Good afternoon and welcome to the fee shop agenda
for this afternoon for the city of chino hills. Cheryl,
all members are present for the special meeting workshop. Okay.
alright. The first item is a public
comments. I have not received any public comment. Speaker cards, so we have no
public comments. Alright. And then we can move on to the proposed amendment
to fiscal year 20 24, 25, master schedule of fees, fines, and
penalties to be presented by finance director baier.
alright. All right, krista. All right, it's all yours. Thank
you. Good afternoon, mayor. Council members, staff and
members of the public. Uh, we are here to discuss the proposed amendments
to the master schedule of fees, fines, and penalties originally adopted april 23rd, 2024.
please feel free to stop me at any time during the presentation with questions.
user fees are designed to fund programs and services that provide a direct benefit
to the individual paying the fee with little or no benefit to the broader community.
these fees are based on a cost recovery model, meaning the revenue generated cannot
exceed the estimated reasonable cost of providing the service.
normally, we update our fee schedule in april of each year. However, this year we're conducting
a more extensive fee study, so we're shifting the annual update to october.
this change allows us to separate it from the budget process and give staff more
time to accurately forecast revenues for the following year, knowing
what the updated fees will be. That said, there are some changes that need to
be addressed before october, which is why we're presenting an amendment to the current fee
schedule today. The finance and community services fees are
proposed to take effect on february 1st, 2025, and the building development
services and public works fees are proposed to take effect on april 1st, 2025.
real quick question as we get going on this. Are these fee proposed
fee, uh, rates in that, that are going into effect? Uh, have they been
reflected in any of our budget? Our current year's budget? Obviously
it goes in through june 30th, but are they any impact
to the 2020 4 25 budget? I wouldn't,
I wouldn't say, I would say no. Negligible, maybe having them
adopted will allow them to plan them into the next fiscal year budget. Okay. So
it'll clearly be projected in next year's fiscal budget? Yes. Okay,
thank you. The
building services division in community development is proposing four new fees. The
first fee of $267 covers the installation of up
to three residential plumbing fixtures, such as a kitchen sink or water softener
with a 50% surcharge for each additional fixture. It's based on
one to two inspections. The second fee of $535
covers the installation of commercial fixtures like dishwashers, laundry equipment,
or broilers boilers. It is based on two to
three inspections. The after hours inspection fee, which is based on
the overtime rate of $802, applies when developers
request inspections outside of regular business hours. The
last fee of $267 is assessed when work has proceeded
without a required inspection. This fee represents the additional time needed to
investigate and resolve the inspection.
building services is also proposing some changes to four existing fees.
the two existing geotechnical report review fees are being
combined with the two precise grading fees, thereby reducing costs through process efficiencies.
the address change fee is expanded to include new address assignments
and reduced to $401 due to updated staff time estimates.
and the reinspection fee is reduced by $201 to reflect
the current process
development services is proposing a new entitlement review
fee of $25,000, which covers land development application reviews,
now assigned to consultants due to staffing changes. They're also proposing
to combine the business license processing fee with the land use clearance fee,
resulting in a combined fee of $267.
the initial deposit for a post entitlement review utilizing engineering
consultant services is proposed to increase from $10,702
to $50,000. It's important to note that the overall costs are not
increasing. The deposit is simply being, just being adjusted to
reflect the actual costs that are currently being incurred
in the public works. In public works, the engineering division
is proposing a new initial deposit for the inspection of mechanically
stabilized earth walls of 5.5% of the engineering cost
estimate. This new fee addresses the inspection requirements for newer development
designs. The initial deposit for a subdivision
encroachment permit is proposed to be updated to match the current engineering
cost estimate worksheets, which reference 11%.
the initial deposit for a rough grading permit was transferred from
building services to engineering. Because they issue the grading permits and provide inspection
oversight, the deposit is proposed to increase by $200
because the fully burdened hourly rate for engineering is higher than building services.
in addition, the cost oh, yes. Before, before we move forward, just
I'm looking at this, is this for like a development or is this single family residence
on all these issues? I have to defer to nick to, sorry, this is that nick or
maybe daniel? I'm not sure. , yes, sir. Um, this is, this is
for, um, large scale development, like track development projects. Um, because typically
a, a single family residents, um, wouldn't
use, uh, this volume of grading or, um, having
the, um, mechanically stabilized earth walls or other types
of things. So this is more what we're seeing in, um, newer tract developments.
okay. Thank you. And since we took that break, let let
go back to page four. That big increase, that $39,000 increase,
who, who's gonna pay for that? Is that a developer cost or is that yes,
this is a developer cost. So, um, for the, uh,
land development engineering review services on
a track, um, they will typically be, um,
sometimes, uh, in advance of 60,000 up to a hundred
thousand dollars. And the, that is all cost reimbursement, um,
by the developer. And so what we would like to do is
increase the amount of the initial deposit, which
will allow us to get started with a consultant engineer
sooner in the process so they don't have to wait around while,
um, the city, uh, does a request for proposal and then,
and then gets a cost from the contractor and
then executes an agreement all that time. The developer's kind
of dead in the water waiting. They, their preference is that
if we go off somebody that's off of our pre-qualified list and they've
already put up a, a larger deposit, we can start
working with that consulting engineer to start processing
their, um, application sooner. Okay. So is this truly
a deposit or is it a fee that will be, we're just basically collecting upfront?
it, um, it is, uh, the cost
for the service that we're collecting up front, and we're estimating that's
gonna be about $50,000 per project. So if it exceeds that the developer
has to put more money into the trust deposit account, if it does
not exceed, then we will reimburse the developer for the difference at the
end of the project. Okay. Is this a one size fits all for
all size developments? I mean, what, what's the criteria on this as far as how many
units are going to build or how many square feet? What, what's the
basis of that? Just, just general? So, um, this is applicable
to, to any development that will require, uh, consultant
services for engineering review. So this is gonna be your, uh, commercial
projects or, um, tracked developments. Okay.
but it wouldn't necessarily be like a one, a single custom lot.
um, sometimes it, it is, um, sometimes
it is, it is for that and, and we do have a, a little bit of flexibility
on what we would collect in, in terms of those
small projects. Okay. Um, but, but usually it's for larger
development projects. Okay. Alright. I'm just trying to get some understanding because,
you know, we, we don't want to impede development by making onerous, you
know, charges on them, so, okay. Correct. I think that's correct. Yeah. This is, this is really based
on feedback from the development community where, um, they were having to
wait for the city to obtain these services. And so
at that time, their project doesn't really move. They would like us to be,
um, a little bit more flexible. And so in order for us to have that
flexibility, we need them to deposit more money up front to get the
services started soon. So this is kind of a meet meeting of the minds to expedite the
process, which helps them. Yes. So it's a mutually convenient type of thing. Yes. Okay.
I think that was my question r was why there was such a difference in what we've been charging and what we proposed.
so that makes sense that yeah, that makes sense. Any other questions on that one? Okay,
sorry, krista, next. Okay.
um, the second lineup there, the cost per 10,000 cubic yard
is based on one hour of staff time. So this additional cost is also
proposed to increase by $20, uh, due to the fully board and hourly rate
finance is proposing a new electronic check fee, which ranges
from 50 cents to a dollar 95 per transaction, depending
on the vendor, this fee will be passed through to cover costs associated
with online echeck payments. Will that apply to
our residents that pay their water bill or city water charges
on? No, no, this would not apply to water bill. We cover those costs.
this is for, um, business license, um,
the new land management software and we're looking
into community services as well. Okay. Well, yeah, that's pretty nominal for those types
of, of payments. Okay. Yeah, this gives them a cheaper option to pay online as
opposed to credit card because a dollar 95 would be upsetting to
somebody on their water bill. I mean, they're not happy with it anyhow. For sure. So, okay. Alright.
community services is proposing a five year fee adjustment
for facility rentals. Uh, the key changes include a 5%
annual increase from 2026 to 2029
to account for inflation market trends and rising operational costs.
and rental rates are determined by calendar year of the event rather
than the booking date. These rates were last updated in april, 2023.
so these increases are necessary to maintain financial sustainability and
competitive pricing. Anybody, any questions on that that
I know we've questioned costs to rent our facilities? No issues?
no. Okay. Alright.
uh, community development recently implemented the new building
software and it requires the project size
area thresholds to be rounded to the nearest a hundred. Therefore, staff
recommends updating the thresholds in the building permit fees table,
which will result in some small associated fee adjustments.
and that concludes my presentation. We can all take any questions you may have.
alright. Any questions? Is that the,
go ahead. Just a, this is just a pet peeve for me. Sidewalk vendors,
this has nothing to do with that, correct? Correct. Okay. We'll
make sure. Okay. Thank you. Any questions at all? I just had a
couple questions. Anything. There's, um, a new fee implemented. I'm curious as to the
history of how we got to, um, having this new fee come about. So on page five
of 17 on the packet that we got, the larger packet that counsel got,
um, I was just curious, so the after hours inspection fee is a new fee.
so I don't know who this question is for, but what would, what would constitute the necessity
for an after hours inspection? Is it because of safety and emergency? Or if someone is
rushing to get their project done, can they basically put up the money to have an after hours inspection? I,
I'm just curious how this came about. Yes. Uh, sometimes
with the track developments, the, in order for
the developer to make certain timeframes, they have requested inspections on
like a saturday. Um, that has not been an option.
and so we would like to have the flexibility if we do have
staff available and the developer is willing to pay the
overtime that's associated, that we could potentially provide,
uh, that service. Okay. And then on
the same page where, um, on item 79, it says investigation fee
for missed inspection steps. So is that on the
customer side, it it was their negligence that they missed a step or who missed the
step and then if it's a new fee, so has that been a problem? So, um,
it does come up from time to time where, uh, we may write
corrections on an inspection and not pass a particular
inspection and then, uh, we go out to the job site again
and the, um, owner or contractor is taken upon themselves to
move forward, um, without showing us that they have corrected the
previous steps. And so, um, we wanted a mechanism
to make sure that they knew that, hey, you know, you really can't
just do this. You, you do need to check in with us. You do need
to request a reinspection and get clearance before you move forward.
so they may have, uh, we may look at rough plumbing, for example, and there may be some
corrections. And then the next thing we know, we get a, a request for
a drywall inspection and, and everything's covered up well. There's no way of us
knowing that they haven't corrected those issues. And
so it takes time away from staff to say, okay, you gotta open these sections of walls,
we have to look at it. We have. So, so this is a way to
help encourage, uh, behavior and recover the time that it costs
for us to stand out there while they, um, go back and show us
how they've addressed the corrections. Mm-hmm . Uh, so then
to that, uh, the, kind of in the same vein, so the investigation
fee for the missteps, does that also include the reinspection fee or
do you have to do both? Um, sometimes, sometimes we would
do both depending upon the severity of the situation.
okay. Thank you mr. Mayor? Yes. Yeah, nick,
real fast. Um, it seems like we're using, we'll say sb nine
as an example. We use consultants. So in other words, if a consultant basically
gives directions and the consumer or the person that's pulling the permit follows
those directions and then he finds out later that that's not how it was
supposed to be done and then they have to do a reinspection, are we charging them?
so, so, um, it wouldn't necessarily in, in that case,
um, because it's, it's more of a paper exercise. We, we wouldn't,
we wouldn't charge necessarily a reinspection. Sometimes we
have to evaluate it because if there are conflicting cases,
I have some ability to, to look at what the charges were
and say, well, hey, you know, we gave them one set of corrections this time,
but then things changed. Is it, is it fair
to do that? So, so, um, I do as the director
have a little bit of flexibility to look at those cases. But when it comes to
building inspections, we're actually doing construction generally
when we have smaller projects and we're helping like maybe an owner builder or something
like that. Um, that's, it's not the case. It's when we have,
uh, these large construction projects where they have professional corporations
that they should know what they're doing and, uh, taking advantage
of our staff time. We, we really don't want them to do that. So
thanks nick. Good. Thank you. On those smaller projects, I, I,
I know I talked to you about a, a complaint we had from a recent, uh,
uh, development, not development building going on on a property. And
they had had a contractor come in, they basically covered everything up beforehand.
is there a way that we can make sure that we put in our instructions
to them along the, when they first come in, that they're going to be required on
certain, in certain es or, uh, instances to get those,
uh, permits written off or those functions written
off before they cover things up and make it very clear to them? They cover it up, they're
gonna have to tear it up, uh, for us to inspect it, because I know it was a big surprise to
people. It couldn't cost 'em a lot of money when their contractor gets, you know, ahead of himself
and just covers up the work. Right. And generally, um,
we, uh, we do a lot to educate the contractors. We're,
we're pretty fortunate. We have a lot of good contractors that do a lot of business
in the city. Um, but there are those that, um, maybe
try to get away from with things. Um, what we are doing is we're continually
refining our building permit software to try and
build in more, uh, safeguards that will helpfully
steer the contractor in the right direction, the right inspections that they
need to be requesting and putting some checkpoints on allowing them to
move further without us kind of doing that verification. That's
my exact point. So you've got it covered. That's the main thing. 'cause we don't want people coming up. Well, I
didn't know. Well, I didn't know cost you a couple thousand bucks, you know, so.
alright. Any other questions? All good. Where are we at,
ben? What, uh, is, is this the extent of the, uh,
the workshop, uh, what kind action is required from here?
yes. Uh, our, our goal was to give you access to staff, uh,
for the types of questions you've already asked. And I think our next step
would be, uh, a motion, uh, right. And then, or do just a workshop.
oh, that's right. We have to approve. It wouldn't take that so mm-hmm . Okay. So that would
be, uh, the extent. Wait one moment. We'll, we'll bring it for adoption, not
tonight, but at the next council meeting. Perfect. The public hearing and adoption. Okay. Well
we want to thank staff that is here, uh, uh, supporting this
and listening in and the case, we had questions that needed to be answered. Uh,
very good process. It sounds like you are looking in advance
to, uh, preclude any issues or any questions that are obvious,
you know, pitfall for people. So I, I think that's great. So
you said we do not need a motion? Nope. Okay. No, it'll be come back to you. Alright, well we,
that happens to be it. We will go ahead and at, uh, four 20 close this work.
yeah. Just for your workshop. Thank you very much. Here,
there. Alright. I don't know what happened to the intro,
but that's fine. Alright. Uh, welcome to the regularly scheduled meeting
of the chino hill city council for january 14th. And, uh, happy new
year to everyone in attendance. Uh, roll call. All members
are present. Wonderful. Uh, I'm going to ask you all to
stand and join council member ray marquez in the, uh, flight
salute and then the invocation remain standing, uh, by pastor ken
elvin of the chino valley community church. Thank you. If you please join
me. Ready begin. I pledge allegiance to the flag flag
of the united states of america and to republic for which it
stands, one nation under god, individual
with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Alright,
let's pray together. Lord, we thank you that we can come here tonight at this new year
just living in this beautiful city lord, and being able to serve the people
here. I pray for the leaders of the council. I pray for the leaders who
make decisions, lord, that, um, we'll be honoring to you and looking out for the people.
lord, thank you. I pray for this meeting to go to your glory and thank
you that we get to live in this city once again in your name jesus. Amen. Amen.
thank you pastor.
the first item on our agenda
is the recognition of the city's annual holiday home decorating contest
winners to be introduced by the mayor and community
services coordinator, jessica patino. Will you please join the mayor jessica?
alright. Pacific hills host an annual
holiday home decorating contest where households all over the community
display their holiday spirit and help celebrate the festive season.
this year we are recognizing winners in three different categories,
mary and bright holiday spirit and best theme.
each winning household will receive a $50 gift card to september's
tap room and eatery. In addition, the winners will be given a
yard sign to display in front of their house during the holiday season.
a few of the winners are with us in the audience tonight. When I call your name, please
join me at the podium to receive your prize and take a group photo.
the first winner of the mary and bright category is the laura family.
would you please join me? They're not here.
okay. Alright. For the holiday spirit category, the judges selected
the marino family.
oh, it's so pretty.
excuse me. I have certificates here from the
city of chino hills and from supervisor hagman,
um, congresswoman norma torres, uh,
young kim, the congresswoman co young kim and assemblyman phil chan.
and by the way, each and every, uh, winning family will have those. So
I'm going to present this to you. Thank you so much. We have your picture up there.
would you go? Would you like to say it? Uh, say something about the fun
you have doing this. Come on right up .
I just want to thank my beautiful wife anita and my, uh, daughter lisa,
and my son mike, and, um, his wife, uh,
nicole and my two grandsons, uh, dylan and, um, nate, uh,
without their help, um, I think we made it a big family affair
and, um, it was really wonderful to see them all work and help me
decorate our house. Wonderful.
there is, I'll let you do those,
but I know she's gonna get the gift card, but that's alright. We're, I'm gonna have you hold here
for just a moment and we're gonna do a group picture, by the way. And by the way, thank you very
much for your service. I'm a fellow army vet and go airborne,
huh? All righty. Uh, the next winner,
but, and last but not least, the winner of the best theme was the
ellison family.
and they're not here either. . Oh, that's this group is gonna be us. Let's take a picture.
good.
thank, thank you.
next is a proclamation proclaiming january 11th, 2025 as
national human trafficking awareness day to be accepted by police chief ard.
okay. Hey, chief human trafficking
sadly, continues to be a global problem. This modern day exploitation
derives victims of their individual freedom, or deprives,
excuse me, victims of their individual freedoms, civil rights and personal
dignity. As a society, we must support all levels of law
enforcement by reporting such crimes and work to strengthen laws
that send an unwavering message to any and
all who attempt to profit from it. On behalf of the city
council, we encourage our community to spread knowledge and awareness to help stop
this hideous crime. To accept this proclamation and to share more about
the importance of this day is our very own chino hills police. Captain
gerard.
thank you mayor. Uh, vice mayor city council. Uh,
I'm honored to receive this proclamation and I applaud the council's continued efforts to raise
public awareness of human trafficking. Uh, most of us think of prostitution when we hear
human trafficking, uh, but the reality is labor trafficking and debt
bondage are just as prevalent. Debt bondage occurs when individuals are forced
to work without compensation to pay off. Never ending debts usually
incurred in their efforts to migrate to america. Many times the only hope for these victims
is for someone to become suspicious of their plight and report it to local law enforcement.
public awareness is often the key to rescuing victims of human trafficking. So again,
I thank the council for their continued commitment to raise awareness to human trafficking.
if you witness what you suspect is human trafficking, you can report it to the national human trafficking
hotline at 8 8 8 3 7 3 7 8 8 8.
you can also report it anonymously at we tip or call 9 1 1
for immediate law enforcement assistance. Thank you, mayor. Thank you very much. And here
is the certificate proclamation.
next we have a presentation on tree trimming budget and prioritization
to be presented by landscape inspector fusco and management analyst
pont.
is she familiar?
good evening, mayor bennett, council members, staff and members of the public.
I'm alexis dpa management analyst, and this is tony
fusco, landscape inspector and certified arborist, also
known as tony trees . We are from the public
works department and tonight we'll be presenting on our urban forest management.
we have over, uh, 47,000 trees here
in the city of chino hills with an annual budget of about $900,000
for maintenance of those trees. About 90%
of our tree maintenance is contracted out with our tree trim
contractor, west coast arborist, and we utilize
a corrective maintenance approach. Um, compared to preventative maintenance,
we are responding to issues and requests as they occur.
our current inventory value is 145 million.
we receive approximately 650 requests regarding
trees throughout the year, and those requests are typically
inspected within about two weeks or so. And then the
ones that do need to be addressed are addressed by priority.
and to share with you guys a little bit of perspective and some of the complexities
that we deal with in our city, we wanted to zoom into a couple of different areas.
so, uh, we'll start here off of, uh, off of peyton drive.
this is, uh, off peyton near carriage house. This is a, this is a,
a city owned slope where we have about, uh, 30 inventory trees,
30 of our, uh, 18,000 slope trees.
um, this is an area that we would consider an, an easy to access
area where, where as our tree crews are our trimming trees
up slope, they can easily, uh, bring branches down slope
as, and park their vehicles here, the chipper trucks. And, uh,
and this is, this is an area where, um, where guys
can work the slope really well. Conversely,
we have a lot of areas throughout the city that are much more difficult to,
uh, to navigate this area in between fallen oak and tall oak
is bordered on the north by, uh, the cattle property. So we can't get in that
way. The crews have to park their vehicles down here off of
split oak, and as they're trimming trees in this area, they have to drag
all the branch, all the brush and the trees and limbs,
uh, through that, that difficult to navigate area. And, and
while this, this area is about half the footprint of the area we just looked at,
it has twice as many trees.
so with the, um, with time and labor being the
greatest cost, uh, we kind of wanted to show how the cost can
vary greatly on tree trims. Uh, when we're working
easy to, easy to get under street trees, it can be
as simple as a half an hour, 75 bucks to trim a tree. Whereas you get into more
difficult trees like this guy right here, this was a dead eucalyptus that
we had to take out. And because it's such a narrow, narrow pathway,
the guys are can go single file and it, and
it can be up to $2,500 is to, to trim or remove one tree.
so after we get the service requests, uh, residents, they want to know,
when will my trees be trimmed with only about,
uh, with only budgets, only to trim about 10%
of our trees, we have to prioritize our trees. So we're constantly
trying to figure out which trees need it the most and what can wait.
so we prioritize our trees on, on the tree condition,
on how much the trees are encroaching the property lines and fire safety.
we do not trim trees for view and
we do not trim for leaf litter issues.
we also do not top trees. This is a common request
we get. Can you please totem pole my tree?
we don't do that. Top end trees is very, very bad
for the tree and it goes against isa standards. Uh, when you, when you
top trees, you starve 'em, they, they don't have the ability to photosynthesize
or create sugars. And then they, they will ultimately
have, uh, go into a rapid response growth mode where they
put out these shoots, right? And you get these bushes grown on the end
of stubs. And as those bushes grow into like larger
branches, the branches grow into limbs, the limbs to, uh, to leaders.
they're all, they're all growing at, uh, um,
structurally a poorly structured rate. Right? And, and these attachment points
are weak and we see failures, um, as
a result. So you also leave the tree vulnerable, the trees are
ugly. A lot of times the tree will die and then you have a costly removal
on your hand, which is much more than a trim.
so to kind of give you guys an idea, uh, priority one
trims look, look a little bit like this, like this is a, a,
a red gum behind a resident and it's encroaching their yard by
a good 15, 20 feet. Those are priority trim that we would schedule for trim
and get done as soon as possible. Same with the rest of the photos here.
conversely, priority two trims are trees that got await. So these are trees
that we don't disagree, you know, the tree is full, it would be nice to thin it out,
but, um, they're not encroaching properties too badly and there's
no other substandard conditions. So trees like this have to wait.
so as an alternate option for our residents, we established the
resi pay program in august, 2023, and that
allows residents to pay for city trees to be trimmed.
um, some restrictions do apply. Um, there should have been
no trimming within the last 12 months on that tree. It does have to be in the
city right away. And there are some seasonal restrictions that apply
as well. Um, we trim trees to isa
standards, so again, no topping. And the cost is based
on cost recovery. Quick question about that. Uhhuh , you
know, we've had issues with people unauthorized cutting down of, of
trees in, in the city's right of way that are city owned. Mm-hmm
. If someone decides that they want to
pay for trim trimming of city trees, what's their process? Who should,
obviously they need to contact the city first, but can you explain a little bit what that process
would be by they don't just get a gardener or tree trimmer to come out and start
trimming trees saying, oh yeah, we'll pay for it. Correct. So, so they'll
call public works and, um, request a work order and one of our,
um, landscape inspectors will check it out and meet with
our contractor to get a price for them. And, um, if
they decide to move forward, we'll go ahead and get it scheduled, but it does have to be trimmed
by our contractor. Okay. The, yeah, there's the key. They'll pay for, they'll
reimburse the city for the cost, but we will have total control of what gets trimmed.
exactly. And it is trim that's essential that people know that in the, in the press. Yes. Okay. Thank
you mr. Mayor. Of course. Oh, wait, excuse me. Right. Can I, can I have a follow up question? Obviously doug mccormick's
here, and I think doug, you're the one, one of the first that initiated this or
wanted to know about this. So thank you staff for doing that. My question is,
when a tree comes over, say onto my property, do I have
the right to trim the tree that's within my property line?
uh, yes. The way, the way we operate is, um,
at, at, at the public works is, um, your property line extends
up into the sky just as well as it does into the ground. And so a, a tree
or a root encroaching onto your property, you're within your right to cut, but not not beyond
your property. Would you prefer that we make contact with the city before
we do it or, definitely yes. Okay. Thank you. Alright.
um, we've been able to utilize nearly $2 million of non-city
money, um, to help with our tree trimming efforts. We had,
uh, three state grants recently that helped with our nature parks
hollow run, strickling and eucalyptus, and we were
able to utilize those grant funds to remove, um, dead or
declining trees, uh, trim the good trees and plant some new trees.
and then we also, uh, utilized a million dollars of arpa
funding to grid trim all of our park trees
so that, that million dollar, um, arpa funding we got, we started in
2022. It's been a three year program. Um, and it's, and it's
going great. We were able to trim 14,000
park trees over those three years. And, and especially with the recent
winds we've experienced, um, we saw very few failures,
uh, in these areas. A tremendous success
with this, with this, um, funding was that it freed up money
that we had otherwise had to spend in the parks, and we were able to, to take that
into the neighborhoods and to do, um, to, to spend
the money there, which was a tremendous success. We were able to catch up on a lot
of priority one backlog trees that had been in our inventory
for, for quite a while. So, um, this was a great
program for us. And then my favorite day
of the year, national harbor day, this is where we get together and plant a bunch of trees,
200 to 250 plus trees. We get together with all the beautiful members of
our community. We have such a diverse group. We get the girl scouts, we
get babs guys, we get young marines, we get the various dignitaries.
and, uh, I think this past year we had congresswoman norma torres come out and
give us a letter of recognition and, um, and yeah,
hope you join us this year and we are a proud
tree city, usa as well. Uh, if you guys have any
questions anyone have yes, go right
ahead, chris. Great presentation, guys. Um, first of all, just for clarification for
our, our, our viewers and audience, can you let us, remind us what isa
stands for? Sure. That's the, uh, international
society of arbor culture. He's like, come on cynthia, you should've known that . Okay.
a bit of a tongue. And I know you brought up leaf litter, but, um, I'm glad you brought it up
because I have gotten, um, feedback from residents that get frustrated
that their neighbor's tree puts all of their, blows, all their leaves into their nice clean
pool. But as a city, our policy is that we do not
trim or do not get involved in anything that just because someone's tree is blowing
leaves into the other person's yard and making it a mess. Right.
uh, I'm not sure if we're talking about private trees or city trees in this instance. City trees,
city trees. I'm trying to say neighbor, but like yeah. Um, we, you know,
we simply don't have the budgets to trim for leaf litter.
it's not that we, we disagree or we we want to be a bad neighbor. That's not the case
at all. We just have priority one trims that
are more so, I'm, I'm glad you brought up the whole, the leaf litter thing because it is a thing,
and I know we get complaints about it, but we don't trim for leaf litter. Um,
when you talked about topping the tree, how it's not normal, it's interesting because
I think that for people that get their private trees maintained by their landscapers,
the people behind me, they were notorious. It looked like the picture that you said was bad. So
I think we all think it's normal because the landscaping companies top
trees all the time, you're biting your tongue now, top topping trees is, is
widespread and very common. Yeah. But it is not the right way to trim trees. Yeah.
I wish there was a way we, we could, you know, educate all the people in that field, but
me too. Yeah, I know. So, um, that's all I
have. Any other questions? No, go ahead. Had a question. Um, you, you
just made a comment earlier, but I don't wanna put you on the spot. Since we do have 145,000
trees in our city and our budget is about 900,000, where should it
be mr. City manager?
uh, every year when we do our budgeting, uh, um,
process, the public works department looks at ways to
stretch, uh, the available funding. They look at options. If
we had, uh, more funding, um, we, we could
spend a lot more on trees. Uh, I think a lot goes
to, uh, tony and the team for making use of, of other people's
money where we can. Uh, but it's, it's, we do have constraints. It's
just one of those things that, uh, we don't have, uh, uh, enough
money to do some of the lower priority items. If it's health and safety, we make
it a priority and we get out there, we use, uh, con uh, contractors
in order to be able to maximize, uh, uh, uh, you know, the,
the, the work that's done out there. But it's one of those things that we'll be talking,
uh, with the council about. Uh, are there ways for us to, uh,
hi, make more of a budgetary priority to put more
money toward, uh, uh, trees? Uh, the goal of this presentation was
I know the council gets a lot of calls about trees because it's
something that's, uh, pretty obvious. They'll say that tree belongs to the city,
but I don't think, uh, I know I didn't know until this team educated me.
a lot of people just don't understand how much work it goes in
to maintaining 45,000 trees. We love the, the, uh,
the beauty of our, of our city, but I wanted an opportunity to give
a little bit of, of a spotlight and kudos to what the team is achieving.
what that $900,000 budget. Mr. City manager, thank you for that explanation.
um, you guys do a great job and I wanna say thank you, but obviously there's a shortfall.
um, I think we need to come up with more money, even though you guys do a great job with the
budget. I don't know what we can do as a council to basically generate more funding to
be able to do a better job. But thank you for the presentation. I appreciate that. Thank you.
could you give me an estimate of, uh, how long the city has been doing this,
uh, management of trees since day one?
since from the beginning five years in, when, when did we begin it?
uh, I'd be guessing I would, you know, 10 years ago, since day one,
I, I would think is day one almost the reason I bring this up, this is
kind of a timely, uh, subject. As we know with these devastating
wildfires, there's been a lot of criticism of, uh,
lack of urban foresting or forest management. And
I think that this is just a good example of the fact that way before it
started getting in the press, that this is a real problem. We've been doing this for,
you know, since basically day one. So it's, it's a great, uh, process.
and when it comes to, uh, the leaf, um, uh,
, I can tell you I have a pool and I have two big u eucalyptus behind me in this,
in the green belt. And, uh, yeah, my, my
pool maintenance guy hates it. , they do stain your pool, but
at any rate, uh, any other questions? Alright, great presentation
that is just a strictly in receipt and file. So thank you very much for your time. Thank you very much
for the work you do and, uh, keep it professional like that. We really do appreciate
it.
alright. Public information officer. A report. Thank
you mayor bennett. And good evening council staff and residents. Just a few quick announcements.
the city understands that many of our residents have been affected by southern california.
edison's ongoing public safety power shutoffs, which remain in effect for areas of chino
hills through tomorrow evening at midnight. The city wants to thank our community for
all their patients throughout this process and remind everyone to stay prepared until sce
issues the all clear. Throughout this event, our city officials and city council members have
been in constant communication with sce, advocating on our residents' behalf to expedite
all power restorations as quickly and as safely as possible. And for sce to provide
timely information and updates to residents, sce has established a community
resource center at the chino hills community center, which is open until 10:00 pm tonight. And
tomorrow from 8:00 am to 10:00 pm residents can find information and support from
sce as well as charging stations for mobile devices and portable medical equipment through of this
time. And just a reminder to the community that city facilities and the library
will be closed next monday, january 20th. An observance of martin luther king jr.
day and trash service is not affected. And that concludes my pa report tonight. Thank
you nicole. And just for the public's information, uh, don't think that
the council is exempt from this. Uh, several of us have
had power shutdowns. I know I've had probably 35 hours total of, of
shutdowns most, most recently this morning just for a repair and not the
psps, but, uh, uh, we all share in your pain and your
frustration. But I think that we all have to agree that the inconvenience
of not having power is sure much better than the
devastation that's gone on the people that have had total loss of everything they own.
so keep them in your prayers, uh, and try and remember that when you're
complaining, when you don't have any lights on. Okay, uh, pub, uh, announcement. Any
action from closed session? Mark? No reportable action. Taking any
closed session? Seeking, seeking mayor. Alright, thank you cheryl. Would you like to read the,
uh, instructions about public comments at this time? Members
of the public may address the city council regarding any item appearing on the agenda,
except that testimony on public hearing items which must be provided during
those hearings. Those persons wishing to address the city council must complete
and submit to the deputy city clerk a request to speak card available at the
entrance of the city council chambers. Comments will be limited to a maximum
of three minutes per speaker. The time allotted per person may vary depending
on the total number of speaker cards received. This comment period will generally
be limited to 30 minutes per meeting, so not all members of the public may have the opportunity
to speak at every city council meeting. We currently have three speaker
cards. The topic pertains to the tree presentation and
hazards. So we're gonna have them as agendized public comments. Okay.
okay. And cheryl, uh, we have developed some new
policies and some new procedures with respect to attendance at public meetings
and everything from seating to signs and everything else. Can you,
um, refer people to that? Because I know we, it's a very lengthy process.
would you please refer them, uh, on the record here as to where they
can find out exactly what our policy is now on public speaking and attendance
at city uh, hall meeting? Yes. On page two of
our agenda, we have now included a lot of information. The information
I just read regarding speaker cards is there, there is a definition of city
business and there is a prohibition in, uh, for signs,
banners, and flags or other symbolic material within the council chambers.
they are allowed if they are a certain size to be in the community
room. However, they will not be allowed to be brought into the council chambers when
speaking. And all of that information is also on page two of the agenda. We
also have the levi levine levine act disclosure for anybody who makes
contributions, um, in excess of $500 on
a, um, council proof contract. And then we also provided some tips
on how to speak at the podium to help with
everybody who might have, you know, little nerves when they're speaking so forth. So
all of that is contained on page two of our agenda. We also have some
of the tips on the backside of our speaker cards. So
we thought that would be helpful for you as well when you're filling out the speaker card to see the little tips
on the back. Thank you very much. I thought it was very important for us to go
on record and publicly announce when people come up and say, well, what's, what's
your policy on who, who can speak? What could they speak on? How long can they speak?
this very concisely outlines what our policy is on it. So anyone
that is out there in the, in the, uh, public that is planning on coming to a meeting,
uh, please read those rules, uh, because they will be adhered to. And, uh, we
even explain a little bit about what will happen if you don't. So, uh, thank you very much.
in addition, um, just so you, everybody is clear, if you are speaking on
the non agendized items, which is the section at the end of the meeting, the
time period for those is one minute per speaker as opposed to
the three minutes. Um, here on the agenda items. Great
clarification. Alright, do we have any public comments? Right, we have three. We have doug
mccormick as our first speaker. Alright,
good evening everyone. Uh, after the latest wind event,
my wife and I spent the better part of two days cleaning up the tree branches, park leaves
at debris that ended up in our backyard. The debris
equaled four pack green waste bins as councilman marquez
can attest to. Our yard's not that big. This happens every
three or four times a year, not because of the landscaping in our yard or our neighbor yard.
it comes from the city maintained slope. Rewind early
november when the mountain fire in camarillo destroyed hundreds of homes.
it's been widely recognized that besides the winds, the main contributor
to the unchecked spread of the fire in the residential communities was a result
of city and privately maintained graded slopes within
the community that included overgrown eucalyptus trees and other
highly flammable vegetation of debris that was not maintained.
my company consulted on several masterplan communities in camarillo, as we
also did in chino hills. I had have to tell you that
most of the homes that were destroyed in that, in that community were,
were designed to build just like the, just like the homes here,
while that fire was ongoing. Uh, and the
fires we see on tv also in, uh, the
palisades. My wife and I are looking at each other and saying one spark of the english road
community and that could be our neighborhood. Several months ago I
attended the emergency preparedness workshop. In these chambers I heard everybody
talk about protocols, manuals, computer modeling, et cetera, regarding
dealing with wildfires in our community. A couple of us brought up
the slope maintenance issue and I thought there was some good input. Has
anything been done about it? It doesn't appear to be the case,
although I bet the city manual looks really good. Last year you
passed an ordinance that allows homeowners to have their slopes cleaned
on their own, which was, I thought was a good thing. However,
in comparing the fee schedule with private contractors,
I discovered it was gonna cost more than double to have the city do it.
and that doesn't include inspections and permits.
over the years, I've heard issues about funding or lack of for the slope maintenance
and its impact on landscaping and lighting districts in the community.
I also see code enforcement signs each year about weed abatement and private
property all around the city. I've never understood how these districts were established
or maintained. I also think most would agree the enforcement of code issues
related to fire protection and the city appears to be random and haphazard.
I think it's time for the city to not kick the can down the road any
longer and revamp the system before one or more of our communities
end up in ruins like we've seen in recent days. Thank you.
thank you for your comments. Our next speaker is
john nik nik.
ah, well good, good evening. I have nothing, uh, formal to present.
uh, my wife and I, uh, charlotte, uh, uh, live on the, uh,
ca carbon canyon community of, uh, summit ranch. Uh, we've been there
for about 34 years and seeing a few fires, uh,
get excited a little bit when, uh, we see large fires coming up and, uh,
especially with the wind blowing down the, uh, canyon. I'm sure
many of you do. Uh, and, uh, we
go down carbon canyon to go into breyer a number of times during
the week. Uh, not as often as some that, uh, go every morning.
thank god we don't do that. Uh, but, uh, uh,
we noticed that there's a, a large amount of brush on the side of the road,
uh, bushes and some trees that were basically, uh,
seemed dead. And we just wondering if indeed there's some way that
uh, uh, city, city yard or somebody could uh, uh,
take care of those. I know some of that is private property and, uh,
especially the stretch between, uh, sleepy hollow and uh,
and the scur. Uh, so,
uh, I just thought I'd point that out and uh, we are kind of sensitive
to that. I'm sure everybody is, uh, with dry, uh, leaves during
the fire season. So that's all I had to say. Alright,
thank you. Alright, thank you for your comments. Okay,
ansel z
um, good evening everyone. I have the same. Uh, this is in .
I live on berry hill drive, which is, um,
east of chino hills parkway and north of grant avenue, right in the corner.
um, so behind my backyard there's a
green belt vegetation, it's maintained by the city.
I've lived, uh, at the address for about 10 years now. Um,
based on my knowledge, I think the green belt has been minimally
maintained. Um, more very recently.
that was probably the second time I've seen that there was a crew,
um, who, that were cutting some of the branches, overhanging branches,
um, which I complained years ago. It didn't happen only until
recently. What happened after, however, the clue,
the crew actually left a lot of the dead branches laying around.
I have pictures on my cell phone and so that's really concerning. And those
branches are browning and they can easily catch fire. Um, there are
many tall trees, uh, in that green belt and those trees have
never been trimmed as far as I'm aware of any of them fall down. They're
gonna be hitting any of our backyards. Um, and those trees,
um, I look up online, they're all highly in inflammable. So
that's the second concern. The third one of the green belt is
there's a thick layer of mulch and those
mulch, they're dry and they're easily
in flammable. And so if any of the ember sparkles,
you know, goes off, the whole thing is gonna burn up and none of the houses
near it will be safe. And so, again, you
know, there were a couple of gentlemen who raised similar concerns. I think this has to
be number one concern that the green belt near homes,
they have to be taken care of. Um, so, um,
I think that's all I have to say. I really appreciate you paying attention.
this is, in my opinion, has to be the top priority of
the city. Thank you sir. Thank you. Thank you for your comments.
that is the final speaker. Alright. Uh, do we have any,
uh, conflict of interest levine act announcements by any of the, uh, council
members? Mm-hmm. Alright, moving on. We will move to city calendar business, the consent
calendar, which is nine items, items, uh, 11,
excuse me, through 19 8 19. Uh, anyone like
to poll? Peter ray? No. Cynthia? No. Alright. A motion
to approve, like to, did you, um, um, I think ray's making a
motion. I'll second. Okay. Motion by marquez? No, it's actually by brian. And I'm gonna second.
there you go. Alright. , please lock in your vote.
thanks brian. Motion passes. Five zero.
okay. Next item is, uh, dis under the discussion calendar. Item 20,
assigned council member as an alternate to the tracer manos conservation authority board.
and, uh, I will present, uh, this item is to appoint two
member, or I'm sorry, wrong one. This item is to, uh, sign a
council member as alternate to the trust ram's conservation authority board.
the selection of an alternate was inadvertently missed at the december 10th meeting.
so we are taking that action tonight. So if we could just have a nomination of
a alternate and a vote for okay.
as I recall, I think that, uh, we named ray as a secondary is
that I'm a primary. He's primary. Primary too. We need an alternate.
so we need one alternate. Who would like to that? What do you want's? Go back.
you wanna do an alternate? Okay. Off a nomination to no motion
council if you're good with it. Alright. Absolutely. Council member moran
motion passes. Five zero. Okay. Item number 21.
uh, and this is initiated by the council. Uh, we need to appoint two
members to each parks in recreation planning public
works, uh, with terms expiring november 30th. This is
occasioned by the fact that, uh, cynthia and I were reelected to four year terms.
uh, we each have three, uh, commissioners. So we, uh, had
the option of looking at all of the applicants and also
discussing this with our existing commissioners to determine if they wanted to
continue. We had the choice of looking at new applicants, the existing lab
applicants, and we had, uh, we both made choices with
respect to who we, uh, propose to appoint for the next four years
consecutive with our terms. Do you need to read that in cheryl? I do not.
you, uh, the only thing I wanted to mention is that you had the opportunity to review
applications that were received during the open recruitment that concluded on
december, or was december 11th through the 19th. Okay. Wait, did that, would you
like to read into the record the, uh, commissioners that are being appointed on this?
I need to have the nominations. Okay. I'm the vote of the council to nomination appoint
them. Thank you. Art. Well, first I'd like to thank everyone that submitted an application that wants
to get more involved in our community. And cheryl, can you remind me how long we
keep, uh, applications on file if someone was not selected? The applications
are kept on file for a year. Okay. And each time an opening comes up, we do look at
the applications we have on file and we notify them of the um,
okay. Of the opening. Wonderful. So I wanna thank everyone that wants to get more involved in the community, but
for, um, consideration by my colleagues this evening. Um,
I would like to reappoint to the public works commission. Mike klitschko
reappoint to the planning commission. Peter pero and reappoint to the
parks and recreation commission. Uh, robert gla. Alright.
mm-hmm . And I would like to nominate my three
existing commissioners and I'm having an absolute brain fade here. I can help you.
natalie avila? Yes. Jen.
jennifer hol. Jennifer hol camp. Hol camp. And you have, um, sharon
vo. Sharon voy. I'm so sorry. I'll mine someplace else. I'll second
the nominations by each of you. Wonderful. I appreciate we don't have to do anything. Can you repeat 'em please? Yes.
. And, and can you replace me too in my mind at least? Alright,
let's uh, take a vote on that. We'll second that. Alright.
motion passes. Five zero. Thank you very much. That's what
happens when you get, uh, uh, your power going off and turning off your
ccp a p machine early in the morning. I think the brain went with it.
. Okay, next item. This is the, is
going to be public comments again. Would you like to explain that one? And this is for the non agendized
item. I'm gonna go ahead and read it even though I explained it earlier in case somebody came in later
this time, members of the public may address the city council regarding any items with, in
the subject, any items not within the
subject matter. Oh, I'm sorry. Within the subject matter jurisdiction
of the council. That does not appear on the agenda. Boy. Okay.
please complete and submit to the deputy city clerk a request a speak card comments will
be limited to a maximum of one minute per speaker. Time allotted
per speaker may vary on the total number of speaker cards received, and this comment
period will be generally limited to 30 minutes per meeting. So not all members
of the public may have the opportunity to speak for tonight. We have three
speaker cards for this item. Alright, would you like to read
the first number? Suzette nang.
good evening, mayor bennett, vice mayor, council member, city staff and
residents of chino hills. My name is suzette dang, with your fourth district county
supervisor, kurt hagman's office. I do have one announcement. Supervisor.
hagman is accepting applications from fourth district residents who
are interested in public service to serve on the following boards, committees, or commissions,
airports, behavioral health campaign accountability, and
veterans advisory. Applicants must be residents of fourth
district, which includes the cities of chino, chino hills, montclair, ontario,
upland south of 14th street, and
surrounding unincorporated areas for eligibility requirements or to
apply. I do have, um, flyers with qr codes, or you can
call 9 0 9 4 6 5 5 2 7 3,
or 9 0 9 3 8 7 3 9 6 1.
um, there are several weather warnings issued by the national weather service that could impact
our communities, including high winds, red flag warnings, and frost
advisory. Please stay safe and take the necessary precautions to protect
your family, pets, and property against these weather conditions. For
more information and information and tips, please visit our
resourcepage@osbcounty.gov.
thank you and happy new year everyone. Thank you, sir.
juan ortiz .
uh, good evening. Uh, uh, mayor bennett and, uh, chino hill city council. My name's juan ortiz.
I'm a newer resident to chino hills within the last three years. Uh, and I just wanted to
come up and, um, say recount a a short, um,
interaction that I had with members, uh, in the department of community development and say
thank you, um, for the support that I got on, got in a project early this
year. I had a nightmare project in my backyard that with a contractor that
just was not going well. And just one of those nightmare scenarios you hear, I reached out
to ms. Moran at that time who was serving as mayor. Um, and she immediately kind
of responded. It was kind of a last ditch kind of effort. Maybe I'll reach out to the city and they'll help. Um,
and she responded to me within two hours. Uh, that day she got me in touch
with mr. Nick lago, who again, kind of fast forward my my permit
and kind of helped me out a great deal. Uh, once I got into it.
uh, christopher zavala, alex rocha, and mr. Bradley fleeman. They
didn't always give me the best news about my project, but they were empathetic, respectful,
and guided me through what was becoming a nightmare, nightmare that was gonna cost my family
tens of thousands of dollars and kind of guided me along the right path. Uh, my
project's finished. My family has enjoyed, uh, the backyard's a space in
my, in my home. And so I just wanted to say, I know sometimes you always don't get good news,
right? But I just wanna say thank you. Uh, it's really made me feel like, uh, we made the
right decision in moving to chino hills from whittier, and we've, uh, just very happy. So thank you
so much for your help. Thank you. Welcome to chino hills,
sarah ramos, inger.
good evening, mayor bennett, vice mayor, joe council members
and staff in our community. I just wanted to come up, um, there were some
comments today about canyon and concerns in that. So I just wanted to remind
the community that we have a fire safe council that meets the first wednesday
of every month. However, due to power outages,
um, et cetera, holidays, we postpone that meeting and it's
actually tomorrow. So I wanted to personally invite you folks. It is a zoom meeting
so it's easy for you to attend. And if, um, any
resident wants information, I'm going to let the fire district handle that. If you can call
9 0 9 9 0 2 5 2 8 0 6 0 6 0.
okay. So again, 9 0 9 9 0 2 5 2 6 0.
and again, that's the carbon canyon fire safe counsel. Okay, thank
you, sarah. Thank you, sarah. That is our final speaker.
okay. Safety updates, chief williams.
good evening, mayor and council and community members. I know that the fires
aren't right here in our backyard, uh, but I would like to just give an update for the community
members who, uh, regularly have questions about where things
currently stand. So, really quick, uh, the palisade
fire, uh, as of today, but when I left the office to come over here was
about 23, just over 23,000 acres, 70,
17% contained and is considered an active, uh, fire.
still at this time. The eaton fire, uh, which most are
probably more familiar with, a little bit closer to home, 14,000 acres,
35% contained, uh, 35% containment, and
again, still active. The chino valley fire district does have personnel at both of
those fires. Uh, we have a total of 10 personnel out, uh, for us that equates
to two engine companies with four people on each company. And we also have
a team called a rems team. It's an urban search and rescue team. Ask you
to just continue to keep those folks in your thought. They have, uh, the very
challenging task of trying to identify and search for maybe missing persons
or dead bodies. So at any rate, we do have folks out there, uh,
to all of our community members. Uh, anytime that we send individuals
out on these large scale incidents, we do recall additional personnel
to fill our local stations. So when we send people out, we're not down
here. We actually recall people. And, and, and a matter of fact, in cases
of wind events, we actually will, uh, not only recall people to fill positions
or vacated by providing assistance, but we'll, usually ups staff, uh,
additional, um, either water tenders or whatever, whatever
the, um, uh, the national, um, disasters could. If it's a rain, then we'll,
we'll upst staff, uh, swift water rescue as opposed to a a, an
engine that's really equipped for wildland firefighting. So we do, do those, take those measures.
and that's all I have. Thank you. Uh, chief, since the subject of brush clearance,
uh, came up earlier tonight, would you explain what the fire district's, uh,
efforts are in that and, and what the process is? Uh, we have a
very, very robust, uh, brush clearance program. Um, a lot
of the detailed information you can get on our website, but essentially what it is, is, uh, twice
a year we do do an active, uh, notice for abatement.
and so what it is, is our inspectors will go out the, we identify the areas,
then we make a notice, uh, to abate. And then, uh,
following that, if, if, uh, the abatement is not, um, taken on by
the parcel, whoever the id, the, the parcel owner's idd to,
then we will have to go ahead and abate it and then, uh, either lien property or
work through some sort of a payment process. But we do that twice a year. Where, where
it can become problematic is we can't always forecast the kind of weather
we're gonna get. So we could technically go out or have an area
bated, um, and then we get significant reigns.
and then again, then those, that growth is gonna happen very, very rapidly,
uh, and exceed our ability to get back out there right away because we,
we do have a plan and a, a process that we go through, uh, because of the vast
open spaces, uh, to identify those, go through a bait those,
and then come back around at the next abatement period and, and do that. But
we do have our, our, um, uh, fire district meetings
the second wednesday of every month. Community members are welcome to come, um, and,
and hear what's going on in the fire district, uh, updates. And, uh,
again, we're always gonna be accessible to, uh, any community member that has concerns.
you feel free to reach out directly. Our no, our numbers are posted again. It was mentioned
tonight, 9 0 9 9 0 2 5 2 6 0. It's our general line.
and then again, it'll walk you through, um, getting you to speak to somebody on
the phone based off of what your needs are. And, and the whole objective is to,
uh, to obtain a defensible space around properties when
they're, especially when they're up against open space, correct. Absolutely.
when it comes to brush clearance. Yeah, that's absolutely the key is the key is to really reduce,
reduce any kind of vegetation or fuel, essentially, uh,
that would allow for fires, uh, to grow rapidly. Uh,
it limitate limit, um, um, ladder fuels that could get into trees.
there's, there's many, many reasons to do it. Yeah, essentially, yes, it's all related
around fire safety. Okay, thank you very much. Chief gerard police.
good evening. Honorable mayor, vice mayor, city council, city staff
and residents and attendance. During the month of december, the chino hills multiple enforcement
team worked collaboratively with investigators from the san bernardino county sheriff's department's gang
and narcotics division to conduct a retail theft operation in chino hills
as part of operation smash and grab operation smash. And grab
aim is to prevent retail thefts during the holiday shopping season and disrupt organized
reha retail theft crews. It was funded through crime suppression funding from
the san bernardino county board of supervisors. A total of 18 deputies participated
in the three day operation prior to the operation. Local businesses were
contacted and a total of 10 chino hills businesses participated in the operation.
the three day operation led to 17 arrests in our city. Notable arrest
included ae at large who was arrested at a business in the 4,200 block of chino hills parkway,
the arrest of a theft suspect who was observed committing the crime by undercover
deputies at a retail business on payton drive, the driver of a vehicle leaving
a shopping center who was contacted during a traffic stop and found to be a convicted felon
in possession of an uns serialized ghost gun and narcotics,
the arrest of two suspects who were contacted upon leaving a business on peyton
drive. They had purchased multiple items with credit cards stolen during a
vehicle burglary earlier that day. A search of their vehicle led to the recovery of
the burglary, uh, victim's property, the arrest of a fugitive who was
wanted in connection to a felony assault with a deadly weapon investigation during a traffic stop in
the shop's parking lot. And also, our investigators assisted are our staff
in the investigation of an attempted residential burglary in chino hills, which led to the arrest of
three los angeles gang members. Operation smash and grab was
a successful collaboration between your chino hills police department, the san
bernardino county sheriff's department and local businesses, the high visibility of law enforcement
personnel conducting proactive patrols within the shopping centers to help to deter, deter
crime, and prevent additional theft from occurring. Thank you.
as always. You guys are doing fantastic work to protect the businesses and the
people in the city of channel hills, and we greatly appreciate it. Please give them all our extreme thanks.
I will. Thank you, mayor. Good work. Alright. Appreciate it. Had a quick comment, if you don't mind. Oh, yes, I'm sorry. Um, you know, as a
city, we took a position on prop 36. Um, chief,
would you mind maybe touching on how, uh, with the voters passing
prop 36, it's, uh, affecting how you're able to do your jobs
now that crime is illegal? So the big part of prop 36 that's
gonna help us out is the narcotic aspect. A as of it, um,
where a, a suspect who is convicted on a second narcotics possession
offense, there's some other stuff in there like fentanyl. But for, for, I think for our city,
a second narcotics, uh, uh, uh,
uh, sentencing is gonna result in either a felony
sentence or a choice to, uh, receive services. So I don't know that the county yet
has finalized what those services look like, but they're working on it.
but instead of somebody getting arrested time and time and time again for possession
of narcotics and continually getting a misdemeanor, uh, conviction or
no files charged, we're gonna be able to, like we had before, uh, either give
them a choice of a felony conviction, which will result in, in further
incarceration or receiving, um, uh, help. Basically. The
other aspect of that is retail theft, where again, a second conviction or a third conviction
of a petty theft, um, is gonna result in, in a felony
conviction. Where prior to that, um,
you could, you could accumulate as many petty thefts as you wanted, and
it was never gonna be a felony. So now we're back to the way it used to be, where we used to have
petty theft with a prior, where if you're a habitual or a, uh,
uh, a lifetime criminal who's continually committing thefts, eventually they're gonna
be able to hit you with a felony conviction. So catch and release has pretty much been
done away with in, in regards to those two areas and those two areas,
I'm hoping, and I am, I'm optimistic that yes, and everything I've heard so far from the,
from the courts and the da's office, especially here in san bernardino county and our own staff, uh, is
optimistic. There is some stuff on the, on the back end that they're gonna have to work out as far as
like the services that they're gonna provide, especially in the narcotics convictions.
uh, but the other stuff is, looks like we're good to go. Very good. Thank you chief.
alright, thank you very much, much. Okay. Uh, council reports,
and I guess I drew the story. We're going alphabetic, so there you go.
uh, chino valley fire district, uh, although I was not able to physically attend
the meeting 'cause of a conflict, like no power at my home, uh, et cetera.
uh, a couple notable things. We had the retirement recognition of battalion chief
wayne fontes after 31 years of service, he's gonna be greatly missed. We
had promotions and recognitions of badge pinning for battalion chief john cripe,
battalion chief chuck keeny, captain nathan brooks, captain kyle
colonna, captain dan fry, captain tom
kavanaugh, engineer josh ster engineer
eric engelhart, engineer christina nova and engineer
aaron patty, and also recognition of the chino valley fire
district response, uh, to the, uh, fire incident that was going on, uh, when that
happened. So, uh, that's all I have for the fire district. Uh, the school
district, uh, the last school district meeting was back on the 9th of december
that we had a conflict with the city event, so I was not able to attend. However, they
did go ahead and do their, um, naming of their, their new officers,
which are really the same officers that they've had. So I, sonia
shaw as president john monroe, vice president and uh, and
andrew cruz as a secretary. So vice mayor jobs. Alright.
uh, regarding omni trans, uh, the largest thing of note at the last
meeting was we had a previously approved 25 cent,
uh, uh, fair, uh, rate increase that was on the books. Um,
it would've made omni trans the second highest bus service in southern california
behind, uh, octa. And looking at the numbers from
staff, it looked like we would see a pretty significant decrease in ridership if we were to
go ahead with that. So the board, uh, voted to forgo
that fair increase, uh, for now. And then just something of note
for, uh, folks on, uh, february 4th
is rosa parks birthday. So, uh, omni trans is giving,
uh, allowing free, uh, bus rides on fixed routes.
so not the service that we have in town, but on fixed bus routes. Uh, in honor
of her birthday. It's transit equity day, so if you want to go ride around
on a bus in the county, it's on, uh, it's on omni transit.
thank you. Very good. Council member marquez. Thank you, mayor. First
of all, I'd like to talk about san bernardino county transportation authority. I attended the general
policy committee. Uh, we reviewed and approved, uh, the
fiscal year budget 20 25, 20 26. Uh, we got an update,
uh, that was given to us, uh, regarding the san bernardino council of government's work plan.
we reviewed the summary report of measure I
for capital improvements for all our members, members of s-b-c-t-a,
the board meeting. We appointed a board member to metrolink board.
we established an ad hoc committee for s-b-c-t-a and sbc cog
for, to, um, start recruiting for the next executive director. We
had a presentation of the annual coffers report. We awarded,
uh, central avenue and chino, an existing planning project.
and then also we voted and we actually had a presentation from south coast a qmd
on rule 11 11 11 12. And what that
basically means, uh, uh, they want us to eliminate
gas for stoves, gas for heating. Uh, s-b-c-t-a
took a position we are opposing this, and this will be coming to the board
of a qmd. Um, yeah, I believe either the late part of february
in march. So we took a position to oppose it. Metro valley, there
was nothing to report transit, there's nothing to report. And sir, you're, I'm gonna
that you talk about , sir. Well, thank you. That's it, sir. Alright. Uh,
council member rogers. Alright, two reports I have. One is, uh, chino
desal authority, or cda, one of our five water sources,
uh, in the region. Uh, pretty standard board meeting last week.
approved numerous contracts for facility upgrades and or
pump and well repairs. And we also held our yearly
election of officers and made committee assignments. So that was cda
trace. Armos, ray and I are, uh, represent the city at trace armos.
we, uh, every two years we rotate the three within the three cities.
the last two years we're here in chino hills. Now we've moved back to the
original host city of, city of industry. And that was last week also.
and the only real item was a report on the installation of erosion
control measures on the earth and dam.
so many of you that know that property and you're coming, let's say from diamond bar heading
this way, you can see a, a lake there off to the right.
uh, and that lake needed some significant repairs.
so they, they mostly for mitigation of, uh,
erosion and they took care of erosion,
some erosion control, and also some road repairs, if I remember correctly,
for a total cost of a hundred, 500, $1,000
for erosion control, uh, for that earth. And dam also, we
have, we talked about, uh, an upcoming ranch tour, which
will take place in february. The, the a hundred or so visitors
that will be hosted on the tour this time around will still be
sourced from the original group of individuals that signed up a
couple of years ago. And we had so, so many people sign
up that that one day for our very first tour,
that in subsequent tours we have sourced that,
that pool of individuals and we've drawn down that
list. So this will complete the, this will
essentially, this will be the remaining group of individuals that showed a lot of patients
over the last two years, uh, to tour the property. So we will
finish that up and then we will, we will re advertise probably next fall, late, late
summer fall for the next tour if the board decides to pursue
the tour for next fall. That's all I have on trace romanos. Very good.
one, one last thing. Thank you so much for being the president last year. Do we have a new president and
vice president? We do. And who's that? So cory moss. Cory moss is, uh, the
current mayor of city of industry and she rotates back
into that role as president and andrew, um,
ch ch chow chow. Andrew chow is from diamond bar council
member diamond bar is the, the vice chair of trace armos for the next year.
alright, here we go. Thank you very much. Council comments. Council
member moran, how would you like to start? I just have a few things. Um, earlier we had,
um, a resident that was worried about, um, the wood chips that, that get
sprayed in like the areas. But I noticed that even on parts of the 71 freeway on
the, like the on-ramps, you know how they do that annual, they spray it to make it look nice. So are those flammable?
are they treated to be non flammable? Do you know anything about that?
uh, I, excuse me, I I can't speak on the, uh, wood chips that are on
caltrans right away. 'cause I don't know what, uh, kinda material they, they use. Um, however,
the, the, uh, the mulch that we use in our landscaping is not flammable.
okay. Um, it does tend to dry out and when it does, um, it's just, it becomes organic
matter. Uh, we will go out and spread more mulch, um, to, um, uh, to address,
uh, or to compress some of the u the weeds that, uh, tend to grow in that area. Okay, great.
and, um, just a little update for the colleagues. So brian and I, you know, we were,
um, appointed to the public safety ad hoc committee we've met.
um, so I just wanted to update you guys on that. Um, we had
a good first meeting, but I do think, and we've met long, we've met before the wildfires,
so, but we addressed a lot of, um, different things as far as evacuation
as well, coincidentally. But I think ben far next meeting,
um, I'd really like to have a representative from fire in the school district there.
I know that that's our long-term goal to have, um, communications with the
school district. But I would like some facetime at, at that meeting so we
can, you know, talk frankly and what are different. Uh, make sure we're all on
the same page when we're trying to get either adults or kids, you know, different places.
we had a, uh, we have an assisted living home in the south end of
town that lost power. And, um, there's a lot of different things that people have reached out, different
concerns. So at our next meeting, if we could try to facilitate that representation, that'd
be great. So I won't really say anything. Blink twice
for yes. I'm sorry. I thought you saw me nodding. Yes.
thank you maam. I did. I'm sorry. . Thank you. This is what happens when you don't have
power. You have ugly hair. Sorry, I'm being a brat. Okay, so,
um, yep, that's it. We had a good first meeting and before I ask for the rest of
council reports, I apologize, ben. I went right over
city manager reports. Oh, that's what I, or updates for the first time. Not the first time, but
yeah. Uh, that's quite all right. Uh, I, I will nudge you if it, if I had something burning.
I have no, uh, addition tonight. No comments. Thank you. All right. Thank you very much, peter.
yeah, thank you. I've only got a couple of items. One, uh, being a water
representative in town for a few years now, uh,
the subjects coming up more often at our different board meetings with our different water source
sources that, uh, we haven't had any significant rain.
we haven't had any rain in southern california, at least in our region
since the first week of may. No rain at all. May have
had some drizzle but no rain, no measurable rain. So, uh,
because of that, now they're starting to talk drought.
we are in a moderate drought condition in southern california now.
so when you look at drought maps, we are now where there was no
no indication of any drought because we had significant water and rain
to, to mitigate any issues. Now we're starting to enter into that
phase. So let's hope for some rain, some significant rains over the
next three months or so in the traditional, in the traditional rainy months.
but so far, nothing, which obviously in the old days,
which was several years ago, in fact, ray made a comment that many years, january
was pretty vulnerable time 'cause we didn't have enough rains. And because of that, and
with some winds, we had fires that you wouldn't think you'd have fires in january because
it's traditionally a rainy month. Uh, but either way.
so you may want to start thinking about your water usage, uh, for
now at least, uh, as we, we enter possible drought
months in the summertime. Also, ben and I have talked a little bit
about changing the subject. Talked a little bit about the numerous
dump trucks that are making their way up and down the canyon as we've all experienced,
uh, for the last, well, since before christmas when the project started.
and I live in the canyon, as does ray, so I see it every day. Uh,
seven when I left at 7:00 am for our rotary meeting, seven
were all kinda lined up in a row coming past me as I was trying to get out
of, uh, uh, fels bar where, where I live. So it, and
they just zoomed right on through. So I know chief, there's
probably been some dialogue about, uh, I know we talked about at the last
council meeting about stepping up some enforcement in general in the canyon,
just as a little body check for, uh, those that are, that may
want to race through the canyon or, or have some trucks, big trucks going
through. But these dump trucks, they meet, they meet the criteria, there's a project going
on, and they're not, they're not five axle or larger,
but they, many of 'em, they are hauling, but they're,
they're hauling, they're, they're moving big time up and down those streets. So
I want to just let the audience know that we have
noticed it and we're seeing if we can give them a little, uh, reminder that they need
to be in check. When it comes to their, my guess is
they're, each of their loads are, they're rushing back and forth to do their thing.
so they're probably based on how much they can earn per day as to
how many trips they need to make. So either way, just wanted to let you know that we do,
we've noticed it and we're seeing if we can control that a little bit. And that's
all I have. Thank you. Thank you, mr. Mayor. Thank you so
much. Appreciate it. Um, I got to attend and I wanna say city. Thank you. Um,
my, uh, council members, I got to attend, uh, an organization called well,
which is water, um, education for, uh, latino leaders.
and I was in, uh, coachella valley this past week.
and, uh, we did tour salton sea. I did not run into any quicksand. I got
photos. Yeah, no quicksand this time. . And then also we did
tour called parks. These are, um, the ag community. They have a lot of trailer
parks throughout the area. And, uh, we, we got to tour one
of the homes and it broke my heart. Um, they have water
to each one of the units, but it's laced with arsenic, so they can't use
it to drink. Um, they, um, bathe in it, they wash their
clothes, they wash their dishes, and it just, to me, it's, uh, despicable that people
in california are living that way. So this will be a series
of five meetings throughout california. I'm really looking forward to the other four meetings.
city. Thank you for allowing me to do this. I truly appreciate it. Um, peter
and myself would like to do a meeting probably within the next 30 days. Um, we
got the permission today to do it over at western hills, and it's gonna be talking about
fire behavior and different things that we in the city are doing.
um, I'll be talking to the police chief, which I haven't done yet, so I apologize.
but I did talk to the chief, the fire department did talk to the city manager, and I did
talk to public works. So hopefully within the next 30 days we will have a meeting
talking about water, talking about fire behavior, talking
about evacuation. Yep. So it's something that, uh, peter, myself are real,
and actually all, all the council, this is something that's very important to all of us, but
it's, uh, we're working on that. So I just wanna share with the community. Ray, will you include
the carbon, uh, fire state council. Fire state council. Okay. Alright. Good. Yeah,
I'm gonna include all the hoas. Yeah. Um, sleepy hollow,
the different areas. Yeah. And so we're gonna get a lot of people there, so
thank you har, appreciate that. Uh, pickleball courts, I did go by the pickleball courts.
I was told the courts are not open as of yet, but people are playing. And
again, they're, they're doing a great job. They're staying off the asphalt, they're parking outside the
park and they're walking in. So I just wanted to bring it to your attention. Um, but
they, they look beautiful. The quotes and the parking looks like it's
coming along too. Yep. Okay, perfect. Um, I got a couple questions
for, um, our public works director. I know in some of the fires,
the reservoir, uh, water ran down. Can you tell me, uh, the
capacity number one and what do we do to keep 'em at whatever level?
uh, sure thing. Councilman marquez, uh, throughout the city, we have a total of
18 reservoirs, um, strategically located, uh, around, uh, various parts
of the city. Um, with those 18 reservoirs, we have a capacity of 39 million
gallons, uh, of water. Um, any, anytime we have
a, uh, a wind event or any type of emergency, we, uh,
we top our reservoirs. We completely fill them, uh, so that if there is a need
to tap into our, our water system, uh, to fight a fire wildfire,
um, structural fire, uh, there is enough capacity, uh, and
pressure, uh, to be able to fight that fire. Just a quick question. With psps,
um, when we do pumping at night, does that affect that at all? Uh,
it can, but however, we do have generators, uh, that we deploy to our
critical, uh, locations to be able to continue pumping water into our reservoirs. That was really smart to
get those generators. Thank you, sir. Um, hydrants that we have throughout the city,
are they annually or do we test them at all? We have a total of
2,800, uh, fire hydrants throughout the city. Uh, we currently,
uh, inspect them on a cycle of every four years. However, we are reassessing,
um, that schedule, uh, given the, the current events, uh, with the,
with the wildfires, we are looking to, uh, inspect those on a more frequent basis.
uh, we will be updating our, our program and we'll, we will come back to you at a future date to share
that information with you. Daniel, thank you so much. And then also, I did call you the other day,
there was a little glitch in the system when ps ps went down six houses on top
of the hill, you jumped on it. Thank you so much for taking care of that. So we
do have a solution and we're moving forward on, right. We do, excuse me.
uh, we do have a, a vulnerable area, um, on a cannon lane where we do have six
properties that if we are without power for a significant amount of time,
um, we do have six homes that will be without water. Uh, we've identified that issue, we've
isolated the issue, uh, and we're currently working on a solution to be able to provide
a, a connection point so that we can run, run the generator to that, uh, that station.
um, so we we're hoping to resolve that in the next, uh, week or two. Okay, brother, thank you so much for
doing that. I appreciate that. You're welcome. Also, I want to thank you two on pinnacle street.
you put a center divider lane, or you're gonna be doing that fairly soon because
cars were driving on both sides of the road, correct? Is that correct? Yeah, we've identified a potential,
uh, safety issue, uh, along that road. So, uh, we're hoping that a, uh, a
center line will clearly notify drivers where they should and shouldn't be driving.
sir, you do such a great job, you and your public works. Thank you for all the hard work. I
truly appreciate it. And sarah gibbons, I just wanna say thank you. Uh, we had a dinner
the other night for john demon that, uh, served on the fireboard, and, uh,
we're gonna miss 'em and thank you for doing that. And john, what a great job over the
years. Those all, those are my comments, brian. Alright. This will be fairly
quick. I think, you know, uh, all of us are gonna have emergency preparedness
on our minds for a while in light of what's happened in la. Um, yeah, we just
need to make sure we button up our own city emergency procedures and for
residents. You know, I think we've learned, you know, we've seen these stories of people having
to run out, you know, right before the flames at their house. So make sure you're
ready with your go bags every, as much as you can, you can digitize and put into
the cloud with your, you know, birth certificates and marriage licenses and
all that good stuff. You know, make sure you take care of it that way. Um,
yeah, that's all. Oh man, just a reminder, when the lights are out, a stop
light is a four-way stop. I saw plenty of people not really knowing
what to , not really knowing what to do when the power went out at some of our, uh,
some of our four-way enter or some of our, uh, exchange or
intersections. So four way stop. Alright, thank
you. And to that point, uh, I contacted daniel
about several, um, intersections that were being brought to my attention. In
particular, those that were close to the high schools and schools and staff
was going out and placing, manually placing, uh, portable stop
signs, if you will. So, uh, that was a very good, good thing. They, they did
that. So I appreciate that very much. Uh, this last weekend I
had the pleasure of, uh, attending and, uh, giving certificates to four,
uh, eagle scouts in troop two 20. Uh,
they, they, these guys actually have obtained their
eagle scout within the last year and a half, but they were all such close friends. They wanted to wait
and have a ceremony together. So we, we did that. And I, I always
loved the fact that we, uh, uh, you know, give these gentlemen
these, these recognitions, uh, for all of their, uh, projects that they do.
and I always tell them that, uh, just like the marines that are, say, once you're
a marine, you're always a marine. Well, once an eagle, always an eagle. And the, the
gentleman that, uh, obtain that rank, uh, are held to a different
standard, I think, than the rest of us. And they're also given far more recognition,
uh, through their adult lives, uh, when they have attained that honor. And as we
know, kurt haman and his son both, uh, have attained that rank. So,
and, and my brother, uh, obtained that. So it was really good, um,
during this, this constant time and concern about the,
the wildfires. Uh, I just ask that everybody, uh,
be patient, uh, our city is, is looking at a lot of things. Uh, when we
took talking about the fire hydrants, that's one thing that ray and I have been talking about. And, and talking
with the city, uh, fire hydrant, checking the fire hydrants, uh,
updating and, and looking at our, uh, evacuation plan. So we're
doing what we need to do through joyce lee, who is the in charge
of that for the city. And we are taking every precaution we can to
try and make sure that people, god forbid the a bad thing happens,
that, uh, our people will be organized in getting to safety. So
with that, that ends my comments. Now tonight. Uh, besides our
normal adjournment, I would ask that everyone, keep
all of those that have been so drastically affected by these
wildfires, keep them in your prayers and your thoughts. If there are organizations
that are collecting, um, everything from monetary to physical
items of clothing and food, or food or whatever it happens to be, if
you have, if you're fortunate enough to have the wherewithal to contribute to those,
uh, please do so. Uh, it's, it, it, it's
impossible to, to fathom what those people have been going through and, and are going
to be going through for many, many months. And well, some of
them, it'll be a lifelong horror story to remember. So, but
also, I am going to adjourn in memorial and hope with, uh,
deep gratitude, respect and appreciation for the brave individuals who
serve and have served in the armed forces their selfish contributions. Protect us
all. May our community continue to support and honor them, and also
for all of our first responders, our firefighters, our police that
are so involved on a daily basis, keeping us safe and now
protecting these people that have undergone this tragedy. Uh, keep
them in mind as well. And with that, I will, uh, close our meeting. Thank you.
.