All right, let's call to order the Spark City Council meeting for Monday, August 11th with a roll call.

Mayor Lawson.

Here.

Council members Abbott.

Here.

Vanderwell.

Here.

Anderson.

Here.

Bibby, here.

Rodriguez.

Assistant City Attorney Northington.

City Manager Louthan.

Here.

We have a quorum.

Thank you.

Okay.

Our uh invocation is gonna be given by our city attorney Wes Duncan.

Please hire us.

Right.

So we are we are just uh Mr.

Rodriguez, will you lead us in the pledge?

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.

And to the Republican nation with liberty and justice.

Sounds like my dishwasher.

It sounds like my washing machine does a little slingy.

All right.

Public comment.

Do we have any public comment, Mount Clerk?

We do not, Mr.

Mayor.

Okay, anyone in the public wishing to comment this time?

All right.

We'll bring it back to the dias.

Looking for an approval of the agenda.

Ms.

Vanderwell.

I move to approve the agenda as submitted.

Mr.

Rodriguez.

We got a motion and a second.

Any further discussion?

Seeing none, please vote.

Motion carries unanimously.

Minutes.

Do we have any additions or corrections to the minutes?

If not, I'm looking for a motion.

Mr.

Anderson.

Move to approve the minutes from the Spark City Council meeting for July 28th, 2025.

Miss Bybee.

I'll second that motion.

Got a motion and a second.

Any further discussion?

Seeing none, please vote.

Motion carries unanimously.

All right.

It's the Diane Vanderwell show.

7.1.

Carpenter Union Local 971 Appreciation Day.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

You want to have one of your representatives.

We're going to have a couple come down, if you will.

Uh one for the apprentices and one for their volunteer committee is what I'm going to do.

We want you to get on uh go ahead and with our millions of viewers.

Go ahead and have a seat.

Thank you.

Okay.

So whereas Carpenters Union Local 971 was established in Reno, Nevada in 1902 and has proudly served as a pillar of the local construction industry for over 120 years.

And whereas Carpenters Union Local 971 currently represents 1,032 skilled members working in northern Nevada construction trades.

And whereas local 971 is a proud member of the Western States Regional Council of Carpenters, representing nearly 100,000 members across 12 Western states and affiliated with the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, one of the largest building trade unions in North America.

And whereas in July 2025, apprentices from Carpenters Union Local 971 generously provided the labor materials to construct raised planter beds for the Spark Senior Center supporting senior wellness and community garden gardening.

And whereas the Carpenters Union Participation Program CUP is a council-wide volunteer initiative designed to give back and make meaningful contributions within local communities.

And whereas as part of the CUP program, union members donated their time and talent to install the raised planter beds and fill them with soil, ensuring they were ready for our seniors to plant and cultivate vegetables and herbs.

And whereas thanks to the dedication of Carpenter's Union Local 971, their apprentices and volunteers, the Sparks Senior Center now features a vibrant gardening space for seniors can engage in wellness, community, and the joy of harvesting the fruits of their labor.

Now therefore, I Ed Lawson, Mayor of the City of Sparks, Nevada, do hereby proclaim August 11th, 2025 as Carpenters Union Local 971 Appreciation Day.

Give us your name for the record and say a few words if you'd like.

There it goes.

I want to thank everybody.

Um a worthy project that we have.

We love to volunteer.

We love to support our community.

Um, I think it uh to be able to get out there and get the carpenters to show that we care about our community.

And uh it's just something we had a lot of fun.

We did it with Mr.

Abbott and Ms.

Vanderwell and Ms.

Bibe was all there.

We had a great morning, actually.

So uh it was a lot of fun.

Um the apprentices couldn't be here today, obviously, they're working.

A lot of guys are working.

So uh so we really appreciate that we had the opportunity.

If something else comes up again, we're available.

So feel free to let us know.

Thank you.

Thank you for doing that.

Thank you all for the record.

Uh my name is uh Jesse Garby.

I'm the president of the local, also uh political deputy for the council and career connection director.

And I like to say uh thank you for having us here today and for the recognition and certificates.

We'll make sure the the apprentices uh it gets out to the apprentices.

And uh just like Dave Stolfer mentioned if y'all have any of the events or anything that we can do for the community, please reach out to us.

Thank you all.

We'd be happy to support the the community.

Thank you.

Thank you.

You guys are gonna take a picture right over here if you'll be here before we do it.

I just want to say, I want to say thank you because with this project, what it shows is it shows how with public private and working with the community that we can make things happen, that it's not just one side or the other.

So I can't thank you guys enough for stepping up, and we're also gonna thank Moana Nursery for their donation and everything else.

But this is what happens when community comes together and works together.

So I want to thank you guys very much.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

All right, we'll move on to 7.2.

I saw Deanna just cruised in here.

Come on up there, Deanna, and have a seat so I can embarrass you a little bit in front of the millions of YouTube viewers we have.

Whereas Moana Nursery was established in 1967 and has proudly served the Northern Nevada community for over five decades.

And whereas Moana Nursery is committed to making a positive impact in our region, embodying the spirit of giving back through community engagement and support.

And whereas Moana Nursery location on Pyramid Way features an expansive greenhouse showcase, showcasing a remarkable variety of plants, enhancing the beauty and biodiversity in our area.

Whereas on July 25th, 2025, Moana Nursery generously donated 10 cubic yards of soil and mulch along with 10 tomato plants to fill the newly constructed raised planter beds at the Sparks Senior Center.

And whereas this generous donation has enriched the lives of our local seniors, fostering a sense of community and well-building being through the joys and benefits of gardening.

And whereas the City of Sparks commends Moana Nursery for their continued dedication to beautifying our community and enhancing the quality of life for our residents.

Now, therefore, I Ed Lawson, mayor of the City of Sparks, do hereby proclaim August 11th, 2025 as Moana Nursery Appreciation Day.

Thank you.

Not to mention the 300 trees you give us every year, too.

That's awesome.

Thank you so much for having us here today, Mayor and Council members and city staff.

We appreciate you very much.

I'm Deanna, our owner, and we've got Brad here from Pyramid Way that was actually the guy that helped Diane and her team.

And on behalf of Moana Nursery, I want to thank you for this wonderful proclamation for recognizing our donation of soil and tomato plants and now trees.

We love working with the city of Sparks.

I can't say that enough.

Like your staff, everyone from start to finish has been delightful.

Does what they say they're going to do.

We really enjoy it.

And being a business owner in your city means a lot that you do such a good job.

So thank you very much for doing all that.

We believe gardening is not is so much more than plants, right?

It's about nurturing connection, joy, well-being, and our hope is that these beds will not only produce delicious and fresh food, but also spark moments of conversation, learning, and friendship for years to come amongst our seniors.

So thank you for the opportunity, Diane.

We really appreciate you thinking of us and with to everyone here.

We love working with the City of Sparks.

If you need something that Moana Nursery can do, don't hesitate to ask us because we will do our best within our reach.

We would love to be able to be a part of it.

Community is important to us.

We recognize at some point that we did a heck of a lot for a Reno and Washoe County, but we didn't do a lot for Sparks.

So we reached out to the mayor, and he was kind enough to let us do this tree donation program, which is increasing your canopy by 300 a year.

And we appreciate Julie and the Parks Recreation Department for all the support that they've lent us to make that project and program success.

So thank you.

Thank you.

That's it.

Anything to add?

Brad, what do you think of it?

Thank you for giving us the opportunity to work for the City of Sparks.

Give us your name for the record.

My name is Brad Troto.

Thanks, Brad.

All right, we're gonna take a picture real quick.

Okay, well, comments from the council.

Um, I just want to thank uh Deanna.

I want to thank you and Brad and Moana Nursery for I mean, that was a lot of dirt.

Um and uh just your donation of that, but your commitment to the community, the the tree program is amazing.

And um I love I love your nursery and what you've done over there.

In fact, I was just share we redid a backyard, so I bought some grasses for my backyard to put in pots, and so uh your staff every time I'm over there could not be more gracious and more helpful uh to the um to the carpenters union and those apprentices.

The work they did on those boxes is unbelievable.

Uh and we posted on uh social media, uh they're huge for starters.

I never thought we'd be able, I mean, we just kept ending bag after bag after bag uh and just to see them uh filled to see them, you know, then to be able to plant the tomatoes and the herbs and squash and things uh was really just it felt community, it felt a real connection with our with our workers here being able to add to the community and with you and then with those of us uh with the city.

Um I I was I was happy and honored to be a part of that, so thank you all very much.

Well, we commit to helping with this year after year.

I think it's important.

Gardening is at our core, and we'd love to be a part of it every year.

Um, and it just gives me one exciting note.

Our Minden farm just started growing fresh cut flowers, and so we're pretty stoked about we did it as a test, and they were so um successful that we started selling them a dollar a stem in them at the Moana Lane location for starters.

Um, but I just there's more to come because now that we are growing ourselves, we can be price competitive and we can continue to do the things that we need to do in our community to be sustainable and healthy and happy.

So thank you.

Anyone else?

Okay, let's take a picture.

Okay.

All right, let's move on to consent items.

Anyone wishing to pull a consent item?

If not, I'm looking for a motion.

Ms.

Vanderwell.

I move to approve consent items 8.1 through 8.3.

Mr.

Rabbit, second.

Got a motion and a second.

Do we have any further discussion?

Seeing none, please vote.

Motion carries unanimously.

All right.

9.1.

Consideration, discussion, and possible approval of an opioid related national settlement agreement.

AC 6138 pursuant to the one Nevada Agreement on allocation of opioid recoveries.

One Nevada agreement for participation in a 57 million.

How's that?

Settlement with Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family with the city of Sparks anticipate share being approximately 103,763.

Randon.

Mayor.

Council, if it's okay with you all briefly discussed 9.1 and 9.2.

That's fine.

Really require a separate motion, but these are two separate, really nine separate opioid related settlements from outside council.

This first one, 9.1 is obviously the bigger one.

It's Purdue Pharma.

Um will wind up being the 103,000 figure is after attorney fees.

Before it was about 138.

But outside council has been working since we retained them in December of 2019, and these have been coming in slowly over the years.

The uh eight manufacturer ones are obviously smaller, less known uh entities that are a pretty minor dollar amount, but we still need to go through the the motions of getting the correct signatures.

So with that, outside council is recommending approval of each of the settlement agreements uh and ask that uh with council give city manager Louth and approval to sign each of the settlement participation forms.

Question, Mr.

Anderson.

Brandon, can you remind us on these settlements?

I mean, they're not huge amounts that we receive as a city, but they they add up.

How are we allowed to use those funds specifically?

Each of the settlements has restrictions.

Uh each one is slightly different, but the the general gist is the money should go toward some sort of public health safety uh tasks or funding that's related to the impacts of the opioid epidemic.

Um medical police fire, things like that.

These are the areas where the city has been impacted by it.

So I've worked with our our finance team and also with the uh attorney general's office on outlining that guidance of what the the funds can and can't be used for.

Unfortunately, we can't use it to build our new stadium.

Um that's the the examples from the old tobacco litigation where uh courts now when they're approving settlements, they want restrictions on on what it can be used for.

All right, thank you for the clarification.

You're welcome.

Any other questions from the council?

All right, let's uh take 9.1.

I'm looking for a motion.

Mr.

Anderson move to approve the proposed settlement agreement AC 6138 with Purdue Pharma and Sackler family and authorize the city manager to execute necessary settlement participation form.

Mr.

Rabbit, second got a motion and a second.

Any further discussion?

See none, please vote.

Motion carries unanimously.

9.2 consideration discussion of possible approval of eight opioid related litigation settlements pursuant to the one nevada agreement on allocation of opioid recoveries.

I don't know why I have our time with opioids as a word.

One nevata agreement for participation in a nearly nine million dollar settlement with Alvogin AC 6139, Amnial, AC 6140, Apotex AC 6141, HICMA, AC 6142, Individu AC 6143, Mylin, AC 614, Sun, AC 6145, and ZITIS AC 6146 with the City of Sparks anticipated share of being approximately 15,976 and 97 cents, paid over variant installments.

You have anything to add?

Nothing to add, sir.

We got nothing to add.

I am looking for a motion.

I move to approve the proposed settlement agreements with Elvigin, AC 6139, M nail, AC 6140, Apitex, AC 6141, HICLA, AC 6142, Indivore, Indivore, AC6143, Mylan, AC 6144, Sun, AC 6145, and ZITIS AC 6146 and authorized city manager to execute necessary settlement participation forms.

Mr.

Rodriguez, second.

Got a motion and a second.

Any further discussion?

Seeing none, please vote.

Motion carries unanimously.

Thanks, Brandon.

9.3 consideration discussion of possible approval of an agreement.

AC 6135 with Corolla Engineers Inc.

and the City of Reno for design and construction of management service for the Truckee Meadows Water Reclamation Facility, Heat Loop Near Term Boiler Replacement Project in the amount of $882,588, with Spark Share being $276,867.86.

Casey.

All right.

Well, good afternoon, Mayor Lawson and members of council for the record, Casey Menser, treatment plant manager at the Truck Meadows Water Reclamation Facility.

So this item here, it relates to the failure of several pieces of Tum Wharf's combustion heating equipment that I presented on at the July uh 14th City Council.

Um as a reminder, due to a mechanical failure of uh heat exchanger at the plant, the heat loop at uh Tumorf became compromised with processed fluids, and it ended up resulting in the failure of three out of eight pieces of uh combustion heating equipment that we have.

That's a significant loss to our um our total facility heating capacity.

Uh luckily for us though, Corolla engineers, uh, they were already under contract as they were designing uh different heat loop improvements at the facility.

So we were able to have them pivot and be able to focus on fixing that problem, uh, that sort of unrelated heat loop problem.

And so they were able to identify the equipment that we need to restore that heating capacity.

We've already gone forth and purchased that given the long lead times for that.

Now, what this uh agreement is looking to do is to have them fully complete the design around that equipment as well as prepare bid documents and then provide construction or uh engineering services during construction.

Given the emergency nature of this project, uh Corolla engineers have they have actually uh continued progressing forward with the design, and we are now at the 90% design stage.

Uh, they've been working in good faith just so that they don't slow the city down and we can help address this critical need.

Uh they hope to have everything complete uh for a bid period to start on August 15th.

So we have been expeditiously moving forward.

Um I would then look to come back to council on September 8th to uh hopefully award construction of the project to the chosen bidder.

Um, with that, I'm happy to answer any and all questions.

Question from the council.

Ms.

Bibe.

So Casey, this is strictly for design and construction management services of the project, which is a huge project that we're looking to do, and obviously we need to have it up and running.

I know the time frame to get it in.

Uh the meeting I was at the other day, talked about you know, we're looking at winter, so trying to get now it doesn't matter.

Today we especially we wouldn't need the heat.

But as we move into into winter, when you do the contract for construction, we're gonna be looking to get that done as quickly as we can so that we're not in January.

Yeah, have no heat.

And is is that kind of give me an idea where we are in that next phase is construction, which obviously is going to be quite a bit also.

Yes, that's correct.

So um uh to your question, um, this is just covering the uh the design of those improvements and the construction uh uh management um services that they'll be providing.

They are uh, as you indicated, um it's hot today, but you know, winter is fast approaching when equipment has a lead time of you know 24, you know, weeks.

And so they're also looking at incorporating within this design uh temporary sort of contingency plans for you know, if we have delays, if we hit snags, then how we can utilize either existing equipment or rental equipment and how we can design ways that they can start building now for us to be able to tap into those um kind of contingency pieces of equipment to keep the facility heated.

So that's also incorporated in this contract.

Mr.

Anderson Casey, I was just wondering, I know this wasn't planned to be done right now, but as they're working on this and designing it, what type of efficiencies that will improve the operations that are being built into what they're doing now?

Yeah, so uh that's that's a great question.

So we are trying to be uh expeditious, but um keeping in mind that this is gonna be a permanent installation for the uh for the facility, and that there are certainly efficiencies to be gained.

Right now, we have a lot of uh uh disparate places throughout the facility where we have different pieces of heating equipment.

We're trying to consolidate, make um fewer pieces of equipment to help us with long-term operations and maintenance and make them you know larger.

Right now, the way that we have to heat certain portions of our process, we have multiple pieces of equipment.

So we have these things called sludge heaters where they are both a boiler and a heat exchanger kind of compassed, like you know, or uh coupled together.

We're looking at separating everything out and um to uh further reduce the chance of any sort of cross connection or mechanical failures that could impact our heat system, like what we saw here.

And so we're separating those out entirely.

And so this is gonna be the first stage of that, where we have boilers that will heat the water and then heat exchangers that will heat all of our process fluids.

So we're gonna consolidate, um, do uh much more with fewer pieces of equipment, and I think uh enhance our long-term operation.

Awesome.

Well, I appreciate you, your team working to figure out the best way to do it, hopefully avoid this in the future, as well as it sounds like uh the vendor has been doing a good job of helping, as you said, pivot and deal with this, plus look at the efficiency.

So great job.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Any other questions from the council?

If not, I am looking for a motion.

Mr.

Abbott.

I move to approve the agreement AC-6135 with Carillo Engineers Inc.

and the City of Reno for design and construction management services for the Trucky Meadows Water Reclamation Facility Heat Loop, near-term boiler replacement project in the amount of eight hundred and eighty-two thousand five hundred and eighty-eight dollars with Sparks' share being 276,867 and 86 cents.

Mr.

Rodriguez, got a motion and a second.

Any further discussion?

Seeing none, please vote.

Motion carries unanimously.

Thank you.

Thank you, Casey.

Um 9.4 consideration discussion of possible approval of a contract AC 6136 with the City of Reno and Nuvoda LLC for purchase of a license and equipment for the mobile organic biofilm technology as part of the Truckee Meadows Water Reclamation Facility, mobile organic biofilm retrofit project in the amount of 778,000 with Spark share being 244,058 and 60 cents.

I just you guys love to have these long explanations of you're very good at it.

Go ahead.

Oh, thank you, Mayor Lawson and uh City Council members for the record.

Austin Martin, I'm a treatment plant engineer over at the Truckee Meadows Water Reclamation Facility.

Um, for many of you that have been on the council for a while, you've heard us talking about this project for years.

Uh so in summary, Tilmore has wrapped up an 18-month pilot on the mobile mobile organic biofilm process.

It was one of uh three different pilots that were performed out at the treatment plant.

Um basically encompassing process intensification.

What can we do more to provide higher quality treatment with the existing infrastructure without at the time expanding our facility at this time?

Um this pilot was deemed successful by uh Tilmore staff, our consultant at Jacobs Engineering, as well as the University of Nevada Reno.

And so with that, we're uh looking to move forward with um the purchase of the intellectual property for this portion of the treatment of the facility, which encompasses about 20 to 25% of our flow as well as the equipment needed to uh run the reactor.

With that, I'd like to open up for any questions.

Questions from the council.

Very good.

A great explanation.

Thanks.

No question.

All right, no questions.

I'm looking for a motion.

Mr.

Anderson.

I move to approve the contract AC 6136 with the city of Reno and Novato LLC for the purchase of license and equipment for the mobile organic biofilm technology as a part of the Trekkie Meadows Water Reclamation Facility Mobile Organic Biofilm Retrofit Project in the amount of $778,000 with the Spark Share being 244,005 and 60 cents.

Ms.

Fivey.

I'll second that motion.

Got a motion and a second.

Any further discussion?

Seeing none, please vote.

Motion carries unanimously.

Thank you.

Um public hearing, Madam Clerk, 10.1.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

This is public hearing consideration discussion and possible approval of a memorandum of understanding AC 6137 between the City of Sparks and Sparks Police Supervisory Protective Association lieutenants regarding education requirements and education incentive pay and related to health enrollment and benefits at the time of retirement with no direct financial impact.

Shauna.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Mayor and City Council, Shauna Halterman, Human Resources Director for the record.

For your consideration today is an uh MOU memorandum of understanding between the City of Sparks and the Sparks Police Supervisory Protective Agency related to lieutenants known as SPSPA.

Following recent negotiations and signing of a collective bargaining agreement, the need for a correction was discovered in relation to education incentive pays.

The CBA allows for either an 8% education incentive pay for a bachelor's degree or a 10% education incentive for a master's degree.

A bachelor's degree is required for the police lieutenant position, and therefore it should not be a special pay.

As a solution, in lieu of the 8% bachelor's degree education pay, the 8% will be added into the base salary for lieutenants.

And the master's degree is reduced from 10% to 2% because the 8% is already included in their base pay.

They got either or not both.

The bargaining unit is agreeable to the revision.

The proposed MOU also makes a minor change related to health care cash out and eligibility at separation of retirement.

If approved, this MOU would correct the education and set of pay discrepancy, discrepancy, and outdated language related to health upon separation.

There is no financial impact since the education incentive the lieutenants are already receiving is being shifted into their base pay.

I'm open to any questions, and this is a public hearing.

Questions from the council.

Okay.

This is a public hearing.

Anyone in the public wishing to speak on this item?

Bill.

Okay.

We'll have to let Shauna talk to you in a minute.

All right.

Anyone else in the public wishing to speak?

All right.

We'll bring it back to the dias.

And I am looking for a motion.

Mr.

Abbott.

I moved to approve the memorandum of understanding, AC-6137 between the City of Sparks and the Sparks Police Supervisory Protective Association Lieutenants regarding education requirements and the education incentive pay and related to health enrollment and benefits at the time of retirement with no direct financial impacts.

Second.

Got a motion and a second.

Any further discussion?

Seeing none, please vote.

Motion carries unanimously.

All right.

Planning zoning.

We don't have any comments from the public.

Madam Clerk, do you have any public comment cards?

We do not, Mr.

Mayor.

Anyone in the public wishing to speak?

All right.

That's uh announcement from the mayor's city council and city manager.

Mr.

Manager, you got anything?

Nothing today, Mayor.

Thank you.

Uh Council, Mr.

Anderson, Ms.

Vanderwell first.

Yes.

I would like to congratulate our colleague, Councilman Rodriguez, for his recent promotion to state fire marshal.

There we go.

Anyone else?

Mr.

Anderson.

So this weekend, uh, City of Sparks had a couple of cool events uh that were very successful.

The hot August nights event downtown.

Great turnout.

And then um when to thank our parks and rec department in both both of those events, uh, that they also had the the Wild West water uh water cross event down at the marina, and not only to uh to uh councilman Abbott's concern, the city of Sparks is well advertised in everything they did.

And it was cool too that they even recognize the city of Sparks, thanking the city for allowing them to hold the event here.

It too was very successful.

So just wanted to let everyone know.

Go Sparks.

There was a lot of people there.

Yes.

It was very busy the two times already hot.

That's why you got water.

I believe it's the final round.

Like they find out championships is here in Sparks.

JR also is a Sparks resident.

He shaved our head with us too for uh we raised money for children's cancer.

Well, I'm glad that the point got across that this is not the city of Reno.

Yes, that we are the city of Sparks.

Uh anyone else, Miss Bible, you have anything?

No.

Okay.

Then uh we are adjourned.

How about that?

34 minutes.

Well done.

So now we've got to convince them that the best in the West Rib Cook is not in right now.

Yeah.