and we will join the special meeting and call to order the regular meeting of the Folsom City Council on Tuesday, February 11th, 2025, or the quick please call the roll.

Council members, Rachel, Roorba, here, Koslawski, Larry, here, and a keynote.

Here, if you'd all please rise and join me in the pledge of allegiance.

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.

All right, Mr. City Attorney, any agenda updates?

Not tonight. Thank you, Madam Mayor.

All right, that takes us to business from the floor. This is the public's opportunity to address the council on items that are not on the agenda,

but please understand that we are not allowed to deliberate or take action on items that are not on the agenda.

So, Madam City Clerk, do we have a few speakers?

You have two requests to speak this evening under business from the floor.

Your first speaker will be Ronald Carter, who will then be followed by Monica Merrill.

So, run, go ahead and come down.

Good evening, welcome.

Good evening, Council.

And I'm not saying there is a reason, but what is the Folsom Police Department doing for the safety of the children?

And I noticed when I go through the school zones here, I had a guy passing on Riley coming down the hill here and he's coming up, I'm coming up, just absolutely absurd.

So, I can tell that the traffic, excuse me, hasn't been too well enforced.

Now, my cousin who worked for Santa Clara County Sheriff's Toronto this year's school, probably one of the issues with Folsom is they simply, and he was traffic off for years, Santa Clara County, simply do not enforce the traffic laws.

My concerns are they talk to the chief, talk to the police department, and get some safety out there, especially around the school zones.

My next move is talking about this child, whatever you want to call him. I've got different words that I probably should say here tonight.

There was a rest of today. What is local law enforcement doing about the safety of our children? Better idea issue.

Is it my sister-in-law?

Sister-in-law is a burial plot yesterday, bury her shoes, school teacher, by the way.

And she had seven children, now tons of grandchildren. So I was exposed to a lot of my family members, these little kids having fun, fun, fun.

Who's to save these kids out in the community when you got this guy not striking once, twice, but three times before he was apprehended?

What is the Folsom Police Department doing for safety on the roads? More importantly, the children.

And we need more enforcement around the schools, every one of them here in Folsom. If I get a ticket because I'm going too fast or whether I pay it, but I don't do that, but if I did, I would.

So we need the safety of the children, children, children. I told my, you better look at them, come back to your job. I'm going to run again.

Especially, he's homeless people, none of them are, well, I strike that. None of them are concerned too much.

Thank you, Mr. Carter, for coming out. I'm happy to meet with you anytime if you want to contact me.

Okay, well, I would like, lastly, I'd like to say one word. In the future, give me just about 20 seconds. I invite everybody in this room tonight to encourage the safety of the children, both in the school zones and on the streets.

What happened today needs to never happen again, hopefully, and perfectly. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Our officers do a great job, but we're always looking for more. So if you know any, send them our way.

Next speaker will be Monica Merrill.

Welcome. Good evening.

Pancakes. When I cook with eggs, I prefer to gather them from my yard than to drive to the store. Backyard eggs are large, colorful, and super fresh.

Each egg has a protective barrier so they can last on the counter at room temperature for about two weeks. Backyard eggs are delicious, and when it comes to electricity and gas consumption, they are naturally green.

I'm here because it's time to raise the backyard hem, hen limit, and update, update their backyard placement requirements.

The city of Folsom currently allows no more than two backyard hens in residential zones, raising the hen limit means enhancing food security and reducing vulnerability to fluctuations in egg availability and prices caused by commercial supply chain disruptions.

Raising the hen limit empowers families to produce more eggs, thereby reducing reliance on commercial supply chains during uncertain times.

Raising the hen limit to six will match the residential zone ordinances of neighboring communities such as Rancho Cordova, Classerville, and Davis.

Citrus Heights allows six hens on residential lots smaller than 10,000 square feet, and no limit for lots that are greater than 10,000 square feet.

In mind, backyard hens offer other benefits such as natural pest control and organic fertilizer contributing to a healthier local ecosystem.

Raising the hen limit sends a powerful positive message our community wants to foster self-sufficiency and supports sustainable practices.

Now while address achievable humane placement in yards, the current requirement is 20 feet from property lines.

Shade trees are typically found along yard perimeters, and chickens need shade to endure the summer heat.

I therefore suggest we follow the example of the cities of Citrus Heights and Rancho Cordova.

They require hens to be kept a minimum of five feet from property lines and a minimum of 20 feet from habitable structures on adjacent properties.

In memory of the 20 million hens who died last quarter in the United States, I urge you to consider the positive impact raising the hen limit will have on our Folsom families.

Thank you for your time and your consideration.

Thank you very much for coming out.

Okay, you have no further requests to speak under business from the floor.

All right. Call the first item, please.

Next item this evening is your consent calendar.

Anybody have an item they'd like to pull?

I don't believe we have any requests to speak on any of these items.

So I'll entertain a motion to approve the consent calendar.

I will. So moved.

Second.

I have a motion in a second. Please call the roll.

Council members, Ray Thal.

Yes.

Laura Baugh. Yes.

Kauslauski. Yes.

Leary. Yes.

And a keynote. Yes. Next item, please.

Okay, your new business item this evening is item number five.

This is resolution number one, one, three, two, seven.

A resolution adopting the 2024 local road safety plan.

Good evening, Mr. Bosch.

Good evening. Mark, did you want to say anything?

No, well, can you beat me to it?

Yeah.

Well, thank you for clearing the agenda for this important item.

This is fantastic.

Again, my name is Zach Bosch.

Public Works, senior civil engineer.

Thank you for your time on this issue tonight.

Tonight, I'm here to present Folsom's local road safety plans.

This is the second iteration of this plan.

Previously completed addition was done in 2021.

So this is an update to that document.

This is a data driven effort focusing on critical objectives,

which is reducing the number of severe and fatal injuries on our roadways.

The local road safety plan, commonly known as the LRSP,

is designed to identify traffic safety emphasis areas

and improvement strategies based on crash data analytics

and community input.

The report centers on the following elements, crash trends

to understand where and why collisions occur.

High risk and high crash locations.

Emphasis areas where targeted improvements can have the greatest impact.

Countermeasure toolbox to guide safety interventions.

An implementation strategy to ensure that recommendations translate

into meaningful roadway improvements.

And it's also important to set clear expectations

early that this is not a broad traffic study addressing

general speeding complaints or cut through traffic

or minor traffic issues.

While those topics are valid, the LRSP is specifically focused

on addressing the most severe crash patterns in the city of Folsom.

The goals to use this data to guide targeted safety investments

where they will have the greatest impact on saving lives

and preventing serious injuries.

So this means prioritizing high speed crash locations, vulnerable road users,

such as pedestrians and cyclists, and intersections or corridors

with history of severe collisions.

So while this plan may not address every traffic related complaint

that we receive, it provides a structured and proactive approach

to making Folsom's road safe for everyone.

So I'm sure you're all familiar with that distinction,

but I think it's important as we go through this discussion to have

that purpose laid out clearly for specifically the LRSP

that we are focusing on severe and create fatal crash reduction strategies.

So I encourage you all to prioritize these aspects as we go through

this discussion and this presentation where we can maximize the impacts

of the recommended safety improvements of the document.

So at the conclusion of this effort, two key deliverables will be produced

the local road safety plan report and a future document,

the neighborhood traffic calming toolbox.

And that document will offer strategies to improve safety

in our local neighborhoods.

So the timeline for this document began in April 2024 when council

approved the consultant contract.

We began data collection exporting our five year or four year crash history

into this document, and that's a combination of the statewide system

as well as the police department's own cross road database.

Our consultant produced data analytics based on those reports.

We presented those findings to the traffic safety committee in June 2024

with preliminary findings and help guide the document towards

strategizing the projects that represent the best focus of our time and attention.

Public outreach was a big component of this.

We had two public outreach events both at our Folsom farmer market

where people were able to fill out cards and offer up their suggestions

for traffic safety related issues.

And we also had a website built for public engagement for people

that were not able to participate in person.

So we've garnered quite a number of feedbacks from that.

We incorporated that into our draft LRSP, which was presented to the traffic safety committee.

In December, they had minor comments for that document.

Those were incorporated and they were presented to you as tonight's local road safety plan.

So with that, I'm going to introduce our consultant to help us on this project,

Kimley Horn and Zach Romelindom, to present the key findings and the statistics

that were part incorporated into the document.

Hello, welcome.

Thank you.

Well, thank you, Zach, for the introduction.

My name is also Zach and I work for Kimley Horn.

So I'd be happy to take you through some slides today to provide an overview

of the crash data that we reviewed.

So this slide here presents crash data from 2015 through 2023.

The previous LRSP reviewed crash data from 2015 through 2019.

This update to the LRSP looked at crash data from 2020 through 2023.

So looking at these year-to-year trends, you can see that the number of annual crashes decreased from 2015 through 2018.

There was a slight uptick in 2019.

In 2020, there was a significant reduction in the number of crashes,

and that number of annual crashes has trended upward since then.

So given the COVID-19 pandemic, which you can probably correlate the reduced number of crashes in 2020 with that,

and as volumes return to pre-pandemic levels following the pandemic with more people returning to work in person,

it also makes sense to see that the collision rates were also increasing with roadway volumes.

Now, as Zach mentioned, for this project, there is a focus on those fatal and severe injury crashes and in preventing them.

So this slide presents the annual number of fatal and severe injury crashes that occurred in each year.

From 2015 through 2018, there's some variation and some increases in decreases year-to-year.

In 2019, there were the most to date that far.

You can see that there is more than a 50% reduction in 2020,

and then the annual number of fatal and severe injury crashes has increased since then.

A few crash trends that we believe are relevant to this.

Crashes related to unsafe speeds were more prevalent in 2023,

as were crashes related to pedestrian violations.

On the following slide, I have a bit more information about the most common crash types.

So this map here presents crash data from 2020 through 2023.

The most common primary collision factors that we saw in the data were unsafe speed,

violations related to traffic signals and signs, and then driving under the influence.

I'll note that with unsafe speed, that doesn't necessarily mean speeding,

but it doesn't mean that individuals are operating their vehicles at speeds that are unsafe for current conditions,

either due to roadway conditions or to construction or congestion.

And then with the most common crash types, those were rear ends, broadsides, and head object.

Broadsides, you can think of those as a T-bone crash,

and head object, those typically involve one vehicle.

It's a Wayne Department of Incident where they're hitting either a mailbox or a fence,

or something as severe as a tree or a house.

Those can result in more significant injuries.

So this slide here presents the locations of the fatal and severe injury crashes throughout the city.

And the primary collision factors with this subset of crashes was consistent.

Unsafe speed, traffic signals and signs, violations, as well as driving under the influence.

There was some rearranging here, the top crash types,

head object collisions for the most common crash type for these fatal and severe injury crashes,

followed by broadsides, and then pedestrians.

So on the following slides, we have some data that present the most common crash types.

So as I mentioned, when we're looking at all injury crashes, as is usual with most cities,

rear ends were the most common, followed by broadsides.

When we focus on the fatal and severe injury crashes, that would be head object, broadside and pedestrian.

Now comparing these two different pie charts, pedestrian crashes only account for 3% of all crashes.

And yet you can see that they are involved in 12% of all fatal and severe injury crashes.

Similarly with bicycles, they accounted for 3% of all crashes,

and yet they were involved in 9% of all fatal and severe injury crashes.

So you see that when these bicycle and pedestrian crashes do occur, they do tend to result in more severe injuries,

hence the focus on bike and pedestrian safety.

All right, so as Zach mentioned, there was a significant amount of public outreach that occurred in conjunction with this project.

We had an online website where individuals could go and leave comments throughout the city at locations where they have a safety concern.

We received a total of 382 site-specific comments.

We also had a survey that people could fill out where they could report the safety trends that they're most concerned about throughout the city.

Those were aggressive driving behavior and pedestrian safety, where the most commonly reported safety concerns.

We also did tabling at the farmers market. If you were out there, you may have been accosted by me asking you to fill out a survey.

But we got some really good engagement out at the farmers market as well, and we're able to interview these 85 people.

We also went to the Traffic Safety Committee, reporting the crash data and getting input on potential projects.

So as part of the study, we have looked at case study locations. So this was a data driven process, and we did this in partnership with city staff and also with the Traffic Safety Committee.

We identified 15 case study locations, which you can see pictured in the map here.

Consistent with the goals and objectives of the study, these locations were identified with the focus on those fatal and severe injury crashes, and also crash frequency, looking at vulnerable road users,

and other crash trends. So these locations represent good candidates for locations for potential safety improvements and grant applications.

But with the LRSP report, there's a larger countermeasure toolbox that the city can use to implement safety improvements elsewhere, not just at these locations.

So with that, I'll hand it back to Mr. Bosch. We can speak to next steps.

Thank you. So next steps, we are recommending adoption of the 2024 local road safety plan. This will make us eligible to submit grant applications for the HZIP program, the Highway Safety Improvement Program.

Another guideline for that is that we must maintain and update this document at least once every five years, so we will be scheduling that to be updated.

And then with direction from city council, city staff will actively pursue funding opportunities to enhance safety for all road users.

The LRSP identifies multiple state and federal funding opportunities that are competitive that can help accelerate the implementation of these safety improvements throughout the city.

We will also evaluate whether some of these projects that were identified in this case study locations can be incorporated into our capital improvement program, our annual maintenance programs, or any other programs that we have that can accelerate the installation of these improvements.

With that, that concludes our presentation. And we'd be happy to answer any questions you have.

Any questions for Zach Bosch or Zach from Kimly Horn?

Council Member Leary?

Yeah, I just have a question on when you might be prioritizing the steps to take first and seek funding for.

Sort of.

There were recommendations in the document, but are those set in stone at this point or are those something that you'll be continuing to evaluate?

We do evaluate once a program is eligible for submitter.

The notice of funding opportunity, the NOFO is released.

We evaluate all the available projects we have in this document and whether they would be good candidates for those grant applications.

If they are eligible and good candidate applications, we would seek recommendations from the City Council to submit on behalf of the city in hopes that we would, you know, garner support and win that that grant application.

Thank you. And then my other question was, I'm interested also in the neighborhood traffic calming toolbox and I'm wondering when that might be coming forward.

So, this is the next phase of this consultant contract that we have.

We did want to prioritize this document because there is a short fuse to get this adopted and eligible for the HF Funds, but we will be engaging with the consultant to produce that document pretty soon.

So sometime within this year, this calendar year, I was looking for a ballpark answer.

Yeah, six months.

I would say ballpark.

Thank you.

Councilmember Warren, any questions?

I smell a little councilmember Kazansky.

Before or after the roundabouts?

Incorporation with the roundabouts.

All right.

There's certainly locations which would, which would fit that slip.

There's been snarky no answer.

Not you.

Okay, I don't have any requests to speak on this item, but is there anybody on the public who would like to comment on this item?

If so, come on down to the podium, please.

Monica Merrill, you're up first.

Hi, Monica Merrill.

I've been here since 97 and I've seen a lot of different traffic patterns.

Evan, below.

And I actually, I'm ashamed to say that last year, possibly because it was an election year and I had information overload.

I didn't know anything about giving feedback.

So I'm wondering if it's possible because every month I get solicited to donate money on my utility bill.

Maybe those utility bills could be used to give gentle reminders to people that there is going to be this toolbox of neighborhood traffic calming.

And that it might provide a way to interact with property owners and people who are paying for those city services to actually that that would be a reminder of do you have traffic concerns?

Do you have anything to report?

Because somehow this, this, it went by too fast.

This whole issue went by, it just went right by me.

I didn't even, I didn't even notice it.

Okay. Thank you.

Mr. Carter.

Thank you, Ms. Mayor.

My question is, what is the financial impact of this entire study with the impact coming to be to the community, federal, state, and all the different.

What's going to cost?

Mr. Rowan.

Okay. Thank you.

Well, the study itself probably was what roughly 40, 50, no more net.

Around 80,000 to complete the study, the update.

The highway safety improvement program generally has only a minimal local match.

For example, in the last funding round of 8-SIP, we were awarded about $3 million for three projects.

And the local match was, I think, only 10% for one of the projects and as 100% for the other two.

So it depends on what is being requested and as Zach mentioned, what are the criteria associated with the grant.

But generally, H-SIP is very heavily, federally funded with minimal local match.

Okay. Perfect. Thank you.

Any other questions from my colleagues?

Otherwise, I will entertain a motion to adopt resolution.

I'll move to adopt resolution number 11327.

Second.

We have a motion in a second. Please call the roll.

Council members, Raidtel.

Yes.

Roarba.

Yes.

Koslowski.

Yes.

Mary.

Yes.

And a keynote.

Yes.

All right. That takes us to City Manager reports, Mr. Havardy.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

I'd like to let the community know that the communications unit or police and fire department staff members are developing a community outreach program to raise awareness about the impending wildfire risks.

In our city and in Fulson and equipped residents with tools to create defensible spaces and emergency plans.

So that's going to be coordinated with the OES and Cal Fire outreach that happens in in May.

But there's a significant ramp up that our comms unit will be doing before that.

And the second topic.

We're informing the community about the 988 service.

As you can call or text 988 for free confidential medical or excuse me mental health crisis support 24 seven.

And this nationwide lifeline connects you with trained counselors when you need help.

And the outreach includes a website newsletter freeway science bridge signing and more ways to do that.

You know, later this week we have a winter storm moving through our region and Fulson residents and business owners can access free self serve sand and sand bags 24 seven.

We have two locations one next to fire station 36 at 9700 Oak Avenue Parkway.

And then we also have sand behind this city hall 50 Nautoma Street.

And our Fulson nonprofits should be aware now that they can apply to sell state approved fireworks for the July 4 fundraising.

And eligible groups must apply by noon on March 14th. So that's a deadline for that.

And then different topic we'd like to encourage you to explore Fulson's.

And then we have a new factory and kindergarten readiness programs at the preschool open house on February 25th.

From 4 to 6 p.m. you can meet the teachers to your classrooms and learn more about that.

And I'd like to welcome four new employees to the city of Fulson.

Hannah Perez and Matthew Treetfree for the Parks and Recreation Department.

We have a new department in Westcloth for solid waste and drew Roma as a new police officer pre service for our police department.

And we have some milestone anniversaries for them. I'd like to recognize Amy Vandermole in the zoo as reached her 30 year mark with the city.

She should be congratulated and Kimberly Lim Watson and Cody Bateson and Billy Hilton all have reached the city.

And I'll have reached their 20 year anniversary with the city as well. Thank you for your dedicated service for so many years.

And we have congratulations are in order for several six five of our Fulson firefighters to their hard work and dedication to the craft these individuals ever and new roles.

We have assistant chief Matt Blake captain Steven Anderson captain Matt McCarthy engineer Tyler Smith and engineer Scott Vask was.

And then also in our finance department Liz Hannah also was promoted to revenue services manager.

So all of these individuals contribute to our city and to the citizens on a daily basis.

And I thank them for their service and continuing dedication to this community. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you very nice. Thank you. That takes us to council comments. Councilmember Koslowski.

No report tonight.

Can't wait to tell the chickens that somebody finally came to council to advocate on their behalf.

They'll be very excited this evening. No further comments. Councilmember Rorbal.

Yeah. Sack our team at yesterday.

As I shared with them. This is my second meeting on the regional board as I shared with them. Mike, thank you for your service the last few years on that and didn't know a lot of emails came with that.

I'm not a position as well, but I actually have enjoyed responding and getting to know some of our neighbors that really use or some of our Folsom residents that use Sack RT.

With it with RT in general, the things that I think that we value most are safety cleanliness cleanliness and predict predictability.

I did get some positive feedback from some of these residents that the safety seems to be really improving a lot lately and or in the last several years.

And they feel they feel very decent and very, you know, they value their experience. They don't feel unsafe on the on on RT RT at this moment.

I think that's a really positive thing from what I've heard the previous before two years ago.

Unfortunately, I don't know about the cleanliness, but unfortunately we added the or fortunately we added the 15 minute.

Train at the beginning of January, but unfortunately there's been a lack of predictability with that. There's a lot of kings being worked out. It's running about every 30 minutes still.

So I think that the residents are having to get off a sunrise and then wait and board another train. RT is aware of it. They're working on it.

They hope by the next couple weeks they'll have some more kinks worked out. It seems to me everyone's being patient.

So for those writing RT, if you're listening, be patient. I'm paying attention. RT is paying attention and they're trying to work it all out.

And in the end, it'll serve us full sum in a much better and broader way. But as with anything, there's some kinks. So I just wanted to update that.

Sack RT. There's a lot else. There's a lot more going on in the bigger world of RT and funding. So if anyone has any questions on that, please let me know. And I would be happy to respond.

it. I appreciate it. I appreciate it. I appreciate it. I appreciate it. I appreciate you. I appreciate you too. I appreciate you saw that today was very happy.這樣 was a fun day last year. I appreciate you's very happy.

a great educational program for the zoo too.

So thank you for bringing that to us.

And I hope everybody has a happy Valentine's Day

at the end of the week.

Thanks.

All right, very good.

And I have no report.

So we will adjourn at 7.04 p.m. Thank you, everyone.