[0:17] Well, good evening, everyone. We are here to start the city council meeting. My name is Erica, Mayor Erica Stewart. And I am here to say that all of the council members are present. And before we do the pledge of allegiance, we are going to start today's meeting with a moment of silence. Unfortunately, we have a park's maintenance staff member, Joseph Moreno, who passed away last night. And I just am deeply sorry for him and his family, his loved ones.

[0:47] and of course his co-workers so just take a minute.

[0:59] Thank you. Councilmember Francis will

[1:02] you do the Pledge of Allegiance? So

[1:10] to the flag of the United States of America,

[1:13] to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God in indivisible with liberty and justice for

[1:21] all.

[1:27] Thank you, Councilmember Francis, and thank you everyone here. So first off we get to do some

[1:34] done proclamations. We have three to do today and first we will have the proclamation for June

[1:40] 10th which is on June 19th for June 10th but also we'll be doing a presentation at the Mission

[1:49] Plaza on June 15th but this is the closest council meeting to June 15th. Bless you.

[1:56] And then when I'm done I will meet Cheryl Vine from NAACP at the podium.

[1:59] So first, whereas Juneteenth has become the harbinger of the ending of the institution

[2:05] of slavery in this great nation, Juneteenth embodies the indomitable human spirit of

[2:12] the past in the present and all time.

[2:15] The celebration of Juneteenth gives us all the opportunity to rededicate ourselves to the

[2:21] true American spirit.

[2:23] We are citizens that wish to secure the blessings of freedom, justice and equality for all in

[2:29] this great city of ours. The collaboration of community-based organizations, faith-based

[2:34] organizations, and local businesses and local government are committed to being part

[2:39] of the solution and guidance in continuing the struggle for freedom, justice, and quality

[2:44] for all. Now therefore, I, Erica A. Stewart,

[2:48] Mayor of the City of San Josebisco, on behalf of the entire City Council, proclaim the

[2:53] the 3rd Saturday in June, 2024, as Juneteenth Day,

[2:57] and recommend that all citizens of the city

[3:00] of San Luis Obispo join in recognizing

[3:02] the importance of today.

[3:43] Never a loss for words.

[3:46] I'm really excited to be here today

[3:48] and to accept the proclamation on behalf

[3:50] of the city of San Luis Obispo.

[3:52] You've been so supportive of us over the years.

[3:55] This is our seventh annual Juneteenth celebration,

[3:59] and I promise this is gonna be the biggest and best yet.

[4:03] So come out and join us.

[4:05] And you know, it's just not about celebrating,

[4:08] but it's also about the resilience of Black people here

[4:15] in America of what we've gone through,

[4:17] what was in the past,

[4:19] and what we're going through in the present.

[4:21] And our theme this year is a,

[4:28] say, what is it?

[4:28] Oh, arts and culture, a glimpse of the past and present.

[4:34] So we have lots of different artists that will be in attendance,

[4:39] some great music.

[4:40] The Edna Contemporary Art Gallery will be displaying starting on Friday

[4:46] for art and art after dark, I think it's called.

[4:51] She will be displaying some black artists with, you know, some of the artists will actually

[4:57] be there as well.

[4:59] So please join us for that celebration.

[5:03] And then on the 15th and Mission Plaza, we'd love to have all of you go online, buy your

[5:09] milk tickets, just saying.

[5:11] And we look forward to seeing you then.

[5:13] And thank you so much for this.

[5:15] Appreciate it.

[5:16] Thank you.

[5:17] Well,

[5:24] next we have the Pride Month and that is going to be given to a current executive

[5:30] director, Dusty Collier-Worth, for Gaila at Pride and Diversity Center and we'll meet

[5:36] you at the podium.

[5:38] So whereas the uprising at the Stonewall in June 1969 sparked a liberation movement, a

[5:45] call to action that continues to this day and continues to inspire each of us by furthering

[5:50] this nation's promise of equality, liberty, and justice for all individuals regardless

[5:55] of who they are.

[5:57] Pride is a time to recall the trials and rejoice in the triumphs of trailblazing paths of

[6:02] socio-political accomplishments, the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex,

[6:09] asexual, two-spirit community has endured LGBTQIA2S plus and continue to fight for full

[6:17] equality.

[6:17] Pride is a jubilant, inclusive, and welcoming communal celebration of visibility and personal

[6:24] expression of dignity, integrity, and living out loud in which we celebrate the valuable

[6:29] contributions of the LGBTQIA to S-plus community in our city, the state, and across the United

[6:36] States.

[6:37] Celebrating Pride Month deeply influences awareness and private, sorry, provides support and recognition

[6:43] to our LGBTQIA to S plus community, and it is an opportunity to take clear action and engage in constructive and inclusive dialogue to strengthen alliances, build and foster a stronger sense of belonging and advance equal rights.

[6:59] Whereas we, community members, elected representatives, and city staff, staff strongly affirm our commitment to standing in solidarity with all members of the LGBTQIA to S plus community.

[7:12] and stand against and denounce all acts of bigotry and hate.

[7:16] Whereas the city of San Luis Obispo is a culturally rich and vibrant community and

[7:21] continues to light the path for inclusion and diversity in which in the month of June, we recognize Pride month.

[7:27] Let's remember that every day, every week, and every month, and every year is LGBTQIA2S plus Pride.

[7:36] Now therefore, I, Erica A. Stewart, mayor of the city of San Luis Obispo.

[7:40] On behalf of the entire City Council, do hereby proclaim the month of June as Pride Month and recommend all community members of the county of San Luis Obispo to join in recognizing the importance of this month and its legacy in our culture and community.

[8:27] Thank

[8:40] you, Mayor and Council. I want to, as I prepared, not at all for this, but I do want to start off with also recognizing and honoring the Juneteenth Proclamation that happened before this, as pride as we know it would not exist without the Freedom and Vibrant Spirit of Vibrant.

[9:04] our, particularly our black community that has led the charge, talk about Stonewall, like

[9:12] Marsha, Payet No Man, Johnson, valuable community members that led to the pride movement as

[9:20] we know it, our by-block community has always been at the forefront.

[9:25] So thank you also for honoring Juneteenth in this moment as well.

[9:30] If you missed it, this marked our 27th year in the city of San

[9:35] Lucidisco of Pride, particularly Pride in the Plaza, as we just celebrated this last weekend.

[9:42] So it is a vibrant and necessary thing.

[9:46] Thank you so much for recognizing the LGBTQIA plus community and our vital contribution to what makes

[9:54] slow. So great. I do also want to honor this city and its commitment, not only

[10:01] it being performative, but also as I always say, allyship takes action and your

[10:09] commitment to things such as our DEI strategic plan, putting things into motion in

[10:14] the city, to make sure that it is not, DEI is not just a buzzword, but it is

[10:21] thing that is actively pursued, especially that equity part. So thank you so much and happy

[10:29] pride, y'all.

[10:36] Thank you so much. And now we move forward to hunger awareness day. And I believe

[10:42] Molly Kerr in there she is. We'll be picking our accepting this proclamation for the food bank

[10:51] of slow counting. So whereas hunger profoundly undermines the health and well-being of both our

[10:58] community at large and individual neighbors, approximately a third of households in San

[11:03] Los Obispo County are struggling to afford the costs of living in our region. More than 4,800

[11:10] children in San Los Obispo County are suffering from food insecurity jeopardizing their growth,

[11:15] health, and academic success. Nearly a quarter of local seniors are struggling to meet their basic

[11:21] needs.

[11:23] The Slow Food Bank provides essential support to over 70 partner nonprofit agencies, thereby

[11:29] forming a critical network that distributes nutritious life-sustaining food to those

[11:34] who face hunger.

[11:35] The Slow Food Bank serves over 36,500 neighbors in need each month across San Luis Obispo

[11:42] County, from Nipomo to San Miguel and from San Simeon to California Valley.

[11:46] The Slow Food Bank distributes millions of nutritious meals to families, seniors, children's

[11:52] and people, children and people in need annually.

[11:55] The Hunger Awareness Day event taking place this year on June 7, 2024 is a crucial initiative

[12:01] organized by the Slow Food Bank to elevate public consciousness about hunger and generate the

[12:07] necessary funds to continue and expand hunger relief efforts in San Luis-Bispo County.

[12:14] Now, therefore, I, Eric A. Stewart, Mayor of the City of Sanlo Subispo, on behalf of

[12:19] the entire City Council, proclaim that on hunger awareness day, we call upon the community

[12:24] members of the City of Sanlo Subispo to acknowledge the urgency of food and security, to contribute

[12:30] generously to hunger relief, and to participate in a concerted effort to ensure that no child

[12:36] adult senior goes hungry in our community.

[12:40] Thank you.

[12:58] I

[13:07] just mentioned to our executive director that I was disappointed that she is not wearing her sandwich outfit, so I just wanted to know.

[13:17] So, I will just apologize from the deaths of my heart, not have come in full costume, but mayors to your and council members.

[13:26] Thank you so much for shining a light on this vital issue.

[13:29] Food insecurity is something that happens behind closed doors.

[13:33] There's really no way to tell based on what someone's wearing, what car they're driving,

[13:37] their occupation, if they are up at night wondering what their next meal is going to be

[13:42] or how they're going to feed their family.

[13:45] So on Hunger Awareness Day, we really open the doors to shine a light and make sure that

[13:50] thousands of our neighbors know that they are not alone and that the entire county is working

[13:56] to alleviate hunger and build a healthier community.

[13:59] Since the start of COVID and persisting to this day, our community is experiencing food insecurity at a level we've not seen in our 35-year history.

[14:09] Just this February, we served more people in a month than we did even in the deaths of the pandemic.

[14:16] And as part of that, over the last year, we've responded to more than a 16% surge in need for our services year over year.

[14:25] We're honored to provide compassionate, nutritious, hunger relief to tens of thousands of slow county residents through direct hunger relief efforts, as well as through the network that the mayor mentioned of more than 70 other non-profits, whose kitchens and pantries we stock.

[14:41] In the city of slow, we are so grateful to our many partners, including Calfslow,

[14:48] Agape Church, Salvation Army, Unitarian Universalist, and even your own staff in the CAC team in the mobile crisis unit.

[14:57] During this year's Hunger Awareness Day, the slow food-

[15:00] Bank is continuing a rather recent tradition of organizing in-person CalFresh enrollment's assistance sites throughout our community, including right next door at the library in San Luis Obispo. CalFresh is a vital component of combating hunger in our community and there's still much work that needs to be done. Until we reach our CalFresh enrollment goals, millions of dollars from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's SNAP program won't be providing hunger relief to our neighbors in need

[15:29] nor will those millions of dollars earmarked for our community be reaching the cash registers of our local farmers markets and grocery stores.

[15:38] The economic and nutritional opportunity cost of under-enrollment in CalFresh can't be overstated.

[15:46] Hunger is a local problem, and in our community the solution is also local.

[15:51] In the compassionate hearts of our generous neighbors who donate their time, talent, and treasure to our caring mission.

[15:57] For San Luis residents in a position to give, we hope you will show your support this Friday on Hunger Awareness Day by becoming a recurring donor and having the entire first year of your generosity matched instantly up to $500,000.

[16:13] So thank you again for your kindness for helping share our story and for supporting our compassionate mission on Hunger Awareness Day and throughout the year.

[16:29] Thank you so much, it's amazing how in such a wonderful, wealthy community, we still have

[16:37] this many people that continue to be hungry, and that's just right here in Slow Counties.

[16:42] So thank you very much for all you do.

[16:46] So next we move to the city manager report, but before we do that, I just want to give a

[16:50] little bit of highlight.

[16:51] We have a lot of people who wish to share public comments, so if you haven't gotten your

[16:55] card in yet, feel free to do so.

[16:57] And those who have put in their three minutes, two minutes is going to be the max because

[17:02] we already have so many people that are putting in their input.

[17:05] So if you wish to re-figure out, re-configure your time, this is probably your moment.

[17:11] All right, moving forward to interim city manager, Whitney McDonald.

[17:16] Thank you very much.

[17:18] We do have a number of items to highlight tonight, so we'll try to kind of get through them

[17:23] as quickly as we can, not going on.

[17:25] First thing this evening is tomorrow in the morning from 8.30 to 12 p.m.

[17:31] We are hosting a homelessness response forum along with a number of our partners including

[17:37] the County of San Luis Obispo and a number of our non-profit providers as well.

[17:42] To discuss homelessness and our responses to it, it will be held at the Ludwood Community

[17:48] Center.

[17:49] It will include a presentation as well as a panel discussion.

[17:52] We're taking questions from the public at this point in time, and we'll be a little bit in the morning as well

[17:58] with a goal of trying to provide us a good chunk of time to answer those questions about an hour or so from the folks on our panel.

[18:05] There will also be a resource expo with our local service providers and both county and city staff to answer direct questions from anybody if you might have those.

[18:14] So we hope to see people come out for this, and

[18:17] And you can RSVP through the QR code that's on the screen or at slowcity.org slash homelessness.

[18:26] And we hope to see as many people there tomorrow as possible and we'll see how it goes.

[18:30] It's kind of a new endeavor for us to hold a forum like this and so we'll hope to answer

[18:37] a number of questions and kind of go from there.

[18:40] We're also highlighting again our slow-emotion projects and work areas, work on the North

[18:45] greenway, neighborhood greenway project continues, our contractor completed

[18:49] slurry ceiling of the greenway and striping and signage work is underway and

[18:54] nearly complete. I'm sure people driving on there, see those updates pretty

[18:59] regularly, we're getting pretty close. The roadway construction portion of

[19:02] the project is expected to be completed this spring, we're now through the spring,

[19:07] but we're almost done there. Once the underpass improvements are finished,

[19:11] our public art installations that the underpasses will follow, completion of the roadway work and

[19:16] includes decorative painting, murals, fencing and lighting. And I think people can start to see

[19:21] what we envision there and it's really kind of coming together, which is great.

[19:26] Our pavement maintenance and mobility improvements are continuing as part of our arterials paving

[19:31] project. Our contractors continue in work on Lawner A Street. Paving work begins Sunday night and

[19:37] and we'll continue each night until completion.

[19:40] Paving a Monterey is expected to be complete this week

[19:43] with ADA improvements also occurring

[19:45] at the intersection of Santa Rosa and Palm.

[19:48] So of course, we're asking commuters to stay aware

[19:51] of any of the construction that may be going on,

[19:54] as we continue with our progress around the city.

[19:58] A more information can be found at slowcity.org,

[20:01] forward slash slow in motion.

[20:03] You can also sign up for these updates

[20:04] and they come out regularly, our email address is slowemotion at slowcity.org.

[20:11] We are also making progress on our construction of the cultural arts district parking structure.

[20:17] During the summer months, Swinerton builders are continuing to excavate and export dirt onto

[20:22] the site.

[20:24] We have been anticipating ground improvements that are called vibropeers that for some time

[20:30] now and our subcontractor was able to mobilize a little earlier than expected, which happened

[20:36] actually yesterday. So, if you haven't already, you may soon hear and fuel those ground

[20:42] improvements going on in our, around our construction site. We understand it is a bit noisy

[20:48] for sure, and it will be in the surrounding area, but this shows we're making significant

[20:53] progress. And we've put a lot of effort into both trying to let people know that this is

[20:58] coming and what to expect and also to condense the time so we're making the smallest amount of

[21:05] impact as possible. Utilities are also being installed along Napomo, Monterey and Palm streets as

[21:12] well. There will be some traffic impacts to this area through the remainder of this project with

[21:17] which I'm sure people have been experiencing as well. And then moving on to some more updates on our

[21:24] parking program. So our staff continues progress on implementation of our new parking rates,

[21:30] focusing on spreading the message about our upcoming new rates that will start in July.

[21:36] So you see on the screen some examples of the flyers and information that we've been handing out

[21:42] to businesses and posting through our social media and a number of other outreach mechanisms as well.

[21:47] A business toolkit was created and has been distributed digitally and in person to downtown

[21:54] businesses via downtown slow and the Chamber of Commerce as well as city staff.

[21:59] We've handed out those materials to over 90 businesses at this point.

[22:04] The toolkit was created to help spread the word about our parking rate reductions that will

[22:08] be happening this July with our goal of informing the community about our garage and on street

[22:13] rate reductions.

[22:14] The toolkit contains a variety of informational and promotional materials, including social

[22:19] media posts, reels, stories, flyers, a postcard, and a set of instructions.

[22:26] This resource can and what's contained in the toolkit are intended for businesses to

[22:31] help inform their customers of what's coming very soon and what changes they can expect as

[22:37] well as just really trying to get the word out to everyone in town or far beyond town to

[22:43] come back, come downtown and really spend your money on our wonderful vibrant businesses and less on parking.

[22:52] So just a quick reminder, those rates beginning to light 8th on street in the core will be 275 an hour in the outer areas, 225 an hour.

[23:03] Off street will be including in our structures, $2 per hour within $8 daily max.

[23:08] Our garage passes will be reduced to $45 per month, and we're really excited that we're

[23:17] going to be able to provide those garage pass permits through an online application

[23:22] process.

[23:23] So folks don't need to actually come and apply in person, however you will need to pick

[23:29] up your actual card in person for now, but we're making those improvements and are pretty

[23:35] excited, and then the last change is reducing the validation rates to $1 per validation card,

[23:42] so 100 hours for $100. Next, parking update is that our new public parking lot located at

[23:54] 1166, Hygara, is scheduled to be opened by Monday, June 10th. That will be a new lot that consists

[24:03] of 43 spaces. The rate will be based essentially on the street rate around the parking lot so right

[24:10] now it's $3 an hour but as of July 8th it will be $225 and anyone having a 10 hour on street

[24:18] permit will be able to use that lot as well. So we're excited to open that up.

[24:24] Highlighting some parks and recreation programming. Please join our parks and recreation staff for

[24:30] We're a free tour of our Central Coast Veterans Memorial Museum tomorrow at noon.

[24:35] If you're interested, please sign up at the Slow Senior Center or contact our Recreation

[24:39] Coordinator, Casey Lissage, at 7-817-300 or K-Lissage at SlowCity.org.

[24:47] And don't miss out on our spots that are still available for our Kid Venture Ultimate Summer

[24:52] Camp.

[24:52] It's in Shimer Elementary campus this summer.

[24:55] weekly options are available for ages 6 to 12, with scholarship funding available for qualifying families.

[25:01] So for more information, please contact our Parks and Rec Department and our phone number is up on the screen.

[25:09] And our next item here, if anybody hadn't seen the news, or maybe even seen it in person.

[25:15] Yes, we had a bear in San Luis Obispo this morning to talk a little bit more about this.

[25:22] This depends on your perspective, exciting occurrence.

[25:26] I'd like to ask our biologists, Freddie Audie,

[25:29] to come up and talk a little bit about what happened this morning.

[25:34] Good evening Madam Mayor, members of the council and team.

[25:37] I apologize for being in my field the tires still.

[25:39] I hadn't anticipated presenting in front of you tonight.

[25:42] I was going to be leading a fuel reduction crew,

[25:45] not a wildlife relocation crew.

[25:47] So anyways, but this morning, bear was found.

[25:50] It ended up being found in a backyard.

[25:54] So our police department and county animal services were able to contain the bear in the backyard.

[25:59] California Department of Fish and Wildlife official biologists showed up.

[26:03] Were able to tranquilize the bear and then safely get it into the trailer and

[26:08] then take it back north of town.

[26:10] But a true testament to how special a place we live in to have a bear downtown and

[26:15] the protective efforts that we have.

[26:17] Not only for our city open space, our creeks and waterways and the wildlife corridors that we have here in town as identified in our conservation open space element.

[26:27] Like I say, a true testament to how special this place is just to have wildlife resources like this, basically a block away from here.

[26:34] You know, we like them in open space, but like I say, the operation went off without a hitch.

[26:40] It was about 350 pound bear estimated to be about seven years old based on dental records

[26:45] that CDFW biologists had investigated, so had been around for a while, but pretty exciting.

[26:54] But like I say, we like to see them in open space and not a block away from city hall.

[26:59] So, but everything went well, the bear was released fine, it was collared as well,

[27:03] so that CDFW can track him. Hopefully he won't come back in detail, but at least we'll know

[27:08] sooner, this time. So any questions, let me know.

[27:12] Happy to help. Thank you so much, and has this been something you've seen recently in our county?

[27:18] I've seen about four in my tenure here at the city, typically a long San Luis drive, not

[27:23] immediately downtown. We've had other wildlife immediately downtown, but typically the

[27:28] around the periphery coming in from city open space, and so like I said, it's not a unique occurrence,

[27:34] You know, just depends on the day.

[27:37] So happy Tuesday.

[27:39] Thank you so much for your work.

[27:40] Any questions from the councilman for Shorisman?

[27:43] Yeah, I remember one a few years ago, kind of near Cal Poly.

[27:48] Just wondering if this were to happen again,

[27:51] and you're to see a bear in your backyard.

[27:54] Obviously, it says call slow PD,

[27:56] but any other behaviors to do or not do?

[28:01] Always be aware.

[28:02] There, see something, say something, so call our watch commander.

[28:05] They can get the word out to the other agencies.

[28:08] And then, like I say, situational awareness is always important, so know your surroundings,

[28:14] for sure.

[28:16] No, make a lot of noise or don't make a lot of noise, things like that.

[28:20] If he's in a backyard, we don't want to, that was basically, you know, the concern is if

[28:25] it started moving around.

[28:27] That was a barrier that we had up in San Luis Drive before.

[28:29] And so, it was quiet, it was contained, and so, like I say, the agencies were able to respond and deal with them appropriately.

[28:37] Thank you.

[28:39] So, staying in your house is what I'm hearing.

[28:42] Exactly, yeah, thank you so much.

[28:44] Yeah, don't go pet it.

[28:45] We're great, we should, ma'am, I'm sorry, not right now, but it's during public comment or another time.

[28:49] Thank you so much, city manager.

[28:52] Thank you, and just, we would confirm that yes, the bear was at some point on Oso Street.

[28:59] but it seemed right. Well done. Yeah, you're welcome.

[29:10] And right. And certainly if people see beers to not approach them, of course, and instead call our PD and they'll come out and hope for a very successful experience like what we experience in a crib this morning.

[29:26] And our last slide, I'll just kind of move on to that and we'd actually like our human

[29:34] resources director Nicole Dominie to come up and give a little update where we're at

[29:38] with the City Manager recruitment.

[29:40] Thanks, Whitney.

[29:41] Well, that was a hard one to follow.

[29:44] Thanks, Freddie.

[29:46] Good evening, Nicole Dominie, human resources director.

[29:49] Following the resignation of Derek Johnson in February, the City Council hired an

[29:56] an experienced executive recruiter from Peckham and McKenney.

[30:00] To conduct a national search for the city's next city manager. In March of this year, the Council appointed Mayor Seward and Council Member Shoresman to an ad hoc committee to guide the executive recruiter through the process. The national search took place over five weeks and concluded in the middle of May. The council is currently in the process of reviewing and selecting the top candidates for interviews, which is scheduled to take place in late June.

[30:29] And following interviews and update on the recruitment process will be provided to the public in early to mid July.

[30:38] And with that, I'll turn it back over to interim City Manager McDonald.

[30:46] And that wraps up our City Manager report for this evening, and then, of course, if you have any questions, we're happy to answer those.

[30:54] Thank you, I just want to say thank you to the HR Director, Nicole Dominie today we had

[30:59] our first or one of our many subcommittee meetings and just so appreciate all the preparation

[31:05] that you continue to provide so thank you very much.

[31:08] Any questions, Councilor Francis?

[31:11] No question, but I just wanted to comment on the North for a greenway, you got to ride back

[31:16] from Cal Poly the other day and so the planters are there so thrilled to see that progress

[31:20] and really excited to see them all planted up.

[31:22] It's going to look beautiful.

[31:26] Awesome, thank you.

[31:26] I also see the planter median beginnings on Monterey

[31:29] and looks a little stressful right now,

[31:31] but I know in the long run it'll be good.

[31:34] With out singing the other questions or comments,

[31:38] from my colleagues, we'll move forward to public comment.

[31:40] So this is the public comment period for items not on the agenda.

[31:45] So we typically have about 15 minutes.

[31:48] Well, our agenda says 15 minutes for public comment.

[31:50] We have about a half hours with a public comment that we're going to go ahead and continue

[31:56] on with.

[31:57] I'm going to go ahead and read the civility code that we have that goes along with our

[32:01] guidelines of how to provide public comment for every topic.

[32:06] So first is listen first.

[32:08] We will make an honest effort to understand views and reasoning of others by listening to

[32:12] understand, not listening to fine fault, allowing thoughtful discussion to lead to the best possible

[32:18] outcomes.

[32:19] We will respect different opinions, we will invite and consider different perspectives allowing space for ideas to be expressed, opposed and clarified in a constructive manner.

[32:30] We will show courtesy, we will treat all colleagues, staff and members of the public in a professional and courteous manner, whether in-person, online or in written communication, especially when we disagree.

[32:42] Criticized constructively, we strive to advance solutions to community issues.

[32:47] When faced with disagreement, we do more than simply share our concerns with differing positions.

[32:52] We work to propose a course of action of mutual benefit.

[32:55] We debate the policy, not the person.

[32:58] We will focus on the issues and not personalize debate or use other tactics that divert attention from the issue.

[33:07] For the public comment, also remember to, these public comments are comments to direct to

[33:15] the council, not to the audience.

[33:17] If you as an audience agree with something that the speaker has said, make sure you give

[33:23] a yay, we're excited we support that, or no we don't support that, but no clapping or booing

[33:29] or loud noises, so that's just our process of what we do.

[33:32] And I will say ahead of time I know it always feels frustrating because we say we listen and we say thank you

[33:38] And that is all that happens at public comment because it's not a gen die's topic

[33:42] So I just like to share that especially when I see a full room. Sometimes I know people haven't been to a meeting before or not for a while

[33:48] So that is that we'll move forward city clerk to our first

[33:53] speaker

[33:54] Okay, the first speaker is Sylvia then Robert Skinner and then Mark Shafer

[34:00] and if you can line up and be ready to speak, this will go a lot quicker, please.

[34:08] First thought about writing this statement, I thought I would appeal to your compassion.

[34:13] Of course, I thought once they hear about this proportionate number of people being killed,

[34:19] they will jump in. Since compassion doesn't seem to have had an effect,

[34:23] I thought I might appeal to inspiration. When I understood the disparity between men and women in

[34:28] power, I realized that the world doesn't have to be this way. If women were in power,

[34:34] we could bring a perspective that is so desperately needed. When I saw that this council had

[34:39] only women, oh my gosh, imagine what can be done. But now, I see a group of women sitting

[34:46] there terrorized of changing the status quo, paralyzed in front of the opportunity of making

[34:51] a change. So I wonder, why have we fought so hard to occupy position of decision-making,

[34:58] just to continue with this patriarchal system? Regarding our denial, your denial of the

[35:04] resolution last meeting, you said that you didn't put it into the agenda because it is

[35:09] not a local issue. Then you said you didn't do it because it is a sensitive issue. Never

[35:15] Never mind the contradiction, let me respond to both arguments.

[35:19] Everything is a local issue.

[35:21] The patriarchal model has used the metaphor of a machine with individual parts to explain

[35:27] complex systems.

[35:28] But this century is teaching us that everything is interconnected and behaves like an ecosystem

[35:34] where everything plays a role in maintaining balance.

[35:38] We have people here with relatives being murdered.

[35:41] Everyone here is paying for arms to the Nantanyahu's genocide.

[35:47] I do not want to contribute a single dollar more to this massacre,

[35:51] so I am appealing directly to you to agendize a ceasefire resolution.

[35:56] As women, we have finally created some space to have our voices heard.

[36:01] We have the opportunity to do our part in the change that we want to be.

[36:06] Reverend King said, their ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people, but the silence over that by the good people.

[36:17] Thank you.

[36:18] Thank you so much.

[36:19] Thank you to the audience.

[36:21] Robert Skinner.

[36:23] Mark Schaefer, and then Brendan Jacobi.

[36:26] Good evening.

[36:27] We're on back here again.

[36:28] and I had a comment that I wanted to share with you about yesterday's meeting, but after

[36:35] seeing the various events, the proclamations, I think I'm going to forego that, and we

[36:40] can discuss that in private.

[36:43] Basically, I saw three proclamations up here, and they were very noble proclamations, and

[36:49] I support each and every one of those.

[36:51] I support the efforts behind that.

[36:53] One thing I really wanted to point out is that your proclamation on hunger awareness is June 7th.

[37:02] That's just Friday, I believe.

[37:04] That also marks June 7th, marks the eighth month of an ongoing genocide.

[37:13] And last time I spoke with you guys, we were talking about a famine that was just starting.

[37:19] That's a full-blown famine.

[37:21] That area right now, the area of Gaza is basically from San Luis Obispo up to Canberra five miles from the coast inland.

[37:30] We're in a famine in that area right now and so let's kind of can think about that.

[37:37] And yes, I asked for a resolution.

[37:40] Let's consider a proclamation.

[37:43] We have to do something.

[37:47] Thank you so much.

[37:50] After Brendan Jacobi was Poohoma Nava.

[37:53] Good evening.

[37:54] My name is Mark Schaefer.

[37:56] I'm the executive director of United's Cerebral Palsy and right on.

[37:58] I just wanted to share briefly with some of the things we're doing in the community so

[38:02] you can share them with your constituents.

[38:05] Our name is deceptive.

[38:07] We, only about 8% of the people we serve have cerebral palsy.

[38:10] We serve all kinds of developmental disabilities, autism, etc.

[38:14] We have an amazing program in the evenings and weekends with door to door transportation.

[38:20] We have outings into the community.

[38:22] We also do long distance vacations.

[38:25] We took nine members to Orlando for a week and they saved their money up for these excursions

[38:31] just like we do and they have a great time and it changes their lives.

[38:36] We have a week long summer camp up at Camp Ocean Pines for adults.

[38:40] We supervise people first self advocacy group and we have Friday outings for teens with autism so they can become more comfortable out in our community.

[38:52] We also provide respite services for families and resource centers. On the right on side, we right now we get about $250,000 from slow cog and we provide $6 million of door to door transportation.

[39:07] with 80 vehicles and 60 drivers.

[39:10] We provide medical transportation, veterans,

[39:14] door-to-door service, senior shuttles.

[39:17] We have a great low income shuttle

[39:19] that if you have anybody that's low income,

[39:21] $3 each way, anywhere in the county.

[39:25] And then we also serve the general public

[39:27] with the services to the airport.

[39:29] We do van pools, we do weddings,

[39:32] and we also teamed up with a slow food bank.

[39:35] And we deliver 80 boxes of groceries a week to seniors that can't get out of their home.

[39:42] So, encourage you, if you have anybody that needs any kind of transportation or

[39:47] any kind of support services, check out our websites and thank you.

[39:52] Thank you so much.

[39:56] After Paloma would be Audrey Tran.

[40:04] Hello, Mayor Stewart and council members.

[40:06] My name is Brendan Jacobi.

[40:08] I'm speaking as a member of the San Luis Vispote Tenets Union.

[40:11] My colleagues and I are incredibly grateful for the council's commitment to improving housing conditions as well as to advancing tenants' rights.

[40:19] However, since my colleagues and I have started talking before you about a year ago, rents have increased 20%.

[40:25] 65% of our city's residents are renters and rely on your action in order to advance their living conditions.

[40:32] And I want to share a quick anecdote.

[40:33] Our organization was recently contacted by a group of six housemates who requested help

[40:38] writing a complaint letter to their landlord.

[40:41] These tenants are living with egregious living conditions.

[40:44] I was sent pictures of slugs crawling out of shower drains, mold and termite droppings

[40:51] in window frames, and faulty electrical wiring that endangers the safety of each tenant.

[40:57] These tenants did not ask for my help in order to address these grievances, no.

[41:01] know, they asked for my help because the landlord was increasing their rent.

[41:06] They are afraid that if they complain, their landlord will not allow them to resign their

[41:12] lease, their housing group will be broken up, and each tenant will be left on their own.

[41:19] This anecdote illustrates housing culture in San Luis, and perfectly encapsulates the life

[41:24] of a tenant.

[41:24] We are afraid, we are disempowered, and we are unequipped to advocate for ourselves.

[41:33] We understand the city has multiple priorities, and housing is not the only issue that requires

[41:38] your attention.

[41:40] However, housing affects everyone in our community, to a magnitude and a degree that warns the

[41:46] utmost attention and outweighs many other issues.

[41:49] And it's for these reasons that we gently ask to bring housing back to the forefront of

[41:53] your agendas, and pass more robust tenant protections in order to ensure that we all possess

[41:58] safe, secure, and affordable housing.

[42:01] Thank you.

[42:03] Thank you so much.

[42:09] Hello, Mayor Steward and Council members.

[42:11] My name is Paloma Nava, and I'm a member of the Salon Subispo Tennis Union and a lifelong

[42:16] resident of Slow County.

[42:17] I recognize your care for the well-being of the community and understand that the Council

[42:21] has lots of priorities to balance.

[42:23] But we must address the 65% of households in slow who are renters and are still waiting

[42:28] for relief.

[42:29] Generations of slow's community are priced out of paradise every day.

[42:33] While rents continue to skyrocket, some landlords ignore the most basic health, safety, and

[42:38] maintenance needs.

[42:39] Let me share with you just a few of the complaints and management response that I've heard while

[42:43] can missing renters recently.

[42:45] Oh, you have mold?

[42:46] Well, you can just paint over it.

[42:48] Your apartment is flooding here are some sandbags.

[42:51] Oh, there's a rusted nail sticking out of your floorboard, just walk around it.

[42:55] I have seen ads for rooms the size of closets without windows or doors,

[42:59] being rented for over $1,000 excluding utilities.

[43:03] No person should be forced to take out loans to live in a housing with mold without running water or resistance to rain.

[43:11] Tenants should not be forced to pay thousands to live in unsafe and unhealthy conditions.

[43:15] Thank you for everything you have done so far, but tenants need more help, students need more help.

[43:20] I need your help.

[43:21] I ask you to consider the lives of these students if you were their parents, their family, what living conditions would you want for them?

[43:28] We're paying more in rent to share a closet than when my family pays for our mortgage in the very same county.

[43:34] Working multiple jobs and taking out loans to afford unsuitable housing should not be normal.

[43:38] This can no longer be shrugged off as a typical college experience.

[43:42] Unsafe and unaffordable housing is not a tradition we want to continue or be complicit in.

[43:48] Please, we kindly ask the council to update and modernize the city's tentative protections, and ensure that the rules are enforced.

[43:55] Thank you.

[43:57] Thank you so much.

[43:59] Audrey Tran, Andrew Gould, and then Dina.

[44:09] Good evening, Mayor Stewart and City Council members.

[44:12] Thank you for your time today and your commitment to bettering our city and allowing me the opportunity to speak.

[44:16] My name is Audrey Chan.

[44:17] I have been a resident of San Luis Obispo for nearly three years now.

[44:19] I am a student at Cal Poly in an avid believer of using public transportation for a better environment.

[44:25] However, most days, I tend to walk or ask for carpool with my friends because the transportation system is just unfortunately not a standard.

[44:32] I'm here tonight to express my strong support for improving public transportation in San Luis Obispo.

[44:37] Me and many other residents have had instances where bus lines simply stop operating or

[44:42] operating behind making a scrambled to get to our work, classes or events on time.

[44:45] A more robust public transportation system would benefit our community in a number of ways,

[44:51] such as reducing traffic congestion, improving air quality, increasing accessibility for

[44:56] people who do not have cars, and providing a more environment downtown.

[45:01] I firmly believe that increasing the number of buses in operation would benefit the greater slow public. I understand that there are budgetary concerns, but I believe that investing in public transportation is an investment for the future of San Luis Obispo. I acknowledge your efforts to improve parking, but I also urge you to continue to work on improvements to our public transportation system. If I work together, we can create a more sustainable, equitable, and livable city for all. Thank you for your time with the situation. Thank you so much.

[45:29] Andrew Gold, Dina, and then Abala Hazonari?

[45:39] Good evening.

[45:41] My name is Andrew Gold, and I'm a student at Cal Poly, and I'm a member of Young Democratic

[45:45] Socialists of America and Christians for a free Palestine.

[45:49] I'm here to motion for a low city council to agenda a resolution calling for a ceasefire

[45:55] in Israel-Palestine.

[45:56] After nearly eight months, at least 40,000 are dead, at least incinerated alive, suffocated

[46:03] and crushed under tons of steel and concrete, blown into unrecognizable bits, and children

[46:10] are starving to death as their emaciated bodies lose the nutrients that they need to live.

[46:16] We have seen mothers and fathers holding the bodies of their mutilated dead children.

[46:21] All of this, while Israel's far right ethno-nationalist government, calls for Gaza's Nakhba,

[46:28] inflicting damage, not accuracy, and calling for the eradication of the Palestinian people

[46:34] of Gaza.

[46:35] As a German-American, whose family lived under the Nazi regime, I recognize that this is

[46:41] not the language of war.

[46:42] This is the language of genocide.

[46:46] And genocide is something that we, as slow residents, should be familiar with considering

[46:50] our own genocidal colonial history.

[46:53] The city government has continually refused to agendize a ceasefire resolution, let alone

[46:59] agendizing any policies to boycott the Israeli apartheid state.

[47:03] More consistency is a virtue that is difficult to practice, but it is one that is necessary

[47:08] as a democratic society if we truly aspire to be the voice of free people and a free world.

[47:15] For every child murdered, orphan, maimed, or traumatized here are plea.

[47:21] This is the first live streamed genocide in human history.

[47:25] We will not reverse our eyes.

[47:27] We will not be silent and we will not stop fighting for justice.

[47:32] Long live the Palestinian people.

[47:36] Thank you so much.

[47:39] Dina, and then Abdullah, and then Julia Albert.

[47:47] Hello, Mayor Erica. On your Instagram page that you have for slow city mayor, you've stated

[47:54] that inclusivity is your goal, and that was actually the beginning of today's meeting

[47:58] as well. If inclusivity is your goal, I would like to ask you a question. Have you ever recognized

[48:04] the Muslim community here in slow? Have you ever addressed or tried to fight Islamophobia? Islamophobia

[48:11] is a live and active and slow, I've experienced it myself.

[48:17] On your Instagram page, Mary Erica, you've posted messages for Christmas, Hanukkah, Passover,

[48:23] Shenatova, Kwanzaa, and even Ice Cream Day and Smoothie Day.

[48:27] But have you ever posted anything for Muslims?

[48:31] What about Arab heritage month, do you even know when it is, it just passed in April?

[48:37] You even posted for Ice Cream Day and Smoothie Day.

[48:39] days I'm sure many of us here today have never even heard of, but you've never posted anything for the second largest religion in the world.

[48:49] Have you ever said or done anything to acknowledge us in your community?

[48:54] It's very clear that you don't care about people like me or people from similar background as me based on your actions and words, which clearly explains your silence for the people of Gaza.

[49:11] Thank you.

[49:13] Abdullah, Julia, Albert, and then Dusty, call your words.

[49:22] Today I want to talk about anti-Semitism.

[49:27] Anti-Semitism is ugly, it's hate speech, and Islamophobia is the same, it's ugly.

[49:35] We should fight hate speech in general, but per your last meeting, at the end of the meeting,

[49:43] you are discussing that you can't pass resolution for ceasefire because there is a big part of the

[49:50] community calling you to not do it as if it's anti-Semite. But we have to differentiate between

[49:59] Zionism and Semitism.

[50:05] Zionism is political movement based on occupation, killing people,

[50:10] taking land, it's colonization, it's a state. So if I criticize a government, it's not a hate speech.

[50:21] I criticize the USA government for their baddoing, I can't criticize any government for their bad

[50:28] doing, especially if they commit genocide. So don't penalize anti-symmetism and equating anti-symmetism

[50:36] with anti-Zianism. It has to be clear for everyone. Now, Semi, where Semi came from, Semi

[50:43] Sam is son of Noah. And if we want to talk about history and geography, Arab Jews, Assyrian,

[50:53] Aramean Old Semite,

[51:00] Assyrian Abraham, Aramean Jesus, Hebrew, Isaac, Arab,

[51:09] Eshmael, all lived in the Middle East. So we have to differentiate between these two

[51:17] things and we shouldn't weaponize. Thank you. Thank you. Julia Albert,

[51:25] Just to call your worth and then our final speaker is Blasem.

[51:32] Good evening, I'm here on behalf of the Slow County Tobacco Control Coalition.

[51:36] We're just following up on some of the issues we brought forward on May 7th, the City Council.

[51:42] And we first just would like to thank the City Council as well as the police for

[51:47] how much they've done just in this amount of time.

[51:49] We wanted to thank police chief Scott and Sergeant Trainer for being so responsive and

[51:55] actually doing enforcement efforts that same week that we spoke, and I know they were

[52:00] able to do citations for four different retailers.

[52:04] And we also did notice on the ASLOW app you've updated it now to include band-baping products

[52:11] which we do definitely appreciate.

[52:14] We did want to share that we were in San Francisco last week, one of our coalition members was

[52:19] doing research, and they have found that they were able to obtain a hidden in-baping

[52:24] products that are actually banned San Francisco, they have the same type of regulation we have here that bands fleet flavored, sorry,

[52:31] vaping products that do not have pre-market approval.

[52:35] And so I just wanted to bring that to attention to the city council that that could also be an issue here,

[52:39] that even if we're going in for enforcement and we're looking at what they have,

[52:43] it's possible that they actually have products hidden underneath.

[52:47] So if you have a police officer, for example, go in, they might not actually see those products.

[52:52] So usually those are being hidden under counters for example and people might be asking for them and then they're bringing them out

[52:58] So again, we just wanted to thank the police as well as the city council for being so responsive and to just encourage you to keep up with these continued efforts to address

[53:07] I'm making sure these products are not available

[53:10] We know that they are specifically targeted at youth and I'd really like to see a future where we don't see a next generation

[53:16] It takes to do these products. Thank you. Thank you

[53:21] I'm

[53:27] just going to ramble at you for a couple more minutes while I can, since this may be

[53:30] one of the last times I get to do it, as I make my exit from this community after serving

[53:36] for 15 years. I do want to recognize and honor and thank this Council, Mayor, and staff,

[53:45] the City for its work, doing what—differenching between what is easy and what is right, and always

[53:53] driving to do what is right, and while we fight to do what is right, it is not always done perfectly,

[54:00] but the fight to do what is right. I honor your commitment to continuing to do that,

[54:06] even if it is not always done perfectly.

[54:11] I also say this, I have a serving for the DEI task force,

[54:15] and the HRC, the Human Relations Commission for several years. I do want to recognize the work of

[54:20] the HRC and value their commitment and integrity to always putting our marginalized communities

[54:27] first.

[54:28] Great fully Angie Casper's act is taking the helm over that and I believe it is in

[54:33] good hands to continue that good work forward.

[54:36] As I step away from my role or step back into the shadows a little bit from my role with the

[54:42] Gala Pride and Diversity Center, I also do want to call out and induce Jay Bird on my team

[54:47] like share, one name, Jay Bird, my director of operations that you'll see more and more of as

[54:52] they strive to serve this community. So I also want to recognize also with the work of the

[54:59] HSC and this and this city and our commitment to our diversity equity inclusion statement

[55:04] that in this space that we believe that all gender identity is our created equal, that black lives

[55:11] matter, that indigenous and brown lives matter, that we won't abide Islamophobia or anti-Semitism

[55:20] and that no person is illegal. And I thank you and honor the work that you strive so hard

[55:25] to put forward. Thank you so much, team.

[55:29] Thank you. You will be missed.

[55:33] Our final speaker is Basem.

[55:46] All right. It should be quite obvious that we are in the midst of an extreme and very

[55:50] very dire human humanitarian crisis on our hands with ongoing genocide in Gaza.

[55:55] At this point in time, we are at all hands on deck.

[55:58] Every single person in the world should be doing everything they possibly can to halt

[56:04] this terrible genocide.

[56:05] It is important to know that this genocide is nearly entirely funded, operated, and ran

[56:11] by the United States at all levels, federal, state, local, city, and that the universities

[56:18] and in particular Cal Poly.

[56:20] The economic operation of this country is dependent on

[56:24] waging war on innocents and sovereign citizens and

[56:27] countries in the Middle East.

[56:29] Many in this country have contributed to the genocide

[56:31] and operation to murder and steal land and

[56:34] resources from Palestinians and Arab countries,

[56:37] be it directly through military means and

[56:40] directly through tax dollars or by some other means.

[56:43] The school's businesses, residents of San Luis Obispo have

[56:46] a large part, just like every state and city, in contributing to this genocide.

[56:50] Make it absolutely abundantly clear that this is without a doubt a local issue and one

[56:56] for many cities across the United States.

[56:59] It is the main responsibility and duty of elect officials to prevent crimes like this from

[57:05] occurring.

[57:08] This, therefore, this city council should not be complicit with a genocide that is occurring.

[57:12] You have a choice in front of you to agenda a cease-fire resolution or not.

[57:17] This is really a litmus test.

[57:19] The rest of us are shaking on the inside as the atrocities that are occurring and doing

[57:24] everything in our might and power to put an end in immediate cease this genocide.

[57:30] As we should, do you?

[57:32] We know the benefits of passing a cease-fire resolution are numerous.

[57:36] The excuses are gone, no more hiding behind local technicalities, laws.

[57:42] You have the ability and choice to prove a ceasefire.

[57:45] Will you do the right thing or not?

[57:49] Thank you so much and thank you to all of the speakers.

[57:52] I do want to bring up if director Timmy Twey is here, or do you want to share around the city's code enforcement?

[58:02] Communication and what's available on our website?

[58:04] He has about the tenant renter education that we have.

[58:17] Thank you.

[58:18] Good evening, Timi Tue, Director of Community Development.

[58:21] So I heard the comments about renters in the community, and it's something we take very

[58:25] seriously, and I will always, always recommend that people please reach out to code enforcement.

[58:30] We have a safe housing team that is currently fully staffed, and they do a lot of work on both

[58:36] proactive education to renters in the community.

[58:40] I believe they've met with the renters coalition already and so that's an ongoing conversation that we're more than happy to have and also

[58:47] We can't help if we don't know about things and so reaching out to the city is really important so that code enforcement can

[58:54] Direct people where there are other resources. How the city itself can help and so I really encourage people to direct

[59:01] Reach out directly to code enforcement. I'll be outside if people want to come get my card and they can contact me directly

[59:07] So, great. Thank you so much. Councilmember Marks.

[59:12] Yes, I'm Director Toye. I don't want to escape. We were promised a memo at some point

[59:19] about a variety of different methods of tenant protection, and I'm just curious when

[59:26] Council can expect to actually see that memo. Yes, this is the evergreen question.

[59:31] We are working very hard on the memo as we speak in cooperation with the City Attorney's

[59:37] office, so I will look to the city attorney, but I think probably within the next month

[59:42] we could have that memo ready, and there will be a memo version for the public to see

[59:48] as well, which I think will be very educational for people to understand the current landscape

[59:52] for rental protections and options that exist.

[59:55] Yes, and what to give the council some guidance

[1:00:00] That's about some concrete kinds of measures that could be taken. Correct. That's what different alternatives exist. I really appreciate that. And it'd be great if it's before the students are back in the fall. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Stay right there. Councilmember Francis.

[1:00:18] Councilmember Mark Scott, tell all of my questions. So thank you. That was great. Thank you. Thank you so much. Okay. And with that, we're going to take a five-minute break.

[1:00:27] and then we will return to consent agenda.

[1:12:00] Well, thank you so much.

[1:12:01] We will get moving forward with our consent agenda.

[1:12:07] And on our consent agenda, we have numerous things.

[1:12:11] Hi.

[1:12:13] One of the items 5J, I would like to poll.

[1:12:17] I do have comments about 5K and 5L,

[1:12:19] but I'll go ahead and comment on those later.

[1:12:21] Anything else to be pulled?

[1:12:23] Vice Mayor Pies?

[1:12:25] Yes, I would like to pull item 5m, the Slack street for questions.

[1:12:32] Great, thank you, anything else?

[1:12:34] All right, so let's start with 5j, the parking, let me see if I get the official wording here.

[1:12:44] Sorry, once I do want to do the rest of the consent first.

[1:12:48] Yeah, we can do that, we can do that.

[1:12:51] So we're going to pull 5j and 5m, city clerk.

[1:12:55] Do we have any public comment on the other items, not including 5J or 5M?

[1:13:00] No, we have none.

[1:13:01] Okay, so move forward then with our motion, Councillor Schorsman.

[1:13:10] I'll go ahead and move approval of the consent agenda minus 5M and 5J.

[1:13:15] J.

[1:13:16] J. Thank you.

[1:13:17] Councillor France's.

[1:13:18] I'll second.

[1:13:19] Thank you.

[1:13:19] And before we move forward, I just wanted to highlight, sorry,

[1:13:28] 5L, the police in tobacco

[1:13:32] alcohol, sorry, police, tobacco and alcohol grants, I know someone earlier had commented

[1:13:38] about the alcohol and tobacco challenges we have at times and the fact that our police

[1:13:46] department is pulling together so many grants on safety and on traffic and alcohol and beverage

[1:13:53] control, as well as on tobacco and drugs. I just greatly appreciate your team's work

[1:13:59] chief. And we'll move forward to the vote, City Clerk.

[1:14:04] Councillor Nobler-Shoresman. Yes. Councillor Nobler-Francés.

[1:14:08] Yes. Councillor Nobler-Marx. Yes. Vice-Mayor-Piece.

[1:14:11] Yes, although I'm recusing from 5K, again, as I did for the first round.

[1:14:17] Mayor Stewart.

[1:14:19] Yes, and of course, I am still saying no on 5K because we are requiring versus incentivizing and

[1:14:27] the motion passes 5-0-ish with the two notes.

[1:14:34] All right, so moving forward back to 5J. That sounds funny to move forward and back to, but thank you for all of your patience.

[1:14:40] I would love to talk about the parking rates for just a minute, I am still very much in favor in us moving that forward, but I would like to hear from either

[1:14:53] city manager or from the transportation department around the time lines for.

[1:15:00] Before the item, the six items on page 194, when do we see the validation happening? What are the details of that, for example, city manager? Thank you, Mayor. Yes, I'd actually like our mobility services deputy director to come forward. We were able to pull together a few slides that we'll be able to go through in a little bit more detail on what the timeline is expected to look like for each of those bulleted items.

[1:16:15] There we go, and get evening Madam Mayor, members of the council.

[1:16:19] I'm Jennifer Rice, Deputy Director for Mobility Services.

[1:16:23] I'm happy to present a little update for you on the implementation of the parking rate study.

[1:16:29] So the team has been hard at work behind the scenes since last month's meeting.

[1:16:36] And so we'll just walk through.

[1:16:42] there we go. What we've been up to, I'll quickly go over this and then it'll also just move

[1:16:48] into some of those future items as well. So this month, the last couple weeks and then continuing

[1:16:56] through June, we'll be sending notices out and doing some outreach to existing garage permit

[1:17:03] holders. And that's just to notify them of the new rate structure in those parking garages.

[1:17:08] And then also as Whitney mentioned that that process is going to be going digital, so we'll be able to provide them information on that and those permits.

[1:17:19] The price will kick in for the month of July, but they can't be pre-purchased. So starting June 17th, those will be available for purchase.

[1:17:27] on the first of July, the rate will, sorry, the rate structure changes for the permits

[1:17:39] will kick into place for the garage for the $45 and then will also be implementing

[1:17:47] the three-hour time limit on the street which right now it's a two-hour maximum and it

[1:17:52] will be a three-hour maximum, will be reducing the validation price to the $1 per hour, and then

[1:18:00] while the rates for the on streets and structures will officially begin on July 8th, the first week of

[1:18:09] July we will be starting to work on rolling that out just so that we can test it and make sure

[1:18:15] everything's good to go by the 8th. And so during that time we'll have modified enforcement and

[1:18:21] will be really focusing on engaging with the community and providing education and just

[1:18:25] letting them know about the upcoming changes.

[1:18:28] And then July 8th will be the official start of those reduced rates that when he had talked

[1:18:33] about earlier for on-street and the structures.

[1:18:39] And then continuing on just the rest of those operational changes that are listed in the staff

[1:18:46] report.

[1:18:46] So what we're working on this summer is continuing to evaluate and then implement potential courtesy parking options at the Library and Civic Center.

[1:18:58] Also working with our existing consultant who worked on the parking rate study, Dixon and Limited, they will continue working with the city to prepare a technology road map.

[1:19:11] So that work has already started, we're already a little bit underway with that.

[1:19:15] We are continuing to work with our stakeholders with downtown slow and their task force,

[1:19:21] and then also the city's parking steering committee.

[1:19:27] At this time, we're also working towards reducing down to one mobile app vendor,

[1:19:34] and so we are working on developing just requests for best and final offer from the existing vendors that we have and we'll be working on selecting one of those with our stakeholders with the downtown slow task force and that parking is during committee.

[1:19:53] We'll also this summer be implementing phase one of overall sign plan, so we have two different phases for a comprehensive sign plan that we are planning.

[1:20:06] And so the first phase will be once we have selected just the single app vendor, then we will be implementing phase one, which is basically just rebranding the signs to be that one specific mobile app vendor.

[1:20:22] And then also at this time we're starting to look into what specifications and capabilities

[1:20:29] we're looking for an vendor that can provide a new gated system for all of our parking

[1:20:35] structures.

[1:20:36] So the 842 and the existing gate, also the 842, which is currently gateless, the existing

[1:20:43] gated structures, and then also what will be implemented in the cultural arts parking

[1:20:47] district structure. So currently what we're working on with that, we've developed some

[1:20:55] specific preliminary specifications that we want to see in a vendor and what capabilities

[1:21:01] that we're looking for. And so working with our consultant with Dixon Unlimited, we've

[1:21:07] set up several virtual trade shows this week that our parking staff is attending. And then next

[1:21:14] Next week, there's also an international parking conference that our staff will be attending

[1:21:18] so that they can meet and see demos of these from the vendors in person of the equipment.

[1:21:24] And so based on that, we're hoping to get a short list that we'll be able to take back

[1:21:29] to our stakeholders, the parking steering committee and downtown slow, and use that to really

[1:21:36] develop the specifications and capabilities list so that we can solicit formal proposals

[1:21:41] vehicles for that vendor.

[1:21:46] And then further into the winter 2025, that's one we'll plan to come back to the City Council

[1:21:52] with the final technology roadmap, that'll also be the time that if there are requests

[1:21:59] for funding or the need for additional funding that will bring those at that time, hopefully

[1:22:04] we'll be close to having a vendor selected for the gated systems at that time.

[1:22:10] And then once we have a final vendor selected for the gated systems, then we'll do phase two of the comprehensive sign plan to really read you all of our signs and make sure that those are clear and consistent throughout this city and throughout our facilities.

[1:22:29] One additional thing just to quickly run through is just some of our communications that

[1:22:35] we've been working on, so along with the operations, our team's been really busy

[1:22:39] on that, but we've also been very busy working on the communications, so we actually do

[1:22:45] have a whole year worth of communications plan already for how we went to communicate

[1:22:52] I'm going to give all of these changes and just promote and highlight some of the really just the exciting things that we're going to be able to offer.

[1:23:00] So in the summer, what we're focusing on right now and last week actually we were able to get out a business toolkit to the downtown businesses.

[1:23:13] and this was prepared and distributed to the businesses digitally through our

[1:23:20] relationships with downtown slow and the slow team row commerce.

[1:23:24] And then we also did door-to-door visits of over 80 businesses.

[1:23:28] So we were able to provide a lot of different information.

[1:23:31] And I think when you touch on some of this, but just some different tools for

[1:23:35] them to be able to help share the message about the new rates and

[1:23:38] some of the other exciting things that we have coming up.

[1:23:42] We'll also be recently and our first push of promotions for this month in June really

[1:23:52] is specifically about those on-street and then the parking garage rate structures just

[1:23:58] really getting that message out to everyone and so we're also incorporating that into some

[1:24:04] of the other things that our economic development team is doing.

[1:24:07] They have a support local campaign, and so we'll be promoting that along with them as well just to really

[1:24:13] Spread the message that we want folks to come downtown really invite them and incentivize them to come downtown

[1:24:20] And then also this summer will be really promoting that garage structure or the structure permit the garage parking permit

[1:24:29] About $45 a month parking it really is the best parking rate that we have and so we'll be doing some campaigns to really just promote

[1:24:37] that particular program as well and the fall will focus on promotion of whatever single app vendor that we've selected

[1:24:47] and then any promotions of any special discount that that app is able to provide so while we don't know what those are just yet

[1:24:56] we'll plan on promoting those at that time and then in the winter we will be promoting the free parking for the holidays

[1:25:04] and that's a program you're all familiar with but that will continue again this year

[1:25:08] along with the by local bonus so those will be things that we're pushing in the winter

[1:25:13] and then a year from now and this spring and summer of next year hopefully by then we have

[1:25:19] a vendor selected for the gated technology so then we'll really be pushing that communications

[1:25:24] and then just promoting different ways to validate parking and just get everyone down town.

[1:25:33] I got lots of things, and I just want to make sure that with all of that communication,

[1:25:38] will there be a non-digital communication as well, because of course not everyone uses

[1:25:43] social media, not everyone uses an app.

[1:25:45] So what does that look like?

[1:25:47] That was probably that, and the library about validation was probably my two main concerns.

[1:25:54] Yes, and for the question about what kind of information we're getting out, yes, we are,

[1:26:00] what we have pressed releases that have gone out and then any opportunity that we can

[1:26:05] to interview with the media, we take advantage of those opportunities and then we do have

[1:26:11] for certain of the campaigns depending what it is, we do have printed material either

[1:26:18] that we're sending out notifications to direct addresses or for example the downtown business

[1:26:24] toolkit that we created, we did have printed materials that we printed up and distributed

[1:26:29] to the businesses so that they can also distribute them to their customers, there's a postcard,

[1:26:36] they can put it in a shopping bag. So we are trying to be creative in the way that we get the

[1:26:40] messages out. And specific to the marketing and communications, there is a kind of ad hoc

[1:26:48] marketing team that downtown slow members have also helps kind of join up with us. And so they

[1:26:55] We have helped us come up with a lot of the messages and then reviewing the information

[1:27:01] that we're putting out and just recommending different ways to share the information.

[1:27:06] Awesome.

[1:27:06] Thank you.

[1:27:07] Councillor Schorzen.

[1:27:09] Yeah.

[1:27:09] I just wondered if, you know, in terms of that sort of in-person communication, non-digital,

[1:27:14] will we still have like the parking ambassadors that are kind of walking people through what

[1:27:19] the rates are and handing out flyers and that sort of thing?

[1:27:25] Yes.

[1:27:25] Absolutely.

[1:27:26] Yeah, so the next month that will be all of the parking staff and particularly those that are already out walking about in the fields are parking ambassadors and are parking enforcement officers.

[1:27:37] Being an ambassador and sharing these key messages is everyone's number one right now is to have that role of educator and advocate and just be letting folks know about all of the new rates.

[1:27:51] Thank you. I know that was one of Dickson's recommendations, and I think it's a good one. So thank you. Yeah. Definitely. Thank you. Councilmember Marx.

[1:28:00] Thank you.

[1:28:02] Yeah. I'm just curious if this information, it's a lot, and I want to applaud your parking staff for being very active right now and doing a lot on your plate for sure.

[1:28:13] but could you either create an agenda correspondence

[1:28:18] or put it on the website or something

[1:28:21] rather than just seeing it here at this one city council meeting?

[1:28:25] I know that when people ask me questions,

[1:28:27] I would love to have something I could just refer to easily

[1:28:32] rather than trying to remember, oh my God,

[1:28:34] all these different details.

[1:28:37] Okay, I don't know what you want to do,

[1:28:39] but just let us know how this is going to be available

[1:28:42] to the public in an ongoing way.

[1:28:45] Yes, we can send something out tomorrow.

[1:28:47] Okay, thank you.

[1:28:47] Nice work.

[1:28:49] Thank you, Councilmember Francis.

[1:28:50] I just have a quick one.

[1:28:51] I was wondering when the website is going to reflect some of the changes or maybe preview the changes

[1:28:56] since it doesn't have any mention that the parking rates have changed and it has all of kind of the old information on there.

[1:29:03] What's that?

[1:29:05] Probably after we build on it today.

[1:29:07] Thank you.

[1:29:11] I'm sorry, and yes it does have some of the preview of what's coming, but it will actually

[1:29:19] just officially change on the specific date, so like on the 8th it would change so that

[1:29:26] our website does always reflect what the current rates are.

[1:29:31] It may be a little preview of what's coming so people can anticipate those changes.

[1:29:35] Thank you.

[1:29:35] Yeah, that's a good idea.

[1:29:37] Yeah, thank you. Councilmember Shoresman.

[1:29:38] Just dad, that I pulled up the website right now,

[1:29:40] and at least if you're a local business,

[1:29:42] you can get the business toolkit right at the top

[1:29:44] of slosity.org slash parking.

[1:29:50] Thank you, Councilmember Shoresman,

[1:29:52] and thank you so much Jennifer.

[1:29:53] We appreciate your team's hard work.

[1:29:56] Okay, well, I think we can move forward to vote on

[1:30:00] On that, or do you want to go ahead and tie in Mnext? You want to do it together? Do you want to wait? Okay, let's go ahead and move forward. Do we have any public comments on 5J? No, we do not. Okay, and can we have roll call? Motion and second? Oh, sorry. Councilmember Marks, second, sorry. I'll second it.

[1:30:25] I'll second it. Who was the first?

[1:30:27] Thank you.

[1:30:28] I was.

[1:30:29] Okay.

[1:30:30] Sorry.

[1:30:35] Mayor Stewart.

[1:30:36] Yes.

[1:30:37] Council Member Marks.

[1:30:39] Yes.

[1:30:40] Council Member Pease.

[1:30:41] Yes.

[1:30:42] Council Member Francis.

[1:30:44] Yes.

[1:30:44] Council Member Shoresman.

[1:30:45] Yes.

[1:30:46] All right.

[1:30:47] The motion passes 5-0.

[1:30:49] Thank you to the team for giving us more information and all of your hard work.

[1:30:52] Moving forward to 5-M.

[1:30:54] Vice Mayor Pease.

[1:30:55] Thank you.

[1:30:56] I guess my question is about a little bit about process.

[1:31:00] this is the modifying the city limit boundary on slack street. And of course it makes sense

[1:31:09] to not have a change of jurisdiction in the middle of one's property for those new homes

[1:31:15] on slack. So I certainly support having some action move forward. I guess my question is,

[1:31:22] Is it all right to go ahead and go forward with a recommendation in terms of starting this process, but then we also need to understand a little bit better.

[1:31:35] It's not just, I mean, if the jurisdiction line is just moving to a line with Cal Poly's property line, that makes sense, but in this case it looks like our actual property line is in the middle of the houses.

[1:31:47] it's not just a jurisdictional move and so I'm hoping to have a better understanding of the value

[1:31:53] of that property that's being, you know, scooched over into Cal Poly ownership. So I want to

[1:32:02] understand the timing and be able to maybe get a little bit more information on that exchange.

[1:32:08] Great, thank you Councilmember Riverside City Manager McDonald.

[1:32:10] Thank you.

[1:32:12] Happy to give a little bit of overview and try to answer some of those questions.

[1:32:19] I know we also have a staff from our community development department here as well as representatives

[1:32:23] from Cal Poly who can provide more detailed answers to your questions as well.

[1:32:29] But you're correct that this really is a two-part process or there's really two kind of questions

[1:32:36] or approvals that are being requested of the city right now.

[1:32:41] What's being discussed is an authorization for staff to move forward and process this request to adjust the boundary line.

[1:32:48] At this point in time, we could leave the boundary the way it is.

[1:32:52] It really is the development of the property that would generate the need to do that.

[1:32:57] The project as a whole does include a request and a proposal that would develop some of these homes.

[1:33:05] the front yards in particular, the improvements along the street into what the city currently holds

[1:33:12] as a right-of-way in that area. It is not currently improved. Slack street is narrow and on that

[1:33:19] side of the street really is an unimproved right-of-way that we're not currently using. And so the kind

[1:33:28] of pluses and minuses or benefits that we've looked at and have been discussing are really kind of

[1:33:34] achieving housing goals of both the city and the university in helping them develop this site,

[1:33:41] which is very constrained from a geologic perspective. I know they put a lot of work into

[1:33:46] evaluating what could possibly be developed there based on the really unique geology of the site,

[1:33:52] and this was the project that I believe they were able to come up with that would fit onto the site

[1:33:59] without doing too much in terms of, you know, disturbance or making the project, I think financially infeasible, at least that's my understanding.

[1:34:09] So, what would happen is, they've requested that the city both adjust the boundary, which was actually more a request of the city, because like you said, it doesn't make sense for the city boundary to go in the middle of somebody's property.

[1:34:26] We generally try to avoid that when we can, and at the same time needing to also actually

[1:34:34] abandon that right of way so that it can be improved so the street could be whitened,

[1:34:39] the improvements up to our standard could be put in place, and then it would enable those

[1:34:45] properties to be developed to a single family home, so it's a multi-step process.

[1:34:51] This is really the first piece of it from the city's perspective.

[1:34:56] If we do receive direction to move forward, we will continue processing the applications both for the detachment from our just boundary line and jurisdiction and the abandonment application.

[1:35:10] It will come back to Council for approval because obviously if we're abandoning our right of way that requires approval by the city council as a whole.

[1:35:19] But I do believe that, you know, if there are concerns about that concept that best to hear it sooner than later, it would make a pretty significant impact, I believe, on their capital disability to move forward with the concept and what they've developed so far.

[1:35:38] So with that, hopefully that helps provide some answers.

[1:35:42] And if there's any more details, we can request either director Tway or maybe representatives from Cal Poly to help you answer.

[1:35:49] Yeah, and I don't mean to belabor it in this moment as long as we kind of get a better understanding.

[1:35:56] So in order to move forward and have that kind of better understanding about the valuation of that property,

[1:36:04] is that something that would naturally come forward at the next round?

[1:36:08] Or is that something we should specifically direct staff to come back and

[1:36:13] help us to understand what the right of way, the property that the city owns right now.

[1:36:21] What's the value there that is being scootsed over?

[1:36:27] Right, thank you.

[1:36:28] I don't absent giving that feedback in direction tonight.

[1:36:32] I mean, staff, we would not ordinarily go do say an appraisal of that strip of property,

[1:36:38] just thinking that the likely value, you know, although we haven't appraised it, but sometimes

[1:36:44] you look at even the likely value of the appraised property could exceed the cost of the appraisal,

[1:36:49] itself, depending on what might be going on there. And then in the conversations, you know,

[1:36:56] looking at the project as a whole, we just hadn't undertaken that work and probably, we

[1:37:03] would not, unless we received that direction tonight.

[1:37:05] Okay, thank you.

[1:37:06] So we can see if there are other questions, but otherwise it's going to be deliberate.

[1:37:11] Thank you, Vice Mayor Councillor Marks.

[1:37:15] Thank you.

[1:37:16] Yeah, I think this—I'm basically in favor of doing this, but I also wanted to make sure

[1:37:23] that we have an understanding, either hopefully in writing, that Cal Poly is going to pay for

[1:37:28] all of these improvements, the sidewalk, the improving the street, bike paths, Lord

[1:37:36] knows what else would be involved, and also the amount of city staff time that it takes.

[1:37:44] I think that I want to make sure that we accommodate Cal Poly and that we're good neighbors

[1:37:51] and at the same time that we protect the interests of the city and don't end up in a situation where we're just doing a lot of volunteer work for Cal Poly.

[1:38:00] So just asking if we can keep track of that because when I looked at the staff report and saw that the financial impact was zero, I thought, hmm, that's interesting.

[1:38:11] How could it possibly be zero? We have utilities, we have all these people down here, we have all the city staff doing all this work.

[1:38:18] There has to be a financial impact to the city for doing this, which again, I really think it makes perfect sense to do it, so not against it.

[1:38:28] Thank you.

[1:38:29] Good points, city manager.

[1:38:31] Thank you, yes.

[1:38:33] In terms of the costs of the improvements, certainly Cal Poly would be making them, you know, building them themselves.

[1:38:40] And so the street widening, the curb gutter and sidewalk pieces, drainage, all of those components of the project would be solely Cal Poly's cost.

[1:38:51] They are also paying our standard permit fees.

[1:38:54] And so in terms of the financial impact, we could have listed probably our permit fees that we have collected and then anticipate collecting as well through improvement plans, public improvement plans in our encroachment permit process.

[1:39:09] So they have applied for the right-of-way abandonment application and the detachment application as well.

[1:39:19] Oddly, we're in the process of completing our user and regulatory fee study.

[1:39:25] And so a question came up during that process.

[1:39:28] Hey, what is this right-of-way abandonment fee? Do we really need it? And we said, um, yes.

[1:39:32] Yes, we have an application coming in, so they have been paying our standard fees.

[1:39:47] Thank you very much for that clarification.

[1:39:50] Thank you, Councillor Schorersman.

[1:39:53] Thank you.

[1:39:54] Who knew that a little strip of land, so many questions.

[1:39:58] I thank you to the staff for addressing some of my questions in agenda correspondence similar

[1:40:04] to I think vice mayor pieces concerns about, you know, the value of that strip of land

[1:40:11] and when we would provide some feedback to staff about when along in this process that

[1:40:17] we would provide some feedback to staff about that element or other elements. Some of my

[1:40:21] questions and agenda correspondence were around the width of the new roadway, presumably the

[1:40:27] road would be widened a little bit along with adding the sidewalk and knowing that area

[1:40:33] pretty well. I know that the other end of Slack has some traffic calming on it. It's a little

[1:40:39] bit wider than it sounds like this part of Slack would become, but that part of Slack is also a

[1:40:46] downhill slant and with more houses on it. Not too many more car traffic trips, it sounds like 18 or so,

[1:40:54] but just wondering about all the other new family pedestrian and bike traffic that might be on that

[1:41:00] stretch of road and wondering when would be the right time to talk about whether or not the

[1:41:06] road as it's going to be is designed in a way that slows traffic down as it's going towards

[1:41:12] that intersection and makes it safe for the new pedestrian and bike traffic that's going to be

[1:41:18] on that stretch. And can we just tie in and the all the reports that I didn't see anything about

[1:41:24] lighting. I saw curbs and grading as you mentioned in sidewalks and I think lighting has always

[1:41:30] been a concern in that area, and then if you're going to add additional housing, but we see no

[1:41:33] lighting coming with it, it's a question. I know that's not part of today's conversation, but it

[1:41:38] ties into Councillor Schorzman's question.

[1:41:43] Thank you. This is a really wonderful time to raise

[1:41:47] these questions, and even the level of specificity around lighting, I cannot recall if the plans

[1:41:57] is currently called for a street light or two in that area.

[1:42:01] I know that our staff has looked at the plans at some degree of detail, but if they can

[1:42:09] certainly provide more information about things such as the design of the street and the width

[1:42:17] and how it addresses safety concerns in that area, I'm not sure if we're, I can probably ask

[1:42:23] our public work director, or I'm not sure if, I also saw nodding of heads from housing.

[1:42:35] I was actually, I mentioned our public work director who's looked at some of the plans,

[1:42:41] and if there are any more questions that he might or his staff might be able to answer about,

[1:42:46] the design itself of the street, and then if there are questions you have for, how probably

[1:42:52] representative?

[1:42:53] Sure, absolutely.

[1:42:54] Thank you very much, Pat Horn, Public Works Director.

[1:42:56] We have preliminary designs for the Slack roadway.

[1:42:59] It's a minor addition to the roadway with sidewalk and in a parkway for largely kind of

[1:43:06] post-construction runoff devices.

[1:43:09] Getting any feedback that you might have for us regarding different improvements that you

[1:43:15] like to see associated with Slack Street is wonderful to have.

[1:43:18] Right now our current design standards require lighting to be installed every 250 feet for new construction

[1:43:25] So that would be a standard that we look to implement with this project

[1:43:30] traffic calming

[1:43:31] Typically we kind of do that

[1:43:33] At after the construction is complete so we can actually measure

[1:43:38] Actual information and and address that and we typically do that with some sort of like note or bond or some condition

[1:43:45] That requires that to occur

[1:43:46] So if that's things, the council's looking for us to specifically focus in on it, I'd love to have the direction.

[1:43:54] Great, thank you. Councilor Schorspin, do you have any more question on that? Okay, great.

[1:44:00] And I saw head nodding around the lighting. Do you want to pop up here, Cal Poly and share that information?

[1:44:14] Hi, Mike McCormick with Vice President for Facilities Management and Development.

[1:44:19] The answer to the question is, yes, lighting is included in that.

[1:44:21] Undergrounding the utilities was included in that, widening the road is included, the sidewalks, the trainage, all of the standards that would come with the city street are included in the project.

[1:44:34] Great, thank you. I saw many things highlighted, but lighting, so I just thought I wanted to make sure.

[1:44:39] All right, well, without any other questions, is there a motion?

[1:44:43] Oh, sorry, were there any public comment?

[1:44:45] No, there's not.

[1:44:46] Thank you.

[1:44:46] She'd like 20, so.

[1:44:48] Council member remarks.

[1:44:51] I'd like to move the staff recommendation.

[1:44:54] Great, thank you, Councilmember Shoresman.

[1:44:56] I was just going to, we didn't really have discussion yet, and so

[1:45:00] I would like to, I'm not sure what it would look like, and maybe I look to public work structure and the C manager, but I would like to direct that part of the process be to look at what might be, I'm not a traffic engineer. So what might be the appropriate preventative measures that we could put in place to, you know, rather than spend too long after the road been put in and have people get hurt, like, look at that as part of the process of designing the roadway improvements so that we can

[1:45:29] and try to as much as we can prevent some accidents

[1:45:34] from occurring as those new houses get occupied

[1:45:36] and we have new residents on that street.

[1:45:38] So whatever that looks like

[1:45:39] in terms of adding that direction would like to do that.

[1:45:44] Great, thank you.

[1:45:47] Before I move to advice from your piece,

[1:45:49] do you actually need that as part of the motion

[1:45:52] or is that something that can be just considered direction?

[1:45:56] City manager, oops.

[1:45:59] I think we can consider that as just part of the direction that we've received this evening.

[1:46:04] Great.

[1:46:04] That's what I assume, but I wanted to make sure, thank you, vice mayor, please.

[1:46:09] So I guess I'm still not, the financial question is not resolved in my mind.

[1:46:15] I don't want to spin us down some road if the assessment of the property is more than the

[1:46:22] value of the property.

[1:46:22] It seems a little bit surprising.

[1:46:24] So I guess at this point I'm wondering if it's, you know, going forward with the motion as proposed and asking staff to provide some kind of a memo or analysis about what an appropriate next step would be and either it is at a level that staff can just address it or we might need to bring it back again if there's some genuine cost implications for abandoning this property.

[1:46:52] Thank you, City Manager.

[1:46:54] Thank you. I think it makes complete sense that as part of the abandonment application and process that will come back before you that we include information about the value of the property in some fashion that will be, you know, give people comfort or at least information about what we are exchanging and the value of what we would be seeing in the community or potentially seeing as a public benefit.

[1:47:20] benefit in exchange for what we would be giving up in terms of our right of way.

[1:47:25] So it's a completely reasonable request that we will go ahead and include in the analysis

[1:47:31] that's brought forward if we receive direction to move forward tonight.

[1:47:37] Are we getting some nods here?

[1:47:39] Oh, yeah, absolutely.

[1:47:40] I kind of assumed that after your initial comment and city measures comment, so just for my

[1:47:45] So without uncomfortable moving forward with the motion.

[1:47:49] Councillor Ember marks.

[1:47:51] Seconding it.

[1:47:53] Not yet.

[1:47:54] Not yet.

[1:47:56] I made the motion, yeah.

[1:47:58] All right.

[1:47:58] And then, but I don't think the direction to staff has to be part of the motion.

[1:48:03] Okay.

[1:48:04] No.

[1:48:05] So I will second it.

[1:48:06] And I.

[1:48:07] Okay.

[1:48:07] Do you have more?

[1:48:09] No.

[1:48:09] All right.

[1:48:09] We're good.

[1:48:10] Okay.

[1:48:11] Thank you.

[1:48:11] So I think we've given direction regarding evaluation, lighting, traffic, calming, and engineering, and we've got a motion in a second.

[1:48:20] Can we have roll call?

[1:48:22] Council Member Marks?

[1:48:23] Yes. Vice Mayor Pease?

[1:48:25] Yes. Council Member Francis?

[1:48:26] Yes.

[1:48:27] Council Member Shoresman?

[1:48:28] Yes.

[1:48:28] Mayor Stewart?

[1:48:29] Yes, and the motion passes 5-0.

[1:48:32] Thank you so much for the conversation, and thank you also to Cal Poly for being here to share a little bit of information with us.

[1:48:38] So we'll move forward now to the business items, item which is a large item.

[1:48:49] So every year, of course, or every two years, we do our financial plan, but every year when on the off year, we have the re-looking in our entire mid-year, what is our budget look like and what will our money look like going forward.

[1:49:03] So I greatly appreciate the hard work of finance writer Emily Jackson and her team and looking forward to hearing from budget analyst Riley Kuhn as well.

[1:49:17] And city manager Whitney McDonald will you be kicking us off?

[1:49:21] I will be. Thank you.

[1:49:23] And thank you for the introduction of staff as well.

[1:49:27] I know we're in the process here pulling up a couple of slides.

[1:49:31] And so I'll just like to, of course, acknowledge, as you mentioned, Mayor, the hard work of our entire team and staff as well as Council and the public in doing this evaluation of where we're at and looking forward to adopting our budget for this upcoming fiscal year.

[1:49:51] We really did accomplish a lot in our last fiscal year and included in our financial plan a number of major city goals and work plan items.

[1:49:58] The staff report and the attachments to the staff report really highlight a lot of that work as well and I think we have a lot to be proud of.

[1:50:08] Looking forward to our next fiscal year, we do forecast a balanced budget through fiscal year 2526.

[1:50:16] So included in our financial plan process, we do typically forecast out five years worth of what we look at in terms of our projected revenues and expenditures.

[1:50:27] and so we are pleased to announce and show that we are showing that balanced budget through fiscal year 2526.

[1:50:35] However, things do take a little turn, beginning in fiscal year 2627 with some projected deficits that may look maybe a little alarming,

[1:50:46] but they are cumulative, and so the potential adjustments that we might be looking forward to doing in our next financial plan will be really important,

[1:50:53] and we think should have those deficits off.

[1:50:58] Our recommendations do represent what we might consider to be a tightening of our belt.

[1:51:04] We did look at over about $2.2 million of requests coming from our departments for identified

[1:51:11] needs.

[1:51:12] And we've kind of really taken a hard look at all of those and come up with a much smaller

[1:51:17] number which you'll see presented in more detail later, less than $500,000 in either one

[1:51:23] time funding or potential ongoing funding for a few items that we really believe are

[1:51:30] critical and address really public safety means going forward in this next fiscal year.

[1:51:36] We've also included a true up of our capital improvement plan and that budget.

[1:51:41] We're calling it that because it's really aligning our projects and our funding to what we believe

[1:51:46] We will actually go into construction in the next fiscal year, so it's not anticipating

[1:51:52] not doing projects or on funding or, you know, setting them aside completely instead.

[1:51:58] We're really just trying to put the dollars where we believe they're going to make the biggest

[1:52:02] impact.

[1:52:03] I'm sure everybody has seen and experienced a lot of escalations and costs and we're certainly

[1:52:10] not immune to that.

[1:52:11] We've seen quite a lot of those projects coming back before Council needing additional

[1:52:15] funding. So we took an opportunity with this this budget in fiscal year to do that for really all

[1:52:22] of our projects and our capital improvement plan to make sure that we're doing the best we can

[1:52:26] to estimate and foresee the amount of funding we will need to actually bring these projects to the

[1:52:32] next phase. We've really focused on long-term sustainability of our programs as well and developed a

[1:52:40] a balanced budget using a number of strategies and approaches that we'll be looking forward to really implementing an even more detailed and upcoming financial plan.

[1:52:51] The last highlight here is, of course, the state budget may have some potential ripple effects on the city, really in the area of reducing funding to counties that then are provided for health and human services programs.

[1:53:05] and so those budget cuts do affect all of us and we may be seeing those impacts here as well.

[1:53:13] So with that, I'm happy to hand things over to our team here to go into our budget in more detail.

[1:53:20] Thank you.

[1:53:24] Good evening, and thank you, Whitney, for the introduction.

[1:53:28] This slide is just a reminder of the recommendation before your council this evening.

[1:53:32] consideration of the second year of the financial plan is required in our city charter, which requires that the city manager present your council a realistic estimate of what the what it will cost to fund all of our programs and services for the coming year and the hearing that you are holding right now is compliant with section 803 of the city charter, which requires the council hold a hearing and provides the public with the opportunity to

[1:54:02] to provide input on the recommended allocations before your council this evening.

[1:54:10] So, just like Whitney, before we kick things off, I really want to express gratitude to staff

[1:54:17] throughout the organization. The finance team is small but mighty and we can't get these deliverables

[1:54:24] before your council and the community without input from all of the departments.

[1:54:28] their great partners, really helpful.

[1:54:31] This represents really the culmination of several months'

[1:54:34] worth of work for everybody.

[1:54:36] And so really appreciate all of the efforts from our departments.

[1:54:39] And then certainly last but certainly not least,

[1:54:43] really appreciate the input and the guidance that your council has provided.

[1:54:48] We talk at least quarterly about the budget.

[1:54:51] Always very smart and interesting questions that you ask.

[1:54:57] and they prompt us to think a little bit harder

[1:54:59] and so really appreciate the guidance

[1:55:01] and the thought and consideration

[1:55:03] that you give to all things budget related at the city.

[1:55:09] So with that, I'm gonna hand it over to Riley

[1:55:12] who's going to walk us through the highlights,

[1:55:15] we'll tag team it a little bit

[1:55:17] and then I will step away so that Madeline

[1:55:19] can come up and present the CIP.

[1:55:22] Thank you.

[1:55:23] Mayor and member of the council,

[1:55:25] I'd like to start with an overview

[1:55:26] of the city's finances

[1:55:28] and I also want to use this opportunity

[1:55:29] be to revisit the purpose of operating with separate funds.

[1:55:33] The city generally operates with five separate funds and many sub-funds under those.

[1:55:38] The general fund is by far the largest and it's primary source of revenue comes from taxpayers.

[1:55:44] The services that the general fund provides are for a general community benefit.

[1:55:49] The enterprise funds operate separately.

[1:55:51] They generate provide services with a specific benefit.

[1:55:54] They collect revenue for providing that service and the general fund does not subsidize those so they do have to operate like a business on a standalone basis.

[1:56:05] And I'm also very happy to say that all funds are presenting a budget for the next year that are balanced within the meaning of the financial plan framework.

[1:56:12] So that doesn't mean that operating revenues cover operating expenditures.

[1:56:16] the framework also allows for the use of fund balance to cover capital expenditures.

[1:56:21] So you may see in some cases that our total expenditure budget is higher than revenue.

[1:56:25] We still consider that balanced.

[1:56:31] And the next slide, I want to revisit the mid-year adjustments from 23-24.

[1:56:35] Since we are entering the second year of the financial plan,

[1:56:38] we have to consider both the forecast for 24-25 that we laid out in that plan

[1:56:43] and any changes that we've already made to it.

[1:56:46] At mid-year, we made significant budget allocations of roughly 13 million.

[1:56:52] And line with policy, those were all one time in nature, so there is no impact to the next fiscal year from the mid-year action.

[1:57:11] Thank you.

[1:57:12] One of the other big changes compared to the financial plan is the ongoing work that we're doing to respond to the storms from early 2023.

[1:57:22] As has been reported on a quarterly basis, we're expecting to have about $35 million worth

[1:57:28] of damage that we need to repair, but we're expecting to spend those dollars over probably

[1:57:34] the next four years at this point, and at this point, have already expended $12 million

[1:57:40] on storm-related work.

[1:57:42] It's really important to note, of course, and I try to remind everybody of this.

[1:57:46] every quarter is that you know talking money away is not always the most exciting thing that we

[1:57:53] can do and we understand that that's not always most exciting for our departments and our community

[1:57:58] and the council but it's incredibly important. Part of the reason that we've been able to

[1:58:03] fund all of the storm repairs up until this point without impacting service levels to our community

[1:58:09] and our operating budget is because your council has been very careful to set aside that money

[1:58:14] and so we really appreciate your support.

[1:58:17] There's nothing like a good disaster to remind us

[1:58:19] of why it's important to set money aside.

[1:58:21] And so just another plug for the focus on financial sustainability

[1:58:28] and financial security in the long run.

[1:58:32] At this point, so I mentioned we spent just over $12 million

[1:58:37] on storm-related damage.

[1:58:38] We have, at this point, submitted over 17 million

[1:58:43] to FEMA for consideration of reimbursement that includes both projects that have been completed,

[1:58:49] where it's done, we know exactly what we spent on it. They have complete packages from us

[1:58:55] for reviewing consideration of reimbursement, but we're also transitioning now to submitting projects

[1:59:01] that either have not been started or are currently in progress, so that makes up the delta between

[1:59:07] what we have submitted. The purpose of submitting projects before they are completed is just to get

[1:59:15] them on FEMA's radar. The FEMA process is pretty long and arduous and so the faster that we can get

[1:59:21] some of these projects in front of them, the faster hopefully they can complete their review of course

[1:59:26] once we wrap up the projects will need to return to them with additional information and all of the

[1:59:31] the documentation and all of the final costs

[1:59:34] so that they can consider our projects fully.

[1:59:38] So it's been a very long year to get to this point

[1:59:42] between the finance department and public works

[1:59:45] and a handful of other departments.

[1:59:47] So we're making really good progress

[1:59:49] in our hope and expectation

[1:59:50] is that we'll have all of our projects,

[1:59:52] at least placeholders for all of our projects submitted

[1:59:56] by June 15th, and I hope to be able to tell you

[2:00:00] With our year-end report here in a couple of months.

[2:00:04] So, I want to move on to our, we'll talk first about

[2:00:10] the general fund, like Riley noted. The general fund is our largest fund at the city. It really

[2:00:18] funds core government services funded largely with taxpayer dollars and these programs and services

[2:00:26] that are budgeted in the general fund are ones that are intended to provide a community

[2:00:30] wide benefit. We provided a preview of the general fund forecast as well as the recommendations

[2:00:40] that you'll be reviewing in more detail this evening, and I'll turn it over to Riley

[2:00:45] to kind of walk you through and remind you of the details of the forecast. But I wanted

[2:00:50] to note before I do that that this is a slightly improved forecast compared to what you saw

[2:00:57] on May 7th. The reason for that is that on May 21st your Council adopted the cost allocation

[2:01:03] plan and cost of services plan for 2425. Those calculations indicated that the enterprise funds

[2:01:12] should be paying slightly more to the general fund to reimburse the general fund for the support

[2:01:17] that the general fund provides to those operations slightly more than what we had estimated at the time

[2:01:23] that the 23-25 financial plan was developed. And so that's why we had initially been projecting,

[2:01:30] as of May 7th, about an $8 million deficit by $28.29 that's been slightly reduced to $7.4 million.

[2:01:38] So still not great news. We understand that a deficit no matter how many years out is a little bit

[2:01:46] jarring and I want your council and the community to know that we take that very seriously.

[2:01:52] We're actively working on developing and identifying budget balancing strategies and approaches,

[2:01:58] which will be talking to your council about over the next several months as we get ready for

[2:02:06] We're 2527 budget development and we, one of the reasons we touched on this on May 7th

[2:02:17] that we're forecasting a deficit is that we're really starting to look ahead and plan

[2:02:22] for known costs that will be hitting us in the coming years.

[2:02:27] I think we all recognize that community is growing pretty considerably right now and with

[2:02:33] that comes and increased demand for services. And one of the most notable of those and the most

[2:02:38] certain of those is that we have an obligation to bring a fifth fire station online. That's a

[2:02:44] condition of our development agreement with Avola Ranch. And so we're actively working to

[2:02:51] identify the best manner and location in which to provide those services. And so for the first time

[2:02:58] With this forecast, we are including an estimated operating cost for that fifth fire station.

[2:03:04] I expect that as we have more certainty about other programs and services that will need

[2:03:09] to grow, we'll be communicating that to council as those figures are known.

[2:03:14] So that is largely the reason for the deficit that we're seeing in addition to the ongoing

[2:03:21] increase to unfunded pension liabilities.

[2:03:25] So with that, I will turn it over to Riley to walk you through the details of the forecast

[2:03:31] and for all of the funds as well as staff's recommendations.

[2:03:38] Thank you.

[2:03:40] As Emily said, the long-term forecast is really the most important tool that we use and

[2:03:44] as staff to inform the decisions that we recommend you to make.

[2:03:48] And so we did do some pencil sharpening since the last time we visited and are pleased that

[2:03:52] the deficit is slightly reduced, and I also want to remind everyone that the deficit that

[2:03:57] we see here is the cumulative effect of five years of unmitigated expenditures exceeding

[2:04:02] revenues, which we do not expect to happen, we fully expect to mitigate those expenditure

[2:04:07] growths before they become a reality.

[2:04:11] Last time we were here at Cancel also asked us to more clearly identify the drivers of

[2:04:16] the deficits that we're seeing and speaking to how we did that exercise horizontal analysis

[2:04:23] as comparison of year-veer growth rates, we see revenues growing in the long term around

[2:04:28] 3%. So any expenditure item growing at a greater than 3% growth rate is a clear driver

[2:04:35] of deficit. Obviously the fifth fire station staffing and operating costs are net new and

[2:04:41] a very obvious driver, eliminating those costs alone does not put us in a balanced budget.

[2:04:47] The mid-year forecast didn't contemplate a fifth-fire station. It still showed a deficit in the

[2:04:52] out years. One very clear driver is our staffing costs and particularly pushing our costs growth

[2:05:00] rate above 3% is the CalPERS pension obligations. That's something that I think is well known to us

[2:05:06] at this point, but almost entirely out of our control.

[2:05:10] Those growth rates are mostly dependent on the market and the assets that cut per

[2:05:15] his invests in.

[2:05:19] Also want to highlight just how much uncertainty remains in these numbers.

[2:05:24] We use robust financial models based on good assumptions and commitment to come to you to

[2:05:29] disclose those assumptions and pressure test them.

[2:05:32] We don't have a crystal ball.

[2:05:35] We often have to rely on those assumptions.

[2:05:37] We think that using the best information we have at our hands is the best way to make

[2:05:41] good decisions, but each iteration of the forecast will be better and better and as those

[2:05:47] deficit periods come across, we expect to be in a better position.

[2:05:55] Just want to highlight how important this is as our city grows that we are very thoughtful

[2:06:00] about putting our resources to the best and the highest possible use and this is how we'll

[2:06:05] continue to come to you to inform those decisions.

[2:06:12] We did have this forecast in mind as we contemplated recommendations to significant operating

[2:06:17] budget changes.

[2:06:19] Roughly $2.2 million of department requests came into the Financial Plan Steering Committee.

[2:06:25] And in light of the forecast, we asked departments to evaluate their requests quite critically,

[2:06:32] and lumped them to three categories.

[2:06:34] First, in these other requests you'll see before you were those that were so critical that

[2:06:38] they had to be addressed in the next fiscal year.

[2:06:41] And we also asked departments to defer their request to either funding with carry-over

[2:06:45] year end or the next financial plan wherever it was possible.

[2:06:49] The recommendations that we've made here are a representation of our laser focus on critical

[2:06:54] and immediate needs.

[2:06:56] And this is much lower than we've typically brought at a supplemental budget.

[2:07:02] We also asked departments to identify offsets for a lot of their recommendations here wherever

[2:07:07] that was possible. In many cases those were somewhat simple positions that were already

[2:07:13] funded as a contract and were making permanent have a very clear and identifiable trade-off.

[2:07:18] Sometimes those were somewhat more difficult to identify and this does represent some belt tightening

[2:07:23] for the city.

[2:07:27] And we'll dive into our enterprise funds next and I just wanted to reiterate

[2:07:32] these are intentionally separate from our general fund so that people who use the services of the

[2:07:37] enterprise fund pay them and people who choose not to do not.

[2:07:43] And we'll start with our water fund.

[2:07:46] The water fund, long-term forecasts, looks healthy and very little change.

[2:07:53] Please to present the balanced budget in the current year and out years.

[2:07:59] The water fund, because of their balanced budget, was not asked to identify offsets for their

[2:08:04] expenditures.

[2:08:05] They were asked to make critical and much needed changes to their budget.

[2:08:10] And I did want to highlight that the funding for the Nassumento Pipeline repairs is potentially

[2:08:14] reimbursement eligible from FEMA and Cal OES.

[2:08:18] And I also wanted to highlight that some of the recommendations that we have here will

[2:08:22] be seen across multiple funds that includes the water meter technicians, the FTE engineer,

[2:08:29] and the utility billing assistant as well as the rate structure study.

[2:08:36] Moving on to the sewer funds long-term forecast, we see a little bit more volatility in expenditures

[2:08:41] here and that is in the current year, a significant amount of spending on the water resource recovery facility,

[2:08:48] really impressive facility that will help us reduce methane emissions and better manage our waste

[2:08:54] that does show up in the out years in the form of debt service costs, so that facility was not free.

[2:09:03] The sewer fund balances and reserves, I do have to correct an error in the published document here in full transparency.

[2:09:14] Budget section 3, consolidated financials, tables 3.3 and 3.4 on budget page 13 misstated the sewer balance reserves and fund balance amount.

[2:09:27] I want to clarify that there is no impact any of the recommendations that we've made here.

[2:09:31] This is strictly fund balance and reserve.

[2:09:33] We're going to update the table and replace it, but we don't like to hide that type of action.

[2:09:41] Moving on to the SIVC recommendations for the sewer fund, and you will see, as I said, a lot of repeats from the water fund.

[2:09:49] We are also including the required vehicle cost, and I do want to state that when we add a position, we evaluate whether a vehicle is needed.

[2:09:57] did in this case, this position will be traveling, working outside the regular workstation regularly.

[2:10:05] To the extent that we can use pool vehicles for positions we always try to.

[2:10:14] The Transit Fund long-term forecasts is another item with some volatility.

[2:10:20] Their revenue streams are heavily dependent on state and federal grant funding.

[2:10:24] And their expenditures are pretty volatile just driven by the schedule of when we will purchase

[2:10:28] or replace buses, but happy to see that this budget is once again in balance.

[2:10:35] And we don't have any SOBC recommendations for the transit fund.

[2:10:39] Again, the critical evaluation of all SOBCs, there was nothing urgently needed for this

[2:10:44] fund.

[2:10:47] And finally, we'll visit the parking fund long-term forecast.

[2:10:51] The revenue budget for the parking fund reflects council's actions on May 14th.

[2:10:57] Similar to the sewer fund, we see a significant decrease in expenditures as we

[2:11:03] encumbered all funds to build the cultural arts parking district structure.

[2:11:09] And similarly, the expenditures to build the structure behind us,

[2:11:14] the debt service cost will be in front of us for many, many years.

[2:11:21] The parking fund has put forth three SOBC recommendations.

[2:11:25] questions, once again, quite critical and will support smooth and painless parking experience

[2:11:32] in the future.

[2:11:39] Moving on, back to our general fund and our local revenue measure, one of

[2:11:43] the largest sources of revenue for the general fund. These budget allocations generally reflect

[2:11:50] the community feedback collected during the 2325 financial plan process. The changes to

[2:11:58] operating allocations are driven largely by the employees in positions,

[2:12:02] their compensation and benefits changes, and any changes driven by turnover.

[2:12:08] And the capital changes are driven largely by the capital, true up, which we'll touch on next.

[2:12:13] I'm doing a highlight that this was reviewed with our revenue enhancement oversight committee just two weeks ago.

[2:12:19] And was supported with unanimous vote from all members present.

[2:12:26] And I will end on our major city goals.

[2:12:29] The development of the financial plan was heavily driven by the major city goals identified by this council and we're happy to report that we've made significant progress in those areas with 110 completed or ongoing tasks out of 146 total and ongoing was identified at the start of the plan tasks that don't have a finite completion date and we look forward to presenting in more detail on our major city goals at your end.

[2:12:58] Thank you. Thank you so much. And now we have Madeline.

[2:13:13] Thank you, guys, for having me. Madeline Kacentai and the CIP Admin Manager.

[2:13:18] And we have spent a great deal on the CIP true app.

[2:13:23] So thank you for allowing us to present tonight.

[2:13:27] Recently, the CIP division has experienced a lot of cost escalation on our CIP projects.

[2:13:35] and so during this supplemental budget,

[2:13:39] we took the opportunity to do a CIP troughup.

[2:13:45] Ultimately, the basis of our CIP troughup was to align

[2:13:52] the CIP staffing resources with our current project schedules.

[2:13:59] So ultimately, we don't want funding sitting unused

[2:14:02] in project accounts and want to utilize that funding towards projects that need those

[2:14:08] funding sources. And the way that we really did that was we took a look at projects going into

[2:14:15] construction prior to that July 2025 date and then projects not going into construction prior to that

[2:14:23] July 2025 date. So that's taking our funding needs versus funding opportunities. And July 2025,

[2:14:31] As you all know, is when our new financial plan kicks in, so that gives us an opportunity

[2:14:38] to look at all these funding needs again.

[2:14:42] Just to state staff did not reprioritize any existing CIP projects, and we're merely

[2:14:50] looking at project schedules that wouldn't otherwise be utilizing funding, and then all

[2:14:57] recommendations made in...

[2:15:00] This current budget are within their respective funding sources.

[2:15:14] Try and speak louder.

[2:15:20] The CIP troop needs, we found that 30 projects are going into construction prior to July 2025.

[2:15:29] We found seven new assets equating to $16.45 million across eight different funding sources.

[2:15:43] on table 7.1 and 7.2 of the CIP true up.

[2:15:49] You can find a detailed list of all of the funding needs.

[2:15:53] Today, I'll just highlight a couple of those.

[2:15:56] But if you have any questions after the presentation,

[2:15:59] we'd be happy to cover those.

[2:16:02] Mission Plaza enhancements.

[2:16:04] We previously received a bid back in April.

[2:16:08] that gives us reason to believe that we will require additional funding for that project.

[2:16:14] We're requesting this funding and currently we are advertising that project again,

[2:16:22] expecting to receive bids on June 13th.

[2:16:26] Ruggedi Community Park.

[2:16:29] Currently we are separating this project from a much larger project.

[2:16:35] that ultimately needs probably much more funding than we're requesting tonight.

[2:16:40] But we are trying to phase the project

[2:16:45] to prioritize the community's needs based on their feedback

[2:16:49] and give them a project with ultimately a place structure.

[2:16:56] So, phasing that community park project.

[2:16:58] 11-06, 11-06-Wolmet is seeking additional funding for the NRM Public Safety Center, and

[2:17:08] that is the TI tenant improvement inside of 11-06-Wolmet.

[2:17:13] And then the North Shore Greenway, we already touched on that previously in the City Manager's

[2:17:19] report, but ultimately we're seeking funding for two different things.

[2:17:23] One of them being the public art component of the project, and for that public art component, we have found another CIP project that would not otherwise be utilized, which is public art funded to offset that need, which is $225,000.

[2:17:44] That would only be utilized towards that public art component of the North Shore Greenway.

[2:17:49] And then the other part would be removal of the two eucalyptus trees and some construction management support on the project which would be taken from our CIP completed projects account.

[2:18:04] So kind of two different things going on with that project.

[2:18:12] During the process, we had to identify funding sources and trade-offs for all of our needs.

[2:18:19] Ultimately, we found 33 projects not going into construction prior to that July 2025 date.

[2:18:28] 12 accounts are projects with savings identified, equating to $22.7 million.

[2:18:35] Again, across eight different funding sources.

[2:18:37] And then just to clarify, these 33 projects that were ultimately borrowing against will

[2:18:45] be re-evaluated during the 25-27 financial plan.

[2:18:55] You can see all of the recommendations again on table 7.5 of your packet, but I'll cover

[2:19:03] a couple highlights and then if you have questions, we can go over more.

[2:19:06] We're getting Hillside Repair had a favorable bid result, which is not very common in our

[2:19:15] CIP department, so we'll give that some extra kudos today.

[2:19:20] So we have an ultimate, we will not need this $200,000 for the project, so we're recommending

[2:19:28] utilizing that towards projects that we'll need it.

[2:19:31] So, if you remember Sacramento Paving Drive Paving was funded during the mid-year budget

[2:19:39] this last year, and we have found an interim solution for those bike lanes that seems

[2:19:47] to be holding up, and we are actively checking that to make sure that it's okay, and that

[2:19:53] is going to be added to the 2025 Paving Project.

[2:19:57] If we were to pave that road during this time,

[2:20:02] during the 2025 Paving Project,

[2:20:04] we would basically come back and rip it out and repave it.

[2:20:08] So, we're happy we found that interim solution.

[2:20:12] The parking pay station installation project,

[2:20:16] we still don't know what technology we're using.

[2:20:19] So, ultimately, we're holding on to that project.

[2:20:22] And so, the funding would not otherwise be utilized.

[2:20:26] Also, during our mid-year budget, we said that we would try and find some CIP projects

[2:20:32] to offset the reduced parking rates, so this would be that project.

[2:20:38] The full 600,000 would go back into the parking enterprise fund to support the reduced parking

[2:20:45] rates.

[2:20:46] The Worf Wastewater Collections Maintenance Facility, we're recommending $6 million to

[2:20:53] go back into the sewer unreserved capital account. That project, ultimately, the wastewater

[2:21:02] collections maintenance facility needs to be removed as part of the Proto-InnerChange

[2:21:07] project because we don't need to do that project quite yet. Not during this financial plan, nor

[2:21:15] are the plans ready for this facility to go into construction. That funding will be utilized

[2:21:22] towards some future planning for the Utilities Department.

[2:21:30] We take great pride in serving the community,

[2:21:33] and we've been able to create new parks, parking structures, paved roads, and much more.

[2:21:41] We have 33 projects currently in design, just in the CIP division.

[2:21:47] Three projects are currently advertising, and we have 17 projects in active construction.

[2:21:53] We'll continue to carry out the CIP and deliver tangible results for the community.

[2:22:01] So thank you guys.

[2:22:05] Thank you so much and really appreciate seeing all the different projects and

[2:22:09] how the money can be utilized in a way right now to continue to work on projects.

[2:22:15] So I really appreciate that I asked a lot of questions of Mr. Horn and Mr.

[2:22:22] Ms. Jackson and continuing to look at how do we make sure that the money still comes back when those projects are ready?

[2:22:30] So, thank you very much, Ms. Jackson.

[2:22:34] Yes, thank you.

[2:22:35] I'll just wrap up our presentation this evening.

[2:22:39] Just want to foreshadow what's to come with budget.

[2:22:42] So with adoption of the second year of the financial plan this evening,

[2:22:48] We will then transition to starting to prepare for year end.

[2:22:53] The fiscal year ends obviously on July 30th and we'll be back before your council in early October to present to you on where we ended the year both from a financial perspective and also touch again on our major city goals like Riley noted.

[2:23:09] And then it will be a foot race to get to next June when we will present formally the next to your financial plan for

[2:23:17] fiscal year 2526, 2627 to your council. There's a number of checkpoints that we will have

[2:23:27] as we typically do a robust community engagement priority setting process. And so we will have

[2:23:34] a lot of opportunities here in the coming months to have some more budget discussion in particular

[2:23:40] talk openly with your council and the community about some of our proposed budget balancing

[2:23:48] strategies and approaches.

[2:23:50] We're good to get some of those established that we can use year over year, just additional

[2:23:54] policies in our tool belt I think is always helpful and we look forward to those discussions.

[2:24:00] So with that, that concludes staff's presentation and we are all available and we've got representatives

[2:24:06] from all of our departments available, should your council have any questions about the recommendations that are before you this evening? So, thank you.

[2:24:16] Thank you so much. Thank you to all three of you for a great presentation, and I will bring it back to my colleagues for any questions.

[2:24:25] Councillor Schorzen.

[2:24:30] Yes, thank you for the very thorough presentation, and it helps to have just seen this sort of a preview a few weeks ago.

[2:24:38] So thank you for that, really helps prep us for all this and then thank you also for

[2:24:44] all the staff that assisted with the agenda correspondence and answering all the questions

[2:24:49] in writing before the meeting.

[2:24:52] Question about transit in particular, I don't know who wants to come up and answer this,

[2:24:58] but it was mentioned that there's no SOBCs.

[2:25:03] We had for transit, we had a speaker earlier talking about how we need to improve transit.

[2:25:08] We saw the Transit Innovation Study not too long ago, and it had lots of proposed things

[2:25:14] that we will want to do in the future.

[2:25:17] So if there's no plans to move forward at least right now in the supplemental budget

[2:25:22] for some of those efforts, would we be looking at those for the next financial planning process

[2:25:27] or when would we have the chance to look at those?

[2:25:30] Sure, absolutely.

[2:25:31] Matt Horn, Public Works Director, speaking on Bafford Transit.

[2:25:34] There are no SABCs, and that's really intended because we are currently working on our short range transit plan,

[2:25:41] which will come before Council on July 16th, hopefully incorporating all of the route changes,

[2:25:46] the enhanced services that we want to provide throughout this current or the next fiscal year,

[2:25:53] leading up to the 25-27 financial plan.

[2:25:55] You'll likely see items in front of your Council for additional grant funds that we may be programming for different items.

[2:26:01] And so, there be continual budget actions through the next fiscal year to address transit

[2:26:07] kind of ebb and flow of grant funds.

[2:26:10] There's nothing specifically that we want to address with the supplement.

[2:26:14] We largely included in the 2527 when we have the new short range transit plan.

[2:26:19] We know this new service amounts.

[2:26:21] We need to RFP for a new vendor to provide those services and all of that will be incorporated

[2:26:25] with the next financial plan.

[2:26:28] Thank you.

[2:26:29] The next question I had was about the beginning of the presentation, I believe you were talking

[2:26:36] about the ongoing costs and how our forecast puts us in a deficit. At least right now,

[2:26:44] it's a smaller deficit than what you projected about a month ago in 2627 but still a deficit.

[2:26:50] You talked about some of the main drivers of that being the planning for the fifth fire station

[2:26:56] and CalPERS and I think CalPERS is sort of our obligation there is sort of an elusive

[2:27:03] thing that people don't understand and you mentioned that it's largely out of our control

[2:27:12] although it is because we have to pay for those expenses for the staff that we have but it

[2:27:18] is impacted correct by all the cost of living adjustments and all of the new staff that

[2:27:24] that we add and so not that we don't need all of those and that the staff don't deserve

[2:27:29] all those, but there are some factors that we have to take into consideration and put

[2:27:37] us in the position that we are in, correct?

[2:27:39] Yes, you're absolutely right and I appreciate you bringing that up.

[2:27:43] Many factors go into the actual models at CalPERS, some of which I understand most of which I

[2:27:48] do not, but certainly increasing our compensation budget does increase our unfunded liability

[2:27:54] will be absent any other action, that's true.

[2:27:57] And so I think our current plan is to pay down what we're supposed to each year, and

[2:28:05] that is figured into the budget, and then there's also a $2 million extra payment that we plan

[2:28:12] to pay every year to try and chip away at that unfunded liability a little bit more quickly.

[2:28:19] So maybe you could just talk about, I think there was some reference in the report that if we continue to pay down at the rate that we are paying down now, it'll take us longer to do so.

[2:28:31] Can you just talk about that a little bit and explain that?

[2:28:34] Yes. And so for some context we actually make three payments to CalPERS. First we make

[2:28:40] a withholding payment for every paycheck. Second, we make an annual required payment against

[2:28:45] our unfunded liability. And third, under our fiscal health response plan from 2018, annually

[2:28:51] we make an additional $2 million additional discretionary payment. When we set that policy,

[2:28:57] The $2 million was some percentage of our staffing budget.

[2:29:03] It's since grown roughly 50%.

[2:29:04] So we're getting roughly 50% less benefit from a flat $2 million payment.

[2:29:10] If we were to grow that with our staffing budget, we might be looking at a $3 million payment.

[2:29:16] So to read between the lines, well, you did just say it.

[2:29:19] We really need to probably look at some point and increasing that to make more progress on our unfunded liabilities, yes.

[2:29:26] Okay, thank you. I think that's it for now.

[2:29:29] Thank you, Vice Mayor Peas.

[2:29:33] Thanks, I want to maybe, we did get great agenda correspondence and I had agenda review

[2:29:40] this morning so thanks to everyone for answering questions.

[2:29:43] I would like to kind of ask the question in order to queue up the slow rep has requested additional

[2:29:51] funding, which we'll deliberate on later, but I think we've had some correspondence

[2:29:59] It's about...

[2:30:00] What's the best, where would that money come from, depending on how much it is? And there was specific correspondence about kind of the current commitment of the infrastructure investment fund versus saying more of a staff direction of incorporating it in as a capital project in the next financial plan. And I'm wondering if you could, if somebody could kind of compare those

[2:30:29] to approaches, if there were, to be additional funding?

[2:30:36] First, a little bit.

[2:30:37] Sure.

[2:30:38] Thank you, Mayor and Council members.

[2:30:39] I think we have a slide that just summarizes some of the information that we sent out via

[2:30:42] an interdependent correspondence.

[2:30:44] I'll just note that it's described in much greater detail and available online for those

[2:30:48] who are interested.

[2:30:49] But we have three options.

[2:30:50] And just for context, I would say that those options go from sort of most specific to least

[2:30:55] This is specific as relates to both timing, funding source, and what those trade-offs are.

[2:31:02] The first option would be to fund all or part of the request from slow-wrap by designating

[2:31:08] a portion of the infrastructure investment fund that is currently dedicated to the Prado

[2:31:11] Road Bridge widening project, and use that to fund the additional grant funds being requested.

[2:31:18] What we would do if we received that direction would be to return to Council on September.

[2:31:22] We would have an amended grant agreement that the council would use as a mechanism to

[2:31:26] commit those funds to slow rep.

[2:31:29] And then we would also propose that council really prioritize backfilling that project

[2:31:33] because that's ultimately a project that will end up needing to move forward with.

[2:31:37] And we would recommend that council does that by prioritizing the use of any one-time funds

[2:31:42] that become available as a part of our year end process.

[2:31:45] That finance director Jackson was just referring to.

[2:31:47] If we did not have one time funds available, we would then need to return to council

[2:31:52] its subsequent budget hearings to identify additional trade-offs likely through our capital

[2:31:56] improvement project and what those projects would look like so that we can again accomplish

[2:32:00] the Prado Road bridge project which is slated to begin construction and fall of 2025.

[2:32:05] The second option that's up on the screen is a bit more flexible. Should the council want to move

[2:32:12] forward with that and that is to designate a project as a part of the 25-27 financial

[2:32:17] plan that would provide the funding all or in part to slower up for that project, but

[2:32:23] ultimately we would determine which projects would not move forward because they would not

[2:32:27] receive funding out of our capital improvement project budget as a part of the development

[2:32:32] of the 25-27 financial plan.

[2:32:35] And then the last one is probably the most broad and flexible and that is really to direct

[2:32:39] Again, come forward, which will do regardless of any direction received to amend the grant agreement to provide that commitment to slow rep,

[2:32:45] which is something that they need to be able to move forward with their other fundraising efforts.

[2:32:49] The ultimately determined timing, funding source and trade-offs through one of several different budget hearings that will have before slow rep would need to draw down on city funding,

[2:32:59] which is estimated to be in early 2027.

[2:33:03] Generally speaking, our recommendation and council would be that more clarity is typically

[2:33:08] better and more specificity to all parties involved but we're happy to take direction

[2:33:13] on whatever the council would prefer.

[2:33:16] Can I ask a follow-up question with that?

[2:33:18] So I just want to make sure I'm hearing this correctly.

[2:33:20] So I kind of look at B, similar to the CIP true up that was just discussed at the future

[2:33:27] day, is that correct?

[2:33:31] Correct.

[2:33:31] And I think that there's also a potential where we would move forward with the first option.

[2:33:35] And again, should one time funding not be available, we'd be effectively going to that second option to be able to find those additional funds in time for the Proto Road Project.

[2:33:44] Right. And then the Proto Road Project, sorry, the Proto Bridge Project has to be started by 26, is that correct?

[2:33:52] Or is it slated to start by 26, let me put it that way.

[2:33:58] Or slated to start in fall of 2025 on that project.

[2:34:01] Okay. Thank you so much. And thank you. Those were my questions.

[2:34:09] Thank you. Councilmember Francis.

[2:34:14] Come back to the slow rep discussion shortly, but I just want to circle back around to the

[2:34:18] projected budget shortfall in the out years. And I think you guys really covered well that

[2:34:24] that is projected based on essentially doing nothing at this stage. And you spent some time

[2:34:30] with me kind of explaining the methodology that we plan to use to address that shortfall.

[2:34:35] but maybe if we could get into the weeds a little bit, just for the public to understand what's the process that we're going to use.

[2:34:41] What does that look like to start to address how we close that gap and how do we know if we're successful in beginning to chip away at that gap?

[2:34:56] Yes, thank you for the question.

[2:34:58] And so we expect that as soon as we have the budget adopted for the coming fiscal year,

[2:35:04] we are going to start working on developing a set of budget balancing strategies and approaches.

[2:35:09] There's a lot of good examples out there, especially right now.

[2:35:14] We deputy city manager, Herman and I like to exchange headlines throughout the weeks about deficits that other jurisdictions are facing currently.

[2:35:25] And so, those are always really informative because it's really interesting to hear what other agencies are doing.

[2:35:32] So, we have, I think, some good examples, we have good policies already.

[2:35:38] We have some good examples locally between the county and the city of Pasarobles recently adopted a set of budget balancing strategies.

[2:35:46] And so, I think we have a lot to draw from.

[2:35:49] We will be checking in with your council, getting your input.

[2:35:53] but what is your comfort level

[2:35:55] with the different strategies we're proposing?

[2:35:58] Ultimately, what's important from a budget balancing policy

[2:36:06] really is that it's flexible enough to help us

[2:36:10] both one times are good and we have additional money

[2:36:13] and making sure that we're spending down

[2:36:16] that money appropriately, if it's one time money

[2:36:19] used for one time purposes,

[2:36:20] but also, you know, helping to guide us in times when, in times when budgets are a little tighter.

[2:36:28] And so we're going to be looking at both sides of that equation because I think it's really important

[2:36:32] that one times are good that we do what we can to maintain that and avoid the down years,

[2:36:38] but certainly need to be ready for those down years as well.

[2:36:42] And so, you know, in addition to policies that address both good times and bad,

[2:36:49] will also be looking at what are some long-term solutions and some short-term

[2:36:54] solutions. Typically short-term solutions are used at the outset because they buy

[2:37:01] us more time to figure out what the long-term solutions are. And so the good

[2:37:07] news is that we do have reserves that we can draw from. We have an operating

[2:37:12] reserve which we're still trying to build back because we use a portion of it to

[2:37:17] respond to the storms. And we also have a revenue stabilization reserve that currently has

[2:37:25] $2 million in it. And I think that, you know, as a part of budget balancing, we probably need to

[2:37:31] consider, you know, do we need to increase that amount so that we've got more funding available

[2:37:36] there for the out years when things potentially get a little bit more difficult. But, you know,

[2:37:42] The goal overall is to just chip away at it slowly over time, and I think that if we're

[2:37:48] very carefully considering our opportunities to generate additional revenue, whether

[2:37:56] it's through enforcement of various programs, there's opportunities there as well as taking

[2:38:04] a look at the expenditure side of the equation, we're not dissimilar from a lot of organizations

[2:38:10] and that there's a lot of practices that we put into place during COVID and I think it's

[2:38:16] time to evaluate whether or not those still make sense. As an example and I was sharing this with

[2:38:22] our public works director, our offices down stairs and finance are getting cleaned every single night

[2:38:31] and I've had just very initial conversations with my staff and we're of the mind that we don't need

[2:38:39] to come together as a leadership team

[2:38:41] and engage with our staff as appropriate to determine

[2:38:44] what are the things that we're doing

[2:38:45] that currently aren't serving us

[2:38:47] and what do we no longer need to be doing?

[2:38:49] And so I think there's a lot of opportunity there

[2:38:51] to take a look and tighten things up on the expense side as well.

[2:38:56] Excellent, really.

[2:38:56] I look forward to hearing some of the results of that process.

[2:38:59] Thank you so much.

[2:39:00] My last question.

[2:39:02] Yeah, I think I've been, I think,

[2:39:03] see, manager, like to add to that.

[2:39:06] Thank you.

[2:39:07] I don't have too much to add

[2:39:08] because, of course, it's a fantastic response.

[2:39:11] You know, I think we all know as well that, as Dr. Jackson mentioned, you know, it's either

[2:39:19] looking at our expenditures or our revenue and looking at increasing revenue and reducing

[2:39:23] expenditures, and it's likely a combination of both of those items that we'll need to be looking

[2:39:28] at can get very complicated, that sounds super simple, but there are many different factors

[2:39:35] that go into them, and so there's different strategies that we can employ on the revenue side,

[2:39:41] you know, we do have our user and regulatory fee study coming forward to counsel anticipated

[2:39:45] on July 2nd. That's one avenue that we would look at in terms of revenue generation.

[2:39:52] That's not going to save us, so there's lots of other things that we need to do as well.

[2:39:58] I also just wanted to mention that a big part of why and how we are here now is that

[2:40:06] We did expend a lot of our reserves on responding to the storms.

[2:40:11] That was obviously a major event, you know, literally two major disasters within a few

[2:40:16] months of each other, and the city took a really kind of aggressive response to make sure

[2:40:22] that we were providing a safe community, really helping to clean and address these issues

[2:40:30] and major capital projects that we did not anticipate doing.

[2:40:34] And so the reserve served their purpose, which was to enable us to respond as we needed

[2:40:39] to to address an emergency.

[2:40:43] We are looking at really recouping the reserves that we spent down in one fiscal year or hoping

[2:40:50] to do that.

[2:40:50] And so another, you know, hope and strategy is hoping that we do receive more reimbursement

[2:40:56] back from FEMA on some of our projects and, you know, we could look at, I know a number

[2:41:02] of jurisdictions might look at taking a few years to try to rebuild that, so that's just to kind

[2:41:07] of provide a little bit more of that sort of background of how do we get here and what are we

[2:41:12] looking at over this next fiscal year trying to come back from the disaster that occurred here

[2:41:18] just last year. So I think for those of us kind of here and in these roles we look forward and maybe

[2:41:28] a, you know, masochistic way of jumping into our next financial plan because we know there

[2:41:37] are ways that we can address this. We just have to go through that exercise and really

[2:41:41] look forward to bringing those solutions forward because it's definitely doable. As

[2:41:48] mentioned, you know, the community really did make a choice to invest in ourselves through

[2:41:55] measure G, and without that funding, we would be in a very different place. And it is

[2:42:00] another just amazing resource that we have in addressing the needs, so it's all doable.

[2:42:08] Thank you for that additional context and explanation.

[2:42:12] I wanted to ask a question about the housing matrix that was included at the end. I don't know

[2:42:18] if Director Chui wants to tackle this one. I was thrilled to see all of the work that you all have

[2:42:25] put in to kind of figuring out what's already part of the programming versus what would require

[2:42:30] additional resources and kind of looking at all of those. And I had an opportunity to chat with

[2:42:35] you all about this already, but because it's included in the agenda packet, I thought a little

[2:42:39] clarification might be helpful here. There's a lot of the items on there or items that I think we've

[2:42:45] heard from the council we were really excited about and some were just a result of a single public

[2:42:50] comment or throwing, you know, essentially darts at the dart board of like, hey, with this work.

[2:42:56] And so I just was looking for a little clarification on just because it appears there doesn't

[2:43:01] necessarily mean it's part of our work program yet, or maybe you could have given us an explanation.

[2:43:06] Absolutely. That's a fantastic question. So, you know, several meetings ago, we brought forward a study

[2:43:14] session about housing needs and opportunities in the community and that resulted in council asking

[2:43:18] for kind of a matrix of ideas, both things that are already in our work plan, coming up in a

[2:43:24] work plan or things we could think about for the next work program. And so we did that and we got

[2:43:31] some excellent feedback from members of the community that either wanted to, you know, say pursue

[2:43:37] this idea or here's another thing to think about. And so the result of that attachment C, I believe,

[2:43:43] to the staff report today, is a revised housing matrix where we've added some commentary

[2:43:48] carry on some of the comments we received from the public.

[2:43:51] I think the good news is there are some really concrete things that came out of the last

[2:43:56] two council meetings that were easy for us to add into existing work programs because

[2:44:00] there were just suggestions on how to go about some of the things we were already doing.

[2:44:04] So we in red test text in attachment C you'll see we added where we can accommodate some

[2:44:10] of those ideas that we heard from all of you or from the public and that really was already

[2:44:16] in line with what we were doing.

[2:44:17] So, we didn't change the intent of any of the work program items.

[2:44:21] And then you'll see that we did include several of the ideas at the end of the matrix and

[2:44:27] this is under the section called long term potential future work program items.

[2:44:35] So, they are a long way of saying we aren't doing these things yet.

[2:44:39] But things that I hope to, you know, these seeds have been planted both at the council level

[2:44:44] and staff level and we as staff can continue to develop them and see if it's something that

[2:44:49] the council would like to include in our next work program.

[2:44:53] So we're kind of using this matrix document as a holding place for ideas and then as we

[2:44:57] We continue to vet out major city goals.

[2:45:00] Work program items, we can see what rises to the top as being what you are all interested in us working on in the next work program. Excellent. So, council will have another opportunity to kind of really get into that and figure out what really fits our priorities the best. Exactly. Awesome. Thank you so much. Great recap. Council, Mr. Horseman. Thank you. Yeah, sorry. I thought I had all my questions answered until this slide was put up. And then I know I have a couple of more just to clarify what we're getting

[2:45:29] I think I understand option A that would essentially be taking funds from an already designated project and putting it towards slow rep and then going back later and assuming we have funds at the end of the year or at mid year or some other time we would replenish the funds that would be going to the bridge.

[2:45:54] The second option sounds like to me we would be basically putting the whatever amount

[2:46:04] we decide to give to slow rep into our capital budget, and that would mean, as it says

[2:46:10] here, trading it out for something else that we have.

[2:46:13] You did the true up to just kind of see how we can most effectively use the money that we

[2:46:18] We have now on projects that we need to do first, but this would be probably bumping something or more than one thing out of the way in order to provide slow rep the funds, is that correct?

[2:46:33] Like a re-prioritization?

[2:46:35] Yeah, effectively, we would take the $25-27 financial plan and whatever dollar amount we would be allocating towards slow rep.

[2:46:45] we would find out a way to fund slow rep through that financial plan, so it might not,

[2:46:54] it might mean not funding as many CIP projects as we could otherwise. Correct.

[2:47:01] Okay. And then option C, to me, sounds like identifying a funding source later. So making slow rep

[2:47:11] a promise, so to speak, and then going back in, say, at the end of the year on October

[2:47:19] 1st, when we look at what unobligated funds we might have at the end of the year, or at

[2:47:24] the mid-year, during that process, taking some of those unobligated funds, whatever amount

[2:47:30] we deem maybe tonight, and if there are unobligated funds using those funds, is that right?

[2:47:41] Yes, correct. And with that option, and if you look out towards a longer-term time

[2:47:46] horizon of when slope would actually need those dollars, there would actually be subsequent

[2:47:50] mid-year updates. So we would do between now and then. So there would be multiple opportunities

[2:47:55] at which we could realize some savings and be able to allocate those towards the project.

[2:47:59] Okay, that was my last question. Is when are we anticipating that they would need,

[2:48:09] oh,

[2:48:09] need those funds. Early 2027, so think sort of quarter one January

[2:48:14] February of March of 2027. Okay, and then the last one is kind

[2:48:18] of a crystal ball question, so I will be surprised if you have no idea. But part

[2:48:23] of the reason, well a big part of the reason, the main reason that they're now

[2:48:27] needing additional funds from the city is because of inflation costs and construction

[2:48:32] cost rising. So any crystal ball around between now and the time they get a cost

[2:48:39] We would, you know, trends that we're seeing with inflation costs that could help us make this decision.

[2:48:46] Yeah, I'm happy to answer that. Actually, we've spent a long time with the folks at Slow Wrap and I want to thank them for their sort of transparency in this process to best understand how we could advise council.

[2:48:56] Should we all, should we receive direction to go forward?

[2:48:58] As a part of that, they included not only what we feel like is a reasonable contingency for the construction project alone and that matches the contingency that we use for city construction projects.

[2:49:07] but also an estimation of what the inflation would be in construction costs for similar projects, given the amount of time that will happen between now and when they would actually go to construction of the project.

[2:49:22] I've had the opportunity to confirm those assumptions with our public work structure.

[2:49:27] just is sort of a true up gut check and so I do feel like there is adequate both contingency

[2:49:33] on the construction side and in terms of assumptions for construction cost inflation to give us

[2:49:40] confidence that this is a a reasonable number that's been put forward from solar app.

[2:49:45] Okay last or not least I said I was done but I'd one more. Do we already I believe it said in the

[2:49:51] staff report but we generally have a policy that we follow for designating and obligated

[2:49:58] funds at the end of the year, right? We have like certain things that we put them towards

[2:50:02] and it's CalPERS project. Maybe you could just remind me what those prioritizations are

[2:50:09] that we usually use.

[2:50:13] Sure, great question. So yeah, your council adopted

[2:50:17] a policy, I believe, in lead up to the adoption of the 2325 financial plan, and that's when you're speaking of what that essentially does is prioritizes use of your unfun balance if it's available, and the prioritization is unfunded pension, pay down as CalPERS diet infrastructure projects, and then other critical health and safety needs.

[2:50:42] Thanks.

[2:50:43] Thank you.

[2:50:44] That was the list of three.

[2:50:45] I was trying to recall.

[2:50:47] Thank you.

[2:50:48] Thank you, Councillor Marks.

[2:50:52] Thank you.

[2:50:53] Yeah.

[2:50:54] I was happy to hear the city manager bring up the idea of revenue enhancement, revenue generation.

[2:51:04] And I'm just curious when you were looking at the long term projections for the general

[2:51:11] Did you take into account the projected sales tax increase that would be generated by

[2:51:23] slow web's theater actually operating in the future?

[2:51:27] It's built, they're doing plays, people are coming.

[2:51:33] Maybe when there's public comment, someone can fill me in about the actual dollar amount I read the memo while back.

[2:51:40] But did you just imagine for a moment that the theaters actually built, it's actually operating?

[2:51:50] Did that revenue generation at all get figured into the projection that we're looking at for the future and the general fund?

[2:52:00] Thank you for the question.

[2:52:01] And the answer is that it's not currently built into the forecast.

[2:52:05] The reason for that is that we utilize the sales tax consultant HDL to help us determine

[2:52:14] how to forecast for sales tax and they look a lot at what has happened in the past and

[2:52:21] what the kind of general trends that they're seeing in our local area are.

[2:52:25] they're not necessarily aware of new projects coming online that could serve to generate additional sales tax unless something is already sort of actively in the process like there's a business license and pull and we know the Tesla dealerships moving into town or something they can once you get pretty close to that they start to they start to make some projection projections based on that.

[2:52:49] but I would say at this point it's a little too soon from their perspective at least to be factoring in any

[2:52:56] economic generation that would come from the completion of the new theater.

[2:53:01] Okay, thank you. That's all I have for now.

[2:53:06] Okay, thank you, Councilmember Francis.

[2:53:08] Yes.

[2:53:10] This question is redundant, but Councilmember Shoresman's questions about just clarifying AB

[2:53:16] and see, kind of raised a question for me, you might have answered it already but just

[2:53:21] to clarify for my sake, in A, if we were to tonight allocate the investment, infrastructure

[2:53:28] investment fund dollars to this ask, but slow rep doesn't need it until 27. Is there a

[2:53:38] world where essentially that just sits with a little earmark on it in the infrastructure

[2:53:41] infrastructure investment fund, and it never moves.

[2:53:44] We're not backfilling it necessarily because that money just gets backfilled, I guess,

[2:53:50] but only on paper, right?

[2:53:51] That money doesn't actually necessarily leave until 27.

[2:53:55] Is that my understanding?

[2:54:01] Can you share a little bit though about the difference between ANC, then, because realistically,

[2:54:06] it's sitting there in IA or C?

[2:54:10] We have a number of different projects in our infrastructure investment fund and the purpose

[2:54:16] of that fund is to be able to accumulate dollars for future significant infrastructure

[2:54:19] projects for the city.

[2:54:21] And so in some ways we would be treating it similar to some of the designations that we've

[2:54:25] already made within that fund.

[2:54:27] But you are correct that the earliest that we are understanding that so we would need to

[2:54:31] access those funds is 2027.

[2:54:33] But if we choose a, at least that money is concretely in one particular location, whereas

[2:54:40] if we choose C, is it my understanding that potentially a future council could, because

[2:54:46] it's kind of out in the ether, they could, you know, say, never mind, we haven't allocated

[2:54:51] those funds yet.

[2:54:53] Correct.

[2:54:54] We'd be making, so if we receive direct from council tonight for any of the options, will

[2:54:59] we return in September for an amendment to that grant agreement, that grant agreement will

[2:55:03] be the city's commitment, but if an option, if either option B or C is chosen, ultimately

[2:55:09] we'll need to go through the budgeting processes that will occur over those timeframes in order

[2:55:14] to make sure that the funding's actually available in either the Proto-Road Bridge project budget

[2:55:20] or in the designation for the solar up theater to ensure that those dollars are there, hence

[2:55:25] the recommendation that if the council's interested in the greatest amount of certainty in terms

[2:55:30] of both the dollars being available for that project and also for us being able to backfill

[2:55:34] any place that we would take those dollars from, then that provides sort of the greatest

[2:55:38] clarity on that.

[2:55:39] Well, thanks for humoring those additional questions.

[2:55:42] Thank you.

[2:55:43] Councillor Embers-Shorespin.

[2:55:45] Sorry.

[2:55:45] Oh, sorry.

[2:55:46] Actually, City Manager wanted to pipe in after Deputy City Manager.

[2:55:52] Assistant City Manager.

[2:55:54] Thank you.

[2:55:55] I'm cringing because I'm maybe making things even more complicated but I think so if we were to

[2:56:03] receive direction to allocate the funding from the IIS but in 2027, currently we're not projecting

[2:56:09] out that far but what we are projecting is that we won't have enough funding in the IIS by that point

[2:56:15] to pay for the full allocation. At the end of the day, we would be needing to make that additional

[2:56:22] contribution to the IIS through the financial plan, the 25-27 financial plan.

[2:56:27] So in that way, it kind of like collapses all three of the options.

[2:56:31] We've reached singularity at that point, but at the end, it is another way of getting

[2:56:38] it at the same issue.

[2:56:40] I think through a grant agreement, what we would be saying is we are promising this amount

[2:56:45] of funding.

[2:56:46] The budget allocation is how we are providing it.

[2:56:48] The grant agreement will obligate this council and any future council to actually pay that funding out, and then we will have to find a way of funding it either through the IIS or through another budget.

[2:57:01] So therefore not in the ether, no matter what.

[2:57:04] That's right. We would have an obligation to pay it out and find the funding in the budget in some way.

[2:57:10] Okay.

[2:57:10] Perfect.

[2:57:11] Thank you.

[2:57:11] Council member Shoresman.

[2:57:13] Thank you.

[2:57:14] I think you pretty much said what I was going to ask, but so basically the bridge widening

[2:57:19] project is set to come out of the IAF in 2526.

[2:57:24] So that money wouldn't actually even be there in 2027 when they need it.

[2:57:29] So okay.

[2:57:30] Just, yeah.

[2:57:34] Okay.

[2:57:35] I think we've had all the questions that we have right now.

[2:57:39] Now, City Clerk, do we have public comment for this topic?

[2:57:44] Yes, we have six speakers, and, sorry, somewhere I have the first one.

[2:57:52] So the first speaker is Ellie Washington, and then Diana Clawson, Kevin Harris.

[2:58:00] And let me get my screen up.

[2:58:10] You ready for me?

[2:58:14] All right.

[2:58:15] I just ran from my kiddos preschool graduation to get here.

[2:58:19] So I made it, Mayor and Council members, I'm Ellie Washington, eight year member of Slow Reptory

[2:58:25] Theatre's Board, and I'm privileged tonight to speak on behalf of the Board of Directors.

[2:58:30] As you know from the correspondence that we've sent you, inflation is threatening Slow Rep's

[2:58:35] joint project with the city to build a new theater adjacent to the cultural arts district

[2:58:40] parking structure.

[2:58:41] We've raised an astounding amount in private donations, more than $10 million, yet inflation

[2:58:48] is having us face the reality that we now need to raise another 8 million.

[2:58:53] Let me underscore that nothing has changed about our commitment to this project.

[2:58:58] And while we are optimistic and confident about our fundraising capabilities, we are also

[2:59:03] realists.

[2:59:05] We cannot do this alone, and that's why we are seeking additional city support from you tonight.

[2:59:11] We know that the city has many, many needs, and taxpayers deserve to know what the projected

[2:59:16] if benefits are of any capital improvement project.

[2:59:20] In our correspondence, we outlined why we believe

[2:59:23] the additional support of our project

[2:59:25] remains a beneficial investment for the city.

[2:59:28] This theater is so much more than a building.

[2:59:31] It's an investment in the long-term vitality

[2:59:34] of downtown slow that will pay immediate dividends

[2:59:37] both economic and cultural.

[2:59:40] A few key points I will just reiterate.

[2:59:42] This building will be a major city asset

[2:59:45] that will be controlled by the city with private donors paying at least 60% of those construction costs.

[2:59:52] The city will gain a significant driver of new economic activity in the downtown core with this new venue.

[3:00:00] We are now attracting 50,000 people per year to downtown. And in addition to the 300 performances per year that slow rep will be putting on, the venue will provide a much needed space for the city and other nonprofits to host their own multi-cultural events and programming. And for a relatively small investment, this new venue will complete a major piece of the city's downtown concept plan and is an alignment with the major city goals. Thank you for your consideration.

[3:00:29] and we look forward to celebrating with you center stage in 2027 at the new theater.

[3:00:37] Thank you so much, and thank you to the audience.

[3:00:40] Our next speaker is Kevin Harris, and then next, Maxine Castillo, and then Dave Christie.

[3:00:51] Good evening, Mayor Stewart, Honorable Council members.

[3:00:55] My name is Kevin Harris, and I've been the managing artistic director for Slow Reps in 2008.

[3:01:01] I want to first say thank you for your support so far in this joint venture.

[3:01:06] I know that you're familiar with our vision and operating plans for

[3:01:10] what we expect to do inside this new theater.

[3:01:12] But I'd like to refresh your memory because I believe our entire staff believes in our board,

[3:01:17] which has put so much time and treasure into this project.

[3:01:22] Also believes that our vision will benefit San Luis Obispo in multiple ways.

[3:01:27] Let's jump ahead to the year 2030.

[3:01:30] Slow rep is in its third full season in our new theater,

[3:01:34] drawing more than 50,000 patrons and generating more than $4 million

[3:01:38] in annual economic activity in the downtown core.

[3:01:42] In our 215 seed main stage theater,

[3:01:45] we are producing 162 performances a year,

[3:01:49] while offering 47 days for use by other nonprofits and community groups.

[3:01:53] groups.

[3:01:54] In our 100-seat black box theater, we are producing 162 performances a year while offering

[3:02:00] 80 days for use by other community groups.

[3:02:03] From an artistic standpoint, this new building will, of course, give us the opportunity to

[3:02:08] produce higher-quality theater, making us even more attractive to residents and visitors

[3:02:13] alike.

[3:02:14] But more importantly, this new facility will allow us to produce new works by up-and-coming

[3:02:19] playwrights, so they can tell their stories in our community, which will in turn enable

[3:02:24] us to become a real part of the artistic conversation nationally.

[3:02:29] And why is that important?

[3:02:31] Because being a part of that conversation will help us to attract diverse cast, the best

[3:02:36] actors and playwrights, both established and upcoming, and bring them to San Luis Obispo.

[3:02:41] Being a part of that conversation will help burnish San Luis Obispo's reputation as a great

[3:02:46] please to live, work, and play.

[3:02:49] And that's how we will help downtown slow-thrive and enrich the cultural vibrancy of the

[3:02:57] central coast.

[3:02:58] Thank you so much for your partnership and considering helping us get there.

[3:03:04] Thank you so much.

[3:03:17] Good evening Councilmembers.

[3:03:19] My name is Maxine Castillo and I'm a fifth grader at CL Smith Elementary.

[3:03:24] I've never spoken to a city council before.

[3:03:27] In fact, until I enrolled in Slow Reps Academy of Creative Theater, I had very little public

[3:03:33] speaking experience.

[3:03:35] But that's the beauty of being part of Slow Rep's ACT program.

[3:03:40] Slow Rep has given me a real gift, the chance to challenge myself in a comfortable setting,

[3:03:46] to try new things, to put myself out there.

[3:03:49] And here I am tonight, trying something new, participating in our city's democratic process.

[3:03:55] Thank you for this opportunity.

[3:03:58] You're very busy, so I will be brief.

[3:04:01] I would like to make two points tonight.

[3:04:04] First, ACT is a great program.

[3:04:07] I know that one reason SlowRap has been able to expand his program so much is because of your support.

[3:04:14] Thank you for helping me give more kids like me this great opportunity.

[3:04:19] Second, I hope you can find a way to help SlowRap even more with their efforts to build a new theater.

[3:04:25] My ACG friends and I would be honored to have the chance to learn and perform in the new space.

[3:04:32] It would be exciting and inspiring.

[3:04:35] We would work hard and look forward to welcoming even more students to the program as ACG and slow rep continue to grow.

[3:04:46] Thank you for your consideration.

[3:04:48] I know that everyone involved with slow rep will work hard to make you very glad you supported the new theater.

[3:04:57] Thank you so much.

[3:05:00] Dave Christie, very price.

[3:05:09] Yes, you have to follow her.

[3:05:12] I'm taller and bigger and louder.

[3:05:16] Madam Mayor, councilmembers, I'm Dave Christie, a city resident.

[3:05:22] I recently retired from a 36-year academic career in several university business schools,

[3:05:28] including nine years as dean of Cal Poly's Orpholic College of Business.

[3:05:32] I urge you to approve additional support for slow rep.

[3:05:37] My advocacy in public activities since I came to Cal Poly has always been on economic development.

[3:05:48] and I'd like you to think of this in two different ways.

[3:05:53] We have what I'd call small e economic development.

[3:05:57] That's we're going to sell tickets, people are going to have dinner,

[3:06:00] they're going to pay to park, they're going to be taxes on all those things.

[3:06:05] And as Kevin mentioned, we anticipate a huge number of people participating

[3:06:10] in the activities that we think of with slow rep.

[3:06:13] but I'd also like you to think of big economic development.

[3:06:18] You're looking for a new city manager,

[3:06:22] and you've engaged a nationwide search firm to help you find somebody.

[3:06:28] Effective business and civic leaders know that their success depends upon attracting and retaining the best talent,

[3:06:35] and they know it's vastly easier to do this if the business or the public sector activity

[3:06:45] is located in a community that offers effective government, good schools, excellent health care,

[3:06:51] abundant recreational opportunities, and a thriving cultural scene.

[3:06:57] In turn, these talented employees are citizens more likely to be engaged in our community,

[3:07:04] We provide financial and volunteer support for local nonprofits and attract more people

[3:07:10] with similar values.

[3:07:11] This is a picture of a healthy community.

[3:07:15] The Assistant City Manager, McDonald, mentioned that with Measure G, we were investing in ourselves.

[3:07:22] These are the kind of people that will authorize a measure because they also believe that that's

[3:07:28] the kind of community we want to live in.

[3:07:30] And that has much bigger, longstanding economic benefits than the revenues that we get from individual ticket sales or the taxes that go with them.

[3:07:43] So I really think that this is a great idea.

[3:07:47] Last thing I'll say, 25 years ago, 30 years ago, the city participated in building the PAC.

[3:07:54] It's a great facility and there were 40% private funds that supported that.

[3:08:00] We're talking 60% here.

[3:08:03] This is a great deal, and I hope that you'll choose to support it.

[3:08:10] Thank you so much.

[3:08:12] Very prices are final speaker.

[3:08:19] Thank you, Mayor Stewart and Council Member, so I'm not here to speak to this slow rep.

[3:08:23] I've got to clear, there were plenty of great speakers before me.

[3:08:26] But I want to say that I appreciate the work that the Council and staff are doing on managing our city budget.

[3:08:34] I've spoken previously about the need to create additional staff positions for code enforcement.

[3:08:40] So our staff size is commensurate with the size of our growing city and

[3:08:46] also with the unusually high proportion of tendencies in the city.

[3:08:51] We probably need two to three more positions there to keep up.

[3:08:55] Given the conditions that we're seeing out there,

[3:09:00] it's likely that increased fees and fines for repeat offenders and

[3:09:05] other bad actors would cover the cost of those positions.

[3:09:10] But tonight, I want to highlight another need for more resources for

[3:09:15] the City Attorney's Office.

[3:09:17] California Attorney General Rob Bonta just issued a directive to city attorneys

[3:09:24] regarding their expanded enforcement authority under the Tenant Protection Act, which is one of our most powerful tools for protecting renters from unscrupulous landlords.

[3:09:38] We now need a process for the city attorney to receive reports of violations and the resources for them to respond and to seek remedies.

[3:09:51] I encourage you to direct staff to use these new enforcement authorities, and I ask you to fund the department appropriately so they can do so, thank you.

[3:10:03] Thank you so much.

[3:10:05] Well, thank you to all of our speakers. We greatly appreciate you.

[3:10:08] And when we move back to council, and before we actually come back to council deliberation,

[3:10:14] Is there anything that any of the three of you would like to respond based on the comments

[3:10:19] that were provided?

[3:10:22] Great.

[3:10:23] Thank you.

[3:10:24] All right.

[3:10:24] So moving on to deliberation.

[3:10:27] There's a lot of conversation, obviously, about slow rep.

[3:10:30] Also, Council and brochures, when you commented about additional funding needing for CalPERS,

[3:10:36] is that something you're thinking of in this supplemental budget or for the 2527 financial

[3:10:44] plan?

[3:10:44] And then lastly, the code enforcement slash earlier comments today around housing.

[3:10:54] Do we want to talk about that at all?

[3:10:56] Those are kind of my three questions for you all.

[3:10:59] Councillor Schorzman.

[3:11:02] No, I think in terms of CalPERS, I think our approach right now for this current year that

[3:11:11] we're looking at.

[3:11:12] I think we should probably stay the course, although, you know, I just want us to recognize

[3:11:17] that we do need to look at that going forward and it sounds like staff will be considering

[3:11:22] that as we move into the 2527 financial plan.

[3:11:26] And I think our prioritization is strong for the use of unobligated funds at the end of

[3:11:32] the year and at the mid-year, although, you know, I know there's going to be just some discussion

[3:11:38] about the slow rep proposal, and so that might be a place that we could talk about using

[3:11:45] some of our unobligated funds for a one-time project, those unobligated funds at the end

[3:11:52] of the year and mid-year are good for one-time investments like this too, so I can see

[3:11:58] that being an opportunity to maybe designate a certain percentage, or excuse me, a certain

[3:12:04] amount of those unobligated funds for for slow rep. I have other things to say but that,

[3:12:11] yeah, I don't, I wouldn't suggest messing with that designation for this particular.

[3:12:22] I will, let me grab a sip here.

[3:12:27] I will talk about slow rep a little bit and just the budget in general,

[3:12:32] I heard everything that you all said, I think staff did an amazing job of re-evaluating as we head into the second year of the financial plan, looking at the CIP budget, seeing how we can best use the funds that we have, you use the word tightening our belts, I think it's pretty clear that we don't, we're not anticipating budgeting conservatively, we're not anticipating having some of the surpluses, I guess, that you could say.

[3:13:01] In the last few years, I've been pretty lucky since I've been on council.

[3:13:05] We've been able to kind of spend pretty openly and easily, including the first $3.9 million dollar challenge grant that we gave to slow rep a couple of years ago.

[3:13:15] That was probably, I was thinking about it earlier today, one of the favorite votes that I've been able to do on council.

[3:13:21] That's the fun stuff, right?

[3:13:22] When you get to give an outstanding arts organization a big chunk of money to build a building in the heart of our downtown.

[3:13:32] things are a little bit tighter now, and I heard that loud and clear in the report that

[3:13:37] you all gave. So I still love slow rep. I'm still excited about this project. Nothing

[3:13:46] has changed about my commitment to it. I am interested in seeing how we can provide

[3:13:53] some additional funds to the project. I'm not sure to be totally honest that I'm comfortable

[3:13:59] right now, today on 2.76 million, I think it involves a lot of trade-offs for us in the next

[3:14:08] couple of years, and I think that maybe of all the options that were provided by staff,

[3:14:14] C is the one that I feel most comfortable with, and maybe starting with a smaller amount,

[3:14:20] maybe enough to kind of spur the donations that they need to kind of raise the rest of their

[3:14:26] funds. I would, you know, just to throw out a number I would say maybe half and then

[3:14:31] look down the road to designate the other half.

[3:14:36] But that's only because of where we are

[3:14:39] right now and I think I'm concerned about designating funds for something that we, designating

[3:14:46] funds that we don't have. So I just want to try to be physically thoughtful and responsible

[3:14:51] about this and curious what the rest of you have to say.

[3:14:55] Great. Thank you so much. Vice-Parent Peace.

[3:15:00] Thanks, great opening remarks. I also appreciate the structure of the budget. I think it's very thoughtful. I think we've had a lot of build up to it, so I don't have changes at this time other than the conversation about slow rep. And before that, though, we did have a conversation at agenda review this morning. And what I shared was that, you know,

[3:15:29] So, a lot of the operating budget changes, SOBCs, are converting contract positions to FTEs.

[3:15:39] And I was remembering that when we were at the state of the city, and a question was posed about what keeps you up at night.

[3:15:48] And I realized as I was going through this budget, that that actually is one of the things, because that is our job, is to be disciplined in the budget.

[3:15:57] it, and as we add FTE in a uncertain fiscal future, that that's our risk, you know.

[3:16:06] We're committing to people to have these jobs and we don't want to be in a position

[3:16:10] for layoffs.

[3:16:11] So, I know that we kind of had that conversation this morning, and I think staff is super aware,

[3:16:19] and so I think what is in this budget is what is necessary.

[3:16:24] And so but it weighs heavily and as we go forward I think and well of course be keeping

[3:16:32] that in mind and it is a shift right even you know so seven and a half years for me in

[3:16:38] and now I'm like hey everybody let's be disciplined so maybe not fair so I think that's my general

[3:16:50] comment about the budget.

[3:16:53] In terms of slow wrap, I do support funding in some ways, you know, for moving this or moving

[3:17:02] that, it doesn't really seem to me.

[3:17:05] I mean, if we're committing to it, we're committing to it.

[3:17:07] Option B seemed like a good middle ground that we folded into the next budget cycle.

[3:17:14] Frankly, I'd be fine with A and just like, let's get her done and then we'll figure out

[3:17:18] because honestly that bridge project $10 million is a very round number because we don't

[3:17:24] know everything about that bridge project, right? So there's still a lot of unknowns even on that one.

[3:17:30] In terms of the dollar amount, it's last in or last out that are funding.

[3:17:41] Yeah, so we're the last resort.

[3:17:48] And so with that in mind, I would be comfortable going, you know, probably pretty close to that

[3:17:57] 2.76 at this time.

[3:18:02] So I think half isn't quite enough to get them over the finish line.

[3:18:06] And I think that the, this is a really, in which we all know, important, wonderful project, and a super important investment.

[3:18:17] A relatively good deal for us as a community to be able to have this building built.

[3:18:24] So yeah, that's where I am.

[3:18:29] Thank you so much, council member Marks.

[3:18:35] Yeah, well, we've talked about this budget a lot and I feel really comfortable with it.

[3:18:43] I would like to compliment staff for all your hard work and no crystal ball, I appreciate

[3:18:53] transparency on that level, none of us have it, but I do feel that the city is despite

[3:19:01] Despite the concept of a deficit in the future and out years, I do feel the city is basically

[3:19:11] in very good financial, financial condition.

[3:19:17] And as the liaison to the Investment Oversight Committee, I know we also have some really solid

[3:19:26] backing in terms of our investments, in terms of the interest that's generated there.

[3:19:33] And of course, I'm by nature thrifty, so, you know, I definitely want to make sure

[3:19:39] that we're not being lavish at all in anything, we're very straightforward.

[3:19:48] I think our residents expect that out of us.

[3:19:53] I do want to say that looking at climate change is something we haven't talked about too much tonight.

[3:19:59] But when you're looking at the overhead expenditures, I just hope that there is a lot of emphasis among staff on reducing the amount of energy that we use, however possible, like with that little one item on the worth, the extra electricity bill.

[3:20:21] Well, okay, let's look at all of that.

[3:20:24] What can the city continue to do to streamline our operation and become more and more responsible

[3:20:35] in terms of energy use?

[3:20:37] And I think there are ways we can do that.

[3:20:39] We don't have to get into it now, but I'm hoping that as we look at the future, we can say

[3:20:43] yeah.

[3:20:44] And one of the ways we're going to get more thrifty is we're going to cut down our electric

[3:20:49] bill. So as far as the slow rip option goes, I trust staff and I trust the due diligence

[3:21:04] that was done in coming up with the amount of 2.76 as being justified. That was my

[3:21:10] question always for when I met with slower up. It's like, well, wait a second. Where do you

[3:21:16] come up with that number. And I feel that it is a, it's a, it's a, it's a projection,

[3:21:25] but I do feel it's, it's based in, in fact. As council member vice mayor P said, this

[3:21:34] would be the last money in. What that means is, and that applies to the other challenge grant

[3:21:40] as well, what that means is that if it turns out that the actual bid is lower than what we think it was, like with our, like the parking garage itself, the bid came in lower, the bond, we got a much better bond rate than we ever thought we could get.

[3:22:02] So, and I've forgotten the project, but one also just came in under Bitto here tonight.

[3:22:10] There's a lot of uncertainty out there, but there is a possibility that the bid actually

[3:22:15] may be lower, and in that case, you're not going to need our challenge grant.

[3:22:19] And I trust that slow rep would be forthright in that, if they don't need it, they won't take

[3:22:25] it.

[3:22:27] I do want to say that I think slow rep request I think that they really I feel they need and we need certainty and so I'm in favor of option A at this point and the reason that I feel certainty would be an asset at this point is that it would also help inspire the private donors to

[3:22:55] To come up with more money, in fact we were told that there is a million dollar in the correspondence with a slower up as I recall that there is a donor who's ready to donate another million dollars if the city comes forward with this additional portion of the challenge grant.

[3:23:17] And the other reason I think that certainty is good is that our staff has kind of requested

[3:23:23] a couple of times that certainty is good in terms of staff planning and the other thing

[3:23:30] as our interim city manager said, it may all, no matter which option we choose, it may

[3:23:38] They all end up being kind of the same thing of what's actually happening in terms of various other projects in terms of the economy and like that, so we may have to move things around anyway.

[3:23:53] So I would like to just go for option A, create a certainty for everybody, and ask for staff to come back to us with a supplemental budget request.

[3:24:06] in September or when would that be,

[3:24:13] whenever that would be?

[3:24:15] It would be September and it would be an amendment to the existing grant agreement that we have with slow rep for the original grant amount.

[3:24:21] Okay, all righty. So those are my thoughts. Thank you.

[3:24:26] Thank you, Councilmember Francis.

[3:24:29] Yeah, thank you to everybody for all your comments and I'll of course pile on with just gratitude to staff for not only tonight's presentation.

[3:24:38] but the previews, the communication, the 221s,

[3:24:42] you all have done an incredible job of bringing us all down

[3:24:46] into the weeds with you and to all of the departments

[3:24:48] that have done a ton of work to get this to us

[3:24:51] in such a clear way. I really appreciate it.

[3:24:54] To answer the mayor's questions, covering CalPERS

[3:24:57] coming to Councilmember Shorzman's point,

[3:25:01] I really would like to make sure that we review that

[3:25:03] during our next-to-budget setting,

[3:25:05] so I'm just kind of earmarked that for the future.

[3:25:07] coming to the public comment on code enforcement and potential resource needs in the city attorney's office.

[3:25:16] I very much want to look at that as part of our housing memo when that comes out and just see what our resources needs are

[3:25:25] before we have a discussion about changing budgets tonight so that we can do that in a really strategic way.

[3:25:30] And then on to slow wrap, I liked your comments, Council Member Marks on being thrifty, and I also appreciate that we really, as a council, we need to protect the budget of the city and we need to be making sure that we're having a balanced budget, but we also really need to be forward thinking and make investments in our community and in our future.

[3:25:59] And I think you mentioned the word certainty and it's come up several times tonight.

[3:26:04] I think the key that I heard from Slow Wrap is that if they don't have this money guaranteed

[3:26:11] then, you know, this idea of the theater really comes into question.

[3:26:16] And I loved the quote I think from Mr. Christie, the investing in the thriving cultural scene.

[3:26:23] I think this is an investment in our future this evening.

[3:26:26] And so, I'm eager to support, I suppose, option A, although it sounded like all of those

[3:26:33] could sort of come together in some way, and it might just be a matter of delaying

[3:26:38] or spreading out some of our CIP in the future in order to make sure that we get our Prado

[3:26:44] Bridge and our investment in this theater across the finish line.

[3:26:49] You know, we invested in this parking garage, which was not necessarily my favorite vote,

[3:26:53] But I did it on the pretense that this was going to be kind of the cornerstone of our arts district.

[3:27:00] And I really want to make sure that we get that there.

[3:27:03] So those are my comments for now.

[3:27:05] Call or amount?

[3:27:06] A full dollar amount and option A with flexibility to discuss.

[3:27:12] Great. Thank you. I'm going to share my piece.

[3:27:15] Are you going to have to meet your question?

[3:27:16] Okay. Great. So, of course, all of the gratitude that we just have already shared.

[3:27:22] I have to say that as I, I think sometimes the public may not know how many meetings we have on a constant basis with constituents, with staff, with people who are asking about our budgets, our programs, and when I look back and think about how many meetings, whether it was the 2-2-1s, with another council member, whether it was just me asking questions of staff, or meeting with slow rep, or meeting with other community members that were concerned,

[3:27:54] There's a lot that comes into this, and so I guess just wanted to say that out loud

[3:27:58] in case anyone listens to this in the future I never know with YouTube, but this investment

[3:28:05] is something that is really something I find is important.

[3:28:12] We are looking at the continuation of, you know, back in the early 90s with the Performing

[3:28:19] art center and as it's been said a couple of different times, 40% of private donors,

[3:28:26] this time 60% when money is even more tight right now, when money is, um, constructions

[3:28:33] even more expensive and the donors continue to come.

[3:28:37] And I think that we are in a sense one of the donors in that moment and we are also continuing

[3:28:43] to come and partner and I think that's important.

[3:28:46] I have been part of nonprofits many times before and when people say, here I'll give you

[3:28:52] part of what you ask for, that is so great and helpful and I appreciate people's

[3:28:57] frugality I definitely do and I also know at times that is really the amount that's needed

[3:29:02] otherwise they can't move forward and so that was pretty clear in the conversations that

[3:29:07] I had with slow rep and with staff, and at the same time, I really appreciated how

[3:29:14] when I looked at, and here's the escalation we'll look at for construction.

[3:29:19] And here's the additional donors that might be able to come, or pretty solidly might

[3:29:23] be able to come, if this money can come from the city.

[3:29:27] I felt like there's been a lot of conversation back and forth, and so I really appreciate

[3:29:32] that commitment and all the time and energy it's been spent by the board and the staff at

[3:29:39] cell rep as well as the staff here at the city. So, and I also appreciate Councillor

[3:29:44] Francis, you know what you said, this parking structure, the cultural arts district,

[3:29:51] some day we'll come with a cool acronym versus CATSPA, but, um, but truly

[3:30:00] When I think of this, this is not just the 300 performances and the indirect and the direct academic activity. I look at economic resiliency as one of our major city goals. I look at the downtown being thriving as one of our goals. And I too last year got to sit on the investment oversight committee. This is something we can do.

[3:30:25] And it is stressful when I think about back to keeping me up at night.

[3:30:31] I do think about that for your outlook in our budget.

[3:30:36] This is not something I think of lightly.

[3:30:38] This is a man, I think a very important.

[3:30:42] And I also felt confident in our many conversations with Director Jackson and

[3:30:46] her team that this is also something that you were all looking at deeply.

[3:30:50] And what do we do about the revenue and expenses?

[3:30:52] So, I think I will depend on and trust on staff to continue to work on that and share with us how do we work into that.

[3:31:03] I think that the contract versus full-time employees always concerns me as we, as you know, really as you said, it's really $3 million now.

[3:31:13] Maybe we should be considering, I'm not asking to make that change today, but I definitely think that this council, as we go forward into 2527,

[3:31:21] that we consider, we look at that, and obviously I'm highlighting that to staff right now for a bookmark for future.

[3:31:30] What does that look like?

[3:31:32] We, our fiscal conservative policies have given us the ability to do so much more than a size, a city of our size.

[3:31:41] Yes, I want to see more of what public transportation I wanted to from, before I came on this council,

[3:31:48] and realize the challenges and the barriers that being said we have the short term transit policy

[3:31:56] coming or study coming to us on July 14th we have potential some hope and we heard from right

[3:32:04] on earlier some amazing opportunities for us to invest in and guide so I will leave that aside

[3:32:09] a little bit right now but that being said I also look at our housing is continually a conversation

[3:32:18] around what do we do to help educate our renters and our tenants, and we heard about hunger

[3:32:27] awareness today. These are, we can't do something unless we know, we also have to have enough

[3:32:34] code enforcement to do that. And also, as someone who's been in one of those times in the past

[3:32:39] of my life, I wasn't going to say something. It didn't matter if we had 20 code enforcement

[3:32:44] officers, I'm going to do not want to be evicted out of my house because we could not afford

[3:32:49] to go somewhere else and so I think there's got to be something more than just us as having

[3:32:58] more code enforcement officers. I think I'm very thankful for people creating a tenant's

[3:33:05] union because I think that that is something that might be helpful that is outside of city

[3:33:09] staff and elected as to how to help people truly that are needing the help that are having

[3:33:15] the housing situations they are that are not okay. Substandard housing is not okay. None

[3:33:22] of us want to see that. And so I just look at our budget while we're not totally talking

[3:33:27] about that today. We are in the whole realm of the housing matrix we talked about for the future,

[3:33:32] the funding of contract versus full-time employees, the additional employees and what that will look like for CalPERS in the future and what our payments are, and the commitment we make with tax dollars of the community members, how does that all work?

[3:33:47] So, keeping me up at night all of this, but at the same time I am also very thankful for the fact that our community continues to invest in what we want in this city.

[3:34:00] Our staff continues to go deep into all of these details, and this council continues to

[3:34:06] really care about all of this.

[3:34:08] So sorry to go on and on for a long time, but I really feel like there's just so much

[3:34:12] where we're really looking at.

[3:34:13] So going back to the slow rep, I do feel like the whole amount, I would feel, I would feel

[3:34:18] comfortable with really A, B or C quite honestly, but A or B feels a little better to me because

[3:34:23] I would like to have some real clear guidelines for staff and for this council as we continue

[3:34:30] you to look at when the money does come available, how exactly we're going to plug that in.

[3:34:38] I also think that if we have to have that $10 million or whatever that looks like quite

[3:34:45] honestly for Prada Bridge.

[3:34:46] So I also look at this and realistically say, is that $10 million the right amount?

[3:34:53] We don't 100% know.

[3:34:54] And I know it's been said before, well, we weren't told to look for grants, so we weren't told to look for something, whatever you need to do, let us know how we can help when it comes to grants or advocacy or whatever that might be, because I know that that is something you have all done so well, is continued to bring additional funding by millions and millions of dollars into the city, so thank you for that as well.

[3:35:21] Councilman Shoresman.

[3:35:25] Thank you, so I haven't heard a definite three people on one of these three, but maybe I just missed it, but I'll just kind of summarize where I'm at and appreciate.

[3:35:41] Thank you for I didn't, I got so concerned about what we were going to do about slow rep that I forgot to mention the other thing, so I look forward to in the financial plan.

[3:35:50] looking at what we can do to improve CalPERS,

[3:35:52] as our CalPERS meeting our CalPERS obligations,

[3:35:58] also know that we have a lot of work

[3:36:00] that we've been talking about doing around housing

[3:36:02] and tenants rights and tenant code enforcement

[3:36:06] and improving our rental stock.

[3:36:08] And so I look forward to that in the next fiscal year

[3:36:10] and next financial plan as well.

[3:36:13] The thing that keeps me up at night

[3:36:15] seems like we're kind of talking about that right now.

[3:36:16] Well, the thing that keeps me up is making keeping the financial commitments that we've made.

[3:36:23] I have lost sleep many nights since we first saw that table of the Infrastructure Investment Fund going down, down, down, until we only had about $750,000 left in at the end of 2526.

[3:36:37] So that I appreciate the concern about trying to provide certainty, to slow rep, to city staff.

[3:36:46] What I was hearing earlier is that any of these options provide some certainty.

[3:36:51] But I do think the details matter and I think that taking the money out of the infrastructure investment fund is just putting up a set risk for some of the commitments that we've already made.

[3:37:01] So, I'm not in favor of A. I'm also not in favor of B for kind of the same reason,

[3:37:08] because we have a huge list of capital improvement projects.

[3:37:12] We have parks that we have promised to neighborhoods many, many years ago that are still not built.

[3:37:18] We have infrastructure that, you know, we have an old city with old infrastructure,

[3:37:23] with, you know, water mains and pump stations and things that we need to replace and all of those

[3:37:27] things are in our financial plan, so that's why I think no matter what amount we decide to commit tonight to slow rep, I am most comfortable with C because I think that that's it's maybe not the most comfortable for for some folks here, but it's the most comfortable for me because I think it's using the type of funds, the unobligated funds that we would normally use for this type of one time expenditure.

[3:37:57] So, that's where I'm at and I'll give it there.

[3:38:04] Okay, thank you.

[3:38:06] I appreciate you saying that, too,

[3:38:08] around the one-time funds.

[3:38:10] And I think when I look at a, or be,

[3:38:15] while we're taking money out of the one fund that I have fun,

[3:38:21] my understanding is that as much as we can,

[3:38:24] And the one time, I'm sorry, the undesignated funding going forward would go back into that I have to fill it back up.

[3:38:33] So I think that what you're saying would happen either way, is that?

[3:38:43] Yes, assuming that we have funds unobligated at the end of each year and at the end of the mid year to put back into it.

[3:38:50] That's one of the three places that is part of our policy to put funding back into.

[3:38:57] Right. Okay. Thank you. Just making sure I understand what you were saying.

[3:39:01] There is overlap for sure between A and C but the problem right now that I see is that

[3:39:07] we have funds in the Infrastructure Investment Fund right now for the bridge widening that

[3:39:14] will need to be used before the slow rep construction begins.

[3:39:19] Got it. Thank you. Councilmember Marks.

[3:39:22] Oh, can you press it again?

[3:39:23] Oh, yeah. I pressed it. There it is.

[3:39:26] Yeah. Well, this has been a great discussion and at the time that it's appropriate, I'd

[3:39:34] like to move to approve the staff recommendation and also approve the amendment to the challenge

[3:39:46] grant an amount of $2.76 million.

[3:39:55] Okay.

[3:39:56] I'm getting tired.

[3:39:58] Okay.

[3:39:59] The requested amount, and if we could leave it there, and my preferences is A, as I said,

[3:40:11] that I think that it really, their distinctions without a difference because we're going to

[3:40:17] be using the same method of backfilling the fund anyway.

[3:40:26] So I would say going with, do we need two separate motions or is one good enough?

[3:40:32] That's what I don't know.

[3:40:33] One motion is fine.

[3:40:34] Okay.

[3:40:34] Okay, so that's what I would like to say is approve the staff recommendation adoption of the fiscal year 2024, 25 self mental budget, and approve the budget request for an amendment to the challenge grant for a slow rep in the requested amount with option A.

[3:40:57] With option A.

[3:40:59] Okay, thank you.

[3:41:00] Councilmember Francis.

[3:41:01] I would like to second.

[3:41:02] Okay, thank you for the second.

[3:41:04] Any other deliberation before I move to roll call?

[3:41:08] Okay, can we have roll call, city clerk?

[3:41:13] Councilmember Marks.

[3:41:15] Yes, Councilmember Francis.

[3:41:17] Yes, Councilmember Shorzman.

[3:41:19] Now, vice mayor, please.

[3:41:21] Yes, mayor Stewart.

[3:41:22] Yes, and the motion passes for one.

[3:41:25] Well, thank you so much.

[3:41:27] Appreciate all of this work on the budget

[3:41:29] And for all of the commenters, and now we move to the final part of our meeting, which is the, well, second to final, I guess, Lee's on reports and communications and our councilmember Francis.

[3:41:44] Yeah, it was an exciting little period on the 29th of May.

[3:41:50] I was really lucky to get to go to ASI's Civic Day at Cal Poly,

[3:41:56] where we had a little panel discussion about how students could get involved in local and regional and state politics,

[3:42:05] and they got to ask questions, and it was really fantastic.

[3:42:09] And also that morning was lucky enough to be out with vice mayor P's on the RTA electric bus meet and greet

[3:42:16] and fantastic little zip around the neighborhood,

[3:42:20] a little acceleration of Santa Rosa, so that was very exciting.

[3:42:25] And then on Thursday of last week,

[3:42:29] we had the City University Quarterly lunch,

[3:42:31] which is always fantastic, kind of get into some of the big issues

[3:42:35] the city and the university need to coordinate on, housing,

[3:42:40] and student neighborhood issues and all of that.

[3:42:43] And in the spirit of that, I also got to attend the yesterday, the Campus Planning Committee,

[3:42:49] which was mostly focused on future housing projects, including the one that we talked

[3:42:54] about today for faculty and staff, as well as future faculty and staff housing, and all

[3:43:01] of the student housing that's coming online, really exciting, they're also looking at a really

[3:43:06] significant investment in a solar project, which is going to really expand the amount of energy

[3:43:11] they can create.

[3:43:11] Great, so really great week.

[3:43:16] Great, thank you so much, Vice Mayor Pies.

[3:43:19] Thank you.

[3:43:21] The one item that I wanted to share is just that we did have a slow-cog meeting

[3:43:27] and slow-cog is having its own kind of budget discipline process here

[3:43:34] and trying to figure out where to shovel what to prioritize.

[3:43:41] So we have big projects, including the Proto-Road Overpass, and I think we talked last time is that we're not close enough to stay in the current allocation, the two-year cycle.

[3:43:56] So it's gotten bumped, and so then Union Road and Paso is coming up as a big one.

[3:44:03] There's some overpath or some roundabouts that are coming up and then the kind of it's a managed lane in

[3:44:10] Pizmo Beach and it's tied to multimodal and that has cost overruns and requests from the Coastal Commission to do more on the bike trail

[3:44:18] And so it's just word anyway. It's the same juggle the

[3:44:23] So we'll hear more in August

[3:44:26] Once a few things get buttoned up

[3:44:28] But there's a program that we started a few years ago, community betterment grants.

[3:44:36] So instead of having all these big projects that we would try to fund some of the small ones.

[3:44:40] And so the city has benefited from some of those.

[3:44:44] And we did get approval to have another, not quite half a million dollars,

[3:44:52] is to support that South Hygiene of Madonna road

[3:44:56] as part of that South Hygiene plan to be able to.

[3:45:00] So, just get a little smoother in there for safety. So, yeah, so that was a good thing, and people are super supportive of that. So, thanks. Awesome. I remember receiving quite a few emails about that, and there should be a little ride around there. Councilor Marks.

[3:45:19] Yes, I actually attended a session at slow rep and their children's program with my rotary club, the rotary club gave a grant of $5,000 to first scholarships for children to learn acting.

[3:45:38] And it was in their new headquarters on in play, which was quite impressive.

[3:45:46] That was on the 22nd, on the 27th, I went to the Memorial Day ceremony at the American Legion there behind the Vets Museum.

[3:45:58] And it was honoring those who had fought in the Philippines during World War II.

[3:46:04] And my father was stationed in the Philippines during World War II, so it was very meaningful for me.

[3:46:10] And I learned a lot about what was going on over there.

[3:46:13] They had a special display in the museum.

[3:46:18] There was a meeting of the IDM and the executive committee on the 31st.

[3:46:25] There are elections coming up in our June meeting and I will no longer be the president.

[3:46:31] I will be the past president.

[3:46:32] They'll still be on the executive committee.

[3:46:35] but the incoming president is Robert.

[3:46:40] His first name and his last name are both Robert.

[3:46:43] Anyway, he's from Grover Beach, and it should be.

[3:46:47] He should do a good job.

[3:46:49] And then on the second of June, I was invited to go on a hike

[3:46:55] with the two mesh, the Northern two mesh tribal council on the Madonna,

[3:47:01] Donna Alberti, Twizzle and Property, which is, which borders Laguna Lake Park, Madonna

[3:47:12] in property and foothill, and includes part of the, of Laguna Lake.

[3:47:20] And that was really an incredible, I didn't quite know when they said you want to go look

[3:47:25] at that property. I didn't quite know what they had in mind, but I'm very happy that we

[3:47:32] may as time goes on, hopefully, add it to our open space at some point. And it was really

[3:47:40] a neat experience, though. That's all I have.

[3:47:45] Awesome. Thank you. Councilmember Sharsman.

[3:47:48] Yes. Thank you. It's been a busy couple of weeks, but the highlights. I'm just trying

[3:47:54] trying to look good morning slow was after our last meeting. Great presentation as always,

[3:48:04] always enjoy that thanks to the chamber for that. And then last Wednesday we had our special HRC

[3:48:12] meeting to discuss the grants and the reallocation of the grant funds. And so I attended that and kind

[3:48:22] of provided some context to the HRC as they re-deliberated about that, so I think we'll

[3:48:29] see that in a few weeks, come back to us for approval.

[3:48:34] They took what we had to say very seriously and made some accommodations appropriately.

[3:48:42] So I think we'll see what everybody thinks, but they gave it another shot and I think they

[3:48:48] did a good job.

[3:48:51] Then last night, I helped out at the high school community service awards in the high school

[3:48:58] comments there.

[3:48:59] It's a little high school and there was probably a hundred kids there and lots of happy parents

[3:49:05] taking photos and they have graduation this Friday.

[3:49:09] So congratulations to all the high school graduates that are going to be walking across the stage

[3:49:14] and getting their diplomas on Friday, so that's it.

[3:49:18] Thank you. That's good stuff. I remember going to that community services awards experience

[3:49:24] last year at the high school was really cool. Let's see. So first, slow blues has started.

[3:49:30] I know that sounds, why am I bringing that up? But it's not that we, that's us. Anyway, we always

[3:49:39] love going to that. But also we as the city support that. So I just wanted to kind of highlight

[3:49:43] that we're actually a host family for a player and probably be at a few more games because of that

[3:49:49] this year. I got to ride, not that I couldn't always, but I specifically rode the 2A bus last week

[3:49:58] with one of the team's team members and got to meet a few of the drivers and really just understand

[3:50:05] some of the challenges they're having with driving some of our routes and it was an interesting

[3:50:10] conversation, more to come. I went to the virtually, I went to the Diablo Canyon decommissioning

[3:50:17] panel and I just, it's interesting because we are talking about, you know, PG&E and Diablo

[3:50:23] staying open longer but there's still this decommissioning engagement panel that's happening and the

[3:50:29] wind, offshore wind organization came and shared what they were suggesting and hoping. There

[3:50:34] There were a lot of great questions from the community and so I'm including Scott Lathrop

[3:50:40] from the YTT.

[3:50:41] So so many interesting parts that we're continuing to talk about that I think that kind

[3:50:47] of the community has stopped talking about but it's still in the process so very interesting.

[3:50:52] Went to the ribbon cutting for the five-year anniversary of San Sorio.

[3:50:56] Also they have a brand new exhibit got to meet the new artists and I've never been to it

[3:51:01] and really interesting.

[3:51:03] That's, yeah. I wanted to thank the staff and for creating the state of the city, it was quite an experience and it's still on YouTube if you'd like to see it.

[3:51:16] And I just really look forward to maybe changing that up in your future for next year and on.

[3:51:23] So it's a fascinating thing to really stop and look back at all of last year and what did we do and what are we doing going forward?

[3:51:32] Also, with some of the individuals who came today in public comment, I did get to meet with a few people regarding the Palestine community and what they are really wanting from the city and I'll be meeting with them again and so just continue to meet with people in our community that have concerns and interests about the city and what do we do and whether they're local or statewide or national or international.

[3:51:59] So part of what I get to do, and lastly, I just wanted to thank the City Clerk's Office as well as councilman for the HRC interviews, and I know we're bringing a new Human Relations Committee member here soon.

[3:52:15] And lastly, I was sad to miss the Greek festival, but I was also at a graduation last weekend, hope that anyone that got to go to that had a great time.

[3:52:24] I know I did last year, and wanted to thank Vice Mayor.

[3:52:29] She'll be taking over in the next couple of days as mayor while I'm out unfortunately with a family death.

[3:52:36] And so just if the community is looking for me, I will not be available for a few days and we'll go from there.

[3:52:42] So thank you so much.

[3:52:44] I look forward to seeing a few people, actually all of you, on June 13th for a closed session.

[3:52:49] And then we'll move forward to the regular meeting on June 18th right here.

[3:52:54] in chamber hall or chamber room. Council chambers. It's been the night. It's

[3:53:01] we're early so I shouldn't be this assembly but you know all right we'll have a

[3:53:05] great night and we'll see you soon.

City Council

Agenda

Transcript