JANUARY AND APRIL, WE WORK WITH DEPARTMENTS AND WITH THE CITY MANAGER TO IDENTIFY PRIORITIES FOR THE UPCOMING YEAR, AND THAT'S WHY IT'S IMPORTANT FOR THE COUNCIL GOAL SETTING MEETING TO BE AS EARLY AS POSSIBLE, PREPARABLY February, no later than March, so that we can make sure that when we submit our proposed budget that it incorporates council's priorities for the upcoming year. Departments meet with the city manager and then go through a process of prioritizing based on the availability of money. In the city manager's budget message, there were a couple of things of note. One is we did note that the city has built up reserves. We also noted that the city employees in several critical positions are somewhat under market. So again, we are going to have a planned use of reserves in order to bring our employees more into market alignment. And then we do have to come up with a plan and we absolutely will come up with a plan to have a balanced budget in future years, which will be a combination of budget balancing measures and of seeking additional revenue streams. The total city budget for 26-27 exceeded a billion dollars. I think that's maybe the first time for the city that we've done that compared to 982 million. So, I mean, rounding up, our budget has been about a billion dollars for a couple of years, but we actually did exceed the billion dollar mark in the upcoming fiscal year. AND THE YEAR OVER YEAR CHANGE IS ABOUT 7%. THIS SHOWS ALL CITY FUNDS, SO THAT WOULD INCLUDE OUR UTILITIES, OUR INTERNAL SERVICE FUNDS, OUR CAPITAL. SO IT'S NOT JUST THE GENERAL FUND. AND THE REVENUE IS KIND OF THE SAME WAY WE THIS CHART SHOWS OUR REVENUES YEAR OVER YEAR ACROSS ALL FUNDS. THEY WENT UP BY ABOUT 4%. YOU WILL NOTE THAT OUR REVENUES ARE NOT A BILLION DOLLARS. THIS IS ESPECIALLY TRUE IN CAPITAL WHERE WE DO PAY AS YOU GO PROJECTS. WE TEND NOT TO BORROW MONEY TO FUND CAPITAL PROJECTS SO WE ACCUMULATE MONEY AND FUND OUR CAPITAL PROJECTS WITH CASH. ONE OF THE QUESTIONS THAT I WAS ASKED BY A COUPLE OF PEOPLE IS IF THE CITY IS TO THE POINT WHERE IT'S GOING TO USE RESERVES IN THE UPCOMING BUDGET CYCLE, HOW DID WE ADD 21 POSITIONS? SO IF YOU LOOK AT FISCAL YEAR 25-26 VERSUS OUR PROPOSED BUDGET, THERE ARE 21 POSITIONS DIFFERENCE, RIGHT? SO 18 OF THOSE POSITIONS WERE ACTUALLY ADDED IN THE CURRENT FISCAL YEAR. AND A COUPLE OF THEM, OR MOST OF THEM, I WAS HERE FOR, EVEN THOUGH I STARTED IN DECEMBER. SO FOR EXAMPLE, THE SEN CAL POSITIONS, THREE POSITIONS IN COMMUNITY SERVICES, REALLY TO THE LIBRARY. SO MANY OF THESE POSITIONS WERE ADDED IN THE MIDDLE OF THE YEAR. IN THE NEW FISCAL YEAR, FISCAL YEAR 26, 27, THERE ARE ONLY A NET OF THREE POSITIONS ADDED. and those positions are on the right with the fire by city attorney. Again, there are a net of three positions added in the current budget. The other 18 positions were added throughout the fiscal year and almost all of them have their dedicated funding source. THAT'S NOT THE GENERAL FUND. OUR CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT BUDGET IS 1.58 BILLION. THAT NUMBER INCLUDES OUR DEFERRED MAINTENANCE FOR WHICH WE HAVE NOT IDENTIFIED FUNDING. OUR FISCAL YEAR 27 CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT BUDGET IS ABOUT $85.4 MILLION. SO THE FIRST YEAR IS, WE'LL SAY, THE REAL NUMBER, WHICH IS ABOUT ALMOST $85 MILLION. The rest does include unfunded capital requests in our five-year plan.

And what is the difference between the two?

It's like a billion dollars. It's big. It's considerable. Yeah. Move on to the general fund. Our general fund expenditures year over year increased by about 5%. So our general fund budget in the current fiscal year, our adopted budget was $328 million. Going into the next year, it's $344 million. The city of Stockton, like every other city in California, faces many inflationary pressures with fuel, medical costs. So just like every other city, we do have to deal with inflation. ON OUR REVENUE SIDE, OUR REVENUES ARE YEAR OVER YEAR ABOUT A 5% INCREASE BECAUSE WE DO HAVE A BALANCED BUDGET, RIGHT? THEY'RE GOING TO EQUAL EACH OTHER. ONE THING OF NOTE THOUGH THAT IS OF CONCERN THAT WE SHOULD KEEP AN EYE ON IS LAST YEAR OUR SALES TAX REPRESENTED 38% OF OUR GENERAL FUND REVENUES. THIS YEAR, THIS COMING YEAR, IT WILL LOOK LIKE 36%. SO THE RATE OF GROWTH OF SALES TAX, EVEN THOUGH IT HASN'T DECLINED IN OUR CITY, IT HAS SLOWED CONSIDERABLY FROM LIKE, YOU KNOW, 4%, 4.5% TO LIKE 1, 1.5, MAYBE 2 IF WE'RE LUCKY. A lot of that has to do with inflation, just people's buying capacity is limited, people not going out as much, the car market is very, very rough. If you're in the market to buy a car, it's not a bad time. If you are selling cars or rely on those jobs, it's a very tough market right now. ON OUR INVESTMENT PROCEEDS, THAT NUMBER IS CONSIDERABLY HIGHER THAN IT WAS LAST YEAR. BUT THAT NUMBER WILL PROBABLY DECREASE AS WE SPEND DOWN THE LAST OF OUR ARPA FUNDS, OUR COVID GRANT MONEY. SO THERE ARE SOME, YOU KNOW, ON THE ONE HAND, IT'S GREAT THAT WE DO HAVE GROWTH IN OUR REVENUES. ON THE OTHER HAND, THERE ARE SOME THINGS THAT WE NEED TO PAY ATTENTION TO GOING FORWARD. OUR GENERAL FUND BALANCE, THIS SHOWS THE CHANGE IN FUND BALANCE, BASICALLY, WITH OUR REVENUES AND EXPENDITURES EQUALING EACH OTHER, THE FUND BALANCE HASN'T CHANGED. WE SHOULD, IN ORDER TO MAINTAIN THE FORMULA OF 16.67%, RESERVE, WE SHOULD HAVE AN ENDING FUND BALANCE OF ABOUT $55 MILLION GOING INTO 26, 27, BUT IT'S ONLY 52. SO WE'RE GOING TO HAVE TO AGAIN FIGURE OUT HOW TO MAKE SURE THAT WE MAINTAIN OUR RESERVE TARGETS FOR OUR FISCAL HEALTH. I'VE SHOWN THIS CHART MANY TIMES. THIS DOES SHOW THAT WE WILL USE OUR RESERVES. IF WE DON'T DO BUDGET BALANCING MEASURES, WE WILL ALWAYS, AS LONG AS I'M HERE, I WILL PRESENT TO YOU A BALANCED BUDGET. So, you know, in the out years, even though it does show some of those reserves going down and we do plan to use some of our reserves, we will work towards balancing those out in the future years so that we have long-term fiscal sustainability. That concludes my presentation. I will now turn it over to the departments.

Are there any questions from council for Mr. Garcia at this point? Vice Mayor?

Thank you, Mayor, and thank you for that. I just wanted to start to say at the onset of this discussion You know, I was on record throughout the entire last year saying I believe we were provided a fraudulent budget, and I still believe that. I just wanted to say to the city manager and to you, the CFO, I think you all did a really great job of preparing us so that we can come in here today, have very efficient conversations, understand where some of our challenges are and opportunities, and I just want to thank you for just the transparency and being very forthcoming of all of what we... want to see today. I mean, one of the things that I'll be looking for as we get into the discussion is there's been lots of conversation in the community about how we're investing in disinvested communities or communities that have had challenges. I think when we first started, when we first took office, the mayor, one of the things we said was we were going to start south and move north, and I think we've done that with different initiatives, Light Up Stockton, substations, so forth. So as we talk through this, I mean, what I'm going to be looking for, and I don't know what department this presentation is going to come from, is how are we looking at grant programs? How are we looking at grant writers, grant teams to be able to go out and get the money that we've all said we don't want to leave on the floor or on the table? We don't want to leave wherever. And one of the conversations that I know that we'll be having in June, later in June with a small group of people, And how are we conceptualizing a certain amount as a target that we'd be directing staff in whichever department, whether it's economic development or wherever, to go after a certain amount of money to be able to invest strategically in communities where we need to bring it up so we can have a one-stopping experience. So I'll just be looking for that. I don't know where that's going to be in the presentation or if there's been any forethought. But again, I just want to publicly thank you for all the work to get us here today.

And city manager, looking at the funded positions that have been added to this budget, I noticed that there is city manager grants there with some additional funded positions. Is that correct?

That is correct. But there's also other options when it comes to grants. And I'll give you a prime example. There's a company called maybe I shouldn't use, but there's companies out there that write grants for you. And we have engaged in past years and using companies to do exactly that. And so we are aggressively heading back in that direction.

And I know the police department also has beefed up their grants department tremendously tremendously. OK thank you OK. Moving on public works.

Good morning, Madam Mayor and members of the Council. Penny Basalusalu with the Public Works Department. Grateful for the opportunity to be here this morning and to share with you briefly Public Works budget plans for the upcoming fiscal year. Thanks. So here briefly just a description of the department in terms of the various divisions that are in the department. As most know that operations and maintenance and engineering and also waste recycling and fiscal compliance and administration are part of the Public Works Department. Again, grateful for the staff members and all the work that they do in representing Public Works Department. So here briefly is just the summary of the department's budget in terms of ending balance. These are the accounts or the funds within Public Works Department. Now, just for information, the fund balances are not indicative of the working capital. So right now, as you see at the bottom, the ending balances right there is what's within the Public Works budget, but it's not indicative of the working capital. And in terms of of general fund. So these are the various again funds within within public works. The projected expenditures by year end. And which is 24,000,646 and the proposed for the upcoming fiscal year is about negative 0.1% less than what is projected for for the for the current fiscal year. For the position summary, we just want to note in transparency that we do have two positions that have been included into the fleet department. They came from ASD via the procurement, and they're now within the central stores. And so those are the only two additional positions within Public Works. Otherwise, it remains status quo. Now, key considerations for the upcoming fiscal year, Public Works is going to be doing some focus on just the increased construction and maintenance costs. And so that's something that we're going to be considering very seriously within the budget and also having an understanding of the deferred maintenance backlog. There's quite a few work orders through ASK Stockton and just all the work that Public Works needs to do. and also, of course, the aging infrastructure. In terms of the budget plan, again, one of the several goals that we do have is to continue to work with PD and perform a regular homeless encampment cleanup. One of the things that the Public Works Department has noted that when environment is clean, it changes attitudes and behavior. So we want to really focus on that. Public Works wants to make sure that we operate within budget. And so whatever the budget is going to be adopted for the department, Public Works plans on planning precisely for projects and the works to be delivered, but with flexibility. And also to be accessible to customers as much as possible.

We have a question from the Vice Mayor.

Thank you, Mayor. Yeah, right around that line, I mean, one of the interests that council has expressed, and that I know we've talked about, we've heard from the community, is enhancing the user experience on Ask Stockton App. Being able to track in real time progress of what we're doing as a ticket's open, where it's moving to completion, and then also being able to sort by district. District 5 wanted to see everything in their district, they can sort and get a report. Is that baked into this budget, or is that in another department that we're going to see today? Because at some point, we do have to enhance the technology.

So that is not within public works budget, but certainly a conversation that public works is having with another department.

Information technology will address that.

So moving on to some capital improvement.

Penny, before we go there, we have a couple questions. So Council Member Enriquez.

Thank you, Mayor. Penny, just a quick question. When you talk about your key considerations, can you just give some context about the deferred maintenance backlog as we consider the proposed budget?

Yes, so... There's quite a few projects and requests that has come either through council or through the community that because of either shortage in funding or lack of staff that it has been pushed back. And so prioritizing those projects is going to be a huge part of trying to make sure that this backlog is met and the fundings are there and that they are being addressed accordingly.

Is there an example or two you can provide just so folks can get a clearer sense of what would be a project that's backlogged due to obviously staffing?

Yes, yes, certainly. For example, the neighborhood traffic coming program. And so council has given direction in prior years to have certain neighborhoods where we put speed bumps and to minimize and focus on speeding and traffic issues. And because of the amount of money that's allotted to that program and the desire on the kind of speed bumps and all the mitigating process programs, it had to be pushed back. And again, just making sure that the funding is there as well because a lot of the traffic-related program are funded by competitive grant. funding and so we apply and try and compete for those funds and then we wait of course hoping that those those programs those fundings come through and then we move forward yeah

Which is another prime example of a program that's very popular. And with it being very popular and more people wanting them, it makes it even tougher even with that. So good points. Thank you.

Yeah, and then two last things. Just in general, and maybe this is something that the Vice Mayor mentioned too, in terms of moving forward, in terms of transparency, as you said, and accessibility that a lot of times people don't know. And I get it, there's a lot of projects that are happening behind the scenes, but the public doesn't see it. So they're like, why is this taking two, five, eight years? And obviously there's reasons to it, but in terms of communicating that out to the public is important. So if it's already on the website, great. If not, if there's a way we can just really create almost a dashboard of some kind that shows the timeline of the projects. For me, if I have a tree stump, your team would tell me, oh, it's actually number 247 of the log, but out of how many, and do people know that, right? So I think it's that type of information that's needed. And then the last piece, just in general, I guess to the point of cost would be the, Perform large scale homeless encampment cleanups in partnership with PD. I think for that too, I would also like to see the average cost it takes. I know obviously every neighborhood's different, but sometimes it does come out of nowhere, at least to me, and I worry about the public. So in terms of if this is something that's going to be coordinated, to have more clear descriptions of plan of action, timeline, informing the public. Just all that I think has to be really embedded well as we move forward with this. Thank you. Thank you.

And Penny, I had a couple questions as well. We have Measure K funds that we get, and we also have the gas tax fund that we get, which you alluded to, the two positions which will be related to that moving into your department. When we look at filling 25,200 potholes as opposed to grinding and repaving because we're just putting, like we always say, a Band-Aid on it. Do we not have our own machinery that could grind and then repave some of our streets?

We do. We do have a machine that can help address those issues and those conditions. I think one of the challenges we have is the number of staff that we need to operate that machine. And so we are working with staff and making sure that when we address those concerns that we're pulling staff from other areas to be able to do that work. But we do have.

So that brings me then to vacancies. Yes. Do we have positions that are currently vacant in the Public Works Department?

I believe we have four.

Four? Yes. Okay. Because making sure that we are able to do that in terms of whether we go out to bid and we contract with somebody and that takes time as opposed to we have it sitting in the yard there and you know if you have to fill ten potholes within one street block well I think then we look at well do we grind it and repave it so we're not having to go back. The other question I have has to do with the street light assessment audit that we were doing. Because in the budget, there is nothing for lights outside of the special tax districts, which they have what, $4,000 and some change or something like that in that account. So we put 2 million in, we did repair many lights. But we also said we were going to take inventory of our lights. So where are we with that audit?

So thank you, Madam Mayor, for the question. The $2 million that was allotted for that project, just to report really quick. So it was divided in one, two, three, four, five areas. So decorative light, we spent about $375,000 on it, in which 133 lights were converted. So to solar. The repair of street lights, 195 lights have been repaired to date. And that was again $375,000, the cost of that. When you say repaired, do you mean wire or bulb replacement or new pole or what? All of the above.

Okay.

All of the above. And so now in terms of the wires, the question that was asked about the wires, we replaced about 47,000 linear feet of wires that were stolen from all the lights. And that equates to about 223 lights altogether. And so it's one of the concerns that Public Works has because some of these things I will term it as unfunded liabilities. Because you know this the wires the lights are out there and the activities unfortunately are causing a lot of liability to the department which we strive to budget for but then try to keep up with with that activity it's it's costly.

And we have members of this Council that sit on the crime prevention and septet part of septet is specifically has to do with lighting. So crime prevention through environmental design. So if we could get more lights, if we could light up more, that would be, I think, advantageous for us as a city as a whole. And I think we need to start transitioning to solar as opposed to wires because we keep going back and replacing wires and replacing wires and replacing wires. And I think solar can go where there currently aren't lights. So we can put it on an existing pole that's in a neighborhood that's dark because I know there are power poles, especially in the older part of Stockton. South Stockton has a lot of poles. So if we're able to look into that and if we can apply for a grant that would allow us to do that, I think would be advantageous to the city as a whole. Vice Mayor.

Thank you, Mayor. I just want to second that. I mean, I agree moving towards solar is the smarter, more efficient thing to do, so I support that. I didn't hear the answer to her question, though, so I just have a couple things here. One, on the assessment, has there been assessment done on the lights in terms of how many more need to be repaired, and do we have that number?

We do. So in terms of the assessment, one is actually... going on right now. So the practical street light assessment. The final assessment will be completed in November, and then there's going to be a report also on the citywide street assessment coming before council shortly after that.

But do we know today, as we sit here, how many more lights we need to repair?

Don't have that number before me.

And when you get that number, it'd be great to give council update. But if we do, and I think in addition to what she said and what you're hearing, the interest is, and then moving towards repairing those, if there's an opportunity to start moving towards solar with those. I want to go back. You made a comment about the traffic calming program because since we took office, there was a discussion with the person before you around that before the city would prioritize the traffic calming entries based on date. We, as a council, said we'd like to prioritize based on severity of the issue. So I just want to put that out there because I just want to make sure that that's not lost. The last thing on backlog is we sit here and talk about projects that we're going to be funding. We talked a few times about the Holiday Park pool and then other pools that we talked about being creative on how we take those off our books is that in consideration in this budget where we are saying okay we're going to take a holiday park pull off or is that a decision council needs to make here today or at some point in the near future because if there are things like you know liquidating unused assets or taking you know projects off our books that we know that we can turn over to community partners if there's those smarter more efficient ways of approaching our spending i'd like us to be considering that

Yes. And, uh, CSD will be actually reporting in on that. And also I think I'm pretty sure either the ninth or the 23rd, the citywide pool assessment will be coming back. Is that correct? Yep. Yeah.

And then there's the last thing I didn't get. We talked about grants. I mean, one of the things I saw on Facebook just this morning is people are saying, you know, you all have parks or we have parks in the city that don't have any bathrooms. At some point, Public Works, I would love if we had a grant writer, grant department, or somebody focused on where we can go and get funding for bathrooms, building, restrooms, because that is something that I see frequently on Facebook.

Thank you and and Mister vice mayor just to as an update in July will be receiving the solar top lights for all the lights are going to be replaced in the green belt that was in which as soon as the those lights arrive in July staff within public works will do the work and replace the solar lights of the it's over a 100 and that project should be completed by end of September.

Councilmember Enriquez.

Thank you, and just for the record, because I know this is something that when we talk about lights, or streets that don't have lights and that are dark, we also, I want to think about, this is a long-term thing, but streets that don't even have light poles. And we know that's common. You and I have talked a lot about between El Dorado and Center in my district, there's about five, six streets stacked in the middle, and all those six streets don't have a light pole in those. So a lot of folks say when it gets dark, they have no light because the lights are facing Center and El Dorado. And I know that's an ongoing infrastructure problem People don't realize that it's really expensive to put up a light pole and to do all the wiring underground, but I just want to say that eventually this is something that we do need a long-term investment. So I'm not saying we're going to do it this year, but in terms of just having a plan down the road, whether it's five or ten years, prioritizing those streets not just in my district but I know there's other streets in other districts throughout the city and then also we hear all the time I'm sure my colleagues too have heard about streets that don't even have sidewalks and also there's that ongoing discussion but I know funding is always a challenge but I just want to put that out there that it should be part of the long-term plan and if there is backlog with some of those already, let's find out where they're at so that way we can at least inform people that it's coming in the next year or two. Thank you.

And I know that we've had conversations with PG&E about using their existing polls so we don't have to erect one. We can use one of their. I mean, let's not try to work harder on things. But taking advantage of that opportunity with PG&E, I think we need to make sure we get going. Yeah.

As I was going to mention, Councilmember Enriquez, I hope you weren't talking to my neighbor because I received several complaints about why there's no light pole in our cul-de-sac and it's too dark.

You know what? I hear it all the time from folks. But I would say, I think to the Mayor's point about PG&E, I mean, that is something that we have tried before. So to the point of that, when I try to get the light pole, or not even a light pole, just a PG&E pole, we requested to put a solar light on there, and we got a lot of pushback. So there were actually efforts, at least in my district, to do that. So we have to do a better effort to push PG&E to say, if you have an electric pole, what's the harm of putting a solar light? And that was something suggested by someone who used to be in the department. So that's where I got the idea to say, hey, let's have a conversation, and that fell through. So to the mayor's point, if we are going to do it, we have to be more aggressive with them to say, if you have a pole, we have to put a solar light.

Thank you. So just moving on to the capital improvement plan, as Mr. Garcia had talked about earlier in his presentation, $1.5 billion project in the CIP plan, but only the first year is funded. Madam Mayor, you had asked about what the difference is. It's about $1.1 billion in terms of the difference between what's already budgeted for the first year versus the other four. This is just the process that we go through in terms of capital improvement plans. And again, key considerations, again, as we've discussed, limited general fund resources, certainly take that into consideration, making sure that we're having good competition with qualified contractors to do the work, especially, again, working and staying within the budget, and having significant accrual of deferred maintenance, again, as part of our focus and key considerations for CIP. Just some of the projects within CIP that's listed here for the upcoming fiscal year. Transportation projects. Again, a lot of transportation projects. And again, these are the funding for those CIP projects. And again, only the first year has been funded so far.

And before he starts, Penny, we just had a really good trip back to D.C. And I know we have funds in here that were from applications that we did for like the safe streets, for all different traffic initiatives that we have. You know, I know those have a timeline on them as well. We don't just get to keep the money in perpetuity that we have to use it or lose it. So getting an update on that as well because I know these happened when I was on council. And as a council member, and here we are, I know five years later, whether or not we're going to be able to expend those funds or not, I think is important because those should be kind of a priority so we don't lose that funding because costs just go up and then we're trying to get another bite at the apple. So making sure we're actively engaged in using those funds.

Thank you.

Vice Mayor?

Thank you, Mayor. I'm not going to apologize for asking stupid questions because I just need to ask the questions while we're here so that way I don't miss anything. And I hope this isn't a stupid one. I'm looking at the transportation projects and all the different things that are listed here and just trying to understand, you know, one of the things that I've said is a priority for me, at least for the next two to six years, is how we're building the infrastructure in District 6. So that way we can do more residential, more commercial building in Western Ranch specifically and also in Southeast Stockton. And we've had conversations about that. Is that, is the city engineer, I know that may not be, is that in this department? Is it in a different department? Where's the city engineer? And is this funding for being able to assess the infrastructure in that district and District 5 potentially baked into this part of it all?

So this, city engineer's right here. Oh, I love it. He's the public worst, so.

Yeah, so what I've said is just a priority for, work ahead is is you know truly uh bringing forth the promise and commitment that the city's made of western ranch for years district six obviously there's lots of open space lots of empty lots and lots of opportunity for growth but one of the conversations i've had with developers city manager and everybody is you know the infrastructure in district six is challenged so wanting to understand what that looks like uh and making sure we're approving funding to do that assessment because as we look at building more commercial residential uh real estate across that district um you know uh it's gonna i'm assuming there's gonna be lots of resources we're gonna have to figure out whether it's infrastructure tax down the line or whatever so are you in this budget as part of that work and would you be doing that

YEAH, DISTRICT SIX IS ADDRESSED IN THE BUDGET AND IT'S ALWAYS AS FAR AS IN OUR PLANS. WE TALK ABOUT IT A LOT BECAUSE AS YOU MENTIONED, YEAH, THE INFRASTRUCTURE DOES NEED WORK. IN GENERAL, FROM CENTER OF STOCKTON SOUTH, BUT DISTRICT SIX, WE'RE AWARE OF THAT. It comes out also in our activities in the form of grant writing as well. So we're currently focusing on bicycle facility projects because that's where the money's at right now. And so we're trying to create some connectivity with the bike projects there. When you talk about infrastructure that you don't see under the streets, storm sewer and water, Mud does a really good job at assessing the sewer line. We have a fair amount of projects underground you don't see in terms of sewer projects. You'll see a lot of what we've done with McKinley. We've got some nice park projects that we've completed there. We're just continuing that after because it does lend itself well with grants. But so long as it lies in the basic framework of the grants that are coming our way, then we definitely go after that.

Yeah, no, I appreciate that because one of the meetings I had with a developer specifically about building District 6, I understand now the development piece, it's the infrastructure piece that everybody's asking about. So I just want to make sure, just in the most layman terms way, that the ability to do an assessment of our infrastructure from Harding South is in the budget.

Certainly. And I will mention that we've been focusing on the South for a while. So people don't remember, but we actually built that French Camp and I-5 interchange. We built five bridges on the South with Sperry Road connection. you know, from airport. And the big deal with that was that you're incentivizing the area with industrial, you know, or folks that can come in. And similarly on airport way is another focus area. So it takes both public works and economic development together. All right, thank you. Appreciate that. Excuse me. Excuse me.

Hi, I'm Jeff Morasovich, Interim Director of Municipal Utilities. I'm gonna quickly go through some of our CIP. We have several water projects. This is gonna be on another slide when I present for my budget. We have the groundwater recharge that you guys have heard about before, Northwest Reservoir. We have the campus improvements where we're moving our distribution folks up north. Western Ranch Reservoir improvements. That's going to be a backup generator. Vice Mayor Lee stepped out. I wanted to talk about that. But we have the Well 30 rehab. So just a bunch of our utility infrastructure that's getting improvements with this CIP budget in the water space. And then we have our wastewater. Let me figure this one out. Wastewater is similar, just a whole bunch of multi-million dollar projects to improve our infrastructure. We're adding digesters six and seven. Sewer line trunk rehabilitation. What else is a noteworthy one? As you can see, just a whole bunch of pipe projects. We have an old sewer system and it constantly needs improvements. And then my baby from my former position, the Stormwater Fund. So we do have a couple small projects even though we are low on funds. We have a bubbler system in this channel that helps from algae growing and we have a small project to rehab those bubblers. We have to maintain leases for our pipe crossings of state waterways, and so we have a project for that. And we have our stormwater street improvements where we have to pay for our utility work that's related to the street improvement projects that Public Works does. So that's my piece of the, I believe that's it. Keep hitting the wrong one. Okay, so I might as well just move right into my section here. Real quick, a department description. We have three utilities that are all funded by enterprise funds. We have water utility, the wastewater utility, and the stormwater utility. Again, each one of these, the fees collected for that utility have to be used for that particular utility. We are heavily regulated to protect public health, property, and the environment. So that's a huge part of our business is we have a lot of staff that deals with our regulatory requirements. And we have 14 divisions that operate and maintain and support the utility. Our key considerations for this budget, we're part of the Groundwater Authority and we have two projects related to that. We have our groundwater recharge basin and we have our AMI, which is automated meter reading. So those projects are driven by that. We have a water rate study for the next five years that we're ready to do. We have our MS4, which is our permit for our stormwater discharge. Those regulations keep increasing. We have a gold muscle mitigation, which we're not sure how much it's going to cost yet, so we're doing some studies right now to try to figure that out.

Are we in partnership with the county on that? Because I know they're really, I know Supervisor Gardea is specifically very entrenched in this.

All that's starting to come together where the different agencies are starting to coordinate because this is all brand new and everyone's trying to figure out what it means to them, so yes.

Yeah, working together I think shows solidarity in that collaboration and making sure that we get that taken care of.

Yep, I know Dr. Lytle was moving in that direction, so I'll continue that. And then we are gonna implement our 4% wastewater rate increase, which is year three of five. And then we have about 56 million in CIP, which we just went over. For our position summary, we are requesting four new positions in this budget. The positions are cross-connection supervisor, which is required by the state. Marketing and social media analysts, which a lot of departments our size have. We have a need to have a better presence online to get the word out about what we're doing in a more efficient manner. Junior engineer, it's always a problem for us is to attract engineers. We need a new engineer. And the plant maintenance worker for the water treatment plant is because that plant grows, we have a need for more positions.

Do you happen to know how many vacancies you currently have outside of those positions?

About 18.

18, okay.

And a lot of those are due to those really hard to recruit for positions like environmental control officer. They require certifications. We're a little bit lower in the pay scale than the surrounding areas. Same with engineers, so we have a really hard time attracting those positions. It's not like we're not trying. And then our financial summary. similar to the others you've seen. It shows our bottom line. I think the key one to look at is the stormwater utility. You can see that one's getting low, and that's why we're having the vote counted on June 9th, and hopefully we get that increased. The fee changes, we have a surface connection fee that is for the north part of Stockton. That's gonna increase. We have a miscellaneous fee adjustments with salary rates. We have our wastewater, which I mentioned, and the Prop 218 vote, which is happening on the 9th. That's it. Any questions?

Seeing none, thank you.

Thanks.

Chief.

Good morning. I think I'm about an hour and 10 minutes ahead of schedule, so I've got quite a bit of time I can. uh good morning mayor vice mayor council city manager ford city staff and members of the public brian carr fire chief first of all because we're so far ahead of schedule my staff is not here yet but i wanted to take a minute to thank them because they make what i do a lot easier for the city and for the fire department Some of the staff that I want to highlight is my finance officer, Dessa Chang, newly appointed fire service administrator, the highest ranking civilian position I have, John Driscoll, my two deputy chiefs, the fire marshal, James Klein, and our operations chief. And then I want to thank our new communications manager, Anna Trindad, and the CENCAL executive director, Chief Gutierrez, was to be here as well this morning. I've already made a funny comment, but I do want to say that I do intend to use some of the 35 minutes that I've been given because I've been here 21 years minus five and a half months. As a resident of this city and a long-term employee I'm very proud of this city very passionate about this city and very passionate about the fire department So I'm gonna take some time to kind of explain and I know you've all been very patient with me You've received a lot of my emails and notifications to keep you updated so I'm gonna kind of do that and uh if you could just remember i'm doing that but i'm also doing it for the community and the public that is here and is watching to kind of let them know what the fire department does for the community with all that being said we are an all-hazard fire department responding to structure fires and numerous other fire related incidents which would include vegetation wild land vehicle fires i'm going to move this

So you don't have to stare.

And I did show up for our read along there at the library. You can see I'm there, fire chief. This is a program that we did join community services partnership with our story time in the library. Again, back to our department. We respond to numerous fire related incidents. EMS calls, hazardous materials incidents, technical rescue incidents, water-related rescue incidents. We have a tactical medics program, which is deployed at every SWAT operation to support the police department. We have an arson investigation unit, and we have a full-service 911 dispatch center for fire EMS and ambulance dispatching. We do this all-hazard response with 13 fire stations strategically located throughout the city and county jurisdictions. Our fleet includes 13 fire engines, four ladder trucks, one medic squad, and two battalion chiefs. We also have a water tender that is being built and funded by Eastside Water Fire District that's on its way. And then a type three fire apparatus, which will give us a little more flexibility in the wild land urban interface here in Stockton that the council graciously approved back in February with some leftover remaining funds from year prior. I want to emphasize that Stockton Fire Department is not just asked to cover the city boundaries. We have a very unique and diverse response area. Includes the Port of Stockton and its approximate 2,000 acres. We cover all the university and colleges in the city. Two major hospitals. All the elementary and high schools, which includes schools in the Manteca, Stockton, Lodi, and Lincoln Unified School Districts. And we respond to four distinct county pocket areas, Lincoln, Eastside, Country Club Tuxedo, and Boggs Track. The fire department uses, which is slightly different than you'll see in the city demographics, we use a jurisdictional response area of about 90 square miles and about 360,000 residents. I have a total of 61 on duty every day in fire suppression, which is a 19% reduction from pre-bankruptcy when the fire department had 75 on duty per day.

What was that number again, 61?

I have 61 on duty per day.

And how many vacancies? Sorry.

Oh, I was going to get there.

Okay, I'll wait. But I want it by title.

Okay. So we have reopened engine one and truck seven, which has helped us get back to the 61 that I have on duty currently. We run about 42 to 43,000 annual incidents a year. I will just highlight that that is a reduction of about 10 to 15%. That reduction is not all at my initiative, but partially in 2022 when I was our EMS chief. We were running 50,000 calls a year, which was, we didn't see it being sustainable. So we went through our response model and looked at any of the real, real, real lower level medicals that sometimes people use 911 system for, and we decreased our responses to those, which decreased probably over the last couple years has decreased our responses by about 10 or 15%. and we're still doing the 42 to 43,000 annually. I indicated to you yesterday that our calls year to date, May 31st of this year, are up 15%. I can't explain to you why that is other than I can see the trend is probably gonna get us back to 45 to 46,000 annually and could see that being pretty consistent. I try to articulate, and it's very, very difficult because there's so many variables between how many people do you have on duty a day? How many people do you have staff told in your department? How many fire stations do you have? But I try to give people a perspective just so they know the weight of which we deliver a punch, and I did that at the end of the year stats in 2025 by comparing us to three other fairly busy, diverse, similarly situated, possibly demographic areas, cities. One was Oakland, one was Modesto, one was Riverside, and we So I just took total calls and divided by number of fire stations. It came out to 3,300 calls per fire station in the city of Stockton. The next closest was Riverside City at 2,800 calls per fire station. So just trying to give a little bit of context to how we stay busy and what we do. That's the wrong way. All right, so we're gonna jump into our financial summary. We touch five different funds in the city, but I'm primarily gonna focus on three. We have the general fund, We have the emergency communications or the dispatch fund, which I'll stand corrected if Mr. Garcia thinks I'm misspeaking, but it's kind of a sub fund or a component of the general fund. So it's not outside of that, like an enterprise fund per se, like mud has a stormwater or something. It's not that. And then we have a development services fund which actually is like that in more I call it the old word I used to use was enterprise funds. So that's our fire prevention bureau which charges fees and permits for cost recovery and that's our development services fund. And then we have the Measure W fund which we split 50% between the police department and 50% with the fire department. AND THAT I KIND OF CONSIDER AS A SPECIAL REVENUE. SO WITH THAT BEING SAID, OUR ANNUAL PROPOSED OPERATING BUDGET FOR 26-27 PROPOSED IS 101.5 MILLION. THAT'S AN ACTUAL APPROXIMATE INCREASE OF 7.5 MILLION OVER CURRENT YEAR END PROJECTION. SO THERE IS SOME INFORMATION IN THE BUDGET BOOK WHICH DOESN'T HAVE THE UPDATED PROJECTION. I THINK IT HAS US AT LIKE 89 MILLION THIS YEAR. WE'RE ACTUALLY GOING TO BE I THINK CLOSER TO 93 OR 94 MILLION OPERATING BUDGET. PART OF THAT COMES FROM I THINK THE INTERFUND LOAN THAT WE GOT SEN CAL, THAT'S A LOAN THAT WILL BE PAID BACK, THE MILLION DOLLARS IN APPROPRIATION THAT YOU GAVE TO THE FIRE DEPARTMENT IN FEBRUARY FROM PRIOR YEAR'S BALANCE. I WILL ASSURE YOU, MY BUDGET OFFICER DESSA AND I MEET WEEKLY AND WE ARE TRACKING THAT WE that operating budget that we currently have is on target. We will not be over budget, either in employee services or in our discretionary categories. So one of the reasons for that proposed increase to the 101.5 million for the upcoming year would be it is all of our positions fully funded, fully filled, COMPLETE EVERYTHING BEING FILLED IN THE FIRE DEPARTMENT WOULD BE THE 101.5 MILLION. PART OF THAT INCREASE IS BECAUSE WE HAVE A BUDGETED EIGHT NEW POSITIONS IN THE DISPATCH CENTER. WE HAVE THREE NEW POSITIONS THAT ARE COMING ONLINE AS FIREFIGHTERS SUPPORTED AND PAID FOR BY THE LINCOLN FIRE DISTRICT BUT THAT ALL GOES INTO THAT 101.5 MILLION OPERATING BUDGET NUMBER. The thing that I am most proud of, of my administration is most proud of is that we take the 101.5 million and then we factor in some revenue contracts, some cost recovery models that we have. So when you factor in our fire prevention bureau, when you factor in my county fire district contracts, when you factor in my revenue dispatch contracts, you get the far right number there. at net annual activity of 70.6 million dollars for the fire department general fund specifically again current year projected ending current fiscal year for general fund expenditures at 73.5 million Our budget proposed for next fiscal year, $75.9 million out of the general fund, which is a $2.5 million variance, or 3.4%. What could cause that 3.4% increase? the additional positions that have been added mid-year as part of CENCAL. They are in the general fund, and we are recovering cost recovery from our dispatch funds to pay for those, but it is increasing the expenditure line on my general fund.

In

INCLUDED IN THAT IS THREE ADDITIONAL POSITIONS IN THE FIREFIGHTER RANKS, AGAIN, BEING PAID BY THE LINCOLN FIRE DISTRICT, BUT IT INCREASES MY EXPENDITURES AND THEN OFFSETS BY THE REVENUE COMING IN FROM THE FIRE DISTRICT. DEVELOPMENT SERVICES, WHICH IS OUR FIRE PREVENTION, IS Not sure why I shouldn't have a note about this, but I will just say that again. It's not general fund So when we get into more of the position summary there I have general fund development services measure W and safer grant the 12 positions again in in general fund you see the variance to the right and Those are eight positions in dispatch and one nurse that you approved back in February, and then the three firefighters that Lincoln Fire District is paying for. So that gives you the 12, the increase of the 12 positions. And again, all eight, when we brought this to you in February, all eight dispatch positions plus the nurse have been funded already. not already they are being funded by additional dispatch revenue and i think mr gilbert hit it in his presentation this morning already dedicated funding sources for those positions are already articulated and laid out so We'll get to the dispatch fund here in just a minute. So the two other positions in development services, we're looking to go from 19 to 21, and that is an assistant deputy civilian fire marshal, which I don't currently have. And I have no succession planning in my fire prevention bureau So we needed that position and a project manager Both of those positions are non-general fund and they're supported by the development services fund our fire prevention fees and permits that the Fire prevention charges chief you brought up fees now in our fee book Do you not have fees that are going up? We do, and that's what we brought to council about a month ago. We did a fire permit, a new study that hadn't been done since 2008, and we're bringing back in about 400,000 to 500,000 in cost recovery, and that's going to help fund those two positions as well. Let's see. So kind of speaking in general terms without confusing anybody, I have, those are our positions there. We had the 264 total during this fiscal year. We asked for the nine that you gave for SenCal and the EMS nurse, and then three firefighters, which gives us the 12 coming from Lincoln, and then the two that would be coming from the Prevention Bureau. So that gave us the 14 total, which would put our total staffing at 278 personnel. Of the 278 proposed personnel for next fiscal year, 216 are sworn, meaning they have taken an oath and wear a badge. They are part of our suppression unit, and that's 216, which is up from 213 this year, which is the three firefighters that are coming on board paid by the Lincoln Fire District. And then I have 62 civilian positions who are everybody from dispatchers, inspectors, and the small but mighty administrative staff that's in the fire chief's office. And that gives us the total proposed 278 for next year. So we go specifically to the Emergency Communications Fund. which is a separate dispatch fund to account for revenue and expenditures associated with the operations of the Stockton Fire 911 Dispatch Center for fire and EMS. Currently, we've had four contracts with fire departments in the county, Lodi, South County Fire, which is formerly known as Tracy, Lathrop-Manteca Fire District and Manteca, and we dispatch for all of their fire resources to every structure, fire-related incident, and every EMS call that they go to, and then I collect revenue for that service. In addition, we now are charging SenCal for approximately 81,000 to 85,000 dispatches a year with the ambulances that SenCal is using or responding to, and that's where we have to remember that As a member of Sen Cal, we also have Sen Cal as a separate entity over here. So me or us as the city of Stockton Dispatch Center is also charging Sen Cal for dispatching rates, which the significance of that is what's paying for those additional positions that we got mid-year in the Dispatch Center. And the important thing to note is I actually brought the cost down to all of our partner agencies for the dispatching cost, which made them even more satisfied with our service. But at the same time, because of CENCAL and charging CENCAL, We brought a, I'll just use a general, we used to get a subsidy from the general fund to help pay for the cost of the dispatch center because there was other things the calls that Stockton Fire went on, and other equipment that wasn't fully covered by our dispatch revenue contracts. So the general fund used to subsidize and give us about 3.8 million, I think last would have been at least the last fiscal year, if not the current fiscal year. Moving forward, we've reduced that subsidy to $2.4 million. So we've actually helped provide some relief to the general fund with less money needed to run our dispatch center. As I appreciate all of you, I'm an outside the box thinker, so my goal is that someday the general fund will not be providing any subsidy, but we'll see how that shakes out. Some other exciting news that is on the horizon is we anticipate that I have current discussions with every other fire district in the county to join our dispatch center as their primary dispatch for fire and EMS calls. which of course we believe will make our jobs safer, will make their jobs safer. We'll all be able to communicate and talk on the same radio channels. Our dispatch center won't have to call another dispatch center to relay information in real time to crews that are out there working together. As you know, in the fire service, we are very big on mutual aid and auto aid. Auto aid is I'm coming to help you no matter what. drop everything, we're coming. Mutual aid is if I can help because I have resources, I will come. Either way, we have auto aid agreements with some jurisdictions. We have mutual aid with all our jurisdictions. And so having us all in the same dispatch center and able to communicate in real time makes it safer for our firefighters. Our key considerations, this is probably the longest portions, but I will try to make it relatively succinct. Our future plans are exciting and very, very, just very excited about what the future holds. The first is our SendCal operations, as I've already spoke about. It's providing better EMS to the community. more efficient with all of us able to communicate in the same dispatch center. Our ambulances and our fire engines know where each other are at. They're able to talk to each other on the radio. It has, with CENCAL, we have the fire department oversight and public accountability from the three main public entities running CENCAL in the three fire departments. Fiscal transparency and most important probably is any additional revenue is reinvested back into the fire and EMS service here in the county and specifically in the city of Stockton. Recruitment and retention, a big key consideration for us. I currently have 22% of my sworn personnel with over 20 years of service. I have 29 sworn members that could retire today, which is 15% of my sworn members. On the complete opposite, I have 108 or 53% of my sworn staff with under five years of service. So you can see where we are heavy and where we are not heavy. As I mentioned, we currently have 213 sworn, that will go to 216 with the three firefighters. I have 21 vacancies in my sworn ranks, 21 budgeted vacancies. I have 15 in the engineer ranks, and I have six in the captain's ranks. I don't have any, as of this moment, in firefighter ranks. That 21 includes four that are leaving this week. i'm losing two engineers and two firefighters two of those four to lodi and the others to out out of county jurisdictions vice mayor has a question thank you mayor um since we're right here around the positions and those that are leaving i know last year we talked about supporting the department i can't remember how much we did if we did but

on recruitment and retention and also diversification are we still doing that and how is that working as it relates to these openings

Absolutely, Vice Mayor. Great question. We are heavy, heavy into the recruitment. So I don't have a separate recruitment team, committee, or membership. All of my recruiters are on duty sworn personnel who will go off duty to a high school, to a recruitment event. I have been absolutely blown away by the response from our staff. They have individually identified every high school in our city and jurisdiction and identified at least two people, some of which went to those high schools and they go out and proactively pop in and talk to the kids about what the fire service is all about. They take some of our neat tools and things that kind of the whiz bang stuff. So that is full fledged going forward. We're working with Stockton Unified on the CTE program that's gonna start at Chavez in the fall of this year. They've hired an instructor. for fire science. We are restarting our fire explorer program, which was for anybody 17 and under, so pretty much that high school type student or that age range, and we'll do monthly activities and training with them down at fire station two. We have our fire auxiliary program, which has been in existence for a decade, and it's still running strong. Those are for 18 and over, and that's what we've been out there trying to promote. My younger generation has created QR codes that you can just scan for fire auxiliary or for fire explorer, and it takes you to our link, and you can sign up, and then when we get enough people signed up, we reach out and we put on an academy and do that whole thing. I've tried to think about this and how I could articulate it to you folks is I'm going to put on a recruitment starting July 1st through July 31st. Firefighter, EMTs, and paramedics. I am not going to have a problem with people signing up to take the test. I'm just absolutely not. As you know, I've been a big proponent of the Stockton Fire Department and what we do, and I've been trying to share that information with you. The national reputation that the Stockton Fire Department has to do the type of work and the work that we do on a daily basis, hands down, I will have, I may not have as many paramedics as I want sign up, But I will be, I'm limiting it at 250 firefighter EMTs, because I will have no, relatively little problem picking that up. The problem is like the three to seven year mark. That's the problem. And if you look at the four that are leaving this week, they're all in that three to seven year mark. That's the problem is that's where my retention problem is, is because they get the best training and the best experience. And then somebody says, well, well, we can give you just a little bit more for your family and for your future, and some people make those decisions. And we've all been there. So that, does that answer the question?

Yeah, yeah. I mean, the reason why I asked the question, I mean, that's really helpful as a backdrop to it all. I'm just wondering, I know that when we hear from PD, you know, what their efforts have been, what they've been able to do in terms of recruitment, going to HBCUs, trying to diversify or continue to find people Creatively recruit new people and also to diversify the department I'm wondering does fire would fire benefit from having a full-time recruiter and I don't know if there's if there's a need if there's been some consideration because when we hear from PD the I Don't want to say the gray wave whatever that wave is of people that are on their way to retirement Is that something that you foresee coming in with a full-time recruiter be helpful?

So definitely I see the retirement coming. Like I said, we have 29 that can retire today that have that or over the 50-year age mark. How many of those will retire in the next year or two? I don't know. On the incoming side, specifically speaking to diversity, what I have always said is to expand diversity and to represent the community that we serve we need to recruit locally and that's exactly what we've done and we've pushed in our people have embraced it and like i said they've blown me away as far as the the scheduling in the spreadsheets to get out into the high schools and let people know about the career as a firefighter and what it takes to be a firefighter and it's not easy But I feel like we need to reduce barriers and obstacles to people understanding what the career is about and how to pursue the career. And if they have all the information, then allowing them to pursue it as their passion or their dream. Now, would a full-time recruitment person help? I would say yes. It puts me in kind of a difficult position in the sense that I think honestly, Vice Mayor, with what my staff has created and the recruitment efforts that they have done on their time off and aside and going out locally, I don't have to send people to Washington DC, Baltimore, Southern California to recruit firefighters. I need to focus locally, and I think we have the team and the people passionate about that where I think I'm okay at the moment. I continue to use the recruitment money that the city provides me in my budget, and I will continue to ask for that, and it's in the budget, so I appreciate that, but I think, to answer your question, I think we're good and we're moving in that direction, and it's not so much that I need, like I said, my door will be, banging down here in a couple months with firefighter EMTs uh... it's about now once we get them in the door and like I said again recruiting locally to me That helps with the retention problem as well in the future, right? You know, as resident of this community, like I'm not necessarily looking to go anywhere else. This is my home. So again, that recruitment locally, I'm hoping will help some with the retention issue at that three to seven year mark. It won't fix it completely, but...

Chief, so on that same vein, you have an academy that's ready to graduate.

I do.

And I heard that somebody left this week when they only have one week yet to go, which why would anybody leave a week before they graduate?

I can't get into anybody's mind, per se. I will say this. What we have attempted to do because we're a very desirable department to work for, at least initially, to get your foot in the door, that Since I've been fire chief, we've brought in two academies, 26 people, excuse me, 18 and eight, 26. 26 people, we have 23 of those 26. So we've really tried to improve our process on the front end In looking at who we are offering a job to and why we're offering a job, we reinstituted fire chief panel interviews that didn't exist where people will sit in front of myself and my administrative chiefs and tell us why they want to work for the fire department. So I'm actually proud that we still have 23 of the 26 that have been hired. People are making life decisions all the time, and I don't know this specific person's...

I do. I was trying to lead into that because they could take a job with EMS making more than they could as a firefighter. So they were given a position. That's the information I was given, which leads me then to why do we have 15 engineers vacant? And then why is nobody promoting to captain?

yet there's a lot of responsibility a lot of responsibility with those positions so uh... one thing i've told the council before is that uh... we are like i said over fifty percent of my staff is under five years and many of these individuals will work for thirty to thirty five years in the fire service It takes a toll on your body, and I'm going to get to that in a minute. It takes a real toll on the body. So some of them are not looking to rush through, you know, to be here 30, 35 years. They're not looking to rush through the... the ranks necessarily, so there's a little bit of a slow down there. Driving a fire apparatus, which is 60,000 pounds with a bunch of water in it, Code 3 around the city, you think about how you, you know, things that you encounter driving every day, think about driving a 60,000 pound piece of apparatus around the city, Code 3. So there are, there's a lot of responsibility and Just we have said we are not going to force people to promote. We are going to try to give you the best training possible. We're going to work on some band-aids until we get our people seasoned enough to feel responsible and able to take those positions. I need to keep those three to seven-year people here so I have enough to take that engineer position and then spend five to ten years doing that and then go on to the captain position. Thank you. hit on the recruitment and retention, some other priorities for us, key considerations, existing fire station upkeep, and future fire stations. There's documents floating around that I was not a part of, but going back many years, that we should probably have a few more fire stations. So part of my job as the fire chief is to figure out how we are going to support this community in the best way possible, which is going to include some new fire stations. So we're going to endeavor on that here soon and come up with some ideas. We're looking for a new dispatch center. We are in the process of getting a new CAD, which is our computer-aided dispatch. Our current one is end of life. So fire and PD are using the same CAD. And we're both going through the process of procuring a new CAD in the future, which will help. It's a huge technology piece and got a lot more bells and whistles than I even understand. But it's going to make our dispatcher's job and our crew's job better out there on the streets. Technology and data, those are a couple big things for me. If we're not using technology, if we're not adapting, if we're not using data and we're not figuring out what works and doesn't work, we're failing as a fire department. It's my promise to you that we will look for, investigate, and do everything we can to become more technologically driven and more data driven to support the decisions that we make. additional funding sources. I'm excited to announce that we were approved as a fire department for a Safe Streets for All grant. We applied, tied in with Public Works, applied for our own planning grant which gave us will give us it will come back to council will give us up to three million dollars if we come up with something that looks really good related to safety on highways and and freeways and roadways we could be in line for an implementation grant which could be up to 30 million dollars dedicated to the fire department We've put in for federal appropriation a federal earmark for approximately $2 million for an expansion at our division of training. We will continue to pursue SAFER and AFG grants, which the announcement just came out for this fiscal year. We have through June 22nd for that. So grant you guys have talked a lot about grants grants is a huge thing for myself and for our department And we're looking forward to pursuing those opportunities Employee wellness, I think is the last thing I want to touch on and it might be yep, so employee wellness is This is something you will hear from me over the next year. So I just want to preface it as we go into this fiscal year. I try not, on a personal note, I try not to grandstand with what we do. You know, people call us heroes. You know, people thank us on the street, see us in uniform. It makes me feel weird, quite honestly, right? This is what I do. It's my job. I've done it for 21 years. It's what I do. But I want you to know the realities of what our firefighters, the consequences because of the job. The cancer rates, the cardiac rates, and the suicide rates are well above the normal general population. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health reveals that almost there's a 10% higher rate of cancer in firefighters than the general population and a 14% death rate higher than general population because of those cancers. Cardiac studies show firefighters are 1.7 to 2.4 times higher at risk of fatal cardiac disease, and cardiac deaths account for 45% of our line of duty deaths across the nation. Almost half of our line of duty deaths occur due to cardiac incidents. So while we stand and honor Captain Fortuna, Officer Jimmy Yen and those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice in the line of duty, the reality is that more likely that a firefighter will die during the line of duty from a cardiac event. If you think about getting up at three in the morning and going from zero to 60, that's part of the problem. If you think about getting up four or five times after midnight, that's part of the problem. Real quick anecdotal story. When I was 10, 12, 15 years ago as a firefighter and my kids used to give me such a hard time.

Dad, why do you come home and you're sleeping?

Why do you come home and blah, blah, blah? Okay, so we're gonna do a little drill. After midnight tonight, I'm gonna set my alarm. 2 o'clock, 4 o'clock, 6 o'clock, you're going to have your boots next to your bed, you're going to jump in them, and you're going to run down the block, and you're going to run back home. And that was just a little perspective of what happens to our bodies. And that happens over the course of 25, 30, 35 years. And finally, this will not be the way I end this presentation, but I would be remiss if I didn't say it. uh... the uh... suicide rate amongst firefighters is thirty eight percent higher than the general population i'm part of the national fire chiefs organization there was twenty eight of us it's been a year together last year twenty eight fire chiefs across the country last week three of them reported suicides in their department last month three of the twenty eight What is the good news? The good news is the fire chief's office, the administration, and the city I know care about the fire department. And I'm going to continue to advocate for the fire department, the firefighters, their health and wellness, which includes cancer prevention, cardiac screenings, and mental health, wellness, and treatment. So with that, I submit and would take any questions.

Okay, so on that same vein, Firehouse 3, we look at the conditions. I know in the capital improvement book, we have Fire Station 3 reconstruction and Fire Station 6 reconstruction. Those are big, big dollars. But knowing that our firefighters spend a third of their lives in these firehouses, and the conditions of them, has that been added then to the budget? I mean, because it's not in your budget, it's in the Public Works budget, but I know that's a conversation that we've had up here, is making sure that there is funding available to at least take care of the firehouses so that our folks are taken care of, so. I don't know who's going to answer that because Penny left.

So we did put in that $500,000 for the capital into the fire station deferred maintenance projects. So I've had meetings or procurement people with the fire department, city manager, public works to make sure that we are addressing some of these issues in a timely expedited manner. And so yes, that money is going there in addition to our normal contribution of CIP funds. We'll also go towards some of those fire station improvements, deferred maintenance.

Yeah. And your people need to let us know, though.

Yeah. And this is one of those things. It sounds weird, but I'm actually excited about because I'm a problem solver. And this has been a problem way before this council, way before Mr. Garcia, way before Mr. Ford. I spent 10 years in a firehouse that was falling down around us and we tried to get somebody to do something about it. So. Like I said, I'm looking forward to the challenge of working with Public Works and the Finance Office to figure out how we solve this problem and have the funding necessary to keep the employees safe in their living environment. So I think we have the right people in place, and I'm excited about it. I'm so glad that it's actually come to, in a bad way, I'm so glad it's come to this point where we can really prioritize it.

Vice Mayor?

Thank you, Mary. Yeah. Again, staying consistent to who I am and talking about the elephant in the room. I don't think as a city we've prioritized fire reimbursement at the port. I'm not bringing it up anymore to direct this group what to do because obviously it hasn't been a priority of the council. I mean, I think part of what our responsibility is isn't just looking at the money that the taxpayers are sending to the city. It's also looking as a council what money we're leaving on the table and where we can go and pursue more resources. I do think at some point, maybe I'll put on a future agenda if we don't want to talk about it today, we need to decide as a city are we going to go after the port for fire reimbursement and get what we're owed so that way we can have more money to do more services or not and then take that off the list of things. And then the other thing is, you know, just where we're going in terms of the partnership with Cal Water, I think it was Cal Water where we were talking about fire hydrant repairs and stuff. Have we solidified that relationship to make sure our hydrants are being taken care of?

Yeah, so we've gotten a really good, a much better relationship. Actually, it wasn't so much a bad relationship. It actually was just communication and breakdown of communication. Some... kind of internally between some fire prevention personnel, dispatch, and MUD. And so we have tightened up that communication where my fire marshal is in constant communication with them, where we get the information because MUD is actually the department responsible. I know it sounds weird. They're the ones responsible for the maintenance of the fire hydrants. We provide the annual inspection, but to maintain, repair them, all of that is done through mud. So like if we're out on the streets and we see a hydrant, we call it 3-3, meaning not in service or broken. That gets reported to mud. So we've tightened up those communication those lines of communication and then it's getting reported to our dispatch center So our crews know in real time If a fire hydrant is not working well, I know muds here and I was stepped out to the restroom during your presentation But just just solidifying that point because the biggest part of the mayoral contention the race in LA right now is over how the fire

how the fire was handled or mishandled. And it's a really, really big deal. And I remember when Chief Edwards was here, I ran into him and said, hey, are we set up to make sure we don't have a disaster like this? Oh, yeah, everything's great. And then comes out that District 6 had all those broken hydrants. So are we good now with this partnership with Cal Water where that's not something we have to be concerned about?

Yes, we are still working with Cal Water to solidify that relationship. I know there was a few things going on with our deputy director of water with that. But we definitely have got a really tight relationship with fire prevention, and we are on that. I can't remember what the last number was, but out of the 7,000 hydrants, I think there were three or four that were not operational. So sometimes it's just a matter of getting parts. There's a lot of different styles. So it's not like we can just go fix it right now. Sometimes it might be a day or two. But yeah, I think we're at a super high rate of active fire hydrants. There's not that many that are out of service. So we're doing a good job on that.

Great. And then, Chief, just the last thing. I made a statement about fire reimbursement services at the port. I guess I'll ask a question since you're the expert over there at that department. Is fire reimbursement at the port something we should be pursuing as a council and as a city?

I don't think anything should be off the table. I think we need to look at all opportunities to help the The port is 2,000 acres. It's a wide area of land with a lot of diversity in product, hazards, things that are out there. I have had a couple offline conversations with different people at the port, and I think all of us have been eager to kind of discuss not only funding but preparation. Are we prepared and ready as we all kind of maybe saw the Orange County Fire Authority incident a couple weeks ago with a hazmat that went over about 72 to 96 hours with a possibility of an exploding tank? The biggest question to me is, are we prepared? And if we're not, how do we get prepared? And could the port help us in getting prepared with some funding to do that?

Well, the reason why I bring it up, I think our legislative records are important. And being on record saying that, I think we should be in the work of prevention instead of response. I will say, having sat in a meeting in LA with somebody who lost $100 million worth of art and home to a fire, one person in a whole city and then also being wiped off the map for the most part was a very challenging thing to respond to. Um, and I would say, you know, this city has four votes on the board of the port. We appoint four boards. We have the majority. I think this council, uh, you know, when we talk about budget, we need to give our city staff more resources to work with. And I think that, you know, now more than ever, um, it's great that we have a $1 billion budget, but that's what the taxpayers already paying. What they're entrusting us to do is to give some direction to staff and our commissions to take the appropriate action. I would, say that given what we're looking at, we can do more with more. And I do think we should be pursuing fire reimbursement at the port and some really clear defined understanding on how we're providing service, not in response to a crisis, but to prevent it and be prepared should one happen. But thank you.

You're exactly right. I use the word prepared. Are we prepared? And that is my biggest concern and probably the one that causes me to lose some sleep at night about our people being prepared. And if we're prepared, there's certain risk, inherent risk. Every firefighter signs up for the job. We know there's certain inherent risks. But if we're not prepared, that's a whole other level and something that I believe is unacceptable. So that's the philosophy that I take.

Thank You chief all right thank you so before we move on to our police chief does anybody need a quick break or are we good okay so we're gonna take we're gonna take a nine minute break and we'll be back at 1055 so we would like to come back and invite our Amazing chief to the podium to give us his police department presentation Oh Look at that and he's flanked by two aides. Oh I like it. I like it and it's female girl power. Let's go. Let's go. Oh

Are we all here? Looks like we're all here. All right. Well, good morning, Mayor, Vice Mayor, our council members, City Manager Ford, and Gilbert. I want to thank you for the opportunity. Who the heck was, I guess Fire Chief was pretty tall. I was like, who was that? Here we are to present our 26-27 budget. This year's proposal reflects our commitment to public safety, to physical responsibility, and strategic investment in the people and resources that keep our community safe. I will discuss how we are maximizing external funding, how we're strengthening our workforce, and aligning our operation with the city's priorities. All right, our department operates through the Office of the Chief and three key bureaus. We have operations, we have the Community Relations and Logistics Bureau, and we have the Administration Bureau. Together, we deliver coordinated citywide public safety service that keeps us aligned with the mayor and city council priorities. Our workforce is supported by cutting-edge technology, by modern policing strategies, and a dedicated team committed to serving the community. Everything we do pushes for the council priorities of public safety, economic development, and infrastructure, ensuring Stockton is safer, stronger, and positioned for long-term success. As for public safety, we closed out 2025 as compared to 2024 and saw major gains in safety. Our traffic fatality dropped by 47%, improving the safety of our drivers and our pedestrians. We also achieved a 33% reduction in homicides, a 20% decrease in non-fatal injury shootings, a 10% reduction in violent crime. We also had a 12.6 drop in property crime and 11.8 reduction in all crime overall. Most importantly, violent crime against our youth fell by 20.75%, meaning fewer young people were harmed, fewer families were devastated, and our safer future for the next generation was made. A big part of our progress comes from the 54.5% increase in proactivity amongst officers, along with our See Something, Say Something campaign. Our community engagement is up. and Christoper tips increased by 29% with over 1,300 tips. That directly led to the arrests of more than 20 individuals. These results show what happens when the community and the department work together to create a safer street, safer neighborhoods, and safer Stockton. As for economic development, without public safety, there is no economic development. In 2025, With neighborhood services, we removed over 351,000 square feet of graffiti, cleared more than 104 tons of trash, and abated over 916 abandoned vehicles. All of which directly improved our business corridors and residential areas. Under strategic operations, we pushed even further. We completed 477 cleanups, include 164 take back the park cleanups, and we also held 152 crime prevention engagement with our businesses and neighborhoods. Through the chief's office, our relations section also connected directly with business owners and community members by attending over 126 events and coordinating chief walks. As for infrastructure, which was our third priority, None of what we do works without a strong infrastructure behind it. Last year, our telecommunications center handled over 575,000 calls for the year. That's 65.7 calls per hour. That's a call every 1.1 minute. That's how tasked your city is when it comes to the police department. We continue to do upgrades in our emergency system to keep operations running smoothly. Our boating unit protects the Stockton waterways, the levees, the marinas, and the Delta access so that public works, utilities, and emergency crews can rely on that every day. Our drone program has become a major infrastructure tool with over 1,600 deployments, which is 110% increase from years past. Drones support the levee inspections, traffic management, disaster response, and real-time assessments during emergencies. Our strategic community officers also strengthen infrastructure by partnering with Public Works to remove over 52 tons of trash from neighborhoods and waterways, protecting the storm drains, the levees, and public spaces from damage and flooding. When we launch a real-time crime center, we will add a powerful new layer of support that will monitor the city. We would be able to see the corridors, the facilities, the waterways, and providing all city departments with real-time information during storms, outages, and major incidents. Together, these systems form the backbone that keeps Stockton's infrastructure safe, stable, and functioning. One of the most important points on this slide is that we aggressively pursue outside funding to reduce the pressure on the general fund. For fiscal year 26-27, the department will receive over $20 million in external revenues across Measure A, State COPS, AB 109, asset seizure funds, grants, and other special revenue programs. This strategy allows us to maintain essential services despite innovation, rising costs, and workforce challenges. How the $20.1 million breaks down is roughly $7.3 million comes from the general fund revenue sources for neighborhood services fees and fines, our traffic citations, and contracted police services. $7.7 million is Measure W sales tax revenue that is dedicated to funding sworn officer positions. The remaining $5.1 million comes from asset seizure funds, grants, and other special revenue sources that offset operational costs. Currently, we have additional five grant applications that have been submitted, which could bring us another $4.7 million. Something we don't talk about often is our law enforcement partnerships and how it impacts our financial status. Our regional partnerships significantly enhance operational capacity. We leverage shared intelligence, equipment, and personnel. These partnerships expand investigative reach and improve public safety outcomes at a fraction of the cost of operating independently. Here's a breakdown of the partnerships that bring resources where we would have to have these individuals salaried. Start with the US Marshals. We dedicate two of our officers to that task force. That brings us 19 officers from throughout California that can help us in the city of Stockton. If you wanna cost that out, it's roughly 3.4 million in salaries. ATF, we dedicate one and a half officers to that task force. That task force has 12 individuals. If you quantify those salaries of those 12, it's roughly 2.1 million. Again, those could be costs that would have to be absorbed if we're trying to have those services by ourselves. FBI, we commit one officer to the task force. It brings us 24 salaried officers. That's roughly 4.7 million in savings, and they're doing the work in the city of Stockton. Our Auto Theft Task Force, we committed one Stockton officer. The task force has nine personnel. Again, another 1.6 billion in cost savings. County Metro, we committed one sergeant and two Stockton officers. We have 15 officers on that task force. Again, that's $2.4 million in salary savings. AB 109, we commit one sergeant and two Stockton officers. We have nine personnel assigned to AB 109. Again, they're doing the work in Stockton, and their salaries equate to $1.2 million. And lastly, our human trafficking task force, known as ASALT, we have one officer assigned to it. There's seven that staff it. It's 1.2 roughly in salary savings. If you qualify all the task force that we're on that are doing the work in Stockton, it's over 16.8 million in salaries that we're part of it for a fraction of that cost. Our total expenditures for year has been 202 million. This includes all staffing costs, equipment, supplies, training, and operational needs for the entire department. Our authorized staffing level is 662, including 425 sworn and 237 professional staff. In reality, our workforce today consists of 361 sworn and 195 professional staff members, supported by 61 hires, 52 separations, two lateral transfers to other agencies. For fiscal year 2526 to date, Our staffing has fluctuated from 368 to today we're at 361. We're currently 42 hires, 50 separations, and four laterals to other agencies. Our retention remains our strongest recruiting tool. We've invested $11.9 million in the Measure 8 side letter, where it brings additional benefits and ad pays to seasoned staffs. It also has some recruitment incentives as part of that as well. Our recruitment pipeline is strong. We have 65 candidates in backgrounds and are planning for seven command staff level retirements. Our police aid programs, where I have Zion and Rhea next to me, That is probably the best thing going, not only for our department, but I would say for the city of Stockton. Currently, we have 14 police aides. We have six others in background. We're currently authorized 20. And so kindly, the city manager has granted us with 10 more, which are being accounted 30. It's building a strong bench for the future of the Stockton Police Department. The ages are from 16 to 25. Once you reach the age of 18 to be part of that program, you have to be in college. So we're bringing in several educated youth into the program. And it's not about them being officers. They have so many different options, but we want them to find a home somewhere in the department. They rotate every four months throughout the department. The first four months may be working cold cases, which we sign two there at a time, and they really are with our cold case detectives going through these cases and helping with triage. They might go with code enforcement, where Omarosa has them in a vehicle with AI and gives them, here's your iPad, here's your radio, and go get to work. So my department leaders are not babying them. They're putting them to work. They're learning incredible things. One might go to an animal shelter for a quarter and learn about the helping and taking care of our four-legged community members. It's really been a great program. Today is the first police aide that was sworn in as a police officer and had the onboarding with HR, so we're all higher. So we can be more impressed by the police aid program. And they all come in with the perception of what they want to do. Some come in wanting to be a police officer, where they end up being a dispatcher. Some come in wanting to be a dispatcher, they end up being a police officer. Some come in wanting to be an animal control officer, they end up being a code enforcement officer. I'm not sure what these two want to be. Do you have any idea?

I would love to be a police officer. My end goal, I want to be a detective. It's definitely my way of getting my foot in the door and it's been very beneficial, I'd like to say.

And you?

I would also love to be a police officer. I've learned so much as being here so far about respect, commands, and everything, and I would just love to be a police officer here.

And Chief, that lends to something because I know it says your prior year accomplishments, it says hired a total of 50 sworn personnel. And I know that doesn't mean all of them made it through the academy, made it through probationary and all that kind of stuff. But when you set these aids up, I have no doubt once they will stay for the duration and they will be valued members of not only the police department but of the city of Stockton. So we need to keep this going.

100%. We firmly believe this is the best recruiting tool that we have because they learn how police departments operate. And they learn all things, everything as it relates to public safety, right? Not just policing, not just enforcement. They also get assigned to my engagement team, so they learn the engagement piece as well. But we couldn't be more proud of these youngsters. So this slide highlights the core of the general fund budget. There's a common belief that Police Department received most of the city's funding, but in fact, most of our dollars go directly to people, not programs. The increase you see here is driven by inflation, not expanded services. 76% of our $188 million requested budget goes to wages and benefits needed to maintain 24 7 public safety workforce which is roughly 143 million of our budget goes to salary and wages we also fund major non-police functions that many forget about roughly 8.9 million in our budget goes to code enforcement we have another 6.9 million that goes to the animal shelter Materials and supplies are down 8%. We cut our capital outlay from 594,000 to 22,000 is projected for the next fiscal year, which is a huge drop. And we do that by relying on our grants rather than general funds. Our budget requests are focused on strengthening safety, compliance, and operational readiness across the department. Several items support officer safety, including our Cal OSHA required gas mask requirements, our range backstop repair, and the ammunition needed for firearms training. We're also funding mandatory training such as emergency pursuit driving to keep our officers legally compliant and fully prepared. We've improved facility safety and legal compliance by updating juvenile holding areas, and we're replacing our 20-year-old evidence system with a new technology that will protect case integrity and assure reliable reporting. Operationally, we're supporting critical field functions by providing standby pay for fatal collision investigators and upgrading the equipment officers rely on every day. We are continuing our investment in policy and legal compliance through our flexible contract to ensure our policies remain aligned with case law and state requirements. Our asset seizure and state COPS funds lets us strengthen our frontline safety without relying on the general fund. Asset seizure dollars fund specialized SWAT safety equipment and high-risk operations. State COPS funding keeps key positions on the street, which are two community service officers and two crime analysts, and covers equipment, software, and traffic safety tools that support daily public safety work. Together, these outside funding sources boost our operational capacity, support frontline services, and reduce the financial load on the city. Our department continues to be proactive and secure grant funding that strengthens public safety and reduces pressure on the city's budget. Local AB 109 funds support our Community Corrections Task Force and provides access to key technology, including our FUSUS, PREPARE 911, and Peregrine systems. Federal grants expand our impact. The Burn Jack support gun crime investigations, COPS helps launch our real-time crime center, COPS also has our safer outcomes that expands our de-escalation and virtual training. And CGIC enhances our work with checkpoints, our ATF tracking, and our violent firearm offenders. We also secure other agency grants, including those from California for All Animals, which funds free pet retention programs. These grants directly support frontline work and demonstrate our commitment to actively pursuing outside funding to strengthen public safety. Our only addition to the fee schedule this year are the new fees tied to the opening of the city's new adoption and wellness center. These fees reflect the services and operational needs of the new facility and were developed using projected activity levels for the upcoming fiscal year. The new shelter fees added to support operations at the new location based on anticipated service demand and cost recovery. Our wellness center services also has fees aligned and expanded medical and care services at the new site. These updates ensure the shelter can sustainably provide high-quality care, support pet adoptions, and maintain a modern, humane facility without placing additional pressure on the general fund. That will be the end of my presentation. Thank you.

Okay. So, Council, any questions? Vice Mayor.

Thank you, Mayor. Yeah, I mean, well, first of all, I just want to acknowledge, and I've done it consistently in public and private, all the work that you and all your leaders are doing and all the officers. I know that a lot of our officers watch these meetings because I run into them at different places and they give me their feedback, which I love. So I do want to say that I appreciate that. The other thing I want to say is that to the two young ladies, I mean, congratulations on stepping up and doing something productive for the community. I shared with you before we got in here that I was a police cadet. I just didn't want to run. So I chose a different job that allows me to sit down. But I think you know your department promoted your deputy chief, Morris, who's been a great example for women in law enforcement and just law enforcement in general. So I can't wait to see what you do. So congratulations. You know, this whole council, I think, is interested in having a safer community. You said something that I think we should put on a shirt. Without public safety, there is no economic development. You cannot build on a city that people feel is unsafe to stay, unsafe to visit, or unsafe to work. That is true. And that is why I think that, you know, there's, although we're talking by department, there's this holistic thread that goes between everything that we're talking about. Like, how do we build, how do we build a safer community. Obviously, this last year has been very contentious around police substations, and whether we have them or not have them, I am still fully committed to seeing that happen one day. But understanding what you presented here today, the 65 candidates, I don't know if I missed it, but can you just break it down? How many of those are sworn, non-sworn?

Where are we going back to now?

You said 65 candidates in background right now, right?

Oh. So that means that they've taken a physical agility test, and they've completed the written tests, and now they're assigned a background investigator.

So those could be 65 sworn officers? Yep. Oh.

That's for a sworn possessor. So roughly less than half will make it through backgrounds.

OK. And then I know that you've been doing a lot in terms of recruitment. Can you just share what your experience has been? I know you've gone to HBCUs and have gone around the country. I don't know who's side talking. It's really hard for me to focus up here. But if you can just share recruitment efforts and what that experience has been like.

No, absolutely. We recruit far and wide. So California is very unique when it comes to policing. It's not a popular state to be a police officer. When you go back to the south and east coast, if you're not in the military, you're in policing. And it's just a whole different culture in California, right? Where they want to telecommute to work. They want to have a web page and make money that way. The last thing a lot of folks want to do is have to show up to a workplace. And not only that, don a bulletproof vest and now go out and save someone else at the expense of your own life, right? That just doesn't work for a lot of our folks, right? So we really... recruit heavily far and wide in the perfect scenario where we like to focus on Stockton, which we do because they know the town and they have the grit to make it through. Where we focus at in Stockton is we partner with the junior college and we partner with our high school junior and seniors. When we do our campus lunch walks, we tell them, you know, sometimes life happens at 18. And at the age of 18, you may need a full-time job with benefits. So we say, don't pass us by. We have those opportunities for you. When we do our campus walks, they pair us up with the team leaders of the different athletic programs. I feel there is no better recruiting ground for a police officer than someone who competes in sports. If you look at the makeup of sports teams, it's very diverse, and they work towards a goal that is bigger than themselves. They learn discipline, and they learn how to eat dinner at a table that they would never, ever ate at before, where they learn to see the different shades of humans and understand that they're all the same and want the same. So by far, 100% believe that us recruiting athletes is the number one choice on the list. And this and that, we love our veterans, right? We love those that have been very committed to the armed forces. You know, we figure if they can protect Sorrel afar, they can protect Sorrel here in Stockton. And we're very committed to, we partner with those bases. We have our veterans within the department that speak to them and we're part of some of their, their programs where their last six months in the military, we partner with our recruiting unit and they're able to get free time from work as they transfer into hopefully a policing role. But that has been exceptional as well. Yes, we've taken a show on the road and we absolutely have gone to D.C. and other places where there's very concentrated areas of colleges. We tapped several colleges in multiple states, all centered around D.C. One thing we found about there is their only way out of the East Coast is education, and it's a priority. I would say not having a degree is an exception to the rule. They're highly educated, very diversified, very humbled. And we do have some of them in backgrounds. It was a very successful trip. And they want to make it out to the sunshine. So I am fully confident that we can get someone to commit to Stockton soil that is not from Stockton, just what we demand of our military that goes to other soils that is not U.S. soil. And they die on that, and they're passionate about it, and it's what they can do for us here as well.

Councilmember Blower said that it makes sense that you're recruiting athletes because they like to run. I'm telling you, that's the thing.

Councilmember might be saying that you're not an athlete.

Not at all, not at all. I just have two other questions. So on the standards, I know we hear a lot about, you know, this many applicants apply, but only this many make it through. Is the standard for the backgrounds, is it a state standard, national standard that they have to meet? Is there an additional layer of what the department standard is? And is there any... Has there been any assessment of what may be prohibiting people from making it all the way through where there could be some flexibility without compromising our integrity?

Yes, that's a good question, and those standards do evolve with time. For example, when I came out, you cannot have any history of drug use, right? Now you can have history of drug use and still get hired. We follow the state standard with peace officer standards and trainings that sets up the K-Rows for us. applicant we will support in our post industry and that they come out and do post audits on our background files to ensure that we are in line with their guidelines that's how we get our basic officer certificates are through post so even post which is a conservative group right they have evolved with times and have loose there's more wiggle room now than ever before. But so many people just don't realize how certain life choices impacts their whole future. For example, my daughter is out of state and in the process for a law enforcement agency. And she got the background packet. And it's pretty much the same thing throughout the United States. It's a very thick packet. You have to fill it. Dad, you guys should give this to every elementary school kid so they know, hey, you're going to need this. You're going to have to fill this out later. So the more you stay on the ball, the easier it is to fill it out later. But they ask everything in here, but it's just how it is. Well, we want to hit it right, right? There's a lot of trust and responsibility that are provided to officers, right? They are... taking people's rights. They're taking people into custody. That's a very powerful thing. We hire from humans. We're already against the margin there because humans make mistakes. They're always going to make mistakes. What I tell people is, don't judge me by the mistakes made by my staff. You judge me how I respond to it and hold those accountable. Luckily, with the amount of work that my officers do, it's incredible that they're on point. If you think, like going back to 1.1 call a minute, and the amount of complaints that they get is very minimal. And I just can't be more proud of the challenging job that they have.

The last question I was going to ask really quickly, I know that you're, there's a recruitment effort to get high schoolers or athletes who are in high school before they decide where they want to go. What about like Army, Marines, folks coming out of the service, maybe they served one term and now they're looking for a job. Is there a program to do that too?

Yes, we have those. One of them is the PACE program, but we are signing up for those programs to where we put what we offer those coming out of the military. And it varies by, I think we're at a different military base probably monthly, and it's my military folks, so they can talk military to military, and that seems to help a lot. But absolutely, they know to look at Stockton while they're coming out. Because what we found, there's even folks that went away to college outside of Stockton, that want to come home and want to wear this patch, so that is a good partnership we have.

I have a couple questions, but I will say that at the Ports game the other night, you had a table set up, and I went over and I tried to sign up. I saw the signing bonus, and they said, no, I couldn't do it, but I was definitely interested. You brought up about time in background and the process that it takes when we're trying to get somebody to sign on with us what are things that we could do to speed up that process because i know that other agencies they're getting it done faster than we are and so they're cherry picking people that would probably be with us but they're going somewhere else so what are some things that we could do too no you're right you hit that right on um you know some agencies got down like san francisco has it down where

When they show up at the testing sites, and a lot of them are hosted in San Jose, they literally bring someone to do the notary, they bring HR, they bring a background investigator, and they do job offers right there. So they get a conditional job offer right there, where of course it's pinning the background, but they're locking them in quickly. It's almost like what you do for athletes for college, right? They're like signing 14-year-olds that clearly can't play now, but they see what they could be in their future. So it's gotten very competitive because, again, in California, it's not a popular profession. Even my prior agency, they're offering massive signing bonuses. I think top step officers, about 225, and they can't fill those spots. That's just how... challenging it is to get people in policing. It's tough. I think social media has made it tougher. You can do everything right, but a certain amount of people saying it's wrong and then that now becomes a proper opinion, right? When that officer has held true to their oath, true to the law, true to themself, right? So that's very challenging and a lot of folks just don't want to do that. There's easier ways of making a living than constantly being scrutinized on a regular basis. But I ask for what we can do is we got to be quicker. And I've now presented at a couple civil service commissions, and I express my frustration because we're not the quickest.

So if we had somebody dedicated in the HR department that this is what they did, this is their sole job is to make sure that we're getting people through, so it's not sitting on someone's desk for weeks or months at a time. Correct. Because I realize there's people that, listen, they go off on FMLA, and maybe that's the person they're doing, or they have somebody, you know, they're sick, or they're on vacation, or whatever. You know, things pile up. That's why I'm always on my emails, so I don't come back to a thousand emails.

No, absolutely, and I can give you an example of what happened to us. When we did the D.C. recruiting trip, and we ran the post-test, right, the post-certified test abroad, our Connecticut HR had that day off. And it's nothing against that person, incredible person. We love working with that person. But that's a challenge you face. And what I'm trying to get everyone to understand is no one's going to pass up a job offer. No one's going to say, oh, I'm going to hold out and see if something better comes. No, they're going to take the first job. They're absolutely going to take the first job. And if we are an agency that can be within the first two then we're never gonna get these applicants, right? And there's things we can do is I think our conditional offers need to be sooner. I think we also need to have a dedicated person in HR that is housed in PD. We have a desk for them and it just makes sense. If that is your largest department with the most vacancies, it makes sense to me to have a dedicated person that works for the police department to help move that mission

Well, maybe that's something city manager can work on is making sure that you have somebody dedicated to doing that.

Duly noted.

Okay. Moving on to my next.

We got that on the record?

Yeah. It's recorded. It's recorded. Of course. And it is 1131, so we can go back to the time check. So a couple other things, you know, animals. We get calls about certain things religiously, and one of them has to do with animals. And I was so happy to read that, you know, there were nearly 5,000, 4,964 animals that were saved, that found their forever homes. Whether it be here, returned to their owner, or... Gone to another city or even I know some have gone on to Canada or and found home But I don't think people understand the amount of animals that are that yeah the sheer volume that we have but a 79% live release You know, we'd all want a hundred percent.

Absolutely.

Is that feasible with that amount of animals?

You know, it's just impossible, it's impossible with that magnitude, right, to have 100%. And again, almost like public safety starts in the home, Being an animal parent starts in the home, right? These are discarded animals, right, that at one point they were welcomed in and then discarded. You know, I hear, I talk to Ashley and hear the stories that happen where people will bring their animals there and try to act like it's not their animal, right? And I think we can all tell when a dog is licking someone they're fond of And, oh, I just found them tied to a tree by my house. No, that animal's in the house with you, right? So that's kind of stuff, you know, they deal with. But year over year, they're doing more with less. You know, we have done a soft opening of the new adoption and wellness center. And they're doing a lot of training and adoptions there. And, you know, that's going to be great when it's at full throttle. But, you know...

And same with spay and neuter because we're at like, we're almost where we were last year for the entire year with numbers of spay and neuters. And I know we have one coming up next weekend. But people have to realize you have to sign up. You have to get an appointment. Because I talked to a resident who said, man, I just spent $400 getting spay or neuter when I went out with Anita. And they were like, oh, and I said, oh, there's a free program, but you needed to sign up. But I know people are taking advantage of it, which is a good thing. Yes. Because the need is there.

It is, and something we launched during this current fiscal year is just providing those shots in the field, right? Where they go out in the field, they're doing shots. So much is happening, and they took in over 8,000 in the last fiscal year. That's a lot of pets. That's a lot of pets.

And since you said out in the field, so out in the field when there are encampment visits that are taken, and I say that because there's a whole group of people that go out. And they are there to offer assistance to individuals. And I know, is it two a week? I think it read in the yeah roughly on average because that question came up from the public and it's it's coming we get a lot of questions about um what we're doing and I like I said I've been out I know other people of council have been out where 72 hours in advance yeah yeah they are are being offered everything that is available

Oh, absolutely right, and if you look at what is 21st century policing, you see that in encampments where it's having all the resources on site that can provide the surface, whether it's crisis, whether it's substance abuse, addictive behavior, whatever it may be, the team of resources is present during all those encampment cleanups, and they're There is no greater display of public safety and 21st century policing than during those encampment cleanups. Even Ashley sends out a team that they provide service. Their trucks go down in the slough. Yeah, yeah. No, absolutely.

Yeah, and what I found interesting was that when we showed up then on you know 72 hours later almost everybody had left that area but they didn't take services when they were offered originally and I don't know if they then took the services they thought about it they slept on it and said oh yeah I want to take it or they just said oh we know they're going to come in and we're just going to get up and move ahead of time because the the thought is is that is that the city goes in and just decimates everything. Like, we don't give them any notice. We don't try to offer them assistance. No, there's...

Yeah, there's options and resources. I think my suggestion when it comes to that would be more low barrier, right? You're asking the people to come in, you can't drink, you can't have a pet, you can't do this, you can't, right? How about we get them in there and then start working on addressing some of those concerns? I think we would get a better... return on investment going up.

And that's why we did the three Ps. You could bring your pets, your partners, and your possessions. That's what a low barrier is, no barrier. And that's the direction we should be going. Even if those are that are under the influence, they can receive, you know, housing as well. And then they work on it once they get them, you know, there. And you... The other part of that was the neighborhood betterment team, and that they did, how many? They do two a year?

Yeah.

So what was the success of that? I don't know where those two were, but I remember... way back when they were called blitz teams I know that was very negatively looked upon but I'm interested to know about you know what two neighborhoods were selected and how that worked but if we could get updates on that know if it's happening in you know an individual's district and they want to you know see how they can be of assistance makes sense and so that one and then code enforcement Code enforcement, they're trying to make a dollar out of 15 cents over there. I know that they don't have enough funds to do all the things that need to be done. So I'm just curious as to knowing, there are people that owe code enforcement a whole lot of money, a whole lot of money. Yes, including Gilbert. Because the city is taking care of their properties. And then what we can do in order to recover that, because this isn't just going to the tax roll. This is far exceeds even the value of the property that we'll probably never see back. So what are things, and I don't know if the city attorney could chime in on that too, that we could be doing in order to recoup the costs that we're incurring?

Yeah, I know Marcy and I have had some conversations. You want to tackle this, Marcy?

Well, we're going to attempt to revamp the criminal prosecutions and go after restitution. So I think that people will start potentially fearing being prosecuted for misdemeanors and ask at a restitution hearing for the cost of protecting their property.

Because this is mostly like... landlords that don't even live here, their absentee. I mean, it might be generational property that's held by multiple individuals in a family, and they've just kind of just walked away from it, yet we're still having to pay for that property.

Exactly. In an experience, it's more fearful to face a criminal prosecution than it is a fine that'll get rolled over to the county.

And then it's a tax deduction, I heard, on top of that.

I don't know that.

Okay, and then a couple more questions. DUI check spots, we used to do a lot of those. I don't see very many of those anymore. Is there a reason behind that? Because it seemed like they were every month.

No, they still do them. I might have DC pairs come up, or AC.

Because I know that's grant, I know that's usually grant funded, but I know that it was, they were regular.

Yeah, again, my name is Kyle Pierce, Deputy Chief of Operations, and we do do the DUI saturation missions as well as the checkpoints, and it's all through the Office of Traffic Safety through the grant, so.

And how many officers does it take to do that?

I don't know at the top of my head, but I know it takes sworn officers as well as our professional staff members.

And are those sworn officers then doing overtime then in order to do that?

Yeah, all the OTS missions are done on overtime, or the majority of them are.

And I know we don't always have people that are jumping up for overtime.

Our traffic folks are pretty dedicated, and I'll just say they like to work, so they're out there quite often. Okay.

Great, thank you. And then my last question has to do with annuitants and what our funding is for that, knowing that we have cold cases, we have traffic cameras, we have collaborative courts, you know, getting, I think of a retired deputy chief, Sager, and I think about is he really enjoying retirement or does he want to do a little something, something?

I don't think he wants to come back and hop fences.

It would be great if we used our officers that are retired, but they can choose their hours. Maybe I only want to work four hours or whatnot. But I know we still need those individuals that are very crucial to the work of the department, even though they're not FTE for the department.

No, we do have those positions already helping with the mission in various capacities. For one, we just hired two cold case detectives, I think, this week that will be in a homicide unit that they are annuitant. So, absolutely, we'll continue to explore that and probably have a conversation with the CM.

Yeah, because those are cheaper. I mean, but they still get bang for their buck. I think they're worth every penny when they're out there doing that important work. And I think that is it for me, and I will move it over to the Vice Mayor.

Thank you, Mayor. I remember on the campaign trail, I did this forum where somebody stood up and said, what are you going to do with all these loose dogs running everywhere? And I said, well, let me tell you about Betsy Sue. And I talked about Betsy Sue getting out and Betsy Sue getting caught. And if you don't come and get Betsy Sue and we can't rehome Betsy Sue, Betsy Sue is going to go to sleep. I think at some point, as a city, I mean, I love dogs. I have my dogs. And everybody that has a pet, we all love our pets. But where you have 6, 7, 10, 12 families, dogs running loose biting people you know we're spending all the city's taxpayer resources to figure this out staff are burnt I mean like we're doing all we can there's another set of responsibility to the public too and I do think at some point there has to be some policy discussion around like what we do with animals once we catch them I know that we were investing a lot we went to that tour of that the clinic where there was animals getting surgery in the middle. You could look, I could, and I'm just queasy stomach. But I do think the Betsy Sue model at some point has to be a discussion. We talk about code enforcement. I know the city invested all that money in that AI thing. Is that working or not working?

The city detect, yes. Is it working? Absolutely. It's a force multiplier.

Okay. And then lastly, I love the conversation about with the city attorney's office pursuing the legal routes, we talked about slumlords. And as we start getting into the housing discussion around housing policy, housing equity, there is a component to dealing with the bad apples. I do think at some point, if you have people who are intentionally inflicting harm on individuals in our community, we have to figure it out. Because you can only send code enforcement out so many times before you give a piece of paper and say, warning, warning, warning, warning. The Bible says warning comes before destruction. At some point, that last piece needs to be a part of it. So I do hope as we move towards those discussions, we give code enforcement, PD, and the city more to work with. But thank you again for everything. Thank you.

Thank you, Chief, that's it.

Thank you.

So I know we don't have lunch listed till 1220, so I think we have time to have Audrey come out from Community Services Department, because this is always an uplifting discussion. So I'm looking forward to hearing all the great things that Audrey and her team are doing to get our city residents engaged.

Okay, so while my team is coming, I will go ahead and get started. Marianne, will you please? No, Marianne.

That is the team.

So Marianne, go up that way. So Ali could not be with us today, but we showed up and we showed out with Ali in his absence.

Question, do we have to report all these gifts? Yes.

THAT IS WHAT WE DO, NOT TRY. SO GOOD AFTERNOON, MADAM MAYOR, HONORABLE VICE MAYOR, AND HONORABLE COUNCIL MEMBERS. MY NAME IS AUDREY V. JONES-TAYLOR, AND I'M HONORED TO SERVE AS THE INTERIM COMMUNITY SERVICE DIRECTOR FOR THE BEAUTIFUL CITY OF STOCKTON. Before I begin, I certainly want to express my sincere gratitude and appreciation to City Manager Johnny Ford for his confidence, his support, and leadership. It has certainly been both a privilege and a blessing to serve the community for the past six months. This afternoon, I am pleased to present the FISCO year 26-27 budget for the community services department. The community service department is uniquely positioned to touch the lives of every resident every single day. Our awesome administrative team that stands behind me today is the backbone of this department. They provide the leadership, The coordination, the support necessary, the support necessary to oversee a diverse dynamic system. The service that includes both libraries and recreation. We have Imelda Arroyo, who is our finance person and guru who keeps me in check. We have John Wright, who is over at Recreation Facilities and the Ultra Friday Night. We have Mary, who is our librarian manager. And we have Sarah, who is oversees the administrative piece. So it is certainly a pleasure. And I want to say thank you all for the job well done. Our library system consists of nine, good thing I couldn't read from there, consists of nine uh... branches eight county libraries uh... a bookmobile that brings literacy directly to neighborhoods parks and the train wheels bus that introduces children ages zero to five to the joy of reading through the visits of our schools non-profit organizations community events and family gatherings our recreation division consists of six community centers a senior center, six public swimming pools, a Playmobil, youth and teen programming, neighborhood events, contract classes, sports programming, and special events that brings this community together. This year, we want to thank the support of the community organizations in the various school districts that are committed to our aquatics team. Under the leadership of Thomas Freeman, we were able, and outside operators, including Sherwood Community, nine pools will be in operation and serving the Stockton residents. Our team programs, such as Project Toolbox, ultra Friday night which extends hours on Fridays from 8 to 11 p.m. and we will be providing that same service at Ursula Meyers this year. The community service department in my belief is truly the heart of the city. We serve every neighborhood. We touch every generation and we intersect virtually with every city department, especially the Parks Department. Rather supporting public safety efforts, youth development literacy, workforce readiness, neighborhood engagement, health wellness, economic vitality, community service plays a vital role in creating a stronger Stockton. We are often the first line of prevention. We prevent negative outcomes before they occur. We do create safe, positive opportunities and meaningful connections that strengthens the fabric of our community. Our work directly supports the City Council's goals and priorities related to public safety because we keep our babies off the street. Economic development, we provide over 400 jobs year-round for part-time employees and this year we have already made a commitment to the YES program and we will be bringing on 66 young people to work as interns throughout our department. We support the infrastructure investment. Look at Ursula Meyers. That was because of Measure M. And we have more facilities. We have McKinley, and we also have Victory Pool that was supported through Measure M. So we are stable in this community. And we are certainly expanding the opportunities for youth and families. Our mission, it is simple, but yet it is powerful, building resilient communities by cultivating lives and curious minds. For every dollar that is invested in community services is an investment in prevention, public safety, literacy, youth development, family support, neighborhood stability, economic opportunity, and community pride. We are deeply grateful for the residents for the support of Measure M and San Joaquin County for the continued partnership and investment in our library services throughout the region. Our key considerations, as we look ahead, to the fiscal year 26-27, our focus is strengthening services, increasing accountability, and expanding community impact. Our priorities include strengthening data collection and reporting systems to better measure program outcomes, community impact, and service effectiveness. We are expanding marketing and public awareness efforts through enhanced social media storytelling. and outreach. I would like to personally thank city council for approving our mid-year cycle for our marketing and social media. That person is hoping to start the end of June. We are excited that we will be able to finally tell our story and the public will be able to see the benefit of having the community services department. We are looking at increasing our participation in youth and programs by 25%, expanding partnerships and memorandum understanding with schools and nonprofits and community-based organizations by 10%. We are extending our aquatics and programming through October to include additional swim lessons, water safety education, and junior lifeguard training. We are increasing our literacy program participation by 20% advancing central library remodel project while ensuring that we continue to have access for this community somewhere here in city hall. As we prepare for our relocation, we look for. increasing our circulation of physical materials by 5% through community-driven collections and enhanced outreach efforts. These goals reflect the commitment to continuous improvement, innovation, and service excellence. Our position summary is real simple. this year we are looking to hire one bookmobile driver circulation assistant as our programs extend and so does the needs for a driver this position is funded through partnership again with san joaquin um counting at 65 and approximately 35 from the general fund but i need to make sure that we all understand that we understand that there is a problem in terms of the funding sources so in order for us to get this position we have given up hours for our part-time staff to ensure that we're going to be able to hire this driver so that we will be able to meet the needs of the community especially in the disadvantaged communities. This investment will allow us to, like I said, expand access for library and recreational services. Our financial summary. The financial summary before you reflects the department's ongoing commitment to fiscal responsibility and stewardship. The strong communities column represents Measure M, initiative from which we receive one quarter cent sales transaction and use for the library and recreation services. And again, I'm going to continue to say thank you to the community for supporting this measure. The library column, it shows the value of our partnerships with San Joaquin County. The recreation column includes our revenues generated through our programs, our rentals, our contract classes, and programming. The other column reflects the golf course and special revenue. We remain committed to maximizing available resources while ensuring services remain accessible and affordable for Stockton families. Our fee changes, they too are simple. The goal is to maintain access for affordability and will continue to provide high-quality programs and services. We firmly believe that every child deserves an opportunity to learn, to grow, to play, and thrive regardless of economic circumstances. Creating a range for youth sports camps is aligned with all of our other sports camps. This will allow us the flexibility to be able to offer more camps. The adjustment for the sports, we are moving away from the per team and we're going per player, which you will see a very slight difference. And we are also trying to increase our participation in numbers in that area as well. So as I close. This afternoon, I want to thank again the mayor, vice mayor, and city council, city manager, the Park and Rec Commission, the Art Commission, Measure M Committee, county partners, community organizations, staff, volunteers, and our residents who continue to support the work of the Community Services Department. Your investment It does make a difference. For every book checked out, every child who learns to swim, every senior who finds connection, every teen who chooses a rec center over the streets, every family that gathers at our parks, centers, libraries, or special events. Those moments matter. They are not simple programs. They are opportunities. They are relationships. They are pathways to a stronger community please know this that the community service department is not just a department community services is where Stockton comes together it is where our stories are discovered where lives are enriched and where community is built one person, one family, and one neighborhood at a time. We invite you to join us this summer as we continue to unearth the story and unleash the fun. Together, we will continue to build Stockton where every resident has the opportunity to learn, grow, and play. Strong communities don't just happen by accident. They are intentionally built through opportunities, through the opportunity to learn, to connect, to play, to grow, and to serve. That is the work of the Community Services Department, CSD, is stockton thank you for your time your support your commitment to the people of stockton and i want to again say to the people of stockton thank you and we look forward to seeing you participate in one of our many programs our activity is guide us out and is full of programs for every generation so again help us to unearth your story and help us to unleash the fund. I thank you for the opportunity.

Vice Mayor.

Thank you, Mayor. Yeah, I have really two quick points. And thank you to all of you for all the work that you're doing every day. I mean, obviously, until Councilman Padilla brought that book out, I didn't know that we offered so many services. So it is really good to see that. You all are doing the important work every day. The McKinley Community Center. Do we have a plan or know what the plan is this year? Is CSD going to work on something or is that more in partnership with public works? The McKinley Park Community Center.

Oh, that's more of. Oh, you can answer.

Actually, between CSD and the police department, they've had ongoing conversations along those lines. And so the police department has expressed a large interest in going in and operating that facility. And so those talks will be ongoing about activities. For instance, I think we might even said something to you once about boxing and

some of those activities and so they've had ongoing conversations from that standpoint and I don't know if you don't know I'm just I'm good add any more to that or just from a budgetary standpoint is that something we'll have to get a grant to revive or to work on or is that something that'll come from

existing funds it will come from existing funds with also possibility of grant funding from the state of california we have a really friendly person in state grants with state parks and we've had conversations with them also and then the other thing is um this weekend i was out with the western ranch little league and just learning about how the impact of city fees are on some of the teams and the families and stuff like that i know that john you had talked about

exploring a sports commission at some point that I think could work very symbiotically with the CSD department on supporting all of our teams, the creation of new teams. I know the mayor and I and some people in the community have talked about Southside Little League. Is that something we're still exploring? Of course.

And I'll let Audrey talk a little bit to that. But from my vision, and she knows that we are not turning any child away. So that's number one. If we can recoup funding from an organization or whatever the case may be, or having ongoing talk, to work with them to figure that out. But no child will be turned away because of lack of money not having to be able to pay when it comes to parks and recreation facilities. It's ongoing with, yes, working with the different organizations. Actually, we were just out at the Seuss swimming pool this past weekend, and we had the coach from the Yellow Jackets out there, and they have a big bill, and they have a big bill that we're trying to work through, and Audrey was out there doing those conversations. So as we have those conversations, community groups sports teams youth baseball teams we're constantly working with them to try to alleviate and lower their costs as much as possible so yes you have a commitment from us to make sure that we have a relationship to reduce costing for them as much as possible

Yeah. And the reason why I bring up the sports commission thing is because I found when you talk to companies, I mean, you had Spanos that owns a NFL team and you talk to people about kids. And then now when people see the book and they understand all the things you're doing, I'm just wondering, is there a vehicle in the city where if, you know, any of the commissioners from the city know there's a little league that needs support or there's the startup of this that needs support that people will know where to go to, to pour into and work in connection with, your department something to think about uh... i just know as i is you know when i when the little league so we need five thousand dollars to these fees or whatever i have one conversation so i so we would love to support i just know that the help is out there i'm just trying to see where that how that vehicle come alive anyway thank you again thank you author uh... archie judges your names on the booking here author unleash the story

Thank you again for all that you all do. I know it's not one person, but it's a collaboration between all of you, and your heart shows. You wear it on your sleeve because you're out there with all ages every day trying to make their lives a little bit better. I would say I wanted to point out that we went from $983 million last year to $1.5 billion this year, which is a difference of 6.82%. You, I love page G10 of the book that shows the meager $272,640 that you have increased, which is only 0.72% of a percentage. So you're not keeping in line with the rest of the budget. Just wanted to point that out. But you're doing more with less. And I appreciate that. Speaking of that, I know that we've also gotten a donation from the Community Foundation of San Joaquin for free swim lessons, the NFL and Toyota Fund for flag football to get that going. And then I've been talking to the Major League Baseball. They have a grant called Play Ball. We talk about Southern Little League bringing that back. They have funding that's available for us working on that. And then I spoke to you on Saturday about a major donor that I'm trying to... I'm throwing out the line and trying to reel them in so that we could do some of the things on our capital improvement side. But going to that book, you talk about marketing. So I had my youth advisory meeting last week and I gave them the book. Because I said, listen, I need you guys to be promoting this. And when I went to the team page where free transportation, free admission, free lunch for all those things. And I said, you can go to Sky Zone, Zap Zone, you know, even a Giants game, you know, Ports game, all that kind of stuff. They all grabbed their phones out and were taking picture of those pages. And they're like, what? We did not know. So I have charged them with making sure that the word gets out. Your person's coming on. They're going to have help. from our youth because that's whose hands it needs to get into. Because they say old people are on Facebook. They don't go on Facebook, that's for old people. And that's kind of what we put out there. But they're all TikTok and Instagramming, but majorly TikTok. So I've asked them to do that. And then I appreciate you saying the pools will stay open a little longer. I would love it if our parks overall would stay open a little longer. For example, when we have our our Pop Warner Football League. The championships are like November 21st, but the park closes to them on November 1st. How are they supposed to practice to get ready for their Super Bowl of sorts? So I would ask that that be looked at. And on that same vein, You know, I see the cost structure, whether there are, you know, 50 kids in our park or I should say pools to 50 kids in our pools or one person in our pool. The pool still costs us the same amount. And if we could work something on that, I don't know what it ultimately costs us. But, you know, I'm thinking, you know, a dollar. person but I mean you know I don't know how we can do that but seeing all the kids so happy swimming in our pools since they've opened and and all the squeals of excitement is really what you know warms everybody's heart I think we want people to use our facilities we want them to use our assets we want them to feel like they matter that we care about them and that their quality of life is better because of what we offer them and it's their tax dollars hard at work you know for these families so uh... uh... let's see one more thing i wanted to bring up oh and so along that lines of cost of using I think specifically of Stribly. I remember when Stribly didn't have a bathroom and didn't have lights. And now it has a bathroom and it has lights that they got a couple years ago. But, you know, the cost for them as an organization in any of our parks to use it, you know, what is like the baseline cost? And if we move that on to them, like just lights. The grass is still gonna be the grass. I don't know how much investment we do in that maybe, but we want kids being supervised. We want them doing something that's healthy and good for them. We want them to be outdoors and not on, well, nothing wrong with video games, but we want them to be outdoors. And I look at some of these sports teams and how much fundraising they have to do just to get by and it breaks my heart that like you said some nobody will be turned away I think the city manager said no one would be turned away but but for these sports teams there are people that get turned away just because they can't afford the uniform unless they get a donation or something like that. But just to use the fields, if we can be kind of creative in that effort and if it's a matter of getting us some more grant funding or donations or whatnot, I'm sure all of us up here would be more than happy to do a pitch for our families. But thank you, thank you and thank you again for this. So with that, we are, it's 12.10, so we will break for lunch, and we will come back at, let me look at my schedule, let's come back at one o'clock. Is that enough time for everybody to eat lunch and be back? Huh? Oh, an hour, okay. So it is 12.11, so be back by 1.11. We're adjourned for lunch. Okay, good afternoon and welcome back to this special budget study session. Next up, we have Stephanie Ocasio from the Community Development Department to give us her budget presentation.

Good afternoon. As the Mayor said, Stephanie Ocasio, Director of Community Development. The Community Development Department guides the city's development and growth in accordance with the general plan. Our duties include processing land use, development engineering, and building permit applications, ensuring safety in the environment via building inspections, floodplain management, implementing ever-changing state laws, supporting economic growth via streamlined processes and facilitation, administering the public facilities fee program, developing policy, and providing technical and program support for the city council, Planning Commission, and other boards and committees. CDD's budget priorities for the upcoming fiscal year are guided by our ongoing customer first philosophy for both internal and external customers, and the desire to empower our customers through active promotion of the services we offer. As the name implies, our priority is to provide the best customer service through transparent, efficient, and thorough customer support from start to finish. We utilize frequent self-analysis, process tracking, and adjustments to meet our ever-evolving customer and city needs and priorities. A primary method is ongoing monitoring and subsequent adoption of up-to-date techniques and technology to deliver services and build trust with the community and ensure a built environment that meets Stockton's needs. CDD is constantly evaluating technology to provide improved services to the public.

Key fiscal year, oh, I'm sorry.

Yeah, key fiscal year 26-27 considerations include implementing council policies and priorities, providing efficient end-to-end facilitation and coordination of development projects.

Is that the?

active promotion of CDD service offerings, ongoing staff augmentation to maintain service-level standards while minimizing city long-term financial commitments such as PERS, providing technical expertise and support for specialized department functions, continued development code updates and housing element implementation, and finalizing the public facility fee study. The requested 2627 budget will allow us to continue our efforts, pursue new and improved ways to provide service delivery, and support both internal and external customers. I think I'm missing a slide. I certainly am. What's not here, CDD is not requesting any new positions this year. And they're in a different order, my apologies. The Community Development Department is a special revenue fund that is primarily self-funded through the collection of service fees. Estimated 2627 revenues were drafted assuming a 20% decrease. Past atypical levels of high valuation projects caused revenues to artificially increase, affecting year to year baselines. Current development volume remains consistent. However, evaluation has begun an expected course correction, which appears to be a significant decrease in revenues when in reality are reflecting average development valuation in our region. Further, a portion of our CDD revenues will now be directly allocated to Public Works Sub Fund 226, specifically for encroachment permit and public works inspections that are triggered by development. The Department has elected to pursue this conservative approach with forecasting as revenues are heavily dependent on market conditions, which can be volatile. Despite this, significant development activity still exists and the utilization of fund balance is appropriate and planned during these economic cycles. 2627 expenditures are lower as a result of existing contracts already being fully encumbered in previous fiscal years and the public works inspections no longer being reflected as a CDD expense. It's important to note that this Community Development Department also partially funds up to 61 external positions citywide, lessening the impact to the city's general fund. PFF admin revenues were estimated at approximately 98% of the fiscal year 25-26 year end projection, which equates to a 26% decrease compared to last year's actuals. This does correspond with current development activity. Revenues are also impacted through the continuation of CESP waivers. However, the 2025 CESP program amendment will allow for increased PFF collection as the program begins to wind down. The completion of the Nexus study is expected to overhaul this program and increase future revenues. There are no new fees proposed for 26-27. I believe that slide was gone. In conclusion, CDD's priorities are to advance city goals and policies, foster economic development and infrastructure investment, strengthen internal and external partnerships, maintain compliance with evolving regulations, leverage current technology, address homelessness and support affordable housing through streamlined permitting, and continue providing efficient, transparent customer service. We're happy to answer any questions.

Vice Mayor.

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you for the presentation. What work has been done, if any, to look at how we're streamlining the process of getting permits and all of that work? Because I know one of the things that we had talked about coming in was wanting to increase efficiency in that area so that way our community partners could get the work done easier and faster, more efficiently. And I heard somewhere, in the wind and I may be right or wrong, but Lathrop, I heard their city's process is like to get permitting and licenses like a few days versus ours it could be months. I don't know if that's true or not, so I don't want to say that's a fact, but what are we doing to assess how we could be better in that area?

Sure, so actually the Community Development Department has undergone ongoing process improvements since 2018. We utilize the Acela permitting system, which allows us to track our turnaround times, who touches it, who reviews it, how many times it has to go back to an applicant. And so through that initial data, we were able to reflect on ourselves, see what our data points were. We held an iLab exercise in 2020, which was a full deep dive into our processes for permit. We used a sample project that included reviews from all different departments, and we included outside stakeholders, so businesses, developers, internal folks, and we had a facilitator that really deep dive, and we identified any type of bottlenecks, pinch points, excessive touches on something that you don't need this looked at three times, what things can we cut out? And that actually established KPIs and thresholds that we were able to commit to. So right now, based on that restructuring in 2020, we've continuously evolved and upgraded based on technologies that's available, looking at our turnaround times. And our published turnaround times are industry standards. There's a lot of nuance when you hear a comment that a permit takes a few days as compared to a few months. It depends on project complexity. It depends on if there's land use entitlements prior to construction. It depends if there's a major CEQA review. It depends if there's an annexation. So without a specific project to compare to, it's really hard to be able to say that that's an accurate statement. I can say that our turnaround times We meet them with, I want to say, I'm trying to go back in my head with the details. We have established turnaround times, and we meet those often with either early or within a day, like 90% of the time. So we commit to a time frame, and we meet it. And we have certain, not catchalls, we have certain flags in the system where it's something called cycles, right? So you submit a building permit application, it has to go through review. And they're checking the plans, making sure it meets code, all that stuff. If there's anything missing, if there's anything that's incorrect, that's written down, sent back to the applicant. That's called cycle one review. They resubmit with those corrections, cycle two review. You hope that it's all been addressed. Then you issue the permit. If a project gets to cycle three, it's an automatic call for a meeting. We don't let it linger. We don't let it drag on forever. We immediately call and say, staff would like to meet with you. We can meet with you on Teams, Zoom, in person, however you'd like. So we can identify what's wrong with the project and keep it going. The department will be making a presentation that explores this topic in more depth in July. So I'm happy to give additional information to the council at that point. I hope that is enough information for the time being.

Thank you. That's helpful. So let me ask you, is there a, and then maybe as part of that presentation you can answer, is there an internal efficiency study process where maybe you may not poll but ask for feedback from the consumer where people who are current customers of ours or community partners, where they do a survey? Are there any type of surveys?

Yeah, so we have an online survey. We have card surveys. I think with the move, though, I don't know if we ever put the box back up, but we could put that back up. All the receipts have a QR code, I believe, at the permit center. So we have that available. And then we're going to be adding the QR codes to the back of the inspector's business cards. It's on the sheet. Oh, the inspection card actually has that survey right on there. So you can scan with your phone, immediately provide feedback to us. And we do review that feedback.

And then as far as development goes, outside or community development, how do we look for people outside of our ecosystem? So we know we have our local developers, we have our local partners. Do we cast a broader net to see who's outside of the city, county, state, country?

So those efforts would actually fall on our economic development department. And so I would respectfully defer to Ricardo. Thank you.

Okay, I do have a number of questions. So 414 million in building permits for the value of what they're doing, is that correct?

So we currently have a total construction valuation for all permits of about 510 million.

Oh, 510, okay, I was reading.

At this point this year.

Oh, this, okay.

Yeah, that's not what we brought in, just for clarity.

Okay, and then, you know, talking about the nexus study and our fees, when that process will be done so that we will be able to, you know, I know you have, what's the working group called?

The industry working group IWG.

Yeah, so are they participating in on that or will they do the last kind of like review before it comes to us or they are part of that public outreach process.

So we're actually have meetings scheduled where they're current. They're going to review the traffic master plan that ties into the proposed traffic impact fees that will be part of that overall Nexus study. And then when we have the draft Nexus study available for public review, they will also be looking at that and their feedback will be integrated into what is presented to you.

And that's going to be approximately... We anticipate bringing it to you by this winter.

That's the plan.

Okay, great. And then the last thing off of the Vice Mayor's comments, too. I've been contacted by a number of companies that use AI for a lot of that. And I think about how we're just utilizing AI. All cities are. There's still human component to all of that, but it allows... added you know efficiencies and I know 2.2 million or was it more 2.2 million that is for professional services mm-hmm new renewed and continuing service contracts would that be

So that's to allow us to augment our staff levels. So Stockton CDD runs very lean. Based on our permit volume and per capita for population size, we should be a department of 80. We're a department of 51.

There used to be a lot more.

Yes, before the bankruptcy. I think we were, I want to say 86 is the number I'm remembering.

There were a lot of people.

Yeah. We have more volume than before. That is for staff augmentation and specialty services. That's for our housing element implementation. That's for code updates. ongoing requirements of our department to meet state law, meet regulations and codes. We do utilize as much technology as possible. We are known as one of the example users of Acela. Acela, the company has actually showcased the city of Stockton in user conferences, on a podcast. They point other cities to us to see how to use it the right way, so that's something we're really proud of. We recently had a demo with an AI plan checker company, And to quote them, it provides that initial review. It's kind of that first take of any blatant, you know, anything that's missing or any obvious errors. To your point, it will never replace humans. You know, there's nuances to code. Sometimes you have to look in the gray a little bit. There's alternative methods to get to yes. And so AI won't be able to do that. But we are always looking and meeting with different vendors to see what's out there so we can utilize it.

Right, and then out of the, what, 51 positions?

Yes.

Do we have vacancies?

Well, they're actually being filled. So we have a candidate for the advanced planning manager vacancy. We just hired the vacant office technician, and then we have a senior plan checker vacancy that we're currently recruiting for. So we're in good shape.

And then how are things working at the new location?

In terms of just like the flow.

Yes, because I know you had rotating counter, you know, use the counter, but it's a very different environment physically than it was.

So as with any move, there's always going to be structural and logistical changes. Our department is now split onto two floors. So we've had to make accommodations and pivot on how we communicate with our frontline staff. Management has taken priority in going down there and making sure that they have the support they need. I think customers appreciate the proximity to a business license, to utility payments, to community development. I think they like that. We also bring people up to the second floor for meetings if we have to go more in depth. So I think for the public, it's a win. For us, it's great. I hate to be too casual, but the building doesn't smell, and it's clean, and it's nice, and the lights work, and we're happy.

I'm glad my pop always said but what I will say is that you know that convenience factor is huge because people be like what I have to go over to 400 exactly and then I got to go back to you know 425 North Eldorado oh no but then where I got to go over here you know it was it was very challenging for a lot of people and you know being able to just do one stop shop if you're in building two or if you got to move over to building one whatever it is you literally don't have to get back into your car and drive somewhere it's right there.

Exactly. And really, I don't see folks really having to go to building one if they're needing any kind of bill payment, special events, parking, permitting. That's all there. So it's one accessible place. Right. With more seating. So it's nice.

Yes, it is, it is. If people haven't been over there, please go. You can see your hard-earned tax dollars at work over there. And then last thing I would say is one of the biggest things that, hindrances that I come across and then we're gonna hear from economic development is oftentimes being an opportunity zone and wanting to be able to open, hey, Stockton is ready for your business to come. Stockton is ready for your investment to come. But a lot of that falls into timelines, like how quickly can those transactions occur? So whatever we can do to support the department and its efforts and to think that if we were able to pull back that 2.2 million there and actually have it so it's not So we're positive as opposed to being in the red, being in the black with our department.

And this is the first time we've had to do that. So, you know, actually the market's been artificially high.

Yes.

So this is part of our contingency planning. So the fund is there exactly being used for what's intended. But 100% agree. We have great partnerships with Fire Prevention and Revenue Services for business licensing, businesses coming in. We all communicate really well together. It's a good team.

Thank you. Yes, Councilman Enriquez.

Thank you, Mayor. Ms. Ocasio, I just want to say thank you again. And I just want to reiterate from a couple of council meetings ago that for the year ahead, I do want to make sure that we have our discussion regarding possible amending of some ordinances with our land use permitting. And obviously, there's more context and specific words that, obviously, I want to be more educated on. I know something I want to talk to you about. Obviously, we want to bring in revenue, but I also want to make sure that, you know, I know we have a certain standard of a checklist and it meets certain requirements, but particularly with our fast food restaurants, I want to make sure that we can have a discussion and talk about the year ahead about what amendments we can utilize through ledge committee. And then hopefully this council can consider that policy to the pleasure of the council. But I want to make sure that that's in your radar.

Staff is always ready to support.

Great. Thank you.

Seeing nothing else, thank you so much, Ms. Acasio, and keep up the good work. Okay, moving on then to EDD. Christine, yes, Ms. Tien.

There we go. Okay. Because economic development is a priority of the council, the city manager moved the economic development director position into the city manager's office. And we have hired Ricardo Noguera sitting over there into the role. But I also want to recognize Tina McCarty, who is now the director of housing and homelessness initiatives. And, of course, she was holding down the fort before. So we are currently conducting. Oops, let me. Okay, so we are currently conducting a thorough staffing analysis to bifurcate the previous economic development department, which included both economic development and housing. And this bifurcation process will allow us to focus on council priorities, to strengthen the city's economic development efforts, and also to expand affordable housing and shelter for the unhoused population. So economic development staff is currently developing, I would say, ongoing economic development strategies. But Ricardo is working on a three-year one. And housing staff, of course, will continue to advance affordable housing and reduce homelessness. And here is a financial summary. And some of the transfer outs you'll see is really largely due to capital improvement projects. And if you have detailed questions, we have staff here. And then for the general fund, for the other services and expenditures, there's a big gap. Again, that was a one-time cost for like the broken windows program. And I think there's a, Oak Park Ice Rink HUD refund, and then Stockton Shelter Operations. So that is actually, if you have other questions. Oh, here's fee changes too. Yeah, if you have questions. We got staff here. Vice Mayor.

Thank you. So I recently held a forum with county, state, and city folks, community leaders, and business folks around what I believe is an important piece of making Stockton thrive again around public safety. And the chief said earlier, public safety, there's no economic development. We talked about the PI model, prevention, investment, enforcement, investment being the economic development piece, which, as you stated, is a priority of the council. I mean, you know, I know that we're looking to approve the budget today and we're going to approve it and give staff the resources to do their job, but I think how we do it is important, right? So I don't want to, I want to spend a little time on this piece because economic development is important. When we talk about economic development, what is the focus of how we intend to pursue the work. So, for example, Council Member Riquez wants to see less fast food shops. I want to see more technology. We talk about, you know, job growth. We know FIFA is at the table. You know, what type of vision do we have for how we plan to build economic vibrancy here?

Good afternoon. Ricardo Nogueira, Economic Development Director. It's a pleasure to come before you. So we put together short-term, what I consider short-term to me is six to 12 months, mid-term, a year to two, and what I call long-term, two or more years. So the first is tax revenue. Boosting the tax revenue. And the goal is over the next 12 months to attract a minimum of three large revenue generators for the city. I'm gonna keep it broad because we're working on them right now. The second is financing and specifically focused on the downtown. Many of you may be familiar with an enhanced financing infrastructure district. The state legislature brought them back in 2014. We were exploring the establishment of an EIFD here in Stockton, primarily the downtown, to attract developers. I think, Vice Mayor, you asked, how are we doing recruitment of developers? So when I go on a recruitment, I've already identified a number of the developers in San Joaquin County. I've actually begun meeting them. This is my third week here, but I've already begun meeting them. I already have contacts across the Bay Area. We'll be utilizing the Urban Land Institute, International Council for Shopping Centers, and NAOP, the National Association of Industry and Commerce Professionals, to span a web well beyond the Bay Area, whether it be Southern California, and I know you have contacts down there, so do I, as well as elsewhere across the country to attract developers and working with the brokers. Also utilizing social media. So if you look at my LinkedIn page, I've talked about the University Park. I've talked about UOP's new school of medicine that is now moving forward. So a lot of folks, believe it or not, across Northern California don't know the treasures you have here in Stockton. So I'm going to use social media. Staff will be going to conferences, hosting booths, and we'll be proactively promoting recruiting developers and brokers to Stockton and talking about all the positive things taking place. On the mid-term side, and mid-term to me, don't think I'm just working short-term. I'm working mid-term, long-term, all at the same time. attract retailers i heard the question about fast food i didn't get the whole just did it uh... i don't know if you're opposed to drive thru's where just came from they did not want drive thru's i don't know what your position on drive thru's or fast food is i've already done a a A cursory survey of Stockton. I know you have quite a bit of fast foods. There are a number of cities that would want a raisin cane, a chick filet, and so forth. You have quite a bit of fast food here. I've been trying to attract... What is the restaurant? Texas Roadhouse. I reached out to that broker, and I'd been working with him to bring one to Brentwood, and he said... Stockton's got some crime issues. So I have to overcome that with him. Because I said, we're no different than Tracy or Fairfield that also have Texas Roadhouse. I'm also, on the midterm, we're trying to find ways to keep Stockton and San Joaquin residents to patronize local businesses so we can minimize sales tax leakage and have people go to Lodi or Manteca or to Warner Creek. We want them to spend their money here and turn those dollars over. The third area, midterm, Second, sorry, is strategic partners. Already have a meeting set up with UOP president, I'll be meeting with him shortly, as well as St. Joseph's. Combined, we're talking over $40 million in investment in this city over the next few years. So we want to propel and promote the different developments, both from the public side and the private side that are taking place in this city, and share it region-wide so folks will think about investing in Stockton. I think you, Vice Mayor, you also asked a question about what industries. I'm heavy on the industry side. And I know when I was in Brentwood, I was trying to attract pharmaceuticals and biotech. If you're familiar with what's going on across the Bay Area, Meta, Google, and a lot of biotech companies are laying off. One industry where they're not laying off and they're growing is in medical device. We have a key medical device company here in Stockton. I want to utilize them. There's a conference coming up in San Jose in November. I want to go to that conference and go after other medical device companies. You can get jobs at these medical device companies. They pay good salaries and it does not require a college degree. In addition to that, aerospace, defense contractors. We have an aerospace company here. I want to utilize their presence to attract other aerospace companies to Stockton. In addition to that, advanced manufacturing. Our neighbor to the south, Lathrop, is getting more of that. There are companies in Fremont that are ripe. I'm not a poacher, but there are opportunities to get companies to expand eastward because we have the workforce. And those industries I just shared do not require college degrees. I'm also going to be reaching out to our job training agencies because many of them are preparing our folks here in Stockton to take those jobs. On the long-term side, we want to solidify our revenue generators, whether that be the Amazons, the Costcos, other big boxes we have here, as well as other larger revenue generators that are here in Stockton. We want to solidify them from the standpoint that we strengthen our budget So we're not having challenges. The second is, and this may be new to you, and I established this in Cape Coral, Florida, creating an 18-hour community. An 18-hour community is one that operates from 6 a.m. to midnight. So I'm focused on your downtown and basically people getting up in the morning, getting a cup of coffee, getting some breakfast, Partying. I was just at the warehouse yesterday right on the waterfront. You have opportunities. You have a Mexican restaurant. You have a Mediterranean restaurant right on the water. There are opportunities to really get folks, especially downtown, the heart of the city, to come out and have a good time and spend their money. here in downtown Stockton that requires more rooftops getting more housing downtown as well as getting more entertainment going And then lastly, as I shared, job training. Partnering with our training agencies to create opportunities and connecting them with our employers. Thank you.

So, thank you for that. I do have more questions. So, and I love all of that. At some point, I guess I'll ask one question. So, when are we, we passed a budget, when do you come before council and put out your economic development plan? Or how do we see that? The one thing that I like is everything that you talked about and how we put that into an actionable plan, step by step, who's holding what ball, how we're measuring success. And the reason why I ask that question is affordability is a crisis here, housing's a crisis here. As you know, we've learned homelessness, housing is reality. There are people that are not on the streets that are near on the streets. And then when I think about the fact that we do have underutilized facilities, we do have underutilized assets that we have not liquidated. We talk, we talk, we talk, and this is no shade to you. This is just the nature of, I guess, politics where we talk, we talk, we talk. And then a year and a half has already gone by where we could have put the arena up for acquisition of Live Nation. We could have taken all of our inventory that we don't utilize and liquidate and sold it or whatever. We could have passed. Or ordinances to put pressure on people who have vacant lots to either build, sell, donate, or do something. And as a city, we have to figure that out. But I think what would be helpful is when you define short term, that's one thing. When you define midterm, some of us may not even be here anymore. So I think the reality, not the current election today, I'm saying two years from now, my term is up. I don't know what my future holds. I don't know what my colleagues are going to choose to do. My point is that two years can come and go that fast. So the first question is, when do we plan as a council to see what the actual economic development plan is? I understand you just got here, but so we can weigh in and say, yeah, we like that, or why don't we pursue a smart city investment, or those things.

I'm sorry. Yes, I can best answer that. I will be working with Ricardo to come back with the plan within the next 60 days to present and lay something out to the council as a whole.

okay and i know we did already approve one uh i don't know if it was the last meeting or the meeting before that but it was pre-u it was pre-ricardo and so it was very focused on housing i think there was one section that was about business says in their small businesses because we have to do an annual you know action plan and so now you can put your You know wave your wand around it and hopefully add some things to it that will truly Drive economic development in the city. Yes.

Yeah. No Yeah, and I agree and that's why for example, like if you said, you know a smart city investment Is that something we're pursuing? I know you said we have three large revenue generators that you're looking at. I'm probably aware of one, but I'm not sure what the others are. But I just kind of understand the direction and where you want to go. For example, if we have these entertainment facilities, which I agree with you, the focus on downtown up to the Miracle Mile and being able to create a real strong nexus between that area we've talked about. wanting to see bar crawling and making it more attractive for people to want to participate. I love the 18 hour day concept and getting us beyond Mayberry where we're functioning. I'm just going to throw it out there. I know where I'm at. I like those ideas, but I just think, because all of us want to find more things to do and we want to create a thriving city. I guess now my question around how we do it. We're not going to do a grants team where there's a grants department. Are there going to be grant writers within economic development? You talked, I think, briefly about a grants program or company. Yes.

There is a company. Without naming the company, but this company has been around for years, especially in the state of California, and that's what they will do.

They write grants.

Thank you. They write grants all across the state of California. I've worked with them in the past, actually here with the city of Stockton and also in Southern California. They have a legitimate and good background, and we'll make sure that the council get caught up to speed on the overall plan of using that company. to write grants for us, but we're not going to have time to go out and look for grants to put an economic development plan in place. We're not planning to do that whatsoever. This is something that will be done and driven by us to make sure that we get a plan to the forefront to begin to implement. We're not going to wait until we get the plan in place though to continue to work on

implementation of getting businesses here to help grow our tax base no no i love that and i also think just looking at you know family offices um looking at you know beyond just businesses like a texas row house but like there's um you know lorraine jobs steve jobs ex-wife who invests lots in urban communities lots in youth development um and there's i mean i have no problem sharing my relationships with you Just as we look at how we can strengthen partnerships, I like the public partnership approach because there's lots of state and federal grants out there that we as a city may not apply for. But if we partner locally, then we could be able to go and get that money. And then the last thing, I think we've talked offline about just streamlining all the nonprofits in this community where people aren't competing for the same dollars. We can partner up with them to. go after money and be more strategic about how we invest. 60 days would be great to see what the vision is.

And we'll make sure that we get a chance to sit down with each of you to begin to share your vision and his vision for Stockton and how we get there together.

Oh, and just one last thing. Where there is no public safety, there's no economic development. I love that. I'm going to put that on a shirt. We talked early on about this sign. They used to have this sign, from what I've learned, that says Stockton someplace special. We talked probably a year ago like, oh, we'd love to see it coming in from Lathrop. We'd love to see it coming in off 8 Mile Road into Stockton at some point. I think the marketing of Stockton needs to be better because there are a lot of amazing things. And the other thing is that in terms of storytelling, as we get deeper into the city manager portion of the discussion, We do have an entire department that has been funded for over a year whose sole job was to do that. And so I'll hold my comments for that point. But yeah, I do think our storytelling is important. Obviously, I can help with social media, but I welcome and I just look forward to seeing your ideas.

Council Member Villalpudo.

yes uh first of all i want to say thank you um and welcome to our city i'm now looking forward to our meeting tour of my district and i do like the plans that you're bringing up you know regarding texas roadhouse and all this but you know, reading all these news is just here in the day. Carl's Jr. 26 restaurants are going out of business, right? As a lot of the restaurants here that I get called in, right, is tomatoes, right? Tomatoes been going. It's three times the amount that has been up. So I don't know how we can work with our farmers in our restaurants. I think helping each other, I think it would help both sides. But there's a lot that I'm looking forward to, you know, having our tour and talking to you about some great ideas. But thank you so much.

yeah um so uh a couple of things 6 a.m to 12 a.m love it the 18-hour day the comment regarding our city isn't safe i beg to disagree chief has gone ad nauseum about all the things that the department is doing we just got something that said today 47 A fewer homicides this year than last year, but last year was less than in 2024. I mean, the trend is going in the direction we want. But as Vice Mayor alluded to, we have to tell our story. We can't let other people tell our story. We have to tell our story. And we also have to tell the residents of this city that the message you're putting out is incorrect as well. Because they love to say that, you know, crime is spiraling out of control. And that's simply not factual. the numbers tell a totally different story. And I would say for downtown specifically, we have a number of businesses that are struggling every day to make it. And we have Downtown Stockton Alliance, you know, they are doing their piece, but they're also taxing those business owners and the business owners often say, you know, what am I getting for that? Listen, I get tickets for parking. My employees get tickets for their parking. We don't have a spot in the garage. And I'm speaking about one specific business who his dream was to be downtown and to open a restaurant. And his dream now is a struggle every day. And I know it's not unique to him. I also would like to add, you know, in terms of revenue and partnership, I had a conversation with Sunstone yesterday about working on an economic plan and hopefully you can be part of that. And then Accelerator for America looking at foundational support working with our own community a foundation of San Joaquin but looking at other ways to bring in revenue and one I forgot to bring up that I should have when we had Public Works is through red light cameras using those revenues then that go back into Public Works then to work on our roads knowing that we did 262 stops the other day in from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. how many of those were for running a red light like nothing more than to cash in on those and get people to slow down it's a win-win you know for safety reasons and then revenue but but again you know those contacts that you have it's important that you utilize all of those we're we're You know, I said open for business bring your contacts here. I know that we are working with a number of different individuals outside We are bringing things in there'll be another press conference next week about on the 10th and council should be getting an email on that if you haven't already About some more exciting news that's coming to Stockton. So we we've got a lot going on for us and that waterfront is unlike what many other cities would dream of having they don't have it and we need to be exploiting that as much as humanly possible so thank you Ricardo and we need to have Ricardo at the very beginning of the book of the budget book you know under executive team we need to add his name I think when this was made his he wasn't started yet he hadn't started yet so let's make sure Ricardo is in our budget book so thank you so much thank you oh sorry vice mayor

No, thank you, Mayor. Yeah, and again, I just want to say that yes, the numbers don't lie and the city is getting safer. And we just got the crime report. I mean, when you look at neighboring cities, and you can even say per capita, our numbers are still extremely high. We just had a homicide on Saturday. So that does matter because this is a small community where people do share information. In social media, there is a lot of emphasis in this world on posting what's negative. And so we do see a lot of that out there. And you look at Modesto, that's right down the street, they report no homicides. I don't know if that's true or not, but zero homicides in comparison to our city. It does make you want to pause and just reflect on what's different here. But I think one of the things, and that triggered this thought that I had, in that meeting that I held where I created the forum is that truly, you know, tackling crime isn't just hiring more officers, that's a component to it, and we're moving towards that, right? We heard that earlier. But it truly is investing in our community, new jobs, job growth opportunities, training programs, and all those different things. The one thing that I wanted to know as it relates to a goal, just an attainable goal or a measurable goal, is there was a discussion at a public forum at Faith in the Valley where the organizers asked us to commit 5% of our budget to disadvantaged communities. Obviously, if you look through this process, you can't do that. But what I thought was a creative approach and a compromise is, why don't we say as part of our economic development plan that we'll take the total budget, if it's at 1.05 billion, and say 20%, I mean, I'm sorry, we'll go after 10% of that, we'll have this grants company or grants team pursue grants in the amount of 10% of what that equates to to invest in building in these communities. I thought that was a great compromise, and I don't know how we focus that. Maybe you take that note back and work it with the team and see if there's a plan. But if we know, okay, 1.05 billion is whatever many million, That's what we can be in pursuit of. And I think having something like that, it just reaffirms our commitment to disadvantaged communities that we do understand that part of poverty alleviation is truly investing in these communities where access to resources, services, opportunity are lacking. And I think that it gives us something trackable and measurable. So even if we hit 1% or 2%, 2% of 100 million gives us more than 0% of 100 million, right? So if we're not even trying or we're not even focused, It gives us something that is trackable. It gives us something measurable, but it also gives us a compass to work towards. So I just, if you can think about that and how that can work. There's a meeting on June 15th, I think the mayor and I are participating with you.

Yes, but I just want to expand to that. I'll be willing to say that we probably already have hit that number. Most municipalities, their cities are are heavy in employment services, employee services. So with that being the case, there's not going to be too many cities that will be able to come up with cash of 5% of the total budget because the wiggle room is not going to be there. But every time I send employees out every time i spend time in regardless to what neighborhood across the city if it's underprivileged if i'm allowed to count my employee services which i should because that is dedicating money and services toward an underprivileged neighborhood i'm willing to bet you we've already hit those numbers Now, there's not going to be too many cities across this country that's going to have 5% cash up their total overall budget to dedicate to an impoverished neighborhood.

Yeah, and that's why I thought that wasn't a reasonable approach to it.

because it just isn't and I was and that's part of my point so I think we can get together and even talk more about that long range because once you explain to people how municipal government funding works and budget works then I think they will always see that that's really an easy ask if they're asking us to spend resources right because resources is money

Right. So here. So let me just be clear that that was my response to them with respect to that request. But if 5% of 1.05 billion roughly is 50 million, say if and I'm not saying from this budget, we ask you to go find $50 million to give the districts five and six. That's not what I'm saying. I think that's what they were saying. I think that was reasonable. What I'm saying is I think that if we can identify disinvested communities, I mean, Obama was going to name the AB617 zone. We didn't get that, but then we kind of loosely said it was because we know it is. If we say the boundary of, and I'll just say Harding South, but I'll just say District 5, District 6, those lines. If we said those areas are the, because I have to go to Midgley's, I have to go to I have to go to a restaurant that I want to eat at with the family. That is where I have to go all the way across town, gym, all the way across town. So what I'm saying is for the disadvantaged or disinvested communities, is that we say okay you know let's draw the line and say as part of our additional work as a city to live up to what we're saying to our community of having a one Stockton experience where we can create job growth create business growth create residential growth or whatever youth opportunities in these disadvantaged areas we're going to ask our our grants team or grants company to pursue to be in pursuit of 50 million dollars that's strictly to build whatever it is that the council desires or the community desires on top of everything else we do because if we say oh yeah we're already getting 50 million dollars in housing grants but we don't know where those housing grants are going to go they're going to go on swain they're going to go on ben hole or they're going to go in sierra vista we don't know i think in order at least i know if you go to hardy i mean harding way and you start driving south it gets different. If you go from Lincoln Center, it gets real different. And I'm using different nicely, right? I do think part of what I'd like to see is how we take the idea that they had to say, okay, we can't give you 50 million of this, but we can definitely invest some resources in working with this company to set a goal that's trackable and that is measurable to help bring our disinvested communities up. That's what I propose.

Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Okay, moving on to non-departmental. Will Crew.

Good afternoon, Deputy City Manager Will Crew. This is not as exciting as economic development, but we'll get through it. Non-departmental is kind of a nondescript word, but basically what it does is it supports citywide functions that are not assigned to a single department, including legislative activity, elections, public outreach, and strategic communications. Also provides funding for debt obligations, support of other city programs, fundings, and emergency contingencies. Also advocacy efforts as we have talked about in Washington, D.C. and our two great lobbyists that we have. This is out of that funding. And basically the non-departmental budget provides the citywide resources, advocacy, strategic support necessary for advancing council priorities and maintaining organizational effectiveness. I did not move the slide. So there you go. So this is the financial summary for this department, for this budget. And let me just talk a little bit about some of what's in there. The special revenue, 260, is our PEG funds, opioid monies, and also Sajafka monies. real quick did you have a breakdown of those dollars um between peg funds opioid and i'm looking for my paper in here and sajafka yes i do so the flood agency reimbursement is 282 peg funds 200 this is budgeted for next year 26 27 and then opioid settlement budget is 1.65

And then what is PEG?

PEG is $200,000. $200,000.

OK. Thank you. All this is on page K45 in your book.

Okay, and then the next slide. Next slide. So we do have some variances. The employee services, that is really all of our smaller departments, and it's the vacancy savings, that's where you're seeing that, and they put it into our, into the non-departmental, because it would actually hurt the smaller departments if we did not do that. Other things, material supplies, other expenses,

small variances in in those in those spots but i think they care uh... so legal the i'm sorry let me go back here the in the more seasoned people of your may know better than me obviously the legislative advocacy i know that there's the work that happens when we go back Are those legal advocates or those lobbyists working for us in the state too? And if so, how do we as a council get better informed on what is happening? Because I haven't gone to, what is it called when you guys? One voice. You haven't gone to one voice yet, because there's a lot of voices that go for me. I don't feel like I need to be up there. But how do we know what the legal advocates are advocating for and who decides that?

So I definitely can get you a report, because it comes out every week from our state advocates. It used to be Emanuel Jones. I'm forgetting the name. If somebody can remember, they've merged with another company now. But they do a very good job at a thorough report on what each bills are and and what they're watching and what they would um suggest that the the the city do um and and when you when we do find things that uh or they flag things that this the city should maybe write a letter for or whatever that goes to the city manager and then it is it is distributed to council okay because one of one there's a bill that uh assemblywoman ransom and i were looking at as it relates to food deserts and making them illegal

If there's something like that that I see or that any of my colleagues see that we want to support, do we then send it to you or the city manager and say, hey, I think as a council we should support this?

Yes. Either one of us would be fine.

Okay, great. That's good to know. Yeah, I think if we can get that reported as a council it would be helpful just so we can learn more about what's happening and how we can get better involved. Yeah, we'll put that on the distribution list. All right, thank you.

councilman enriquez yeah thank you and to that point having gone to one voice i know some of the feedback i gave this is i went to two now in a row and um you know i asked about who our lobbyist was and you know the work he does year round and i got most of my questions answered i know one of the things i want to explore the year ahead and to the vice mayor's point about state legislate legislation what's on the docket what's coming up what are things that council should be aware of in terms of the impacts he could have on a city based on if it does passes if it does pass or not statewide but also nationally one of things that i want to make sure is that i talked to this with diane who's on the council of governments who needs a council of governments was really leading up to it uh... having more preparation of of advocacy and what to do once you're there uh... obviously we we do have a corny effort of when we go to certain meetings certain electives that you go but one of things i've noticed is observing but also have participated is that we also want to ensure that everybody has a role to play once they go in. So really prepping day of and that's something that we don't do and that's something that I've given feedback in terms of once you're there, who has a speaking role, what specific idea are you going to talk about in projects and while we do have a book of projects, I think also it We look better as a city when we come more prepared about who's doing what. Just to, again, make sure that we're taking advantage of the opportunity, but also year-round, if we can't go to Washington, D.C., but maybe in the fall we can do a Zoom call and introduce ourselves. I think all of us up here should have an opportunity to get to know our members of Congress, our state leaders. If we haven't done that yet, I think I would lean on our lobbyists or our public affairs group to help coordinate that effort as well throughout the year. That way we at least have the relationship, we have the face time, whether we can go in person or not. But I think having that adds a little bit extra effort and also continues the relationship. we do go back to dc or some of us come back again they'll say oh wow yeah actually you know i saw you two months ago via zoom and you talked about maybe a certain project in your district but i think that's something that i think other cities aren't doing and i think it would be more of a leg up if we kind of did that more extra work but obviously that's also feedback i shared with diane and also with florence but um i'd love to see what more they do throughout the year

Thank you. Now we are moving on to charter offices.

Okay. I will be taking charter offices on behalf of my colleagues. Let's see here. We're going to start with city council first. The council is a policy setting body for the city. It initiates studies and hold public meetings on issues affecting the citizens of Stockton. You have four employees, city attorney, city auditor, city clerk, and city manager. The office of the city attorney provides legal services and advice to the city council, officials, boards, commission, and city departments. Defend the city in lawsuits, prepare legal opinions, ordinance, and resolutions. Review and approve contracts, bonds, etc. And prosecute violations of the Stockton Municipal Code. Office of the City Auditor, which we just hired the firm within the last two, three months. And the auditor's office provide the city council and the city staff with objective analysis, appraisals, and recommendation for improvements. conducts performance audits, internal controls, compliance with law and policies, accomplishments of goals and objectives, and they also review audits performed by external financial auditors or other third parties. Office of the City Clerk. administers municipal elections ensure compliance with open meeting campaigns conflicts of interest filing requirements administer city records management system management of boards and commission and administer public record acts office of the city manager general site of city operations under policy directions of the city council Office of Public Transparency Information and Communication. Also up under the City Manager is the Office of Violence Prevention, now the Office of Economic Development, Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, along with Legislative Advocacies. Fiscal year 2026 budget and the plans of course, council strategic goals, commitment to long range financial plans, commitment to customer service to the Stockton community requesting city council approval to reorganize economic development and housing and homelessness activities as needed for performance. Now to the position summary. Here's a list of charter offices and variances. We see the city attorney with plus one position added. City manager one position at it and basically that's the di position coming over from human resource. And then on the grant funded positions we are going from 7. Propose 11 which add an additional 4 for total of 4 positions. Financial summary, here you see the different variants. The city attorney primarily has a 42% variance. And city auditor, because we did do a RFP process, bids came in a little bit high, 14%. And so total across the board, 10.3% increase. on the City Council's budget, slide 7.4, which the increase of the Council's salaries into this year's budget also. With that, that concludes my report. I'm going to move to Vice Chairman.

Just a quick question or a quick point to make.

Yes.

She needs help.

And she's going to have that whole office over there. And she's got an office, but there should be somebody sitting in the front. I don't know if we could do a part-time or something.

But Florence needs help.

And same here. I agree. We have assigned Robert Hernandez to help and assist her. And so you'll be seeing a little bit more Robert.

We're going to need more than that, but I'll just throw that out there. Okay, Vice Mayor.

She's a thunder stealer. That was one of the things. I don't think it's just Robert. I think she needs dedicated support. We actually, over a year ago, said we were going to give her some support and that didn't happen. So I'm glad that the Mayor said that because I second that and I think to her point, all of us up here know she needs the help and she does a great job. yeah i would like to see that duly noted we will get her okay i'm committed to doing okay all right so um i'm glad we started out positive so here we go um last year was a complete disaster i feel as a freshman elected i was fully taken advantage of and manipulated and lied to by staff with respect to the presentation of the budget We have done a phenomenal job as a group. I want to say to Johnny and to Gilbert, you guys have done a great job in working with all of our staff to clean everything up, get everything on track. This has been transparent, it's flowing. You've given me the heads up on what I need to look for and questions, so I do have three things, four things that I want to talk about. The mayor took one of them, actually I have five, but she took one of them, Florence, for sure. Okay, the first thing is, You pointed out the DEI position. That was eliminated outside of council knowing last year it's back and it's on its way back to your department. I think you've said in our meetings that position will be reporting to you directly.

That is correct with assistance from both Will Crew and Christine Tan.

Now, I know one thing that the mayor talked about before when she was a part of the council that passed a resolution on the whole work around DEI. Are we going to develop... I don't know if that's maybe a later council discussion.

And very quickly, we will go back. The mayor and I have had also conversations. We will go back and look up and study everything that was done at that time and then make modification as to where we are today.

Okay, and then that community piece, whether it's a commission or whatever, that will come back to council.

Yeah, we'll come back and give you an update.

Okay, so that's cool. On the OVP, there's the two position variants, which – I have to say I was a little concerned knowing that we fought hard and I'll just I don't like to say I but I fought hard to get an extra day for us as a council to be creative to approve two additional positions to find out that those positions were never filled. I want just some answers if I can. You know, obviously we talk a lot about public safety prevention, the pie model, all those things. Do you know why those two positions weren't filled?

So when we were awarded those positions, it was contingent on us.

I can't hear you. If you can just introduce yourself.

Oh, sorry. My name is Anna. I'm the program manager for OVP. Okay. So when we received those positions, it was contingent on us not receiving grant funding. Luckily, we received grant funding, and now those positions are under grant.

Okay, so when we funded the positions though, we funded the positions with the intent for them to be filled to add to the existing effort of creating a safer community, more prevention opportunities. Was there a discussion around, did you guys post them? I don't know if anybody's here from HR, but did we post them and try to recruit?

No, so we were waiting for, if we were gonna be awarded those grants, and so we were awarded the grants. And now they're posted, so we actually have six positions. Sorry, one is part-time, so technically five full-time. Three are currently in the second round of interview processing. One is going into interviews probably next week, and then one is open.

Okay, I guess while I'm unclear, and maybe somebody can help me, I don't know if it's the city manager or HR, if it's if Council approves positions and says here are some positions and actually we fought to give your department these positions because we we you know thankfully and I don't we knock on wood we see that there hasn't been any youth violent crimes this year but we saw an uptick in youth homicide and all those things and the idea was we would fund these two positions and they would be filled so we can add to the efforts and and so was so there just wasn't any effort to fill those

No, I'll take that one. I think there was probably a little Miscommunication as much as you fought hard for him. I think it was understood with the staff that they thought that it was tied to Whether if we were going to receive the grant or not, and I think through that time frame of waiting We sort of got behind with hiring them right away and And we were waiting on the reward of the grant. And then once we got the reward, we have now began to go through for the hiring process. So it's a miscommunication on our part, and I'll take full responsibility for it.

I'm not going to let you take full responsibility.

I'll take full responsibility for it, Vice Mayor.

That's nice of you. You weren't here. Because I learned of a new term called subplanting. And I didn't know it again. I'm a sophomore now, so I'm learning what these terms are. And I don't know what's intentional or not intentional. I don't know the shell game that Julie talks about with moving money around. What I know is that we fought hard to get funding for two positions to get more effort in the streets to create more prevention. And now we're taking those positions away. And where are we moving those positions to the two that were not filled?

It's a so that just frees up money in the general fund so since they were vacant positions that are being cut from the budget that frees a budget for the rest of the city budget balancing so they didn't go anywhere.

It basically so it just cancels itself out. Well let me just you know again, thank you for that that that's all I knew as it was related to those 2 positions, I mean I I don't know what our violence prevention program is in in totality, I know that we're going to prove this money. and then they're gonna go off and do whatever's being done. At some point I'd like a presentation from OVP to get deeper into the weeds of what's actually happening. How are we spending the resources? How are we engaging these communities? But what oversight are we providing to this department and any department where we budget? Because I think it's disingenuous for us to be asked to budget departments and then you're not even using the money. And then maybe you can put something in the city attorney's office. Maybe you can put something in the city clerk's office. How are we providing oversight?

So one of the things that we're getting ready to do, we've hired a community service director who will be coming on board mid-June. And one of my top priorities is getting OVP and community services, especially at the community centers and those locations, working much closer together to get them out in the community. So we have no problem with coming back with some type of update for you. The first meeting in August and give you an update as to how that's working and what that's going to look like.

OK. The last thing I'll say is I mean I've been probably the most critical of optic on this day is I mean we're all responsible for our taxpayer dollars. This division, which I will call a department for the record, because that's how it was presented before it became a division, has not yielded results in over a year. And we're spending almost a million dollars. I think you're asking for almost $900,000. I don't see a plan. I don't think it's a good use of our taxpayer resources. And I'm going to look at Councilwoman Padilla, because she's the one, and she knows exactly what I'm going to say, who sat here in a very fair way after all the criticism that I've had to put the department through and the city through is, that by April, I need to be able to see results to make it make sense. We're now in June, today's June 2nd, and I don't know what we're spending our money on. I run a whole media company with a budget a little over a million dollars, and I make a significant amount of money, and you see the work every day. And this is not a personal criticism on any one individual. I think our, you know, our human resources, our former human resources director sat here and told us the whole playbook of how we got into this mess. And I think, you know, she personally made a great decision to go ahead and move along because the writing's on the wall. I will say right now, you know, if we fund this department or this division, department, whatever today, You know, top of the year, if there's a different group here, I'm going to move to eliminate it. There's just no reason for it. I don't see what we're getting as a return. So I don't feel comfortable today sitting here saying that I can pass. How much, Gilbert, are we asking for for opting?

It's a little north of $800,000. I'd have to look up the exact number.

I don't know where my colleagues are on it, but waste, fraud, abuse, those are three things that you hear in the news all day. It's not fraud right now, it's not abuse, but definitely a waste in terms of the output. And again, it's not a personal indictment on people. I just think that that's money where the mayor and I, all of us are aligned on getting Florence more resources or maybe there's more technology that some of our other departments need. I just don't see it. And unless somebody can explain to us what the plan is gonna be beyond what Councilman Padilla gave as some flexibility. But last time, I don't know that we're going to get there.

I'll take the first step out to say that I am in full support. I will bring you a work plan within the next 60 days to lay out exactly what the next steps are moving forward.

Here's what I'm saying. We've already had that. And what I'm saying is, and again, I ask my colleagues if you want to chime in or not, but if any of us vote to pass a budget that has $800,000 for a division or a department that has repeatedly presented what they were going to do but failed to execute, I think it's reckless and irresponsible of us as fiduciaries. I just think that we should demand more from our staff. I'm glad that we're getting out of here in one day. I want to get out of here in one day. But I didn't get elected to come here and just like hang out and have lunch and pass a budget. I came to be very critical where I see there's opportunity. I think we've been fair. But on this one, I just don't understand why we're going to approve that. So if there's any discussion, we've had other departments or divisions come up and tell us what they want to do. I don't think it's asking for too much to hear what is the plan.

Councilwoman Padilla. Thank you, Mayor. This is what I will say, and I'm sure I said it last year. We need to change the story of our city. I was sitting in a business meeting yesterday, and our crime stats are down. And I said to Councilmember Enriquez, we need to be elevating that. We need to be telling our story in a positive way and you know Google or whatever search engine the story that I see out there and I'm just scrolling Facebook or Instagram or whatnot I don't really see a story I don't see highlights and to vice mayor's point i'm not i'm not discounting any one employee but telling our story in a positive way is crucial to us getting business here in stockton and um you know another example i see them out there taking pictures of us on veterans day um not veterans day i'm sorry memorial day we were at an event they were taking pictures i didn't see any story If there was, I don't know where it's at. We need to be promoting Stockton more. And I really don't know what that department does. And that's my honest truth.

Councilman Enriquez.

Yeah, I want to thank both my colleagues just for sharing what they've shared. And I agree with Councilman Padilla about getting the story out there and the positives. And just as an observer from, I guess, the inside and outside is City Manager and I had a good conversation the other day about the pride of flag raising. And one of the things that I think I was really frustrated with was at the end of the day, when the city of Stockton, whether it's an official event or not, the resolutions we pass, that the policies that we do as a council and the direction that we give based on that policy, I would say that we should have pride in whatever we can do to reach out to the audiences of the general public, whether it's an official event or not. I mean, there have been times where I think I was in my district, the mayor and I, we were at Lewis Park, and we did a back-to-back at Pixie Woods, and they had a great big cleanup. I didn't know the city of Stockton was there. I guess they were a sponsor, is my guess, but I didn't know. And not to say that I have to know everything, but I also want to be in the know in the sense of if I'm in my district or the mayor's there and we're there supporting an event, to know that staff is there, then I can be prepped. I can know, okay, great, let's get the word out. Our city's here, they're supporting, they're doing videos, they're getting photos of us. That stream of communication is really important and I think that's why even a year ago we talked about a timeline, getting our brand out there. What is our brand? What are the visuals? What are our color palettes? I know some people might think that's weird, why are you talking about that? For the creatives and people that do videos, that's really important because once you have a brand and you're consistent, then there's a flow. It makes sense. People say, that's Stockton when they see that. They know the types of videos we make. I really want to get away from AI. I'll say I was really surprised that we had a lot of AI at our State of the City. While it may be easy to use, I also caution us to be an AI graphic heavy city, because again, the brand, the consistency, what we do, it speaks volumes and people do notice. It's not to say that just because it's an easy way to do it, let's go that route, but I just want to have a consistency. Whether it's that route or another route, obviously I have my own opinion, but the consistency is really important. Even things like when we do flag raisings or events, we all have to know Is staff going to be present? And I think that's really important, too, because I think we all have a right to know when we go somewhere, you're all going to be there to do videos and things like that. And, you know, just going back to the pride flag, I mean, it was pulling teeth and nails just to be able to put the word pride on a graphic that said flag raising and then not even say what the event is. So, again, while I am grateful to the city manager and what we are able to provide at the same time, We talked about, I think some of my colleagues said the word elevating, right? You want to elevate. So whether it's an event and it is what it is and people can get nitpicky about words or an official event or not, at that point, roll up your sleeves and get to work. We're all here to represent our city. People are watching us and we have to put our best foot forward despite the event. So whether it's outside of City Hall for our future veteran flag raisings or the pride flag, or an event that we're doing, or if Councilman Ponce and I or Angel Cruz Park, and we know staff is there, we're going to represent and say, you know what, all hands on deck. Hey, we need a speaker system. You know, what's our run of show? What's the items list? Who's bringing what? I mean, those are the types of things we have to do. And if it's extra work in some people's eyes, that's extra work. That's the type of ethic and I think the grit that we always like to promote and talk about or brag about at Stockton. We need to have that level of work ethic as well when it comes to our product. So again, some people might think it's going into the weeds of communications, but it really is important. And to have that plan, to the Vice Mayor's point, Presented to us is important and I haven't seen that yet.

And if I and if it was presented and my apologies I'm gonna have you speak in a second Louie, but I would say I know that there was an email sent out regarding engagement online the amount of postings and whatnot that have been online, but we also know that a number of people don't necessarily use social media. But to that effort, you know, people go to the same place all the time, and I'm sure the Vice Mayor could speak very in-depth about algorithms and things of that nature that like in my news feed the same things come up every time unless I go in and pick something different otherwise it's the same one same one same one and the people that are out there speaking the loudest often don't know the most about really what's going on and I know the police department has their own they have two PIOs they have their own department that does that and I know that that they do their own thing uh separate from what is done at city hall because like i think about what connie used to do it was connie thomas and one other person that helped him in that effort and then opda had like five people in there but And to that effect, I would really like you to address the questions about AI because I know for a fact that you spent the time, you guys spent the time to do those that it was not AI, but people who don't understand AI, you can't expect them to know the little nuances, all the work that you did to bring those pictures out. Those were not AI that you spent. the time to make the face of those pictures come out. But you guys can address that. But I am, I know that department is evolving and that story that's being told, is it needs to be it usually is done by by council participating in that storytelling as well because because i think i loved connie but she was not doing a whole lot other than posting what events were coming out online so i'll let you take it away from there louis if you don't mind okay okay can you hear me okay

Yeah, hi, I'm Louie from Optic. I'm sorry, I'm chewing on breath mint. I don't usually speak in front of people. I apologize about that. So yeah, so I agree with all of you. I mean, we do do a lot of stuff, but if you don't see it and no one told you, how would you know? So I think that's something we really need to work on. Everything we post, you should know about it. So I can work with Tony and get that done. I saw you, Mario, recently at events, right? and you saw some of our other people, so we can do that. We do do a lot of things, and like I said, it's important that you know what we're doing, otherwise, if no one tells you, how would you know, right? Speaking about the AI stuff, there was AI in the video, the video that I worked on, which was the history. It wasn't all AI, and most of the AI was done using, when you take a still picture, Especially in the older times, like things 100 years ago, we would have, I would animate an old picture, something like that. So that's most of the AI. The other AI, partial AI is the voiceover. Half of it was me. I did the delivery and had the AI change the voice to a better voice. So there's some. But in general, if you look at like Facebook, all the comments, it's very positive. No one mentions AI. They say it was a good story. Is there any questions I could answer for you? I have a question. Sure.

Yeah, thank you, Mayor. And thank you. I mean, I know the work that this department does better than anybody in here. I mean, because this is what I do for a living. This is my bread and butter. I may not know PD or anything else, but media is what I know. And whether AI or not, we use AI tools, voiceovers here. I just did a voiceover yesterday, so I get all that. That's not really it. You just said something that I think speaks to the heart of what Councilman Padilla said, what Councilman Enriquez said, and what I said. And it is that if you don't tell the story, how do we know? You're the storyteller for the city. If you're not telling your own story, how are you telling ours? Let me finish. That wasn't the question. That was just an affirming statement of what's being said because I don't want you to take what we're saying and not really hear what we're saying because regardless of what is communicated to me, I don't see the return on our investment. All of you were hired at the highest rate of pay. All of you were created without going through a competitive process or even coming before this council for us to validate the work. And I've yet to see policies or any description of what we're doing. What I'm looking for, for example, I don't have a problem doing this if the mayor and the council would like me to, but I could bring the brand bible for what I do. show you our font, our prints, our this, our how many reels a day we're doing, how many posts we're doing, text overlays, all these different things, right? I don't know what it is that we are accomplishing. So I'll just go down the list. The council member at the end just had Sousa Park pulled. There could have been an amazing reel. I always have to see what the city is doing by looking at the mayor's Instagram. That's just to be honest I go to her Instagram to say what's going on what business open where it because she's everywhere so he has to is a park pool there could have been a phenomenal thing that when she had Westlake I don't know if this Westlake what is it a casual video. Inspiration Park beautiful I would if you go in there and you see it it's something that people in Stockton may not even know exist unless they look at her Instagram. Andrew Cruz Park with the vendors. The mayor, she's getting attacked online for posting in businesses because she's out promoting everything. But she should be resharing wills that the city is making to show what the city is highlighting so they're not saying why is the mayor doing it? councilman ricas just took me to a i don't want to say a bar but it was a bar the other night and you go through one door and then you get in the back and it's this beautiful pink experience that's on the mile that people may not even know so like highlighting our businesses and then groupie park we should be out beating him and pickleball and telling the story i don't know i just i just i to councilman padilla's point as a city our storytelling and our narrative should be changing through all this evolving content that's happening on a daily basis, so daily we should have at least three to four reels out. There should be some kind of recap once a week. And I don't know that we have metrics right now that says this is the output of content that we're going to do every single week. I see Mr. Manager, maybe he can come up and speak. Originally when he presented he talked about all this technology while we're building and all this infrastructure that you all had to do. So to sum all up of what I'm saying is I today do not know what we're paying for and what the taxpayers are paying for and without having a very clear Like, okay, in 30 days you need to come back with a plan. Here's all the things we're going to do and let the council decide if we want to fund it or not is probably my recommendation. Because today I wouldn't say I can vote to support funding the continuance of what we're getting.

So, Vice Mayor, what you said is... Oh, Tony's here?

Yeah, Tony's right there. Tony. Council? Council? Mayor, I'd be happy to prepare any sort of documentation or plan that you're requesting, absolutely, through the city manager. Were there, as far as statistics on how we're doing, I'm sorry, I just kind of ran up the stairs. As far as statistics, what I can tell you is that our engagement is up 400%. Our followers are up 1,100%. Our metrics across the board are astounding. We are not only competitive with other cities in our market, we're exceeding what they're able to accomplish with the very, very small team that we have. A lot of them have much larger marketing teams. So as far as the content that we're getting out, we're doing extremely well. So if there's any questions, I'd be happy to answer them for you.

That's an, that's an affirming statement from you. And I appreciate you as the department or division lead defending the work that your department is doing. Obviously you just heard from multiple council members that we don't believe that, or we don't agree to that. And so our, our opinion does matter as it relates to funding this division or this department. What I'm saying is that, I mean, it's great to hear those stats. I don't know what the comparables are. I don't know anything. What I know is what I see in the city on a day to day basis and what I know could be told is not being told. The creative output, and I don't even want to get into the pride flag thing that you know was an issue just yesterday. How we're telling our story, how we're showing up for all Stocktonians, how we're telling the full Stockton story is critical. In order for us to, for the economic development department to go out and get new business, they need to know not only is Stockton ready to the mayor's point and message at our event that we just held that she spoke about, but Stockton is ready and here's how. Here's where we are building here. Here's what we're doing here. Here's what we're doing here. So it's like, what are we ready for is the follow up to the statement that we're ready. I don't know that we are ready in this department to do that. We've had this discussion probably at three or four times over the last year and a half. I can be fair to say, I mean, if we have to pass the budget today, I'm voting no with this in it. And I will commit to, if there is a different council at the top of the year, bringing it right back and just totally ending the funding. Because at some point, we have to just call the question. And I think for months now, we've been demanding that we understand what it is we're doing. Telling this to Councilman Padilla's point, we have to turn the city's Optic around through the narrative building and that is an every single day thing when council would be a host of the West Lake I think it's almost a West Lake. Inspiration event. The very next day there should have been a real that shows the inspiration. It doesn't take much you can shoot it for 2, 3, hours you can go cut it up and have it within 24 hours and it without those capabilities. then how do we do it, because Sousa Park now is, how many days ago, Councilman, what was that? Saturday. Saturday, so like three days, four days, it's old now. I mean, yeah, it's old. So again, this is just me speaking to my expertise, and without a plan that's clear today, I can't vote yes on that. I'm only one vote though, so I'd look to my colleagues to say we agree or don't agree.

Okay, moving on to ISF. I'm happy to meet you in person.

Thank you.

You used to be on my all the time.

Okay. Hi there. Thank you for your time today. I'm Aaron Council. I'm Mike Migliore with the IT department. I'm the IT technology officer. Thank you for your time for allowing me to go over our budget highlights today. The first slide I have here is our department description. We're made up of six divisions in our department. I'm going to just highlight a few of them for you. Our first line of defense for our employees is our customer service and support desk. They take care of all the technology and user devices, replacements and support. Over the current fiscal year, they've resolved over 2,400 requests, over 5,300 incidents with technology issues. We've replaced over 400 plus computers and printers. We moved over 500-plus devices out of 400 East Main to temporary locations. And then we've recently, over the past few months, moved 650-plus devices or computers and network devices over to the new city hall for our new locations. My other section I'm going to go over is infrastructure and cybersecurity. So they make sure that our network is performing at its best. They're monitoring it and taking care of it when issues need to be taken care of. They also support the public safety networks. They're also designing and implementing the cybersecurity in our network architecture like New City Hall. Their current stats are we had over approximately 1,600 cyber incident reviews that we did on end user endpoint devices to help protect the city. We had 13 after hours calls related to vendor issues, mostly for public safety. We, the network staff, did eight new site setups and 12 major networking upgrades and setups. Quite a few of those with the new city hall and the temporary locations. And then we have our IT finance and administration office that works with the budget office on our long-term technology internal service fund planning, strategic planning. They oversee our internal department and our internal department budget and monitor that. And they take care of our fiscal administration for our department, our daily activities or transactions. Our financial summary, if you look there, we have two funds. We have the technology fund and the communication fund. So all of this supports all of our IT activities for the year. And so that's what the current request is. Some of the funds are used for cyclical replacement of end user equipment and networking equipment, other infrastructure replacements, and future technology projects. And on our position summary, we're moving from 54 full-time positions to 48 full-time positions. We're converting. We had 10 temporary or limited positions for our ERP team. We're converting four of them over to permanent staff that will be supporting the ERP system. And we're dropping the other six positions. And as far as vacancies, currently the department has two vacancies. One is our senior GIS analyst that's currently being posted. And the other one is our senior analyst position that is currently going through an interview process.

I'm sorry, can I ask you a question? Yes. In the absence of the mayor, I'll chair until she gets back. I asked earlier about the, The Ask Stockton app and specifically the improvements that I know council members have asked for with being able to sort by district and then also having the user who submits track it all the way through to completion. Is that going to be a part of the focus this year?

Yes, it will be. So we heard that comment or I heard that comment this morning and we discussed it with Will and we're going to look for a way to make that functional. Okay, perfect. Okay. So our technology budget plan, there's a summary of our technology plan. I'll highlight a few of those. On cyber security, we're gonna continue hardening and making our network and our endpoints more resilient and more defensive towards cyber security to help protect the city. We're going to be developing, or we're gonna be continuing to develop and finalize our our co-located data center to help us with disaster recovery in case an emergency strikes a city that we will be able to bring us back or bring the technology back in a more timely fashion to get services back up and running. For our GIS information systems, we recently had a Vendor come in and do an assessment with all the departments put a plan together for us. And so we're going to be working with departments To create more GIS tools that allow them to make More more improved decisions or improve that efficiency and decision-making And and also provide more training with the GIS tools. I For our workforce and support enhancements, We're expanding our student intern program. We're going to be making improvements to our ticketing system for IT support to allow a streamlined process for our employees so that we can be more proactive and reduce resolutions to those issues and get requests done more timely. Uh, for our, for our communications fund. Uh, we, we recently completed, um, uh, a tower site to modernize for our new trucking system. Uh, we're looking to, uh, uh, move public works and municipal utilities over into a pilot and then bring, uh, public safety police and fire into the new trucking system. So that's, uh, that's our goal over the next year. And that's the end of my presentation. If you have any questions.

Vice Mayor.

Thank you, Mayor. I asked the question when the Mayor was out. You already answered that. Yes, you're going to be focused on the improvements at Stockton. Do we know a timeline?

I heard about it first thing this morning. I'm going to work with Will and we're going to get a meeting together to find out what our options are to add that functionality to the product.

And then you all can update Council via email. Okay.

I had, maybe they're not necessarily questions, but comments. So equipment and phones. So I know we have regular turnover replacement of equipment. Phones this year, this past year, phones were really brutal. because people would call and then they had to enter the four digit code which is actually the department that you were trying to reach the last four numbers the 937 but those four that you had to put in so getting that taken care of so people don't have to jump through those hoops anymore is great but i know that there are some areas of the city where the phones don't really work And you're probably trying to think off the top of your head I will tell you a firehouse three the the the phones really don't work there So that's why other departments have individual fire people their their phone number their cell phone number as well as as their equipment and it's rather dated so I don't know if they're not on your list for Replacement or updating through the fire department or not, but I know they do pay money annually for

Right, so typically if someone was having, we have a couple of phone systems at the City of Stockton. If they're having an issue with a phone and IT knows about it, but they create a case, we will service that phone. Usually it's on a vendor end, so we'll probably call AT&T if it's them. If it's a VoIP phone, we have a provider that will look to make sure that there's a configuration that it's correct. Yeah so so typically we handle those as incidents when they come in if they if they tell us they're not working and we get the issue we have AT&T out checking phone lines all the time. We'll get it we'll get it upgraded.

Yeah I was just gonna say station three is going through some remodeling so maybe while that's happening somebody can go in there fix their phone lines and then upgrade some of the equipment in there so. Councilman Enriquez.

Yeah, thank you. Just to that point, so is there a current process of reporting that?

So, I mean, let's say if an employee, if their phone line doesn't work, is there a way to... Sure, they could actually call our help desk at 8817, or they can submit a ticket through our ServiceNow ticketing system.

Okay. I just want to make sure employees know, because what the mayor just said, if this is just being announced now, I mean, if employees, let's say at a fire station house or another department, have had this issue for how long, and if They knew how to report it, why didn't they? But also, if they didn't know, now we know. Right. But I just want to make sure why things shouldn't take that long.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Okay, now we are moving on to HR. I think, geez, we're way above schedule. I think we're 40 minutes ahead of schedule. So welcome, our interim director.

Thank you, I am very pleased to be here. Thank you for your time. I am Alicia Figueroa. Let me move this so that it, no, there we go. There is our lovely department. I am gonna be reporting on the human resources and by the way, I'm also the deputy director of HR and then interim for the director position right now.

So I, let me move on to the next, sorry.

So our department has four divisions. We have our benefits division, administers employee and family benefit programs, including health insurance, retirement leave, and voluntary benefit options. Also the employee and labor relations division, which develops and administers labor policies and agreements while supporting compliance investigations, grievances, and performance management. Our Risk Service Division reduces organizational risk through safety programs, claim management, insurance, oversight, and contract review. Our Workforce Planning Division manages recruitment, onboarding, training, classification, and compensation to support full employee lifecycle. I also wanted to just touch a little bit on some of the highlights from last year. the department successfully onboarded 457 new employees including 28 fire fire trainees 101 yes student workers which 32 of those students are now part-time employees with the city ALSO IMPLEMENTED THE NEOGOV ON BOARD MODULE AND BEGAN DEVELOPING NEOGOV LEARN SIGNIFICANTLY MONITORIZING THE CITY'S HIRING AND TRAINING INFRASTRUCTURE. WHAT WAS THE TOTAL NUMBER OF HIRES?

457.

Another highlight is development and implementation of workplace violent prevention program, which the department trained all city employees on, which was definitely an important compliance and safety milestone. Completed 55 classification and compensation studies and developed 12 new class specifications ensuring job structure, stay current and competitive. And lastly, closed 297 liability claims and 253 workers comp claims, along with completing 77 workers comp settlements, strengthening the risk mediation and claims efficiency. So looking at the position summary, as you can see, it has gone down by seven positions. Six of these are from the fact that payroll is moved over to ASD, and one position is the DEI that moved over to city manager office. Under the HR, yeah, there are five vacancies. Here is the financial summary. This is going to reflect, let me put my notes on that. Our beginning balances are revenues for general fund risk management and benefits and our, let's see, general fund breakdown here will reflect basically the payroll has moved out of the HR department So in summary, the overall benefit plan for HR is to sustain core operations and particular focus on managing rising costs related to employee health benefits, workers' compensation, and general liability. These essential investments directly support our workforce and ensure organizational stability. Collaborating with departments to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of recruiting and onboarding process. In an increasing competitive labor market, organizations across California are expecting similar challenges in attracting and retaining qualified candidates. Partnering with police and fire departments to review civil service and charter provisions related to hiring practices with the goal of identifying opportunities to improve monetization and increasing flexibility. expanding regulatory compliance efforts. This includes a development and implementation of targeted training programs for both new and existing employees, as well as proactively risk identification to help mediate potential liabilities and cost control. Working closely with the organization's third party administrator to evaluate and identify alternative benefit programs and provide value to employees while supporting long-term management objectives.

And that is it.

If you have any questions, let me know.

Vice Mayor.

Thank you, Mayor. One of the things that the city manager talks about that probably none of us will allow to happen is when he leaves, he's looking to see what the next person is that's going to take on the responsibility. I think all of us, as we work up here, we're looking at our districts and who's going to carry on the work whenever we decide to step away or the voters decide it's time to step away. As an organization, do we invest in upward mobility and cross-training and making sure that the Brendons of the world can move throughout the organization up to taking Gilbert's job when he's done. Because I think that as we talk about investing in our workforce, there's a lot of talented people here that I meet in the hallways that have committed years and years and years of service who I think could continue to grow. I know ASD, with your predecessor, there was a lot of focus and emphasis on cross-training and making sure people knew the work. Is that something that we do organization-wide through HR?

It's definitely something that I brought Maya here.

She's been with the company or been with the city for a very long time. As you know, I'm very new. So I wanted to bring her in just as a witness case by case questions that we come.

Good afternoon, everyone. My arrest supervising analyst for HR. So it's a great question, Vice Mayor. So we are going to be starting some training programs for different departments. We haven't rolled out that yet, but we are looking at planning, right, the succession planning. And that's something that we are looking to roll out to all departments in the next probably five months or so, six months or so.

So that'll be an organization-wide effort.

It would be yes, definitely.

And I'll just build on, you know, when I went through this process with you as a council, one of the things that I said to you as a council that I would hope when I do step away that you look immediately on staff. I feel that we have a symbol of strong staff a mingle with the existing staff we have we had very good staff here we have added to those pieces and I would be surprised if the next city manager doesn't come from this existing staff our staff is that good I have that much confidence in them And all at the same time, we're constantly looking at Brandon's of the world and having him to come up and do a presentation before you so that he can start to get those type of experience. Taking people with me to community meetings and introducing them to quote the powers to be that they typically may not interact with on a daily process. So yes, succession planning, you will see a whole lot more of that because I think we have to begin to push our confidence down to our employees. When I preach to them about disagreeing with me, giving me more options, giving me recommendation, that's all part of the learning process for them and making sure that we're putting them in the position to see what happens behind the curtain sometimes. So yes, that succession planning is gonna be a major part of what we do and that's gonna be forefront and believe me, HR will be very busy with that whole training process because that's all about the future and I'm not talking two, three years down the road, I want folks to be ready and I know we got folks ready right now that can do this job and do it quite well.

I bring up Brendan as an example because he's standing here, but he's been before this council and committees like the OJ trial, so he has survived. He has survived. He's done a great job. I just use an example. But no, I mean, you look at ASD and like how we were just burning money there and how the people weren't cross trained in the department, all the work that we invested as a city, almost a million dollars to make sure we fix this issue. I just kind of think across the whole organization, where can we be training that next person to be able to jump in if something happens? Life is life, right? But I'm glad that we're focused on that because I do think there's a lot of talent here that has lots of opportunities. Thank you.

Okay. Seeing no other questions. Oh, well, we did talk earlier about the process for giving job offers through the police department. So I don't know if it's one person that does that or if PD needs to find the money to pay for somebody that goes full-time or the city manager will find it in the couch cushions or something but seeing that you guys have a very lean department yourselves I don't know if that would mean an additional position or not but we would like nothing more than to make sure that HR runs smooth as as silk so that we can fill all our vacant positions with precision but expediency so Understood. Thank you. Thank you.

To HR credit, when CDS did their summer hiring, they were on site hiring people on site. And so, once again, that's part of maybe dedicating somebody to the police department. Yes, there's great possibility because we, like the chief said, don't want to miss that opportunity. So, yes, we will be looking to do that.

Point of information, I know we passed over a couple of things. There was a note that I had about when we were at the city departments. For example, I know that the city manager's taking, we're putting the $150,000 back in your budget for discretionary council. I don't know what our, can we at the end of it all ask questions? Yeah, yeah.

He'll do some closing comments at the end. And then remember, this isn't the done data. We will have this on a future council agenda to pass at that point and have discussion. Okay, okay, moving on now to administrative services. Mr. Garcia.

All right, saving the best for last, I see. I DID WANT TO TALK TODAY ABOUT SUCCESSION PLANNING. I DO THINK IT'S IMPORTANT. AND FOR ABOUT TEN YEARS OF MY CAREER, I WORKED IN PUBLIC SAFETY DEPARTMENTS. I WORKED IN STOCKTON PD AS AN ADMIN ANALYST. I KIND OF DID THEIR FALSE ALARM PROGRAM, THEIR GRANTS IN FISCAL. AND THEN I WORKED FOR THE OAKLAND POLICE DEPARTMENT FOR ABOUT EIGHT YEARS AS AN EXECUTIVE. And one of the things that's very important in those organizations, I would say both our police and fire chiefs are outstanding at succession planning, is planning for the future, making sure you're developing people for the next level, encouraging them when they maybe don't want to get promoted, or developing talents of people who are willing to be promoted but have some skill set gaps. And I just bring that up. because I do want to say that HR has been a great partner with me. So to the extent that departments are proactive, I found HR to be very, very helpful in that respect. For example, not to pick on our budget or Brandon, one of the things that I did in this budget and we talk about later, I'm going a little off script here, but I do think succession planning is extremely important in this city. One of the things we've done is I had two ACFO positions. I downgraded one of them to free up some money, and because, frankly, we don't need two ACFOs, I think one CFO and one ACFO is plenty. And then we had requested an assistant budget officer, and I'm also downgrading that position to free up money for two supervising budget analysts. So right now in the city, we have a budget analyst series. So analyst one, two senior, which is very similar to accountants, payroll, HR analysts. It's a very common series, one, two senior. And then usually there's a supervisory class and then the manager. within the budget office, they didn't have that supervisory class, so I downgraded those positions to free up money for that so that we could grow our own. Because right now, as a senior, you don't really get that supervisory experience that's very helpful, right? If you want to be the budget officer, the budget officer requires four years of supervisory experience, I believe, four or five. and yet the people from within really don't have the opportunity to have that in-house unless they go to another department and then come back as the budget officer. So that's one thing that I did and HR was very responsive from the time I pitched it as a vision, got the city manager's approval to the time HR brought it to council, it was a very quick turnaround. So I do want to commend them for that. SO THEY ARE ALREADY A GOOD PARTNER AND I'M LOOKING FORWARD TO WORKING WITH HR ON THE MORE FORMALIZED SUCCESSION PLANNING THAT THEY ARE DEVELOPING. SO MY DEPARTMENT CONSISTS OF FIVE DIVISIONS, ACCOUNTING AND BUDGET, DEBT AND TREASURY, PROCUREMENT AND REVENUE SERVICES. Pretty much every audit that ASD has been subject to or been a part of in the city, so whether it's the external, internal auditors have always noted that for the last couple of years, we have had vacancies at the top. And so that makes decision making a little tougher expertise. So I've personally hired three of the five division managers. Each of these division managers is outstanding. Definitely people that are on track to be a CFO one day, all five of them. So they're very strong. Let's see. So really, when the city manager hired me, he said, Gilbert, we need to know how much money the city has because he felt like, you know, he wasn't really getting a straight answer from that. So it wasn't something that I personally did. I have a very talented team. We got together like how much money does the city have? I brought the fourth quarter report to the council once we did have an understanding of that. That is one of the key things that we accomplished. Then going forward, I want to make sure we produce timely and accurate financial statements. WANT TO MAKE SURE WE DO TIMELY AND ACCURATE BUDGET MONITORING. I HAVE NOT BEEN BRINGING QUARTERLY REPORTS TO COUNCIL IN A TIMELY MANNER THE WAY I WOULD WANT TO. I THINK IN THIS 26-27 I WILL. AND THEN FINALLY SUCCESSION PLANNING. SO WE HAVE FILLED MANY KEY POSITIONS IN OUR DEPARTMENT AND WILL CONTINUE TO DO SO. We do have the vacant ACFO, but pretty much all of our division managers are filled, which is really a big accomplishment for my department. We have 86 positions, seven of our positions are really a matter of, well six are a matter of a reorganization, so six are coming, the payroll people that are coming back to ASD. One of them, and then one position was added during the year from CENCAL to help out with the financial administration of CENCAL. So that one is funded by CENCAL as well. My total department budget is about $12 million. So even though it says we only generate $733,000 of revenue, pretty much between my revenue officer and my debt and treasury officer, they bring in most of the general fund money, but then again, debt service is enlisted in my department, so that's a non-departmental, so we'll just leave the revenue and the expense in non-departmental. So this is not the year-over-year budget. This is just what we expect the current year to end versus what we have budgeted for next year. And the big variance is the seven new positions plus the fact that we had so, so many vacancies, especially in the higher paid positions that we carried throughout the year. So that is the big reason. uh why you know why you see that big gap really our budget for the current year is about five and a half million dollars so we're gonna be well short of that or we're gonna enjoy quite a bit of savings And that concludes my presentation and the budget presentation. The budget adoption is scheduled for the 9th, so the first meeting of this month in about a week. And we'll turn it over to the city manager.

Okay, thank you. City manager, you're up.

And I will be quick. To the mayor, vice mayor, and members of the council, this budget reflects our sheer commitment to make Stockton a safe, economically vibrant city that provides a high quality of life to the people who call Stockton home. I am honored and humbled by the trust that this city council and the Stockton resident has placed in me as I presented our first budget as Stockton City Manager. I want to thank the city staff. I want to thank the city staff. the great job that they have done and and uh i want to thank the city staff for the great job and for their commitment to providing high quality essential services i look forward to working with the council the staff and the community to build a healthy, vibrant Stockton. And you have your budget as presented today and you can take it from there.

Vice Mayor, did you have something you wanted to add?

Yeah, no, thank you, Mayor. And thank you for, again, the transparency and sharing all of the information here. I think I just mentioned earlier, I look forward to that future meeting where we can get into more of the details around council discretion and all those things. But I just think the transparency is refreshing, the preparation. I don't even know how many hours, but you got us out of here early, which is always great. And again, I too want to say thank you to all the staff that endured the ride from last year to now and just how everybody is falling in line with the new team and the new team working with the existing team to be one team. And it allows us all to sleep better at night knowing that we're delivering the services that people expect. And so again, just thank you for today.

Okay, and I would echo that, everybody and the work that they did in order to complete this draft budget, and we know that there's, I'm surprised you put it on for the ninth, considering that that's next week, and you're gonna have to have all this tightened up, but it doesn't appear that there were requests for too many things to be changed or added outside of making sure that Ricardo's name is in the book, okay. Okay. Oh, and yes, something for Florence. Okay. Okay. With that motion to adjourn.

Motion.

We have a motion, a second. Please vote. Motion carries 7-0, ending at 3-12.