City Council - Regular Meeting

Welcome to the Tulare City Council meeting for Tuesday, May 5. Now that we've had our call to order, next is our pledge of allegiance and invocation. Our pledge of allegiance will be led by our city manager, Mark Mondell. And after the pledge allegiance, if you'd please remain standing for our invocation by pastor Mickey Grogan, pastor of Abundant Life Center.

Please join me in the pledge.

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.

Thank you for allowing me to come and pray, and good to see every one of you. Let's pray. God, we come before you today with humble hearts acknowledging that you are God and God alone. Besides you, God, there is nobody. Lord, we thank you for your love, your mercy, your grace. Praying God today that you would lift up the city council and every official gathered here today in prayer, and we pray for wisdom. We pray for discernment. We pray for righteousness in every decision that's made. God, let your spirit move in this place. Bring clarity where there's confusion.

Bring unity where there's division and truth where there is uncertainty. God, we ask that you would guide our hearts and minds of these leaders, remove any influence that is not of you, and establish your will in this city. Lord, to plead the blood of Jesus over our community, over our families, our schools, and our future. Lord, we desire your hand to be upon us because it's not by our might nor by our power, but, God, it's by your spirit. Let this city be a place where your presence is welcomed and your word is honored. Lord, we declare that you are still on the throne, and we trust you to lead us forward, have your way today. Lord, let everything that is said and done bring glory to you in the name that's above every name. In the name of Jesus Christ, pray. Amen.

Thank you, pastor Grogan. Moving forward on our agenda is item three, proclamations and recognitions. And the first proclamation we have, which will be presented by council member CER for National Mental Health Awareness Month. I can.

Whereas Mental Health America established Mental Health Awareness Month in 1949 and has led the national movement each May to amplify the importance of mental wellness, encourage open dialogue, and connect individuals and families to critical resources and support, and whereas millions of people across the country are affected by mental health challenges each year and far too many struggle in silence due to stigma, lack of awareness, or limited access to services, And whereas this year's theme, more good days together, invites individuals, families, and communities to reflect on what a good day means to them and to use that understanding to foster connection, reduce isolation, and expand access to the right support at the right time. And whereas the Tulare County Office of Education through Project AWARE has invited the city to partner in raising awareness throughout May, Project AWARE works to build sustainable, culturally responsive, trauma informed systems that promote mental health awareness, expand prevention and intervention resources for youth and families, and strengthen school and community connection, And whereas to show community solidarity and promote visibility for mental health advocacy, the city of Tulare will light City Hall green throughout the month of May 2026. And whereas mental health is essential to overall well-being, and the city of Tulare is committed to supporting initiatives that uplift mental wellness through education, advocacy, and access to services.

Now, therefore, we, the city council of the city of do hereby proclaim the month of May 2026 as National Mental Health Awareness Month in the city of Tulare and encourage all residents to learn more about mental health, engage in supportive conversations, participate in local awareness activities, and work together to create more good days together for every member of our community, dated the May and signed by city council. Is there someone here to accept this? Welcome. Please introduce yourself and help since

Hi. Good afternoon. My name is Abby Shewitz, and I support with Project AWARE.

Hi. Good afternoon. My name is Francisco Pena, and I too am a part of project tour as the grant coordinator.

Hi. My name is Nicholas Wainwright. I'm the project tour communication specialist. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Item 3.2 on our agenda is proclamation for professional municipal clerks week. This will be presented by council member Dennis Medeiros. By charter, the city clerk for the city of Tulare is hired by the city council, and our city clerk technically, is our city manager, mister Mondale. And notwithstanding that fact, he's not the person I'm gonna call up here to accept this proclamation. I'm gonna ask that our chief deputy city clerk come forward and receive the proclamation relating to the office of municipal clerk, which ironically, she prepared this proclamation.

So I can tell you it was very well done. So whereas the office of the municipal clerk is a time honored and essential part of local government serving communities across The United States, Canada, and countries throughout the world, and whereas the municipal clerk is one of the oldest public service roles and remains a cornerstone of transparent, account accountable, and responsive local governments, and whereas in the city of Tulare, the city clerk's office provides a vital professional link between Tulare residents, the city council, city departments, and other governmental agencies. And whereas the city clerk and staff uphold the highest standards of neutrality and impartiality, ensuring open access to public records, fair administration of elections, and accurate preservation of the city's legislative history, and whereas the city clerk's office serves as a central information resource for the community, supporting public engagement and strengthening trust in local government, and whereas the city clerk and staff continually strive for excellence through ongoing professional development, participation in the International Institute of Municipal Clerks and regional associations, and a commitment to continuous improvement in service in the city Of Tulare. And whereas it is fitting that the city of Tulare recognizes the dedication, professionalism, and invaluable contribution of the city clerk's office who supports the effective and ethical operation of municipal government.

Now, therefore, we, the city council, the city of do hereby proclaim the week of May 3 through 05/09/2026 as professional municipal clerk's week in the City Of Tulare and encourage encourage all residents to join in acknowledging and celebrating the exceptional service, integrity, and commitment of the city clerk's office dated this May 2026, and we will do so, Melissa. You've written us very well, and we are recognizing you with this proclamation for the fine work that you do. Thank you very much. And if you could say something first. I

appreciate the recognition. I really enjoy working for the city of Tulare in this organization with all all the members of the organization. We have a great team and a great city council, and I just really enjoy supporting the community. I'm gonna cut it off there because it's a

really long meeting, and I wanna Thank you.

Thank you, Melissa. 3.3 is proclamation for National Police Week and Peace Officers Memorial Day. And presenting is vice mayor Steve

I think this is my, sixth time of presenting this. And I'll start off again with whereas each May, our nation comes together to honor the courage, sacrifice, and unwavering dedication of law enforcement officers who protect our communities with integrity and steadfast commitment, and whereas National Police Week was established by president proclam by presidential proclamation in 1962 when president John f Kennedy designated May 15 as peace officer memorial day and the week in which it falls as a time to honor federal, state, and local law enforcement officers who have been killed or disabled in the line of duty. And I'm gonna deviate here a little bit. This goes on with whereas's and whereas's that has not changed over the years, except this next section that I'd like everybody to really pay attention to. Whereas this year carries particular significance for Tulare County as we mourn the tragic loss of Tulare County sheriff's deputy Randy Hoppert, who was killed in the line of duty on 04/09/2026.

His dedication and sacrifice serve as a solemn reminder of the risk law enforcement officers face every day every day in service to others. And whereas Peace Officers Memorial Day on May 15 stands as a time of remembrance for all fallen officers and a moment of unity with their families, loved ones, and colleagues in recognition of the profound sacrifice made to keep our community safe, This one hit really close to home. We haven't had an officer related death in I forget when the last one was. Been been quite a while. So this one really hit, and it hit particularly close for me because his grandfather was my partner when we were at the sheriff's office in Porterville.

It was a hard week, and it's you know, we can't appreciate the chief and his department, the sheriff's office, highway patrol, all law enforcement for the job that they do to protect us every single day. So now, therefore, we, the city council, the city of Tulare, do hereby proclaim the week of May 2026 as National Police Week in the city of Tulare and encourage all residents to join in recognizing and expressing appreciation for our law enforcement professionals, be it further proclaimed that 05/15/2026 shall be observed as peace officer Memorial Day in the city of Tulare, and The United States flag will be flown at half staff at all city offices on the date dated this 05/05/2026 and signed by the entire city council. Thank

you, vice mayor, and thank you for all that you do, chief Inklin, and all of your team as well. Moving forward on the agenda is item four, public comment. Members of the public wishing to comment on any item not appearing on the agenda may address the city council at this time. State law prevents council from acting on any matter not on the agenda. However, your comments may be referred to staff for follow-up. For those that are watching, participant, listening to the meeting online or would like to participate and call in for public comment, you can call in remotely, and my script doesn't have the phone number.

They're Zooming in now.

They're Zooming in now so they can write and chat in their comments. Okay. They can speak through directly. Thank you. K? For those that are participating in the Zoom for public comment, please begin your comments by stating your name and providing your city of residency. I will look towards council chamber. I did not have any yellow cards turned in. Is there anyone in council chambers wishing to make public comment? K. Madam clerk, do we have anyone on the phone or on Zoom? Thanks.

Donette? Yep. You can go ahead.

Okay. Great. Thank you. New new system here. This is great.

This is Dawnette Silva with the Tulare Chamber of Commerce and a resident of Tulare. Mayor Isherwood and members of council, thank you for the opportunity to bring an update. I wanna start by saying thank you to everyone who was able to join us yesterday for a fantastic ribbon cutting celebration for Chick fil A. We are so excited to report that they have created 140 new jobs in Tulare, which is an amazing number. And we have a lot of our youth who are employed there, and they made some special, circumstances situation with the hiring to go over their, first and, planned number so that they could employ more youth.

So we really appreciate their dedication and also what they're bringing into the community, and it's gonna get a whole lot busier there at Cartmelon ninety nine in a couple of days. Their grand opening is Thursday morning for public knowledge. I think we'll see a lot of folks there. Anyway, there's more to come in our community. We're excited about that.

And we also wanna note that even though that is a national brand, every owner operator is a small business and how appropriate that we kicked off a small business week with the MacKinnon's and their new venture as owner operators of a Chick fil A. We also wanna note that it is national tourism week, and we should have the tourism numbers released later this week. So we'll be able to bring a report later in the month of May to let you know what the numbers have looked like and what that fiscal impact is for the greater Tulare County area. We would like to invite everyone to our next mixer, will be hosted by the Veterans Memorial Building, and that is happening on Thursday, May 14. And if you want to, check out our websites or our social media for both the Tulare Business Innovation Zone and the chamber, we have a great turnout for all of the workshops that we're offering.

And we wanna note that our first workshop with Civic has been a great success with 33 participants in this new Spanish language cohort, and we will have next up will be an English language cohort. So we will be flip flopping these regularly throughout the summer. Thank you.

Thank you, Donette. Do we have any other calls? Okay. K. With that, we'll move on from public comment and go to item five on our agenda, presentations. Tulare County Regional Transit Agency, TCRTA update. Good evening.

Thank you, counsel. This is Derek Winning, the executive director of TCRTA. We asked Derek to come. As you remember, for about two years, we've talked about TCRTA doing sort of a an update in their regional transportation plan, looking at the city and all the other cities to determine what makes sense to right size operations for us and our partners. There have been some change in leadership over that period of two years. And, Derek, you've been in there for how long now?

A little over a year and a half.

Yep. And so Derek's here tonight to kinda give you that update on where things are at and what they're planning to propose for Tulare, please.

Yeah. No. Thanks, Mark, for the introduction. Mister mayor, council members, privilege to be here. We wanna discuss the short range transit plan. Again, these are draft, and we are here for some feedback, you know, positive or negative. Incidentally, we've done robust public involvement. Our team rode all of the routes early in the process and talked to over 350 riders. We've also talked to drivers and dispatchers and transit managers, and, we've been, recently to the Tulare Transit Center and talked to folks about these recommendations here. So this is a long presentation, but I'm gonna skip most of it.

You know, these are our objectives for the most part. We wanna try to provide bidirectional travel that provides more accessibility and getting folks quicker to their destinations. This is being recommended to be implemented in the city of Tulare. Also, a really good thing that the consultant team has done, and and definitely impacts folks in Tulare is they've managed to be able to, coordinate the schedules for the inner city routes like 11 x and the c 40 to what we call pulse with the local routes. So the transfers between local and regional routes will be very seamless and timely.

They currently are not. And, also, you know, we do recommend to keep microtransit. And, also, we wanna adapt to certain fiscal constraints. If you didn't know, the cost of transit has increased radically over the past five years, and revenues are somewhat flat. So we're cognizant of that.

Also so this is just more about that. We're trying to, you know, kinda rein in the service hours. The microtransit pilot did, consolidate with paratransit. But other than that, those hours have been kinda laid on top of the typical service hours, and is being funded by TCAG in the form of a pilot. But we're thinking beyond the pilot and sort of trying to optimize the balance between fixed route and micro transit to sort of rein it back into the hours we're used to paying for, making the system more efficient.

I've got some slides here from Dinuba, but I just wanted to focus on this is, one of the recommended solutions for them. And and you may be aware, in the Northeast quadrant, you can see the Route C 10 sort of in a orange or or rust color, that goes off to the east to Cutler or Rossi. We're leveraging that regional route to help serve the shopping center in that section of town. So, this is sort of the idea is to think more as a team, not individual services and to find economies and efficiencies, utilizing, inner city routes or regional routes and and have them pulse and coordinate and not overlap with local routes. So that's all I wanted to show you there for Dinuba.

Let me skip through here. So let's talk about Tulare. This is sort of our existing network. You have basically six local routes that do loops, either forty or fifty minute every forty or fifty minutes. And typically, now, they don't pulse very well with 11 x that goes to Visalia, for transfers or the c 40 that goes to Lindsay and Porterville.

So so some of the proposed changes, it's quite different, actually. So we proposed on the blue route to have a bidirectional, travel and that it would operate every 30 in the peak hour. And so, those, that route is designed to hit most of the preferred destinations within the city. And then there's also we're proposing one big loop a, the in green there, that would sort of go around the city to collect folks. And then, of course, you can see 11 x, that goes, to Visalia, C 20 that, goes to our communities along 99 to the South, and the C 40 would be a a proposed change.

Right now, it actually deviates from the 137 and goes up Mooney, and there's a transfer to Visalia at the RMA, building. And we're proposing to bring that into the Tulare Transit Center. And so folks that are going to Visalia would transfer to the 11 X. But like I said, that will pulse very well and make a quick transfer. We are doing some additional public outreach there.

We've gotten some comments that that might disadvantage folks that wanna go to Visalia, so we are discussing that with them. And, when we do get feedback, we do kinda circle the wagons and rethink, our planning. So more to come on that. But under this, plan recommendation, what this does is it would provide the trans transit to the College of Sequoias and would free up a local route and cost for the city whereby you right now, transfer at the transit center and take Route 6. You would do the same thing, but it would be the c 40.

And, again, we're able to do that without any additional cost to the county of Tulare. This is a sort of a a graphic that shows accessibility. So it's you you're probably familiar with this, but you can see on the legend there at the very bottom, the travel time. So the dark blue is where you can go within fifteen minutes, then thirty minutes and forty five, and then the red, reddish color is more like an hour, that it would take. And this is kind of, with the current system, what that graphic looks like when we show, well, I guess I'll get to that.

So there's two sort of parts of the proposal. One is more short term, which is what we outlined already. And then the longer term, actually, this is still the shorter term where it compares with that accessibility graphics. So, again, I I can flip back and forth if we want, but you can notice that the darker blue, the fifteen minute, and the next thirty minute blue got much bigger than the current. Right?

So what this why is that? It's because of this thirty minute access, and we're really hitting the main destinations through town. And, again, they're bidirectional, so you don't have to wait for the complete loop to come around to pick you up. You can go right on the street, and you can go either direction. The bus will come accordingly.

Also, we wanted to highlight with this graphic that even though there's some changes to, like, the Southwest Port portion of town, their accessibility actually goes up. And then longer term, you may be aware we got a grant for a bus rapid transit that would connect Visalia and Tulare. When that gets implemented, the 11 x may become redundant, so there could be some cost savings there. And then also we could make changes to that Midtown route and incorporate the bus rapid transit through the Northeast Quadrant in the dark blue there on its way to Visalia. That system is scheduled to operate every fifteen minutes.

So the future with respect to headways and on time performance and accessibility to Visalia, it will be very bright. This chart here kinda shows some of the options. I think we're basically recommending the middle option here. So it would be the fixed routes would operate on thirty minute peak and sick sixty minute off peak, and that provides some cost savings, on the service hours. Micro transit, that hasn't been decided yet, but definitely, there'll be at least one dedicated vehicle for within town.

We do wanna keep the Visalia Tulare metro active, but we may be looking at remedies. We may need to charge in the future a higher fare to go between the two towns to sort of dampen demand and keep the hours at a reasonable level. Again, what it's comparing here is this, it would show sixty nine hour revenue hours into Larry versus the current 90. So we would be at 77% versus 90 at 100. That's kind of what that percent graphic means.

And also projected ridership difference, we it would anticipate a little bit less ridership, but still at 83% of the current. Again, that's a projection. What are some of the regional network changes? We sort of covered that a bit, but I wanted to show you Route 40. So on the other end of Route 40, we intend to connect with the Eagle Mountain Casino to try to pick up some ridership there.

And, again, it would go to the Porterville Transit Center, and then C 40 would come across and connect with downtown city of Tulare Transit Center. There's a little bit of change in the Woodlake area. We wanna be able to come down to Exeter periodically and increase a couple of loops to three rivers. So we're we're sort of excited about that. I'm not sure that that's remained to Tulare, but just to let you know, that's kinda more on that.

This one here, the key one that we've covered is Route 40. We're proposing to implement and reroute it to the Tulare Transit Center. Also, as part of the proposal, we're pretty much system wide. We're proposing to to increase service a bit on the weekends. We have noticed on our ridership, we have very robust demand on the weekends.

That's almost commensurate or even with the weekdays. And so we wanna try to capture that ridership and make that improvement for our clients or riders. But overall, we're proposing to reduce hours post microtransit pilot to kind of get them back to where they were before. And, again, combined with the changes in the city of Tulare on the fixed route side, we believe that we can basically have a revenue neutral or even a bit of an advantage to the city Tulare costs. And sort of these these are some of the options with micro transit.

Again, I haven't discussed it yet, but we're about to implement mobile payment platform and tap to pay that will have fare capping, but also we'll have route planning. So right now, we're not doing a very good job of that, but you'll be able to connect on your phone and get a recommendation for, hey. We'll pick you up with Micro, but we'll transfer you to the 11x, and then you'll go on to Visalia that way. And in that way, we'll have more ridership on our fixed routes and more efficiency and trying to get folks out of the micro transit and over to the 11 x is more cost effective. Again, probably combined with maybe charging a little bit more for the inner city service for those that really need to get a quick trip.

The and, incidentally, the pilot TCAG is committed to fund the pilot through the next fiscal year, so all the way through 06/30/2027. So we still have some time to increase the ridership demand, learn more about what works with micro and what doesn't. And incidentally, we are recommending to start to implement these changes probably next January, first of the year. Kinda quote that. Other than that, I'd be happy to answer any questions and really appreciate the opportunity to come and chat with you today.

K. Thank you, Derek. Also like the visual diagrams.

I appreciate it.

Council members, any questions?

I have

a I

have a few. Derek, how's it going? Good to see you. Would it be possible to get that, presentation? Because I know you rushed through it.

There's You don't have lot

of stuff on this on this agenda. I mean, there's a lot of critical things that, I know will affect my constituents on the West Side in terms of the fixed route changes and especially microtransit. I noticed that this slide before the questions, talked about increased time in waiting, that, folks may experience through microtransit. I I know that before I left, there was the idea of reducing the number of, vans,

I

guess, and and then increasing the amount of time that someone would have to wait for microtransit. I think for for me, it's great to see that there is some change in routes that'll happen because I think, you know, it's always good to kinda look at those every once in a while. But I think for me, the the bigger concern is is is the future of microtransit. As you mentioned, it was a pilot program. I don't get to see, well, I don't look anymore for the, numbers, but I know it's grown in regards to people using it. I see it around.

Has. The slider has gone up significantly.

And I just don't I'm just trying to figure out maybe in the future you can come and share with us what we can do as a council to advocate to try to keep it in place because fixed routes are great, but for the senior center, the disabled person that has to stop at a fixed route stops, stop and walk ten, fifteen blocks to their doctor to see their loved one. It's it's it's that's that's I I'm hoping we don't go back to that. You know? I don't

think that's gonna happen at all. In fact, I'm a big supporter

of that. Because microtransit gave you door to door service. Right? I mean, it's a $5. For $5, you can pick up in front of your house and drop off in front of the clinic. And so I know that helps a lot of people. I see it. Very proud every time I see the the TCR transit ban around our town. So I hope that that that would be something you guys would continue to to to support and then let us know how as a city we can be health care.

I don't think it's going anywhere. I I wouldn't worry about that. Right. Ted and I are both big supporters of microtransit, but there is a limit to the number of vans you can deploy. Right. So that's sort of where I'm getting at with once we reach that limit of what we can afford, then the inner city trips between Teleri and Visalia, they're numerous. And they're important, but they're also very expensive to provide. So, you know, I think we it it it it I don't think it's gonna go away, but I think we'll have to put our heads together to think about should we charge a little bit more for those longer trips or, that type of a thing is all I was getting at.

Right. And then and then the last thing, I wanted to find out, I know that it for the fixed route, you have monthly, daily, weekly passes that are available to to the residents. Right?

Yeah.

I'm not and I know that to catch the on demand, it's $5 one way. So if you go one trip, it's $5. If you go somewhere else, it's $5. Right? It's currently the the cost.

Right. Have you guys ever have have you guys thought about what a weekly or monthly class would be for a microtransit cost? I know we talked about this a year Yeah. While ago because one the things that I'm gonna propose to this council in the future is a pilot program that would that, you know, we have a I I guess you would call it a decades old report stashed somewhere in our vaults that talked about how we would lower greenhouse gas emissions in our city. And one of those recommendations was to try to get encourage our workers to trade take alternative routes to work.

So one of the ideas that that I proposed to our council is to see if we can buy monthly on demand passes to issue to our employees to encourage them to take on demand to come to work instead of driving their vehicles. So but but it all it all entails what a monthly pass. So if we were just to do a one or two way or round trip every day, it'd be $200 a month just to take TCRTA. So I don't know if you guys ever thought about a monthly pass.

We have and we've had some discussions with TCAG. I, in particular, don't think it's feasible. Again, if we make it a real low cost barrier to use, that's great for folks. Right? But if you think about it, Uber, between the two cities is gonna cost $30. To do it for five is a really, really good deal, probably not sustainable. I'm thinking more like 10 down the road. But to be able to, like, have somebody use it unlimited by paying a monthly pass, I think that'll make our cost structure go too high to just to be honest about it.

Okay. Thank you. Appreciate your time. Of course, Jose.

Derek, I appreciated your presentation to TCAG, and thank you for being here tonight and sharing. And, of course, we have your contact information. So if other questions come up, we'll surely reach out.

Yeah. Of course. And Melissa has the PowerPoint. I'm sure she can send it to you all. Thank you very much, everyone.

Thank you. Yep. K. Moving forward on our agenda is item six, communications.

No communication.

Item seven, council reports and items of interest. Vice mayor Harrell.

One item, Chick fil A yesterday. Great to see it in town.

Councilman Segal?

Yes. I wanted to thank our police chief for helping, set up a ride along couple I guess, a week and a half ago. I also wanted to thank officer Robles for the opportunity to join him on a Saturday night. It was a Saturday night where it was a little bit raining off and on, but I had a great opportunity to once again connect with some of the officers on the field and, obviously, take a closer look at the amazing work that they do to provide public safety in our community. You know, we had a chance, yeah, it took, yeah, from six to I think I ended up at one in the morning because, I learned how search warrants are are issued.

So it takes about a while it takes a little while to go wake up a judge somewhere to sign them. So but, I did, have a good experience, and I appreciate, the chief helping with that. And, again, officer Robles for, his patience and, sharing with me a number of things that they go through every night to protect our community. So so thank you.

Couple of things. I had I had a virtual meeting with a representative of Flanders Lakes concerning the utility tax on the April 23. I attended a joint meeting of several GSAs in Tulare County, including Mid Kuwait. Tricia was there. Aaron Fukuda was there.

This was in Tipton. That afternoon on the twenty ninth, I attended a LAVCO meeting last Saturday. Sarah had their family fiesta, and it was a very nice event at Zumwalt Park, and I attended that also. The Chick fil A grand opening, and the our police department had their tacos with an officer, and Taco tacos. Very nice.

I attended that. Got some good tacos for a reasonable price. Thank you, chief. And all the officers who participated in this morning, citizens advisory committee in Fresno, I attended. So notwithstanding other things, it's been a busy two weeks.

But if the mayor and others will indulge me, I have one significant item of interest, and this is for the public too. When you're laying around like I was for a period of time, I checked, and I encourage others to do this too. Check the Beach Boys website. We have the Beach Boys tent coming to Adventist Amphitheater on June 26. But their upcoming shows, the Beach Boys, are, if I can get this to come up, on May 8, they appear in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

May 29, it's Atlantic City, New Jersey. May 30, New Brunswick, New Jersey. May 31, Medford, Massachusetts. June 3, Hampton, New Hampshire. June 5, Quakertown, Pennsylvania. June 6, Baltimore, Maryland. June 7, Vienna, Virginia. June 11, the country of Dubai. June 14, London, England. June 21, Belfast.

June 26, Tulare, California. June 27, San Diego. June 28, Temecula. July 1, Pleasanton. July, Hollywood Bowl. So Tulare, California is right in the middle of a world tour that includes countries in The Middle East and also in Europe itself. Congratulations, Tulare, California.

Mhmm.

Alright. So if you happen to be in Ireland, you could still see him and then come here. See him in Ireland, Dubai London. Or Tulare, California. Go down to San Diego. Nice. Okay. Council member saying.

My kind of music. On the thirteenth, I attended the government affairs committee meeting. On the twenty fourth, I went to the Arbor Day celebration at Live Oak Park. It was amazing. A lot of a lot of good attendance, a lot of young people there. And on yesterday, I went to the Chick fil A. In between that time, I spent eight days on a cruise in Mexico. So But you did

see Beach Boys there. Right? You tend to see the Beach Boys on the cruise. Yes. I think his council members had mentioned Arbor Day was a wonderful event. Chris, to you and the ex or the extended team in our parks and recreation board, it was great to be out there for Arbor Day. Attended the historical museums, hosted fundraiser for the Japanese Processing Center monument on on Sunday. So that was also a nice event. And, of course, everybody was there for the exciting opening for Chick fil A. So it was a great event, and it was really it was it was also great to touch on, as Donette said, kind of their small business and their incubator process.

So their current owners had started work for Chick fil A at 16 years old, worked up through the the process, you know, took the different dynamics necessary, then here today moved to Tulare, and they are the owner and the operator for the Chick fil A in Tulare, California. So it was it was a great story to to hear about that as well as economic development for the city of Tulare.

The first Chick fil A in Tulare County.

The first Chick fil A between Fresno and Bakersfield for that matter for our region. Yes. Okay. So as we move forward on our agenda, we'll we'll go into our consent calendar, general business. What else have we got here? Just wanna note something that I thought was interesting. So so we do have a public hearing in general business. We have roughly 28 items ahead of us on our agenda. And I just want to say to council members, I just appreciate if everybody have your questions ready on items. Be pointed.

Be organized. As we go through various important presentations and important reviews, of course, in our agenda, I might push or press or create time limits just so we can make sure your questions are answered, but we can get through all of our items today in a timely manner. So with that, we will start with consent calendar. All miter all matters listed in the consent calendar are considered by the council to be routine and will be enacted in one motion without discussion. If discussion is desired, that item may be removed and considered separately. Council members, do you have actions for the consent calendar?

Mister mayor, I have a few. 8.3, 8.12, thirteen,

eight point fourteen,

8.18, and 8.19.

8.19?

Yes. K.

So in review, I have 8.3. Seemed like there was another one I maybe missed in there. 8.12, 8.13, 8.14, 8.18, and 8.19. Any other there's no no other, separated items, I would entertain an action from council.

I'll move to, adopt the balance of the consent calendar minus the items that have been pulled off. Yes. So

So we have a motion and a second to approve item 8.1, 8.2, 8.4 through 8.11, 8.15, 8.16, 8.17, and eight eighteen, and 8.2. There's a motion and a second. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Aries. So we'll start off with 8.3.

Mister mayor, council, 8.3 is a renewal of a contract between the Tulare School District and the city of Tulare to provide services for the after school best program. And so this is a program that, I I've always thought it was a great program to provide to working families who need a little bit of help to, watch their kids till they get out of work or in a safe environment, learning environment. And, I guess the the question I've had, and I think I brought this up in the past, but just wasn't really clear, who who makes the decision, in regards to the schools that are part of the program and, the number of students? Is that exclusively the school district?

No. I believe the number of students is capped. It's per a ratio of student to, I guess, supervisor or site site attendant. Schools, there are other programs that are being offered at the schools. So some of the schools that may have four other after school programs, we don't try

and compete with. Right. So, so it but it's capped because of the lack of supervise supervision, not because the lack of funding. It's capped because it reaches capacity. Okay? Because that's all the funding the program gets, the 1,200,000.

It's so many positions. It's basically what the site can accommodate.

Okay. Okay. So the actual site itself. Because I think I've been asked by, parents, about why we can't have something like that in Roosevelt or other schools that, or that or in that particular Roosevelt, I know Pleasant is part of it and another other a number of schools, but I'm just trying to figure out what I can tell them. Because are the other programs similar in terms of, like, providing till 05:00?

Yeah. That's why we don't try and compete with them. I could look into Roosevelt, kinda see what the constraints are there.

Right. Yeah. If you if you can do that, because I think, you know, I've had people ask about that, and, it's a great program. I mean, it's definitely something that that is very helpful to, like I said, working families who rely on this to help watch their kids while they go to work. So But there

are there are programs available at Rosebel. It's just not the best club.

Right. It

could be Rise or Choices or one of the others.

And I said, I'm not familiar with them, and I don't know what their hours are, but I'm just relaying what people have been asking me to ask. So, but, other than that, mister May, I have any other questions and the council members has it, I'll I'll make a motion to approve 8.3.

We have a motion and second for 8.3. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? 8.3 is approved. Five o. Moving forward, 8.12.

Well, mister mayor, I don't I'd like to see if if staff can report on this. I think this is a big a big item that deals with the development impact fees. And, you know, in particular, I'm interested my particular questions, come around the library and the parks dip funds to see what the actual balances are. I I was trying to read the document and kinda little confused on what the balances are available. And then to see if there are any particular projects that are coming down the pipeline for those funds.

I didn't see any listed in the staff report. Like, other DIP funds have a number of projects listed. So I was curious to see what what is available in terms of recommendations for the both the library and the parks zones.

Thank you, council member. I will say for the for for the public certification, as noted in the staff report for this item, the development p impact fee information comprising the associated, attachments is provided pursuant to California government code, section sixty six zero zero six b. The staff report and attachments summarize key financial data, including beginning and ending fund balances, fees collected, interest earned, expenditures, and reimbursement transfers across the various diff funds and infrastructure and capital related funds. The item contains required fiscal year twenty twenty five DIF information and the same information for the two immediately preceding fiscal years. As you can see from report of the fiscal year twenty twenty five report at the first page after the cover, The total fiscal year twenty twenty five diff revenues were $7,400,000 and total combined ending fund balances increased $11,700,000 to $38,100,000 driven largely by prior period reimbursement adjustments, of totaling 4,800,000.

The detailed schedules further break down how funds, support specific capital projects such as streets, utilities, public safety facilities, and parks, demonstrating how revenues are allocated toward growth related infrastructure. With your specific question about the balance of the library, at for the fiscal year ended 06/30/2025, The balance at the beginning of the year was $1,300,000. Fees collected were about $311,000. Interest earned was about 66,300 for total revenues of 377 point $377,500,000, and there were no eligible expenditures or reimbursements made, which left the ending balance as of 06/30/2025 just under $1,700,000. I I would defer to I believe that we've missed Orr on the any questions about or the city manager with any questions about library projects or any other projects.

Yeah. And I think all I would add to that is if you look at item agenda item 10.4, where we're gonna get into later tonight where we talk about the 2027 preliminary CIP, you'll note that in that staff report, we identify, potential using, usage of funds for projects. It lists, for example, library diff fund, $251,900. You just go down the list. It'll tell you all the diff funds and what's being composed used for the CIP. So we've got all the information there. If you have specific projects in mind or you need more detailed information, I'm happy to you know, if you send me an email or something, let me know what you're looking for. We can get that to you on a weekly report.

That's helpful. Yeah. Just, in terms of, like, what what are what is the actual process? Is it through the budget process, through the CIP process, or a different process to recommend projects, or is it bringing it bringing it to council through a council file item? What what what is the best way? Because I'll give you an example. Over, the park with, the Meadow Park, over off of East Street, South Of Barsley, There's an a number of folks who've created their own volleyball court, you know, kinda chipped it away and have a nice little volleyball court. They've asked for permanent volleyball courts. They've asked to see if we can put in, you know, a permanent one instead of a carved out one from from from what they've created out there. It gets very it gets used a lot.

So I'm trying to figure out how would that project be eligible for diff funds, and what would be the process to bring that to council for consideration?

Probably not diff funds. But I what the I don't know if there's any one particular answer. Usually, what I receive from council members is when council has a citizen reaches out to them for something like that, they'll usually shoot me an email because it depends on the specifics of what it is. They'll shoot me an email, and then I'll just shoot them an email back saying, hey. This is a project we have in the CIP, but it's not until 2028, or this is ineligible for, CIP or diff funds.

This would be a maintenance project or, hey. That's, you know, that's an interesting idea. Why don't we discuss that as we get you know, we'll collect the list and why don't we discuss that during the budget process, you know, if it's not CIP eligible, for example, and we could talk about is there other ways for us to approach that project. So it's not it's I I there's not one way to do it, but the best way to do it, in my opinion, is whenever you have a constituent reach out to you with those questions, if you send me those questions, I'm more than happy to get you an answer right away, which will satisfy you and the constituent.

The, just I was gonna add with this. Talked with the city manager. And I think if I'm if I'm correct, so the answer with to look at this form or to read this form is it's broken down by the summary on the front page and then the diff funds are the category funds on the left. So it starts at $203.90. So parks and recreation facilities down at the bottom has an ending balance of 4,868,000.

And if I'm correct, I think and that's what I back to is then this the supplemental schedules back behind this are all of those funds, and it's telling all the detail from starting at, like, $19.91 all the way up to current, this this huge packet. With that is if you go to the back is when you get to fund March. And in the back of the fund, it's three ninety parks and recreations facility, and it's on page, a 126. And with that, for example, I think to the question is, it goes back to Prosperity Parkland, Blaine Park, The Arbors, Cycle Park, Del Lago, Sunrise, Cambridge Park, and it gives a tally. It's not I mean, for our conversation, it doesn't necessarily go through a a complete reconciliation of the expenses.

But I had asked to to to Mark, hey. If I have some questions about some specific projects, I'll you know, can I submit that, you know, to walk through? It's a huge packet. And Mark said yes. But the other part was is with those questions, Mark would send them out to the whole council as well.

So kinda going through those funds and some questions on parts and if just saying if you find that helpful, breaking that out, we'll send all those basically, Mark is saying he'll share all the information with all council members. The other part, which I just want to note here is this was asked, and I do appreciate staff providing this because I know this has been asked. What is the balance of our development impact fee funds? What's the trans actions in in making this transparent with groups like the Building Industry Association? The schools have to do this for their school fees that are collected and and having this info.

It's it's a great packet, but, yeah, it's a 126 pages of info. But as you'd said, some project areas and kind of break those out, and discussion on this might be in front of us again in the future to look at that. And if I'm correct, the one last point with parks that had come up and Mark and staff. So the key key element with these is this is not funding that's available for maintenance of parks. This has to be there I think we had said her layman's way to say it has to be their complete kind of reconstruction, revitalization, replacement, but it's some new parks that come in or there was a portion of funds used for ZoomWall because of it has to meet the criteria.

Yeah. I typically refer to the term the term I usually use is capacity building versus maintenance. That's just the term I use. K.

So The the and the last thing I just wanted to recommend if staff can do this, but when we get the the collected revenue part of it, the first part of the spreadsheet, it has a fiscal year, you know, what was collected in and it goes, as you said, goes back to 9192. Can they do something similar on the expenditure side so that people can have an idea when that was spent. Because, for example, I'm looking at the facilities and equipment. Right? It's it's raised money since 9192, and then it's expended money on designing engineering city hall, twenty one thousand, but there's no year attached to it.

Would it would it be possible to feature presentations or feature issuance of this document that you tag it a date. It was done in 2010, 2012, or whenever when it whenever it's completed.

I'm looking at our city engineer. Yeah. He's the one who usually does the heavy lifting on this stuff.

Certain yeah. Certainly, I could work with finance to to towards that. It'd be a combination of the two divisions to to put that together.

The only concern I would have and and we do have expenditure information in there going going back to the beginning. The the, you know, cost would be claimed, the expenditures claimed. My concern would be, and we would really only know when we got into this, is that such information it's already somewhat of a long report. If we start providing all of that information in every report, it could get very unruly. It might be one of those things. It's better to say, you know, request the information. We'll happily provide you whatever you want. This could I I could easily see. And I don't know what I haven't been here since 9091. I was I just got out of college in September.

So I don't know what was being done back then. But but I suspect if we were to account for all of those projects, we would go from a 42 page report to a 100 page report.

Well, I'm let me let me correct what I'm asking. I am asking to add another column to the existing report that says that city hall construction for February took place in 2001, 2010, 2024. All I'm asking is well, I'm not asking for the details of what it caused. All I'm asking is you follow the similar table right above it where it has the fiscal year as when the fee was collected. All I'm asking is to add the fiscal year as to when the project was completed. That's all. I'm not asking you to triple the number of pages. Just add

a column.

We we will look at it. If it's something we can accommodate, we will. If you cannot, we'll tell you why we cannot.

Absolutely. Get clarification? It certainly seems to me that you've given us way more information that's than is required by the government code. As I read the government code based on what you've indicated, you're to make available to the public information regarding impact fees for each fiscal year and review the information at the next regularly scheduled public meeting. That's what we're doing. Is that correct?

Correct. And and as you council member Madero's, for each of those fee categories, you see the first table shows the fiscal year where the fees were collected, if there were expenditures for those fiscal year's dollars, and so on. That table is the one that's a statutorily required table. And then you've got the additional table which shows those projects. That is validating the projects that were identified in the development impact fee study. So it's one further step showing those dollars were spent on a project that was eligible.

But we have overcompliance here Correct. Substantially, I think, under the circumstances. It's it's great info. Yes. This is huge. Let me put that. Yeah. K. So unless anybody has any other questions, I'll make a motion to to accept the annual development impact fee in compliance with the government code section six six zero zero six b. Second. K. We have a motion and a second for approval 8.12 development impact fee fund report. Zarett, all in favor? Aye. Any opposed? 8.12 is approved. 8.313 annual military equipment use report.

Well, I guess I'll try to represent this report here, but, my understanding is that this is an annual, request from the, I guess, the legislature to disclose the military equipment use, that our police department uses. The only thing the only question I had, chief, if you can help out is that in talking to some officers, you know, earlier today, it was made reference of the, unfortunate incident that occurred with a detective, from Tulare County. I understand that I understand our, MRAP, I guess Yes. Was went out there to support it. And what I understand was that the individual was using a high powered rifle and that, was taking aim at, those vehicles.

And not ours, but I think Visalia's was in the point where, the gentleman was shooting out almost shooting out the window, I guess, the glass. Yes. And so or who whoever's

Her and Anne Visalia's.

Yeah. They were shot at, and and the the glass that's the heavy glass was taking a pounding. And so I think my my concern was if there was any future requests or need to cover that. I mean, obviously, that was a horrible incident. And and, but, I heard from a couple officers that if it was ours, it might have been the same way where people could have been hurt, given just that you know, you you would think it would repel bullets, but I guess the armament kind of made that other vehicle susceptible to being shot. Yeah.

It was almost compromised. The gas was almost compromised, but, you know, unfortunately, the situation ended by by the time that happened. But some equipment needs did come to light as far as our department and other departments that are neighboring to us. So we'll we'll address those as they come.

Right. Because I just to get a quick understanding. So the police department reaches out to the military for any surplus type of vehicles, or how how does that exchange occur?

There's a government program called the ten thirty three program. We haven't used it in years. Actually, most agencies stopped using it in California based on this legislation. We do still keep an inventory of some military equipment, but we don't

have any plans to procure anymore. Yeah. Because I'm just curious to see if there was any need for additional vehicles given what happened to that vehicle. That's all.

Yeah. The the glass will be replaced in those vehicles. Okay. Those the the ones that were struck for our Kern County and, those are not military vehicles. Those are privately purchased

contract vehicles. Okay. Well well, that's all I had, mister Myers. So just if there's not any questions, I'll move to adopt item 8.13.

Second.

K. We have a motion and a second for approval of 8.13. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? Group five o. Moving forward to item 8.14, home investment partnership program funds.

What I'll do is to save time, I'll I'll I'll, you know, can ask any questions. You know, I don't have to do the staff report, but just I wanted to ask one particular question, mister mayor, was that, this particular program allows for the city to partner with the county to help people with rent, subsidies, I guess, rentals rental, support. But the other thing I I just wanted to ask staff was for home funds that are being used think I've I've got this this question answered before, but I wanted to just double check. These have more latitude in terms of they can be used for different types of projects, not just rental assistance, but different types of other projects.

So I think generally for the home investments program, the city is now gonna be a participating jurisdiction, which means we'll have, on average, in the next five year period, about 360,000 in home funds that are coming in. And I'll I'll note in the city's consolidated plan that was just adopted back in or amended and adopted back in November and December, there is a priority to affordable housing preservation and development. So to the home program, this rental assistance activity falls in line with that, and it was covered in the housing needs. So I don't think generally for the home program, think new construction of multifamily rental, think rehabilitation of multifamily rental units. Tenant based rental assistance is another activity, and then there's an opportunity for construction of homes that are gonna be sold, not just rented.

So that's, like, the homeownership opportunity. And then there's also under home the ability to do owner occupied rehabilitation assistance for owner for owners, which the city has done since the nineties under the home program, and as well as offer first time home buyer assistance loans.

Right. Because I think, when we talked about this last time, brought up the idea of trying to develop a pilot program for, renters to build home equity. In other words, to to build equity in their as a rent. As we all know right now, you can rent an apartment or a house for twenty, thirty years and never build any equity in it. And so the idea was, to see if moving in future, when you guys bring this item in the future to see if we can start maybe setting aside, a little bit of money, $2,550,000 of it, towards maybe working towards that pilot program.

I know we've talked to self help enterprises about using Santa Fe Commons as the example that, you know, if you rent for ten years or more, you're a good tenant that you can build a little bit of equity towards buying a new home. And so, I'd like to see if if if at some point you can maybe report back through the city manager if they had something that would qualify under the home funds, to to do something like that. Because definitely would like to pursue it through council, but kinda set aside. And if it doesn't go up to fruition, then the money could be reallocated to to other things. Right? So

Yeah. So under the the home program as well as CDBG, there there is an area considered program administration costs, which you conceivably could use for the study of of such a pilot program. And staff do recall your past references to Santa Fe and a pilot for renters' equity. And if and if it's okay with, our city manager, Mark, to note in in the forthcoming meeting in council in July when we talk about a housing plan, staff, staff, can look into equity building type specific initiatives, per your direction and that of other council members.

Right. And and I'll recall, I think, if I remember correctly, I think last year after the council meeting when you asked that, there were my recollection, I could be wrong. I'll go back. Look. I think I addressed it in the weekly report following the council meeting, and I think we also left it as you were gonna council member Sikala can do some research on some communities that do that and send us some of those examples. But remember, that's only one council member. We didn't have consensus from council, the majority saying we want you to implement this. So I think we went as far as we could at that time to to Alexis' point. When we come back with the workshop, we can bring this up again. And if there's a consensus from council to do that, then we would expend more staff resources, energies implementing something versus just what we've done so far. But I'll put in the weekly report whatever we sent last year to you. Okay. Thank you, Mark.

So one thing which I just wanna clarify. So what we have in front of us is the home program funds, and Sagala, a council member asking about this, is that no such a program is not allowed under home. That is a fact.

Oh, for to use home funds for equity building? Correct. Yeah. I my only note was as an administrative cost to study as a plan Yeah. But not to implement. Yeah.

You have admin costs, but admin costs go to pay the staff or the city. The jurisdiction could use that admin as needed. True. But the home the home program, TBRA, homeownership rehab, I just we've talked about that, like, four times, and I just wanna confer his policy. You cannot use home funds for that program. Okay. So Yes. I think for staff to have that knowledge and to just convey that for home program, it's not an option. Yeah.

Correct. And I think previously, what was expressed to the city manager and relayed to other council members was that though not all encompassing program, the way rental subsidies are supposed to focus is to offset cost to to low income households. Right? If they're receiving a subsidy, it's a it'll lower their obligation to meet that monthly payment. Hopefully, that has a positive offset to this the general household costs. So over time, if you layer that, although independent activities, but if you connect recipients of housing choice vouchers or the city's TBRAs, they could connect them to the first time home buyer assistance loan. So that in and of itself may function like equity building for renters when you give them an opportunity to try to buy a home in their own community. So

So what we have in front of us is an agreement. So it will have on our agenda as we do our program plans for the use of funds. What we have in front of us is the agreement between the city of Tulare and the housing authority for the appropriation of a $184,003.50 for tenant based rental assistance activity. Do we have any other questions about the agreement? I'll make a motion to adopt the agreement as set forth in item 8.14.

Second.

K. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? 8.14 is approved by both. Thank you. K. Thank you. Next item that we have is 8.18, Cesar Chavez Memorial Park Review Committee.

Yeah. Shamir, the county council I I I'm trying to recall if it was in the weekly report or through, I think it was mentioned briefly in the staff report that, there is no, or there no one could find any agreements, formal agreements between the park or the school district in the city. And and but there's been the practice that you own the land, but we maintain the land. Is that is that accurate?

Our portion of the land. Our part portion. Correct.

So the so the part portion. So because I think that was a big question as to whether the school district people would be involved or not be involved. And so I see that they are involved.

Based on our research, originally, when the park was renamed to Cesar Chavez, the school district did have an active role in participating in those discussions. So we've established that the district owns the land that previously they had an active role in making this decision. And so staff recommendation and I've reached out to them, and they have a desire to be participants in this process. Hence, we recommended two from the school, two from the commission, and two from council to form the committee.

Right. And I I guess, so given that, is there any anticipation of there being any conversations about a joint use agreement with the city? Is that is that is that something that is, evident with all of our parks that we partner with them on?

No. We we have some joint use agreements for certain aspects of park, like, let's say, water retention. But we, and it's not uncommon. Practices in many cities have been sort of handshake deals with school districts or other entities over time. We do think it's a good idea for us to move forward at some point in the future with use agreements between the parties, but we think that's a longer discussion and don't necessarily want to bog this down with that separate

No. No. I I I agree. I was just asking if there was an intent

because We talked about that. Yes.

I mean, I yeah. Shake a handshake is good, but I think an agreement's better.

Yeah. We agree.

Thank you.

Any other comments from council on 8.18? Council of action? I'll make a motion to adopt, the establishment of the committee as indicated staff report as to item 8.18.

Second.

We have a motion and then second for approval of 8.18, Cesar Chavez Memorial Park Review Committee. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion approved. Five o. And with that eight eight point one nine, the subsidy request for the Hispanic Latin concert February. Mister Segoff?

I'd like to see if staff can present this item before I

ask questions. I'd be happy to. So, counsel, we had discussed previously, that there are other parties that have an interest in utilizing the park for, promoting concerts. Mister Gilor Torres of the Rooks Agency approached the city having such an interest, and I shared that there would be a a couple different, maybe three ways of doing that. One way would be they could he and his entity, his organization could put on a concert outside of the city's concert season, which is essentially, let's say, mid May to mid September.

If he was to pursue pursue that approach, it would be a rental fee of a thousand dollars, and that would be the extent of the city's involvement. It would not be part of the city's concert series. It would be a separate event. I I think there's pros and cons of that. Based on our discussion, he, I think, elected not to pursue that direction.

The next approach we talked about was you could do it during the con the city's concert series window that mid May to mid September, but as an event that's not part of the city's concert, series. So it's a separate event. And you'll recall when you guys adopted the usage policy, the way that would work is they would it would be a separate event. They would pay a thou whoever that entity is would pay a thousand dollar rental fee, and then they would pay if they would either use Rio Productions due to the production for the show, or they pay the think I can't remember. Think it was $5,000 fee to remove the equipment.

Rio would remove the equipment and put the equipment buck back up after the show, and then that entity could use whatever production equipment they wanted. I think there was a decision made not to move in that direction. And so the third option, which is the one that's presented before you, which is the one that I understand Brooks Agency is interested in, it's one that Spade Entertainment's interested in, one that I I support as the city manager, which is to create a third Latin concert this year, a third event, that's part of the city's concert series. And the benefit of being part of the city's concert series is is a few benefits to that. One is, now you're gonna be being promoted as part of all of our regular shows that we have.

So we've advertised, I think, nine or 10 shows so far. So this become another show that the city is putting on. When you're part of our concert series, you also have access to utilizing our equipment and our staffing. Right? So we put out chairs and tables. We help with the setup of the the event because it's the city's concert series. That's if you're part of our concert series. And then the third probably more important variable is I sat down with Spade Entertainment and with the Rooks agency and said, look. Let's talk through how this would work. I I will say that in my opinion, Spade Entertainment does a really good job overall with putting on our shows, promoting our shows, getting artists, especially of a variety of genres.

They've had experience working in the Latin, Hispanic genre of music. There's no doubt they have had that experience, but I think the Rooks agencies had probably more experience in that area. And, you know, Rooks has been successful in terms of demonstrating to me that they've had success specifically in Tulare County over the years. They seem very confident in their ability to attract good talent and, more importantly, attract people to purchase tickets for the show. And so the conversation we had is it's demonstrated here in the report is, listen.

Why don't we have a partnership where Rooks and Spade are gonna kinda jointly put on this this third show? Rooks, their focus is going to be what I perceive they do best, which is attract talent, high quality talent at a reasonable price through their network and their relationships over many, many years. And they're the ones who promote market, promote that show. I think that they have a a better nuanced understanding of the culture and what the community specific is looking for. Right?

It's not you you can't just take something in English and translate it to Spanish and and say, okay. We've covered all our bases. Right? There's a lot of cultural nuances to how do you attract where do you advertise, and how do you attract the right, you know, crowd that's gonna wanna come to that show to see that genre of music. So that's what their responsibility would be.

Spade Entertainment's responsibility would be everything else like they do for all the other shows. They would use real productions for the production associated with the concert. We've estimated the total cost, the max cost at 146,000. We've estimated the max city contribution at $132,000. The way we've structured this would be both parties, Rooks and Spade, would receive $5,000.

That's their fee for their efforts in the show. Then each of the parties, there'll be some net proceeds from the bar from alcohol sales. The two parties will work through that after all expenses are considered, and I know Spade has some considerable expenses that they have to buy all the the product, etcetera. After all the expenses are considered, there'll be some sharing of revenue there. But after that, the city gets paid back first.

And after we get paid back, assuming we get paid back, we may not get paid back all of our money. Our hope is that we will. I I like the partnership of these two entities working together on this show. I think it gives us our best chance for success. And after we get paid back, if we get paid back, then whatever else is left after that, get to share in those revenues.

What it's not in the staff report, but I want to mention to council is my intention because I've had a couple council members share some thoughts with me is, just like we do with Spade Entertainment, for the shows, we hold the money, and they come to us, and they say, hey. Here's here's the bill. I wanna be able to, you know, book this artist, and then we go ahead and pay that bill directly. I would recommend the same approach with this show for both parties. I think it makes a lot of sense. Frankly, I've talked to Spade about this, and Todd has said to me, listen. If this show is a success going forward to next year, we'll do all our Latin shows in that partnership with Rooks Agency. Right? So that's our hope. We have some confidence in that. I'm happy to answer any other questions. Both Todd and Eula are in the audience if you have questions for them as well.

So this is similar to to what we're doing with the fourth of July in the sense that we're, in essence, guaranteeing up to a certain amount of money, hoping that, like, in the fourth of July, hoping that we have sponsorships and income of money that will cover that so the city doesn't actually have to

pay it. Correct.

So we're guaranteeing up to a $132. Hopefully, this will be successful to the point to where we don't actually have to pay

them.

But we're we're on the hook, so so to speak.

Yes. Yeah. Because if you don't

if we're not guaranteeing those dollars and the bills come due and the money's not there, somebody's gotta pay those bills. Right? But, like, with the July 4, you know, July 4, we've been very successful so far. You know, most of that $40,000 cost that the city has guaranteed that it would, you know, cover, most of that's already been covered through sponsorships. And I I'm not saying this will be exactly like that, but that's you know, we're really pleased about the fourth of July event. Hopefully, we got, you know, good ticket sales and sales during the day of the event that will cover any of the balance of the cost, And hopefully, the parties walk away, you know, making a little bit of money. It's sort of a very similar structure.

Yeah, man.

I think, that was one of my talking points, in regards to how different was this event from other events that are part of the concert series.

I mean, I

think the, you know, the first word subsidy is is is a very powerful word. I I've been, reproached and, given, you know, kind of different looks for using that word for the rest of the concert series. But I just wanted to understand that. So this particular concert is different than others that Spade Entertainment is doing because there is an expectation of a 100% return on the on the $132,000.

No. I wouldn't say that. We have a contract with Spade that has certain terms and conditions in it, but we've recognized you know, for all of last year's concert series, for example, we recognized that we weren't getting enough ticket sales or that the way those terms have been negotiated to those to materialize. So all of the concerts last year were very similar to this one. All of the concerts last year, Spade took a $5,000 fee for all the shows.

Even though they had the right to keep 80% of the sponsorship money, they dumped all that money back into shows because they're investing in the concerts just like we are because long term, they want success. So the the contract says something different than actually what we're doing in reality. This language is more reflective of what actually we did last year and what's more occurring in reality.

I guess what I'm trying to get at is that there is no anticipation. Obviously, we want it to be successful. You know, I'm glad that, you know, you were able to bring the two entities together, Mark, which kinda had vowed not to work together, but there we are today working together, which is a great thing. But I'm just trying to figure out what is the expectation in terms of the city's return. So there's 75,000, for the talent and 90 or 22,000 or 20,000 for the marketing fee, and then the rest of the cost is noted in the staff report.

But is it your intent, as you mentioned earlier that whatever revenues come in, the city gets paid first. And then whatever's left, if there's anything left.

Let me

let me

because that's a different approach from the other concerts.

No. Not really. It is the same approach we did last year with Spade, but let me let me correct it a little bit. They're gonna get their feet before we get our 132,000 back. So they're not gonna do this for free. Right? So at the end of the show, they're gonna get their 5,000 each for their efforts. And then the bar revenue that comes in, we don't touch that revenue. That's their revenue. That's stage revenue. After all the expenses, he sits down with rooks. They work through what's the net proceeds, then they split that up to whatever however they work that out, that's between them. Now all the other revenue, the ticket sales, you know, any other revenue that's occurring at that concert, we get that money back first. Will it equal a 132,000? I don't know.

I I it's hard to guess to say what it's gonna be. You know? It's possible that, you know, it comes back less than a 132, but at least we get a good portion of our money back. Our hope is we get all 132 back and make more. And if we make, if there's more after that, they split that revenue. That's the only piece that I would say is a little bit different. Councilmember Sagala is in the current shows that we have with Spade, we don't really have a relationship where we say, hey. After we get our money back, then you keep the rest of that money. That's probably the piece that's a little bit different in that they're gonna split whatever they're and why is that? Because we want them motivated to go out and make more money.

Well, no. I I I agree. I mean, I think we should do all of our concerts that way instead of getting, you know, $50.60 per 50 to 60% of the revenue of the expense. In this particular case, you're you're betting on that we're gonna get a lot more than that and that it is different. It's a big difference. I mean, I would say it's a big difference where now we have an additional vendor who's gonna good luck. You're gonna be under that pressure to try to perform and bring in the money a little differently than what we've been used to with the concerts in the past. I don't know. I'm hoping this concert series is great success, but from what I've been able to fill together, we haven't requested. Like, hey.

If the Clint Black concert is gonna cost 150,000, then we expect, you know, a 100,000 back, right off the top. Where

this

one we're doing it we're we're setting up this So, I mean, that that that's the only concern. I just wanna make sure everything's fair. I wanna make sure that hopefully, they have a great event and other promoters that are not spayed or willing to come into ZoomWalt and do I mean, I don't use the word Latin. I mean, Latino music, Mexican regional music, whatever it is. And we have some good concerts. So I'm hoping that they are able to kind of, lead the way on this one. But I just wanted to know it's a it's a little different in my mind how this is set up. Sure. Is it fair? You know, I'm not gonna argue that, but it is different. And so I just wanna wish wish them, well, and I'm glad that they are willing to work together. So Thank you. Thank you.

K. Council, we have, item 8.19 in front of us. Is there an action item from council? I move 8.19. We have a motion. Second. And a second. So all in favor? Aye. Any opposed? 8.19 is approved, five o. Okay. Moving forward on our agenda is public hearing. Then we have item 9.1, which is vacancy and recruitment retention efforts. Conduct a public hearing on position vacancies and recruitment and retention efforts as mandated by California government code three five zero two point nine.

Miss Benegas, are you opening up on who who's presenting? So

we actually will both be presenting, but I will open it up. So Irene will get the slideshow ready. So what you have before you is the a v twenty five sixty one vacancy rates, which is a public hearing. What is a v twenty five sixty one? A v twenty five sixty one is a state law that requires cities to report once a year on full time job vacancies to improve transparency.

It went into effect 01/01/2025. The goal is to give a clear picture of our staffing levels, help identify any challenges, and support better workforce planning over time. As part of this process, all bargaining units have been notified of this public hearing and have the opportunity to provide input. Our management analyst, Irene Santos, she is here tonight. She is primarily assigned to recruitment, and I'll now turn it over to her to provide information on the vacancy rates.

Thank you, Jamie. Members of council, it's a pleasure to be here with you this evening. The data contained within this report was compiled as of April 24, about twelve days ago. And as Janie just mentioned, I am pleased to report that none of the vacancies none of the vacancy rates within the city's four bargaining units met or exceeded the 20% of authorized full time positions. As you can see, our vacancy rates were quite low as of April 24.

They are even lower today as we have recruitments that have since closed as well as several candidates that are now in various stages of the background process. Of the 33 position vacant positions identified in this slide, 12 positions have candidates now in various stages of the background process, eight of which were in the Clocia group, four and four in the police officers union group. Three positions will be filled using existing eligibility list. Candidates were recommended and are currently in the background phase. Three positions were recently interviewed for, and we've received the hiring recommendation for two others and expect to receive the third very soon.

Two positions have recruitments currently in process. One position has a recruitment pending. One is currently being held, and 11 positions have candidates that started work yesterday, May 4. Four of those were in the Closea group, six in the fire group, one in the mid management group. So our rates are now 6% for Closea, zero for fire, and four for mid management.

And that's all been within the last twelve days as we indicated. We took a slide this morning that I thought you might find interesting. These were all employees that started yesterday. So as you can see on the screen, those represent 10 of our newest hires. They were all orientated this morning with their new employee orientation.

We had one additional who was an existing employee that was reclassified that did not have to go through orientation, so that is the representation of the 11 that have started work since the data was compiled. So very exciting to have all of those in orientation this morning. Again, since the data was compiled, we've also added three additional positions to our recruitment schedule. One is a result of an upcoming retirement, one the result of an industrial separation, and one due to resignation. Recruitments for those position opened last week and this this afternoon, so those rep positions are also in process now.

Thank you. Back to the data, if you wanna focus on that. Well, excuse me, the next slide. Fulfilling vacancies and recruiting top talent, as you know, are critical to delivering the core services to the community and carrying out your objectives as counsel. In the graphic, on to the left on the screen, you will see the various stages of our recruitment process and the approximate time spent in each phase.

To date this fiscal year, we've conducted 34 recruitments. Again, that's as of April 24. Those recruitments have generated over 1,567 applications and resulted in the hiring of 44 new employees and the promotion and or reclassification of an additional 27 existing employees. We are currently on pace to meet and exceed last year's recruitment numbers, which included 47 recruitments and over twenty twenty two hundred applications, 55 new hires, and 32 promotions and or reclassifications. Our recruitment and retention efforts take on many different elements or phases.

A component of that, I'm gonna touch on the first two, deal with competitive benefits, recruitment orientation, and onboarding, and Janie's gonna expand upon our training and development, succession planning, and career pathways efforts. In regards to competitive benefits, employees now, have quick and easy access to medical care as one of our newest benefit options with copay with no without copays at our employee health care center, which opened, as you know, in March. The Healthcare Center contributes to overall employee wellness, and the city is still realizing the benefits of having the center. Since opening, our on-site Employee Healthcare Center has completed 1,513 appointments serving 681 individuals, those being either or excuse me, indicating strong utilization by our employees, their dependents, and retirees. So, again, all groups are utilizing that, and we're seeing strong utilization.

Employee satisfaction with the center is high. It's receiving an average 4.87 out of a five star rating. The center also delivers measurable cost savings with 48% ER avoidance of those that have used the center as many employees report they would have otherwise visited urgent care or the emergency room. The benefit enhances our competitiveness by improving, access to care, reducing time away from work, and lowering the health care costs. In late fall, a wellness program to incorporate the employee health care center will also be under introduced to all employees.

We are currently exploring opportunities, to revamp our wellness program to better support employee well-being and keep health care excuse me, keep health and wellness, at top of mind across the organization. So we're looking at those options now for implementation in the soon. That will include incorporating Tulare Health Care Center into a variety of wellness initiatives and identifying new ways to increase engagement and support amongst our employees. In regards to recruitment, orientation, and onboarding, we continue to review our processes to streamline recruitment steps. As you indicate as indicated inside, there are various steps.

We are always looking at ways to eliminate redundancy and improve the, coordination between the a between HR and the departments that we're serving with the goal of ideally of reducing time to hire. We are also focusing on strategic outreach to build a proactive pool of future leaders before a vacancy even exists and to identify future applicants for our position. One example, we were this morning, police fire and myself were out at the high school interacting with students with their career fair today. Again, that may be a future labor source for us. We will all HR will also continue to provide new orientation and excuse me, new employee orientations as we did this morning at which time we discuss, provide policies, compliance regulations, and the organizational overview, and we will begin working more closely with departments to ensure onboarding provides roles, role integration, team alignments, and a career pathway for long term retention.

At this time, I'm gonna turn the presentation back over to Janie, and she's going to touch on our efforts in regards to training and development, succession planning, and career pathways. Are there any questions of the material that I've covered?

Okay. Jamie, I'll let you go ahead.

So with the training and development, training and development are both important, but they serve different purposes. Training helps employees get better at the job they're doing right now. Development focuses on preparing employees for future roles and long term growth. Our HR team continues to offer these opportunities through partnerships with organizations like Liebert Cassidy Wickmore, which we also know as LCW, and the Employment Risk Management Authority, also known as IRMA. These partnerships allow us to bring the expert led training on a variety of workplace topics.

We also work closely with our safety department to make sure employees stay up to date on required certifications and hands on skills. This includes training through our risk management authority in areas like traffic control, CPR, and blood borne pathogens, things that help keep employees and the public safe. On the succession planning career pathways, they go hand in hand. One focuses on the organization's needs, and the other focuses on the employee's growth. Succession planning is about making sure we have people ready to step into key roles when needed.

It helps keep services running smoothly even during transitions. Career pathways give employees a clear road map for how they can grow within the organization. It shows them what skills, experience, and training they need to move forward in their careers. HR is currently developing a structured training program for all new managers, supervisors, and department heads. The training will be completed within the first year and is designed to give them the tools and confidence they need to lead effectively from the start.

At the same time, we're building targeted training programs tied directly to advancement opportunities. This means employees will have a better understanding of what it takes to move into the next role, and we can better prepare them to get there. So those are the different recruitment and retention efforts that we're working towards. And so now the next steps are if there are any questions, and then if there's no questions, we could open the public hearing.

With that, thank you for the presentation. I appreciate the information. I will open the public hearing for public comment for the vacancy and recruitment retention efforts per government California government code three five zero two point nine. Is there anyone in chambers who wishes to speak on this matter or the presentation on vacancy and recruitment? Clerk, do we have anyone on the phone? No. So with that, I will close the public hearing. Thank you. It's good to see you.

Thank you.

And so with this, is this just just a public hearing? There's not an action required by us to receive a report. Or

Right. We received it. Right?

Correct. Not a public hearing. Correct.

K. Alright. Moving moving forward on our agenda to item 10, general business. And so with item 10, various items, as we kind of approach each one, I'll have some suggestions to the council of moving this agenda around Mhmm. Okay. From ten point one to ten point seven.

Well, so when you're doing that, I I think there might be some people here that are willing to speak on ten point seven. So I was wondering if we can move that up.

What I would ask us not to do that because I have a consultant on the phone for ten point one for ten point one.

After ten point one, we move up to ten point seven because I don't want them to sit here for three hundred.

Agree that except this consultant has another council meeting they have to get to right after this one.

K. So we will start with and we have 10.1, sales tax measure workshop. Receive a presentation and provide feedback and direction to staff regarding a potential 1¢ general sales tax measure. Mister Mondell?

Yep. Okay, counsel. So we have two consultants. The first one is doctor Richard Bernard with FM three. He is our polling consultant. You'll recall last year, we had a poll when counsel first considered the idea of pursuing a sales tax measure. He had shared those results with you last year. He just finished his most recent poll, this past Sunday, so he's gonna share the results of the most recent poll and compare them a little bit to last year. Richard, I'm gonna ask you to go ahead with your presentation. You'll take some questions, if any, if you have the time from council. Sure. And then you can get on your way. Thank you.

I I appreciate it. I wanna thank the the council, the mayor, the staff for inviting me to present the results of your community survey. We can everyone hear me alright? Mark, can you okay. Great.

Inducted the survey between April 23 and May 3. It was a dual mode survey, which means a random portion of the respondents took the survey on phone and the random portion online. In fact, 48% took the survey on the telephone, 52% online. We interviewed a random sample of 417 City Of Tulare registered voters who are likely to vote in a November twenty twenty six general election for respondents for each question. The margin of error is plus or minus 4.9%.

We interviewed, we contacted folks by telephone, email, and text. And as Mark suggested, we were privileged enough to to conduct a survey, February 2025 where where we have interesting tracking data. I will show you that as well so you could see any trends that exist. And, of course, we offered the survey in English and Spanish, of which 8% opted to take the survey in Spanish. If you notice something doesn't quite equal a 100% during the presentation, I blame that entirely on rounding.

I first wanna introduce some, data on the mood of the electorate and perceptions, and then we'll get into the actual ballot question. We began the survey as we had done in February and March 2025 by asking folks if they thought things in the city of Tulare are headed in the right direction or if they felt things were off on the wrong track. The blue is the right direction. The orange is a wrong track. And the folks who were unsure or what weren't or weren't really following what was going on in the city, they might volunteer, don't know.

You could see on the right hand side, the most recent data, close to one in every two think things in the city are headed in the right direction, and about a quarter think they're off on the wrong track. So close to a two to one ratio of right direction, wrong track. If you compare the data to the left side, which was in February and March 2025, there was an increase in the perceived direction in the right way. And to be frank, as I'm doing these surveys for multiple jurisdictions either in 2024 and 2025 and comparing them to 2026, in most circumstances, that right direction has declined and that wrong track has increased. That was not the case in your city.

The reasons for the re there were some of the reasons for the right direction not being higher than they are at 47% center often around the issues related to the cost of living. And particularly in this day and age while we're at, while The US is at war and gas prices are at very high levels, that has an impact on people's views about affordability. But, of course, that's beyond the purview of city council to deal anything to deal with that. We then gave them a list of organizations that are active in public life. We randomized the list so there was no order effect, and we asked after each one if they thought they had a favorable or unfavorable organize view about that organization.

The dark blue is very favorable. The bright blue is somewhat favorable. I've aggregated and ranked the total favorable on the right hand side. The dull orange and the bright orange are somewhat unfavorable and very unfavorable, respectively. And, again, I have, aggregated those numbers on the right hand side.

And the grays are the folks who said, never heard of that organization or I've heard of them, but don't know enough to offer an opinion. And as you could see, the, local hospital has a 55, 36 favorable, unfavorable number. The the city of Tulare government overall, so that includes not only the council, but all the all of the staff, the service workers, the maintenance workers, everyone who interacts and makes a difference in the quality of life of folks in the City Of Tulare, there the numbers are fifty three twenty eight, almost a two to one favorable to unfavorable number. The health care district has a 51 to 32 favorable to unfavorable number, and the council has forty six twenty eight. And you'll note that about 25% of, likely November voters don't feel, comfortable or don't know enough about the council to offer an opinion.

But at a time when people are very negative about government in general, the council has a two to one favorable number over unfavorable number, and that's a pretty good number to have, given people's views of government.

Richard, if you can stop for one second. Sorry. Yep. Counsel, the reason why the reason why we poll about the Adventist Health Tulare Hospital and the and the hospital district is you will recall last year and leading into this year, we talked a little bit about if a sales tax measure were to pass or if we were to pursue one, would there be any interest or desire to perhaps use some of those dollars to, help offset some of the cost of the tower project? So you will see in the survey that that question was asked.

And at the same time, if we were at we felt like if we asked the question about could should we consider using dollars for the tower, we also felt like we should ask, well, how do you feel about those organizations that oversee that project? That's why it's reflecting here. That doesn't mean you are going to do it or you should do it. We just felt like you should know the answer to those questions. Thank you, Richard.

Thanks, Mark. Yeah. I mean, you should have as much information as you can so you can make as what you perceive the best educated decision. So that was why they're in. Thanks, Mark.

And finally, before we get to, a discussion of the ballot question, we asked a conceptual question that we asked again in February and March 2025. Do they even think that the city has a need for additional funds to provide the level of city services that residents need and want. You could see that we offered the option of great need, some need, a little need, or no real need, or folks volunteered. They didn't know enough to offer an opinion. And as you could see statistically, there are really not much difference between the February and March numbers and the April, May numbers.

Two thirds continue to have, an opinion of at least the city needs some need for additional funds with not a bad number of, 37% as a great need. Now my charge is to, in a moment, discuss a potential general purpose measure which requires a 50% plus one vote by the people if the council deems in their wisdom to place it on the ballot or not. That being said, the 69 is way above that 50 plus one with that margin of error. And often, there's a correlation between perceived need and willingness to pay, which you'll see in a moment. So keep an eye on that number when we ask them if they're willing to support a sales tax, which is what I'm going to do right now.

We presented them with this, ballot question. We, work with your legal counsel to verify this is a legally permissible question. We had the staff, channel the priorities of the counsel, as well as we referred back to the earlier survey that I mentioned to see what were the top priorities of your voters, and then we married them together in this ballot question. And you'll see that we have all these pithy little phrases, nine one maintaining nine one one emergency fire paramedic police responses, helping prevent thefts, property crimes, addressing homelessness, etcetera. As you know, the general purpose measure cannot definitively, promise how the money could be used.

All it could be done is provide illustrative examples. And at the end of the day, if it passes, it will go into the general fund, and it will be at the discretion of the council on how they'll spend the money. Your finance folks tell me that a 1¢ sales tax provides approximately $16,000,000 annually. And so we asked this question if they were on the phone or if they were online. They read this question, and we said if there were an election today, would you vote yes in favor or no to oppose?

And if they said yes, we ask them, you know, the degree to which they would be willing to support it. And if they said no, the degree to which they were be willing to oppose it. Knowing that a successful measure would require a 50 plus one vote and opponents would need only 50% to be successful, the initial vote was 59 yes, 35 no, and 7% undecided with a fairly okay definitely yes of 35% and an okay on the definitely no side of 24. I've seen a lot of measures successfully passed for a general purpose measure with 24% who initially said definitely no. And if you'll notice the margin there is plus or minus 4.9.

And if I did simple math, and let's say five on rounding, and I looked at that 59 and I raised it five, it would be 64 in the high end and 54 on the low end, and it would be above that margin of error of five and within within the margin of error of five sorry. Above the margin of error five and above that threshold of 50 plus one. That's the initial vote. And before I get on to some simulated education and then we'll reask the ballot question to see if education matters, I wanna give you a sense of where the supporters are on that initial vote. This particular graph shows city council district, and the blue bars are the folks who said definitely, probably, or lean no on that initial vote.

The orange bar is the total no, folks who said definitely, probably, or lean no on that initial vote. Then the gray are the folks who are the pure undecided. Below each council district are the percentages that they will make up of a likely November 2026 electorate. And as you could see, every one of the council districts are their voters are more likely, even if so slightly in some, to vote yes on the measure than to vote no on the measure. Of course, the margin of error is a little larger because we've sliced and diced the data a little bit more.

The strongest level of support comes in council district for where more than a two to one ratio of support, is for the measure. So as I mentioned before, we tested every one of those pithy little statements in that ballot question. You'll see in front of you a series of 15 potential uses of the funds, and we asked folks, regardless to whether you support the measure or not, how important would it be to include this measure, these items in the measure? We gave them the option of extremely important, which is a dark blue, very important, which is the mid color blue, somewhat important, which is the dull blue. The orange are the folks who said, not too important or they didn't know.

And we've taken and aggregated because we presented this randomly to them. We've taken and aggregated the extremely and very important, and that's on the right hand side, and we ranked it as such. And you'll notice, first of all, a lot of high priorities. This tells me that the priorities of the council and, hence, the staff are very consistent and in line with your voters. The second thing I would recommend, even if you choose not to move forward on the measure, this is an excellent document in order to use in your general discussions for budget deliberations, when when you partake in that.

That being said, coming back to the measure, the lead items tend to be public safety, protecting water, and roads. Those seem to be the lead items. Now the good news is you have a number of different kinds of subject items because if you're going to if you're considering a general purpose measure, you can't have only something in one area. Otherwise, it would be considered a dedicated measure, and the requirement would be two thirds. So the maintaining nine one one emergency fire and police response, protecting local drinking water sources, there's a nexus there with storm water preventing crime and gang activities, keeping communities safe, and the list goes on.

You could see the strength. So on the lower side, which kinda stands out because on that dark blue, that extremely important is the only one in the twenties. But overall, one in every Tuesday extremely or very important are helping complete the advanced health Tulare hospital tower with twenty one percent saying not too important or they didn't know. So that is how that particular item that Mark referred to ranks relative to the items that we tested above. And now I wanna move on to the educational statements.

As you know, the city cannot advocate, but they can educate. So we randomized these list of statements, and we asked them after each one, tell me if it would make you more inclined to vote yes on the measure. The dark blue is much more inclined to vote yes. The bright blue is somewhat more inclined to vote yes, and that we've aggregated and ranked the total more inclined on the right hand side. The words in the parentheses are simply the themes of the of the statements, so I don't have to read you six statements, but a lot of very strong statements.

In other words, you have a story to tell that really resonates with your community. Among the top ones, but they're all in front of you statistically and distinguishable, is the idea of accountability. No one will vote for a measure because there's accountability, but they will vote against a measure if there isn't. So knowing that you have public disclosure of all spending, which is on your website available twenty four seven, three hundred and sixty five days of the year. If anyone can't sleep one night, they can certainly go online and look at in very detail how the money that you all the taxpayer money and how you spend it.

You also have audits on your budgets, and this allows you to be transparent and ensure that money is spent effectively and efficiently. That's often a secondary message, never the leads. The top messages relate to medical response and ensuring firefighters and paramedics and have the lifesaving equipment and facilities to improve its emergency response times, save lives, making sure that the city can address the nine nine gangs and more than 1,000 gang members that freaking frequent your frequent your community often from outside the area to make sure your community is safe. And we mentioned some of the crime stats from the previous years and your streets. And your most recent, pavement management reports suggest in one third of your city streets and roads are either rated as poor or very poor, and this would be an opportunity or could be an opportunity to fix those streets before it gets more expensive to fix and dangerous.

So after telling them what the money could be used for and telling them some educational statements, we reask that ballot question that you saw earlier in the presentation. On the left hand side was that initial vote after just ballot title and summary. You saw that, moments ago. It was 59 yes, 35 no, 7% undecided. After telling them the providing education to them, support goes up seven points from 59 to 66 overall.

And more importantly, the definitely s moves up to 48. Now, of course, the measure if I'm a little bit more conservative and look at that 64, the folks who said definitely or probably that I didn't have to kinda push into the lean yes, If I add that 5% margin of error to that 64, that combines the definitely and probably yes. On the high end, it's 69, and at the low end, it's 59. Way above the 50 plus one threshold, above the margin of error, and what's really striking is the definitely yes is at 48%, a very healthy and strong definitely yes. And you'll note that it's more than a two to one ratio of, definitely yes to definitely no, that definitely no is only at 20%, at this point.

And we were, we discussed testing some lower rates in terms of sales tax in case the 1¢ didn't appear to be viable. We reasked what happens if it was a three quarter to half the sample, and we asked the other half what what happens if it was a half cent. Statistically, it doesn't increase the level support sufficiently enough, and it would be my recommendation that if the city chooses to move forward with your outreach about talking about the needs in the city and the needs for the city to increase the revenue to provide the level of city services that residents need and want, that they continue to con at least pursue a 1¢ sales tax vote in the future. Of course, it will be at your discretion, the council, to decide whether you will ultimately place it on the ballot, but that's not what's being asked of tonight. Tonight, this is just meant to be informational and to and to ask if whether to continue outreach to the community.

To compare the results from February and March 2025 on the left hand side to the votes on the current survey that I just presented, that top bar is the total yes, the definitely, probably, and lean yes on that initial vote and the vote after education. I just showed that to you. The orange bar is the total no, and the the gray, the bottom one is undecided. You'll notice the lines on the initially initial vote and the vote after education are somewhat statistically similar to the April and May. Not much change has happened over time, though it would be my recommendation if it's in the if it's in the view of the council to move forward in education that you continue to aggressively, but legally, permissibly, educate and tell your story because, clearly, that makes a difference in the level of support.

So in conclusion, first, I wanna thank you for your patience. I know I'm throwing a lot of data at you all at once. With respect to the context, a polarity of a favorable view of the direction of the city, That's up from, the 2025. Again, I'm not seeing that in a lot of cities as people tend to be a little bit more negative because of cost of living. That's not the case in your city.

A majority have a favorable view of the city of Tulare government overall and slightly more than two thirds continue to perceive the city as a need for additional funds to provide city services. All in the with respect to the ballot question, almost six in 10 initially support the simple majority measure that is 50 plus one. And after education support increases to close to two thirds with almost half that being 48% indicating they would definitely vote yes. Education clearly matters here. Lowering the sales tax rate does not appear to increase the likelihood of passage.

I've had other cities where I've I've recommended for them to go at a lower rate. That is not my recommendation for you tonight. Leading budget priorities for the measure include, public safety around maintaining 911 emergency fire police response, protecting local drinking water sources, preventing crime and gang gang activities, keeping communities safe overall, and, of course, maintaining your roads. Leading reasons to support the measure, providing fire, paramedic, and equipment to improve medical response times, keeping the community safe from gangs, and, of course, ensuring that there is strict accountability accountability measures within this proposition. And with that, I would be more than happy to answer any questions.

Wow. Okay. A lot of information. Dennis, you look ready. You want me to start with you? Can you go back to that last slide?

Yeah. Of course.

Conclusions. You have the various items in there. I don't see dealing with homeless in there, or did I miss it?

I didn't raise it high, but I'm happy to show you where we asked about it. You'll notice it's 76% extremely very important, and you'll notice that blue, extremely important, bounces back up after items above it in the forties and thirties. Clearly an important element, but it's not the lead in terms of the priorities. It's an important priority. It continues to be important priority.

I understand that the council has deeded an important priority. I know you're doing things about addressing homeless, but the lead items are generally public safety response, water, making sure it's a safe place from gangs and road repairs. Later on, again, addressing homeless bounces back up. But all of these things are high, to be frank, except for addressing the hospital tower.

K. Thank you. Sure. Okay. Terry, do you have any?

I appreciate that. I I wanted to ask you on the gang. If they were if they were helpful given the fact that gang violence or gang issues are are high. If we were to flip that and insert, for example, right before it says homeless, addressing homeless, investing in youth slash gang prevention

Sure. Sure. Sure. Sorry. Yeah.

Would that help? Because I think one of the things that I've been that I've been bringing up publicly and will continue to advocate is that a a good share of this money, if we move forward, be set aside to invest in youth. Because an investment in youth, I believe, helps reduce gang participation and activity. And, I mean, I'm surprised to see how high it ranks Yeah. Compared to homelessness, which is great for me because I think that helps, hopefully, with my argument that we need to include that language in there.

Because for me, this language is very important because when we deal with measure I, a previous tax measure, the fact that investing in youth is not listed there, so therefore, it's not a priority. So for me, I want to be able to put it in here because it's important for my community. I mean, this investing in putting that language in there and making a commitment down the road to really look at that is what's gonna win my vote, you know, whether I support it or not or whether I tell my constituents to support it or not.

You know? Because I

think that's important. So in your estimation, flipping flipping the gang kind of language to include investing in youth, would that would that be helpful as well in that particular effort?

So so I think your question is incredibly astute. And, so what I I I don't I don't I'm not only a pollster, but I actually help in drafting ballot language. But I use the science that you see in front of you to advise I mean, ultimately, it's your decision, but I use the science in front of me, like the list here, to suggest that these things that are gonna just be illustrative examples are included in the measures. So if I were to go and do that, I would be focusing on maintaining nine one one fire and police response. We've got that in check.

Protecting local drinking water sources. And I would include preventing crime and gang activity. Now, ultimately, how that plays out is at the discretion of you and your colleagues. But it would be my recommendation to place that element that is not currently in that question in there because I think it it really is responsive to your voters, which ultimately councils like to be. Right?

It's responsible to your responsive to your voters. And I believe it will strengthen the ballot question. So I would be if you folks recommend to move forward and do education and if you come back at a subsequent time down the road to discuss this, it would be my recommendation that we include something about preventing crime and gang activity, and I think that would strengthen it. And how that plays out is up to you and your colleagues to, you know, to disseminate and discuss over time. I hope that answers your question.

No. And I appreciate that. And in a previous life, I have drafted that one language, so I kinda understand the politics of that.

Yeah. That's great. It was a great question.

Thank you. For me, I think just using the more proactive investing in youth slash gang prevention, I think, would be a strong element. At least it would win my vote and win my support to my constituents, you know, because I represent a part of the district where there's always a bigger challenge when it comes to those issues. And I definitely would like to be able to advocate for this tax measure and say there's something in there for for for that part of a community, which in other types of reports, polls align in regards to people wanna invest in youth. But I I would hate to miss an opportunity in this tax measure to to put that in there for folks to to consider.

So that'll be a conversation we have here among the council, but I do appreciate you providing that that data support.

Sure. My pleasure, and thank you for the question.

Steve? Okay.

We got also do have it? I'm sorry.

I think questions and points, and I'll I'll come back if we have others. I wanna also offer public input for this, and then Sure. If you want me to do that first or if Mark

Yeah. Because you'll have to jump off pretty soon, and then we have a next presentation.

Okay. So I wanna allow public comment, on this item for 10.1 and the presentation that was heard about the sales tax measure and the categories. Is there anyone in chambers who'd like to speak on this? Okay. Clerk, do we have anyone on the phone who'd like or on Zoom that would like to speak on this?

This is Randy. Can you hear me?

Good evening, Randy. Yes.

So thank you guys, first of all, for the work you've done on this and for pulling on behalf of the district and Adventist Health in the tower. I think that's an important issue for the overall health of our community, economic value of our community, so forth. The thing I didn't see or maybe it was asked in a way that it didn't maybe get to this in looking at the numbers was that if the tower for the hospital is not completed, that we will end up being noncompliant with the state of California. And in essence, at this point, we would be unable at this point to continue hospital services after 2030 or hopefully 2033 once we have our extension granted by the state. And the tower I know is is you know, it's an important issue for most of Tulare, and it's it's been a stain on kind of our history, if you will.

But it's more than just completing it in order for us to complete the investment and the commitment that the community has made. It's about the long term survival overall of our hospital. And we must meet that, you know, the SB nineteen fifty three earthquake safety standards that were put into place back in 1994 in order for that hospital to continue to serve patients after 2030 unless the law is changed. And I don't know if the public as they were pulled in this at a 25% level of, you know, extremely important understood that, you know, difference because I'd like to see it finished regardless because it just being a great addition for service to our community. But it it has more importance to that in terms of just overall licensing capability and and overall kind of meeting the the standards and codes of the state of California.

Do you have any feedback on that, Richard, maybe in terms of the questions you asked? Did you get any feedback from the folks you talked to about whether that was a consideration in their answer?

Yeah. I can answer that. So we Randy, we didn't ask Richard to ask that question. Again, this poll was really focused on municipal services, the things that the city controls. We did want to ask the basic question about whether or not the completion of the tower project was important to the voters and, you know, how they felt about the hospital district. But, you know, we only had limited questions that we could ask, and, of course, we're paying for. And so we really we didn't have the opportunity to expand it into you know, I think what you the information you're providing is very important, but I would encourage you guys to perhaps maybe consider doing some of your own polling if, because you can tell your story far better than we can.

We're in the process of doing that, and I appreciate that feedback. I think at the end of the day, I'm really pleased that you guys even included us, in the survey because it gives us an idea of the importance to our community. But like I said, I think there's more to the story that it's not just finishing a tower, but it's about preserving hospital services for our community. And, certainly, we wanna make sure that that, happens as well and with the assistance of the city through maybe a sales tax initiative that makes it that much more achievable. So thank you for that.

Sure, Randy. And counsel, your next presentation here in a second is gonna be from our financial consultant, and what they're going to show you is sort of one possible scenario of how we could use the money. It's not we're not suggesting that's how we do it. We're not asking you to vote on it tonight, but we're we're gonna capture one of the things that I heard in the past council meeting is we have so many projects and so many initiatives. We couldn't possibly do all these things.

It's a pipe dream, and we're gonna show you that's not true. In fact, there's a lot of things we can do and still address the needs of the community and maybe even perhaps if council desires, look at the possibility of providing some funding for the hospital district. It's only one scenario, but I wanted to show it to you because you need to be under thinking about how are we funding a lot of the different needs we have. Not all of that would come from a sales tax measure. Right? So we're gonna talk about that next once you guys have are done with asking your questions for Richard.

So, miss Meredith, a question. What what did I don't know if Richard would answer, the city manager would answer this. What what is the process into amending the language? I mean, are you planning to do more polling?

No. So this item will come to you next month. There's there's four things I'm looking for from you today. One is, do you want to continue to move forward with consideration of a sales tax measure? Yes or no? And I don't need it as a vote. I just need direction from you, consensus. Do you want to pursue it as a one sense or something else? Do you want us to use this ballot language, or do you want us to consider something else? Because when we bring it to you in June, we're gonna be asking you to make the vote on the language because we're gonna have is that correct, Melissa?

We have the yeah. We have to we have to advance this to the county to get it on the to get it on the ballot. And the fourth item I'm gonna ask you tonight is, do you want us to bring a resolution of intent when we come back into June, which talks in general terms about what you intend to use the money for? Right? Those are the four things I'm gonna ask you at the end of the night the night so you can be thinking about that. So this evening, you can give us suggestions on ballot language if you wanna modify what we've already included in the staff report. Our recommendation is to keep exactly what's in the staff report there because we know how the voters will vote on it. We don't have to speculate. We don't have to guess. We know exactly how they're gonna vote on it based on the results of this poll.

But if you wanna change it, you can. You can give us that direction tonight. I just want to caution you. If you start changing it, recognize we really don't know what's gonna happen.

Well, on that point If

I can interject, it does say, as as it reads, general services such as so these are all add ons. And I think you were only talking, mister Sagala, about one little catchphrase. So it's

just Right. What I was just looking at in in in, you know, the consultant Richard said, hey. That doesn't have any problem. Might even recommend it, is right before addressing homelessness, which is somewhere in there.

Second line.

Second line. Right. Right after property crimes, just inserting something investing in youth slash gang prevention. I mean, that that I mean, that pulled high. I mean, that was a big thing. So even higher than homelessness. But I think that that would be what I would recommend we add on there. I mean, I think for me, I'll be honest with you, that would that would I would move supporting this. If it's not in there, I probably would vote against it.

I I would recommend that if you have other things you want since and I don't think we have Richard much longer. But, Richard, if you're still on the phone Yeah. What would you recommend? You've heard the conversation. What would you recommend we

change? So I would so I would use this list to swap out some of the items. So I can't just by law, remember, it's 75 words, and we're at our 75 word maximum here. Knowing that the words city of Tulare is considered one word and the 1¢ is one word and 16,000,000. So if you're doing quick math and you're wondering how why I'm at 75, trust me.

I've done this count a 100 times. And so it's a zero sum game. So I would take something that may have scored a little bit less, such as preparing for, looking where, where do we have? Well, homelessness is important to you folks, so you may wanna keep it in for substantive reasons, but it scored a lot less than preventing crime and gang gang activity. So you I might recommend, and I'd work with Mark, and I don't wanna do it in like, I wanna do it thoughtfully and not with a gun to my head at, you know, at on May my May 5 at 07:30 at night.

But I would recommend, you know, taking that gang that crime and gang activity and and weaving it into this this document, this 75 words. Just so you know, every single word is systematically and scientifically examined. And it's not I've been in cases where on the day of the the the decision whether to place something on the ballot, council members and I know they always do it with with good faith. And, look, you're not a council member if you don't love your community, so there is never a question about that. But we've had an opportunity, a blessed opportunity from you from you folks to go out and do a systematic scientific study that really addresses and speaks to a random sample of all likely voters, not just sort of the folks that you talk to on a daily basis, but the the moms who are taking care of their kids and their adult parents and their dads or moms that are working two, three jobs and don't get a chance to come to city council meetings.

This is representative of your community. So I would I would be cautious about tweaking too much because to Mark's point, we don't know what the ultimate results will be if you opt to do that. Like, note, retaining and attracting local businesses. That scored pretty well. 36% extremely important, 78% extremely and very important.

It's the fourth item down, but it doesn't come close to repairing roads and potholes. It doesn't come close to preventing crime and gang activity. So it would be my recommendation. And, again, they're just meant to be illustrative examples. At the end of the day, it goes into the general fund, it's the discretion of the council and future councils on how that money will be spent.

If I can

I hope?

What was the last you said youth slash gang.

Well What

was I know.

But what was

the last word?

So it's investing in youth slash gang promotion.

Too many words.

Yeah. But I figured out if you can take out That's

what I

drinking drinking, local you know, protecting, drinking water instead of saying protecting local drinking water resources. That's two words. And then I would I would take a page out of Sacramento and, write gang prevention in there with the legislative intent that that means investing in youth.

So that your your but your words were youth slash gang prevention.

But I'm but what I'm willing to say is

let me take out two words to get to your point.

I'm trying to yes.

I wanna convey it with you.

I just wanna know what your words were.

Investing in youth, three words, slash gang prevention, five words. So what I'm willing to what I'm willing to support is we take out where it says protecting local drinking water sources, take out local sources and say, drinking water. That frees up two words, putting gang prevention, and have the legislative intent that that means investing in youth.

Yeah. I understand. From my standpoint from my standpoint, I'm trying to get to the point to where you're at. Water is too important in what we're dealing with today, and I think it it, it was number two in what we were dealing with. I think we have to leave that in there. But we're talking about, for instance, keeping public areas, parks clean. Say, we could just say keeping public parks clean, repairing roads, take out potholes. Those are the kind of areas we can remove that. And if we we get your gang slat youth slash gang protection or something along that line, we get to what you want. We have a compromise there coming up with the language that

Well, the full the full the full line would be investing in youth slash gang prevention. That would be the full

And what

I'm trying to say is I think what he's indicating is that your full line is too many words.

That's what I'm saying. And then we would have to wordsmith and figure out what to take out. So so So

if it's helpful, we tested youth in the last survey just so you have information to make an educated decision, And it was 73 extremely or very important. So, we're comparing those youth elements to other things that scored higher in this particular survey. Ultimately, it's at your discretion. I'm just simply suggesting, where these are just illustrative examples. And if we go with the science, you have a higher probability of responding to your voters and, hence, a light higher likelihood of passing the measure to then do at your discretion what you use the money for.

So you still that helps.

Richard, you still could come back. You still have the discretion to come back and do the kind of things

100%.

Sagala is indicating. 100%. The goal here is to put the kind of language in that scores high that will get this measure passed, which enables counsel to do the kind of things that he's talking about. Is that correct?

That is very correct.

And that's what I offered in my second suggestion that we put in gang prevention as as Richard recommended a few minutes ago, but that there'd be a legislative intent. In other words, we define that as investing in youth as one of the definitions. In other words, gang prevention, there's a lot of things, police department can do in terms of dealing with gang prevention in the thousand or so gang members that trek through our city once whenever they do, and then investing in youth, after school programs, recreational programs, scholarships, other types of things that could help. So that that's that would be the my compromise on that, and I would definitely be willing to support the tax measure if that were part of the the language.

Yep. I think in jumping and being in the wordsmithing with that is I I think part of my suggestion, just as we come to this, I would not remove the word potholes. I think potholes is a word that is very known in the community and sticks with people, and it's part of the list. Just in the wordsmithing, I would not would absolutely include the word potholes because that is absolutely one of the goals with with road maintenance. Addressing this and kind of and looking, I think, at the now is it seems that perhaps in wordsmithing that folks like the verbs that go with the activity.

And and I think being blunt about that is preventing crime and gang activity. The the the public and all the generations generalizations understand that, I would think, preventing crime and gang activity. The other part that you had in there, and I think which is also perhaps potent, is you also had in the questions you said addressing gang activity. So it didn't say preventing gang activity. Your survey had said addressing, and I'm I'm I don't mean my tone to, like, press this.

I'm just talking out loud. Sure. And I think the public also understands perhaps addressing gang violence and property crimes, the combination between the the two. Because I think that sentiment goes with it and a combination. Because we mentioned property crimes in a sentence in there, but addressing gang violence and property crime goes with, we say, preventing thefts and property crimes and preventing crime and gang activity, putting that part together.

The the element, I think, with that of the term specifically of investing in youth is a new language and, I think, a word elements that are not here and included with it. Not to say it's not important, and that absolutely is an intent of where we're going. I think it's also the part of parks. We have park maintenance. What are we doing?

Parks is is mentioned in there. I think part of parks and I think the investing in youth come under kind of a second layer of the order of logic of their elements that once you get funded, that's what you do with the money. Here's what we're trying to address, and then the second part is this is what we'll do with it. And we're gonna have that discussion a little bit because we're gonna get into budget in our CIP activities. So Okay.

Quickly, I think with that, I'm I'm cautious on on investing in youth or perhaps if youth is worked in there. I think youth is a powerful word and resonates with with folks. But as your polling shows and others, I think folks are the two key areas is roads, as you said, a criminal activity, giving our police resources, and then homelessness, as you had said, it does have a 50% of an a very important issue. And a lot of it is we're not giving adjectives there of what are we gonna do with homelessness. It's addressing it.

We keep that in there. But in summary, I don't know if I need to give a summary. That's just kind of where I'm at in this. And you're gonna take this input, Mark, as I understand, from the council. You're gonna work together and then come back with us of, hey. Here's some options that we had. Yeah. That's the thing. So is that there's no one item from our discussion council that's being absolutely stricken off the list. We have some recommendations, some cautions.

Here's what we think is important. And if we're on the same page, it's not we're not playing scratch that absolutely no way tonight. We're putting those recommendations together, and then the team is gonna come back with that revised slogan with some options to everything we talked about. Good. By and large, that's correct.

From my standpoint, wanna thank Richard for the language and legal legal because Mario's taking a look at this from what I understand and has come up with what I think ultimately is is this is general services with with an indication of what its intent is. And it it's pulling very high, which the community hopefully will support. And with the understanding as indicated that, ultimately, any council's gonna be able to make the decision on how they they utilize those funds. So I'm satisfied with the language as it is with the tweaking that's been suggested in a reasonable manner. And and with a consensus of this council, I'm prepared to support it.

So so what you're saying is you're willing to support the language tonight or just everything of our discussion and come back with the final product? Both, really. Okay. I mean, I I do understand what's been indicated by mister Sagala. And I think if we can fit it in with without which generally covers those areas that doesn't take away too much from what has pulled high, then we can work with that.

But I wanna I wanna see what is brought back to us. But, basically, base basically, with the polling that we have and the language that was developed by the expert that we've hired, I'm ready to consider what we have here when it's brought back after our discussion. I'm if I didn't ramble too long, I'm I'm on I'm on the same page with you. Yes. I agree with that.

Okay. I agree as well with the caution of not being specific. The specificity is not this is not the place for the specificity that will come after when we're allocating the funds that we all agree on and after we, as a city council, have supported this additional revenue into our community to support our citizens, all of our citizens. And so I don't believe this is this place for specificity.

Can I quickly say just kind of the order that the city manager so this is kind of number three, but ballot language? From what councilman Segala had said to what councilman Maderos in agreement is, are we in a consensus with that on number three ballot language moving forward?

Well, for me, yes. I mean, I don't know what's specific about investing. That's such a broad word. But what I'm looking at debate towards What I'm what I'm looking at is is for staff I mean, I'm wanting to support this to continue, you know, to move forward if the 1¢ and but I would like that language to be considered to see how it fits. Yeah. So

Yeah. And I hope that's

that's the consensus.

K. The second wanna be misunderstood. I think I've indicated that I'm willing to take

a look.

Well, I just wanna make sure because I I heard something different K. From some council members.

The second item, do we want to pursue the 1%? Yes. Yes. That's consensus. Okay. Do we wanna continue? It seems like we got number three and two pretty good, so we wanna continue.

Yes.

Yes. And then number four then is to come back. We're gonna work with the language and then a resolution of intent.

Yes. Yep. Okay.

Yeah. Yeah.

Okay. Great. So we have one more presentation for you tonight. K?

Thank you very

much. Richard, thank you so much.

Thank you. Have a good night.

So what Rick what Eric Eric, this is Eric Scribbon. He is a strategist with our financial advisers, NHA, and he's gonna do a couple things. The first thing he's gonna show you in his presentation is sort of how we approach ultimately our water sewer treatment plan. Right? That's that's that's a big project, the biggest ticket item that we have. It's not really a sales tax. We're still under sales tax measure. Yep. Yep. You've given me everything I need, but I want you if you need to take a break, we can yeah. No. It's okay. Keep going. But but there there was a question about, well, how do we fund all these things we have to do? And that's sort of part of the equation. We don't need any direction from you tonight on his presentation, but I want you to understand it. He's gonna talk about the treatment plant. That's a different source of funding, and then we'll get into the sales tax items. Thank you, Eric.

Good evening, mister mayor, vice mayor, members of council. My name is Eric Scriban, NHA Advisors. We're proud to serve as the city's municipal adviser and, and anything else we can do to help refine strategy for the city. This is a pretty short presentation. It could go very fast.

The t o's table of contents is, pretty straightforward. We wanted to talk about we always like to start with the background objectives and then, priority projects and funding sources, starting with the, utilities, really water and wastewater, that do have funding sources typically, attached to them, and then really get to the general fund, which is zero zeros in on the, the idea of a sales tax, being pushed forward by the city council to, for voters to consider in November. And then, really, you know, sort of the wrap up, and that's, like, eight pages. Should I should I wait for the mayor, or should I keep opinion?

Going. Okay.

Well, following.

Okay. Very good. Yeah. Just a general background. The city has developed, its capital improvement plan, stretching over twenty years. It's a significant substantial, amount of, work that's contemplated. The the overall amount for, sort of community to economic development benefiting projects would really relates more towards the general fund. Totals over 200,000,000, maybe even more. There's other projects I know that are being considered, as as well as the utility enterprise projects. And I looked at my math on a a page later, and it wasn't tallying correct, but it's a big number.

Over $680,000,000 for that twenty year, plan or the the thinking process in current dollars, the near term for water and wastewater is approximately 87,000,000, excluding the, $150,000,000 that are that's identified for, treatment wastewater treatment plant upgrade and possible expansion. The way I look at these things, the core objectives really is to create a funding plan that, addresses prioritized projects that individually and collectively use available and subsidized funding sources, reserves, and debt as required to secure the most efficient and lowest cost of funding and favorable terms. And for the utility enterprises, retain affordable rates. That's a guiding principle, when we're looking through funding options for those those particular projects and also maintain long term fiscal sustainability and operational flexibility for the city. Well, we've we've got a table here that's very high level, really, categorizes things.

On the left side is the priority projects or or services, I should say. Both both are, noted here. Utility, we just discussed those projects. Public safety is always at the top of the list. Streets, there is an identified project, a corporation yard, also a fire station.

And then there's a myriad of, identified community and economic benefit projects, regional sportsplex, indoor recreation center, business park, downtown mixed use, public market among others. They're all identified. Those are some of the projects that, looking for, crafting funding solutions towards. I did highlight in, orange here the funding sources matching up the utility revenue, utility revenues. Those typically are what you use to fund the, utility water and wastewater types of projects, which is essentially rate payer based rate payer based revenues.

And then you have your general fund sources such as sales tax. You can create tax increment finance districts. You can, create community facilities, districts, impact fees that have been discussed this evening earlier, hotel taxes, to get more creative, which I know the city is always looking for, is potential partnerships with private parties and other potential, you know, partnerships maybe with other public agencies and certainly grants. Going right to the utilities, first one, water. We we put together sort of a snapshot of your water enterprise fund.

We worked with your finance department to get the most recent, numbers available. What we're seeing here is that, currently, you're showing adequate, debt service coverage, which is something that's very important to keep in mind always. The net revenues, which is gross revenues, less operating expenses that could be available for debt payment or PAYCO of your capital project list, is approximately $6,400,000. Current annual debt payment is 1.8. That creates a coverage factor of over, 344%, three over three times the amount of your debt service payment, which is greater than your current debt service requirement that you have on the on the existing debt.

So, using just a a thirty year four and a half percent interest rate on a bond issue, this theoretically, this $3,000,000 that we're showing, because that 3,400,000, you would wanna maintain your 1.2 times coverage. So that equates to approximately $3,000,000 available for potential, debt to address some of these projects could raise 55 to $60,000,000 of bonding capacity, which, supports, the, the five year the near nearer term identified CIP. There may may be some reprioritizations. It does not address the the large twenty year capital program that's anticipated for the water utility. Glad to answer questions when when I'm moving through here if if you have any.

Moving to the sewer fund. Same approach to understanding what your ability to address all these capital projects, where you're understanding what the net revenues that are available that, could be utilized for debt payment. So your your net revenues for the Sewer Enterprise Fund are 22,000,000. Your total annual debt service that, comes out of that, is 10,300,000. So you have two over two times coverage on that.

You have a 1.25, times minimum requirement, so you're above that. Theoretically, the the sewer fund, currently has approximately, 7,600,000 available for annual debt service, which would, using the same, thirty year, four and a half percent, assumptions, could create a capacity to fund 125 to a 160,000,000 of additional, bonding capacity for the CIP that's, been identified. Refinancing of the 2015 and 2016 sewer bonds will increase this capacity. Supports this supports the $57,000,000, that's currently identified in the five year CIP, and certainly, supports that and and some of the $150,000,000, that is identified as a cost for the treatment plan. So moving on to the general fund, which, to the extent there's capacity in the general fund budget, as it exists now, that's also available for capital projects, but that, we're really not addressing that.

We're just jumping straightforward to the, potential, sales tax that if it were, pushed forward by city council to be, $1.01 cent, That would bring $16,000,000 of annual revenue each year. As your city manager mentioned earlier, this is a a hypothetical allocation that we wanted to, put on the table that was given to us by staff, assuming one of the things that was put into this table, as far as an allocation for capital projects, if you needed to fund, facilities and other large projects, the the ability to carve out some of that $16,000,000, for debt payment, for bonds to go out and build some things. Assuming that you, allocated four and a half million dollars for, bond debt service and using the, four and a half percent thirty year assumption, you could raise approximately $73,000,000 for projects, that are more, oriented to general fund projects that were identified on page one. For there's there is some sense sensitivity of if the rates go up or the rates go down, your capacity goes, down or up, depending on where the market rates are at that time. You never know what's gonna happen with the bond market.

So, also so tentative funding bond funded projects, there is the corporation yard that's, currently identified at a $15,000,000 price tag and a $16,000,000 fire station, which leaves $7,000,000 of additional capacity. Going through, if you'd like, I can go through, the other pieces of the pie here that, you know, add up to the $16,000,000. As I said, 4 and a half million dollars for, debt service. The, fire and police staff would be, $5,000,000. Now I gotta look at how this all lines up.

Yeah. That's 3,000,000 for so I'm going this way. Right? Yeah. $3,000,000 for, safety staff, hospital district, a contribution of a million 5, out of that 16,000,000. I'm not sure if that's annual or but it's a it's hypothetical allocation. Road main maintenance and replacement of $5,000,000, that's, essentially pay go money, that would be an annual budget. Homeless homeless shelter operations, $1,000,000. Other general government use, $1,000,000, and, again, the debt service at 4 and a half.

So let's let's stop right here for a

second.

I asked a question along the well, go ahead.

Yeah. Let let me let me give you a little higher philosophical approach to this. So this is only one scenario. We're not advocating for this, but I there's sort of three scenarios you could consider in my mind that are sort of different scenarios. One is you could take the 16,000,000 and just pay as you go with all of it. You're not gonna bond finance any of it. You're just gonna use cash to pay for your stuff. I don't really recommend we do that. I mean, that's a super conservative approach, but the problem with that approach, it's gonna take you forever to get your projects done. Like, you're gonna wait till every year 16,000,000 comes in. You can only do so much stuff with that money. That's why you wanna bond some of it. The alternative approach is as you try to bond all of it, you take 16,000,000 and you go borrow a bunch of money. I don't recommend you do that for a variety of reasons, And Eric already talked about some of them. Right?

So a traditional approach is you essentially bond half of a half. Right? Because when the investors are gonna look to be able to invest in your bonds, they're gonna wanna make sure you have adequate debt coverage service to build you know, because if if if we don't get 16,000,000 one year, we get 15,000,000 and we bonded all 16,000,000, what happened? What do we come up with the extra million dollars? Right? So you don't wanna take that approach, and that's what we're showing here. In this scenario, we bond 4 and a half million, so that's essentially half of a half. You can say 25%. It's just that that's the industry league lingo that they use. So 25% or a quarter.

K? So you bond a quarter of it. Right? The 3,000,000 is is what we would need to spend to keep the 12 firefighters that we use for the safer grant and hire 12 new police officers. K? The $5,000,000, in my opinion, is the minimum contribution we can we should consider making to roads every year. My personal opinion or my professional opinion, when I look at all of our needs, I know what the voters are looking for and what's polling well, that's very important. But keep in mind, when we talk about, let's say, limiting gang activity, that's a value statement, but there's no dollars associated with that. Right? Are we gonna spend a thousand dollars a year on limiting gang activity, or are we gonna spend $16,000,000 a year?

What I can quantify for you is how much we need to spend on our roads. We're doing a pavement management study, which will be done in the summertime, and that's gonna come back, and that's gonna be in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Additional

additional police officers go towards the gangs that

you're Right. Right. Exactly. Yeah. So, you know, but what I'm trying to just say and I apologize for picking the gains. I could have picked any of those items in there. But my point is is when I hear and I think all of you have told me from the constituents, and I see with my own eyes. I told you this when I interviewed here. We have a problem with our roads. Now we're gonna fix our roads in the future going forward. All our new subdivisions, when they annex into a CFD, that's gonna fix that's gonna keep those roads maintained. The problem we have is the roads we have right now that are right in front of us. That's why I recommend at least $5,000,000 a year for our roads, maybe even more. Right? So that's something I think council needs to think about.

But then we threw a couple other variables in here. We threw in what if you wanted to be able to contribute $1,500,000 a year to the hospital district. I had a conversation with Randy Dodd, and I asked them how close are you at getting that deal done? And he and as I understand it, they have a gap. K? And I asked him. We talked about a number. And and, you know, he had mentioned to us, if we could get about 1 to 2,000,000 a year for ten years, that probably gets us very close to to solving that tower project for them. Now I'm not saying that's our obligation. You may not want anything to do with that. I'm just giving you options. So that's why I threw that in there. Now would that be a grant to them, or would that be a loan? Right? Would we get that money back over time?

Or we would say, hey. For ten years, we wash our hands. But after ten years, now the 1.5 kicks back in for future projects for the city. Right?

Why are we going over this now?

Because I the reason we're going over it now is because I had heard in a previous meeting, we can't fund all these things the city is talking about doing. And I'm trying to get your minds in the and start thinking about we can we can cover a lot of these things, but we have to be strategic about how we go about doing that. We don't need to make any decisions tonight. Right? I just need you to know we're we're working behind the scenes to get you guys in a position where this city long term is gonna be to fund the things that it needs to fund if we're careful and smart about how we do it.

If we start peeling off money and saying, well, we gotta fund stuff that's not really anything associated with what the voters are looking for or any things that are really associated with our real needs, like our roads, then we might not have enough money. K? So it's just food for thought for tonight.

I think quickly, just quick with that is you're showing us a methodology, which is, if you will, how do we take this, utilize it to get us a new fire station? Here's an example of how we get a new fire station. We got roads. Now there might be other list of things, but one thing that I take away your bonding capacity and others, fantastic. So I I'm cautious of us then getting into a debate of Yeah. Those those calls. But, one, you're just showing a methodology. How do we get a fire station? Got it. Roads are important. Maybe some other things which we're gonna bring to the table. Understand. But I I definitely take away and appreciate the bonding capacity now.

Thank you. Alright, Eric.

Good. Okay. The next page, really, Mark just mentioned sort of the considerations. If you were to issue debt, it's good to have that on and on the record, which is it would be, lease revenue bond, which is supported by an annual appropriation by city council in their budget every year, denotes renting city owned property, might be the asset you're funding with the bond issue. These are annually it's it's not the same credit as a, general obligation bond, which is based on your overall, tax base.

It's an annual appropriation, so it's usually slightly less in credit. They're done, you know, by most public agencies that way. Given the potential new revenue source, and Mark just went over some of this, Citi should consider if it were to go in this direction, as a part of the budget for the, if the sales tax measure was put on the ballot and approved by the voters, you know, 25%, as as a kind of a limitation on that just because prudent financial policy, as you mentioned, it it could be a volatile. Sales taxes are are volatile. It does maintain sufficient, PAYGO capacity with your other funds for not just, assets and facilities, but also the services that are required out of that money.

And, it still exceeds what a minimum credit level would be, with respect to getting the best deal when you issue bonds if you were to do that. So takeaways. So the water and sewer funds, you currently have adequate, coverage. I understand there's rate studies in process to address the long term you know, to continue to lay the foundation for the long term, needs, significant needs of those two utilities. But the the current, capacity seems to be, able to address the near term needs that have I been identified and and costed out.

Of course, those things would need to be bid, but it seems to be there's adequate capacity to handle current near term needs. With respect to the community benefit projects, the general fund, comprehensive evaluation of the priorities, including critical services, existing funding sources, new revenue options are required. Certainly, as I mentioned at the beginning, if there is any general fund capacity as it exists right now, any voter approved taxes, sales, general obligation, partial taxes. And and once you have revenue sources, that you can deploy, that makes you and you're going after grants and other subsidized sources of funds. If you have so called skin in the game, you know, city matching funds, you you become more attractive to securing grants.

So that, really concludes the presentation. Glad to answer any any questions.

Any other questions? K. Thank you, for the presentation and walking through that. Appreciate that.

Thank you, Counsel, I know we talked about wanting to jump, back to the folks. I think we have some folks on item ten seven here, but we also have some folks on 10.6. So maybe we could take those two next. It's up to the mayor, I think.

So what I wanted to do, and I I know it's a lot the initial plan in reviewing this was keeping the topics you know, there's continuity between them. However, you know, residents, I know that come in through ten point seven out with comments and and the resolution with that. Happy to take that. It's just splitting up ten point four and ten point five. I'd like to have those together because it's fiscal year capital improvement and then our budget presentation. But maybe we need some break from math for a moment and then go with that. So we'll I'll move that up. We'll I'd like to move up council, if that's alright. Item 10.7, Business Park Inland Port Advisory Committee formation.

Sure. So,

council, we talked about this for a little bit. Tonight, there's there's sort of two components, and I wanna I don't wanna waste a bunch of time. If have questions, I'll get into them. But, you know, in order for us to try to advance business park project, I think it makes a lot of sense for us to have a working group that can provide, you know, adviser advisement to counsel in terms of how it wants to approach aspects of the business park project. As I've mentioned before, I think it makes a lot of sense to put the business park on the south end of town. The city could do that in cooperation with the folks in the Matheny track. The city could do it without cooperating with the folks in the Matheny track. I always like the process of cooperating. I think it's you get better results if you do it that way. So that's what I'm advocating for.

So there's sort of two components to what I've recommended tonight. The first is the establishment of the committee, and I've indicated in the staff report, you know, what that committee might look like. How many we we'd have five people from the Matheny track. We'd have two council members. 'd have a representative of the two chambers. We'd have some staff members who are the ones that are really working on this and, you know, have all the technical knowledge. We'd have somebody from Lathco because, ultimately, if Matheny was gonna annex, Lathco has to be part of that process. Somebody from the county because they're currently in the county, so we want a smooth transition. I've actually recommended also that we think about maybe bringing somebody in from Union Pacific Railroad, if council has an interest in that. So that's sort of the first piece is do we wanna establish a committee and what does it look like?

The second piece is the bylaws. I've been asked I think you've got phone calls from folks in leadership council saying, hey. Can we hold off on the bylaws because we wanna be able to give some input on those? I don't have a problem with that. Just understand that I think I need to be present from whenever we vote on these things since this is all unfortunately or unfortunately the city manager's brainchild. And so I won't be at the next meeting. So if we are gonna delay any of this, we would need to delay delay it at least till the first meeting in June. Happy to answer questions.

The bigger my spare mister mayor, if I Yes. The bigger the committee is, the more unruly it can become, which is the case. Yeah. And and I'm thinking if we reached you know, you've got a representative of the county of Tulare and a representative of LAVCO.

Yep.

You can serve solve both of those by reaching out to supervisor Vanderpool to see if he would be willing to serve on this committee because he would be a county representative, and he sits on that. You

could do that. I asked the county who they would want to serve. So Pete was involved in that discussion, and they recommended a staff member from the county. But I could go back to them and ask if they would reconsider.

Well, the only, if you gotta bring somebody in from LAVCO

The one that we're bringing is Ben Giuliani, the one who understands how annexations work.

So you're not talking about a member of LAVCO. You're talking about the executive director of LAVCO.

That's who they've recommended that serves on the committee.

Okay. Go ahead.

The I'll go around the council members. Steve, do have anything to come up? I

I appreciate this being put together, and I definitely support the track folks wanting to weigh in on the bylaws. But, moving this thing forward, I I agree we should continue in that direction. I think the only the only, I guess, comment I have is, there is a lot of city staff. Do you anticipate them being voting members or just technical? So we have 17 voting members on this committee?

Yeah. But remember, it's

for that.

Yeah. Just remember it's only advisory, though. So they don't actually vote on anything that's official. Like, they wouldn't be able to vote on. They wouldn't be able to make any decision that would bind the city to anybody.

Voting on things in the process. That's the process.

Yes. So for example, when we when we bring when they draft an RFQ to hire a firm to be able to develop a master plan, they would all have a vote on who that firm is. That would be an example.

I'm trying to understand why. I mean, I've been involved in all different types of local government things in the past, and, you know, one, don't get me wrong, staff brings a bunch of technical

Yeah.

Know how, but I'm not sure

Well, I'll give you a couple of why. I'll give you a of why. Sir. I'll give you a couple of reasons why. This is not something the city is obligated to do. Right? If it was, it would have happened a long time ago. This is something that this city manager is recommending to council that we should consider doing because I think it makes a lot of sense for the community going forward as a whole. The community as a as a whole. Like, as I mentioned, the city could decide, let's build a business park to the south of Metheny Trek.

Let's not involve the Metheny Trek or anyone else. Let's go through the sequel process, and we could just all fight it out in the sequel and see how it ends up. I don't think that makes a lot of sense. But at the same time, it's very important that we have people on this committee and people that are voting that have actual interest and knowledge, in my opinion, about the matters that are gonna come forward. So if you look at the staff, for example, we have the community development director. Why is the community development director? Because he or she is the most knowledgeable person about all the issues and concerns they're gonna have when it comes to land use and zoning and annexation. They're gonna come in and the citizens are gonna come in and say, hey. We wanna keep our fill in the blank chickens. We wanna keep our, you know, fill in the blank.

We keep we have a bunch of stuff stored in our yards. Those don't meet the current codes. We're have to have somebody on staff that's gonna be able to work through that language with them, in my opinion. But but what we want to make sure is we have a balance of decision making. Right? We don't wanna have a committee where it's all of the citizens in the Metheny track, and they're they're saying to the city, this is how it should be. And by the way, city taxpayers, the ones who's gonna foot the bill for this, this is how we want you to spend your money on us. Like, we don't want that scenario. We have to have this balance between the folks who are gonna say, well, I'm here to look at the Metheny Trek resident's interest, but I'm also here to look at the city of Tulare taxpayers and the current taxpayers' interest. Right?

We have to have that balance and the knowledge that people are gonna say, well, this is how it works, and this is why I hear what you want, but that doesn't work technically this way. So that's why I have the city engineer. Right? They're gonna look at all the roads and the sidewalks. Right? We have the public works director. They're gonna look at all the water sewer issues. We have the people who have the knowledge to be able to weigh in and make, I think, important decisions and recommendations, not just people who are gonna think about it from a political or from a what they want perspective. It's the folks who actually know how it works. That's why I have them on here like this.

I mean, I I understand your rationale, but I still disagree. I I just don't think city technical professional staff

What what should be the committee look like councilman I

mean, if if you're concerned about having more Matini tracked and reduce them from five to three

No. I think five

three. Out you if you wanna outvote them in critical issues.

So so what But So I think five's the right number.

So here's so here's what I'm looking at. I think what you have here listed would be 11 individuals that could could can meet. I think the rest of the staff can provide a valuable technical assistance. So Could be supportive there.

Tell me who should be on the committee.

Well, I'm I'm telling you that everyone in mine is a six city staff.

So no one who represents the city's interests. We should have somebody from LAVCO. We should have somebody from the county.

Be a voting member. They could participate in the committee, but to be a voting member

But for both, what I understand is this is an advisory committee. Right. So I I I think the part of being advisory to the spectrums of both elements, there's the community, but staff, is this advisory, is it more informative, or is it more advise on the decisions up to Teleri City Council? What what do we see that core objective?

Well, I think I think it's both. Right? So I think you're going to have the issues are gonna be coming before the committee are gonna be issues like, you know, if there's a business park, where does it go? That's a complex issue. Right? Because it deals with utilities, land use, soil type, access to infrastructure. It involves a lot of complicated factors. In my mind, we have to have somebody who's gonna protect the city's interest because the city is the one's gonna be footing the bill for all this. If you have peep if you don't have anybody from the city on this, if you only have the citizens and the people from other organizations, they don't care how we spend the city's money. They don't have any of the knowledge of how it's gonna occur.

They're gonna say this is what we want. So you have to balance want with actual need. Like, how does it technically scientifically work? You have to have both of those. Every committee I've ever served on typically has that type of thing, not a political body like. I think of this more like a technical advisory committee is the way I would think of this. Right? What we've done is create a technical advisory committee that's making votes to recommend things to council, and we've added nontechnical people to it like the Metheny Track. You know, if you just want to be a technical advisory committee, don't put any of the Metheny Track residents on it. But I don't think that works either.

I don't think that makes any sense. You want their input. Right? Tell me what the problem is with the committee as it's structured. What actually is the problem with it if so I can solve that problem? Yeah. You seem to have a problem with it. What is Yeah.

I mean, I just I just think that the city staff should be there to advise the committee members on technical matters. I mean, if you if you break it down, you got two council members that will hopefully represent the city. We have a chamber of Tulare that will hopefully represent the city. But then you got a Tulare Kings chamber that I'm not sure would represent the city. Then you got five Matheny track, a county Lavko. So you got it spread out. So

So so I wanna make sure I understand. Because we have city staff on it, that creates a problem.

No. It doesn't the city staff per se is not the problem. It's just the voting. Why? I my my mind is I'm trying to understand

why Wait.

Wait. Wait.

You're saying the city staff, they won't vote their conscious or their professional opinion. They somehow will have a a jaded biased opinion. Is that what you're saying?

No. That's not what I'm saying, Mark. You know?

I've asked them to tell me what you're saying. Mark.

What I'm telling you, I just do not think that they should vote either. I think what

I'm gonna do, Segala, is we have your point that is presented. We have some information, so I'm gonna go around and ask other council members, with vice mayor Harrell. Thoughts and discussion items, on this?

I understand what mister Sagala is saying that, maybe could could city the city the six city staff members, could they be not voters, but just they're in a advisory capacity at

the meeting?

I don't understand what council member Segal is saying, so maybe you can help me understand it.

I'm not I'm hang on a second. I'm not asking for an answer to every issue. I'm just letting council members so you just that's just a suggestion that you're putting out.

Yeah. Because I'm just a question.

You know? Six staff

members not Could they be just advisory? Could the staff just be there, like, sitting in the audience? And if somebody has a question, they can get up and say, here's the answer. Yes. You could do that.

Would that work for what what

No. I don't think it would work. Okay.

Dennis? Metair mechanic? I I think aside from the composition, we have to fundamentally look at the purpose, which is above. And and, basically, for for those that are involved from the standpoint of what's gonna be recommended ultimately I mean, who is the recommendation going to be made to? The recommendation is gonna be made to the city council, which will evaluate what it is, the work that they have done.

And, ultimately, if there's members of the metheny track that disagree with the committee, they'll have an opportunity at that time to make their case to the city council. I understand what both sides are saying, but our hope is to have inclusion with all different aspects of those who are stakeholders under the circumstances. And the composition that we have here attempts to achieve that. And, ultimately, the presentation will be made on what's to be accomplished and how it will move forward. And if we have total opposition from Athenee track members, they'll they'll indicate so.

But the goal is to have a situation to where they feel included, and they'll be able to participate in those decisions that affect them. And and when I look at who from the city is involved in this together with mister Giuliano Giuliani, who I know, as well as who the representative will be from the county of Tulare. And the county of Tulare has to be involved because they're the ones now that that are basically governing the methane track. I don't have a problem with the manner in which this is this committee is composed, and and I'd be supportive of moving forward. And that doesn't prevent us under the circumstances if we find that there's a problem of going back and making modifications if it's necessary, if it's not working.

True.

Granted, I have not been in the municipal government for years and years, but I have been a member of the education community, which also, get combines people together on meetings to come to conclusions to solve problems. I think having people that are knowledgeable, that can balance the emotions, the needs and desires of the residents is important because I personally wouldn't know all of the zoning, all of the requirements that are are necessary in order to carry out the desires of the residents. So I see as councilman Maderas has said, I have no problem with the composition of this committee. If it doesn't seem it seems to not work as we began the meetings, then then that's the time to to come back and make adjustments. So I'm in I'm in agreement with this ordinance, this whatever it is, formation.

I perhaps my questions are a little bit different line or with thoughts of understanding the objectives, advisory recommendations. So do we see our senior management analyst having the role as the police chief, I think, compared to public works, Indian engineer, community development, and I think, you know, the other all leadership of our Thomas

Oh, the senior management is Gladys. She's our economic development person. Mhmm. And the reason I put her on there and not Jennifer is because she speaks Spanish.

Mhmm. K. Alright.

And economic development is the whole reason we're doing this project.

Council members, do we have any other comments on this? The one that's in front of us is whether the six correct. The six city staff members is from what I remember. Mister Mayor, I'd like to hear your I mean, you you wanted clarification, but you didn't state your opinion on this as the others have. I'd like Sure. Well, if we are you stand as it relates to that. I'm gonna go to the public opinion I mean, the public comment on this as well. I'm sort of neutral with it. I think part of there's some other part is when a groups come together and they address the bylaws, they can look at the bylaws and also come back with recommendations. So the group hasn't had a chance to formally look at the bylaws.

So as they meet and look at the bylaws, that's what when I sit on the ag advisory council back years ago, that's what it did was took a look at the bylaws, here's some changes and suggestions. They the only part which I'm not the city manager, Mark is the city manager, is just those elements of we have a lot of staff committed to this, and they're sitting on this committee. And I can't speak for the police chief, but our police chief is running a police department. So of him being a voting member of an important advisory committee. Is public safety important? I mean, that's between you and him. Is public safety important with the port advisory component? I I get that. I'm just, as a council member, just kinda putting

it All of my executive team has indicated they can re they can they can set aside two hours per month to be able to do this. But now the the other option would be don't put any of them there and put me on there because I have a working knowledge of all the issues that they deal with. Right? But the reason I didn't put me on there is because I've heard enough times people saying, the city manager is too strong winded, he's not gonna listen to us, and he's gonna do what he so I pulled myself. I mean, in my mind, I completely pulled myself off of this thing. Right? That's pretty fair, I think. If if the concern or the criticism is that the city manager is just gonna decide what has to be done, I'm not even involved in it.

Well, k. So rather than influencing or the component of public, comment, we'll have public comment, and then we'll come back and go with, the decision of the council. So is there anyone in chambers who'd like to speak on item 10.7, which is the Business Inland Park Advisory Committee formation? Good evening. You're welcome.

Good evening.

Hello.

My name is Ugo, and I'm a resident of All of the points made here today are very important.

I

believe that it would be unjust to allocate city staff, to vote on our behalf. Uh-huh. Because it would it would mean that they would be the the judges and also staff working with this with the city.

With the city. Right now, one example. I come in, I enter right here, and some guy next to me say me, shut up. I don't know who is him. I tried to tell you in English. I finished all my English with you. I don't know who is him, but I am a 100% sure he worked for the city. When she talk, when she translate for me, she

He shut my interpreter down. That's the type of, folks that could be in the committee. We need people that that will be part of the community. I once spoke to one of you and shared that I would get really nervous speaking in front of you. My legs shake, my voice shakes, my body shakes.

But I do this for my family and for our community. It's unjust that of what the city is doing, but I understand that perhaps it's something that has to happen. I'm not against projects. I'm not against development. But I am against folks, similar to the person who told me this, be quiet just because I was, being interpreted.

And that's what I mean, that my community is very vulnerable and, vulnerable to to the rest of the of the community, the city.

I ask

for you I ask you to please, consider my community and see for and see for us as well help the manager, but also consider our community. In our community, there are elderly folks, people who can't work, and children. My community knows about industrial parks.

But

they don't know about the inland port. He's pointing at inland port. It's something very invasive. With the traffic. With everything.