[0:04] We'll call to order the meeting of the Oregon City Council for

[0:08] Tuesday, June 2nd, 2026.

[0:12] Roll call, please, Jennifer.

[0:14] Let the record show we have a quorum with all council members present.

[0:20] Okay. We will be going into closed session. Public comments.

[0:23] The public will have an opportunity to directly address the legislative body on the

[0:27] envelope prior to the council convening into closed session.

[0:30] Public comments are generally restricted to three minutes.

[0:32] Do I have any public comments?

[0:35] There's no one.

[0:36] None in the house and none online. Okay.

[0:38] We will close the public comments and we will move into

[0:42] closed session.

[0:47] We will reconvene the Oregon City Council meeting

[0:51] for Tuesday, June

[0:53] 2nd, 2026.

[0:57] There is no reported action from the enclosed session.

[1:00] Pledge of Allegiance.

[1:05] Okay.

[1:06] Of course, I'll be happy to. Salute.

[1:09] Pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the

[1:13] United States of America, and to the Republic for

[1:17] which it stands. One nation, under God,

[1:21] indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

[1:30] We move to communication public comments.

[1:33] Members of the public wishing to address the council on any items on the agenda may

[1:37] do so at this time and will be recognized by the mayor.

[1:40] However, no formal action or discussion will be taken unless placed on a future

[1:44] agenda. The public is advised to limit discussion to one

[1:47] presentation per individual as all not required.

[1:50] Please state your name and place of residence for the record.

[1:54] Please direct all your comments to the mayor, or vice mayor, not to city staff, nor

[1:58] to the audience. Public comments will be limited to three minutes.

[2:01] Do I have any public comments tonight?

[2:05] Any comments online?

[2:06] No.

[2:07] No. Okay. Consent calendar. Public comments are limited to three minutes per

[2:11] each agenda item designated by the mayor.

[2:14] Each speaker is limited to one comment per item with a maximum of three

[2:17] minutes. After the public comment period closes, the council will

[2:21] proceed with its discussion, and attendees are asked to refrain from

[2:25] interruptions or disruptive behavior.

[2:27] A, Warrant list payable obligations.

[2:29] B, Approve the city council minutes from May 19th, 2026.

[2:34] C, Receive and file Parks Commission minutes from April 15th,

[2:37] 2026. D, Receive and file Library Commission minutes from

[2:41] March 9th, 2026. E, the Treasurer's Report for

[2:45] May 2026. And F, the City Clerk contract.

[2:50] Council,

[2:52] public comments.

[2:54] No public comments. Council, are we good to move forward or does

[2:58] anyone need to delay any of these items?

[3:01] Do I have a motion?

[3:06] If nobody has any questions, Madam Mayor, I'd like to move to

[3:10] approve the items.

[3:12] Second.

[3:14] Motion made and seconded. All in favor?

[3:16] Aye.

[3:17] Opposed? The motion is carried.

[3:20] We now have item nine of public hearing for close out of grant number

[3:24] 20-CDBG-CV1-00079,

[3:31] the Oregon Business Assistance Grant in partnership with County of Linn.

[3:35] Janet Bacherman, acting City Manager.

[3:38] Good evening, Mayor and, uh, council members.

[3:43] When you have a grant with CDBG, the Community Development Block Grant, they

[3:46] require you to have a public hearing to report on the

[3:50] accomplishments that were done with their gift.

[3:53] This grant in particular, I happened to have started it,

[3:58] it helped some small businesses during the COVID, and it helped them with

[4:01] anything they needed to help keep their businesses

[4:05] open during the pandemic. And we

[4:08] had, I think, what does it say? We had six, I believe.

[4:12] We had six businesses, and we still had some more

[4:15] money to spend, and County of Linn was doing the same thing, so we kind of had a

[4:19] partnership with them. So they

[4:22] also took over the grant, I think probably when I left,

[4:27] and continued on with it. So that's why there was some money that they

[4:30] received to implement those grants.

[4:34] I

[4:35] don't know if you have any questions.

[4:37] Of course, you know, we are opening it for public hearing.

[4:40] There's not going to be too much to say other than, like I said, this was to help

[4:44] out during COVID. And because of the

[4:48] money coming from CDBG, it has to serve a certain

[4:52] clientele, and that was small businesses.

[4:55] So anything that was five

[4:57] employees or under were eligible for the funds.

[5:01] So you can open public hearing.

[5:03] Okay. We will open the public hearing.

[5:05] Do I have any comments

[5:08] online?

[5:11] Okay, no comments being heard. We will close the public hearing.

[5:16] Do we need any motions or anything?

[5:19] Yeah.

[5:19] Yeah. Go ahead with the motion.

[5:21] Yeah, to authorize the acting city mayor, or excuse me, city manager, or designee

[5:25] to sign the CDBG closeout package for grant number

[5:29] 20-CDBG-CV1-007079

[5:34] and submit to CDBG.

[5:37] Second.

[5:38] All those in favor?

[5:39] Aye.

[5:40] Aye.

[5:40] Opposed?

[5:42] The motion carries. Thank you. Thank you.

[5:44] Item 10 is entering

[5:48] business. The fiscal year 2026 proposed budget.

[5:53] Janet Bacherman. And she kind of went from that on. Acting City Manager again.

[5:56] Thank you.

[5:58] Good evening. I'd like to introduce Roberto Moreno from RGS

[6:02] Strategic Services consultant. He has

[6:06] been a tremendous help to us, as most of

[6:10] our department heads that are here will let you know.

[6:12] I will let him get started with his presentation.

[6:15] This is going to be our first

[6:17] review of the-... proposed budget, and then it will

[6:21] be with corrections or changes or some that will be

[6:24] adopted our next meeting on June 16th.

[6:29] Thank you.

[6:30] Mayor Barr, members of the council.

[6:33] Before we begin,

[6:35] in

[6:37] regards to what

[6:39] City Manager Tad Michah had mentioned here,

[6:43] I'd like to first of all thank all the department heads, because this budget took a

[6:46] lot of effort from everybody. I just crunched the numbers, put them together,

[6:51] but everybody in meetings with the department heads, it was

[6:55] very clear council wanted a balanced budget.

[6:58] So there was a lot of give and take. People started reducing their budgets

[7:02] here and there, but that was not going to cut it.

[7:05] Half a million dollars does not come out of paper supplies and paper clips and

[7:08] those sort of things. So, we're going to go through some of those changes that went

[7:12] through here,

[7:14] and happy to come back with any other changes that you might

[7:18] want. So, let me begin. First, you have the

[7:22] staff report, which is a smaller one, and you have all

[7:26] the detail. Unfortunately, we just ran out of time to put it all together

[7:30] in time. So I'm going to add some more information now, and we can come back with

[7:33] even more as you prefer. Here, let me just

[7:37] first

[7:38] get connected to our

[7:42] network here so that I can

[7:45] share my screen.

[7:48] So if you could

[7:51] lend me a hand, we can-

[7:53] Cover?

[7:53] Hold on one second. Turn the screen off so I'm Carnegie Center,

[7:58] or is it something else?

[7:59] He set it up.

[8:00] Nice.

[8:00] He set it up before.

[8:01] He set it.

[8:02] Let's see.

[8:09] Make sure there's no echo. Okay. It is good.

[8:13] So,

[8:16] and,

[8:18] the PowerPoint that you're seeing is,

[8:21] I think you received copies of that, some of that, and some pages that are sent to

[8:25] the public. There's a correction.

[8:27] There's a PowerPoint that we can go through, and I will fix that.

[8:30] So let me first begin

[8:34] and then give the

[8:36] PowerPoint that I have here. Wait here.

[8:42] It promises won't take too long. We'll go over it in as much detail...

[8:46] We're going to start with an overview, and then we'll get into as much detail as

[8:49] you would like,

[8:50] in order to get

[8:52] direction from council. So this is the proposed '26, '27.

[8:56] So it's proposed at this point, and based on what

[8:59] council decides to provide as far as direction.

[9:02] So this evening, we're going to go over, I'd like to just go over the proposed

[9:05] budget, the numbers that are there.

[9:07] Also, have the budget worksheets, which you got.

[9:10] They have a lot more detail than they've had in the past.

[9:12] This is what the system generates, and we can adjust that

[9:16] to a different format, but this is what's typical.

[9:19] This is the data that's there. We can go right into that.

[9:22] Once we're done, I'd be more than happy to answer any questions, and then at the

[9:25] end, looking to receive direction.

[9:28] While I'll be going through it, if you do have some questions, by all means, feel

[9:32] right. Go ahead and ask me. If the answer's coming up in a different item, I may

[9:36] let you ask. If you can hold up, and I'll get to that in a bit.

[9:39] So the budget, as shown in your staff report, begins with a, this is

[9:43] a

[9:44] fund summary. So what we have first is the general funds

[9:48] budget summary,

[9:50] Measure A, Measure J. The general fund technically all make up the city's

[9:54] general fund. So what I want to just highlight here is the fact that

[9:58] the general fund, this is beginning balance.

[10:00] We're talking about '26, '27 right now.

[10:03] So at June, July 1st, 2026, the estimated balance is going to

[10:07] be about 533, which is what... It was in the 500,000

[10:11] plus range in the '25, '26 budget, and that's where we were

[10:15] expected to end up. It looks like we'll probably still be there around

[10:19] 530. Revenues for next year are about 7.1.

[10:22] Those are solid. Appropriations had to be

[10:25] adjusted in the general fund

[10:28] to a point where we could fit within the estimated revenues, 6.9,

[10:32] almost 7 million. So essentially, we do have a surplus of

[10:36] 162,000, which

[10:39] isn't a lot, but still a little bit of surplus.

[10:43] And then the ending balance is 695.

[10:45] As budgeted, that's about 10%.

[10:49] That's on the lower side. Ideally, we'd like to have a higher balance because there

[10:53] will be times

[10:55] when that may be needed as was in the past.

[10:57] You may recall the city has been operating on deficits for the past few years.

[11:01] That's why the fund balance has gotten to this point.

[11:04] It really can't be allowed to go any lower.

[11:08] That's the general fund by itself.

[11:09] Fortunately, the city also has the tax measures that were approved.

[11:13] First, it was Measure A,

[11:15] and then that was increased to Measure J.

[11:18] We're still, even though there's technically only one measure as far as people

[11:22] paying taxes, we're keeping track of them separately.

[11:25] That was the

[11:26] thought, since Measure A was for one intended purpose, Measure J had

[11:30] another intended purpose, even though they're all

[11:33] at council's discretion.

[11:36] So Measure A has built up a beginning balance of about

[11:40] $1.4 million

[11:42] by June 30th, 2026. That just comes about from the fact that

[11:46] not every dollar was spent in the past, and some of the money has been set

[11:50] aside for specific purposes, and we'll go into that in a little bit.

[11:53] The bottom line is that of Measure J, 1.3 million, again, is a

[11:57] solid number for revenues. The appropriations is more

[12:01] than that, 1.7 million because of two things.

[12:05] One is some

[12:07] adjustments in the operating budget funding in order to have a

[12:11] surplus in the general fund, but there's also money being set aside

[12:15] within that 1.7 million for fire equipment, and there's

[12:19] also purchase of vehicles in there.But as you can see, there's still

[12:23] an ending balance of 977,000. We'll get into more detail on that one.

[12:28] Measure J is actually going to have a beginning balance of

[12:31] 933, which is higher than we had anticipated.

[12:34] And we'll go into more detail on that. Again, the revenues are solid.

[12:38] The appropriations

[12:41] are more than the revenues because we're anticipating using some of that

[12:44] beginning balance for some much needed projects, and

[12:48] those priorities can change based on council's direction.

[12:51] Among staff, there were some priorities that were picked

[12:55] out,

[12:56] and as such, we're using up more than the revenue coming in because we're using the

[12:59] fund balance, but that still leaves an ending fund balance of

[13:02] 732,000, which is very good for a tax measure that just started.

[13:07] So that's just as a summary

[13:10] for Zito, there is an ending fund balance in all of them.

[13:13] And the only reason for the operating deficit is because we are using money

[13:17] that's there at the beginning of the year.

[13:20] Now, the

[13:23] special revenue funds, we probably won't spend much time on those.

[13:26] We'll be coming back more to the general fund measure of Measure J.

[13:30] Special revenue funds are

[13:32] basically governed by law as to what can be used for.

[13:35] They can only be used for certain things.

[13:37] Gas tax is one of them.

[13:40] Money is budgeted by the-- given out by the state, and it can only be used for

[13:44] street purposes. We have $365,000 budgeted

[13:48] to be spent this coming fiscal year, it still will leave a fund

[13:52] balance of 755. And then this is one of those where you have to build it up because

[13:57] these amounts, same as RMRA SB1, it's the additional sales tax that

[14:01] was passed by the voters in SB1. You can't really do a

[14:05] project for 223,000. The money has to be built up to have enough

[14:09] money to actually do a worthwhile street project. So these, they're built up.

[14:12] There is some money to be spent. Again, it can only be used for streets.

[14:16] You actually already approved the SB1 projects at, I think the last meeting

[14:20] or meeting before that for this coming year.

[14:23] Again, those are dictated as to what they can be used for.

[14:26] Now, one change, those two are continuous in the past.

[14:30] The maintenance assessment districts have always been there.

[14:32] They were not included in your budget.

[14:36] The council says, as you know, there's, I think about

[14:39] 18 assessment districts around town.

[14:42] Those are based on the tax roll,

[14:44] that this will be coming forth in a month or so to be

[14:48] approved by you to put those assessments on the tax roll.

[14:51] And those assessments also have only specific uses.

[14:54] Basically, maintenance of those assessment districts.

[14:58] Now in the past, because there's 18 of them, it's hard to track everything.

[15:02] Not as much has been charged to them.

[15:04] So you can tell it has a beginning balance of 920,000.

[15:08] Because it hasn't been fully spent, it has built up.

[15:12] This year, we're proposing to actually fully charge those for all the services that

[15:16] are provided. What that 102,500 would be

[15:20] is

[15:21] the maintenance folks working at these districts,

[15:25] which hasn't been fully charged in the past.

[15:27] This is

[15:29] part of the structural changes that we're looking to make to charge those

[15:32] districts. There is money collected for that purpose.

[15:34] They just have not been fully charged in the past.

[15:37] We're looking forward to doing that in the future, and there's still some

[15:41] money there because there's also money being signed.

[15:43] But every year, there's money being set aside for future

[15:48] major repairs, streets, roads, curbs, gutters, those kind of things in those

[15:52] districts. So that should be growing, but we should be using up quite a bit more

[15:55] than there has been in the past. That reduced the general fund portion of

[15:59] maintenance.

[16:02] Now, another one that's existed but hasn't been in your budget before is the Arts

[16:05] Commission. Now, this one's going to require a little bit more work.

[16:07] It's a smaller one, but this one--

[16:11] This estimated beginning

[16:14] balance is what was projected when we started number crunching, that it would

[16:18] be down to about 1,000.

[16:21] Donations have started coming in.

[16:24] So hopefully, it doesn't look like it'll be down to $1,000.

[16:27] Their budget, I presented, was about 17,000.

[16:32] So there is no estimated revenues because that depends on

[16:36] development. That's where they get building permits.

[16:38] They get their revenue and donations.

[16:40] So,

[16:41] we'll be talking some more to come up with what do they really think they'll get in

[16:44] donations for this coming year. And we'll see if we can

[16:48] develop an estimate of what building permits will be pulled.

[16:51] But right now,

[16:53] we don't have that factual figure.

[16:55] But just to let you know, there is 17,000 that needs to be funded, and I know

[16:59] that's come before the council before in the past, and this will require a little

[17:02] bit more work. This is the proposed budget at this point, showing the

[17:06] anticipated appropriations. So those are special revenue funds that

[17:10] can only be used for these purposes.

[17:13] The

[17:14] other ones are what's called capital projects funds.

[17:17] They can all be used for major improvements. You have two major ones.

[17:21] One is the development impact fees, which has about 4.7 million

[17:24] built up for all sorts of different things.

[17:27] At this point, we don't have any appropriations because we just haven't had a

[17:31] chance to figure out what-- staff hasn't figured out what projects can be funded

[17:35] with these, because they can also only be used for certain projects.

[17:38] You can't just go out and use it to repair the street.

[17:41] This is based on the impact that these developments have on the community.

[17:45] And so there will be a session coming back later on as projects can be

[17:49] identified that these can be used for.

[17:53] The other one is the STIP money. There is--

[17:56] It's a state grant.

[17:58] This matches an expense. I don't recall exactly which project there

[18:02] is. It's a street project.

[18:05] I'd have to check with Paul, but it might be in the details as to what project.

[18:08] But there's one street project. This year, M one

[18:12] and a half was done. I forget what the other project is that wasn't

[18:16] done, that will be done next year. But the money's there.

[18:20] Project needs to take place.

[18:22] Again, beyond letting out the contract, there's not much else that council can

[18:26] do on this project.Then we get to the

[18:30] enterprise funds. This is the part where the city is doing quite well.

[18:33] The water, sewer, and industrial sewer, they have healthy beginning

[18:37] balances.

[18:39] Revenues are more than the appropriations.

[18:42] The end balances are good. Just a quick note, your industrial sewer, for

[18:46] us, as you look at it, while revenues are not that much, but it's got a sizable

[18:51] balance because at some point, some major repairs will have to be

[18:55] done to the ponds. That's going to cost money.

[18:58] So the money has to build up for that.

[19:00] The other ones, while they have healthy fund balances, I would highly

[19:04] recommend that they be taken a look at somewhere during the year.

[19:07] Are the rates appropriate? Because while you are collecting enough

[19:11] to pay for the expenses,

[19:13] the repairs that have to take place in water and sewer are very expensive.

[19:17] So we need to ensure that

[19:19] enough is there for those upcoming expenses down the road.

[19:24] But that's water and sewer. That's just the funds in a summary.

[19:29] The staff report alluded to some steps that were taken to get to a

[19:33] balanced budget. Some of those steps were already

[19:37] included in the current year's budget, so the dollar impact doesn't affect this

[19:41] year. I didn't put them in here, but that includes an unfunded

[19:46] officer position. Right now, it's going to be the CSO,

[19:50] lead

[19:51] mechanic,

[19:53] and a public works supervisor. So public works is down three positions.

[19:59] They were already there. They were taken into account in the current year's budget,

[20:03] and still we had a deficit. So those positions are not funded

[20:07] and were not even included in the preliminary numbers.

[20:10] Now, the steps that were taken to try, this is what staff worked on, is to try and

[20:13] get a balanced general fund.

[20:16] One thing, public works gave up 50,000 of their

[20:20] part-time temporary workers. They hired temps at 40 in

[20:24] order to accommodate this. That was eliminated.

[20:27] And then again, the charges to the maintenance district.

[20:31] Let's start charging more. It requires more work on behalf of the

[20:35] maintenance guys. Now they've got to track everywhere that they're going.

[20:39] And then when payroll is run, everything's got to be charged.

[20:41] It's a little bit more work, but it'll help the general fund.

[20:46] The other steps, some smaller ones, the library.

[20:49] The city manages three county branch

[20:52] libraries.

[20:54] And so they've been paying for the staff and the books there, but they have to be

[20:57] managed.

[20:59] So now 3% of the librarian's time is going to be

[21:03] charged to each of those branches.

[21:04] So they each pay 3% of her time to supervise them.

[21:09] That'll generate a little bit more revenue to the city, and then we'll probably

[21:12] make sure to take a look at how else can we get more money from the county for

[21:16] the services that are being provided.

[21:19] So that's just a small... Again, that's an ongoing structural change that we'd like

[21:23] to implement, and then others. We're looking at other areas where the city

[21:27] could collect more.

[21:29] The big one finally came down to we were not making

[21:33] enough headway in the

[21:35] moving the

[21:37] police and fire CalPERS UAL and POB to Measure A.

[21:42] So as you can tell, there's 342,500 coming

[21:46] out of Measure A for police, and for fire, 20,600.

[21:51] That, along with moving some of the UAL and pension

[21:55] obligation bonds for streets, library, and

[21:58] recreation to Measure J, that amount's

[22:01] 132,900. That gave us

[22:04] $669,000 to help offset a half a million

[22:08] deficit that still existed, generating the

[22:10] $162,000 surplus that is on the books right now.

[22:14] So it's not that the general fund actually is generating a whole bunch more money.

[22:18] It's not. We moved some of those

[22:21] items over to Measure A and Measure J.

[22:23] There were some cuts made

[22:25] that I'm sure staff would like to see restored, but the big

[22:29] ticket item that we'll probably spend most of the time, and just give you a

[22:32] correction on this, on Measure A and Measure J.

[22:38] This slide, I

[22:41] apologize. It's the wrong one. I'm going to go over the numbers with you.

[22:44] This is Measure A and Measure J budgets.

[22:49] Let me go into more detail on those, because that is...

[22:52] You have a handout, but that's really what

[22:55] allows the general fund to be balanced.

[22:59] Measure A budget. Oops, let me stop sharing that and

[23:03] share the

[23:06] budget that

[23:09] is before you there.

[23:12] Okay, so this,

[23:14] 26-27 proposed. The sales tax, that's a solid number.

[23:18] We got it from the sales tax consultants.

[23:21] In doing that, they also gave us a new number for 25-26 of

[23:25] 1.2 million,

[23:26] which was originally budgeted at 995,000 for this year when

[23:30] it was not a full year. They've increased it.

[23:33] It's coming in much better than what had been anticipated.

[23:36] So we're talking about 1.3 million in now Measure A money.

[23:42] Okay, I'm sorry.

[23:44] The 1.26 is correct. I got ahead of myself.

[23:46] Measure J is the other one I was talking about, but this Measure A is,

[23:51] 1.526 is the budget as it sits right now.

[23:53] The proposed is this other going up by 1.3 million.

[23:57] Now, if we look at the appropriations in the past, well, in this current

[24:01] fiscal year, there's 627,000, which is increasing to

[24:04] 667. That's ongoing. That's already taking money that's been done in the

[24:08] past, keeping it going there. Now, in this case,

[24:12] ongoing new

[24:15] is $196,000 of

[24:19] new that at this point, we're proposing be ongoing.

[24:22] That's 96,000 to cover the cost of animal control, 30,000

[24:26] for special departmental supplies, and then increasing the fuel

[24:30] budget to 70... Well, all of the fuel budget being moved from the general fund to

[24:34] Measure AThose are new ongoing

[24:38] costs. I'd recommend that at this point it's subject to council's

[24:41] direction, and there is one-time costs of

[24:45] 342,500.

[24:49] This is where the UAL and the pension obligation bonds are.

[24:53] This is for one time,

[24:56] depending on what council decides.

[24:57] The other ones, staff is recommending that they continue on

[25:02] in order to try and really improve the budget scenario.

[25:05] Then we have the fire department.

[25:07] Currently, there's 169,000 in Measure A.

[25:11] That's increasing to 474.

[25:13] Now, keep in mind for the fire department, that includes 200,000 that's being set

[25:17] aside for capital. We're trying to build up because it

[25:21] would take the entire

[25:24] Measure A portion to be able to buy a fire engine.

[25:27] So we have to build it up little by little. The fire department has a plan.

[25:32] There's some new ongoing costs that have been moved from the general

[25:35] fund to Measure

[25:39] A for the fire department. That's 35,700 to try and accommodate the

[25:43] general fund. And then there's one-time expenses of 20,600,

[25:47] which is the UAL and pension obligation bonds for the

[25:50] fire department.

[25:53] So that's, fire department then is up to 530.

[25:57] The ambulance service,

[26:00] it is in this year's budget.

[26:02] It's not to be in Measure A next year.

[26:05] Next year, it shows up in Measure J.

[26:07] So there's nothing in Measure A for the ambulance service for next year.

[26:11] There's currently 34,000 in the current year's budget for hydrants,

[26:16] street hydrants replacement and the like, and that's continued on to next year.

[26:20] So you can see the appropriation has went from 1.3 million almost to

[26:24] 1.7 million.

[26:26] Current year has a surplus of 9,000.

[26:29] For next year, we're looking at a operating surplus-- deficit, no.

[26:33] Expenses are higher than revenue by 457, but

[26:37] in that number,

[26:40] want you to keep in mind that that includes 250,000 for two police

[26:44] vehicles and 200,000 to be set aside for

[26:48] fire equipment. There's no purchase because the FPD set aside,

[26:52] whereas the police department is purchasing two vehicles.

[26:56] There's different ways to look at that deficit.

[26:59] Of course, we're adding costs that weren't there before, such as the pension and

[27:02] OPEB, but we're also saving the

[27:06] 150,000 for capital that's this year.

[27:10] The 200,000 will be ongoing, the purchase of the police vehicles.

[27:13] We'll see what's needed in the following year.

[27:17] Now, we're able to do this because, like I said, there

[27:20] is 1.4 million as the beginning fund balance in Measure A that's built up

[27:24] since it started.

[27:27] That means the city will have a balance of

[27:30] 977,000 in Measure A at June

[27:34] 30th, 2027. Now, that

[27:36] 937,000 was primarily spoken for by the

[27:40] reserve for fire apparatus replacement.

[27:42] Money has been set aside in that fund balance going forward.

[27:46] At this point, at June 30th, 2027, we anticipate having

[27:49] 937,000 for the future purchase of a fire

[27:53] engine, and that actually leaves the 39,000 free and clear

[27:57] in Measure A for other uses.

[27:59] But the Measure A budget as presented will alleviate the general fund, pay for

[28:03] these items, still leave money assigned for a fire engine,

[28:07] buy the police vehicles this year.

[28:10] But then everything is tied up in Measure A.

[28:15] And they'll get a budget certified up to Measure J.

[28:19] So that's Measure A.

[28:21] Measure J,

[28:23] which is the other portion of this, again, the revenues are pretty solid,

[28:27] 1.278.

[28:29] Now, in this case, though, we do have the ambulance

[28:33] service, the monthly subsidy, and the total

[28:37] ambulance cost. So 166,000 with Measure

[28:41] J is proposed for next year to go towards the ambulance

[28:44] service as services sit right now.

[28:48] I know there was a discussion last night, which nothing's been decided there yet,

[28:51] but this is what's in the budget for this coming year to cover that.

[28:55] Now,

[28:56] on the streets, there is 150,000 budgeted this year.

[29:00] That's to be kept ongoing for next year, another 150,000 to street

[29:04] patching or just repairs, minor repairs.

[29:08] There is a one-time cost of 26,200 out of Measure J,

[29:12] which is the

[29:14] pension OPEB liabilities,

[29:17] the UAL, the pension obligation bonds for streets.

[29:21] And because there is money,

[29:25] this is a one-time thing, but sidewalk repairs.

[29:27] One of the things we heard is there's

[29:30] people expecting something to be done with the streets or sidewalks.

[29:33] There's an entire study that was done that shows where all repairs need to

[29:37] be done.

[29:38] Right now, there's 125,000 that's recommended.

[29:40] It could be more based on what council recommends,

[29:44] and to start repairing some of the sidewalks around town.

[29:48] There could be other things. This is all under streets, could also be used for

[29:51] other projects, but the sidewalks are out there. They've already been surveyed.

[29:55] We just need authority to go forward, and then public works can begin fixing some

[29:58] of those sidewalks. The other

[30:02] department included in Measure J is the library, which in this year's budget

[30:06] only has 15,500.

[30:10] For next year, we've moved some of the expenses from the general

[30:14] fund to

[30:16] Measure J and also

[30:18] put some more money aside for

[30:22] repairs, for some capital set aside to improve the

[30:26] services to the community from the library.

[30:29] So it's not just keeping it going, but try to improve those services.

[30:33] And the one-time costs are the pension,

[30:37] UAL, and obligation bonds

[30:40] related to the library

[30:41] staff.The one that doesn't have any money

[30:45] in the current year's budget, but is anticipated for this next year, is

[30:49] recreation. Recreation moved the $55,000

[30:53] of ongoing expenses for recreation over

[30:57] to Measure J, and also increased it a little bit

[31:01] within that $55,000 to add new

[31:04] recreation programs that they would like to add for the community, and some

[31:08] additional services that they can provide.

[31:12] And again, the one-time cost is the pension UAL,

[31:16] and pension obligation bonds for recreation staff

[31:20] as a one-time expense this year.

[31:24] In the swimming pool,

[31:26] staff moved $31,500 of ongoing costs for the pool

[31:30] chemicals and those sort of things from the general fund to Measure

[31:34] J in order to help, again, alleviate the general fund

[31:37] deficit.

[31:39] And there's $35,000 in a one-time cost, which I can't remember what

[31:43] that is right now.

[31:45] The other big item that was noted in here is the ball field lights

[31:49] installation. Some of you may recall the city did buy

[31:53] ball field lights,

[31:55] but the installing was going to be more than $300,000.

[31:58] So that part was not done. All the equipment is there.

[32:02] It can be installed, but it's going to cost about $325,000 to

[32:06] have new lights that can be better utilized for the ball fields, for sports, and

[32:10] the like. It's just there. It's been sitting.

[32:13] Now, there is funds that could bring that about.

[32:16] So when you add all of these things, that's a $1.4 million,

[32:21] which creates a deficit of $200,000 for this year,

[32:26] for '27, '28. But you can tell some of it is, there are

[32:30] costs that are being recommended being moved over.

[32:32] Some are ongoing, some are one-time.

[32:34] But also, the big-ticket numbers here are the ball field

[32:38] lights at $325,000, which

[32:43] the reason this was put in here is because if you look at the ending balance of

[32:47] June 30, 2022, it's $933,000

[32:50] because only of Measure J,

[32:54] only $326,000 was budgeted. And when the

[32:58] '25, '26 budget was prepared, staff thought that maybe there might be

[33:02] $950,000 available. It was just a guess.

[33:08] So they budgeted to spend $326,000 just to be very

[33:11] conservative in case money didn't come in. Now we know it will come in.

[33:15] It's assigned numbers. That means there'll be a surplus in Measure J this year

[33:19] of $938,500, which is the reason staff

[33:23] is recommending that maybe the ball field lights and things of that nature, the

[33:26] sidewalk repairs can take place.

[33:29] Tax dollars are being collected, and it would show the community

[33:32] something for all the tax dollars that they've submitted, that

[33:36] they are paying for.

[33:37] So that there would still be Measure J with a fund balance of

[33:41] $732,000 at the end of June 30,

[33:45] 2027.

[33:50] Oh. So one thing I forgot to mention, I didn't go down far enough.

[33:54] For Measure J,

[33:56] without the

[33:58] one-time adjustments, there will still be a deficit of

[34:01] $94,200 because some equipment has been purchased.

[34:05] And without the one-time adjustment and the ongoing

[34:09] adjustments, it would actually have a surplus of $137,500.

[34:13] That translates into those expenses going back to the general

[34:17] fund.

[34:18] So

[34:20] just because I was asked how much of this is one-time versus ongoing.

[34:23] So these deficits exist for two things, because there is large purchases

[34:27] anticipated to be made, and there is also the

[34:30] UAL and pension obligation funds that are being

[34:34] recommended to be moved over to Measure A and Measure J in order to

[34:37] accommodate the general fund budget.

[34:42] One last thing that I was asked about was CalPERS, and I think

[34:46] you also have a

[34:49] handout there. With regards to CalPERS, the UAL,

[34:53] which is what we're talking about moving some of those costs, but the city

[34:57] total is $432,572. So we're not recommending all of it be

[35:01] moved to Measure J, just the ones that are within the departments

[35:05] that have been considered, you know, public safety,

[35:08] library, streets, and recreation.

[35:13] That is just this year's statement.

[35:15] You'll see in the balance, the city actually still has a balance of almost $5.4

[35:19] million that it owes in UAL. UAL is the

[35:23] unfunded accrued liability, and that will continue on

[35:26] through annual payments going forth.

[35:29] This little printout for you just also shows the cost of the

[35:33] city and the cost of the employees.

[35:36] And the UAL

[35:37] has to be paid to the agent the city actually chooses.

[35:40] This would be the full price. The city will pay it up front on

[35:44] July 1, saving about 4% of this

[35:47] cost by paying it on July 1. Otherwise, we can pay it monthly and you

[35:51] pay the full cost, which is another 4% more, is the way CalPERS

[35:55] calculates it.

[35:57] Now that's all the numbers that I'm talking.

[35:59] It's time for me to stop before going to any other... Oh.

[36:03] Sorry. I'm not quite ready to stop talking just yet.

[36:06] Now that's the Measure A and Measure J.

[36:09] Now, the other thing I did want

[36:14] to share with you is that's what's being

[36:17] recommended for now. Now, let

[36:22] me share this, finish the PowerPoint

[36:26] presentation.

[36:35] So

[36:38] that's what it's taking us to get to the surplus this year.

[36:41] Steps to actually achieve a structurally balanced budget.

[36:44] Right now-This is balanced by moving things around a little bit.

[36:48] But going forward, the city really does need a structurally balanced budget where

[36:51] revenues meet expenditures. So these are

[36:55] steps that,

[36:56] at least myself, I would recommend the city take in the long run.

[36:59] Not right now, because it can't all be done right now.

[37:02] But

[37:05] taking a look at all the services that the city actually

[37:08] provides,

[37:10] and especially those that are provided to other agencies over time.

[37:13] The city has provided services to the schools, to

[37:18] mainly the schools and the county, that have just become part of the city

[37:21] services, but they could contribute more towards those costs.

[37:25] And some of those costs are already being looked at.

[37:29] And then calculating the full cost of those services.

[37:32] What do they really cost? And then where maybe more can

[37:36] be contributed. One example is, I believe the police chief is already talking to

[37:40] the schools about the school resource officer. It started out as a grant.

[37:44] Grant went away and the city's paying for it, but the officer's still at the

[37:48] schools. So looking at those sort of things where other

[37:52] agencies could contribute more. And the big thing is going to be

[37:56] policy decisions on Measure A and J.

[37:58] There's lots of little things that can be done.

[38:02] Measure A and Measure J could be very simple solutions.

[38:07] In the meantime, though, we'd also recommend looking for lower cost services and

[38:11] products. The city pays a lot for insurance

[38:14] premiums. There's other items, professional

[38:17] services are big ticket items, too.

[38:20] So to maybe look around and see if they might be possible.

[38:24] In some cases, it may not be, but at least the city will have tried.

[38:27] But all of these things take time and effort that right now nobody has

[38:31] at this present. And of course, looking at increasing

[38:35] fees where needed. Not

[38:40] excessive, but also sometimes the government agencies will go for a long time

[38:43] without ever increasing fees, and then all of a sudden you have a huge increase and

[38:47] we're like, "Hey, what's going on?" But the city was considering doing gradual fee

[38:50] increases where needed.

[38:52] If it's not needed, no reason to.

[38:55] With all of these things, then we can develop a plan

[38:58] for the services that council approves going forward.

[39:03] At this point, everything can be funded as is with the changes that we mentioned.

[39:07] If those are not adopted or other changes are made,

[39:11] then we may have to go back and adjust the services that the city provides to the

[39:14] residents in order to live within the budget.

[39:17] And this is not unique to Orland. Orland is actually doing quite

[39:21] well. If you follow the news, there's other agencies that are really

[39:24] hurting. Some have had to do reductions in workforce,

[39:28] other things of that nature.

[39:31] Fortunately, Orland has Measure A and Measure J, which they have been

[39:35] used very judiciously. 98%. Therefore, there is money there.

[39:40] So with that, then,

[39:42] leads me to any questions that you might have, and then we can provide some

[39:45] direction on Measure A and J, and then going into the future, any thoughts about

[39:49] that. Be more than happy to answer any additional questions

[39:53] you might have.

[39:57] Thank you very much.

[39:59] Awesome.

[40:01] Public comment.

[40:03] Any questions?

[40:07] Online, no?

[40:09] No.

[40:10] Come on up, please, so that they can hear you online. Thanks.

[40:16] It's Rebecca from accounts.

[40:17] Yes.

[40:18] I was just wondering, did you calculate in also the interest rate that was accrued

[40:22] with the monies that are in the bank?

[40:25] Yes.

[40:26] Yeah. Thank you.

[40:29] Any other questions?

[40:32] Okay, council.

[40:35] Don, you want to start off with signing us in?

[40:37] Yeah. Thank you, Mr. Berger, for the detailed report. Quick question.

[40:41] So obviously diesel is through the roof.

[40:44] I still see plenty of trucks out there, gas well over $4.

[40:48] Any reason why are we going off of a larger data?

[40:51] Expected more EVs, I know, in the future.

[40:55] But it seems to me like we're... Which is good, shoot low,

[40:59] but I wouldn't say as low as 1.3. Doing my little bit of research

[41:03] here, you see 4% here, 1.3% there.

[41:08] Where are we getting those numbers from or is that just something we're getting

[41:10] from the state?

[41:12] So the sales tax numbers come from HDL.

[41:16] It's a Hinderliter, Dollar and Associates.

[41:17] It's a company that provides-- They monitor sales tax

[41:21] throughout the state and then give the city a report on how the city's doing.

[41:25] We had a meeting with them

[41:27] about a month ago or so. They gave us an update.

[41:31] They said this is what they anticipated will be for next year and

[41:35] for this year. And actually for the Measure A and Measure J, the news

[41:39] was good. They actually provided an increase over what they had projected.

[41:43] The general fund won't decrease because it comes at a different--

[41:47] It's taxed just a little bit differently. There was a drop in the general fund.

[41:50] Right.

[41:51] And we asked them about the increase in fuels and they're like, "Well,

[41:56] at this point it hasn't..." All the data is way behind.

[41:59] People pay it, by the time it gets to the state and then gets back to us, it's very

[42:03] old. They really couldn't, it would just be a guess

[42:07] at this point. They go off of data exactly how things are going.

[42:12] So there might be an increase that we can come back with, but at this point,

[42:16] it'd be you telling us, okay, what-

[42:18] I think this is more of a year because the ball versus mine.

[42:21] Yeah.

[42:21] And not to throw the staff under the bus, because I didn't ask them beforehand.

[42:26] I know we get those quarterly payments.

[42:27] Obviously, those will start to be more inductions because of fuel prices being so

[42:30] high, and I haven't seen a no vacancy sign on a pilot yet, and

[42:34] people still put a Maverick along. But that is the one shining star.

[42:39] The one thing I would like to say, and I've stayed all of our time tonight, is that

[42:42] I cannot thank staff and especially department heads for taking the

[42:46] leadership role to come up with a

[42:49] planNot only get it to where I can

[42:52] understand it, but as we all know, when we passed Measure A,

[42:57] it was very well known that it could be taken over as a

[43:01] general fund tax. And a council like this

[43:05] could easily take it and run with it and do what they want,

[43:09] because it's not a specific tax. But I applaud

[43:13] the department heads for getting together, working as a team.

[43:16] And Humberto, when you've worked with lots of cities, we take for granted what we

[43:19] have here. We have department heads that all get along, that hang out together.

[43:24] If the chief needs something, the fire chief needs something, the police chief

[43:27] needs something, especially now with Measure J.

[43:30] I was happy to see the pool come out, because that was something that we haven't

[43:33] had the chance due to the previous turmoil we had.

[43:36] But again, I cannot thank you department heads enough for thinking

[43:40] outside the box, and staff for getting this.

[43:43] It's way better than when we first looked at it.

[43:46] And now, sorry to confuse you, Humberto, with the doggone Measure A and J stuff.

[43:49] We didn't come up with the letters.

[43:51] So,

[43:52] Madam Mayor, I'm pleased with the budget. Could it be better? Absolutely.

[43:55] Are we where we want to be? No.

[43:58] But I definitely appreciate the fact that we've been able to

[44:01] keep us out of a bigger deficit, and I really appreciate the work.

[44:06] Great.

[44:08] Sure. Thank you.

[44:10] Let me just go through the department heads, if I could.

[44:15] How about now?

[44:17] Check one, two, one, two.

[44:20] I'll look right at you when I'm talking, that helps like that.

[44:24] I'm just going to address our department heads.

[44:26] Let me just start with Jodi, our librarian.

[44:29] Jodi, thank you for being here tonight. Thank you all for being here tonight.

[44:32] If you notice, we have department heads here with us tonight.

[44:35] I think this is important because I think this was a collaborative.

[44:39] The decision to pass through some of your costs to those

[44:43] county library, was that your initiative?

[44:46] We have a certain budget

[44:50] set contract with the county for personnel costs.

[44:54] Okay.

[44:54] And to be perfectly frank, I thought that was already being

[44:57] captured. It was kind of discovered that those costs were not already--

[45:01] But they're actually already budgeted for.

[45:04] Basically, we just haven't quite captured it in

[45:08] the past.

[45:08] And we will now.

[45:09] Yes.

[45:09] And with this budget. Thank you. Also, just the idea of

[45:13] moving streets, library, recreation. It talks about library here in Measure J.

[45:17] You supported that?

[45:19] Moving

[45:21] library, some funding for Measure J.

[45:23] Yes. Well, we were directed to look at

[45:26] any general fund costs that we could

[45:30] reduce. And when you look at the library's budget, everybody's, but

[45:34] a library especially, it's very much mostly personnel for providing

[45:38] services, utilities, insurance.

[45:41] There's nothing else for us to move other than

[45:45] those costs that we did, so.

[45:47] Sure. And if I could, thank you very much, Jodi. Thank you for parting that.

[45:50] We have the chief of police here.

[45:52] I just want to make sure, Chief Laux, that

[45:55] same kind of question.

[45:57] Leaving the community services office sort of position unfilled,

[46:02] that initiative come from you as a part of this effort to collaboratively work and

[46:06] make the budget work?

[46:07] 100%.

[46:08] Okay. Thank you for that. Appreciate that.

[46:11] I'm going to just take that now if I could.

[46:13] We're going to go ahead and go to Public Works. Lots of choices made here.

[46:18] Zach, same question. Did you bring to the table these

[46:21] initiatives?

[46:23] Yes, I did.

[46:25] So is there a sense here, kind of see where I'm going with, that

[46:29] these various departments, Fires here as well.

[46:31] Fire I see here, leading one unfunded lead

[46:35] mechanic, equipment mechanic position unfunded.

[46:38] Was that initiative come from you, Chief?

[46:45] The mechanic position came out of Public Works.

[46:47] That's out of Public Works. Okay, that's not a fire? Okay.

[46:51] I just made a note by that.

[46:53] Do you guys share mechanics? Is that why I might've thought that?

[46:56] Yeah, there's one mechanic that works-

[47:00] Okay

[47:00] ... at the fire department, works on all the emergency service vehicles, all the

[47:03] police cars, all the fire trucks, and then crosses over and works

[47:07] on-

[47:07] Got it

[47:07] ... part of the fleet for Public Works also.

[47:10] So would it be safe to say that the four of you are working as a team right now to

[47:13] make this work?

[47:15] Thank you.

[47:16] Yes.

[47:17] As it should be. And I'm really appreciative of

[47:21] that. And I think the citizens of Orland should be appreciative of that.

[47:25] When we don't know what's going on, it's good to know that we have department heads

[47:28] that do, and they're working through it.

[47:31] I will ask our consultant here that helps us with the finances, Roberto.

[47:36] Was that your experience in working with these department heads, that they were

[47:38] working together to come to a solution?

[47:40] Well, certainly.

[47:42] To be quite honest, it was a little bit of a surprise for me because I've worked in

[47:46] much larger cities and every department has a peak that they're protecting their

[47:50] own and that's it. And then, the first person that started giving up

[47:53] stuff was Zach. I'm like, "Wow, never seen somebody just being willing to,

[47:57] 'Okay, yeah, we'll eliminate this.'" Because before we got to these big numbers, we

[48:01] were going through it. It was just like he said, he was giving up small items that

[48:04] they were not doing much of anything.

[48:06] But everybody working together, the recommendations came

[48:10] for Measure A from police and fire, for Measure J came from

[48:14] library, streets, and recreation, and even they were giving

[48:18] me some insight from public safety, because public safety had already

[48:22] been dealing with Measure A for some time.

[48:24] So Roberto, you're surprised. Would it be safe, pleasantly so?

[48:27] Oh, definitely.

[48:28] Welcome to Orland.

[48:32] Having been here during austerity measures- ...

[48:34] after the Great Recession,

[48:36] we don't want to go back there, and this is how you avoid it.

[48:39] You work together as a team like these department heads have,

[48:43] and we're here to support that. I'm here to support that.

[48:46] So thank you very much for doing that.

[48:47] I do have some questions for you, Roberto, but again, would you let-- I

[48:51] just want you guys to know I appreciate you, and I appreciate everything you've

[48:54] been doing. I think I talk about this too-Because I think

[48:59] we want to trust our government. We want to know that you're doing what's

[49:03] right, and I think this is an example of that.

[49:06] So if I could, I do have some questions for you, Roberto.

[49:09] What's the date of the last city's mandated financial audit?

[49:14] The last one that's been completed?

[49:18] That would be the kind I'd be looking for.

[49:19] Well, June 30th, 2024 is the last one that's been completed.

[49:23] The next one is June 30th, 2025, which has not been completed yet.

[49:27] Is there any work being done on a financial audit that's due in

[49:32] 28 days

[49:33] to your knowledge?

[49:34] No. Other than trying to get the books straight, no.

[49:37] Okay. That's what I needed to know.

[49:41] That's all I have. Thank you all.

[49:48] So were you guys any bullied into giving up any positions or anything

[49:52] like that? Because that's different.

[49:55] No,

[49:56] just what Wade said. Thank you guys very much for the teamwork that you guys

[50:00] put in. I know Lydia was going to be here, but she's not, so she's part of the team

[50:04] as well, so really appreciate it.

[50:07] Looking forward, like Roberto said, is that if there's any

[50:11] services that aren't cost-effective, maybe we kind of look ahead and say,

[50:15] "Maybe we shouldn't be doing this," to save a couple of bucks here and there.

[50:19] That's all I

[50:21] have.

[50:24] Thank you, staff, and thank you, Roberto, for putting together this report.

[50:30] I like the layout of it, and it was mostly easy to follow.

[50:34] I'm still concerned about the overall budget.

[50:38] You say we've got a

[50:42] surplus.

[50:43] If I go back to last year

[50:46] and look at

[50:48] all the combined columns, general, Measure A, Measure AA, there's a surplus of

[50:51] about 600,000. If you go to this year, combine them all

[50:54] together, you're still at a deficit of

[50:59] like 400,000.

[51:01] Yeah.

[51:03] Yeah. And

[51:04] of course, there are these big-ticket items such as the police cars,

[51:09] the ballroom

[51:11] lights,

[51:12] and I think those are understandable for they've been sitting for a while, and

[51:18] they need to get done.

[51:20] But even if you take those away,

[51:22] it would still be, have it all combined together,

[51:27] we'd be right at even, let's say,

[51:31] if you did all that together. So

[51:34] I'm still a bit concerned about

[51:36] that.

[51:38] So

[51:39] I appreciate what you guys have done in order to get to where we're at.

[51:44] And I think it's good,

[51:46] better than before, and I'd be even more concerned if Measure J

[51:50] had never passed because that's $1.3

[51:53] million that we wouldn't have and

[51:58] it will stall some things here.

[52:00] So please

[52:06] be careful on

[52:08] how we spend our money and to set up for,

[52:13] I guess, the year of '27, '28.

[52:17] I don't think we have the same luxury of

[52:23] being able to say at least even within our budget. So, thank you.

[52:27] Thanks, Adam. Take care of yourself.

[52:29] Okay. Thank you. I just have a few

[52:33] questions for you. When you're talking about 4.7 in our

[52:36] gift fund balance, and that maybe

[52:40] we can assign that to be accomplishing those

[52:44] things that we really would like to accomplish,

[52:47] are those assigned specifically and we can never move them

[52:51] anywhere? Or as a council, can we take that gift fund

[52:55] balance and use it for things such as...

[52:58] Because what I realized is we had been collecting money every

[53:02] year trying to reserve 200,000 for a public safety building.

[53:06] The police department is in a very bad way, and we need to do something

[53:09] about that. Now, that money doesn't appear on here anywhere anymore.

[53:13] It's gone. The only money we have in reserves now is for a fire engine.

[53:17] Is that correct?

[53:18] Yes.

[53:19] So the 200,000 that we did have a year ago for our

[53:23] public safety building has been absorbed. It's gone.

[53:27] Yes.

[53:28] Okay. So we still have to have a public safety building.

[53:31] Can we tap into div funds that are already

[53:35] earmarked for other things so that we can start talking about how to

[53:38] build a police department that's suitable for the number of

[53:42] policemen that we have now? Or that's not possible because it's already been

[53:45] earmarked for other things?

[53:48] So the development impact fees

[53:50] can be used for their specific purpose that they were collected.

[53:54] There's some for streets, some for parks.

[53:57] I'd have to look and see what's collected for City Hall, but unfortunately, you

[54:01] can't move them from one to the other. You can borrow them.

[54:05] Oh, okay.

[54:06] So as a council, we can't decide, let's move some of that money

[54:10] from streets-

[54:11] No

[54:11] ... to

[54:13] a public safety facility if that's what we need to do to build a police

[54:16] department.

[54:17] Yeah. Unfortunately-

[54:18] We can't do that.

[54:18] No.

[54:19] Okay. I'm learning. Okay. That was my first question.

[54:24] The water tank, it was going to be considerably over budget.

[54:28] Is that already accounted for in this, or is that money that's still going

[54:32] to have to come up out of this?

[54:33] In next year's budget, maybe? That's a project-

[54:36] It has been, but all the parts aren't here yet, so I doubt that we've paid for

[54:39] anything, or we accounted for it.

[54:42] Do we know the answer to that, or do you have to ask Paul?

[54:46] I'm sorry, Sam.

[54:47] We'd have to contact Walt.

[54:49] Paul would be the one. It's just something when we go for this final review

[54:53] in two weeks, we probably better check on that because it could throw

[54:57] a fly in the ointment with the budget that we currently have proposed.

[55:00] I don't know how much we're still short on paying for that because it's not

[55:04] done yet.And I know that there's continuing work to try and get all

[55:08] the pieces to that finish.

[55:11] Okay. So you'll be making that check with Paul Abel or

[55:15] Sue Ann or make sure this is absolutely accounted for?

[55:18] Jack's going to answer that.

[55:19] Oh, you're going to ask.

[55:20] We have additional funds that are going towards that tank that were not

[55:24] met because it wasn't complete on time, or it's coming out of the water

[55:28] fund.

[55:28] You're going to pull it out of water, so it's not going to hit this general fund-

[55:31] Correct

[55:32] ... budget that we're trying to create right now.

[55:33] Correct.

[55:34] Okay. As long as that's been accounted for.

[55:38] The only thing, the concerning thing with this is you said that after

[55:42] all funds are depleted, the General A and J,

[55:45] we have potentially 165,000. Is that correct?

[55:49] That is in the black this year. We're not in the red.

[55:54] We're in the black, correct?

[55:55] The general fund would be-

[55:58] Which includes A and J, the way that you've presented this.

[56:01] Oh. Okay.

[56:03] The third was, is actually

[56:06] all of them combined is a deficit of half a million, but that's because we're

[56:10] using some of the fund balance-

[56:12] Right. The fund balance

[56:13] ... money before they imported it.

[56:14] So the deficit is half a million. So we are using A and

[56:18] J funds.

[56:20] Yes, correct.

[56:21] Okay. So

[56:23] my concern is our reserves are down.

[56:27] Start with this, although we have A and J reserves that are being

[56:30] called A and J, they're just being called part of the general fund.

[56:34] So are we actually in a place where we're going to begin building that

[56:38] half a million dollar general fund reserve, or

[56:42] we're depleting everything a little bit further?

[56:44] It just doesn't look that way the way it's been assigned.

[56:49] We're spending more than we brought in.

[56:51] Yes, but I guess maybe I need to give a different presentation because

[56:55] the capital assets, the capital big-ticket items that you're

[56:59] buying are coming

[57:01] not from the current money, but they're coming from money that's already been built

[57:04] up-

[57:05] Right

[57:05] ... or it wasn't used.

[57:06] Well, I still think it was the assigned money that was for firefighters and for a

[57:10] public safety building. It's not like it was just money floating out there.

[57:13] That was, those monies were assigned, and now those assignments other than a

[57:17] fire truck are gone. We don't have those anymore because we've

[57:20] decided to put it all together and use it to

[57:24] backstop the general funds, is what we've done here.

[57:27] We've backstopped the general fund with A and J funds

[57:31] because those monies were intentionally by the previous council

[57:36] somewhat left untouched because

[57:40] my personal feeling is that's the promise that was made.

[57:43] When A and J passed, the promise that was made wasn't we were going to backstop

[57:47] the general fund and pension plans.

[57:50] It was this was to

[57:52] make a better place for everyone to live. We have no choice.

[57:56] We accumulated $5.4 million

[58:00] in pension funds. I don't even know how you do that.

[58:03] How many years did it take that we weren't paying our bills, that we

[58:06] incurred

[58:10] $5.4 million in

[58:13] pension fund and the interest that must be accruing on that, I can't even

[58:16] imagine. The counters should have been kept up all along.

[58:20] We don't have a choice. We have to catch up, or we will

[58:23] always be in the red. So yes, you had to do what

[58:27] you've done in using A and J for that, but that was not what

[58:31] we promised the public when we passed those measures.

[58:35] And so yeah, we have to do it, and they've done a great job to do everything they

[58:39] can.

[58:40] Hard costs are hard costs. You're not going to get a better PG&E bill.

[58:43] You're not going to be able to cut so many people that you can operate.

[58:47] So we have to do what we have to do. But my concern is that

[58:51] we're not developing reserves even with this budget, and we have to.

[58:55] We had 3 million three or four years ago, and it's been used

[58:59] while we still incurred a

[59:01] $5,400,0000 pension deficit.

[59:06] We've got to dig deeper somehow, or the real answer is the one that

[59:10] we've had this discussion several times over and over.

[59:13] We've got to get that annexation going.

[59:15] We've got to get more revenue coming in because there's no other way to fix

[59:19] this and do the things that we've promised the public we would do.

[59:23] So I'm not after you. You've done a phenomenal job.

[59:26] And 100 and some pages that I went through every single page

[59:29] today to make sure, and there's notes all over.

[59:31] I have a lot of pink slips here because I'd love to spend a little more time.

[59:35] I'm new at government, and so I fully

[59:39] understand financials and profits and losses and where we're spending money

[59:43] and where it's-- I have questions about it,

[59:46] but I would like to understand more.

[59:48] I've been calling City Hall regularly, and they don't have the time for me.

[59:51] They've been wonderful, but there's just

[59:55] a lot in here. Questions that I have about what I did see, the

[59:59] answer, the entries that you have any question marks.

[1:00:02] Oh, yes.

[1:00:03] Just question marks and question marks in there.

[1:00:05] And it's like, okay, what does that mean? Why is there a question mark?

[1:00:07] What do you mean by that? But I guess you did as much as you could

[1:00:11] with the time that you've had left. So thank you so much.

[1:00:14] Thank you, department heads, for everything that you did to get us where we are

[1:00:17] today. You didn't create the problem.

[1:00:19] You're dealing with the problem, and we're all dealing with it.

[1:00:22] And thank you to the public for understanding what we have to do now

[1:00:26] in order to balance this budget. It's not what we want to do, but it's the only

[1:00:30] choice we have left. Okay? Thank you so much.

[1:00:33] Yeah.

[1:00:33] And thank you, Jack.

[1:00:35] Yeah. I think we're good.

[1:00:36] My question-

[1:00:36] Do you have one more thing?

[1:00:36] Answering my question.

[1:00:37] Yeah.

[1:00:38] If I may, just to-

[1:00:39] Yeah

[1:00:39] ... clarify a couple of things. Just everybody hears the conversation,

[1:00:43] so-

[1:00:43] Yeah

[1:00:44] ... with regards to CalPERS, just looking up, that 5.4 million

[1:00:48] is built up since the city has been in that retirement plan.

[1:00:52] It's not something that happened over the last couple of years.

[1:00:55] It's built up over all these years-

[1:00:57] No, I agree

[1:00:58] ... that we've invested.

[1:00:59] That's a lot of money, and how could it-

[1:01:02] That's how CalPERS works

[1:01:04] ... and that's why we're having to do what we are today. We have to be in.

[1:01:07] I think he's trying to answer you.

[1:01:09] I think we're right.

[1:01:10] Yeah. So when the city

[1:01:14] gets to the point where it's actually structurally sound and moving forward, and

[1:01:18] actually has surplus, then that issue of CalPERS can start to be

[1:01:22] addressed. There is ways, other ways to go.

[1:01:24] We tried one time, we did pension obligation bonds, was to try to

[1:01:28] reduce the cost price on rents.

[1:01:30] Mm-hmm.

[1:01:30] And it works, but only to a certain degree, because of the way the whole pension

[1:01:34] system works. We'll have to have a

[1:01:36] session at some point-

[1:01:38] Mm-hmm

[1:01:38] ... on CalPERS. It is a very complicated system.

[1:01:42] And unfortunately, that is the system throughout the entire state of California,

[1:01:45] and we here have no say so in it, other than to

[1:01:49] pay the amount. So the UAL, that is the required amount

[1:01:52] that needs to be paid.

[1:01:55] So it's going to be on paying for this year, it's not reducing the $5

[1:01:59] million deficit.

[1:02:00] It's-

[1:02:01] It's just keeping us current

[1:02:02] ... keeping us current, technically, but it will build up again next year.

[1:02:04] We'll see the numbers. But it's a

[1:02:08] requirement, so it has to be paid. The other thing I just wanted to clarify,

[1:02:12] Measure A and Measure D, we're still keeping track of them separate.

[1:02:16] You alluded to the fact that technically it is all general fund

[1:02:20] money for the sense of council can do whatever it wants with it.

[1:02:23] But we're keeping track of it separate because council has made it very clear that

[1:02:26] commitments have been made for certain things, and that's what...

[1:02:29] Measure A is police, fire, and fire activism,

[1:02:33] streets. Measure D is recreation, library, and record, and

[1:02:37] streets. And again, it's only those costs that were...

[1:02:41] We moved a lot of the costs for operating costs over there.

[1:02:45] At this point, looking to go ongoing, it's

[1:02:47] the UAL, the retirement costs that are, at

[1:02:51] this point, one time in nature, depending on what council wants to do.

[1:02:54] It definitely gives us a balanced budget, time, a little bit of breathing

[1:02:58] room to figure out, okay, how can we do this?

[1:03:01] There could be other costs that could've been moved.

[1:03:03] It's just that those are big-ticket items.

[1:03:05] We went through lots of different line items, and it's just not getting anywhere

[1:03:10] with

[1:03:11] just that one change.

[1:03:14] Like you said, paperclips.

[1:03:15] Yeah. The other thing too with this-

[1:03:17] People think they're tiny, but they never really add up.

[1:03:19] There's only so much you...

[1:03:21] Nothing.

[1:03:21] Yeah.

[1:03:22] Roberto, can you give us a chart of the

[1:03:25] CalPERS payments for the last 10 years-

[1:03:28] Yeah

[1:03:28] ... to see

[1:03:29] how it's progressed over time?

[1:03:31] Yeah, no, we can do that.

[1:03:33] I'd like to see it.

[1:03:33] Presentations.

[1:03:35] Now, you work a lot with cities doing this.

[1:03:38] That's why we hired RGS, is because that's what you do.

[1:03:43] Do other cities tend to start this budget process a lot

[1:03:47] earlier and have round table discussions, maybe ad hoc committees or

[1:03:51] anything? Is it usually this is what...

[1:03:53] I've only been on two years, and for two years now it's been just like

[1:03:57] this. Two weeks before we had to sign that budget, we got a bunch of

[1:04:01] numbers. There was a time, really, to

[1:04:04] investigate or to understand most of it.

[1:04:07] We just had to go with the recommendations that were given to us.

[1:04:10] Do other cities start earlier and have a little more interactive process

[1:04:14] on this?

[1:04:15] Yes. You usually want to start your budget process quite a bit earlier,

[1:04:20] but you need the staff,

[1:04:22] city has-

[1:04:24] Yeah

[1:04:24] ... not the staff to take the lead on this at this point.

[1:04:28] Hopefully, for next year there will be somebody that can start the budget

[1:04:32] process much earlier. And

[1:04:35] now that we have a little better direction from you then we can develop a better

[1:04:38] budget. But the sad part is just the staff is just not there to do

[1:04:42] all the number crunching that needs to be done.

[1:04:45] Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much.

[1:04:48] Okay. I guess at this point, this is just information until

[1:04:52] next week. Is that correct? There's no motion that we forward with today?

[1:04:56] Not unless if there are any...

[1:04:59] So let me put it this way. The proposed budget would, I feel, okay for this next

[1:05:03] year. We don't want to come back with something later say, "No, that's not going to

[1:05:07] work. We need to get some kind of direction." Do we make any changes

[1:05:11] to this proposed budget? Or are we cleaning room?

[1:05:13] Mr. Chair, if I may.

[1:05:14] Yeah.

[1:05:15] I think we've got our direction. I think you have our direction.

[1:05:18] I think we've seen the team do a good job.

[1:05:20] I think we have what we have, and we move forward from here.

[1:05:24] We're going to look forward. Whatever we didn't do this year or the last two years,

[1:05:27] we can start doing now.

[1:05:29] And I think we've done that. So I would be very comfortable with, at the next

[1:05:33] regular meeting, I believe it's in two weeks from tonight-

[1:05:36] Mm-hmm

[1:05:36] ... seeing this budget

[1:05:39] with a final report. And maybe if I could ask,

[1:05:43] there is a lot of detail here. You asked at the very first question, I don't

[1:05:47] know if you want this much detail. Short answer is, I want it available,

[1:05:51] but I want an executive summary to keep it very simple.

[1:05:54] So going forward, I think it would help not only me but the public if we have an

[1:05:58] executive summary pointing out those distinctives that you've made, whatever those

[1:06:02] might be,

[1:06:04] as simply as possible. I just think it'd help us.

[1:06:06] Yeah.

[1:06:07] In two weeks.

[1:06:08] We will do that.

[1:06:09] Thank you. Appreciate it.

[1:06:11] Okay.

[1:06:13] Yes.

[1:06:14] Since I won't be available for the next meeting, I'll go ahead and let council know

[1:06:18] right now that the talks with the school

[1:06:21] district have gone extremely well. We've got a contract hammered out.

[1:06:25] The last thing is what the dollar amount's actually going to be.

[1:06:29] That's today.

[1:06:30] When we get to that point, it'll go to the school board for vote and approval, and

[1:06:34] then it'll come here for vote and approval.

[1:06:37] The good news is that number, wherever it ends up being, is not

[1:06:41] accounted for in this proposed budget, so that will be extra money

[1:06:45] that goes straight to the building up the general fund

[1:06:47] reserve.

[1:06:50] I thought that they took that position off completely, so I thought it was

[1:06:54] subject to resolve.

[1:06:54] They pay us.

[1:06:56] The school-

[1:06:57] The community service officer is unfunded.

[1:07:00] There is still a school resource officer.

[1:07:02] I'm sorry. I thought they were-

[1:07:03] I want to make sure we use correct terminology.

[1:07:05] The position is the community service officer, which is currently

[1:07:09] unfilled.

[1:07:10] Right.

[1:07:10] And I'm freezing it for a year.

[1:07:12] Okay.

[1:07:13] And give us also breathing room to see what the budget and the actual

[1:07:16] financials look like next year as we go through this

[1:07:20] process once more.

[1:07:21] Very good. So we will get an officer back in the schools, it sounds like.

[1:07:26] Yes.

[1:07:26] Yeah.

[1:07:27] Well, we already have the officer doing the work.

[1:07:31] We're going to be getting funded for it-

[1:07:34] Okay

[1:07:34] ... to some level.

[1:07:35] Okay. Very, very good. Made a turning effort to put that together.

[1:07:40] Great.

[1:07:41] So the other thing that somehow needs to be in this budget, I think, I'll ask

[1:07:45] the council for their thoughts on it, but are we going to try and put something in

[1:07:48] there for the arts council?

[1:07:51] Or is that something that we can have our discretion added in there?

[1:07:55] I think that's a separate item that warrants some additional discussion.

[1:07:58] I think we'd want to hear

[1:08:00] from the council as an agendized item specific to the arts council.

[1:08:04] Actually, that's what I would do.

[1:08:05] Okay, and then the other one that could potentially be an agendized item for

[1:08:09] discussion is continuing to

[1:08:12] do the voucher program for the cats, and seeing what progress has been

[1:08:16] made on that

[1:08:18] front so that we can review whether or not that's something.

[1:08:23] And

[1:08:24] so I believe it was November 7th, I'll have to get the day, of

[1:08:27] 2024 that we agreed to put that probably

[1:08:31] 5,000 with the counties, which I think they don't have into

[1:08:34] that. And then also, too, we're going to have the EDC meeting.

[1:08:39] No EDC meeting? Never mind. We were going to have one.

[1:08:41] No, we're not.

[1:08:42] That's where we're going to discuss the arts commission and-

[1:08:44] Yes, that came from when I was brought up.

[1:08:47] But I think this time let's get this budget initially first.

[1:08:51] So anyway, that's a whole another discussion there at ad hoc committees, I think,

[1:08:54] on both of those two, bring something to council

[1:08:58] to present further on.

[1:09:02] Okay. Are we good? Anything else?

[1:09:05] Okay.

[1:09:06] Thank you, Roberta.

[1:09:07] Thank you.

[1:09:11] So we are now in the city manager verbal report.

[1:09:15] You're on again.

[1:09:16] Thank you, mayor, council members.

[1:09:19] As directed last meeting, I have begun the city manager

[1:09:23] advertising. I put it into three different places,

[1:09:27] and I also contacted our

[1:09:30] representative at League of Cities, and he's available for

[1:09:34] anything that we need

[1:09:37] so far. So I've been reaching out to him to see if we can

[1:09:40] get an interim or some of the help from them.

[1:09:45] We did get the CalRecycle grant that Paul has been trying

[1:09:49] for our dump,

[1:09:51] 750,000.

[1:09:52] Yeah.

[1:09:52] Which is the maximum you can get.

[1:09:55] Yeah.

[1:09:55] So

[1:09:56] however, and Roberta's-

[1:09:58] Still not enough, but-

[1:09:59] No.

[1:09:59] As Roberta's aware,

[1:10:01] it's probably going to be another two years.

[1:10:03] And so, Paul thought we'd budget the difference.

[1:10:07] You might remember the amount. I'm afraid to say it was a million, but it

[1:10:11] was up there.

[1:10:12] It was 1.2 or something.

[1:10:14] All right. So the difference,

[1:10:16] we will be budgeting that in a two-year increment in the budget

[1:10:21] for not sure when that's coming up.

[1:10:24] Yeah.

[1:10:25] And while we're speaking of grants, Jody also received one for

[1:10:29] Literacy Bridges for 25,000.

[1:10:32] And it's mainly for her to go to be trained to

[1:10:37] help assist people with their computer skills.

[1:10:40] Did I get that right?

[1:10:41] Basic adult and digital literacy, yeah.

[1:10:43] Okay. She's going to Alabama. She's pretty excited about that.

[1:10:49] The chief,

[1:10:52] our chief and I were at the ambulance meeting last night.

[1:10:55] There was good discussion, and so was everybody here, with

[1:10:59] Wade not being there.

[1:11:02] And it was a good presentation.

[1:11:05] There's some information that was out that was really important

[1:11:09] for everybody. But it will go back to an ad hoc committee, and they

[1:11:12] will have some further discussion on what to do about

[1:11:16] our ambulance services and the

[1:11:19] accounting. Our next meeting, of course, we'll do the budget.

[1:11:24] Tranquility Place, which is not Tranquility Place.

[1:11:28] I forget what the place is supposed to be. Point. Tranquility Point.

[1:11:33] They will put on a presentation about their new facilities that they're going to

[1:11:36] have on Mayville Road.

[1:11:39] They'll be coming next week. Our next budget for that.

[1:11:42] As I informed Council Member McDermott,

[1:11:46] the EDA will... The EDC will not be meeting because

[1:11:51] we don't have a staff member that can be there, because it needs to be a city

[1:11:55] manager. But I know they were going to talk

[1:11:59] about the welcome to Orland sign, and we can put that on the

[1:12:04] budget, or the meeting for council either next or

[1:12:08] the first meeting in July.

[1:12:11] I believe that's it, unless you have any questions.

[1:12:15] Very good. Thank you.

[1:12:17] Okay. Any seated?

[1:12:19] The only thing I have is, for attending the meeting last night, I'd

[1:12:23] like to be part of the ad hoc committee, if possible, with John.

[1:12:26] Turn on the microphone. With microphone.

[1:12:29] Very good.

[1:12:33] I understand that the ambulance...

[1:12:36] I think the county is going to make the main decision, and then we have the ad hoc

[1:12:40] committee. I'd still like to see,

[1:12:43] as we had discussed earlier, Darren, to revisit

[1:12:46] the funding website.

[1:12:51] Because the information came out of that

[1:12:55] report

[1:12:56] from

[1:12:59] that services company. So I'd like to see that

[1:13:02] sometime

[1:13:04] soon. Thank you.

[1:13:05] Okay. Anyone into a discussion?

[1:13:08] Have you had a break?

[1:13:09] No report.

[1:13:10] Okay. Don?

[1:13:11] No report.

[1:13:12] Okay.

[1:13:14] I think that we've done enough tonight.

[1:13:17] Thank you all for being

[1:13:19] here. Thank you

Orland City Council Meeting | June 2, 2026

Transcript