Good afternoon.

Mayor Lawson is absent.

Mayor Pro Tim Anderson.

Here.

Council members Abbott.

Vanderwell is absent.

Bibi.

Here.

Rodriguez.

Here.

Um City Attorney Duncan.

Assistant City Manager McCormick.

We do have a quorum.

Thank you.

All right.

Thank you very much.

And we'll move into item 3.1, the invocation by Pastor Bard West of Sparks Church of the Nazarene.

Thank you, Paul.

Would y'all join me in prayer?

Father in heaven, we just thank you for this fine counsel.

We thank you that Councilman Paul Anderson could fill in today.

Pray that you would be with Mayor Lawson down in Henderson and keep him safe.

In fact, Lord, we pray that you would keep all of us safe, including our school children.

Bless the teachers that have them in class.

And Lord, we pray a blessing over our police officers, over our firefighters, and particularly over this fine council.

We pray that you would give them your wisdom as they conduct the business of our beloved city.

In Jesus' name, amen.

Thank you, Barb.

And uh Miss McCormick, since we don't see you up here too often, would you mind leaving us in the place?

I'd be glad to.

Please join me.

Okay, we'll move on to item 4.1 public comment.

And we do have uh couple up here.

First one is Jim Kindness.

Mayor, members of the city council, Jim Kindness, resident Wingfield Springs and Sparks.

I'm here again to ask you to reconsider closing down fire station number five.

Station six has been in the planning stages for about 10 years now.

The Sparks Fire Department strategic plan, which you all approved since your names are attached to it, states, to complete the construction of fire station number six and to staff and operate with nine personnel upon completion.

The benefits listed are to improve standards of cover, increase workforce, increase structure of fire response capabilities, and increase public safety through reduction in response times.

Nowhere in that report does it mention shutting down fire station five, and to the contrary, goes against this plan as it's as is going to increase response times to Gold Neagle and the residents in Wingfield and surrounding areas.

Station five was built in 2005 when the city had a population of 82,513.

It's been 20 years since the new fire station was built to serve our growing community.

Population has grown to about 109,000 residents and over 37 square miles.

That's a 32% increase in population itself.

Population increases the need for services and increases the call volume for the fire department.

In 2005, call volume was 7,241, while today it's over 17,000.

That's 135% increase in calls in station 5 open in 2005.

The suppression staff, which handles emergencies, fires, EMS, hazmat, water and tech rescues, has less personnel now than it had in 2005.

Let that sink in.

135% increase in call volume and operating with less personnel.

You have not invested in the fire department staffing for emergencies in 20 years.

The report states, and I quote, in an emergency, speed and effort are at the heart of a success successful outcome.

Your intervention is not quick and sufficient.

Medical events can lead to permanent injury or death, and fires will continue to grow and spread.

How are you okay with putting your residents at risk?

Time is critical for both fires and EMS.

Your responses to your constituents doesn't paint the whole picture.

You mentioned station five.

Only accounts for 10% of the fire department's call volume.

That's still 2,000 calls and doesn't include the calls, trucking meadows, fire handles.

You were the resident that was in need of any of those calls, you would say it was very important to have an efficient response from the fire department.

Lady by the name of Bella commented on the next door app, and I quote, a few months ago I would have died if the station wasn't there.

Lady by the name of Bella commented on the next door app, and I quote A few months ago, I would have died if the station wasn't there.

Good thing for Bella and her family, Station 5 was still open.

You mentioned your fiscal constraints.

The last council meeting, you approved 1.46 million to replace turf on three fields at Golden Eagle.

I walked each of those fields and found no reason why they needed to be replaced.

They could each go another five years.

I challenge all of you to walk those fields and come back and say that's more important than keeping your residents safe.

You can't provide for the public safety at the park.

You need to change the priority on that money.

Thank you.

Thank you for your time.

Hope you'll do the right thing.

Thank you, Mr.

Kindness.

Next is uh Christine Johnson.

Hello.

Thanks for uh listening to me today.

I am Christine Johnson, formerly the executive director of the Sparks Heritage Museum, but uh currently a board member there.

And I would like to just uh revisit uh the comments that I made back in April 2024 on behalf of the museum, where we deal daily with historic preservation and the keeper of the history of this fine city.

I wanted to make sure that I uh I did submit online all of the documents that we presented back last year with regard to the preservation of the house on uh at the address of 306 10th Street in Sparks.

And this is a site that is uh up for consideration for development, I understand.

And we remain at the Sparks Museum completely committed to the preservation of that property.

That little building is is near and dear to the history of Sparks.

And just some uh thoughts on that is that its architectural character and historical context offer both educational cultural value to the current and future residents in the space.

And by retaining and repurposing the structure within any housing project that commences on that site, um, can model an inclusive approach to urban renewal and one that honors the city's past while addressing present day present day needs for accessible and affordable housing.

I understand that you have several options to consider uh for the choice on uh moving forward with the um the project on that space.

And so separate and apart from the the museum's perspective, I just wanted to say something uh from a personal perspective.

I've worked with the Northern Nevada Community Housing Project more than three times on different projects and put my own time and energy into working with uh providing guidance and historical information and perspective on some of the interior components, which include history and um like connecting the the residents with the the history and the the larger idea of what's going on in the space.

And they have uh worked so hard to include uh the history of Nevada, Sparks, Reno, wherever they're working, uh, and to connect the people with their space, which is highly um I, in my personal opinion, important when people are are in a position to reconnect with the new community to learn something about their space.

And this organization is just over an abundance of care and and caution to getting things perfect uh with regard to what is put forward in their their housing projects.

And I'm impressed with them.

That's my personal opinion, but the museum wants to one one last time reiterate how important that the point is to keep the space at 306 10th Street for the City of Sparks and the history.

Thank you.

Perfect timing.

Thank you, Christine.

Next, we have Tom Dunn.

Tom, I have two for you.

Did you want to save one for the end?

Uh, the public comment at the end.

Yeah, I'll have one at the end too.

So uh good afternoon, Mayor Pro Tem and members of the council for the record.

My name is Tom Dunn.

I'm one of the vice presidents of the Reno Firefighters Association Local 731.

Today we're in favor, we're here to support items uh 9.3 and 10.1.

Um, so one of them will have public comment later, one won't.

Um, I also like to recognize that today, October 28th is National First Responder Day.

First responder day was designated first by Congress in 2017, and to the first responders in the room, also watching on camera and the first responders that uh that provide services to our community, including Remza.

Thank you for your service to our community, everything you you do on behalf of our community.

Uh the last thing I like to comment on today is uh the passing of retired firefighter Jana Moss.

Jenna Moss was a 20-year firefighter for the city of Reno, but she was also a Sparks resident at the time of her passing.

Um she was a shining light in our community.

She took care and was the one of the principal um coordinators of our Sam Sabini Christmas Food Basket Project.

She was also a principal coordinator in the downtown Reno Children's Christmas party that gave uh gifts and had a visit with Santa and food for their families every year at Christmas.

And so she was a shining light in this community, and she will be sadly missed by those that worked with her.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

And those are all the ones that I have.

If you wish to make public comment, um now's your time.

If uh you would just fill out one of the forms.

And since we're not showing any other public comment, we'll move on to item number five point one approval of the agenda.

Mr.

Abbott.

I moved to approve the agenda submitted.

Mr.

Rodriguez.

Okay, we have a motion made by uh member Abbott and a second by member Rodriguez.

All those in favor.

Um that's right, never mind.

Please vote.

All right.

Passes unanimously with those present.

Yeah, another meeting.

Thank you.

And we'll move on to item 6.1 consideration possible approval minutes of the Spark City Council meeting for October 13th, 2025.

Member Rodriguez.

Move to approve the minutes of the Spark City Council meeting for October 13, 2025.

Member Bibe.

I will second the motion.

All right, thank you.

We have a motion made by Rodriguez, a second by Bibi.

Uh please vote.

And passes unanimously.

Thank you.

And we'll move on to item 7.1.

And I imagine you want to do 7.2 at the same time.

Yes, please, sir.

Okay.

Uh the Sparks Civil Service Commission has one vacancy for a partial term ending June 30th, 2026.

Commissioners must be Sparks residents and cannot be a city employee or related to one within the third degree of consanguinity.

Applications for this vacancy will be accepted until 5 p.m.

on October 30th, 2025.

There's also one vacancy on the Sparks Planning Commission for a four-year term ending December 31st, 2029.

Planning commissioners must be Sparks residents and registered voters.

Applications for this vacancy will be accepted until November 21st, 2025 at 5 p.m.

Those interested in serving on any of these committees should complete a community service application online at the city's website, www.city of sparks.us slash get involved.

Simply complete the volunteer application form and hit submit.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Move on to item 7.3 presentation from the Regional Transportation Commission.

Okay.

So good afternoon.

Get ready to get started.

If you'll just stay state your name for the record, please.

Get ready to play it for me now.

And good afternoon, Mayor Pro Tim, Council members.

I'm Bill Thomas.

I'm the executive director of the Regional Transportation Commission of Washoe County.

I also brought with me today Dale Keller.

Dale is a deputy executive director and also director of engineering.

And should the council have detailed questions?

Dale fortunately is going to be able to answer them.

His knowledge of our project is very deep.

So I I have a presentation today, and I'm I appreciate you giving me the time to present this to you really just to update you on what we've done in the past year at RTC.

And I've got a very brief video I wanted to start with, which specifically targets uh more focuses on the improvements in the city of Sparks in the past year.

Slight technical difficulties.

Yeah, it looks like somebody turned the sound down, maybe.

Oh, okay.

Shouldn't be gonna blow their ears out.

Make sure you have the enabled editing on.

That's why a little bit loud.

Try this again.

Well, fortunately, you won't have to hear me sing or do anything, but uh hopefully it's self-explanatory.

Um as I said, we want to run through some of the projects and are glad to answer questions after we're done.

Okay, so um I've got a little slide deck here to talk about um specifically some issues that we're dealing with that I think uh the council is going to be interested in.

And uh of course, when I'm done, uh if there's anything that the board the council feels like they'd like to know more about, we're glad to share that with you.

So I want to start um, which I always do just to remind people of what the Regional Transportation Commission is.

We're actually, I was just checking.

I think we're two years newer than the airport authority, but one of the older regional boards that exists in our community.

Um as you can see, we started in 1979.

Uh the board, which of course Mayor Lawson sits as your representative functions.

I'm glad to say and proud to say very much as a regional board.

So the decisions that are made by the RTC board really do focus on what's best for the people in the community in terms of transportation, knowing full well that with our average trip of about six miles, most people's trips go between jurisdictions.

Um it's not that often people stay within one jurisdiction as they're traveling around.

So the reason that's the reason for having well uh planned and coordinated transportation network.

So three things that we provide, and I like to say at RTC, we're not an uh fourth local government.

We actually are an agent of you, City of Reno, and Washoe County.

And we provide three um very important but distinct services to to the three local governments.

First, the metropolitan planning function, which is a federal construct, and the best way to explain it is without this, we don't get federal money.

So our role as the MPO is to make sure that we have the whole transportation network regionally uh planned for, and we have a process for prioritizing where we invest money and uh make sure that the transportation network continues to function the way that our community not only wants it but deserves to have it done.

In addition, we do um the design and the construction oversight and maintenance of the regional road network.

And so that means that we you know we hire the consultants that design the roads, we oversee those consultants, and we hire the contractors who actually build the roads.

I also would point out that as we do this in each jurisdiction, we work very closely with your staff.

So any projects that would happen to the City of Sparks, we don't do without um heavy consultation with the staff from the City of Sparks.

Um I would also point out when you um stop to think about this that we don't own anything.

Everything we do is owned by a jurisdiction.

So we're your agents to come in and do these improvements and improve your transportation system, but at the end of the day, we hand it back over to you as the city to own and maintain the the improvements that we do.

And then lastly, um, and every bit as important as the other two functions is the public transportation rule.

We are the federal transit administration's designated for the application and operation of the public transit network.

Significant portion of that funding comes from the federal government, but we also have a local sales tax that the people of this community have dedicated to the public transportation network.

I wanted to share this slide because I know as council members, you will often hear from constituents about when and where and how quick are things going to happen that are associated with roadways.

Because of the complexity and the nature of the way we make decisions, it can take time.

And there's really no way around that when you're talking about investing in the lightest cases, maybe three to five million, and at the highest end, uh up to 100 million dollars.

So we want to make sure, and we're actually required because of the federal process to make sure we do an excellent job of prioritizing and identifying the purpose and need of projects before we get started.

So I'm sharing with you the four touch points, if you will, um, that go into decision making of our projects.

The first one, which is a federal mandate, but also one that's just wise as we do a 20-year plan.

And any projects we do have to be in that plan.

So that's the starting point for anything RTC does in terms of capital facilities.

Um that plan is updated every four to five years.

We just recently updated it.

And just like I said earlier, in terms of engagement with your staff, we um have a very um deep and engaged uh effort when we talk to your staff about what the needs are.

And those conversations we hope reflect your needs and desires as a city council.

The second step uh is a five-year outlook, which we call the regional transportation improvement program.

And again, this is a also a federal requirement before we can spend money.

We have to have a five-year plan.

And I think in your world, it's probably uh comparable to the capital improvement plan.

So these are projects that we're pretty sure are going to happen, but we haven't quite defined how much they're gonna cost nor what year they're gonna happen.

We lay those out, we estimate you may see these like when you're looking at a particular road in in one of your wards, but just knowing that five-year plan is not necessarily a guarantee.

It's probably a real high likelihood it's gonna happen.

But as we refine these projects, often we'll find things that require us to delay them.

Um, it could be that we find some utility or some improvement that adds significant cost, so we have to find the funding, or it could be just acquiring property, because that's um a very complex and timely process.

And I know all of you would want us to do it right, and we do when we go into condemnation, which is very rare, but it is something we need to do in uh many cases with our bigger project.

And then lastly, this um orange bubble here, the um interlocal cooperative agreements, those are the ones where we cannot do our project unless the local government approves it.

So in every case, we would be coming to the city of Sparks for an local cooperative agreement.

And it really does two things.

One, it allows us to do the work on your streets, and secondarily, it authorizes us to become your agents for condemnation should it be needed.

And I would just um caution it and let you know we're very um careful on how we use the condemnation process.

Often it's needed just because um it takes forever to work through people and through organizations to get the right-of-way.

And so, in order to keep these projects moving forward, we have that tool which we use sparingly.

And then lastly, just like for the uh City of Sparks, we have an actual capital, excuse me, can't talk today, annual capital operating budget.

So that is the point where we actually have the money in hand and we know it's gonna be spent, and we go to the RTC board for their authorization to go spend the money.

We recently completed two studies I wanted to talk to you about today.

The first one is a maintenance study.

And this study, like all things we do, included cooperation with um your staff, the staff from the city of Reno, and the staff from Washoe County.

And the goal of the study really was to find out what is the need for maintenance.

And we talk about maintenance of roadways, it's the whole picture.

It's not just the asphalt, um, it's not just the potholing, but it's also the street sweeping, the snow plowing, signs, painting, striping, you name it if it has anything to do with the road, we looked at this.

And we looked at it holistically, as I said, um, we hired a consultant that assessed all this information or brought it together, and we prepared a report which has been presented to all the local governments.

The conclusion, not probably surprising to you, is that um the combined resources of the region.

That concludes not only RTC but the three local governments are not sufficient to meet the regional needs.

Um what we did find also is that um there are limited additional resources.

Because each of you get an increment of fuel tax just like RTC does.

All that money is applied to roads, and individually, each jurisdiction has a little bit different way of adding additional money into the road maintenance and construction process.

So that was identified and quantified and is in that report.

And then lastly, just to report kind of the magnitude of the issue.

What we found is over the next 10 years, there's about 1.4 billion dollars of maintenance that exceeds the money available to get it done.

So the findings and the recommendations, um, like I just said there, the first one was there's insufficient funding to do everything we need or want to do as far as the roadway network.

Um the backlogs will continue to grow, and ultimately what it will result um if we can't find additional resources is um a network that declines.

And um, with those realities, we looked at a couple of options, which I would say right now we're still in the very early stages.

This really was the the explanation of what the problem is.

This wasn't intended to be the solution to the problem, but you know, before you head into any public policy or problem solving, you gotta really get your hands around what's the magnitude of the problem and you know what are the um efforts that are going on right now.

I would say probably the most important thing, and you deal with this all the time as council, you have to prioritize.

You know, we don't have the resources to do everything, so we've got to make some tough choices.

Um I think I'll talk a little bit about one of the tools or new strategies, intelligent transportation system, which allows us to get a little more out of our system without spending nearly the amount of money we would to rebuild everything.

And um I want to go now into a second study we did, which is the Gwen study.

You may have heard a little bit about this.

Again, I think we shared it with all your staffs, and hopefully you got a chance to see it.

If you didn't, I'm more than glad to uh send a copy to you.

So we approached um the Gwen Center, which is a nonpartisan um think tank, if you will, basically a policy analysts.

They really focus on the legislature and doing studies to help the legislature decide what the best public policy steps are or um in terms of any particular issue.

And the reason we approached them was to look at the revenue options for transportation infrastructure.

That's the result of electric vehicles not paying fuel tax, and then hybrid vehicles paying much, much less than a traditional internal combustion engine vehicle would.

So a little bit of information to paint the picture for you.

Um, this is a chart.

The first one, the one on the left here, shows the adoption and growth of both the electric vehicle uh fleet, but also the hydrogen electric vehicles.

And you can see here that going back to 2020, it's been consistently increasing.

Now, on the scale of the whole vehicle fleet, it's still those two combined is about five and a half percent of the total fleet.

But over the next um five years, I think it's projected from NDOT to be up to 24%.

So you can see that, you know, we're at a point now where it's not so significant that it's devastating to us, but as the trend continues to move, not only to electric vehicles, but also to much more fuel efficient vehicles, we end up in the situation which is the right chart.

And the right chart tells us the amount of taxable gallons sold.

And when you look at this chart, you can see that it peaked um shortly before the pandemic, it dropped, obviously, in the pandemic, where um a lot of people didn't go to work anymore.

And then it started climbing, but it's starting to drop again.

And when you look at this chart, two important things to remember.

One is you all know the population's been growing, so there's more people here each year.

The second thing is that people are actually driving more.

So it's not like people are not consuming fuel because they're driving less.

The reason they're consuming less fuel is because they're much more efficient vehicles.

So why is this a problem?

The answer is because our road maintenance and our road construction is funded by fuel tax.

The sales tax I mentioned earlier, um, only a small portion of that can go to roads.

The majority of that money has to go to public transportation.

So we have a single funding source, which is the fuel tax to pay for our needs.

So the um Gwynn group came up with some policy findings on what can we do about this.

And I've listed these two here.

The first one, the policy interventions are things that will require legislative approval.

So uh, you know, the first step is finding out what we need to do.

The second one is, of course, convincing the legislature to give somebody, all of us, maybe RTC, somebody the authority to go and make some changes.

The second, um, which I'll talk about these individually, are things that we control.

In other words, things that we can do absent legislative approval.

So the first one, which is one that a lot of states have done.

In fact, we're one of only nine in the country that doesn't have a vehicle registration fee on electric vehicles or hybrid.

So we're lagging in terms of dealing with the issue, I would say, at the state level.

That one is probably the simplest to administer and the simplest to implement.

And I think that's probably why you see the other 40 states, 41 states have done something.

The second one is really kind of the long-term answer, which is moving to a system whereby people pay based on the amount they drive.

And that's the vehicle miles travel tax.

So in other words, if you don't drive at all, you don't pay tax, much like fuel.

If you drive a lot, you pay a lot.

The problem with that method, and the reason nobody's fully implemented is it's very, very complex.

And the biggest pushback we found in the literature and look talking to other states is because of the privacy issue.

People are very reticent to give the government the information on where they drive, how much they drive, and the details that would be necessary for that to be effective.

Additionally, the administration of the system would be very expensive.

So while now it's fairly simple where the taxes apply it at the wholesale level, uh, is where we actually collect the tax.

Now you're talking about collecting taxes from everybody.

So the, you know, let's say by the time we do it, two and a half million people, you're going to each of those people individually.

You're not collecting it like at the aggregate level.

So, needless to say, that's a very expensive and complex system.

Um, last one is not really the full thing, but a piece of it, which is electric charging station taxes.

Some communities do that.

Um, the challenge is those for the most part aren't designed to collect the kind of data you need to be able to tax.

So that would be a very complex, um, another complex method of collecting the money.

But these are the three policy interventions that the national level have been kind of taking the spotlight in terms of what we do about that.

So the two that we have some potential to respond to this issue are the supplemental government service tax.

And that actually is a tax that um the Board of County Commissioners can impose.

It's um generally believed that it goes to transportation, but it's not a legal requirement.

So that particular tax would generate somewhere in the 20 million dollar range, but clearly it would require the Board of County Commissioners to determine that that's the right answer to come up with some additional money to deal with this issue in terms of particularly the maintenance issue.

The second one is um we have the ability in Washoe County to increase um by one-eighth of one percent our sales tax.

However, that is um up to the voters.

We would have to go to the voters, and they would have to approve it.

That would generate somewhere in the $15 million a year range.

So those are at least on the horizon, those are the five things that were identified in the Gwynn study.

Now, lastly, I want to talk about a um a new thing we're doing.

And the way I would explain this is you know, historically, the way we deal with growth in a transportation network is we would widen roads, or we would put in traffic signals.

We would find these physical improvements that would actually add capacity to the road.

The intelligent transportation system really is what I would describe, you probably heard as a smarter management of the system.

And by way of example, historically, what would happen is in our community, we would hire consultants that come in every three to five years to change our signal timing.

And of course, um, after they left and people started changing their patterns and things and grew that the traffic signals weren't keeping up with it.

So we'd have to wait for a few more years.

This new system is really one about being real-time to manage traffic.

So if you have a special event where you have peak times, we can change the timing of the flow in the directions that don't focus on the intersection and actually look at the network.

And the way I would describe it is we're really trying to get more green time when you're on a major road.

So think of McCarran Boulevard, think of Sparks Boulevard, where somebody can have three, three and a half, maybe four green signals as they're progressing through the road.

Um and that requires some very intentional and intelligent managing of the transportation system.

So recently, one that I think you're familiar with is we did the Sparks Intelligent Corridor along Pyramid and Sparks Boulevard.

That's an example of where we interconnect the signals with fiber.

We buy software, we buy hardware, and we have people dedicated to just staying on top of it and keep an eye to kind of get what we can, those are incremental improvements that get people through the system quicker and better.

So along those lines, one of the things you'll be hearing in the next year is moving forward with the traffic management center, and this is the physical manifestation of this intelligent transportation system.

What we do here is we find a physical location.

We take together the people who are in the transportation world at NDOT at RTC at your local level, and we work together to make sure we're all on top of managing the transportation system consistently and intelligently, if we will.

And again, we'll be hearing more about that as we move forward.

The RTC board has invested in this.

It's something that they very much have bought into as a wise way to get the most bang for our buck in our community.

So lastly, I want to close with a couple things just to uh make you aware of.

The first one is uh we have significant in the past with the um investment.

I'm sorry, IJA.

And we're at the acronym right now.

Anyway, for up until um this year, actually, well, next year, 26, um, there was significant amount of federal funding that was put into transportation.

Those funds have been applied.

We've been very aggressive at going after grants, um, and we've been very successful, but at the federal level, um, things are changing.

And we know that the funding is probably not going to be at the same level it's been for the past five years.

In addition, the priorities have changed with the new administration.

Um, in the past, there was a real strong focus on bicycle and pedestrians.

That seems to be moving over to safety, which means as we pursue this federal money, we're gonna have to change the nature of the projects we apply for as well as the approach in terms of going after that money.

So I just wanted to make you aware of that.

Um, as I mentioned earlier, I think one of the top things you're gonna be hearing, and it's actually been discussed in the past two legislative sessions.

We've been asked as the staff by the RTC board to see what we can do here locally um to deal with this issue of the EV fees or tax.

And then lastly, um, as I mentioned to you on ITS, we'll be investing more in that, and you'll hear and see more.

And that's probably gonna mean some changing relationships.

Part of it for you as a city council, in order to deal with uh transportation on the regional level, it means all the local governments are gonna have to give up a little bit of control.

Because what we're gonna be doing is we're gonna be managing the network based on the movement of people, not necessarily you know, a finite intersection or a particular group of people who might feel a certain way about an intersection of a road.

In order to get to where we need to be, it's got to be this bigger regional and more holistic approach.

So with that, I will close my comments and Dale and I are here for the questions, Mike.

Great presentation.

I I was expecting you guys to sing or something during the first one, but not me.

No, thank thank you very much.

And uh we'll go ahead and open it up for questions.

Do we have any questions?

Yes, member Bibey.

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tam.

Um so when you talked about the the planning process, the 20 or five year all the way down the road, um, literally down the road.

Sorry, didn't mean to pun.

Um as you look at um how fluid I would guess you have to be fluid because I know the last couple of years and the complaints I've had in the last two years on road conditions and trying to remind residents and myself too that we have roads that are even roads that are newer, like the Southeast Connector.

That's a relatively new road, let alone my neighborhood streets and older parts of our city, Reno and Sparks.

But uh, we had a couple horrendous winters that just wreaked havoc on our roads.

So, how does that how do you in and I've asked, you know, our staff?

Well, we're we don't we don't have more money allocated, and yet we have to shift where you know where prevent it if we can.

But when you have something like that that does a lot of road damage, um, how do you adjust both from a funding perspective, but from your planning, and is there additional funding available through the federal government?

I know in an emergency there is, but but kind of how does that shift because you've got this whole plan in place, and then things can totally be turned upside down, like they were with how many roads were badly damaged a couple of years ago.

Well that they'll go to the details because I think it is important for the council as well as any citizens who are listening, how we prioritize and decide how we spend the money.

But um, I I would say just an awareness is very rarely, if ever do you get maintenance money from the federal government.

They like to spend their money on capital items.

So they may spend one time and then they're gone.

So it's really um incumbent upon the local community to strategize and figure out how to best manage what they've got.

But I'll ask Dale to go through it because we do have a very structured and systematic way of dealing with the issue you raised.

Councilmember Bibee, that's a great question.

A great example that you brought up about the winner that came in and really did some damage to our roadways.

So out of that um program, we do have some flexibility, and we've done a really good job working with City of Spark staff through our payment preservation program as an example where we can prioritize what roads are needed throughout the community.

And it's really data-driven approach to how we make that done.

And so we can go, we meet as a team through staff engineers, um, and they go through and each look each of the roadway that's in most need at that time.

And we prioritize that.

Now, when we had that case with the winner that came in, we said and we asked our board, hey, can we re-prioritize some of those funding?

So if you look in that transportation plan or CIP, as you know, all those funding that's been prioritized, it's been taken somewhere.

And so that's where we're looking for some efficiencies to say, yes, let's go invest a little bit more.

And we did so at that time, we saw some really good results that keep those good roads good.

Member Rodriguez.

Uh thank you, Mayor Pro Tem.

Um, I guess just you know, kind of a as a new guy as a freshman here.

Um, I guess I was kind of hoping to see a little bit more like what's coming to Sparks, something like that, and then presentation.

But um, as you guys are probably pretty familiar with, especially with the wing field area that bumps uh three council members right here going up, you know, it's uh one accident and pyramid is bogged down, Vista or Sparks is bogged down.

So this smart technology that you're speaking of, does it account for anything like that?

Like heavens forbid there's an accident or uh broken pipeline on Sparks Boulevard, um, and it shuts that down.

I mean, it it I mean, you got commercial traffic going up there, you got uh ER up there, you got growing community out that away.

So I guess can you just for the public, can you kind of give a snapshot if that technology helps or what, or if not, then what other plans are you guys looking for?

Vista, Sparks.

And I know Pyramid is an end doc jurisdiction, but yeah, we're glad to run through it, but I'll ask Dale since he's leading that team exactly how the ITS system works.

So Bill mentioned the uh Sparks Intelligent Corridor, and that's actually really using real-time data um and taking that and making changes to the signal lights.

So, for example, as you mentioned, there's a crash on Pyramid Highway.

We actually made changes in real time on Sparks Boulevard going north and south.

So we provide more green times to get that traffic actually moving faster.

So if you look at your app on Apple Map or on Google Map, it would actually tell you Sparks, and we that's where you allow that traffic to move more efficiently through there.

It's not gonna be best because we need all those three corridors, north south corridors, aren't Sparks to be a fish and corridors.

We need pyramid, we need Sparks, we need VISTA all together working as max capacity because we all know once one of those go down, we need that reliability.

So as we continue to work with Spark staff, we're trying to find out ways we get that more reliability on a consistent basis.

Um, and then maybe directly answer your question.

When we come back with a future um interlocal cooperative agreement or ICA, I think that's a great thing we can touch base on about here's what we're investing out of that program and show you some examples about hey, how's this working?

And does it provide more reliability and we call it buffer time?

Because if it knows you're gonna take, yeah, you know, there might be a crash today, so I have to leave on average five minutes early.

We can actually show those results, so hey, now it's only I can leave only three minutes, so we can reduce that buffer time and get more reliability out of our network, and that's what we want to invest into with that ITS or that intelligent transportation systems.

Are we looking to expand that over to the Vista Boulevard site as well?

Uh, yes, sir.

I mean, it's been successful and it comes with a cost.

And so I think that's where you see from the RTC board and I think from the city staff as well.

Hey, this works.

So we want to continue to expand on that um technology, and that starts with that traffic management center and get that up and running so we can expand that kind of pilot project that we did.

That won state awards and national awards of how we are approaching it using these type of technologies.

So uh we're in the forefront of it.

We're seeing really good results, and we want to continue to invest in that, not only on Sparks and Pyramid, but VISTA and actually every everywhere else in the tricky metals.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Well, you just answered uh my main question of on ITS.

I appreciate that.

And so I think the only thing I have is just a comment on uh the student rides initiative.

That's been um definitely a blessing.

Someone that always lobbied Mr.

Lawson uh for some of his uh bus pass allocations for my for my alma mater, uh Sparks High School definitely went through a lot of those, and so it made it a lot easier uh just for the logistics of from the faculty side of getting those kiddos rides that uh they do truly do depend on that to come to school as well as to work.

So just want to thank you guys.

There's some positive I know I can uh pass it on from kiddos I know as well as the admin over there.

So thank you for doing what you're doing.

And I think also with Mr.

Rodriguez's comments, I would love to kind of see see an update of I know you guys were working on Sparks Boulevard, and I know some other projects that are going on here in Spark City as they're talking about.

I'd love to see that at uh at a future meeting too.

Yeah, we're glad to do that.

I would say as you hopefully picked up um Sparks Boulevard is about 72 million dollars.

So um we've drained our bucket pretty significantly in order to do that project.

So um it will be hard to come up with money in the near term, at least the next three years, probably to do really big projects.

But we always have our eyes on the streets of all the region regional roads.

So um it's not gonna be the only thing in Sparks, but that'll be the big one for a couple years.

And then we'll go over to Vista.

And we're also, which I didn't bring up dealing with the issue with Story County of I-80, which I don't know how much you hear about, but at least all the data I've seen.

A lot of people in Sparks uh make that commute, and it's something that we're very aware of and our board's very aware of.

All right, uh, thank you.

Actually, I did have a question for you.

Um, so you were showing the ridership being up.

I was just curious, uh and forgive me for if I don't use the right terms, but city fair, the big buses versus city lift, the the smaller buses, are they both moving in the same direction, or are we seeing a jump in one versus the other?

They're all increasing, um, which is a good sign.

And um the the big difference between those two, which is probably not common knowledge, is the the big buses, the the blue buses we call ride.

Um those are really expensive and they work best when they have a lot of people.

You know, we we get a lot of criticism when people see the bus with two or three people in and what are you doing?

Those are often at the end point of a route.

If you think of it, a route is point A to point B with a whole bunch of stops, and generally in the middle of that route is where the most people get on and get off.

Where the flex ride or the smaller vehicles um are really stuck or limited to a geographic area and they go door to door.

So with the flex ride, you can actually um get from point A to point B.

When you take a fixed route, you have to adjust to the fact that that bus only goes on a certain street at a certain time.

And the reason we do that is because the the thing we always hear from our customers is they want more and they want it on time.

And so those two are a big challenge when you're running a transit system to make sure that you can really hit that desire for as many people as possible.

Um we've we've seen some great success in the northern part of Sparks with the flex ride.

Um we're studying that and we're watching that to see if at some point there might be enough ridership and predictable demand that we could extend a fixed route system.

But we don't do the fixed route until we know there's going to be ridership because it really is a very expensive um and very structured service that's only warranted if there really are going to be people getting on off the bus.

Awesome.

Thank you.

And just one last comment.

I truly appreciate the message and the work you guys are doing on the fuel tax side of things.

That's been one of the biggest concerns for me since I've been in council.

When you look out into the future, you're like, there is no way this is sustainable.

Likewise, as and we've had this conversation before on the fuel tax.

That if I remember correctly, we're paying about a dollar for a gallon tax combined here in Washaw County, where our neighbors are only at 54 cents or so.

And as it continues that spread, I just I don't see that that's sustainable.

Um, burdening the people that are driving the older vehicles that are less likely to be able to afford more tax.

Um, and and so that sustainability side just is not working.

And then obviously, when you pull up to a light and you see, you know, three or four electric vehicles, if not hybrids, next to you, um, realizing that they're not contributing to the to the funds and helping to keep the streets up the way they should.

So I appreciate you guys.

I've been beating on that drum for a while, and and I appreciate the work you guys are doing to get there.

So quick follow-up on the flex ride, if I may.

Real quick follow-up on the flex ride.

Um, I know it's only to certain geographic locations, and it doesn't come very far into Sparks and toward four and five for sure.

Are you looking at possible expansion?

Because that is an amazing um if you know you have your what is what is the uh access for disability people with disabilities, but the flex ride is like an Uber, but it's a van, and there could be more people in that.

But for everyone out in the rest of Sparks, which is Word Three, Four and Five, um, the fixed route buses aren't there.

So there's not transit for everybody in the north, north end of Sparks.

Are you looking at possibility of flex ride itself being able to expand that?

Because people pay a nominal fee.

It's not free, correct.

Thank you.

Two dollars.

Yeah.

$2 a trip or $3 a day.

The short answer is yes.

We are right in the throes now of our um five-year short range transit plan.

So we've started a process where we're engaging in the community to find out where the needs are.

Um we will, you know, anything we do is really based on the evidence of the demand.

And I know it could be frustrating for all of you where you might hear from citizenry saying we want this thing, but what we've learned over time is the most effective way to spend the public's dollar is to really make sure before we do big investments that there's the demand there to support it.

So the answer is if there's demand out there, then eventually that's what you'll get.

You'll get a fixed route bus.

But until that demand proves itself out, then we'll we'll probably see expansion of the um flex ride.

As long as people are riding, we will grow the flex ride.

And I love the flex drive.

People like it better because it it gives them more control.

The challenge with the fixed routes is you have to come to it, right?

Regardless of where you live or where you want to go.

You can we only run that bus down one or two roads in a certain direction at a certain amount of time, so you have to adapt.

Or flex ride, you can call and say, I want to ride from here to there at this time.

So it is closer to Uber, like you said.

You're welcome.

Bill, Dale, thank you guys very much.

Appreciate your time.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Mr.

Abbott.

Hey, I want to since we're on the RTC uh on Flex Ride.

Um, so one thing I I guess providing feedback on that is someone that does flex ride here and there.

I just literally up right now.

I wanted to flex right out too.

I think it's Cascades of Sierra.

It's a 21 to 51 minute trip.

That's great.

Is there do you think there will ever be an opportunity to like when I think of my Uber, um, I can schedule a pickup in a ballpark range.

And so like I know that would be helpful, I think, at times.

It's a great service if you're not really stressed on time.

Um do you think that'll ever be a thing, or is that just why I need to use Uber and not flex ride?

Well, as a result of the pandemic, one of the things we really expanded was the use of Uber and Lyft and taxis to fill in that gap there where we struggle between the fixed route buses and the flex ride.

So um, I guess my answer would be possibly.

And the reason I say that is because you know, all of these things which you are very familiar with, there's only a certain amount of tax money.

And that does not vary based on demand, it varies based on consumption.

If people are buying things, big expensive things, then we have money to provide public transportation.

If there's a blip or a slowdown, or people aren't spending money, then we don't have the money to do it.

So fortunately, you know, our community has been in a great place in terms of the fuel tax that supports publication.

But at the end of the day, we want to grow ridership.

And that's our goal.

That's our purpose in transit.

You know, if people don't ride, then we're not doing something right.

But um, wherever there the ridership is and where we can make it make sense, we'll be there.

Gotcha.

Thank you.

And then if I can just add on Charlene, your question about I guess the expansion.

We're just looking at the map right now, it does look like it's mostly three five part of five like Wingfield.

It's not, but then uh, or I'm so sorry, four.

Uh four, except for Wingfield, and then most of five is included.

So actually one and two is not so much.

You guys do have your little I call them hot spots like City Hall is a spot where we can go to.

Um just saying there's definitely a lot of great use, and I could probably use it more as well as many others.

I do appreciate you guys just getting the word out, having some of those public meetings about it and taking feedback from people.

That was really uh really nice to see as well as I know you're getting feedback of the ridership.

We can always say up here what we think is great, but actually getting input from people, and not saying none of us are using it, but people that are actually using it on the daily to get to and from work, those are the ones that we really need to hear from, and I appreciate you guys reaching out to them.

So thank you.

Thank you very much.

Appreciate you.

Appreciate your time.

Okay, move on to item 7.4 uh presentation by Remsa Health.

Either they're not seeing that screens.

And if you would state your name for the record, please.

Certainly.

My name is Barry Duplantis.

I'm the president and chief executive officer of Remsa Health.

And today I'd like to provide you with a community update of our community ambulance service.

Just to kind of level set, um RIMSA was formed in almost 40 years ago.

It'll be 40 years in 2026.

RIMSA was formed through an interlocal agreement, which delegated responsibility to the district board of health to oversee ambulance operation in the community as a region.

RIMSA was established as an exclusive provider given the district board of health governance over rates, essentially, and the fact that the work that REMSA does essentially eliminates the need for multiple ambulance providers with different companies racing to the scene of an accident, for example, which would then put the public at more risk.

RIMSA was started as and remains a private, not-for-profit 501c3 organization that is owned by the community.

An important point I want to emphasize, owned by the community, we have no shareholders.

So all of the money that RIMSA generates gets spent right here in the community on our the wages of our employees, the equipment we we replace, we have no outside stakeholders.

So we are the community, it's your organization, it's your company, you own it.

And I'd be remiss if I didn't indicate the support of our board.

Our board is very involved.

It's a volunteer board, but very involved and very engaged in all of the activities that we do.

And in fact, I'd like to just acknowledge Ms.

Shirley Falkins Roberts, who's here with us today, who wanted to join us uh for our presentation to you.

As we serve the community's needs, RemSA provides all callers who call 911 with care regardless of ability to pay.

In fact, as we look kind of look at uh some of the things that uh we see in our society today, I think the burden on our EMS system is going to continue to grow as people fall off of health plans.

Um and essentially just simply looking for somebody to help them.

Um so I do anticipate that um the number of 911 callers will continue to grow.

It has been growing for the last several years, in part because our population is growing, but also too, in part that we've done a really good job of teaching people to call 911.

Our dispatch center is staffed with um EMT trained clinicians who answer the calls.

So the one thing I wanted to emphasize to this body and to the community at large is that when a call rings and the person says, I've got a medical emergency, the call is directed to REMSA's dispatch center, where the calls are addressed by people who are trained with EMT skills.

For that reason, care begins at the time that we receive the call, not when the ambulance arrives.

That's kind of like a continuation of the care that we provide.

So if someone's having a heart attack, we start chest compressions right there on the telephone, where you will hear in our dispatch center things like, ma'am, sir, I need you to make sure the patient is laying down flat and has clear uh uh breathing uh pathway, and you're going to help me with chest compressions.

Here's how we're going to do it, and you need to count with me.

So you will hear things just that explicit.

Now that's an unfortunate situation if someone's having a heart attack, but let me say, interestingly enough, we also deliver babies.

If you can imagine that, we provide instructions over the phone to help people guide the delivery of a baby.

And so that's another element of the scope of what we provide in our 911 system.

Our system responds to about 95,000 calls a year, and we transport about 65,000 patients per year.

So in essence, there's about one-third of the patients that we go to and provide care, and there's no transportation needed because we're not going to transport people needlessly just to have a reason to send them a bill.

Because our organization is designed around invoicing or billing the patient or their insurance, Medicare, Medicaid, what have you, only when we transport them.

So about a third of the time, we go out and we provide care, and there's no bill.

Cost of providing care on scene for our entire region, and in a second I'll break it down for you and tell you specifically what it is for Sparks.

For the region, RIMSA spends about $8.6 million providing care that's either in the form of care provided without transportation or care that's provided to people who who don't have an ability to pay.

Because as I mentioned, everyone's going to get a response, regardless of who they are.

In fiscal 25, we spent $7.6 million on new equipment.

So as I indicated to you, we have no outside shareholders.

Our commitments to the community.

So whenever we find ourselves with a little extra cash, we use it to replace our equipment.

And I will tell you that in the last many years, uh, we've also not been a borrower.

Um so it's not like you look at our financials, which we supply to the District Board of Health every January, audit to financials.

Uh, when you look at our financials, you'll see that there's very, very little debt because we really want to pay for what we purchase.

I also wanted to address an additional point that uh sometimes the public will ask us about.

And it's why why do I see an ambulance in the Maverick parking lot or in the Smiths parking lot, Rayleigh's parking lot, et cetera.

And it's because our system was designed to follow people.

So we use predictive analytics, which basically captures the when and where we think the next incidents are likely to come from.

That's why our ambulances where they are.

And I know for me personally, when I see them in such and such a place, um, even as the leader of the organization, it reminds me that this is an area where we expect activity.

Um, and um I have to be candid and tell you long before the days of AI, we were doing AI-like things like collecting data and positioning our ambulances where where people are likely to need us.

Now, as I mentioned, specific to Sparks, which is uh and I'm very proud to tell you this piece of information because it it really shows how we are like one in the same as community members.

6,149 Sparks citizens received care on scene without charge, and either received transportation to the hospital or they didn't need it.

But 6,149 Sparks citizens received care uh from us.

Of that, the value of the uncompensated care was 1.6 million.

And then this next piece I'm really proud to tell you.

We have 138 RIMSA employees who reside in Sparks.

They are Sparks citizens, Sparks residents.

Um they buy their groceries in Sparks, they educate their kids in Sparks.

Uh, and um that that's a rather significant number for the size organization we have.

We have uh a 600 uh employee uh group.

I also am proud to tell you that we installed 196 car seats for babies.

Um, and uh when it comes to car seats, I I have really realized recently because I needed to have one, I needed some help on one myself for my granddaughter.

Car seats are not what they used to be.

Um, it's very difficult to install them correctly.

Um we installed 196 car seats for Sparks residents, and it's uh it works out to be about 22 percent of all of the car seats we installed throughout our whole system.

And of course, as you know, we um also uh provide all kinds of CPR classes as well as others.

I also wanted to make an additional comment, which really kind of flowed from the previous.

Um, we as a not-for-profit purchase a lot of gasoline.

And as a not-for-profit, we're not exempt from fuel taxes.

So we pay taxes in the course of a month, we we we consume about 20,000 gallons of gas, 20,000 gallons of gas.

So I'm happy to tell you we're paying our fair share of gasoline tax.

Um, I uh and as I wrap up my comments, I just wanted to comment that we appreciate uh our engagement and work with the City of Sparks Fire Department.

We are actively using one of those within our fleet at this very moment to cover specific areas of the community.

We meet with the Sparks Fire Chief and his EMS chief on a monthly basis, looking at opportunities where we can assist each other and improve.

And as I said, care begins really with the patient and patient navigation.

Our desire is to provide the patient with the right paths of care.

Every opportunity we have.

And I will tell you, although I don't think he is here today, um, I appreciate your city manager.

I enjoy working with him.

Um he is a very smart, capable uh leader of the uh uh of your city administration.

Um I meet with him regularly as well, and we will have conversations.

Well, what do you think about?

Well, what if this?

And um it's very nice and refreshing to have those kinds of conversations as we collaborate to improve the efficacy of Remsa in the community as well as be a good partner so that we do a better job of caring for the Spark citizens.

Now, having said that, I really um just have a couple more points that I wanted to make for you, and it's that you know, as an organization, yes, we are a not-for-profit, but we are a very, very large not-for-profit employing 600 people.

Um, one of the things that we have started in this last year is focusing on expanding and developing our philanthropic channels.

Um, because as a not-for-profit, we can take gifts.

Um, and um, so we have been exploring that uh because as we look for the future, we don't know what's in front of us.

Um, and we really need to take advantage of all of the plausible avenues that might be out there to provide long-term sustainability so that there's at least another 40 years in front of us.

Um, and having said that, I am happy to take any and all questions that you may have about EMS, our organization, what I think the future of EMS is, et cetera.

Um Thank you, Barry.

I I appreciate it likewise.

I appreciate the partnership that RemSA has with our community.

Um I've heard stories about before Remsa came to be about a car accident and patients laying there in their car alongside the road and fist fights between ambulance providers over who was going to get to haul them off instead of taking them to the hospital.

So it's nice to see you we're not there anymore.

I appreciate that.

Any questions from uh the city council?

All right.

Barry, thank you very much.

Appreciate it.

Thank you.

Thank you, my pleasure.

Okay, uh, we'll move on to item 7.5 proclamation from World Interact Week, Interact Club of Academy of Arts, Careers, and Technology.

I believe that's you, member Fime.

If you would like to come down, um, she'll read the proclamation and then uh give you an opportunity to uh say a few things.

Okay.

Whereas Interact is an international program of Rotary International that empowers young people to develop leadership skills and participate in meaningful community service.

And whereas the Interact Interact Club of the Academy of Arts, Careers, and Technology is proudly sponsored by the Rotary Club of Sparks and led by the 2025-26 board of Colton Brown, President, Maybelline Duran, Vice President, Crystal Powtu Secretary, Analia Rodriguez, Treasurer, Marina Knight, Publicity and Social Media Chair, and Leo Ambress, board member, with the support of school advisor Nicole Larson, Rotarian Advisor Judy Clark, and principal Jason Maddock, and strengthened by 27 dedicated members and growing who embody the values of Rotary and the school motto.

We serve, we integrate, we succeed.

And whereas the club's project reading is our superpower in collaboration with Maggie Wagniski, founder and author of Grit is Our Superpower, is providing 1,400 worth of books to the Interact Club, which in turn is donating them to Washoe County School District Elementary Schools, where Interact members read with students and encourage the love of literacy.

And whereas through Project Thank You, members honored first responders on September 11th by creating and delivering heartfelt thank you cards in appreciation of their dedication and service to keep our community safe.

And whereas World Interact Week observed November 3rd through the 9th is a time to recognize the achievements of Interact Clubs around the globe and to celebrate the positive contributions of youth leaders in building stronger and more caring communities.

Therefore, on behalf of Mayor Ed Lawson, Mayor of Sparks, we hereby proclaim November 3rd through the 9th, 2025 as World Interact Week, Interact Club of Academy and Arts, Careers and Technology Recognition in the City of Sparks, and encourage all residents to join me in recognizing the outstanding service and leadership of the Interact Club at the Academy of Arts, Careers, and Technology.

And as I said, if you would please uh introduce yourselves and if there's something you'd like to say, please go ahead.

Yes, my name is Colton Brown.

I'm the president of the Interact Club.

My name is Maybelline Duran.

I'm the vice president of the Interact Club.

And we are very honored that the City of Sparks is recognizing us.

Because, like it is stated, we give back to our community with one goal of community.

That's why in our school motto, we represent the three Wii's.

We serve, we integrate, we succeed.

Because it is a community effort.

We also stand by our for the Rotary Four-way test.

Is it the truth?

Is it fair to all concerned?

Will it build goodwill and better friendship?

Will it be beneficial to all concerned?

And also, we like to recognize that it is service above self.

And without the help of our community members and our city council, this would not be possible.

And we thank you guys for recognizing us for our works.

Thank you, Thomas.

Thank you.

And would you care to say anything?

Um I think the most important thing is what Colton said.

It's always service above self.

And all of our members at the AECT Interact Club, I'm very excited to give back to the community that has watched us grow since you know from the time we got here to Sparks.

Um we're just very excited to give back to the community.

So thank you guys.

I love this.

I love this.

I did not know anything about this.

Um volunteer service, like my whole life has been my husband asked me when I was gonna get paid for doing something.

Because just I've just found that volunteering is something that um, and I love that starting when you're young.

Um, it helps your self-esteem.

It helps you understand you could make a difference because you can, and really everybody can.

And really um you get more out of it, at least I do, than what I'm doing for others.

So it's just a very positive circle that I love seeing in our youth.

Um, I love rotary.

Some of you from Rotary that are here, I know what Rotary does.

Um, and it is, you know, it is a service above self, and it is the man the projects that Rotary has done in this region around and around the world, uh, has made amazing changes and positive changes for our community.

And I think today, too, really looking at the world, just taking um the time and the effort to make a difference, to spread kindness, to do positive things because we need positive, we need positive days.

So thank you guys so much.

I'm excited to have you here and to be able to read this proclamation.

You guys are awesome.

Yes, and thank you guys.

And we also just want to thank um the people that help support us because yes, as a club, we work hard, but it wouldn't be uh anything without our advisors, our school advisor, Miss Larson, um, who who's here today um supporting us and also our Rotarian advisors, uh Miss Paula Dolliver and Miss JC Clark, um, who really support us and make sure that we are doing the best that we can with our potentials.

Thank you so much.

Would you care to say something?

Number one, thank you for having us today.

Um, I want to recognize that these kids are putting in hours and hours and hours of service.

Um, they go above and beyond, and I couldn't be prouder to uh have them representing our school.

It's really a pleasure to work with them.

So thank you for recognizing them.

Well, thank you for being here.

And and I just want to say to you and all the rest that are that are taking part in this.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

It's truly you are the future of our community.

Colton, you and I have had a chance to meet.

It was Elk's Lodge, sorry for the Rotarians here, but yeah, keep up the good work.

You guys are doing wonderful things.

Thank you.

And if you want to step over here, we'll get a picture with uh Councilmember Bibe.

Fantastic.

Thank you.

Okay, we're gonna go ahead and move on to item 8.1 under consent items.

Do we have a motion or anyone want to pull a consent item?

Member Rodriguez.

Move the approval that item 8.1 is submitted.

Member Abbott.

Second.

Okay, please vote.

Motion passes unanimously.

Okay, we'll move on to item 9.1.

Consideration, discussion, possible direction in the city manager uh to the city manager to take any actions necessary and proper to proceed with the design and construction of the new city hall at 650 Marina Gateway Drive in Sparks.

Nevada APN 03702073.

Mr.

Rundle.

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tim Anderson, Jim Rundel, Community Services Director.

Over approximately 26 years, the uh Sparks Redevelopment Agency has uh been collecting tax increment financing.

This was being used to carry out a redevelopment plan that was approved in 1999.

Of course, these funds cannot be diverted to address debt or expenses outside of the redevelopment agency.

They can't be used for things like citywide salaries, operations, or project-related activities in the general fund.

Our current city hall, including the legislative building, was constructed in 1969 to serve a population at the time of 24,000 people.

Sparks has grown a little bit since then.

We're approximately 115,000 people in the corporate boundaries of the city of Sparks.

The current challenges with our buildings here at this at this location include eating ventilation and air conditioning systems.

I don't know if you all remember, but this summer that thermostat was driving us crazy, and it was pretty warm in here for our council meetings.

We got that fixed with some duct tape and gorilla glue, but uh that's where we're using often fixing things around around our building.

Our plumbing is providing us issues.

We've got some water features in the attorney's office that they weren't that excited about.

Uh, our roof, our roofing has been providing us issues, lift stations uh from downstairs, our electrical capacity, elevators, restrooms, and then of course the space limitations.

This council may remember that in August, uh the redevelopment agency approved the purchase of approximately eight acres over at uh Marina Gateway and Lincoln.

Thank you, Team Clerk, for putting that exhibit up there.

This is on the northwest corner of Marina Gateway and Lincoln.

This is the site's redevelopment agency bought uh for approximately uh 10 million dollars.

Nevada revised statutes uh 279-486 provides that uh redevelopment agency may with the consent of the legislative body pay all costs of construction of any building facility or other improvement which is publicly owned within the redevelopment area.

We're here today, uh Mayor Pro Tim uh to provide the city council the opportunity for you all to vote to direct the city manager to move forward with any actions necessary to proceed with the design and construction of a city hall at the location uh on the on the screen above.

That is again provided in NRS, the redevelopment agency cannot direct that without the authority of the governing body, which is the city of Sparks, the City Council.

Mayor Pro Tem that concludes my presentation.

If you have any questions.

Do any of the council members have questions for Mr.

Rundle?

Just a comment.

No question, Jim.

Thank you for the presentation.

And I think um really the biggest thing we've tried to continue with our messaging to the public of this fund being restricted that it is continues to be redevelopment dollars that come from that redevelopment district too, which is for the most part the marina, uh, just like we had Victorian Square was our first redevelopment district, and monies accumulated there went towards improvements in that redevelopment district.

So the money that will come in to this uh the that is in that fund needs to be used for projects within of which a city hall was considered when this fund was established.

So the that that money we can't use for other operational and you know deficits we've been facing, we cannot shift that money into any other use.

And so, really, what I'm excited about with a new city hall is utilizing the funds that have been collected for that purpose, and also that this property uh will be available as well as municipal court uh as we move forward.

Uh, and when a new city hall is built, we have other properties as well that can be sold, and monies from those can be put into the general fund, can be used for the other operational needs, deficits, and challenges we face with our financial situation.

So it it really I think is a win-win on both sides.

Uh, and I absolutely support uh support this direction that um that we'll give today to the city manager that we're voting on today.

So I appreciate member Rodriguez.

Okay.

I do have one question.

So there's a remaining balance in the fund.

That money is allowed to be utilized for these expenses moving forward uh with if this is approved today.

Uh yes, uh, Mayor Pro Tem.

There is a balance in the fund.

And uh interesting part of how much development we've seen at the marina, uh, for example, since 1999, when the redevelopment area and the plan was approved, uh, has been quite extensive.

So with that increment, it continues to grow into the next oh, let's say four years or so and at 2029, and that increment will continue to come in.

Uh so additional funding uh should will be will be uh that excuse me tax increment amount will continue to come in and add to that fund.

So, yes, there is uh a balance right now, but that balance is expected to increase quite extensively over the next few years.

All right, thank you very much.

No more questions.

Uh, we'll go ahead and entertain a motion.

Member Bibey.

I move to direct the city manager to take any actions necessary and proper to proceed with design and construction of a new city hall at 615 Marina Gateway Drive in Sparks, Nevada, APN 037-020-73.

Member Abbott.

Second.

All right.

Uh, we have a motion by Bibe, a second by Abbott, and uh please vote.

Passes unanimously with those present.

Move on to item 9.2 consideration discussion, possible action to select a development proposal to develop affordable housing at 306 10th Street, Sparks, Nevada, APN 0319117.

From the following submissions listed in alphabetical order, Green Street Development Incorporated, Northern Nevada Community Housing, and the Reno Housing Authority.

Good afternoon.

Afternoon.

Everyone's having fun with our technology.

It's old.

It's old.

And yeah.

Well done.

Good afternoon, Mayor Pro Tim, members of council.

My name is Amy Jones, Housing Specialist.

I am before you today to present and recommend the selection of the Dell development proposal to develop affordable housing on 306 10th Street.

The city purchased 306 10th Street on April 12th, 2024.

The parcel is just under an acre in size and is predominantly developed as a parking lot.

There is a vacant building located on the southern portion of the site, and it was built sometime between 1912 and 1925.

The parcel is located downtown Sparks in neighborhood consisting of single family homes, multifamily apartment complexes, and commercial businesses.

The parcel is located less than half a mile from the nearest elementary school, middle school, and high school, and is near restaurants, shopping, parks, recreation, health care, and less than a quarter mile from the nearest bus stop, Centennial.

As you will recall, the city did acquire the property utilizing Homemeans Nevada initiative funds.

The city was required to enter into a grant agreement with the Nevada Housing Division to receive the HMI funds.

Included in that grant agreement was the requirement that the property must be used for the development of affordable housing, serving households earning 60% AMI and below, and the property must maintain an affordability period of a minimum of years.

The proposals were required to identify if the existing building would be moved, demolished, or incorporated into the project.

The RFP did close on August 21st of 2025.

The city received a total of four submissions from affordable housing developers, including Green Street Development, Harlem Congregation for Community Improvement, Northern Nevada Community Housing, and the Reno Housing Accord.

Harlem Congregation for Community Improvement Improvement subsequently withdrew their application on September 5th.

The remaining three submissions are from well-known affordable housing developers in the community that have experience developing affordable housing in Washoe County.

Green Street Development is proposing to develop the Oaks at Victorian Square, and the slide does provide a conceptual rendering of the project.

The project as submitted includes 40 one-bedroom units targeting seniors.

All 40 units will serve households earning 50% of the area median income and below, with 10 units set aside for seniors whose income is at 30% AMI and below.

Green Street states in their proposal, depending on available funding, the project could include up to 50 units.

The proposal as submitted demolishes the existing building.

However, the proposal does state that Green Street would research the potential options and work with community stakeholders to do to determine the best disposition of the building.

The site will include secure and landscaped grounds, barbecue and picnic area, community garden, gazebo, and pet zone.

Support of services would be provided by the property management company, hosting workshops, informational sessions, one-on-one consultants, food and produce delivery, blood pressure screenings, annual flute clinics, transportation assistance, and educational series on topics such as nutrition, health, financial literacy, and computer and business.

Northern Nevada Community Housing is proposing to develop railhouse apartments.

This slide does provide a conceptual rendering of the project.

And as you can see in the rendering, they are proposing to incorporate the existing building into the project.

As proposed, the project includes 41 bedroom units with a veterans preference.

All 40 units will serve households earning 60% and below the area median income.

The existing building will be incorporated into the project and repurposed as a community room and leasing office.

The estimated project cost is approximately $6.1 million.

And Northern Nevada Community Housing anticipates construction to be completed in September of 2027.

This slide provides a conceptual site plan of the railhouse apartments.

The design of the project includes a rooftop deck to allow residents to enjoy downtown events.

An elevated deck connects the community building to the residential unit.

Each unit will have a private balcony or patio.

The site includes a barbecue and picnic area, outdoor horseshoes, Northern Nevada community housing will also provide 20 hours per week of supportive services.

And the food bank of Northern Nevada provides site specific food access, supporting residents with fresh fruits and vegetables.

This slide provides the conceptual rendering of the Reno Housing Authorities project.

The project will include two buildings as shown on this slide.

As proposed, the project includes 80 units targeting families and working individuals.

The project would be developed in two phases with 40 units being completed in each phase.

48 units will serve households earning 60% and below the area median income, and 32 units will serve households earning zero to 50% of the area median income.

These 32 units will have a subsidy tied to each unit, and residents will pay no more than 30% of their income for the rent, and the RHA would pay the remaining.

These units would be offered to Myra Birch Public Housing residents that are being displaced first.

Should those residents refuse, then the units would be offered to new residents.

The existing building will be demolished to accommodate the 80 units.

The estimated project cost is 39.7 million dollars, and the housing authority anticipates construction to be completed for phase one in late 2029 and phase two late 2020.

This slide shows a conceptual site plan.

The project will include exterior tables, benches, state aid structures, walking paths, barbecue and picnic area, bicycle storage, and a playground.

In addition, the site will include a shared common room and management office.

Tenants will have access to the Reno Housing Authority's resident service programs, including participation in their family self-sufficiency, Spark Smart, and Golden Market programs, as well as workshops covering a wide range of topics, including financial literacy, goal setting, job setting strategies, and more.

Each of the submissions were reviewed by a ranking committee made up of city staff.

The ranking criteria included the following four categories: qualifications of the development personnel, organizational capacity, financial capacity, and project design.

Staff have reviewed the proposals and the ranking committees evaluations and are recommending the selection of the development proposals submitted by Northern Nevada Community House.

Upon council selection of the affordable housing project, the next steps would include the city will enter into a development agreement with the selected developer.

The city would transfer the HMI grant agreement to the developer via an assignment and assumption agreement.

The city will transfer the declaration of restricted governance also via assignment and assumption agreement.

The city will transfer the property via quick claim deed.

And these items will come back before council for approval at a later meeting.

A recommended motion is listed on the screen.

Develop affordable housing in the city of Sparks.

That concludes my presentation.

I'm happy to answer any questions.

And I believe two of the developers are present today.

Should uh you have questions.

Right.

Thank you very much.

And before I open up for questions, I just want to say thank you, thank you, thank you for working so hard on this.

Uh you guys did a great job.

We did not make it easy on you.

Um I know you were trying to get us to pin down a direction, but I I truly appreciate the time, energy, effort that went in, as well as those that bid on the project.

Um I want to say thank you for all these people because this is gonna make a huge difference for at least 40 different individuals and and maybe even more.

So thank you.

I'll open it up for questions.

Mr.

Rodriguez.

Uh thank you, Mayor Protamer.

I'm just wondering, are any of these uh looking at um putting like veterans preference on veterans housing at all?

Uh the veteran preference is um Northern Nevada Community Housing.

They will have a veteran's preference um on this property as they do all of their properties.

Thank you.

Any other questions?

Mr.

Abbott.

Was that I couldn't find it in the packet if it is my bad.

Perfect.

So it was extremely, extremely close.

All of them are great.

I'm good.

Okay.

I'm just reading up that fast.

All right.

I I would like to echo my thanks to staff, especially for uh taking us down a little bit.

A little bit of a curvy road to get here, but um uh at the end of the day, uh, I really am excited that we got three really good, really good proposals.

Um, and I can see obviously very difficult to differentiate, you know, one on top of the other.

Um I do uh really am excited about uh the Northern Nevada proposal uh for a couple reasons.

The veteran preference I really like.

Um, and I know we we need senior housing too, although seniors could be veterans, so you know you get two for one there, but um but the veteran preference I think is really um important for us because there's so many housing units that are that are senior and other obviously all the the criteria on their income, but having the veteran preference and really at the end of the day uh getting to keep a piece of history and keeping that house there that was both a positive and a huge challenge to look at maintaining, you know, to keep that there to the point of Christine talking from the museum's perspective to keep that piece of history and to utilize that for very good use to services and staff and things that the uh they will use for the property.

I I really um support it because of that because I was really hopeful that we could keep the house and put put it to use and still have amazing um 40 units of great housing on this really kind of small lot.

It's only you know not even quite an acre.

So uh thank you all for everybody involved in this.

Any other questions?

All right, with that, I will entertain our motion.

I just add one thing.

I didn't know if we're gonna have them.

I don't know if we're gonna have them say anything or not, or you guys are interested.

If not, I can just say a few more words.

I wasn't sure what we were doing.

We're good with just a few more words.

Go ahead.

Sounds good.

I'll I'll definitely echo uh my colleagues of thanking staff for uh I know we threw kind of a curve ball to try and uh you know, hopefully save this building.

Um definitely has some history.

Appreciate all uh all three of the uh middles.

I appreciate you guys coming in down here today.

Um I also will be supporting an NCH and I can make a motion if I'll click the buttons, I'll even reserve it.

Um as it's in my ward, but uh obviously saving the building is very big for me as on the historical hat.

Um I'm excited to see the renderings too.

I love the uh the patio so people can enjoy the many uh well, we got sunsets every day, but also the amazing concerts and the amazing other events that we have in our downtown.

Um also I think you guys were also the quickest at getting some housing up.

Um I think it was the year ahead of uh the other one, so I appreciate seeing that as well.

And so um with that, I'll I'll read my motion.

We're good to go.

It's probably more than a few words.

My bad.

Expected.

All right, go ahead, Mr.

Abbott.

Earning the title of politician.

Uh I move to approve the development proposal submitted by Northern Nevada Community Housing to develop affordable housing on 306 10th Street, APN 032-191-17.

All right, and Mr.

Rodriguez.

All right.

Uh, with uh motion by member Abbott, second by Mr.

Rodriguez, please vote.

And it passes unanimously.

Thank you.

Great job.

Yes, I think that's worth a clap.

Okay, we'll move to item 9.3 consideration discussion, possible approval of business impact statement for proposed Sparks Fire Department inspection and operational permit fees.

And Chief White and Fire Marshal Chu.

Thank you.

Mayor Pro Tim Anderson.

Uh for the record, Walt White, Fire Chief.

City of Sparks and Pat Chu Fire Marshal.

It's part of my speech, but afternoon, uh Mayor Pro Tam Anderson and Councilmember for the record, I am Patrick Chu, the fire marshal for the Sparks Fire Department.

The purpose of this presentation is for this city council to recognize and approve the business impact statement letters submitted for review.

In November of 2023, the fire department contacted Matrix Consulting Group to conduct a feasibility study for our fire prevention bureau, known today as community risk reduction division.

The final report completed in November of 2024, concluded that the report stated in order to be full cost recovery, net zero balance, our fees need to be adjusted for 90 to 235 dollars an hour.

This is solely due to inflation, nothing else.

Unfortunately, a full cost study has not been done since 2001.

The study took into account salaries, benefits, trainings, leaves, and all the ancillary equipment such as vehicles and uh equipment, office equipment, and investigation equipment.

Let's see.

So this is a this is a snapshot of just one of the reports.

This report was done in the fiscal year 24.

So the only full year data that we had in terms of revenue was in 23, physical year 23.

So this is what was collected from the general fund from the fiscal year 23.

Now it includes business inspections, which is like your churches, your um um bars, and uh uh your high hazard facilities, anything that has to do with um having a lot of people working at a place where there's potential hazard or or places where there's evacuation needed.

So if you can see this, if we were to increase that rate um to what it should be, because we haven't done a study since 2001, uh to be net zero for our budget, should have been over 69,000 should have been collected.

So that's a difference of 471.

Now, keep in mind this is just strictly to balance the budget at zero for us to operate.

I want to talk a little further about subsidizing our division for a long time.

We'll we'll get to that in a second.

So um in um according to NRS 237, we did a mass distribution and sent out notices to over 6,000 businesses here in Sparks.

Attached to their in a their monthly billing notice, a information bulletin indicating that we had a workshop on June 4th of this year at the council chamber here.

As you can see, we reached out to the Chamber of Commerce, Nevada State Farm Marshall's office.

I was able to get a hold of their distribution list of contractors.

Um also was able to get a hold of the City of Reno distribution list, which is basically developers, contractors, owners, what have you.

And the chief and I also attended Associate General Contractors meeting a couple of times and made a few announcements.

We have three people attended the workshop.

Thank you, Councilman Anderson, for attending, be one of them.

And I received two emails opposing of the rate increase.

One may ask, is this a good time to raise rates?

My answer to that is when is it ever a good time to raise rates?

Unfortunately, we have been subsidizing these services from the general fund for some time.

I just want to reiterate this is just strictly due to inflation.

Nothing more, nothing less.

Staff recommend approval of the business impact statement.

If council approved today, the next step would be the approval of the resolution to increase the fees.

Before I open up for any questions, I would like to give thanks to two individuals who got me here to this finish line.

And one of them is Julie Torres, and the other one is Brandon Sendell with his advice.

Now I'm available to answer any questions that you may have.

Thank you, sir.

Questions from the council.

Mr.

Abbott.

Thank you, guys.

Um, question on the just looking on the difference just to make it a little bit more transparent in my eyes.

Uh, the difference is 471,651 dollars.

We've been using general fund, correct, to cover that cost.

Yes.

And so I think going back in time, I think the last one was done in 2001.

So we could say we've had similar numbers that we've been covering for many, many years that we've been taking out general fund to make this balance.

Correct.

Yeah, I wasn't here at that time, but that will be a good assignment.

Yes, yeah.

Okay, thank you.

We'll make it that on record.

Member Rodriguez.

Uh thank you, Mayor Pro Tem.

Um, so this going back to the slide where it says operating and target hazard inspections.

Is it so are you looking to increase just inspection fees or are you looking at doing like plan review fees as well?

Well, those are two different funds.

Right now is just a general fund, which is basically existing businesses.

So anything to do with new development, that's under enterprise funds, which uh this has nothing to do with at this time.

Yeah, at this time.

And then is there any uh like part of the strategy plan or anything like that?

So like uh I'll be very honest.

I sympathize, not empathize, sympathize with where you guys are coming from.

Um you know, you got 24 years worth of catching up to do.

Yes.

So are you guys looking at looking at increasing rates, you know, like every few years or something like that?

So that hopefully, you know, I don't plan on being here.

Yeah, that would be uh this time next year.

We're gonna come back with another resolution to have an annual increase.

All right.

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem.

Any other questions?

Just a comment.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for how well you reached into the community to get their opinions, concerns, thoughts.

I I know that I saw some of these um notices go out as a business manager here locally.

Um, and I just want to say thank you.

Although it's a steep increase, I I believe that it's clear from the community and the lack of response.

I mean, to put out six thousand just to the businesses, not to mention all the other meetings and everything you went to.

Only received two emails objecting.

Um, I think people understand.

I mean, all of those that are in business understand where their costs have gone since 2001.

So thank you for what you're doing.

And it's things like this that we need to be doing on a regular basis to make sure that we're not closing fire stations in the future or doing other drastic measures like that.

So appreciate the work you guys did on this.

And with that, I'll open it up for a motion.

Mr.

Rodriguez.

I move to approve the business impact statement for the proposed Parks Fire Department inspection and operational permit fee increases.

Member Abbott, second.

We have a motion from Rodriguez, a second by Abbott.

All those oh, please vote.

Motion passes unanimously.

All right, thank you very much.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Move on to item 9.4, first reading.

Madam Clerk.

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem.

This is the first reading of bill number 2844 to adopt a final plan that is in substantial compliance with the approved tentative plan for the Analyn Ranch Plan Development on a 115.89 acre site, generally located south of Annoline Ranch Road, east of Calypso Drive, west of Fallen Grove Lane, and north of Stonebrick Parkway.

Sparks, Nevada, APNs 528-03013, 14, and 15.

PCN 21-008, PD 25-003.

A public hearing will be held in Bill 2844 will be acted upon at the regular meeting of the Sparks City Council on Monday, November 10th, 2025 at 2 p.m.

in the Sparks City Council Legislative Building.

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem.

Well done.

Thank you.

All right.

We'll move on to uh 10 public hearing action items unrelated to planning and zoning.

Item 10.1, public hearing consideration, discussion, possible approval on a memorandum of understanding AC 6152 between the City of Sparks and the International Association of Firefighters Local 731 related to mandatory overtime.

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon, Mayor Pro Tem and Council.

Shauna Halterman, your HR director for the record.

The MOU before you today is regarding mandatory overtime in our fire department, also known as forced overtime.

And after quite a few meetings with the negotiation team with fire and the city, the MOU revision to Section 2, Article C as drafted, was agreed upon, approved by the fire bargaining unit.

And in summary, it spells out the procedures for forced overtime and limits forced overtime to one time per pay period per employee.

And also three personal exemptions per employee each six months.

In particular, Mike Zopa for his cooperation and coordination on this.

Do we have any questions?

Hearing none, we'll open up the public hearing.

And I do show that we have two public comments.

Good afternoon, Mayor Pro Tem and members of the council.

For the record, Tom Dunn, Vice President of the Reno Firefighters Association.

I think it's important to recognize how we got here.

Part of this is because of a lack of staffing and budget in the fire department for a long period of time, which ultimately led to an arbitration that local 731 had to file against the city this past year.

After several meetings at the city of Sparks, um, we did not come to an agreement through the negotiations process continued.

Um we ultimately reached an agreement.

So I'd like to thank once again Mike Sopa and more importantly, uh City Manager Dion Luthan for uh making this possible.

Um the issues that we have in the fire department, both at the city of Reno several years ago and the city of Sparks now is because of a lack of staffing and because of lack of budget, you have a lack of manpower.

And what was happening specifically at the city of Sparks was you would have a person that was hoping to go home to their family to rest, relax, recreate, whatever the case may be, and had to cancel their plans at the last minute minute because sorry, fire department needs you today, or the fire department needs you two days from now.

That has led to an issue of hardship with our families, especially those that have divorced decrees and child care um custody arrangements with the court.

And once again, we'd like to thank everybody to come to the table and making this a positive agreement for both parties.

Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

And we'll call down Mike Sopa.

Hello, Mayor Pro Tem.

City Council uh for the record, Mike Sopa, Vice President of Sparks Firefighters Local 731.

Um, so I want to echo what Tom Dunn said about how we got to here, but also want to acknowledge that the collaboration between um uh all parties involved in getting to this point.

Um, although there were disagreements on how we got here, um, the members of Sparks Fire Local 731, uh Sparks Fired Administration and uh City Um members of City Leadership members, sorry, um, all spent years working towards a shared goal, which is protecting the health, safety, and sustainability of those who serve the public.

Um, this MAU represents not just compromise but a partnership.

Um, as you consider this agreement, I encourage you to remember that uh a force behind every force hires a firefighter who is working over four over a hundred hours per week.

Um that is someone who hasn't seen their family during that time, um, hasn't had the proper rest, uh, who's been physically and mentally tested.

Um national studies show that firefighters had higher risk of things um such as heart disease, cancer, um, sleep disorders, PTSD, and even suicide.

And risking or risks are magnified when fatigue becomes stressed and uh becomes more chronic.

Um limiting force hires is not just a labor issue, it's a public safety issue.

Uh well-rested firefighter is a safe firefighter, and that means a safer city.

Uh, on behalf of uh our members, I want to thank um the city council, uh, the city mayor or sorry, the city manager um and uh our city administration or uh department administration um for recognizing and protecting our firefighters and ultimately protecting our citizens.

Um thank you for what you guys do.

Thank you, Mike.

All right.

We're gonna close public hearing and bring it back to the council.

Do we have any questions from the council?

All right, uh, before we take a motion, I just want to echo what uh you said thank you very much for the work on this, and I appreciate you as well.

Um it's it's tough, and I wish we didn't have to utilize y'all so much, but I appreciate you guys being there for our community, and I'm glad we were able to come to an agreement.

Likewise, thank you, Chief White.

Okay, with that being said, uh willing to entertain a motion.

Member Rodriguez today.

Wow.

Thank you, very poor time.

Uh I move to approve the memorandum of understanding AC 6152 between the city's parks and the International Association of Firefighters Article 731, adding language related to mandatory overtime.

Member Bibe.

I will second that motion.

All right, we have uh motion made by member Rodriguez, second by Bibie.

All those geez, please vote.

Passes unanimously with those present.

All right, thank you very much.

We'll move on.

Uh item 11.1.

We don't have any planning, zoning, public hearings, and action items.

So we'll uh move on to public comment.

Uh the last opportunity for anyone in the public wishing to speak.

And I do have a note here for Mr.

Dunn.

Thank you very much.

Mayor Pro Tem and members of the council for the record, Tom Dunn, Vice President of Local 731.

Uh, in my previous public comment, I forgot to thank the Sparks Police Department for their professionalism and care when it dealt with the uh the death of our uh our member Janna Moss.

Uh today, for the last middle comment, I'm here to talk about SNAP benefits and how it impacts Washoe County.

Uh in the state of Nevada, 90 million dollars a month go to SNAP benefits for members of the public.

Nationally, 44% of SNAP beneficiaries are children, seniors, and veterans.

Here in Nevada, 505,000 Nevada residents or 15% of the state population, which is one in six receives SNAP benefits.

More than 62% of SNAP participants are families with children.

More than 31% are families with members who are older adults or disabled, and more than 41% are working families.

The reason why I'm bringing this up is because when members of the public, whether it's a senior, a veteran, or a child goes hungry, it's a public health and public safety issue.

When kids are hungry, they don't learn as well.

When our seniors and veterans aren't fed properly, it leads to other issues to include poor health outcomes, poor housing outcomes, and more importantly, it's just an absolutely negative reflection of what we do as a society and how we take care of those that are disadvantaged and in need.

Um, as of this Friday, there will be no SNAP benefits for November for members of Washoe County.

And that's gonna have a massive impact on our food banks in Washoe County.

It's gonna have a massive impact, potentially on public health, especially as we get in the cold and flu and once again cold uh COVID season as well.

So I encourage everybody, if you can please donate to your local food bank, to your local food pantry if your church has one.

Volunteer where you can to help out those in our community that are in need.

Thank you.

Thank you, Tom.

Any other public comment?

All right, with that, we'll move on from uh public comment to announcements from the mayor, city council, and city manager.

No comments.

Okay.

I'm gonna go ahead and say something on behalf of KTMB.

I just want to say thanks to them.

Uh, they sent over a report and they were showing just in Ward 3 that uh they provided 582 volunteer hours uh with 189 volunteers.

They collected 5,890 pounds of trash, um, pulled 7,000 pounds of invasive weeds, collected sharps and tires, and that's all just along the river in in uh ward three, as well as over at the marina.

So I just want to say thank you to KTMB and thank you for all the volunteers that are involved.

It makes a huge impact in our community, especially with our budget situation being what it is.

All right, one last chance.

No.

Okay, boom.

Since uh the river is a part of ward three and ward one.

I also have my key TMV report on on that side.

So we'll just throw in uh just in ward one in the last quarter.

Uh we had 410 total volunteer hours.

One thing I will point out 160 of those were in water crew working the Truckee River, which that's the most hours out of this whole list.

Uh so definitely there's some love going into the river.

We had 40 volunteers, pull 2,000 pounds of trash, um, three sharps, one tire, and uh 15 trees were wrapped, as well as uh eight yards of mulch were spread.

And then uh since yeah, since I got got me going, I'll add one more.

We do have next Friday.

We're speaking of seniors.

We have our veterans, uh well, seniors and veterans at the senior center.

We have our veterans day observance on Friday, November 7th at the Richards Way Spark Senior Center, going from 11 a.m.

to 12 30 for anyone listening still uh wants to tune in and support as well as all of us and any city staff wants to attend.

It's open to the public.

All right.

Well, thank you very much.

And with that, we'll move on to item 13 adjournment.

Thank you.

Chair personal agency members Lawson is absent by B.

Here.

Vanderwell is absent.

Anderson.

Here Rodriguez.

Chief Legal Officer Duncan.

Assistant Chief Administrative Officer McCormick.

Here.

We have a quorum.

Thank you.

Perfect.

So we've got item 3.1.

Any public comment?

We do not.

Uh Roger that 4.1.

Approval of the agenda.

Looking for a motion.

Agency member Rodriguez.

Thank you, Agency Member Anderson.

Second the motion.

We have a motion and a second.

Please vote.

Passes unanimously with all members present.

Item 5.1.

Uh consideration discussion possible approval of the minutes of the Sparks Development Agency meeting for September 22nd, 2025.

Looking for a motion.

Agency member Bibi.

I move to approve the minutes of the Sparks Redevelopment Agency meeting for September 22nd, 2025.

Thank you.

Agency member Rodriguez.

We have a motion and a second, please vote.

Thank you.

Passes unanimously with all members present.

Item six or consent items.

Um looking for a motion unless someone wants to pull one for uh 6.1 and 6.2.

Agency member Anderson.

Move to accept a report of claims and bills and appropriation transfers for the period of September 10th, 2025 through October 14, 2025.

Awesome.

We have a motion.

Uh sorry, agency member Rodriguez.

We have a motion and a second.

Please vote.

Plus you too.

Uh passes unanimously with all members present.

Sorry.

Didn't we we need you six point?

Did you guys we didn't move individually?

Wasn't it?

They look like they're separated.

Yeah, we should be answering.

All right, we're gonna go to 6.2.

Looking for a motion.

Agency member Anderson.

Move to direct the chief administrative officer to take action.

Any actions necessary and proper to proceed with design construction of a new city hall at 650 Marina Gateway Drive in Sparks, Nevada, APN 03702073.

Awesome.

Thank you, Agency Member Rodriguez.

We have a motion and a second.

Please vote.

Turn myself off.

My bad.

8.1 comments from the public.

No public commenters, no public.2 announcements from the agency and chief administrative officer.

I see head shakes.

Good to go.

Even if it's a flagpole.

Item nine, we'll adjourn today at uh 4.06.

Have a good one.

Happy Nevada Day too.

Coming up.

Yeah.