City Council - Regular Meeting

Good afternoon. The closed session of the city council is canceled this evening. The regular meeting will begin at 6PM. Thank you.

Good evening, everyone. I'd like to call to order the regular meeting of the city council, meeting number 03:09 two to 6PM. Madam, assistant city clerk. Roll call, please.

Let the record reflect that all members are in attendance.

Thank you. Tonight's invocation is by pastor Kyle Bleecker from French Church. Pastor?

Thank you, to the city council and everyone here for allowing me this privilege of being able to do the invocation tonight. I will start with that right now. I actually wanna begin just by briefly reading a section of scripture that tells us what we need to do when we come up against challenges or conflicts or maybe situations that we can't necessarily handle on our own. And so James one verse five says simply this, if you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. God will not rebuke you for asking.

So let's pray. God our Father, this world gathers more scientific information every single day, but that does not mean that we are more wise as a people. There is still poverty. There's still conflict, pain, confusion, and anger. And some of that is outside of us, but also, God, some of that is within us.

And so, God, since scripture encourages us to do so in this verse, I boldly ask that you would fill these council members, these city leaders, all that are present in this room with your wisdom. Wisdom to choose unity when division seems easier. Wisdom to listen well and then to decide. Wisdom to choose humility when pride is tempting. Wisdom to choose courage when fear is present.

God, give these people here the wisdom that they need to bear the weight of all of their public responsibilities so that they can help the people that look to them thrive and flourish and be able to experience peace and goodwill and kindness. So I pray for, God, this year ahead for the city of Tustin. God, may you give generously the wisdom that they need to know how to lead. We look to you, God, and the great example of wisdom and service and sacrifice that we find in Jesus Christ, and it is in his name that we ask these things. Amen.

Amen. Thank you. Thank you, pastor. I have the pledge allegiance tonight. Please rise if you're able. Address our nation's flag. Place your right hand over your heart. Ready? Begin. 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.

Okay. Thank you all. Next, we have our presentation portion of the agenda, which is why I believe most of the, uniform personnel are here this evening. We have, Tessen Police Department service dog retirement of Missouri. Chief, Toulouse?

Alright. Good evening, mayor and council. As you are aware, k nine is a very special detail. It's a very tight community. As you can see, representatives from the Tustin Police Department from all facets of the organization are present including partners from the Orange Police Department and the Huntington Beach Police Department present to wish Missouri the very best in retirement.

And if I may, I'll talk a little bit about the animal, and then I'll talk about the officer, and we'll present both of them to you. And so K9 Azuri, she's a nine year old Belgian Malinois who has been in service with the Tustin Police Department since 2019. What's cool about the name Azuri is it's Italian for blue. And so during Missouri's time here, she's attended the basic handler school, firearms detection school. She's trained in apprehension and firearm detection.

And so this canine team has hundreds of documented usages and deployments involving locating and or apprehensions of dangerous suspects. And just the following are some of the highlights I'd like to point out between Sergeant Barrett and Azuri. 110 felony suspects surrenders without without a bite. Three of those involved locating a hidden suspect. And so these are instances where we didn't have to send an officer in first.

This was an animal going apprehensions, 30 SWAT and special response teams deployments, and then 20 firearm searches. The team has also made significant contributions to community outreach by participating in the annual open house, Citizens Academy school functions for the Tustin Unified School District, and numerous meet and greets with citizens. And so the service life for our police dogs, as I've mentioned before, is typically five to seven years. Canine Missouri has reached the end of service life. It's our ask that her last year she's retired, we let Sergeant Barry take the dog home and keep the family together, if you will.

I did want to highlight before I turn the mic over to the star of the evening that our canine deployments, as highlighted, they lower our use of forces. And it's counter to the narrative that dogs do anything other than that. Meaning it's safer for our officers and increases officer safety, but it's also safer for suspects. Because suspects know that you can't reason with the animal off the leash. It's common.

It has one mission, which is to apprehend you and hold you for the officers. And so they're not trained to tear, to tug, to grab and hold. And this animal has done 110 surrenders without a bite. It's absolutely amazing. Now let me switch to the officer, I may. Yeah, well Sergeant Leah Barrett now. So she was an officer. She promoted. She's one of three promotions of officers promoting to sergeant. And we promoted a sergeant to lieutenant.

And she's just one amazing representative of what we're doing here with our knowledge management, our organizational sustainability. We promote public servants who want to become servant leaders, serve the great people of Test and serve their officers and the staff assigned to them. And just help us fulfill the things that are in our strategic plan and make this organization great for years to come. With that, I'll turn it over to Sergeant Barrett in Azuri.

Thank you, chief. Thanks, Citi, for letting me come in and take some time out of the schedule today to honor Azuri's career here and also for letting me take ownership of her. Because you could say that when I'm ten'eight or when I'm in service with everybody, she's a part of this team. But now she's going to be part of my family at home, which is a great honor for me. She's a great dog.

She's been great service to the city. As many of know, probably in Burbank, they had a dog lose her life. And that could have been one of us. So these dogs definitely give us a lot more officer safety out there in the field and then let all of us go home at the end of the day. So as the chief said, I actually got her name, Azuri, from a club soccer team that I grew up playing on. And Blue, I just thought it associated with Blue with association to law enforcement. And I was used to yelling it all the time. So I yelled it all the time growing up playing soccer. And now I yell it when I'm trying to get her to come back to me or when we're searching an area. She's been a great dog for me.

I appreciate everybody coming out tonight, especially the other departments we train with, like Orange, Huntington Beach, and Fountain Valley also. And then also to my team, to Kent, who recently retired his dog, who's had three dogs. He's been a great example for me in Missouri as a team. Because the bond between you and your dog, don't think anybody will understand unless you're a handler and kind of having that understanding to work within that team and then around a bunch of other officers. But then also Sergeant Ryan, the three of us were on the team together for about five years.

And it was a great time when you get a great squad together like that. You learn how to train these dogs and use them to the best of our abilities so that they can find people that are trying to hide from us, hurt us, but then also in locating firearms and drugs, that kind of thing. So thank you again for your time and the ownership of the dog. She's definitely a part of my family. And she had a couple words. So she's challenged everybody to a game of hide and seek whenever you want. She'll be available. So thank you. Appreciate it. So,

sergeant, thank you for your service in Missouri for yours. You get to go chase tennis balls and butterflies. Chief, did you wanna take a picture with the council up here, or how do you wanna do it? Yeah. Okay.

And thank you to all those, tests in PD, the officers, and our partner agencies for being here too. You can leave if you want, or you can stay for the rest. It's up to you. But I imagine you don't wanna stay, so go on ahead. And we made it through without tears this time. So

Just really ruined some of that.

I just I thought it was sweet, then there were tears. Alright. We'll move on to, public input. At this time, any member of the public may address the council on matters which are not on this evening's agenda provided the matter is within the subject matter jurisdiction of the city council. If any members of the public who are participating through Zoom wish to address the council, please raise your hand. If you're calling in, please press 9 to raise your hand. Madam Clerk, any request to speak?

No, mister mayor.

Anybody in the room? K. We'll move on to

the consent calendar. We have items one through eight. All matters listed under the consent calendar are considered to be routine and will be enacted by one motion without discussion. Public input for the consent calendar items. If any members of the public wish to address the council, please submit a request to speak form if you haven't already. And if any members of the public who are participating through Zoom wish to address the council on items one through eight, please raise your hand. Madam Clerk, any request to speak?

No, mister mayor.

Anybody in the room? K. Do any members of the council wish to pull items? Council member Fink is pulling at number seven. Any others?

I make a motion to move the balance.

Second.

Motion and a second to move the balance. Madam clerk, roll call, please.

Council council member Nielsen? Yes. Council member Fink? Aye. Council member Gallagher?

Aye.

Mayor Pro Tem Chenelle?

Aye.

Mayor Lundberg?

Aye.

Motion passes five zero.

Thank you. Item number seven is approval of cost sharing agreement with Costco Wholesale Corporation for the El Camino Real And Auto Center Drive traffic signal improvement project. Council member Fink, floor is yours.

Thank you, mayor. I have two concerns about this. And I know that staff has tried to mitigate the first, which is when the Costco gas station was approved back now in 2019, I think that there was the studies and the plans at the time said that there wouldn't be problems, that the traffic would be sufficient. Nothing would have those issues. I think that we've done traffic studies since then and we found that there are.

And I know that staff has worked to try to connect with Costco. And this cost sharing agreement finds that middle ground. I'm just my first concern about that is I'm concerned that even though Costco and the city is agreeing to split the costs of this traffic plan, this traffic mitigation issue, it's still it seems that it's it's the the genesis of this is the Costco gas station. I realize only a portion of that are people pulling into the Costco, but I'm a little concerned about the city ending up bearing the cost of that change. And I realized that there's probably certainly a tax increment that's coming to the city, but it's a significant amount that we're paying do this.

And I'm I'm concerned about us making sure that we're looking at that long term. My second issue, and I I mentioned this informally to council member Gallagher in hopes that he might have some insight as an engineer. And he wasn't the right kind of engineer, so I don't hold you too

there. Kind,

I didn't say you weren't a good engineer. So, you know, is that the most frustrating thing for me is inevitably sitting at a red arrow when I see there's a green light and no oncoming traffic. Traffic. So I'm a little concerned about that. I understand that there's safety standards about that.

We don't have those in front of us now. And I haven't until the last twenty four hours as I've been trying to figure out how this got here with the city manager, understood the need for that. But I'm worried about approving more of these changes from, as staff has described, green balls to red arrows. So I'd move to postpone it for two weeks, but I'm certainly open to any thoughts that might alleviate my concerns or if others share any of those concerns I'd be interested in any of that. I

think we'll probably want staff to opine on this too but on the first item related to Costco that is the nexus for this. So I was on the planning commission when we approved this Costco and I remember discussion about this item and most of the discussion was related to traffic impacts. I believe this light is a safety item and so the the Costco may not have the same drivers as we do as the city to protect our residents when they're driving our streets. And so I understand that the reason that we're evaluating this is not because there's a traffic impact but there has been some accidents at this location and so that is why there's a flip there's a there's a split here just like we would have at any intersection if there was multiple accidents we would try to address it. So I guess maybe Mike you could comment on that.

Yeah thank you both for the questions. You know this is a public intersection and the safety of our entire community is is really where we start an evaluation and so we looked at this intersection in partnership with the the police department and an uptick in traffic collisions at the intersection. We evaluated those traffic collisions and worked with our partner for that intersection, which is the Costco and the Costco gas station. Costco itself brought in a traffic engineer and evaluated that intersection as we had pointed back to that same conditional use permit that was approved in 2019. And if there are issues related to traffic, then we wanted a partnership in trying to achieve a successful outcome for all parties.

Costco did do a traffic assessment and did not land, and our team and our engineering team supports did not land at the reason for these traffic collisions or uptick or increase in traffic collisions solely responsible for the Costco gas station and traffic movements around the Costco gas station. In its entirety, the intersection and travels exits enter and exits to the Costco gas station, I apologize, represent about 10% of the total daily traffic movements through that intersection. And so there are some lines that we can draw about ownership and responsibility, but as a public works department and as city as a whole, our first and foremost consideration is overall city traffic safety as they move through our signalized intersections. For that reason, we felt that it was a very appropriate recommendation to cost share that agreement at a fifty-fifty cost share.

Councilmember Nielsen?

So just to, first of all, I wanna compliment Public Works and you, Mike, and your team for working collaboratively with Costco to come out with a a great safety decision here. I think a couple of things we need to consider. We'll just take cost. Let's let's take out safety for a moment. But cost wise, we have two Costcos and two Costco gas stations that drive a lot of sales tax to the city.

I mean, we have in talking with other council members from other cities, they don't have Costcos at all. We have two, And it drives a lot of sales tax to be able to pay for a lot of services like police and everything else we have so that if they're offering to pay half of that, I think a deal and a half. So thank you very much for negotiating that out. Secondly, as far as safety goes, Costco, as you mentioned, had their own traffic engineer. I'm sure we had our people. So between those experts, think they come up with the best solution there. So that's that's my 2¢ worth, and I'm sticking to it.

That's one follow-up.

Yeah. Councilmember Gallagher.

I I one more follow-up. I I think council member Fink was asking about whether the, you know, the the light being stuck at a red arrow and and some of the challenges. So that was the conversation we're having earlier. I think if once you install this infrastructure though, you may have a left turn on a green arrow, but if at some future date, you could modify that to be a left turn on a green arrow or a yield on a green light. Right? Like, once the infrastructure is in, you could in a few years modify if needed? We we could. Okay. So this this infrastructure solves this problem now, improves the safety, but has flexibility to be modified if needed in the

future? Correct.

Okay. May I approach them? Thank you.

My understanding in in speaking with staff is that this is primarily, almost exclusively a safety issue, and our job as, you know, on city council is to ensure public safety. How long are these changes gonna take, Mike?

We are currently on a design or about to kick off a design effort for the project. We're going to take up to three months to finalize the design. And then we'll be back to city council to ask the council to support and approve the plans and specifications, authorize our typical bid process. We go through a public bidding process, and then we'll be back for council approval. All in, start to finish, we're looking at somewhere six to twelve months depending on when we break ground.

Okay. Well, I'm comfortable with the fact that this is a safety measure. I agree with council member Nielsen that, you know, we are very fortunate to have two Costcos. I mean, setting that aside, I mean, they they generate a ton of tax revenue, and the fact that they're willing to split the cost of this, I think is a win for for the city. So I would make a motion to to move the item.

Go ahead, mister Mayor. Did

you have another comment?

No. Go ahead.

K. So just parliamentarily, did you make a motion?

I heard you say that. I would make

a motion. I just wanna make sure I'm not

You know, I did, but I'm gonna withdraw that.

Okay. So now we

have a

motion on the table. Do we have a second?

Second.

Motion and a second.

But I'd like to, before we vote Yeah.

Go ahead.

Just make one more comment. And and I appreciate that. I appreciate councilman Gallagher's question question and mister Grisseau's answer about the infrastructure. That that makes me feel comfortable about this. I appreciate the comments and concerns about safety, and and part of this is I'd like to understand part of this is we're we've this isn't a normal project where we have a as a city, a safety project, and we're doing it. We've got the cost share agreement first, and then we'll come up with the project. So I'd like to understand, certainly, before we get to that project approval phase, the safety issue is a little bit better, but I appreciate where we stand. So I am comfortable with it. And so I appreciate the discussion and the input. It is something as we look at this in Costco.

I mean, I think, staff, you've done a good job of negotiating this split. But it's the kind of thing where we look at even at Costco and a revenue generator, want to make sure that as those things there were a lot of different concerns. I don't want to make you relive that particular item when it came up. But it's the kind of thing that we wanna make sure we're catching those concerns on the long term. But I I appreciate this and and support this. So like I said, withdraw any motion I made, and that's all I have.

Thank

you. Okay. Thank you. Madam city clerk? Council

member Nielsen?

Yes.

Council member Fink? Aye. Council member Gallagher?

Aye.

Mayor Pro Tem Chenal?

Aye.

Mayor Lombard? Aye. Motion passes five zero.

Thank you. Next, we have our regular business portion of the agenda. We have item nine, which is proposed ordinance number one five seven five for cross connection control. We do have, our water services manager, Mike Chandler, available for a presentation if we need it. Does anybody need the presentation? I think we all received information in briefings. Okay. We're gonna waive the presentation and move on to public input. And if any members of the public wish to address the council, please submit a request to speak form. And if you're participating through Zoom, please raise your hand. Madam clerk, any request to speak?

No, mister May.

Anybody in the room? No. We'll close public input, bring it back to the council for discussion. Any comments, or I'll entertain a motion?

I'll make a motion move. Second.

Motion and a second. Any discussion? Madam clerk, roll call, please.

Council member Nielsen?

Yes.

Council member Fink?

Aye.

Council member Gallagher?

Aye.

Mayor Pro Tem Chenal?

Aye.

Mayor Lombard?

Aye.

Motion passes five zero.

Thank you. Next, have other business. Mister city manager, do you have a report tonight?

Thank you, mayor. I do have a couple items to to share. We're pleased to announce the launch of NextRequest. It's a new online public records request system for those seeking city hall public records. The platform allows the public to submit and track requests online while helping staff manage requests through a centralized and streamlined process.

This update supports our commitment to open government and improve public service for our community. Also, a couple park updates. The Tustin Sports Park Ball Field Number 3 Improvement Project has been completed. The scope of the project included regrading the outfield area, replacement of the irrigation and turf, and enhanced drainage. Use of the field by the youth sports organizations and adult city softball leagues will resume over the next month.

On the same day of February 9, the Camino Real Park playground and picnic shelter renovation project will start. The playground will be replaced first, followed by the picnic shelter. Project completion is anticipated in May of this year. Postcards have been sent out to residents living near the park, informing them of the project and directing them to the website for project information. And that concludes my other business.

Thank you. Mr. City Attorney, do you have a report? I would only report that there was no closed session this evening, and so that's recorded for the record. I have no further report. Thank you. We'll move it to council for our reports. Council member Nielsen.

Thank you, mister mayor. Well, happy February to everybody. I had on January 28, I had the privilege and distinct honor to represent the city of Tustin at the toll roads TCA Committee for Joint Capital Programs and Projects for our esteemed Mayor Pro Tem, who was away on business. We approved an architectural and remodel services contract to remodel the headquarters Pacifica Building, which is in dire need of remodel. And we also approved the replacement of specific generators that were 30 years old on the toll roads.

So I got to sit in that chair for a while and keep it active until mayor pro tem gets back and serves on that committee. On January 29, I attended the city new business recognition dinner with our great mayor. He did a phenomenal job, and, it was great to see all the new businesses and talk to them, get an idea of what they're doing. You know? It was fascinating.

And, also, the presentations by the city were great, our city manager and, particularly in economic development with Micah and sharing all the latest technology was, was very informative. So I know the small business folks were were, taking a lot of notes and, looking for the assistance they need to be successful. So I want to thank the city for doing that. On January 30, I gave a presentation at the Tustin Area Historical Society Museum, Night at the Museum on the History of Orange County scouting. And it was standing room only.

They were falling out the front of the door. And it was great to see and great to talk about that history, which is very well in tie intertwined with the history of our county. So that's all I have for the moment, mister mayor.

Thank you. Councilmember Fink.

Thank you, mayor. Just a, couple of notes. I, on would have been Thursday, the twenty second, was the first library advisory board meeting of the year for the Orange County Public Library. Happy to report that.

I

was elected chair of the of the lab for this year. Hopefully, we can leverage that to bring a library vending machine to Tustin Sports Park that has been delayed for a number of reasons. I was able to attend on the twenty sixth, the top of the morning Tustin sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce. Aaron Nielsen from the Tustin Community Foundation spoke. Had a very good turnout.

So it's a good first to might have been the first event for the chamber. There might have been a a lunch mob or something before that, but but the first half of the morning of the year. And on Friday the thirtieth, I attended the vigil for Alex Preti in downtown Santa Ana on the at the old courthouse steps. Couple of members of congress were there, Dave Min, Luke Correa, Vince, Sarmiento, supervisor Sarmiento, several other city council members, and, three or four dozen nurses and doctors and, scrubs and and white coats honoring his service. A couple of upcoming notes.

One, long term, but I sent out an email. And if anybody's out there listening or gets this, I had the wrong date for the upcoming sip and stroll at the end of the month. It is February 28. I'd said I think I'd said last year's date, so I apologize for that. But other events that are upcoming, and I know mayor usually cover these, but the paper football event that I think a number of us will be attending, the smooches and pooches at the Bark Barracks.

I also wanted to note the operation warm wishes on Valentine's Day. We'll be having their kindness hour from noon to 03:00 at the Baskin Robbins over here on Newport. And also, just something I learned about today on this coming Saturday, which is also the time of the paper football challenge. Right here in the Clifton Community Center, community there's gonna be a communities come together, 2026. This is the second annual event, and I think somebody from the organization came and spoke, about it last year.

But, OCFA, CHP, Dustin PD are all involved, and it's about safety skills, sensory friendly environment for clinical teams, and so an opportunity to learn a bunch of information. It's from the Andy and Aid and Safety Group. So I wanted to just give a shout out to that. The last thing I wanted to say is I couldn't attend the new business reception on Thursday because I teach administrative law on Thursday nights at Western State College of Law, which started up this semester in Tustin. And so I just wanted to welcome the law school to the great city of Tustin.

And note to to our team here, there's a bunch of coffee drinkers that will be ready to go if if and and other services if you're at Raised by Lions Coffee Shop or anywhere else in that area. So hopefully, we can connect those folks. But welcome a law school to Tustin. That makes us one of the rare cities in the country to have a law school. That's all, mayor. Thank you.

Thank you. Councilmember Gallagher?

Hello. Happy New Year to Mayor Pro Tem and to the others that I haven't spoken with. January 26, attended the Metropolitan Water District of Orange County water policy dinner where the headline speaker was Shivaji Deshmukh. He is the new general manager, which is a big deal. If you're not familiar with MWD, it's one of the largest water purveyors in the in, I think, the world, certainly in the country. And night serves 19,000,000 residents. And what's special about Shivaji is he's actually lives in Costa Mesa. He started his career at Orange County Water District. So he is a native to Orange County and so we look forward to his leadership in that position. Attended a board meeting for Orange County Sanitation District on January 28.

Main topics were going through the mid year update of the general manager's work plan which is progressing well. And some of the main areas of improvement there were deep well injection which is a very innovative approach to addressing PFAS and biosolids for Orange County. And so OC Sands taking a leadership role there. So that was one of the main updates and then the district started its budget cycle. So this will be kicking off several months of that planning.

And then just so everyone knows the OCSAN kicked off, I think it's now the third or fourth year of the wastewater systems academy one zero one, and it continues to grow each year. So it's a really great opportunity for people to get involved and learn more about what OC Sand does. And that is it. Oh, happy Valentine's Day. Do something nice for a loved one. You'll enjoy it.

Thank you, council member Gallagher. A romantic at heart. Mayor Pro Tem? Sure. Thank

thank you, mayor. So I I did wanna thank council member Gallagher who is, again, unfortunately, the wrong type of engineer. But PFAS and biosolids, you must be super fun at a at a party. PFAS and

I guess

I get invited

to one. I'll tell you. Biosolids, yes, water engineer. But in all seriousness, you know, on the on on the heels of the the Costco and tax revenue discussion that that we had, you know, our city manager had mentioned El Camino Park and improvements there in the playground as well as the Tustin Sports Park and then implementing new systems that allow our residents to work with the city, provides transparency, all those things happen because of tax revenues. So we're very fortunate again to have Costco as well as all of the wonderful businesses that generate this tax revenue that we can pour back into the residents to improve their lives and and to keep us safe safe safe, happy, and healthy.

I also wanted to wish everyone a belated happy Groundhog Day, which is also my oldest daughter, Emma's birthday. I was actually in New York and Chicago the last week and a half on business, and it was freezing. And six more weeks of winter for all those folks that live there is is misery. Living in California, I can handle another six weeks of the weather that we have here. So anyway, thank you, staff. Thank you all, and that concludes my report.

Thank you, mayor pro tem. Reflecting on our city manager's report, we do have a lot going on. Mayor pro tem just mentioned it. I just wanna thank staff for keeping the the pace up and the cadence. We've got projects across all departments, and the council sees that and our residents see that and we're getting a lot of positive feedback, not only in the parks but Old Town and some of our public works projects and it's just really good to see taxpayer dollars at work beautifying and improving our city.

So thank you for that. I wanted to give a shout out to economic development and all the staff that put on the new business reception. Tustin is a medium to large sized city with a small town feel, and it was really showcased at that event. I think Val, you, your team, if you're watching, Micah, and everybody that put that on really underscored our charm as a as a small town in Orange County. And I I think it was well well received.

And the new businesses really felt welcomed, and I just appreciate staff paying attention to those because they also bring us revenue as well. And we wanna partner for on their success. Real quickly, so I got three events coming up. We've already mentioned on Saturday, February 7, paper football put on by Tustin Community Foundation at Columbus Tustin. On Saturday, February 14, Valentine's Day, councilman Gallagher's favorite holiday, we have smooches and pooches, which I think you, came up with a name for that.

So thank you, councilman. 10AM at Park Barracks at Towson Legacy Park. And, the police department's Citizens Academy is coming up. Applications are accepted year round, and classes will be held from March 11 through May 20, Wednesdays from 06:30 to 9PM. So apply if you are interested on the website. Any further comments? Okay. With that, we'll adjourn. The next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, 02/17/2026 for the closed session meeting at 04:30PM and the regular business meeting at 6PM. Thank you. Have a good night.