[This transcript was generated automatically from audio using AI and hasn't been reviewed by a person -- it can contain mistakes, including plausible-sounding sentences that were never actually said. Treat it as a starting point, not a verbatim record.]

[0:00] Okay, I'm going to call to order this meeting at 5 o'clock on Monday, July 27. Can we have roll call please?
[0:14] Councilmember Garcia? Here? Councilmember Schwartz? Here? Mayor Pro Temproynt? Here? Mayor Mojave? Here. Thank you. Okay. Public comment prior to closed session. Notice to the public this time is set aside to receive public comments on matters agendized for closed session only. So when recognized, state your name and address
[0:34] for the record and please let me your comments to three minutes. Do we have anyone who wish to speak
[0:40] on our closed session today?
[0:46] I see none. Then we will move on to our closed session. Today we have
[0:52] two items on closed session, a public employee performance evaluation for city administrator and conference
[1:00] for legal negotiators. So we will return for open session at 6.
[1:14] Recording in progress.
[1:16] All right. I'm going to, we're back for open session at 6.08.
[1:23] And as we start tonight, I really want to kind of take our attention
[1:29] to all the firefighters and all of the volunteers who were
[1:33] We're hard at work this weekend dealing with all of the crazy fires we were having and how they volunteer their time for the public good and just hope that we can all live up to those same standards that they have and so in that join me in a moment of silence.
[2:09] Thank you. Jose, would you like to lead us in the pledge?
[2:12] Of course.
[2:16] Ready?
[2:17] I place your allegiance to the flag of the United States for a minute.
[2:32] Okay.
[2:32] Can we have roll call, please?
[2:38] Councilmember Garcia?
[2:39] Here.
[2:40] Councilmember Schwartz?
[2:41] Here.
[2:42] Mayor Pro Temp front?
[2:43] Here.
[2:44] Mayor Mojole?
[2:45] Here.
[2:47] Okay.
[2:47] Public comment.
[2:48] Notice to the public this time set aside to receive public comment on matters not calendared on
[2:52] the agenda.
[2:52] When recognized, please state your name and address for the record.
[2:55] Please let me your comments to three minutes.
[2:58] Under California law, we cannot discuss or take action on items not included on the agenda,
[3:04] but we will listen to everything.
[3:07] And I have one card from Cam Lennon's.
[3:16] Good evening.
[3:17] I'm Cam Lennon's.
[3:17] I live at 24-07 Cheyenne Drive in Bishop California.
[3:21] I'd like to offer invocational prayer for us tonight.
[3:25] Let us pray.
[3:28] Almighty God, your truth endures from age to age.
[3:30] direct in our time we pray those who speak where many listen and write what many
[3:37] read including our mayor and city council and city leaders. May they speak your
[3:42] truth to make the heart of this people wise it's mind-asserting and it's will
[3:47] righteous to the honor of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone
[3:55] else wish to speak from the public?
[4:01] All right. If not we'll be moved to report on
[4:03] actions taken in closed session as required by law, no reportable action was taken.
[4:08] And today we have two presentations.
[4:12] Let's do the Bishop Mule Day's presentation first, prepared and presented by the Bishop
[4:21] Mule Day's Celebration Executive Director, Don Abert.
[4:28] Thank you, everyone, for the invite to be here.
[4:30] It's always fun to stand up here and talk about the greatest Mule Show on Earth.
[4:36] So overall we had a very good year as with any event we had some surprises and some ups and downs, but I will say that the starting of Bishop Mule Day's 2026 was one for the record books when Mother Nature decided to unleash Holy Hell.
[5:00] In with the wind. So that happened on Sunday, the 17th, which I know you guys all remember, because you were dealing with many crises yourself. But we went from being perfectly organized and we kind of looked around and looked at each other and what. Yeah, we're ready. And then the wind came. And within a matter of a few hours. What we know is shady lane there in the barn.
[5:29] was full of fallen trees. There was fallen trees out in the field. The roof was
[5:38] blowing off the Charles Brown auditorium. The metal roofing was blowing off
[5:44] the in-food alley and spinning around in the air, wrapping around trees. And my
[5:52] friend Mike back here was having moments of horror knowing that his facility was
[5:59] was taking such a beating.
[6:01] It was kind of a terrifying few minutes, hours,
[6:06] and the best that we could do was put chains
[6:09] around some of the biggest trees so they would not fall
[6:12] and crush the barns.
[6:15] By three hours in the next morning,
[6:19] there was a massive work crew there,
[6:21] and there were more people with chainsaws
[6:24] and you would find at a lumberjack convention.
[6:27] And within a matter of a few hours, Jose was there with his chainsaw also, and the trucks cleaning out the area.
[6:40] And so by later that day, Monday afternoon, you could basically tell that hardly tell anything had happened.
[6:48] It was absolutely amazing. Our contestants that were there were out there with their chainsaws.
[6:53] we had volunteers showing up to help, it was an amazing site.
[6:59] Glad when that was over and we could get down to business.
[7:03] So, as far as the business aspect of it, we did well.
[7:08] We did well. We were kind of concerned with the price of fuel
[7:11] and some things that were going on in the economy
[7:15] that we might be impacted and we were slightly
[7:18] But I will say that RV sales were up, which is good because it costs a lot to get here to do this.
[7:27] I'm happy to say the sponsorships were up over $12,000.
[7:32] So that's a goal for next year too.
[7:35] Souvenir sales, good entertainment.
[7:39] We kind of fell short a little bit on the entertainment ticket sales,
[7:44] so we need to do some rethinking next year.
[7:46] I already have some ideas, have some entertainment booked for next year for some of this, so
[7:54] as far as contestants because they are the heart and soul of it, to me this statistic
[8:02] is kind of interesting.
[8:03] So we had 22 less back numbers, which means contestants, right, so we had 22 less contestants.
[8:15] But our class entries were only down by 32.
[8:21] So the people that were there entered more classes.
[8:25] So what does that tell us?
[8:27] That we did a better job of putting together a schedule that was user-friendly.
[8:32] Because our schedule last year was the horrid.
[8:36] So we learned some lessons and we put together a better schedule.
[8:40] And so, although we had fewer people, they each entered more classes.
[8:48] And this little piece of, this little packet of paper right here is our contestant surveys
[8:55] that we sent out immediately afterwards.
[8:59] And every single response was scheduling was much improved.
[9:06] So we did, we did good.
[9:07] We listened and we did well, we hired more judges, we rearranged the schedule, so what does
[9:15] that tell me?
[9:17] Those 22 people that didn't come, they missed out.
[9:21] And I guarantee that amongst that community they're talking.
[9:27] So we'll have those 22 people back, plus next year, it's going to happen.
[9:33] So, with the improvements that we made, we also spend a little bit more money.
[9:43] More judges means more money, more hotel rooms, which was an interesting thought, an interesting
[9:52] aspect of this year.
[9:53] We've all lived with the massive amounts of road constructions and everything.
[10:01] I don't know. Never occurred to me where those people stand. Never, never really thought about that. And so, you know, my bad. Because I called the hotel that we've used for decades at a very, very good rate. And out of the 30 rooms that I needed, they could give me four. And if you don't think that was a moment of, oh, no.
[10:30] So, ran around town, got rooms, we did get rooms for everyone, but we paid significantly
[10:40] more.
[10:42] So, something that I have to look into next year, either figured out a way to reach out
[10:50] to motel owners to see if we can get a better rate because the chunk of money that we saved
[10:58] in volunteer lunches and other areas we put right directly back into the hotel
[11:04] costs so yay we saved here yeah not so much here so um grandstand tickets still
[11:18] need to figure out a better way to market those I don't like the way my grandstands
[11:22] look the grandstands don't look full enough to me general admission was packed
[11:27] So we've got to figure out a plan to make grandstands look like general admission.
[11:34] So we did start sales earlier this year with a sliding scale that was very successful.
[11:40] So we'll be doing that again.
[11:43] Some things that we definitely improved on this year, volunteers, we have a new volunteer
[11:50] chairman and she took the volunteer list for the last five years and contacted every
[11:58] single one of those people individually took weeks that we increased our volunteer force
[12:08] and we treated them better, you know, we were able to do nicer things for them because we
[12:13] are coming back financially, but it was just so fun to hear, you know, wow, I haven't heard
[12:18] from you guys in a while.
[12:20] You know, I didn't know you still needed me.
[12:22] Sign me up.
[12:24] So we're on a up swing there and we did a very good job
[12:28] of reaching out to the schools.
[12:31] We had coloring contest this year and schools
[12:34] from all up and down the valley and in mammoth lakes
[12:39] participated and the winner of the coloring contest
[12:43] for I forget what age it was.
[12:46] as her family was from Independence.
[12:48] So they got free tickets to the shows
[12:50] and they were very excited about coming up.
[12:53] We brought back the, I want to be a Packer program
[12:58] and that's a school outreach.
[13:01] We did okay with it but we got the door open again.
[13:06] So it's gonna be better next year.
[13:07] So be prepared to see a lot more.
[13:10] I want to be a Packer stuff around town.
[13:16] New for 27, we've already found out at our after-action meeting that we're following
[13:26] short on first impressions of our guests.
[13:31] When they walk in that gate,
[13:36] where do you go for information?
[13:38] Where's the signage?
[13:40] Where's the, where's the greeter?
[13:43] Hi, welcome to Mule Days.
[13:44] is, glad you're here. Can I help you with something? We're not engaging people as well
[13:52] as we should right when they walk in the gate. So that needs to change.
[14:00] Better communication with the hotels so that they have information to hand out.
[14:13] We're finding
[14:15] very cool for us this year. We had two nationally recognized podcasters
[14:22] approaches about being at our event. And one is a gentleman by the name of River
[14:27] Class and his program is egg related and western related and he asked to be
[14:34] a part of our show. He even entered some of the classes and competed. So as soon as
[14:41] I know when that will be aired. We'll share that information with you guys, but very fun crew.
[14:50] They were fascinated with the whole thing.
[14:53] So, we will go beyond national podcasts.
[14:57] Yeah, Mule Days, yeah, Bishop.
[15:00] He loved the area and expressed interest in coming back next year. So our media outreach definitely
[15:11] improved and it's just just the beginning. So in a few months from now, I'm going to be coming
[15:18] back and asking for the proclamation for 2027. So does anybody have any questions? A couple of comments.
[15:27] And I would like to nominate our mayor to be the greeter next year at Mule Day as well in everyone.
[15:32] Done.
[15:33] Yeah, why not?
[15:35] We all need to support Mule Day and everything going on in the community.
[15:39] Second question is, Dana, without say names, percentage,
[15:48] how much does hotel room increase just
[15:52] because it was the week of Mule Day's percentage?
[15:54] If the normal price or rate is usually a hundred, how much more was it?
[15:59] We paid $300.
[16:02] Okay, let's leave it like that.
[16:05] 300.
[16:06] So I'm looking at the chamber report for June and the average daily rate was $170.
[16:15] So I'm just going to guess, hypothetically, say that for May, which is when merely happened,
[16:21] let's say it was $170 which means movies pay $130 more for those syndromes. I like to say this
[16:32] because every time I ask
[16:39] anyone at the chamber why hotels increase their rates so much the answer
[16:47] that I get, it's well, hotel leaders say that
[16:51] Mule days does nothing for them.
[16:55] And I'm not talking about the organizational event,
[16:58] meaning people that come to Mule days do not stay at hotels
[17:02] that they bring there are be.
[17:05] Maybe it's true.
[17:07] Many not everybody that comes to Mule days
[17:08] stays at a hotel.
[17:10] Some may.
[17:12] But if every hotel is going to increase their rates
[17:15] It's by 50, 80, 100 percent.
[17:19] Move this is doing something for them.
[17:23] And I like to see hotels doing something
[17:26] to support more of the community.
[17:29] Just want to mention that, because that is a fact.
[17:34] And that's daily rate for June $170.
[17:37] For me, it was 161.
[17:40] But it was just the last month.
[17:42] Yeah, last month.
[17:43] Next, yes.
[17:43] Yes, so $100 and $10 more, almost double the price.
[17:49] So the hotels get benefits from you, yes, they do.
[17:54] Can they give you these people a little bit of a break?
[17:59] I'm sure they can.
[18:02] And it's something for them to think about it, because I would like to have conversations
[18:09] with different owners.
[18:13] And I think part of it, we have, you know,
[18:16] you fall into a pattern and there's one place where we have used
[18:21] historically for many years now since I've been in the office.
[18:26] And they give the rooms to us at a very good rate.
[18:30] In fact, they don't raise the rates.
[18:32] So that's very generous and much appreciated, especially considering
[18:38] we book the equivalent of 80 nights of rooms for the 10 days, and so between our judges,
[18:49] our entertainment, our arena entertainment, they stay in their trailers,
[18:57] but the musical guests who come in, they all stay at hotels.
[19:02] but yeah, at 80 nights worth of rooms at $300 that was a little painful.
[19:11] Yeah, it was.
[19:11] Thank you, Diana.
[19:12] So anything else?
[19:14] Quick question for those members of the public who did not find themselves volunteering
[19:22] in the last five years and want the opportunity to do so next year.
[19:26] How should they get in touch with you?
[19:28] They can give us a call at the office.
[19:30] And what's the phone number?
[19:31] 7-6-0-8-7-2-4-263 or they can email volunteer at muledays.org.
[19:41] Okay.
[19:42] Thanks, Donna.
[19:43] You're welcome.
[19:44] Thank you for having me.
[19:45] We've recovered.
[19:47] All right.
[19:49] And we have another presentation today, which is a little bit of a bittersweet one, which
[19:55] is the retirement of the City Clerk Robin Picken.
[20:00] So I have the honor of getting to tell us all about Robin, which I think is completely wonderful
[20:09] that Robin waited till we got to work together again before she retired. Robin has a degree
[20:16] from UCLA in sociology, and she moved from Santa Clarina to the Eastern Sierra in June
[20:22] of 2004, where their family, her husband Brian and her sons, Matt and Alex, and their beloved
[20:27] a dog Cleo and which time she left her job at Cedar Sinai to become the administrative
[20:34] assistant to the town manager for the town of Mammoth Lakes. She worked there for a while
[20:40] putting up with you know the town of Mammoth Lakes and was eventually appointed the personnel
[20:46] and risk manager and then in 2013 we both left the town of Mammoth Lakes because
[20:57] because 2013 was ugly in the town of Manhattan Lakes.
[21:02] And we are very grateful that Robin came down
[21:04] to become the assistant city clerk for the city of Bishop.
[21:08] In July of 2018, she was appointed the city clerk.
[21:11] And for a short term, in 2019, she was actually
[21:15] the interim city administrator.
[21:18] So Robin has done amazing things in her career.
[21:22] All kinds of amazing work, including being involved
[21:24] in the Lions Club speech contest.
[21:26] She was secretary to the League of California City's Desert Mountain Division from 2022 to 2024
[21:33] Assisting Jim Ellis as he was appointed as president of the league
[21:38] She was also a California joint powers insurance authority capstone award finalist in 2022
[21:46] And she does amazing things and all of these amazing things she does for us every day a
[21:52] really
[21:53] Just a testament of who she is because every day she does this things with that smile on her face, and she brings a level of joy and pleasantness
[22:06] and just like you can't have a conversation with Robin and not feel like warm and fuzzy and like she's listening and that she cares and that she's just a genuinely wonderful human
[22:21] And we are going to miss her every single day.
[22:25] We're so excited that she gets to go be grandma.
[22:30] To the newest most important member of her family.
[22:34] So, so sorry, Brian. It's not you. It is now Alice.
[22:41] Alice is stolen her heart and we are going to be so happy for you.
[22:45] That you're not dealing with us in all our nonsense every day.
[22:48] and you get to be grandma and enjoy your family and all you have done for the
[22:53] community and all of us to keep us in shape has been just so honorable and
[23:02] we're grateful for our time with you. Very well said. Jose, did you want to say
[23:08] anything? A
[23:14] little bit.
[23:19] I don't think I can say any better. I met
[23:24] When I was first applying to be on the planning commission and work with her for ten years on the commission and more than five on city council.
[23:42] What Pam said is just right, driving goals above and beyond in supporting us, me and everything
[23:50] I needed as a commissioner, council member, going to this amount of division meetings.
[23:57] We had some very pleasant conversations, getting to know each other a little bit more, families
[24:05] and backgrounds. I am going to miss everything you did for me, for all of us. I know you
[24:16] have spent some time with Alisson and I'm sure Alisson is going to continue that. So thank you,
[24:22] Alisson, for joining us. But, darling, I wish you the best of life. Enjoy your family. The time you
[24:31] you work for the Citibit shop with me.
[24:34] It's just part of all the years that you put into working,
[24:39] and now you get to enjoy the reward of retirement.
[24:45] So I'm happy for you.
[24:48] I am gonna miss you, but I'm happy for you.
[24:51] And I just look forward to see everything you do
[24:54] with your life with your family.
[24:56] I hope I continue seeing you around.
[25:00] I don't think you and your husband have plans to move out of the area, so I'm sure I'll be seeing you. So Robin, thank you for everything you did and best of life for you. Thank you.
[25:20] You've been from the time I met you.
[25:23] You've just been so wonderful, such a support and a friend.
[25:29] And it's just been vast having a relationship with you both personally and professionally.
[25:35] And I really think the city of Bishop is better off because of your time here.
[25:43] Yeah, yeah, I
[25:48] get the joy of I have a presentation and I get to talk all the same time. I'm gonna come down there
[25:53] I don't know yeah you do
[26:03] City coins for all of your years of service, so we're gonna give you that and then I'll talk then I'll brag about you
[26:09] So we'll smile here. So
[26:19] there's that and then I'll set up you can sit down and then I'll talk
[26:30] I mean you basically you run the city. I mean you should be the city manager not city clerk. You know you keep all of us in line. All the emails you get controlling us making sure we do things knowing you has been a joy, you know.
[26:49] Yeah.
[26:49] Thank you.
[26:51] Yeah.
[26:52] I'm going to keep it nice and simple.
[26:54] Yeah.
[26:56] Robin, I mean, I think you've been one of the few people who have been at the city the
[27:03] whole time that I've been here.
[27:05] And I mean, Pam did hit the nail on the head like whatever we're dealing with, you're always
[27:13] have this positive attitude and just are ready to be a team player like I it's it's been a pleasure
[27:23] serving on council with you there at the office to greet us at every time but also like really
[27:32] reminding us of what it is to be a team player in the City of Bishop. Like, when things
[27:43] are tumultuous, and there's a lot of uncertainty in chaos, and you are just, okay, I, yeah, step
[27:54] been to the insurance city administrator until like until things settle and it's it's just
[28:02] your years of service have been like inspiring and really I hope rewarding for you it's been
[28:24] I'm sure we'll be seeing you with your grand babies are out because they still live around
[28:28] the corner.
[28:31] And I would like to present you with this tile of the city of Bishop given as a token
[28:40] of our recognition for all of your years of service to the city.
[28:44] I'm really glad you get to retire from the city of Bishop in downtown Amitla.
[28:56] I feel
[29:11] like that was coming.
[29:12] And I didn't think I'd get emotional about this.
[29:15] So I thought I better write it down just in case I could fit together.
[29:21] So thank you.
[29:22] First, I want to thank Council for your presentations this evening.
[29:29] I also want to thank Alison Bishop, our new city clerk for handling all the details for
[29:35] this evening and making a special evening and evening for me and getting us all cake.
[29:42] Whenever my home is so wishes we will go ahead and eat our cake in a way of direction.
[29:49] I want to thank everyone for their kind words tonight.
[29:55] It has truly been an honor and a privilege to have served the city of Ben.
[30:00] It's city council, it's staff, it's residents, and it's visitors. Oh my gosh. It has been quite the journey. But it is time. It's time to pass the torch to Alice. It's going to be great. I'm going to love her. It's been great. It's time to retire and spend time with my family, especially my granddaughter.
[30:29] I'm going to choose Alice Pickin who will be turning four on August 2nd and now everyone
[30:35] will know how she is, the years come, I'm just reporting.
[30:39] So thank you to all the people I've had the opportunity to work with and those I just
[30:46] started working with, it really has been my joy and my pleasure to have worked with all
[30:53] of you throughout the years. So if you'll take care, be well. And I look forward to seeing you
[31:02] around town because I will be out there with my granddaughter who will be signed up for different
[31:08] programs and enjoying what the city offers. So yeah, so I'm looking forward to it. So thank you again.
[31:15] And I wish you all the all the best. All right. And you guys have been like family. That's all I can
[31:20] say, I mean, how can we not be like family when we've been together all this time and going
[31:26] through all the ups and downs together. So it's been awesome. Thank you. Thanks. Thank
[31:33] you, Robin.
[31:39] And it wouldn't be a celebration if we didn't have cake. So let's take a 10 minute
[31:44] recess and have some cake in the hallway. Yeah, pause that tomorrow.
[31:49] Yeah, exactly.
[31:53] Recording in progress.
[31:55] All right.
[31:59] And as with any good book, when one chapter closes, another one starts.
[32:04] And so our next item is the introduction of our city clerk, Alison Bishop.
[32:10] That was really well done.
[32:12] I like that.
[32:13] I'd like to introduce Alison Bishop.
[32:16] She's our new city clerk.
[32:17] She's been working with Robin.
[32:19] started, I don't know, in early June, late June and she's gonna have another few
[32:25] days with Robin and then she won't be here at the next meeting because she
[32:28] already had a planned vacation. Then we told her she could still take. That's how
[32:32] nice we are at the city of Bishop. Allison was born and raised in the Netherlands and lived
[32:40] there until she was 10 and then she moved to Bishop with her family where she
[32:45] attended elementary and middle school in high school. I did my understanding that her, she was on
[32:51] drill team with one of Karen Kong's daughters. Karen pulled her up in a photo from middle school,
[32:57] which was very fun for me. She's asked Karen for it. It's on her phone. Yeah, it's true. Oh, no,
[33:05] yes, it's true. Sounds like some bribery is about that. Um, Alison, return to the Netherlands to
[33:11] attend Hans, is that how you say that? Hansa. Hansa University where she earned a bachelor's
[33:16] degree in business administration. We stole her from the hospital where she has been most recently
[33:22] working but in other areas also has over five years of experience and it administrative hospital
[33:30] stuff. She's been doing meetings and she's back to Bishop from San Diego and we're super excited to
[33:36] have her here. And we are going to be patient and kind. And she learns all those buttons over there
[33:42] that we don't want to know what they do. They just make them work. Allison lives in Bishop with
[33:47] her partner Edgar and their two dogs. And we're super excited to have her here. She is grateful
[33:53] for the opportunity to join us because she doesn't know us that well yet. But we look forward to having
[34:01] her, as she continues to grow into her new role.
[34:07] Welcome Allison. Welcome.
[34:11] Definitely be patient.
[34:14] And you'll be patient with us.
[34:18] That's the key. Yeah.
[34:22] Anything you wanted to add? No, I'm really excited to start learning. I have big shoes to fill.
[34:31] I've been called to Robin Jr. and the new Robin and I'm okay with that.
[34:37] So yeah, thank you for your patience and I'm excited to work together.
[34:42] Awesome.
[34:43] Welcome.
[34:45] Okay, then we will move on to department reports.
[34:50] We'll begin with Police Chief Nate Derb.
[34:54] Council members of the public, I'll start off real quick, since my point-
[35:00] I'm not here to give a little bit on their side and they're on a combined thing for us and they're going to the police department. Just, as you mentioned, they've been really, really, really glad you're the last, about two weeks. They do, they have had one engine at least at a time assigned to the fire south of us. If not, at times they've actually had additional, along with other stuff that they've been doing with on their own up here, including their own fire.
[35:29] fire out in Round Valley, actually a couple of them with the lightning and the vegetation
[35:34] fires going on.
[35:36] In the meantime, they've also been staffing one to two engines on Cal OES numbers with
[35:42] the volunteers here so they're giving up their time and work and family to come down and
[35:46] be at the station full time.
[35:49] So yes, hats off to them and their continued efforts.
[35:53] on a combined project, as we talked about before, on the electrical upgrade to the police
[36:01] department and dispatch specific in the bathrooms of the fire department, the administrative
[36:06] foster has gotten us in contact with a consultant to help us because we're not planning to base,
[36:14] we're firefighters and cops, so to help us out, to be able to get that out to a go through
[36:20] the formal process to be able to get bids and quotes and everything together to move forward
[36:24] the projects that you guys have approved for this fiscal year.
[36:29] So that's very exciting.
[36:31] So working with that, to be able to get that off the ball and ruin.
[36:35] And then on the other side of it, on the more police department side, I would say there's
[36:38] all kinds of data operations that I always talk about, but one thing that we've been talking
[36:42] about at council meetings that's been affecting commerce in the Bishop areas, the parking
[36:49] enforcement. I know we talked before it. Getting our parking enforcement part-time position
[36:55] that's been authorized fully up and running has been challenging with obviously hiring processes
[37:01] and stuff like that that we've talked prior. So we started working on like I said in my evaluation
[37:07] on some material alternative methods that we can like band-aid the situation and actually start stuff
[37:13] in the meantime and we've started doing some strategic parking enforcement.
[37:21] We've always done like the 72-hour tags or when there's major complaints in certain areas.
[37:26] We've still been enforcing those but just the actual going out and more or less the chalking tires type scenario
[37:32] and are already timed parking zones as requested by our businesses.
[37:37] And I know what I think about, you know, yes it's good and the goal of the city is to be able to build better flow
[37:43] for better commerce. But I actually did have after we had just initialized starting this
[37:49] more enforcement like we had done and you know back when I was a kid here or the last
[37:55] 15-20 years that style of enforcement and I did have a business owner actually sent me a
[38:01] straight screenshot of the books and it shows the percentage that since that time that we started
[38:09] doing that their business was up 18%. And that was just like they literally sent me their exact
[38:15] they didn't just say it. They sent me the actual screenshot. And so to me, I mean obviously you
[38:21] realize it but to see it on paper and that higher than increase. And it actually that the importance
[38:27] of the business owners and I know Dennis and Karen have talked about it but as business owners
[38:32] themselves but to actually see it to me it like realize like wow this really does. And obviously
[38:37] our goal here in the city is to, you know, promote, you know, public safety as well, but
[38:42] as if we can help commerce as well with just little actions like that, that's a huge
[38:48] thing. So, um, definitely continue to work on those projects as much as we possibly can.
[38:55] So unless you have any other questions.
[38:58] Any questions for Kate? You're saying the fires
[39:01] were just the combination of lightning strikes and what else was causing them, do you know?
[39:06] The largest one down by independence is under investigation.
[39:14] There was some lighting fires that happened down there additionally, like this weekend.
[39:21] There was some lighting fires out in the Robana area.
[39:25] They were luckily had good response and got things quickly.
[39:28] There was a fire that a vehicle caused on Klondike Curve.
[39:33] Luckily, it was on the, it bumped the highway quickly and if it was, it was on the other side
[39:38] of highway it would have ran straight up towards Shannon Canyon.
[39:40] But, you know, so a variety, there was already some stuff going on and the lightning just
[39:46] kind of added to it for those guys, but they do have a ton of resources here that helps out.
[39:54] I have a question about the parking enforcement.
[39:57] And is it predominantly in commercial?
[39:59] I'm going to put it on the back side of the head, and I'm going to put it on the back side of the head.
[40:00] Local or, is it also happening in residential areas? So we always have continually done some
[40:10] more of us on the residential side of things where there's vehicles that are, you know, broke
[40:15] down vehicles sitting on the side of the road that are there for a very long time and
[40:18] neighbors complain and we come tag them for the same two hours. It's not like it's a, you
[40:22] know, just move your vehicle, please type scenario. But the unfortunate side is this commercial
[40:29] We're not trying to, I mean obviously there's plenty of parking issues on the east side of town because people don't have
[40:34] driveways. And we don't want to be overbearing on that side. This is focused on the commerce downtown, the main block or so off of the main street so that people aren't having
[40:44] their employees or others stay in the, through our parking, where their customers could be parking so that we can keep that flow moving.
[40:53] And okay and so on the residential side, you're typically putting those 72 hour tickets upon
[41:01] complaints from neighbors. Yes. And what do you recommend people who also who don't have a
[41:12] driveway who are parked in front of their houses to do? If they're on the other end of the park
[41:21] other houses that's perfectly fine as long as they don't need their vehicle for weeks on
[41:25] them without moving it. And then if they do get a tag then they can just move their vehicle
[41:29] and they're not silent.
[41:30] But probably they have been moving vehicle and they got another tag today.
[41:34] I'll have them contact us and we can, a lot of that specific case by case basis, like
[41:39] there's not a blanket that we can put over the intersection by the school.
[41:43] Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Haven't come talk to us, we can figure something out. Okay.
[41:49] Like I said, it's case by case. We're not like planned city so to speak back in when things grew so okay and related to that. I know there was at least one, maybe two.
[42:04] Post on social media about parking enforcement coming.
[42:11] Can we increase those and maybe even make them bilingual?
[42:16] and also we're talking about parking can we also look at citywide and forcing the
[42:25] daylighting no parking within 20 feet of an intersection because it's it's
[42:33] also an issue a safety issue in some areas so I like I like to see us doing that
[42:40] Okay, let's definitely do one night as far as the greater parking planning scheme that we've been working on for the last couple of years with on on the plan department. She's going to explain a little bit of like what we have going to fully implement that plan that we've been working on to. I just didn't want to we talked before and she's going to hit that. No, no, but the parking study was primarily done within the downtown zone. Yes, but I'm talking about citywide. The no parking within 20 feet. Yes. Thank you.
[43:11] Any other questions for Nick?
[43:14] Now we'll move on to planning department
[43:17] with principal planner Anna Bootnik.
[43:21] Good evening, Mayor and Council.
[43:23] Yeah, we've been working on the implementing the parking study
[43:26] and proposing changes to the parking zones to increase turnover and reduce conflicts
[43:32] between short-term and long-term users and downtown commercial areas.
[43:38] We have been working on identifying locations for employee parking at designated city parking
[43:47] lots, and also consolidating overnight parking, including parking for RVs, boats, and other
[43:53] visitors who may be going to the mountains, but want to leave their cars in the city.
[44:01] So yeah, planning to present that in the next council meeting for your view.
[44:07] I'm also excited to present at the next meeting the signage grant program that would support businesses and signage maintenance and removal of non-compliant signage.
[44:20] Speaking of signage, can we ask close businesses to remove their signage?
[44:26] Yeah, that's this a few. Yeah, we are. We have been asking for a while, but it's very costly. So that this grant is we found that incentives help a lot, even if the incentive don't cover full cost.
[44:43] There were, it was very successful last time around when chamber did their program. So we're trying to do similar beautification program, but for only for signage this time.
[44:53] Thank you any questions for Anna
[45:00] City administrator, Pam Foster. Hi, there again. You know, as we've kind of talked about tonight, we're in a lot of transitions and there's a lot of change. Good and bad and sometimes both happening. So we're looking forward to what comes with that, right? We're going to look at some new processes and some new ways of doing things. Hopefully at the next meeting, but maybe not till September, but we're going to revamp the way we're doing department head reports that once when we do the written report.
[45:27] work and we're working on moving some projects forward, like
[45:33] Honour just spoke about. I'd like to just take a moment to
[45:37] really acknowledge all the hard work that goes into our
[45:40] crews and our teams. I reached out this morning to public
[45:44] works and and the crews worked at least twice in the last
[45:48] two weeks, like all nighters trying to do some work on this
[45:53] main water main replacement so that businesses aren't being impacted. They're really working hard
[46:00] and they're doing great things and we realize all this construction and is frustrating and we're
[46:06] doing our best to get it done and just grateful to our teams who really work hard to keep the city moving.
[46:14] Any questions for Ben? No. All right then with that we'll move on to the Bishop Area Chamber of Commerce
[46:21] information center update. Bonnie sends her apologies she's having a family
[46:27] emergency and wasn't able to make it tonight and I don't think the last
[46:31] minute was able to find coverage so her report is included and she wishes you
[46:36] all well. I hope everything goes well out there. And then we'll move on to the
[46:42] Eastern Seattle Tri-County Fairgrounds quarterly update by presented by
[46:46] the still interim fairgrounds manager my experiences going along in-term.
[46:54] Longer than miracles, cool. Yes, yes, very close. Well good evening, city council and staff.
[47:03] I'm going to be a little bit repetitive at the beginning because we've covered some of the fire,
[47:08] but I'm going to give you a little bit more detail because we've have pretty much a pop-up city
[47:12] that started on the fairgrounds. We could go today, I was at a board meeting in about
[47:18] 6 o'clock, Cal Fire calls me, and tells me they're going to be coming on to the grounds.
[47:24] And so they did get there right about midnight, and they started setting up camp. And so that
[47:30] camp has been active through today, and they plan to be there until the 31st. They'll start
[47:38] 50 mobilizing now, but I'll just give you a few statistics, engines, we've been housing
[47:46] about 141 engines as of today that was reported this morning.
[47:52] We've had hand crews, 38 hand crews, I'm not sure how many is on a crew, but there's
[47:57] been 38 crews total personnel, 1,463 was reported, and we have a mobile kitchen, and we also
[48:08] served as an animal shelter as well. So we're the incident command post and an animal shelter.
[48:14] In terms of the animals, we didn't have any animals until the cinder complex fire started on Friday
[48:20] evening and some of the horses were evacuated or to the fairgrounds. Those have already
[48:26] went home. And between Cal Fire, we have the United States Forest Service, various city and counties,
[48:35] fire departments all the way from many from Southern California area. We have a lot of private
[48:42] contractors, Cal Fire Contracts for all the services, whether it's diesel, whether it's generators,
[48:50] whether it's mobile units that are used for admin offices. They have sleepers over there for the
[48:58] crews. They have laundry mats for the crews and they even have a stand-up hospital for the crews
[49:03] as well. So it's a full pop-up city over there and so that will be winding down.
[49:11] This is not unique for the fairgrounds. It just happens to be one of the larger events
[49:15] that's taken place since I think 2022 was the last major fire that they had here.
[49:21] So the just reported at five o'clock the rock fire which was the main fire that started.
[49:26] It's at 62% containment and the cinder complex fire that was started by lightning on Friday.
[49:32] that's at 39% contained. So they anticipate as long as nothing changes, they see
[49:39] themselves demobilizing and being out of there on Monday. And so that's
[49:45] pretty much what's going on over there. Just about every responder, whether it's
[49:52] the sheriff's office, the Bishop Police and the volunteer firemen's in Bishop in
[49:57] In the city of Bishop, there's been a lot of...
[50:02] Okay, so moving on, backing up a little bit, going back to Mule Days as dawn already covered. May 17th, there was an event of high winds. Not sure how high the wind reached, but they were projected to be up to 75 miles per hour. As a result of that, I or the fairgrounds are staying quite a bit of damage on rooftops.
[50:28] So, between the Charlie Brown building, several bathrooms we have, the insurance estimate
[50:38] comes back at about 200,000.
[50:43] Since it's the insurance telling me that, I think it's going to be more, because I have
[50:47] to go out and work with Department of General Services to get bids for the repair.
[50:55] And then we will negotiate with the insurance and what they're truly going to cover.
[50:59] So I have a $50,000 deductible as a state entity.
[51:04] The general fund does not cover our buildings.
[51:06] So I have to have my own insurance.
[51:08] So luckily I did because it makes you wonder sometimes
[51:12] just like any insurance that you pay this high premium each year.
[51:16] And then you wonder what you get.
[51:17] But I'm glad I had it because $200,000.
[51:21] So now I'm going to be racing against time just because
[51:25] winners are going to be coming about
[51:26] and I need to get those risks fixed.
[51:28] or they're going to have to be temporarily fixed until or secure, I should say,
[51:33] and tile the fix can actually take place.
[51:36] So, but also, I want to thank Mule Days, volunteers and staff, and the fairground staff.
[51:43] I actually wasn't there on May 17th, I did come in a couple days later.
[51:48] So, between dawn and my staff, they kept me up to date on what was going on.
[51:52] So, when I actually got there, everything was pretty much cleaned up.
[51:55] I was just missing a few trees and a lot of limbs.
[51:58] So, again, Mule Day stepped up and made that thing happen.
[52:03] So, without them stepping up, Mule Day would have been canceled.
[52:10] And so, in my opinion, Mule Day was successful.
[52:14] As I attended it, I thought it was a great show.
[52:18] Then, we let into the month of June.
[52:21] We had the California State High School Rodeo Association.
[52:25] It went well.
[52:26] And I think I misspoke last meeting when I was here last quarterly report, somebody asked
[52:32] how many more years we had on the contract.
[52:35] And I want to say, I said three or four years, but actually, after this year, we have one
[52:41] more year on the contract.
[52:43] So, but I'm pretty confident that the high school rodeo is going to want to stay here after
[52:48] that contract expires because they had to find a new home for their junior high division
[52:54] which they did in Oakdale and just tearing through the grapevine after they've gotten their bills.
[52:59] This ship isn't such a bad place to come to after all. So,
[53:05] you know, when you go to a private industry, they charge for everything.
[53:11] So, after the high school rodeo, we actually had a one-day event on Father's Day,
[53:18] which is Band of Music and Bull Writing, which is a very unique event.
[53:24] And so it's a very successful event.
[53:27] There was about 800 people that attended.
[53:29] So the event went well.
[53:31] And then on June 23rd through the 28th, we had our livestock show in auction.
[53:38] And just to give you a comparison, the event went well.
[53:41] The sale went very well.
[53:44] So last year we sold the auction brought in about $570,000.
[53:50] This year we brought in $840,000 on pretty close to the same number of lots that went through the auction.
[53:57] So the community really stepped up and supported the kids this year.
[54:00] So that's real good.
[54:02] And so moving forward, I thought I was going to get a little bit of break but then I ended up with the fire.
[54:12] So I ended up staying this weekend, which it wasn't in my plans, but I'm here, worked out because I was going to be here on Monday anyhow.
[54:21] So we have our fair coming up September through the six.
[54:27] Obviously we're celebrating 250 years of stars and stripes, but we're going to do that with a lieu out under the pines.
[54:33] and everybody always asks, where is the pines?
[54:36] And I'm like, well, you just have to look up or be imaginative.
[54:40] And so anyhow, we do have our four core events in the arena.
[54:45] Thursday, starting with the band tonight.
[54:47] We have two real good bands called Band Carnaval and Vaz Di Mondo.
[54:53] And so what I've been told, because I don't follow that market,
[54:57] that these are well known bands.
[54:59] and so.
[55:00] We did have the original band of that we had actually had to cancel because our visa was canceled. So they had to go back to Mexico. So at the last minute, it delayed our ticket sales because we had to get two new bands to fill their fill the other band. So on Friday, we have Country Night, we have a gentleman by the name of Nico Moon, Drew Green, and Abby Cone. So those will be the entertainers on the Country Night. Then we on Saturday, we have a rodeo.
[55:29] and Sunday, our destruction derby, which is always well-tended and popular as well.
[55:36] And so talking about hotel nights, I was just sort of rough guesstimate.
[55:41] I have about 100 hotel nights from the week of the fair and I don't ask for any
[55:49] comp rooms, but I do play the state rate with the fair or with the hotels which they
[55:54] generally honor. So I'm able to get rooms at 142 a night before
[55:59] four taxes and the only hotels I do pay above the state rate, those are for the entertainers
[56:05] because most of them won't stay out of hotel. That's only $142. So I use the holiday
[56:11] and last year I use the wayfinder for them.
[56:16] So other than the four being the Department
[56:21] of Education, Inyo and Mono, or Mono, excuse me, they're sponsoring the STEM science event.
[56:28] And we also have a science wizard as well, so that will be focused for the kids to attend those events and we also obviously obviously have
[56:36] an honor night or honor day for the kids as well that meet a certain GPA and they get some free discounted food and discounts on their rides as
[56:54] well.
[56:56] And we also have a lot of other music earlier in the year during our
[57:03] Chilean Surveysa. We had local bands and we had four bands that played there.
[57:08] And we had a winner and they will be the main feature on Friday night. All four of
[57:14] those bands will be playing here on the playground as well. So I'm trying to
[57:18] incorporate a little bit more local music instead of just bringing
[57:21] and KIP tribute bands in from outside the area.
[57:25] And on a Saturday, we will also have a Jimmy Buffett band,
[57:30] tribute band, and that sort of fits into the theme.
[57:33] And if you're into cakes and pies this year
[57:36] because we're having a luau under the pines,
[57:39] we're going to have a coconut cream pie contest
[57:42] and a upside down pineapple cake contest.
[57:45] So everything we're going to have is as much
[57:48] the blue hours we can do here in Bishop.
[57:53] Okay,
[57:56] so does the council have any questions
[57:59] of me? Do you need any judges for the PI contest?
[58:04] I can always use judges, I will put that up there. I know we do hire a couple of professionals
[58:12] but it's always good to have a second or third or fourth opinion so that would be great.
[58:17] we'll if you're interested all oh yeah I'll put you down. I've judged in the past.
[58:24] Yeah
[58:25] maybe that's something the fair can grow is you know expand because I know a lot of fairs
[58:30] they not only do they have the pie in the cake but they go chilly and all different kinds of things
[58:35] so do it for free of course yes I mean yeah for food or pie I'll do most things for pie okay
[58:48] Okay. Well, very good. Any other question? Jose?
[58:54] None for me.
[58:55] Okay. Well, I hope to see you there. I do plan on having a sponsor and distinguish guest list.
[59:02] So I hope to see the city because of the council and we'll be invited.
[59:06] So that's going to be on at the ribbon cutting at 4 p.m. on Thursday.
[59:11] Then we'll go into the Talman building and have some hors d'oeuvres and then go out to the fair and enjoy.
[59:16] So I hope I'll send some
[59:19] invitations out and hope to see you there.
[59:22] Thank you.
[59:23] Thank you.
[59:23] Thank you.
[59:25] Next up, we have our consent calendar.
[59:27] Notice the public all matters under consent
[59:29] or consider routine by the city
[59:30] and will be acted on by one motion.
[59:33] Do we have any council discussion on consent?
[59:39] No.
[59:40] Any public comment on consent?
[59:47] I see none.
[59:48] Oh, make a motion.
[59:49] A second.
[59:50] Hey, Robin, call for the vote.
[59:54] Oh, Allison, call for the vote.
[1:00:02] Okay. Council member Garcia. Yes. Council member Schwartz. Yes. Mayor Pro Temproyd. Yes. Mayor Mrahovi. Yes. Thank you. The motion passes for zero. All right. Next up, we have a public hearing in action. A public hearing and first reading of an introduction of an ordinance repealing sections 17.80.110 of chapter 17.80 and adding a new chapter 17.81 appeals
[1:00:32] to titles 17, and I will open the public hearing, so staff comments are part of the record.
[1:00:40] Thank you. Yeah, as you mentioned, we're proposing to repeal the old section and create a new
[1:00:48] chapter that clarifies all the procedures. Mainly clarifies it for the applicant on what the
[1:00:56] appeals and tail. Some of the changes that we're bringing into that section include eligibility
[1:01:04] section. Eligibility section now says that appeal may only be filed by a person who in person
[1:01:12] or through a public comment expressed informed the sitting, writing of a nature of the concerns before
[1:01:23] the hearing. It also clarifies that Council member can appeal all the decision to the
[1:01:33] council that they are on. One of the changes also include that now we have 10 days after
[1:01:43] the decision date to appeal used to be five days and we're clarifying that it's calendar
[1:01:50] under days now.
[1:01:53] There's also a section that outlines the required statement and evidence
[1:01:59] of the appeal that makes it more clear for a balance on what they should include.
[1:02:10] Yeah, otherwise the rest of the items we've been already doing and they're quite standard.
[1:02:18] if you have any questions. Let me know.
[1:02:23] I will say council will hold the staff requests
[1:02:26] for the council to hold a public hearing and consider approving the first reading and
[1:02:31] introduction of an ordinance repealing section 17, 80, 110 to chapter 17, 80 and adding
[1:02:42] meeting new chapter 1781 appeals to title 17, thanks.
[1:02:48] Do we have any members of the public who would speak on this?
[1:02:55] I see none, so I will close the public hearing.
[1:03:00] Council discussion.
[1:03:01] This just seems to be clarifying vague verbiage of the past.
[1:03:09] Good.
[1:03:10] Questions are coming.
[1:03:11] Okay.
[1:03:12] Okay, then I'll entertain a motion.
[1:03:19] I'll make a motion.
[1:03:21] I'll start again.
[1:03:24] Okay.
[1:03:25] Allison, we have a motion a second.
[1:03:27] Call for the vote.
[1:03:31] An ordinance of the City Council of the City of Bishop, State of California, repealing section 17.80.110 of chapter 17.80 and adding a new chapter 17.81 to title 17 zoning of the City of Bishop Code of Ordinances.
[1:03:48] And finding this ordinance is not a project under CEQA pursuant to Title 14 Section 15378B5 of the California Code of Regulations.
[1:03:59] Council Member Garcia.
[1:04:01] Yes.
[1:04:02] Council Member Shorts.
[1:04:03] Yes.
[1:04:03] Mayor Pro Temphoint.
[1:04:05] Yes.
[1:04:05] Mayor Mojoby.
[1:04:06] Yes.
[1:04:07] The motion passes for zero.
[1:04:09] Hey, and our first item of new business today is the consideration and approval of a joint powers agreement with Bishop Fire Protection District.
[1:04:18] Thank you, sir.
[1:04:20] We brought this to you about a month this year or so ago as a slightly different draft than what we have now.
[1:04:27] The 2023 through 2028 strategic plan document actually calls for there to be joint powers authority to be completed with the Bishop fire protection district.
[1:04:40] And then when I got here, there was some other conversation about perhaps looking at a agreement with the Bishop fire protection district as a sort of a contract for services.
[1:04:51] Ethan, your finance director, who I think in his sweet hat went home already.
[1:04:58] Your fire chief.
[1:05:00] Brett Russell and I have worked really, spent a lot of time at looking at different models and
[1:05:04] what works best. And we're pretty excited about this version because the previous shared
[1:05:11] management agreement, joint powers agreement, wasn't being followed essentially. And so,
[1:05:21] what we've done is we've created a draft agreement here that we hope that you will approve
[1:05:25] you that essentially creates a forum by which your finance director, your city administrator
[1:05:33] and your fire chief sort of serve at making recommendations to both organizations.
[1:05:42] So the Bishop fire protection district really doesn't have any staff, certainly not administrative
[1:05:46] staff.
[1:05:47] And so this this format will allow for Ethan and Brett and I to be able to help make recommendations
[1:05:54] to that group in the same way that we make recommendations to you.
[1:05:57] So it sort of, you know, treats it all as acting as one fire department.
[1:06:03] You'll notice in this agreement there is an attachment A.
[1:06:07] It's not included because that will be done on an annual basis.
[1:06:11] It's the annual cost apportionment plan.
[1:06:13] It's historically been a 50-50 split.
[1:06:16] It's planned to continue to be a 50-50 split.
[1:06:20] But we didn't want that to be bogged down in the details of the agreement we want to approve the agreement and if or or take your comments on it and then when the agreement is approved by both parties will bring back the cost apportionment plan on an annual basis to be approved, which this year will continue to be a 50 50 split.
[1:06:40] The language that's changed in here from the last version.
[1:06:46] It helps to create some boundaries and guardrails with regard to the fire chief and outlines
[1:06:55] that the fire chief has a job description and the fire chief has an employment contract.
[1:07:00] And those documents govern the role of the fire chief both with regard to the city of
[1:07:08] Bishop and the fire protection district, both are mentioned in his job description.
[1:07:11] So that helps with some of the concerns that we're being had about who and how the chief reports to it's been this really helps sort of clarify those roles and we feel pretty good about this agreement.
[1:07:27] The Bishop fire protection district has reviewed this and has approved it in theory.
[1:07:36] they didn't officially take action until they wanted to make sure you guys had a chance
[1:07:43] to see it and if you had any comments they would consider those but they agree to the
[1:07:50] terms as they're written.
[1:07:54] Okay. Any council comments or questions on?
[1:08:00] So if like the cost sharing agreement if like the district or potentially the city can't split it 50, 50, do we just write it off like it's like it's not like it's going to go into like that year just one organization will just pony up more is that kind of and then it's called it a day.
[1:08:24] I think what will happen if we get to that point is we'll have a discussion probably schedule a joint meeting to talk about what the issue is.
[1:08:33] You know, the the historic has always been a 50 50 and we're not trying to get away with that away from that.
[1:08:40] So I want to so I would think that if we get to that sort of a situation, we would bring it to both organizations and have a discussion and staff would analyze.
[1:08:49] what the issue is and make a recommendation based on the circumstances that create that kind of a situation, but that's not the intention about it.
[1:08:59] For example, the the Bishop fire protection district is just approved.
[1:09:06] Not to exceed amount.
[1:09:08] They're going to be entering into services agreement with the Mustang Mesa folks.
[1:09:12] they're proposing a tax to tax themselves so that they can start paying for fire protection
[1:09:17] services. So they are working on some of those revenue enhancements and dealing with some of those
[1:09:21] areas outside of the the boundaries. So we don't see that being an issue anytime soon but
[1:09:27] we don't want to hamstring our fire department if something comes up and one organization can't quite
[1:09:33] get there. Got it. I mean it's a little disingenuous to say that it's been a 50-50 split because
[1:09:42] We at the city have actually gone and lobbied our congressman and everything to get
[1:09:55] funds for new fire trucks and so there is a lot of
[1:10:00] Other incidentals that we are putting in, and that we are bringing into this partnership. So I just wanted to kind of bring attention to that, that even though we
[1:10:17] say it's like this says it's a 50-50-split, like it doesn't actually, it seems to be more of a 50-50-split on operating in many ways.
[1:10:30] I would love to see the
[1:10:32] rural fire district, actually, being out and soliciting more funding in those sorts of avenues.
[1:10:47] Any other questions or comments?
[1:10:49] I have a few.
[1:10:53] Number one, I appreciate all the work that three of our department heads put into it.
[1:11:01] Do you achieve it, as you mentioned?
[1:11:06] I'm probably Dean as well.
[1:11:08] maybe. Yes. Yes. Somebody. Yes. Somebody. Yes. How are these drafts? It's not what I was
[1:11:20] expecting to see because it took us years of conversations and looking at financial
[1:11:27] statements indicating the district was not going to be able to sustain the 50-50 spending that
[1:11:38] But they will be broke in 12 months, 18 months, maybe less.
[1:11:46] But the board agreed to a service agreement.
[1:11:51] But I see this as a revision of the previous joint powers
[1:11:56] agreement.
[1:11:58] And I see it almost identical, even when different language.
[1:12:04] And what I wanted is agreement to be is something that would allow the fire department and the fire chief to effectively run the fire department.
[1:12:19] When I still see in section two annual evaluation services that the board may do an annual evaluation of the chief, I think it's a failure.
[1:12:32] Because that was in the previous agreement, it is present in the current agreement.
[1:12:39] And that's one of the issues that led the previous fire chief to not do his job, in
[1:12:46] a matter of we wanted him to do it.
[1:12:49] And I don't want our current fire chief to fail at doing his job because of that.
[1:12:55] Having to report to two different entities is not the best way.
[1:13:02] The file chief is hired by Sirre Cancel and he is a city employee.
[1:13:08] He is not an employee of the district.
[1:13:11] The board should have no business in doing his evaluation.
[1:13:16] I think this should be a financial agreement, 50-50, but leaving the operations of the
[1:13:25] department entirely to the fire chief.
[1:13:29] And historically,
[1:13:33] fire protection board members have been interfering with the fire chief
[1:13:39] performance of his job.
[1:13:42] Despite the fact that he says that he will be performing his job according to his job description when in the agreement says that they can do his evaluation, they can do it.
[1:13:58] I talked to the chief, I don't think he's 100% happy even though he worked on it, the board approved it and now it's up to us to approve it with any changes that we may see needed or as yes.
[1:14:14] I would like to see that being removed, but if my fellow council members think it's okay
[1:14:20] and it stays there, okay, I may not vote in favor of it, but it's not just me, my personal
[1:14:32] opinion, it's what I think based on my conversations with the fire chief.
[1:14:36] I mean, it's a good point because in the we have had fire chiefs in the past who have essentially like played the parents off each other by when and and that was one of
[1:15:00] The issues that led the fire department to not be as effective as it could be. And so I guess
[1:15:17] one of my questions, yeah, would be like,
[1:15:23] does including this bring that back up,
[1:15:34] bring
[1:15:34] in the language space 3. The district commission may annually evaluate the fire chief's performance
[1:15:40] of services under this agreement addressing service delivery, responsiveness, policy implementation,
[1:15:47] budget development. It's it's the same problem that we used to have with previous fire chief
[1:15:55] because of that.
[1:15:58] Having to report to two different entity City Council and the board.
[1:16:19] that the fire chief was in favor of us.
[1:16:24] That is also my understanding.
[1:16:26] I mean, Brett and we've worked hard on this.
[1:16:28] And I think to that point, I think one of the issues
[1:16:32] is that whether
[1:16:37] we like it or not
[1:16:38] or whether it's the most comfortable of agreements,
[1:16:41] we are two different organizations
[1:16:46] that have different funding sources
[1:16:48] that have come together to run a fire department.
[1:16:50] And the Bishop Fire Protection District members feel like they have a job to represent the
[1:17:00] communities that the Bishop Fire Protection District serves, and they contribute half
[1:17:06] the money of the budget, the cost of the Fire Department, and they want to be participating
[1:17:20] in making sure they're doing their jobs as fire protection district representatives.
[1:17:29] So the language, actually, the attorney for the district and I went back and forth quite
[1:17:35] a bit on this language, and
[1:17:42] they do, they feel like they have a responsibility to their
[1:17:48] members to make sure that the tax dollars are being spent appropriately, and that there
[1:17:52] is, you know, if there are those responsibilities are being fulfilled by the fire chief essentially
[1:18:02] as the lead representative for both of these agencies to run the Bishop Fire Department as a whole.
[1:18:12] So their ability to, under the terms of the Brown Act, have an evaluation process and transmit that
[1:18:22] evaluation to the city administrator is
[1:18:27] a process they would like to be able to participate in.
[1:18:34] I mean, I see your point, I can definitely agree with that, but I mean, if they're just
[1:18:43] writing a review, they're not necessarily giving direction to the chief on how to run
[1:18:50] the department, they're just giving feedback on the year of service, which they represent
[1:18:58] the outlying areas that they're collecting money in.
[1:19:00] So I can see why they want the interest of why they're doing it.
[1:19:04] I just don't, I mean I think you guys, and again, I don't have the bad taste in my mouth from what has happened in the past that maybe you guys do have that is part of where you're getting your judgment on this.
[1:19:18] And I understand that because I've heard the stories, but it doesn't sound like they're wanting to judge or direct him.
[1:19:28] They just want to give a review because that's all it's talking about is a review.
[1:19:32] Like, hey, this is what you did, we want to have budgetary constraints, we want to talk about
[1:19:35] how you're spending the money. I can see where that could lead to bad thoughts
[1:19:41] from what I've heard of the past again. I can see that, but I don't have any problem with them
[1:19:46] giving their opinion on how the year went. It's their money and it's their resources,
[1:19:52] they're the ones that are going out. They're trying to get, I mean, they're trying to get more money
[1:19:57] for their areas and I
[1:20:00] Just I don't see I'm trying to look at it on the right side, not the negative side, I guess, which is odd for me. If you know me, typically I'm in the pessimist of the group, but I don't see it as a problem. I mean, I could see it as a problem, but I'm trying to look at it on the right side. I guess one of my other questions is with regards to the section that talks about in any fiscal year in which either party contributes more than one half of the operating expenses.
[1:20:29] Right?
[1:20:33] Don't we have a budget that's set up ahead of time that both of them that both entities are agreeing to?
[1:20:40] So why would we include in their like in the red line about and about pursue reasonable opportunity to contain costs?
[1:20:56] Because we've already gone through the budgeting process and agreed, this is what it actually
[1:21:02] takes for the fire department to operate.
[1:21:09] And so if either party is not meeting that obligation, I think it should say we shall
[1:21:18] make good faith efforts to evaluate and pursue opportunities to increase revenues.
[1:21:22] because we've already gone through the process of containing costs and we've identified what the needs are.
[1:21:35] Well, that's true. I do think, though, with some of the other language that was added. I mean, I do think there is the desire to have the ability to say,
[1:21:47] let's look at containing costs because, for example, and this is completely hypothetical. It's not an actual scenario.
[1:21:53] But as the district is looking at increasing revenue through either service agreements with areas that are outside the district, or going through a process of expanding its boundaries, perhaps they hire a consultant to help them do that work.
[1:22:13] And then that cost of that consultant and that studying those different scenarios impacts their ability to contribute.
[1:22:21] to the 50% line item that might be a time to have a conversation to say how long have you been paying this consultant or you know there's just again it's completely be creating scenarios but there there might be a time where we might want to say well what are what are we paying if we can't get to the 50 50 then what what are some of the expenses that we're accruing that maybe we don't need to accrue in order to make sure that we can get to the 50 50 than what what are some of the expenses that we're accruing that maybe we don't need to accrue in order to
[1:22:53] to have the best fire department we can have.
[1:22:59] Then something I'd like to comment is that, first of all, I would like to have the fire
[1:23:07] achievement in this conversation, as part of the conversation, and I don't think he's
[1:23:10] joining us.
[1:23:12] Because I could refer to him in many of my comments.
[1:23:16] And what has historically been, even with our current far-achieve, is that because of
[1:23:24] the provisions described in the agreement, not only on this one, but in the current.
[1:23:31] On a regular basis, I'm not going to say daily, but a few days a week, you have one or more
[1:23:39] board members at the fire department telling time to tell the chief what to do, which is
[1:23:45] giving direction.
[1:23:47] And that is something we want to avoid.
[1:23:50] Sure.
[1:23:51] Yeah, we don't do that.
[1:23:52] I agree.
[1:23:53] Exactly.
[1:23:53] We don't do that.
[1:23:56] So keeping the provision that the board can evaluate the chief is giving the board the
[1:24:06] open to come to the file department and try to give direction to to the chief maybe we add a
[1:24:12] provision on that saying that the the annual evaluation of services like that's fine but we add
[1:24:23] statement in their stating that exactly that, that this is that the role of the commissioners
[1:24:38] is not to provide direction to the to the fire chief.
[1:24:45] Okay.
[1:24:46] Okay, I
[1:24:50] don't know that that's
[1:24:54] I mean I would be more comfortable with that with that
[1:25:00] The regulation of services, if we made it clear that the role of any of the commissioners is not to provide individual direction to the fire chief.
[1:25:08] I agree with that. Or maybe frame it in like a more like positive.
[1:25:18] They can frame it in a nicer way. Yeah. Like to set policy for the role fire district.
[1:25:32] The policy is said by the two bodies jointly. The board and the district and the city council.
[1:25:39] that's when we meet. Right,
[1:25:44] but not but
[1:25:50] operations are handled by the fire chief and his staff,
[1:25:58] something like, you know, like, I know it's a policy, but like, the day-to-day operations are,
[1:26:03] you know, under the discretion of the fire chief. Exclusively. I mean, we don't, we're not there on a
[1:26:12] daily basis telling them what to do. But someone has to answer and get evaluated. So I don't know.
[1:26:17] And so can we pass this with vague language like that? Probably not. At least I'm not comfortable doing it.
[1:26:27] Well, so on the first point, I'm the happy to, you know, if we want, we can get bread on the phone.
[1:26:33] He went on vacation and he said, do you need me for there for night? And I said, no, you're happy with it,
[1:26:38] right? And he said, yes. So, but I'm happy to try to get him on the phone if that's if that would make you happy.
[1:26:49] What is the drawback if we table this item?
[1:26:53] Nothing. It's been.
[1:26:56] Been an agreement that hasn't been followed since 2019. Nothing.
[1:27:02] I know that 2019 years.
[1:27:06] Do
[1:27:11] we have any public comment on
[1:27:16] this item?
[1:27:16] So
[1:27:22] should we bring it back with a small little blurb in a nicer fashion?
[1:27:35] Sure. Got it.
[1:27:37] I would like that.
[1:27:41] Okay.
[1:27:41] Yeah, yeah.
[1:27:42] All right.
[1:27:43] Okay.
[1:27:44] Then our second item.
[1:27:46] Authorization and approval for Southern California Addison Field 6 rehab project expenditure.
[1:27:51] Okay. Thank you.
[1:27:58] This item is before you tonight in order to authorize Southern California
[1:28:03] Edison, the expenditure of $51,120.19. This expenditure is
[1:28:12] partnered with the potential
[1:28:15] park improvements in the back of the park. So this is when we started working on the plans
[1:28:20] for the field six improvements and looking at the addition of potential basketball courts
[1:28:27] in Pickleball courts. There's no electrical to the back section of the park so we can't
[1:28:31] light that. So one of the things we've been doing through working those renovations
[1:28:36] has been working with Southern California Edison, who is the provider at the back of
[1:28:40] the park. They're going to need to take the electrical from over by the back of field
[1:28:46] for underneath the bridge and over to this section of the park in order so that at some
[1:28:50] day in time we can have lights back there. And so we are recommending that you authorize
[1:28:57] And approve this expenditure so that we can get a Southern California Edison moving on getting electrical to the back of the park so that when we do improvements, there will be electricity.
[1:29:08] Okay.
[1:29:12] Seems pretty straightforward. We're going to need.
[1:29:15] However, regardless of what goes there.
[1:29:18] Yeah.
[1:29:20] Any council discussion?
[1:29:23] Public comment.
[1:29:31] Okay, Alison, we have a motion to second. Call for the vote.
[1:29:35] We
[1:29:39] don't need to read any.
[1:29:44] Council member Garcia.
[1:29:46] Yes.
[1:29:47] Council member shorts.
[1:29:48] Yes.
[1:29:48] Mayor Pro Temp front.
[1:29:50] Yes.
[1:29:50] Mayor Mojave.
[1:29:51] Yes.
[1:29:52] Emotion passes for zero.
[1:29:55] Okay, future agenda items.
[1:29:57] No.
[1:29:58] Nothing.
[1:29:58] Nice.
[1:30:00] We were just talked about discussing the change possibly from the city administrator to
[1:30:10] do you see manager? I'd like to have a formal conversation about that.
[1:30:15] Okay.
[1:30:16] Thank you.
[1:30:18] Well, I have nothing else.
[1:30:24] I guess as we're getting ready, well, I guess in the future years we're going to be doing a bunch of street projects.
[1:30:30] I'm actually curious, like, how municipalities go about ensuring that, like, people can
[1:30:37] are that they bury power lines within municipalities, like, what that would entail, because
[1:30:46] not only does it affect our view shut, but it's a huge fire danger, especially with the
[1:31:00] the wind events that we've been seeing over recent times, so I'm curious about that.
[1:31:07] And,
[1:31:09] all right. Council and committee reports, let's say.
[1:31:15] Nothing.
[1:31:17] LTC was cancelled last month and cancelled the game for next month, I mean this month and
[1:31:23] next month, so nothing to report, I have not had any other meetings.
[1:31:32] Next, the next month's division is next month, but this week in a couple of days I will
[1:31:40] have a Zoom meeting regarding to the next month's division because next month we are
[1:31:49] going to be electing officers, and I have been asked to be in the nominations committee,
[1:31:55] So, I'll be preparing for that and the meeting is next month in Palmdale.
[1:32:03] I believe the third week of August.
[1:32:08] So, nothing else to report?
[1:32:13] Okay.
[1:32:14] I had the Chamber ad hoc meeting.
[1:32:16] We had a robust discussion on ways to collaboratively fund the $2,000 gap.
[1:32:25] So, hopefully, we'll $100,000.
[1:32:27] $200,000 gap right yeah yeah so I said 2000 oh did I say 2000 yeah that was like oh in my head
[1:32:41] well for you 200,000 is just 2000 yeah anyway and yeah it's productive conversation
[1:32:50] excellent yeah I got back Wednesday I went to the California JP
[1:32:57] A annual meeting where we elected the new officers for the year, we approved the budget for 2026, 27 and 2027, 28.
[1:33:11] They discussed the upcoming annual conference and monitoring. That'll be fun.
[1:33:16] Any time you can go to monitor on somebody else, that's kind of nice.
[1:33:19] So looking forward to that.
[1:33:21] That's in September.
[1:33:22] So yeah, it was nice. Excellent. Yeah, is that it? Cool. I also went to the ad hoc meeting as Karen
[1:33:33] mentioned. Yeah, it was really lively at one point. We suggested collaboratively with the
[1:33:39] chamber like doing a 50-50 match. They didn't seem to into that idea. And then we did discuss where
[1:33:50] potential sources of funding would come from and that it seems like they
[1:33:58] agreed that it would make sense to look at our marketing budget from the city as a potential
[1:34:04] source for that. I also went to the Friday night market.
[1:34:10] I was at the park.
[1:34:14] The overwhelming sentiment from everybody there is that it should always be at the
[1:34:19] park because there is a lot more shade and it's a lot more inviting and so I'm hoping
[1:34:29] that that will get back to community services going forward and that I have a question
[1:34:37] about that yeah we get the vendor sorted out with like the number of food trucks that
[1:34:45] that can participate and is that been sorted?
[1:34:54] It's been determined that it's not a city event and therefore...
[1:35:03] We don't really get involved in that level of planning. We could, but at this point, it's this point, it's really, we're not involved in any way other than providing permits. So it's not something we, the way it's currently set up, it's not something we should step into unless we want to provide other sorts of support, but at the moment, it's just an event at the park.
[1:35:31] that happens that we don't support it, but we're not administratively handling.
[1:35:37] Okay. Right, and we don't support it financially.
[1:35:41] Well, I think we do.
[1:35:44] They received a grant in support, but lots of organizations received a grant in support
[1:35:52] that we don't tell them how to.
[1:35:53] So when the event is at the park, do they pay for their own insurance or do we?
[1:36:02] Well, their insurance, I think, is done through the nonprofit that sponsors them.
[1:36:06] I think there's a whole process for that. So, yes, they do that.
[1:36:10] Okay. Yeah. Okay. Okay.
[1:36:16] And then one other thing that came up.
[1:36:21] It isn't really a Council report, but now that I'm remembering, with the water being
[1:36:31] cut off on, yeah, the water that was cut off on line and main, there was a lot of confusion
[1:36:42] as to where, which parcels were actually going to be impacted, because there was a lot
[1:36:51] of concern from residents that the water was going to be cut at their house and so I just want to,
[1:37:00] I'm just curious how we can better communicate what is actually being impacted going forward.
[1:37:10] If you want to comment on that, you don't have to. But the other thing that I want to make sure
[1:37:16] sure is that if water is going to be cut to residential areas, that we should try and
[1:37:26] make sure that we try not to do it during the hottest part of the year when a lot of
[1:37:34] us rely on evaporative cooling to make our homes semi-comfortable in the evening.
[1:37:43] Good point.
[1:37:44] That's it.
[1:37:47] Anything else?
[1:37:48] Nope.
[1:37:49] All right.
[1:37:50] I'll adjourn this meeting at 758 until Monday, August 10th.