Urban water management plans are comprehensive regulatory documents that cities must update every five years to ensure sustainable water supply for current and future generations. These plans evaluate water demand, assess supply sources including groundwater, surface water, and recycled water, and implement conservation strategies to meet mandated reduction targets (such as California's 20% reduction requirement). The plans also include water shortage contingency plans that establish staged responses to potential supply disruptions, ensuring communities can maintain water services during droughts or emergencies. Effective water management requires a diverse portfolio of water sources to maintain reliability under varying conditions, along with ongoing conservation efforts and annual supply-demand assessments.
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Deep Dive
June 16, 2026 City Council Meeting
Added:Test. Test. One. Two. Three. Four. Five.
Hello.
Can you hear me?
>> Uh, yes I can.
>> Okay, great.
>> Hi, it's Eric Barner.
>> Yeah, >> that's way too Eric, can you try talking again?
>> I'm sorry, what?
>> Can you just try talking again? We're trying to adjust the volume.
>> Okay. Yes. Hi, it's Eric Garner from Best Busting Creger.
>> Do you want me to keep talking to set the volume or are you okay? Uh, stand by for just a second.
>> Sure.
>> Eric, go ahead and try again.
>> Okay. Testing one, two, three. Testing.
>> That's perfect. Thank you.
>> Sure.
Good afternoon everyone. It's Tuesday, June 16th, 5:15 and we are beginning our city council meeting for today. And we'll begin with uh roll call.
>> Council member Bosch. Council member Bosch is not present. Council member Beiel >> present.
>> Council member Gregory >> here.
>> Council member Strong >> present.
>> Mayor Hammond >> here. Uh we will have one close session item tonight. Conference with legal counsel and existing litigation. And we'll let uh Elizabeth Hall tell us what we're going to be talking about.
>> There we go. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. We are going into close session on just one item. It's conference with legal counsel regarding existing litigation pursuant to government code section 549 56.91.
and it is the case of Steinbeck Vineyards number one LLC versus the county of San Los Aispo at all and that's what we'll be talking about.
>> Very good. Thank you, Elizabeth. We'll open up then to public comment regarding this close session item. Anyone on in the room? No. Anyone online, Mary?
>> No, sir.
>> Okay, we'll go ahead and um adjourn to close session and reconvene at 6 pm open session.
Good evening everyone. It's Pastor It's uh Tuesday, June 16th, 6 PM, and this is our city council meeting for this evening. And we're going to go ahead and reconvene at 6 pm to open session. We'll begin with the flag salute led by city manager Huat and remain standing for our invocation by Rabbi Gordon.
>> With me please to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.
Almighty God, we ask you that you bless our mayor, council members, and all those who serve our city with wisdom, strength, and compassion, and they lead with integrity, listen with understanding, and work for the wellbeing of every individual and family throughout the city of Hero. May they be guided by your hands making decisions that serve the citizens of capital now and in the future. And may they encourage spirit of cooperation, respect and peace among all who call the city home. Jewish tradition teaches us seven universal laws given to human rights by God through Noah after the great flood, including the instruction to foster a moral society governed by law, ensuring human rights and freedom for all. These laws also include the obligation to serve God and God alone to respect the sanctity of his holy name and the prohibition against murder, theft, adultery and cruelty to creatures. This coming Thursday around the world will mark Giml the third day of a day connected to the life and legacy of Rabbi of blessed memory leader of the worldwide movement whose teaching continues to inspire millions around the world. The taught that every person possesses the ability and responsibility to bring more life, goodness, and purpose into the world and that even a single act of kindness to change the course of history for the better. May that awareness inspire all of each within our own sphere of influence to see opportunities to increase an act of goodness and kindness, uplifting others and strengthening our community.
Finally, we ask your blessings upon our dedicated city employees whose daily efforts often go unseen and upon your families who share the burdens and sacrifices of public service. Bless all who are gathered here today and all the residents of Pastor of Health, peace and prosperity. May we always remain mindful of how fortunate fortunate we are to live in this beautiful city surrounded by good people and served by devoted public service. We pray for peace and safety in our community across our nation in the holy land of Israel and throughout the entire world and the words of the blessing. May God bless you and protect you. May God shine his face upon you and be gracious to you. May God lift his face toward you and grant you peace. May this meeting and the work accomplished here today bring blessings and hope to all amen.
>> Amen.
And Mary, will you go ahead and call roll call, please?
>> Council member Bosch, >> here.
>> Council member Beiel, >> here.
>> Council member Gregory, >> here.
>> Council member Strong, >> here.
>> Mayor Hammond, >> here.
>> Next, staff introduction beginning on my right.
>> Mary Spawnhols, deputy city clerk, joined by Jessica Ferguson, permit technician.
>> Warren Fr, community development director.
Wendy Wayne, outside council.
>> Go ahead, David.
Chris Huat, city manager.
>> Elizabeth Hall, city attorney.
>> Okay. Thank you. Next, we have report out from close session. Attorney Elizabeth Hall. Can you let us know what we talked about?
>> Uh, thank you, Mr. Mayor. The council uh convened earlier convened earlier today uh and went into close session on conference with legal counsel regarding existing litigation pursuant to government code section 54956.9D1.
The name of the case is Steinbeck Vineyards number one LLC at all versus county of St. Louis Abyispo at all and there is no reportable action.
>> Thank you Lu. Uh next we have three presentations. We'll begin with Junth.
Then we have California Midstate Fair update and then the Fourth of July uh event preview. So if I could have Robin Johnson from the Sanos Visible NAACP come join me, please.
Okay. proclamation declaring the third Saturday in June as Junth day in the city of Pastor Robels. Whereas since 1865, the American celebration known as Junth has historically been observed and the end of the institution of slavery in our great nation. And whereas Junth embodies the indomitable human spirit of the past, the present, and all time. And whereas the celebration of Junth gives all of us the opportunity to rededicate ourselves to the true American spirit.
And whereas we are citizens who wish to secure the blessings of freedom, justice, and equality for all in this great nation of ours. Whereas June 19th, 2026 is Junth day in observance of a federal holiday in the United States commemorating the end of slavery.
Now therefore, let it be resolved that I, John Hammond, by virtue of the authority of Estimu uh and as mayor and speaking on behalf of the entire city council do hereby proclaim the third Saturday in June 2026 in the city of Pastor Robels as Junth day. Tobin, you like to say something? You bet. Mayor, >> Mr. Mayor, Council, um, my name is Tobin Johnson. As I mentioned, uh, last time I was before you, I was the president of the NACP slow. I am now the communications director, but I wanted to thank you all for this proclamation, as well as invite you to two amazing events this weekend. Uh, the first one being at uh, downtown City Park uh, here in Paso at 100 p.m. And then in slow, we'll be celebrating at Mission Plaza from 11 to 4:30. So, please come out and support these events. This is a lot of history uh that we want to make sure we cherish uh that history and support the cause.
Thank you very much.
>> Thank you, Mayor.
Moving on. Uh You're here.
>> California Midstate Fair update. Colleen text me just before I should tell everybody. You text me because you were down at the other other location. Yeah, >> that's how my life goes right now. I went to City Hall and then was like, "Oh, shoot. They moved."
>> Welcome.
>> They're coming.
>> And of course, gave myself plenty of time to make that in time. But thank you all for allowing me to come speak today.
I really have two parts of a presentation and I'll start with the business side of things since it's not as sexy or exciting. Um, the Pastoral Event Center is one of the city's largest tourism generators operating as a year-round economic engine while the California Midstate Fair serves as a major summer economic accelerator that drives visitation, employment, and spending throughout the region. The event center is widely recognized as the home of the California Midstate Fair, but its impact extends far beyond the fair's 12-day run each summer. The facility offers or I'm sorry, this facility operates year round, serving as a regional destination that attracts visitors, supports local businesses, generates employment opportunities, and contributes to tourism related tax revenues. Throughout the year, the event center hosts approximately 55 interm events with an average attendance of 1,250 guests per event. We're proud to provide a world-class venue for events that showcase the industries that define our region: agriculture, hospitality, tourism, and western heritage.
events that celebrate our community's identity while generating significant economic activity outside the fairgrounds such as Firestone Walker Invitational Beer Fest, Passover's Wine Fest and Calpali's Western Bonanza, just to name a few of our local ones. Some of the largest events of their kind in the world call the Passover Event Center home and we have worked hard to improve our grounds year over year after year.
These visitors contribute, excuse me, contribute directly to the local economy by utilizing hotels, restaurants, retail establishments, gas station, wineries, and other tourism related businesses.
The resulting visitor spending generates economic activity that benefits businesses throughout the community while contributing to toot and sales tax revenues. The California Midstate Fair, of course, serves as the event cent's largest economic driver and one of the region's most significant tourism events. During the 12-day period, the fair welcomes around 370 to 400,000 guests. The event consistently cons coincides with some of the highest hotel occupancy levels experienced throughout the year and generates substantial demand for lodging, dining, transportation, and retail services throughout Pasroals and neighboring communities. And I will tell you that my daughter supports all the downtown businesses wanting a new outfit every night for fair.
>> In addition to attracting visitors, the fair supports local employment through seasonal hiring and provides opportunities for local businesses to engage directly with hundreds of thousands of consumers. More than a 100 local sponsors annually partner with the fair, reflecting the business community's recognition of the fair's economic and community value. The fair also supports youth, agg, and local nonprofit programs. Over 3.1 million was generated last at last year's junior livestock auction. 235,000 at the industrial arts program with easily 90% of the buyers being local men, women, and businesses. In 2025, the California Midstate Fair donated $50,000 to participating nonprofit organizations including 4 groups, youth sports teams, schools, and churches selling our who sold our carnival wristbands.
Taken together, the annual fair and year-round interm continuous cycle of economic activity. interterm event sustains visitation and commerce throughout the year while the fair serves as a major summer accelerator that significantly increases regional visibility as well as being a time-honored tradition. As communities across California compete for visitors, tourism res revenue, and economic investment, the Passover's event center remains one of the city's most important economic assets. Its ability to attract visitors, generate overnight stays, support local businesses, create jobs, and showcase Passover to new audiences provides measurable benefits that extend well beyond the facility itself.
And now for the fun part, part two.
That's what's happening come 29 days, just in case you're wondering. Let's talk the fast approaching 2026 California Midstate Fair. Oh, that's me.
That's okay.
It's all good. This year we'll be celebrating our 80th fair taken into account in the 40s when we didn't have it for um World War II and then of course 2020 and then we had a modified fair. So we're at our 80th fair and our theme this year is back to the 80s and staff is taking this to a whole new level. This year we'll have theme days.
All 12 days there will be dress up themes for our patrons to come. Totally tubular summer, rhinestone cowboy, or born in the USA with staff handing out on spite on site spot prizes for the best dressed. And of course, our mullet contest is Tuesday, July 21st. So start I mean you could do it. I' I'd love to see it. Um, we have our cattleman's day, another timehonored traditions, Thursday, July 16th, honoring honoring this year's Slow County Cattleman, cattlewoman, and agriculturalist of the year. And then check out their window displays.
Do I need to talk louder?
>> Check out the window displays in Frontier Town that explains the rich history of these organizations in our county.
Friday, July 17th, we'll be honoring this year's top wine maker, wine great grower, and wine ind industry persons of the year, as well as honoring the Central Coast Wine Competition's winery of the year. We have additional events within our event, Get Crafty, where mixologists combine local farm-totable products and local crafts into a tasty competition. our Central Coast Wine Competition gold medal wine tasting where you can sample the many wines that won gold medals or double gold medals during the Central Coast Wine Competition.
Industrial Arts will be back showcasing high school students across the county who have drafted projects from welding to woodworking and of course our exhibits building showcasing the best of the county what they have to offer in sewing, art, photography, floor culture and so much more.
Kids Day on the farm where kids can experience a farming demonstration, participate in planting, watering, harvesting, and enjoying the fruits of their labor with literal fruit. Horse show. We have new um events this year.
We have a ladies open breakaway and we have a way uh trails course. Then of course the return of farmers Olympics, our sorting, our country rodeo and then you have our livestock area where 4 and FFA exhibitors showcase their livestock to see who will take grand champion shopping.
Dining this year a fun dining experience is um Old West cinnamon roll is having a tiramisu cinnamon roll. Classic cinnamon rolls drizzled with a fresh coffee, covered in rich espresso infused cream cheese frosting, and topped with a sprinkle of chocolate chips and a dash of cocoa powder. So, if the sugar didn't keep you awake, the coffee will. And if the day-to-day activities aren't enough, we're offering waves to say. Farm Supply admission is on sale now, June 8th to July 14th.
Discounted daily admission tickets where you can get an adult admission ticket for $11.50 50s. Normally at the gate, if you wait, it's $15.
The first day, our first fair day, which is July 15th, it's free carnival ride days, but you can buy prior to this to the fair, you can buy wristbands that are good any one day at the fair, and they're on sale for $35 through numerous nonprofit organizations, and they get a portion of that back. new this year.
Also, we understand that the econ economy is hard for families and it's a lot to spend and we have a lot of station dollars here, but we try we're trying to help people a little bit so that they can come and enjoy. And we have a new happy hour. So, every Monday through Thursday from 4:00 to 5:00 and every Friday, Saturday, Sunday from noon to 2, there will be a variety of items available for only $5 during that time.
And every single vendor is participating, whether it's a corn dog, lemonade, deep fried, something will have something from every vendor. And then to stick with the 80s theme, we have a really a little small roller rink that we'll be having that's free to all the patrons. They paid to get in and then you can go and skate around just like Skatemore, the skate ranch if you're that old. And then of course we have six stages of live entertainment.
Our fort frontier starts with the Miss California Midstate Fair pageant. Founded in 1969 as the maid of St. Louis Bispo County and evolved to a modern scholarship competition that empowers young women to embody the heart of the fair and the pasobals and the central coast community. Then we'll have local artists High Voltage, Mickey Dolan's another local artist Sasha Carlson, null Torres, John Hollier and the Rivier, the Revery, another local artist, Steven Styles, Shannonoa, Something Out West, which is Tom Hank's son for anybody who knows, Low Cash, Queens Reich, and Herardo, Colonel Eljerry. Harry and of course on the main stage first ever prefair concert should be super fun and it is a lot of logistics going into it but we have Chris Stapleton on the 14th of July.
Then to kick off our concert series for Fair, Old Dominion, Ice Cube, Laney Wilson, Eric Church, Phil Wickham, Meade Death, Howard Jones with Modern English, English Beat and Wang Chung, Willie Nelson, Treaty Oak Revival, Three Dog Night Ambrosia, and then you can come and see our local cowboys and cowg girls compete under the stadium lights in our 805 country rodeo finals. To round out the e the fair, we have a good oldfashioned tractor tractor pull on the last night. For six generations, 80 fairs, families have made memories at the California Midstate Fair.
Grandparents who went to exhibited livestock now watch their grandchildren in the show ring. Parents who attended concerts for the first time are taking their kids to a concert for the first time. And they're all experiencing the same traditions. The fair is the one of the few places where our entire community comes together, urban and rural, young and old, longtime residents, and first-time visitors. We hope you're able to come and enjoy these traditions as well as make some new ones. So, thank you for having me today.
Do you have any questions?
>> Yeah, Colleen, I I it looks like to me we're up a couple days on the month.
We're starting a little sooner than we did last year, it looks like. Is that >> Yes. So, that's just the way the calendar falls.
>> Um, we had the choice to be the 15th or the next week. We try and keep it within the month because it helps with payroll and paperwork and all that fun stuff.
>> Keep out of the heat hopefully too.
Chris, >> hi Colleen.
>> Hi.
>> Um, great presentation. Thank you. Uh, great lineup. Uh, thank you.
>> All for all the concerts and on both stages, all three stages, I guess. Um, normally we get a night off, but I don't think we get a night off this year. No.
>> Um, I missed uh what the industrial arts auction raised last year. How much was that?
>> 235,000.
>> Awesome. And should be able to do that again this year.
>> Yes. Hope so.
>> It's a great great part of the fair. So, >> it is. And that's Thursday, the first Thursday of the fair. So, that's the 16th. 16th. And previews at 11:00. Uh, auctions at 12. Auction and awards start at 12. and then goes right into cattleman's day that evening.
>> It's a great day to be at the fair.
>> Thanks. Best of luck.
>> Thank you.
>> Any other questions?
>> Uh, thank you, Colleen.
>> Thank you.
>> Doing this and um Oh, we want to have a question. Go ahead.
>> Um, Linda George, 3126 Spring Street.
Where are you?
>> I am an 80s kid.
>> So, I didn't hear um MTV >> VJ. And are there discounts if we graduated in 80s?
>> There is a discount at Farm Supply. It's $11.50. So there you go. Um, no, but there will be there might be some popup things that happen at the fair. We're we've still got some fun fun things planned.
>> Okay. Colleen Borhas, CEO, California Midstate Fair. Thank you, Colleen.
Next presentation we have is uh Fourth of July event preview. An Helica 14, you have that for us.
Good evening, city council. The community services department is excited to be taking the lead role in planning this year's Fourth of July. However, I have the honor of introducing Linda Plesia, who is our Fourth of July committee chair this year to actually provide the update. So, please welcome Linda Plesia.
>> Hi, Linda.
Feeling pretty special about those claps. Thanks. Um, great. We've got the presentation up. Good evening, mayor and council members. I'm Linda Plesia, recreation services manager, and I have the privilege of coordinating this year's Fourth of July celebration at Barney Schwarz Park. As our nation marks its 250th anniversary, we're looking forward to bringing the community together for an evening of patriotism, family fun, and celebration. Played.
Here we go. An event of this size doesn't happen without a tremendous team effort. Since February, our planning committees have been working behind the scenes to coordinate every detail and create a memorable celebration worthy of this historic milestone.
Staff from seven city departments have collaborated to develop and implement an extensive event plan ensuring that everything from public safety to parking, entertainment, and guest services is ready for a safe and successful celebration.
The stage comes alive at 5:30 with Garden Party followed by Stepping Out at 700 p.m. At 900 p.m. will pause to honor our country with the national anthem performed by rising country artist and seventh generations Shanden native Callie Twistleman before launching into the spectacular fireworks show.
The free family fun zone returns to field one and offers something for everyone, including inflatable obstacle courses and slides, water games, cornhole, axe throwing, they're silicone, bright day big blocks, and the new Paso Play on Wheels wreck band. It's a great place for families to make memories while celebrating 250 years of American history.
Community volunteers are the heart of the event. We have filled nearly all 60 volunteer shifts thanks to the generosity of local residents, the police department's community volunteer patrol, and community emergency response team volunteers. Their support helps us provide a safe, welcoming, and enjoyable experience for thousands of attendees.
We're incredibly grateful to our 19 local business sponsors who have contributed approximately $95,000 in cash and inind support for this year's event. Their partnership helps ensure this cherished cherished community tradition remains free for everyone and allows us to celebrate America's 250th birthday in a truly special way.
As a thank you for their support, sponsors are invited to enjoy a catered barbecue, complimentary refreshments throughout the evening, and access to a reserved viewing area for one of the best seats in the park when the fireworks begin.
On behalf of the event committee and our many partners, thank you for your continued support of this event. We look forward to welcoming thousands of residents and visitors to Barney Schwarz Park as we celebrate our nation's 250th anniversary together. I'd be happy to answer any questions.
>> Real quick question on it. Uh there Linda.
Last year we had a firework total length of about 20 25 minutes. Wasn't is that about what we're thinking about next this time or >> we ordered the same length of show that we had last year?
>> That's what I thought. Okay.
>> It was pretty spectacular. Not a very short one. That's what I was wondering.
Yeah. Okay. Any other questions from Linda?
>> Very good. Thank you for the pres.
>> Thank you.
>> Looking forward to that and also all the volunteers that stepped up to help this all happen. I really appreciate that. Uh moving on, we have general public comments. Uh this is the time that the public may address the council on items within its purview but not scheduled on tonight's agenda.
Council or staff may briefly respond to statements or questions posed by the public. Please fill out a speaker card and give it to the city clerk on before you plan to speak. You'll have three minutes. Um those people wishing to speak on any item scheduled on tonight's agenda will be given the opportunity to do so at the time the item is being considered. Anyone in public wish to make a public comment, come forward.
>> Welcome.
>> Hi, Linda George, 3126 Spring Street.
Um, what a wild weekend. Um, I just wanted to bring to your guys's attention one more time because I think we're getting really close there. The Fox Theater, they have that board so pulled out and we have no squatter protection if somebody gets in there. Um each time I drive by, I think the homeless are working on that board. So once they get in it, it's going to be a real big issue. Um I went to Safety Fast and it was really cool. This year I actually got to see up close the um K-9 um demonstration and I would never want to be on that end of being tackled by one of those dogs. It was really It was really kind of scary to be honest. Um, so I don't have it's been a long weekend for me, but I just wanted to say that I got a lot of pictures. I sent them to Chief Nord. I thought that the Safety Fest is like one of the best festivals we have downtown because, you know, I'm the queen of safety. So, I hope it continues. Um, and then the other thing that Dale forgets to say every meeting is and got brought back up to me, when are we going to find out about the paid parking money?
If we're ever going to get paid back.
Um, you guys have gotten away for almost two years about sweeping it under the carpet, hoping that one of us would not forget or or maybe forget, I should say.
Um, but somewhere along the line that needs to be attended to because I'm three parking tickets in and I'd like my money back. Thank you.
>> Thank you.
>> Anyone else in public comment?
Do we have anyone online, Mary?
>> No, sir.
>> Okay.
Go ahead and then u move on then to agenda items to be deferred. Mr. Hua, do we have any of that?
>> Mayor, no items, excuse me, no items for deferral this evening.
>> Very good. U then we'll move on to overview of the items on consent calendar. Do we have one through eight tonight?
>> Yes. Thank you, mayor. Yes, as you mentioned, eight items on the consent calendar tonight. The first is the approval of the meeting minutes for the June 2nd, 2026 regular city council meeting. The next is the receipt of advisory body minutes. Uh this is for the airport commission uh for several meetings dating back to April of last year, then August of last year, October of last year, December of last year, and then finally February of this year. Item number three is the receipt of the warrant register. Uh since the last time we met, the city has made $2.8 million uh worth of payments. I'll cover those that exceed $100,000 or more, which I believe there are five. Uh the first is a payment to Granite Construction Company. Uh this is related to design the design contract for the South Vine Street Bridge in the amount of $449,197.
Uh next is a payment to Mainline Engineering. Uh this is for the Riverside Capitol Hill Almond uh area utility upgrades out of the water fund in the amount of $34,973.75.
Next is a payment made to US Bank. Uh this is related to some wastewater revenue bonds that were issued in 2012 and this is the the debt payment on those out of the wastewater fund in the amount of $420,97865.
Uh next is a payment to JJ Fischer Construction. This is related to the construction contract associated with the pickle ball court complex at Sherwood Park in the amount of $105,862.
And then finally, a payment to the county animal services division. This is related to the quarter 4 payment for animal control services that the county provides to the city in the amount of $122,327.50.
Moving back to the consent calendar, item four is the appointment of Margaret Holstein to fill a role a spot on the supplemental sales tax oversight committee. Number five is declaration of certain property as surplus and approval of disposal. This isn't real property.
This is uh vehicles and and uh computers and such. Item number six is the approval of a professional services agreement with community action partnership of St. Louis Abyispo County for senior center senior center operating services. Uh the city previously contracted for these services and the prior operator was no longer able to provide services. city staff has been uh running the senior center on a day-to-day basis for the last several months as we issued an RFP and went through this process. Uh this contract is budgeted for in next year's budget.
Uh item number seven is related to Commerce Way, which is of course a longtime road repair project uh that has been coming. Uh this is the denial of a bid protest by Caesar Construction and then an approval of a resolution that authorizes the construction contract to West Rock Engineering uh for those road repairs on Commerce Way. And then finally on the consent calendar tonight, number eight is the approval uh to add an arborist, Seth Seth Wilkkey, to the city's certified arborist list. And with that, mayor, we're happy to answer any questions.
>> Thank you, Chris. Uh questions of the council on anything here we have going on? Anybody wish to pull anything?
>> Okay. Open up then the public. Anybody wishing to have any questions on the consent calendar, please come forward.
>> Dale Augustine, I just want to thank you for putting Margaret Holing on the uh oversight committee. She has stepped up and been the president of Main Street since uh Norma Moy passed away and she's doing an excellent job in that position.
Thank you.
>> Okay. Anyone else?
Okay. Do we have any money online, Mary?
>> No, sir.
>> Okay. Bring it back council for uh direction and or action.
>> Tim Gregory. I move that we approve consent agendas items one through eight.
>> Second >> motion by Gregory, second by be discussion.
>> Okay, we'll call for the question Mary.
>> Council member Gregory >> I.
>> Council member Beal >> I.
>> Council member Bosch >> I.
>> Council member Strong >> I.
>> Mayor Hammond >> I.
>> Motion passes unanimously.
>> Good. Thank you. Moving on to public hearings. We'll open up public hearings and we have the first one is approval of resolution confirming the existence of weeds and noxious growth creating a potential fire hazard and ordering their abatement.
Paul Patty, you have that for us.
>> Good evening, Mayor Hammond, members of city council and city staff.
Paul Patty, battalion, chief fire marshall for the city of Pastor Robels.
The 2026 hazardous fuels outlook. Pass robbles experienced a significant increase in rainfall this year. We recorded 16.36 inches of rainfall compared to 9.47 in last year and exceeded our historic annual average since records began in 1942. While increased rainfall promotes healthy vegetation growth, the estab the absence of periodic rain during the summer months causes grasses and weeds to dry rapidly, creating hazardous fuel conditions. The city of Pasarobels takes a proactive approach to reducing these fire hazards. In 2018, the city adopted an ordinance establishing minimum requirements for the baitment of hazardous weeds, fuels, and rubbish.
Historically, vegetation fires within the city increase in both frequency and size between July and November. Over the past 5 years, the city has experienced a significant reduction in vegetation fires. This reduction reflects the success of our weed abatement program and Selenus River vegetation management and fuels mitigation efforts. Those would be the goats and sheep that are in there.
2026 hazardous fuels abatement inspections. The city of Pasar Robels contains approximately 11,900 parcels.
All parcels were inspected for compliance with our ordinance the second week of May. Initial inspections identified 662 non-compliant properties.
Property owners found to be in violation were mailed notices to the address of record maintained by the county assessor. Follow-up inspections conducted during the last week in May and first week of June reduced that number of non-compliant properties from 662 to 195. Following the city council's June 4th, 2026 adoption of a resolution declaring certain properties to be public nuisance due to hazardous fuels and/or refuse, a second notice was mailed to affected property owners and properties were physically posted with a notice of hearing for today's public hearing. Inspections have continued over the past two weeks with the number of non-compliant properties decreasing daily as we work towards our goal of full compliance before July 1st. As of this morning, the number of properties listed in exhibit A has further been reduced to 23 properties that remain in violation of ordinance 1068NS.
I have an updated exhibit A for submission to the city clerk and inclusion in the city record. Tonight, staff requests that the remaining properties identified in exhibit A be declared public nuisances, thereby authorizing the fire chief to proceed with abatement of hazardous fuels and/or refues in accordance with ordinance number 1068 NS. End of report.
>> Thank you, Paul.
Questions of uh Paul Patty?
>> Okay. Um, anybody out there wishing to come forward? Please come forward.
Welcome.
>> You're public comment. You bet.
>> I don't usually speak in public, so >> state your name, ma'am.
>> I'm Tony Shireen. I have one of the properties stated 88 Mountain Springs Road. I have pictures of my property as well. And I've also contacted the fire department and the city and I think the fire chief in reference to my property.
When I got the first notice on my property, they stated first notice was a generic notice that they sent to everybody. And I have pictures of this generic notice. Okay.
It doesn't specify what is wrong with my property per se. And I I understand they have tons to send out. So I I understand that. Okay. But it doesn't help me to fix my issue if I don't know what the issue is. Okay. So I contacted and I got somebody to look up what the report was on my property and they said it was some weeds that were under some trees in my backyard. Those weeds were cleaned up.
I knew nothing else other than that's what I was told. Okay. I left and went to Texas for nine days. Came back and I have another notice on my property.
Okay. So, my point in doing this is there is a huge covert runs down Mountain Springs Road.
At the end of Mountain Springs Road where you go up Almond Springs Road, there's a concrete area for that culvert.
From that point down, there is rock to hold the culvert together. There is no concrete in that area at all. The weeds are overgrown. The weeds are taking over that whole culvert. The whole culvert is eroding all the way down. Anytime we get bad rains, it erodess even more. It's eroding right up to the road and right up to the side of my property. There's no weed abatement for that cover.
It was done last year per my son and I calling and asking who is in control of this culvert because I don't know who to contact. Somebody came out, they cleaned the culvert to a certain point and stopped. They didn't go to the end of the cover where the fire hydrant is and where the concrete ends.
So, none of that was cleaned out. It was just in front of my house.
So, I have pictures to show you and maybe somebody can explain to me what they want me to clean up on my property. If you look at the pictures or somebody looks at the pictures and says, "Hey, this is what you need to clean up." My property when I moved into it in in 2017 18 was nothing but coyote bush everywhere from the retaining wall all the way around 360 was coyote bush. I did spider crawl throughout that whole property.
cut the coyote coyote bush with loppers by myself all the way doing a ridge line to cover that mountain. That mountain goes up a slope like this, but I cut it at the very top of the slope. I had somebody inspect it from the fire department and said, "Where is the ridge line? Where do I stop?" I have to have visitation on that hillside. Okay, >> you can already see it coming down from the water seepage.
So, I can't maintain the vegetation and still not have it fall into my yard.
So, I need help trying to figure out where my citation is coming from, how to correct my citation, and if somebody is going to step in. I talked to somebody said it's on the schedule to come out and fix the culvert for July August.
That doesn't stop my citations.
>> Okay. What what we're going to do is uh have u fire chief or fire marshall Patty get a hold of you probably maybe give a card and we can probably do one-on-one to make sure you understand what needs to be done. And I'm assuming that Culver is in the city's rightway or >> they came out and fixed it before >> because I know Mountain Springs is county. Paul, maybe we can take a look at that, too. So, anyway, we'll definitely get you fixed and um >> um they don't have my phone number on that card.
>> Paul's going to give you his card. Do you have a card or something? Yeah, make contact with you afterwards. Thank you, ma'am.
>> Thank you.
>> I got another notice, so definitely call me and I'll explain.
>> Okay. Anyone else uh in the audience?
Seeing none, anyone online?
>> No, sir.
>> Okay. We'll go ahead and bring it back then to council for direction on item one, public hearing.
>> Mayor Hammond.
>> Prot Gregory. I move we approve resolution 26XXX confirming the existence of public nuisance described in exhibit A and ordering the abatement of weeds and noxious growth to abate the nuisance.
>> Second motion by Gregory, second by Strong. Discussion.
Okay. Call for the question.
>> Council member Gregory.
>> I.
>> Council member Strong.
>> I.
>> Council member Bosch.
>> I.
>> Council member Beal.
>> Hi.
>> Mayor Hammond. I >> motion passes unanimously.
>> All right. Thank you, Paul.
>> Uh moving on, we have public hearing and adoption of 2025 urban water management plan and readoption of the water shortage contingency plan.
And Christopher's not here, but we have our water manager or water individual.
>> Good evening, mayor. Um members of the council and members of the public, my name is Robert Deany. I'm the water utility manager um for the city of Paso.
Um joining me online is Christopher Akal. He's the utilities director. He's home recovering from surgery. He's here in spirit. Um so tonight we're presenting the city's 2025 urban water master plan for adoption.
Next slide.
Um item includes four attachments. One is the 2025 resolution for the uh water shortage uh contingency plan adoption. I'll speak a little bit more about why that's in there in a minute. Um next is the resolution for the adoption of the urban water management plan. Uh the actual attach the actual plan itself. And then there are a few revisions that we included um that arose after we published it for public comment.
Next slide. So both the the current urban water master plan and the uh this the shortage contingency plan were adopted in 2021.
Um preparation of the update to the water management plan uh began early this year and we published a public draft on May 15th.
Next slide.
Um the purpose of the urban uh water management plan, it's a comprehensive plan planning document. Um all California water suppliers need to um update it every 5 years. Um while it fulfills a a regulatory uh requirement, it also serves as a long range sort of planning document and roadmap for managing and protecting our water resources over the next 20 years and beyond.
Next slide. So, the plan documents current and projected water supplies, evaluates future water demands, outlines conservation and demand management strategies, and demonstrates how the city will continue to provide reliable water um into the future for both normal and drought conditions.
Um, so urban water management plan also includes the city's water shortage contingency plan. It's included as appendix C in the plan itself. Um, it's also being presented for you here uh for readoption. Staff reviewed the shortage contingency plan um from from 2020 um and determined that it remains current.
it continues to fulfill um all regional needs and applicable state regulations and so therefore no significant changes are required. So we're adopting it adopting it without changes. Um so the preparation of this plan um has been a collaborative effort between the city staff and our consulting team. At this time I would like to introduce Moren Riley from Todd Groundwater who's going to provide a more detailed overview of the plan.
Welcome, Moren.
>> Hi.
>> As Robert mentioned, my name is Moren Riley. I'm principal engineer with Todd Groundwater, and we helped prepare the urban water management plan for 2025. We also helped the 2020 urban water management plan. I'm joined with my team, Ardan Wells and Kate White, and we we're here today to present the urban water management plan and water shortage contingency plan. Oh, next slide.
The basics of an urban water management plan is to look at the water demand, your water supply sources, and to see if they match. We also look at water supply reliability in terms of climate change, drought, and other natural disasters.
And as Robert said, we have the water shortage contingency plan to look at just that. What happens in case water supply isn't sufficient? What's the backup plan? The 2025 urban water management plan remains very similar to the 2020. It's just an opportunity to update every five years and this year the requirements were very similar to the last period.
The urban water management plan is prescribed by DWR, the Department of Water Resources. It's a state level organization and we have to update it every five years. The plan looks out 20 years into the future to make sure that you have adequate supply for growing demand. And it also tracks a mandated 20% reduction that we set back in the 2010 urban water management plan and to make sure that the water use is sufficient and adequate within the city.
It documents water supplies planned for existing and future demands and also looks at short-term and long-term resource planning.
A brief overview of units. We talk about a lot of different units in water. The first one is gallons per per capita per day. This is water use per person per day. We look at the treated water delivered to the entire city over the course of a year. And then we divide by the total service area population and the number of days in a year. So you'll hear me mention gallons per capita per day. That's just the water use of a person for a day. acre foot is what's commonly used in water supply. That represents 326,000 gallons or basically filling a 1 acre property with 1 foot of water. And to give that in perspective, a single family home here uses about a third. So a third of an acre foot per year for a single family home for water demand.
Water demand looks at the baseline and target. As I mentioned, there was a special legislation about water supply targets, water demand targets in 2010.
And we looked at the baseline. What is the city currently using? And we look at a period 1999 to 2008 to see what was the starting point. Back then, it was 241 gallons per person per day. And over the course of each urban water management plan, there's been different targets to ratchet down that use to get to that 20% reduction by 2020 and holding that steady onward. In 2015, you met it very well. The interim target was 217 gallons per capita per day and the actual water use was 151. In 2020, the target then was 193 gallons per capita per day. And the 2020 usage was 164. And now in 2025, we're even less with 159.
So great job. We've met the target and continue to maintain that adequate level of water demand per person.
We look at future water demand. A lot of this is based on the city general plan buildout and the growth assumptions that you have made through your planning choices. We associate that with representative water demand factors, what is usually used for a single family home or a commercial development. And then we apply a little bit of future conservation. You fixtures are getting more conservative. We have a lot more legislation coming in requiring conservation. And that's all baked into the table that you see up above. Um the first row is population. The city is growing in size over the the projected horizon. We have to look out that 20 years to 2045, but we also have buildout here for reference. So you know where we're going. Water demands here are expressed in acre feet per year. And then we calculate the expected water use per capita per day. And we're still below that target that was set for 2020 and beyond.
Once we have the future demand, we need to look at future supply to make sure we can meet that demand. Um at here in the city, you are lucky to have a portfolio of water supplies and each one is represented by a different color on this chart. Starting with uh the basin wells, groundwater aquifer wells on the bottom.
Wells that are close to the river that pull in some surface water as a well as groundwater. Nosy manta water that comes to the water treatment plant. There's no water that comes from recovery wells and then recycled water to offset the that portable demand. All in all, each one has its own growth over that time period. And we can see by the time we get to buildout, there is adequate supply to meet demand with the various water supplies that you have access to.
There's sufficient supply available for the existing community and planned growth, which is an important component of the urban water management plan. Um, we'll continue to update the urban water management plan every five years to account for the growth and changes that occur over that time. any changes in drought, climate change projections or state requirements and of course the supply availability and reality and reliability that changes over time. Um if there are changes from the general plan, different developments that were not considered, those are handled in water supply assessments per city policy and they're handled one-on-one to make sure that they're not impacting the future water demand and supply of the city.
The keys to continuing water supply reliability is to maintain that diver diverse portfolio of supplies because you have river water and groundwater and nanto water. If any of those are disrupted, you have other sources to rely on. Each one is has different reliability under different circumstances. And of course, recycled water is droughtproof and it's a great way to help m maintain that portfolio.
It's also important to continue implementing water conservation and one whole chapter of the urban water management plan documents your water conservation efforts. I saw a sign on the way in. The city's doing a great job and just continue to implement those going forward.
Again, continue planning for additional recycled water use that's not impacted by droughts or climate change and is a great way to have supply reliability.
And finally, the city must prepare an annual water supply and demand assessment every year to look out for the next fiscal year to make sure you have available supply and demand.
The water shortage contingency planning document is like I said, exactly what it sounds. It's the backup plan for if supply doesn't meet demand in a single year. What the state has mandated is that there's different stages of water water shortage. This could be because of a drought, an earthquake, another disruption. But stage one is where we are now with no no shortage and it includes up to 10% reduction voluntary.
There's different water conservation measures associated with each stage. Uh once we get to stage two, if there's a 20% shortage that happened statewide over the last drought, there's more mandatory measures that come in, irrigation uh limits and such. And as we go down the stages, the shortage increases as well as the mandatory conservation increases. So you get to where your supply does meet your demand. You you've reduced your demand thanks to conservation in in matching that supply.
Um the water shortage contingency plan quantifies those conservation measures to make sure that the numbers add up and that you're actually saving based on those implementations.
Oh, and there was no changes from the 2021. Still the same plan. Finally, the city has sufficient supply for serving the existing and planned growth. The supply again is a diverse portfolio and reliable and the city has achieved targeted conservation required by the state and will continue to meet those conservation programs as projected.
The next steps are to for you to approve the urban water management plan and then we enter this information into the DWR water use portal. It's a sub um prescribed system of tables and text and we're currently updating at this minute the portal to reflect all of your numbers to report into the state.
Do you have any questions or comments on the plan? Okay, >> thank you Moren. We'll go ahead and open up Chris Beiel.
Thank you for the presentation. Can you just go back to the per capita use please and rem and um tell us what uh number you're using for the volume used like residential commercial.
>> Um so there's this side that when we calculated the targets there was different methods that DWR prescribed.
It's very much calculate this. I believe here we use the method one which is looking at all water demand in the city dividing it by the population. So your commercial is tied in there, industrial, it's not just residential use, but it is divided out over your population.
>> And then the big decrease in per capita demand there is primarily due to the change in landscape, right? Is >> Yeah. Well, um, a lot of things happened between the baseline and the 2015. Part of that is recycled water kind of got a credit with baseline and so we're only looking at the portable demand. Your recycled water is taken out. So you get a little bit of a bonus there. Um there was a drought in the early 2010sish that uh people conserved and then we saw conservation just stay once people got a lowflow toilet they kept the lowflow toilet. Um but it's also we had the opportunity to choose the baseline period was 10 years and there was we optimized to have the maximum baseline to have more flexibility >> and I think it's important for people to remember that these numbers will can be very seasonally driven based on very based on rainfall right so the less rain that we get the more water we're going to be applying for irrigation >> and it goes it's a whole spectrum so if you have a lot of rain you don't have a lot of water use. If you don't have a lot of rain, you're making up for that with water use, watering your lawn. But if you're getting into that stage two or stage three of water conservation, you might have restrictions on watering your lawn. And so you might then see a decrease in per capita demand.
>> And this might be for you or it might be for Christopher. What do you anticipate kind of future changes in terms of rules or laws or the way um technologies being >> I'll let Christopher answer, but I'll give my two cents first. Um California has very strict water conservation rules when compared to the rest of the country. Uh 2018 there was a suite of legislation that was the conservation is a way of life in California and so it requires cities and residential to conserve a lot by by law that's updating the plumbing codes mandatory restrictions and so it's only going to go down from here. Water conservation is a way of life in California and I think the population is well educated partly thanks to the city efforts locally and so I think you'll have no problem meeting future baseline. Great.
>> Um we're going to we should and continue and plan to continue to expect changes in regulations to to change the way we think about water and use water and and we've made great strides over the years.
Um but that we still have some room for improvement. And then some of the new development that's going in, the landscape is actually plumbed for future connection to recycled water. Is that correct?
>> That's correct.
>> And then last one. So like here we're approving our, you know, municipal water water plan, right? But we are part of a larger basin. Overall, how much uh of the total basin does the city pump in the basin's amount of groundwater?
Typically the city's pumping about a thousand acre feet from the basin. Um that has a estimated perennial yield um of about 60,000 acre feet per year.
>> Great. Thank you.
>> You're welcome.
>> Marine, uh you might not sure if you can address this, but I know that there's new regulations coming down from Sigma with regard to decorative grass. Um you might explain to the public that that's coming, so to speak.
>> Yeah, and that's what Christopher just mentioned. Decorative grass is nonfunctional turf is what it's called.
>> And in um areas like Palm Springs, >> a desert that has a lot of non-functional turf, it's a big it's going to have a big effect in water demand. Here it'll have an effect, but not nearly as big night and day as in Palm Springs. Um that is part of the water conservation is a way of life um legislation and it's going to be Yeah, it's coming.
>> Very good. Prote Gregory.
>> Yes. Um I think it's on the next slide.
you have a per capita that one. So the reason for the increase on the use per capita is that because of industrial uses incre increasing in the city.
>> I'm not 100% sure on why it's increasing >> because you know we were we were way up and we got it down and >> looks like it's creeping out.
>> I I can speak to that and and that is that that is true. Um >> Council Member Gregory it's a it's a change in the relative mix of of residential and commercial. Okay. And I also want to point out that these estimates in the urban plan are very conservative. When we do our water resource planning, um we're looking at kind of historically what have we seen as our our higher level demands. What we're trying to do here is demonstrate that even kind of under the high demand conditions in the city that we'll have adequate water supplies to provide for the community through buildout. Um are we going to hit 9451?
Probably not. But um you know based upon past use we could potentially and if we were to hit that number we're just showing that we've got adequate supplies to meet it.
>> Very good. Thank you.
>> Yeah. And some of those changes with the non-functional turf will will reduce that per capita demand.
>> Okay. Thank you very much for the answer.
>> Councilman Balos, >> can you uh clarify the non-functional turf that's uh going to start with commercial? Um, is there any plans for residential?
>> Christopher, do you want to take that one on how it's implemented here?
>> Yeah, that's that's that's going to be the case. I I don't know the timelines off the top of my head. Um, Kirk is is working on that and and pushing that forward for the city. But, um, yeah, it's going to start with commercial.
That's going to be the first roll out and then following that, we're going to see restrictions on on on, you know, broader restrictions throughout the city. and and in other basins that I've worked in, it starts with new development, right? You're not going to take out your front yard, but new developments that come in will have restrictions on the amount of irrigated area. Um, as I mentioned, in Palm Springs, they have a lot of grant funding to help people turn in their turf yard into a more drought tolerant landscape.
>> What on the on the commercial side, what we're seeing, I mean, what what I've read about it, it's like hotels that have decorative lawns, those will be asked to to remove the decorative lawns.
What what h kind of an impact does that have on say a golf course? So golf course, most of a golf course is functional. It's just the ornamental area that might have to be changed to be more drought tolerant, not you know heavy intensive turf use, but maybe natural grasses that don't need as much irrigation.
>> And then something like a winery that uses their lawn for reception area or events, things like that, does that become functional?
>> That's a good question. I would guess >> that that is that is functional. Yes.
Awesome. Thank you. I think it's just the the front yards, the green area in front of the hotel that nobody ever uses.
>> Councilman Strong.
>> Yes. Can I assume that that also applies to sports fields such as >> those are functional? So, a soccer field that uses turf that is allowed.
>> Thank you. Doesn't the building code already um I think on new construction, Christopher, that uh there's only like 25% can be in turf.
>> Yeah, >> it's the model land.
>> The model land.
>> Yeah.
>> Yeah. Go ahead. Oh, you can go ahead.
>> Yeah, the model landscape ordinance that the city has adopted outlines all those existing restrictions. And you are correct, >> right? That's what I remember a few years ago they were doing.
>> Yeah, they were they've made it smaller and smaller and now it's going to completely be no turf, but again, other vegetation that just uses less water I think is allowed.
>> Or artificial turf, too. You can do that.
>> Artificial turf. Yeah, that's a lot of Palm Springs is going artificial.
>> Okay. Any other questions from council?
Okay. Okay, we'll open up then the public for any uh questions on the item, please.
Dale, welcome.
Dale August, uh, a couple of things I I don't understand. Uh, I heard her saying we're using recycled water to meet this goal and we're using national water to meet this goal. And my understanding is we're not really using either one of those up to the full potential. Why not?
Uh and uh are are we if we're meeting our demands, why are we being asked to pay into this water district thing that for the city uh when we're not causing the problem? I don't think that's right. Uh, and I know John Hammond sits on that board, so I wish you'd uh bring that up, Mr. Hammond.
>> Yep. Short answer on that is uh we live in California, Dale.
>> Yeah.
>> Short answer is what?
>> Short answer is that we all live in California and they're the ones telling us what we have to do with our water.
That's always been the rub with me. So, even though we have plenty of water, we're told how we can use it, right?
welcome.
>> Really are not going to have them in the future. We're moving to modular. We're moving to ADUs. We're moving to all kinds of different buildings. So, um, and in these buildings, people are doubling up. I already feel like I pay too much for water. I pay $45 a month for water and I'm one person. So, I don't know why the state calculates it, including commercial, because then my natural inclination, not knowing much about this or not wanting to, frankly, is then why am I paying for the hotels? We have a new hotel coming in district 1. People are not happy because we're building hotels that have water demands and we need housing instead. That's my question. Why is it being calculated on single family homes and what's going to be the future trend to calculate them?
Thank you. Welcome >> Gloria FA 1211 Dorothy Street. Um the people in Gilroy have kind of come up with arms because the city okay data center outside of Gilroy. Um you may have heard it takes an enormous amount of water. So it concerns me that um it doesn't look like we're planning for such events. Anybody can speak to that?
No, for the tremendous >> we'll try to get an answer for you.
Ma'am, >> just on the data center point, if a new data center is proposed here, then that's what triggers the water supply assessment. If there any changes to the general plan, additional water use is um calculated and considered against the water supply. So you'd have an opportunity at that point to look at the demand of a water uh data center and and the needs of the city. Um so that's not built into this project because as far as I know there's no data centers in the general plan. Um to answer the question about how it's calculated, the single family home was just an example to give you an idea what an acre foot is. The calculation is based on per capita and that's not how your water rates are calculated. Your water rates are calculated based on your usage. This is just um the per capita demand of the city is just it's a shortcut to figure out the average overall and how to work in commercial and industrial in that one number but your your rates would be separate.
>> Okay.
>> I think that's >> uh any other questions online?
>> No sir.
>> Okay. Uh we'll go ahead and then bring it back council for direction and >> council strong.
>> Yes. I'd like to make a comment. Uh I have friends live in various parts of the state and when I talk to them and I talk to them on this topic, I am absolutely amazed at what they're being charged for their water. One of my friends lives uh uh up uh in in Sonoma County up Santa Rosa. Their water bill for using about as much water as I'm using in an 800 and some square foot unit is $400 a month.
And it's amazing how much other people are paying for their water because they don't have the supply we have. And uh I think we that our people should check it out and see how we compare to other areas when before they they get too concerned about our rates right now.
>> Okay, >> Mr. Mayor, before we proceed, just for the clerk's reference, we did close the public hearing prior to um Mr. Strong's comments.
>> Is that what you were trying to give me?
>> Mayor, actually, I just wanted to follow up real quick on the data center question if I may. Uh just to clarify, the city does not have any prospective or proposed data centers uh at this time. Uh as mentioned, should uh one of those data centers, I know they're the hot topic right now. Should one be proposed, our development process would offer the opportunity for analysis and hearings and some checks and balances uh before one of those proposals could move forward. So uh this plan uh is is somewhat distinct and separate from uh an analysis of a of a data center.
>> Okay. U further comment or direction?
>> Um I'd like to make a motion. Pro Tim Gregory.
>> Um that we approve resolution 26XXX adopting the water shortage contingency plan and resolution 26XXX adopting the 2025 urban water management plan.
>> Second.
>> Okay. Motion by Gregory, second by Beal.
Discussion on the item.
>> Call for the question. Mary.
>> Council member Gregory.
>> I.
>> Council member Beal.
>> I.
>> Council member Bosch.
>> Hi.
>> Council member Strong. I >> Mayor Hammond >> I >> motion passes unanimously.
>> Thank you.
Item three will open up the public hearing proposed found formation of community facilities district number 2026-1 Beachwood facilities to provide transportation facilities park recreational improvements and facilities parkway and landscape improvements public safety facilities including police. Ryan Cornell, you have that item.
>> Yes. Good evening, Mr. Mayor and City Council, Ryan Cornell, administrative services director. I thank you for this opportunity to present to you um our next um step in of CFD formations. Uh this one has to do with the Beachwood uh uh Beachwood uh specific plan area. A little bit of a background, the Beachwood specific um plan area is in the southeastern portion of the city uh just south of Olsen South Chandler Ranch. Uh it includes about 911 uh residential units. Uh the project was approved by city council back in 2020 and since that time we've been kind of working to get development plans in and and secured and and entitlements and the like.
Um when this uh specific plan was approved, there was a a fiscal impact study that was conducted to make sure that there weren't any adverse um impacts to the current residents of the community uh with the this development.
Um as such, we did already establish a services CFD. That one's already done and and done with that was done in 2022.
And so now what we're doing is doing a facilities portion um on a couple planning improvement areas within this development. Uh this is just step one.
We still have three um other steps um to go through.
So uh on the right hand side's a little bit more zoomed in version of the specific plan area, but it does propose two um improvement areas. one in the north uh east portion and one um south.
Both of them um are going to have the same tax burden in in improvement areas.
So um just as a little bit of a range for the smallest house that's less than 1,500 ft, uh the annual tax is estimated to be 3,699.
And then for the largest size house of more than 2500 ft, the annual tax is 59 5,985.
These are taxes over and beyond what is normally on property taxes.
Um what this will do is it'll um authorize bond authorization um in the neighborhood of $15 million for each of those improvement areas.
Um Beachwood um facility CFD does fall under the city council um local goals and priorities. Um with Ulsa South Chandler, we had a development agreement that kind of um had some additional provisions uh versus Beachwood, we are solely relying on the local goals and policies. So what does that mean is that the city um priorities of what um the bonds can reimburse developers for. The first one is city services. We want to make sure that the city is able to maintain services. Like I said, that was already done in 2022. The next priority is public facilities. So those are the off-site improvements um traffic circulation related ones uh lift stations, pump stations, recycled water, kind of the infrastructure utilities. Um that is the city's first priority for um bond reimbursements. Um the third pri um priority is private facilities. So those are all in track um related uh utilities, intrack roads, not necessarily um arterial arterial uh roadways.
Oops. on the bond. Um the other piece of it is bond limitations. And so uh one we're limited to the um the bond tax amount that I just showed you on the prior um um screen. Uh but there's also this value to lean ratio. What happens is we don't want these properties to be overburdened with debt. And so we require a 4:1. So this means if they're going to pull out $15 million, they need to have $60 million worth of value in that land before we'll authorize 15 million. This just kind of keeps that ratio kind of within a good balance.
The other um important piece of it is the debt payments aren't escalating. So that means this tax is going to stay flat. So once we establish it, it's going to stay flat for the 35-year term.
Um and then with the local policies, we try to eye about a 1.8% effective tax rate. Um it's a it's an about because the the the facilities tax is flat and the h um the value of the house fluctuates and goes up and down. So we really don't know how that's going to predict, but that's that's our goal is to get to about 1.8. Prop 13 is a 1%. So we're looking at almost close to double that.
So like I said, there's um several steps involved. This is just the initiation to form the CFD and to um authorize incurred debt. Um our very next um council meeting on July 21st is going to be the formal scripted Mr. Mayor um um dialogue where we're um calling elections. We're we're we're declaring election results. Um and then we're um introducing for first reading the new tax levy on August 4th. We'll do it on consent.
We'll just throw this item on for a second reading. And then sometime in the future, um we will um come back to city councils for bond authorizations when the developer is ready. Um that could be one issuance, it could be multiple issuance. We're not kind of unsure right now. It depends on how development um instructs.
Uh that concludes my presentation. Mr. Mayor, we have two actions um before you tonight. The first one is to establish um the CFD for facilities and the second one is to um declare necessity to current bond independentness. With that, I would be happy to answer any questions.
>> Okay. Thank you, Ryan. Questions of Ryan? Counciloman Bouch?
>> Nice presentation. Short and to the point. um the 4:1 ratio, does that take into account the other bonds that are going to be assessed like the school district bonds and the Questa bonds, things like that?
>> So, the 1.8 effective tax rate does take into consideration all the other add-on bonds.
>> Makes sense.
>> Uh and then um any other uh bonds that that might come about as as a result of this development or is this kind of a one and done or there might be something else? So, as I showed you in the boundary map, it's only improvements area one and two that we identified. Um, there are many owners in this specific plan area. So, yes, one of them could um request another facility, CFD, on their ownership on their portion regardless, no matter um which way, there has to be a vote taken and a m and um 100% of the um voters have to approve um the tax.
>> So, I I'm I'm more concerned about uh it's kind of a a proposed bond. I can't think of why they would do, but somebody could get creative and and not just on these parcels, but on the entire development out there. And you don't see that happening?
>> No, no, that's incorrect. The the the embodied indebtedness is actually stays with the community facilities district, and it's not a citywide.
>> No, no, no, no. I just the new development that's going on out there.
So, it's just just per development is what I'm hearing.
These these two parcels.
>> Yes. Well, planning areas.
>> Planning areas. Sorry. Thank you.
Thanks, Ryan. Rot, we're agreeing.
>> Yeah. So, Ryan, this is almost identical to what we did with Olsson, correct?
>> Correct.
>> Same kind of limitation.
>> Yeah. It's actually more restricted to be honest with you. They had a 1.9 um overall effective tax rate and they had a couple other little different parameters, but um this one's staying within the local goals and policies.
>> Very good. Thank you, >> Council Member Beal.
>> Is the 4:1 ratio that's a Paso City Council policy that we've set?
>> Yes.
>> Okay. Thank you.
Okay. All the questions of council, we'll open up then the public for any questions of this item.
Seeing none, anybody online? Mary?
>> No, sir.
>> Okay. We'll go ahead and close the public hearing and bring it back to council for direction and or action.
>> Mr. Mayor, I'd like to make a recommendation. I move that we approve resolution 26XXXA declaring intention to establish proposed community facilities district number 2026-1 Beachwood facilities and to designate two improvement areas therein and to levy a special tax therein.
>> Second.
>> So we have a motion by Gregory, second by Bow or was it Strong? I'm not sure.
>> Either one.
>> Okay. Well, do the next one. We have two motions here. Go ahead. All right. Uh discussion. All right. Call for the question.
>> Council member Gregory.
>> I.
>> Council member Bosch.
>> Hi.
>> Council member Beal.
>> Hi.
>> Council member Strong.
>> I.
>> Mayor Hammond.
>> I.
>> Motion passes unanimously. Okay. I move that we approve resolution 26XXB declaring necessity to incur a bonded indebtedness of proposed city of Paso's community facilities district number 2026-1 Beachwood facilities for improvement areas number one and two therein >> second motion by Gregory second by Strong any discussion call for the Council member Gregory >> I.
>> Council member Strong >> I.
>> Council member Bosch >> I.
>> Council member Beiel >> I.
>> Mayor Hammond >> I.
>> Motion passes unanimously.
>> Very good.
>> That'll close the public hearing section. Moving on to discussion items.
First item is approval of resolution authorizing the submission of an encampment resolution grant fund funding grant application.
And Ashley Hernandez has that for us.
Good evening, Mayor Hammond and members of the city council. Ashley Hernandez, homeless services manager. Tonight, I'm joined by our community services director in Helica Foron, and by two of our key grant partners, Christy Alicorn, director of housing management at HasllO, the housing authority of St. Louis Abyispo County, and Wendy Lewis, president and CEO of Echko Al Camino homeless organization.
Chrissy and Wendy will each have a brief opportunity to speak later um in tonight's discussion and I'll bring us to a close.
So I want to begin with the action in front of you tonight. Staff recommends approval of the resolution authorizing the community services director to submit an encampment resolution funding application and execute all related documents. This is an authorization to apply. It is not a commitment to a project nor an expenditure of city funds. If the grant is awarded, updates will come back to the city council for separate time. The application is due June 30th, two weeks from today, and your support will help strengthen our application.
This application implements three commitments city council has already made. Goal number three of the city council adopted goals, identifies housing and homelessness as a priority, specifically calling for expanded affordable housing. The strategic plan to address homelessness adopted through a communitydriven process identifies outreach intram housing, permanent housing, and system coordination as the core framework. And the slow regional homelessness and affordable housing compact approved by council in April was designed to strengthen our competitive competitiveness for grant funding. So tonight is the first direct opportunity throughout the county to put that compact to work.
So the funding opportunity round five is administered by the California inter agency council on homelessness. It is a housing first competitive grant. 93 million is available statewide and we are qu requesting approximately 12 to 14 million and no local match is required.
Eligible uses include outreach and engagement, case management, interim housing, permanent housing acquisition and encampment closure. Our proposal draws on all of these. The expenditure deadline is fiscal year 2930, giving us a realistic and achievable runway to deliver lasting results.
Before I walk through the strategy, I do want to thank our very committed community partners because it will exemplify to HCD what Paso is bringing forward. We have letters of support from Senator John Leair, Assemblywoman Don Addis, US Representative Jimmy Panetta, the Slow County Sheriff's Office, California Highway Patrol, CALR, the county supervisor John Pashang, Pasaroba's Rotary, and a broad coalition of North County Homelessness Network service providers and community agencies. So regional collaboration is a scored criteria of the Earth application. So every partner on this slide strengthens our score and this represents months and months of coordination and general regional commitment to addressing what is happening within Pasaroblas.
There is evidence to why we believe our application is extremely competitive.
The single most significant factor is the right of way set right of way set aside. HCD has reserved 50% of earth round five funds specifically for encampments in state rideway. We chose the north Selenus Riverbed because it sits in Calrans rightway adjacent to the 10146 interchange and we are competing in a smaller pool with a project that qualifies directly. Second is readiness.
The Moose apartments at 2548 Spring Street are under construction, so HCD can fund something that will be moving ready according to Haslow within seven to eight months of grant application.
Third, our partnership is coordinated.
Haslow, Echko, Cal's, CHP, the county of Slow and our community action team are all committed before the application is even filed. And then fourth, our application in the regional uh compact approved two months ago directly demonstrates that we are working not in a silo but a part of a system. So our strategy is built around four steps called a housing continuum. It is step one engage. So we will begin with every individual in our encampment zone, the North Selenus Riverbed to conduct standardized assessments and enroll participants in the coordinated entry system. This will allow them to stabilize at Echko's na navigation center that would be at 1134 Black Oak Drive and will become an area for expansive case management where it would be linking people to dedicated shelter beds within Ekko's 90-day program, case management and benefits enrollment. Step three is permanent housing, which placements draw from multiple pipelines.
They could get set into the home key units, housing vantage, uh vouchers administered through HLO, coordinated entry matches across our county, family reunification, and then families would be eligible once the acquisition of the partially constructed Moose apartments would be used where seven familysized permanent supportive housing units would be completed through this grant. Step four is the close of the project. So the sequencing of closing the north riverbed is within our discretion as the grantee that would definitely be in collaboration with the police department and it would be paired with active monitoring to pre prevent reestablishment. So our overarching goal by December 2029 is to have offered housing navigation services to at a minimum of 75 people while permanently resolving one of the highest impact encampments within San Louisispo County.
So on the echo slide, grant funds will be used to expand the navigation center services on the existing campus of 1134 Black Oak Drive. A prefab structure will be installed in the existing courtyard.
This expansion allows ECHKO to better serve our residents and beds within Ekko's 90-day program will be specifically allocated to participants exiting the riverbed.
On the HLA side, Earth Funds will be completing the Moose apartments, bringing seven permanent supportive units online for families. And as families move from the home key, which is above campuses, the home key campus into the newly completed Moose apartments that frees up units at the home key side for additional participants moving through the system.
It creates a throughput. Each housing placement opens a door for the next person. So that pipeline is what makes this model sustainable and efficient over the grant period. The total request is approximately $12 million allocated across three categories, development, operations, and administration. So at this point, I'd like to bring our partners. Both Christy and Wendy are here tonight. Christy Alicorn is the director of housing management at HLO.
I'll turn it over to Christy to speak to HLO's experience and permanent housing components of the project.
>> Oh, Michelle, >> we made a change. So, I'm Michelle Pedigo. I'm the executive director of the housing authority. Uh, so thank you for the opportunity to speak on behalf of the encampment response funding grant. Um, Haslau has a long-standing track record of developing, operating, and managing permanent supportive housing throughout St. Louis Bispo County. Our model combines affordable housing with intensive supportive services that help residents maintain housing and improve overall quality of life. We are seeking approximately 70% of the total grant application uh to support new permanent supportive housing in Paso Robos. The majority of those funds approximately 80% would be uti utilized for development and construction costs with the remaining 20% supporting long-term operations property management and supportive services infrastructure necessary to ensure long-term housing stability. We recognize that communities often have concerns regarding permanent supportive housing in their community. I want to emphasize that this project is designed to be part of a broader housing continuum rather than simply adding residents into units. The intent is for residents who are currently living successfully at Paso Home and who have demonstrated housing stability for a year or more to transition into the Moose apartments. By creating that next step in the housing continuum, we free up units at Paso Home Key for individuals who are currently unsheltered, including those transitioning from the riverbed. This approach allows us to serve more people with the same housing resources while promoting positive resident progression and long-term housing success. The project is expected to create seven permanent supportive housing units and permanently house seven households once f fully occupied.
URF funding represents a critical opportunity to leverage state resources to address homelessness locally while creating a lasting community asset that will serve pass residents. And we're available for any questions after.
>> Thank you, >> Wendy.
>> Good evening, council. Thank you for this opportunity. Wendy Lewis with El Camino Homeless Organization. First, I would love to thank um both the city and the housing authority of Slow County for coming together and really looking at ways to bring solutions to the topic of homelessness within our community. We know that there is uh more for all of us to do and this is a great partnership coming together to bring solutions. The Echo component of this is to really provide um enhanced services especially to the people we're serving. We at the our side of the Echo home key, we are literally out of every bit of space. Um, if you've come out for a tour, you can see that every space is utilized, but we know there's more to do um especially targeting this particular encampment and bringing solutions to um encampments in the Selenus Riverbed. So, ours would be to build either a one or twotory building right where our meal program happens right now. So every evening um the community comes together, incredible partners from the community, from churches to service groups, they serve a meal out of that very humble beastro tent. Um we would love to be able to build this building which would offer us an ability to provide those services in inclement weather. Um get our incredible clients, our meal teams out of the heat, the cold, the rain and have an area. It would also include a commercial kitchen which uh would come uh approved through the fire department and sprinklered and all the things we need to do plus giving us more space for navigation services.
We offer about 20 programs out of Echo and literally the space to do that is a very small tiny conference room. This would give us the ability to offer more programming, enhanced programming and also case management and expansion of our outreach case management services particularly targeting that uh encampment on near the uh sewer plant in that area. So we're here just to be part of the solution and just really grateful for the partnership that's coming together to make this possible. Thank you.
>> So thank you both. Um we have I what I believe a very competitive grant um and the the site is pretty much ready. So we are with that combination it's uncommon and the deadline is two weeks away. So staff recommends council approve the resolution authorizing the community services director to submit the earth round five application and execute all documents necessary to apply for accept and administer the grant. and Hica Christy Wendy and I are happy to answer any questions you may have. Thank you.
>> Okay. Thank you, Ashley. Start off with u Tim Gregory. Sure.
>> So, um I have a question and Ashley, I don't know who's going to answer the question, but um a constituent called me and asked me about how the financing works. So, that was explained pretty well. Um they were concerned about the long-term administration and and staffing for that. So, does Haslow get funding from other sources or is this enough money to run it for five years?
Can you help understand help us understand that?
>> I'll let Michelle answer.
>> Okay. Thank you.
>> So, part of our funding ask is um operating subsidy for the first two or three years. And the reason for that is because um we try to stretch our housing choice voucher budget as far as we can, but we do have set aside vouchers um that go to the people who are in Paso Home Key. So, as they move on over to this site, because those are tenant based vouchers that stay with the tenant, not with the property, they'll bring those with them uh to the Moose apartments. And so, that will help us fund the operations.
>> Yes, we like your program is great. So, I just want to say thank you for that and thanks for the explanation. Go ahead, Chris.
>> Councilman Bosch, >> thank you. Uh thank you Ashley. Great presentation and thank you uh Wendy and Christie. The question I have similar to Council Member Gregory. Um the these are great I ideas uh and kind of leveraging what Home Key is about moving them uh those residents into the Moose apartments. Is it is it uh restricted to just uh the Moose apartments? In other words, if there were if the Moose apartments get filled up, would uh HLA then be able to provide vouchers for someone to move if there was space available to to another location?
>> I can answer part of that question, then I'll pass it over to Michelle. the participants participants will be entered into the countywide coordinated entry system which allows them to have a assessment and be eligible for anywhere across the county including the home key the moose apartments but other places as well and then I'll pass it over to Michelle to talk specific about HLO.
>> So one of the reasons the Paso Home Key site has been so successful is because we do have those vouchers set aside. So every time somebody decides they've you know ready to move on to more um you know different type of housing they take that voucher with them. So the majority of the people who have left that property have taken it into market housing.
>> Interesting.
>> Um so it's been really successful in that regard that they they have a step to go. Um the problem is that there's always kind of like that middle ground where this will kind of serve the people who still need some services aren't quite ready to go out into the market with their voucher. Um, but this will kind of help them work their way up and then move make more room and pass a home key for those who are just coming out directly from homelessness.
>> And then actually coming back to what Council McGregor said. So we have funding and financing through that has to be expended through 2029.
What's the vision beyond 2029? Assuming this is going to be highly successful.
How do we how do we sustain this and make it continue?
And >> can you repeat that for me?
>> How do we continue the funding beyond 2029 or keep the the operation going?
Because this is this is several partners involved in this. Anybody have a crystal ball that goes out uh beyond 2029 and um is this something that the city is going to be asked to to s uh sustain or maintain? So sustaining operations has been the biggest um question mark from the day that the opportunity to look at home key came available. Our portion only came with two years of operating.
And so as an organization we took a huge leap of faith because you don't want to build something and then have to close it two years later. And um we showed through a lot of different partnerships through the city as one of them, but also the community. I mean the community stepped up. the community of Pasarobos was there um they were there to form these meal teams that are dedicated serving dinners up to 120 150. We know that that power of that group of people will help us as well. I think um we have a current project in Atascadero. Um it was a $6 million capital campaign to build a family wing dedicated adding 30 beds. We're almost to 80% of that goal.
And so we truly have a track record with the data we provide. um the numbers of people getting back into housing. This year, as of this morning, we've helped 151 individuals or families into stable permanent housing. So, all those different pieces really provide um the pathway to fund raise and raise money to sustain.
>> So, let me let me ask this a different way. The the 12 million grant, if we're successful in being approved, that's going to be kind of a one-time funding.
Is is is how it's envisioned?
Yeah, it's onetime state funding to help build the operations, but it would be up to the county and the partners to to sustain the operations of it. Um, in addition to that, um, the county has written a letter of support. Linda Belch, the the deputy director, isn't able to be here, but they also are committed to helping us find continued funding in the future.
>> Excellent. Thank you, Ashley. Thank you, >> Council Member Mobile.
>> Super presentation. This is very exciting for me. Has the city of Pasroals ever put in a grant application like this before?
>> Not to my knowledge. Um, but it's unique.
>> Well, no, but you're not the city.
>> Oh, >> so the city hasn't been like a grant.
>> Oh, >> yeah. This is So, this is the first time for Earthf. So, St. Louis Abyspo City does have funds. They did just open the welcome home village, but that was through the county as the primary applicant. This is the first time in our county that the city would be an applicant for this level of funding.
>> Right. And just to, you know, explain to the community the city's the city's role in this is to be the applicant to be sort of the coordinator, the administrator of the of the grant. Maybe you can just talk about that a little bit more.
>> Yeah. Through oversight. So ensuring that the people that are entering into the system, our community action team would be the biggest partner in spending the couple of last years in the riverbed, they know every person by name. So we'd really lean on them to help us know who is going to move through that pipeline. In addition to that, just grant management. So making sure we are being good stewards of the state dollars and making sure that our partners are holding up to their roles and responsibilities through convening and then leveraging all of our community support. So, whoever wants to jump on and support us, we're happy to put a place at our table.
>> I just think this is an excellent um example of how powerful having a homelessness coordinator is in advancing the work. We I mean, this we could not have put together this grant application without you. And also, it speaks to the relationships that you've built over the last year to make this happen quickly.
Right. This was a very uh it it is not a simple thing to get these different government and nonprofit partners together to agree on a project to have their boards sign off on it to submit an application. Not to mention the letters of support that you've gotten. So again, clear strategic goals that the CA council and the community have set. uh a very talented uh manager here looking over this work and developing the relationships a great partners without any of that we couldn't have done this because I know you only found out about this what about two seconds ago yeah so I yeah and uh Ekko have been ambitious partners in this vision and it has taken some really hefty goals to get it forward even especially working with the property owner so I we are it's been a team effort for sure.
>> And it's um you know sometimes like these projects they like address one piece one piece of the continuum but we had a very unusual situation here and an unusual opportunity to open up some more beds and in a particular kind of demographic which then keeps the system moving and that is really the the point to keep people moving through the system. So congratulations Ashley, her uh boss on Helica, all of the partners. Well done.
>> If I could just comment. So the city actually has applied for earth grants before, but it was under the county and at that time we didn't receive the grant and one of the primary reasons is that there was no path to permanent supportive housing. So this particular opportunity and by the city taking the lead, we were really able to address that within this application. And so we're really happy because now that is actually the strength of our application.
>> Y thank you Ashley.
>> Okay. Uh any other question from council?
>> We'll open up then the public. Anybody wishing to address this item, please come forward.
>> Um hi Linda George 3126 Spring Street.
I'm kind of a little annoyed. You guys do realize what they're asking for, right? $12 million. Haslow wants 70% which leaves us what approximately with 8 million. This is a city grant and the counties coming in to take our money. I hope you see that perspective that I do.
This is a city grant. This city grant could have gone completely to us and solved our 130 homeless in the riverbed.
Okay. My next question is why are all the housing going on Spring Street? You guys don't live in that neighborhood. I do. I live with the farm workers, the cockroaches, the homeless, all of it.
So, why are we concentrating more potential problems? And why aren't we using this money to um do a safe parking spot and things like that?
Things that the city can use. So, I want you guys to understand what the county is asking. They're asking for us to pay for them. Now, I understand that the county just got 20 million or something like that dollars from the state. Well, what did the city get from that? Where did where was Pashon? Where did we get from that 20 million? So, I just want to make sure everybody in this room understands the county is taking this money. It's a great idea. I'm not knocking it, okay? don't get me wrong, but we're giving 8 million to the county and it's not housing the people that we're trying to concentrate on. These are all great concepts, don't get me wrong, but the one thing that they're not addressing and is the barriers to housing. You got people with bad uh credit, um warrants, um I can't even think of all the things right now. I saw Rebecca Hull the other day. She looked like a a a cat chewed her up and spit her out again. She needs to be on SS High. I I talked to her. She said, "Yeah, she's ready to go." Okay, but this is my district. This is District One. We already have all the homeless at Black Oak and now you guys are putting apartment complexes along Spring Street. Rem. Let me remind you, I've been to your neighborhoods. There is no other neighborhood like mine.
Okay? I live there. You don't know what it's like to live with 12 people in in a RV and things like that. So when you guys are planning these things, please don't pick on one area. It would be great to have housing somewhere else.
But 90,000 Echo just collected 90,000 yet we pay her 444K.
We need to do some hard math audit. I object to the county taking our money.
Dale >> Dale Augustine. Um I have had acquaintances who were in the river.
Uh in fact, one of them died in the river sadly.
Uh the concern I have is that the uh I know Echo has programs to help people with um drug addiction or psychological uh problems, but I didn't understand that this grant was going to help those aspects of the of doing that. So I'd like to some assurance that I most of the people in the river either have a drug addiction or a mental problem and so without correcting those problems the the success rate is very low. So it it but I think you know get applying for the grant is a step in the right direction and the other thing was there's there are people living out of their vehicles in this city and the city has kind of squeezed them to not do that. Even Ro even uh Walmart is no longer allowing them to park in their lot. So, there's a problem because they can't afford an apartment, but they live out of their car. And maybe we could find a way to find a parking place for those people.
>> Thank you.
>> Welcome.
>> Can we give this card to someone?
>> Hi, my name is Chris Parker Kennedy and this is my husband, John. And we're here um because we we've been here before, but we are such strong supporters of Echko and we work as volunteers there uh quite a bit. And so we feel like we are in a good position to to be aware of the good work that they do and um how important the work is that is going on.
Um there's a there's an old Latin expression that I kind of try to live by. Ubi karatas where charity and love are their god is and so I'm not trying to advocate religion but to say that charity and love are present throughout the philosophy and the work of echko we see that every single day and we have uh a long list of names of people that we have met there who we try to remember so that we can call them by name and let them know that they are um respected and that they have the right to be there and that they matter and that is what Echko does. So we are um members of two teams, two meal teams that that Wendy was mentioning of volunteers and we know how important that program is tonight. We came from having served 125 people with our other friends here and that's a significant amount of people who are being helped and um I don't understand the previous speaker's complaints because they are addressing the problem.
We're working as a community. We're working really hard to address the problem. It's not easily solved but that's what needs to be addressed and that's what Ekko's doing. So, the possibility of having a kitchen is thrilling. We could have a sink. We could have um a stove, all these things that are not there right now. We just have a table and people bring in all their food. To have a real working kitchen would be amazing. And I think it would bring in more volunteers and it would bring in more people who could be helped. So, we're all for it. and we just can't say enough about the good work that is going on in our community.
So, thanks.
>> Well, thank you for your work and service to others through ECHKO. Thank you.
>> Welcome.
>> Hello. My name is Don Pensy. Um, and I I want to give a special thanks to Steve Gregory because we wouldn't have an echo shelter without him. So, thank you for that. Um, as for I don't think you can you can talk to anyone about drugs or homelessness until you feed them.
Because if someone's hungry, you can't talk to them. You have to feed them first because that's one of our basic needs. So, I want to show you something.
This is this is a pan that you would use uh in your oven, right? So, you have three racks in your oven. So, three of these fits in your oven, but three of these do not feed 140 people. You need five of these to feed 140 people. Now, if anyone wants to volunteer their oven, I'm two meal teams. One was tonight and one is a week from tonight. Um, I could always use an extra oven. So, when it gets near meal time, my friends don't return my calls because they know I'm going to ask to use their oven. The other thing is when we're out there cooking, we have a stack of paper plates, right? And the wind comes up and you know the wind in Paso, we feed at 5:00, all those plates are blowing around, right? So the dust is blowing in people's food. They deserve better than that. They really do deserve I mean, we cook we cook a lot of times it takes two days to prepare these meals and we serve them hot. We make sure they're hot. We make sure uh let's see what do we Tonight we did pulled pork sandwiches.
We cooked 53 pounds of pork. Um probably about 20 pounds of coleslaw, two cases of oranges, 200 brownies.
Uh what else did we have? I think that was it. But anyway, I don't think we can get anywhere with the homeless population until we feed them and we keep them fed. I don't think we're going to make any inroads with their drug problems and their homelessness and anything else without feeding these people. And you know, the other thing is JPK and Chris and me and a couple of the meal teams, we know these people. So when they're having a bad day, we can go up and go, "Hey, are you having a bad day?" And we might be the only people who really care about them. So, oh, and a shout out to Wendy. Wendy is a Wendy Lewis is a fabulous leader and we are so lucky to have her in our community. That's all.
Thank you.
>> Thank you.
>> Hi. Um my name is Marcella and I was an echo client. I lived there for two years with my son, slept in our car and everything. So, I've been through the program. It's an amazing program.
I came here today because I I want to speak on this because this is something huge to me. Doing a kitchen would be able to help Echo and feeding people.
Um, I stayed in Echo back in 2021 with my son Noah. We were homeless at the time and needed help. We got into the 90-day program, worked hard, got the job that I'm still at today.
And I got into housing. So, with the housing and everything, it's been amazing. I've been in my own place for two years already, and I'm grateful and thankful for that. It was hard in the beginning wanted to throw in the towel, but I kept up and just being at Echko really helped me.
Their services are great, but my passion, my heart and my passion was giving back to the community and volunteering. I still go to Echo. I do make meals and prepare meals for everybody there.
I do lunches on my days off. I'm out there on top of my hood of my car feeding people out there.
Um, I've been asking for them to look into getting a kitchen because this would help everybody.
And I think that would be a great opportunity with this grant or whatever they're going to they're planning to do with this money to get this kitchen going. and feeding and helping keeping the mills warm because that's what it's about out there. And just hearing all this and everybody and their comments and everything, a lot of people's never been there. And to be there, it it's it's really rough.
and addiction.
It's It's hard and I'm just grateful for Ekko and I would really like this to happen and I would still volunteer here and everything.
I wrote something, but I didn't even go off of that because I'm just speaking out of my heart, you know, and >> Well, thank you for your success story and sharing it with us, >> Marcela. And thank you for like letting me speak out here because it means a lot to me. And I told myself I was not going to cry, but I read this so many times to my co-workers and I I cried a few times because I know how it is and I just think that this would be good and enhance the services that they do. So, please pass this. We need that. Okay.
>> Thank you.
>> Thank you.
Welcome.
>> Hi, my name is Linda Stewart. Um, I've been a meal provider at Ekko for almost a decade now. Um, first in Atascadero and now I serve up in Paso as well. Um, and I was so excited because I'm constantly like, "Oh, we need a kitchen.
We need a what's how can we get it?" So, we need the kitchen because and you're talking about the pipeline. it. Echo's dinner is the beginning when they come and they see the people who are in the program and they hear about their possible opportunities and they get that warm meal and one of the meal servers, you know, smiles at them and says, "Have a good day." They just feel respected and and important. Again, um I know Wendy mentioned the weather. Um it's really hard to find volunteers who want to come out and serve meals when it's 108 degrees outside. Um so having that dining room and having that indoor kitchen and the additional meeting space would really mean a lot to the volunteers who come out 365 days a year to serve dinner. Um dinner at ECHKO is not just about food. It's about providing a safe and welcoming environment. Um, right now without the dedicated kitchen, meal teams have to get creative about how to keep food warm. I know we wrap things in towels and put them in insulated bags and hope that they stay warm. Um, and with an oven and accessible electrical outlets, we can hook up crockpots and things like that that would really streamline our process and ensure that guests have nutritious meals. Um, the meal program is most vital part of ECHKO. It's where individuals first experience kindness and the possibility of change in their lives. In this space, they can meet with case managers and learn about the various programs available so they can meet the outreach case manager at a meal and actually find out about entering the 90-day program. That's why I believe improving the kitchen and the dining room facility in Pastor Robels is so important. It's not just a matter of convenience. It's about dignity, support, and creating an environment where change can happen. Thank you.
>> Thank you.
>> Welcome.
>> Hi, my name is Midori Feldman. I'm a citizen of Pastor Robos.
Um just I I am responding to the questions that I heard about whether there was continuing support, what's going to happen if you get the grant, and what do we do with these houses?
Um and so I'd like to address those questions in saying that I encourage you to not think about the can'ts. Don't think about what's going to happen in five years from now.
That to me, that's acting out of fear.
That's not acting out of hope. We don't know what the future's going to bring.
All we can do is look at what's here in front of us. To me, $12 million is a lot of money. If it gives an opportunity for some people now, I think that's what we need to be looking at.
um the homeless are going to be there anyway. Not to ignore it and say we can't do something is just really putting your head in the sand.
They are here. They have needs.
I think it's really important to do do something with the resources and the opportunities that we have. Thank you.
>> Thank you.
Welcome. Hi, >> my name is Lisa Analotti. I'm My name is Lisa Analotti. I'm a resident here in Paso Robos and I too have prep meals occasionally for Echo have been for the last couple of years. Um to the first speaker's comments, maybe we don't get all the 12 million. I I don't know. But evidently the people that have been working with Echko and running Echko are excited about this and have a great track record and whatever monies they get, they're going to put to good use. And a kitchen, as you've heard, makes a huge difference. It is where we begin. It is where we get to greet everybody, serve a hopefully a warm meal. It's not always warm. Don and Heidi are lucky they have cambers that they bring. Not everybody has cambers that they bring to keep food warm. Um, and another important thing is besides a meal, when you have a kitchen and you can talk to your caseworker, you can go from the pass key, it's it's going to be a place that's not just going to serve food, but it's going to have the opportunity to teach people how to prepare a meal, how to do it economically, possibly. There are all sorts of other things you can use this kitchen for besides just serving the dinner that are going to allow people to um trans um to transition from one level to the next level. And that's very important if you want success because success is what we want. And we're not going to be able to serve everybody in the riverbed all the time, but the ones that want help to provide as much as we can, I think it's our obligation as a society and as a city. and thank you for listening to everybody and allowing for this opportunity.
>> Thank you, ma'am. Anyone else public comment?
Okay, we'll go ahead and close it.
Anyone online?
>> Yes, sir. Caitlyn Batty.
>> Okay, caller, go ahead. We can hear you.
>> Okay. Hello. You You can still hear me?
>> Yes.
>> Um, okay, great. My name's Caitlyn Batty. I am commenting on behalf of the St. and Elizabeth Bispo County Homeless Services Division. Um I am the unsheltered program manager for the county. Um and we are in strong support of the city of Pasarro's uh FF round five proposal. Uh I want to also echo what was said earlier about Ashley just being so awesome and doing an amazing job in the year or so she's been here.
Um I know she's built a relationship with me and my other counterparts. Um so this initiative presents a comprehensive housing first aligned strategy to resolve the long-standing North Paso Selenus Riverbed encampment which is one of the county's most complex and high impact sites. It's currently home to approximately 75 individuals. And the area faces chronic homelessness, behavioral health needs, water rescues, environmental degradation, and significant public safety risk due to its proximity to the state rightway and critical infrastructure. The proposal outlines a coordinated model involving the city's community action team, which I know was mentioned earlier, uh, county behavioral health, echo, hlow, and the coordinated entry system. by delivering intensive outreach, housing navigation, and ongoing case management. So, something I've heard uh mentioned a lot um in the comments is that this navigation center at Echko's campus will have a kitchen, but it is more than just a kitchen. It will be a place for people to connect with a caseworker. um whether that is through a meal or through going in and and asking some questions. How would I get help? Where should I start?
Um so it will be great in that way. Um we are very supportive of the Moose apartments. Uh and this proposal overall will reduce environmental and public safety impacts, resolve a high-risisk encampment, and create lasting housing opportunities that strengthen the entire countywide homelessness response system.
St. Louis Vispo County is proud to support this impactful and urgently needed initiative.
>> Great. Thank you.
>> Anyone else?
>> No, sir.
>> Okay. Go ahead and call uh call the public uh comment to close and bring it back to council for discussion and or action.
>> Yeah, I'd like to just say a few things.
>> Sure. um our relationship. A lot of people don't understand what Hasow does.
I understand what ECHKO does and I understand what Hasow really does and what we've accomplished with them in Echko at the Motel 6. And they're an amazing organization because they're able to give us that opportunity for permanent housing. They have the mechanism and it works. They are not the county. It's a nonprofit that takes care of the funding and make sure the continuum of housing goes on. But the most important part of my comment is going to be it's the people, it's the volunteers, it's the Ashley's and Melissa, everybody. Everybody's in this for the same reason to help the people who need help and figuring out a way to fund this and fund it in a semi-permanent way. And you always figure out Alo somehow figures it out every time. And it's wonderful because without it, we wouldn't get what we need. And this is what we need. And we have so many committed community members that are part of this process and the helpers, all the speakers that do all the meals. It's just a heartfelt giving of their lives to help somebody just get a step up. And um I'll make a motion after other people make comments, but I just want to say that state of California came down here after we opened Haslow Motel 6 with Echo and they gave us the gold standard for a great example of a community and organizations that could provide h can provide housing and success for those who want to step up. And so I just want to thank thank you to HL for that. Thank you to Ekko and Wendy for that. And all of your volunteers are wonderful. I want to say thank you. And Floyd Butterfield says the same thing. He just not here tonight. So, Councilman Dodge.
>> So, um I appreciate the comments the folks that came up. Um I'm trying to wrap my head around how the the the kitchen, this is the first I've heard about the kitchen part of this. Does that impact our application? Is that part of our application or is that separate funding in conjunction with the $12 million application?
>> So, we're building the navigation center and we're taking that opportunity to make that a flexible space by incorporating the commercial kitchen component. Obviously, that's really important to the folks in the room today. Absolutely. And we definitely understand that. Primarily the in the application we're focusing on the navigation services that we're going to be able to provide which is part of what is really um what the application is looking for is making sure that we are reaching out to our community getting them enrolled in the continuum of care and making sure that um they're set up for the next step. That kitchen and that space where people do come together does happen to be sometimes the first place where people will connect for services and accept services. So we do recognize the importance of that component.
>> Okay. Thank you.
>> In addition to that, Senator John Larid has appropriated $150,000 to this structure through Echo. So, we will be leveraging some of that support as well to complete and braid some of that funding into this process.
>> Thank you for the clarification.
>> Any other comments?
>> I was just going to mention too, I this is a great opportunity to bring some of our all of our tax dollars back to Pastor Robels. you know, hopefully we're going to be successful in this grant, but again, it's uh helping us in our quest, you know, giving them a hand up instead of a hand out. And that's really what it's about, I think, at this point.
So, we can make that happen.
>> May go to Greg. I'd like to make a I move that we approve resolution 26xx authorizing the community services director to submit an encampment resolution funding round five application and execute all documents necessary to apply for accept and administer the grant.
>> Second.
>> Okay. A motion by Gregory, second by Beal. Discussion.
Call for the question. Mayor.
>> Council member Gregory.
>> I.
>> Council member Beal.
>> I. Council member Bosch, >> I.
>> Council member Strong, >> I.
>> Mayor Hammond, >> I.
>> Motion passes unanimously.
>> And thank you all to speakers who came tonight. Um, Michelle, Wendy, Ashley, and Helica. Well done. Appreciate it.
You're good. Thank you.
Discussion item number two, approval of goals and initiations and operating and capital budget for fiscal years 2026, 27, and 27, and 28. and the appropriations limit for fiscal years 2026 through 27.
>> Mayor, I'll kick it off as Ryan and David are coming up to the podium. Um, this tonight marks our final step in the city's two-year budget development process. Uh, as we look back over the last several months, this marks the ninth meeting that includes uh either a budget or a goal setting discussion. Uh, of course, as we've talked about throughout the last few meetings, this budget cycle was very different from, uh, several of our past budget cycles, uh, and presented some unique challenges as our revenues were plateauing and are projected to continue to plateau. Uh, I really want to recognize staff, many of the department heads that are in the room tonight and their teams for stepping up and really bringing forward uh, budgets that adapted to this more constrained fiscal environment. uh wanted to also recognize both city council and staff for embracing a new strategic planning format. I I know uh there were certainly some some starts and stops on the process, but overall I think it sets the organization up uh for success over the next two years by establishing some very clear priorities, some accountability and measurable outcomes as Mr. Malowitz will will talk about in a minute. Uh despite the leaner budget, uh we are able to maintain current service levels and and advance key initiatives. Uh we're able to invest in public safety, local road repairs, major infrastructure projects. Uh again, all while recognizing a much leaner environment. Uh we have fully funded reserves uh and we we keep we kept we're able to keep those at the city council uh target policy level. Uh and so with that, I hope I didn't steal too much thunder. Uh but I I did want to also thank uh Ryan and David in particular uh for their leadership in in both of these elements of our our budget process. So with that, I'll turn it over to them to take us home.
>> Thank you.
>> Thank you, Mr. City Manager. Ryan Cornell, admin services director. I'm again here to approve the budget report for the next two two years. So um it's been a long road coming. Um, as I mentioned a couple meetings ago, this has been probably the one of the most challenging budgets as far as um, having available resources to expand and grow.
Um, but at the same time, this is probably the most comprehensive budget that I've produced. And I'm going to kind of show you some of the different sections and a little bit of changes that have been made to this budget report than in in years past. Um, I'm not going to spend too much time on this um, slide right here because Chris, Mr. Chris Hwat did um, steal a little bit of my thunder and talked a lot about these different points. Uh but just to kind of reiterate, we do have uh labor agreements that are established for the next three years. So the the personnel components of the budget is uh pretty uh solid and and known at this time. We are continuing to invest in public safety through measures J20 that includes um the continue uh construction of the training center um and at and at the Union Road Station.
We also have u investments in infrastructure. Uh I kind of did two slides on accident there, but 25 million is appropriated to road maintenance over the next two years in addition to the about 40 million that's already budgeted. So really we have a lot of dollars that are programmed to the roads we just need to get under construction.
The uh as Mr. Huat mentioned the with revenues flattening staffing adjustments have been very modest. We're we're um recommending less than two full-time equivalents um all coming out of the supplemental sales tax fund in in public the police department.
We do have the spaceport license, our um consultant work programmed in there so that we could um expand our economic resiliency as well as the visual arts and public places that 50,000 per year um to help upgrow and expand that program.
And then as Mr. Hiat mentioned we are meeting all of our minimum reserve policies at 30%. Um as well as that section 115 trust which is in another 11 to12 million that's tucked away there.
As Mr. Huat mentioned this is the ninth meeting that we've had when it comes to budget discussions and goals. Um here's a little bit of a quick little timeline um here starting back in November time.
Uh ramping up pretty significantly in April and May and then here we are to adopt the budget.
The budget is broken down to eight sections. Um I I like to think that each one of these sections can be read in a standalone document. It it depends on what the reader is looking for. If the reader is looking just for a very high overview of the city, what it does, um its annual budgets, kind of the themes, where it's going, that's stay in the section one under the introductions. Um if the readers want to actually dive into some fund statements, again, we're getting accounting that we're getting the actual budget numbers. uh that's in section two. But in addition to just providing numbers and schedules, um there was actually um um verbiage, some added clarity to tell the story about what's going on in each one of these funds, both historically and in the future. So each one of these fund schedules have five years in the past of history and five years forward looking with the first two years of the forward looking being this two-year budget. Uh moving on, section three is authorized positions. So, if anybody's interested to how the city is staffed, every single um itemized position is is located in that section. We get into department overviews, which gets away from funds and talks more about the departments, kind of what they do, what they have done, and what we're um anticipating them to do in the future.
Very detailed section of capital improvements where it breaks down every single individual capital improvement, its funding sources, when we think it's going to go under construction and the like.
And then we get into kind of the latter sections where if we really want to get deep in the budgets where I kind of like like it's almost like this the second side of a a vinyl album track or whatever, right? We get some of the deep tracks with the interfund transfers and long-term debt. Those are are are shown there too. Um but then more importantly um is is the appendencies which is the last section. It's kind of a catchall.
We we throw some resolutions in there, fiscal policies, acronyms, glosseries.
But one thing I did add uh to the document this year was how to read the budget document. And so there is about four pages that really try to break this down into bite-sized chewable pieces with examples in and and the like on the right hand side. So those are on pages 214 um to 217. So this is this is a new um piece of it. I thought about putting in the front of the budget book, but it kind of didn't really fit. So um but it is there as the first part of the appendices.
Um and then similar to what we did two years ago, um we we will produce a budget in brief. Um it's about an 8 to 10 pager that kind of really summarizes um the budget book. Um the budget book is 250 pages, so it is it is a little bit of a beast. Um I'm just going to go over really briefly over some of these different sections um and then u get out of the way for um budget adoption. So the first part of the the of the uh budget report is the city manager messages. So that is the kind of that 10,000 foot level of kind of where we we're at and where we see the economy kind of going. Um the next two sections and I'm going to turn it over to Mr. David Malowitz to talk about the goals and initiatives. But we put the goals and priorities and the work plans right at the front of the budget document so that the breeder again know understands what the plan city is planning on doing um over the next couple years. Um with that I'm going to take a pause. I'm gonna turn it over to to Dave to kind of talk about the the strategic plan and work plan and then I'll jump back in.
Thank you, David.
>> Thanks, Ryan. Mayor, members of council, uh, yes, as you, as you can see, we finally wrapped up the strategic work plan. As Ryan mentioned, this is part of the budget package. So, one of the things that you'll notice in the recommendation is to approve the entirety of the budget. This is a component of it. So, it's not a separate piece that you're approving individually. It is a part of the entire budget package. Just wanted to make that clear because there wasn't just so everybody understands. Um add- additionally by adopting this you are adopting that vision statement that you guys so eloquently put together and it will be what we use as staff as a foundation for how we develop our services how we manage our our department and what service levels we put out to our community. So that is the guiding document that is what we use as staff to make sure that we're making sure that we meet all the demands and vision that the city council set forth for the next two years. In the final document in your packet you'll notice we made it very pretty. So, Jacob Green and Associates did a really good job at taking everything that we had worked so diligently together on, packaged it up, made it look really good. Um, we, you know, didn't make significant changes on anything. We made minor tweaks, but what we had was very, very good. We incorporated all the comments that were made from the city council and from the public. Um, particularly there's one of importance and our folks from um, caps were here. We used uh their studies and what they did and we incorporated that into the housing component. We heard that that was an important part of what council wanted to do is make sure that we are continuing the affordable housing track and then we were doing the best that we can to make sure that we have available housing options for all of our community members. So those goals are in there. That was an important part of council. We heard you. We wanted to make sure it was in there. So that is in the economic development section.
Additionally, I wanted to point out this is another one that has continually brought up community interaction and comments on is establishing the downtown alley beautifification project. So, that is still in there. That's uh Paul in within the community economic development. We'll be working with Warren and his team to move that ball forward. We still continually get questions and calls on what's going on with the alleys, when are we going to start this program. So, want to let you all know we hear it. we put it in the strategic document and we're going to make sure that that becomes a reality in the next two years in one shape form or another. But great job, really proud of all the staff members, the directors, everybody that was part of this process.
As city manager Huat mentioned at the beginning, this was a team effort. I mean, we started this back in November for recall and here we are today with the final document to guide us. And as uh city manager Huat mentioned in one of our other work sessions, this has gone through iterations throughout the years and we're getting better and better each time we do it. So, we're proud to present it to you. We're proud to have this as part of the budget and we as staff members look forward to completing these goals and initiatives to the best of our ability and continuing to work with you guys for the next two years.
So, thank you.
>> Okay, >> great.
Sorry, one more thing. Sorry. We will be providing quarterly updates on this as well. So, this isn't one of these things that we put in and we vote it and we don't hear about it again. We're going to be bringing this back. This will be brought before you in quarterly updates to let you know where we are and we'll keep the pulse on it for the next two years.
>> Perfect. Thank you, David.
And then lastly the the on section one, we have been over the last several budget cycles um submitted our budget to the government finance um assoc officers association um for distinguished uh reporting um awards and so we plan to continue to do that again uh this year.
Uh moving on to section number two, this is the this is where you actually get into the numbers the piece of it. Um it again the the how to read the budget kind of explains why we do fund accounting uh you know the the difference in budgeting for fund accounting versus the a private sector.
Um but this really is your 10,000 foot level and then we get into a little bit more detail with funds. So all the operating funds, the general fund, water, supplemental sales tax, the sewer and and the like. Um and it kind of goes breaks down into even further revenue sources. Um what revenue types, what expenditure types, what divisions and and the like. And again like I had mentioned um it does look five years in in the past and five years into the future I think is is a pretty good context.
Uh the next piece of it is just taking a look at just department specific. So we don't necessarily care about the funding source or how they're they're um spending the money. We just want to know what they're doing or how what they've been doing the last year. And so each department so we have eight departments um from city manager's office to my department and admin services, police, fire, public works, right? and the like.
Um all broken down um by department highlights, year review, uh kind of division overviews, budget overviews, staffing trends, and organizational um assessments and the like. Yes, sir.
>> Did you skip section three intentionally?
>> I did skip skip section three intentionally. It's it's I kind of mentioned in the in the intro um it's personnel related um items and it's just lists each individual employee. some some his his staffing trends. And I think actually it is exciting because um I think if you recall in in uh April time we had that that slide on up here where we showed um f positions in 2008 and right and finally in 2022 we we got to 2018 or no 2008 I'm sorry um staffing level. So that was um quite impressive.
Next session is capital improve um the capital improvement program. uh we take a five-year outlook when it comes to CIP. Um and so we we track these in kind of different project types with road maintenance kind of being the top of of mind, but we have a lot of transportation projects, parks and wreck, facilities and and the like. Um each again each individual project has its pretty pretty much its own individual page that talks about the project description, the amount and the funding sources.
I'm going to skip six, seven, and eight, nine, 10.
Um so with that m Mr. Mayor the total uses the total overall budget for the city for the first year 2627 is 148 million493 or sorry $493,200 and then the second year it decreases just slightly to 147,249,000 >> million >> 147 million right?
>> Huh?
>> 147,249,000 they missed the speaker. Um, so that's the budget. And then as far as the the typical recurring action is the GAN limit. The GAN limit is a calculation the state um requires cities to do to make sure we're not overt taxing our um citizens. And so the GAN limit this year is 74.5 million. Um it's about 13.7 under that limit is the actual revenue that's subject to it. So we're about 80 82% of the GAN limit um today.
>> So with that, Mr. Mayor, happy to answer any questions. going into further detail or or whatever council's pleasure.
>> Thank you, Ryan. Questions of Mr. Cornell.
>> Yeah. Um I'd like to have Mr. Malowitz come up and read the mission statement to us, please.
>> I am so glad you asked that because actually when I sat down, I was like I had it I literally had that marked. I was like >> it looked like you were going to say it.
>> My fingers were not working with me. So absolutely the vision statement from the city council reads as follows. To sustain a safe, vibrant and resilient community that preserves pasobels's pasobels unique character while advancing economic vitality and a high quality of life for residents, businesses, and visitors.
>> Great.
>> Sounds good.
>> And I I don't you think the budget does that quite nicely?
>> I do. Absolutely. This gentleman here has worked very diligently to ensure that it does. So, thank you.
>> Thank you.
>> Other questions? Council Councilman Beiel.
>> I want to acknowledge the work in sort of aligning the goals, the objectives, the work plan, and the budget at every different level. And recognize we've got like short, medium, and long-term things going on here. So, I think it ties together really well. I like the the new process we've been working. It was a cold rainy day in November when we started this. You remember um I think you know a lot of things actually most of the things have been sort of uh incorporated through our multiple conversations. We've had several meetings on this. I am Can you go to your slide or no you probably it's not on your slide. I have the note of it on page 10 of the budget doc. It has the kind of picture graphic of the different goals and under the economic development goal there's the line item around local procurement and I it came up in November. It's been coming up every time there's been a lot of consensus around it. I think it's really important to have that explicitly identified in the work plan and I thought it was going to go back in in there but I don't see that it's gone back in there and so I'd be curious what my colleagues think and yep I totally agree with that I mean it's something we've been talking about for a while but I think it's important that we get this consensus through council and get it into the document somehow so this is how what we want to kind of see happen so >> and it be something as simple as and you could probably come up with some words but identify opportunities to invest public uh uh procurement dollars in local businesses like just identifying I think it's especially well timed right now with the reorganization or the organizational assessment of public works and community development so of course it's in Paul's department and he's not here uh so I think all the more reason we should add it to the document Absolutely. That that is one of the ones that we did add. Um it's in the goal six efficient and effective governance.
>> Did I miss it? Is it in governance?
>> Yeah, I I'll go ahead and read it for everybody. Um it's part of the develop and implement a coordinated public information outreach plan to improve transparency, consistency, and community engagement across all communication platforms. and it reads, "Enhance outreach and communication regarding city public bidding opportunities by increasing awareness of upcoming projects and exploring workshop opportunities to help local contractors to better understand city bidding and procurement processes. And the underlining goal with that is to get the information out more especially to our local companies so that they understand how to put bids in how to you know how the process works what addendums look like and that's where the workshop component comes in and along with our management analyst who's working diligently on our communication. We'll develop that through the coming year.
>> City manager >> I I apologize.
>> No, you're good. It's too small.
>> Yes.
>> But but thank youelcome. So I mean does everybody feel okay that that's sort of capturing it and we can kind of follow up >> using local trades as much as we can.
That's is for sure that's >> Yeah. Absolutely. So thank you and apologies.
>> No, you're welcome. Thank you.
>> I we need micro magnifying glass.
>> You need a magnifying glass. It's right there.
>> Any other questions from council?
>> Okay. Then we're going to open up then the public. Anybody have a question on this item? Please come forward.
>> Okay. and bring it back to council. Do we have anybody online?
>> No, sir.
>> Okay. So, we'll bring it back to council for direction and or action.
>> Mayor Hammond.
>> Pro Tim Gregory.
>> I move that we approve resolution 26XXA adopting the operating capital improvement budget for fiscal years 2627 and 2728 as presented for all funds expenditures and direct the city manager to implement the budget. Second.
Actually, I can I say something now before we move forward?
>> Now that I'm really focusing in this small print, I just wanted to read this again and make sure we're clear on it.
I'm not sure if it sort of reflects my thinking of the local procurement issues. Enhance outreach and communication regarding city public bidding opportunities by increasing awareness of upcoming projects and exploring workshop opportunities to help local contractors to better understand city bidding and procurement processes.
I think that's excellent work. I think that's important work. I'm not sure if that says we'd like to see, you know, we have a preference for local hire. We you get extra points on your bid if you have x number of local jobs. And I know that there's a lot of different ways to sort of get there. And I don't want to prescribe where where we're going, but I'm not sure that this actually gets us more local hire. Maybe a question for Chris Huad, the legal counsel on how we can handle this.
>> Maybe I just make a quick comment. So, as we were reviewing the council's comments uh around this particular item, uh staff didn't necessarily hear that there was a desire to comprehensively revisit our local policies around um around uh local contracting in that. If that's the case, then we can certainly substitute language here that says, you know, that the city council would like staff to review our local procure, you know, our local contractor and vendor procurement policies and bring those back for further discussion and review. We're happy to do that.
uh staff's thought here was we could first start by educating better educating and and engaging with our local contractor community uh to ensure that they are aware of our processes and our procedures. Um but if if there's certainly >> there's certainly room here if the count if there's a majority of the council that wants to amend the language, we can certainly do that.
>> Point point of order. We have a motion and a second on the floor.
>> Okay, we'll hold that. But um >> so we're in discussion. Yeah, this is discussion. Okay, >> there's discussion. I would say I don't think that the budget document is the right place for that. That's in council policies and that's in goals and policies, not budget. It has nothing to do with dollars and cents. It has to do with procedures.
>> I I think um your your comments are are well intended, Council Member Bill. I I think the language uh that Mr. MO it's red um broadens the opportunity for local contractors to get involved should they they want to get involved. Um when we've taken this up before at the school board and here locally um some contractors as much as they want to be involved locally in that bidding process they're not qualified >> for a variety of reasons and so they they don't bother to bid. I and I think educating uh themselves of what what is available makes sense. I think this is a great first step, but I have to agree with Council Member Strong that this this is more of a policy decision that that we need to maybe address outside of of this. I I believe and I don't know what staff envisions as far as the education process and the outreach process, but I'll trust them to to have that best interest at heart because you're right, we need to support our local folks. We absolutely have to support them as much as we possibly can.
Yeah. Again, let me weigh in on that too. Again, I was discussing in before with the fact that back in the day, and I know that Warren probably remembers this too, that u when we had uh back in the 2011, 2010, we didn't have anything going on. We dropped our development impact fees to nothing basically to get something happening from building. We ended up seeing a lot of the valley builders come over here buying up the properties and using all their trades and basically no one benefited from our loss of development impact. So that's I think kind of what the intent is here.
And I agree that we can certainly do this outside the budget to give staff some sort of a um direction that we want to try to encourage local trades and and especially when we have city projects, but even that, you know, when we have um private projects going on that we want to have them give us a list of suppliers and biders that we see that they're using local and the intent is to encourage local trade. So that's the only way to do it. Um, so I think, you know, at this point the language is okay with me that they addressed it. I think maybe we can bring this up later with Mr. Huat and try to get some other direction to staff in the future. Chris, what do you think?
>> Um, mayor, the the work plan that that you have in front of you is really where we're going to be spending time and and staff time and resources for the next two years. So, if the council wants to see an update or or some policy development around uh some sort of local vendor preference, I think it would be appropriate to include it in the strategic work plan again to give staff if if if there's consensus to give us direction today that you want us to start to work on that in the next couple years.
Certainly, you can always come back later in the fiscal year and say staff, we want to start looking at this outside of this process. But if we know today that that language isn't precisely what you want to see or if there's more that you want to see, then I do think it would be appropriate to to to make that amendment should the majority of the council want to do so.
>> I' I'd kind of like to see where that language takes us. Um calendar out anything more specific.
Um I I think our our local contractors deserve to weigh in on it, too.
Sometimes we have grants that are very specific on what what and who can bid on something because of either specialized equipment, etc. Uh we can't no need to go into all the nuances here tonight, but I'd like to see that language take root and see where it goes and if we need to come back with something more robust with more teeth. And I probably failed to mention too what we envision was uh these these workshops or these engagements with local contractors not only educating them about the city's process but also gaining some feedback about our process as well. So there would be that opportunity uh for two-way dialogue.
>> Okay. Thank you.
>> So any other discussion on the on the motion?
>> I appreciate Mr. Huat's conver, you know, comments about like this being an appropriate time if we agree on this to provide direction because this is two years. This is the staff's marching orders and with clear direction about you what matters to us and what doesn't matter to us. And I know that over the course of the six months there has been significant consensus around um you know the value of investing public dollars that we receive tax dollars from our people and having that go back into the community into local businesses that those dollars recycle over and over. And I think that this is the right time.
Again, there are a lot of different ways to accomplish that. I I don't think like having I think there's value in kind of these uh educational meetings with uh vendors and contractors to share information. I think there's value in that. But that does not get us any closer to saying how how what would it look like if we wanted to hire more local people? What are the different forms that that could look like? And so I think it's important to have something more specific in here to provide marching orders for the staff to explore it, to report back to us about what some of our options are. And again, this has an economic benefit to our community. Um, we've talked about it over and over and I think this is the right place to put it in the document.
>> Okay. Uh, any other discussion then on the motion that we have up on the table?
>> No.
>> Okay. We'll call for the question.
>> Council member Gregory.
>> Yes.
>> Council member Bosch.
>> I.
>> Council member Beiel.
>> I.
>> Council member Strong.
>> I.
>> Mayor Hammond.
>> I. Vote passes unanimously.
>> Thank you. I can't.
>> So, Chris, you have the staff direction to look into, Chris. Okay.
>> Okay. I move to approve resolution 26x6x6x6x6x6x6x6x6x6x6x6xb declaring necessity to incur a bonded indebtedness of proposed city of Pastor Community Facilities District. Wait a second. I'm reading the wrong thing.
>> Yeah. Yeah, you're on number two.
>> Roll down the hill here. Hold on. Hold on. Sorry. Sorry.
Approve resolution 26xx. Too many 26xxs.
Yeah. Anyway, adopting the $74,517,600 as the city's appropriations limit for the fiscal year ending in June on June 30th, 2027.
>> Second.
>> Okay. A motion by Gregory, second by Strong. Discussion.
>> All right. We'll call for the questionary.
>> Council member Gregory.
>> I.
>> Council member Bosch.
>> Hi.
>> Council member Beiel.
>> Hi. Council member Strong.
>> I, >> Mayor Hammond, >> I.
>> Motion passes unanimously.
>> Very good.
Okay, moving on then. We have uh city management report. Mr. Who?
>> Uh, yes. Thank you, Mayor. Three items tonight. First, uh about a week or change ago, we had a pretty significant uh intrusion on a on a 10-in water line at Crestston and Nibck. Uh major intersection shut down traffic. I just wanted to give a special shout out to uh variety of different staff uh from the utilities department, police, fire, public works, city manager's office, and others who really stepped up and helped with traffic control and repairing the issue uh getting getting water customers notified. Uh all the above. It really was a team effort. So, I just wanted to recognize and thank everyone. Those things happen uh and they're inconvenient. And uh in this case though uh all ended well as we were able to get that repaired and and water back and restored. Uh also wanted to let the public know that uh earlier this week uh we uh were able to get the spaceport RFP on the street. Uh this is the RFP that was authorized by this council back at your March meeting where you met with the airport commission and the planning commission. Uh this RFP uh is seeking consultants or a consultant uh to help with the final steps, the final paperwork and documents that are necessary uh to obtain spaceport license for the Pass Robles airport. Uh we envision getting uh the recommendation to you for a contract probably in September. Uh and then from there, we're estimating somewhere between 18 to 24 months to see that process through and get us to the finish line, which is pretty amazing uh to be at this point considering where we were at four years ago. And then just uh staff wanted to to let you all know I think on your one of your upcoming slides, you're going to talk about future city meetings. And just note uh we had a late case cancellation of the airport meeting, airport commission meeting. So that will not be held on the 25th. That meeting is is canled. So, I just wanted to note that and thank you, mayor. Appreciate it.
>> Very good. Thank you, Chris.
Council business and committee reports like to start.
>> I thank you. I just have one thing. Uh I was invited to give a a brief talk at a high school graduation with the Field Institute.
And a lot of these people were uh adults, parents, farm workers, and they were receiving their high school diploma after two years, in some cases four years where they took night school all this time. And it was just a really beautiful thing. And I I just want to acknowledge that and because I know a lot of people here do a lot of work in different educational opportunities and it is powerful. So here's to the grad graduates.
>> Very good. Thank you Chris. Councilman Bal.
>> I have nothing to report. All right.
Councilman Strong.
>> Yes, I do have a few things to report.
Uh last week I spent four days in Tulsa, Oklahoma at a conference nationally on housing, economic development and and transportation.
And I'm pleased to say uh I sit on that board of directors representing all the cities of the United States and that's the board for all the regional governments of the United States and we are all working together on transportation bill with the house. So the house version of the house of the transportation reauthorization has now changed so that there will be more automatic money coming less grant money. You don't have to go over after as many grants because instead that money will be automatically given to you so that our region can then uh make the determination as to who gets how much and for specific projects we make that decision ourselves. So it means it will greatly increase the city of Pasarro's money available for transportation and inf and infrastructure >> and uh if if it passes both the house and the senate and the president signs the bill. If not then it's somewhat in doubt but right now they're listening very much to our joint efforts between the organizations at the national level which is very encouraging. Would that be routed through Slowcog then? Is that how the >> the money would go to Slowcog through Slowcog to Gus?
>> Okay. And uh and also there would be some that come directly to us without going through so >> but uh the big difference is how much their theirs would be increased.
And secondly, uh I chaired yesterday a meeting of the rail board for our Pacific Surfliner Railroad. And in that one, we we did have a tremendous problem with one of our members not understanding our own rules and trying to change who was going to run the railroad.
uh we were able to defer any consideration of that particular item to a date to clarify to them the rules that we do operate under because they they had 14 paragraphs that had totally wrong information. One paragraph that just gave their minimum qualifications for the job. So it was just an individual agency out for their their own interests. Unfortunately, they've also uh convinced a state senator that uh their information is correct and the state senator is pressuring us also. So, we're communicating directly with the state senator to make sure that things get straightened out. Uh beyond that, we did have a discussion item on Senate Bill 1098 which is going to give us a whole lot lot of new rules and it's asking for our comments on them by is date certain which was Jan July 1. July one doesn't work because we don't have any meetings by then. So, we went back to uh the administration for that and got their permission to submit beyond that date to as late as uh August 1. And if we submit in that time, they will then take it into consideration as an addendum. So, we're moving ahead and those those are those are my reports for this time.
>> Thank you, Fred.
Prom Gregory.
>> Yeah. Um, I had the good fortune of spending some time with Mr. Huat and visit slow and we both noticed a few things like Firestone making a beer for them. Pastor Robel's prominently named there and they've actually recognized the beerfest and sensario.
So, they actually had a booth at the beerfest. So, um, something's going on with visit slow. Probably they want a renewal or something, but whatever. It's all good. And then um I just want to say um I think you should all um go downtown in the park and walk around at 9:00 at night on a Friday night or a Saturday night. I was so entertained by so many young kids like there's a group of boys that there's a guy in a cowboy hat playing music and they go can we play a song? So these kids came up and sang this really nice, beautiful song. One played the guitar. So, there's a lot of really nice music and there's so many people enjoying our park at nighttime.
It's such a great extension of our community. So, it's nice to see it work.
So, and other than that, everything's good. Thank you.
>> All right. Thank you, Steve. Uh, for me, I basically had um a few things. I did a radio interview with K News St. Louis and then u the fifth annual safety fest, which was great uh down at the park. Uh they used the east half of the park this time. I think it was very well done. Um and then we also had of course the integrated waste management meeting that I did. Also I attended my own mom's uh 99th birthday over the weekend. That was pretty cool too and great to see her make it that far. So it's all I had personally. Um >> Mayor Hammond.
>> Sure. You're done. Uh just two things for future consideration. We had two um items come up tonight. J6, we talked about our senior uh center. Uh I think we've all kind of talked a little bit about our endowment.
>> Um that needs some attention. Can we bring that back on a future agenda item?
>> Yeah, I think that would be good if everybody's good. I think uh I mentioned that Chris that used to be Rotary used to put that on to bring it up and it's time that maybe some service club step up again and maybe make that happen again. That's something we can talk about. And uh somebody brought up uh the data center. Um I know some cities are taking poison pill options about data centers. Uh it might be good to just bring that back and just get legal's opinion on what some of our options are.
Agree with that consensus on that to bring it up on agenda item or at least a >> okay discussion on Yeah. Thank you.
>> All right.
>> Moving on. Then we have upcoming events uh tomorrow night. Actually tomorrow afternoon at 4:30 we have the community service advisory body's uh special joint recognition meeting here at Centennial 4:30. Uh then we have city office is going to be closed in observance of Junth day. Um and that's going to be on the 19th.
Development review committee is going to be the June 22nd 4 p.m. Planning Commission meeting here in this room June 23rd 6:30. Uh as Mr. Huat said we have the pastor Robels uh airport commission is going to be cancelled uh for June 25th 2026.
Coffee with the city, roads, transportation, infrastructure, June 26, 7:30 at Calos beer at the patina room.
Uh DRC development committee again June 29th at 4 pm.
Passels youth commission advisory committee meeting July 1st at 5:00 pm.
City offices are going to be closed for Independence Day July 3rd and I expect everybody will be at the July 4th uh fireworks and Barney Schwarz. Uh development review committee is going to be back again at July 6th 4 p.m. Library trustees u board of trustees July 9th at 9:00 a.m. Past rebel senior citizens advisory committee meeting July 13th at 1:30.
Again development review committee is at July 13th 4:00 downtown city hall. Pastor Robel's parking recreation parks and recreation advisory committee meeting July 13th at 4 pm. Next planning commission meeting is going to be July 14th at 6:30.
Development review committee again July 20th 4:00 p.m. And then our next city council meeting is going to be in here in Norroom July 30 21st 6 pm.
And I believe that makes all the announcements that a lot of them that we're going to be here. Any other further discussion from councel?
>> Okay. Looking for adjournment.
>> Move to adjourn.
>> Okay. We have a motion by Gregory and second by Bos. All in favor?
>> I. We stand ajourned. Thank you. Great job.
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