[3:48] All right. Good evening, everyone. Welcome to the Tuesday, July 23rd meeting of the Roy of Randy City Council. Can we get a roll call, please? Councilmember George? Here, Mayor Proto, I'm got three. Here. Mayor V. Restam. Here. Councilmember C. Crest and Councilmember Barnett, your absent. Thank you. Would you please silently join me in a moment of reflection?

[4:20] Thank you. And would you please join me in the flag salute?

[4:31] Ready begin. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.

[4:36] and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, individual with liberty and justice for all.

[4:49] All right, for item five for agenda reviewed, does anyone have any reason to change an order of anything this evening?

[4:54] Okay, then we will proceed as published.

[4:57] Item five A is closed session announcements.

[4:59] I'll turn it over to our city attorney.

[5:01] Thank you, Mayor, for the closed session from July 16, 2024.

[5:05] as written on the agenda, the City Council adjourned at 6.33 p.m., and there was no report of

[5:09] action.

[5:12] Thank you very much. For item 5b, we have no ordinances tonight, so it is my pleasure

[5:17] to take us to the special presentations. The first one tonight is the Van Enberg Space Force

[5:21] presentation. We are honored to have the Mr. Colonel Shoemaker to come do his presentation.

[5:27] I would presume that we have visual as well, so let's get that up and serve. You would come to

[5:33] podium?

[5:42] I take all the time you need.

[5:54] Really more about space launch to 30, the organization I command that is the host organization

[6:00] for the installation and all the things that happen on Vandenberg and then also running

[6:04] the space port. So all the rocket launches and all the test missile launches where the primary

[6:09] agent that is providing that support to all those activities. It's good to be up here.

[6:15] We do have, we don't have a lot of people that work for me, at least in the military folks

[6:19] that live in Oral Grande, but we do have a decent number.

[6:22] I have a new squadron commander who's responsible for all of our money.

[6:26] He lives, he and his wife just moved here in live in Oral Grande.

[6:30] My executive officer, a captain, a major select actually, she and her boyfriend are both up

[6:36] here in Oral Grande.

[6:39] So it's just good to be up here and connect as we try to extend our connection beyond what

[6:44] we've traditionally done, which is kind of like Lumpur, Consent, Maria, and that.

[6:48] So thanks again for the invitation.

[6:51] So what I want to do today is just, or this evening, is just share a little bit about

[6:55] why Vanneberg Space Force Base is so important, really to the nation, to the Department of Defense,

[7:00] to the Department of the Air Force, to the United States Space Force. Vanneberg's really big.

[7:05] 184 square miles, 118,000 acres, to put it in context. If we were a country, we'd be like the fifth

[7:13] or sixth smallest country in the world, but there are countries in the world that would be smaller

[7:16] more than Vanneberg Space Force Base.

[7:19] We have about 2,400 military and about another 1,500 government civilians that work for us.

[7:24] Excuse me, and then nearly about 3,000 contractors.

[7:28] I don't know specifically how many of them work and live here in this area, but

[7:33] I know that we do have a number of people that commute from your beautiful city.

[7:41] The missions up here in the top right of the graphic,

[7:45] primary, as I mentioned, is the Space Force Space Port

[7:48] in launch operations.

[7:50] We are one of two United States Space Force space ports

[7:53] in the United States where we can launch rockets to put satellites into space.

[7:58] The importance of that is space is foundational

[8:01] and fundamental to the way the Department of Defense fights wars, frankly.

[8:07] And without the capabilities that we have in Vandenberg, and then our partner space port at Cape Canaveral in Florida, none of that happens.

[8:15] Our Navy, our Army, our Air Force, our Marine Corps, and all of our interagency partners in the intelligence community and commerce and Coast Guard.

[8:25] All are highly dependent upon space capabilities, and our potential adversaries out there in the world know that that's the case, and they're trying to deny us those capabilities.

[8:36] And so it's more and more important that we launch, we launch frequently and we put assets into space in order to protect our way of life and those of our allies and partners around the world.

[8:46] The second thing on there is the Department of Defense test range, so we do a lot of aeronautical tests off the coast of California, a lot of Air Force flight tests happen that we provide support for.

[9:00] We have a whole slew of instrumentation systems, radars, and large antennas that collect data from those missions and from those flights, and then we also provide support for the intercontinental ballistic missile test activities that provide the foundation of our nuclear deterrence and then some missile defense agency work.

[9:21] The third one, the space force of space, that is the United States Space Forces component

[9:28] that we present to United States Space Command, United States Space Command is the war-fighting

[9:33] element in space and for space missions.

[9:40] And so that United States Space Force organization led by a three-star general is at Vandenberg.

[9:44] We have a whole bunch of space operations units that are working things from, all the way from tracking all of the thousands of objects in space, whether they be debris or satellites, that organization is at Vandenberg, we have an organization that is actively providing antennas that receive signals from space, from our satellites, and then route that data back to the command centers all around the world, that's at Vandenberg.

[10:13] And then we do a whole bunch of the, a lot of the other missions, whether it be missile warning, satellite communications, electronic warfare systems, just general command and control, and then cyber defense, pretty much this, the Vandenberg Space Force base is kind of like a micro space force, if you microcosm of the space force, we do all of that, plus we, plus we run the training of all of our new active duty military members, the headquarters for that,

[10:43] That is at Vanembrook Space Force Base, and we have about five different locations

[10:48] around the United States, where we're training our newest and listed and officer guardians.

[10:55] Guardians is what we call ourselves, like Air Force have airmen and Army has soldiers

[10:58] and Marine, Marine and Marine, Space Force's guardians.

[11:03] I talked about the ICBM test operations and missile defense agency.

[11:09] I'll go into great detail in the unique infrastructure, but we have, because we're so large, we have

[11:14] We have lots of roads, lots of power, we have our own 70 kilovolt power distribution system that we manage with our own active duty military members, we have our own water, well system, and then we also have a 22 megawatt solar farm and we're in the process of building out a battery storage capability so that we can continue to become more energy resilient.

[11:37] And both providing power for ourselves and allowing ourselves to essentially segment from the larger power ecosystem and infrastructure also to provide us, if we can provide ourselves more of that power independence and power resilience, we're not causing the same, we're not causing the challenges to the rest of the local area to, especially to kind of Santa Barbara and North, you know, once you get from the Edison into the PG and the area, we're more in the

[12:07] the PG&E area and up.

[12:10] So how can we be good stewards of not impacting all the rest of the community.

[12:16] Same thing with water.

[12:17] Like we're looking at opportunities to provide water resilience.

[12:21] We also need to do that because frankly our military installations across the United States

[12:25] are no longer sanctuary as I referenced the adversary, potential adversary aspect of

[12:30] that.

[12:31] So we need to be able to be postured that should there be a degradation of capabilities

[12:35] that we can continue to provide the war-fighting national security resources that all of us

[12:41] frankly need the military to provide.

[12:44] And then the last thing down there on the bottom left from the kind of the trivia of

[12:49] Vanimberg, 16 federally protected species.

[12:54] We spend a lot of time and effort to protect both animals and the plants of the area.

[13:02] make sure that we're not polluting the atmosphere, polluting the air,

[13:07] and in complying with federal laws, and then partnering with the state to comply with the process is associated with Coastal Zone Management Act.

[13:17] We put a lot of time and effort into that.

[13:20] It is foundational to our ability to launch rockets that we comply with the law, and

[13:26] and partner with and collaborate with and are frankly just good stewards of environment.

[13:32] And when you look at, if you were to fly along the coastline, you would see city after city after city.

[13:37] And then you'd see 46 miles of pristine coastline.

[13:41] And that is because of the, because of what Vanneberg's Space Force base, what the United States Space Force does to protect the environment on Vanneberg.

[13:50] And then the last takeaway on this slide is, we did some partnership with the original.

[13:56] economic action coalition reach folks, they did a study in Vandenberg's economic impact

[14:02] on St. Elizabeth County and Santa Barbara counties for and a half billion dollars a year.

[14:07] We are an economic driver and there's a lot more economic driving coming to the kind of the

[14:15] two county area because of increased activity of Vandenberg.

[14:21] So I'll just I have a few slides of

[14:22] Just some pictures, I just want to talk about, we do four main things strategically in my organization.

[14:29] It's the spaceport in the test range, so the things you see, the launches that you see.

[14:34] We run the base to make sure all the other mission partners that we have can do their missions that I talked about on the previous chart.

[14:42] We really are getting after quality of life and quality of life for readiness.

[14:45] So one of the challenges that we have is we'll move active duty military members in to California from say Arkansas or Ohio.

[14:58] And if you go to Arkansas or Ohio.

[15:01] The pay that they get there, and the pay that they get here is not all that different, but when you look at the cost of living, we all know that the cost of living in California is significantly different than the cost of living in Arkansas. So we've been spending a lot of time getting after quality life so that the workforce that comes to work is not worried, or especially when we send them overseas and deploy them for six months or 12 months, they're not worried about does my family have what they need to survive from housing?

[15:29] in food and medical services and education services.

[15:32] I'll show a little bit about that, so that's number three.

[15:35] And then as we progress as a space force, as a digital service, we're doing a lot of work

[15:39] with digital transformation and digital innovation and then partnering with the local community

[15:45] for STEM activities and how do we develop a workforce that has that kind of talent.

[15:51] Up here on this slide, this is just a representation of the space force mission, probably the most

[15:58] That's consequential and significant launch that we've done in the last 12 months was

[16:03] a mission we called Victus NOx, and the fundamental aspect of Victus NOx was about tactically responsive

[16:10] launch.

[16:10] So, can we get a satellite from a satellite factory hours and hours away from the launch

[16:19] base and get it to the launch base within 60 hours, so within about just a few days,

[16:27] two

[16:28] within a day of being told to launch.

[16:31] Normally, it takes us three to six months to do that.

[16:34] So last fall back in September, we executed that Victus Knox mission.

[16:39] We moved a ship to satellite from the factory, got it to the base within 60 hours, and then a day later we launched that after we put the fuel on it, put it on top of the rocket, and then it launched on the first minute of the opening of our launch window.

[16:54] And the intent of that is to be relevant in time when if we were to have, if we were to be in a conflict and we were to lose some space capabilities because of whatever the cases, maybe we need more or maybe there's an adversary that degrades some of our systems.

[17:08] How quickly can we do that and can we show that our peer competitors that degrading us is futile because we can just replenish and reconstitute.

[17:22] From a launch tempo perspective, I get asked that a lot.

[17:26] We are kind of increasing about 50% increase year over year.

[17:31] So last year there were 37 launches this year.

[17:33] We're projecting in the low 50s, next year probably into the 70s to 80s.

[17:40] You can see how that might go.

[17:41] Eventually the 50% year over year will taper off, it won't go on.

[17:45] If you were to do 50% year over year for the next 10 years, you'd be well over like 700, 800 launches.

[17:50] that's like two hundred two to a day. I don't know that that's what is in the future,

[17:55] but we definitely over the next next few years we're going to see a continued increase in

[17:59] in in what is it in in the the launch rate and the launch launch tempo and um and what really

[18:07] show what it means to be a high capacity space port as part of a space-faring nation.

[18:13] We also provide support to our installation mission partners so whether that be like at the

[18:17] The graphic on the right, we do have an airfield, we have the second longest runway in the

[18:22] Department of the Air Force and we're able to host a lot of, you know, air force aircraft

[18:27] that come in for exercises.

[18:29] So if you happen to see some fighter jets or large aircraft around, it could be that we're

[18:34] hosting a Vandenberg and doing some exercises to make sure that the air force is ready to

[18:39] deploy its forces overseas if needed.

[18:42] I talked about the power so that's up in the top left.

[18:46] We have a, the bottom center graphic is our firefighting team, so we have a hot shot team that goes out and does a lot of the hand clearing, so we've been supporting the Zackalake Fire Activity since that, since that started a couple of weeks ago.

[19:02] We have mutual support agreements with, you know, through, with our local partners to take care of those activities, because if we have a disaster like we did back in 2016 with the fire of Vandenberg,

[19:14] you know, that mutual support goes both ways and so we do everything we can to help externally

[19:20] just in case we need that help back on the base. And then a whole host of organizations that

[19:25] are graphically represented down there at the bottom. And then you can see the allied flags there

[19:32] to the right in the bottom. We have a large number of organizations that are part of the, I mentioned

[19:39] that space forces, space command, that is part of our United States space command, we also have a lot of coalition partners on Vandenberg that are providing those allied space capabilities into a larger coalition of space war fighting capability that helps to deter against aggressive actors.

[19:59] I talked about quality of life.

[20:04] I mentioned what we do with reach down there in the bottom right, the graphic on the far

[20:10] right, so we're partnered with all the other Department of the Air Force installations

[20:14] across the state of California, and we work together to go engage Sacramento on statewide

[20:20] issues that military members are challenged against.

[20:25] A lot of those have to do with what's represented on the left, which is spouse employment.

[20:30] So our spouses are challenged in that we'll move people around every few years, and if you're a teacher and you're licensed in one state, and then you move to another state and you move to another state, it makes it really difficult.

[20:40] So the portability of the licenses, I will give the state a lot of credit over the last 14 to 15 months, they put a lot of time and effort into that with reciprocity.

[20:49] And so from from your perspective, you know, if there are one of the challenges that we have is communicating that the state has made those licensure reciprocities a real thing, and then making sure like how do the businesses know that that's a real thing so that they can go higher these people that are really experienced and going to be quality workers.

[21:12] So, as you think through that, we're happy to, we'd be happy to partner with, with Error Grande on those kinds of opportunities for, for finding work for our spouses, and that's another way that we're trying to combat the cost of living pieces is either through helping them get jobs and helping them find jobs and get, get, get employment quickly, or another thing that we've been doing it specifically within that one, is really twofold is, is family child care providers. So we have a daycare on the base, but

[21:41] but it's constrained.

[21:44] We have more children that we need to take care of than we have capacity.

[21:49] So we do certify family childcare providers.

[21:51] If they live on the base, then I can certify them under Department of Defense rules.

[21:56] If they live off the base, then they fall under the state rules.

[21:59] The state is not sure where the legislation is currently.

[22:03] It was working through the budget process a couple months ago.

[22:06] But the intent would be if we certify it and our certification is actually more stringent than the state's then the state would accept that as long as they're providing care for our military family members.

[22:16] So that's a win-win for us and that spouses get jobs and then we're also expanding the capacity of our child care opportunities so that's a big one.

[22:27] Housing is a big challenge but it's housing is a big challenge for everybody in the state.

[22:31] We've had lots of discussions on that.

[22:33] Our biggest challenge is that we have a constrained number of houses on the base that we can provide and offer, but I can't just go build more houses.

[22:44] And then if I build too many more houses, and we don't have enough of our own people that live in those,

[22:49] then we have to make those houses available to the, essentially to the public.

[22:53] There's a waterfall process that goes with that.

[22:55] So we're largely dependent on the community for housing and so our challenge is the same as the community challenge

[23:02] We want to work continuing to work with with cities in the county to in the state to address that

[23:08] And then we do a lot of good work with medical services and partnering with medical services around around the local area

[23:17] Our bit probably our biggest some of our biggest shortages are those specialty services and and having to travel an hour to go to go to get

[23:25] especially services in Santa Barbara up in San Luis Obispo.

[23:29] So working to partner to put a clear demand signal in the local area.

[23:36] We spend a lot of time in the military addressing challenges like suicide prevention, sexual assault, domestic violence.

[23:47] We stood up last year, this integrated prevention center, we call Hoxcove, really trying to get after

[23:56] moving to the left of the bad events that happen in people's lives.

[24:00] It's been pretty successful.

[24:02] And then also partnering with the local areas,

[24:06] with community rate crisis centers and domestic violence

[24:13] and really combating and getting after that challenge.

[24:18] But this has been a pretty significant central focus area

[24:21] for the Department of Defense.

[24:25] I mentioned digital transformation innovation, the graphic in the center, if you can actually visualize that now, all that stuff is cleared out, and that is our, we'll call a Spark shell, and so across the Department of Defense there are Spark shell, so there's these innovation centers where our workforce can go in and do 3D printing, software coding, collaborate on challenges that they're facing, and try to come up with new ideas to solve, solve problems

[24:54] but locally and then reach out across the Department of Defense for solutions that exist.

[25:00] Our intent is to also then start to expand this and make this available for

[25:05] hosting demonstrations of whether it's K-12 and K-12 and STEM outreach,

[25:13] whether it's the workforce on the installation, but really trying to tap into and

[25:18] drive some excitement into the digital world that we're all living in and

[25:24] expanding beyond pieces of paper and all the things that we get mired in.

[25:31] So this is our innovation hub.

[25:35] So that's really the presentation.

[25:37] I think I just wanted you all to appreciate first you invited us to come here and chat.

[25:43] I just wanted to get an appreciation for what's going on in Vandenberg.

[25:46] Our connection to this area, what's going on and why Vandenberg is so important.

[25:51] And so when you see the launches, we are not the SpaceX launch base.

[25:56] We're the United States Space Force organization that's doing a lot of other activity.

[25:59] And that activity is fundamental and critical to our enabling our way of life.

[26:05] And it's just a pleasure to be part of this community.

[26:08] So thanks, Mayor Care.

[26:10] Well, don't go anywhere.

[26:11] All right.

[26:14] So we are honestly honored to have you here, Colonel.

[26:17] And thank you so much just publicly for the tour

[26:20] that you gave me and my family on base. Having grown up here, it's easy to, and maybe I speak

[26:27] for people who are listening right now, it's easy to just kind of remember that Van and Berg's

[26:33] over there. It's not part of the daily reality, but it has come into our consciousness because

[26:38] of the increased launches. And so, I thought I'd ask you a couple questions just to prime some of

[26:43] the conversation that we've had. And kind of why you're here this evening, not just promoting

[26:49] the space force base. But you taught me a little bit while I was there about the colonel

[26:56] as being quite bashful. I'm going to use the word overqualified for being in at Vandenberg.

[27:01] He comes from from Cape Canaveral among other places. And you spoke about sort of the relationship

[27:09] or the duality between Cape Canaveral and Vandenberg, sort of as my words, one to punch.

[27:15] They have very unique and complementary capabilities.

[27:20] So that's the first of three questions I have for you.

[27:23] Can you speak to that just a little bit about how that fits in?

[27:26] I'm glad you were listening when we were talking about that.

[27:28] That's good.

[27:32] So Cape Canaveral and Vandenberg are not,

[27:34] they're not completely substitute one for the other.

[27:39] I've got other graphics that we didn't bring here.

[27:41] But Cape Canaveral, when you think of the orientation

[27:44] of Florida and the East Coast, Cape Canaveral is really well-suited for launching East.

[27:52] And you can launch East and you can launch safely East.

[27:55] And when you launch East, you can launch into what we call the the Gs synchronous orbit.

[28:00] So the orbits that essentially the satellite is orbiting the Earth at the same rate as the Earth is rotating.

[28:06] And so that gives us the ability to perform missions that allow you to cover the same point on the Earth.

[28:13] 24-7 consistently, so Florida is uniquely postured for that.

[28:20] Can't do that from here, at least right now with today's technology, from a safety perspective,

[28:25] we'd be launching right over the continental United States over populated areas

[28:31] and our fundamental responsibility.

[28:34] My fundamental responsibility is the commander at the base is to launch with public safety in mind

[28:39] to make sure that the launch is no more, really no more hazardous than a plane flying overhead.

[28:45] What Vanneberg provides is, when you look south of Vanneberg, a lot of water. So we can launch

[28:51] into what we call polar orbits, or even some what we call highly inclined orbits that are still

[28:58] orbiting the Earth, not they're orbiting the Earth and low Earth orbit. So a few hundred miles

[29:05] above the earth but largely the polar orbits which allow us mainly for environmental sensing and

[29:13] some of our intelligence and surveillance reconnaissance missions where the polar orbits allow a

[29:19] specific revisit on the same place of the earth at the same time a day so that especially from

[29:26] a wet like from a weather perspective you want to check the weather at four o'clock in the afternoon

[29:32] and you want to check the weather the next day at four o'clock so you can get those day-to-day

[29:38] differences. So Vandenberg provides that. Trying to perform those same missions from Florida

[29:46] ends up with launching over either launching over land for perhaps Cuba and even South America

[29:57] if the satellite doesn't get to orbit.

[30:00] As quickly.

[30:03] Or it requires the rocket to launch farther out east and then what we call do a dog leg. So kind of turn toward the south. That requires a lot of energy out of the rocket. That then means you can't put as much mass into orbit. So the satellites are smaller. When you launch from Vanneberg, you can put the larger mass into orbit. And so Vanneberg and the Cape are compatible and provide that.

[30:29] that kind of, like you said, one, two punch.

[30:31] That's a good one not to use that.

[30:33] For United States Space Force,

[30:35] from a getting capability of space,

[30:38] we're, you know, 100 years from now,

[30:41] can maybe we launch east out of California?

[30:44] Who knows, perhaps, but we're gonna have to do it in a way

[30:47] that allows us to do it safely.

[30:50] I mean, that's the prime directive for us, frankly.

[30:55] And then you reached out to the mayors

[30:59] from multiple counties, and that's how we got acquainted.

[31:04] Can you just speak quickly about what you're hoping to achieve by partnering at the mayors

[31:09] and just for the public's benefit?

[31:11] We've had our first one that Mr. Downing accompanied me to, and we're about to have the second one

[31:16] in August.

[31:17] But maybe just give the community sort of a vision of how our goals and your goals are not only

[31:25] aligned, but becoming sort of intertwined.

[31:28] Yes, so there's really a couple of aspects to that.

[31:32] One, I think is the economic piece

[31:34] and this mutual economic benefit

[31:36] and the housing challenges that we have that I talked about.

[31:40] But the, and we've got reach for that

[31:42] and we've got other organizations that can help with that.

[31:45] But the one thing that really struck me was

[31:47] as we start to think about more and more,

[31:50] as I mentioned about our from the selfish view of this,

[31:54] my installation is no longer a sanctuary.

[31:56] I can't assume that we're going to be able

[31:57] to operate without concern of power outages, water shortages, even perhaps adversary activity

[32:11] that may lead to any of those concerns.

[32:14] And our mutual relationship and dependency on each other, and then how do we work together

[32:20] to get after that?

[32:21] And so, that had kind of been rattling around in my brain last fall and then went up and talked with my counterpart at Travis Air Force Base up in kind of north and east of Sacramento, if I got my geography right near Fairfield.

[32:36] And they had done an exercise, a regional exercise where they worked with some of the city

[32:46] planners and in power planners and the kind of the mutual dependency that they have on

[32:52] and some of the way that their commodities and utilities are configured.

[32:58] And they did an exercise and it's kind of dawned on me that we need to do something of that

[33:02] that same of that same milk and so really the intent was like how can we do that and how can we stretch a little bit further than perhaps Vandenberg had is from our reaching out to partners perspective that's why you know we reached out to pull you in and into the conversation and not for Vandenberg to drive it and I think one of the benefits out of the conversation that I had with the Travis Air Force base commander was that it wasn't a Travis Air Force base exercise.

[33:30] It was the county and fairfield and a coalition that they created that ran it and the base was just part of it.

[33:39] And that's kind of what I want to do is be part of a larger multi, by county city regional team that is trying to figure out how do we make sure that from a utilities resilience.

[33:53] and maybe transportation resilience when we think about roads and things like that.

[33:58] How are we just part of this larger ecosystem and just get that conversation going?

[34:05] Yeah, and this is the kind of partnerships in terms of emergency operations that we do with Diablo Canyon as well.

[34:12] So these are to bring Van and Bergen to that fold makes all kinds of sense.

[34:19] So, Commander, I want to thank you so much.

[34:21] And I never remember if I should go a commander or a colonel colonel colonel or mark either one. Yeah, it's never going to be Mark. I'm going to try that it's never going to be Mark.

[34:32] So the last thing is I guess I guess it's a little bit of a question because I'm priming that we have item nine a today and that is I've been asked to not buy you directly but through the consultants who contacted me and said you might eat a little help with a letter to coastal commission with regard.

[34:51] to the increased launches.

[34:53] Now, as the community can see,

[34:55] I've been quite schooled on this

[34:56] and then quite up to date on this,

[34:58] I am going to in item nine,

[35:01] I be asking for my council for concurrence

[35:03] on that letter to give it a little bit more strength.

[35:06] So my question to you is,

[35:09] what's coming up and why that might be important

[35:13] in terms of the overall mission

[35:15] of the Van Burt Space Force Base?

[35:18] Yes, so the conversation we've been having

[35:20] with the Coastal Commission for the last four and a half, five months, really since December,

[35:27] but really four and a half, five months very in earnest is the concurrence on the consistency

[35:35] determination for 36 launches, specifically focused on SpaceX.

[35:39] So we have a number of other launch companies that already have approvals for set number of

[35:48] launch rates.

[35:48] We got Phantom 48 launches back in December, and United Launch Alliance has approved for launches and Fireflies approved for launches.

[35:57] This is specifically going through the process for the 36 launches from Space Launch Complex for SpaceX.

[36:05] The importance of that is the United States Space Force, frankly the Department of Defense and the nation from an economic perspective needs us to

[36:18] continue to put space capabilities in orbit.

[36:22] Our competitor nations are doing that and we can't pace behind them.

[36:27] We have to continue to pace at or ahead of them.

[36:30] So this is frankly a United States Space Force Space Capacity, United States of America,

[36:34] Space Capacity conversation that we're having right now.

[36:38] And how do we do it in a way that provides, from a process perspective, all the right approaches

[36:46] to get through the decision process while continuing to be the good stewards of the environment that we have been for decades and continue to be and have worked with all of our federal regulators to do the same.

[37:00] So we're just having that conversation with the Coast Commission right now and this is just the beginning of what will be more capacity increase conversations that we have with them about not just SpaceX but other launch companies.

[37:11] Please.

[37:13] Excellent.

[37:14] Thank you so much.

[37:15] So let me see if my colleagues have any questions or comments for you.

[37:19] So to my right.

[37:22] Colonel Schumacher, thank you so much for being here today.

[37:24] That was very informative.

[37:26] I appreciate that you took the effort to reach out to our local governments because it's

[37:30] really important to educate our public on what you do.

[37:33] Because as the mayor said, you may be in Vanneburg and we just think, oh, Vanneburg, there's

[37:38] a new launch, but you really understand what's going on is really important.

[37:41] And I know that you just touched on SpaceX.

[37:44] Could you expand a little bit more as far as the percentage of SpaceX launches that

[37:51] are private and the percentage of the SpaceX launches that are for the government?

[37:56] I'm just wondering what that percentage difference is.

[37:59] Yeah, so that's a tricky question to answer, because we often get ourselves mired in.

[38:06] And was it licensed by the Federal Aviation Administration or was it contracted directly

[38:14] by the United States Space Force?

[38:16] And so I'll give you an example.

[38:19] If you just look at, there's a launch coming up that looks purely commercial and private,

[38:25] but there is a United States Space Force satellite communications capability that is going to launch

[38:33] on it.

[38:33] And so that happens more and more than, and we need to probably tell our story a little bit better to make, to kind of remove some of this, well, because it's not just this, it's not a black and white, like it's every launch has something and part of the Department of Defense's strategy going forward is, there's a Department of Defense Commercial Space Strategy and there's United States Space Force Commercial Space Strategy.

[38:58] Our intent is not to build everything uniquely for us.

[39:03] Our intent is to unleash commercial capabilities and then buy those services and then only build the things that absolutely we need like strategic missile warning and satellite communications that can persist through really degraded electromagnetic environment.

[39:24] So, in short, I'd love to give you a precise answer to your question, but I'm gonna equivocate

[39:33] on that a little bit and say that it really depends.

[39:38] I think the very, very clear, like the ones that are very, very clear where it's United States

[39:42] Space Force or United States government, probably 20% of the launches are very, very clear.

[39:50] there are 100% we bought them.

[39:53] I'd say all the others are either for allies, partners,

[39:58] or commercial that we're gonna then go by capability off of.

[40:04] Okay, thank you, I appreciate that.

[40:06] Obviously, I support the government supporting SpaceX,

[40:09] maybe not so much because it's, there's political things there.

[40:13] But nonetheless, it's nice to understand that there is a partnership there.

[40:18] and from a layman who just sees multiple launches when I was a child it was

[40:27] really fascinating to see one because it was probably one every six months or

[40:32] something like that. And now it's just it's all the time. So the fear that I

[40:39] have as a layman and not understanding anything about what you do and I respect

[40:44] In fact, wholeheartedly what you do to protect our society is that there's just going to be a lot of space litter and how much of that is private industry and how much of that is really for the government.

[40:55] So in the support, I would love to support it's just trying to understand more what I'm actually supporting.

[41:02] So thank you, I appreciate the response.

[41:10] Thank you for coming this evening because I'm familiar with this from my work as our representative

[41:17] on reach with what's going on out there and I do appreciate the the the thorough presentation

[41:24] here for the public actually gets to see so I thank you for that. I'm probably not as concerned

[41:31] about the specifics of what's going up and your space

[41:41] letter is going to be a problem somewhat in the future, but not in the near future.

[41:45] So, anyway, I'm in support of that letter.

[41:50] And thank you, not quite yet, but so just as a piggyback here, so when you say

[41:55] purchasing capability, I think what I'm hearing is it's a little bit like I'm

[42:01] driving to L.A. and your hitch and a ride in my back seat. And so is that kind of what

[42:05] you're talking about when you have a commercial launch from SpaceX, but you can buy a little

[42:10] bit of payload space and get something for us up there?

[42:12] So there's that, but there's also think of the Internet. So we're not building and buying

[42:22] our own, all of our own fiber optic lines all across the country. So we'll buy commercial

[42:27] capacity off of what AT&T or pick your favorite internet company.

[42:33] So as opposed to building our own, we'll buy that, so we buy particular bandwidth.

[42:38] So we may buy bandwidth from a commercial satellite company that as opposed to building

[42:43] the entire space internet, if you will, and then owning it and operating it, we can buy

[42:50] on that and then commercial industry can sell it for, you know, to the private, private

[42:56] citizens. I mean, that's, that's, that's the part of it. There's also the, what we might

[43:02] call a ride share, like which is more what you're describing. So I don't have to, we don't

[43:05] have to buy the entire launch. We're just buying, you know, 500 pounds of launch or, you

[43:10] know, 500 kilograms of launch. So fascinating. Isn't it, do you have more? I guess please

[43:16] So it's fascinating to me, so I apologize for taking your time, so it's my understanding, then, what you're talking about is, for example, we just bought a van.

[43:27] We like to travel. We go to the national parks and a lot of times there's no data. So in the van life, they have all these forums and everyone's like get starlink, get starlink, get starlink, right?

[43:37] So, in my vision, there's like starling satellites everywhere, so you're saying possibly that you would be able to rent some of that satellite space?

[43:48] Yes.

[43:48] That my understanding?

[43:49] Yes.

[43:49] Okay, perfect.

[43:50] That is the intent, is that commercial industry, not just SpaceX, will build out space capabilities and it could be, I guess it could be environmental sensing.

[44:00] So maybe we're buying some weather data, that maybe a commercial company is building that to provide to sell weather services to farmers for agricultural purposes.

[44:10] And maybe there's some data that we might want to buy from that that that fills in a capability gap that otherwise we would have to go spend a bunch of taxpayer money to build the entire thing when all we really need is just a little bit of it.

[44:24] That's just an anecdotal example of the larger strategy as a lot of other pieces in it.

[44:32] So, Colonel, what I'm hearing is you would kind of describe it as the most efficient use

[44:37] of taxpayer money is to do these sorts of partnerships.

[44:40] So that's kind of where the public interest comes in in terms of these increased launches.

[44:47] Yes.

[44:48] That's a large part of it.

[44:50] But we have this mantra of, you know, exploit what we already have.

[44:54] So we don't need to go buy more.

[44:55] If we already have it, we can do more with the data or capability by

[45:00] What we can, which is really what we've just been talking about, and the build only what we must. And so we can get kind of economies of scale if we're buying off of what a commercial entity has already invested their dollars into.

[45:17] Fantastic. Thank you so much. As you can tell, when you spend a little time out there and a little spend a little time with the Curly, you could spend all day and you could ask a lot of questions. When I say you, I mean all of us, me, myself and I.

[45:31] It really is the deeper you dive, the more important you realize this is and I just appreciate you coming up here and sharing that with our community.

[45:39] Look forward to future partnerships. I look forward to seeing you on August 23rd.

[45:43] Absolutely.

[45:43] And so that will be great and I guess we'll move on to our next presentation.

[45:48] Okay, thank you so much.

[45:49] Thank you so much and stay tuned for item 9.9 and see how that goes.

[45:54] All right, so that takes us to item 6B.

[45:58] This is Central Coast Community Energy's annual presentation and I'll be inviting up Judy Young.

[46:03] Hi.

[46:04] Hello.

[46:06] Hi.

[46:06] So yeah, I think we're pulling up a presentation and how do you follow that?

[46:12] That's what I was sitting there wondering.

[46:15] That is really.

[46:15] Well, you're providing an important service too.

[46:17] So there's your statement.

[46:18] Well, thank you.

[46:18] I can't say that I'll be as fascinating or exciting but I do have some good news to share

[46:24] tonight.

[46:24] So thank you for having me.

[46:25] My name is Judy Young.

[46:26] I'm the senior account manager for Central Coast Community Energy, and my job is looking

[46:32] after our member agencies.

[46:35] So tonight I will quickly, there we go, go over who 3CE is because not everyone is aware

[46:43] where a new type of government agency.

[46:46] We were formed about six years ago when all of these cities and counties came together

[46:51] and said what if we could purchase the electricity to serve our region, could we do it

[46:56] better as a local public agency. Could we be competitive in price, make greater

[47:02] progress on renewables, and provide investment back into our communities. So I'm

[47:07] here tonight to show you how we're doing and what benefits are being offered

[47:12] right here in a Royal Grande. As our agency has grown, our investment in our

[47:17] communities has increased. Our budget for community energy programs in fiscal

[47:23] year, 2324 this fiscal year, is over $16.8 million, not like his figures, but

[47:31] which are dollars that are available to the city and your constituents to help reduce

[47:36] emissions in electrifying vehicles and buildings.

[47:40] To date, on behalf of all of the cities and counties that we serve, we've invested 4.5

[47:46] billion in renewable energy and energy storage projects, which are making the grid cleaner

[47:53] and helping the environment by reducing fossil fuel emissions.

[47:58] Some of these projects include new technologies that are pushing the envelope toward 100% clean

[48:04] and renewable power, like a compressed air battery storage project, which will be the largest

[48:10] in the world of its kind and we have power purchase agreements in place or in negotiation to cover 80% of our annual load with renewable energy.

[48:23] The challenge is in bringing these projects online in a timely manner due to the current backlog in California around permitting and grid connecting and delays in transmission upgrades.

[48:35] And yet so much progress is being made if you haven't heard the amount of renewable energy on the grid has been exceeding customer demand this spring in California on nearly a daily basis for as many as nine hours a day.

[48:50] This is a huge accomplishment and agencies like 3CE are very much a part of the reason why.

[48:58] Not only are the renewable projects we've contracted with contributing to the solution, but they are also achieving cost savings for our customers.

[49:07] And because of a decision by our policy board last year, these projects are being evaluated based on their commitment to local community engagement, environmental protection, and workforce support.

[49:19] To reduce emissions in the built environment, our new construction electrification program

[49:27] supports affordable housing projects, including two recent projects in Watsonville that provide

[49:33] units for low income farm worker families transitioning from homelessness, and we have plans

[49:38] to support new affordable housing projects totaling 200 new units with completion dates ranging

[49:45] from this year through 2026.

[49:49] Another place that we are investing is an agriculture.

[49:53] We provide funding assistance for all electric farm equipment to replace diesel powered

[49:58] pumps, tractors, and more, and we have helped big and small farms in all five counties

[50:04] that we serve.

[50:06] And here's a summary of the residential commercial and ag rebates available to our customers, including

[50:13] The super popular electrifier ride, which offers rebates for new and used vehicles, including battery electric,

[50:21] plug-in hybrid electric and motorcycles from $1,000 to $4,000, depending on income,

[50:27] plus we can help with EV readiness and residential chargers up to an additional $4,700.

[50:35] And this is our investment in the city of Eroio Grande and Community of Eroio Grande,

[50:41] nearly $325,000 through those energy programs.

[50:46] And notice electrify your ride has been very popular in a Royal Grande.

[50:53] And I really want to emphasize the offers that we specifically have for the city of a Royal

[50:57] Grande itself.

[50:59] California has strict mandates for electrifying fleets.

[51:03] And we understand that this is a major undertaking for local governments, so we are here to help.

[51:08] We have funding to help you plan how are you going to make this transition?

[51:12] and how many EVs you will need to purchase and when, when your vehicles will need to charge and where they should charge, and after your plan is complete, we have funding to help pay for these new electric vehicles and the charging infrastructure that you'll need.

[51:30] We also offer funding to help cities adopt reach codes, which go beyond state requirements to drive emissions and buildings and increase EV charging capabilities throughout the city.

[51:41] And I host a quarterly call for the staff of our local governments that make up 3CE, where

[51:47] I go into all of these opportunities.

[51:50] And if you'd like to learn more about what I offer, I'm happy to set up a meeting.

[51:55] So I hope I've provided a good picture of what our agency is doing to bring clean energy

[52:00] and community investment to the city of Arroyo Grande.

[52:04] In closing, on behalf of everyone at 3CE, we thank you for the opportunity to be your

[52:10] local electricity generation provider to support you and to be your partner.

[52:16] Thank you so much for your time this evening, and I'm available for questions.

[52:21] All right, let us check, Mayor Pro Tem, any questions?

[52:26] Well, maybe you can help me with the report.

[52:27] I'm going to have to give them a few minutes.

[52:28] So, one of the things that came up, I mean, I'm the 3C of up, so one of the things that came

[52:32] up at our last meeting was this slice of day and the need to be able to, I know there's

[52:40] better word than transfer, but transfer that mid-day overproduction of energy that much

[52:45] of which ends up getting wasted to be available in the evening.

[52:49] I wonder if you can speak to the kinds of programs that are being promoted now, maybe even

[52:55] why they're promoted directly over solar.

[52:59] Right.

[53:00] I have actually something pretty exciting to tell you about tonight and I think I brought

[53:05] notes on it.

[53:06] And it is our new battery program.

[53:11] Yeah, here it is.

[53:13] So we just launched this this week.

[53:16] And customers with solar and even non solar customers

[53:20] can manage their energy consumption and save money

[53:24] by storing their excess power during the day

[53:26] and using it to cover their electricity use

[53:29] after the sun goes down and the prices go up

[53:32] and the electricity is not as available.

[53:34] So adding battery backup can help protect your home from outages and help strengthen the

[53:39] grid.

[53:40] I also of course reduces greenhouse gas emissions.

[53:43] So our new battery program that just launched offers $300 per kilowatt of storage capacity

[53:53] in a battery that you would buy.

[53:55] I just put in solar plus a Tesla battery in my home and that equates to about $4,000 in

[54:02] a rebate that would come back to the customers if they added that particular battery.

[54:07] This is for customers that are not currently enrolled in NEM 1 or NEM 2.

[54:13] So current net billing tariff customers.

[54:15] And what that means is as rooftop solar has evolved in the state, the regulators have reduced

[54:25] the amount of incentive that's offered to customers putting rooftop solar on their house.

[54:30] So starting with NEM-1, they were giving big, you know, reimbursement rates.

[54:35] And then, as rooftop solar became more installed throughout the state, they introduced NEM-2,

[54:43] and after a certain day, all customers that installed NEM-2 were the slightly less reimbursement

[54:50] rate.

[54:51] As of last year, we've moved into NEM-3, which is called NEP Billing Tariff.

[54:56] So, if you, like me, recently installed a battery under net billing tariff, you would

[55:03] be receiving $300 per kilowatt hour for the capacity on that battery.

[55:08] And if you are a care customer, a fairer customer, or a medical baseline customer, those

[55:13] are income, generally income qualified customers, or you are on them one or two and choose to move

[55:20] move to now, sorry, to net billing tariff, then you would receive a $500 rebate per kilowatt

[55:26] hour significant increase if you move to net billing tariff.

[55:31] So that's one way we also have demand response programs, and this issue that you bring up,

[55:40] Council Member Gret III, is something that our leadership, as you know, really looking

[55:47] at how can we shift load to the evenings away from the middle of the day.

[55:56] Thank you for that.

[55:57] Thank you for your questions.

[55:57] You're welcome.

[55:58] All right.

[55:59] And I have no questions as well.

[56:00] So thank you very much for the presentation.

[56:02] Oh, thank you.

[56:03] Thank you for the opportunity.

[56:05] And that takes us to item 6c.

[56:07] This is City Manager Communications.

[56:09] Mr. Downing.

[56:10] Certainly.

[56:11] Thank you.

[56:11] Members of the City Council.

[56:13] I don't know how I'm going to follow any of that, but I'll try.

[56:15] So for all of the people in our community, the Five Cities Fire Authority is currently in recruitment for four firefighter positions, or that's open right now.

[56:25] That recruitment is going very well, but it has not closed yet.

[56:28] So anybody out there who is interested, do get your application in before the deadline of August 2nd.

[56:36] and then we also have a lateral police officer

[56:39] and a police trainee recruitment going on right now as well.

[56:42] So if anybody's interested,

[56:44] visit the city's website for all the employment opportunities

[56:47] with the city.

[56:49] Additionally, with the five cities fire authority,

[56:51] we will be having an open house on October 12th

[56:53] at fire station one.

[56:55] That happens to coincide with fire prevention week.

[56:58] So we'll have some tours and information sessions

[57:01] available at that time.

[57:03] There will be more information coming out

[57:05] from the from the fire authority about that event times and all of that kind of thing.

[57:09] So do stay tuned to that.

[57:12] And as the Council is aware based on your proclamation last month, July is Parks make

[57:17] life better months.

[57:18] So our Recreation Services Department has a number of events that we've been holding throughout

[57:23] the month of July and including this weekend.

[57:25] And so it's starting, we have a movie night on Friday at Heritage Square Park at beginning

[57:32] at 7.30 p.m. we'll be watching the movie Wonka, which is a fan favorite in my household,

[57:37] just ask my Spotify playlist. A favorite Saturday we have our first ever bark in the park event

[57:45] as well. It'll be at Elm Street Park from 10 to 3. That's for anyone who has four-legged

[57:53] friends or wants to have a four-legged friends. There's going to be low-cost nail clipping services,

[57:58] is microchipping, food vendors, other equipment vendors, things like that.

[58:04] So that's an exciting event, first of its kind.

[58:07] And then on Sunday, it's all the summer concert series.

[58:11] So last weekend was a smash hit, the Molly Ringwald project.

[58:14] This next Sunday is going to be the same.

[58:16] It's a resignation.

[58:17] One of our local reggae bands, they'll be at Heritage Square Park from one to three.

[58:23] The Aero Ronde Police Department, shifting over to the police department away from recreation

[58:26] services.

[58:27] We get to be the host of the active shooter training, this July 30th and 31st as well as August 2nd and 3rd at the Oro Grande High School, so telling everybody now, so if you see a lot of activity over there before school starts, that is a training event, we're bringing personnel from the Pismo Beach Police Department, Grover Beach Police Department, the Sheriff's Office, County Probations, State Parks, Cal Fire and our very own five cities fire authority, getting everybody together, bringing together all those different disciplines and having a united

[58:57] response in incidents like that, sharing information and what we can learn from each other.

[59:02] And then lastly, the nomination period for the November 5th General Municipal Election

[59:07] is now open through August 9th. So if you have any questions, please do reach out to our

[59:12] city clerk, Jessica Matson, and she can help you answer those questions. So that's all I

[59:17] have for today.

[59:18] Thank you. Any questions? No questions, just a comment. I was at the concert this past Sunday,

[59:25] and I had a glorious time. There was no, no grass to be seen. It was so, were you there?

[59:33] It was so well attended, and it just brought me so much joy to see our community just come together

[59:40] like that. And I really wanted to thank our Grande Recreation Department for putting that on,

[59:45] and for all the other concerts that they put on for Bark and the Park. Just, they're just doing

[59:50] a fabulous job in the recreation area and I wanted to make sure that they were recognized

[59:55] for that.

[59:56] Our fire authority put out some hairy-

[1:00:05] I just want to give a shout out to everyone that works for our city. Thank you.

[1:00:25] I don't think I could have said that any better, Mayor Patel. All right, we'll leave it with that. Great.

[1:00:29] saying. Thank you so much. All right, so that takes us to item 7. This is City Council

[1:00:34] reports and for mine, CJPIA is my, I always tell you it's not coming till July, that

[1:00:43] is tomorrow. So at my next report, I will actually be able to report out on CJPIA. So I will

[1:00:48] be doing a down and back to lapalma east of LA tomorrow to attend that meeting. For five

[1:00:55] As these fire authority, I generally throw this to Councilmember George because she takes

[1:01:00] far more complete notes than I do.

[1:01:02] She's pretty amazing.

[1:01:04] And for the mayor's meeting, I am looking at my notes here and it was a relatively, I don't

[1:01:11] know, benign is the right word, they're never cancerous, but an eventful mayor's meeting,

[1:01:17] it was just mostly a legislative update, not the least of which was the update about CBRT

[1:01:22] and the California Business Roundtable.

[1:01:23] So that's all news that you know about.

[1:01:26] There was some discussion about the Prop 47 reform measure

[1:01:30] which may or may not address, depending on the voters,

[1:01:35] address this $950 threshold in terms of petty theft.

[1:01:39] I don't know if I'm using the right word there,

[1:01:41] but low-level theft.

[1:01:44] And there was some discussion about the various tax measures

[1:01:48] that are going to be on the ballot.

[1:01:49] So just a little bit of just all of us understanding

[1:01:53] understanding what the legislative landscape goes on.

[1:01:54] There was not a presentation at that one,

[1:01:58] so there was no major guest speaker,

[1:02:00] it was just our regular report outs.

[1:02:02] So, South County San Luis Biscoe Sanitation District

[1:02:05] has not met, it is going to me at the beginning of August.

[1:02:09] And so I will turn it over to Mayor Pro Tem, Guthrie.

[1:02:20] So, let's start with Water Resources Advisory Committee.

[1:02:23] I think I may have already mentioned this at the last meeting.

[1:02:25] We didn't meet in July, but we did have an emergency meeting.

[1:02:28] are emergency meeting in order to consider the potential that the county

[1:02:35] wanted to wants to sell temporarily state water to a water agency in the

[1:02:43] valley really just to make it available for sale and we did in fact

[1:02:48] recommend that they go forward with that again it's a temporary sale and they may or

[1:02:53] may not take it but it does bring some revenue and otherwise the water is

[1:02:57] spilling very similar to what we have and the stats on how much water is spilled over

[1:03:04] the last five years out of the reservoir that's up north is actually pretty surprising considering

[1:03:10] how much we're paying for it. So at least some opportunity that we would be able to recoup

[1:03:14] some of those costs.

[1:03:18] RTA and slow cog did not meet, reach did not meet, integrated waste

[1:03:22] This management did not meet, as I mentioned, we did have the 3CE meeting for community

[1:03:28] elect.

[1:03:29] I think that comment there about the battery and particularly that slide you saw that

[1:03:34] shows the overproduction of electricity is really driving a lot of the plans for that

[1:03:42] agency.

[1:03:44] As noted, the battery there is high on the list and the solar is relatively low on the

[1:03:50] list for what we're trying to accomplish there, but other things about, like, for other

[1:03:57] uses of electricity over gas or other fuels are still high on that list. I will add,

[1:04:06] I know that Councilmember Barrington's specific concerns over the way the way the solar

[1:04:12] is calculated. They did change that rule. So if you're in that earliest group that did

[1:04:21] It's going to be pretty much the same.

[1:04:22] In other words, if you produce more electricity over the year than you use, they will credit

[1:04:28] you back with.

[1:04:29] There won't be that where you were getting paid at wholesale and then getting charged

[1:04:35] retail for the next three months.

[1:04:37] So they've corrected that for that particular group.

[1:04:42] I wish I could give you the details of how the net tariff works and at some point I'll try

[1:04:47] to get some sort of a ride up because it is, again, is going to be a much, what I'll

[1:04:51] call a much more radical or aggressive approach to reduce energy use in that primary, which

[1:05:00] is now not, you know, noon to three because of air conditioning. It's more like six to

[1:05:05] nine is the primary. So that came out of that. And the other thing is, I think I mentioned

[1:05:12] the 3C did purchase a building in downtown San Luis Obispo near the courthouse and they are

[1:05:19] remodeling of that as taking place. They're going to actually have some pretty good facilities for

[1:05:23] public outreach and doing some training there or classes in how some of this, some of these

[1:05:30] new programs work. So I'm looking forward to that being finished and then being up and running now.

[1:05:36] And that concludes my reports. Thank you. Obviously we don't have Cal's member

[1:05:40] for Barnwich. So, Council Member George.

[1:05:43] Thank you. So, Five Cities Fire Authority met on July 15th and we approved the request

[1:05:49] for proposal and RFP to solicit proposals for third-party consultants to assess the Five

[1:05:55] Cities Fire Authority standards of cover and community risk assessment. That will help us

[1:06:00] guide the Five Cities Fire Authority into establishing a strategic plan and other opportunities

[1:06:06] for improvement for service levels. We also approved a resolution to confirm our

[1:06:12] weed abatement cost accounting in the amount of $17,442.70. So basically we went

[1:06:20] through a weed abated and we had a contract to weed abate and then we'll get

[1:06:24] reimbursed for that. That's it for FICD's Fire Authority. Visitional Cal won't meet

[1:06:29] again until December. However they will be holding a summit on September 25th. It's

[1:06:35] the tourism community summit, so that's it for my report.

[1:06:40] Thank you.

[1:06:41] Thank you, and again, Councilmember Seacrest is not here,

[1:06:44] so that will move us straight into item eight.

[1:06:46] This is Council, excuse me, community comments and suggestions.

[1:06:49] This is your chance to talk to the Council

[1:06:52] about items that are not on tonight's agenda.

[1:06:54] Please keep your comments to three minutes or less

[1:06:57] and address the Council as one body.

[1:06:59] So if you would like to comment on items

[1:07:00] that are not on tonight's agenda, please come forward.

[1:07:02] But

[1:07:13] in inclusion, over 30 states are phasing out or have abolished their DEI initiatives

[1:07:20] as they have experienced the damaging effects of this inherently divisive concept that billions

[1:07:25] have been wasted on.

[1:07:27] Many universities and companies are doing the same.

[1:07:30] CNN, Microsoft, Google, X, Zoom, Snap, Facebook, I could go on and on.

[1:07:35] It is time to abolish your DEI social justice policy and keep this dangerous ideology out

[1:07:41] our city's general plan. Stop being followers of the DEI mob and use some critical thinking

[1:07:49] in common sense, or maybe you could just use the Constitution as your guide. DEI is a wolf

[1:07:56] and sheep's clothing. It sounds like a good idea, but once you have a clear understanding of

[1:08:01] the standards ideology and its intentions, you realize it accomplishes the exact opposite

[1:08:06] of the claim goals.

[1:08:08] Overall, America is organically diverse and inclusive.

[1:08:12] Our nation is not systemically racist, nor prejudice against minority groups as radical groups claim.

[1:08:20] In my opinion, some of you have clearly proven that you are a part of that radical movement.

[1:08:26] Besides your costly DEI dictates, now one of you have spoken out in opposition of the child porn,

[1:08:33] include vulgar content, I found, at A.G. High.

[1:08:39] Nor have you voiced opposition to male students pretending to be females and

[1:08:43] frenzied on the female students' rise to safe private spaces.

[1:08:46] Unfortunately, equity means meaning has been hijacked and has morphed into an

[1:08:52] unconstitutional affirmative action and gender cultism.

[1:08:56] It lowers our American standards and work ethic.

[1:08:58] It means a guarantee of equal outcome for everyone, even if you have not earned it.

[1:09:05] No merit necessary.

[1:09:06] This is un-American.

[1:09:07] It is communism, which is responsible for the deaths of millions of people throughout

[1:09:12] the world.

[1:09:13] Wars have been fought to abolish it.

[1:09:15] Yet you appear to welcome it.

[1:09:17] You sincerely do you sincerely not understand the danger?

[1:09:22] The implementation of your forced EA policy is costiness, tens of thousands of taxpayers

[1:09:27] dollars.

[1:09:27] It also implies that our grantee is not diverse and that citizens of our grantee are racist

[1:09:33] and anti-inclusive.

[1:09:35] We are a very welcoming community that will not allow you to attempt to school us or dictate

[1:09:40] our behavior, restrict our freedoms or infringe on our constitutional rights just to appease

[1:09:47] your narcissistic virtue signaling and your attempts to indoctrinate us into your DEI church.

[1:09:52] All Americans have equal rights, period, and the United States already has well-established

[1:09:58] equal opportunity and anti-discrimination laws.

[1:10:01] A great example of your DEI policy national is when you attempt to enforce it upon a local

[1:10:06] landowner.

[1:10:07] You attempt to dictate his land use and force him to pay a small fortune to comply with your

[1:10:11] nonsensical demands and restrictions.

[1:10:13] You may submit a rest of that in writing if you choose.

[1:10:17] Would anyone else like to speak?

[1:10:20] I'm going to guess we've got a few people who want to speak, so if you would like to line

[1:10:23] and up afterwards you are welcome to.

[1:10:25] Good evening.

[1:10:26] On June 13th at 9.55 AM, on Wasna Road at Ikeda.

[1:10:34] I took pictures of city employees trimming private property.

[1:10:40] I've contacted Bill Robison and to date have not received an answer

[1:10:44] as to why we have city crews out there working on private property.

[1:10:50] Incidentally, they were also parked in a fire lane.

[1:10:53] You know, they're only supposed to do that during an emergency.

[1:10:56] I guess this was an emergency bush trimming.

[1:10:59] Then within the last couple of weeks, a resident called me.

[1:11:05] Traffic sign was down at Wasna Road at 227.

[1:11:08] Asked me to call it in.

[1:11:10] So I called it in.

[1:11:11] I'm coming home from San Luis a couple of hours later.

[1:11:15] I go to turn left on to Wasna Road.

[1:11:18] I almost got T-boneed.

[1:11:20] Why?

[1:11:21] Because a city staff member couldn't put a stop sign back up after removing the one I'd called about hours before on the side of the road.

[1:11:31] Public safety, you've heard me talk time and time and time again about public safety.

[1:11:36] I can show you picture after picture of city employees parking and fire lanes.

[1:11:43] I don't understand it.

[1:11:45] I think it's wrong.

[1:11:48] I've called both the City Manager and the Assistant City Manager asking why.

[1:11:54] I'm not getting a call back.

[1:11:57] I'm not getting my questions answered.

[1:11:59] What does it take to get questions answered in the city?

[1:12:03] Mostly what it has to do with public safety, basically mine.

[1:12:10] Jim, I wanted to thank you for not voting in for the sales tax thing.

[1:12:15] because the nine part-time employees, the city wanted to hire, with that 1% sales tax

[1:12:21] if it goes through, we were initially told that was to go 100% towards roads. Now, as

[1:12:27] said, we're hiring employees and everything else. Before it's even passed, or we're wanting

[1:12:32] to hire employees, before it's even passed, and before we've even started working on

[1:12:36] our roads, it would be nice if we got our roads fixed with that money first and whatever

[1:12:40] However money is left over, use it for other things, thank you.

[1:12:49] Hello, I'm Gary Schmidt, resident of Sunrise Terrace.

[1:12:52] We are here calling attention to Verizon's lack of urgency to submit an application for a new cell tower site.

[1:12:59] Federal law obligates cities to act with due diligence.

[1:13:03] There is no such obligation for Verizon when it comes to their appeals.

[1:13:07] While the city met the 150 day shot clock deadline, Verizon requested and

[1:13:12] received two shot clock pauses totaling 252 days.

[1:13:16] This concession by the city was based on Verizon's express desire to study and process

[1:13:22] an application for a more suitable site.

[1:13:25] So far it has taken Verizon four months to send a contract offer to St. John's Church,

[1:13:30] and that for a lease amount well below what is typically agreed to.

[1:13:34] The contract must be negotiated before the architects can begin work.

[1:13:38] last time it took two and a half months to submit an application after the architects began their work on the required maps.

[1:13:46] I'm no expert on how this works out, but it's reasonable to project that there won't be a new application before the end of September at the soonest.

[1:13:55] If received on September 30, it leaves only for 43 days for the city to process the application.

[1:14:01] All this to say that it looks like it's very probable that Verizon will be asking for

[1:14:07] another pause in the shot clock to keep their first project in play.

[1:14:11] Verizon's foot dragging reflects their lack of concern for the stress and

[1:14:15] anxiety that's causing those who live under the shadow of their proposed tower.

[1:14:20] We are here to ask the city of Rorya Grande to bring this to closure.

[1:14:24] You could call Verizon's contract to remind them of this time crunch.

[1:14:29] If they are unable to submit a new application in time to process before November 15th,

[1:14:35] We ask that you inform them that a further pause in the shot clock will not be granted.

[1:14:41] In view of their apparent lack of effort, they should withdraw their appeal

[1:14:46] and accept that the denial was based on valid points.

[1:14:50] If they insist on keeping it in play, we ask that you schedule the hearing soon.

[1:14:54] This will relieve many of us from further stress.

[1:14:57] us. We have provided you with M-

[1:15:00] Local federal court recognized substantial evidence upon which you can base a decision to uphold the denial by the planning commission. Hopefully you and your attorney will study this and make use of it. When Verizon representatives visited the St. John site the day after the long hour meeting that led to the denial almost six months ago, they commented to the hosts. Verizon is not evil. It is just greedy.

[1:15:28] Now is the time for the City of Aroi Grande to stand up to this greed and

[1:15:33] remind Verizon that the city has a federally mandated say and

[1:15:38] interest in where cell towers are located.

[1:15:42] Thank you.

[1:15:46] Would anyone else like to speak on items not on tonight's agenda?

[1:15:55] I am Jim Klein.

[1:15:56] I live at 1274 Ash Street.

[1:15:59] I'm a 30 plus year resident of Aroi Grande.

[1:16:04] and a few weeks ago I came out in front of my house and there was a 15 foot red

[1:16:13] curb, shiny new red curb. So I tried to find out why and I got a few answers

[1:16:22] from the city engineer. Apparently one person requested this. There are four

[1:16:31] homes and the share a common driveway where I live, and parking is a very precious commodity

[1:16:41] because every weekend from springtime to fall, there's some kind of activity as we heard

[1:16:48] at Soto Park or Elm Street Park, and parking is very precious. I live next to an apartment building,

[1:16:58] and those tenants also park some of them on the street.

[1:17:04] So I talked to John in the engineering department today,

[1:17:10] and he said that it was just a request made through a city council member that initiated the painting of the curb.

[1:17:18] So I'm requesting and apparently the individual that requested it has anxiety about pulling out of their driveway, out of the driveway.

[1:17:34] I've lived there 28 years, that person just bought that house last year, maybe the year before, maybe that's had been a consideration for them.

[1:17:46] But like I said, we've never had an accident.

[1:17:49] We've never had even a near miss.

[1:17:52] We have had octogenarians that rented one of the homes.

[1:17:56] They had no problem pulling out onto the roadway.

[1:18:01] So I would just like to request that they reconsider this red zone that they put in and remove

[1:18:13] move it because it is a valuable parking space.

[1:18:16] On the weekends, we don't have parking.

[1:18:18] We have to park our vehicles blocks away or in our driveway, and we're not really supposed to do that either.

[1:18:27] So, thank you for your time.

[1:18:30] Bill, do you have his contact information so that you can follow up on those questions?

[1:18:38] I think our city engineer has it, but I can talk to you with that.

[1:18:41] Okay, I just want to make sure you're connected up because we can't address that here tonight

[1:18:46] But I want to make sure someone from staff reaches out to you. Thank you so much. Would anyone else like to speak?

[1:18:56] Just one small comment. I noticed that miss

[1:19:02] The Guthrie's Mike is not picking him up very well or at least it wasn't during the

[1:19:10] Announcements

[1:19:16] speak up Guthrie

[1:19:19] anyone else? All right, let's check in with the city clerk. See if we have anyone online.

[1:19:26] If any members of the public on Zoom would like to make a comment, please raise your hand.

[1:19:33] Our first speaker will be Ethel.

[1:19:39] Ethel, you're allowed to speak now.

[1:19:42] Good evening everyone. It's wonderful to see you and I want to thank you all for your service.

[1:19:49] I'm just absolutely flabbergasted how much criticism you all take with a good heart and a

[1:19:55] commitment to continuing to run this beautiful city concerning Gary's comments about the stress

[1:20:03] that this has caused so many of us this Verizon wireless appeal about putting a cell tower 100

[1:20:10] feet away from many of our homes. It's just continued for this entire year to cause unreasonable stress

[1:20:20] on many of us seniors. I'm not there again tonight because you may hear in my voice. I still have

[1:20:26] COVID issues. Several of our members here in the park now have COVID. And senior citizens were just

[1:20:33] vulnerable. We're more of a vulnerable population. So I'm asking all of you to take Gary's comments to

[1:20:39] heart and to really really consider this issue. We all are in favor of good cell service.

[1:20:46] because it just doesn't need to be a hundred feet past someone's bedroom.

[1:20:50] And I stand to lose probably $120,000, $140,000 in value of my home, literally.

[1:20:59] It'll drop 20% if that tower goes in within 200 feet of my house.

[1:21:06] But in conclusion, I just want to thank you for your service.

[1:21:11] I don't know that young lady who was talking about DEI, but my understanding is that stands for diversity, equity, and inclusion.

[1:21:21] And as a gay woman and as a gay senior woman, I thank you for including me.

[1:21:27] I thank you for the diversity I see.

[1:21:30] Within this community and the respect, I expect all of us to give to one another.

[1:21:36] Thank you.

[1:21:36] Okay.

[1:21:40] There are no other raised hands.

[1:21:43] Thank you.

[1:21:44] So we'll close public comment at this time.

[1:21:45] We've got a few questions for staff.

[1:21:50] So let's start perhaps Isaac, our city attorney, with talking about the process for Verizon.

[1:21:57] And I do want to just before I turn it over to you acknowledge, first of all, those are

[1:22:03] the best shirts.

[1:22:05] And you've got to find a way to change the thing when it's all over, but they're so great.

[1:22:10] They get my attention every time.

[1:22:12] I know this is so stressful to you, and I'm sorry for that.

[1:22:16] So with that, I want to turn it over to our city attorney so he may be able to express some

[1:22:21] of the process and why things are happening the way that they are, so that we're all operating

[1:22:26] from the same piece of understanding of where we are, whether we enjoy that position or

[1:22:31] not.

[1:22:32] Sir.

[1:22:32] Thank you, Mayor.

[1:22:33] So the public commenter is correct.

[1:22:35] The federal shot clock has been extended and is told, which means currently that application

[1:22:41] remains pending from the Planning Commission's decision.

[1:22:44] Verizon did file an appeal, but the toll agreement was meant to provide a good faith time period

[1:22:50] by which Verizon could evaluate a potential alternative site.

[1:22:54] At this time, I know city staff is working diligently with Verizon to follow up on the status

[1:22:58] of that application.

[1:22:59] And at this time, City will continue to do so, so hopefully it has an update for community members soon.

[1:23:11] Any idea of where we're at in that or what that timeline looks like?

[1:23:17] So I wish it was yesterday. I wish it was two weeks ago. I wish we had that already.

[1:23:22] We did email the, so all of these things get processed on behalf of Verizon Wireless by a different consultant group that's on their behalf.

[1:23:31] we did contact them last week on the 12th. I've not heard back from them yet. We will continue

[1:23:36] to stay on them and ask them what information they need from the city in order to facilitate

[1:23:41] that new application. Thank you and Isaac can you address the concept of ending the

[1:23:47] tolling agreement sooner than that date? Sure so the tolling agreement moves through I believe

[1:23:55] it's November 15th at which time it expires and the shop clock is back into effect which means

[1:24:01] the city would take up the appeal in a timely manner after that. There's nothing that precludes

[1:24:08] a negotiation of the towing agreement to end earlier. And I believe city would look

[1:24:14] towards working with Verizon to get an understanding of where they are in the potential site acquisition

[1:24:20] process for a potential alternative site and can certainly return to council with updates on that.

[1:24:25] I think the real question is can we do that unilaterally?

[1:24:28] I

[1:24:33] would have to look at the terms of the towing agreement.

[1:24:37] Thank you.

[1:24:37] And just for the public's edification, this towing agreement idea came in at South San

[1:24:45] Lisbon County Sanitation District as well.

[1:24:48] So I have run into a towing agreement two or three times and I'd never run into it in 19 years

[1:24:54] of service before.

[1:24:55] So I had to ask the other attorney, so what does that mean?

[1:24:59] because to me a toll is like a toll booth and the answer is it's like the

[1:25:03] tolling of a clock and so it means like like when the clock strikes 12 so it

[1:25:09] literally just means a deadline it's like the the dinner goes off so we do have

[1:25:13] a mutual agreement to do that so that's kind of where that comes from. Then on the

[1:25:21] stop sign at wasna and the private property tree trimming I would presume

[1:25:25] somebody will, when the time allows, get back to that community member on that.

[1:25:29] I wish that community member was still here.

[1:25:31] We did respond, not on the stop sign.

[1:25:33] I will follow up as to why we didn't, we weren't notified about that.

[1:25:37] But we did respond about the parking in the red zone and the tree trimming.

[1:25:41] So I wish that individual was still here, but we will communicate again.

[1:25:44] All right.

[1:25:45] So I know we know how to get a hold of her.

[1:25:48] And someone will kind of connect back up with Mr. Klein.

[1:25:52] And finally, Mayor Pro Tem, Guthrie wanted to correct what was said in public comment.

[1:25:58] I just want to make sure I'm okay here to correct.

[1:26:02] Yeah, so I did not vote against the sales tax proposal that we're putting on the ballot.

[1:26:08] What I did vote against was the budget amendment that was proposed that same night.

[1:26:19] I did vote against the budget amendment that included additional people.

[1:26:24] I did not vote against doing the sales tax measure.

[1:26:27] Thank you.

[1:26:28] Northern the sales tax measure proposed nine new positions.

[1:26:31] That was a budget assignment.

[1:26:33] Yes.

[1:26:34] Thank you.

[1:26:35] All right.

[1:26:35] So that is item eight.

[1:26:38] That is all done.

[1:26:39] So that moves us forward to item nine.

[1:26:41] Item nine is our consent agenda.

[1:26:42] Tonight, we have items nine a through nine I and I can see you're all lining up to speak

[1:26:48] about those items, right?

[1:26:52] If anyone, let's first see if the council would like to pull anything

[1:26:55] for separate consideration or discussion?

[1:27:00] Mike? Yes, I'd like to make just a quick comment on

[1:27:04] the monthly water supply and demand update. 9-H. All right, so we will flag that and let's go

[1:27:10] ahead and open up public comment. Again, public comment on items 9-A through 9-I. Anyone have

[1:27:16] comment on those items. Seeing Alexander not rush forward, we'll check in with the city clerk

[1:27:22] and see if we have anyone online. If any members of the public on Zoom would like to make a comment,

[1:27:26] please raise your hand.

[1:27:32] There are no raised hands. All right, so we'll close public comment. I'll

[1:27:35] turn it over to Mayor Pro Tem with regard to nine age. Yeah, my comment here is in reviewing that.

[1:27:41] I see that we have a 22% increase in water use June over prior June. And that's just something

[1:27:49] as I told the city manager that we really need to keep keep a close eye on if that's a one-time

[1:27:54] deal. I know there was some hot days in June maybe that drove it but if we're looking at I

[1:27:59] realize the lake is still full and we still have plenty of water available but a 22% the increase

[1:28:06] in water use is going to be you know a 20% shorter period that we could handle that we could handle a

[1:28:13] out for. So I do think if it continues we need to move quickly to bring that under control.

[1:28:22] So I just want to make that comment tonight.

[1:28:26] Thank you. All right. Then let's bring this back to us for discussion and possible consideration

[1:28:33] of emotion. Madam Mayor, I move to approve consent agenda items 9A through 9I. Second.

[1:28:43] All right. Madam Clerk, we have a motion to second. Can we get a roll call please?

[1:28:46] Council Member George. Yes. Mayor Pro Temga 3. Yes. Yes.

[1:28:53] So that is items 9. We have item 10 public hearings. None item 11. None item 12. None. So here we are already at item 13 council communications. Let me turn to my right. Any communications and to my left.

[1:29:08] All right. Well, I don't have any either. So it certainly goes faster when we only have three council members here, doesn't it?

[1:29:18] That takes us to close session, which we moved from this meeting to next. So we will not have that one this time. So we are at item 15.

[1:29:26] Thank you, San Lewis, for joining us. Hope this was valuable for you. And you didn't have to sit through a five hour meeting. So you're welcome.

[1:29:34] And with that, we are adjourned, we'll see you in a couple weeks.

City Council Meeting

Agenda

Transcript