Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

It absolutely is.

All the lights are not.

I mean, it's damned either way, though.

Because it's the time.

It's the time.

They're broken.

They're broken.

They both suck.

Lights are broken.

We're in the dark.

It wasn't as bad as, like, as when we were, like, completely in the dark.

It's been worse.

It's been worse.

Yeah.

It's been worse.

It's been worse.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

I'm going to take this.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

I'm going to take this.

I'm sure.

I'm sure.

Is this a good job?

In case I get lost in my computer.

What the heck is all this?

I'm sorry.

To begin with the land acknowledgment, we would like to acknowledge that the land on which

we live, work, learn, and commune is the original homelands of the indigenous people of West

Sacramento who have stewarded this land throughout the generations.

We acknowledge and we thank the original inhabitants who have occupied, maintained, and secured this

place and who still exist on this land.

We respect and celebrate the many diverse indigenous people still connected to this land on which we

gather.

The council met in closed session.

There are no items to report.

And, Mr. City Attorney, is there anything else?

No, ma'am.

Nothing to report.

Thank you so much.

We would like to invite our guests to join the council and staff in the pledge, which will

be led by Deputy Police Chief Charles Meeks.

If you could please come to the podium and lead us in tonight's Pledge of Allegiance.

Ladies and gentlemen, please place your right hand over your heart and repeat after me.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which

it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you.

As is noted in our agenda, city council is prohibited by state law from discussing or taking on any

action on items that are brought up under item one for public comment, but it provides

an opportunity for the public forum.

The public is given an opportunity at this time to address city council on issues not listed

on the agenda.

And we do ask that anyone wishing to address the council on this or any other item this evening

to please fill out a request to speak card and return it to the clerk.

And we accept the request to speak cards up to the conclusion of the reading of the staff

report and on any particular agenda item.

Once the staff report has been read and we open the item up for public comment, the clerk

will announce your name for you to walk to the podium.

Now in front of the clerk, there is a timer to ensure that everyone has a chance to be heard.

And we ask that all comments be limited to three minutes.

Once the three-minute time is up, the clerk will turn off the mic and we would ask that

you sit down.

Also in front of the clerk is an analog flip chart, which indicates which agenda item

the council is currently considering.

We also recognize that for some speaking in public can cause anxiety, so we request that

there be no applause or boos, catcalls or other demonstrations.

Furthermore, so that we may maintain a civil discourse here in the chambers, we ask that

those in attendance and those who address city council abide by the code of conduct, posted

and not speak in loud, threatening, offensive, abusive or other disrespectful language that

disrupts, disturbs or otherwise impedes the orderly conduct of the meeting.

Now this brings us to item one, presentations by the public on matters on the agenda within

the jurisdiction of the council.

And each person has three minutes to speak.

Madam Clerk, are there any requests to speak?

Yes, ma'am.

Guy Stevenson?

Mr. Stevenson, welcome back.

Hi.

Madam Mayor, City Council members.

The first thing I'd like to say is congrats to the West Sacramento Police Department for

their three new officers.

And they just graduated about a couple of weeks ago from the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department

Academy.

And I am so glad and I'm told him that that I am really happy that they're bringing in more

cops and for this city because they're very important for this community.

And they got the utmost respect from me.

So, and they know that.

The other thing I'm on and this is probably going to aggravate your city manager and your city

attorney is this thing with VIA.

People like to put a spin on it here in the city hall that there's no problems with their

van.

You know what I tell these people over here in the city hall?

If you don't believe what I say or other people say, go out there and go look at their vans.

They're unsafe.

And you know, California's got really this goofy law where they only go back seven years

on somebody's background.

That's California law.

For pre-employment investigation on back, you know, on anybody, it only goes back seven

years.

So, you could have, you could be a pedophile or you could be anything ten years ago and

they're not going to find it.

It isn't going to come up, you know.

And so, I have an issue with that.

But I also have an issue that they do not UA any of these drivers.

They hire them off an app so they don't see you physically.

They hire you off an app.

So, I do have an issue with it.

And I told Steve Rosen the other day that I told him specifically that if something doesn't

change, then me and two of my friends that are advocates in Sacramento, we're going to

take it to the Yellow County Grand Jury and have them look at it.

Because they're spending all this money and then now they want to raise it 87% in August.

It's just nonsense.

You need to go look at those vans.

The doors.

They beat them up.

And I don't agree with it.

And if they don't like what I'm saying, well, you know, I'm sorry there's a lot of things

that people don't like that I say, but that's fine.

They want to put a spin on it and say they're great and the service is wonderful and all that.

They don't know what they're talking about.

You know why?

Because they set up here in this office and they don't go out there and ride the vans.

They don't talk to the people that drive the vans or the people that ride the vans.

And so, yeah, I have an issue in Puggy.

They're a company.

They were based out of the East Coast.

They don't take care of their vans.

They could care less about their vans.

That's right.

But we are a part of the industrialized Under- inteligency nehmen care.

So we also talked about regulations.

To return our vans or

just in California or even local. This is a great part. Okay, this is a personnel matter.

I really would like to discuss this in private. That's amenable to you guys. If not, then

we're going to air it out here for all people to see. What do you think? You guys want to

meet me and talk about this or you want me to go ahead and address it? You have two minutes and 18

seconds left to speak. Okay. I was a firefighter here 28 and a half years. I was been injured multiple

times. The last one, I got a 35-pound pipe pole driven through a helmet when we were advancing

hose at the canal. I have palsy. I have all kinds of issues. I have actually suffered some paralysis.

And they don't have a record that that injury happened. Okay, with what's that? Okay, I still have the helmet.

All I've wanted for since 2009 when I retired was to have my knees fixed. I do want the new technique. I

don't want the old technique. Why would you want to have an operation that was done in 1960 when you

can have the 2000 operation? I have statistics that I tried to give your city manager not interested

on how you guys could save maybe millions of dollars. Okay, but nobody seems to be interested in that.

I'm paid for my own pain meds now since 2016 to the tune of almost $70,000.

LWP walked away from me. They don't return my calls. They tell Leanne lies that they're contacting me and they're not.

My information was sent to a probationary fire, excuse me, a probation officer in Vacaville named Michael

Morgan. He has my personal medical information. And I'm sure he got my settlement too because I didn't get that either.

Okay.

So that's that's

I'm out of time.

I'm out of time. After 15 years, I think it's time I get my knees fixed. Don't you guys?

Isn't that only right? I haven't heard on the job.

Thank you, Mr. Morgan. Thank you for your service to West Sacramento Fire Department.

We have no additional request to speak.

All right.

So we have under presentations three presentations and the first is a presentation by Sacramento Yolo Mosquito and Vector Control District.

Please come on up and say your name and

Luz Maria Robles, your PIO. Nice to see you.

Hi, good evening.

Mayor and Council, thank you so much for having me as I am back every single year with mosquito. Mosquito season is here.

Or summer is here and so are mosquitoes, I should say. So this presentation will kind of give us a little overview of where we're at with mosquito season and provide some

recommendations on what we can do to stay safe.

All right, so

I'll be

They're not going through. It's not advancing.

It's the bottom one, right?

All right, I guess it would help if I would turn it on.

So anyways, we are the local district charged with protecting residents against mosquitoes and mosquito transmitted diseases.

We operate under the California Health and Safety Code and we strive to make sure that our

Well, we are doing our due diligence and keeping the residents of Sacramento Yolo counties

being able to go outside and protected from

mosquitoes and the diseases that they can transmit.

So mosquito season is here.

It's actually been kind of an odd season because it hasn't been very warm as I'm sure you've noticed.

But

you know, the few days that we have had

hot temperatures along with stagnant water that creates the ideal mosquito breeding conditions.

And every year we do start to see West Nile virus activity around this time.

This year we haven't seen as much as the previous years, but nonetheless, we still have the hottest weeks of the summer ahead.

So we do think that that might change and that we will see more mosquito

mosquitoes that test positive for the virus as well as the birds.

And then of course an ongoing concern is dengue fever as more and more are reported each year in California.

So

as you know, we have 27 different mosquito species in our in our two districts in our two counties and

mosquitoes come from different habitats. So obviously there's a lot of rice fields here in West Sacramento.

We have a lot of just areas where mosquitoes can grow and those large areas are not that much of a concern.

It's the small sources in people's backyards, the plant saucers, the buckets, the pet dish,

anything that can hold water for more than a few days can and will become a mosquito breeding source.

So we always say that mosquito control is a collaborative effort and we rely on people doing their part

to make sure that mosquitoes are not breeding on their property. So we ask that at least once a week

people drain, look around their yard and drain any sources of stagnant water where mosquitoes can grow.

That goes a long way in keeping your family safe as well as eliminating mosquitoes for you and your neighborhood.

All right. So how do we control mosquitoes that are district? We have what we call an integrated

mosquito management approach where we use a variety of elements. So first of all,

public information and education. That's where I come in. We go to a lot of different events

to try and get the word out, right? So here in West Sacramento, we we participate in a few of the parks and

rec activities. We participate in an Easter event and we always have free repellent wipes available for

for any outdoor events that your city might be hosting. We want people to use them to stay protected.

Also, we have an annual fight the bike campaign. So we have lots of advertisements on radio, TV, billboards,

anything that reminds us people to be putting on repellent, dumping out that stagnant water is all part of our

public information campaign. We also have a very extensive surveillance program. So our laboratory

tracks and monitors West Nile virus activity, how and where it's moving. They put out mosquito traps,

they collect the mosquitoes, they test them to see where West Nile virus activity might be developing.

And after we find out where that activity is happening, then that's what really dictates

our control operations. So our spraying, right? So we do lots of spraying throughout the season to make sure that

we're reducing mosquito populations and that those mosquitoes are not posing a public health threat.

We also have mosquito fish. Mosquito fish are great if somebody has a pond, a fountain, a horse trough,

we put them in all the rice fields and pastures. They help us control mosquitoes naturally. Each fish is

very efficient. They can eat between two to three hundred mosquito larvae per day. So they're great. So, you know,

we also provide them free of charge to the public if anybody needs these fish.

So, in terms of West Nile virus activity, we haven't had any West Nile virus activity for this year. So

this map is for last year. You can see that there was also very little amount of West Nile virus activity.

Only three positive mosquito samples in all of West Sacramento and zero dead birds, which is great.

Statewide, there was 129 human cases and those were the only ones that were reported. The CDC estimates

that for every case that goes reported, there's 30 to 70 that go unreported. So those numbers could

definitely be higher. But again, you know, relatively low numbers last year and the way it's trending,

you know, we may or may not find any activity here in West Sacramento.

All right. However, the other thing aside from West Nile virus that's giving us kind of grief and our

latest challenge at the district is invasive mosquitoes. These are a new species of mosquito.

And it's actually not that new because we found it for the first time within our district in 2019.

But since then, they've been spreading rapidly and those are very much located here in West Sacramento.

So that as map shows you the detections of where we have found them. So you can see that there's

definitely heavy concentrations in certain parts of the city. And what's really concerning about this

mosquito is that it's a day biting mosquito. So it bites aggressively during the day. It's what we call

a container breeder. So it breeds in very small containers. Even a teaspoon of water is enough to

breed this specific species, a mosquito. And this one also poses a threat for dengue. So dengue is not

really a disease that we see too, too often. But every year we see travel related cases of dengue in

California. And in 2023 and 2024, for the first time ever, there were locally acquired cases of dengue in

Southern California. So basically, the reason that this is a big threat is because if we have those

mosquitoes established here and in other areas in our in our district, like let's say if I travel

somewhere, I get sick with dengue, I come back, one of these mosquitoes bites me and then it gets

infected and then it bites somebody that hasn't traveled. So that's how local disease transmission

occurs. And having such a plentiful population really does increase the risk for dengue. And then

this is actually a very like annoying mosquito because it can bite aggressively during the day. It does prefer to

bite people. And once it's established in any given area, it's very difficult to control. Also, when it

lays its eggs, it can lay its eggs in very small amounts of water. And if that container dries up,

the eggs will still survive even after six months in a dry form. So, you know, very, very difficult to

control kind of an uphill battle for us. You can see some of those sources where those mosquitoes

do breed. They can breed even in plant axoles. But some of the bigger culprits are other household

garden containers such as the plant saucers, maybe a watering can, the dog bowl. Again,

unfortunately, anything that can hold water for more than a couple of days.

All right. So because of these mosquitoes, because they're so difficult to control, they do require

some new techniques. So we can spray for these mosquitoes, but we're also looking into other new

techniques. We're actually just implementing a new pilot program in South Natomas where we have

a very big infestation of these mosquitoes where we just recently launched two weeks ago what we call

a sterile insect technique program, where we released thousands of these mosquitoes. They're

sterile males. And these sterile males, male mosquitoes do not bite. But when these sterile males that contain

a bacteria called Wolbachia, when they mate with the wild females in the area, then the eggs don't hatch.

So it's a good way of reducing mosquito populations over time. This was a new method that was just

recently approved for use in mosquito control. It has been used widely in agricultural areas

for ag purposes. And SIT techniques are also already being used in different forms in Southern

California and throughout the United States. So it is something new that we're implementing to help us

control these invasive mosquitoes. And lastly, so moving forward, yeah, the SIT pilot program in South Natomas,

that just launched. Again, these mosquitoes that are being released are all male mosquitoes, which do not

bite. They only live about 10 days. And they can, they do contain that bacteria that's already found in a

lot of the other insects. So it's a natural form of that bacteria. So we're going to be also continuing to do

lots of surveillance and control methods and measures, especially in this pilot program area, as well as in the

other areas where we have found these mosquitoes very widespread throughout Sacramento and Yolo County.

Aside from West Sacramento, in Yolo County, Winters is another city that also has a heavy infestation.

A little bit in Davis, a little bit in Woodland, but definitely West Sac and Winters are the the two cities

in Yolo County that have the most invasive mosquitoes, unfortunately. So, you know, if you're being bitten by

mosquitoes, we encourage people to let us know. We can come out and conduct a free home service inspection

and give you recommendations as to how you what you can do in your yard to prevent mosquitoes. So,

with that, I'd like to finish. But before I do so, I want to acknowledge the West Sacramento, your West

Sacramento representative to our board, your board member, Janelle DeRoche. She is great. She always,

she always, you know, is very eager to participate in the outreach activities, brings the information,

and she asked that I bring some repellent mosquito wipes for you guys. So, I do have those if you

guys are interested. But, you know, she does a great job representing your city. So, thank you to

her for being here and thank you for listening to my presentation tonight.

Thank you. Are there any questions or comments, council members?

Okay. I do have some questions. So, I see you put those fish in certain places. Do you work with RD 900 to

put it in our drain canals and things like that? To the best of my knowledge, yes. So, within our

district, we're divided into zones and we have a field technician assigned to each zone. And I know that

depending on the, like the habitats or the sources that might be within their zone, they do definitely work,

you know, with a variety of agencies to make sure that we do have mosquito fish in those areas to

make sure that they're not breeding mosquitoes. Okay. Good. And then, we also have a lot of events

with Parks and Rec. If there's a way for you to partner to do the continued outreach and education,

that would be great. Like we had a movie night and if there's a way to, you know, at least give the

products so that we can distribute them along with, you know. Yeah, I'd be happy to. I mean, especially

because West Sacramento is one of the areas that has that growing invasive mosquito population and

it's a fall mosquito. So, we're kind of heading into those months where they grow even more. So,

as long as I can get maybe a list of the events and who I can work with, then yeah, we'd be happy to

come in person to at least some of them or, you know, to provide materials repellent to be able to,

you know, have that available. That'll be great. Thank you. And we have one more question.

Um, so I, I think if I remember correctly from last year, there is an app that we can sign up for

with you all. Am I remembering that correctly? So, we don't have an app. We don't have an app,

but like for instance, I mean, you can scan QR codes on our website to either get one of our services,

you know, to get the fish, the inspections, but yeah, we do not have an app. Okay. So, no notifications

there. Thank you so much. There are spring notifications. So, if somebody does want to sign up to know,

like when we're going to be spraying your neighborhood, that you can do, but there are

email notifications. They're not, it's not through an app. Oh, okay. That's very helpful. Yes. So,

yeah. So, if you just visit fight the bite.net, you can sign up for the spring notifications. So,

once we find say infected mosquitoes, say, I don't know, in a park here in West Sacramento,

that same night, we would go out and do spraying. So, the email would go out with a map

of exactly where we're going to be going by zip code. You know, it shows the product that we're

going to be using, the times we're going to be out there. So, yeah, but that's all via email.

And in those areas where I saw a concentration, that looks like in our state streets area. Is

that correct? Yes. That is true. That's the area. Trying to figure out what's causing that. It's right

off the freeway. I don't know if they're migrating in cars or something or... Well, they're definitely,

I mean, that's one of the original these invasive mosquitoes came to California in a shipment of

tires and lucky bamboo plants from Asia. Then they were only in Southern California for many years.

They started moving northward. And for many years, they only went up as far as Fresno. But after 2019,

they're really now everywhere, right? Like our surrounding counties also have them. So, they are kind

of hitching rides in, you know, in cars. But as I said, they can grow in very small containers. So,

it also happens when people share plants, when people transfer containers from one place to another.

And the eggs, they basically look like a little clump of dirt to the naked eye. You wouldn't know,

or unless that's what you're looking for, you wouldn't know that those are eggs. So,

aside from draining water, we also recommend that people on a weekly basis scrub down containers.

You know, but we understand people are busy and obviously not everybody takes the time to do that. So,

the populations of these mosquitoes, unfortunately, is getting larger.

And is that centrally located area, has it gotten, has it spread out or is it?

It has spread out, yeah. You know, over the, I would say within the last two years,

not only in West Sacramento, that's happening in all of our other areas, South Natomas,

Rosemont, Winters. They all start in small concentrations. But then every year, like the

leftover eggs can just keep hatching. And then you have like a new crop of mosquitoes. So,

the infestations, unfortunately, are getting larger everywhere, which is why, you know, again,

why we need these new techniques. Have we been doing enough to educate the public,

either through social media? Do you feel like we're doing enough? I mean, I feel, of course,

I can say that I, that we think we are, right? I'm the communications manager for the district,

so I'd like to think that we are. But obviously, there's always room for more growth, right? So,

I think that being present in the communities where we have these invasive mosquitoes, our advertising

campaign, the presentations, I'm open to doing, you know, community neighborhood presentations,

anything, we can always do more to get the word out. And, you know, that's, that's the honest answer.

Okay. Mayor, I'd like to give Councilmember a call. Thank you for your questions, because

we just triggered two more questions I wanted to ask. We have a lot of ag here in the valley and stuff.

How, how is that being handled? Yeah, the ag is definitely, I mean, West Sacramento,

the ag areas between West Sacramento and Davis, there's a lot of rice fields, right? So,

we do agricultural spraying on a very routine basis, at least, you know, twice a week, depends on

the numbers that are, that we're catching in our traps. So we do, you know, the way we're handling

that is by, by doing routine agricultural aerial spraying for those mosquitoes. And the resources

are there for the workers? I'm sorry? Resources are there for the workers, like the sprays that you've

given us, those are handed out? The, the repellent wipes, you mean? Right, all that. Yes, I mean,

we, in those areas, for instance, I mean, we do, we do get a lot of repellent requests for like,

like the Vic Fazio area, the, we work very closely with like the Bat Tours, the Yolo Basin Foundation,

those areas. But if there's other, if you have recommendations as to other people that might be

able to use them, we were happy to reach out and provide them. And, I know that's wonderful,

as long as, you know, our ag workers are getting them. Yeah. The only other question I had, you

mentioned about sterile, um, insect techniques. Right. Thinking I'm old enough to remember the

Mediterranean fruit fly debacle. How's that working for you? Yeah, so, I mean, yeah, so for many years,

the sterile insect techniques, they were used for agricultural purposes, and it's only just been recently that

they've been approved for use in mosquito control as a new tool. So far, I mean, we just launched the

pilot program two weeks ago today. And so far, we haven't, we haven't gotten, I mean, it's been a very

positive response from the local elected officials, from the community, you know, and just the

neighborhood itself, we haven't gotten, you know, much pushback. So, we think it's going well. These

releases will continue through the end of October. So, you know, we're also going to be analyzing and,

you know, trying to, we have a control as part of our surveillance program. So, we, we hope that

that's going to really help reduce mosquito populations. When it was done as a pilot program

in Fresno, they saw a 95% reduction in the overall mosquito population. So, we're hopeful that we're

also going to have very positive results. That's okay. Thank you. Um, yeah, I have one more question,

and I can't remember what it is. But, um, but thank you so much for your presentation. It was very

informative. I hope we can do more together. Um, especially in that little, in, in, in those

two pockets that I see. Um, it's kind of like the Stonegate area. It's around a school.

Oh yeah, I remember not what I was going to say. I did hear complaints about mosquito bites in the

southeast side. Um, a lot of residents are complaining there. I saw it in social media. How do we like report

that to you? Like, hey, here's a picture of people complaining. They're getting a ton of bites.

Mm-hmm. So, we do have like a general, a general email line info at fight the bite. Okay. So,

anytime somebody sends like a complaint or they give us a call, the first thing that we do is ask them to

submit a service request so that we can come out and do that free inspection. We have a technician that

focuses specifically here in West Sacramento. So, he would be the one to respond to all the service requests

that people might have. Do we have that in our, um, Westac Connect by any chance? Byte?

Byte the byte.net? Uh, like we have a, we haven't, we have a Westac Connect app where people can submit

any concerns. Yeah, I don't know if we have that specific, um, option on a drop down, but there's

like a general, um, you can report things generally as well. So, yeah, we can, we can find out though.

Just trying to catch up with all of it. Don't want to spread spreading. No, totally. We want to make

sure that we're being responsive and that if people are having issues, because again, if there are

issues that we don't know about them, then that just makes the issue not go away, right? So, we want

to make sure that we're doing our due diligence to go out there and help people so that one, they're not

being bitten and two, you know, more importantly, that they're not getting sick. Right, right. And as you

described, um, it only grows, so around the holiday season, like October when kids are going to be

running around for, you know, harvest festivals, things like that. Exactly. I'm a little worried about that.

So, the invasive mosquitoes are more active in the fall. The Westac virus mosquitoes, which are

different, are more active now. So, during the hotter summer months. Do you do this presentation also to

the school board? I do not do a presentation to the school board, but I'm happy to. I wanted to also

say that if somebody knows a neighbor that has a swimming pool that's dormant, that's the perfect

area for the mosquitoes to breed, and we will go out and treat the property as part of our service.

And we'll track them also on our software, and yearly will go out and check the status of their pool.

Oh, that's good to know. Okay. Yes. Thank you. I appreciate that. And I wasn't actually planning to

comment, but, um, I, I know that a lot of this is, we can, we can spread the word and try to get

people, but people need to be engaged in making sure they're policing their own properties. Um,

and, and what, but that's not the point, um, I was going to make. The, the point I wanted to add was,

and I thought, uh, my fellow council member was going here, when we talk about spraying populations

to ensure that our community is safe from potential disease from, from mosquitoes, and when we talk about

the workers, I thought instead of giving away free mosquito wipes, we were talking about what is

the toxicity or potential carcinogenic effect of the spray that's going into the community,

like whether or not that's affecting. Because I know people, they raise chickens, they, they grow

their own crops, and that could be breeding ground for, um, larvae if there's standing water to soak in

the crops and stuff. So, but how do you know that the spray that's being used to eradicate the mosquito

population is safe for humans? Mm-hmm. Okay, so a couple, two parts. So, whenever we do the spraying,

the agricultural aerial spraying that I was referring to, it's specifically only over, like,

the rice fields. So, it's only done at night, like at, at nighttime when the workers would not be out

there. So, we do that routinely. However, there's oftentimes when, when there's lots of West Nile virus

activity that we would fly over the city. That depends on West Nile virus activity, which this year we,

we have, we don't have enough of. We did do some aerial spraying. The last time that we did it,

it was in 2023 over the city of Davis and the city of Woodland. Before that, it was in 2018. So,

West Nile virus spraying for over urban populations is completely driven by the amount of activity.

It doesn't happen all the time, right? But over with an airplane, we do do a fair amount of spraying

with trucks, you know, that are more localized in parks and green spaces and golf courses, things

like that. And again, all of that is done at, like, at either very early in the morning, dawn or dusk.

And we use very small amounts of spray, less than an ounce per acre, if you will. And it only targets

mosquitoes and insects that are smaller than mosquitoes. And, you know, based on our, on our knowledge and

the small amount that we use, it does not pose any health threat to, you know, people, pets, the

environment. Because it breaks down in sunlight. Thank you.

Mm-hmm.

Well, thank you so much. I learned a lot today from your presentation.

May you guys itchy, maybe?

I have that effect on people, unfortunately. Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right. Our next presentation will be our YOLO Community Foundation,

State of the Nonprofit Industry. Ms. Hubbard.

And company.

Good evening. Thank you so much for having us. My name is Jessica Hubbard. I'm the Executive

Director of the YOLO Community Foundation. I'm joined by my colleague, Carolina Valverde, our Program

Manager. So the YOLO Community Foundation's mission is to inspire and support giving and provide

philanthropic leadership in our diverse community of YOLO County. We are founded in 2001 by a group of

citizens. And since 2013, 2012, we've been, we've had an MOU with the Sacramento Region Community Foundation,

which provides back office support, particularly in the areas of investing and accounting and so on.

We, we work primarily through three pillars. The first is to inspire giving or encourage more

giving throughout YOLO County. We do that primarily by offering several fund types, donor-advised funds,

scholarship funds, other vehicles that are charitable, checking, charitable giving accounts that make

giving tax advantage, convenient, efficient, and more impactful so that people are motivated to give

more. Secondly, we work to support philanthropists, primarily our fund holders, but also other donors in

the community. We do that through thought leadership products, like the report that Carolina will share

tonight through events that allow donors to be inspired, to be educated, and be connected,

and through staff support that make giving easy and effective. And then finally, we serve nonprofits

directly, first by doing those first two things well, in which we're encouraging, improving the quality

and quantity of giving locally. Second, as fund holders. So in all, we have about 120 funds these days,

approaching 15 million in assets. About two-thirds of those are set up by philanthropic individuals and

families to do grant making. And about one-third are set up by nonprofits and government entities like

yourselves. Those are set up as reserve accounts, campaign accounts, nonprofit endowments, and so on.

So for instance, the YOLO County Children's Alliance, with its strong presence here in West Sacramento,

is one of our nonprofit fund holders. Thirdly, we serve nonprofits through grant making. Last year,

we did about 1.9 million dollars in grants. That's been growing rapidly over the last several years.

Over the last, let's say, five years, I would say about two-thirds or three-quarters of that is

driven by our individual fund holders making donations, making scholarships, and so on. And about

a quarter to a third is driven by the foundation through grants like the YOLO COVID-19 Relief Fund,

our annual air quality education grant, our recent YOLO voter education grant, and so on. And then,

finally, we serve nonprofits through training programs. We have a long-standing program called

the Nonprofit Leaders Alliance, which is a monthly-ish community building and capacity building series

of events. We hold workshops, happy hours, panels, and so on. And it's a partnership between YCF,

the YOLO County Library System, spearheaded by Dana Christie, the librarian at the Turner Library right

here, and the Impact Foundry, which is the nonprofit resource center for their region. We see very active

participation by a wide range of local nonprofits in that, like the West Sacramento Friends of the

Library is a good example. And then, most recently, we've launched a training program called YOLO NEON,

slightly tortured acronym I have to stop and think about every time, Nonprofit Excellence and

Operations Navigator. And what that is is a primarily cohort-based program to help nonprofits build out

their back office policies and procedures. So accounting and finance, HR and compliance, and information

technology and information management. We bring in a team of experts in those areas who have developed a resource

library full of samples, checklists, templates, and so on, and provide the training that our

organizations need to implement those policies and procedures effectively, thus decreasing risk and

increasing efficiency so they can maximize their impact. And the Mercy Coalition of West Sacramento was one,

along with Clarksburg Schoolhouse, were two of our participants in our recent pilot.

This is a list of our fun types. And with that, I'll turn it over to Carolina.

Good evening, everyone. Thank you for having us. I wanted to give an opportunity, we're going to

briefly go over the report, but if anyone would like to see the full report, they can scan the QR code here

right now. So each year, we aim to understand the themes and trends that are impacting the nonprofit

sector across the county. With this goal in mind, we conduct this survey. And we survey areas such as

finances, staffing, volunteer recruitment and engagement, as well as board development.

And we want to understand the most pressing and emerging needs for the nonprofit sector,

as well as successes that they're encountering. The results of this survey help us understand

unmet needs, encourage collaboration, and provide transparency for successes and challenges.

It also allows us to uplift the voices of those who are often marginalized, ensuring that the needs

and perspectives of underserved community members are recognized and addressed. Lastly, it allows us

to create a plan for a path forward. When we are educated, we're able to make strategic decisions on how we

can best support our neighbors and collaborate for both the highest impact and for long-term sustainable change.

So this year, we had 68 nonprofits complete the survey. And the majority of responses you'll see were in

Davis and Woodland. We recognize that West Sacramento has a lower representation in this survey, and it's

something that we're working to remedy. We're working to engage more volunteer-run organizations in general

to respond to the survey. And we also recognize that some of the residents in West Sacramento are also being

served by nonprofits that are located in Sacramento, but are serving Yolo County residents.

May I ask a clarifying question?

Yeah.

I want to just, what you just said, these are nonprofits that are based in these cities,

not necessarily serving these cities. So if I'm a nonprofit based in Sacramento, and I'm serving Yolo County,

they would not be part of the survey.

Sorry, say that one more time.

Typically, what we say is when we do outreach, for our events in general, we talk about Yolo County

nonprofits. And so generally speaking, the focus is on Yolo County-based nonprofits, but we don't

exclude Yolo County serving nonprofits that are based elsewhere. That said, our network is so focused on

organizations that are based here that I know that in the past we have had a handful of Sacramento-based

nonprofits that work in Yolo County respond to the survey, but I don't believe we had any this year.

Thank you very much.

Such as Health Education Council or?

Right. That's a great example. So I know Health Education Council, I believe, used to be based in

Sacramento, West Sacramento, is that right? Or had a presence here.

They're based in Sacramento.

And now, right, but they serve a county region. And so, right, and United Way is an example of that.

The YMCA, Big Brothers Big Sisters, there are, what I find very interesting about the Yolo County

nonprofit sector is that it is very, Yolo County is heavily served by Yolo County nonprofits,

and Yolo County nonprofits primarily serve specifically Yolo County, but there are absolutely

a number of very strong regional nonprofits that are really important parts of the local nonprofit

sector as well.

Sorry about that.

All right. So going to our next slide.

So we, for the third year in a row, we're seeing our expenses outpacing our revenue, with 53% of

organizations seeing their expenses increasing at least 10%, and 37% of organizations reporting an

increase in revenue by at least 10%. Nonprofits reported that they expect this trend to continue this year.

And just to note, we did take these survey results back in January, February.

Knowing this year could be a financially challenging year, we explored what safeguards were in place

for organizations to allow for financial sustainability. Reserves and endowments are a great way for

organizations to weather financial storms. Unfortunately, we're seeing a decrease in the amount of

organizations that have reserves on hand more than six months, with 51.5% of organizations reporting

they have less than six months in reserves. This is a fairly large increase from last year, which was

29% of organizations saying that they had six months or less. Some good news is that we've seen a

stabilization in staff salaries, with the majority of organizations being able to provide some increase

in salary, and 30% saying they're able to keep pace with inflation.

And then for volunteering, volunteer burnout is still a concern, and recruiting a more diverse demographic

of volunteers as well as board members is something that's top of mind for nonprofits in Yolo County.

Something that we've heard some organizations are doing are creating more flexible time schedules for

volunteers. So people that are working regular nine to five jobs, or who are working maybe in the gig economy,

can have more opportunities to volunteer.

So this year, we have three themes that we're going to focus on the ongoing financial constraints,

strengthening nonprofit boards, and sustainability for staff and volunteers.

So first, we're going to talk about financial constraints. We know that the nonprofit sector has

been overcoming financial challenges, especially since COVID. And so we want to understand the major

factors that have been impacting finances. First and foremost, a big topic of conversation,

government funding. 47% of nonprofits reported they're either somewhat or significantly

concerned that government funding will drive down their revenues. This, coupled with one-time pandemic

era funds, has organizations concerned about their financial futures. Nonprofits are trying to diversify

their funding and build resilience through fundraising events, building awareness using marketing and

communications, and building capacity to improve financial sustainability.

Our second theme of nonprofit boards, like I mentioned, we've heard that there's an opportunity for

increased board diversity, and organizations are interested in engaging a broader range of perspectives,

experiences, and skills to better reflect the communities they serve. 48% of organizations reported that less than 10% of their board is BIPOC, which stands for Black Indigenous People of Color.

And unfortunately, this is not reflective of the Yolo County population, with over 50% of Yolo County residents identifying as BIPOC.

In addition to this, only 13% of nonprofits reported having a majority BIPOC board.

Organizations noted that volunteers, including board members, also come from a limited demographic, and there's

a growing interest in engaging a broader, more represented group. When we asked them what the biggest challenges are in recruiting new board members,

there were two themes that came up. They feel potential members might be hesitant to join due to busy schedules,

and small communities or niche organizations struggle to find qualified or interested individuals.

For staffing and sustainability, we've seen a stabilization in staffing, with 59% of organizations reporting their staffing remain the same,

and there was a growth of almost 30% of organizations reporting an increase in staff.

However, this is overshadowed by high concerns about burnout, with 44% of organizations reporting their concerned about staff burnout.

We asked organizations if they were to receive extra funds, what they would allocate it towards, and 40% of organizations said they would hire more program staff.

That leads us to believe that, and what we've been hearing from organizations is that they are having a higher demand on their services,

and therefore need to hire more staff in order to meet the demand.

The volunteer-run organizations are experiencing their own challenges. While 75% feel their volunteer needs were met,

they still are concerned about volunteer burnout.

To close out, I want to talk about our theme for the year, which is sustainability.

Sustainability is the foundation that supports nonprofits in delivering lasting impact.

Financial sustainability empowers nonprofits to plan, grow, adapt effectively.

Consistent staffing reduces burnout and strengthens long-term organizational impact.

Engaged volunteers expand reach, strengthen community ties, and boost capacity.

And strong operations ensure structure, accountability, and smooth program delivery.

And for our last slide, we just encourage everyone to learn more about Yolo County nonprofits,

share this report, or any relevant information that you've learned, and support Yolo County nonprofits through Big Day of Giving,

or through getting involved, volunteering, providing space, and engaging with them throughout the community.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Are there any questions among the council members?

Yes, council member I call.

Thank you.

The 48% of nonprofits that were reporting less than 10%, was that in Yolo or was that statewide?

That's respondents to our survey.

Right.

Was it from Yolo?

Mm-hmm.

Okay.

So among the 68 organizations that responded to our survey, all of whom are Yolo County nonprofits.

And maybe I misheard.

I probably haven't heard.

But of those 48%, they said they were looking for

qualified individuals.

Are these speaking of qualified individuals within the BIPOC?

No.

That's it.

Yeah.

So they would like to expand their BIPOC outreach.

That's something that we've heard pretty consistently.

Qualified individuals overall, and they would like to have a more diverse pool of interested

board members or potential board members.

But what we're finding is, as I've made this presentation several times, I've had so many

people come up to me and say, I want to volunteer.

I want to be a board member.

So we're curious where the disconnect might be.

And we actually, we offered a board development opportunity to, it was about 35 nonprofits back

in January, February.

And what we found is, we want to make sure that nonprofits have the foundation and the infrastructure

to bring in a diverse group of people before, because we don't want them to bring people in

just to check a box.

So that's also a conversation that we've been having with nonprofits is to make sure that they have

laid the foundation and done the work prior to bringing people in and to really understand

who is the person that fits this description that you're looking for, whether it's a treasurer

or a secretary, or you are looking for someone that has a background in law.

Why this person?

And what, and maybe why not someone else?

So there's a lot of questions and reflections that we feel that need to happen prior to moving

forward to bring a more diverse population into the board.

Thank you.

So in understanding that we have some more limited number of nonprofits, in your experience,

is there like an explanation other than, you know, we have outside agencies coming in to serve us,

or lack of understanding of starting up a nonprofit?

Is just kind of trying to understand why that 80% is, well, it's unfortunate.

But yeah.

We have some hypotheses.

So we, one of the things that we have acknowledged recently is that we would like to grow our presence

here in West Sacramento. So that's one thing that we've acknowledged as a community foundation.

Another thing that we've realized recently is there may be more volunteer-run organizations here in West

Sacramento. So there's an opportunity, and we have a lower response rate from volunteer-run organization

for various reasons, be it maybe they don't have the time, maybe they didn't get the outreach.

So there's an opportunity for us to also engage with volunteer-run organizations.

The larger organizations, we feel like we have a fairly good relationship with,

and we know there's an opportunity to grow that as well.

So like out of the box ministries or St. Vincent de Paul, have they applied?

St. Vincent de Paul has been involved in our Yellow Philanthropy Awards, which is our,

one of our big sort of ways that we engage local nonprofits.

Sure.

Out of the box ministries, we don't have a relationship with.

Hmm.

The other thing I would add to Carolina's explanation is that you do have some very strong,

quite large nonprofits that are located here as well, like Yellow County Children's Alliance, for instance,

which has like a very wide scope of services. We noticed this in some of our rural areas too,

where you have one organization that does the work of several or maybe even a number of nonprofits,

then it's more like you have, they're running so many programs that it would take six or eight

organizations to replace them. And in your case, it's one organization delivering a wide range of

those services.

I was thinking the same thing. It's a multi-service agency that

that tackles a whole bunch of issues, right? So, you know, you talk anywhere from the backpack

drives to home health services to, you know, early childhood and parenting classes, all of

those around the gamut, food insecurity, all from the Yellow County Children's Alliance and

homelessness issues as well. So, but my comment would, what about technical assistance for folks

that want to start up, but don't know how to do nonprofit status and set up and pay those fees and all

that? I would say I have very mixed feelings about that question, which is that we have seen like

really tremendously massive growth in the number of nonprofits in the U.S. in the last generation or

two. And on the one hand, that's amazing, right? Because you have this, I think particularly volunteer-led

nonprofits are like the tangible expression of people's passion for their community. And that is

an amazing thing. And also, we see when people are starting new nonprofits, they don't always,

not always aware of the landscape. They're not always aware of programming that's already in place.

They're not always coming in a way that's collaborative and maybe coming in ways that

are duplicative or competitive. And so, I absolutely think that there's an important

role for innovation and for new nonprofits. And also, I wish that probably half the people that

start new nonprofits instead went to existing nonprofits to see how they could, you know, engage

and support that, the what's already, the infrastructure that already exists. So, we do, another thing that we've

found is that, well, two other factors. One is that there is a really limited number of professional

advisors with nonprofit expertise. So, like, non-pro attorneys who are, you know, tried and true

nonprofit experts, not who like maybe set up a nonprofit one time, but this is what they do day in, day out.

Same with accountants. And that that is a limiting factor. I've had a few nonprofits start up and have

really struggled to find someone who can support them through that process. The third thing I would

say, and this goes back to part of our earlier conversation about West Sacramento nonprofit sector,

about BIPOC engagement, is that there is a degree to which nonprofits as a structure are,

like, there's a degree of privilege involved in being able to set up a nonprofit. That you are someone who,

like, is comfortable with government forms or knows attorneys or just, like, has the life experience

to make that very burdensome process feel approachable. And so, I do think that there's

another layer, which is that there are a lot of community-led efforts that are not 501c3 nonprofits

that are tremendously impactful in the community. And so, that's hard for us to engage with, not on the

training side, but on the grant making side for legal reasons. But it's something that we're increasingly

interested in how do we engage with organization entities like that, efforts like that. So, whether

that's fiscal sponsorships or other approaches, but it's something we're trying to figure out how to

get our arms around. Maybe, yeah, that is a really robust answer. Thank you. The, I think that while you

were speaking, it just popped into my mind. Years ago, when you were, we had a presentation having to do

with community engagement, there were folks that were very interested in finding out where they not

the volunteer opportunities were. That's a common question. I think we all get it, because people

come to us imagining that we would know all of the happenings. And I wonder, is there any type of

platform where people can get in connection with, you know, they have a little league team and they

want to make sure the boys get community service or softball or whatnot? So, this question has come up

more in the last three months than it has in the six years I've been at the organization.

So, SAC Region Community Foundation, they do have a platform where you can sign up for

the location that you're interested in volunteering and they can send volunteer opportunities.

I can also be contacted. I'm a liaison between the foundation and the, and nonprofit organizations

in the county. So, nonprofit organizations can come to me and say, hey, we're, or kind of it comes up in

casual conversation quite often. Like, we have these gaps, we have these needs. So, if someone were to

come to me and say, I'm looking for a volunteer opportunity, one of the things we want to also do

is make sure that we're offering aligned opportunities. So, if for instance, you are

passionate about gardening and you want to do a gardening program, I'm not going to set you up with

someone who wants you to do data entry because you may not be super excited about that. And you may not

come back. So, we want to make sure that we're also aligning with your passions and your interests.

So, I'm starting to keep just kind of like a rolling spreadsheet of where the opportunities are.

And then when people come to me and say, I have this interest for, and these are my skill sets,

then I can start to make those connections with them.

Thank you. So, just wanted to throw out a few nonprofits that I've seen

serve and figuring out how to make these connections. And they are, you know,

one is a young lady. And she's been doing volunteer work for me, Ishael. She's a youth.

She created a nonprofit called Because She Is for addressing period poverty. And she has kits that she

distributes. She gave them to, I think, YCCA when we had our health fair. She helped organize the health fair.

And she has this nonprofit. And she wants to continue to build more, you know, have more period

kits. So, I don't know if she's familiar to you, but if I can link her up.

We would love to connect. That would be great. The other, I don't know if she's a nonprofit. I know it's

a business. But it's a business that serves individuals with cancer who lose their hair.

Right. And she makes wigs. She makes wigs that look really real, creative hair. And they're related.

So, I saw them both at the health fair. Had a great conversation. But seeing, you know, from somebody

like Creative Hair to create a nonprofit out of that organization. I don't know how, you know,

they're very inexpensive wigs that I think people who are going through treatment lose their hair.

And she knows that firsthand. Not even just treatment. It's some medical condition where

they lose their hair. This could be really helpful in partnering up with Empower Yolo, who was there

as well. So, they were having a conversation about working more closely together. And building that

bench here in West Sacramento. And throughout Yolo County, actually.

I know Thriving Pink has also really expanded their work in West Sacramento.

And so, that connection.

Yeah. That's the one I meant.

Sorry. Thank you for reminding me about that.

And then, Akisha Yoga does volunteer, but they're a business. And when there are businesses who do

volunteer in the community, if there's a way to create like a nonprofit who can, you know,

they can merge together. And like Akisha Yoga can have a yoga instructor come out to the community

and do, you know, they do it out of the goodness of their heart right now. But if there's a way to

get them together through a nonprofit so they can buy more, like the yoga can buy more mats and tools like

that and things like that. Repair Cafe is another one that is being stood up here in the Holy Cross.

And Repair Cafe, it's more sustainability. It's getting people's items in their home, their bikes,

jewelry, you know, and repairing them. And they have a monthly meeting, a monthly event out at Holy Cross

Church. And I think, I don't know if they're nonprofit status yet, but I know they were working on that.

Right. But they've been doing a great job. And I think they're interested in financing more social

media. They're a little nervous that they're, you know, going to grow too fast. But that would be one

that I would like to see more of a connection with and supporting them as well. And the Elk Grove alumni

chapter is dipping their toe out here. They're the ones that worked with us to establish a health fair.

And it was a really nice event for the community that was partnered with Repair Cafe. So those are

some of the ones that I'd like to see working together with you in the future. That's terrific.

We'll go back and watch the recording of the last five minutes and make sure that we reach out to all

of those organizations. Thank you so much. Thank you. All right. Anything else? Okay.

Well, thank you so much. And we'll continue to work together. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Our last presentation is West Sac Play. And let's see who's coming up here. I think we have

the whole team coming up. Come on up and introduce yourselves, please. To the podium. Thank you.

Look at a nice big jack.

Well, here's another nonprofit.

Good evening. My name is Jacqueline Powell. As some of you on this council know, I've served on a

number of nonprofit boards here in West Sacramento. But I am here tonight in my capacity as treasurer of

West Sac Play. On behalf of West Sac Play's seven-person, mom-driven, all-volunteer board, we want to thank you for

the opportunity to come here before you this evening. West Sac Play is a nonprofit whose mission is simple

but impactful. We're dedicated to enhancing the outdoor play spaces throughout our city, ensuring

everyone has safe and inclusive spaces to connect and have fun. The dynamic women who make up West Sac Play

are deeply committed to strengthening our community, creating opportunities for the kids in our community,

and upgrading play areas in parks where children can thrive, explore, and grow. Now, Sarah, one of our

founding board members, is going to share a little bit about the beginning of West Sac Play.

Okay, thank you. It's been a while since we've been here, so I'm going to do a little review of our

history. And we know that just 20 minutes outdoors can reduce our stress, it can improve our moods,

and our overall well-being. We also know that our parks and our open spaces are more than just

patches of grass. They're places to connect, to rest, to play, to build community. Over a decade ago,

a group of moms, many pushing strollers, myself included, gathered at Bridgeway Lakes Park with

a city employee to talk about the uninspiring playground. At the time, it was those bike tire shreds

and metal bars, and it wasn't used very much. We knew that our kids, all of our kids, uh, deserves better.

And so we exchanged numbers on little pieces of paper, and we committed to one goal, to creating a

space where kids could explore play, make friends, and where families could come together. In 2014,

Bridgeway Play was born. Back then, it was a different council and leadership, and I'm not sure what they

thought of us at the beginning, but soon they saw our dedication and they caught our vision. With

incredible community support, we raised $50,000 over two years, and the city matched it. And that's how

the first playground in Bridgeway Lakes, and our first success, began. And now it is a vibrant community

park, and I guarantee you, I bet you $100 even right now, uh, that there are kids right now playing on that park.

In 2016, we were honored with the West Sacramento Civic Leadership Award, showing the region what

a successful and grassroots public and private partnership look like. But we didn't stop there.

Then we grew into West Sac Play, expanding our mission beyond just one playground in the neighborhood,

to support the entire community, um, and to enhance our play spaces and to bring joy along the way.

Over the years, we brought concerts, fall festivals, movie nights, splash events to our parks, and we've

helped our neighbors connect and build lasting memories. We've also supported the community in other ways.

Our annual Coco with Santa event supports our fabulous West Sac PD toy drive that they do, so now toys and joy

are taken directly into children's homes. Our donations have funded the shade structures at Summerfield,

Pleasant Hollow, Southport Gateway, and Emile Whitey Park, giving our community relief from the sun.

Most recently, we've been funding hydration stations for kids, adults, and if you see them, even pets on

the ground, to ensure that clean drinking water is in our parks across the city. So tonight, we are proud to

present to you another check that will continue that mission of ensuring that there is access to fresh

water in all of our public spaces across the city. Like you, I have many hats that I wear, but I think

one of my favorites is serving with the dynamic dynamic group of women on West Sac Play. They are the ones that,

when we have a big event, get all the tables and pull them down. After everybody's done dancing and going home,

they kick off their dancing shoes and they break everything down and we stay late cleaning up. It's not glamorous work,

but it's important work. And it's so that we can stretch every single dollar that is given to us.

So together with the support of our donors and the community and our very strong partnership with the city,

we have raised well over a hundred thousand dollars that we have donated to your city park staff.

So when we work together and we listen to our community and listen to their desires, that's when the magic happens.

And I am so honored now to invite Claire, who is our vice president and really like five people in one,

with all that she accomplishes, to invite you to our event coming up.

Thank you, Sarah. I think that can be said for all of our board members. Thank you so much. Our next Farm to Park event, our annual dinner and our auction evening where we raise the largest part of the money that we can donate to the city is coming up on September 13th.

And we'd like to thank you, the city for partnering with us and continuing the partnership and for already reserving your tables for this event.

And we'd like to invite anyone else, everyone else in the community to check out the event.

And for more information and for a link to purchase tickets, we've left some flyers in the back of the room next to the agenda.

And please feel free to take and ask us any more information that you have or questions that you have. Thank you.

And here is the check. Thank you. We're all going to go down and take a photo, if you don't mind.

And, well, before, we do want to say thank you. And we'll start off with the Council Member Orozco.

It's been a long time. We've had a long-term relationship. When you guys started, I remember I was a new council member and just seeing the budding energy in the group.

And it's, you know, it's morphed over the years, but I love seeing the OGs who have stayed there and we replenish the mommy group, so to speak.

You want something done, you ask somebody busy, right? That's my motto.

And for me, having, you know, years of raising children like you all in this community and seeing just opening your eyes and seeing the need.

And no need for the credit, right? You just do the work that needs to be done in order to meet the need.

And I'm just, I'm grateful. I've worked with many of you over the years, just serving, just serving.

And when we look at, just a moment ago, someone had mentioned a young lady that was doing, you know, feminine hygiene products.

Those are things that, those are organic things that need to be done, right?

And I just love watching you year by year, the events that we do, the check presentations,

just seeing how a few dedicated people can make such a tremendous impact on this mighty little city.

So thank you. Thank you for inspiring us. Thank you for reminding us of what this community is and who it is that, you know,

you don't have to have a title in order to serve. And you've proven that over and over again as you, one by one,

improve the park that our children learn to grow and enjoy wonder and play. Thank you.

Thank you.

I will echo all that as well as make an additional plug for your event.

I have had an opportunity to go every year the past few years,

and it is so absolutely fun from the dessert race to the auction,

to the auctioneer and the music.

And it's just,

you get to see the community coming together and your neighbors and your friends,

all with this goal of making sure that our families and our kiddos have a place to go and our neighbors have a place to go to be healthy,

as you said, just 20 minutes. And so I'd make an additional plug.

If you don't have a ticket already, get a ticket because they sell it fast and it is more than worth it.

And you so elegantly put together such a festive event.

And not only is it festive, it's a lot of fun.

And I just love being able to, you know, attend the events, seeing all the money come in.

People just donate out of the love for our community.

And to see you, you know, evolve from Bridgeway, you know, that playground and into,

and I was there before. I saw the tires. I wondered, is this healthy?

And just to see, you know, a group of moms get together and make a difference, make an impact,

starting off there and evolving to, you know, the broader, you know, community and continuing to push and,

you know, and pushing us as a city to doing better and making our parks beautiful,

making places where our children can play, families can get together.

You truly embody that movement, a community, health, you know, and, you know, with climate change,

it's more important now for us to get out and enjoy a place where, you know, we can play and stay cool.

And, you know, you just do everything out of the goodness of your heart.

And it's something I greatly appreciate, your presence and your involvement and your, you know,

check presentation, of course, to the city. So thank you so much.

Thank you.

I have a five-year-old and a two-year-old, and we spend a lot of time at our local parks.

And I cannot think of a more wonderful organization than Westside Play for your investment in the little things

that make such a big difference when you're playing with young kids at a park, like water and shade structures.

And every time we're at a park, I kind of, like, look at a shade structure.

I'm like, we like this park because there's a shade structure.

And little things like that that make such a big difference.

And to know that you ladies, I think all-female board right now, correct?

Although we accept men too.

Yes.

I think you have been men on the board.

But you ladies do this.

It's all volunteer, which is incredible.

And that lift with all of the hats that you wear to make the community such a better place.

And I absolutely am a lover of our parks.

I just actually recently posted about how much we love Bridgeway Lake Spray Park.

You know, tonight, you know, we'll hopefully approve another spray park.

Construction at Heritage Oaks Park will be incredible.

And you ladies just knock it out of the park.

Pun intended!

And then I will also echo Farm to Park is an incredibly fun event.

And I will mention the competitiveness of the live auction is something that you need to see.

So if you don't have your ticket, I say.

So thank you, ladies.

And I'm going to say thank you also.

My mother loves this event.

I've taken it so many times.

She asked me.

Can I go this year?

We are.

So thank you again.

All right.

Go on down and take a photo.

It's Paul.

It's Paul's anniversary.

Oh, okay.

We'll get the pass.

Amateur hour here, yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Thanks, you guys.

Thanks, you guys.

Shh.

兄.

Lessons, you guys should be in there.

No way.

I'm going to jump right now.

Thanks, guys.

Thank you, Chris.

심, sp.

We'll jump right there.

Sorry.

Bye.

All right, next is our consent agenda items 5 through 17.

Are there any requests to remove an item for questions or comments presentation by our

administration?

Yes, I have a question for 7 and 16.

I do as well for 12 and 16.

I'll add 6 and 8.

And I don't have a question I wanted to take item 12 and item 16 separately, just to be

clear.

What do you mean take out of it?

Oh, just not as part of the consent.

It'll be more than just a question.

It'll be a question, but do you want to take a separate vote?

Yes.

So, Madam Clerk, we're pulling 12 and 16 for a separate vote.

Thank you.

Sure.

Hope I can move.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

Item number 6 is consideration of approval of contract amendment number 4 with Verde Design

for the Bright Park Master Plan implementation project.

Ah.

Good evening, Mayor.

Jay Chihal, interim director for capital projects.

I'm here for Josh Bailey.

Okay.

Thank you so much.

And so this particular amendment number 4 with Verde Design is just to continue on the implementation

of our Bright Park Master Plan, correct?

Correct.

It's just an amendment to add more design services and then we'll be coming at a future meeting

with an update on the project itself.

A future meeting for the entire update.

Okay.

All right.

Council Member Arcola, do you have any questions?

No.

Okay.

All right.

That wraps that up.

We'll go to number 7.

Thank you so much.

Jay, are you number 7?

Oh, sorry.

Oh, no.

Sorry.

I didn't know who you were up.

Okay.

Ryan?

Good evening, Madam Mayor, Council Members.

Ryan Teva, senior engineer, capital projects.

All right.

Yes.

Please go on.

Hi, Ryan.

Yeah.

Very excited to see the Park Boulevard improvement.

I've had meetings with staff about the concerns around Park and Fallbrook, so I think this

is fantastic.

Can you clarify what the projected scope is for the Park Boulevard improvement?

Yeah, sure.

So the proposed scope of work of improvements on Park Boulevard includes striping for bike

lanes, striping for pedestrian crossings, as well as a pavement surface treatment, a

cape seal that will be able to preserve the road condition.

Okay.

So if I understand this correctly from the questions I've asked previously, is striping for the bike

lanes, but not green bike lanes all the way down, correct?

Correct.

That's an option that we're looking into.

Okay.

So when we get to the point and the design comes back, it would be really helpful for

me to know the cost differential of going full green all the way down versus just a portion

of it.

And then also what the operations and maintenance of the full green all the way down versus not

would be as well.

Okay.

Okay.

And you want to know the cost difference at a future council meeting?

When we get there after we get the design.

Yeah.

Yes.

That would be really helpful.

Yeah.

I think we would do that when we bring it back for after we've bid it out.

We can work on an alternative for the bid package.

Yeah.

Correct.

Yeah, absolutely.

We can include that in our construction documents to see what the pricing difference would

be between striping it with the green bike lanes along the entirety of Park Boulevard versus

what one of the options that we're looking at is striping the green enhanced visibility markings

in conflict zones in which a bicyclist and vehicle are entering into like an intersection

or a point in which more enhanced striping would be appropriate to make it more visible.

Yeah.

I mean, I think in a perfect world myself and the neighbors would love to see green all

the way through, but I know that the very significant cost not only for the construction,

but for the O and M of it as well.

And so being able to see those numbers would be really helpful.

So thank you very much for that.

Yeah.

Absolutely.

Okay.

So on that roundabout, is that including the roundabout by any chance, the area?

Yeah.

So the Park Boulevard improvements would go from Stone Boulevard all the way to Jefferson.

Oh, all the whole thing.

That would include the traffic circle at Fallbrook.

So what I've heard from residents is that in the roundabout, people miss the roundabout.

I mean, it's dark out there.

And it's hard to see where it is, where they crash into it.

They're going fast, of course.

They're going fast and they don't see it.

And it's too late to swerve around.

Right.

Is there going to be a way to light it up a little more so people can see it?

That's, again, an option, a design consideration we can look into.

There are some cost-effective options, such as the thermoplastic striping, using retroreflective

delineators or the RPMs, the little markers that are on the road on the striping, as well

as the signage that could really enhance the vehicle traffic that's approaching the roundabout.

Lighting is also an option we can look into.

That does add some cost to the project, if that is something we want to move forward with.

So, yeah.

And for some reason, people haven't learned there is a roundabout there.

If it's a roadway, for some reason, it gets invisible.

At night.

Sorry, I can't help myself.

Then, especially during the rain, that's what it is.

It's raining, you can't see.

Just trying to figure that out so that we can expand on that in areas where we find people

crashing over these little things.

Yeah.

And another point I would make, a lot of the improvements that we're looking to make along

Park Boulevard is an effort to slow down cars and vehicles that are using the corridor.

And having reduced speed will help with reducing the amount of crashes and the speed at which

some of those incidents may happen.

Yeah.

How we do that, too.

Okay.

Madam Mayor.

Yes.

I just wanted to piggyback on that.

This is my neighborhood, where we're talking about.

In the last 15 years, this is my existence and traveling that road every single day.

And I will say that both Councilmember Solpezio, Mayor Pro Temp, Solpezio Hill, and I both share

Park Boulevard in our district.

I think that the existence of the reflective lighting that you've just described and or the suggestion

made by the mayor about lighting would be significant.

It is a very dark corridor.

And I think, if anything, the deterrent mechanism from even just noticing that it could potentially

be a place where pedestrians are could leave that impression for a driver that maybe they

need to slow down.

It's akin to those little fluorescent green signs with the flag, right?

People are here.

Yeah.

And I've seen the complexion of the city, that area of the city change in the last 15 years

from folks who are elderly and a little less mobile to families that are walking their dogs

and pushing their strollers and really maneuvering the streets.

And while I don't see as much high-speed road activity during the daytime, it is a place

where we want to, everyone, regardless of the time of day, to be able to travel safely.

Mm-hmm.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ryan.

Thank you.

Next, we have number eight.

Alice Norman Baseball Playfield.

Who's that?

Oh.

Inam Bao?

Is that you?

My name is Jason Popple.

I'm the park superintendent.

Jason.

Okay, sorry, Jason.

I think I could probably help with the questions.

Oh, Jason.

Sorry, Jason.

Yes, Jason.

Yes, Jason.

Yes, yes.

I'm blanking out here, Jason.

Sorry about that.

What?

No.

All right.

So we have the capital improvement program and approval of contract award to Sierra services

for the Dallas Norman Baseball Playfield conversion project.

And this is, I think, a pretty significant step.

Can you just share a little bit of that for Alice Norman Park?

Yeah.

So for this project in particular, we're looking at converting one of the baseball little league

fields into a multi-use field.

So where baseball plays off of a mound and softball plays off of a flat surface, baseball

could play on a softball field, but softball can't play on a baseball field.

So this project will create essentially a softball field that both little league baseball and softball

can use, where softball will use a portable mound setup like you see in many cities in different

facilities, but softball would be able to use the same field.

So it would provide additional softball fields for the city for West Act girls softball or other softball

events and rentals and clubs, but still allowing baseball to also have a possible field.

It just really expands our programming needs based on what REC is expanding and the city is expanding.

Has the girls softball league provided input on this?

We have reached out to them.

We have provided, they have helped to provide feedback in terms of their growing programs

and their growing need for additional fields and to kind of balance that out the best we can with the city.

So.

Okay.

That's good to know.

I just want to make sure they're included.

Yes.

Yes.

Thank you, Jason.

Of course.

Thank you.

Nobody else has questions.

Okay.

All right.

So we have 12 and 16 left.

What I'd like to do is first ask, removing 12 and 16, if there are any questions.

Sorry, is there any public comment requests, Madam Clerk, for any of those?

We have no request to speak on the consent agenda items with the exceptions of 12 and 16.

Okay.

So what I'm going to do is move those and then we can pull, now that we pulled 12 and 16,

and then take a separate vote for that.

In fact, then I will put in a motion.

Thank you.

Second.

Council Member Early moved and Council Member Acala seconded.

Madam Clerk, can you please call the roll?

Council Member Acala?

Aye.

Council Member Early?

Aye.

Council Member Orosco?

Aye.

Mayor Pro Tempsel-Pizio-Hull?

Aye.

Mayor Guerrero?

Aye.

All right.

Those are approved.

Now is 12.

Item number 12, which is consideration of finding a public convenience or necessity for the type

21 alcohol beverage control license at 4515th Street, ARCO.

So we have a couple questions.

Yes, Council Member Early.

Hi.

How are you doing?

Good.

How are you?

Good.

So when I think about public convenience or necessity, I had just a couple of questions

about that.

Are there any places within like two or three miles where you can buy liquor from where this

location is wanting to be?

There are.

So I included as attachment three to your agenda report a map showing essentially the approved

ABC licenses for the census tract.

So that includes six licenses, three of which are authorized to sell beer and wine and three

of which are authorized to sell beer, wine and liquor.

Okay, great.

Do you know how many AMPMs have a liquor license in West Sacramento?

So we have three AMPMs currently.

The one on Reed Avenue has a type 21 license, which is authorization to sell beer, wine and

liquor.

The one on Lake Washington has a type 20 for beer and wine only.

And the request tonight for the one on Jefferson is a request for a type 21 beer, wine and liquor.

Okay.

All right.

That's helpful.

So what I'm hearing is there are places within that vicinity to purchase liquor.

And so that's for me that's really helpful information.

And then out of the I guess four AMPMs, did I get that right?

Four in West Sacramento or only three total?

So there's three total.

Okay.

Out of the three total, one has a liquor license.

Correct.

Perfect.

Thank you so much.

All right.

Oh, it's up for the mayor.

That one that has a liquor license.

How is it situated with respect to the proximity to residential areas?

So it's located on the south side of Reed Avenue.

So there's the neighborhood to the northeast it would be.

But you'd have to cross Reed Avenue, which is four or five lanes.

So it's within the Ikea kind of shopping center realm.

So it's not a private property or residential properties.

It doesn't share any property lines with the residential zone.

No, it does not.

And I noticed that you're mentioning businesses that your 7-Eleven Chevron, Pennyrod and Bait and Rite Aid and Walgreens and Rose Liquor.

But those are just the locations that sell liquor for offsite consumption, correct?

That's correct.

That doesn't include places like Altos or Gioñochillita or Ay Jalisco or Whitey's Jolly Cone and other places in the area that also serve alcohol, but for onsite consumption.

Right, that's correct.

And the reason for that being is that the way ABC looks at alcohol licenses across the board is there's a clear distinction between licenses for off-sale consumption or off-site consumption versus onsite consumption.

So we're comparing kind of like for like licenses.

But bottom line is there's an over concentration or at least a high concentration of locations where liquor could be.

purchased in that one, I guess maybe one to two mile radius around that area.

In the census tract, yes there is.

The same is true for the city across the board as a whole.

Elijah, just a quick clarification on the previous question.

There is a fourth AMPM on West Capitol, the West and West Capitol.

I believe that one also just has a type 20.

Thank you.

So no liquor.

I believe that's correct.

Okay.

And just to distinguish when we use the term liquor, we're talking about hard alcohol.

I figured liquor is liquor.

I think we all, we're told to it.

There's some ambiguity in that term in other places.

So they have a beer and wine license, but they don't sell a hard alcohol at that location.

So we do have our West Sac PD present here who, in case you had any questions you'd like to have.

I didn't.

You didn't?

Thank you though.

I do have a question.

Sure.

There you can.

Correct me if I'm wrong.

Correct me if I'm wrong.

But I believe that this property, this came to Planning Commission and it was originally recommended by the police department to not approve the license.

That's correct.

That's correct.

So this, this project went to Planning Commission first in December, where the recommendation from staff at that time was to not approve the license.

We had a discussion at Planning Commission where the commission provided staff basically with the recommendation to go back and take a closer look at some of the data that we were using to take a look at that request.

And ultimately we came back to Planning Commission in March after discussions with the applicant and with the police department really centered around these conditions of approval that you're seeing in your attachment today that are meant to

really minimize the negative or potential negative impacts of alcohol sales on the neighborhood and changed the staff recommendation from a denial of the license to approval with conditions.

So the initial visit to Planning Commission, there were no conditions.

That's correct.

And after our conversation, these conditions were drafted and the police department is supportive of this.

That's correct.

What do these conditions look like in comparison to our other properties that have 21 licenses?

So a lot of them are very similar.

There are some that are specific to this property.

I have some examples prepared.

I think in one of the slides here so I can show you kind of what some of those look like.

I think in the comments, I think it's a little bit more about the conditions of approval.

And these specifically are some of the conditions of approval that were approved again by the Planning Commission.

Again with the goal of trying to minimize some of the potential negative impacts associated with alcohol sales at the property.

So you'll notice a lot of these are pretty standard restrictions on things such as exterior advertisement of alcoholic beverages.

We do have a hard alcohol sales closure at 10 p.m. for this property.

But a lot of these have been modeled after similar conditions that we have for other type 21 licenses in the city.

The one that is kind of an outlier here is one number 11, which essentially allows the Community Development Director and the Police Chief to take another look at this conditional use permit and these conditions a year after the project opens.

To really take a closer look at the neighborhood and identify if there's any issues that have come up in that year span associated with alcohol sales.

And at that time, if conditions arise and problems are identified, they can then reconsider the conditions of approval here at this property.

Thank you.

All right.

Any other questions?

Okay.

I would have to say that I appreciate the work that went into adding the conditions of approval.

I know that selling alcohol in the community at a time when we've seen the impact of alcohol among those that have been driving and caused some serious accidents, death, and even recently, I don't know exactly what happened, but two young people died.

And we'll see what the results are for that, but it does have serious effects.

And just making sure that we don't exceed.

And I think our city is somewhat conservative.

I've heard a lot about the denials, especially along West Capitol Avenue.

And this is not that far off, visibility-wise.

So, sure.

So with that, I appreciate the conditions of approval and the fact that our Westside PD is going to be vigilant over this one and what happens.

And it looks like they're going to be doing a lot of upgrades to this particular article, that this would help, you know, as far as boost sales and things like that.

So, yes, Council Member.

I just want to make sure, before we take the vote, I think this is the place I would make a comment.

I want to be clear, while I support the role of businesses and our, in our local economy, particularly small businesses, I won't be approving this.

I cannot approve it, an additional liquor license at this location.

I think we already have, as we've talked about, ample access to alcohol in our community.

And adding another location doesn't align with the vision that I know I share with many of you guys on a safe, healthy neighborhoods, especially in this area.

I think we should be focusing on opportunities that uplift families and create positive spaces for young people, not expanding access to products that can lead to harm, if not managed responsibly.

So, it's about making choices today that reflect the kind of community that we want for our children.

And so, for me, I will be voting no-wills.

And one quick question.

If this is denied, what would be the consequences to the applicant?

If we either delayed approval or if it's denied, which, so for the applicant to be aware of the consequences on both decisions?

So, denial would deny them the ability to sell alcohol at the proposed new project.

So, that would be kind of the effect of that recommendation.

So, the question is, denied would mean they wouldn't, so they couldn't revise?

So, you would be denying the request tonight for the ability to sell under a Type 21 license, which is beer, wine, and liquor.

There would be a possibility if the applicant chose to pursue a different license type, such as a Type 20 for beer and wine.

Again, that would be up to the applicant to take a look at the project to see if they want to do that.

But that's an avenue that would still be open to them if the item tonight was denied.

Okay. So, if it was voted down tonight, they could still revise it, come back to Council with the revised?

They would be pursuing a different ABC license at that point, yes.

So, they'd have to start back to ABC to do that?

They would have, I believe they would have to put in a new application with ABC, that's correct.

If we denied it. Whereas, if today we didn't take a vote on it, if they withdrew their application today, if the applicant is here, I don't know if their applicant is here.

They are.

If the applicant decided to withdraw in case there aren't enough votes, to withdraw it and then revise it.

That way they don't start the clock over again.

So, I think I would have the applicant answer that. I'm not too familiar with where they are in the ABC process and what that would look like.

But I would invite them to maybe speak to that if they'd like to.

And just to clear up one point that's related to this, our understanding is that a Type 20 license doesn't require a conditional use permit.

So, the conditional use permit was required to go to Planning Commission because of the Type 21 application.

Elijah, can you just verify that?

Yeah, that's correct.

Yeah, so for the applicant to, the actual use of the property for a gas station is principally permitted at this location.

So, it's a matter of if they had to go back and revise their license, it would be making a new application for a Type 20.

It would still require a PCN, so it would still come back to Council.

But it wouldn't require them to go back to Planning Commission to get a new conditional use permit.

That's if they revised it, not denied.

Correct.

So, denied would mean?

Well, it's sort of the same effect.

They would have to go back to get a new Type 20 license.

I did confirm this process today with ABC just to make sure.

It would start their process with ABC over from scratch.

So, they would have to decline their application.

They would have to start completely from scratch with ABC.

A whole new license, a whole new PCN development, and then a whole new ask to Council.

So, it would extend the timeline, but they can go through the process.

So, if we denied it, then they would start.

So, either way, it's the same thing.

Correct.

Okay.

May I ask another question?

Sure.

Go ahead.

The staff report mentions proposing the full-scale redevelopment of the site.

Does that have to happen for this license to go into effect?

Or could the property stay exactly as it is physically now and the 21 license be approved?

The conditions that the Planning Commission approved would only apply to the new project

when that was opened.

So, it wouldn't be authorized to sell alcohol as the property currently exists.

I think covered by the line.

Okay.

No other question?

All right.

I don't have a question.

I have a comment or a question.

Sure.

Go ahead.

Yeah.

I mean, just, so we've had this issue come before this council, maybe a different group

of voter or representatives at the time.

But we're very conservative, as somebody had mentioned earlier about approving licenses in

areas of high concentration.

And West Sacramento just happens to have a high concentration, as mentioned before.

I mean, as a city, I mean, certain pockets of the city, I think, are a lot more than others.

But still, you do see, for the size of our city, a lot more opportunities for people to

just walk in and grab what they need.

And that's not a judgment against libations whatsoever.

I think this question is that, you know, the residents here have elected us to manage

how land is used in their neighborhoods.

And that's why this particular location is of particular concern to me.

Because it does abut a very vibrant and small neighborhood of residents who aren't necessarily

at this meeting tonight.

And I think that, you know, the sale of alcohol, especially hard alcohol, as we could say liquor,

right, 21, that could lead to a variety of different problems with areas, whether that be

disturbances with noise or light or vagrancy or risk of public safety.

But as the mayor mentioned, just drunk driving instances and other types of violence that occur

when these opportunities are available readily.

And that is such a highly trafficked intersection there that I can imagine would be very popular

for such activity.

So I just think that, as we mentioned earlier, there is a high concentration of opportunity

in that particular area.

And when it comes to West Capitol Avenue and or that particular corridor, I have a high sensitivity.

It is an area that we've been trying to revitalize and bring our city back for our residents.

And so for that, I have great big concerns about a Type 21.

Whether or not beer and wine would inspire me differently, I can't answer that at this juncture.

But I am not into it.

Okay.

All right.

Nothing else?

All right.

Thank you.

I'm going to open it up for public comment, Madam Clerk.

Noah Phillips?

You have three minutes.

If you, so, I'm going to go ahead and see if you're going to go ahead and see if

you're going to open it up for your town.

Okay.

So there's only one card for all three of you?

Just two of us.

There's two separate cards, Madam Clerk.

I think that's what I read.

I have Pete Tobin.

That's me.

That's me.

Okay.

So three, three.

No, we'll do three.

We're not even going to.

So each of you have, if you submitted two cards, each of you have three minutes.

So that's six minutes.

Okay.

We'll do it in less than that.

Okay.

That's fine.

I just want to provide clarification.

Okay.

Members of the council, Pete Tobin with Tobin Consulting.

I think it's really important to clarify that we're dealing with an existing ARCO

that is super old it's an eyesore you can't see in it okay the restrictions

of these conditions of approval I've probably been involved with two to three

hundred gas stations with use permits and everything else never seen anything

this restrictive but the owner agreed to it this is Tony

he has a type 21 in escrow he's had it for about a year he can't go ahead and

buy it until this happens the goal of the project is to completely rebuild the

site that will not happen if the type 21 doesn't get approved so what you'll have

is you'll have an existing the existing ARCO it'll stay he's got plans that are

probably three months out in terms of full rebuild plans with a big nice C store

that you can see inside pumps everything's new it's on a bigger site it's awesome

that's not going to happen because it doesn't economically pencil out without

this type 21

so I just want to just say can you speak into the mic please yeah sorry that's for

the public it goes to a live feed no problem

the issues with saturation of license and more particularly the issue of where

the property sits in relation to residential housing was one of the

primary concerns that law enforcement raised in their initial objections to

this project to the 21 license

with some back and forth I think what we came to the conclusion about was the fact

that the data that the police department brought forward didn't support the denial

and I think what they did was that they looked at the types of calls for

service that the other type 21 projects and locations had and you know after they

looked at the data they came to the conclusion that this set of conditions was

the right path forward for the kind of rebuild that that Tony is looking to do

out in that area so thank you you want to say anything Tony

okay and we can answer any questions if you have any

I do have a question sounds like revenue it's revenue generating to pencil out

that you know the construction what is that typically about 15% it makes all

other it really helps your return on investment and if that's not there in a

lot of cases franchisees corporate oil companies they just go doesn't pencil out

okay all right thank you thank you so let me just get this straight in order to

make this project pencil you have to approve a hard liquor license or you're saying beer wine and

liquor complete that's really up to Tony what's your take on this is a nine

million dollar project is it going to work out for you with a beer and license only

speaking of Mike yeah we actually started in 2017 and then COVID came and then we

restarted again in 2022

all that time I spent about a half a million dollars didn't get anywhere at

that time it was gonna cost me about 4.5 million dollars and now it's gonna cost me

about 9.5 million dollars we also have a fast food we requested a drive-through but we were

declined so we had to add something to make it work which was a license ABC license

my question was so does it have to include hard liquor or could beer and wine hypothetically suffice as an

alternative you have you run those numbers to determine that we only bring the

numbers with the liquor license because that sounds like it would have you'd have

to sell a whole lot of liquor in order to make the project come to fruition it

seems like it's on the shoulders of selling the liquor is that fair to say

liquor will be percentage of the sales

I'm not sure we will have to pencil it out we're not even sure we can get a type

20 because we have a type 21 in escrow so we'd have to reverse engineer the whole

thing that's that's kind of big issue we don't know if that is even available that

they'd have to start from scratch to get the type yeah right but without a doubt we

there's no way this thing will be built because he's he's probably three four

months away from pulling building permits he's already been through planning so all

the building permits planning permits underground tank permits that's how close

he is

to this project and that's this is that's how vital this is

so why is it that you could get a type 21 license but not a 20 which is a little

bit more restrictive Tony was working with a ABC consultant and you literally you're buying

these on the market there's there's these they're available type 20 but it was available

a year ago so they put in masco and they can't release it until this this occurs that's how that

makes sense so the 21 was an escrow not the 20 right there's a type 21 and ask or as we speak

I see but not the 20. no no it was they wouldn't they would they have to take 21 was was was the one

that was an escrow that's the one to pursue is is your client buying a license from someone who holds a license

yes so this is not a new license from ABC and and whatever the market is whether there's a type 20

license available on the market I that's another question right where it's not adding a new one

I see it's buying an existing one oh okay well that that that makes a difference that it's not a new

one that it's an existing one that makes sense I didn't realize that that we had that here by the

way that there was that somebody somebody I'm aware of other cities where that happens and so

I guess our city does that too okay

um anything else just to be clear that that's ABC that controls that process not the city in terms of

the market oh I see so it's statewide right so there's like I'm not sure where this license is coming

from I think I'd heard from Davis but I'm not sure correct like a bucket in the county or I actually

don't know where it's coming from so you know okay I have a question okay when's the last time money was

put into this property to upgrade its situation from the the presentation that it currently is in

Tony when's the last fixed up the gas station did you do any when's the last time it was work was performed on it upgraded

the dispenser

2014 what was done

upgraded the dispenser

we put a new pump remember that remember you closed it down and

actually I wanted to put dispensers now because the card readers are not working I know they're not

but the city um it was a I had to redo the whole I had to rip out rip out the concrete and redo all the

electrical so it wasn't possible I don't go to yours because you don't have the card reader when I was only six months

away from rebuilding it right yeah yeah no I mean it would be nice to have more a more functional gas station

yeah there and uh I don't know if you've seen the pictures um but it's gonna serve the community

and you'll be able to see inside the c-store there'll be about 30 cameras everything's high tech

all the way across right now you can't even see them barely can see

because you're are you account where you currently sharing cameras with our west sec pd if anything

no I am not you're not

you will

that's one of the conditions one of the conditions okay good

so madam mayor yes

may I um engage oh yes absolutely okay so here's the thing we don't I don't want to convolute two

different issues the one whether or not we agree that the new investment would be superior to what's

existing is not before us tonight we are not in a position to decide whether or not we agree that the

gas station investment would be better off I mean I think everybody would think that something shiny new

that we could look into would be preferable to a situation that we have right now I think the question

becomes a matter of whether or not we approve a liquor license um and for liquor to be sold from

that location specifically and as we had mentioned in previous comments this is a a location that has um

specific and very special situation it's positioned um in a community that's already highly saturated and

even though you can do it the question is should you and as elected officials and people who are speaking on

behalf of a lot of community sentiment especially with one that is abutted

a neighborhood that has been traditionally very quiet um and it's um it's surrounded by areas where

there's high traffic uh it just comes to question whether or not hard liquor or liquor at all but

for me hard liquor should would be uh preferable to to bring into that that area it's the same argument that i

i had maybe seven years ago when i brought the issue before this city about flavored tobacco products and the fact

that lots of our local children were being attracted to vaping and using flavored tobacco

now whether or not um you know people should have the choice to do that that's fine but when we market

to children that is not a policy concern consideration but that excuse me that is a policy consideration that

i as an elected leader have to take very seriously because it is having a perverse impact on the community

um as i sit here tonight like i said beer and wine or hard seltzers and prepackaged multi-unit quantities

are not necessarily my concern the question i have is what comes with hard liquor and the type 21 is my

my reservation um so i wouldn't say it preclude my position on on maybe a type 20 in the future but

as we sit here today i don't believe it's good for my community and that's my neighborhood so with that i

my my position is that i'm not

i i wanted to um you know say that in reviewing the presentation um from staff and thank you for

pulling it um and uh presenting that opportunity for us to take a look at the conditions of approval

which is pretty important for us to understand and all the staff work um and seeing that our west

side PD is going to be heavily engaged um in monitoring this and so i do have confidence that

you know we will be um watching you closely i i don't i didn't receive any public comment normally

i'm pretty engaged with the community i have not received and i'm familiar with the residents and

and have spoken to a business owner you know a week and a half ago and this did not come up as a concern

am i am i missing something that were there any concerns raised at any meetings planning commission

are you do you notify do you do you notify the residents about what your plans are

is there is that is there a process and then

yeah i can um explain the public notification process so prior to both of the um initial planning

commission meeting where the planning commission considered the design of the project um uh the

project was required to comply with our public notification standards uh which requires uh actually

mailed notice going out to all of the property owners within a 500 foot radius of the of the project site

so that actually happened three separate times for the three different times that this project went to

planning commission um the project uh and the item tonight was also noticed um in the news ledger

uh consistent with our public notification uh standards per the municipal code that's that's incredible were

there any objections or concerns or anything raised we did not receive any public comments or uh comments

on this project uh based on that that uh previous planning commission cycle

well that's very helpful to know because i i it seems like um council member rosco is referencing

that that that as elected officials were being responsive but i have not heard i have not received

any notification or a phone call or anything from the businesses around there and i was just a little

concerned that there was no notification of this that this was not transparent enough yeah this project

did uh comply with our kind of standard public notice requirements okay because with that i still i would feel

comfortable to support this thank you all right um let's see where council takes it thank you

i'll make a motion all right let me question

i'll second okay madam clerk um council member alcala moved and council mayor protemps

solpezio hall seconded please call the roll council member alcala aye council member early emphatically

no council member orozco no mayor pro tem solpezio hall yes mayor guerrero yes all right this item is

approved next we have um item 16 and uh no okay yeah there we go

good evening mayor council

chris sarofsky parkinson rec yes good to have you yeah um so who would like to go first with your

questions or comments um mine are actually more

yes am i on now he keeps me honest um so mine are less uh of a question and more of a friendly amendment and a

comment as well and so i will start with i am proud to support moving this project forward because

improving our parks is about bringing people together and investing in the heart of our community

but as we do this work we also have a responsibility to honor the cultural history and the sensitivities

connected to this land so given that tribal resources have been identified in nearby areas not necessarily this

exact location but but definitely nearby i'd like to propose that we direct staff to work on exploring

a name change for the park one that reflects cultural sensitivity and acknowledges the heritage

of those who have come before us i feel that this is about respect inclusivity and ensuring that every

family in west sacramento feels seen feels valued in these spaces that we create together and so that's that

is my comment i'm very excited to support this um but wanted to make an amendment on renaming the park right now i think heritage oaks is um the name that we currently have but i think there's a process for name changes there is but i think we have to initiate the process and so this would be yeah so i think i could chime in on that so i think if uh i would be curious to hear you know um opinions from the whole council but we do have a name change policy uh that's fairly recently adopted by the council

uh in fact uh it's more a procedural thing it contemplates bringing this up through the typical you know council members request a future item however given that we're awarding the contract for the project we're talking about it tonight uh we're comfortable if if there is consensus interest on the council to at least initiate the renaming process there's a whole uh procedure we follow that takes into account a lot of what uh councilman early said um and we would we would obviously bring that back to council um

as part of the council as part of that process so and ideally reach out to our our tribe um that we have here

yochidehi as well as potentially um other community would be my would be my request but i think that's part of

that's part of the process absolutely thank you

okay um mayor britton thank you um so first of all staff thank you for the updated rendering of the park um

you're welcome i've been asking for this for a while so i'm excited to see what it looks like um

um

not the same conversation but along the same subject um there's a very good chance that cultural resources

will be found at this site can you share with us the process that the city has um if cultural resources

are identified and how the construction company that we're recommending for this project is educated on

those policies yeah and procedures yes currently we have um environmental science associates that's

we have a contract with them they've been involved since the early design process they did our section 106

consultation and they did a cultural resource survey of the property so they're very much aware of

the site and they'll come out they'll be at our pre-construction meeting they'll also set up a time before

shovels are hitting the ground and they'll teach the construction staff of what to look for and what

their mode of conduct is to include the esa environmental associates

and we'll follow the process that we've hired the consultants to guide us with um

on that note um then you know to be frank i i don't have an issue with the name of the park right now

um but what i would like to see there and i think this is a conversation that we need to have

past this um to acknowledge the historic nature of this site and um the native lands um i would love to

have a future conversation about partnering with you today about um kiosks and um information um on the site

um to better connect our community with uh the history of this area and so i'm not directing you

to do anything right now i'm just sharing my thoughts on this specific part cultural resources that have

been located in the area um and just i think it's a conversation we need to have it a future date to find

funding and to partner with our local tribe of what that could look like in the area and then uh the second

note is we have a new business there at heritage oak park camille's cafe which has been incredibly

popular this weekend there were lines out the door and down the street um i've spoken with the business

owner recently and he said that you guys had a great conversation about construction coming um can you

just share uh some of the conversations that you've had with both the owner and the construction company

about how to just minimally disrupt their day-to-day operations yeah so and the agreement we have with

the cafe owners is that we maintain parking spaces not as many as there were on saturday when i was there

there was only two parking spaces left so we're going to work with the contractor to provide as many spaces

in addition to what's in their agreement and we have set up communications with the owners so that we

know when deliveries are coming in and we're going to not disrupt the business at all we're going to keep

it at a minimum keep our open communications with the owner and we've discussed doing a lot of the work

right around the cafe on mondays when they are closed so we have a good working relationship so far with

between the contractor and the cafe owners that's fantastic and then my final question is uh for the last

few months i've been hosting a food truck event um at heritage oak park and we've been having it um

i don't even um kind of back behind these trees here uh and uh the next event is this next wednesday

and then the event in august was initially scheduled for it's the fourth friday of the month

which would be august 27th um i would love confirmation that due to construction we can

not have this event or maybe if construction is starting on the other side that this event still

could be held i've chatted with staff about that and so um the i guess the phasing of construction

it would be nice to know sooner rather than later that i can let my partner sacto mofo know whether or

not we can do our august event yeah i would say the august event i'd cancel that event we're going to put the

fence up we're going to do some perimeter work the first week of august starting august 4th and then

the week of august 11th we're going to start putting the perimeter fence up so we won't want to have

public in that space perfect what i needed to know very helpful um thank you chris you're welcome

i appreciate um the renaming suggestions the first i've heard of it and i and i feel i need to absorb

it a little more as a conversation with the city manager and you know i think heritage jokes is how i've

um i've seen it um but i mean i'm open to options to um elevating the the history and the culture we did have a

meeting with um a representative um parks and rec and doug and i had a meeting um about prop 4 um funding

opportunities and by the way um uh historical preservation museums is also a line item in there

in case you want to explore that to add that as part of the park i don't know how we can do it but

um that's when i wearing my other hat i learned about that um so um i i didn't know we didn't we

were just talking about parks in general but well i didn't to be fair i didn't discuss it with with

anyone here for brown act no i know which is why you right this would be the first time you would be

here at least hearing it from me um i think it was the again for me it's the cultural resources as

mayor pro tom just said likely we'll find more cultural resources there so beyond anything else right as

you go closer to the river and so it feels again um and this is more uh feelings than anything and

respect for our tribe that if you're going to find um particularly their cultural resources there that

it feels only right to do that but completely understand what you're saying which is hey i'm just hearing this

yeah um along our levee we're going to be having um a lot of renovation done for outdoor recreational

activities and if not this maybe there can be something dedicated space naming that as well as

an option as a backup option um and also looking at funding for that um through through prop form this

is this year that they're going to be um but i know it's all new and these are nuances that would

come up with this minute if you start writing behind you have friends that'll you know prepare things for

you um so thank you so much where i i just want to say thank you for pulling this this is a very

exciting project heritage oaks and the future um i know that um covid hit this area hard and we had some

you know unfortunate situations happen with this area that we had to shut down the ropes um course but

you know looking forward to the future and what we what it'll offer to the city and all the residents

around you know being there open such a great add-on there so very helpful grateful for all the work

you've done thank you and mayor i can pull since i did again to be fair to my colleagues this is the

first time you guys are hearing this and it does feel like maybe there is some some additional processing

that needs to happen around um renaming the park and and potential partnership with the ochodehi so i can

absolutely pull my friendly amendment

and with that i'll accept a motion to approve this agenda item i'd like early moves

mayor potenselpezio moved and um early seconded madam clerk please call the roll

council member akala aye council member early aye council member orosco aye mayor potenselpezio hall

aye mayor guerrero aye all right next is item 18 under finance is a public hearing

and consideration of resolution 25-77 certifying inclusion of delinquent charges and penalties for

water sewer and refuse services on the secure tax rule in the same manner as the general taxes and

directing that lien also be placed on the subject properties miss angie familia yes our finance

supervisor will do a presentation on this good evening madam mayor and council members i'm angie familia from

the finance department every year the city conducts a public hearing to place the delinquent water sewer

and refuse charges on the secured property tax roll and at the same time we request authorization to

place liens on these delinquent properties toward the end of each fiscal year city staff prepares a list of

unpaid utility service charges on accounts that have been delinquent for more than 60 days we use that list we use that list to send out notices in mid-june to notify the customers of the delinquency

the notice includes the amount due and contact information to make a payment as of today the delinquent accounts for utility charges has reduced from 1233 accounts which is what we had originally to 878 there was an increase in the total amount of past due

of past due from last year to this year because last year we received a 1.1 million dollar check from the state to apply towards accounts that were past due during covet

the city staff will continue to accept payments through july 24th to allow staff to have a few days to process the final payments and pull together the list to be submitted to the county for the tax roll

i'd love to answer any questions that you may have and ask for the council to open the public hearing

okay thank you you're welcome um with that i'm going to start off with opening the public hearing

madam clerk are there any requests to speak we have no requests to speak on this item all right closing the

public hearing the public comment time bringing it back to council are there any questions comments

all right i'll accept the motion to approve this so moved okay early second okay council member alcala

moved and council member early seconded madam clerk please open the roll

council member acala council member early aye council member rosco aye mayor pro tem sulpizio hall

aye mayor guerrero right this item is approved thank you so much for all your heart thank you

on this next is item 19 under the fire department is a public hearing and consideration of resolution 25-36

certifying the list of wheat abatement charges directing that a lien be placed on the subject properties and

requesting inclusion of these charges on the secure tax roll in order that they may be collected in

the same manner as general taxes yes you may get started good evening madam mayor and members of the

council i'm here tonight to put close to the 2024 wheat abatement program after a year of allowing property

owners to compensate the fire department directly for third party forced abatement we have under outstanding

balances for a list of properties that now needs to be directed to the yola county auditor the unpaid

balances include a 20-percent administrative fee to cover the cost of managing the program

it is respectfully recommended that the city council open the public hearing to receive public comment

on those charges as well as adopt resolution 2536 we're certifying them thank you and i'd be happy to

answer any questions thank you are there any questions okay we will um open it up for public comment

madam clerk are there any requests to speak we have no requests to speak on this item okay then with

that i'll bring it back and uh i'll accept a motion to approve this request i'll move okay um mayor pro

tem sopizio ho moved and council member orozco seconded and i'm please call the roll council member

okala aye council member early she's not here council member orozco aye mayor pro tem sopizio ho

aye mayor guerrero aye all right thank you so much to the thank you appreciate it thank you

next is our regular agenda items from community development is item 20 is city council workshop

on development review process enhancements and review the book of fees update miss house thank you

thank you

thank you

good evening mayor guerrero members of council my name is andrea ous and i'm your director of

community development and i am thrilled to share with you how the city's community development department

is modernizing its development review and permitting processes to better serve our residents local

businesses and development community we've been working on several initiatives um over the past

couple of years and um we want to make development in west sacramento more predictable more transparent

and more efficient and tonight i'll walk you through some of those highlights uh our objective is clear

we want to be the top rated community development department in the region uh and to achieve that

we're taking a deliberative deliberate and strategic approach uh starting with acquiring a clear

understanding of our customers experience and we're gathering formal and informal feedback from

applicants from stakeholders and staff and we're using that insight along with professional best

practices to shape meaningful improvements we're also focusing on developing a means to acquire reportable

metrics so that we can pro track progress uh measure outcomes and hold ourselves accountable

for a high standard of service but beyond tools and processes uh this really is about culture and building a

a culture of yes we're committed to welcoming the future and moving forward with a

mindset grounded in problem solving in collaboration and innovation so we're embracing this culture and

where we work together to find solutions and make great projects possible the vision isn't just

aspirational it's operational and it's driving every improvement that we make so what's the development

experience and why does it matter well development review and permitting touches every part of our local economy

from small business renovations to large industrial projects but we know that time is money and delays or

uncertainty in the process can increase cost it can frustrate applicants and slow down investment

that's why we've prioritized improvements to streamline the experience and to make the city easier to work with

um i'd like to walk through a typical development journey very quickly and um from the early ideas the embryonic ones to the final inspection

um just so you can better understand how we support projects in community development from start to finish

so it all starts with the pre-application phase and at this stage it's when individuals or businesses come to us with early ideas and conceptual uh proposals so these initial

initial conversations are really essential they give applicants a chance to explore the possibilities and to ask questions of us before formally submitting anything

uh these early inquiries often include several iterations of conversations and concepts and our applicants refine their proposals based on that feedback

uh during this time we introduce customers to the tools we already have uh to make the process easier and and more transparent and those include

uh sell a citizen access which allows applicants to track their permits and track uh applications online

it includes permit pal which is our guided permit wizard uh that helps people identify what permits they may need and what process to take

and our gis parcel viewer which allows them to look up zoning and and basic property information once the uh applications formally submitted

then we start the process of review and so post submittal we provide comments do a detailed review

and several rounds of review typically during the building permit process or even the planning

entitlement process once permits and entitlements are approved the project moves towards construction and then of course we do all of our

required inspections and this full cycle approach from starting from an idea

germinating uh through to an end of uh an approved occupied project is how we guide development in a structured

and supportive way taking a step back for a moment though um and realizing that we are um a a young city

uh we are about 38 years old and this was the site i meant to be at um west sacramento really comparatively is

very young and what i mean by that is our community development department uh and our policies our procedures our

internal operations um administrative infrastructure is sometimes a remnant from yolo county we still have

codes that are adopted from prior to incorporation uh sometimes our processes are implemented ad hoc

as needed but overall we haven't done anything holistically um and we've done a tremendous amount

however and we've had legendary success and progress for a city of our age and our size but when you consider

the fact that woodland has um 116 years they're older than us uh sacramento is 137 years older than we are

and even davis is 60 years older we've come a very long way as a city in a very short amount of time

our processes then can be very simple and very streamlined but it can also be inordinately complicated

but building a culture where we are focusing on streamlining and efficiency will provide that surety to

applicants uh faster projects uh faster projects and more certainty in in the outcomes so efficient

processes further clarify the perceptions that not only our current customers but those seeking to invest

here should do so so what we're trying to do our objective here is to enhance a business and customer

friendly environment and a climate in our city building on our strengths addressing our challenges head-on

and using the tools we have in a smarter and more strategic way we recognize that businesses thrive

in an environment where government is a partner uh that's why we're focusing on digital tools and

platforms uh that not that we already exist but we're using them in a more impactful way at least we we hope to

technology is only part of the equation however what truly sets us apart is our commitment

to improving uh customer service and we're not replacing the human element we're really trying to

enhance it whether you're a developer a small business owner or a resident you can count on high

touch responsive approach to customer service that means it's timely communication real solutions and a team

that is empowered to help and that commitment extends to our team in city hall as well so

increasing our ability for teams to train uh clear communication and regular feedback because when our staff feel well

supported uh they're better equipped to support the customer so some of the initiatives we're working on

currently um include improving development services through the launching of permit pal it's uh one of our

biggest recent accomplishments and uh it's one where the applicants through the permitting process

are able to find where they can do a certain project or if they have a land piece of land already

what kinds of things can they do on their on their property um and it helps people really understand what

they need to do before they submit um to the community development department reducing confusion

uh avoiding unnecessary steps and saving everyone's time what it doesn't do quite yet is link to our acilla which is our major

permit platform um but fortunately acela has actually acquired permit pal very recently

so we're counting on improvements to be made so that people can go to really a one-stop uh virtual permitting shop

we're also kicking off an organizational and operational evaluation of the department um involving a third-party review

of staffing of workflows of our organizational structure and service delivery based on those findings i anticipate there's going to be recommendations

and it may uh realign some of our teams to reduce internal handoffs uh clarifying responsibilities and taking a data driven approach to staffing

so a key focus of all of our work in community development is the use of our major platform acela

uh right now it's significantly underutilized for a variety of reasons but we are working on it continually

um we're not getting the full value however of the tool we already have uh so improving how we use

and the types of things we use acela for um is already underway and it's going to continue in phases

a major update to the user interface uh for the customer is scheduled to roll roll out late summer

um and that's going to help make our system uh much more intuitive and much more accessible uh to both staff

and our external users again i can't stress this enough acela uh is and the improvements to acela

is critical for increasing efficiency and reducing processing times but also enhancing the transparency

um so more priorities we're moving forward with an important update to our transportation impact fee or tiff

program a request for proposal has been released uh to initiate the comprehensive update to ensure that the fee

structure remains aligned with the city's evolving transportation needs and and development goals

uh this effort incorporates really three major components first the update to the fee structure

to modernize it and to modernize the project list to ensure that we're funding the right infrastructure

to support future growth but in addition to that doing a full evaluation of our demand model which will ensure

we're working with accurate and correct data that's current to forecast travel behavior to assess project impacts and to more effectively at both neighborhood and citywide scale plan for it

we're leaning into our gis and acela expertise to unlock even greater potential in the systems we already have

and our goal is not just to improve these uh individual tools but to really supercharge them um to integrate across the platforms

ultimately this kind of integration is what helps us move from good service to great service and using data and technology would power more responsive and transparent uh operations

just touching on a few of the additional improvements we've recently installed a self-help kiosk

in the permit center this gives walk-in customers access to permit pal checklists our permitting platform acela and other resources um also signing up for a business license or renewal is now fast and easy through that kiosk if you don't have a computer or phone

or digital access um our technicians are available uh to assist customers and signing up for their own acela citizen access account

and to make the process more streamlined this is a great tool for applicants who are just learning the process or for contractors who just want to check on a permit

status very quickly our business license form and process enhancements were we're redesigning the form for clarity we've heard that it can be

has room for improvement and we acknowledge that so we're taking action on that

um behind the scenes we've uh restructured it to allow for for faster departmental reviews and we keep working on that as well

in order to decrease the time from application to issuance

our standard specifications for construction uh to further support predictability and development we're finalizing

a comprehensive update to our standard specs

uh these guidelines set clear expectations for construction of streets sidewalks utilities and

other public infrastructure it helps ensure quality and consistency and it makes it easier for applicants

to prepare plans that will be approved in fewer resubmittals online building permits for simpler simple

building projects we have um fully available online permitting and that includes for hvac replacements

for electrical panel upgrades and re-roofs you can apply online pay for them and get them issued online without ever

needing to come into city hall so saving valuable time and keeping projects moving and then finally our book of

fees update so our our city is looking and in the process of updating its book of fees outlining the charges for

uh development related services and we're starting with the community development department um it's designed to make sure our fees are clear are transparent and reflective of the actual cost uh for service delivery uh importantly i should note that uh we've involved the chamber in this uh critical update and as uh stakeholders

uh uh our goal is uh our goal is really here to take feedback tonight from the council and return um to the chamber in their economic and government affairs committee um at a future meeting for additional feedback once we receive direction from the council um their input has helped us identify um areas where greater clarity is needed and adjustments may be warranted um so

um i'm going to segue into the book of fees update and with that i'm going to introduce so we have roberta rapers our director of finance she's helped um lead this process as well as um our lead consultant from matrix consulting chris courtney ramos is here

um so why update fees the last time we conducted a comprehensive fee study was over a decade ago

uh since then the cost of delivering service has increased due to inflation staffing changes new technology

updating our fees ensures several things um that we're covering a reasonable estimated average costs of providing services

that our fees are equitable and legally compliant and that we're transparent and efficient in how we charge and deliver services

the scope of the study so matrix um analyzed costs uh based on a bottom-up approach it's a methodology to determine the full cost for each service we provide

it includes direct costs and indirect costs direct costs are generally salary benefits productive hours indirect costs are like admin

in time services supplies and city overhead we prioritize fees uh for the update at um for planning building engineering code enforcement and fire prevention

we evaluated both the flat fees that we collect and the deposit based fees and we recommended um an adopting a formal cost recovery policy

which we currently do not have and routine annual updates which is also a best practice

so the methodology uh is reflective of california law and it requires that fees reflect a reasonable estimated

average of cost matrix uh use time estimates from staff fully burdened rates and that's direct and indirect costs

and detailed documentation to calculate the costs um in some cases very high level we found that flat fees

in some cases were too high and we recommend lowering them or right sizing them but more often the fees we have are too low

meaning we've been under recovering our costs for some permits the recovery rate is actually 50 less than 50 cents on the dollar

uh generally the recovery rate is not that dramatically lower however um but the biggest issue is that we're really about right sizing the fees for development

in some instances fees might actually be decreasing and in others they're increasing to ensure everybody is paying their fair share

um it's important that our fees however establish an appropriate baseline and um that baseline is important so that efficiencies are implemented

and that at the point an updated study or analysis is done it can be a compared then to that baseline

so a summary of finding i'm going to go through these fairly quickly because it's super high level

uh for fire prevention uh we're moving away from project valuation and sprinkler head counts which is

how we've done it in the past instead we're recommending flat fees based on permit types

cost structures tied to building size thresholds and a more accurate simplified fee methodology utilizing flat fees wherever we can

in terms of building this represents the most major changes that we're recommending uh we're proposing major structural changes in how we calculate building permit fees

uh the changes include consolidating valuation tables based on project type and i know that's a little nerdy but

but i can i can go into a little bit more detail and courtney certainly can too uh charging by square footage for single family homes

um to ensure consistency updating the minimum hours needed for plan review and um really our goal here is to streamline and have a more transparent structure

uh that's easier for customers to understand for planning we're introducing new fees for services um that we

have either have emerged or have evolved um it can be anything from you'll be seeing a massage

ordinance update we will be recommending massage business permits and they will have their own fees

pre-application reviews were never we were never charging for that but we were spending a lot of time

so we are establishing those um those fees we've also evaluated the deposit based fees

we've refined categories we've reviewed we've reduced some of the deposits that people would be charging

importantly we are proposing a couple of uh additional charges so one is one that we're currently collecting

which is the technology fee um we're going to continue that we are recommending continuing that um technology

fee to help modernize and streamline the permitting that i've just been talking about for the last few

minutes um and then we are recommending a new general plan maintenance fee this is a standard across

cities and counties throughout california frankly this is the first place i've ever experienced where we have

none um this is a a a surcharge on on certain permits um to allow for us to um create a revenue stream so that we can ultimately do uh updates to our housing element to our general plan our mobility element

um and be able to have a fund that we can use um towards that end engineering we're standardizing plan check and inspection fees uh particularly for capital projects and private development

we've also proposed new and revised fees for large projects over a million dollars

um and we're just codifying some of the services we already provide um we're feasible the flat fees uh will

replace deposits again for more predictability and efficiency i wanted to point out that um matrix matrix's work

in order to gauge our proposed fee uh fee estimates um we benchmarked and matrix worked to compare

six other jurisdictions with our own uh davis elk grove rockland vacaville and woodland we consider

differences in population and staffing and and the recency of their own uh fee studies so whether or not

they were old or not this helps ensure our fees are reasonable and competitive while recovering the cost of

services overall west sacramento generally has fees that are lower than those of the surveyed jurisdictions

other than for building services of the surveyed jurisdictions west sacramento's current fees are

most comparable with woodland while the city's full cost calculated is most comparable to fees charged by

elk grove another uh younger city it is important to note that the results of this survey only show the

fees adopted by council and it doesn't consider what their cost recovery policies decisions are for department or

the jurisdictions so as such we really are um kind of using this with a grain of salt but um it is a secondary

decision making tool uh you may wonder why uh we aren't looking at sacramento as a comparative city

while it's obviously very close to us geographically it's it's a very very different city in terms of its

structure its bureaucracy its depth of bureaucracy and frankly you know the um more arduous processes that

they have in their community development department in general so in conclusion where do we go from here

well um we're continuing the outreach and we're here tonight to get input uh and questions from the council and the public

um and based on that direction we'd like to finalize the draft report and the proposed fee changes uh the updated fee

proposal if um the council directs us would um come back to council uh for consideration on august 20th

and if adopted the new book of fees will take effect on november 1st we will also finalize implementation

uh policies and and the and conduct the annual updates going forward so what does it all mean well to

conclude all of these efforts are really aimed at creating a better customer experience and whether

you're remodeling your home building a new facility or just making tenant improvements to commercial space

we want to make that process easier faster and more predictable so our goal is to a city that says yes

we are still ensuring safety and quality to the community and that concludes my presentation thank you

thank you ms else

i get back to council yes council member rodosco uh miss house i i want to be the first to say thank you

for this presentation um i remember there was a presentation years ago i don't know that it was

necessarily this department but we're still using tri-level um uh you know paper to make sure that

we could give people receipts for uh the work orders and it was a it was horrendous because we weren't able

to keep up with times and and it's true we are a uh a very relatively young uh city in comparison to

many others and um so we're still you know pretty archaic in our practices you know you you heard

you know you hear run the gamut the feedback you get about permit some folks say you have the best and

easiest you know city to work with the other others that are saying okay hold on this is this needs to

work i haven't heard back right but as you were presenting i took advantage of that qr code and i gotta say

for somebody who isn't very um savvy when it comes to this type of stuff this kind of work i was able

to calculate permit fees for a potential brainstorm project and um that was uh probably about a two

minute effort which empowers me as a user to have the confidence to go forward with my dream idea

whatever that might be right because it seems readily accessible so just seeing

in just this tonight's presentation the the the distance we've traveled since you've been at the

helm um i am quite impressed now um no criticisms and i don't know that i've even formulated a question

other than to say i agree i we we have had this is a long time coming and i appreciate that it is

coming now um and being presented with council because as we all know fees need to change and we're

behind the buck and it does nothing but um punish the residents and businesses who want to do business

here um well many people might say well wait a sec raising fees what because we need those fees in

order to effectively operate and give a higher level of service to our budding community that is growing

um and expand the services so with that i just wanted to give that feedback i i'm thoroughly impressed with

the presentation and um and what what i just experienced because we haven't had that before

and i really hope that that does inspire others to want to come here and live work learn and play

in our city thank you thank you hi um so i i did i we we get briefed before this and i have to admit i i

i felt like i was potentially conflating two things and so on the front end of the presentation you

talked about the efficiencies right and how we um will be improving and you've there are growth

opportunities is that's what i what i would say um and then on the back end we talked about the fees

and one of the things i actually posed during my briefing was okay i just i want to make sure i'm

getting this we're not saying that we need to raise fees in order to be more efficient and to provide

better service i i mean if we are let's let's have that discussion too i mean i i think that's part of

it um in order for us to sustain the the kind of changes that we're doing and to supercharge them

in certain ways we do need to invest in some of our platforms like acela to be able to really see the

um utilization of this impressive tool a really increase so i think there is a balance there it's not

one size fits all but yes some of the fees are are being recommended to be increased just to

to make sure we're covering our current costs which we currently aren't in certain respects in certain

types of fees um and others we are and we're we're maybe charging a little bit too much so we want to

reduce that but at the end of the day um that overhead piece and the technology piece um that we're currently

we're currently collecting but we are recommending an additional percentage um would help fund a lot of

the further changes that we need to make to to make it a much more um comprehensive and workable system

that we currently struggle with at this point okay so so again just to make sure that i that i am fully

understanding and keeping up in order for us to be more efficient to provide better service we need to

we need to raise our we need to raise our prices and our fees is that okay um so at this point

for example our billing rate for our deposits does not reflect what we're paying people we're paying

people up here and our our billing rate that we're charging for our deposits is down there so we

already have a delta right and that's not about efficiencies that's about us not being in the red

yeah so it feels like it's actually two different issues right i mean just to be fair yeah one is

hey we're not charging enough for the service that we're giving right separately though and like i said

it feels like um potentially this this presentation conflates the two probably for efficiency we put them

together but separately is hey we also want to get more efficient right but there is a world in which

we could get more efficient without raising our fees not suggesting again we shouldn't raise our fees to

not cover our costs but again i i don't want to conflate the two and i see roberta came up here

roberta do you have thoughts on this question or you're you're just as a just in case

okay perfect so do roberta do you mind coming up as well because i am about to ask a budget question

and so as it relates to the potential book of fees that we would be increasing would that now cover

our costs and or some of the efficiencies again i'm truly actually trying not right to separate the two

things um we are not currently covering our costs we're not recovering our costs so uh to the tune of about

uh 1.6 million a year we're taking from fund balance there's a limited fund balance and so that is

workable for another two or three years but then then we won't have we won't be able to continue to

function even the way we are um as part of the update uh we do have a technology fee that is

certainly or that is currently capped um in order to uh determine what we should be charging for a

technology fee we took all of our existing technology costs and the fee that we are we are proposing

covers those costs so it really is we've been implementing efficiencies already okay and we

are trying to right size our fees to recover our current costs and pay for the technology that we've

implemented um over time as we continue to update our fees so we haven't done a comprehensive study in

in some time that's something that we will do about every five years or or more often if we need to

and we'll be making annual updates uh to keep pace with the cost of labor and benefits and inflation

but when we do that comprehensive study every few years we not only look at the costs the the cost of

labor but like how much time it takes us to do things so the goal is that by implementing these um both

technological uh efficiencies and then covering the cost of those through these fee updates um and then also

staffing efficiencies and other things right that when we come back and do another study

we would hope that if as we're improving efficiencies our cost of of providing those services will reduce

and uh and then our fees associated with those would reduce as well so going forward what we need

to do right now is we need to right size we really need to be charging uh higher fees in some cases

it's it's reallocating our costs on the on the different services and what they cost but we do need

to overall bring in more revenue to recover more of our costs and then we need to get on a regular

update schedule so that we are we are keeping pace with rising costs but we're also studying um our

uh what it takes to do this more often so that we can adapt and and adjust our fees up or down depending

on what our costs are so so just to make sure that i am keeping up that was that was very very helpful

so we currently have um technology efficiencies that we have already started to put in place am i

understanding that correctly yes okay perfect right now it sounds like the fee that we're charging at

least for our technology is is on par did i get that right is covered currently it is not it is not

okay nearly at all okay so our technology fees aren't being covered our staffing fees aren't being covered

as well okay perfect that is separate from we will get more efficient and better regardless of the fees

yeah we just won't have necessarily the revenue stream to be able to

to help pay for really a lot of which y'all get paid regardless right but but we still want to

make sure that we're covering our costs for tax reasons right like all of the things well they'll

they'll get paid regardless as long as we have revenues to cover it so we have a fund balance we're

drawing down from right when that fund balance is not available we have to reduce our costs by right

now about 1.6 million a year if we don't increase our fees okay all right that could be staffing all right

thank you very much both of you yes great program thank you um i do have one question on page 871

and i think roberta sort of i think the last question that council member early had maybe answered what i was

i was going to ask um the appeals to the board commissions that really jumped out at me because

it's like a hundred dollars then all of a sudden it's going to be four thousand six hundred and twenty

seven west sack is right up there with rocklin uh we're more maybe like davis so is that because we

received so many appeals that were i don't understand what's happening there yeah oh 871

or is that i'm sorry is that 53 so matrix consulting group page 53 yeah so appeal field appeal fees

historically are set very low they're never set to cover the cost of the actual service which is why

you'll like most of the comparisons there are super low um there are a couple like oak grove and rock

bloom which are a little bit higher you're starting i mean history like i'm when i started you would

see an appeal fee at like 75 and that you know barely even covered the administrative costs to get it

in front of council or a planning commission um so these it's not that all of a sudden your costs

associated with that service have skyrocketed what it is is that's what it's actually probably been

costing you this whole time um but the but the what you're charging for that service has always been

historically and not just here in west sack but in every pretty much every community within not just

california but probably so now we're going to be charging what the staff time would be would it cost

to bring an appeal well this is just what this is just what the full cost is obviously there would need

to be direction on what you want to charge oh sorry um so so the what we've recommended is that we keep

that appeal fee low um and you know essentially we're subsidizing that there's a couple of fees like

that like our business license fees are purposely lower than the cost to process them but we do that for

obvious reasons we want people to feel inspired to start businesses right um so yeah essentially our

our appeal fees are will we would recommend that they continue to be subsidized and this is just the

actual cost of staff time okay thank you um following up on that um i heard that we have to have cost

recovery but then i just heard that we can subsidize help me understand that

so usually the goal is that you're shooting for cost recovery but there are reasons for that you would

not charge full cost for certain permits where basically what you're doing is you're saying we

we want compliance um you need to get a permit for a water heater we want to make sure that people

come in and pull that permit and so we're going to keep that permit low so that we ensure compliance so

that we get the right inspections and the right reviews on it so it doesn't cause larger problems either

within that particular home or business or within the community um so while you will strive for full cost or

or high cost recovery um you know that you can have an overarching goal let's say we want 100

cost recovery in building as the example um but then to look in and say but you know what we're going

to identify these certain services that we're going to supply um but ideally it's not you know you're

reducing that you said 1.6 million we're reducing that overall subsidy um but we're identifying certain fees

and then we're making policies surrounding that so that in case the circumstances around why we've

chosen to subsidize those change that we're able to make those decisions just to jump in um you'll have

a presentation after this that's going to go a little bit more in detail about um sort of the various types

of of cost recovery methodologies um if you have something as as courtney said where you um are trying to

get um where it's more important to get compliance than it is to fully recover costs um you know to

get people to do the fire sprinklers so they don't have big fires or whatever it is there might be things

that you're going to subsidize you see that a lot with uh recreation programs programs geared towards

seniors or others where there's a bigger community benefit um health and wellness other types of things

you don't see a lot in in in these types of fees because these are regulatory fees um in in there are some

cases when you're talking about appeals or things where you want to make things um you know accessible

to people if you're charging four thousand dollars for somebody to do an appeal they're not going to

do it right but that's not the point the point is that you want them to have access they want them

you know to be a proper process and so you're going to set that lower so that people have access to it

so you're really looking at if there are certain programs or services that have a community-wide benefit

a larger benefit those are going to be um paid for by taxes more so than than individual

fees because there's a community-wide benefit if it's something that is specific to an individual

where only an individual or a group of individuals is receiving the benefit then you're going to charge

them they're going to pay for it um closer to 100 cost recovery because you don't want to use taxes

that everyone's paying to give a benefit to you know one person or a few people so there's a there's a

range of things these fees are typically regulatory and and usually set closer to 100 cost recovery

so thank you thank you it kind of leads leads in our next question and i really appreciate um council

member early's two issues um because i was going to present this in two buckets the um development

review enhancements in one bucket and then the uh book of fees update in a second bucket and so i'll

continue with the book my book of fees bucket um uh

uh the fee i thought it was fascinating when you talked about the development process

and we do pre-application meetings um and we currently do not charge for those but we're going

to start i couldn't see in the book of fees what we're going to start charging for us and i apologize

for putting you on the spot with this but what is going to be our new fee for a pre-application

let me try to find that i couldn't find it either there we go

it's on page 13 of the study yeah it's um

um we would ask for a deposit of 1500 for a pre-application for and that that would would

and that would go towards their project yeah so we would start um essentially like in in private

sector as as a consultant you mark your time on your time sheet and bill it to a certain project so

that's that's how we we track how much time we're we're spending okay because what i would what i

was thinking and i apologize i'm going to verbally process this with you right this with you right

now i know the quality of the applicant makes a difference when we're going through the development

process and so the stronger quality of the applicant when they understand the requirements um will

produce a better product for staff to then review and so um that free application meeting could be

really valuable not only for the applicant but for the staff because a lot of questions could get

answered and a lot of things could get cleaned up before it went into a formal plan process yeah and so

my thought is having that pre-application process be accessible to everyone um and the deposit the

deposit process sounds like we're not charging specifically for the application we're just taking a

deposit that would then apply to their fees um yes and no so first of all there's there's kind of a pre-pre

application so if somebody comes in and they want to they want to do a project uh we do meet with them

gratis we don't charge them um and that can be several meetings we try to limit that

because you know our time we we do need to work on other things of course but

um at some point we we kind of have to say well are you ready to submit and if so um maybe we need

to have a pre-application meeting where we bring in other other experts from fire and from development

engineering and you know any any other um yolo county maybe environmental health air quality we we bring in

all sorts of different subject matter experts and that part of that would be okay now it's a

pre-application submittal but that would not necessarily mean that as soon as you walk into

the permit center with an idea we're going to charge you fifteen hundred dollars so there's going to be

wiggle room in there okay so there's still opportunity for that early consultation absolutely at a limit for

the folks that are coming absolutely for all size projects correct okay um because in my head i'm thinking

about you know just the a resident who has an update or an upgrade that they want to make and they just

have a couple questions and giving them the tools that they need to be successful early on i think would be

more beneficial than things coming later absolutely yeah and this is in the planning um

part of the fee schedule somebody who just wants to do a simple residential project

is generally not going to have to go through that planning entitlement phase they will go directly to

the building division and start working on permits

for large uh commercial projects drive-throughs um industrial projects even multi-tenant family multi-family

residential i guess i mean this is where it gets a little confusing because we're talking about the

fees for a water heater but we're also talking about the development process and so i think it can

i think it can get a little confusing and even for me um so thank you for clarifying that um let's see

so i think that's all i have on the fee so let's go to the bucket of development review enhancements um 100

supportive of all of this i think this is fantastic um i think this is incredibly important um when we're

looking at large scale development projects and you know the cost of build housing the city can only

control two things it's our fees and i'm not talking book of fees i'm talking like developer impact fees

our fees and the time that it takes to get things done because in these projects time is money as

everybody knows um i think i'd like to share another idea for the current customer experience while i

appreciate you're working with the chamber i do think um reaching out to industry experts would be

incredibly valuable and so i would recommend the building industry association north state bi

uh would be an organization if you haven't talked to them already i have you actually today

okay you know believe it or not yeah uh we did have a meeting with the bia today okay i think that

would be an organization that would be incredibly um important to um speak to uh and then

uh in your presentation you you said all the right things for example timely response but what is a timely response

because a timely response for one person could be i'm emailing back the same day a timely response

for another person was like oh we're three to five days is there going to be internal policy of what

exactly a timely response is yeah absolutely um and and we have informal policies about that it highly

depends on the level of staffing we have frankly um if we have a call that goes into the building division

for example and we have two of the three people out for whatever reason that's going to delay obviously

a response we would like to hasten that we would like to set some basic standards but um it's always

going to be a little bit squishy and that sometimes there are going to be extenuating circumstances that may

result in a slower response than we would like that being said building this culture of of responsiveness

and finding backup for people that might be out or ways that we can sort of bridge the gap when there's

um situations where our response time may be reduced um is is our ultimate goal but absolutely things like

our permit review times we want to establish a schedule and and publish that you know guidelines um five to

ten working days for submittal and then five days submittal there and for other every other resubmittal

and we have that as an informal policy um but we would love to have it be a little bit more um

um where we can measure how how um how well we do towards that performance goal you just set me up for

my next question is that how do we know it's working and what our data is going to be um you know in a

perfect world we could say let's look at a project right now and it took 18 months to entitle and then in

a year from now we look at the project it takes 12 months to entitle and i know it's not a perfect

equation like that uh but how i think what i'm hearing is that we are going to have

policies and a tight a rough timeline of what things are going to look like and if we will

know it's working when we look back and we've met all our we've met our timelines for all of our projects

yeah and and frankly that's where the improvements to a seller are going to come in because right now

we are very much behind the eight ball in terms of being able to do appropriate reporting and therefore

be able to report on metrics like response times like what the review cycle looks like

and we have to invest a lot of time and frankly money into that tool in order for us to get to

the better more effective reporting um you know i'll just use an anecdote when i first came on board

about four years ago um i came in and and wanted to know okay i need to have a report in a cell on late

plan checks which ones are late based on those metrics and it it literally took two and a half years

for us to be able to have a report made even though i brought a report from another city that i used um

so it's it's that kind of like slow implementation of basic reporting that we have to change um and in

order for us to do that we really have to invest in the improvement of coding of a seller in order for us

to be able to get to those more effective reports that we are going to be able to then um compare

to our performance metrics and then forgive me if i miss this what is our timeline for implementation of

all of that for um for acela yeah like when we when when will we be when it will be installed trained

and we'll be ready to run those reports yeah so um so we've had acela for several years

uh my understanding this goes much further back than i've been here um is that west sacramento started

with an older permits plus was their former platform many years ago uh permits plus was acquired by acela

and from my understanding i guess this is more anecdotal again um is that west sacramento had never

been set up correctly in acela meaning the the reporting structure and the coding uh wasn't done as if we were a brand new acela client

so it because of that it has been very difficult for us to make the necessary improvements to keep up with the technology and

the need um and so that's why we're investing more in our technology but we need we need revenue to do that

um and we're also looking at in-house potential capabilities um to be able to help us do more coding

more effectively in acela which we don't currently have we have consultants working on that great thank you um thank

you for all your work on this i look forward to um looking back once this is all implemented and see how great we're doing

um thank you andrea i know when you first started here that we're sure you looked at it and had a heart

attack and thought we have a ways to go um and you know amidst all of that um you know when i first started

in council that was this was really the first area that i felt um there were the biggest complaints um

was being able to get a permit to do a housing construction um or to open up a business

um some of the complaints were you know they keep changing the um design we have to go back it's

costing us more and more money for that architect to make those modifications um one of the ideas in

the things that i've been chatting with aaron a long time ago um was to take a look at like a like a pool of

architects so your mom-and-pop places can tap into and um not that it's subsidized but it's it's lower cost

um because it is a group that that the city has a partnership with and and confidence that they're

going to do the the right thing they they understand what our requirements are and um you know the

applicant will be able to tap that resource and and feel a little more confident that what they're

submitting is going to be in compliance and any modifications you know the the architect will

understand a lot better versus an architect who's hired maybe from san francisco or somewhere else

and is probably inaccessible and that drags on the process in a business here one of the biggest

complaints is i can't even open up my business i'm pouring more money in than i'm getting back to be

able to get you know get the business started so it's it's i have felt like west sacramento has been a

deterrent um from wanting to start a business or um you know to even initiate a project adu is another

area that i feel like um we're behind on being able to to have adu construction and when um i was

canvassing this last election you'll see somebody else in an email that i sent you there were a lot of

people interested that was one of the bigger questions like hey i've been wanting to put this adu

it's an it's a nuanced one um or i'm starting already and then the cost at the end was 24 000

dollars um so when you think when when i am hearing we're going to add increased costs which i get the

subsidized component of it um makes me a little nervous in that it's already high today right and

and preview of coming attractions we will be working on um pre-approved adu um plans um there is budget

for that so we will start that process which will take it will take a while but at the end of the day

that will be a very very helpful tool for people that and much more cost effective one um that are looking

at putting adus and on their problem um that the one who had a nuanced approach he didn't want to

put in like he said i just want someplace for my daughter to go sleep but she's gonna come in and

take a shower and you know the bathroom is inside the house and you know i don't know um i think he

felt like there were some barriers to getting that one approved but um and this is a lot of these people

are in the bridgeway lakes area or where they have um larger areas of land where they can add on like

one acre lots that they can add on and that's where some people are attracted to that um and want to um

and we have somebody who's appealing you know they want to break up a lot a little bit um so we're going

to have those challenges but we also don't want to create barriers and all of these ideas are great although

these problems that i'm thinking of i'm having a hard time figuring out how it's going to fit and work

and meet the the demand and the concerns that i'm hearing being raised with this other applicant i

for some reason went to the county to apply for um an add-on in their home a bedroom add-on i'm like no

idea why county but you'll see the email

um and he's having a problem like the county's like yeah you can't do this and i'm like i have

no idea why he even started there um but uh but hopefully we can correct that one but regardless i um

have seen that you have done much more work you know to do a catch-all among everybody that is trying

to come in through the system um we're the first you know um stop and the last stop for anybody

breaking ground or or you know putting a nail down or getting a shovel out or whatever it takes um and

to simplify that process is key for me um for any business and any um resident who is interested in

you know beautifying their home in any way um and

for those areas in the city where i feel like they don't they can't even imagine

putting a solar you know panel on their roof because their roofs are way too old

and those are the areas that i feel concerned about that they're they're going to be left behind

as well they're not going to even if they they can get free solar panels but they will never have a roof

to put it over and those are the areas that i have felt where grid um solar was

interested in partnering with the cities and getting getting the waiver of the permit fees

and some of the cost for the new roof would would have been taken care of but they would have figured

that out but the permit fees again were the um i didn't see that the permit fees were were so expensive

right so i wasn't like i i don't know why we couldn't even adapt to um including that um program here

in west sacramento but but that's what that was a different time when we were probably you were

probably immersed in trying to refine our whole system so that's another program again the architect

pool um grid solar you know programming that is coming in to trying to upgrade um older homes so that

they um you know as climate resiliency um projects and these they all fall under these as as the mayor

putem says buckets um where i'd like to be able to continue to incorporate and plan on these to see what

we can do to um provide equity because not everybody can pay for this um and um just maintain some

momentum you know where even if we have um code enforcement violations um we partner it with you

know some kind of education um so it's not just everybody has the idea i want to be able to council

member orozco i wanted to come in they're not they're not literate enough to be able to understand

they don't know the city does that their first you know connection is with the code enforcement

officer saying hey you can't do that where is the connection so that they can have the experience

like council member orozco man it only took me two minutes to figure this all out and uh and i'm

going to be able to solve this where they feel like this is not a barrier um and and that code

violation with the fee is if there's a way to waive that um so they can you know remedy and fix that

so that they can um continue on with what they're doing um so that's the kind of city that i'd like to see us

embrace um more resources in supporting now i do get you know i i what i'm trying to understand when

i hear we need to subsidize is what i want to know more in the future um staffing model that would work

for you costs associated with that staffing model how can we put up a team to make sure

that the outcomes that we are seeking to achieve um are accomplished whether it be through tech all

technology you know that being the um you know um pillar that we want to strengthen what are the

pillars that help this department this program succeed and what would it cost um what i see are the fees

being increased but i don't know if this is going to solve all of that that's what i'm not sure of

um and i and i want to be able to work on that solution um been very interested in seeing what we

can do to accomplish that and also um incorporate the quality that is needed um for your staffing model

or for whatever model it is to achieve these goals um is there a way we can accomplish that

um well on the immediate term we are recruiting for a development services manager and community

development um and the purpose it's multi-purpose but um one of the main focus areas of that person

is going to be helping unlock if there are if there are constraints if there are things in the permitting

process that are um that are making it difficult for people or where we're losing momentum um this person is

going to work through a multi-disciplinary multi-divisional uh structure to be able to unlock those um those constraints

um and so that's part of it um and we are working towards um identifying like we're um what is what would be the ultimate

what does staffing look like where where are we at now and does it need to does it need to change um we

don't have those answers at this point but i i am confident that with the right development services manager

that will help um help keep the momentum going on many of these um initiatives that we've already started

okay thank you um there there there was an explanation of of the revenue and the cost the delta

does that staffing capacity meet the need for what you presented today

um correct yeah it would it would allow us to recover the costs that we're currently spending on um

on any of these applications

roberta did that make sense to you

it was something andrea said that's why

that's what she gets it um that's okay so um

um if there are any other funding sources to contribute to that instead of raising

instead of raising the you know maybe we can look at what rates we need to go up um and others that we

can or if there is a um way to um sliding scale you know on a you know income based um i'm just looking

to make sure that somebody from bright who's like a senior citizen and and they i mean okay when we

were at rock the block i saw this home where where all the rain was going into this poor person's home

i mean i don't even know how it was still habitable anymore it was the rain was coming in and they had

to replace they didn't know it was that bad they had to replace the whole wall and and do some significant

construction and um so they learned more about it as they were assessing everything and that's a that's

a senior citizen who there would be no way they could they that person would be able to figure out

and they were living there with mold and it was just horrible conditions but um situations like that

and that person said hey i i walking in this is what house looks like what do i need to do this is what's

this is how i feel um that it's it's the literacy of not knowing what they need to do say say say the

rain was as it is today is so heavy part of it collapsed or something happened and they they could

and they were told by fire they can't live there and they are now forced to do something about it how

are we just going to give that person i mean like temporary living conditions and then so those are the

situations that in my mind after doing you know rock the block that i'm really worried that a lot of

homes are in those conditions so for those types of subsidies that's certainly something that we could

do but we need to to create a funding source appropriate a funding source um general fund or tax

measure fund to be able to to subsidize those types of fees it's certainly um possible uh but it can't be

done on on the backs of other um fee payers so we we can do that but we would need to create a

an appropriation or a bucket of funds from the general fund or a tax measure fund to be able to

to do that but we but it's possible for sure okay yeah if there's a way to look at that as i mean we

may never tap that money it may just be you keep it at that amount and if there nobody uses it you just

you can take it out roll it over do whatever um just in case i i just see how bad the weather gets

and how difficult it has been and how insurance companies aren't covering things and some homeowners

don't have insurance anymore because they don't they own the home um but it's gonna it's gonna fall

on us as a city um to help them get through it and we want to be able to help them be living in their

home as much as possible um so others are going to be a little better off during those conditions but

i'm just trying to create a system where they're not going to be subjected to this if we make a

decision today and we're going to be supportive so if there's a way to look at that and explore that

further that would be great well i can't i can't speak to the subsidy of of fees per se that's kind

of in roberta's world but um and she just spoke to it uh what we do with our inspection um staff is

for situations where it is more dire than what the homeowner had previously thought um our inspectors

often have uh construction backgrounds and are obviously certified um and so they work with

the property owner very frequently our code enforcement officers too are very diplomacy related

they're they want compliance versus um you know the hammer um and so they often work out in the field

with property owners on what they can do to still meet the code and yet maybe save costs on certain things

and then they're going to be a little bit more likely to have a lot of money that's going to be a little bit

of a lot of money that's going to be a little bit more than just to have a little bit more of a little bit

of a little bit more than just to have a little bit more than just to have a little bit more than just

you know the impacts of all of these efforts are immense for certain people and we definitely want to make them more accessible

and i know several years ago council member had championed a program for first-time homebuyers where wells fargo

committed some funds we met that kind of thing for for folks that were trying to get situated and

in their first home here and part of the reason i championed rock the block in the first place was

because we had these issues mainly i think we worried about the folks in the mobile home park too who

also didn't have access to funding mechanisms to help with their repairs as well but not that rock the

block necessarily a huge impact there but to the extent we could brainstorm ideas of of this little honey

fund that might be of assistance to certain um they like our business accelerator program in some

ways i mean it's different but it's you know not too far away from the idea hypothetically if we needed

to draw into it but then i can also imagine like rock the block our contract will only be five years with

them but to what extent can we brainstorm and we're having a non-profit night tonight right i mean like

what kind of partnerships can we engage our community in to engage folks and everybody wants to help

why couldn't we partner with ncct or some of the local construction unions i mean i know that you have a

lot of connections um and so we together we could brainstorm really cool possibilities that that are

separate and apart from our government system

okay

well great work i andre you've done like i don't know how long did it take you to do this

um to do what do all of this you've been starting years years um yeah so my four-year anniversary is on august 2nd

okay congratulations been wonderful thank you thank you i want to make sure we got public comment

madam clerk are there any requests to speak we have no requests to speak on this item okay um

i think we received the presentation um and do we need to take any action no it's just a workshop for

tonight we'll be back with a follow-up on this item sounds good later date and kate smith is ready to

present on the parks and rec department item 21 a workshop on proposed cost recovery methodology for

the parks and recreation book of the update for our part from our parks director please take it away

good evening madam mayor and city council um you're all experts now on cost recovery so this is cost

recovery part two um as you said my name is uh kate smith i'm the director of our parks and recreation

department um and have a workshop for you this evening um specific to cost recovery goals within our parks and

recreation department

there we go so brief agenda for this evening i'll review um background as to where we are

um within the parks and recreation department what kind of brought us here today um i will present to

you what we are proposing for our cost recovery goals we will talk a little bit more high level in regards

to a new framework that we are proposing um i do have some additional considerations that um i would like your

feedback on um and then at the end i'll open it up um to hear your feedback and hopefully provide some

direction for us moving forward so a little bit of background um so cost recovery um kind of the

definition that we're using again you're all experts on this evening so recuperating or offsetting the cost

or expense of delivering a service this is really important for our department because it ensures uh

financial sustainability and allows our department to offer diverse services for our community so the parks

and recreation department if we were not able to recover cost we would definitely have to limit

the amount of services that we provide and so that is essentially why the book of fees has been

developed for our department and this evening again i'll go into more detail as to what we're proposing

for our department we have experienced quite a bit of growth as you all have seen so since 2008

we have a 77 percent increase in program and service participation we've also experienced a 41 percent

increase in our park acreage and a 63 percent increase in our trail miles we've also as a community

experienced significant economic growth so the minimum wage has increased by 106 percent since 2008 so it was

eight dollars an hour we're now at 16.50 an hour with the possibility of continuing to increase as we move forward

and then obviously we have seen um quite a bit of an inflation increase um since 2008.

i had this oh there we go um so a little bit more on the background um our current parks and recreation book of

fees um has varying time frames of when it has um been updated so um our oldest book of fees um our fee

schedule um was updated in 2013. we have some that were 2017 2018 um and then most recently 2022.

for me that's significant because all of the fees in the past have really been updated more in isolation

and so again what you're going to see tonight proposed is more of a comprehensive look um as to

where we want to go moving forward um as a department so um also our cost recovery form

formula is outdated and i know andrea talked about this so previously um we looked at direct costs only

so if you look at our current book of fees you will see there's again varying methodologies but they

really focus on direct costs and so for us that includes our part-time labor supplies and equipment

that didn't include at the time of development um any sort of administrative overhead

full-time staff salaries our facility maintenance utilities and any other operational expenses

that might be associated with that program or service and then as we know our finance department

is in the process of updating all of our city fees to have a more accurate approach

and definition of what we are using for our cost recovery

so um high level summary um i wanted to provide to you all again specific to the parks and recreation

department so approximately 12.6 million dollars goes towards um the expenses of the programs and

services that we are discussing this evening so um there's a breakdown there i won't go into all of the

details but um again kind of high level we spend about 12.6 million dollars to deliver these services

services and then on the flip side as you know um if you are spending money how are we paying for it

as a city and so um again a snapshot of our revenue summary about 15 percent of that 12.6 million comes

from our programming revenue so around two million dollars comes from the fees that we are talking about

uh this evening and roughly i can say about 1.5 million comes from our recreation center um and under

that umbrella includes our athletic program that is significant because um the origination of that

facility for those of you that have um been around for the um the build out of the rec center that was

really built with the concept that it does need to run more like a business we we do need some flexibility

with that programming um and the ability to draw in more um people as pass holders and participants of our

program um because as you can see that's a significant amount of that two million that we bring in

so again simple math if that revenue is going down we then have to make decisions if we are cutting services

and or we're then looking to draw from other revenues which in this case that 10.6 million would be anywhere from

a general fund or any sort of tax measure that the city is could be using towards other services

so for the proposed cost recovery um the goals that we are looking um at achieving we want to remain

fiscally responsible we want to maintain our financial sustainability we want to develop a value-based cost

recovery um goals uh framework and we also want to eliminate costing bias and so these

two are really important because if you look at our existing book of fees everything is really

based on a demographic so for example there's a youth sports fee there is a senior program fee there is an

adult sports fee and so this new framework is we actually are not going to focus on who we're serving

we're actually focusing on what we're doing for the community so that eliminates kind of that inherent bias

because oftentimes depending on who you speak to one might argue youth sports is the foundation to this

community therefore they must have one of the lowest cost recoveries or you could talk to somebody else

and they might say senior programs is the foundation and we need to have a lower cost recovery there

what we're doing is we're saying what are we providing instead of who is that too so for example you could

have a youth sports program and a senior program that could be in a high cost recovery again depending

on your service or they can both exist in a lower cost recovery as well so we want to prioritize the

common good which roberta was speaking to earlier so that definition includes services programs that are

essential they have a community-wide interest they have a far-reaching impact as well as access for all

and they have a universal value we also want to increase our cost recovery for more individualized

services so this would include services that are more discretionary defined as more of a self-interest

they have a limited impact and are more exclusive and it's access for some so again these would be

areas where instead of everyone is welcome they usually are pay to play and or have you know some

sort of barrier to actually access that program so this is the actual framework that we are looking

to adopt we had a consultant that came on board actually prior to me beginning with the city and

we kind of made the decision to keep working with them so they helped us develop what we would like to

propose as our new framework and so as i described you can see on the lower left corner of the framework there

we have open access activities at zero percent cost recovery so this is really our core service this

would be our parks open space trails we do not charge for access nor would we propose that moving

forward and then you make your way up through that framework i i do have in your packet i was not going

to read but if you have specific questions on these areas i can answer them in the packet each service

category has a definition as well as examples of our current programs that fall within there

so briefly kind of walking you through from open access activities we would then move to human services

community events beginner level activities special events education and enrichment activities drop-in

activities intermediate level activities advanced level activities private semi-private activities rentals and then

sales so i think there's a slide missing yep hold on there we go i went too far um once we got our um results

from our consultant around 95 of our existing fees either fell within uh the framework somewhere within that range

or they were definitely achievable to move within that cost recovery in general as we pointed out our fees

hadn't been updated in quite a while i would say the majority of our fees really fell below but again about 95 percent

of them after staff looked at them we looked at you know what that indicated as far as a price increase we

felt confident that we could move those uh prices up this however is a summary of the about five percent or so

that um definitely have a strong deviation from what our cost recovery goals are so on the left hand

side here uh the service category so that matches what is on your framework um and so the next column

over you have location westac community center is the wscc and then we have wsrc which would be for rec center

and then obviously parks as well and so you can see there in the programs i won't go through every one of them but

that's just a summary of um again these kind of um areas that we identified as an outlier um and then

the next column over is our current cost recovery so um and there's if there's a range that's because

again there's more that are kind of within that category um and then what the framework recommends that

our goal is um and then what our uh proposed cost recovery um is based on market value and so this

evening um there's a few different options um that i'm hoping to get uh council's feedback on and

i'll review these at the end um but for these specifically um what i'm looking for direction on

is one we could fit the current cost recovery goal that means that if you said nope you need to stick

with that cost recovery goal we move um the price up um that would be an option another option is

divestment of program so that's the analysis of hey we are not recovering this cost and so therefore

direction would be that we would actually eliminate that program or service um three we could look to

change definitions in our framework we could look to adjust percentages um and or add a category that

our consultant had not necessarily identified and then four we could look to get council approval

um to have our new proposed cost recovery based on more of our market value and so that's what that

far right column is we looked at local agencies um and really compared you know what the other prices are

and so we feel confident that we could hit those new goals

additional consideration so these are items that are not necessarily within our framework but we do want

council's feedback on because we do currently um have these as options and so we still do want to

offer a discount so as i mentioned before our recreation center specifically is an area that we do want to

drive business to and so we do offer a rec center pass holder discount so if you are a pass holder and you

want to participate in any of our programs we would like to offer that discount we also have a multi-sibling discount

for camps so that allows uh families that if you have more than one child you receive a discount

for um attending camp and then we also have a non-profit discount for facility rentals so this is

very popular within our community center as well as our boathouse rentals we do have a non-resident rate

when it comes to summer camp and rec center so again back to that framework if we're prioritizing the common

good and serving our residents we're basically saying okay if you are a non-resident then you

need to pay more of a premium price however would still be within that 100 cost recovery so we would

be looking at again where it falls within the category and then an increase from there

we do have an insurance reimbursement program at the rec center so this is mainly for our active aging population

so there are certain um medical insurance providers that will provide a reimbursement

for them attending the rec center we do not set that price so we do not have control over it we would

obviously like to continue to offer that program as well we do have a cost recovery um uh formulation

set up already with washington unified it's similar to what you have seen but i'm pointing out that that

is kind of based on our joint use agreement so that is something that would also continue to be

negotiated with them and then we have contractors that do set a split rate for their programs so for

example mad science is more of a plug and play science camp for children they come in and they have

set a certain split of what they get it's usually anywhere from 65 to 35 to 80 to 20.

so 65 and 80 would be going to the contractor and then the city receives anywhere from 35 to 20

percent of that contracted rate and then we also offer a per player fee for athletic round table so

athletic round table is our commitment to our local organized sports leagues so um that includes westac

little league westac girls softball westac soccer and our dolphin swim club and so what this allows

is the clubs actually pay a fee per player instead of paying a rental fee for every hour that they

reserve it is definitely a benefit if they were to pay a rental fee for all of their hours it is

significantly more but this is an area that we would like to keep and we do verify to be in the athletic

round table 90 of your participants must be west sacramento residents

so with that um kind of the areas that again i'm looking for um your feedback on the actual service

categories so back to that yellow arrow um there's an you know illustration there of our different

categories and there are cost recovery goals that are associated with those so we'd love to hear your

feedback there as a review on the items that have a significant deviation from our cost recovery goals

options that i presented would be direction do we fit it in our current cost recovery model do we divest

that program or service do we look to change definitions percentages or add categories or do we have

um again direction that we could base those on market value and then the additional considerations that i

outlined wanting to hear your feedback there and as far as our timeline goes we are looking to have a fall

adoption so again depending on your feedback kind of the next time that you would see this would hopefully

be the actual book of fees and the approval of the new framework and then these fees are a little different

in the community development we only need i believe it's 10 days um once you all approve that to

actually implement so we're hoping to implement uh this winter and with that i will go ahead and open

it up for feedback all right thank you i'm gonna open it up a public comment first and i'm clerked i just

want to get this we have no request to speak on this item thank you so much bringing it back to council

and we are looking for a lot of feedback anybody can you please start sure go ahead um so thank you for

all your work on this um i i i will admit i'm struggling with these percentages because they don't equate to

actual dollar numbers for me so i don't know what any of this is um i think in in theory it sounds it

it sounds great but i don't know what the actual impact is going to be like are we saying a swim lesson

was ten dollars and now it's 35 like actual numbers um because like the feedback i've received on

our uh services and i'm just going to talk rec center specifically is um i've never heard anything about

no negative feedback or positive feedback about costs and typically when people don't complain

you know we're it's like yelp you only get emails when people are unhappy um it has never been about

the price um but it's been about capacity um and then kind of like the hours of the rec center and

i don't think that's what we're talking about tonight um you know one of the things your staff

report mentions without having a strategy department may be required to scale back or eliminate programs

and services which i don't want to see that so um you know supportive of these cost recovery goals

but it's really hard for me to wrap my brain around what these numbers actually mean for the community

and kind of um coming out of the conversation that we had um for our permitting fees um different families

with different means of income um how are we meeting the needs of all of our residents especially in

our underserved communities that might not have that same um income uh to still be able to take part

of these programs yes i can answer your second question um first so um right now we do not have a formal

process for scholarship um i would like to pursue something um and kind of as roberta outlined earlier

um you know potentially whether it's a city council appropriation and or working with local

non-profits i know that the west sack foundation has recently reached out um and is working with um

one of our staff who runs the home run program to see how we can how they can partner more with the

city so um i do know that that is something that we are um committed to we just don't have a formal

process in place yet for that as to the first component for the dollar amount there's a lot of fees

so um you know i i was really trying to keep it high level um and you know if i can do my best i have

i have a lot of fees in front of me if you had something specific um but i think i guess i would

offer we've put a lot of time and energy into this and so when the the recommendation came through

um i'll use swim lessons we said okay what are we currently charging is this reasonable you know do

we think that families could offer it and i even directed staff even if it fit within this cost

recovery we looked at comparable areas because again it was like okay okay great if we hit this

cost recovery but you know how do we compare to others so we have done a lot of that due diligence

excuse me um and i do think that again the 95 percent um are very are very reasonable and just

to add to that i think the purpose of tonight's this is a workshop so no decisions on actual rates tonight

um i think what uh kate and and i are hoping to get is more on the big picture scale um really focusing on

that that paradigm shift that we're looking at doing it's kind of reflected in that chart that she showed

um there will be multiple stops at council as we actually you know populate the fees that are based

on that but i think for tonight especially given the the hour um to kind of focus on that big picture

direction to make sure that you know we're on the right track with um this idea that the fee should

be structured based on cost recovery goals that are um founded on the principles that are reflected in

that chart we if we do nothing else tonight that's kind of one of the principles are you talking this chart

yes okay can you go back to the slide where we had the um this no no no the next one oh this one so

the proposed cost recovery is that what this is yes okay yes the number 11 proposed cost is an increase

increase uh no that would be the new goal so for example um and this is probably our biggest discrepancy

um currently our senior drop-in pass um and again based on the definitions um it falls within that

drop-in category um currently our price this one i know because it's such an outlier um we charge five

dollars um for an annual membership to our senior programs um that gives them like access throughout

the year um at five dollars for an annual rate and so jumping to 45 to a 65 cost recovery is large and so

i think that um 20 a year was an 11 cost recovery so basically we looked at again what's that price like

you said per customer where's the goal and then if it is just too exorbitant it was like okay what what is

something that would put us within the market and then that's kind of a number that we came to

to so the cost recovery is so the so so the five dollars and then we're going to increase it from 45

to 65 would give us a proposed cost recovery of just 11 percent no so the five dollars um we only recover

three percent of our costs for that area right with the five dollars and with the framework this falls in

that we are supposed to increase to a 45 percent minimum cost recovery to 20 no that would be 75 a

year also then we said that's too much because again being a large jump and so we proposed a number

that was more based on market and so 20 a year gives us a proposed cost recovery of approximately 11

11. so i guess maybe that went back to my first question which was the cot so the i didn't give

prices i was just saying the price would go up by 11 which was what i would no okay that doesn't yeah

on this one i'm going to use numbers really quick and and these are just basic so there was an analysis

of our full cost of providing each of these services just like we just looked at with community development

um our cost for providing the this senior program this drop-in pass is about 200 a year we're charging

five dollars a year so we're recovering about three percent whatever the math uh for the act

be i'm rounding and i'm not using but it's about 200 a year we're charging five dollars a year we're

recovering about three um the cost recovery goal for that program level that drop-ins fit in on that

yellow arrow says that for for these types of activities we should be recovering 45 to 65 percent

which would mean that we would then increase that fee from five dollars a year to about 75 80 a year

what kate is saying is that seemed like that's a really big dump so they looked at surrounding areas

to see what are others charging for this they're charging around 20 a year so 20 a year is about 10

of 200 but about 11 right so so we're looking at cost recovery goals if your cost is a hundred dollars

what what percentage of that are you looking to recover through fees we're currently recovering

only about three percent the goals that are presented here tonight say that we should be recovering 45 to

65 percent we're saying that doesn't really align with the market we we think that we should be recovering

11 of our cost okay those numbers so we're really looking at no matter what the cost is uh what

percentage of that cost we want to recover and the flip side to that means what percentage of that is

our city taxes paying for right so if we're recovering three percent then general fund taxes are paying 97

percent of that um for any individual who is i get it now uh so i would say that the drop-in um i would

i would want to keep it at the current cost recovery only because it's difficult to get seniors and they

they isolate it it if you increase the cost in some way that might be a deterrent but i don't know how

you survey and find out um but everything else seemed like people are incentivized just to get out and do

things it's fun it's hot whatever people need a place to do an event they'll pay for it um personal

training i don't know how much of that is used but you know if people that want that they'll use it so

i mean it's not that much of a spread between 26 and 31 um and the spreads aren't that much between

rentals and special events um beginner level activities so i'm good with everything else

yeah most of it looks good but on the personal training what kind of personal training goes on

because i often wanted to get a personal trainer years ago i wanted a personal trainer and they

charged quite a bit so i didn't i mean that's sort of sort of more of a um a luxury so what kind of

personal training do we do and only get 26 and why wouldn't we be passing that on to a higher cost

recovery rather than just 31 percent yeah no that's a great question so um you're right on the yellow

arrow um personal training is more specialized which is why the goal is the 65 to 85 percent based on

um all of the calculations that we did um we currently are at i was trying to find that fee i

think we're at 50 dollars an hour um and so if we went up to the 65 to 85 percent it was a very large

jump and would put us out of the market so we knew looking at downtown 24 hour fitness in shape and

looking at the comparables i think the 31 put us closer to um around uh i want to say 60 65

dollars an hour um all of our personal trainers are certified um and i can say that the methodology

there's there's various levers right so all of your expenses go into it including facility expenses for

the rec center specific to how many operating hours and then we also look at participation and so personal

training being one of those might not have as large of participation i'll compare that to something like

junior giants okay so junior giants we sell out we are at capacity every time we run junior giants

so therefore our cost recovery is great right so when you have more participants and your expenses

are here you have a great cost recovery so again different levers that you can kind of push to adjust

that um and so the decision on the personal training or i shouldn't say the decision but we looked at

market value and we're proposing um that again we just stay within um the local market to make sure

that we don't price ourselves out supportive okay and it might be a simple process of them just filling out

a pay and it might be a simple process of them just filling out a half page application to say they

have a fixed income and they can't afford the 20 because quite frankly like we had at learning ladder we had a

very low rate because we wanted to make it affordable for people in the community well the problem was

there were a lot of people who could afford three four times the amount of money that they were investing

and they just came across this wonderful prize of the learning ladder that was meant to be available for

folks who couldn't pay but the folks that could pay were getting a deal and so it puts the i mean i

wouldn't want to put such a heavy burden right but in that particular case it was my recommendation to say well

wait a sec maybe we should look at this again because we could do it on a sliding scale according

to income all i have to do is provide a little bit of you know information about what they're willing

or what they can affordably pay but i agree with the mayor that the senior drop-in we want to keep that

going however that we don't know there may be people who could afford 45 a year but we're not asking for

that we're asking for a mere 30 and i think that the proposed cost recovery reflects that that's one

of our values i do agree though that the more um the more of a personal benefit that someone receives

um you know that that should be not publicly subsidized i think that that's a choice one exercises

right they could do a pool party at the rec center or they could go to the bowling alley and pay you know

more money to have a bowling party and quite frankly i think that if you're if you have the resources to

reserve a spot then you know we should really think about um if that's you know if it just it isn't

apples to apples okay um so yeah i do appreciate that i just know that we can't be blind to certain things

um saying that uh you know because you could argue that oh well seniors is a specific group you know i

i don't know i think they are but they also this is a community-wide benefit to get people out and

socializing and for everyone not just seniors so i'm just picking that up because i see it at the top

of the list but i'm sure that there are other ones that we haven't yet at rehearse that might come up and

i would like to reserve maybe a contingency fund of some sort um so i couldn't have to be much right to

be a 15 contingency fund for her per person and maybe give out free passes when we do the senior

resource fairs and things like that thank you

okay and um on your on your that last slide where you said service categories i do have a little more

you know information about yoga in the park do they pay for

like i see i see yoga in the park do they pay for that or do or just the group just that's uh

that is not run by parks and recreation so that would be a separate reservation um and i believe it's

either a special event permit or a park rental but also they do get that i don't know what they charge

their participants we do not run currently yoga in the no no no i know but i see it but do they pay

yeah yeah yeah okay good i just yeah i don't know if it's a rental or a special event permit there's

different procedures okay and and so if they do where does that what category does that fall under

so park rentals is um another challenging whoops challenging one i think was on our list here um

so under our rentals category um that one i know because again um it's a big out letter so we

currently charge 13 an hour for park rentals it's very much below market so we looked at all of our

comparables um i believe that is actually the nine percent on there um in that within that range so

the other rentals are higher for cost recovery um we know that we could not go up all the way to 70

percent and charge that um for our field rentals so um i think that the 17 put us closer to 25 an hour

um and again moving from 18 to 25 um we felt was a reasonable request especially looking at local

comparables okay um i did see we have an art exhibit area um program and i'm wondering when we um we we

turn over on our artists do they pay for putting their artwork up or is it a free you know what

that's a good question i haven't seen any fees associated with that i'm pretty sure that's just

part of our programs and i know our one of our coordinators actually works with those local artists

um and then um when they commission artwork um i believe we get a cut but i'm i don't think we have

that fee anywhere i don't think we have that fee anywhere so i'll have to look at that okay these

are the just some of the things i've seen and curious how how it works are there um since we have

that space are there artists who would be willing to pay to put their artwork up for sale or something

like that you know usually when there is an artist show and we do a gallery show um they can commission

the art and and they can sell it that is correct um just an idea to increase revenue as part of a

category yeah i'll that's good feedback i'll definitely look into it and then um swimming

lessons um as you as you and i have chatted um they they are gone but they are the first um 30 seconds

so is there a way to expand i mean that is a is something in high demand where like nobody even looks

at the price they just want their kid in a pool and we're surrounded by water is there a way to

increase the number like even the i know you expanded the timing just to expand on that or

is it too expensive to do and like like just limit it no we try everything we can to provide as many

swimming lessons as possible because we know it sells out um so we're limited by facility size amount of

lanes and the amount of user groups so we are not always the only one that is trying to use that pool

um and as you know we have the joint use with the school district um and so there's there's many

competing factors that kind of go into that um but we absolutely try to maximize that um every summer

and you're right it does sell out very quickly yeah yeah we gotta figure out i mean if that's something

that people are willing to spend money on i mean is and if there's any other some something similar to that

um i don't know what we can do to put put pools up somewhere just have lessons i mean kids are not picky

and and if it helps a kid learn how to swim um just kind of we gotta brainstorm a little more um and i'm glad

bright park is moving forward that that aquatic center would help um significantly to address that

um but that's years years out there are there is there like a boxing club program we can include

um i've been hearing so much about because the boxing club that was out by sacramento avenue and that

place that shut down i've been hearing a huge demand for boxing i believe um where kids can pay into

and yeah in the past i think it was one of our um contractor um based programs so i will have to

check with staff on why it was ended and it might have been prior to covet i know that we've really

only had um a solid two years of like a full operation um post-covid right now um so so yes i

can definitely look into that and what the demand is i know that there is a big push working with the

school district on trying to get more teen programs in as well um being so close to the high school

um so yeah that's good feedback and i can um look into that that'll be great um and to try to lower

the cost since it's right next to the high school um in some of these um events that could happen during

school when you know school starts earlier um is there a way to get high school um youth because they

have volunteer hours to bring them in as part of that um to reduce our overhead because sometimes

because we pay our youth but maybe to use them through volunteer hours yes um although it depends

on what it's for because there is california law and i will defer to our um assistant manager assistant

city manager here who oversees hr but i know there's california law that you can't bring volunteers in

to actually replace paid workers so you have to pay them to do the job if somebody else we're

going to pay to do the job so your volunteers have to do have to supplement and have to do something else

okay all right um

oh those are just a few ideas and then you had um on that chart of the other categories that you want

to give you feedback on

um

no the um chart at the end there we

we should look at nope last slide last oh sorry there we go

fall adoption um so yeah you you had the timeline um just to give us enough time to um review whenever

as soon as possible is fine just give us enough time to um implement um as far as the timeline as

you suggest i think you had like immediate um as your recommendation which is fine if you if that'll give

you the time to do all of this work um and uh i think we gave you all the feedback you might have been

looking for from us yes it was good thank you okay well this is certainly an exercise of our understanding

of what's what you do so thank you okay

um god we're coming to the end here council

is everybody hanging out um next is our under our general administration function part two do we have any

council um reports

reports from our assignment anybody

i can take mine until next i would i'm going to make this quick because there's really not much

to say on on uh june 11 2000 well june 11th and july 9th i'm going to put them together regional santa's

now sacramento area sewer district we've used to be a different entity we're now our own independent

entity and we are hiring our own staff so we're going through a bunch of labor agreements and um talking

about how it is that we're going to pay our staff um we received a harvest water uh uh project update

and most importantly a sewer lifeline we've been working on this for years and it's of specific

interest to me because i want to make sure that the prog program gets um uh advertised in west sacramento

a lot of people use pg and e in order to find out who our low-income residents are i'm sorry smud we

don't have smud so we have to find a very unique and creative ways in order to reach our low-income

residents so that they know about this program they're talking a lot extensively about using pg and e

and records it is still limited because there are certain places where we can't access the residents

information like apartment complex and places where they pay one central location but um just wanted

to give an update that they're moving forward on that and we should get more soon thank you councilmember

anybody else um i um had a meeting for the jpa with um for our animal services yola county and animal services and

we received a presentation on the various models and the one that we're going to wait to see to learn more

from is um so we're looking at operation doing operations and there is a big push among um the public

comment to you know have a better animal shelter um that's very expensive but um operations that helps us to

you know take a look at the cost and manage it possibly there's the combinations could be a non-profit

a non-profit with volunteers a non-profit with the county the county contractor i mean these are the

various options and the county supervisors want to take a look at those options and come back with

feedback because they're the ones that are going to be heavily subsidizing the service um and so um just

encourage our staff to be able to provide any feedback to the county um while those professions

are happening um before it comes back to jpa consideration

includes report on that council calendar is um calendar uh no report city manager report yeah just a

couple of quick uh staff um updates and an introduction also so first this is the first official meeting with

our new assistant city manager of community services ariana adami uh with her new role and also our

capital projects director jay chahal so i just wanted to acknowledge them uh in their new roles

and thank them for sticking around and then um we made this announcement a couple different ways but

rebecca scott our new public works operations and maintenance director is here with us tonight

this is our first week she's really hit the ground running i just want to give her a chance um just to

come up and say hi to the council just very briefly uh you'll be seeing a lot more of her at these

meetings and elsewhere so uh rebecca scott promise i won't talk about fee studies no but um happy to be

here happy to meet you all and um i was born and raised in this area and then went to school in

southern california and worked for three different cities down there and then moved back up here with

the family um and most recently worked for a local water district and fun um ties to the community

my mom was actually born and raised in bright so i have fond memories of seeing my grandparents there

and so i'm excited to serve the community that um served her so well all of her life so again happy

to be here and happy to meet you all welcome rebecca all right city attorney report nothing to report

staff direction from city council members do we have anything no future agenda items all right we are now

adjourned