I'm glad you're walking around for that.

I remember it was it was there's a lot of um somebody want to mark it a humongous mandate though for this one, which is great because it really keeps it from rubbing.

So let's say greater than we will call to order the budget and audit committee uh meeting for Tuesday, August 26th, and 2025.

I want to welcome those of you uh who have joined us.

Uh let's first call the roll to establish a quorum.

Thank you.

Vice Mayor Talamantes.

Councilmember Maple will be absent.

Councilmember Gatta.

Here and Chair Dickinson.

Here.

And uh if you would uh please join us and uh rise as you are able for our land acknowledgement and pledge to the original people of this land, the Nissanon people, the Southern Maidu Valley and Plains Mewak, Paton Winton peoples, and the people of the Wilton Rancheria, Sacramento's only federally recognized tribe.

May we acknowledge and honor the Native people who came before us and still walk beside us today on these ancestral lands by choosing to gather together today in the active practice of acknowledgement and appreciation for Sacramento's indigenous peoples history contributions and lives.

Thank you, and please join us 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.

Thank you.

And we have a relatively compact agenda today.

Do we have anyone?

Well, we'll take folks off the agenda later.

So um we have three consent items.

Move consent, Mr.

Chair.

Okay.

One speaker.

Okay.

Um let's just see if we have a second to the motion to adopt the consent calendar.

We need a second, we got a second.

All right, and we have one person who wishes to address the committee.

Yes, Lambert would like to speak on item number two.

Okay.

Good morning.

I know you need no reminder, but um, we have a lot of two minutes for you to speak and keep your eye on the clock so you can time your remarks.

You're very good at that, so uh appreciate uh seeing you, Lambert.

Well, that almost threw me off on what I was gonna say, but um this whistleblower uh situation at City Hall, there was uh an auditor, his name was Jorge, he was here, and I learned studying him and now the current auditor, because they very they are very efficient, what I consider efficient enough for me to make a statement.

You can't make a statement unless you know exactly what you're talking about down here.

And I looked at the report in my family and the millennials, they showed me something, that's why I came.

Uh there's a lot of complaints filed against the city of Sacramento, but according to the uh report, they're very rarely are they resolved in favor of the person that files the complaint.

So my question is who's doing the evaluating of the complaints that are being filed, and we're gonna find that out because if the city is having complaints filed against it, and they're the ones that are evaluating the complaints on whether they're valid, that's a problem.

That's a conflict of interest.

Also, uh, and this was done by Jorge, wonderful job.

I found out, and a lot of people found out that uh a no written agreement was done with wide open walls, and somebody filed a complaint against it, and it came out, and uh city councilman Harris quoted and said it's a black eye for City Hall.

The reason why I put the light on it is because you weren't able to audit it.

When you don't have a written agreement, you can't audit it.

And that came out in the auditor's report.

Thank you.

Thanks for your comments.

And I think that's our speaker.

Okay.

We have a motion by Mr.

Gera and seconded by Ms.

Telemantes.

There's nothing further.

All those in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Opposed saying no.

Any abstentions?

Hearing none, the motion carries unanimously.

Okay.

And we're on to our next item.

Item four on the discussion calendar.

The council member proposal for committee consideration.

Since we don't get a council member to present this, uh do we need do we get a description of this?

We've got some folks who are queued up, I think.

Yeah, we do have some speakers.

Okay.

Did you want to take public comment or your colleagues first?

Let's go to the public comment first and for this one.

Um, four speakers.

The first is Lambert, uh Jamie Torres, Lionel Barragona, then Courtney Delotti.

Is there going to be a report on this?

There won't be a staff report.

No, if there's a report coming.

There's no there's no staff report.

Okay.

That's better.

Because this I have a problem with because talking about North Natomas.

That's fine.

But at the bottom it says District 4.

And I was told by uh City Councilwoman Kaplan when I was checking in right here.

I asked her, What is this for District One?

Is this for District One?

And she said you have to be in Notomas.

And I told her, then the Thomas is off the hook for that.

But at the bottom it says City Councilman Pluckybom is one of the contacts.

I have a problem with that.

That's not Natomas.

And if that if he can participate in this, then district two should be able to participate in this.

Because you do have a business that has gone viral in all of California.

As a matter of fact, we're going to be in a very well-known magazine.

And I know you're going to be proud of that, Chairman Dickison, because we are from District 2.

And it's a very well-known magazine.

I didn't know about it till last night.

My family and the millennials told me about it.

It's huge for the holiday season.

We're going to be on the front cover.

And when they ask me where are we from, I'm going to say Sacramento.

And when they ask specifically, besides District 2, I'm going to tell them exactly where the cheesecake was founded.

And it's going to go all over California.

I don't know how far it's going to go, but I know it's going to go all over California.

And when I see things like this, it's an advantage creating a marketing district.

Why not create a marketing district in District 2?

This, and I'm not sure if District 1 has a PBID, but this seems like more for them in terms of funding.

Thank you.

Thanks.

Thank you so much.

Greatly appreciate you.

I um work in District 4, and spend most of my time in District 4 at work.

So one of the things I'd like to move forward with this uh proposal due to the fact that we have uh some new changes to our local soccer team.

We have some new interest in soccer.

We want to keep developing this interest, especially in the youth.

I want the play the local businesses, hotels, all their um all the hotel infrastructure that's set up in Sacramento to have entertainment, to have um our local teams and youth being coming to Sacramento, keeping our money here, keeping the funds, having our restaurants in business by having tourism into Sacramento due to sports, and this could be an opportunity where not only are other cities like Turlock, San Diego, and um places in the South Bay are benefiting from this.

You know, we actually need to be at the leading edge, need to be competitive with other cities.

Um I would like to request if we could move forward and allow staff to evaluate this and actually start some progress for um this development.

Thank you very much.

Thanks for your comments.

Next speaker is Lionel Baranga.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Hi, my name's Lionel Berigan.

I'm a Nathomas resident.

Not only am I an atomist resident, I have two boys that play soccer, and for the longest time I've been um awaiting this soccer complex, just because there's other times we have to travel outside uh the Sacramento to these other complex where my both of my sons play soccer, which are huge tournaments, not only that they're big, they bring a lot of money to the local um businesses, hotels, so it generates a lot of money.

And um I'm super glad this is um this complex area in North Notomas, and I really um hope you guys push this uh long time weighted soccer complex in North Thomas.

I super excited, not only us but for the rest of the families that will have a soccer complex here in North Nothomas.

It's a big benefit for the uh businesses and they're I just see it a win-win for everybody.

Thank you very much.

Thanks for your comments.

Next speaker.

Courtney Delotti is our final speaker on this item.

Morning.

I'm Courtney Delotti.

I am a resident and mom in North Notomas.

My daughters have played competitive soccer for the last five years.

Um I was actually told by them that I had to come today and request the soccer complex.

Um we travel to Davis, Folsom, Roseville, Placer, um, and these girls are seeing these amazing complexes that are built in all of these outside cities around us.

They're being recruited by other places, and obviously these complexes are a big deal and make them want to play there.

Um I would um say that some of the parks that we're practicing in now are dangerous for our kiddos.

Um there's huge divots in the ground where they're practicing and hurting themselves.

Um the light system isn't exactly great out at Witter Ranch.

Um and I just fully support allocating staff to further look into the opportunities to work on this.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, thanks for the public comment.

Uh we'll turn to uh members of the committee.

Uh Mayor Pro Tem Gera.

Uh thank you, Mr.

Chair, and I appreciate uh you know uh the the folks at Layuna here for being here today.

And I know a lot of them have supported uh a lot of the soccer families there.

I had an opportunity to speak to uh one of the uh uh sponsors of this request, and um, you know, having represented an area that does have two P bids and uh um and it has looked at uh hotel development as well.

Uh it does make sense that we begin to look at the northern area of the city.

Most of the city, you know, uh uh prior to the growth of Notomas uh had the opportunity to go through the PBIT process in the mid-90s.

And um so I do think that uh it's an opportunity to explore what is the right tools, and at least uh what I understand is that there we're not going to uh prejudge what is the best tool for that area.

So what I would suggest is that we move uh recommendation number one, which is pass a motion directing the appropriate um uh council pointed officer to commence work on on this proposal and bring it back for the committee here to review considerations, and that way we could look at what the fiscal implications are.

It may be uh a PBID, maybe uh TOT overlay, but let's look at the different tools that could benefit um the need to build community infrastructure.

Uh I I agree, my kids are uh at uh playing soccer now.

They just started this is the first year of comp soccer, so uh the uh uh the the driving and uh can be a challenge.

Uh and if we can uh have more amenities here, what better time?

And I think this next year with uh World Cup uh coming and uh is uh is an exciting opportunity for us to really dive into one of those unifying sports.

So with that, that's my motion, uh Mr.

Chairs to move item number one.

Okay, let's see if there's a second for the motion.

Do you want to second it?

I'll or I'll sure I'll uh yeah, I'm okay to speak, so I'll go to the next slide.

Yes, yes, uh yeah, I'm happy to second the motion uh with Councilmember Guerra to do option number one.

Uh three of these hotels are in my district, and one of the hotels has new own you know ownership, so having communication with the actual hotel owners, I think is gonna be really important.

Um, and you know, I have heard from the hotel owners in district one, also in district three, of how this impacts their hotel.

So, does that mean that they're gonna have to charge more for rooms for pricing?

Does that mean that they're gonna be competitive with downtown hotels and kind of what it means to them?

And so I'm happy to post Matt uh, you know, to second it and then bring it back to this committee.

Um thanks for that uh that and uh I feel much the same way.

I think it's worth it worth exploring.

I did have a specific question.

I don't know if there's someone here who may uh it might be Mike, might be able to answer this, but how would a TOT overlay?

I don't know if there's someone here who may uh it might be Mike might be able to answer this, but how would a TOT overlay that's not what it is?

Oh Pete Pete gets that question?

Okay, how would I obviously we collect TOT from these hotels within this geographic area we're talking about, and this refers to a TOT overlay, and I uh that was not clear to me what that signifies.

So I I my read of it is it would be similar to our Sacrament Sacramento Tourism and Marketing District um assessment that we uh charge in addition to TOT uh already, and so that those funds go to visit SAC to then uh market the city as a tourism destination.

And so I think that was uh cut that that was my read of what the council member was thinking, and I think what we can do as staff is when we come back with the different options, uh, we'll explain kind of how they work and you know who will pay for what uh and what some of the pros and cons are of um the different directions that we could take.

Okay, okay.

So I mean uh uh any of these uh options that uh the council members have identified would be additional levies on the uh on the affected properties.

Is that true?

So the the uh tourism and marketing district, similar to the TOT, it's it's paid by the um uh by the visitor, right?

So when you book the if you go even if you go on uh Airbnb, for example, and you book um in Sacramento, you'll see the TOT line, and then you'll see the uh STMD line.

So that'll be paid by the visitor.

Uh something like a bid would be paid by the business.

Um however, you know, they may have to, as the as um council member talamantes mentioned, that may mean they need to raise their rates in order to pass those costs along.

So yeah, but we'll we'll try when we come back, we'll try to uh lay that out in a clearer way than I'm explaining it right now.

No, that's uh that that's clear.

I I I was just trying to confirm that if you hadn't uh TOT overlay or the um the dis the N T bid that those would be those would show up on uh uh on a um the bid would be the bid would not uh the bid would be paid um as an assessment by the business.

Okay, so that if you're the consumer, if you're booking the room, you wouldn't see the bid cost on your bill.

Uh however, for um like an o an overlay, a marketing district, you would see that on your bill.

Okay, but in either in either case, this is um however it appears, it it would be in addition to the TOT that's currently collected from those properties.

That is correct, yes.

Correct.

Okay.

Okay.

Yes.

I think chair.

Oh the clarification I wanted to make was it the the term TOT overlay, I think was referring to anything that would be uh STMD type where it would be attached to your hotel bill and you would see that assessment for this purpose.

If you did a bid, it's uh geographic area of all businesses, and they would vote to assess themselves.

So it's evaluating which tool is better.

I think the proposal though is fairly focused on hotels and benefiting specifically hotels and attracting people to those hotels and kind of growing that opportunity.

So not saying you know, where we'll end up, but both will be evaluated, but I think the the intent was focused on that TOT portion, and I I would do away with the words TOT overlay because I think it's created some confusion.

Um I had a chance to talk to some of the hotel owners, and then I also want to add direction to the motion that our city treasurer's office be included in the conversation, uh, just because you know it's gonna impact.

I mean, they they have good insight onto this proposal, and so I really want them to chime in and work with economic development.

And you know, it you know, we are now it's 12% TOT, so it's basically saying like we're gonna add 0.25 or 0.5.

Right.

And so that's why I mentioned like we really need to do outreach to those hotel owners, because right now they're kind of confused about what it means, and so they're just kind of worried about how it creates competition.

I think in either case, all the hotel owners in in either whether we did a bid or an SCMD have a vote.

We don't simply do it to them, we do it with them, and only if they vote in the affirmative to do it.

And so there will be extensive without regard outreach if we choose to move forward with something as a as a council, this body there would be extensive outreach.

And I think the analysis that the treasurer's office can provide about hotels and rates and viability of adding to costs.

We have a pretty good understanding from the studies that we've done uh on the TOT about what market can bear, and so that will be informative, but we'll certainly touch base with them.

Oh, yeah, yeah, that'd be wonderful.

And again, like Thomas has so many hotels, and we have the airport right there, and you know, I travel for for soccer to Davis and to wherever my nephew goes.

And you know, I travel for soccer to Davis and to wherever my nephew goes.

So I 100% understand how important this is and how special it'll be to Natomas.

Okay, so the suggestion has been to add the the treasurer to be consulted with and that agreeable to the maker of the motion.

Okay.

Uh and um the TOT can be increased by uh the affected properties on uh uh by their own vote.

T OT cannot be increased except for a vote of everybody in the city.

That's right.

They can approve an additional charge a charge that is separate for a distinct tourum and tourism and marketing district set up uh consistent with the rules of those districts.

So it's not additional TOT, it is a separate charge.

So you just that's why you want to get rid of using that term.

The word TOT, yeah, exactly.

Okay, but this this had confused me because that's I've always known the TOT had to be voted on by the by the electorate generally.

Okay, so you're really talking about a parallel to a PID.

Exactly.

Yeah, okay.

All right, now that that's crystal clear.

Are there any further comments or questions?

Uh Councilmember here.

No, you actually answered my question.

I I mean that the only thing that I was gonna mention is that that's the confusing part in B and laying out the different options, and you know, as my former uh econ professor at the wonderful masters of public policy school at Sac State would say there's no such thing as a free lunch.

So, you know, it's someone's gonna pay how it's gonna pay, and whether uh whether the uh it it affects the marketability um for the tools that we want to do, you know.

Obviously, clearly we want to build facilities that attract tourism, and those come in you know hand in hand, but it's uh but again that you know if we have to go out to a city vote, then is that is that even a possibility, right?

And I don't know if that's the case, and that's the confusion here.

So I think bringing the different scenarios and letting people digest through what that process is going to be helpful.

Yeah, no, I will look forward to seeing the options and the analysis.

Uh so if there aren't other comments or questions, uh we have a motion by uh Mayor Pro Tem, second by the Vice Mayor, all in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye, opposed say no.

Uh any abstentions?

Hearing none, motion carries unanimously.

Thank you.

And do we have anyone off agenda who wishes to address us?

Yes, Chair.

I have one speaker for matters not on the agenda, Mr.

Davis.

Okay.

We have our off agenda comments.

Um even though it was voted unanimous, um, I didn't hear anybody comment on Mr.

Plucky Bomb being on there, and it's supposed to be Notomas.

So that's something you're gonna have to answer some kind of way.

Now the reason I came for public comments matters not on the agenda.

I wanted uh there's several people up on the rostrum who have bought cheesecakes from us, and I know they will be glad to hear.

I won't identify who they are, but uh I just returned from Southern California, and we were told.

I mean, I know we're ready, but we were told that we were going to be featured on a magazine that I've never heard of.

This these millennials are incredible.

They showed me a magazine and asked me, did I know what that was?

I said no.

And then when they showed me what it was, and then they introduced me.

That's the thing about the millennials.

They introduced me to the owners of the magazine, just like I met inside Sacramento.

Um, can't think of her name right now, but she was wonderful too.

Once you meet the owner of something, then that's where you want to be.

Uh this uh Roger and anybody with District 2 and a lot of people are excited.

They saw me at the game Saturday and they were talking about it.

I didn't even know about it.

I just know they supposed to handle what they supposed to handle.

And this time of year now, it's gonna be up to me.

And that's all I wanted was to get it to me in the manufacturer.

So we we're getting ready to do something incredible with pumpkin cheese cakes and carrot cake, they they've just gone crazy over those two.

It's gonna create instant jobs, Roger.

Instant jobs year round because cheesecakes are in demand year round.

So is carrot cake.

Thank thanks, Lambert.

Um sorry I missed you Saturday night, didn't see you.

Seeing none, I think we have finished our business for the day.

We get a nod of the head from the clerk.

So with that, thank you for being here, and we are adjourned.