City Council — October 13, 2026

I'd like to ask the City Clerk to please call the roll.

Council Members Goebbel and Kendrick are absent, all others are present.

Would you stand with me for the Pledge of Allegiance and afterwards remain standing for a brief moment of silence? Thank you. The city clerk posted orders of adjournment of September 22nd and the October 8th meetings, and the agenda of the October 13th 2026 meeting in accordance with state law county's City Council Housing Authority policy. We have a proclamation on today's agenda for National Community Planning Month. Yasmin Arellano, our Director of Development Services will come up to the podium and accept the presentation.

A proclamation which I will read high, Yasmin. This is a very long proclamation and we're very proud of you guys. Everybody's here? That's great. I'm just gonna cut to the end okay Therefore I, Bill Wells, Mayor of the City of El Cajon together with the city council do hereby proclaim the month of October 2026 to be Community Planning Month in the City of El Cajon in conjunction with the celebration of National Community Planning Month.

Join us in applauding the many valuable contributions made by the City of El Cajon Planning Commission staff and partners and thank you all very much for all you do.

Thank you Mayor and Councilmembers for recognizing October as Planning Month. Planning plays a very important role in shaping El Cajon's future. Our planning team helps applicants understand what is possible at a particular location while also implementing the general plan, zoning regulation, housing policies and the City's long-range vision. I would also like to acknowledge our planning commissioners. Mr. Paul Circo is here with, sorry, Anthony Sotillo is here with us today. Also Paul Circo, Darren Rose, Rebecca Pollack and Shannon Edison for their time thoughtful consideration in service to that community which are essential to the planning process.

Especially want to recognize our staff. More in particular, our Acting Deputy Director of Development Services leading the community development side of the house, Michael Viglione. Our planning staff, Spencer Hayes-Flores, Maisa Mazzini, Brian Varga, Laura Joustak, code enforcement staff, Makia Walker and Nicole Kim. Our building staff, Andre Sanchez, Peter Ling and Marcella Villalpando. And our housing staff Jose Dorado and Yanni Pelayo-Brito all are essential to the planning functions of the city. Thank you very much for your contributions and professionalism. Assisting all of our planning residents.

And on behalf of Development Services, thank you for this recognition and your continued support for the important work of planning in El Cajon. Thank you.

Thanks everybody. Anybody else want to say anything? Mr. Sotila, you've been around with us for quite a while. How long have you been a Planning Commissioner? Wow, good job. Thank you so much and thank you all for your contributions we really appreciate it. All right, we're at agenda changes. Staff do you have any agenda changes?

Mr. Mayor I'd recommend that we remove Agenda Item 15 from the agenda it's a closed session item there's no reason to update the council at this time.

Sounds great. Any council members did you want to pull any of the consent items? Sorry we're not there yet actually agenda changes. No agenda changes okay. I'm going to make a motion then to approve the agenda change that Mr. Mitchell suggested It's moved and seconded, please vote.

Motion carries by unanimous vote of those present

Great thank you Right now consent items consent items of routine matters enacted by one motion according to the recommendation listed below With concurrence of the City Council, a council member or person in attendance may request discussion of a consent item at this time. Council members do you want to pull any of the consent items? Staff? Angela, do we have speaker cards for consent?

No speaker cards sir.

I'll make a motion then to approve the consent items. It's been moved and seconded please vote.

Motion carries by unanimous vote of those present.

All right that brings us to public comment at this time any person may address a matter within the jurisdiction of the City Council Housing Authority successor agency to the Elkhorn Redevelopment Agency that is not on the agenda Comments relating to items on today's agenda are to be taken at the time that the item is heard. Please note that state law prohibits discussion or action by the City Council on items that are not on the agenda, therefore this is not a time when the City Council will be answering questions about your issues.

However we are taking note of the matter and will bring them to attention and will refer them to our city manager for follow-up as needed And an item, of course, may be placed on a future agenda. Angela, do we have any speaker cards for public comment?

Sir, we have seven speakers. The first one will be Doug Cohen.

Hello sir and welcome.

Thank you everybody. I'm Doug Cohen, I'm here representing San Diego United Communities. Basically it's just a little bit of a forewarning to the city of El Cajon. In San Diego, the city is greatly vested in a recent series of legislations not the least of which is SB 958 and I'd like talk a little bit about 958 what it is is it's a CEQA exemption for height limits and in San Diego the City of San Diego We have massive, massive densification occurring that is currently under application as a result of a series of laws not the least of which is this one law. The interesting thing about the law is that it's statewide.

It's brand new and it's statewide and it's coming to a town near all of us. So I just want to make sure that we're getting the word out. San Diego United Communities is really a federation of local planning boards and civic advocacy groups, and we're here looking for better government. We do refer to San Diego quite frankly as San Cremento because everyone on our city council seems to have abdicated their role to represent the local citizens And it's really just a pass-through for everything coming out of Sacramento.

I did want to say two things. One, I love the banter. I agree with you. When the Dodgers lose, America wins. So thank you. And Mayor Wells, I did send you an email last week on this subject and if you could find the time that would be great to respond.

We can meet for coffee if you'd like sometime?

Oh, I'll go ahead and send it again.

Yeah, if you leave your number we'll get together. Thanks for telling us about this. I'm sorry, what's that? Thanks for telling us about this. Not a

problem.

Let me see if there are any questions.

What was the Senate bill again?

It's 958. 958,

thank you. Yeah.

Thank you. Thanks for coming. Take care.

Michael Busey.

Hello sir, welcome.

My name is Michael William Busey. I just want everyone here to indulge me just for a second. I want you to close your eyes, just for a second and think of the most powerful weapon you can. Just picture that what that is in your mind. Maybe you thought of a pen, a gun or sword? I think one of the most powerful weapons is right here, your ballot, your vote. People have died Killed for this.

But yet a lot of people don't vote because they feel that their voice isn't loud enough to be heard in the massive pool of votes for presidential and state elected people. And I get it and I'll give you that but in local races like mayor local school boards and city councils they are often won or lost on very thin margins In these neighborhood races, your vote could be the vote to push a candidate over and decide to win.

But just like a gun if you don't use the weapon properly it could have unintended consequences. If you put the wrong person in office their policies could hurt your community and your loved ones You don't just load a weapon up and go all willy nilly and use it. You take it to a firing range, you do research on it, you do everything you can to make sure that you're not going to harm anyone. I think your vote should be treated the same exact way.

This isn't a lecture. It's nothing like that. I just have been canvassing. A lot of people say they don't think their vote matters so I just thought I'd come and say that your vote does matter especially when it comes to local races right? And I think A lot of people when they look at their ballot, they don't actually, they look at the names and like for local races many people don't keep up with that. They don't pay attention to it. I mean just for school board for example.

Pretend that I'm not me right? I just opened my ballot, oh I need to vote. Margarita Alica, Joe Algria, Lily Emily, Michael William Busey. Eenie meenie miney moe catch a tiger by his toe, okay. I just gave my vote up by chance. I just I just left the future of the children the teachers the staff at in this district. I left their future up to chance when I could just take my phone out Google everybody has Internet and just Google the names that goes for all these races essentially right. I was going to get on here and Google them but I don't need to it's essentially just saying that your vote matters and how you vote matters as well And I just wanted to take a moment. I don't know if you remember me, Mayor. I met you a couple of years ago at the bike

shop.

That conversation I had with you that really... At that point I was lost and wasn't sure what I wanted to do but that conversation really kind of pushed me in wanting this direction so. Good for you. Thanks for being involved. Thank you.

Rich Ryan. Hello, Rich.

Your Honor and members of the City Council, today I'm going to introduce myself to you so that you understand who your opponent is. I know all about you. You listen to me and you all have written me off as a kook. But the truth of the matter is, just like this man, we have our votes. We have the right to address the people that make the decisions and we have the right to tell you you're doing a terrible job and you are doing a terrible job! The very fact that the city is running bleeding red ink tells me that you have a serious problem.

But first of all, let me tell you about my background so you understand where I'm coming from. I graduated in 1969 from the Citadel. It's a military college. I had seven years in the reserves. I turned down my commission because I thought the Vietnam War was immoral. I came back to San Diego where I've been here since 1953. I protested the war. Then I got involved in finance. I worked for the Contreras Brothers Construction Company, I was a CFO. We literally built hundreds of millions of dollars of low-income housing. I worked for the San Diego Housing Commission under Ben Montillo so I understand the constraints of working within city government. I knew Pete Wilson when he was the mayor of San Diego. I watched what he did to the downtown redevelopment.

I don't have a time clock here. What's the problem? Give me one minute. Let me know when I'm at my one minute. At any rate, I want to tell you that your city is poorly run and poorly served by you. All of you are failed Plutocrats. I mean, this is your fault. And then the worst of it all is Graham Mitchell. Graham Mitchell is the worst city manager in my entire career. You are a disgrace. You are. Yeah, laugh about it. But you are. You're a disgrace when you have an employee that goes ahead and lets out a contract for $150,000, and nobody approved it. And you all look around. Well, it happened. We're not going to investigate it because we like Graham Mitchell. Graham Mitchell's a good old guy. And that's why your city is running in the red.

That's why you have to lay off employees, and that's why you can't attract top talent because everybody knows that Graham Mitchell is not a very good city manager. He's the worst, like I said, the worst city manager that I've ever seen in my life and the city attorney now I know she can't say anything because she's unhired to you but the brown act I had to sue you guys and I couldn't even talk to the city attorney so if the mayor or the city manager tells me not to talk to you I won't talk to you and they didn't and I sued you and I won well I'm going to sue yes I did win shake your head you want gobble I did win That's why I go to the meetings and I know what kind of corruption we have in this city now because of the Brown Act. Okay? Now, this CBD that you formed is illegal and I will prove that in court again.

And it's all a waste of our, you know, again him, him, you, and Kendrick, you are poster child for why we need term limits. You guys are going to be gone anyway. Pretty soon we're going to have terms. Thank you very much for your time.

Brenda Hammond.

Hi want me to lighten this up. Happy birthday Navy. Today's the Navy's birthday and thanks to all of our military for fighting for our freedom and they're fighting for all of our freedom not just one man in the White House like some people think. And thanks to all of our law enforcement for keeping us safe and thank you to the fire departments for rescuing us from all of them.

And thanks for taking care of our boo-boos

That's it.

Thanks Brenda.

Osama Bayati

I thank you guys for giving me a chance to speak. I know sometimes you can face some unfair criticism at times.

Could you pull your mic out? Yeah. Is that better?

Whenever I start the timer will start. OK. My name is Osama Bayati. For the past nine months I've had the honor of running for the El Cajon City Council in District 1. During this campaign, I began to speak with countless young adults from my generation. People who are just now beginning to find their place in the world and may not be actively involved in politics or civic life.

I want this council not to mistake limited participation for a lack of awareness. Our young adults are paying close attention They understand the challenges facing our community and they care deeply about their future. I've had the privilege of representing their voice and reminding our community that the youth are not disconnected every day, they live the consequences of your failures and share in the benefits of your success.

Their futures shaped by the choices you make today and they deserve a meaningful voice in those decisions I want to urge this council one final time before the upcoming election to reject the tribalism that has defined so much of our politics. Your highest duty is not to a party, but to the people sitting at their dinner tables tonight wondering if they will afford the next month ahead.

Represent them, represent their families, represent their neighborhoods. I ask you to refrain from using the battles and policies of Washington to define how my peers and I are expected to live our lives here at home. I ask you to lead with compassion, to see the humanity in those who disagree with you, and to extend the grace and mercy that your faith calls you to practice.

I ask you not to view our undocumented residents through the lens of partisan doctrine I ask you not to define their characters by the circumstances of their arrival. I ask you to view them instead as workers who keep our businesses running, the parents raising children in our schools and the families who have come here seeking the same dignity security and opportunity that your own great-grandfathers once crossed deserts and oceans to find.

They may not possess a finely printed passport bearing the seal of the United States stamped across its cover but their dreams are no less American than mine They rise before dawn, work long hours, pay taxes, raise families and contribute to the prosperity of our city. So I ask you not to define the vast majority of these individuals as criminals. I ask this council and our mayor to see them not as invaders but as survivors, to see them as people who have fled war persecution violence and instability in the lands of their birth. Your creator and my creator Will not judge us by the titles we held or the offices we occupied, but by how we treated the stranger, the vulnerable and the forgotten among us. Their story is not a threat to the American dream, their story is quite literally the American dream itself.

Okay. Will Kopach?

Hello Mayor Bill Wells and the City Council, we meet again. Well I changed my mind about you and the city council after doing some extensive research. I now think you are doing a fantastic job representing El Cajon. Let us go over your amazing statistics accomplishments slash actions during your term as mayor First, let us go over the population size of El Cajon. Since 2020, El Cajón population has increased from 106,000 residents to now about 101,000 residents Let's give you a round of applause to you.

Next, let us talk about the city budget of El Cajon. The city's budget is a surplus of about negative $2 million. Your city budget is so good that you have to cancel city events Like a haunt fest, which is terrific. Oops! I mean horrific. Let's give you another round of applause anyway. Also let us talk about homelessness in El Cajon. You and the city council with the exception of Gary Kendrick who's not here are doing a good job on the homelessness that you rejected 5 million and aid for the homelessness. This is money that could be used for the homelessness, fixing alcohol in schools, fixing Parkway Plaza or the budget deficit but don't worry you spent money on beautiful flock cameras so you can let heroic ICE agents chase after hardworking citizens trying to survive.

Let's give you another round of applause Furthermore, let's talk about alcohol upholding state law. You are so good in upholding a state law that you have two gargantuan-sized lawsuits filed by the California Attorney General involving your actions on ICE against the city of Alcahon. Another round of applause. Finally, let's talk about your dominating A debate performance against Alex Craft, where you recently chickened out of the debate despite telling me and other people you were going to 10 final round of applause.

So to Mayor Wells. You deserve to be rewarded with a permanent sabbatical from mayor in November by the citizens of El Cajon voting you out. You represent El Cajon well, oops I mean your corrupt agenda and your wealthy patrician donors. In all seriousness you need to go if you lose good riddance if you win please do not run for Re-election in 2030 and let a new generation. Your time's up

I'm

sorry.

Over your position. All right thank you.

Last speaker is Scotty Hill.

Hello. How are you doing? Nice to see you again.

Yeah, nice to see you again. I'm ready.

Go. I am ready too.

Special meeting ends when there are no items to speak on. One member is absent. October is where the city planning month begins to highlight what planning does. An item is removed when it is unrelevant The council open to the community with requirements. We have to examine the present desperation, the El Cajon Council wants changes when they represent it. Members of the El Cajon City Council and citizens have the right to vote in everything they are allowed to do.

The government is doing a terrible job on protesting the Vietnam War The employees doing their jobs in the city, suing people on who should have won and stuff they move forward illegally. People thanking the military, all men and women who fought in it, and other people who protected the country and its citizens' rights, politics, and lands. Challenges we are facing are on elections, budget cuts, tax rates, and corruptions.

They are doing a fantastic job on the El Cajon's budget. Homelessness population fixing up Parker Plaza Mall, putting in money into the budget for the citizens to have better lives for themselves.

Thank you.

That was the last speaker sir.

I appreciate that. All right there are no written communications on today's agenda We have one public hearing on today's agenda. Item seven is for the fiscal year 27-28, One Year Action Plan and prior year accomplishments. The staff will tell us all about this.

Good afternoon mayor and council members. My name is Yanni Belay Obrito and I'm the senior management analyst with development services housing division. The purpose of today's public hearing is to seek public input and for City Council to consider the initiation of the development of the 27-28 One Year Action Plan, and to accept the receipt of the 2526 Consolidated Annual Performance and Evaluation Report known as the CAPER that has been submitted to HUD.

The first part will be the initiation of the development of the 27-28 action plan. This is the first of two public hearings that are required for the action plan development on an annual basis. The city receives HUD, CDBG and home entitlement funds. These funds are to be used to support goals found in this city's five year consolidated plan The current consolidated plan was approved in May 2024 and the 27-28 action plan is the fourth year of that five year plan.

For a HUD entitlement it is anticipated that the city receives about 1.3 million in CDBG and about 573,000 in home funds. The main goals on how to use this funding source includes to provide decent and affordable housing support the continuum of care for the homeless provide community facilities and infrastructure and provide community and supportive services Here's a tentative schedule for the development of the action plan.

Interested parties will be able to apply starting December 7th of this year. This is going to be through the notice of funding availability or the NOFA that will be posted by December 7th. Interested parties will have a 30 day minimum period however it will be extended to where applications will be received no later than January 15th of 2027. The NOFA will be published and emailed out to a distribution list of the interested parties. Anyone interested can be added to the distribution list they can email housing at El Cajon dot gov or I will be putting our staff contacts here as well in another slide and they can also reach out to myself and the housing manager The draft action plan will be brought to City Council tentatively April 2027 with recommended projects and programs, and then it won't be approved until estimated May 2027.

And once that is completed then the new year cycle will begin July 1st, 2027 And just providing this information today allows interested parties with enough time to start thinking of projects and programs that they want to apply for, for both CDBG and HOME. The second part is for the presentation to a set receipt of the CalPERS. This is for fiscal year 25 26 this report provides accomplishments and it includes expenditures and performance data for activities that were active during fiscal year 25 26 so it'll start July 1st 2025 and June 30th 2026 This report is submitted to HUD 90 days after the close of the fiscal year. And for today's recommendation, it's just to accept the receipt of the KPER that was submitted September 28th 2026.

Some of the accomplishments that were completed are incorporated in the CalPERS document. They include project and program types like for housing public services housing programs and capital improvement projects. And on the right it's some of the agencies that we worked with last year. And you can also find that CalPERS document as a touch point one of the agenda report This slide shows the active programs during that fiscal year and total expenditures and El Cajon residents that were served.

And on this slide it just includes the housing programs public services and fair housing. And then here we can see some of the results for the capital improvement projects as of June 2026. And the home programs as well. So the expenditures for CDBG were about $1.5 million and for home it was about $379,000. Here are the staff contacts that would be myself and our housing manager again anyone interested in the development of the 27-28 action plan can email us to sign up for the distribution list and then anyone that has questions about the accomplishments for 2526 can also reach out as well.

So staff is recommending that we hold the public hearing for consideration of the initiation of the development of the action plan, close the public hearing and accept the receipt of the CalPERS that was submitted to HUD. And I'm available for any questions as well if you have any.

Thanks very much appreciate that let me see if there's questions at the council start with Michelle

Hi thanks for the report. Just curious I shared your last video regarding the housing. Have you gotten any increasing calls because I've also shared the below market apartment list and I'm assuming that you keep that updated quite frequently correct?

Yes we do. We've received a lot of inquiries for both so thank you.

Well you know it's out there and a lot of people are asking for income based apartments and I don't think that they realize that this was all available on our website. So I'm glad that there is a response and I must have shared it to like at least 20 different websites or 20 different Facebook pages groups that I belong to And so I'm glad that there's a result and people are getting help. So thank you very much. Thank you for sharing any time

Phil or Steve All right, thanks. I guess he did a good job.

Thank you

always got questions Okay, how about Speaker cards on this item

no speaker card sir

I think I made a mistake, I needed to open the public hearing. No speaker cards? So I'll make a motion to close the public hearing. Is there a second? Yeah. Please vote. Okay it's back to the council. Motion

carries by unanimous vote of those present.

I always do that to you.

I'll make a motion we accept the report.

All right

it's moved and seconded please vote.

Motion carries by unanimous vote of those present.

All right, we have two administrative reports on today's agenda. Item 8 is a 2026 City Council action plan update and I'll ask our city manager to introduce this item.

Good afternoon Mr. Mayor and members of the City Council. The purpose of this agenda report is to provide an update of where we're at in accomplishing the goals established during the City Council Action Plan workshop and also to start priming the council for next year's workshop or perhaps later this year. As you recall during the workshop and the subsequent City Council action plan, the City Council identified six priorities.

Associated with those priorities are 16 goals and then associated with those goals are 51 specific tasks or milestones that we can report back out on so I'm going to just give a high level. I'm not going to give it a detailed report on all 51 of those tasks but just kind of Overview on the goals where we're at with those and then if council has questions, we can dive into this So looking at the six areas Established by the City Council. There's one goal that Under the city beautification goal which is to explore increasing sidewalk in streetlight installation The City Council actually is allocated significant money to to streetlights, allocating more CDBG money toward that. And at the next council meeting we'll be asking the Council to allocate some additional funding for some sidewalk repair as well.

So we believe that that project is actually 100% complete based on the direction from the Council. In terms of city infrastructure, one of the goals or the only goal that was set for this was specifically to focus on our capital improvement program And so we've actually formed a committee. Mr. DiMaggio, Mr. Shane Clay or Clay Shane are on that committee with others and we're putting together a plan that's a little bit more comprehensive. So we'll be bringing that forward as part of the next budget cycle and we're honing that a little bit right now.

We do budget longer term. We look at projects over many years but the council doesn't really do that you look from year to year. We want to give you a more comprehensive view I'd like Economic development, there's four goals that the City Council established related to economic development. Parkway Plaza were really well underway on the land use plan. We continue to have conversations with the ownership groups. We've been working to try to establish a relationship with the new owner of the Power Center, so that's happening ongoing. The Community Benefits District has been approved by the voters, the property owners in the district, so that is 100% complete.

We have drafted a vacant lot incentive program ordinance for the City Council after Council gave us some feedback. We just have not had the right timing to bring that forward at the council, but that should be coming to the council in the next meeting or two. And then lastly we talked about this idea of programming the space around the Magnolia. There's some landscape space, there are some opportunities to infuse some additional energy into that area.

Mr. DiMaggio, a 10% plan at this point? A 10% plan. Our planning department who's left, they've put together some ideas and we're just now formulating what that would look like cost-wise, what that would require permit wise and then we'll bring forward a plan to the City Council for consideration. In terms of homelessness, there's three specific goals. We're completed with two of them and one of them is just an ongoing goal.

One is that the Council directed staff to initiate our own point in time count. We've actually completed two of those. The results of the most recent point in time count will be ready soon. We also analyzed the idea of encampment storage policy that is completed, and then the other goal is to work with the San Diego Rescue Mission to look for a potential lighthouse site somewhere in East County. In fact I spent some time on the phone with the San Diego Rescue Mission yesterday and we talked about that so that's an ongoing goal that will be working on over time but the ball is for the most part in their court to figure out the spot and it will help them navigate any issues related to zoning Or funding, whether it be in our city or another city.

There are five goals related to public safety. One is to reduce calls to congregate care facilities. I would say we're about 20% done with that goal. This has been pushed back several times based on some other issues that have moved up and created some staffing constraints, so it is on the to-do list. We are trying to reanalyze the most recent data and then will be setting up a town hall meeting with the stakeholders of those congregate care facilities.

Another goal was to update policies on privacy, specifically related to some of the newer technologies that we have. We've done some preliminary research. We'll be bringing forward some of those policies in the upcoming year. We held two fire threat town halls, so that goal is 100% done. The council received a full report about the impacts of Prop 36 and how effective State law has been in our community and then in terms of reducing speeding motorists We've held two town halls. We recently met with the Youth Advisory Council That's associated with Grossmont High School District. I provided the council with a memo about that right now we have installed some of the things some of the tools to slow down traffic on Hamasha and I get comments about it all the time from People that don't know I'm even a city manager and they compliment.

You know when you're in the City of El Cajon because you have to drive a little bit slower on that segment of the street which is kind of cool to hear, and we're still doing some more installation. Once all those installation projects are completed including the Washington safety project, we will start looking at the data six months before the project went into place, six months after so we can report back to the council and to the public The impact of that investment.

There's two goals associated with miscellaneous one is the establishment of a veterans memorial, we are very close to being completed on the design portion and will be bringing forward some design issues to the city council for consent for consideration and final approval. Once that's done, we'll have to figure out how to fund it. But let's get to the final project first and then we can worry about funding. And then the other miscellaneous goal had to do with the ticket policy for the Magnolia which the City Council gave some direction to the staff a few months ago or a few council meetings ago. So with that, staff is here to answer any questions you may have specifically about the goals otherwise I can talk about next steps.

Any questions? Looks like you did it well.

Okay, in terms of next step so we're hoping to hold the City Council workshop either late December or early January depending on the seating of the new council members and then from that will draft the 2027 city council action plan have the council give us some feedback on it and bring that back for final adoption in February And that will help drive some budget decisions as we prepare the budget for the upcoming year. So with that, staff's here to answer any questions about that process or about goals.

More questions? No. Thanks, Graham. Thank

you,

sir. Anybody have any speaker cards on this item?

No speakers, sir.

OK. Graham, do you need any particular direction?

Nope, not at all. Not at this time.

Somebody like to accept the report

I'll make a motion to accept the report.

Motion carries by unanimous vote of those present.

The last administrative report on today's agenda is Item 9. It's regarding the Welcome to Fletcher Hills Monument sign and I'll ask staff to introduce this item.

Good afternoon honorable mayor, council members. Yasmin Arellano, Director of Development Services. The item before you today responds to Council's direction to identify a practical path forward for the proposed welcome to Fletcher Hills monument sign that recommends an approach that allows this community funded project to proceed while applying city standards for improvements in the public right-of-way Following Council's September direction, Development Services staff work with the City Attorney Office and also with Risk Management because a sign is proposed in the public right-of-way. Staff needed to consider both community benefit and the city's responsibility to apply consistent standards for public improvements and private encroachments.

Staff considered four options. Option one would retain private ownership and require insurance indemnification permits and other standard requirements. Option two would waive customary protections for a private improvement in the public right of way. Option three could create policy for future requests, but it would require additional staff work, legal review, CEQA consideration and future council action.

And option four which is recommended by staff today provides a timely practical path for this project without creating an exception to the city's normal protections. Once accepted, the sign would become part of the city's inventory for public improvements and the city would assume responsibility for routine maintenance. Under the recommended approach The applicant would fund the project and complete necessary technical work, including verification of the final location, the right-of-way, utilities, grading and site distance.

The applicant would submit the required plans and foundation details, obtain permits, complete the construction and dedicate the sign to the city in a form acceptable to the city attorney and the city manager. And incorporate City Council or designee approval of sign size and height specifications. The city would review and inspect the work and then accept a completed sign if all conditions are met.

And after acceptance, the city would assume routine maintenance. The repair or replacement following substantial damage would remain at the city's discretion. Staff recommendation is to receive the report and direct staff to proceed with option four. In addition, the City Council may direct staff to consider whether encroachment and building permit fees should be waived for this community-funded public improvement consistent with applicable authority and city policy.

And I'm here to answer any questions the City Council may have.

Thank you for that report. Any questions? Mr.

Coble? Thank you for a very good and thorough analysis of the project by many different departments on this, so thank you. Your last sentence was we could consider to waive encroachment fees. What's the estimated amount?

It's approximately $1,000 both for the encroachment permit and for the building permit.

Okay,

thank you. That's it. Okay, thank you, appreciate your comment.

Do

I have any speaker cards on this item?

No sir no cards.

Okay well I think this is a great project and glad to see that Mr. Goebel took the lead brought it to us looking for discussion or even emotion.

I've got some discussion. Again, thank you for coming up with a common sense solution to get government out of the way when somebody's trying to do something nice for the city. At the same time, you're upholding the standards and the safety and everything that's right about managing design and construction in the city so I want to recognize and affirm that.

Does staff have any concerns about Council waiving the fees, setting a precedent or

anything. I think in this case the City Council is saying this is a sign that we want and in exchange for that will waive the fees. I don't see that a lot of people are going to come forward and saying we want to spend the time and raise the money to build a sign that meets city standards So you're going to have a flood of these. You may have some, and that will set a precedent for sure. I don't know if you're going to have that much of a challenge with that precedent that you set tonight, if you go that route.