City Council - Regular Meeting

We're live. Miss Jones. Thank you. 29. We'll take you one.

Okay. Do I get them back when they get on the bus? Or Okay. Okay. So when is it gonna go live? Okay. And I just bring you you'll give me the code that it goes under because I can just pay for all 29 in one shot. Right? Okay. Alright.

Thank you for the Saturday one. Yeah. That's no. The family wanted to I'd always talked about it, and they wanted to see. Good evening, everybody, and welcome. Today is Tuesday, 05/05/2026, and the time is 6PM. The regular meeting of the following will come to order. The Victorville City Council and the same council sitting as the Victorville Library Board of Trustees, the Southern California Logistics Airport Authority, successor agency to the redevelopment agency, the city as a housing asset successor, Joint Powers Finance Authority, and the Victorville Water District. Madam clerk, will you kindly call the roll?

Councilmember Gaudin? Here. Councilmember Irving is absent. Councilmember Mora? Here. Mayor Pretem Harriman?

Here.

Mayor Becerra? Here. We have quorum.

Thank you, ma'am. If you'd please stand. Tonight's invocation will be led by pastor Joseph Flores from Gate Church, and our pledge will be led by captain Jerry Davenport.

Please join me in prayer. Heavenly father, we thank you, Lord, for this time. We ask, Lord, please, to bestow your wisdom upon us, upon our council members, upon our mayor, upon all the leadership in this high desert. We ask that your spirit is poured in this high desert and that our meeting here runs successfully, and we are able to accomplish the things we need to accomplish here today. And all of God's people say amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you.

Please place your right hand over your heart. Ready to begin. I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America Thank you. To the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Madam clerk, will you present the agenda and any revisions thereto?

Thank you, madam mayor. We do have one revision to the agenda this evening for agenda item number one. Revise discussion to the staff report under the vacancies subsection. The vacancy rate table has been revised to reflect the City Of Victorville vacancy rate of 10.2% updated from the former rate of 10.7%.

Thank you, ma'am. At this time, we'll move on to public comment. Madam clerk, are there any request to speak? Oh, I'm sorry. I'll go back. Do I have any conflict of interest for my fellow council members? None? Okay. Now we'll move on to public comment. Madam clerk, are there any request to speak?

Yes, madam mayor. Welcome to tonight's meeting of the Victorville City Council. Your city council is interested in your ideas and opinions and furthermore endeavors to incorporate them into its deliberations. At the same time, the council must be able to carry out its business in an organized and efficient manner free from material disruption. Therefore, this meeting will be administered in accordance with the council's established policies and procedures in government code section five four nine five seven point nine and five four nine five seven point nine five.

Individuals may speak on agenda items or on issues not posted on the agenda during the public comment section provided those issues are within the subject matter jurisdiction of the city council. Individual speakers may address the council once per public comment period and once per each public hearing item for up to three minutes. Additional time may be allotted for appeal hearings in accordance with the city's adopted policy and procedure manual. Those who desire to comment on a public hearing item may wish to reserve their remarks until that particular public hearing has been opened. All testimony is to be directed solely to the council, although open meeting laws do not permit council members to engage in dialogue with any speaker during the public comment periods.

Please note your comments and questions may be taken into consideration by council members when discussing a particular agenda item. The presiding officer may briefly respond or have staff respond to statements or questions or may request that the staff report back to the council at a subsequent meeting. Speakers are requested to comment as briefly as the subject permits. Once comments are invited, the speaker will be called on by name and recognized by the perfect siding officer. The speaker will state the item number that will be addressed or that the subject is a nonagendized matter. Audience members may not disrupt, disturb, or otherwise impede the orderly conduct of this meeting, and those who do are subject to removal from the meeting pursuant to penal code four zero three. Your understanding and cooperation are appreciated. Our first speaker this evening is Nettie Jackson on a nonagendized item.

Good evening, honorable city council. As stated, my name is Nettie Jackson. As a member of the continuum of care board and the chair of the Desert Regional Steering Committee, I would like to congratulate the city council and the city staff on the continued success reflected in this year's point in time count results. This year, the city of Victorville achieved another significant reduction in unsheltered home homelessness showing a 26% decrease from the prior year. Even more impressive, Victorville has now achieved an overall 68%, reduction in unsheltered homelessness over the past two years.

These are not just statistics. They represent real people being brought indoors, connected to services, stabilized, and given renewed opportunities. I also want to congratulate the city on no longer being ranked number two in the county for overall homelessness. We are now ranked behind the city of San Bernardino and Fontana, demonstrating that the city's investments, leadership, and coordinated strategies are producing measurable outcomes. What's even more notable is that Victorville was the only major desert regional city to see a reduction in homelessness this year while our surrounding communities is experience increases.

That along speaks volumes about the commitment, the innovation, and the consistency of what this city and our council members are doing. I applaud the city of Victorville for centralizing its homelessness response efforts through the homelessness solutions division and for continuing to serve as a regional leader and subject matter and ex expert in addressing homelessness. City staff continue to work tirelessly, paving the way for other cities throughout the region to follow suit. In addition, the Victorville Wellness Center, combined with the city's twenty four seven operational approach through the wellness center, motel voucher program, outreach teams, and dedicated city staff demonstrated true commitment to addressing homelessness, at all hours even after most agencies and organizations have closed for the day. The data continues to show that the city of Victorville successfully increasing is increasing shelter placements, improving coordination, and invest in investing in dedicated staff who not only provide direct services, but also help train, guide, and strengthen local nonprofit, partners.

Victorville has remained data driven, collaborative, transparent with the community, and focused on long term solutions rather than temporary responses. This is truly a moment for the council to reflect on the hard work and dedication staff has placed in this effort. The city's willingness to innovate, collaborate, and remain actively engaged in the field is producing measurable outcomes and helping to

Your time is up.

Go ahead and finish.

You want me to finish?

Go ahead and finish.

Okay.

We don't hear this too often. You can go ahead and finish. Okay. Thank you, madam mayor. To collaborate and remain actively engaged in the field is producing measurable outcomes and helping improve the quality of life for both unhoused residents and the community as a whole. Thank you, city council, city leadership, community partners, and frontline staff for your continued dedication and services to the residents of Victorville.

Miss Jackson, thank you to you and your crew, what you guys do for this city and the desert too also from a day to day basis, our executive staff and William sorry, William. I don't know your last name. I do, but I don't. Thank you very much for everything you do. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you, madam mayor. There are no additional speakers this evening.

Give us a oh, thank you. We'll discuss later. We'll move on to our first business voter, which is public hearings. Item one, compliance with assembly bill twenty five sixty one, local employee vacancies, recruitment, and retention efforts. Mister Metzler, would you kindly introduce this item?

Thank you, madam mayor and members of the council. AB twenty five sixty one became effective in January 2025 and requires public agencies across the entire state of California to annually before the adoption of its fiscal budget to evaluate their hiring practices and report on the status of of vacancies. AB twenty five sixty one also requires that public agencies allow represented bodies to participate in the public hearing process. Accordingly, we have a a couple of presentations. First, miss Heather Barber, your, human resources officer, and then we also have, captain Nick Hower, the president of the Victorville, firefighters professional firefighters association, here for presentations for you.

Good evening, madam mayor and members of the council. Tonight, I will be presenting information regarding the status of City Of Victorville vacancies, recruitment, and retention efforts. This presentation satisfies the obligations of assembly bill two five six one that are codified in government code section three five zero two point three of the Myers Milius Brown Act. Once this presentation is concluded, I will be inviting captain Nick Hauer, who was the president of the Victorville professional firefighters up to also make a presentation. Thank you.

AB twenty five sixty one went into effect on 01/01/2025. There is a statewide interest in ensuring that public agency operations are appropriately staffed and that high vacancy rates do not undermine public employee labor relations. The Meyer Milius Brown Act or MMBA authorizes local public employees as defined to form, join, and participate in the activities of employee organizations of their own choosing for the purpose of representation on matters of labor relations. Annual obligations of AB twenty five sixty one include the following. A public agency shall present information on the following during a public hearing before the city council at least once per fiscal year before the final budget is adopted.

This needs to include the status of vacancies, recruitment and retention efforts, and any necessary changes to policies, procedures, and recruitment activities that may lead to obstacles in the hiring process. If the vacancy rate is at least 20% in a bargaining unit, additional obligations may apply. As of 12/31/2025, which was the agreed upon date between the city and the union, the vacancy rate for the Victorville professional firefighters was 8.3%. This slide will show all of our approved positions. We ended 2025 with 570 approved positions.

72 of those are for the Victorville professional firefighters. 498 are for city of Victorville positions. This slide will depict, vacancies and the vacancy rate. You can see that it can change month to month. With that said, our vacancy rate stayed fairly consistent throughout 2025.

On average, the vacancy rate for the calendar year, including our represented positions, was 10.7%. The vacancy rate is calculated by dividing the number of vacancies by the number of authorized full time positions. As you can see from this slide, we did not reach a 20 vacancy rate citywide. And while not specifically depicted on the slide, we never reached a 20% vacancy rate for our represented positions throughout the year. This slide will reflect the 2025 vacancy rates, as of 12/31/2025.

As I stated before, the Victorville professional firefighters, we had a total of six vacancies at a 8.3% vacancy rate. City of Victorville, we had 51 vacancies at a 10.2% vacancy rate. This rate is actually a decrease from the average vacancy rates from our previous presentation that we did in 2025 in which we presented numbers for 12/31/2024. At that time, the vacancy rate for the Victorville professional firefighters was actually 13.9%, and the Victorville the city Of Victorville was 14.1. Following recommendations made by the Victorville Professional Firefighters at the twenty twenty five a b twenty five sixty one presentation, Human resources staff continued to review the recruitment and hiring process for our fire department positions.

We met with representatives from the firefighter candidate testing center, also known as FCTC, to review and discuss available options to assist with recruitments. The city and the the city and the city sorry. The Victorville professional firefighters have continued to work collaboratively to reduce vacancies and strengthen the fire department's long term staffing model. A key component of this effort has been the successful recruitment of our firefighter EMTs and the development of an internal pathway that supports their progression to a firefighter paramedic. Through targeted hiring, structured training, and coordinated support for employees attending paramedic school, the city has been able to grow its own talent and improve retention.

These combined efforts have resulted in a more sustainable staffing model, decreased vacancy rates, and we have a stronger, more stable workforce ready to meet the community's service needs. Due to the efforts, I would like to point out that as of today, our vacancy rate for our represented positions is actually down to 0%. We hired nine new employees on 04/16/2026. We hired four firefighter paramedics and five firefighter EMTs. Also, as of 04/21/2026, the city has a total of 47 vacancies with a vacancy rate of 8.2%.

We currently have 26 vacant positions that are at some point in the recruitment process. Filling those 26 vacancies would bring the city vacancy rate down to 3.6%. We recognize that recruitment is about attracting, identifying, and hiring well qualified people. Retention is about keeping employees who exemplify the city's organizational values while

keeping

them engaged, satisfied, and committed to the organization long term. Both are critical for the success of the organization, especially in today's competitive job market. This slide shows you the overview of the recruitment process for any of our vacant positions. On average, once the job posting is open, this process can take anywhere between eight to ten weeks. We're constantly looking at ways to improve that and to lessen that time frame.

I would like to point out that the time frame is also dependent upon the position and if it is a difficult position to recruit for and fill. Hiring for certain positions does remain a challenge. Contributing factors include the rising demand for talent in specific sectors such as information technology. I would also like to point out that the city does not allow for internal only recruitments. All of our recruitments are a competitive process.

They are posted for external and internal applicants. Some vacancies are filled using what's called an eligibility list, which is valid for six months when the recruitment is ran, and then we can extend it for another six months to fill certain positions. Just to take a look back, this slide depicts, some of the recruitments that we did back in 2025. We had a 113 position vacancies throughout the year created for different reasons, including newly budgeted positions, separations, retirements, transfers, and promotions. We did a total of eight sorry, 80 job postings, which is actually a 19% increase from 2024.

We received and screened 5,523 applications in 2025, which is a 24% increase from 2024. And we were able to fill 119 vacancies, which is an average of 10 vacancies filled per month. This slide shows our vacancy data. You'll see voluntary separations, newly budgeted positions, retirement termination transfer, and promotion. That correlates with the slide previously where we got our 113 vacancies.

Tracking the vacancy citywide has helped us adjust our approach and the number of positions requested at the time budget is presented to council. Additionally, we are always looking for ways to improve and enhance the overall recruitment process to bring quality candidates to the organization. When it comes to recruitment and retention, the city incorporates several retention strategies and continues to explore programs and incentives to retain employees by keeping them engaged, satisfied, and committed to the city. Some current programs or incentives that the city offers includes a nine eighty work schedule, career development opportunities such as our aspiring leaders mentorship program. We actually just sent out, our second round of applications for that.

Tuition reimbursement where employees are eligible to receive reimbursement for the cost of education programs, which are directly related to their occupational field with the city. We host employee recognition events such as our annual service awards celebration. We also host host several employee engagement events throughout the year, including Jersey Days, bring your child to work day, the health fair, the walking challenge, which just kicked off yesterday, financial awareness day, Victorville one zero one bus tours, and then our famous state of the city watch party, which we just did last week. We also have hybrid telework options, for eligible employees to help them balance work and personal life. The city offers an employee assistance program and our newly launched peer support program, and we also have an updated employee gym for our employees to use.

The HR team also proact is very proactive in seeking job opportunities to attend and attract new employees. In conclusion, the city recognizes the importance of filling vacant positions and actively recruits to fill vacancies timely to ensure con continuity of services to the public. It is also clear that retention is a crucial element for continued focus, which is why the city invests in ongoing employee engagement and retention initiatives. By continuing to invest in employee engagement, wellness, professional development, and recognition, the city can continue to foster an environment where talent thrives. Thank you very much.

And I will invite Nick up.

Thank you all for being here. My name is Nick Howard. I'm the president of Local three seven ten, the Victorville Professional Firefighters Association. So we'll be giving a presentation based off of, the, recruitment and retention update for a b twenty five sixty one. So our commitment to Victorville, the Victorville professional firefighters are proud to protect and serve our community.

We're committed to maintaining the highest standards of public safety, but staffing challenges threaten that mission. With your support, we can strengthen our department and continue to deliver the service that our citizens deserve. A vacancy snapshot as of 12/31/2025 was six total vacancies. We had one captain vacancy and five firefighter paramedic vacancies. How we got here? Low applicant turnout. Lower amount of applications compared to other departments. We are in the High Desert. There are a lot of different applicants throughout the High Desert and then throughout Southern California. Based off of our call volume, our location, there are a lot of candidates who decide not to apply to our department based off of the the location, the travel time, and the wages.

Another reason we have low applicants is a lot of our applicants, we find out, don't actually qualify for our job postings. We get random people that work at random jobs that don't actually qualify, but we'll take up our spots when we're limited to a 100 applicants at a time. And then based off of that, only 50% or fewer of our applicants actually show up to our testing process, and that could be due to location, travel, other job opportunities. We have outdated hiring processes or lengthy process and which discourages candidates. I will commend HR this year on our hiring process.

It went very quickly with about a ninety day process to get the the new employees onboarded to our department. Prior to that, we were looking at six, eight, nine month, processes where we would continue to lose good candidates to other departments that had faster processes. Candidates would drop out during our process to join faster moving processes for those other departments and better paying jobs throughout Southern California. And then our lack of reach of our recruitments. Our recruitments are very focused on our High Desert area where I think we personally need to branch out in our recruitments to other Southern California cities, other paramedic schools in the location so that we can draw in those better recruitments and have a better candidate pool.

The toll that we get on our firefighters are we're forced an extra three to extra three to five extra shifts monthly. We, on average, work ten to eleven days per month based off of our schedule. And then if you're adding three to five extra days a month, then those are twenty four hour shifts. Increased fire firefighter fatigue and burnout, a larger workload for our firefighters. With those three to five extra shifts, that's lost family time, and then the risk to service quality.

As our firefighters get fatigued, sometimes they do, kinda lack the the service quality that we try to maintain at a high level. So our retention struggles also stem from we lose members to other agencies, which are higher paying, better benefits, better retirement systems. In our seven years that we've been here, we've lost two captains, two firefighter paramedic positions. So they took demotions from captains, to firefighter paramedics with Chino Valley and LA County. We've lost two engineers to firefighter paramedic positions with LA County and Redondo Beach, and then we've lost seven firefighter medics to other medic positions with LA County, Ontario, and other various agencies.

So wage comparison at $20.25, our top step our firefighter our fire department captains were topped out at a 129,000. Our firefighter medics were topped out at one zero seven. Chino Valley Fire Department pays their firefighter medics a top out rate of a 146,000, and LA County is paying theirs at a 118,000, but that does not include their $1,500 a month medics stipend. Our recent competition that we we continually compete for candidates with other agencies in our local area in San Bernardino County, Victorville, we start our firefighter paramedics at 92,000 a year. We're on Ontario fire starting theirs at $1.00 6, Chino Valley at $1.20, and Rancho Cucamonga at 106.

So just those numbers alone will drive a lot of our top candidates away from our department into those other departments. That is not including the call volume. Most of these other departments that we are compared to are running half or less the amount of calls than we that our service our city is running currently. Last year, we ran on average about 27,000 calls. I think Chino Valley ran about 12 to 13,000.

And so that drives our candidates away from our recruitments into those other recruitments. How we move forward, we update our hiring process, which I think HR has done a really good job this year of doing, trying to get those those candidates through the process faster and onboarded to us. We have dedicated ENT spots as a fourth person on our apparatus, which allows us to fill those vacancies. We can also run those as a nonmandatory, so we're nonforceable. So if somebody calls us sick, we can move an EMT into another position to staff for that day to keep our minimum staffing.

We adopt a firefighter candidate testing center. I know with HR, we've discussed that. This is a way that opens up our candidate pool to all of Southern California and Northern California because those candidates will take that test. They pay themselves to take the test, and then they can take it every six months to update their scores. And we can pull the top scores from that recruitment and then use them into our candidate pool. And then we adjust wages and benefits. Help us serve Victorville better. We need a partnership to modernize on our recruitment hiring process, improve our retention efforts, offer competitive wages and benefits. Together, we can secure the future of Victorville's public safety. Thank you.

Mister Wetzler, would you like to finish that?

Thank you, madam mayor and members of the council. I think, yeah, just to close things off, certainly, I think it's important, obviously, to recognize, the valued relationship we have with VPF. I mean, with without the relationship that we have and the partnership, I don't think certainly we would have made the progress that we have just over the course of this last year. So I think it's important that we recognize the the partnership that we have with with VPF. But at the same time, I'd also like to recognize and thank the council for your support because with with your support from a policy perspective, certainly allows us a staff to do what we need to do to to figure out how to to to do, all that we need to do to make the the the the workplace a workplace that not only we can enjoy, but one where we can, keep the positions, filled.

And so we've got good harmony amongst us all, and and that starts with you at the policy level, but certainly working with good partners such as Nick and his team at VPF. So thank you for that. You know, I I would just like to highlight I I think it's I'm I'm just gonna highlight it again because Heather did touch on it. I think the progress that we made certainly in terms of addressing our vacancy rate now, it's an average. It's calculated on average, over the course of of the last year, the months of the year.

But when you look at the vacancy rate that we have, not only, for VPF, but for the city, We've made some pretty dramatic improvements just over the course of that time for VPF. The average rate went down 40% year over year. And and for the city in and of itself, that's a 24% decrease in the vacancy rate. So collectively, we've accomplished a lot. And and and I do have to say not only is that in in large part to the support we get from Nick and his team at VPF, but certainly Heather and her team along with the the the the team that we have at the leadership level representing all the departments.

So it's a it's a combined effort. This is not some this is not one person. This is a this is a truly team effort. And I do have to say that you do have a really good team working for you to do everything that we can to make sure that these positions are filled, which the original intent of this bill was to do everything possible to keep the positions filled so we can continue to provide the best public service to our residents. So thank you very much. Appreciate that.

Thank you, sir. Madam clerk, would you please read the recommendation?

That the honorable city council receive and file the city of Victorville vacancies recruitment and retention presentation.

Thank you, ma'am. At this time, we're gonna do technical questions from council members. Councilwoman Goedian?

Thank you, madam mayor. I do have a couple questions. Miss Barber, can I ask you a question first? So, on slide eight, it talked about, the total vacancies that we had, which was one thirteen, I believe. And then on page nine, it says 47 were promotions.

Yes.

So if are we are we have we already subtracted those promotions from that 113?

So that's just showing the total amount. The one thirteen is, like, the vacancies that were created. So promotions, we had 47 promotions, which is part of that one thirteen number.

Right. So then that would mean we actually had sixty sixty six vacancies. Right?

Yes. Because if

we take out those 47, then those were actually promotions from within, which is excellent. So that lowers our overall actual number of open positions that were just vacancies. Those vacancies were created by promotion.

Yes. I mean, it still creates a vacancy, but yes.

Yes. Okay. Which is excellent. I also wanted to point out that we had 90 was it 94% that we were retaining our retention? That's Which is incredible. So I just wanted to say well done because to see that kind of retention is is amazing. So well done, Keith and your team, mister Metzler. That's an impressive number. And then, Nick, I had a quick question for you. So you talked about on one of your slides, they're not numbered, but the one that says how we move forward and it has the four steps.

Yes, ma'am.

So quick question for you. We're at a 100% now. Right?

Yes, ma'am.

How did we get there? I know we talked about the positions that we filled, but what was the strategy behind those

I think the the reason we got there too is because we also hire five firefighter EMTs, which our medical crewmates are always a lot harder Mhmm. Just because those are more qualified people, and those those people are sought after by most departments. There's a lot of departments in Southern California that don't hire firefighter EMTs. So when we offer that firefighter EMT position, we get a lot more candidates for that role in itself, which help us onboard more people to to fill those vacancies. And then we will send those those firefighter EMTs to medical school to turn them into the medics that we need to staff our rigs.

And I think that's an excellent strategy. It how does that fit into your one, two, three, four?

It does. It's part of our our process now. We staff two of our squads for each shift with a firefighter EMT and one medic. Our firefighter EMT is our driver. They're there to help assist the medics with vitals and any other of their needs. Adding an additional EMT spot allows us to expand upon our paramedic program and then help fill those those paramedic vacancies as they come about.

Which is great because if they're coming in as an EMT, I imagine it's easier to train them in the way that we do things.

Yes. It is.

So excellent. And and I understand that we have a great preceptor program now.

Yes.

So we're able to actually work with kids who are in college still trying to get their paramedic license to give them their field time. Is that correct?

Yes. We actually have I think we have eight to 10 preceptors who rotate students throughout. We on my shift currently, one of my firefighter parents just finished with his student last week, and one of our other paramedics on my shift will be getting her student in about a week and a half. So our ours at least at our station, we have paramedic students pretty much year round.

Which is a huge benefit because it gives them a chance to see how great our Victorville fire department is. May not be LA County or Ontario, but we have a great family of firefighters, don't we?

Yes. And and it does actually give us an advantage to recruit them. We actually have three or four of our current firefighter paramedics came through the preceptor program, loved our culture so much that they decided to apply and get hired with us.

Excellent. Well, thank you both. I'm I'm done. Thank you, madam mayor.

Thank you. Councilwoman Mora.

Thank both of you for these very, detailed reports. I don't really have any questions. The only question that I do have is this is the first presentation that we've had on the vacancies since the a b two five six one was passed. Right? So is this an annual?

This is an annual thing, but this is actually our second one. We did give a similar presentation this time last year.

Okay. Got it. Alright. No. I think your reports are very thorough, and I appreciate the information. Thank you.

May I have Tom Harriman?

Yes. Thank you, you guys. That was very informative. I have a question, Heather, on page four, the year end vacancy information, the number of vacancies created, I'm just curious. The number just jumps up to 28 in July. Is was did something happen in July?

So July is when we have our obviously, we adopt budget. Right? And then we have new positions created July 1. Also, we have a lot of retirements usually in June that will hit, like, July 1, July 2. So that's also why we had several vacancies jump up too.

Okay. Thank you. And then, Nick, so the EMT program is working.

Yes. It is very successful to this point. We do have six EMT positions that we hold for those. As those those EMTs get through medical school, it'll create more vacancies for EMTs to to come into our program.

And then this this might not apply totally, but the do we have any vision of doing an interim program again?

We we do have a vision for it. It's certainly something we've been talking about. I think the focus has been largely on getting this EMT program running and, basically running on its own. But, certainly, I think one of the nice things that this this program does do is it certainly lends itself better. Our our complete staffing model lends itself better with this EMT program, to be able to, you know, take a next step towards actually creating something that can do an explorer program, which is what Victorville Fire had many, many years ago.

And that would actually provide an opportunity to get into the high schools and and get folks that are interested in in in being a part of the fire service to go through the requisite education to eventually become that EMT. And I think some of the visions that we do have, once we're able to develop that program and launch it, some of the visions is is believing that that's gonna help even create stronger connections culturally to the community because now effectively, you'd be bringing folks on board that are actually, you know, locally raised, going through the local education system, and just rooted from from Victorville or from the Victor Valley coming into our fire service. So we certainly think it'll be an additional opportunity and also an opportunity to be able to solve some of the challenges that we have in terms of recruitment because we're believing if we can get them into our system earlier, then it's up to us to prove ourselves to those folks to stay with us. And and, certainly, I believe we're at that point now where culturally we're proving ourselves to where people do wanna stay.

And I would agree with all that. Okay, you guys. Thank you, both of you.

Please don't take this wrong. I Heather, when you do a when you do a job recruitment, who goes to the front of the line?

Who goes to the front of the line?

Yeah. When we're looking for people. Fire department. When you guys send out and everything to come back, fire department gets priority of HR, correct, of bringing back all the applications, and let's review them, and let's get them, reviewed and things like that and get them to the captains to review.

I mean, all of our departments

are very Important. I get it.

Yes. So but our fire department is crucial. They are public safety, so there is some emphasis placed.

Do we still do do we still do background checks on all employees? We do. Do we control the background checks? How quick they get them back to us? Yeah.

Our we unfortunately, no. We don't. Okay.

Do we still fingerprint all of our employees? We do. K. Do we still do medical appointments on all of our employees? Yes. All that's out of our control. Right? You guys have done well. I remember other times where we had job openings for a year. When our fire department, we pay for their schooling, and I asked mister Mensler this. We pay for their schooling, their training, their education, everything, and they're still allowed to move on to other other departments with a handshake to us saying, thank you for the training. I'm going to Chino.

Well, I would answer that by saying it could be any employee, not just fire department. We provide similarly natured benefits to all employees represented or not. And so just in comparison, you know, we do have a tuition reimbursement program that's available to all employees, and and and we do have a lot of nonrepresented folks that that actually take advantage of that. But there to answer your question, there is nothing preventing them from ultimately, you know, earning that education and and moving on. And and that's why I say it's, in my view, our responsibility as leaders in the organization to prevent that by happening by, you know, really creating a culture that really causes somebody to think twice about whether or not the grass really is greener on the other side.

There there's gonna be some cases where regardless of all that you do and you can have a utopia of culture, people are still gonna leave. But I I I think the the good outweighs the the the the bad, for lack of better terms, in those situations. So but it's not just to to the represented, and that applies to all all city employees.

Do we have a problem sort of getting overtime filled When it goes out there, the three thirteen needs two two shifts filled. Is there an issue where you have to call 315 and say, do you got anybody that wants to come over and work overtime?

So when when we fill overtime, it's open to everybody in the department who's in that rank or qualified for that position. Okay. Normally, we don't have a problem filling overtime when we do have higher vacancy levels. I know last year at one point, we had nine vacancies, then we do have a more difficult time filling those. That's where we have more mandatory people getting on shift. Because when they've already agreed to work three, four, five days extra as voluntary and then there's still more vacancies for that month, then they get mandatory. There are times where people are are working between the voluntary overtime and the mandatory. It could be upwards of eight or nine extra days a month.

So now with fire department at full staff, could still have a lot of overtime because of the call volume we have. But still, it's it's citywide for all the all of our fire stations.

Yes. So so once we're fully staffed, the only overtime that would be available would be for any type of sick call or any type of planned vacation that our employees are using their benefits for. That would be the only overtime. Or if we're sending out, apparatus to strike teams for wildland fires throughout the state, then we have to backfill behind them. So that would be at that point with us being fully staffed, I don't see us having any problems filling the the vacancies for those situations, just because most of our guys will step up and work those extra days voluntarily.

Okay. Heather, do you and staff, thank you for all you've done. Sir, do you and your staff, thank you for all you guys do. We understand it's a difficult place to be in, but Rancho Cucamonga's homes are starting at 800,000. Ours start at 4, so it's a little cheaper to live here. Also, drive the Cajon. Thank you very much for all everyone does. Thank you, Heather, to you and your staff. That's it. I will open up the public hearing, madam clerk, for any request to speak.

No, madam mayor.

I will now close the public hearing. No action is required, so this is a receive and file item. We'll move on to item two, approval request for the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, HUD, required draft fiscal year 2026 and 2027 annual action plan allocating federal community development block grant, CDBG, and home investment partnership program, home funds. Mister Metzler, would you kindly introduce this item?

Thank you, madam mayor and members of the council. The city of Victorville is an entitlement city to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development CDBG program. And as a entitlement city, we directly receive annually an allocation from HUD for CDBG and the home investment partnership. And so with that, it's it's for us in administering the program. We do follow the plans that we have in place.

There's a five year con consolidated plan, which we're in the final year or we're approaching, I'm sorry, the final year of the the con plan. But then as a part of every consolidated plan that you have, annually, you're moving forward with, an annual action plan. And so this is part of that annual action plan process. And for us, it starts in December, of every year, where we solicit, applications, for these funds. We also, as a council, appoint, two members from this council to serve as committee members to ultimately help, decide or I'm sorry, Help make recommendations to the to the council at at large.

This year, our committee members and thank you very much for, the the help and the support. Mayor Becerra and council member Irving, participated in, the process. And so once we were, done soliciting, the applications, we did have a a public hearing here in the chambers back on February 17 where we invited input from the public to actually provide feedback information that helps us shape this annual action plan. And then ultimately, as the application applications were submitted, the committee actually met on March 12 to review all all the applications and ultimately come up with a recommendation. So this item before you is is the product of all of that work, including that of the the two members two committee members of the council.

You do have a list of, recommended funding, awards, for the respective applicants. And so with that, this item's being brought forward, after being authored by your city planner, mister Alex Hetigy. He's available along with staff. We have mister Lily Liliana Collins here as well, to answer any, questions or comments you might have.

Thank you, sir. Madam clerk, would you please read the recommendation?

That the honorable city council open and conduct a public hearing to receive citizen public and agency comments regarding the draft fiscal year twenty twenty six twenty twenty seven annual action plan, close the public hearing, approve resolution number 26 dash zero one four, adopting the twenty twenty six twenty twenty seven annual action plan as presented for submittal to HUD, which contains the funding recommendations made by the community planning and development, CPD grant subcommittee, authorize the city manager to execute all necessary documents for submittal to HUD, and approve the continued inclusion of operating restrictions for food distributors, providers as recommended by the CPD grant subcommittee within applicable subrecipient contracts.

Thank you, ma'am. At this time, we'll do technical questions from council member. May I have none. Councilwoman Mora? I have none also. Councilwoman Coddan?

I have none. Thank you.

And I have none. I will open the public hearing. Madam Clerk, are there any request to speak?

No, madam mayor. I will

now close the public hearing and invite a motion for this item.

Move to adopt staff recommendation as to points three, four, and five as presented on the agenda.

Second.

I have a first by councilman Godin, a second by councilman mayor Patam Harriman. Councilman Godin, comments on the pending motion?

I have none. Thank you.

Mayor Patam Harriman, comments on the pending motion?

I have none.

Councilman Mora, comments on the pending motion?

I have none. Thank you.

And my comments are, miss Collins, to you and your staff, Alejandro, you and your staff, thank you very much for everything you guys did putting this together and all the work you do throughout the years of making sure that we continue getting this amount of money. Thank you very much. Mister Metzger, thank you also. Madam clerk, will you take the vote, please?

Councilmember Godin? Yes. Council member Mora? Yes. Mayor Pro Tem Herriman?

Yes.

Mayor Becerra? Yes. Motion passes with council member Irving being absent.

We've now taken action to approve points three through five of staff's recommendation as presented on the agenda. We'll move on to the consent calendar, items three through 10. I'll invite a motion for this item. Move to adopt.

Second.

I have the first by councilman Godin, a second by mayor Patim Harriman. Mayor madam clerk, would you take the vote, please?

Council member Goedown? Yes. Council member Mora? Yes. Mayor Pro Tem Harriman?

Yes.

Mayor Becerra? Yes. Motion passes with council member Irving being absent.

We've now taken action on items three through 10 in accordance with recommendations as set forth on the agenda. We'll move on to rent communications. Item 11, purchase of a Toro Greenmaster 3,400 Triflex hydraulic diesel mower and a Toro multi pro seventeen fifty sprayer. Mister Metzler, would you kindly introduce this item?

Thank you, madam mayor and members of the council. This item involves the purchase of equipment used primarily at the Green Tree Golf Course. As you know, at the Greentree Golf Course, we do contract for the operations of the golf course, but we do provide and maintain the equipment such as the mowers. And so this item is particularly dealing with the replacement of a fourteen year old precision mower, which is typically used to cut and shape the greens, the putting surfaces out at the golf course. This item also does include the purchase of a sprayer used for fertilizer and chemicals to treat the grounds.

And so with that, this item is brought forward in large part because the item does just barely exceed my purchasing authority. It is a budgeted item, and it has been authored by your community services director, miss Donna Meester. And she's here and able to answer any questions you might have.

Thank you, sir. Madam clerk, would you please read the recommendation?

That the honorable city council approve the purchase of a Toro Greenmaster 3,400 Triflex hydraulic diesel mower and a Toro MultiPro seventeen fifty sprayer in the amount of a $126,928.77.

Thank you, ma'am. At this time, we'll do technical questions from council members. Councilwoman Mora?

The only question I have, what is the lifespan? I know you said the previous one we had was for fourteen years. What's the lifespan on these newer models? Do we know?

Thank you, madam mayor and members of the council. I I think a lot of it's gonna depend on the maintenance, but I I do believe miss Meister might have a more a better answer than me.

Good evening, mayor, members of the council. I don't know if I have a better answer. The life really depends on how much we use it. It goes by hours for mowers. It doesn't really go by years. So it just depends on the weather, whether we get a lot of rain and the grass is growing really fast, how many hours we're really putting on it. So unlike your car where your car is miles, for mowers, it's hours.

Okay. Well, I'm sure we'll maintain the maintenance on that, so that's my only question. Thank you.

You're welcome.

Councilman Goedian? I have none.

Thank you, madam mayor.

Mayor Patam Harriman? I

have none.

And the only thing I'd have mister Metzger, we still have a small motor maintenance mechanic at the ER? We do. Okay. So we would continue in the general what we've done with our mowers in the past? Yes. So we're hoping fourteen, fifteen years this one too. Thank you. I'll invite a motion for this item.

Move to adopt staff recommendation as presented in the agenda.

Second.

Leave a first by councilman Godin, a second by mayor Patam Harriman. Councilman Godin, comments on the pending motion?

I have none. Thank you.

Mayor Patam Harriman, comments?

My lawnmower is 20 years old, so I'm sure they'll be fine.

Councilwoman Mora? I have no questions. Thank you. Or no comments. And I have none. Madam clerk, will you take the vote, please?

Councilmember Gaudium? Yes. Councilmember Mora? Yes. Mayor Pro Tem Harriman?

Yes.

Mayor Becerra? Yes. Motion passes with council member Irving being absent.

We've now taken action to approve staff's recommendation as presented on the agenda. Item 12, rejection of all bids for IWWTP direct connection one and two project. Mister Metzler, would you kindly introduce this item?

Thank you, madam mayor and members of the council. This item involved, involves a rejection of bids associated with a project that was ultimately designed to effectively create a bypass from our industrial wastewater treatment plant, a better bypass, a more efficient bypass than what's currently used and relied upon. And and with that, the actual costs associated with this project far exceed what was envisioned when we had actually done an engineer's estimate. So with that the recommendation of staff is to to to reject these bids, go back to the drawing board, and come up with a a new bid package that can allow us to to to more effectively get a cost that we can afford. And so with that, the item has been authored by your city engineer, mister Freddie Bonilla, and he's available for any questions or comments you might have.

Thank you, sir. Madam clerk, would you please read the recommendation?

That the honorable board of directors reject all bids received for the industrial waste route of treatment plant direct connection one and two project, project number MS26Dash107, and authorize staff to reevaluate the scope and re advertise the project.

Thank you, ma'am. We'll do technical questions from council members. Councilman Godin?

I've already had all my questions answered. Thank you.

Councilwoman Mora?

I have none. Thank you.

May have for Tim Harriman?

Yeah. I have a couple. So when when these bids go out, do do we ask for them as line items as they're broken down in in on the agenda? Or or are they giving us a price? I I'm just curious. I never had to do stuff with line items like that. I'm just wondering because a lot of this stuff, there's such a differential between the two contractors. It I mean, the sewer bypass one the one is 986,000. The other one's 2,300,000. I I don't know.

I went over all these, and they just I don't know. They're either on two different planets or or something. $19,000 to badge to get on the on the airport? That that's I don't get it.

Yeah. Good evening, madam mayor, members of council. The bids are typically broken down by individual line items. We do a very good job of going through our our scope of work, figuring out exactly what are the quantities. And we do that specifically so that we don't end up with a lump sum bid that the contractor can then say, everything is tied to this one item.

This way, it's it's a way that we can review the bids. Obviously, when you have a huge discrepancy between what our engineers estimate is and what the actual bids came at, we know we we do a little bit of Monday morning quarterbacking at this point. And, the the best explanation I can give you is I think we just gave a little bit too much faith, to our contractors. We did put together a very good specification when it comes to our bypass plan. That was probably the biggest bust that we had in our project.

It was a performance based specifications, you know, a factor of safety of 50%, ensure twenty four seven operation, have some redundancy into the system. But we didn't actually put together a really good bypass plan ourselves, and we intend on doing that. We have our on call water and public works contractors that we could probably lean in and figure out a really good bypass plan so that there's no guessing game involved. And you saw that discrepancy in the bids when it comes to the bypass plan. We saw one bidders bid approximately $1,000,000, the other one about 2,300,000. So we will certainly putting that up, put together a a really good plan so that there's no guessing game involved.

I I I think the line item procedure's a good one because, obviously, breaking it down like that. The none of this work, none of these line items can be performed by city staff?

No. Typically, when we contract out, we we do that. In this case, we we already have some interim connections that are already there that are working, that are functioning, But it is in our permit with our regional wastewater authority, VBWRA, to go ahead and complete this project. That's what we incorporated at the midyear. And we thought we had done a good job, but, clearly, hindsight is always twenty twenty. So we'll go back to the drawing board, put together a good bypass plan, and hopefully invite some of our on call contractors who know our rules and our regulations a little bit better. And hopefully, we get more activity and the the more bidders we have, ideally, you'd have a more competitive bid.

Okay. And I was just looking to to educate myself a little bit on that, but thank you, Freddie. That's all I have.

I'll invite a motion for this item.

Move to adopt staff recommendation as presented in the agenda. Second.

The first by councilman Gaudin, second by councilman Mora. Councilman Gaudin, comments on the pending motion?

I have none.

Councilman Mora, count comments on the pending motion?

I have none. Thank you.

Mayor Potem Harriman, comments on the pending motion?

I have none.

And I have none, madam clerk. Will you take the vote, please?

Councilmember Gotham? Yes. Councilmember Mora?

Yes.

Mayor Potem Harriman?

Yes.

Mayor Becerra? Yes. Motion passes with council member Irving being absent.

We've now taken action to approve staff's recommendation as presented on the agenda. Item 14, city manager reports. Mister Metzler, you're up.

Thank you, madam mayor and members of the council. We do have a few items, to report back to you on. First, on the economic development side of the house, you you've you've heard, pieces of it already, but the twenty twenty six point time count results have been released by the county, showing meaningful progress for the city. Victorville's unsheltered population has declined significantly, decreasing from a 141 in 2025 to a 104 in 2026, representing a 26% reduction over the past year. These results reflect coordinated efforts of the city's homelessness solutions division, homeless engagement team, code enforcement cleanup team, the MET team along with our county partners and local nonprofits.

So major kudos, huge team effort, and certainly thank you again for your support in in this effort. Also, the city staff, economic development department along with SCLA staff recently attended MRO Americas, a trade show in Orlando that's specific to the aviation industry where they met with industry companies and developers to promote the opportunities at the airport and the the off airport development opportunities. So during that event, staff also unveiled an updated SLA booth featuring new interactive touchscreen GIS map developed in coordination with our city's GIS team. The display enhanced engagement and allowed staff to better showcase all of the real estate development opportunities at the airport. On the HR side of the house, we are excited to share that we kicked off our annual staff walking challenge on just yesterday.

The challenge will run through the month of May and encourages our employees to stay active, get outside, get their steps in, as a part of our ongoing commitment to employee health and wellness. The customer service division is excited to announce, that the pay by phone option is back up and fully operational. Yay. Customers can now make utility bill payments, access detailed account information, and review billing history anytime by calling our customer service line. This convenient service is available twenty four hours a day, seven days a week.

And then on the animal services side, adopt a shelter animal day was held on Saturday, April 25. That was a great success. The event resulted in nine foster to adopt placements and seven completed adoptions. Shelter experienced strong community turnout throughout the day, which not only contributed to the successful placements, but also helped increase public awareness of the animal care and adoption center and its operations. So a big thank you to all the dedicated staff who made the event a huge success.

Then separately, I've got the projects of interest list, which will highlight all the development projects going through our process in the system. You can see exactly what is going on and where it is in our process. I'll go ahead and share that with you with a follow-up email containing that information. That's all I have at this time, madam mayor.

Thank you, sir. We'll move on to item 15, discuss an impossible action regarding upcoming agenda items. Councilwoman Goedian.

I have none.

Councilwoman Mora. I have none. Mayor Pro Tem Herriman.

I have none.

And I have none. Move on to item 16, reports from council member reports or comments from council members. Council councilmomura.

I know we talked a lot about the numbers and our point in time count, but I just think that it's very useful information, and we really do have to give our city staff, really give them a good shout out and the cinema center and our wellness center. And just pointing out that the point in time count counts for unsheltered, sheltered, and transitional housing. And so although we see the number of 441, we have 304 people that are in transitional housing, 33 in sheltered housing, which leaves us with a 104 of unsheltered. Back in 2020, we were at 298 with the highest time in 2024 of 326. So I think those numbers in the graph that was presented to us on page 15, that everyone can access really just shows the effort, the manpower that all of our city staff, our volunteers, you know, our local agencies that we partner with.

It really is, showing that we are headed in the right direction, and I'm really, really proud of that. And I just really wanted to thank everybody for, for really putting in all the efforts. It's not an easy job, and so I appreciate that. So thank you, everyone. Councilwoman Goja?

Thank you, madam mayor. I also wanna echo the sentiments of council member Mora. I appreciated the report, mister Lamas, and your team. The continued effort that we're putting forth with the wraparound service with Symbicenter. It is a group effort. It's a team effort, and we're continuing to see those numbers decrease. And so we know we're we're on the right track. I just also wanna highlight the vision of our team. We have a team that doesn't just sit by and and look at the progress and be happy with that, but they're very proactive, continuing to see how we can make these numbers continue to decrease and to be able to reach those in our community who are hurting and need a helping hand. So just I I also wanna applaud the team and the city staff, mister Metzler, for our continued efforts against homelessness and being able to help people.

So great job all around. Thank you, madam mayor.

Thank you, Vim. Mayor pro temer Herriman?

Well, they both said what I was gonna say.

Mhmm. So I'll call you first then.

But I I'll just add to that. I wanna thank mister Duran, the code enforcement as I just believe that we have the best code enforcement staff any city in the High Desert has. That's for sure. My district, everyone used to say old town was where all the homeless are, and I just don't buy that anymore. It seems like they've all moved into my district.

But I I have seen thing you can't see a tent anymore anywhere, and I notice a big difference. And I hope the community also notices it, which I'm I'm sure they do. And that's thanks to all your hard work and your officers. I've had a couple issues on my street alone, and they handled everything very, very professionally. And, of course, my neighbors come to me and say, look.

There's nothing I can do, you guys. You know, that's our that's our great city in action. So, anyways, thank you to everybody as far as the whole. I just wish Hesperia would get on the stick because when people get off the freeway right there at Bear Valley Road, all that garbage they see is on is theirs. It's in their city. And when people get off the freeway, they think they're in Victorville soon as they get off the freeway. So I wish there was a way we could get them to jump on that. Anyways, thank you guys.

Mister Metzler, thank you to you and the executive staff. Employee appreciation went off well. In talking with the employees, of course, have to do with their happiness and everything. Everybody was doing a good job. Everybody was happy about it and everything. What can we say, guys? To all the assistant directors and directors and managers out there, thank you. We can all you know, we're reading your reports. So, yeah, let's let's kick it up for the rest of them. We do read what you guys give us.

We do appreciate what you guys do and everything. We can take up an hour just thanking you guys individually and what you guys do. Freddie, Roy Rogers is looking good. I know your phone hasn't stopped ringing since you started it, but it's good. It's gonna be when it's all said and done, everyone's gonna be happy. And, you know, by the time Target's in, and they'll find something else to ask us about. So we'll leave it on the asking. Airport, Southwest flying in? Yeah? Is that what you brought it in from Florida? Thank you very much for all you guys do also. To you and your staff, thank you. We appreciate what you guys do and getting everything ready for us. I didn't forget you guys back to PD. Thank you.

Everybody, if that's all we have, the time is 07:06, and this meeting's adjourned.