City Council — September 15, 2026

The council meeting is called to order. I'd like

to ask the Deputy City Clerk to call the roll.

Council Member Kendrick is absent, all others are present.

Thank you. As a reminder, unlike regular meetings public comments at special meetings are only allowed on specific item listed on the special meeting agenda. We called a special meeting for a public hearing to consider the establishment of a downtown Elkhorn Community Benefit District. The public hearing is now open first staff will you tell us about the agenda?

Good afternoon mayor and council members. I'm Nate Prescott I'm a senior management analyst here in the city manager's office and we're here today to talk about the public hearing for the creation of the downtown El Cajon Community Benefit District. So just to give you a refresher on how we got to this point in the district creation process under recommendations from the city council and through the city's community benefit district enabling ordinance.

The downtown Elko and business partners and the city decided to pursue the creation of a community benefit district instead of renewing the P-BID. The process for creating the community benefit district is as follows. First we have the petitions phase it required a 30% approval vote from all the property owners in the district. We already had that all those petitions are on file with the city clerk, that moved us to our official ballot phase where Couple months ago you instructed the city clerk to send out the official ballots and that 45 day process will close after the public comment portion of this meeting. It requires a majority vote in favor of creation of the district then we'll have a public hearing which is why we're here today And then if the ballots return with a majority vote in favor of creating the new district, the city council can approve the formation of the downtown El Cajon Community Benefit District and levy the assessments therewith.

City staff and many property owners throughout the district feel that having a community benefit district would greatly benefit the property owners and the businesses here in downtown El Cajon. The downtown Elkhorn Community Benefit District focuses on providing services and amenities above and beyond what the city already provides. There's no duplication of services but it's a focus on enhancing the area without this district. The city does not have the budget to make up these services and provide these services on its own. Currently we're slated to spend about ninety eight thousand dollars on our assessment portion to this district But the total budget is around seven hundred ninety three thousand dollars.

Likewise if individual businesses attempted to fund their own events their own advertising and their own street cleaning independently the combined cost would far outweigh the cost of their district assessment. The largest benefits to property owners are and businesses are in advertising beautification events and in representation Downtown El Cajon spearheads advertising and marketing efforts for the entire district, and for individual businesses. They've been all over social media, the San Diego Business Journal, the local news, and more.

Marketing is a huge cost for businesses, and a combined effort is able to do so much more than one individual business could do on its own. The downtown El Cajon has also made significant improvements in beautification. They handle regular power washing of sidewalks They handle maintenance and trash cleanup all throughout downtown. I see them out and about every day cleaning doing their work and it's really great to see them having an active role in improving this area.

They've also added new tables and chairs new benches new planters as well as maintaining all of them and they just provide a regular presence that is seen working towards bettering this area and it's really nice to see them actively out there So they've made significant investments into the brand of downtown El Cajon. All of those umbrellas, the tables and chairs, benches, planters, they're all branded with a downtown El Cajon logo and that really goes towards enhancing the placemaking in the feel of downtown like this is a destination, this is a place you go to.

They've also continued to fund and enhance the events here in downtown El Cajón and they've really been activating the area They've added new events that benefit more businesses. And they bring activity and attention to downtown, also bringing new customers to downtown. Downtown El Cajon also provides a huge service to businesses and property owners by being an advocate for the business community. Downtown El Cajón hears the concerns of their businesses.

And then they either work with the city to find some resolution to these issues or they take the initiative and they start efforts of their own. Either way having a unified voice To address the concerns in the business community is a great benefit to our businesses. I know we need to hear the public comment section and but here's a quick rundown of the recommendations from staff today. These are all on the staff report and I can bring this back up as needed but in the end we recommend that if no majority protest exists that you adopt the next resolution and approve the formation of the downtown El Cajon Community Benefit District and levy the assessments therewith Thank you all. And I and Andrew the executive director of the downtown Oklahoma business partners are here to answer any questions that you might have.

Thanks Nate. Questions for Nate. Apparently not do a good job thanks. Now's the time for public input on the public hearing Angela we have any speaker cards on this item

sir we have three. The first one is from Paris Landren

Well Paris, good to see you.

You as well. Hello mayor and council members my name is Paris Landon I currently serve as a board member of the existing Business Improvement District and I'm the manager of the Magnolia Theater. Previously I managed the observatory in North Park where I served for several years on their PBID board though organization operated as a 501c3 which is similar to the structure being proposed for the El Cajon P-BID under this new formation.

During my time in North Park, I saw firsthand the positive and lasting impacts a well run improvement district can have on a community through cleanliness and beautification marketing events and ultimately creating a more welcoming environment for residents visitors and businesses I believe we are already seeing that same kind of progress here in El Cajon. You can see it in the new planters on Main Street, the tables and chairs, increased cleanliness efforts and community events like the car show music on main and many more.

These efforts help create a downtown where people want to spend time visit local businesses and come back again. I respectfully ask That you vote to approve the continuation of this PBID so we can continue to build on the progress, investing in the improvement and vitality of the El Cajon community.

Thank you.

Emily Sloan?

Hello welcome.

Good evening Mayor and Council Members. My name is Emily Sloan. I'm the operations manager of the Magnolia Theater and I also serve as an alternate member for the Elkhorn Business Improvement District. Working in downtown Elkhon every day, I see firsthand the impact that the improvement district has on our community. The increased cleanliness efforts, improvements along Main Street and events that bring people downtown all contribute to making this a more welcoming and vibrant place for our businesses residents and visitors.

From an operations perspective these efforts really do matter when downtown is clean active and inviting it creates a better experience for our guests and encourages people to spend more time in the area and support the surrounding businesses We've already seen meaningful progress and I believe that there is still a lot more that can be accomplished. I respectfully ask you support the continuation of the pivot and allow us to keep building on the work that has already been done for downtown El Cajon. Thank you.

Thanks Emily.

Last speaker is Rich Ryle.

Hey Rich welcome.

Bless you for your kindness. Mayor Wells and members of the City Council, as we await the outcome of this election I'm exercising my right as a citizen to condemn your continued failure to represent the people of El Cajon. Your failure to demand accountability for the handling of hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxpayers' funds has brought us to this point.

After $20 million and 25 years in assessments, what lasting results can you show beyond car shows and concerts? Events are not a substitute for driving downtown. They do not erase vacant storefronts. There is not one study that can answer the question of whether taxpayers have received their money's worth. Instead of leadership, we get excuses. Instead of accountability, we get another proposal to make more properties pay more money for nothing.

I have repeatedly stood before you during public comments to challenge your management and demand answers. Public comment is not a formality for you to endure, it is an opportunity to listen to the people whose interests you were elected to represent. You have failed! To do anything about the reported problems in your government. We are a republic governed by the rule of law that means that rules apply to this council, to city staff and to the organizations receiving the assessment dollars. I challenge Graham Mitchell's position on the PBIT and the Brown Act by bringing a lawsuit against the PBIT. Today, I believe history is repeating itself again. You face another decision whether to approve a process whose legality I dispute and I will dispute in court.

I do not know how the vote will turn out but I know this, a favorable vote does not cure an unlawful process. Before validating this election you must address the objections to how it was conducted and establish that all the applicable legal requirements were met. You never asked an attorney to give you an opinion on all the issues that I have raised in all the time that I have stood before you. Mayor Wells, Alec Kraft stands as a stark contrast to your boss tweed persona.

I believe your failure on this issue will cost you your election. I support Alex Kraft in his belief that this tax is unnecessary. He supports the people, you support his cronies. If you validate this election Despite the unresolved legal defects, I will sue to challenge your decision. I will pursue accountability in court and at the ballot box. I'm asking you, I'm telling you an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Get a legal opinion before you approve this or face the fact that it will be in court and it will be years before you collect that money. Thank you.

No more? OK. Council is back to you for questions or comments.

Please, Steve. What's the difference in the structure of a P-BID versus the CBD, proposed CBD?

Councilman Goebel, Marco LeMandri, Executive Director at Downtown Business partners. The legislation the PBIT law of 1994 allows charter cities to create their own established method of establishing an assessment district but what governs this entire process is the state constitution proposition 218 and the government code that was created to regulate Prop 218 everything that we're doing is consistent with prop 218 it's been reviewed by your city attorney by an assessment engineer So the process for approving a property assessment district is outlined in the Constitution. We're following all those rules.

What's the difference in structure between a

PBID and a Community

Benefit District? The Community Benefit District is the city's adaptation of a PBID. It's allowable under the State Streets and Highway Code. They wanted to give charter cities flexibility in determining whether or not what applied to general law cities would also apply to charter cities, so the legislation specifically allows 25 charter Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Isn't there overnight security that does roving rounds? What can you tell us how the people outside of Main Street are part of this district?

Well, the district now goes on the far north end of Alcohol Boulevard where the new KB homes condos are being built. It goes all the way up to the MTS station and it goes on Magnolia from Interstate 8 to about three blocks south of Main Street. The services by law can only be given to those people that have paid into the district. But we believe as the district continues to grow, the content of the form of downtown changes, that the compression will head east on Main Street and south on Magnolia. I think those are the ones that will benefit even though they're not paying, they will benefit activities that are going on in the core area of downtown.

Let's take our business up by Maine and Marshall. How do they benefit from this district is kind of don't get services besides They get direct services, don't they? Indirect services are the concerts and the events downtown correct But what would somebody at Maine and Marshall who's in the district kind of benefit with a

sidewalk sweeping? Trash if there's trash overflowing and they would take care of that any graffiti that was their landscaping improvements That would need to be done on there And we originally it we wanted to tie the MTS station which is really a portal of entry in many ways into downtown. So it does go all the way up to the MTS station when there's new development on an MTS parking lot they will also be part of that district. We wanted to make sure that anybody from walkable standpoint that was benefiting from the district was contributing to the district. We do not have 24 hour security. We work with Alcohol PD and find that to be far more effective OK, thank you.

Yeah. Can I add something? Also in the management district plan it's outlined that there is two benefit zones so there's the obvious benefit zone one where it's in the downtown on Main Street where it's going to get the most services and most attention but we have a benefit zone 2 that's going to get less attention and they're assessed accordingly if one of them costs more than the other. So you know they're not paying the same amount for they're paying different amounts for different services.

And so in a sense the Benefit District 2 people aren't necessarily subsidizing District 1 people.

They're paying a proportional amount to the services that they are receiving, yes. Thank

you. It's based upon frequency of services and that's where we have the benefit zones. Does that answer all your questions? All right thanks Councilman.

OK so from what I understand the private property owners they vote on the formation modification or renewal of the CBD via weighted ballots.

Correct.

Okay. So as the city is the mayor major player in this city we are a 7 6 hour assessments are going to be higher And our vote is going to weigh more. OK, because I was under the impression that it was just we had a vote and it was not a weighted vote. Yeah, it's

under the property set proposition 218 addresses general taxes special taxes and property assessments so the Jarvis people that put that up and it was adopted in 1996 wanted to specify that there's got to be a proportional benefit what you pay is what you get And so they determined that in a petition phase as well as a formation phase or a disestablishment phase, that the weighted property owners would make the difference and that's why a majority protest could exist but it's based upon the weight. If Nate was paying $2,000 and I was paying $1,000 under that scenario in the state constitution he gets twice the vote that I do.

However, Council Member Mitchell where that weighted vote does not apply is on the board. So we have a board representation our vote doesn't count any more than any other member of the boards once you get into the board voting.

OK, so that does the distinction there. This has to do with the collection of the votes and just working on educating the property owners in town. What is the bent? What has been the general response from property owners good or bad indifferent?

They're all there. Varied. It all depends people that I thought would be opposed to it are actually supportive of the people who I thought would be supportive have not been but the votes going to tell us what they think everybody had 45 days and they had my phone number Nate's phone number to ask any questions I was gonna willing to go out and speak with anybody about the benefits of this We know that every city that I work in right now has got some fiscal issues and they know that general benefits sometime have to decline because of that. The special benefits won't replace the general benefits but they'll at least keep downtown moving forward our next phase of this is going to be business attraction to try to address And the votes came from property owners only correct.

Okay, what about the tenants have you had much feedback from the tenants positive

negative. Whatever

we we work with tenants because we have tenants also that attend our board meetings and they're there in the audience and they give us feedback. But the tenants right now have been paying into this assessment district since I think was 1996 so it's sort of a cost of doing business in downtown what we've done is try to increase the budget a little bit only because we knew what it actually costs around this district but a horrible point like one thing will be moving on in the next few months as a taste of downtown alcohol. There's a lot of restaurants here. We want to promote those restaurants and we want people to be exposed to those restaurants so at that point the tenants will be deriving the benefit from the exposure whether it be on the website or us promoting the taste of downtown alcohol.

Okay

all

right thank you. Thank you.

So I've got, I've got a follow-up question. I've got a follow-up question. There's some misconception that the city controls the Pbid, those kind of things. My understanding is our dues on city owned property if I read the report right total in the neighborhood of twelve and a half percent of the total assessment am I getting that right? Correct yep so put otherwise

Otherwise we're a member, sorry

continue. But otherwise can I say 87 and a half percent of the vote does not belong to the city? Correct. So 87 and a half percent control the budget and things. We're a 12 and a half percent player but by no means do we have that kind of influence. I think some people think we have sometime

Yeah and there's a threshold in this process as well that if they've deemed a property owner, if they own over 20% of the potential district that I don't remember if they have to exclude them or.

You can't calculate their weight above that 20%, so 20% is where it's counted.

So they've capped the power at 20%. And how are

board members chosen?

Elections yeah we've had elections

Does anyone have a guaranteed seat because of their organization? No. So even the city does not have a guaranteed seat on the board?

No, but we want the city to be on the board because we can't function without interaction with the city so the city has been

I understand so because the City Council still has to approve events in the right of way and things like that. That's the ultimate check.

As well as the annual budget and it was submitted to you at the annual report because you must re-levy those assessments every year and inform this county tax assessment service.

Okay, well that helps clear up some of the fog about the city's influence or dominance.

Nate has one vote so that's all he's got. All right thank you. Okay thank you.

Give me a second I want to ask us City Attorney something. Just for the benefit of the audience in your mind are you concerned that we're doing anything that's illegal or untoward.

So Mayor the process as Mr. Landry Lamandri described it is the city goes through steps in our The municipal code to create a community benefit district. All of those steps have been taken. The city also follows prop 218 the process to do the voting all of those steps have been taken therefore if the votes are in favor and they equate to what the percentages are supposed to be then the council may vote to form the district pursuant to the legal procedures that have happened thus far The comments that have been made have been directed toward the prior PBID. This is a completely new organization that has been formed under a different process.

OK, I'm going to reopen the public hearing and hear from our gentleman one more time but let me ask you as a courtesy could you please be respectful to the body?

I promise you that I will only deal in facts all right I appreciate the opportunity to respond to Mr. LeMandri. The P-BID and CBD are two separate entities under two separate laws. The P-BID is now sunsetted out of existence, and what should have been happening was according to the laws you should have been closing it down, distributing the money to the stakeholders. The CBD is perfectly acceptable for you to create a CBD But you used PBID money to do it, which is specifically excluded under the PBID law. PBID law was never meant to create another tax agency. The PBID law was meant to become self-sufficient and then sunset out of existence. And that's what I'm trying to bring to you.

If you approve the CBD now, you will violate the law because PBID funds were used to do this. Thank you.

Mr. Mitchell, did you want to respond?

Certainly I can respond to that. So the PBID does sunset at the end of this calendar year. That's how the law was formed when it was formed so it will be sun setting and if there are assets those assets will be distributed back to the property owners per state law. So that's in process. In terms of using PBID money to establish the CBD, the City of El Cajon has paid for the establishment of the CBD not the PBID. So any contractual requirements for this reestablishment all came out of the city manager's budget not from the PBID.

Thank you for clarifying that. Okay it's back to council looking for a motion or more discussion? I make a motion

to close the public

hearing. Before we close the public hearing, we actually need to see if there are any other ballots that need to be turned in at this point and it would just be closing the public comment portion of the hearings so that we could turn it over to the city clerks for tabulation.

So you'd like me to ask if there's anybody else has about to turn in? Is there anybody who has a ballot to turn in? Looks like the answer is no. I make a motion close public hearing

second

please vote.

Motion carries by unanimous vote of those present.

OK, back to

Council. I like the fact there's two benefit districts that if you're further away you pay a lower rate than you do if you're downtown. That makes sense to me. I think the vote is the vote and I think Would direct the city clerk to open and canvass the ballots is what the next thing on the city agenda says if there's no objection.

Yeah I'll make that motion to direct the city clerk to open and canvass the ballots.

I'll second that motion. Please vote.

All right ladies and gentlemen we'll take a short recess while the ballots are being counted.

Motion carries by unanimous vote of those present. And Mayor, in an effort to be as transparent as possible we will be displaying the worksheet that we will be using to tabulate the votes. First we will need time to open them and get everything in order and you will be able to witness as we enter those votes on the worksheet.

Sounds very fair. All right. Let's do that.

Okay. . . I don't. I've got two questions for you. First of all, do you have a few businesses that are open? I do own a business. Right here in North Campus? I do. Okay. And why... In all of this, do you have anything to do with the process? No. Okay.

I'm going to ask the city clerk, are you going to take over from here?

Angela. Sir, as you are seeing in the very top of the page it says support for the El Cajon Community Benefit District is 67.67% and the opposition is 32.33%. Okay.

All right then I'm going to make a motion to adopt the resolution. To approve the formation of downtown Elkhorn Community Benefit District and levy the assessment therewith. Please vote.

Motion carries by unanimous vote of those present.

This brings us to the adjournment of the joint special meeting of the Oklahoma City Council and Oklahoma Housing Authority held this 15th day of September, 2026 which is now adjourned.