We have reconvene from our closed session and there is nothing to report out.

So I will adjourn the special meeting at 6.01 p.m. and switch over to our regular meeting.

At this time I would like to call to order the regular Elk Grove City Council meeting

today is Wednesday, December the 11th, 2024.

The time is 6.02 p.m. Clerk.

Thank you Mayor, this meeting is recorded with closed captioning.

The recording will be cable cast on Metro cable channel 14, the local government affairs

channel on the Comcast and direct TV, U-verse cable systems.

The recording will also be video streamed at Metro14live.seccounty.gov.

Tonight's meeting replays will be on Friday, December 13th at 1 p.m. and Tuesday, December

17th at 6 p.m. on Metro channel 14.

Once posted the recordings of this and previous meetings can be viewed on demand at 3ws.elgrovescity.org

or youtube.com.

For members of the participating audience who may have personal electronic devices please

place them on silent mode during the meeting or on mute when you are not speaking.

The Elk Grove City Council welcomes, appreciates and encourages participation in the City Council

meeting.

City Council requests that you limit your presentation to 3 minutes per person so that

all the President will have time to participate.

City Council reserves the right to reasonably limit the total time for public comment on

any particular notice, agenda item as it may be necessary.

For student resolution number 2010-24 no individual speaker concerning public comment may address

the City Council for more than 3 minutes.

If you wish to address the Council during the meeting please complete a blue speaker

card which can be found at the back of the chamber and provided to Deputy City Clerk prior

to consideration of the agenda item.

With that Mayor I will move into the roll call and for the roll call I will start with

Council Member Robles.

President.

Council Member Speys.

President.

Council Member Suen.

Here.

I'll note that Vice Mayor Brewer is absent and Mayor Singh Allen.

Here.

We have a quorum that will take us on to the land acknowledgement.

Thank you.

Next up is our land acknowledgement and assisting will be Council Member Suen.

Thank you Mayor.

We honor, respect and acknowledge Elkrow's first inhabitants, the Plains Miwok, who lived

as sovereign caretakers of this land and these waterways since time immemorial.

We commemorate and advocate for their descendants, the Wilton Rancheria tribe, the only federally

recognized tribe in Sacramento County who endure because of the bravery, resiliency and

determination of their ancestors, tribal members and leaders.

All right.

Thank you.

Next up is our Pledge of Allegiance.

We have a very special guest with us this evening.

The Lieutenant Governor has graced us with her presence and I would like to invite up

our esteemed Lieutenant Governor, Eleni Sikopoulos Kunalakis, to lead us in the Pledge this

evening.

Right over there.

I pledge allegiance 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.

Thank you.

At this time, please join us for a brief moment of silence.

Thank you.

All right.

Next up, next item, please.

And we'll lead off with item 1A, our special action item, which is certification of the

November 5th, 2024 general municipal election results for offices and reorganization of

the city council.

Mayor and council members, the certificates effects from the Sacramento County registered

voters for the November 5th, 2024 general municipal election verify the results of the

official canvas conducted by Sacramento County for the city of Elk Grove, council offices

and the seat of mayor.

For that seat of mayor, elected to a full term of office for two years, was Bobby Sing

Allen.

And for city council member seats in districts 1 and 3, those elected as council members

for a full term of four years were for district 1, Darren Suin, and for district 3, Kevin

Spees.

And a resolution verifying the election results is available for your adoption at this time.

So moved.

Second.

All right.

Before we do that, thank you for the enthusiasm.

We're going to open up the public comment opportunity.

And we do have two people signed up to speak.

We will start with Michael Andrew Barnbaum, followed by David Loya.

Good evening, Mayor Sing Allen, members of the city council.

Congratulations to all the electoral winners from November 5th.

50.5% of the vote to 49.5% of the vote.

It was close.

In this contest that many of us, myself included, were following, you won resoundingly.

And it is what I called to many of the volunteers I was with that the race for mayor and Elk

Grove final results this 69% of all votes cast for you.

That tells me that is a mandate to govern.

And that is not the case for the same office in the city of Sacramento, which the winner,

again, was only by 1% versus the one that did not come out ahead.

So congratulations on another term as mayor of the city.

I would like to work with the city and everybody on the big topic item of the relocation of

the zoo to Elk Grove and make it a great place for families and folks to attend, no matter

which way or form they get to and from the zoo.

Please keep us updated and posted on that.

I think that's going to be a really, really big development proposal and item here to

follow in the city of Elk Grove and as it transitions from the Land Park neighborhood

in the city of Sacramento to here in off of camera road in the city of Elk Grove.

Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

Next up is David Loya and that is our final for this item unless somebody else submits

a card.

Mayor, council members, my name is David Loya.

I'm the chief strategy officer for the gathering in.

I come before you tonight to say congratulations on your victory, council members and mayor

on your just outstanding victory.

As the gathering in, we are so pleased to be a part of this community.

If there was a master class on being a mayor and council, this council should give it at

Sac State University.

I've been so impressed with our interactions with your support.

We feel incredibly supported by all of you and this community.

Thank you so much for allowing us to be a part of this community addressing the issue

of homelessness and thank you, mayor, for being just such an outstanding person and

leader and thank you, council members.

I have done this for many, many years and I am truly, truly impressed by each and every

one of you.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, sir.

All right.

That is our final public comment for this item.

So now I will take that motion.

Second.

All right.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Thank you.

Next up are our presentations of the administration of oath of office.

So we will start.

Well, I'll let our city clerk direct us here.

I'll actually be very brief.

As we've certified the results, now is the sequence in which we take the oaths of office.

I'll be starting with district three.

So I would invite council member Kevin Spees to step forward up to our speaker podium and

my deputy, Angela Spees, to assist with the administration of the oath and give me a break.

Yeah, we have that.

Yep.

Hey, how are you?

Good.

You know this girl?

Hi.

Okay.

So please raise your right hand and repeat after me, I state your name.

I Kevin Spees.

Do solemnly swear?

Do solemnly swear?

That I will support and defend.

That I will support and defend.

The constitution of the United States.

The constitution of the United States.

And the constitution of the state of California.

And the constitution of the state of California.

Against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

Against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of the United States

and the Constitution of the State of California

that I take this application freely without any mental reservation

or purpose of evasion and that I will well and faithfully

Discharge the duties upon which I am about to enter discharge the duties on which I'm about to enter

And at this time as we move through the the steps here

I would ask our district one council member Darren so and to step forward and be met by

Deputy Denise so I'm will administer the up. Thank you Jason

I'd also like to invite my father Edward soon and my sons Lance

Carson and Connor to join me. Thank you. Please do family members feel free to

Step on up

I

State your name I during soon

Do you solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I will support and defend that I will support and defend the

Constitution of the United States

And the constitution of the State of California

And the Constitution of the State of California

Against all enemies foreign and domestic

Against all enemies foreign and domestic that I will bear true faith and allegiance

I'll bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of the United States

The Constitution of the United States and the

constitution of the State of California and the Constitution of the State of California

California that I take this obligation freely that I take this obligation freely

without any mental reservation without any mental reservation or purpose of

evasion purpose of evasion and that I will well and faithfully and that I

will well and faithfully discharge the duties upon which I am about to enter

discharge the duties upon which I'm about to enter

period冷

okay

If I can invite up my husband, my children, and my parents, my brother and my nephew,

and our Lieutenant Governor.

Looking good gentlemen.

You've done this before.

I can say a few words to start.

You're the Lieutenant Governor.

Yes.

First, I'd just like to say what an incredible honor and privilege it is to be here with you, Madam Mayor,

and with your family, and so many members of the community of Elk Grove.

I was here a few weeks ago, and I was reminded when I heard the land dedication of the First Peoples here, the Plains Miwok,

and was so impressed with the new facility that they've built at Sky River, and seeing so many changes in this area

since I first started coming as a girl.

And I also want to just recognize Jake, your husband.

As we were walking in, he started talking just about how proud your family, your kids, and he in particular are of you.

And you know, Jake, I say this with my husband all the time, service is not something you do alone.

Having the support of a spouse, a partner, children, parents, it means everything and the whole community and the state is better for it.

As I was preparing to come here today, I was thinking back on my own childhood, and I found something that was written over 200 years ago

by an expedition of Spaniards who came to this area.

It's one of the first thing that was written about the Sacramento region.

And he observed and wrote,

Canopies of oaks and cottonwoods, many festooned with grapevines, overhung both sides of the blue current.

Birds chattered in the trees, and big fish darted through pellicide depths.

There was like champagne, and they drank deep of it, drank in the beauty around them.

This reminds me of how I felt many years ago in the early 1970s, when after Church on Sundays, my father, Angelos Sacopolis, who adores you, Madame Mayor, if I could say,

but he would pile us in the station wagon and we would drive through Elk Grove in those early days when he was bringing together some of his partners in farming to develop the very first housing developments in this area.

And we would pull along the side and cut the cattails that my mother would bring home and make into arrangements.

But those are the things I remember, the beautiful smells and the birds and the dragonflies and butterflies.

And I still feel so much of the amazing environment of this area has been preserved, even as this is now a major city, the second largest city in Sacramento County.

And your leadership over the last four years and now with the next two of their two year term sign next two years ahead of you.

You know, real, really, Mayor sing Alan, you live up to what this region, in my opinion, really deserves your leadership when it comes to representing what the people hope for and and really expect in Elk Grove when it comes to public service.

When it comes to public safety, when it comes to economic development, environmental stewardship, community building, and of course, as we know, the incredible example you set of inclusiveness.

So I was just extremely honored that you asked me to be here as you start your third term. And if you are ready.

that I take this obligation freely, that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion, or purpose of evasion, and that I will well and faithfully, and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties,

Okay.

Awesome.

Yeah.

So we're going to take turns and say some comments and I'll just start with mine.

You know, it's a true honor and privilege to invite our esteemed Lieutenant Governor. There was a reason why I picked our Lieutenant Governor.

My mentor to this day is the late Mayor of Sacramento, Joe Cerna Jr.

And the Lieutenant Governor's father, Angela Socopilis and Mayor Joe Cerna were the best of friends who came from humble beginnings as immigrants to this great country.

And I'm a proud immigrant to this country. And I'm reminded today the power and resiliency of the immigrants and refugees that call this great country home.

That with hard work and dedication, all dreams are possible.

That anything is possible in this great nation.

And so to you, Lieutenant Governor, thank you for blessing us.

I wanted to honor Joe Cerna and this was the best connection that I think that would make us both proud.

And as a reminder to the power of resiliency and immigrants who make this country great.

So if we can just give a round of applause to all of our immigrants and refugees.

I also want to recognize all of the tremendous elected officials that have graced us this evening.

The business community that supported me, the labor community that supported me.

My family, my children, my husband, my parents, my friends who are my sister friends.

I love you all. You give me strength every day to be a better mayor for this city.

Public service is not easy, as you all know.

But it is worth the fight because when we all fight together, our community and our residents win.

I'm so proud of my colleagues here. You are seeing the best of not only Elk Grove, but the region.

We show up every single day to make our community better and put politics aside.

In our fractured world and country, let us turn to these moments of coming together and being good stewards of humanity

and working together collaboratively and focusing on that which unites us versus that which divides us.

So thank you all for attending tonight. I love each and every one of you.

I will start to my left here with my council member colleagues, Darren Suan.

Thank you, Mayor. Congratulations to you and councilmember Spies and your victories as well.

Thank you everyone for being here tonight to show for this occasion.

As parents do, they have raised me to be the man that I am and with the values and ethic, hard work, ethics, they have instilled upon me

is how I try to lead and represent our community.

I'm also very grateful for my wife Denise and my children Lance, Connor and Carson for their support throughout these last 10 years.

As was mentioned earlier by the attending governor, you don't do this journey alone.

The support that you have enables you to do the work.

And so I'm so grateful for them ongoing support being here tonight as well.

My wife Denise again by my side.

And it's just an incredible honor to continue serving this community in this region.

The work is very rewarding and I couldn't do it without all the support from the community.

And so thank you again all of you for allowing me to continue serving. Thank you.

Thanks.

Thanks.

So first and foremost, I want to thank my wife, Angela Spees for being here today and not just today, every day.

I always tend to say it around Valentine's Day, but it's true for me every day.

I'm not the me that I am without the you that you are.

Thank you very much for giving up your time. Right. And for, you know, sometimes listening to listening to conversations about city things that you probably don't necessarily want to hear about.

But I also want to thank my rotary family for being here with me with me today.

And I want to thank our partners over at CSD. I appreciate you being here today with us to help swear us in.

I've said this a couple times today to a couple different folks and I genuinely mean it.

There are athletes who will go their entire career and never be on a championship team.

I mean, they'll play their entire lives and they'll never make it to the Super Bowl.

They'll never make it to the World Series. I'll never be on a championship team.

Well, there is no Super Bowl for cities. There is no Super Bowls or there are no World Series for cities.

But what I can tell you is the city team, which is comprised of the city council and mayor and our staff as well and our community.

What I can tell you is that the city team, if there was a Super Bowl, we would be the champions.

I typically don't speak in such bragging terms.

But what I want you to understand is that as council members soon, all of us go around the valley, we constantly hear,

Elk Grove, you've got it right. You're moving in the right direction.

Keep going. They usually don't say it that way. They usually use an F word in there, but it's true. It's true.

And so, again, I want to congratulate you, mayor, on your reelection and council member soon.

And of course, council member Robles and council member Brewer, I want to thank you.

But thank you so much. And thanks for being here tonight.

Thank you.

I also want to recognize one person who flew in all the way from Vancouver, my cousin's sister, Preet, who's sitting back there.

I love you. Thank you for being here.

So at this time, let's see, we need to do our reorganization.

All right. Do you want to take a recess, mayor? No, that we do write up. Sorry. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. So right after the re or correct.

And I would just throw out there that there is an opportunity if it is the desire after the reorganization, we can move seats and placards per the norms and procedures or if council just wants to direct it depends on how deployed you are to this evening behind your seats.

And also make this effective and move the seats at the beginning of the new year. So as you wish, but typically with the movement of the vice mayor's position, it moves seats around a little bit of the days.

Excellent. Well, we'll leave that during the break to figure out. So this time, I would like to nominate council member Sergio Robles to serve as the vice mayor.

Second.

All right, we have a motion and a second.

All those in favor, please say aye. Aye.

And the motion passes. Congratulations, vice mayor Robles.

All right, at this time, we will enjoy a 15 to 20 minute reception. We can stick around here. We'll take pictures and celebrate together and then continue on for the rest of our business.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I'm going to continue on with the rest of our agenda this evening. So we are now on item two, which is the approval of the agenda. May I get a motion.

So moves.

All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Thank you.

Let's see next item clerk.

And we'll advance quickly as there are no closed session items under section three and there are no presentations and announcements under section four that will advance us to section five general public comment.

Excellent.

I will go ahead and open up public comment. We have one speaker Tanya Vera share.

Good evening. I'm not too sure if I'm supposed to be here, but because it's public.

I can address I've been asking for I've been emailing all of you.

You and you and you and everyone here to get the help for a case that is going on with the police and no one has been able to answer me.

I have a case that has been neglected. I've been tagged as a abusive mom for religious and conservative beliefs. And I think you need to help me.

My daughter is not well. She's been kidnapped. She's 18 and because she has mental problems, you guys need to appreciate if you guys can conduct an investigation.

And so I requested your help. And so you are my constituents and I appreciate if somebody can help me out.

I know the police is a fictitious entity, but I'm still here to this is all we have right now.

And so please I am asking I'm begging you.

Somebody has to help me somehow investigate the condition of my daughter retrieved from the groomers and help us.

I'm not sure if the public knows that all row is a sanctuary city for pedophilia. And I believe that is the reason why I've been blocked.

So can I have somebody help me out? That's why I'm here.

Thank you, ma'am. The best I can do is connect you with our police chief, Bobby Davis, who can meet with you in the back.

Okay.

And that's what I can offer you at this time.

Okay, appreciate it. Thank you.

All right, with that, I will go ahead and close the public comment opportunity and go on to our next item, which is our city managers report.

Good evening, Madam Mayor, members of the city council first of all congratulations all of you on your elections and our new vice mayor over here.

Proud of you all and it's our privileges staff to be able to work with such a great city council and I think council members to be set set it well.

And I think it's the community council staff working together for the common good and it's unique what we have here now growing. We don't take it for granted.

So we're blessed to be able to work alongside all of you.

Few items to report on this evening. First of all, as of last Thursday, December 7th, the special waste collection center has discontinued the collection of expanded polystyrene, commonly known as styrofoam.

And there's no longer a recycler in the region that will accept both quantities of styrofoam until this materials phased out in California residents are advised to dispose of it as garbage or to find an alternative recycler outside of the region.

A fun item coming up next Thursday is Chief Davis will host a special holiday story time event as he's done the last several years at district 56. This is going to be next Thursday at 6pm.

And to bring their family for this free event, featuring a very special guest details are available on the police department social media accounts.

The city is conducting a new random statistically valid community survey in partnership with Zen City asking residents about potential additional measure a priority areas that could be added to the current priority list revenues from measure

If you're still shopping for holiday gifts, the Elgrove local e gift card features 100 plus participating businesses, making it the perfect gift for anyone the gift card not only allows a flexible spending, but you're also supporting local business owners in the community

purchase an e gift card and watch testimonials from your favorite breweries restaurants and shops at support local e g dot org.

Additionally, for New Year's City Hall will be closed on December 31 and January 1. Animal shelter and special waste collection center will also be closed. And that concludes my report happy to answer any questions that the council might have.

Thank you. Any questions or comments for our city manager.

All right, seeing none. Thank you so much for that great report.

8.1 is a public hearing to consider adoption of a resolution authorizing the city manager to submit an application of the California Department of Housing and Community Development for permanent local housing allocation PLHA funding and amending the five year PLHA plan.

Good evening, Mayor St. Allen and members of the city council. My name is Josh Tovar management analyst to with the housing and public services division.

The purpose of tonight's presentation is to seek counsel's authorization to amend the city's permanent local housing allocation or PLHA five year expenditure plan.

The city was expected to receive approximately 2.6 million. However, the actual amount granted by HCD was closer to 2.5 based on the number of property transfers that occurred in 2022 and 2023.

Eligible uses of PLHA funds are summarized on this screen before you while I won't go through each of the items in detail. I do want to highlight the broad range of activities that the PLHA program supports.

And notably that funds can be used to support the development of affordable rental and ownership housing homelessness activities, which includes operational and capital costs for maintaining shelters, as well as down payment assistance programs.

In November of 2022, City Council authorized the application for the PLHA program funding and approved the five year expenditure plan. Subsequently staff applied for and was awarded funds and entered into a standard agreement with HCD.

Table one here presented on your screen summarizes the funds as originally adopted.

Overall, the city had intended to use the affordable housing funds to make a loan to an affordable housing project, specifically the cornerstone Village project. And secondly, the city intended to use homeless funds to support one of the two homeless service navigator positions.

Since the PLHA plan was adopted staff have worked diligently to draw down these funds. However, the primary challenging and using PLHA funds is a strict expenditure deadline. According to the guidelines funds must be expanded by April 30 of the following program year.

approvals necessary to move the projects forward. As noted earlier, initial plan was to use the funds to cover a portion of the city's 5.4 million dollar loan commitment through the cornerstone Village project. However, after receiving the PLHA funds, the developer informed us that the project was not proceeding after several unsuccessful funding applications for tax credit financing.

Fortunately, staff proactively worked with HCD and received permission to retain these funds and preliminary approval to repurpose towards other eligible activities.

Another challenge that the HCD is requires loan documentation upfront before a release of funds.

This presents unique administrative challenges for the city and other lenders. Historically, the city prepares loan documents once the project has secured funding commitments from all sources and is ready to close on its financing.

This approach ensures that all parties, including the lender that is ultimately selected to finance the project, has an opportunity to review the loan documents with their legal counsel.

The state's expectation to enter into loan agreements so early in the initial process simply does not provide adequate time for this necessary review process.

And lastly, in the most recent NOFA, HCD announced that 40% of the 2022 and future PLHA funds must be spent on affordable, affordable owner occupied workforce housing activities.

And to comply, the city must fund ownership housing options for low and moderate income households earning up to 120% of the area meaning income.

In light of these challenges, staff recommends redirecting permanent local housing allocation of affordable housing funds towards homelessness and outreach activities.

Per PLHA guidelines funds will revert back to HCD if they're not encumbered by April 30.

Additionally, spending on ongoing homeless activities allows the city does not put the city at risk of losing essential state funding resources.

Additionally, shifting funds towards homelessness and outreach activities will help address emerging homelessness and outreach needs.

The opening of the city's year-round shelter has incurred increased capital costs for the city primarily to ensure the safety, functionality, and security of the facility.

PLHA funds can be leveraged to pay for these costs in addition to the operational costs, which would include supporting two full-time equivalent homeless navigator positions.

This frees up the city's measure E funds to be used more strategically to go towards other critical projects such as securing a more permanent location for the shelter.

Moreover, staff proposes proposed recommendation does meet compliance with the HCD's 40% set aside requirement.

In the short term, staff will implement a new down payment assistance program aimed at helping moderate income first-time home buyers.

The program would specifically target the missing middle, addressing the needs of those who earn too much to qualify for traditional low-income programs but still face challenges in purchasing a home.

To put this into perspective, HCD finds moderate income for our family of four earning close to $138,000.

Financial assistance is envisioned to come in the form of low interest. The first payment, second priority loans to be used towards the purchase price of a home located within the city and will be modeled after the Cal Home program previously implemented by the city, which currently serves low-income residents.

Looking into the future, staff plans to explore partnerships with organizations such as the Habitat for Humanity to further enhance affordable ownership opportunities on city homeland.

Fable 2 here summarizes the recommendations and the proposed funding allocations from 2019 to 2023.

Tonight, staffs requesting that the City Council adopt a resolution approving amendments to the PHA five-year plan and authorizing the city manager to execute all and file all documents with HCD.

Pending Council's direction, staff may proceed with the next steps, which include filing an amended plan with HCD and beginning work to update the home buyer assistance program guidelines, which will include consulting industry experts such as real estate agents and lenders to ensure the program is viable.

The ultimate goal would be to launch this program by February and March 2025.

This concludes my presentation and with that the Housing and Public Services Manager, Sarah Bond-Traeger, and myself are available to answer any questions.

All right, thank you. At this time, I will declare that the public hearing is now open and open up the public comment opportunity.

I do not see anyone signed up to speak on this item. I'll close public comment opportunity and declare that the public hearing is now closed and turn it over for hearing council comments and questions. We'll start to the left, Council Member Suan.

Thanks, Mayor. Happy to support the item and move the resolution when it's time. I just wanted to just express my support for, you know, the opportunity to provide assistance for that missing middle.

And that's something we've been trying to crack that proverbial nut, so to speak. You know, how do we get, find that folks that don't qualify for these low affordable programs?

So this is really, really good news. I know it comes on the heels of one of our other projects, not getting funded, Cornerstone Village, but I think this is definitely a silver lining in the situation. So thank you.

Council Member Brewer.

That's a better ring, a much better ring.

Okay. I'm still mayor though.

I have, I have the city, the rest of y'all have neighborhoods. But I want to thank Mr. Tovar and Ms. Bond Trager for this report for doing this deep dive, seeing what opportunities we could use with with the funding that we have, and really looking at how we can help folks out in the terms of providing a down payment assistance.

And it's very interesting that that we're doing this, because it is hard for, for, for middle income and lower middle income families to try to get down the, get to the task of buying a home when there's constant competition.

And for having the ability to provide this assistance to people is important. I think once the word gets out, it's going to create a breath of activity, but also breath of competition as well. So I hope we are prepared to address that because

this is a, this is good policy. It's good stuff. I know people do have reservations of having government being involved in non government activities, but I think this is, this is a worthy endeavor. So I want to thank you for it.

Thank you. Council Member Speese.

It looks good to me. Thank you. I'm proud. You're happy to support.

Vice Mayor Robles.

Thank you Madam Mayor. I agree with my colleagues.

When you're talking about homeownership and when you're talking about helping individuals and obtaining something, this is what we're striving for. And I'm proud to say that we are moving in the right direction as a city to help those who by no means of their own can get there. So I'm proud to support it as well.

Thank you. I too support this. You know, once upon a time I was the head, the governmental affairs director for what's called back then the Nehemiah program, which was a national down payment assistance program that was instrumental in creating homeownership opportunities for first time home buyers.

So to your point, Council Member Sue on that missing middle that is so critical. I agree with all of the comments that have been made. I think this is an excellent stuff in the right direction. So thank you for that.

So with that, I will look for a motion. I think Council Member Sue and you made one.

Yep. And I'll make a second.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Next item, please.

I'll take us out of 8.2 public hearing to consider resolution adopting an addendum to the previously certified environmental impact report for the general plan or resolution amending climate action plan, their ordinance amending ill growth municipal code title 16 building and construction and title 23 zoning.

Okay. Good evening, Mayor Council.

I'm Carrie Whitlock, strategic planning and innovation program manager.

The actions with this item include an addendum to the previously adopted and certified environmental impact report for the general plan and climate action plan amendments to measure be five and TACM nine in the cap and updates to title 16 and title 23 of Elk Grove municipal code.

So just to be clear before we start, the amendments proposed this evening are to our current 2019 climate action plan. We're still in the process of our comprehensive update of the climate compass.

That work is ongoing and we will be coming back to council in the coming months on that item, but this is for our current climate action plan.

So the current measure be five is related to zero net energy buildings and currently reads phase in zero net energy standards for new construction beginning in 2020 for residential projects and 2030 for commercial projects.

Specific phase in requirements and ZNE compliance standards will be supported by updates in the try any of building code updates beginning with 2019 update.

So this excuse me a zero net energy building is defined by the California energy commission as a building where the amount of energy provided by on site renewable energy sources is equal to the amount of energy consumed by the building.

So the important piece with that definition is the on site requirement for renewable energy.

At the time that cap was adopted in 2019. The expectation was that the ZNE requirements for new construction would be included in future updates to the title 24 building energy efficiency standards in either 2019 or 2022.

Neither of those updates included these requirements and the current draft of the 2025 building code update does not include this either.

So rather the state has been moving rather than than moving towards the on site renewable with the ZNE standard the state has adopted solar voltaic requirements for new construction and has allowed community solar share programs to take the place of that on site.

Solar requirement. So the focus has really shifted from ZNE on site requirement towards building the carbonization with either on site or off site renewable electricity generation.

So while the zero net energy standard may no longer will be the focus for our residential buildings the city is still committed to reducing our building sector greenhouse gas emissions and remaining consistent to the greenhouse gas reduction analysis that was completed as part of our climate action plan in 2019.

The proposed language change removes the ZNE standard for new residential construction projects and instead emphasizes the emission reduction needed.

And this language and the adopted targets will ensure consistency with that greenhouse gas reduction analysis that we previously completed.

So for measure TACM nine this is all related to electric vehicle charging. So this measure has been updated with each code cycle as the state continues to evolve and add to their EV charging

requirements. The changes proposed here are consistent with what was in the intervening code cycle that went into effect in July 1st 2024. The amendments include changes to multi unit residential hotel motel EV parking and then a new power allocation method for non residential construction.

So if you haven't memorized the requirements for different EV charging compliance.

EV capable spaces just have the electrical power installed but they don't actually have a charger they don't have a plug it's just the electrical is there in the parking area.

EV ready spaces are capable EV capable spaces with actually some kind of a receptacle so they either have a charger installed or they have a plug at that parking space for the vehicle to be able to plug in.

And then EV SE installed spaces are EV ready with either a level two or a DC fast charger actually installed at the space. So those are the different compliance levels and so for multi unit residential hotel motel developments shown here previously there were different.

Excuse me compliance levels required based on the number of units in the in the building. This has been streamlined so all size units have the same requirements.

So for these types of new construction they no longer need to put in any EV capable spaces. However there are higher percentages required for EV ready parking spaces 40% now up from 25% previously.

And then 10% of all spaces have to be equipped with at least a level two charger which was up from zero per units that were under 20 previously or 5% for 20 or more units previously.

So for non residential development.

An alternative to the space allocation method.

Okay, I'll start again with that one.

So for non residential development and alternative to the space allocation method is provided using power allocation.

So the general principle is similar to the space allocation method with higher requirements included for larger parking lots and flexibility in terms of types of chargers installed as long as there is at least one level to EV charger provided at the location.

The changes to the municipal code are all related just to the EV charging requirements.

So as I mentioned before with each state code cycle update, the EV requirements continue to change and become more stringent and these are again expected to change with the 2025 code as well.

So this has made it a little bit of a challenge to maintain consistency between our climate action plan the municipal code and the state building code.

And so to help remedy this the municipal code proposed amendments would include greater reference to the latest California state building standards code and would consolidate our definitions around EV charging into one location in section 16 rather than having them repeated into locations in both section 16 and section 23.

So just to summarize all of the changes that we're looking at.

We are proposing changes for the cap to just two measures be five to change from a zero net energy standard to decreasing energy emission requirement for TICM nine to update the EV charging requirement to match the state building code.

And then the municipal code updates are all related to EV infrastructure requirements and includes changes to section 16 building and construction and section 23 zoning.

So the proposed amendments to the cap and the municipal code are considered a project under sequel.

So state sequel guidance lines provides that previously approved EIRs can be relied upon to approve subsequent changes to a project unless certain qualifications are exceeded which would require an addendum to the EIR a subsequent EIR or a negative declaration.

So staff has reviewed and concluded that an addendum to the EIR is the appropriate document changes that are being proposed to the project are not substantial.

The impacts of the changes will be equivalent to or less than the impacts previously analyzed in the EIR.

The addendum identifies this for each of the different project components and for each of the different impact areas.

There's no there are no changes in physical circumstances that would cause a new significant impact or substantially increase the severity of previously identified significant impacts.

And there is no new information of substantial importance. So this is all of this information is included in that addendum and in the staff report as well.

So finally, staff recommends that city council adopt the addendum to the EIR adopt a resolution for the cap amendments to be five and TACM nine and introduce an ordinance amending the municipal code title 16 and title 23.

And with that, I am available for any questions.

All right. Thank you for that. Excellent presentation. At this time, I will declare that the public hearing is now open and open up public comment opportunity.

I do not have anyone signed up to speak to this item. I'll close the public comment opportunity and declare that the public hearing is now closed and open it up for any questions or comments.

I'll start to the right with our vice mayor.

No questions or comments. Thank you for the presentation, but ready to make the motion.

Okay.

Any, anyone have questions? You do. Okay. Council member.

So,

so Ms. Whitlock, I, this is a very, this is sound. I'm in support of it.

But I have a question because we look at the fiscal impact.

And the structure is basically set on the responsibility of who pays.

But in the event that should any federal tax credits or subsidies that would be applied or can be applied towards

construction of parking stalls.

Say that dries up.

Will this allow us to be flexible and pivot and working closely with the energy commission and with SMUD to make sure that

we can maximize and get our fair share of what we applied for.

In terms of in terms of what we're trying to do.

So in terms of tax credits for so tax credits, we as the city don't apply for the tax credits.

Those are usually applied by the actual individual or the, you know, developer putting in the project.

And the same would apply for incentives.

Right. Grants.

Well grants, the city has applied for.

And we're still looking at, you know, what grants are available will reevaluate, you know, as the grants landscape sort of changes.

But any specific incentives are usually applied for on an individual basis.

Okay. And the reason why I mentioned that is because that flexibility and that ability to be nimble is going to be crucial.

form. So it's just helping thinking out loud, thinking on our feet in the event things happen in the next 18 months, 24 months where

we're having to really think about, okay, we have this program, how can we keep this funded or how can we keep this incentive program moving forward in the event of

and so that's one of the things I just wanted to have in our hip pocket, so to speak.

Okay. Yeah.

Any other questions? Yeah.

Thanks, Mary. Just a quick comment. Thank you, Carrie, for your work on this.

I know it's very complex and nuanced, but you did a great job breaking it down and analyzing, getting it through this.

For folks, I mean, who may be hearing this, it may sound like a lot of word salad, but it affects the landscape of our community, but also the

bottom line of anybody wants to build a home or retail center or a hotel. You know, as we talked about getting out of housing, I mean, all these things matter.

And I, you know, I think we're doing the best we can. We're obviously we're bound by state requirements, so that's what this reflects.

And I think this council, this staff is cognizant of trying to balance what we're trying to do for the environment, balance requirements of state policy and still provide housing and retail amenities for our residents.

So, thank you. I agree, Council Member Soon, but I think what we're looking at right here is that we're there is we're trying to make sure that we have enough e.V. charging stalls, enough e.V. charging stations throughout the city as the as the as as consumers

Some programs may go away. Some programs will get curtailed. So it's helping us be nimble so we can take care of our community without having to worry about what's happening back east.

And that's that's why that's why I posed those questions the way I did because because we want to stay nimble. We want to stay flexible, but and definitely know what's out there in front of us because of because of if a regulatory measures to rigid, and we're unable to reach it, then we need to consider the alternatives that are in place.

All right. Thank you for your presentation. I'm all for a balanced approach.

And because I think it's the most realistic to retain. So thank you for the work towards reaching that. So thank you again. With that, what I need is a motion one through three.

Second.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

All right. Next item 9.1.

Nice to receive a presentation on aesthetic concepts for the Laguna Creek inter regional trail crossing at stay route 99 and provide direction as appropriate.

Good evening, Mayor City Council members. My name is Travis Coon. I'm a senior civil engineer in the capital program.

And tonight I'm going to be presenting you aesthetic options for the Laguna Creek inter regional trail crossing at state route 99 project. This is project number WTL 16 in our CIG.

The main questions I'm going to be asking you are should the city invest in enhanced aesthetics for the new over crossing, if investing, which concept is preferred, which elements do you value the most, and how much should the city invest on these aesthetic features.

This is a map of our Laguna Creek inter regional trail network.

The green line represents the trail network might be a little hard to see on the screen there, but the dashed lines are the parts that are proposed solid is what's already what's already existing.

And our project is located in the red circle.

The proposed over crossing will provide a much needed class one over crossing facility, providing non motorized users the ability to cross state route 99 safely.

It closes a major gap in the trail network and it will allow trail users to safely gas gain access to both sides of highway 99.

It increases connectivity to seven miles of continuous trail regional trail systems parks services jobs schools and many other amenities.

This is a closer look of the proposed alignment of the trail. This has been this alignment has been approved by Caltrans.

The actual over crossing itself would be 760 feet long. And as you can see here, it's going to cross highway 99 at a bit of an angle as opposed to perpendicular as most structures do.

This is partially to avoid the existing Cal Transbridge across the creek and also to minimize impacts to Crete excited Christian Church.

This angle will also have some visual appeal to it.

The initial grant applications for the project were submitted in 2020 and Cal Trans coordination began shortly after design began in April of 2023.

35% plans were completed in April of 2024 and environmental documents are in progress.

Now we're in the architectural design stage, which must be completed before proceeding to final design.

This is because aesthetic details may impact the structure type selection, which is required before we move on to final design and support from Creek side Christian Church is important and they value aesthetic treatments.

That's so in our meetings with them.

Cal Trans has the ultimate approval authority that the new structure we've talked to Cal Trans and the new structure must be possessive cohesive with the existing structures along the corridor at a minimum aesthetics should match the shield and over crossing.

While we're early in the design process Cal Trans approval of non standard designs will take additional time so the sooner that we select a concept to move forward the sooner we can review the process.

The review process can begin.

Design will be refined based on cost and Cal Trans feedback. However, major changes could affect the structure type.

We want to know which features Council values most before we present the renderings to Cal Trans.

So before I show you our conceptual renderings I want to remind you of this existing structures along the highway 99 corridor, driving from south to north. The first one you come across is grant line road.

And you can see here the railings on the top of the structure have some curved features, the black and clean. The lights are mounted on tall poles. You see some brick features in the concrete patterns.

The next structure you come across is Elk Grove Boulevard. Again, it has some of those brick features, similar rounded shapes on the railings. This one does not have lights on it. And it also has some concrete patterns along the sides.

Next is the Elk Grove Creek pedestrian over crossing. This is our newest crossing.

We have some concrete patterns with faux stonework. Concrete has been stained to look that way also. You see the trapezoidal patterns along the side of the structure. Clean rectangular railings along it.

After that you would come across Laguna Bond Road. This would be considered a structure without aesthetic treatments. It's pretty plain, just plain concrete.

And then next is the Sheldon Road crossing. It's basically our baseline now. Again, similar to the Elk Grove Creek pedestrian over crossing, it has some trapezoidal features in the concrete.

It's got some stonework. Lights on this one are mounted on poles. Oh, I will say to the, you didn't see light poles on the Elk Grove Creek over crossing. They're actually embedded into the railings.

And a closer look at this, since this is our baseline, the features that are on here. You see the trapezoidal shapes in the concrete, the stonework. The railing is pretty open looking and the tall light poles.

So our first concept is we're calling it the traditional truss concept. The railings on this are intended to represent the prefabricated truss bridges that we have across our existing trail network. They're also proposed for this trail system as well.

Notice on the side of the structure, the concrete patterns are intended to represent toolies, reeds, wildlife, such as birds that you might see along the creek.

The lights, you know, they have light poles here and not quite as tall as some of the other existing structures. If you look on this main picture here on the right side, that is intended to be the Creek site Christian church would be our closest neighbor to the structure.

Bottom left, you'll see that the walkway in this conceptual rendering also has some stained concrete to represent a winding creek. And on the bottom right, see what it could potentially look like at night.

The other concept we have is the Creek and trees concept. This one we have a little more ornate railings with some colors. The trees reminiscent of the oak trees you might see along the trail network as well as well as in the city logo.

On the side of this structure, you see the meandering creek pattern in blue. There's some also some, you know, other concrete shapes in there, city logo throughout. Again, we have on the top deck that's stained concrete to look like the creek as well.

And in this one, the lights would, in this concept is showing lights that are embedded in the railings. You don't see light poles sticking up above it.

This table shows a breakdown of our current project budget broken down by fund source. The approved project budget and prior grant applications were based on a feasibility level cost estimate circa 2017 with minor escalation increase in 2022 grant funding is driving the project schedule.

As you see here, total budgets about 12 and a half million, roughly 10 million of that is grant funding.

And here's our current estimated project costs.

You see here that the estimated cost update.

It's from our 35% percent design submittal includes a 25% contingency and aesthetics features to match Sheldon is what that far right column represents. You'll notice that the construction cost and the construction engineering cost of the two items that have been updated.

The engineering cost is assumed to be 15% of the construction cost.

The other remaining costs are based on our approved budgets and our current approved contract that we have in place such as for design and so on.

This is a bridge cost index from Caltrans. The index grew three times more in the last two years compared to the six years prior you see on the right side, how much the cost of bridges have increased since 2020 when we began applying for grants on this project.

And here's a breakdown of the cost of our aesthetic concepts.

The base cost would be to match Sheldon.

The traditional trust cost is an additional 1.75 million on top of Sheldon. The creek and trees is 2.65 million.

In addition to matching Sheldon.

You notice too that on some of these items the traditional trust and the creek and trees have that second row of the concrete texture and state staying on top.

If we did not want that, those costs could be eliminated fairly easily costs will be refined as the project progresses.

Some items may be removed to reduce cost.

And as shown on the previous slide bridge costs have ex ex escalated in recent years.

And if Council's direction is to proceed with enhanced aesthetic treatment staff will return to request the appropriate amount of additional funding when the costs are more refined.

So to recap my main questions for you are should the city invest in enhanced aesthetics for the new over crossing.

If investing which concept is preferred which I'll meant to you value most and how much should the city invest in the features.

And I'll leave you with a summary of our images.

That's the end of my slide. I want to leave this up for your discussion.

All right. Very good.

No worries. All right. Excellent. That's a great presentation at this time.

I'll open up public comment opportunity. We have one person sign up to speak faster Troy Winslow.

Thank you. Council members. Mayor sing Allen congrats on your recommissioning to all of you. Travis well done. Appreciate that.

So I'm the pastor of Creekside Christian Church. You saw our photo you saw on the layout. This this is being built on our land.

So I just wanted we didn't get a say in the original that this this was being done. But we have worked quite effectively with the team over the last couple of years and minimizing the impact to our facility and the fact we haven't gotten around the fact though that the pathway the trail will be yards from our preschool playground.

So first Baptist church started in Elk Grove 100 years ago in February. We are now Creekside and we chose Creekside as a name because we have multiple creeks on our property and creeks go throughout the Elk Grove area.

It's it's part of who we are along with our grain belts and our school districts. It's it's important. But we also have we're the largest church in all Sacramento County and 3000 plus Elk Grove residents call Creekside home.

And we just want to put our best foot forward as this you see in this this top view here you wouldn't even be able to see Creekside from going northbound. And so these other options the more aesthetically pleasing options does open it up.

Minimizes the impact that now we have an obstruction for the first time in 30 plus years of being there that blocks our our view.

And again we have we're not to the point where we've started to negotiate we have not received an offer of what what the what we're going to receive in compensation for this.

But I do want you to know that I I lend our support for the aesthetic versions of this. And I ask that the city continue like it has for the last 100 years negotiating good faith when we come to terms.

Over the next year or so in what it what the impact and the minimizing impact to our school to our church. This project will have so thank you for your time.

Thank you sir thank you for being here. All right that concludes our public comment. I will go ahead and close public comment opportunity and open it up for council deliberations will start to the left this time council members to one.

Thank you mayor. I appreciate the presentation Travis and I think from a sales person's point you're supposed to show us the most expensive one first right and then everything's supposed to be less.

I'm just joking.

I'm an engineer not a sales person.

I know.

Good answer.

Good answer.

Good answer. Yeah.

Anyway look I I appreciate pastors comments and I agree and I also really do like the the creek and trees concept I think it stands out makes it very very unique so I would support the creek and trees concept.

Thank you.

Council member.

I don't really have a whole lot to say.

I like I like all three approaches but you want to have it's a pedestrian bridge the Sheldon baseline looks more like you're the roadway Sheldon Road crossing the highway the traditional trust.

It's it's nice.

But

The whole focus is to bring both sides the east side and the west side together. This is part of the Laguna

Creek

Trailway

and you want to be emblematic of that and also be respective of of of where it is in proximity to the creek side church. I like the creek and trees concept. That's that's all I gotta say.

Thank you council member speeds.

Alrighty.

Alright so

First

Thank you.

Pastor Winslow appreciate you coming out

and providing your your perspective on this and I want to thank

your your congregation for being continual supporters of the community. So many things happen there from from funerals to graduations just all kinds of things. And so thank you very much for being a partner in the community.

Okay so I was originally thinking that so I'm not a big fan of the baseline particularly for for pedestrian traffic.

Because I think it's nice to be able to see the open airy and allowing the ability to see folks walking across it. I was so I was kind of hoping that the best I was going to get is a traditional trust.

These are not these are not inexpensive upgrades. But I'm happy to hear that others are in support of Creek and trees.

I don't think we can go wrong either way. But I definitely would expect that many residents of District 3 would be very very pleased with the Creek and trees I would expect they would be pleased very pleased with that. So yeah I can I can support either traditional trust or or Creek and trees.

Thank you Vice Mayor.

Thank you for the presentation. I believe this is the first time presenting correct.

Second. Second. Well you did amazing. And you sold me on the Creek and trees. So.

All right thank you thank you to my colleagues and thank you to Pastor Winslow as well we want this to be a partnership with Creek side so thank you for your feedback. I too am in favor of Creek and trees only.

So I have only one choice and one preference. So hopefully there's some good direction there for you.

And general consensus here from the council. Thank you for your presentation with that. This is just for direction. So we've done that we will move on to our next item 9.2.

Nice to receive information consider resolution dissolving the city of Elk Grove Arts Commission and establishing the city of Elk Grove Arts and Creative Economy Commission.

Authorizing recruitment for commission members and direct staff to prepare an arts and creative economy strategy for city council consideration.

All right. Good evening council members. First I would be remiss but in congratulate the winners of the election. You guys just squeaked it out and I'm proud of you and and more importantly I am grateful for such a great council and I don't I don't say that lightly you guys know me.

So congratulations to all of you. So this item is based on council direction so at your November 13th 2024 meeting you requested that staff look at the possibility of expanding the role and purpose of the Arts Commission to include what's known as the creative economy which I'll explain in a minute or try to explain

and potentially renaming the commission and then in either case whether current or revised commission to recruit new members. So that was your direction.

Our recommendation tonight after looking at those directions and considering those items is that you indeed adopt a resolution dissolving the Arts Commission and establishing in its place the Arts and Creative Economy Commission and the authorized recruitment for commission members for this new commission.

And in addition something you didn't ask for but something I'm recommending is that you direct staff to prepare an arts and creative economy strategy.

So start with the current Arts Commission by way of background. So the current Arts Commission was formed in 2002 as what was called then the Arts Committee. Its role was expanded in 2005 by resolution.

It was renamed by resolution from the Arts Committee to the Arts Commission in 2017. It is a standing commission as five members members must reside in the city. They meet once a month and they are supplied with a staff liaison to the commission.

Their current tasks and objectives pursuant to their enabling resolution and the amendments there to includes the following. I'm not going to read them all but essentially they are the city's sounding board and advisory body for anything related to arts and

entertainment and have been used as such. So they've done great work. It's been 23 years. They've accomplished a lot of things. And so these are just some things I pulled out. Some of our Arts Commission members may have different ideas of what their top conference was.

What I've sat through 10 years of their annual reports which I've enjoyed and have gone and met with them at least once. And so this is what I kind of picked out as some of the key things they've done. They've advised the city well on public art design and placement.

So we have some great art pieces in the city and it's because of the Arts Commission, including at the animal shelter and District 56 and soon to come the new library. Utility Box beautification projects. This is one of my favorites and you see these in a number of cities.

But we do it particularly well. Really quality art placed on what is typically a nondescript utilitarian facility to make them look beautiful in that art I think is modern and thought provoking and I personally like it.

They've put on numerous events such as art and book fairs and various music reviews. They have something called the Iris Awards which I haven't been to that but I'm told it is awards for artists.

And they also have an excellent on the city's website. Our public could find this a virtual citywide art guide which is a GIS based application with a map and pictures of all of the art in the city.

So I think we should we would be remiss if I would be remiss in micro ending these changes if I didn't acknowledge the current Arts Commission and the exceptional work they've done over several decades now.

So what I what we are recommending is as I said dissolving the current Arts Commission and replacing it with an Arts Commission that adds on this concept of creative economy.

So what is that? Well there is no single definition right there's no you know universally accepted definition of the creative economy. It's constantly evolving.

But in general it is the intersection of arts culture and economic development. So it includes traditional arts and culture that the things we think of when we think of arts theater dance music poetry etc.

There's there's another 20 things I could have listed there. It but it also includes creative industries. So these are things like and these are things that are thought of as more businesses than arts and culture film television digital media music production advertising publishing even call in our art.

There's another 20 things I could have listed there. All of these you know whether traditional or new arts and culture. They are dependent on creative talent or what many people call creatives.

So the purpose or the you know the the reason for a creative economy and the reason we want to develop sustain and expand our creative economy is because we want to realize first and foremost the cultural and artistic benefits of a thriving arts and culture scene in Elk Grove.

Secondly if we're going to do the first thing right if we're going to support the arts and the businesses and people in places that support the arts and have this great thriving arts and culture scene we might as well leverage the economic developments of the former.

The economic development benefits of the former of which there are many arts attracts business arts attracts talent to our community arts attracts visitation and tourism to our community arts improves our branding position as a community as for economic development in particular.

It improves our quality of life and it makes our city beautiful and so it's it's really that creative economy is that intersection of arts and culture and then leveraging the economic developments from arts and culture.

It is an ecosystem and what we would do as a city under this new model is build programs and activities.

And provide funds that support that ecosystem the creative economy ecosystem is made up of people. So those are the what some people call creatives places so that is.

I'm just noticing I'm going to go through some of this businesses organizations programs and activities that comprise the arts in Elk Grove.

So when we say creatives we are talking about artists we are artists performers musicians poets authors directors producers educators entrepreneurs anybody who is engaged in creative activities whether for the sake of the arts or for the sake of business.

We are talking about places so those are studios theaters galleries museums we are talking about businesses it's the it's the owners of those places it's the owners of the organizations and businesses that operate that theater that operate that studio that operate that gallery gallery and operate that museum.

It is arts and culture startups so more traditional technology startups that are doing things in the art and culture space of which we have several in Elk Grove that we are engaged with right now.

It is potentially film and television production is potentially music production.

The organizations are us and the institutions and nonprofits and colleges and universities and school districts anybody anybody who is an institution that supports the arts.

Those are the organizations in the ecosystem the programs in the ecosystem are some things we are already doing such as our arts commission such as our percent for the art program.

They could be future grants and incentives they could be working on arts education of our youth it could be real estate development because of places where creatives need to be.

Those are the organizations and the programs and then finally the activities.

Well that is art public and private art in public and private places its concerts its theaters its its theater its festivals its exhibitions.

I could have put 10 or 15 more things on each of those categories so I'm just trying to give you a flavor of what we're talking about when we're talking about this creative economy is an ecosystem all the people places businesses programs and activities that comprise an art program.

Art scene in our city.

So my contention is is that in order to fully realize continue to realize the benefits of the arts and start to realize the creative economy and those economic benefits.

We need a new commission and we need a new commission with a broader mission a broader member makeup and we need a strategy to drive the work of that commission and the work of staff so we can grow sustain and expand that creative economy.

So what I am what we are recommending is that we establish a new commission called the arts and creative economy commission.

So what I've put before you here is sort of our standard template for a new commission.

It would be a standing commission it would have five members the members would need to be out of residence 18 or older.

They could not be officers and employees of the city they would meet monthly we would assign a staff liaison to assist the commission and they would be an advisory and recommending by.

Other cities do it different than this other cities have larger commissions other cities have members of their particularly in the creative economy sector and the art sector.

Other cities have allowed people under 18 so that they can have youth commissioners other cities have allow not only residents but also employees of the city or even residents of other cities so long as they are experts in the arts and in some of these fields that we're trying to capture.

But so I'm just sort of putting this in front of you as the basic recommendation if you want to give us direction to do more different we will take your direction.

So this new committee or this new commission what would it do well they would they would do it all good commissions do most commissions or advisory right and so this would be an advisory commission as the current arts commission is they would provide advice and recommendations related to programs and activities designed to develop sustain and expand a thriving arts and creative economy.

And so they would make recommendations and give advice on arts and creative economy services programs projects and activities.

Importantly the preparation and implementation of what I'm proposing to you which is the creation of an arts and creative economy strategy to drive this work.

The type nature and location of public art which the current art commission already does our efforts to promote the city as an arts and culture destination.

They would provide an annual report to the city and they would do other tasks and objectives as requested by the city council or the city manager.

So the commission composition again this is my recommendation you're going to give us direction but just to help you is that you know obviously like all our commissions we strive to reflect the city's diversity in terms of race ethnicity gender and identification and age in particular.

Many other many other types of diversity.

It should include a broad set of skills and expertise that combines the arts and the creative economy.

So an example of filling those five seats might be and this is just an example but we looked at how a lot of other cities are doing it in creating this example but it's you know a practicing artist or performer would be one seat a creative economy business owner bringing in the business side of this.

And arts educators so that we're encapsulating education which is a critical part of the arts and culture.

A patron and a collector right those who consume art those who buy art those who own art.

And an arts institution administrator which might be like a nonprofit director or something like that.

So just an example of how we might you know how we might bring members to this new commission there's a lot of ways you can slice and dice this though.

And so I'm also recommending that you give us direction to create this arts and creative economy strategy.

The reason for that is you know we've come a long way as a city in terms of a city that has arts and culture.

We have reached a point in our evolution where I think we're ready to take the next step to evolve to really start to push this as a line of a line of focus for the city and to be able to do that.

Particularly a line of focus for the economic development department.

I put it right up there with our efforts in workforce development business retention and expansion all of the things that we do in economic development.

Now we're not artists fully acknowledge that not experts which is why I think that the city needs a strategy to help us to help us accomplish these goals in order you know again not an expert.

I'm not going to pretend that I can write an art and creative economy strategy so in order to do this we need to retain a consultant it would be a heavy lift it would probably take a year.

It would include extensive outreach to both our residents the arts and culture community in the creative economy community and we would do it in close coordination with this new commission.

The fiscal impact of doing all of this with existing city resources meaning staff and budget.

We are more than capable of forming the new commission recruiting its members and appointing a staff liaison at no additional cost in the city that's existing staff and financial resources that are already in place.

The arts and creative economy strategy would take some new resources.

I estimate approximately 100 to 200 thousand dollars to retain the consultant and create the strategy.

I don't know what that number is.

I know that's a broad range.

We would figure that out after a solicitation process.

We would use existing city staff and resources to manage that process.

As I said it would be subject to our normal solicitation processes and contract approval which at this price range would come to you.

And we would bring it to you after consulting with our new commission should you should you form that.

And we have economic development and measure funds that would be available and could be programmed for this purpose.

And I think that's a very appropriate use for measure funds that were part of the bargain with our residents when we created measure that we would spend certain monies on economic development.

And so in conclusion my recommendation and there's a resolution in front of you to this effect is to approve that resolution which would dissolve the city of Elk Grove's art commission and establish the city of Elk Grove arts and creative economy.

Commission authorize recruitment for commission members and direct staff to prepare an arts and creative economy strategy for city council consideration.

So with that I am done.

I am available to answer any questions.

All right.

Thank you sir for your presentation.

At this time I will open up public comment opportunity.

We have four people signed up to speak.

We will start with Nan Mahon followed by Marcos and we have Liz and Gary.

So we'll start with you Nan.

Good evening mayor and city councilman.

And it's nice to see that you're all going to be with us.

Oh, for in the near future for a while.

My name of course is Nan Mahon and I'm chairperson of the Elk Grove Arts Commission.

Previous to being on this arts commission I was on the Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission for four years.

I'm here with my fellow commissioners.

Salah Gatridge, Shell Grace and Liz Irons.

We are here to ask that you reconsider dissolving the commission as we know it.

Now as I'm listening to the gentleman speak.

He isn't proposing anything that we aren't doing except spending $200,000.

Everything that he had on his presentation are things that we are already doing for the city.

We are all volunteers with who are educated in the arts.

Some of us practicing in the arts.

I'm a writer.

Cheryl is a painter.

Leslie Senderfer is a well-known opera singer.

So we are we were we are well versed in what we are doing.

We give our time gladly without expectation of rewards of any kind.

We do so for the love of the arts.

And over the years we have brought our commission to the attention of the public.

By interacting with them.

And other arts groups such as the Sacramento Blue Society.

The Elgro Fine Arts Center.

Attending a booth at many public events.

And seeking out local professional talent to be in the shows that we have presented to you.

We have published a coloring book.

A wrapped utility boxes and arts produced musical shows.

Set on panels to choose public art pieces.

Promoted local artists as well as establishing the Irish Awards to honor local artists.

Last summer we created the Blues and the Grove Blues Festival.

And we planned to do that on an annual basis.

In 2025 we have set our agenda.

The Promotes series.

Thank you.

Thank you for your public comments.

Okay.

I appreciate it. Thank you.

Next up we have Marcos.

Then Liz Irons and followed by Gary Mendoza.

And as a reminder everyone we get three minutes.

And it comes up quickly as you saw.

Hello everyone my name is Marcos.

I want to say congratulations on your re-elections and everything.

So we'll start off with the Arts Commission.

I'm going to read more of what I wrote because I think it will be more effective in speaking with everything.

But beginning when relocating to Elgro in 2020.

I was in a different place.

I was a new resident living here in a time of personal and global change.

But as a professional practicing artist.

I was inspired to develop an Elgro creative identity movement.

So Art Grove was formed.

The initial task especially coming from Sacramento.

A city of multiple years of public art controversy.

Was to align with the City Arts Commission.

The EGAC was in support of our civic contributions for financial recommendation assistance to host our visual art cultural heritage events.

We are now on Art Grove volume 13 happening 425-24.

The EG Arts Commission operates with the traditional process preserving the uniqueness charm of this city.

But is committed working with 5031 nonprofits like the artners to elevate respectfully our city's creative progressive growth.

As proposed on agenda 9.2.

The combining of arts with an economic angle can be absorbed.

Losing some of its foundational ground.

Allowing for a creative takeover.

Misunderstood.

An economic desire.

Can change a city and be affected for years with many colors and city reflection.

Look at what's happening up north in Sacramento.

Allowing for an engineered economic driven movement.

First before natural flow of created driven actions.

As much as I support the change because I'm part of this change when I arrived in Elgro.

I just propose that we look at it as a wholesome manner.

And not lose our for our foundational support.

For the arts in general because of you know artists like ourselves.

Financial driven projects are not our goal.

It's more preserving what we do and who we are.

So what I like to say is before we dissolve what has been.

Let's just consider of how we can make it all work so everyone can find a place at the table to enjoy.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next up is Liz Irons followed by Gary Mendoza who will be our last speaker.

Good evening and congratulations to your reelection.

I'd my concern is that what's going to happen to the projects that we currently are working on.

All of us were asked by the consultant.

What did we foresee the impending zoo to be like?

Is that going to be go to go over to ground zero and start reinventing the wheel?

We all said we want something cradle to grave.

We want something and embraces the family that has a wonderful place that everyone wants to come to.

And let's see it explained art with the zoo from a little kid following footprints to something that grandma can sit down on a nice bench.

We want to have that.

I also want to know and you probably can answer that.

But how about the plan that we're going to put under the music treble sculpture because that's a plan is a piece of concrete that raises the platform.

It needs to be higher.

Currently we're working on getting a sculpture for the new library.

Because of the location of the new library, we have to be very, very careful and we are very cognizant of the population there.

We wanted to blend in, be historical, but being engaging and encouraging.

What's going to happen to that?

Are you going to have to go over ground zero?

Sitting on panels.

I'm still working.

I take a day off of work so I can do that because why?

I love my city.

I want a good city to live in.

I want to be proud of it.

I am proud of it.

But it's just what's going to happen in the future.

And Darrell mentioned films and everything else.

We have thrown around ideas that maybe we'd have a film performance or something like that.

We need a theater, but if we could get one, that would help.

I'm just saying we're working hard.

We do take our jobs very seriously.

And we like exposing people that can't always get afford entertainment, can see it at an affordable price.

Our shows are very, very reasonable and have been very well attended.

I know some of you have enjoyed them.

So, you know, okay, you can get new people.

Maybe some of us will be on there, but we do have people that are in this community that we, you know, we encourage to come forward, give us some art history lesson.

We have one gentleman here, Dale Chercoff.

He happens to also go to my church.

He painted and restored.

Oops.

Thank you.

Sorry.

Thank you.

Our final speaker is Gary Mendoza.

Hello, hello.

Congrats to all.

Thank you.

I'm not a member of the Arts Commission.

I'm an observer, a working musician who have participated in some of the events that have taken place here in this community.

And I'm very proud to say, you know, I've been part of the progression of that going on.

And all I can say with this new situation to me, what I'm saying, what I want to say is that if it's not broken, why fix it?

It's sounding like you want to go from grassroots to a corporation kind of thing.

That's what the feeling I'm getting.

I don't know.

I'm just kind of like, you know, I'm saying that there's more people, more politics and all that stuff involved.

I want to stick with, I think, the, you know, the original feel of what we've got going here.

And it's really to bring joy to the community through music and art and make people know that they are a part of it.

They are the audience.

They don't have to look at a, you know, check with a so-called little corporation of, you know, more people and again, more politics.

So that's all I want to say for what it's worth.

I'd like to just see things, hopefully, the way they are and just see where it goes.

Okay.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Thank you, sir.

And Mr. Mendoza was our final speaker, so I will close the public comment opportunity.

Before we begin deliberations, I just, I do want to say I did hear from a number of other folks that could not make it this evening on what this could, what this could mean for the city.

So I just want to make sure, and I'm sure some of them have contacted you when it comes to the evolution of what this commission could possibly be.

I have full respect and appreciation for all of you.

You have done tremendous work and I don't want that to be underscored with what we're discussing here today.

But I can tell you, I know that there was similar heartburn when we evolved from the multicultural committee to what we have presently as the Diversity and Inclusion Commission.

Change can be hard.

I fully understand and respect that.

But I just want, you know, I, there was a lot of things that were presented.

So I just want to put that sort of in context before, you know, we turn and have further discussions here.

So I will go ahead and start to the far right with Council member, I'm sorry, Vice Mayor Robles.

And I'll be a little bit brief on my remarks.

I do apologize.

I have to let y'all know I have to go to Camp Roberts tonight and I have a couple of soldiers waiting for me.

So right after we take this vote, I will be leaving.

So sorry, just let me know literally an hour before Council meeting started.

So, but back to 9.2.

Before anything, I just want to say thank you to the, to the, to the art commission for everything that you've done for the years that you served on the art commission and for what you've done to cultivate our history and preserve our history and continue in doing for the, for the next gen.

I think this is there.

Well, thank you.

Thank you, Director Dome for presenting and for presenting this.

As the mayor said, as a growing city, there can be a lot of growing pains, and it's definitely good to revisit and understand kind of where we're heading and where we're going.

Our population is going to be at 180 will be grow growing soon.

And as we look at, you know, heard kind of like a corporation or what have you.

That's not what I want to see. I want to see more folks engaged, more families engaged in Elk Grove, especially young families who have been coming here.

It took me a little bit to kind of understand the creative economy commission because it's like, okay, well, what are we looking at right. But as we look around the region.

We look at, you know, they have a, and we look up north right Sacramento has the chocolate up right so you walk and there's a lot of families that come out and artists that come out and do chocks all over the parks right.

They take a little, a little, one of the little squares concrete squares and they start designing on that.

When you look at, you know, murals, continued murals and working with a lot of the property owners to see if we can start doing murals in these areas or schools.

That's kind of the direction I feel like, you know, or I think the creative economy commission would go towards.

Not so much trying to make money out of it but so much that visitors who come to Elk Grove are stopping by because we do have an arts commission who not only is invested in designing and painting and creating murals and and doing fun events circulating with this but also cultivating,

cultivating as such right so like the culinary arts theme right so how can we get a lot of folks going to new restaurants and a lot of these restaurants that we're trying to bring, not so much going to change right so how can the art commission also be engaged and thinking

as what do we draw more people to this region and how can we promote that. At least that's the way I envisioned this. So, I'll keep it at that and see what my other council colleagues like to say.

Okay. It's never fun when you have to tell friends that things have to change but let me first start with, I think the commission has done fantastic work over the years and this in no way should be taken as an insult.

I understand that it can feel that way. But in my mind this is really it could also be termed as a rechartering. Okay. It's just the mechanics is the decommission and then a recommission and all everyone who is a director now has the opportunity to reapply.

But further and to many of you who are out there right there. We had a very common friend or a very good friend. I can't remember if it was 2017 when this crazy little lady Judy to FOIA.

I listened to Judy for sometimes hours. I mean Judy and I go actually go back to when I was born believe it or not she was she was my first babysitter in Sacramento after I was born we moved up here to Sacramento and that they were she was the first person that my parents met she was my first babysitter so.

So she could talk to me for hours and I would sit there and listen she was she was a fantastic lady.

So she was talking about this notion of the creative economy and of course we did a couple of good things we had an art show and we had a mural event.

But cutting a lot of it out one of the well two sad things you know Judy passed and that makes me very sad.

But the second part that was sad was the day that we had to shut down the arts advocacy project to write the you know to write that we had the state of California and say that we were shutting that down.

It felt to me like it was the death of Judy's dream.

This is what Judy was looking for.

And so it gives me hope it makes me feel happy that Judy will her dream her vision will be able to live again.

So I recognize that it is it is uncomfortable.

I recognize that you know you we want things to be a little bit easier but again I look at this as a rechartering not necessarily as a it is a it is a decommission of course but I look at more rechartering you will be available or will be allowed to apply again.

And again I want to thank you very much and and Gary you were there too I'm sorry I didn't look at you here in my list Gary I love you buddy.

But I look at this as continuing the legacy of Judy.

So I'll support it.

Thank you.

Council Member Brewer.

I want to thank Council Member Spece for what he said and for recounting Judy to FOIA.

Because I like our community our committee members were here.

Every single person did and it's doing what they love and they're doing it for the best interests of Elk Grove.

And like Council Member Spece I see this as a as a as a rechartering but a recommitment to reinforcing what the mission is all about.

And for the city's continued growth and evolution when we're looking at arts our community Elk Grove's heritage its history and having an eye towards the future of what today's Elk Grove represents where it's a bridge of both the past and the present.

One of the other things I really and I want to thank Liz for mentioning it because that blues in the grove that was a fun event that was a great event and it really symbolized the past and present of today's Elk Grove.

You had everyone there everyone enjoyed the show you had people dancing in the aisles and that showed one asset of what the Commission brings to the table in terms of music arts and culture.

The committee that we're looking to consider embraces all of that and more because part of the creative economy is how can we help further Elk Grove as a destination place.

How can we have iconic pieces of art and they don't have to be large giant statues but benchmarks places where as people go around town they could see and they know where they're going or at least they have an idea of where they're at based on the structures the art structures that are in place.

And whether you're at a school whether you're at a park a community center shopping complex you have something where you can identify and say this symbolizes Elk Grove and I'm proud to live here.

As far as like the members of the committee of five I feel is is too short too small. I think we need to expand it and look at seven.

If not nine but something to really have a broad range of people at the table to have a free flow of thought of expression of feeling because that's what arts is all about.

It's all about it's freedom of expression and showing your true self and doing it in an authentic way to where we feel like we're here at the table we're here together we're here as one city.

And as you look at as we look at that there's several things that we have to look at and consider of who would make up the commission as the applicants come in and that will be figured out and fleshed out over time.

But I mean you want to have a lot of stakeholders at the table.

Because the more creative minds you have at the table, the more special the solutions will be.

And so I'm in favor of creating this new commission as part of our ever growing trans transmission or evolution of the city as it moves forward because we have the we have the slogans on the wall that basically honors our who we are.

Our diversity where we're going to the future and that we are welcome to all.

And so just doing that and having those having those ideals in mind can really help move the ball forward and do it in a constructive way to where we can truly be proud of the work that we're doing and will continue to do.

That's all.

Thank you.

Council Member Sehrin.

Thank you, Mayor.

I think first of all bear's repeating that this item in my opinion isn't definitely not a reflection of the work that you all have done over the years.

We've we've have attended and enjoyed the production as you've sponsored and put on.

You know, and I want to thank House Member Speese for bringing up Judy to FOIA because that you reminded me of those the sit downs I can remember very vividly at Rescate Coffee, her showing up and things were written down.

I mean, she she had a plan she had a binder she had a binder.

So yeah, I mean, it's I do appreciate that.

And and as far as the creative economy goes, I mean, I, you know, I think of, you know, theater people paying to go to go see performing arts.

I think of second Saturday, you know, downtown where the art drove them there, but they were going to restaurants and shopping.

And those were things that, you know, that's what I think of.

Anyway, creative economy.

But I do have a question. So, and I want to I'm going to speak to Mr. Done about this or ask Mr. Done about this.

Did we engage the arts committee on this plan on this resolution on this resolution on this concept?

No.

Okay.

And that and that's to me that that troubles me.

And so I and thank you, I just wanted to ask a question.

I just want to, you know, apologize because on behalf of the city, because that's where we fell short.

You know, I know that there was mentioned, Mary, you mentioned the the DNI Commission.

And that's very true, but I will tell you, I went to them and told them we need them to do more.

You know, like we can't be just the ambassadors for the city on the Multicultural Committee that that if we want to espouse, you know, how we embrace diversity, that we're willing to make the commission, but we need them to do more.

And this so that the change and it doesn't have to be me. I'm just saying some of us, any of us should have reached out to you to talk about it.

I personally, you know, did not the staff report is the first full concept that I've seen of this.

And so maybe else somebody has, but I'm just saying if nobody reached out to you, then that we fell short. That's not how we, that's not how we do things in the city.

We haven't done it when we propose a new ordinance. We've talked to the building industry association, if it's something that's going to affect them.

And so that's that's my my one regret that that you none of you had a heads up so I can I can understand, you know, your frustration.

And so I, there's there's nothing, unfortunately, there's nothing more I can I can offer you because I, you know, when I when I do hear it read it and think about the things that I that I mentioned earlier.

I do think it's a it's a worthy effort to to try to do something more for in this in the space in the art space.

I agree with Council Member Brewer about let's let's make it bigger.

You know, I mean, nine does sound good to me, but I also understand that sometimes that that could be a little challenging. So, you know, I mean, maybe seven to, you know, to start with but also I mean maybe there's there's committees within that commission that could be chartered later on for specific things,

right, whether it's painting or performing arts or dance or ad hoc. And that would allow us to engage more, you know, more types of art because it is subject to art is so broad.

And I, I think we'll have a lot of talent out there, including all these folks and others that will, it could be engaged. So I offer that.

So, and with that, I'll stop there.

Thank you. Thank you to my colleagues.

So I definitely would support going up to seven for this.

And I do agree with Council Member soon. I do regret I did not know that there was no outreach until earlier today.

So apologies on behalf of the city for not having that outreach.

Although I will say that in terms of public notice.

I think we discussed this, not it obviously in details, but we knew we anticipated this agenda item a month ago.

The agenda. Yeah, but I'm saying this, this concept.

No, absolutely. Absolutely. And that's when I asked the city manager if we had enough time to have the presentation and I was assured that we did.

But the gap in there being the outreach to the commission. So, but what I will say is sort of tying up all of the comments from my colleagues and count or vice mayor Robles, the census regrets, he did have to go to a prior

meeting, but he is in support of this proposal.

What I will say is that I really want our existing commissioners to reapply.

We've done this precedence with our planning commission in the last couple of years. We've done this with our diversity and inclusion, that there is precedence for having a re examination and just to allow others to serve as well.

And the fact that we have, you know, I'm hoping that we get seven slots that's encouraging, because we do have a lot of strong interest to serve in this capacity.

And what I would also like to see is sort of a transition, as we identify a consultant and staff of what that looks like so that there isn't a gap between existing work that's taking place, and where we are conceivably heading.

But in anticipating our growth, we're actually pushing almost 200,000 in population. And this is something that I saw our council member Brewer also saw at the League of Cities, there were great presentations that were vendors that were talking about the creative arts economy and what it does.

And it's not just about economic development, but it's elevating what the fullest potential of what arts can look like in our city. So it's taking all of the great work that we've done and taking it to that next level.

So that sort of that proud heritage and bright future concept that we, that sort of our motto, it goes in line with that of sort of that next phase and the next growth. So I do support where we're heading. I want to thank and encourage all of our existing commissioners to apply.

And I know there's a discussion for the recruitment process, but I am a strong supporter of seven to serve on this committee.

So with that, I will look for a motion that we see here.

So moved.

Second for seven.

I think I think was that do we do that.

Okay. Yeah, that's fine.

Yeah.

For seven.

Yeah.

So we have a motion and a second. All those in favor, please say aye.

Motion passes.

Thank you.

Next up item 9.3 review city council ad hoc committees.

At this time I will open up public comment opportunity.

We do not have anyone sign up to speak. I'll close public comment.

Does anyone want to make any changes on their committees?

I haven't heard of anyone wishing so we would like to move.

I'll give an update to the vice mayor of his duties as we enter for and go forward.

Yeah.

With that, that's enough direction and we'll bring this back next winter.

Okay.

But 9.4 and the close out of all of our regular agenda action items are kind of housekeeping.

So for 9.4, this is the review of council assignments to regional boards.

Currently all regional boards.

There are services that are going to all the regional boards.

I do want to note one update from Sacramento regional transit.

They did let me know that the meeting time moved up to four o'clock.

Previously it was listed as six o'clock.

So that's a little bit different in the timeframe.

It's been four.

It's been, I had it incorrect in the staff report. Sorry.

I had it at six. It is at four o'clock.

Okay.

And so that's just a consideration, but there are appointments to all of our regional boards.

It would just be a matter of looking into the new year,

whether you have the schedules in order to maintain those appointments.

So there is one change that I would like to,

and I've already talked to council of our vice mayor Robles.

And that is coming back on the homelessness at that committee.

And then he would like to serve as the alternate.

That would be the only change.

That's the regional one.

The regional. Yeah, the regional one.

Yeah.

Seeing nothing else. Are we good?

Any other changes? Anybody wants to make? All right.

If that's appropriate change and that's the action,

I would just ask for an action on the resolution.

It buttons up things.

Nice to be able to send it out to the regional boards as one action.

So it's a request to motion in a second on the resolution,

noting the change for the homeless advocacy regional board.

What you just said.

So moved. Yeah. Second.

All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Thank you.

Item 9.5.

And this is the review of appointments to city boards and commissions.

Of course, with the action taken under an item 9.2,

that would be opening up a recruitment for seven member vacancies.

The target deadline for that would be on February 5th, 2025.

So it'd be returning the appointment considerations to the February 12th

meeting in 2025.

MR.

and we'd be targeting that same February 12th target date

for the employment considerations.

Yeah, that makes sense.

Are we good on that?

I'm gonna open a public comment opportunity

just for formality.

Nobody signed up, I'll close public comment opportunity.

That's so, that is the desired direction clerk.

Business as usual.

All right, so next up is our council comments,

reports and future agenda items.

I'll start with council member Suan.

Today we had a regional sand meeting

and we took another step forward

in with our landowners to get into contract

where they can use the recycled water

that will come out of the facility.

It's a big deal because you're gonna have a lot of

landowners, farmers that are gonna have water,

their groundwater aquifers recharged.

It's a very unique thing and also just a great asset

that our South County is gonna have in the entire state.

So it was a very, very feel good moment that day.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Council member Brewer.

No board activities to report.

Council member Spees.

Three quick things, Ms. Guzman.

Welcome to the team.

I met you today.

I'm glad that you're with us, right?

Did we address previously,

the planning commission receives $80 a month, I believe?

We taught, I don't know if I,

did we ask for an item to have that come back and give them?

No, we haven't formally.

I don't mind having a discussion.

Would you be interested, please, in having a,

I mean, they don't get a huge thing in the first place,

but you know.

If we can see what other cities are doing,

that would be helpful.

That'd be good.

And then, I think this is the last meeting for the year,

right?

Yes.

Merry Christmas, happy holidays.

And again, I won't go back over it,

but we have a fantastic team and of course staff.

You are a very significant, very large part of that.

And I appreciate you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The only report is I am now appointed the vice chair

of the Sacramento Regional Transit as of Monday.

All right.

So thank you for that.

I wanna thank everybody, all the staff in the community,

just so proud of the work that's happening here at Elk Grove.

So thank you all for being part of that dream team

and continued success and prosperity to everyone.

Merry Christmas, happy holidays,

wishing you all good health in the new year.

Thank you everyone.

With that, we will adjourn at 8.39.

I have one more thing, but we could do it.

I also wanna have people to save the date,

Saturday, January 18th,

because I know when we leave for holidays,

we come back January starts and starts quickly.

So the annual Dr. Martin Luther King

birthday community breakfast will take place

at district 56, doors open at eight,

breakfast is started at 8.30,

show begins at nine o'clock or program begins at nine o'clock.

Doing that in tandem with Dr. Reverend Tecoy Porter.

So information will hit the airwaves pretty soon

and we're encouraging people to purchase tickets.

Have a great evening.

Thank you.

Thank you.