[0:00] All righty, we will call this meeting to order at 515. Alison Quaver, roll call, please.

[0:10] Council Member Kong. Council Member Garcia. Here. Council Member Schwartz. Here. Mayor Pro-Tem Freund. Here. Mayor Mojave is absent. Okay. We will have public comment prior to closed session. This time is set aside to receive public comment on matters agenda. It's just for the closed session only.

[0:28] We have no public here, so we will move into closed session.

[0:34] This is a closed session conference with legal counsel, initiation of litigation pursuant

[0:39] to government code 54956.9, we have one case and we will move into closed session at this

[0:47] time.

[0:49] We head down to your office.

[1:03] Recording and progress.

[1:05] Thank you, Allison.

[1:07] Thank you, everybody, for being patient.

[1:09] We just came out a closed session and closed session, there's no reputable action to be taken.

[1:14] It wasn't actually on the agenda to report on that for whatever reason.

[1:18] So I will report on that and then we will move on.

[1:23] So we will start with a moment of silence.

[1:29] I just want to really kind of think about just how we can be better people for the next couple of weeks until the next meeting.

[1:36] I just would like to challenge everyone to just be kinder to your neighbors and to your friends and to everybody and just try to be better people for the next couple of weeks.

[1:47] So let's just have a moment of silence and just think about how we can all do that.

[1:51] Thank you.

[2:02] All righty. Thank you. If you can all stand, I will lead everybody in the pledge of allegiance.

[2:21] All

[2:29] right, very good, Alison, can we have roll call please?

[2:34] Councilmember Kong, here, Councilmember Garcia, here, Councilmember Schwartz, here, Mayor

[2:39] Pro Temp front, here, and Mayor Mojovia's absent today.

[2:44] All right.

[2:45] We will do public comment, and again this time is set aside to receive public comments on matters not calendared on the agenda.

[2:51] When recognized please state your name and address for the record.

[2:54] And please limit your comment to three minutes.

[2:57] We will not discuss the items.

[3:00] We will not take action on the items that you're discussing, but we will listen to all public comments.

[3:04] And we generally will not discuss the matter or take action on it.

[3:08] So we have two comments here.

[3:10] And the first one is cam lemons.

[3:12] Citizens?

[3:21] City Council, fellow citizens, I live in Bishop at 24-07 Cheyenne Drive, and I would

[3:27] like to offer invocational prayer for our leadership in our city.

[3:32] Let us pray.

[3:35] Almighty God, your truth endures from age to age, directing our time we pray, those who speak

[3:40] where many listen and write what many read, that they may speak your truth to make the heart

[3:47] of this people wise.

[3:48] is it's mind discerning and it's will righteous to the honor of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

[3:56] Thank you. Thank you.

[4:02] And then our next public comment is from Joel Moore.

[4:12] Joel Joel.

[4:15] I'll see him. Nope. I don't see him either.

[4:19] Okay. We will move on to the first presentation

[4:25] in the night. We have Bishop Union High School Student Senate reports who's representing

[4:30] the student senate tonight. Come on up to the podium please.

[4:36] I get evening.

[4:43] I'm Kylie James and I'm the Vice Chairwoman of Student Senate. I'm Clara Green and I am the Secretary of

[4:49] Student Senate. A few of the past projects we've been working on over our last year. We started

[4:55] We're working on our curfew with the chief police nature.

[5:00] And the town council. Yeah, and so now last week we just elected five new members to join our Senate, and we're going to meet with them later this week and try to figure out a new projects continuing with our wellness Wednesdays, which we had approved as well as continuing with their wellness garden that we had approved to put in the school. I

[5:26] don't know. So those are the main two projects we're working on as long as well as little individual projects that we're working on.

[5:36] Okay, very good. Thank you. Can I ask? Hang on a second. Sorry. I have questions for you. Don't escape yet. Sorry. Don't run away. Can I ask for your

[5:44] President's? Quingery.

[5:48] Any other questions? Was there any questions? No. But thank you for coming. Yes. Yes. Thank you very much. We love

[5:56] having you guys here. Can't wait to go to your home court. When is your next meeting? Sorry. We have like we have a closed

[6:02] meetings every Wednesday and then we have our open panels, the second Wednesday of every month.

[6:11] I want to say. Okay, thanks. On what time?

[6:15] Me? 6. They're at 6. Yeah.

[6:18] They can Wednesday of every month, 6 p.m. Yes. And those are in the Carlin board room at

[6:23] the high school. Thank you. Very good. Thank you.

[6:31] All right. The next presentation is the

[6:33] Eastern Sierra Community Foundation Formation Project presented by Tyler McManus and Jeff Griffiths.

[6:50] Okay,

[6:56] while we're getting the presentation set up, I'm Tyler McManus. Oh, nice. Thank you.

[7:06] And you may recognize my name because I'm a candidate for the school board,

[7:11] But today I'm here representing the Eastern Sierra Foundation and the Eastern Sierra Community Foundation initiative.

[7:22] Jeff has been a huge part of that as well as a lot of other people.

[7:30] So I'm kind of going to walk through people who were involved in the project, what the project is, what a community foundation means,

[7:38] and kind of where we're hoping this project goes in this region specifically.

[7:45] Okay, this is really small, but there were lots of people from all over Inyo

[7:52] and Mono County who were part of this initiative. So, so many different organizations were represented,

[7:59] the Chamber of Commerce, the East and Sierra Business Resource Center,

[8:03] the Bishop Paju tribe, the Eastern Sierra Foundation,

[8:07] Eastern Sierra Land Trust, SCOG, the Inyo County,

[8:11] Inyo County Council of the Arts, and then in Mono County,

[8:15] the Mammoth Lakes Chamber,

[8:16] like all the Mammoth Community Foundations

[8:19] and other foundations, Mammoth Rotary Club,

[8:23] Mono Arts Council, Mono County,

[8:26] pretty much everyone from every nonprofit

[8:29] profit or government group that wanted to be a part of it was.

[8:37] So we really had representation from all over the region, which is really important

[8:43] for this specific type of project.

[8:47] So I guess the main question is like, why would we start an Eastern Sierra Community Foundation

[8:54] right now?

[8:55] Why do we spend the last year doing this project?

[8:58] And it's really too part, there's a need in the community and there was also an opportunity to pursue this project.

[9:07] So the main need is that nonprofits are pretty stretched thin in the area and have limited capacity for staffing and other resources and administrative needs.

[9:22] We don't have like geographic boundaries for disaster response with something that's

[9:30] really important here and we don't have a regional platform that can capture wealth

[9:38] and generosity from individuals here or individuals passing through and direct it towards all of

[9:45] the priorities in the region.

[9:48] So we don't have that on a regional scale.

[9:50] So that was pretty much the need of why we started asking can we have a community foundation

[9:56] and the opportunity was we got catalyst funding through California.

[10:00] I want your jobs first to pursue a research and discovery and hopefully launch of a community foundation for this region. So, that's why this project happened now.

[10:15] Okay, so what is a community foundation?

[10:19] Community foundations are basically just public charities that pool donations from individuals, families, businesses,

[10:27] is into permanent and flexible funds specifically to address local needs.

[10:35] So community foundations are distinctly place-based, and so they're governed by local boards

[10:42] that have a really deep knowledge of the community, which is unlike a national foundation

[10:49] that maybe is thinking about a problem for the whole country, or a small private foundation

[10:54] which might have a very specific focus.

[10:58] And so they tend to manage permanent endowments.

[11:02] They also manage pass-through grants.

[11:05] And so they tend to have like long-term stability

[11:09] and also some flexibility in the short term

[11:12] in terms of dispensing their funds.

[11:17] So that's a community foundation.

[11:20] Any questions about that?

[11:21] Okay, cool. So you can see on the map that there are community foundations all over the

[11:28] country. There's over 800 in the United States right now, and they're in cities, but they're

[11:36] also in many rural areas as well. And they manage billions in charitable assets for their

[11:42] communities. And California, actually all of California is covered or has, is like covered

[11:50] by a community foundation except for the Eastern Sierra, so we're like the 1% of California

[11:55] that doesn't have a community foundation which is a great opportunity for us. So that's just kind

[12:02] of how you know broad community foundations are at least in the US and a big question that came

[12:11] up in our discovery is the question of something that's complementary versus something that feels

[12:18] competitive. And so the Eastern Sierra already has tons of nonprofits that are really focused

[12:27] on specific causes like education or arts or conservation. And a community foundation

[12:35] is not here to replace them in any way. So it's not here to replace any specific foundation

[12:42] or non-profit that has a specific focus, and really it's meant to kind of uplift all

[12:51] non-profits, and so these are kind of the three ways that a community foundation is different

[12:59] from any existing non-profit. The first is that it has regional scope, so it's specifically

[13:04] specifically focused on the region of Inyo and Mono County, not a single issue in either

[13:10] place, not a specific geographic pocket.

[13:14] They also have flexible grant making, so the resources can flow to whatever sector the

[13:20] foundation decides to focus on, so it could go to health, grant making, education, housing,

[13:26] environment, arts, disaster relief, whatever the needs of this specific community are.

[13:31] and then it has representative governance so it needs to represent our whole region geographically by sector and also by community perspective.

[13:44] So it's really meant to be like a philanthropic infrastructure that helps make other local efforts more effective.

[13:51] So that's really the goal of a community foundation is that it wants to complement the existing nonprofit ecosystem.

[13:58] So something that I just wanted to highlight for this group is that community foundations

[14:05] often partner with like public agencies in their area to meet specific goals.

[14:12] So one that felt like particularly relevant to Bishop is the Merced County Community

[14:18] Foundation example, which is on the far right.

[14:21] And basically, the Merced County Community Foundation pursued local and state and federal funding and brought in a million dollars to help restore a local park.

[14:32] So they worked with the local bodies to help make that happen.

[14:38] So oftentimes, community foundations can be partners because they know how to, because they're trusted entities,

[14:48] they can leverage and draw in public funding on a large scale and then help

[14:53] disperse it throughout the community. So that is just a cool project from...

[15:00] Foundation here in California. And so, how did we get to this process? So, I mentioned all

[15:07] those people in the beginning. Many of them and many other people were involved in a feasibility

[15:13] study process that happened over the last year. And so, we really asked the question like,

[15:20] what is the value add of a community foundation here? What role would a community foundation

[15:26] play in our specific community? What's the best organizational structure for something

[15:33] like this here? And do we have the capacity to stand up a community foundation? So really

[15:39] important questions before you start anything. And so there was six feasibility and implementation

[15:47] committee meetings. There were tons of like interviews and one-on-one conversations.

[15:55] Of

[15:56] and in your county foundation boards, because many of you know there are other groups already that exist in the area that are called community foundation or mammoth foundation or whatever.

[16:08] So all of those boards were involved and had a lot of conversations. One really important conversation that came out of that was, if this community foundation moves forward, I think other foundations that might have community foundation in their name, like mammoth mountain community foundation,

[16:25] would be willing to drop that from their name because they're not actually a

[16:30] community foundation, which is something that we all kind of learn together in

[16:34] the process. And then also community presentations like this. We're all part of

[16:39] our engagement process. And so this is kind of what we heard throughout the

[16:46] process. Strengthening nonprofits is a really big need in our community. They

[16:52] They need board training, they need fundraising support, a lot of like technical assistance,

[16:57] like accounting and HR, a lot of those things are hard for small nonprofits to manage, disaster

[17:06] preparedness and emergency response.

[17:09] That's a really big need and issue that people care about and it's obviously very important

[17:16] here.

[17:16] And so people were excited for the idea that the Eastern Sierra Community Foundation could

[17:22] be like a regional convener to help when there are disasters, when people want to like

[17:28] community, the community wants to donate money very quickly, like during the PAC fire in 2025.

[17:36] It's also a place for to hold and grow charitable funds, so it's a home for like donor-advised funds

[17:45] or endowments or end of life giving so it's a great opportunity to keep local giving local

[17:54] and hopefully something that could build out because obviously public funding is always fluctuating

[18:01] and so it's great to have a local source that you know you can give to these really important

[18:05] organizations and regional grant making so a community foundation can distribute in the region and

[18:15] make grants for different projects and ideally like focus on whatever is most important

[18:22] here and then it's again it can be like a neutral convener for bringing together diverse

[18:27] community members around different issues and help reduce duplication and encourage collaboration

[18:35] and then it can also be a fiscal sponsor which is something I think is pretty cool so like if you

[18:42] You don't have a non-profit status yet, but you have a great idea that you want to get going.

[18:49] Community foundations can sponsor your small organization that isn't ready to be a 501C3,

[18:56] and you can start your mission, and they can be your 501C3 umbrella while you get it off.

[19:02] So it's an opportunity for smaller groups to get their footing without having to take

[19:07] everything on their own.

[19:10] And then, okay, so our roadmap to readiness.

[19:14] So after we did all of this chatting and talking and ideating,

[19:18] and visioning of what this could be, we began our roadmap to readiness,

[19:24] which means we want to take this idea and make it a reality.

[19:28] And so we worked through the drafted and draft of the purpose

[19:32] in working mission statement.

[19:35] and now we're in the determining governance structure phase.

[19:39] So we're trying to figure out how to structure this entity.

[19:45] Are we going to like use an existing 501c3

[19:50] and use that as the kind of base for the community foundation

[19:55] or start a new one.

[19:57] There's also an option where you could like

[19:59] Thank you very much.

[20:00] Be a part of a national foundation and kind of come under it as a community foundation, but that idea was like the least popular just because you just don't get as much local focus, which is really what we need in our community. So that is pretty much everything after the government structure gets decided then would be building the leadership and finding the funding and launching and then becoming operational.

[20:28] And that's basically our plan, and I've been involved with this since the beginning of this whole project, and I think the thing that was most exciting is like community foundations probably not going to be giving out, you know, hundreds of thousands of dollars of grants immediately, but it's something that if you plant the seed now in 10 or even like 20 years could be something that's really giving back to our whole community.

[20:58] So that's why I have been involved with this and why I was excited to share with you all, so

[21:05] That's all I have for you. Thanks

[21:07] Thank you

[21:11] Question no, but good work. Great. Thank you

[21:16] Great. Was it no questions? I have a question

[21:22] So I've been doing I went to Jeff's presentation. He made it the chamber

[21:28] And I've been doing some looking on other Community Foundations websites.

[21:33] And I guess my,

[21:36] I'm going to say I use the word concern.

[21:39] My concern about all of this is the idea that it looks like in a lot of the structures that are set up in other community foundations,

[21:48] that this is more about investments and self-sustaining the foundation than it is about the other,

[21:56] that there's a lot of talk about it being a non-profit and how you can get tax-free donations

[22:01] and you can grow your money this way and you can, you know, that kind of thing and I guess

[22:08] that's my first concern. And my second concern is just sort of the nature of the non-profits

[22:17] that you had on this list of people that you talked with. I'm going to go back here real

[22:23] quick. Oh yeah. It's like seven. Thank you. I got you. Yeah.

[22:29] There are a lot of really great entities here.

[22:34] I guess what Mike thought is is there's a lot of there's a lot of nonprofits out there who do specific

[22:42] client work in a different way and none of those people are represented here and so my concern would be

[22:48] How much discussion did you do with those people and I guess who is this board that's

[22:57] going to be making, once there's millions of dollars in this account, who's the board

[23:01] that's going to be making these decisions, what they think is important and what, how

[23:08] do those important things get done?

[23:11] Yes, totally.

[23:13] Okay.

[23:13] So your first question about being concerned about it being overly focused on kind of the

[23:18] financial part of it. I know that foundations, that's how they make the money to give to

[23:27] grants. You know, it is all, that's like how they make their money. So I'm not surprised

[23:35] that that's their focus, but I know that the mission of a community foundation is to use

[23:42] is that money in the community?

[23:44] So, yeah.

[23:46] Yeah.

[23:47] So, I'm going to use an example of the North State Community

[23:51] Foundation that's based out of Shasta.

[23:55] And so, they started 20 years ago,

[23:57] the exact same position that we're in right now.

[24:00] And they have hundreds of millions of dollars

[24:04] that have been given an end of life and large donations

[24:10] from people over the years, and they give out $4 million a year in grants.

[24:15] So what we're talking about is new money that is currently not being, you know, brought

[24:22] into the philanthropic nonprofit field.

[24:26] And so there is a, you know, basic amount of structure that needs to be sustained within

[24:35] a community organization but it's not taking money away from anything else. It's bringing

[24:40] in donations and really transformational amounts of money that currently don't exist

[24:48] in our area. So I guess looking at this North State community foundation, is that what you

[24:55] called it. Pretty sure that's the name. Okay.

[25:00] They have an entire page, not the donor page, but they have this entire page that says fund advisor portal. And so, you know, there is a part of me that feels like it's kind of this weird hybrid of where rich people put their money in. Maybe that's what we want. Maybe we want rich people to put their money here so that we can send it out to Wild Iris and to other places, but there's just something about it.

[25:29] that turns me off, I'll just say.

[25:31] Well, I mean, I will say that, that is what we want.

[25:35] So the reason is because our nonprofits around here

[25:40] are really good at having chili cookoffs and 10K runs

[25:44] and events that raise, you know, if it's a really good one,

[25:49] raises $10,000, you know, or $5,000 at $2,500.

[25:53] Well, we're not really good at is getting the person

[25:57] Anyone who wants to leave a half a million dollars in their estate to a particular cause

[26:02] in the Eastern Sierra because there doesn't really exist that one that donor cultivation

[26:09] and then two that sort of trusted place where high wealth individuals can put their resources.

[26:19] And that's where creating a community foundation makes that possible to really have those

[26:25] transformational gifts.

[26:29] And on your second question,

[26:31] that list is not comprehensive of everyone.

[26:34] Okay.

[26:34] What they were spoken to.

[26:35] There were well over 35 individual interviews,

[26:41] and we tried to get a real cross-section of both people

[26:46] who have made donations in the past,

[26:48] people representing small nonprofits

[26:52] to the medium or larger nonprofits, if you will.

[26:58] And what I didn't see here on this list was who's doing this road mapping part?

[27:06] Oh, I'm sorry, so we wrote and applied for a grant through California Jobs First,

[27:11] the capacity grant, and so we hired Agnew Back, in which is a consulting firm,

[27:16] which does a lot of work in the space.

[27:19] They actually are currently doing several projects in the Eastern Sierra,

[27:24] So economically, it worked out to bring them in, and they brought in as part of their team a woman who started the Nevada County Community Foundation, which is the most recent community foundation that was formed in California.

[27:41] and also a couple of other people that are like specialized and skilled and

[27:47] they've either been executive directors for community foundations or they've

[27:51] started community foundations or they've done work in donor development and

[27:55] raising money for community foundations in the past and if I wanted to ask more

[28:00] questions who are the who are the board people sitting now there is no board

[28:05] there is no board so well someone has a new husband meeting with someone so well

[28:10] Well, I guess that would be us.

[28:11] Okay.

[28:12] So the fiscal sponsor for the process is the Eastern Sierra Foundation, of which Tyler and

[28:18] I sit on the board and also Marim Hovees sits on the board of that.

[28:23] And then we have sort of a core team that has been made of Julie Faber and myself and Paul

[28:31] McFarlane, who's a Monocounty Supervisor representing the Deciambot Foundation, Stacey

[28:35] cordless from Mammoth who is representing the Mammoth Mountain Community Foundation that

[28:40] was sort of the core team.

[28:42] And then we also have the, what are we calling it?

[28:46] The feasibility implementation steering committee, which is, I don't know, there's 15 folks or

[28:54] something, 20 folks, something like that that have been meeting regularly to, you know, talk

[29:00] about this.

[29:02] But also, I'm happy to meet. I'm sure Tio is happy to meet. We'd be happy to meet with you anytime to talk about it.

[29:09] You know, I thought of a few questions. Well, you were about three of you were talking.

[29:14] So did I hear correct that this came out of a grant received through the California jobs first?

[29:22] That's correct.

[29:23] How much was that grant received with them?

[29:25] It was $140,000 and then the sort of founding foundations that we're participating in this coalition put in some matching funds as well.

[29:38] Like matching funds, another 140,000.

[29:41] No, no, no, no. I think we put in $5,000.

[29:44] Okay. California Jobs first.

[29:52] I was involved in the California Jobs from the beginning.

[29:56] I'm going to save 5.

[30:02] And what I do remember is that the goal of the California Jobs First was to create the

[30:10] high-paying jobs of the future. And the reason I left the initiative is because

[30:22] out of, I believe it was $15 million that, what

[30:31] is her name,

[30:33] see what business council received for this project from the state.

[30:40] I did out of the list of hundreds of different projects that I sought to evaluate

[30:46] that were submitted between the seven counties that were part of the origin.

[30:53] In my opinion, none of those projects were really meant or comply with all of the requirements

[31:02] that the initiative was created for creating the high-paying jobs of the future.

[31:09] I'm glad you guys are doing this work.

[31:15] I'm just don't see the state using these funds the best way possible when we have many

[31:24] services in our state that we need funds for, but it's not on you, it's on the state

[31:31] the way they're spending their money.

[31:32] Thank you.

[31:35] Yeah.

[31:35] If you're asking me to fix that.

[31:37] No, I'm not asking you.

[31:38] I'm not asking you that.

[31:39] It was not a question.

[31:40] It was a comment.

[31:40] But one thing I would say about that is the nonprofit community in our area is a major employer.

[31:49] I mean, Tyler is an example of someone who makes her living and is able to pay her rent and enjoy the area because she works for a very important nonprofit.

[31:59] And one of the main drivers of us forming this project and exploring the community foundation is,

[32:09] is we didn't talk about it much in the presentation, but a main function of a community foundation

[32:17] is capacity support for existing nonprofits. We have a lot of nonprofits that are struggling

[32:23] because everything's small here, so you may be small, but you still have to file your

[32:30] $9.90, so you have to do your, you know, filings with the Secretary of State. You may be subject

[32:36] to an audit if you're receiving any federal or state funds, you still need to do HR.

[32:44] You know, there's all of these things that it's, you know, right now I'm sure with

[32:48] your organization, Tyler, it's you doing that, and you know, you may not be an expert

[32:54] in all of that, and you know, we've run the Eastern Sierra Foundation forever, that's

[32:57] an all volunteer organization, and I've been the treasurer, and I'm not an expert in filing

[33:02] 990s or all of that and so in order and we've seen you know if we remember what happened to

[33:09] Amaca when they spent a little bit of time without their controller and things you know they really

[33:15] really struggled and that that's a story that's happened over and over and over again with many

[33:19] nonprofits that are major employers in our area and you know employ a lot of people and provide some

[33:25] vital services so the idea of this being eligible for capacity money through California jobs first

[33:32] is that it will grow and support that entire sector of our economy that

[33:37] that employs so many people.

[33:39] Okay, there's a question.

[33:42] Anything else?

[33:43] No.

[33:43] Tyler, thank you very much for the presentation.

[33:45] Thanks for coming tonight.

[33:47] Jeff.

[33:47] Thank you.

[33:49] Okay, let's move on to the department reports.

[33:53] We'll start with Chief Brett Russell.

[33:56] Good evening, Chief.

[33:58] Good evening, Mayor Protein, members of the council, members of the public.

[34:03] I hope everybody's doing well.

[34:05] A few things to discuss tonight.

[34:06] Last month, the Bishop Fart Department ran 46 emergency calls.

[34:11] We were on the rock fire for a week.

[34:14] We had a preposition through assistance by Hire through Cal Fire for over a week.

[34:20] This last year, we had a very, very successful Derby.

[34:24] A shout out to the Bishop Volunteer Fire Association for putting countless man hours behind the scenes leading up to the Derby.

[34:32] and of course the evening of the Derby. If you were there, you notice it was above and beyond this year.

[34:39] Let's see. The 9-11 stair climb was another huge hit. I saw a couple of you council folks out there,

[34:45] so I appreciate you coming out. Bishop Art Department attended the Hispanic Heritage

[34:50] event at the city park. It looked like it turned out to be a good event. I had to leave a little bit

[34:55] early to attend another meeting up at the

[35:00] Musting Mesa area with their community service district, and it was a dinner and a demo. We did a cooperative demo with Cal Fire specific to capabilities of our organizations and had an ending discussion specific to contracting for services with the Bishop Fire Department. Something we've been working on for quite some time. Successful event. We happy with to talk to you further about that and then last but not least as always.

[35:29] a huge thank you to the members of the Bishop Art Department for all that they

[35:33] continuously do.

[35:36] Questions? Questions, Jose? No. All right. Thank you, Chief.

[35:43] Appreciate it. We'll move on to Chief there. Good evening, Chief.

[35:47] Good evening, evening Council members and members of the public. Bishop

[35:52] Art Department or a police department on this side. Just working towards

[35:56] competing goals on our strategic plan, working like I said in the beginning with

[36:00] staffing and staff training and future planning for staffing and attrition down the road.

[36:07] We do have a dispatch interviews this Thursday, hopefully for our vacant dispatcher position.

[36:13] As far as the parking enforcement stuff, we've got some digital parking side devices to try

[36:19] to speed that up and make it a little more efficient since we're struggling with the staffing

[36:23] of a part-time officer to be able to do that.

[36:28] Also, as far as events and everything goes, obviously the fair with no major instance

[36:34] report, which is awesome, the official flat department's dirty was actually one of the

[36:41] better ones recently.

[36:42] That's probably one of the biggest entries, right?

[36:45] And then shout out honestly to the public works for dinner here, because those guys have

[36:54] been a probably working more than anyone in the city right now, minus the volunteers on

[36:58] the Derby night with Gay and Hector and their old crews in Norway working on the projects

[37:05] and asked everyone to be a little patient since they're not here to speak up for themselves.

[37:10] Also, I want to bring it up about some funding that we're receiving from the state, for our

[37:16] dispatch, resiliency project that we've been working on, which is some really good news,

[37:21] and I don't, I'll let her speak to that portion maybe to, so I don't still any thunder,

[37:26] but it's to help us out to just be more resilient with our electrical and our infrastructure

[37:31] that's outdated and not keeping up.

[37:34] So unless you have any other questions.

[37:38] That was good news.

[37:39] You already shared it, but you took the trucker's thunder away.

[37:44] That's okay with me.

[37:45] As you all know, I've been relatively ill for the last weekend, so I was sitting here

[37:49] we're thinking what happened in the last week.

[37:52] I'm not quite sure because I've been pretty out of it,

[37:55] but that was a pretty cool thing.

[37:56] The right at the end of the budget season,

[37:58] we got notification from Senator Alvarado-Gill's office

[38:01] that she was working to put some final things in the budget

[38:05] as if we had any projects that were pressing related

[38:08] to public safety.

[38:10] And we had talked to her office previously about the fact

[38:13] that we have some infrastructure issues

[38:16] In the police department related to servers and computers as well as dispatch and we received word that her office secured $500,000 in the state budget to help facilitate getting that project going.

[38:31] So we're very grateful to the senator and her team for getting that done.

[38:36] And this is one of those times where I feel like maybe I called in sick, right?

[38:40] We had a math test or something, but the last week we've had the auditors here.

[38:45] And I just really want to compliment Ethan Ockie.

[38:50] When I chatted with the auditor, he said that, you know, he's been coming here for a very

[38:54] long time.

[38:56] And every year he finds these issues and every year for years and years.

[38:59] They said, oh, we're going to work on those and then the next year comes and those things

[39:03] weren't necessarily fixed, but he has been super complimentary of Ethan and the work that

[39:08] he's done and the improvements he has made with such a small team to be able to make

[39:13] sure we're meeting all of those generally accepted accounting principles and doing

[39:18] what we need to be doing and just super thankful to him and his support staff for all the

[39:25] great work they do keeping the finances going.

[39:28] and you may have heard but and I don't have the details I reached out today like

[39:33] again like I said I haven't been feeling great but last meeting we talked

[39:38] about giving $35,000 air service and joining that with $15,000 from the

[39:42] B-tid through the Chamber of Commerce and I am told that those flights are

[39:47] being are open and are being booked and that we will have year-round air

[39:51] service there will not be a break this October so I'm not sure how the money

[39:56] They came together, but they figured it out, and those flights are now...

[40:00] So, available to book. So, very excited about that. I would just like to apologize on behalf of

[40:06] Noreganino Public Works Director. She had a family emergency and needed to leave and told her she didn't need to stick around to give you an update. So, thank you.

[40:16] Very good. Any questions for either a chief or a panel? No.

[40:20] All right. Very good. We will move on to district supervisor Jeff Griffith put on a different

[40:30] hat there, Jeff.

[40:32] Good evening, sir.

[40:35] Happy to be here. Good evening again, Mr. Mayor. Members of Council. I've got a few things

[40:41] This report on today, last week we approved Inyo County's budget.

[40:48] It is more or less a steady budget as far as initiatives and what we're doing.

[40:55] No additions, but no cuts, but we have seen a steady increase in particularly retiree

[41:04] and healthcare costs.

[41:05] Both of those went up 12 to 14%.

[41:09] We decided to make no changes in our workforce.

[41:14] We do see some uncertainty coming with some of the threats for HR1 and our indigent care

[41:24] responsibilities and some of our requirements for the new eligibility obligations.

[41:32] We did set aside our money to continue improving our parks throughout the county.

[41:37] It made quite a few improvements in Menda Hall Park in Big Pine and are looking forward

[41:42] to starting the improvements to Millpond coming up.

[41:47] It is about a $100 million general fund, $182 million overall.

[41:56] We did put an additional $300,000 into our reserves and $150,000 into contingency that puts

[42:07] That says that about 12% of our annual budget, the generally standard is 16%, so we're still

[42:15] short of that, but we're trying to chip away at it, and those are all the highlights

[42:21] for that.

[42:22] We also had a presentation last week about the development agreement.

[42:26] We are making with a bonanza peak solar, and I brought that up in the past, but that is

[42:31] say 500 megawatt, 2,400 acre facility that is planned to be built in Charleston view,

[42:39] which is right on the border of Nevada next to Perump.

[42:44] It's going to be a 50-year project, and we are negotiating about a $2.5 million

[42:50] community benefit out of that, which would come in the form of a $2 million fire station.

[42:57] Charleston View currently has no fire protection at all other than the service that comes out of

[43:03] Tacopa, which is also pretty bear bonds and doesn't have a fire department yet, although we're

[43:07] trying to build one. And $500,000 to do the sequa for the Charleston View specific plan, the environmental

[43:16] review for that. Let's see, we've had some pretty, pretty big issues that I've been working on with

[43:23] statewide advocacy. A couple of threats. One is a sticky threat for child abuse allegations

[43:33] that have happened in juvenile facilities. The state passed a law extending the statute

[43:42] of limitations. One of the tricky parts of that is the state already had a law that required

[43:49] their juvenile institutions to destroy all of their records.

[43:53] And so there has been a rash of lawsuits that come out saying, you know, I was abused

[43:59] in such and such institution in the mid 80s, and there's no record of that person even

[44:06] being in the institution.

[44:08] It has been a upwards of $10 billion, with a B billion dollar liability in Los Angeles

[44:16] county alone, so we did some work on the state to try to put some limits and some parameters

[44:22] on that, and along with additional requirements to make sure that you are running a safe

[44:29] institution where this doesn't happen, because it should never happen, but also some liability

[44:36] for lawyers and law firms that are filing frivolous lawsuits based on this.

[44:44] The other big one that came out of nowhere was an effort by the investor-owned utilities,

[44:50] particularly Pacific Gas and Electric, to limit their liability and wildfires that are

[44:57] caused by their infrastructure, and this would have hurt

[45:00] Court, cities and counties, particularly bad, because right now if there's, I mean, it would hurt a wildfire victims as well. But for cities and counties, if you have infrastructure that was damaged or destroyed during one of these fires, this new legislation would have shifted that liability to the cities and counties. There was a tremendous effort and a really quick coalition bill when we were able to defeat that legislation.

[45:30] We recently approved a loan from the U.S. Department of Agricultural Rule Development

[45:39] for the Lone Pine Water System, just as a reminder, in Yilk County through the long-term

[45:46] water agreement, acquired water systems in Lone Pine Independence and laws, and those

[45:54] came with ancient infrastructure and not a lot of hookups and customers in order to recover that.

[46:02] Loan Pine was the biggest issue out there, and we received a $3.25 million grant that

[46:12] comes with a $4 million loan. And that $4 million loan is really good terms. It's a 40-year

[46:21] loan with 2.75% interest rate, and so we're able to spread out the cost of those repairs

[46:30] over such a long time that we're not going to have to make really dramatic increases to

[46:36] the water rates for loan-pine customers, and so we're really excited and are appreciative

[46:43] to our congressional delegation for helping secure those loans and want to give a particular

[46:49] The first shout out to Megan McCammon with the county, she did a great job putting all of that package together.

[46:56] I do want to take a moment to talk about the conviction of Brian Stang.

[47:05] Mr. Stang was convicted of murder of David Miller, who was one of our employees.

[47:11] So that hit particularly close to home for the county family.

[47:16] He was convicted of first degree murder and stocking, and there was, I mean, it was an entire law enforcement effort.

[47:24] I know the city of Bishop participated in that, and I want to show my appreciation to all of the law enforcement agencies and also the district attorney's office,

[47:34] both District Attorney Crum and Assistant District Attorney Christensen who prosecuted the case and I'm hoping that this provides some comfort to the family and friends of Mr. Miller and this did come at a significant unexpected financial cost to the county because county is responsible for both defense and prosecution on stuff like this but a sentencing comes November 13th.

[48:03] We did receive a report from public works of preparations going on for the upcoming winter season.

[48:12] It is an unprecedentedly strong Elmenio.

[48:18] The anticipation is that it could be quite a wet and perhaps warm winter season.

[48:26] And so our public works crews have been out clearing all of the diversion channels.

[48:32] so there's a diversion channel that goes around Bishop that takes excess flow. I believe it

[48:40] came into use in 2023. The last big winter, it's not used very often but we have diversion

[48:49] channels around Big Pine and Bishop and so they're out clearing that and doing work on parts

[48:59] parts of the roadway system that you know typically get damaged during big storm events

[49:05] and so we're doing our best to prepare for what may come with this.

[49:12] We also approved a resolution for an Agapast program in Inyo County and we're going to do

[49:18] the same thing in Mono County.

[49:19] And this is a sort of innovative new technique that allows ranchers and farmers access to

[49:27] their lands when safe during evacuation orders, particularly for fires, to allow them to move

[49:36] livestock or make sure that livestock have access to water.

[49:41] And normally during, you know, emergencies like that during evacuations, nobody's allowed

[49:47] back in, but this allows emergency management folks and law enforcement to work with particular

[49:56] ranchers to make sure that we don't have large impacts to livestock.

[50:00] During those events. And we also did something that I'm particularly proud of. We, as far as I know, no county in the state has this. We did a personnel policy that provides a leave bank for first responders. When first responders go to, when, when the bell goes off, some employers just let their people go. So make them clock out. Some say they can't go out.

[50:31] And in the past, it's been sort of under the table, if you will, at Ennio County.

[50:40] And so we passed an official policy for firefighters, EMS, and

[50:45] search and rescue that you get 40 hours of leave to respond to local emergencies.

[50:53] And then clear policies of after you use that 40 hours of

[50:58] being able to use personal time, vacation time, things,

[51:03] and even pay without leave for people

[51:08] who respond to out of the area.

[51:11] Cal fire incidents, and because you get paid during those,

[51:15] but we've provided a clear mechanism for folks

[51:18] to be able to do that because we rely on,

[51:21] when we have big fires, like the one we just had,

[51:24] We rely on tons of volunteers and firefighters from other areas that come into our area.

[51:31] So we want to be good neighbors and reciprocal with that.

[51:35] And so I put a lot of effort in trying to make a fair and generous policy that made sure

[51:41] that we do our part for when the siren goes off.

[51:44] There's somebody to show up.

[51:47] That's all I have to report.

[51:48] I'm happy to answer any questions.

[51:56] I just find it very interesting that there was in a all volunteer county and city that nobody ever thought about that before having a.

[52:05] I mean, I can't guarantee that there's no policy, but we searched and couldn't find any other county that has a policy.

[52:12] I think it's, I think it's always been just kind of some bosses left their people go and

[52:18] some don't and technically it's a gift to public funds.

[52:24] Right.

[52:25] If you pay your employee and your employee is not working.

[52:28] So we wanted to make it clear and encouraging for everybody.

[52:33] I mean, I've, the business owner, I've never had anybody on the fire department, but I'd

[52:39] Let them use sick pay or vacation pay or whatever.

[52:42] It wouldn't penalize them for getting it and going out.

[52:44] So we created an entirely new benefit for 40 hours.

[52:49] That's great.

[52:50] Good job.

[52:51] Yeah.

[52:52] Thank you.

[52:53] Yeah, OK.

[52:55] EMT contract signed?

[52:57] EMT contract is not signed.

[52:59] OK.

[53:00] And then I noticed you had the first look review

[53:03] planned for the CAO job planned for end of August.

[53:08] But it's still open so we're still waiting for more or what can you tell me?

[53:13] It's exactly as you said so there was the the first review that's been

[53:17] happening through the personnel office and the the job is open until filled.

[53:23] Okay great. Nothing has come to my desk yet. All right. I like that the job is open

[53:29] until filled. Well thank you for that. All right, thank you Jeff. All right, the consent

[53:37] calendar, all matters under the consent calendar are considered routine by the stadium will

[53:41] be acted on by one motion. Do we have any public comment on the consent calendar? Any comments

[53:48] on the consent calendar or anybody? No, can I get a motion? I'm a motion. Second, please.

[53:54] Okay, can we get the folk there please also council member Kong. Yes, council member Garcia. Yes, council member shorts. Yes mayor pro-10 front. Yes, the motion passes for zero.

[54:10] We'll move on to new business. The first thing at hand is the California High School

[54:15] rodeo association request for $40,000 sponsorship for the 2027 state finals rodeo who's going

[54:22] to be handling that. That will be me. Okie dokie. Thank you sir.

[54:27] So at our last meeting the California High School rodeo association came and asked to be put

[54:32] on the agenda for this request. I don't have a lot to add to your staff report.

[54:38] The high school rodeo has been, finals have been held in bishops since 2005.

[54:44] They're currently secured through 2027, although I hear maybe that's not entirely true,

[54:49] there might be the ability to even move that next year.

[54:52] But there are some wonderful folks here from the rodeo who will come up and speak when you

[54:57] to give them that opportunity to do that.

[55:00] The rodeo brings more than 300 student athletes to the fair grounds each year, where they spend about a week doing what they do in that arena. It's been a very popular event for a long time. The city has contributed in a variety of ways over the years and the documentation of that is somewhat scattered because most of the time that that has been through some sort of agreement with the fair grounds and not the rodeo association.

[55:32] The Rodeo Association has provided with a letter with their request and some documentation about the increased costs.

[55:41] I did reach out to the fairgrounds to try to understand why some of these changes are made and why the Rodeo Association is being charged.

[55:49] These bills now when they previously haven't been, they provided bills from 2026 and 2025 with regards to generators,

[55:58] electrical lines, golf carts, and the ambulance services. Those are the main heavy tickets on those bills.

[56:09] I did hear back from Mike, Francis Keone, how we said that, Francis Keone last week.

[56:17] Of course he was a little delayed in responding because it was the week of the fair, so certainly understand that.

[56:24] And the fairgrounds has also been under some changes, and there's not a lot of documentation

[56:30] as to why things weren't built before, but there are changes to how they're being built

[56:35] now.

[56:36] He indicated that at some point he believes that LEDWP was providing generators, but that

[56:42] couldn't be done.

[56:43] So now the fairgrounds is actually having to go out and bear the cost of renting those generators.

[56:48] At some point in time, the Bishop Country Club provided golf court rentals, but now they

[56:54] have these GPS trackers that won't let you drive certain areas, and maybe that's some

[56:59] part of the limitation why that's not being provided.

[57:04] And so those are also being rented.

[57:08] And what Mike indicated was that when he was under the impression that Judd, when he was

[57:14] in charge of assignments, ambulance, provided, just charged a small amount and now they're

[57:19] being charged the full amount of providing, you know, staff person during the event.

[57:24] And so all of these costs, he says, are now new to the fairgrounds and that they are being

[57:30] passed on to the California High School rodeo association because the fairgrounds also can't

[57:34] bear the cost of these expenses.

[57:38] In 2020,

[57:43] last year, the high school rodeo association, you know, get into the fiscal year

[57:49] thing and I kept it really careful. So in, in fiscal year 2526, the city of Bishop

[57:57] did not contribute to the high school rodeo association at all. The year prior, we contributed

[58:04] to $25,000. The letter that the High School Rodeo Association provided doesn't specifically

[58:13] ask for a dollar amount, but I met with Ms. Vasey Tex, and she's the one who indicated

[58:17] that the ask from the High School Rodeo Association was $40,000.

[58:26] Quick question. The $25,000 was given to the High School Rodeo Association or the Fairgrounds.

[58:35] The fairgrounds.

[58:36] The fairgrounds.

[58:37] Yes, sir.

[58:38] Thank you.

[58:43] Before we discuss it, do you have any public comment on the rodeo?

[58:52] People with rodeo hats.

[58:54] Excellent.

[58:56] Hello, sir.

[58:57] Good evening.

[58:58] Good evening.

[58:58] I'm Joel Church.

[58:59] I'm the National Director for the California High School rodeo association.

[59:06] I've got to put my thoughts together because I really wasn't planning on.

[59:09] I understand.

[59:10] And I've talked with Mike about the overages.

[59:16] I understand all the overages.

[59:19] I understand in the past that previous managers did things

[59:27] different.

[59:29] And that knowledge maybe wasn't passed on.

[59:34] And some of those opportunities weren't

[59:35] being able to be fulfilled.

[59:37] one of them, the generators from DWP, as he said.

[59:43] We got them from DWP a couple of years,

[59:45] and then a couple of years I believe they came from someplace else, and in the last two years,

[59:50] Mike's gone to a couple of different rental companies to fulfill our obligations, if you will.

[1:00:00] We're just trying to reach out. We want to stay here. There's a small faction. I'm not going to lie to you. There's a small faction that would like to go someplace else, but they'd probably like to have it in their own arena at home. So it's nothing against. It's against you guys, but it's nothing against you guys. The vast majority of our association loves being here over the last month. My wife and I have been here two or three times. We figured out that the town loves

[1:00:29] us here during that week. I mean, it's beneficial to both of us. So as far as how the money was,

[1:00:41] the association in the past, I guess if you look back at some records and I haven't looked at

[1:00:46] any of them, there's been, you know, from the previous administration that's fair,

[1:00:53] they would ask for money or they wouldn't ask for money depending on what they thought they

[1:00:57] needed to fulfill the obligations, so now we're in a point where we can't fulfill the

[1:01:03] obligations without charging our membership way more than they probably deserve to be charged

[1:01:10] for some of this stuff. I had a long conversation following the last meeting when I gave public

[1:01:17] comment with the ambulance service. I totally understand their side of that deal now that we didn't

[1:01:24] recognize or know about that maybe the previous owner overextended himself to

[1:01:33] us you know at some point but we're just asking because we really want to stay

[1:01:39] here but we we're going to need help to stay here very good thank you I can

[1:01:43] tell you I we love having here kids are great the whole events great I mean

[1:01:48] everything's great yeah our thing is is this is the only town that we've been to

[1:01:52] I came here, my son came the first time in 2013, 2013, and this is the only place that

[1:02:01] we go to all year that you can throw your kids in the middle of Highway 395 and not worry

[1:02:06] about them getting run over.

[1:02:08] I mean, knock on wood, I understand that, but you know, we haven't had an incident in the

[1:02:15] But, you know, 13 or 14 years that I was involved with actual kids here and since then become the national director.

[1:02:24] So it's a safe community as far as we're concerned.

[1:02:28] You know, you can turn them loose.

[1:02:30] Like I said, we want to be here, but we just need help to stay.

[1:02:34] Thank you.

[1:02:35] Please.

[1:02:37] Joel Church.

[1:02:38] Yes, sir.

[1:02:39] Thank you, sir.

[1:02:41] Any other comments from anyone?

[1:02:45] Okay.

[1:02:46] You look like you have something to say.

[1:02:47] What do you got?

[1:02:47] I just have a question.

[1:02:49] I'm looking at this, what you guys submitted the letter in such.

[1:02:53] And then you've got a bill from 26 for 34, basically.

[1:03:00] And then you have a bill from 25 for 48.

[1:03:04] So.

[1:03:05] So the difference is, and I missed it too, I'll be honest with you, when they handed it to

[1:03:08] me, I missed it too.

[1:03:10] So if you look at the 24 bill, it actually has an ambulance service.

[1:03:15] This included in it, the 25 bill, the ambulance bill is in there separate.

[1:03:22] So actually, it was a total overage of 48,024, 49,025 when you add the two together.

[1:03:32] Got it.

[1:03:35] Does that be on the question?

[1:03:37] That's my only question for right now.

[1:03:42] Take whatever you can give us, I'll be honest with you.

[1:03:45] I didn't put a number on that when I submitted it.

[1:03:51] Just first of all, I didn't want to short myself

[1:03:53] if there was opportunity for more.

[1:03:58] You just didn't want it to work.

[1:04:00] You know, say, but just to show what our overages were.

[1:04:04] Right.

[1:04:05] So thank you.

[1:04:06] Thank you.

[1:04:07] I think we are gonna have more questions for you.

[1:04:10] Sure.

[1:04:11] I can ask that, but I don't think she will have the answer.

[1:04:14] I don't know if I'll have the answer.

[1:04:16] I don't either, but I'll try.

[1:04:18] Yeah, we'll try.

[1:04:20] I want to share you being here, not just today, but during the last meeting, and giving

[1:04:25] us your presentations, and laying us know what the state of the association coming to

[1:04:33] be sure is, and how we got here over the last few years.

[1:04:38] I guess my first question is going to be the coin contract when it's

[1:04:44] for negotiation to bring the finals to bishop.

[1:04:50] When is the next negotiation?

[1:04:52] Yes.

[1:04:53] So,

[1:04:55] traditionally in this past, the contract that we're working on.

[1:05:00] We're working on right now. I've always been three year contracts with the option of two beyond that individual year. So theoretically, we could ask for a new contract after this third one. So we can maintain a status, then we can roll that over, if you will. 28 will be the third year of that contract. 27 is the third year. 27. So. And then we'd have

[1:05:29] 28 and 29 as options. Okay.

[1:05:36] And are you thinking as Pam sort of intimated that that when you have

[1:05:41] a meeting, they're going to come back at you and say, why are we paying this exorbitant cost?

[1:05:45] They already know that Red Bluff could do it. That's why I'm here is because yeah, Red Bluff can

[1:05:53] you've heard it.

[1:05:59] There's a faction that when I go back

[1:06:01] Okay, that are going to say, but it's a lot easier to shut them up. I guess if we have backing of course, of course. So we had some shortfalls in some other areas, not just the overages of bishop and, you know, they, but they want to blame them all on. There's that faction that wants to blame them all on on bishop.

[1:06:30] And so to be able to go back and say, I've got this taken care of, I've got this taken care of,

[1:06:35] I have this many buckles already spoken for from the town of Bishop.

[1:06:41] And if I can't do it tomorrow or in the next two weeks, but to tell them that we'll have donations from private in it,

[1:06:50] or the merchants in town to help us keep this here, because they're the ones that want it here just as much as we do.

[1:06:58] Yeah, you know, it all benefits us and it all benefits you, I guess, when we look at it.

[1:07:04] Got it.

[1:07:05] So what you just said is that you have reached to individual businesses and have placed

[1:07:10] donations for that year.

[1:07:13] So over the years, I mean, I'm guilty because I was the president and for a while and would

[1:07:23] We've come to visit, I came to visit one time, but we showed up in June as an association

[1:07:30] and there was a rodeo arena that was set up for us too.

[1:07:36] So in the last two months, the eye opening that, well, and then, excuse me, going into

[1:07:43] last year, we knew we were short and we reached out to the community and there was a couple

[1:07:50] of community members, merchants in town that reached out to other people when we were able to

[1:07:56] fundraise a lot of money, which had been done prior in prior years by different entities,

[1:08:03] whether it be the fairgrounds, the chamber or whatever, but that wasn't taken place and we were

[1:08:08] reached out and were able to receive those donations. And I believe that we will be able to get

[1:08:14] though at least that much is coming here if not more just because nobody had

[1:08:20] reached out to those entities and now we're reaching out and they're they're

[1:08:24] they really want to extend a hand. I'm glad to hear that.

[1:08:30] I'm gonna let's pick a

[1:08:32] little bit about the subject. At one point I was a chamberful member and I know

[1:08:39] exactly how much the chamber is and has been involved in supporting the

[1:08:44] radio coming to Bishop and how they were part of the fairgrounds negotiating the

[1:08:54] current contract with the association. I was present during the negotiations. I

[1:09:00] do not know what ended up being written in the contract. I didn't see it but I

[1:09:06] I heard everything that was negotiated and it seems to me that some of the charges being

[1:09:15] made over the last or over charges, the additional 25, 40, 49,000.

[1:09:23] Those might have been promises, verbal promises on 25th, none of the verbal promises that were

[1:09:32] made during the last negotiation that's been a pretty contentious thing in our group,

[1:09:41] especially the small faction, because all they remember is what was said.

[1:09:47] They don't remember that when the motion was actually made to vote on that.

[1:09:52] It was made to the RFP and not to take in consideration any of the verbal stuff.

[1:09:58] so we voted solely.

[1:10:00] On the RFP. So none of that verbal stuff actually was included in the contract. Okay. Thank you. Well, that doesn't so there's no overages from the verbal contract. If you know, yes, or the verbal statements made during contract negotiations. At that point, it got to be and I don't know how many of you were there, but it got to be in a, he said she said deal when it was kind of.

[1:10:29] a cat fight there for, and I didn't know who was going to win at that point.

[1:10:35] Yes. I know because I have been at some of the events, especially the welcome dinner

[1:10:45] or now welcome lunch over the last couple of years, and I have seen how much your members

[1:10:53] want to come to Bishop. And we love that, we appreciate that. When I say we, I speak

[1:11:02] on my behalf and I know on behalf of my co-console and the whole community. And I think it's

[1:11:10] important to us as much as it is to you to keep the rodeo in Bishop, but I think the business

[1:11:21] community in general. And I'm saying hotels, hotels, restaurants, gas stations and any small business

[1:11:33] prepares for two events a year. And that's Mildays and the Rorya. Because those two events bring people

[1:11:42] to Bishop. And more people to Bishop means more people buying gas, more people eating at restaurants

[1:11:48] and shopping at local merchants.

[1:11:53] I think by now one,

[1:11:55] Agregans, whose biggest week

[1:11:57] is Radio Week, out of the year.

[1:11:59] We were at Regans this afternoon

[1:12:01] and was told those exact words.

[1:12:03] Yes, I know. I heard it from them as well.

[1:12:05] So I do believe that.

[1:12:07] And like that, many other businesses,

[1:12:09] some other businesses,

[1:12:11] biggest week, might be Radio Week.

[1:12:13] For many others, not the biggest week,

[1:12:15] but yes, they did better.

[1:12:18] doing during that week. So believe me when I said that it is in everybody's best

[1:12:24] interest to keep the rodeo in bishop. I just have a conflict making a grant for

[1:12:37] an amount to an association out of the granting support program that we have

[1:12:44] which we do have a program, and right now I don't remember the conditions to qualify

[1:12:53] for that program, but we typically on our issue grants have to ten plus thousand dollars

[1:13:03] sometimes.

[1:13:06] So I don't know if the Rode Association will qualify for the grant, but we do have a

[1:13:12] program and approving a grant outside the program. Number one, it will say

[1:13:18] a president. Number two, I know the benefit of it, the intention. And I said, I

[1:13:27] want to keep the rodeo coming to Bishop. For as long as you guys want to come, I

[1:13:33] Yes, I have to decide on the amount.

[1:13:39] So I guess my real question is because I believe that, and

[1:13:46] again, I don't have any, I've been told different things of how we've received a

[1:13:56] whatever you want to call it, a $25,000 stipend or whatever it might be.

[1:14:00] over a certain number of years and they can also tell me the years that we didn't ask for it,

[1:14:06] but at the same time, if you will, they've asked why didn't you ask for it,

[1:14:18] it was an easy way to put it. It was done through the fairgrounds at that time

[1:14:22] through the previous management to, you know, and maybe the years that she didn't ask for it,

[1:14:31] excuse me for use gender and that deal that's okay she didn't ask for it you

[1:14:37] know she had that part coming maybe she wanted to save it for another

[1:14:41] another programmer or or something to that room so you know you've been asked

[1:14:49] why didn't you ask for the money well in the past we'd never had asked for the

[1:14:53] money it had come to the different entities and now they said it it's time for

[1:14:57] for you guys to step up and ask for your needs.

[1:15:00] And so that's all we're, that's all I'm doing is, is telling you our needs and, yes, we're trying to save. Well, I don't think that. Without it, again, it's, it's going to be a tough fight for us, for our membership to stay, to stay here. An additional comment that I like to make, and it's not directed to you for anyone, but the

[1:15:27] radio brings people to bishop. And I think we have something.

[1:15:33] that is meant to be used to bring people to visual and that is our Tibet. And our Tibet

[1:15:40] some funds should be used to support this weekly event because it benefits every single

[1:15:48] business. So I think it will be fair to have like I said use some of those funds for this

[1:15:59] purpose. They sell more float mats that week and probably any other.

[1:16:07] She's wanted to say that

[1:16:09] because yes we the city should be supporting the event but also the business community, especially

[1:16:18] when there is a fund dedicated specifically to bring people to bishop.

[1:16:29] What are your thoughts?

[1:16:33] Jose, I think that's, I agree with you. However, I think that in the interest of time, the

[1:16:40] teabed, you know, I think moving maybe in the future. That's the time. Yeah, like that would

[1:16:45] be a great solution. Yeah. But talking about now, yes, yes. We definitely need to support

[1:16:52] the rodeo. Yeah. It's a, it's a, it's a must. You know, this, it's a, it's a win for the

[1:16:57] town, it's when for the rodeo, it's who we are. We are a rodeo town. So very much, you know, we've

[1:17:06] been supporting it in kind with, you know, buying shade structures for the fairgrounds, we've been

[1:17:12] doing all sorts of asks. And I think it just gives us the opportunity to come up with some sort of

[1:17:20] policy. So we're not so reactive when these needs come up, but maybe like not, this isn't your problem,

[1:17:26] but it's more our problem of having some sort of policy of when these, you know, great events,

[1:17:32] whether it be mule days or the rodeo or, you know, whatever it is, we have a policy where we can be

[1:17:37] a bit more flexible with our money and not just be this like general fund ask. We have a policy in

[1:17:43] place when these really important opportunities come up to support. We can use the policy instead of

[1:17:50] these have to be a one-off ask.

[1:17:52] And I think it's a great idea, I'm sorry,

[1:17:55] for interrupting that we have a set amount in our budget,

[1:18:00] specifically to support this type of events.

[1:18:02] Because these events are important to our community,

[1:18:07] to all of our businesses, and to the city.

[1:18:09] So we do need to have that.

[1:18:12] We need to plan for that, basically.

[1:18:16] So I think a couple of things that can come up with this request

[1:18:19] is that our administration hears from us that we want to have that in place, that for next year we plan on having an amount dedicated for that, that we talk about it.

[1:18:34] If we need to have a policy, also come out with that policy, that they keep in mind for future TBIT planning.

[1:18:46] I'm going to say negotiation, but planning how those funds are spent is not how we spend

[1:18:55] is how they are spent.

[1:18:57] And I just that we deal with the current state and supporting the rodeo for this year.

[1:19:05] I agree.

[1:19:09] And however it has to do with you guys show us receipts or it's reimbursable expenses.

[1:19:14] I don't know.

[1:19:15] I don't know.

[1:19:15] However.

[1:19:16] or the.

[1:19:16] And that was my question, is that it would be an Ethan question.

[1:19:21] So, would it be easier for us to say to Mike, hey, Mike, we'll pay for A, B, and C taken

[1:19:29] off the rodeo bill, or is it easier for us on the front end to just give them the money

[1:19:38] and which is the easier staff time and everything else?

[1:19:43] We would need those receipts regardless, you know, in the grants and support, anytime

[1:19:47] we're giving funds in that way unless it's, you know, we're getting that documentation

[1:19:51] back for the auditor.

[1:19:54] And so, to me, it doesn't matter either way, I think that if you said we are willing to

[1:19:59] give up.

[1:20:00] To ex-emount pending documentation and reimbursement, that would be meet the needs of our finance department. The other thing that,

[1:20:14] or one of the things, and I'm not sure you can,

[1:20:19] I hear you talking, I understand what you're trying to put together here.

[1:20:25] You know, if there was some way that you guys. The city of Bishop has.

[1:20:32] As the generators and the infrastructure for that, or could procure that, where it wasn't a hard cost on the fair or high school rodeo, or that was just funneled through you guys.

[1:20:53] I mean, I'm just throwing options out there.

[1:20:56] I'm not stating anything.

[1:20:58] I'm just saying, that's where, I mean, the bills are there.

[1:21:02] I know that it's roughly 10,000 for the generators.

[1:21:06] And, you know, and there's, it's on us, I guess, at that point,

[1:21:10] but we're looking at different options of layout

[1:21:13] for the

[1:21:17] generator system, if you will,

[1:21:18] that may require one more generator.

[1:21:22] But I know our generators last year,

[1:21:23] just for two or 10,000 plus 13,000 for 13 to 14,000 for the infrastructure, the spider

[1:21:30] boxes. And there was $5,000 worth of fuel and death on that deal. So the generator

[1:21:37] deal is the biggest part of that, you know. And then the emergency services. And the emergency

[1:21:44] services, but I understand, you know, when I had my meeting with her with them after the

[1:21:53] last one, I looked at her prices. I had the invoice that I gave you. I mean, they're

[1:21:59] $202 to $300 an hour and different. The different services, well, I have districts over there

[1:22:05] paying $600 an hour. They're paying $5,000 to $6,000 a day just to put on a rodeo with ambulance.

[1:22:12] So, I know it's a lot of money to us, but then again, her prices are outrageous.

[1:22:20] So, I'm going to suggest that what can I share my thoughts on that?

[1:22:25] Oh, sure, sure.

[1:22:26] Absolutely.

[1:22:27] Sorry.

[1:22:28] Sorry.

[1:22:31] So, minor more future kind of thinking, overall comment, obviously with the rodeo itself

[1:22:38] is this is, this brings in more money to the town than the Mule Days does.

[1:22:46] Mule days brings in more people, but those people are trucking in their own food.

[1:22:50] They're not filling up the restaurants as much.

[1:22:53] They're not filling in the hotels as much, but the rodeo people are staying in the hotels

[1:22:58] more.

[1:22:59] They're eating in the restaurants more.

[1:23:01] They're coming into the grocery stores more.

[1:23:03] I can tell you that we do more business the week of the rodeo than we do easily in Mule

[1:23:08] days.

[1:23:10] And we're also setting up the next generation of people that come to Bishop.

[1:23:14] I mean, when you think about it, these kids are going to come back to Bishop.

[1:23:17] They're, you guys are kicking them loose and they're going fishing in the creeks, they're

[1:23:20] going fishing in the lakes, they're doing, they're being good kids and they're enjoying

[1:23:24] it, they're going to bring their families back here.

[1:23:26] So it's setting us up for more future generations of people coming back here.

[1:23:31] So I mean, I'm all for it, but like if we're going to use the Tibet for it, does the contract

[1:23:37] allow for it to be used for things like the rodeos, services, I don't know that.

[1:23:42] I don't think we could do it this year either way.

[1:23:45] And I'm just talking again, that's why I'm saying for future use.

[1:23:47] And then obviously if we do it this year, which I think we're going to do something, I hope we do something.

[1:23:54] We obviously need to put it into our budgets for the next couple of years too, because if we give them X dollars this year,

[1:24:01] we're going to have to give them X plus 5% next year, just with the increased expenses going up.

[1:24:06] So it's something we have to think about for strategic planning for next year too.

[1:24:10] I know the question that Rose has a rose to me or around is, you know, the money that

[1:24:19] has been come from you guys over, I can't tell you how many times it's happened, I know

[1:24:24] I can name one and that one kind of messed us up more than it was beneficial to us.

[1:24:31] Has gone to the fairgrounds, you know, in our name, but it was gone to the fairgrounds.

[1:24:35] I don't care where the money goes, just as long as, you know, that.

[1:24:38] But it doesn't have to come directly to us, it doesn't have to, you know, if, but as long

[1:24:45] as we know what is getting, we need to be able to track it.

[1:24:48] I mean, you guys need to be able to track it and I need to be able to track it, but at the

[1:24:53] same time, you know, the last one we got, it was sent to the fairgrounds in their name

[1:25:00] And then it was sent back to the fair. That's way too, but you lose track of stuff and things like that happen. It doesn't matter. This as long as we're all in the same page and know which direction it's going. It doesn't. I don't know if that made any sense. Any more comments on it? Well, I would just say that we can come up with an agreement that outlines the fact that this is a benefit to the city and outlines the terms again, contingent on whatever amount that is.

[1:25:30] and it doesn't have to be with the fairgrounds,

[1:25:32] it can be with the rodeo, it can be with,

[1:25:35] we can work out those details of how to structure that

[1:25:39] based on your conversation tonight.

[1:25:42] And this is something that I have had on my list

[1:25:44] of things to talk about, is to come up with a policy.

[1:25:48] We have some great programs and we give some good money,

[1:25:52] but it's not real tight in how we do that.

[1:25:56] And so I do have it on my list of things to tackle

[1:25:59] to get a policy for situations like this so that we're not doing this on the fly. But that's a

[1:26:07] fish for another day. I was going to say before I interrupted Dennis and he put me in my place.

[1:26:19] That's his job as the role tonight. That's totally right. That if we if we gave 30,000,

[1:26:26] It would cover the cost of two of the major things, the wiring and such to run, I don't

[1:26:36] know, what all that is, the electrical stuff and the ambulance.

[1:26:41] And we can give it straight to them, but I just wanted to have a thought as to what things

[1:26:45] we were covering.

[1:26:47] And so I picked the two biggest ones in the list.

[1:26:50] Do you want to cover the generator, too, because without the generator, the wiring doesn't matter?

[1:26:55] You're going to make me do more math, gosh, that puts it at 40,000.

[1:26:59] Is it?

[1:26:59] Yeah, it does.

[1:27:00] It doesn't even cover it.

[1:27:01] The 40,000 doesn't cover the ambulance, the wiring and the spidering doesn't even cover

[1:27:07] that.

[1:27:07] But it's a good.

[1:27:08] All right.

[1:27:09] So,

[1:27:11] I mean, I think the 40,000 ask is based on the return that we receive for our community

[1:27:20] is, and then we gives us the opportunity to come up with some sort of policy.

[1:27:24] really helps the rodeo. I'd be in favor of the $40,000 ask. Do you want to make a

[1:27:32] motion? I'll make a motion to support the California State rodeo finals with

[1:27:36] $40,000. I'll second that.

[1:27:41] I'll come and have a vote. Roll call please. Council

[1:27:45] member Kong. Yes. Council member Garcia. Yes. Council member Schwartz. Yes. Mayor

[1:27:51] Pro-Tem Point. Yes. Motion passes 4-0. Thank you, sir. Thank you very, very much. Thank you. I would ask you, beyond, it's not anything financial from this office, but if any merchants in town ask you about it with interest in donating to contact us and we can direct them to whatever.

[1:28:21] Keep in mind that you can also ask in your county and the bishop but you thrive

[1:28:26] Well, we're working with the tribe. Okay at this point right now and

[1:28:31] We will work within you. We will contact in you county. Yeah, we've also

[1:28:36] Got very good response from DWP. Excellent. Yeah, they're a great partner. Yeah, so

[1:28:42] We're moving in the right direction, and I appreciate everything. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Good luck. Thank you

[1:28:50] All right, the next topic up for a bit is the Planning and Parks and Recreation Commission's City Council's screening committee appointments.

[1:29:01] This is me. Good evening, Council. We have three upcoming Commission vacancies, one on the Planning Commission and two on the Parks and Recreation Commission.

[1:29:12] Because the terms expire fairly closely together, we're bringing all three screening committees appoint committee appointments to you tonight.

[1:29:19] Each screening committee includes two council members appointed by Mayor Pro Tem and approved

[1:29:24] by the council. It includes the City Administrator and a staff member involved with each commission.

[1:29:31] Recruitment for the Planning Commission vacancy is already underway and applications are due

[1:29:35] October 2nd. Recruitment for the two parks and recreation commission vacancies will take

[1:29:40] place closer to the expiration of those terms. So tonight staff is asking for the Mayor Pro Tem

[1:29:45] to appoint two council members to each of the three screening committees with the Council's approval.

[1:29:51] The same two council members can serve on all three committees, or different council members can be

[1:29:56] selected for each committee. May I approach that point?

[1:30:00] I'll turn it over to you if you want to go one committee at a time and let me know who you'd like to appoint to each of them. Okay. First of all, we will just let's just talk about the planning commission. The first one. Do you guys have any preferences? Would you like to set on one? I was just on the last one. So I don't know what's with you. The last one was Karen and I on the last plan commission. Okay. I'll do planning commission to do the planning commissioner. Okay.

[1:30:28] right? It's two council members, right? So yeah, it seems to be the has to be you or me?

[1:30:35] I will do the planning commission with Jose. Sure. We will do that one.

[1:30:42] Then the parks. I haven't

[1:30:45] done the park in recognition. I've not done the park in record. The last one it was just like written

[1:30:49] interviews and we like scored them. What? Yeah. That was the last one. We didn't have interviews

[1:30:55] last time. Are we doing it the same way? Right. I remember that. That was kind of weird

[1:30:59] that it happened. I heard from a couple of people that submitted their

[1:31:02] applications. They weren't real happy they didn't get it. Now we need to

[1:31:05] interview them. Yeah,

[1:31:08] I'll be on one. I don't need to be on both, but I'll be

[1:31:11] on one parks and rack. I can't be on both. I can be on both, but I think it's

[1:31:21] good to mix it up. I don't know. I mean, for sure, Karen can be on both. I'll just be on

[1:31:25] one.

[1:31:28] All right, so Karen Kong and Karen Schwartz will do the December 26th one. Then I will

[1:31:37] do the 2027 one with Karen Kong because I'd like to sit on that one just because I haven't

[1:31:41] done that one yet. Okay, let me summarize. The recommended action would be to approve the

[1:31:48] Mayor Potem's appointments of Councilmember Garcia and Freund on the Planning Commission.

[1:31:56] Councilmember Schwartz and Kong on the First Parks and Rec Commission in December, and Councilmembers Kong and Freund on the Parks and Rec Commission in January.

[1:32:08] I'm sorry, Alison. When will the be the interviews for planning commission?

[1:32:12] I think those will happen in October.

[1:32:15] Do we have dates?

[1:32:16] We do not.

[1:32:17] Okay.

[1:32:21] Okay.

[1:32:23] We can set those dates now that we have the two of you who will be on it, we'll work on dates that work for the both of you.

[1:32:29] Will it be early, middle October?

[1:32:35] It can be.

[1:32:36] Yeah, the applications are due by when?

[1:32:38] October 2nd.

[1:32:39] October 2nd.

[1:32:40] So we have all kinds of time because the appointment doesn't expire until November.

[1:32:45] So we can be flexible on the time.

[1:32:47] November 26th at that.

[1:32:48] So we have plenty of time.

[1:32:50] If we can do it within the first two weeks of October, we'll be great.

[1:32:54] Yeah, we just can't do it the seventh, eighth or ninth.

[1:32:57] Not this time. Then the week of the 12th through the 16th.

[1:33:02] Me too.

[1:33:03] Total work too.

[1:33:04] Total 12th to the 16th. I'm open as well.

[1:33:06] All right.

[1:33:08] Okay, anyway.

[1:33:09] Do we have any public comments on that topic?

[1:33:12] Nope.

[1:33:13] We don't have to vote on anything, so.

[1:33:15] Do we?

[1:33:16] Uh-huh.

[1:33:17] That sounds good.

[1:33:17] Okay, the next thing we will talk about is consideration and approval of the joint powers agreement with the bishop power power a bishop power the bishop fire protection district.

[1:33:30] I assume that you that is me on the spread wants to take it right.

[1:33:38] I thought he was here enough to turn that mic on. I was like,

[1:33:41] make him talk, wake him up a little. He'll chime in. I have no doubt. So at our July 27th meeting,

[1:33:47] we brought this agreement back to you to take a look at. We've been working with the fire protection district for quite some time.

[1:33:53] We have a very old agreement that we don't follow. So we've been working to try to.

[1:33:58] So, Ethan and Brett and I have been working on an agreement that we believe streamlines

[1:34:04] the way that the organizations work together and the way they operate so that we have

[1:34:08] one fire department and that's kind of how the whole thing will work in theory.

[1:34:15] At that meeting, there was some concern brought forward by the council asking that additional

[1:34:21] language be added with regard to the roles of fire protection district board members

[1:34:26] members and city council members. So the following sentence was added to the agreement.

[1:34:32] The fire chief receives administrative direction from the fire protection district board and

[1:34:36] city council only through formal action taken by a body, e.g. a vote in a properly notice

[1:34:41] meeting. No individual board or council member has the authority to direct the chief acting

[1:34:47] alone. The city administrator may give the chief specific direction individually consisted

[1:34:52] with their consistent with their administrative authority.

[1:34:56] This agreement and this edition of the sentence was reviewed by the bishop.

[1:35:00] Fire protection district at their meeting on September 3, and they agreed and approved the agreement.

[1:35:09] Excellent. When we discussed this, if I may real quick before we talk about this, when we discussed this, that the last council meeting chief Russell was not there. So can we get your opinion on the overall language and your feeling on this, please, sir? Yeah. Like Pam mentioned, we put a lot of time into this. There was a lot of revisions made to clean things up.

[1:35:32] and I'm all for it yeah I think it streamlines things as we've discussed

[1:35:40] before operationally we responded to the same operational umbrella and this

[1:35:46] now echoes what we do behind the scenes okay good questions questions for two

[1:35:56] personal yeah any public comment before we talk about it as a council all right

[1:36:21] I'll make a motion to approve the agreement for a shared management of fire services with the Bishop fire protection district.

[1:36:29] I'll second.

[1:36:30] Yes.

[1:36:30] Are you good?

[1:36:33] Can we get a vote, please?

[1:36:36] Council Member Kong.

[1:36:38] Yes.

[1:36:38] Council Member Garcia.

[1:36:40] Yes.

[1:36:40] Council Member Short.

[1:36:41] Yes.

[1:36:42] Mayor Pro Tem Freund.

[1:36:43] Yes.

[1:36:44] The motion passes for zero.

[1:36:46] Good.

[1:36:47] Okay.

[1:36:48] Future agenda items.

[1:36:50] Okay.

[1:36:51] Just to what we discussed to come up with a policy for opportunities that arise that we can support.

[1:36:58] Okay. And opportunities. What's that? Opportunities. Yeah, opportunity one. Yeah, yeah, opportunities

[1:37:05] that arise. Yeah, plural. Yes, yes, yes. Okay. Was I? Nothing. Okay. Nothing. All right. Very good.

[1:37:14] Council and committee report. Jose. A couple of things. I attended the, there's a month

[1:37:20] division meeting in Pandoe a couple weeks ago and the main item on the agenda was the

[1:37:27] election of officers where Robert Harryman from Victorville was elected president of the division

[1:37:35] and Daniel Ramos from Atlanta vice president. We talked about a couple of different bills that are

[1:37:42] interesting. One of them is sitting on the governor's desk for signature, Olvido, and it has to do

[1:37:53] with loading the retirement age for firefighters and police officers from 57 to 55. And of course, it has

[1:38:03] the support from all firefighters associations in the state. Shocking. Yeah. There are other

[1:38:11] other bills interesting that we talk about it. There's some bills that are specifically targeting

[1:38:18] Riverside County or San Bernardino County but that really doesn't affect us up here. So that was

[1:38:28] the main subject of the meeting. The construction derby and the fair were fun. I was there for the opening

[1:38:36] in Thursday and the derby beginning as well. It was nice to have the fair ask local officials

[1:38:49] from the county and the tribe and the city to welcome everybody for the main event

[1:38:56] of the fair, I will say, the derby. And last but not least, a couple days ago, his

[1:39:04] Spanish Heritage Month celebration hosted by the City of Bishop was a great event, it was very well attended, but this is the fourth consecutive year we do it.

[1:39:17] First year and second year we did a here behind City Hall, third year at the Fairgrounds and now we did it at the park, City Park, which was the perfect venue for it.

[1:39:30] So hopefully future events are taking place at the same venue and I know Pam and staff

[1:39:39] will be talking and planning debriefing about this year and planning for the future.

[1:39:45] So it was just a great event.

[1:39:47] I'd like to acknowledge Parks and Rec than Johnny, Kerry and all of the park staff that work

[1:39:58] on making sure.

[1:40:00] The park was set up for the event and cleaning up after. But it was a great response from our local nonprofits and county agencies as well as the city,

[1:40:12] part of the parliament and staff that were there and the community that was but

[1:40:22] through three maybe these three hundred people attending the event maybe even

[1:40:27] more what kind of short you you were there probably at the peak of when the most

[1:40:33] people were there were even people passing by that stop and walk around and so

[1:40:43] So it's even better to have it there at the park.

[1:40:47] So it was great event, good job for our staff on that.

[1:40:52] That's all I have.

[1:40:55] Good.

[1:40:55] Thank you.

[1:40:56] OK.

[1:40:58] We had a very interesting Owen Valley Groundwater Authority

[1:41:04] meeting last week.

[1:41:07] There's a lot of happenings, not the least of which

[1:41:12] which we have to figure out what the heck we're going to do with ourselves.

[1:41:16] There's some, I say that with all genuineness, there are some issues with membership and

[1:41:26] not membership and the report that we sent in to the state and them not accepting this,

[1:41:30] the report because of, we've lost some membership and it's just a big hoop law.

[1:41:36] And so we're going to, in our next meeting, we're going to talk seriously about how much

[1:41:41] which can we do as an OVGA and how much do we want to do until the state figures out

[1:41:49] what they're going to change about the nature of our group.

[1:41:54] So it was quite, it's going to be quite an interesting thing to figure out what people

[1:41:57] want to do.

[1:41:59] And then, of course, I went to my favorite event of the fair, which is always the derby, super

[1:42:04] great this year.

[1:42:05] I was a little nervous about this super high octane cars.

[1:42:10] They scared, you know, if we were not here, I'd probably say they shared the beep out of

[1:42:15] me a little more than I wanted them to, but I was not, it was fabulous, I had a great

[1:42:20] time.

[1:42:21] Very good.

[1:42:23] Great.

[1:42:25] I had a escog and at the escog we had some presentations of the wrap-up of the Sierra

[1:42:35] jobs first presentations similar to what we just saw with the Eastern Sierra Community Foundation.

[1:42:41] One of the Sierra Jobs first grants was to explore agriculture and like small scale farming

[1:42:49] here in the Eastern Sierra and the viability of it. And they found that yes it's very viable and

[1:42:55] there's a huge demand for local produce in this community. And then another one was to map out the

[1:43:04] chipmunk canyon trail and just help the federal government to BLM understand what they have and

[1:43:11] then some suggestions of trails to keep and maybe some trails to get rid of and where people park

[1:43:17] and then the third one is to was to help the escog with their scope of work and we have a strategic

[1:43:25] planning meeting on this Friday up in mammoth and basically the things that we really want to focus

[1:43:34] on is what we're going to talk about is, you know, wildfire sustainable recreation and economic

[1:43:40] development and then how do we position ourselves to be nimble with those directives when big grants

[1:43:48] or propositions pass at the state of California. And then I checked out the hydrogen bus that

[1:43:57] that Esther brought up, which is just cool new technology that is, we'll see more and

[1:44:04] more of.

[1:44:05] Do you want to do the Esther report, since you can't, if you'd like.

[1:44:09] So we ridership is up, which is really great.

[1:44:13] It's up 30 percent in June, in Mammoth's Fixed Routes, up 50 percent, Bishop Darts, up 25 percent,

[1:44:21] Reno is up 9 percent.

[1:44:22] and then the Reds Meadow bus recorded 11,360 riders so that's good.

[1:44:31] Esther unfortunately is feeling the strain of inflation and so fuel costs, maintenance

[1:44:38] and our aging fleet is cause them to run over budget.

[1:44:43] And then we also attended, I attended like Jose said, the Hispanic Heritage Celebration

[1:44:48] at the Park.

[1:44:49] Yeah.

[1:44:50] Anything else you want to add for Esther?

[1:44:51] You don't think I'll add to Estas they did a title 6 audit for the year they do them is it every year every other year?

[1:45:00] Every year. Every year they do a title, six out of it, and that is just for, it's a language accessibility for the staff. They actually do training for the staff so they can, for multi languages, which is kind of neat. I didn't know that, learning a lot, being on the extra board. So, that's really the only thing that I would add to what Karen reported. I was also at the 9-11 stare climb with Karen, was there, with her grandson, McDonald's, great watching.

[1:45:28] It's crazy little kids and then the three of us and Pam have calcities next week. So I'll have some fun stuff to talk about

[1:45:37] All right, so we will adjourn this meeting at

[1:45:42] 803 our next meeting is Monday September 28th. We're right here at six o'clock. Have a great night

City Council

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