City Council - Regular Meeting

Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Good. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

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All right. Good afternoon. Welcome to the Temecula City Council meeting for May 12th at 3.07. We're going to begin. We are going to start with the invocation by Rabbi Abrams, followed by his daughter, who is going to do the flag salute. So if you both can come up with your family, that would be great. We can all stand, please.

Howdy, everyone. Great to see you again. Good afternoon, Mrs. Mayor, the council members, city staff, and members of our community. As we approach the holiday of Shavuos, the Jewish holiday commemorating the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai, we are reminded of history's most powerful ideas, that freedom alone is not enough. Freedom must be guided by values, responsibility, and moral purpose. At Mount Sinai, the Jewish people received the Ten Commandments, timeless principles that helped shape the moral foundation of civilization, the sanctity of life, the importance of family, honesty, justice, faith, and respect for one another. Jewish tradition also teaches that at Sinai, humanity's universal moral responsibilities were entrusted to all nations through the seven Noahide laws. Principles of justice, respect of life, compassion, and moral accountability meant for all people, regardless of background or faith. These values remind us that every society thrives when morality and responsibility are placed at its center. This morning, the mayor and I were exchanging thoughts about Psalm 91, which speaks of divine protection and refuge. One verse says, he will guide his angels for you to guard you in all of your ways. It's a reminder that when people dedicate themselves to serving others with sincerity and integrity, they become partners in bringing peace blessing, protection, and stability to the broader community. A city is not just built with roads, parks, buildings, and infrastructure. It's built with integrity, cooperation, patience, and people who genuinely care about the community they serve. Over the past few years, our organization has worked closely with the city, and I've had the privilege of seeing many of those values firsthand. I want to express appreciation to the mayor, and to the members of the council, the planning staff, public works, building safety, fire, and all of the dedicated individuals behind the scenes who work every day to make Temecula grow thoughtfully and responsibly. Public service is often difficult and underappreciated work, and it deserves recognition. May the Almighty bless this council with wisdom, clarity, and unity. Bless the employees and the first responders who serve the city faithfully, and bless all the residents of the city with peace, prosperity, health, and purpose.

Thank you, Rabbi.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Wonderful, thank you very much.

If you guys can come up real quick, your daughters can come up real quick.

There you go, that's for everybody. Thank you. All right, thank you guys.

All righty, thank you very much to your family, Rabbi Abrams. All right, next we're gonna roll into the roll call. Can you roll that out, please?

Yes, Madam Mayor. Mayor Alexander? Here. Council Member Kalfas? Here. Council Member Rahn? Here. Council Member Schweig? Here. Council Member Stewart?

Here. All right. We're all here. Next, we're going to start into the presentations. As always, we start out with our 250th anniversary quote from our founding fathers. And at this council meeting, that is going to be led by Council Member Kalfas. Take it away. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Madam Mayor. There's the quote here. I chose a George Washington quote. The name of American which belongs to you in your national capacity must always exalt the just pride of patriotism more than any appellation derived from local discriminations. And this was said during George Washington's farewell address in 1796. As we all know, this was prior to said Civil War, and we were already fractioning at this time in American history between the North and the South. And he said this, and I think it relates to our time here 250 years later, in a time when our country is divided, and we kind of identify... as political parties, right? It's right versus left, Republicans versus Democrat. And at this time, he warned even back then, it is something that we should look out for and remember that at the foundation of it all, we are Americans. And that is what should unite us. So moving forward, I hope that we hear his words just as loud as they were said 250 years ago. Thank you, Madam Mayor.

Thank you very much. That was wonderful. All right, next we have several presentations. We have five to go today. We're going to start out with the first one with a presentation of the 2026 Deputy City Clerk of the Year, Erica Ramirez, and I believe our Mayor Pro Tem is going to be reading those and I will be coming down to present.

All right, let me get started here. Presented on behalf of the City of Temecula to Erica Ramirez. The City of Temecula proudly recognizes Erica Ramirez for being awarded 2026 Deputy City Clerk of the Year by the California Municipal Clerks Association. Amongst the hundreds of deputy clerks across the state, CMCA honored Erica for her exceptional technical expertise and dedication to the profession, which was recently displayed through her leadership in implementing a citywide electronic signature program. Erica's commitment to excellence is further demonstrated by her distinguished professional designations, including certified municipal clerk and master municipal clerk. Over the past 22 years, she has provided steadfast support to her organization. and the Office of the City Clerk. The City of Temecula appreciates Erica for her contributions to our city and wishes her continued success in her future endeavors.

And Madam Mayor, while you're walking up, we'll also add that as the Legislative Affairs Director and City Clerk, I had the privilege of being present at the banquet two weeks ago when she was presented with this particular award. Personally, I could not be more proud of Erica and all that she has done for the city of Temecula, including as a 10-year project employee plus a 12-year full-time employee. Over the last several years, Erica has finished her degree, her designations, experience. She is beyond my colleague. She is a support system personally and professionally. And the award was a total surprise to Erica. And it was super fun because her husband and son were also able to join us. And I know Erin also is very proud of her.

Yeah, thank you, Randy. Erica joins good company because the city clerk's office is stacked with great talent. We have our city clerk of the year in the state of California. Now we have our deputy city clerk of the year in the state of California. So my sincere congratulations. I'm really proud of you. I'm actually not surprised at all by this recognition. Deserving, and just thank you for what you bring to the city each and every day.

Well, congratulations, by the way. I know, wonderful words. And just curiosity, any of my council members would like to say anything at this point? OK.

just want to say congratulations and as I was walking up I poked in and we chatted a little bit and and much like our city manager I'm not surprised at all getting the opportunity to work alongside you and to work with you and with your your department and alongside our city clerk and you just do a wonderful work and so extremely proud of you not surprised let's not give that to anyone else going forward so let's hang on to it good job yeah just real quick congratulations

Folks like you, you're the reason why City of Temecula is doing so well. And we're so respected among our other city colleagues. You keep us on track. And I just hope you didn't have to write up your own proclamation. I'm hoping Randy did that instead. But no, we appreciate your dedication and service to our community. Thank you.

Yeah, and I'll just echo it. I mean, when Randy's not here, you fill in the spot and it's seamless. So you obviously know the job very, very well. So thank you for what you do for the city for sure. I can't not say something.

Everyone else says something.

Congratulations, Erica. You do great work. We're lucky to have you in the city of Temecula. Looking forward to continuously working with you and all the things that you do for our great city. Thank you. Congratulations.

Well, and I'll echo the same thing with this really heavy award, by the way. This thing's like 30 pounds, it feels like. But congratulations. I know you do great work for the city. I hear nothing but wonderful things coming from Randy and everybody else. So continue to do the good work because we still need you. So thank you. And here is your proclamation we hope you didn't write. So we don't know if you wrote that or not.

Do you have anything to say? Yeah. Again, thank you for this recognition. It really means a lot to me. I started here over 23 years ago and I would have never imagined I'd be standing here as the Deputy City Clerk and the recipient of this award. I'm incredibly grateful for the opportunities given to me and I look forward to the future. Randy, I wouldn't be here without you. Thank you for your mentorship and your friendship. Thank you to my husband and my son, Andrew and Daniel. I have two rows of family here sharing this moment with me, and I appreciate it. And I'm grateful. I'm blessed. Unfortunately, my son Andrew couldn't be here today. He's in North Carolina. getting ready to be stationed in Guam. He's the captain in the U.S. Army Veterinary Corps. So we're very proud of him. Miss him. Again, thank you for this recognition. I truly appreciate it. Thank you.

All right, next one is another special one. We are going to be doing a presentation of recipients of the Military Banner Program, and that is going to be turned over to Miss Erica Russo.

I don't get evening everyone so Tracy to me this is coming up with some military banners we have a program here in the city of Temecula where we honor our active duty military with banners placed out front in Old Town and right in front of City Hall if you'd like for more information on that you can find it online on our website so when we retire each of those banners we invite the recipients to come on up and receive it here at Council we have three individuals here today who had RSVP that they'd be coming up to receive them so if we have Petty Officer Second Class Emily Hall, Petty Officer Second Class Ryan Principato, and E2 Benjamin Mata here tonight. We have your banners for you to receive.

Are they here tonight? If you guys can just raise your hand. Wonderful. If I can have the council just come down. We're just going to come down and line up. Okay. So normally we just want to make sure that every one of us as council members has the opportunity to just say thank you to the dedication that all of us, all of you, have done, whether yourself, a spouse, whatever that looks like. So the first one is going to be petty officer, second class, Emily Hall. Is that you, the member? Wonderful. All right. The next one is going to be Petty Officer Second Class Ryan Princeyapato. Is that you? Wonderful. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Thank you.

Thank you. And our third one is going to be an E2 Benjamin Mata from the Navy as well. Awesome.

There you go. Thank you. Thank you so much.

All right. Thank you, gentlemen.

And I think we have some more names to read off. Is that correct? We do indeed. If we could just get that slide up real quick. These are the other individuals where we're retiring banners for them, but they weren't able to make it here this evening. So we'd just like to also recognize the following individuals who served in the U.S. Marine Corps. We have Captain Noelle Versoza, First Sergeant Jose Andalosa, Gunnery Sergeant Jordan Law, Sergeant Duvandia Costa Roncayo, and Private First Class Damian Rodriguez. And then on the next slide, we have some individuals who've been serving in the Navy. We have Ensign Kama Collender, Master Chief Hospital Corpsman David Bennett, Petty Officer First Class Eddie Jefferson, Petty Officer First Class Robert DeBeer, Hospital Corpsman Second Class Jasmine Daly, Petty Officer Second Class Jordan Pipersburg, Petty Officer Third Class Juan Diosaconde, and Seaman Charles K. Tisby. And again, we would just like to thank each and every one of you for your service to your community. Wonderful. Thank you.

All right. Before I forget as well, we want to make sure before we finish up our presentations that Erica, you and your family come up right when we finish presentations to take a picture as well. So I don't want to forget. I think about two rows of people here I'm seeing. Okay, great. Awesome. All righty, next one, we're going to do a presentation of proclamation of Water Safety Month. Again, Ms. Erica Russo.

Yes, so we would like to bring our aquatics team up today. We have our manager, Gwen Wilcox, along with supervisors Kristen Post and Mary Welton. And then we have several of the lifeguards who are going to come up and share some of their professional experiences with you.

Wonderful. And then the proclamation is going to be read by Mayor Pro Tem.

All right. Whereas National Water Safety Month is celebrated as an opportunity to increase awareness of the importance of communicating water safety rules and programs to families and individuals of all ages, whether owners of private pools, users of public swimming facilities, or visitors to water parks. And whereas California Department of Public Health reports that between 2016 and 2024, 4,851 California residents died from drowning, and thousands more were rescued and treated in hospitals and emergency departments, some with potential life-altering and permanent disabilities. And whereas the citizens of Temecula recognize the vital role that swimming and aquatic-related activities relate to good physical and mental health, and enhance the quality of life for all people, whereas water safety education plays an essential role in preventing drowning and recreational water injuries, and the recreational water industry, as represented by the organizations involved in the National Water Safety Month Coalition, is committed to developing safe swimming facilities, aquatics programs, home pools and spas, and to providing healthy places to recreate, learn, and grow that contribute to the quality of life in our communities. City of Temecula recognizes the pool, spa, water park, recreation, and park industries for their ongoing efforts. And now, therefore, Jessica Alexander, Mayor of the City of Temecula, on behalf of the City Council, proclaim water this month of May 26th to be National Water Safety Month.

Excellent. Thank you. I'm excited to see or hear what you all have to say, but I just wanted to say thank you for continuing to do the work that you guys love to do, continuing to continue to be out here for our community, and just bringing safety to a whole other level. I know a lot of you guys have been here for quite a while, so I look forward to hearing, but I want to congratulate all of you for being a part of our community and saving your lives. Every day, you're out there, so thank you. Who wants to take this one? Are you going to take that? All right. I'm going to let you guys speak for a few minutes. I see a couple pieces of paper.

Thank you so much for having us today. I'm Kristen Post. I'm one of the supervisors for the aquatics department. We did bring some of our staff here. I know we go over a lot of statistics that don't always sound super great, but we wanted to highlight some of our staff and why they love doing what they do and how that impacts their life as well. So I'm going to turn it over to them.

Hello, my name is Brooke Anderson and I am a senior guard which includes lifeguarding and teaching swim lessons. A huge part of my role is teaching water safety practices to all swim lesson participants as young as infants to adults. Something I pride myself in with this role is being able to plant seeds by giving people in this community the opportunity to learn the importance of water safety and being able to truly connect with this amazing community. There have been times where kids and parents have been greatly appreciative of the swim lessons I have taught and highlighted the growth in swimming competency, which brings me immense joy.

Hello, my name is Brooklyn Reinhart. I'm a lifeguard, which includes lifeguarding the many different programs offered by the aquatics team, such as water aerobics, lap swim, and swim lessons, and many more other programs that we offer. Some things I appreciate about my job is the many skills I have learned from my time working here. I also appreciate getting to meet and build friendships with some of the regulars of lap swim and people who make up the majority of the city of Temecula.

Hello, my name is Bethany Belfi, and I currently serve as a lead guard for the aquatics program. Alongside my work with the city, I'm also graduating from college with my Bachelor of Science in Nursing, and I plan to become a registered nurse after graduation. Working as a lead guard has had a major impact on my desire to pursue nursing. While lifeguarding and nursing may seem like two very different careers at first, I have learned that they actually share many of the same core responsibilities and values. Through this job, I have gained firsthand experience of responding to emergencies, staying calm under pressure, and providing compassionate care to members of the public during stressful situations. One of the biggest ways this position has prepared me for the medical field is through strengthening my confidence and competence in first aid and CPR skills. As guards, we train extensively to recognize emergencies quickly, communicate effectively, and take immediate action when someone needs help. Those experiences have taught me the importance of remaining focused, composed, and prepared in critical moments. Qualities are essential in nursing as well. Overall, my experience with the aquatics program has helped shape me both personally and professionally. It has strengthened my leadership abilities, increased my confidence in emergency response, and further confirmed my passion for the health care and helping others. I'm incredibly grateful for the opportunities this position and this city has given me, and I look forward to continuing to serve the community both as a lead guard and in the future a registered nurse. Thank you.

Hello, my name is Soraya Guerrero. I serve as a lead guard, and I have been participating in outreach programs to educate my community about the importance of water safety. What we do on the pool deck is important, and we are now working to expand our mission throughout the entire community. Just this past week, my team and I worked with the Temecula Elementary School Council to present a water safety presentation to all the students at the school. The purpose of the presentation was for students to not only learn how to be safe around water for themselves, but to also influence their peers and families to be water safe. Additionally, we hosted a library reading program where we read water safety books to children and parents. Reading vivid books to children provides imagery and understanding about being safe around water, which is especially important during the developmental stages. The children attended with their parents, and it is equally important for adults to understand their role in keeping their families safe. We taught parents about our swim lesson programs and discussed being a water watcher for their families when they go near water bodies. My participation in sharing this mission to my community brings me great joy and pride to be a part of a community that cares about water safety. Our lifeguards and instructors do their part in keeping the community safe at our pool, and we want everyone else to be safe as well. That is our ultimate goal. On behalf of the City of Temecula Aquatics, we want to thank you for acknowledging Water Safety Month, and we accept this proclamation. Thank you.

All righty. Well, I want to thank you guys for all of your stories, all of your dedication. Again, does my council, the other council members have anything to say, or all great good things? Go for it.

I was just going to agree with everything you said because you all do great work. I do appreciate the push into the schools and seeing some of the reading programs and your social media is very top-notch, so good job, everybody.

Excellent. Well, thank you guys for everything. Continue planting seeds. I think somebody had said that. You did, ma'am. Continue doing the great work, and we look forward to seeing you out there this summer. All right, thank you. All right, two more to go. So the next one we would like to bring up for a presentation for the proclamation of Public Works Week. And this one is going to be presented and turned over to Ron Marino.

Well, thank you very much, Madam Mayor. We appreciate it. Next week is going to be Public Works Week, and it recognizes the professionals that do the work to try to keep the city and the state that it's in. We try to keep the maintenance going. I'd like to just recognize all the Public Works employees that are in the audience. If you could just very quickly raise your hands, and you can see the wide variety of individuals. Thank you. Our public works staff does everything from streets to maintenance of our facilities, our parks, stormwater, traffic, our engineering department. But then we also have a vast team of analysts and administrative professionals. And so really, it's a very eclectic team, but they try to do their best to maintain the city and the state that it's in and to make people proud of living in Temecula. And so we really appreciate all of these professionals in the audience tonight. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Is there somebody who's going to receive the certificate?

I'm sorry?

Is there somebody who's going to receive the certificate so we can read it?

I asked. They were a little too shy to come up, so I'll go down and get it. All right.

Come on down. Well, I just want to say thank you to everybody through Public Works. We couldn't have our city without all of you, whether you're in the back end of things, behind computers, or out there working on the streets doing wonderful work. I just want to say as your mayor and with the rest of the council and city staff Thank you, hats off to you. Please keep up the great work, and it's great to be partnering with you in so many ways that sometimes we don't even understand. So thank you for your dedication to the city, and Ron, thank you for leading such a great team. All right, thank you very much. All right, thank you. All right, proclamation, presentation for bike month. Mr. Matt Peterson, do we have somebody that's going to come to the podium?

We do.

Okay, just checking.

Madam Mayor, this year's Bike Month Proclamation is going to the Riverside Sheriff's Office. We wanted to highlight their efforts related to enforcement and education. I'd like to introduce Deputy Gruel, who is a certified e-bike safety instructor.

Well, we just want to say thank you. I know you have wonderful things to say here in a moment. But thank you to you and your team and to everybody who is continuing to keep our city safe with bikes. I know things get hectic, but you guys are doing an excellent job. So continue to stay safe, and I look forward to hearing what you have to say. Thank you.

Hello. Riverside County Sheriff's Office, we prioritize our bike and e-bike safety riding community. We understand the ever-going trend that e-bikes possess. So we're currently working on a training course to help educate both parents and the younger riders It's going to focus on rules, regulations, and laws. Then it's going to take it a step further, and we want to do a second part to that where we actually have our younger riders participate in hands-on riding techniques where we teach them proper braking, accident avoidance, things of that nature in hopes that we develop safer riders out there. We hope to launch that program by the summer.

Thank you. So they want to get photos with all of us. I know some people said yes and no, but we're going to get everybody up. So we want to make sure that this is all remembered. So thank you. Thank you. So I know a lot of my council members really love bikes. And so, Stu, do you have anything to say? You like how I did that?

No, but I will say something. As we all know, e-bikes is definitely a challenge in our community, and the state is making strides towards catching up to the issues that we as a city has to deal with in a lot of other cities. So I'm really excited to see what's going to come down the pike from the state because really they're the ones who have the enforcement arm. We are kind of stuck with whatever they give us. But there are some positive signs out there that they're going to grab the bull by the horns and actually do something. So thank you.

I knew you'd have something to say. Any of my other council members have anything else to say or to add?

I just want to add, I think that might be the first and last time Stu's ever said that he's very excited to see something come down from the state. Right, exactly.

And I think we can all agree. Oh yes, and would you like to say something, sir?

Yes, ma'am, I would. I would like to thank Deputy Gruel for volunteering and basically throwing himself into this topic and starting to educate himself on e-bike and e-bike safety and e-motorcycles and all of it that comes with it. It's a lot. They're great machines. It's nice to see that we live in a community where they're so abundant that people can afford them and that kids get to enjoy them and use them. As we've seen, though, we have a long way to go in our education, both for our young riders as well as parents, about how to do all this responsibly and respectfully in the community so that people can enjoy those, and at the same time make sure everybody else who's out in our community, on our sidewalks, on our streets, can operate those areas safely. And so we're committed, Riverside Sheriff's Office, Southwest Station, we are committed to continuing that effort. But I did want to take a moment to thank Deputy Grewell for all the work that he's put into it, and we'll continue to do so. So thank you.

Thank you very much. Thank you. we can have your family come up let's do a photo council members you want to come down we can take a quick photo whole family You guys can come over here, too. And then we'll step out and you guys can take your photos.

All right, family, go ahead. You guys can take your photos.

Oh, you're doing the family?

Okay, well, I just want to thank everybody for everything this month and this last year and all that we're doing to keep the city safe and moving forward. Next, we're going to talk board and commissions. There are no reports today. So let's move on to public safety report from the County of Riverside Sheriff's Department Chief Mark Rigali.

Mayor Alexander, City Council, City staff, while I look at the room. Escape. City Council, city staff, members of the leading public. Good afternoon. It's a pleasure to be with you. I have a short report this afternoon. I just have some stats to go over very briefly. And then I have a specific investigation that your SET team conducted during the month of April, and I wanted to share some of those highlights with you.

So I think you'll find it interesting.

So first slide here, calls for service April 2026, Southwest Station for City of Temecula handling 5,753 calls for service. Again, in the chart you see there, starting from your left, 72 of those calls were priority ones requiring emergency response. Priority two is at just over 2,000. Priority three, 2,380. That's where we spend the bulk of our time. And priority four at 1,200. Next slide. And then here is the breakdown of our response times to those priority ones. Obviously, those are our critical calls for service coming in at five minutes, just over five minutes response time to those priority one calls, which is really good. I like to see that. Priority twos are just under 10 minutes, and priority three is 16 minutes. So nothing unusual. That's pretty much the trend that we see month to month. So good response times, and I like to see that. Next slide, please. All right, so earlier in the month of April, the SET team launched on an investigation here at the city. And in April, it was April 10th of 2026, your deputies from your special enforcement team, assisted by your robbery-burglary suppression team, the marijuana eradication team, and the asset forfeiture unit served a search warrant at two neighboring residences on Corte Anza in the city of Temecula. Now, this investigation was initiated based on community complaints of a strong marijuana odor coming from both locations. And I highlight that because, again, as we have said time and again, we cannot do this job alone. We depend on citizens calling us and giving us information so that maybe we may act on it and look further into that. And that's what happened here. So your deputies conducted drone surveillance, which identified indicators consistent with illegal marijuana cultivation, including plants, grow equipment, and cultivation structures. We contacted Southern California Edison, who confirmed that both residences were bypassing electrical service with an estimated utility theft of just over $100,000. So they defeat Meters and they gain access to it with the loss at about $100,000 during enforcement operations one suspect was detained during a traffic stop after leaving the location and he was identified as an employee attending the grow operation and Deputies contacted the property owner at the primary residence, and that person was taken into custody without incident. Search warrants were served and resulted in the seizure of approximately 300 pounds of processed marijuana, over 350 marijuana plants, $25,000 in U.S. currency, additional drugs and steroids, as well as four rifles that were recovered from the locations. Evidence located at both properties indicated a large-scale cultivation and distribution operations. Multiple partner agencies responded, including Building and Safety, Code Enforcement, Fire Marshal, California State Water Resources Control Board, and Southern California Edison. Both residents were deemed unsafe. They were red-tagged and had power shut off due to the hazardous and illegal conditions. You can see by some of those slides, by the photos there, And the interior, basically the home is gutted. All the interior walls are taken down and the entire inside of the residence is turned into a grow operation. California Water Board is pursuing environmental violations related to the water contamination that occurred. Based on the scale of the operation, investigators believe that the primary suspect may be linked to additional illegal cultivation sites, which we continue to investigate. Follow-up investigation is ongoing. Financial asset seizure, potential forfeiture of the properties, and identification of additional suspects and locations. And deputies will continue to proactive enforcement efforts to disrupt these illegal narcotics operations operating within the city. But again, I wanted to highlight this one. This is... Just a great example of the work that gets done by your SET team as well as the other supporting teams. And, again, started by citizens who are paying attention and calling us and giving us the information we need to get going. So I applaud them for that. So unless there are any questions, that's the end of my report.

All right. Well, thank you for that report. And it just reminds us if we see something or smell something, say something. Any of my colleagues have anything?

No?

Okay. All right, next let's move on to our public comments for non-agendized items. Do we have any comments?

Yes, we do, Madam Mayor. We have five comments on non-agendized items, and then we have one comment on consent calendar number six. We will start with non-agendized items. Each speaker is limited to three minutes. Balance of the rules are reflected in the agenda. The first speaker is Laurel Lamott, to be followed by Drew Davis. All right, good afternoon.

Hi. I want to talk about redevelopment agency funding, a bygone era state funding source provided to cities to create affordable housing. In the past, Temecula City Council has begrudged the state for taking that funding source away. Meanwhile, we did benefit from that funding source, Warehouse at Creekside, where I reside, benefited $6 million. I do believe there's a property tax incentive there, and they benefit from the commercial real estate below the building. Let's talk about representation. Who is representing these constituents that live in this building? Well, the property management can legally take advantage of those tenants, can raise rent well beyond what we make because rents aren't tied to what the tenants make. It's tied to AMI. That's a contractual agreement the city wrote. Not because it had to, because what I've been told is it's standard language. Standard language written by people who don't live there or live in it. We, the tenants, share everything we make in order to qualify to live there. Yet we pay well over $2,000 in rent. And some of these tenants pay the same but don't have the luxury of a washer and dryer while the rest of them do. And they can legally get away with it because it's not in the contract. I'm running for office. Because it feels like nobody in government wants to represent these people. We want to pin the affordable housing tenants against the middle class, against the homeowners of the community. We work here. We serve this community. We don't qualify for any other government assistance. We're just trying to pay the rent. It's a family of four in that two-bedroom unit without a washer and dryer. A family of four paying over $2,000 in an affordable housing complex, and what are you doing about it? Are you justifying it? Millions of dollars given to a developer with zero protections for the tenants. You are the representative, not of that developer, because I guarantee that developer doesn't live here. You are the representative of those tenants. Represent. Thank you.

All right. Thank you so much for coming in and your time. And the next speaker is?

The next speaker is Drew Davis, to be followed by Jeff Kingsberg. Hello, Mr. Davis. Good to see you, as always.

How are you? Good.

I would like to take a moment of personal privilege today to come forward, Madam Mayor, and say thank you. I've had the absolute blessing over the last month to be a part of conversations that you have fostered amongst many varied faith traditions, trying to hear every voice within our community as faith leaders to help us work together, for you to work with us so that we can go out and do what is better for the Temecula Valley. I wanted to take a moment this evening to come forward and say thank you for that. This evening was a great example for that. Our rabbi brother in faith came forward to share in the prayer this evening in a place that's seen sometimes as a more conservative Protestant area. It's good to see that voice here in this room. I would like to say thank you for that. It's a true blessing to be able to see the effort of creating community. And as I share thank you, I would like to just share a little bit more about another community within our Temecula Valley. Last week was Transgender History Week, and I just wanted to take a chance to share with each of you, as our transgender siblings in the Temecula Valley live and thrive within our community, they add to the vibrant culture that exists here. Within our American history, so many dear friends, everyone from Marcia P. Johnson to Sarah McBride, have been a part of our American history, and they have done things to help add to our vast, vibrant culture. So this evening, as I once again, Madam Mayor, say thank you for your effort to make sure that every culture is heard, I wanted to add to that cultural voice this evening with my gratitude. Thank you.

Thank you for coming forward. Always good to see you, sir. All right, I believe we have two more, ma'am.

Yes, the next speaker is Jeff Kingsberg, to be followed by Greg Langworthy.

Mr. Jeff Kingsberg, how are you, sir?

Good, Mayor. Thank you. Good afternoon, Madam Mayor, Council, staff. I just wanted to take a moment in kind of a timely way, hopefully speak a little bit to bike safety and piggyback on the proclamation. Congratulations to the Riverside County Sheriffs on that, and I appreciate the comments from Deputy Grewal and Chief Rigali. I've been a board member for Bike Temecula Valley now since 2022, and I'm here today supporting bike safety, as is my partner in the audience, Brian Fowler, who is also a board member, and he's the co-founder of the Caught With Your Helmet On division. Just wanted to share that we have been out at three elementary schools in the last few weeks. We've done bike safety assemblies at Abby Reinke Elementary and Nicholas Valley Elementary. We also did a walk, bike, and roll event at Temecula-Lisano Elementary. Again, rewarding students who are doing the right thing, riding into school safely and wearing a helmet. It's rewarding to be part of such a positive reinforcement process at those events. I do believe progress is being made. I mean, I see more and more kids wearing helmets. And so that is great to see. Yet moving ahead as far as an area of focus or growth, I did want to mention, and it's kind of an obvious one, a common sense one, but I believe we need to promote, we need to insist, we need reward if we need to bribe. I mean, whatever we need to do, but we need to make sure that riders are riding with traffic. not against traffic, not into traffic, riding with traffic. I mean, to me, this is an absolute non-negotiable. We cannot have people riding into traffic. Today, coming home from the gym, I had a student coming south on Meadows as I was coming north. Fortunately, I saw him. I was able to slow down. He saw me. He was able to slow down. But as I turned in my neighborhood, there's a break in the bike lane there. And it could have been disastrous. Again, he's riding right into the line of fire. So I just think that as a community, talking about community as a previous speaker did, when we look at the schools, we look at the district, we look at school sites, we look at administration, parents, students. with the city, the deputies. We just need, this needs to be a non-negotiable. We need to insist on it. We certainly would not allow for someone in an automobile to ride against traffic, right? Usually when they do, they're in a pretty bad state, right? They're inebriated and they're going at a high speed and they're doing major damage. So I just think that's our next big thing and we need to speak to it and rinse and repeat it. Thank you very much.

Thank you for your comments and thank you for coming.

Next up, we have Greg Langworthy, and then we will hear from our consent calendar speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Langworthy. Good to see you, sir.

I'm going to see if I can make this work.

Does that work? Should it just come on automatically? He's going to turn it on for you. Here he comes. We'll just hold on your time until it. Thank you, Chris.

All right, thanks.

Wonderful. So I want to give you an update on our audits and the sheriff's investigation because we really appreciate Sheriff Bianco taking this seriously. The reason he is investigating, and Brendan, you probably know this as well as anybody, is when we did our audit, this number here, the ballots delivered to the ROV. We have the election ballot collection logs of all the election workers. This is their number. The problem is this number is much less than the vote number. Why is that? I don't think Art knows. That's what the sheriff wants to figure out. The sheriff is doing something very simple. There should be no more votes counted than ballots cast, right? I think we can all agree that. When you guys vote, it's never seven. It's always five. Well, in our elections, it's been more than the number of Ballots in four consecutive elections. That's a problem How is this in the sheriff finally took it seriously because this is not the first time it happened happened in 2024 happened in the two special elections I don't think art knows why it has happened honestly and and when he entered when Sheriff interviewed art I think he came away with the same conclusion art doesn't really know Can be two things could be election worker error Or it could be voting system error. The only way you will know is by counting the actual number of ballots that are in those boxes that the sheriff now possesses. That's how you know the sheriff took this very seriously. He got a court order to get all the ballots from the Prop 50 election, and they're now in his possession. He determined to count those pieces of paper. Because when he counts them, it's either going to be 611,000 or 657,000. If it's 657,000, Art's right. Machine's right. If it's 611,000, hmm, there's a problem. That's what he wants to do. Why hasn't he been able to do it? A court has stopped him. The Attorney General of California stopped the count, joined by Javier Becerra, also a governor candidate. We don't think that's justified. We hope the Supreme Court of California will open the door simply to count the ballots, because in Riverside County, it's in all our interest to know, are our election system counting machines counting accurately, right? It's in all our interest. Or are our on election workers have such poor training, they missed 45,000 ballots. So that's where we are. We'll keep you updated. We're talking to our supervisors. Here's our solution. In the next elections, we want Art to show his reconciliation before the supervisors certify. These two numbers need to match. Ballots cast, votes counted. Thank you.

All righty. Thank you, Mr. Langworthy. All right. Next, we are going to move on to city council reports, if any of my colleagues would like to go first to my left.

Madam Mayor, if we can add one more, we're adding. Yes, if we actually have a speaker on consent calendar, item number six, Mr. Martin Cortez, we're happy to hear from you.

Good afternoon, Mr. Cortez.

Good afternoon. Good afternoon, Madam Mayor, members of the City Council. My name is Martin Cortez, Area Manager with West Coast Arborist. First, I want to thank the Council and the City staff for the opportunity to participate in the City's RFP process for the citywide tree trimming and maintenance services. We appreciate the time and effort that goes into evaluating proposals for an important public service program such as this. WCA recently submitted a formal notice of appeal regarding the recommended award to Mariposa Tree Management. Our intent today is not to criticize staff or another contractor, but simply to respectfully request that the council consider postponing approval of this item to allow for additional review of the proposal and evaluation results. WCA has proudly served municipalities throughout California for decades and previously served the city of Temecula from 2003 to 2021. During that time, we provided safe, reliable, and professional tree care services without incidents or accidents, while building a strong working relationship with the community. After reviewing the pricing comparison and the RFP evaluation criteria, we believe there is legitimate questions about the determination of the overall value, qualifications, competitiveness among the submitted proposals. We respectfully believe that WCA's proposal offers substantial long-term value to the city through our municipal experience, safety record, operational resources, tree inventory management capabilities, and competitive pricing across many of the core bid items. We fully understand that price is not the only factor. However, because the contract impacts public safety, neighborhood, aesthetics, emergency response and the long-term management of over 36,000 city trees, we believe it is appropriate to ensure the evaluation process is fully reviewed before the final award is approved. Based upon WCA's extensive municipal experience, proven performance history with the city, exceptional safety record, operational capabilities, and competitive pricing across the majority of the core bid items, we believe WCA represents the most qualified, responsible contractor to continue serving the residents of Temecula. Thank you again for your time, consideration, and the service to the city of Temecula.

Thank you for coming in, sir. All right, next let's move on to the City Council reports. Anybody to my left would like to go first? No, anybody to my right? Mr. Stu Stewart?

Okay, just to piggyback on that gentleman's comment about opposite traffic coming, these kids. It happened to me. I was coming out of a street, and I looked to the left just to see if I could make my right turn, and... Luckily, before I actually hit the accelerator, there was a e-biker coming in the opposite lane. So basically, and he was about ready to cross my path, that if I would have just looked to my left and then started to proceed, I would have hit him. So it's a real thing. Kids are traveling in the wrong direction. And they think they're in the bike lane. The bike lane is somehow a magical barrier that protects them. But flow of traffic is really the magical barrier because that's what people are expecting. People who are in cars are expecting no one to be coming the opposite direction in the bike lane. So super dangerous out there if you're an e-biker, if you've got kids. who are e-bikers, please let them know it's not It's not legal to drive your e-bike in the opposite direction, even if you're in the bike lane. You've got to go with the flow of traffic. So that's the first thing. The rod run was spectacular. I mean, it was last Friday and Saturday, and it was not last. It was the week before. But yeah, it was 350 cars cruising that night, which... was a lot, but it was a super beautiful day, beautiful night. And then the Saturday Shining Show was fantastic too. So to me, that's probably one of, it's my favorite event of the year, but it went really, really well. No incidences that required public safety at all. So that was a real positive event. thing for this year, especially that we made it through without a single problem.

All right.

That's it. Thank you.

Well, thank you very much for always leading that with staff. And I believe I'm going to be the last one to have council comments. If we can have the first slide, please. So if you have not yet heard, you're on notice now. We would love to invite you to this public virtual meeting tonight. There was one today at 12 o'clock. There's going to be another one this evening at 5.30 at 12 o'clock and 5.30 on Thursday, May 14th. The QR code is there so that way you can get your ticket. So we'd love for you to be able to join us. I'm going to be on one of these virtual calls. I believe it's this week. If you haven't found out about what is going through or the possibilities of them wanting to come through our city, SDG&E has a proposal that they brought to the city of Temecula. I have the privilege to be able to sit down with them at the table or one of their companies that they are working with, with staff. And so we would all like to invite you as well to come and participate, not only with this event, but another one that is going to be coming as our city council is going to be inviting SDG&E to the next council meeting. So take note. On Tuesday... May 26th, 2026 at 3 p.m. So this is open to the public right here in the chambers. And if they are not able to make it, our staff is going to be presenting on their behalf. So we would encourage that you share this with your friends, your neighbors, even in neighboring cities, as this is going to be really important and the possible impacts in different ways for all of us. So I would encourage all of you to show up. The next one I'd like to move into is just thanking the Temecula VFW Post 4089. It's an annual thing that they do. They came out and they cleaned up the duck pond. So again, community serving community in just small ways. This is something that they did. And I just want to say hats off to all of them for taking a, I believe it was a Saturday to come out and ensuring that our city and our duck pond continues to stay beautiful. All right, with that being said, we're going to move into the consent calendar. We have eight items, and I will read the titles. Number one, waive reading of the titles and texts of all ordinances and resolutions included in the agenda. Number two, approve action minutes of April 28, 2026. Number three, approve list of demands. Number four, adopt resolution approving permanent easement for storm drainage easement maintenance and access easement agreement and grant of temporary construction easement to facilitate construction of storm drain improvements near Butterfield Stage Road and DePortola Road. Number five, award a consultant agreement with Fair and Pierce for the local roadway safety plan update project PW25-03. Number six, approve agreement with Mariposa Tree Agreement Incorporated for citywide tree trimming maintenance services for fiscal year 2026 through 2028. Number seven, approve agreement with Nieves Landscapes LLC for landscape maintenance services for fiscal years 2026 through 2029. And number eight, a set public hearing to approve solid waste and recycling rates for commercial customers for fiscal year 2026 through 2027. Would any of my colleagues like to pull an item? If not, can I get a motion?

Move approval. Second.

All right, let's go to vote. Alrighty, that motion passes as 5-0. I would like to recess the City Council meeting to the scheduled meetings of the Temecula Community Services District, the successor agency to the Temecula Redevelopment Agency, and the Temecula Housing Authority, and or the Temecula Public Financing Authority. Move that.

And I would like to call to order the Temecula Community Service District Meeting. Madam Secretary, please note we're all still here. Are there any public comments? None. So we'll go to the consent calendar, which is item number 9, approve action minutes of April 28, 2026. And item number 10, approve Fourth Amendment to the Transportation Charter Services, Inc., for Transportation Services. Move approval.

Second.

It's been moved and seconded. Please vote. And that passes 5-0. Do we have any report from the community services director?

We do, Mr. President. We have two events we'd like to bring your attention to. The first one is this Saturday, May 16th from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. right out here in front of the Civic Center. We have our annual Culture Fest. Super fun time, tons of music, dancing, food, lots of great experiences bring the whole family. It'll be a really good time. And then if you're here for that, you can always walk on down to the Farmer's Market here Saturday mornings. That goes until 1 p.m. And then on Sunday, May 24th, we're having an Out of the Archives. And if that picture looks a little familiar, it's because that is from the 1995 Rod Run. And so for this Out of the Archives, our archivist is actually going to pull a bunch of artifacts and memorabilia from all of our previous Rod Runs. So if you're into cars, come on down and take a look. And that concludes my report.

All right, thank you.

And do we have anything from... Mr. President, I kind of want to just echo what you said and just give my sincere thanks to every single city operating department, including our police and fire personnel for their... contingency planning their emergency operation planning their operational planning of the rod run it was phenomenal we were blessed with good weather and that brought 60 000 folks into the downtown so um very well done on on the planning side i appreciate all of you right anything from the other board members here no that being said we will adjourn till the next one

And we will re-convene with the Temecula City Council. Thank you very much, Mr. President. And we would like to move directly into our second agenda items, non-agenda items, of public comments. Do we have any? All righty, because we have no other meetings. Items for future city council agendas from any of my colleagues? Yes, sir.

I just have one quick question. point of clarification, if I could. For the next meeting where we talk about the SDG&E proposal, can we make sure we also extend an invitation to California ISO as well, since they seem to be the driver behind the project?

Thank you. Great point, thank you for pointing that out. Any of my colleagues on my left, anything? All righty, city manager report, do we have anything?

Nothing further, Madam Mayor.

All right, our awesome city attorney, Mr. Peter.

Yes, Madam Mayor, we did have a closed session tonight, but we have no reportable actions.

All righty, thank you very much. With that, we will adjourn this meeting until Tuesday, May 26th at 3 p.m. To close this out, though, I would like to say thank you to all of you moms who just celebrated Mother's Day. Thank you for all the hard work, everybody who either stays home or who works and also is a mom. So this meeting was for you.