Okay.

You must have just taken it.

Oh, okay, good.

Okay.

So we should get there.

All right, we can get started.

All right, calling our uh City Council meeting to order now that all the council members are present except with one absent, Council Member Orozco.

I call to order the June 17th meeting of the City of West Sacramento City Council of the West Sacramento Redevelopment Agency and Finance Authority.

We'll begin with the land acknowledgement.

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 did not meet in closed session this evening.

And we do ask anyone wishing to address the council or on this or any other item to please fill out a request to speak card and turn it into the clerk, and we accept the request to speak cards up to the conclusion of the reading of the staff report 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 to speak.

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

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

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 booze, cat calls, 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 the city council abide by the code of conduct and uh post it 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 on presentations by the public on matters not on the agenda within the jurisdiction of the council, and each person has three minutes to speak.

Madam Clerk, do we have any requests to speak?

Yes, ma'am.

William Lana.

And if you could pronounce your last name again, please, Lana.

Lana.

Lana.

Lana, L A N A.

Okay.

Mr.

Lana, please proceed.

Good evening.

I'm from the north end of West Sacramento.

And I'm here about the issue of carports.

It's been around for quite a while.

This issue started last October, I guess November, when a gentleman built an over-the-top carport to house his motor home, very large motor home.

And frankly, if I had lived in that neighborhood, I would have complained about it as well.

Now, this gentleman, it seems, has gone around the area of North Sacramento and looked and found all the car ports that are there, all except for a couple that are still up, plus mine, and complained about them.

And everybody's had to take them down.

This is thousands of dollars of real estate that people have put up for the house to protect their cars in the winter, to protect their vehicles in the summer, and now they're all being forced to take them down, which is ridiculous.

These taking them down does nothing for the city.

It doesn't help the city, it doesn't help the person, it doesn't beautify anything.

And so I believe that the city council and the city has an obligation to change this.

It should be changed.

And as I understand it, the mayor, bless her heart, brought up a solution to this that we uh grandfather in all the rest of the car ports, which would be an excellent idea.

But the rest of the city council said no, we're not gonna do that.

And I'd like to know why the rest of the city council denied such a request.

It doesn't make sense, but there is a solution to this.

You change 17.22.020 in the city code to allow car ports.

A carport that is erected over an existing driveway area that was originally built when the house was originally built, and with a two-foot setback, just change that and people could have their car ports.

But there's another point to this that I don't like that's going on with front yards, concreted front yards as well.

And this is the complaint-driven idea of something that they don't do anything about unless it's complaint driven.

Well, the city should form a commission of three people, citizens, homeowners, and if somebody has a complaint against a carport or a concrete driveway, they put a written complaint in to exactly what their complaint is to make it accountable, and simply saying that because it's um against code, that doesn't, that doesn't fit.

And if this commission looks at it and says, Okay, that's a valid complaint, turn it over to co-enforcement.

And if the commission says no, that's not a valid complaint.

End of issue.

Thank you, Mr.

Lana.

And if you'd like to ask any of our staff about why not, they can go a little further into what happened and why not.

But if you just far as your question as you had, but maybe staff can help you with understanding that.

Okay, yes, somebody will help you with that.

Yeah, actually, Desmond right here.

Uh, can talk to you outside.

So, Desmond can help you right here too.

If you would like to go outside and speak with him a little more with your question that you asked.

Thank you.

Matt Weaver.

Good evening, Mayor Council, a little messy straight from the gym right now.

Want to make sure I said hello.

It's been a few weeks.

Um, we're a complaint-driven city.

We actually don't have a proactive agenda or solution driven policy.

Complaint driven is probably the best way to say it.

Um, I'm not gonna spend a bunch of time complaining, but the last time I was here, I used the term lame duck because one of our the mayors running for Congress to open seats for council, all of you are part-time.

You can't really move the needle with a full-time bureaucratic staff that doesn't appoint to uh account to anybody.

They're not elected, they don't account to you.

They they have a contract, and it is what it is.

All of that to say you guys have been in the news a lot.

Congratulations for getting big city attention, big ballpark dreams over here.

Um, we found a way to become a financier, multi-billion dollar financier for a ballpark.

We're still screwing around with our streets, potholes.

And more tragically, we're not doing what we say we should do.

Last month was bike month.

I I witnessed a fatality on our roads.

Mayor Pro Tem, I worked, I reached out to you.

I was seconds away from being right in it.

And I watched a dead body lay in our street that was a cyclist during cycle month.

Roads that aren't paved, bike lanes that aren't striped, and big city ambitions.

I'm gonna say keep Sacramento out of West.

Don't invite that.

Get hyper focused on local, don't make this a complaint-driven city.

We don't want to be Sacramento.

We choose to live here, we choose to raise our families, we choose to have businesses, we choose to invest not to be over there.

And if most of the tax dollars, all of the hotel nights, all of the revenue go that way, and my streets aren't paved, and I'm watching fatalities, and we can't get the damnedest thing done except pass rate increases and tax increases, I'm gonna challenge everybody every week, every chance, every opportunity I get.

Because there's no local first agenda.

There's no solution first agenda.

It's complaint agenda.

It's three or more must agree, or we're just gonna stonewall every committee, every movement, unless we can all agree what tax to increase, what fee to increase, or what out at region publicity we want.

I really want to see a local first agenda that puts streets, potholes, bike lanes, and safety first, not a ballpark.

Uh thank you.

Mr.

Weaver, we do have a pothole agenda item.

So, um, item number seven, Mr.

Weaver, Matt.

We do have an agenda item number seven.

You might want to take a look, and if you had any additional comments about that, you can submit it.

You have we'll be taking up the consent agenda, and that's where it's located.

We have no additional request to speak on this item.

Thank you so much, Madame Clerk.

Um, next is agenda item two under presentations, presentation of proclamation recognizing June 19th, it is Juneteenth, National Freedom Day.

And I'd like to have council member um early um do the honors of reading the proclamation.

We have um a couple of guests that we are here to recognize.

If they'd like to stand up to the podium, um we have our um representatives of the black student union and Mr.

Dusty Baker himself.

Thank you so much.

Why don't you come on up to the podium, please?

Thank you.

And Councilmember Early, once you're ready.

Perfect.

Welcome.

Thank you guys for being here.

I'm so excited.

Um, okay.

So let me start with the proclamation, and then we'd love to hear some words from both of you guys.

Okay.

All right.

So whereas the city of West Sacramento acknowledges the significance of commemorating the liberation of African Americans and celebrating their invaluable contributions to our nation.

And whereas Juneteenth, also known as Juneteenth National Freedom Day or Emancipation Day, marks June 19th, 1865, when Union General Gordon Granger proclaimed the end of slavery in Galveston, Texas, Texas, aligning with President Abraham Lincoln's emancipation proclamation from over two years prior.

And whereas Juneteenth symbolizes a key moment in American history, marking the long-awaited attainment of freedom and the ongoing struggle for racial equity and justice.

And whereas Juneteenth festivities offer a platform for contemplation, education, and discourse on the historical adversities faced by African Americans and the ongoing efforts for equality, inclusivity, and social justice.

And whereas Juneteenth serves as an important reminder of the strides our nation has made and the continued work that still lies ahead in achieving equality.

And whereas the contributions African Americans have made to the growth, culture, and success of the city of West Sacramento and the nation will continue to be recognized and celebrated.

And whereas the city of West Sacramento recognized Juneteenth by hosting its annual Juneteenth celebration on Friday, June 12th, 2026, at Bridgway Lakes Park, celebrating African-American history and culture while fostering cultural understanding, racial harmony, and community unity among residents.

Now, therefore, be it hereby proclaimed by the West Sacramento City Council that June 19th be recognized as Juneteenth National Freedom Day in the city of West Sacramento and urges all residents to commemorate the day in recognition of African-American history and culture, proclaimed this 17th day of June 2026.

Hello and welcome.

Oh, you want to make it a good speech?

Hi.

Hello.

Good afternoon, everyone.

My name is Answer Mohammed.

I would really just like to say uh thank you to the Steam Council, Madame Mayor Guerrero, for your effort in um West Sacramento when it comes to diversity, inclusion.

And uh you guys really do care.

I have seen that I go to River City High.

So I get to see, you know, a lot of your efforts and what goes towards the youth, and how that was a you I would say a community center event, but it was also a youth center event too.

So when it comes to Juneteenth, I like how you guys recognize, you know, that we should do more.

And that's what that whole event was for fourth annual.

So I would really just like to say thank you.

And I can't wait to see what you guys do next.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Thank you.

That was very well said.

I I just like to say thank you very much, Mayor Guerrero, and all the council members.

Uh, thank you for inviting me up here.

And um, for four years, I was in Houston, Texas, where we're they really celebrate Juneteenth.

And uh couple years I was in uh Galveston down there, and uh, you know, really I I understood it, but when I got there, I really understood it and see how proud, especially the African-American population was in Texas of Juneteenth.

So I mean, thank you very much for inviting me.

And uh I'm I'm proud of this young man.

Uh he's going places.

He is.

All right, thank you.

Okay, wait, no, don't leave you.

No, it's our turn to share.

We're gonna share a few words with you, and then we're gonna, we're gonna um give you both the proclamation, and then we're gonna uh take some pictures.

Um, so thank you guys.

Thank you both for for being here.

Um, Mayor, is it okay if I go first?

Yes, please.

Okay, perfect.

Um, and so uh this is amazing.

So, one, again, thank you both for being here.

I am particularly honored um because I um am appreciative to my council for stepping up.

One and making Juneteenth a holiday.

Um it was not recognized as uh as a holiday for our city and our staff prior to me being on council, and it was something that I raised, I think my first year, and my council said, of course, this is something we should do.

Um, and so it's amazing to be unified in that.

Um, my second year of being on council, I had celebrated Juneteenth uh throughout the region in Sacramento, and I remember saying to my colleague, uh Councilmember Speezio Hall, it would be great to be able to do something like this in West Sacramento.

Is this something that that we think we could do?

And so um that first year, it was myself and Verna rolling up our sleeves, and we said, Do we think maybe we get 50 people to attend?

Um that would that would be an accomplishment.

And um, of note, one of the reasons why we hold it in Bridgway Lakes, it's not simply because it is my district and I am the only African American on this council, but it's also because District 3, where Bridgeway Lakes Boathouse is uh actually has the highest proportion of black um individuals' families in our entire city.

And so it seems only right that we bring community and culture together where we have the highest proportion of uh black residents, and so it has been an honor to see that grow the next year.

The city actually took that on, and it has continued to blossom.

Um, as the first African American to ever be elected to City Council here in West Sacramento, it is also an honor to have broken that that ceiling.

Um, and it is my hope, even though this is my last year on City Council, that this will not be, I will not be the only African American to be on City Council ever in our history, but that I will continue to see more because I was here, and just like you, Dusty, that you hopeful that others will follow in your footsteps because they see you as a symbol, um, and I have that same hope for me as well.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Council members.

Happy Juneteenth.

Uh, we have a legend in in the council chambers today.

Um, Mr.

Baker, it's great to see you.

And I think we might have a legend in the making as well.

Um, you know, when so I supported Dante's campaign, I worked on the campaign, we got her elected as the um our first African-American city council member.

Um, we made an all-female um city council, um, history in the making.

Um, and then, and that's just like one one little I'm one piece of the puzzle to the story, and then the idea of bringing a Juneteenth celebration to West Sacramento, and I remember that conversation.

We were literally like, if 50 people come, we will be successful.

Um, and to see how this has grown, and to just see the diversity of the people in the room and the um the performers, and you know, I'll mention our own Isaiah Alford, who is a published author.

He was selling his books.

I had no idea that he was a published author.

Um, I wouldn't have known if it wasn't for Juneteenth.

Um, and it's an opportunity to talk about Juneteenth and what it means and share the history of that.

Um, and uh you mentioned youth focused.

Um, thank you for acknowledging that.

Um, when we were planning the original Juneteenth, one of the first groups we talked to was our River City High football team.

And we said, we'd love for you guys to be involved.

What are you guys up for?

And they literally were like, we want to do activities for the kids, and they have been integral to Juneteenth since day one, and I love that the football team is still participating.

I love that the BSU's up there, um, accepting the proclamation.

Umices and your stories is just I'm just so happy to be a piece of the puzzle and to do this.

Uh thank you for being here tonight.

Happy Juneteenth.

Um, you know, not every city is able to put together celebration, and I meant to tell Kate after the event and say thank you to you and your team.

It was fantastic.

My family had a lovely time.

Um, a lot of work goes into that event, a lot of manpower, woman power, hours, all of it.

Uh, and for us to celebrate as a community on such a special occasion that just has so much history, um, and then we get to share that with our kids, is really valuable.

So, thank you, Dante, for bringing um the event forward.

Um, uh, for us to then be able to tell our Juneteenth story through that event, and you know, congrats to the council for us all supporting that.

And then um, you know, city offices are closed on the 19th, too, so it's a served holiday as well.

So I'm very proud of that.

But thank you both for being here tonight to accept this proclamation.

Appreciate all you do for our community.

Okay, thank you.

I just want to say that I'm really proud that our city recognizes the history and contributions of all members of our community as I'm sitting here.

I see the past, I see the future.

Thank you.

On the past, all right.

You're also present.

So much more ahead of you.

Um Dusty, just want to say as a baseball legend um trailblazer whose leadership perseverance and excellence have have inspired generations I just want to take another picture of you too I mean this this side by side is just amazing.

Because you see me doing this you know throughout your remarkable career um spanning over like five decades in major league baseball you've broken barriers you've opened doors you've demonstrated what is possible through hard work resilience and determination I know it wasn't easy um you know as a colored person myself I know what you're up against in so in some ways but each of us have our own experiences and what we've accomplished in our lives but you're also you know um uniquely one of the most respected managers in baseball history um you know you became the first black manager to lead five different teams to the postseason and helped pave the way for the greater diversity in leadership throughout professional sports um so your your journey reflects you know the spirit of Juneteenth celebration of freedom opportunity progress and the ongoing pursuit of equality and um your success reminds young people that um especially you know young black athletes as well and leaders that they can dream big and you can overcome obstacles and achieve greatness you know so we celebrate your contributions so grateful that you have Dusty Baker winery here in West Sacramento that you decided to plant some roots and open your business here because we can kind of share in your greatness from your business and that's why I love you know um having my events out there because that's that's what it is it's it's a reminder of what we can accomplish in our futures you know being the 2021 baseball america manager of the year and the baseball digest lifetime um achievement award these are these are great just um contributions that people recognize you for those achievements so you know we just are so grateful that you decided to come here um and accept um this um you know uh recognition I'm also grateful that you did um for 2022 when I wanted to recognize you for Black History Month that you were present for that as well and your business um and Ansar Mohammed I'm gonna say you have such a remarkable future ahead of you you know as a high school student I was not doing what you're doing I I was just trying to make it from one day to the next but look at you a young leader already building some incredible skills learned so much I've seen what you've done um you know celebrating the traditions of who you are culturally you know valuing who you are as a black American and taking care of others who um don't see that it's it can it can be a tough road ahead of you but look at who's standing beside you look at what you can accomplish hang on to this memory and share it with others because I'm gonna I'm gonna send this photo to you know you know who Patrice and she's there we're gonna we're gonna talk about this for years to come because this is a great moment and so grateful for this opportunity to to share this with you today we're gonna go down and take a photo now thank you so much oh you're welcome gentlemen I'm standing right here thank you.

It was a chair.

It's loud.

All right, let's see.

All right.

Next is our consent agenda items three thirteen.

Madam Clerk, are there any requests to speak?

We have no request to speak on the consent agenda.

All right.

Yes, Councilmember.

I'm just gonna pull seven because I believe that.

Any other requests?

No, okay.

Agenda item seven.

Uh who is here for that item.

State your name and your position, please.

Good evening, Madam Mayor, Council members.

My name is Christian Ascension.

Senior Engineer for the Capital Projects.

Thank you, Chris Department.

Council member.

I pulled this item because we had members of our public who commented on that.

So if you could just perhaps give us an overview.

So we have been provided with funding from the state of California since 2017 yearly to provide funding for roadway improvement projects such as pothole repairs and for the last couple of fiscal years we've been focusing on pavement preservation projects.

So the last year, 2025, we did the pavement preservation north of West Capitol between Harbor and Jefferson, which was a great success.

Um and has been since completed.

Um this item is just procedural.

We have to submit a resolution stating what we plan to do with these funds for the next fiscal year.

Um schools, shopping districts, so um we take that into consideration and how we rank and how we select um the streets when we do our projects for the fiscal years.

Um in our department, pavement preservation and pavement rehabilitation.

And this year we're focusing on rehab.

If you haven't noticed, I would encourage anyone really to you know take a drive around the city and see the road crew that's out there uh taking care of the potholing that has been happening.

Uh the projects that are covered in here are much bigger projects.

They're they're neighborhood based, they're major corridors like the uh the one up in River uh river bank and uh River Road, um, for example, but uh these are very important, but what's also changed is just that daily work on uh filtering potholes when we get complaints on West Connect or when crews are out there and they notice that there's failing sections that they can handle.

Uh so both of those things in combination have really taken our overall road program to um a new standard from where it was before measure okay yes Councilmember Hurley Aaron uh City Manager Laurel uh just to um maybe build on that we have what we've been able to do with Measure O in expanding our public works um team right which is why we have not only rehabilitation but we're also um working on on um major projects as well and then just to be clear we also have our planned capital improvement projects where it's like full streets right we have several in the works um in design stages right now so you're familiar with a couple couple of the highest profile ones are we call it the uh I believe it's called the Harbor to uh Southport uh I always get that name wrong complete street project but it's a major project it goes all the way from the the 50 or 80 I'm sorry the 50 harbor interchange all the way down to Ramco Street and Southport across the Palmadesi Bridge that project is in design right now we're gonna take it to a hundred percent um and then we're going to hopefully combination of local funding and grant funding uh start doing it in segments that's a major major project the other one is Jefferson Boulevard um kind of south of where it turns into kind of a a smaller road um we have a similar complete street design project in the works for that one uh so yeah you're right in Sacramento Avenue um that's another one that the council has seen and approved the the plans for uh there are always major projects in the pipeline uh what you're looking at tonight is an SB1 just has to do with where we're deploying the um the road funds that we receive from the state uh but the combination of those funds uh the major projects that you're talking about and our daily work on the road crew uh like I said earlier I'll just say it again it's it's a much different situation and standard than we had prior to Measure O.

Yeah I mean and I would um I would actually um argue that over the past several years I think this council has really ramped up even before Measure O the amount of work that we are doing on our roads um in both sides of our our city both in the north in which we had you know prior to me being on this council we had done capital AV we had done Washington district a lot of the things that I think we don't see um had been improved that's a 17 million dollar project that's a 20 million dollar project and then we decided when we got on this council to go even harder um both in the north and in the the south part and so we've seen major road improvements both along South River Road um bike lanes um have been added uh over the course of the past several years and so again because of Measure O, we are now able to do so much more and we're really excited because as I said before Measure O, every time I'd hit a pothole my family would pause and say God if only we knew someone who could fix this.

So I'm excited to see what we've been able to do, but significant work has been done on our roads in the past several years and want to just say kudos to our staff, our team, because I have felt it I've seen it and just big thank you.

Thank you for that.

Mayor have just yes a follow-up question uh on the project title paper and preservation project could you explain to us how that's different than the I'm sorry are we the rehabilitation of do you mind explaining the things so we classify roads into either it's gonna be under preservation or rehab preservation as a layer of sacrificial um material that we place over neighborhood streets uh major roads that prolongs the life of good roads so if it's a good road it's a candidate for preservation to keep it longer.

Rehab on the other hand are roads where it has failed there's potholes cracks and we have to do more um extensive work on it like dig them out add new um layer of asphalt or just a complete reconstruction of it um so this year that is our project um for rehabilitation.

Okay, thank you.

One more question.

Um how do you what's the formula you use to determine what streets get priority?

We have a matrix um that scores and provides each segment with points, and I'm more than happy to provide that to you and the council members.

Um it's a report that our consultant helped us, but as a summary, um, on a scale of 150% of the points go to the actual score of the road.

Um and then maybe 10 to whether it's near a school or a bike lane, another 10 if it's um an emergency route.

Um the classification of the road.

So there's different factors that give a road some points, and we rank them in a matrix.

Yeah, and it's called the pavement management index.

Uh you you probably heard us refer to that before.

Uh we can uh send out the the latest uh version of that to the councils for information uh as a follow-up to this.

The reason I asked that is because members of the public sometimes ask, well, talking some streets.

Will that be available on our city website if people have questions?

Uh we could make that available.

I'll have I'll talk internally with our director to see if that's something.

Yeah, and it's it's constantly being updated too, but we have whatever the current version is.

Um that's it's also it's not immediately intuitive.

I'll just caution there that it's it's uh it's a map that shows different colors in terms of conditions, but uh we if we if we want to make it more digestible to the public, we'll talk to staff about uh making it a format that is kind of easier to use than um having to be an engineer to understand what a uh payment management index means.

So I I think it's important because members of the public do ask that often and it would be great to be able to direct them there.

Thank you.

Yep.

I I um so one I love that idea.

And I think the only thing I would add to that any time that you offer uh data um translation is important, but also having um something to compare it to, um, because comparing to ourselves, right?

Whether it's comparing to what we used to be in previous years, and or comparing to what is the average um, you know, rating for cities of our size, right?

In California or something along those lines, just to to give a benchmark of how we're doing um rather than you know just our like, gosh, it it it feels like we could be doing better.

I actually think um I've seen us rated against other cities.

I actually think we're fairly high compared to other cities and and so one that would be good just for folks to know and understand, um, but context matters.

Well do we're actually working on a website for the public too, so we'll get that out as soon as we're gonna be able to get a perfect time.

Yep.

Christian, I am looking at the pavement um management um plan.

I Doug sent it to me a while back.

Um and uh it it is it is a question I've always had as to what is getting prioritized.

Um and I put it out there to the public for people to be aware that we're making a decision tonight and that it gets done because it's your recommendation.

Um what I don't have to when they asked, you know, where are the details?

How did you come up with this decision?

I'm like, I can't say because it's not written in the report.

I we and as the council member pointed out, it's good to have more details as to what gets priority.

Because if I pointed to the pavement management plan, it looks beautiful in that area that you're doing a preservation.

I mean, it's like very good green.

I can't show that map.

It doesn't I'm I can't I can't you know provide any level of detail according to your numbers um if I've if I showed them this map and they wouldn't be able to see the nexus.

Um the roads I get complaints about.

Everybody if you go out in Canvas in the state streets and you're out there doing a preservation in another area, the people don't understand what you're doing.

They don't get the difference between preservation and it's and it's good to provide, you know, a thorough analysis.

This is preservation, and then this is rehabilitation.

Rehabilitation can be a significant more expense.

This is only a million bucks that we got, and this is all we can really do.

Um, you know, we'll have to translate that.

We'll have to I might even do uh a town hall over this because I'll probably get some people up in arms in other areas of the city that aren't getting the attention um that they've been complaining to me about Jefferson Boulevard, just that I feel like I'm grinding my way down through the Jefferson Boulevard.

Like when they're like when are you ever gonna fix that one up?

Yep.

And my staff and I are more than happy to assist with any information, town halls, and we have all the data information, so it it's more of when that I'd like to, you know.

I know we're gonna have it someday down the road with measure O, but there's no somewhere down the road, no pun intended.

Um for the people, they need to know like dates.

They need to have it, you know, and they are paying this extra, and these are people that didn't pay, you know, didn't pass the tax.

Um the people that did are still looking for the results.

They're you know, knocking on council member Alcala's door.

I'll just say that you know it's not it's not always that clean where we can just provide a a this is when this is gonna happen.

It's so much subject to funding the cost of road repair today versus what it was when people recall when roads were better here.

Well, that was that was when roads cost the fraction of what they do now to to repair and replace.

So I think that's a big part of it.

Uh we do our best to um strategize around the amount of funding we have, kind of your point, the the neighborhoods that uh we can make a difference, and that's really what the preservation program is about.

Um these are places where the roads are not failed yet, and we want to make sure they don't fail.

And so that's that's kind of the key difference between this program and the rehabilitation program, uh, which is which would have been places like um, you know, I guess the state streets when we were in there doing major utility work, we also flat out replaced a lot of the roadways there because they were failed.

Uh so there is a key distinction there.

Uh but that also I I think uh for people that are you know questioning about Measure O especially, uh, look no further than the uptick and potholing that the city's doing now because we have the road crew, and I think you know, as council members, you know, you see it, you understand what that meant when we deployed it.

Um I think we can all be uh helpful in in communicating that, but certainly the city staff, we can we can come up with ways to better communicate it through our website.

Uh, we do have a website that has information about the programs I just described, but uh like I said earlier, I think it could be done in a way that's probably more digestible to people.

So uh good feedback tonight.

We'll we'll take that and and uh make some updates to our website, but um, but we are excited to get these projects going, and we do have others in the pipeline.

Um and I just think to your point, mayor, um it's it's difficult sometimes to be able to tell people with certainty definitely certainty that you know this is gonna happen at this time because a lot of it's subject to funding.

Um we I think we are doing a really good job of getting projects in the pipeline.

Um, kind of the discussion earlier around what uh Council Member Early asked.

Uh, we have uh several projects, and one of them's Park Boulevard.

That's one I've uh forgot to mention that one's coming up very soon.

Um so there are major projects in the pipeline, but the biggest factor is funding.

So, Aaron, I think the distinguished uh the distinction that you just made though between this is making sure that the roads don't fail versus there are some parts of our city that it you can't preserve anymore, right?

It would need um to be completely redone, and I think being able to distinguish and understand that it would also be helpful for resident to know like, well, the reason why your road's that's what I'm saying that's what I'm asking.

Exactly.

You're hearing me agree with you.

I know, yeah.

Okay, I'm like, reinforcing that.

I mean, because it's uh yeah, the d the general public just looks at a beautiful picture and doesn't see their their home in the map.

Um, but they're not gonna go any further.

It's just like putting a D and an R and they all vote for R.

So what you did there.

So it's just one of those things.

We have to deal with that.

Um, and and we'd like to, you know, reinforce whatever decision we make, and it was a good decision, but we got to be able to stand behind it with some explanations.

Definitely.

And um while I have you here and you got this proposal in front of us, I'd like for you to explore.

I think I brought this up.

CMix has a concrete um uh, may not it may not work here because you're not rehabbing, but in the future um a concrete mixture that could um in the long it may not be up front but in long term save money.

Um, if you can help explore that as well, um that would be great.

Yeah, definitely we'll take into a look at that.

Thank you.

Um so we've gotten a little outside of SB1, but since we're talking about it, um I appreciate Christian you bringing up Measure O.

Um, one of the things I think we have difficulty doing is communicating to folks about all these different projects, because this is just one piece of the puzzle with a lot of other projects we have, complete streets projects and things of that sense.

Um, the accident that was mentioned um in front of Bike Dog.

I actually had quite a few people reach out to what the residents and the residents, the folks who rent the run club and the people who are biking in the area experience all the time.

But we are in the project process of a complete streets project there right now.

That's one of many.

I think July 22nd at 5 p.m.

to talk about that complete streets program.

So I'm gonna come up, I'm just gonna pitch a crazy idea right now.

Um we talk a lot about roads and infrastructure and how we better communicate in any world.

Is there a map, a GIS map of the city of West Sacramento?

And I know staff's already like, oh God, don't say this, Verna.

But you click on the street, you click on the road, and it highlights the project in that area.

And so people could actually see what's happening, and it just different layers of the different projects.

Um, because I do understand the difficulty of folks sometimes trying to figure out yes, I've been trying to get that done.

Um I've never heard anybody I sorry.

Somebody has said it before, I haven't heard it before, but you know, I don't know with the technology as it is right now, but a big part of it is us communicating with folks, and so you know, the Thursday Night Run Club at Bike Dog, you know, they are gonna be incredibly happy to hear about the complete streets project.

Um but that's gonna be a physical outreach event that we're gonna come with signs and talk about how we're getting to 100% design and whether or not we have funding or not.

But um, like we talk about dreaming big in West Sacramento, if that could ever be a way for us to communicate all of the things that we're doing on the roads.

Um I don't know which department would come out of, I don't know if it needs a special contract with a web developer.

Um, but this seems to come up more and more about roads, infrastructure, um, sidewalks, um, and if there's any way that we could communicate more visually to folks.

Um, I think it's something we should think about.

Yeah, we do have a GIS team, and previously we worked with them to have some sort of map that shows our projects.

Um we'll take a look into that and talk with the appropriate staff and see um what we could do with the information that we have and the projects and uh work with them to provide that.

I'm halfway there.

Um one developer has already started and I and they they approached the city, but and that was my idea, by the way.

But the city um turned it down, but I said please go ahead for me.

Um, Ariana, would you mind giving an update on that?

We have a GIS program in the world.

But let me finish my sentence here.

But um, but I went on ahead and asked them, and they continue to develop it based on CIP numbers, data available in public, and they did show me exactly that.

You could point to a neighborhood and you can show all of the um you know what was invested in that neighborhood for um the community to be aware.

So that's already that's already been developed to some extent.

They just probably need a little more data.

Go ahead, Ariana.

Uh can you guys hear me?

Okay.

Um, good evening.

There is um a dashboard on the Capital Projects website that does it by project boundary.

Um, so it doesn't necessarily um you can't hover over the the road exactly, but it does have the the project boundary, and it includes project type, um project phase, and it's based on the capital project.

Um, and so there is it does require to be updated.

Um so we are working on refining it, but it exists now, it just doesn't have it beyond Capital Projects Department.

Just to be clear, and it's a map.

Yes, it's amazing.

So there is a map that on our website that you that has some of this information.

I'm curious, were any of y'all aware of that?

I'm on it right now, unless we're did you know about it before this?

I think I think the program that that is being created, it has tapped it.

Okay.

Um, thank you.

Um, and potentially what I'm hearing is an opportunity uh to communicate.

Linnae, I'm looking at you.

Um, pictures, right?

Maybe pointers, all those things, so folks are aware of it because we're over here suggesting things that y'all have done.

Um so I appreciate you.

This is a little different than what I'm thinking, but I don't even know if what I'm thinking is possible.

So here's my question for you.

Vicky's pavement rehab programs.

Are these on this map?

So they should be on there.

Um I'm not sure how updated it is, so we would have to go back and double check that to make sure it gets updated.

Um, I think what you're alluding to is more detail with like the actual street and being able, I've seen different models of the this.

Um, this is something that we we're striving to get better at, and so there's definitely room for improvement, but we do have something that is this is based off um Ezri GIS.

And so um if you we would love it if you could give us feedback based on what we have and see tell us what's missing, what kind of functionality that you want, and that way we can work on how we can improve it.

Um that would be really helpful for staff.

Can I add, I think my only concern would be that um I would be also interested to know how much work it will be to update it and do all the things compared to how many folks are actually gonna know about it.

And so if we're going to put that level of work in and I'm all for it, people have to actually use it, right?

And and we weren't even aware that this thing existed, even if it wasn't exactly what we wanted.

I and so I think that would be the only thing I would balance here because you only have so much staff time, and we really do want you working on a lot of a lot of different things, and so what's the ROI?

That's the only thing I would I would ask.

Who thought you were gonna have this whole conversation?

Happy to help.

Yes.

We'll keep you busy.

Um, anything else?

All right, then thank you so much, Christian, for the um, I'll accept a motion for the consent agenda item.

Oh, sorry, second second.

All right, uh, who seconded?

Someone down there.

Okay, they can reach Rambo.

Um, so Mayor Portem Sopezio Hole moved.

I'm just gonna say, I didn't hear Norma.

It's okay.

It's a council member early seconded.

Please call the roll.

Councilmember Alcala.

Aye, council member early.

Aye, Mayor Pro Tem Sulpicio Hall.

Hi, Mayor Guerrero.

Hi.

All right, this is approved.

Next we're uh moving um item 15 and 16 before 14 at the city manager's uh request, right?

Am I right?

I'm on track.

Yeah, I would recommend doing that just because we have um on 15.

We have an external staff person in the county doing the presentation, and on 16 is the budget.

We have most of the staff that are in the room are here for the budget.

So I just as a courtesy to them, I would recommend changing the order.

All right, um, Doug, we will be considered it's a consideration of a presentation on YOLO County Animal Services Governance and pursuing an operational joint powers agency for animal services in Yolo County.

Doug, please I'm gonna I'm gonna go ahead.

Thank you, Mayor and Council Doug Drows, deputy city manager.

Uh as the mayor mentioned, tonight's item is a presentation uh from the YOLO County Department of Community Services on the future of animal control services in Yolo County.

Uh tonight's staff is also asking the council to consider authorizing the city manager uh to send a letter to the county expressing the city's interest in pursuing an operational joint powers agency uh for the provision of animal services in Yolo County.

We have Adam Faisler here tonight, who's the director of the Yolo County Department of Community Services, which is the department that uh currently oversees animal services in Yolo County.

I won't go into too much background on this item because he's gonna provide you with a uh comprehensive presentation of the work the county has been doing.

Uh but just for a little bit of context, in May of last year, the county board of supervisors directed county staff to complete an analysis of potential new governance models for animal services in the county.

And Adam is here tonight to update the council on the conclusion of that analysis.

Uh I'll return after his presentation to provide a couple closing remarks and then we'll be available for questions.

Thank you, Doug.

Good evening, Mayor Guerrero and City Council members.

I'm Adam Fiesler, Director of community Services for the county of Yolo.

Part of my uh large department is animal services handed over from the sheriff to the CAO to myself.

Uh, been on been on the job approximately 10 months, so Alex was uh Tengulus was supposed to present this.

He's no longer with the counties, with Solano County now.

So bear with me as I get through this.

Tonight we're going to look at the efforts of the past.

Not advancing the slide.

The world's working against you.

It is, and that's fine.

I love a good challenge.

Okay, there we go.

Tonight, we will be going over the efforts from the past, the JPA governance models and their cost comparisons, the request for information released last summer, and the next steps.

I guess it's working.

Okay, thank you.

This is a conversation we've been having for some time, way before I arrived here at YOLO County.

We've been looking at this since 2020 2012, and as Doug uh stated, uh, in May 2025, we were uh the Board of Supervisors directed the CAO to complete an analysis of JPA models.

We looked at different models, including status quo.

Other options are JPA contract with county so uh with the county, self-sufficient JPA, JPA contract with nonprofit and a hybrid model.

We reached out to these entities listed on the slide and had discussions that are included in the analysis.

A key piece of this analysis was cost and how it continues to increase.

We wanted to assess across some of our regional peers as part of this research and answer the question: how did our per capita or how did our per capita cost compare to our peers?

Uh we are at about $22 per capita, and the median and average are right around 20.

There are a couple outliers on the slide, but those depend upon the services they do provide.

Overall, the county generally has similar per capita cost to that of our regional peers.

We also did a similar cost comparison with the different JPA models, and as I touched on earlier, again, these costs are generally in the range of $20 per capita, which is in line with current per capita costs.

The findings from this are that other service models that we considered, generally these costs are in line with our current costs.

The key element was a request for information that we released last summer.

The purpose of that was to get a better sense of which community partners exist in Yolo County and throughout the region that could potentially share services with us.

This greatly relates to the service model uh question, as I noted, as some of the service models are hybrid models.

We received four submissions and a letter from UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine.

The main takeaway from the entities that responded was all of them were not available to immediately provide services that would be necessary to take various steps to provide the organizational level that we need from a foundational partner.

Obviously, we want to build the partnership with UC Davis and see what other opportunities do exist.

The findings from the analysis consisted of our per capita costs are in line with the per capita of other local jurisdictions, including with operational JPA and private nonprofit partners.

The administration of multiple decentralized contracts, such as a hybrid JPA model, may be a challenge and less cost efficient.

There's also currently limited operational capacity for non-governmental organizations interested in partnering with the county to provide animal services.

With that, from staff's perspective, and based upon our analysis, if there is an interest in moving forward with the JPA model, the JPA would contract with the county for services.

This seems to be the most efficient way forward.

We have the infrastructure in place, and then through a through through a JPA in which cities and counties and county uh can equal our equal members.

There's an opportunity for shared decision making to begin work through some of the questions at hand in a shared governance model.

We've presented this analysis to the Board of Supervisors and to the Animal Services Planning JPA.

The direction was to come to the city councils and city managers and get a sense of interest to further considering a JPA model, and if so, which one and what type of interest uh was most likely to be approved by council.

Additionally, county staff provided a presentation, the board of supervisors on animal services operations on May 24 or March 24th, where we discussed things such as animal services, operational matters involving animal services, statistics, shelter patrol, and things of that nature.

This analysis was based on the governance model.

So tonight we respectfully request the council approved your staff recommendation of alternative one.

Thank you for the opportunity to present tonight.

I'm available for questions.

Thank you so much.

Open it up for questions among the council right now.

Any questions?

Okay, Madam Clerk, are there any requests to speak from the public?

We have no request to speak on this item.

Thank you.

Close the public comment, bringing it back to council.

I would really like your feedback because I am on the um planning JPA for now.

And um, well, all the all the other councils have received this presentation and they're interested in your feedback.

I'll ask a couple of questions.

Okay, so we have a letter here that we are gonna send that um that is expressing our interest in continued discussions regarding the potential formation of the JPA, the actual operational JPA.

Um, next steps from that is that the planning JPA to continue having these conversations.

Um at what point would it come back to the council?

What would be next steps?

So next steps would be the city managers and the CAO would sit down and talk about those types of operational JPAs uh that are listed in the study, as well as presentations to the JPA and as well as presentations to the councils.

Once a budget was developed?

Once it's developed, yes.

Um I was only I'm the alternate for the planning JPA, and in one of the meetings, we had um significant uh public comment regarding it seemed like the constituents were very focused around building a new shelter.

So is that part of the conversation, or is this let's continue operating as we are, but have it overseen by the JPA?

So that can be part of the conversation, a much larger conversation once we establish the type of operation or JPA we would like to move forward with.

I have a question.

Sure.

Okay, yeah, yeah.

I guess um I think having continued conversations about what this looks like, um initial concerns about cost for a new shelter, what that would look like, where it would be located, ongoing maintenance, all of that type of stuff, um, as we talk about different priorities in all of our communities.

Um to make sure that that's not being lost in the conversation as this is moving forward.

Yeah, and these are the type of conversations that we could have with an operational JPA or something of that nature, where everyone has more of an equal uh seat at the table.

The planning JPA is very limited in what they can do legally, it's very limited in what what type of voting or direction they can provide staff.

It's more of just keeping you know a place for the public to to comment on how we operate at this time.

I apologize, sorry for jumping in.

Um, you know, we've we look at this from a policy standpoint and you know what good policy look like looks like, but I also think about it as like a functional resource to our residents too, and as somebody who has um lost an animal and looked to the local animal shelter to find it, um, if you lose an animal or you need services in West Sacramento, it's not very convenient to drive to the county seat to do that type of stuff.

So you see a lot of folks from West Sacramento going to downtown Sacramento or Front Street or you know, the other services that are a little closer to home.

Um and so I just think that's something that we need to take into consideration when we're looking at doing a countywide anything, what makes sense for our residents and how they move around the community and how we actually meet the needs of um animal services.

Councilmember early, your turn now.

Awesome.

Tag, I'm it, and it's perfect because I I'm gonna I'm gonna piggyback off of what she just what she just asked.

Um so functional, I think that's what I'm interested in.

Uh I'll make this short.

I was this past year, um I went in my garage, I was um just trying to find something.

Don't judge me, all right.

And I move a picture and a ginormous, I'm not exaggerating, I've got pictures and a video.

Huge Rob, I send it to you too.

Huge snake is crawling in my garage.

Swear to God.

Um I was very calm, I'm on video.

And I was like, okay, what are we gonna do?

Um, and so we back away slowly.

Uh, this was not like a a garden slink, it was like someone's snake had a pet snake had escaped.

That's the only thing I can I can think.

Um, my husband comes out, he captures it, puts it in a fish tank, and then I'm like, okay, what do I do?

So I called animal service, and they were like, you're gonna have to wait.

Uh, we maybe we could send someone out there tomorrow.

Uh call your local police.

Um I'm not joking, this is exactly what happened.

Um, and so I guess my question functionally, um, I did call local police.

Police were like, for real, we got real crime that we're trying to deal with.

Um, and so the snake just sat uh outside my house um for a day, and then we called animal service in the morning.

Uh they eventually came out.

Okay, I told you short story.

Um, functionally, how would this change animal service uh for West Sacramento residents?

So you would great story by the way, thank you.

Uh it's since it's not wildlife, then we can respond to that.

Um wildlife can only be responded to um in in City of Davis because they have a biologist there.

Uh so this snake would have been, even though it looked like someone's pet space.

We we would have come out, yeah.

Okay.

We should have, and I hope we did.

Eventually you did, okay, good.

But it it took a day.

So this uh exploring these uh operational models will give you a seat at the table in the long run to make decisions like what you're talking about.

We we would like to have some type of extension office or some satellite office or something like that and make those decisions.

Currently, the operator or the planning JPA doesn't have those type of budgetary uh review and operational uh oversight on the shelter.

So this will give us a seat of the table, a voice, um, and then uh council member um sorry, Mayor Pro Tim uh Speezo Hall already asked this uh costs.

That's not it's to do is that to be determined.

Yes, we will explore costs as we move through these different types of operational or these di different type of operational JPA models.

Yeah, as you can see what what was presented tonight is we can now we have a range, right?

We should update that uh by reaching out and looking at the additional cost from the other uh operational JPAs or whatever models chosen and uh bring that to the table for discussion so that way we can actually look at the true cost of everything, because it's you know, as the director of that department, it five million dollars doesn't go a long ways.

No, it doesn't.

Thank you.

If you haven't, if you haven't been to the shelter lately, uh you know, come in, uh I'll be happy to give you a tour if you're interested.

Stephanie Amato, the director of animal services will give you a tour and uh we'll show you that you know we have a large need, and we have a very vocal community that doesn't want us to euthanize animals, no matter how long they've been there, um, which is costly.

So, mayor.

Like, I just want to make a distinction just on the topic of the wildlife versus animal control, uh, just for the council's knowledge and the public.

We actually have a uh contract with a we call it our trapper contract.

Um, so when it's something like it doesn't not not the pet snake that uh council member early encountered, but if it was actually a a wildlife species, like say a raccoon or or something of the like, um animal services will refer if you call them, they're supposed to refer them to our trapper, or if you call the city, we can dispatch that person.

So we do have that service available.

I will tell you I did not experience any of that, but I appreciate that that's the way it's supposed to work.

It's it wasn't that what you had was a animal services situation.

If it had been a raccoon in your garage, then it would have gone to the trapper instead.

That's my point.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Laurel.

So, quick question.

Are you new to the county?

Are you about 10 months?

Is this your permanent position now or I hope to make it my permanent position, but I'm an at will employee.

You're an at-will employee.

Okay, okay.

Well, um, welcome.

You'll be seeing me at the uh JPA meetings, as you know.

Um, and thank you for coming up and and introducing yourself.

Um, so I I would say that there's been in in the in the JPA discussions kind of like a standstill.

We haven't quite crossed the operational path.

And a lot of it is due to if you move back on the slides uh a little bit.

I'm gonna just uh share a little bit about what what we've learned in the process before we I think it's the uh you know what.

Yeah, that one.

It was the one where we had an RFP, that one, the RFP, and the RF the request for information, and it kind of came out.

Can you provide a little more detail?

I think this was the one that enlightened us that we had a bigger barrier with the operational from this experience.

Um, is that do you recall that?

I don't remember you in the middle.

So the the barrier was they they couldn't opt they couldn't just you know work with us on a on a contract and start right up.

They had barriers to entry to assist us.

Um, uh each each one had their own, um, for lack of a better word, and I'm not trying to be insulting to any any special you know group on there, is they had shortcomings.

Um Best Friends Animal Society is just a welfare organization based in Utah.

Uh they operate multiple facilities, and rescue organizations.

Um their vendor response form stated that they can assist with building volunteer transport, but they cannot provide sheltering licensing and or veter veterinary services.

Uh the animal community alliance, also nonprofit from VACOVI.

They say they could provide some service immediately, such as animal behavior training and re-homing programs.

Uh they can add sheltering licensing and veterinary services in an estimated 90 days.

A lot of their items in their RFI were 90 days, and I wish I could accomplish things that fast in 90 days.

Um everything was listed that way.

Like I said, I'm not trying to be disparaging here.

Uh number three and four uh proposals uh from Jenny Rowling or Genie Rowling's and the unleashing the possibilities, they were unable to provide sheltering or field services based on their submissions.

Uh the sheltering is huge, you need a building, and they didn't have one, nor could they quickly uh get a hold of one.

Uh there are limitations to our existing shelter.

Uh it's very tough for them to find a facility similar and that can meet the occupancy requirements and so on and so forth.

So number five was uh the interest letter from UC Davis.

Um, you know, that they we've sat down and talked with them and we hope to further and grow our our partnership with them because we do work with UC Davis, yeah.

Um, but it nobody is shovel ready and ready to just come in and you know, like after two three months you know, contract negotiations and just plug and play.

So looking at that, um, have have you know, as far as the feedback from the other cities that you've heard from.

Has anybody else get sent you a letter similar to this yet?

Uh similar to oh yeah, oh the the the letter that we're requesting you to submit, yes.

Uh we have one from Davis, Woodland, and Winters, if I'm not mistaken.

So just about everybody.

And of course the county's in.

We are in.

Just us.

Oh, because you said just about everybody.

Are we literally?

You're the last stop.

Okay.

And that was me.

That was me at the meeting.

Like, oh.

Well, I mean, I don't I don't mind.

We're being thoughtful, intentional, strategic.

We are um and uh in in moving forward, I do um recall like the breakdown of the analysis.

I don't think you have a uh there's a a map which shows like where the calls are concentrated.

Do you by any chance have a copy of that?

I I did not bring that today.

Um, this is more of an operational type discussion uh when it comes to uh just in the city of West Sack.

Uh you this council can request animal services to come back, work with the city manager to come back and present our operational presentation that we presented to the board of supervisors May 24th.

If you'd like, I just need a request from staff.

I'll be happy to bring Stephanie Amato, the director of animal services, and we can discuss how we operate there.

It it is just something I received, which I thought was helpful.

I mean, just for we're gonna take.

I mean, this is a very simple presentation, we should keep it simple.

I get it.

Operational.

We've got you got your letter, and we can get a lot of calls.

Do they get a lot of calls from us?

Oh, yes.

I mean, you're bearing the lead, sir.

That's the point.

She's trying to help you.

We're getting a lot of calls.

Yeah.

I mean, they're concentrated in different parts of the in certain parts of the case.

So we're currently working with our GIS team, speaking of GIS, to uh modify our existing map to make it more user friendly when it comes to pulling out data.

Um, right now it's more of a picture and numbers.

That's it.

We should be able to extract the data, do some analysis with it, and that's what we're try we're aiming towards as we work towards this, you know, kind of a working group, per se, uh, between the cities and and the county, so we can look at where these calls are at.

I I would suggest as you are are looking at the data.

If if you it sounds like you probably don't have it already.

Um, that's how we bill you.

We bill you per call.

Sure.

So then you should have this data.

Um, I out of all of the calls that you get as far as percentages, what I see on the county boards that I sit on oftentimes will be whether it's the housing, right, or or transportation, is you know, out of all the work that we do basically out of the all the services, your jurisdiction or your city represents X number, right?

And so oftentimes West Sacramento, um particularly when it comes to uh social services or or that are those kinds of things, will represent a a high proportion um of the calls and other services.

And so I I would be curious.

Woodland's the highest, West Sacramento is the second highest, I know for sure.

I know that for a fact.

I don't have the exact numbers in front of me.

I can send it to them for my last meeting.

Okay.

Thank you.

I appreciate it.

You'll have a copy of the presentation.

I'll send it to you.

I will say it's a little difficult to understand the call types, which is one thing I'm also working on.

Which is important, but I think that at sort of like a goal a global level, right?

Like West Sack represents, you know, 40% of the calls or you know, 32%, whatever whatever that case may be, um, which would then further bolster why out of all the folks that you've gotten, it would be important that West Sack have a have a seat at the table.

Your eyebrows will go up.

I doubt it.

Yes, it will.

All right, well, I uh uh we need to approve this.

I'll approach second.

All right, Madame Clerk, Mayor Portam moved and uh council member call a second, please call the roll.

Thank you for the presentation.

Did we have public comment?

Oh I thought I opened it up for public comment already, right?

Madame Clerk.

We have no request to speak on this item.

Um are we taking action on this item?

Okay.

I'm sorry, who made the motion and second it?

Mayor Portem?

And then second it, I'll call Councilmember Alcala.

Councilmember Ocala.

Aye, Councilmember Early.

I mayor pro tem Sulpizio Hall.

Hi.

Mayor Grero.

I alright.

And next we have item 16 is consideration of resolution 26-6 adopting the operations and maintenance and capital improvement program budgets for fiscal year 26 27.

And we have two people up.

I thought um the finance manager Becky Robertson was going to do the presentation.

That's what I was told.

All right, Roberta, you're up.

All right.

Good evening.

Before I start, I just want to mention uh Roberta Ray for your finance director.

Um I haven't seen you in a little while.

I wasn't here for the last presentation, and so uh our finance manager Becky Robertson stepped in at the very last minute, pulled together a presentation while I was out ill, and and did the budget presentation.

I want to give her a great big thank you.

But beyond that, she's played a very large role in pulling together this budget.

So I'm going to kick off the presentation, but I am going to uh kick it over to Becky to give the majority of the presentation, and I just wanted you to know that she's she's led this process and this couldn't happen without her.

So we may need to wait a moment for our presentation, our slides to get started.

But um I can get started before we get to to the to the meat of the presentation.

So tonight we are presenting the proposed fiscal year 26-27 annual operations and maintenance and capital improvement program budgets for your consideration.

Um quick word on the process.

This is our cons second consecutive annual budget.

Last year uh we returned to an annual cycle last year because economic conditions were moving faster than a two-year cycle could accommodate, and that agility is serving us well right now.

So, as such, we're here asking you to consider approval of resolution 2666, which adopts the annual budget for fiscal year 26-27.

Tonight's action also approves the revised uh authorized position list and salary schedule.

So before Becky walks through the proposed budget and the supplemental requests, I'm gonna provide a brief overview on the general fund and the economic environment that has shaped the budget before you tonight.

Uh Becky will then discuss the tax measures and supplemental budget requests before opening it up, opening it up for council questions and consideration.

Um, I've got a lot of notes here that don't necessarily need slides, so I'm I'm just gonna kind of keep going on some of those.

Um we have discussed previously local governments across California are experiencing a period of slowing revenue growth.

For West Sacramento, the two largest general fund sources of revenue are property tax and sales tax.

Those together make up about three quarters of our general fund budget or our general fund revenues, and both are performing below projections.

So while that directly impacts the general fund, the effects of slowing sales tax revenues uh have a broader impact, those also impact our tax measure funds.

K, V, E, N, and O.

Um, our sales tax revenues have declined for two consecutive years, even with the addition of revenues associated with AIDS baseball.

Uh consumer spending has softened a little bit, purchasing patterns continue to evolve, and broader economic uncertainty conditions uh continue to impact taxable sales throughout the region.

They're down for the second year in a row, not a lot, but down.

Um sales tax is also the revenue source that supports, as I mentioned, the uh city's voter approved tax measures.

So for that reason, sales tax performance remains one of the most important indicators we monitor when we're evaluating the city's overall financial condition.

Uh the good news is that while revenues oh, very good, thank you.

Our while revenues are growing more slowly than anticipated, all of the city's tax measure funds remain financially healthy and are projected to end fiscal year 26-27 with positive fund balances, as Becky will go over shortly.

Um, the slower growth in sales tax revenue does require us to be a little bit more deliberate and strategic about future spending commitments across all funds.

Uh property tax revenues also continue to grow, but at a slower pace than we've experienced in recent years due to reduced real estate activity and slower assessed value growth.

So for the current fiscal year, uh we're projecting sales tax to come in about 600,000 below budget, property tax about 700,000 below budget.

And then our uh third source, our work work order and ICAP reimbursement revenue uh from staff charging out to projects and other external sources is also projected to be under budget.

Um but maybe this last one.

These challenges are not really unique to West Sacramento.

So, as I mentioned, many cities in California are facing significant general fund shortfalls.

Some are reducing services and looking to lay off staff in some cases, and fortunately, West Sacramento is not in that position.

The passage of measure O, which was mentioned earlier, along with the reserves built by this council and prior councils have positioned the city to weather this period of slower revenue growth while maintaining the expanded service levels made possible by Measure O.

So just as a reminder for council and the community before I get into the numbers for the general fund, the city separately tracks its ongoing general fund commitments and its one-time general fund resources and commitments.

The ongoing general fund reflects recurring revenues and recurring expenditures necessary to provide city services, and the one-time general fund reflects reserves and resources available for capital projects, infrastructure investments, and other one-time purposes.

Next slide, please.

So for the current fiscal year, the ongoing general fund is projected to end with approximately $87.5 million in revenues, to fund $87.3 million in expenditures, resulting in a modest operating surplus of about $188,000 for the year.

Just a quick question.

Yeah.

That revenue sources, that sorry, that's including all of the measures or just uh it is the general fund, which is the sales tax and the property tax.

This is general fund, which does include uh Bradley Burns sales tax.

It does not include the district sales tax measures.

Those are tracked separately and will be reported separately.

Okay.

Okay, so we end with a modest surplus, and that is made possible through vacancy savings and foregoing the contribution of budgeted savings in the PERS line item to the pension trust.

As a result of continued vacancy savings, a vacancy factor has been included in the fiscal year 26-27 budget, reducing the labor budgeted amounts by the expected savings from vacancies throughout the fiscal year.

Next slide, please.

The city's also investing heavily in one-time projects and infrastructure.

One-time expenditures for the current fiscal year are projected at about 10.6 million, and those are partially offset by about 2.7 million in one-time revenues and reimbursements.

2.6 million of that is from a reimbursement from our OPEB trust to catch up on two fiscal years of eligible retiree health expenses.

So as a result, the city is expected to use approximately $7.9 million of available one-time fund balance this year, and that was a planned use of fund balance for one-time purposes.

And even after that planned use, all of our council reserve policies remain fully funded.

Next slide, please.

Taking a look at our fiscal year 26-27 proposed budget, it reflects continued caution.

The budget includes approximately 90.5 million in general fund revenues and 92.5 million in ongoing expenses, resulting in a revenue shortfall for the year of about 1.9 million before consideration of supplemental budget requests.

After incorporating the limited ongoing supplemental requests recommended for approval tonight, the general fund shortfall for the year increases to about 2.6 million.

The adjustments for the year are primarily lease financing, lease financing for two fire engines and cost allocation updates from other adjustments, it increases to expenses in 104, our general support services fund.

So staff is recommending, if you go to the next slide, please, a measured approach to bridge this gap while we complete a more comprehensive review of long-term revenues and expenditures.

Our proposed strategy includes the suspension of the $1 million annual contribution to the general facilities fund.

That usually goes to fund general facilities improvement projects, of which we we don't have any plan or any planned this year to use that one million.

We've been able to come up with um with other ways of dealing with that.

So we're suspending, proposing to suspend the one million annual contribution, suspension of the contributions to the PERS supplemental trust, just like we did in the current fiscal year, and to reimburse our ourselves for our eligible retiree health costs from the city's OPEB trust.

The remainder is a use of available one-time fund balance to plug the remaining shortfall.

So these actions will allow the city to maintain our current service levels while developing a longer term financial stabilization plan.

Next slide, please.

The one-time general fund proposes revenues of $579,000 and expenses of about $835,000, mostly related to the baseball season, which are our reimbursed, and one CIP or a couple of CIPs.

The big one is the recreation center locker room project.

After funding the proposed budget and limited supplemental requests, the general fund is projected to end next fiscal year with approximately 1.2 million available in its one-time balance.

Next slide, please.

The general reserve remains intact with approximately 16.3 million expected at the end of next fiscal year.

That represents 18% of our general fund revenues.

And it remains within council policy requirements.

The budget stabilization reserve has about 3.1 million, and our staffing continuity reserve remains with untouched at 500,000.

So the key takeaway for tonight is that the city remains financially stable.

We're not proposing service reductions, layoffs or any significant operational changes now.

However, after a prolonged period of expansion and investment, our revenue growth has slowed, and it requires us to kind of pause and take a look at how we're spending our funds, where our money comes from, and how we can ensure continued financial sustainability.

So the budget before you tonight, after Becky will go through the remaining funds, reflects a transition from growth to sustainability.

It does propose to use one-time resources in a deliberate and measured way to fund the revenue shortfall for this year while staff develops a longer term strategy to ensure structural balance going forward.

With that, my portion of the presentation is over, but before I hand it over to Becky, I would love to open it up if you have any questions.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right, I gotta raise this up a little bit because I am a wee bit taller than Roberta.

Uh good evening.

I'm Becky Robertson, finance manager with the city.

There we go.

All right, uh, if you can go ahead and advance to the next slide.

Uh so Roberta gave an update on the general fund, and so now we're gonna take a look at our tax measures.

So this slide provides a brief overview of our tax measures and their projected ending fund balance for fiscal year 26-27 after incorporating the supplemental requests that are being presented tonight.

Starting with measure K, proposed requests include $60,000 in CIP funding, which includes funding for the uh Club West HVAC replacement.

Uh in addition, there's about $55,000 in ongoing operations and maintenance requests that are associated with uh allocation of uh general support costs for uh new requests and our general support services fund.

After these requests are included, the projected ending fund balance for measure K is about a hundred and sixty-nine thousand.

For measure B, proposed requests include 850,000 to address the funding gap for on-demand on-demand rideshare program, and 5.3 million for the design phase of the light rail extension project that was previously committed in the current cooperative agreement.

After incorporation of these supplemental requests, the projected ending fund balance for measure V is $14.8 million.

Go to the next slide.

Um it is important to note that while Measure V does have available funding, the projected fund balance is actually committed uh for a handful of future obligations, which include the light rail extension uh project under the current, we have some obligations under the current cooperative agreement, uh, commitments to the federal match requirement for the WSAFCA levy project, as well as future installments of the approved loan to Carta.

Now looking at measure V, proposed requests includes $714,000 in CIP funding, which includes about a half a million dollars for the Clarksburg Branch Line Trail Lighting Improvement Project, as well as $21,000 in associated allocation of general support costs.

The projected ending fund balance for measure E is $150,000.

Now looking at measure N, the proposed requests include a reduction of $1.3 million in ongoing operations and maintenance expenditures.

This is primarily due to the reallocation of public safety expenditures that exceed the 50 or 50% target within Measure N for the public safety category.

This adjustment will create additional capacity for one-time capital projects or potential debt service with financing of major infrastructure projects.

Additional measure and requests include $750,000 in one-time OM funding for the city's contribution to the Washington Unified School District project for the recreation tennis court repairs, which is under the joint use agreement.

Also, just to kind of go back, the reallocation of the public safety expenditures that exceed that 50% of Measure N are requested to move to Measure O.

And so I'll talk about that in this next in the next section.

So CIP requests for Measure N totaled $342,000, and that includes about $250,000 for Sycamore Trail Phase 3.

And after incorporating all of these requests, the projected end and fund balance for Measure N is about $445,000.

Lastly, we have Measure O, proposed requests for Measure O, total $2.2 million in ongoing operations and maintenance, 900,000 in one-time operations and maintenance, and about $868,000 in CIP funding.

Position related requests in Measure O total 703,000, and those include the addition of a senior crime analyst in the police department, a battalion chief position dedicated to fire marshal duties in the fire department, and funding of a overtime for a fire uh battalion chief to maintain administrative coverage throughout the remainder of the fiscal year or calendar year, I'm sorry.

Additional ongoing measure O requests include 1.2 million to support that uh transition of expenditures from Measure N that were previously under the public safety category for that tax measure.

Financing of a self-contained breathing apparatus replacement for the fire department, as well as minor cost allocation for new requests in the general support fund.

One-time requests include $311,000, which is for increased uh fire operations and maintenance budget, as well as a subsidy for the safer grant, as uh there were changes in the MOU following our submission of the grant, um, and so we weren't able to increase the annual amount under the Safer Grant since those were uh the grant was already submitted at before those labor changes occurred.

Lastly, there's $105,000 for a pilot behavioral health services contract in the police department.

Measure O CIP requests total $868,000, and that includes $400,000 for a citywide neighborhood traffic calming plan and $468,000 for various fire station improvements.

After inclusion of the supplemental request, the projected ending fund balance for measure O is $5.1 million.

And if you'll go to the next slide.

However, similar to Measure V, the available fund balance is committed to existing obligations for Measure O, specifically approximately $10.6 million in remaining unspent CIP appropriations from capital projects that were approved in March of 2025.

So before we started to receive funding under the new tax measure, as we continue to spend uh funding on those identified projects, that will draw down from this fund balance over the next several years.

Next slide.

All right, so now we're gonna look at all funds citywide for all supplemental requests.

Total supplemental requests is $29.5 million for fiscal year 26-27.

That includes $17.4 million in CIP requests, $7.9 million in one-time operations and maintenance requests, and $4.1 million in ongoing operations and maintenance requests.

Now there were a small number of supplemental operations and maintenance and CIP requests that were not included in this proposed budget.

Throughout the developed budget development process, staff worked closely with departments to review and prioritize requests based off of operational needs, strategic priorities, available resources, and long-term financial stability.

In some cases, department and staff identified existing capacity within the current fiscal year to address smaller but high priority needs.

An example of that is the migration of telestaff to a cloud-based platform for the fire department that was able to be accommodated in the current fiscal year using available resources, so supplemental request was not needed for that item.

Similarly, funding capacity was identified with an existing operations and maintenance budget for fiscal year 26-27 for select operational needs, such as the peregreen software platform for the police department.

In other instances, departments determined that projects or initiatives could be completed in-house using existing staffing resources, contracts, or available departmental budgets.

Excuse me.

As Roberta mentioned, staff uh will be returning to council later this year with a comprehensive financial update.

And at that same time, in coordination with other departments, staff will reevaluate requests that were deferred during this cycle and where appropriate, bring those back to council for consideration.

Next slide, please.

Alright, so this slide summarizes the proposed supplemental operations and maintenance requests by category.

Uh the total request is 12.1 million, and that's made up of 8 million in one-time expenditures and 4.1 million in ongoing funding requests.

Next slide.

Now we're gonna look at personnel requests.

So the proposed personnel requests include the addition of 10 new positions.

These additions include two new positions in measure O, one for police and one for fire, seven positions in the water and sewer funds that were anticipated as part of the recent utility rate study, and one program technician position dedicated to the media production and AV services for the council chambers.

There is one position reclassification that's being proposed, which is upgrading an administrative analyst position to a program manager within the city manager's department or city manager's office to better align with operational needs and responsibilities.

And then lastly, grant funding for some of our homeless programs, including project home key approach completion.

Staffing costs are being transitioned to ongoing long-term funding sources, and this includes moving two stationary engineers, one program manager, and nine program technicians to either measure E or Measure G.

So, with all of these changes, the city's total authorized authorized staffing level will increase to 518.55 full-time equivalent positions.

Next slide.

So let's take a look at the non-personnel requests.

That's total 10 million, 2.2 in ongoing and then 7.8 in one-time requests.

Um, these requests are investments that support critical operational needs across multiple departments in the city, including the financing of the self-contained breathing apparatus equipment for fire, as well as the acquisition of two fire engines for the fire department.

Additional requests include the purchase and or financing of 11 patrol and investigation vehicles for the police department, as well as 16 utility maintenance vehicles and equipment purchases for the public works department, which is consistent with the needs identified in the most recent utility rate study.

And then a contribution to Washington Unified per the joint use agreement towards the repairs to the recreation center tennis courts.

Next slide.

All right, taking a look at the CIP requests.

17.4 million in CIP requests, 4.3 million is proposed for brand new projects.

And those some of those new projects include the Recreation Center locker room renovation project, the Clarksburg Branch Line Trail Lighting Improvements, the Arlington Park Acquisition and Design, and the Alice Norman Bullpins.

The remaining $13.1 million is requested for additional funding for existing CIP projects, and those include uh the design phase of the Light Rail Extension Project, which is like as I mentioned earlier, um, previously committed funding in the cooperative agreement.

Uh the Jefferson Boulevard Complete Streets Improvement Project, uh, pre-design activities for a potential new police department facility, and then implementation of the Bright Park Master Plan.

Next slide.

All right, so with that, we are asking council for consideration and approval of resolution 26-66, which will adopt the fiscal year 26-27 proposed budget, including the operations and maintenance, supplemental decision packages, and CIP requests, along with approving the authorized position list and salary schedule.

Um, and with that, during these last uh few months, uh budget staff, particularly um Pamela and our finance department have simultaneously been working to implement a new budget system and develop the fiscal year 26-27 annual budget.

Uh following adoption of the fiscal year 26-27 budget by council, uh, the city of West Sacramento will finalize and publish its new digital budget book by July 1st.

Uh, this digital budget book is an interactive web-based document designed to improve transparency, accessibility, and ease of use for the city council staff and the public.

Um, unlike a traditional uh PDF document, the digital budget book really allows users to navigate um directly to sections of interest, expand and collapse content, and view budget information in a more intuitive and user-friendly format.

Uh, the digital budget book will serve as the city's primary budget reference document and will continue to evolve as future functionality and enhancements are incorporated.

So, with that, I would like to open it to any questions that the council may have.

Are there any questions among the council members before I open it up with public comment?

I just want to ask one question.

Council member, um, let's start with some of the feedback I get from constituents sometimes.

The new positions that we're creating um would I know they're necessary.

Is it in response to our population growth that we need extra staff?

So some of the most of the new positions were included in the new rate study, and so yes, those were related to significant needs for both water and sewer and identified um for the maintenance and operational needs within those two uh uh sectors of the public works department.

Okay, and then just to chime in on the other uh a couple of the other positions, um they there are offsets planned ahead for a couple of them.

So, for example, um the program tech for media production navy services um is intended to bring in-house the production of things like council meetings and other other video for uh video services, whether it's commission meetings or other productions that the city does.

Um so there'll be an offset to what we right now contract out.

Um, the other one is the change of the fire marshal uh position.

Um it's it's we're we're doing this in sort of a linear process because we we need to do it based on how we how we do positions.

Uh but the result of that change will likely uh have an offset because the battalion chief position is a new cost, but the fire marshal position will um be transitioned to that and will eliminate that position eventually.

Um so it's not a it's not a net 100% new cost for that position.

So, thank you.

So all right, Madame Clerk, are there I'm sorry, I can wait for public comment.

Is there any request to speak at this time?

We have no request to speak on this item.

All right, closing public comment, bringing it back to council council member early.

Yeah, um just uh caring, I think uh from where council member Alcala uh left off.

Um, so I think I saw that we're adding about additional two million in in ongoing cost for staffing.

Did I get that right?

That is correct.

Okay, um, but we also talked about uh budget slowing.

So um, is that better?

And I think sales tax is not exactly what we anticipate as far as growth.

Uh so yes, we are starting to see um some slowing in some of our revenue sources, particularly in sales tax.

Um the bulk of the positions being requested are water and sewer positions, and so um those positions are the funding for that is generated through um service revenue.

So people who are are utilizing um the water um and sewer system.

And so those have their own separate funding.

The revenues that are received for for water and furs sewer are separated and can only be used in those areas, and so um it is a completely separate bucket of funding that is not related to the general fund or any of the tax measures.

These are utilizing um changes in the in the most recent water and sewer rate increases to meet some of the operational needs that were needed and why uh the rates um were modified is to this is to create some of the um provide the assistance needed for those operational needs and and those two divisions.

I'm sure it's in here.

Out of the 10 positions, how many are with water and sewer?

Seven.

Okay.

That's that is quite a bit.

Um last question, at least for now, I won't promise it's my last question in total.

Uh-huh.

So I saw um light rail extension on there as a cost.

Is that something that we are locked into?

Yes, it was funding that we were committed to it in the current cooperative agreement.

And so if you look at that CIP project page, you'll see some funding kind of built out in the outer years, which were also commitments under that cooperative agreement from you utilizing measure B.

And it's not it's not exactly new money, you're not committing new money tonight.

You you're just making good on the the next budget year for money that has already been approved by this council for that work.

So we have to do it.

We are obligated under the cooperative agreement.

We have it's a lot of money.

I know I was asking the same question.

It was like this.

Under the cooperative agreement we have with RT, we do have a funding commitment to complete the design phase that we're currently under.

Uh so this money is again, it's not new money, it's money that has been previously previously committed, but because we do the budgets on a year-to-year basis, uh, we have to come to council and get it actually appropriated for that fiscal year rather than you know committing all of the money up front three years ago.

We can't do it that way.

Um, in terms of the question of do we have to do it?

Um, we have an agreement with RT to complete this phase.

Um I can tell you, because we we know it's coming, uh, there have been some design challenges in terms of new costs that they've encountered.

That's exactly what's gonna ask you.

How's that design thing going?

And so what we'll be looking at in the near future is an item that you will see um as a council.

We'll have a pretty major decision to make on on the future of that project if the council is um you know interested in seeing it through uh to the full design and construction phase.

So uh that's not on the agenda tonight, uh, but but I can tell you the money that has been proposed for the current budget is to make good on the current commitment that we have to complete the design phase that we're under right now.

Do you remember me how much money that is?

At 5.25 million.

And so that's just for this upcoming year, just to make sure that it's yeah, it's money that it's money that's needed to uh fund the current but the next budget year uh phase of the design work that's under the cooperative agreement with RT for the project.

I told you it wasn't gonna be an encumbered.

Uh so I just um I I'm gonna stay on topic, because Jeff's looking at me, he's like, don't you dare go off top.

I promise I won't.

Um, but so we're committing the the five million through this or agreeing to something that we we already we've already committed it, but we are through this encumbering it.

We're appropriating it, so we have it available to to spend.

Okay.

Um, but us doing this in and of itself is not necessarily locking us in to it outside of the agreement that already exists.

So right now we have an amount of money that we've committed um through the cooperative agreement that was approved previously by this council.

Um the amount of money the city has committed to that is is fixed, but we still have to make an appropriation every budget year to actually be authorized to spend it.

So it's like you have a contract that says you're gonna do this, and that contract is what three, four years old at this point.

Um, but the way we do our budgets, it's year to year.

And so we can't, nor would it be prudent to commit all of the money up front in that first year.

So that's why you're seeing it tonight.

It's the next phase of funding for the project.

Uh want to be fully transparent about it though.

There we have had the communication from RTE that there are costs they've encountered that are above and beyond uh what they anticipated in the current cooperative agreement.

And there will be a future item the council will will consider.

I will make sure I brief everyone you well in advance of that item.

Um that will consider potentially additional funding to uh deal with some of those challenges that RT is encountered.

So it's a it's a major policy decision that's in the council's future.

Uh but for tonight, all you're doing is making good on the commitment that you've already made to fund the current phase of design.

Unfortunately, I'm I am like Alanister, if I've I've already agreed to it, I I do pay my debts.

Um, but I will I will leave it there.

Maybe I have a question.

Yes, Councilman Malcola.

Um when we agreed to the rate increase in utilities.

It was because we knew we hadn't increased it in a while, and we knew that we um had infrastructure problems.

So we um told the public, you know.

And now we have seven new positions associated with that.

I'm gonna be asked.

I know I'm gonna be asked.

What percentage of the rate increase is going to cover these seven new positions?

Oh, I don't like you like.

Yeah, you're you're pulling data we didn't bring tonight.

I can't tell you a percentage of the rate increase, but I can tell you that when we were talking a hundred million dollars in infrastructure and we're talking uh a million annually through through the positions, uh it's gonna be a very small percentage of a of the total rate increase over time because the the position costs are much much smaller than the hundreds of millions of infrastructure that were included.

And these are not none of these items should come as a surprise anyone that was closely following that item because they were all laid out in the utility rate plan uh for this is exactly what we said we were gonna do.

Uh these positions are are the type of positions that um, I'm just looking at the uh some of them are in the water plant.

So as we deal with growth and and um keeping up with that in the water water side, it's uh people that are working at our water plant.

Uh some of them are maintenance workers that are adding to our our level of service to be able to respond to uh things like water main uh issues or or sewer breaks.

Uh, but but that's just the tip of the iceberg, I think to Roberta's point.

Uh when we talk about the overall um implementation of the utility rates, uh there are going to be some major, major uh capital improvement projects that are coming.

Um there's several items in here, whether it's equipment or or other um cost items that are being paid by the utility rate.

So nothing you're seeing tonight um was not included in the rate study and and what you approved recently um with those increases.

Okay, I I didn't say that they weren't included, Aaron.

It's just I know I'm gonna have constituents asking me about the seven new positions.

So I would like to have some information about it.

Yeah, and I think that's that's an important distinction to make that these are these are positions that were included in the rate studies and were planned as part of that overall process.

So you can say that with certainty.

I'm not sure I can break down and give you a percentage of the rates that are for positions, but I I will do my best to get you what I think you're looking for out of that.

Yeah.

I would think I would appreciate that.

Yeah, just how much of the positions are coming to and then you know um annually.

That would be great.

Thank you.

Yep.

Oh, I I think I wanted to mention too there was a lot of infrastructure also included with that that you're not seeing in tonight's budget.

Um a lot of that was dependent upon issuing bonds.

Um, and so we are after this moving forward with uh issuing the bonds, and so when we come back in uh in the next couple of months, um you will see uh a big appropriation requested for um water and sewer projects from from the bond funds that we plan to issue as well, in line with uh what was presented when those rates were adopted.

Okay, thank you.

I was gonna mention that exact same thing.

Thank you.

Um yeah, I'll go recognize that.

So um no questions, just more of just some general comments.

Um I I think I said this every budget cycle.

I really appreciate these budget decision packages that get put together by all of the departments.

Um, and we've had conversations about, you know, sales tax decreasing property tax decreasing and kind of what the future looks like.

And I appreciate staff and all the departments for tightening their belt and making sure that we stay um stably funded, uh, but also at our reserve, which um council member arrozco is not here to speak to that, but that has been something that the council for a very long time has held very strongly.

So I really appreciate that work.

Um I think these presentations are nice, and you know, not a lot of people sit and go through all these budget decisions and see page by page what's happening.

Um simple things like station 41 is going to get an exercise room upgrade, which is desperately needed for that space.

Um, you know, we've got you presented on um, you know, new vehicles, um, projects that I'm excited about, you know, why why we have a um one city governance models in my district.

You know, we've got Arlington Park, um, and then lighting on the Clarksburg branch line trail, which will be incredible for that space, especially as we develop out that neighborhood.

Um, it really speaks to all the great things that we're doing with a stably funded budget, and we're growing right now while other cities are cutting positions and letting people go.

And so um I just want to compliment staff on the work um for the folks that supported measure row to get us here as well.

Um I think we're in a very good position uh moving into the 2627 year.

So thank you.

So I have quite a few questions.

First of all, I want to say thank you so much, Roberta.

I am so happy to see July first publication of the city's new digital budget book.

Um huge, huge for me.

Um, and and so excited that we'll be able to see the entire budget online for the people to have transparency and knowing where our funding is going.

Um I do have the similar questions about um uh the light rail.

The the one of the questions I I do know that we do have it committed um and and it will be appropriated, but if there's additional funding that we think may be needed, and if we can revisit whether we even need to give this $5 million up at all down the road because it is committed, only because the cost has increased and that's a new development that may cause us pause to move this project forward.

Yeah, I think you'll you'll see when we bring that item for we are gonna be at a a key inflection point in in the future of that project.

So um the money that you're appropriating tonight again is just money that has already been committed through the cooperative agreement.

Um I hear your point that you know that there's no sense in if if there's not support to move forward, for example.

I'm not saying that's the case, but uh let's just play out that scenario.

Um there's a natural question.

Well, we've spent this much money so far that's been appropriated.

It at some point, does it stop and can we stop?

Um, those are all questions that we'll have to deal with when we when we bring back the item um that uh looks at the potential new money that's needed.

Uh, we'll also address that issue as well.

So you're not gonna if we were to vote yes on this this evening, you're not gonna go write them a check by first.

No, no, this is money that it's it's spent as the work happens.

So it's not, yeah, it's not as if we just write a check to RT for the entire amount, so not at all.

No, it's reimbursable.

So they bill us for for our portion as as money is going out the door.

You're gonna um this item this updated item is gonna come to us in August.

Um, I don't want to give you a precise time frame.

August is our actual next council meeting, um, so that would be the soonest it would happen, but it's definitely gonna be within the next few months.

I'm just thinking as we as we sit here, work is happening.

That's that's what I would say.

Right, but also it's a project that has continued to be a council priority for many years.

So it's not saying anything beyond that.

I'm just looking at what's the budget.

Um, sticking to my parameters.

That's all.

Yeah, so again, without getting too far into that item tonight, it's not on the agenda, but just know that there will be an item coming to you in the next uh say three to four months that will deal with that topic.

I guess there's a lot of caution being waived on this issue.

We're feeling really sensitive about it.

Um just uh I'm I'm I I have thoughts on it.

I just I'm also sensitive to the fact that I know we can only talk about what's in front of us today.

Well, it it it's for me, it's related.

If there's additional costs and and we haven't decided on that, how can we put some money out there that we wish we didn't spend?

That's all.

That's how I see it related.

Very good point.

Didn't you say we've already committed it though?

Coming.

It's it's in it's in writing, but has not been appropriated yet.

That's what we're doing today.

Okay, I'm stepping back to do an appropriation that has been previously committed over a multi-year process.

And because we do an annual budget, you don't want to.

I promise I understand, but what you're also saying to us is that in a matter of a few months, we are going to address potentially something additional um that's related to this.

Right.

And so it feels more like that that decision should be made at that point.

That's that's that's the only thing I I would I would say.

Yeah, I mean what what we can do is get you an accounting of what we anticipate spending between now and when that item comes forward just to give you a better picture of what what that magnitude is.

Um I don't want to say tonight because I don't I don't have that in front of me, but that it's you know X amount, but we can say with with confidence that it's not like you said, it's not as if we're gonna be the full five appropriation and write a check tomorrow for the full amount.

So the work is occurring though, you know.

So it's there there are costs that are that are happening, and so uh, but we can we can give you a best estimate of what uh we will be spending between you know the July 1st and when we plan to bring that item forward, give you the best idea we can.

So I think that.

Right.

No, I'm gonna try I'm not trying to kill the project, I'm just looking at expenses.

Can is it affordable and I mean I I think one of the other factors I noticed was in this item was the ongoing M and O was um higher than I had heard at one point.

Um I think I saw five million um somewhere in there.

I have to go and take a look at the item.

I didn't uh ongoing as four point one million, and that's across all funds.

So that includes the increases for water and sewer.

That is for the light rail.

Oh, for the light rail, I'm sorry.

Uh I do I would have to pull it up.

Well, this one was, but the outer year.

Are you s talking about the outer years in the project?

Yes.

Okay.

Yeah.

Are you referring to construction?

Five point seven five.

Um, I believe what you're seeing in the in the out years is the completion of the design phase.

Um there are there are obviously other costs that are not reflected that will include once it's operational and in construction.

Um so we don't have those anywhere in this budget, but those are all project costs that would need to be addressed in future budgets.

So what you see tonight is just to complete the the phase that we've committed to.

So I I didn't realize it was that high.

I heard a figure of three million, and I I think I remember seeing it.

And um seeing the five million is like just standing out to me like wow, it's a lot higher than um and I and I had the impression we would be getting an update on the ONM at some point.

Um, you know, just maybe a year ago and and then just to see a number like that means that there has been some thought and and but I just don't know exactly where all that is at, and would like to have an update on that.

Um because that is a factor in whether we can afford this project.

Which I believe it sounds like they will be bringing something back on that as well shortly.

Uh we're just specifically talking for for the light rail pro extension project, correct?

Right.

Yes, uh, he they are gonna be bringing an item back with some of the cost changes that have occurred recently to get fully all of them updated um information.

Okay.

Thank you all for that.

Um and I believe uh as I'm looking at this decision package, I just want to be as and know as clear as I can here looking at this.

Um what this looks to me is for the outer years that are shown in the decision package, because you see money in 27, 28, 29, you're not approving that tonight.

You're only approving the one year for correct uh 2627.

What you see in those outer years is the funding that we have for construction.

Right.

So that hasn't changed.

The overall amount that the city's committed has has not changed from what we're projecting um in total, which I believe was somewhere around 25 million.

Um, the question for tonight is is only dealing with the remainder of the um design phase.

And I believe that number is more like two point four million.

So, the twenty-seven number is is five million.

I do believe it's for construction.

Um it's for the cooperative agreement and it's uh the amount for construction.

I I don't see the people here that can answer that question, but I think if we needed to, we could delay that until we come back in a couple of months with the rest of it.

Can we pull that part?

Yeah, we could do that.

Yeah, I think I I agree with Roberta.

I think the the 5.2 looks like it's more for construction phase because the project is anticipated to begin construction in that fiscal year.

So the money that is in fiscal year 2026, my understanding is that's only for the design.

That's for design, correct.

Yes.

So we can we can table that one decision package until we bring it back.

But you can make that motion.

The only caution I have to that is if if we if we do need more money in the interim to make good on the cooperative agreement that we we have for the current design phase, we may need to do an item in August just to just to augment that amount, but we'll we'll get a more precise.

I have to admit, Aaron, I actually wouldn't mind that being just so we it are aware and tracking what's going into it.

Yeah, because I I can tell you we the the 5.2 million is beyond the amount we committed to the current design phase.

I believe it is for construction.

That's what we're seeing.

Okay.

Well, thank you so much for that.

Just to be clear, we are from this when we are voting, we're pulling that portion out.

Correct.

I just want us to all be on the same page.

I feel better.

We'll ask um our city attorney for some guidance.

As he crafts a little language.

All right.

Going back to my list here.

Um the other is the tennis courts.

Um, we are surprisingly annoyed tonight.

We always are.

We just it's just you know, I don't know why we sometimes appear.

We don't.

But on on this one, I recall there being a tennis court lighting.

Um there was a lighting project.

A lighting project, yeah.

And and and did they do the the surface as well?

Did they?

Were you there?

Did you hear about that?

I don't remember the surface part being.

Actually, I think this was your might have been one of your first events, Kate.

Yes, good evening, uh Kate Smith, Director of Parks and Recreation.

Um, the um tennis court lighting project was funded by the city.

Um, and you are correct that we have done resurfacing projects in collaboration with the district in the past.

The challenge has been those projects have just been the top coat and the surface.

When we did the lighting project, we were able to complete a geotech report that actually studied the base of the tennis courts, which is why they have been cracking uh more frequently than they should.

Because the base was not adequate.

And so we've been working with the district.

Um they are actually in construction currently.

Um it is their property and they use those tennis courts for academic purposes.

Um we are allowed to use them for recreational purposes, but we are excited because this um CIP that they are leading will actually address the full base, and therefore they should last us much longer.

Why was that overlooked before?

Do you know?

Um, I do not know.

I believe that was in the initial construction of the recreation center that took place over 17 years ago.

Uh, a long time ago.

Yeah.

Wow.

I mean, that was before it was even a school.

Was it?

Yep.

I'm not sure.

Yeah.

And then we and then we just like did it, wasn't it?

It would be like just putting a code on top of with it, whatever they did.

But they didn't build they were built together.

The school was built I think in 2007, so it would have been within that time frame.

So, at the same time, yeah, when it was built, yeah.

Which is odd.

I don't I don't know why they seem to have just we'll carve this out and not do a geotechnic study.

So that didn't happen.

Okay.

What's their portion?

Half.

So our joint use agreement for any um items over $50,000 for capital projects, we split as long as there is a joint use.

Interesting.

Is there anything else out there that hasn't had a geotechnic study that we need to like be aware of before we throw any more money at it and have to go back and fix it up?

Uh not that I'm aware of it this time.

Can we just do some research on that?

Because I know there's other parts of the area that we're looking at for future use.

Yeah, we continue to work with them on the preventative maintenance, as you all know that um facilities do age, and with that comes um preventative maintenance that's required.

So we continue to work with them on that.

Like the air conditioning.

Yeah.

Like the pools.

The pools always get fixed.

All right.

Thank you so much for the background.

I appreciate it.

Um, and I hope they find um somebody who doesn't uh doesn't commit any wage theft on the project.

Um stops fire.

So let's see.

The next thing is the operational funding for homeless emergency housing program.

Um I see this budget decision package is rule here.

Yes, it is here.

Oh, there he is.

Oh, can you just give a little background about this?

Um I am on 1067.

Good evening.

Yes, how can I help you?

A little background on this rule.

Uh the uh operational funding for homeless emergency housing program.

We are uh changing the funding source for the operational funding.

We are getting close to um using most of our grant funds that we have acquired since the program has begun.

We are in the process of applying for additional funding.

Uh but in the meantime, we because we are running in low on funding for the operations, we requested some additional funding so that while we apply for state and and county funds, we have funding to keep the lights on, pay the bills, and uh pay for our case managers.

Could we get you know support letters from our local collecteds to help us get those, you know, or and help us to get those approved, you know, at some point.

Yeah, I think it would be helpful.

You know, we are always looking for additional grant funds.

Um you know we've been very successful.

Most of the operational funding from um the time that we acquired our first motel site to begin the program has come from grant funding.

Uh we've been successful in getting CDBG funds, pro housing incentive uh program funds, um ESG, HAP, uh YOLO County funding, um, and unfortunately, because of the uh environment at the federal level, some of those funding sources are drying up, but we are continuing to look at other funding sources from the state from the county.

Um and again, we uh I think any type of uh support that we letters of support that we get will go a long way for that.

Funding to uh come in.

Thank you.

I appreciate your perseverance.

It's important to get this done.

All right.

Any earmarks too we should take a look at and put this on the list as we have a new congressional member for a budget request for an ear mark, please.

We need that.

That'll be great.

Thank you.

Okay.

Um, see that question.

Oh, I think I'm done.

Well, thank you so much for all the answering all the questions.

I appreciate it.

Thank you.

I think um if there are no more questions, except motion to except uh we'll work on this motion.

Yeah, I was gonna say um city attorney.

Can you maybe help me out a little bit with the motion?

I can also chat GPT it or put it in claw.

I think it I think we're just excluding the appropriation for the one um project, correct?

I can give the project number if that's helpful to have that as part of the measure.

1404.

You're essentially you're approving the resolution.

Authorized positions, et cetera.

Salary schedule with the one.

Yeah, with the exception of CIP 14 1404.

Correct.

Okay, um move to approve the resolution with the exception of CIP 1004.

We can note in the minutes.

Thank you.

I am sorry, I I stepped out and missed that.

I know you guys were talking about.

Is that the light rail?

Yeah, and we and what we're doing is we will have that be outside of this with it coming back in August, potentially with the dollar amount funding that has been accrued thus far from July to August, potentially.

No sooner than August, but it could be in the next I'd say three to four months.

We'll bring it on forward.

So is that does that?

Sorry, my microphone's not even on.

Does that cause any issue with our previous commitment and the agreement we already made?

I don't believe so.

Um when I'm looking at the current appropriation in fiscal year 2026, it to me it aligns with the the amount of money that we have committed to the remainder of the design phase.

Um we believe we were sort of sidebaring over here a little bit to interpret the the 5.2 million year we believe is uh for the construction phase.

Um and so the overall amount that we have committed has not changed.

It's just the phasing of it.

So uh we will do some work between now and when we bring that item forward to determine if there's some amount that we have to catch up with that or for the current phase of work that happens between now and then.

Uh but it's done on a reimbursement basis.

So I don't I don't I think we'll be okay with RT and approaching it that way, but we just want to get more clarity about um how much is actually needed to complete the design phase.

So, this this clearly is for beyond that, it's for construction.

Okay, and we can coordinate with the city manager's office on what is remaining um as available funding for the CIP based off of what we taking into account what we believe we might spend um between July 1st um and when we come back to council to ensure that we have sufficient capacity to cover those expenses.

What it'll also do is allow for when you guys come back, um the larger discussion of of where we go from here and if there are potentially increased costs as um city manager Laurel was saying, then we can have that discussion versus approving not only sounds like the design cost, but the some of the construction costs before we've had some of that discussion.

Okay.

Yeah.

But it's not to say that we didn't get the motion anything.

I I think I got the motion right, right?

And did you do you need a second?

We do okay.

Um, gold star, yeah.

Council member council member early moved um with the amended um motion and council member call a seconded.

Madame Clerk, please call the roll.

Councilmember O'Calla.

I council member early.

I mayor pro tempsal peasio hall.

Alright.

Mayor Grero.

I all right.

Thank you so much for your hard work on this budget.

And I look forward to July first.

We're gonna we're gonna announce it right.

Yeah, I yes, we will announce it to you.

It'll come, you'll get a link in your newsletter.

Um, I do want to be very clear, it is it is the first phase, so it's a limited release.

You will have you'll have pieces of it.

We're gonna continue to build on it, and our goal is to have it fully fleshed out and give you a full walkthrough um at a at a future council meeting.

So you're trying to you and the public can see everything.

So it's gonna be a trying to uh just manage expectations.

She's looking at me like don't she is.

It'll still be cool.

All right, next item is item 14 uh consideration of adoption of a city council media context policy.

And we have two presenters.

Um we have Doug and Linnea.

Hello.

Oh, it's mainly Linnea.

Okay, Lenille.

All right, uh, my name is Linnea Lewis.

I'm the public information officer for the city, located um in the community relations division in the city manager's office.

Um so today staff is recommending um the council um adopt uh IC11, which is a media context um policy.

And before I provide some background, I did want to give um some background information just a little bit on what the community relations team is, what we do.

Um, and so we can go to the next slide.

So community relations is really the division that helps uh manage the brand of the city.

Um we also make sure you know we have the logos, we have our website, we manage our flagship, uh social media accounts.

Um, if anyone is following us on there, uh we do internal and external newsletters.

Um we recently just launched our community newsletter, and I'll get into that a little bit more.

We also do our media relations, talking with the journalists and really trying to get the story out about the city.

And then we also deal with crisis communications.

Next slide.

And so something I wanted to touch on is that we really do have all eyes on us when it comes to the community relations division.

What we've been doing recently is really amplifying our presence on our social media platforms just in the past year.

We've been able to grow at least like a thousand followers on our social media pages, which is really showing that we are strategically approaching our platforms with intention and letting people know about the services that we offer, the programs, the events that we do, and then also what we're doing to stick to our strategic plan throughout the year.

And then, of course, how residents can get involved, whether it's coming to an open house, whether it's giving their input, whether it's a public survey.

So we've really been able to meet people where there are on the digital front with social media.

Next slide.

And recently in April, we launched our community newsletter.

After 10 years, so 2015 is when the last time we had a community newsletter.

And since we launched, we have over 14,000 subscribers.

Our open rate, which basically means how many people are actually looking at the newsletter when we send it is almost 60%.

And is really just another way for us to share what you all are doing, what our staff is doing, and ways that people can get involved.

And so if you are not following or a subscriber, WSAC.

You can go to the next slide.

Another big part of the community relations division is really media relations.

So we do all this amazing work.

We talk about measure O, we talk about our strategic plan, but how are we actually getting this information out?

And so what we're doing is we connect with journalists, we do it on a proactive basis, doing some outreach.

We have a ribbon cutting tomorrow, for example, for Washington Park, reaching out to them about that.

Also doing some reactive pieces and also doing some corrective things.

If we see an article or something that doesn't, that's not accurate, we reach out to them, and then also we make sure that we're promoting our city programs and our different initiatives.

Next slide.

So that brings to today, and what we are recommending for city council is that currently we have an administrative policy that is the IC11, and it does not really reflect right now our current state of how we communicate, whether that be communicate digitally, communicate with journalists, and so what we want to do is update this 26-year-old policy to make sure that not only council but staff has a clear understanding of how we can all have unified messaging when we are telling the story of the city.

And so, really the outcome of what you're seeing in the policy is that the city manager's office, the community relations division can help with some talking points.

We can also vet out some of the journalists and some of the media outlets to make sure that we're actually speaking to people that are credible and that actually have good intentions with telling our story.

Of course, you all could be equipped with those talking points, knowing what are some of the risk factors when talking about certain topics and really making sure that you're prepared to share information.

And then also we can monitor some of that results, so kind of like what I talked about earlier.

If we see something that's inaccurate or it could be kind of fleshed out a little bit more in an article, we can do the due diligence to reach out to them and correct it.

Um we can also make sure that we have the best spokespersons for those that are um when journalists reach out about certain topics, so we can work with our staff to make sure that you have all the information that you need or who's the best person to speak on it.

And then um also just making sure that we're just staying up to date and um really aligning with what our strategic priorities are um and putting our best foot forward.

And so that's what the policy is put forth today, and I can answer any questions that you may have.

Any questions, council members?

Um I have one question, but first I'm gonna put my um trillion uniform on and just um compliment uh the direction our off this office is going right now, and thank you for your leadership in this.

I've um seen the work that the proactive work that you're doing.

Because I know a lot of PIOs historically have been very reactive, like we'll wait till the media calls and your proactive outreach.

I know we had some stories um with police and fire, and then um I'm sure Dante will speak about the Juneteenth stories as well.

Um, reaching out to your contacts and telling the stories, I think is just such a great way to be doing it, and then um you are so hands-on with your staff um the visual aspect of things, and so um we were at the Heritage Oaks Park.

Um, uh we were doing the reflexology path, and you know, your team was filming, and she's like, cut back a little bit, you know.

And it was just like you're you're in on it.

And so I know you're one of our newest employees, and I just want to say thank you for doing a great job.

This is very exciting that this is coming before us.

My only question is I wanted to clarify the authority a little bit.

So our 26 year old policy that was absolutely time for um uh upgrade.

Um the authority is the city manager, yes, and our new policy, the authority is the city council.

Can you clarify just kind of the difference of like how we're holding each other?

How we're holding accountable and like what what does this actually mean from a policy standpoint?

Yeah, so uh Doug Drowe's deputy city manager.

I'll speak uh and the city manager can fill in uh as needed.

Really the idea uh the initial policy, it's included in your packet.

You can see it's woefully inadequate and outdated, uh, and it didn't really speak to the city council.

So the way we do our policies, if it's an internal staff policy, then it's adopted under the city manager's manager's authority.

When it applies to the council, as this new policy does in terms of coordinating our response uh to media inquiries, it's appropriate for the council to adopt that policy so that it becomes a city council policy.

So that's why we've made the change from the authority here, and that's why it's before you for consideration tonight, okay.

So at the end of the day, it's it's the city council, we're holding each other accountable.

Yeah, that I yeah, I that's correct.

Um I would say anything, any policy that governs or or guides the council in terms of procedure or how we do bus or how the city council does business um is adopted by the city council and it's a shared compact in terms of uh you all and how you do business.

So awesome.

Thank you.

And there are obviously elements of the policy that apply to staff as well.

So that those portions, uh, even though it's it's a city council authorized policy, uh, the you know, the uh making sure that we're accounting to it is is my role, but when it becomes a uh council thing, then it makes sense to have it be a a council policy rather than my authority.

So that's the reason for the change.

Yeah, I mean I and I think it makes sense for um something like this um as relates to to media and and I think it's even more important as we continue to have our sort of big city dreams regarding um getting an MLB team and whatnot, um, that it's probably gonna become even more crucial that we are speaking with one voice.

Um, and so appreciate you guys putting this forward.

We'll both stay here in case there's other questions.

Like, open it up for public comment, Madame Clerk.

Are there any requests from public comment?

We have no requests to speak on today.

Thank you.

Closing bringing it back to council.

I have just one more comment.

Oh, sure, yeah, I just want to.

Okay, okay.

Um, I do want to just um continue to echo what uh Mayor Pro Timel Hall said around what's happening with our communication um team and our approach.

Um, it has, I think we have seen it elevate in the way that you know, a couple years ago when um we met in our strategic planning, we talked about communication, we talked about what we were wanting to see, and I think a few years ago it started with the storms and trying to get the word out, and that we felt like our residents just had no idea what the city's responsibilities were, what the city was doing in regards to to that response.

And so we started with a consultant to be able to really be able to communicate that.

Um, but it goes beyond emergency response and and crisis response, and that's what we're seeing with the work, Linnea, that you're doing and Doug, I think in partnership with you in the city manager's office, that our city does a lot, and I think oftentimes our residents don't get a chance to see the story and the work uh behind what we're doing.

And what I've seen over the past year is really starting to highlight and get the information out that in case you didn't know, right?

This is what's happening, right?

Like the reason why you just love the city, you know, you're not quite sure you know how you put your finger on it.

It's because of these things that are happening behind the scenes, and a lot of it is what our staff are doing, and you're able to tell the story of the work, the good work that uh City of West Sacramento team is doing.

And so I just want to say kudos to you for the Juneteenth event.

That was the first time that we had had actually promotion to encourage folks to come and to learn about the um the event.

Um, and I think I shared with you this is amazing, this is great, um, and want to see more of this thing.

I know there wasn't a question in there, but just compliments, all kinds of compliments.

Just a brief comment and response.

Um, you know, just tonight, we've heard about the budget book online, we've heard about, you know, a new way to look at um our capital improvement program and our roads projects.

It's always a work in progress.

Um, it's and we're we're working on it, and I think particularly on the website point, um, we are planning to have the website uh on a totally new platform and fully updated uh, I'll say by the end of the year, um, and that's gonna go a long way in um having those resources a click away for people to learn more about uh how the city works, which is what this is all about.

And I think the theme of tonight that you're you're seeing and hearing, if I could sort of like qualify that, is um transparency, right?

Transparency, access, um, because we know because we are in the weeds, it's actually something we were talking about earlier.

We're in the weeds on a lot of things, and so our perspective is sometimes different because we have you guys sharing what's happening, and sometimes projects take so long to actually go from idea to execution.

Even we've heard about just design phase, right?

Which takes years before you're even starting construction phase, and so we are oftentimes aware, but our residents aren't.

And so being able to share all of those successes and milestones along the way with our residents, I think is huge and important because it's what they are voting for, and it helps to instill confidence that their representatives and that the city sees them and understands on the things that they want.

So thank you.

Anybody else?

I will say that there are um you know, when there's a an agenda item that you know we hear about a lot, um potholes.

I mean, I hear about that all the time.

I'm public, I'm engaged in social media, and I come back with blasts of potholes.

So it it is gonna be something that I put out there myself in social media.

Hey, this is on the agenda.

I did it at the last minute.

I want to get the people to come in to express their position.

And if there's anything that, you know, um, you know, we will have opportunities in the future to do a phone call.

If there's anything there that we can make announcements, so we have that transparency and engagement from the public that they'll be able to be aware of new mechanisms to connect with City Hall and the public decision-making process.

Not I it'll be longer meetings, it'll be more tedious, but I think it'll be worth it to hear from the public.

Um, and they have this area um as as a source of a connection.

Um, and your your role in reaching out and engaging them instead of avoiding, um, is beneficial.

It helps take some of the weight off of all of us.

Um, and then we can also redirect them if there's a publication you did, which is what I do.

I think that was a a um you know, project you posted.

I grabbed that and inserted it as a response, um, because it's a it's a resource, it's a tool I can have and say, hey, this is what we're doing um it otherwise you know we were we are pretty much having to fend for ourselves and having to explain things to people um for the most part everybody's really happy with how the city is going I would say a good percentage of people are very happy um with how things are going to what's with the media and what they're pushing out and a lot of activity and even in the state of the city much more media presence than I've ever seen before I you know you you heard me say that um I think trying to get what it is we're doing out to the public when we when we as individuals have that opportunity is important so I really appreciate having you know this update so that we are all again singing from the same hymnal.

Okay.

With that I think we just need to make a motion early move second.

All right um Madame Clerk Council member early moved and mayor's you hold seconded please call the role council member caller aye council member early aye mayor pro tempsel peasy hall aye mayor grero aye all right this is item is approved um um next we have under fire is item 17 public hear oh we have brian johnson our um fire marshal coming up public hearing consideration of resolution 26-17 certifying the list of weed abatement charges directing that a lien be placed on the subject properties and requesting the inclusion of these charges on the secure tax role in order that they may be collected in the same manner as general taxes right evening uh madam mayor members of the council um brian john fire marshal uh tonight i am requesting approval to place liens on um on properties that have unpaid uh weed abatement debt for the 2025 season you'll see a list uh thankfully short lists in your staff report that has totals that include our third party costs plus a 20% admin fee uh council's approval of this item will ensure that the uh costs for services for this program uh are uh borne by the property owners uh rather than the taxpayers uh respectfully recommend that we open a public hearing to hear about those liens and uh adopt the resolution for the county to collect those I'm happy to answer any questions thank you so much Brian um Madam Clerk are there any request to speak by anybody here today we have no request to speak on this item okay closing the public comment bringing it back to council any questions yes not a question just a comment could you please tell us how many times you uh reach out to these property owners just so the public is aware uh well our the first contact would be the notice to abate um and that goes out in um April ish uh after the first meeting so we give them an opportunity to cut it give them the timeline which gives them essentially uh well from the time they get the notice to the end of May so almost a month and a half for them uh to uh to conduct the weed abatement per their responsibility um after that uh they don't hear from us until unless we force abate the property and then have to cut it we send them an invoice given one last opportunity to pay before the property gets cleaned uh and then that would be it other than the public hearing allowing them opportunity to uh come and uh speak okay thank you thank you brian I know it's you know it's busy work out there uh and did we all accept a motion okay second okay I'll council member you go first mayor pro tem you go second and then um madam clerk please call the roll council member aye council member early aye mayor pro tempsal peasio hall aye mayor grero aye all right thank you so much Brian see you around thank you next item under 18 under capital projects a public hearing and consideration of resolution 26-58 a resolution adopting the 2025 urban water management plan and water shortage contingency plan and uh sorry, I didn't get the name here.

Um, hold on a second.

Oh, it's you're not Amber.

I'm not Amber.

I mean, you could be.

I mean, yeah back there please, please introduce yourself.

Uh, my name is Brad Hubbard, and I am.

Well, first of all, good evening, Mayor Guerrero and council members.

Um, my name is Brad Hover and I'm with Zanhara Water Consultants, and we helped uh prepare the 2025 urban water management plan and water uh water uh contingency plan.

So um I first wanted to just open it up because this needs to be a public hearing per the state requirements.

Um so we can open it up as a public hearing, and then I can give the introductory remarks.

We can close the public hearing, and then you can uh consider the item for adoption or the resolution for adoption.

Um, first a couple, and then I'll take questions as well.

So um, couple of uh introductory items.

I just want to thank the city staff, particularly Amber Wallace, the uh project manager on this project, who's done a fantastic job, and several other members of the city staff who supported putting these documents together, did a fantastic job.

She gave excellent feedback to make the documents um outstanding, so very good documents.

Um, and I'm just gonna um and there were there were other members in the planning staff as well as well as the finance staff.

I won't name them all.

I don't know if they're here tonight, but uh they did a great job supporting this project.

Um, and I'm just gonna read and keep this short because I think this is the last item of the night.

We've had a lot of topics.

Um I'm just gonna read the statements to get it into the record so that it's captured.

Um, and then uh I can open up for questions.

Um we can see if there's any public comment, and then we can close the hearing.

Uh the California Water Code requires urban water suppliers within the state to prepare and adopt urban water management plans and water shortage contingency plans for submission to the Department of Water Resources.

Urban water management plans are required to be filed every five years.

The purpose of uh the urban water management plan is for the city to evaluate its long-term resource planning over a 25-year period, essentially out to 2050 is what we looked at and projected.

Um, it's basically a long-term planning document uh required by the state.

The plan establishes management measures to ensure adequate water supplies are available to meet existing and future water demands.

The urban water management plan provides a framework to help water suppliers maintain efficient use of urban water supplies to continue to promote water conservation programs and policies and to ensure that sufficient water supplies are available and finally to make as a mechanism for response during um water drought conditions, adoption of an um of an urban water management plan requires a notice uh of public hearing.

Uh, the city staff prepared and published a public uh hearing notice.

The public hearing notice was published in the West Sacramento News ledger on Friday, May 22nd and Friday, May 29th.

The purpose of this hearing tonight is to provide the council and the public with the opportunity to receive information and provide comments regarding the city of West Sacramento's 2025 Urban Water Management Plan.

And then following close of the hearing, the council will consider the adoption of the plan.

Uh both the both the urban water management plan and the water shortage contingency plan.

And that's a quick and dirty summary of uh the what and the why for these urban water management plans.

And I am available to take questions or comments.

Yes, in the development of a plan.

What are the next steps?

The next steps are um we've completed the plan, we posted it online.

Okay, and um it's on the website.

Amber posted it on the website as a public draft, and then the next steps are for the um hold the public hearing, which we're doing right now, and then to um adopt uh deem that the document is exempt from sequel the CEQA process.

There's codes within the sequel process that allow for an exemption.

Um that's part of the your uh agenda package, and then finally to consider adoption of both plans.

Thank you.

I would like a copy of the plan if somebody can give me a hard copy, please.

I have one.

If I can bring it to you, yeah, you could somebody they can deliver it.

It's not in color if you want it in color.

I don't have it in color, but it's black and white.

It's normally something I'd like to have a hard copy.

Yeah, I'm sorry.

I are you referring to the the actual urban water management plan, the 2025 plan?

Yeah, the one that with the QR code on the back of the doc of the oh, you don't have a hard copy of it.

Okay, yeah, because it's it's an attachment to the report.

It's just it's it's just going after it, but I'm talking about the final once to once you.

Oh okay, so yeah, once uh once it's all complete, uh we can make it make it known to the council that if you would like a hard copy, we can print you one.

Yeah, that'd be great.

Any other questions, Council members?

Open it up for public comment.

Madam Clerk, any request to speak?

We have no request to speak on this item.

All right, and how long is it going to be posted for public comment?

The public comment closes today with the adoption.

Yeah, with the adoption at the after the public hearing.

And so with the public comment, any changes will be made or anything.

We would only uh change it if there were public comments that um required that we need to change it.

Um the document is a sent is also a living document.

It can be altered and modified after it's submitted to uh California Department of Water Resources.

That happens uh I think I believe when we when the city adopted the 2020 urban water management plan, there was one or two modifications after the fact, and DWR allows for that to occur.

Okay, and has our commissions uh reviewed this any of our commissions?

Your commissions.

Um folks from your the water plant have reviewed it.

Chris Kanye.

Um and I don't know the water commission, that might be an Amber question.

No, no, the commission staff person to address that please.

Hello, Amber.

Hello, I'm Amber Wallace, uh senior civil engineer.

We have not um presented this to the environmental utilities council, but we can um their next meeting.

That would be great.

Is it gonna be after we we take we're gonna it's gonna be after we take this action, but oh yes, but we can update them on um what's in there and what it covers and um our goals for the next five years.

That'd be great if you can do that.

I'm sure they would appreciate it.

That's no problem.

I think uh just to um highlight why that would be a problem to delay.

My understanding is there's a July 1st deadline to submit this to state, correct?

Correct.

So but we can definitely do an informational item to the commission to present what it's about.

So yeah, and just remind them it's a live document and that that they still can be in it.

It's not over.

Okay, thank you.

Anything else?

All right.

With that, I'll accept the motion to early moves.

Oh, second.

Hey, council member early move.

Mayor pretempts, you hold second, Madame Clerk, please call the role.

Council member caller, aye.

Council member early.

Aye, mayor pro tempsilpe hall, okay.

Mayor Grero.

Aye, all right, this is approved.

Congratulations.

We have a water plan.

Yay.

Thank you very much.

Okay, next under general administration function part two.

Do we have any reports from our council assignments?

I have one.

Yes.

Thank you.

Um I attended the June 10th Yolo Solano Air Quality Management District meeting, and uh we passed the 2627 budget.

We also um recognize the 2026 clean air Quality Art Contest winners.

12 students from YOLO and um Northeastern Solana counties were recognized.

This year's theme was heroes for clean air.

They had 80 submissions, and uh this contest really serves as one of the ways that the air district engages local communities while promoting um awareness between air quality, public health, and the environment.

But I want to um recognize two West Sacramento winners from TK to second, it was Kira Rehi from Our Lady of Grace here in West Sacramento.

And for third grade, it was Ava Rahey, also of uh Our Lady of Grace.

So it's a very talented family.

Both sisters won the contest.

And the third very exciting thing I wanted to bring up is I'm gonna actually, so you don't miss anything from here.

Uh, Yola Solano Air Quality Management District in partnership with the Yolo County Sustainability Division is offering incentives to help residents purchase certified e-bikes and safety equipment.

It's called pedal forward e-bike incentive programs, and uh it provides vouchers that can cover up to 100% of the cost of new eligible e-bikes and required safety equipment.

Um the vouchers or standard vouchers are $750 and enhanced vouchers or $1,500 for income qualified applicants.

So some of the requirements of course are that you're from Yolo County.

Um they're focusing in on families um in low-income areas.

So our northern area is definitely uh going to, I hope, see a lot of um applications being sent in.

The deadline is July 27th.

So here we go.

Quality for to qualify for this program, you have to be located in Yolo County or the northeastern part of Solano County, which includes Dixon, Valcaville, and Rio Vista, and that you had previously not received an e-bike voucher.

Uh participants in low-income programs such as PGE Care Leap and WIC WIC WIC.

Um, let's see, also they have a guideline on combined household incomes.

Um the e-bikes have uh the battery and electric motors, which can be activated uh to help with pedaling and um all e-bikes purchase are through uh a program.

They must be class one or class two.

E-bikes must also meet the following requirements, come with one year minimum manufacturing warranty, so they're making certain that uh they have quite a bit of criteria here that um the purchase of these bikes will definitely help the environment.

It's not something that um is just um for recreational uh purposes, reading from here, and they are going to provide e-bike safety training if you do get one of these vouchers.

The YOLO County Health and Human Services website will be providing safety information.

They will also uh the recipients of these bikes will also be getting free helmets.

And um, I believe uh I spoke with Doug, he said he would also post it on our um city website, and that's the end of my report.

Put it in the news new newsletter.

Yeah, I bet you they'll do that too.

Yeah, that'll be great.

That's it.

Yes, council member, I'm early.

Um, so I had YOLO Transportation uh district um last week.

And we just started to blend together.

Um and we had the budget in front of us, uh a uh I think uh a preliminary uh budget was approved um for uh this upcoming fiscal year.

Um I actually voted no on that budget because it um proposed pooling, I think roughly 300 or so thousand dollars from LFT dollars that are um put towards West Sacramento that we use for our transportation, so for VIA, it did pass, it should be coming back uh to us with some tweaks uh in July, and my hope would be that some of the cost savings that they did find that we requested that I specifically requested um that they do those within um allow for the LFT dollars and STA dollars that uh come to our various jurisdictions, and again, particularly in my focus is West Sacramento to then be reallocated in that budget uh for us because again, as we saw on this evening with our budget um that we approved for this um upcoming year, it's really important as uh things begin to tighten that we do not have uh further cuts.

Um so that's something to just be on the lookout for and aware of.

Uh we also had I attended Carta Capital Area Regional Tolling Authority uh today uh that is a um I'm the vice chair um on that, and we reviewed the I-5 tolling uh that will uh probably be coming in the next five to uh seven years.

Um that is slowly working its way through, and so we're looking at what kinds of tolling lanes that we would have and what that project uh would look like, and then uh approved the budget for CARTA um and also took a presentation from Caltrans, who sits actually on Capital Area Regional Tolling Authority.

It is the only body that Caltrans actually has a voting seat on as far as a tolling authority in California, and so we really are pioneers in that.

Um, and part of having a seat at the table with us is that they provide a lot of in-kind uh work and services, and thus far we've had a really great um, I think experience with the director of Caltrans, who's been able to share upfront the things we should shouldn't do as we are marching forward for tolling along um the causeway uh through uh starting at Davis and then up through uh West Sacramento.

Um and so we approved the budget uh today.

Again, I'll remind you that we are new executive director, the first executive director for Carta will be starting in August.

All right.

Council member, I've got one.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Um I had the pleasure of being an alternate today to attend the Sacramento Area Sewer District meeting uh for vice chair uh Roscoe.

Um it's interesting to sit um on the dais and hear updates from our colleagues about what's going on and then sit in a meeting and actually hear the conversation.

And so I will bring up that we adopted the fiscal year budget and um the significant cost of increase in chemicals, the chlorine, which she has talked about a lot, which is something she reminds us to be thinking about when we're looking at our operations and maintenance of our pools, and as we continue to grow um that space in the community, um awarded a contract for sedimentation tanks.

Um one of the conversations which I thought was actually really fascinating, is uh look at the governance model for the board.

It's a 17 member board.

Um yeah, exactly.

And um, like for example, every single board of supervisor from Sacramento is on the board, and there's no alternates, and then there's two um uh vacancies from the city of Sacramento, and they have to be elected officials, and um they're having difficulty making quorum, and so it was just an interesting conversation about what governance looks like and how we communicate and continue to do the work, the important work of um SACSOR.

And then uh they was a presentation on harvest water, which it affects it's in South Sacramento County, but it's California's largest agricultural recycling project, which SAC sewer is undertaking right now.

So we got an um interesting presentation on that.

Um, and that's pretty much that that was SACSOR today.

Thank you.

So earlier this week, um, Sabezio Hall and I attended the enhanced infrastructure financing public authority meeting, and we approved um the well, we accepted the audited financial statements for the city of West Sacramento EIFD financing district number one for fiscal year 2425.

Um, and we also um approved the resolution for the EIFD um that was ahead of us, you know, for the 2025, all the way through 2027.

Budgets for the EIFD.

Um, and uh those were the two main items that lasted all but 10 minutes in that very lovely short meeting.

Um, and uh that's all I have for my update.

And next is um council calendar.

I good evening.

Um we have a number of things coming up in the next couple of weeks.

Um the Washington Park Washington Park ribbon cutting is tomorrow morning at 11 o'clock.

Um that's at 426th Street.

Um and then we're closed.

Our offices are closed on Friday for the Juneteenth holiday.

You're welcome.

Thank you very much.

Um and then Monday there is a reception at Sutter Health Park for the Rivercats and Southern Sutter Health Park getting a Partnership for Quality Living award.

That's in the evening.

And then Thursday the 25th is the grand opening of the bridge, which is the West Gateway Place 2 site.

And it's not on the calendar, but I think you all got uh notification today that PD is doing their um new hire and youth academy um promotional ceremony in youth academy graduation next Friday at City Hall Galleria at five o'clock.

All right, City Manager report.

Um just a quick reminder one thing that is not coming up is another council meeting.

Um this is the first year um that hopefully becomes a pattern where the the council's decided to take uh essentially a recess during the month of July.

So our next meeting isn't until I believe it's first week of August.

So we're back on the regular schedule at that point on August 5th, which is also the first day of school.

Um and then also just a note just because I think it's a cool time of year.

Um on Monday we had our uh latest uh installment of interns um under our summer steps program uh start with the city.

So almost every department has at least one intern.

Uh it's a really good class, and we hope as we've seen in other classes over the years, uh we'll get some future employees out of it or at least inspire some people to work in local government.

So it's always a a good good time for our staff to have that experience.

So that's all I have tonight.

Thank you.

City attorney report.

I think your report.

And staff direction from city council members and uh no future agenda item.

I do have an announcement.

We do um we will have a 250th anniversary celebrating the declaration of independence out at Bridgeway Lakes.

Um and uh trying to get our person who's organizing that because it was a big lift for a short period of time to help get an announcement out to everybody.

Um, you know, she's been trying to coordinate that.

Um so you're all of course welcome and welcome to participate.

We'll include you in any speaking parts you'd like to share, any thoughts um on what it means to you.

And um, you know, just send spread it out.

It's in your district again.

It is in my district.

Ridge weight lakes.

I didn't know what was happening with Bright Park and every all the other parks were um, you know, it was uh kind of up in small and things like that.

So Bridgeway Lakes made made a lot of sense this year for me.

Um and uh you know, Yolo Solano, if you'd like to come in and table, you know, any information.

Okay.

That'll be great.

Um, and uh no, after that we are pretty much adjourned if nobody else has anything else to share.

No, okay.

We are adjourned.

Thank you very much, everybody.