[4:40] Good evening everyone. At this time I'm going to have
[4:42] the city attorney report out on our closed session. Thank
[4:46] you Mayor. The Council Met in closed session on item
[4:49] 3A as listed as the closed session agenda. Direction was
[4:53] given no reportable action was taken. Thank you. Thank you.
[4:57] And with that I'm going to close the closed session.
[5:03] This is the regular city Council meeting of the City
[5:05] of Imperial Beach for August 19th, 2026. As it is
[5:11] my tradition, I'm going to announce that the City Council
[5:13] also sits as the Imperial Beach Planning Commission, Public Finance
[5:17] Authority, Housing Authority, and the Imperial Beach Redevelopment Agency Successor
[5:21] Agency. At this time I'll ask City Clerk Kelly to
[5:25] please take a role. Council Member Nakawase. Not going to
[5:30] say President. Council Member Labor Gonzalez. Labor Gonzalez here. Mayor
[5:34] Pro Tem Fisher. Fisher President. Mayor McKay. Mayor McKay is
[5:38] present. Council Member Seaberry is absent. Thank you for that
[5:42] roll call. At this time we're going to engage in
[5:46] the Pledge of Allegiance. We have a very special guest
[5:48] here this morning. Excuse me this morning this afternoon this
[5:51] evening. This will be a young lady named Maya. She
[5:55] participated in the sun in Sea Festival as one of
[5:58] the Sandcastle Building teams for the children. And she's going
[6:01] to lead us in our Pledge of Allegiance today. So
[6:04] take it away Maya. Our pleasure allegiance. To the flag
[6:09] of United States of America. To the Republic for which
[6:15] it stands, one nation under God, indivisible with sliverty and
[6:22] justice for all. Wonderful. Thank you so much Maya. You
[6:29] did a wonderful job. Alright, we're now going to move
[6:36] on to reports on assignments from our council members, and
[6:41] we'll start at my left with Council Member Nakawasay. Thank
[6:46] you Mayor on August 6. I had the great pleasure
[6:49] of attending Crest, which was an opening person new housing
[6:52] here in the district. It was really wonderful to see.
[6:55] It was a beautiful property. So hopefully we can get
[6:57] some tenants in there moved in and enjoying the property.
[7:03] I had the great pleasure of going to Stopping by
[7:08] HessFest and the Frogmen fundraiser over at the plank, which
[7:11] is really cool. I got a brand new challenge coin,
[7:13] which I thoroughly enjoyed. Um, and then yesterday I actually
[7:17] got to meet with the acting CEO of for San
[7:19] You Community Power. Jack Clark. I actually want to thank
[7:22] Lynn who gave me this idea was to ask for
[7:26] basically some data based on how much we're using inutilities
[7:30] on spikes when we have the sewage issue and everything
[7:33] because a solution shouldn't also call an adjacent problem. And
[7:36] so we had a long conversation about that. And so
[7:38] I'm helping he gives us that so we can just
[7:40] kind of see those patterns and hopefully ask to advocate
[7:44] for some kind of incentives for the folks using more
[7:47] utilities. Cause I know that I am during those times.
[7:49] Um, and I told him you can use my house
[7:51] as a reference point or anything like that. So it
[7:54] was a great meeting. And then, um, next Saturday, if
[7:58] I can have this flyer pulled up, I don't know
[8:01] if it is. Um, we are hosting the next -
[8:08] gen workshop. So really want to encourage any youth in
[8:10] our community. You don't have to be 14 and up.
[8:12] If you're really enthusiastic, 13 year old, I would really
[8:15] like to see you there. Um, again, I want to
[8:17] make sure that youth in our community has the tools
[8:19] to be successful. So we're going to have some wonderful
[8:21] speakers. Again, they're going to learn how to interview, how
[8:24] to network and everything. And one thing again, I think
[8:26] that's always important is walking away with something tangible. And
[8:29] so really want to make sure they have a headshot.
[8:32] So you guys can register by scanning the QR code.
[8:34] It's posted on our social media and everything. But would
[8:36] really love to see some more people register intent. And
[8:40] that's it. Thank you, Mayor. Great. Thank you. We'll move
[8:44] on to Council Member Labor Gonzalez, please. Uh, thank you
[8:47] Mayor. Um, I don't have anything to report for committees,
[8:50] but I just wanted to report on, um, an issue
[8:52] that happened on Saturday the 15th. So initially I received,
[8:57] um, confirmation from our amazing city manager, Tyler Foltz, that
[9:01] there was a water leak at 1348 Holly Avenue. This
[9:05] was a little after 10 a. m. I, I was
[9:09] in the process of deciding what I was going to
[9:11] do with the rest of my day. So I'm like,
[9:12] let me go drive over there and be a sidewalk
[9:16] superintendent. So I showed up. And initially our public works,
[9:22] amazing team was there already. Um, Calam and Calan's sub,
[9:27] which is Montejo Backho Service. So there was already a
[9:30] group of residents, you know, kind of congregating and asking
[9:35] questions. So I connected with public works. They had explained
[9:38] already that they were concerned about the, um, drains because
[9:43] there was a lot of mud and smug and muck.
[9:46] So, uh, the Cal Am ironically while I was there
[9:51] had showed up with their big shop vac, their back,
[9:55] um, so I connected with some of the residents, let
[9:59] them know roughly the time, you know, the time range
[10:01] where they will be out of water. So initially I
[10:04] had quoted them five to six hours. Um, prior to
[10:08] leaving, I connected with, um, the owner of Montejo Backho
[10:13] service, Andres gave him my contact info and said to
[10:16] kind of give me an update. Literally 130 ish, the
[10:21] water was back on. They were backfilling. And the whole
[10:24] situation could have been extremely more negative, but it just
[10:28] really made me proud to know that we have people
[10:32] that work on a Saturday diligently and everyone communicated efficiently.
[10:39] And the disruption in water service to the residents in
[10:42] that area was limited. And it was, it really made
[10:47] me feel good. So, um, thank you Tyler for being
[10:50] communicating so efficiently. And thank you to public works. Cal
[10:54] Am and Monteco Baco service. That's all I got. All
[10:58] right. Thank you for that update. We'll move on to
[11:00] Mayor Protem Fisher. Thanks Mayor. No, no real big official
[11:05] stuff. Um, other than at the end of July, uh,
[11:08] SDG, and he filed some paperwork with the state, um,
[11:12] it's a very technical stuff. Uh, regarding San Diego Committee
[11:15] power, but the net result is that power, um, satin
[11:20] can be powerful for transmission and generation as its lowest
[11:23] it's ever been, uh, for residents. And so the average,
[11:28] uh, resident with the regular service is about seven to
[11:32] eight percent saving the SUGNE. Now with rates, they're always
[11:36] fluctuating. Um, but the staff doesn't think that there's going
[11:41] to be any more fluctuations for us here. So there
[11:43] should be good savings on the horizon. Uh, that's very
[11:46] steady again. All it depends on what SDG need does.
[11:49] So, uh, on the other thing, uh, last Friday music
[11:52] in the park, uh, group PRIMO was fantastic. Lots of
[11:55] people out there. Great, great time for those who showed
[11:58] up. Lots of dancing going on. And so, uh, this
[12:00] week we have an 80s cover band. So invite everybody
[12:04] to come out there at 6 p. m. Veteranspark. Bring,
[12:08] bring your pillows, your, uh, chairs, whatever you have to
[12:12] do. If you get the early, may want to sit
[12:14] in the shade. If you get there later, sit in
[12:16] the sun. They get, they got a little bit cool
[12:18] out there. So anyways, that's all you got, Mayor. Great.
[12:22] Thank you for that update. I did have a few
[12:24] things to report. Um, August 6th, I attended the Metro
[12:27] Wastewater JPA meeting. The only real announcement out of there
[12:32] is we did get, uh, all the participating agencies to
[12:35] sign off on the, uh, Sarah, which is the second
[12:39] amendment to the, uh, agreement. And so the new billing,
[12:45] uh, is in place now. Um, there were some concern
[12:48] that if all the agencies didn't pass it within, uh,
[12:51] certain timeline, we might have some staggered billing, which is
[12:55] never good. Um, then on August 8th, I did attend,
[12:58] uh, the Hest Fest here in Imperial Beach. I think
[13:01] it was very well attended. It seemed like there was
[13:02] a really good turnout. Um, both locals and, uh, and
[13:06] folks in the region, uh, October, excuse me, August 11th.
[13:11] I had my monthly, actually quarterly meeting with the Lieutenant
[13:15] Galvet, the Sheriff's Department. You've probably seen in the local
[13:20] media some reporting on the Little League situation. I want
[13:24] to thank the Sheriff's Department for doing their due diligence
[13:27] and participating with that investigation and bringing it to, uh,
[13:33] somewhat of a conclusion. Uh, then on, uh, August 15th,
[13:37] our local grocery outlet had its 80th, actually their ninth
[13:42] anniversary here in town, but the company is their 80th
[13:47] anniversary. So we did have a ribbon cutting, um, and
[13:50] then yesterday I spoke at both the City Council Meetings
[13:53] for, uh, City of Coronado and also for the City
[13:56] of Chula Vista, uh, a couple of those items will
[13:58] be coming up, uh, on our agenda later this evening.
[14:01] So we'll, we'll talk a little bit more about them
[14:03] then. All right. At this time I'm going to hand
[14:08] it over to, uh, City Manager Folts versus some communications
[14:13] from city staff. Thank you Mayor. Staff's requesting to, uh,
[14:17] that the Council move item 15C before items A and
[14:21] B. It's our understanding that the Mayor of TIL Vista
[14:23] may be coming to comment on items A and B.
[14:27] So again, stash requesting to consider the e - bike
[14:29] item before those items. All right. We certainly happy to
[14:34] provide that professional courtesy to the Mayor of Chelovista. So
[14:37] we will in fact move item, uh, 15c ahead of
[14:42] 15a and 15b. I see we have an announcement from
[14:49] fire chief French. Is that correct? Honorable Mayor City
[14:58] Council. Um, I have a few, um, employees. I want
[15:01] to introduce and then a few announcements after that. So,
[15:05] um, I'm going to introduce two, one started on, um.
[15:12] July 27th. And he's so he's new to the fire
[15:17] department. And then the other one started on May 25th
[15:21] as a part - time with Marine Safety Division of
[15:24] the Fire Rescue Department. And we hired him full time
[15:28] on January of 26. So he hasn't had a chance
[15:31] to be up here. So the first one I'd like
[15:32] to bring up is Ian Urskine. From our marine safety
[15:37] division. Um, and, you know, he's doing a great job.
[15:41] He's had a couple of CPRs he's done with the
[15:44] fire department down there in the beach area. So real
[15:46] hard worker. So like to welcome you. Thank you. Welcome.
[15:50] Go ahead and have, yeah. Introduce yourself. You and your
[15:56] skin. I was a seasonal here at the Imperial Beach.
[15:59] I started May of last year. And then promoted to
[16:02] full time in January of this year. And joined every
[16:05] minute of it. And just want to say thanks for
[16:06] having me. Great. Thank you. Welcome to the team. All
[16:12] right. Second one I'd like to bring up is Kyle
[16:15] Barone. Um, he started with us on July 27th. And
[16:19] he's going to be starting Heartland's fire academy next Monday,
[16:22] the 24th. And he'll be finished with that on November
[16:25] 5th. So he's got a couple months of hard work
[16:29] to go through. So. Come on. Hello. Cover only
[16:39] parasitionary fire paramedic. Grew up here in San Diego. Carl's
[16:44] bed mainly. The work in San Diego most of my
[16:46] career is in the city. Worked to the cigar role
[16:49] paramedical children's defire where I started working some ambulance just
[16:52] here at Vista at Imperial Beach. And been employed here
[16:57] since July. Looking forward to a long period with the
[17:00] privilege fire department. Super welcome you into the team and
[17:03] thank you for all your hard work so far. Thank
[17:05] you. Get ready for the Academy. All right. I know
[17:13] Council has been waiting for this one for a long
[17:14] time. So, um, on, uh, on October 3rd, um, we're
[17:20] going to be doing our, um, new engine push in
[17:22] ceremony. Um, some of the details and it's going to
[17:25] be along with the pancake breakfast. So some of the
[17:28] details and times are still in the works, but we
[17:32] want you to save that date. Um, the next one's
[17:35] going to be our, uh, open house. It's going to
[17:37] be Saturday, October 17th. From 10 a. m. to 2
[17:41] p. m. And that's always a fun event for the
[17:43] community. And we love seeing you guys out there. Great.
[17:47] Thank you. Yeah. And as part of the open house,
[17:54] we're going to have the blood bank. We're going to
[17:58] have the blood bank. And this can be our second
[17:59] annual, uh, blood drive that we've done. We didn't have
[18:01] mount here last year, but they were here the previous
[18:03] year. So, um, they're going to be here for 930
[18:07] to 230. So they're going to be here half hour
[18:10] on each side of our blood drive. And as, um,
[18:13] if you get blood, you can, um, get a t
[18:16] - shirt and it's going to have the thing from
[18:18] the Adams family on their t - shirt. So. Great.
[18:24] Looking forward to everybody signing up and giving some blood.
[18:27] Great. Thank you for those announcements and thank you for
[18:29] getting that, uh, fire engine ready to go. All right.
[18:34] It's this time we're going to move on to public
[18:36] comment section. Looking for some public speaker cards. Let me
[18:42] announce before we take speakers in house that we did
[18:47] receive correspondence from truth. And it was a made available
[18:51] to the Council members and also, uh, the folks in
[18:54] the auditorium here in the back. I have one public
[18:57] speaker card. It's Mr. Brandon Claypool. So Brandon, if you
[19:02] can come forward and you're three minutes start now, I
[19:07] just wanted to say thank you for welcoming me to
[19:12] Imperial Beach. I love the city. The Sheriff's Department does
[19:16] a really good job of keeping it safe. I've noticed
[19:18] it. It's sad that the beach is closed. But hey,
[19:23] you got a lot of good businesses that need to
[19:26] be filled with customers. And so I'm just pleased the
[19:32] way I progressed. It's a very safe city. You care
[19:37] about the citizens here. Uh, it's nice to see that
[19:42] like people out walking around. They're in parks, you know,
[19:45] it's like, it's really nice what you've done with parks
[19:48] and recreation. And you got people out everywhere. It's, it's,
[19:52] it's really, it's a really good community that like stands
[19:56] up for each other. And I, you can see it.
[19:59] This is a great city. And you guys have done
[20:01] a really good job. I just wanted to thank you.
[20:04] Thanks. Well, thank you very much for those comments and
[20:06] we appreciate the, uh, the feedback. All right. I guess
[20:13] we're going to go to the remote participation at this
[20:15] point. City Clerk Kelly, please. Announce the first speaker. Okay.
[20:22] Mr. Mayor, we have one raised hand and it's a
[20:26] caller with the last two numbers of three one. Please
[20:29] unmute yourself and begin. You have three minutes.
[20:40] So that is proof that even when things go awry.
[20:42] Oh, you don't want me to start now. Uh, everyone
[20:46] collapse it off even the curse. Um, earlier today, I
[20:50] went to email a few comments and received an automated
[20:52] city email return saying you guys no longer at that
[20:55] email comments and that everyone must use the e -
[20:57] commit form. I don't mind that as an option, but
[20:59] as a mandate, They also do not allow pictures to
[21:05] be uploaded, which was my entire point of emailing my
[21:08] comment. So I give a trying to roll III, but
[21:11] give more of a snarky look of emojis to that
[21:13] option. That being said, uh, I emailed my comments only
[21:16] because I've been married. Turns out okay. Cause Hey, the
[21:19] brush covered bike racket. The bay has nothing cleared for
[21:21] you. It's a city success. So my new public works
[21:25] idea is if you pour a little concrete square on
[21:27] that bike rack, dry brush should be less of an
[21:30] issue. I don't know if there's environmental rotate, but Hey,
[21:33] an idea. The other issue I brought up was a
[21:36] legal finding about union derived conflicts of interest on city
[21:39] council. Um, it actually came from former corrupt supervisor underneath
[21:43] the fletcher in his corrupt wise Lorena Gonzalez head of
[21:45] the union. The Majority Council legally investigated the issue provided
[21:49] an analysis. And I just think that's something that could
[21:52] be looked at further in the future. Because anyone who
[21:54] has a conflict of interest should never be involved in
[21:57] the decision making process. And a girl beat a certainly
[22:00] suffered from that in the past. I really think that
[22:03] union paid for phone should also be bad from the
[22:05] diets because it opens that door to conflict. Getting even
[22:09] more political, I also notice that the progressive narrative seems
[22:12] to be the unsounded line that Mitch has no plan
[22:16] for Mexico sewage. And it's like, really they're going to
[22:18] ignore the IV plan that he helped draft last year
[22:21] that was chocks was tangible solutions that the former corrupts
[22:25] democratic entity. Man, well I pulled them again a vote
[22:28] it against. So question, what does grab your labor drunker,
[22:33] conshaus breast at the table, other than socialism, bad attitude,
[22:36] beer and asleep at the wheel. Sorry, nobody wants curl
[22:39] to commie. Jose the ace puppet or Omar the law
[22:42] breaker. And obviously Matthew couldn't even get the endorsement from
[22:45] his own party enough said. Now let's give to something
[22:48] else better or not actually, sorry, quick APCD update. I
[22:52] did a public records request with a county and they
[22:54] claim that no communications exist with the company Ironti who
[22:58] provided the unqualified junk air purifiers. APCDN men will it
[23:03] would not confirm whether or not the new air purifiers
[23:05] are. But actually purify anything or not. And we'll also
[23:08] pick Laura Wilkinson to be on a committee, even though
[23:10] she's received over 4, 100 dollars in campaign donations from
[23:14] her. Totally corrupt as always. It was a purely political
[23:18] meeting. We're honestly the best part with just me calling
[23:20] out George at Gomez for Stuffner's face on camera. Oh,
[23:26] that's why I started meeting life in a nutshell. All
[23:28] right. Let's bring on John McCann. I want to hear
[23:30] him. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Moving on,
[23:39] um, do we have any other callers? That was the
[23:41] only one. That was the final caller, Mr. All right.
[23:44] Thank you. Um, I guess we're going to move on
[23:46] to item 11, which is presentations. And as was
[23:56] mentioned earlier, we're going to re shuffle the order. We're
[24:00] going to take item 15C. Sorry.
[24:10] I apologize. I skipped over the consent calendar. Silly me.
[24:13] All right. We're going to move on to consent calendar.
[24:15] Do we have any public speaker slips for the consent
[24:18] items? No, Mr. Mean. None. Uh, do we have any
[24:21] remote participation requests. No, Mr. Mayor. Thank you. Any city
[24:28] council discussion on the consent calendar. All right. Can I
[24:33] get a motion and a second, please? Fisher. Proves a
[24:39] motion. In a second. Thank you. Please vote.
[24:53] Motion carried unanimously by those present. All right. Now we're
[24:59] going to move on to ordinances and first readings. We
[25:05] have none this evening. And then we're going to move
[25:08] to public hearings. I'm going to open the first public
[25:14] hearing on item 14a, which is the Imperial, excuse me,
[25:18] Imperial Beach Forum Sports Bar and Grill seeking approval to
[25:21] allow live entertainment within the existing restaurant located at 1079
[25:26] Sea Coast Drive. And a California Environmental Quality Act categorical
[25:32] exception 0600 - 20. City Planner Arturo. Excuse me, or
[25:39] twonow will present this item. Thank you. Good evening, Honra
[25:45] Mayor Council members. My name is Arturo Ortuno, City Planner
[25:49] with the Commuter Development Department. I will be presenting item
[25:54] 14A this evening, which is a request for a conditional
[25:57] use permit for I. ......... live entertainment at the existing
[26:02] restaurant. The Project Site is located at 1079 Sea Coast
[26:07] Drive in a zoned CMU2 or CCOS Commercial and Mixed
[26:11] Use. The applicant is proposing to operate live entertainment at
[26:15] the existing restaurant location. Under the CMU2 zoning regulations, a
[26:19] restaurant with live entertainment is permitted with an approval of
[26:22] a conditioner use permit by the City Council. The project
[26:29] site is located in the western portion of the city
[26:31] at the northeast corner of CCOSIDIVE and Imperial Beach Boulevard.
[26:35] The surrounding area consists primarily of residential uses, including multifamily
[26:39] development to the north, west, and south in a single
[26:43] - family residence to the east. The site contains an
[26:48] approximately 2, 200 square foot restaurant, approximately 2, 000 square
[26:52] feet of cover patio areas. And eight existing parking spaces.
[26:56] The applicant is not proposing any changes to the existing
[26:59] footprint. Landscaping, or parking. Staff would like to note that
[27:04] there is a typo arrow in the staff report regarding
[27:07] the square footage of the restaurant and patio areas. The
[27:10] figures included in the staff report were taken from a
[27:12] previous permit and do not reflect the existing conditions of
[27:15] the site. The applicant is proposing to operate live entertainment
[27:22] within the eastern patio area adjacent to the parking lot.
[27:27] As shown on the slide. The patio is enclosed by
[27:29] a 6 foot high perimeter wall. The wall consists of
[27:33] a 4 foot concrete missionary wall with an additional 2
[27:36] feet of tempered glass screening. And the patio is covered
[27:39] by a solid roof structure. The areas proposed for live
[27:43] entertainment is located at JSON to the eastern entrance of
[27:46] the restaurant's dining area shown in yellow on the floor
[27:48] plan. The proposed entertainment would include amplified music, trivia, bingo,
[27:54] and acoustic performances. If the condition used permitters to approved,
[27:58] the applicant is also required to obtain and maintain all
[28:01] applicable licenses and permits, including those required by the California
[28:05] Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control. Pursuant to ABC license requirements,
[28:11] live entertainment shall be limited to the hours of 10
[28:13] a. m. to 10 p. m. seven days a week.
[28:15] With the exception of Monday through Thursday, these hours are
[28:18] generally consistent with the restaurant's existing hours of operation and
[28:22] with other approved live entertainment uses in the city. This
[28:28] light shows a southeast and northeast corners of the patio,
[28:31] including the existing 6 - foot perimeter wall and covered
[28:34] structure. As part of the proposed operation, the patio will
[28:38] be equipped with noise decibel monitors to help monitors sound
[28:41] levels. In addition, speakers used for live entertainment will be
[28:45] directed toward the restaurant building and angle downward to hit
[28:48] minimize noise impacts on surrounding properties. This slide shows the
[28:53] entrance that the patio from the parking lot, as well
[28:56] as a northern elevation of the patio. The northern elevation
[29:00] provides an additional physical barrier between the proposed entertainment area
[29:03] and the multifamily residential use to the north. Staff recommends
[29:09] that City Council conducted public hearing and adopt resolution number
[29:12] 2026 - 084. This concludes my presentation and I'm available
[29:17] for any questions. And we also have the owner for
[29:21] I. B. forum here, Matt Morgan, also to answer any
[29:24] questions. Great, thank you for the presentation. Um, we're going
[29:27] to go to public speakers. Um, I do have one
[29:30] public speaker request card. Mr. Martin Mattis, please approach the
[29:35] DIAS. Or the podium.
[29:45] Good evening, Honorable Mayor. Distinguished Council and hardest working staff
[29:50] in San Diego County. For the record on Martin Mattis,
[29:53] owner of the Oplank N, long time I. B. resident
[29:56] and retired Navy Command Master Chief. In 1992, Morgan family
[30:03] purchased i. i. before. 1993, me and Matthew started going
[30:07] there. Just kidding. No, in 1994 I moved a, I
[30:12] moved from Coronado down to Imperial Beach. And I went
[30:15] down to the forum all the time. Lots has changed,
[30:20] but one thing has stayed consistent along Sea Coast. The
[30:24] Europlank in and IBorum have been the cornerstones of C
[30:28] Coast Drive. Matt reached out to me asking how to
[30:33] get live music two years ago. Uh, we set up
[30:36] a meeting with mayor Aguiri. And worked with Matt on
[30:41] getting the ball rolling to get live music going. It's
[30:45] been two years. Several ABC visits, and now in front
[30:49] of this distinguished council. I support allowing music at the
[30:55] i.. Plank has music, my cat says music, Sammy's has
[30:59] music. I. B. forum needs to have music. In fact,
[31:03] I think my son - in - law is playing
[31:04] at Sammy's this weekend. There's a lot of history at
[31:09] the I. B. forum. I went there when it was
[31:11] a fishbowl. And now it's a premier spot to go
[31:16] eat. I ate their lunch today. So, thank you for
[31:20] the time. And please vote yes on allowing music at
[31:23] the I. B. forum. Thank you. Thank you, sir, for
[31:26] your comments. Do we have any remote participation on this
[31:33] item? Yes, Mr. Mayor, and it is truth. Truth, please
[31:38] unmute yourself and begin. You have three minutes. You know,
[31:47] it's actually a literal porn. So it's on the south
[31:51] side of ISQUI. Southwest, so it's kind of interesting. It's
[31:55] a literal cornerstone on the other side. Um, so should
[31:58] you have music at every end, at every notch in
[32:01] IB? Yeah, sure, why not? The only hesitation would be,
[32:06] what are the neighbors think about it? Because you do
[32:07] have homes right there. And you do have the estuary
[32:11] right there. Some environmentalists may have an issue if the
[32:14] music is too loud right there at the estuary. I
[32:17] mean, I do like peace there. Uh, but I'm a
[32:20] little more concerned about the neighbors. As long as you
[32:28] have really set time that everyone agrees on of when
[32:33] you're not going to have music going and when you
[32:34] are, then as long as their consent, I don't see
[32:37] a problem with it. I think it sounds like a
[32:39] great idea to have just been another cool business in
[32:42] ID. Thank you. Thank you for those comments. I'm going
[32:51] to go ahead and close the public hearing now. Uh,
[32:56] City Council, would you like to speak? Um, Matthew, would
[33:00] you start, excuse me, Councilmember Labor Gonzalez? Uh, yes, thank
[33:03] you. Thank you, Mayor. Um, so. I'm going to try
[33:08] to remain as non - biased as possible. Um, so
[33:14] it's not necessarily, it is a cornerstone of the city,
[33:19] but the reason why myself and my wife enjoys. Being
[33:24] there so much, aside from the food, because we love
[33:28] the soup there. So we're always like, what's the soup
[33:30] of the day? But it's more along the lines of
[33:34] the individuals that work there because they give you that
[33:38] great feeling when you show up. And the locals that
[33:41] work there, um, the food's amazing. Um, and it's family
[33:46] owned. So we always talk about what we can do
[33:50] as a council to make businesses strive here in Imperial
[33:56] Beach because of the beaches being closed. They are definitely
[34:00] a place that people that come from out of town
[34:03] for sure wants to see because the service is amazing.
[34:05] The food is amazing. Um, I take pride in stating
[34:09] that my stiping gets spent. Throughout Imperial Beach. I'm not
[34:14] going to say how much gets spent there. But I'm
[34:16] in strong support of passing this. Thank you, Mayor. Thank
[34:20] you for those comments. Councilmember Nakasa. Thank you Mayor. Um,
[34:25] I had the great pleasure of working at a live
[34:27] music joint for five and a half years. And so
[34:29] we had also told the city at the time amplified
[34:33] music and sound. And so just to dig a little
[34:35] deeper, are you guys planning to have some like acoustic
[34:37] axe live bands? What are you guys expecting in regards
[34:41] to some of your live entertainment. Can you please perch
[34:45] the microphone? Thank you. Um, iBorm. Happy to say that
[34:52] we've been there for 34 years now as of July.
[34:55] Repeat your question with the acoustic? Yeah, of course. Uh,
[34:59] the, the concept of amplified music amped sound more, more
[35:03] falls under that. So just wondering what kind of digging
[35:06] a little bit deeper into hopefully your ideas of live
[35:09] entertainment. Are you guys planning to have like acoustic sets
[35:12] or like maybe full bands or middle of both? Not
[35:14] really pushing so much for live music, more for entertainment
[35:18] for, um, games. Bingo. Um, trivia night. A lot of
[35:23] times when we'll have a wedding, they want to know,
[35:25] Hey, can we have someone play on the patio at
[35:27] spur of the moment. Are we going to be having
[35:31] rock bands here? No. It's something where we just want
[35:34] to have the option if we want to play music
[35:37] on a special weekend. We want to be able to
[35:40] do this. Very cool. Thank you. Yeah. Uh, the forums
[35:45] was my grandmother's favorite place to go eat dinner and
[35:47] lunch. Uh, I really, uh, like the Fred zucchini. I've
[35:51] heard you've been an incredible neighbor in regards to anything.
[35:54] So just continuing to be responsive and everything, everyone's really
[35:57] spoken high praises of you because that was the first
[36:00] thing that I brought up to staff was like, you
[36:04] know, the live music joint I worked at was right
[36:05] next to senior assisted living center, um, it was crazy
[36:08] that we even were there half the time because we
[36:10] did have rock bands and whatnot. But your reputation proceeds
[36:14] you, Matt. So my neighbors are my number one concern
[36:17] over there. Um, Mr. Miller that owns the apartments. I've
[36:21] been good friends with him for over 30 years. Almost
[36:23] everyone in the apartment complex house my cell phone number.
[36:27] All the neighbors around there have my cell number. And
[36:28] I tell them if the issue, if you hear something
[36:30] going on or if you see something, call me directly.
[36:33] I want to handle it. And I've been a hands
[36:35] - on owner since day one. I took over this
[36:38] place. Thank you, sir. And I appreciate you. Thank you.
[36:44] Pretend fisher, please. Thank you, Matt. So I appreciate your
[36:47] honesty and how you conduct your business. I agree. It's
[36:49] been a benefit to the city the way the form
[36:52] continues to redesign, redevelop, uh, it is a beautiful place
[36:56] for people to enjoy Imperial Beach. And I shared some
[36:59] concerns. I'm grateful for Council Member Nakawatose talking about what
[37:02] type of music, you know, and type of things that
[37:05] would happen. We have seen, um, a few different places.
[37:09] I won't say abuse, but push it to the very
[37:11] limit when they have live permits. And I think you're
[37:14] seeing the same. You're aware of those as well, but
[37:16] it sounds like you have a great relationship with, uh,
[37:19] with those around you. And that's hard. Um, I noticed
[37:22] that there was a, uh, during the presentation talked about
[37:24] having decimal monitors on the patty, which I think will
[37:28] help key everything in. Obviously, you know, it's a conditional
[37:30] use permit, uh, the language in there that helps everybody
[37:33] keep each other on this. And, you know, provides, um,
[37:37] cure for any, any issues that may come up. And
[37:40] obviously you're a willing owner to help guide through any
[37:44] things that might have concerns in the committee. So again,
[37:47] I'm in favor and I want to thank you for
[37:48] being out here and representing the CD. Well, thank you.
[37:52] I appreciate that very much. Thank you. All right. Thank
[37:54] you for your questions. I don't have any questions directly
[37:56] for you. I do want to encourage you to continue
[38:00] to promote your business and, you know, help the city
[38:04] help you, uh, bring visitors to the city, um, even,
[38:09] even when our, maybe our beaches are closed sometimes, uh,
[38:12] most of the time, um, but our businesses are always
[38:15] open. So, uh, I appreciate you coming out this evening.
[38:18] And I appreciate you stepping forward. So. Thank you for
[38:20] taking the time. Yes, of course. Okay. So at this
[38:24] time I will look for a motion or a vote
[38:27] and a vote. A second. I'll make the motion mayor.
[38:31] Can I get a second? I'll second. You. Please vote.
[38:37] And please lock in your votes. Motion carried unanimously by
[38:45] those present seabury absent. And Mr. Mayor for clarification, that
[38:50] was for the adoption of Resolution number 2026 - 2026
[38:54] 001 and Resolution 2026 084. Yes. Thank you. Thank you.
[39:00] Thank you again. Appreciate it. Thank you. All right. We're
[39:07] going to move on to reports. And as was mentioned
[39:10] earlier, we're going to reorder, uh, and bring the e
[39:13] - bike discussion up first. And so with that, I
[39:17] will turn it over to City Manager Foltz for, uh,
[39:21] presentation of the item. Uh, thank you Mayor and members
[39:25] of the Council. This is a continuation of a discussion
[39:27] that was had earlier this year regarding e - bikes,
[39:31] uh, where the council requested that staff look into additional
[39:34] information. Uh, every word here. Some of it's for reference
[39:38] for later if needed, uh, but more or less, in
[39:41] our current code, bicycles and e - bikes, they're treated
[39:45] the same, uh, our code does not reference e bikes
[39:48] at all. Uh, bicycles and e - bikes are supposed
[39:50] to be meeting the same traffic, uh, laws and signs
[39:53] that are on the roadway today. Cities can, however, adopt
[39:57] additional regulations. And that's what's being discussed tonight. Uh, and
[40:00] in January, that's when council provided additional direction of staff.
[40:04] So the intent of this meeting is to provide some
[40:05] additional information, get additional direction from the council. Uh, so
[40:09] our current code is very interesting with regards to what
[40:12] a bicycle is defined as. For our current code, it
[40:16] talks about, uh, it's being propelled by a human power.
[40:20] But then it says it either has two or three
[40:22] wheels, one of which is at least 20 inches in
[40:24] diameter. And then it has a frame size of at
[40:27] least 14 inches or having four wheels or more. Uh,
[40:31] so it's, we've seen many bicycles out there with different
[40:34] wheel sizes and but then they can come and say
[40:36] that's not a bicycle. So some clean up on that
[40:39] language, uh, would be appropriate. State law says, uh, bike
[40:43] is one or more wheels and no wheel size. Right
[40:46] now in our current code, bicycles are prohibited from writing
[40:49] on the sidewalk in business districts. The peer and then
[40:53] public parks and facilities. Uh, the code also, uh, requires
[40:57] licensing, uh, but, uh, there is a law that was
[41:01] passed that says we were not allowed to do a
[41:03] licensing. So it prohibits that. Uh, so our current municipal
[41:06] code is not compliant. It would need to be updated
[41:10] to comply with current law. Uh, so this, uh, this
[41:13] slide here shows the current definitions for, uh, e -
[41:16] bikes today. There's three different types. There's the class one,
[41:19] which is pedal assisted. Um, and then it only provides
[41:22] the motor assistance when you're pedaling. There's no minimum age.
[41:25] Helmets are required for individuals under 18. There's a 20
[41:29] mile per hour max limit. Uh, and it's allowed to
[41:31] go wherever bicycles are permitted. The class two has the
[41:34] throttle assistance. Uh, and again, it has the motor that
[41:38] also assists to propel the bicycle, uh, with pedals. No
[41:41] minimum age again. Helmets are required for individuals under 18,
[41:46] 20 miles per hour max limit, uh, for speed. And
[41:49] again, they're allowed wherever bicycles are allowed. And then the
[41:51] class three's a little different. It's pedal assisted. It has
[41:54] a speedometer. It's motor assistance, uh, when pedaling, uh, but
[41:58] it can't, uh, it doesn't have a throttle. Uh, the
[42:01] minimum age for that type of class is 16 years
[42:03] old. It's a higher speed limit of 28 miles an
[42:05] hour. And then all ages must, uh, wear a helmet.
[42:09] So, uh, e bikes. We also want to note their
[42:12] exempt from drivers licenses. License plates and insurance requirements. That's
[42:15] just per state law. Uh, and you also can't have
[42:18] a passenger unless the separate seat. Again, that's just per
[42:20] law. Uh, there's variety of state laws that cover the
[42:25] regulation of bicycles, which includes e bikes, uh, the, uh,
[42:30] there's certain vehicles that are not included, uh, in the
[42:33] e - bike discussion as well under state law. Uh,
[42:35] so, uh, one of the discussions here is, uh, vehicle
[42:39] with two or three wheels powered by an electric motors
[42:41] that's intended by the manufacturer to be modifiable to attain
[42:45] speed greater than 20 miles an hour. That's, that's not
[42:47] any bike. That's not allowed a vehicle that's modified to
[42:51] atterrate in 25 miles or 20 miles an hour on
[42:54] a motor, uh, alone without the pedals. That's, that's not
[42:57] an e - bike either. Uh, and then a vehicle
[42:59] that's modified to have, uh, the pedals completely removed. So
[43:02] none of those are e - bikes. Just wanted to
[43:04] make sure council is aware of those. Uh, there's also
[43:07] separate designation of e - scooters. Those have no pedals.
[43:11] Uh, there's an electric motor. Generally, it's 15 miles per
[43:14] hour, a maximum speed limit. Uh, they're prohibited on sidewalks
[43:17] except to enter and leave adjacent properties. Uh, you do
[43:20] need a helmet if you're under 18 years old. The
[43:23] minimum HTUs are 16 years old. There are not allowed
[43:26] to have passengers. Uh, you actually do need a driver's
[43:30] license or instruction permit to utilize an e - scooter.
[43:33] Uh, and, uh, the state, the law specifically mentions that
[43:36] the financial responsibility registration or license plate requirements for e
[43:39] scooters. Uh, this just references a flyer that the sheriffs,
[43:44] uh, department has created to inform people about, uh, e
[43:49] - bikes, safety requirements. And then what the classes are
[43:54] and then what is not any bike. And that's in
[43:55] the bottom right hand corner on the third, uh, slide,
[43:58] uh, picture there, the motor license required for these different
[44:02] types mopeds, et cetera. Uh, and this just continues to
[44:07] fly her. Uh, there is an assembly bill that was
[44:11] passed. Uh, that allows for additional regulations beyond what we
[44:16] just described. And this is the San Diego Electric Bicycle
[44:20] Safety Pilot program. It allows agencies in San Diego County
[44:23] specifically to adopt regulations, prohibiting persons under 12 from operating
[44:27] a class one or two e - bike. You have
[44:29] to have a public information campaign with at least 30,
[44:33] uh, 30 calendar days, uh, for that campaign. If you
[44:36] get a violation, uh, within the first 60 days, it's
[44:39] a warning after that. There's a fine of 25 dollars.
[44:45] Agencies also have to submit a report to the legislature.
[44:49] The agencies have to report it to the county, the
[44:51] county then, uh, reports it to the legislator. Uh, and,
[44:55] uh, the data that's collected is traffic seltzer violations results
[45:00] from traffic stops. The time persons was stopped while allegedly
[45:04] being under 12, but was found to be over the
[45:07] age limit. Description of warnings or violations cited. If an
[45:12] arrest or traffic stop is made, document perceived race, ethnicity,
[45:15] gender in approximate age. Detail the actions by the police
[45:20] officer, uh, number of times a person opted to complete
[45:24] training in lieu of the fine. And then the number
[45:28] of times person under 12 was involved in severe crasher
[45:31] injury prior and after the adopter regulations. Uh, so what
[45:36] are our neighbors doing? This was discussed last time, but
[45:38] there has been some change. And that's why it took
[45:40] some time to, uh, come back to the council. We
[45:42] have been tracking what San Diego's doing because there are,
[45:45] there are direct adjacent neighbor. Um, Carl's Bad Schulivista, Cornato,
[45:49] LaMESA, POUAY, now San Diego, San Marcos and Santee all
[45:53] past ordinances, uh, to prohibit the use of the e
[45:57] - bikes under 12 years old. Uh, for Coronado, they're
[46:01] prohibited also in different areas. Sidewalks beaches parks and then
[46:04] the different areas noted here. Um, the writers can walk
[46:08] their e - bikes in those areas. Uh, for Class
[46:11] 1 and 2, the writers have to be over 12
[46:13] for class 3, 16. Um, and then for Chula Vista,
[46:17] it's very similar in those regards with those limitations because
[46:20] they've also adopted AB2234. San Diego has very similar rules.
[46:26] Uh, they've also prohibited under 12 years old for Class
[46:29] 1 and 2. Um, and, uh, they're provided the public
[46:33] education campaign. This just has some of the dates where
[46:36] it went into effect. And that's just very recently August
[46:38] 13th is where those regulations went into effect. Um, they
[46:42] also, uh, provide the same requirements within the law that
[46:46] allows for, uh, someone to take a class if they
[46:49] receive a fine things along those lines. Uh, ekes are
[46:52] allowed, uh, in bike lanes, roads and most bike paths
[46:55] in San Diego, but they're generally not allowed on sidewalks,
[46:58] near businesses or crosswalks, which are, uh, mainly pedestrian areas.
[47:04] Uh, these are just some of the flyers that Cornato
[47:07] has created for their city so that people are aware
[47:10] of what the regulations are. Uh, this is Cheul Vista.
[47:14] They have a toolkit over they explain what, what the
[47:16] regulations are within their city. Uh, this is San Diego's
[47:20] website that describes the different laws and safety tips, uh,
[47:23] within the city. A lot of the different, the cities
[47:25] have very similar information because it's a geared specifically to
[47:28] state law and what the parameters of their cities are.
[47:32] So there are some considerations that the city council can
[47:35] have with regards to regulations within the city versus our
[47:39] municipal code. We mentioned the definitions earlier. They're fairly outdated.
[47:43] They don't, they didn't even contemplate e bikes or e
[47:46] - scooters or anything along those lines. Uh, so we
[47:48] would recommend having a definition for a bicycle that's more
[47:51] consistent with state law. Having definitions for electric bicycles consistent
[47:55] with state law. Same with the electric scooter, uh, we
[47:58] would also recommend Electric Mobility devices. We see a lot
[48:01] of, uh, unicycles or hoverboards or even electronic skateboards. Uh,
[48:06] so having a definition for that would assist with our
[48:09] regulations. And allowing people to know what they can and
[48:12] cannot use and what areas. Uh, but also defining a
[48:16] sidewalk and what a sidewalk is, uh, we have some
[48:18] different areas in the city such as the boardwalk on
[48:22] Imperial Leech Boulevard by the estuary. That was designed to
[48:25] actually allow for a bicycles. So that's, that would be
[48:27] something that we'd want some guidance on to make sure,
[48:29] are we going to not include using e bikes or
[48:32] e - scooters or eMobility devices in those areas? Or
[48:36] will we allow for, uh, use of those areas? Uh,
[48:39] so this goes into some of the, uh, regulations that
[48:42] can be considered by the council or at least request
[48:45] that staff look into it further. Expanding bicycle restrictions to
[48:49] all areas of parks and public facilities, not just the
[48:52] pedestrian areas, uh, because right now it mainly says pedestrian
[48:55] areas. Uh, so we could specifically, uh, state where eBikes
[49:01] may or may not be allowed or if they're prohibited.
[49:03] Same with the E. Scooters and eMobility devices, uh, do
[49:06] we want to prohibit them from playgrounds? Uh, from all
[49:09] park spaces, uh, from fields and trails, uh, from the
[49:13] entire Pure Plaza area, the pier, um, uh, or any
[49:17] other areas that's contemplated, um, I will note at sports
[49:21] park facility, uh, we just redid the sports park area.
[49:25] We did brand new concrete and there are tire marks
[49:29] all over that new concrete area. Uh, it would assist
[49:32] to have a clear definition within our code so that
[49:35] we could help, um, enforce that. Council can consider prohibiting
[49:40] e bikes. E. Scooters mobility devices on all sidewalks if
[49:43] they so choose or define areas where they may locate,
[49:46] uh, we could designate, uh, additional no writing areas such
[49:49] as the beachfront on the, on the sand itself, uh,
[49:52] schools at the skate park. Right now we do see
[49:55] e bikes using the skate park. It's not designed for
[49:57] such use. So that'd be a consideration. And also the
[50:01] board walk that I mentioned earlier, uh, or are there
[50:03] any other hypodesrian activity area? Uh, Council could consider requiring
[50:08] e bikes, e - scooters or e - mobility devices
[50:10] to be walked, uh, rather than written in all areas
[50:13] that we just described parks, uh, facilities, uh, pedestrian area,
[50:18] uh, only, uh, installing new signage, uh, throughout our public
[50:23] facilities. A lot of it's old and outdated. It doesn't
[50:25] really say, uh, e - bikes, rescooters. That many would
[50:30] be familiar with, uh, and then also ensuring that operators
[50:34] aren't blocking ADA access or obstructing any paths of travel.
[50:38] Uh, SAFE operation is another consideration that the Council can
[50:42] consider with, with guidelines. Uh, there are current California vehicle
[50:49] code requirements for reckless driving and things along those lines.
[50:53] Uh, but, uh, we can specifically state within the ordinance
[50:56] the intent. Would the Council want to consider traveling in
[50:59] the same direction of motor vehicle traffic at all times,
[51:03] even if they're on a sidewalk, if it's loud, um,
[51:06] uh, same with bicycle lanes, uh, we're writing this permitted
[51:11] yielding the right way to pedestrians. Again, that's a law,
[51:14] but specifically noting it within an ordinance at the city
[51:17] can utilize. Operate at a speed that's reasonable and prudent
[51:21] for existing conditions. Limits side by side writing to no
[51:24] more than two, except that during city approved events or
[51:29] other approved events, uh, maintaining at least one hand, uh,
[51:32] on the handlebars except when signaling providing an audible warning
[51:35] when overtaking pedestrians on shared use facilities. And, uh, following
[51:45] direction by council, we will look at it legally to
[51:47] find out what, what language can we come back with
[51:49] to the Council to ensure that we're not overstepping state
[51:52] law, but supplementing it in an appropriate way. We talked
[51:57] about reckless writing and street takeovers. Some of the complaints
[52:00] we often receive are seeing people doing wheelies, which seem
[52:03] very unsafe and the right of way burnouts, jumping, drifting,
[52:07] exhibitions of speed, other stunt writing unsafe turning movements, um,
[52:13] impeding pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists, uh, carrying passengers, uh, unless the
[52:18] bicycles designed for it, equipped for that purpose, towing others.
[52:22] We see that, uh, often, uh, so we can consider
[52:25] language that would allow for enforcement of that. Uh, and
[52:28] then also utilizing handheld mobile phones, uh, or other electronic
[52:32] communication devices when they're using one of these, uh, either
[52:35] a bicycle or one of the e devices that we
[52:37] talked about. Or even organizing an event that, uh, what
[52:41] purposely, uh, not comply with the ordinance. Uh, but staff
[52:46] would recommend some other measures that would allow for, um,
[52:49] some flexibility as well. And that's this temporary operational authority.
[52:54] It would, it would allow the city manager to temporarily
[52:57] modify or suspend these rules, uh, in the purpose of
[53:00] public safety. So if during a permitted special event or
[53:05] an emergency or unusual traffic conditions or other circumstances, uh,
[53:09] these rules can be a temporarily adjusted, uh, just based
[53:13] on that current situation that the cities undergoing, um, uh,
[53:17] at the designation of the City manager, if, if, uh,
[53:20] requested by the Council. And then of course public education,
[53:24] uh, letting the community know what's being considered, um, informing
[53:29] people of, uh, educational warnings for first time if an
[53:33] ordinance is adopted, uh, ensuring again, that the intent is
[53:37] safety first and foremost, not necessarily getting a fine or
[53:41] anything along those lines. But safety is paramount. Uh, so
[53:45] that concludes staff report. We request that the Council provide
[53:48] direction on some of these regulations. Um, and, uh, City
[53:53] staff can come back with a draft ordinance or other
[53:55] considerations. Uh, and also cleaning up that ordinance that is
[53:59] not compliant, uh, to date. Um, and, uh, some of
[54:03] the general topics is to update the municipal code. And
[54:06] then I have some of the bullet points there that
[54:07] we went over just in case we want to reference
[54:09] it. Uh, this concludes staff's report. Council member Nakawat is
[54:14] a has collected some survey information that she would like
[54:16] to present on at this time. Thank you, Dilar. I
[54:26] always like a good community survey and I was happy
[54:28] to say that this had a pretty high engagement of
[54:30] one. Data is, I believe, published and in the back
[54:34] for anyone that wants to reference it. And I said,
[54:36] if I spelled anything wrong, uh, don't tell me in
[54:38] public, tell me later. Uh, I had the great pleasure
[54:41] of hosting this just a bit of a methodology of
[54:45] what I did. So just to try and maximize my
[54:47] participation and try and reach a broad section of the
[54:49] community, I promoted it through, um, comprehensive digital outreach campaign.
[54:55] My survey was posted twice across my personal, um, social
[54:57] media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, ex - formally as Twitter,
[55:02] LinkedIn and next door. In addition, I posted the survey,
[55:05] um, to my social media stories on three separate occasions
[55:08] at three separate times to try and encourage and increase
[55:10] the visibility and encourage participation through the outreach period. Um,
[55:14] I also posted in all of our relevant IBlocal happenings
[55:17] groups and everything like that to just encourage, um, people
[55:19] to fill it out. So I was happy to say
[55:21] in that period, I was able to receive 92 responses,
[55:24] um, 76 respondents asking to see the survey results. Um,
[55:28] in terms of respondent demographics, it was, uh, 32 of
[55:31] drivers, uh, 18 of e - bike readers. Writers, excuse
[55:35] me, parents and guardians 16 pedestrians 11 traditional cyclists. So
[55:40] regular bicyclist, eight and other seven. Next slide, please. And
[55:45] then in terms of age distribution of survey respondents, um,
[55:49] 65 plus crowd with 37 respondents, uh, 55 to 64,
[55:53] 18, 45 to 54, 17, 35 to 44, 13, 25
[55:59] to 34, six and 18 to 24, which I was
[56:02] hoping for a little bit more, uh, I had one.
[56:05] Next slide, please. In terms of the e - bike
[56:09] ownership among survey respondents, I thought that was really important.
[56:12] Obviously, if you own an e - bike, I'd hope
[56:14] you'd participate. Um, we had no of 57 respondents with
[56:18] 62 percent. And yes, with 35 respondents. Not not necessarily
[56:24] in the slides, but just for the people, the primary
[56:27] use that people use e - bikes for in our
[56:28] community in terms of that responded to the survey was
[56:30] recreation with transportation being second. Um, I had a sling
[56:36] scale in regards to, uh, the survey, because I think
[56:39] it's easier to, for people to kind of gauge what
[56:41] they feel about either, I'm not really concerned or I
[56:44] am really concerned. And so these were our top e
[56:47] - bike safety concerns. And so I chose specifically from
[56:49] the highly concerned to focus on, um, which was writers
[56:53] ignoring the stop signs and traffic signals. Excessive speed, distracted
[56:57] writing, helmet use, conflicts with pedestrians and multiple writers on
[57:02] one e - bike, which is kind of a reflection
[57:04] in terms of the staff report about complaints they received.
[57:07] Next slide. Um, I just want to know that in
[57:11] terms of the safety solutions, it was noted before, but
[57:14] just to reiterate that youth licensing and certification is not
[57:17] something we can allow. So my apologies for putting that
[57:19] in the survey. I was going after Arminess full code
[57:21] first. Um, so that was my fault. Um, but some
[57:23] of the safety solutions that the community is looking to
[57:26] see is increased enforcement speed limit enforcement, parent guardian education,
[57:32] writer education, helmet campaigns, community awareness campaigns, better bike lanes
[57:36] and then more signage. This kind of theme that we're
[57:38] seeing is that there's obviously a strong desire from enforcement.
[57:42] Some accountability from youth and definitely education before punishment in
[57:46] regards to that. In terms of some of the open
[57:47] - ended, um, I think it's really important for people
[57:50] to kind of verbalize what they're interested in. So the
[57:53] open - end comments, which was at the end of
[57:55] the survey, trying to encourage people to ride in what
[57:57] they thought might be the best solution or everything like
[58:01] that, because I don't always have the best ideas. It's
[58:03] definitely some of the constituents who give me the most.
[58:06] But yeah, I thought it was a fairly good survey
[58:09] that got ran. And I was, I was happy that
[58:11] more people were engaged in it. And I think that's
[58:14] it. Very, thank you for taking the time and the
[58:19] effort to put that all together and to collate the
[58:23] data and, uh, provide that presentation. Um. We have public
[58:28] speakers. I have one public speaker card. Um, we also
[58:31] had correspondence provided to, uh, the City. Pardon me. Been
[58:39] made available to the staff and also those in the
[58:41] room that came from Senator Brilhart. We thank her for
[58:46] that. Um, the public speaker card I have is for
[58:50] Lynn Fisher. So if you want to go ahead and,
[58:53] uh, come up. Get Eden Council staff, Lynn Fisher, resident,
[58:59] retired government analysts, executive special projects. I just want to
[59:04] commend Councilwoman Nakatuase for following through and sharing the outcome
[59:09] of the eBite Community Survey. I was really looking forward
[59:11] to this. I hope the city puts these results on
[59:16] the website on the Cities website so that residents can
[59:20] clearly find them. And don't just leave them on the
[59:22] agenda because it's really difficult for residents to find that
[59:25] information on the agenda. Um, uh, PAS councils used to
[59:31] involve residents very often in open workshops and surveys. And
[59:36] they use those outcomes of those resources to build better
[59:39] city reports and documents. And we haven't really seen that
[59:43] many outreaches like this lately. So this was really refreshing
[59:49] to see this in many of us participated. So I
[59:52] would really like to see a return to this approach.
[59:55] So that if you want, if you want to see
[59:57] more of us here in this room, then talk to
[59:59] us more. And so this was a really refreshing approach.
[1:00:04] And we participated. So, um, I want to thank the
[1:00:07] Councilwoman again for stepping up here and trying to inspire
[1:00:10] people to take part and show up. So it's really
[1:00:14] appreciated. Thank you very much. Thank you so much for
[1:00:17] your comments. Do we have any speakers online? Yes, Mr.
[1:00:26] Mayor, we have one raised hand and it's truth. Please
[1:00:30] proceed. Truth, please begin. Hi there. I'm beginning. So yes,
[1:00:38] include the other e devices into the language. I don't
[1:00:41] know about wheels near the astroy kind of questionable. There
[1:00:45] are a lot of pedestrians, but at the same time,
[1:00:47] if it's made for it, but then I guess you
[1:00:48] can't go back on your word. Definitely not on the
[1:00:51] tier because that not only does it put pedestrians at
[1:00:53] risk, it does damage to the pier. Everybody knows lithium
[1:00:56] is a much heavier than anything else. So I personally
[1:01:00] can't stand when I see them even at the core
[1:01:01] noticery landing on that little period there. It's just, I
[1:01:05] see bad things happening. And don't forget, you have to
[1:01:07] put up signs where you say no. The court of
[1:01:10] San Diego does that. So the signs are very obvious,
[1:01:13] but don't do any restrictions if you're not alerting the
[1:01:15] people to at first. Uh, but my feeling about eBay
[1:01:19] is that they should just be banned for anyone under
[1:01:21] the age of 18. They're essentially no different than mopeds,
[1:01:25] vespas and motorcycles. And so should be subject to the
[1:01:27] same regulations. Uh, there's nothing wrong with a regular bike
[1:01:32] for a child. It's actually way more affordable. But that's
[1:01:35] not to say that children are the only problem. Cause
[1:01:38] I can't tell you how many adults I've seen that
[1:01:40] have ridden in the opposite direction of traffic. Then made
[1:01:43] an illegal turn in the opposite direction of traffic. So
[1:01:48] traffic enforcement doesn't usually happen with bicycles. It happens with
[1:01:52] vehicles, right? And that is my point. I think even
[1:01:56] banny evites from sidewalks parks peers, et cetera is a
[1:02:00] sign that they're not safe toys. They're dangerous vehicles. Along
[1:02:04] with future, state approved licenses. I'm hoping for that. I
[1:02:07] support required education courses, fines and empowending bikes. Because the
[1:02:12] breath on eBox need to face all of those things.
[1:02:15] The parents also need to face punishment when their child
[1:02:17] does something wrong. I do not accept e - bikers
[1:02:20] taking over streets and destroying rows and property and then
[1:02:23] not facing punishment for. They need to pay damages. Um,
[1:02:27] something else that's just distantly related that has never been
[1:02:30] addressed is e. by tontransit or e. scooters or whatever
[1:02:34] it is. They take up tons of room. I just
[1:02:35] want you to consider that wherever that will be applicable
[1:02:38] at some point MTS. And I wanted to point out,
[1:02:42] uh, all of Marniko's misspellings because I saw a lot.
[1:02:46] And I'm just kidding. Uh, you did a great job
[1:02:48] of the survey in presentation. Thanks for doing that. Um,
[1:02:51] and I also want to point out that after you
[1:02:53] turn 18, you no longer have to wear a helmet.
[1:02:56] Because as soon as you become an adult, your brain,
[1:02:58] it just no longer matters. Don't worry about it. Thank
[1:03:01] you. Thank you for your comments. All right. We're going
[1:03:07] to go to City Council discussion. Um, I think Councilmer
[1:03:13] Lavalazalis is ready to go. Um. I, I,
[1:03:23] I believe that we do have to make. Make it
[1:03:28] safer in our city. So personally, um, this past Christmas,
[1:03:35] my son. Convinced my 14 year old son convinced me
[1:03:39] to purchase him an e - bike. April 12th, he
[1:03:43] was at urgent care. So he fessed up that he
[1:03:46] was trying to pop Willies. So. Like I see the
[1:03:50] kids popping Willies everywhere. And I was drawn to it.
[1:03:55] So I went home and got on my bike. And
[1:03:58] I can't pop Willies. I was like, how do they
[1:04:00] do it and make it look so easy? So I
[1:04:02] think a lot of why these kids are doing that
[1:04:06] is because it's part of that acceptance. And they want
[1:04:11] to be accepted in their friends are doing it. So,
[1:04:14] um, we just have to work together to make it
[1:04:18] safer, not necessarily only for the people that the kids
[1:04:22] that are writing these, um, e - bikes. But for
[1:04:25] the residents as well. Because I've seen kids go through
[1:04:30] peer plaza and they don't necessarily care. And the people
[1:04:36] that are out there walking with their kids or dogs,
[1:04:39] um, and I'm really looking forward to us working together
[1:04:43] as a group. To figure out exactly what we need
[1:04:47] to do to make everyone safer on the bikes as
[1:04:52] well as people and our residents in the city. So
[1:04:55] that's all I have. Great. Thank you for this comments
[1:04:58] and that personal observation. Council Member Nakawata say thank you
[1:05:04] Mayor. Um, in no particular order, I've just been taking
[1:05:06] notes after the last few weeks in regards to this,
[1:05:08] uh, some of the direction that I would personally like
[1:05:10] to see is again, yes, incorporating electrical mobility devices if
[1:05:15] we're going to update the code. We should include all
[1:05:17] of the electronic devices coming up. I know I have
[1:05:20] quite a few lovely salesmen that come on those little
[1:05:22] unicycle things up and down my road. Um, I really
[1:05:26] do want to agree on posting online in regards to
[1:05:30] social media and website and finding easier for our constituents
[1:05:32] to say like they get a little pop up. Hey
[1:05:35] this new e - bike ordinances happening. This is where
[1:05:38] you can find the information on it. I think pictures
[1:05:40] are really helpful. I was, I really like seeing that
[1:05:42] a lot of these tool kits are including more, um,
[1:05:45] pictures of things and just examples of stuff. If you
[1:05:48] ask me to pick a lineup of a class three
[1:05:50] e - bike in a lineup, I would not know
[1:05:53] what necessary to look for. So anything like that is
[1:05:55] helpful. I do agree that I don't think we can
[1:05:58] enforce everything without some kind of large educational component as
[1:06:04] well as updating Republic signage first. I think a lot
[1:06:06] of people are frustrated to see a lot of new
[1:06:08] meters appear in a certain park in another city without
[1:06:12] there really being educational component that people are going to
[1:06:15] have to pay for that stuff. So really want to
[1:06:16] make sure that we have updated that all of that
[1:06:19] before we start enforcing and everything. Um, for me personally,
[1:06:23] because it's, it's in the district that, that area by
[1:06:25] the estuary, I don't really consider it being smart for,
[1:06:30] um, eBikes to be on. Specifically just because we, I
[1:06:33] went and physically saw also, um, at the sports park,
[1:06:36] the tire marks that are becoming more and more in
[1:06:38] apparent there. There's a lot of areas there that I
[1:06:40] think that we're going to have to then keep starting
[1:06:42] to clean up more in public works is going to
[1:06:44] have to get more involved in and cleaning up in
[1:06:46] that area. I would also probably prefer no e -
[1:06:48] bikes on, on sidewalks in those regards. Uh, some of
[1:06:52] the reckless writing, uh, my street is definitely a road
[1:06:55] that is currently getting a lot of e - bikes
[1:06:58] on really more so, um, frustration with how fast they're
[1:07:04] going, especially not only on my street, but in the
[1:07:06] history as well, no helmets. And two to three passengers
[1:07:09] on some of these bikes is just a little bit
[1:07:11] scary. I agree that having it defined that it should
[1:07:14] be, if it's not an additional seat, um, I know
[1:07:18] that the age component, uh, comes up pretty often. And
[1:07:23] I'm, I'm not, I'm going to be perfectly frank. I'm,
[1:07:25] I'm not a mother. I don't have kids or anything
[1:07:27] like that. I've talked with quite a few of our
[1:07:30] neighbors that I've pinned now that have e - bikes
[1:07:32] and writers as a family. I just don't really like
[1:07:36] the concept of splitting up a family that rides together.
[1:07:40] There are families, in my opinion, and kids now that
[1:07:43] are respecting the roles in law. For me, I don't
[1:07:46] see it a parent to make an age enforcement on
[1:07:48] that. I do think some responsibility does need to come
[1:07:51] not only down to youth. But as well as the
[1:07:53] parents and guardians themselves in that, um, I'm all for
[1:07:57] an incredible, great community workshop. I love that. Um, county
[1:08:01] supervisor, Terra Lost Remorer did one, I believe with SIPS
[1:08:04] Ranch in regards to an education, kind of teaching parents
[1:08:08] what are. The trends happening in the emergency rooms and
[1:08:11] everything like that. And I had reached out to, um,
[1:08:14] sharp to see if they were interested in hosting something
[1:08:16] similar here. And they were. So I love a good
[1:08:19] community workshop and would really like to see that and
[1:08:22] have our best we can educate more. It's hard to
[1:08:24] change stuff that we've done forever. Um, National IITOL. I
[1:08:29] realized that I've been breaking the no bikes in the
[1:08:31] park rule since I was very little, uh, because I've
[1:08:33] definitely ridden my bike through there all the time. Um,
[1:08:37] so that's definitely a component that we need to try
[1:08:39] and encourage our neighbors and whatnot that there is going
[1:08:42] to be having a little bit of change in the
[1:08:44] community and how we can best move forward with that.
[1:08:47] Those are really the things that I think were the
[1:08:50] most in terms of council direction that I thought was
[1:08:52] really important to address and clarify. So thank you. Thank
[1:08:56] you for your comments. Mayor Pro Tem Fisher. You know,
[1:09:01] this is always such a discussion with so much Tom
[1:09:04] Pack looking at, you know, what do we draft as
[1:09:08] an ordinance? What do we change municipal code out? What
[1:09:10] is what? Again, the, as I'm sitting here, I'm thinking,
[1:09:15] so if a 12 year old has a e -
[1:09:17] bike and can't write on the sidewalk, we're going to
[1:09:19] push him into traffic. To me, that's crazy. Absolutely crazy.
[1:09:24] You know, and I think that, you know, the couple
[1:09:26] of things that I just want to get kind of
[1:09:28] is housekeeping. I agree with, uh, Mrs. Fisher and Councilmember
[1:09:32] Nakawa. I say perhaps a good comedian outreach with service
[1:09:35] well. The data you collected in years. I understand where
[1:09:40] it comes from, but again, most of the people were
[1:09:43] older people who don't have e - bikes. And we
[1:09:47] see families throughout our community writing e - bikes. Um,
[1:09:49] and I agree that, you know, how do you split
[1:09:51] up a family? You know, maybe it's a 12 and
[1:09:54] end or with supervisions type of thing. But again, I
[1:09:58] sit there and yesterday or the other day before I
[1:10:01] was leaving City Hall. And I had a guy in
[1:10:03] the bike lane on a mobility scooter. It's only form
[1:10:07] of transportation. He's like, Hey, don't hit me. I'm going
[1:10:10] slow, but I'm going as fast as I can. He
[1:10:12] was probably going seven miles an hour. So how, how,
[1:10:17] I understand we wanted to find stuff. But, you know,
[1:10:20] how do we get to the point where it's even,
[1:10:23] how do we enforce it? I just don't know. And
[1:10:25] you know, when it comes down to assembly bill, twelve,
[1:10:27] thirty, again, another bill that comes our way tells us
[1:10:30] to do his death and has, I'm assuming the funding,
[1:10:32] right? Is there no funding. Because there's never any funding
[1:10:35] with assembly bills. You have to do all this outreach
[1:10:37] education, put up signs, do this, that, um, but if
[1:10:42] it's okay, I do have a question for Lieutenant Galli.
[1:10:47] Because I just want to understand, because part of 22,
[1:10:51] 34 is reporting the data would be collected in any
[1:10:54] infraction. So if you find some teen who's driving writing
[1:11:02] an e - bike recklessly, what does that look like
[1:11:06] if they were to be stopped, are they actually present
[1:11:08] identification? Are their parents called? What's, maybe you could just
[1:11:12] help me out. Jerk him. Excuse me, Mayor City Council.
[1:11:15] Uh, it could be a variety of those things. I
[1:11:17] mean, it just depends. Does the teen have valid license
[1:11:19] on them or any kind of identification at all? So
[1:11:23] sometimes it's just verbal. Whatever, whatever biographical information that we
[1:11:26] need to fill out the citation or traffic accident is
[1:11:30] sometimes just verbal. And we do our best to vet
[1:11:31] that. Hopefully we can call responsible parent to the scene
[1:11:33] to sort of vet that information. But sometimes that's kind
[1:11:36] of the best we can do because obviously people under
[1:11:38] the age of 16, I mean, let's just say a
[1:11:40] school ID or something that they have may not be
[1:11:43] equipped with that. So I don't know if that answers
[1:11:45] your question. No, that kind of leads me to where
[1:11:47] I thought it would. That even the enforcement component is
[1:11:53] mediocre at best. And that has anything to do with
[1:11:55] our law enforcement team. Uh, it's because it's just 13
[1:11:59] year olds don't carry AD on them normally. You know,
[1:12:02] and again, tracking this stuff for purposes. And I understand
[1:12:05] the requirements for, for 2234 are just very vague, uh,
[1:12:11] but again, does it solve the problem? You know, if
[1:12:13] you look at, for me, the biggest problem is we
[1:12:16] allow these e - bikes to be sold at a
[1:12:18] great cost to whoever wants to buy them without any
[1:12:21] form of registration or anything. If California was smart, they
[1:12:25] would require these parents who were buying these bikes. For
[1:12:29] their kids. To make sure that they're registered. They understand
[1:12:33] that the parents need the training before the kid gets
[1:12:36] the bike. Because I think that there's a big part
[1:12:39] that we're missing here. Because on the city level, we're
[1:12:43] not going to be able to fix this. On the
[1:12:46] printal level, that's where the responsibility is. So if the
[1:12:49] parent decides to spend, I don't know what it, what
[1:12:52] does an e - by - cost? My first five
[1:12:57] cars didn't cost more than 1200 dollars. But, you know,
[1:13:02] my whole thing is, is like, we should really look
[1:13:04] at what can the state do to require. People to
[1:13:08] register and get that education before you buy an e
[1:13:11] - bike for your 16 - year - old, your
[1:13:13] 12 - year - old, you should be the one
[1:13:15] having to understand what the training looks like. You know,
[1:13:18] if you buy a car for your kid, it's a
[1:13:20] little bit different, but then you have insurance. You have
[1:13:22] to make sure they're licensed. We're providing something for somebody
[1:13:25] to do the unthinkable, you know, 100 years ago, nobody
[1:13:30] went 20 miles an hour. And if you did, you
[1:13:32] know, when first cars came out, people thought it was
[1:13:35] crazy that they're, you know, do an 18 miles an
[1:13:38] hour. That's faster than the horse carriage could ever take
[1:13:40] them. They're going to kill everybody. And, you know, and
[1:13:43] they think they were right in some respects. But we're
[1:13:45] going to do millennium where it's a convenience. For kids
[1:13:50] to have. And they don't have the responsibility that goes
[1:13:54] along with it. You know, so that's kind of my
[1:13:57] thoughts on there. I think there should be age limits
[1:14:01] for kids, but again. What's the age limit? And how
[1:14:05] do we push everybody off the side? There's times I
[1:14:07] dried my bike around town. I'm right on a sidewalk.
[1:14:10] Cause I sure can get into traffic. So again, I
[1:14:13] know that we're not going to be out there. We're
[1:14:15] not going to have, uh, one of our shares deputies
[1:14:17] on every corner pulling people over. And, um, this helps
[1:14:20] protect us when something goes wrong. Um, but again, it
[1:14:23] doesn't hit the thing. Because if we wait for something
[1:14:27] to go wrong, the near misses are just as important
[1:14:31] in some respects. So, um, I'm in favor if I
[1:14:36] ever eating age restrictions for classes one and two are
[1:14:39] for the class one to two e bikes. Um, as
[1:14:42] far as no raid areas, I agree, pure plaza, the
[1:14:45] pier. People ride bikes up and down the pier all
[1:14:48] the time, uh, plate ground areas. Uh, you know, the
[1:14:51] parks, I'm totally with you. I've ridden my bike through
[1:14:53] veterans park all the time. Um, but again, you know,
[1:14:58] I think the signage is there. And again, most of
[1:15:01] the time kids ride their e - bikes to the
[1:15:02] park, they're not hurting anybody, but there's at least some
[1:15:05] point if we need enforcement that's there. Um, skate park.
[1:15:08] I agree upon. Um, but no, I think that, you
[1:15:13] know, first and foremost, we need to have some larger
[1:15:17] public outreach events. To gather more information. Because again, we're
[1:15:22] looking at, do we, you know, we have to follow
[1:15:24] California vehicle. There's some state laws. There's A. B. 22,
[1:15:28] 34 if you want to hop on to. We're going
[1:15:30] to put an ordinance out and change our municipal code.
[1:15:32] There's a lot to unpack. Will it delay in passing
[1:15:36] an ordinance. Have any catastrophic effect? In my opinion, no,
[1:15:42] because it's been, I think, six months since we ate
[1:15:44] seven or eight months since we talked about this originally,
[1:15:47] um, and so if we were to craft it together,
[1:15:50] because I'm with you, I don't know if we always
[1:15:51] have the right answers from the dais. Um, there are
[1:15:54] some very smart community members out there who love to
[1:15:57] share with us their idea. So, um, so, you know,
[1:16:00] again, I think there are some things that we could
[1:16:03] do right away at least get diving it down to
[1:16:05] where, um, staff has given us all this information, but
[1:16:08] I, I think that again, if i were to figure
[1:16:11] out the biggest picture, I think the response fee is
[1:16:13] with the parents and the purchaser of the e -
[1:16:16] bike. And, you know, I don't know if we talked
[1:16:18] parallel representatives and start pushing some type of assembly build
[1:16:21] that requires the education to start from the initial purchase.
[1:16:25] Um, I've never owned a firearm, never bought one, but
[1:16:28] I don't know if there, did they require that when
[1:16:30] you buy a firearm. That you have to have education.
[1:16:34] So, you know, we, we, we look at this. And
[1:16:37] again, we understand the, the gravity of owning a firearm
[1:16:41] and the severity of the actions in the wrong hands
[1:16:44] or even in the right hands with misintended consequences, uh,
[1:16:48] have. So, you know, like I said, I would love
[1:16:51] to find somebody at the state level that we could
[1:16:54] push to get a build playoff. Because I think that's
[1:16:56] our best bet. Our best bet is education of the
[1:16:59] parents and the responsibility of holding them accountable and crafting
[1:17:03] language from a legislative point that would hold them ultimately
[1:17:07] countable because you can't just take something that's harmful. Give
[1:17:12] it to your kid and say, well, they have the
[1:17:15] mind of their own. You know, I've had enough kids
[1:17:18] to know that most teenagers don't have much of a
[1:17:20] mind of their own. They're very influence by the group
[1:17:24] of people and what they see on the internet. So
[1:17:27] I'll leave it at that. Great. Thank you for that
[1:17:31] share. And, uh, I did have a question, another question
[1:17:34] for the lieutenant. Um, you know, I think a lot
[1:17:37] of the concerns and sort of the driving energy behind
[1:17:41] the age limit has to do with, uh, with fatalities
[1:17:45] and accidents, um, can you give us any kind of
[1:17:47] maybe even just anecdotal conversation about what you've seen in
[1:17:52] the city of Imperial Beach relative to that? Have we
[1:17:54] seen fatalities? Have we seen, um, you know, especially younger
[1:18:00] kids younger than 12, um, involved in accidents that are
[1:18:03] serious that, um, that you guys come across or have
[1:18:07] to call out for, uh, emergency aid? Yeah. I can't
[1:18:11] really speak back to, you know, prior to my assignment
[1:18:14] here, uh, so we're looking at probably about 15, 16
[1:18:16] months since I've been here. I don't recall, I don't
[1:18:20] recall any specific, at least eBike fatality. Certainly we've had
[1:18:22] our share of, you know, accidents that some have been
[1:18:25] serious, some have been minor. Um, but in comparison to
[1:18:29] some of the other jurisdictions that I've heard about, I've
[1:18:31] not seen the volume in some of those jurisdictions. It's
[1:18:35] not to say it doesn't happen here, but it does.
[1:18:37] But I'd have to really dive deeper into some of
[1:18:39] the, those statistics to really get you a solid answer.
[1:18:42] Okay. I was just curious off the top. I know,
[1:18:45] uh, I've read quite a few reports on, you know,
[1:18:48] the spike and emergency room visits and the age is
[1:18:53] affected are sometimes even under 10, um, which is kind
[1:18:57] of shocking that some adult would give a 10 year
[1:19:00] old e - bike or at least allow them to
[1:19:01] use it without, without proper training. Um, I think what
[1:19:06] I'm hearing across the dias here is, um, you know,
[1:19:09] the information, um, even though we've had opportunities to read
[1:19:12] it and go through it. I think A. B. 2234,
[1:19:16] um, tried to do a good job. I don't know
[1:19:17] that it's a the best fit for our community. Um,
[1:19:21] I've heard several council members in public speakers talk about
[1:19:25] having a workshop. Um, I think that, that would probably
[1:19:28] be a good idea. Um, and to, uh, thank again,
[1:19:33] Council Member Nakawa, the safe for her survey. I think,
[1:19:37] um, it was a little lopsided from an age point
[1:19:39] of view. And it, it maybe didn't get as many
[1:19:43] users, actual users of e - bikes. And I think
[1:19:45] that's an important segment of the population that we need
[1:19:49] to, you know, pull into this conversation. Um, so I,
[1:19:53] you know, while I think the good stuff in here,
[1:19:56] certainly we need to update our, our municipal codes for,
[1:20:00] you know, reasons that, you know, things of aged out
[1:20:03] and new technologies have come in. Those things certainly need
[1:20:06] to happen. And that could start right away. But I
[1:20:09] think, um, you know, my feeling is, um, you know,
[1:20:13] we need to have more conversation to understand, um, some,
[1:20:18] some of the issues specifically education is a big issue.
[1:20:22] Um, you know, I mean, if we can engage the
[1:20:25] community and maybe even the school district somehow into providing
[1:20:29] some kind of educational element, um, to help support whatever
[1:20:35] ordinance as we do end up coming, uh, forward with,
[1:20:39] I think we've been in a much better position as
[1:20:40] opposed to kind of coming down with the big hammer
[1:20:42] and just saying you shall not, you shall not, you
[1:20:45] shall not. Because, you know, in the end, it's not
[1:20:50] the parents, the people who typically read this stuff. It's
[1:20:53] going to be the teenagers, right? Their kids, um, you
[1:20:56] know, let's, let's be real. We don't always have control
[1:20:58] of our, uh, of our youngsters or our teenagers even.
[1:21:02] And so, um, that would be kind of my direction
[1:21:05] to staff at this point. There's a ton of information,
[1:21:08] a lot of good information in here. Um, again, the
[1:21:11] survey, I think is a good start. I think it
[1:21:13] gives us a good kind of a peek into, um,
[1:21:17] the people who are sort of maybe the most motivated
[1:21:20] to provide a response. Like, you know, older people who
[1:21:23] are seeing this activity and are, you know, either upset
[1:21:27] or, or disturbed by it. And I think, um, that
[1:21:32] may have initiated a lot of those responses. But again,
[1:21:35] um, back to Council Member Nakawa, they say you had
[1:21:38] a comment. Yeah. Thank you, Mayor. Uh, one of the
[1:21:41] things I just want to note, uh, cause it's, it
[1:21:43] was brought up in, in terms of written comment, but
[1:21:46] also some of the conversations that I had with constituents.
[1:21:49] Um, and this isn't to make an excuse for us
[1:21:51] not necessarily having the data, but also explaining the concept
[1:21:54] of, uh, not reported data. And so I always like
[1:21:57] to joke that I always hear all of my constituent
[1:22:00] casework from like Facebook. It's not from my official email
[1:22:03] or anything. It's, uh, you know, Hey Modico, uh, there's
[1:22:07] a Paul hole here. Can you have someone go fix
[1:22:09] it? Yeah. Sure. Thanks for the picture. Appreciate it. There's
[1:22:12] so much data that is unreported. And so when I
[1:22:14] see the kids speeding down my, you know, my street,
[1:22:20] my first concept isn't, I'm going to report it to
[1:22:22] the non - emergency line. And so I just want
[1:22:24] us to also see that's a portion of like, I
[1:22:27] think people are asking for local data. There's plenty of
[1:22:30] stuff that is not getting reported, right? Um, also the
[1:22:33] concept of if you look at who's even just emergency
[1:22:36] room spikes, um, unfortunately, uh, when my sister - in
[1:22:40] - law got hurt here in town, they didn't send
[1:22:42] her to somewhere local. They actually took her all the
[1:22:44] way up to like Scripps. And it was so incredibly
[1:22:47] far. And I thought it was weird because there was
[1:22:49] multiple hospitals before then. But that's where she went for
[1:22:51] her emergency room. And so really just trying to also
[1:22:54] remind ourselves in the concept of unreported data and some
[1:22:57] of the stuff that we're not having. Again, I don't
[1:22:59] want to make an excuse for necessary having that. I
[1:23:01] think it's just important to discuss as someone that looks
[1:23:03] on the data. And again, when I first saw this,
[1:23:06] I was like, Oh, great. Like nobody that I was
[1:23:09] thinking that the people that I was hoping, which try
[1:23:12] and participate in this little bit more is again, with
[1:23:14] those parents, with some of their families that rides kids
[1:23:16] and everything, we see them all the time during, you
[1:23:19] know, a lot of these, not parades, but like these
[1:23:22] bike, uh, parades and everything. And so that was kind
[1:23:25] of the, the group that I was really hoping would
[1:23:27] come up front and speak to this. I'm hoping to
[1:23:30] try and get more people to participate in some way
[1:23:32] and some capacity in that. Because they have more stick
[1:23:35] in the game. They're currently with parents. They have four,
[1:23:38] maybe five, um, eBoy sits in their families, but just
[1:23:41] wanted to note kind of the unreported data, uh, I
[1:23:44] think people are interested in seeing, but it could also
[1:23:47] be in the concept just overall bad data, right? With
[1:23:50] any form of lack of reporting or just the connections
[1:23:52] of seeing where people go and potential HIPAA violations, that's
[1:23:56] just something that we might not be seeing either. Thank
[1:23:58] you. Gotcha. Great. Um, I did have one of the
[1:24:00] questions for Lieutenant Galley. Is there currently an eBay sales
[1:24:07] or a vendor here in City of Imperial Beach anymore?
[1:24:09] I know there was rad bikes or e - rad
[1:24:12] bikes. I think they're movie. Okay. Okay. I was just
[1:24:17] trying to think of maybe there was another source of
[1:24:18] data that we could mine. Um, you know, whether it
[1:24:22] be sale. I mean, obviously they can't give away personal
[1:24:24] information, but, um, another place where we can go to
[1:24:28] try to draw out that crowd that we're not seemingly.
[1:24:32] I'd be back shut down. Okay. All right. Thank you,
[1:24:36] sir. All right. I think it would be good to
[1:24:38] somehow reach out to the high school district. Sweet water
[1:24:43] and see if they would be able to help us
[1:24:44] participate. Maybe pass long surveys. Obviously, you know, they, the
[1:24:48] majority of people were talking about crafting something for probably
[1:24:52] attend their schools and to see their insight. Cause I
[1:24:55] think having the ballots of seeing what they're seeing. Um,
[1:24:58] is important. Um, and hopefully their high school brain hasn't
[1:25:03] just mushed out for them completely. If you offer free
[1:25:07] food, they will come. Free pizza. Just saying. Free pizza
[1:25:11] and monster drinks. All right. Um, I guess City Manager
[1:25:19] Tyler Foltz. Do you feel like you have enough direction
[1:25:23] or are we still looking for, um, more specificity? I
[1:25:28] think we're good. Obviously. We needed to get more input
[1:25:31] from the community. From, you mentioned the high school district.
[1:25:34] We had met with the elementary school district too. But
[1:25:36] we'll meet with them as well and consider ideas about
[1:25:39] how to get more input from the community before we
[1:25:41] come back to the council with additional recommendations. Okay. Sorry.
[1:25:46] I think just in terms of those additional recommendations, because
[1:25:48] I know people don't like nebulous, um, concepts or whatnot
[1:25:55] is just maybe setting expectations of, of the timeline for
[1:25:58] this. I think we'll also just be beneficial saying like,
[1:26:01] Hey, this is one we're going to try. I know
[1:26:03] we got to be flexible. You guys are incredibly busy.
[1:26:06] Obviously running a city. So just, but I think any
[1:26:09] terms of where we can be, um, explaining the concept
[1:26:13] of a timeline and whatnot. I think we'll also be
[1:26:15] beneficial for people. Cause then they can hopefully plan, uh,
[1:26:18] to participate hopefully in some way or attend in anything.
[1:26:21] I think we'll also be beneficial in terms of the
[1:26:23] whenever we come back to council. Yeah. And I was
[1:26:27] also going to mention, uh, when the lieutenant and I
[1:26:29] have, our quarterly meeting in the community, we could certainly
[1:26:33] bring that up as another topic. And, you know, request
[1:26:37] feedback as opposed to waiting for someone to mention it
[1:26:40] to us. Um, try to draw out some information and
[1:26:43] some, uh, some community sort of, uh, feelings. All right.
[1:26:50] All right. Anything else do we need to do on
[1:26:52] this item? No? Okay. We are going to take a
[1:26:59] 10 minute recess. We're awaiting a special guest speaker coming
[1:27:04] in from Chula Vista. So if you'll excuse this for
[1:27:06] about 10 minutes, uh, we'll reconvene and move on with
[1:27:10] our last couple of items. Thank you.
[1:38:06] I don't have to gamble back. You can just call
[1:38:08] back the. All right. We're going to come back to
[1:38:10] order right now. Please take your seats. And if we
[1:38:14] can close the back doors and we'll move on with
[1:38:17] our last two items on our agenda this evening. Item
[1:38:23] 15B, or consideration of a memorandum of understanding with the
[1:38:29] city of ChulaVista for Feathery Federal Legislative Advocacy Services related
[1:38:35] to the Tijuana River Valley cross - border pollution crisis,
[1:38:41] CAO - Cortez Martinez will present this item. Thank you.
[1:38:49] Good evening, Mayor Council, Jale Cortes Martinez. This item is
[1:38:55] an MOU with the City of Cholovista for federal legislative
[1:39:00] advocacy service related to the Tijuana River Valley Cross Border
[1:39:04] Pollution. So just a little bit of background. I know
[1:39:09] everybody knows and is aware of that. We have a
[1:39:12] sewage crisis. Imperial Beach specifically is the primary affected area
[1:39:20] with these contaminated cross - border flows reaching the two
[1:39:24] - one from the Tijuana River into our Pacific Ocean,
[1:39:26] which is also costing our beach closures for nearly more
[1:39:30] than five years. It's impacting public health, you know, obviously
[1:39:35] water quality and economic situations. Our businesses and quality of
[1:39:43] life are residents. And that visit Imperial Beach as well.
[1:39:49] We all acknowledge that these are long - term solutions
[1:39:52] that are required. Some of them have been set in
[1:39:55] place. Specifically responsibility with the federal government funding infrastructure and
[1:40:03] investments, policy and legislation. And then obviously some coronation with
[1:40:09] Mexico as well. Imperial Beach does not have a state
[1:40:15] or federal lobbyist. And so we feel that it's important
[1:40:19] for federal presence that is specifically focused on the Tijuana
[1:40:24] River crisis at the federal level. Before I get into
[1:40:29] the partnership with related to this MOU, I wanted to
[1:40:33] give you a little bit of background. It is not
[1:40:36] uncommon for the City of Cholobus and Imperial Beach to
[1:40:39] partner for many years. We've partnered on various matters, beginning
[1:40:45] with the animal control contract. They've accepted our partnership for
[1:40:50] multiple contracts on several occasions. And we thank them for
[1:40:55] that. Just a few years ago, chill of awesome Imperial
[1:41:00] Beach for staffing for their EMT, for REMTs, for their
[1:41:07] facility when they just had open their ambulance services. And
[1:41:11] now Imperial Beach is also in discussions with their staff
[1:41:17] to have mutual agreement also on staffing levels for the
[1:41:21] fire department at all levels, just given the facts that,
[1:41:26] you know, recruitments at all CityWILL levels are difficult. So
[1:41:30] I just wanted to give you a little bit of
[1:41:32] background that it's not uncommon for agencies to partner. As
[1:41:36] we have also partner in the past with Chulavista, the
[1:41:39] port, Coronado, and similar advocacy when it comes to the
[1:41:44] Tijuana River Valley many years ago. This particular item, though,
[1:41:50] it's not recent. This has been in discussion with them
[1:41:55] for the last two years or more. It began with
[1:42:00] Mammacan, who is present here tonight and former Mayor Aguirre
[1:42:07] currently supervisor, a yearA for the county. And the discussion
[1:42:11] continued, obviously, with our current mayor, Mayor McKay. There is
[1:42:17] a timeline that Chilibusa wanted to follow because they had
[1:42:25] a state legislation or lobbyist, but their timeline of their
[1:42:30] contract is about to expire Gene 30th. There were also
[1:42:34] interested in having a federal lobbyist, which they currently don't
[1:42:36] have. So the timeline had to kind of lined up.
[1:42:41] And so that is why there was a little delay,
[1:42:46] but the discussions and the partnership as far as the
[1:42:50] priorities on the RFP and the scope of work maintained
[1:42:54] within the last two years. So I do want to
[1:43:00] thank staff or Chila Vista specifically for always working with
[1:43:04] Imperial Beach and having check - in regular check -
[1:43:07] ins with staff, because, um, we wanted to keep that
[1:43:11] momentum and for them to understand that this is still
[1:43:15] a priority for Imperial Beach. And I know both mayor,
[1:43:18] me and McCann and Mayor McKay also continue that dialogue.
[1:43:22] Um, so with that said. Tchilavista did proceed to provide
[1:43:28] a comprehensive procurement for the federal lobbyist, including their state.
[1:43:34] That is not part of this equation. This is just
[1:43:36] for the federal lobbyists. They receive a total of five
[1:43:41] proposals. Uh, we, staff of Imperial Beach along with other
[1:43:46] staff from Chula Vista appointed both by both city managers.
[1:43:52] We're part of the process. They review the proposals, the
[1:43:55] review of the RFP. We sat in the evaluation and
[1:43:58] the interview process. We then, um, were appointed by them
[1:44:02] to come forward with the recommendation and both parties agreed
[1:44:06] to, uh, select thorn run partners TRP to be the
[1:44:12] federal advocacy firm for Imperial Beach and Cholevista. Again, TILA
[1:44:18] Vista's having their own comprehensive legislative platform. And as part
[1:44:25] of the RFP, they added a component related to the
[1:44:29] Tijuana River. It was a separate response separate cost. So
[1:44:33] they are going to hopefully consider their argument with TRP
[1:44:39] at a future meeting. Um, I believe this month, if
[1:44:43] I'm not mistaken, but this particular MOU is the partnership
[1:44:47] between TILA Vista and Imperial Beach to enter into that
[1:44:52] additional scope and reimbursement to the City of Cholevista for
[1:44:57] these services. So this MOU does allow for Imperial Beach
[1:45:04] to leverage this opportunity. With the agreement that they're going
[1:45:08] to host with TRP. Uh, that gives us the opportunity
[1:45:14] to provide federal priorities related to the Tijuana River Pollution
[1:45:18] crisis. And obviously Chile Vista will be the lead agency
[1:45:22] in partnership and Imperial Beach and ongoing communication and meetings
[1:45:27] and discussions. So instead of each agency having their own,
[1:45:32] um, representative DC, we felt like it would be more
[1:45:38] advantageous to have a coordinated regional voice together in DC.
[1:45:43] Since we are neighboring cities. The scope of service, I'm
[1:45:49] not going to read all of these bullets, but there's
[1:45:51] the federal advocacy services. What there are going to help
[1:45:57] both parties. And then obviously the, uh, priorities that have
[1:46:03] been indicated in the RFP. So one of the things
[1:46:07] that I don't want to highlight is that they are
[1:46:10] required to provide updates to both city councils. So Imperial
[1:46:14] Beach and also Chill of Esta as well. The cost
[1:46:18] for the first year, uh, which will begin, hopefully approximately
[1:46:22] in September, um, so we're talking about 10 months. It's
[1:46:26] a thousand dollars a month for Imperial Beach. That's approximately
[1:46:29] 10, 000 through the end of June 30th. That's for
[1:46:31] the first year. Um, this is funding that already exists
[1:46:37] through our operating budget, specifically in the city manager's budget
[1:46:41] and the contingency account. Again, those contigenic accounts are set
[1:46:45] aside for these type of emergencies or priorities. And it
[1:46:49] is at the discretion and authority under the city manager's
[1:46:53] level as well. Future extensions will require both parties to
[1:46:57] agree on them as well. Um, there is a typo
[1:47:02] on the actually staff report on year three. The agreement
[1:47:05] actually extends to 231, 2031. So I just wanted to
[1:47:09] make that correction. The dates that you see on the
[1:47:12] screen are correct. There is a minor increase year after
[1:47:17] year. So you'll see that it goes up from 100
[1:47:20] to 1050. Stays 1050, then 1125. And then, um, 1200.
[1:47:28] So, um, with that said, there's a contract that is
[1:47:32] being proposed for five years. Um, again, overall the entire
[1:47:37] agreement. It's on or about approximately 65, 000 dollars Now,
[1:47:42] this does not include tribal expenses, but you know, we're
[1:47:46] in modern years. Everything can be done electronically. So, uh,
[1:47:50] I think mainly it would be our cost traveling to
[1:47:54] DC with them coordinating all the meetings and representing. I
[1:48:00] view that as us traveling more over there than them
[1:48:04] over here. But again, they are open for that as
[1:48:06] well. Now the termination, like 30 days, 60 day, 90
[1:48:13] day. What happens as I explained earlier. TRP in chillavistar
[1:48:18] entering to an agreement for such service as part of
[1:48:21] the component, that MOU, it's agreed that TRP will provide
[1:48:26] the service to imperial beach through chillovista. So at any
[1:48:31] point, if there wanted to be a termination of service
[1:48:35] that is an arrangement that Chula Vista will have with
[1:48:38] TRP and obviously will require an amendment of the MOU.
[1:48:43] But it's allowable. There's just like no specific timeline. So
[1:48:50] tonight City staff is recommending adopting resolution 2026, 83, which
[1:48:57] approves memorandum of understanding what Chelo Vista and Imperial Beach
[1:49:03] establishing partnership for federal legislative advocacy related to the Tuhana
[1:49:08] River pollution. And I just wanted to say that obviously
[1:49:12] Mayor McConnell is here. And then, uh, members of his
[1:49:15] staff as well in the event that there's any questions.
[1:49:18] With that, it includes my presentation and available for questions.
[1:49:21] Great. Thank you, CAO Martinez, Gortez Martinez. I appreciate the
[1:49:27] detail that you provided there. I did want to announce
[1:49:29] that we did receive, uh, correspondence written correspondence from Sandy
[1:49:34] Bilhart on this item. And that was made available to
[1:49:37] the Council members and the public in the back should
[1:49:40] you wish to read it. Um, I do have two
[1:49:44] public speaker cards. If I can give some professional courtesy,
[1:49:49] I would like to, uh, ask Mr. Mayor John McCann
[1:49:53] if he would be willing to speak first. And, uh,
[1:49:56] we'll give you your three minutes and maybe some extra.
[1:50:00] So welcome. We thank you for coming out this evening,
[1:50:03] Mayor McCann. Thank you very much. I'm a mayor John
[1:50:07] McCann from the City of Chula Vista. I very much
[1:50:10] appreciate the opportunity to be here. And we have a
[1:50:14] tradition of working together as a region. Uh, as the
[1:50:21] administrator told, talked about, um, we actually went back to
[1:50:25] Washington, DC on the TWNA sewer issue, uh, back then
[1:50:29] when, uh, was, uh, Mayor McGurry. And I remember the
[1:50:34] city manager was there. And I thought we were very
[1:50:36] effective working together. Um, and I want to thank you
[1:50:39] for your consideration on this memorandum understanding, um, to partner
[1:50:45] on federal legislative C, uh, services that it relates to
[1:50:53] the ongoing sewer crisis, uh, for decades. The residents of
[1:50:57] South County, especially the residents of Imperial Beach have had
[1:51:01] to live with beach closers, environmental damage and public health
[1:51:05] impacts related to TIWN Assor crisis. Um, I'm going to
[1:51:09] tell you that I grew up in Chilevista lifelong residence.
[1:51:14] And I go back so long ago, uh, that my
[1:51:18] best friend's father was actually an imperial beach police officer,
[1:51:23] uh, before you guys went to the county. And every
[1:51:27] once in a while we try to code to Imperial
[1:51:28] Beach and even back then sometimes the beach would be
[1:51:31] closed because of the sewer issues. Chula Vista recognizes that
[1:51:36] this is a regional problem and demands a regional voice.
[1:51:41] And that's where we can work together and make sure
[1:51:43] that we're fighting together because we all care about what
[1:51:48] is going on. The sewage crisis does not stop at
[1:51:52] the City boundaries. This agreement builds a successful collaboration between
[1:51:58] the cities. In 2018, Chula Vista joined Imperial Beach and
[1:52:03] the port of San Diego in a federal lawsuit against
[1:52:06] the International Boundary and Water Commission that resulted in a
[1:52:11] comprehensive settlement. So we have been a good partner. Additionally,
[1:52:15] the City of Chulavista has long tradition of leadership and
[1:52:18] sustainability, environmental action. So this partnership before us by sharing
[1:52:25] federal legislative agacy services are leveraging resources. And we can
[1:52:33] better coordinate priorities engage federal decision makers and the pursuit.
[1:52:38] The resources needed to accelerate the long - term solutions.
[1:52:43] We're advocating for accountability and urgency our residents deserve clean
[1:52:47] air, clean water, and safe beaches. Um, so I'm really
[1:52:52] appreciate everybody's consideration on this, um, together we're stronger. And
[1:52:58] we all agree that we all want safe water, safe
[1:53:01] air. And I'm also available for any questions, um, as
[1:53:05] well as I have staff here to answer any questions
[1:53:07] if you do. Great. Thank you, Mayor McCann. We do
[1:53:10] have one other speaker. And so, um, if we, if
[1:53:12] we do have some questions during, uh, the council, uh,
[1:53:16] consultation will certainly, uh, make you available to us. Um,
[1:53:21] next speaker I have is, uh, uh, Lynn Fisher. So
[1:53:25] Lynn, if you can come forward. Welcome. Thank you, Mayor.
[1:53:32] Um, as I said earlier, I am a retired government
[1:53:35] analyst. So I can tell you from experience item 15A
[1:53:39] is bad for IB. It's a duplication of effort and
[1:53:44] thus wasteful. These are things I'm trained to notice. First,
[1:53:50] the Citizens by B hired you our own counsel to
[1:53:52] provide advocate services. Just like other councils before, we send
[1:53:57] you our counsel to Sacramento or DC when needed. The
[1:54:03] citizens of IB do not need to help pay the
[1:54:06] salary of someone already hired by Julevista that is doing
[1:54:10] legislative work from TULIVISTA. This is a very poor use
[1:54:14] of IB's financial resources. When we have other critical budget
[1:54:20] issues facing our residents. I don't care where you say
[1:54:23] the funds currently sit. If you say the room in
[1:54:26] the City manager's budget, these funds belong in I. B.
[1:54:30] not paying a two ofistic contract salary. Not to mention
[1:54:34] IBNTivista are not the only affected cities in the South
[1:54:38] Bay. In addition and very importantly, the county already pays
[1:54:44] a very well - known legislative firm that is currently
[1:54:48] working these sewage issue in Washington on behalf of the
[1:54:52] entire Southpay. So why would we do this. And San
[1:54:57] Diego. So this proposed expense is a duplicative and wasteful
[1:55:03] MOU. Please do not vote this in. It is not
[1:55:07] in the best interest of I. residence. Thank you. Thank
[1:55:12] you for your comments. All right. Let's move on to
[1:55:17] staff discussion. I'll first wrecking. We have a. Oh, I'm
[1:55:22] sorry. We have an online speaker. I'm sorry. Please, please
[1:55:25] proceed. Um, we do have truth available to speak. Um,
[1:55:29] please begin. You have three minutes truth. Well, thank you
[1:55:34] so much for that. Um, for the record, I timed
[1:55:38] it and John spokes for less than three minutes. I
[1:55:41] was not trained to notice that. I'm just experienced on
[1:55:44] these things. I find this an interesting proposition on advocacy,
[1:55:49] which is indeed a difficult word. Thorn run is definitely
[1:55:52] a giant lobbying firm with over 200 clients. So, and
[1:55:56] it also looks like they have federal connections, which is
[1:55:58] really, really important. Uh, I'm actually really happy to see
[1:56:01] this MOU because it's been bothered me for a very
[1:56:04] long time that I. B. doesn't have a law being
[1:56:06] firm like Cornado does. Uh, if you were going to
[1:56:09] talk about duplication, well then you could have made the
[1:56:11] coronado argument. That would have made a lot more sense.
[1:56:14] I have shared my thought on this lassi duplication necessary
[1:56:19] duplication, uh, with so many people, even recently telling someone
[1:56:23] that if it wasn't for coronado making their legal investment,
[1:56:26] there's so much that wouldness happen for I. B. regarding
[1:56:29] sewage solutions. POM 100 percent of this opportunity that the
[1:56:34] city of CLISTA is very graciously offering. It is a
[1:56:38] wonderful contribution from Chula Vista to helping to finally stop
[1:56:42] the sewage coming 100 percent for Mexico as Mr. Joan
[1:56:47] Duncan has said that has been negatively impacting the entire
[1:56:51] South Day, especially at this time when SanDeg is planning
[1:56:55] another border crossing that will increase development thereby increasing the
[1:56:59] traffic in sewage pollution coming from the main bid and
[1:57:03] fitter Mexico, which is also the main offender. This is
[1:57:08] a critical time. There is no more time where unity
[1:57:12] is needed than right now. So I am grateful to
[1:57:15] those that made this opportunity happen for the benefit of
[1:57:18] the entire South Bay, not making this investment outside of
[1:57:21] IB. I mean, there may not be an IV in
[1:57:24] the future. And that is not anything to risk. This
[1:57:28] is a time you need to take advantage of this
[1:57:31] type of opportunity and other types of opportunities that come
[1:57:33] up. Because a thousand bucks, that is nothing out of
[1:57:36] the budget. Let's be real. That is a wise investment
[1:57:39] for future. Thank you. And thank you for your comments.
[1:57:44] We're going to move on to City Council discussion and
[1:57:47] I'll recognize Councilmember NakaUada State first. Thank you, Mayor. I
[1:57:52] just wanted to highlight some, uh, just my personal experience
[1:57:54] in terms of lobbying for the city earlier this year
[1:57:56] in Washington, D. C. and just really think, um, if
[1:58:00] we didn't have the relationships that we had with the
[1:58:02] port, uh, any of those meetings, all that great data,
[1:58:05] those relationships we started building out, the report out that
[1:58:07] you guys all heard were not going to happen because
[1:58:10] we didn't have those lobbying relationships. And so for me,
[1:58:13] when I, when I first heard this, I was like,
[1:58:15] Oh no, like another lobbyist, another person outside of the
[1:58:18] city. And I started advocating for it. Um, I was
[1:58:21] really a fortunate to hear that part of the scope
[1:58:23] of work again is that report out to the city
[1:58:24] to see if it's actually really beneficial for us. And
[1:58:27] my favorite saying of trust, but verify, I think is
[1:58:30] really important. I would really hope that the port, um,
[1:58:34] in regards to this also helps us in stepping up
[1:58:37] and building up our lobbying activities. I think it's really
[1:58:39] fruitful. Um, again, every time a meeting got canceled, like
[1:58:43] there was a meeting at the concept that was established.
[1:58:45] And they're like, Hey, that's not happening. I remember looking
[1:58:48] with director helmer and I'm saying, okay, so who can
[1:58:50] we meet with next? Because we didn't fly all the
[1:58:52] way out to DC to not have meetings and not
[1:58:54] have conversations. And those established relationships are really good. And
[1:58:58] obviously for full in regards to getting us, I know
[1:59:00] that we all hear on this DIS have, um, have
[1:59:04] other jobs, other stuff we're got. We have going on.
[1:59:06] It's hard to consistently advocate and being that squeakywhel. And
[1:59:10] it would be beneficial in any capacity for us to
[1:59:13] keep having the continuation of these conversations. If we're constantly
[1:59:17] in front of them, if we're advocating for them, again,
[1:59:20] a lot of my conversations, I think in DC, uh,
[1:59:24] you know, everyone kind of gets lost in the numbers,
[1:59:26] but was again, what was really important was like the
[1:59:28] emotional stories, right? The stories about, um, our military, our
[1:59:31] families, um, you know, military personnel not being able to
[1:59:35] train here anymore, border patrol boots melting children who live
[1:59:39] here, who have never gotten to experience this beach at
[1:59:41] all. Those were the stories, in my opinion, that moved
[1:59:43] people in those rooms. That was really my personal experience
[1:59:46] in terms of lobbying in DC. And so I'm, I'm
[1:59:48] really, you know, for this kind of concept. I know
[1:59:53] in regards to the county federal lobbyist, I would love
[1:59:57] to be invited to any county discussions, press releases or
[2:00:01] anything. As I've asked, like, Hey, I would love to
[2:00:03] be in support of this or whenever we have any
[2:00:05] press conferences or anything. Would love to be invited as
[2:00:08] well and be part of that conversation. Um, since appointment,
[2:00:11] I haven't. So that would be something I would be
[2:00:13] interested in as well. Thank you, Mayor. Great. Thank you
[2:00:16] for those comments and observations. Mayor ProTEM. Thanks, Mayor. No,
[2:00:23] I think this really is a good thing for us.
[2:00:26] You know, I've been to DC and it really is
[2:00:28] all about the relationships that are had. It has nothing.
[2:00:32] If everything in Washington was only based on need, this
[2:00:35] problem would have fixed decades ago. Absolutely without a shout
[2:00:39] out. There's no other thing in this country. This is
[2:00:42] devastating as this. You know, I understand that we see
[2:00:46] the travesties that happen when we have natural disasters. You
[2:00:51] know, I saw some video from Hawaii and it's unbelievable
[2:00:54] what has happened to that state. Um, and they throw
[2:00:56] every resource they possibly can so that people can sustain
[2:00:59] their lives and rebuild. You know, we've been fortunate they
[2:01:03] just eroded away our quality of life over the last
[2:01:06] three decades or and more. You know, it was slowly
[2:01:10] killing us. You know, and people don't realize that. So
[2:01:13] I think that having somebody who's there full - time
[2:01:15] really does make a difference. I know that, um, Sandag
[2:01:19] uses somebody in DC who's very good at what he
[2:01:23] does. And it helps a lot to get grand funding
[2:01:25] and stay relevant. So I appreciate the partnership with the
[2:01:28] City Chulatis and for Mayor McCann taking the time to
[2:01:31] come out this evening. Um, you know, again, this is
[2:01:34] a conversation that started years ago. Uh, the next item,
[2:01:39] even farther past that. And so, you know, we do
[2:01:42] rely on things. I wish we had our own money.
[2:01:45] But again, the voices that we joined up with are
[2:01:48] just as big in our favor. Uh, cause it's a
[2:01:50] genuine partnership and the care and concern is there. If
[2:01:54] the chill of us are trying to fleece the city
[2:01:56] of being prayer reach for a thousand dollars a month
[2:01:59] just for their fund money, I would beg to differ
[2:02:02] that's definitely not the case. This is something that's a
[2:02:05] genuine partnership. And I'll be supporting this item. Great. Thank
[2:02:10] you. Um, I just wanted to comment that, that I
[2:02:13] think, uh, duplicity is one thing, but when you're leveraging
[2:02:18] from, from multiple angles, you got multiple prong approach, um,
[2:02:22] it's great that the county's doing something. We also work
[2:02:25] with, we've worked with the port. We work with Coronado.
[2:02:28] We've worked with Jule Vista before. So I don't think
[2:02:30] this is an unusual request or arrangement. I think in
[2:02:34] fact, it's probably the smartest arrangement because now we've got,
[2:02:38] uh, folks coming at multiple angles, um, their hearing stories
[2:02:42] from, uh, from partnerships, uh, of, of cities that maybe
[2:02:47] aren't as, uh, as impacted as others. Um, but I
[2:02:51] think it just shows that there's a, an aggregate, you
[2:02:55] know, dissatisfaction and need for, for resolution of the problem.
[2:03:00] Um, and I welcome the partnership with, uh, Chulavista again.
[2:03:04] It's, it's historical. I mean, you can go back to
[2:03:07] Mary Salas. And I mean, we're talking generations, um, with
[2:03:11] the City of Imperial Beach. So this isn't something Mayor
[2:03:14] McKay dreamed up in, you know, over the weekend. So,
[2:03:17] um, I really think we're, we're moving in the right
[2:03:20] direction. Uh, we need to continue to pursue, um, you
[2:03:25] know, having a voice in Washington, D. C. It's great
[2:03:28] that it's coming from multiple directions at the county at
[2:03:32] City of Coronado, uh, and now, uh, with us in
[2:03:36] this arrangement, the City of Imperial Beach will be back,
[2:03:39] um, with, with a voice. So, uh, I, I very
[2:03:42] much, uh, support this. Again, I appreciate Mayor McCann coming
[2:03:46] out and, uh, spending time with this evening. Um, I
[2:03:49] don't think there's any other questions of my council. And
[2:03:53] so I'm going to look, uh, for a motion and
[2:03:56] a second. I'll make a motion mayor. Fish for a
[2:04:00] second. All right. Let's please vote.
[2:04:15] Motion cared unanimously by those present CB Epson. Thank you
[2:04:20] for that review. All right. We're going to move on
[2:04:23] to our next and last item under reports. Oh, excuse
[2:04:31] me. Presentations. And that's, uh, item 15B resolution 2026 081
[2:04:36] approval of an agreement between the city of Chula Vista
[2:04:39] and the City of Imperial Beach for the provision of
[2:04:42] Bridge Shelter and Associated Services for the Homeless. Housing and
[2:04:48] neighborhood services manager, uh, Mr. Rolf will make the presentation.
[2:04:53] Evening, Mr. Mayor and Council Members. Um, yeah, I'm here
[2:04:58] tonight to, oh, my presentation disappeared. It's back. Um, uh,
[2:05:05] to make a presentation tonight at item 15b, as was
[2:05:08] mentioned, Resolution 2026 081. And this is about an agreement
[2:05:12] between the City of Chulavista and Imperial Beach that will
[2:05:16] allow us to take unsheltered members of the public here
[2:05:19] in Imperial Beach and place them into the shelter that's
[2:05:22] run over in ChulaVista off Main Street. Um, to begin
[2:05:26] with, let's go back a little bit and look at
[2:05:29] some of the, um, the things that have happened up
[2:05:32] to date. In May of 2023, I think actually most
[2:05:36] of us in the room were at the opening of
[2:05:39] this shelter when they did their ribbing cutting. The village
[2:05:42] at Otay is 62 individual pallet shelter, like kind of
[2:05:47] bungalow, small units. They have a separate cafeteria bathroom shower
[2:05:51] and laundry facility. Each unit has its own separate heating
[2:05:56] and air conditioning. They're lockable units. Uh, they provide on
[2:06:00] site wraparound services that consist of things like health care,
[2:06:04] mental health, counseling, drug and alcohol treatment programs. And the
[2:06:08] big thing is assistance with the moving forward in their
[2:06:11] life, securing employment and finding a permanent housing solution. The
[2:06:15] program is designed for 18 years individuals of 18 years
[2:06:20] of age and older. And currently over the last couple
[2:06:23] of years, they've been averaging about 80 percent occupancy in
[2:06:26] there. So there is a little bit of room for
[2:06:28] some of our people to participate in this program. Recently
[2:06:32] in the recent past, they've done some ADA improvements also
[2:06:35] to the facility since I've last been there. Um, in
[2:06:39] the city of Imperial Beach, uh, we've had a lot
[2:06:43] of success. And I owe a ton of, uh, gratitude
[2:06:46] for our successes to my outreach, uh, my outreach, uh,
[2:06:51] worker, um, V .. Ramirez. And there she is with
[2:06:55] her van. Um, just in the last couple of months
[2:06:58] here, this is since the beginning of 2026, we've moved
[2:07:02] three adults into permanent housing. Two of those are into
[2:07:04] supportive housing, which is sometimes tricky to arrange. Two adults
[2:07:09] have been reunited with family. One adult with two minor
[2:07:12] children have recently gone into, uh, permanent shelter and they're
[2:07:16] pending permanent housing, but we're working through that. One adult
[2:07:20] was placed in BVSD, veterans village, San Diego. And we
[2:07:25] have one that's in Safe parking now and also working
[2:07:27] towards a permanent housing solution. So she's been fantastic. But
[2:07:32] as you can see all the different avenues, we have
[2:07:35] to pursue to get people housed. We have to go
[2:07:38] into different places. It's not a one size fits all
[2:07:40] for anybody. And that's where the pallet shelter opens up
[2:07:43] to us additional opportunities to help us and get people
[2:07:47] housed. Um, the bridge shelter itself has been quite successful.
[2:07:52] Uh, since they've opened 210 individuals have gone through the
[2:07:54] program in fiscal year of 25, 26, they saw 124
[2:07:59] participants. And they've had basically a one third success rate
[2:08:04] with getting those people moved into permanent housing, which is
[2:08:06] fantastic. Um, permanent housing is, is the ultimate goal. And
[2:08:11] it's a difficult goal. So the scope of participation between
[2:08:16] our cities would be as follows. The term of this
[2:08:18] agreement is for a period of two years. And the
[2:08:21] numbers of people that we would be able to send
[2:08:23] is going to be based on capacity. We're going to
[2:08:26] only send the people we think that would be very
[2:08:28] successful in their program that are a good fit because
[2:08:31] we want to add to that success. We don't want
[2:08:33] to see that third drop. We want to help them
[2:08:34] up to the next level. Um, so that's going to
[2:08:37] vary. It'll also vary on, uh, some. Financing. We'll have
[2:08:44] to look at what it's going to cost. And we'll
[2:08:46] get into numbers on the next slide. But that's also
[2:08:49] going to be a limiting factor for us. We have
[2:08:50] to make sure that this is something that we're not
[2:08:53] entering into lightly. We're taking it, uh, with a lot
[2:08:56] of consideration as far as what it will, how it
[2:08:59] will affect our community. The process is really pretty simple.
[2:09:02] Imperial Beach will put together a written request and send
[2:09:05] it to their hot team. They're homeless outreach team. They
[2:09:08] have three days in which to review our requests, they
[2:09:12] can come back with an approval, a denial, or a
[2:09:14] request for more information. They may also request that the
[2:09:17] individual sit down with their hot team and do a
[2:09:20] face - to - face. Um, transportation to and from
[2:09:23] there would be provided by our city. We'll take people
[2:09:25] over and take people back. Um, as was mentioned, I
[2:09:29] believe by, uh, one of the council members just in
[2:09:32] the prior item. This is not something that has just
[2:09:34] come to light overnight. Uh, when the shelter opened three
[2:09:37] years ago, we said, well, when can we start getting
[2:09:39] people over here? And about a year after that, the
[2:09:42] serious discussions have happened. So this has been a process
[2:09:44] of a couple of years to get to where we
[2:09:45] are today. Expenses. The cost for the shelter stay while
[2:09:51] they're actively in the shelter participating in the wraparound services.
[2:10:00] Then if they go from that position into one where
[2:10:04] they're looking at permanent housing, we look at assistance for
[2:10:08] those individuals in their housing goals. And that is all
[2:10:12] done through a program called TBRA, which is tenant -
[2:10:16] based rental assistance. They, tool of vista has staff who
[2:10:20] are very well versed in it. They deal with it
[2:10:23] all the time with their staff currently. So they would
[2:10:26] go ahead and do that administrative portion for us. And
[2:10:30] we would pay their hourly rates, uh, for that assistance.
[2:10:33] And then the other portion that comes along with TBR
[2:10:36] is the rental assistance on the back end. And it
[2:10:40] can be for a period of up to 24 months.
[2:10:43] And there's no average. It's really difficult to pin down
[2:10:46] an average because it depends on where they get housed.
[2:10:50] Some parts of the county are less expensive than others.
[2:10:53] Um, and what you're looking at is a difference in
[2:10:55] between. It kind of works a lot like a housing
[2:10:57] choice voucher. The old section 8 program. Where they pay
[2:11:00] a percentage, 30 percent roughly of their income that comes
[2:11:04] in. And then the rest is handled by a TBR.
[2:11:10] Um. That's really it for my presentation. The staff's recommending
[2:11:15] tonight that you authorize the city manager to go ahead
[2:11:18] and enter into the agreement with the City of Tulevista
[2:11:21] so that they can provide to us, uh, these pallet
[2:11:25] shelter and the associated services that come along with it.
[2:11:29] Uh, I am here and available for questions as well.
[2:11:33] I have the director of, um, homeless services, Stacey Kurtz
[2:11:37] from the City of Troll Vista. And she can answer
[2:11:39] questions as well. Great. Thank you very much for that,
[2:11:42] um, presentation. We do, I do have to announce that
[2:11:45] we did receive written conversation, or excuse me, correspondence from
[2:11:50] Sandra Brilhart on this matter. Uh, and again, it was
[2:11:53] made available to the council and available in the back
[2:11:55] of the room for those wishing to read it. Um,
[2:11:59] I do have one public speaker. And strangely enough, it's
[2:12:03] Mayor John McCann. So John, if you want to come
[2:12:07] forward and address us, we appreciate your time. And again,
[2:12:09] this evening. Thank you very much. Um, again, I appreciate,
[2:12:14] uh, Imperial Beach's collaboration. And I remember when, uh, when
[2:12:20] McKay was there when we opened up the Bridge Shelter.
[2:12:24] And it really homelessness is a regional issue. And we've
[2:12:28] seen many times when we went ahead and created a
[2:12:33] homeless encampment ban and suddenly everybody went up to different
[2:12:37] cities. And we've seen it when San Diego City of
[2:12:41] San Diego cracks down on homeless and people come down
[2:12:45] to the South County. But we ultimately want to make
[2:12:48] sure that we can get home us off the streets
[2:12:52] and get them into a situation where they can get
[2:12:55] back into society. Um, last night the city of Chula
[2:13:00] Vista approved the agreement, um, you do agree with this
[2:13:07] for uncheltered housing services. The action will strengthen relational collaboration
[2:13:15] between the Stu Cities and help address the needs of
[2:13:18] individuals experiencing homelessness. Through this agreement, the city of Chulavista
[2:13:24] will work with Imperial Beach to support the delivery of
[2:13:27] housing related services connected to individuals with available resources and
[2:13:33] help create pathways towards stable and permanent housing. Our palate
[2:13:38] shelter, we have a nonprofit that does a great job.
[2:13:42] They provide rapound services. Um, it's not the traditional, uh,
[2:13:47] tent where people go in. They sleep there. And then
[2:13:50] they go out. We actually have them pretty much stay
[2:13:54] in the shelter. If they want to go find a
[2:13:57] job or work, uh, we have our workers be able
[2:14:02] to help with them there. But this isn't a drop
[2:14:05] in, dropout, um, place. And that's why I think we've
[2:14:09] had such a high rate of ability to get over
[2:14:14] 30 percent of the people in permanent housing. The partnership
[2:14:19] recognizes that homelessness, again, is original problem. And that requires
[2:14:24] coordination and shared solution among neighboring communities. Uh, we look
[2:14:29] forward to our collaboration and efforts with Imperial Beach. I
[2:14:34] also want to just again, uh, thank Stacey Kurtz, our
[2:14:40] director of housing and homeless services. She has done a
[2:14:43] tremendous job. And I just really believe that, uh, with
[2:14:48] her leadership, uh, we've been so successful. I also want
[2:14:52] to thank Mayor McKay. Tony Rolf and Tyler Volts for
[2:14:58] coming to the meeting last night to show our collaboration.
[2:15:03] And again, we want to continue to have a great
[2:15:05] relationship with Imperial Beach. Thank you. Thank you very much,
[2:15:09] Mayor McCann. We appreciate, uh, the kind words and also
[2:15:12] the willingness to continue, uh, this collaboration, uh, across multiple
[2:15:17] different disciplines. And I think it is, uh, like you
[2:15:20] mentioned very much a regional issue. Um, and it was
[2:15:24] even discussed at your council meeting about movement subpopulations between
[2:15:29] jurisdictions and, um, you know, it's, you can't just say,
[2:15:33] well, the line's here and the line's there. Um, you
[2:15:36] know, we, we need to look at this more holistically
[2:15:39] and more as a region. And I think this is
[2:15:41] part of that solution is, is working together collaboratively. And
[2:15:45] sharing some of these resources, um, obviously we're, uh, we're,
[2:15:50] we're not asking for, for free. We're more than willing
[2:15:52] to cover the costs for those individuals that we vet,
[2:15:56] that we think, as Mr. Rolf mentioned, are going to
[2:15:59] be success stories. Cause, you know, we want to contribute
[2:16:02] to that, um, that success of Chula Vista's Bridge Shelter
[2:16:08] City. Um, so, um, again, thank you very much for
[2:16:12] your comments this evening. I'm going to now, uh, go
[2:16:15] to my own council. Oh, we do have a speaker.
[2:16:17] I'm sorry. I keep forgetting this new SB707. It's just
[2:16:22] not in there yet. Anyways, please initiate the online speaker.
[2:16:27] Sure. Uh, Mr. Mayor, we have one, um, speaker and
[2:16:30] it's truth. Truth, please begin. You have three minutes. Hi,
[2:16:37] truth. Um, I want to throw a theory out there
[2:16:38] because that's always the best part of, uh, any political
[2:16:41] meeting. Was the MOU offer and the cabins offer a
[2:16:46] bundled deal. As in you only can only choose both.
[2:16:49] Like you can't choose one. Not that either bad for
[2:16:53] IBI. I don't think so. But somebody's been through the
[2:16:55] question out there. Can't let you get away with that.
[2:16:57] Um, I want to know what is the current vacancy
[2:16:59] rate of the cabin. Do you need more residents to
[2:17:04] justify being open. There's another theory. I've been also legitimate
[2:17:07] questions. Um, I, I, I have seen this a little
[2:17:12] bit online of TILA VISTA resident seeming to be mixed
[2:17:15] about this topic. Of IV getting in the mix. So
[2:17:19] however, I didn't watch the meeting yesterday. Sorry. So I'm
[2:17:22] sure there's opinions I'm unaware of. Uh, the hourly rate
[2:17:26] of 133 dollars for a management analyst two and the
[2:17:30] senior fiscal office is just crazy. I'd like to know
[2:17:34] what's the average timeframe that they work. You just hire
[2:17:37] them for one hour on average or is it 10
[2:17:40] hours. Or does it depend on the case? And do
[2:17:42] you have an average range. Um, I like to know
[2:17:45] what is the more affordable areas that people can pick
[2:17:49] that they're just going to move to. Cause I've heard
[2:17:50] something to that effect. Like why, why don't they get
[2:17:53] a pitch? Is this the goal housing. You're just trying
[2:17:55] to get housed, but you're giving them a pick. I
[2:17:58] said doesn't tell you that we have a good in
[2:18:00] America. I don't know what does. And here's another question.
[2:18:03] Can they take and Hero Beach. There's an option. Cause
[2:18:07] sounds like being homeless would be okay to be. Like
[2:18:09] you just kick wherever you want to go. And then
[2:18:11] you say, Oh, 30 percent get rehoused. Okay. That technically
[2:18:17] true. But that say that people can be on taxpayer
[2:18:21] funded rental assistance for two years. Two years. I mean,
[2:18:28] I'm sure some people got some tough cases, but that
[2:18:31] is a long time. I don't know. That's, that's very
[2:18:34] questionable in itself. But here's another important question. Is this
[2:18:38] a low barrier facility. I legitimately do not know the
[2:18:41] answer to that. And low barrier, we know means I
[2:18:45] drug you. No barrier, right? No barrier to enter. You
[2:18:48] could just come as you are and do whatever you
[2:18:50] want, no regulations. At least sometimes they do put regulations
[2:18:53] on right, but it actually follows because it enforced. That
[2:18:57] matters for the people, not for imperial speech when you
[2:18:59] drop your people off, which is by whoever, that's fine.
[2:19:02] But I want a real solution. I don't want people
[2:19:05] to just get rehoused. I want their lives to be
[2:19:07] changed. I want job training. I want life changes. I
[2:19:11] do like regional strategies. Absolutely. That's just no brainer. It
[2:19:15] makes sense as long as it's not low barrier. And
[2:19:18] also make sure you've never ever ever ever work with
[2:19:22] accounting on homelessness strategy. Because you will find yourself in
[2:19:26] a bad situation like the City of Lehmingrove and Saturn
[2:19:30] itself. Other than that, and I seem like I'm in
[2:19:33] support, I suppose. Thank you. Great. Thank you for those
[2:19:37] comments. Well, now I'll move on to Council comments and
[2:19:42] we'll move to my far left to Council Member Nakawa.
[2:19:46] Thank you, Mayor. Um, I have had the great pleasure
[2:19:48] of doing lots of great community outreach with, um, homelessness
[2:19:53] in regards to in my day job with the county.
[2:19:55] One of the things that I found really interesting about
[2:19:56] this property, and I haven't had the great pleasure of
[2:19:58] being there or was, wasn't the opening, being animal friendly.
[2:20:03] I'm a dog owner. I couldn't imagine partying with my
[2:20:07] pet. So I thought that was really cool. And just
[2:20:09] the, the communal spaces regards to on that property. For
[2:20:12] me, I, I think we, we had a scenario happen,
[2:20:15] you know, unfortunately last year where the person that needed
[2:20:19] resources didn't have the resources, um, available to them and
[2:20:22] didn't get the help in the end. I think this
[2:20:25] being another tool in the toolkit is a great idea.
[2:20:28] We don't have to send anyone. And if we don't
[2:20:31] send anyone, it's not necessarily costing the city anything, but
[2:20:34] again, having that extra tool of like, do you want
[2:20:37] those support services and whatnot? I think something that really
[2:20:40] opened my eyes is participating in the point in time
[2:20:42] count in some more rural areas across the county, um,
[2:20:45] also in just denser areas like alcohone, not everyone wants
[2:20:49] these services. There are barriers to a lot of the
[2:20:52] services that are out there in regards to maybe some
[2:20:54] kind of religious component or anything like that. And so
[2:20:56] the ability to have again, just this tool is of
[2:21:00] interest to me. I was also skeptical in terms of
[2:21:02] data. I'm always a skeptic and a lot of things
[2:21:05] I just usually try to say with a smile. Um,
[2:21:07] for me, I am interested to see more of the
[2:21:10] data in regards to the housing and just what it
[2:21:13] might look like in terms of timeline, uh, for people.
[2:21:17] But I thought this was a really interesting proposal. Just
[2:21:19] again, this is something that we can now offer. Like
[2:21:21] if you do need this, this, um, this leg up
[2:21:27] or anything in regards to that I was, I was
[2:21:28] appreciative that we could provide this, um, to our constituents.
[2:21:31] I just saw another lovely Facebook post today that people
[2:21:35] felt that there's more homelessness and an imperial beach. And
[2:21:38] then there was a bunch of comments about homeless getting
[2:21:40] dropped off here. But ignoring on that side, um, it's
[2:21:43] just one of those more things like, yeah, if we
[2:21:46] are seeming to experience seeing more is the situation tool
[2:21:49] we could provide to them to help them out. So
[2:21:51] I'm in support of this item. Thank you. Great. Thank
[2:21:54] you for your comments. Councilmember Labor Gonzalez. Thank you, Mayor.
[2:21:57] Um, Tony, I have a question. So, um, prior to,
[2:22:04] um, so yourself and your staff, you guys will be
[2:22:09] involved with interviewing the perspective, um, unsheltered prior to deciding
[2:22:18] if they're a good candidate for this location as opposed
[2:22:23] to, say other locations that are available. Sure. Um, the
[2:22:31] way our outreach is structured currently, we typically don't start
[2:22:36] to recommend pathways until we've met with an individual probably
[2:22:41] in a less than three times. The main reason is
[2:22:44] there's a transient population. If we dive in and spend
[2:22:47] an intensive 24 hours on somebody only to find out
[2:22:50] they walked away, that was 24 hours wasted on somebody
[2:22:52] that we could have spent somewhere else. So after we
[2:22:55] engage with them several times when we start to see
[2:22:57] what they're in need of some people aren't ready for
[2:23:00] this. This is a program that's trying to get you
[2:23:03] almost back mainstream. It's for people who are ready to
[2:23:06] start working, ready to be on a schedule ready to
[2:23:08] find housing. Um, we have individuals in town who their
[2:23:12] first need is rehab. Um, we have good connections with
[2:23:16] rehab facilities. So we would rather see them go to
[2:23:18] a rehab, go through a rehab. And then when they
[2:23:22] come out on the back end, if they haven't gone
[2:23:24] to a sober living house and down housing, that path,
[2:23:27] that would be an opportunity, something like that. So our
[2:23:30] goal is always to try and fit the client to
[2:23:33] the right path for them based on their circumstances. And
[2:23:37] obviously they have input to that. We aren't forcing anybody
[2:23:41] to do anything against their will. We're presenting opportunities and
[2:23:45] hoping that they'll trust us in our judgments of the
[2:23:48] programs we work with in what we recommend to them.
[2:23:52] And, um, I remember when you first started and I
[2:23:57] had more time and I would go with you on
[2:23:59] Thursdays to do the outreach. You and your team do
[2:24:03] a phenomenal job because you guys know all the unsheltered
[2:24:08] all nine unsheltered and imperiled beach. Don't tell the mayor
[2:24:11] from Chula Vista, but they don't want to go to
[2:24:13] Chula Vista. They want to stay here and coastal utopia
[2:24:16] because of the weather, the beach, you name it. But
[2:24:19] I appreciate the great job you and your entire staff.
[2:24:24] You guys perform like, like I had mentioned about this
[2:24:28] Saturday being the horseshoes and you're, you already gave me
[2:24:30] the insight on, you know, who I may be having
[2:24:33] to deal with or whatever. But it's, I appreciate it.
[2:24:37] Thank you very much. No, you're very welcome. Mayor Pracham.
[2:24:42] Thanks, Mayor. Now great presentation. Again, I remember as a
[2:24:45] young council member in the conversation for this started this
[2:24:48] partnership. So it's been, you know, five, five years or
[2:24:51] so. Um, I remember, you know, we talked about pallet
[2:24:54] homes and we're like, where could we put them in
[2:24:55] IBA? And it was deemed that it wasn't a feasible
[2:24:58] idea, but, uh, again, with the saves, she'll Vista kind
[2:25:01] of working on their budget's a little bit bigger than
[2:25:03] ours. Uh, so it's always good to kind of piggyback.
[2:25:09] Um, you know. Whenever we talk about homeless, everybody wants
[2:25:13] to say, what does it cost. You know, I ask
[2:25:18] myself that a lot because. Regionally in the state of
[2:25:21] California is a whole, I feel like it's very ineffective
[2:25:26] as a program. Multitude of reasons. There's so many different
[2:25:29] aspects to it. Um, but you know, Ulicit eight people
[2:25:33] that you've helped this year. What's the cost. Does it
[2:25:39] make any difference? You know, I see there's an individual
[2:25:42] has kids. What's the cost? Doesn't matter. To me because
[2:25:47] we're helping people, you know, we're, we're, we're not a
[2:25:50] business. We're a public agency. And we look out for
[2:25:54] the betterment of our, our residents. We could always make
[2:25:57] judgment calls. We could ask a lot of questions. But
[2:26:01] ultimately comes down to these are people who are in
[2:26:03] our community. They may have wandered and drifted and just
[2:26:07] kind of pounds out their feet. They may have been
[2:26:09] here second, third, fourth generation. It doesn't matter. They're still
[2:26:12] residents. To finally have this opportunity to do this is
[2:26:17] amazing to me. Um, is it sustainable for the next
[2:26:22] five, 10 years? I don't know. We don't know. There's
[2:26:24] a lot of unknowns at this point. But for the
[2:26:26] foreseeable future, there's options for somebody that's going to have
[2:26:31] a new option that they've never have had. It was
[2:26:37] something a little bit easier for them to, you know,
[2:26:39] I can only imagine what it must feel like sleeping
[2:26:41] your first night in a place that you're completely safe
[2:26:43] that you locked the door yourself. And it has a
[2:26:46] clean bedding, you know, those types of things. I can't
[2:26:50] even imagine what it must feel like for an individual.
[2:26:52] Um, and again, to get to that point, they have
[2:26:54] to go through a rigorous amount of interviews, conversations, um,
[2:26:59] and what you mentioned was sometimes. So, you know, and
[2:27:02] just, I just want to make sure that everybody knows
[2:27:05] that this. The services that are provided are going to
[2:27:09] be paid for from a fund that we have as
[2:27:11] a community benefit fund. And I think that's an important
[2:27:15] part. We're not taking stuff that otherwise, you know, is
[2:27:18] earmarked for, for any other services, there are going to
[2:27:21] be not had in our city. So it's, it's an
[2:27:23] important thing that we look at saying, this will give
[2:27:26] us an opportunity to help residents. Again, people can make
[2:27:29] their judgments in life. We see some commonalities why people
[2:27:33] are unsheltered. Um, but we're trying to help them. No
[2:27:38] more noble thing that we could do to help residents
[2:27:41] of Imperial Beach in ways that they need the help.
[2:27:45] And I know that you and your team do it
[2:27:47] without judgment. And I hope that our community will look
[2:27:49] at this as an opportunity to help without judgment. And
[2:27:53] again, if we can add to that list of eight
[2:27:54] people that were successes and not look at the other
[2:27:58] people who don't make it through the param because it
[2:28:00] doesn't matter. It matters to those people who make it.
[2:28:04] Because they're a father, a son, a daughter, a mother.
[2:28:08] There's somebody to somebody and their residents of Imperial Beach.
[2:28:12] So I really appreciate this coming forward. Thank you to
[2:28:15] the city of Chula Vista, uh, for, for continuing the
[2:28:18] conversation for many years and to have it come to
[2:28:21] fruition, um, is pretty cool. Thank you for those comments
[2:28:26] and observations. And I think, uh, I think we have
[2:28:30] a pretty strong consensus on this item. I don't have
[2:28:33] a whole lot of other comments. Um, except to say
[2:28:35] that, um, you know, Tony and your team do an
[2:28:38] amazing job. You know, I, even when I hear people
[2:28:43] concern about costs, I think, you know, we still control
[2:28:46] that. I mean, to the, to the, to some degree,
[2:28:49] we're the ones deciding who we're vetting, who are not
[2:28:54] necessarily who's ready to go, but you know, so that
[2:28:56] we can contribute to that success. And so, you know,
[2:28:58] it's not just an open door. Anybody can go and,
[2:29:01] you know, they last three days or four days. And
[2:29:03] then they, you know, they're back out on the street
[2:29:05] and they come back for another round. That isn't how
[2:29:08] this is going to work. There's going to be, you
[2:29:11] know, there's guardrails. And Tony and his team are those
[2:29:14] guardrails. So I'm very confident that this program is just
[2:29:19] going to be another tool in our toolbox. And, um,
[2:29:23] something else we can offer those individuals in our community
[2:29:26] that need the help. So. With that, I'm going to
[2:29:30] request a motion and a second. Fish are so moved.
[2:29:37] I'll second mayor. Thank you. Let's please vote. We have
[2:29:47] a motion by Fisher with the second by Nakawasay to
[2:29:50] adopt resolution number 2026 - 081. And motion carries unanimously
[2:29:57] by those present. Thank you very much. And I appreciate
[2:30:01] again. I want to thank you, Mayor McCann, for coming
[2:30:04] out this evening and spending some of your valuable time
[2:30:07] and your staff. Um, with us. So thanks again for
[2:30:10] your council's approval of that item. Um, so we can
[2:30:14] all move forward. All right. Um, real quickly here. Uh,
[2:30:18] item 16 redevelopment agency successor, uh, agency reports. We have
[2:30:23] non, uh, we didn't pull any items from the consent
[2:30:26] calendar this evening. Um, do I have any future item,
[2:30:31] excuse me, future agenda item requests from Council members.