City Council - Regular Meeting

in the event of a flood. I haven't seen anything from the city or the county. The county on the 19th, the same day as the Tracy Connects, is having a please help clean up our storm waterways uh... and i'll be doing that while you guys are having fun in the park i will clean up the trash but it doesn't look to me like it's ready there are weeds there's a lot of stuff growing and i've seen in past years where those waterways are full And so if this is a 500-year event, they might overfill. I know in the past we've had floods on the outskirts of the city limits and we've had very large trees keel over on houses because the roots are so soaked and the soil will no longer hold them. So I would like for us to prepare and maybe have something in a plan. That's it. Thanks.

Thank you, Ms. Rush. Next speaker card, please.

Pat Howell.

Good evening, Council. Pat Howell. I understand that we are updating our 20-year plan. Instead of just reviewing and tweaking this document as the state requires, let's make a real commitment to a climate action plan. I understand that the elements of this 20-year plan include safety policies to protect our population from climate events, fire, flood, drought, water, soil contamination, air quality, et cetera. It is the perfect time to develop a climate action plan that provides yearly goals so that budgets can be adopted to support these goals. Climate action plans with the purpose of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental problems are recommended by the California Air Quality Board. Millions of California citizens are living in towns and cities with voluntary climate action plans. We live in a very dangerous environment with nitrates and other contaminants used by agriculture, which can be found in our water and our soil. Air pollution is an extremely serious problem that causes many asthma emergencies a year. Our wind patterns coming through Altamont Pass increase the dangers for wildfires. Also, our neighbor, the Lawrence Livermore National Lab, 15 miles from us, has increased their nuclear weapon production and design capability. They will use increased amounts of plutonium now available by our national government, and that means that plutonium and highly radioactive waste will be transported over our major highways that surround us. We must do better and immediately do an act climate action plan and then improve our all citizen disaster response plan. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. L. Next speaker please.

Larkin Fleckner.

Good evening, mayor and council members. It's nice to see you all again. I recently spoke at a city council meeting asking that the city move forward with an updated comprehensive climate action plan At the time, it was insinuated by another resident in attendance that I might be part of some nefarious out-of-town climate organization traveling from city to city to spread my insidious pro-tree messaging. And as intriguing as that may sound, for the record, I am not. My name is Larkin Fleckner, and I'm a proud resident of Tracy. I live here with my husband and two children. My parents and my little brother are also longtime residents. I care deeply about our city. I assure you that I would not bring something to council if I did not feel it were important. And with that, I will move to my ask. I am appreciative of you taking time to listen to the recent requests for an updated climate action plan. I believe the council is amiable to the idea, which is awesome. However, I don't see it as a topic for today's agenda. So I am respectfully asking city council to request that this item be agendized for the next city council meeting, which I believe is September 15th, 2026, in accordance with city of Tracy council meeting protocols and rules of procedure 4.3.1.3. which states the motion maker may include a specific meeting date on which the item must be brought to the city council for consideration and such date shall prevail unless the city manager provides information to explain that such date is not possible either due to current workloads, staffing, and or anticipated research. Thank you for your time and consideration and thank you for what you do.

Thank you, Ms. Fleckner. Next speaker card, please.

Veronica Vargas.

Good afternoon, Mayor, City Council, staff member. I have an ask of three bullet points items for you all to consider. And I will love if this council decides to bring my ask to a future discussion for future consideration and a future agenda. The ask is a three point. Is it first the activation of the nature park? We requested the City Council direct staff to bring immediate design and construction workflow to the Phase 1 of the Nature Park. Staff should and could utilize voters' approved Measure B fundings for this phase, ensuring zero impacts to the City's general funds. To ensure physical responsibility, Council should establish a firm target budget cap for Phase 1, Furthermore, the community request that phase one design prioritize immediate integration of youth structure or agriculture learning opportunities like a greenhouse, outdoor nature education and an education center alongside with the trails and utilities infrastructure for the nature park. Number two, adoption of the urban forestry management plan and ordinance update. To protect and enhance the Tracy existing green canopy, we request that the City Council formally adopt the urban forestry management plan. Currently, staff should be directed to update the Tracy tree ordinance to ensure the robust heritage tree policy and extract and force higher tree replacement ratios of one to three or greater for private and commercial development. I'm going to leave the third item to one of my board members to finish and it's a pleasure being here this evening. Thank you, sir.

Thank you, Ms. Vargas. Next speaker card, please.

Mayor, we have no additional speaker cards, but I do have a speaker online.

Let's go ahead and proceed with who is in the chambers right now. So who would like to speak next?

Good evening. My name is Ellen McCrae. I'm a lifelong resident of Tracy. And I would like to add my voice to Veronica's. and hope that you will implement the urban forest management plan, that you will begin work on the nature park, and that you can implement some kind of city department to protect and expand Tracy's trees. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. McRae. Next speaker, please.

Good evening. My name is Cynthia Reese and I am a Tracy resident. I am here today to support an updated climate action plan. Residents have been asking for this update dating back to 2021 and as recently as the last meeting on August 18th. The lack of follow through is concerning. That is why I'm asking that this item be agendized for the next council meeting on September 15th in accordance with item 4.3.1.3 of the City of Tracy council meeting protocols and rules of procedure. That section indicates a council member can request a specific date for the item to be agendized and that the date should prevail unless the city manager provides information explaining why it is not possible. As I have stated previously, we are contending with extreme weather. There's rising heat. Tracy phases rising heat more frequent. Triple digit summer days. Updating plans protect vulnerable residents. Central Valley water supplies are shrinking. Smarter water management secures future growth. Wildfire smoke and traffic pollution harm health. Better plans reduce local air risks. Also, there is estate compliance. Current plans must align with new laws. There's also grant money that could be accessed. Updated plans unlock these funds. It also lowers utility bills. Green building codes save residents money. Energy efficiency drops monthly costs. So I'm asking you, please put this on the agenda. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Reese. Next speaker, please.

Good evening, Mayor and council members, staff.

Looks like I'm part of a conspiracy here to improve the environment here in the community. Let me read bullet point three. I think you have a copy of it. Tracy Tree Foundation is asking for feasibility of a department for tree development and wellness to guarantee the long-term survival of our urban forest. We request that the council direct staff to evaluate the feasibility of establishing a dedicated department or division for tree development and wellness. This entity would be tasked with cross departmental coordination working alongside public works engineering and water utilities to establish strict sustainable irrigation standards for city trees, manage root and sidewalk mitigation and protect public safety. Currently, trees are taken care of by Public Works and the Recreation Department. And I think it would be better if we had sort of a unified central department group that deals with that. I think we would be better served as a community. And that said, we are looking to plant around 200 trees on October 3rd, and we're looking for cooperation from the city to do that. So any help there would be appreciated.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Matrakos. Next speaker, please. Whoever would like to speak next.

Good evening, Mayor and Council, staff, ladies and gentlemen.

Good evening.

I'm just here with a request, another ask, I guess you can say. As we all know, September, in September we get 9-11, which is the 2050 anniversary this year. I'm definitely, I want to say this on the record that I'm not asking anyone to stop living or stop celebrating whatever they are, but just out of respect, because this is especially the 25th anniversary, no disrespect to the staff at all. I love you guys. You work very hard. Brian McDonald is a great guy. How did the city end up putting a block party on 9-11? There is many other Fridays. The block party could have been on any other Friday, but 9-11 cannot be on any other Friday. It's the 25th anniversary of Again, I'm not saying that everybody should stop living their life and being sad. We are a strong, resilient nation. We do get up and go. But this thing is something close to many people's heart. I might be the lone wolf here when I say this, but I've been hosting a 9-11 event, a memorial event since 2002, and this is my 25th year of doing it. Mayor, you have attended it. Mr. Evans, Steve, Mr. Abercrombie. And a couple of people here have attended it. Veronica has attended it. So it's very important that I'm not, again, please don't get me wrong. I'm not telling you guys to do something from the city, but at least don't do something that doesn't sound right. Just because you can do it doesn't mean you should do it. There is many other Fridays. Please, if you can move that 9-11 block party on that day, I'm hosting this. I have been hosting it, and I never keep a penny of this money. This is a self-funded event. All the money raised has been given back to the Tracy Firefighters Association and the Tracy Police Officers Association, and you can ask them any time how much has been given to them, because I don't want to brag about it. It's been over hundreds and thousands. And this is something close to not only my heart, but to a lot of people who know what this means. A lot of people do know what this means. I'm not saying they don't know, but it carries something, because if we forget about history, I don't want to go that route, but I just want to say thank you so much for the time. I appreciate it. God bless you. God bless the United States of America. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Senga. The next speaker, please.

Anybody can hear me? Yes, thank you. My name is Anthony Villalobos. I wrote in the paper because I get nervous, you know. I like to blabber a lot. All right. What independent oversight does the City currently have to ensure that the MTM is providing the services taxpayers are paying for, that the City personnel are maintaining appropriate boundaries with MTM's management and employees, and that the safety and discipline investigations and employment policies are being applied? Constantly, you know, if there's no, just wondering what's going on, you know, just checking for the bus services. That's what I'm talking about. So, yeah, pretty much that's what I'm talking about. All right. Thank you, Mr. Villalobos. Thanks. You're welcome. Have a nice day.

You too. Next speaker, please.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor and City Councilor. Good evening. I'm here to request the same request that my colleague did regarding the implementation of forest management and nature park. Yeah, just mentioned it. That's it, very short.

Thank you, Mr. Benham. Next speaker, please.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor. Todd Lieberg. Two topics tonight. First one is Halloween. A year ago, Halloween, two children were hit outside the Fairhaven neighborhood. To your credit, you authorized construction of a streetlight. That streetlight is not yet installed. There are temporary signs out there, which is a positive first step. That being said, you have less than eight weeks to get a street light installed, which is probably not going to happen. I'm hoping you guys can have an option B to direct traffic out there if the light's not installed. Second topic. Mr. Mayor, last week or two weeks ago, you announced the settlement agreement between Surland and Ellis. I'm cautiously optimistic that this will lead to positive results, being that Surland eventually or finally turns over the land without issue, finally pays the $8 million. Those are longstanding and overdue issues. At the same time, you announced that the city will be paying Surland some money, approximately $5 million is what I'm hearing. Surland has a long history of not honoring their legal obligations, paying their bills on time. I strongly urge the city before you pay any money to Surland, make sure you have the land completely deeded. You have the full 8 million. Once that check is cleared, please pay away, but don't pay before then, please. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Lieberg.

Next speaker, please.

GOOD EVENING. KEVIN TOBEK ON THE BOARD OF THE TRACY PUBLIC CEMETERY DISTRICT AND ON BEHALF OF THE CEMETERY I WOULD LIKE TO THANK THE COUNCIL FOR APPROVING THE ITEM AT THE LAST MEETING. THE CEMETERY IS SUCH A SPECIAL PLACE IN THIS COMMUNITY. WITH SO MANY OF OUR LOVED ONES THERE. IT WAS JUST VERY HELPFUL TO SEE THAT THE CITY WILL PROVIDE SOME POLICING TO THE CEMETERY DISTRICT AFTER HOURS. IT'S UNUNFORTUNATE THAT SOME FOLKS JUST CAN'T FOLLOW THE RULES AND REGULATIONS OF THE CEMETERY DISTRICT WHICH ARE PRETTY STANDARD. SO JUST WANTED TO LET YOU KNOW WE'RE VERY THANKFUL FOR WHAT THE CITY IS DOING FOR THE CEMETERY. I WANT TO THANK THE POLICE DEPARTMENT, IN PARTICULAR ANNA CONTRERAS, AND THE CITY ATTORNEY'S OFFICE WITH WORKING WITH OUR STAFF AND OUR LEGAL COUNSEL. AND THANK YOU VERY MUCH. YOU KNOW, THE CEMETERY, I DON'T THINK A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THIS, IS 145 YEARS OLD. THERE'S A LOT OF HISTORY THERE. IT'S A SPECIAL PLACE. SO I JUST WANT TO THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR PROVIDING THE ASSISTANCE AT THE CEMETERY.

THANK YOU, MR. TOBIK. NEXT SPEAKER, PLEASE.

Good evening City Council, it's Mary Matrakos. And I'm gonna talk about the nature park. There is eight and a half million dollars that has been set aside. We have been waiting patiently, patiently for years to have a beginning on the nature park. Now that all the money has been collected, we are asking that you direct staff to start to put out bids and that we can actually begin, we can go. And I also would like to see the urban forestry management plan, which was accepted by the council, but has not yet been implemented. I WOULD LIKE TO SEE THAT BEGAN AS WELL. AND I DO HAVE TO NOTE THAT IF BOTH OF THESE THINGS ARE DONE, YOU'RE LIKE HALFWAY TO A COMPLIANCE, THE ENVIRONMENTAL ACTION PLAN. SO IT IS, THEY ARE, EVERYTHING HERE TONIGHT IS KIND OF DOVETAILING. SO I JUST, I DO APPRECIATE YOUR SERVICE AND THANK YOU.

NEW SPEAKER. THANK YOU, MS. METROKOS. NEXT SPEAKER, PLEASE. Seeing none, oh.

I wrote it down this week.

Good evening, Council. Good evening. I've got a rave, a rant, and a question for you. First, the rave. A city staff member listened at the last meeting when I brought up the pothole on Grant Line. My wife and I have been trying to get it fixed for over a year. Less than a week after mentioning it here, it was repaired. That's what responsiveness looks like. Whoever handled this deserves the employee of the month. When the system works, I'd like to say so. Now the rant. We just didn't move... a homeless person out of one park to let them settle in another. I've reported the same woman living in Lincoln Park for about a year. I've been told that we have new codes in the parks, that the staff knows her familiar faces, and the police need to catch her sleeping overnight. But every morning, she's still there. And now it looks like we're up to three people living in that park. So I ask you, ARE WE ACTUALLY ADDRESSING HOMELESSNESS IN OUR PARKS, OR ARE WE JUST TRYING TO MAKE RESIDENTS FEEL LIKE SOMETHING'S HAPPENING? BECAUSE FROM GROUND LEVEL, IT DOESN'T LOOK LIKE PROGRESS. IT LOOKS LIKE WE'RE SPENDING A LOT OF MONEY SHUFFLING PEOPLE AROUND WITHOUT SOLVING ANYTHING. WITH NO HOMELESS COMMISSION ANY LONGER, THE ONLY PLACE THAT YOU CAN BRING THIS UP IS BEFORE YOU. AND THE FINAL, THE QUESTION. THE FLASHING LIGHT FOR THE FIRE STATION ON 11th STREET HAD A BURNED OUT LOWER LEFT BULB. I NOTICED IT WEEKS AGO, BUT KEPT FORGETTING TO REPORT IT. MY WIFE REPORTED IT EARLIER THIS, OR LATE LAST WEEK, AND IT WAS FIXED THE NEXT DAY. THAT'S THE PART THAT REALLY BOTHERS ME. Why did it take a resident to report something that the city employees... Speaker, your time is up. I'll finish it later. I'll be here. Thank you. Next speaker, please.

I was going to rebut everything Chuck Duby said, but that did take too long. So, counsel, if you would be so kind as my representative to request at the end of the meeting to have the staff provided you with a report that says, how do private, public-private partnerships work and what are the benefits and the advantages? I think now is a really great opportunity that urban forest can be about 30 cents on the dollar, I think, with the public-private. But I'd like to hear their take on it. They can't do anything if I ask them, but if you ask them, that'd be helpful. The other thing is they had that water rate fiasco about we didn't collect enough money and now we had to raise the rates and everybody in town's upset. So to avoid that happening to the people who are going to replace you in 10 years when the Measure V money stops, I would like to suggest to you that you request from the city what the operational costs are going to be of all the new capital improvements from Measure V. How much is that going to be at year 20 when there's no revenue to support it? It'll be a big number. You won't have the budget for it. You might be shocked, but you should ask that question at a time so you can take some sort of action. The other is, in ancient history, I was on the city council one time, and they actually presented a budget that had a per unit cost in it. You do not have such a budget, and unless you ask for one, you will never get one. And it's very hard to... parse what's the value of the art compared to the value of anything else if you don't know what it costs per unit. You need to ask for that.

Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Huffman. Any additional speakers? Seeing none in chambers, do we have any online?

Yes, Mayor, we have one speaker online.

Okay, please proceed.

Can you all hear me?

Yes. Thank you.

Excellent. All right. I'll just get started then. Good evening. My name is Andrew. I'm expressing my opposition to the widespread use of flock ALPRs in the city of Tracy. I'm calling on city council to cancel the city's contract with flock immediately and to not seek an alternative ALPR vendor. These cameras are a grave threat to our citizens' privacy and safety. Due to the nature of how these systems work, I as a member of the public have no way of knowing if searches are for legitimate purposes. Just this year, autologues obtained in public records requests revealed that federal agents, including ICE, have been making searches on ALPR networks in California in violation of California law. As this so happens, Tracy PD also has no way of knowing if searches are for legitimate purposes, since Tracy PD shares data with 363 other police departments in California, according to their disclosure. Excuse me. This allows all of those agencies to search Tracy's network of cameras at will. Let's see, if we make an estimate that means 360-ish other agencies, let's say a dozen officers have search credentials at each department, the math works out to about 4,300 people who can search Tracy's network and track whoever they want without a warrant. I hope they made good passwords, I guess. It would be really difficult to fish credentials off of one of thousands of people and use it for criminal purposes, but I digress. I've only got two minutes here. So, much is made by our national politicians about China and their repressive government, which uses war and mass surveillance to track and surveil their citizens. Let me remind you that these systems were designed by American companies such as Oracle and Cisco. Slowly, the same surveillance systems are being built here in the U.S., and there are 137,000 mass surveillance cameras in the U.S. growing one city at a time, one more invasive surveillance technology at a time. I ask everyone present, do we truly value our freedoms, or will we yield them for some perceived short-term benefit? Visit dflocktracy.com for more information. I yield my time.

Thank you. Next speaker, please. Is that no additional speakers?

No additional speakers online.

Thank you. With that, we'll go ahead and close out items from the audience. That brings us to public hearings. First up, we have item 5A, which is related to development impact fee nexus studies. Staff report, please.

Thank you. Good evening. My name is Veronica Child, Management Analyst for the Community and Economic Development Department. This evening I'm going to give you a presentation about our nexus studies and how they relate to our master plans. And we are asking that City Council adopt the new nexus studies and associated development impact fees. All right. So the City of Tracy currently has seven infrastructure master plans. Transportation, water, sewer, storm, public safety, public facilities, and parks. The master plans identify the long-term infrastructure needs and costs associated with that infrastructure to support future growth. The NEXUS studies take the master plan cost data and determine new developments fair share and then establish development impact fees to fund the future infrastructure. Development impact fees are a one-time fee under the Mitigation Fee Act, or Assembly Bill A-1600. They must fund capital improvements only. They cannot fund any maintenance, salaries, or existing deficiencies, and requires that we show a clear link between the fee and the improvement, and we do track those fees separately by category in separate funds. Development impact fees are calculated by taking the project costs attributed to new development and dividing that by the units of new development. The fees vary by residential or non-residential and by specific infrastructure categories associated with those seven master plans I mentioned before. This map of the city shows the three fee areas in the city. The light blue is the core fee area, the green is the LS fee area, and the dark blue is the master plan fee area. The nexus studies we're talking about this evening are in the dark blue areas on that map. So in 2022, we did adopt an update to the parks recreation and trails master plan. And in 2024, we adopted the water public safety and public facilities master plans. Since then, we have been working on these nexus studies. We've had some key updates in this time period. One of those is to align with Assembly Bill 602, which is shifting the residential fees from a fee per unit to a fee per square foot. We've decreased our program management fee from 5% to 2.5%. We've seen some increases due to higher construction costs, updated facilities plans, updated persons per household, and employees per square foot. Related to parks, we have broken out the fees into a Quimley and as a separate fee and then fees are now based on 3.83 acres per 1,000 residents as opposed to the previous which was four acres per 1,000 residents. We've seen some decreases in the water fee due to lower water demand and a $20 million recycled water grant. And then the water capacity fee is now being charged based on usage and meter size as opposed to acreage. In addition, we did have multiple meetings with the Building Industry Association and various developers to go over these fees and worked with our outside counsel to ensure that we had the most fair fees to present to you tonight. Our water fees are changing slightly. They are actually reducing, going from about 17,000 per EDU down to about 12,000 per EDU. Parks fees are increasing. A single family residential per square foot fee is about 420, was 420 per square foot, now a little over $7 per square foot. For public safety facilities, these are all of the facilities that are included in the master plan and being funded through the nexus study. And these total out to about 98 million in costs and the cost attributable to the fee program is about $62 million. For public safety fee, that fee is going up slightly from about 86 cents per square foot to $1.31 per square foot for single family residential. And then for commercial, about $670 per 1,000 square feet to about $920 per 1,000 square feet. The public facilities included in the master plan are listed here in this table. They total to about 241 million. The maximum that could be attributable to the fee program is about $128 million, but we are only funding about 101 million through the impact fee program because we do have some funding already identified. And how that affects the public facilities fee, they were about $1.64 per square foot for single family residential and increasing to $1.82 per square foot. And for commercial, they were about 110 per thousand square feet and going up to 358 per thousand square feet. These tables show comparison to other agencies. So we used a 2,600 square foot as a prototype for single family residential. As you see by this chart, the Tracy existing fees are in orange, the proposed fees are in green, and then neighboring cities are in blue. So you'll see that the proposed fees are slightly increasing overall for a single family residential unit and below the median line. And then for multifamily residential, we're using a 995 square foot unit as the prototype. You'll see that we're just over the median and there is a slight decrease overall to the impact fees from the existing to the proposed. And then for commercial, we do have our office, we're using per 1,000 square feet. You'll see that the Tracy existing fees are far below the median line, and the proposed are just slightly higher than that. Really for commercial, you can see that the Tracy proposed fees are actually less overall than the existing fees. And then for industrial, same situation that the Tracy existing fees are higher than what our new proposed fees are. Okay. So I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have. I also have Adam Marston here in the audience. He is one of the consultants that has been working on this, and he will be here to help me answer any questions that you might have. Thank you.

Thank you. Does Council have any preliminary questions?

Mayor Pro Tem. When we had this at Finance, again, thank you very much. Great report. There was one outstanding issue you said you had with BIA. I got that resolved.

Yes, we did get that resolved with the BIA. We had another conversation with him, with them, and they agree with the fees as they're presented tonight.

Great, thank you very much. Thank you, Mayor Patel. Council Member Duggan. Thank you. I see in the presentation that it says the proposed parks fee for a single family for 2026, it says $7.04 per square foot. I think in the actual Nexus study, I forgot the publisher, sorry. I think it says it's $7.27. Can I ask why is it different or which one are we adopting today?

We are adopting the $7.04 per square foot. We came to an agreement with the BIA to do a slight reduction to the contingency related to the park fee.

Okay, okay, that clarifies, thank you. Sorry, I have one more question. Let's say for an average, Actually, it doesn't matter. But for a new single-family home, what's the net change in impact fees after the water fee reductions that we're seeing and the reductions? Out of all the increases and reductions that we're seeing, what's the net change for a single-family home? Are fees going up?

for a single-family home. The fees are increasing slightly. The 2,600-square-foot single-family residential unit was at about $59,680 and is going up slightly to be $63,354. Okay. Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember. Any on this side? Councilmember Evans?

Thank you, Mayor. No, staff answered all my questions during the Finance Committee meeting, so thank you. Thank you. Anything? Okay.

All right, we'll go out for public comment. Would any members of the public like to speak on item 5A related to impact fee nexus studies? I see one hand. We'll allow four minutes. Let's proceed. Mayor, it's a public hearing, so we should open the public hearing. My apologies. We're going to go ahead and open the public hearing at 8.07.

I DON'T UNDERSTAND. DO WE HAVE $20 MILLION COMING IN FOR THE LIBRARY? BECAUSE I DON'T NEED THAT MUCH TO DO WHAT I NEED AT THE LIBRARY, AND I MIGHT NOT HAVE TO BEG AND BORROW FROM YOU GUYS. IS THAT WHAT I'M SEEING HERE? THAT'S MY QUESTION. AND IF I COULD GET THAT ANSWERED BY STAFF, IT'D BE NICE. THANK YOU. THANK YOU, MR. DIVY.

NEXT SPEAKER, PLEASE.

I just have one question. Under public safety fees comparison, it shows everyone going up except industrial. Why is industrial going down? They take as much public safety as anywhere else. I would think that either they stay even or that they go up just like everyone else. And that's under the public safety fee comparison sheet. It's only a minor drop, but it's dropping. And I take as much safety as everything else. So if you could answer that question, it'd be great.

Thank you, Mr. Tanner. Do we have any additional speakers on this item? Okay, do we have any speakers online?

No, Mayor, no speakers online.

Okay, with that, we'll go ahead and close out public comment and close the public hearing for item 5A. Staff, I'd like to get responses to the questions related to library fees and public safety fees in the industrial category.

So yes, that is correct. The cost estimate for the Tracy Library is $27 million. The cost attributable to the fee program is $20 million. So we would be collecting from new development about $20 million to fund the library. And then for industrial, I believe the fees are going down because the assumptions of the number of people per thousand square feet in an industrial building has gone down.

Understood, thank you. All right, council, do you have any additional questions, discussion, or entertain a motion?

May I make a motion to adopt a resolution adopting the public facilities nexus study and associated public facilities project list. and two adopting an updated charges for the public facilities fees three adopting water capacity nexus study for adopting updated charges for water capacity fees five adopting public safety nexus study and associated public safety project list six adopting updated charges for public safety fees seven adopting park dedication and IN LIEU FEE AND PARK ACQUISITION AND IMPROVEMENT FEE NEXT TO STUDY AND ASSOCIATED PARK ACQUISITION AND IMPROVEMENT FEE PROJECT LIST EIGHT ADOPTING CHARGES AND A DEDICATION REQUIREMENTS FOR PARK DEDICATION AND IN LIEU FEE CHARGE AND FEE AND CHARGES FOR PARK ACQUISITION AND IMPROVEMENT FEE SECOND WE HAVE A FIRST AND A SECOND BUT UH COUNCILMEMBER BADOYA DID YOU HAVE A COMMENT QUICK QUESTION THANK YOU UM I JUST WANTED TO GET A UM CHECK IN WITH STAFF FROM THE

The lowering of the parks fee from 727 to 704, that happened kind of recently. Would staff, if we approve the 704, would staff still say that new development is paying for their fair share of infrastructure? Yes, absolutely.

Okay, thank you. That was it. Thanks. Thank you, Councilmember. We have a first and second. Roll call, please.

Mayor Pro Tem Abercrombie? Yes. Councilmember Evans?

Yes.

Councilmember Bedoya? Yes. Councilmember Nygaard? Yes. Mayor Areola?

Yes. Madam Clerk, will you please read the title of the proposed ordinance?

Amending the Tracy Municipal Code, Title 13, by amending chapters 13.04, 13.08, and 13.12. repealing chapters 13.16 and 13.20, and adding chapters 13.37 and 13.38, updating the development impact fees.

Motion to waive the first reading by substitution of title and introduce the ordinance. Second. We have a first and a second. Roll call, please.

Mayor Pro Tem Abercrombie?

Yes.

Council Member Evans?

Yes.

Council Member Bedoya?

Yes.

Council Member Nygaard. Yes. Mayor Areola.

Yes. All right. The impact fees pass. Thank you to staff, and we look forward to new development paying their fair share. That brings us to regular agenda items. Item 6A is related to the Cal City's annual conference. Staff report, please.

Good evening, Honorable City Council and staff. My name is Elva Esquivel, and I'm the Acting City Clerk. The item before you this evening is related to the upcoming League of California Cities Annual Conference and Expo General Assembly meeting. This year, the conference is scheduled for Wednesday, September 23rd through Friday, September 25th. As you know, CalCities advocates on behalf of towns and cities throughout California on important issues. Their advocacy teams work with regional field staff and lawmakers to sponsor, draft, and support legislative and regulatory measures that promote local decision making and lobby against policies that erode local control. An important part of the annual conference and expo is the General Assembly meeting to be held on Friday, September 25th. At this meeting, Cal City's membership considers and acts on resolutions that establish Cal City's policy. In order to expedite the conduct of business at this policymaking meeting, each city council is required to designate a voting delegate and up to two alternates who are registered for and attend the annual conference and general assembly meeting. A voting card will be given to the city official designated on the voting delegate form. CalCities has requested to receive the names of the delegates prior to attendance at the conference. As council is aware, the Cal City's annual conference resolutions process is one way that the city officials can directly participate in the development of Cal City's policy. The deadline to submit resolutions this year was July 25th. This year, Cal City's has reported receiving one resolution to be considered at the General Assembly meeting in advance. Attachment B of the staff report contained the general resolution submitted by the City of Murrieta, as well as eight letters of concurrence for the City of Murrieta's submission. It also included Cal City's analysis of the general resolution text and its implications. The General Resolution and CalCities analysis cite multiple laws passed by the state legislature mandating various restrictions or reporting requirements upon local agencies and elected officials. However, these laws included exclusions for the state legislature and for state agencies. The city supports policies that promote local authority and flexibility for local governments to be responsive and transparent to their constituencies. The city policies also do not support unfunded mandates, which are often imposed on the cities, but not on the state. However, it is not clear what impact this resolution would have on influencing the state legislature. There is no anticipated fiscal impact associated with this action, and this agenda item supports governance strategic goal number one to model good governance, teamwork, and transparency. Staff recommends that the City Council take the following actions this evening with regards to the League of California Cities 2026 Annual Conference and Expo General Assembly Meeting. First, by motion, designate a voting delegate and up to two alternate voting delegates for the League of California Cities 2026 annual conference. Second, discuss general resolution number one and determine by motion how to authorize the appointed delegate to vote. And third, to adopt a resolution designating the voting delegate and up to two alternate voting delegates selected in the prior action for the 2026 Annual Conference and Expo General Assembly Meeting. This concludes my report, and staff is available for questions.

Thank you. And then just a quick question, who from Council will be attending the conference?

Mayor, you are the only council member, myself, my two ACMs, Sarah Castro and Arturo Sanchez, and I think Brian Bravo, our legislative analyst, and from the city attorney's office, city attorney and Daniela Green, the assistant city attorney.

Thank you. Do we have any preliminary questions, counsel?

Yes, thank you, Mayor. Is it still possible for council members to sign up to go or is it closed off?

I would have to check, but it usually does sell out. We could check for you. Okay.

Are you interested if it's available? Yes. Yeah. I had something to change. Okay. Anybody else? Okay. Just for my questions. So with regard to the general resolution, I just want to confirm that our city policy is such that we would be supporting local control, opposing unfunded mandates, and opposing anything in which the legislature has excluded from requirements placed upon local governments. Is that in line with our policies?

Mayor, members of the council, Arturo Sanchez, the city manager, those three items as described by the mayor and in the resolution would be consistent with our local policies. Yes, sir.

Thank you, Mr. Sanchez. That's also what I would be proposing to be support. But with that, we'll go out for the public for this item. This is item 6A related to the Cal Cities Annual Conference. Are there any members of the public like to speak on item 6A? Seeing none in chambers, do we have any online?

No speakers online, Mayor.

Okay, with that, we'll go ahead and close out public comment for item 6A. Just for... Council's understanding. So I will be going. I'm good as an alternative. You're welcome to join as well. My only concern is that I have a 6, excuse me, a 2 p.m. flight. And sometimes these resolutions, they begin around noon. Sometimes they run late. If they were to run late, I would ask if is staff available to jump in if I happen to become unavailable.

Yes, I confirm. Myself and Sarah Castro are for sure. We have later flights, so that's not a, if you would like to designate us as an alternate.

Okay, so I would move to designate myself as a voting delegate and Council Member Bedoya, if attending, as an alternate voting delegate and the city manager or her designee as a second delegate for the League of California Cities 2026 Annual Conference.

I'll second that.

I have a second from Councilmember Evans. Ms. Nygaard, is that okay with you?

Yes, that's fine. I was going to say, I believe we can resolve the issue whether or not there's space for Councilmember Bedoya probably by tomorrow, so we can turn in the appropriate names in that order.

Fantastic. We have a first and a second. Roll call, please.

Mayor Areola?

Yes.

Councilmember Evans?

Yes.

Councilmember Bedoya?

Yes.

Councilmember Nygaard? Yes. Mayor Pro Tem Abercrombie?

Yes. Thank you. Was there any council opposition to the policies that I briefly discussed with staff earlier? Okay, so with that, I would move by motion to authorize whichever appointed delegate to vote under the conditions of supporting local control, opposing unfunded mandates, and opposing anything in which the state legislature is excluded from the authority of local governments. Second. We have a first and a second. Roll call, please.

Mayor Areola?

Yes.

Mayor Pro Tem Abercrombie?

Yes.

Council Member Bedoya?

Yes.

Council Member Evans?

Yes.

Council Member Nygaard? Yes.

Thank you. And just for the, is the third motion separate than the first motion? Oh, I would move to adopt a resolution designated the PREVIOUSLY DESIGNATED VOTING DELEGATES AS THE ALTERNATE VOTING DELEGATES FOR THE LEAVE CALIFORNIA CITY'S ANNUAL CONFERENCE. SECOND. WE HAVE A FIRST AND A SECOND. ROLL CALL, PLEASE.

MAYOR ARIELA.

YES.

MAYOR PROTEM ABERCROMBIE.

YES.

COUNCILMEMBER BADOYA.

YES.

COUNCILMEMBER EVANS.

YES.

COUNCILMEMBER NIGARD. YES.

ALL RIGHT. THE ITEM PASSES. THANK YOU TO EVERYONE. LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING YOU ALL AT THE ANNUAL CONFERENCE. That brings us to item 6B regarding council compensation. Staff report, please.

All right.

Thank you, Mayor and Council. May I have the PowerPoint, please? Thank you. Sarah Castro, Assistant City Manager, presenting this item for you tonight. The item before you is a routine item that we bring every other year. So a little bit of background on the City Council and Treasurer's Compensation. The City Council's Code of Conduct states that the Mayor and Council salary should be reviewed every two years. The City Treasurer's salary is also reviewed at the same time. We follow government code section 36516.5, which requires approved compensation increases to go into effect for our next seated mayor and council. So in this case, any approved compensation increase would go into effect January 1 of 2027. Current salaries are set by Ordinance 1351 on October 15 of 2024 for council. The city treasurer's salary was set by Resolution 2024-170, and all of those became effective January 1, 2025. The chart below shows the current salaries for mayor, council members, and treasurer. I'm going to briefly go over some rules around council compensation. So council compensation is set by ordinance. SB 329 made some amendments to government code 36516 around the council's compensation. It is based upon population size. So the city of Tracy falls into the range of over 75, but up to and including 150,000 in population, which allows for a maximum compensation of $1,900 per month. That same government code section also allows for an additional maximum of $150 per month for each commission, committee, board, or similar authority. It also authorizes compensation in addition to the council base for the mayor, also approved by ordinance, and that is currently set at $200. Further increases to compensation can be allowed by either one of the following, either 5%, up to 5% for each calendar year from the date of the last increase, or an amount that is equal to cumulative inflation since January 1 of 2024, based on the Consumer Price Index for California. It cannot exceed 10% for each calendar year. We've done the calculation on this and the cumulative increase the CPI there would be 7.75%. Some other quick rules around the city treasurer's compensation. This is set a little bit differently. This one is set by council resolution and the government code does not set a maximum monthly compensation for elected city treasurers. This allows the city council the discretion on the amount of salary for the treasurer, although the salary has historically been set to align with city council. And taking a quick look at the maximum allowable salary increase, the left side shows the current salaries that became effective January 1, 2025, $1,900 for the city council, $2,100 for the mayor, and $1,900 for the city treasurer. Using the maximum allowable increase from the information I shared on the slide before would allow up to 5% per calendar year, showing the amount for each year would take that maximum allowable increase of the salary up to 2,090 for city council and 2,290 for the mayor. And as I mentioned, there is no percentage applicable to the city treasurer. And when we look at that total increase, that would take city council up to $25,080 annually and the mayor $27,480 annually if council were to choose to amend the salaries to the maximum. So with this item, I am requesting some direction from the council. Should we amend the mayor and city council's monthly salary? And if so, by what amount up to that maximum allowance of 10%? And also, should the city treasurer's monthly salary be increased? And also, if so, what amount? And if council does provide direction on that salary increase, staff will return with the ordinance and the resolutions appropriate at a future meeting date. And again, any salary increase would become effective January 1 of 2027. This concludes my staff report. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Castro. Council, do we have any preliminary questions? Mayor Patem.

Just to confirm, although we're allowed... Although we're allowed, we do not get any... I just want to make it clear, we don't get compensation for the commissions that we serve on.

That is correct. It is just a monthly salary.

Right. And then secondly, if we... If we don't do anything, we can vote tonight to say we just want to stay where we're at and it's done. You don't have to bring anything back. Is that correct?

Yes, you are correct.

Okay. Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor Pertem. Any questions this side? Okay. And then just wanted to confirm, have we calculated what the total annual salary would be for the second compensation category for cumulative inflation?

So I think I have that slide up, yes. So on the cumulative inflation, that would be 7.75%.

Okay, do we have numbers or do we just know the percentage?

I did the calculation probably last month.

Okay, understood. All right, that answers our questions. I'm going to go ahead and go out for a public comment on this item. Would any members of the public like to speak on item 6B? Okay, I see... Three hands, so we'll allow four minutes. Who would ever like to start?

I want to take this time to thank all of you for the job that you do. I am very impressed with the fact that you always make sure that we're on budget, and I believe in budgets, and I believe in responsibility, but I also believe in paying for what you get, and that I personally would prefer that you take the maximum increase. I think you deserve it, and I think that that's what we should do. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Howell. Next speaker, please.

I'm not sure what you're getting paid for now as it is. In 24, when I asked the question, what the city council do, where's the grants? Nancy Young came unglued and was going all over the place. They finally provided after the several meetings, a list of all grants that the city received, both the city, fire and police. both fire and police have their own grant writers. Don't know what the city has, I assume they do. But if the city council is earning their money, they would find where these grants are and start suggesting that the city apply for them. But I haven't heard of anything of what you guys are doing. So I would think that your salary should be flat for the 26th. As a matter of fact, you can't touch it until after the elections. So whatever is in 26 isn't really going to help. And 27, so fine. But some of you are going to be gone one way or another. But what are you guys doing? What grants are you providing the city to try and get, if any? I'd like to see a list of any and all grants that the city has obtained or is in the process of obtaining. That would show what the worth is of the city council, along with everything else going on. But we haven't seen it since 24. No one's telling us what's going on. Every once in a while, the police gets a grant for a flock or something else, and we know that that's happening. Or the fire department gets something with their ambulance. We know that's happening. But What's happening with the city? What kind of grants are they trying to get a hold of? And what have they obtained? Haven't heard. Start earning your money.

Thank you, Mr. Tanner. Next speaker, please.

I THINK EVERYBODY DESERVES A RAISE, BUT THE GOVERNMENTS STEPPED FORWARD AND SAID THAT THE SENIOR CITIZENS THAT ARE ON SOCIAL SECURITY GET THIS LITTLE RAISE, AND THEN EVERYBODY ELSE IS ENTITLED TO THIS BIG, BIG RAISE. LET'S START A MOVEMENT RIGHT HERE, AND LET'S LOCK THE CITY COUNCIL into the exact same thing that Social Security gets. I think that would be fair. And maybe if you start that, then another city will do it and we'll have this big movement and then government will actually perform better because they need to make the economics work so that they can get their bigger raises. If we lock it to something that's already there, it might work. So I'm telling you, let's lock your raise to 3% for this year, because that's where mine was locked. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Gibby. Next speaker.

Hello again. I'm not great at winging it, but this probably sounds like an awkward one for you guys to have to like vote on, right? So sorry. I just want to make an observation, which is I'm a longtime lurker. I just started coming in person, but I've watched a lot of city council meetings over the years. And I feel like you all have been doing a better job working together. When I walk downtown, I see change and I see you guys in the community and You know, I'm sure that there's things behind the scenes that you guys could be, you know, working more collaboratively on. So I guess if you do vote this, you know, raise in, just use that as your incentive to make sure you're representing us, get those potholes filled, take care of them feral cats, whatever the people, you know, bring to you, climate action plan, you know, just keep up the good work, do more, and then do what you feel is right. So thanks.

Thank you, Ms. Flechter. Do we have any additional speakers in this item? Seeing none in chambers, do we have any online?

No speakers online, Mayor.

Okay, with that, we'll go ahead and close the public comment for item 6B. And I'll return to council for discussion or entertain a motion. Anyone like to start? Council Member Evans.

Thanks, sir. Thank you, Mayor. So I opposed the raise two years ago, and I'm going to oppose this one too. Personally, I like the idea of public service being to represent the best interests of the community. And I understand the arguments against that. But in the end, I don't want our constituents thinking that that's why we're here. And I also really don't like the idea of anybody being able to give themselves a raise. It seems inherently wrong. And additionally, money is finite. The city only has so much. There's only so much to go around. And whatever we take doesn't go into the roads. It doesn't go into fixing the potholes. It doesn't go into the parks. It doesn't go into public safety. So I'm This time, I'm just going to say I'm opposed to any pay raises. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Nygaard.

Thank you, Mayor. I'm kind of neutral on this. I didn't run for this position for money either, but I will go with the consensus of the dais because I do want to make sure that we all feel that we do hold some value up here. And I commend all of us this last 18 months of the collaboration that we have been able to have on this dais and the work we have been able to accomplish. and I look forward to many more months ahead. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Nygaard. Council Member Bedoya. Thank you. I supported what I call correcting council compensation two years ago. I think it's currently fair. Going forward, I think it would be a good idea, or at least to think about tying it to something objective like Social Security COLA. Yeah.

Thank you. Mayor Portem.

Yeah, as I previously stated, I don't support taking it. I'm didn't sign up to get paid, and I'm fine with what I am getting compensated with. Thank you.

Thank you. As for my comments, I would just be consistent with what I've said in the past. I think that I want to make sure that we're reducing barriers to participate in local governance. And I would note that the New compensation would only be for the next council, not for this council. A majority of this council is up for election. So we don't know who will be sitting in these seats. So I would generally support some moderate raise. I just want to confirm with regards to the compensation B category for cumulative inflation. Essentially, is that COLA adjustments? Would Ms. Castro even answer for that?

I believe the intent behind this is to keep inflation, more of an inflationary increase. But when you look cumulatively, right, for two years, typically a lot of the cost of living increases, as was mentioned, are usually in the 3% to 4% range. But we are looking cumulatively over that time, not just one 3% increase, if that makes sense. It's a cumulative amount of... cost of living increase for two years.

So just to confirm, that's 7.75% over two years?

That's right.

Okay. So with that, kind of similar to what Council Member Bedoya was stating, I would be comfortable with attaching it to something. I think it would be fair to attach it to COLA. So I will go with the consensus as well, but I would be supporting attaching it to a cumulative inflation basis. Any additional comment?

No, I was just thinking it through. I'm not opposed to the idea. I am opposed to an increase at this time. The last increase was, you know, percentage-wise was very high. I think it was, I can't remember, somewhere in the neighborhood of 79%, 80%, something like that. I don't mind that idea of attaching it to something like CPI because... I guess theoretically that takes it out of our hands. And that is one of the things that I stated. I've never been comfortable with that idea of us giving ourselves raises. So I guess if we attached it to CPI, that would be... Is there a way to lock it in and keep that as something that...

Unfortunately, no. We would still come back every two years to have the discussion.

For me, I think I'm just... I think in the future... That will make sense. I think it's a good idea. For me, the salary is a little high for my taste, so I would say maybe in the future at some point I could support it.

And then just to confirm, I believe this is on for an informational update, or is this I'm asking for a motion for direction today?

I'm seeking direction. If action were to be taken, it would need to be taken with this council for the intent of taking effect for the next council.

Okay. So you need a specific motion then? If possible, yes.

Well, if I made a motion to not do one, that's what I would do right now. I make a motion that we maintain the current salaries as they are.

I would second that.

We have a first and a second. Roll call, please.

Mayor Pro Tem Abercrombie?

Yes.

Council Member Bedoya?

Yes.

Council Member Evans?

Yes.

Council Member Nygaard? Yes. Yes. Mayor Areola.

Yes. So that takes care of council compensation. And that takes care of our regular items. At this time, we have another items from the audience. Would any members of the public like to speak on an item not on tonight's agenda? All right. The time is yours. We'll have four minutes.

And finally, I have the question. The flashing warning light at the fire station on 11th Street has a burned out lower left bulb. I noticed it several weeks ago. My wife reported it, and it was fixed the next day. So obviously, somebody thought that it was something that needed to be fixed right away. But the part that bothers me is that why did it take a resident TO REPORT THIS. DOESN'T CITY EMPLOYEES AND POLICE OFFICERS DRIVE PAST IT EVERY DAY? SO HERE'S MY QUESTION. ARE THEY NOT ALLOWED TO USE 11th STREET? BECAUSE EVERY VEHICLE HAS A RADIO IN IT. IT'D BE A VERY, VERY SIMPLE THING TO CALL UP AND SAY, HEY, I NOTICED THIS LIGHT OUT. AND IT WOULD HAVE BEEN TAKEN CARE OF RIGHT AWAY. NO EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH FOR THIS GROUP OF PEOPLE. I'D LIKE TO CELEBRATE THE STAFF THAT RESPONDS QUICKLY, AND LET'S BE HONEST, IS NOT WORKING IN OUR PARKS, SO LET'S EMPOWER OR REQUIRE THE CITY EMPLOYEES TO LOOK FOR SAFETY ISSUES WHILE THEY'RE WORKING AND REPORT THEM. TRACY CITY RESIDENTS SHOULDN'T BE THE ONLY ONE REPORTING THINGS. AND I'D JUST LIKE TO SAY THAT AS A CITY COUNCIL, I THINK YOU GUYS ARE GREAT. I'VE WATCHED SOME OTHER MEETINGS ONLINE FOR OTHER CITY COUNCILS AND STUFF, AND THERE'S BICKERING, AND WE HAD BICKERING BEFORE, BUT YOU GUYS GENERALLY TAKE CARE OF YOUR BUSINESS AND LISTEN TO WHAT PEOPLE SAY, AND YOU SHOULD BE APPRECIATED BY THIS TOWN. AND IN MY LITTLE BLOGS AND STUFF, I HOPE I HAVEN'T OFFENDED ANY OF YOU, BUT I TRY TO PUT IT OUT TO WHERE WE ACTUALLY SEE WHAT'S HAPPENING AND THAT THE CITY COUNCIL DOES GET CREDIT FOR WHAT THEY'RE DOING. SO I THANK YOU FOR YOUR JOBS.

Thank you Mr. Duby. Next speaker. Seeing none in chambers do we have any online?

No speakers online Mayor.

Okay with that we'll go ahead and close out items from the audience. That brings us to staff items.

GOOD EVENING, MAYOR, COUNCIL, AND RESIDENTS. I JUST HAVE A COUPLE OF ANNOUNCEMENTS THAT WENT OUT OVER THE LAST FEW WEEKS. YOU MAY HAVE SEEN SARAH CASTRO HAS BEEN SELECTED TO FILL OUR SECOND ASSISTANT CITY MANAGER ROLE. While she's new to the position, she's not new to the city. She's been in a couple of other roles. Primarily, you've seen her in finance and has been the finance director since 2022 and the finance budget officer, accounting manager prior to that. She's got over 20 years of experience in California local governments. And we are excited to welcome her upstairs to be part of our team. Timely, Mr. Tanner, I'm glad he's still here. Yesterday, the text for Assembly Bill 113, the Budget Committee Bill, was released and includes $5 million in proposed funding for the City of Tracy. This is for the state. This includes $2 million for climate adaptive tree planning. A million dollars for improvement and expansion of our animal shelter and two million for the Tracy Police Department to upgrade its communication systems. Some of these things were projects that you also saw at our legislative, during our legislative trip to Washington, D.C., as also we were stumping, you know, BEHIND THE SCENES AT THE ONE VOICE. THIS FUNDING IS STILL PART OF THE STATE BUDGET PROCESS SO HAS NOT YET BEEN AWARDED BUT THESE WOULD BE A SIGNIFICANT INVESTMENT IN OUR COMMUNITY AND WE'RE VERY PLEASED TO SEE TRACY INCLUDED IN THESE PROPOSALS SO THAT'S $5 MILLION THAT WE ARE LOOKING to hopefully be awarded in the coming months also wanted to announce that um we do currently have a recruitment open for our environmental sustainability committee we have a couple of vacant positions that we are trying to fill for that so if you could if you know of anybody in the community who wants to be you know get get involved and be a part please go to our website and you will see the application uh and the process there And then real quick, some updates at Gretchen Talley Park. I don't know if you all saw on some of the social media updates. It's pretty impressive, the phase that is getting ready to come online. We completed some light testing at the park and excited to share that we're still on track for a fall opening. When it opens, the park will feature four lighted pickleball courts, two lighted tennis courts, and two basketball courts, giving our community even more opportunities to get outside and play. So you should come online just as daylight savings time is going into effect, and it'll be getting darker earlier. So we're excited to announce its opening in the fall. Sprouts Farmers Market is having its grand opening this Friday, the 4th. at 6.45 a.m. So good to see a lot of you there bright and early. This is a great addition to Tracy, and we know that many residents, as well as our council and our staff, are looking forward to their opening their doors. And that's all the announcements I have for this evening.

Thank you, Ms. Lightwood. That brings us to council items. Do we have any council items on this side?

I'd like to get support for bringing back the nature park just to get a better understanding of what how many phases we're talking about what's the bandwidth available to move forward with that what the overall costs are just some more I think I was unfortunately I thought when I saw it on the line item it said nature park and we got eight million I thought that covered the whole nature park I later found out that was just phase one. So if we get some clarification on that, and then also if we were to move forward, what it would cost. And if we even have the track going in the aquatic center, do we even have this staffing available to do that?

I'll support that. And I'll take a third on that.

So is that you want an update on the nature park project?

Right. How we're, yeah, we're, How many phases we're talking about the cost? Do we have the availability to even move forward with phase one right now because of staffing doing all the other things they're doing that more of an update? Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for the support.

Council Member Padilla, anything? A brief item when you get a chance. Cool. Okay. I just wanted to add that the climate adaptive tree planting request is really good news for Tracy. I work directly with Abram Diaz and Assemblymember Jesse Gabriela's office on the city's $2 million request. So I'm very glad to see the full request, including the state budget bill. There's still a process to finish, as was stated, but this is exactly the kind of outside funding that we should be working to bring home to Tracy. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Evans.

I think, Mayor, so I wanted to bring it to staff and make a request. Mr. Dobie earlier mentioned multiple people potentially living in Lincoln Park and that he's been requesting us to look at that for over a year. Given the amount of progress and effort that we put into ensuring that our parks are clean and safe, I want to understand the full extent of what's going on. I can take some time and walk out there with Tracy PD, if that's what it takes. But I want to really understand, we put a lot of effort into the park ordinance. We spent a lot of money, a lot of the public's money on a shelter. So I need to understand if that's happening, why it's happening and what our next steps are. And I want a solution. So I guess, you know, I don't, it can be a staff report brought to the council or, you If I don't have support for that, then I'd like to request time with PD on site. I'm good with whatever version it takes. Thank you. I'll support that. Thank you. Was that clear or did the staff need more? Okay. Also, another constituent mentioned Halloween approaching and the intersection where the accident occurred at Valpico and Tracy Boulevard. Do we have something temporary coming for the Halloween crowds we're going to see out there? And if this needs to be taken offline and report offline, that's fine too. I would like some comfort level.

Council Member Evans, I want to say that there is an event that is being planned on the Gandy Dancer side, but I would need, I don't know if we have anybody from Parks or PD that's here, but if not, I can provide an update before Halloween to make sure that But I know that the signal light will not be installed before this October. But I believe the light pole has been ordered, the design has been done, and the funding has been provided. It's just the timing.

Yeah, I think the concern is just what's going to be done on a temporary basis for Halloween. And I'm sure my colleagues would like that update as well. So if you could make it to all of us, I'd appreciate that. Other than that, just had a great time at the Veterans Breakfast on Saturday. Lots of great events around. I know there was a car show, and so hopefully folks are getting out there and enjoying all the great things, concerts in the park, just a lot of great things happening. So thanks, everybody. Have a great night. Thank you, Council Member. Council Member Nygaard.

Thank you, Mayor. I'd like to actually address the urban forest management plan. I was actually on the Environmental Commission back in October of 2023 when this was actually approved at the Commission. I do not believe it has come back to staff, to Council. So I would like to see if we could have it return, support to have that brought back, and then to have a presentation so this council will know what the urban forest management plan actually curtails.

I would second that. Oh, third.

Thank you very much. Also, I just wanted to, I attended this weekend the car show. Congratulations to the organizers of that event. I think Tika was involved. Great attendance. It was just packed. So it was really exciting to see kind of that flair, the Bean Festival flair come back. Just everybody downtown, beautiful weather, lots of families. So just congratulations and kudos to all of the organizers that put in for that. But I wanted to bring an important issue that is still prominent in our downtown streets as well as in the city of Tracy. And that's I would really like to have a consensus to have it brought back for discussion about our electric bikes and scooters on our city streets. I think it's time to just have a presentation maybe from PD and what exactly are some of the DMV traffic rules in regards to the evolving state of these electric cycles because they're going from bikes now to mopeds to even more powerful electric bikes. They're almost like actually motorcycles. But yeah, a very... continued use of our sidewalks. And I really feel that is an incredibly unsafe use of our streets. So we'd like to see if I could have consensus to have this brought back as a discussion item for street safety.

Second, third, yep.

And then also, one of the items that we had in our consent calendar was, you know, about stormwater basins. And I would really love to see if we could bring this item back for discussion on how we could actually have a discussion on, one, more multi-use of our storm basins, possibly recreation areas, but more importantly, how we can capture that stormwater possibly for other, you know, maybe our purple pipe. I think it would be a really good discussion to see what we could do to improve the use of our storm basins.

Second.

Third. Thank you very much. And last, I love Interfaith and the amount of just the diligent work they do to help meet the food need in our community. Because of the track construction, they utilize Ritter Park as their receiving space for, I think there's hundreds of clients that actually go through on a daily basis. They utilize the residential area to go across and into to go to Parker. Um, I live on that street and I've had many of my neighbors come to say how, um, how, how, how cars are speeding. We did have PD actually have a, um, a, uh, those, um, traffic where they measure your speed, and it was on there for quite a few weeks, and it did help curtail the speed, but I would really like to get an update how much longer we're going to be, it's been over a year, how much longer we're going to be using that Ritter Park as the designated space, and then going to Parker and over to the Interfaith Park. I had watched my elderly neighbor trying to back out of her driveway the other day, and they just went around her. It was really sad to watch. So it just has gotten to be a little unsafe and a little, you know, frustrating because they do speed on that small section. And like I said, it's a couple hundred every single day, Monday through Thursday. I just want to say that, yes, I really enjoyed this weekend. Just really great to see the crowds that have really enjoyed our downtown. All I can say is fall is here. We've got the cool weather and the wind back. And I just really thank the city for all the hard work they're doing. And welcome back, Midori, from your vacation. And welcome, Sarah, into your new position.

Thank you, Councilmember. I'll just keep it brief. Just thank you to staff for all your work. We're back from our vacation, so let's get back to work. I just want to wish everyone a happy Labor Day. Hope you have a long, safe weekend, and we'll see you all at the next meeting.

I'll take to adjourn.

Do you have a second? Second. I heard a second from Councilmember Evans. Roll call, please.

Mayor Pro Tem Abercrombie.

Yes.

Council Member Evans.

Yes.

Council Member Bedoya.

Yes.

Council Member Nygaard. Yes. Mayor Areola.

Yes. We're adjourned at 8.56 p.m. Good night, everyone.

Thank you. I forgot the whole reason I came up here.