Welcome to our afternoon session for this council meeting today.

It's December 16th, 2025.

And public comment and participation information is provided on this meeting's agenda, which is online at Monterey.gov/slash agendas.

In-person attendees, please keep your electronic devices muted to prevent audio interference.

And consistent with the First Amendment and the Brown Act, individuals have the right to speak at public meetings, which includes the right to criticize or support city policies or actions.

The city encourages your uninhibited and robust feedback on public issues affecting the city.

Thank you for participating.

Awesome.

Thank you, Clementine.

And with that, we will go into our presentation item for this afternoon.

Item one on the agenda is to congratulate Fire Chief Andrew Miller on his retirement and recognize his 35 years of service to the fire profession in Monterey County in tenure as the 11th and 13th Fire Chief to lead the Monterey Fire Department.

And before I pass it to Hans, I just have to say that working with Chief Miller has been one of the greatest pleasures of my time in public service.

And I'm really thankful that he came back and uh took on the job at a tough time and turned things around in an amazing way.

And I hope I'm not stealing too much of your thunder here, Hans.

Um and who knows?

A third time's a charm.

You don't have to respond to that.

In fact, I don't want you to.

We'll talk, we'll talk.

Um, but you know, I could go on and on.

I just wanted to give you a little bit of love and uh and I'm sure we'll still be in touch um after you leave.

So with that, I'll pass it to Hans for staff presentation.

Yeah, thank you, Mayor, and thank you, council.

Uh I wanted to take this opportunity to um come back to sit here today and to take the opportunity to uh say a few words about our fire chief uh Andrew Miller.

Um as the mayor already pointed out, Andrew has been uh fire chief twice.

Uh so I think that's that's something unique.

And um also Andrew um has been instrumental in so many so many ways for the city of Monterey.

The first time Andrew came uh to the city of Monterey, um, he uh took a voluntary demotion from fire chief in Pacific Grove uh to become assistant fire chief here in the city of Monterey.

And and that alone by itself uh speaks highly uh about his character, speaks highly about also that he has a vision that he sees uh things that others cannot see, because the thing that he was seeing uh together with the city manager at that time was that we need to collaborate in fire services and collaboration and fire services uh bring uh bringing a lot of uh advantages uh to us and also having a lot of um economic benefits.

Uh, you have just one firehouse administration, you have just one fire chief, you have just one assistant fire chief, etc.

etc.

One training plan.

And also uh all of a sudden, if you uh uh coordinate your forces with uh with other cities, uh you really create uh a force uh that uh has to be reckoned with when it comes to to fire uh protection and fire fighting as well.

And so when when uh the chief came here the first time around, we were all uh staffers a little bit uh uh astonished that here is a chief who will become an assistant chief.

And um then uh after fire chief Masa retired, uh uh I think you then took over as the fire chief and uh let this department um until you retired the very first time.

And I still remember uh when we had the uh change of command ceremony, and uh uh and I also uh very uh much remember how much you had meant to the city of Monterey at that time because while we were struggling in public works to deal with the Great Recession, um you you came up with budget savings ideas that helped um uh us and public works to keep some more employees on payroll uh than we had to do.

Uh then then we actually planned in in having because the Great Recession uh really ripped a hole into our city coffers.

Um you you were instrumental in uh putting together the collaboration between Pacific Grove, uh City of Carmel by the sea, followed, and then um you left, and I was the one who was allowed to go to the air for airport and uh uh welcome the airport firefighters.

I still remember standing there saying a few words to those um firefighters that they are now wearing the the city of Monterey badge.

And um uh it was it was a great ceremony, but it was also your doing to combine or call connect us with with the airport district.

And then um fast forward, um about exactly uh around this time two years ago, um we we experienced something of of uh small larger crisis, and uh while I was working through this uh through the crisis also that that uh involved uh talking to to various groups uh in your fire department, uh it became clear that um that it would be very uh very much help for us um once uh the the position as fire chief was vacated that you could return to us.

And uh I gave you a call and and we met almost immediately.

And uh uh that was as I always say December 19th, and you always have a different date in mind, so it's it's all fair.

Uh we will never agree on that, but we agree.

Um we agree that that we wanted to collaborate.

And uh you you did a phenomenal job with the fire department.

Uh you put again together um the the the strike force as one team, a homogeneous group of people, um, and that couldn't have been done without somebody of of your leadership skills and leadership abilities.

And since you are a visionary who always wants to see something else and always wants to put things together and is always chasing the next big large thing that um others cannot see, um you just quickly put together the paramedic program that was also lingering around with the city of Carmel and put us into the ambulance service there.

And um aside from uh working uh with the fire department, setting uh new goals, short-term, mid-term, long-term goals, um, restructuring the the leadership team and uh uh at the end uh with a selection also uh with uh uh Chief Moore, uh putting the the fire department on a solid course that we both know uh when we sit on that famous bench, um that it will be in in good hands.

Uh we will we know that and and uh I think we we can relax and uh uh and watch Pat Moore uh uh continue to grow and and hopefully not screw up too much.

Um so uh I know I know also uh that yeah and and you indicated that to me, really not in in any uh not in a lot of words, but I also knew that your private life uh took uh took a uh step back, so to speak.

You um you you you were not uh as present as you wanted to be.

And I also uh want to thank your wife Carol very much for allowing uh the chief to be two years the chief.

That's a very uh demanding job.

Um you know that of course uh because you are also a professional in in the fire services, but um uh when somebody is already at home, um I think uh life has changed.

Not to say maybe you enjoyed it that you were alone for a while.

Um I can share with you that that um uh I always felt he knew that he had to come back sooner than later.

So and then so I'm happy that that um that uh this is the time now for him to do his second retirement.

And um I I'm so um happy that you helped me, that you helped the city.

Uh your um uh your time here in the city of Monterey twice um was really marked with a lot of successes.