[0:00] I'm sorry. >> Now I'll call the meeting to order at

[0:04] 7:13 of the melody

[0:08] board of directors on April 14th, 2026. Roll call, please.

[0:15] » Uh, yes. Director Bernstein, >> present.

[0:19] » Director Bloom >> is excused. Absent.

[0:23] » Yes. >> And uh, Director Jones

[0:26] » here. >> Director Solano

[0:28] » here. and director uh Carly >> present.

[0:32] » Thank you. >> Thank you. We have

[0:37] the flag

[0:44] to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it

[0:49] stands one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

[1:03] There are no reportable items from close session which at 703

[1:08] and I'll take I'll open it up now to public comment for items not on the

[1:14] do we have any >> uh we have no hands raised online.

[1:19] » Okay. Um then I'll hold public comment and then we'll go to item one which is

[1:24] the report of the fire department. Thank you director for all the members of the

[1:30] board and of our for our staff and any members of the public that are on. First

[1:34] of all, I'm just gonna quickly introduce SOA who is our interim cler.

[1:43] Um thank you to Nicole for pointing us in RTS's direction. So we will have

[1:49] Denise with us until we have a permanent. Um, with that, I'm going to

[1:54] uh share with you some information that has occurred over the last month in my

[1:58] uh monthly fire chiefs report. First of all, just a quick update on fire station

[2:04] one. The only item of significance on the update is that city of Clark has

[2:09] actually initiated a kickoff meeting on our sequel process. So, that is good.

[2:17] Um, we're looking forward to getting that your way. Quick update on the first

[2:24] minutes and promotions. Our firefighter recruitment is ongoing. We've um already

[2:31] had applicants complete video interviews. We had 292

[2:38] video interviews out of we had 500 applicants. So, the numbers are already

[2:42] shrinking. 292 participated in the video interviews. They each each uh applicant

[2:48] is going to have their video reviewed by three members of our rank and file

[2:53] firefighters, engineers, and captains. Then we're going to

[2:59] file the the scores and take the top 75 to 90%

[3:04] your next step. So that is underway very quickly and I know will share some of

[3:09] this in your presence report. We have our recruitment is ongoing. We had

[3:13] selection interviews today. I think the rest

[3:18] uh just updates on the community engagement community.

[3:24] What's going on? Quite a bit. Um

[3:30] some school group and station tours. Station six with a Girl Scout fourth

[3:35] grade tour. Station two had a rock and event. Station six uh tour with second

[3:42] grade girls scout. Station board visit, Little Angel's preschool visit. Station

[3:48] two, East PaloAlto Primary School Walk to School Day. Station 77 Bell Haven

[3:54] School Career Day. on classes of giving patients. We had

[4:00] lost par educator staff CPR training, EPA center staff CPR training, Sacred

[4:08] Heart Schools, parents hands on CPR training,

[4:12] job trained staff, hands-on hands-on CPR training, and we had a

[4:18] regular monthly CPR Red Cross on stop elite classes. Uh they also assisted

[4:23] with evacuation drill and local business. Uh CIR they completed their

[4:29] latest CR cabinet added 13 more members to clean right

[4:34] » 13 >> 13

[4:36] uh the C team was invited to a presentation for the San Francisco GPA

[4:42] events. Uh they had an East Palato disaster prep

[4:47] workshop and then a very big event, two events actually, Easter events in Memo

[4:52] Park in East Palo Alto. I just share a couple notes from Mike Sony who was our

[5:00] our on duty or our our firefighter coordinator for the just recognizing

[5:05] anyone between the two locations. Uh they estimate that they served

[5:10] approximately 3,000 community members in no product and close to 1500 in East

[5:15] Kawazo. This was our first event in East which is great.

[5:19] » Um it's an incredible day. They distributed over 10,000 eggs. And I

[5:25] just want to recognize some names. Captain Marido,

[5:30] engineerelli, engineer, firefighter Francis Con, and

[5:35] fire fire. really big and instrumental in helping this happen and engineer

[5:41] Wagner who drove whole time around from 10 to 4 non-stop. So also yeah shout out

[5:50] to our two board members that were there director Jones and

[5:55] then also to Heather and for everything we did. We also had quite quite a good

[6:00] presence for our cert members helping out at the event. So really good good

[6:06] way for us to connect with our community.

[6:09] Um fire response analysis report. So just

[6:15] in reviewing that nothing of significance. I will share that we're

[6:20] still working on correcting issues that director Bernstein brought up at the

[6:23] last meeting and that they um the vertical lines on some of those graphs

[6:28] don't match up to the numbers of these. So working on adjust adjusting them

[6:33] over. So, they're in the appropriate spot. Uh, the new new development

[6:37] update, not need to report on this month. Next month, I'm going to actually

[6:40] include a printed out report to bring all the board members up to speed on all

[6:44] the projects that are going on and their status. So, I think that will be helpful

[6:48] and we get some feedback on how often you like to see that. Budget sessions

[6:54] are done, which is why we are going to be talking and sharing with you the

[6:58] first look at our budget tonight. Uh I attended along with Chief Cole and

[7:05] Chief McDonald the Redwood City Bashion on March 25th

[7:09] Easter egg I chatted about. I also had a meeting at the request of the new PA

[7:16] fire chief ste. He came up from Lin in the ranks. uh we

[7:21] sat down and chatted uh just kind of kind of a get to know you thing, but

[7:26] also had some pretty fruitful conversations

[7:29] on trying to reestablish our automatic aid between us and city of Palo Alto.

[7:37] And so already Chief McDonald and Chief Foy have met with the with his one of

[7:44] his number twos over there on how we can start making that work out. We had some

[7:50] I think some technology issues there but I think we can overcome them. The issues

[7:55] related to their staffing have been mostly resolved where they had some

[7:58] stations round up. They they only have one station now where they actually use

[8:03] the engine to cross staff an ambulance. Everybody every other station is fully

[8:07] staffed. And the nice thing all the stations that are immediately adjacent

[8:12] to our district are fully staffed. So uh I'm optimistic that we're going to make

[8:17] some progress on that. Do you have what they were thinking?

[8:22] » No, I don't have a timeline. I I I gave a timeline to

[8:28] my two saying I'd like it at least some papers all by the end of the

[8:32] » Yeah. >> Right. So trying to figure out and we

[8:35] may not have it all the way fixed, but there's got to be a way where we can

[8:39] hack it, so to speak. You know, even if our two computer aated dispatch systems

[8:44] can't talk to each other, there's some old school ways where we can do that. We

[8:48] were actually talking about uh there's the ability for us to decide to share

[8:53] information over tablet command. We both agency use that and that tablet command

[8:58] can also pre-alert us to call. So we have bright minds on that. One one of

[9:03] them is retired chief delay. He works for tablet command now. So, I'm

[9:08] optimistic that we're going to come up with some creative solutions for

[9:12] addressing the niche. Uh, we've got a list of our outstanding

[9:18] staff reports here and then I wanted to share with you briefly some information

[9:23] on our structure fires here.

[9:32] Oh, and before I get to the structure fires, I also wanted to share with um

[9:37] going back to the a little bit on the community engagement update, I just uh

[9:44] Heather shared with me an email from the YCS, the youth community services

[9:51] youth that participated in our shirt training program. And Mora, how do you

[9:57] say Morris's last name? >> Omar. Mora sent us uh some notes from

[10:03] all the students that went through it highlighting some of the things. So I

[10:06] just I have a couple highlighted things I wanted to share here from our youth

[10:10] that went through our search training. One notes he or she said participating

[10:17] in the YCS CERT program has been one of the most impactful experiences of my

[10:21] high school. Through this ter I have learned valuable emergency preparedness

[10:25] and response skills but more importantly I have developed confidence

[10:29] responsibility and stronger commitment to serving my community. Another one

[10:33] says participating in in the youth community service team

[10:39] program has been a transformative experience that redefined my

[10:42] understanding of civic duty. To me, this program is vital because it transforms

[10:47] young people from passive bystanders into active, capable guardians of their

[10:51] neighborhoods. Through YCS, I have learned that community resilience is

[10:54] built on the preparation and empathy of its individual members. So, I just

[10:59] thought that wow articulate

[11:04] » see what I started. >> So, what a good program director Jones

[11:09] and you have some really gifted articulate young members. They're very

[11:14] articulate and they in all the words I can attest to that when they go through

[11:20] the exercises they their eyes just light up. Yeah.

[11:24] » It it really feels like it was impactful and I think in some cases potentially

[11:28] life changing for them to dissipate through the month.

[11:32] » And then just on the u the two incidents we had structure fire on no court on

[11:39] March. bigger incident was a structure fire on the 1200 block at Million Drive

[11:44] and we spent a lot of fun on April 4th. Uh a couple things to note was there was

[11:49] a pretty significant fire. We also had our DFR drone as a first responder unit

[11:56] overhead. It's even noted in here by Chief Stall. But one of the operational

[12:04] strengths he noticed was that DFR2 that's the drone out of station two

[12:09] provided valuable intel confirming a working fire while you were still in

[12:13] route increased their situation awareness for officers while route and

[12:18] the IC the incident commander while he was on scene. Interesting thing is Tom

[12:24] texted me to say it was in route clicked on a little link and actually watched

[12:30] the response. watch truck two lad the roof cut a hole get off. It was u yeah

[12:35] really interesting and fascinating to be able to watch that in real time and then

[12:40] also just you know I know part of our conversation tonight

[12:46] about a mutual aid automatic aid conversation but on that fire there

[12:51] which I think went second alarm we had six additional units besides our own

[12:57] that were sent on automatic a two additional VCs from out of our

[13:00] jurisdiction three engines and one truck to help support that fire. And with

[13:06] that, that concludes my chief control >> question. Chief

[13:11] » Yes, >> on the fire on Chameleia. Uh

[13:15] I I heard there was an explosion, you say? Was there an explosion over there?

[13:20] » I don't have the cause. >> Oh,

[13:23] » but I'll find out if it's been released. >> Yeah, that's good because um that

[13:28] actually happened the day of the their Easter event.

[13:32] » Yeah. So, Yeah. Yeah.

[13:38] So, um people were just wondering. I heard from neighbors that there were

[13:42] cables in it spark, but no one really knows. So, we can just

[13:47] » get some kind of >> I'll let you know. I know it was pretty

[13:51] um impactful >> to the the members that live there

[13:54] negatively and these bow PD reached out to us asking if they if we were aware of

[14:00] any ways we could find some financial help

[14:04] and I know referred them to I don't remember the name

[14:08] » well Red Cross was there >> Red Cross was there

[14:12] » and they were looking at some you know Ed Young

[14:17] financial challenges Also, I know I was hurt, you know,

[14:23] because of those homes over there in that area. They have a lot of knob and

[14:26] tube kind of >> wiring.

[14:29] » Yeah. >> So, if it's that, I think the city need

[14:32] to really try to figure out a way to get get many of those homes taken care of

[14:37] because it's going to happen even more. So,

[14:40] » that's what I've heard from some of the neighbors there. So I don't know if

[14:44] that's true but agree >> with

[14:51] I want to ask two questions about recruitment.

[14:54] » Oh sure we're recruiting now but the academy has

[14:59] to start until next January. Is that right?

[15:01] » Correct. >> What's the rationale for doing it so

[15:05] much earlier than the academy? >> That's a that's a great question. Um the

[15:11] the real explanation is um since we partner with the college of

[15:16] salmon in that in service academy it's actually

[15:20] sponsored by them we get the fire service gets half of the slots in there

[15:25] and then the other half are opened up to the public.

[15:29] In order for us to um fill our half of the slots, we have

[15:35] to have the names of our firefighters ready to submit by

[15:40] » I think it's Julyish somewhere around it.

[15:42] » And that's because that's the application time for the community

[15:45] college for entry into that. So it accelerates every agency that's

[15:51] interested in that January 2027 academy. It accelerates everybody's process. We

[15:57] have to have agents that are But do we expect then to have to lose a

[16:03] lot of them? >> I don't expect so. The nice the nice

[16:06] thing is, you know, if people are interested in Sanonteo County,

[16:09] everybody's in the same boat as us and the the timeline's similar. So, we don't

[16:14] think so. And we'll see.

[16:18] » The other question I had, I I'm not asking this in any critical way, but I'm

[16:23] a little bit surprised when you said video interviews.

[16:27] One of the things that I know that they've been trying to do in recruit so

[16:31] forth is make it somehow

[16:38] blind towards you know color natural national origin all those kinds of

[16:44] things and obviously in the video interview it's going to be immediate not

[16:50] absolutely but to some extent it's apparent people's backgrounds for better

[16:54] or worse Um, have you discussed this or is this has

[16:59] this been an issue that you debated or >> It's interesting. We we haven't

[17:03] discussed the idea of just an audio interview and what that might look like.

[17:06] Obviously, when you get to inerson interviews, you can't hide people's

[17:11] ethnicity or gender. Um, I will say the the purpose of the video interview

[17:15] process is many departments around here,

[17:21] actually, I don't know of anyone that is up here that's doing it right now. And

[17:24] so, they go to the the testing group and ask

[17:29] for the let's say they want to do 70 interviews, inerson interviews, they'll

[17:33] ask for the top 70 highest scores on the written exam and they'll take those and

[17:41] um there is when you take everybody that's got a 95

[17:45] or above on the written exam, it very much causes artificial barriers that are

[17:50] based on often times, you know, your your background, your ethic, ethnicity,

[17:55] your economic background, so your education.

[17:59] » Yeah. All all of those things. And so we have purposefully

[18:04] said that all we needed to do is pass the written test and every everyone out

[18:09] of the 500 people that submitted applications. If you passed it, you got

[18:13] a video. So you had an opportunity at least to

[18:17] um share your story. They're very short. uh and but people aren't allowed to

[18:22] share their names uh on there. They have to have

[18:26] non-escript backgrounds, no any nothing that identifies them or connects them

[18:31] with the agency. Uh but that way we're not creating um any kind of artificial

[18:37] barriers and gives us the opportunity for all 500 candidates potentially to

[18:42] have an opportunity to share, you know, answers. I think it's three or four

[18:46] questions. >> Okay. Yeah, that was amazing because I

[18:48] was concerned about it, but I just people are trying to figure out better

[18:52] ways of doing all this. >> Yeah. But ultimately, we're gonna we're

[18:55] gonna see the candidates in person. >> So, what happened between the 500 you

[19:00] had in hand and then the 300 who showed up for the 200 just say no, they don't

[19:05] want to. >> Yeah. My my guess is some just decided

[19:09] they didn't want to do it. Some weren't able to get to the testing facility and

[19:14] take the test or didn't pass the test. some couldn't get their CPAT, the Cyrus

[19:21] California physical agid physical agility tested. So there's a number of

[19:26] things. So that we kind of anticipated we'd have a lower number which is

[19:29] helpful for us. So we don't have 500 video interviews to review, but that's

[19:34] not a surprising. >> And remind me at the end you want six to

[19:40] fill six positions. Is that >> four positions?

[19:42] » Four. >> And we will so

[19:46] they, you know, we'll have the in-person interviews. They're going to see two

[19:50] panels. Each person is going to see a panel with three people on two or two

[19:54] different panels. And then the top, let's say 16 scores,

[19:59] we'll kind of coil myself up and do selection interview. And then we'll

[20:04] yeah, we'll have some alternates also in case somebody doesn't stick with four

[20:09] people finalists in a sense. Yes. >> Okay.

[20:15] » And we might potentially even hire more than one class on this list. Yeah.

[20:19] Sometime we could use this list. Yeah.

[20:24] » Any other questions or comments?

[20:32] » Just back. Francine was looking at the fire report. The fire was an electrical

[20:37] fire. somebody heard a big I don't know if that means an arc or transformer or

[20:42] something >> cable anyway

[20:46] » I know we had some power line issues in the backyard that were safety concern

[20:50] sounds like that was the cause >> okay we'll move on to the consent

[21:04] » go ahead >> I I just want to get back to you what

[21:08] scenes here is in terms of finding out about the if it's electrical

[21:14] it should anyone go to public works department or or is that a followup

[21:20] something that the fire department does? >> I'll check with fire prevention and see

[21:24] if they follow up if there was something unusual about it.

[21:27] » Yeah. >> Yeah. It's it's I mean that's obviously

[21:30] a very generic electrical issue. So if it was related to

[21:36] you know old wiring like you said the knob and tube or just I don't know if

[21:40] they have it narrow down to a specific issue.

[21:42] » Yeah but I'll check let me know if you >> sure

[21:47] » okay is there a motion to approve the consent

[21:51] » move second. It has been moved by director and seconded by directors. Any

[21:59] » I'm sorry.

[22:04] » Okay. Um any discussion? Not roll please.

[22:09] » Uh yes. Director Bernstein. >> I.

[22:12] » Director Jones. >> I.

[22:14] » Director Solano. >> Hi.

[22:16] » Director Cwley. >> I.

[22:18] » Thank you. Motion carries. >> Motion carries. And we'll move on to the

[22:22] regular agenda item number four which is adopt the resolution declaring seasonal

[22:28] fees a public thing.

[22:31] » I will handle this and we've got fire marshal twice on the line if we call my

[22:38] friend but this is an annual uh item that we bring before the board prefire

[22:44] season every year to declare a number of particles as nuisances. And there's a

[22:50] list attached. And with that, I will open questions. And if there aren't any

[22:56] board set to report and adopt a resolution those

[23:07] » is he on

[23:11] there's no question >> any question

[23:17] every jurisdiction

[23:24] Please speak. >> Is there a second?

[23:28] » Oh, sorry. >> Moved by director and seconded by

[23:33] director B. Any discussion? Okay. Then all we just do all in favor

[23:40] to do a roll call. >> Uh, you could do roll call.

[23:44] » Roll call. Yeah. >> Director um, Director Bernstein.

[23:48] » Hi. >> Director Jones.

[23:50] » Hi. >> Director Salano.

[23:52] » Hi. Director Crowley, >> I motion carries.

[23:59] » Moving on to item five. >> Sure.

[24:02] » This is just a technical question here. We skipped over it too fast. I'm not

[24:07] going to discuss anything, but I just want to point out that in my

[24:12] packet, >> there was this

[24:16] » page, >> pardon me,

[24:18] » page. Um, if you look at going back to the

[24:22] » 84, >> no, the monthly report, the fire

[24:26] marshals report, the packet jumped from page 16 to 22.

[24:32] And I want to see if I missed something from the packet 16 to 22.

[24:38] » Page 16. >> I had page 86.

[24:44] » 16. >> Oh.

[24:45] » Oh, yeah. You did. Yeah. And then >> did your I just want to make sure I

[24:50] didn't miss some pages that were essential.

[24:54] » Yeah, maybe. >> Oh, I see. You see what happened on page

[24:59] if you clip mine is print on both sides. I got 22 on one sides, 16 on the other

[25:05] side. So, I had to reverse it and clip it in here. So,

[25:10] » but that's why I saying there's no 17, 18, 19, 20, 21. I just want to be sure I

[25:14] haven't missed

[25:21] Yeah.

[25:28] » Yeah. >> Oh, this is from Okay. I think this

[25:38] » Well, normally they have a packet number. So,

[25:43] » I I think >> but yours is the same as mine.

[25:45] » Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I think what happened was that the four minutes were

[25:50] from the previous agenda which also says agenda item number 285 page which may

[25:56] have been page 22 in the previous agenda package. That's how I

[26:00] » but there was no page 16 anywhere.

[26:06] » There's nothing missing. It's just missing.

[26:09] » The temporary bumps that we have is what transition

[26:12] » effects. Okay. I'm sorry. Not >> no.

[26:17] Yeah, I've noticed. >> That's a legitimate question.

[26:20] » Not sure.

[26:24] » Okay, you're ready. Are we ready for item five?

[26:27] » Yes. I will this up and hand it over to Elaine.

[26:31] » This is to review and discuss the district's fiscal year 2627 preliminary

[26:36] budget and fulltime equivalent staffing level chief. So, and we're not we're not

[26:41] asking for the board to decide anything tonight. You know, we this is going back

[26:45] a couple years. The desire for the board to get eyes on the budget, the proposed

[26:50] budget and the draft budget earlier. Um and so over the course of our budget

[26:55] process, the board and in combination with committees has been have an

[26:59] opportunity to see the budget five times. Two at the finance committee and

[27:04] three at the board. And so this was um last Tuesday reviewed uh in depth by the

[27:13] finance committee. Um I think we went an hour and 45 minutes in the committee

[27:19] meeting to >> go through a lot of the details of that.

[27:22] So and the finance committee has recommended moving it forward to the

[27:27] board for review. And with that I'm going to turn it over our fiscal wiz.

[27:33] » Thank you chief. Uh so good evening director everyone. So as the chief

[27:37] mentioned uh this is just a preliminary budget that we're presenting at tonight.

[27:42] There's no action that needed to be taken. So I'm just going to uh give an

[27:48] overview or background you know how we came up with the budget just an over

[27:51] overview of the process in itself. So we started the budget process around

[27:55] November of last year. So what we did uh was we rolled you know forward uh our

[28:01] current year's budget and then we actually included all of the information

[28:05] that's needed for the program managers to actually uh come up with their budget

[28:09] with the proposed budget. So we have their current budget uh they also have

[28:13] like historical information of actual numbers that uh that came up like past

[28:19] like you know fiscal years. So with that um once we set it up in our system you

[28:24] know we sent you know all of those you know um uh black template proposals to

[28:29] the program managers uh to the division chief of flaw in December like early

[28:33] December as soon as December one and we gave them about two months uh to

[28:37] actually prepare their budget like put the numbers on it like uh give like some

[28:42] sort of description uh for the new requests or if there's uh no change you

[28:47] know explain why there's no change and things like that and uh in February and

[28:52] March as the chief mentioned we did a lot of budget sessions uh with you know

[28:56] the executive you know leadership I think we did at least uh six or seven um

[29:01] so what we did is you know each program uh we went line by line uh we determined

[29:07] uh the budget you know for each line item you know we discussed you know what

[29:10] would be appropriate for that line item budget uh we took a look at you know all

[29:14] the descriptions all the um uh justifications if there are new uh

[29:19] request, you know, for the next fiscal year. And then we also analyze

[29:23] historically information what the actuals are to determine whether or not,

[29:26] you know, what they're proposing is reasonable. Um, so it's very extensive.

[29:30] Um, we did that, you know, for all of the programs. Um, and then of course,

[29:35] you know, we came with we summarized everything and then now that's, you

[29:40] know, the packet that's, you know, in your hands. Um, and if you turn on page

[29:44] 190 of the packet, that's actually the last page of the packet.

[29:50] So that's attachment C. So this is just to show you the budget adoption

[29:54] timeline. I think the chief brick mentioned this as well, you know,

[29:58] earlier. So for the April meetings, um, this is really just, you know, a review

[30:03] and discussion of, uh, again the preliminary budget, the action that's

[30:09] needed to be taken on the main meetings. um we're going to present it again, you

[30:13] know, to the finance community. Um if there are any comments or any like

[30:18] suggestions that, you know, we think that, you know, it's appropriate to

[30:20] actually change in our budget. We're going to present it again to the finance

[30:23] community and then in the main meeting for the pool board, uh that's where

[30:27] we're going to adopt a preliminary budget. Um so again, that's preliminary.

[30:32] Um and then by the June by June, uh we're again we're going to present it

[30:37] to, you know, the finance committee. Um again if there are any changes like any

[30:42] final changes with the budget and then for the full board in June that's going

[30:46] to be the final adoption. So that's just you know an overview of um the adoption

[30:51] timeline for our fiscal year 67 uh project.

[30:57] So now um I'm going to go over the staff report. Um I'm not going to go over each

[31:02] of the page and each of the the languages here, but uh we're going to

[31:05] focus on things that I think are important to highlight. So if you turn

[31:11] on page uh 96 of the packet.

[31:19] So 96 of the packet. So this is something new uh this you know fiscal

[31:23] year. So what you know I did or what we did is we tried to actually uh uh put

[31:29] some commentaries or narratives on you know what actually affected what are the

[31:34] things that are needed to be considered in you know the whole budget process. So

[31:38] it start from page 9 page 99 the first one on there is no tariffs and

[31:44] inflationary environment which everyone is aware. So even with the um Supreme

[31:48] Court decision there are still some tariffs that actually are not going away

[31:52] and there are actually new ones. So we try to incorporate you know uh like any

[31:57] increases potential increases you know for you know uh the inflationary

[32:01] environment with the tariffs. Uh the second one on page 96 question. Sure.

[32:09] The discussion was really good by the way that the the tariffs fall on

[32:13] imported things when we're doing construction. Haven't we kind of

[32:17] specified that we need to buy American stuff wherever possible?

[32:23] uh that one uh I'm not sure if there is already a discussion of whether or not

[32:27] it's you know a choice or it's required for us to actually uh buy American steel

[32:33] or uh for constructions that one I'm not quite sure I don't think we did have any

[32:39] discussion on that uh but I think with uh all of the things that's going on

[32:45] right now with all the uncertainties um I think it's you know apparent that you

[32:50] know we have to set aside like contingencies or like plan for like

[32:54] things that we can't really control of. But uh with your question Dr. Bing, uh

[32:59] that one I can't really answer. Maybe that's going to be a future discussion

[33:03] once we go into the actual construction phase. Uh and then probably that has

[33:12] » I think normal construction >> the market for steel for example is also

[33:16] could be looked at as a worldwide market. So prices in one place affect

[33:20] prices in another. But I thought the discussions were really good by the way.

[33:24] So but I was just curious how much we think these kind of things are really

[33:29] going to affect our construction costs. >> I think the steel is going to be the

[33:33] main >> because we're going to be using a lot of

[33:35] steel >> supply.

[33:40] I think we'll definitely check in with John Chief and then maybe you know we'll

[33:44] probably have a separate discussion on that um as we go through you know the

[33:48] process of this uh station one regular check. Um then the next one is of course

[33:54] you know uh interest rate environment. So this is more uh related to the

[34:00] revenues that we're going to receive for uh interest uh right. So, uh I think

[34:06] there's going to be right now the average expectation is there's going to

[34:10] be uh another cut interest rate cut for 2026 and another rate cut in 2027. But

[34:16] with again with all the things that's happening right now with the geopolit

[34:20] political like you know conflicts and such you know uh uh inflation and you

[34:25] know the job market you know we don't know exactly what's going to happen. um

[34:29] even like a year before like you know we're expecting you know the interest

[34:32] rate to have I mean the cuts to be like you know more than like two or three but

[34:35] now uh we don't know I mean right now it's just like one I think later this

[34:40] year and then another one for the next fiscal year so this is really going to

[34:44] affect you know our uh investment revenue although it won't the impact

[34:52] won't be that significant because even if you know there's going to be rate

[34:56] cuts uh so we're anticipating less revenues But we're also anticipating

[34:59] like inflows of cash. So it's going to probably offset uh the increase in the

[35:05] investment balance probably going to offset with you know the decrease in you

[35:09] know the interest rate cuts. And this is you know again just going to be like you

[35:13] know some sort of heads up you know we're not really going to have this

[35:16] interest rate environment for the next like five years. So in the next you know

[35:20] future years when we do our budget of course we're really cautious and

[35:23] cognizant of you know what the interest rate would be and then we're going to

[35:26] give you know the board a heads up because you know you might probably like

[35:30] you know uh notice that you know oh why do we have last year we have $6 million

[35:34] of interest you know right now we only have $3 million. So this is just to set

[35:38] you know uh expectations I guess but you know for the next fiscal year you know

[35:44] we you know uh incorporated uh I'm going to discuss this more when we go through

[35:50] you know the revenue budget especially for the use of money and property but we

[35:54] incorporated this you know rate cuts you know to our budget.

[35:59] Uh the next one um uh real estate market. Um this is always

[36:06] going to be you know uh one of the key budget considerations you know for the

[36:10] district. Uh because I think 90% of our uh revenue budget actually is property

[36:17] taxes or property taxes. I mean so for real estate market you know we there's

[36:23] uh overall there's still you know some you know uh slow down or pulling with

[36:27] you know uh the interest rate I don't know there's the real estate you know uh

[36:32] market but relatively on average is still you know stable and you know

[36:36] strong so I think for the next fiscal year at least for the uh assessed role

[36:42] right now for the district um I think we're anticipating about 3.7% in the

[36:47] assessed role But that doesn't mean that that's the same amount of percentage

[36:52] increase that we're going to receive for our revenues. It's just a good indicator

[36:56] of you know what we're going to receive for the next fiscal year. It's not a one

[36:59] is to one uh but at least gives us an idea of you know maybe like you know

[37:03] we'll get about like 3.7% or even higher when we actually receive our actually

[37:07] property tax revenues. Um the next one on page 98

[37:15] uh the Genentech uh property tax uh settlement. So this was briefly uh

[37:21] discussed uh or at least uh mentioned in the last board meeting as well. So in

[37:25] February we received a notice from county you know uh Sato that you know

[37:30] there is going to be an adjustment with you know our you know property tax you

[37:34] know revenues for the upcoming you know fiscal year. Um, and it's mostly uh

[37:40] unsecured, you know, property taxes. So, uh, right now the effect of that is

[37:46] about $469,000 uh, refund. Uh, so, uh, it's a reduction

[37:52] of our property tax, you know, revenue for, you know, the next fiscal year. So

[37:56] in general what I got from the county is you know any adjustments with you know

[38:00] the assessed roles uh due to like you know things like this like property tax

[38:05] disputes you know settlements it's going to affect the countywide you know

[38:09] revenue proportionally so as it's going to reduce the countywide revenue

[38:13] proportionally um we will also get that you know particular share based on you

[38:18] know the ADA you know allocation so and this is only for tax years 2005 to 2000

[38:25] uh uh I think it's for 6 years 2000 to 2005. Um so uh our share is about

[38:31] $469,000 including the interest already. It may change it may uh increase or

[38:37] decrease depending on where they when depending on when they actually um uh

[38:42] send uh us the money or settle the actual you know um funds you know to uh

[38:49] Genet. But it's probably going to be in the November and this or October and

[38:54] November um uh aortionment for the next visit here.

[38:59] And I think in the uh narrative I also mentioned that um

[39:06] there is still like disputes ongoing for the succeeding years. So right now the

[39:12] ones in review are from 2006 to 20 you know uh 18 and the county is estimating

[39:17] about 4 to5 million plus interest. So given that amount um if it's also

[39:25] proportional to the first you know round of you know the tax settlements we're

[39:30] probably going to be expecting another reduction about maybe I I would I mean

[39:34] I'm just you know guessing based on you know uh the numbers here uh with

[39:38] interest I would assume maybe around $150 to $160,000 in the upcoming years.

[39:45] So when are we going to know that? >> Um that director Kerali I'm not sure

[39:50] because again it's still under review. Um they're saying it's going to be in

[39:54] one to two years uh the settlement in itself. So we might expect you know uh

[39:59] more like information from them in about like two years I would say.

[40:04] So, uh, Elaine, I think I missed the first time we talked last week, but are

[40:10] we talking about for the district, we have a total obligation of $468,000?

[40:16] » Correct. That's correct. >> With a annual um payout back or rebate

[40:21] to to the county of aboutund will be it would be proportion every

[40:27] year. >> Oh, it's not every year, director uh

[40:30] Jones. So this one in particular since it's already kind of like resolved. Uh

[40:34] so the dispute was already you know um resolved. So this is kind of like I

[40:39] wouldn't really say one time but it's the whole uh dispute is you know one

[40:45] thing right but they're they're doing it in peace mill basis. So this one in

[40:49] particular is just from 2000 to 2005. Uh so that's one piece and then from 2006

[40:55] to 2024 we don't know yet. >> Okay. Uh but right now I think from 2006

[41:00] to 2018 that's the one that they're currently under review and that's you

[41:04] know the one that I mentioned probably will you know have another like you know

[41:08] refund or deduction for a property tax revenue of about 150 160k just based on

[41:13] my uh own estimates. >> Yeah.

[41:18] » Hey lane did the county did the assessor's office say how they're going

[41:22] to communicate this this has been going on for a long time. when I first got on

[41:27] the board, I think that's when the appeal happened and there was no

[41:31] communication from them and then all of a sudden there's this, right? So it

[41:35] shouldn't, I guess, be that much of a surprise, but you know, I mean, at least

[41:41] we can kind of absorb some of these, >> right?

[41:46] » I'm just thinking there are other pieces that can't, but I mean, are they have

[41:52] you given them feedback like how that they need to communicate this a little

[41:56] more regularly to us? Yeah, we haven't gotten any um news or any communication

[42:01] whether or not it's going to be more frequent. But you know what um we did on

[42:06] our end at least is because at the end I think you're right, directly correct

[42:10] because you know we were actually surprised you know oh it's settled right

[42:13] February we received the notice then we have to plan for it like right away uh

[42:18] during the budget cycle pretty much because it's already budget cycle. Um

[42:22] I'm not sure if you know they're going to have like you know uh improvements on

[42:27] you know communications or at least like do it more frequently. But again on our

[42:31] end I think what we're doing right now is you know we're I mean we're trying to

[42:34] contact you know the county to see you know who actually is responsible you

[42:37] know for like you know this you know assessments or this you know reviews. So

[42:41] I actually got a contact you know from the assessor's office and you know I

[42:45] think he or she is the one uh responsible for um uh or to contact

[42:51] point of contact for like you know ask if we have like any questions you know

[42:54] in regard to this you know dispute or tax you know settlement. Um so that's I

[43:00] think you know our solution is to just reach out uh

[43:05] frequently you know um to them and see you know if there are any updates

[43:10] because I'm not sure if you know there is going to be more um if they are going

[43:15] to take you know more initiative on you know letting you know all the agencies

[43:19] you know within the county that you know this is ongoing and there's you know

[43:23] constant updates. um that one you know I can't really tell but on our end you

[43:28] know we're trying to be as you know uh proactive as well

[43:32] uh to you know just reach out to them at least you know without contacting a

[43:36] person you know from the county now who can probably you know uh um answer you

[43:42] know some of our questions if ever >> I just want to follow up on that the

[43:48] major loser in this is going to be the county itself and I'm wondering how that

[43:53] might affect affect our district in terms of funding that we get from the

[43:58] the county and so forth. I'm talking about the cost of dispatch and all those

[44:02] kinds of things that's going to have to be cuts

[44:04] » any other services. >> Yeah, I I I don't know the exact

[44:07] percentage, but it it could hit $15 billion just for the county or something

[44:11] like that. Have you heard any talk or anything

[44:15] about how this might affect county services?

[44:18] » Uh no. um we haven't you know uh really have much information on whether or not

[44:24] you know uh it's going to affect us when it comes to you know to those type of

[44:27] services but I think you know from based on you know the actual letter the

[44:33] agencies that actually got hit the most are the school districts so the two

[44:38] school districts are a million dollars >> let me say that that also then I expect

[44:44] is going to come back and affect the Yes. I mean, it's all inter all

[44:50] interrelated for sure. >> Yeah. I think you know that's why I

[44:54] think you know on our share like we have about like 51 or $52,000 the refund on

[44:59] the ERP you know out of the $469,000. So uh in terms of you know actual

[45:06] services um we don't know what's the effect uh on us yet. Uh but you know I

[45:13] mean if we're gonna anticipate any you know um cuts you know for services like

[45:18] for dispatch I think that's probably going to be an even a bigger disc or a

[45:22] separate discussion with you know the county when you know it's you know time

[45:27] to actually you know do that. I know um dispatch services has always been you

[45:32] know a topic of discussion you know for for us and you know for all other you

[45:37] know fire districts as well. But it's going to affect the ambulance stuff as

[45:40] well. >> I think the bigger revenue issue for the

[45:44] county right now is related to the vehicle license.

[45:46] » Yeah. Yeah. But that only affects mainly the cities,

[45:49] » cities and counties. >> Yeah. It's not going to affect the

[45:52] school districts or the um the the special districts,

[45:56] » but the short for the county and Yeah. >> Yeah. for the services. Yeah.

[46:01] » My county is going to be looking for >> that gap.

[46:06] » I mean, we Yeah. Anyway, that's a different discussion which I think we

[46:10] probably need to have at some point. >> Yeah. And then uh the next one would be

[46:16] uh geopolitical conflict. So this one we kind of like know already and this

[46:21] really affects you know our you know gas you know fuel and um compressed you know

[46:26] um oil like you know uh budgets. Uh the next one on page uh 99 uh pension

[46:35] obligations. you know, I put this here. I think it this is kind of like some

[46:39] sort of a reminder as well. I know we actually adopted, you know, pension

[46:43] funding policy, but you know, we continue to be uh wary and cautious

[46:47] with, you know, our pension obligations. So, even with, you know, our um UI, you

[46:53] know, uh funding, you know, uh policy that, you know, we adopted a couple of

[46:58] years ago, uh I think, you know, we started to actually reap the benefits of

[47:02] it. You know, I'm going to discuss it later with the retirement, you know,

[47:05] budget. uh but this is I mean 2697 is going to

[47:09] be the third year uh of the implementation for the virtual or strong

[47:14] pressure you know policy that we did or that the board adopted a couple years

[47:18] back. Then last one would be the fire station one. This is going to be an

[47:21] ongoing one until we actually complete the project. Now the reason it's here is

[47:26] because of course you this is a huge project. So we're trying to balance you

[47:29] know our operating needs and capital needs.

[47:32] So uh we're trying to like you look into our options and as director uh Bernstein

[47:36] had mentioned as well earlier you know about the costs you know there's going

[47:40] to be a lot of you know uh projections on that and considerations when it comes

[47:44] to investigation project >> I think the optimum uh sentence

[47:51] uh I'm sure everybody read it was in the one through third paragraph and it's

[47:55] about the third line down and start about uh it says that this proactive

[48:00] reserve strategy strategy support major infrastructure investment. I think

[48:05] that's to me that's we we really need to keep our eye on uh what we can do to try

[48:11] to increase that because there there will be increase in cost just because of

[48:16] inflation just because of what >> cost of supplies

[48:20] » supplies and the whole thing. So we just need to keep an eye on on that and I'm

[48:24] sure Alan gonna let us keep >> Yeah, I think uh that's a good point

[48:28] director Jones. Second thing what we're doing at least on our budget process is

[48:31] you know uh every time we do the budget we uh I think we're lucky that you know

[48:36] every year when we do the budget you know we have uh an excess like you know

[48:40] uh revenue over you know our expenditures um I think right now an

[48:45] average is about like $20 million like you know every year or more depends on

[48:49] the savings and we'll know more once you know of course you know when we you know

[48:53] we have our reconciled you know balances at year end uh but you know what we're

[48:58] doing you on our on the budgetary perspective is you know for example for

[49:03] that $20 million right you know a part of it you know let's say four or $5

[49:07] million you know would be you know allocated to the current year's you know

[49:11] project current year projects IP projects and then the rest we keep as a

[49:15] reserve so um to your point uh director Jones you know we are doing that um

[49:21] during the be the beginning of the year and then at the end of the year as well

[49:25] when we know uh basically analyze and reconcile what the actual savings would

[49:30] be and it depends on you know the fun balance reserve policy that we have then

[49:35] you know we're allocating into the different reserve categories and that

[49:38] includes you know uh CIS

[49:44] then um so that's you know again that's the fiscal environment you know that's

[49:48] you know the project considerations you know that you know uh we you know

[49:52] tackled you know during you know the old you know budget process so they'll go

[49:56] over now with you know each you know, >> before you leave the general things, I

[50:01] was going to ask about our contracts with with um the state and federal

[50:07] governments for when when we're called up and so forth. Is there are there

[50:12] adjustments for fuel prices changes and things like that? And those are is that

[50:17] a fixed cost and we just eat the the higher cost of fuel

[50:22] » there? Uh I think the chief is part of you know but there is a rate letter

[50:28] » uh there are adjustments you know every year uh for um uh for I think for the

[50:35] vehicles right chief you know for um >> mainten

[50:45] state and US force but they do make adjustments in in theory

[50:51] Um, when we're on the incident, we get fuel for free from the incident. Our our

[50:59] travel from home to the incident is in theory on us, right? So, no

[51:05] reimbursement for getting there. The um, interestingly enough, that they

[51:10] reimburse us at the FEMA for the FE the FEMA vehicle rates per

[51:15] hour, and in theory, the FEMA rates are a wet rate that include the cost of

[51:19] fuel. So, we nice nicely enough actually get

[51:25] kind of double reimburseed, right? They're giving us a FEMA rate that in

[51:29] theory includes fuel plus they actually fill up our vehicles while we're at the

[51:33] fire. So, fuel cost should be almost fully covered except

[51:39] » travel to >> uh I think I think the FEMA I'm not

[51:43] super familiar with how how FEMA reimburses us, but I think our fuel

[51:47] costs are all covered. It's all it's all reimbured as long as it's approved. Um

[51:53] it's it's there's a form pretty much for FEMA as well. For Calia's side, um we

[51:58] have the ICS 213. So if it's on there, then you know we're going to get reverse

[52:02] for that. Same thing with you know um FEMA. So for FEMA, it's almost as if you

[52:06] know we get 100% reimburse for any uh expense renewal related you know uh for

[52:12] I mean deployment related expenses including uh fuel.

[52:17] Let me just ask what we're talking about that

[52:20] you're saying that when we take an engine or a truck down to Los Angeles,

[52:26] say we pay the cost of getting there. We pay the cost of getting back.

[52:32] We we pay for fuel to go there. The we're also at the same time getting

[52:39] reimbursed an hourly rate for driving our type one engines there. That's I'm

[52:44] just gonna say for the sake of conversation is $200 an hour. And in

[52:48] that $200 an hour rate that they pay us includes the cost of fuel.

[52:54] » And does that rate also include for example the depreciation on the vehicle?

[53:00] » Depreciation maintenance annual maintenance etc.

[53:04] » Okay. Thank you.

[53:08] uh ask some questions under topic areas.

[53:15] » Oh, are we wait till we get there?

[53:18] » Well, I'm asking which >> uh which topic

[53:23] » uh tactic tactical medics >> uh maybe um I can go over uh

[53:29] » I thought you were done with the others. >> Oh, okay.

[53:32] » Can we continue with that? You got 10 more question.

[53:37] » Uh, it says here that there four law enforcement SWAT teams.

[53:45] » Oh, I'm sorry. 165.

[53:54] want to start basically on page 100 right now

[54:00] the specific spreadsheets charts. Yeah, I think um we can go over like you know

[54:06] uh the next few pages and then if there are questions along the way and then you

[54:11] know if we actually don't go through this in specific

[54:16] then we can yeah then we can have the questions you know

[54:20] » our our intent is not to go through each and every program but

[54:24] » after yeah's done if you have questions that you have

[54:29] I think I just want to make Sure.

[54:34] » Okay. You want to start You want to go and start on the general funary budget

[54:38] summary. >> Uh so if you turn on page 100 uh of the

[54:43] packet. So the general fund preliminary budget you know uh summary. So um

[54:48] overall um our revenue budget is 101. It's on the third from the last column.

[54:54] Uh $101.7 million. is our expenditure budget for

[54:59] the general fund is $81.9 million and then the excess uh is about $19.8

[55:06] million and that's operating transfer out that you see there. Uh that's um uh

[55:12] the transfer out with the CIP fund which I mentioned earlier director Jones is

[55:16] going to fund you know the current CIP budget or expenses plus you know the

[55:20] rest is going to be you know put on the resource. So uh I think overall the b

[55:25] the balance is uh the budget is balanced uh meaning the our anticipated revenues

[55:29] are greater than you know our uh expenditures or greater than or equal to

[55:33] our expenditures and you know uh transfers. So um for revenues um on page

[55:40] eight uh which is on page 102 of the packet.

[55:47] So the table there again as I mentioned um it's $101.7 million uh which is about

[55:53] 6.5 million or 6.8% increase uh from you know the prior year uh prior year's you

[56:00] know budget uh property taxes uh again it's comprised about 90 90% of you know

[56:06] the proposed budget. So I'm not again going to go over each of you know the

[56:11] line items here but I just want to reiterate that you know with you know

[56:14] our budget you know process for you know property taxes we consider you know the

[56:18] $469,000 refund from you know the gen property

[56:22] taxes um so if you go on page um 108

[56:33] uh so I wanted to actually again discuss you know the use of money and property

[56:38] uh again as I mentioned earlier we considered you know the interest rate

[56:43] environment. So what we did here is um so right now we have two um uh we have

[56:50] two major portfolios right now for investment one is you know our liquid

[56:54] portfolio and then the other one is our core portfolio. So for our fourth

[56:59] portfolio portfolio we actually budgeted about 4%

[57:04] um for the interest rate and that is because I mean if you would notice 4% is

[57:08] actually higher than you know the current you know interest you know rate

[57:12] right now which is 3.575%. But the reason why we actually have 4%

[57:17] is because 4% is the current yield uh yield cost. uh right now what it means

[57:25] is you know um if we actually uh keep everything at maturity that's the amount

[57:31] of you know um interest you know person in percentage wide that that that we're

[57:36] going to get and it's higher because you know we're pretty much locked in into

[57:40] those rates because we did not just you know put you know those investments

[57:44] right now when the interest uh rate you know was low we actually have you know

[57:49] um investments like you know two to three years back when we actually, you

[57:53] know, uh we were able to actually lock in, you know, those, you know, better

[57:56] rates. That's why you see that right now it's at 4%. But for our liquid

[58:00] portfolio, um we budgeted uh 3%. So, we want to be a little conservative on this

[58:05] one. Although, um right now, um the current rate, um our interest rate right

[58:12] now for a liquid portfolio is about 3.7%, 3.7 to 3.8%.

[58:17] Um we actually budget I just >> yes that's correct that's correct that's

[58:23] late at our camp um it's about 3.7 3.8 you know percent uh we budgeted 3% again

[58:30] because of you know uh two anticipated rate cuts within the fiscal year um so

[58:34] we decided to go with you know 3%. And I think that's uh all I wanted to

[58:41] actually emphasize for you is the revenue budget. So if we can go to the

[58:46] general, you know, uh expenditure budget. Well, wait. Can I can I just And

[58:51] I don't know where the right place is to bring this up, but um just to be on the

[58:57] lookout and I'm not gonna say too much about this because I think the chief

[59:01] might talk to you, but I was at the CSDA legislative day and one of the proposed

[59:06] legislation talks about local or talked about local revenue and blade in the

[59:12] community's community reinvestment fund that um that would require the state

[59:16] treasur to set aside 5 to 10% of the funds in Lif were deposited into a

[59:22] community reinvestment account quote unquote and then so I mean I can so just

[59:28] to be aware of that um that you know

[59:35] » well let me read this is how they the legislature proposal has defined it

[59:40] funds so deposited to be used as a c quote a catalyst for small business

[59:45] lending firsttime home ownership and community reinvestment connected to

[59:50] measurable community lending performance while prioritizing safety liquidity and

[59:56] unquote. So, and there's a separate risk controls, liquidity thresholds, etc. But

[1:00:02] the point isn't that I'm just giving you a heads up that we should be on the

[1:00:07] lookout if we want to take more money out and that's something that the board

[1:00:11] has to decide, but something that we need to research or keep an eye on.

[1:00:15] » Yeah, definitely. I think you know what we're doing right now even you know in

[1:00:18] general with the investment portfolio we're trying to actually you know even

[1:00:22] even if we're doing I think we're pretty doing doing pretty well with our

[1:00:26] investment portfolio right now what you know we've been doing is we're

[1:00:29] constantly trying to actually look for you know opportunities not just with you

[1:00:32] know our >> uh core portfolio because you know

[1:00:35] that's managed by PFM but you know with our liquid portfolio director Kerali you

[1:00:38] know we have you know other options that we're looking into we have la we have

[1:00:43] you know cab we also have actually met with you know uh two other um LGIP

[1:00:49] providers I think in the last couple of weeks just to see what's out there um

[1:00:53] other options you know that we may have eventually doesn't mean that you know

[1:00:57] we're going to you know jump onto it like right away uh but at least like we

[1:01:01] know uh what what's out there and then we can act you know pretty quickly when

[1:01:05] we need it. So uh thank you director for mentioning that. I'll definitely take a

[1:01:09] look at that and see. >> It's AB2214.

[1:01:14] » Yeah. So, um there's nothing to be alarming alarmed about right now, but I

[1:01:18] just want to put it out that this is kind of floating around.

[1:01:25] » Thank you, director. So, um >> getting back to the expenditure budget.

[1:01:31] Uh so, um on think uh page I would say

[1:01:37] » page 15. Oh, page 109. >> 109.

[1:01:42] » So, page 109. uh of the packet, you know, the table there um shows

[1:01:49] uh $81.9 million and this is excluding the operating transfer. Uh it's

[1:01:55] reflecting $4.9 million or 6.4% increase from, you know, last year's budget.

[1:02:01] Again, I'm going to focus on maybe two or three things here. Um the first thing

[1:02:05] um or if you look on page 110 the next page actually it's it's at the

[1:02:14] very bottom but it really starts on page 111 and it talks about

[1:02:20] uh the information technology specialist FTE.

[1:02:23] » So I think you know um we currently have 153 um uh FTE right now. So we are or

[1:02:30] the district is request I mean we are staff is requesting you know addition

[1:02:34] for an IA specialist. So um overall I think you know the reason for that is

[1:02:39] you know there's I mean the technological environment actually has

[1:02:44] grown a lot and then the complexity as well actually has evolved um and that

[1:02:50] actually led to you know an increased you know workload for you know for our

[1:02:54] staff our IT staff to keep up with you know our technologies you know maintain

[1:02:59] you know uh operations you know minimize downtime you know address you know cyber

[1:03:03] security risks all of those responsibilities activities. So um this

[1:03:07] request is really to actually help with you know the current you know workload

[1:03:12] for us to be able to maintain you know reliable operations you know um the

[1:03:16] capacity as well to um improve and address you know current and future

[1:03:21] technological needs. Um so that's you know uh the main reason for you know uh

[1:03:27] our request. I think you know the overall narrative is actually explaining

[1:03:31] in more detail you know uh the justification for that request is

[1:03:35] actually presented on that page and then um on page uh 112

[1:03:47] uh page 112 or it starts on page 112 uh for retirement. So for retirement uh so

[1:03:55] we are budgeting $14.9 million which is actually $27,000

[1:04:02] decrease uh >> $217,000 decrease uh it's a decrease. So

[1:04:09] um this is you know what I was referring to earlier when um when we're starting

[1:04:14] to actually reap the benefits of you know the policy that you know we adopted

[1:04:18] you know a couple of years back. So even though there is definitely an increase

[1:04:24] in you know the fionable salaries because of you know anticipated increase

[1:04:28] in you know um costs you know for you know our staff. Um the decrease is you

[1:04:34] know uh related to I would say related to three things. Number one is um for

[1:04:39] the investment return Kalpers investment return actually for fiscal year um

[1:04:46] uh 2495 I believe is uh 9 you know uh 3% which is well over the 6.8% 8% you know

[1:04:56] um target you know uh rate you know of return for caler. So that actually

[1:05:02] contributed to you know a lesser uh unfunded you know acred liability for

[1:05:07] the district. Uh the second one is you know in relation to the annual payments

[1:05:13] that you know we are paying to Kalpers um that you know additional

[1:05:18] discretionary payments uh which is part of the policy again um for 10 years you

[1:05:24] know for that soft virtual fresh start you know um we're contributing more

[1:05:28] right now so we're fronting the money but you know we're um uh benefiting from

[1:05:33] you know longer term uh interest you know uh not just interest but you know

[1:05:38] UI let you know reductions because you know we're smoothing out the volatility

[1:05:42] for the UL so now you would see that you know um there's actually an overall

[1:05:48] decrease in you know the unfunded overall unfunded liability which is I

[1:05:54] believe on page uh 114

[1:06:00] » uh so that that first table uh on page 114

[1:06:06] so that bridge shows you know, uh, cuz U is really a big part of, you know, of

[1:06:11] retirement budget. So, there's actually about 534,000

[1:06:16] decrease, uh, for our overall, you know, um, U, uh, budget.

[1:06:24] » And then, >> yeah, so again, we're starting to reap

[1:06:27] the benefits of, you know, our policy. Uh, plus, you know, I think in the next

[1:06:31] year or so, I think Calver still had like a good, you know, investment

[1:06:35] return. I think it's about 11 point something%. So we're going to have we're

[1:06:40] going to continue to see at least on uh if we're going to keep it simple if

[1:06:45] everything stays the same and then uh there's no um increase in UL due to you

[1:06:50] know uh assumption changes or actial you know um uh costs then next year we will

[1:06:56] also expect you know another u it's probably another good year for us

[1:07:01] because of the investment return. And then lastly is um if you turn on

[1:07:06] page um uh page 113

[1:07:12] uh that first table

[1:07:16] uh this is the normal contribution rate. So normal cost uh so besides classic uh

[1:07:22] safety classic there's actually a slight or modest decrease uh in the normal cost

[1:07:28] you know percentage you know 4.697. So that contributed you know to the overall

[1:07:33] decrease of you know their retirement budget.

[1:07:38] And then um

[1:07:42] last thing for contract for uh expenditure budget um if you turn on

[1:07:46] page 114 uh so contract services.

[1:07:53] So for contract services I wanted to emphasize this because this actually has

[1:07:57] the biggest jump you know out of you know our budget. So for contract

[1:08:01] services um we are budgeting 11.3 million uh which is $2.7 million

[1:08:08] increase uh for the next fiscal year. So that one

[1:08:13] is you know uh there's four major factors why we're increasing you know

[1:08:18] that you know budget by a lot 2.7 million increase. First one is um oh

[1:08:23] actually first and second one this goes hand in hand. Um so we are budgeting

[1:08:28] about $1.5 million for the temporary fire station and then $120,000 for

[1:08:35] temporary office relocation. So in preparation for you know the

[1:08:38] construction for the fire station one rebuild. Uh we the plan right now of

[1:08:43] course might change but the plan right now is you to demo uh the yellow house

[1:08:48] or you know the annex building and you know set up a temporary fire station you

[1:08:53] know for uh for uh that you know piece of land. So that's you know where the $

[1:08:57] 1.5 million um increase is you know coming from. And of course, we're going

[1:09:02] to have to relocate, you know, uh HR staff and then the payroll, uh staff

[1:09:07] right now, as well as, you know, uh staff at, you know, fire station one,

[1:09:11] which is training and, you know, uh our senior management analyst for the BFR

[1:09:16] program. So, that's the $120,000. >> Demoing the building behind us here.

[1:09:21] » Uh not this one. Uh the building right next to

[1:09:27] » next to what? next to the admin building.

[1:09:30] » The back part of the 170 >> the yellow building.

[1:09:33] » Uh there's the yellow house there. >> Oh, I'm turning around that way.

[1:09:37] » Oh, >> this way. This way.

[1:09:38] » Yeah, I got it. >> Yeah.

[1:09:41] » Wow. >> Yeah. So, I think right now that 1.5

[1:09:44] million is, you know, just an estimate. you know, talking to John, uh, I think

[1:09:48] that's, you know, what it would cost to, you know, set up, you know, the Empire

[1:09:51] Fire Station, set up those two trailers, uh, um, pretty much, you know, uh,

[1:09:56] getting it ready, uh, for all operational, you know, uh, needs.

[1:10:00] » So, when we were all done, we just have a big bot.

[1:10:02] » Uh, when we're all done, I think the plan right now, is this actually

[1:10:07] » it's going to be vacant, but probably going to sell.

[1:10:12] » That's interesting. Um yeah, the plan is we'll have it'll

[1:10:16] probably be a parking lot and we'll sell once we're ready to move in here, we'll

[1:10:21] sell both the admin building and that parking lot together separately. And

[1:10:26] John's opinion was that with the quality of that yellow house that's there

[1:10:31] the raw land is worth almost as much as having the building on it. And it's just

[1:10:38] uh for kind of a value initiative.

[1:10:43] Seminary was willing to rent us um about half an acre, 3/4 of an acre. Uh but the

[1:10:52] the cost over the um the timeline for the construction was going to be almost

[1:10:59] $3 million in just ground rent for nothing. And so it made more sense for

[1:11:06] us to spend the money to do some demo over there and then just put the

[1:11:10] temporary station there. And ultimately I think it would probably one and a half

[1:11:14] to$2 million to the good having the temporary station there. And then yeah

[1:11:19] the value of the property at least in John I think and also talking the

[1:11:24] commercial real estate brokerise that makes sense but yeah we ran through

[1:11:29] those things. It is also possible we have some other possible conversations

[1:11:35] going on with uh USGS, well not USGS, the developers

[1:11:42] of the new USGS property because they may not need to do anything or with it

[1:11:47] for six years and so there might be an opportunity to uh put the temporary

[1:11:53] station there and also provide office stations but very pre

[1:11:58] » yeah we're just looking at a variety of options but That's the current

[1:12:02] » or the ideas. >> Yeah. I guess I'm only reacting because

[1:12:06] it's historic. I don't know about historic, but certainly very old house.

[1:12:10] » It's old. It's uh interestingly not enough. Not not its original location.

[1:12:13] It was moved there >> decades and decades ago. And yeah, and

[1:12:18] the city of Melo Park doesn't have any historic recognition for it.

[1:12:23] » It is a tired old Victorian house for sure. And I think also chief in our

[1:12:30] discussion in the facility committee there is a kind of another option that

[1:12:35] seemed like it's being looked at a little bit more u at least talked about.

[1:12:40] They haven't gotten any conclusion yet about the acquisition of

[1:12:47] some more property from seminary.

[1:12:52] » Yeah. So uh continuing the discussion. So uh those are the two major things and

[1:12:56] you know the other two that uh actually uh is affecting that 2.7 million

[1:13:01] increase is now uh third one is the workers comp. So for workers comp you

[1:13:06] know we've just seen you know a significant increase you know in the

[1:13:09] past couple of years for the claims. So uh we're trying to anticipate that in

[1:13:13] the upcoming year as well. So we increased our budget by $55,000

[1:13:17] for that. And then the last one is you know uh the mobilization exercise grant.

[1:13:23] So that um it's a $519,000 grant that the board actually approved

[1:13:28] last year as well, but most of the expenses are going to be in the next

[1:13:31] fiscal year. Uh so for this one in particular, um $450,000 is allotted for

[1:13:38] contract services. It's for our other participating agencies, but this is

[1:13:42] actually completely reimburseable. So we're going to get the money back, you

[1:13:47] know, for this one particular. So I think that's for the general fund

[1:13:51] expenditure budget and if you turn on page 116

[1:13:57] 116 uh so page 116 to page 122 so this is a

[1:14:04] continuation of you know what we did last year as well last year this is the

[1:14:08] uh this is the second year that we're doing it. So what we're trying to uh

[1:14:11] accomplish here is you know for budget highlights and new initiatives. So we

[1:14:16] are trying to um present you know things that are new uh for the next fiscal year

[1:14:22] or any other things that you know u we think that it's important you know to

[1:14:27] highlight uh particularly if there's a significant increase in the budget. So I

[1:14:33] think there's about 12 of it uh right now I'm just going to go over uh it real

[1:14:38] quick. Uh the first one is community hubs. This is the search cache. I think

[1:14:42] gauge our farm mash le actually did a demo or um a walk through of you know

[1:14:47] the first you know community hub uh that third cache you know uh so there's going

[1:14:52] to be two more this fiscal year before the end of fiscal year and then I think

[1:14:57] the plan is to add additional three in the next fiscal year so total of six uh

[1:15:02] the next one is the see-through navigator devices uh that's on page 117

[1:15:10] uh these are the quake cameras that we received uh this you know fiscal year.

[1:15:14] So we are actually just uh budgeting for you know the subscription for a software

[1:15:19] that's needed for us to be able to utilize all the functions of you know

[1:15:23] those. The third one is the drone as first

[1:15:27] responder program. So this is you know uh there's going to be an expansion of

[1:15:32] the program. So overall, I think we're requesting about $84,000 and that's

[1:15:36] going to be for a new dock and then for all other requests, you know, for any

[1:15:40] other things that's needed for that. The next one for pay on page uh 118,

[1:15:48] election services. So there's going to be an upcoming election, you know, this

[1:15:52] year. This there's three um seats uh this cycle. So we're looking to fill

[1:15:58] those positions. Um and we budgeted about $180,000 for that. I think last

[1:16:04] time we did it was 4 years ago. Um the actual cost of that is about $148 or

[1:16:10] almost $150,000 but with anticipated you know share you

[1:16:14] know cost increases throughout the years. You know we decided to budget

[1:16:18] about 18. Next one is facility condition

[1:16:22] assessment. This one was actually already approved last year by the board.

[1:16:27] uh we are just rebudgeting it because we are postponing the project you know uh

[1:16:31] just uh priorities came up you know uh other priorities actually came up this

[1:16:35] fiscal year so um this project is going to get postponed for the next

[1:16:42] the next one is IT infrastructure equipment replacement so there are just

[1:16:47] you know a lot of you know um uh equipment you know IT related you know

[1:16:52] uh equipment that we needed to replace because it's already um uh nearing the

[1:16:58] end of life or it's already uh non functioning. So that's you know pretty

[1:17:02] much you know what the budget is. The next one is the Nox key secure upgrade.

[1:17:07] So we're just upgrading that our uh Knox uh uh branded key secure units uh to uh

[1:17:13] I think secure system. Uh I think all the functions are actually written on

[1:17:18] that. Uh but if there's questions feel free to ask.

[1:17:23] » Is it is that an electronic system? >> Uh does it require power? Yes.

[1:17:28] » Does it require power? >> Uh I think they those knock systems

[1:17:32] already have power going to them because they operate electrical gates. But also

[1:17:36] for just the fixed ones that are on a building that don't have power, it would

[1:17:39] be battery operated. Yeah. It'll have a battery in there. Um, but this will I

[1:17:46] don't know if that's your question, but it's yeah, completely digital um with

[1:17:51] full tracking of everyone who removes the digital key and accesses it and also

[1:17:56] the ability to recode. I mean, we won't we won't ever lose. I just

[1:18:03] I I hope we take a hard look at these because this idea of not being able to

[1:18:09] get in a Knox box because the batteries run out or something of that sort.

[1:18:13] » I'll double check. There's got to be some kind of redundancy.

[1:18:17] » Yeah, every time I get one of these things

[1:18:21] that's supposed to be fail safe,

[1:18:26] I'll double check and get back to you, but I'll check with our expert gauge.

[1:18:32] How much how how much is an up the upgrade is really just

[1:18:38] so on private property with an upgrade. Um

[1:18:41] » we're going to Yeah, we're going to upgrade everybody's box. We're not

[1:18:44] asking the community to do something that we want to do because they've

[1:18:48] already got it installed, but it's on it's everyone's gate. It's everyone's

[1:18:51] building. It just replaces the tumbler, the mechanical tumbler with this

[1:18:56] electronic entry. But somebody like um like Facebook for example might have I

[1:19:02] don't say 50 of those things but yeah we we will replace whatever is necessary to

[1:19:08] make everybody digital >> that that project would come before the

[1:19:12] board though at some point right >> assuming the funding exceeds my ability

[1:19:17] to sign for it. >> Yes. But it looks like we're asking for

[1:19:21] funding for $9,000. Um, so it might not.

[1:19:26] » Well, it's hard to imagine it would only cost 90,000, but I thought it would make

[1:19:32] 90 million. >> No. Yeah.

[1:19:35] » So, >> I'd probably be saying no to that.

[1:19:38] » Never got >> So, Chief, are you saying that the

[1:19:41] knockbox are run off of batteries? >> I'm going to check

[1:19:44] » because answer. It's got to be.

[1:19:47] » The question didn't become who's going to replace the batteries

[1:19:51] » and the call. Who going to pay for that cost? I'm gonna have a good answer for

[1:19:54] you at our next board meeting.

[1:20:01] » So, uh the next three one uh the next three are actually things that we

[1:20:05] already discussed. The temporary office relation, the whole grant and the

[1:20:10] temporary fire station as well. Uh and then if you turn on page 121, uh the

[1:20:17] wellness initiatives. So this one I think in the past like two years I think

[1:20:22] it started uh when we actually asked for uh some budget for some wellness

[1:20:28] initiatives. So uh we the board actually approved you know the 25 sessions you

[1:20:33] know psychological uh counseling sessions you know for each

[1:20:37] you know employee and then for next fiscal year we're budgeting $180,000 for

[1:20:41] that. But there is new next fiscal year that you know we wanted to actually do

[1:20:46] as well. Um it's we're budgeting about $170,000

[1:20:51] you know to implement a critical wellness you know program you know aimed

[1:20:55] at strengthening the health performance and resilience of the district

[1:20:59] personnel. So all the components are there. Um the chief could probably talk

[1:21:04] about this more but our goal really is you know of course you know collectively

[1:21:08] to deliver like short term short and long-term you know benefits you know uh

[1:21:12] enhancing you know of course you know the the person's you know operating

[1:21:15] readiness uh the risk of injuries um um reducing the risk of injuries and you

[1:21:22] know and eventually um we're hoping you know to actually um lower our workers

[1:21:28] you know compensation costs you know with this. So uh chief

[1:21:32] » yeah I will share shortly as Elaine noted as we were talking about our

[1:21:37] workers comp is on the rise significant I mean that's the same

[1:21:43] with everyone the cost of treatment the cost are 48 50 times so what we're

[1:21:47] trying to do yeah and I I love our employees and really seriously

[1:21:51] interested in their wellness I'm also interested in trying to reduce and

[1:21:54] control costs and we have um there's four four major

[1:22:01] fire departments, LA City, Dallas, Fairfax County, and Phoenix that have

[1:22:05] all implemented similar programs um where they're bringing some uh some

[1:22:12] physical therapy therapy and rehab and recovery elements into the fire stations

[1:22:17] kind of to proactively treat. You know, as we get older or with this job, we

[1:22:22] always have nagging injuries. were trying to prevent them turning into

[1:22:25] something more serious work result in treatment or time off and the results I

[1:22:31] will just share you know somewhat anecdotally because there's so many

[1:22:35] variables but in general the return on investment is two to five times um on

[1:22:42] this we'll see over time but again that's that's part of it is trying to

[1:22:47] also reduce our costs in addition to the you know by other

[1:22:51] health and safety. >> I like that thing, you know.

[1:22:56] » So, are we >> I was going to just say, oh, one other

[1:23:00] thing. Even though the we're spending $170,000

[1:23:03] approximately on this new program. Um, I made some reductions in the overall RMS

[1:23:09] budget. So, the net increase is right around $100,000. Still, we made some

[1:23:14] reductions in some areas. So, it wasn't such a

[1:23:18] Sorry, Dr. >> It's okay. I It may be a rhetorical

[1:23:21] question, but are are we uh keeping a um any kind of analysis database as to

[1:23:32] from the beginning as to >> yes

[1:23:35] » five years from now to see if this if there's going to be

[1:23:38] » we'll be collecting data. I'm going to call it as I do with most of new

[1:23:42] programs a kind of a pilot program and you know actually I don't anticipate

[1:23:47] we'll be able to measure its efficacy after a year but after a couple years

[1:23:50] we'll be able to measure the data uh we'll collect that internally and also

[1:23:54] working with ICS our workers comp provider our third party administrators

[1:23:59] so that that's our plan and we'll report back on the results too

[1:24:06] » I think I think the last one for the budget highlight I can new initiatives

[1:24:10] is the workers comp which we actually already discussed in detail so I'm not

[1:24:14] going to go over you know that um then the next one so that's the general pond

[1:24:19] budget so uh we uh the next two uh pawns is probably going to be very quick so

[1:24:25] for CIP um if you turn on page 123 of the packet

[1:24:34] so again on third to the last column you know our total budget Right now, our

[1:24:40] proposed budget for fiscal year 2627 is about $4.5 million.

[1:24:45] Um, and it's uh $3.4 million is for actual, you know, constructions and CIP

[1:24:51] projects. Then the 1 million $1.1 million are is related uh to uh purchase

[1:24:57] of fixed assets. So, >> purchase of what? fix.

[1:25:01] » Uh those are things that are um

[1:25:07] uh unit uh those are purchases with a unit cost of $10,000 or more based on

[1:25:12] our current policy. Um so if you turn on page um 126

[1:25:23] so um so that table over there just summarizes you know the ongoing

[1:25:27] projects. So, uh that we currently have. So, we don't have any uh new projects uh

[1:25:33] that you know we're going to have besides the ones that we have right now

[1:25:36] or at least on the construction you know piece of it. So, uh all of the budget

[1:25:41] you know that we propose are anything that's ongoing. The only item that you

[1:25:46] know is new for the next fiscal year um is the ERP system upgrade. So, we

[1:25:51] budgeted $300,000 for that. Um, so although it's not a construction, you

[1:25:57] know, uh, per se, it's, you know, under, uh, CIP, it's an improvement because

[1:26:01] it's going to be a long-term, uh, there's going to be long-term benefit,

[1:26:04] you know, for that ERP system upgrade. So, we're going to have to capitalize

[1:26:07] it. And you know with you know the discussions in the past that keeping

[1:26:11] everything that you know we are capitalizing into the CIP fund we

[1:26:15] decided to actually uh be consistent about it and you know we are um putting

[1:26:20] you know this you know budget you know of $300,000 you know for uh the CIP fund

[1:26:26] for the next fiscal year. So uh just a little bit of background on this one.

[1:26:29] We're actually already starting with you know the project. So this has something

[1:26:32] to do with you know our you know financial and HR systems. So right now

[1:26:38] um we have like the four or five like different systems. You know what we want

[1:26:41] to do is you know we want to change you know our overall like ERP system to

[1:26:45] enhance functionalities because right now our system is really outdated. um it

[1:26:50] doesn't really give us you know uh much you know uh capabilities um and with you

[1:26:55] know all the you know things that's going on you know with you know the

[1:26:59] growth um and then the difficulty and complexity of just you know with you

[1:27:03] know accounting finance and HR you know processes you know we decided that it's

[1:27:08] time to actually you know switch to a better uh hopefully a better like you

[1:27:12] know ERP system so we're starting the process now um we are looking for we are

[1:27:18] actually in the process of you know um doing our due diligence you know

[1:27:21] reference checks with you know our uh consultants uh who actually um uh

[1:27:28] submitted you know proposals for the first phase of the project. So we are

[1:27:32] anticipating you know by I think I would say at the earliest last quarter of next

[1:27:38] year uh we're going to start with you know the implementation of the new ERP

[1:27:42] system. Implementation meaning not like fully

[1:27:47] ready but starting to actually switch doing you know the all you know the uh

[1:27:53] data entries migration you know parallel testing all of that stuff.

[1:27:59] It implies in here that you won't have a payroll service anymore. You're going to

[1:28:03] do it in house. Is that correct? >> It's not nec it's it doesn't necessarily

[1:28:08] mean that you know we're actually going to you know uh I mean it's an option but

[1:28:13] you know what again what we're doing right now is you with the consultant you

[1:28:16] know is you know we're trying to actually have them help us you know with

[1:28:20] the needs assessment part of it. So that means like you know we are trying to

[1:28:24] understand you know how our current system actually functions you know what

[1:28:28] can we improve what do we need what do we want um and what it makes sense what

[1:28:33] what is really better for the district based on our you know current you know

[1:28:36] operations. So we may actually you know uh do it in house we may keep it

[1:28:42] separate it all depends on you know um the results of you know of the first

[1:28:47] phase of you know the project. Um, so we're not really um decided yet whether

[1:28:53] or not, you know, we're going to do it inhouse or yet continue to, you know,

[1:28:57] outsource, you know, the cutting of the checks uh pretty much. So, we're trying

[1:29:02] to weigh all of our options and again, there's going to be a lot of work uh

[1:29:07] during the first phase of, you know, the project where we're going to really

[1:29:10] analyze, you know, all of that needs. >> The goal would be to pull into the ERP

[1:29:14] if possible. Um but we just have to go through the process to see because

[1:29:19] especially with public agencies and special districts and bar groups um we

[1:29:24] need to make sure that it that it can manage effectively all of the rules. Um

[1:29:31] the goal would be to not have a system.

[1:29:37] » Have we had any problems with that >> with our current payroll?

[1:29:41] » Yeah. >> No. Um the issue is um not that there's

[1:29:44] necessarily problems. It's that um our payroll system doesn't substitute for an

[1:29:51] HS system. And so it's not um comprehensive. So like say for example

[1:29:58] when we do um a wage table change which is anou negotiated increase um it's

[1:30:05] basically updating an excel spreadsheet and manually entering those changes into

[1:30:10] our payroll system versus if you have an ERP and you can go and do these manual

[1:30:15] mass updates. It's just less like room for error, less manual entry, just kind

[1:30:23] of having an ERP system that can actually store salvary tables versus

[1:30:28] having these Excel tape, you know, it's just it's just antiquated the process we

[1:30:33] currently use. So, it's just trying to kind of bring it up to date.

[1:30:38] » Yeah. I think also uh in addition to that as you know uh with um with

[1:30:43] advantage of you know have keeping it you know in-house or having it in house

[1:30:46] is we have more control of you know uh uh the system. So if there's going to be

[1:30:52] any change you know with you know uh theus you know we can pretty much you

[1:30:57] know uh do our own thing and then start to you know just you know uh

[1:31:01] incorporated into the system instead of like relying on you know uh the third

[1:31:06] party system which sometimes can be really difficult uh because you know

[1:31:10] there you can have like a good customer service rep and then the next day you

[1:31:14] know uh no one knows about you know what we're talking about. So at least with

[1:31:18] with this one you know we have more control so we can have like more backups

[1:31:21] and you know more training cross trainining you know with you know people

[1:31:24] in you know the finance departments. How how how do you now two things how do you

[1:31:29] deliver checks to employees um

[1:31:34] because not everybody's at work all the time. And then um

[1:31:40] are you having payroll taxes paid automatically or are you writing checks

[1:31:46] for the various >> uh no so we're using ADP so they do all

[1:31:50] of that for us. So um they're cutting the checks you know sending the payments

[1:31:55] you know to to employees. I think right now most of our employees are

[1:32:00] » uh no not by mail it's electronic. So I think you know I would say about 99%

[1:32:06] I would say of you know uh the district person are getting paid through

[1:32:09] electronic direct deposit electronic payments. Um there's a few instances

[1:32:14] where we have to cut checks. Uh but that's only when there is let's say um

[1:32:18] there's a new change in you know their bank account and uh payroll already was

[1:32:23] processed. So we have to actually you know uh cut you know an actual manual

[1:32:28] check you know to them. And again, ADP is, you know, mailing that. Um, so other

[1:32:33] than that, it's all electronic. Um, so that's, you know, I mean, in terms of

[1:32:38] taxes, you know, of course, we still do the reconciliations. We do all the work.

[1:32:42] Um, ADB is pretty much just, you know, um, sending it out like for

[1:32:47] communications, you know, to people when it comes to, you know, the tax, you

[1:32:50] know, things like that. >> Yeah, that's good for record keeping.

[1:32:55] So with the new system you got you going to bring where is the data going to be

[1:33:00] stored in house or it's going to be all >> yes it's going to be

[1:33:03] » the goal is as Francine mentioned the goal is you know um it's going to be uh

[1:33:10] a news it can be stored in the new system whatever that system would be uh

[1:33:15] but you know most of the work or all of the work like you know all the

[1:33:20] reconciliations like sending out W2s it's all going to be in counts like

[1:33:24] cutting the checks. Uh when I say cutting the checks, doesn't mean that

[1:33:27] it's a manual check, but you know, sending in those payments for like, you

[1:33:30] know, their salaries, you know, their compensation, it's all going to be the

[1:33:34] responsibility now of, you know, finance. So, we're going to set it up

[1:33:37] all in the system, all into the system. But once it's set up, um it's pretty

[1:33:42] much, you know, uh good to go unless, you know, of course, there's going to be

[1:33:46] like, you know, changes like, you know, uh here and there. uh but everything is

[1:33:51] going to be in-house now meaning we we're not you know using any third party

[1:33:55] uh to do you know some of those you know responsibilities.

[1:33:58] » My thought and concern was what if you have a fire in the office

[1:34:03] » and you got to get to the data. >> So it that it won't be on prem meaning

[1:34:08] that we're storing this on servers. Um it's actually these are cloud-based

[1:34:12] systems. That's >> I mean at least our goal is cloud-based

[1:34:17] right? Um it helps us with you know uh controls as well like financial

[1:34:21] controls. Um of course we're going to need to have like you know some sort of

[1:34:24] like you know compliance requirements like stock to like certifications you

[1:34:28] know things like that. Uh but it's going to be cloud-based. So it's going to be

[1:34:31] stored uh um into that you know that system that cloud-based system. So it's

[1:34:36] not stored like >> physically manually. So even if there's

[1:34:39] a fire um as long as we have a laptop or an internet connection we can still you

[1:34:44] know process you know payments and I think the last one would be the

[1:34:49] special budget which is on page 113.

[1:34:56] So, uh I apologize. I think you know uh some of the tables got messed up uh

[1:35:01] during the process. Uh but uh that table um

[1:35:07] I don't I don't it's table second kind of table. The the table in the middle

[1:35:13] » table 2.5. >> Yeah.

[1:35:14] » 2.5. >> Yeah. The table in the middle. Uh so uh

[1:35:17] we are budgeting $1.4 million in preliminary for the special revenue

[1:35:22] fund. Again as a refresher uh special revenue fund this actually houses you

[1:35:26] know the operative agreements. So that 1.4 million really is just the estimated

[1:35:31] carryover of you know you know grants you know

[1:35:36] that we have. So since it's a cost reimbursement grant uh the budgeted

[1:35:41] revenue and budgeted expenditures are the same. Um and then I think the rest

[1:35:47] are you know forformational purposes you know um only we also did you know some

[1:35:53] five-year you know projections you know for our budget uh on page 136 to 138 uh

[1:36:00] and then the rest are just some sort of details you know per per

[1:36:05] » so uh I think that concludes you know uh my uh budget presentation so um if there

[1:36:12] are any questions uh I think director Before you guys ask questions, I I

[1:36:17] texted Gage. I'm like, "How does this Knox system work?" It's you love this uh

[1:36:22] brilliant answer. The battery is actually in the key that we carry in the

[1:36:27] engine. So, when you plug the key in, >> it powers the unit

[1:36:31] » and it's always being charged by the 12vt battery in the fire engine.

[1:36:36] » I'm not a billionaire. >> I couldn't think of that. I'm like, "Oh,

[1:36:42] it's actually I'm like, "Wow, what a great idea."

[1:36:44] » Yeah. >> No need to ever charge the battery and

[1:36:46] carry it. >> You just got to be to plug it in every

[1:36:50] now and then. >> You put it in somehow it powers it up.

[1:36:53] Beyond that, I don't know the answer how it works, but I just know that's the

[1:36:57] answer. And I can check that off my list. I will not report back on it.

[1:37:02] » I have a question on page 165 talked about the impact of

[1:37:12] in the paragraph says

[1:37:20] well I think it should be broken down you see the paragraph

[1:37:27] yeah the sheriff's office has one regular city

[1:37:32] has one then there's a north county one so I think they just need to

[1:37:37] specifically break that down from just the the generalized counties

[1:37:43] four and I'm sure each one of them have different training commitments

[1:37:48] » and you'd like that called out to identify is it three or four teams but

[1:37:53] it's 14 >> so they're not the counties you just

[1:37:55] want so there isn't a misunder

[1:38:03] think of the sheriff's office those other agencies should

[1:38:12] Can I comment? This is something we discussed before. Um, and this is where

[1:38:19] we as a district are supporting the law enforcement, other districts and so

[1:38:25] forth. And well, I'm not opposed to that. That's one of these things where

[1:38:30] the county is coming and asking for more money because all the supports they give

[1:38:35] us. But I I think we should be clear that this is a this is a commitment of

[1:38:42] ours to provide this, >> right?

[1:38:44] » And it is it's not just the county. It's like all it's that collaborative of all

[1:38:49] law enforcement agencies across the county, whoever utilizes each other's

[1:38:53] SWAT teams. And we're we are almost all that of the fire agencies in the county

[1:38:59] are providing medics to the SWAT team to actually protect this. I understand what

[1:39:04] I don't remember that that they didn't all do it. We were one of the few that

[1:39:09] provided it. >> I don't know how many people from us or

[1:39:12] what the makeup of the teams are. I think we have three active participants

[1:39:16] in the team. >> But you're probably right. Not every

[1:39:18] agency has somebody on there just because some of the smaller agencies

[1:39:22] don't even have staff. But yes, that's >> and again this is this is not in support

[1:39:29] of the county. It's in support of the law enforcement officers there.

[1:39:33] It almost never was we almost never supported a real incident. Most of the

[1:39:37] support was for training set purposes so >> but it just when we did it again it

[1:39:43] increased our overtime and all those kinds of things

[1:39:52] » Rob you finished. >> Yeah.

[1:39:53] » Yes. Thank you. >> Uh I have one last question before we

[1:39:56] leave the lane spreadsheet. uh on page 188 and Chief can probably answer this.

[1:40:04] It has to do with the explorer program. Um

[1:40:10] the general question is we can be all >> 181

[1:40:16] » 181 or 88 >> 181.

[1:40:21] » You know I got that sug.

[1:40:26] Um first question is is is um um you talked about to ensure success

[1:40:34] successful completion of explorer program and prepare student to advance

[1:40:38] into a mill park fire cadet program. So is this what you was kind of making

[1:40:43] reference to earlier the cadet program is that the one that's related to sail

[1:40:50] or something entirely different? >> Um it's it's entirely different. The

[1:40:55] explorer program is in general supported by I don't know it's not it's no longer

[1:41:00] called boy scout area but it's for people that are generally in I don't

[1:41:06] know what the age range is >> high school

[1:41:09] » yeah 17 to 21 kind of in that range and that's for people just to get some

[1:41:14] exposure they come do ride alongs hang out at the fire station and do very

[1:41:19] limited duties the cadet program that we have is also

[1:41:24] So, this is for people that have been

[1:41:27] through a um

[1:41:32] not an inservice academy, but a community college academy and they um

[1:41:39] will come and participate as kind of a fourth person. They spend the night at

[1:41:44] the station, one shift a week. Um oftent times it's a stepping stone to

[1:41:50] employment with us. We've hired uh I know over half of our department are

[1:41:55] people who have formerly been cadets. So, but it's a separate separate

[1:42:00] program. Some of our our explorers is kind of like a work experience program

[1:42:04] » that you get in high schools to give people exposure to that and it's local

[1:42:08] kids for us. Uh the cadet program, it's a little bit broader reach, you know,

[1:42:12] for the people that come and apply and it's a that's that's usually a stepping

[1:42:16] stone from our cadet program to buy service somewhere.

[1:42:21] fire department hire from our cadetses all the time and hopefully we do.

[1:42:26] » So this is >> Yeah. And then and the whole community

[1:42:29] college thing is completely separate with us putting our people in. We may

[1:42:33] end up hiring some of our cadetses and putting putting them into the College of

[1:42:37] Sonale program. So they'll go through a second academy,

[1:42:41] » but it's an inservice academy that's geared specifically towards

[1:42:46] um Sanontale County Fire Agencies. So the exporters is at um middle Aston. Is

[1:42:52] that where it originate from? >> Uh I don't know if they just come from

[1:42:57] MA. Um I'd have to check. I think we allow it from any of our schools, public

[1:43:03] or private school program. >> Okay.

[1:43:07] » Thanks. Any other question?

[1:43:18] » Just for clarification, Franc said it's age 14 to 21.

[1:43:22] » 14 to 21.

[1:43:34] » Okay. Okay. So, there's a lot more. Do you have any comments? I don't know if

[1:43:40] anyone's in out in in Zoom for public comment,

[1:43:45] Denise, but there's no one here, but I wanted to check.

[1:43:49] » Yeah. No, we have no hands raised online.

[1:43:51] » Okay. Okay. Well, so um thank you. Great job. And this is the preliminary budget

[1:43:58] book. And I guess next month are we getting

[1:44:02] » Yes. Next month. Next month. Yeah. We still uh have an opportunity to actually

[1:44:07] take a look at the budget, but we're going to adopt it pretty narrowly

[1:44:09] budget. Thanks. Next. >> Yes. Okay.

[1:44:13] » Sure. >> Do you is the staff essentially done

[1:44:17] with this now or do you expect some significant revisions?

[1:44:21] » Uh we don't necessarily expect significant revisions. I think in the

[1:44:25] past, you know, few years, you know, there's, you know, uh two or three

[1:44:28] things here and there. It depends on you know uh how significant the information

[1:44:32] you know we received during you know April to you know May and June. So uh I

[1:44:37] think last year you know there was a change you know because of you know the

[1:44:40] influence increases. So again it would depend but I think I'm right now I'm not

[1:44:45] anticipating any big changes besides probably um uh the uh personal cost uh

[1:44:55] budget. So between now and then uh I think you know depending on you know how

[1:45:00] uh yeah so we so be that might be a a cause of the change but you know we

[1:45:07] don't know yet. >> So I don't want to ask the number or

[1:45:10] anything but when you prepare this did you make an assumption about

[1:45:16] what the contract was going to be? >> Seven assumptions.

[1:45:21] » Okay. So that there's a it's possible that there would be no change in what's

[1:45:26] going on, but but we're dealing with it to some extent plus or minus I don't

[1:45:32] know 30% or something like that. >> Not necessarily 30%

[1:45:37] 10%. >> Yeah. So our assumptions I mean uh it's

[1:45:42] really just you know since you know it's not final and without authority uh

[1:45:46] there's nothing yet in place. So this is just a reasonable you know um assumption

[1:45:52] based on you know um historical trends plus you know uh current you know market

[1:45:56] uh surveys. So that's you know what we kind like you know put preliminary. So

[1:46:02] » good answer. So within what you're saying is there a um area of

[1:46:08] fluctuations or area that may create this change that that that Chuck might

[1:46:14] be alluding to in terms of dollars amount. um um

[1:46:19] » anticipated >> in terms of percentage director or

[1:46:23] » yeah percentage or or errors that may we may we may think that it's x today but

[1:46:31] tomorrow it may based upon what's going on may change like

[1:46:35] » uh yeah I mean I would say of course again can't really say much about you

[1:46:39] know what's going on right now but um I think the changes that you know might uh

[1:46:45] have an effect with you know the budget probably would be of course you know um

[1:46:50] colas of course and then probably health uh and I think those are the two major

[1:46:56] ones uh but then again we didn't really disclose anything but yeah

[1:46:59] » no I will say for for anyone that may be watching this live or the recorded thing

[1:47:04] there's no need to go and try to reverse engineer the numbers because they're

[1:47:08] just you know there's we not based on

[1:47:13] anything related to board authority or where we need to end up being it's just

[1:47:17] reasonable exceptions.

[1:47:21] » Okay. Then can we move on to proposed agenda items?

[1:47:27] Discuss the underest

[1:47:31] position on mutual aid versus auto aid and related issues in advance of the

[1:47:36] county requesting addition. So this is um

[1:47:45] I mean I guess figure out

[1:47:50] » really it's an opportunity for director Bernstein since it's on the agenda more

[1:47:55] clearly explain what you'd like to accomplish versus that and for you to be

[1:47:59] able to have questions and then via a vote decide whether or not to place it

[1:48:04] as the future. You >> want to kick it off Chuck? Yeah, let me

[1:48:08] let me ask a question first in reference to what you were talking about with

[1:48:12] PaloAlto. >> Yeah, I was just

[1:48:15] » um

[1:48:19] can we legally do auto aid across county line?

[1:48:30] » So Mark and I kind of talked about that. He's trying to

[1:48:33] » I don't know. I mean that you're asking a legal question. I I know in my last

[1:48:36] jurisdiction we did it u with Santa Barbara County agencies and LA County

[1:48:42] and LA city agencies wanted the issue. Then we had a formal agreement that I

[1:48:47] think was approved by our board. >> U we had done this before the the fire

[1:48:54] chiefs

[1:48:59] » chiefs it was that they had like a little council where they met once a

[1:49:02] month or whatever. San

[1:49:06] » sanitary county and they vetoed it um and basically made it hard for us to do

[1:49:12] but I I don't know how they had any authority to do that and

[1:49:16] » I don't yeah I don't anticipate that >> yeah the group dynamics have changed I'd

[1:49:23] be surprised if anyone wasn't >> well let me this is really important to

[1:49:27] me I live in the south end of the county it's heavily wooded

[1:49:32] » and um we have nobody on our southern end that can come and aid when we've got

[1:49:39] things that involve migrating north because of something that's happening in

[1:49:43] Mexico City or San Carlos whatever and so that's that's important and we're

[1:49:48] very close to Alto both particularly station two um

[1:49:56] we're very close to be able to help them as well so to me I I I think it's

[1:50:02] important but I I I don't like us I don't like the fact that dispatch could

[1:50:10] send our units elsewhere and leave us potentially uncovered in places that

[1:50:17] that bothers me. I wish we could get back I don't know if it's possible to

[1:50:21] get back to a place where we had some detail follow and where this

[1:50:26] particularly became an issue was when Redmond City decided to close its

[1:50:32] station on our >> downtown our northern border the one the

[1:50:37] closest one there and then we were responding to all their calls and they

[1:50:41] did it to save money which was very nice but it left us sending moving you know

[1:50:47] people to legislation and

[1:50:52] that's not cooperative. I mean, and I'm troubled by the fact that the county

[1:50:57] doesn't cover weekend neighbors. They're fortunate

[1:51:01] and that's us doing it. >> They get the money and we get we get the

[1:51:05] work and that that just doesn't seem fair. So, I'm I've been troubled by

[1:51:12] Also, we we we buy a water tender. Well, that's wonderful. But the fact that I I

[1:51:19] was I am against us putting that into the pot that that um and I think maybe

[1:51:26] you reassured us slightly last time that that dispatch couldn't just send it

[1:51:32] somewhere and leave us without it if he needed it and so forth. But I think the

[1:51:39] county has been trying over the years to, you know, they talk about, oh, being

[1:51:44] a team player and and participating with the whole community and all this kind of

[1:51:50] stuff to to effectively try to create a countywide fire department.

[1:51:58] And I I just don't think that's right. Also, if we care about our training, if

[1:52:02] we think our training is really superior, we put extra money into it,

[1:52:08] why should we let it go to Redmond City

[1:52:13] when we might need it? And why should we get red cities coming in if we don't

[1:52:18] think it's as well trained? And I know that's

[1:52:21] politically incorrect to say, but here we are trying to beef up our training,

[1:52:26] do a better job, getting better equipment, getting better apparatus

[1:52:32] so that we can serve. And and again, no reports, and I know why politically it

[1:52:36] would be um explosive for us, but we do not

[1:52:42] provide a report, which we used to do, on how much aid we send out and how much

[1:52:47] aid comes back in. You never see you never see that because it was a huge

[1:52:54] imbalance. We were a giant exporter of fire services. Um and I don't think it's

[1:53:01] fair to our taxpayers. So I I I think the auto aid

[1:53:07] is a blank check for agencies that want to cut their budgets and so forth. Now I

[1:53:12] realize Palo Alto did that for a time being. They they they've put that back.

[1:53:19] restaffed at South Palo Alto fire station that they had a millfield and

[1:53:25] things like that um after they had a big fire and there was I think a delay in

[1:53:32] getting fire engines to it. But um anyway, I I I just think we should

[1:53:38] retain more control. I think but I I know operationally that's hard to do

[1:53:42] because dispatch needs to know what it can send out. For a time, we did not put

[1:53:48] all our engines into the pie because we weren't being reimbursed for them. But

[1:53:53] now, I believe they're all in the pot. So, all of our all of our engines can be

[1:54:01] dispatched and all of our when we first bought the second truck,

[1:54:06] um it it was not put into the pot and but now it's in the pot as well. So we

[1:54:12] could be in a situation where both of our our ladder trucks are out in other

[1:54:16] jurisdictions and we don't happen to send. So all that troubles me and I just

[1:54:21] don't know how we can manage that if auto is just the prevailing subject.

[1:54:28] Well, I think the probably the largest well

[1:54:33] the door that was open when we all turned over dispatch services to the

[1:54:38] county and gave them with the old dispatch

[1:54:44] responsibilities to use a CAD system where they could dispatch engines and

[1:54:50] personnel and equipment where they they needed to. So that door was open a long

[1:54:56] time ago. But you know, you bring up a good point. Just the aspect of water

[1:55:00] rescues. According to our budget, uh we're

[1:55:05] spending between 724,000 and 566,000

[1:55:10] to do water rescues on the bay because we have the airboats. I mean and of

[1:55:17] course we have task force three that uh completes all those rescues and you

[1:55:25] know that responsibility falls with us and Paul Alto doesn't even they have an

[1:55:30] airport they don't even have rescue responsibilities there. So yeah, it's

[1:55:36] it's a huge problem, but you know, like we had he ate a home fire and we

[1:55:44] sure needed help. >> People came along,

[1:55:48] » right? >> Well, I was just thinking the community

[1:55:52] fire in East Pal, right? Did he have backup from

[1:56:00] backup? >> It was mostly in

[1:56:04] » Yeah. So, >> so in that way it works.

[1:56:07] » Yeah. Well, but you know it's not not one agency

[1:56:13] it's a major incident including taking calls for service you know huge

[1:56:19] volumes of emergency calls. So I mean you know when we had our own dispatch

[1:56:24] there'd be no way that we could handle all those calls for help. So,

[1:56:30] » so is my understanding >> a little, you know,

[1:56:35] » well, we're trying to figure out if we want to put this on the agenda. So,

[1:56:38] » yeah, I think we need to put on agenda because I'm following what Rob just got

[1:56:41] to see on the fly. That's what I >> we get you as the backup came from River

[1:56:48] City rather than Palto. >> Yeah. Yeah. And so that Yes.

[1:56:52] » Yeah. Because it's a different county, Robert.

[1:56:54] » Yeah. I mean this is only a half a mile you know.

[1:57:00] So I mean I would be willing to put this kind of agenda item on the agenda if the

[1:57:06] chief is okay with it. But specifically with regard to PAL working off

[1:57:12] » again it's it's easy for me to >> put an item on my chief's report because

[1:57:18] a lot of director Bernstein's concerns I I could address right now. I just

[1:57:25] » I'd probably get kicked in the shin. >> Yeah, I would kick you in the shin. But

[1:57:29] um and I think it would give you a lot of um comfort in hearing what my

[1:57:34] response would be. Um so I could easily put it on my next month's chief's

[1:57:40] report. >> And we can and then we can see whether

[1:57:44] that answers the question sufficiently enough and I'll I'll put it out there

[1:57:47] enough so there can be some discussion around it.

[1:57:49] » Oh, sure. >> But I don't think it would, you know,

[1:57:51] require a really robust staff report as much as a conversation. I talked about

[1:57:56] Palatoto, what we're trying to do, the issues like you mentioned about with

[1:58:00] Redwood City shutting down a station because there's similar issues in North

[1:58:04] County that they've been able to address through technology now. So, it equalizes

[1:58:10] things. if that's satisfactory. I

[1:58:15] » I'm not arguing with that, but I was in the past I think we tried to make the

[1:58:21] chief's report not a discussion place

[1:58:24] » generally and but it's I'm I'm finding that we can address some of these things

[1:58:29] if I appropriately agendaize it so that the public's aware

[1:58:33] » that we can have a discussion without it creating a lot of staff work and a

[1:58:38] formal board or stat report. um you know and then we can just kind of have a an

[1:58:45] open dialogue about it and there could be a discussion and we can see if there

[1:58:49] if there's anything else that needs to be addressed but

[1:58:52] » as long as they have a discussion I'd be fine

[1:58:55] » then why why don't we hit that on next month's change report is that

[1:59:00] » I got it that's >> does that work for you

[1:59:04] » yes >> okay then let's do that and see that

[1:59:07] it's satisfactory okay then moving on to item Seven. Are there any new proposed

[1:59:13] agenda items?

[1:59:17] None. Okay. Then we'll go to reports. Committee reports. Emergency

[1:59:22] preparedness. Gary facilities. Robert.

[1:59:27] » Oh, we made I think the chief report we talked about it.

[1:59:30] » Okay. HR. We did not need finance. Robert, I

[1:59:36] know that Er's channel is actually muted.

[1:59:39] » Well, I think we went Elaine went over the same stuff that we went over

[1:59:43] tonight. So, I don't think I don't have anything else to add.

[1:59:47] » I've got one thing unless you saw his email.

[1:59:49] » I saw his email about the audit committee.

[1:59:52] » Yes. >> Yeah. So, um does any basically he sent

[1:59:57] Gary was Did he just text? Actually, Robert, I don't know if you've seen it.

[2:00:00] No, I haven't. >> Okay. So he just emailed it to us a

[2:00:04] couple of hours ago right before the meeting started and he basically says

[2:00:08] that the audit committee concurred with concurred with the staff recommendation

[2:00:13] to run an RFP process for our external auditors. So I don't know if anyone on

[2:00:19] that Robert or Mark >> basically that was yeah it normal

[2:00:24] process I don't know every what was the number how frequently six years

[2:00:29] » so just it's a best practice that we >> yeah we were in agreement that we we

[2:00:35] should do it and it's possible that we may select and it's permissible to

[2:00:40] reseelect I Bailey but >> but different members

[2:00:46] » but anyway Anyway, it's just a good best practice. And so that's what the finance

[2:00:50] audit committee agree and in concurrence with staff's recommendations.

[2:00:56] » Are we required to take the proposal with the lowest price if we do it that

[2:01:02] way? >> Uh no. Uh since it's an RFP cost is only

[2:01:06] one of you know the criteria uh for uh selecting you know there our you know

[2:01:13] external auditors. So it can be a combination of different things. So we

[2:01:17] don't necessarily need to actually choose you know the lowest cost b for

[2:01:21] that's

[2:01:24] » okay. Anything else from finance you outd did yourselves. Okay. Uh,

[2:01:31] liaison reports county has east.

[2:01:38] » I don't have anything. >> One little park. Really nothing to

[2:01:42] report except that I went to their spring fest and east drive hunt um on

[2:01:49] April 4th and it was a huge success. Thank you to the firefighters. they

[2:01:55] really outdid themselves and made sure that everyone who was there had a a good

[2:02:02] time. And then I went to um East Palato, it was the same thing. So it was

[2:02:06] wonderful. >> Think of anything else. I don't think I

[2:02:10] have anything else for you. Um Santo County

[2:02:17] for Santo County, but for the premed. >> Okay. Yes, that's the next thing. JPA.

[2:02:22] You know, I just emailed uh the board about 5:15 today some correspondence

[2:02:29] that they sent me involving the new uh contractor that

[2:02:47] contract. >> Yeah. The gist of it is is that JPA is

[2:02:53] hiring federal engineering to do an evaluation at the radio infrastructure

[2:02:59] as well as some procurement processes with the thoughts on

[2:03:07] anyway that's can be discussed at the meeting.

[2:03:14] » So they haven't cancelled the meeting. No, maybe not. And I don't think

[2:03:18] » Well, I mean, it's really problem, you know, they're doing this kind of

[2:03:24] hiring all that. Okay. Well, give us an update in May, I guess.

[2:03:31] » Nothing for the San Francisco

[2:03:36] director reports.

[2:03:40] I just wanted to shout out what you just talked about the

[2:03:45] the fire staff at the Easter egg hunt. I mean, I

[2:03:49] had a I had a great time and the families that that I was associate or

[2:03:54] interacting with, it was uh they was thrilled. I I have never seen that many

[2:03:58] kids in one location in the city since I've been there the last 45 years. And

[2:04:05] they all had fun. I mean, if I I wish I had have been taking some pictures

[2:04:09] because when they threw out the eggs, you could just s see a wave of kids just

[2:04:15] chasing after those eggs and it was I was just I was really tickled because if

[2:04:20] you can imagine when that happened and and the staff was good, too. I mean,

[2:04:24] they were very interactive with the uh the young kids that came by and did the

[2:04:29] face painting. And the balloon lady, she was there for almost what, three hours.

[2:04:34] And she stayed there and blew up every balloon for uh for every kid that was in

[2:04:40] line. She gave balloons. So, it was really good. It was real organized.

[2:04:45] So, thanks to the staff, the fire the fire folks for being there and putting

[2:04:51] it on. and and city council members, a couple

[2:04:55] of them came by and it was actually uh uh related to the turnout.

[2:05:04] » Okay, Chuck, anything? Yeah, just just one quick minor thing and that is um

[2:05:11] when I read the fire the fire analysis reports report um I was amazed you look

[2:05:20] at the fires and there's less than 2% of the calls are fires and this huge

[2:05:25] percentage of calls for false alarms and for so-called good intent whatever

[2:05:30] whatever that mean I mean we've talked about what that means but it really

[2:05:33] doesn't mean anything Um, and I somehow think we ought to see what we can do

[2:05:41] about reducing that because those by the time we add up the fuel costs and the

[2:05:47] depreciation and the people's times and I don't know if these are coming at 3 in

[2:05:52] the morning or if these are coming, you know, during the daytime primarily

[2:05:57] » they got the time on there. They got the time when all that stuff happens

[2:06:01] » but not on each different kind of call. In other words, for the false alarm, I

[2:06:05] don't know if people are doing false alarms at three in the morning or most

[2:06:08] of them are like school kids during the afternoon or whatever, but the idea of

[2:06:13] waking up people and and disturbing their sleep and so forth for false

[2:06:18] alarms, I think we should make some sort of an effort to reduce that. And um but

[2:06:24] since I don't know what the problem is, I don't know I don't have any idea what

[2:06:27] the solutions would be. But it would be worth some sort of a study or perhaps

[2:06:32] even a consultant or something um to to see how we could reduce the number of

[2:06:38] times those vehicles go out for a meaningless run.

[2:06:50] » President actually have a few things to talk about. Um, one, as I mentioned

[2:06:56] earlier in the meeting, I I attended the CSDA legislative day. I was there for

[2:07:03] SDRMA. Um, but it was really really good. One

[2:07:07] of the things that I mentioned earlier was about the LE potential LE

[2:07:11] legislation. Um the other thing that was very interesting was

[2:07:18] a lot of the proposed legislation revolved around AI

[2:07:22] and um just limiting AI or you know just constraining innovation and not even

[2:07:32] realizing that AI is being used for a lot of things and not you know that

[2:07:37] doesn't necessarily replace employee needs right so I just wanted to just put

[2:07:43] that out there. I talked about our drones as a first responder and some of

[2:07:46] the initiatives and the things that we've been doing and not just recently

[2:07:50] just over the last 10 years, right? The drone policies and things that we were

[2:07:56] doing early on. So, um I don't know if this is going to be a trend, but I hope

[2:08:02] that next year if there are any directors because we used to send

[2:08:06] directors there and even I mean Harold was Mark maybe you should go next year

[2:08:10] just because a lot of these um these proposed legislation legislative well

[2:08:17] proposed legislation might affect what we're doing I mean

[2:08:22] technologically and even with the life situation financially. So, I think that

[2:08:27] the more that the special districts get engaged, the more they take us

[2:08:33] seriously. So, I just want to put it out there that I think it's if if anyone's

[2:08:38] available to go next year, it's I think they're going to move the legislative

[2:08:42] days as a CSDA to April. I I think it would be worth it right now because

[2:08:48] there's just so many changes going on that I think we should hear about or

[2:08:53] give input about or input for. Um I also met with Josh Becker's office with Joan

[2:09:01] Dipler his district director and this is regard to the family on Alamita Del or

[2:09:08] in Atheus

[2:09:12] uh in the sirens and all of that. So, I don't know what the solution is, but I

[2:09:18] kind of offer us work with Gary and maybe Josh's office to go and talk to

[2:09:25] the family and maybe with Travis, but maybe I I don't know. So, we're we're

[2:09:30] trying to put figure out who should be there just so they to kind of educate

[2:09:35] them, right? I mean, it's not really there's nothing intentional about, you

[2:09:39] know, making having the sirens just go off willy-nilly there because that's not

[2:09:43] what we're happening. But I think it would be a good thing if we met with

[2:09:47] them face to face. So that so she wanted to to talk about that. Um, and the third

[2:09:53] thing was we had the interview with the potential clerks, the our board clerks.

[2:09:58] We interviewed three candidates today. They were all very very good and um

[2:10:04] based on the timeline I'm hoping that we'll have someone maybe by May by the

[2:10:10] May meeting. And so they're all experience. They come from um you know

[2:10:16] just different backgrounds, different parts of the state, some with larger

[2:10:19] cities, some with smaller cities, special districts, you know, that kind

[2:10:23] of thing. So any one of the three that we get, I think will be really good. And

[2:10:28] I just want to thank the board for you know kind of asking me to go and sit in

[2:10:33] on the interview. Um I did mention that the the importance of um the board clerk

[2:10:41] to the board and what it means you know for us to to have a very very close

[2:10:45] working relationship with with this whoever becomes the our next board

[2:10:50] clerk. So they understand that you know the board um input and the board's

[2:10:55] importance is is for us and it's important but also for the public it's

[2:11:02] important and I think they all stressed their role and responsibility to the

[2:11:07] board and and recogn

[2:11:19] Francine and Mark, thank you for being here and really fancying for your team

[2:11:23] for putting this process together. I thought it was really good and I think

[2:11:27] we have three good candidates. You can't go wrong with any of them.

[2:11:31] » Do you have anything to add about it? I think we um you know it was fast process

[2:11:36] but I think the candidates are you know we have

[2:11:48] » Okay. I'm just curious, do do most or all of

[2:11:53] them live locally? >> Um um well, what do you mean by locally

[2:11:57] in the Bay Area? Yes. But locally, there's one who lives um in Sano County.

[2:12:05] » But we're not planning to relocate. >> No, there's not a relocation issue that

[2:12:13] I know of. >> They Yeah, they all live within

[2:12:15] community distance. >> Yes.

[2:12:17] » Yeah. Okay. Anything else? Okay. Well, then I

[2:12:21] guess uh we'll adjourn on to the meeting of May 92 at 9.

[2:12:29] Thank you. Thanks, Denise. >> Thank you, everyone. Have a great

[2:12:32] evening.

[2:12:36] Thanks.

April 14, 2026 Board Meeting

Transcript