Ready? Good evening. We'd like to get this meeting started. We're going to call our meeting to order. Mr.
Calderon, would you like to lead us in the pledge of allegiance?
roll call, please. Council member Ayalah. Council member Rhodes. Council member Lister. Mayor Pro Tim Judge. Mayor Kavanaugh.
Here. Are there any items for agenda review? Madam Mayor, there are two. First, I would like to recommend that we move item 3C1, the Youth Council presentation ahead of item 3B1, the presentation by the Army Corps of Engineers and WM, right in the fire debris.
So, the Youth Council member can go home. And I would also let you know that there is a supplemental on item 9A.
Thank you. And I would like to also, if this is the appropriate time, make a change to the agenda, I would move that item 9, which is new business, which is discussing the waste management grant allowance, we moved to proceed item 7 so that those who are here for that are not here all night.
So, move, move item 9, prior to item 7. Yes, please.
Thank you. And I only had one other thing to add. Madam Mayor's that there was nothing to report at a close session.
Sorry, thank you, Mr. Attorney.
I move that all resolutions and ordinances presented tonight be read entitled only and all further reading be waived. Second.
Call for the vote.
The motion passes unanimously. Thank you. If any member of the city council may have a conflict of interest, or any reason why that member must have seen from consideration, if any matter on the agenda, he or she should so declare at this time.
Seeing that, we can move on. Madam Mayor and members of the city council, the first item on the agenda is item 1D1 presentation of a proclamation declaring the week of May 18 through May 24, 25 as public works week.
And public works director Ron Fuchawaki is here to present this item. And accepting a proclamation is assistant public works director L. Sexton and deputy public works director of transit Ben Gonzalez.
Good evening, Mayor Cavanol and council members. I want to thank the audience all for showing up for public works week.
It is my pleasure tonight to join the city council in proclaiming the week of May 18 through May 24 as public works week.
Not only is it a time to recognize the efforts of the department that provides great customer service to the citizens of Cemi Valley, but it is an opportunity to recognize the men and women that operate and maintain these facilities and provide services to the community.
These facilities and services include engineering, streets and highways, landscaping, public buildings, water sewer, environmental monitoring and transit.
I'm especially proud of our Cemi Valley public works employees that work day and sometimes nights to ensure the community has a well operated and maintained public infrastructure.
Now I would like to join the city council and proclaiming the week of May 18 through June May 24 as public works week in the city of Cemi city of Cemi Valley.
Well, that goes back a long ways.
I'm just going to say great, but I'm not sure you're the right city tonight, Mr. Joaquie.
I think you all appreciate how much our public works does for us, what is it you always say they keep Cemi Valley running or moving keeps Cemi Valley moving in all in all ways.
So we just really can't thank all of you guys enough, so I want to take a couple of words.
I really appreciate the opportunity to help lead the department that is pretty much the backbone of the city in terms of running utilities and keeping the infrastructure running.
It's an honor to be my public or employee for the Cemi Valley.
I just want to thank you and the council for this recognition, much appreciated.
We thank you guys a lot because if you weren't doing your job then we'd all be in trouble.
So I really thank you a lot, do you want to fix your Kristen?
Thank you gentlemen.
Madam Mayor and members of the city council next to me agenda is item one d two presentation of certificates of appreciation to outgoing community projects grant review committee members and senior management analyst Cynthia McCullough is here to present this item.
Could even Mayor Kavna and members of the city council in 2011 the city council and waste management executed a memorandum of understanding which provides annual grant funding of $150,000.
The city council awards funding to non-profit organizations for community projects and programs that benefit the Cemi Valley community.
In 2017 the city council created the CPG review committee consisting of seven representatives one from each of the four neighborhood councils the council on aging youth council and the community at large.
The review committee provides public input and a funding recommendation for city council consideration.
Each year the request have well exceeded the amount available and all the deserving programs and projects are not able to be funded.
This year the review committee first met in April to develop its review process for evaluating the 23 eligible funding requests that totaled over $590,000.
In May the review committee met again to receive public comments presentations from the applying organizations and discuss the funding requests.
After discussion the review committee concluded it's service by providing its funding recommendation for city council consideration that will be presented later this evening.
To show our appreciation the review committee members who are present this evening are asked to come forward to be recognized for their contribution of time leadership and service to the community.
Representing neighborhood council number one, Laura heard representing neighborhood council number two, Theresa Ramirez, representing neighborhood council number three, review, put hoda.
Representing neighborhood council number four, Bobby Calderon, representing the council on aging, Al Brown, representing the youth council, a monster.
And representing the community at large Gerald plus there is please join me and congratulating them on a job well done.
And I'm smart enough to not give out the microphone tonight.
We just want to this on behalf of the whole city council we want to thank you for the hard work you do dispensing this money.
There's always more demand than there is for it and it's a very difficult decision that you guys make and we really really appreciate all the time effort and work you put into it as I'm sure all of the recipients do to so thank you very very much.
Madam Mayor and members of the city council next in the agenda is item two public statements on appointment special presentations and information reports.
We have no speakers for this item this is my apologies.
We do have one speaker Melissa Bumsted.
We have no speakers for this item this evening.
Madam Mayor members of the city council next on the agenda is item three a one selection of up to two city council members to participate in the Ventura County film commission roundtable and committee services coordinator Ryan Fowler is here to present this item.
Good evening Mayor Kevin on members of the city council.
The Ventura County film commission periodically host film discussions with the city of semi valley and other stakeholders.
Past discussion topics have included film activity the permitting process and film promotion marketing and partnerships promote semi valley film locations.
The city has been invited to participate in a film roundtable discussion on Thursday May 29th 2025 from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. at 99.1 the ranch.
Located inside the semi valley town center.
The Ventura County film commission in partnership with the semi valley chamber of commerce is hosting the roundtable discussion with local studio owners entertainment industry members and other stakeholders.
The chambers initial invitation included the mayor and all council members.
However, to avoid a potential city council quorum at the roundtable staff is recommending the city council designate up to two representatives to participate in the discussion.
This concludes the report and staff is available to answer any questions at this time.
Any questions.
I am planning on attending so I would.
To be welcome to be one of the two.
And I'm out of town.
I will eliminate you.
I was I was going to I'm out of town as well. I was going to suggest if our mayor pretend wanted to attend might be appropriate for the two of you.
He can't make it either it looks like it's council member.
I don't know.
I'm I'm wanting to go.
So yes, I will go with the mayor and if some.
Let's go ahead and do that.
I just to be clear. I am wanting to go.
Okay.
Just so everyone's clear, right.
All right, do I have a motion.
I would move that the mayor.
Cavanah and council member.
You selected to attend the film.
Roundtable.
Second.
Thank you.
Call for the vote.
The motion passes unanimously.
Thank you.
Madam mayor and members of the city council next to the agenda is item three.
See one informational presentation.
Are you council member James the Queen.
Thank you.
Welcome.
Thank you.
So good evening.
Mayor Gavana and members of the city council.
My name is James the quang.
And I'm a seventh grader at hillside middle school.
I'm honored to represent the see me value council and to provide this information report on the work that we've accomplished throughout the month of May.
Before I do that, I would just like to take this opportunity to thank you for your continued support.
Which allows us to create these meaningful events and opportunities for the youth in our community.
Recently on May 19th, we hosted one of our most successful events for this year.
Our annual see me valley youth council teen wellness night outside of the see me valley public library.
This event provides students an opportunity to relax and recharge after AP testing with a focus on mental health and emotional.
The event featured over 40 impactful and diverse booths, including representatives from Alexandria House.
Bright youth.
For the need.
We came here and we phoma society.
Rancho see me recreation and park district see me valley police explorers see me valley unified school district.
To back go use and prevent prevention Friday night live.
Sound bath and meditation stand for university center for youth mental health and well-being.
Teen talk various school clubs.
Ventura County behavioral health.
Ventura County public health.
And the YMCA.
The youth council provided a rock painting booth and collected pet toys and blankets to donate to Ventura County Animal Services.
We also continued our successful umplugs day initiative.
Our students were encouraged to disconnect from their phones and engage in real life activities and conversations.
Students who tracked the lowest screen time had a chance to win prices. This year we also introduced a new step challenge called step into wellness.
We're qualified students could enter a raffle and potentially win a pair of headphones.
The support from the community for the event was absolutely incredible.
With this year having over 300 attendees.
Overall, this event was a major success in a variety of teams that their well-being matters just as much as their achievements.
Especially nowadays, of some teams being overwhelmed by stress and constant digital connection.
We hope that this event was able to make a lasting impact on their well-being.
Looking ahead, the youth council will be working on the team crisis resource numbers that will be printed on the backs of all senior valley unified school district, middle and high school student ID cards.
These council will be checking to make sure the crisis hotline numbers are still accurate.
And if there are any organizations that should be included and or removed from the cards.
This work will ultimately serve as a valuable resource for all of those students and youth who need them the most in the upcoming school year.
The youth council will also be hosting our annual escape room on June 19th and June 20th at the Barewood team center.
Our theme for the event is Cosmic Countdown where the participants will be trying to escape a spacecraft that is slowly losing oxygen.
The skate room is $10 per person and it can be purchased on the Rancho Seamy Recreation and Park District website.
To stay up to date with all of our events and initiatives, we encourage the community to follow the youth council on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube at
Seamy Valley Youth Council as well as on TikTok at S.V.Y.C.2929.
On behalf of the entire youth council, I want you to thank Marikavana and the City Council for your support.
Your encouragement gives the youth and Seamy Valley a voice and the power to leave.
Together we have accomplished great fits for the youth in our community and the youth council looks forward to what the future may bring.
Thank you for allowing me to speak tonight and I'm happy to answer any questions that you all may have.
Councilmember Reds.
Thank you, Madam Mayor.
I just want to say first off, if you're representative of the seventh graders in our town, we're in great shape.
Thank you for the wellness expo.
We share an exchange to the mayor and she took advantage of the sound bath and thought that that was an outstanding thing.
But for all you do, there's a youth council.
Thank you so much and thank you for a great presentation.
Thank you so much.
Councilmember Reds.
Thank you for presenting.
As you know, you saw me at the wellness night and what was great about the wellness night was that most of the tables were actually staffed by youth.
And so you staffed one of the tables that we went up to my daughter and I and so you had middle schoolers and high schoolers who are actually leading the activities and talking about the different offerings that the city had.
And I think that was one of the things that impressed me the most was you have these youth actually doing it and with over what 300 participants right we got there right when it started and there was already a group of people there.
So just wanted to congratulate you and the rest of your group on a great event that you put on.
Thank you so much.
Thank you I just want to commend you also what a great presentation you did so thank you have a good evening now.
Thank you.
Madam Mayor and members of the city council next on the agenda is item 3b1 presentation by the US Army Corps of Engineers and waste management regarding fire debris and the CME value landfill and here to present this item is Eric R. Swenson.
Colonel US Army Corps of Engineers same Paul district and the Col. Stetson senior district manager waste management CME value landfill.
Yes, please come up.
And it can it raises up if you'd like it.
There's a button.
They're setting it up now.
First thank you both for being here this evening.
It's a big item of interest as you can tell so we're glad that you're both here and we'll give us this wonderful presentation.
Can you hear me?
My name's Nicole Stetson I'm the district manager for the CME value landfill.
I've been with waste management for coming up on 21 years in June and I'm here just to give a brief overview of the fired re operations within the landfill.
We put together this presentation.
Colonel Swenson I have you on the first slide so if you'll handle that I will take over after.
Take over here okay.
So first of all I just want to thank.
Madam mayor in the in the council and the community behind me and that's online for your patience we know that we have we're sending a lot of trucks through your community as we work.
We're going to have a safe and quickly and efficiently to get the fire ash and debris and all the recycled materials that were left after the January 7th and 8th fires that impacted both the palicates and the eaten fire impacted areas get those that fire ash and debris from roughly 13,000 uncontrolled locations to a handful of control locations.
Where it can either be stored away permanently in a landfill or can be safely recycled to re enter the supply chain as a new product such as crushed.
Concrete which is used as sub base for renew construction or the recycled metal that we pull off.
So our role here is that when the state when the fire happened the governor declared a state of emergency and he asked the state asked a FEMA for the core of engineers and the EPA to come in to remove the fire ash and debris.
In previous fires that work was done by state agencies in 2017 was the last time that the core had been asked to come to work on behalf of the state for this for this task.
So the EPA came in they did phase one which is what we call household hazardous materials household hazardous materials are things like propane tanks fertilizer paints lithium ion batteries.
And any bulk asbestos that they find on the parcel those all get removed safely safely transported.
We get consolidated on larger trucks and like loads and hauled to special facilities where they can either be recycled or be properly disposed of in a and a properly permitted location.
And then after they get done the homeowner will sign a right of entry giving the core and our contractors the legal authority be on their.
Damage parcel to for the purposes of removing the private property off of that that would be the structure itself in any of the anything else that burned could be titled property.
Such as a car boat or trailer as well or hazardous tree.
So we go on and do a series of tasks that identify all of those hazards.
And then we send our contractor and this is in the slide there ECC environmental chemical core or company there are what we call our prime contractor.
Right, and then they hire a series of subcontractors the majority of which are local businesses to the LA venture county local local counties.
Many of the trucks you see on the road are are local to either this community or to to the LA.
And so we bring them on after those household hazardous materials have been removed.
Now after the household hazardous materials removed we also send a crew out to look at each foundation specifically looking and testing for a specialist.
So we do a thing called a chip test on various parts of the foundation we send that off to a certified California lab.
That works under a certified California asbestos consultant we get the results back and if there's a specialist then we send a special team out.
That is also permitted and works under a California California certified asbestos consultant to remove the asbestos hazard.
That again does not go to see me valley landfill that goes to special designated landfills that take asbestos containing materials or otherwise known as ACM.
Once the asbestos has gone the household hazardous materials are gone and any hazardous trees that may be a risk to our crew are removed then we go in and we remove the remainder of that material.
And in California fire ash and debris from a wildfire that happens where the state declared emergency is categorized as municipal waste.
So municipal waste and this is waste management expertise area but municipal waste is what is the business one of the main businesses that waste management is in.
That is the things that you put at your curb each week in the trash company comes and picks it up and takes it to a landfill.
And after a fire it has to go to a line landfill which is semi valley is is one of those.
In the process of doing all of this removal work.
We also have air monitors up we are using what we call the wet methods so everything is kept wet so there is no fugitive dust that escapes into the air because again.
The core is here for really public health and safety of the communities and the state of California that are at risk of having this these uncontrolled locations where the fire ash and debris is at.
So it gets put into the fire ash and debris that goes to the semi valley landfill is put into a lined dump truck that liner is then folded over the top a secondary tarp is put on top of that.
And then a third tarp which is the auto tarp is put over top of that every truck in California has an auto tarp which covers which covers that fire ash and debris that's just extra layers to make sure that nothing can escape.
Also remember that this material is transported in a moist state in a wet state so that nothing can no air can get in there and cause any of that dust to become fugitive dust.
It then goes to the semi valley landfill or the Sunshine Canyon landfill or the Calibacis landfill and we have those are all landfills that are permitted through local enforcement agencies as well as under agency called Cal recycle which falls under.
Cal Cal EPA and they have identified landfills across the state of California that in times of emergency such as what we had on January 7th are specifically designed to receive large amounts of.
fire ash and debris. Now I will say that the local enforcement agencies and Cal recycle permit landfills and I'm not going to talk about that what waste management all all of that but to say that we have not exceeded.
Our daily the daily limits to any of the landfills that we send material to so each landfill has a different daily limit they'll take they have different hours different days of the weeks that they work and so we work within.
Whatever is established by the local enforcement agency and Cal recycle for that specific landfill and we partner with with the landfills because we want this to be as an efficient process that rapidly and safely gets fire ash and debris from all those uncontrolled locations into a controlled location safely along a route and permanently.
And then once it gets to the the landfill the landfill does essentially the same things we do right they monitor for air and they have all the same regulations same California state laws that we follow in the transport of it they they have to do on the receiving and and then our trucks come back now.
As I said there's three landfills that we are pre primary landfills that we're currently using for what we call municipal waste this fire ash and debris at Sunshine Canyon see me valley and Cal basis we also use other facilities for recycled metal.
And clean concrete that's been tested and found to have no asbestos containing materials and the beauty of this operation is that we sort on each parcel we sort out those recyclables and that's what that does is it benefits waste management but ultimately it benefits the community because landfills.
We want to minimize recyclables in landfills right that extends the life of the landfill as long as possible and allows items to have that second or third or fourth.
Life here as a useful product in in our society and keeps our our waste stream to an absolute minimum and so that in a nutshell is how we we operate we inspect our trucks regularly to ensure that they are safe.
We have truck masters at each of the landfills and along the routes so we monitor traffic backups in congestion and if it's congested will send trucks if possible will divert them to a different landfill.
So that we don't have backups we don't want to impact the local community anymore than we have to in order to get this fire ash and debris again from an uncontrolled location to a controlled location.
I think I miss I think I covered.
Everything I wanted to cover and I'm certainly I'll pass it off the waste management and I'm certainly happy to answer any questions from the community.
Thank you for your time.
Thank you.
Colonel Swanson.
So as Colonel Swanson mentioned the senior valley landfills across three landfills.
So we are authorized to accept only non-housardous materials that is.
Again, the residential waste that you put curbside in our hauling trucks pick up on a daily basis.
We're not authorized to accept hazardous waste and the waste management does have a dedicated waste approvals team that reviews and
make sure that all materials coming into the landfill meet all of our permit criteria, including fire debris.
Oh, sorry, next slide.
Thank you.
We're regulated by over 15 agencies from the federal level all the way down to the state and local levels.
We have regular inspections, both unannounced and announced.
The minimum inspection frequency is monthly, but we oftentimes have weekly inspections as well.
The purpose of those inspections is just to make sure that the landfill is operating as safe as possible.
And in accordance with all of our permit limitations.
And this landfill in particular has a long-standing history of being a valuable resource within the region.
And the disasters we've been able to partner and help clean up the Northridge earthquake, material, Thomas fires, hail fire,
Wolsey fire of most recently, mountain fire, including eating and Pacific palaces, which is what we are currently accepting.
And we'll continue to support these needs into the future.
It took us significant amount of time and resources to prepare the site to accept the fire debris material.
Not only have we hired 20 new employee use, we have a designated disposal area for dedicated scales, heavy equipment, and a separate haul route specific to the fire debris.
To make sure that we're allowing for and we're operating as safely and efficiently as possible.
And in addition to minute trim and a mice queuing of trucks and traffic congestion on the site.
On the right, scenario photo of the site, the red line delineates the path of travel that the trucks take once they enter the facility.
This is an overview of our entrance road and our primary landfill scale, so as once the trucks enter the facility approach the landfill scales.
The landfill primary landfill scales, I'm sorry, they take a bypass lane on the right hand side and then they head up to four dedicated scales for the fire debris.
And that location is to the west of our facility.
The scale house includes four stations we have four attendants in the scale house at any one time they record the truck information and provide the tickets to the drivers.
And the drivers that we have between four and eight scale attendants at any one point in time managing that scale operation before coming to the landfill.
As Colonel Swenson said, the materials were wrapped in plastic it's tarped after the trucks come across the scales they get their ticket they head over to what's called the D tarping station where three man crews remove those tarps and the load is then ready for army core inspection before heading out to the landfill.
The left on the left side of the photo you can see our four scales on the right side is the D tarping station.
So the trucks then head along the fire debris route to the dedicated disposal area which we call cells two two and two three.
Not the working face or disposal location we typically have between four and six traffic directors six to eight heavy equipment operators.
Correcting trucks and pushing and packing the material into the landfill to make sure that we maintain safe distances between the trucks when they're dumping we deploy large truck tires based at least 15 feet apart.
The driver then backs in dumps his load all of the material slides out along with the plastic which is disposed of and not reused.
This control is a large effort with the fire debris material coming in we currently operate under a dust control plan approved by Ventura County planning and the air pollution control district.
We've significantly increased our best management practices in order to make sure that we are mitigating.
Future to dust some site so before coming to the landfill all loads are wedded so if you were to watch the trucks dump at the landfill there's no dust that comes off of the loads.
And then the material is grayish brownish it consists mostly of soil ash some rubble concrete and small amounts of metal and tree branches.
And also include that there's no odor coming from the fire debris no odor whatsoever.
We in order to control dust on our roads we have a number of water trucks on site we deploy at least two on a daily basis one which is the photo you see in the middle has an 8000 gallon holding tank compared to our regular landfill water trucks that hold 4000 gallons so it can cover a large large area.
Pretty quickly.
We've also ramp up our sweeping efforts we now have between one and two full-time street sweepers operating seven days a week 16 hours a day.
The sweeping route also includes view line drive and madera up to the freeway on ramp.
After the trucks dump they head toward the exit to exit the facility they go under a manned camera station and make where the army corps make sure that all the loads are free and clear of debris and then the trucks exit the way they came they came into the site.
So that's kind of the 10,000 foot level I'd also like to add that you know I'm very proud that my my team and I have played a vital role in this cleanup effort.
It's a very very proud very proud to represent WM and to partner with the army corps to make sure that these folks are able to rebuild as quickly as possible.
I'm sorry there's a couple of that so there are a couple other or two other questions that were raised by cancel that I didn't cover but I wanted to take the opportunity to discuss one was how much landfill life will.
The fire debris take so currently the senior valley landfills around 40 years of capacity and we estimate that one one year of life would be used except in the higher debris.
And then the other question was whether the landfill still accepting Chiquita Canyon landfill waste so following the closure of Chiquita Canyon landfill.
We didn't know where that volume was going to go so in advance we read requested a waiver in order to accept Chiquita volume.
And it turns out that that volume was distributed across facilities throughout the state most likely southern California and while I can't speak to other facilities that receive the landfill I can say that at this time we don't need a waiver to.
A waiver in place to accept volume from Chiquita Canyon closing.
And with that that's all I have. Thank you and appreciate your time.
All right thank you very much. Do you have any questions from the dyes.
Councilmember Rhodes.
I must all be always be quickest on my button.
First of all, Colonel and Nicole thank you very much for all the work that you've been doing.
I know for many people that especially they're here listening watching they don't have the opportunity to interact with the two of you and your staff and.
I'm happy to say that much of what I've learned from you all and your staff is exactly what was presented here, which is why my level of anxiety about things that are going into our landfill has been greatly reduced and.
And one person trying to communicate that message is often difficult hearing it from you all.
I won't just thank you for making that that time and effort for for being here.
There were a couple of additional new losses or maybe some drilling down on some of the monitoring that's going on.
I heard both say or maybe just the Colonel talk for both entities that there is air testing going on.
I understand from the Army Corps standpoint that you want air testing done in the places where the debris is being removed and so that we're not kicking up dust into the air.
We give us a better feel for how that testing is done how thorough it is and then Nicole from your side from the landfill and stand additional testing is being done is that.
Just way in way out or upwards being dumped where where is that being tested and and should we expect that testing to go on into the future.
So, so thank you for that question. So the AQMD is the air quality monitoring agency for this for this area, so they they do they do monitoring of air quality in in LA in LA county already.
But and the Army Corps of Engineers is not a public health agency, but we are very concerned about.
Our employees health and by and by worrying about our employees health we by extension or worried about everyone else's health in this operation right.
So around each around our sites we have.
We have individual air monitors that some of our employees wear when they're in the Ashfoot print, which is essentially the space with the structure burn to the ground we sort of broke that off that's considered the Ashfoot print.
The perimeter air monitors set up around our the neighborhoods to monitor for any air quality issues and we also have sensitive site air monitors.
So that might be near say a senior center that's been reoccupied we'll put an air monitor there or a school that's reoccupied we'll put an air monitor there.
Normally downwind the prevailing winds to make sure that our methods for debris removal are effective.
And and if we get hits that they're not effective then we change our technique add more water change the type of you know those we use on our sprayers so that we can keep the dust down.
I'm happy to announce that we have maintained.
Acceptable well well below the like the threshold for for air monitoring.
Through operations and it's refreshing when you go out on a site and you don't see any any dust coming up because every site has usually one if not two water buffaloes.
Which are just basically water tanks that are applying copious amounts of water to where the excavators are working to keep to keep that down and again then that.
In turn we put it the material in the back of the truck in a wet state or a moist state which means that it's clumped together so when it gets to the landfill and it gets detarped.
It makes it's a seamless transition onto waste management protocols for keeping dust down.
Does that answer your question?
It did on the air monitoring I'm going to come back with some other testing but.
So on on that note water and dust control is how we mitigate.
Airborne.
Dust on site so we don't have separate air monitors but we we employ all of our best management practices outlined in the dust control plan to make sure that.
Dust is minimized.
And I'll say from a personal standpoint of going out and visiting watching the debris being deposited there.
One person's empirical that I didn't see any that the management plan seems to be working.
And I heard some tests where you're mentioning testing being done on debris is it by truck load is it by.
One site before it gets clear to have what's the frequency of testing what are you testing for.
So we test every.
Uh, site for a specialist.
That's like a home site or like the the what we have certified asbestos consultants.
So in California it's they have this unique CAC other states have a similar requirement but in California there's a CAC a certified asbestos consultant.
So we have dozens of certified asbestos consultants that are hired by our contractor to be out there to monitor.
Any asbestos related activity that that occurs.
So when we get to what we call our hazardous site assessment a couple things happen first is we mark hazardous trees right so identify any trees that present a hazard to our crews or to any of the neighboring properties or to the right of ways.
We also send in this crew which.
Uh, they go in and in their Tyvex suits and they because we onto these parcels and they do these chip tests on the foundation.
They're also trained to identify what asbestos looks like they know what asbestos looks like and where asbestos is normally found in in home.
So a lot of times you find it in chimney liners in HVAC system areas.
Uh, it can be in the floor tile mass thick, it can be in floor tiles.
So the people that do this are professionals is what they do every day.
And so they're looking for it and they're also testing for it and the bite so if they see it they suspect it then they flag it and we remove it.
If they.
Uh, don't see it they still test for it. We send those tests to the lab it takes a couple days to a week to get back when we get the results back then we go in and we either they're either asbestos cleared or or then we test them.
We then remediate them for asbestos, which is another couple day process depending on how much asbestos is in the material.
All that asbestos is removed now.
If we are out on a site and we find it's it's clean of asbestos and we start doing the rear removal and we uncover asbestos that may be under the ground.
Uh, our crews are fairly well trained in knowing what asbestos is if we identify anything that might be asbestos we call that certified asbestos consultant back.
We do a quick analysis. If we deem it to be asbestos we think it is and we treat it asbestos containing material and that is whole decide it's double bagged and it is sent to a separate.
Uh, in separate waste stream and separate separate landfill that's designed to receive asbestos containing material.
So that reminds me of two questions.
I'm going to stay on hazardous debris.
You give us some extra.
An ample of things that are obvious that would be taken out of a home site and move to a higher and higher containment system.
Can you give us some more concrete? Like if my Tesla were to burn up and that would be something that would be, I would assume, hazardous and need to go somewhere else.
So when the EPA is primarily responsible for that mission, that's what we call phase one. Now, we do account, occasionally the core.
Once the EPA is finished, occasionally we find household hazardous materials that were hidden, EPA couldn't find them.
So we do have our own trained people. But the EPA is primarily responsible for that mission. So we're looking for things like lithium ion batteries.
That is your electric or hybrid vehicle. That is your power wall if you had a power wall, like a Tesla power wall in your house that would contain lithium ion batteries.
When when those get torched by a fire, right, they get become unstable.
And so EPA has this revolutionary technique that they've designed, basically when I was in La Hina doing the La Hina fires.
In Maui, they sort of came up with this technique where they go, they flip the vehicle over, they pull the batteries out, all the cells out.
They brine them, right, that brining, deenergizes it, sucks the energy, remaining energy out of these unstable cells.
And then they crush them, collect up all the material, and they ship it back to a certified facility.
I think in this one it went to Utah and other ones it's gone to Arizona to places that are permitted to receive that type of material.
So that's an example. But lithium ion batteries exist in lots of different devices that we use and we might not even realize.
There are so our crews and EPA's team are trained to know where these type of what they look like when they're in a fire damage state.
And it's the same crews at the EPA, you know, in California use for fire.
So they're really, they're really, they're really good at their work.
Fertilizers is another thing, aerosols, spray paints, regular paint, oil-based paint.
Again, bulk asbestos. So if they see bulk asbestos, they're going to collect that up.
Oftentimes around HVAC systems, I was a common building product in California when many of these many homes were built.
In the state over the past 70 or 80 years.
Those are kind of the big ones that we collect up.
I mean, there's probably at paints, thinners, other petroleum-based products.
So let's assume for a moment that in the real world we don't get it all.
And some of it ends up in a truck.
From the waste management standpoint, how concerned are you about some of these batteries and paint cans and things?
Being in the landfill and somehow damaging our environment,
seeping out of the landfill?
I'm confident that the Army Corps of Engineers is following the process and is removing all the hazardous waste before comes to the site.
I've watched a number of trucks dump and of all of the loads I've seen,
or it doesn't appear to be anything visually hazardous.
I think I'm trying to lead you the question of the lining system within your landfill is sort of designed to protect this against that stuff anyway.
I guess you answered the question.
Policies?
I was going to let you do it.
So we do have a 60 ml HDPE liner underneath the entire landfill that's protective intended to be protective of groundwater and from any liquids percolating through the waste stream.
I think we also have to remember that these wildfires, urban wildfires in particular burn really, really hot.
It's not uncommon to approach a vehicle that's been impacted by a wildfire or any vehicle fire.
And you see a hardened pool of aluminum underneath the vehicle, right?
Literally everything sort of melts out of it.
Many household paints and other items when it could be burning at 2,000 to 2,800 degrees.
There's not an awful lot left. The steel remains because the steel burns at a higher, you know, melts at a higher temperature.
But there's not an awful lot that remains.
We find a lot of propane tanks, but all the metal in the stem of the propane tank is a lighter metal softer metal.
And so it melts out the propane tank cooks off.
It doesn't explode unless you're in Hollywood and we're north of Hollywood, I think.
It doesn't explode. And that just we treat that because it's just essentially a nurt metal.
So we treat that as steel. That would be something that we would recycle.
And then last question before I'll pass it on to others.
You test for asbestos. You look for things.
The other EPA is looking for things.
Do you ever drill down into the soil and see if anything's seeped into the soil that you're then removing?
What's standard practice for you?
Great question. So what we've learned over the past decade or so is what we have a wildfire like this.
The structure essentially burns to the ground. That's the what previously was the the house.
We take about a two to three foot ring around where that structure burned to the ground.
And then we excavate or we remove all the fire ash in debris.
We've tested the concrete for the foundation. If it's clean, we recycle that.
And every remove six inches of soil and what we call that ash footprint that two to three feet around the the perimeter of where the fire.
The structure settled to the ground. And by taking six inches of top soil.
We remove. We remove all of that.
Any material that would have been in that structure.
And you know, fall into the ground.
We collected all in that in that's great.
Thanks. Thank you very much. I turned over for others.
Thank you. Next is Councilmember Lister.
Thank you for your report and information very, very informative.
Actually, I want to continue just in this in this question that I have a variety of others.
I know that we've been received a copy of the LA Times report that suggested that there were I think arsenic and lead that was found.
And we haven't discussed those chemicals per se, but are they are there other chemicals that are not being tested for that we should be concerned about.
To your experience.
Not to my not to my knowledge of my experience.
I mean, we.
Again, state of California and emergency.
Treats wild fire debris, fire ash debris as municipal waste.
And it goes. It has to go into a line to landfill, which is what we have here at CME Valley Sunshine Canyon and Calabassas and others.
I mean, I think the modern landfills built today are built with with liners.
I don't think there's been a landfill built without a liner and probably I don't know five decades or something or maybe longer.
Okay, thank you.
So speaking of those three primary landfills that are the recent rate receivers.
What percentage would you say is coming to CME Valley's landfills?
So CME Valley is the the largest of those landfills and has the greatest authorized daily.
Tunnage that can be brought to a landfill.
So and then we have a great partnership with waste management.
So we bring up to our max limit of of the landfills that are at our disposal to remove the debris.
I often get asked questions why don't I bring that to Arizona or Nevada or another state and it's essentially this was a fire here in this community.
It's not in this community in California.
This is, you know, we have to we have to rapidly and safely get this to fire debris into a permanent and lined landfill to help remove the public health and safety threat.
So, so CME Valley is, it does take more than the other two, but that's because of the permanent limits that we're allowed to take to each one.
And and the fact that CME Valley is ideally suited to partner with us as they have in five other major disasters to receive.
Fire ash and debris and those just so I understand the permitted limits were established by.
So state by the county.
So it goes to state and local enforcement agencies are the ones that permit landfills in the state of California.
I can't speak to know the how that all all those we just when we when we the core is called to a fire.
We work with the California state agencies that regulate landfills as well as the counties and local governments.
Where those landfills are located in this case the local enforcement agencies to understand what is the.
You know, what are the permanent limits, what are the times and then we build our operation around.
Our both recycling center and the landfills because if they if they're not open then then we can't execute the mission.
And then maybe you can help me understand.
Well, I understand thank you Nicole, I very much appreciate it being able to physically go through and and I'm glad to steer no longer.
On your on your boot to anyway you're welcome but thank you for letting me tour and see exactly how it works, but I recall from the conversation that.
Basically a homeless who experienced a fire they can choose to embrace your services or say we'll take care of it ourselves.
So what is the percentage that is are not using the Army Corps of Engineering and what does that look like for us.
So about I think as a yesterday about 1900.
We'll call parcels so lots owners have opted out of the federal debris removal program.
So if you opt you have two options as a fire impacted survivor right you either opt into the federal program or you opt out of the federal program there's no do nothing option.
And so for those who opted in if the process as I describe for those who opted out you follow the counties LA county established.
As sort of the umbrella organization over all of the unincorporated and incorporated communities within the fire impacted area.
LA county established the guidelines for the opt out procedure it looks very very similar to the procedures that the Army Corps of Engineers has to follow the differences that it's enforced by the county.
Whereas those who opt in the you know my contractors are enforced by me and my team to ensure that they're in compliance with the federal contract and they have their own if you have an opt out contract they have to negotiate.
You know a place to take or find I mean to go say so onward find a place a landfill that that is willing to receive their fire ash and debris because again they have to like we have proven to waste management that that we follow a procedure and that our our debris is safe now we did work with the county and the state and the Corps of Engineers has done.
And any conjunction with EPA we have gone to every parcel and done the household hazardous material removal.
So if you opt out you still have the Corps of Engineers or the EPA do the household hazardous material removal and that includes for commercial properties as well that ensures the safety of our landfills to keep those hazardous materials out.
So that maybe a contractor if they're trying to go fast you know they're unable to you know go fast because we've already taken all of that material out.
Got it. Okay, I very much appreciate understanding that.
I guess one more final question and this really probably isn't necessarily for either one of you, but I'm going to put out there and see what your thoughts obviously are are residents see a lot of negative externalities a lot of.
You know just just the truck traffic with potential damage to streets et cetera, et cetera.
Is there who bears the responsibility for maybe helping to mitigate that or to pay for repaving et cetera when this is all over with any thoughts from either one of you.
I suspect it's not just a big general question.
Yeah, it's not really not really one that I can answer.
I mean we use we hire contractors who use the roads like any other truck will the differences that you know we're using them at a high frequency.
I will say that I think as of today we're about we've we have cleared the.
I call the primary to breathe the visible signs of the fire from about 77% of the parcels that were impacted on January 7th and 8th.
So so I know I know that the community has has in this community.
I know that we have a lot of people who are in the city of Calibacis and Sanchan Canyon.
Those communities have as well as our recycling centers have more the truck traffic.
But I am I'm I'm pleased to say that we are ahead of schedule that we have been very safe in these operations and that we are getting these trucks.
Safely into these landfills and out and we are we're definitely on the decline in terms of the number of trucks that you'll see on the road and in a few.
I mean we're going to be we're going to be all but but done for for maybe with exception that maybe just a few hundred parcels left but.
So so that so this is this is the the worst of it it's going to get.
There's going to be fewer trucks from from here on out.
Thank you Colonel appreciate information.
Thank you for working both doing.
Thank you.
Mayor.
Thank you.
I want to thank both of you for coming out doing this presentation for our community.
I'm hoping it puts a lot of our community members minds that he's having been up to land fill to myself and council member roads.
Probably it does in times with meetings zoom meetings meeting in person going on towards the landfill watching what you do.
You've delayed my my concerns I don't really part of this.
So again I want to say thank you.
I want to say thank you for clarifying what about what about.
Because I know tomorrow I'd have calls that the army's use of water buffalo's the garbage around.
So I appreciate that I haven't heard that term in a long time.
Thank you again for coming.
Yes sir.
Council member.
I just have a couple of questions.
The Colonel Swenson you had mentioned.
Or maybe Nicole you mentioned that once the debris the trucks go into the.
That there is another Army Corps inspection. Do they hear that right?
So I have quality insurance inspectors and a quality insurance supervisor to onsite.
For every hour, there's a truck rolling into any of our landfills.
That is our contractual obligation as the federal agency that essentially is bringing the federal benefit to this community to the communities that are impacted.
Right? The federal dollar that's coming here to help do this for the state of California.
So I have a contractual obligation to ensure that my contractor is following the contract.
So every truck that moves into the semi valley is inspected.
I think twice by like on the way in and then on the way out to ensure that we are following that that that the contractor is following the federal contract to the letter of the contract and
and in my mind to the spirit of the contract, right? So that we're doing this safely, efficiently.
We're conserving federal dollars and we're doing, we're doing this right, which is why every truck gets weighed in and gets weighed out.
Or whatever they get, they're weighed empty and then they get weighed in every time they come full.
So we understand exactly how much material that we are bringing in and we're paying, you know, not a penny more than we have to for the work that's being done here.
And I think that a lot of people were not aware that before the trucks are even loaded that the household hazardous material has already been removed off that site.
That's correct.
And I think that there's a misconception that how do we know things are not in the trucks that are hazardous coming into waste management?
And the answer is that before they're even put on the truck that material has already been removed is that what would you say.
That's correct. Yeah. I mean, I mean, our environmental protection agency, right, our nation's environmental protection agency looks out for the environmental protection of every community is the one that oversees this operations.
And that's not lost on me that of who the federal government uses to oversee that. So just like the core of engineers has quality insurance inspectors.
The environmental protection agency hires certified contractors and then directly oversees them to ensure that they are following their very high standard for protecting the environment.
And then Nicole just a quick shorting question for you. The rumble strips. How does that work with the desk control.
When the trucks cross the rumble strips, they bounce and so it forces just the duration forces the matter and you dirt that's on those tires to shake off.
And we have to clean those rumble strips on a daily basis and scoop out the dirt that collects there so that they continue to be effective.
But it's the it's the jarring movement is the trucks cross the drops off the dirt.
Very good. And then Colonel Swenson just I think you answered this right before, but can you tell us again when you think the trucks will stop.
I mean, I can't so contractually we have until the one year anniversary of the fire, but we are going to be substantially complete with this debris by mid by mid summer.
You're going to see a decline as sharp decline in the number of trucks. We're trying to run this to what we call, you can do a steady decline where we start reducing our trucks each day.
Or you we run it to what we call a cliff and then we just let them all go and we're trying to run to a cliff and then let them all off because that that minimizes the amount of time that it takes for this debris removal mission to occur, which is which minimizes the amount of time that community members that survivors who are trying to rebuild.
That it takes for them to have a clean lot where they can, where they can rebuild their lives and livelihoods on.
So I suspect you'll you'll see its significant decrease in trucks starting here in mid summer.
If you don't start seeing it in three weeks, it'll it'll be mid summer for sure.
All right. Thank you very much.
All right, Ms. Council member Rose one more.
Right, and this is a landfill question and and unfortunately I'm going to preface the landfill question with.
We live in a community that has the San Francisco and a field map and the natural rightful suspicion of government and competency and clean up is always been in the back and is the back of our minds because that exists in our community.
I'm again, answering asking a question which I've been fully versed on the answer to, but I think it would be very helpful.
So in the in the future the debris has been removed where five years down the line and somehow heavy metals have seen through 200 feet of debris layer and it manages to breach the liner.
What testing is done, what organizations monitor for.
Breaches of that sort and then if something like that were discovered, what is mitigation.
Is that something that you would be mandated to do or something in the waste management does anyway on a regular basis.
So if there were a breach in the containment system, you would most likely see signs of that in the groundwater table.
So we have a number of groundwater monitoring wells, both upstream for background and downstream.
In accordance with the way that the water table moves under the landfill, we're sampling on a quarterly and semi annual basis.
We work with the regional water quality control board to review the data we submit reports on a semi annual and annual basis, but you would detect it within the groundwater.
A friend who I asked to kind of consult me on this said that a bad actor is one that monitors and then does nothing.
A good actor is one that monitors and says, okay, we're going to come up with a mitigation plan right away.
I'm in all my experience with WM, you're the latter and that if something were detected that we know about it and that there would be a plan that the whole community could rally behind and get.
Get done.
Absolutely.
Thank you.
I just have one more question actually a confirmation.
A lot of people commented to me that they saw the tarps slapping you know on the track, so they were worried it was open ash inside there.
So can you reiterate how that counts back?
Yeah, yes.
Thank you madam mayor.
So the the tarps have this thick like 10 mil think about it, you know, contractors bag that type of thickness plastic liner that is.
I used to use the word burrito wrap, maybe that's not the right the best term, but.
We if we load the inside of that with this moist fire ash in debris, we fold that burrito wrap on or that wrapping on top.
Then there's a separate tarp on top of that which is secured to the truck bed.
Then there's the auto tarp which comes down the auto tarp is this kind of the it's what every truck has what regardless of what it's hauling that is oftentimes which you'll see.
Flapping is the auto tarp because it doesn't because it's automatically it's automatic tarping system.
It doesn't have like bungee cords or ropes that hold it in place.
It's designed to cover a load and then quickly uncover a load.
So if you see a tarp flapping it is likely just the back of that auto tarp.
But there are which is why we mandate the the second tarp.
And then we have the the plastic wrapping beneath that.
So so that's the layers of of defense that that we have and we're just the auto tarp is out of an abundance of caution.
We just want some additional pressure to ensure that everything stays nice and tight.
Thank you very much. I appreciate that and I know that was a concern from a lot of people that I had heard.
And for the audiences information we will we will be posting this presentation and the PowerPoint on our website tomorrow.
So it will be available for you.
So I'd just like to thank you Colonel and Nicole.
We really appreciate you being here taking the time to share all of your knowledge and expertise with us.
So thank you.
Thank you.
Madam Mayor and members of City Council.
Nathan Yagenda is item four public statements.
During this agenda item four the city council will hear public statements from the first tense persons.
We have submitted speaker cards after the first 10 persons have spoken.
Subsequent persons who submitted speaker cards will be called to speak.
During agenda item number six which is a continuation of agenda item number four.
Gender items four and six are the times a lot for public statements.
On all items other than public hearing supportments and information reports.
Speaker will be called on in the order but you're covered submitted to speak for this public statements item four.
For a period of number three minutes each persons addressing the city council are requested to state their name and community residents for the record.
Madam Mayor and as you have any comments we can begin public statement.
Please do.
I will be calling three names at a time so you'll know who you follow.
The first.
Maya.
Mike Houser.
And Mike Shaw.
Good evening, Mayor and council members.
My name is Maya.
I'm here for out of desperation seeking your help and leadership.
My top priority like yours is public safety.
But how can we feel safe in our public parts kids playground or even our homes when off leash dogs aggressive dogs roam freely.
Just this past Thursday, I was attacked by an unleash pit bull inside my apartment hallway animal control garden wall but the property manager if you saw copyright.
If you used to give the officer the dog owner's information even though I had the they apartment number on the video.
She even said that she's not going to give any personal information to police officer.
This isn't a new issue.
For months we had off leash dogs, especially pit bulls running through the hallways.
Kids playground and elevators.
This is not just a concern.
It's a public safety crisis every year over 4.5 million people.
Many of them children are beaten by dogs and over 100 of those attacks of fetal.
Yet when we speak about it, we are harassed or dismissed.
Dog owners say they animals are friendly but we know dogs can be triggered unexpectedly by noise smell or movements.
I personally witnessed multiple attacks including at Memorial Park with tables and rockbirlers roam off leash.
Why are dogs being prioritized over the safety of lives of our children?
Dogs are now being allowed on flights and swings.
Then only for kids.
This pose a serious health risk.
Dog feces in your in carry bacteria dangerous, especially for children.
Dogs naturally carry 37.4 million colonies of bacteria.
And when leash dogs still insecure in crowded spaces, they protective instincts can turn dangerous.
When I ask why don't you use the dog park?
The dog owner told me that it was too dirty, infected or full of mean dogs.
So her solution was to bring her dogs to the children's playground instead.
She's not the only one and this has to stop.
We need park rangers to police officers to constantly enforce leash laws, issue fines, and when necessary,
it comes to skate dogs after repeated violations.
People need consequences to change behavior because without enforcement rules means nothing.
I am currently my third trimester.
The dog could have not me over, cost trauma, or worse.
The loss of my baby.
I live in fear that my toddler will be the next victim.
The trauma is real and it's preventable.
He's screaming at me that there's no such law in California as leash dogs.
The property manager knows the issue, but she's waiting till a real injury of that happens.
Why do I no longer have the right to safely walk in my only neighborhood?
Why?
I must take like, do have to wait till it tragedy happened and how many innocent lives do we need to lose to take real changes?
Please, I urge you enforce three police laws.
Hold landlords accountable and protect the public, especially children from this growing danger.
Thank you.
Madam Mayor and Councilman, we're going to evening.
My cows are I'm a resident of the city of Camerillo and I come to you before you tonight,
representing new west symphony, which has been turret counties, world class symphony orchestra.
I also come before you tonight as one of the volunteer co-chairs for our summer fundraising event, which is called summer fest,
which will be held this year on June 29th at 5 p.m. at the beautiful Rancho de Las Palmas events center,
which is located off of Tera Rojada and the 23 freeways.
The symphony is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, providing world-class concert performances to residents of Ventura County,
as well as supporting Arts Outreach and Education for Students Countywide.
In keeping with the 30th anniversary, our theme this year is pearls.
And our concert this year is called Dancing Through the Decades.
We have an all-star lineup of incredibly talented singers and musicians who will be performing hits from the last 30 years,
everything from the Beatles to Frank Sinatra, Chicago, Ricky Martin, Amy Winehouse, Journey, and much more.
The event includes a happy hour with a hosted bar.
We have a special drink lined up and also a local artist will be displaying their artwork.
Dinner features a top quality buffet in an elegant setting.
We are going to have a live auction.
Before the concert begins, for all attendees it includes a Dodger tickets behind home plate.
Vacation homestays, special dining and wine events trips and much more with all the proceeds going to support our programming throughout.
We will also be paying tribute to special honorees that have supported the Symphony for its first 30 years and we will be having a special tribute to the first responders to the devastating mountain fire.
And as it's close to July 4, we will also be having a period July 4, a special musical patriotic tribute which will be a part of the concert as well.
This is one of the symphonies, most important fundraising events annually, tickets for the dinner and the concert or just the concert itself are extremely limited and do go quickly and a portion of your dinner ticket is tax deductible, which is always a plus.
So, for more information about summer fest 2025 or purchase tickets, that information can be found at the new S. Symphony website, which is, uh, new S. Symphony, all one word dot org and the backslash summer fest.
There you'll find a complete information about the event as well as information if you'd be interested in being a sponsor of the event or a donor and thank you very much for your time.
Thank you.
Good evening, mayor and council. It's great to see you all again, as always.
I want to start off by thanking you all for giving the landfill issue the attention at dessert. I really appreciate that.
We talked about it the last time. You guys didn't, don't say anything, but I'm used to that. I get ignored at home the same way. So, but, um, you know, so I don't know what's going on, but you got on it and, um, and of course, typical me. I went and dug up the, uh,
MOU for the last landfill expansion and did my research. Um, I can tell you, councilman, listener that the truck load limit was negotiated as part of those negotiations.
I'd love a chance to interact with you if you are absolutely entertaining a landfill expansion. I wish that would be something we could all be involved with.
That being said, that being when I say transparency, the transparency I'm getting at isn't like something the farious is going on, it's transparency of knowing what is going on.
As I go to these other councils around the county, I see those council members do different reach out and make different efforts than we do in our own city.
So, for instance, like I've got my silly, I made up a questionnaire and I went down to the market and I got behind my neighborhood council number two position and I started trying to interact with the citizens.
My questionnaire is now like 37 things long, questions long. But, um, where I was going with this is I just want to ask maybe two things. If you guys would consider perhaps having a quarterly meeting with the entire council and all of the neighborhood council.
So, we could have someone on one interaction with you aside from just interacting with a liaison. The next one I would like to ask is if you would consider having every six months twice a year, a community town hall meeting.
I know we talked about this back when Fred was serving and Fred said we tried it, nobody showed up, but that doesn't mean we can't try it again because I think we need to improve on three minutes every two weeks as the only interaction we have to try and manage all the issues that concern us all. So, thank you for listening and thanks again for all your efforts.
Thank you.
The next three speakers, Pat Lewis, Nancy Mason and Jennifer Frank.
Good evening. So, I'm here to talk about the Simi Valley Library.
I'm on the Simi Valley Library Foundation and our goal is to improve that facility. I moved here in 1984 and one of the first things in my husband and I did was get a library card.
So, we are now looking at three generations of my family who have used the library at Nazio and we love that library.
So, it's sort of three generations in my family but like me it's getting older and it's starting to show its age.
It needs improvement, it needs to be brightened, the money that we were allocated during the grant process is vital to us making a difference.
It'll help us to keep the library relevant for our community, particularly our youth.
There are not a lot of places that the youth can go and just be safe and do what they want to do without worrying about anything other than being at the library.
And I think our community deserves a library that is bright and inviting and comfortable. How many of you have been in that community room lately?
It's ugly. There's not even a picture on the wall. There is so much that we could do. There are so many things that we could do to make that library a more inviting place for our community.
Particularly our youth. Thank you.
Good evening, Mayor. Kevin on council members. My name is Nancy Mason. I'm the vice president on the board of directors at the Samaritan Center. Thank you for giving me the time to speak tonight.
I want to share something critical that affects not just the Samaritan Center that our entire community recently extreme weather events have led to frequent public safety power shut off the medicine electric.
These outages have lasted up to three or even four days at a time.
While these measures are meant to ensure public safety, they've created an entirely different kind of crisis for those we serve.
When the power goes out, life at the Samaritan Center doesn't just slow down, it comes to a halt. Let me paint a picture of what that looks like.
First, we lose food, roughly 1,500 pounds of it stored in our commercial freezers and refrigerators. That's food meant to nourish the hungry.
Our kitchen with serves hot meals for 40 to 50 individuals every day, Monday through Thursday goes dark. Food pickups from local grocery stores are canceled because we can't store their food.
And the ripple effects don't stop there, showers, laundry facilities, meal distributions are gone.
Case management, where we help with referrals, crisis counseling and housing applications come to a standstill.
Even our food pantry which provides groceries to an average of 48 households, each pantry that is forced to shut its store, it stores.
Every year we serve about 3,800 semi-value residents, people who rely on us in their time of need, but during a power outage our hands are tied.
Imagine being homeless and suddenly losing access to basic necessities, like a shower or a meal.
Imagine the uncertainty, the social isolation, the fear.
Now picture being a family that depends on our food pantry to get through the week and finding it closed.
Without power there's no food, no support, no hope.
The effects ripple through every part of our community, families face increased food insecurity, individuals lose access to housing and employment assistance,
critical connections, those of counseling, referrals, or even a kind word are lost.
But there is a solution, backup generators.
With the right investment we can keep our doors open, our power on and our services running, even during the worst outages.
Generators would ensure that no one goes hungry, no one's left in the dark, and no one loses the lifeline they depend on.
We can't do it alone.
We need your support to ensure that when the power goes out, the Samaritan Center doesn't go with it.
Together we can build resilience and safeguard the services that so many depend on.
Thank you for listening.
Thank you for standing with us in the approval of the committee's recommendation for the project grant for funding.
And let's work together to keep the lights on for those who need them the most.
Good evening, Mayor Cavanagh.
Members of the City Council, City Manager Argrabri and my fellow community members.
Jennifer Frank and I'm here yet again to speak to you about our library, and I am a resident here in CMU Valley.
Tonight I am here to show my strong support for the Library Foundation's Community Projects Grant Proposal to revitalize the Library's Teen Center.
The Community Projects Grant Panel voted to grant $15,000 for the Teen Center, and I urge you to approve this amount.
When I was here a couple of weeks ago, you helped fully point it out that the city does not own the building that houses our library.
I very much appreciate your directness about this matter.
Thank you.
And I understand that this complicates renovation efforts.
With that in mind, the proposal for the Teen Center would not involve any construction or permanent changes to the building itself.
The grant would allow the purchase of new comfortable furniture, a smart board, as well as multi media charging stations.
It would also fund the purchase of a digital media kit, which would include a green screen microphone and lighting equipment.
As the parent of a teenager who lives here in CMU, I can attest to the fact that there are not many places for our teenagers to hang out here in CMU Valley, especially for free.
Our Library's Teen Center could be an inviting, engaging, and safe place for CMU Valley's young people to study, collaborate, and just hang out.
The items that this grant will provide will make a huge difference toward revitalizing this space.
I strongly urge you to approve the Community Projects Grant funding for our Library's Teen Center.
Thank you for your time.
The next three speakers, John Lapper, Kerry Mueller, and Howard Pector, Director.
John Lapper, CMU Valley, Mayor Kavanaugh, City Council, and City Manager.
I'll have to abridge this a little bit since the Army Corps spoke, and so did Waste Man on it.
I didn't know they'd get there first.
Tonight we heard from the Army Corps of Engineers for what I was, which was an excellent public relations presentation on the fire ash disposable to CMU Valley Waste Management and Landfill.
Also, was the Waste Management presentation, and they had a press release, and also the City of CMU Valley put out their little blurb.
While I can appreciate the awesome support to CMU Valley from Waste Management, the need to assist our neighboring cities from the tragic fires, the wonderful relationship of Waste Management and our city leaders, when must also take note of the tremendous financial gain to Waste Management from the fire disposal to the CMU Landfill.
I spoke at length to Sean McDermott, Venture Accounting Environmental Services Manager, and while putting it easy as far as precautions prescribed, I still have serious concerns about the monitoring of the disposal material at the Waste Management Landfill.
Sean McDermott conveyed that the airborne particles still present a hazard during transportation and dumping for sure.
Tests of the U.N. fire reveals levels of lead and arsenic that exceed allowable limits.
Also found where a class of contaminants called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which can cause headaches, coughing, skin irritation, and over long periods of exposure can increase the risk of cancers.
We all remain clueless as to what chemicals are actually being done. Of course hazardous waste is a no-no, contaminants still exist.
So my concerns really are what happens when it gets hot, what happens when it gets windy out there.
What happens when the rain gets there and we start stewing what's in there.
So the only thing that I can come up with to take care of that is I believe there's a need for independent ongoing air quality testing in the city of the waste management.
Landfill. It requests was made to the Ventura County Board of Supervisors also.
Frankly, I don't care who fits the bill. Just as long as it is done expeditiously.
So as to protect the residents of Sinie Valley, this should not be a big ask.
And I heard that there currently isn't that air monitoring system, but it definitely needs to be done.
Lastly, I'll remind this council of Rocket9 facility that for 50 years, mostly in secret in the name of National Defense,
as contaminated our neighborhoods. And to this day at the Sanaces and a field lab,
the cleanup has been for the most part delayed for good 20 years.
Please respond to the community what you intend to do with this request,
which is shared by many concerned residents of Sinie Valley,
for again independent air monitoring at sooner than later.
Thank you.
Good evening Mayor Cavanon City Council members.
Thank you for your dedication and your hard work for our city.
My name is Carrie Mueller, and I'm here on behalf of the Sinie Valley Library Foundation,
not to be confused with the friends of the library.
The Sinie Valley Library Foundation's mission is to financially support the Sinie Valley Public Library
in its efforts to renovate and revitalize the library and its services.
I would like to request that you award us the money we've requested
that the Community Project's grant committee has recommended.
Our first endeavor is improving the teen center by creating a modern, technology-friendly space that meets the needs of the communities youth.
This funding will allow the library to provide essential furnishings and technology resources that foster learning, creativity, and engagement for local teens.
By enhancing the teen center, the foundation's hope is to increase teen engagement and improve their access to technology, which will strengthen the library's role as a vital resource for the 13,000 or approximately 13,500 teens living in CME.
The power outages were mentioned. We have homeless families. We have more kids being homeschooled now than in the past, but also even for our kids who are in our schools after hours and on weekends they don't have access or some of them don't have access to the technology or even to charge some of their devices that they use.
But we would really like to be able to create an environment that's open to them like she says free, but friendly and welcoming to any and all to come in and use. So we would really appreciate your support and passing the community grant.
Thank you.
Good evening there, council members. My name is Howard Pector, sadly I'm not a CME value resident by my local business owner.
I also serve on the Board of Directors for the CME Valley Chamber of Commerce, which I'm representing tonight.
The Chamber would like to express its gratitude to the city for their continued support of our organization.
We're looking forward to co-hosting the upcoming state of the city with the city of CME Valley.
The event will take place at the CME Valley Cultural Arts Center on Wednesday, May 28.
Welcome reception at 11am, followed by a formal program beginning at 12.
This presentation will showcase key city priorities, major accomplishments of coming projects and community focus initiatives that are shaping CME Valley's future.
Emission is free, the space is limited, and advance reservations are required.
So please register online at www.svvac.
Thank you very much.
Jan Glassband.
Hi everybody, how are you tonight?
Good evening Mayor Cavanon and members of the city council.
Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to speak on behalf of the CME Valley Cultural Association.
And thank you all for everything that you do to make CME Valley community that we all can be proud of.
In CME we are blessed to have many nonprofit organizations that looked after the physical and emotional well-being of our citizens.
We are also very fortunate there are organizations that deal with the cultural well-being of our citizens bringing us together and unifying us under a common umbrella of cultural and social enrichment.
Over the past 30 years CME Valley Cultural Association has successfully produced events that have served over 200,000 residents of all ages and backgrounds.
The ghost tour in Strathen Park, Tumble Wee Town, and the Nottingham Festival are events that not only resulted in invaluable opportunities to families to share memorable experiences but they also brought great benefit to the CME Valley business community.
The funds generated by these events have allowed for the development of multiple children's arts programs and have enabled SVCA to partner with the CME Valley Unified School District.
In 2017, Arts Cultural Enrichment Center was established on site at CME Elementary School.
Where young people of all ages can find healthy, life-affirming activities that are educational and encourage critical thinking skills while at the same time provide opportunities to express themselves in a creative, nurturing group environment.
Two such tuition fee programs are literature and action unbound and literature and action junior which offer four times a year to children 8 to 12 and 9 to 17 will actually 9 to 25 now we expand of it.
These after school programs are performance-based and focus on classic world and American literature in play form.
These two programs first began in 1996 and have since served over 125 CME school children each year.
Our endeavor in 2025 in the project we are hoping the city council might reconsider supporting is a one day international festival and marketplace featuring food, entertainment and crafts from all over the world.
This event will help to subsidize our existing non tuition based programs while allowing us to develop other no-cross creative arts opportunities for young people and seniors.
Admission to this event is 100% free so that everyone, particularly those who are economically challenged might be able to enjoy a day with family and friends in the spirit of building a stronger, more culturally enriched and tolerant community.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Madam mayor that was a 10 speaker and we will have council comments after item six when all speakers have spoken.
Thank you.
Madam mayor members of the city council the next item on the agenda is public hearings can I just I'm sorry may I just ask though how many more speakers we have we have 15 more okay thank you.
Madam mayor members of the city council next on the agenda is public hearings this is the time for testimony on public hearings.
All the consideration of matters has presented on this agenda that the record show that do notice was given as required by law and an affidivitous effect is on file in the office of the city court.
All comments submitted by email have already been provided to the city council and will be made part of the record however they will not be read by the city clerk this evening.
Speaker will be called on in the order which the car was submitted to speak for this public testimony item five for a period of number than five minutes each.
Persons addressing the city council are requested to state their name and community residents for the record.
Comments should be limited to matters relevant to the item on the agenda and may be ruled out of order if comments are unrelated to the item the reports of city staff relating to these matters shall be made part of the record of this meeting.
If you challenging court any of the city council decisions may hear tonight, you may be limited to raising only those issued you or someone else raised at this public hearing.
The time with in which to distribute view must be sought is governed by California code of civil procedure section 1094.6 public hearing item five a public hearing to consider a general plan amendment prescreening review of gpps dash 2025 dash 001.
Still wave LLC a request to change the general plan land use designation for portions of mall district within city valley town center specific plan from general commercial.
From general commercial to high density and very high density residential to make the district a horizontal mixed use site look located at 1555 see me tell center way and principal planner.
Now I'm going to secure that be environmental services director Sean Gibson and environmental services directors to tease peils are here to present this item.
Before we begin are there any expertise communications report.
I will say that I met with the developer prior to this meeting.
Did anyone else not recently by 10 of the marketing meeting on Thursday and heard one of their representative speaking about their ideas.
And I met with them along with our assistant city manager about two months ago.
Okay.
All right.
Thank you we may begin.
Very good.
Good evening council members tonight's request is for a general plan prescreening application at the senior valley town center for those in the audience a general plan prescreening request is not a formal entitlement no project is being approved tonight.
Rather a concept discussion is occurring to evaluate whether or not the applicant can proceed ahead with a formal application staff has received some basic information that we have provided in the staff report for your understanding of the project.
And the goal tonight is to engage with both the applicant and the public to listen concepts and ideas if the council decides to proceed with going forward with the request if for some reason the council does not decide to proceed forward with the request.
The existing rules of the CME town center specific plan would still apply and any development could still be done in accordance with the specific plan.
So with that tonight we'll turn over to principal planner.
Narna Narna going to secure to provide the staff presentation.
Good evening Mayor Kavanaugh and members of the city council.
The applicant still wave LLC is requesting a general plan prescreening authorization to move forward with a formal application to change general plan land use designation for portions of the mall district within the CME valley town center specific plan from general commercial to high density and very high density.
As a result of this proposed change significant portions of the town center would become zone for multifamily residential uses and result in the elimination of commercial zoning in portions of the town center.
If authorized to proceed the applicant may file a formal application for general plan amendment any time during a one year period following the prescreening hearing.
The CME valley town center specific plan is a comprehensive master plan for the site with separate sub zones are shown in the diagram.
The town and country district on the west includes big box retail.
The residential district to the north includes the 500 unit avalanche apartments.
The gateway district on the east includes effectiveness facility and some vacant lots.
The central mall district is where the general plan land use designation changes are being proposed.
The areas proposed will change are located in the 44.7 acre mall district of the specific plan between Jefferson way and CME town center way.
The subject site has a general plan designation of general commercial.
As mentioned previously the 500 unit avalanche apartments within the 23.5 acre residential district of the specific plan which also has a resident general plan designation of general commercial.
Though the designation is equivalent in the specific plan to very high density residential.
This exhibit depicts the general plan land designations that would be required to accommodate the density ranges the applicant is requesting.
The changes would encompass the parking lot areas on the east and the west.
The eastern anchor tenants base and retail spaces on the north side of the site adjacent to Jefferson way.
12.25 acres encompassing parcels A, B and C as shown on the diagram would be changed to very high density residential.
The remaining 3.5 acre parcel D on the east would become high density residential.
Note that the additional commercial structures proposed by the applicant in the southern parking lot are not part of this pre-screening.
This exhibit shows the proposed land use designations on the city's general plan land use map.
This exhibit shows the proposed land use changes overlaid on an aerial image.
The very high density parcels are shown in yellow, the high density parcel is shown in green.
The two proposed land use basis nations have density ranges from 10.1 units to 35 units per acre.
The high density designation encourages high density town homes and 2 to 3 story apartments.
The very high density designation encourages 3 story or taller apartments and is generally intended for use in the central portion of the valley floor.
The proposed changes would result in the demolition of approximately 53% of the existing mall with 312,000 square feet being removed.
42,000 square feet of new retail is being proposed.
There would be a net loss of 270,000 square feet of retail which is approximately 45% of the existing mall.
With the changes, there is a potential of 281 to 498 residential units to be developed as shown in this table prior to any application of state density bonus law.
State density bonus law may allow up to 100% increase in density to 996 units with associated development wavers, concessions and limited local control.
The applicant is proposing 291 units to 375 units.
This slide has the specific plan objectives that are relevant to this change.
The mall district has seen significant challenges with retail vacancies and the closure of the two anchor tenant buildings in 2017 and 2024.
The project may be consistent with the specific plans objectives if the proposed land use changes result in the revitalization of the mall district.
This would require that a true mixed use environment be created by the overall proposal.
There would need to be sufficient residents.
And she units with wearing price points and in enough volume to provide significant support to the retail users.
Sefficient retail must also be retained on the site. The revitalized retail made then provide more employment and sales tax revenue than is currently generated.
These are the criteria used to consider a pre-screening request as laid out in staff report.
The proposed changes to the mall district may be compatible with all the land use uses in the area.
If design considerations such as architectural consistency and connectivity between the residential and commercial portions are taken into account in the final design.
There are our potential land use and compatibility with the hillside performance standards and objectives of the specific plan in general plan.
Protective measures such as a development agreement may be required to ensure the proposed project accompanying the general plan amendment request is compatible with other existing and proposed land uses in the area and aligns with the cities objectives.
The proposed changes may be consistent with the general plan policies that prioritise in fill and redevelopment of existing developed sites and mixed use districts.
If the housing provided supports the economic vitality of the mall area.
The economic benefits of the town centre with employment and sales tax increase would need to be clearly demonstrated as part of the final application to avoid conflicting with the economic vitality policy in the general plan.
There is a risk that the proposed changes may not align with the city's goal of a vibrant town centre due to the permanent loss of the commercial square footage.
Finally in the last 12 months, there has been no other amendments in the same general plan area that have been considered and denied.
No has there been a new land use study or policies adopted.
The following alternatives are available to the city council as laid out in the staff report.
Staff has no recommendation.
This concludes staff's presentation and we are available for questions.
Are there any questions or staff from city council members.
Council member roads.
Thank you Madam Mayor.
Staff, if this pre-screen is done tonight and it's not accepted when can the next pre-screen be brought back to us for this project.
Generally, it would be after 12 months.
Thank you.
Any other questions from city council?
Council Member Letster.
Thank you.
I'd like to understand better the potential ramifications of changing.
If I understand what you're saying we're obviously right now the specific plan is also on commercial.
What's being asked is not to have it a mixed use being commercial and residential, but basically now these areas become residential without that commercial element is that correct.
Correct. What is being asked is more of a horizontal mixed use over the more district where these areas in dark brown and light brown would become purely residential and the remaining red areas would remain commercial.
And if I realize pre-screen is just a conversation, it doesn't change the route.
If there were change made to make this residential.
If we were to go with high density, if I understand correctly, the numbers that you gave us likely we would lose control over those numbers unless we we're very specific with.
Well, let me back up how could we be specific about those numbers knowing that they're basically there's there's bonuses if they do affordability, etc.
Then they're taking out of our hands, is there a way that we could limit the number specifically to a certain number.
In development agreement is one option where you could try to limit the number and try to assure that the project gets built as proposed under that agreement.
And use the word try.
Would you explain why you mean use that word try?
Well, we're somewhat fine tuning the in this proposal to identify the residential locations of the town center.
Because once you once you complete a rezone or land use amendment to residential state of California identifies residential properties under category.
And if there aren't assurances that a project is built a certain way so you may perhaps the development agreement.
It could be sold or a higher density could result through various different ownership or other laws which increase residential density.
Okay, thank you. And I actually have a question for Mr. Paris.
We reevaluate our general plan for the housing element, etc. every five years and we're required to get it certified, etc.
And we have to meet certain arena numbers.
We have never in all the time chosen to make any of this residential in the past. Why is that?
So when we updated the general plan in 2012 and the housing element in 2021, we purposely did not select this CME Valley Town Center for to meet any of our regional housing needs assessment requirements.
We designated other properties throughout the city to provide new residential and the main purpose of that was to preserve the commercial sales tax space.
Any development of the Town Center would be subject to a public hearing process such as this for its consideration.
In a few years from now, we will be looking at a new housing element update.
We will be getting a new arena, our regional housing needs assessment number, eventually from the state of California, and we will need to eventually find where new housing can be accommodated somewhere in the city.
So that may be another appropriate time in the near future.
I'm talking about by twenty twenty nine that we will need to be very creative where we'll be accommodating new housing growth and development.
Anything we do here would eventually be applied to some of our regional calculations.
If new housing development were to occur in the meantime, but we will be going through this process in the near short term.
But the goal of not changing up until now was also part of our Nails and Dale economic development strategic plan adopted by the council within last couple years, as well as the envisioned CME Valley specific plan adopted.
Also within the past year, and where we looked at transforming LA Avenue and tapestry for new housing development in those commercial areas.
And only a little bit of the city is zone commercial and it's, you know, when I say a little bit about four percent of the city is zone commercial and we're always looking to preserve our sales tax space for our city budget.
And so the goal of balance growth, a common new housing development in the right areas there in a commercial areas that are languishing.
It's part of our formula going forward and saving commercial areas like this for exactly the right development that the community and the council support is the little bit of local control we still maintain.
Understood, okay, thank you.
Council member Iala.
I want to double click on the question that council member roads asked.
If for some reason if are we voting tonight that that is the plan.
And he asked if we for some reason say no.
That we have to wait another 12 months before this comes back or is one of the options that we can say we have some proposed changes.
We'd like you to come back incorporating those changes and that can be done within the 12 months.
So what you guys are voting on tonight is the ability for this to move forward toward a formal application, this is just a pre screening.
What the council can do during this process is ask that the applicant.
Take into consideration feedback from the council if they are to proceed with a formal application.
So if there are certain things that the council wants to see in this development in that formal application this would be the time to bring that forward to the developer.
And then the developer can work with staff to make those requests reality.
And one of the things to that Mr. Gibson mentioned is the development agreement option obviously that's a negotiated document.
So in terms of ensuring that that's something that protects the cities and trusts and what the community and the council wants to see there.
It is something that would have to be negotiated with the developer.
And I do want to point out one of the things.
At this time too the council is not voting on a specific project there is no specific project while you're doing is looking at a consideration of a general plan.
And if that's all you're allowed to do during the pre screening process.
I have questions but I don't, I don't, yeah, the developer.
Okay.
Council.
Council member roads.
Thank you Mayor.
This is and off the wall question for our planning crew over there.
My biggest fear is once this zoning changes to residential we've lost all control as we have in the city and it's driving us absolutely bonkers.
I'd like to propose that we invent a brand new zoning type called commercial.
Is there any possibility of creating in this general kind of amendment a different type of zone that is would allow housing but not allow Sacramento the overreach that they have accomplished with density bonuses and those sort of things.
I think the tool that Mr. Gibson alluded to the development agreement is really our best hope to say this is how we maintain local control on this property if we proceed with some type of formal development entitlement allowing housing.
I think that's not because we don't allow housing there.
We're not subject to certain state laws but once we start going down this path.
A development agreement put a cap on the the number that gets built here because it's built in accordance with the applicants request and they would agree to it in the city would agree to it and it would be binding that way.
If the property were to sell to a new developer they would also be subject to that same development agreement.
I think the city's have been employing to maintain that last passage of local control on a case by case faces I've seen some cities make every project go through development agreement.
Just to maintain prevent unintended consequences.
Thank you for that clarification.
I don't see any other questions from council so at this time I would like to open the hearing does the applicant wish to be heard on this matter.
Good evening.
My name's Greg Hall. I'm a managing director at Steel Wave. We are the new recent owner of CME Valley Town Center.
I'm joined this evening by my colleague Kevin Joyce.
It was a partner of mine and a big part of this project as well since late last year and our long time general manager.
Jeff de Julius and thank you to many of the merchants who are here this evening as well.
I wanted to first thank Mayor Kavanaugh Mayor Protem Judge council members Rhodes let's do our anayala for your time in your consideration tonight and prior to this night as well.
I also like to thank staff Samantha thanks for all the help you've provided Luis Stratus Sean Naren and the rest of your team you guys have been absolutely available.
You've educated us on the history and the process and we've tried to follow your lead which is to make this really an iterative and partnership approach.
I wanted to make sure everybody in this room understands that nothing is happening at this site tonight with any vote.
Just do we move forward in some form or fashion.
I'd also like to thank the community. Many members in this or many folks in this room.
We have tried to reach out early and often with the community of CME Valley.
We've had our own booth at the CME Valley Street Fair which takes place at the Town Center.
We've participated in community council meetings.
We've been part of the Merchants Association, the Chamber of Commerce and dozens of one on one discussions with members of the community.
Before we get into the site plan itself.
I wanted to just back up until you number one it's been partly informed by staff by the community and by what we think would make sense to revitalize the center.
As we think about the future of CME Town Center taking different twists and turns in terms of uses there.
This is not a test case. This isn't a trial balloon.
Mixed use redevelopment for class B malls is happening throughout the US, particularly in California.
There's many examples which I'm happy to share.
The main place mall in Santa Ana.
The Westminster mall which introduced 3,000 housing units that certainly not anything we're trying to attempt here.
Laguna Hills Mall in Laguna.
Also another case where they've been able to revitalize foot traffic and I think most importantly, at least to the city coffers sales tax revenue.
And as you look at the reduction of retail space, one might stand back and say, wait a minute, what is it going to do at our sales tax revenue.
But what we've seen happen in other examples and other projects of ours.
First of all, when you reduce the footprint from obsolete real estate to today's current modern real estate, the foot traffic increases, the dwell time increases and the sales tax revenue increases.
So we know it's imperative and a requirement of this process to present to you the city council and economic study that you guys can vet will hire them.
We've got a draft already but we'd like to submit it to the city when it's final and we'll go through all the math of does this actually make sense for the city from an economic perspective.
Sales tax revenue we think will certainly increase with the right footprint, but also property tax revenue with the housing base that could be could be added to the center.
If I may, I think can plug in here.
So I think this is what the room has seen as part of the pre screening application.
I was going to flip through a couple other slides that may be representative and what it could look like.
We've done this a bunch and the best projects by far are the ones that were informed by all the constituents.
The city, the community, the developer, the rent, the tenants.
We want that to be an iterative process.
So if there are things here that don't make sense, we want to respond to that.
As I flip over, this is, this is an area of of what could be innate.
One of the concerns we heard from some of the community residents and some folks on city council is this is our commercial center.
This is where we shop. This is sales tax and once it goes away, it goes away for good.
I hope you can tell on this image what we're trying to do is preserve.
95, 98% of the front edge of this retail center.
This will still very much read as a retail town center.
The housing that you see in the background there, this is very much a draft.
We can find two of these renderings, but that's that's depictive of the unit counts that we've talked about in this pre screening application.
What's important to note is over the last, this project was very well conceived over 20 years ago.
It was delivered about 20 years ago.
Design intent was good, construction was good.
Since then, we've had GFC, the great financial crisis, we've had COVID, and more than anything.
We've just had a change in how we all shop.
Ecommerce has changed the format of these boxes, and as everybody here in this room knows, today the center is 50% least.
Largely because we have two big, former Macy's and Robinson Maze on site, those formats are really tough to least today.
Until we can arrest the declining vacancy, we're not going to see sales tax or sales increase or sales tax revenue increase.
What we're trying to do is not say, hey, let's go in here and steam roll the town center, of course not.
The box on the left here, we actually have advanced discussions with a sporting good company that I hope and I think would be welcome in the city by the community.
But you'll see that in the foreground on the left side of the page, and then we want to repurpose that.
We don't want to demolish it, we don't need to throw anything else in a landfill.
So let's try and repurpose that, and that's at the outer most size of tenants in the market today, those four plates are 53,000 feet.
We think we can get a lease sign in that ground floor, and we're going to do our best to get that second floor lease as well.
The former Robinson's May Macy's, which closed in 2017 on the east side, in this image is gone, that's 150,000 foot building.
That's an extremely large plate, there aren't restaurants and there really aren't retailers today that are trafficking that space.
What's interesting is, everything in between those bookends is doing quite well.
And we want to do nothing but support those tenants.
We want to invest in that asset, we want to make this a better gathering and shopping place for families.
One of the main thrust, and I think you can see this.
In some of the other image you may dream enough to go off screen here, is this is that keyhole park that was added the parking that was added a few years ago.
We really want to elevate this even more, right, and make this entertainment sporting lifestyle where families can go and gather and spend time.
Right now the center somewhat reads as, I'm going to go in, I'm going to have a lunch room, I'm going to go to marshals, I'm going to go to olden, I'm going to leave.
We'd really like this to be a more inviting and warm and welcome place for residents and family members to spend more time.
And I think that's, that's how we're going to see this uptick in sales for the merchants there.
This is the far eastern end, so to the right edge of this page is where that larger macy sits today, excuse me, this is still the west end.
This would be, that image doesn't want to love for us tonight, but this is just a close up of the of the macy's west macy's east in this imagery has been removed, but our goal is because of our consumer shopping patterns because they've changed.
We don't want to dereetail the center, we just want to right size it for today's tenants and for today's users.
So removing that eastern macy's adding housing is going to immediately have hundreds of bodies that are embedded.
Shoppers and merchants and customers of restaurants at the site, so we think having a housing there will support the retail.
We don't think we've taken too much of this retail out.
The retail that is being removed is either entirely vacant or in the rear of the site which really hasn't performed anywhere near as well as the rest of the retail.
That's the rest of the retail that's fronting the parking lot.
But again, I just want to conclude by saying this was an informed site plan and ideas, but we want this to be iterative and hear from the community and hear from staff and city council about how to make it even better.
Thank you.
All right, thank you.
There are any questions of the applicant from city council members.
Council member roads.
Sure, I'll go first.
Greg, thank you for the presentation.
Come on back up, please.
So let's start with what we're going to agree on.
And that is that if I'm being pragmatic, the large footprint mall, especially that design format up there,
would be hard to revitalize in and of itself as a mall.
And in that revitalization, you had to purchase it.
You're going to have to put a lot of investment into it.
I even acknowledge that housing component is something that is useful to that mall.
I've always been partial to four sale housing units as opposed to apartments.
Can you tell me the difference for your organization, what putting apartments in versus putting for sale units is does to the numbers to make these things balance?
Well, yes, I can.
I will tell you that the mall itself is really, and I've shared this with council at a break even point if not a loss today.
The two previous owners.
The last control of the asset and there was a either foreclosure bankruptcy process and we don't want to be the third to do that.
And I think as we continue to see that the mall is continued to decline in terms of occupancy and not operating income.
That's why we're here talking about how can we stop that, how can we make this better.
For sale product is a more sought after product in terms of profitability in today's market.
So we would agree that for sale, some maybe different types of products we can talk about single or single a bedroom two bedroom three bedroom different formats back to back zipper town homes of varying price points, but for sale would be most advantageous in today's market.
In your free screen.
Conversation it's been very high density and I don't know that for sale units fit in very high density.
Can you help me visualize that.
Yeah, so the scheme that I showed up there that we could actually see the town homes those were ranging from the mid to mid teens to low 20s in terms of dwelling units.
Again, back to the product type if these were traditional dueplexes or back to back town homes you're absolutely right you're not going to get that kind of density would be a lower density.
There's a format called zipper town homes where they're kind of the inverse of each other they're very efficient in terms of coverage of the land and there you could recognize higher densities.
And how many we have a huge range of units to the from the acceptable to the incomprehensible.
What's your gut telling you is going to be needed to make this thing pencil well.
Well, I can answer that by telling you we probably should have planned at least in the in the submittal to staff.
A range that shook hands with the city zoning code meeting very high density and high density because what I'm happening is what we propose which is an outer bound of 375.
The way that actually fell into the city zoning code allowed us to get up to a much higher number that wasn't the intent and welcome to our world in our fear.
Right, I get that and I think we could what we could do is talk about other other other density ranges for those sites that can you know bring that whatever in the number is 400 something units down to what we are proposing or something that this room agrees on.
I've got a couple more, but I'll defer.
Okay, councilmember Lister's next.
Thank you and I know that I know that I don't know that we're opposed to a residential component, but I think we wreck it for me.
I recognize that this is our crown jewel commercial for a city and want to be sure it stays the crown jewel and I want to be sure that we've explored all options.
So I'm a little concerned what I'm seeing here.
Well, let me just back it up.
Has there been a consideration for instance of.
Maybe just putting residential on top and keeping commercial all underneath it for instance or integrating it together in some way or embracing.
The 500 units that are already there behind you that are locked out.
I mean, I want to think about the design right now is there's one little walkway, but you have back facing 500.
The 500 different units there's no road into that's convenient that to go all the way around there's anyway just it feels like you have residents there that you could immediately embrace and put into more of a retail.
Shoppers, but I guess we have we looked at some of those options as well.
Yeah, I think that that avalan project is as well least so there are bodies back there.
There hasn't been as much flow from that project into the town center.
Well, what we're trying to do is if we did nothing, which is what's happened for the last many years.
We know how that story ends.
The large boxes can't lease in the formats there now.
I wasn't going to get into the details, but that may seize west box, which is a smaller one that we'd like to repurpose as an adaptive reuse type play.
That that's at least $12 million to renovate that building to make it ready for for one or two or three tenants.
So it's a significant investment and and to be clear being able to have some sort of housing there a box the value of that land to reinvest into that building to reinvest into the rest of the center.
I think you might have seen in the rendering there that the maces that exist today doesn't look like the one in that picture.
We really want to tie the center together to have some unity amongst the retail.
In terms of construction type on top of the retail.
The way that the buildings are built today, the stick frame retail probably doesn't support that kind of housing above the retail.
We could certainly look into that, but our idea was to make use of the land that's not leaseable today largely where maces east is.
And behind behind by Jefferson White.
Okay, that's the retail that just doesn't get traffic as much as the front retail that does very very well.
Understood.
And I will tell you I know we have you have some outstanding tenants whether they're a full market rate or not even in that back area that are are doing great things.
One of my concerns and I may be articulate when we met a quite a while ago.
Is that to the residents of Simi Valley the entrance to the Simi Town Center is coming up here in Jiren and there it is and it this feels very much like what you're trying to do is put houses on one side and it's going to be right up against the freeway where we have hillside performance standards where we're not supposed to see that and then we have it on the other side and.
And it's to me it's feeling like it's encasing yes if you live there to be a lovely little neighborhood but it's not to me you're not feeling like.
It's invasive for the entire community and maybe that's just the concept I'm seeing.
But is how do we get around that.
I think we should show you additional plans that actually solves that I mean maybe there's certainly ways to pull that back from town centerway.
So that the view corridor is more obvious that this is still see me town center that everybody remembers.
But you still have housing that's tucked maybe back towards Jefferson a little bit more.
So we could certainly do some analysis of how to pull that back on both sides.
Okay. Thank you.
Council member.
Hello the.
Council member.
Let's do our head.
I mentioned the houses on top of the retail which was not what I was thinking but I think what it speaks to is having the flexibility.
And I think.
One of the ways that what I would like to.
Emergency is a mixed use overlay. Over personal A and parcel B so that we're not locked in to that being strictly residential.
And so as this gets built out, we might have other options as to what might go in parcel A and or in parcel B.
So I would encourage you to look at doing that, which would which would give us a lot more flexibility and not lock us into simply just housing.
But instead of our ideas that might come from the community or from the council could be a hotel, could be a parking structure, could be a filming location, all of those things, which would not be allowed if we did not if we just strictly kept it as residential.
The other thing is you mentioned the community input, which I think is great. And so I would just encourage you to continue in all phases of that because with this particular development.
As you know, it's going to impact not just people already have their businesses on that lot. They're living literally in that same parking lot across from across that little street.
So being able for them to provide input, I think going forward in all phases will be really important.
The other thing and I don't know if you go into detail in this phase of the project is the any amenities that might be brought into the plan.
So like when we're looking at this, we see places for housing, but where are the plans for things like open space for a community building, a pool, all of those things, when does that come into play?
Yeah, so if housing was considered and built here, those housing developments would have their own sort of embedded amenities.
Right. So if I was to live there, I'd like to have my own clubhouse or pool or tennis court or what have you.
So those would be part of that future residential development.
One of the programs we've talked about on the existing retail is not just reinvesting millions in the boxes to make them leaseable again, but to actually do a large facelift to the existing center.
So whether that's paint, signage and way finding or more likely, cleaning up the outside where we've got great seating groups, maybe there's place structures.
I think about Porter Ranch, and I think that's a good case study.
I think people are leaving CME Valley to go to Porter Ranch to go to Thousand Oaks to go to West Lake Village.
We're certainly not seeing the foot traffic at Town Center as we do at Porter Ranch.
That format of the pads on the street, the spine of retail and the larger dry goods in an FNB food and beverage uses our setback.
That has worked for that community.
And that's that's that's why we had that plan looked out ways.
We saw that work and we think that the will work here as well.
But amenities like outdoor seating, we've even talked, we were just brainstorming about instead of the head and parking, do we expand the sidewalk and create some really great places.
For people to spend time outside of a restaurant or with their family waiting, you know, for somebody else to come join them for dinner.
So millions of dollars invested in what we'll call common area improvements, seating, water features, place structures, things like that.
But we'll be open to other amenities.
Lots from you guys.
What I'm thinking about is all of what you're saying is great for people like us who are just going to the mall.
But if I'm buying a place there, I don't want shared spaces with anybody.
I want I'm living in a community.
And my concern is that these different parcels in the future might be sold off to different developers who might have their own ideas of what the plan should look like.
So I think that as we're going forward, there should be maybe a master plan that has all of these amenities and it's specifically for the residents who are paying for these homes.
And so no matter who buys these different lots to build on them, they will simply be building to the plan that was already signed off as opposed to doing the least expensive thing possible, which is we're not going to give a pool.
And have barbecue areas, et cetera for the residents, right?
So I think a master plan going forward that outlines all of the amenities, so no matter who builds on it, is just putting the plan into action would be great.
Including a community room that we as the city could use and other nonprofits could use, right?
Which we don't have a lot of in the city where they can host events and different receptions and things like that.
I understand we can work with staff on ideas.
Thank you. I had a couple of questions. A couple of things you already touched on the economic impact study.
That is something we'd be greatly interested in and seen whether we're going to increase our sales section or not, which we're hoping for.
So that would be good. So I'll be looking forward to that.
And also we have mentioned staff has a development agreement, because that's a big concern is and also what council member analysis is if we entitle these and then when parcel sold off, we have no control.
We've lost control on what's going to go there.
So I would be very, very interested in a development agreement with a lot of the things that we're talking about.
Including the the number of housing units, because when we discuss it earlier, you don't need the high density, but really high, very high density, you need the high density just a little bit more.
So that could be something that could be worked into into the development agreement without having to come up with a new zoning.
So because we were talking about that just a little bit earlier today.
And I also want to make sure and figure out that we get, we don't do all the housing first and then nothing in the mall.
I want we need to have some type of a balance as we're building here, we're improving here.
So that nothing gets all done at the same so that housing doesn't get done and then nothing ever happens with them all.
So that would be something I would like to see in a development agreement to is that do you have ideas on how that's going to happen at this time.
Well, I can I can tell you that if housing was ever attained on this site, that that doesn't solve all of our problems as the investor and as the owner, we can't walk away from the mall.
The mall is the lifeblood of that center is what's going to make the housing successful and the housing hopefully makes them all more successful.
So we have to invest in the retail component to make our overall investment profitable and cash flowing, which it isn't today.
So we're not ignoring the retail by any stretch. In fact, I could share with the room, not specific names, but we're on the one-yard line of a full lease for that lower floor for sporting good company.
We also have a elevated food and beverage restaurant concept sort of a wine driven concept that wants to be on a new pad at town center way so that kind of forms that basis of the spine entrance that we've talked about.
As that becomes least out, maybe we build that spine neck. So there's definitely opportunity to capitalize on retail leasing today.
We've worked on a number of renewals with our existing tenants, all of whom I think are very excited about the investment we're going to make in the center.
Okay, and one of the other things you would begin improving the signage and the landscaping and the basins and all that immediately.
We set off the fire alarm.
Okay.
We had a little chirping back in the back earlier and now we're getting a full fire alarm.
So they're going to check it out.
So those were my questions in the meantime. Do we want to take a five minute break?
Let's take a five minute break so that we can figure this out. So we'll adjourn for five minutes.
Thank you.
Thank you, everyone. We're going to come back in to session.
Thank you.
Would the applicant like to come back up?
Thank you.
Well, the buzzing made me finish and stop my questions, but Councilmember Roads says seven other questions.
Thank you and for whoever pull the fire alarm. Thank you. I reloaded my coffee so we can go on for another few hours.
I pulled the alarm.
So I want to.
The mayor talked about comprehensive economic impact study and.
Here's the math problem that I and I alluded to it earlier and it's a great concern.
So let's talk about retail for a second and then we'll talk about the other component here.
Retail study needs to show us what competent management in a mall like this would look like.
And I'm not blaming any mall managers present for the current situation.
But obviously neglect and missed opportunities and economic downturn and so on have created a problem.
So to say, I will be doing better than it has been doing that's a low bar and that's not that's not a high enough bar.
We need to understand what a revitalized mall tax revenue stream would look like.
And then seeing that then we want to know.
For sale units and what that looks like as a potential tax base we would.
How does having rental units affect that number from the housing component.
I'm trying to think of the other scenarios that would be there.
There's a potential in the current building and right now of doing filming and that sort of thing and and as far as I could tell the new model doesn't have that in there.
So there's a potential revenue loss from that type of a use.
How would we replace that and what's the overall thing.
I'm I'm of the mindset of saying hey we need a housing component to this and I get it come back with a proposal but I am.
I'm so fearful of the Sacramento shenanigans of what they do with housing as soon as we relinquish control that I have to be 100% convinced is going to be a slam dunk great deal for the city or when that comes back.
We'll try again and then you're in that new 12 months cycle so let's let's hit the home run the first time out but I want to I want to see this I hear there's a draft.
I'd love to see more bet on that topic we we are more than happy to.
Proceed with the development agreement that is absolutely fine with us that can put some sort of bookends very tight bookends on what can and can't be done at the town center so we're happy to work with staff.
To do that and to have that not only govern the type of product that can be built in the obligations of the owner slash developer.
But the unit count right we're not trying to get cute with hey let's call it 24 dwelling units which puts us into the very high density and guess what now we're going to use 38 now we can we can we can make that finite.
That will go a long way to leaving fears and still we're in the try category which is always that weird gray area but.
Yeah, and I think you'll be happy with the sales tax revenue because.
More than half of what we're proposing to remove is generating exactly zero sales tax dollars today.
Excellent thank you.
All right all my questions council member let's there.
Thank you thank you just a quick question for our maybe for the developer maybe for our team city.
Can we do a development agreement before.
Approving a prescreening for instance let's say tonight we vote and say you know I'm not happy I don't I don't sure I want high right now residential in these four quadrants at this high density.
I would consider it again.
And but with very a lot of things worked out et cetera can we turn it down tonight and meanwhile have you work on a potential.
Development agreement and then bring it back to us.
When the in a years time or after demonstrated.
Retail commitments etc. I'm just I'm just playing high.
Is that possible in council member list or I'll jump in for this one the council is not voting on either a general plan amendment itself or plan today and so.
So that extent it would be inappropriate actually for them to bring that development agreement for you and because there's nothing to actually agree on.
It would make sense for them to do it either in conjunction with the actual project because then you're going to see a project which developers going to bring later on.
The development agreement as well as any amendment plan likely come along with that including the entire project.
So if I'm understanding if I'm just trying to understand.
If in this pre screening.
Let's say we said okay I'll take a little bit of residential in that back section the other other three areas I don't want to right now let's just say.
I have without a glass at that and that we came to consensus that okay we'll take moderate housing in that debug section whatever I'm just playing.
Once that if we had agreed to that tonight and technically you could start development agreement and then they could come back in a years time and saying you know we've got this much ironed out.
But we really think we need more housing here and look what's happening retail wise.
I think that the idea is that tonight all you're saying is that you're willing to consider the possibility of an amendment based on the preliminary plans that they put forward and that they can go forward with that.
At the end of the day there's still going to have to submit future plans which are going to come back with an entire project and so right now you're just getting a cursory view that's why the.
So if we say yes to this.
All you're saying is that you would consider that so that they have the opportunity to actually bring back an amendment later on. When it comes back later on, you could deny it at that point if that was the council's choosing. So tonight is only for consideration of that option and nothing more.
And if I can also clarify some of the feedback that the council provided was that there is interest in like a mixed use overlay, right, so that would be something that staff would work with the developer on to ensure that there's flexibility in what can be developed in that area.
I'm just a little stuck because I think council member list or confused me a little bit.
I want to make sure that no one's prized by that, right?
I just want to make sure that if that the developer can come back any time and we don't have to wait for a year to pass before going forward with other things, right?
All right.
If you approve it tonight, if you deny it, then that it's the year.
It's a year for pre-screening. That does not preclude the developer from coming back with the project to be clear.
No, it is a precluder from working on the retail side because it's all make all the commercial stuff, just building units.
So voting yesterday is really for the developer to work with staff incorporating any changes that we've asked for and it's free to take into consideration, right?
And then bring back to us a different plan with that would also include a development agreement that we would then be able to vote on.
Correct.
Thank you.
Right.
He wanted just they wanted to know what did it was.
We were looking forward to how we wanted.
Well, our vision was so that you could move forward with a plan that hopefully meets our vision as well as a development agreement that kind of gives us some controls.
Should we change any land residential uses.
Councilmember Roads.
Yeah, I remembered one more on Parsley and the wonderful images you showed up there showing the new potential anchor tenant had a parking lot right next to that building and not housing.
Jammed up right next to it.
That.
That parcel.
I think is is right for other opportunities up there.
And I think councilmember I all alluded to a potential that makes additional sense for the city to to consider it that that's not housing, but.
Yeah, I hope to have for instance, we're in need of another one and that would be an.
I slipped my inexplot.
So.
That might be a possibility to work into your plan.
Okay.
Thank you.
I think you're off the hot seat right now.
If I made just a few seconds, I'd be remiss not to say that obviously we're not disturbing anybody if Macy's eastward to someday disappear.
We would be disrupting tenant businesses in the back.
If that was to change use.
And I just want to let everybody know we'd make a commitment to work with every tenant back there.
We'd love for them to stay at town center, whether that's a relocation, whether that's a new retail building.
We'll meet with them as often as they would like to, but we'd love to keep our great tenants at town center.
So we're happy to work with them in any format to retain them.
All right, thank you very much.
We appreciate that.
Come as Blanco, are there any members of the public wishing to be heard on the smatter?
Yes, Madam Mayor, we do have a few speaker cards.
I will be calling out three names at a time.
I don't know who you follow.
The first speaker is Mike Shaw, then John Lapper, and Jeff.
Did you do this?
Twice in one night, aren't we lucky?
Yes.
Just lucky lucky.
Thanks for listening.
Again, I promise I'll be quick this time.
I won't pull a lister.
You just got a no vote.
I'm just, I want to put in my two senses.
I'm happy to see a developer interested in that project.
I mean, for years we've seen it language.
And I've kind of heard it from him before that if we get too stringent, we're going to chase them away.
So let's hope that we can all get our wishes in an appropriate line and keep in mind that
density and all of that there has to be a financial aspect of this that makes it successful.
So I'm all for him.
I'm hope that you guys will be on board with there.
Whatever they come up with too.
Thanks.
Thank you.
John Lapper, see me valiant, round two.
I assume very thankful for this developer.
I did sit on a very full presentation at one of the civic organizations in town.
And that was pretty impressed that this is the company that's going to save our mall.
I'll keep this brief because, like I said, I'm 100% in favor of the mall being converted to mixed use or residential.
As the only way to seriously revitalize the senior valley town center mall.
My question has to do with the request for very high density versus high density.
I sat on on the thorough presentation by the new mall owners, which talked about townhouses for sale.
Is that encouraged as people to invest in the property, pride and ownership?
They mentioned just over 200 townhouses to be built.
In the agenda 5A staff report, I'm seeing 291 units to 375 units proposed by the developer.
There are two different between the public relations campaign and what is now being requested.
Also, of concern with very high density, the state maximum is actually 856 units.
What safeguards of the city have to prevent the developer from using state laws, especially regarding affordable housing moup holes to approach a very high number of units.
As with the four story project at Alamo and Tapo streets, the city hands were ultimately tied and forced to accept the developers terms with ultimately only a handful of low income properties.
Will the housing accountability act AB 2243 and state density bonus laws handcuffed the city council.
That page made of the staff report states these mace severely limit the ability of the city to impose local control in order to retain retail use and ensure development is compatible with the town centers unique location in the city cell site areas.
What is preventing the developer from adding apartments at the very high density level.
With high density designation better serve the community while still giving the developer the ability to build the townhouses for sale.
As promised, I hope the city that the senior valley city council has good legal council real estate otherwise before moving forward.
Obviously tonight is really simple just saying hey bring us the plans but I don't know if the very high density or high density is binding tonight, but I see no reason to go above high density for the mall area.
Thank you very much.
Good evening.
Made a mayor distinguished council members I haven't had the pleasure yet but we will very soon welcome.
So as you know I've been involved with see me valley town center sits its inception in the early part of the 2000s.
When I was a four city development through the development construction phases and finally came on board as a journal manager in 2010.
While the two succeeding developers attempted to come to grips with the changing retail landscape and deal with the half mile between the two department stores and an open air center affected by the weather.
I sincerely believe in my heart of hearts we finally have a partnership that understands what will take to make the shopping center receptive to the community in this decade.
They have consistently met with all of our merchants and solicited ideas and input.
None of the other developers have ever done that.
The new developers understand that what the second largest footprint in the city.
See me valley town center is open to any organization to use what the critical open spaces and spacious parking acreage.
And we'll allow that in the new plans.
That is a key item for me.
In the worst retail climb when I've ever witnessed I have been able to keep the center filled over the last 15 years with many entrepreneurs.
Some coming from their kitchen tables and in so doing the town center has become a real entrepreneurs haven.
People know different than any of us with the same economic wants and needs.
The new developers completely understand it.
I was happy to hear Greg make the comment that anybody who is in the town center now wants to be.
They'll always be home for them.
We have a merchants association and it is so dynamic and is unlike any in the world and some of you have attended our meetings and have given awards to our achievers.
If you haven't figured it out already my heart and soul are completely in the center.
In it virtually we happily discovered one day that 35 of our stores are owned or co-owned by women who strove for the piece of the American dream.
The nine national tenants added to that are operated by women and plenty of them have been with us since 2010.
That's more than half of the center.
That's important to me.
That fact was a subject of a shelved acorn article.
Hopefully they'll resubmit that.
So in closing a redevelopment CME Valley Town Center will be a nice reward for all of their hard work and sacrifices.
I encourage a city council in the community to continue to work with these developers to get the best use out of the 45.
In the second largest tax base in the city.
Thank you so much for your effort.
Thank you.
Alpha Elimini followed by Ryan Pram and an Angie Kurt.
Ryan Pram?
I'm supportive of the idea of having housing in the town center especially if it's affordable because it creates a nice community where you don't have to like shop online or have to go drive somewhere you can just walk to the store and you can go to social areas and
create your own little sustainable community and also prevents like suburban sprawl which you'll see.
In other places in the city valley where we're tearing down land to build up new houses that are in the middle of nowhere.
They have to go all kinds of places.
So having something already in quite literally that town center is a good idea.
I have a lot of concerns there.
The number 45% of the retail areas being taken down.
I feel like that's too high.
I feel like in that like map are still be just takes out that whole back end of the.
Of the mall and so basically it just becomes like a strip mall with like two townhouses centers at the end of it and I don't really like the idea of that.
So, and I'm also afraid that this is a slippery slope where I like yes sure this is like the rough draft plan but then it goes through and then goes through and then goes through and that's what we end up seeing.
Again, I love the idea of having the having mixed use areas.
But I don't like this current plan that's all I will say.
Thank you.
John Southwick 7 and Ian Schatz.
John Southwick.
No.
Seven.
Ian.
Then Greg Hall.
And Todd Huber.
Hello.
Okay.
Hi, so my name is Ian and I grew up here.
I have lived in the same in see me pretty much my entire life.
And I am strongly in support of redevelopment at the mall.
It's something that I've actually been interested in for a long time as long as I've been interested in urban planning and so there are a few different.
Points I'd like to touch upon regarding that first is the size of the parking lot itself.
I know a lot of people are worried about being able to find parking but I can say from having been there at multiple different very well like a lot of people went to them events, including the street fair, the circus and see me valid is that even at times when large portions of that.
That parking lot are taken up by fairgrounds, a circus, rides, otherwise there's still ample parking.
I've never had the park offsite even when it's been full and the parking lot has been partially used.
So on that point, I think that utilizing areas that are currently parking lots as was demonstrated within the map
would be a very effective way to increase the housing supply in the city.
Moving on from that, I think that it's obvious to everybody here who's been in Zemi for any length of time,
that the way that the mall has been run up until this point has not been effective.
And I don't see how putting more people closer to it would be worse, especially if a significant portion of the area, like the storefronts are just empty.
What's the point in having empty storefronts and continuing the way that it is, it's not healthy business strategy and it's not healthy for the city.
The nearest housing is already at the higher densities in the the city allows and it hasn't caused any issues for anyone and the mall itself is physically separated from
pretty much any other housing except for the avalanopartments.
It's essentially just next to the freeway.
Going into the on from that, the mall itself would be really an excellent place to have more housing because it serves as the stop for two Ventura County Transit Commission lines that take people all across the county as well as one of the city's bus services that takes people.
Not only in the city, but also to more part college and chats worth metro links station, so having more people there would help all three of those transit services at increased ridership.
Just a few days ago actually, I think it was four days ago, the Orange County Register found that it's required in Orange County obviously this isn't seen me, but.
There's a point that I'm getting at in Orange County, you need three hundred and seventy three thousand two hundred dollars if income to be able to buy a home.
The median income in see me Valley in 2022, I just got this off like a media is a hundred and twelve thousand hundred and forty four dollars.
I think we can all hear that there's a pretty big difference between those two numbers and.
If anyone has been to Orange County, which I'm sure probably everyone here has been they have followed suburban planning styles throughout that entire county and if we follow those same exact styles here all we're going to do is make it harder and harder for people to be able to afford housing just this has happened in Orange County.
There are a growing number of people who want to live in places where they can walk to the destinations that they need to get to instead of needing to drive it makes it so you can see friendly faces instead of just seeing.
There's a big machine in front of you that's cutting between different cars you don't you don't have any personal connection with the people around you when you're driving you do when you're walking around.
And this would create an opportunity for that here in the city.
I also don't really stop in stores that often that you're passing by when you are driving unless you were already planning on going there but if anyone here's gone to Main Street in Ventura.
And you walk down there you're not just walking down the street and then that's it you could stop you looking the stores and you buy things and you see what there is.
Just my last point here is that see me has built itself as a good place to start a family and a good place to raise children and if it's not affordable for young families to come here and start a family if they can't find a home.
How is this going to continue to meet that promise I don't believe it well so I support the development and I actually support it at the highest densities.
Great call.
Todd Huber.
Good evening city council mayor how you guys doing tonight.
I'm Todd Huber I'm a see me valley guy I've lived here for 56 years I grew up here.
My dad my father in law was the city manager here for almost 20 years my dad was a mayor for almost 10 years and I'm really proud of I'm really proud of being from see me valley.
I currently in the director of the international escape wording hall of fame I want to put the emphasis on international because we bring people from all over the globe to the see me valley town center.
Sadly I'm in the spot that's slated for demolition but it was cool to hear the owner say that they're going to work with us.
But I just wanted to come here tonight to support the project the mall can be better for sure I love it up there but it definitely lots of room for improvement.
But I just wanted to just speak on behalf of the two great museums that are in the area that are going to be torn down.
Not only is the skateboarding hall of fame my museum a nonprofit but I'm next door or two or down from the military museum and they're a very unique place.
We were recently called fun and quirky by 805 magazine and see me valley needs more of anything it's fun and quirky so hopefully the new owners will work with us as an on profit.
They've been really good to so far but I see a big investment here and it kind of worries me about the future of me being able to stay there.
I also want to say in closing that LA is going to be the host of the Olympics in 2028 because we're an international escape wording museum and skateboarding is now one of the most popular events in the Olympics.
The international spotlight is going to be on us and I sure hope it's that to see me like town center and not in the valley or in LA where they'd like us to be so hope you guys will put this project thank you.
And Todd they might say you're your fun and quirky but spectrums been advertising you too I've been hearing that a few days so congrats on you there you got your global on that so we also had cards that with people that did not wish to speak we had 20 cards in support of.
I thought you were down I'm sorry no we have three more okay we have three more sorry.
The next yeah Bob Cottle Jeff Peterson and then Scott Hanson.
Hello Mayor Cavanagh members of the council I'm Bob Cottle I live in Cemi Valley for a long time I won't say how long.
I am supportive of the mall but not supportive of high density and very high density development with the mall and there's several reasons for that for that one is that.
It's going to destroy the ability of the city to ever have a large commercial development that's the only place that's left.
Now I do feel for the owner but they did buy the mall knowing what condition it was that.
I think that it's a good idea to develop the mall further.
A great idea they have a sporting good store I strongly recommend they pursue development that relates to.
Recreational activities we don't have very many of those in town like a David Busters like the truckie cheese that moved out.
Different things that would bring people into the mall and create activities and also use the facilities there are now the restaurant the movie theater.
The other issue that I have with the mall or with the development proposal is that you start putting a lot of high density development outside the valley floor which is really direct contradiction with the German policies that we have now and we also want to try to at least a city should be trying to place high density development.
Near transit facilities that it would be the metropolitan area that has been a little bit ignored as a late but hopefully that will be something you want to consider and then not to just a future.
I think one of the things that the council should really think about is where do we want.
I don't think this is the best location it's just I feel like we're trying to bail out a developer that bought a.
property that was underperforming but I think that things that can be done on the developer side to improve that property and I think we should give it a chance give the new owner a chance to bring in.
Some stores and activities and see if they can't revitalize it because once you put the multifamily homes in their aunt.
You're not going to change it and it's not going to be a town center anymore it's going to be a neighborhood shopping center I'll be at a large neighbor shopping center.
It's just going to be another neighborhood shopping center with a grocery store and some shops and a theater is that what we really want is that what we envision for the town center.
I don't think so another point on the arena.
The more development the city does for residential.
Stacks God looks at that says hmm well they could probably do some more what we up there arena a little bit give them a little more.
So that's it.
I'm a nice here right out that but I think that in the long run I'm looking holistically about that for the community not just this one project site and I think the council needs to.
Take a step back and say hey is this the best thing for the city.
Thank you.
Hi my name's Jeff Patterson I've been a resident of see me since 69 so I don't know what's that 55 56 years.
I've seen quite a bit change over the years it's kind of fun to tell people how things used to be and just look at there's stairs back.
Thank you for all the time that you put in to make the city a better place that's the only way it gets to be a better place is through your efforts.
And everybody's appreciative of your consideration and way in all the aspects that could be involved in any development.
The downside I see with this is they kind of went for a home run.
You said well let's see if everybody's okay with very high density and I'm not sure that that's what we really want once once we move things forward as concerns event expressed.
Be tends to be out of our hands and then we're stuck with whatever we get.
I agree with those that have been concerned that the housing portion will be done and then the mall improvement portion might may lag and there needs to be a cohesive effort to make sure that it's carried out with some kind of vision.
I do see the need for having some development in a living type aspect there that I don't think very high density or perhaps even high density is is the way to go but you know it's like.
Rocky proposed some sort of new new term that allows 24 units per acre or whatever it is.
One of my other observations is that I do get around town some and I've noticed that the land to the north of the Avalan apartments is already graded out like it's.
Intended to be developed for apartments and so that hasn't been brought up or thought of at this time but as the city continues to fill out.
I I foresee that that's the possibility that there could be more apartments above Avalan and then you've got an even.
Greater dense area all in one spot and that's going to create problems with traffic and.
sewer and all the other things that going to make in a city operational.
So those are my concerns that as as proposed I I'm not really in I'd tell them to come back with something more concrete rather than just floating a trial alone and see if we salute.
Thank you.
Good evening Mayor.
Deity Council members just I have a couple things to say Scott Hanson lifetime resident 62 years I'm another nice a her but.
You know eventually everything's going to be whatever happens is going to happen if we try to stop it it's going to happen from the higher up so I won't.
Bring that up.
I've yet to see building more apartments, bring the cost of housing down. Doesn't happen. Nobody's going to decrease the rent on apartments when they go up.
So that's that's the one thing on that. And the other thing is the the mall project also may be a good opportunity for the city council to look into proposing a food truck vending court be incorporated into it.
Since since since a lot of the residents of semi valley seemed to appreciate that, maybe that might be an option to include in that project. Thank you.
I'm going to confirm Ms. Bunko, we're all done with our speakers. Yes, Madam Mayor, that was the last one.
All right. Thank you.
We do have additional cards that chose not to speak. We have 23 people in support and two opposed.
You don't have a car van.
We have for item six. We still have public comments.
We still have public comments for item six. Did you mean to be in this open hearing?
You'll need to complete. Do you have a card completed?
What is your name sir?
Ms. Ortiz, why don't you come up and go ahead and start and they'll find your card and if we don't have it.
We just had we said a blue instead of a yellow one. Come on. If you're fine.
We start that time because I'm a fire of the whole distance.
We start that.
No, you only get that.
No.
Thank you.
Thank you for the opportunity to be here this evening.
You know, I've been here to see me valley.
Gosh.
For many years since the 1969 our family moved here and seen a lot of development here.
And I'm very thankful and fortunate that, you know, being here at the mall at the town center has been a blessing to us and our community and our youth that we actually get off the streets and try to change our lives and give them more of
that, and more that.
But.
I know we have to remember Sarah off the third floor, board member here on staff here with them.
And I just would hopefully that we can be able to extend, what they're seeing.
I'm sure there is going to be a little bounce back and forth.
But,
Well, here for the long fight in and hope we did if I feed them to you.
what they can do to regenerate them all and to make it better, you know, as well.
You know, we were able to put on some shows here.
If y'all know, we've put on some boxing shows.
We brought world champions out here to see me valley.
I had to make Ryan after his decision.
I had, you know, as Mr. Gambino, a lot of it,
boobie starts come out and we bring those people here just to show who has seen me
valley and the shows we put on, we have people from all over the world coming out as well,
too, to fight on our cards and stuff, and we're looking to do more shows and be
able to bring more people to see me valley and make it water.
I've seen me valley and the talent center itself.
And now we actually have one more level of event coming up.
It's going to be our little Lucho Libre show, little basketball thing here, okay.
Now we have a Lucho Libre show going on and it's something that the talent center, I'm a pops, you
know, establishment, and to be able to have what we have today, it's a dream, it's a reality,
and I just want to see, thanks to the talent center.
Thank you guys for having us and appreciate you all at the board as well.
Have a blessed night.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Is there anyone else who submitted a blue card to speak on this item?
No, we will go back to the open public comments.
Thank you.
Okay.
So we're done now?
Yes.
Okay.
There are times of charm.
23 cards in support and two were opposed in addition to all the speakers.
So at this time, does staff desire to respond to any comments or issues raised?
I did, Mayor Kavanaugh, Mr. Lapper brought up a one-term about the Housing Accountability Act.
And that's the state law, similar to what happened at tap on Alamo, where the general plan
and the zoning designation were in place to mandate multi-family residential development.
That's why the City Council, for example, in that project, could not say no.
This is a different type of situation.
This, the general plan and the zoning don't match up with what's being conceived of.
So if and when this project were to come back to the City Council, the City Council could
say no.
You could deny it.
And that's because it's not protected by the Housing Accountability Act.
A development agreement to answer the other item was a way to put a cap on the number of units.
And so that is a tool in our toolbox, if we choose to explore it and at the gentleman over here,
I think Mr. Peterson, you discuss the land above to the north of Avalan apartments.
That's the North Cain's development and that's a development proposal that will likely be presented
to the City Council in the near future proposal for a couple hundred single-family homes,
as well as the senior family senior living component as well.
So that's area is currently outside the city limits, requires an annexation.
But there is the potential for new residential development and close proximity to this location.
Thank you.
Mr. Peterson.
Okay.
We're all good.
Thank you.
Does the applicant have any desire to respond to the staff?
Just as comments.
Okay.
Perfect.
Thank you very much.
Okay.
This hearing is now closed.
Any further comments or questions from City Council members?
Seeing none.
Sorry.
Councilmember Lister?
Well, I guess I want to understand what the next steps are here tonight.
Is it?
I mean, I definitely have some comments on what my thoughts about going forward.
We could also then choose to modify if we wanted to as well.
Correct?
What would I say modify the pre-screening for instance?
Could is it yes or no?
Yes.
Yes or no.
So we can't say yes on two areas but not on correct.
You can say yes.
The council votes to move this forward.
Incorporate in the feedback that the council has provided to the developer.
Or you can say no.
We don't want to do anything.
But the yes does not guarantee anything either.
And we can't say yes.
Okay.
With parcel.
But not okay.
Not at this time.
Okay.
All right.
Then I would like to make a couple comments.
But if that's all right.
Yes.
You have time to make comments.
Thank you.
I just wanted to explain.
I think where my thoughts going to go.
I'd very much appreciate my conversation with stress this weekend.
I just came to appreciate that this is the only land designated and available for regional commerce and city valley.
There is no other location.
If we bring in residential.
And by the way, I like a small portion of residential.
But if we do, we cannot go back.
We have other commercial mixed use areas that we could use.
We've got this in visual and vision see me quarter.
We've got that huge area on LA Avenue that was from mixed use.
We've got tapestry quarter, et cetera.
We have areas that are designated for exactly really what they want to do in terms of mixed use.
So I am concerned if we go forward.
As it is, as structured.
We cannot step backwards.
I did attend the mall marketing meeting last Thursday.
And I appreciate the question that was asked by Todd Huber, who is here.
Maybe left.
He asked the question, what about the housing behind the mall?
I referenced it.
I really think the mall could do something to the town center.
Excuse me, it's not a mall, it's a town center.
They got to use the correct vernacular.
I do think very much that something could be done to reach out to residents that are already in the area to capitalize on them.
I'm concerned though that that's why I want the developers to start.
And then come back and say let's look at residential to supplement what we're doing.
But I really want this to be a jewel for the entire city and surrounding area, not a beautiful neighborhood shopping area.
There are some amazing merchants in that mall.
Many of them are here tonight and you deserve the best.
You deserve something wonderful.
And I believe that the 22 cards are in support because they want them all revitalized.
They don't want to lose their spot.
They don't want to necessarily lose 45% of the mall's commercial, which is what's being proposed.
But of course, they want more customers and more activity and they know that still is a good owner.
And I believe that you are good owners and we'll do great things.
So I know that we've already met arena numbers.
There's a reason why we never plan for housing in previous iterations.
And so I think for that reason, at least for me, I'm going to vote against housing.
I'm not opposed to it.
But I'm just concerned myself with going forward the way it is constituted right now.
And I'd love to have further conversations and have them come back and discuss after we've spent more time.
So I just want to share that.
And if I can just say councilmember.
Again, if the council decides to move this forward, the developer and staff would work together to incorporate those comments.
And that feedback.
But the council has provided tonight.
And then again, if the council says this can move forward for a formal application.
Then when that formal application comes back and if that is not reflective of what this council has directed.
That it wants to see the council can also deny it at that time as well.
Any other comments?
Questions?
I will now entertain a motion.
There's a motion.
There's a motion on the last page.
I'll make the motion.
Now that I found it.
I moved to authorize GPPS-2025-001.
For further processing, it's a formal general planning amendment with any additional directives discussed in the report in public hearing.
It's correct one.
Second.
Thank you.
Cover the vote.
The motion passes with councilmember.
Let's do a voting.
Thank you.
We can now move to the next item.
Madam Mayor.
Members of City Council next on the agenda is item six.
Public statements.
During this agenda, it says the council were here.
Public statements from persons who had previously submitted speaker cards.
And did not speak under agenda item number four.
It's because we call them.
The order that covers submitted.
Just speak for this public statements item six for a period of number three minutes each.
Persons addressing the city council are requested to state their name for the other community residents for the record.
I will call three speakers at a time.
So you will know who you follow.
Tracy.
Connette.
Dawn Cost Grove.
And the Natalie Hilton.
Good evening.
Mayor Kavanaugh and City Council.
I want to thank you for your past support in granting our grant request.
And that is now made you a partner with us in fighting food insecurity in this community.
This grant, along with food share, retail store donations and private contributions.
And sure we can continue to offer a wide variety of healthy choices for our almost 300 families who come every single week.
We serve families, seniors, children and anybody else that that need some food.
For over five years now we have been helping families, seniors and children.
My neighbors and your neighbors with food insecurity.
They thank you and so do we.
Thank you.
Dawn Cost Grove.
Natalie Hilton.
Good evening.
Thank you for this opportunity to share about many mansions community projects grant.
I grew up in the city of CME Valley.
And I'm very proud to work for an organization that supports CME Valley residents.
Since 1979, many mansions has provided housing and services for economically disadvantaged vulnerable community members.
As part of our mission, we believe the solution to ending homelessness goes beyond providing housing.
This is why we also offer a range of programs and services that ensure our residents remain housed and thrive.
Our community projects grant proposed proposal supports too many mansions CME Valley properties,
Cossettapas and Laverhara apartments.
Combined, these communities housed 23 extremely low income individuals, including seniors, children, all of whom have experienced chronic homelessness,
or suffer from a disabling mental or physical condition.
Residents receive comprehensive onsite support like wraparound services, counseling and resource.
First, to promote housing stability and greater self-sufficiency. Without access to these critical offerings and affordable housing, these individuals are at high risk of becoming homeless. Ensuring the long-term sustainability of the supportive housing communities is vital to the success of vulnerable CME Valley residents.
Our proposal request funding for the purchase of 21 new energy efficient heating and air conditioning systems, 13, a cost of deposit and eight at Lower Hada.
The new HVAC units will provide much needed upgrades to the current heating and air systems, many of which are original to the buildings, which were constructed in the 1970s.
In addition to presenting a range of health and safety concerns, these outdated models are also failing. To function, the current heating units require a standing pilot light.
Due to their age, these are easily extinguished and can only be re-lit by gas company technicians. This is especially problematic in the winter with many housebound and ill-residents forced to wait. Sometimes for extended periods until their heating can be restored.
Additionally, for residents who face mental health challenges, disruptions to their routine and living environments can be detrimental to their overall wellbeing.
The new models combine heating and cooling systems into heating and cooling into one systems, simplifying maintenance and improving residents' safety and living conditions.
Many mansions is honored to be a current and former recipient of grant funding from the City of CME Valley.
With this proposal, the organization invites the city to continue our partnership, helping to create a brighter future for in need CME Valley residents. Thanks very much.
Thank you.
The next three speakers, Cindy Slack, Nikki Leon, and Gina Trumpcully.
Good evening, Mayor Kavanaugh. Members of the City Council and fellow community members. My name is Cindy Slack. I'm here to represent the CME Valley Library Foundation.
Today, I'd like to speak briefly about the why a renovated teen center at our public library is not just a want.
It's a community need. Teens in our community need a place that feels safe, welcoming, and their own.
A dedicated teen center offers an environment where they can explore ideas, express themselves, and connect with peers outside of school, and home. A vital third space that fosters belonging.
With updated technology, comfortable study areas and access to curated resources, a renovated teen center will directly support homework help, research projects, and literacy development.
It will also provide enrichment programs in STEM, creative arts, and life skills that prepare teens for adulthood.
Having a positive place to spend time helps reduce risk factors such as isolation, screen addiction, and unsafe behaviors.
Libraries provide trusted adults and mentors, calm spaces for mental rest, and programming that builds confidence and resilience.
A vibrant teen center shows young people that the libraries for them when teens feel included and empowered.
They are more likely to become lifelong learners, readers, and community contributors.
In conclusion, investing in a renovated teen center is investing in the next generation.
It's a commitment to equity, education, and opportunity for all. Let's build a space that meets teens where they are, and inspires them to grow into who they can become.
Good evening, city council.
Well, then she gets all this.
Good evening.
Nikki Leanne here, and this is Gabby C. Fuentes, we are representing body brain trained tonight.
We just wanted to thank you for your continued support.
Without this community funding, we wouldn't be able to grow our program like we've been growing in the past few years.
Thank you, council, men, I alla for attending our punchathon last week. It's our biggest fundraiser the year.
And we got to watch several of our seniors sit or stand and hit the bag for 90 minutes.
One of our seniors, we call him Bob too, because we have several bulbs in our class.
He hit the bag for 90 minutes.
And unfortunately, Saturday evening, he was in a very bad car accident. He's okay.
He was on that sick and more in Alamo accident. So his caregiver had called us and said, he probably wasn't going to make it through the night.
And the next morning, Bob woke up, chatting away, remembered everything, remembered the fireman's names, everything.
Calls me Tuesday.
I just wanted to let you know I'm not running away.
You wanted to make sure that we knew that he was okay, and he couldn't attend the class.
So I went to visit him Sunday.
And he was in the hospital. He was a broken back 47 stitches in his head.
And he's laying in the hospital bed.
I'm like, Bob, you look terrible. He goes, I'm mad.
And I'm like, Bob, why are you so mad?
He said, I'm out for four months.
And I said, listen, you're alive, right?
So he said, do you know how long four months is to an 89 year old man?
And it made us think like through all our burnout and sometimes it gets to be a lot for us
that we just keep pushing forward for the Bob's and this community.
And we couldn't do that without your support.
So this funding is helping us hire more trainers and just keeping the energy going.
So we just wanted to thank you tonight.
One last thing, council member, Ella, thank you so much again, and you won a basket.
So I'm going to email you.
Good evening, Mayor Cavanos, members of the City Council.
My name's Gina Trancali.
And I'm with the CME Valley Cultural Arts Center Foundation.
It's always a long name to say, but I'm very excited to represent them.
And the cultural arts centers, Hispanic Heritage Festival, last year,
the community projects grant that we got of $10,000,
allowed us to bring that to the City of CME Valley for the first time.
It was very exciting.
We estimate about 1,000 people came to the center.
People who had never been there before.
So it was really great to have our beautiful cities, cultural art center,
have people come there who had never been there before.
And it's a Hispanic Heritage Festival.
But people from all backgrounds come and enjoy the festival.
Everyone, we have food vendors, arts and crafts vendors.
We have art exhibits in the gallery in the theater.
Last year we had a walk in Weaver.
And then we had the park in Rick Big Mobile stage in the parking lot.
When we were able to give performances, ballet folklorical,
Mediachi, Peruvian dancers, as tech dancers.
It was just a beautiful festival that brought the community together.
We did not make the top 10 out of the 23 applicants this year of the community project grant.
So I'm here today to see if there's any funds that could be designated for us
to help us put this festival on again this year.
We've been planning since January.
We're working towards this.
This year we're looking to work with the Historical Society to bring information about our Mexican heritage.
That goes all the way back to the agricultural times of the beginning of the last century.
So we really would like to ask you for your support.
This festival is free to the public, which was wonderful.
It also created economic opportunities and exposures for local and small businesses.
We had over 40 arts and crafts vendors, restaurants and food vendors,
giving shopping and dining experiences.
It provides an enriching cultural and educational experience for the community.
And it brings the community together, which is I think the most important thing.
We want to have things in our community that bring us together in a really positive way.
So if there's any way that you can bring some funds our way to help us fund this.
You know, we want to pay our artists something, our performers.
You know, we rent tables and chairs and we rent this stage and a canopy, a shade canopy in the back parking lots.
It's a little bit hot in September.
This event is September 27th.
So those are the kinds of things that we will be spending our money on, not too much, but we would appreciate your consideration.
Thank you.
It was a wonderful event.
You know, I was there last year.
I guess I've never had that one.
I would love to surprise this.
Thank you.
The next three speakers are Maryam Cidra, Sandra Fernandez,
Akinbach and Melissa Bumstedt.
Sarah Sauer.
Oh, you're Melissa.
Oh, I'm sorry, Melissa.
Hi. Thank you.
Good, very late evening to Mary, kind of a hot and this in the Valley City Council members appreciate having this opportunity to speak to you.
I'm Melissa Bumstedt with Parents Against the Sanages and a Field App.
We've come into a unique opportunity to start being founding members and leadership of several different air quality coalitions.
We've come into our experience with collecting air samples through the Wozifire.
We were invited by the Air Quality Consortium,
Academic Consortium including UCLA, UC Davis, USC, UCSB, Caltech, Harvard, and many, many other organizations who have taken academic interest in trying to protect residents from the LA fire.
Through our past involvement,
we were able to start the Los Angeles Community Clean Air Coalition.
And we are now working with a new group that we are calling the AQ Kenejo Valley,
which is focusing on clean air.
As you've heard there are a lot of concerns about the landfill,
and I'm very excited to present an opportunity for the city of Cime Valley,
city of Moore Park, Ventura County, to come together and create an independent air quality monitoring system.
This would be part of the Phoenix Network, which Caltech has created.
They are over 45 similar monitors in the Pasadena, Altadena area.
Fortunately, they found they have a monitoring black carbon along the trekking routes.
And a finding limited migration of that contamination.
That kind of data puts confidence in residents.
That's kind of information that they could access in real time, online, and be able to see for themselves.
So, how could potential contamination from the Cime Valley landfill be impacting them?
So, for the people of Altadena, it has been a big reassurance that's something we would like to see as a reassurance here.
Also, should contamination migrated all it would give elected officials opportunities to take protective measures.
It's a tool that we would like to present.
I have sent out invitations tomorrow for our first meeting that we'll be having with a wide range of interested parties.
It's something we think that is actually considerably affordable for this type of technology.
It's incredibly cutting edge technology, even including speciation, which hardly anyone in the world has.
But there is an opportunity to bring that to Cime Valley that could actually tell which specific types of contaminants could potentially reach residents should that be happening.
So, I'd like to open that invitation and hope to speak with you again about this.
Thank you.
Sarah Seller.
And the last speaker, Greg Lister.
You're hiding back there, I didn't see you.
Absolutely.
I could either be obedient or I could come and say what I think needs to be said.
And John Lapper pulled a list or so on.
He's sleeping on the couch tonight, just to be very clear.
I was reading, I'm commenting about the proposed Cime sewer fee hike, which I am completely opposed to.
It's just completely wrong, because it's being financed the wrong way.
And I read this article in the acorn, it's just incomplete.
And I want to fill in the rest of the blanks that I think need to be said.
But one of the things that has occurred to me, Ronald Reagan, 1980.
He asked the question, are you a better off today than you were four years ago?
I mean, I know the answer to that, because he had the Jimmy Carter inflation.
We have just been through four years of the Joe Biden inflation.
And if we were to ask the Cime Valley residents today, are you better off today than you were four years ago?
What do you think they would say?
And yet five years ago, the city council raised fees.
45% the sewer connection, these 45%.
No one anticipated that time, they're going to have four years of inflation.
But they got hammered.
And now once again, here you come, here is raising some more, because this is the way you, and in the eight.
Court, which is really amazing to me. It says, public work, director Ron, which you walkie, who I admire. So, the increases are necessary to help fund the city's $71 million plan for $49 capital agreement projects.
Five years ago, I read a report that there's $160 million unfunded capital improvements. And you'd be like, that's five years ago.
What happened to $90 million? We're reading 71 million for 49 projects. How many total projects are there? Now, as we get into this a little bit further, I was a banker 18 years.
The business school and banking, the loan trading, you went to Union Bank's loan trading program, and you're taught that when you have a long-term asset, you're acquiring a long-term asset, you do a long-term financing.
If you're going to, if you're a contractor, you're going to buy some skip loader, you're not going to pay for it out of cash, you're going to get a seven-year loan, same kind of thing.
In 50 years, according to Ron, we have an old system and we're doing work. It's now expected last 50 to 100 years.
Well, it's a pretty safe statement, because no one in this room is going to be around in 50 years, but the concept is still the same.
Now, I'll tell you what was really funny to me, and not funny, it's sad, is that while the city five years ago said, no, we're not going to do these bonds, but they did vote for pension obligation bonds.
This is a long-term finance that should be financed with 30-year money, and not take it out on the current residents.
There's more and more people that are on fixed incomes that just can't get it anymore.
And I think you should vote not do this. And Joe, if you vote for it, it's really bad.
The people who want to run for your seat will bring this up forever, and it'll be, you know, you know, just done for it.
So, sorry here and that.
All right, thank you.
Okay.
That count is going to be very nice.
We may not even get the count. She may be outside, just to be very clear.
He knows the rules. He's not allowed to come, but that's because he's not supposed to come.
Madam Mayor, members of the city council next to the agenda is item six, a city council comments regarding all public statements.
Four and six.
Please let Elaine go first.
She hasn't pushed her button yet.
I want to hear it.
I don't have anyone that was just, okay. Sorry, Council member, excuse me, Mayor Pracham Judge.
We're not on consent agenda yet. We're, we're on, that's all right. We moved everything around.
We're going to be moving on to consent.
That's going to get a little weird.
But I really have anything specific.
Like I said about the landfill and the stuff going on over there.
My concerns were the same concerns as yours when it's their first started happening.
I just want to make it clear, this is an emergency of epic proportions that we're not victims of this time.
See, Valley has been the victims of fires before and other things.
This is one of those times where all the communities around that area have to come together and help people out.
The people that own those properties want to get their land cleared and want to rebuild some of them, some of them won't.
A lot of them won't actually because of the prices today.
But like I said, this is an emergency where we'll have to come together.
God forbid this ever happened to our city.
I would expect every community around us to come together and help us too.
And that's what we're doing with our landfill.
I've been, my mind was putting it easy long time ago as far as a toxicity of the stuff going in there,
which is no more toxic than your own garbage in your cans.
No matter how many people go to the times and write stuff they can't prove, that's all it wants to.
Thank you.
Councilmember Letster.
So I'm not going to comment on that last one.
We'll call it the time we'll come when we talk to sewer rates.
I want to thank everyone who's here who represent wonderful nonprofits and organizations that do so much.
And it is, and so deserving, all of you, and it's very hard because I know as I read through with 23 applicants, only 10 recipients.
That means 13 that didn't receive.
And anyway, we'll be talking about it more in a little bit.
But I just wanted to commend all of you and say how incredibly deserving you are all of receiving funds.
And maybe that's what needs to come out of this is that waste management doubles the grant money as we get for.
Next anything that should be the result.
That's that's what I, so we'll we'll be talking to them later on behind the scenes because I think that might be the solution.
So I'm not going to really address any of the comments.
Although I will say I did want to thank.
The list of I'm stood.
I think it's what she's doing in terms of air quality.
I think consortium.
I think we all was want to prove how safe things are.
And so I'm certainly not opposed to that.
And we would be worthy of having further conversations.
But I to please with what's taking place in our and the regular and what's in place right now to keep us safe.
I want to know that certainly it's worthy having that conversation further.
And that concludes my thoughts.
Thank you. Council member Reds.
Thank you, Madam Mayor.
I'll I too wanted to thank everybody who came out and spoke on behalf of the nonprofits.
It's one of the fun tragic things we get to do is hand out money, but not enough.
And we're going to have a discussion on that coming up next.
For all those that do good work in the city.
Thank you so much.
I'm going to go ahead and talk about our last speaker.
And say that.
When people bring information to an opinion is the city council.
It is a appreciated even if the source of their information is the acorn.
As they're a source of what I don't appreciate is the failed threat against city council.
Should they not act in a certain way.
And I think Mr. Literature should think about that in future comments to council.
It was inappropriate.
Thank you, council member.
And for the last speaker I'm just glad he thinks I'm Joe Ayala.
And I'm Joseph Ayala.
I didn't correct him.
And so.
And I do think it's thank you council member Rhodes.
And if I vote for this, I'm not the only one who might vote for it.
So it's interesting that I was the one that was singled out.
But I will vote the way that I think is best for the city.
And what I think the people want.
And whatever ramifications come of that, that's what I take.
Thank you, council member Ayala.
I also just want to thank everybody for coming out tonight.
And you guys have been here a long time.
So we did move your item up next.
So we don't have to go through the consent calendar.
So that will help a little bit.
All of you represent organizations that just are what help make this community great.
And every single penny is is used and utilized to its full extent.
I know.
But Natalie, I wanted to just I hadn't really met you before.
With many mansions.
You were so eloquent and you spoke.
So thank you.
Thank you for representing many mansions.
I really appreciate that.
So.
And again, I I also like council member Litzers recommendation about doubling the money.
I actually did for the cultural arts center.
I said, why don't we ask please management for some extra money.
So don't tell them I said that because they might get they might get mad at us.
But, you know, we can always ask.
Right.
So all right.
So those are just my comments.
So we can move on to next item, please.
And the next item was moved up.
So that's item 9A.
Madam Mayor.
Award of fiscal year 2025, 26 community,
Project Grant Fund grant program funds.
And senior management Alice Cynthia McCullough is presenting this item.
I just want to start by saying.
Your second meeting went shorter than this council meeting.
So I appreciate your patience.
Good evening, Mayor.
Kavna and members of the city council.
As mentioned earlier tonight in 2011, the city and waste management.
Executed a memorandum of understanding, which provides annual funding of $150,000 to the city for community projects and programs at the city council's discretion.
Subsequently the city council developed the community project grant program to distribute funding and created the community project grant review committee to enhance the public's input into the process for developing funding recommendations.
The application period for fiscal year 2526 funding cycle began on January 14 and concluded on January 30.
A total of $590,000 was requested from 23 eligible nonprofit organizations that applied for funding.
As you heard earlier this evening, the review committee met twice to establish the review process and make its funding recommendations for the fiscal year 2526 funding cycle.
The review committee's funding recommendations as they will be displayed on the screen are organized in order of review committee ranking.
The review committee has recommended the following agencies receive funding.
The free clinic of CME Valley, the Samaritan Center, cancer support community, many mansions, body brain train,
Gigi's Playhouse, Shepherd of the Valley, Sarah's House, the CME Valley Library Foundation and the Boys and Girls Club of these agencies are recommended for full funding.
A minimum of $10,000 is recommended per request, which is consistent with the eligibility criteria adopted by the city council.
The review committee's funding recommendations attempted to maximize funding as to as many agencies as possible.
While considering the needs of the community and recognizing that many deserving organizations and valuable projects would not receive funding.
This concludes the presentation staff and some of the applicants are available to respond to your questions.
Do I have anyone wishing to speak your questions?
Seeing none.
Council Member Litzer.
I'm just a little bit more to understand the process and I understand that they all that each participant do ranking and in terms of their what they're ranking.
I'm gathering that they just there was a discussion to fully fund as opposed to partially fund was that that was conscientious you want to speak to that.
Yeah, so actually some of the committee members had asked that I bring that up that the youth council member was the one that pointed out that they could fully fund almost all of the first top 10 organizations.
And then they took a look at two other organizations and based off of the amount that they had requested they gave them less funding to make the even $150,000 each organization during the process had said that they could take less.
I do want to call out that there were three organizations that had updated their funding request.
Two of them had actually asked for more and then let us know during the meeting that they were actually going to request less.
There was one organization that due to inflation and tariffs had actually increased the amount it was up to the committees discretion if they wanted to take that into account so as you can see on the screen.
The free clinic and Sarah's house both asked for less and then the senior valley library foundation increased their amount.
Sarah's house and the boys and girls club are the two organizations that are not fully recommended for full funding.
Thank you.
And I'm assuming now this is a question for our C manager.
I'm assuming there's no other parts of money lying around at the moment that you want to expose.
I haven't found them yet, but I'll keep looking.
I don't have any further questions.
And I just I've really wanted to make a couple of comments and that was a different.
Is now the time or do that whether this one I make questions first.
No, this is it.
Okay.
I guess what what I came to as I went went run through.
I realized that you have seven people participating in this process who have different objectives of what's important.
What isn't as they go through funding.
I thought it was interesting that two entities received first place votes but didn't make the top 10.
Just to show that the variety of beliefs in terms of needs and there are so many deserving.
And I realized if I had been the one doing it, I would probably rank things slightly different because my values might be different.
For instance, I think why I'm seeing so deserving for their water program that keeps children from drowning and learning how to swim.
I would have absolutely put them in the top 10 somewhere.
But I recognize that I wasn't on that committee.
And I appreciate of all the efforts of those that were.
And so at this time, I'm not going to make a recommend any changes.
I just really wished we had more money and I really do want us to go back to waste management and say, you know.
You're you're really busy now. We're sure that there's more money that you could help our nonprofits out.
So we'll see where that goes. Those are my thoughts.
We just don't want to push them too far.
Agreed.
They're still good neighbors.
Any other questions?
Concerns.
If not.
Intertain emotion.
Madam Mayor, I move that we award $150,000 in community projects grant funding for fiscal year 2526 to the agencies as recommended by the review committee and authorize the city manager to approve final scopes work to match final funding awards and execute contracts.
Call for the vote.
The motion passes unanimously.
Thank you.
And just apologies to those here who are so deserving that it received funds.
We know we want to give you money.
We'll try and find some more. Try.
Madam Mayor and members of the city council next on the agenda is item 70 consent calendar.
And there are three resolutions for your consideration this evening.
Consent item nine resolution number 205-11.
It resolution of the city council, the city of Cemi Valley, approved the city of Cemi Valley's Title VI program.
Consent item 10 resolution number 205-12.
It resolution authorizing the city manager to execute the certifications in the short months and appoint authorize aging for any action necessary for the purpose of obtaining the low carbon transition.
of obtaining the low-carbon transit operations program funds, and consent item 11, resolution
number 2025-13, a resolution declaring the city council's intent to levian collect assessments
for fiscal year 2025-26 in C.V. landscape district number 1, pursuant to streets in
highways, co-2264, and setting a time-inplace for a public hearing.
Councilmember Letster?
I believe that Mike already mentioned he wanted to pull item 7, but I would also like to
have a discussion about item 4.
Well, nothing's been pulled yet, so you want, I would like for, and I believe, and seven along
with Mayor Potem, Judge.
Any others?
We have a motion to approve 123, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, and 11.
Thank you.
So, move, second.
Thank you, all in favor.
Color starts, call the vote.
The motion passes unanimously.
Thank you, go on to item 4.
So, thank you.
I wanted to discuss item, I say 4.
Yes.
Do they get the right one?
Is that the right one?
Yes.
Why is that come?
Okay, I'm sorry.
I've got so many comments in my.
Okay, thank you.
I'll get back to my.
So many comments in my iPad.
I apologize.
Okay.
So, I sit on V-cogs board.
And basically, this item is that they have applied for root funds from SCAC to basically do something
to help in housing development, et cetera.
And so, if I, as I understand this particular item, basically, they're putting it out to any cities,
if they would like to do infill development somewhere, they would be happy to come up with a plan,
and basically do some planning until you all you could do it.
And specifically, we are being asked to approve that basically planners go forward and look at our MetroLink train station parking lot,
which is currently owned, but I'm not currently.
It is owned by the city.
We have that.
We owned that lot.
I've had developers through the years approach me, same boy.
I could do something great without lot.
So we know that it's, we know that it's there.
We know it's available to do something with.
If we so chose to, we know it's part of our invisible potential plan.
I guess my concern.
And this is what I'd like to have come up conversation with my council,
fellow council members, because I'm not opposed to doing maybe something in the corner,
maybe in SRO, I don't know, but I'm a little concerned that if we,
that if we go forward and say yes, go ahead, we want you to give us a plan of what we could do with development here.
And as I read the report, they go through, make these suggestions.
You could do this in this.
And then it will come back to us in fact that one of the requirements,
if you read page five, is that when that report comes back to us,
is going to come back with a clear recommendation from the city that we should adopt that plan.
And I'm a little concerned that if we go ahead and come up with a,
a development plan for that, for that parking area,
it will be, it just puts us put it on the radar that we're looking to develop it.
And I'm not convinced right now that I want it developed.
And so I guess I'm, I know we could always, at any time,
their developers that would gladly do.
If we wanted to say, you know, do something this corner, do something here.
There's no question we could get someone who'd be happy to take our land and develop it.
But my question is, is this really what we want to do to signal to developers that we have this parcel and,
and here's a way that we want, it developed.
So I'm just asking council members how you feel about this,
because I, I'm, I know, I don't, I think it's signaling,
but, well, I think it could have some problems that we do.
I understand there's no obligation to do it.
However, it's going to come back to us with a recommendation that we should do it,
because that's what's required by this.
At least, it says in the report.
Council member Reds.
So.
I, our other, my relationship to the report program is that I said on Skag and the Community Economic Human Development Committee,
and a lot of the reap monies are sort of channel through there, and we vote on them.
And it's an excellent program and, and it does help cities offset costs of hiring consultants for development ideas and so on.
And my first reading of this, I want cool.
We can come up with like three interesting plans that that we could use for that station.
Then it's brought to my attention that this is actually looking to be an actionable plan that we're going to pick of the three and go,
yeah, let's do that and I'm not convinced that I'm.
In the same spirit that you're asking the question, I'm not convinced that I'm ready to take an actionable plan and start implementing it,
because I believe there are others who might also have plans for that property.
It's a, it's like the town center.
It's a important asset that we have, and I don't want to be pigeonholed into one of three solutions.
But I wanted to ask staff, what's your interpretation of the outcome of this type of report?
If we, if we accept these funds and accept the consultant help, are we in any way obligating ourselves to go forward with the project?
And then perhaps also address Councilman Lister's concern that it will then put us on the radar and put an extreme pressure that we actually should do something with that property before perhaps we're ready to.
Yes, Council member wrote to members of the State Council, let me try to answer that question and address those comments.
The.
The funding was presented to cities of intercounty and our approach was to.
We just adopted the envisioned senior to program.
We would use these funding to create a design concept using those new standards we created to use as a showcase for future developers anywhere in the.
The vision of specific plan area to show how our new standards could create a.
Residential mix use concept.
Then the question arose says well, should we provide a site.
To as a demonstration location, then there's discussion should it be a privately on site or a public in the site.
So we chose a metropolitan station because it's city owned it provides access to the consultant to take measurements and not.
Not act as favoritism to some other vacant lot in the city.
This will be the site where.
A.
SRO mixed use.
Some like commercial site could be evaluate based on the set back high limit.
Stairs stepping of the building on how that could be envisioned to be implemented anywhere in the new tap on mixed use district or perhaps the Los Angeles Avenue corridor.
While there is benefit that it's also at a transit station.
So some of the consideration is to.
Build a project that could incorporate with the Metro Lincoln to transit station address parking address parking for the new.
Resident component.
It does not mean.
We have to build a transit project at that location.
The outcome would be for the consultant to identify.
Issues in our specific planet may require a specific on amendment to a vision to make something that's more feasible.
It's a trial basis. It's a concept to see how.
The standard of just created how effective they are and are they feasible.
It's not meant to.
Created development.
At Metro Lincoln per say that's more of a bonus option.
The deliverable would be potential suggestions on how to amend the specific plan and also the deliverables.
We saw it is it provides a design guideline which is a guideline not a.
Not an approved building or an approved code a guideline is just images.
Drawings which.
We could present to the developers on how to.
Implement an efficiency value on this site on another site Los Angeles Avenue tapestry any of those locations it does not.
Nail down this location that's how we see it.
Thank you for that. That would be my hope for the the outcome of this.
I'm just rereading that underlying part in.
Section three and.
It doesn't take our ability away but it's a strong implementation component incorporated.
So yeah I want to be careful shredding on this thing is once we say hey I give us funds once again we.
We we don't want to be committing to actually.
Doing something with that site yet but if it actually has the side benefits of.
Creating a template for our envision.
See me well then that's a good thing.
It does specifically say conceptual in fill redevelopment planning of the Metro link train station site.
So I'm not quite understanding how we see this as applicable anywhere else.
The the Metro link site is in the table mixed use district which is the same.
Sony in specific plan district as for example the tapestry itself.
So the the zoning boundaries and all the way over to the Metro link station.
We're just looking for a dimensional project.
It doesn't.
Which happens to be a city on property so we could kind of evaluate conditions.
To see how it implements like I said the setbacks high limits design theme.
For any sort of.
Mixed use project the.
The location in doing this proposal is secondary this is more of a convenience in a sense that.
The site is under our control and we wouldn't be.
Having to involve other property owners who have other vacant lots yes we have.
Several sites in the specific plan area that are due for redevelopment we didn't want to.
And it's to present a concept project we said let's just choose this piece of land to create this design concept.
Well, it is a Metro link site let's just.
Address park initiatives and maybe parking issues that an existing shopping center it's the same difference there's always needs.
But no this is not a plan we don't intend to present a plan for future adoption it's more of a concept drawing versus the.
Square boxes that are shown in this specific plan right now this would be more.
Measure it out.
Design.
If I can say one more and I'm hearing you then explain to me go to page five of the this is the contract or this is basically the.
What is it agreed with with the call this is what it gives you with the purposes.
And actionable deliverable and or action plan under three it says not with standing such acknowledgement the city agrees.
That the root 2.0 program developed in accordance with this MLU will be accompanied with a recommendation for adoption to its city council.
That's correct adoption is a number of items it could be.
A specific plan amendment it could be a design guideline either those will the design guideline is.
Not a approval of a project it is a design theme.
So that's that's the primary goal of it the specific plan may identify not this plan the outcome of the architects review the specific plan may come up with modifications of the specific plan to make a more effective project it doesn't mean.
The city has to adopt a.
Read development plan of the metal and stations just a concept.
So then one more question it's so will you restrict it I mean obviously the parking how many acres is that parking lot it's.
Around six.
And so I'm not quite seen how other parcels that applies six acres where I mean if they are going to give us something it says this is how you can develop six acres.
It doesn't say I'm I'm and saying that it could be used elsewhere I'm just trying to understand how.
How it could be applicable elsewhere.
Yeah we we have this one acre or half an acre or something.
No absolutely.
We have the ability to make a smaller project. So is that what you're going to ask of the developer then to give us something a small scale or?
With the comments received tonight, we'll certainly scale a certain project. It could be a small piece. It could be a larger piece. It's not obviously six-hater acres is not necessary consistent with our sites in the city, but we also have to account for parking.
There's lots of factors we have to look at, but no, it's not intended to be a full-scale structure and covers the whole building. Parking would be replaced, there would be a supplemental parking analysis to determine that metropolitan painters are maintained, where where of the community events that are across the street, where this parking lot serves as an overflow. So we are aware of those factors.
So if it's a small building, that small building could be used as a demonstration piece for another small parcel elsewhere in the city.
It's just showing how envisioned works on various locations.
Councilmember Ailer.
The, I also see the strong implementation component piece in there.
But in addition to that, it says that we also would agree that all of these documents and the results be provided to the state.
And does that then, is there, is, does that open us up to the state saying you now have to build on that?
If they know, go ahead if someone else has a comment.
Councilmember Ailer, we have a, it's already zone for mixed youth, so the state has already aware of our mixed youth zoning for this designation.
So that's already been covered as far as the state state goes.
And do we, does staff have the ability to do this on their own?
Like if we did not have consultants to do this, does the staff have the ability to do this type of study on their own?
So, yes and no, staff, there's certain staff with certain expertise.
Sometimes we have architects on staff, sometimes we have engineers on staff.
The consultant funding is an option to take more of an expert, which is our remark attacks in this case with Johnson design to.
Design a building within a certain realm that includes mixed youth components like commercial and a certain amount of density, perhaps the second or third floor.
While addressing parking situations for a particular parcel.
Yeah, I'm just wondering if we.
If we need to rely on outside sources to do this study or if we had internal resources, we could do it, which means that we would then not have to sign an MOU and things like that.
Because it would just be an internal document and study.
If this bill is any fears at all on that reporting back any reprogram, it was spending Sacramento money on the it's that's how it comes through.
And so all of that information gets reported back and this is a way of saying, hey, we're reporting back.
I'm always skeptical about getting on the radar, but as pointed out, the land use is already the land use.
I'm seeing the value in hiring expert consultants on.
This taxpayer dime, but not our direct taxpayer dime to get this type of a design plan done for envision seeing me and that might move in vision see me along more quickly if we can show somebody.
Here look, this is what we envision in vision see me so.
So I'm I'm on board with this and.
And less skeptical now knowing that the deliverably outcome that we're going to sign off on is the actual design elements, not that we're actually accepting a plan.
Then what is it mean when it says the design guy the design guy line package made available to potential developers interested in developing.
Are you proactively going to be doing that and saying, hey, we did this now you can come develop or what how is that going to work.
Well, that that would be the outcome of the of the plan is to showcase the results of this project.
It this concept drawing is essentially a design guideline to show how.
The standards that we just adopted how they may be implemented in a actual building that was designed well past just the square box and the drawing in this specific plan this.
This has a professional architect take a look at our standards and.
Create a building concept that is feasible whatever the dimensions are.
And I guess I would love that on top of the street.
I'm just not sure I want it right at the train station, but you're I understand why you're saying that that's the land reason.
Okay, interesting.
I'll go ahead and move unless there's more comments on move acceptance of this item.
Cover the vote.
The motion passes with council member let's devote you know.
Thank you now item seven.
Council member let's do you wanted it pulled but council Mayor pretend judge, did you have concerns you.
And so your duties on VCTC on on Skag's transportation committee.
Electric buses.
We buy electric buses from a company this is the sad stories and the horror stories I've heard is cities by electric buses from companies.
They get the buses the buses go broke and the company is no longer in business to repair them.
So my concern is two things number one.
I know that the state is told us we can't buy am I correct in saying the state is told us we cannot buy more natural gas buses.
Right phase one is 25% replacement purchase.
So let's just say we buy six for example.
Our next purchase if the state or feds.
Change the guidance there's nothing to say we can't buy CNG for the next.
Because half of our fleet will be still CNG will have some portion of it electric.
To the funds in this proposal here cover.
I'm sure it has to cover putting the charging stations in and everything like that.
Yes, we have not this specific grandpa we have grant funding for electric charging stations.
Yes, we do.
And then for our CNG facility are we still going to run buses that use that or what happens because that was a lot of money to build that CNG facility.
Yeah, so we have so we have the six in the web.
Probably five to six CNG buses and additional eight to ten dollar advance are also CNG.
So at minimum our CNG facility will be in operation.
The useful life of those buses are at least another seven to twelve years.
So it'd be kind of like 50% electric six percent CNG or 50 50 I should say.
And have we already received those vans for the electric vans we were going to use for the dollar right system.
Yes.
How are they working?
We haven't put them into service yet those will be hopefully in the next.
Fort eight weeks.
This is for the micro trend of services.
So we did purchase portable charges and then we're putting the infrastructure in.
Like just similar to what we just see outside the police station smaller charging stations.
I know we have the money the grant money for this and the grant money expires but I I can't support this just on the fact that I.
I have not heard a lot of good things about electric buses.
Councilmember Lister.
So I let me understand.
This is a.
Basically it's six and a half million dollars.
I'm sorry eight million dollars to purchase six eight and a half million dollars to purchase six electric buses at the price of a million and a half each.
And I'm doing this for memory but basically we have a grant for four point something four point five million.
That's correct right about that.
And then we take we take the rest of our funds from.
The money that we've accumulated basically.
Right, that's additional local state funds that we have in for using for local met for any capital projects and also operating costs.
So those just so just to be clear.
Four and a half million are grant funds but three and a half million are funds that we already have that could be used for something else.
Correct.
The portion of that for example let's just say we bought more CNG vehicles in two years.
So when you buy buses it's a 80% federal 20% local state funds so you would still use 20% to fund.
That grant if that makes sense.
Now as result as it mentioned the staff report.
The tariffs and then increase.
That's what we're great to pay about half a million in tariffs with this contract.
Right.
Because it changes.
Right.
And as I read the contract two there's a whole price listing for for training.
Train to drive train to repair et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
Is is any of that training part of this eight million dollars or is that that's basically on on top of it if we wanted to.
Right.
Pretty much add ons like any vehicle when we buy buses or like a car.
If we wanted to train our mechanics or if we wanted to train.
Yes, the drivers how to use.
They'd have to we'd pay additional.
Right.
I'm kind of with you.
May you pretend.
Hmm.
Okay.
And so basically that grant.
If we don't use it by July first, it's gone.
Right.
Yes.
There's awarded in 2023.
And then we got another extension.
As the state for another extension.
And so we have to at least execute the contract.
With the manufacturer.
I believe.
June 30 or something July first year.
Right.
And the electric charging stations that we have in place or don't have a place yet.
We do not.
So for the electric vans that we've already purchased that we're that are not yet in it.
The charging stations.
Are going to be placed where out of it.
Are they going to be here at the corner or are they.
Yeah.
PSE.
Okay.
Right.
And so those.
Charging stations will be put in place whether or not.
We buy these buses.
Right.
If they don't be a worker that is taken from the man's but also as side note we also did.
As the federal transit administration.
For grant funding.
For the over infrastructure to charge.
Six vehicles.
It's different charging.
They don't they're not interchangeable.
Is what you're saying right now.
also secured funding to charge the six buses by the federal transit administration.
So that's also grant that we rewarded as well.
Okay.
And just to clarify, Ben, if we do not accept the funding and do not withdraw with this contract,
then we would not be meeting those zero-mission regulations.
Is that correct?
Correct.
And what is the penalty?
I'm sorry?
What is the penalty if we don't meet that?
I'm not sure.
Postal grant funding could be withheld.
We have a replacement bus schedule that's due next year.
So hypothetical, let's say, if we didn't have, if we forgot, let these grants funding go by the state,
then we would have to reapply.
And you know, that's the submit look into if the state would allow us to buy.
Okay.
Seeing you vehicle, right now as it's written.
You have to have your replacement vehicles.
That's the Missouri Mission.
Whether it's hydrogen or electric.
So it's not that we can go back and buy.
Seeing you at least at the moment.
And then we have aging fleet that we have to replace.
Councilmember Rhodes.
Thank you, Mayor.
So I'm going to quote from a different,
staff report, but I've heard it said many times.
And so now we can actually say that's the last time we get to use this saying when we're talking about transit.
And it says, quote, the city's transit operations are entirely funded by federal and state resources.
So it is crucial to maintain compliance with funding requirements.
I am hearing we are now just buying buses, but we have to come over their own 20% funding.
And that there's basically two and a half million dollars of ask in here from what could be other infrastructure projects.
And taking these buses, which I'm going to recommend that we do.
But I don't necessarily recommend that we put them in operation.
I think there'll be some other cities someday that we'll go, hey, we'd really like to have some low-mile electric buses.
And we can sell them to them at a really nice price.
So we go back to buying buses that work.
The other thing about infrastructure money or other project money that would be needed to buy these buses is that those.
Social electric buses, ways substantially more than a conventional bus, and they're going to put more wear and tear on the roads, and it's going to be an additional infrastructure cost for us. I hate the idea of trying to implement fail, unproven technology that's going to increase the expense of infrastructure replacement.
But I don't want to lose federal funding. And if in my mind that what's making this only acceptable to me is that I look at those buses as a bank account, that I'm going to sell those off to somebody else when, you know, people get their heads on straight and go, this technology doesn't actually work.
Is it possible to only buy five buses spend less of our own money and still be in compliance and use that grant money?
I have to check. So when we competed for the grant, we did say six vehicles. I don't know that answer if we could ask the state to buy less.
And that may be so that we could do because of the unfortunate increase cost of the tariffs as an example.
I would like to buy as few as possible to maintain our funding level.
And then see if we can actually come up with a competent go here and plan moving forward that takes into account what's being once again rammed on our throats, but this path forward is just silly.
And it's not you. I'm frustrated and you're hearing it, but this is just tying up funds on a failed thing.
It's somebody at some point, as to say the emperor has no clothes. And maybe now is not the time to pull the rug out because we don't want to lose that federal funding, but this is this is frustrating.
Council member Ayala?
From a practical perspective, if we don't take these buses, how does it affect the city operations for transit?
The vehicles that we're trying to replace next year are aging.
There are 500,000 miles in our useful life is roughly 12 years.
We're going to be hitting the 12 year mark next year and then our increased maintenance costs will go up.
We'll be replacing transmissions, engines, things as that nature.
So then we'll have to seek additional funding to put bandies on aging fleet.
Or from now you'll be coming back to us asking for approving of other buses anyway.
Right, you replace the ones that you need.
Right. But the hard part would be is the state saying, well, federal, we're going to get the money from.
You have to buy, we're not giving you grants, you don't buy zero emission buses.
Yeah.
Whether it's hydrogen or electric.
So that's like, we're stuck between a rock and a hard place essentially.
Mayor Protem, Judge.
Thank you.
I don't want to be the dead of where so a lot.
But I don't want to come off as fact that I'm against the zero emissions concept.
I'm against the concept that doesn't work.
And electric buses don't work.
Hydrogen is a emerging technology.
It's not there yet, but this technology as a bus has never been there.
For cars, it's fine.
And again, if your car breaks down, the city's not dependent on your car.
But the city's going to be dependent on these buses.
Yeah, yeah, I got it.
But I don't also don't want to put us in a bind where we're not going to be able to receive
monies from the state or the feds in the future.
I just wish there was a way we could put this on hold until either a technology comes online
that works or cooler heads emerge.
And once we get them, there are, as nobody's going to buy these.
Could we, and I'm hearing all this conversation, could then can you go back to them and say, OK, this was our original grant money.
But the costs have gone up substantially since we applied for it.
And can we, can you ask about a minimal order to satisfy the grant?
Maybe it's four buses, three buses, whatever, because our contribution is still substantial.
And that's money that can be used for, if I'm not mistaken, it's a part of it can be used for salaries.
It's part of our transportation, et cetera.
And it's also part of, you know, other other uses.
Whatever, that funds, 720, 750, 750.
So, thank you.
So, I mean, obviously, we have to do the matching part to, to, to, to.
And if I'm understanding our match is.
There are four and a half million, we're three and a half million to be able to come to six.
What is their requirement? Is it a two to one match, a one to one match, what was that, what were the terms of that grant?
Well, I think, I mean, at the time we applied for six, you know, hoping to get four and a half million dollars in the prices gone up.
So, I don't see why we can go back to the state and ask and say, look.
We, back then, we would like six with four and a half now increase.
So, we want to use a four and a half to buy.
Whatever.
For example.
And so, at the time, was it to purchase the full price of the bus?
It was an estimated cost on the vendor at the time.
So, when we got the quotas, probably in 2022 or so.
Interesting.
And here we are three years later.
So.
Right.
14 to 22 months.
Hopefully. Yes.
So, is that could we maybe table this item to the next.
Next week or next meeting.
And as you do that research to find out if.
What might be acceptable for the with the grant funds, whether we could maybe.
Lower our purchase.
And then bring it back before us.
Is that something maybe.
My colleagues would be in favor.
Can we just set.
Can we just set that as the direction of attempt to buy less?
Because I don't want to miss out on the.
I think we're coming up against a window.
Right.
And so, I would say let's.
Set it with the direction of attempt to buy less.
To meet the.
And if not.
We authorize and then it doesn't have to come back to us.
But we set the direction.
Does that meet.
I think that would be fine.
And just as a reminder to the council, the next meeting that we have on the agenda.
The budget meeting.
So that will be on the primary topic.
The June 9 meeting.
And there was already a pretty substantial amount of consent calendar items on that agenda.
I'm trying to keep it light on everything else.
But just for the council's information.
To have a motion.
So I moved the consent calendar with the amendment of consent item seven with the amendment of please.
By as little as possible to meet our obligations for the.
Funding.
And if a friendly amendment that might be to you that we would like issue you we would like to use the grant and full without having to put.
The legal funds to it.
So whatever buses that will purchase without our would be our would be our preference.
Is that a second.
That's.
You amended amendment.
Yeah.
I think so I need to clear.
What the motion is.
Why Councilman, Lissard, why should you just.
Make the event or make the motion.
I withdraw money.
Okay.
We go forward with this bus purchase, but only using the grant funds to purchase as much
bus as we can without having to put additional city funds.
We have to use the two and a half.
We don't have a choice.
Correct?
There's we have to.
If we're unable to amend how many buses we can buy, then yes we will have to supplement
with the fund $750.
Right.
So if we're able to amend how many buses we can buy, then that could impact the amount of money
that we have to take from fund $750.
But just as a reminder, the council that is also not general fund dollars.
So and it's 20% no matter what.
Right.
So.
But so in 20% though, a four and a half.
Right.
Is less.
Yeah.
800 thousand dollars.
I just want to make sure that.
Right.
Because if if staff is unable to amend how many buses that they're able to buy, then I don't.
I want to make sure it's clear to staff that they can still move forward.
Okay.
Sure.
Okay.
Thank you.
Call for the vote.
The motion passes with Mayor Potem, Judge Voting, no.
Thank you.
Madam Mayor and members of the City Council next on agenda is item eight.
A second reading of ordinance number 1363.
This establishing a schedule of sanitation fees and charges and repealing ordinance number 1300.
The reading of the ordinance is as follows.
Ordnance number 1363.
In order to the City Council of the City of City Valley, the establishing a schedule of sanitation fees and charges and
repealing ordinance number 1300.
Mayor Potem, Judge.
I will move the.
Second reading.
I was hoping to make a comment before motion.
But remember, let's say first.
Thank you.
First of all, I want to apologize in behalf of the list of family for denigrating Mr. Council member Ayala.
So I just want to be very clear that I was completely out of line and I almost don't even want to address this issue because I'm so mad at Mr.
Letster because I was in it completely inappropriate and wrong.
I wanted to clarify because as you know, I was in no vote last time.
And I thought I wasn't clear for the reason.
So I just would like to go on the record to clarify that vote because I am going to vote no again.
But I want to make sure that people understand that I believe providing effective sewer service is critical.
And I commend the work being done by our public works department.
And basically they're engaged in replacing aging infrastructure to make sure as Mr. Fujiwaki explained that our sewer system is operational for 50 to 100 years to come.
It's super important to get done and this is a major capital work project.
Last time Mayor Cavan I mentioned that people in the past would paid all along.
It's only if you had to continue that system.
I thought was thinking about that comment and I don't disagree but I do think it was a bit different because I believe that originally the sewer infrastructure was paid for by developers as they built and developed neighborhoods.
And so likely that cost was included in the house purchase price etc.
So basically if the entire cost is 71.7 million dollars to complete these 49 capital improvement projects.
Once this work is done in the next four or five years whatever, we will basically in the last 10 years have raised rates 62.5% on our residents to do that improvement.
And because basically as a vendor standard we're going forward this is for five years at 17 at 3.5% which is 17.5% in the next five years.
I am a believer that when you have important capital works projects the cost of the project should be amortized and shared over the life of the project and born by all those who will be enjoying its benefit.
So recognizing many of our seniors will not be around to enjoy it and our fixed incomes I believe we should use our outstanding credit rating to secure capital improvement bond to more fairly distribute the cost over the life of this project and not unduly burden our residents today.
So that's my vote no and it's interesting if we did have if we went out and had the bond funds now we could actually do the whole renovation project now and not have to scatter over handful of years.
And it's my understanding that long term assets should be finance long term.
And we're doing it kind of backwards in fact it's interesting I just so I went on Google because I was kind of curious to see what how they recommended funding infrastructure not not not Google I went on the internet just because I was kind of curious and this is the first in the came up it says.
What's common and effective way to finance sewer infrastructure projects is through municipal bonds these bonds allow utilities to borrow large sums at relatively low interest rates.
Often with repayment periods of 30 to 50 years so anyway I just want you to want to go on the record why I'm going to choose to be voting no but I do think that the projects critical important needs to go forward and so if there was a way we could revisit way we pay for it.
I'm certainly in favor of that and also as was mentioned by proctm and proctm.
I judge I think it's worthy looking at further at whether we should.
To Frédic or do you some tier pricing if they are 80 is involved.
This I'm sorry yeah this is a second reading so I understand.
So I'm just I'm just I'm just putting that out there the options obviously are to go forward and vote yes or to vote no or to or to table for future conversation.
Okay I'm here for a time judge.
I moved to adopt ordinance number 13 63 second.
Coffee vote.
Motion passes with council member let's to voting now.
Now can we talk about Greg some more.
If you need to.
You may remember to see the council next in your agenda is item 10 a council member reports.
Council member reports.
Thank you very much. Council member Ayala.
On May 7th, I went to the Thrive Grove Ribbon Cutting Ceremony, which was the new transitional housing
development in Thousand Oaks. On Thursday, May 8th, I went to the volunteer training for the
traveling Veterans Memorial Wall, which is coming this weekend. I'm going to be helping to actually
set it up on Friday. On Friday, May 9th, I went to the chamber breakfast. Saturday, May 10th,
I went to the punchathon fundraiser, and I guess I won part of their raffle. On Monday, May 12th,
I, along with Council member Littester and some of the staff went on a tour of the shooting
range. They taught us all about what goes on up there. On the 13th, again, with Council member Littester,
we did the ADA Paratransit Committee interview. We met a great lady who we think will be an amazing
addition to the team. Also on the 13th, I attended the Azum, the public discussion for the phase 1
ground water cleanup of the field lab. On the 15th, I went to the Ventura County Animal
Shelter Committee meeting, which was chaired by our mayor. I learned that in 2024, 80, 800 animals
were taken in by the shelter, 8,800, which is crazy to think about. On the 15th, as well, Mayor
Protem, Judge and I attended the PTA Honoraries Awards, Service Awards, and represented
recognition certificates to three of the main honorees. On Friday, the 16th, I went to the teen
wellness night, which the youth council presented today that showed that they had over 300 attendees.
Thank you. Council member Rhodes, you should be sure you had a town. Thank you, Madam Mayor,
on Tuesday, May 6th, I left for China, came back last night. 7 seconds. There you go.
Appreciate that. Council member Littester. Well, I'll be happy to use all your extra time. No,
I won't. It is late. May 5th, Monday, May 5th, I did take an extensive tour of the waste
management of the landfill, and that was very instructive. On Wednesday, May 7th, I did meet with Mr.
Tony Teege of Enzo Verde and Michael and Dennis, who are very concerned about trying to get
bring that project to fruition, and they are looking for secondary access, and so there may be
further discussion in this body about if we are it's appropriate to help them. On Thursday,
May 8th, I attended a systems police academy. On Sunday, May 11th, it was a mother's day, and I was
part of Simi Valley community orchestra put on their very first fundraiser event to celebrate
the culture and celebrate mothers, and it was a really beautiful event, and I want to thank
Rancho Simi for basically opening this and strather, historical part, robbing their doors and
allowing them to perform there and do a beautiful event as their first concert ever. They've played for
things, but that was their first official concert. On Monday, May 12th, attended the council on
aging, and also at the Shooting Range Tour, which was very instructive. May 13th, I appreciated having
the opportunity to meet with our city attorney, Alford, and also do those 88 committee interviews,
very interesting. As mentioned, also attended the Samson and Field Water Ground Water Study.
It was interesting. One of my takeaways is that basically, this is phase 1, and they're trying
to decide where the best ways to look at three, a 53 wells, and they involve, basically,
monitoring natural attenuation was part of what they want to do, and there was some real backlash on that
suggesting that that's just let's watch it further and see what happens. It was a very instructive
event, and I believe, anyway, and so it was very instructive. On Wednesday, May 14th, I attended the
wildfire and PSP preseason briefing for local and tribal government put on by Southern California,
Edison, and I think that Mayor Prokton, Judge Mabel, also been there. Yeah. A couple of things,
and my takeaways, and you may have a lot more to add. Of course, they talked about what they did,
and of course, they shared the why we have to do this because they won patrol observed 95 instances of
damage on de-energized lines, and that's why it's so critical. But one of the things they talked about,
their actions, of course, we know about covered conductors, fire-resistant polls, protective devices,
one of the things that they're now experimenting is with rapid earth, fault, current limitters
that are used in Australia, and supposedly it just shuts that, shuts off. And so I'm hoping that
we can, if it works in Australia, that we can get them here, so we don't have to keep doing our PSPS events.
One of the things that I will ask, maybe our CM Manager, is it be sure that they encourage that
how to deal with PSPS events, need to be part of the city's emergency preparation plan. And so
I just think it's interesting that they want this to be basically internalized into something that's
going to be normal, whether it's an earthquake, there's earthquakes, there's fires, and there's PSPS events,
and it should just be part of it. Anyway, I just, the temporary solution is becoming permanent. That's why
I did that, and that was, that was a little bothersome to me. So anyway, so that was that
I'm meeting that we attended. On Thursday, May 15th, I did attend the Mall Merchants Meeting and
their great bunch of merchants that are there, and I'm hopeful that it developed the remote mobile
four in a possible way. Did a heart demo for Bonavista? I attended the V-Cogs Board meeting. It was where
we actually said goodbye to Hugh Riley, who has been the Executive Director of V-Cog for many years,
handful of years, and he will be missed. He was very effective at what he was leading us. What also came
out of the meeting, and I will send each of you a link to it. But basically, they finally finished
the Regional Broadband Initiative, which is this document, which talks about really how they're going
how we can connect the entire county to be, I mean, I mean, obviously it's going to be lies ahead
with it. It's broadband initiative, but it's a way to connect the entire county into certain levels of
broadband throughout. Anyway, I'll send that to you, and you can take a look at it. I also graduated.
Thank you, Mayor Kavanaugh, who's there in attendance, who gave me my pin. I graduated the Citizens
Place Academy, and it was very instructive. I appreciate the chief encouraging you to be part of that,
because it really was lots of great things to learn and that it was just very instructive.
The only other thing that I wanted to mention, Saturday, May 17, there was a Veterans Resource Fair
that I attended over at Royal High School. It was just phenomenal that I wish there were more attendance.
So I think, but it was the first time it's been there, and it's first time they have it a walk for
Nami, which is the organization that fights, mental illness, et cetera. They did it, walking around
the Royal Track. I first time it's ever been an East Venture County, and so I'm hopeful that we get even
better support and it can be very successful in the future. And that ends my report.
Thank you, Mayor Pragem, Judge. Thank you. I'll try to make it quick. I first want to make a
correction on my colleagues. It is not the shooting range. It is a semi-valid police training facility.
That is it's name. Just like we don't call the dump a dump anymore. And we don't call them all
a mall anymore. It is a semi-valid police training facility. That being said, on Wednesday, I had to
met with waste management over concerns and questions of citizens about the landfill and the
products going into it. And again, I got basically the same briefing we had tonight, it was very,
very comprehensive, and I've heard it a lot now. So I can almost recite it verbatim.
On Friday, May 9th, I attended a VCT meeting where I have to point out a couple of things that was done
at that meeting. Number one, you'd be glad to know that during VCTs used 25, 26 unmet transit needs
survey, they found no unmet transit needs in the County Ventura. So that's great.
And the outreach was extensive. We also had action against, we're going to be removing all the
call boxes on our VCTs responsibilities, which is all the highways and Ventura County. So I'm here to
mention, in case people don't know, that if you're on the road and your car breaks down, instead of calling
9-1, use yourself when to call 5-1. 5-1 is what you call for the emergency roadside assistance that we provide
through VCTs on all County highways. On Thursday, May 15th, as we're spoken by Councilman
Raila, me and him attended the PTA, PTSA Council Honorary Service Awards. That was a fun night.
I had it at Larson's and it was very nice. I'm very happy to see all the recipients to
got awards, and I was proud to provide a couple of awards for the recipients that myself and
Councilman Raila gave to that seminar report. Thank you. On Wednesday, May 17th, I had my EDC executive
committee meeting. Another good meeting, we have Kristen Deacus, the head of the Port of Wanymeans. So she was
sharing her thoughts on tariffs and how it's affecting the port and all the movement at L.A. and Long Beach.
So it was very interesting. On Sunday, yes, it was Mother's Day. Thank you. We went to a local restaurant.
It was very nice. I think Thursday, May 15th, I was very busy. I started with the Venture County
Animal Services meeting in the morning, which Council Member Raila attended. We had some really good
information. I don't want to take up too much time because it's late, but we're still back in February.
We transported 37 animals to Wisconsin, most of them has keys, and they went to two rescues. So
Esteban Rodriguez, who is our new director, has made it, he's going to try to continue to do that
to outreach. Right now, he's looking in the state of Washington to take some other animals from us.
One of the problems we're having, you saw our intake numbers, is we are a, we're considered a no-kill
shelter because we are over a 90% live release. We're like 97% live release. So what's happening is people
are pulling animals out of the, the rescues instead of coming to our shelter, are pulling them out of
kill shelters. So that, because they know we're not going to use the nice, and so they're we're losing a lot of
that assistance right there. Another concern is with the closure of Santa Polas, the spark is close,
and then LA's probably possibly going to be starting closing shelters. So we're a little concerned about
what that's going to do to adventure county. But what are really, two really good things is,
are do a language documents are almost done. They're 60% or 70% done. And then the best thing is,
the Board of Supervisors accepted a $1.7 million grant from our Animal Services Foundation
to purchase a portable spray and newter trailer that will be going throughout the county offering free
and low-income spray and newter. So that's a very exciting thing for the, for the, for animals.
For what? Are the dual languages dog and cat? Yes, they are. And guinea pig, and also on the same day,
the 15th we had our regular board meeting for the EDC, where we discussed the broadband consortium,
ad-nodium, or ad-nodium, I guess it is, ad-nodium, because we've been working on that for quite a while.
And then I attended the graduation of the Citizens Academy at 630. It was great to see all those
people, Councilmember Lizzer. And there was really a very interesting group. They were very interested in
everything going on. They asked good questions. And you could tell they really enjoyed themselves.
And I told them now that they were done with the Citizens Academy, they can sign up for a search.
They have all that free time. So on Friday, May 16th, I had met with our City Manager.
It's win over some things. On Saturday, May 17th, this is kind of off the topic, but I drove
Rockies in my exchange student daughter to their terros prom. So that was a lot of fun. You see all the kids
out there. I'll dress up in there in their prom outfits. And then this morning, or today before the meeting,
May 19th, I met with the Town Center representatives. And that's the end of my report. I'll keep
it short and sweet there. So the next item, I had three seconds. No, because we're almost going to 1130.
I have to. I got back on Sunday, which was still technically my 29th wedding anniversary. And you know,
oh, yes. Oh, my spouse didn't come to Council and, and, you know, give you flowers, but I'll say happy
anniversary, Kim. Okay. Do we have any items for agenda? I know. That's what I'm saying. Don't say
now. We can't start a new item. Okay. Nothing. Nothing at this time. Unfortunately, we're going to be
closing in memory of a few a couple of people. One is we're a journey in memory of Paul and Matthew
Kirkovitz. They were the victims of the plane crash in Wood Ranch. Thankfully, nobody else was
harder injured, but sorry to their family who sent out condolences. The next one was a little bit even harder.
We lost the decroats. A main study of Cemi Valley. He was on the board of directors of Cemi Valley Bank
when I worked there for 12 years before we knew bank bodice. And most people know him as the owner of
Green Acre's Market. So we were I was
Joking with one of his friends, he said, I want to rename LA Avenue Dick Rhodes street and I said, no, I said, but you can name that left turn lane after him. The one who did into his parking lot. So that we're going to call that Dick's left turn. So but no, I mean, all seriousness Dick has contributed so much to this community over all the time and condolences that to Brenda his wife and Julie's daughter. So with that, we'll adjourn. Thank you.